#it's kinda hard to get into it because... i live in the southern hemisphere. it's spring when it's halloween here lol

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

fave speak now lyrics?

I love giving one per song for these so:

Mine: You said, "I remember how we felt sitting by the water and every time I look at you, it's like the first time".

Sparks Fly: You're the kind of reckless that should send me running but I kinda know that I won't get far.

Back To December: When your birthday passed and I didn't call.

Speak Now: There's the silence. There's my last chance. I stand up with shaky hands, all eyes on me.

Dear John: The girl in the dress wrote you a song. You shoulda known.

Mean: And I can see you years from now in a bar, talking over a football game with that same big, loud opinion. But nobody's listening.

The Story Of Us: And I'm dying to know, is it killing you like it's killing me?

Never Grow Up: I just realised everything I have is, someday, gonna be gone.

Enchanted: The lingering question kept me up; 2am who do you love?

Better Than Revenge: They didn't teach you that in prep school, so it's up to me, that no amount of dresses gives you dignity.

Innocent: Time turns flames to embers, you'll have new Septembers. (Taylor really said southern hemisphere rights with this one because the song reminds me of Spring and that's the first month of it here).

Haunted: I know. I know. I just know. You're not gone. You can't be gone. No.

Last Kiss: Hope it's nice where you are. And I hope the sun shines and it's a beautiful day and something reminds you, you wish you had stayed.

Long Live: And the cynics were outraged, screaming "This is absurd!" 'cause for a moment a band of thieves in ripped up jeans got to rule the world.

Ours: Ghosts from your past gonna jump out at me lurking in the shadows with their lip gloss smiles. But I don't care because right now you're mine.

If This Was A Movie: Baby, what about the ending?

Superman: Something in his deep brown eyes has me saying he's not all bad like his reputation and I can't hear one single word they say.

Electric Touch: All I know is this could either break my heart or bring it back to life.

When Emma Falls In Love: 'Cause when Emma falls in love, she's in it for keeps. She won't walk away unless she absolutely knows she has to leave.

I Can See You: I can see you with your suit and your neck tie. Passed me a note saying "meet me tonight".

Castles Crumbling: Once I was the great hope for a dynasty.

Foolish One: You will learn the hard way instead of just walking out.

Timeless: Hundreds of years ago they fell in love like we did.

[wp100]

i love how people are getting into the halloween mood like a month (or two technically) before the actual day it makes me so happy tbh

and if ppl are mad, screw em. people get into the Christmas Mood™ months before it is even december, why not do the same for halloween?

[chidoroki]

So, I've been thinking about TPN, which has become a common occurrence to me, and I can't help but think back on how Emma reacted upon learning the reward the demon god asked for in return of the new promise and how it once bothered me. (Here's your spoiler warning if you haven't finished/read the manga yet.)

By now, we all know the reward demon god asked of Emma in return for the new promise..

So when ch180 dropped months ago and we finally learned the terms of the reward, it kinda irked me how Emma accepted with a simple “okay.” You would think that for someone as family-oriented as Emma, such a sacrifice would upset her at least a little bit, right? Yet she didn't seem to fret over it too much, even after she returned from her encounter with the demon god back in ch144.

I know, it's very likely Emma kept the real reward a secret from everyone so they wouldn't worry. If she did tell them the truth, I have no doubt they would've had a hard time following through with it, even though they would've had no choice otherwise. Emma, and everyone else, knew that no one can't deny the reward the demon god asks for (because of rules) so there was no reason to fight it. She simply had to accept it. She even tried to justify in her own mind that this exchange was worth it, as the positives far outweighed the negatives.

Everyone would go to the human world, be free from demons and live in peace. Not just them, but future generations as well. The downside of it all is that she loses her memories and be separated from her family.. but then again, for someone who always thinks of her family and their happiness before herself, Emma saw the reward as a simple solution. She believes she was “selfish” because she was the only one who wanted to spare the demons and free all cattle children from every farm. Everyone else followed her ideals because they're family and they trust her. So if Emma was to be the only one who had to suffer from this new promise, then that was fine with her.

However, I'm realizing now that she might not have always thought that way. Yes, she couldn't refuse the reward and she would absolutely do anything it takes to secure a brighter future for her family, but I believe that once upon a time the reward did truly bother her, no matter how well she hid her true emotions regarding it. She's visibly frightened when she first learned what the demon god wanted from her in ch143. He wants her family, since they're so precious to her, but thanks to how Emma worded the new promise, he can't have that. However, demon god decides to be a true bastard and come up with a clever, alternative way to make our best girl suffer. If he can't have her family, then neither can she.

Whether or not this shocked expression comes before or after the clarification we get about the reward in ch180, I can't be certain. Knowing that she will eventually lose her family and memories of them, Emma does take the news hard, despite remaining so strong throughout then entire last few arcs of the story. Perhaps this is only because the reward isn't mention too much after Emma's return from The Seven Walls (and there's a ton of other troubling issues to deal with first), but there is one particular scene that gets me thinking about it before Phil mentions it in ch178. This scene lies in ch159, when Emma is alone somewhere thinking to herself about death.

This moment has stood out to me ever since that chapter released. Our happy-go-lucky girl thinking about something so depressing? I was very surprised. Then I had to wonder, when and where exactly did that short scene take place? I once thought it was during her trip towards Goldy Pond alongside Yuugo and Ray, then realized wrong as it appears her missing ear is being hidden by her braid rather than the bandages she had back then. My true guess though (and I'm sure many others have already made these following connections before as well) is that these panels occur right after Emma returned from The Seven Walls.

For one, the way she lays there is almost identical to Ray after he was sent back after The Seven Walls in ch140.

Next point would be the moon, which is the same as it was before Emma and Ray went to the Seven Walls in ch130.

“Oh but full moons happen all the time,” you might say. Of course, so instead of after The Seven Walls, maybe that scene happened sometime during the time skip when they were out searching for the temples and golden water. It's possible, since Emma also had that outfit back then, but then I remember another brief moment where the moon was recently seen. This moon, which is almost full, happens back in ch114, just days before everyone reaches the Paradise Hideout and the duo set out for The Seven Walls. (also, I'm just learning this now but moon phases differ on hemisphere? and just judging by these two moons I think they're in the southern hemisphere? idk, or the demon half of the world does things different, I can't be sure.)

Anyways, I find those panels from ch159 important regarding Emma's reaction to the reward because we previously learn in ch144 that she had returned from The Seven Walls just three hours after Ray.

Which leads me to believe that (unless the chat with the demon bastard took exactly that long) Emma was there outside on the grass for three full hours, thinking about death, as a result of the price she had to pay for making the new promise. So if anyone else thought she accepted the reward too easily like I originally did, then I'm here to tell ya nope, that may not be the case. She took that time alone to get all her thoughts together and I can't imagine how many different things ran through her mind and how conflicted and heartbroken she felt. Even though she worded the promise perfectly, the bastard was still able to be greedy and take away so much from her. Could she have done anything differently to prevent her from losing everything important to her? Was this the correct decision? Should she tell her family about the reward? How would they react if they knew? Could she possible avoid telling them the full truth of it? What would happen to her once the promise was implemented? What would be the point in fighting for a brighter future if she couldn't experience it with everyone she cares so deeply about? The reward weighed so heavily in her heart that she actually thought dying might be better than never seeing her family again.

The only reason I may be incorrect about when and where Emma is in that ch159 scene is due to Anna's comment about it being the afternoon when our girl returns from TSW, thus it wouldn't be dark enough outside to see a full moon.. unless the demon world is weird and works differently, but I can't be sure.

If I'm wrong about this whole ch159 thing (or anything else) then oh well, but if not, then honestly, I'm a little impressed? It took only three hours after learning the worst possible news for Emma to get her heart back in the right place and her mind focused enough to be the leader her entire family needed in order to stop Norman’s genocide plan at the demon capital city, defeat the queen, successfully raid Grace Field, stop the Ratri clan and successfully send every cattle child into the human world safely. She set out what she wanted to do effortlessly and kept her emotions in check the entire time, never allowing her family or us readers to worry about her (until it was too late, ha.)

Long story short, demon god is a bastard who's greedy little reward caused best girl to think about death as an alternative idea rather than go through the idea of having her memories and family taken from her, yet she took the time to be melancholy in private, learned to accept it and turned herself around to change the world for the better. Emma never fails to surprise me man, I swear.

[encyclopika]

Animal Crossing Fish - Explained #103

Brought to you by a marine biologist who’s had one of these before!

CLICK HERE FOR THE AC FISH EXPLAINED MASTERPOST!

Okay, it wasn’t exactly *this* fish I had in my aquarium, but I could have; people do keep today’s fish, the saddled bichir, in aquaria. I had a different bichir called a ropefish, (Erpetoichthys calabaricus) and actually had two of them. I had adopted them from someone who didn’t want them anymore, and they were extremely happy and communal until one night they weren’t, and fought to the death, probably over mating. I still miss them. So, today’s entry is in their memory, even if they aren’t exactly the same species. Bichirs are just really cool and their ancient lineage is something to behold! (Also, it’s pronounced beh-SHEER, in case you were wondering.)

So, yeah, we’re covering the fish I missed while on break. This one went away in the Northern Hemisphere in October, but if you’re a Southern Hemisphere player, you’ll get your (second) chance at catching this in December. They came out very late at night - 9PM to 4AM) so catching them was a little tricky, compounding the rarity even further. Fishing the river with bait was a good decision on my part and it might be for you as well. Bichirs, including the saddled, are actually nocturnal irl, hunting at night and hiding during the daytime, so that explains their schedule in-game. 

The saddled bichir  (Polypterus endlicheri) is part of a small, very ancient Order of fish simply called the Bichirs, Polypteriformes. There are just 14 species, including this one and the ropefish I mentioned in the above anecdote, and they are all native to tropical African rivers and the Nile River system. They all have these flat, armored-looking heads, elongated bodies, and thick, ganoid scales (like armor scales). One of their most defining features (before we get into all of the very primitive features) are the series of finlets on their backs. Each finlet is supported by a hard spine, so I guess Blathers in New Leaf was kinda right in calling them “spiky fins”. 

It’s weird to be in my position. I’ve always had this child-like wonder for really strange animals, like the bichir and many others, and yet, as an adult scientist, I know there’s really no such thing as an “ancient animal” living today. The thing you ought to know about evolution, and I feel like we’ve discussed this before, is that every animal alive today is “modern”. There may be lineages dating back to the dinosaurs (like dinosaurs themselves, the birds!) but that doesn’t mean those exact species lived back then. Evolution is actually a very simple process to understand. Basically, if a trait ain’t broken, it rarely gets “fixed”. There is no guiding plan, here. Species evolve in response to environmental factors, for the most part (sometimes there are freak mutations that actually turn out to give survivors an edge, but mostly you’re going to see this slow change as populations respond to their local environment and sexual pressure). 

For bichirs, they have maintained a lot of these “not broken, so won’t fix” traits since ancient times. These traits that are shared from an ancestor to many or all of its descendants is called a synapomorphy (watch out, there be a big college bio word). These are the ability to breathe air with a pair of functional lungs, spiracles (holes at the top of the head) to breathe air through, and fleshy fins they can awkwardly walk on. We know that the latter trait I mentioned is very similar to the fleshy, walk-on-land appendages seen in lobe-finned fish, the lineage that gave rise to us land-lubbing tetrapods. But Bichirs are not lobe-finned fish. This trait is a homoplasy (another big boi word!) between those two groups, meaning that the trait is similar, but was derived from different ancestors in different groups. Homoplasy happens during convergent evolution, in which organisms come to the same solutions (traits) because they are solving the same kind of environmental problem. In terms of the bichir, lobe-finned fish, and other ancient fish, the problem was moving around in swampy, sometimes shallow, low-oxygen wetlands, and the traits that came out of that pressure were lungs and stronger forelimbs. Traits may evolve many times before it’s “right”, but if we’re talking evolution, it’s really all a game of chance. Maybe in some other universe, our closest fishy relatives are the bichirs, rather than the coelacanth and lungfish.

And there you have it! Fascinating stuff, no?

[mordigen]

Reassigning Holidays - Why it’s insulting.

