#moonstruck / ASKS.

[psygull]

hey! I couldn't find if you've already got this somewhere - have you got a list of movies you wish more people would go and watch? feels like you've got a real varied refined palate for movies, thanks have a good easter weekend 🥚

hello and thank you! i recently answered an ask with a list of horror and sci-fi movies i recommend (which can be found here) so here's some more that aren't either of those. also look up content warnings for these beforehand if you watch any

Brick (2005) is a neo-noir with all the trappings of the genre (femme fatales, murder, weird lingo) set in a california high school. scrappy, clever, and the directorial debut of one Rian Johnson (see also Looper (2012))

Clearcut (1991) is a thriller about logging, indigenous land rights, environmentalism, and what happens when nonviolence fails. intense and thoughtful, raises a lot of questions but leaves them up to you to answer

likewise, First Reformed (2017) is a psychological drama about a pastor of a church that's been reduced to little more than a tourist attraction having a crisis of faith and ALSO dealing with environmental crises as well. this one's BLEAK but so good. i still think about it frequently

The Proposition (2005) is a western set in the early days of australian colonization. a lawman gives an outlaw nine days to hunt down and kill his older brother, or his younger brother will be hanged. it's about colonialism, civility, and the gruesome violence underpinning all of it. and it's starting to gather flies (also nick cave wrote the screenplay and the soundtrack, so you KNOW it's good)

Moonstruck (1987), to change up the tone completely, is a wonderful romcom starring nicolas cage and cher. i dunno the best way to pitch this one, it's just really well written and fun and good. extremely new york movie

that's a few i've been thinking about recently! i could keep going but five is a good number to end on

[trungles]

esteemed trungles, i come with an important question. What is the best romcom to watch in winter?

ESTEEMED omg incredible. I don't think I've ever been esteemed before, so I'll do my best to live up to it.

SO I'm a little late on this question for Holiday rom-coms, but it's still winter here right now, and I love rom-coms. In no particular order:

The Holiday (2006) - Kate Winslet! Jack Black! Cameron Diaz! Jude Law! John Krasinski for some reason (he shows up for like three minutes)! Kathryn Hahn (also in the same scene as John Krasinski)! Also there's a little, itty-bitty A Knight's Tale reunion because Rufus Sewell shows up and so does Shannyn Sossamon, which I find to be very sweet. Jack Black is cute as Christmas and hot as breakfast in this movie, and he somehow did this straightforwardly sweet rom-com AND Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny in the same year. The man has RANGE. You get two romances in this movie, and I think the Kate Winslet one is much more of a high-budget Silver Screen romance while the Cameron Diaz one is much more a Hallmark Channel romance, which I think is great because I love both kinds of romances.

When Harry Met Sally (1989) - This movie is iconic, and I love it to bits. I always have it saved to my phone so I can watch it on literally every plane ride just in case I get stressed out. Meg Ryan is incredible in it as a neurotic and incredibly self-assured woman who develops a friendship with Billy Crystal's character over the course of about a dozen years. Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher play some hilarious supporting characters. This movie is also lovely in that the most dramatic character arc belongs to the male love interest. Like, yes, Meg Ryan's character also grows, but there's no change to her world view or her wants and desires because she's not hurting anyone with the way she navigates those things, and Billy Crystal's character grows into someone you could imagine having lunch with, a far cry from when we first meet him. It's also very well-written. I downloaded the script just so I could pick it apart and learn from it.

Single All the Way (2021) - KATHY NAJIMY AND JENNIFER COOLIDGE ARE BOTH IN THIS MOVIE. I don't know what I was expecting, but this holiday rom-com charmed the thermal socks off me. Michael Urie and Philemon Chambers play best friends who fake a relationship so Michael's family will stop badgering him about there being no romance in his life. It's a fake dating movie, and it is also a delightful subversion of the Hallmark romance. Michael Urie escapes his big city life back to his small hometown where he meets an extremely hunky local spinning instructor (lol) played by Luke McFarlane, who is a literal mainstay of many actual, literal Hallmark romance movies. It's great. I enjoyed it immensely.

Moonstruck (1987) - Cher and Nicolas Cage star in this movie, and it's sort of difficult to describe. It's very funny, and it's heightened by how every single actor plays their character with the seriousness of a prestige drama. Olympia Dukakis and John Mahoney are also in this, and they're both delightful. I still occasionally yell, "I lost my hand! I lost my bride!!!" out loud at random intervals in the year. Keeps my loved ones on their toes.

