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readingsbylibramc · 3 years

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birth chart reading for @misssbrianna

hello! welcome to your reading. I’m gonna give you a quick overview of what I’m going to analyze about your natal chart. feel free to ask me anything if something isn’t clear, of course. you’ll find out your dominants’ influence on your persona, your physical appearance, impression on others and the way you approach the world; your ego, identity, the real you; your reactions, your desires, inner emotions; your way of expressing your feelings, your mind and ideas; your desires and approach to love; your energy tank, instincts and temperament; in-depth analysis of each house with their rulers and analysis of heavy aspects; love life + soulmates/karmic partners interpretation; your relationship with your friends; your family life; your approach to career and work in general + possible jobs suggestion; your style, fashion sense analysis; life purpose and past life description; basic transits’ analysis to describe your current mood and, last but not least, your secret skills, how to make the most out of your soul and manifest what you desire based on your birth chart.

🦋chart shape, dominants

your chart is a locomotive shape. this means that you're a very ambitious person, with a lot of energy. venus has a big influence on you, and your life revolves around love, friendship, beauty and finances. the empty part of your life is what you have to develop, hence your career, financial life and also your mental health.

your dominant planets are the sun, venus and mercury. you are a very creative and artistic person, you are quite smart and you're able to come up with innovative ideas. you're probably very charming as well, you're quite charismatic and sociable too, it's hard for you to be disliked by others.

your dominant sign is leo. you are extremely charismatic, it's easy for you to feel confident about yourself, or at least you project an image of you that looks very put-together. you are a perfectionist, you want to be perfect and you also expect others to try as hard as you. you have high standards, but only because you know your worth.

your dominant element is fire. you have a warm heart, even though it may be covered by your confidence and independence. in fact, you always strive for the first place. people may be intimidated by your presence, as you're a serious competitor. thanks to this competitive nature of yours you may be very positive and optimistic, making you a good and supportive friend/partner.

🌎 ascendant in leo, 7° / 1st decan ruled by the sun

you’re an extremely confident and bright person, or at least you have a very strong aura around you that makes you look like you are. you have exceptional charisma and presence, in fact this is usually a celebrity placement! you surely don’t go overlooked. you naturally always try your best to make people feel at ease, and you mostly succeed thanks to your warmth, which makes you even more attractive. you probably like being recognized, and you may want to be famous. in fact, you like being in the spotlight and loaded with compliments and appreciation, they incredibly boost your self-confidence. your charisma may sometimes be too noticeable, resulting a bit dramatic; you may gesticulate a lot, imitate voices… basically, you would do amazing at acting, for example. in fact, most celebrities have a leo rising, or leo placements of any sort. you’re very playful, you most likely look younger than you are for your personality. you may also be a savage, and you’re most likely good at jokes of any kind. you appear as a very bubbly and outgoing person, yet you may be quite secretive. you don’t open up easily, especially about family / private matters. especially with your water influence, you’re very picky when it comes to trusting people. in addition, you’re a perfectionist; you care a lot about everything that revolves around you, from physical appearance to your job, you want it all to be perfect. that can cause you a lot of stress, as you always want to seem at your best state, you despise being seen as weak or unprepared. physically, all leos have beautiful hair. you may have curly, perhaps red or dark hair, or at least it’s very thick. you may also get tanned easily, an olive skin tone or any kind of warm undertones to your skin. you may have full, plump lips, or at least they have a defined cupid’s bow.

🌞 sun in leo, 19° / 2nd decan ruled by the sun and jupiter

just like the sun, you shine brightly. you're confident, independent, brave and friendly. you're the only who can handle your life, no one can tell you who you are, what you want or what you need. sometimes you can get insecure, as you feel pressured to always be perfect. you try to be nice and kind to everyone, as you don't wanna be seen as someone unpleasant to be with. even though you may be into gossip and rumors, you try to avoid being involved with them at every cost. the thing with leo is, you're either loved or hated. no inbetween. some may admire your confidence, assertiveness and determination, others may be jealous of you. you have celebrity-like presence, you don't go overlooked. you're most probably the life of the party, and you enjoy living a life full of fun and amusement. you're also amazingly creative. with your heavy leo influence, you have the potential to do and achieve whatever you want, you're very resolute. even though you look very open to getting to know new people, you're secretly very picky about who you call your friends, or even when choosing a partner. you always try to be perfect, and hence you want someone that looks and tries just like you do.

leo sun conjunct leo venus: you enjoy peace and harmony. you want your surroundings to look all neat and clean, and same goes for the people you surround yourself with. you wish people saw you as easy to approach, even though you may struggle with your image. you try to be as formal and kind as possible with people you don’t know well, unless they start getting on your nerves by disagreeing with your opinions or being too bossy. you’re very feminine, not only in your looks and manners but also in the way you dress. you’re quite romantic too, and dream of having a perfect marriage. the downside to this aspect is that because you take so much care of yourself, people may mistake your self-love for vanity, especially with your leo dominance. also, your self-esteem may depend too much on others’ opinion of you; you may start thinking you’re ugly and unworthy of love just because someone told you you’re not their type, to sum up.

leo sun square scorpio pluto: probably during your childhood you couldn't make your own decisions. you might have been highly influenced by someone in your family, probably your father, and hence now you feel the need to have everything under control. maybe too much. you despise authority, you may even quite rebellious. maybe your parents have tried to convince you following their religion, ideals etc., without giving you freedom. or perhaps, they are overprotective and avoid to make you have experiences. I imagine that getting rid of your control issues, which are caused by this sense of not being in control of your life, may be the first step to finally heal your wound, which is somehow linked to the relationship with your friends and casual partners in your everyday life. start trusting others more, and don't be afraid of being 'fooled'. you're totally capable of understanding when someone is trying to hurt you, follow your intuition. even though it may be hard, even painful, it'll be the key to transform and overcome pluto's lessons to achieve your goals.

🌙 moon in pisces, 20° / 3rd decan ruled by neptune and pluto

hands down my favourite moon sign! you're extremely empathetic and sensitive, you care a lot about others and you treat others' problems as if they were yours, you get totally immersed in them. you have quite a vivid imagination, you're able to idealize and picture anything you want. while this placement gives you an incredible amount of creativity, it can also make you uncomfortable. in fact, you may actually find yourself imagining every detail of every situation, even the worst ones. let's suppose you hear of a rape at the news; you literally start imagining the scene detail by detail, and it makes you extremely uncomfortable. actually, it literally ruins your mood, as it's as if you actually lived that scene. going back to the creativity matter, you have the soul of an artist; you have very enhanced emotions, and you're able to express them through artistic outlets. you could be amazing at writing poetry, books, art, music... also, your particular empathy of human's intellect can also make you an amazing psychologist or actress, as you're able to understand others' feelings and make them your own. you're extremely spiritual, and if you don't feel like that, you just have yet to have your spiritual awakening. you may be able to talk to spirits, for example, or perhaps you have very meaningful dreams. or maybe, you could literally predict the future through them. you're also most probably an avid daydreamer, you tend to get distracted easily because you're too busy thinking about random scenarios in your head. seriously, you could even make a movie out of them. you're also an hopeless romantic, and you dream of finding not just your spouse, but your literal soulmate. to make it simple, you want all of your daydreams to become reality.

pisces moon conjunct pisces saturn: you most probably felt misunderstood during your childhood, as if everyone were cold with you. maybe your mother (or anyone in your family/childhood) was emotionally absent or even aggressive, hence you didn't grow up in a completely healthy environment. this issue causes you to question your worth; you may have low self-esteem, especially during your early years. your family may have big expectations of you, and hence you feel the need to meet them, making you even more pressured to be perfect. overall, your personality may resemble that of your parents a lot, even though it may feel challenging for you. you're constantly strict with yourself, challenging yourself to improve. you always want to be at your best state, physically but also emotionally. you just want to radiate good vibes, even though you may feel limitated to share all of your true self due to saturn making harsh aspects.

🗣 mercury in virgo, 5° / 1st decan ruled by mercury

you have a very logical, pragmatic mind. ironically, this creates contrast with your leo energy, confusing you as you may act differently in different situations. you try to be as well-spoken as possible, especially with strangers, but when people get on your nerves you can’t help but kill them with your words. before expressing your opinion on a certain matter, you like making sure that your thought actually has proof to be supported. you’re very analytical, and hence you also overthink a lot. especially when it comes to people you care, you start overthinking so much about little things like late replies to messages that you create a variety of hollywood-worthy scenarios in your head. you also pay lots of attention to details, and you can’t tolerate typos and grammar mistakes. you always try to speak and write in the most correct and polite way as possible. you may have an elegant, yet neat handwriting. your voice probably sounds very calm and collected, yet you don’t have any problems speaking at a louder tone.

virgo mercury square sagittarius jupiter: this placement emphasizes your intellect. your mind is so broad that you can come up with different theories and philosphies, making you a sort of genius. you're probably good at memorizing things, and you could even have a photographic memory. yet, with this aspect, you may have troubles being consistent with your ideas. you may overestimate your needs and thoughts; for example, you may promise yourself to get all As in maths, then you get tired and bored and you end up getting Cs. same goes for your handwriting, for example: you may start writing in the best way possible, then you get lazy and end up writing in a sloppy way just to take notes. you also overthink a lot, and that causes you self-esteem issues. on the other hand, you're very open-minded and objective, as you look at the big picture. you'd do very well as a journalist, for example, or perhaps also as a judge of any kind. you may also be naturally skilled at foreign languages, you can mimic accents pretty well. you're probably also very poetic and / or wise, you're like a teacher for your friends.

virgo mercury square scorpio pluto: you may become a bit manipulative. you probably don’t even realize it, though, as you have the ability to make people do what you want them to do. you probably love being right, especially during arguments, and you always manage to be so thanks to your skills. your words are like knives for others, they can truly cut deep through their ego. you’re direct and blunt, as you just say what you have in mind with no filters. you can develop a provocative attitude without even realizing it, which can obviously cause you conflicts. you need to be more careful about how you communicate your ideas, otherwise you could seriously damage other people’s self-esteem. on the other hand, if you acknowledge your flaws and work on them, this can actually turn into diplomacy. take advantage of your interest in your inner self to find out how to be a bit more gentle in choosing your words.

❤️ venus in leo, 17° / 2nd decan ruled by the sun and jupiter

with leo venus you're very picky, as you have high expectations for your future partner. you always try to be at your best state, and you want those who surround you to be perfect too. it's hard for you to fall for someone, as you take everything in consideration: personality, physical appearance, fashion sense... it may look like it is too much, but once you find the right one that truly satisfies your standards, you're in for a long ride. you'll want to travel, live your life in the best way possible with the person you love. you look at them as if they were the brighest star in the sky, and you want to be seen like this as well. you may even be a bit clingy, but your partner needs to be aware of that. they can't repress your need for affection. you see love as a way to revive your inner child, you feel younger when you're in love. even though you want someone fun and outgoing, you also need someone ambitious, hard-working and generally serious when it comes to committing. there's no room in your life for flaky people.

💥 mars in libra, 13° / 2nd decan ruled by venus and mercury

there’s this stereotype that libra mars people are passive-aggressive. it may be true, but only partially. in fact, you try to avoid conflicts exclusively when you’re in public, or maybe with someone you don’t know well. in that case, you can eventually try to avoid the problem. with people you’re close to, you’re pretty much the opposite. you may say the worst things that you probably don’t even mean, you may even have the istinct to throw hands. you’re driven by a strong sense of justice, and you probably were the class’ snitch during daycare/primary school. you also strive for equality, hence you may get very defensive when it comes to proving your innocence, or just really anyone’s. overall, you’re a fair person with strong morals, who acts based on the situation you’re in.

🏡 houses

your 1st house is in leo. with this placement, you care a lot about your persona, both physically and also mentally too. yet, you may start feeling like you need to be perfect at all costs to be accepted, especially during your early years. for example, you may be the type to follow fashion trends to look cool, and you may subconsciously force yourself to like them. you need to understand that you should enhance your individuality, and ask yourself who you are. it’s not all about who you are outside, the inside matters even more. you’re free to stand out, but make sure that you do it in a comfortable way for you, or it will start becoming toxic as time goes by. venus is also placed here: you're most likely very attractive and magnetic. even if not necessarily conventionally, people find themselves attracted to you. you may have sparkling doe eyes, with also full lips and a defined cupid's bow. your face is more on the longer side, perhaps you have an heart-shaped face, with high cheekbones and a pointy chin. you may also have naturally amazing, fluffy and flowing hair. your body is also very feminine, with a lot of curves and softness to it.

your 2nd house is in leo, with also the sun and mercury sitting there. your self-esteem depends on matters like money, possessions, as well as your influence on others. you may feel confident when you’re praised and spoiled with compliments and material things, you may enjoy being in the spotlight as it increases your self-confidence, even though you’re quite shy so you don’t feel very at ease. you feel confident when you’re able to earn money and you’re financially stable, and hence you probably felt guilty as a child to ask your parents for money for example. you probably love luxury, you aspire to become very wealthy, live in the house of your dreams, etc. you could also dream of becoming famous. and actually, with this placement, you could make money from leo-related matters, and hence being in the spotlight, creativity (especially theatre / drama), comedy, etc. you value stability in both romance and in your day-to-day life, like at work. you take care of your body and style in any sort of way, as your 1st house venus confirms. you like keeping your mind active everyday, especially by following your passions. if you’re the logical type, you might enjoy playing sudoku or things like that. on the other hand, if you’re more phylosophical you might enjoy reading, writing etc. you have a great sense of duty, that makes you want to excel in whatever you do. in addition to this, you’re also very stubborn. you probably get in arguments with others because you don’t accept their advices/criticism and prefer going your own way. you may also tend to overindulge a bit, and become a bit lazy. you care a lot about grammar, you don't want to make any mistakes. looking ridiculous is your biggest fear, hence you end up overworking to prove yourself that you're capable to do anything you want. you have a slow way of thinking and speaking. your voice may sound really calm and pleasant to hear, yet still strict and ambitious. you’re probably a good singer, or at least have the potential to become one. you tend to overthink a lot, but you eventually get to a conclusion and stick to it. no one is gonna change your mind. you enjoy learning and working in creative ways; you might enjoy using powerpoints, flashcards or maybe study with your friends, or listening to music. you also probably have a nice, aesthetic handwriting and you like organizing your agenda. your voice is probably very soft and youthful.

your 3rd house is in virgo. you’re very precise and polite in the way you express your thoughts. you’re probably very careful to grammar, vocabulary etc… you love looking and being knowledgeable. you’re more of a logical type rather than an intuitive person, you hardly ever do something only out of curiosity. you’re very cautious about the decisions you make, and hence it could take you some time to finally choose something, but that’s because you just don’t want to regret anything. you think deeply about your choices, and most of the time they turn out to be right. you’re strongly opinionated, but you may be a bit too harsh when you express your ideas. sometimes you could even hurt someone, as you’re extremely honest. you don’t like sugar-coating your words. you’re also very intelligent and hard-working, and you can’t stand messy things. you’re probably very neat, you like having schedules and you may even keep an agenda / diary where you keep track of your appointments and other things you have to do.

your 4th house is in libra, with also mars placed there. your physical home was probably very pleasant and beautiful; you may have a conventionally beautiful family, or at least they’re particularly attractive and charming. your house may also be very well-designed and elegant, doesn’t matter how big it is. you probably see your parents as ideal, they are your role models and you look up to them. perhaps, it could be that you felt misunderstood, maybe your parents were a bit materialistic or lacked empathy, but overall you had a great childhood, you have a good relationship with your parents and siblings if you have them. it could also be that you dated lots of people when you were a teen, or at least you had lots of friends. you certainly have lovely memories of your early years, and your parents most likely have a good relationship too. perhaps you used to argue often with your parents, there was quite a lot of fighting, but nothing too serious, I don't see any serious trauma in your childhood.

your 5th house is in scorpio, with also your pluto and jupiter being here. your hobbies most likely include self-expression of any kind, anything that you consider private is told through your creativity. also, with scorpio in this house, you may as well be attracted to darker hobbies like astrology, tarots… possibly, you may be into thriller or even into horror. you may also like psychology, criminology… this type of things that are able to stimulate your mind in some way. you could possibly want to be a risk-taker, deep down. also, you want to become a master in what you like, and hence you tend to go extreme to become perfect. you may dedicate a lot of your spare time to your hobbies, for example, even if you have to work. your romantic relationships may be very intense, you could attract particularly jealous or even obsessive partners in your life. some of them may be painful, but they’ll be essential to become mature and grow up into a better, wiser person. in addition, I see you as the type of person who doesn’t like showing off their partner. you probably keep both your love interests and hobbies personal, you only talk a little about them to your close, trusted friends, especially with your pluto in this house that makes this energy even stronger. jupiter here makes you particularly charming, it's easy for you to attract people interested in you romantically, you have a very striking charisma that makes it impossible not to like you. you're also particularly witty and creative, people admire you for your ideas. you may have a great sense of fashion and aesthetic as well.

your 6th house is in capricorn, with also uranus and neptune placed there. usually, people with a capricorn 6th house are very responsible and work-oriented. they generally don’t leave much space to fun and amusement, but the presence of uranus and neptune here may change this a bit. you do have a strong sense of duty, but you don’t overwork yourself. you’re able to find balance between work and hobbies, and that’s obviously great. yet, you may sometimes procrastinate in your day-to-day life. that can possibly cause you issues in your career; you may be indecisive about your future path for example, or you could even not be much precise in your work. uranus here also indicates that you may often come across unpredictable events in your daily life. you may often see strange, unordinary things, or perhaps it’s your routine that is like that. you may lack consistency when it comes to diets and health, for example; you may start a diet and keep it for a month, then you get tired and drop it all of a sudden.

