#lime break up spell

[drefear]

Hopelessly Devoted To You…

Yandere Hizashi/Present Mic x Reader

TW: blood, fighting, death, anxiety, smut, p in v, rough sex, pain, slight choking, lying, angst

Guess mine is not the first heart broken

My eyes are not the first to cry

I'm not the first to know

There's just no getting over you

The pain in my legs was proof that the strain on my muscles was ripping them apart. I couldn’t hold myself up for much longer, let alone keep running. How did I not see this coming? Music hummed in the decaying building, his loud humming like the lullaby of my death. The blood in my eyes from the wound on my head made it very hard to see where I was going, but I was able to make out the halls and doors. Grabbing a doorknob, I struggled to force it open as the knob felt like it had been cemented shut. Where were the police? Where was Aizawa? Hawks? Anyone?

My lungs burned like they were filled with acid, every breath causing a severe stabbing pain in my chest. Shoving myself into the door, it finally burst open and I saw my fears coming true.

The red feathers on the ground were a lifeless and dull, no beautiful scarlet shine like I’d seen only a few hours ago. No, they were completely desolate of any shine. This was bad, this was really bad. Tiptoeing into the room, I quietly shut the door behind myself and made my way around the big desk in the center. The sight was unsavory, almost nauseating.

The stuttering breathing of my partner, Hawks, was just loud enough to overshadow the music echoing and my heartbeat. His eyes shot up at me, shakey and panicked as he gasped once again. I moved like lightning, pulling fabric from my hero costume to compress his wounds. He did this? Loud, quick footsteps made my hands freeze for a split second before I recognized the weight of those steps, continuing to push down on his wounds.

“Move, I’ll cauterize his wounds a bit with my fire, just go find him.” Dabi nudged me out of the way slightly as I sucked in air from his presence. “Just remember, once this is over, we’re still enemies.”

“Agreed.” My eyes glared at him as I tugged my visual blockers down over my eyes and dashed out of the room. The faint steps I heard were coming from above.

You know I'm just a fool who's willing

To sit around and wait for you

But, baby, can't you see

There's nothing else for me to do?

I'm hopelessly devoted to you

“Lime green and unseen. She is pristine!” His voice was quieter than usual, casting a spell of fear over my body.

This wasn’t the Hizashi we all knew and loved. This was a monster, a man possessed.

“Come out and play, little listener!” He called, the windows breaking from his quirk. I couldn’t help but cover my ears and duck down, then dashing to the nearest staircase. He wanted to find me, and so I’d play into his hand.

Finally getting to the top of the stairs, I saw him leaning against a doorframe, swirling a finger around something, bulky and strangely shaped. Stepping closer, I saw the light shine on him. His hair down and wild, sunglasses tucked into his hair, sleeves ripped off his arms and voice modulator covering his neck. He was unhinged.

But what caught my eye was the yellow goggles he was toying with. Covered in blood.

My sensei was in trouble.

But now there's nowhere to hide

Since you pushed my love aside

I'm out of my head

“Where is he?!” I screamed at him and his lips just smirked into an unsettling expression.

“Whatdya mean? Ya didn’t see ‘m when ya walked in?” His eyes looked at me through his lashes and a shiver went down my spine. I glanced from side to side but nothing. That’s when I saw it. A single drop of liquid fell from the ceiling. Looking up, I saw Aizawa tied in his own scarf with his eye blindfolded, bleeding from his arm and head.

“Let him down!”

“Now now, little listener. You aren’t in any position to be ordering me around. We both know your strengths and weaknesses, and none of this would have happened if it weren’t for you.” His words rang in my ears as I thought back to the weeks leading up to this.

Hopelessly devoted to you

I’d gotten close with Hizashi, my old teacher and friend. I’d confided in him, trusted him, and he would comfort me when I needed it. Days turned to weeks and soon, we had become more than just friends. I knew about his feelings, I knew I had some too, but I wanted to be a hero and focus on my dreams. Comforting turned to something else one night and we went to a place we couldn’t go back from. It was wonderful, he was wonderful. Everything I’d ever wanted.

Hopelessly devoted to you

At least the good side of him was, but jealous was something I’d never seen from him and when I worked with Hawks, he seemed to get unexplainably irritable and angry. He would ignore me for hours after I’d get off of work, not answer my texts, and then show up at random hours of the day to visit me at work. Patrol was even worse, he was always “running into” us. I knew Hawks was in a serious relationship, but he couldn’t talk about it because of our job. We were hero’s, and his partner was not, so anyone knowing about his relationship could put their life in jeopardy.

Hizashi didn’t believe me, didn’t care what I said. So naturally, I broke things off. It hurt, it hurt so badly, as I was in love with him, but if he couldn’t trust me and communicate with me, what was I to do?

And now here I was, standing across from my ex lover, the man I thought I’d marry for a time of my life, about to fight him to the death.

Hopelessly devoted to you

“Hizashi, this isn’t you. This isn’t who I’m in love with, just give in and we can go home!” My eyes filled with tears and my hand reached out, hoping he’d take the short amount of steps in between us and hold it.

His eyes flashed to uncertainty for a second before hardening again and locking me out.

“You’re lying to me. You were always lying to me!” He screams and the power of his voice has me clamping my hands over my ears, blood dripping out a bit. I take a step forward, hand still reached out.

“I never lied. You’ve always been the only one for me. How could I love anyone else when I had you?” My voice is weak, stuttering as I feel my bottom lip quiver. The sadness I feel is uncontrollable and I’m doing everything I can to not fall into a crumbled mess on the ground. “Come back to me, Zashi… please.” I beg, and he steps to me.

“I’ll fix this if you promise to be mine. Right here, right now.”

“I’m already yours until the end of time.” I answer but he sneers, aggravated.

“That’s not what I mean.” He pulls off a glove and what he wants finally clicks.

“We- Shota is on the ceiling-“

“He can’t see anything, and he probably can’t hear.” The comfortable way he says this makes my skin crawl, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been craving him this whole time. “You want me to surrender? Prove I’m your man.”

My head is saying, "Fool, forget him."

My heart is saying, "Don't let go.

I gulp, the dryness in my throat making me sputter a cough and he reaches out to me from concern, his true self breaking through. “Okay…” I agree, “yes.” And his hands are on me, pulling at the costume, or what’s left of it. The torn pieces of my outfit were ripping wider, the seam of my green pants tearing all the way up to my stomach. His calloused hands trace my thighs and without hesitation, two of his fingers rub against my clit. It’s rough and hurried, but god it feels amazing. His mouth finds the spot behind my ear instantly and I reach out. The groan he lets out against my skin as I palm him through his jeans is intoxicating.

“Zashi… please!” I whimper, and he nods, biting me and inserting a finger in me at the same time. My world spins for a moment as the two sensations collide and I grind against his hand, his thumb taking the place of those two fingers on my sensitive button.

I make quick work of his buckle and try to tug down his pants, getting them to his thighs as his hard erection slaps up against his abdomen. Even in the darkness, I can see his jacobs latter and my insides are preening at the memory, of how I remember it feels.

His lips attack when he catches me staring and I use my own slick to coat my hand and pump him slowly, but he rips my hand away and picks me up by the waist. It all happens so fast, I can’t even see anything until my back hits a cold wall and his head is at my entrance, spreading me open and about to enter me raw. We’ve never done that, and I’m so anxious about it, but I need it just as bad as he does.

“Ready, baby?” He asks and I nod, gazing into those green eyes I know I never want to be without. He pushes in and we both let out a pleading sound, the piercings shuffling around my insides and making me arch my back in pleasure. After the first push, it’s a relentless fucking and I can just hold on as he takes me against the wall. As he’s facing the wall, I peer one eye open just in time to see a specific shadow drop from the ceiling silently and take off his blindfold. My cheeks heat up and I shake my head, hoping he gets the message and he does. He runs out, but Hizashi can’t hear him over his own grunts and my whines.

His hand grabs my throat and I orgasm immediately, feeling him near his end from the clench of my walls around him. A few more destructive thrusts and I feel him fill me, but warmth flowing into me as I twitch from the pure endorphins this is causing.

Our bodies slump together as he pulls himself out and watches our mixed juices drip down my thighs. I moan a bit from the feeling and pant from exhaustion, right before looking up at him and beginning to cry.

Hold on till the end.

And that's what I intend to do

I'm hopelessly devoted to you

“Baby, why are you-” He cups my cheek as I cut him off.

“Forgive me… Hizashi, forgive me and know that I will never love anyone more than I love you…” I keep my head nuzzled into his open hand as I bawl my eyes out, then feeling his hand ripped away from me and seeing him get handcuffed and pinned to the ground through my tears.

“You lied to me!” He yells at me, but Eraserhead had understood my silent plea from before and was able to get the police and backup, also erasing Hizashi’s quirk so he couldn’t yell anymore.

“I’m sorry!” I cry out as Aizawa grabs a blanket and covers my half naked body, costume ripped and torn from both the battle and my ability to give him a false sense of safety. “You would have killed…”

But now there's nowhere to hide

Since you pushed my love aside

I'm out of my head

“It was all because I love you!” He yells again and I turn my face away, still shaking from sobs. Aizawa pulls me into his chest for a hug and shields me from Hizashi’s constant screams and verbal attacks. My heart shatters in my ears and I’m left with the feeling of pure emptiness, much like the whole week of us being apart has felt like. Now, Hizashi will be sent to prison and I will be alone again. “All for you!”

But he won’t be able to harm anyone else.

Hopelessly devoted to you

About a week later, I’m still recovering and visiting Hawks in the hospital, as well as Bubble girl and Fatgum. We all went into that battle and only a few came out able to function, the rest were under 24/7 hospital care. Like Hawks.

“Kid, relax.” He said to me, “none of this was your fault. You didn’t know he was a yandere.”

“He… he isn’t.” I blurt out and I hear a cough from behind me, turning to see Aizawa.

“Actually, a few psychiatrists sent in the reports yesterday. He has been classified as a yandere, and they are keeping him under surveillance because of his uncontrollable emotions.” The black haired man spoke and my chest was once again empty.

“But you’re safe now, he’s locked up, and you have nothing to fear.”

Hopelessly devoted to you

That was almost ten years ago. I have a family, children, a loving husband, and I haven’t looked back. But sometimes, I feel like someone’s watching me, or calling my name. A few times, I feel someone grab my wrist or whisper in my ear in public, but when I turn, no one is there.

I knew I was just imagining things, as I turned out the lights in my kitchen and slid into bed. My husband barely moved as the bed shiftly, getting into my side and feeling him.

“Baby you’re so cold…” I mumbled and kiss the back of his neck.

He doesn’t answer.

But the voice coming from my doorway does.

Hopelessly devoted to you

“Hello again, Little Listener.”

[musubiki]

Been thinking about Marshall and Lime, and im not sure if perhaps you havent already mentioned it:

Does being a white or black canvas doesnt make them part of a magic community by default/at birth?? (Putting aside the special force smth of m34, and any witches and guilds and etc.)

thats a good question!!! its a bit of a gray area (ba dum ts 🥁), in my head i always considered "being a member of the magic community" as having something that makes you like. not a normal human. like having some kind of magic or being a spirit/monster/cryptid/etc!!

for black and white canvases, theres nothing inherently special about them besides the level of their magic resistance..,,everyone has some level of resistance, they are just the most extreme levels, but i dont think having it is considered any kind of special magic power or sets you too far apart from other humans!!

for a black canvas its being a part of a guild/the m-34th is what makes you part of the magic community!! the m-34th has nothing inherently magic but since they involve themselves so much in police-ing the magic community they are by and large considered a part of it

for a white canvas its actually incredibly hard to get involved with the magic community i feel... mostly for this reason: a lot of the community hides behind some kind of masking spell-- witches use the mob spell, the merchant uses...something, sulluvan only appears to those who he wants to, but all of it has its roots in "using magic to conceal yourself from the world," and the less resistance you have the less you're able to break from that!! essentially, a white canvas is the most magic-gullible type LOL!! contrast this to a black canvas where you couldnt use a masking spell around them if you tried your best, theyd see right through it

im actually not sure how marshall even ends up being part of the m-34th and gets involved anyway...his pipeline into the magic community must have been someone directly pulling him in and getting him straight to the m-34th because theres no way he couldve gotten in organically the way lime did, he would just be going about his merry way...

