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calzona-ga · 4 years ago

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SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about the April 1 episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

After a string of intense and heavy episodes marked by tragedy, including the deaths of DeLuca as well as Bailey’s mom, Grey’s Anatomy delivered a hopeful one-hour tonight. The biggest development came at the very end, when Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) was taken off the ventilator and was able to breathe on her own. She was “helped” by two old friends who tragically died nine years ago, her sister Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh) and Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) who visited her on the beach and made the case why she needed to fight to live.

While Leigh’s return was revealed in the promo at the end of last episode, Dane’s appearance was kept a surprise as his Mark joined Meredith and Lexie on the beach. As the trio chatted, Mark shared that he talks to his daughter Sofia, as well as her moms, Callie and Arizona, all the time. Mark and Lexie also showed a lot of affection towards each other, and when Meredith asked if the two were still together, Mark said, “On your beach it looks like we are.”

While Meredith kept saying how much she loves it on the beach, Lexie and Mark talked about what they miss about being alive and urged her to choose life. “Don’t waste one single minute,” Mark said in their final conversation before Meredith was taken out of the coma, possibly ending the season-long beach motif, conceived by showrunner Krista Vernoff, which also featured visits from Patrick Dempsey’s Derek Shepherd and T.R. Knight’s George O’Malley.

Elsewhere in the episode, there were positive developments all-around. The two main medical cases had happy endings, including one where the doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial faced a Sophie’s Choice situation with one ventilator left and a mother and her daughter both in desperate need to be intubated. Teddy was on the mend, Owen and Koracick almost reconciled. And, along with Meredith’s successful reentry after she was taken off the machine, Winston proposes to Maggie at the end of the episode, and she said yes.

In an interview with Deadline, Dane spoke about how his Grey’s return came about. He took us behind the scenes of filming the beach scenes with Pompeo and Leigh, shared his take on Mark and Lexie’s relationship status and the duo’s pivotal role in giving Meredith strength to cling onto life when she is taken off the ventilator. He also discussed the remarkable longevity of Grey’s Anatomy and his return to production on his current series, HBO’s Euphoria.

DEADLINE: When and how did you get approached about returning to Grey’s Anatomy?

DANE: I was in Shanghai, filming a movie, a Chinese production for that market, a historical piece, and Krista reached out to me and said, hey, I’d like to talk to you about something, let me know when you have some time. I said well, I’m in Shanghai, China right now, let’s talk right when I get back. I don’t remember the timeline, I know I was in Shanghai in August. She explained to me what was happening in the story, and she said, we want to put Mark Sloan on the beach with Lexie Grey.

DEADLINE: What was your reaction? Did you like the idea?

DANE: Yeah, I thought it was a great idea. I thought it made sense, considering the circumstances.

DEADLINE: What do you mean?

DANE: I mean, if you’re ever going to bring Mark Sloan back, I guess with Meredith in a coma, it’s a good way for her to see him. So, it wasn’t a tough sell, and it made sense.

DEADLINE: Tell me about the filming of your scenes. You got to spend time with Ellen and Chyler, the crew. How was it going back into character, revisiting your past and reuniting with old friends?

DANE: It was like I’d never left. It was a great day at the beach. It was great to see some of the familiar faces and same crew members, and we didn’t skip a beat. I love those people. I spent a significant portion of my life with those people, I’d do just about anything for them.

DEADLINE: What did you, Ellen and Chyler chat about in-between takes?

DANE: Masks, Covid. I hadn’t seen Chyler in a while, but Ellen I stay in contact with, and just, how are the kids? Kids are good. Small talk. There wasn’t a lot of time in-between takes because of the protocols and how we had to set it up. So, once we got going, it was almost like a runaway train.

DEADLINE: And it was easy to go back into character?

DANE: Yeah. I mean, look, I created Mark Sloan. It was not that difficult for me to get back into character.

DEADLINE: What did you think about Mark and Lexie playing such an important role in giving Meredith a will to live and a reason to fight as she soon thereafter started to breathe on her own?

DANE: Well, Mark Sloan and Lexie Grey are embedded in the DNA of that show, and also literally, Lexie and Meredith share the same DNA. So, I think there’s a connectivity there and reminding her that, gone but not forgotten, we’re always around if you need us, and it’s too early for you to stay on the beach.

DEADLINE: And there was something comforting, I’m sure, in you reassuring fans that Mark is OK…

DANE: Sure. Absolutely. You see that everybody’s okay and happy; it allows you to want to come back for something.

DEADLINE: .. And that Mark also is watching over his daughter.

DANE: Yeah, whether she’s listening to me or not. You always have somebody looking over you. I lost my father at a very early age, and I feel like he’s watching over me in some capacity.

DEADLINE: When Meredith asked whether Mark and Lexie were together, you said “On your beach, we are”. What do you make of that, does it mean that they’re happily together in our imagination?

DANE: I didn’t dig too deep into that. I sort of took it as like, not in your imagination but the way you’re seeing it in your subconsciousness, wherever you are right now, whatever state of being you’re existing in this coma, fever dream, whatever it is, I guess that’s (Meredith’s) projection of perfection. Mark and Lexie are together forever, and I’m sure Mark and Lexie aren’t too bummed about it either.

DEADLINE: What is your vision of Mark and Lexie, how you think that their story continues in the afterlife?

DANE: Mark would’ve found Lexie. He would’ve found her eventually.

DEADLINE: Since you left Grey’s Anatomy, you did one successful series, The Last Ship, which ran for five seasons, and now you are on a second successful series, Euphoria. Meanwhile, Grey’s Anatomy is still going. How do explain the longevity of that show which continues to be going strong 17 seasons in?

DANE: Well, I think there’s a lot of factors but at its core it’s just a great show. People connect with the characters on that show. It seemed to have found a whole new generation of viewership. Shows typically will grow up with a generation, an audience, and eventually that audience will either outgrow that show or move onto something else. But with Grey’s, there’s always been an alchemy in that cast, a dynamic, a chemistry which keeps people showing up. The writing’s good. Krista, Shonda (Rhimes), Betsy (Beers) and now Debbie Allen’s exec producing the show. They’re so good at understanding the tone of that show and finding characters that people will invest in, and what that translates to is season 17.

DEADLINE: Is there anything you miss about Grey’s?

DANE: Well, I’ve maintained contact with a lot of the cast members. An answer somebody would give you, had they not, would’ve been I missed the people, but I’m still friends with all of them. So, there wasn’t really anything to miss.

DEADLINE: Are you going back into production on Euphoria soon?

DANE: In mid-April. We’re actually started now on Season 2. I think I don’t start shooting for a couple weeks, but we are. I’m sure we’re going to get this out as soon as we can. We’ve set a pretty high bar. I’m very proud of that show, everybody involved is very proud of that show.

#grey's anatomy #17x10 #eric dane #Mark Sloan #lexie grey #Chyler Leigh #deadline #Meredith Grey #Ellen Pompeo

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straydawg-writing · 4 years ago

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𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞'𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦.

- 𝓚. 𝙯𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙮𝙘𝙠

• hunter x hunter series!

summary:

┍━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━┑

𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮.

𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙩𝙝.

𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩, 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙗𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙮𝙨 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙨.

ˏˋ♡̩͙♡̩̩̥͙♡̩̥̩ ⋆ ♡̩̥̩♡̩̩̥͙♡̩͙̩͙ˊˎ

- 𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙮𝙤𝙪, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧, 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙂𝙤𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙆𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙪𝙖. 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙩. (𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙨𝙚𝙩 𝙙𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙖 𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙖𝙧𝙘)

┕━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━┙

Chapter 1 —

⋯✰⋯

"Book."

"Gain!"

Bisky's eyes shined like stars as a smooth blue gemstone appeared in front of her. You could spot tears of hers spring up as she cradled the glittering rock like it was the most precious thing in the world.

"What should I name it? Blue-chan? Planet-chan?" she gushed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. You stifled a laugh, catching a glimpse of Killua's dumbfounded expression. If one thing were true, it's that he does not understand women.

While Gon and Killua endured Bisky's brutal training during Greed Island, you had grown to like her. Despite her being 45 years older than you, you imagined she was the closest thing to what a big sister would be like. Or maybe a mom? You wouldn't know.

Unfortunately, you weren't special enough to escape her unforgiving training either. Bisky knew no mercy. While training their physical bodies, she also trained the trio's nen abilities.

Gon developed his special punch move by using the rock, paper, scissors of Chinese martial arts. Killua learned how to better channel his electricity, though Bisky had looked concerned when he first demonstrated it to her. You couldn't blame her. Killua's ability to withstand electricity only came from years of shock torture, and you noticed how he rarely mentions the fact that he still feels the pain. You caught on to it the night you watched his Heaven's Arena match, remembering his voice floating to the stands.

"𝘐'𝘮 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘐𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘦. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯. 𝘐𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘴."

Your heart clenched for him every time you remember this fact. He has a tendency to hide his pain, in order to not burden his friends.

Then there's you, who Bisky took upon herself to help.

Since the day Wing opened your nen pores and declared you a Manipulator, you practiced your nen with Gon and Killua daily. When the time came to decide your special ability, the answer was as clear to you as a cloudless sky.

𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴.

Since then you'd been seen carrying around leather pouches of dirt, water, and vines wherever you went. It was a nice start, but it sure did make your back hurt. And of course, Bisky would not accept that. Ordering you to dump out all of your pouches to the ground, she had you draw out your power from the scattered elements that had begun already mixing with the dirt.

Unsure, you had hesitantly stretched out your arm and tried pulling from the water. It took you a number of tries to get it right. You had squinted long and hard, focusing on extending your nen to the elements around you. To your giddy surprise, small, sparkling droplets of H20 were separating from the glob of inky mud to float just a few inches above your hands. Concentrating harder, the droplets began orbiting one another. They looked like little planets.

Sensing the vines, you were able to control their movements too, even manipulating ones that hadn't originated from your leather pouch.

Bisky's wide smile was all that you needed.

From that day on, you only practiced manipulating whatever was around you. The earth was your ally.

"Well, what will you do once you find Ging?" Bisky's voice snapped you out of a daze.

"Naturally, I'll introduce him to Killua, my best friend in the whole world!"

"What am I, a roach?" You mocked, but couldn't keep a smile from spreading across your face.

Gon's unyielding positivity and bubbly voice was like honey to your ears. No one could ever doubt the adoration he held for his best friend.

"Stupid, cut that out! It's embarrassing," said Killua, turning red as a tomato. He looked away in an attempt to hide his embarrassment, except you were right there to catch his blush.

You flashed a mischievous smile to Killua. "You know, I think an I-Love-You-Too-Gon-I-Also-Think-You're-The-Best would suffice once in a while."

"Shut up."

Killua was as stubborn as ever. You are playfully rolled your eyes before turning your attention back to the rest of the group. Gon was inviting Bisky to come with them and meet Ging, but she had said something about not being interested in men who already have kids.

"If I stay with you any longer, I really will get too attached..." Bisky tried to mask it, but you've always been good at noticing little details. She was going to miss them. And truth be told, you were going to miss her too.

"The hunter world is a small place. We'll all see each other again in no time!" you reassured your friends. "See you later, Bisky."

"Take care, Bisky." Gon said his goodbyes, Killua nodding next to him.

⋯✰⋯

"Accompany on."

"Nigg!"

At that, a bright light enveloped all of them, streaking them through the sky. Every time you did this on Greed Island, you had always shut your eyes tight. You'd never get used to the feeling.

The next thing you knew, the three of you landed in an area thick with white fog. It was slightly chilly, causing you to shiver. A hundred feet in front of you was a tall sakura tree with roots so large they could be mistaken for a magical beast. It had to have been there for at least a couple hundred years. Soft, pink petals drifted in the wind, dancing around you and your friends. As your eyes focused, you noticed a shadowy man reclining on the tree's roots. Could it be Ging?

Before you realized what was happening, the mysterious man turned towards the three of you and opened fire on Gon.

Then, Killua was diving in slow motion and pulling Gon out of the way and the two of them were rolling on the ground holding onto each other. Getting a hold of your senses, you looked down at dozens of bullets that had made holes in the ground and noticed an injured ant lying motionless on the floor. The thing was completely decapitated.

"Now look what you've done, you killed an innocent soul!" you exclaimed to the man, pointing at the poor bug.

"That's not Ging..." Gon whispered.

"What was that all about?! First, you push us down, then you fire at us. Stop messing around!" Killua accused the Not-Ging.

After helping Gon back up, Killua examined the insect too. That is, before it ruthlessly attacked him.

"Oh. It wasn't dead," you stated the obvious.

The man quickly finished off the ant biting Killua's leg with his machine gun before scoffing at you. He took off the black jacket he was wearing, unveiling straight, platinum white hair so long it almost touched the floor. You could get a better look at him now. He was lanky, and the beret he wore casted a shadow over his eyes. If you had to guess, you'd say he's about 6'3. Just who was this man? Had God finally sent an angel to cleanse you from your sins?

"I was being dead serious. If I hadn't opened fire, you would have been attacked. That was no ordinary ant, it was a Chimera Ant."

"A what?"

"An aggressive, carnivorous insect that's been designated Quarantine Level 1. You three didn't realize it, but you were standing right in front of their nest. If I hadn't fired the moment I did, an army of Chimera Ants would have consumed all of you by now," the angel explained.

You gawked at his beautiful long locks, gracefully flying in the wind as he turned to leave.

Gon seemed to have recognized the man, asking something about if he were the one who had saved him back then. Gon told a story about being rescued from a fox bear, though it looked like he had remembered something else because he held his cheek as if he'd just been hit. For the first couple of seconds, the man looked at Gon like he was in denial about the person right in front of him. Then, like it was nothing, he called Gon by his name. And if by a miracle, he also knew Ging.

"My name is Kite. Ging was my master."

You nudged Killua, "Did you hear that?! He knows Gon's dad!" Killua looked just as shocked as you.

The three of you followed Kite to a small campfire as he told them stories about Ging, himself, and his current mission. You were thankful for the heat source, warming your hands against the flame as it was only getting colder as night fell. You cursed yourself for not being like Gon and Killua, who always had their long sleeve layers and could just strip them whenever the weather deemed it necessary. All you were wearing were burgundy shorts, combat boots, and a black t-shirt. And of course, your necklace. You reached your hand and held onto the choker pendent around your neck. It was all you had left of your home. Just holding onto the pink pendent brought you enough comfort to warm you from the inside out again.

The sun was beginning to set by the time you met Kite's friends and the cute dog that had taken a liking to Gon. Your eyes softened as you watched Gon play with the puppy, having found its sweet spot right behind its ear. He caught you staring, and flashed his pearly whites.

"Y/N, come rub his belly! He's so soft!"

Getting up from your spot next to Killua and wiping the dust off your shorts, you traveled to where Gon was now teaching the dog new tricks.

"How are you gonna teach him anything without any dog treats?" you asked, petting the little dog.

"With this!" Gon pulls out a handful of goldfish from his pocket. He tossed one to the pup, who caught it in midair.

You held in a laugh. "Gon, why do you just have goldfish lying around in your pockets like that?"

"You don't always have time to snack when you're training you know.. Plus, It's in a baggy!" He showed you the zip -block bag that was stuffed inside the pocket of his green shorts, bashfully rubbing the back of his neck. This time you couldn't help but let out a laugh.

"Oh I see, as long as it's in a bag, right? Can I see one?"

Gon nodded and put some goldfish in the palm of your hand. Looking for Killua, you spotted him sitting on a log watching as the sun set under the ocean's horizon. He looked so ethereal as the orange light reflected off of him. The light made his fluffy white hair shine, and a slight breeze made delicate strands wisp in the wind like snowflakes. You almost felt bad for disturbing the picturesque scene in front of you.

"Hey, Killua! Come feed this dog Gon's two-year-old musty goldfish with me!"

Yeah, you had ruined the moment.

"It's not two years old! I bought it in Yorknew," he whined.

"But it's musty?"

Killua walked up to the two of you with a questioning look, and you paused your bickering to hold open his hand and transfer the goldfish. The dog barked.

"I'm not sure, animals typically run away once they smell Mike on me," he said, referring to the oversized human-eating guard dog at the Zoldyck estate. Considering it's job was to deter people, you guessed that made sense. Still, you had faith that this innocent pup could show Killua some love. He needed the free therapy.

"Just try it!" Gon pushed.

Killua succumbed to Gon's request, holding the treat out to the tail-wagging puppy. Though, instead of taking the treat, it knocked Killua clean over, licking his face.

"What the heck— Help!" Killua desperately tried wiping the slimy slobber off of his lips.

"I think he's trying to kiss you." You giggled.

Mission accomplished!

"Kite did say that hunters are well-liked by animals. This means you're a great hunter, Killua!" Gon excitedly shared.

Killua offered a small smile. "I haven't passed the test yet, dummy."

⋯✰⋯

author's notes: hope you guys liked the first chapter! i'm excited to keep this story going!

#hunterxhunter #killua x reader #killua fanfiction #hunter x hunter fanfiction #killua zoldyck #self insert #killua zoldyck x reader #chimera ant arc #kite #gon

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defenderrosetyler · 3 years ago

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Always With You

Banner done by me; Pics are not mine

Word Count: Over 3.5k

Beta and some content added by @flamencodiva

THIS FIC IS ANGSTY! There are death mentions, as well as well as alcohol intake. If you don’t like this or it triggers you, please turn away now! There are also spoilers for the 15x20 SPN Series Finale. Now, here are your tissues. Away we go!

It was just supposed to be a simple hunt. A simple hunt to kill some vampires. Y/N had been off doing her own hunts for a while after she’d gotten a call from the Winchester brothers that, after what had seemed like a long time coming, Chuck was defeated. With the defeat of the vengeful god, it made Jack the new God and allowed him to restore the world from the devastation that he had caused with the removal of the whole universe, besides Y/N, Sam, and Dean. Then there had been the beautiful golden retriever Miracle as Dean had so named him.

Y/N had met the Winchester Brothers during a routine werewolf hunt. It was just her luck that they were on the same case. A werewolf had been terrorizing a small town and killing innocent people, brushing it off as a bear attack. With the werewolf case solved, as it usually did, with all three of their brains working together to help save people and hunt things, the family business for Sam and Dean Winchester, and now for Y/N too. After working with the brothers and feeling a sense of family, she never wanted to hunt alone ever again.

This victory they celebrated after dealing with the vengeful god was finally over. All three of them had met back at the bunker and opened up a beer, and Dean smiled as he looked over at his younger brother and Y/N.

“To all those we lost and saved,” Dean says, holding out his beer to Sam. Sam let out a chuckle, clinking his beer glass with his brothers, and allowed Y/N to clink hers as well.

Like the brothers, Y/N had lost other people when she first started her hunting career. She had someone like Bobby for her, one who helped her with the lore she’d been unfamiliar with and ways to defeat them. She was still a novice hunter until she met Sam and Dean approximately 6 months ago, she found herself drawn towards Dean, but she didn’t tell him how she felt. Not right away anyway. Maybe this was her chance to tell Dean how she felt? No, she was still too much of a coward.

Sam left the war room after their celebratory toast. Y/N and Dean both knew he had to work on contacting Eileen Lehey. Eileen and Sam always had a soft spot for one another, and the pair realized they were meant for each other.

Dean cleared his throat as he looked over at Y/N, sipping whiskey from the glass he held in his hand. “What will you do now?”

Y/N sighed as she set down her glass, shaking her head. “I don’t know. I may head back home.” She says.

Dean’s body slumped down a little at the thought of her leaving. She’d been gone when Billie had been in the bunker. When Cas had vanished, and she didn’t even know he was gone. Castiel had saved and healed Y/N on more than one occasion. This was more than Dean would have liked, but he knew it was bound to happen in their line of work.

“I haven’t seen Castiel around, have you?” She added, finishing her bottle of orange hard soda.

Dean frowned and sighed, clearing his throat. He had to tell her, didn’t he? As he opened his mouth to speak, Y/N’s laughter rang out when Miracle had entered the War Room and jumped into her lap. Dean wasn’t about to ruin her happiness now. This is all he wanted for her. True he didn’t have his chance at an ‘Apple Pie’ life as he called it with someone special like Sam had with Eileen, but this was definitely something he wanted for Y/N. A chance to get out.

Several weeks passed in the bunker, and a routine kicked in. All three of them would work on handling Miracle. They took turns feeding him, walking him, those types of tasks. Y/N found herself most afternoons curled up on one of the plush chairs in the Men of Letters library, catching up on some reading. Not knowing much of the Men of Letters, but she knew this was a hunters haven and something that was part of Sam and Dean’s history? She wanted to know more.

This was one thing Dean loved about Y/N. Her intuitive nature and the way she wanted to fill her brain with as much knowledge as possible. It seemed to make her like Sam, a bookworm, but he didn’t mind. Dean found that attractive about her.

As Sam came in from his run early one afternoon, he was looking at his laptop, brows furrowed as he read a news story he found.

“Sam? What is it?” Y/N asks as looking over at him as she walks in carrying a plate of Chinese.

The aroma filled the room of mushroom and chicken with zucchini. It was a healthier choice than the other dishes that were available, which Dean teased her about on occasion. Y/N was a health nut like Sam. She’d been more focused on her physical appearance, but that was beside the point.

“Well, I think I just found a case,” he said.

Sam appeared to be in a state of shock at the randomness of the case after the amount of time between the defeat of Chuck and now.

All three of them gathered into the impala, heading over to a small town that was holding a pie festival. Y/N shook her head as she saw the face of the elder Winchester light up. “Dean, are you sure about this?” Sam asks, giving his brother a skeptical look, raising his eyebrow as Dean nods. Clearly, you can’t keep the elder Winchester away from him and his obsession with pie.

A few minutes later, all three companions sat together on a bench. Y/N, as much as she wanted some pie, knew she could share with Dean, who had returned with an entire box full. It was like he’d grabbed every single slice that was offered. Sam had his own slice on a plate, but let out a deep, resented sigh.

“Oh god, don’t give that sigh.” Y/N says giving Sam an objectifying look. This made Sam glance over at her, feeling confused. Apparently Dean heard it too.

“That….That’s sad Sam sigh.” Dean tries to explain further, causing Sam to shake his head. Clearly it was a face of denial.

