#like of course it’s happening in october aka halloween month

[rurinnfane]

Hnnnnnnnffff the witchy shit……… it calls to me once again…. fuck

[gotham--fc]

Halloween Horror - An Alyssa Naeher Imagine

The second Halloween fic! This wasn't planned but I had so much inspiration it just happened. Dedicated to @grapefruit-personified and her love of Alyssa

Summary: Y/N didn't think inviting Alyssa over to watch a horror movie would end like this

“How could you do this to me?” Alyssa’s says, voice muffled from how her head is squished between Y/N’s shoulder and the couch.

“You’re like the toughest person I know! How was I supposed to know that a horror movie is enough to have you cowering in my lap?”

“I’m not in your lap.”

“Because you wouldn’t fit,” Y/N smiles fondly, “I feel like the roles are supposed to be reversed here, don’t you think?”

Y/N didn’t expect that the night would lead to Alyssa hiding behind Y/N as the last scenes of a Hereditary played out on screen. Her and Alyssa have been seeing each other for a few months and Y/N thought, since it was October (AKA spooky month) that it was a great idea to invite Alyssa over to watch some horror movies. Alyssa never said she was scared of them, though.

Alyssa agreed to come over easily, and when Y/N mentioned watching horror movies, Alyssa’s willingness never waned.  Y/N assumed Alyssa liked horror movies, or at least would be able to watch them.

Y/N spent all of October chatting with their teammates about the best horror movies, the scariest ones, the ones that didn’t quite land, and Alyssa never participated, but it’s Alyssa. She’s always quiet and tries to stay out of the team’s shenanigans most of the time. So really, it came as a shock when a few minutes into the movie, Alyssa’s grip on Y/N’s hand gets so tight that Y/N begins to worry about the circulation in her fingers. Still, when Y/N asked if she should turn it off, Alyssa said no. Then she was screaming and trying to duck behind Y/N. But still, she told Y/N they didn’t need to turn it off.

“I told you we didn’t have to watch the whole thing,” Y/N says, “I wouldn’t have minded doing something else tonight.”

“I can handle a stupid horror movie,” Alyssa insists stubbornly.

“I’ve never doubted your capabilities, babe,” Y/N turns around enough to press a kiss to the back of Alyssa’s head, “But if this is you handling it? I don’t want to see what not handling it looks like.”

“I will go home,” Alyssa says.

“You want to go home right now? When it’s dark out? Get in your car alone and drive home to your empty, dark house with no one around but you? Leave me here all alone and hope there’s nothing lurking in my closet?”

Alyssa doesn’t answer.

“That’s what I thought.”

Y/N swings her legs over Alyssa’s lap, and runs her fingers through Alyssa’s hair.

“I’m sorry you got scared,” Y/N says, “That wasn’t my intention for the evening.”

“I know,” Alyssa says, “It wasn’t your fault.”

“What would you like to do with the rest of the night?”

“I would like to stay like this please.”

“Of course.”

Y/N pulls Alyssa’s head to her chest and alternates between petting her hair and rubbing her back. She feels bad that Alyssa got scared, but she won’t deny she enjoys the end result. She loves doing just about anything with Alyssa, whether it be playing soccer or going on dates or even just watching Alyssa complete her morning crossword. She likes these quiet moments where it’s just the two of them, cuddling up on the couch in silence.

Y/N doesn’t know how long they sit there, before Alyssa lifts her head. Y/N kisses the bridge of her nose, because she can, and grins at the pink blush that dots Alyssa’s cheeks.

“I know it’s not that late, but can we go to bed?” Alyssa asks.

“Yeah, we can go to bed.”

They go through their nightly routines, and then slide into bed. Y/N gives Alyssa a peck and says goodnight then turns off the lamp on her bedside table. She lays down, facing Alyssa, who she can make out the outline of in the dark. Alyssa lays on her back, completely still, and Y/N frowns. She reaches out and touches Alyssa’s arm and Alyssa almost jumps off the bed.

“Woah, Lys, you good?”

“Sorry,” Alyssa whispers, “Sorry.”

“What’s up?”

Alyssa doesn’t answer and if Y/N wasn’t staring at her she might’ve thought Alyssa had fallen asleep. Then Alyssa sighs.

“Can you leave the light on please?”

Y/N rolls over and flicks the lamp back on. She gets up and flicks the hall light on, and leaves her bedroom door open a crack, so the light filtered in. Then she got back in bed and turned the lamp off.

“Better?”

“Yes,” Alyssa says, “Thank you.”

“It’s the least I can do after I traumatized you with that movie.”

“You did not traumatize me.”

“Whatever you say babe,” Y/N settles deeper in the blankets, “Goodnight Lys. Wake me up if you need me.”

Y/N stays awake long enough to hear Alyssa say goodnight back, then she’s falling asleep, with the warm presence of her girlfriend in bed beside her.

[thelazyhermits]

Ooh y'all I came up with some good angst for Yuu's first Halloween. I'll put it underneath the cut.

Okay, so as I stated when I posted my fics that covered the first two Halloween events, they were not canon to the A Twisted Future series since so many of the guys in the event didn't act like how they would've acted in October of the canon storyline aka between Books 2 & 3.

Well, today, I got to thinking about what kinda first Halloween WOULD be canon to the series, which is the first time I really stopped to think about it, honestly lol

And after giving it some thought, the angst hit me: What if Halloween takes place right after the Spelldrive tournament, and Yuu is in the infirmary the whole time recovering from her battle against Leona?

To recap, Yuu ended up in pretty rough shape after that battle cause she overused her Quirk to ensure Leona couldn't always predict/read her movements, which was his specialty, and as a result, she ended up with a high fever that resulted in her having a seizure.

While in the end Yuu thankfully didn't sustain any serious/permanent damage, I personally think whoever all works at that school's infirmary would want to err on the side of caution and keep her under observation for several days to monitor her condition and to possibly better understand her Quirk so they can be better prepared to treat her in emergency situations.

As a result, Yuu plays no part in NRC's Halloween during her first year since she's been ordered to remain in bed until she's given the all clear.

This gives Yuu mixed feelings, honestly, cause on one hand she really wants to experience her first ever Halloween, but on the other hand, upon finding out that ghosts are an integral part of Halloween, she wants nothing to do with the holiday due to her ghost phobia which is still pretty potent by this point in the timeline cause she's only been at NRC for about two months.

That's why Yuu doesn't make a fuss about the whole situation, especially since she brought this all upon herself by being so reckless during that overblot battle, and she refuses Ace's offer to sneak her out while no one else is around since she doesn't want to cause any more trouble and she REALLY doesn't wanna see any more ghosts lol

This has a lot of angst potential cause I'm sure like how things were in Terror Is Trending that everyone is super busy the whole day, although the events with the Magicam Monsters wouldn't happen cause Yuu isn't a celebrity at that point and the viral picture just didn't happen since things are so different in Oct thanks to Book 2 events.

Anyway, I see Yuu spending most of the day alone since she told Grim that he could go have fun with ADeuce cause she didn't want him to be bored and miss out on his first Halloween cause of her.

However, ADeuce still try to visit her whenever they can, and so do the rest of the Heartslabyul boys.

Trey's visit was especially welcomed cause he made a ton of sweets for her since he's still trying to get over the guilt of her taking the pain of his injury that she prevented.

And he, like Riddle, also blames himself for Ruggie being able to kidnap Yuu during the course of Book 2 events since he thinks he should've stayed with her and not left her alone in the cafeteria despite the place being full of witnesses.

So Trey really spoils her for Halloween 💕

The Savanaclaw boys also visit Yuu whenever they can. Ruggie, of course, always comes bringing food, and Leona shows up, claiming the infirmary is the perfect place to nap.

Meanwhile, Jack tries to act like he just so happened to be in the area and thought he should be polite and say hello lol

Unfortunately, when Halloween night rolls around, Yuu is mostly alone cause of the huge Halloween party that obviously none of our guys would wanna miss out on.

Plus, it's a little easy to forget about Yuu in this kinda setting with all the excitement going on, not to mention the fact that she's only known these guys for two months or less depending on the guy, so they're not nearly as close to Yuu as they are in my Halloween event fics.

(Also, for the record, nobody knows that Yuu has never properly celebrated Halloween since she didn't see the need to mention that to anyone. If they did, they would've made way more of an effort to get her out of that infirmary, ADeuce especially.)

Regarding having a nurse present, I'm sure there is one looking after Yuu for most of the time, but I bet they'd wanna head for the party for a little bit like the rest of the staff, especially if Yuu's doing alright and doesn't need constant monitoring.

Naturally, this has a lot of angst potential since one idea I had for the party was that a bunch of ghosts show up at NRC to party for one reason or another, so when Yuu happens to look out a window, she just sees plenty of them just flying around, partying, much to her great dismay.

Even though the ghosts aren't causing any harm, Yuu would still get scared thanks to her fear of all things horror-related, so I could see her quickly hiding underneath her covers and just trembling as she does her best to fight off all her traumatic memories about Mumei's past punishments that led to her having such a severe phobia.

I could be really evil and say that that's how the rest of Yuu's night goes with her silently suffering until she finally falls asleep with tears on her face.

But, since I'd like to think I'm not a total monster, I'll say that Yuu's suffering instead eventually comes to an end in a different way thanks to Leona paying a visit to the infirmary since I can't see him being interested in staying for the whole party cause of how he is.

Plus, while he won't admit it, Leona feels responsible for Yuu being stuck in the infirmary and for her missing out on Halloween.

Also, he was raised to treat women with respect, and obviously, leaving a girl all on her own on a fun holiday like this is the exact opposite of respectful.

When Leona finds Yuu all curled up, shivering, underneath her covers, he's understandably concerned, not that he would admit it out loud, of course, since he just automatically assumes something's going on with her health again.

That's why he gets a little curt with her when he starts questioning her cause he's angry at the idea of her being left alone whilst in such a state and he's unable to completely hide his irritation.

However, Leona simmers down when Yuu, who was naturally very surprised to see him, tells him that her health is fine. She just can't handle ghosts, etc.

This, of course, really surprises Leona since this girl just recently took him on with nothing but her bare fists, while he was overblotting, no less. How could she possibly be afraid of some weak ghosts who can't do any real harm to her? Plus, doesn't she LIVE with ghosts???

Naturally, Yuu doesn't tell Leona the whole truth since she doesn't want to talk about Mumei's past abuse. Instead, she just says that she watched too many horror movies as a child, and that had a very negative effect on her.

Thankfully, Leona, being Leona, immediately knows that there's more to that story. He sees through her weak attempt at a poker face and quickly starts coming up with some theories that make his blood boil.

However, because of how he is, Leona doesn't press the matter since he doesn't see it as his business to know. He won't force Yuu to talk about anything she doesn't wanna talk about.

Instead, Leona promptly turns the lights on, magically summons a chessboard, and demands that Yuu play with him, surprising her since she really was expecting him to look down on her for her ridiculous phobia.

Because Leona knows that the best thing to do here is distract Yuu, that's exactly what he does, so for the rest of the night, he doesn't bring up her phobia or anything related to Halloween period.

Instead, all they do is play multiple games of chess, all of which Leona wins, of course, since, while Yuu is good at chess, she's not at Leona's level lol

Eventually, game time finally ends when Yuu's fatigue gets the better of her, and Leona orders her to sleep since he doesn't want anyone nagging him for hampering her recovery.

Before she falls asleep, Yuu thanks Leona for keeping her company. She really enjoyed playing chess with him and was just really happy to have her with him for all that time.

The last thing she says before she finally drifts off is that she's glad she's not alone anymore like she always used to be.

After Yuu falls asleep, Leona watches over her with a noticeably soft expression cause it's not everyday someone is that genuinely happy to be with him, and during his time with her, he actually didn't feel like he was someone's second choice for once.

It was the most enjoyable Halloween night those two have had in a long time - a very long time.

[saitama-division]

Attention Everyone!

As I’m sure you all are aware right now, it is October! Which means that Halloween is right around the corner! Much like last year, I am here to announce that if you are planning to participate in this year’s Halloween event, you have approximately 16 days to prepare your costumes and what different types of treats (or tricks if you’re feeling particularly mischievous this year) to hand out. I will also be notifying everyone a week before the event starts as a final warning.

Now, in case this is your first time joining in or if you need a refresher about what the Hypmic OC Halloween Event is about, it is basically just…

Throughout the month of October or the week leading up to Halloween (your choice), you can set up an OC Ask/Prompt list for small headcanons or even scenarios, of course, these must be horror and/or Halloween related.

On Halloween, you can make a post detailing your OCs Halloween costumes as well as a line of dialogue pretty much saying whatever they want, quite simple.

Along with your OCs costumes, you have the option of either giving out a treat or trick, a treat obviously being candy or some other sweet treat you can either make up or give a name brand like Hersheys or Butterfingers. As for a trick, you can make up a prank, something simple but if you want to go the extra mile than feel free to do so note that I will not take responsibility for any and all prank wars that may or may not happen from this

It is completely optional but you can personally send other Division Blogs a special treat or specific trick of your own as a way to really celebrate with the community. Again, this is completely optional and you are not obligated to do so if you really don’t want to.

You can choose to make a costume for your OCs via Picrew, Neka, or if you so wish, you may draw your OCs costumes. However, if any of those options are unavailable for some reason than you can ask @saitama-division / @shinagawa-division (aka Me) to make you a costume, all you have to do is tell me what they’re going as (even better if you send in a reference photo) and I’ll try my best to replicate it as accurately as possible. This applies strictly to females as the dress up game I use to create outfit is highly on the feminine side, if you still wish to send in a male OC regardless, I’ll do the best I can do but please do not expect them to turn out as masculine as possible, chances are they’ll look very androgynous or straight up a femboy.

If you have any questions or inquiries about the event just DM me @saitama-division or @shinagawa-division and I’ll try my best to answer them.

Thank You and Happy Halloween!