While You Were Sleeping (1995) - This movie is a charmer and a half! Sandra Bullock stars as a lonely woman who works at the L in Chicago who falls in love with one of the passengers. One day, he falls victim to an attempted mugging and falls onto the tracks. Our heroine saves his life, but he winds up in a coma. A series of misunderstandings leads his entire family to believe that she's his fiancée, and polite shenanigans ensue (except in the case of one testicle-inspection, which might be regarded as pretty impolite, but it's very sweet in context). I also find Bill Pullman extremely blandsome and regular-looking to the point of being sincerely erotic. I don't know how this happened.

And I think that covers my wintry rom-coms! I watch all of them year-round, but these ones all vaguely take place in the winter-time and sometimes have a little bit to do with the holidays season.

[waterlogged-detective]

I wanna see your interpretation of Mr Barleycorn please! 💗 thanks for your time!

I still need to play sskies haha

[dynabolt]

THANK YOU 🫡❤️

PERFECT visual of what has denki so geeked

[actualbird]

hi zak! I saw the tags you left on a reblogged post about Luke and suffering in relation to catholicism and that made me think. one of my classmates used to mention "the catholic guilt" (particularly about having desire), and I just thought it fits Luke so well. He felt so guilty about loving Rosa (and leaving her alone...) for so long T-T. Also, I'd love to hear more of your thoughts about catholic and filipino luke if you'd like to write about it!

irt to these deranged tags i left on this post abt suffering as salvation and luke forever ago, screencapped below for reference

hello hello! sorry this response took Ages but now im finally down to answer this so....

//steeples hands.....is luke pearce catholic coded? to Me, yes, and ive been casually throwing around this concept ever since 2021 HAHA. the filipino bit is actually just me projecting, so i wont go too much into that, but the religious bit Is something i wanna talk about. and i apologize in advanced for how long this response is gonna end up being

quick disclaimer b4 i start tho: im Not a theologian or an expert in religious theory, im just some guy who went through over a decade of catholic school and lives in the philippines, a primarily catholic country. this whole response is not saying "catholicism bad." it's more the institutions from where we experience catholicism from can twist it into something harmful, and i got to experience that first hand and how it affects one's view of themselves

ANYHOO, LET'S START FROM THE BEGINNING

like....the Beginning beginning

part 1: in the beginning, adam and eve did an oopsie so now we're all saddled with original sin (i swear this is important to luke pearce, bear with me)

quick recap on those who are unfamiliar: in the book of Genesis, god told adam and eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge. and then they did. this was the first ever sin in the history of humankind, and it is inherited by all humans through birth. so like, yay, happy entrance into the world, newly born baby child! you are guilty of sin already. this original sin is most usually absolved though through baptism, so it's not too much of a problem. but what im interested here is less of the nitty gritty semantics and more of the concept this all puts forth:

that under catholicism and similar denominations, a child, somebody who has not done any wrong at all, is inherently tainted by sin

now, the Good reaction to sin or any wrongdoing one has done is to recognize it and to atone for forgiveness. and within the "recognition" part is where guilt lies. functionally, guilt has a purpose. it makes us realize that we had done something wrong, it makes us feel remorseful, and it adds motivation to atone, to turn a new leaf, and to be better. in healthy amounts, guilt is useful and a natural part of being conscious over the things you do. and in unhealthy amounts, guilt is agonizing.

but thats for stuff you actually Did.

if the thing you are guilty for isnt actually something you were responsible over, the guilt cant do anything to make any of it better. you cant be a better person from it, because you didnt even do it. it just sits there, making you feel horrible for something that was out of your control. but because guilt is a Good thing to do, it doesnt matter if it's functional or not. it needs to stay. because it's Good, and the sin youre saddled with (whether or not you were responsible) is Bad

now let's bring in luke

luke's parents died when he was very young. this led him to living with mc's family, and a huge insecurity and fear he had from the beginning was that he felt guilty for burdening them, for stealing the love and care from mc's parents when that shouldve been for mc alone. the story SSR Shape Of You goes into this particular childhood experience extensively (and i highly reccommend it to anyone who hasnt read it yet), and tells us that his guilt was so bad that he wanted to run away and even erase himself from existence.

but luke didnt even do anything wrong

at the time, he was a child. he had no bearing whatsoever in the accident that killed his parents, he had no sway over who wouldve ended up looking after him, he had no control over the situation. like a newborn baby born under catholic doctrine, luke finds himself inherently tainted by and guilty for the circumstances that landed him to where he was.

