#juvenile/glory

[an-inspired-eternity]

Shuffle AU Summary

These are the groups of my PRSK Unit Shuffle AU! They each loosely correspond to the genre of the groups in official PRSK, but naturally with more of their own styles and spins.

Different group set-ups means different dynamics, and while some canon dynamics remain (or are even strengthened), not every one will take the same form, if they remain at all.

Under the cut, I will send their logos and give some additional info as needed! Note that I have.. more developed for some of these guys than others.

First, Juvenile/Glory! J/G is a kind of a rock band (I am not in this kind of music scene, bear with me a little bit sghfdfh), initially formed by Airi and Ichika, Airi ends up dragging Ena and later Akito into playing/performing with them.

Airi meets Ichika at Miyajou, and ends up befriending the somewhat shy girl. She learns of how Ichika once had a dream of being in a band with her childhood friends, but explains they all drifted apart so she never got the chance. 

Upon hearing this, Airi proposes the two form a band together, it might not be with her childhood friends, but this is better than nothing right? To get more numbers, Airi ends up inviting her long-time friend Ena, who bitches and moans but ultimately agrees to at least try (even if she laments having to change her classes and sleep schedule.) 

It’s during their first practice sessions that something changes- the group suddenly find themselves the ability to access a new world- their SEKAI, a underground metro type areas with shop stalls- and gorgeous wall art that stuns Ena, it inspires her to keep up with the occasional art piece. 

The three are doing well, but they find something’s.. missing, in their band, particularly vocally- not that any of them were bad singers, it just felt like there was a kind of sound missing from them that none of them could fulfill. That’s when Airi had the suggestion for Ena to invite her brother to sing with them.

Ena, once again, bitches and moans at the idea of having to work with her brother, but Airi is stubborn and insistent, so she eventually gives in and asks Akito. Akito also bitches and moans, but once again, Airi is relentless, so he offers to try. That’s when things begin to click together for the group. Akito had experience with music but had ultimately not gotten as far as he did here than he did with canon due to being less invested in Rad Weekend and also having never met Toya. The two siblings bicker a lot at first, but end up finding they enjoy having something to do together that their dad can’t ruin.

(Akito was technically to their SEKAI first but ala those dream visits in the main story prologues, and only properly got introduced to it later from Ena and/or Airi bringing him.)

J/G’s main vocaloids, Miku not withstanding, are Rin and Meiko! Intentionally pulling from VBS here, I don’t have much in mind for the J/G vocaloids at this time, although I do think Akito’s relationship with the Kagamines here is similar to that of canon Akito with the VBS Kagamines, something Ena is very entertained by.

Second up we have SWEET SYNDROME! SS is a idol group, half composed of newcomers and half composed of veterans- starting as a pair with Emu and Honami, they ended up taking Mafuyu and Shizuku in, forming a proper group.

Emu and Mafuyu met as young children, when Mafuyu got lost on a trip with her mom to PXL. Emu found the lost Mafuyu on her own, and with the help of her older family members, she helped Mafuyu to reunite with her mother.

Mafuyu’s mom was angry at first, for Mafuyu wandering off- but realized the one who had found her was the daughter of the rich and highly influential family that ran the park. Thinking that this would be good both for her own image, as well as the family being a possible good influence for her daughter, she allowed the two to remain friends.

Mafuyu ended up being entered into many child pageants at a young age, a early exposure to stardom. Once she got older, her mother began working to get Mafuyu into a idol agency, where Mafuyu could gain fame as a beautiful and elegant young lady, just how her mother raised her. Mafuyu lost sight of what who her true self and tastes were, molded by her mom to be the perfect girl her agency would want.

Emu and Mafuyu had grown a little apart during all of this, but Emu still treasured her friendship with Mafuyu, and as Mafuyu became an idol- she admired her. Less familiar with the darkness happening backstage, Emu had begun training and auditioning to become an idol in hopes of maybe getting to make people smile just like her dear friend- maybe even getting to do so together, too!

It wasn’t easy, she found she wasn’t what a lot of people were searching for. But she kept trying! And trying! And eventually while she was practicing during a break period at school, she was approached by her classmate Honami, who asked about what she was doing, and upon being told, if she could join too. Thus the two girls had become a pair.

Honami’s help had been deeply needed, as with the two now working together, they decided to start their own group- albeit a small one not capable of much. But word got to Mafuyu, and Emu explained what she had wanted- to sing and dance for people to make them smile just like her! And something stirred in Mafuyu, feelings the girl thought herself incapable of still having.

That was the key to their SEKAI- a museum that framed idols in a bit of a dark view, like they were only something to stare at and admire with no free choice of their own. Emu didn’t like it, she didn’t agree with that idea of what being an idol meant. Idols are supposed to make people happy, and that includes other idols! 

It’s this thought process that helps them additionally reach Mafuyu’s school friend and felllow idol Shizuku. Shizuku had been close to giving up on being a idol herself due to the pressure and how unliked she felt for being “too perfect”, but the positivity of Emu and Honami had encouraged her to not give up, and thus Shizuku becomes the third member of SWEET SYNDROME.

Mafuyu’s mother was their biggest opponent, holding a growing distaste for the way the youngest Otori child had never seemed to grow out of her childish demeanor, but where she “failed”, her older siblings grew into mature responsible adults, people who could be good influence to her daughter and maybe send their youngest sister onto their respectable path instead.

But the group made their attempt, an effort to please Mafuyu’s mom in order to allow Mafuyu to work with them. She was very hesitant to allow Mafuyu to join, given her less than great feelings towards Emu- but her view of Shizuku and Honami, two more “mature and responsible” figures in the group, softened her resolve, and ultimately lead to her agreeing to the group’s formation.

SS’ main and only starting virtual singer is Miku. A quiet and somewhat odd version of the Virtual Singer, who clung to Mafuyu’s side a lot, but otherwise mostly kept to herself at first- occasionally leaving the main area of the museum to sit alone on the stage and sing to herself.

Third on the roster we have Spring CIRCUIT! A live show/street music group.. and also admittedly the one I’ve developed the least. The group was formed, a bit shakily, by Nene and Kohane, having witnessed one of Shiho and Haruka’s performances. It’s also something of a second chance, for Nene and Haruka. 

Haruka, after quitting ASRUN, found she had missed singing, and ended up looking into alternative activities she could enjoy- and found the similar-but-different-enough world of live shows. Through this as well, she met a classmate from Miyajou, Shiho, who had been doing solo shows on her own. They realized they had similar interests (plushies lmao) and something of a friendship and partnership formed.

Kohane, like in canon, was a bit of a drifter, not quite having any activity she could commit herself to, and Nene had been fearful to return to being on stage in any capacity since the incident from when she was in younger- going as far to deny her childhood best friend’s offer to join the more private group he’d formed.

But fate ended up bringing these two together, having been out on errands when they came across a venue mid live-show, with Shiho and Haruka performing on stage. It sparked something in them both- Kohane a urge to try singing and live shows, and Nene a urge to sing again- even if not in a play. 

Shiho was quick to bounce and go on her way- not one for small talk, but Nene and Kohane had the chance to talk with Haruka, in which the pair both came to her about their newfound inspiration- and also subsequently realized they both had been inspired. 

Haruka had given them a light warning about Shiho’s distant cold and demeanor, explaining she’s nicer than she appears, but that she has to warm up to you first. Past that however, Haruka was willing to work with and train them- and it was at this moment their SEKAI appeared- a large expansive arcade within it was a chill Miku and a strong aura’d but otherwise very polite Luka- who had a taste for photography that she and Kohane were quick to bond over.

It takes a bit, for Shiho to warm up to these new members Haruka picked up. Nene finds herself struggling to gain the courage to sing with all her heart again- but seeing how hard Kohane, a complete newcomer to all this, is trying, it inspires her. She’s done this before, she can do it again. That’s how the two manage to impress Shiho, and the group finaly becomes a full quartet.

Fourth on the list and second to last is Echo-Show! A theater troupe situated at the Wonder Stage of PXL! Run by Tsukasa, this group was formed along the way by Tsukasa’s basically sibling figures he collected along the way.

It starts with a hospital- specifically, a hospital housing Saki Tenma and a Mr. Yoisaki. Tsukasa, ever the dutiful older brother, visited his sister whenever he could afford to- but during one such trip, he met a odd girl. Her silver hair seemed to reach to her knees, the girl clearly hadn’t been doing well- physically or mentally.

Tsukasa quickly got to what he did best- making people happy. He doesn’t quite get a laugh, but the girl smiles, and he considers that a win. Tsukasa introduced himself, and the girl introduced herself back in turn- saying that her name was Kanade and that her only living parent was in a coma- something Tsukasa offered his condolences for. 

The two became friends, and Tsukasa found himself visiting and checking on Kanade every so often. (In addition to Honami being Kanade’s housekeeper). Later on, Tsukasa had finally gotten his chance to form a troupe, having auditioned and been hired to perform at a small stage in PXL called the Wonder Stage, courtesy of the youngest Otori daughter. 

Tsukasa found himself a bit.. shit out of luck in regards to actors. His sister had been scooped up already- but he turned to his brother figure, Toya- Toya had recently defied his father, quitting classical music and looking for his own thing he wanted to do. Tsukasa reached out to Toya, asking if he wanted to join his troupe. 

Toya was a bit nervous, not having ever really been part of the shows Tsukasa put on for him and Saki as kids, but he wanted to give it a try. Plus he thought it would be something his dad would hate, which was a spiteful little bonus for him. This was one more addition to Tsukasa’s crew, but he didn’t think just the two of them was enough to work with, so he reached out to Kanade- who had become something of a sister to him.

Kanade vehemently did not want to perform on stage at first, but Tsukasa was understanding enough to say they’d start small in anything physical so that Kanade could work her body strength up. She could also help with any technological stuff behind the scenes as well- which is something she’d enjoy doing a lot more.

Their first test show wasn’t a huge hit (but not QUITE to the disastrous level of WXS’ first show LMAO), however it did attract the attention of one Minori Hanasato, who ends up being really into the show and their ideas behind it. Tsukasa, ever the resourceful one, basically scoops Minori up into the troupe.

There were.. incidents, involving the start of their fully formed troupe- Toya taking extra blame on himself and thinking he was bringing the group down, backing away for a while. (IE: the whole thing in the VBS main story where Toya questions his own resolve and Akito has to chase him down and prove otherwise.)

Last, but certainly not least (I would know, they’re the favorite child of this AU.) is House of Outcasts! A group youtube channel dedicated to doing skits and plays online. (Inspirationally I was thinking of both Starkid, as well as the Man On The Internet channel- or rather a less specifically gaming centered version of them). 

