#or just so she isn’t so alone when the relic knocks her on her ass | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

cakelanguage · 4 years ago

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A very self-indulgent fluffy piece for RiVer. I just want these two to have a happy ending so I’m giving it to them! I hope you like this :)

You can also read this on AO3

It wasn’t even noon when V got a ping on her Agent from River. A small smile graced her face despite being in the middle of taking out another gonk for Wakako. The gig wasn’t hard - a simple in-and-out retrieval of some intel that’d fallen into the wrong hands, but even simple jobs sometimes involved taken out a guy or two. This one was harmless, not even worth the street cred it might get her for taking him out so she simply knocked him out and stuffed him in one of the bins conveniently posted outside the room.

Really it was like they were asking for people to just dump bodies in them. Actually, that was probably exactly what they wanted to happen. Fewer cleanups for the police to have to deal with and all.

Pocketing the shard that’d been on the desk, she pulled up River’s text.

Hey babe, you busy?

She grinned and quickly sent a negative to him. She barely found time to hang out with River, what with all the Arasaka and Johnny bullshit she’d been dealing with the past few months. Now that she wasn’t in imminent death from the Relic she honestly just wanted to spend some time with her boyfriend. Fuck if she wasn’t going to take advantage of River and her not being busy.

You available to call?

For you? Always. xoxo

She could almost hear Johnny groaning at her being mushy. She felt a pang of loss as she thought about the rockerboy and placed a kiss on her fist before she raised it to the sky. She hoped Johnny was out there somewhere giving the corpos hell from the deepest levels of cyberspace.

The call popped up and she quickly answered as she walked toward the drop-off point.

“Hey River,” V chirped, quickly taking in his appearance in the little window in the upper corner of her vision.

“V, hey yourself,” River said, a lop-sided grin settling easily on his face. “How’ve you been?”

She hummed noncommittally. “Can’t complain too much, definitely been missing morning cuddles though.” And perfect cups of coffee. And the polarity of temperatures between River’s cybernetic hand and the warmth of his skin. And kisses.

She felt needy, missing him so much and all the little things he did. But maybe needy wasn't so bad.

“I’ve missed them too.”

“Think we can change that then?”

“Yeah, case is closed and I’ll be back by this evening.”

If V could’ve purred with delight she would have. “Mm, I’m a lucky girl.”

River laughed, shaking his head. “I’m the lucky one.”

Warmth flooded her cheeks and she didn’t even try to hide her pleased grin. “As much as I’d love to just talk about how lucky we are to have each other, something tells me this isn’t strictly a pleasure call.”

Her boyfriend gave her an abashed smile. “You caught me,” he admitted.

She laughed. “Well go on, let’s hear it,” V teased. “What do you need? A contact? A lead? Someone, to do some super sleuthing?”

“No, no, nothing like that, it’s uh- it’s actually kind of a favor for me and Joss.”

Since she’d met River she’d steadily been getting closer and closer with Joss. It was nice to have another girlfriend, though with Judy and Panam, not to mention Misty and Rogue (if she could count Rogue), she wasn’t exactly lacking in them.

But Joss was different. She was a single mom who busted her ass to provide for her family. It reminded her starkly of her older sister back when the Bakkers were still around. And though Joss sometimes brought up painful memories for her, she loved the woman.

“I don’t mind helping you two out,” V reassured, finally dropping off the shard. She’d get the eddies within the next half hour and if need be she could split her earnings to give to the family. “Anything you need, I’m your girl.”

A husky chuckle echoes over the coms. "Anything, huh?"

"I helped take down one of the leading corpos in the world with an engram of a rockstar slowly taking over my brain - I'm open to just about anything at this point."

"Fair enough." River let out a breath of air. "Joss asked me if I'd meet her this afternoon at Heywood General Hospital to pick up Randy."

V's eyes widened. "He's been cleared for release?" She hadn't thought Randy would be released for another few weeks. It'd been touch-and-go at the beginning and although he'd come a long way since the farm, he still had plenty of recovering to do.