🎃💀👻😈

[foodsies4me]

October Malec fic rec! (yes I'm running late again)

To fit the time of year, this month's theme is all about Halloween or Horror (mostly halloween for the one-shots, the horror and spooky comes more in the play for the series and multi chapter fics) ! As always, I have tagged the authors but if you prefer I don’t, please tell me because I don’t want these to be annoying for the authors.💜

If you want to add your own recs, please feel free to do so!😊

One-shots:

Collecting Treats from Pretty Boys by newtntommy: Malec, kiddos and trick-or-treating, what more could you want?

Magnus takes his niece trick-or-treating. He’s dressed as Red Riding Hood, and Madzie is dressed like a werewolf. Alec takes his brother trick-or-treating, and they all cross paths. Alec sees Magnus in a skirt and Alec.exe stops working.

Please Talk to Me, It's Halloween by @dragonbinx: Alec broke Magnus' heart around Halloween and even though they're happy now, Magnus is still struggling with the reminder of all he lost at one point. A lovely look on the fallout of Alec breaking up with Magnus even if he did it under the belief it would make Magnus happy as it would give him his magic back.

Halloween had never been particularly special to Alec. The mundanes were ridiculous of course, dressing up like the very beings Shadowhunters had to protect them from; but even in his less enlightened days, he’d appreciated the opportunity it gave Downworlders to fit in for a night as they were, so he couldn’t get too worked up over it. Certainly he had none of his own special childhood memories with candy and costumes to indulge in. Halloween hadn’t meant much of anything to him. Until it became the day he’d broken Magnus’s heart. Alec wants to talk about last Halloween. Magnus wants to redecorate the loft over and over. Madzie wants candy.

Cupids, Tigers, and Pokemon Trainers - Oh My! by @heartsdesire456: Magnus, Alec and Max go trick-or-treating aka this is more pure unadulterated fluff and I love.

When Magnus discovers that Max has never been trick-or-treating, he decides that he and Alec have to fix this immediately.

come as you are(n't) by @strangehunger: I spent TWO DAYS looking for this fic because my dumb butt didn't bookmark it even though I absolutely adore it.

"No costume?" With a raised eyebrow, Magnus waved to the rest of the room. "And yet you’re throwing the biggest Halloween party this town has ever seen.” “That wasn’t exactly my idea,” Alec said, staring down into his cup. His own reflection stared back at him, rippling through the dark red surface of the punch. “Izzy planned --" he gestured vaguely at the party "-- this.” “Not a fan of Halloween?” Alec had never been a fan. Things happened when the veil was thin -- strange things. While other children had spent Halloween dressed in costumes and asking for candy, Alec had spent it learning about magical protections, brewing potions, going to stuffy dinners back in the Other Realm. For years, it had been one of the many things that reminded him that he and his family just... weren't normal. And all Alec had ever wanted to be was normal. _______________ An homage to 90s Halloween specials, in which Alec is a witch with a crush, Magnus is charming, Izzy throws a Halloween party, and things go horribly wrong.

The Heart Of The House by Thealmostrhetoricalquestion: A change from the cute halloween fluff, this fic is creepy and scary and something that very much deserves to be classified under House Horror. (Also, the author has said in the endnotes that there is an offscreen happy end and I will cling to that for the sake of my squishy heart).

When an old acquaintance of Magnus's leaves a house to him upon his death, Alec reluctantly tags along to help clean the place up. That was his first mistake.

Multi-chapter fics or series:

I'm going to quickly cheat and share @la-muerta's self-rec list again because these are all *wonderful* spooky fics and I would be hard-pressed to choose just one of them. That said, if you love house horror, then I can only very very very highly recommend The Haunting of Blackthorn House because that fic is phenomenal even if it had me jumping at shadows for a week straight.

robin writes horror by the "illustrious" oprhan_account (yes I'm convinced I'm funny): a series of different, spooky one-shots that are as unnerving as they leave me wanting more.

[razorsadness]

It’s the season of the scent of burn barrels and the sound of trains. It’s the month when all my ghosts come back to me.

I just don’t have much to say. Well, that’s not entirely true. I have a lot to say, but it’s all coming out in poetry or essays about past experiences, or in visual art. Not in journal entry form. I’ve been making copious notes for things-to-write re: my current life, but sometimes I need time to process it before I turn it into any kind of writing, even a journal entry. (Why do you think I’m always writing poems and essays about events from decades ago? Or writing epic-length journal entries about everything that happened in a particular day/week/month?)

It’s not that nothing is going on, currently. I’ve been doing a lot, feeling a lot. There’s of course all the general life-stuff: hustling for freelance gigs and then doing them, printing/collating/packing up zine orders, doing schoolwork with the kiddos. Even that stuff has been going quite well overall (there have been bad days, but not an unmanageable amount), and there have also been a lot of special, interesting, things. My and P.’s sex life has picked back up again after a couple months of it being pretty sparse and lackluster, and thank g-d for that. I’ve been embracing the delights of the season, in all their myriad forms. There have been trips to the north woods to chase the autumn; jaunts downtown for coffee and wandering or for fancy lunches and the art museum. I’ve been lurking in cemeteries, decorating my house for Halloween; I've been dressing up in some way or another, whether I'm going downtown or even just going to run errands, and some days, I dress up even just to stay at home. I’ve been painting pumpkins, making spooky art, writing poems about cryptids and graveyards and ghosts. I’ve been asking myself “what would the Great Pumpkin do?”; waking up in the morning and listening to goth and post-punk playlists while eating candy for breakfast, or drinking red wine or pumpkin beer while cooking dinner, and dancing around my kitchen when that one DJ on my favorite radio station who knows what's up plays Big Star and The 'Mats back-to-back. I've been reading horror and ghost stories and spooky poems, watching my favorite spooky films. I've been re-embracing my obsession with Peter Lorre, as I tend to do every year around this time. (Not that it ever really goes away, it’s just stronger this time of year.) I’ve been redecorating my altars to suit the season, and I’ve gotten back into tarot. I’ve been watching live videos of old favorite bands. My heart has been breaking every day over the state of the world, and I have been trying to do what I can while not getting down on myself for not being able to do more. And on days when it’s not raining, I’ve been sitting outside to watch the leaves fall, to listen to the trains, and to think of long lost friends and old flames.

Which leads me to the main thing I do want to get down. One of the old flames that’s been most heavy on my mind is “Harvey” (aka “Hertz,” neither are his real name but I have referred to him as one or the other in various writings over the years). There are many reasons for this, one being that he had the Inferno-connection too, so in the lead-up to Hallowmas, he is one of the people I think of when I listen to/think of the band. Another being that it was during October/November 2004 that our ‘thing,’ such as it was, was at its peak. After not having spoken for something like 12 or 13 years, we briefly reconnected after Jack’s death, because both of us needed to talk to someone who would get what we were feeling. The initial emails we exchanged were in no way romantic or flirtatious, but then after a while we admitted to each other that we still occasionally thought of one another That Way. And then we both stopped emailing again because, well, nothing good can come from opening all that up.

The night before last, I was thinking of him, and thought about sending him an email, and then I said to myself: “Not today, Satan.” He’s not Satan; Satan in this situation is my fucking feelings and complete inability to let the past be the past when it comes to certain people (such as Harvey). Satan is the fact that it doesn’t even make sense to still have these feelings; we barely had a relationship, we only kissed once, we never slept together. (Though that might be allonormativity talking; sex alone doesn’t make a relationship and lack of sex doesn’t mean a relationship wasn’t real. And I think the fact that we never fucked is part of the reason I have a hard time letting him go completely; there’s more to wonder about, more of a question of what might have been.) Satan is all the ways it could fuck up my life if we dredge all those feelings up again. So I didn’t email him, and I was so proud of myself for my willpower, and then I checked my inbox yesterday morning, and there was an email. From Harvey. And it fucking figures, because there are certain people in my life who seem to know when I’m thinking about contacting them and then contact me, and he has always been one of them. I haven’t even opened the email yet, because I’m scared. It could very well be an innocent ‘just saying hey’ message, except I doubt it is, because he sent it at like 3 a.m. his time and who is up in the middle of the night thinking of old flames only to send them a casual message? Ugh. I just. I’m not looking for advice, really, it just hurts.

[godhasforsnakenme]

For September, films included The Nun II, A Million Miles Away, Insidious: The Red Door, The Darkness (2016) & You Should Have Left (2020). And then the series that I watched were: Virgin River, Power Rangers: Cosmic Fury, and s3 of the iCarly Revival (okay, but can I get a film as the series ending??? That was done back in the day instead of leaving us in a cliffhanger & actually wrapping the plot points up) – oh and like I went & managed to rewatch all three seasons of Pokémon Journeys + the ten epsiodes of To be a Pokémon Master, just bc I wanted to since I'm gonna miss our duo <3 (I have a lot of time during my mornings, cartoons are all I watch bc of the <30min each episode takes [have I mentioned the sleeping Pikachu plush I got during May from Target?])

As for October, which was quite productive, these are the ones I checked off my watch list – although I feel like I could've done more halloween classics, I can always watch those whenever :)

In no particular order: Lupin S3, The Road to El Dorado, Reptile, Nowhere, Spykids: Armageddon, Saw X, End of the Road, The Fall of the House of Usher, Five Nights at Freddy's, Cabinet of Curiosities, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Haunted Mansion (Owen Wilson, my beloved), Hocus Pocus 1&2, Ahsoka (waited until all the episodes were out to watch it because dear lord I can't do this waiting around thing sometimes and this just needed a full day dedicated to it), Haunted (collection series on n*tflix), Ghost Hunters & GHI (selected epsiodes that are favorites of mine), Session 9 (2001), & The Invisible Man (2020).

About half way through the month I found myself binge watching Avatar: The Last Airbender (couldn't remember if I'd already done that this year or not, so I said might as well [also reporting in to say that I still cried at the Tale of Iroh, scared of the day that I don't ngk]; took me 3 nights and that's only because I wanted to pause between each book lmao)

Picked up rewatching Psych again, and I decided I'm pacing myself with each season, so it's my "I've had the day off and have finished the chores, so time to watch something while we eat lunch" series :)

Bluey – if I had a nickle for every time a blue dog managed to entertain me & heal a part of my soul (aka the inner child), I'd only have 2 nickles, but it's weird that it happened twice, no? (Sleepytime is my favorite, followed by Camping [I'm a sucker for visuals of space], all the episodes with Rusty & when Pat [Lucky's dad] makes an appearance; honestly the whole series is adorable and so amazing) – just have s3 to watch now, plus the epsiodes that for whatever reason aren't on d*sney+

And then, of course, the long awaited S2 of Loki – I think I'm liking this season more than the last; Loki & Mobius have had more screen time together, plus Oroboros as a new character, and just how it seems to focus on the one thing with Loki not leaving the TVA (cue the way he found the way to control his time slips); just one more episode to go 😭😭😭 [it feels like good omens really with the silly 6 epsiode seasons; speaking of which, I've listed to the audio book version w/ David & Michael and it was just so lovely to listen to them <3 ]

January's brain rot was mostly Obikin, plus whatever else my brain has decided to completely blank on (it was a long month okay?)

February would like to add on Longmire & Miraculous to the mix, along with the yearly switching from football to baseball mode

[sepublic]

2022 Halloween Timeline Error?

            All right VERY silly nitpick/trivia incoming, but.

         We know the show takes place in 2022. This is because of the calendar in Reaching Out, whose dates match the specific weekdays in the same way our year does; And in the Post-Hoot for Reaching Out (on Cissy Jones’ Instagram), it was confirmed that Dana was intentional about this date and chose it. So TOH canonically happens in 2022 (AKA a whole year after Anne leaves Amphibia for the last time, for those who are wondering).

         This ALSO means that Thanks to Them happens on October 31st, of 2022! Except…

         See, I was going to do something similar to what I did for Reaching Out, which takes place on August 22; When that date rolled around in OUR world, I timed posts pointing out across that day that this is when certain events in Reaching Out happened, and it was hypothetically occurring right now. Stuff like that. And I was planning to do the same, except!

         In my research of the episode, we see that Thanks to Them, sans the prologue and six-minute montage across two months, takes place across three days. The first day, Luz goes to school, the second she doesn’t have school and is at the clinic, the third day is when Halloween takes place; Which, we cut directly to the night of Halloween, so we don’t see if Luz had school or not. And we know the episode’s climax is on Halloween and not a lead-up event to Halloween, because of a banner that designates it as the Halloween festival, and Luz mentioning Trick-or-Treaters. 

         The problem is… October 31st in 2022 is a Monday; And while this doesn’t conflict with what we’ve seen on the third day, it DOES mess with what we see in the first day of Thanks to Them; Because it implies that Luz went to school on a Saturday, as did everyone else. That, or Halloween took place on the 30th, on a Sunday; THAT, or the writers, y’know, messed up the timeline a little.

         If we’re being totally honest, I do think the writers messed up the timeline and forgot to consider checking what day this year’s Halloween takes place on and planning around that, because… Let’s be honest, it’s such a minor and nitpicking detail. It would’ve been VERY impressive if they actually accounted for that, but all things considered, I’m not holding it against them for not doing it.

         (I bring this up because the writers DID pay attention to the corresponding weekdays to dates for Reaching Out in order to confirm its placement on August 22nd, so there is precedent for them to consider this. And before you ask, yes I checked when Halloween 2023 takes place, and that’s on a Tuesday, so it still doesn’t work out. And it was said they were trapped for months, not a whole year.)

         Of course, there is another possibility; That there’s an unmentioned day that we pass through during the events of the episode. Given how Gus mentions they plan to search Gravesfield TOMORROW on the night of the first day, then this means that if there was a ‘hidden day’ that passed by and wasn’t shown because it wasn’t relevant, it would have to be after Luz records her final diary video, and then Halloween. And yes, one would assume that Amity would want to tell Luz about the rebus ASAP, but remember; She said she had the perfect occasion in mind planned to reveal this information, so it stands to reason they waited an extra day to do so!