[starlitwhispers]

for you hesitate to love me 1500 words, lime/mochi for @musubiki a/n: girly this is homework, tell me what i did bad so i can write them better

He said, “We’re no longer kids, Moch.” 

He said this, after breaking the news. Like a crystal ball dropped to the ground, shattering into a million pieces – those pieces being the words laid across the floor – sharp, deadly to the touch, drawing a line between them. She wasn’t quite too sure what to say in reply and as she struggled to find the words, her voice faltered and his expression remained the same. 

The tip of his sneaker toed the ground as his head hung down. He was waiting for a response. And a response, he didn’t receive. After a couple minutes painstakingly passed, he rubbed the back of his neck in frustration and sighed. His frustration was not with her, no – he could never find fault with her. His anger and discontent lay solely with the situation as it was not his ideal. It was not his ideal… but it was his answer. 

She watched as he turned his back to her and walked away. The moment he left her line of sight, he wouldn’t be the same person she knew. The same person she loved. In the worst way, he was off to become someone she could not trust, quite possibly her enemy. In the easiest way, as she told herself to ease her aching heart, he would return to her. It was fine, anyway, because she had decided her own path as well – without telling him in the first place. 

But when she turned her back to his, her heart began to ache. When would they see each other again? The young witch had been sure, very sure, when she returned, he would be there waiting. Time had progressed for her on her own journey, a metamorphosis through magic and growth. And when she returned, he wasn’t there waiting, like she had thought. As she wandered with her eyes glancing around for a glimpse of his orange hair, she found no such thing. 

Perhaps, he could really change too, after all. 

Days began to pass. She worked harder on her spells and her beloved familiar purred with praise and pride. Days turned into months and her mother said she could have more responsibility with the cafe. She spent more time learning about something called ‘FIFO’ for the stock in the back. Months turned into what felt like an eternity and her hair had grown a bit longer, sometimes more puffy depending on the weather. 

And finally, he had come back. 

In truth, really not much time had passed, it was all relative. But to Mochi, without him around, it could have been years and she wouldn’t have known it. A day without seeing him felt like forever. And for Lime, the feeling was quite the same – although, she didn’t know that. For all these years they had known each other, there had always been this thin wall between them. Faint hints and unsure mumblings about the other which barely passed them by – with a singular, clear message: 

I love you.

But with this decision, the wall between them had become stronger, wider and something she was unsure to touch. If she hadn’t been certain of whether to cross that boundary before he left, she had a more conclusive idea now. Lime had always been his own person to her, but looking at him in that getup was more than she could take. It was if they lived in separate worlds–

Funny. Funny how she felt what he had felt for so long. This… untouchability, this uncrossable bridge, of difference in ability and personhood. And in the midst of the difference, they shared the same heart. 

He walked around town with that girl for weeks, running around waving new weapons, and living his life without needing her. She wasn’t sure how to approach him, only he could really do that, so he did just that. And somehow, he found himself standing before her, in the privacy of her home, with no one else around. 

Her eyes looked him up and down, conflicting feelings of desire and heartache boiling inside all at once. And they stood apart, staring at the other not as children, high school friends, or classmates, but as a man and a woman. Yet, yet, yet, flashed in her mind; but, but, but! He’d been initiated as a member of the very organization that stands against her kind. How could she ever dare love this specific mortal? If it hadn’t felt like taboo before, it sank like a pit in her stomach now. 

Now, his eyelids slowly blinked as his gaze soaked every inch of her in. They both had changed so much, but in his belief, she stayed the same Mochi. Beautiful, kind, and a storm of emotion and pondering behind her eyes. But this time, she was hesitating, he could see it. It must be the clothes, he thought, they say they make the man, after all.

And made him they did. 

All this time, he had been running after her. He had been trying to close this gap but somehow instead took one step forward and three steps back. He wasn’t compensating anymore, he knew this, confidently. So, he would now step forward without the distance continuing to grow. When he stepped forward, she tried to step away and he reached out to stop her. For the first time. And he could reach her. 

“Mochi, please stop,” he began, his voice low and earnest. 

The seriousness in his words finally caused her to meet his gaze. Her eyes had been avoiding his face ever since the moment she noticed how handsome he had become. She could barely hear him over the sound of her beating heart. 

“W-What?” She finally managed to reply, a crack in her voice followed by uneasiness. 

He didn’t like this. He liked when Mochi was herself around him, when she was comfortable, laughing, and smiling. But then he thought to himself, how long had it been since he last saw that version of her? How long had it been since they had… been themselves together? He didn’t train this hard for her to push him away again. He loved her more than she could understand, more than the stars could explain, and more than whatever cosmic force might try to keep them apart. He would tear any opposing forces apart and down and inside out to have her. 

Gently, he grasped a few strands of her hair. He felt the ends of it on his thumb, lovingly peering down at the locks. And then, his gaze trailed up to her blushing and adamant face. His eyes ever so steadfast and sincere, he finally responded to her. 

“I’m not running on some baseball field anymore and you’re… you’re not struggling with 3rd period physics anymore. I’m not running anymore, but you – you are… Stop running away from me, stop… hesitating.” 

She swallowed, the resolution in his voice caught her off guard, and somehow, hurt her feelings. Her? Running away? She wasn’t sure if she was ready to face the music, hadn’t that been the case? She was running away? No, she needed to stay strong, feign ignorance. 

“What does some soldier from the M34TH want with me, some witch?” She answered, turning her face away from his. 

He stepped closer, their bodies barely an inch apart. He lowered his face closer to hers, his gaze piercing with sincerity and a fire she had known before behind his eyes. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m not just some soldier and you’re not just some witch, but if you’re stressing that beautiful head of yours out about it, allow me to clarify.” 

His large, calloused hand swiftly found its way to her waist, while the other gently cradled her jaw tilting upwards. Within seconds he closed the distance between their lips and pressed their bodies together. How long had he been waiting for his moment, to claim what he felt was unclaimable? When he pulled away, he brushed his thumb across her lips, which she quickly pushed away and hid her face within his chest. 

What had he just done? He broke the wall, he crossed the line – he had done what she kept herself from doing for so long. He stopped hesitating. Her fingers gripped the sides of his coat and she pushed her face harder into his chest. She felt too many things, too many conflicting thoughts swirling, but above it all it told her this may change everything. 

And, in true Lime fashion, “this won’t change anything,” he said. As if reading her mind, he responded with the words she needed to hear. “But let me have this today, where you’re not some witch and I’m not some officer.”

She pulled back and looked up at him, her cheeks flushed. “And what about tomorrow, when I decide to hesitate again? What about tomorrow, when I have to be who I really am, a witch, and you have to put that uniform on?” 

Wrapping his arms around her, he snuggled his chin into the nape of her neck. “No matter what day it is, you’re still Mochi and I’m still Lime.”

[mdzs-owns-my-ass-i-guess]

Not A-Yuan approved

Warnings: some suggestive content (think lime level on the citrus scale, maybe with a lemon slice or two).

Ficlet for this post

Tag requests list: @aplaceofnonsense ; @littletalimagpie ; @tremendousmasculinity ; @lilapplesheadcannons

Thank you all for your interest in my idea and I hope you enjoy this piece!

1.

The incessant, loud beeping of his phone alarm had Wei Ying ripped from his pleasant dream world, a curse escaping his lips as he reached towards his nighstand and blindly swiped at the screen to turn it off, eyes still closed.

With silence once again undisturbed, he was just about ready to fall back asleep and bask into the 10 or 15 more minutes his alarm would allow him before going off again - but his ears picked up on a soft huff and he suddenly became aware of an additional weight in the bed next to him.

Keeping one eye closed, Wei Ying cracked the other open, his eyelid barely giving way for light to enter his vision. "Lan Zhan...?"

"Mn. I'm here."

Sleepiness left Wei Ying faster than it ever did as he realized his husband had finally returned from his week-long business trip, and his loneliness (and dry spell) would finally come to an end.

"You're really here!" Wei Ying exclaimed with happiness and excitement as he all but jumped on top of Lan Zhan, alternating between leaving kisses everywhere on his face and hugging him tight enough for his breath to stutter a bit. "I missed you so so sooo much, I thought I was going to die! When did you get here?"

"Just now. I took the first flight back home after brother and I finished the project."

Wei Ying hadn't even noticed Lan Zhan was still in his office clothes, but suddenly his eyes travelled down his body to see a tight blue shirt, a white tie and a matching pair of pants still on him.

Wei Ying had seen his husband in this many times before, but in the early morning light and with how difficult his absence had been, Wei Ying couldn't help finding Lan Zhan impossibly sexy in that outfit, everything so well-tailored and fitting in all the right places on the all too familiar but still incredibly attractive frame of his beloved.

"Have I ever told you how good you look in this?" Wei Ying asked, flirtatiously playing with the end of Lan Zhan's tie, where he'd placed a pin with his family's emblem.

Lan Zhan let his hands travel up Wei Ying's upper thighs and slide underneath his long sleep shirt. He couldn't help an appreciative squeeze to the plush of Wei Ying's ass. He'd missed it immensely.

"Anyway, no matter how ravishing you look dressed like this, vice president Lan, I know for a fact you'd look much better without it~"

That was all it took for Lan Zhan's thin patience (and high libido) to snap, easily switching positions to have Wei Ying pinned underneath him, swallowing any of his protests in a searing, passionate kiss. He hadn't realized how desperate he had been to feel and to taste his Wei Ying again until he felt Wei Ying moan and hungrily return the kiss, wrapping his arms around Lan Zhan's neck and his legs around his torso.

Their hips met briefly as their tongues moved against each other and the contact ripped a surprised moan from them both, the pleasure electrifying. They repeated the movement, again and again, growing desperate with it, with the need for more - more pleasure, more of each other.

Never breaking their kiss, Lan Zhan unceremoniously lifted Wei Ying's shirt as high as it would go with one hand and he reached to unbutton his pants with the other as he teased at Wei Ying's nipples. Meanwhile, Wei Ying barely managed to pull his boxers off one leg and rip some buttons of Lan Zhan's shirt in an attempt to rid of it...

...when the alarm went off again, loud and mechanical and so fucking disruptive.

"Turn it off." Lan Zhan all but growled in Wei Ying's ear as he hastily reached for the bottle of lube they kept in a nightstand drawer. Like hell was he going to let an alarm interrupt him from getting laid after a long week of nothing but old men, meetings and unfulfilling masturbatory bouts.

Wei Ying had a bit of trouble reaching his phone in his lust-addled mind and the sound was so impossibly annoying that Lan Zhan could almost imagine himself throwing the damn thing out the window so he wouldn't have to hear it again - but Wei Ying finally managed to make the alarm stop and they both sighed with relief at the renewed silence and the fact that, thankfully, it hadn't woken their son up.

They had to be quick (not that either of them were patient enough at that point to make it last anyway) - the reason why Wei Ying had set up an alarm in the first place was to help A-Yuan get ready for school. It wasn't late yet and it wouldn't hurt to let the boy sleep an extra 20 minutes - Wei Ying would stop by a McDonald's and get him nuggets for lunch and they'd still make it in time to school.

With renewed vigor, the two lovers resumed their passionate kiss as Lan Zhan reached between Wei Ying's ass cheeks to-

"Baba! Are you awake yet? We have to be early today!" Came A-Yuan's voice from the other end of the hallway, loud and very much awake, his little steps paddling uncomfortably close to the halfway open door.