this kind of pattern is going to follow him for the rest of his life, and the concept of inherent sin and inherent guilt begins to evolve. if luke can find himself guilty for things out of his control, then he can also find himself guilty for things that arent even sins in the first place

key example: love

like you said, luke feels immense guilt over loving mc. but why? love is the opposite of a sin, afterall.

it's just a sin when luke does it. because luke sees himself as inherently bad, and sees mc as inherently good. he sees himself as unworthy of her or someone who will just bring pain into her life, and causing pain someone you love is bad. if love is the knife he uses to hurt someone he loves, then that love is bad. that love should not be realized, and luke should feel guilty for even yearning for her.

by this point i think it's obvious that original concept has become twisted and overly punishing, even cruel. and thats because:

a lot of institutions teach catholic doctrine in an unhealthy and harmful manner. this is why many catholics and lapsed catholics experience The Catholic Guilt(TM). what was originally a pretty reasonable thing gets blown out of proportion from the places we learn these things from, and then getting exposed to this for majority of our lives lets it worm its way into our brain where it'll tend to stay

and if one's brain also has a tendency for self hatred and/or mental illness........well. it all gets worse.

it's clear in canon that luke is uhhhh not the most mentally well individual. his guilt is so overwhelming that it's the driving force in so many of his choices, stories, and experiences. which is big reason #1 for why luke just seems so catholic to me, because of the sheer intensity of his guilt and how he sees himself as inherently bad and unworthy.

but in the roadmap of sin, thats only the beginning. because the process goes:

sin (bad) -> recognition of the bad aided by guilt (good) -> atonement to become better (good)

which leads to big reason #2

part 2: suffering, pain, and misery as atonement

it's important to note that catholicism does not posit that "suffering is good", but there is a clear pattern of veneration for people who endure suffering under noble causes. many, many people in catholic history have been martyred (and many also sainted), one of the biggest examples being jesus himself.

pain is not good, but someone who chooses to take it on for good reasons (self-sacrifice, martyrdom, putting others above one's self) or stays good in spite of all the pain they experienced (unwavering faith, a heart of gold), well, THAT person is good.

however, like a lot of stuff in catholicism, things get twisted into extreme variations because of how it gets taught or experienced. it doesnt take a genius to see how "people who endured pain for good reasons were brave and devoted people" can transform into "to experience pain is inherently noble" when you take into consideration that many sins (like, of the seven deadly sins variety, pride, sloth, lust, etc etc) are variations of indulgence.

specifically over-indulgence, yes, but there's a dichotomy now. here, in the list of Good Stuff are things that feel not-so-good, and over in the list of Bad Stuff are things that do feel good

bad stuff is a sin, and from part 1, sins are things you should be guilty for

and now, to feel good is also bad, so you should be guilty for that. which reinforces the concept that to feel bad is good.

congratulations, you've unintentionally glorified suffering and demonized pleasure! //sad trumpet noises

you can see this kind of thinking pretty clearly in luke pearce. there are the big examples like the previous one i brought up, where he feels so guilty for his feelings for mc. but it appears even in smaller casual situations, like in his 1st birthday event story. this moment was seared into my brain

"can i look forward to this?" is indicative of hesitating in the face of happiness. even something as mundane as anticipating a birthday surprise is something to be approached with caution, feels too good to be true, to be allowed, because feeling good is bad and luke doesnt see himself worthy of it

but okay, we're all guilty now of the horrible sin of enjoying life. what comes next? atonement, becoming better, growing from the bad to become good, right?

and what better way to cleanse one's self from the sin of feeling good but through the nobleness of enduring pain?

luke is guilty over the sin robbing burdening mc and her family -> thats okay he's leaving for college anyway! wont be able to burden them there -> oopsie the NSB happens but hey at least this lone wolf suffering is a great way to atone for his past sin -> oh god the guilt of abandoning mc though -> oh GOD the mission that killed everybody but him -> NEW ACHIEVEMENT: SURVIVOR'S GUILT ON TOP OF THE CATHOLIC GUILT! -> oh GOD he's even guiltier now of his feelings for mc because of his illness, he'll only bring pain to her, how selfish of him to have feelings like this, bad and wrong -> the best way to handle this is to stay away from her to let her live in peace (lacking the pain that luke will bring) and deprive himself of her who brings him joy (inflicting pain of separation onto sinner as punishment) -> the path to salvation (to being good, because only in being Good is someone worthy of love) is through constant suffering and endless self-deprivation

kinda insane how luke's self-perceived sins and self-inflicted sufferings gain compound interest of misery, but his spiral into self-loathing is littered with this kind of nonsensical "because i did [THING], i should deserve pain/NOT deserve happiness"

for luke, suffering became the mode of atonement, it became the solution for sin and guilt.