your 7th house is in aquarius. you do like the idea of marriage and love, yet you need your space as well. you don’t want to feel committed in a relationship, it would be suffocating for you. that could make you appear as emotionally cold or detached, when you’re really not. you just care a lot about your personal growth, especially after your turbulent childhood. perhaps, you could even attract mentally unstable partners, they could be a bit moody for example. you may meet your future spouse in an unexpected situation, or perhaps you could meet them online through social media or a dating app.

your 8th house is in aquarius. you could possibly have an unexpected yet barely painful death, or perhaps someone in your life has died / will die all of a sudden, you may often experience scenarios of this kind. possibly, you could even die due to electricity, and or at least it will be a very fast death, I don’t see it being violent or turbulent at all. or maybe, you’re surrounded by unpredictable events of loss of any kind in your life. that is, it could also happen with your money. it’s important not to risk too much with this placement, especially with gambling, or you may end up getting in serious problems. you’re fascinated by the occult, and you may even be/been able to talk to dead people. you’re very intuitive, and it’s easy for you to read through people’s words. you may as well have prophetic dreams.

your 9th house is in pisces, with also your moon and saturn sitting there. this is definitely a nice placement! the result is that you’re probably extremely open-minded and imaginative. you hardly ever have have prejudices, you don’t judge a book by its cover. you’re extremely opinionated, and combined with your virgo 3rd house you’re constantly looking for the truth. you hate it when people say something wrong for example, you can’t help but correct them. you could also be religious and believe in a god. philosophy, literature and poetry are also a part of your many interests. in addition, you’re most likely also into foreign languages and cultures. you could travel a lot, or perhaps with your pisces in the house cusp you like travelling with your mind. you probably literally create stories in your head, you’re extremely imaginative. a good advice would be not to waste this talent of yours; you could actually make your fantasies concrete and express them through creative outlets: books, drawings, songs, choreographies… basically, it would be a waste to only keep them for you. you may also learn about more creative topics rather than school subjects. due to saturn's presence in this house though, it could take you a while to finally open up and make new experiences. growing up, you'll get to travel the world and open your mind more. you are an extremely open-minded person, you rarely judge a book by its cover. you probably despise racism, homophobia, misogyny etc. with a passion (as you should tbh). you may also be into poetry, philosophy, and just anything that can stimulate both your mind and feelings. in fact, your mind is constantly wandering somewhere else, allowing you to travel with your fantasy. you're also probably attracted to foreign things, like people, music, fashion, languages, movies etc. you love learning about anything, and you may also have a good memory. in fact, it’s common for you to be the one who explains things and possibly even leads a group, and this could unluckily make you seem as a know-it-all. you do take pride in your wisdom, indeed. your deep way of thinking is also where your desire for freedom comes from, as you wish to be able to expand yourself through travelling and new experiences.

your 10th house is in aries. with your 10th house cusp in the energetic sign of aries, you need a career that allows you to be independent, you probably prefer working alone than in groups. or perhaps, you actually aspire to become a boss, a ceo, someone people look up to, and if you work hard you may actually become an influential person in your work place / field. you aspire to be successful and you want to be wealthy thanks to yourself only, and you may actually develop some good luck in your career life. your future job may also require something related to physical action, and hence you may have to move a lot for your job, perhaps you may pursue acting to include something creative that also requires you to move. the sun here also makes you gain a reputation for being responsible and mature, you have a strong charisma and you probably seem very put-together to others.

your 11th house is in taurus. you could possibly attract people with taurus traits, and hence your friends could be quite stubborn and possessive, but also very loyal and responsible. they could possibly be wealthy, and they could have some artistic, creative interest and / or talent just like you. you may have some trust issues, you’re careful about who you trust, and hence you’re quite cautious about who you befriend. your long-term goals include financial stability, you may be quite materialistic as you enjoy wealth. yet, I assume that thanks to your water placements you’re not as work-focused as other earth placements, you actually also value emotions and feelings too. I feel like you probably have very big goals and dreams that you want to come true.

your 12th house is in cancer. you’re an extremely spiritual and intuitive person. you may be attracted to dreams, religion, astrology, spirituality… anything that can wake you up, spiritually speaking. you may also be particularly talented at reading birth charts, tarots, even talking to spirits. you may have prophetic dreams, or you could even have deja-vus. the 12th house is also the house of fears, so having cancer here indicates that you may be afraid of your childhood, emotions, past memories. perhaps, even of your home environment or directly of your parents. it’s a part of your life that you’d rather keep secret. you may also have some escapism tendencies, such as oversleeping, overeating… or perhaps, you could easily develop addictions, so be careful to that, as you’re particularly sensitive to drugs, alcohol etc.

❤️ love life, soulmates

in love you attract aquarius, sagittarius, gemini, scorpio and leo placements and/or traits. your future spouse will most likely have sagittarius and gemini traits or placements. they’ll be very similiar to you: bubbly and hard-working, but also with a warm, loyal heart and a hidden insecurity to them. you may meet them at work, or perhaps even abroad. perhaps they could be foreign, or maybe you're going to meet them on a vacation. in general, you'll meet with your spouse during a fun, relaxing situation. perhaps at a party, at the club, at a concert, at the mall, etc. your children will most likely have strong scorpio and sagittarius traits: they’ll be very smart and intense, but also very sensitive deep down. also, they’ll be extremely intelligent and more mature as time goes by. they’ll also have a tender side to them, but that is often overshadowed by their seriousness.

👶🏻 family life

your father is a very fiery, impulsive person, with a short-temper. he could have even been quite violent with you during your childhood, and he might have a bit of a childish behaviour, even though I don't really think it's your case thanks to your libra ic. deep down, he’s actually kind of insecure with his role as a father, but he may hate to admit it. he may have aries, cancer, libra or scorpio placements in his chart. your mother, on the other hand, is slightly more submissive. she’s mostly a peaceful and emotional person, even though she most probably has a passive-aggressive behaviour. she could be conventionally beautiful, or at least she likes taking care of herself. she may have libra, aries or taurus placements in her chart, as well as pisces and capricorn. if you have siblings, they’re probably very peaceful and intelligent. they may also be very kind, as well as organized. their rooms probably look immaculate. they could have virgo or gemini placements in their charts.

📊 career

you’re a very ambitious person, and hence I don’t see you being the type to scrap projects. especially with your aries midheaven, you’re motivated to complete your works in order to show that you’re able to succeed, you want to be the best in what you do. I can also see you being a good therapist, psychologist, possibly even a doctor of any kind, even though I’d avoid practical and boring jobs if I were in you. your strong pisces energy struggles to be cold-minded at times, and hence working in a stressful environment could be dangerous for you and for your mental health, as you may absorb others’ negativity and stress. actually, I feel like the most suited career for you would be something that allows you to be in charge, to be your own boss as you know what’s best for you. you may also do well with a creative career; you may become a writer, a dancer, a singer, a stylist, a model, an actress... anything that isn't too practical could be good to you, and if it allows you to express your creativity it's even better.

👚 fashion sense, style analysis

keyword for your wardrobe: black. every leo venus loves black, it's probably my favorite love story. after all, it's such a versatile color! it can be both badass and classy, how can I blame you. you may also have a thing for anything that looks luxury and high quality; you probably enjoy wearing designer brands, especially in your belts and bags. you may also like wearing fitted clothes, even just simple skinny jeans or tight tops. aside from black, you could as well use white and bold colours like gold, hot pink etc. also, you may as well be into pastel colors, and you could like following fashion trends.

👁 past life, life purpose

in your past life, you were very career-oriented. you were probably extremely successful at work, it was your priority. you could have even been someone important for your career, who knows. yet, this lifetime you don't need to focus on work anymore, you're already a master at it. now, you need to solve your issues with your family and create a family of your own to fully accomplish your life purpose. there may be some ups and downs, but this is what your soul has to learn in this lifetime.

🤔 major transits analysis / september 6

transit libra mercury is currently in your 4th house conjunct your natal mars. you could be feeling particularly honest in these days, you're more likely to speak your mind. you want to be around your loved ones but you're also particularly sensitive, therefore you could get angry easily and overall you're more impulsive, so beware of possible conflicts with others.

🧿 manifest what you want, secret skills

the best way for you to manifest is idealizing and acting at the same time. you have both energies combined in your chart, which is great actually! I’d suggest you to first picture what you want in your life, and then do something concrete to manifest it. for example, let’s suppose you want this gucci bag; first, think about it deeply. then, you could try going into a gucci shop and just walk around, maybe even touch that bag. you’ll get results if you believe it! it’s also great to write and read/listen your own positive affirmations, such as 'I love my gucci bag’, 'the gucci bag my mom gave me is amazing’ and so on.

and this is it! thank you again for booking a reading, hope it resonated with you :)

-libramc xx

#astrology

3 notes · View notes

celticrune · 3 years

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Hey Celtic! For the oc ask meme, how about 2, 8, 15, 22 and 25 for Val, Tanwen, Keiji, Jay, Whisper and Raya? I know I said I'd only ask 4 of your characters but I couldn't choose which four so I guess we're going with 6 of them.

*elmorise.jpg* let's go boys

and just guessing but this one's probably going under a cut, so. expect a readmore if i remember to put one in

2: Their smile Val: Subtle and easy to miss. It's in their eyes more than their mouth, a crinkle and a warmth that comes with just a light quirk of their lips. If you see them smiling widely and openly and with socialite charm, they're lying to someone, be it you or themself.

Tanwen: Bright and wide and earnest. Her happiness and her enthusiasm and her cheer are right there at the surface and her smile shows it all at the drop of a hat.

Keiji: True smiles are rare for this boy. Smirks absolutely, grins always, but a real honest smile? Only for people he trusts, and even then only when he's half-asleep or drunk or otherwise unable to have his guard fully up.

Jay: You're more likely to get an eyeroll than a smile, but they do exist! Sometimes a true, soft smile that manages to light up even his usual scowl, sometimes a crooked grin when he just made a joke so deadpan no one can tell if it's a joke or not and he's enjoying the confusion. Secret: his beard hides his dimples

Whisper: She has an adorable smile, with dimples and all, just don't tell her that or you will get kicked in the shins. She also knows she has very cute dimples and she hates it, so she very stubbornly tries not to smile (but she's terrible at it).

Raya: ........She.... tries.........

8: What they like to eat Val: They have a soft spot for cookies, of most kinds. They have not yet found their favourite.

Tanwen: A good bread. Her dad always baked fresh bread for the family and she has not found anything that compares

Keiji: Junkfood, especially burgers. The junkier the better, and anyone who disagrees doesn't have any taste

Jay: Good hearty winter foods. Stews, thicc soups, some good slow-cooked dishes you can have on the stove for the better part of the day bubbling away

Whisper: Ramen. No, I will not elaborate.

Raya: Liquorice

15: How they react to a brainfreeze Val: :|

Tanwen: Blows on the food that cause it to cool it down in weird backwards instinct

Keiji: Dramatically complains

Jay: :/

Whisper: She's Fine she's Tough she's Cool she can Do This. totally still winces and pouts

Raya: Ever seen gifs of a cat getting brain freeze? Imagine that but a panther

22: What they're like on two hours of sleep Val: They have chugged six espressos and are on their way to a seventh. Remarkably functional, but Do Not Talk To Them.

Tanwen: Barely keeping her eyes open, nodding off whenever she sits down, she's the kinda fool who'd walk into a door cause she was too tired to pay attention. She doesn't do well on little sleep.

Keiji: Hopped up on redbull, talking a mile a minute, full of energy but all over the place. Amusing, but he's not getting anything done.

Jay: He doesn't tend to sleep too well, so he's pretty used to getting by on little sleep. He'll try to catch what catnaps he can, but in the meantime he's good at muscling down and getting on with his day. He'll be a grouch, but not much more than usual

Whisper: She tries. Oh how she tries. She is going to fall asleep in class and accidentally elbow the teacher when he wakes her up.

Raya: Somehow? Fine? There's definitely some magic going on here do not trust it

25: Why you enjoy them Val: Val embodies survival. Overcoming your past and your pain and piecing together a new identity for yourself, one you chose. They went through terrible things and they still struggle but they learned, they are learning, and they're getting better every day. They're happy, and they have worked so so hard to earn that happiness.

They're the part of me that wants to be better, and writing them is the feeling that one day I will get there, too. They're also the conviction that such struggles and issues don't make you any less worthy of love, or capable of it.

Tanwen: Tanwen is just so bright. Her DnD campaign finished this week, actually, but I've played her for about five years now and being in her headspace makes me so happy. It's warm and bright and optimistic, no matter how dark things seen. It's loving everything and everyone, and while that isn't always me and I wouldn't want it to be, it's such a positive and lovely headspace to spend time in

Keiji: he's my terrible horny bastard son what else do i need to say. (and he's the trials and tribulations of opening up emotionally, the mortifying ordeal of being known, and the catharsis of being met with only love and acceptance)

Jay: Jay is a rock. He's steady and sturdy and down to earth and chill, and while that also makes him hell to write because he's so unbothered, it's what makes it really nice and chill to be in his headspace. He unapologetically himself, spends his time just vibing, and I love him.

Also, as I have recently come to realise, he is my transmasc gender envy and and me exploring how masculinity might fit and feel

Whisper: She's an adorable awkward potato. She's full teen cringiness and I love her for it. You go be the hero honey, you go be cool and fall flat on your face, you're doing amazing and you deserve the world

Raya: my druid self-projection no, but also yes. Raya is the thunderstorm and the sunshower and she's force of a strong wind, and she's all that in fun to write magic. Her character is definitely not as developed as some of my regulars, and that makes her harder to actually write, but I love her relationship with nature and her powers

#val #tanwen #keiji #jay #whisper #raya #ocs #asks #there we go!#i actually got a lil emotional from the last one #gosh #that was v sweet #these were fun ty for asking darling

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starr-fall-knight-rise · 5 years

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Humans are Weird “Aliens Explaining Emotions”

From a discussion I had with my friend from some days ago. it was a fun and challenging exercise, and I hope you all like it :)

A lot of my academic counterparts had been asking me about the scope of human emotional range. This may seem like a confusing question to humans seeing as that emotion is an every second part of their lives, but there are many species in the galaxy who are only limited to a restrictive subset of emotions including fear, contentment, anger, happiness and interest. I, and other scientists have taken the liberty of studying human emotion, as well as human studies on the matter, and come up with 29 emotions on the human emotion spectrum. I took the liberty of asking a human to describe just what these things feel like, and when they occur and will try to explain it as well as I can.

Admiration = The human categorized this as a subset of awe but ONLY for people. This involves being impressed, and the desire to BE more like another person, or the desire to be closer to that other person. I’d consider this some function of social integration for humans an instinctive way of modeling proper behavior. Admiration is usually towards a figure in authority or position of power a parent, friend, icon, or celebrity.

Adoration = Not to be confused with admiration, adoration does not necessarily involved the desire to become like that other person, but it does involve the desire to be around them, to make them happy. Anything the target person does, no matter what, is seen as exciting, cute or admirable in whatever combination. Humans will generally do anything for someone they adore. Adoration can be for animals, small children, a mate, or someone famous.

Amusement = I have learned to personally experience this one myself. It is an extreme requirement if you are to spend any time with humans as it is the single most important emotion for social bonding. I would say it is similar to happiness, but much more physical. It is almost a cognitive joy taken from a specific phrase or situation that manifests as a bubbling in the stomach and chest. It is a pleasant feeling.

Anxiety = Just imagine feeling like a boulder will drop out of the sky to crush you at any moment, or the impending feeling of knowing the world is going to end, but you don’t know when. I would consider this a subset of fear, but less intense, more chronic and physically catastrophic.

Awe = awe is an extreme emotion which manifests with the widening of the eyes, and the mouth. This is a response to unbelievable or amazing situation. Humans describe it as a feeling of the chest expanding, may include tingling or the piloerection of hair on the skin. This emotion can be completely overwhelming and may manifest when the human understanding is stretched to capacity, and the brain is having trouble comprehending what it saw.

Awkwardness = is a motion manifested when something socially inappropriate happens. Awkwardness is a way of letting others know that something socially unacceptable just happened. This may include saying something insensitive at the wrong time, like asking a fat woman if she’s pregnant only to realise she isn’t. The modern use of the word Cringe is a subset of awkwardness that is more intense and usually involves a person or situation being EXTREMELY awkward so much so that it causes a person to cringe. Includes a tightening in the stomach and chest manifesting in a human making their body smaller and curling towards the center like someone is about to hit them. The awkwardness is so bad it is physically painful.

Boredom = when a human is lacking in cognitive stimulation. The brain will try to find something to interest itself and may lead to frustration or anxiety as the brain gets frustrated over the lack of stimuli. May also manifest as a flat affect or staring off into space.

Calmness / Contentment = a limbo emotion suspended between all other emotions. It is not happy, it is not sad, it is the closest emotion to the state of just existing in which my species spend most of their time. Humans do not often spend time here.

Confusion = An emotion that is common in many species, when cognition cannot figure out what is happening. It often manifests in humans with head tilting, frowning and looking around to gather more information.

Craving = This is a want, but to an extreme. A craving turns a want into a need to the point where the human finds it hard to pay attention to anything else. It is very common when it comes to food, but can also involve a craving for attention, company or other emotions.

Disgust = An emotion you do not want to be on the side of. Disgust is being repulsed by something, can be a smell, sight, or even a person. Disgust is a strange expression that involves turning the head away and the upturn of one corner of the mouth. It can be directed towards a specific behavior, but it is mostly used to determine that a human does not like something. I would argue that having a human disgusted with you is worse than having a human angry at you. Anger and respect can go hand in hand, but disgust and respect are mutually exclusive.

Empathetic pain = an emotion that seems almost entirely human. This involves a human’s ability to watch another person and feel their pain. For instance human males describe watching another man be kicked in sensitive areas and experiencing the contraction of muscles or even a tingling sensation in the area in which the other human was hurt, females can also experience the same sensation despite never having actually felt that sort of pain.