The group starts with Rui and Mizuki, two lonely souls who connected in middle school over their shared isolation and disconnect from their peers. Deemed too "weird" to fit in amongst them. This friendship carries into Mizuki’s first year and Rui’s second year of high school- Rui having recently transferred to Kamikou to get away from a suffocating prestigious school he’d been at for his first year.

Rui had his solo live shows he’d try every so often, but the story begins when Rui comes to visit Mizuki and show them the most recent idea he had- Mizuki finds themselves very impressed, and explains that with their abilities in editing software, they could probably post Rui’s show online and get decent publicity with it.

So Rui and Mizuki end up forming their group- and after a bit of time Rui offers to Mizuki that they could perform with him, if they were comfortable doing so. Mizuki is hesitant at first, afraid that people online would be judgemental, but gives it a try and finds that not only is it more fun than they thought- but most people watching didn’t seem to care.

That’s when their SEKAI appeared. A rooftop building underneath a fantastical sky of stars and the moon- a light energy not unlike a child’s imagination to offset the aching familiarity a rooftop brought the pair. It was there they found a sisterly Miku, and a excitable Len- who reminded Rui, painfully so, of his younger child self. It was a safe place- somewhere the two would be accepted and not judged. 

Things went on mostly as normal, in spite of the strange world they’d uncovered, and Mizuki ultimately invited their friend and classmate An into the group- An was more of a street musician than a street actor, but with a low activity in her search for the perfect partner, she ends up slotting into the group. Rui and An aren’t on the best of terms at first- not to say they didn’t like each other, it was just hard for the two to work on each other’s wavelengths. But they had managed.

It was later on then that they found Saki. The group had been out on a shopping trip when Saki spotted and recognized them, excitedly explaining that she was a huge fan and that their shows reminded her a lot of the ones her brother used to do for her- but a lot more in a style she really enjoyed. Hearing this, Rui ended up offering her to come aboard and perform with them, and Saki happily took it.

[jg-airi-official]

Hey hey! My band mates made accounts, so I thought I should, too.

Name's Airi Momoi, drummer of Juvenile/Glory.

// rp blog not affiliated with SEGA blah blah blah you get the drill

// Airi from the Juvenile/Glory swap au created by @an-inspired-eternity

// please don't be too weird, Airi is a minor

// headcanons for Airi are transfem she/peach pronouns with adhd

// mod is @zebrashork and mod pronouns are she/it/shark

// tags are #airi talks, airi reblogs, mod reblogs, mod talks, juvenile/glory

// ok BYE

[angelofdarknessmp3]

any korean drama recommendations to watch with my mother pleasee doesn't matter what it's about

[hedgehogoftime]

Rereading the Lord of the Rings series recently, and it's so fascinating to me how much the series is a denial of the typical juvenile power-fantasy that is associated with the fantasy genre.

Like, the power-fantasy is the temptation the Ring uses against people It tempts Boromir with becoming the "one true king" that could save his people with fantastic power. It tempts Sam with being the savior of Middle Earth and turning the ruin that is Mordor into a great garden. It tempts Gandalf and Galadriel with being the messianic figure of legend who brings salvation to Middle Earth and great glory to herself.

The things the Ring tempts people with are becoming the typical protagonists of fantasy stories that we expect to see. and over and over we see that accepting that role, that fantasy of being the benevolent all-powerful hero, is a bad thing. LotR is about how power, even power wielded with benevolent intent, is corrupting.

And its so fascinating how so much of modern fantasy buys into the very fantasy LotR denies. Most modern fantasy is about being that Heroic power-fantasy. About good amassing power to rival evil. But LotR dares not to. It dares to be honest that there is no world where anyone amasses that power and remains good.

I guess that's one of the reasons its so compelling.

[reasonsforhope]

Article

"2023 was a banner year for the Galapagos Islands: that wondrous archipelago so famous for its giant tortoises and other endemic species.

The long-serving conservation organization the Galapagos Conservancy, also endemic to the islands, recently published its annual report featuring standout figures like over 500 giant tortoises of 5 different species reintroduced to their natural habitat.

Additionally, a critically endangered species of albatross was identified to use giant tortoise feeding sites as take-off and landing areas. This key insight into co-dependency has given the Conservancy confidence that they can restore the populations of both animals to stable, flourishing numbers.

It underscores how far a donation to these endemic wildlife organizations really does go, and these two highlights of a successful year were only possible by the over $6 million in charitable contributions from supporters.

30 Chelonoidis chatamensis tortoises endemic to the smaller island of San Cristobal were repatriated to their natural habitat from the stock of a captive breeding program, while 97 native tortoises were returned to the second-largest island of Santa Cruz.

On the largest island of Isabella, 350 tortoises (214 C. guntheri and 136 C. vicina) were successfully reintroduced to their natural habitat after a survey found their numbers were not rising substantially on their own.

In March, the repatriation of 86 juvenile Chelonoidis hoodensis tortoises significantly contributed to enhancing the species’ distribution across their native habitat. They currently number 3,000 today on Española or Hood Island, a miraculous recovery from the 14 found there in the 1960s.

Also on Española, the endemic waved albatross was found to be taking off and landing on 50 additional parts of the island. These large birds, boasting an 8-foot wingspan, need ample space to get a running start before taking off, and this same principle applies when applying the brakes coming down from the sky.

In the survey, the biologists observed that concentrations of giant tortoises were linked with the usage of areas as runways for the albatross. Because the tortoises are the largest herbivores in the ecosystem, they perform the same acts as bison do in North America and Europe, and elephants in Africa—clear space.

With their herbivorous diet and large bulk, the tortoise’s feeding habits produce cleared areas ideal for albatross use.

“This discovery underscores the interconnectedness of the Galápagos ecosystem,” the authors of the report write. “This newly acquired knowledge allows us to strengthen the synergies between our conservation strategies.”

Of the $6.1 million received from donations and through other activities, the Conservancy was able to spend 77% of that on conservation programs, and that included some ambitious plans for this year—now already half done—which included drafting plans for restoration of the Pinta tortoise to the island of the same name, preparing tortoises for imminent reintroduction to the smaller Floreana island, and completely restoring the habitat for the Galapagos petrels on Santa Cruz.

Operating since 1985, the Galapagos Conservancy has a long track record of restoring these islands to their pre-Colombian glory. Let’s hope 2024 is as successful."

-via Good News Network, July 19, 2024

[bradshawssugarbaby]

Uptown Girl - Bradley Bradshaw x Reader

summary: Bradley is in love with the admiral's daughter. He needs to win her heart the best way he knows how - serenading her with the help of his friends.

pairing: Bradley Bradshaw x reader

warnings: swearing, Jake teasing Bradley about being old.

word count: 2k

“Man, I can’t just go talk to her.” 

Bradley put his head in his hands as he sat at the back of the Hard Deck with his friends. Running his long fingers through his short, golden-brown curls, he sighed before looking up, his hazel eyes full of anxiety and frustration. He’d been pining after a girl who’d become a regular at the local bar for a while - the first day he’d seen her, he was smitten. 

She’d come in with her long hair pulled back into a sleek, high ponytail, a warm, friendly smile on her features as she spoke with a few others in the bar. Bradley had wondered who she was, and where she’d come from, a question none of his squadron seemed to know the answer to. That was, until their team lead, and Bradley’s surrogate father of sorts, piped up with an explanation, having heard Bradley audibly swooning over how great she was to everyone in earshot. 

“That’s Admiral Simpson’s daughter. I wouldn’t try your luck there, if I were you, Bradley,” Maverick had warned, smirking as he took a sip from his beer glass as he looked over between Bradley and his mystery girl.

Bradley had gone quiet upon learning this information, unable to even fire back at his friend Jake’s retorts and quips about how Bradley was punching above his weight on this one, even as a skilled aviator. In a way, Jake was right, no amount of skill or experience in the air, no number of awards for his service, or medals of honor could put him in the same league as the Admiral’s daughter. Her father had recently become the commander of the entire Pacific fleet, and Bradley was just a lieutenant, serving as an aviator for the past 19 years, his entire naval career. 

At nearly 40, Bradley was beginning to consider retirement, weighing his options between becoming a flight instructor for Top Gun, the very flight academy program that he’d graduated from himself, or, ending his naval career to enter civilian life happily. With the exception of Maverick, the rest of his team were considerably younger than he was, the next oldest being Jake, at barely 35. Admiral Simpson’s daughter was easily a decade younger than him, if not more, and probably accustomed to much more in life than anything Bradley could offer her. Naval rank aside, she was likely much more used to living the life of luxury, where as Bradley had never really experienced it, outside of the odd frivolous purchase here or there, like his 1972 Ford Bronco, custom painted bright blue to restore it to its former glory when he purchased it. 

Despite all these reasons why Bradley should just forget this juvenile feeling crush he’d developed on her, he couldn’t shake it. Every time he caught a glimpse of her stunning smile, or heard her infectious laugh, the sweetest sound his ears had ever come across, he couldn’t help but fall right back into it again, like a trap that was set perfectly for him. Bradley was head over heels, but worst of all,

“You’re fucked, man. You can’t win here.”

Bradley sighed again as he shook his head, bringing himself back to the present moment. He looked up at Jake, who, upon seeing the confused look on Bradley’s face, laughed and repeated himself.

“I said, you’re fucked, man. There’s no winning here, you either go in there, you say hi to this girl and you ask her out, her dad finds out and you get your ass shipped out to another base faster than you can salute, or you ask her out and she turns your old ass down, either way, you’re going to end up unhappy and not with her,” Jake shrugged as he sipped his beer, leaning on his pool cue.

Bob, the more shy, reserved of Bradley’s team, shook his head. He pushed his glasses up on the end of his nose, adjusting them as he set his plastic cup down on the bar counter, shrugging his shoulders as he interjected, a rare occurrence for Bob, most of the time.

“I mean…Bradley could probably win her over,” He said quietly, nodding his head, “It wouldn’t be hard, I mean, he has an impressive career record, he’s a nice guy, he’s not bad to look at,” Bob shrugged, “I think he could pull it off. It’s her dad I’d be worried about. But, maybe he wouldn’t care so much? It’s not like Bradley’s gonna – what’s that term again? Hump and go? Surf and turf?”

“You mean hump and dump?” Jake snickered, shaking his head, “I think Brad here’s a bit old to pull off the hump and dump nowadays anyways. Maybe 20 years ago.”

“Easy, I only just turned 39 in June, thanks.”

“39 is practically old enough to be a grandfather, Bradley,”

“Oh come on, it is not,” Bradley frowned as he looked at his friends. Bob fiddled with his glasses nervously, avoiding eye contact, Jake smirked as he held back a laugh, and Reuben and Mickey pretended they didn’t hear the conversation, focusing instead on their game of darts taking place a couple of feet away, “Is it?”

“How many years older than you is Mav, man?” 

“I dunno,” Bradley shrugged his shoulders, “22, maybe? 23?”