"Yeah, I was shocked too, but I've been visiting him and he's doing a lot better than he was."

Anything would've been better than the drug-induced catatonia that he'd been in when River and V had found him in that barn. She was still haunted by the half-lidded eyes and slack jaw that had been behind that plastic mask. "That's great," her shoulders relaxed from their previous position, "I'm glad he's doing better."

"Me too, and Joss is happy she gets to bring him home."

"He gonna be in his trailer again?"

River made a noncommittal noise. "That's up to him really. We don't know how he'll feel about being alone now but we've decided to let Randy feel his way through this one."

Made the most sense to V. "Alright so you and Joss are going to pick up Randy and you want me too…?" V asked, shifting their conversation back to the favor River and Joss wanted.

"Oh uh right yeah," River scratched the back of his neck. V wanted nothing more than to ease the man's nerves about whatever he was going to ask. "Since Joss and I are going to be getting Randy, we need someone to watch Dorian and Monique." He didn't pause to let her get a word in edgewise. "Usually one of the neighbors can watch them but most of them are busy and then I might've suggested that we could ask you." He scratched at his cheek and shifted his gaze to the side. "You can say of course, but I figured-"

"Babysitting the little rugrats?" V asked with a grin, interrupting her boyfriend's spiel. "You trust me to watch 'em?"

"V," River had that tone to his voice that was part scolding and part fond, "you're their 'Auntie V,' they'll be cheering when they find out you're watching them."

"I don't know, you did joke that I was the one who needed a babysitter."

He snorted and raised a meaningful brow. "And sometimes you do, but I have total faith in you on this. As does Joss."

"Well I guess I can trust Joss' judgment," V teased. "I can be there in twenty."

River's shoulders sagged at her acceptance. "Thanks, babe."

That mushy feeling returned with vengeance and V was sure she had some stupid look on her face. “Want me to make something for dinner?”

Her boyfriend whistled. “Got myself a lady who can kick ass and offer to make dinner.”

“Riv, come on,” she rolled her eyes trying to appear stern, “Dinner a yes or no?”

“Dinner would be great, to be honest. Joss and I were planning on picking something up on the way home.”

That wouldn’t do at all.

“Uh-uh, nope, no way am I letting Randy’s first meal out of the hospital to be some fast food soy protein that’s no much better than the shit you can get with a kibble card.”

“Hey, I’ve seen you eat that crap before,” River argued, though he looked more amused than anything.

“Details, details,” V waved a dismissive hand, “Randy have any food restrictions or favorite foods?”

Food had been a big part of V’s life growing up with the Bakker’s. Food didn’t just mean fueling the body, but feeding the soul. Her mother had once told her that a good meal could heal the body just as well as medicine. Looking back, V knew her mother had been exaggerating but she’d taken the statement to heart because a good meal showed someone you cared for their wellbeing.

Her boyfriend pondered her question as she pinged Jackie’s bike to meet her so she could leave.

“Well, he liked my jambalaya when I snuck some in for him to try last week.”

“Hot or mild?”

“Believe it or not, spicy.” His smile took on a bittersweet edge. “Told me it was the first thing he’d been able to taste since everything went down.”

“Then it’s good he got to taste something delicious,” V said.

River’s smile lost that edge and regained the softness he only showed when he was talking about his family or V herself. “Feel free to keep stroking my ego.”

V shook her head with a snort. “Maybe later,” she offered while mentally going through the repertoire of recipes she still remembered. Something spicy, strong flavors that the whole family would like. “Think he’d eat gumbo?”

“Gumbo?”

“Yeah, learned to make it back when my family was still together...”

She remembered the crowded prep stations, her underfoot as she helped as much as she could under her mother and sister’s tutelage. She remembered her uncle sneaking bits from the cutting boards and popping them in his mouth, sending her a wink and an exaggerated shushing motion to not say anything.

River didn’t interrupt her musing, instead, he waited patiently as she sorted her thoughts. He understood that if he interrupted V she wouldn’t finish talking about her past.