Entrancement = Sort of like adoration but involves less cognitive processing. A human isn’t likely to be thinking very clearly if they are entranced with something. I would describe it almost as a hypnotic state.

Envy = When a human wants something that another person has. It can include an object a situation or an attribute they wish they had. In short it is the desire to have what someone else has an a resentment towards the person who has it instead of them.

Excitement = The most adorable human emotion. Excitement is joy but more aggressive, generally used situationally for an event, or for seeing someone they have not seen in a long time. Excitement can be in the moment or anticipatory. Humans like making lots of noise when they are excited weather it be screaming or talking, they may jump up and down or cavort around in other ways. Humans are very active when they are excited.

Fear = Self explanatory, we all know fear. The imminent worry that you are going to die, be bodily injury or experience something else unpleasant. Humans have the ability to fear on behalf of others.

Frustration = This is a stepping stone to anger that involves the desire to do something but the inability to do it. Frustration happens when things are not going your way, and you cannot change it.

Hatred = the scariest of human emotions. I would argue it is an amalgamation of anger and disgust and may manifest in the desire to avoid, destroy or terminate whatever is the target of this emotion. Hatred, and maybe envy, are the wo greatest emotions that lead to murder. Once a human hates you, there is no coming back. Humans may use the word lightly to describe a mild dislike, but rarely do humans hate pickles they may dislike them but not hate them. Hatred is the desire to destroy, or obliterate whatever it is. If a human hates something, they wish them dead, desire to make them dead themselves, or desire for them something worse than death. Humans will use the word lightly, so make sure you examine body language when discussing this word with a human.

Horror = horror is a mixture of disgust and fear. This is a human’s response to seeing something so terrible that the brain can hardly comprehend what it is. It is almost like an equal but negative version of awe. It can be in response to horrible accidents, terrible situations or incomprehensible actions or atrocities committed by other humans.

Happiness = Contentment turned up. It is almost described as a warmth through the body, and an inability to stop smiling. Happiness is the emotional manifestation of feeling the sun on one’s skin after a dark night.

Interest / curiosity = a common emotion we understand as the desire to want to know more about a specific subject..

Joy = happiness turned to 11. This is happiness so intense the body cannot hold the emotion. Humans may scream, cry, laugh or many other physical actions in order to allow the release of this emotion. Joy is not a quite or unnoticeable emotion.

Love = This is the best emotion to be the target of. Humans have many versions of it, but in essence if a human loves someone, their only desire or goal for that person is to see them happy. A human would do anything for someone they love, and that includes die for them , not just die for them but walk over fields of glass, through fire, thousands of miles. Humans have been known to survive past all odds and hold onto life in order to see someone they love one last time. If you are lucky enough to have a human who has any sort of love towards you, you can rest assured that they will do whatever it is possible to keep you safe and happy.

Nostalgia = a strange human emotion that involves the desire for the past, or a fondness for the past. Playing a human a song that they may have heard often in their childhood may have them experiencing nostalgia.

Romance = This is a love specifically between two partnered humans. Think love as mentioned earlier but with a physical or sexual component.

Sadness = This is the opposite of happiness, and is often described as a heavy feeling. Increase that feeling and you get something called sorrow which is the opposite of joy. This generally happens during unfortunate events like the death of a family member. This is generally associated with the loss of something, another human, a pet, innocence, a situation, or a better period of time. Sadness should be curbed quickly, for it is not good for humans over a long period of time. It is theorized that the feeling of sadness is evolutionary designed to get other human’s attention looking for comfort.

Satisfaction = this is an internal feeling of pride usually experienced when a human does something and it works out. I would call this the opposite of frustration. Humans experience this when they believe they have done a good job with something.

Sympathy = this is like empathetic pain accept can include emotion or situational. A human does not have to have experienced the pain or situation someone else is going through to feel sympathy for them. It is almost the feeling of proxy sadness and the desire that another person’s situation get better. This is why humans are so good at understanding other species. A human who sympathizes with you might take your situation, imagine something similar and determine how they would feel if they were you, then they can experience a shadow of what you are feeling and thus sympathize. Is extremely important in a social society.

Triumph = A mixture of satisfaction and joy. This happens when a human has gone through a very difficult project, or experience and come out victorious. Triumph is experienced in war, beating a terrible illness, receiving what one has worked really hard for after years and years of dedication.

Some humans may tell you that they have not felt some of these emotions. and , unless they have a mental illness, or some other rare reason) that makes them physically incapable, than they are absolute lairs. They may not KNOW they experienced that emotion, or may not have the understanding to explain it, but deep down they know exactly what it means. If a human claims they don’t experience emotion that way, tell them to stop being an edge-lord and that the inability to experience emotions is neither a good thing, something to be proud of, or even a possibility if you are a human.

Im looking at you there human, the one who read this and was totally like, yeah but i've never felt that before. Stop trying to be special, you're human you know what all these feel like. You cannot be human without them.

Just a reminder that this was designed as being written by an alien, so if it doesn't seem entirely accurate, than that is okay :) This list was written with the idea of vast humanity ( and not acceptations ) if you find yourself an acceptation that is okay, but the list will remain unchanged. I myself am technically an acceptation in one aspect, but I didn’t want to confuse the issue.

#humans are insane #humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #humans are spaceoddities #earth is a deathworld #Earth is space Ausralia #humans are weird

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mor-beck-more-problems · 4 years

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Stay In Your Lane || Morgan, Deirdre, Anita, Marley (pt1)

TIMING: tonight

LOCATION: Mortal Pins

PARTIES: @professoranieves @detectivedreameater @deathduty @mor-beck-more-problems

SUMMARY: It’s not a double date if you say it isn’t. Everything is fine.

Morgan didn’t mind turning up early for meeting Anita and her mystery girl. She hadn’t been to the bowling alley since that muggy winter outing with Deirdre and all but danced down to reserve a lane for the party with Deirdre. There were no birthday parties commandeering the playlist or half the bowling lanes, only whatever top 20 pop hits Morgan was too unglued from the world to recognize and groups of adults and kids trying to have their own group fun. The beer smell in the carpet that seemed to come packaged wrapped with every bowling alley had gotten worse, made only more confusing by the perfum-y scent of herbs coming from the ball and shoe racks. But it wouldn’t be White Crest if the place was totally normal.

“Does it feel good to be back where we had our first date?” She asked, knowing full well the bowling had been far from the best part of the night. “It’s almost a shame we’ll be on the same team. I can’t make a prize of myself if you win.” She rose on the tips of her toes and pulled Deirdre down into a kiss. “Although I guess we should probably keep the making out to a minimum since we’ll have company I actually want to invite us out again.” She lowered herself and dragged them into the rental line hand in hand. “I think you’ll like Anita. We have fun at work when we take our lunches together, and you and I have fun all the time, and this new girl has her so worked up and out of her comfort zone it gives me flashbacks sometimes. But, she’s gotta be fun too, if she’s keeping up with Anita. According to my calculations, that adds up to an evening well spent. And you don’t even have to order a hot dog this time.”

It was in lacking the allure of a human that intrigued, confused and frustrated her, set against a backdrop that was new, that Deirdre finally realized that the bowling alley was disgusting. It was disgusting the first time, but she could almost forgive it for its newness, and the idea of living up to some dream of a 10 year old's birthday party. Her eyes trailed across the establishment; they'd kissed there, stood in line over there, left holding each other down that way. She remembered, even when she’d thought she wanted to forget it. "Fates, was that a date? I think I liked the dinner we had after much more than the bowling part anyway—our first kiss aside." She also remembered being annoyed and baffled by Morgan, though those days were a memory now. "Why did I agree to this? I hated bowling and I hate people." And then Morgan kissed her. Ah, yes, that was why. She hummed against her, trying to pull her close. "You're always a prize." Deirdre was reminded again how much she hated bowling alleys as a kid—no younger than 13—rushed past them, an 'ew, gross' spewing out of his slushie-stained mouth. Deirdre groaned and reluctantly retreated into a respectable position with Morgan. "No promises. I'm thinking of how much I'd rather just go on a date with you, alone. And how illegal it is to throw a kid down the lane. That's perfectly fine, right?" She grumbled again, shifting nervously. If Morgan was getting flashbacks...then which one in Anita's equation was supposed to be her counterpart? She wouldn't wish that turmoil on to anyone, regretting every moment she spent denying feelings. And, honestly, she was nervous. She wanted Anita to like her, she wanted this to be good for Morgan. She knew a lot about how to charm people, and she could only hope it could work now. "I'd be having fun anyway, Morgan. I always am with you." The kid rushed past again, another 'ew, gross' squeaking out as he went. Deirdre groaned. "Anita better get here before this place becomes a crime scene."

As Anita and Marley pulled into the parking lot of the bowling alley, she suddenly had an aching feeling that this was a bad idea. Possibly one of her worst. Thinking back on it all, she wished she never even made mention of anyone to Morgan. Then Morgan wouldn’t’ve suggested they all spend time together. Then she never would have awkwardly asked Marley to go bowling with a friend from work, and they both wouldn’t be sitting in the car about to walk into a … double date? No. No, it wasn’t that because they weren’t dating. Once she got out of the car she made her way over to Marley, instinctively reaching down and slipping her hand into hers. “Thanks again for agreeing to come. I don’t know if I’d be able to handle being a third wheel while bowling.” As they made their way inside, Anita quickly scanned the area for Morgan, who had already texted her that they were there. Thankfully it wasn’t too crowded so she was able to spot the petit english professor fairly quickly. Once they got over towards them, she lightly dropped Marley’s hand so that she could greet the other two women. “Morgan! Hey, so good to see you,” she said with a wide smile.

Marley didn’t know why she’d agreed to this. She never should have agreed to this. When she’d first said yes, she hadn’t thought much of it. But then the more she’d thought about it, the more she realized this was a little outside of the bounds they’d previously set up. And they had been doing so good, too. No weird conversations or arguments or awkward moments in person. Things had been good and maybe that’s why she had said yes. She wanted to spend more time with Anita, even if it meant going on a double-not-date date with her and one of her professor friends. That’s what people did, right? They took an interest in other peoples’ lives? And Marley was very interested in Anita’s life. Not for any particular reason, but there’d always been that pull with her, hadn’t there? It didn’t mean anything. It couldn’t. Still, hanging out at a bowling alley with another couple seemed...like a big step to Marley. But she wasn’t about to back out now, if only to prove to herself that they weren’t like whoever these other two were-- they were just friends who slept together a lot and sometimes didn’t. When they pulled up, Marley looked over at Anita, giving her a brief smile before sliding her sunglasses on. “Being a third wheel is pretty bad, anyways, I can’t even imagine being one while bowling,” she teased, taking her hand as they headed in. She found it only slightly odd that Anita dropped her hand once they went in, but when she looked up and saw the two people they were heading towards, Marley almost stopped in her place. “Uhh, Anita,” she said, reaching out to try and tug back on her, before deciding the hell with it. She puffed herself up, put on a smile, and strutted up. “Long time no see, Detective,” she said to Morgan with a grin.

In the moments before Anita and her date showed up, Morgan continued to float in her little bubble of excitement and affection. “Mmmm, we met here on purpose, I put on something cute for you, we had fun, we flirted, we kissed, we had dinner somewhere with candles, that sounds like a date to me.” She slid Deirdre’s arms back around her and swayed them as they waited in line, shuffling forward only a few places as a gaggle of five teenagers argued over how many lanes to get. “But, we can do something fun after, though I don’t think throwing children is gonna make the cut. I uh--wow.” The slushie faced child was waggling a dead toe into another child’s eye. “I can appreciate the impulse, but we’re trying to make a positive first impression. But we could mess with the parking meters in town, or take off the labels of canned food and move them around? Or just go home, crawl into bed…” She turned her head back, smiling coyly from upside down.

Then she heard Anita and straightened up, pulling away from her enough to pull Anita into a hug. “Hey! Thanks for coming! You look amazing, as always. Especially this hair?” She fussed with Anita’s waves, nodding with approval. “Gotta look extra nice for your hot date, huh?” She murmured, teasing. “And who is--” Morgan never finished. She recognized Marley on the spot and felt her body temperature drop another few degrees. “Oh. Uh...yeah. It’s funny, right, because of the part where an amateur had to do something your workforce couldn’t handle. That was fun.” She laughed, shrill and nervous as she put her hand out to shake. It was all she could do not to ask Anita right then what on earth she was doing with Marley and did she know she made women cry in her free time? “Didn’t expect to see you here! With Anita. Small town, huh?”

An argument as to why they should just leave and make their own fun sat between Deirdre's lips, caught there as Morgan moved away. The soft beginnings of a whine whistled between her teeth before she remembered she was supposed to make nice, and that this was Morgan's friend. "Deirdre," she introduced herself to Anita with a friendly smile, offering her hand when the hugging was over. "Morgan's girlfriend. It's nice to finally meet you, although Morgan's descriptions obviously put—" Deirdre froze. She knew that voice. It haunted her still sometimes, and the red eyes that sat under her stupid sunglasses. The only thing she could do to keep those memories at bay was to imagine Marley's suffering laid over them—to make her pay, somehow, for even thinking about it. Her body tensed and she took a casually protective stance around Morgan and Anita, who she assumed was some victim too. "Stryder." And there was Marley, in all her dumb, sunglass wearing glory. She glanced between Marley and Anita, smiling with a sinister delight to quell the nauseating fear that threatened to bubble. She might not have known how to kill Marley exactly, but Anita was sure to die like anyone else. And she wasn't above hurting someone's lover to get to them. Deirdre's eyes drifted off to Morgan. Okay, so she was above murdering Morgan's friends. She snapped her gaze back to Marley and her smile quirked into a smirk. She sauntered up to Marley and fling her arm around her shoulders, urging her close and closer to the group. Like an old friend, or maybe someone who was trying to figure out how much Marley weighed and how much effort it would take to throw her down a lane. "You know, the detective here told me that commitment was the least exciting thing in the world once. Something about how she thought it was boring to be in a relationship," she spoke freely to Anita and Marley, playing her part as the happy participant. "I never thought I'd see the day she'd have a date and eat her words." She reached up and pinched Marley's cheek. "So proud of you, Marley-Warley." Now, how did she go about stabbing someone around an audience?

Anita returned Morgan’s hug and grinned softly when she started playing with her hair. “Yes, I do look extra hot tonight. But I’m not here on a date.” The second sentence was said softly, with the intention for only Morgan to hear it, though admittedly she didn’t know if mara had any advanced hearing capability. Not that Marley would object to her insisting it wasn’t a date, but she just didn’t really want to open up that can of worms right now. Though, honestly a can of worms sounded really delicious right about now. As she turned to greet Morgan’s girlfriend, she noticed that both of the women seemed to already know Marley. And judging by their tones and words… it didn’t seem like they all knew each other in the best of ways. “Yeah, really nice to meet you finally, Deirdre.” She shot a quick look over at Marley, trying to assess how bad of a situation this was about to be. Quickly she turned her attention back to Deirdre though, realizing that this whole date topic was becoming central to the general conversation. “Oh, no - sorry if you thought.” She offered a slightly awful laugh, trying to diffuse the situation the best that she could, “We’re not here on a date. We’re just… here to bowl. Because, well, Morgan invited me. And ya know, outings are so much better with an even number of people. But, it’s not a date. And I generally echo her sentiment about relationships.” She didn’t mean to think about it, but she couldn’t help but wonder if Marley and Deidre had a history and that was why she was bringing up dating. She tried to shake the thought but it remained. “But, uh, I take it you all already know each other then. And here I was worried tonight would be awkward.” Another awkward laugh followed, and Anita was fully unsure of if she was making the situation better or worse.

Frowning, Marley disintegrated and slipped through Deirdre’s grip before she could reach up to pinch her cheek. Though she stayed visible, she kept herself intangible for a moment longer, just in case anyone else thought it was a good idea to try and grab her. Anita was the only person allowed to do that, and she glanced over at Deirdre, eyes narrowing behind her glasses. She half wished she’d just worn her regular glasses, so that the two women now glaring at her could see her glaring back at them. Why did Anita’s friend have to be Morgan of all people? Not that Marley cared. These people had no say over her. She brushed her sleeve off as if Deirdre touching her had tainted it and shrugged. “The department is a little busy with real crimes, sorry,” she said nonchalantly, “and it’s not a date.” And yet, Anita’s words made Marley’s skin prickle a little. She knew that that was how Anita was, of course, and it wasn’t that it bothered her-- but hearing her say it outloud to other people made it seem much more...real. Clearing her throat, she took Anita’s arm and pointed towards the concession. “What do we say to drinks? You two finish getting the lane, we’ll go grab refreshments,” she grinned, “because I know I’m not making it through this without at least a little bit of alcohol.” Let the words hang a moment before tacking on, “You know, the bowling part.” High pitched laughter half interrupted her. “And the kids part.”

Morgan watched all of this unfold as if she’d been flipped inside out of her mind. This was just some weird sitcom on Netflix. She definitely hadn’t trapped all of them here with Marley Stryder. Deirdre wasn’t glaring daggers and trying to pinch the detective’s cheek, Anita wasn’t looking at all of them like a deer in the headlights and Marley wasn’t leveraging supernatural secrecy and a little murder to make her look like an idiot in front of her friend. Nope! That would just be way too ridiculous! But Morgan’s eyes met Anita’s in the chaos and she knew this was all too real. She gave her friend what she hoped was a reassuring smile. One that said, everything’s going to be fine! Especially now that Anita didn’t want this to be a date enough to say so out loud. Maybe she could be dissuaded from more repeat engagements when this was all over.