“Right, so when he was 39, you were…?”

“Uh,” Bradley looks up at the ceiling as he counts in his head, trying to work out the math, “16?”

“Right…you see where I’m going with this?”

“Fuck, you’re right, I could be someone’s grandfather. Jesus Christ,” Bradley frowned, shaking his head as he sipped his beer again. 

“Relax, you’d have to had a kid at like, 23 or earlier, who also had a kid young for it to work, but it’s not impossible, is all,” Jake nodded matter of factly as he sipped his drink. Jake grinned as he spotted the girl in question walking by their seats, his elbow sharply poking Bradley in the ribcage as he nodded his head slightly in her direction. 

“Now’s your chance, loverboy. Take it now if you’re gonna shoot your shot,” Jake whispered with a smirk on his lips. 

Bradley nodded his head once and took a deep breath as he set his beer bottle down on the table. With a nervous smile, he put his aviators down over his eyes to hide their anxious gaze before heading over to the piano. If there was one thing Bradley could do to win her over, it’d be serenading the bar with a fun, classic upbeat tune. Normally, he’d go for his favourite, Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lewis, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Bradley put a hand on Jake’s shoulder, his grip firm as he leaned in to whisper to him.

“How confidently can you sing Uptown Girl?”

“You mean like, “uptown girl, she’s been living in her uptown world, I bet she’s never had a backstreet guy…?” Jake laughed as he cocked his eyebrow, singing the chorus of the song in his slightly off key baritone, “Oh, you’re not seriously doing this, are you?” He drawled, shaking his head before shooting Bob, Reuben and Mickey a look of disbelief. 

“I love that song!” Bob said enthusiastically as he stood to his feet, “We’ve got your back, buddy, let’s go win her heart!” 

Jake rolled his eyes and laughed before following Bradley and his friends to the piano. Bradley took his seat on the piano bench, lowering his sunglasses to make eye contact with his dream girl’s gaze, a confident smirk on his face as he winked at her before putting his glasses back on. He wasn’t sure if it was the beer coursing through his veins or the sheer smitten head over heels side of him taking over, but his new found confidence had Bradley playing the opening bars of the 80s hit on the piano, his friends offering nothing but encouragement for his somewhat ridiculous idea. It wasn’t the smoothest way to get a girl’s attention, but, it was different, and would almost certainly stand out in her mind, he reasoned with himself. 

“Uptown girl, she’s been living in her uptown world. I bet she’s never had a backstreet guy, I bet her momma’s never told her why,”  

Bradley sang out, his deep, gravelly voice ringing out as he carried each note perfectly in tune as he played the song’s melody on the piano. 

“And now she’s looking for a downtown man, that’s what I am,”  

Bradley’s eyes met with hers as he sang, unable to stop himself from smiling wider than he probably should have as he belted the song out, making it clear that out of the crowd of people around them singing along, his full intent was just to get her attention on him. 

“And when she knows what she wants from her time, and when she wakes up and makes up her mind,” 

Bob, Jake, Reuben and Mickey harmonized alongside Bradley, making for a perfectly imperfect set of backing vocals. While none of the four of Bradley’s backup singers were particularly great singers, their harmonies were enough support for Bradley to carry his way through the song without looking like he’d just lost his mind and started breaking out into song. 

“She’ll see I’m not so tough, just because, I’m in love with an uptown girl, you know I’ve seen her in her uptown world. She’s getting tired of her high class toys, and all her presents from her uptown boys, she’s got a choice,” 

As Bradley continued to sing it out, with his friends as moral and vocal support, he noticed that his mystery girl was making her way closer to the piano, seemingly leaving behind whoever she had arrived with as she inched her way towards the man who was apparently serenading her in the middle of a crowded bar near a naval base. She flashed him a smile, her cheeks a soft blush as she raised an eyebrow at him. Bradley couldn’t tell if the blush in her features was from embarrassment or flattery, but he hoped it was the latter of the two. 

“And when she’s walking, she’s looking so fine, and when she’s talking, she’ll say that she’s mine,” 

Bob and Jake began dramatically singing with one another, using Jake’s empty beer bottle as a makeshift microphone, while Mickey excitedly drummed along with his hands on the wooden top of the piano. Reuben began dancing slightly as he sang along to the words, all four men now completely immersing themselves in their performance with Bradley, and all four likely contemplating how they’d get Bradley to repay them for their public humiliation in the name of getting him a potential date. 

Bradley grinned as she approached the piano, her hands resting on the wooden top as he played the last few notes of the song, his eyes completely fixated on hers. To him, at that moment, she was the only person in the room. The only face he cared about in the crowded bar was hers, and now, it was right here, standing in front of him. 

“You’ve got quite the talent,” She curled her sheer, gloss-coated lips up into a grin as she leaned on the top of the piano, looking directly at Bradley.

“I’m a man of many talents, this was just a couple of them on display,” He nodded his head once, trying to keep his composure as she leaned towards him, willing his eyes to not wander down her body, “I’m Bradley. Lieutenant Bradley Bradshaw, US Naval Air Force,” He said his title with a sense of pride that he hoped didn’t come off as bragging. 

“Nice to meet you, Lieutenant,” She grinned, pointing to his empty beer bottle that sat atop the piano beside her, “Care to grab another one of those with me?” 

“Absolutely,” Bradley said as he hopped off the piano bench at an almost breakneck pace, leaving Jake, Bob, Reuben and Mickey fighting off fits of laughter at Bradley’s eagerness. 

[yuesya]

AR-26710 gasps, jerking up harshly.

Her hands fly to her chest, only to be met with a stretch of smooth skin. When that can’t be right, because the last thing she remembers is a sharp, chitinous leg tearing through her armor and goring into her midsection. Goring through her midsection, actually, and–

Glamoth Military Regulations, Article 22: Knights must give all they have to Her Majesty, the queen, including their lives.

–she’d been prepared for it. All knights of the Iron Cavalry are prepared to die, fighting in this war against the scourge descending from the stars upon Glamoth.

She’d been prepared for it.

And yet, a burst of terror had filled her all the same, when her torso had been carved open even despite the protection of her armor. Desperation, as she’d struggled to reconvene with her unit through the staggering pain of severe injury, knowing that she could not call for help through her broken communications network. That no one would see her through the burning wreckage, that she would only be one of many who fell in combat in this war against the endless Swarm.

There was glory in such a death. It should be an honor. Their creators have taught them this, again and again. AR-26710 knows this, as well as she does every groove and detail of her own armor.

… But if she’d been prepared to die, then what is this relief that she feels upon waking up again?

“You’re up.” The voice is steady and feminine, not unfeeling and robotic. It takes AR-26710 a moment to place the speaker’s identity: AR-1368. She’s the Personal Escort Model who’d been temporarily assigned command of the squad! Was she the one who–? “Take it easy. The Juvenile Sting nearly tore you apart by the time I got there. You sustained a lot of damage –the scientists almost decided to recycle you instead of properly putting you back together.”

AR-26710’s eyes widen.

AR-1368 sighs. Her lips curve into a tired smile, an attempt at reassurance. “Don’t worry. The only acceptable death for a Knight is out on the battlefield. I wasn’t going to let Her Majesty down.”

“Her… Majesty…?” AR-26710 repeats in confusion.

“How else do you think I found you?” AR-1368 arches an eyebrow. “Your communications were broken, and you were buried under tons of burning wreckage. Her Majesty guided me to recover you.”

“Her Majesty… guided you to find me?” For her? But AR-26710 has never… there are so many knights under the queen’s command. Why would Her Majesty… did she really…?

A memory flickers in her mind. Through the haze of blinding pain and darkness and the certainty of imminent death… there had been an odd sensation, briefly. The cold brush of a phantom hand against her forehead, blessedly cool and soothing, providing a single moment of clarity.

You’ll be alright.

That… had that been Her Majesty?

When AR-26710 snaps back to attention again, AR-1368 is looking at her with a knowing smile.

“Her Majesty,” AR-1368 says, “Will never forget us.”

[nevesmose]

Separation 11347

This was, by Trazyn's infallible reckoning, his eleven thousand three hundred and forty-seventh divorce from Orikan. The Diviner, on the other hand, was adamant that it was in fact only their eleven thousand three hundred and forty-sixth. This dispute was what had caused the current divorce.

At first he had settled contentedly into his usual divorce routine, entering his meticulously-preserved time loop of a "Happy Divorce" party plucked from the Terran city-state of Nova Yoruk in early M3 as the Imperium kept its years.

As had been the case so many times before, the Lord of Solemnace basked over and over again in the reassurance of the assembled middle-aged humans that he was indeed so much better off without that asshole in his life, rounding off the festivities with a cake depicting a miniature confectionery figurine of Trazyn using a guillotine on a similarly-constructed sugar-based effigy of Orikan.

It was all very gratifying, and he was certain that when the amusement faded he would return to find Orikan waiting for him apologetically, his eminently bullyable faceplate resembling a weeping juvenile felid.

It was, however, not to be. He returned to the Galleries to find no trace whatsoever of Orikan. He was so disconcerted that he even briefly considered retrieving his much-prized clone of the primarch Fulgrim from stasis, but decided against it. It had, after all, only been a few subjective decades since he had placed the clone into a detailed diorama of the genuine being's final battle with his erstwhile companion Ferrus Manus for enrichment purposes. He had been thoroughly pleased with himself for coming up with entertainment of such realism and, judging by his mute tears of joy, so too was the clone.

What a wonderful caregiver I am, he had thought, jauntily walking away. Perhaps he and Orikan should adopt, which when used by Trazyn the Infinite is a word which means kidnap, an Astartes or Aeldari together.

Time passed and with no sign of Orikan's return, Trazyn felt it justifiable to seek other outlets for his multifarious urges. After exhausting every category on Cronhub and getting banned from Nemesorindr, he arose to find that the necrodermis of his lower limbs had spontaneously reformed itself into the shape of a baggy, ill-maintained example of the Terran garment known as sweatpants.

This could not stand. He resolved that he would start A Project, an undertaking of such majesty and glory that no one, least of all that cycloptic fool Orikan, could deny him the attention he deserved.

After brief forays into stop-motion animation and painting miniature Space Marines (accomplished by shrinking normal Astartes through arcane technosorcery and ignoring the resulting high-pitched noises as he applied pigment of a much too viscous consistency to their battleplate) his thoughts returned once more to his display of the battle between the primarchs on Isstvan V.

Theirs was a tragic tale of heartfelt companionship severed by corruption and betrayal. He himself had mentally projected several hundred phaeronfics about them to the great repository of the Necron race whose name, although untranslatable into any other language, was best rendered as The Sarcophagus-Belonging-To-Us-Alone, and some of them had even received multiple scarabs of approval from the discerning audience entrapped there forever.