I was presented with a provocative question today. Someone asked, if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, so you celebrate Samhain today, or do you wait for your fall/winter to come around and celebrate it then? 

There was a selection of responses, and snarky remarks. Mine might have been in the more snarky, or possibly condescending. Oops? But the general consensus seemed to be, No, silly, of course not - we celebrate it in our respective season!

And that, unbeknownst to me - Struck a real horrible chord with me. I kinda felt like you just slapped me in the face, or spat in my mouth. 

Now, generally speaking - yes, of course seasonal “harvest” holidays or feast days would, obviously, correspond to the seasons and be celebrated or recognized in the respective season they should belong, wherever on the calendar that may fall. 

BUT. My issue is - there are SEVERAL holidays that are very much more than just a ‘harvest’ festival, and have very deep rooted spiritual meaning and significance. Samhain being one of those, Lughnassadh being another great example, where the specific month, if not exact day, holds relevance. Samhain is not only a harvest festival, but also a celebration of life and death. It is a day to remember and honour the ancestors, remember the beloved dead, celebrate the victorious dead, a time for scrying and divination, shadow work, plane work, spirit work, walking, watching - SO many heightened things, in this sacred thinned veil that separate this world from the others. It is also, in Celtic belief, the New Year. And Samhain is, literally, the name of the Month. It is November. So why the hell would you celebrate a festival whose namesake is the Month it is supposed to herald in, in the precise opposite point in time? That seems. Insulting? Ignorant? Silly? Disrespectful? I need a word that is a collection of all of that simultaneously, along with indignation. 

Would you move Christmas just because the season “didn’t match” what your own perception of it was? 

How about New Years?  Does that suddenly fall on a different day just because your on he opposite side of the world ?  Or would it not still be January 1st? (not being a smartass and accounting for time-zone differences)  Or what about the cultures that celebrate a different New Year (Samhain being one of them) - Like the Chinese New Year (falls on Feb 12), or the Orthodox New Years (which typically falls around Jan 14th) - Would you just expect them to NOT celebrate it on those same days just because they may have relocated to a different hemisphere??  Why is ours any different? Why do we not get the same respect as other religions and cultures?  The Celtic New Year falls between October 30th - November 4th. And it SHOULD BE OBSERVED *ON THOSE DAYS* regardless of what hemisphere you live in. Period.  Same for Lughnassadh - it is tied to a harvest festival, but it in itself is not a harvest festival. It originated as a funeral celebration for the mother of Lugh, and was held on her burial and memorial, and therefore should be observed ON HER DAY, not changed on a whim to suit humans perceived “misalignment” of preset notions of what the weather should look like outside on that holiday. The modernized Lunasa, is also the name of the month of August - so it should be respectively celebrated in it’s namesake.  Belltaine, or Bealtaine in modern Irish, is again, another one of these celebrations that - yes, are tired to harvest days, but are not SOLELY harvest related, and is a spiritually significant holiday. It is a Fire festival in celebration of Balor, who gives his name to the celebration - and, yet again, to the MONTH. So, again, it should be observed within it’s namesake.  Imbolc(g) is really the only named holiday, in addition to the solistices/equinoxes, that are ambiguously tied to the seasons and can be easily shifted to correspond to the respective hemispheric alignment. But when you have holidays that are rooted in tradition, and have historical, and cultural significance in being observed on specific days for specific reasons - they need to be observed on those days. Hard stop. It is just, plainly, disrespectful not to. 

I think the idea of being overly accepting, and overly specialized in the greater pagan community (an Ironic oxymoron, as callous and gate-kept as the greater pagan community can be) has significantly watered down the respective faiths, understanding, and discipline. This constant reminder that “there are no rules!” “anything goes!” and “make your own path!” are so pervasive, that the suggestion of ANYTHING sacred, or standard, or fundamental leads your to be ostracized and mocked. Sorry, that is just not how that works. Yes - you can believe anything you want to - but if you are going to make the choice to believe in a specific faith, you should honor the doctrine of that specific path. If you don’t...well...common fucking sense would tell you, then that’s not your path, now is it? And there is nothing wrong with that, at all - but you cant practice being a frog, and claim it’s a deer. It just isn’t - and your insulting both the frog and the deer. Along with anyone with the power of logic, reason and deduction on your way...

This to me, tells me that said ‘practitioners’ don’t actually give a damn about understanding what they are doing, or what they are celebrating, or the histories or origins of what they claim to love and worship - but only the superficial perceived notion of said faith, and their own narcissistic experiences within it. It should be relevant to *me* in *my* time and place and convenience - NOT the actual gods, elements, or culture of the faith of the actual practice. Nope. That’s secondary. I’m first. So I’ll just change everything all around to fit what I think is most comfortable. Yup. 

No. That is incorrect. That is not how religious observance works, regardless of what faith you follow. And that is not how holidays work. Respect them.

[readyplayerhobi]

Starfire | 04

; Hoseok x Reader

; Genre: Science fiction, angst, fluff

; Word Count: 5.2k

; Synopsis: The schism that broke the galaxy began, as it usually does, over a disagreement. The resultant civil war has raged for hundreds of years. When a ragtag group of travellers discovers something that could turn the tide of war, for good or for worse, the bonds of friendship and love will be tested.

; A/N: I know not a lot of people read this but...I hope the ones that do enjoy it! Starfire remains a passion project of mine because I love science fiction so much. This is a ‘transition’ chapter which I felt was needed because the next one will be pretty intense in terms of world building...please reblog, comment and send asks if you enjoyed it because like I said, it’s not well loved but it’s loved by me ;-;

Previous Chapter ; Next Chapter

-

A headache was throbbing at the front of your skull while your eyes were straining, an unfortunate by-product of staring at your screens all day. Namjoon had had you scouring the news feeds to find out what the latest spin on you and your renegade crew was. The journey was long, particularly as you couldn't make any stops and you were tired but you needed to know what was being said.

So far, it was clear that you were all wanted for treason by both sides. Which was ridiculous, as how did you commit treason for both when you belonged to neither?

Still, it was going to be a particularly tough time and you truly felt like an outlaw now. Namjoon had finally pried you away from your computer after 20 hours of intense searching. The Starfire was only a day out from Mikalia now, preparing for the eventual drop out of hyperspace.

None of you truly knew what you could expect when you arrived. For the safety of the whole crew, you had decreed that no one should broadcast your arrival to the planet. If no one knew you were coming, then no one could be seeking you already.

But there were problems that would arise, problems that neither you nor Namjoon truly wanted to acknowledge and yet had to for the sake of everyone. The Starfire would be well known by now. Possibly the most famous ship in the entirety of the galaxy at this point.

At one stage of your life, that would have filled you with pride and excitement; the knowledge that a ship you piloted was so famous and well known. But now it just filled you with dread and fear. Because people weren’t celebrating the Starfire, they weren’t rejoicing in stories of amazing escapes or astonishing flying.

They were hunting for you, the Starfire’s name being spat by billions of people across the known space. Your ship was enemy number one to the two most powerful systems in the history of space exploration and it was a frightening thought. 

Space was a big place and easy to get lost in, yet you were terrified that you were going to be found so easily.

Jungkook had proven to be a remarkable source of information for you all, able to scour his internal memory and produce chunks of information with insurmountable ease. This unnerved some of the crew and they continued to avoid him, but it absolutely fascinated Jisoo and Taehyung.

It had also been useful to you, as Namjoon had also tasked you with finding out as much information about Mikanis as possible. Knowledge would ensure that you all knew the landscape of Mikanis, from its terrain to its politics and much more. None of you ever wanted to walk in blindly again if possible, not after what had happened now.

Once burnt, twice shy and all that.

What you’d discovered had been pretty promising so far, and you almost wanted to congratulate Namjoon on deciding to pick the distant planet as a place to hide. Deep in the Adrestia system, it was far from both UIS and TAS space which meant it was far from their patrols. Their influence was exceptionally weak this far in, and Mikanis was well known as a planet that was outwardly suspicious and hostile to both systems.

It was heavily populated, with a current population teetering on 12 billion who lived in obscenely large megacities that spread across its surface. The climate was inhospitable to the vast majority of the races who lived there, which meant that most of the population lived in the sprawling cities at certain points on the continents.

The space inbetween was taken over by extraordinarily extreme landscapes. Akati, the largest continent, was home to four megacities with a population of over 1 billion in each. The cities were shielded from the harsh environment with top of the line shield technology while the cities themselves had built deeper into the planet as the population grew steadily over the centuries.

Between Kika and Doragi alone, the two cities that were situated in the southern hemisphere, the land was a vast rainforest where a storm raged continuously with winds that could send a person flying. The wildlife here was known to be particularly brutal and unforgiving, raised in the savage winds, unrelenting rain and lightning that ravaged the landscape. 

The northern hemisphere on Akati was a barren wasteland; the land cracked and bone dry from millennia of dehydration and starvation. There hadn’t been any reported wildlife there beyond astonishingly large spider-life creatures that secreted a dangerous poison and were infamously hard to kill

Mikanis was a planet of extremes for sure, and you initially wondered why anyone had bothered to colonise such a place. It was only after further research that you’d discovered it had once held an astonishingly large deposit of ditatanium, an incredible substance that was well known as one of the hardest ever found. 

It was rare and paid well, which was Mikanis had been originally populated as a mining colony for the company Astra Mining Services. It had grown larger and larger until it eventually took on its own identity, soon becoming a stop for anyone who wanted to witness the ravaging wilderness or have a fun time long after the ditatanium had run out in the mines. 

Mikanis had everything you could ever want, and its willingness to engage in what others found distasteful meant it had become home to those who disliked the rules. It was the perfect place to hide from two titans who were searching for you, but that also meant it was dangerous too. 

There would be many people in Mikanis who would see the Starfire and simply see money to be made. You had just as much chance of being turned in, or killed, for the bounties on your heads as you did at being protected.

One person might see you as a way to stick two fingers up to the system. The one next to them might see you as a ticket to a good and easy life.

Shifting in your chair as you stretched, bones popping and cracking in your body from the movement, you let out a deep groan before resting your head back on the cushioned surface. The chair was made from long term use, the gel like substance beneath the supple faux-leather soft and providing excellent support to your body.

There were straps set into the chair that would automatically move around you when necessary to keep you in place, such as a rapid deceleration or if the artificial gravity went offline. It was also useful when in combat situations in case the Starfire was attacked. You’d been too busy last time to notice it.

But right now, the chair just felt hard and uncomfortable. You wanted to leave the seat and walk around; run, fight, do anything other than sit and stare at the damn screen in front of you any longer. It was making your eyes strain and hurt, which was something that shouldn’t even be possible anymore but there you have it.

“Find anything?” Namjoon called, causing you to swivel around to face him. He looked just as tired, dark shadows under his eyes making it look like he hadn’t slept in a week. Maybe he hadn’t.

As far as you knew, Namjoon had spent his own time going through all the crew members while also going over the battle you’d had, running over all the information until it was imprinted in his mind. He’d wanted to know where everything had gone wrong, you knew that. Namjoon had read over the contract itself probably a million times by now, wondering if there was some get-out clause hidden deep within it that he could use to strong arm the TAS into letting you all go.

But it was ironclad, you knew that. The UIS knew about the existence of Jungkook, which meant the TAS would wash their hands of you quicker than it took them to breathe. You were on your own.

“No. The subspace messages coming in don’t mention us, but we don’t have access to them all right now. I don’t want us to try and look at any UIS or TAS streams in case it accidentally alerts them to us somehow. They may have a track on our signal and it might cause us to flag up if we try and access anything of theirs.” You say sadly, pressing the palms of your hands to your eyes in annoyance.

“Shit.” Namjoon said. Simple, but true.

“What about your mysterious contact? Are they going to help us or are they going to sell us out? Because I’m just saying, if I’m going to die then I’d rather we just vent the ship and go that way. I’m not a fan of being laser blasted. I might not die immediately, and that would just be painful and suck ass. Although...is it quicker to die in space? Maybe not...maybe we can get Jin to get the core to go into meltdown or something.” You muse to yourself, finger tapping at your lip idly as you scan the ceiling of the bridge. 

There’s no need to look at Namjoon to know that he’s probably rolling his eyes so hard that he’s giving himself a headache. It was your job to be his professional headache. His reliable shoulder to cry on, the one who was capable of running the ship in his absence but also being a big ol’ headache in that pretty head of his.