Wei Ying and Lan Zhan shared a panicked-pained look and separated exactly a second before A-Yuan all but burst through the door.

"Baba! If you don't wake up, I'm going to miss the-"

His eyes landed on Lan Zhan and he seemed to have forgotten he was upset with his baba for sleeping in, running to hug his other dad with an excited shout.

"You're home!! I thought you wouldn't come back anymore!!"

Lan Zhan picked the boy up and gave him a forehead kiss. "Good morning. Of course I'm back, why would I ever want to leave?"

"I don't know, adults are kind of weird. One of my classmates said that dads sometimes go to get milk and never come back so..."

Lan Zhan couldn't help a small laugh. Wei Ying had sneakily managed to put his underwear back on underneath the blanket and finally joined in the conversation.

"A-Die didn't go to get milk, though."

"So you're awake!"

And A-Yuan jumped from one dad to another.

"Come on, we have to go in early, I have to present my project on the solar system today and you said you'd help me set it up in class!"

And A-Yuan all but dragged Wei Ying out of bed, mumbling about whatever he could have been doing so up late last night not to wake up on time like everyone else.

Lan Zhan sighed, overcome with love for his family and sadness for his dick.

Nothing a cold shower couldn't fix, right?

2.

A-Yuan always took a nap after school ended for the day. It wasn't long, something between 45 minutes and an hour - the activities of the day exhausted him and some rest after eating a warm meal helped him regain enough energy for homework and playing afterwards.

Incidentally, it wasn't just A-Yuan looking forward to nap time that day. Wei Ying had been busy with errands the whole time the boy was in school and Lan Zhan was catching up on the sleep he lost due to jet lag and travelling at night - so they never managed to continue their morning activities whilst the house was empty.

Thankfully, A-Yuan slept like the dead once he managed to fall asleep, so once he was tucked into bed and visibly asleep, his two dads almost crashed into one another racing to the bedroom.

They closed the door this time, a sign that they were not to be disturbed, and they were back into the position from before, with Lan Zhan beginning to slowly work Wei Ying open as they kissed their breaths away.

Once Lan Zhan was satisfied enough with the way Wei Ying moaned for him to hurry and to just put it in already, why are you being so mean to me, i thought you loved me- he lined himself up to his husband's entrance and was almost giddy with the prospect of getting to be inside him again-

When there was a knock on the door.

It startled them both so much that Lan Zhan honest to god fell off the bed.

"Baba, A-die, can I come in?"

"No!" They both shouted in unison, as Lan Zhan clumsily fished through the pile of clothes on the floor for some pants for himself and Wei Ying to put on.

"Why not? It's important!"

"A moment!" Wei Ying replied as he quickly put the lube and the restraints Lan Zhan was about to tie him up with away.

Once everything looked innocent enough, Lan Zhan opened the door to let A-Yuan in. "What's wrong?"

"I forgot my pencil case at school!"

For a split second, Lan Zhan and Wei Ying shared a frustrated "i can't believe this is why we had to stop again" look, but A-Yuan couldn't understand such nuances and began sniffling.

"Please don't be mad at me! I really didn't mean to, I just let Jingyi borrow my eraser and I forgot it on his desk and then I hurried to leave and-"

Lan Zhan patted his head. "It's fine. We will get it tomorrow. I will talk to your teacher to keep it away until then."

"Go back to sleep, A-Yuan. You had a long day today." Wei Ying added, his heart squeezing a bit at seeing his baby upset. "A pencil case is replaceable anyway, nothing to cry over, okay?"

"Okay... but can I nap with you guys today?"

Lan Zhan could only hope his face didn't give any of his 'no, go to your room, i really want to fuck your dad right now and you can't be here' thoughts. "What brought this on?"

"I don't know..." and he pulled the big, wet, puppy dog eyes, "I just feel a bit lonely I guess..."

And so A-Yuan happily nestled between his parents, happy and safe, as they shared dejected horny looks.

Fate really wasn't on their side that day.

3.

Wei Ying stirred into the sauce a few times, the contents giving off a pleasant aroma as they began simmering. He added meat pieces and vegetables to the pot, mixing them in and turning up the heat a few notches before moving on to wash the dishes in the sink.

Wei Ying felt Lan Zhan come up behind him, wrapping his arms around his waist. "What are you cooking?"

"Something I found on a mommy blog. I have no idea what it's called but it sounded amazing so I decided to try it!"

"Mn."

Lan Zhan latched his lips onto the skin between Wei Ying's neck and shoulder, biting lightly into it.

"Lan Zhan."

"Mn?"

"You can't do this to me right now."

Lan Zhan let his hands inconspicuously slide under Wei Ying's apron and below the waistband of his pants. "Do what?"

Wei Ying would have responded if he didn't have to immediately slap a hand over his mouth so he wouldn't moan out loud. A-Yuan was doing his homework in his room and who knows what would have happened if he heard...

"Lan Zhan..."

He was undeterred, stroking Wei Ying slowly as he trailed a line of his kisses from the nape of his neck to the tip of his ear. "Yes?"

"Ah, you know we can't..."

"Why not?"

"Because - ah!"

Lan Zhan had pinched softly at the sensitive skin of one of Wei Ying's thighs with his free hand.

"Can't you wait until - until Wen Ning gets here?"

"Can you?"

"Fuck - ah, not with what you're doing to me right now, no, but he should be here any moment now so I really don't think it's going to be so hard-"

"It is hard."

"Lan Zhan, this really isn't the time to be a smart ass, get a hold of yourself for a minute!"

He didn't falter, instead increasing the speed of his strokes in that way he knew Wei Ying liked most. "I'd rather get a hold of you-"

"Baba!"

Lan Zhan huffed a very frustrated (and hot, if you asked Wei Ying) "Fuck, not again..." before letting go of his husband and taking over the dish washing. There was nothing less sexual than scraping leftovers off plates and he needed to get his mind off all the things he was desperate to do to Wei Ying but for some reason was not allowed to do that day.

Were the heavens finally punishing him for being overly lustful? Was he being put into horny jail to atone for his horny crimes? And couldn't they have waited until he got a few rounds in with Wei Ying before locking him up? It really had been a whole week, was there no mercy left in gods' hearts?!

"What is it, A-Yuan?"

"This exercise makes no sense! I can't do it at all! And it's the last one too!"

Wei Ying tried to focus on the first grade math textbook presented to him but his mind was still swimming with endorphines and perversions, so it took him a bit longer to understand what he had to do in the first place.

"Here is how I tried to do it."

Wei Ying looked over the paper A-Yuan attached to the textbook, then at the requirements of the exercise, and frowned.

"I don't see any mistakes..."

"But the result isn't right! It should be 4, but I got 7!"

"Lan Zhan, come take a look at this. Is there any way for the result to be 7?"

Lan Zhan looked over the exercise carefully, hands still dripping with dish soap. "No. Absolutely not."

"That's what I thought too! A-Yuan did it right, see?"

"Mn. It could be a printing mistake. A-Yuan, show your teacher your work tomorrow and see what she thinks."

"Okay! Then this mean's homework's done!"

"Just in time, uncle Ning texted me he'll be here in a few minutes to pick you up. Did you take all the toys and games you need?"

"Yes! I'll beat auntie Qing at Monopoly this time for sure!"

Wei Ying could only laugh. "Auntie Qing has never lost at Monopoly, not even I ever managed to beat her!"

"Yeah but you're bad at Monopoly. Jingyi says you have to be rich to be good at Monopoly and you're not!"

"What a little-"

The doorbell rang before Wei Ying finished his sentence and A-Yuan ran to open it. "Uncle Ning!"

A-Yuan wasn't the only one happy to see him.

"Go wait for me in the car, A-Yuan. I got you some cotton candy."

Lan Zhan handed three large shopping bags of food and various supplies to Wen Ning. "This should be enough for one night."

"Thank you for taking him on such short notice, Wen Ning." Wei Ying said as he handed Wen Ning an extra shopping bag of his and Wen Qing's favorite sweets and liquor. "We love him but we really need some alone time right now."

Wen Ning tried very hard not to think about what that meant. "It's okay, Qing-jie misses A-Yuan anyway. Call me when you want him back home and, uh, have a good... time- night. Have a good night!"

"Oh, we will, thanks again!"

The door barely closed before the good night started to be had.

Wen Ning could only hope that the smell of burnt food that emanated from the kitchen would not result in a house fire.

4.

Wen Qing handed A-Yuan a big cup of hot chocolate with a bunny shaped marshmallow on top. Wen Ning had just finished putting the board game away and they were getting ready to watch a Ghibli movie on the couch.

"Say, A-Yuan, do you know what privacy is?" Wen Qing asked as she waited for Wen Ning to set up the movie.

"Yeah, it's when someone wants to be alone."

"Everyone needs privacy, you know?" Wen Ning intervened. "Even your parents."

A-Yuan sipped his hot chocolate judgementally. "What do they need privacy for? I don't want a sibling right now."

Wen Ning looked to his sister for support. She was busy trying not to choke on the piece of candy she'd just eaten.

"A-Yuan, your parents can't... make siblings just like that..." Wen Ning tried, hoping the redness of his cheeks could be dismissed as caused by the hot chocolate.

"Baba says he gave birth to me, I'm pretty sure they can. Uncle Ning, do you really not know where babies come from?"

He could only wish he didn't.

[jomiddlemarch]

Declare the past, diagnose the present, foretell the future

Taking in-house on-call at St. Mungo’s on Imbolc wasn’t the absolute worst, as far as Hermione was concerned. It wasn’t a major holiday and the Scottish weather, an unfathomably vile mix of sleet and snow accompanied by icy gales that defied any warming charm, lent itself to staying in. As her social life was not exactly riotous post-break-up with Ron, however amicably resigned and rueful they’d both been about it, staying in at St. Mungo’s, with its endless supply of ginger biscuits and at least one interesting patient per ward, was tolerable. Acceptable.

It could have been, anyway.

“You like being on-call, Granger?” 

That was Draco Malfoy, her fellow senior registrar, academic rival, and star of far too many risqué dreams she continued to blame on eating cheese late at night. He’d grown significantly after the final battle, which she refused to capitalize when she thought of it, just as she refused to refer to Voldemort as anything other than Tom Riddle. Draco, no longer beholden to a genocidal sorcerer who had far too close a relationship with his voracious familiar and thus no longer suffering from an untreated ulcer along as well as the fear of watching his mother being tortured in her own sitting room, had put on a good 2-plus stone of muscle along with several more inches and somehow managed to make the lime-green robes St. Mungo’s insisted on look like something that would get an approving nod during Fashion Week in Milan. It should be a fourth Unforgivable that someone so silvery blond didn’t look anemic, bilious, or curdled in the next hue over from chartreuse. He looked edible. 

Delicious.

Hermione looked like a generous dollop of the Seafoam Salad her American Cousin Luella brought to every summer tea-party Hermione’s mother had ever thrown, despite being told she was such a dear but she needn’t. Hermione tried to take comfort in the many extendable pockets she’d been able to spell into her robe’s inner lining, but nothing could fully offset the color. 

At the moment, Draco had opened his robes and put his feet up on the coffee-table in the staff break-room, his collar unbuttoned, his tie loosened. He’d stopped using whatever charm or enchanted pomade he’d relied on when they were at Hogwarts and his hair looked silky, a lock threatening to fall across his forehead. If they were called to an emergency, he’d probably cast a wandless Reparo vestis and immediately look the part of a Pureblood senior registrar, but in the meantime, he was…louche. Unconscionably, unbearably erotic.

Hermione thought back to the tea she’d hurried through before heading to Dangerous Dai at a brisk clip. She’d had nary a bite of Brie. Or Cheddar. 

She had no plausible deniability.