part 3: conclusion

to wrap this all up, i wanna make it clear that i dont necessarily think luke is like, catholic in the story. nor is even it a headcanon i have. it's more that the intensely self-punishing thought patterns luke has in relation to guilt and suffering are very, very familiar. it resonates in a way that is horridly relatable to people who have experienced these specific catholic experience woes, but it can also resonate in completely different ways to other people as well.

but given that....yeah. based on my own experiences, all this //gestures at too-long response, is why i keep using catholic language and imagery whenever i talk about luke. it's so familiar. he's so familiar. luke would not be out of place in a filipino catholic high school crying during a 3 day retreat

thanks for the ask!!!

[bjorkshire-pudding]

Hey Val ^.^ 6, 7, 9 and 15 for the writer ask game! Have fun!

Hi Luna! Thanks for dropping by.💙😌

6. What ship(s) captured your heart? Hmmm... this is a difficult one, because most of my recent work has been written with either Character x OC or Character x Reader. But a long, long time ago when I used to write for the Marvel fandom, I was really into Tasertricks and ShieldShock. (If you're interested in reading any of my old works, you can follow the links.)

7. What character(s) captured your heart? This motherfucker right here. He just... yeah.

The thing about it is, I was warned about him. Years ago, my brother told me: "I feel like you'd like Captain Levi." I told him he was a fool. He's laughing now.

9. What fic meant the most to you to write? This answer goes hand in hand with the previous question, I think. Near the end of last year, I realized that there were some feelings of grief I hadn't fully processed yet in regards to my dad's sudden death a few years ago. I wrote something called Where the Sky Hangs, where I got a chance to explore those feelings and find catharsis in writing about them (and Levi is the male lead in it).

15. Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023. This recommendation comes with a bit of a caveat - the story was originally written and posted in 2022. I decided I didn't like how it had ended, however, and decided to do an almost-complete rewrite in 2023. It's one that was very recently finished called Against the Tide. It's an Ikemen Prince x Bleach crossover adventure fic featuring my Black OC, and you can read it here.

Ask me things!

[humanitys-last-call]

[A letter was put into the mailbox. On the envelope, besides the mailing information, there was a silly sticker. The message reads as follows. ]

Dear new neighbor Denewiah Tartarus,

Welcome to Inkopolis Square! I'm really excited to write this, because maybe you don't know much about this place! No need to worry, though, because I can fill you in! In the center of the square, in front of this mailbox, is the Deca Tower, where all the older kids go to play turf war with each other. It's really fun, I think. I'm really close to being old enough to do that myself, in fact! Moving on, to the left of the tower is that Grizzco place, where sometimes the big kids go to earn money. Back toward the subway, there's a big row of shops that sell hats and shirts and shoes and other stuff too! There's a food truck that sells fried things, and I really wanna try a schwaffle from there sometime soon! I don't actually literally live in the square, just really close to it.

Here's what I look like, by the way! If you see me in person, say hi! [Attached was a photo of a young inkling, around 12 or 13 years of age.]

Oh, one more thing! If you feel like writing back, could you give me your address so I can send a housewarming gift, or maybe even visit? I'd appreciate it, and I think you'd appreciate it too! At least the gift-getting, I hope. If you see me around, don't be a stranger, ok?

Your neighbor, Penny

[This letter looks so clearly hand-written by an overly friendly middle schooler. It's very juvenile and very sincere. 🐙]

"...

...

Interesting.

It would appear as though a juvenile is attempting to communicate with me."

"Now, dear listeners, I wonder. What sort of responsible Inkling parent would permit their precious child to go and send mail to the scary stranger man who presumably hides within the forsaken metro?

The correct answer is none. Every day, I am shocked by the lack of survival instincts within your species. Such grave incompetence shall lead only to death. [PROJECTED CRUDE MORTALITY RATE: APPROXIMATELY 8,500 FOR EVERY 10,000. CALCULATIONS GENEROUS. 15% MARGIN OF ERROR.]

I do not wish to consort with mere children. Our communication shall be terminated, effective immediately."

A chair creaks. A conversation carries in the distance.

"Wakapi. If we are to receive any more mail from this address, kindly dispose of it before it even has a chance to enter my office."