You can practically hear the movement, even though it doesn’t actually make any noise. You’ve just known him that long.

“I don’t think she’ll sell us out. She’s never been like that before. And she owes me...kinda.” His voice quieted a little, causing your brow to raise as you finally looked at him. He steadfastly avoids your gaze, a flicker of amusement lighting in you at the sight of him looking so awkward.

“She?” The question is implicit in your tone and you watch as Namjoon’s cheeks flush slightly, leading you to believe that this contact is more than you originally thought. But then again, you should have realised it was someone more important than just a mere casual contact; he’d only be taking the Starfire to someone he trusted.

“Yeah,” He paused, almost unwilling but the narrowing of your eyes had him sighing deeply. His reluctance to give her name causes you to tense up slightly, wondering if this is someone you hate. There’s not many people in the galaxy you hate, but someone Namjoon seems to know them all. “Chungha.”

There’s a moment of silence as you stare at him before a bark of laughter leaves you, the smile spreading over your face as you lean forward until your elbows rest on your knees. “Chungha? The Chungha? The Chungha who almost blew your head off last time we saw her because you told her that her EVA suit made her thighs look big.”

“She asked me if they did and I responded honestly!” He countered, defensive outrage in his voice. It causes you to laugh even harder, causing Jungkook to turn his head and watch you both with widened eyes from where he sits quietly at Taehyung’s console.

“Yeah, and you don’t ever respond with yes you idiot! Particularly with a Cheongari! You’re lucky she let you live. And you genuinely think she’s going to help us?” You stand, arms gesticulating as you stare at your captain in confusion. He’s not normally this stupid, but maybe he’d just made the decision on a whim. 

It’s not like he’d had chance to properly think it out really, so maybe you should cut him some slack. Then again, he’s had a while since to reassess his situation.

The last time you’d seen Chungha had been three years ago, when you’d crossed paths on Iath Station. She was ridiculously beautiful and graceful, but the blood red eyes and ice blonde hair gave away her race quickly. The Cheongari were infamous for their quick tempers, but you knew that they also retained strong loyalty to those they considered friends. Maybe Namjoon wasn’t being an idiot.

If she was still angry with Namjoon, then there was still the chance that she might help out for you. You’d done absolutely nothing to piss the frightening yet insanely attractive woman and you liked to think that she still thought of you fondly. Even if you hadn’t hung out all that much.

“Yes, I do. Because Chungha and I grew up together. I saved her life once and that creates a blood debt for a Cheongari.” The way Namjoon shifts awkwardly in his comfortable command chair has you looking at him in suspicion. There’s more to this story, you can just tell. Namjoon never could hide anything from you.

“There’s more though. What is it? I didn’t really have a lot to do with her last time. In fact...it was mainly you who talked to her. I also don’t like the idea of you strong arming her into doing something just because of some blood debt. What’s to stop her from bending us all over and fucking us harder than we’ve ever been fucked as soon as she considers that debt over?.” Walking over to him, you rest your hip against his console as he leans back in his chair, shoulders moving inwards in an effort to make himself smaller. It doesn’t work.

He coughs slightly, running his fingers along his throat and looking at Rose’s empty console in yet another vain attempt to avoid your attention. “We have...history. Romantic history.”

“Oh damn, you banged her?” Without even realising you’re nodding in approval. Chungha is beautiful and you don’t often see Namjoon engaging in sexual or romantic relations with others. It was almost...nice to know that he had done. 

“Don’t be crass. We were together for a few years when I was younger and...well, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still have feelings for her. And I’m pretty sure it’s the same way with her. She wouldn’t have reacted so angrily last time,” He lifts his hand to stop any words that might come from you. “I know, I know. I was an idiot.”

“So, she’s not going to want you dead then, right? That’s the main point? What will she think of Jungkook?” You gesture to the android where he sits. He’s been pretty silent for the whole time you’ve been here, content to simply watch the map that showed the Starfire’s course to Mikanis. He said that he liked watching the maps, which was oddly sweet and made you want to coo at him.

The pilot himself was napping in his room and you considered it a sign of how much you could trust Jungkook that Taehyung was happy to leave him alone at his console. Particularly considering Jungkook could take control of the Starfire easily from there and mess everything up if he so wanted.

A rather terrifying thought if you focused on it, but you shake your head. Jungkook wouldn’t do that. You trusted him.

“I don’t know. How is anyone supposed to know what they’d think about an AI? Hopefully, she’ll be supportive of us. I know that she’s got contacts on Mikanis that are useful. She moved there two years ago and we’ve kept in contact, if sporadically. She’s pretty high up in one of the big weapons companies there.” It made sense for a Cheongari. They were renowned for their warring abilities and their weapons mastery was phenomenal. 

An ideal friend to have. A horrible enemy though.

“That’s great. Hopefully she’ll help us, though I don’t even know what help we want right now. What are we gonna do about the Starfire though? As soon as we enter the atmosphere they’re gonna know it’s us. I mean, for starters we have our name on the side. And secondly, our signature blatantly lists us as the Starfire. Anyone with half a brain could scan us and we’ll show up on whatever list they’ve put us on.”

Before either of you can say anything, the soft and gentle tones of Jungkook’s voice interrupt you both. It makes you jump slightly, not having realised that he was listening properly. His eyes were bright with the reflection of the map in front of him, neon colours paling his skin slightly in the darkened light of the bridge.

He looked pretty, innocent even.

“I can help with that. I’m pretty sure I can at least.” He sounds hesitant and unsure, as if you might snap at him. Some of the crew still found his presence disturbing and there was a little outright hostility from a few of them still lingering, making him withdraw into himself. Understandable from them, given that they were on the verge of losing everything.

But it was still not his fault, not really.

“You can? How?” You ask, brow creasing as you look at Namjoon for a second. He shrugs and makes a face at you, evidently as unsure about what Jungkook was saying as you were. Turning back, you look at the android as he stares back at you both.

Jungkook looks so young as he sits there, those pretty eyes of his wide while his fingers play with the ends of his shirt in a rather human gesture. “I can change the identification code of the Starfire to something else, so we show as a different ship. I’ve already identified an unused code that we could use, you would just need to provide a new name. It may take me a few hours as I will need to go through every system to change this code in case anyone takes a deeper look. I can’t change the name on the outer, but I presume that you may have some way to resolve that issue?”

Your eyes widen as you nod slowly. Jisoo and Jin would be able to go outside once the ship dropped out of hyperspace and erase the name from the side, removing any hint that this was the Starfire. It was a little painful to imagine the beautiful ship without her name anymore, but you all knew who she really was.

“How...how do you know how to do that?” The question is unsure, but you feel like you need to know. Jungkook was still a mystery to everyone, including himself, but if he could prove to be a useful member of the crew then there was a chance that the others might accept him quicker. And that you might have a chance of getting out of this whole thing alive somehow.

“You mentioned it earlier and I decided to research this through...my memory to see if it was possible. It is illegal. But I don’t think that we care about that right now, right?” He pauses, trying to figure out the correct terminology and your heart twists at the confusion in his face. Looking at Namjoon, you shrug as your mouth twists.

“No, I don’t think we do. Your call captain, she’s your ship.” Namjoon looks pained at the thought of his beloved Starfire losing her name and you reach for his shoulder, rubbing slightly in sympathy. “It’s okay, we all know who the ol’ girl is. That’s what matters. I’m sure Jungkook can change her back once everything’s sorted.”

A quick look at Jungkook has him nodding in acknowledgement, causing you to smile. He looks adorably eager to please, and you’re positive that he is. It must be awfully frustrating to feel so useless, particularly when he didn’t even really know himself.

Namjoon sighs heavily before nodding, running his hand over his eyes. “Okay. Do it. Change the name to...Fury.” His last word is biting and you get the sense that he’s got a lot of anger bubbling underneath his tiredness. You’re not surprised; betrayal, almost death and a universe changing secret can do that.

“Sounds good,” You say with a strained smile. “I’m gonna head off to sleep then. I think you should do the same Namjoon. We want to be fresh when we arrive. No one wants to make mistakes because they’re tired, we’ve done all we can do for now.” 

He nods at your words, giving you a strained smile. You head over to Jungkook before leaving, crouching down next to him and giving him a soft smile as you rest a hand on his firm thigh. His eyes follow you the whole time, taking in everything you do with that calm demeanour he always seems to exude.

“Are you okay?” You ask, voice gentle with him as you watch his face closely. It’s almost strange, even eerie, how lifelike and human his looks and movements are. His brow creases so slightly; the skin there wrinkling while his dark eyebrows pull inwards and his lips purse into a thoughtful pout.

The very fact that he’s a working AI is a marvel of technology, but the sheer amount of work that must have gone into him to make him so utterly indistinguishable from a human being is mind boggling. If this is just one of the things that TAS is doing behind closed doors then you dread to think what else they could be creating.

“I think so. I don’t…” Jungkook trails off, his eyes skittering away from yours as his lower lip disappears between his teeth, chewing absentmindedly in his nerves. You give him an encouraging smile, squeezing his thigh gently to let him know it’s okay. It’s bizarre how his thigh feels like real muscles beneath your touch. “I don’t want people to get hurt for me. I’ll try, for you all. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

His voice goes whisper soft, strained slightly with a multitude of emotions that you’re positive he’s struggling with. You can’t even imagine what it must be like for him, trying to come to terms with emotions that he doesn’t understand because he hasn’t had time to understand them.

Sighing, you place your free hand on his arm and rub at it soothingly, giving him a gentle smile of reassurance. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay. People are still just...scared and upset right now. But once we have a proper plan of what to do, they’ll feel safer and be happier. You doing this for us, changing the Starfire’s codes...it’ll mean a lot that you’ve helped out. They’re good people and I know you’re good too, even if I don’t know you too well just yet.”

“I don’t know me too well.” He mutters, glaring down at his hands. They fist slightly and you watch in awe as the skin pales the clenched points, exactly how a real person would. Tendons bulge slightly in his wrist and arm as he does so and you trail a finger over them without meaning to, wondering if perhaps it’s something metal beneath.

But it gives way to your touch, just like the real thing and you can’t help the smile that spreads over your face as you look up at him.

“That’s fine. None of us really know ourselves properly, that makes you human. You...you shouldn’t exist, not really. But you do, and you’re here worried about other people when you’ll be the one to outlive all of us for a long time I think. Don’t focus on others Jungkook. You’re new to the world and I think you need to focus on yourself, figure out yourself a little more. Find out what makes Jungkook, Jungkook. You are as real to me as anyone else on this ship, and despite what anyone says, they’d all protect you.” He licks at his lips, looking away and back at the screen.

“I’m just a machine though. I’m more like the Starfire than you.” You tut as you stand, brushing off your legs and giving him a bright smile as you wag your finger at him.

“Now now, none of that. I’ll have you know that we all adore the Starfire and consider her part of the family too. You may be a machine, but that doesn’t mean you’re not a person, okay? You’re...you’re our little brother and we’re going to protect you like one. Family.” The words are stern and Jungkook just stares up at you, those big eyes so full of hope in what you’re telling him.

He gives a slight nod to you, acknowledging what you’d said with the tiniest smile as his cheeks flush before he turns back towards Taehyung’s screen. Without saying anything more, his fingers begin to dance over the console and you watch for a couple of seconds longer as he starts to complete the task he set himself.

Walking over to the exit, you glance at Namjoon and see the way his lips curve up in amusement at the whole interaction. His brow raises slowly before he gives you a thumbs up, causing you to roll your eyes in embarrassment before leaving.

After all those hours of research and planning, you were beyond tired and you could already feel a headache beginning to form at the back of your eyes. Rubbing at your forehead, you contemplated for a moment going to get a drink before deciding that you just wanted to fall into bed.

But it’s not your bed that you go to exactly.

The door to Hoseok’s room opens with the softest noise and you enter slowly, taking stock of the sight that was before you. A sight that hadn’t changed for the last few days whenever you had come in here. Dim lighting let you see his peaceful expression as he slept and you felt the strongest urge to cuddle up to him and just disappear into the abyss of sleep with him. 