         In other words; If we want the timeline to still match our own year, then that means we skipped over October 30th, Sunday. So to order the timeline…

         Yesterday on Friday, October 28th, Luz went to school and had a VERY concerning breakdown in class; Her friends discovered the rebus Caleb and/or Evelyn left in the house; Belos gets run over by a car; Gus introduces Hunter to Cosmic Frontier, who reads it over night; and Luz has a heart-to-heart with her mom, who has a dream realizing what her daughter went through.

         Then today, Saturday, on October 29th; Luz’s friends search Gravesfield for clues, encounter a giraffe for the first time; Vee reunites with Masha, sort of; Luz contemplates what her palisman will be; Hunter realizes Belos is still alive (and unknowingly gets possessed by him); Him and Luz look for Belos but come up empty-handed; Amity announces her plans to dress up with Luz for Halloween; And tonight, at 11:09 pm EST, Luz records her decision to stay in the human realm.

         Then TOMORROW, Sunday, October 30th… A whole day passes in which nothing of note happens.

         And then the day after that, October 31st, Halloween on a Monday; We skip past Luz’s school day, and go directly to the night! Meaning between Luz’s video recording and the next scene, we’e skipped past nearly two whole days!

        …This is all speculative of course, and the more likely reason is that the writers didn’t consider/forgot this year’s (AKA TOH’s) Halloween takes place on a Monday. But it’s fun to make this stuff up, so nobody’s gonna stop me!

[thisweekingundamwing]

This Week in Gundam Wing (August 22-28, 2021)

Hey Gundam Wing fandom!  Here’s your weekly roll-up.  Show your fellow fans some love. 

--Mod LAM

EDIT (August 29): have removed tags for richardarmititty per their request (and for evan-wins for good measure).  Please do not submit posts by either party going forward.  I will also be BLOCKING both accounts to avoid future inadvertent inclusion (again, per their request to not be associated with the content captured in this roll-up).

Fanfiction

The Life of the Immortal Jellyfish (CH.14/35) by @lemontrash

Pairings: Duo x Wufei

Characters:  5 pilots + Relena, Hilde, Noin, Une

Rating: MATURE

Tags / Warnings:  post-canon, post-Endless Waltz, UST, roommates, Preventers, slow burn, insomnia, friendship

Summary:   Is it chance that lands Duo and Wufei in the same university dorm room? They're not stupid enough to believe that but too tired to fight it. Duo's dragged himself back from the brink of going too far and remains teetering on the edge while Wufei's doggedly trying to prove himself to the 'good guys' in the aftermath of the Eve Wars. Sleep and normalcy eludes them both. As they become increasingly aware how damaged they are, they start to edge towards friendship, or something more, but all too soon the peace seems jeopardised by a new and manipulative threat.

Thrash (welcome to the gutter) by @gemstonecircles for @noirangetrois

Pairings: Duo x Relena, implied Heero x Trowa

Characters: Heero, Duo, Trowa, Relena, Hilde

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: safehouses, friends to lovers, unresolved (and eventually resolved) sexual tension, graphic sexual situations, 

Summary: “Not that it’s not a pretty bitchin’ look,” Duo said, his words slightly distorted by the key-pin hanging from his mouth, both his hands engaged with the grocery bags from the pick-up location in the city outside, “And OverKill is an excellent choice, but don’t you have your own clothes?”Relena and Duo are pent up in a safehouse and something’s gotta give. Eventually.

Lucerne by katopiyo

Pairings: Duo x Quatre

Characters: Duo, Quatre

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: canon insert, dancing

Summary:  Duo and Quatre catch up in the Peacemillion's break room.

The Empresses’ Third by @tziganecaffiends and @zaganthi​

Pairings: Wufei x Treize x Meilan

Characters: Wufei, Treize, Melian

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: threesome, alternate universe - everyone lives, fix-it, happy ending, love, prisoner of war, coercion, Light Dom/sub, pegging, Porn with Feelings, families of choice, implied/referenced child abuse and suicide

Summary:  Out of a war, she had secured the safety of her husband, obtained a third, and had a daughter. They had managed to fix their colony, and they now had viable economic gains that were steady and sufficient to support their people because she had felt greedy, angry, horny, and petty, yes. Because her husband had been fascinated by the man who was now showing Mei-Xing the parts of a rose bloom, and stumbling for a moment as Wufei gave him the right words in Mandarin.

Warmth by @noirangetrois for ​Purdys aka Diane

Pairings: Heero x Relena

Characters: Heero, Relena

Rating: MATURE

Tags / Warnings: huddle for warmth, only one blanket, resolved sexual tension, sexual situations, Heero’s an idiot

Summary: The front door opened and Relena heard the sound of rain pelting down outside. Heero entered and shut the door behind him, dripping water everywhere.“You didn’t wear a jacket!” She had been asleep when he’d left to scout the perimeter and hadn’t realized. “It wasn’t raining when I left,” he replied.

Stand Without Flinching (CH.46/?) by @angelselene​

Pairings: Heero x Duo, Trowa x Quatre, Wufei x Sally, Steve x Tony, Wanda x Vision

Characters: GW and MCU cast

Rating: MATURE

Tags / Warnings: GW-MCU crossover, alternate universe, canon divergent, fix-it, romance, Preventers, PTSD, moral ambiguity, family reunification, slow burn, found family

Summary:  Wufei wasn’t sure what to expect when Maxwell came back in by himself.

With Open Arms by @bryony-rebb​

Pairings: Zechs x Noin

Characters: Zechs, Noin

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: post-canon, post-Endless Waltz, reconciliation, emotional hurt/comfort, semi-public sex, porn with feelings

Summary: In the immediate aftermath of Endless Waltz, Zechs and Noin (ahem) reunite.When he looked back at her, there was a slight furrow between Noin's brows, a downward twist to her lips; her eyes seemingly stuck on the slim leather fold of his wallet. "The dead man carries cash," she quietly observed.

The Art of Making a Machine by @the-reanimated-bhg

Pairings: N/A

Characters: Dr. J, Professor G

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: two brilliant minds bickering incessantly, failed NaNoWriMoFic, humor

Summary:  A Story of Love, Friendship and Fisticuffs

Fanart

Heero Smoking by @bettertasting

No Sleep (Heero x Duo) by @bettertasting

Heero and Relena by @alphaikaros

Heero and Relena Halloween by @alphaikaros

Halloween Relena by @noromax

Wufei by @farshootingstar​

Quatre by @darksharinganz​

Other Fanwork

Cosplay and Gunpla

(RG) XXXG-01W Wing Gundam review by @reversemoon255

Custom EW Heavyarms 1/100 HG by @the-reanimated-bhg

Heavyarms by @christianmswanson

Sandrock and Deathscythe by @christianmswanson

Shenlong by @christianmswanson

Discussion and Headcanons

@kittykatz​ took and online survey and found 8w7 is Une’s enneatype according to PDB.  Try it yourself over here!

Gundam Fuel Source by @meggie-stardust​

@kittykatz​ is sharing some scans of GoL and their thoughts on the scenes

​Wufei and Treize’s fight and the immediate aftermath

Miscommunication at its finest

The Lightning Count

Singapore base + more Treize and Zechs

Heading to outer space

Heero’s freak out

Duo and Hilde

Other Fun Stuff

@incorrectgundamwingquotes is still making us laugh

It’s Always Sunny in Gundam Wing by @incorrectgundamwingquotes

Skeletons by @the-reanimated-bhg

Make it happen by @the-reanimated-bhg

Helmet-ception by @the-reanimated-bhg

Too hot to handle by @vegalume and @janaverse

Calendar Events

@gwcocktailfriday​ is back with this week’s prompt!  Be sure to post your responses on Friday (September 3) between 3-5PM EST!

@/ficwip (Twitter) is hosting a "Rise of the Dead Fandoms" event. Contributor sign-ups end on Monday (August 30), so be sure to register soon! Creation period runs September-October; posting will be in November.  More info at their FAQ.

September is National Prostate Awareness Month and @expewrites​ and @boxofhatebrains​ are hosting a GW Prostate Health Event at @prostatehealth-gundamwing​ beginning September 1.  More info is available on the Event AO3 Page but in brief, options are to (1) create something or (2) donate to your prostate health organization of choice.

@gundamzine has opened up the mailing list, so be sure to register to get your FREE PDF on October 1!  In the mean time, be sure to follow the account so that you can learn about the stellar 2021 Zine Crew members. Also consider donating to the team’s chosen charity, World Literacy Foundation (donations are optional, but encouraged).

The @weedgrandpacookbook is a go!  The project will be an homage to the fanon of Howard as the Gundam Wing’s chillest Weed Grandpa. Yes, this includes content that promotes/celebrates/normalizes the consumption of marijuana and adjacent substances recreationally. The FREE digital zine would be presented like a cookbook, with room for meta, fic, general advice, art, graphics, crafts (Gundam-themed pipes anyone?), and of course, dank recipes.  More info to come this month, with sign-ups planned for October.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the theme, this zine will be considered 18+ NSFW. Be mindful of your local laws regarding creating and engaging with content of this nature.

Spooky prompt idea generation for the GW Hallows Event will kick off mid-September, and posting period will happen in October.  Stay tuned to @thisweekingundamevents!

Keep an eye on @gwoc-october​ while you’re at it for news on the GW Original Character (OC) October Event.  You can expect a prompt calendar to go live in September with posting in October...but you can also just use the month to showcase works with your original GW characters!

Also, @thisweekingundamevents​ will be opening sign-ups for the 2021 Holiday Gift Exchange in September!  Participants will get their assignments in October, followed by the creation period November-December and finally posting in early January 2022.

Got an event you want us to showcase?  Let us know!

[thealexchen]

One Year On: Life is Strange 2 Critique

December 3rd, 2020 marks a year since Life is Strange 2 ended. I was inspired by @smitethepatriarchy‘s text posts (here, but there are several other answered asks worth reading) and @suhaplays’s text post (here) criticizing Life is Strange 2 to write a critique about how Life is Strange 2 handled certain themes and social issues.

(tw: gun violence, police brutality, animal death, incarceration, racism. In this essay, I use the word “queer” in a reclaimed sense, as a queer person myself. Of course, spoiler warning for all five episodes of Life is Strange 1 and 2).

A year on, my feelings about this game have soured... a lot. When the game was first announced, I was overjoyed that our new protagonists would be two Latino boys. Finally, we would have a culturally meaningful, groundbreaking video game with people of color and their experiences at the forefront! 

Then the game was met with immediate backlash and I utterly exhausted myself defending it for weeks on Reddit and Tumblr. Throughout 2019, as the episodes came out I became increasingly disillusioned, frustrated, and disappointed with where the story was going. I couldn’t figure out why I felt so damn miserable while playing this game.

Then in the summer of 2020, when Tell Me Why began rolling out pre-release material, I noticed that they posted a Q&A about transphobia, gave content warnings, and discussed at length about their collaboration with GLAAD, Checkpoint, and the Huna Heritage Foundation to make the game with sensitivity and proper research. I cannot speak for trans and gender non-conforming people on whether Dontnod succeeded at doing so with Tell Me Why. But Life is Strange 2 did… none of that.

Essentially, I realized that the reason why I was so frustrated with LiS2 is because it focuses way too heavily on a trauma narrative. This comes off as insensitive to players of color without any content warnings or extensive research.

Sean didn’t have to get kidnapped, kicked in the face, and called a racial slur by a gas station owner. Daniel did not need to watch his puppy get mauled by a mountain lion for the sake of a “difficult choice.” Sean didn’t have to lose his eye for the sake of heightened drama. Sean didn’t need to get called a racial slur and humiliated by his native language/beaten in the desert for refusing to sing. Daniel didn’t need to get shot— twice. Hell, all of “Faith” probably could’ve been cut— how is a church cult that brainwashes Daniel and beats Sean half to death relevant at all to the story?

Even if not all of the game’s violence was racially motivated, the consistent trauma that Sean and Daniel endure does not make for positive representation— or even good characterization. There is a difference between sympathetic characters and well-written characters, and trauma does not make Sean and Daniel any more complex or likable-- just more fucking traumatized.

LiS2 is more grounded in reality, but that also makes plot holes that much harder to excuse (Daniel’s powers being spotted, most of the Parting Ways ending, Sean’s prison sentence). But most of all, it grounds all of Sean and Daniel’s pain and trauma in reality. 

There is no magicking away a town-destroying storm with time travel. Sean can’t keep his dad alive by ripping up a Polaroid. After Max unlocked her powers, she was still a Blackwell student, reconnecting with Chloe, taking photos, saving lives, and uncovering a murder mystery. After Daniel unlocked his powers, the Diaz brothers lost everything. 

The game never lets you forget that Sean and Daniel are homeless, wanted, constantly in danger, and that they are never getting their old lives back. It permeates the entire game, and for players of color, just reinforces a sad, miserable, grim reality about living in the United States. It is, as @smitethepatriarchy said, potentially triggering for players of color, and it is certainly not something I needed to be reminded of.

And the representation of POC? It feels shallow and ill-researched. It would only take a Google search to find out that Dia de Muertos (a holiday to honor the dead, no less) was from October 31 to November 2 in 2016, the year the game takes place, but Daniel only talks about Halloween in episode 1. Sean and Daniel never discuss any Mexican customs, foods, or holidays. Sean doesn’t speak Spanish with his immigrant father, only during a scene when he’s traumatized (again!) by two racists, and again when talking to Mexican immigrants— in jail. Daniel doesn’t speak Spanish at all. Most of their allies throughout the game are white, including Finn and Cassidy, who appropriate Black culture with their dreadlocks.

So what’s left? Sean and Daniel’s existence as people of color is, at worst, just a narrative prop to justify everything that happens to them. They are people of color on the surface only. In a meta-sense, the game only considers the color of their skin and their last names as what is narratively important… yikes.

I don’t have anything against people who genuinely loved the game and were moved by its messages and story. But I can’t help but feel bitter that white players have the luxury of only thinking of this game as a work of fiction and not feeling any personal reliability to Sean and Daniel’s racialized trauma.