“I’m not sad, okay? Just got a lot on my mind ya know?” He says. Sam knew what had happened to Castiel but wasn’t sure if Dean had told Y/N. This wasn’t Sam’s responsibility to tell her what happened that night in the bunker with Billie. Dean glanced over at his brother, and instantly knew what was on his mind.

Both brothers seemed distracted and Y/N couldn’t figure out why. To lighten up the mood, she grabbed a small plate of pies with a whipped cream topping and moved to shove their faces into the dessert. A light giggle left her lips as she watched the shocked expressions of Sam and Dean as they attempted to comprehend what just happened.

“Did she just..?” Sam says, a look of shock and awe etched on his face. Dean used his finger to clean the whipped topping off his nose.

“Okay, I feel better now,” she giggled. They all needed a good laugh, given the mood they all seemed in since discovering the case.

While the trio researched the case, a family was turning in for the night after the events of the festival, and the day overall. Mother kissed her children goodnight, as did the father. As the kids were headed upstairs to finish their evening routine, the father stopped at the doorway, seeing a shadow in the window, Followed by a knock at their front door. When he opened the door, he had a confused look on his face as there was no one there.

“Lyle?” The woman asks her husband, a worried expression on her face.

“It's probably nothing,” Lyle shrugged, “just some kids….” His words are cut off as a machete sliced through his spine, cutting him in half. Lyle’s wife shrieked. Seeing this, the boys ran upstairs quickly to hide from the invader. Their mother isn’t far behind them. However, she was soon backed into a corner, unable to run or hide. Her children watched as their mother collapsed to the floor, dead. The echo of a boy shrieking filled the night.

The following morning, Sam and Dean approached the house surrounded by yellow police tape and introduced themselves to the officer as Y/N examined the property.

“Hold up, Feds, look into murder cases now?” The officer asks, raising an eyebrow at Sam and Dean, who’d introduced themselves as Kripkie, Singer, and Y/N as Agent Lemming.

Dean nodded, “Couldn’t help overhearing on the wire that one of the victims had its blood drained, right?”

The officer sighed and nodded, “Oh yeah, blood gone, puncture marks, it was really disgusting, and I’ve seen my fair share of murder cases.”

“The Mom?” Sam asks.

“Her body’s upstairs, but her tongue was cut off.”

“The kids were taken too,” Y/N says. “Were there any witnesses who can pin a description on who may have taken the kids?”

A female officer approached with a sketch pad and showed the trio the composite of the kidnapper/murderer. The photo shows a man with a skeleton mask. The officer excused herself, as did the Sergeant, leaving the trio nodding, thanking them for their time.

The trio loaded themselves into the impala; Sam appeared to be racking his brain for something that connected the clues. “I know that face. I just can’t put my finger on it,” Sam sighed, irritated. Dean pulled the Impala under a tree off the main road. He knew what his younger brother was trying to remember.

Y/N had the patriarch, John Winchester's journal, in her hands and froze when she saw the sketch inside the journal's contents. Dean blinked as if remembering the case.

“The kidnappings of ‘77!” They both said together

“According to the journal, he didn’t find much. But this is a common denominator between the two cases now,” Y/N says looking between them. “The blood was drained, tongues removed….I think we’re dealing with mimes.”

“Mimes or vampires,” Sam says.

“Vamp-mimes,” Dean says, attempting to merge the names together, earning a skeptical look from Y/N. “Son of a bitch.”

“So, what do we do?” Y/N asks.

“If these cases are a copycat of Dad’s old case, we need to head over to Canton,” Sam says. “We need to look for families that live outside city limits, around the age of 5-10 years old.

“Okay, so we need to look over the population of Canton and see who fits the bill,” Y/N says as they all climbed into the Impala, setting themself to get to work.

They had followed the vampires over to an abandoned barn, Sam declining Deans wanting to use a throwing star, he gave it a huge resounding no, but Y/N managed to sneak it into her arsenal before they walked in. Inside it was dark and dreary. Being confronted by a vampire they met several years ago was a surprise for them, but the ambush, was a whole different surprise.

Y/N issued the two young boys back to the safety of the impala as the fighting began inside. Dean and Sam used their machete’s to chop the heads off each skeleton masked vampire. Y/N was knocked down to the ground, Sam rushing to her aid as he chopped its head off. Meanwhile on the other side of the barn, Dean was pushed into a pole, unseen till he felt it, had a metal rebar.

Seeing Dean struggling, Y/N rushed over to chop its head off and watched it fall to the ground.

“Okay, I think that’s all of them,” Y/N panted, “Sam, go check on the kids would you please?”

Sam nods and heads to check on the two younger boys they had managed to save. Y/N looked at Dean and wondered why he wasn’t moving. They’d won, they could go home, and celebrate over some leftover pie from the festival.

“Dean?” She asks “Come on, Sam’s gonna need help with the kids.”

A sad smile appeared on Dean’s face, he was clearly struggling. “I don’t….I don’t think I’m going anywhere.”

“What?” Y/N breathed confused but she already had an idea about what happened.

“There's something in my...Something in my back. It feels like it's right through me.” Dean rasped. Y/N walked to stand in front of him now, reaching around to his back and more tears welled in her eyes as she looked at him. Shaking her head, fighting the tears. She wasn’t about to cry in front of Dean.

“We-We can call for Cas, Cas can heal you!” Y/N pleaded. Praying for Castiel, praying that her angelic friend would be able to appear in a ruffle of his feathers and save Dean like he always did. Heaven rules or not.

“Don’t move me, Y/N/N, this thing is actually holding me together right now,” Dean says trying to put on a smile for her. Y/N moved to leave him, intent on calling for Sam for help or at least gathering the first aid kit she’d ensured was in the Impala at all times, in instances where Castiel’s healing ability wasn’t at their disposal to use. “Just-just come back and stay with me please?”

Y/N wasn’t about to let Dean be alone. He’d been there for her so many times, now it was her turn. “Okay, okay.” She nodded trying to compose herself. “Sam’s off taking care of the boys right now, we’re all gonna go deliver them to their families. Deal?” She suggested

“No,” Dean says, shaking his head, “no Y/N/N. I’m not going to be leaving with you and Sam. I mean, this is how I always told Sam that this is how I was going to go out. On a hunt, doing what we do, saving people and hunting things.”

“Dean, for the love of God stop it!” She snapped, the tears now fully falling down her cheeks. “I’m going to get you out of here alive if it's the last thing I do!!”

“It's been a hell of a ride Y/N/N.” As hurt and as injured as he was, he gave her a stern look. “No deals, you and Sam are not bringing me back. We all know how deals turned out for us. Just, let me talk for a minute okay?” He asks. Causing Y/N to nod only and bite back her tears. “Remember, remember the day we met at the pool house? You were at the bar and uh…”

“You and Sam were playing pool,” Y/N chimed in to help him.

Dean nodded. “You had busted my ass at pool, only because I let you, then you proved me wrong on the hunt that we’d done, saved my ass for the first time.” Dean chuckled sadly before coughing.

“I don’t want you to go…..” Y/N sobbed, looking at him. “I can’t do this without you.”

“I’m so proud of you, Y/N/N,” Dean says, “Besides, I’m never gonna leave you,” he whispered moving his hand to her heart, Y/N placing her hand over his. Gripping it tight as she possibly can without hurting him. “Can you do me a favor?” Dean adds.

“Anything,” she says instantly

“Tell me it's okay to let go?” Dean asks. This makes Y/N finally let the waterfall of her tears fall down, resting her head against his. Chest heaving as she struggled to breathe. Where was Castiel? Why wasn’t he or Jack here yet? This was the one thing she refused to do.

“Y/N/N, please?” Dean was practically begging on his final breaths. Y/N gathered her composure and nodded. A sniffle filled the air as Y/C/E met his emerald green ones.

All Y/N can do is sob. “I’ll let Sam know you said goodbye.”

A single tear fell down Dean’s cheek. “I’ll always love you Y/N/N, I always have. Just been too afraid to say it.” Dean says struggling, on his last breaths.

Y/N sighed and moved her hand to place it over Dean’s heart. She leaned in, pressing her lips to his, soft at first before dean deepened it. His tongue clashing with hers as they shared their first and last kiss., Pulling away, Y/N bit her lip, trying to suppress the sob that threatened to escape. Her heart shattered into a million pieces as she placed his hand over her heart. “I love you too,” she whispered, “It's okay Dean,” she paused to find her voice, “You can go,” she whispered.

Dean took his last breath, his hand slowly dropping from Y/N’s chest where he had it over her heart. Y/N kept her hand on his heart till it wasn’t beating anymore. She let out a scream of rage, sobbing at the loss of the one man she loved. Collapsing onto the floor, all hope abandoning her..

Upon entering heaven, Cas and Dean were reunited. As much as it pained Y/N and Sam to do it, surrounded by family and friends they’d known throughout the years as hunters, they gave Dean a hunter's funeral. Y/N watched the flames, holding back the need to jump on the pyre with him and meet him in Jack’s new heaven she is sure he’d have built. In order to numb the pain, after the funeral, one night as Sam slept, Y/N slipped out, heading off to find another hunt.

Hunting seemed to help her not think Dean was gone, but then came the nights where she heard his voice in her head. Telling her to stop, slow down, and take a rest. One evening, after she’d been up for almost three days straight, Y/N decided to give in to her exhaustion and take a soothing bath.

While in the tub, Y/N had opted to numb more of the pain she felt, by drinking Dean’s favorite whisky. God she missed him, missed the way he flirted, missed how they would sing at the top of their lungs to annoy Sam. She just wanted him back. As she continued to drink, the exhaustion mixed with the effects of the alcohol started to sink in. Her mind began to drift off, eyes fighting to stay open until they closed, her body sunk into the tub, head submerged, until she was engulfed by the water.

The next morning, Sam went to check on her. He hadn’t heard from her in a few days and tracked her down to her motel room. At first, he thought maybe she was sleeping and tried calling her cell while banging on the door. That usually resulted in Sam meeting the end of the barrel of her gun. But after a few minutes, his heart began to pound with worry. Kicking the door down, he called out her name frantically, until he reached the bathroom. His heart stopped, torn at the scene before him. He let out a cry, both angry and sad at his fallen friend. Angry because she had left him alone, she was all he had left, and sad because he knew he didn’t do enough to help.

With a heavy heart called 911, and a second hunter's funeral was planned.

Y/N opened her eyes and looked around herself. The sky shone brightly, her skin feeling it’s warmth. She wasn’t sure where she was, but she could feel a familiar presence behind her. Taking a deep breath, she slowly turned around to see a familiar place she called home.

Harvelle's

The sign welcomed her and as she walked closer to it, she felt her heart warm to see the familiar mentor who had helped her long before she met Sam and Dean.

“You’re an Idjit for doing all those hunts back to back you know,” her mentor huffed, putting the beer bottle to his lips and taking a drink.

“Yeah,” she sighed, “but at least I saved people doing it, Bobby.”

Bobby let out a huff, smiling gently at her, “He’s in there if you’re wondering.”

Y/N nodded, making her way towards the door. Her hands shook as she placed her palm on the wood, and pushed it open.

The bar was filled with laughter and music. As she looked around she saw familiar faces, faces of the people she had loved and lost along the way. They were drinking and dancing, music filling the air around them. As she continued farther in, the voices seemed to fade away as the man she was looking for stood at the bar, elbows leaning on the top as he offered her a cocky smile.

“I’ve been waiting for you sweetheart,” he says with a chuckle. “Now, about that kiss.”

Tags:

@simsadventures @mummybear @impala-dreamer @holylulusworld @snffbeebee @saxxxology @akshi8278 @deansmyapplepie @luci-in-trenchcoats @samskia-writes @winchester-fantasies @talesmaniac89 @stusbunker @idreamofplaid @cherrypiebbyblog @cleighwrites @jxackles @flamencodiva @wonder-cole @msmarvelouswinchester @downanddirtydean @janicho88 @lacednleathered

#spn fanfic #dean x reader #spn finale #defenderrosetylerwrites #angst #spn angst

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bullseyegames · 5 years ago

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Today at 1:00 PM EST I saw Cats the Musical at the Shubert Theater with my mom. Here’s the saga:

Overture:

Mistoffelees was right next to me in the overture with glowing cats eyes and I nearly died right there.

I started crying during the overture, my mom gave me a tissue. Going great so far.

I started screaming at the end of the overture, people are starting to realize I’m a crazy person.

Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats:

Omg they’re here and they’re real and I’m here! I’m crying again.

I pointed out Cassandra to my mom as she came up the aisle. Mom is questioning why I know all the cats names.

MISTO AND TUGGER ARE CUDDLING EACH OTHER HOLY SHIT

The guy the cats call out for being surprised was right in front of me he looked So confused and scared and I was just grinning behind him.

Naming of Cats:

I’m whispering the words along with the cats. Plato made eye contact and smiled at me. I’m crying again.

Watching Victoria in the background is so much fun. She’s getting really into this.

Victoria’s Dance:

Invitation to the Jellicle Ball:

Misto sneaking up on Victoria with a mischievous look in his eye is a mood.

Victoria looks so annoyed with him, they are literally me and my brother and it makes me so happy.

I love this Misto’s voice and he’s so fucking graceful and elegant and I love him!

MISTO AND TUGGER ARE DANCING TOGETHER OMG

Mungo and Rumple try to greet Munk and he rolls his eyes and tells them to go away. Jerre is very upset at this.

Gumbie Cat:

Looks like the trunk is either broken or not functioning in this space so Jenny just kinda slid out onto the top of it but she’s so beautiful so I don’t care.

Misto is being such a helpful and concerned boy whenever Jenny is around. He’s very concerned when Jenny spaces out for a solid minute.

The Gumbie trio are angels and I will take this belief to my grave.

Plato being a snarky little shit during the dance break made me laugh.

FOR SHES A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW

The Rum Tum Tugger:

He’s here and Skimble is not happy about it!

Misto and Skimble are arguing in the background. Looks like misto is saying Tugger is cute and Skimble is disagreeing.

Misto makes sure Skimble isn’t looking before joining the dance.

Skimble stop trying to pull cats away from Tugger he’s a big sexy magnet and you can’t stop those hips.

My mom is singing along, this makes me so happy.

Misto is just twitching and squealing like a kitten he loves his boyfriend so much.

Munk has given up, just rolled his eyes and walked off stage.

Skimble is now complaining to Jenny, Jenny is too busy staring at Tuggers ass to pay any mind.

Grizabella the Glamour Cat:

Oof. No one is happy rn.

George is extremely startled poor baby.

Munk is trying his best to keep Demeter away and she is not happy about it.

Bomba actually walked up with her arms extended only to hiss and scamper off at the last second. That’s cold girl.

Munk is being very protective of the cats around him. Tugger walked off and Misto ran after him.

Demeter has such a pretty voice and Bomba is so sultry and AH SHIT I’m crying again.

Platoria alert! PLATORIA ALERT!

Bustopher Jones:

Misto continuing to be an extremely helpful boy making everything glow.

The actor did a great job but I honestly prefer his Gus more but we shall get to him later.

First Macavity Scare:

AH SHIT ITS GETTING SPOOKY

Misto and Tugger reaching out to each other before running off in fear.

Bomba being the last cat onstage showing that she don’t give a damn.

Plato is protecting both Cassandra and Victoria. I’m noticing a lot of Plato and Cassandra moments and I’m not sure how I feel about that just yet.

Mungojerre and Rumpleteazer:

ENTER THE CHAOS GREMLINS!

I love them so much and they were extremely slinking baby bastards.

The cartwheel was better than my best dream I’m so happy I’m gonna cry again!!!

Munk and Alonzo ain’t too happy with their shenanigans.

Old Deuteronomy:

“Old Deuteronomy?”

Munk and Tugger duet. ;-;

Platoria cuddling. ;-;

MISTO SMILING AT ME AS HE PASSES. ;—;

Second Macavity Scare:

Everyone just fucking bolted. No protecting, no character interactions, just pure fuck this shit I’m out.

The Jellicle Ball:

This was the happiest I have been in a very long time.

The dancing was gorgeous and the character interactions are absolutley amazing throughout the entire sequence. It was truly a wonderful sight. And yes I did cry again, I’m running out of tissues.

Pas de Deux:

I love that there was no awkwardness or hesitation, just pure love and devotion and OH MY GOD HE ALMOST DROPPED VICTORIA.

Like everything was fine in the end but he visibly stumbled and old Deuteronomy looked very startled for a hot sec. Still very beautiful.

Memory:

DANGIT GRIZZABELLA I HAD JUST STOPPED CRYING!

In all honesty my favorite part was old Deuteronomy looking longingly at her in the background. He misses her so much. ;-;

INTERMISSION :3

Moments of Happiness:

Old Deuteronomy’s voice is so strong and his vibrato is simply heavenly.

Deut pats cori on the head, cori pats Jemima on the head, Jemima sings like an angel.

Look at all those angels!

Gus the Theater Cat:

Jellylorum has such a lovely voice and her gentle movements are lovely.

Gus insulting the kittens is absolutely adorable, they’re so insulted.

Gus playfully hissing at Jemima before booping her nose makes me so soft.

Cat puns making the audience laugh is always wonderful.

The Pekes and the Pollices:

Whispered to my mom before hand “get ready for some chaos”.

Winsome Chinese :3

Misto with a boot on his head is more hilarious than it should be.

Gus has such a wonderful voice and it’s very clear he’s having a blast up there.

Gus received the standing ovation he deserved. Bless that wiry cat man.

Skimbleshanks:

“SKIMBLESHANKS THE RAILWAY CAT”

Alonzo and Jenny playing cards in the background while Skimble sings has a very specific vibe to it.

Mungo is so happy to be dancing with his dad and is just running around like a kitten.

Misto has slipped away to unleash his inner laserpointer.

Macavity Kidnapping:

DEMETER IS DOWN FOLKS SHE IS OUT LIKE A LIGHT.

Munk trying to shield everyone’s eyes and accidentally looking at Macavity and passing out.

Aaaand there goes cat dad.

Macavity:

Deme baby looks so startled.

Bomba we get it you have the hots for Macavity stop biting your lip like that.

YES GURLS FUCKING WORK!!!

Macavity Fight:

Poor Munk getting thrown around like a rag doll, Plato too getting flipped over.

Alonzo like “BITCH LET GO OF MY BOYFRIENDS GIRLFRIEND!”

Mac trying to use his magic to rehypnoitize the cats and looking genuinely scared when it doesn’t work.

Black out!

Mr. Mistoffelees:

Tugger being like alright y’all shut up while I sing about my boyfriend.

PJ is so graceful and beautiful!!! His voice is also very gentle and lovely and him and Tugger being so touchy makes me so happy.

THEY HUUUGGED!!!!!

OH WELL I NEVER WAS THERE EVER A CAT SO CLEVER AS MAGICAL MISTER MISTOFFELEES?!?!! ;—;

Memory:

This was a simply gorgeous performance. This Grizabella made some wonderful character choices and there was a beautiful satisfaction when Victoria took her hand.

I did notice that even after he touched her Tugger looked very uncomfortable at Grizabella’s presence.

Journey to the Heaviside Layer:

Oh.. oh my god I didn’t realize the tire flew that high. OH MY GOD I DIDN'T REALIZE GRIZABELLA ACTUALLY FLEW AWAY.

Addressing of Cats:

Heavenly Deut voice, audience bursted out laughing at the “cat is not a dog” line and I can’t blame them. Crescendo, bows, and it’s over...

POST SHOW :O

After the show me and my mom went across the street to buy cookies and when we came out we saw them striking the set! Here’s them putting the tire in the truck! :3

Overall this was a magical experience and you bet your sparkly ass I’ll be looking out for when the tour comes back around to me. Now if you excuse me I need to buy more tissues.

#cats the musical #cats tour 6 #cats tour 2020 #It was so beautiful ;-;#Im going to be watching bootlegs all night to relive the expierence #;-;

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nctinfo · 5 years ago

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[TRANS] YOHOGIRL interview with WayV’s Ten, Lucas & Yangyang!

What did the WayV trio who can speak 7 languages in total say to us before they watched their first fashion show? About two weeks ago, after we saw the celebrity guest list for FENDI's grand fashion show in Shanghai, our editor buddies all immediately said in the Li Jiaqi (a guy who became known after recommending a lipstick) tone: Interview them! And we landed the interview. Na (a sound to express something being shown to someone else), here they are - WayV trio's only been half a year since brand new boygroup WayV debuted, but how popular are they already? Before the FENDI show, I posted on Weibo, attaching photos of them, and within a minute, it had garnered hundreds of shares and comments. If you still don't know who they are, I suggest you listen to the title track they just released in May - Take Off. Members Lucas, Ten, and Yangyang were the three who came to watch the show, and their average age is 20 years old (Lucas and Yangyang are both born just before and after 2000~), but in our interaction, I found a profound maturity with politeness and adorableness like the spring wind. After the interview, this old sister thought: how nice it’d be if my future sons were just like them. Alright, hurry and come and see what we talked about with the WayV trio, seeing as when this heavenly group gains even more popularity, we’ll probably take half a year before they have time for another interview with us...

Q: Tonight is your first time watching a fashion live, right? Isn’t it very exciting for you right now? Yangyang: Yes, yes, it’s the first time for all three of us~ In the past, I’ve only watched videos of fashion shows, this will be an unforgettable first experience. Lucas: I really want to watch the show soon! This is a really important show, I believe it’s been decorated and furnished grandly inside. Ten: I really like fashion myself, so I really look forward to viewing tonight’s collection.

Q: What will you look out for during the show? Yangyang: I’ll probably pay more attention to the matching of their pieces because the designers’ way of matching will be different from what typical people wear on the streets, I want to learn from them. Ten: I think it’ll be color, FENDI’s clothes have lots of basic colors, and they’re really nice to look at. Lucas: I’ll probably pay more attention to the models, since I learned to model before, and walked a show too, so it’ll feel very different as an audience watching the models walk the show~

Q: As a group who has debuted for about half a year, how do you think you grew and changed in this half a year? Yangyang: I think we can better face the camera now, and gained some stage experience. Ten: I think it’s our teamwork! Lucas: Mmhm, we were already very good before, but we seem to have more motivation now, and really feel that we are one team who can’t go on with even one person’s absence, we cherish very much the time we have together, and often gather to have fun, feeling one another’s spark.