So you did, slipping your shoes off and lifting the covers before sliding next to his warm body, careful to avoid knocking the wires that kept check of him and were hooked up to the mediocre medical machine the Starfire had. It was all that was keeping Hoseok hydrated and sustained with nourishment so far, but you were grateful for it either way.

Resting your head on his firm chest, you close your eyes and focus on the steady beating of his heart along with the gentle rise and fall under your cheek. He smelt like home, and it sent a sliver of safety and comfort to slide through your veins.

“Starfire, activate galaxy setting. Excalibur Nebula. Whole room.” Your words are quiet yet the response of the computer onboard the Starfire was immediate. For a second, you wondered if you would need to start calling her Fury to get the computer to respond, but it vanishes a moment later.

As you watch, the entirety of Hoseok's room suddenly goes dark before the tiny projectors embedded into the walls, ceiling and floor activated. The twisting purple and blue gas of the Excalibur Nebula stretched across the wall in front of you, billions upon billions of stars twinkling prettily inside its extraordinary mass and providing the perfect background.

It was your home system, where your planet was located and where Hoseok and you had grown up so long ago. Maybe the reminder, as subtle as it was, would help Hoseok to wake. Or at least give him pleasant dreams. It made you feel better, being surrounded by the space that you had grown up with.

Nuzzling your nose into Hoseok's shoulder, you sigh heavily and run your fingers over his flat stomach in a motion that would probably be pleasant and reassuring for him if he was awake, but it was also soothing to you right now. Just being with him made you feel like you could get things accomplished.

“I wish you were awake Hoseok. We're in a whole world of shit. The entire galaxy wants us dead now...well...most of it anyway. And can you believe it's because of Jungkook??” Your voice is quiet but incredulous.

“He's an AI, a real and functioning self-aware AI. He walks and talks and cries like a human but he's all machine. It's fascinating and horrible to know we could die because of him. Jimin still thinks we should kill him, but there's no point because the TAS know we know about him and so do the UIS. We're fucked. It's not his fault though. He's like a child, so innocent and wide eyed. Curious about everything and he tries so hard to be liked right now. I think you’d like him. I know he'd like you.” For a moment you stay quiet, letting your cheek squish against him before sighing.

You don’t know why you’re repeating this to him, but you need someone to vent to. Someone to just think about things with and let you get out your concerns and frustrations. Hoseok would have responded if he’d been awake, letting you talk to your heart's content.

“Maybe it's better you're not awake. Then you won't have to put up with this too. It's stressful,” You pause a moment before laughing. “I kind of wish we could just run away to Hekasus. Just...go back and get a home, get married and pop out a few cute kids. They'd have beautiful smiles and eyes from you along with your Magi talents and my smart mouth.”

You reach out to faintly trace over a pretty strand of violet gas.

“I miss when we were younger. Do you regret it? That we didn't act on our feelings then? I know we were young and it's not approved of with young Magi but...I kind of regret not staying. But then we would never have found the Starfire and our family. Still...I wish I'd at least kissed you that night instead of running off. There's never been anyone but you though, even if I tried for a while. And if I know Magi...I feel you may have been the same.”

Because it was true really. Magi only fell in true love once, and they never left it. The dancing you'd both done for years had been teasing, but deep down you both knew that you were both it for each other.

And Hoseok’s heartbreak in his dream talk had let you see the truth. This incredible man had likely been in love with you since he was 16, and you wanted to go back in time and slap yourself for missing out on all those years with him.

You sigh deeply, wrapping your arm around his chest tighter. “I'm sorry. I love you. Please wake up soon so I can tell you in person. Please. I need you.”

The soft and constant sound of Hoseok's breath is all you can hear as you drift off slowly; a galaxy surrounding you, a comforting presence in your arms and the sweet memories of a childhood love making your dreams pleasant for once.

[gumnut-logic]

Rescue Number Five

Title: Rescue Number Five

Author: Gumnut

28 - 29 Aug 2019

Fandom: Thunderbirds Are Go 2015/ Thunderbirds TOS

Rating: Teen

Summary: He just wanted ice cream.

Word count: 2741

Spoilers & warnings: Plotless Virgil whump, I’m sorry :D

Timeline: Standalone

Author’s note: This is for @melmac78 for her birfday and for inadvertently inspiring it with this comment regarding my brain fry of late – ‘no need to collapse for it... save the fainting bit for Virgil stories. 😊’ Many thanks to @vegetacide for adding the ice cream to this and also for her wonderful support while I sob all over fandom with my woes :D (In fact, you’ve all been lovely regarding my whimpering, thank you ever so much for being such a wonderful fandom to play in). The only downside is that this fic reflects my current lack of brain and is little more than a scene with very little purpose other than to play with the above two prompt points :D I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Disclaimer: Mine? You’ve got to be kidding. Money? Don’t have any, don’t bother.

-o-o-o-

Rescue number five.

In twelve hours.

Non-stop.

Thunderbird Two hovered above a parkland in the middle of a city, right next to a stadium.

It was hot. The middle of the Australian summer. Midday.

The stadium was on fire.

A eucalypt stood at the entrance, its leaves alight and burning fiercely. The local MFS were well into the conflagration, but there was a serviceman stranded high up in one of the huge lights far above the grandstand.

That was why he was here.

Scott was on his way over. He wasn’t really needed, but he had ranted about those last twelve hours and claimed Virgil needed back up.

Virgil needed sleep.

He was hot, sweaty and he stunk. Hot weather was the theme for the southern hemisphere and today’s array of rescues. One on each major southern continent, bar Antarctica, one in New Zealand, just for a little backyard fun and this was the second one in Australia. Good old burn your ass off Australian summer, now thirty percent hotter thanks to climate change.

Antarctica was looking more attractive by the second.

But then give that continent another fifty years of that climate change and it might be positively balmy.

But, yes, stadium, on fire.

Rescuing someone from a high point in a relatively open area was no difficulty. Virgil swung himself and a harness out underneath his beautiful ‘bird and snagged the man from his perch. No injuries. Actually, the man was quite happy. Kept babbling on about meeting International Rescue and doing a great fanboy interpretation.

Usually, Virgil would have smiled graciously and let the man babble. But today, his head was aching and, to be honest, maybe Scott was right. Maybe he did need back up.

So this fan didn’t get much of a smile, just a few polite words from a very tired man.

He must have picked up on it, because his expression became concerned as Virgil helped him unstrap the harness once they were safely aboard Two.

“You okay, man?”

“I’m good. Are you sure you are uninjured?”

The guy shrugged. “I’m fine, thanks to you. Say, can I get your autograph? You are Virgil Tracy, aren’t you?”

“Uh, yeah, um, I guess.”

He got a good stare for that intellectual response.

“I’m sorry, sir, it has been a long day. I will land Thunderbird Two and we can get you seen to.”

“I’m fine, Mr Tracy.” Another frown. “But I’m not sure you are. You’re looking kinda pale.”

He so didn’t have time for this. Turning away, he didn’t answer, simply leading the rescuee to the cockpit. He made sure the man was strapped in and then took Two out of her hover and banked to land in a clearing outside the stadium.

Her landing gear clunked onto the lawn as smooth as ever and his ‘bird came to a rest.

Virgil let himself sink just that little more into his seat in sympathy.

The briefest of moments and then he was up and hustling the rescuee onto the hatch and lowering it onto the grass.

As always, a crowd had gathered at the sight of the great green Thunderbird, and Virgil had to beckon over the emergency services to assist the man protesting his health.

Another moment and Virgil was free of him and raising the hatch to shut the world out.

He technically could go home now, but...stadium, on fire.

It took two hours to put it out.

By the time the last of the smouldering was killed off, it was obvious that it was deliberately lit. Some asshole had lit a fire that had injured children.

Virgil was glad he had been called in because he had managed to save those children. A school group had been trapped and it had taken Virgil’s exo-suit to get them out. There were burns, tears and screaming, but they were all alive.

And the fire was out.

God, he was hot.

He didn’t have his fire suit with him. It was a forty-degree Celsius day and, well, fire was hot. He was currently standing waiting to report to the fire chief. Scott had arrived halfway through the rescue and was fielding the media on the other side of the park. Scott hated the media, but he had more patience at this moment than Virgil.

More of everything.

His exo-suit was heavy.

His shoulders were aching. In fact, all his joints were aching. There had been a point there where a roof had collapsed on him, but since it was the second roof today, he shook it off.

He just wanted to go home.

The fire chief was still talking to someone else.

He could interrupt.

“John, can we do a delayed incident report? I’m really tired.”

“Virgil?” He could hear the frown in John’s voice. It was an out of character request. Virgil was always pedantic about onsite communications in large multi-service incidents. “You okay?”

“I’m hot, tired and I haven’t had a chance to pee for the last five hours. Can I go home now?” There was an itch under his baldric that he knew he wouldn’t be able to reach. He could swear, but if he started, he didn’t think he could stop and extreme profanity wasn’t a role model thing.

“I will compile a report for the Adelaide Metropolitan Fire Service. You are officially free to go, Virgil.”

Thank god. “Great. Launch in five.”

He turned away from the huddle of fire specialists and took a step in the direction of his ‘bird. Every joint creaked.

His eyes passed a pink trailer.

Pink? His brain immediately delivered Lady Penelope as a first thought, but no, it was an ice cream truck.

Ice cream.

Cold, creamy, probably with chocolate, ice cream.

He needed ice cream.

If his sight narrowed to that pink truck, it was only because he was so hot and in need of the cool touch of iced confectionery.

Cool.

To be cool.

He was halfway there when the truck doubled. Wha-?

He stopped, his suit wheezing.

“Virgil?” John’s voice sounded worried. “Virgil, respond.”

“Uh?” He tried to raise his hand to his head, but it was trapped in the claw of his suit. It took a moment of thought to work out why.

“Virgil! I’m contacting Scott.”

Why? What for? He screwed up his eyes. God, now he was dizzy. So damned hot.

He needed some ice cream.

Ice cream.

A step and he was wobbling. He flung out an arm, attempting to keep his balance, but his arm was a giant claw and instead, it took him over.

The ground was hard.

His suit was heavy.

It hurt.

Too much.

He didn’t hear two brothers yelling his name.

-o-o-o-

Scott hated the press.

They always wanted the dirt, not the facts, the gossip, not the truth. It took everything to not explode in front of them.

“Mr Tracy, was International Rescue needed at this incident because the MFS just couldn’t meet the need?”

“International Rescue is available to assist in any extreme circumstance. This was such a circumstance and is not reflective on the efficiency of your fire service. Without your fire service many lives would have been lost today.”

“But why were you needed if the MFS could do the job?”

“An extra helping hand never hurts.”

“Thunderbird One?” John’s voice cut over the cacophony of reporters. “Thunderbird Two needs your assistance.”

The press immediately caught onto that with various versions of ‘what’s happening?’ and ‘where’s Virgil Tracy?’ popping up amongst the crowd.

He ignored them all. There was something in John’s voice.

He excused himself and, to the sound of their protests, turned away from the media and strode purposefully in the direction of the green bulk of TB2 in the distance.

“John, report.”

“Virgil...I’m not happy with his vitals. His heartrate is up, his body temperature is high and I’m not getting a very coherent response from him.”

Doing the obvious math in his head, Scott broke into a run. “Where is he?”

“He’s still wearing his suit. Approximately fifty metres at your one o’clock.” John swore. “He’s down and not responding.”

Shit.

A moment and Scott could see his brother, face down on the grass. Several people were milling around him, but no one was actually doing anything.

Scott’s grimy uniform got twin streaks of green as he slid to his knees beside his brother. “Virgil?” The exo-suit was heavy and Scott was hard put to turn him over. Virgil was pale and limp, his forehead resting against the plexiglass of his helmet. “Virgil?!”

“John, give me the numbers.”

His brother ranted off Virgil’s vitals. Overheating? Exhaustion? Hidden injury? Goddamnit, Virgil!

“Sc-t?”

Pale eyelashes were blinking ever so slowly.

“Virgil, are you injured?”

“Huh?” His brother attempted to sit up and frowned when he couldn’t. “Wha’ happen’d?” Another blink. “Hot.”

The sun was beating down on them. They needed to get into the shade. A crowd was gathering. They needed to get out of here.

“Ice cream. Wan’ ice cream.” Virgil frowned and rolled over, got his knees under him, pushed himself to his feet and wavered...