I don’t regret playing LiS2, but I do regret all the time and energy I spent defending it in the beginning. I understand now that I shouldn’t let people’s opinions get to me, nor should I feel obligated to like or defend a game for its attempts at representation. But now, I think I understand how queer fans must have felt in late 2015 when Polarized released. After following the game for 10 months, to see that Chloe’s ultimate destiny was to die and Pricefield is another ship plagued by the Bury Your Gays trope (in the ending that the devs clearly put more work into) must have been just as disillusioning and infuriating. I understand why some fans were so quick to unfollow LiS or develop mixed feelings about the series, because that’s how I feel too after following LiS2’s development from September 2018 to December 2019.

Before I end, I will admit that Life is Strange 2 arrived at a time when I needed it. I still stand by my belief that DN did a great job characterizing Sean, Daniel, and Chris without toxic masculinity, which is the best thing they could’ve done for a male-focused follow-up to a game about queer women. I love that Sean is still a canonically bisexual man of color in a major video game and that DN didn’t forget their queer audience. I love the world and characters that DN built, but I still prefer AU fanfictions of their normal lives, without all that trauma. 

So, I will continue to treasure Lyla and her 10 minutes of screentime (aka the only shred of Asian American representation I can get from this series). I still reblog LiS2 fanart to support the artists. I still support Dontnod, because as Tell Me Why has shown, they are capable of researching and writing stories with more sensitivity. And let’s be honest-- I’m still gonna be hella excited if Life is Strange 3 is announced.

But so many aspects of Life is Strange 2 were bungled that it came off as a remarkably average and forgettable experience. A year on, I don’t hate Life is Strange 2, but I am writing this to move on from it.

Thank you for reading.

[inkedstarlight]

I Put A Spell On You

Summary: Nesta and Cassian hated each other. Ever since freshman year of college, he'd been nothing but a pain in her ass. Their conversations always ended in screaming matches, and they couldn't agree on a single thing. So why was Nesta so angry to see him with another girl at a Halloween party one night? Cassian quickly picks up on her jealousy and teases her about it, only further infuriating Nesta. Sexual tension, unresolved feelings, and an intense game of truth or dare ensue. Warnings: explicit language, NSFW Read it here on AO3

Lana Del Ray’s “Season of the Witch” was playing quietly in the background as Nesta put on the finishing touches of her makeup. Tossing the mascara on the counter, she took a step back to assess herself in the mirror.

Her lips were a deep red, so dark it was almost black. A golden crescent moon was painted on her forehead, her daring brows arched on each side. Stormy grey eyes were heavily lined with midnight kohl, streaks of black running down her cheeks as if she’d just dragged her acrylic nails down her face. It looked like dripping blood. A golden arm cuff in the figure of a snake curved its way around her bicep, and it was quite possibly Nesta’s favorite part of the entire costume.

And her dress? Her dress was the most elegant thing she’d ever worn. Nesta didn’t even know how to describe it, the layered fabric falling down to the floor, the sleeves black and sheer. All she knew was she felt fucking powerful.

She smirked devilishly at the reflection staring back at her. It was like looking at Hecate herself.

To put it blatantly, Nesta was a whore for Halloween. She loved everything about spooky season: witches, full moons, candy, costumes, horror movies. The frightening, dark atmosphere that ensconced her throughout the entire month of October. Not to mention it was the one of the few holidays that didn’t revolve around family-oriented activities. Needless to say, Nesta was in her element.

Emerie peered her head into the bathroom where Nesta was getting ready. Her smile was wicked as she took in Nesta. “You just took fashionably late to the next level.”

Nesta laughed at her friend’s reaction. “You’re one to talk.”

Emerie was wearing a silky, burgundy robe. It was untied, leaving her tiny black slip in full view. The delicate fabric fell just inches below her waist, and she stood impossibly straight in glittery stilettos. To top it all off, bunny ears protruded from her waves of dark hair. She was a Playboy Bunny, and she looked fucking fantastic.

“How late are we?”

Emerie checked her phone. “About an hour.”

Nesta shrugged and shot her a wink. “It’s always fun to make a bit of an entrance.”

Nesta and Emerie had been close friends since freshman year. Nesta’s roommate was seldom in their room, and Emerie’s roommate was always bringing hookups to her respective room. So, when the two became aware of each other’s unfortunate (albeit convenient) situations, Emerie began staying over at Nesta’s. She would sleep over several nights a week, and it eventually became her room too. It worked perfectly.

Now, as upperclassmen, the duo lived in on-campus apartments. Just them and Minx. AKA the tiny but fierce black cat they rescued just a year prior.

“Guess who I heard is coming?”

Nesta dropped what she was doing to look at her friend. She knew that tone. That tone was always followed by a sinking feeling of dread in her stomach.

She threw Emerie a look. “I swear to the gods if you say Cass –”

“It’s Cassian!” Emerie sang smugly, jazz hands and all.

Nesta groaned. Cassian Bechalot was the bane of her existence. He was a senior, Nesta a junior, and he’d been a pain in her ass from day one. The first day of classes in her freshman year, Nesta had been sitting in her biology lab waiting for the class to begin. Ten minutes after class started, Cassian rushed through the doors in a dramatic entrance. To Nesta’s dismay, he sat next to her. The professor then proceeded to review the syllabus, mentioning the fact that they will be assigned semester-long lab partners. By “assigned,” she meant the person sitting next to you. Nesta had barely held back her groan when Casssian smirked at her and said, “I have a feeling this is going to be my favorite class.” For the next four months, he made Nesta hate biology. Purely because she now associated it with him. Cassian made it his personal mission to annoy the living hell out of her.

Skip to sophomore year. Cassian was adamant on sitting next to her in a lecture they were both enrolled in. Nesta was minding her damn business when he’d looked over her shoulder to catch her reading fanfiction on her laptop. And of course, it wasn’t some innocent story. No, with Nesta’s luck, it had been a smutty-ass fic that was basically porn without a plot. Cassian was unable to contain his laughter, the immature child he was. The professor stopped midsentence to narrow her eyes at his disruption. Nesta remembered it clear as day.

“Is there something you’d like to say, Mr. Bechalot? Since it’s clearly a matter important enough to interrupt my class.”

“Oh, I’d love to,” Cassian had grinned. He nodded his head at Nesta, the latter of whom was red in the face from both embarrassment and anger. “But I don’t think the Mrs. would be very happy with me.”

The class had whopped, some applauding Cassian’s antics.

“Enlighten me.”

He’d shrugged given Nesta a look that said, There’s nothing I can do to stop what’s about to happen.

What a fucking liar.

“Nesta was just getting in her daily dose of fanfiction. It happened to be a particularly…” Cassian paused. The bastard paused for dramatic effect. “… risqué.”

And queue the laughter.

So that was one of many reasons Nesta couldn’t stand him. After that fiasco, countless others followed. Some fiascos were of Nesta’s doing.

What? Nesta couldn’t let him win every time. She had a couple tricks up her sleeve, too. And it’s not like she was going to let him off the hook without facing the consequences.

Emerie was convinced it was some sort of star-crossed lovers shit. She dubbed them an “enemies-to-lovers” slow burn. She was the biggest (and only) advocate for a romantic relationship to blossom between them.

But Nesta? Nesta saw it for what it was.

Pure, unadulterated hatred.

And now he was crashing the party Nesta had been looking forward to all week.

The party was at their friend’s off-campus apartment. There were going to be a lot of people there, but Nesta had seriously doubted he would be invited. At Pryth U, there was an obnoxious division between athletes and the rest of the undergraduates. Nesta loathed the cliquey dynamic. But while the athletes certainly had a reputation, she had many friends who were on the college teams. It was really only the men’s lacrosse team that lived up to their reputation, and Cassian just so happened to be the captain. Who’s surprised?

Cassian had a way of getting in her head, of fueling her already hotheaded temper. Their interactions typically ended in a screaming match. He would tell her to loosen up, and Nesta would tell him to fuck off. He’d make some raunchy joke of it, and she would go off on him. They’d have a staring contest for a couple minutes before continuing to yell obscenities at each other.

Yeah… it wasn’t pretty.

But Nesta was determined to not let it bother her. Tonight was going to be great, Cassian or not.

“Is you-know-who going to be there?” Nesta turned the conversation around, stealing a glance at her roommate.

She scowled. “I don’t know. Even if she was, she doesn’t know my fucking name.”

“You don’t know that,” Nesta countered.

Emerie gave her a pointed look.

Nesta sighed. “Okay, so she doesn’t know your name. Doesn’t mean you can’t introduce yourself tonight.”

Emerie mumbled an incoherent response.

She’d had a crush on a girl named Mor for several months now. Mor had recently transferred from a different university, and she was a fellow junior. Emerie first saw her when she was working one day at the on-campus Starbucks. Whenever Mor came in for a drink, Emerie was sure to be the one to get her order. And she always made Mor’s drink (a medium mocha latte). It was quite adorable when Emerie came home from work to gush about how Mor’s hair was particularly beautiful that day. Adorable and obnoxiously frustrating.

Nesta wasn’t big on love. Sure, her guilty pleasure included romance novels and smutty fanfiction, but that was fiction. In her own life, she hated romantic gestures, declarations of love, and physical affection. She’d never been the type to have crushes or pursue a potential suitor. After watching her parent’s marriage crumble right before her eyes, Nesta didn’t put much thought into romantic relationships. To her, it was work. It took too much effort and from what she’d seen, the outcome was never worth it.

Sometimes, Nesta wasn’t sure if she knew how to love. Sure, she loved her sisters, but that was the extent of it (with the exception of Amren and Emerie). The thought terrified her just as much as it empowered her.

There were rare moments when Nesta would see Amren and Varian laughing together and something in her would ache. For what, she wasn’t sure. Affection, love, trust, acceptance, peace, comfort. All of the above.

“Okay, are we ready to go?” Emerie called to back to Nesta, shaking her from her thoughts. She took one last glance in the mirror before turning the light off.

“Let’s do it.”

The apartment was decorated perfectly. The lights were dim, the atmosphere enticing. Nesta was impressed but not at all surprised at Amren’s immaculate skills as an interior design major. They were friends from high school, and they’d remained thick as thieves since.

The place wasn’t huge, but it had enough space for dancing and drinking and that’s all that mattered. There were probably twenty people in there. The music was dark and thrilling, the bass reverberating in Nesta’s chest as she maneuvered her way through the bodies in the basement.

She recognized most of the people here, only a few unfamiliar faces in the crowd. Amren’s boyfriend, Varian, was in a mermaid costume as he walked around offering people drinks. He caught Nesta’s eye and shot her a grin, his hands gesturing to the coconut shell bra on his chest. She shook her head and chuckled before swiping… candy corn Jell-O shots?

With a grimace, Nesta tilted her head back and swallowed the damn thing.

It was disgusting.

“Nesta!” a familiar voice yelled from behind her. She didn’t even need to look to know who it was.

Rhysand approached her, his strut a little less smooth than normal thanks to the many drinks he must’ve had. But when she saw him, she could barely stop herself from laughing out loud.

He was dressed as an angel. Rhysand fucking Elvert was an angel.

 I’m not drunk enough for this.

He wore a white toga, his tanned chest bare for all the women and men to drool over. Cheap translucent wings protruded from his back, and a golden halo in the form of a headband hung over his head. He was giving her a cheeky smile as he stopped in front of her.

“Nesta, my best friend!” Well, that confirmed his inebriated state. “How are you? More importantly, where’s that sister of yours?”

Nesta rolled her eyes. She should have known he was going to ask about Feyre.

Her younger sister had visited Nesta several times since she started Pryth U a couple years back. They had the unfortunate luck of encountering Rhysand while Nesta was showing Feyre around campus. And of course, as Rhysand does with every living, breathing woman, he tried to woo her with his fuckboy ways. Feyre held her own, but that changed when Nesta brought her to a small dorm party later that night. When Nesta was returning from the bathroom, she found them dancing. Well, dancing was putting it nicely. There was a lot of hip movement to say the least.

After ripping them apart, Nesta threatened Rhys that if he got near her sister again, he was a dead man. Feyre, thoroughly embarrassed, had no other choice but to follow Nesta back to her dormitory. Once in her room, Nesta chastised Feyre for “fraternizing with the enemy.” Nesta had told Feyre stories about Cassian before, so she was up to date on that situation. Feyre didn’t seem to care, claiming that she didn’t even think Rhysand was that attractive.

And though Nesta knew that was a flat-out lie, she let it go.

So, when Feyre visited a semester later, Nesta was careful not to mention her visit to anyone, especially not Rhys. They weren’t friends per se, but her rivalry with Cassian made Rhysand a fixture in her life (one that she never asked for). They would chat during class or in passing, and their relationship was lighthearted. Nothing like the tension between her and Cassian. After the first time Feyre had visited, Rhysand always managed to find a way to bring her up in conversation.

But to Nesta’s dismay, Rhysand had miraculously found out about her visit. Ignoring Nesta’s threat, Rhys shamelessly tried to pursue Feyre for the second time. Even though Nesta was careful not to mention her visit, Rhysand had miraculously found out and pursued her. That time, he blatantly flirted with her right in front of Nesta. But it was more than flirting. Nesta could tell that Rhysand was acting differently than when he flirted with other girls. Nesta had been around him long enough to watch him flirt and seduce many women, and it was different with Feyre. This behavior continued every time Feyre visited, which was just five instances. Yet Rhysand seemed strangely attached to Feyre. Nesta never asked him about it… Gods forbid Rhysand Elvert becomes her brother-in-law.

“She’s great,” Nesta said truthfully. “Just started dating a new guy.”

His face fell for a fraction of a second, so quickly that Nesta could have imagined it. “Does he treat her well?”

“I’ve never met him, but from what she’s told me, yes.”

He seemed to consider this before merely nodding in response.

“Where’s that annoying friend of yours?” Nesta changed the subject.

Why do you care? Nesta could practically hear Emerie’s voice in her head. She ignored it.