Q: Out of the 3 of you, who has the best fashion sense? Yangyang: About this, I feel that the three of us have vastly different style! For example, Lucas has a tall and strong physique, so he suits more tight-fitting clothes; Ten is someone whose clothing matches his emotions, he is quite good in the sense that clothes that don’t look good on other people somehow looks very good on him! As for me, I prefer more street, sporty styles, like today’s hairband, which I personally picked out, haha.

Q: Usually, what kind of products do you like to buy? Ten: I like to buy accessories like necklaces, bracelets, ear studs. Lucas: I have many jackets, so no matter what you wear on the inside, as long as you add a jacket on top of it, the feeling will become totally different. Yangyang: I just like to buy shoes. (Lucas: Yes haha, the dorm is just filled with your shoes.....) Haha, as for the shoe I bought recently, I liked it for a long time and bought it after much consideration. Strangely, I don’t really care about joints, as long as I like it on the first look then I’ll buy it. I used to queue up and take queue numbers to buy shoes, but now I don’t have the luxury of time, so I can only buy resale shoes, haha

Q: You three’s backgrounds are all so international, so how many languages can you each speak? Yangyang: I can speak 5—Chinese, English, German, Korean, and a little bit of Spanish, because it was a mandatory class in Germany. Ten: I speak Thai, English, Korean, and a little bit of Chinese...... (Lucas & Yangyang: Your Chinese is already really good!) Lucas: My living environment was really complicated, as my mom is Thai, but I grew up in Hong Kong, so I can speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Thai, Korean, and have recently been diligently studying English. Background Information: Lucas is a Hong Kong-born mix of Chinese and Thai; Ten is Chinese-Thai; Yangyang is Chinese-German.

Q: Then do Lucas and Ten often use Thai to communicate? Lucas & Ten: Haha, sometimes, but really rarely, maybe we will suddenly say a sentence or two. In actuality Chinese is spoken more often, to help Ten practice more Chinese.

Q: Lucas recently began appearing on entertainment show “Running Man,” and are there any thoughts of it in particular? Lucas: My dream is to become a traveler, so the best part about the show is its ability for me to learn more about China. Our country is really big, so through this show, I was able to interact with the language, culture, and food of different places across the nation, when not everyone is able to get the opportunity to experience these places, so I am very grateful.

Q: Are there any goals WayV want to accomplish for this year? Yangyang: This year’s goal...... We hope to be able to meet our fans more often! Lucas: Yes, and actually if we’re not talking about just this year, us 7 all have one common goal, and that is to have our own concert. Ten: Yeah, that is our ultimate goal!

Q: We just heard that Yangyang said he hopes his follower count could hit over 10 million. Yangyang: That’s a dream, but if it’s accomplished, there will be a bonus treat for the fans—I will sing German children’s song “The Little Crocodile” for you guys! Hahaha.

Translation: Jess, Angela, Seol @ FY! NCT (NCTINFO) | Source: YOHOGIRL — Do not repost or take out without our permission!

#NCT #wayv #ten #lucas #yangyang #t:trans #t:interview #yohogirl

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dropintomanga · 5 years ago

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Spy X Family - My New Favorite Ship

As a Chinese male growing up with Chinese culture while living in America, I and many other Chinese have been asked questions by fellow Chinese like “When are you going to get married?”, “When will you start a family?”, etc. There are reasons for the questioning and most of them tend to be somewhat selfish. At the same time, I wonder myself if I would like to raise a family down the road. It doesn’t help that a new smash-hit manga about family has taken the world by storm to influence my changing thoughts about the matter. In a good way, course.

Tatsuya Endo’s Spy X Family (don’t pronounce the “x” a la Hunter x Hunter) is a charming and fun tale of a family living through dangerous white lies in a wholesome manner.

The story of Spy X Family covers an infamous spy named Twilight, who’s trying to take out a well-known politician with huge influence as his next target. In order to do his current job, he has to gain access to his presence via having a fake family and building connections via his target’s network. Twilight finds a young girl in the foster system named Anya to be his daughter. He then finds a government employee named Yor Briar, who wants a boyfriend, to be his wife. The twists are that like Twilight, both Anya and Yor have special talents they don’t want people to be aware of. Yor is an assassin known as the Thorn Princess while Anya is a telepath. Anya knows her adoptive parents are both killers and finds them to be pretty cool. Together, they make up the Forger family and attempt to blend into the upper echelon of society all while kicking literal ass doing so.

What I love about Spy X Family is how it highlights the struggle of raising a family when you don’t know where to begin. Twilight (or Loid Forger if you go by his family alias) became a spy due to his experiences growing up as an war-bred orphan. Anya feels discriminated due to her telepathy. Before meeting Loid, Yor was beginning to feel desperate over whether she would get a boyfriend as she continues to get older. All three have become hard-nosed while yearning for connection before coming together.

It’s very hard to start a family today due to the complexity of modern life. Things have changed so much with how family life is treated, so Spy X Family provides a glimpse on trying to make things work despite other areas in your life interfering. In a fun way, the Forger family is one that seems to be dying or one that’s only available to lucky individuals - the nuclear family that’s able to find a balance.

One of my favorite parts in the series so far is during a school interview where the Forgers are trying to get Anya accepted into that school. When asked to rate her parents on a scale from 0 to 100, Anya says 100 points with a lot of enthusiasm. She also says she wants to be with them forever and her parents just blushed with surprise. Another cute moment was when Anya was rescued by Yor from kidnappers and she asks Yor to train her so she won’t die. Yor tells herself that even though she’s not a traditional mother, she’ll do her best to raise Anya the way she can.

I also appreciate a bigger message from Spy X Family in that family is often a big key to get by in life. Having a great family matters so, so much. When it came to mental health, I’m grateful to my mother for finding me a clinic to go to so many years ago. She was always there to listen. Although she does give unsolicited advice from time to time, my mom knows when to listen non-judgmentally. My father had a big presence as he always joked with me about things. Being around him made me realize the importance of taking it easy when warranted. I’ve been blessed to have 2 parents and a younger sister who are willing to help make my life better.

Being in a strong family helps you learn about roles and how to fulfill/challenge them. They teach you how to give and accept love. Families teach something important that seems to be forgotten at times - commitment to other people. Hell really is other people and you can’t live without them. So why not try to find the middle ground in it all? That’s what great families do.

Kids like Anya need valuable family time to grow. They want to feel like they matter to someone. I sometimes struggled with this while I was growing up. There have been times where I felt helpless (like Anya), but I somehow pulled through and made my parents proud of me. It was all because of being around them as much as I have.

I feel that Loid, Yor, and Anya carry something a lot of us share and don’t want to admit - a feeling of loneliness. I think it’s fine being single and not wanting to deal with family dynamics. I would never tell anyone to start a family without thoughtful planning. So here’s something I learned recently - since a lot of modern life involves individualism, how can we use that individuality to bring people together in a meaningful way? I feel that’s a question that Spy X Family poses on its readers with its trio of unique characters coming as one. Groups and communities can form from a single person’s desire to express themselves. I think we’re not taught anymore on how to build something bigger than us with our distinct talents.

Definitely take a sneak peek at Spy X Family. Instead of a trap, you’ll get a gold mine of valuable information on what it means to find connection anywhere you go and treasure it for the important mission of living a colorful life with those who love you.

#Spy x Family #manga #psychology of family #yearning for family #mental health

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years ago

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Episode 119: The New Crystal Gems

“We can be exactly like them, but better!”

It’s a time-honored tradition at this point to follow emotionally heavy arcs with Peridot being silly, and while Greg’s kidnapping might seem like small potatoes compared to the Peridemption or the conclusion to Act II, The New Crystal Gems is a welcome salve before we dive back into turmoil mode. Especially because this is our last fully goofy episode, without any forays into angst or the larger plot, until Letters to Lars. And even that one has Sad Dewey.

A staple of great sitcoms is developing a strong core roster and pairing characters together in interesting ways episode to episode. It’s something that Steven Universe (which to be fair is not a sitcom) unfortunately doesn’t get a chance to do very often, because we see the world through Steven’s eyes. By design he’s nearly always a part of the show that bears his name, and while I love the kid, it can be refreshing to see what it’s like for people in his world to hang out without him. I’d kill for an episode about Greg giving Buck guitar lessons, or a day in the life of Onion and Sour Cream’s family, or Garnet interacting with literally any human that isn’t a Universe for an extended period of time. But I’ll certainly settle for seeing Connie, Peridot, and Lapis do their own thing. (Oh and also Pumpkin.)

When Connie and the Barnmates are both tasked to protect Beach City by Steven and Garnet respectively in Adventures in Light Distortion, it seems irrelevant compared to the stakes at hand. But it cleverly fuels the story of three major but supporting characters getting a big promotion and not knowing what to do about it. This is high concept sitcom plot through and through (“Jerry and the gang wait to eat at a Chinese restaurant!” “A conman sells Springfield a monorail!” “April and Andy have a surprise wedding!” “Connie, Peridot, and Lapis take over as the substitute Crystal Gems!”), and I am here for it.

The New Crystal Gems is an answer of sorts to Gem Heist, an episode about the restrictive identities of Gems in their native society. Back on Earth, our heroes instead feel compelled to fill in the roles of the original Crystal Gems, and while the “be yourself” message couldn’t be more blatant, the execution is a delightful reminder that freedom from Homeworld rules allows for malleability and growth. This is a planet where not only a human but a sentient pumpkin dog can be honorary Gems.

While Connie and Peridot are a lot of fun as the Steven and the Garnet, and Pumpkin is obviously a dead ringer for Pearl, Jennifer Paz does the most impressive vocal mimicry as Lapis gets super into playing different members of the group. This is mostly wonderful for how fun it is to see her have fun, but I also love how it tracks with her former life trapped in a mirror, only able to communicate by copying who she saw and heard. Of course she’s good at imitation.

It’s also intriguing to get a glimpse at Lapis’s opinion of the Crystal Gems these days, because she hated them from the start and still has yet to warm up to any non-Steven member of the core group. When she asks which one Amethyst is, it’s everything I want in deadpan: impenetrable delivery from a deeply ambiguous character who’s so dry that even the act of explaining she’s kidding is funny (see also: EDI from Mass Effect). And it’s amplified by her genuinely not recognizing Connie, which itself is a hilarious interaction for both parties. Going full Teen Mode in the beginning of the episode makes her dive into silliness even better; she might be a snob when it comes to how many people she almost drowned, but she’s not too high and mighty to play make believe.

Connie does imitate Steven a bit, but as the most rational of the trio she still defaults to Connie and has to dip into Steven Mode when duty calls. Peridot’s Garnet is just throwing on sunglasses and giving a thumbs up, then acting like typical bossy Peridot, but it make sense that someone who already sees herself as a leader doesn’t think she needs to adjust to fit the role.

In a neat nod to the show’s production history, Jennifer Paz and Shelby Rabara play the Gems they originally auditioned for: we could be living in a world with Paz as Amethyst and Rabara as Garnet full-time. No word on whether Grace Rolek ever read for Steven, but if it wasn’t clear enough from the episode’s content, the crew seemed to have a lot of fun with The New Crystal Gems.

Subtlety isn’t what this episode is going for, but I still appreciate that the successful wash sequence only works because our heroes act like their best selves: Peridot and Lapis use their powers, and Connie towels off the car like the practical human she is. It’s only with a bigger crowd where Peridot and Lapis try too hard to enforce roles that don’t come naturally: Peridot would rather wrest control than lead, while Lapis’s idea of a “joke” is firehosing citizens. Connie’s speech fails because an imitation of Steven’s enthusiasm pales to the real thing, and her lack of an established relationship with these ornery Gems makes an appeal to love impossible. So yeah, shock of shocks, being themselves again is the answer. It’s visible from a mile away, but the appeal of The New Crystal Gems was never going to be its lesson.

The character work for Peridot, Lapis, and Connie is everything here, and I could spend an entire miniseries watching their continuing adventures as the Crystal Temps. Peridot and Lapis already have great chemistry, at each other’s throats when their egos get the better of them but otherwise getting along (either because they agree or because one is fine humoring the other). My favorite shared belief of theirs is that Pearl is the worst Crystal Gem; it’s such a specific and continuous joke that every iteration of it warms my mean-spirited heart, and Peridot’s similarities with Pearl are so obvious that it’s delightful when they’re verbalized.

Connie is the wildcard here, and while it bums me out that we never got to see her meeting Peridot for the first time, her intro scene with Lapis and her role as the adult in the room make her a critical addition. Steven may be more emotionally mature than Peridot, but Connie combines this maturity with the ability to operate on Peridot’s wavelength of logical pragmatism (and is way better at it than Peridot because she’s not, and I say this with love, a doofus). This leads to more of a clashing relationship than what we’re used to, especially because Connie is willing to call Peridot out in situations that Steven and Lapis would just let go. These three are friends, sort of, but most of the episode is Connie wrangling two ancient teens.

It’s amazing to watch Connie’s big speech after I Am My Monster, where she applies the same skills to both rebuke and rally Steven’s extended family in order to save him. Both here and there, she references Steven’s ability to bring people together without actually using his methods, because she’s not Steven and she doesn’t have to be. Steven is forgiving of the Gems’ flaws to a fault, but Connie has no patience for adults who can’t act like the guardians they should be, because she was raised by parents who (for all their flaws) were nothing if not responsible. Connie may have softened since her Bubble Buddies days, but her willingness to chastise friends when the situation calls for it remains one of her greatest strengths in a cast that’s often too kind to speak their minds.

Connie’s narration separates The New Crystal Gems from most flashback episodes, but we otherwise follow the typical structure of beginning and ending in the present. To his credit, Steven apologizes to Connie for leaving her behind, and for now she’s understanding; her anger with him doing it again in I Am My Mom comes from him revealing that his apology was hollow, because he’s still willing to go on risky adventures without her. (Also, Pearl gets a nice moment beyond being the butt of an episode-long joke by nodding in approval at Connie doing the chores.)

This is one of the more satisfying endings to a flashback episodes, which usually peak at the end of the story being told rather than in the present. Greg’s wealth makes the destruction of his shop less serious than it would’ve been two seasons ago, but it’s still nice to see how chill and forgiving he is of the mistake. And Peridot and Lapis’s artistic side gets to shine as they make a new sign (new sitcom episode idea: Peridot, Lapis, and Buck open a morp exhibit in Beach City). Their victory pose is earned.

This is a shorter review than usual, thanks to the problem I tend to have with writing about Peridot antics: they’re great, but I have to avoid just transcribing my favorite jokes and helpfully telling y’all that they’re funny. Log Date 7 15 2 and Kindergarten Kid were made easier by respectively allowing me to write about Peridot’s redemption as a whole and Looney Tunes, while Beta restricts the best gags to its first half. The New Crystal Gems is an awesome episode, but it’s a bummer that I can’t write more about Connie’s relationship with Peridot and Lapis, because we don’t see them hang out in a meaningful way after this. I’m happy with what we got, but it’s almost cruel to give us a bite of cake without offering a full slice. More Crystal Temps, please!

Future Vision!

The end of Steven Universe Future doesn’t just see Connie call back to her role as the leader of the Crystal Temps, but Peridot replace her as the inheritor of Steven’s shirt.

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

Like Log Date 7 15 2 and Kindergarten Kid before it, The New Crystal Gems is a delight. Add Lapis and Connie to the mix and it gets even better. Not in my Top 20, but still a great one.

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Steven’s Dream

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

No Thanks!

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

(I don’t know how an episode this fun didn’t have any crew members drawing official promo images, but Luckyjackpot is on the case.)

#the new crystal gems #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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itmeansvictory · 5 years ago

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❝ She did not need much, wanted very little. A kind word, sincerity, fresh air, clean water, a garden, kisses, books to read, sheltering arms, a cozy bed, and to love and be loved in return. ❞

BRIE LARSON? No, that’s actually VICTOIRE WEASLEY. Only TWENTY SIX years old, this HUFFLEPUFF alumni works as an CURSE-BREAKER and is sided with THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. SHE identifies as CIS FEMALE and is a HALFBLOOD ( ONE EIGTH VEELA ) who is known to be OVERPROTECTIVE, STUBBORN, and SELF-DEPRECATING but also CONSCIENTIOUS, NURTURING, and PRAGMATIC. { r, 27, mst, she/her/hers }

GENERAL

FULL NAME: Victoire Apolline Weasley NICKNAME(S): Vic, V, Tori, Tor AGE/DATE OF BIRTH: 26, 05/02/1997 OCCUPATION: Independently Contracted Curse-Breaker GENDER: Cis Female PRONOUNS: She/Her HOMETOWN: Tinworth, Cornwall, England CURRENT RESIDENCE: London, England POSITIVE TRAITS: Conscientious, Nurturing, Pragmatic, Loyal NEGATIVE TRAITS: Stubborn, Self-Deprecating, Overprotective, Moody

BIOGRAPHY

victoire apolline weasley - though you may know her as a number of monikers: blonde weasley, curse-breaking milf, mom friend™, whatever. she’s the eldest weasley cousin, part-veela, a mother, and yes she is a natural blonde. these are often the defining characteristics she is known by, but there’s a lot more than meets the eye.

born on may 2nd, 1997, almost two years after the fateful tri-wizard tournament where voldemort was defeated “once and for all”, she is the first child born to bill weasley and beauxbatons champion fleur delacour. the first of her generation; hers was a charmed childhood, only made more exciting by the arrival of two siblings and many cousins. seeing as she was older than most of them by a handful of years, victoire became somewhat of a “babysitter” for the family. she spent most of her formative years running after younger weasley-potters, patching up scrapes and kissing bruises as well as diffusing tense situations. from an early age she just naturally took on the role of “mom” among her social groups, the nurturing tendencies carry on even to her hogwarts years where her friends often teased her for being so overprotective of them and “babying” them.

at hogwarts she was sorted into hufflepuff - the first of her family to not be a gryffindor much to the changrin of several of her family members. while the hat had debated between the two houses, it was ultimately the pragmatic and sensible nature of the girl that lead her to being placed among the badgers. this turned out to be best suited to her traits. victoire’s easy going youth lead to her being soft and gentle but also incredibly empathetic and warm. aside from being the aforementioned “mom friend”, she was basically the poster child for hufflepuff - being dutiful, hard-working, trustworthy, loyal and fair. the one “weasley trait” that followed her was a deep love for quidditch, being a beater for the house team for a few years. but her true loves had been herbology, history of magic and charms; the girl spending most of her days studying old textbooks, hanging around the greenhouse, or learning new charms to advance her abilities.

due to a studious nature, she was usually in the favor of her professors and hadn’t found herself in detention like many of her family members might have. it was for this reason she was chosen as a prefect during her latter years, and head girl her seventh. she was responsible and organized in comparison to most of her peers, and actually took pride in being a role model. a side effect of being the oldest in her family - there were always eyes on her and victoire wanted to live up to their expectations.

following school, it was of little surprise when she announced she would be a curse-breaker in training under her father’s tutelage. she possessed much of her father’s qualities - she was an academic achiever as well as laid back in nature, while still managing to be serious when necessary. as a child she was a daddy’s girl and had a very keen interest in bill’s occupation. she used to pretend she was a curse-breaker, "disabling” curses and jinxes on teddy bears and various odd objects throughout the house. so when it came time to take her NEWT level classes, she made sure to structure her schedule around what classes would help her become a successful curse-breaker. it was a thrilling and adventure-filled career path, but her time with gringott’s would only last a few years before she opted to be an “independently contracted curse-breaker” - a choice made in order to continue the work she loved while being a single parent with full custody of her child.

before she began her apprenticeship, victoire spent the summer holiday after her seventh year in france with relatives. despite her claims she would come back “still very much the same victoire” the girl had returned from holiday a very different woman - a married one, actually. hardly one to make rash decisions, it was a shock to hear that after just four weeks of courtship victoire had married a beauxbatons alum she’d met while touring the french riviera. much of the family was opposed to the union, but victoire swore that she was happy and it was meant to be - and for a while that was true.

it turned into a tumultuous affair and would last all of four years before the ill-suited pair would inevitably call it quits - an embarrassing fact considering how adamant she had been that their love was “real” and that it would “work out just fine”. it turned out over time that the two were not exactly suitable and wanted very different things. for one, he wanted to live in france while victoire wanted to stay near her family in england. the only complication left after the marriage was a child that neither had originally planned for - a little girl named amélie whom victoire has full custody of. now her trips to france - via portkey every other weekend - are begrudgingly made in order to allow their daughter time to stay with her father, with whom she has remained (or has tried to remain) amicable and civil despite how poorly the relationship ended.

these days victoire is hardly around. contracted with many independent buyers and sellers of magical antiques and the like, the woman travels across the wizarding world in order to acquire such objects and to reverse whatever hexes have been placed on them as security measures. it’s become harder to balance this job with raising a child, and as such has made her home base in the UK in order to receive the support from her family. she was away on such trips when things began to escalate back home and has since taken on less jobs and has been spending more time in london and close to her relatives during what feels like the return of dark times.

joining the reinstated order of phoenix, victoire is at war with the impending fight. the young woman isn’t too eager to be part of another wizarding war. a little bit of a pacifist, victoire just wants to see a happy future again. having a young child, and seeing the aftereffects of her uncle’s death on his family, makes her worried to put herself in a position where she will no longer be able to take care of amelie. but she also knows that it is up to the order to put an end to the death eaters once and for all - choosing to ultimate put herself in harms way in order to make sure her daughter gets to grow in a safe and happy world like she herself did.

tbh i’ll probably be editing this as i go along.