Scott leapt up and caught him before he could fall on his face again. “Virg, what the hell?”

“Want ice cream.” His eyes were glazed and it was obvious his brother wasn’t thinking straight.

“C’mon, we’ll get you back to Two and you can have as much ice cream as you like when we get home.”

“Want ice cream now.” A claw swung around and Scott had to back out of the way. Shit.

“Hey, hey, Virg, wouldn’t it be easier to get ice cream without the suit on?” The eyes of the crowd were on both of them. This could go from bad to very bad very quickly.

“Suit?”

Scott took a step closer to his brother. “C’mon, Virg, I’ll help you out.” He reached towards the suit controls, his fingers dancing over the release.

His brother gasped as the suit came free. Without the leg supports, its entire weight would be on his arms.

“Let it go, Virgil.” Scott grabbed the shoulder supports, taking some of the strain. “Let it go and we can get some ice cream.”

“Ice cream?” His brother let go.

The suit fell one way, Virgil the other. It was only some fancy footwork on Scott’s part that enabled him to catch his brother.

The crowd scampered backwards as the suit hit the ground.

Virgil groaned as Scott caught him, stumbling, attempting to stay upright and failing. Scott was hard put to keep both of them on their feet. “Virg, we need to get you into the shade.”

“Need ice cream.” He attempted to push past Scott, but nearly ended up on his face again.

Scott hung onto him. “Virgil!” His brother was heavy and his struggling didn’t help.

“Ice cream. Need to cool down.”

“We can cool you down on Two.”

“Ice cream. Please, Scott, need ice cream. Too hot.” He tried to wrench himself free, but his knees gave way, Scott stumbled and they both went down, Scott barely managing to catch his brother before he face-planted in the grass.

“God, Virg.” If this was heatstroke, which Scott was pretty sure it was, it could become life threatening.

“Sir?” An ice cream was held out, a young woman offering it.

Scott had never been more grateful for an offering in his life. “Thank you, ma’am. Virg, look, some ice cream.” He held it where his brother could see it, offering it like a parent to a distraught child.

“Ice cream?” On his hands and knees Virgil looked up hopefully, his eyes still glazed. Scott reached over, unclipped his helmet and gently tugged it off. Virgil’s eyes closed as the heat of the day touched his skin. “Sc-t?”

Virgil collapsed before Scott could catch him, slumping onto his side.

The ice cream was hurriedly passed back to the woman. “John, vitals!” Virgil’s skin was hot to the touch. Scott didn’t hesitate, hooking his hands under Virgil’s arms and dragging him into the shade of the nearest tree.

The crowd followed.

The numbers John threw at him were even worse than before. “You need one of the ambulance crews, Scott. I’m contacting them now.”

Scott couldn’t help but agree. Deft hands hurriedly started removing Virgil’s baldric and paraphernalia. By the time several paramedics reached them, he was unzipping his uniform, hurriedly yanking off the heavily padded material and exposing his black undershirt.

Efficient words were exchanged. Virgil’s boots were removed, socks, and with a further yank, his uniform pants.

The sounds of phone camera’s taking pictures hurt. “John.” He spat his brother’s name over comms almost under his breath. “Privacy protocol, fifty metre radius.”

“FAB.”

The advantages of an AI on the team were many. As Scott attended his brother, he knew Eos was all around them, slipping into phones and cameras, silently stealing away any and all photographs of their prone family member.

During all of this, Virgil did not stir at all.

The paramedics were efficient and within minutes, his brother was prepped for transport to the Royal Adelaide Hospital, little more than a kilometre away.

With a word to John to secure the Thunderbirds, Scott climbed into the back of an ambulance with his brother.

-o-o-o-

He was floating.

In ice cream.

Floating in ice cream?

He frowned. That couldn’t be right.

Could it?

His skin was cool, but not cold. Not cold enough.

Not ice cream.

He startled awake to the sounds of a busy hospital, his hands splashing in water?

“Hey, hey, Virgil, it’s okay. You’re safe.”

“Scott?” Ow, ow, ow, headache. What the hell? “What?” He squeezed his eyes shut, a hand rubbing a medicated smelling liquid onto his face. Ugh. A number of blinks as his brain came online and he realised he was floating in a tub of that same medical smelling stuff.

“I am so glad you are finally awake.”

More blinking and his eldest brother’s blue eyes came into focus. “What the hell happened?”

“Heatstroke, my dear little brother.”

Dear, little brother? His brain was just functioning enough to realise he was in shit deeper than the bath he was lying in. “What did I do?” A cough and he cleared his throat.

Scott handed him a cup with a plastic straw. “Drink. You need it.”

Short, sharp, caring but ominous. “What the hell did I do?”

“What do you remember?”

Another blink and he forced his brain back. “Work. Lots of work.”

“Would it hurt you to call in your brothers for help?”

“It was only one rescue!”

“It was five!”

“It just happened! People needed help. I helped!”

“You nearly killed yourself!”

Virgil stared at his brother. “What?”

“You overheated. You worked too hard. You know the symptoms. Why didn’t you stop?”

“I...” A frown. “I didn’t realise...”

“When was the last time you ate?”

“I...” Another frown. God, his head hurt.

“Exactly.”

“Um...”

“Why do you do this, Virgil?”

He stared at his brother. Scott was scared. Shit. What did he do? “What did I do?”

His brother mirrored his frown. “Virgil?”

“I’m sorry.” Whatever he did, he was sorry to have caused that expression on his brother’s face.

“Sorry is not enough!”

“Mr Tracy!”

Virgil jumped as a woman in white appeared at the end of his...bath, and rounded on Scott. “Your brother is ill. Please save your reprimands for later.”

Virgil blinked as a series of emotions rippled across Scott’s profile before he turned back to face him. His brother didn’t acknowledge the woman, simply turning his back to her. It was so unlike Scott to be that impolite that Virgil had the urge to climb out of the bath to comfort him.

“Scott, it’s going to be okay.” He reached out a wet hand and grabbed tense fingers, gripping them as if to massage the stress away. Fluid dripped on blue uniform.

“Yes, it will. And you will take better care of yourself.”

“Okay.” A slow blink and his eyelids were hard to open again. Scott was still staring at him with those worried elder brother eyes. “Where’s my ‘bird?”

“Where you left it. John has her secured.”

“Good.” It would be so easy to just go back to sleep.

“Go back to sleep, Virgil.”

“Uh-hmm.”

“You can rest now.”

“Mmm...” A frown. “Scott?’

“Yes, Virgil?”

“ Umm...can I have some ice cream?”

-o-o-o-

[littlemessyjessi]

“Come In and Sit For A Spell”: Summer Magic Ideas!

Hello, smoochies! Welcome to my witchy weirdness! Now, disclaimer here:  I do not claim to know everything or anything.  I don’t claim that my way is the right way or the wrong.  This is just my way that works for me and I thought I’d share it with you.  Feel free to tweak it to your own needs but lord, here we go. If you’d like to read more of the Witchy Weirdness series, you can find the masterlist HERE  :)

Hello, smoochies!

Summer is upon us and Litha is quickly approaching!

So while today's post is not a spotlight post on Litha, it IS a post on activities you can do to improve and enhance you during the warmer months!

For the northern hemisphere at least, lol.

If you're in the southern hemisphere and experiencing fall and winter....then I am JEALOUS because those are my favorite, lol.

I'm over here dying in Tennessee.

Pray for my soul.

So here are a few things you can do to work WITH the summer heat.

My absolute FAVORITE thing to do is to make sun candles.

I use anything from spare bits of wax, to the last bits of candles, to even crayons!

I put it in a container of your choosing and place it in a warm sunny spot where the sun can melt it all.

I don't really recommend glass unless you're using canning jars that are made to with stand heat but you could always use a thick plastic that's heat safe or use my method.

The sand candle.

I fill a container with sand, divy out the shape of my candle and pack it tight to 'seal' and then place in my wax.

Then again, I'm not a perfectionist and I don't have to have it a certain way.

If you are, that's totally cool too.

I also, do this with tea lights as well.    

Just set them in the sun and let it melt and place in your herbs and stuff.

Another thing to try is Sun Tea.

It's literally so easy.

Just get a container, fill with water and add tea bags.

Let the sun heat up the water and steep it all together.

It takes some patience but man, I love it and it's very eco friendly as well!

Of course, add your sweetener if you want, btw.

Another, warm weather friendly thing I like to do is herb drying.

I love to garden so there's no shocker there and I've always found it much more preferable to grow my own herbs than to buy them.

It's by far cheaper too.

You can also make dried fruit suncatchers by slicing your fruit and threading it through to dry it out.

Also, you can dye things naturally with the 'sun tea' method.

I think my Ostara/ Spring Equinox post has some dye concoctions for dyeing easter eggs that will work for this too.

However, I love saving my purple onion peels and making a deep dye with them.

Put them in, fill with water, put in garment and leave in sun.  

You can always add salt or sometimes vinegar for locking it in.

Now, it will smell a bit to begin with, lol.

However, a few goes in the wash and it's all dandy.

You can also get out on the sidewalk with your chalk and draw runes and symbols!

Harvest some wild flowers and natural herbs on a nature walk!  

Find local festivals!

Go camping- be it outside or just in your living room!

Try things with lemons, honey, citrus and berries!

Try your hand at some crock pot bread if you have one!

All the tastiness of homemade bread but without the blistering heat of the oven.

Also, considering planting a cactus for a slow spell.  

For example, a spell for long lasting health.

They tend to grow kinda slow and are pretty resistant to many things.

Hard to kill and very resilent.

Also, something that seems to be common in the summer are those seasonal rains.

Collect that rain water!

Oh and storm water is a amazing for adding an additional zap or charge to a spell.

And you can also use it for cleansing!

I collect it. Strain any bugs or anything out. Add my soaps.

Then I wash my car with it all the time in the summer since it's not cold and it won't freeze while it sets outside.

I also gather it and use it to water my plants.

They love it!!!

I've had the pleasure of experiencing both of these types of weather today since it has been hot and humid all day long with a blazing sun.

However, not it is raining heavily with thunder and lightning.

Thor blessed me well!  

So for example, I have my rain barrels attached to the drain spots which are linked to the gutters on my house.

This catches rain and filters it down.

I also have a few buckets always sitting around outside when it's like this to catch water.

So it happens to be the same buckets that I leave water out for any random strays, lol.

You can modify it with jars, cups, bowls or whatever you like.

Also, sometimes (if it's not lightning).... I literally go take a bath in the rain.

Now, I happen to live out in the country and I only do this in the backyard where there is a huge field and a tree line, lol.

I also don't do this stark naked but in a swim suit but it's a very literal and liberal spiritual cleanse.

Absolutely amazing.

Highly reccommend.

With proper safety precautions, of course.  

I hope you enjoy those things, smoochies and if you have any, don't be shy and leave them in the comments!  

If ya liked this post and want to see more like it please be sure to tell me in the comment section!  If you have a request for Witchy Weirdness, don’t be shy! Send in a request through the ask box and I’ll see what I can do!  

Happy Reading!  A most prosperous working and an awesome day!

Taglist : Strikethrough means that the username ya gave me isn’t working.

@frankie2902 @pleasantdreamqueen @becrazy–beyou

@jimmys-afterlife-love @the-great-irene @fanfictionandjunk @angelus320

@alanlizzingtonshore @buriednurbckyrd @disneymarina @tubbypeachwriting

@sullybot @blackirisposts @georgiagrl1990 @whenallsaidanddone

@littledeadrottinghood @blackirisposts @therealmrshale @woodworthti666 @mischiefnevermanaged94

@inumorph

Love,

Kennysaurus

[ilegnangeli]

Random May Thought #3

The monsoon season is almost upon us. I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for rain. I was born in September. I’m used to the monsoon season breaking my heart because it’s almost always raining on my birthday but I never get used to it, I don’t love it.

I am sat right in front of our window as I stare at the cloudy grey skies. Our family’s group chat is full of pictures of the skies and I kinda actually don’t miss the cerulean skies right now—specifically because I’ve been praying for rain for some time now. It’s just so hot in the Philippines. I guess everywhere else in the world, too. At least in the northern hemisphere. It must be nice to be somewhere in the southern hemisphere right now. I know these are conflicting statements BUT I would love it if it rained right now. But I don’t like the rain, okay? Lol

Anyway, this week was full of surprises. I got transferred to a different section. Praise God! Fr, I’ve been praying for this to happen and now that it’s finally happened, I have no words but THANK YOU, GOD!