"Doesn't that seem a little... unnecessary? It's only some silly ki-."

"I expect silence from you, young lady."

"..."

The heavy boot steps trod away.

[softcarebears]

when u get this, list 5 songs u like to listen to, publish. then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers (positivity is cool) 💖

hai hai!! carde ooh thanks for sending me the ask 🥺🌸

[best-ghoul]

Moonstruck: More about Czeska

Since I'm rereading it these days, I should probably mention Franken Fran is a primary influence on one of the characters in Moonstruck-- Czeska Rau, vampire doctor and party member.

Like Fran, Czeska is foremost a scientist and doctor. She's a brilliantly talented doctor who doesn't discriminate: Mortal, Cambion, Undead, all can benefit from a little applied necromancy when times get tough, and Czeska's willing to push through mistakes, experimentation, and unintended consequences to usher in a new field of medicine and in pursuit of this, ends up resurrecting Tabitha. Tabs is our protagonist and recent defector from the local church militant-- someone who doesn't exactly deserve compassion from the people she once hunted as beasts, but Czeska's a doctor, dammit.

While Fran's "respected" (and feared) on her own merits, Czeska's desperate for legitimacy. She's frosty, professional and-- she insists-- in perfect control of the various urges vampirism induces in her (feed, dominate, revel and cackle). Her job's constantly at odds with her nature-- she's kind of a paradox and that makes her immensely self-hating. In her head, she thinks her work will vindicate her as a civilized, functional monster, one worthy of respect from mortals. Let's see how that goes for her.

Moonstruck's gimmick is that characters have a "Frenzy Gauge", which, when full, forces the character's "class" into a monstrous new powerset. It then must be drained back down to bring them back to their senses.

Czeska's repressed, methodical nature means she's the slow to Frenzy but so pent-up that she's hard to rein in once she flips. Since she's your primary healer but turns into an assassin when Frenzied, you've gotta be selective about when she pops off.

To compare, her direct foil, Solenna the werewolf, who loves being a monster, frenzies quick and has a synergistic relationship between her normal and frenzied modes.

Anyway, I'm still poking at it this thing. Keep looking forward to it.

[theluckywizard]

15 and 18 for Garret and Rosa for the ask game :)

Thank you for asking 😍

These questions are from This OC Ask Game

15. What places hold significant meaning or memories for your OC? Do they have a positive or negative association with those places?

Garrett Hawke: Oh gosh-- a lot of Kirkwall is permanently colored for Garrett, one of the reasons he ultimately fled the city with Bethany, even when he was begged to stay to help pull it back together.

His family estate in Hightown. It was always meant to be this place of security for his family-- something they had never had. And by the time he was able to secure it, he'd already lost Bethany to the Circle, Carver to the Wardens (or the Templars in the case of my Kiss Me Moonstruck AU), and later his mother. He can't think about the place without sliding into a spiral about how much he let slip from his grasp when he had always felt it his responsibility to protect and provide for his family.

The Hanged Man is one of those places that is both blue and yellow (Inside Out style). It's the place where he found companionship and support... but it's also the place where he buried his failures and he knows it. Joyful, outrageous shenanigans, enjoyable memories... that eventually slip into thoughts about what he fumbled or what he lost.

Crestwood - This is a happy place for him. Rain, undead, red templars aside. It's where he and Rose really discover the depth of their appreciation for one another. The man who unwittingly broke it all with the woman who could fix it all. Their intimacy will forever be tied up with that place in his mind. For him it marks the start of a personal journey where he digs himself out of his cycles of self-blame and regret.

Rose Trevelyan:

There's a place in the coastal forest on her family estate in Fenwick outside Ostwick where she and her father built a makeshift shrine to her older brother Jaime who died in a possession incident as a boy. It's a secret between the two of them. Over the years they add different trinkets to honor him, tucking them amongst the roots and hanging from branches of a great fir tree. It's a place she goes mentally when she wants to kind of commune with Jaime, who is kind of the 'person' she talks to when she wants to sort things out for herself.

Haven - This is a place where Rose goes through a truckload of growth, going from this sheltered noblewoman to someone who could even be worthy of the title of Herald. She embraces the challenge and is really put through the mill while they're based in Haven. It's a home away from home. It's a place where she felt herself becoming and she will always be grateful for it. The loss of it makes it difficult to think about, but it's really important to her and she remembers it often.

The Crossroads, Hinterlands: The first place Rose ever killed a person (in a hand to hand scrap with a mage hidden away in some underbrush). This is a pretty traumatic memory and it kind of rears its head when she really doesn't need it. Even though it's a place they were ultimately able to do a lot of good, Rose can't disentangle it from that first messy, horrifying kill.