MISC

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Demisexual ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Heteromantic LANGUAGES: English, French, Gobbledegook, Some German, Spanish and Chinese FAMILY: Bill Weasley (father), Fleur Weasley née Delacour (mother), Dominique Weasley (sister), Louis Weasley (brother), Amélie Weasley-Dufour (daughter), Bastien Dufour (ex-husband) PETS: Barn Owl named Athena, Kneazle named Pyewacket ZODIAC SIGN: Taurus MBTI: ISFJ AESTHETIC: black coffee forgotten and cooled to room temperature; books and files piled up on every surface; scuffed up doc marten’s, cracked brown leather jackets, vintage band tees; makeup-less face and messy buns; chipped black nail polish; teeth marks running along her wand; reading glasses sitting on the button of her nose, a finger shaped smudge on the right lens; world map with assorted pins and thread connecting cities across the globe; bleached shells, creased postcards, and faded photographs in a trinket box long forgotten in the far corner of the closet; freckles that only come out with the sun, sideways smirks and a mischievous twinkle in dark chocolate eyes; the cry of seagulls and the salty sea breeze; pressed flowers in leather bound notebooks lying e v e r y w h e r e, blue ink stains on hands; trinkets and odd little souvenirs from various countries and cities on every desk; finger paintings and crayon drawings with ‘i love mummy’ in the corners; bottomless bag with everything a mom ever needs; nights spent alone and welcoming the solitude

WANTED CONNECTIONS

THE SCHOOL FRIENDS (2) - a couple fellow hogwarts alums who would have attended at the same time as victoire, they have remained close friends since leaving school and regularly meet up for drinks and to catch up and reminisce. they are hufflepuffs and have their own trio kind of like harry/ron/hermione. bonus points if one is a death eater, 1/2 taken

THE RIVAL - a fellow curse-breaker or someone from victoire’s youth who she has never seen eye to eye with. perhaps its because of opposing ideals, a dislike for the weasley-potter family or whatever petty reason - these two just don’t get along and are constantly butting heads. bonus points for being rivals in the curse-breaking field, open

THE EX - self explanatory; victoire’s ex-husband and the father of her daughter. this is not meant to be a romantic connection. they weren’t very well suited for each other and instead insist upon being civil and amiable for the sake of their daughter. is french/a beauxbatons alumni and would be newly arrived in britain should you take up this role, npc

tbh i’m really bad at these; just hmu and we can brainstorm afheahpfieaihfeiafpieafea

#iidyintro #divorce tw #&& bio.#this is a hecking mess but ahfieahpfa here have my child victoire #and pls don't hesitate to mssg me about plots #i'm really bad at coming up with wcs >.<

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cbraxs · 5 years ago

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Warped [Time Warp Trio Fanfiction] - Chapter 9

Time stood still as Izzy stared at the ghost in front of her. A million thoughts and feelings rumbled around in her chest like a rock inside a tumble machine. The little girl—her, she realized— and her mother looked at Izzy obliviously. But there was a split-second of shock on her mom’s face as she glanced from Izzy to The Book.

Just as quickly, her mother composed herself and fixed Izzy with a polite smile. “Oh, hello. Didn’t mean to bother you. Enjoying your trip?”

“I, uh, no, I mean, y-you you...”

Nice, Izzy. Real nice.

Her mother didn’t notice Izzy’s lack of composure. “Do you mind taking a picture of me and my little girl? It’s her first time in Ptolemaic Egypt.”

Izzy noticed that her voice caught on her, as if she caught herself from saying something else.

She nodded mechanically and took the cheap disposable camera from her past self.

Izzy looked back at her mother, wondering if she recognized her. Izzy was certain that she heard her call her “mom”, but she stood there, regarding Izzy like a total stranger. Maybe her shock was from seeing another time warper here? Still, her mom looking at her like she didn’t know her made Izzy’s heart ache.

Her mom picked up Baby Izzy, who giggled as she was lifted into the air. Izzy aimed the camera at mother and daughter. Seeing them through the viewfinder should have lent a degree of separation from Izzy and the situation, but it just made it all the more surreal.

As Izzy snapped the picture, Baby Izzy pointed up at the sky in amazement. “Look, Mama!”

Izzy looked to see a ball of light streaking its way across the bright blue sky. Was it green? It disappeared in a flash before she could get a good look.

“A shooting star,” her mother said. “Make a wish, Isadora.”

Izzy had to remind herself that her mother wasn’t speaking to her. Well, not the her her in the present. Past tense her in the past. Jeez, this was confusion.

Baby Izzy clasped her hands and shut her eyes so tight her it made her nose wrinkle. Izzy wished she could remember what she wished for.

“Thank you,” her mother said, flashing her with a bright smile that made Izzy’s heart sink even further. “Enjoy the rest of your trip. C’mon, Malpua. Let’s go see the sphinx before we have to go back to Daddy.”

Baby Izzy waved goodbye as she walked off hand-in-hand with her mother. Watching them go, Izzy felt like someone had tied her stomach into a hundred knots. A dozen emotions gripped at her heart and clogged her throat: sadness, confusion, anger, guilt. Especially guilt. It felt like someone rammed an ice pick into her chest, and the cold was spreading throughout her being like cracks in a glass.

She’d been so focused on finding her dad, she’d never thought about saving Mom. Izzy had years to come to terms with her life without her mom, but now, after seeing her again after so long, the idea of going back and stopping that accident—

No. No, no, no, no, no. No. Thinking about that would drive Izzy nuts. Her dad’s warning about not changing the past came back to her. He was right. Right now, she had to put the thought of rescuing her mom to the side and focus on finding her dad. She had to. She had to.

Izzy went to pick The Book back up, but stopped when she realized that she still had the camera. She had to return it. If she didn’t, that cause problems with the spacetime continuum, right? And since she was returning the camera, maybe she could at least talk to her mom a little while longer? She had The Book, and instructions on how to get back home. It wasn’t like she was in any immediate danger.

She stared longingly at her mother’s retreating form, ignoring the voice inside her head that nagged her to back to her friends ASAP. She looked at The Book one last time before scooping it up and deciding to follow her mom.

~*~

Joe paced back and forth in Izzy’s living room and tried not to freak out (with mixed results).

Izzy could have been anywhere and anywhen, stuck someplace in time without anyone watching her back. Whenever Joe warped in the past, he was always with friends, Anna, or the girls. He always had someone to look out for him so even in the worst of times he had someone he could rely on. If things went south, both Izzy and The Book could be in danger.

“Think, guys, think. There’s gotta be something we can do to get her back.”

“There's not much we can do,” Sam said, slumping on the breakfast bar table. “Izzy has The Book, there’s no way we can help her, much less get to her.”

Fred turned to Sam. “Didn’t your grandpa Dima give you that pocket watch that Samantha has? Can’t we use that?”

Sam shook his head. “It just a normal pocket watch now. And it’s not like I would even know where to begin turning it into a time travel device.”

Not to mention even if Sam could do that, it wouldn’t help them find out where and when she went, but Joe was too worried to bother pointing that out.

“Well, what about your uncle?” Fred asked Joe. “He’s gotta be able to help us out.”

Joe stopped in his tracks and dug his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll try his home phone.”

He dialed and waited. Just as he thought, his uncle wasn’t home. He left a message on the answering machine and sat back down at the breakfast bar.

Joe clenched and unclenched his fist, trying to work out his nerves. He hated feeling powerless and unable to help his friends, but there was nothing the three of them could do. Without The Book, they had no way of contacting the girls for help. Without The Book, they were three helpless kids whose friend went missing. All he could do is hope Izzy made it back home with her and The Book intact.

“She’s gonna be fine,” Joe said, mostly to himself. “She can handle herself.”

~*~

Izzy tried not to feel like a creepy voyeur as she watched her Mom and Baby self from behind the Sphinx’s paw (the camera in her hand didn’t help matters).

Baby Izzy marveled at the Great Sphinx of Giza as her mom told how it was built. Present Izzy didn’t remember much about this little trip, so she got to see The Sphinx for the first time.

The monument still had his nose and his braided beard intact, and even with the paint mostly faded, there were still remnants bright red, yellow, and blue pigment. Izzy was used to seeing it in textbooks and on TV as crumbly, unpainted bedrock, that seeing it unweathered was jarring, like coming home after a trip to see that your room was cleaned.

Even so, her attention wasn’t really focussed on the Sphinx. It was on her mother.

No one would ever mistake Izzy for her mother. Mom was a stunning beauty. Her features were sharper, her skin a lighter olive color than Izzy’s medium brown. They both shared brown hair, but her mother’s was warmer and richer, like dark chocolate.

One of the byproducts of being biracial was getting to look like both of your parent and neither of them at the same time. She wasn’t as dark as her dad (who was black) and she wasn’t as light as her mother (who was of Indian and Chinese descent). Don’t even ask her where her green eyes came from.

She remembered how kids in elementary school would make fun of her: calling her ugly or adopted or whatever. She’d disregarded those childish taunts years ago and never took them seriously. Well, she tried not to take them seriously. Seeing how little she resembled her mother, even after all these years, it made Izzy feel… not bad, necessarily, just odd. She wondered if that made coming to terms with her mother’s death easier on her dad.

She shook these thoughts out of her head and tried to focus. For years, she thought about speaking to her mom one last time; all the things she wanted to say, the questions she had. But at that moment, she was frozen by the panicky swarm of moths frenzying in her chest.

Izzy took a deep breath. It shouldn’t be that hard. All she had to do was walk up to her and say, “Hi, I’m Izzy, your daughter from the future where you’ve been dead for several years, oh, and by the way, dad’s been gone for weeks, but don’t ask me where he went. I’ve got no idea going on, please help me, how are you?”

… okay… so this was going to be way harder than she’d previously thought.

She sunk to the ground, her back resting against the Sphinx’s paw. What was she even doing? Meeting dead relatives must be against some sort of time law or something, right? And even if it wasn’t, being here could nothave been good for her emotional health. Seeing her mom alive tore opened old scars. She should’ve warped home when she had the chance.

Izzy was considering leaving the camera on the Sphinx’s paw for her mom to find when suddenly, there was a whirring noise followed by a flash of golden light on the other side of the Sphinx.

Her mother gasped. She said, her voice low and guarded, “What are you doing here?”

“Really, Dulari?” said another voice— a man. “Is that any way to greet an old friend? I remember you being so much more polite.”

Izzy frowned. She was certain she’d never heard the other voice before. Still, there was something nagging her in the back of her mind, telling her this voice was familiar. It was in the way he talked, how he pronounced his words. Dread bubbled in the pit of her stomach.

She risked a look over the Sphinx’s paw to see the man who’d suddenly appeared, and nearly screamed.

“You haven’t answered my question, Jack,” Izzy’s mother said. “What are you doing out of jail?”

Izzy dropped back behind the Sphinx's paw, clutching The Book to her chest. This was not good, this was not good at all. She’d recognized Mad Jack instantly. He was older than when she saw him at the museum, but it was no doubt the same man, with the same unruly hair, and dark eyes, but instead of a janitor uniform, he wore a black cloak over a suit. He carried a tall silver cane topped with a glowing green hourglass.

Did he see her? She waited to be called out and exposed, but Mad Jack kept talking as if he hadn’t noticed her.

“As it happens,” she heard Mad Jack say, “I am on parole for good behavior.”

A derisive laugh from her mom. “Funny.”

“It’s the honest truth. I am a changed man.”

Slowly, Izzy chanced to peak over again. Her mom had placed herself between Baby Izzy and Mad Jack, a polite but insincere smile stretched across her face. It was clear she was putting on a cordial act for Baby Izzy, trying not to scare her.

Baby Izzy looked confusedly between her mother and Mad Jack. She tugged on her mother’s sleeve. “W-what’s wrong, Mommy?”

Mom’s eyes immediately softened at her daughter. She tentatively glanced at Mad Jack before smiling and crouching to Baby Izzy’s eye level. “It’s nothing, Malpua. Why don’t you go play by the Sphinx’s tail. Build me a pretty sand castle.”

Her hands glowed green with the aura of magic. When it died, she was holding a shovel and pail. Without hesitation, Baby Izzy grabbed them and skipped away.

Mad Jack watched her happily dig into the sand, leering in disgust as if she was a walking wad of gum. “What is that?”

He said “that” like one might say cockroach or math homework.

Her mom stood, her glare back tenfold. “That is my daughter, Jack.”

“Your...” he looked from mother and daughter in disbelief before his face settled back on disgust. “It doesn’t look a thing like you.”

Rage flashed in Mom’s eyes. Izzy was shocked; she’d never seen her mother so angry before.

Her mom sighed and crossed her arms. “‘A changed man’, huh? You see why I find that so hard to believe?”

“Is this about what happened to that foolish brother of mine?”

“After what you did to Joe, you have the nerve to insult—”

Mad Jack huffed indignantly like a spoiled child. “Oh, for the last time, I did not kill my brother! He got himself killed.”

“Protecting The Book from you!”

“Precisely! If that useless fool would’ve done what he was told, he’d be alive and The Book wouldn’t be missing.”

Izzy’s mind reeled. That was a lot to take in at once. They were obviously talking about Joe’s uncle. They referred to him as being dead, but he couldn’t have been. Joe talked about his uncle all the in the present tense and never once mentioned him being deceased, but they clearly believed he was. Not only that, but The Book was apparently missing, too.

She didn’t understand what was going on, or what to make of this, or why her mom was still giving Mad Jack the time of day, but her mother had a handle on the situation. She seemed more annoyed than fearful by Mad Jack’s sudden appearance.

Izzy needed to leave. The faster she warped home, the safer she’d be.

But she couldn’t bring herself to move. She knew this is the day. The memory was still hazy, but she recognized this as the day her mother warned her about Mad Jack. She still had so many questions, none of which would be answers if she warped now. She had to know what happened, why Mad Jack was here, and what he wanted from her mom.

So she stayed put, crouched behind the Sphinx. As Izzy eavesdropped, she silently flipped to the transporter page. In case things went south she would need a quick escape.

Her mother sighed again, bringing Izzy out of her thoughts. “We’re going in circles, Jack. Tell me what do you want. I know you’re not here for a friendly visit.”

Mad Jack stood straight and adjusted himself. “Very well. I’ll get right to the point. I need your help.”

Her mom cocked a brow. “With what exactly?”

“With The Book missing, there is a power vacuum in the universe that needs to be filled. I propose we should the ones to fill it.”

“You mean—”

“We make a new Book .”

Make a new Book ? Was that even possible? Izzy guessed it had to be, otherwise The Book wouldn’t exist in the first place, but something told her that the amount of magic needed to make something so powerful wasn’t as easy Mad Jack made it seem.

Magic operated on equal exchange. In order to do anything, you needed to sacrifice something in return, be it ingredients or energy. Doing something like levitating a basketball required next to no energy since carrying a basket ball was something she could do with no effort, but complicated spells always tended to make Izzy tired and hungry. She couldn’t fathom the amount of energy it would take to create something like The Book. It wasn’t just a time machine, it was all of time and space contained in a single book. The amount of magic needed to create something like that must be absolutely astronomical.

“We’ll need additional help,” Mad Jack went on. “I believe da Vinci may be the only man in history up to the task.”

“Da Vinci?’ Mom asked incredulously. “And how do you plan to get to him? Em timeblocked you from the entire Renaissance.”

A dismissive wave of his hand. “Timeblocks? Bah! You know as well as I that those are, at best, a Band-Aid solution against any skilled warper. All I need is to try warping to every available day until I find the gap to exploit.”

“The definition of insanity…” her mom muttered and rubbed her temples. “So let me get this straight: after all the times you’ve lied, cheated, and manipulated me and, well, everyone you’ve ever met, you want me to forget all that? Leave my family and my life behind to gallivant across time with you for your evil little project? You want me to siphon a deadly amount of energy so you get to be the king of everyone and everything forever and ever? Is that about right, Jack?”

Mad Jack’s eye twitched, but he exhaled and tried to act calm. “I promise you won’t have to make that sacrifice, Dulari. I believe I’ve found away to get the energy we need without any death—”

“No, no, no. Stop. Just stop. Even if I believed you, I wouldn’t help you.”

“Dulari—”

Mad Jack went to grab her by the shoulder, but her mom seized his hand before she could.

She glowered at Mad Jack, the hand holding his wrist shaking. “You. Don’t. Touch. Me. Ever. Ever.” She threw his hand down.

Mad Jack rubbed his wrist, but otherwise looked unperturbed by her actions. He stared at her, unimpressed. “Answer me this one thing. This little domestic life of yours,” a sideways glance at Baby Izzy, “is it enough for you?”

“I’m not even going to entertain–”

“You were—are— Dulari the Daring, Warp Witch extraordinaire. I saw you go toe-to-toe with Black Beard himself. You once single-handedly liberated smuggled artifacts of Thonis from Bonefat’s crew and landed a Lockheed Vega on an island in the Bermuda triangle in the middle of a hurricane.

“Now what are you up to? Making lunches and changing diapers? Surely you must miss the adventure? That is what I’m offering you: the life of adventure you worked so hard to get. The life of adventure I know you crave.”

Her mother looked at him, her expression unreadable. Izzy feared for a moment her Mom might be swayed by Mad Jack speech.

But then she laughed harshly without any joy. “You’re forgetting something, Jack.” She pointed an accusatory finger at him. “You were the reason I was on the Queen Ann’s Revenge. I was stopping you from stealing documents that would lead to events that would spiral out of control and cause the Civil War to last three times as long.”

Mad Jack frowned. He looked like he wanted to counter her point, but her mom went on.

May I also remind you that you,” she jabbed her finger into his chest, “were also a part of Bonefat’s little scumbag crew. And I never got to thank you for that trip to Bermuda Triangle. It was you who banished me there when I wouldn’t kowtow to you anymore! Those weren’t great accomplishments and feats, that was me making up for—”

She took a shaky breath before continuing. “You cannot manipulate me like this anymore. If you think offering me the chance to go back to being your little portable battery who gets to clean up after you is going to make me want to abandon my family, you’re crazier than I thought.”

Anger flared in Mad Jack’s eyes. He gripped his cane so tight his knuckles turned pale. “You haven’t seen crazy.”

The hourglass on his cane glowed blindingly bright, and Izzy’s heart went into overdrive. She recognized the energy emanating from the cane. The Book still in hand and without thinking, she leapt over the Sphinx’s paw and ran at him. “Stop!”

She was ready to shove him, push him away, do anything to protect her mom from that psycho’s attack. There was a buzzing in her ears. Green lightning sparked from beside her and struck Mad Jack square in the chest. He sailed through the air and crash-landed a couple yards away, dirt flying in every direction.

Izzy barely noticed how heavy she was breathing as stared she at Mad Jack’s body embedded two feet into the ground. What was that? She brought a hand to her ears, fingers brushing against her earrings. A familiar warmth tingled at her fingertips. Magic.

Mom stared at her in utter shock. Her face jumped from surprised to panic as she looked from her to Baby Izzy to Mad Jack stirring, about to getting up.

Her mother fixed her with a stern look. “You need to leave right now.”

“B-but I—” Izzy stammered.

“Now!”

Her mom’s sharp look soften to a sweet smile as she addressed Baby Izzy, “Stay back, Malpua.”

She yanked off the necklace she wore. The gold grew and morphed, resembling the handle of a brief case. From the glowing green jewel, a curved blade shaped like a butcher’s knife formed, growing bright green with magic.

Izzy faltered, but did as she was told. She ripped through the pages to find the transporter page again. But as she found it, a million volts of electricity shot up her spine sending spasms upon painful spasms throughout her body. Her scream echoed in her ears. Her muscles locked up, and she collapsed into the sand, The Book falling out of her hands.

Izzy’s heart stopped as Mad Jack stalked over to her, domineering, a nasty sneer on his face. There was a crazed look his eyes. His cane glowed violently hot. “How do you have that? Give it to me!” “No!” Her mother flew at Mad Jack, dagger drawn. Mad Jack brought his cane up in time to deflect the blade, but the force of her mother’s blow was enough to push the two of them back and outside of Izzy’s field of vision.

Izzy’s muscles jumped and twitched as she struggled to move. A million fire ants marched along her skin, sending jolts of lightning through her spine. The sound of combat mixed with bursts of magic raging on behind her was drowned out by the blood roaring in her ears.

It took her a moment to register the sobbing next to her. She managed to turn her head to see Baby Izzy in her face. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Her tiny hands fisted Izzy’s shirt, trying to get her to up.

“P-please!” Baby Izzy begged. “Help Mama!”

It’s strange to watch yourself cry, Izzy thought, even if it was a much younger version of yourself. Her body was still shaking from Mad Jack’s spell, but she pushed on and, with effort, managed to stand on shaky legs and grab The Book.

“Hide behind the Sphinx,” Izzy told her past self, “and don’t come out unless that man is gone, okay?”

She tried to force a confident smile like her mom, but it probably looked more like she was having an awkward stroke. Nevertheless, Baby Izzy nodded and ran behind the statue.

Izzy turned her attention back to the battle. Mad Jack and her mother fought, sword against dagger. Mom slashed at Mad Jack with the ferocity of a tiger, rolling out of the way when he brought the blade of the sword—his cane in another setting— down on her and dodging energy blasts like they were dodge balls.

What Mad Jack lacked in speed he made up for in power. The heat of his sword vitrified parts of the sand he hit whenever he missed her mom with his blade.

She realized how stupid it was of her to stay instead of leaving immediately. What was she even thinking? She couldn’t help her mom. She couldn't even fight on their level. And she didn’t know any spells that could help in combat (even if there was a basketball around, it wouldn’t do much to help). She was utterly powerless.

Or was she?

She touched her still warm earrings with a hand. She was still confused about them, but an idea— a reckless, stupid idea— began to form. Was this even a good idea?

Her mother’s pained cry shattered her thoughts. She collapsed in a heap on the ground, unmoving.

Izzy no longer had time to consider whether it was a good idea or not. She tightened her grip on The Book and rushed at Mad Jack. She was twenty feet away, ten...

Mad Jack reared on her. “Not so fast!”

He shot a spell at her and she froze. Pins pricked at her skin, a green aura dancing around her.

Mad Jack stalked towards Izzy, staring at her quizzically, like she was a magic eye picture he couldn’t quite make out. He stopped himself from getting too close and snarled at her.

“You’re that girl from the museum. Aren’t you?”

Izzy didn’t answer, not that she would if she could. Her jaw felt like it was bolted shut with industrial screw. She narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip on The Book with her limited mobility.

Mad Jack made a flippant wave of his hand. “No matter. You have something that belongs to me!”

To Izzy’s surprise, Jack relinquished the spell on her. Izzy’s knees wobbled as she regained control of her body.