Still, he was helping a bit with the judgy curl to his lips and that gleam in his grey eyes which was somewhere between curious and condescending. She’d lean into the condescending part.

“I don’t mind it. It’s part of the work, being a Healer. If you have a true vocation, you don’t resent being on-call,” she said.

She sounded like an impossible prig even to herself but needs must.

“Bollocks,” he retorted, but not meanly. “Don’t you miss your cat?”

“Crookshanks is part-Kneazle,” she said.

“Fine, your part-Kneazle,” Draco said. “Wouldn’t you rather be home with him, doing whatever it is you do away from here?”

“Are you fishing for details or trying to mock me? You’ll have to decide,” Hermione said.

“I’m trying to say it’s just the two of us here, you don’t have to pretend you love being stuck at St. Mungo’s overnight,” Draco said. 

It occurred to Hermione that if she suffered a cardiac event in the next three seconds, Draco would be the one to resuscitate her and that no one ever looked their best post-resuscitation, even when magic was the primary intervention. Vanity, that’s what would keep her from having a heart attack.

Just the two of us.

For Sweet Circe’s fucking sweet sake.

Draco gave her a searching look because the pause had lengthened notably. Anyone else would have said something like Earth to Hermione, except they’d have to be Muggleborn to say that, because Wizards still didn’t grasp that Muggles had been to the Moon and sent rovers to Mars. They didn’t grasp a dog had been sent into space.

“It’s all right. I don’t actually mind it all that much myself, if I’m being honest. And before you feel compelled to point it out, yes, I am Slytherin but I am capable of candor, especially when it suits my needs,” he said.

“It suits you to be honest with me?” she said.

“We’re a team, aren’t we?” he said and she nodded before she could stop herself and ask what exactly he meant, she’d happily taken four feet of parchment on the topic. “Lying, keeping things from each other, it won’t help us. I know you don’t trust me—”

“I—” she interrupted, breaking off when she realized she wasn’t sure she wanted to say she did trust him or that she wanted to, very badly.

“I know we agreed to a fresh slate when we started training here and I also know if was too much to ask of you,” he said. 

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“Yes, I was under duress. Yes, I was seventeen. Yes, we’re all allowed to make mistakes. But I still have a brand on my arm from a group that wanted you dead and defiled and the best I did on your behalf was to pretend I didn’t know you for a few minutes,” he said. 

“What else could you have done?” Hermione said, shrugging. 

“I could have risked my life. I could have died,” he said. “Potter did, when he saved me from Fiendfyre—”

“I’m not nearly as nice as Harry,” Hermione said.

Draco laughed, rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“You’re a better person than I am and you don’t have to argue with me about it. Some things are simply true. I’d like you to trust me, that’s what I’m saying, albeit terribly clumsily,” he replied.

“Albeit?” she repeated. Using humor to deflect was a time-honored tradition and she didn’t know what to do with her sizable attraction when it was suddenly not only about his broad shoulders and narrow hips, the feline grace of his gait, the North Sea of his eyes and his impossibly deft hands (Nimue help her, Draco’s hands…) but also his mind, his insight. She’d known he was clever, her equal in most fields, slightly ahead of her in Charms (though behind in Arithmancy) but she hadn’t appreciated how thoughtful he was or had become. How he could be gentle. 

“I use overly formal language when I feel out of my depth,” he said. Admitted. 

“You were totally at ease then, when Crispin Fillament was hemorrhaging? All I heard was good old Anglo-Saxon obscenities from you while you were trying to shove the blood back into his aorta,” Hermione said, grinning.

“That bugger. He wasn’t helping at all, and I don’t mean his choice to sing operettas,” Draco said. “It was like his blood didn’t even want back in. It felt oddly sentient—”

“Operetta can be polarizing,” Hermione said. They were having an absolutely insane conversation, Thickey Ward caliber, and she was more relaxed than she’d ever been around him while also being turned on. Draco’s expression shifted from entertained to speculative. Assessing. She resisted the impulse to touch her hair or fiddle with the collar of her robes, glad she’d kept her shoes on, regretting her laundry day choice of striped tights.

“We’ve worked together for nearly seven years and you still don’t trust me,” he said. 

“I don’t suspect you of, well, anything in particular,” she replied. It seemed a weak response, even to her. It might not even be fair, but she couldn’t necessarily feel her way into being fair to him. Even if there were times when she wanted to.

“I know. It’s good of you,” he said. “It just, it’s not enough.”

“It’s not enough? You dare to demand I—”

“I’m not demanding anything, Hermione,” he interrupted. “I don’t expect more. I don’t deserve more. I only want more.”

“You want more,” she repeated. She sounded somewhere between incredulous and stupid. As he’d spent a significant amount of his youth the Crabbe and Goyle, the stupidity shouldn’t bother him as it did her.

“I believe Weasley liked to refer to me as a greedy git. I don’t pretend to have entirely outgrown that,” he said.

“That was because you hogged the pudding,” Hermione said.

“Well, I’ve outgrown that. Though I do still like sweet things,” he said. He tilted his head to one side and should have resembled an owl but of course, he didn’t. If anything, he looked like a fallen angel, though he probably wouldn’t have recognized Lucifer if she’d mentioned the name. The Bible was given short-shrift in the Muggle culture studies required at St. Mungo’s where they ran more to Pasteur, Salk and gene-sequencing. “If I want more, I must give more.”

“Is this some sort of rudimentary physics equation?” Hermione said. “You do know Newton covered this area already.”

“I mean, if I want you to trust me, I need to give you more reason. I need to share more, so you feel I’ve earned it. That it’s, I’m worth it,” he said, nodding as he spoke. Hermione felt herself flush and wanted to argue but she couldn’t think of anything compelling to refute his assertion.

“Shall I tell you why I became a Healer?” Draco said.

“If you like,” Hermione replied diffidently, as if she hadn’t wondered nearly every time she saw him and had frankly obsessed over it for the first six months of their training. Obsessed as in Ginny staged an intervention with Padma and Susan and Gabrielle on the Floo, with Luna playing mother over the teapot joining in the chorus that maybe Hermione needed to let it go or go ahead and jump Draco’s bones. She had been so far gone Luna Lovegood had told her she needed to get some perspective (which she suggested would be helped along with a tincture of canawaddle blossom and raging iron jaguar tears. Hermione had just taken the full glass of Shiraz Padma offered and nodded.)

“Because of my parents,” he said. It had been his idea to discuss his reasons but he seemed uncertain how he’d explain or uneasy about her response.

“It was their idea?” Hermione hazarded a guess. It wasn’t a good guess and she’d be shocked if she were right but it was within the realm of possibility in a world where there were both cellphones and wands threaded with a phoenix’s fiery tail-feather.

“Fuck no,” he said, almost choking on a laugh. A bitter one.

“It might’ve been,” she retorted. 

“Only you would believe that possible and before you get horribly offended and flounce off, I mean only you could believe them capable of such humanity. That they would care about other people, that they would care that I did something worthwhile with my time,” he said. He made a calming gesture with his hand, the one he wore a signet ring on. It wasn’t the Malfoy signet though. “You also forget they are the most terrible snobs and think any kind of work is beneath a Malfoy or the bloody scion of the Most Noble House of Black. My mother thinks I’m overly sentimental and my father thinks the whole thing is crass and degrading.”

“I don’t flounce,” Hermione said because what he’d said was a lot to unpack and she couldn’t risk him thinking flouncing was within her repertoire.

“I stand corrected,” he said.

“Why did you become a Healer? How were your parents involved?” she asked. 

“They ruined so many lives. My father, I’ve never asked, I’ve never wanted to know, but I think he’s a murderer and my mother went along with it all. Whatever she told herself about how she had to put me first, it was all an excuse,” he said, holding her gaze the whole time. “Other families left Britain. Other families refused to take a side. Millie’s parents sent her younger brothers to Ilvermorny. Zabini’s mother cast some spell on Blaise that kept Voldemort from touching him, something Darker than Dark, she called in favors all over Europe and West Africa. My parents ruined my life. This is the best way I could think of to make something of it all.”

“That’s, I don’t even know what to say, Draco,” Hermione replied.

“You don’t have to have something to say. It’s just how it is,” he said.

“Is it enough? Atonement?” Hermione asked.

“Mostly. And I like the craft. Snape played favorites and he gave me extra lessons, tradework secrets. The man was frankly a bloody genius. Sectumsempra was his juvenilia. I’m good at Potions and I was taught by one of the best Potions Masters in the past three hundred years,” Draco said.

“It’s nice to hear you admit it,” Hermione said. 

“The special treatment or Snape’s brilliance?”

“Yes,” Hermione said, making Draco smile.

“I wished I could have saved him,” Draco said. “Though I don’t know what surviving would have meant for him. He was broken.”

“He wanted us to let him go. After he gave Harry the memory, he didn’t want to have to live anymore. I tried to stay. Harry and Ron didn’t see his eyes, but he looked at me and I knew it,” Hermione said.

“He doesn’t haunt me. In case you’re wondering,” Draco said. “His portrait often has a choice remark for me, but that’s all.”

“I became a Healer because of my parents too,” Hermione said.

“Yeah?”

“When it was getting close, that last year, you know, none of the adults made any plans to keep my parents safe. They told me not to worry mostly. All Dumbledore cared about was Harry and the Elder wand. Tonks, she was your cousin, she was the only one who said I should look out for my own people,” Hermione said. Tonks’s hair had been a rich chestnut streaked with white when she’d said it, her eyes the glittering green Hermione had always wished to see in the mirror, and she hadn’t minced words. She’d been as serious as Hermione had ever seen her, serious as death, and then it wasn’t spoken of again. Hermione had hoped there would be a time to tell Tonks, to thank her. “I Obliviated my parents and relocated them to Australia, I gave them new identities. I erased myself from their minds. Entirely.”

“What?” To his credit, Draco looked 90% stunned and 10% impressed. Harry had looked 100% horrified and Ron had physically recoiled when she told them. 

“I did some research, figured out how to Obliviate them in the way that would keep them safest,” she said. “Voldemort wasn’t going to care about two random Muggles named Wilkins in bloody Melbourne. Other than you, your father and Snape, none of the Death-eaters were smart enough to figure it out and it turned out Snape was a double-agent, so my odds were even better than I’d counted on.”

“That’s advanced charmwork,” Draco said. “That kind of Obliviation.”

“I had to use Arithmancy too. And runes,” Hermione said. “It had to work. I couldn’t ruin their lives. I couldn’t be the reason they were killed.”

“It worked,” he said. “You saved them.”

“Yes. But it was harder to reverse than I’d hoped,” she said. She said hoped but she meant thought, planned, expected. She’d been wrong. “And when they remembered, they remembered I never asked their permission.”

“You didn’t?”

“They’d never have agreed. I cast the spell behind their backs. An assassination, my mother called it,” she said. She hadn’t told them about being tortured; they couldn’t understand Cruciatus the way anyone magical would and she didn’t want them to ask why she hadn’t confided more in them. Didn’t want them to feel guilty or worse, to accuse her of trying to make them feel guilty to justify her actions.

“You saved their lives,” Draco repeated. 

“That’s what I tell myself,” she replied.

“Do you plan to specialize in memory curses? Because of your parents?” he asked.

“No. It’s not that. I became a Healer because they can understand it. They are dentists, Muggle Healer for teeth, and I was able to preserve all of that when I Obliviated them. They would have said, once, I should take up whatever career I felt called to, but they value healing. It’s something we can talk about. Without much…rancor. They see what we do as another science, this training similar enough, the way the American medical system is similar to the British one,” she said.

“Do you even want to be a Healer?” Draco said.

“It’s fine. Maybe I would have ended up here anyway. You have to master a lot of different magical disciplines and there’s some research to be done. There’s always other people around and you can get a decent cuppa in the canteen,” she said, shrugging. “The robes don’t suit me, but that’s a small price to pay.”