18. Has your OC ever had a prophecy made about them? Was it a big deal or did they ignore it? Was it straightforward or cryptic? Did it ever come to pass or did they circumvent it?

Hehe, it's hard to answer this completely without giving away spoilers for my WIP longfic In the Shattering of Things, but I will give some.

Garrett Hawke: Flemeth's remarks to him at Sundermount are a prophecy. "We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss. Watch for that moment... and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap. It is only when you fall that you learn whether you can fly." Garrett found it maddeningly cryptic and was already annoyed with her so he kind of ignored it, but it sort of sat in the back of his mind as kind of a niggling feeling. I think throughout his time since he occasionally looks back on the words and tries to see how it would fit his choices over the years. Did he take the leap? Rose Trevelyan: Hawke dreamed of her when he was around twenty years old living in Lothering. She doesn't learn of this dream until well after she's inquisitor, indeed, I haven't even published the part where she learns of this, only hinted at it. That's all I can really say without getting real spoilery. But yes and no. In my WIP Kiss Me Moonstruck, set during DA2: Act 2 where Rose and Hawke are being set up by their mothers, Sandal actually confronts her and shares his canon prophecy and says "It's you". And she's a little bit like "Garrett put you up to this didn't he LOL GOOD ONE". (and in that case, yes it comes to pass much later on that she becomes the Herald, but that AU takes a hard right turn from canon)

[h-a-unted]

your phone's ringing. — Laura (@dollhidden) to Travis!!

It was one of those days in which he just wanted to let the hours go by. He didn't want to do much, if anything... Yet, Laura had managed to pick him up. She gave him enough motivation to eat, to take a shower, to at least stare out the damn window, as she said. She was worried for him, he knew... And once she had given him enough energy to want to tackle the day, he decided to spend it with her.

Sudden and calmly had he pulled her close, interrupting whatever she had been up to. A hand is carefully placed on her waist, the other intertwining with her own as he leans his head against her's. A slow dance, like the ones people used to have when he was younger. He wonders if Laura thinks him silly for being so... antique. Yet, the only thing to come out of her after minutes of dancing is concern over his phone. Well, she knows he is a stickler for rules and work, after all.

"Let it ring..." He whispers as if he almost was falling asleep in her embrace. "It's probably from the precinct... Someone else can patrol for me tonight. No one else can dance with you."

[applepies-and-starlight]

Are you edible? Because apple pies and starlight sound delicious 😔

...Unfortunately no, but my handle does sound edible now that you point it out

[shadow--writer]

🎁- give a gift

Dez, absolutely elated, scoops Maeve up into his arms and plants kisses all over her face.

"HAP!" kiss "PY!" kiss "BIRTH!" kiss "DAY!"

When he places her back on his feet, he produces a long slim box from the inner pocket of his jacket. It's wrapped in a deep navy blue paper and topped with a silver ribbon.

Inside Maeve would find a delicate silver chain. As she lifts it from the box she would see the phases of the moon in hammered silver hanging vertically, attached to another silver chain.

"You wear it like this" Dez explains. The first loop goes on like a regular necklace. The moon phases sit against the centre of Maeve's chest and glide down her abdomen, while the bottom chain circles around her waist and sits just over her hips.

"Miz said you can wear it against your chest or your back, over clothes or" he grins "while wearing nothing at all"

@misery-lake

She laughed as her heels hit the floor with a soft click, her eyes lighting up at the box, puzzling away quietly at what use she would find for the ribbon.

As Dez looped the chain around her body, fingers feather light, she felt her skin buzz and her lips curl into a smile, then a grin. The grin became teasing at his final words.

"You're incorrigible," she said with a laugh, fingers grazing the moon phases. He waggled his eyebrows in response. "Tell Miz I said thank you as well, I'll be finding much use out of this." Her smile became suggestive before becoming sweet again.

"And thank you, mo chroí," she murmured, rising onto her tiptoes to kiss his cheek softly. "I love you."

[muserepeats]

Fexi ask time,

What do you think ashtray’s reaction was seeing his brother try to flirt with Lexi from the cooler.

Inner monologue: "Why is he actin' so weird? Is something about to pop off? Oh, wait, he likes that girl." [Fezco stumbles over his words.] "Come on man, you got this." [Sees Lexi get shy and turn around after the Faye interaction.] "Damn, hate to admit it, but this is the cutest shit I've ever seen. Better than a Hallmark movie." [Cal enters.] "Oh, this motherfucker. Can't my bro have his romcom moment in peace?"