Surely, he reasoned with the confidence of a being who had long since activated the developer console of his necrodermis body and manually increased its confidence, intelligence and charisma variables to 100, this meant that no one other than he could restore their friendship.

And so, in single-minded pursuit of compassion and friendliness, the Archaeovist and his forces wrought a swathe of destruction across the galaxy.

A foray into the Eye of Terror itself resulted in the capture of Fulgrim through the use of a vast two-pronged stick to pin the writhing daemon prince to the ground where he had been basking one day, while the sacrifice of his entire collection of ancient Terran doujinshis to the haemonculi of Commorragh itself had given him forbidden knowledge sufficient to wrest back the very soul of Ferrus Manus himself and place it into a suitably prepared necron host body via the biomorphic resonance of the necrodermis which had coated his hands in life.

Finally, the moment of glory came. The daemon Fulgrim and the metallically resurrected Ferrus Manus were placed into the same containment chamber and -

It was not at all what Trazyn had hoped. After a monumental bout of hand-to-hand combat lasting for hour upon hour, the two primarchs had settled into an uneasy stalemate, in the sense that Fulgrim was currently coiled around a light fixture on the ceiling and Ferrus had run out of objects to throw at him.

"You're even uglier now than you were when you had flesh," Fulgrim hissed venomously.

"And you were more of a snake then than you are now," Ferrus shot back, the frozen inexpressiveness of his necrodermis faceplate matching the famously stone-faced countenance he had displayed in life.

Fortunately Trazyn, who never made a mistake of any kind whatsoever, had prepared for such an eventuality. A concealed slot opened in the ceiling of the containment chamber, dislodging Fulgrim from his perch, and through the opening there descended a vast garment of woven silver-metallic fabric, emblazoned with inscrutable Necron symbols and sized in such a way as to accomodate the bodies of both primarchs.

"This is your get along shirt," Trazyn said, his voice amplified throughout the containment chamber. "You will wear it."

[an-inspired-eternity]

J/G JUMPSCARE (begs u 2 talk about the sillynomes relationship especially)

thank god i can actually answer this GFJGJHGFJG

so! for some additional background context on how j/g formed, it was originally airi adopting ichika like a stray cat and realizing ichika was into music/wanted to have a band and she was like yk what poggers i'm gonna ask my friend ena about this and ena ends up getting talked into it but Something was missing especially with their vocals so one thing ends up leading to another and akito ends up getting asked to join because of his singing and initially he's like wtf no but airi is airi and doesn't take no for an answer so he becomes their lead singer

and at the start? it's awkward. the shinonomes are similar with each other that they are in canon, but as time goes on with their band, while they still bicker it's a lot less heated. and while they're both too tsundere to admit it they like having something to do together :)

i have alot less figured out with the vocaloids in the other groups than i do with the hoc vocaloids but i can say that rin and meiko being their main vocaloids is like a inverse of vbs having len and meiko :) bc len is hoc's main vocaloid but also just for the vibe. like rin mentions len but he isn't around (initially) like how vbs len does with rin before she's properly introduced

and akito also is still like an older brother with j/g rin and len like how in canon he is with vbs rin and len and ena teases him for it but i think underneath she likes seeing him be less angry

[gentledawn]

Princess Flamingo and Primrose.

Princess Flamingo is distantly related to Queen Glory, being the adopted child of Jambu and Pineapple. She is technically not a princess, but due to the looser rules of the RainWing Kingdom, she is regarded as such.

Despite this, they are actually extremely polite and she helps to run one of the first ever reading and writing schools in the Rainforest. They help everyone who comes by to ask; adults, juveniles, and dragonets. She doesn’t just help RainWings, as she also helps those from other tribes.

Flamingo has not lover, and no child, and she doesn’t feel the need for either right now, as she has her talons full with being the Headmaster of the School.

Due to the stress of being a Princess, and having to run the school, she adopted a sloth and named them Primrose, and Primrose is her emotional support animal.

[thedevilspearl]

please be on your old man Lucifer agenda more often we love to see it 🙇

a/n: so lucifer with erectile dysfunction is what gets you going, huh? kidding but yesss let’s talk about old man luci some more bc i for one can’t get enough (i am tempted to start spreading my dilf!lucifer agenda >_<)

warning: none really, other than age gap maybe (but it’s nothing specified). minors do not interact!

oldman!lucifer is a man with impeccable and acquired taste. so it doesn’t matter if you’re a pretty, young thing or aged like fine wine just like him; if he chooses you, that’s a blessing in and of itself.

his bones may be beginning to wear away and his body may ache with the years he has lived through, but oldman!lucifer always has the energy to pursue the one who caught his eye.

speaking of eyes, oldman!lucifer has cute little crows feet on his. and the ruby in his eyes still glimmer, showing that despite his age, he has more than enough spirit left in him.

but oldman!lucifer has very poor eyesight so more often than not, he’ll be wearing his glasses. they’re a nuisance at times, but he will always wear them when you’re around because he wants to see your beauty in all it’s glory.

even when you’re on your knees between his legs, oldman!lucifer will push up his glasses that keep sliding down from the sweat just so he can admire your pretty face as you gag on his cock.

now onto the cock, having erectile dysfunction is not something oldman!lucifer would ever want to admit. but when your piece of ass first crossed his path, it was the first time he felt himself harden naturally in months. your pretty face and compatible personality only add to his attraction for you.

oldman!lucifer longs for you and his cock hardens thinking of you and how wonderful his cock would feel wrapped up in your body. he reminisces the way you touched his arm and the flirty smile you flashed his way earlier that day.

he grunts as he strokes his cock under the covers and oldman!lucifer feels ashamed to be sullying your image by masturbating to the thought of you just because he can finally get hard again.

but then oldman!lucifer reminds himself that you are the reason he’s jacking off at midnight like a teenage boy who can’t control his hormones.

so oldman!lucifer decides pursuing the real thing would be much more exciting than his juvenile activities. so when you next meet, he decides to approach you.

he flirts with you in a way which you can only describe as gentlemanly. oldman!lucifer pursues you with elegance and class, taking you to the finest of places. if you prefer more simple and humble settings, he will learn and cater all dates to your interest and comfort.

and you don’t need to think twice because oldman!lucifer pays for all of your dates. that’s how it was done back in his day, and it’s most certainly how he does it now.

his legs may be weaker than when he was younger, but oldman!lucifer doesn’t miss the way your feet rub up and down his calf under the table and it shoots shocks of electricity right up his legs and to his cock.

oldman!lucifer went from having no control over his cock getting hard to trying his hardest to hide his boner as he walks out of the restaurant with you on his arm.

like the gentleman he is, oldman!lucifer drives you home and pretends he doesn’t notice the way your gaze lingers on him while he drives. he pulls up and walks you to your door, and he told himself to not be desperate and get his dick wet too early. but he can’t stop himself when you asked him to come in with those seductively pouty lips and needy eyes.

he takes it easy on the first night, slowly drowning you in pleasure and oldman!lucifer can barely hold back himself. he hasn’t had a night like this since....well, he can’t remember how long it’s been.

and he doesn’t give up after one night. he meets up with you several times a week, then it turns into every day. and it’s not just for sex. for a man at his age, it’s difficult for oldman!lucifer to find valuable company that appreciates him as much as he appreciates others.

but that changes with you and the already lonely soul of oldman!lucifer is even lonelier when he’s not around you.

oldman!lucifer does move quickly and his pacing may scare you, but it’s just because he’s desperate for companionship.

he loves having his cock buried in your hole(s) and oldman!lucifer loves hearing you scream his name as he ploughs into you, or listening to you whimper with tears when he makes love to you.

he loves feeling alive again, not just because his cock is but because you redefine his meaning of living. oldman!lucifer thought he’d learned everything there was to learn, but you teach him things he would never thought to have known.

oldman!lucifer ’s love language is gift giving. he is always thinking of new things to buy you. but he’s an old man so sometimes his gifts are what you’d expect your grandparents to give you when you move into your first home.

he doesn’t know what an air fryer is, but he thinks you need one and now you have one in your kitchen. is that a new top of the range vacuum cleaner? well, now it’s added to his shopping basket ready to be delivered to your house as a surprise. oldman!lucifer takes care of your home as much as he takes care of you.

even if he has kids of his own, oldman!lucifer doesn’t think he’s particularly good with children. toddlers and young kids tend to be repelled by his resting grumpy face, but teenagers, however, take a liking to him.

oldman!lucifer has shiny silver tips in his hair, and he obsesses every morning when he looks in the mirror because he has two, no, three new grey hairs and he can’t handle it. nor can he handle the wrinkles. to cope, he forces himself to act cool and nonchalant about his ageing, like he didn’t even notice it happening.

but oldman!lucifer finds a way to love it all because you run your fingers through his greying hair with so much gentleness, and you kiss all of his skin with so much love regardless of his wrinkles, and you adore him exactly how he is that makes him never want to change.

[rageprufrock]

Superposition | The Devil Judge WIP

Just a sneak peek into the inevitable outcome of me finding out that I can write a story about a 17 year age gap.

After the fire, Yohan wakes up every morning knowing that Isaac is dead. 

Elijah wakes up every morning convinced her father is alive. 

It's the crush damage of new grief each day, too big for her tiny body and too heavy for her to carry. It's worse than all of Yohan's years under his father's belt; it's not until he loses Isaac and Heejin, until Elijah cries herself unconscious in his arms, that Yohan realizes that his father had been a clumsy jailer, that for all his cruelty he'd been a blunt instrument compared to all the ways suffering can visit itself upon a person. 

It's a miracle Elijah is alive, surviving multiple complex fractures and then delayed treatment. They save the flesh and bone of her legs, piece her back together with literal pins and needles. Her x-rays are difficult to look at; the scarring across her ghost-pale skin is worse. She hurts, in a relentless way that is at first impossible to explain to a child, and then is so ordinary she goes quiet with it, turns it inward. She stops crying. She's too weak and immobile for her once-infamous tantrums. She goes quiet instead. She throws books, toys, anything that Yohan brings into her beautifully appointed private room to try to distract her. 

"It will be hard, and it will take time," her doctors say, with an infuriating paternalism, as if their performed empathy could dampen constant burn of searing fire across Yohan's shoulders, cut into the shell of him. "But she's young and she's resilient—she'll surprise you." 

For the first six months, Yohan spends his limited waking, functional hours desperately trying to hold back the flood with his bare hands. He wakes and he's in too much pain to function. He sleeps and his doctors adjust his pain management regimen. He wakes and he tries to comfort Elijah. He sleeps and he dreams about the skin grafts he's been informed are needed. He wakes and he calls Lawyer Ko. He sleeps when he knows Isaac's Social Responsibility Fund donation is canceled. He loses hours and entire days in the labyrinth of the hospital, winding between the VIP ward and the children's wing, meeting with Elijah's orthopedic surgeon, her occupational therapists, the revolving cast of nurses that transport her from procedure to scan to bedside. He arranges Isaac and Heejin's funeral, and ends up back as a patient when Elijah's meltdown at the gravesite has him tearing one of his barely healed graft sites trying to contain her flailing arms, to swallow all of her screaming pain into the bottomless well in the base of his spine. 