Looking up at the others, Morgan hated to realize that Marley was offering them a chance to regroup after ruining their expectations of something easy and pleasant. She reached for Deirdre’s arm, tugging her back in a way she hoped wasn’t too obviously protective. “That...Sounds great!” She said shilly. “So nice of you, Marley.” It hurt her mouth to say it, but stars did she need an out. “No booze for me, but everyone who drinks, uh, knock yourselves out. It’s a night to party, right? Oh, look! We’re almost next!” She edged her way back and looked at the shoe rack with exaggerated interest. “Stay and help me with the checkout, babe?” She asked Deirdre, squeezing harder, just in case it wasn’t obvious she wanted her to stay.

When the others were gone she let out a long, frustrated sigh. “Okay, obviously, this is a pretty big twist in our wholesome plot. However, the plan is still to be nice and make sure Anita’s still my friend by the end of this. Unless Marley tries to hurt you again, in which case, I’m pitching a salt shaker at her. Or some fries. If I order fries, will you eat them? Unless-unless, you want to go home and I can be the third wheel. Which, yes, would be very painful, but I could deal.” She looked up at Deirdre, trying to keep the plea out of her face and failing.

Perhaps it was the humiliation, the disrespect or the content of the vision themselves. Maybe it was being rendered helpless that way, or Marley’s lack of empathy after--the disregard of an apology. But to say Deirdre hated Marley was a severe understatement. Her hand phased through Marley’s skin and she noted that, just as she did Marley’s reaction to her prodding. She watched her just the way she would any future victim; any vulnerability to unearth, any information she could wrap her hands around. She wanted Marley dead, that was the only way to justify her trauma that she knew. It didn’t matter to her then if Marley actually liked Anita; she was evil, and her mind would not stray from that opinion. She smiled back at Marley and Anita as Morgan tugged her along, she said nothing and her eyes remained glued to Marley even as they moved away. How could she ruin this? How could she make Marley suffer? Morgan’s voice cut the fog of her rage and she snapped her attention to her girlfriend, her mouth stuck in a saccharine smile and her eyes blank as she refused to stir from thoughts of murder--thoughts she made poor buisness of hiding, her hand locked in a too-tight grip to Morgan’s. “That’s right, mara don’t like salt. I remember Evelyn saying something about that. I could gouge some salt into her---”

And then Deirdre remembered why she was here, and blinked her fury away. She slumped, gripping Morgan tighter. “Sorry. No--No. I can see this through. I can---Anita is your friend. I want to make this good for her I just---” Deirdre sighed, shutting her eyes with the foolish hope she could flush away memories of the night she met Marley. She shivered. “Do you think Anita is in danger? Do you think that Marley is---” She couldn’t finish the thought. Nothing she knew about the mara told her that she would care to be good to someone like Anita. Nothing in her body agreed with it. “Get me whatever is strongest there!” She called out to the not-couple, trying to hide her body’s reflexive terror at the sight of Marley the best she could from them. “I really, really don’t like Marley, but I can handle this. I’ll stay.” She assured Morgan again, leaning down to press a firm kiss to the corner of her mouth and then turning back to the task at hand. “Just...don’t be mad at me if I throw a bowling ball at Marley.”

Anita briefly caught Morgan’s eye while Marley and Deirdre were… interacting. This wasn’t good. Of all her fears as to why going on this bowling outing was a really awful idea she never thought that ‘Marley has some strange beef with Morgan’s girlfriend’ was even an option. She was racking her brain for something to say to attempt to diffuse the situation when Marley started directing her towards the concessions area. This was good, taking a few steps back to hopefully figure out what the hell was going on. And to get some booze, that would help too. “Hey, so uh…what the fuck is going on?” She asked, wrapping her arm into Marley’s as they made their way across the awful abstract carpeting. “Do we need to bail? Is this gonna turn into like … a big mess?” Sure, slipping out and not returning would be incredibly rude. But Morgan would understand, wouldn’t she? As much as she hated to admit it, Anita wasn’t the type of person to have many platonic friendships. And even though they were quite flirtatious, that’s what they were - friends. Good friends even. Anita didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that, but she also could practically feel the disdain radiating off of Marley and Deirdre. “If I had known you had history with her girlfriend I wouldn’t have invited you, I swear.”

The banshees eyes burrowed into Marley like bullet holes, and she had to look away to keep the feeling from splintering all over. She wasn’t sure why that odd feeling was needling at the back of her neck again-- that same feeling that made her confess to Anita after they’d argued, or after she’d accidentally fed from Lydia-- but she wasn’t about to point it out or acknowledge it. The distance between the two couples-- er, pairs-- helped ease her muscles a little, the tension fading even more so when Anita’s cool hand slid around her arm and fingers intertwined. She looked at Anita as they made their way across the gaudi carpet, lined with what she assumed were patterns a mother from the 50s would appreciate, and up to the popcorn and concessions counter. It smelled more like the charred remains of the kernels and the butter used to pretend the lifeless snack had any flavor, but they weren’t here for that. As it turned out, the entire party was human-food adjacent. As far as she was aware. Whatever it was that Morgan was, she didn’t seem to need sustenance either. Just the alcohol, then. Her eyes settled on Anita. “No,” she said slowly, even though the rest of her begged her to say yes. She wanted to run, she wanted to go back outside where it smelled like ocean salt and dead leaves, instead of staying stuck in this pit of stale socks and warm beer-- but Anita had seemed excited to hang out with her friends, and Marley wasn’t about to deny her that. Anita deserved a good night out, after all, and if that meant gritting her teeth and bearing a grin through the banshee she’d tormented and the girlfriend who wanted to rip her head off, she would do it.

“No,” she repeated again, this time more firm. “I can play nice, promise. And if it seems like they don’t want to, I can just dip. It’s fine,” she gave a little lopsided grin, trying to be reassuring. “I don’t wanna ruin this for you.” Even though she ruined everything. This, for some reason, seemed important to not ruin. When the greasy teenager came up to take their order, his outfit more striped than any mimes’s, but boasting far too many colors, Marley ordered two pitchers, before turning back to look at Anita. “And uh-- it’s complicated. I’ll--” her eyes fell on the two across the lane, standing in the line together. Their arms were wrapped around each other, their bodies sitting together almost perfectly, like they simply fit that way and life made sure to let them fall into each other. As if they were simply made for each other. Another strange pang tugged on her sternum, on the space beneath it, and she looked away quickly. Whatever they had, she never would. Marley wasn’t capable of feeling that. Her arm instinctively wrapped tighter around Anita. “I’ll tell you later, as long as you promise not to hate me for it.” Just then, two pitchers and a stack of shameful, plastic cups were set on the counter before them and Marley found herself glad she hadn’t gone for the wine. She wasn’t picky, but plastic ruined the flavor.

Picking up the two pitchers, and leaving the cups for Anita to grab, she turned back towards the alley, nodding in the direction of the other two, who were now heading towards what she assumed was their lane for the night. Just grin and bear it, she told herself. For Anita.

Morgan side eyed the pair at the drinks counter, barely holding in her grimace. “Anita can handle herself. I don’t know what she is, but she’s a part of our crowd, so to speak. And I think if Mara had any pheromone stuff, Evelyn would’ve mentioned it. And, you know, she’s not even the type who gets attached easily. She doesn’t ‘do’ relationships. And she knew that rule one is no repeat engagements, and I know this because we talk about exploits--tastefully--over lunch. Whatever this is, it’s real, or as real is it can be with Marley lying about what a dickbag she is to everyone else. I mean, that’s gotta be it, right?” She paid the cashier for their lane and ordered an extra large plate of fries, with a pair of paper sauce cups filled with salt on the side.

As they waited off to the side for their order to be filled, Morgan gave Deirdre’s arm a squeeze, resting her head against it. “We’ll play one game, I’ll bond with Anita, and we’ll call it an early night, by which I mean, you get to decide what’s for real dinner and if you want to change the numbers on the parking zones, or just go home and let me do whatever you ask in bed. Also, you know, if you change your mind later and need to tap out, that’s fine too.” Their plate arrived, along with the size bowling balls and shoes they’d asked for. Morgan hefted hers with her new strength, taking a little joy in the astonishment on the attendant’s face as she spun it between her hands. “And uh, while I don’t think bowling ball to the mara should count as a first tactic, I think I can safely promise that whatever it is I’ll feel, it’s definitely not gonna be mad.”

She came down to their spot, all the way at the end of the lanes. The place was so busy this weekend, there wasn’t any other space except next to the teenager party, and the evening didn’t need to get worse by playing there. Morgan put on her best friendly face and waved at Anita and (regrettably) Marley as they came to join them. “Hey! Thanks for getting the drinks. At least the beer looks good and cold.” She plopped down on the seat and started putting names in, keeping her attention mostly on Anita. Ever since Rebecca went off on another stupid lead, she’d been lonely with just the surviving TA bros for friends. This had to work. She needed this to work. “We already got your shoes, just need to go find the sizes you want. And there’s snacks for the table to munch on! Sometimes it’s nice to have something to occupy yourself with between rounds. I’m thinking two teams in pairs? Prof versus prof, with each of our...gal pals as our teammates? That should make things even and fair. And like all super reasonable adults, we just play for bragging rights. I’ve played uh, three or four whole bowling games in my life? So I’m feeling pretty snazzy. How about y’all?” She did her best to keep her tone light, to focus on the good and not make this too strange, but she couldn’t help but slide her gaze over to Marley to make sure she wasn’t doing anything underhanded.

“I don’t mean physically, Morgan…” Deirdre grimaced, she didn’t want to imply anything about Marley but….she was doing exactly that. It was easy to fake interest, easy to string people along---even those who thought they would never want a relationship. She’d done it before; what was stopping Marley from doing the same? “I remember what she was like when she---” Deirdre swallowed. “I don’t think it really matters much how capable or smart Anita is, if someone like Marley---” She cut herself off again, daring a glance back at the couple-not-couple. “I’m just worried about your friend, that’s all.” Or maybe she just struggled to believe someone like Marley was capable of a healthy more-than-friendly relationship with someone. Then again, she never thought she was either.

But Morgan was here, pressed against her and soothing. She wondered for just a second---before she regretted it---if Marley and Anita felt this way too. “No,” she shifted, anchoring their bodies together the way they knew best. “I mean--I can do this. Anita is your friend, and we don’t need to do any of that on my account.” Deirdre leaned down to steal a kiss, lingering as she continued. “But I’ll take you up on having some fun to ourselves later.” She watched with a smirk as Morgan spun her bowling ball, pride swelling in her as astonishment settled into the attendant. That’s my girl, she felt like bragging, but had enough sense not to. That poor employee had at least a couple more hours of their shift to slog through, they could probably do without Deirdre boasting about her amazing girlfriend. Instead she snaked her free arm around Morgan’s waise, overcome with a sense of ease. “You’re right. Salt to the mara should be the first tactic, or is it knife to the mara? Salt knife to the mara. You’re a genius, my love.” Everything would be okay, because Morgan was here. Marley couldn’t hurt her, Marley wouldn’t.

And then she did something she knew she’d regret. “I’m sorry,” she held her hand out to Marley as she approached with Anita. “For being weird. Whatever happened between us, it’s all in the past, isn’t it?” She smiled politely, offering Anita a look of apology as well. Of course, she knew it wasn’t her fault, and of course, she was still fantasizing about the pleasures of stabbing Marley but this she did for Morgan, and for the sake of not ruining a friendship she must have cherished. “Right?” She gestured to her hand, insistent that Marley take it and accept her unnecessary apology. Except her eyes painted a different story as they met Marley’s: I want to dismember your body and bowl each part down the lane. Then her eyes fell to the salt and the fries: I don’t even know where I’ll stick those but I’ll stick them somewhere. “That sounds perfect, my love,” she smiled at Morgan, done with her silent threats. “But we could make it more interesting. Bragging rights are one thing.” And a fae with the power to bind people to their competitions was another. And she would win, of course. She could scream and knock those pins down and none would be the wiser. Of course, all of her ideas of a bet involved stabbing Marley. “You know, I’d like to be able to ask one question, and get complete honesty. That’s it. A worthy enough bet, right?” She looked between Anita and Marley. “Unless, of course, you’d both rather be boring.”

Anita smiled softly when she felt Marley’s arm tighten around her. It made the awkwardness of five minutes ago seem to slip away and she let out a soft content sigh. “Of course I won’t hate you.” She pressed a quick kiss to Marley’s cheek right before the concession employee placed the beer and cups down in front of them. She grabbed the cups off the counter, thanking the worker who seemed very disinterested in being there, then following Marley back to the others. “I didn’t know bowling could be played in teams, honestly. But yeah! That sounds good to me.” Maybe making it teams would be better, hopefully Marley and Deirdre wouldn’t have to interact much and the rest of the evening could be wholly uneventful. “Three or four times? Well, shit, you’re practically an expert compared to me.”

She began to pour out four cups of the beer, looking up cautiously as Deirdre approached Marley. Whatever happened between them, it was clearly a long and complicated story. Something Marley was worried she would hate her for. Which was pretty ludacris considering all they’ve been through already. But she seemed like she wanted to move on, put it behind them. Anita smiled over at them then reached over to hand Morgan a nice full cup of the beer. She gave her a little hopeful smile, maybe naively thinking this night would go better than the first introductions might have implied. Deirdre’s suggestion made her a little nervous, honesty was a valuable commodity, and not one she liked to share. But Anita wasn’t about to be called boring. “Alright,” she said with a shrug then looked over towards Marley. “And when we win, we get to ask a question. What’s the fun in a bet if it's not reciprocal?” Very quickly she realized she probably should have consulted with Marley before accepting, but she knew she wasn’t one to turn down a challenge.

Salt. She hated salt. It sat on the table in front of her in those stupid little pinfolded cups mocking her. Marley scrunched her nose, sitting as far away from the plate of fries as possible. As she sat, she noticed that almost everybody’s eyes were on her, and Deirdre had extended a hand-- and an apology. She blinked, staring at it. There was no way it was genuine, and the look on Deirdre’s face told her as much. Still, she stood and took her hand. She didn’t like all of this attention. Normally she didn’t mind it when people’s eyes were on her if she knew they were someone she could get something out of, but she liked being able to disappear into a crowd better. Literally being able to turn invisible helped with that. But she was used to slinking around in the background, to not being noticed. To dictate from the shadows. All these eyes on her made her skin crawl. You couldn’t disappear if people were watching. Marley finally met Deirdre’s eyes, surprised to find the banshee holding her gaze-- most people flinched the second time around. She tried to smile. “Right,” was all she said, before turning away and sitting down. Fine, if they wanted to look at her, she’d give them something to look at. Anita had already agreed them to the bet, and she wasn’t about to back down, despite never having bowled in her life before. She stood, her cheek burning where Anita had kissed her, and tugged her “gal pal” closer. “I’ll go get our shoes,” she said, before leaning in to press a quick kiss to her lips. Partly because she found herself burning to feel her, and party because she knew it would make the other two squirm. She gave them a wink before walking over to the counter to get their shoes.

Morgan was glad to every power in the universe that she didn’t have the blood circulation to blanche or blush. That didn’t stop her eyes from bulging when she saw Marley kiss Anita with the same casual affection she gave her girlfriend. She had definitely done things like that with Deirdre without them technically being a couple, but she had also definitely been helplessly in over her head with love and affection. And, yes, that had been her guess before Anita revealed her mystery lady’s identity, but now that it was Marley and not some nice random preferably-supernatural stranger, she had started to hope that all the ‘not a couple’ talk had been true! No romance or abiding affection here! Just good old fashioned meaningless sex and hang time! Grown up BFFs, at most. She stared in spite of herself, her eyes following Marley as she left. Then, catching herself, her eyes landed on Deirdre, a ‘did you see that?’ look on her face, before finally finding Anita. This was fine. She could do this. She could be grown-up enough to make grown up work friends.

“Really? Not even a kid’s birthday party game? Well in that case, I at least gotta give you a few freebie pointers during my round, c’mon.” She crooked her finger at Anita, smiling coyly. Maybe the key to this was threading the needle between completing her real objective (making better friends with Anita) and playing some light interference in the interim, however much was really needed anyway. And if Anita was monopolized, there wouldn’t be as much time to watch...whatever what she’d just seen was.

The pins were set up as the game started and Morgan hefted her ball into the right grip. “Okay, so the trick is to follow the arrows on the lane with your eyes and finish with your wrist. Uh, this ball is maybe a little heavy for you to try with, but you can just use yours on my next round. Now, hypothetically, with the right start, you just have to run up, arm high, and…” Morgan flicked her wrist and released the ball, sending it flying into half the pins on the right. “What do ya think? Ready for your freebie?”

Deirdre did have the blood circulation to blanche, which she did promptly, barely keeping herself from gawking. And then she blushed with rage, shaken away only as her eyes met Morgan. She didn’t like what she saw, and what she saw was Marley having a good time. She must have done that on purpose, she must’ve. But as she reached to Morgan for comfort, her hands met the air, and her confusion was turned towards her girlfriend, who was understandably interested in the friend she wanted to be closer to. She suppressed a remark of surprise, and whatever she could of a hint of betrayal, and sat down to watch. Yet, unsure of why she felt weirdly uncomfortable, she turned to watch Marley…who also made her uncomfortable to look at. And so she crossed her arms, kicking her long legs one up over the other, and looked away from Anita and Morgan to try and fantasize more about flaying Marley. But a perverse sense of curiosity kept her looking back.