“Cassian? That bastard’s somewhere in here.” Rhysand chuckled before he suddenly got excited. “Oh! You’ll never guess what he dressed as.”

Nesta gave him an unamused look. “Let me take a wild guess: the devil.”

Rhysand’s shoulders dropped and he pouted. “You take the fun out of everything.”

“Or perhaps you’re more predictable than you think.”

“Bet you can’t guess what Azriel is.”

Nesta didn’t even have to think twice. “Azriel dressed as Sherlock Holmes because he has a shred of self-respect. As opposed to you two buffoons.”

And because he told me a week ago, Nesta thought to herself.

Rhysand opened his mouth to retort, but he was quickly interrupted.

“Did someone say Cassian Bechalot?”

Nesta’s fists balled tightly at the mere sound of his voice. She plastered on a sickly-sweet smile and turned to face Cassian.

She did her best not waver at the sight of him. Even Nesta couldn't deny that Cassian was an objectively attractive man. She would never admit it, though.

His long hair was disheveled as always, a couple loose strands framing his annoyingly sharp jaw. He wore a deep red dress shirt, and the fabric looked soft as satin. Several buttons were popped to show off a broad chest and his signature golden chain. The sleeves were rolled up to reveal his inked forearms, the collar popped to show off the thick columns of his neck. And of course, red horns stuck out from the obnoxiously inflated head of his.

But what Nesta wasn’t expecting was the woman on his arm. She looked to be about their age, maybe a year younger. She too wore a devil costume but this time it was a small red dress and a face full of beautiful makeup.

Nesta’s fists tightened even more.

Cassian stopped a couple feet in front of her, his eyes slowly dragging up and down her body. Nesta crossed her arms impatiently until his piercing gaze finally met hers.

“So glad I ran into you, sweetheart," he purred at her. Gods, him and that insufferable nickname. She could choke him. "What do you think of my costume?"

“It suits you,” Nesta replied sarcastically. Then she added, “You guys make quite the couple.”

Cassian frowned, but Nesta paid no mind to him.

“Oh, we didn’t even come here together!” piped in the woman. She gave Cassian a seductive look. “But I certainly hope we’ll be going home together.”

Nesta didn’t bother to hide her distaste. It wasn’t directed toward the friendly woman, rather at the bastard at her side. The obnoxiously sexy bastard.

“Let me guess…” Cassian tapped a finger on his chin thoughtfully. Nesta made a show of rolling her eyes. “Hecate?”

 What?

She hadn't expected that.

Nesta did her best to contain her surprise. “You know who Hecate is?”

“Ouch, you didn’t have to say it like that. You wound me, sweetheart.”

She raised a threatening brow. He chuckled deeply and raised his hands in surrender.

"Maybe I'm not as stupid as you think I am."

Nesta snorted. “That’s highly unlikely."

He tilted his head to the side, peering closer at her. “You’re particularly feisty today, aren’t you?”

“I swear to the gods, Cassian, I will rip your head off.”

All he did was laugh her off. If he only knew how serious she was...

Nesta was just about to walk away when Cassian turned to the woman at his side. “Arlia, can you leave us alone for a second?” he grinned mischievously. “I’ll find you after.”

Arlia giggled and nodded, dragging a finger down his arm as she walked away. Leaving Cassian and Nesta alone.

 Great.

Cassian didn't waste a second, closing the distance between them. He loomed several inches above her, something Nesta detested about him. He was large, tall, purely male. Nesta got a whiff of his scent, and she hated how much she loved the smell of him. He always wore the same cologne, not enough to overwhelm but enough to leave Nesta wanting more.

Ugh. He truly was the devil incarnate.

“Is that jealousy I sense?” Cassian clicked his tongue, humor flashing in his hazel eyes.

Nesta choked at his words. "As if."

It was a weak comeback, and she knew it.

He got even closer, their bodies just inches apart now. “Why do you even care who I spend my time with, Nesta? You hate me on a good day.”

“Maybe,” Nesta countered, “that’s because you do nothing but make my life as miserable as possible.”

The temperature in the room seemed to increase several degrees as Nesta stared up at him in contempt. Something unreadable crossed his face as he raised a hand and caressed her cheek, the warmth of his fingers sending tingles to her feet.

“Why do you insist on pushing me away?" Cassian asked, searching her eyes. She was frozen, her throat constricted.

 Because you terrify me.

Nesta shoved that thought deep down before she could even comprehend it, as far as it could possibly go.

"Tell me," Cassian breathed, pushing for an answer. "Is it so hard to admit that maybe I'm not as bad as you want me to be?"

 Yes.

Nesta was nearly trembling, her mouth unable to form a single word. She could only stare up at him with wide eyes and parted lips as he pushed her limits.

"Is it so hard to admit that maybe, just maybe, you actually like me?"

 Enough.

Nesta snapped.

“Like you? Fuck that, Cassian! You walk around campus like you’re the most desirable man on earth,” Nesta fumed, just the sight of him enough to boil her blood. “You treat women like shit, you humiliate me at least once a month, and you’re only at Pryth U thanks to some athletic scholarship.”

Her voice had gotten louder and people were definitely watching them, but she didn’t give a shit.

Cassian’s eyes darkened at her words, and he got another step closer, forcing Nesta’s back against the cool edge of the table behind her. He rested both hands on each side of her body and caged her in. She didn’t dare back down, levelling his hard glare.

“Do you think I’m desirable, Nesta?” he asked menacingly, his voice low. Quiet enough for only her to hear and demanding enough to get an answer.

Nesta suddenly became hyperaware of Cassian’s body so close to hers. She could see his chest moving up and down, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. His bicep brushed against her arm sending a shot of electricity through her body.

Nesta didn’t know what to say. She could only stand there and watch as Cassian huffed out a humorless laugh after a couple moments passed.

“Do you know how hypocritical you are?” Cassian asked, pulling his body away from hers and leaving Nesta with a cold feeling. He raised his voice with frustration. “No one knows who Nesta Archeron is. No, they only know you by the ‘Ice Queen.’ You sit on your damn throne and look at everyone like they’re below you. What’s so great about you, Nesta, huh? Because I’ve known you for years and still haven’t been able to find a single redeeming quality.”

He practically yelled the last sentence. She wanted to cry, throw something at him, walk away, scream until she lost her voice. But she didn't do anything. Nesta just stared at him as everything in her shut down until she just... stopped. Numbness overtook her.

Cassian was watching her, his chest heaving. Something like regret flashed over his face.

Nesta blinked, shattering the little world her and Cassian were in, looking past him and into the adjoining room.

Everyone was staring at them with wide eyes and open mouths. The entire apartment was silent, and it was painfully clear that every single person had just heard them fight.

 Just my fucking luck.

Nesta didn’t pay attention to anyone as she stormed off. As far away from him as possible.

She heard Varian tell everyone to mind their own business before blasting the music. The onlookers were happy to oblige and just like that, they were dancing without a care in the world.

Amren was leaning against the glass door that led to the outdoor patio when Nesta rushed outside for air. She heard her friend follow her from behind.

It was calmer out here, the loud bass of the music fading into the background. The moon was full, and that gave Nesta a small piece of solace.

She collapsed onto a plastic chair, her body sinking down. She didn't have to say a word as Amren held out a bottle of Tito's.

Nesta took it from her and didn’t even think as she took several gulps of the vodka. Her throat burned with every swallow, eyes watering. She took a final swig and gave it back to Amren, wiping her mouth and grimacing.

“So…” Amren started, glancing over at Nesta who was looking down at the ground. “Should we talk about what just happened in there?"

"No."

Amren got quiet and the two simply sat in silence. Nesta closed her eyes, relishing the cold breeze that washed over her face. She could smell the remnants of a bonfire from Amren's neighbors next door. After a few minutes, Amren straightened and held her hand out to Nesta.

“C’mon. We’re gonna dance.”

It wasn't a question. And Nesta wasn't about to say no and risk getting into an argument with Amren. Gods knew how taxing that would be. Anyway, the alcohol was already beginning to course through her blood. She would be on the dance floor in the next twenty minutes either way.

As Nesta took Amren's hand and retreated back inside, a feeling of euphoria began to enter her body. She happily invited it.

Nesta didn’t know how long they danced for. Long enough for her hair to stick to the back of her neck and her throat to be parched. Long enough for "Toxic" by Britney Spears to have played enough times and gotten stuck in her head.

But not long enough for her to forget about the events that took place just minutes prior to downing that vodka.

She signaled to Amren that she was going to get some water. Her friend only nodded her head and continued rolling her hips to the beat.

As Nesta poured herself a cup of water, she scanned the room. She scanned it until she found who she was looking for.

Nesta locked eyes with Cassian from across the room. She hadn't been thinking of him much as she and Amren danced to every song that played. He was on the outskirts of the dancing crowd. Him and Arlia. The song was loud, fast. And yet his hands were snug around Arlia’s waist, hers stroking his chest as they swayed slowly. Not an inch separated their bodies.

She couldn’t read the emotion in his eyes. His face was blank.

Nesta held his stare until he broke away.

To kiss Arlia.

And he didn’t just kiss her. It wasn’t an innocent peck. He pulled her into him, capturing her lips with his own. Nesta watched as Arlia gripped the collar of his shirt and molded her body into his, their hips grinding together.

Cassian opened his eyes even as he continued to kiss Arlia. He looked directly at Nesta as his mouth moved against another woman’s. Nesta fought the urge to go up to him and smack him across the gods-damn face.

She failed.

But before she could even take a step, someone grabbed her arm from behind. She looked behind her shoulder.

Amren.

“You don’t want to do that, Ness,” Amren told her with a hard tone.

“But – ”

“But nothing,” Amren interrupted Nesta, her words final. “How about we do something to take your mind off it?” She didn’t even wait for her answer before calling over her boyfriend. “Varian!”

Just like a loyal puppy, Varian appeared at her side in a second, the end of his mermaid tale dragging on the floor. “What’s up, love?”

“Nesta needs a good distraction,” she explained, gesturing not-so-subtly to where Cassian stood. “Thoughts?”

Varian’s eyes brightened and he didn’t even hesitate before miraculously yelling over the deafening music, “Truth or dare!”

Amren threw her hands up with a groan and gave him an exasperated look as if to say, Are we thirteen years old?

But it was too late. Everyone around them was already cheering and chanting Varian's name.

Nesta levelled a look at her best friend.

Amren raised her palms up. “Hey, it’ll keep you from strangling Cassian to death,” she pointed out the silver lining.

Nesta couldn’t argue with that, so she begrudgingly followed her friend to the couch. A big group of people followed them from behind.

Five minutes later, everyone was situated into a large circle. Some were sprawled on the furniture while others sat on the floor. All of them were happily drunk and way too enthusiastic to be playing truth or dare.

“Truth or dare?” Amren started, her question directed at Azriel who was sitting a couple people away from Nesta. He was dressed as Sherlock, just as he’d told her he would.

“Dare.”

Thus began an entertaining game of truth or dare. Azriel had to do a body shot off of Rhys. Rhys had to give Helion a lap dance. Helion was forced to let Lucien do his face makeup. Lucien had to take off Mor’s socks with his teeth. Mor had to make an obscene call to a random phone number. Emerie chose truth and was forced to reveal her wildest sex fantasy (a drunken Mor offered to make that dream a reality).

Halfway into the game, Nesta had shed herself of her gown, leaving her in only a small black dress she'd put on underneath in case she got warm. It was a combination of the body heat, alcohol, and tension between her and Cassian.

The entire game, Nesta did her best to avoid eye contact with Cassian. He was sitting directly across from her in the circle, Arlia at his side. Nesta was doing fine, enjoying their childish antics until it was Emerie’s turn to ask someone.

Nesta wasn’t completely surprised when her friend turned to her and asked, “Truth or dare?”

Nesta saw the mischievous look on Emerie’s face as she proposed the question. She had no fucking idea what she had planned, but there was no way Nesta was falling into her trap.

“Truth,” Nesta decided to play it safe.

But then Cassian had to open his fucking mouth.

“Boring,” he said loudly, faking a yawn.

Nesta turned her head to face him for the first time during the game. Her heart pounded at the sight of him. He was sitting on the edge of the sofa, holding his chin in his hands as he scrutinized her. His eyes were glossy, and he was clearly drunk like the rest of them.

“It’s in the name of the game.”

“Or maybe you’re just scared,” Cassian countered.

“I’m not,” Nesta gritted her teeth, staring him down.

Cassian merely raised a brow as if to say, Sure, you aren’t.

No one said anything.

“Fine,” Nesta snapped just to spite him. “Dare.”

Cassian smiled triumphantly and sat back as Emerie clapped with excitement.

"Give her a good one!" someone called out.

Emerie turned back to Nesta with a troubled look and mouthed, Forgive me.

Forgive her? What the fuck was she talking about –

“I dare you to kiss Cassian.”

Nesta stopped breathing.

The entire room was silent as everyone stared at Nesta, gauging her reaction. She felt Cassian's eyes on her.

Nesta broke the silence and burst out laughing, a snort leaving her nose. A very unattractive snort. “You think I’m going to kiss him?”

Others around the circle laughed nervously, unsure where this was going to go.

She looked across the circle to see Cassian staring at her. But where she was expecting a smug smile was a clenched jaw and burning eyes.

You’re not scared, huh? he mouthed at her silently. He was mocking her.

In your dreams, she snapped back.

Cassian crooked his finger to draw Nesta closer. "C'mere."

She snorted. Again. “If you want to do this dare, you’re the one coming to me.”

Only a couple feet separated them from opposite sides of the circle. It was petty, but she didn't care.

He looked at her incredulously. “Really, sweetheart?”

Nesta shrugged. Cassian narrowed his eyes in response.

“No.”

He was just as stubborn as her. A couple people around the circled groaned – they knew the beginning of a Nesta-Cassian stand-off when they saw one.

“Are you guys really fighting about who has to walk the five steps it takes to get to each other?” Emerie asked, astounded. Neither of them answered.