“Mealtime was one of the few times we all tried to be together and pause from our other duties,” V explained. “We made all kinds of stuff depending on who was in charge of dinner, but I know gumbo was my favorite and it’s similar to jambalaya.”

“A family recipe and your favorite, huh?” River commented, “I look forward to trying it.”

It didn’t matter that V hadn’t made gumbo in two years. She wanted to do something for her new family. "It’ll probably take me a little longer to get home since I’ll stop and get them on the way.” She revved the engine and patted the side of the bike. “See you, River, tell Randy we'll be waiting for him at home."

The silence stretched over the line and V had to make sure her Agent hadn't malfunctioned and dropped the call. But River was still connected, just stared at her with this shocked look. "You okay?" V asked.

Her question shook River from his stupor and he gave her a besotted look. "Yeah I'm fine," he reassured, "see you at home after Joss and I pick up Randy."

"Preem."

She snagged the veggies from an Aldaecado who sold some of their crops at the Sunset Motel and picked up some synthetic meat that didn’t look too bad and set course for the trailer park. The ride was as peaceful as ever and V cranked Jackie's bike to the max speed down the straightaways, shaving off five minutes from her ride. The Badlands were some of the best places to go full-throttle without having to worry about a bunch of traffic.

Joss stood on the porch while Monique and Dorian listened to whatever she told them, playfully jostling each other as much as they could get away with. As soon as they spotted V though, they dashed towards her with the exuberance that was only ever found in children. V knelt down with a laugh and opened her arms in invitation.

"Auntie V!" Monique cheered, reaching her first and throwing herself into V's waiting arms, scooping the little girl up into a full-body embrace.

V had quickly discovered how much the two kids liked their hugs and who was V to deny them that?

Dorian quickly followed, wrapping his arms around her legs. "Mom told us you're gonna watch us while she and Uncle River bring Randy home," Dorian said. "Which means we can play together again!"

V laughed and shifted Monique to her hip so she could ruffle Dorian's hair. "Only if you're willing to take this rookie under your wings," V said.

The two giggled and reassured her that they'd show her the ropes, both puffing up with pride.

She managed to slowly walk towards Joss with the two limpets clinging to her laughing and cheering. She saw the poorly hidden laughter that Joss was trying to cover up as just a smile. V was glad she could make the crow’s feet on the women's face crinkle instead of deepening the worry lines that were far too prominent on her friend's face.

“Hey Joss,” V greeted, shifting Monique enough so that she could pull Joss into an awkward one-armed hug.

“Hey, V,” Joss replied, pulling out of the hug. “Thank you so much for being willing to watch the kids.”

“Willing? I’m more than happy to watch them, you know that.”

V and the kids got along like a house fire and she cherished all the little games they’d play together. It gave V an excuse to check-out of adult stuff and focus on entertaining River’s niece and nephew. It had done wonders for her mental health.

Joss smiled and reached out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind Monique’s ear. “Still, I know it’s last minute. Neither River nor I were expecting them to give Randy the okay to leave the hospital.”

“And Randy’s probably been chomping at the bit to leave that place, right?”

The woman scoffed, shaking her head. “If he could’ve, I’m sure he would’ve broken out of there after the first five days.”

“A boy after my own heart.”

Despite going to a number of ripperdocs, regular hospitals, and trauma centers left her nervous and itching to leave ASAP. River practically had to drag her to the hospital just to get a full brain scan after the Relic incident.

Joss rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “We shouldn’t be more than a few hours at most. Pretty sure it’ll mostly be paperwork and finding out any home care we need to know about for Randy’s recovery.”

As usual, Joss was fairly matter-of-fact about the whole thing but she couldn’t hide her worry. V figured she’d be just as worried if her baby had gone through what Randy had. It didn’t help that her relationship with her son had been strained before and no matter how much they’d talked since the incident there was still the unknown of how their relationship would go once he was home again.

“He’ll be excited to see you,” V said, setting down the girl in her arms.

Monique tugged at Dorian’s shirt and the two were off chasing after each other.