For a split second, Anita was too shocked that Marley had actually just kissed her in front of other people to kiss her back. But it didn’t take long for her to quickly regroup and return the kiss before Marley pulled away to go grab shoes for them. Thankful she was unable to blush, she turned back towards Morgan, hoping the slight awkwardness of that moment wasn’t too apparent. “Well, I wasn’t really invited to many birthday parties as a kid. Which sounds far more depressing than it actually was, I promise.” Anita replied, smiling and trying to remember that she came here to have fun, not to be confused by Marley. After all, she did that just about every other day of the week. “Pointers would be amazing.” She watched Morgan intently, for a moment forgetting that her girlfriend was sitting only a few feet away from them. “Wow, you have really good form for someone who’s only played three or four times. But I don’t know if I’m ready to try just yet, I might need to watch you do it again first.” She was mostly joking, after all she did have exceptional hand-eye coordination. So she picked up a bowling ball that felt like a decent weight, then lined up in front of the lane ready to mimic Morgan’s movements. After lining herself up, she ran up to the lane, then swung her arm high and released the ball. It traveled down the lane knocking a modest number of the pins down. “Huh, not as bad as I thought it was gonna be.”

Marley turned around and instantly hated what she saw. There was Anita, right up on the lane with Morgan. The tiny woman was giving her “pointers”, moving closer to her, showing her how to throw the ball. She bristled for a moment, entirely sure that if she were a cat, she’d be sporting a puffed tail. Behind her sunglasses, though, she could pretend she was smiling instead of glaring. She loudly dropped the shoes on the table then sat back, abstaining from removing her own until this little show ended. Folded her arms over her chest and watched, slumped in the chair. After a moment, she stole a short glance over at Deirdre, wondering why it felt like eyes were scanning her and found her peeking her direction as well. Was she as ruffled by this as well? Marley turned to look away, furrowing her brow. She didn’t quite like the idea that she could agree with Deirdre on anything, but here she was. That stupid feeling needled her stomach again and she leaned forward, elbows on the table, looking at the fries and the cups of salt. “You’re a natural,” she said loudly, before pushing the tray further away from herself-- the far half hanging almost all the way off the table now-- and grinned over at Anita. “Looks like we might have a shot at winning this.”

Morgan watched Anita’s ball topple the majority of the pins, eyeing her, impressed with the turn of events in spite of herself. “Okay,” she laughed. “For someone who’s never done this before, that’s pretty impressive. I’m starting to wonder if you left that one standing just so I wouldn’t get too much of a prize out of your score. But, I am glad this is going to be a good game, professor.” She said the word with an exaggerated affectation, waving her arm into a bow as frilly-sleeved friendly duelists might have done. “You know, Detective, y’all just might,” she said, too delighted to put much of an edge to it. “But, then again, my girl has game too, so it’ll be a close one at least.” She plopped down into the seat next to Deirdre and kissed her cheek. “Isn’t that right, babe?” She said. “Your turn, show ‘em who’s boss.”

Okay, Deirdre decided, she really didn’t like this. But she didn’t know why, she turned to Marley and tried to ask her what it was before she remembered that she hated Marley, and she’d sooner go back to watching the strange torture of Morgan and Anita. And then Marley pushed the tray away, and Deirdre snapped to her side, leaning forward just the same---collecting herself just enough not to seem anything but casual. She swung her arm out, pressing her fingers to the cheap plastic and dragging it closer to her. “I’m not sure you’d call it natural talent when she’s getting coached,” she mused, slowly slipping a fry into her mouth. Fates, these things were salty. “Want one?” She dangled it out in front of Marley, seemingly wanting to feed her. But she leaned in instead, unsure what kind of supernatural Anita was, and if that version of supernatural was also gifted with super-hearing. “Does it…look weird to you too or is that just me?” She was genuine, and sincerely confused. It felt like jealousy, almost, but that was an absurd thing to feel. But she nearly could feel the burn of Anita’s gaze as if it were her own, and she knew the notes of affection in Morgan’s voice. She popped the fry she was offering into her mouth, and casually turned back to her girlfriend. The affection might have been directed to her now, but it rang with a strange hollowness to her. “Mhm, but you’re pretty good yourself, my love,” she shook her head and planted a return kiss on Morgan’s lips. Must’ve been her imagination; after all, Morgan wasn’t acting any different. Deirdre picked up her ball---she didn’t bother to check the weight in her confusion---and bowled a strike. Except it didn’t feel much like one. Even being the best possible outcome, she slumped and sulked back to her seat. She had another terribly salty fry to collect herself before she leaned into Morgan and put the rest out of her mind. “Your turn, I would think,” she smirked, “remember our promi--deal, you two.” A deal she had seized with her fae magic the moment she could.

As Anita turned back around to go sit down at their little table area, she froze up, only for a split second, as she saw Deirdre seemingly offering to feed Marley a french fry. In her eyes, that only increased the likelihood that the awkwardness between those two was somehow sexual. Jilted lover? Hookup turned sour? In this town, given Marley’s reputation which was nearly identical to her own, either were strong possibilities in her opinion. Without acknowledging any of what she had seen directly, Anita very intentionally sat down in between Marley and Deirdre. “Don’t worry, I never back down from a good challenge.” There was a soft bitterness to her tone, which she instantly regretted. This was just a fun game of bowling, with two friends and their… other friends. She turned to Marley, trying to stop her mind from racing. “So, you think you can keep up with me and my natural bowling ability?” As they were talking she watched Deirdre go up to bowl, a bit surprised that she bowled a strike almost immediately. Clearly Morgan and her girlfriend were more into sporting dates then they were. Not that this was a date. “Well shit, these two might actually give us a run for our money.” She said offhandedly to Marley as she picked up her plastic cup of beer and downed a large gulp of it. “She’s gonna make this awful on us if we lose, isn’t she?” Anita asked the question in spanish, hoping that neither of the other two women would understand what she was saying.

Deirdre was closer to her than Marley wanted and the sudden closeness made her skin crawl. She didn’t like this dynamic-- Deirdre had more power than her in this situation and she hated it. Was this how she’d felt at the Cryptid Corner? Probably worse. Marley understood like no one else what fear felt like. What it tasted like. She shifted uncomfortably, leaning away from the offered fry. “Yeah,” she muttered without even looking at her, “weird is one word.” But Anita seemed to be having fun, and even if her flirting with Morgan made Marley’s insides squirm like fish on hooks, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that she was happy, and that was enough for Marley to grin and bear through the strange feelings and the awkward glances exchanged between her and the banshee. Deirdre bowled a strike and then it was Marley’s turn and she understood that no matter what she did at this point, that pair of eyes was going to watch her like hawks looking for predators. Sighing, she looked back at Anita. “She sure will,” she said back in Spanish, before standing, “and I suck at bowling.” She made her way up the lane, the awkwardly sized shoes sliding on her feet and clicking loudly on the treated wood floor. She picked up a ball, tried to remember how the others had done it, and launched one down the lane. Though mara didn’t have superstrength, Marley had admittedly thrown it harder than she’d needed. It barreled down the lane, bounced off the side, and knocked down three pins on the left. She winced a little and watched the machine whirr and reset. She glanced back at Anita while she waited for her ball to return, a hint of desperation in her eyes, though she knew no one could see them. A kid ran by in the background, squealing in his high pitched tune, and Marley was reminded why she had to keep her glasses on. She turned back and only half-hearted threw the next ball down the lane. This would’ve been so much more fun if Morgan and Deirdre weren’t here. Of all the people Anita wanted to be friends with, it had to be them, didn’t it? She slunk back to her seat with a paltry score of six pins and sat down, as far from Deirdre as possible. “Must be that left hand spin everyone’s always talking about,” she said off-handedly, nodding to Anita, “careful of it.”

Morgan sensed Deirdre’s discomfort when she left for her turn so breezily and returned without even a hint of smug superiority. “Hey--” she whispered, kissing her temple. “You were amazing, babe,” she whispered. “We got this in the bag, and whatever those two are maybe-flirting about, at least Anita seems like she’s having a nice time.” She shifted her arm so it could lay over Deirdre’s shoulders and play with her hair until it was her turn again. She watched Marly intently, puzzled when she seemed to practically throw her turn instead of flexing for her ‘friend.’ From what she’d seen of the detective, she didn’t take her for the thin skin type, or even the type to back down from intimidation. “They do say lefties have a harder time in the world,” she said, nodding along with the detective. “I definitely found the whole craft scissors part of kindergarten pretty awful. And the desks. But, Anita--” She paused, grinning and wagging her brows her way, “I hope you’re watching what I do with my left hand spin. You too, Marley.” She let her wry smile linger on the other woman as long as her insides could bear before taking her ball and sauntering up to the lane. She took more time than she needed lining up her shot, checking over her shoulder to make sure Deirdre was watching too. She tossed her hair to the side, released the ball and-- knocked over a single pin on the left. Wow. With her last move, Morgan tried to save face, taking down seven more with her next move, but all the attention she’d tried to drum up had already seriously backfired. “Like I said,” she admitted sheepishly, “It’s hard out there for a leftie. But this better not mean you start holding out on me, Anita. On the sanctity of our lunch breaks and everyone we talk shit about, I bet you can get a strike, even if my girlfriend and I do clean up shop in the end. Also, when you do, we have to get good video, so the rest of the science department knows what a badass you are.” She plopped back down in her seat, taking a runt of a fry and chewing it thoughtfully. “Tell me what’s bugging you after your turn, yeah?” she whispered to her girlfriend.

Oh, Deirdre realized, she was making Marley uncomfortable. There was some irony in that. Or a lot of irony. That was the person that attacked her, more or less. And now she was uncomfortable with some whispering and leaning in? The banshee watched with amusement as she sat as far as possible from her, trying her best not to laugh the more she looked at the scene. She’d wanted to explain that the only reason she cozied up to Marley was because she looked like she was going to knock the fries over, but she suspected that it didn’t matter in the end. She didn’t know any Spanish but she imagined that their conversation went like this: ‘wow, Deirdre is really cool’ and ‘yeah, I know. Also I’m evil.’. Of course, that probably wasn’t the case, but as with most things, Deirdre had more fun imagining. “It’s nothing,” she kissed Morgan before she stood for her turn, figuring she might as well just explain it now, “the fries are just as salty as advertised, I suppose.” And then she bowled her turn, which went poorly, and then played it off as giving them a fighting edge. The truth was, none of them were good at bowling it seemed. She watched frame after frame go by with abysmal plays and neck-to-neck scoring. Deirdre was only good when she was distracted, and not trying to bowl the way she threw a knife, which happened just often enough for them to inch into a lead---and then a very big lead. She had far more fun cuddling up to Morgan between rounds, deciding to keep their affection more subdued for Anita’s sake but being unable to wholly stay away from her. On occasion, she would spew the odd smart comment, feeling more comfortable with her wit the more Marley seemed uncomfortable. Marley, for the most part, she left alone. “You know,” she said, picking up on Marley and Anita’s competitive edge enough to know how much light-hearted trash talk she could get away with, “you two are going to lose unless you bowl some consecutive strikes. But I heard losing is in vogue now anyway right?”

As the evening wore on, Anita began to enjoy herself slightly more. Mostly thanks to Morgan, who either knew the history between Marley and Deirdre, or had a killer poker face. However, despite the fact that she was mostly enjoying bowling, she was also astutely aware of how little fun Marley seemed to be having. She felt bad but she also couldn’t help but wonder why she decided to stick around even after Anita offered her an out to leave earlier. Was that what people who were sleeping together, but being together wasn’t always about sex did? Endured something they didn’t enjoy because the other person did? She didn’t have much time to dwell on that thought though. “That’s only something that people who lose say to make themselves feel better.” She retorted at Deirdre with a slight smirk. “And for all your talk, this really comes down to this last round. Anyone’s game still.” She stood up and made her way over to the machine that spit the bowling balls back out after each roll and picked up the ball she had been using. It was the last round, and even though it was just a silly little competition between mostly-friends, Anita really wanted to win. Unfortunately for her, she had been getting progressively worse in the last few frames. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was over thinking it or if it was because her arms weren’t nearly as toned as she had let herself believe they were. As she approached the lane she tried to remember what Morgan had shown her when they first arrived, but despite her best efforts the ball only knocked down a measly three pins. Her next roll wasn’t much better - only snagging one more pin down. Feeling slightly defeated, she turned back to the group with her face scrunched up and shrugged slightly and jokingly said, “Is it in bad taste to wish that you two bomb these last rolls so that my end to the evening doesn't look quite so lame?”

Defeat was inevitable and Marley could feel the bind of their deal wearing in on her already. She hated it. She hated this stupid sport and she hated being bad at it and she hated that she hadn’t taken Anita’s out when she’d offered it. As the night had worn on, Morgan had continued her flirty quips with Anita and each one grated harder on Marley’s insides until they felt raw and she had no earthly idea why it bothered her so much. The salt had remained on the table, but the fries had grown cold. The beers had been drunk, the pitchers and cups now empty. But there was one round left, and if the other two bombed it enough, they had a chance to win. And Marley wasn’t a quitter. She could easily trick one into flubbing a roll, or scare them enough to distract them, but-- her glance fell onto Anita’s scrunched nose and her furrowed brow as she turned back from her turn and Marley couldn’t bring herself to want to potentially ruin it for her. So she stayed seated as she looked over at the other two and waited. “Don’t count us out yet,” she balked instead, hoping her false bravado would throw them at least a little bit, “There’s always a chance you’ll fuck up. That’s the essence of chaos, isn’t it?” She cast a sideways glance at Deirdre, tipping her glasses up just slightly so that the red glow of her eyes was noticeable if you looked hard enough. “And I’m sure you both know a lot about chaos.”

Morgan was almost enjoying herself throughout the evening. There was a video of Anita almost-but-not-quite getting a spare, Deirdre seemed to have settled a little, enough to spar with her wit, and they were almost certainly about to win. “Why, detective!” Morgan said, brightly coy as she made a show of flicking salt from her fingers. “You’re right. I think chaos might just be my middle name.” She sauntered over to get her ball and made her move. Nine pins down. Morgan curtseyed smugly and took her second roll. Not a spare, but she had done as well as she needed to. “I do think the less-than-winning side should get some kind of consolation prize,” she mused. “I’ve been trying out all kinds of weird recipes if you want to be my taste tester, Anita. And I can safely promise that the local mayo is never an ingredient if that makes you any more confident.” She stole a glance over at Deirdre, giving her an encouraging wink, before going back to talk about work and cooking, her attention still turning to Marley curiously. She hadn’t done...anything this whole night, really, except flaunt her not-status with Anita. What was her deal?

The essence of chaos was strong in a fae, and this time, Deirdre met Marley’s red glow with confidence and a sinister grin. She could do absolutely nothing to her here, and she knew that. And if mushroom season had done Deirdre one service, it was amplifying her already chaotic tendencies. And there was no way a mara could know exactly what she was provoking. Deirdre stood to take her turn and with a purposeful stride, she bowled exactly as well as she needed to--no better and certainly no worse. Just to rub it in. With the last of the pins down, the game was over; they had won. Deirdre turned to them slowly, her face twisted with inhuman delight. “Detective, you should know…” Her eyes reflected blankly back at them. Their promise had been set, there was no stopping her now. “...that I deal in chaos. You might think it’s unpredictable but--oh no--it’s practiced.” Like life, like death, like promises that bind. She strode up to Marley in slow, deliberate steps. “It’s nature.” She jabbed her finger at her, looking down at the mara. “And you’ve made the mistake of thinking you know it. So, Styder, you owe me an answer.” This she delighted in dragging out, she let the clueless children around them scream and shout; the sounds of pins being knocked down to permeate the air. When she finally spoke, it was with a drawn out pleasure. “How do you really feel about Anita?”

#stay in your lane 1 #wr marley #wr anita #wr deirdre #wr marley chatzy #wr anita chatzy #wr deirdre chatzy #wr chatzy #wr group chatzy #wickedswriting

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 6 years

Text

Episode 81: Same Old World

”I’ve got nowhere to go.”

It’s impossible to overstate how important Mirror Gem was in redirecting the entire series from the daily adventures of a magical kid to a long-term story about (among many other things) how sins of the past loom over the present. But I’ve certainly tried! I’ve gone on about the episode’s impact at length in multiple reviews, but it bears repeating again here, because Same Old World is where Lapis Lazuli finally starts to shift from Important Character to regular fixture.

For someone that leaves such a lasting impression, we don’t see much of Lapis until Season 3. After she flies away healed in Ocean Gem, we catch a glimpse of her in The Message, where she once again has a huge impact for her small amount of time on screen. This frantic, confused version of Lapis is what we’ll get in The Return and Jailbreak and Chille Tid, but we see her get angrier with each appearance as she’s forced to face trial after trial. Her suffering was supposed to be over, but it keeps happening, and by the time she’s finally free again it makes sense that her first instinct is to get the hell off this planet.

But the saddest thing about Lapis isn’t her horrible luck, even if her ordeals are arguably more intense than any other character’s. It’s that she’s had to face these ordeals alone. The Crystal Gems and the Off-Colors are ragtag teams of outcasts, but they still have each other. Homeworlders like the Diamonds and their underlings, even the wandering Jasper, fit in just fine with an established society. Peridot makes a relatively smooth transition from the latter to the former. But Lapis’s comfort zone only exists in a past that will never come back. Steven may be the only Gem with parents, but the tragedy of Lapis Lazuli is that she’s an orphan. Only in Spinel do we meet another Gem cursed with such abandonment.

Why does Lapis attach herself so strongly to Steven, to the point where she’s willing to risk everything to protect him from Homeworld? For the same reason she eventually latches onto Jasper despite knowing that it’s toxic: because she has nobody else. And that isolation, rather than the specific injustices she has faced, is the trauma she’s actually forced to overcome starting in Season 3, beginning with Peridot in our next episode. But for now, Same Old World does a brilliant job establishing who this character is (a lost, lonely soul) and what she needs (a home and a family) so that she can make a change. And it does this not by showing her wallowing, but rather, for the first time since Ocean Gem, by showing her happy.