“Why don’t you meet in the middle of the circle?” Varian suggested meekly.

“No,” they both snapped at the same time, glaring at one another when they realized they said the same thing.

Another minute passed of them staring each other down.

Cassian was the first to speak again. “If you don’t come over here, you won’t finish the dare.”

Nesta gritted her teeth. He was right. She fucking hated when he was right.

 Just get it over with.

“Fine,” she seethed, standing up from the floor. She turned to Amren. “Give me another shot. I’m not drunk enough for this.”

The last thing Nesta wanted was the memory of kissing Cassian tomorrow morning. She shuddered at the thought.

“Make that two,” Cassian added.

Amren returned just a second later with a full shot glass in each hand. Neither Cassian nor Nesta hesitated as they downed the drink.

Nesta willed her legs to move, her stride confident despite the overwhelming feeling that she was going to fall thanks to her wobbly knees. Cassian’s feet were flat on the floor as he sat on the edge of the sofa. Nesta didn’t allow herself to falter for a second as she straddled Cassian and sat on his lap, their faces just inches away.

The crowd whooped and whistled. Nesta ignored it.

Nesta was already intoxicated by his scent, but she did her best to ignore it. Cassian gripped her hips to keep her balanced on him, his touch burning into her skin. She was eye-level with him, their faces inches away. She could feel his warm breath on her cheek, and chills went down her arms.

Something in Nesta ignited when Cassian subtly rubbed his thumb over her hip under the fabric of her dress. He seemed to sense the change in her, his nostrils flaring as he moved his thumb over her skin again, leaving a burning trail in its wake.

The world fell away. It was just them. Nesta’s lips involuntarily parted when Cassian’s other hand rested on her bare thigh. His fingers inched higher and higher, and Nesta opened her legs slightly wider. Cassian exhaled a harsh breath.

The spot between her legs was molten hot, her legs numb with pleasure. She slid her hand over his shoulder, and she traced the thick columns of his neck with her manicured nails. He tilted his head for her, and Nesta wanted nothing more than to lick and bite and suck his bare neck.

 What the fuck is he doing to me?

All of Nesta’s reservations fell away as she grinded her ass in his lap, unnoticeable to anyone watching, but enough to feel Cassian’s hardness slide under her core. His eyes flashed to hers. Nesta had never seen a man look at her the way he was.

Then, so fast that he didn’t even know what was happening, Nesta leaned in and pressed her lips against his. Cassian tried to deepen the kiss, but Nesta pulled away and was out of his lap before he could do anything to stop it.

She threw her hands up and threw a smirk over her shoulder at Cassian. “I did it!”

Everyone cheered, laughter filling the room as Nesta started walking back to her respective seat.

But she didn’t get far.

“Are fucking with me?” Cassian seethed from behind her. She turned around to face him.

His jaw was clenched with anger. His whole demeanor had changed, his presence threatening. Nesta watched as his fists clenched and unclenched, Cassian's telltale sign that he was not happy.

“Aw, were you expecting a date too?” Nesta cooed at him sarcastically.

 Point for Nesta.

People laughed, but Cassian boomed, "That's it," silencing everyone else. Including Nesta.

He walked straight toward her with purpose. Nesta gasped as he carefully but firmly grabbed her by the nape of the neck, his other hand splaying across the small of her back to bring their bodies together. Their lips brushed together, and Nesta's long golden hair provided a small curtain of privacy from the onlookers.

Cassian's breath smelled of whiskey, and it nearly consumed her. She looked up into his eyes and let out a breath of air. A growl released from his throat.

"Fuck it," he murmured before crushing his lips to hers.

Nesta's hand instinctively reached for him, her fingers curling in the soft tufts of his dark hair. Cassian moaned into her mouth, opening his lips and deepening the kiss. Nesta could barely stand, her tongue moving against his in a seductive, wet dance. She tasted the alcohol on him, and she became further drunk on him. Cassian curled his arm around her waist to hold her up, consequently pressing their bodies harder together. Nesta's nipples pebbled through the thin fabric of her dress as her breasts ground against his broad chest. He nibbled on her bottom lip, teasing her, driving her mad with need. She let out a whimper, and she felt Cassian's lips turn up in a satisfied smile as they continued to kiss roughly.

A loud cough had them pulling away from each other.

Nesta's cheeks turned bright red when she realized they were still standing in the middle of the circle, their friends looking up at them with horror and confusion and excitement and disbelief. She looked back at Cassian whose lips were swollen from their kisses. He didn't seem to care that there were people around them, his eyes locked solely on her.

"So... uh, I think it's Nesta's turn to ask," Rhysand said dumbly, staring up at her like she had two heads.

The last thing Nesta wanted to do was sit back down and play truth or dare. No, she wanted to drag Cassian upstairs and finish what they -

"No can do," Cassian said plainly, grabbing Nesta's hand and pulling her with him as he made his way to the stairs. "We have some unfinished business."

Well, at least Cassian was on the same page as her for the first time.

Nesta didn't even look behind her as she willingly followed Cassian up the stairs and into a more private room.

He opened the first door they passed by, revealing the guest bedroom. Nesta walked inside, and he closed and locked the door behind them.

Nesta's mind was racing. What did they just do? Why did she let him kiss her like that?

"Stop."

Nesta looked up from her hands to where Cassian stood. He had a determined look on his face.

"Stop what?"

"Overthinking this."

Gods, he saw right through her.

"We shouldn't have done that," Nesta said quietly.

"Why?" Cassian pushed.

"We hate each other." Why did it sound like she was trying to convince herself of that?

"Do we?"

The question hung in the air as neither one of them said anything. Nesta sat down on the edge of the bed and crossed her arms.

"Maybe not hate, but... we can't even stand each other," Nesta let out. She glanced over at him. "It's not like we have feelings for each other."

Cassian didn't say anything. She scoffed.

"You're telling me that you can honestly say you've thought of me in that sort of way?"

"Every fucking day, sweetheart."

Nesta's heart stopped. "I'm serious."

"Me too," he told her. His lips were set in a straight line, his eyes piercing into hers.

"Please, Cass," she said, using the nickname she so rarely used for him. "You fuck other women every week. You've despised me since day one. There's no way in hell."

"I don't hate you, Nesta," he said quietly. She watched as he walked over and took a seat in the rocking chair that faced her. He hesitated before continuing. "I hate how much I fucking think about you. I wake up and my first thought is, 'I wonder what Nesta's doing right now.' I go through my days hoping to run into you." He dragged his hands down his face and laughed at himself. "But you fucking infuriate me, woman. Our conversations are never pleasant. You're the most difficult person I've ever met."

 Oh Gods.

"And as for the women..." he sighed, shaking his head. "I can't believe I'm telling you this."

Nesta waited for him to continue.

Cassian raised his head from his hands and looked her straight in the eye. "I only fuck other women because I can't get you out of my damn head. Because I've never felt this passionate about anyone. Because you confuse the living hell out of me."

He had to be lying. It was Cassian. There was no way he cared for her. She'd seen him look at her all these years, and there had never once been an indicator of such feelings. And of course he was passionate about her: he hated her! Passion wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"What do you possibly think could happen between us?" she asked with an exasperated look. She didn't wait for him to answer. "The only time this," Nesta gestured between them, "could ever happen again is a year from now."

"What do you mean?"

She shrugged. "This," she moved her hand around. "Halloween. The one day you can pretend to be someone you're not."

"I don't understand what you're saying."

"You and I would never work, Cassian." The words cut through her as she choked them out.

"Why do you keep lying to yourself?" Cassian asked.

"I'm not! We know nothing about each other. We treat each other like shit. It would explode in our faces."

“We don't know anything about each other?" he echoed quietly, a small laugh leaving his lips. "How do you think I knew you were Hecate?"

Nesta didn't say anything. Where was he going with this?

"Maybe,” he started, “it’s because I’ve heard you mention her more times than I can count. Maybe I looked her up one day and read all about her. Maybe I think she's a fucking badass.

"You think we don't know anything about each other? Here are some things you don't know about me: I started that web comic you never shut up about. I finished it in a week, and I wrote down all my favorite parts in case we ever talk about it one day. You have a black cat named Minx, and you even have custom made socks with his picture on it. You want to study creative writing, but you're scared you won't make it as an author." He paused. "You try to hide everything inside, but I can tell how much you feel, Nesta. You aren't heartless, you aren't insensitive. You're just... scared. To trust."

Nesta hadn't told him any of that. Not directly, at least. But he listened. He'd always been listening. Her heart was pounding in her ears as Cassian finally met her gaze with soft eyes. She was terrified, but she held eye contact with him, refusing to look away. This man... he didn't hate her. He never had.

Nesta didn't realize tears were running down her face until her vision blurred and Cassian's face was out of focus.

Fuck. She hated crying, especially in front of people. Especially in front of him.

She dropped her face in her hands to hide her tears. She couldn't see what was happening but just a second later, she felt the bed sink down with another weight. Warm hands grasped her body, pulling her into a hard body. Cassian leaned down to brush his lips against her ear.

"Sweetheart," he whispered. Nesta didn't say anything. "Look at me."

His gentle voice melted something within her. She tried to inconspicuously wipe her tears before lifting her head up and meeting his gaze.

His lips turned up in a small smile, and he brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Cassian put two fingers under her chin and lifted her face up until their lips touched in the gentlest kiss she'd ever had.

This time, Nesta didn't hesitate as she kissed Cassian back.

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

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[plush-anon]

You worked at joanns? 😍 dream job

In all fairness, a large part (and I do mean a LARGE part) of why I enjoyed working at Joanns were the managers.

The store manager was a guy named Richard, one of maybe two or three men who worked there total, and this man was practically a saint as far as retail goes.

This was a man who would, with no hesitation, get on the floor to help customers, or hop on the registers to check customers' purchases out, or pop on to the cutting counter to cut fabric. He remembered the names of regulars, would chat and smile while getting shit done, and was the type of guy to speak slowly and softly when we had shitstains explode at us measly peons for not giving them the full cost of an item back in a return (ex $200) when they used a coupon to purchase an item to begin with and only paid a portion of the cost (ex. $150). No joke, this actually happened to me on Black Friday with a man who stood at about 6 foot with a crewcut and a snarl (the military Karen, if you would)

Richard, of course, stood at about 6 foot 5 inches, and reminded me of a ginger grizzly bear in some ways. Very few customers continued to be assholes when they asked to speak to the manager and Richard came over, smiling wide. He encouraged us to chat with the customers while we worked the cutting counter - it was a good way to learn about what they were making, encouraged general conversation and lent itself to a better environment for everyone, worker and customer alike, so we weren't just awkwardly standing in silence the whole time.

The assistant store manager (aka his second in command - we had two other assistant managers, but she wielded more power than both of them) was Farrah, and she was basically Cool Wine Aunt, but with weed. She was open about smoking it (but not in a pressure-the-underlings kind of way, but more of a 'yeah, it calms me down' kind of way) but never on the clock, and was just really chill in general. She was also a 'jump on the registers' type of manager, and on occasion would take the closing staff out to get a drink from the texmex place next to us in the shopping center, and cover one for each of us - particularly during the Holiday Clusterfuck of October, November, and December (their Frozen Kahlua Mudlslide was my alcoholic drink of choice - they also had these spicy chicken strips that were amazing with it, but I digress).

Both of them were amazing people who would support and back us up without hesitation (if they weren't dealing with corporate or stock trucks coming in), and both routinely worked 15 to 20 hours UNPAID overtime during the Holiday Clusterfuck so that we the underlings could get more hours without Corporate jumping up our ass about going over budget.

They were also refreshingly upfront in our monthly meetings about profits and meeting them, as well as why company policy was the way it was, and how to work within the boundaries so we got more hours. One of my favorite moments was when they said the fabric sales essentially covered their own cost (production and delivery); the rest of the cheap crap in the store was what covered our paycheck and electricity, so hawk it as much as you can if you want extra in the bank (paraphrasing here, but that's not that far off what they actually said tbh).

With some Karen-y exceptions, the customers were honestly pretty chill. There were two women from a nearby church who bought well over 200 yards of cut fleece to make no-sew fleece blankets for children and the poor in December (it took forever to do, but they were so cheerful about it and told some funny anecdotes in between, kept the counter clear as soon as they were cut, etc. Took them three carts to haul everything to the register XD).

There was the slew of quilters making everything from baby blankets to anniversary gifts to quilts for their grandkids attending the local university that they could wear to football games in the colder weather, while still showing team pride. They always bought quarters and eighths and the end of the bolt for half price, digging thru our remnants bin for something they might have missed they could get for half price. They always talked about what they were working on, and spoke in great detail on their kids or cousins or niblings or grandkids. I saw so many pictures on phones, in wallets, and they loved them to absolute pieces.

There were cosplayers making their first costume to comicon, halloween goers trying their hand at making their own outfits, and a few furries making custom suits for order or just updating their own personal outfit. There were the usual school and church Christmas plays that needed costumes, and folks making custom table runners and place settings for family holiday meals.

One notable young man bought out 30+ yards of our 65" inch wide bolt felt for JEWELRY projects he was making as a part of his business and as a part of his art program (you can major in art with a concentration in jewelry making, and he was using it for that). He didn't leave a card, but the pictures he showed us were STUNNING.

We had a few elderly mothers come in with their daughters, to pick out fabrics so they could make their own wedding dresses, or quinceanera outfits, or veils; they showed us the patterns they had, or the pictures they were basing the designs off of, and all of them were STUNNING. (One came back in with the finished dress in the bag, this intricately beaded poofy dress that had to have taken days, hot pink and shiny).

We had local restaurant owners pop in for re-upholstery projects and curtains and vinyl; same with teachers and deck dads and furniture restoration workers that would gush about the design, what they had planned. Some would bicker with their spouses on the pattern, but it felt good-natured on the whole.