I feel like I’m going to miss the Board members. I’ll miss asking them for their meals. I’ll miss joking around with them. I mean I’ve only worked with them for a couple of months but it felt like we’ve known each other longer than that. It was a privilege serving you, honorable members of the Board for recruitment and promotion. But here’s me, officially signing off.

There’s a bittersweetness to it. I loved being with the people in the recruitment and promotion section of our organization but God, I just wanted out. And you made a way. Thank you, Father. My heart will never be at peace if I stayed there longer. I would have eventually broken down (again and again) and never recuperated. It was just that bad. It was really dark for me to be in that place. It was just heartbreaking. I wasn’t growing. I was just THERE.

Plus, it felt like I won’t be able to improve things in the system because it isn’t up to me and I don’t want to be impeded like that. I don’t want to stay blinded by practices that go against my principles. I don’t want to keep on pleasing people. It’s tiring. And I’m knocked out. Totally.

I do pray for the people who need to remain in that darkness. And those who have newly joined and rejoined the team. My goodness. I pray that they keep their principles in tact. I pray that they don’t feel gaslighted like I did. I pray that God sustains them. I had to tap out because I couldn’t take the abuse any longer. I even cried in front of the Board members because of how heavy it felt to be in that section. Dear LORD, thank you for coming to my rescue.

Everything’s new to me in the section I was recently assigned to. I have never been assigned in the records section before. But what’s nice about it is that I’m already familiar with some of the things that I’ll be “chief” of from now on. I actually hate being called “chief” of anything because I’ve never been a chief of a section before. Lmao. There was an order from last year that made me “acting” chief of a section but lmao, I never felt like I was the chief because there was someone else who kept on “taking” the role so I never really “got the hang of it” nor did I get to “embrace” it. Because I might take the spotlight away from that person. And I don’t play dirty like that. I actually never knew my place there. In fact, I even wondered myself which “section” was I “acting chief” of since I never really got to call the shots. There was someone always in the way. I sighed, my goodness. I was even often told I was already “receiving so much help” that I wasn’t even “performing” well enough because I might be “getting overwhelmed” of so many tasks.

I’ve never felt so manipulated.

Truth be told, I was truly bombarded by tasks without proper timelines nor prioritization. The decision makers were indecisive and I was being blamed for their incompetence. Their lack of direction. Their lack of accountability. Their lack of responsibility. And I also began questioning myself if I was underperforming. Was I? Was I unprofessional? I started blaming myself for not being ENOUGH for them. I was losing myself. It was a dark tunnel I journeyed the past few weeks, if not months. I hope when these people get a chance to read this, I hope you understand how it felt like for me to be there. I was as confused as you were. At least have some empathy for your co-workers. Your co-workers aren’t robots. If that was how your previous bosses treated you (like shit), please don’t do that to us. We’re not being snowflakes, we’re ACTUAL human beings with feelings, if you know what I mean. Just like you?

The lack of proper communication and the amount of talking behind other people's backs and the amount of misunderstandings. The worst. I don't want to be in that place. EVER AGAIN.

This is why I always pray that I get mentors who have the same ideals or principles as I do. But it's so hard to find those kind of people.

However, I’m just glad I’m out of that tunnel now. I get to breathe again.

On another topic, our air-conditioner broke. It’s eight years old so it’s understandable. But I kinda feel sad that electronic appliances’ life spans are so short nowadays. Our aunt’s air-conditioner from MY CHILDHOOD still lives. They even got to bring it to their new house lmao. Meanwhile this air-con from only eight years back has given up on us. Anyway, my sister and I are getting a new one tomorrow. So I pray it rains tonight so I won’t have to endure this midsummer night’s heat.

So I printed my manuscript and have been editing some of my poems for binding. I’m thinking of giving this away as a gift to my friends for my 30th birthday or for Christmas this year, idk. I’m still thinking about it. IF I COULD AFFORD PUBLISHING IT. Lmao. But I’ll pray about it. I found an independent book publisher but I haven’t had the courage to inquire about their service fees. I’m afraid I can’t afford it. BUT GOD WILL PROVIDE lol. I’ll just be faithfully saving up for my book’s publication.

We did a general cleaning inside the house today. And I found so many boxes of the many things I bought from January 2020 up to present. When I think about it, I could have saved so much money right now. If I only had been patient enough. But dang, I wouldn’t be typing on this laptop right now if I didn’t dare purchase one lol.

The pandemic has ruined my timeline for EVERYTHING I had planned after returning from China. I planned that after two years, I would leave the organization. I would be teaching in Japan. And I would live on my own. But COVID-19 had to happen. I have postponed my graduate studies. I haven’t thought about leaving the country. And I am still dependently living with my sister and/or sometimes my parents lmao. I’m sorry. I WANT TO LIVE INDEPENDENTLY BUT THINGS ARE HARD RIGHT NOW. And also I really hoped and prayed for autumn, winter, and spring. But you can’t have everything.

LMAO, I was just having this conversation with my sister, like right now. She told me that she was going to check if she’s won the lottery, I told her that if she won, we should resign immediately and I would just leech off from her. And SHE SAID YES! Whoa! That’s UNCONDITIONAL LOVE right there. Lolol

Oh I just wanted to share another story because this was a conversation I really liked about this week, too. My lovely co-worker and I had a chat about her plans of getting married. This biatch, let’s just say that she is my biatch, we are each other’s bitches. Whatever. We’re friends, I get to call her that and she’s also welcome to call me her bitch. Capisce? Comprende? Alright, on with this story:

She told me that she and her boyfriend have spoken about settling down. CUTE RIGHT? But they’ve been talking about whether having a kid first or getting a house first. So she’s thinking about saving up for a house or applying for a loan so they could get a house and start saving for their wedding.

Ah, it’s cute, isn’t it? How like just six months ago, THIS BITCH TOLD ME SHE IS DONE DATING AND WILL JUST PROBABLY DIE ALONE, LIKE ME! AND NOW THIS BITCH IS ALREADY PLANNING A FUTURE WITH SOMEONE—HER BOYFRIEND! Okay, I’m not even angry or disappointed but it’s just somehow ridiculous and surprising at the same time. They say that when the right one comes, you’ll know. But man, I feel like THE RIGHT ONE for me got hit by a bus or something. WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU? Lmao

To be honest, I don’t feel like in a hurry dating or marrying. Even though the rest of the world feels like I’m running out of time. I don’t live by the world’s standards—at least not anymore. Even though I often hear these resounding statements: “You’re just saying that,” “You’ll change your mind about it,” “You should explore because you’re at your prime,” and “You need a boyfriend.” I don’t feel pressured. Though I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently because these people keep putting these thoughts in my head LMAO. Should I be grateful though? Thank you?

But I have people surrounding me who pray for me and for my future partner or spouse or whatever the hell he will be (but I hope he’s in human form, okay?). Because for now, I know it’s insane and a pity (for you guys, but not me), I just enjoy watching other people’s blooming love lives. And I get happy and excited for them, like no other. I feel genuine happiness for people who are settling down right now, getting engaged right now, and falling in love right now. Because it’s their time. Not mine. So I will stay and I will wait. Because until I meet THE ONE, I can’t mess up fate. So I don’t mind, if you come into my life late.

P.S. Whoever you are, wherever you are, I’m excited to spend the rest of my life with you.

P.P.S. I’m already feeling the heat and it sucks we can’t turn on our air-conditioner. Imma cry.

[abroadinthedesert]

Sadness, Happiness, Stressed, De-stressed

December 12, 2017

Last Thursday school was a half day for students, while teachers had an afternoon of  professional development. Our principal thanked us for our continuing comment to our profession as we are tired, the students are tired as we have all been at for 16 weeks without a break. That is right , 16 weeks of teaching, lesson planning, corralling students to learn, and duties without a break. WOW! I can feel all that as we come down to the last two weeks before winter break. No, not Christmas break, remember I am a Muslim country. We did get a three day holiday for Mohammad ‘s birthday last month and an unexpected school cancelation last Tuesday. Why you may ask? Kuwait is trying to mediate the disputes between Qatar and the other Arab nations, and the government was closing certain roads for all the dignitaries coming to the country. The government closed all the public schools and many private schools in the area began to announce their closure (kinda of like ice days in the States). Our school announced closure very late in the evening, and many teachers had already gone to bed because school starts at 7:15 each morning and the last bus to school leaves at 6 AM (yep, I am on that bus each morning, I am NOT a morning person). I got the message right before I went to bed, so I stayed up late to read a bit more, but forgot to turn off my THREE alarms for my morning wake up process. The bad part of this unexpected free time was the fact that I did not bring my school bag home because the night before was the Music Concert for the high school band and choir, and I stayed at school to work until the concert and knew that I would not do any school work at home that night; thus, I left my bag. So I did not get that never ending grading, planning, and organizing done. I did enjoy the reading, sleeping and cat time.

I had a doctor’s appointment today to get my prescriptions refilled. I go every three months for this process. It is a process. I sit in a waiting area, get called by the doctor’s nurse (they are called sisters here) where I wait in HIS waiting area. I then get called into his office where most times I do not spend more than five minutes.  Then I am on my way to the pharmacy where I must either wait for insurance to approve the prescriptions or come the next day to pick them up. Today I waited (one hour). 

Now on to my Sadness, Happiness, Stressed, De-Stress

The negative topics first so we end on positive notes for this blog post. I am a bit sad and stressed, but the end of the semester is always SSSTTTRREEESSSFFFUUUULLL!!!!!! 

Getting three version of finals completed along with the regular teaching duties is always stressful and I should be used to this after 26 years of doing this, but every year it stresses me out. Add on to this I had procrastinated another project for the social studies that need to be done ASAP and then I need to grade AP Psychology tests. Add to this I had run out my prescriptions, especially the one that keeps me balanced and optimistic most of the time. There have been a few moments when just thinking about what needed to be done brought me close to tears. Additionally, my birthday is very close, I am turning 53. This birthday seems to be not such a happy occasion this year. Last year my AP Psychology surprised me with a birthday cake!  When your birthday is a week before Christmas your birthday seems to be overshadowed with the holiday; although my momma does wrap my presents in birthday wrapping paper and not holiday paper (happy notes!!!)! So I do not expect any birthday presents or cake this year! Should I expect to feel special after living this long? I think my expectations are set just to high. Of course Christmas is around the corner and I am not in Texas to oohhh and ahhh over the Christmas lights, decorations, and packages under the tree. Nor to enjoy all the wonderfulness that my momma creates for this her favorite holiday. I do not put any Christmasy-ness up, I would just have to put up again after the cats had fun taking it down each day. Being a mom with grown children is a bit sad. They are busy with their lives and it seems that they just do not need mom anymore. I know that they are successful, and happy with their lives, but I do miss being apart of all that. Maybe I did my mom job to well.

Typing all that lighted my heart and soul, so thanks for letting me vent my stresses, sorrows and disappointments. On to the positives!!

I bought real Dr Pepper today!!!! You think that is funny, but here in Kuwait you can buy Dr Pepper that is made in Great Britain by Coke. I only like the real Dr Pepper made in my home state of Texas. Bought three six packs from the grocery store near the school, the same grocery store near where I live does not carry it. The strange thing about US products here in Kuwait is that the store may have it one week and not the next week. So when you see it, you better buy it. One branch of the store may have it and the others do not. In fact I am taking a can of cranberry sauce I bought in the store last month  all the way to New Zealand for Christmas dinner.  So a supper happy note is that I will be spending my Christmas not with my mom, dad, papa, and son in Texas but with my daughter in New Zealand. We plan on cooking a mini US Christmas feast for ourselves and her lovely Kiwi beau. I have been to New Zealand before and it is an AWESOME place, plus the fact that I will be with my daughter camping in the summer of the Southern Hemisphere!! My momma would be proud that I have already started to pack. I am trying very hard to pack light (only a backpack). Another positive to remember is that the teacher community I live with is a great group and very supportive. We celebrated Thanksgiving together and everyone loved my “stuffing”, I laugh at this because in the South it is dressing. I learned how to make cornbread dressing working beside my momma growing up. Thanks, Mom!!! Everyone here was excited too that I had decided to stay at the school at least one more year. It is nice to be with a good group of people, but sad that some are moving on (oops, a sad note slipped in).