It says everything about Lapis that she sincerely enjoys hanging out with Steven. Despite her antisocial tendencies, she doesn’t hate people, she just doesn’t trust them (and for good reason). By freeing her in Mirror Gem and healing her in Ocean Gem, and by bonding with her in both episodes through open-hearted conversation, Steven earned her friendship. And an arc where Lapis finds the strength to open up to others benefits from our knowledge that she’s already capable of doing so, so that’s what Same Old World does. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and knowing this makes it even harder to watch when she stumbles, but all the more rewarding when she starts to come out of her shell around more people.

Lapis’s newfound exuberance is best conveyed by Aivi and Surasshu, who modify her theme (still my favorite) from its typically haunting or mystical tone to a breezy, adventurous anthem. Lapis began as a source of wonder for the audience, so it’s great to see her actually feel that wonder herself as she learns more about the planet that held her prisoner for so long.

Steven’s narration gets funnier and funnier as they travel from the woods to Empire City to Jersey; even a show this sweet can’t help but make fun of New Jersey. While Empire City is a clear blend of New York and Paris, with a little Vegas thrown in judging by the town motto, and this universe has locations like Delmarva and Keystone and Aqua Mexico, I love that Jersey is just...Jersey.

Further signs that this is a setup episode are found in the Empire City segment, and not just because we go back there in Mr. Greg. We’ve already seen Peridot living it up in the barn, and soon enough she and Lapis will be roommates in the way Steven foreshadows here. But more importantly, he’s using the language of television, which Lapis might not understand now, but very soon will.

Of course, an episode where Lapis is chipper throughout would be disingenuous, and boy does Same Old World deliver on the inevitable gut punch. We get one last moment of whimsy as the two head over the ocean, but the gleeful variant of her theme fades away as they encounter the Galaxy Warp.

Considering the way Pearl left Steven hanging in Rose’s Scabbard, there was a very real chance Lapis would drop him here as she has a minor panic attack, and the suspense allows us to feel all the weight of Lapis’s problems rushing back after a day of fun. It might not sound like a big deal, but this episode needs us to switch from happy and peaceful to antsy and pensive within seconds to keep the pacing solid, and it’s amazing that it does so without giving us even a hint of whiplash.

The return of Lapis’s hollow eyes is a nice touch, and leads us into a flashback that efficiently and stylishly shows us the depths of our hero’s misfortune. She wasn’t a Homeworld zealot but a noncombatant, and her cracking was a complete accident caused by a nameless, unidentifiable Gem. There’s no twist or big moment, simply a series of events outside of her control that built upon each other to ruin her life. This isn’t to say we don’t get lore—the Gem who poofed Lapis is our first glimpse at a bismuth, perhaps the Bismuth, and we see the Diamonds’ corruption attack with a quick taste of their theme—but the message here is that Lapis’s fate served no great purpose, and wasn’t even an intentional punishment. Sometimes life just kicks the shit out of you for no reason.

Lapis is clearly used to it at this point, shrugging off how horrible her life has been before she tries to leave at the beginning of the episode and rejecting Steven’s sweet offer to take a minute at the end of it. This isn’t to say she isn’t upset, but there’s a sense of acceptance that her life will continue to be miserable no matter what, which is why it’s so important that Steven doesn’t just tell her that she’s welcome on Earth, but that Earth is a place that allows change. He tells somebody who had no control for ages, then went on a power trip as soon as she had the opportunity to dominate somebody else, that she finally has the opportunity to make a healthy choice. And she takes it.

Peridot obviously becomes a bigger factor in our next episode, but she’s established quite well in the first act so that her “surprise” appearance at the end feels earned; why would she have gone away in the day or so that Steven and Lapis went exploring? Lapis’s petulant reaction to sharing her new home with Peridot gives us one last bit of foreshadowing for her arc: her adjustment to Earth transforms her into an angsty teen.

I can imagine this characterization disappointed some people; certain fans are bound to insert their own concepts into a character as mysterious as Lapis, which of course makes any divergence from this headcanon a disappointment. But the idea that Lapis’s Daria Phase comes out of nowhere is baffling to me. Really, what better way to portray someone whose life feels like one crisis after another inflicted by forces beyond their control than as a teenager?

Lapis Lazuli rarely displays overt happiness after Same Old World, and will quickly develop a sardonic sense of humor that genuine playfulness occasionally escapes from. But it nonetheless sets the stage for her potential before Barn Mates wisely reminds us that her journey towards trusting others won’t be a walk in the park.

(And then we get a walk in the ballpark. Season 3 picks up quick once it gets rolling.)

Future Vision!

I already mentioned Empire City, Bismuth, and the Diamond Corruption, but it’s also quietly sweet to rewatch this episode after we learn Lapis actually held onto Steven’s leaf in Beta.

I hinted at it a little, but there are definitely echoes of Lapis’s story in Spinel’s, with the major difference being Lapis’s series of misfortunes versus Spinel’s single act of betrayal. Both endured thousands of years of solitude, both attack others on instinct as a result, and both are moved by Steven preaching the power of change.

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

It’s weird that there’s never any follow-up on Lapis’s poofing, considering she starts hanging out with Bismuth after Change Your Mind. Even if it was a different bismuth, that’s still worth a joke or something.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Such a great Lapis episode. If it had a song it might be even higher up, but it still holds its own through great characterization, great music, and awesome setup for her new arc.

Top Fifteen

Steven and the Stevens

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Winter Forecast

When It Rains

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

5. Horror Club 4. Fusion Cuisine 3. House Guest 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#same old world #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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ninesoftkids · 6 years

Note

ship ur mutuals with skidz! bringing this ask meme back cause y not! friendship! woo! 💓❤️💓💖💗💕💞❣️💗❤️💞❣️

Aayyy, I love these asks! Unfortunately, Stray Kids only has nine members :( so I’ve finished the rest of my mutuals with other idols I think fit! I hope that’s ok lmao. Right. (It’s gonna be quite long so i’m going to insert the line thingy) Here we gooooo :D

· Woojin – Andy. Thefirst person to fight your corner, but sometimes they lack belief inthemselves. An essential part of our family, just like Woojin. One of the mostcaring people I’ve met, but also definitely one of the most chaoticallyencouraging people ever. Don’t let them eat the trees. @haknveons

· Minho – Roxi. Two bubblypeople with serious visuals! But don’t let their cuteness fool you – there’sdemons hidden beneath the angel exteriors. Just as Roxi loves to both hurt andheal us with gorgeous pictures of our faves, Minho loves to tease. The push-and-pullrelationship. Roxi the Angel, and Minho the Devil. But he cares deeply, andwould always listen to whatever worries you had. You can expect cute good nightmessages and missed Skype calls that are made up with a thousand nose kisseswhen you finally see each other. The Opposites Attract Couple @lxx-fxlix

· Chan – Syd. Bluntand honest, forthright with their beliefs, I think Chan and her would have amazingphilosophical arguments that would end in cuddles and Disney on the sofa whilethey throw popcorn at each other. Chan could teach you Korean, and you canteach him your slang :D Also that height difference would be cute af. @hwarang-my-loves

· Hyunjin – Mer. Twoanimal lovers with visuals to merder. 😉 You share the cutestgiggles and are always down for pillow forts and cuddle piles. Fancy dinnerwho? Give you two pizza and some fluffy dogs and you’re good to go. You’d takethe best pictures of each other and you’d be the Aesthetic Couple @softstan4softboys

· Changbin – Liz. Edgelord?Bitch, where? Like Changbin, your aesthetic is the opposite of your personality.You’re both whole dorks who love fiercely and are genuinely amazing people. Plus,I just really like imagining Changbin doing aegyo for the last Cadbury’schocolate or something and you judging him so hard, but doing the exact samething thirty seconds later. Softies. Both of you. The Tsundere Couple @darkaegyo

· Jisung – Hae. Two kidswith unbelievable and unending energy. Plus the visuals? God damn you’d look sogood together. Another Aesthetic Couple. Give the two of you energy drinks andyou’ll be bouncing off the walls. Expect midnight runs to your local supermarket,throwing grapes into each others mouths, cute holiday vlogs where Jisung triesto befriend a squirrel and you throw peanuts at him. @squirrelboiii

· Felix – Csen. He’dlove to watch you draw in the park while he kicks a ball around with the boysand pretend he’s not trying to figure out who you’re drawing – he hopes that it’shim. Teaching each other to cuss in other languages. He’d roll his eyeswhenever you scream over Namjoon or a Stray Kids Comeback but secretly love howexcited you get about things you love. The sarcasm also runs strong in thisship. Cute selfies returned with a ‘I did it better’. 100% down to prank eachother. The Friends to Lovers Trope we all adore. @lee-minho

· Seungmin – Esther.People can’t decide if you’re the most savage or the most soft couple to exist.You both put so much thought into what you do for others and you’re so treasuredby everyone who gets to call you a friend. Birthdays are always anticipatedbecause you try to outdo each other in what presents you get each other. You metat a theme park, both the odd person in a group and having to sit next to eachother on a ride. When the ride ends you leave the others to find some ice creamand drinks – and it isn’t your fault that you forgot you arrived with otherpeople. The Meet-Cute we all deserve. @goddamngyu

· Jeongin – Charz. Thelittle sister we all wish we had. You and Jeongin would be the cutest ok. You’dcompete at baking and force the boys to choose which is better without themknowing whose is whose (you’d both try to bribe the boys beforehand) You’ddance long into the night, not watching the time and just laughing at eachother’s attempts at popular dances. You were probably introduced through mutualfriends at a bonfire, and spent the night arguing over who had the best randomfacts. The Must Protect Couple @strayedtoofar

And now my other mutuals! :D

· Tayla – KimSeokjin, BTS. Both visuals and Jin would help raise your self-confidence levels byalways taking pictures of you looking cute and bragging to the boys about you. Absolutedorks, with ridiculous nicknames to match. You steal his shirts and he pretendsnot to notice because his jumpers give you sweater paws and it’s adorable. But thosesweater paws come in handy when he tells a particularly bad pun and one lookfrom Yoongi has you whapping one sleeve across his arm, despite laughing atleast as hard as Jimin. Couple Goals. @mindieu

· Ash – Lee Jihoon, SVT. You’re another Opposites Attract Couple, but both of you makeme want to cuddle the shit out of you. Both completely adorable, you probablymet like one of your AU’s :p A penpal thing that your friends mischievouslysigned you up for and it grew from there. You’ll send him Kpop memes and thoughhe won’t understand many of them, the second he sees his face he’ll be like ‘hey!It’s me!’ He hates aegyo but he’ll do it to make you smile, even at the expenseof his dignity in front of the other members. The Pen Pal trope that I am anabsolute sucker for. @lovelyhoonie

· Stacia – KimTaehyung, BTS. Infectious laughter would follow you everywhere you went, and you’dalways be touching each other in some way – holding hands, an arm wrappedaround your waist, you name it. Also secretly evil – together with Jungkook,you prank the shit out of the other members and no one ever links it back toyou. And why would they? Both of you have Angel faces. The Trouble Maker Couple @softtrasshh

· Jazz – Taeyong, NCT. Istill don’t know a lot about NCT, but I think your personalities would match sowell! Both fun loving and so caring and ready to give advice if people need it.You’d bond over your protective instincts and probably spend lots of time atsmall parties with close friends, laughing over good memories. @always-a-winwin

· Ty – Jeongyeon,Twice. Neither of you could look like a mess if you tried. Goddess-tiervisuals, I swear. I also like to think that Jeongyeon sends really cutemessages to her members and always tries her best to make everyone feel better.And you’re literally the same, in that respect. You love angst so much, and youdon’t need a happy ending, so when she finishes a sad movie or novel, you’rethere to tease her back into laughter again. Neither of you are good for myheart and you fucking know it, you demons. Pet names between you range from ‘babygirl’ and ‘sweetheart’ to ‘nerd’ and ‘oi, you’. The Playful Relationship. @softspearb

· Bri – Kihyun, Monsta X. Outspoken about what youthink is right and wrong. Incredibly loyal and fun-loving. Always up for anadventure, and weekends will find you two trying to get lost in the city purelyfor the fun of it! The Adventurous Couple with so many stories to tell! @b-interest

· K – Jennie, BlackPink.You seem kinda intimidating but you’re actual fluffballs. Always have eachothers backs, and spend your weekends at the park trying to get pictures of thecutest dog – loser has to buy ice cream. The Cute Couple @straychijeu

· Roo – Jung Hoseok, BTS.You always try to see the best in people and in every situation. You’ve beenthrough difficult situations, but you smile your way through it with your headheld high and you always show concern for everyone else, sometimes forgettingthat you deserve to be cared for too!!!! @chanscurls

· Tia – Jin Jin,Astro. Visuals for days and with smiles that make the sun jealous! I thinktogether you’d be the couple that always out and doing something. Trying a newrestaurant, racing each other down streets, going to karaoke rooms. Your IG isfull of, not necessarily aesthetic photos, but definitely short videos of JinJin doing something amusing and you laughing in the background, or you leaningon a fence pointing at ‘the view’ with a comment from him ‘you are the view’. TheCheesy Couple! @ ????

· Flora – Youngjae,GOT7. Very affectionate and take the cutest selfies! If someone can’t find eitherof you, it’s because you’re hiding somewhere with ice cream and a movie. You loveteaching each other your own languages and laugh together over both yourattempts at the correct accents and pronunciation! @ ???

I cannot remember some of your URL’s so like…. can the rest of y’all link this to them bc i’m an awful human being lmao

#i love my mutuals with all my heart

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y00sungshairpin-blog · 7 years

Note

Everyone always does an insecure chubby MC, but what about a confidant chubby MC who's happy in her skin and is the ultimate sass master to anyone who says other wise.

Hi!

I’m pretty chubby myself so this request hits home and I’m not particularly confident but I enjoyed writing this a lot! I decided to use 3rd person for this one as it sounded better and yeah enjoy! P.S. I’m sorry this took longer than I expected, I was sick and didn’t really feel like writing. I still am and atm I’m writing Saeran so I hope his part doesn’t suck too much ^^

Yoosung:

he personally loves MC’s body type

she’s just so soft and warm and she makes him feel safe

but he’s very concerned about other people’s opinions on her

he’s very insecure himself so he understands that she might feel bad about herself

so he makes sure to always remind her how much he loves her figure

poor child is worried sick about his girl

until one day, while walking hand in hand through the park, they run into a very unpleasant group of boys smoking something that definitely wasn’t cigarettes

one of them starts calling MC names, picking on her

“Yes I do have big thighs and large hips and do you know what the best part of all that is? I don’t have to share them with you.“

she then drags a shook Yoosung away from them until he’s able to function again

What just happened??

He can’t even process how proud he is of his confident girlfriend and her sass

from that day on he admires her even more

and understands he doesn’t need to worry about her feeling insecure

Zen:

he has never had a problem with MCâ€™s appearance

she’s always been gorgeous to him

so when the family gathering comes up he would never expect her to be shamed by her own relatives

he couldn’t be more wrong

MC’s family has always been very disrespectful towards her

the majority of them is skinny and snobby so of course they’re gonna shame her

she’s just walking around the buffet table and scooping a small amount of egg salad onto her plate when her aunt approaches her

”Oh sweetie there’s mayo in there” she points out, making Zen tense up next to MC for some reason

”Yeah I know”

”You shouldn’t eat it, it’s gonna make your ass even fatter”

Zen wraps his arms around MC’s waist and is ready to stand up for his girlfriend

but she doesn’t need it

“I love my fat ass. Do you love your flat ass, sweetie?”

a loud gasp can be heard from MC’s grandma

“If you don’t wanna lose weight for yourself then do it for your boyfriend at least. I don’t understand how he can stand you with an attitude like that. And a fat ass. Poor boy.“

before she can finish her sentence, Zen gains courage and speaks up for himself

”Well maybe I like my girlfriend’s fat ass.”

he’s blushing

and the only sound that can be heard is MC’s grandma’s denture falling to the ground

even MC is speechless

but then grabs his hand and walks away with him

so now every time someone has anything to say about MC’s body, both team up to sass the shit out of them

not like either of them care (maybe Zen a bit), but they just love slaying the hoes

Jaehee:

when she first starts hanging out with MC she’s very surprised

and respects her so much

she finds her behavior so admirable and inspiring and she can’t help but smile constantly every time they’re together

her personality is so bubbly and confident, Jaehee has never been gayer

MC goes out wearing short skirts, crop tops and pretty dresses

she’s very loud too, so that she always stands out in crowds

she loves attention and shows off her girlfriend as wellshe compensates for the confidence Jaehee lacks which is amazing to her

whenever someone makes unnecessary remarks MC isn’t phased at all

on the other hand, it’s another occasion to show off her love for herself which makes Jaehee so happy and proud

she’s so glad her girlfriend can love herself as much as she loves her

and it actually helps her be a bit more confident herself

Jumin:

being a CEO he often spends entire days at the office

and he never says no to MC visiting him every now and then

one day they’re casually chatting at his desk when a woman wearing a red attire enters the room without knocking

”Sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Han, I just wanted to remind you that we have a meeting in five minutes.”

she then glances at MC and adds

”It will only last one hour, I think the maid can wait”

tHE FUCK DID SHE JUST CALL HER

”I would like to inform you, madam, that this is actually my girlfriend.”

”Oh, sorry. I just didn’t think this would be your type, Mr. Han.”