We had some elderly men come in to peer over our sewing machines - "How much it run for? My wife's birthday is coming up and her old machine's about done, and I want to surprise her. She had a Singer, but she hates the electronic screens on some of these newer ones, they hurt her eyes." - and moms coming in to sew some custom bed sheets for their kids - "My son really likes the new My Little Pony show, but he's a little shy about it. Do you think the blue's okay? Only he like yellow more, but they don't have any back there and he doesn't MIND blue really but - Actually scratch that, how wide is the fabric? My pattern says it needs to be at LEAST 22 inches wide, does it say on the box?" - and people coming up with some WILD craft ideas that were always a delight to hear them gush about - "So this MAY seem crazy, but I can turn these plastic pumpkin trick-or-treat pails into SNOWMEN heads with felt like this. We fill them with treats for the kids since we don't have a fireplace and they like it fine, but someone said I should sell these on Etsy and people really like them! But I've run out of pumpkins, and you have NO idea how happy I am that you guys still have some left."

The group we had to work with was also pretty crafty; a few were chronic call-outs, some a bit lazy, some perpetually done-with-this-nonsense, but we were mostly on the same page on shift, and all of us were crafty as heck. The employee discount was a blessing AND a curse, lemme tell you.

Stock was the best part, for me. Hours before the store opened at 9 AM, we would rip open the boxes and stuff everything onto the shelves, organizing anything the closing shift missed the night before along the way, updating new stickers or shuffling pegs over for new product arrangement, etc. We could listen to music or podcasts as we worked, and I ended up impressing some of them bc of how fast I tore through everything some mornings (the music definitely helped out there).

I was actually about to be promoted to assistant manager after 6 months, but then I got my job with the university, and they had federal health benefits AND dental, so... yeah, no contest there. Richard actually laughed when I told him I'd been hired at the university and was giving my two week notice, since it meant he didn't have to do the slew of paperwork that accompanied new assistant manager hires. He congratulated me on the job, especially the health benefits - he said that was a perk worth leaving any job here for. I nearly cried with relief that he wasn't mad.

He and Farrah chipped in and got me a small music box that plays Man of La Mancha's Dream the Impossible Dream on my last day. It still sits on my desk at work.

It was honestly my favorite retail job out of the bunch I've suffered through. Surprising at first, since I initially received a rejection email bare HOURS after my interview with Farrah, but about a month later (as I trawled endlessly through interview after interview, desperate for anything those first few months ), I got a call back from them asking if I was still interested (which I was, bc hey a job!). They remembered me specifically bc I had missed my bus to the interview, called ahead to let them know I would be late, then walked the whole way there in the rain to get there. (It was only about a mile and a half away, so not a terrible journey, but flooding is an issue in our flat-ass city; I looked like a drenched afghan hound holding a useless umbrella, so enjoy that imagery).

They were particularly impressed by the calling-ahead part.

Unfortunately, both of them ended up moving on to different paths over the year after I left - apparently they had been friends with benefits (? I say hesitantly, since I ran into one of my coworkers at an art show later on and she spilled the beans there - she was a bit flighty in nature though, and got caught up in gossip a LOT, so who knows. Lovely brocade custom projects though), and his ex girlfriend had called corporate on them and got both fired.

I think Farrah came back some time later, but the damage was done after that - the new manager came in and operated SOLELY to corporate policy. A LOT went to pieces in terms of store cleanliness, order, and general camaraderie after that - the new fabric counter folks look and sound dead inside, and barely interact with customers (not even a 'whatcha making' in passing, which is kind of sad - the stories I got helped to pass the time, and kept me from using up all of my Set Conversation Phrases for customers that actually WOULD leave us standing in silence). Corporate also stopped some of the smaller store policies that made our job easier and gave the customers a little something extra (the 'end-of-the-bolt' discount - if, after the customer orders say, 2 yards of fabric on the bolt, and there's say, a half yard "remnant" left on the bolt, we can sell them the remnant for half-price. A LOT of quilters LOVED this, and we did too, since it saved us from filling out the remnant tag and printing a sticker later on).

Just goes to show how important good management is in a business; especially when it can kick a store previously part of the top 50 stores in the NATION (while being a medium store at that - smaller place, NOT Hobby Lobby size like the Large stores) to something much less pleasant. I could be rose-goggling the situation thought - retail is still retail, no matter how nice some aspects are - but it still sticks with me as to how good he experience was even taking into account that it WAS minimum wage retail.

Food for thought, lads, food for thought.

[magalidragon]

OMG I was cleaning out my WIP folder and found a Jonerys Addam’s Family remix I started in October and never finished aka forgot about. I guess I have Halloween fics ready. It is in three months after all.

Here’s a blurb. It’s so bad, it was right when I started writing Jonerys. 🤣

Little Sam was not deterred by the dog’s size or its peculiar eyes. He stepped towards it; hand outstretched. “Wow! Big dog!”

“Sam no!” she exclaimed, grabbing for him. She stepped backwards to the door, preparing to whisk her son away from the vicious animal. Even though the animal hadn’t made one move towards her son other than cocking its head curiously.

“This is Ghost,” the silver-haired woman purred, leaning down—not very far since the dog almost came to her shoulder—to ruffle his ears. She kissed his nose, the dog licking at her cheek. She giggled again, like a little girl. “And he’s not a dog, he’s a wolf.”

Sam yelped. “A wolf!? Is that legal?”

“Of course.”

They all looked up at the second level and Gilly’s eyes further widened, staring up at what she thought might be one of the most handsome men she had ever seen. Of course, she hastily thought, she loved Sam dearly but…gods. The man who took a step down towards them was wearing an all black suit, tailored perfectly to his thin yet muscular frame. He had black curly hair pulled halfway from his face into a bun and a trimmed black beard. She noted that his gray eyes were the same shape and color as the other woman. Perhaps they were related.

He walked, no he— glided— down the staircase, coming to stand by the beautiful silver-haired woman, who beamed at him, immediately molding against him. “My love,” she purred, dragging a blood-red nail down over his pale face. She pursed her lips. “Arya brought us new neighbors!”

“I was thinking of making them a pie,” Arya said. There was a somewhat demonic gleam in her eyes.

Gilly lifted her brows and Little Sam looked up from where he’d been digging his shoe into a knot in the wooden floor. “I like pies,” he piped up. He cocked his head. “What kind? I like apple.”

Arya pursed her lips, a smile still tugging at them and her eyes flashed, glancing sideways at the man, who was glaring at her, almost in warning. “I can make an apple pie. I think.”

“No,” the man said, final. Arya stuck her lower lip out in a pout. He turned his face back to them, apologizing. “My sister is not that good of a baker, you really wouldn’t like her pies.”

“The dragons do,” the woman said.

“Dragons?” Little Sam asked. Gilly laughed, nervous again; maybe Sam was right—perhaps they should have just left their neighbors to themselves. She was getting quite a strange vibe from them. Very intense and…just plain odd. It was like they were from another world. She took sight of the lanterns and old-fashioned oil lamps on the walls. Or another time, maybe.

Sam cleared his throat, pushing by her and offering his hand. “My name is Samwell Tarly, this is my wife Gilly and our son Little Sam. We’ve already met your…”

“Sister,” he and the brown-haired woman said at the same time.

The silver-haired woman had now wound herself almost entirely around the man, her violet eyes boring holes into them. It made Gilly oddly uncomfortable how close they were to each other. She was all one for public affection, she did not consider herself too prudish, but this was almost too much, especially in front of perfect strangers. The woman made a sound like a purr, dragging her finger down his face, her bright red lips pulling up over her teeth. “This is my husband Jon.” She licked her lips, her pupils turning her eyes almost entirely black. “Issa zokla.”

Gilly arched her brows at the odd language, but even more so when the man named Jon made a sound like a growl, sweeping the woman around and lifting her feet off the ground; she wasn’t wearing any shoes and her toenails were painted the same blood red as her nails. “Gods Dany, you know how the Valyrian makes me.”

“Of course, I know.”

Arya grinned. “Ignore them. They’re foul, especially when Dany speaks Valyrian.”

Sam gaped, shaking his head and pulling on her hand. “We should leave.”

The woman spoke, Gilly guessed this was the Dany that Arya referenced. “Oh no don’t leave, Jon was just forgetting his manners. He can be such an uncouth wolf. By the way zokla, you seemed upset when you came down just now, whatever happened?” Gilly couldn’t tell how she knew that the man was upset, he seemed to have a perpetually dour look.

The man—Jon—shrugged. “I wanted you to know that Lyanna started another fire but I put it out.” He looked over at Little Sam, smiling down at him, but the smile did not meet his eyes. “And it seems we may finally have a friend for our little Lyanna.”

“You have a daughter?” Sam asked. Gilly wasn’t sure why he was nervous to ask, but she supposed he should be. This entire introduction had been quite odd. Surreal was probably a better term for it.

The woman—Dany—beamed, with the glow only a mother could have for the mention of her child. Gilly smiled, pleased to see it, as she recognized it completely, having felt the same pride at the mention of her son. “Yes! Our little Lyanna, she’s six.” She turned back to the house, walking over to the bannister and banged her hand on the wall, the sound of her small hand somehow—rather unnaturally—reverberating through the house. “Lyanna!” she bellowed, with a volume and strength that belied her tiny frame.

Jon idly brushed at his suit lapel, rather bored. “She’s probably in the dungeons.”

Sam and Gilly shot each other horrified looks. Dungeons!?

“She loves the dungeons,” Arya said. She handed the plant to Dany. She smirked. “I’m going to go find Gendry. I think he’s probably had enough of the shackles.”

Shackles!?

Just who exactly were these people, Gilly wondered, trying to smile but found herself gripping Little Sam’s shoulders tight so he didn’t try to lunge for the wolf, which had moved closer to his master, all glowing red eyes and blinding white fur.  She was trying not to be frightened or at least <i>show</i> how frightened she was but it was proving difficult the longer they were in the company of these people.  She smiled, weak.  “Um…so your names…” She was trying to say them, but found her voice caught in her throat.  “Um…”

“Oh of course, so sorry!”  The woman pressed her hand to her chest, her violet eyes earnest.  “My name is Daenerys and this is my husband Jon.”  She rose on her toes.  “Issa zokla.”

The same words she’d said before had the man growling again, nipping at her lower lip, which she stuck out as she grit her teeth, and growling as well.  “Speak more Valyrian and we’ll see the wolf.”

“Valyrian?” she finally asked, confused, at the same time Sam exclaimed in immediate curiosity.  “Valyrian!?”

Dany turned, her back pressed against her husband’s front.  Gilly blinked, shocked, as the little woman wiggled herself against him in a rather obscene manner.  Jon simply kissed her temple, muttered something to her and she frowned, but backed off of him.  “Oh yes, my family hails from Old Valyria, it’s my mother tongue.”  She stepped to Sam, violet eyes expanding, that girlish curiosity returning.  “Do you know Valyrian?”

“Ah…I studied it as an elective in college, but I am afraid I did not pick it up well.”

“That’s too bad.”  She glanced at Gilly, smiling warmly.  “Valyrian does wonderful things for the soul, it is the only language suited for poetry.”  She turned back to her husband, biting his lower lip.  “And it does incredible things for passion.”

“Indeed,” Jon said, kissing her again.  He turned his intense gaze on them both.  “Thank you for the plant.”

Gilly’s mouth fell slightly, unsure what to say to that.  She jumped, skittish, when she heard the sound of something—or someone—screaming.  “What…what’s that?”The couple exchanged bored looks.  

“Probably Bran,” Dany said.  She sighed, waving her hand nonchalantly.  “My brother-in-law, he keeps ravens.  They are dreadfully loud sometimes.”  She frowned, glancing at Jon.  “Oh darling, do you think it could be Viserys?  I thought I told Lyanna to keep him from the fire.”  She sighed, her smooth brow wrinkling in annoyance.  “He really should know by now that he is not a dragon.”

“I’ll go check.”  Jon smiled at them both again, in that rather bored, vacant away.  “It was nice to meet you both.  I will send Lyanna over whenever we find her.”

Dany clapped her hands again, gesturing for them to enter further into the house.  “Would you like to come in for something to drink?  We have a lovely Arbor Gold that my dear friend Tyrion left us after he…” She trailed off, a somewhat sad look on her beautiful face.  Before she wiped it completely and beamed some more.  “Went on holiday.”

Sam pulled at her elbow, which Gilly did not mind at all, taking her step backwards as well.  “Um, we should really get back home.”  He spoke loudly, stammering.  “M-m-my b-b-brother k-k-knows…”

“He’s saying his brother is expecting us.”  It was a lie, but Gilly was just as terrified of this strange family as Sam was now.  Even if she still wanted to know more.  Like how the woman in front of her looked so young. Or at least looked like she hadn’t given birth, her stomach as flat as anything.  Gilly self-consciously touched her abdomen.  She still carried a couple of stubborn pounds from Little Sam.  She shot him a look; he was still trying to get to the wolf, who had remained dutifully at his mistress’s side.

The woman smiled again.  “That’s wonderful.  My brother lives with us too.  As does my great-uncle.  Aemon.  Don’t worry if you see him wandering around, he’s blind but he gets by just fine.  Also, my husband’s little sister and brother live with us, sometimes his other sister visits but she’s a horrible bore, so normal.”

Gilly shuddered to think what this family thought was normal.  It was clear that they had a rather peculiar take on things.  Manners, décor, pets…they mentioned dungeons and fire the way she referred to Little Sam playing with trains and cars.  “Um, we need to go.  We will…ah…enjoy the plant!”  

They were out of the house faster than she thought she could move, almost hauling Little Sam up off the ground and carting him over her shoulder.  She grabbed his hand instead, hurrying back down the driveway and beyond the iron gates, not stopping until they were back at their house, door shut and locked.  

She heaved her breath, rushing upstairs to their bedroom, throwing open the curtains and staring at the house, eyes wide.  She stared across the way, to the big mansion, with its vines, iron, and dragons.  “Who the seven hells are they?” she gasped.

Sam shut their door and looked out with her, shaking his head.  “I have no idea, but Little Sam is never going over there.” Agreed.