“I am going to give you one chance,” Mad Jack said. “Hand over The Book, no funny business, no tricks, or—” He aimed the cane at her chest. “—I’ll hit you with a spell that’ll have you spending the rest of eternity as a million molecules scattered across time and space!”

A lump formed in Izzy’s throat. There was no doubt in her mind he would with no hesitation.

At the same time, she couldn’t hand over The Book to him. She thought about what her mother said about Mad Jack stealing documents that would prolong the Civil War, and she shuddered. She couldn’t imagine the amount damage Mad Jack could do to history if he got his hands on The Book.

Her eyes flickered from the cane threatening to end her, to Mad Jack’s irritated face, to The Book in her arms, and she knew what she had to.

“I-I’m not going to throw it to you,” Izzy said, hoping she didn’t sound as nervous as she felt. “I’ll set it down and back away. P-please don’t hurt me.”

“I won’t,” Mad Jack said. “So long as you do what you are told like a good little warp runt.”

Izzy glowered at him, but she did as she was told. She bent to place The Book on the ground...

...then sprung forward, barreling straight at Mad Jack, Book still in hand. Magic sparked from her earrings. Mad Jack unleashed a bolt of energy at her. The Book absorbed the brunt of the attack, but it was still enough to send her flying.

She landed hard on her back, plumes dust settling around her. The Book glitched and jump in her arms. Her head spun as she struggled to her feet and spat out sand.

Unfortunately, Mad Jack was still up. Smoke curled from his cloak. His monocle was popped, and his eyes dark with rage. “You better hope that stunt of yours didn’t damage The Book you little brat!—”

Mad Jack paused. A green light surrounded his body. Her mom stepped out from behind him, her arm outstretched to maintain the spell. Beads of sweat dripped down her face. Her hair was disheveled and there were scratches all over her face and arms, but Izzy was relieved to see she was okay.

With her free hand, her mom pulled out a silver pocket watch. She pressed the face of the watch, and a beam of yellow light shot at him, shrinking his form to the size of a baseball before floating away into the sky and disappearing in a pop!

Once he’d vanished, her mom sighed and slumped over, clutching her shoulder and grimacing. There was a smoldering hole where her clothes had burned away.

“Mama!”

Baby Izzy ran from behind the Sphinx towards her mother. Mom stopped holding her shoulder and hid her pained face behind a strained but serene smile. Her short blade turned back into a necklace, and she put it back on before kneeling to hug Baby Izzy.

Izzy watched in silence as Baby Izzy trembled and babbled incoherently to her mom, who in turned smoothed her hair and murmured comfortingly to her daughter.

Finally, the two pulled apart. Izzy’s mom wiped her baby’s tears and spoke softly: “Listen to me, Isadora. Don’t trust the madman with the monocle. He is dangerous, Malpua. You see him, you run. Anywhere. Any when. And you don’t ever, ever let him get you. Ever.”

Baby Izzy nodded, tears still spilling from her eyes. The image of them blurred, and Izzy realized her eyes were watering. She wiped her eyes and swallowed the lump in her throat, but there was a still a heaviness in her chest.

“I hope you know how to use that thing.”

Izzy nearly dropped The Book. She was so wrapped up in her jumbled thoughts, she barely noticed her mom was standing in front of her, carrying Baby Izzy on her hip.

“I, uh, well… kinda?”

“Kinda, huh?” She laughed. “Kinda is good enough. You need to go before he comes back. I’m not sure how you have it, but you need to keep The Book safe. What you have in your hands is the most powerful and potentially destructive item in the entire universe. It is incredibly important that it never falls into the hands of the monsters who would abuse it.”

And with that, she pulled up her pocket watch again, ready to warp away.

“Wait!” Izzy cried.

Her mom froze and looked at her, surprised. Izzy didn’t know what came over her. She’d already overstayed her welcome, and she didn’t want to run into Mad Jack again. But… there was something she needed to know.

Izzy rubbed her arm, feeling self-conscious. “Do you… do you know who I am?”

Her mom’s stunned face melted into a warm smile. With her free hand cupped Izzy’s cheek, and Izzy nearly burst into tears. She brought her hands to rest on her mother’s. So many things she wanted to tell her rushed to her lips all at once, leaving her tongue-tied.

Before she could put together a coherent thought, a yellow portal unraveled besides them. Izzy heartbeat hitched, afraid it was Mad Jack coming back for them. Her entire body hummed like every atom in her was vibrating. But it wasn’t fear doing that to her. It was magic.

Suddenly, a similar yellow energy enclosed around her. Before she was whisked away back to her time, she caught a glimpse of the man that warped there.

It wasn’t Mad Jack.

~*~

“I don’t think Izzy will appreciate you digging a trench in her house.”

Joe rolled his eyes at Fred’s remark but sat back at his stool. Waiting around and doing nothing made minutes feel like hours.

Sam cleaned his glasses for the umpteenth time. “There’s no point in stressing ourselves out. Worrying isn’t going to bring her back sooner.”

Just then, glowing yellow portal spiraled to life next to them, revealing Izzy. She staggered on her legs and collapsed on her knees.

Sam blinked. “I stand corrected.”

Joe jumped, Sam and Fred right behind him, and help her stand. “Izzy! Are you okay?”

“Where did you go?” Sam asked next.

“And why are you covered in sand?” Fred asked.

Izzy took a ragged breath, shutting down the rest of their questions. On top of being covered in dirt, she was covered in cuts. One of her pigtails was undone. There was a haunted look in her watery eyes, like whatever happened on her warp must have freaked her out.

“Sorry, sorry,” Joe said, backing off. “We shouldn’t have all jumped on you like that.”

Izzy swallowed. “It’s okay, guys. I...” She handed The Book back to Joe. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to steal your Book.”

Joe frowned. She was worried about that? Of course The Book was important, but so was her safety. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Joe was relieved to see her smile, a true smile that eased away the pained lines etched on her face.

Behind him, Sam cleared his throat. “I think he means that we’re just glad you’re okay.”

Joe scratched the back of his head. “Right. That’s what I said.”

Fred snorted. “Anyway, you wanna explain what the heck happened? Looks like you got a story.”

Izzy laughed, but it sounded hollow and bitter. She dusted off some sand on her shirt. Tears swelled in her eyes but didn’t fall. “Yeah, that’s… that’s one way to say it, I guess.”

Joe placed a hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to tell us if it’s too much.”

“No, I do, really I... I need a moment. Are there any Brownies of Coping left?”

Surprisingly, Fred hadn’t scarfed all the brownies down yet. They all sat around the breakfast bar as Izzy began to tell everything that happened to her from the beginning.

~*~

Anthony J. Shabazz sat at Mabel’s diner— a rest stop at the end of time– and tried not to reignite. Smoke billowed from his clothes and skin, and he was sure embers stilled smoldered in his hair. His latest brush with death in a gladiator stadium left him particularly famished and, thankfully, Mabel’s served their famous waffles all the time.

The diner wasn’t too crowded. There were a couple of warpers in booths, all wearing attire from ancient to modern to futuristic. Some he recognized, like Napoleon and Amelia Earhart, but most were strangers. Stars and galaxies glimmered outside, but his attention was on the notes and clues he’s gathered on Mad Jack so far.

The timeblocks placed on Jack over the years made it harder to track him, but Anthony had hoped certain precautionary measures he placed on himself would keep Mad Jack from being able to sense him. But with all the time-hopping Jack did, Anthony felt like he might as well have slapped blaring sirens and flashing lights to his head before he went after Jack.

From medieval England, to Feudal Japan, to ancient Rome, to even the nineteen-thirties, Mad Jack would pop in and steal something of magical value and leave just as quickly. Outside of using the Lapis Manalis to taunt him a few weeks ago with that storm (he knew he shouldn’t have told Jack thunderstorms made him sneezy), he hadn’t used or traded or bartered with any of them. Anthony would have dismissed this as typical Mad Jack shenanigans: stealing stuff just because he could and he wanted to. But there was something about all of this Anthony was struggling to stitch together.

“You look like you’ve been through Hell, Shabazz.”

Anthony blinked and looked to see an old friend. A fair-skinned woman in a pantsuit and colorful headscarf stood in next of him. She licked her fingers and put out a flame still smoldering in his hair.

“Thanks, Mihrimah,” Anthony said with a wry smile.

She slid into the booth across from him and sat, back erect and hands clasped. Even in a diner, she exuded an unmistakable regal air around her. “What happened?”

“Rome happened to me.”

Mihrimah cringed. “What is this, the fifth—no sixth— time this happened? You know you have the worst luck in Rome.”

Anthony shrugged and took a swig of his coffee. “Are you stalking me, Em?”

She gave him a look. “Clearly someone needs to keep tabs on you. Just because you don’t work with me anymore doesn’t mean I won't check up on you. How’s the hunt going?”

Anthony groaned and ran a hand over his face.

“I’m guessing not well?”

Anthony massaged his brow. “I traced and retraced Mad Jack’s steps a hundred time over, but I don’t see what his endgoal is. I don’t get how this relates to Isadora.”

Mihrimah leaned forward and cupped his hand. “I can assign my agents to this case. You can go home and be with your daughter. You don’t have to be the one to do this.”

That was so tempting. He thought about turning this case over to Mihrimah and her agents at least a dozen times a week. Every day he thought about Isadora, how lonely she must be; how confused she must be. Even though he was doing this all for her sake, it made him feel guilty to leave his daughter behind again as he searched for answers.

Then he thought about Mad Jack, and that strengthened his resolve.

“Isadora is my child,” Anthony said, his eyes trained on his coffee. “My only living family. I can’t standby and let others handle this. He went after my wife before. There is no way on earth I’ll let Mad Jack lay a hand on my daughter. He needs to be stopped once and for all. I’ve got to do this.”

Mihrimah nodded and didn’t try to argue, instead fixing him with a grim look. Anthony knew her long enough to know that look meant she was hiding something from him, but he also knew her well enough to know that whatever she was hiding, she wasn’t about to share. He’d have an easier job prying secrets from a cuttlefish.

“Alright,” Mihrimah said finally. “But I worry about her safety.”

He took another sip of his coffee then said, “As long as she has those earrings and does what she was told, Isadora will be completely safe. And as long as she doesn’t try to contact me, she’ll—”

An electric jolt shot through Anthony’s spine to his head, shocking his brain like a cattle prod. He muffled a pained groan, clenching his coffee mug hard enough to nearly shatter the ceramic.

Oh no.

Mihrimah frowned. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“T-the coffee,” Anthony lied. He dabbed spilled coffee off of his notes with a napkin. “It was too hot. Burned my tongue.”

He hoped Mihrimah hadn’t noticed him gritting his teeth.

Just then, the robo-waitress came by to top off his coffee, saving him from being asked any more questions. She offered Mihrimah a cup, but she waved it away, a small look of distaste on her face.

“I never did care for this place,” Mihrimah said. “The food is delicious, but the prices are extortion.”

Anthony nodded, half-listening. He tried to ignore his throbbing head.

Mihrimah frowned, her dark, harlequin eyes studying him intensely. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

He tried to blink away the pulsing behind his eyes and forced a smile. “It was only a light scalding. I’ve endured hotter circumstances than that.”

Her expression was hard to decipher. Mihrimah had an infamous cock-and-bull detector. Fortunately, an alarm on her work phone went off. She pulled out her phone and frowned at the screen.

“Duty calls. I’ve got to run.” She clicked a button. It morphed into a black pocket watch decorated with intricate designs etched along the front and sides. The face hummed with a purple light. ��Be careful out there, alright?”

“You worry too much, Em. I’ll be fine.”

She smiled softly before disappearing in a purple glow.

As soon as she was gone, Anthony’s shoulders sagged and he let out a groan of pain he was holding back. He knew trusting Joe was iffy. Not that his old friend was untrustworthy, but he had a tendency to be pretty flighty. Still, how could he have even let her try to warp, especially to him? Didn’t Joe understand the risk? At least now he knew that spell he placed on himself worked correctly.

As the pain subsided, the robo-waitress rolled by and placed the check on the table. “Whenever you’re ready, hun.”

“Please, allow me.”

Anthony looked in the direction of the unfamiliar voice. A dark-skinned man in a fez and a white tunic stood by his table. His outfit wasn’t the most surprising thing about him; most patrons at the diner wore bizarre clothes. The oddest thing about him was the wide grin on his face that didn’t quite meet his eyes.

The robo-waitress shrugged and rolled away. “Makes no difference to me.”

Anthony studied the strange new man. “Thank you, sir. But do I, uh—”

“Forgive me, I haven’t properly introduced myself. I am Hammonri, at your service.

The man sat across from him, and Anthony realized his eyes weren't just cold and distant. They were glazed over and blank, with nothing behind them, as if the man was sleepwalking. It sent shivers down Anthony’s spine.

“Well, thank you, Hammonri,” Anthony said. “That was quite kind of you.”

“No need to thank me. I am simply doing my master’s will. He sent me to, uh, personally deliver an invitation.”

He handed Anthony a mask. It was a domino mask, gold and green and angular. At the top of the mask was a blazing sun with a face carved on it.

Anthony frowned and turned the mask over in his hands. “And who exactly is your master?”

That unsettling grin grew wider. “Why, it’s an old friend.”

#time warp trio #timewarptrio #joe #fred #OC #female oc #izzy #sam #mad jack #fanfiction #time travel #action #imsotireddd #sorry for the wait #i finally did it

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dannyphantomisameme · 6 years ago

Text

DNA Test (One-Shot)

Genres: Family and Drama

(Links to Fanfiction and AO3)

"Please do not open the packets unless instructed to do so!

"Dash Baxter,

"Tucker Foley,

"Star Fredrickson,

"…. I said, do not open the packets…" Mr. Smith (haha basic name) groaned as he saw his students begin to open the packets after strictly instructing them not to. Danny reluctantly sat in his seat, waiting for his name to be called. Biology was a boring class, he often felt the need to just make up an excuse to get out, but he needed the attendance for his grade. It was on the verge of failure. Currently he was balancing his pencil on his finger, the lead pressed against his skin.

"Daniel Fenton" Mr. Smith shouted over the commotion of the classroom as Danny's pencil fell. He sighed and hopped out of his seat, shuffling towards the front of the room. He grabbed the paper from his teacher's hand and returned to his desk. His eyes roamed the object, but he could not gather any new information from it.

Finally, after Mr. Smith finished handing out all the packets, he instructed the students to open them. Danny flipped through the pages slowly, looking for possible information that would free him of his boredom.

He stared at the numbers, not comprehending the message they were conveying. He looked over to Sam whose eyes darted from side to side as she read her packet.

"Now class, let's go through it together. On the second page you will see your ethnicities. Such as 15% German or 25% Chinese." Mr. Smith paused for a moment, giving students the opportunity to read their results.

Danny turned back to his own sheet. 35% British, 30% German, 25% Irish, 5% Italian, and 5% unknown. Ok, so now I know I'm white. He chuckled a bit at his own joke. It wasn't like he was going to find any shocking evidence from this packet. It was only a DNA test. Unless his ghost half decided to screw things up.

He glanced over at Sam's paper on his right, but he couldn't read the small font. He then switched over to Tucker who was reading his paper thoroughly. He wanted to talk to his friends, but they seemed preoccupied. Danny eased back in his chair, waiting for the teacher's next direction.

"On page 3 you will find the DNA sequences that matches your mother as well the traits you two share. One page four you will see the DNA sequences that match with your father. Go ahead and look through the rest of the packet if you want. It includes any specific details or abnormalities the test may have found. After you're done, work on your assignments till the end of class." With that final declaration, Mr. Smith sat down on his desk chair with a soft thud.

Danny flipped to the next page and eyed his and his mother's matching genotype. There were tons of similarities, including skin color, nose shape, body traits, etc. About 45% of Danny's DNA matched with his mom. He flipped to the next page and immediately furrowed his eyebrows. Barely any of Danny's DNA matched his father. Other than the hair color and the eyes, he was nothing like his father. The test gave him a 10% similarity between the two.

Danny clutched his papers in his hand and stood up, walking towards the front of the room. He stopped at Mr. Smith's desk and slid the paper onto its surface. "Mr. Smith? I have a question…"

"How can I help you Daniel?" the teacher said as he swiveled away from his computer to face his student.

"This doesn't make sense." Danny said pointing to the page with his and his father's DNA. Mr. Smith pushed his glasses up his nose and picked up the packet, scrutinizing it thoroughly. He placed the papers down and slid them towards Danny.

"I don't know what to tell you Daniel. I'll look into the testing program and ask them." Mr. Smith said with a smile. Danny just nodded and returned to his seat in the back of the classroom.

"What was that about?" Sam asked as he sat down.

"Nothing… I just didn't understand something." Danny said avoiding telling the entire truth. Sam simply nodded in reply and returned to her paper. Danny flipped to the next page in his packet. There were no outstanding abnormalities, other than a few never before seen pieces of DNA. Probably my ghost half, he thought.

As Danny continued reading the rest of the packet the bell rang, signaling the end of the day. The trio filed out of the classroom with the other students, each member going to their respective lockers. They grabbed the materials they each needed to take home and met up at the front door.

Danny shoved his hands in his pockets as they walked down the stairs and out of the school. The leaves on the ground crunched under their footsteps as the chilly fall wind flew through their hair. Sam zipped up her jacket as Danny lifted the hood of his sweatshirt and placed it upon his head, hiding his face under his bangs.

Sam and Tucker chatted about their classes as they walked while Danny kept silent. He stared at his muddy red converse as they strolled. The other two didn't bother to question his silence, already sensing he wouldn't tell them even if they asked. When they reached a fork in the sidewalk, the members said their goodbyes as they each left for their respective houses. Today was Wednesday, meaning they wouldn't hang out after school with all the homework they received.

Danny took out his phone from his pocket and plugged in his earbuds. He needed to redirect his thoughts and he knew music would help him do just that. He placed the earbuds into his ears and pressed the shuffle button on his Spotify playlist. He nodded his head to the rhythm of some super catchy theme song. Yo Danny Fenton he was just 14 when his parents built a very strange machine… (I swear it isn't young, Bitch Fartman is a liar) Surprisingly, the lyrics matched his life accurately. Even the song was about a dude who had the same name as him. Haha… wait… uh...

Never mind.

He looked around at his environment. A group of children were playing in the driveway of a house across the street. Two of them were chasing the other three in circles and holding their hands up as if they were guns. Danny chuckled at the scene, reminding him of his childhood. He, Tuck, and Sam used to play cops and robbers all the time. Danny turned and saw an elderly woman gardening in her front lawn. When she noticed him, Danny waved as a smile crawled across his features. Danny recognized the woman, one he had saved after a ghost attack at the mall. She waved back in reply. He strutted along the gray sidewalk until he reached his house. The trees in the front yard displayed vibrant colors of red and orange in their leaves; few leaves littered the dying grass.

Danny walked up the stairs and brought his house keys out from his pocket. Unlocking the front door, he slammed it shut once he was inside. "MOOOOOMMM I'M HOME!" he yelled as he chucked his backpack onto the couch. He entered the kitchen and opened the fridge. He immediately closed the fridge. Yesterday's dinner was reanimated again. He sighed and went to the cupboard, grabbing some bread and made a quick PB and J sandwich. He didn't necessarily like toast, but it was the only food in the house that was edible.

He chewed on his sandwich as he entered the basement. He really hated this place. It terrified him with the possibilities of being dissected. His gut twisted within him, the feeling he always got when entering the lab.

"What did I tell you about bringing food into the lab?" Maddie scolded without lifting her head. She was in the back corner working on a new ghost weapon. Danny walked up to her, her face was painted with concentration.

"Fofwy.." Danny mumbled through his mouth full of bread. He quickly chomped down the remains of his sandwich and stood near his mother. He wiped his hands together, lettings the crumbs from his snack fall onto the cement floor.

"Danny you're not going to believe what this weapon can do! It's going to finally allow us to bring down Phantom!" Maddie excitedly exclaimed as she held up the invention. Danny hesitantly took a step back, hoping his mother didn't notice. "I've calibrated this gun to shoot ectoblasts so powerful that they exceed his ecto entity level! He'll never see it coming!" Maddie held up the machine and cocked it, as if ready to shoot, peering through the eye hole with one eye open.

"That's great mom…" Danny said off to the side. He did not want to get in the way of that. "Uh mom, I uh- can you take a look at this?" Danny fumbled through his pocket and grabbed the crumbled-up packet. He handed it over to his mom as she pushed her goggles up onto her head. She raised an eyebrow at him before accepting the packet and looking it over. Danny quietly waited for a response, fidgeting with his hands behind his back. The only noise within the lab was the sound of paper being flipped to the next page.

Maddie's eyes went wide for a moment as she placed the papers down. She stared at it intently, her body going stiff without motion. A minute of silence passed as Danny looked at his mother questioningly. Multiple emotions clouded her face as she tried to understand. She suddenly glanced at Danny, her eyes a hazy violet.

"I-" she choked up as tears threatened to emerge from her eyes. "I'm sorry Danny. I – I didn't know…"

"Mom, what are you talking about?" Danny said anxiously as he took a step forward. His mother burst into nonsensical mutterings.

"I didn't mean to! It – it wasn't supposed to mean anything! I didn't think to check. I – I" She stuttered as her hands flew up to her face, covering her emotions effectively.

Danny stood there uselessly, unable to comprehend his mothers' words. "Mom you're not making sense!" He shouted over her mumbling.

"I thought you were Jack's!" She exclaimed as her hands immediately jumped to cover her mouth. Danny felt his world crumble upon him, the weight of his mother's words heavy upon his shoulders. He felt his heart skip a beat within his chest. The dread rose up within his being, enveloping his mind.

"Who's my father…" he whispered in the silence. He couldn't even look his mother in the eye. He glared at the papers, the source of this new revelation. His mothers' sobs were the only thing audible in the quiet.

"It was a one-time thing! He said he would in exchange for some crucial parts… We needed them Danny! Jack would have been devastated!"

"Who's my father!" Danny said furiously as he lunged forward and grabbed his mother by her hazmat suit. He was taller than her now, easily towering over her. The fabric felt uncomfortable bunched up in his hands. He suddenly let go, realizing the brute of his actions and taking a step back. He rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the ground, a nervous habit of his.