“You wanted something else though,” he said. “You don’t have to lie to me. I won’t try to convince you to leave St. Mungo’s.”

“There’s a course on ancient magics in Alexandria. And the Wizarding Library there, they do archival work and Anatomia liborum,” she said. “I read about it when I was researching the Horcruxes. It sounded intriguing.”

“What else?” he prompted.

“In Japan, at Mahoutokoro, there a witch studying arithmancy and algorithm engineering. That’s a Muggle science, it has to do with computers and programming, which you probably have no idea about, but it’s cutting edge work,” Hermione said.

“Instead you’re here,” he said.

“It’s not so bad,” Hermione said. It was easy to say, because she’d said it to herself about a thousand times. “I’m learning a lot and it’s important, to be able to heal people, and sometimes what’s wrong with them seems impossible, but in an absurdly funny way. My parents like it, when I tell them about work, even if I have to tone it down so they believe me.”

“Doesn’t seem like enough. Not for you,” he said.

“You’re here,” she replied, before she thought better of it.

For a moment, Draco was so still she wondered if she’d cast a wandless Petrificus totalis without consciously registering it.

“It’s not what you think,” she said.

“What do I think, Hermione?” he asked. He didn’t sound sly or arch, not remotely mocking, though he could have and she wouldn’t have been able to blame him. He sounded serious, as if she was the final arbiter of his fate, the Chief Witch of the Wizengamot pronouncing his sentence.

“It wasn’t a grand declaration,” she said.

“I didn’t think ‘you’re here’ was a grand declaration,” he replied. He’d relaxed a bit. Bully for him. Hermione felt like she might spontaneously combust, which coupled with the lime-green robes, was certain to be unattractive.

“You’re clever and well-read and you don’t cave when I argue with you but you don’t try to squash me either,” she said. “You think of things quite differently than I do, but in a good way. You’re my peer, intellectually.”

“I’m your peer, intellectually. That’s what you meant,” he said.

“You spent your formative years with Crabbe and Goyle. It’s not nothing,” she retorted.

“I played chess with Blaise Zabini for seven years. Theo Nott taught me Sanskrit and Pazu Veda in his spare time,” he replied. It felt like an obscure jab at Harry and Ron, neither of whom would claim to be excellent student, but who each had their strengths. They were, perhaps, not ones that lent themselves to spirited discussions, especially since Hermione had an admittedly limited grasp of chess and no real motivation to learn it. She wouldn’t risk the conversation devolving into a cranky argument, relitigating their school-days.

“Theo Nott was fluent in Pazu Veda?” 

“They don’t teach necromancy at Hogwarts, so I can’t vouch for his fluency, but he could read it and translate,” Draco said. He crossed his legs at the ankle, a gesture of pure insouciance. His grey eyes studied her and she lifted her chin. “You’re stalling.”

“I’m not,” she said. For possibly the first time she could remember, she wished to be paged to the receiving area to attend to a disgustingly feculent and smoking heap of Wizard burping up turds, suffering from an unknown but obviously not life-threatening curse or potion. 

“If you don’t want to talk about it anymore, we won’t. I wanted you to trust me and that won’t happen if you feel like I’m grilling you or prying. I’ll try to keep doing whatever it is that makes me being here make St. Mungo’s worth it to you,” he said.

He was a Slytherin but he’d spoken as directly as an Gryffindor, as thoughtfully as any Ravenclaw, as kindly as any Hufflepuff.

“I like you,” she said. 

She was not going to mention lust, her own for his face, his shoulders and his hands, the nape of his neck, the line of his thigh when he crouched down to talk to some patient on the Thickey Ward who thought they were a mole. His lips when he smiled. His eyes when he had a new idea that she was going to hate at first. She was courageous, not foolhardy.

“I like you too. Very much,” he said. “Exceedingly. I don’t want you to worry, having said it first, that your feelings are unrequited. They are very, very requited. Maximally requited.”

“I only said I like you,” she replied.

“I know. You don’t make grand declarations. I do. When they are called for,” he said.

“And it’s called for now?”

“We’ve worked together for seven years. We’ve known each other since we were eleven. You just admitted you like me. I’m not risking waiting another decade for you to understand how I feel about you,” he said. “Wizards have long lives but I’d hate to have this conversation with a white beard down to my navel.”

“You will never have a white beard down to your navel. You’d never do something so cliché,” Hermione said.

“You’re probably right. But I still prefer telling you tonight,” he said. “It means that when I ask you if you’d like a cup of tea and a biscuit in the canteen, you’ll know I don’t just mean a cup of tea and a biscuit.”

“But we’d still have those, right?” Hermione said. “Because I skipped lunch today.”

“I will buy you every biscuit in the canteen,” he said. “And breakfast tomorrow morning. Somewhere where you can get a decent omelet.”

“So, someplace Muggle,” Hermione said. 

“Most assuredly so. At least until we both have a weekend off,” he said.

“Then what?”

“Then I take you to Paris.”

*

Five hexes, three Dark-adjacent curses, nine (nine!) misbrewed Potions causing inflammation, exudation, and one case of rapid-fire recitation in Norn, an unlicensed researcher’s run-in with a surly matagot, and a family suffering from mazy measles, meant that no biscuits, chocolate, ginger or lemon, were consumed and the tea in the canteen’s urn remained untasted by either of them.

They did, however, make quick work of a passable cheese omelet at a very nice café once they’d given sign-out to the day’s team.

And Draco Side-alonged her home, giving her a kiss on the cheek at the door.

Hermione kissed him back. Not on the cheek. 

She wasn’t about to wait for Paris for a French kiss, not when they had so little say over the on-call schedule.

Not when he looked at her with those sleepy grey eyes.

Not when he murmured her name against her lips.

[viciouslyfilthy]

𝐓𝐀𝐆 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑!

(Wasn't sure what to put for an image so... 🐭)

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐑(𝐒): 💜💜PURPLE!!!!💜💜 (and lime green...)

🐀

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐅𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑(���): sweets! Yours truly can be quite a big sweet tooth hehe.

🐁

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂: mostly Classic Rock and Heavy Metal! :0 although we do enjoy quite a bit of Swing and Pop too.

🐀

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐄(𝐒): Wreck-It Ralph, Phantom of The Paradise, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Black Christmas 1974, Malignant, Cast a Deadly Spell, V/H/S 94, Skinamarink, Van Helsing 2004, Ghostbusters 2, Aliens, Ghostbusters 2016, Leprechaun 4: In Space (LISTEN I LIKE GOOFY HORROR TOO OKAY-)

🐁

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒: The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy; The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack; Chop Socky Chooks; Adventure time/AT: Fionna and Cake; What We Do in The Shadows; Castlevania; Shameless (the american series not the british one ejdnsn); Breaking Bad.

🐀

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆: I Heard (Eddie de Clown)- Madame Macabre

🐁

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒: The Adventures of Professor Egghead (creepypasta series on yt)

🐀

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐄: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves!

🐁

𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆: iHomu: the Von Henheim Project by Mélani Garzón Sousa; The Occult Book by John Michael Greer; Hyde by Craig Russel.

(For context yes we're reading all three books at the same time because I have a short attention span that needs to shift into another piece of reading after a while <\3)

🐀

𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆: Adventure time.

🐁

𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐍: tons of art stuff we either owe to people (commissions, art trade...) or gifts; ref sheets of my characters/updating their toyhouse page; setting up two-three other different RP blogs. One for a group of insectoid/fly-based OCs of mine- the other for the creepypasta series villain Professor Egghead.

Tagged by: @kingdom-of-mxginica

Tagging (y'all don't gotta feel forced to do this, just if you want to otherwise it's really no issue!! /gen) : @rxdhairxdsirxns ; @bambino-muses ; @paleobird ; @strebcr ; @lenorethequietbookkeeper ; @sins-of-the-sea ; @chiromutt ; @galaxyinfinitum ; @raktanag

[liloinkoink]

silly. Would they meet the same way and are there any differences? also is anyone free to draw for this asking for a friend :)

yeah anyone who wants to draw for this can feel free!

this roleswap au started out as a convo in discord server a few weeks ago (contributors i remember being Cherri, L, Ghast, Ilex, Crafty, Celestial, Korre, Lime, Daisy… i’m definitely missing names, but it’s been a bit) and then this week cherri and i (and haunted, tho he’s been very busy) circled back to it and fleshed the whole thing out much more

as for what is the same and what is different…. uh, i’ll put this under a cut, i think.

Ren wasn’t always an adventurer. he still hardly counts himself as one—he’s certainly not taking dangerous quests or anything like that. he has no party, only carries a bow and a knife to hunt food on occasion. if he’d had a choice in the matter, he doubts he’d have even left home.

Ren used to live in a city of a decent size, the sort of place it’s easy to disappear. he was well-liked among his neighbors, but not particularly close to many of them. he ran a little shop enchanting items with small blessings—an incredibly rare magic he sold for a fraction of its commercial worth.

he had made a bit of a name for himself, entirely on accident. the city would have adventurers traveling from two or three towns over to repair their weapons or buff up their armor. he had a little boom in his business and a steady market of quest-takers passing through to improve or repair their gear.

but with the fame his name found its way to the wrong people, and Ren’s shop is discovered by… honestly, Ren isn’t entirely sure what their deal was. they called themselves adventurers, but there was something off about them. they were a lot more cruel than the righteous or the thrill-seeking sorts he’d met already, and that only became more apparent when he closed his shop down for the night and found a few of them still gathered outside.

their terms were pretty simple. they’d heard that enchantments could be gradually improved over time, stacked with more and more magic to create blessings like you wouldn’t believe. so ren could go with them, or be struck down where he stood. he’d enchanted the weapon pressed to his chest just a few hours ago, and he knew better than anyone else how sharp it was.

so he does. he packs a bag of some clothes, which they’re so kind as to let him stop and take. a few mornings later his neighbors realize he’s gone. the city searches and mourns, but most of them not particularly hard.

Ren spends a few weeks following the party around, enchanting weapons and improving gear. he sees up close exactly how cruel they are, and so he starts whispering new magics into the blades.

“this blade will never dull” becomes mixed with “this blade will never break the skin of someone undeserving,” “this blade cannot be raised against someone weaker than its wielder,” “this blade cannot spill the blood of one unarmed,” little blessings to mitigate harm. and soon, every blade that passes through his hands has the same quiet spells. his tampering isn’t noticeable immediately, but they figure it out soon enough. Ren has meddled with the magic somehow, and they’re not happy.

the thing about magic is that it’s very fickle. his spells can stop the adventurers from picking on random citizens, but he isn’t careful enough.

Ren, for all his powerlessness, isn’t weak. he’s lied, gone behind their backs. and he had been given a bow to hunt. he is not undeserving, nor weaker than them, nor unarmed.

so when they turn on him, their rage outpacing his usefulness, all he can do is run

the place Ren runs to is familiar, though not to Ren. he shoves open a heavy door, stumbling over half-dead vines tangled across the floor and into a dark room below the earth. there’s a plaque there explaining what the room is—a tomb to the god remembered only as the deserter, cursed to put down roots.

this, too, is familiar—Ren is desperate, and in his desperation prays to a god no one has thought of in 20 something years.

Cherri has dialogue for the oath, which she’s given me the okay to add, and so i will!

“I bet it gets pretty lonely down here… it looks like no one else has come to see you in years.”

"You and I are in pretty similar situations right now. I don't know what happened to you, but there are people chasing me. They want to trap me and force me to enchant things for them. And I... I can't go back there."