[mfstgeeks]

The Best Halloween Movies

Happy Halloween! Here’s a throwback post of MFST writer, @mzsnguyenthai​‘s favorite Halloween movies! 

As we inch closer and closer to Halloween, we all start to watch Halloween-themed movies. Hell, Freeform even has 31 Nights of Halloween for the whole month of October! In my family, we like to have a big Halloween party (at least for the last couple of years) in conjunction with my birthday, which just so happens to be on October 20th. And it works because by now, my cousins and I have all kind of outgrown trick-or-treating and are therefore usually free around Halloween if not on Halloween night.

But what I’ve noticed lately is that we’ve never actually watched a Halloween movie on Halloween (same with Christmas movies on Christmas day, but that’ll come up in a future post). We watch those movies in the weeks leading up to the holiday because we’re usually preoccupied (in recent years) eating dinner, showing off our costumes (or lack thereof), and of course, carving pumpkins.

But family traditions aside, it got me thinking: what are my favorite Halloween movies? And do I have enough to compile into a list for this very blog post? When I started writing this post a month ago, the answer was no. But with the help of some help from the wonderful world of the internet, I’ve now got a list of my all-time favorite Halloween movies. So enjoy!

1. Twitches (2005) AND Twitches Too (2007)

First on this list, I have Twitches and its sequel, Twitches Too. I legitimately grew up on these movies and remember them so clearly because it’s just a really sweet Disney original movie and the fact that it came out right before my birthday just makes it that much memorable to me. Basically, it’s about two teen witches AKA “Twitches”, hence the name of the mini-franchise, who are separated at birth but meet on their 21st birthday, which just so happens to be Halloween, to fight “the darkness”, which is like this dark entity in the first movie until they discover that there’s someone behind it all. This movie, to me, definitely still holds up years later and if you haven’t yet watched it, do yourself a favor and watch it this season!

2. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

A classic movie altogether, not just for Halloween. It may have come before my time but luckily for me, I took a film class in high school that was about instrumental scores and we ended up getting to watch this movie. In case you don’t already know of this movie, first off, how have you not heard of this movie? It’s a classic Steven Spielberg movie and even I know about it and I wasn’t born until more than 10 years after this movie came out. But that aside, it’s about little Elliott befriending a friendly alien and tries to help him get back home to his planet. It’s a sweet movie with baby Drew Barrymore and a lot of promo for Reese’s Pieces. Check it out if you haven’t already!

Read more...

[gigili-jiggly]

can you list your favorite klance fics ://

(i’m not sure how to respond to your ‘ :// ‘ emoji, but i’ll take any excuse to gush about fics lol)

I have so many favorite fics, so I’ll just list some oneshots for now so that this list doesn’t become too long 

(I might post a list of more oneshots and ongoing fics if anyone is interested!)

SFW Oneshots: 

you’re lucky that’s what i like by @zenstrike

Lance rescues a hamster from certain doom.

or, Lance has Keith wrapped around his little finger and doesn’t even realize it.

This is literally the cutest and softest klance series I’ve read in a long time!! It gives me lots of feelings and feeds my need for lovestruck Keith ladfajdifjdsklf

hey, mom, i met a boy by @mothpoem

“Sweetheart,” says Lance, his hair longer, his shoulders broader, the slope of his nose uneven now where it didn’t used to be, “you don’t know the half of it.”

LISTEN. This fic owns my ass, it’s so good. It has all my favorite tropes (marriage proposals, visions of the future, love realizations, etc.) and every moment between Lance and Keith is so sweet and full of love hnnngh. 

i know what you did last summer by seventies

Saving angry, mysterious damsels in distress multiple times weren’t in the job description of being a lifeguard. It would have been slightly bearable if only everyone would stop asking Lance if he remembered what he did last summer. What really happened, anyway? AU

Pining Keith? Oblivious Lance? A little bit of Memory Loss? Heck yeah!!! This fic also made me laugh a lot, so I always reread this when I need a pick-me-up

this, our town of halloween by @tobiologist

“Yeah, well, it’s written all over both of your faces,” Lance hisses. “It’s not a big deal.”

Pidge taps her chin. “Oh, you mean Keith, the local introvert and your ex-rival, creeping out of his cave to go to a huge Halloween celebration with you and your little niece and nephew? Of course that’s not a big deal. Silly me!”

Or: Lance invites Keith to Disneyland on Halloween and glimpses an entirely new side of the boy he has a stupidly massive crush on.

Lately, I’ve been loving tropes where people go on a ‘date’, insist that it’s not a date and then finally realize it’s a date. Also, pining Lance is good shit. 

Smell as Sweet by ultimateparadox

Coffee and love, Lance thinks, are the only universal constants.

Established relationship!!! Marriage proposals!!! Becoming a family!!! Everything here is amazing!!!

Bastion by Foxcote

In a healing universe, Keith and Lance await the arrival of their daughter.

I am a sucker for klance as parents, and one scene in particular between Keith and Krolia really captured my heart

In every reality, I reach for you by @enlacinglineswrites

Stories inspired the Klance AU month prompts.

I love drabble series and this one right here has so many interesting and wonderful aus! I read it time and time again like a morning newspaper lol. 

Somewhere a Clock is Ticking by @emphasis-all-mine

This is a story about time travel, lost memories, growing up broken, ukulele lessons, peanut butter banana sandwiches, and a stuffed hippo named Patches.

This is also the story of how James Griffin saved the world, but couldn’t stop his parents from falling in love.

Literally the fic that made me warm up to James! I’ve always loved time travel stories and the characterizations in this fic is so fun and enjoyable, I hold it very close to my heart! Also, klance family aldjofiadjfdf

5 + 1 times: lance and the search for keith’s boyfriend by @starwar 

Who could it be?!

Lance tried to convince himself it wasn’t jealousy… it was just friendly concern. He had to ensure that whoever Keith was with treated him well, not that Keith needed Lance to look after him, but still, Keith deserved the world and Lance wanted to make sure whoever he was with gave that to him.

Just buddy-buddy concerns.

or alternatively; 5 + 1 times lance doesn’t realise he’s keith’s boyfriend

Oblivious Lance who doesn’t know he’s Keith’s boyfriend? Bet your ass I’m gonna read that!!

chaser of fate by freshia

Where Lance thinks everyone else is really frickin’ weird, the others spend copious amounts of time trying to get him to just remember, and Keith just wants to (re?)live his life.

(Modern Reincarnation AU where the biggest threat to face, is the looming deadlines for essays.)

One of the first klance fics I’ve read and one that I absolutely consider a classic. I love me some reincarnation au’s, and I love how this one is nice and not too angsty! 

Save the Date by @thathopelessromantic 

They had gotten married in the middle of a war, on an alien spaceship, both boasting major injuries. It was rushed and short and the team was thrust into battle almost immediately after “I do.” But afterwards, after some insistent questioning from Keith, Lance admitted to things he had let himself imagine for their wedding, were they to have had one on Earth.

Cute established and married klance celebrating their anniversary, what more can a girl want? 

Speak for the Stars by @speakswords 

All Lance has ever wanted is to prove his worth. So, maybe it’s fitting that the Black Lion picked him right when Lotor betrayed them and Shiro’s clone went rogue. Right when the team was at its lowest and closest to failing.

The desire for glory that Lance grew up with—that drove him to join the Garrison and pursue fighter class, that drove him into his one-sided rivalry with Keith, that drove him after Keith in the Sonoran Desert and into Blue’s cockpit and into space and into the war in the first place—it’s a relic of the past for him now. All he wants these days is to keep his friends alive and the Coalition afloat, and he tries his best, despite the pervasive fear that he isn’t the right person for this monumental task. Despite the growing certainty that Black picked the wrong guy.

This fear will be put to the ultimate test when the mess that ensnares the team after the clone disaster turns out to be a labyrinth more winding than any of them were prepared for. Because Lance might just be the only person equipped to lead them through this maze and into the light.

I love those tropes where peeps get stuck in their own dreams and someone has to help them snap out of it. This fic does this wonderfully with Lance and I loved Keith’s dream in here, it was so sweet

in every reality, we meet by ULTIOcean

Small one-shots about our favorite team, taken from a prompt list on tumblr for the October Writting Challenge, in which i’ll write 31 short stories, unrelated to each other, each insipred by the prompt of the day.

i adore this drabble series, each chapter is such a unique take on the prompt! 

you’ve got a hand for the taking (i’m about to take it to the moon) by seabear

“I think,” Lance says, squinting, “he’s a vampire.”

one of my comfort fics to be honest. i really really like their interactions here and the confession scene makes me very happy

where & how we’ll land by @ephemelody 

The first time Keith meets Lance is also the first time they kiss. It all goes downhill for him from there.

looking for a childhood klance fic that is so so good? this one is a classic!!!

Complete Mature/Explicit Oneshots: 

assemble by groovystars

‘there was an idea- katie and hunk know about it- called the voltron initiative. the plan was-is, god, it is- to bring together a group of remarkable people, and see if together they could become something more. to fight the battles we never could. i wasn’t sure though. just knew that katie and hunk could do it, maybe lance if he wasn’t knee-deep in cover work. but now that cap’s used to the century and keith kogane turned up from the dead, and we have a literal god on our hands… now- now i think we can do that. i think we can believe in heroes.’

aka the marvel au that’s probably already been done

As a huge Marvel fan, this is an amazing superhero au!! It has klance and shatt, as well as lotor and allura in a thor and loki dynamic! 

i like me better when i’m with you by @reader115 

His mother’s advice when the war is over? That he should ask for what he wants.

Keith joins Lance and his family on their farm, and Lance wishes for a never ending visit.

i’ve read so many post-canon fics when vld ended and this one is one of my absolute favorites. It’s because of this fic that i started associating the song with klance, haha! I love the characterizations and the overall sweetness/lovey dovey feeling the fic has and aldoifjaidfd I just love reading this over and over again

there are worse things i could do by @peachgrdn 

His chest went tight when he recalled Keith’s face. What did it have to mean? They’d never been lovers; that much was clear.

When Lance goes out to buy himself a gift for his own pleasure, it comes with a little emotional baggage. Only just as he thinks he can manage it, Keith throws himself into the mix, and Lance realizes he must come to terms with buried feelings.

honestly, i consider lyssy the queen for fluffy and feely smut lol. I love her humor in this one as well as the many feels it gives me…just aldkjodfa i love this fic a lot okay?

kiss me (like it hurts) by mottainai

Purple light streamed through his kitchen window from the neon sign across the street, getting tangled in Keith’s hair and painted on the planes of his shoulders. He held his breath, afraid to disturb the moment. Keith’s eyes were on his, too soft to be coming from a dangerous man. Lance could see himself becoming caught in the gap in his teeth, pressed into the groves of his calloused hands, inked across his ribs. It should terrify him, the kind of terror of one looking into the belly of the beast.

But it didn’t.

Or: Keith and Lance, told through arguments and resolutions

i’m such a sucker for gangster keith stuff and this fic here has one of my favorite takes on it. perfect for rereading again and again! 

lure by chaeriee 

Becoming indebted to Keith Kogane was not a part of Lance’s future plans. Falling for him, even less so.

another gangster keith fic and it has almost all of my guilty pleasures in it uwu. i love those /person A needs to pay off a debt and works for person B while unknowingly becoming the most important one to them’ storylines haha! 

 Alpha Affairs by marizousbooty

Keith and Lance take a romantic vacation to the mountains for a snowy weekend getaway.

vampire lance and werewolf keith….doing it….good stuff

Heaven in hiding by i_write_shakespeare_not_disney

Keith finds something interesting in Lance’s drawer and it leads to one of the most amazing nights of his life.

insecure lance in lingerie and keith helping him become comfortable with it? sexy. 

Beast of Burden by melancholymango

“Keith, no, we can’t go again.” Lance pleads fall on deaf ears. Keith is honed in on him now like predator to prey. He’s fighting a losing battle and they both know it. He sees it in the way Keith is raking his eyes over him, sizing him up. “We’ll be so late getting to the bar.”

“Just one more.” Keith insists, herding Lance toward the counter with a stubbornness that is innately wolf. Lance pouts, but he doesn’t have anywhere else to go but backward.

“That’s what you said last time! And the time before that!”

–

The week leading up to a supermoon, as told by the world’s best werewolf boyfriend, Lance McClain. The good, the bad, and the horny.

I read this on Halloween and I’m not even ashamed of how much I enjoyed this. This fic made me very very biased towards werewolf keith lol. 

[attract-mode-collective]

The Horrors Of Game Development As The Basis Of A Horror Film?

It’s that time again, in which I reveal what’s showing at my video game-centric film series at Wonderville, aka Cineville. But this month’s selection is not happening on the last Monday of the month as usual, but the last day of the month. Cuz it’s October, of course, which means...

Of course it’s going to be a horror flick. Some Hollywood adaptation of a horror game? Nah, that’s way too obvious. So also time again to bring up my video game-centric film column for GameSetWatch: I reviewed a grand total of two scary movies during its all too sporadic run, and only one was worth a damn...

How To Make A Monster is made for cable remake of an AIP “creature feature”, directed by a close friend of the king of low budget film making from that era (aka Robert Rodriguez), as well as produced by the king of special effects make-up (aka Stan Winston, and it shows: the monster looks hella awesome), for Cinemax (and it shows: there’s a gratuitous topless scene featuring a Penthouse Pet of the Year, aka Julie Strain).

Yet it’s also a film that dares to explore the not so exciting world of game development and make it engaging to the layperson, and despite the unmistakable outsider’s gaze, it nevertheless gets a number of things right. Plus like all quality B-movies, even with a shoestring budget & flimsy script, there’s some quality acting & definite charm. It’s also an excellent chance to check out Wonderville’s Halloween-themed drink specials!

In addition to the different day, there’s a different start time: 7:30… and immediately following the film is trivia at the bar. The address is the same as before, tho: 1186 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY, 11221. See you all there, and in costume hopefully!