One last positive note before I leave you with this lengthy post. Each day before I Ieave for school I usually turn on the radio for the Leo and Boutiquali (the cats) to listen to while I am gone. The radio is tuned to BBC news, but this morning I pushed the wrong button and changed it to an Arabic station. I could not have that, after all I am trying to Americanize their little furry brains, so I quickly turned it to iPod mode so that they could listen to my entire music collection. I started in at ten minutes to six this morning and as I finish typing this at ten minutes after nine it is still playing my music. That is AMAZING!!

Please excuse my mistakes, because most of this is typed off the cuff. I do proof read before I post, but I am history major and not an English major..

So bye for now and thanks for keeping up with....Abroad in the Desert II

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Owarimonogatari Season 2 [Hitagi Rendezvous]

OK I meant to watch this like a week ago but that didn’t happen for a variety of reasons. Oh well. Hopefully I can get Ougi Dark done tomorrow to finish this off completely.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut.

PART ONE:

First of all, A+ for that Araragi shower scene at the start. Just gonna lay that one out there. 

His whole internal monologue at the start was really good. It’s nice to see him growing as a person and being able to do some self-reflection. I can really relate to the whole point about fearing love because you don’t want to change or be changed, and because falling in love makes you vulnerable in general. That’s basically how I currently feel on the subject.

I was incredibly excited to see Senjougahara again, and she didn’t disappoint. I get why she stopped showing up as much after she and Araragi hooked up, but it’s still nice to see her. I still love the way they interact. Considering how I’ve technically been following the series for 3+ years now, their relationship feels weirdly . . . nostalgic to me, to seeing them just be cute together gives me a whole lot of warm fuzzies. And seeing them both grow up as people and head into their adult lives has an almost bittersweet but still heartwarming feeling to it, when you’ve been watching them from their first meeting. But even though they’ve grown as people, they’re still the sort of couple to have a lengthy back-and-forth about the concept of having wanting to go on a date, so I guess some things will never change. Which I’m happy for.

I honestly almost forgot that Yotsugi is living with Araragi and his family now. That must be an awkward arrangement in general, especially since she has to pretend to be a doll whenever any of Araragi’s family members see her. I guess he’s just gonna have to live with the fact that she’s going to be hanging out with him for the rest of his life, lol. I’m also pretty happy to see Yotsugi again. She’s always been a favourite of mine. I know why other people dislike her, but something about her just appeals to me. I love her design and personality, and how much she does not at all fit with most of the cast. She’s just this bizarre little character that sticks out like a sore thumb and it works really well.

I’m glad that Yotsugi spelled out that Kiss-Shot has indeed fully revived now that Araragi has lost his vampire powers, since I wasn’t clear on that. I think a lot of my confusion stemmed from how when we saw her at the end of Mayoi Hell, the light flickering effect made me think it was meant to seem like an unstable hologram effect, which made it seem like she wasn’t fully back to her old form. But after reading some of the comments about the last arc, it clicked in my head that the flickering was probably meant to look like camera flashes at a modeling event, which makes sense given how she was definitely meant to look like a runway model in that scene. Anyway, I’m kinda curious to see what the heck a meeting between her and Gaen would even play out like. It’s hard to imagine.

Also I’m still unsure what’s going on with Kagenui and if that’s ever going to be explained or followed up on. I THINK she’s just literally dead, but I’m not sure.

Whenever either of Araragi’s sisters enters a scene I kinda reflexively brace myself, because let’s face it there’s not a whole lot to their characters outside of incest jokes, and the incest jokes are like the worst part of the entire series outside of the whole issue of how the series treats young girls in general which I’m not gonna touch right now. But thankfully the scene was totally fine. It was actually really nice to see Tsukihi just being a cute, supportive little sister.

I’m pretty sure I’d heard about this part of the scene in advance, but it was really nice getting an update on Nadeko’s situation. I’m happy that she’s out of the hospital and about to get back to her usual life. Hopefully she can stay far away from Araragi and just do her own thing. She’s still one of my favourite characters in the series and I just want her to be happy. To be honest like half the reason I want Shaft to adapt Off Season sooner rather than later is because I want to finally see what happens in Nademonogatari. A whole book about Nadeko post-Koi sounds like exactly my sort of thing.

Araragi getting incredibly surprised by Senjougahara being able to drive now was pretty hilarious to see. And I also wasn’t really expecting the detail that before he lost his vampire powers he wouldn’t have been able to get a driver’s license himself since he can’t appear in photos. I know that that’s come up before in the story, but I kinda forgot about it. I wonder how he’s managed to avoid getting found out, since things like that are pretty major indications that there’s something weird and supernatural going on with you.

Getting an update on Hanekawa was also good. I hope we see her again in Ougi Dark. I kinda miss her. I’m curious to learn about her adventures in trying to track down Oshino, which is also why I’m really happy that that’s apparently what an entire arc in Wazamonogatari is about.

This whole date between Araragi and Senjougahara is definitely reminiscent of their date in episode 12 of Bake, which makes me really wish I had have gotten around to rewatching that before this. It’s the next thing I have slated for my rewatch. Oh well. I at least remember how it goes so that’s what matters. I like the bookending feel that it has, to make their date here be about stars as well.

I wasn’t really expecting Senjougahara to be working toward studying space in college, but I guess it makes sense. It was really nice seeing her talk about something that she’s passionate about studying and pursuing as a career. It’s a side of her we don’t see much.

That was a pretty ominous little stinger there at the end, with Senjougahara saying that star maps look more like ougis than squares. Not sure if that’ll mean anything for the remainder of this arc, though.

PART TWO:

Welp, we immediately went into a whole dream sequence with Ougi so I guess the stinger was kinda immediately relevant. Welp.

I often forget to comment on the visual elements of the series, which is kinda weird since the visuals are one of my favourite aspects of the series, so I just wanna say here that the visuals in this whole scene were great. I love the space aesthetic, the harsh lighting across part of Araragi’s face while the rest of him is pitch black, and of course Ougi is her own visual presence in every scene she’s in. Watching her in action is always great, even though I tend to have trouble following what she talks about.

I’m not sure if the discussion about constellations will be very relevant, but it was interesting. It was kinda funny seeing them talk about the Southern hemisphere as a foreign place, considering that that’s where I live :V

I was definitely a bit lost during the entire conversation about what it means to be ‘right’ and how some people pursue a righteous identity by not doing the right thing. But it obviously was meant to tie into Ougi’s whole deal about returning things to zero, and punishing people who step outside of their bounds. I hadn’t really thought about it, but it makes sense that Gaen would face some sort of punishment for what she did. Even I, at the time, thought it all seemed too perfect.

I’m excited to finally learn what Ougi’s deal is, in the next arc. I think I already know the answer though, due to some spoilers I’ve read. It’s not a big deal, though. If I’m right about it, then it’s something I already figured was probably the case. 

The whole date between Araragi and Senjougahara was amazing and adorable. I just love seeing these two together. It’s great. I love how we got to see Senjougahara’s more petty side when she kept losing at random games to Araragi. In general I like the little moments that show off how she’s just a regular person who isn’t perfect at everything, and can get kinda over-dramatic about stuff. I also liked the little detail that they were singing different OP songs from the series at the karaoke bar. I kinda wish we got to actually hear them sing. Oh well.

Their little chat at the cafe about Gaen was pretty interesting, and kinda reaffirmed why I don’t really trust Gaen at all. She seems like exactly the sort of person who will be opposed to Araragi either now or in the future. It’s making me a little worried about how the next arc will go.

I loved their whole scene in the car together by the sea. For one thing, the whole seaside twilight setting was incredibly beautiful in it’s own right, and the music was really nice. It was another one of the scenes that really shows how Senjougahara is kinda insecure and sorta needy as a person, and her whole sort of sadistic obsession with making Araragi be obedient to her is mostly a reflection of her loneliness and her desire to be loved. She doesn’t really know how to express her feelings in a straight-forward way 99% of the time, but that’s part of her charm. It was really sweet that her first request of him after he said that he’s swear absolute obedience to her for the rest of his life was to have him call her by her first name. Though, like always, the whole first name basis thing in Japanese culture is still sorta strange to me. The fact that even after being a couple for so long they’ve only been calling each other by their last names to this point is weird to consider. But I’m happy that they achieved this little milestone.

To be honest I can’t really explain why I like their relationship so much. Or, more accurately, I can’t really explain why I like their relationship in particular when there’s so many similar relationships out there in media that I really dislike. I just like these two a lot. Part of it’s almost definitely the vague sense of nostalgia that I mentioned before. I’ve been following these two characters for ages now, so I can’t help but be attached to them.

Now I really want to continue my rewatch of Bake so I can watch the starry night scene again, but I probably won’t have the time for that for a while.

The ED was nice. I’m a little sad that there effectively wasn’t much of any new footage in it, but I quite like the trip down memory lane, of seeing all the previous EDs. For some reason I always forget about them, even though I really like all of them. I love how consistently they stick to using Hajime Ueda’s style in them. I’d say that it makes them memorable, but I guess that’d be a bit hypocritical to say.

Well that sure was an ominous as hell end to the arc. Ougi really knows how to be threatening. It’s still hard to tell exactly what the extent of her goals in all this are. I’m happy that Araragi isn’t willing to forsake Shinobu and Hachikuji, though.

It really feels like we’re setting up for a final battle here, but knowing how this series goes, I doubt it’ll be a conventional battle.

I’ll try and watch Ougi Dark tomorrow, but no promises there.

[ask-broppy-lovechild-blog]

True Colors

Inspired by: @ask-artsy-oncie​, @tisbubb​, and @dawnbuneary​ (Love your content guys)

I didn’t call it “True Colors” because of the song, but because imma try to focus on making it about not hiding your real personality. The first three chapters are mainly fluff, but the next ones will actually get a story going.

P.S  So sorry for the bad grammar, I…I wont promise but understand that this is my first Broppy Fanfic. So it might not be as good as others you’ve read. Anyways, enjoy!

“Branch had a dream that he proposed, and became King Branch instead of Prince Branch. And Poppy had the exact same dream.“ ~Previously

It’s been days since Poppy became queen, waiting patiently for the day where her happiness will grow x1000 more than it already is. That special day. However, Poppy needs to stop focusing on the future and worry more about the present.

Being Queen of a species that mainly does parties and celebrate sounds fun and easy, but really, it’s hard. The only reason for this is that a lot of her subjects are carefree and don’t really care about a lot of important matters; even when they know it’s life threatening, they take a lot of things for granted and don’t listen. At least she has Branch who would listen and understand her words; always there to help her when she’s having trouble.

Spring: the season after winter and before summer, in which vegetation begins to appear, in the northern hemisphere from March to May and in the southern hemisphere from September to November. It was a cool season, a season that causes most allergies, a season that generations are born with most animals, the season where some breeding happens. Trolls breeding cycle are different than most animals. Female Trolls go in heat in spring, where the air is clear and can usually send a heat scent across the land. Meanwhile, the birth of most Trolls take place during fall, where the Trolls have a lot of resources and items to make a comfortable place for their pod. This is also where the Troll tree gets its nutrients from the dead plants, as it doesn’t take life from the living ones; making the pods growing rate much faster.

(A/N: Don’t quote me on this, this is not cannon. This is just for this story as far as I’m aware of :3)

This was Poppy’s first season, but she hasn’t gone in heat yet. Unlike most female Trolls, she can control her heat. She takes her heat a week back, trying to gain very little attention as possible for this week, wanting to get things done before worrying about breeding. She had to reschedule the two meetings she missed, going to there now. Branch isn’t really affected by the heat of other female Trolls. After being gray for more than 10 years and being isolated from everyone else, he’s learned how to control his desires very well. He hasn’t gotten any reason to mate with anyone…..yet.

"Hey guys” she panted, “I made it on time this time! So what’s going on outside these walls?” She questioned, sitting down to gain a bit energy.