"If I must, I will devote the rest of my life to serving you as a paladin in exchange for my freedom."

slowly, and then all at once, the room comes to life. once-dead vines lurch off the floor and attach themselves to Ren’s wrists, urging him forward. Ren doesn’t have a lot of time to be concerned about seemingly awakening a lost god before he figures out what the god wants—there’s a basin in the center of the room boasting one small plant, still a healthy green even in complete darkness.

it’s pretty difficult not to get the message. Ren takes the little plant, careful not to damage the roots, and he flees

[other major differences are… 1. this god and paladin duo have a bit more difficulty communicating than Lamplight, as flower language is a bit more finicky. 2. unlike Lamplight Ren, Martyn’s power requires upkeep from his paladin to be effective—water, sunlight, good soil. 3. Martyn has a much more physical form, so he can actually interact with Ren even while a plant (he can also feel touch, unlike Lamplight Ren, which means he can also feel pain). 4. Martyn is cursed, and his curse can be broken—he spends much more of this AU with a human-looking body than Lamplight!Ren does. 5. there’s a few more major differences that come to mind, but they’re spoilers for Lamplight]

[mixergiltron]

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

It's that time of year again. Time to listen to cool jazz,throw beads to wild women,and drink powerful cocktails. Mardi Gras has nothing to do with Tiki,but both feature cocktails made with rum,so that's good enough for me.

Mix #138 The Hurricane

2oz aged Jamaican dark rum 1/2oz Demerara rum 1/2oz overproof Jamaican rum 2oz fassionola red 1/4oz grenadine 1oz lemon juice 1oz orange juice

Shake with ice and pour into hurricane glass.

The Hurricane is the classic drink that is associated with both Mardi Gras and New Orleans. Its creation is attributed to Pat O'Brien's,a famous bar in the French Quarter. There are several versions of the story,but basically they had a whole lot of cheap rum they wanted to get rid of,so they created a drink to do just that. The classic Hurricane features anywhere from two to four ounces of rum,citrus juice,and either fassionola or grenadine(or both) to give it a sweet taste and its signature red color. It's infamous for both its potency and hangovers. This version is from mixologist Brian Maxwell. As with most Hurricane recipes,I know there's rum in this,but I just can't taste it. It's very sweet with a touch of citrus on the end,and packs a punch. This drink will use up both your rum and inhibitions. Exactly what a Hurricane is supposed to do.

Mix #139 When the Levee Breaks

1.5oz Barbarcourt 8yr rum 1.5oz multi island white rum blend 1/2oz overproof Jamaican rum 1.5 oz fassionola red 3/4oz falernum 1oz lemon juice 1oz orange juice 4 dashes bitters

Shake with ice and pour into hurricane glass. Float 1/2oz of Fernet Branca on top.

This is a Brian Maxwell creation,his riff on the traditional Hurricane. Call it a grown ups' Hurricane. It's not as sweet and you can actually taste the rum and some spice. It'll smash you up just as bad as the classic Hurricane,but you'll feel classier drinking it. I left out the Fernet because it doesn't agree with me,but this was definitely an upgrade over the classic tourist drink.

Mix #140 Tangipahoa Planter's Punch

2oz aged Virgin Islands rum 3/4oz lime juice 3/4oz orange juice 3/4oz pineapple juice 1/2oz grenadine

Shake with ice and pour into zombie glass.

This is a classic drink from the '30's,modernized by Brian Maxwell to sweeten it up a bit. A very nice drink with a nice sweet/tart balance.

The original Tangipahoa Planter's Punch came from a recipe published in the 1937 book,Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix'Em. I was actually able to track down a pdf of this volume on the web,and in there found a drink named for a pirate which crosses over into Tiki territory. Here's my modernized version:

Mix #141 Jean Laffite Cocktail

1.5oz dark rum 1/4oz orange curacao 1/4oz Demerara syrup 2 dashes absinthe 1 egg yolk*

Shake well with plenty of ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

*I used egg substitute.

Jean Lafitte was an infamous pirate who operated out of New Orleans. In his honor I used Smith & Cross,a proper pirate rum. It's similar to a traditional sailor grog,with the other ingredients serving to take the edge off the rum. A bit harsh for my taste,but give it a try if you like your drinks to be liquor forward. By the way,the cocktail actually has the correct spelling of his name,the one F two T version is the misspelling that was used in English language documents at the time,and is used for places that are named after him. Another fun fact,the original recipe called for "absinthe substitute". This was because at the time absinthe was illegal. Fortunately it's available now,since it features in many Tiki drinks.

So put on some Dirty Dozen Brass Band,catch some beads,and let the good times roll!

[itshaetu]

"Movies" Marito x Outa (NSFW)

I haven't just the spelling bc im lazy sooo here you go smut with no plot lol

Marito and Outa lounged on the plush couch, their bodies sinking into the soft cushions as they watched the horror movie unfold on the large screen in front of them. The flickering lights cast eerie shadows across their faces, highlighting their sharp cheekbones and piercing gazes. Marito's lime green and black hair cascaded down his back, the strands gloing under the dim light of the room. Outa's dark blue eyes were fixated on the screen, his muscular physique tense with anticipation. The movie reached its climax, the two actors engaging in a passionate love scene. Marito let out a low chuckle, turning to look at Outa with a smirk on his face. "Looks fun, doesn't it?" he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Outa raised an eyebrow, his gaze never leaving the screen. "You think so?" he asked, his tone low and husky. Marito's heart skipped a beat at the suggestive tone in Outa's voice. He leaned in closer, his lips brshing against Outa's ear as he whispered, "I bet you'd look even better doing it." Outa turned to look at Marito, his dark blue eyes blazing with desire. He leaned in, capturing Marito's lips in a searing kiss. Marito moaned, his body responding to Outa's touch. Without breaking the kiss, Outa stood up, pulling Marito up with him. He led Marito to the bedroom, his movements confident and sure. Marito followed, his heart pounding in his chest. Once in the bedroom, Outa pushed Marito down onto the bed, his movements rough and demanding. Marito's heart raced as he looked up at Outa, his piercing green eyes filled with desire. Outa wasted no time, stripping Marito of his clothes with rough, urgent movments. Marito's body was bared to him, his muscular chest and abs on display. Outa's gaze raked over Marito's body, taking in every inch of his exposed skin. Marito's cock was already hard, throbbing with need. Outa wrapped his hand around it, giving it a firm squeeze. Marito moaned, his hips bucking up towards Outa's hand. Outa leaned down, his lips finding Marito's again. He kissed him deeply, his tongue exploring Marito's mouth. Marito moaned, his body writhing underneath Outa's. Outa broke the kiss, his gaze locked onto Marito's. "I'm going to fuck you," he said, his voice low and husky. Marito nodded, his body trembling with anticipation. Outa reached for the lube, slicking up his fingers before slowly inserting them into Marito's ass. Marito moaned, his body adjusting to the intrusion. Outa worked his fingers in and out of Marito's ass, preparing him for his cock. Marito's body was on fire, his cock throbbing with need. Finally, Outa was ready. He positioned himself at Marito's entrance, his cock throbbing with need. Marito looked up at him, his green eyes filled with desire. Outa thrust into Marito, his cock filling him up completely. Marito moaned, his body adjusting to the intrusion. Outa began to move, his thrusts rough and demanding. Marito's body moved in time with Outa's, his hips bucking up to meet his thrusts. Outa's cock hit his prostate with every thrust, sending waves of pleasure coursing through his body. Marito's orgasm built up inside him, his body trembling with need. Outa's thrusts became faster and harder, his body slapping against Marito's. Marito's orgasm hit him like a wave, his body trembling as he came hard. Outa followed suit, his cock throbbing as he filled Marito's ass with his seed. They lay there, their bodies spent and sated. Outa pulled out of Marito, collapsing onto the bed beside him. Marito turned to look at him, a satisfied smile on his face. "That was... amazing," Marito said, his voice hoarse. Outa chuckled, pulling Marito close to him. "I told you you'd look good doing it," he said, his voice filled with satisfaction. Marito smiled, snuggling closer to Outa. "I'll have to take your word for it," he said, his eyes closing as he drifted off to sleep.

[dealgemeneverwarring]

De Algemene Verwarring #111 - 29 April 2024

Episode one hundred and eleven of De Algemene Verwarring was broadcast on Monday, April 29, 2024, and you can listen to it by clicking on the link below that will take you directly to the Mixcloud page:

First of all, apologies for the late update of the Tumblr page again, I'm kinda slacking with it lately. Sometimes there's just not enough time to get everything done. The usual order is: Monday: making the episode, Tuesday: putting the show online and spreading the word on the social media, and Wednesday: Tumblr. But you know sometimes there's just other things to do on Wednesdays and then I tend to forget the following days. Anyway, let's get down to business. Pictured below is the Australian almost unpronounceable duo Troth. I recently picked up the CD compilation of their early work "Uncut Flowers", released last year by the fine people of Fördämning Arkiv, and I absolutely love it. It compiles early very limited cassettes and some compilation tracks and I think that at this very moment I like it more than the two albums I have from the band (one on Knekelhuis and the other on Mammas Mysteriska Jukebox), but I'll have to give those two another spin. It's a pretty unique band anyway, combining elements of the Bristol scene with dub and kraut influences. Very good release, and it's still available at Discreet Music. And it's on CD and yeah seems like the noise and experimental scene is totally into CDs again and I don't really have an excellent cd player anymore so it's always a surprise if it will play or not, but this one does so me happy.

Some other music in this episode: Primetime, Blank Statements, Lime Crush, Jeanines, Paperniks, X-Mal Deutschland, Can Kicker, Rose Mercie, Cindy, Nina Harker, and Mosquitoes. And beneath the photo you can find the playlist for the show. Enjoy!

Playlist:

The Mighty Caesars: 1977 (LP V/A “Dope, Guns & Fucking In The Streets Vol 4-7” on Amphetamine Reptile Records, 1990)

Primetime: Pervert (7” “Going Places” on La Vida Es Un Mus, 2016)

Blank Statements: The Way (LP “Signs Are Rampant” in Tough Love Records, 2019)

Jeanines: After All (7” “Latest Light/After All” on Market Square Records, 2022)

Lime Crush: Break The Spell (LP “Sub Divide” on Fettkakao, 2018)

Paperniks: Oxygen Tank Flipper (7” “Paperniks Paperniks” on Market Square Records, 2024)

Violent Change: Dreary Example (7” “S/T” on Sloth Mate Productions, 2020)

Purpur Spytt: Triangles (7” “Nitpick” on Kaka Kids, 1000 Balles, POUeT! Schallplatten, Le Syndicat Des Scorpions, 2018)

ESG: Moody (12” “ESG” on 99 Records, reissue 2017 on 99 Records, originally released in 1981)

X-Mal Deutschland: Schwarze Welt (LP “Early Singles 1981-1982” on Sacred Bones Records, 2024, originally released in 1981 on Zickzack Records)

Pawns: Monuments Of Faith 33BPM!! (7” “Monuments Of Faith” on Inflammable Material, 2019)

Can Kicker: Disassociate Now (LP “S/T” on Drunken Sailor Records, 2022)

Rose Mercie: Marie Toi de Moi (LP V/A “Spasmes Du Hasard - 20 + 1 Years Of SDZ Records” on SDZ Records, 2021)

Cindy: A Trumpet On The Hillside (LP “Why Not Now?” On Tough Love Records, 2023)

Nina Harker: Hin Und Her (LP “Nina Harker” on Aguirre Records, El Muelle, La République Des Granges, Animal Biscuit, All Night Flight, Be Coq, 2023)

Troth: Dreck (In Solemn Dub) (CD “Uncut Flowers” on Fördämning Arkiv, 2023, track originally released on cassette in 2019 on 30 copies)

Mosquitoes: Reverse Charge (12” “Reverse Drift/Reverse Charge” on Knotwilg Records, 2021)

[oc-aita]

[Fan character thing] AITA for trapping a guy in my closet?

I’m sorry if I make any spelling mistakes. I’m typing fast since I might be in fanger.