Maddie stood there dismayed, staring at her son with wide eyes. The word reluctantly rolled off her lips, crushing her son into a million pieces. Maddie suddenly felt weak, her knees buckling as she dropped to the ground. Her hand ran through her hair as she held the table for support with the other hand. She closed her eyes for a moment, but before she could say anything, he was already gone.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Danny raced up the stairs, eager to be anywhere but the lab. His heart pumped in his chest rapidly, the thumping drowning out all his thoughts. The name that had escaped from his mother's lips reverberated in his ears, increasing in volume until he collapsed just outside the front lawn. Silence ensued as he was on his knees, his head in his hands with the inability to comprehend exactly what happened.

He knew he should go and find him.

Did he know?

What would he say?

Did his da- Jack know?

The thoughts raced through his mind like a blizzard, destroying any positive emotions as it went. Sitting on the gray pavement with tears pricking his eyes, Danny knew what he had to do. He shot up and ran behind the house. The fall leaves plummeted from the trees as his blurred figure passed by. He searched within him for that all familiar icy feeling and latched onto it, bringing it forward and calling upon his transformation. Leaping into the air, his spiky raven locks transformed into snow white as the blinding halo descended his body. Red sweatshirt and jeans were replaced by the iconic black and silver jumpsuit. Finally, his eyes opened in a flash, revealing neon green orbs instead of the usual baby blue diamonds.

Danny flew through the air at max speed, recklessly thrusting his arms forward through the autumn air. The sun had begun to set, leaving behind effervescent colors of orange and pink painted throughout the sky. His mind was only set on finding one thing: him.

He traveled the familiar path to his destination, using the buildings as guidelines. Finally, he dropped down onto the huge white building, plunging down with his foot outstretched as if about to kick. The white-haired teenager intangibly passed through the dome like structure, and with a thud reached the carpeted floor crouched down. He looked up, eyes narrowed in a quest to find this man. He spotted him. Siting in a chair and typing away at his computer. Vlad.

The teenager stood up slowly, his jet-black bangs shadowing his facial features and giving them a hollow look. He walked towards the man, his eyes glowing a ferocious neon green with a hint of bloody red. The boy glared at the man as he walked, taking in his full appearance.

"Daniel, can't you see I have mayoral duties to attend to? I don't have time for your ghostly antics." The man said without glancing up once. Danny had gotten uncomfortably close to the man and took the opportunity to attack.

He lunged forward grabbing, the man by the collar of his pristine black suit. The teen towered over him, a sign of his growth spurt from 3 years ago. Vlad let out a growl from being disturbed as he writhed in the arms of the teenager.

"Why? Why did you have to do that?!" Danny shouted at the middle-aged man. His voice quivered slightly as his eyes turned hazy with tears. The elder halfa teleported to the other side of the room and sighed as he straightened his now wrinkled suit. Danny immediately fell onto his knees as he lost grip of the Fruitloop, sobbing silently. He stared at the floor unsure of whether to tell the man or not.

"Use your words child! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some important business to attend to. Please see yourself out the door before I call the Guys in White." Vlad said mockingly, turning his back towards the younger halfa and walking towards his desk once more. Danny sat amidst the rich carpet and stared at his biological father. Was he the reason I survived the accident 4 years ago?

"Wait!" Danny called out his arm outstretched in front of him. Vlad swiveled around and looked at the boy questioningly. He finally noticed the tears escaping his emerald eyes. Daniel never cries, this must be important, he thought.

"I-" Danny paused. Where should I start? Sitting on the floor he called upon his transformation and once again into his human form; the flashing circle of light descended down his body. He shoved his hands in his jeans pocket and retrieved a crumpled-up ball of papers. He held out his hand for the older man to take as it shook with nervousness.

Vlad snatched the ball of anger from the teen and smoothed out its wrinkles. The title caught his attention. DNA test results? Did his ghost form mutate his DNA? Did someone discover his secret? He read the pages carefully and thoroughly, until his eyes widened at the sight of the fourth page. No, it can't be… he thought.

Everything hit Vlad at once. He stood there in shock, his body frozen at the realization. He glanced down at the boy, who had now brought his knees towards his body and placed his head in his hands. The reason Daniel came to me is because… I have a son?

"Little Badger is this a… joke?" the middle-aged man said softly, the words barely escaping his mouth. Danny shook his head from his position, mumbling something inaudible to the older halfa. Vlad crouched down towards his biological son, hesitantly patting the boy's back. He wasn't sure if comfort would help the hormone-driven teenager.

Vlad remembered the time when Maddie had come to him for money, exchanging one thing for another. It wasn't necessarily an affair, but a mother willing to do whatever it took to make her husband happy and keep her family together.

What had happened next was unexpected.

Vlad embraced his son, squeezing the boy with over-filling joy. "There, there Daniel. It's all right…" the boy sniffed quietly as he sat in surprise, being hugged by his number one enemy wasn't a daily occurrence. Come to think of it, having your number one enemy turn out to be your father was as surreal as an episode of Star Wars (I'm not sure if this connection is accurate, I've actually never seen star wars, but I only know about the famous "Luke, I'm your father" line).

"Wh-why?" the boy rasped out as he wiped the droplets at his eyes. His face looked hollow with helplessness and his cheeks blotched from crying.

"It was a one-time thing. An exchange. Nothing was supposed to come out of it… but, here you are." Vlad said softly as he returned his arms to his side and sat down next to Danny. The father and son held eye contact for a moment until Vlad erupted into a wide grin, causing the teen to turn his head away and stare at his shoes. The elder halfa inched towards his son and placed his hand around him. They sat in silence for a few minutes, the invisible wall between them overwhelming with tension until Vlad spoke up.

"Does Jack know?" He said turning towards Danny, his eyebrows furrowed.

"No." Danny replied shortly, not in the mood to have a conversation right now.

They may have sat there forever, listening to the sounds of each other breathing, if it weren't for the clock that stroked 6. Danny flinched at the noise, surprising both. He stood up and glanced down at the man, a mischievous smirk spreading across his face.

"You're still a Fruitloop…" But before Vlad could protest, the boy was gone.

#aye #I feel like I didn't do this concept justice but whatever #ughhh reading through this #it sucks so bad

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bechloeislegit · 6 years ago

Text

What If The World Ended Tomorrow? - Epilogue

Five Years Later:

Chloe smiled as she watched Beca mouthing the words to the final scene of "The Breakfast Club." She did this every year.

"Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us - in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...and an athlete...and a basket case...a princess...and a criminal...Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club."

Beca smiled as the mouthed the last words, remembering Jesse. It has become a yearly tradition to watch the movie in memory of Jesse on the anniversary of his death. Even though they now lived in their own house, Aubrey and Stacie would come over and watch with them. Emily had been there the first year but moved back to California when she found her mother's name on the website the military had set up for survivors who were looking for family and friends. Mrs. Junk was left blind by the infection, so Emily moved back home to take care of her. Emily always watched "The Breakfast Club" on that day since she knew how much it meant to Beca.

Chloe used the remote to turn off the movie. Sammy and Taylor sitting on either side of Beca each hugged her. Stacie and Aubrey smiled at the interaction.

"I still hate movies," Beca said causing everyone to chuckle. It was the same thing she said every year.

"You watch them with us," Sammy said. "You love to sing to-"

"Okay, okay," Beca said covering her mouth. "That's enough." She leans down and whispers in the 10-year-old's ear, "That's supposed to be our little secret."

"Oh, leave her alone, Becs," Chloe said. "We all know you're just a big old softie."

"Yeah, Beca," Aubrey said. "You don't fool us."

"Fine. Whatever," Beca said. "I'm ordering Chinese." Beca got her phone and went to the kitchen to place the order for their food.

It had taken a while, but life was pretty much back to the way it was before the outbreak. The military quickly worked to ensure that power and communications were up and running across the United States within the first few months. Times were hard, but surviving business owners got their businesses up and running again. The government was back on track, having had an election two years ago for a new President and Vice President. The country had been under military rule while the country was getting back on its feet. Beca and the girls were most excited about the fact that Chinese and Pizza places were back to delivering on the regular.

Twelve-year-old Taylor was just sitting quietly, eyes downcast. Chloe moved to sit next to her.

"Hey, kiddo," Chloe said. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Taylor said. "This just always makes me miss my mom and dad. I mean, I love you guys, but I still remember them and wish I knew what happened to them."

Chloe pulls her into a side-hug and kisses the top of her head. "Oh, sweetie," Chloe said. "It's okay to miss them. I miss so many of my friends and family, too. We don't stop loving them just because they are no longer with us."

"Yeah, Tay," Sammy said giving her sister a hug. "Plus, you have me, Mom and Mama. We made out okay."

"Just okay?," Chloe said with a smile.

"Better than okay," Sammy said rolling her eyes.

"Yeah," Taylor said and smiled. "You guys are the best." Chloe hugged both girls to her.

"Food will be here in about 20 minutes," Beca said as she came back into the room. "Hey, you're having a cuddle session without me!" With that Beca launched herself and landed on top of Chloe and the two girls.

The cuddle session turned into a tickle war which Beca lost as usual. They all flopped back on the sofa laughing and panting.

"Hey, did you guys make your reservations for DC yet?," Stacie asked.

"Yep," Chloe said. "We're so excited for you guys."

"I know," Beca said. "You do realize you're going to be putting Lily and Zeke out of business."

Aubrey laughed. "Somehow I think those two will manage just fine."

"I can't believe we're actually friends with someone, well, three someones, who won the Nobel Peace Prize," Beca said. "CR, Lily, and Zeke traveled all over the country for over a year helping all the cured and cleaning up some the areas that suffered the most damage. I'm glad they settled in Georgia and opened the Bellas Home for the Blind."

"I can't believe Lily got Ramada to give them the hotel," Stacie said. "CR said that Lily barely said a word, but the executives gave in after Lily stared them down with that look she has." Stacie shivered. "I love Lily to death, but I still get goosebumps when I think about that look."

"Yeah, well, I am very proud of our best friends," Chloe said looking at Aubrey and Stacie. "Getting recognized by the President for their working in helping find a cure for the blindness the infection caused is a big deal."

"Well, the cure was already out there," Stacie said modestly. "The mist the military developed to help with the infection just needed a little tweaking. And we happened to be the ones to perfect the formula to help the blindness."

"I can't believe you are actually a chemist," Beca said shaking her head.

"Aca-believe it," Aubrey said causing everyone to laugh and Beca to roll her eyes.

"Have you talked to Emily lately?," Chloe asked. "How's her mom?"

"She's doing great," Aubrey with a smile. "Her eyesight is at almost ninety percent. The drops are working for her." Aubrey furrowed her brow. "I wish we could figure out why the drops work for some but not for others."

"Don't fret about it," Chloe said looking at her best friend. "Your drops have a ninety percent success rate. Don't focus too much on those it didn't help. You'll drive yourself nuts."

There is a knock at the door. "Food's here," Beca and Sammy both yell as they jump up and run to the door.

"I swear those two are so alike it's not funny," Aubrey said with a laugh.

*0*0*0*0*

It was time for their trip to DC and Beca was checking in to their hotel while Chloe sent a text to Aubrey letting her know they were there and in the lobby. Taylor and Sammy were checking out the brochures on things to see and do in the Nation's capital.

"Lily!," Sammy suddenly squealed causing both Beca and Chloe to jerk their heads over to the hotel doors.

Sammy went running over to Lily and throw her arms around the woman. "Sammy!," Lily said. "Look how big you've gotten." Lily hugged Sammy back, and Taylor was next in line.

"Taylor, you look stunning," Lily said. Just then Zeke and CR came through the doors, smiling and laughing as they caught sight of Sammy and Taylor hugging Lily.

"What about us?," CR asked and opened her arms as Taylor came rushing over.

"CR!," Taylor said. "I didn't know you guys were coming."

"It's a surprise," Zeke said. He hugged the two young girls. "It's great to see you girls. It's been too long."

Beca came up behind Chloe and wrapped her arm around the redhead's waist. The two stood as their girls talked animatedly with the trio. CR finally looked up and smiled at the couple.

"Beca. Chloe," CR said as she walked over to the pair. "It's great to see you. I see married life agrees with you."

"Totes," Chloe said with a big smile, pulling CR into a hug. "How are you?"

"I'm good," CR said and pulled back from the hug.

The two groups decide to get settled and meet in the hotel's restaurant for dinner. Just as they are about to go their separate ways they hear, "What up, Pitches?!"

All heads turn to see Fat Amy coming through the doors, followed closely behind by Bumper.

"Amy!," Chloe and Beca both squeal as they rush over to the Aussie. The three hug and then CR and Lily join them.

Sammy, Taylor, and Zeke stand back and watch as the women start talking and laughing about something.

"Who is that?," Sammy asked Zeke.

"That's Amy," Zeke responded. "She was in the Bellas with your moms back in college. She was also a resident at the Bella Home before she got her sight back. She's got almost one hundred percent of her sight back. The guy with her is Bumper, her boyfriend."

"Hey, are these the mini-Mitchells I've been hearing so much about?," Amy said as she walked over to give Zeke a hug.

Chloe put her arm around Taylor and introduced her to Amy. Beca did the same with Sammy. They both said it was nice to meet her.

"What?," Amy said. "You've been with Chloe for five years, and you haven't learned to hug someone when you meet them? Come here you two." Amy grabs them both in an almost bone-crushing hug.

"Can't breathe," Sammy said.

Beca laughed. "We were just going to get settled in our room and plan to meet everyone in the restaurant for dinner. You and Bumper should join us."

Stacie and Aubrey finally make it down to the lobby, and the hugs and everything starts all over. It is a surprise to the two that they are all there. An even bigger surprise came through the doors as they were still greeting each other.

Emily and Katherine Junk came into the lobby. Sammy and Taylor see them first and go running over to hug Emily.

"Mom," Emily said. "This is Sammy and Taylor."

"It's so nice to see you girls," Katherine tells them. "And, yes I can see you. You're both so beautiful. Emily has told me so much about you."

"It's nice to meet you, too," Taylor said and gave the woman a hug.

"Emily!," Chloe squeals and the hugs start all over.

Katherine has tears in her eyes when she saw Stacie and Aubrey. "You don't know what it means to me to finally get to thank you ladies in person. My eyesight is almost ninety percent restored thanks to you. And, Emily told me how you all helped her during the outbreak. So, thank you. Thank all of you."

Everyone was wiping tears from their eyes as Katherine hugged Aubrey and Stacie. Zeke pulled Lily close to him, and she smiled up at him.

"Um, guys," Zeke said getting everyone's attention. "The ceremony for Stacie and Aubrey isn't until tomorrow evening and we, Lily and I, we're hoping you had the morning free to attend our, um, our wedding."

A gasp is heard throughout the group. "Seriously?," Chloe asked.

"Yes," Zeke said. "She finally said yes, and we want to do it while we have everyone here."

The group again starts hugging and talking about the wedding. Sammy and Taylor stand off to the side.

"We are never going to get to our room," Sammy said with a sigh. "And, I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," Taylor said with a laugh. "I swear, and you and Mama are so much alike."

"Yeah," Sammy said. "We're both badasses!"

Both girls started laughing and jerked their heads when they heard a loud gasp come from Chloe. They saw her looking at the door, and their eyes moved in that direction.

"Beca!," Chloe said grabbing onto Beca's arm and shaking her as she pointed to the door.

"Geesh, Chlo," Beca said. "Stop shaking-" Beca's mouth dropped open in surprise when she saw who was standing by the door.

Stacie and Aubrey furrowed their brows and turned to see what they were looking at. Stacie gasped in surprise and took off running, Beca close on her heels.

"Donald!," Stacie squealed before throwing herself into his arms. She let the tears fall as she hugged the man. Donald saw Beca stop behind Stacie, so he took one arm from around the leggy brunette and held it out to Beca. With tears running down her face she fell into the offered arm and let Donald pull her into the hug.

The three finally pull apart. "Dude, we thought you were-," Beca stopped herself.

"I know," Donald said quietly. "After we were cured, I was in a bad place in my head. I couldn't see, and I was besieged with memories of the things I did while I was infected. I don't want to talk about it, but it weighed heavy on my mind. I wandered around a bit, getting help from those who weren't infected. Then I heard about the eye drops to help cure the blindness. I wasn't going to try them because I didn't think I deserved to see again. But, then when I heard that none other than Stacie Conrad and Aubrey Posen helped develop the drops, I had to do it."

Stacie wiped at the tears running down her face. "It's really good to see you, Donald," Aubrey said, running her hand up and down Stacie's back to help calm her.

"And I have you and Stacie," Donald said giving Aubrey a smile, "to thank for me being able to say, it's good to see you, too."

"This is like a Barden reunion," Amy said. "Let's get our stuff settled in our rooms and meet back down here soon. I'm hungry."

"Finally," Sammy said dramatically as everyone headed for the elevators.

Beca told Chloe she'd meet her and the girls up in their room. She then grabbed Amy and pulled her aside.

"What's up, short stuff?," Amy asked as she was dragged over to a chair in the lobby.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," Beca said. "What's up with Bumper? He hasn't said anything since you guys got here."

"Don't tell anyone but he's embarrassed," Amy said.

"Why?," Beca asked.

"Because he was really scared and he hid out the entire time the infection outbreak happened," Amy said. "You remember the day it started, and I got off the bus trying to find him?"

"I'll never forget it," Beca said.

"Well, Bumper was hiding under his bed," Amy said. "He heard the zombie things attacking everyone. He even heard me screaming for him. But he stayed hidden. Then when it seemed clear he ran. He saw a bunch of the zombies and got scared and ran into the diner near the Treble house. Someone else was hiding in there. They were together for about a month when the other person, some guy named Seth, decided to go out to see if things were okay. He never made it back. So, Bumper was by himself for almost 9 months. No one to talk to but himself. It kinda made him go off the deep end. He has nightmares and flashbacks. It's been five years and he still only talks when it's necessary. He's afraid one of those zombie things will hear him and come for him."

"Wow," Beca said. "That's rough. How did you find each other?"

"Some people found him after it was over and assured him everyone was okay," Amy said. "He found my name on the website for survivors and came to CR and Lily's place looking for me. He's stuck around since."

"I'm sorry for what happened to him," Beca said. "And to you. But, I'm glad you found each other again. I know how much you two love each other."

"Thanks, Beca," Amy said. "I'm glad we are all able to come together again for Stacie and Aubrey. If it weren't for them, I don't know that I'd be here."

"Amy," Beca said.

"No, Beca," Amy said. "I'm serious. Being one of those things was horrible. It's like my brain knew I was sick but the sounds were so bad it turned me into something I don't even want to think about."

Beca watched as Amy wiped at the tears that fell down her face. She was not used to this emotional and serious Amy. She wished that she could see the old Amy again. She grabbed her friend in a hug.

"Listen," Beca said. "Maybe you need to be around friends more. Why don't you and Bumper move back to Barden? Then you'll have me, Chloe, Stacie, and Aubrey. You can talk to any one of us. We didn't get the infection, but we can help you if you start feeling like things are too much for you."

"I'll talk to Bumper," Amy said pulling out of the hug. "Enough of this emotional stuff. I'm hungry. Let's go get everyone and eat."

"Let's go," Beca said, and the two stood. Amy grabbed Beca in another hug.

"Thank you," Amy said.

*0*0*0*0*

The next morning Beca, Chloe, and the girls were just sitting down to breakfast in the hotel restaurant when Chloe saw another familiar face. She smiled and told Beca she'd be right back. She walked out to the lobby.

"Jessica," Chloe said softly, so she didn't frighten the girl.

"Chloe?," Jessica said.

"Yes," Chloe said. "I'm going to hug you if that's okay."

"I would never say no to a Chloe Beale hug," Jessica said.

Chloe pulled the girl into her arms and hugged her. Jessica squeezed Chloe tight for a moment before pulling back.

"Oh, let me introduce you to my brother," Jessica said. "Chloe this is my brother Jackson. He's, um, been taking care of me."

Chloe held out her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Jackson. Would you two like to join us for breakfast? We just sat down. I know Beca would love to see you."

"Um, I don't know," Jessica said hesitating.

"We'd love to," Jackson said. "Jess, it will do you good to be around people you know."

"Okay," Jessica said quietly.

"Great," Chloe said and smiled. "Come join us after you check in."

"We will," Jackson said.

Chloe went back to the table. "Jessica's here," she told Beca.

"I saw," Beca said. "How's she doing?"

"She seems okay, I guess," Chloe said. "Her brother is with her, and she said he's been taking care of her."

"Does anyone know why she doesn't try the drops?," Beca asked.

"I don't think so," Chloe responded. "Personally, I think it's because of Ashley."

Beca called the waitress over and had another table added to theirs. Jessica and Jackson came in, and Jackson helped Jessica sit before taking a seat himself.

"Jessica, Jackson. I'd like you to meet our daughters, Sammy and Taylor," Chloe said.

"Hi, I'm Taylor," Taylor said.

"I'm Sammy," Sammy said. "It's very nice to meet you both."

"It's very nice to meet you, as well," Jackson said.

"You both sound so grown up," Jessica said. "How old are you?"

"I'm ten and Taylor is twelve," Sammy said. "May I ask you a personal question, Jessica?"

"Honey, I don't think that's a good idea," Beca said.

"No, it's okay," Jessica with a soft smile. "I have a feeling I know what you're going to ask. Go ahead."

"Why don't you use the eye drops?," Sammy asked. "Aunt Stacie and Aunt Brey worked hard to get the formula right. And it's worked on like 90% of the people that have used it."

Beca and Chloe look at each other, worried that it was too much for Jessica. Jessica gave a sad smile toward Sammy.

"You know, Sammy," Jessica said. "You're the first person outside my family that has asked me that question."

"I'm sorry if I upset you," Sammy said looking down at the table.

"Oh no, Sammy," Jessica said. "I'm glad you asked. You see, my girlfriend Ashley and I both got the infection on the same day. I made sure to stick with her everywhere we wandered to after that because I was worried about her."

"Did you tell her that?," Sammy asked.