MC rolls her eyes at how boring these women can get when they open their mouths

Jumin is about to answer but MC gives him no time

”You should see our relationship then. It’s actually perfect. Unlike you with that dress. I think red is not your type.”

the woman turns on her heels, her cheeks as red as her ugly outfit

when MC turns around she bursts into laughter at Jumin’s astonished face

he’s literally like

°0°

just picture it guys that’s literally his face

but when he finally recovers he congratulates his girlfriend for being able to stand up for herself

and he agrees on the dress

it would look great on MC though

707:

he is the sass mastah himself

so when he first starts witnessing episodes of his girlfriend slaying her haters he’s extremely proud

every time someone has anything to say about MC’s weight he doesn’t even worry about it because he knows she will drag them

and that she loves her body

which makes him extremely happy

every time she responds to insults with something along the lines of “you bitches are just jealous” or "m thick and I love it” a single tear runs down his face in pride

as he secretly thinks “MC is one ticc bih“

as much as he loves seeing his queen stand up for herself there is nothing he enjoys more than teaming up with her to show others what a power couple they are

it’s also a good excuse to flirt which is always welcome

the thing he does the most, in fact, is touch her especially her ass to show how much he appreciates her body to anyone who asks him “Why would you date someone like that?“

he’s extremely proud and he has so much fun with MC, especially since she is a living meme as well as a total savage

ShE MODELS FOR HIM ALL THE TIME

LIKE HE WOULD HAVE NEVER IMAGINED SHE WOULD ACTUALLY ACCEPT WITHOUT HESITATION

she fills him with so much joy

and helps him a lot with his own confidence too

he especially loves complimenting her about something and hearing her say “I know“

always followed by a “You too” or “I love your ______”

he doesn’t even want to imagine how miserable he would be without MC by his side

and he’s the type of guy who can’t contain his laughter even in inappropriate situations

so whenever MC casually snaps back to one of her family members or people who stare on the street he always lets out a cute chuckle

he has no idea how she always has a new comeback ready for every situation

he’s not really good at talking back to people

he doesn’t want to sound rude

but he surely enjoys his girlfriend’s way of dealing with unwanted haters

still, he absolutely hates it when people pick on her

she’s so pretty and confident and those people should only admire her and respect her

he knows MC can take care of the insults herself, but he still wants to prove himself to her and protect her

it’s his instinct

and if he doesn’t (kindly) jump in the conversation he always makes sure to wrap an arm around his girlfriend’s waist to show her his support

he’s so precious

Saeran:

he’s glad his girlfriend loves herself

it would have been challenging for him to deal with her insecurities

he would have done it regardless, or at least tried but

he doesn’t consider himself very good at helping people with emotions

he still hasn’t fully recovered from his own scars

his MC has also a huge role in this change

and he’s very protective of her so when she gets picked on he gets all fed up until she steps in and shuts their mouth with one simple sentence

he’s a fast learner and after working up the courage he asks MC for “sass lessons”

he fails

so he ends up letting MC do all the work

also any time she buys a new dress and wears it for him he’s shocked

no matter how many times she comes home with a new dress, he’s always amazed by how greatly she can pull it off

she will even put on a fashion show for him sometimes

walking around the room, twirling, showing off her curves

he loves all of it

that’s how he discovers that her confidence is a huge turn-on for him

and he looks up to her a lot, hoping to one day be able to reach her level of poise

MASTERLIST

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zukalations · 7 years

Text

THE Otokoyaku: Snow Troupe (Sagiri Seina and Tsukishiro Kanato)

THE Otokoyaku was a Kageki feature from 2016 where Top Stars talked in-depth with up-and-coming otokoyaku stars about their acting styles and behind-the-scenes history. The Snow Troupe edition, published in the May 2016 issue, featured Sagiri Seina and Tsukishiro Kanato (prior to her transfer to Moon Troupe).

THE Otokoyaku - Snow Troupe (Sagiri Seina and Tsukishiro Kanato)

Sagiri: My first encounter with Reiko-chan (Tsukishiro) was in Snowy Landscape. It was a triple feature, and you had performed in the second section, 'Flower Hairpin' at the TMS private exhibition. The lead role, Isaji, in fact.

Tsukishiro: Due to that connection I was able to join the cast.

Sagiri: Since it was a prose drama with no singing or dancing, not to mention in a traditional style, it was difficult for me at that time. During the rehearsals, I would ask you all sorts of questions about Isaji, even though you had only just been assigned to the troupe. But Reiko-chan wasn't a very junior-like junior actress.

Tsukishiro: Oh...really?

Sagiri: Generally when a senior actress starts talking to a junior actress they'll react too formally and not offer their own opinions, but if I asked Reiko-chan something you'd tell me what your views were clearly, so you were easy to discuss things with. Often it would be just the ken-1 actresses and the leads, me and Koma (Saou Kurama) in the rehearsal room (laughs).

Tsukishiro: No matter how early I'd go in the morning, Chigi-san (Sagiri) would already be there rehearsing, and you would stay so late at night...gradually getting more and more worn out...

Sagiri: I was approaching total exhaustion (laughs)

Tsukishiro: Watching you as a Ken-1 I thought it was really amazing. Seeing how much you would give. I hadn't had an example of such a driven personality before, so those rehearsals were the first time I saw that kind of thing and it really affected me. 'The lead is pushing herself so desperately', that kind of feeling.

Sagiri: That rehearsal room was like a battlefield (laughs)

Tsukishiro: I thought 'if I can't do this much the show won't come together' and it was a great model for effort.

Sagiri: My impression of Reiko-chan hasn't changed much since then. You must be told this a lot, but you're very mature and intellectual.

Tsukishiro: Oh, no! (laughs) Since 'Snowy Landscape' I got the chance to help Chigi-san backstage a lot, and when we'd be discussing something, I would want to think things through step by step, in order, but then you were suddenly like 'fwoosh' (laughs)

Sagiri: Like an arrow from a bow (laughs)

Tsukishiro: Yes. So I was made to realise all my previous nitpicking was pointless after all. This cycle repated itself over and over these 7 years.

Sagiri: That's not so. But you have always been one to think over everything. After Snowy Landscape you were given a role in the shinjin kouen of Dawn over Solferino and I was surprised at your instinct for character building. 'She's so young but she acts so convincingly' I thought. When I got closer to you I realized you really loved acting so it was fun talking to you.

Tsukishiro: I really admired you, so I would think 'I want to be just like Chigi-san!' But we're really quite different, I realized.

Sagiri: Our approach and skills we bring to the table are different, I guess (laughs). When did you realize that?

Tsukishiro: Fairy early on... When I realized there was that gap and I couldn't be just like Chigi-san I was actually really troubled for a while . Also, Snow Troupe at that time was full of very energetic, youthful stars like Kei-san (Otozuki Kei), Chigi-san, Ayanagi-san, and Ayakaze-san, so it struck me 'Huh? I'm not like that...'

Sagiri: You've always had a very refined style.

Tsukishiro: So after that I spent a while thinking very hard about what I would do with myself.

Sagiri: Everyone has times like that. When I was in Cosmos Troupe I couldn't accept how small I was. I was surrounded by really tall, grown-up otokoyaku. I wanted to be like that but at some point I realized that was impossible for me (laughs). When I finally managed to accept that, it was a massive relief. Currently I know what my personal style is, but I do still study the more reserved otokoyaku - I think it'd be nice to do something like that sometime.

Tsukishiro: Yes. And a while after that, Misuzu (Aki)-san came to Snow Troupe, so I realized 'there's also mature otokoyaku like that'.

Sagiri: Definitely. So that was a turning point?

Tsukishiro: Yes. And then when Sou (Kazuho)-san came I experienced that kind of bubbly yet still mature otokoyaku style and realized I had a lot of options. When Nozomi-san came I saw her high-energy style. So now I think I can emulate the passion I've always admired in Chigi-san after all.

Sagiri: Despite being so refined (laughs).

Tsukishiro: Yes. (laughs) I started thinking, there's nothing wrong with being refined and passionate (laughs). Over the years I've realized that even if we have different styles our dedication to the stage is the same, and and came to the conclusion that a show is enjoyable because there are many different types on stage. Therefore I understood that even if I couldn't be just like Chigi-san, there were a lot of things I could learn from your feelings for the stage and your rehearsal methods.

Sagiri: That's true. Ever since you were ken-1, and I would abruptly ask you questions about the plays, I would realize that you were coming from a very different viewpoint, and there are many times when that has really helped me out. I feel like all our different discussions of the important things have benefited us both.

Tsukishiro: To tell the truth, there was a time when I couldn't bring myself to talk to you about something and it would really stress me out.

Sagiri: Really!?

Tsukishiro: I'd have lots of things I wanted to ask you, but putting it into words was too hard... I couldn't just go up to you and start talking... I'd see you chatting happily with someone and be like 'that would be nice'.

Sagiri: I see (laughs)

Tsukishiro: But when I was given Chigi-san's role in a shinjin kouen, I realized that after all, the best way to learn is through observation. I don't want to ask about something I could figure out by watching.

Sagiri: I know that feeling!

Tsukishiro: I learned a lot from seeing you onstage and experiencing that atmosphere.

Sagiri: I also would feel relieved to know you were watching. When I was in shinjin kouens, I was determined to watch the main performers 100%, so I suppose that's a similar situation. If there was something I absolutely couldn't understand, I'd ask, but if I had to ask out loud about character creation or something, I would end up as just a carbon copy of the main performer for precisely that reason. I feel like it's much more effective to start imagining based on what you see and feel and expand from there.

Tsukishiro: Back then, I realized how difficult it was for me to put a character together from square one, so I figured out that that was a weak point of mine. That shinjin kouen was the first time I considered everything in my own way before obtaining a lot of advice on it, so One Night of Stars is special to me.

Sagiri: That's right, that role was too amazing (laughs). I was oddly relieved to see your performance, like 'she managed to bring Haruoki to life' (laughs). I think it's because you made your own Haruoki, Reiko-chan, so I was able to watch as more of a third-party observer.

Tsukishiro: In Rurouni Kenshin, I had just graduated from shinjin kouens and could relax a bit, but at the same time, I began paying attention to even the slightest details of Chigi-san's behavior.

Sagiri: Eh!? Scary... (laughs)

Tsukishiro: Chigi-san would react very clearly to what I did, so I could realize 'I was no good today' or whatever. Even though I should be able to figure it out for myself...

Sagiri: No, no! Even when I think 'I really should fix this', I adjust based on the reactions of the other people in the scene. Sometimes there's really good synergy so it has really good results, and sometimes not. Of course, I'd like to be at 100% all the time, but I also have to be able to react and play it by ear if some sort of accident happens. Therefore, it's really important to be flexible. You have to rely on the people you're acting with and go with the flow.

Tsukishiro: During the Grand Theatre performance I paid really close attention to everyone I was acting with, and I started seeing how people put energy into their roles, which wasn't something I really understood how to do. Especially for Aoshi, who is such a quiet character, I was like 'what do I do with him?' but I gradually figured things out through experience as I fought with Kenshin every day.

Tsukishiro: Chigi-san, where do you start in character creation? I do a lot of acting with my voice, so I start out taking inspiration from the first reading of the script at the start of rehearsals.

Sagiri: For me, the first impression I get from the script is really important...I hang onto it like an heirloom jewel. Then I think about the meaning behind what kinds of goals the directors have, or behaviors they want, and work on that until I can put it all together. Then I use that to put facets on the jewel and see if anything seems to be missing. I used to start with the voice as well, but recently I don't put so much thought into it - 'It would be weird if Kenshin's voice was too low', that's about it.

Tsukishiro: During rehearsals, there are times when/sometimes I get stuck because of not knowing what to do with myself. Also, as my roles get bigger, I have more and more people watching me in the rehearsal room so I'm like '...what do I do with myself?' What would you do in that situation, Chigi-san?

Sagiri: Since everyone starts off rehearsing by themselves, rather than expecting the rehearsal to go smoothly immediately, I feel it's better to be like 'Mr. Director, this is how far I've come so hurry and help me out a bit!' (laughs) Of course getting to that point is difficult and full of stuggles, but to me, even those struggles are fun (laughs). When you've been here over 15 years you come to realize how fun it is to strive towards a discovery. If I think 'Eventually I will be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, I can get hold of the character', then I can handle it.

Tsukishiro: During rehearsals, even when everyone else is starting to feel it's too much, Chigi-san will be steadily polishing her performance and one day we'll see that 'Eureka' moment. 'Oh, Chigi-san's got it!' we notice.

Sagiri: I'm aware of it myself, I'll just have a moment where I realize 'Oh! There's Kenshin.' But that comes from simple hard work leading up to it. Since I see everyone else working so hard on their own roles, I'm determined not to lose to that and feel motivated to create a fun show together with everyone.

Tsukishiro: I wanted to talk about offstage things as well. Chigi-san, you always have different celebrities you will be into, like 'now it's this person!' So, who is your favorite celeb at the moment?

Sagiri: Mitsushima Hikari and Eita are my favorites. I get a lot of inspiration from watching their performances. And as for variety TV, I really like Matsuko Deluxe.

Tsukishiro: All very striking personalities.

Sagiri: I like people who go all the way with whatever they're doing.

Tsukishiro: I also really like Mitsushima Hikari. It's hard to describe but she has an amazing atmosphere.

Sagiri: It's really unique, isn't it. Sort of like Director Tani's* plays, don't you think? Natural, but deep.

Tsukishiro: I want to be striking too...

Sagiri: You're fine. After all, you're too refined (laughs). You have a lot of things, I don't have: depth, layers, an air of unwavering persuasiveness...

Tsukishiro: No, no... But I want to be passionate and refined...

Sagiri: Right, that's your goal.

Tsukishiro: Yes. I'll work hard! Thank you very much for spending time with me today.

* Takarazuka resident writer/director Tani Masazumi, who has created shows including Snowy Landscape and Saint-Exupery.

#takarazuka #mag: kageki #article translation #troupe: yuki #sienne: sagiri seina #sienne: tsukishiro kanato

31 notes · View notes

stressedoutteenager · 7 years

Note

Hi! I had an idea for a Yousana AU fic and I would love to see it written by you... the balloon squad are famous youtubers with their hey briskeby channel; Sana and Yousef have feelings for each other. The fic starts when they aren't together yet, but when they do get together they decide to keep it a secret from the viewers (1of the reasons is that Yousef doesn't want Sana to get hate from his fans). Sana, however starts appearing more and more in the guys' videos and the viewers start...

Hey :)

First of all thank you for this prompt! I don’t know if there was supposed to be another part to this ask but I only received this one. So I hope I didn’t miss anything important.

I hope this is how you imagined it. Let me know!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

(The short parts in between the dotted lines are comments Sana concentrates on.)

“HEEEEY”,they all shout at the same time. Sana is used to them being this loud butstanding behind the camera now, she still jumps at how loud they really are.

Hei Briskeby, aka Elias, Mutta, Adam,Mikael and Yousef, are shooting a video for their YouTube channel. Once againin the Bakkoush house.

Sana is at home most of the time theguys decide to shoot a video. Well, they actually have a weekly plan to have a clearschedule when to prepare, when to film, when to edit. However, they don’t keepto that plan very often. So it’s possible that they are at the Bakkoush houseevery day. One would think that they would have found another location to filmat when their channel got big, like really big. But no, they love filming hereand probably won’t stop so soon. Not that Sana minds much. This gives her theopportunity to see that one friend of Elias she might have a crush on.

“What’s up everyone? Welcome back!How are you all? I hope you’re doing good! Like I always say, you look good nomatter what!”, Elias says with his usual grin and leans forward in hisseat and winks at the camera. Sana rolls her eyes until she sees Yousef lookingat her.

Mutta, Adam and Mikael are sitting onthe couch while Elias and Yousef are sitting on the floor in front of them.Yousef’s eyes keep wandering over to Sana and while Elias says ‘You look goodno matter what’ Yousef looks straight at Sana and nods while smiling at her.Sana immediately blushes and presses her lips together to not smile toobrightly and attract attention from the other boys.

“Today, we’re going to do somethingthat has been requested a lot!”, Yousef says after Elias nudges him forhim to pay attention to the video. “We are doing a Q&A!”

“We haven’t done a video like thisin … well, never. We’ve never done this kind of video.”, Adam says.

“And since we’ve gained quite a lotof viewers in the last months and you all keep asking us about ourselves wethought we would do this.”, Mutta explains and Sana is amazed that theguys didn’t write a script for this. They work so well together but that justshows how great of friends they are.

“And it’s impossible to answerevery comment you leave us so we’re going to try to answer as many questions aspossible in this video.”, Mikael concludes.

Sana looks down at her phone and readsthe messages in the group chat with her friends. She is still listening to whatthe guys are saying, though.

“We wanted to just read out thequestions we choose from this..”, Elias holds up a sheet of paper.“But since my lovely sister is here today, behind the camera, she can askus the questions randomly.”

Sana’s head shoots up and she narrowsher eyes at her brother. He always finds a way to incorporate her in theirvideos. She has been in a few before but she really doesn’t feel like being infront of the camera now. Especially because she came back from basketballpractice just minutes ago.

Because Sana doesn’t react immediately,the boys think they need to try and convince her.

“Sana, it’s more fun thatway!”, Adam suggests.

“Pleeeease, sis! I know you’reexhausted right now but you can just chill behind the camera and read them tous.”, Elias says and shows his sister a big smile.

While Adam and Elias talk, Sana noticesthat all of them look at her but one pair of eyes looks most hopeful. Yousefraises his eyebrows at Sana and just waits.

“It’s fine. I’ll do it.”, Sanasays. Yousef stands up to give Sana the sheet of paper with the questions andgives the paper more slowly to her than necessary. Sana plumps down onto thefloor, crosses her legs under her and waits for the guys to give her a sign tostart.

Most questions are stuff like age, wherethey all are from, this or that questions, who’s most likely to do somethingand what the guys do besides YouTube. Sana loves this question because thesefive boys are not just relying on YouTube for their future but all are eitherworking or studying at university. Sana is not too interested in thosequestions because they practically live here and she knows all of them prettywell.

But the following question isinteresting. Not only because Sana knows that their fans are dying to know but becauseshe has been asked this about the boys too often to count.

She rephrases the question and says:“Do any of you have a significant other?”

Sana can’t help herself. Her eyesimmediately find Yousef who is shaking his head. And looking at Sana with a …sad look. Sana and Yousef have something going on between them. They are notdating but there is something. And all the other guys know it too.