It's eight months and six days after the fire that Yohan hears Elijah laugh again. 

***

Later, he'll get a comprehensive readout from the hospital grapevine, but the day he meets Gaon for the first time, all he knows is that he's been summoned by the terrifying peds nurses because Elijah and her new friend have committed some kind of juvenile crime.

Yohan's not ignorant to the fact that Elijah is a nightmare child, but he's still a little confused about how a five year old who is—frankly—abysmal with her new wheelchair is any kind of threat to society. He fetches up at to the pediatric OT clinic fully prepared to act like a complete entitled asshole about this, because while Elijah is a monster, she's his monster and therefore completely innocent of all sin, original or otherwise. 

Except halfway down the hallway there, he hears the sharp cackle of Elijah's laughter, a goblin shriek of pure wicked joy. It lands like a punch, like a blessing, it leaves him lightheaded. 

When he rushes the door, it's to find Elijah in full glory, giggling so hard she can't speak. Her hair is tied up in a series of tiny ponytails that frame her face like a lion's mane, her face is covered in marker, and she's clutching a filthy orange cat to her chest. 

"Kang Yohan-sshi," says one of the nurses, who is trying and failing to look severe, from the way her mouth keeps wobbling and her voice is trembling. "As you can see, we have a situation."

"I—where did she get the cat?" Yohan asks, faint.

Another nurse, who is making no effort to hide her grin, says, "Apparently, they found him behind a trash can in the garden and snuck him into the hospital." 

Yohan slants his eyes toward her. "They?" 

"I'm really not sure how you missed her very obvious partner in crime," the nurse tells him, actively laughing now, and when Yohan turns to look again—turns to see anything other than the miracle of Elijah's smiling face—he sort of understands her point.

Because sitting next to Elijah is a skinny teenaged boy wearing Elijah's headband, all of his short hair pushed back and sticking out like a massive frill around his thin face, his nose colored black and whiskers drawn across his cheeks. He looks less embarrassed than he probably should be, and more incriminating, he's holding some contraption made out of stolen hospital supplies that looks like one those little fishing toys for cats—a single inflated glove hanging from the end—that the fat orange on Elijah's lap keeps reaching for with outstretched paws. 

Standing in the doorway, surrounded by staff and other parents who are barely containing their hysterics, the whole thing is even more batshit. Nurse Woo Yeji, the iron fist of the pediatrics ward, is looming over Elijah and the kid on the ground, hands on her hips as she booms out:

"Kang Elijah-sshi, give me that creature immediately." 

Elijah narrows her bright little eyes. "Oh no," Yohan mutters.

"My cat," she declares, her chin stuck out in defiance.

"He was so sick and skinny, we had to rescue him," the boy chimes in, with the admirable application of a pair of doleful, sweet eyes. It might be more effective if his face wasn't covered in washable marker and he didn't have a purple heart drawn over his left eyebrow. 

"That cat is at least 4 kilograms overweight," Nurse Yeji tells them both, unmoved. "And let me say: Kim Gaon, I thought you had better judgment than this."

The boy, Gaon, takes the comment with the ease of long familiarity with disappointment, but Yohan still sees his eyes go briefly flinty, briefly cold, before he pastes on a smile and says, "I rode my motorcycle into a wall. If you thought I had good judgement, that's your own fault." 

"Yah! Kim Gaon!" the nurse yells, which just sets Elijah off again into pealing laughter. 

And from the back of the room, Yohan watches the way this mouthy kid, this little punk, glances over to his niece, watches how the fake grin on his face dissolves for something softer—something run through with tenderness too old for his years. 

***

Kim Gaon is 17, orphaned, and a frequent flight risk from the group home he's been remanded to with both his parents dead. In the 13 months since his father had died by suicide, and the 10 months since his mother had followed, he's been picked up by the local cops at least a half-dozen times: for smoking, for drinking, for fighting. Yohan looks up photos of Gaon's once-happy family, reads SNS posts mourning the closure of their family restaurant, the police reports about the suicides, the note in Gaon's hospital file that notes that he's going into arrears for his parents' funeral costs. Kim Gaon's social worker talks about him with a sort of resigned apology, approaches Yohan's interest like another black mark in the boy's service jacket. She looks at Yohan's suit and briefcase, takes his business card and calls him Lawyer Kang, spills the whole of Gaon's history, reassures Yohan that however self-destructive, however volatile, Kim Gaon's never displayed any violent tendencies toward children, that Lawyer Kang should feel free to reach out immediately if he feels concern that Gaon has become Elijah's friend.

"If you'd like me to speak to him, to tell him you're not comfortable with him spending time with you niece, I completely understand," his social worker says. 

Kim Gaon has been treated for two different STIs and tried to kill himself with a motorcycle three months ago. The only people he has left in the world are a childhood friend from down the street and Judge Min Jeongho, who used to eat lunch at the Kim's restaurant every day. 

Kim Gaon is 17 and entirely alone.

Yohan smiles at her. "No need," he reassures her. "I'll handle this on my own." 

***

Too much of Kim Gaon's character reference is ultimately hearsay. Yohan doesn't trust himself, exactly, but he trusts his judgement, so he watches quietly from the sidelines, collecting data. Yohan hears all the nurses talk about how Gaon is achingly polite, how they can't understand how such a nice boy could be such an evident wild child he would ride motorcycles with reckless lack of self preservation. He watches Gaon do other peoples' homework, quizzing them on Joseon history and showing a middle schooler who's learning how to write with his left hand trigonometry. Kim Gaon plays Smash Brothers with a flock of elementary school kids and ruthlessly kicks their asses every single time.

The Kim Gaon that's considered a neighborhood menace, the one sends his teachers into a blind fury, that's the protective armor. Yohan knows from defensive adaptations. 

But being a nice kid isn't the same as belonging in Elijah's life in any meaningful way, Yohan acknowledges, and spends a pointless day drafting soul-killing discovery motions and wondering why he's devoting so much time to this distraction. Maybe it's how Elijah's sleeping through the nights better, communicating her pain and what she needs better. Maybe it's how she tells stories about her friend Gaon, and it briefly feels as if they've traveled backward through time, that Yohan's watching her for the night, hearing and becoming deeply invested in all of her day care drama. 

"Elijah-ah, why do you like Gaon so much?" Yohan asks her one night, midway through the intricate ritual of her bedtime routine.

From her bed, Elijah says, "Gaon is funny and cats like him and also his parents are dead, so someone has to take care of him," and without missing a beat, points her sparkling princess wand toward the closet, commanding, "Check there, too." 

Yohan climbs off of the floor where he'd been checking under the bed and goes.

"Would you want to see Gaon even outside of the hospital?" he asks her, doing a careful four-point inspection of the closet: more clothes than one child could ever wear, 200 pairs of shoes, a stuffed sheep the size of a horse—no monsters. "Closet's clear."

Elijah makes a considering noise. "Gaon-oppa said he was a really good cook, so I want to eat his food," she decides, and shy now, she waves Yohan toward her, tiny hands flapping. "Samchon, come here. I want to tell you a secret."

Yohan cherishes every secret he has with Elijah. Since she was born, he's kept so many for her: that she stole a cookie, that she's really really not scared of thunder, that she loves her uncle best, that church is boring. 

"I'm ready," Yohan promises, and sits at the edge of her bed with his most serious expression. 

Elijah looks left and right, as if there are spies around every corner, before she cups her hands around her mouth and Yohan curls over her so that she can whisper:

"Sometimes I forget I'm sad about Mom and Dad, but Gaon-oppa says that's okay because I never forget that I love them." 

It lands somewhere in Yohan's soft underbelly, in the forever ache of his scare tissue. He looks down into Elijah's solemn little face, her riverstone eyes, and he wonders what kind of benevolent God allows this—forces children to patch one another's broken hearts. He used to wish that he would have died instead, that he could trade himself for Isaac, for Heejin, but he's comforted Elijah through too many nightmares of his own death to entertain it any longer. Love's always been a chain, whether wrapped around his wrist with a cross or trapping him in his father's house. 

"You will, you always will," he whispers back. 

"And they love me, too, of course, in heaven," she tells him, with the haughty confidence of a spoilt only child, who'd grown up with three adults circling around her in constant adulation. 

"And I love you here, on Earth," he says, and does not add, your grandfather loves you, too, from where he's burning in hell.

Elijah goes suddenly quiet, thoughtful and a little distant, and Yohan waits patiently until she says at last, "Gaon doesn't think his parents love him in heaven." 

Yohan stills. "Did he say that?" 

"He told his friend, the unni that visits sometimes," Elijah reports, and staring dead into Yohan's eyes, she adds, "I was hiding behind a curtain listening. He also said he can't be her boyfriend." 

"Okay, well, time for little goblins to go to sleep," Yohan says, because he absolutely cannot start laughing about this because somewhere out there, in the beautiful hereafter that Isaac so fervently believed in, he would be furious if Yohan encouraged this kind of behavior.

***

For all Yohan's been investigating the mystery of Kim Gaon, he's wholly unprepared to be confronted by the reality of the boy while sitting in the hospital cafe at half past five, working his way through a stack of files for court the next day.

"Kang Yohan-sshi?" comes a voice, and when Yohan looks up, it's into the shaggy bangs and thin face of the boy who makes Elijah laugh, standing awkwardly at the edge of his table.

"Ah," he says, flipping his pen across his knuckles. "You're Kim Gaon."

Gaon's eyes round. "You recognize me?" 

"The nurses tell me you're friends with Elijah," Yohan says, and waves at one of the empty chairs at the table, shuffles a few folders around to make room. "Please."

It takes more than a little maneuvering for Gaon to take the offered seat, between his backpack and his crutches, his leg still in its cast, and Yohan offers him a steadying arm, takes his bag, helps shift the table this way and that way. Gaon looks mortified the whole time by these small courtesies, stumbling over thank yous and apologies. It tells on him in ways Gaon can't possibly know, but that Yohan can't possibly ignore.

"What brings you to my temporary office?" Yohan asks, when he's sure the kid isn't going to tip over and break anything else, and is only in immediate danger of blushing to death.

Gaon squares his shoulders, and taking a deep breath, says, "I wanted to talk to you about a cat."

This is how Yohan learns that the orange furball that he's first seen that day in the OT room all those many weeks ago is a stray that's been named Gam, and that Elijah's youthful enthusiasm for petty hospital-based crime has undergone a metamorphosis toward more elaborate heists.