"We couldn't really communicate," Jessica said. "It's hard to explain, but our minds seemed to be okay, but then there would be these sounds that hurt our ears so bad that we kind of lost of our minds in a way. All I wanted to do was to stop whatever was making the sound. It was much better when there was quiet. But, the sounds affected Ashley differently. She became very...um, violent. She would sometimes attack one of us because we would screech when the sounds hurt us. Am I making sense to you guys?"

"Yes, actually, it makes a lot of sense," Sammy said before anyone else could speak. "But, it doesn't explain why you don't try to see again."

"Sammy," Chloe said.

"No, it's really okay, Chloe," Jessica said. "One day we were just wandering around, and there was a loud noise, which I know now were planes. Then it rained, and we went to sleep. When we woke up, we were in a field or something. We felt better, but we couldn't see. Some nice people found us and helped us. We ended up on a base of some kind and doctors worked with us to get us back to 'normal.' Ashley remembered everything she did when we had the infection, and it was driving her crazy. She couldn't handle it, so she took a bunch of pills to make it go away."

"She died?," Sammy asked sadly.

"Yes, she died," Jessica said as a tear fell down her cheek. "I was so angry and upset with her for leaving me behind that I kind of gave up. But I also miss her so much that if I can't see her, I don't want to see anyone or anything."

Sammy thought for a moment. No one else said anything; they just waited to hear what Sammy was going to say next.

"But don't you want Ashley to know you're okay without her?," Sammy asked. "I think that's why she killed herself. So you wouldn't have to be burdened with taking care of her. She knew that you would be okay without her, you just have to figure out that you'll be okay with her. I remember when we were little and our grandma died, our mother said that we should live like we did when she was alive to honor her memory. If we don't then we are showing dishonor to her. Don't you think Ashley wants that for you? To remember her when she was okay and to let her know you still love her by living your life to the fullest."

The waitress had come by to take their breakfast orders but could sense something special was happening at the table. She looked at Chloe and mouthed "I'll come back." Chloe gave her a smile and a nod. The waitress left, and Chloe wiped a tear that had fallen. Sammy was young, but she was giving Jessica some sage advice.

"I, uh, never thought of that way," Jessica said. After a moment Jessica sent a small smile in Sammy's direction. "Are you sure you're only ten? I can't see you, so I'm not sure because you sound like someone much older and wiser than a ten-year-old."

"Yep, I'm ten," Sammy said. "And I'm starving. Where's our waitress anyway."

Jessica laughed. "Yeah, now she sounds like she's ten. And, a lot like Beca."

Everybody laughed, and Beca got the waitress's attention so everyone could place their orders. Chloe hugged Sammy and kissed her temple. Jackson quietly asked Jessica if she was okay.

"Actually, I'm better than okay," Jessica said. "I think I want to try the eye drops. Sammy made a lot of sense."

"I've been telling you basically the same thing she did for months," Jackson said.

"No, you've been yelling at me for months," Jessica said. She leaned in a gave him a kiss on the cheek and smiled. "You should have talked to me like a ten-year-old, so I would listen."

Jackson laughed and gave her a quick hug.

*0*0*0*0*

After breakfast, Jackson and Jessica went to their room with the promise to meet everyone back downstairs in a few hours for Lily and Zeke's wedding. Jessica was excited to hear about the wedding and asked Chloe to come help get ready.

Beca, Sammy, and Taylor met CR, Stacie, and Aubrey in the lobby a little before 11:00 am. Zeke and Lily joined them shortly after followed by Donald, Fat Amy, and Bumper. Everyone was surprised when Chloe walked in with Jessica and Jackson. There was another round of hugs and greetings. Emily and her mother Katherine were the last to arrive. Everyone settled down when the minister came in.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," the minister said to the group. "I am Reverend Edwards. Lily, Zeke. Good to see you. Are you ready to be married?"

"Yes, sir," Zeke said proudly.

"And do you have someone to stand with you?," Reverend Edwards asked.

"Oh, um, CR? Would you do me the honor of standing with me?," Lily asked.

"Absolutely," CR said and stood next to Lily.

"Beca?," Zeke said. "I know it's a little unorthodox but would you stand with me?"

"I'd be honored, Zeke," Beca said and stood next to Zeke.

Reverend Edwards began the ceremony. "We come now to the words Zeke and Lily want to hear the most today…the words that take them across the threshold from being engaged to being married.

A marriage, as most of us understand it, is a voluntary and full commitment. It is made in the deepest sense to the exclusion of all others, and it is entered into with the desire and hope that it will last for life.

Before you declare your vows to one another, I want to hear you confirm that it is indeed your intention to be married today."

Reverend Edwards turns to look at Zeke. "Zeke, do you come here freely and without reservation to give yourself to Lily in marriage? If so, answer I do."

"I do," Zeke said and smiled at Lily.

"Lily, do you come here freely and without reservation to give yourself to Zeke in marriage? If so, answer I do."

"I do," Lily said.

"Zeke and Lily, having heard that it is your intention to be married to each other, I now ask you to declare your marriage vows. Please face each other and hold hands."

Zeke and Lily face each other and take the other's hands in theirs.

"Zeke," Reverend Edwards said. "Please repeat after me…I, Zeke, take you, Lily, to be my wife. I will share my life with yours, build our dreams together, support you through times of trouble, and rejoice with you in times of happiness. I promise to give you respect, love, and loyalty. This commitment is made in love, kept in faith, lived in hope, and made new every day of our lives."

Zeke repeats the words and Reverend Edwards turns to Lily.

"Lily, please repeat after me…I, Lily, take you, Zeke, to be my husband. I will share my life with yours, build our dreams together, support you through times of trouble, and rejoice with you in times of happiness. I promise to give you respect, love, and loyalty. This commitment is made in love, kept in faith, lived in hope, and made new every day of our lives."

Lily repeats the words. Reverend Edwards asks for the rings.

"Your wedding rings are the outward and visible sign of the inward and invisible bond which already unites you two hearts in love. Zeke, place the ring on Lily's finger and repeat after me….I give you this ring. Wear it with love and joy. As this ring has no end, my love is also forever.

Zeke's hands are shaking as he places the ring on Lily's finger and repeats the words. He then pushes the ring until it is snug on Lily's hand.

"Lily, place the ring on Zeke's finger and repeat after me….I give you this ring. Wear it with love and joy. As this ring has no end, my love is also forever."

Lily places the ring on Zeke's finger and repeats the words.

"May the wedding rings you exchanged today always remind you that you are surrounded by enduring love," Reverend Edwards said.

The Reverend looks at Zeke and Lily. "Everyone has advice for newlyweds. Zeke and Lily, I offer these good wishes to you on this special day. May your life together be blessed with prosperity and good health. May you always share open and honest communication with each other. May you respect each other's individual talents and gifts and give full support to each other's professional and personal pursuits. May you cherish the home and family you will create together. May all the years to come be filled with moments to celebrate and renew your love. May your love be a life-long source of excitement, contentment, affection, respect, and devotion for one another." Reverend Edwards pauses for a moment. "And so now by the power vested in me by the District of Columbia, it is my honor and delight to declare you husband and wife. You may seal this declaration with a kiss."

Zeke and Lily kiss and everyone starts clapping.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the newlyweds, Mr. and Mrs. Zeke Williams!"

The couple turn and everyone starts hugging and congratulating them. Zeke finally gets their attention.

"We have a small brunch set up next door for everyone," Zeke said. "Reverend we do hope you'll join us."

"Thank you," Reverend Edwards said. "I'd like that."

*0*0*0*0*

Everyone enjoyed the brunch, and things were winding down.

"Lily," Chloe said. "Aren't you going to have the first dance together as husband and wife?"

"We hadn't planned on it," Lily said

"You have to," Katherine said. "It's tradition."

"But we don't have any music," Zeke said.

The Bellas in attendance just looked at him and laughed.

"Zeke," Beca said with a smirk. "We make our own music." She gathered everyone together including Donald and Bumper. They talked a bit, and once they decided on a song, Chloe told Lily and Zeke to get into position. As soon as Zeke took Lily in his arms the music started. And then Beca started singing.

What would I do without your smart mouth Drawing me in, and you kicking me out Got my head spinning, no kidding, I can't pin you down What's going on in that beautiful mind I'm on your magical mystery ride And I'm so dizzy, don't know what hit me, but I'll be alright

Zeke leads Lily around the small dance area. Bumper jumps in for the next few lines.

My head's under water But I'm breathing fine You're crazy and I'm out of my mind

Lily and Zeke stare into the other's eyes as they sway and move to the music. CR, Jessica, and Amy took the next verse.

'Cause all of me Loves all of you Love your curves and all your edges All your perfect imperfections Give your all to me I'll give my all to you You're my end and my beginning Even when I lose I'm winning 'Cause I give you all, all of me And you give me all, all of you

Chloe, Emily, and Katherine are next.

How many times do I have to tell you Even when you're crying you're beautiful too The world is beating you down, I'm around through every move You're my downfall, you're my muse My worst distraction, my rhythm and blues I can't stop singing, it's ringing, in my head for you

Amy joins Bumper and sings.

My head's under water But I'm breathing fine You're crazy and I'm out of my mind

Beca lets them all know to sing the final verse, which they do in true a cappella fashion.

Zeke dips Lily on the final note of the song and kisses her before letting her back up. Reverend Edwards and Jackson both start clapping.

"That was wonderful," Reverend Edwards declares.

Everyone congratulates Zeke and Lily again before heading back to their rooms. Beca and Chloe want the girls to rest before the evening's event. Everyone was excited to get to go to the White House. Stace and Aubrey spent over an hour adding all the new arrivals to their guest list. Things were strict when it came to gaining entry into the White House, but not as strict as they once were before the infection outbreak. They were able to get everyone listed and when they heard that three Nobel Prize winners were a part of the group, the coordinators were ecstatic.

"Okay everyone," Aubrey said. "There will be limos arriving at about 6:00 pm to take us to the White House. Everyone meet down here at 5:45 so we can leave when the limos arrive. The ceremony starts at 7:00 and a small reception will follow."

"Are we really going to get to meet the President?," Taylor asked.

"Yes, we all will," Aubrey responded. "Okay. Don't forget 5:45 down here in the lobby."

"Okay, babe," Stacie said calmly. "Take a breath and relax. It's going to be fine."

Everyone decided to go back to their rooms until it was time to meet. The occupants of the Mitchell room were napping. Stacie was trying to keep Aubrey calm. Jessica and Jackson were visiting with Emily and Katherine in their room.

"Katherine," Jessica said. "How did you feel when you started using the eye drops?"

"Honestly," Katherine said. "I was scared to death. I wanted it to work so badly that it took me a week after getting the first bottle to use it. At first, I didn't think it was working. But, then one morning about a week after I started I woke up and could detect light. I knew the sun was shining in the window. It was an amazing feeling. It took several weeks but I can see so much more now. My doctor says I'm at about eighty percent and he thinks I'll get one-hundred percent of my vision back."

"That's great news," Jackson said. "Hear that, Jess? It will so worth it."

"You don't have to convince me," Jessica told him. "I'm going to visit my doctor to get started as soon as we get back home."

*0*0*0*0*

Donald was restless and went to Stacie and Aubrey's room. "Hey, Donald," Stacie said when she saw him at the door. "Come on in."

"I'm sorry to bother you," Donald said. "But I just couldn't relax. I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but can you tell me what happened with Jesse? No one will say anything except he didn't make it."

Stacie told Donald about the day Jesse died. She told him how Beca had been the one to end his suffering because they had promised each other that they wouldn't let the other become one of the infected. She also told him how Beca used to have nightmares because of it. She was better now and actually had a little ritual she did every year to mark the anniversary of his death.

Donald felt bad for Beca and Jesse. He thanked Stacie for telling him and went back to his room.

*0*0*0*0*

"The limos are here," Stacie announces.

Everyone exits the hotel and are divided to fit into the three limos provided. Beca, Chloe, and their two girls were riding with Stacie and Aubrey. Fat Amy, Bumper, Donald, Lily, and Zeke were riding together. And, Emily, Katherine, Jessica, and Jackson were in the third limo. There were oohs and aahs as they were driven onto the White House grounds.

Three gentlemen opened doors for each of the limos and helped the passengers exit the vehicles. Everyone went through a security check at the door before being allowed in. Once inside they were all escorted to a room where they would meet the President and First Lady prior to the actual ceremony. They sat and anxiously waited. Suddenly the doors open and several Secret Service men walked.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please stand," one of the Secret Service members said. Everyone immediately stood. The President and First Lady walked in.

"I'm so sorry we are running a bit late," President Bartlett said. "Welcome to the White House. Ms. Posen, Ms. Conrad. It is an honor to meet you both."

"Actually, sir," Stacie said. "We're both Mrs. Posen."

"Oh, my apologies," President Bartlett said. "Mrs. and Mrs. Posen, may I present my wife, Abigail Bartlett."

"Please, call me Abby," Mrs. Bartlett said.

"It's truly a pleasure, Mr. President," Aubrey said. "May I introduce our friends and family?"

"Of course," President Bartlett said. "Although these three here do not need an introduction. Ms. Onakuramara, Ms. Adams, and Mr. Williams. It's truly a pleasure to meet you all. I've read all about the work you've been doing."

"Thank you, sir," Zeke said.

Aubrey then proceeds to introduce the rest of the group. As she finishes the introductions, a man comes in and says something to the President.

"It's showtime ladies and gentlemen," President Bartlett said. "The two Mrs. Posens will come with Abby and me. The rest will be escorted to their seating area by these two gentlemen. We'll see you soon." The President then offers his arm to his wife and Stacie and Aubrey follow them.

"This is so exciting," Chloe practically squeals.

The group is escorted to their seats. Stacie and Aubrey are standing on a small stage with two others. The President's Chief of Staff introduces the President and everyone stands. Once he is behind the podium most of the audience sits. Photographers and journalists were on hand and camera flashes were going off. The President begins his speech.

"We are here today to present four of our fellow Americans with the Presidential Medal of Freedom," President Bartlett said. "This award is the nation's highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

The President proceeds to read the recipient's name and their accomplishments before bestowing the medal to them. The badge of the Presidential Medal of Freedom is in the form of a golden star with white enamel, with a red enamel pentagon behind it; the central disc bears thirteen gold stars on a blue enamel background (taken from the Great Seal of the United States) within a golden ring. Golden American bald eagles with spread wings stand between the points of the star. It is worn around the neck on a blue ribbon with white edge stripes.

Stacie was the last to receive the award. Once she had received it, she stepped back to stand next to Aubrey. Both had a tear in their eye because they were so honored to receive the award. The award recipients were escorted off the stage to another room to have photos taken separately and with the President. Afterward, they met up with their friends in the reception room.

"Brey! Stacie!," Chloe said grabbing them both in a hug. "We are so proud of you."

"Yeah, Posen and Posen," Beca said. "This is well-deserved and we thank you for letting us be a part of it."

After about thirty minutes, Amy walked up to Aubrey and Stacie. "So, when can you blow this popsicle stand?," she asked.

"Well, the President has already left," Stacie said. "So, I think we just need to let someone know we're ready to go so the limos can be notified."

"What do you have in mind?," Aubrey asked.

"I'm thinking we go back to the hotel and hit the bar," Amy said. "Celebrate Bellas style!"

"Let's do it," Aubrey said with a laugh. Stacie finds someone and the limos are brought around for them.

The group arrives at the hotel and Beca and Chloe take Sammy and Taylor to their room. Jessica and Jackson offer to stay with them so Beca and Chloe can join the others. Jessica shot down their arguments by telling them she didn't drink and neither did Jackson. They thanked them and made their way to the bar.

Chloe grabs Beca's arm before they entered the bar and pulled her into a kiss. "I love you," Chloe said.

"I love you, too," Beca said.

"I just wanted to say it since we haven't had much alone time the past few days," Chloe said.

"That's okay," Beca said. "We have the rest of our lives to find some alone time."

"Let's go party like we used to," Chloe said and gave Beca another kiss.

Just then they heard Amy yelling, "Shots! Shots! Shots!"

The couple laughed and walked into the bar to join their friends. Beca looked around at them and couldn't help but be proud of all of them. Five years ago she couldn't imagine being back with her friends, her family. Thinking she was never going to see any of them again. And, now, they were all going to be facing the future together. And she wouldn't have it any other way.

She looked up when she heard Amy suddenly shout. She shook her head as she walked over to the Aussie saying, "Okay, Amy. Let's put the shirt back on."

Yep, she wouldn't have it any other way.

That's it. All done. Hope you enjoyed it.

Song used: All of Me by John Legend. I don't own anything to do with John Legend or the song.

Movie quote from The Breakfast Club. I do not own anything regarding The Breakfast Club or Pitch Perfect.

#bechloe fanfiction #bechloe #beca mitchell #chloe beale

39 notes · View notes

asiantheatre · 6 years ago

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Under the list are all the confirmed, announced shows in the 2018-2019 season featuring Asian writers, actors, designers, directors, etc in New York, London, and International. Listed are the dates for first previews, the theater it’s performed in, and a summary of the show.

This list isn’t 100% comprehensive and will be updated as time goes on. If we missed a show, please let us know!

Make sure to tune in and give these shows your love!

BROADWAY (source)

Straight White Men

Until September 9, Hayes Theater

“It’s Christmas Eve, and Ed has gathered his three adult sons to celebrate with matching pajamas, trash-talking, and Chinese takeout. But when a question they can’t answer interrupts their holiday cheer, they are forced to confront their own identities. Obie Award-winning playwright Young Jean Lee takes a hilariously ruthless look at the classic American father-son drama. This is one white Christmas like you’ve never seen before.”

Getting the Band Back Together

August 19, 2018; Belasco Theatre

“The musical comedy follows 40-year-old out-of-work banker Mitch who moves back in with his mother and decides to reunite his old high school band, Juggernaut.”

King Kong

October 2018

This show reimagines the famous movie King Kong into a story about fame, greed, and manipulation within the original framework of a young actress and film maker finding their way to Skull Island, the home of a 2000 pound monkey.

Tootsie

March 29, 2019; Marriott Marquis

“Based on the film, Tootsie tells the story of a talented but difficult actor who struggles to find work until an audacious, desperate stunt lands him the role of a lifetime.”

Hadestown

Walter Kerr; March 22, 2019

Info in the west end section

Be More Chill

Lyceum Theater; February 13, 2019

Info in the offbway section

Chicago

July 1–14; Ambassador Theatre

Japanese star Ryoko Yonekura will make a limited run engagement as Roxie Hart before transferring over to Japan for the national tour.

OFF BROADWAY (source / 2)

Be More Chill

August 9, 2018; Pershing Square Signature Center

Based on Ned Vizzini’s novel, the show tells the story of an average teenager who takes a pill purported to make people more—you guessed it—chill.

Henry VI

August 21, 2018 - NAATCO

“Shakespeare’s Henry VI is the story of a great nation’s decent into barbarism and cruelty. It is a study of how the experience of a problematic foreign war erodes civil discourse at home, and how that erosion allows political self-interests to take hold and send a country hurtling into civil war.”

Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future

September 25, 2018; Ars Nova

“250 years from now, constructed humans are built in black market labs, Mars is a forced labor camp and underground outlaws are brewing rebellion. You might not remember how Beaux Weathers and her band of “illegal intelligences” fought for the right to exist, but Rags Parkland does. Back on Earth for the first time in 10 years, Rags plays the music that carried us to where we are today. But on this planet, the more things change, the more we stay the same.”

India Pale Ale

October 2, 2018; Manhattan Theatre Club

“In a small Wisconsin town, a tight-knit Punjabi community gathers to celebrate the wedding of a traditional family’s only son, just as their strong-willed daughter announces her plans to move away and open a bar. As they come together for feasts filled with singing and dancing, one generation’s cherished customs clash with another’s modern-day aspirations, and ghosts and pirates from the family’s past linger in everyone’s thoughts – until one sudden event changes everything.”

Wild Goose Dreams

October 30, 2018; The Public Theatre

“Minsung is a “goose father,” a South Korean man whose wife and daughter have moved to America for a better life. Deeply lonely, he escapes onto the internet and meets Nanhee, a young defector forced to leave her family behind in North Korea. Amidst the endless noise of the modern world, where likes and shares have taken the place of love and touch, Minsung and Nanhee try their best to be real for each other. But after a lifetime of division and separation, is connection possible?“

The Resistable Rise or Arturo Ui

October 30- December 22, 2018; Classic Stage Company

The political allegory shows a Depression-era Chicago mobster, who, with the help of his henchmen, manipulates and murders his way to totalitarian rule of the cauliflower trade. The play uses a vaudevillian portrayal of American mafia culture to parallel events that brought the Third Reich to power.

A Chorus Line

November 14, 2018; New York City Center

“A Chorus Line, the 2018 New York City Center Annual Gala Presentation, is a joyous celebration of dance and musical theater—two art forms that City Center has been bringing to New York audiences for 75 years. In 1975, the stories of seventeen Broadway dancers were brought to life when A Chorus Line opened Off-Broadway. The musical was born of workshop sessions with actual Broadway dancers (eight of whom appeared in the original cast) who laid bare their personal stories and the challenges they faced in pursuit of their dreams.“

The Prisoner

November 24, 2018; Theatre for a New Audience/Polonsky Shakespeare Center

“The Prisoner examines the complexities of crime, justice, and compassion in a breathtaking new international production. A man sits alone outside a prison. Who is he, and what is he doing there? Is he free, or is he the prisoner?“

Noura

November 27, 2018; Playwrights Horizons

Noura and her husband have a successful life in New York, and, eight years after having fled their home in Iraq, they’ve finally gained citizen status—which Noura, as an Iraqi Christian, is celebrating by planning the perfect Christmas dinner. But when the arrival of a visitor stirs up long-buried memories, Noura and her husband are forced to confront the cost of their choices, and retrace the past they left behind.

Flower Drum Song’s 60th Anniversary Gala

December 2, 2018 - NAAP

The gala will begin at 5:30 PM with cocktails, followed by a 6:30 PM dinner (a traditional eight-course Chinese banquet). Throughout the evening will be entertainment informed by the history of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song.