Adam and Mikael look at each other asthe first instinct but quickly look away then. Elias shakes his head but grinsand Mutta just doesn’t say anything and looks into the camera with a lopsidedsmile.

Elias looks around and answers for allof his friends too: “See, we’re all single!” Sana is ready to readthe next question but Elias continues answering. Her older brother looks atYousef who watches his best friend answer and says: “Well, you know.. it’scomplicated with this guy here.” He pats Yousef on the shoulder and thensends a look towards Sana. She wishes she could vanish in thin air then andthere. Sometimes she hates her brother.

“Okay! Next question!”, Sanaannounces but Elias, Mutta, Mikael and Adam laugh about her reaction. They havesuch a great time trying to push Sana and Yousef to finally become a couplebecause it’s obvious to them that Sana and Yousef are gone for each other.Yousef pretends to laugh along.

—————————————————————————————————-

“Does this mean Yousef is NOTsingle????”

“Please tell me it’s complicatedbecause he’s in love with Elias’ sister!! How cute would they be?!?!?!”

“TELL ME HE IS NOT DATING THAT GIRLWHO IS IN THEIR VIDEOS SOMETIMES. NOO!”

“ I’m calling it! Yousana is athing. Look at his cute face when looking at - behind - the camera!”

—————————————————————————————————-

“Sana! Yousef! Get your cute littleasses over here! We need to start filming!”, Elias shouts from the windowto the couple sitting outside in the garden. Since Yousef and Sana starteddating a short while back and actually told people about it, Yousef has beenspending quite a lot of time with Sana when he was over at the Bakkoush house.Elias was a little jealous, actually, but he was glad that these two lovesickidiots are finally together.

“You think my ass is cute?”,Yousef’s first words are when he comes through the door. Elias turns around tohis best friend and nods with a sarcastic smile.

“Yes, Yousef! Unbelievably cute.But if you don’t go sit in your spot now that cute ass will belong to a deadperson.”, Elias says with the sweetest smile and has everyone in the roomimpressed. That he can threaten Yousef with such a cute facial expression…Sana always knew Elias is good at this kind of creative stuff.

They end up playing some version ofcharades that they changed a bit but only with YouTube related stuff.

For example, Yousef had to describe the‘Don’t Judge’ challenge and says: “The challenge Elias and Sana hated somuch that Elias almost got in an argument with that dude at the gym!”

Sana is completely lost because shedoesn’t go to the gym with them but Mikael immediately shouts the rightchallenge and can’t help but comment: “Yeah, well, Elias was rightanyway!”

Elias impersonates Dan and Phil, yesboth of them, perfectly which Mutta guesses first, though.

Adam describes someone with: “Heserenades girls on College campuses with made up songs.” While Elias andMutta have no clue, Mikael is trying to think of the name. Well, Sana andYousef forget for a second that they are not alone and keep looking at eachother and have to lean forward for that. Elias is sitting between them becausethat’s how they always sit when Sana joins them.

“Sana!”, Adam shouts and makesSana jump because she’s ripped out of her small bubble with Yousef. “Youneed to know that! I’ve shown you videos and asked if you would mind if someonedid that to you!”

Sana immediately knows who Adam istalking about but needs a second to remember the name. She jumps up and down onher seat on the floor while trying to remember the name and nervously pats onthe couch. Yousef looks at her smilingly and then to the rest of the boys.

“Angrypicnic!”, Sana shouts assoon as she remembers the name. Mikael starts complaining how he also knew itbut just couldn’t remember the name which Elias and Yousef make fun of him forbecause that’s exactly the point of this game.

Sana takes a piece of paper from thesnapback the guys, or rather Mutta, took off of Yousef’s head because theyneeded to put the little pieces of paper with names of YouTubers, trends andchallenges in it.

Sana reads what’s written on it:“The floor is lava.”

Sana looks up at the boys and looks ateach of them separately before trying to explain which wouldn’t be hard.

“Okay, it’s the challenge Yousefand I started and you all joined and now it gets dangerous!”

Yousef, Elias and Mikael shout:“The Floor is Lava” and as an instinct Sana looks around and seesherself sitting on the floor. Even though Yousef and Elias were two of thethree people shouting the answer, they both do the same thing as Sana and allthree of them jump on the couch, while the other three are still sitting onit.

“I hate you people!”, Adam canbe heard crying, being squished between Elias and Sana.

—————————————————————————————————-“Why is she in this video? She wasin a video a month ago already!”

“Honestly if she’s dating one ofthe guys she shouldn’t be on your channel”

“Nobody can tell me Yousef and Sanaare not IN LOVE! LOOK AT HOW CUTE THEY SMİLE AT EACH OTHER!”

“Girl! Concentrate on your brotheror something and don’t bother with Yousef. Keep your eyes off him!”

————————————————————————————————-

“Look who we found here. Studyingand being a good student as always!”, Adam has their vlogging-camera inhis hands and points the camera at Sana. It’s a Thursday afternoon and onceagain, the boys are at the Bakkoush house. Sana came home, immediately put oncomfortable clothes and took her make up off. She didn’t care that the boys arehere. They have seen her in her worst conditions, like when she’s sick, so itreally doesn’t matter. Sana looks up from her Biology book and smiles at Adam for a second, says Hiand looks back down on her book. She really doesn’t feel like being a part oftheir next vlog.

Adam goes to the fridge and turns aroundto Sana, still filming. “So why are you studying in the kitchen? And when’s your exam again?Tomorrow?”

Sana looks up again and plays with thepen in her hand. She nods and says: “Yeah, it’s tomorrow. And I’m in thekitchen because you guys are in the backyard and even with my windows closed Ican hear you.”

Adam turns the camera to himself andsmiles sheepishly: “Sooorry, we’ll keep it down.”

Sana just shrugs with a small smile:“Doesn’t really matter, really. I’m fine studying here.”

Adam stops filming after that and talksto Sana for a few minutes about what the topic of the exam will be. One wouldmaybe not think that but Adam is a science- guy. He might not have been as goodas Sana in school but he’s very interested in stuff like physics and biology.

Before Adam leaves the kitchen to jointhe other boys in the backyard, Sana calls after him. He turns around and Sanahesitates a little bit. Adam leans on to the door frame and waits. Sana pressesher lips together and wonders if she should bother with this or not. Then shesighs and leans forward in her seat and finally says what has been on her mind.

“Adam, could you maybe not includethat in the vlog?” It’s a good thing that all the Hei Briskeby boys,except for Yousef of course, are like brothers to Sana. She can talk to themabout anything and they’ll listen. But this topic in particular is uncomfortablefor Sana to talk about.

Adam pushes himself of the door frameand steps closer to the kitchen table. His eyebrows furrowed and a concernedlook on his face, which he quickly changes and smiles at Sana.

“Sure, that’s no problem. But …is there a reason why you don’t want that?”, Adam asks. He knows that Sanameant their short conversation he had filmed minutes ago. Usually she didn’tmind being in their videos, she is some vlogs too. Mostly in the backgroundbecause the guys are always in her house.

First Sana just shrugs and doesn’t wantto elaborate but if she explains once she might not need to talk about itagain. Adam is the one who vlogs their days, at least most of the times. He isthe best at it out of all the boys. Elias and Yousef comment too much whilevlogging; Mikael doesn’t comment anything at all and just films and Mutta getstoo excited about things happening so fast that most things he films areblurry. Adam has the combination just right.

“Don’t you read the comments underyour videos?”, Sana finally decides to say.

Adam nods but still looks confused soSana continues: “Then you should know that your viewers don’t like mebeing in your videos that much. Especially since some of them think I’m withYousef and they really don’t like that!”

She has noticedmany comments under Hei Briskeby’s recent videos expressing this view veryloudly.

Now Adam is even more confused. Sure,there are a few negative comments about Sana but it’s YouTube. There arenegative comments about Elias, Mutta, Yousef, Mikael and Adam, too. Before theytried to delete all the hate comments but now it’s almost impossible and theydon’t even care that much anymore. You get desensibilized when you’re on YouTubethis long with a big audience.

“What are you talking about? Mostof our viewers love it when you’re in the videos! Some suggest you being in thevideos every day! And you are togetherwith Yousef so what’s the problem?”

Sana sighs and puts away her pen andinstead takes her phone in her hand and turns it in her hands whiletalking.

“But if so many of your fans reactto the unconfirmed idea of Yousef and I dating, imagine how they’ll be if theyknew.”, Sana says and gets really sad. Adam opens his mouth to saysomething but Sana interrupts him: “Could you just please edit that partout. I’m not sure I want to be in today’s vlog.” She finishes her sentencewith a small smile and Adam nods. Of course he wouldn’t put her in a video isshe doesn’t want that.

Adam starts to leave again and Sanashouts after him: “Please fix it! And not in the way Mikael always ‘fixesit’!” She only hears Adam chuckle at that and turns back to the books allover the table.

She’s not alone for long, though. Aboutten minutes later Yousef enters the kitchen. Sana doesn’t notice anyone cominginto the room at first. He watches as Sana is really concentrated on thetextbook in front of her and slowly and quietly gets closer to her. He goes tostand behind her chair and leans down and places a short kiss on Sana’s cheek.Sana is surprised and looks at him so fast that she almost falls out of herseat. Yousef didn’t move much after kissing her cheek so that there are only millimetresbetween their faces now.

Sana looks into his eyes and can’t stopthe smile creeping up on her face. She tries to act mad but it doesn’t work.“I hate you. Why would you do that?”

Yousef shakes his head lightly:“No, you don’t.” and grins at Sana. Then he pulls a chair close toSana and sits down next to her. They both turn to each other and just smile ateach other for a moment.

Sana breaks the comfortable silence:“What are you doing here?“

Yousef tilts his head a little and looksat her innocently: “Can’t I just come and see my girlfriend?” Heloves saying that Sana is his girlfriend and she loves hearing him say it. Shestill can’t really believe that they finally managed to become a couple. That’swhy she doesn’t want anything to ruin that.

Sana mimics her boyfriend and answers:“Of course you can. But since you were here half an hour ago and Adam justleft after I’ve told him something about us… there might be a connection,don’t you think?”

Yousef gasps dramatically and makes Sanalaugh and roll her eyes at him. “I’m offended that you would think that!… But a little birdie could’ve told me about some doubts you have.”

Sana quickly jumps up in her seat andinstinctively reaches for Yousef’s hand. “But there are no doubts about usbeing together. None at all!” She doesn’t want him to misunderstand that.

Yousef nods with an understanding smileand covers Sana’s hand with his. “I know, don’t worry. But maybe we shouldstill talk.”

This time Sana nods. She knows they haveto talk. She just didn’t know how to start this conversation. Saying ‘Hey,maybe let’s keep our distance while filming and I’ll avoid filming with youguys at all for a while because people don’t like me’ is not the right way togo.

“So you don’t want to be in ourvideos anymore?”, Yousef asks.

Sana looks at their hands whileanswering: “Maybe for a while. Seems like a good solution. I’ve seenpeople comment rude stuff about you because of me being in the video and youlooking at me. I don’t want that for you.”

“Hey,”, Yousef says and makesSana look at him, “Don’t worry about that. I can deal with that. Nobodycan expect me to not look at my beautiful girlfriend the whole time she is nextto me.”

Sana starts blushing but shakes her headat him. Such a dork. “Yousef, I’m serious about that.”

He nods. He knows what she means. Yousefand the boys have gained a lot of YouTube friends since they started theirchannel and some of them have girlfriends. Yousef has seen what kind of stupid,unnecessary hate the girls have gotten because some fans didn’t think they werethe right person for their favorite YouTubers. It’s stupid. But he knows thatthat is something that happens, sadly.

“I know. And you know I love havingyou in our videos, so do the boys. But if you’re not comfortable with it, it’sfine. Just know that you don’t have to worry about it for my sake.”,Yousef says and adds with a laugh, “Because let’s be honest: You secretlylove shooting videos with us.”

“Ehh.. it’s okay.”, Sanaanswers looking bored. Secretly, she really does. She loves those boys and theyare a lot of fun to hang out with.

Well, turns out YouTube videos are notthe only thing to pay attention to when trying to be low-key about yourrelationship. Sana and Yousef don’t try to hide their relationship, Yousef justdidn’t talk about being in a relationship in their videos where that topiccomes up more often than one would think and Sana avoids being in their videos.At least in the main channel ones; she can’t escape the vlogging camera seeingas the guys are always at her home.

What Yousef forgot is that their viewersare not only watching their videos but are also on all the other social media.He loves it, don’t get him wrong. He loves how supportive they all are abouteverything he does. But he didn’t expect that much of a backlash to a picturehe posts of him, Elias and Sana and the caption: 'My two favorite people’. Itwas partly just a response to a picture Mutta had posted some days ago of himwith Mikael and Adam with the exact same caption. Elias and Yousef had jokinglyteased those three for leaving them out of the picture and when Yousef washanging out with the Bakkoush siblings he decided to post a similar picture.Even in the same poses as the other three.

There were a lot of really cutecomments, more than anything else, but he couldn’t ignore that there were somereally rude ones, mostly directed at Sana. Elias and Yousef were furious oncethey read those. While some of them were a little petty from super-fans, somewere straight up disrespectful which Elias and Yousef both deleted whenever theysaw them and reported the accounts.

—————————————————————————————————-

“Two favorite people???? What aboutyour best friends. since when is Elias’ sister that important. She needs tostop.”

“Aww, you’re family goals tho. Howcute would Yousana babies be?? And Elias as an uncle??”

“I’m sick of seeing that girl withyou all the time? Doesn’t she have her own friends?”

—————————————————————————————————-

Sana’s plan to limit her appearanceswith the Hei Briskeby boys failed completely. Her own friends, especially Evaand Chris, told her not to pay attention to any of those stupid comments becausethose who leave these comments are jealous because Yousef is such a good catchand him and Sana are so cute. At the same time she couldn’t hide from the boys.They genuinely were some of her best friend; one of them being her olderbrother and another one her boyfriends.

Hei Briskeby doesn’t post vlogs everyday but every other day. In almost all of them you can see Yousef and Sanabeing all cute smiling at each other, flirting or something similar in thebackground. Of course there are not really physical and if you didn’t know thecontext of them being a couple you would just think they are only best friends.But since their audience suspected something between them Mikael had funleaving all those cute scenes of them in the background in the vlogs. At firstSana, Yousef and even Elias didn’t like that at all but now, now they have funwith it. Neither Yousef nor Sana feels obligated to announce on the Internetthat they are a couple and the longer they are together the less they careabout what people have to say about them.

Now, it’s actually quite funny to themseeing some people being so invested that they theorize if they are together ornot and pointing out things that speak for or against it.

“Hi to all of you beautiful peopleout there! How are you doing? All good? I hope so!”, Elias starts thevideo in his usual manner. Still looking straight into the camera he winks andthen claps loudly and continues to talk: “After a long, loooong time wehave a special guest in our video!” He points at the camera, or rather atSana who is standing behind it. “Sana, come join us!”

As soon as Elias says that the otherfour guys start clapping which Sana only shakes her head at. She sits downbetween Elias and Yousef, who are leaning on the couch Adam, Mikael and Muttaare sitting on.

“Okay! What we’re going to do todayis: We’re going to see if we know Elias better..”, Mutta starts explainingand points at Adam, Mikael, Yousef and himself, “.. or if Sana knows herbrother better.”, and pats Sana on the head. Sana starts laughing, joinedby Yousef and Elias and looks at Mutta with an amused look. The way he pat herhead was really cutely funny. Adam and Mikael were too preoccupied withwhispering about something very close to notice that.

Elias explains the rules that they allwrite their answers on a sheet of paper and turn it around at the sametime.

“Let’s start off easy! Who is mycelebrity crush right now?”

“I know this!”, Muttashouts.

Yousef looks up and around the room andthinks hard about this one. He should know this. His gaze falls onto Sana’spaper because well, she’s sitting right next to him, shoulders touching. Shenotices that he’s looking and lightly shoves his shoulder and warns himlaughingly.

“Don’t look at me paper. You’recheating!”

“I’m not cheating. I’m didn’t lookat your answer!”

“Are you sure? I definitely saw youlooking!”, Sana answers and holds his gaze. Yousef leans a little closerand whispers something to Sana so quietly that not even the other guys could hearhim.

“Maybe I was just looking at you. Itold you nobody can blame me if I can’t keep my eyes off of you.”

He makes Sana blush furiously so shelooks down at her paper. All that time those two were in their own bubble Eliasalmost shouted at Mikael because he looked so lost.

“What do you mean you don’t know?You told me we would make cute babies when I told you how hot she is!”,Elias sounds so offended that Mikael wouldn’t remember.

“Dude, I don’t know. Iforgot!”, Mikael shouts back and Mutta and Adam are watching them fight.All they need to make this perfect is popcorn.

Elias is so done with Mikael and looksat Sana and Yousef before looking at the camera and announcing that they allshould turn around their paper now. All, except for Mikael, havewritten the same name.

“See, Mikael! Everyone knows it’sLily Collins! We watched that one movie together and I told you how hot sheis!”, Elias starts ranting while all the rest just laughs at him.

—————————————————————————————————-

“I missed Sana in yourvideos!”

“Okay, but honestly. I don’t careif Yousef is dating Elias’ sister but they would be so cute together. Look atthem!!!”

“I don’t know who I ship more:Yousef and Sana or Elias and Lily”

“Can I be Sana? She has the bestboyfriend, best brother and best friends! I’m highkey jealous!”

—————————————————————————————————-

Part II of this Youtube AU can be found here .

#skam #yousef acar #sana bakkoush #yousana #yousana fic #elias bakkoush #adam malik #skam mutta #mikael overlie boukhal #youtube #sana x yousef #balloon squad

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