"Not that I don't admire her ambition, but I'm pretty sure you'd notice the yowling lump in her sweater when you pick her up from OT," Gaon says, still nervous and too polite, darting wary little glances upward at Yohan. "I tried to talk her out of it, but she started arguing about how cold it was going to get and I had to admit defeat."

Yohan feels the corners of his mouth curl up, reflexive. "There's wisdom in recognizing when you're beaten," he says. "And I appreciate your letting me know."

"Sure," Gaon says before going quiet for a long measure, some unfinished sentence still hidden behind his lashes. Yohan's patient, waits him out, and is rewarded when a half-minute passes and Gaon says, with a brittle courage and poorly concealed vulnerability, "I—I'd take him with me if I could. I like Gam. But the house where I have to stay won't allow pets."

Yohan can hear a universe in between the confession here: that Gaon must have been worried about the cold weather long before Elijah even noticed, that he'd tried to find an answer all on his own. Yohan feels, tugging in the hollow underneath his breastbone, a hurtful recognition of a younger version of himself, all those raw edges fraying, and maybe—sitting here—he can understand a little of Isaac's quiet sadness, the way Yohan had carried all his suffering alone, as a matter of course, without ever trying to ask for help. 

He looks at the slope of Gaon's shoulders, the wrinkled collar of his school uniform shirt, his terrible haircut, the little divot of a piercing in his ear. Yohan thinks about the sunburst of Elijah's laughter and all the terrible things he's willing to do to sustain it; it's strange to realize he hadn't anticipated something so easy, something that wouldn't hurt at all. 

"Do me a favor," Yohan sighs.

Gaon's head darts up. "Um—if I can?" he says.

"Back me up when I tell her that I thought long and hard about this, and that I'm going to be a strict taskmaster about this cat," Yohan says, with a rueful certainty that there's no way in hell that Elijah is going to buy this narrative, because it looks like the sun is rising in the brightness of Gaon's eyes, the pink happiness of his too-thin cheeks. This kid couldn't lie effectively if his life depended on it. In this light, Gaon looks a little like Isaac, if Isaac was too thin and too hopeful, all gamine pleasure; it makes Yohan feel his bones creak just to look at him. 

"I will, I absolutely will," Gaon promises, smiling now and still shy, but so achingly sweet that it makes Yohan want to buy him hot chocolate, to tell him he's done a good job, to ask if he's eaten dinner. 

He forebears, and starts packing up his work documents instead. 

"Come on," he tells Gaon. "If I'm going to make a fool of myself trying to trap a feral hospital cat, you're coming with me."

Yohan ends up scratched to hell and back, his hand-tailored wool trousers covered in mud, while  Gaon laughs at him with a wide-open happiness that makes something in Yohan's chest feel too big for his rib cage. He decides not to think about it in favor of fetching Elijah from her PT and ferrying her down to his car, where Gaon is waiting for them both, a sulking Gam zipped into the front of his hoodie like an uncooperative child. His smile could light every building in Gangnam. Elijah's shriek of pure joy when she spots him leaves Yohan half-deaf for the drive home, and so the warm patter of Elijah and Gaon talking in the backseat rolls over him in indistinct syllable noises until he drops Gaon off at his group home and helps him to the door. 

"Thank you, for today," Gaon tells him, starry and still rosy, covered in cat hair. 

"Elijah's already drawing up plans for shared custody, so don't be a stranger," Yohan warns. 

He'd been ordered by Elijah to participate in an exchange of contact information with Gaon because everybody in the car had a unique and unaddressed relationship with the trauma of abandonment, and so of course Gam could not be suddenly bereft of one of his humans.

"I won't, I promise," Gaon swears, and nods back toward the car, where Elijah is holding Gam up against the window and waving his paw at them. "You should get her home."

Elijah talks nonstop during the drive out of the urban density of Seoul into the forested beyond where their family home is perched on a melodramatic cliff above a lake. Yohan hears about her nurses, her rivalry with another little boy in OT who sounds like he has a world-ending crush on her Gaon-oppa, and listens to the way Elijah sometimes stops mid-sentence when Gam meows at her and then replies, as if she can understand cat. 

Whatever is bubbling in his veins, its too violent to be the warm kindness of joy. This ferocity feels like some holy gratitude, feels like the way Isaac used to talk about God. Yohan has never any good at faith, but he thinks—to himself, so loudly he hears it over the roar of blood in his ears and the chattering happiness of Elijah, vividly alive—he thinks, thank you, thank you, to whoever is listening: to God, to fate, to fortune, to the fucking cat—to Gaon, waving at Elijah with both hands, a smile on his face and Gam curled close against his chest. 

[kpopscatterbrain]

Kdramas/Movies with strong female characters

Dramas

Eve (2022): Lee La-El (Seo Yea-Ji) When Lee La-El was little, her father died unexpectedly. Powerful people were responsible for his death. After her family was destroyed, Lee La-El prepared for the next 13 years to take revenge. Starting by targeting Kang Yoon-gyeom, one of the main culprits who orchestrated the death of her father. Along the way she becomes torn between her desire for revenge and her feelings for Yoon-gyeom.

It's Okay To Not Be Okay (2020): Ko Moon-Young (Seo Yea-Ji) Ko Moon-Young is a popular children's book author with antisocial personality disorder. She had a troubled childhood and a turbulent relationship with her parents. She develops romantic feelings for a psychiatric caregiver after a coincidental encounter and often goes to extreme lengths to get his attention.

Hotel Del Luna (2019): Jang Man-Wol (IU) Jang Man-Wol is the moody owner of Hotel del Luna. The hotel catering to the dead has been bound to her soul in order to atone for the sins she committed 1,300 years ago. Through the new manager Gu Chan-sung, the mysteries and the secrets behind the hotel and its owner are revealed

My Name (2021): Yoon Ji-Woo (Han So-Hee) Yoon Ji-Woo’s father gets murdered suddenly. She wants to desperately take revenge on whoever is responsible for her father's death. She starts working for a drug crime ring that her father was a part of. Ji-Woo joins the police department as a mole for the drug ring.

Vagabond (2019): Go Hae-Ri (Bae Suzy) Go Hae-Ri is an NIS agent and is currently working undercover at the Korean embassy in Morocco. She is tasked to help the bereaved families of a fatal flight. She helps Cha Dal-Geon whose nephew was on the flight uncover a darker and more sinister conspiracy than they expected.

Sisyphus: The Myth (2021): Gang Seo-Hae (Park Shin-Hye) Gang Seo-Hae is an elite warrior. She can take down the biggest men with just her bare hands. She is a sharpshooter and a bombmaker. She learned these skills to survive in a world that is dominated by gangsters and military cliques. One day she time travels to save a genius engineer.

Mr. Sunshine (2018): Go Ae-Shin (Kim Tae-Ri) Go Ae-Shin is an orphaned noblewoman and a member of the Righteous Army. Her parents were independence fighters who died in Japan due to their colleague's betrayal. She trains as a sniper. An american soldier Eugene meets and falls in love with Go Ae-shin. 

The Glory (2022): Moon Dong-Eun (Song Hye-Kyo) Moon Dong-Eun was a victim of high school violence. She waited for the bully ring leader get married and have a child. Now she is the homeroom teacher of her tormentor's child. Her cruel revenge plot begins.

Tomorrow (2022): Koo Ryeon (Kim Hee-Seon) Grim reaper Koo Ryeon is the leader of a crisis management team. The teams objective is to save suicidal people. Choi Jun-Woong (Ro Woon) is a young job seeker who is unable to secure a job. One night, he accidentally becomes a new member of the crisis management team.

Remarriage & Desires (2022): Seo Hye-Seung (Kim Hee-Seon) Seo Hye-seung who lost everything in an instant after her husbands affair and su*cide. She signs up to a matchmaking company Rex for the upper class, and participates in the race of her desires for her revenge.

Under The Queen's Umbrella (2022): Queen Hwaryeong (Kim Hye-Soo) Queen Hwaryeong is supposed to act with grace and dignity, but she has troublemaker sons. The queen decides to abandon strict protocols to transform her sons into deserving princes through education and personal growth, all while navigating the complexities of motherhood and royal life.

Juvenile Justice (2022): Sim Eun-Seok (Kim Hye-Soo) Sim Eun-Seok is an elite judge with a personality that seems unfriendly to others. She hates juvenile criminals and gets assigned to a local juvenile court. There, she breaks custom and administers her own ways of punishing the offenders.

K-Movies

Kill Boksoon (2023): Gil Bok-Soon (Jeon Do-Yeon) Gil Bok-Soon is a single mother and a contract killer working for M. K. Ent. Highly regarded by her peers, she has a 100% success rate and is one of a few killers rated "A" by her company. Right before Gil Bok-Soon is set to renew her contract, she gets involved in a kill or be killed confrontation.

Ballerina (2023): Jang Ok-Ju (Jun Jong-Seo) Ok-Ju used to work as a bodyguard. Ok-Ju is friends with Min-Hee, who is a ballerina. Min-Hee asks Ok-Ju for a favor. She wants Ok-Ju to take revenge.

The Witch: Subversion (2018): Ja-Yoon (Kim Da-Mi) A young girl escapes from a mysterious laboratory where she was trained to become a murder weapon. 10 years later, the girl, named Ja-yoon, is living a normal life, apparently without any memory of her past, she becomes involved in a crime.

Special Delivery (2022): Eun-Ha (Park So-Dam) Eun-Ha is a special driver for deliveries. She delivers anything or anyone for the right price. Her success rate is 100%, but she gets involved in an unexpected delivery accident.

Brave Citizen (2023): So Shi-Min (Shin Hae-Sun) So Shi-Min used to be a boxer in her student days. She now works as a contract teacher at a high school. She confronts a school bully, who frequently torments other students.

[heyitsmechuey]

Splash Fruit - Sidon x Reader

Just a quick drabble regarding our favourite fish boy! Trying to include other characters in my stories besides just Rauru brain rot, and Sidon is just the cutest sometimes >_< I did proof read, but I have been drinking so please forgive that lmao Also shameless plug for my LoZ fanfiction/art/ fandom server! Feel free to stop by~ https://discord.gg/H8Y4R4fTBj Enjoy!

Word Count: 520 words -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Like this?”

You were uncertain as you inquired, thumb pressing into the bottom half of the blue-speckled fruit. Sidon chuckled softly when you struggled to apply enough pressure to complete the action, his own splash fruit nestled between his thumb and fore finger. “Minnow, you have to really push, or else it won’t work properly!”