[docluna]

Ch. 3: The Handshake

Three days after Luna had met Giovanni, she stepped back into his office with the envelope of signed papers in her hand. He sat at his desk, stroking the head and neck of a large Persian with his left hand, his right once again holding a cigarette. Before she even crossed the room to him, he crushed the cigarette out and waved away the smoke.

“Luna. Welcome back.” He said, rolling his hand around to stroke the Persian’s chin along the jawbone. “I hope you’re here to accept my offer.” Luna pulled over the chair she’d used previously, sitting down across from him and placing the envelope on the desk. She glanced at the Persian, which was entirely too occupied with the attention it was receiving to give her even a cursory look. “I hope I am, too. There’s just one thing in here that I wasn’t comfortable with.” “Oh?” Giovanni pulled the envelope over to his side of the desk, opening it one-handed and sliding the contents out before him. “I’m listening.”

The doctor crossed her arms, inhaling deeply. “It’s section five. You want commercial rights to the things I create using your equipment.”

“That is hardly abnormal,” said Giovanni, furrowing his brow. “What’s your objection?” “Most organizations that ask for that kind of thing aren’t involved in cloning living beings.” Luna replied. “I want some limitation on that part of the contract.”

“Ah, yes.” Giovanni sighed, shaking his head. “I see your point. Allow me to edit this.”

He reached into his desk drawer, producing a pen with a red cap. Without ceasing petting the Persian, his steely eyes locked on Luna, he managed to flip to the fifth section of the contract and start writing.

“I take it this will do?” He asked, handing the paper back to her.

“All non-living developments?” Luna frowned, going over everything that could possibly mean in her head. After a minute of intense thought, she nodded, taking a black pen from the desk and scribbling her signature on the line. “I think that’ll do.”

“Excellent.” Giovanni said. He stood, the Persian grumbling a mrowl when the petting stopped, and offered Luna his hand. “Welcome aboard, Doctor Wenhouse.”

Luna stood and shook his hand, taking a deep breath to settle her nerves. Giovanni could’ve told her to simply leave if she had objections, or decided she’d taken too long in the first place, and then where would she be? The idea had been terrifying, of blowing this opportunity. But she knew full well what kind of damage selling a living clone could do, especially one of this magnitude, even before the moral objection she had to the idea. “Thank you, Giovanni. I’m looking forward to working on this.” “And I look forward to your contributions.” Giovanni sat, his hand returning to the Persian’s head. The cat gave Luna a jealous glare, then settled back against its master’s leg. “Michael will show you the facility. I felt optimistic that you would join us, and took the liberty to furnish your lab with some artifacts and curiosities that you may find useful or interesting.” “Alright. I suppose I’ll see you around, then.” Luna said. She turned to find Michael already standing at the elevator, arms behind his back. As she approached the doors, he stepped aside to wave her in, the doors opening as though at his command.

“I’m glad to hear you’ll be staying.” Michael said, entering the elevator car behind her. It started for the second basement floor on its own, and he settled against the wall. “The boss was convinced you would, of course, but you seemed troubled when you left previously.”

“This is,” Luna inhaled, gesturing widely with her hands. “Quite an ambitious project. If Giovanni hadn’t shown me what he did, I wouldn’t have believed it was real, and even now it feels hard to believe.”

“Ambitious is the word.” Michael nodded, slowly. “I’ve been with the boss for the last ten years. He has always been an ambitious man. But not a foolish one. To invest what he has into this project, and into recruitment specifically, speaks to an unshakable belief that it will succeed.”

“Mhm. He seems intense about it, makes it hard not to believe in his goals yourself.” Luna sighed, then smiled. “So, now that we’re going to be working together, what do you do around here? Other than standing at the door waiting for me.”

Michael chuckled, stepping out as the elevator door opened. “Would you believe I do tech support?”

“Is there a reason I shouldn’t?” Luna asked, following him into the hallway. This hall looked much like any normal office building’s might, though it ended abruptly after twenty feet in another unmarked steel door. There were single doors to the left and right, one labeled Lab A, the other Lab B, and each featured an RFID card reader. In an effort to counteract its emptiness, the hallway was also adorned with a variety of small plants in pots.