“Well, we have new predators to watch out for, first off” Said the tiny yellow Troll, known as Smidge. She pointed to the crows and birds that loomed over, who can easily snatch a troll.

“I’ll have I talk to Gristle about that later today….anything else?” She asked the Snack Pack.

“We’ve spotted faint….how could we say this-” Satin said, getting finished by her sister, “-….structures far north….” they said as they showed her the Troll sized telescope the Bergens installed for them. There was a very small sky scraper with other faint and blurry buildings.

“We can check it out later. If there is other life, like, other Bergens or Trolls, then we can introduce ourselves!” She stated, kinda excited by finding others to be friends with.

“Poppy, we’ve also spotted new plants for food in the forest besides ours.” Guy Diamond stated, pointing to the forest with all the vegetation for the Trolls  and animals for the Bergens.

“I will take note of that!” She said, smiling proudly. She seems to be in a better mood today, maybe it’s the season. Winter was pretty stressful for her, as that was when she started to take the Queen role.

“Due to the predators, we should make a safe passage for the Bergens and Trolls so they can leave the walls and venture forth without fear” DJ Suki says, fiddling with her headphones.

“I should also talk about that with Gristle” she said, taking a mental note of all of this.

“I don’t have anything to report, Mr. Dinkles has really been distracting me”  Biggie said, “and Cooper didn’t come yet”.

“Okay, well, when he does, tell me. I have to get back the the kids” She said and started to walk back.

“One more thing, Poppy” DJ said, walking to her pink friend.

“What is it DJ?” Poppy asked, turning to her.

She whispers to her, “just don’t be too loud tonight.” She said, and starts to walk away.

“What do you mean?” Poppy asked, tilting her head. The only response she got was a wink. She sat there for a good while and thought……..and when she finally got it……..she ran home, blushing furiously.

Once she got past the crowd of happy and some grey Trolls, she made it home to the safety of the bunker. After the event where everyone turned grey, there has been more grey Trolls. But it’s considered normal now, more Trolls are becoming a bit more emotional; but we’re all Trolls and Bergens, you have the right to express your feelings. A lot of males found out to not let gender stereotypes control their life.

“Poppy? Are you okay?” Branch asked his slightly darker female as he looked up from his book that he was reading. She was pink before, and now she’s red?

“N-Not now, Branch.” She said, looking in her pile of things that she never decided to put away, as they’re still in their boxes.

“How did the ‘meeting’ go?” He asked her, putting his book and reading glasses away neatly.

She smiled at the question, “Very well! I was there on time!” She answered him happily, walking toward him after finding the activity she needed.

He picks her up and nuzzled her neck affectionately. She loved the small affection he’d give her before she had to leave him again, “that’s exciting. I’m glad you’re getting in the grove of things!” He said in a kinda praising voice.

“Thank you!” She said as he puts her slowly and gently down.

“Okay, have a good day, Poppy. Love you” he said, giving her a quick peck on her lips.

“Love you too, Branch” she said, and pecks his lips back. Then she waved and left.

Branch has been planning his proposal, as he has all the valuable items; he just needs the right place and time. The only troll who knows this is Suki; someone who he can trust. Suki has mentioned a party, as he is still getting used to parties, but he just doesn’t like a loud one; but he quiet and slow ones are boring as well.

So they had to scratch that idea off the list. Then she suggested something romantic, like, the place where they first started dating. But then it would be crowded cause that’s literally in front of the Troll Tree. So they had to scratch that idea off the list. But he came to a conclusion that he wants to introduce a very special poem he made long ago to her.

He’s always showed her poems to make her relax, but this one was very special. Furthermore, he has decided to make it by the far beach. He only knows this cause he used to go out and take himself when he was grey; going far to find food and healthy water for himself. He wants to show her the soft and warm sand with the cold and sometimes warm ocean water. “Yes, that’ll work!” Branch mentally told himself.

He was gonna do it when the sun is setting, making it a beautiful scenery. He had everything figured out, and now he needs bathing suits for the two. If he knows the Troll village well, he knows two fashionista sisters who can get the job done of making clothes. Satin and Chenille.

He quickly went over to their pod, not bothering to knock. The two were making clothing for a Troll, and it looked more like a blue robe. If he was gonna propose to her, it would be when she’s not working as much as she is. Which means he’d have to propose……..TOMORROW!!

“H-Hey! Excuse me! It’s an emergency! Satin and Chenille!” Branch screamed as he ran in, interrupting them.

“Yes-” Satin started, “-Branch?” Chenille finished.

“I need two bathing suits! One Poppy size and the other my size!” He said, showing that he was in a rush.

“Two bathing suits, coming right up!” The twins said together as they ran to get started. They know how big Poppy is, and they’re measuring Branch for his height.

While they were doing that, Branch was mentally planning his proposal. He knows about Poppy being able to back her heat up by a week, so that gives him a lot of time before she gets any desires. He wants then had to sneak away, before anyone noticed they where gone. After all of his thoughts, he noticed they finished and they gave it to him for free, since he’s the Prince.

“Thank you!” He said as he ran home, holding the clothing close to him. He ran so fast, he could very faintly hear a “You’re welcome” after 5 seconds.

He gathered all of his items, hiding them in his backpack that he used when he went to help Poppy save her friends. He looked at the time, and knew she was coming home now. He patiently waited for her on the couch, not a second later and she bursts in. He stands and follows her into the room, knowing her stress.

Today was the day Branch would finally propose to his one and only love, Poppy. He went over to her, as she just finished her work early. She stretched and yawned, turning to her partner with a soft smile.

“Hey Poppy, I uh, wanna show you something” he said, a hint of nervousness in his voice.

“Oh really?” She said as she stands and leans against Branch for support.

“Yah, come on. I can carry you if you want” he said, wrapping his hands around her small waist as she laid her tiny hands onto his wide and thick shoulders.

“Please.” She said as she looked up at him. He picks her up, holding her outer thighs at first and then holding under them. She holds onto his neck for support.

He managed to sneak away from everyone and go far past the walls to the beach. Poppy didn’t notice at first, but then covered her eyes and puts her down.

“Ready?” He said quietly and softly, before removing his hands and she couldn’t believe what she saw.

The water met the land, and the land was unusually gravelly and….soft. It was actually cold, but not too cold. It was a nice white color at night, and the soil ran through her tiny pink toes.

“I-I want to touch the water!” She said like a child, running to the ocean water, but Branch stops her.

“Ah-Ah-Ah! You need to wear this first.” Branch said, showing the bathing suits the twins made it him.

She looked at them and takes hers. She knows how to wear one, she has one. But that one is way too small, since it’s been a good while since the last time they had a pool party. She went behind a tall enough rock to change, and so did Branch. She came out in her one piece, which was simply blue, with green at the bottom, flower designs separating the two colors like her casual wear.  Branch had simple Green trunks, with no really special design. He didn’t want anything fancy.

“Now?!” She said, very excited to jump into the natural ocean water before her.

“Yes” he answered as he followed his excited queen into the warm water.

She giggled and splashed; the sunset looming over, turning the water into orange and yellow color. Poppy loved the beach, as he could see her excitement. Now, it was the time for him to say the words.

“H-Hey Poppy, I have to tell you something” he said, as she approached him. Her wet feet was making the sand stick to the bottom of her feet and in between her toes. Her body was soaking, and she shakes the water out of her hair like a dog.

“What is it, Branch?” She asked, going to her bigger partner.

“Well….I want to read you something” he starts, and goes into his backpack, and take out his poem

“Oh! A poem!” She said as she sat Chris -cross-applesauce in the sand, acting like a child getting read a story.

“I’ve never imagined that there can be this day” He started, “A day that love will find its way. Out of my heart and into your soul. These feelings I have are beyond my control. All my life I have waited patiently. For a goddess like you, so beautiful, so lovely. Words can’t express the way I feel. These feelings towards you are all for real. You are the reason why I go on. Eternity can’t separate this special bond. This heart of mine is reserved for you. Forever it is yours, this love is true. I’ll be your first and you’ll be my last. My world, my everything, till my time has past. I will always love you until the end of time, my love, my queen, my valentine.” He finished and he was blushing, as he had a smile on his face and looked at her.

She was blushing, and wide-eyed, “Branch….that was so……sweet!” She said as she kisses him, he kisses back with a huge smile on his face.

“And one last thing…” he said and looked in his backpack, and took out the case.

“My queen, my love, my one and only…will you make me the happiest Troll alive, and marry me?” He said, getting on one knee and opening the box with the choker in it. Trolls don’t wear rings, since they can get easily lost like that. However, of you wear a choker, it shows that you’re engaged/married. Since it’ll be harder I loose it like that.

Poppy went wide-eyed, and almost cried tears of joy. She hugs him tightly, and kisses him passionately. The two lips touched, it was weirdly the best kiss they probably ever had. Once they separated, he puts the diamond chocked around his fiancée’s neck. The two shared a tender a nuzzle, and then changed into their regular clothes before going home.

One week after, and after a long and heated session at the royal bunker, Poppy went back to work. But after weeks, they did notice Poppy’s behavior and figure. See, it takes a very long time for Trolls to birth their young because it takes awhile for a baby to develop in a seed—Simple. You can tell when one is close to birthing day, by the size of their stomachs.

They usually have a small bump that’s barley noticeable during spring. Then they grow a medium sized baby bump during the summer; finalizing with them having a huge baby bump durning the fall. After awhile, more and more pregnant Trolls are seen. Due to this, Parties aren’t as wild as they normally are.

During the fall, Poppy had a stomach the size of an overgrown acorn. Though, it only takes about two weeks for the pods to develop and grow, just to get the baby out. Poppy was asleep with Branch, when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her stomach and shot right up. This jump scares Branch into waking himself.

“A-Are to okay?!” He said, looking at her as she held her stomach.

“NO!” She said in pain as she was grunting in groaning; Branch started to panic.

“Uh, u-uh, UH!” He said, unsure what to do. Then he got an idea.

“You’re in labor?!” He said, sitting up and getting out of bed.

“I-I think so!” She said, sweating.

He went to get her the needed items to not have her pass out, (or possibly die).

After that long and stressful session, Poppy was tired and ready to pass out. He held a rainbow seed, knowing that it’s gonna be a rainbow Troll like it’s mother and father. But the colors went along with the colors blue, purple, and pink. Branches seed ran with blue, green, and purple. And Poppy’s ran with red and different shades of pink.

“Are you…okay?” He said, and held the seed gently, walking over to his tired partner.

“Yah *Pant*” she was extremely tired.

“Let’s plant it tomorrow” he said, and he puts the seed in a soft and gentle blanket,

She nods and passes out, as he cleans her up and changes the sheets. He makes the place comfortable to where they’re gonna plant it with the resources around. Branch worked all night to make it perfect.

Poppy awoke, sore from last night, and went to go find her fiancé. She found him in the living room, asleep on the couch. She giggles quietly and softly placed a kiss on his cheek, before shaking him awake.

“Branch? Branch? Branch? Branch? Branch? Bran–” She said, calling his name over and over until he awoke and interrupted her.

“I’m up, I’m up.” He said, sitting up and stretching with a yawn.

“Ready to plant our seed?” He said, smiling at her, small black bags under his eyes.

“Are you tired?” She said, looking at him.

“Yes, but come on. A Troll seed can’t last long without the nutrients from the tree” he said and stands, as she holds their seed.

Branch shows her the small and comfortable patch he made for the pod. She smiled at the decorations and planted it in the middle of it.

“What are we gonna name it when it’s born?” Branched asked her, looking at her smiling face.

“Well, I have the names Twig and Iris” she answered and looked at him.

“So Twig is it’s a boy and Iris if it’s a girl?” He questioned.

“No, both names are gender-neutral. Twig can be a boy or girl name. Iris is used for a lot of girls, but I consider it as a name for both genders. So yes, I would name my son, Iris.” She explained to him, and he was actually happy that she was thinking of names and not something dumb or uncreative.

“I had the names Rosie, Pollen, Flower, and Roots, Twig, and Leaf” he said, looking back at her.

“But I do like the name Iris” he finished and held her close.

“Well, let’s see what gender it becomes.” She said, looking as the ground grows a bit. They can see a tiny bulb on the ground. The upcoming parents smile at their creation.

Chapter 2.