Nassim

December 10, 2018; New York City Center

In his latest work, Nassim Soleimanpour explores the power of language to unite us in these uncertain times. No rehearsals. A different guest actor at every performance. A sealed envelope. Oh, and some surprises.

Blue Ridge

December 12, 2018; Atlantic Theater Company

“A progressive high-school teacher with a rage problem retaliates against her unscrupulous boss and is sentenced to six months at a church-sponsored halfway house, where she attends to everyone's recovery but her own. Set in Southern Appalachia, Blue Ridge is a pitch-dark comedy about heartbreak, hell-raising and healing.“

Merrily We Roll Along

January 12, 2019; Roundabout Theatre

Roundabout’s company in residence, Fiasco Theater, reimagines its next Stephen Sondheim creation. With Fiasco’s one-of-a-kind imagination, this audacious musical about a trio of showbiz friends who fall apart and come together over 20 years emerges as newly personal and passionate.

Superhero

January 31, 2019; Second Stage Theatre

Before we can save the world, we have to save each other. From the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer of Next to Normal and the Tony Award-winning writer of Red comes a deeply human new musical about a fractured family, the mysterious stranger in apartment 4-B, and the unexpected hero who just might save the day.

Anne of Green Gables: Part 1

The Royal Family Performing Arts Space; January 24-February 11

An adaptation of the book with the same title.

God Said This

Cherry Lane Theater; January 29-February 15

God Said This paints a portrait of five Kentuckians facing mortality in very different ways. With her mom undergoing chemotherapy, Hiro returns home, struggling to let go of the demons she inherited. Sophie, her born-again Christian sister, confronts her faith while tackling inevitable adversity. James, their recovering alcoholic father, wants to repair his fractured relationship with his daughters. And, John, an old classmate and thirty-something single dad, worries about leaving a lasting legacy for his only son.

Alice By Heart

MCC Theater; January 30-March 30

The show, by Waitress scribe Jessie Nelson and Spring Awakening duo Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, adapts Lewis Carroll’s famed fantasy into a London-set tale against the backdrop of World War II, as Alice and her friend Alfred journey down a rabbit hole to find love, loss, and the courage to move forward despite harsh circumstances.

REGIONAL / US TOURS (source)

Man of God

January 31 - February 24, 2019; East West Players

A hidden discovery in a hotel bathroom changes the lives of four Korean Christian girls on a mission trip to Thailand. Samantha is hurt that someone she trusted could betray her. Jen is worried about how this might affect her college applications. Kyung-Hwa thinks everyone should adjust their expectations. Mimi’s out for blood. Amid the neon lights and go go bars in Bangkok, the girls plot revenge in this funny, feminist thriller.

Mamma Mia

May 9 - June 9, 2019; East West Players

On the eve of her wedding, a daughter’s quest to discover the identity of her father brings three men from her mother’s past back to the Greek island they last visited 20 years ago. The storytelling magic of ABBA’s timeless hits sets the scene for this infectious tale of love and frolicking fun, creating an unforgettable musical experience that will leave you dancing in the aisles!

Tours - Dates are subject to region

Aladdin

Hamilton

Miss Saigon

Hello Dolly

Falsettos

Lea Salonga’s Human Heart Tour

Rent

TV special live on Fox tells the story of the AIDS epidemic in New York City

WEST END/LONDON (source)

The King and I

Until September 29, 2018

Set in 1860s Bangkok, the musical tells the story of the unconventional and tempestuous relationship that develops between the King of Siam and Anna, a British schoolteacher whom the modernist King, in an imperialistic world, brings to Siam to teach his many wives and children.

Love’s Labor’s Lost

August 23, 2018; Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

“Self-denial is in fashion at the court of Navarre where the young king and three of his courtiers solemnly forswear all pleasures in favour of serious study. But when the Princess of France and her entourage arrive, it isn’t long before the all-male ‘academe’ have broken every one of their self-imposed rules. Shakespeare’s boisterous send-up of all those who try to turn their back on life is a dazzling parade of every weapon in the youthful playwright’s arsenal, from excruciating cross-purposes and impersonations to drunkenness and bust-ups. It’s a banquet of language, groaning with puns, rhymes and grotesque coinages“

Dance Nation

August 27, 2018; Almeida Theatre

“Somewhere in America, a revolution is coming. An army of competitive dancers is ready to take over the world, one routine at a time. With a pre-teen battle for power and perfection raging on and off stage, Dance Nation is a ferocious exploration of youth, ambition and self-discovery.“

The Humans

August 30, 2018; Hampstead Theatre

“Hampstead Theatre is proud to present the Broadway production of The Humans by Stephen Karam, the winner of four 2016 Tony Awards including Best Play. Three generations of the Blake family have assembled for Thanksgiving in Brigid and Richard’s ramshackle pre-war apartment in Lower Manhattan. Whilst the event may have a slightly improvised air, the family is determined to make the best of its time together. As they attempt to focus on the traditional festivities, fears of the past and pressures of the future seep into the reunion and the precariousness of their position becomes increasingly evident.”

The Village

September 7, 2018; Theatre Royal Stratford East

“The Village transports the Lope de Vega’s Spanish play, Fuenteovejuna to contemporary India. It’s a powerful story of community and solidarity, and the lengths a person will go to protect themselves from tyranny. In Jyoti’s village, life is simple. People work and sing while living off the land. And finding a partner is far from her mind. She’d much prefer a delicious meal. Things are happy until the Inspector and his men come back to town. But when the tyrannical Inspector has his eye on Jyoti and he commits unspeakable acts against the village, everyone is pushed to breaking point. Will Jyoti dare turn him down despite what it may mean for her village?”

White Teeth

October 26, 2018; Kiln Theatre

“Rosie Jones, the Iqbal twins, their parents, their grandparents, Mad Mary and an avalanche of other characters who make up the everyday chaos of Kilburn High Road come together in an extraordinary revelry of NW6. An epic comedy with music and dance, this theatrical rollercoaster takes us on a fast-paced journey through history, different cultures and chance encounters. Zadie Smith’s breakthrough novel is adapted for stage by acclaimed playwright Stephen Sharkey and directed by Artistic Director Indhu Rubasingham in a major world premiere.”

Hadestown

November 2, 2018; National Theater

“In the warmth of summertime, songwriter Orpheus and his muse Eurydice are living it up and falling in love. But as winter approaches, reality sets in: these young dreamers can’t survive on songs alone. Tempted by the promise of plenty, Eurydice is lured to the depths of industrial Hadestown. On a quest to save her, Orpheus journeys to the underworld where their trust is put to a final test.”

INTERNATIONAL

Philippines

Side Show - August 31, 2018

M. Butterfly - September 13, 2018

A Doll’s House Part 2 - September 15, 2018

Waitress - November 2018

Angels in America Spring 2019

Beautiful: the Carole King Musical Spring 2019

Korea

Matilda - September 8, 2018

The Greatest Showman - August 7, 2018

Bridges of Madison County - August 11, 2018

Jungle Book - closing August 26, 2018

Singapore

Peter and the Star Catcher - September 28, 2018

Other Local Shows

Japan

Fiddler on the Roof - December 16, 2018

Something Rotten - December 31, 2018

CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG - May 16, 2018

Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 - January 5, 2019

Chicago - Osaka (August 1-4 at the Orix Theater) and in Tokyo (August 7-18 at the Tokyu Theatre Orb).

Full list of shows in Japan (translated)

Other Local Shows

China

Rent - August 30, 2018

Les Mis - September 27, 2018

Hamlet - November 28, 2018

Chicago - December 20, 2018

Other Local Shows

Canada

Come From Away (until June 30, 2019)

Next to Normal Toronto (April 26-May 19)

Dear Evan Hansen

New Zealand

If/Then - November 29-December 8, 2018

#theatreedit #broadwayedit #news #edits

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jadekitty777 · 6 years ago

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How to Be a Shield When All You Have is a Sword

We’re reaching the end of the wire here! I can’t remember entirely, but either this one or Day 5 were the first of the seven written.

Day 6 – Battle After Care @taiqrowweek

Summary: Sometimes Qrow does stupid things for the right reasons. [Modern Highschool AU]

Rating: T

Warnings: Some discriminatory/racial slurs and definite potty mouths here

Ao3 Link: How to Be a Title That is Much Too Long

“Tip your head back already.”

“Right, right.” Qrow said nasally, doing as asked and swallowing the thick, coppery blood that was running down his throat; his nose felt about two sizes too big. He squinted at the fluorescents that seemed a little too bright and hoped he didn’t also have a concussion.

He hid a wince when a wet paper towel dabbed at a scrape on his wrist. In the corner of his eye, he could see the furrow in Tai’s brow as he pulled up the sleeve of his shirt, seeing the mismatch of other cuts and bruising. It was when the blond started to straighten out his arm that a shooting pain centered at his elbow had him sucking in a sharp breath. “Ow, fuck!”

Tai paused, frowning at him. “We should go to the nurse.”

“No way in hell bud. You know I can’t get suspended again.” Qrow said.

That earned him a reproachful look. “Well then, maybe you should pick your battles more carefully.”

“Yeah, yeah, dad. Thanks for the lecture. Just, go slower, alright?”

“Don’t call me dad. It’s weird.” He replied, moving his arm as asked. It still stung like a bitch, but Qrow was pretty sure it was only sprained. Surprisingly lucky for him, considering how hard he’d hit the ground. After a moment’s quiet consideration, Tai pulled off the red bandanna he always wore from his own arm, using it as a make-shift wrap for the purpling elbow. The pressure, while needed, made him cringe.

Trying to not focus on it, he winked at his boyfriend. “Ah, right. Want me to save it for the bedroom, daddy?”

“Keep that up and I’m going to punch you in the face.” Tai said with no actual malice. He continued to clean what he could with the limited resources the school bathroom had, dabbing gently to try and spare him further pain. “How’s your stomach?”

“Sore, but I’ll live. It was just a couple of cheap shots.” He answered.

But of course, Tai - ever the wise, old man that he wasn’t because he was seventeen for god’s sake – took it as opportunity to continue lecturing him, “And you’re lucky that’s all it was. What if we didn’t show up when we had? You could have really gotten hurt.”

“I woulda figured something out.” He said, but the defense was weak and they both knew it. His friends had walked in on a bad scene; him with arms locked behind his back by Dove, while Cardin and Russel wailed on him. There had been a couple shouts of alarm from across the quad and the trio let up and scattered, but not before a fist crashed right into Qrow’s nose, sending him spiraling onto the concrete. He definitely passed out for a bit, because next thing he was aware of was his sister calling his name while Tai and Summer hovered nearby, identical looks of worry on their faces.

“I just don’t get it.” Tai settled against the wall next to him. “I know you’re smarter than this. What the hell did they say about Raven that made you just flip your shit?”

He tilted his head down again, glad to find the bleeding had stopped. “Wasn’t about Raven.”

“Summer?” Qrow didn’t respond this time, just looked at the other quietly. Tai’s eyebrows rose with the dawning realization. “Me?”

The fingers of his good hand clenched around his knee, bunching up the fabric there. “It was something pretty nasty.” He defended himself and, before the other could ask quickly added, “And I ain’t telling you what man. I got too much respect for you to repeat that shit.”

But Qrow was going to remember.

He was going to remember that putrid filth for the rest of his life.

“Oh hey, it’s the stray bird.” Cardin had called as he and his friends passed on by. When his taunt failed to gain attention, he turned right around, leaning up against the pillar right next to him. “So, word on campus is your butt-fucking the white chink. Better watch out. Bet he’s as much of a slut as his mom is.”

Qrow didn’t regret chopping the fucker right in the throat. He did – slightly – regret trying to follow up his attack rather than flying the fuck out of there when his friends jumped him.

A hand covering his own broke him from the memory. A thumb gently caressed across his knuckles, Tai’s voice equally gentle, “They’re just words.”

He frowned back at him. He was a little jealous about how easily Tai could let things like that slide off his shoulders like it didn’t matter. It wasn’t like it was the first time someone had used those kinds of slurs. More than one classmate questioned – some more rudely than others – on the oddity of a Caucasian-looking kid having a Chinese name, so he didn’t have any doubt that his friend could guess at what had been said. But, unless someone was physically threatening him or tipping the sexual harassment scale with the girls, Tai never rose to the bait.

Qrow, on the other hand, tended to get his feelings hurt when someone reminded him he was a street urchin. Maybe he was just too damn sensitive.

“Doesn’t make it okay.” He grumbled, sliding down the wall some.

“No, but you getting hurt isn’t okay ether. And while I appreciate you fighting for my honor and all that, I also happen to like my boyfriend’s pretty face.” Tai turned towards him, shoulder against the wall. He reached out, wrapping an arm across Qrow’s chest, minding his injuries as he pulled him close. “Just… promise me you’ll be a little more tactful, okay? It scared me, seeing you just go down like that.”

He sighed, melting into the embrace. “I’ll try. But I’m not like you.”

“No, you’re not.” Tai conceded, dropping a kiss on the crown of his head. “You’re better. You’re you. You always do the right thing, even when the odds are against you.”

“But you also just said I’m a tactless idiot, so are you complimenting me or insulting me?”

“Ha, ha. Very funny. You really quack me up, Qrow.”

“Ugggh.” He moaned pitifully. “And I thought my bruises were painful.” Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t help but smile at the gentle rumble against his ear when Tai laughed jovially. It was a surprisingly comfortable sound, easing him with its familiarity and warmth.

They stayed like that a few minutes, just enjoying each other’s closeness, until the door creaked open, the clack of heels on tile and Summer’s nervous “But this is the boy’s bathroom!” pulling them apart. Raven appeared around the wall. She was dragging their other friend in by her wrist, the poor, shy girl desperately trying to hide her eyes by tugging her white hoodie down over them.

Upon seeing what they had walked into, his sister placed a hand on her hip, exasperation bleeding into her tone, “Well if you two are done cuddling like girls, I’d like to go home before they lock up the school for the night.”

“You’re such a moment killer Rae.” Qrow complained but didn’t argue when Tai got up, nor resist the helping hand that pulled him to his feet. He slipped the hand of his injured arm into the folds of his dress shirt, resting his fingers on a lower button as a temporary brace.

“Cry me a river.” She replied dismissively, heading back out of the bathroom.

The door shut on Summer’s affronted cries of, “Why did you make me come in here for that, you absolute bird-brained butt!?” It was faint, but they could definitely hear Raven’s laughter and knew without a doubt she totally did it just to mortify her best friend. “She’s impossible.” The short girl grumbled before turning to them, some of her embarrassment waning into concern. “How are you feeling Qrow?”

“Have had better days, but at least I got a sexy nurse out of it.” He quipped.

Beside him, Tai gave a snort of amusement, catching Qrow’s free hand in his own. “As you can see, he’s perfectly fine.”

Relieved, Summer smiled brightly. “Good, I’m so glad.” She pointed at the younger twin like a stern mother might. “But don’t forget you’re also an absolute bird-brained butt!” She whirled on her heels, marching out. “Now let’s go home!”

“I think I’m in trouble.” Qrow whispered furtively.

“Yeah, you are. Stop starting fights in the courtyard.” Tai replied, pressing a kiss to the back of his hand before leading him out the door.

#qrow branwen #taiyang xiao long #Taiqrow #taiqrowweek #rwby #fanfiction #Chase Firekitten's Tale

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thewaitisogre · 6 years ago

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WEEK 9 RECAP: Finale November 19, 2018

The faces say it all. Shout out to Dancing With The Stars for keeping liquor stores afloat because after the winner was announced I drank until I forgot who Grocery Joe Store (Typo and it stays. I told you I drank!) was. I don’t know how to write about tonight. Do I write from a snarky angle and drag the winner? Or from an ironic angle and act like I saw this coming all along? Or from an unbiased angle like I’m Louis Theroux? This is what I’ll do. I’ll list everything that went down as I please and when the snark comes I’ll let it out freely like flatulence. So the remaining four couples performed two dances; their favorite dance of the season and a freestyle. In between we got a barrage of live-ish performances and dance reprises, like Joe’s trio. Oh how I wish those showers at the end were Chinese water torture. Tonight’s scores were combined with the live online votes, determining the winner at the end of the night.

Stars Favorite Dances

Alexis | Argentine tango | 9 9 9

Redid the Swan Lake dance from New York City night. They say it’s their favorite dance but it’s more like they want redemption for that tutu that didn’t come off before. So according to Alexis her journey is about finding her confidence thanks to Alan. “I’ve found love and I’ve never felt better.” Ladies, work really hard and at the end your man will still take the credit.

Bobby | cha cha | 8 8 8

Redid the MC Hammer trio. “We’ve grown on the judges like a fungus,” said Bobby. That’s the only true thing he’s said. It was better because mostly because the trio was turned into a duo so Bobby didn’t have to juggle a second partner. Is this cheating? No? Okay. Of course Bobby threw his shoe at the judges so they could sign it like some middle school yearbook signing party.

Evanna | tango | 10 10 10

Redid the stray cat tango. She redid it because it was the first time she felt truly confident. She said she wanted to relive the feeling. That’s beautiful! She didn’t have the cat ears this time so she was Trinity from The Matrix emerging from trashcans.

Milo | charleston | 10 10 10

Redid the subway charleston. This is one of my favorite charlestons ever. “This is the most meaningful thing that has ever happened in my life,” says Milo. Well, no shit. What happened before this? You ate apple sauce with your hands in kindergarten?

Freestyle

Alexis | 10 10 10

Got those last minute tears out by talking about making her mom proud. I was wondering what was going on with the dead mom plot line. Accompanied by guest Avril Lavigne, Alexis and Alan danced a powerful contemporary about Alexis finding strength after the death of her mother. This song would be perfect for a Yankee Candle commercial.

Bobby | 10 10 10

This is some of Sharna’s best choreography right up until Bobby introduces the dance by saying he’s just as clueless as he was in the beginning. And it’s so true. He learned nothing. This whole time Bobby had no emotional breakthrough (if he did it wasn’t shown) and didn’t improve in his dancing. He should’ve stood in place to whole time to signify his stagnancy in the competition. Bobby and Sharna invited some eliminees to the stage to tie in with the freaks concept of their “The Greatest Showman” dance, I think. Then they sealed the entire dance with “flossing” dancing to tie into Bobby’s flossing moment from New York City night. The judges condescendingly complemented this dance.

Milo | 10 10 10

A moody contemporary/hip-hop in the rain. I give them props for not falling in the puddle dancing part and for not dropping the umbrellas. I feel like out of all the couples they’ve made the strongest bond and it’s because of their bond that Witney gave Milo so much of herself. I feel like this is Witney’s strongest freestyle and she did the hardest lifts this season. Milo lifted Witney up, literally and figuratively, and that’s what it’s all about.

Evanna | 10 10 10

Evanna explained she wants to dance to “It’s Oh So Quiet” by Bjork because it is her favorite song. We love a contestant with actual taste. She got her last tears out because she won’t dance with Keo again. Funny because I cried too when I had to watch Joe dance again. The dance is alright. A little too La La Land/phone commercial for me. The funny thing is “It’s Oh So Quiet” was what La La Land was trying to do so it’s fitting?

Tom Bergeron Quip of the Night

“You are on very true words the people’s champion.” The shade was strong with that one, Tom.

Len Goodman Zinger of the Night

About Bobby’s “Can’t Touch This” cha cha: “You put the ham in Hammer”

Observations

I liked how they used the same song in the premiere as in the finale. Quentin Tarantino is shook

My boyfriend dancer Robert Roldan is back! I wish he was a permanent troupe member

Performances by Dan + Shay and Lauren Daigle. I chose the Lauren Daigle performance to feed my dog and I made a good call

The montage of everyone that was eliminated broke my heart

The Joe voodoo doll that I made didn’t work because he came back to haunt us with a repeat of his “I’m Too Sexy” trio

The 10 score paddle is my favorite because it lights up

Shout out for Evanna from Emma Watson

Cameo from Robin Thicke, who just lost his home in the California fires. Maybe they will let him crash in the studio

My favorite part of the finale is all the times the camera people give up. I think the DP went out for dinner during the pro number

Tinahse sang a cover of “Fever” in a key suited for a basso profundo. Get the Advil because I’m getting a fever from this cover

I think I heard Alan say Alexis flew Alan’s parents to LA to watch the finale. Fake romance or not it’s sweet that she did that

Erin: “Emma you gotta go change you got a big number!” Am I supposed to believe that these group numbers are live? That would be a logistics nightmare.

And The Winner Is...

According to ABC Publicity, in 4th place are Alexis Ren and Alan, in 3rd place are Evanna Lynch and Keo, and in 2nd place are... Milo Manheim and Witney. Bobby Bones is the winner of season 27 of Dancing With The Stars. I feel like I’m wearing a wet diaper, but on my emotions. It’s taken me a while to figure out why I’m so uneasy with Bobby winning and here is why. A lot of people have been saying “it’s a dance show and Bobby can’t dance therefore he isn’t deserving of winning.” I can see that, but you don’t even have to go that far. Let’s look at Dancing With The Stars like any reality TV competition. You are judged/scored/voted/whatever on what you do during the time you’re in that competition. Not before, not after. Bobby was voted based on his work before the competition. That’s morally wrong. If these voters actually watched Bobby dancing the natural reaction would be to change the channel. Congratulations, Bobby fans. You made Dancing With The Stars exactly what its critics dismiss it as; fading celebs with no dance experience being praised for merely attempting to salsa. So many people can be blamed for this. Anyway, we can spend all day whining and pointing fingers, but we are taking attention away from what’s really important and that is Len Goodman’s one liners. So here I leave you with Len Goodman’s best moments of season 27 in a section I call “One Leners”

“You didn’t do much, Joe, but you didn’t do much very much well.”

“If you go home I’m gonna go home and pickle me walnuts.”

“You put the boy in flamboyant.”

“You went from Hollywood to Dollywood.”

“You looked like a waiter giving h’orderves.”

“If you don’t come back I’m gonna show me bum in the supermarket.”

“I’ve got underpants that are 17 years old. I’m probably wearing them now.”

“You put the ham in Hammer”

“Your bottom is the tops.”

“You’ve got guns, but not always the ammunition.”

“You might have a lot of hardware, but you make it look like easyware.”

Click here for more Dancing With The Stars recaps.

#dancing with the stars #recap

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