He was oddly enthusiastic for what was akin to a child’s water toy as he explained to you, but you followed his instructions anyways, determined to at least prove you can do it. Your effects paid off when your thumb and the fruit’s peel effectively caved in, and an echoic *pop* coming from the top of the fruit; you jumped, not expecting it to be so loud. Basking in the glory of accomplishment, you smiled from ear to ear. After a moment of silence, your gaze followed the supposed trajectory of the watery liquid that splashed from the top but when your sight levelled, you were left staring at your boyfriend, hands up to his face, wiping and letting out a sputtered breath. There was a moment of panic, as you dropped the fruit and rushed over, frantically apologizing. “Sidon! I’m sorry! I-I didn’t realize it was going to-”;

Cold and wet made contact with you before you even got to finish, and your hands went up in defence, although not proving effective as the top half of your outfit became damp, all the while you were patting at your eyes to clear the blurry vision. Sidon raised the back of his hand to his mouth as he laughed with a juvenile arrogance and once you recovered, you gave him a look of loving annoyance, which then only amplified his laughter, nearly doubling over in front of you. You placed a soft, teasing slap to his arm, one that he ignored completely as you told him that he could have at least waited until you were prepared. He wiped a tear form his eye, struggling to breathe properly as he spoke, “P-Please! It was just the perfect opportunity for payback! The look on your face- it was cute!”

Another small swat made contact with his arm, only this time out of embarrassment. He reassured you it was a harmless retaliation, bringing his hand up to your face, wiping the remnants of sweet, sticky juice from your cheek; he gave a playful smile as he brought his thumb to his lips, giving a soft lick to the pad.

“Sweeter than ever~”, he teased, leaning down to place a kiss on your forehead, before leaning further to catch your lips - you pulled away from him, popping your untouched lips together with a grin.

If he wanted to play games, then he would get games, you thought as you flashed him another fruit tight in your grasp, the playful glint in your eye making him look at you with confused rejection. “If the prince wants a kiss, he’ll have to catch me first~”, and you were off.

He let out a stunned groan as he watched you run down the stairs of the domain. He followed you though.

[watatsumiis]

'Friends in Unexpected Places' a Yae Miko x Reader drabble!

Dunno if I'd say this is Miko x reader, more so a Miko and reader interaction, but it can be read either way!

Gender neutral reader (one who is a little silly and chaotic), a few pet names used by Miko (little one, dear, darling). Generic mischievous Miko shenanigans!

The trek up to the Grand Narukami Shrine is long and arduous, as it always is. Despite being lauded as one of the most important shrines in Inazuma, the stairs aren’t exactly in great shape. 

Not for the first time, you wonder if there’s some kind of secret elevator shaft somewhere that Yae Miko simply never bothered to tell you about - you wouldn’t be surprised, considering how difficult it is to get up here individually, let alone carrying the heavy supply crates that regularly get delivered to the shrine. 

You wipe some sweat from your brow as you emerge onto the mountaintop plateau and look out over the railing at the sprawling landscape, so far below that you feel a little dizzy. If you narrow your eyes, you can just make out the dark smudge of Ritou in the far, far distance, and a cursory glance a ways off to the left presents Inazuma City in all its glory, though it’s so far away that the details are nigh on impossible to make out 

After taking a few minutes to regain your composure, you approach the temizuya and perform the cleansing ritual that Yae Miko had shown you upon your first visit to the shrine, making sure to perform the steps in the right order before setting the ladle back down. 

You were here today at the Guuji Yae’s behest - she’d sent you a letter inviting you for afternoon tea, but by the looks of things, she’s not here at the moment. You can’t help but feel a little disappointed, but you come to terms with it quickly. The head shrine maiden is a busy woman, the fact that this is the first time she’s ever been late to one of your catch-ups is a miracle in and of itself. 

Your shoes tap softly on the wood beneath your feet as you pass by a shrine maiden, who leans forward in the small booth she’s situated in and smiles politely at you. “Would you like to draw a fortune slip?” She asks, gesturing towards a small bamboo container in front of you. 

You pause for a few seconds, mulling it over. Well, you’ve got to try and fill your time with something. “Sure.” You offer a small smile to the woman, who returns it wholeheartedly. 

“All you have to do is pick up this cylinder, and shake it until a bamboo slip comes out.” You do as she asks until the slip falls out into your open palm. “Now pass it here, and I’ll give you your fortune.” You offer the slip, and she exchanges it for a carefully rolled up piece of paper.

You delicately unfurl it and take in the words written there. ‘Friends can be found at the most unexpected times and places.’ You furrow your brow at the vagueness of it. 

“If it’s a bad fortune,” The shrine maiden tells you, a slight frown pulling at her features. “You can tie it up over there, that may help change your luck.”

“It’s not a bad fortune, don’t worry.” You look up at her. “Thank you, though.” 

“Of course.” She smiles and dips her head, and you turn to walk away, rolling up the slip of paper and putting it in your pocket. 

You walk back the way you came, hoping that perhaps you’ll be able to spot Lady Yae coming up the stairs (though you’re not particularly inclined to believe she’d ever do such a tiring thing without good enough reason). 

You’re brought to an abrupt stop as your foot collides with something semi-solid, and a sharp yap comes from below. Quickly, you look down to see a fluffy little creature giving you a most offended look. 

It’s bright pink, but other than that, it looks just like almost any other juvenile fox. “I’m so sorry!” You exclaim, and it gives you a pointed look before turning away. 

You kneel down and reach a hand out tentatively, trying to see if it’s injured, but it coolly side-steps away with a flick of its tail. 

“What are you doing up here, anyways?” You’ve seen foxes roaming in the areas surrounding the mountain, and on the plains not far from Inazuma City, but never in the shrine itself. You figured it had something to do with Miko’s aura being so intimidating. “Come on, you must be lost.” You give it an encouraging wave and straighten back up. 

You’re almost positive that it can’t understand you, but the look on its face seems to border on amused as it plods along beside you, tail wagging back and forth slowly. Before you know it, you’re back at the entrance to the shrine, with a small fox at your heels.

“There you go, I’m sure you can find your way from here.” You gesture to the stairs, barely a stone's throw away. The fox sits down, resting its fluffy tail over its paws and yawning widely, showing off small, sharp fangs and blinking slowly.

“Right. Well.” You turn on your heel. “Bye.” You’re not sure exactly why you’re talking to a fox, but it’s not really the strangest thing you’ve done, you don’t think. 

From the corner of your eye, you see the fox stand, and watch its fur shift as it stretches languidly and flicks its fluffy tail. It pauses for a few moments before turning and padding after you once more.

You stop in your tracks, and the fox stops with you, staring expectantly at you and tilting its head to the side. 

“I don’t have any treats for you.” You turn to face it and hold your hands out to show that they’re empty. “I don’t even know what foxes eat.” It’s not an entirely untrue statement - though you know what Lady Yae likes, you feel like actual foxes probably don’t enjoy fried tofu as much as she does. Actually, you don’t know if anyone enjoys fried tofu as much as Miko does. 

You’re momentarily distracted as a shrine maiden walks by and casts her gaze over you, then the fox. Something close to amusement passes over her face, but she continues on her way without a word. 

“Go on. Shoo.” You wave your hand towards the exit, but the fox just stares at you unblinkingly. “You can’t stay here. You’re going to get stepped on.” 

The look it’s giving you almost feels like one of amusement, though you don’t know if foxes can even feel amusement, much less express it so openly. It takes a few steps closer to you and sits down, lifting one front paw to nudge at your foot insistently before giving a soft yip. 

“If I carry you down part of the way,” you bargain, as if this ridiculously coloured creature can possibly understand you. “Will you go the rest of the way on your own?” 

The fox cocks its chin up and lets out a little huff that you take to be an affirmative answer. 

You kneel down and hold your hands out, but the fox just stands there, watching on with judgemental eyes. 

“Come on.” You twitch your fingers at it, and one of its ears flicks down for a brief moment. You try making a few little kissy noises, as if calling for a cat. The fox just shifts its weight and wraps its tail around itself, watching you expectantly. “Pspsps.” 

It noses into its chest fur for a moment, nudging a tuft that was sticking out back into place. You take the opportunity to shuffle forward a little closer, wondering if this might just be an absolutely absurd idea. The fox leans towards you, and you awkwardly wrap your arms around it.

It’s like a strange, uncomfortable mix of lifting a dog and lifting a cat, mixed in with handling a ferret. The fox seems to suddenly be all lanky limbs and fur so silky soft that it’s hard to keep a good grip. 

The fox lets out an aggrieved puff and adjusts itself, giving you a little warning nip as you try to steady it by placing a hand on its haunch. It takes a few awkward moments until the fox is settled in your arms, curled up close to your chest with its tail dangling off of your arm. It tilts its head up towards the entrance, and you begin walking, taking it a little slower so that the fox you’ve found yourself taking care of won’t get jostled about too much. It’s heavier than it looks, like its body is denser than most animals. It’s a bit of an odd feeling.

“You know, I didn’t think foxes would be this soft.” You observe aloud, rubbing a little tuft of fur between your forefinger and thumb. 

The fox turns its nose up, seeming affronted. 

“I didn’t mean it like that.” You say, as if the fox can actually understand you. “I just thought maybe foxes would feel more like dogs.” 

Suddenly, the fox shifts its weight, and you pause on the steps, worried about it accidentally falling. You grimace as it presses its paw down on a particularly tender spot on your arm, pushing all its weight down until you flinch slightly. “Ow!” You complain. 

The fox then stops abruptly, curling back close to your chest with a sniff of disdain. You can’t help but feel like it was trying to punish you. 

You walk down the stairs in silence until you come to a small plateau of grass. You kneel down to set the fox back on the ground, but it doesn’t seem to want to. You try to awkwardly get it to roll out of your arms and deposit it on the ground, but it moves with a slinky, lazy sort of elegance that makes it impossible. 

“Come on, it’s time to go.” You complain. “I’m meeting with someone, and she will never let me hear the end of it if I’m somehow even later than she is because I was babysitting a pink puffball.” 

Even as you straighten your arms out, the fox rolls and contorts in a way that almost definitely should not be possible while keeping its spine intact. 

“Are you Miko’s pet or something?” You ask, beginning to become frustrated with the increasingly difficult behaviour the fox is exhibiting. “You’re just as difficult.” This statement is met with a sharp nip to your fingertips, and you suck in a pained breath through your teeth. “Are you made of her fur sheddings? The way you’re sticking to me, I wouldn’t be surprised. Come on, shoo!” 

You feel worry begin to patter in your chest at the idea of being late for your afternoon tea, but you still can’t seem to manage to untangle yourself from the little fox that has become so attached to you. “Fine then, you can come to afternoon tea with me. And I won’t say anything to defend you when Miko bullies you for being a scrawny little kit.” This statement is met with another bite to your upper arm, sharp little teeth sinking into your clothing. 

“Stop that!” You exclaim, standing up and walking over to sit on the stairs. The fox drops into your lap, showing no trace of its previous determination to stay wrapped up in your arms. It curls up on your thighs, stepping on just about every sensitive spot you have with its full weight before it finally settles and looks up at you with big, dark purple eyes. 