So I (M, teen) live in a small town that currently has a home intruder problem. Allegedly someone keeps breaking into houses, and even thought I never commented on it, it definitely creeped me out.

Just a few hours ago after my parents left me home alone, I hear a shattering sound just as a thunderstorm takes out the power. I go to check it out, and see that yep, a window is fefinity broken. I go to look for a broom, and I see this. This THING hiding in my kitchen. It was vaguely human-shaped and pitch black, with a big set of eyes and sharp teeth. It moves towards me and I can see that it’s skin is…liquidy? It looked like it was melting.

Regsrdles, I book it out of there and hide under my bed. The creature thought I was hiding in the closet so I snuck up behind it and shoved it inside, before pushing my desk across the closet t door to trap it. I convince the thing to start talking, and it explains that this was all a big misunderstanding, and that it just wanted to find a shelter from the rain. I mean- besides reaching for me and chasing me, it didn’t seem aggressive. But it still broke into my house. Not my fault it scared me.

it’s trying to break out niw and somehow, it sounds just like me now. I should probably be running, but I need to know if I did the right thing or not by trapping it instead of running out of my house when it chased me.

Edit: IT LOOKS LIME ME WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE ME—

[musubiki]

So what does Lime like……. Do when he’s in the m34? Does he get regular duties or is he a lil special boy bc he knows Mochi?

as an m34th, limes job is technically "magic control"!! which includes but is not limited to:

missions: which usually is reports of magic happenings across midsphel that the m34th investigates and regulates appropriately (for example, if they got a report of a 3 headed deer creature thats terrorizing a village in the southern parts of the kingdom he could be sent down there to "handle it", whatever that entails

community control: in cases where someone comes to the police station freaking out because they saw a 3-headed deer trying to eat their child, after the investigation he would either 1) tell her this was something completely natural, just some nature phenomonon, nothing to be concerned about, magic is nonsense, or 2) opt to have her memory "replaced" (similar to the memory spell witches use where it "fills in" the replaced memory based on your other memories) if it affected her too much to the point of mental break. this one is more about the key role of the m34th which is keeping the communities views on magic that its rediculous and doesnt exist (propaganda)

(less common) witch control: where a witch is getting too out of hand and they have to go confront her. either its "get your shit together because witches arnt welcome in our society" or in VERY difficult cases, theyll kill her if shes too difficult and unreasonable.

lime doesnt participate in the last kinds of missions out of principle. he passes them up which other people are fine with because theyre the most prestigious missions so any other member is happy to get them. lime is usually mostly assigned to the first type, which is not too unlike magic commissions that he does under normal guild activites.

in fact sometimes the reports they get in the m34th are the same events posted for magic commission ("looking for witch to kill 3-headed deer, please respond at xxx-xxxx-xxx"), but the m34th would preferably get to them first so they can 1) increase reliance on the central kingdom rather than witches (for those in the magic community) and 2) the less work a witch has the more likely she'll just be a regular citizen and not stir up trouble

either way he only gets a few (2-3) missions a week since they dont want to overwork him!!! so half the days hes at home with mochi/doing actual magic commissions and the other days hes sort of working but even then hes a more pain in the ass m34th because others think hes "not aggressive enough" in spreading anti-magic propaganda. he says its "Cowardly shit and I don't care for the socio-political side of things. You handle the misinformation if you want, I'm just here to help people."

as for the knowing mochi part, the rest of the m34th doesnt know that hes with the cat witch!! in their eyes when they meet her, she seems just like a normal girl (albeit a bit weird with all the cats around). i think if they did it would be major trouble 👁👁

[motownfiction]

nonpareil

The first movie Sam goes to see by himself is Target.

It’s not a great movie. He didn’t even particularly want to see it. He just wanted to go to the movies … just wanted to have something to do other than sit around and think about how wrong he was for breaking up with Steph (and how right). Earlier, when he was at Lucy and Will’s place, he asked them what he should see, and Lucy recommended Target. Said if she couldn’t go drool over Matt Dillon in a movie theater anymore, then Sam should go on her behalf. So he did.

He’s not paying much attention to the movie. It’s not all that interesting. Instead, he’s staring at the floor and looking at all the concessions people have dropped since before the previews began.

They all remind him of Steph.

There are Skittles on the floor. Sam can’t see what colors they are, but it doesn’t matter. It just makes him think of when he and Steph would walk over to the store on the corner during their off-campus lunches last year. She’d buy a tall bottle of water and a bag of Skittles. They’d sit in the park together, and Steph would take out one lemon Skittle, one lime, and eat them together. Sam dubbed it a Sprite sandwich. They had a good time then. Sam wasn’t all alone then. He had someone to see mediocre movies with.

There is a lone Twizzler on the floor. Sam thinks about how he and Steph used to crack open cans of Coca-Cola and drink out of them with Twizzler straws. It was just something to do. They knew they weren’t the only people in the world to do it – that even Sam learned it from Lucy when they were a little younger – but it felt like their thing, even still. They were together then. Sam knew he had someone looking out for him then. But it’s easy to have someone look out for you when she only lives a few streets away. When she chooses to move to a whole different side of the state – when she chooses to leave you behind, even though there were other schools she could have attended, better schools – then you know it’s personal. Then you know she must have been waiting for your phone call. Wanting it.

Sam spots a single nonpareil off to the side of his left shoe. He learned that word, nonpareil, from his boss at the little market sometime during eleventh grade, and he became obsessed with it. When he and Steph used to order Sno-Caps at the movies, Sam always used to ask if she wanted the chocolate nonpareils. It used to make her laugh and cringe all at the same time, and Sam thought she’d always be there to laugh with him.

Until she wasn’t anymore.

Until he realized that if she could pack up and move away to college, she could pack up and move anywhere, any time, and for any reason.

Maybe he was right to be afraid of commitment before.

He listens to the movie and stares at that lone nonpareil on the sticky theater ground.

You and me both, kid, he thinks to it. You and me both.

(part of @nosebleedclub march challenge -- day xxiv! i tried to squeak this in at the last second last night, but i had a terrible dizzy spell. yikes!)

[uniquejellyfishqueen]

The Boston Bruins fired their head coach Jim Montgomery on 11/19 after their 3rd straight loss. (3 again.)

Boston is the 3rd largest city in the North east after NYC and Philadelphia. It is the largest in New England.

Settled:1625

Incorporated: 9/7/1630 (date of the old style naming)

9/17/1630 (date of new style naming)

Incorporated as a city: 3/19/1822

53 zip codes

617 and 857 area codes.

Boston was home to several events that proved central to the revolution and subsequent Revolutionary War, including the Boston Massacre (1770), the Boston Tea Party (1773) “at tea time everybody agrees.” , Paul Revere's Midnight Ride (1775) “Midnights.” , the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775), and the Siege of Boston (1775–1776)

Fenway Park - Red Sox

Broke ground: 9/25/1911

Opened: 4/20/1912

Gillette Stadium owned by the Kraft Group who owns the New England Patriots… Tom Brady who’s ex wife Gisele was a VS Angel from 1999-2006

Broke ground: 3/24/2000

Opened: 5/11/2002

7/1/2023 Ed Sheeran holds the record attendance with 71,723

7+1=8 7+2+3=12

8/12 12/8

“Boston” is track 6 on Kenny Chesney’s 9th studio album Be As You Are which was released on 1/25/2005. Track 9 on this album is “Key Lime Pie” -> “she stole his dog and dyed it key lime green” LGAD (that can also spell Glad…Me!?)

(69 makes the cancer symbol.)

Taylor Swift was supposed to join Kenny on his 2007 Flip Flop Summer Tour (58 shows, and it was between that one or his Poets and Pirates Tour. (Poet…. A tortured poet and a pirate.) the boat references make so much sense now.

*due to the sponsorship from Corona TS was not allowed to tour with him because she was 17..

Betty: “I’m only seventeen, I don’t know anything but I know I miss you”

Nothing New: “the kind of radiance you only have at seventeen. She’ll know the way and then she’ll say she got the map from me.”

I Think He Knows: “I am an architect, I’m drawing up the plans. It’s like I’m 17, nobody understands.’

Starlight: “We were 17 and crazy, running wild, wild can’t remember what song it was playing” -> Hits Different “each bar plays our song, nothing has ever felt so wrong”

There was some sort of legal, contractual thing where people weren't comfortable with having an alcohol-sponsored show and having a 17 or 18-year-old on the show," Chesney recalled during a radio interview in 2011. "So, I had to call Taylor and tell her that she couldn't do that tour. And I gave her, as a 'I'm sorry' present, I gave her a lot of money."

At the time, Swift was still in the early stages of her career; she hoped the tour would be her big break. She told Time she was "devastated" when she couldn't open for Chesney's tour.

However, she also said his generous gift changed her life.

"It was for more money than I'd ever seen in my life," Swift told Time. "I was able to pay my band bonuses. I was able to pay for my tour buses. I was able to fuel my dreams."

*old blue chair… the chair from Vigilante Shit..

KC =

Kansas City

Kenny Chesney, born in Knoxville, TN. Went to Gibbs HS. ->Morgan Wallen also from Knoxville, TN. Also went to Gibbs HS. -> brief encounter “wink wink” with Megan Moroney who joined Kenny Chesney on tour this past summer. ->bring it back to Morgan Wallen who has a collaboration with Post Malone “I Had Some Help”-> Post Malone is on “Fortnight” with TS. ->Post Malone is also going to be singing with Chris Stapleton at the CMA awards on 11/20/24. -> Taylor Swift ft Chris Stapleton “I Bet You Think About Me” -> Kenny Chesney released “Born” his 20th studio album on 3/22/2024 track #5 is titled “Thinkin’ Bout” oh and track #6 is “Guilty Pleasure”

The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, commonly referred to as the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts and abbreviated GLMA, is the main governing body of Freemasonry within Massachusetts, and maintains Lodges in other jurisdictions overseas, namely Panama, Chile, the People's Republic of China (meeting in Tokyo, Japan), and Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.

Founded in 1733, it is the fourth oldest Masonic Grand Lodge in existence, after the United Grand Lodge of England (1717), the Grand Lodge of Ireland (1725), and the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania (1731).

**the Boston Masonic Temple was next to Weber Pianos according to a very old photo.

MASSACHUSETTS TS Tour History

1 x TD Garden in Boston

13 x Foxborough

TS Fearless Tour:

7/31/2009 Boston TD Garden (secret gardens in my mind)

6/5/2010 Foxborough “Jump Then Fall”

Speak Now Tour: Foxborough

6/25/2011

6/26/2011

Red Tour: Foxborough

7/26/2013 SSN as the surprise song

7/27/2013 Fearless as the surprise song - also Carly Simon as a special guest for “You’re so Vain”

1989 World Tour: Foxborough

7/24/2015 “You Belong With Me”

7/25/2015 “Fifteen”

Rep Tour Gillette Stadium:

7/26/2018 “22” and joined by Hayley Kiyoko for “Curious” -“curious minds”-Wonderland

7/27/2018 “Change”

7/28/2018 “Ours”

TS ET Foxborough, Massachusetts

#23 5/19/23

Taylor Swift (9) SSN …(social security number)

Red (22) Better Man (FTV)

#24 5/20/23 “rainiest show that ever show-ed” “like performing in the shower

Midnights (7) Question..? The … leads into …Ready For It?

Taylor Swift (13) Invisible “blind for love”

#25 5/21/23 “haunted piano” switched to guitar.

Lover (6) I Think He Knows

Red (2) Red

Kenny Chesney on the speak now tour in Nashville they sang big star

Speak Now Tour @ Bridgestone Arena (like bridges….)

9/16/2011 During her concert at the Bridgestone Arena on September 16, Swift was joined by Ronnie Dunn and the two performed "Bleed Red". She was also joined by Hayley Williams and the two performed "That's What You Get"

9/17/2011 Kenny Chesney joined her to sing “Big Star.” She was also joined by Andy Grammer for “Keep Your Head Up”. The encore was also “Just to See You Smile” with Tim McGraw.