“No, sorry. Inside joke. It’s close enough to my official title… ah, I’ll explain later.” Michael shook his head, leading her to Lab A’s door. There, he turned and crossed his arms. “This will be your workspace. Everything within is yours to use as you see fit. If you require anything else, you just need to ask me, and I’ll ensure it gets procured for you. Once you’re across the border to that lab, the only people who do not answer to you in all regards are the boss, myself, and your counterpart from across the hall. Similarly, the well-being of every individual you may bring in to help you is also your responsibility, though I imagine you will have significantly fewer safety concerns than the technical engineering lab does.”

Luna’s eyebrows rose, and she glanced behind her at Lab B’s door before turning back to face Michael, tension in her shoulders. “I suppose Giovanni did mention something along those lines. I wasn’t aware I was going to be fully in charge of a lab, though.”

“Don’t get too concerned.” Michael offered her a warm smile. “You don’t have subordinates yet. If you need them, the boss will find candidates and run them by you.”

Luna couldn’t hide the way her posture relaxed, and she gave Michael a small smile in return. “Well, that’s a relief. How’d you know that was my first worry?”

“Call it a lucky guess.” Michael said. “Now, there is one other thing. As you’re aware, the contract stipulates room and board. Dormitories provided on the floor below us, furnished and comfortably-sized. While you are welcome to stay elsewhere, the boss believed that the sensitive nature of what you’re doing here would be better suited to facility-based housing. If you find it suitable, we’ll arrange for your belongings to be brought here, pay to end any remaining housing costs you might have, and you’ll be given unit two. You don’t have to decide now, obviously, but it bears some thought.”

Luna’s eyes widened, and she crossed her arms. “That, ah, certainly bears some thought. For now I’m just going to check out the lab.”

“Of course. If you need me, the computer inside has an easy messaging system. You’ll see it.” Michael stepped aside with a sly grin, offering her an ID card on a lanyard. It had her name, though no photo as yet. “Have fun, doctor.”

“Mm.” Luna nodded, taking the card and tapping it to the reader. “I’ll do my best. Thanks, Michael.”

And with that, she stepped inside.

Lab A was kitted to the brim with equipment, the kind Luna would’ve killed to get her hands on back at the university. Where the walls weren’t occupied by some form of equipment, they had shelving, cabinets, freezers, and a workstation with a laptop. Two additional doors adorned the far wall and the far right, one labeled Storage, the other Specimen Holding. And there, in the corner, a large device made up of two human-sized cylindrical chambers that she swore was familiar.

Her anxiety over the choice of moving in at the facility faded in the face of giddiness. She ran over to the glass-and-metal cylinders, dropping the ID card on the counter nearby, and grabbed the note taped to the front. Giovanni’s handwriting.

“Luna,

I know from skimming your paper that you based some of your work on the DNA encoding efforts of Bill Blaustein. While I only know Bill in passing, I was fortunate enough to pick up this teleportation unit prototype at a charity auction. I lack the knowledge to use it, but it appears to power on and Michael assures me it is undamaged. While I doubt it will be integral to your work, consider it a good-faith gift.

- Giovanni”

Luna gently set the note aside, grinning from ear to ear. A good faith gift of one of the most notable artifacts in the history of Pokemon genome sequencing? The infamous teleporter prototype that eventually led to the Pokemon Storage System being accessible from nearly anywhere?

“Hell of a gift.” She whispered, tapping the control unit on the front. The cylinders let out a hum as the machine came to life, and the left side door hissed as it slid open, the unit’s simple readout showing ‘READY’ in blocky LCD letters.

She hesitated, biting her lip in thought, then tapped the cancel button and let the machine power back down. No, not yet. She wanted so badly to test it, knowing that Bill had successfully teleported himself using it at least once, but it could wait.

Instead, she walked over to the laptop and opened it up, examining it. A fairly modern business-focused unit. No frills. Web access via wifi, all the scientific programs she could ask for, and the messaging application that Michael had mentioned. It seemed to be an open connection. She kept an eye on it as she took stock of the rest of the room’s equipment, humming softly to herself.

This job was already full of surprises. (Luna is now available for >asks!<)

[feralandmoonstruck]

Trick or treat 🎃💙

Treat!

Apollo shrugged. “Could be as easy as telling them you have a new boyfriend.” At the words, Apollo felt a new sweep of panic pass through Ezra. “Would it be better if we took it slower than that?” Ezra dropped his face into his hands, his words coming out muffled, “I don’t know.” “What is something small you’d like right now?” Ezra sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know.” “Can I hug you?” At this, Ezra pulled his hands away and looked over to Apollo. “I think I’d like that.”