“You must be Miko’s pet.” You observe. “Only she would get her hands on a fox that looks just like her.” You shake your head and sigh. The fox continues to stare at you. “But even so, that won’t stop me from pulling your tail.” You wrap your fingers tentatively around the bundle of fluff, though you don’t have any real intention of pulling on it at all. That just feels too mean. 

You stop in your tracks as you hear a noise on the wind - a faint chuckle, one that you recognise all too well. Every muscle in your body stiffens as you look around, searching for the source. “L-Lady Yae?” You call hesitantly, brow furrowing in confusion. 

“Oh, little one.” Her voice is a little clearer now, and you feel the weight in your lap shift and disappear. Oh, now you go running off. You roll your eyes. Her laughter comes again, and with it, a heavier weight dropping in your lap. 

You jump in surprise as, in a blur of pink, red and white, Miko herself all but appears in your lap, her arms wrapped around your neck and legs thrown off to one side.

You hold yourself tensely, a little unsure of what the appropriate way to react would be. “It’s…uh…nice to see you?” You hazard tentatively, casting your gaze around the small landing you’re on. 

“And you, dear.” She coos, twirling loose parts of your clothing around her fingers. 

“Did you…uh…see where that fox got to?” Despite the squabble, you can’t help but feel a little worried for the small creature you’d briefly taken under your care. “Is it a pet of yours?” 

Miko throws her head back and laughs, a high and breathy laugh, more open and expressive than she ever allows herself to be normally. “The fox.” She echoes, shaking her head and focusing her intense violet gaze upon you. “Darling, you wouldn’t recognise a youkai if one haunted your house.” She traces her fingers down your cheek in a playful manner. “Or if it bit you. Quite literally, might I add.” She moves her hand from your cheek to your upper arm, then to your fingertips, where the fox nipped at you. 

“Wait, what do you mean?” Despite feigning ignorance, you feel the apprehension dawning as clear as day. “You…that wasn’t…You’re not…?” 

Miko gives you a fangy grin. “Oh, did I neglect to show you my fox form?” She teases, the symmetrical dimples beside her eyes deepening as her grin just grows at your shocked reaction. “Silly me.”

You sputter for a few moments, unable to get together the words to express how you’re feeling or what to do to rectify the fact that you had just babied fox-form Miko, and talked badly about her to her face. “I-I…” You begin, only for Miko to interrupt you as she presses one perfectly manicured finger against your nose. 

“I’ll admit, your reactions were quite amusing.” She informs you. “I think you’d make quite an interesting light novel protagonist.” 

“Did you do all of that just to…to prank me?” You ask, feeling a little taken aback at her behaviour, though it’s far from unexpected at this point.

Miko crinkles her face up in amusement. You feel a tug on one of your pockets, and before you know it, she’s unravelling the fortune you pulled earlier. “Friends can be found at the most unexpected times and places.” She recites with a sly wink and a mischievous grin on her face.

Please don't repost, steal, copy or otherwise plagiarise my writing! I do not consent for my works to be translated and posted elsewhere, or used to teach bots!

[clementinechatsshit]

money, power, glory - coriolanus snow x plinth!oc

description: rhea plinth wanted one thing more than anything in this world. power. this is her story of descending into the hunger for power. the addiction to it. and if she can love through this hunger.

tw: 18+ standard hunger games shizzle, strong language, spice, toxic relationships, power hungry bitches, rhea is just as twisted as snow

a/n: hi peeps, this is my first attempt at writing anything ff related, but coryo has been in my brain since i read tbosas. i didnt want to write him ooc but rather embrace the fact that he is bat shit crazy and create a character that also embraces and encourages that side of him. i dont think ive read any ffs that have a reader/oc that is also as fucked up as snow. pls be nice

What is the purpose of the Hunger Games? 

I used to think that they were to bring justice to Panem. To punish the districts for the uprising. We’d always been taught that, and I believed it. Yet, now I see things a little differently. I see things for how they truly are. I was eighteen when I learnt the truth about the Hunger Games. How they are played, and how they are really won.

‘Rhea?’ a voice echoes from behind me. I snap my head around to see my brother leant against the frame of my bedroom door.

‘Sejanus, what have I said about knocking’, he flinches at my response, my tone harsher than intended. 

He lowers his gaze to the blazer in his grip, cowering from the hardened stare I deliver his way. ‘I’m sorry’ weak, ‘we’re going to be late’. 

I turn to fully face him, lifting my face to a content smile. My heels clack on the marble flooring as I cross the room, I pause for a second in front of him, waiting. Sejanus holds his elbow out for me to link my hand through, my gloved hand brushes the soft thread of his shirt as an avox approaches and hands me my purse. 

‘Bye, mother!’, ‘See ya, Ma’ we shout as we leave the penthouse. Sejanus never stopped calling our mother ‘ma’, juvenile if you ask me. Sometimes I think he wants to be back in the districts.

The red silk of my dress grazes the bottoms of my calves as we make our way to the car, another avox our driver. I see avox’s as the perfect company, they know their place in this society, even if they did have to learn it the hard way. They know that they have no power, they have accepted that there are consequences to their actions. They don’t talk back either. 

‘The Academy’ a demand, not a request. 

‘Please.’ Sejanus adds

The Academy. Only the elites have the privilege of attending, and only the greats go on to study at the University. We may not be Capitol born, but we belong there more than anybody else. For ten years, I have been proving my place amongst my fellow students, before I even set foot in the Capitol, I knew I am simply better than them all.

I entered first. Shoulders back, chin up. Make them stare. The first thing I know about power. If you can’t command a room, you have none. I felt the eyes on me as I strode in, then I heard the whispers. I had power, you see, I have their attention when I give them none. I glance around the room attempting to find someone worth a morsel of my time, when I hear his voice.

‘Rhea Plinth’, that is a voice I would never tire of hearing.

‘Coriolanus Snow’ I acknowledge him, giving him a once over. The pinstripes of his dress shirt, dated, yet he made it look like an arising trend in the Capitol. A rose tucked into the formal vest. He was handsome indeed, a shame about the mismatched tesserae buttons. I placed my hand into his outstretched palm, watching him raise it to his lips as he leant down and pressed a gentle kiss to the back of it in greeting. 

‘Rhea, can you just get it over and done with, Snow won the Plinth Prize, didn’t he?’ the bratty whine of Arachne Crane interrupted.

‘I can’t confirm anything’, power, ‘however, I can say things will get interesting this year.’ my voice almost sultry as I spoke directly to Coriolanus, not even bothering to turn to Arachne. 

‘Now, Coriolanus, walk with me?’ a huff sounds from beside us as we turn to leave the hall. 

‘Won’t people suspect something?’ I feel his breath on my neck as he hunches down to be level with my ear.

‘They’ll just assume I’m telling you about the prize’, I remain facing ahead, the doors to the adjoining hallway open. A rare smile hooks at the corners of my mouth as we round the corner, a pillar shielding us from the curious eyes of anyone passing. 

‘Ah yes, Miss Plinth doing her duty as the liaison for the prestigious Plinth family.’ His mocking tone forces my eyes to roll, as we slowly step backwards. I may be the representative of the Plinth family for all intents and purposes, but with Coriolanus, I don’t have to be. See, I know who he really is, I know that his family has no money, I’ve seen the apartment they live in. Deep down, I know that all he sees in me is District, but I am the one thing that stands between him and the power he craves. That’s why we have this arrangement. I secure his future in the Capitol, and he makes sure that no one will ever see me as district again. 

I’m drawn from my thoughts as my skin hits the cold wall behind me, a hand snaking its way around my waist. A hooked finger nudges my chin, lifting my gaze to meet the piercing blue eyes looking down at me. The intensity of his stare is almost intimidating. His grip changes as he strokes a fallen piece of hair behind my ear. 

‘You look pretty like this,’ he murmurs, leaning in. His lips graze mine and I feel him inhale. Like he’s breathing in my surrender. I crash my lips against his, our noses bumping against each other, but neither of us minding. His lips are rough against mine, more aggressive. You look pretty like this. I look pretty when you think you have control over me.

I reach my hands around his neck, tangling my fingers into the blond curls. I tug once, he groans, I tug again. Who’s in control now, Coryo. He squeezes my waist and I sigh into the kiss. Our whole exchange is a power play. His tongue slips into my mouth as he reaches his hand lower, and lower. Maybe I could give in this once.

The echo of someone clearing their throat shatters the tension between us. Coriolanus takes a few instinctive steps back as I swing my head around to look at who dared interrupt us. 

Dean Casca Highbottom.

‘Mr Snow, Miss Plinth. I assume you are heading into the hall to hear the announcement?’ He looked disgusted, disappointed. 

‘Yes, of course, Dean Highbottom.’ Coriolanus responded instantly, leaving me standing with the Dean, marching back into the grand hall, his hands reaching up to fix his hair

‘They can’t make the announcement without me, Casca. You know that,’ I give him a knowing look before following Coriolanus’ lead. I look back over my shoulder to see the Dean opening a vial and consuming the contents. 

I found Coriolanus standing with my brother and another girl from our class, Dovecote, Clemensia I believe. I give her a slight nod as a hello, not wanting to waste my breath on her. ‘Hello Sejanus, Coriolanus.’ glancing up at the boys, flashing a quick smirk at them.

‘Rhea, where were you?’ Sejanus queries, his brows furrowed, ‘you’re meant to be naming the winner.’ 

‘Brother mine, you worry too much. Besides, there's been a slight change in plan.’ This is power. Knowledge. Money. 

‘Can everyone take their seats,’ the instructions come from one of the teachers at the Academy.

I leave the group and make my way up to the podium, passing Dean Highbottom on the way. The room silences as I ascend the stairs. As I glance down to the crowd, I catch Coriolanus’ eye, he looks hopeful. He needs this prize. To anyone else, it’s about the title. To him, this is everything. 

‘My father, Strabo Plinth, has been gracious enough, over the years, to provide incentive to those at the Academy in the form of the Plinth Prize. An award bestowed upon the student who excels in every aspect of their education. An honour for any student who wins it.’ my voice strong, conductive, they are hanging on my every word. Power. I see Arachne glare over at the blond boy, they all think they know. They all think he has won. ‘This year, we want to make things harder, create more of a challenge. This year, myself and my mentor, Dr. Ghaul, want you. The top twenty-four. The elite. To become mentors yourselves.’ slight muttering begins to spread around the room. ‘This reaping day, you will be assigned tributes, you will guide them, make spectacles of them, and one of you. You will create a victor.’ 

The voices become louder, anger begins to bubble. Arachne is already complaining, Sejanus looks horrified. But Coriolanus, he is furious. And me, a large grin spreads its way across my face.

Now this. This is power.