Taylor swift on the Big Revival Tour 2015 (she is wearing a gray and white two piece that is very similar to the 1989 combos.) “dark gray all alone” this night was also Kenny chesneys 47th birthday they sang big star

3/26/2015 @ Bridgestone Arena. Kenny Chesney was joined by Jake Owen and Chase Rice.

“Big Star” was performed with TS and was #10 on the set. #22 was Dust on the Bottle a cover of David Lee Murphy I presume -> track #2 “Just to Say We Did” on his 20th album and most recent, Born, had David Lee Murphy as one of the 4 writers on the song.

*Kenny Chesney is one of the people TS thanked in her Time Person of the Year article. “I was blown away to see quotes from people I adore and admire like Stevie Nicks, Greta Gerwig, Shonda Rhimes, Phoebe Bridgers, Natalie Maines, Kenny Chesney, and Lucian Grainge”

Kenny Chesney responded (Chesney pronounced like chess)

Taylor, I knew looking in your eyes that first time on stage with us, you had 'it.' The hunger, that something special… A gift not everyone has to connect," he wrote. "It's been awesome watching you shine!"

"I'm glad TIME sees what I've always loved about your music, your art & you as a human being," he added. "I'm so proud of you & I love you."

***a piece of the puzzle of LOVER FEST that is CA and MA

Lover Fest East and West were supposed to happen on the following dates:

West: LA, Sofi Stadium 7/25/19 and 7/26/19 (22 shows in LA in TS history)

East: Foxborough, Gillette Stadium 7/31/19 and 8/1/19 (11 shows in MA in TS History)

11/22/1995 Toy Story is released by Pixar Animation Studios as the first feature film created completely from using computer generated imagery.

11/22/2020 TS wins Artist of the Year at the AMAs for the 3rd year in a row.

11/22/1986 Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oiler’s becomes the 13th NHLer to score 500 goals

*TS has a history of performing on 3 of the 4 dates mentioned above in Massachusetts on those exact dates.

*No LA dates in her history match the days of Lover Fest

LA: 22 shows is TS history

*IDK about you but something 22 is going on

REP TOUR HAD NO LA STOP…? She was in Pasadena @ The Rose Bowl and Santa Clara @ Levi’s

Fearless Tour: 3 shows

5/22/2009 Staples Center John Mayer was a special guest at the May 22 STAPLES Center show. The two performed "Your Body Is a Wonderland" and "White Horse".

4/15/2010 Staples Center. Swift performed "Hot N Cold" with Katy Perry after "Today Was A Fairytale" at the Los Angeles show on April 15, 2010.

4/16/2010 Staples Center

Speak Now Tour Staples Center: 4 shows

8/23/2011 joined onstage by Justin Bieber to perform "Baby".

8/24/2011 joined by Jason Mraz to perform his hit, "I'm Yours". She also performed, "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys.

8/27/2011 Swift performing, "Tonight Tonight" with Hot Chelle Rae

8/28/2011 she performed "Super Bass" with Nicki Minaj.

Red Tour Staples Center: 4 shows

****4 nights but only 3 nights had special guests.

****During her stops in LA on the ET is when there was filming for the movie for 3 nights

8/19/2013 “Ours” and "Want U Back" with Cher Lloyd and "Brave" with Sara Bareilles

8/20/2013 “Fifteen” and “Closer" with Tegan and Sara

8/23/2013 “Enchanted” and "Jenny from the Block" with Jennifer Lopez

8/24/2013 “Fifteen”

1989 World Tour Staples Center: 5 shows

8/21/2015 “All Too Well” acoustic tour debut. “Counting Stars” with Ryan Tedder. During “Style” Kobe Bryant presents TS with the Most Sold Out Performance Banner at Staples Center

8/22/2015 “You Belong With Me” “White Horse” with Uzo Aduba. “Doubt” and “Family Affair” with Mary J Blige.

8/24/2015 “Fifteen” “Goodbye Earl” with Natalie Maines. “You Oughta Know” with Alanis Morissette

8/25/2015 “Dreams” with Beck and “All of Me” with John Legend

8/26/2015 “Mean” “Good For You” with Selena Gomez. “Smelly Cat” with Lisa Kudrow. “Mirrors” with Justin TImberlake

Eras Tour Sofi Stadium: 6 shows (no thank you post)

8/3/2023 Filming for Concert Film

“I Can See You”

“Maroon”

8/4/2023 Filming for Concert Film

“Our Song”

“You Are In Love”

8/5/2023 Filming for Concert Film

“Death By a Thousand Cuts”

“You’re On Your Own Kid”

8/7/2023

“Dress”

“Exile”

8/8/2023

“I Know Places”

“King of My Heart”

8/9/2023 Announcement of 1989 TV

“New Romantics”

“New Years Day”

**Sofi = Sofia (play on words for sofa? Because there is one in the attic of the lover house… she also sings about a couch in some of her lyrics.)

- - but I also think of “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” -> in her hidden messages on previous albums: Taylor Swift track #9 “Should’ve Said No” hidden message was “Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam” (6x)

*Ts was supposed to be the first performing artist to open an NFL stadium and she has a vagina, so I see how that could be problematic for you… you’re white supremacy is showing America, and it’s gross.

Could be nothing or could be something:

The New England Patriots will host the LA Chargers on 12/29 (3 days before NYD 2 days before NYE) the time is TBD -> upon further review the Chiefs do no have a game that day… but the Bengals host the Broncos (a white horse) on 12/29 and the time is TBD. There are no NFL games on NYE but there are 2 on Christmas Day. The Ravens play the Texans at 4:30 and Beyoncé is doing the halftime show….. she was also TS plus one for the Eras Tour Concert Film Premiere on 10/11/23 at The Grove (same place as the Spotify TTPD pop up..)

12/29 is National Chocolate day “You ate 7 bars of chocolate”… “The Tortured Poets Department”… 7 as in Lover?

12/29/1607 - Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan leader Wahunsenacawh, successfully pleads for the life of John Smith after tribal leaders attempt to execute him

12/29/1778 - Savannah, George is captured by three thousand British soldiers during the American Revolutionary War

12/29/1812 - Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major by Ludwig van Beethoven is performed for the first time

12/29/1845 - The United States annexes the Republic of Texas

12/29/1880 - The opera La Mascotte opens in Paris

12/29/1890 - On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 300 Lakota are killed by the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment

12/29/1913 - Hollywood's first feature film, The Squaw Man by Cecil B. DeMille starts filming

12/29/1937 - With the adoption of a new Constitution, the Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland

12/29/1940 - During World War II, the Luftwaffe fire-bombs London, England, killing almost 200 civilians

12/29/1962 - British driver Graham Hill comes in first place in the South African Grand Prix at Prince George Circuit

12/29/1965 - CBS purchases the NFL TV rights for 1966-68 for $18.8 million per year

12/29/1973 - Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce hits #1 in the U.S. three months after he was killed in a plane crash

12/29/1975 - A bomb explodes at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 11, and injuring more than 75 people

12/29/2007 - Tom Brady sets an NFL record, throwing his 50th touchdown pass, and the New England Patriots become the first team in NFL history to have a 16-0 score during the regular season

[saraannsworld]

While trying to push forward and keep focused on my dream I knew I just needed to get things done even if it was just stuff around the house. Anything to feel productive and move forward. A few days before a neighbor behind me had put a beautiful Antique dresser out in the ally. I pulled it into my garage, cleaned it and placed it in my room. I felt some how connected to this piece not really sure why. I put a lamp and my jewelry box on top of it, and hung a picture. It was perfect, I would put sheets for my bed and extra blankets in it. It gave my room so much warmth and comfort.

On this day I had not moved anything into the dresser and after having a day of heart break from not getting a job I so much wanted I awoke needing to put myself back in order and so I began to move my sheets into the dresser. I opened the top drawer and as I pulled a liner that had been placed on the bottom on the drawer, a lime green and cream patter that I can imagine a grandmother placing there to keep the furniture safe I could see a red paper sticking through the back of the drawer. As I pulled it out I read the words in cartoon letters across the top.

“ The biggest risk in life is not risking”

xo Sara

All I could think was your right I have to keep pushing through. I have to keep believing that the dream job will happen the life you want will happen. You didn’t do all that work for nothing. It was odd though to find this message and on a tag for clothing that was bought eight years before by someone else. I didn’t even live in this state yet let alone this house. This house was not even built. I was in Colorado just finishing the court battle of getting custody from a person who could not even show up to fight.

It is times like this that it is hard to think there is not a higher power. Some universe plan already written. My name was even spelled the same, which rarely happens almost always there is a “H” on the end. Almost like I did this message from myself to find eight years later. Although I had not. In fact the person who bought this clothing item probably didn’t notice it was there or didn’t care to them it was just a tag. To me it was something to remind me that I was on the right path and to keep going.

[soapver4]

Playdough X Playdough

Element expansion idea: Corruption turns people and institutions it touches into literal playdough in a country — the people, because they become mere material means to some ends or are handled in a cavalier manner, the institutions, because they become funhouses that fail to serve practical needs. Formal funhouses do better than that.

The agents of corruption themselves, whether bribe extractors or middlemen, are often muddy playthings thrown off the path of higher reason and into chaotic whirlpools by primal forces, be these fear, greed, lust, jealousy, or want of power. Their worldviews are pathetically narrow. At times, the primal force is self-preservation under limited economic choices, deep-seated need to belong, or some other sympathetic cause, but sympathy does not alter their toy status, already a fact — it only alters the toy repair kit, the remedy.

The playdough imagery is an acquired visualization skill, like the awakening to reality in The Matrix franchise, not a given. Some errant actors arrogantly see themselves as and behave like humans, noticing neither how dough breaks off from them and marks their trails nor their hilarious deformities accumulated on grazing past sturdy objects. Tens (or hundreds) of millions of taxpayers contribute enormous streams of time and funds to the erection of buildings that may look stately to them but are really cartoonish circus tents or slimy huts. Stagnant seas of needy institution users wait for support in vain while oblivious to the squishiness of pillars.

There are, on the other hand, errant actors who not only are cognizant of their doughhood but also take pride in their self-malleability. Civilization, with its inefficient, opaque layers, chronically underfunded workers and checkpoints readily convertible into fast lanes or walls everywhere, has always been a game in their view. You cannot blame them, they argue, for playing according to the real, unwritten rules. Yet when they get on the wrong side of some fuchsia-pink diva or lime-green tyrant and their colorful stashes are seized to spell their doom, the guillotine still hears their inner shrieks. The tear-stained, lumpy heads are swiftly remolded and traded as soccer balls among their unrepentant partners in crime.

Leading a revolution against the playdough malaise is a task even more grueling than what it may seem, since you do not see the reality of yourself, your comrades or your fortresses until what appear as flesh and concrete are put under a battery of tests. As more and more of your panorama turns into soft figurines and collapsible structures wherever you head to, you also stare at your own smudgy stumps that were once human limbs and realize there is no choice but to lumber onward as a fragile toy army. Toyhood is said to be a leisurely affair of little things lifted and driven around by Brobdingnagian hands, but the remaining humans are too harried, too few and far between and probably not human anymore by the time you reach them. All of your flaking, drooping bodies cannot afford the wait for them to bring in public sector transparency, streamlined administration, proper financing structures and stiff penalties. Shake a fist at the writing team in the skies overhead for not forgoing the need to fill dough stomachs in this fantasy premise.

And so, you prop up each other, prepare makeshift cells for traitors and march on in this perilous, long journey. There is pride too in the somber army's malleability, but that malleability is in the choice to stand tall and champion for a resilient habitat livable for all rather than to succumb, one unshapely clump after another, to a viscid giant mattress of temptation.

Check out the alt text of the header image.