Joss remained silent but her shoulders relaxed some. Finally, she seemed to shake herself out of her thoughts. “If the kids get hungry-”

“Feed ‘em something that won’t give them a sugar rush,” V dutifully replied. “I know, Joss don’t worry, I can handle these two just fine.”

Joss sighed. “I know you can, but a mother can’t help but worry,” she managed to give V a sly smile. “You’ll understand when you and River have a kid.”

V made a choking noise as her face flushed. “J-Joss, we-we haven’t even talked about marriage yet.”

“Hop to it, V,” Joss joked with a clap. “Need you to make an honest man out of my gonk of a brother and I want to be an aunt at some point in the near future.”

It was a nice thought, getting married and starting a family with River. It sounded terribly domestic and kind of wonderful if she was being honest.

But her and River could talk about that later.

Much later.

“Go on, get going,” V shooed, “Randy’s waiting.”

“Alright, alright, we can talk about giving me nieces and nephews later,” Joss relented. ‘If you want to get takeout, I have a few menus in the kitchen with Dorian and Monique’s favorites circled.”

“Actually I was gonna make gumbo,” Seeing Joss’ surprise she continued. “It’s a family recipe and I haven’t made it in a while but River said that Randy liked his jambalaya so I figured he’d probably like gumbo too since it also has a strong flavor. But uh if they won’t like it-”

“V,” Joss interrupted with a grin.

“Hm?”

“I really hope River does marry you.”

V blushed and returned her grin. “Yeah me too.”

She’d managed to make the roux for the gumbo while Monique and Dorian were playing tag and now she just had to let the gumbo simmer which meant she was completely free to play. The two were more than ready for her to join them, bouncing around her as she quickly donned the AR set.

The blue tint to ‘Trouble in Heywood’ flooded her vision and she took in the kids’ game personas: Captain Joan McClane and Lieutenant Henry Callahan. It still made her laugh when she saw them, the two rough officers that looked like they were ex-Militech before joining the force. It didn’t help that the backstories they’d given them were so serious.

“Didn’t know if you’d come back, rookie,” Captain Joan, Monique said, her arms crossed and her face stern behind her shades. “Thought what you’d seen when we took down El Chamuco Endiablado was still clinging onto ya’.”

Lieutenant Henry Callahan, Dorian scoffed. “Nah, the two rookies we worked with for the takedown were good, and that’s coming from me,” he argued.

“Sounds like we might’ve grown on you two lone wolves, huh?” V teased, cocking her hip as she checked her gun.

“Don’t get cute with me, rookie,” Captain Joan said.

V raised her hands. “Fine, fine,” she bounced her eyes back and forth between the two. “What’s the situation today?”

“With El Chamuco Endiablado gone, we created a power vacuum and the force is flaggin’ under the pushback,” Captain Joan explained.

“Which is why they’ve called us in,” Lieutenant Henry added, “Regular force just won’t cut it, gotta call in the best of the precinct to take these goons down.”

“We called you in for backup, rookie. All you gotta do is keep up and watch our backs, we can handle the rest.”

“No doubt about that,” V said, “But y’know, I gotta make it home to my partner, promised him I’d make it back.”

“The other rookie?” Lieutenant Henry asked.

“The one and only.”

Captain Joan shook her head and cocked her gun. “Battlefield’s no place for emotion, rookie,” she advised. “We need to dedicate ourselves to taking this filth out.”

V nodded her head and squared her shoulders. “Yes, ma’am,” she saluted, “Are we ready to start?”

Lieutenant Henry gave her a wild grin. “Those bad guys can’t escape justice.”

They ended up playing three different rounds of ‘Trouble in Heywood,’ each round further expanding the narrative. In the last game, Lieutenant Henry had gone rogue to zero José Luis, a Valentino who’d gotten away with murder because the NCPD “didn’t have enough evidence to convict him.” According to Captain Joan, Lieutenant Henry had been harboring secret feelings for the murder victim and he was out for blood.

Honestly, V wasn’t sure where the kids pulled these plots from, but they were endlessly entertaining.

She looked up from the pot she was stirring and made sure the kids were still sitting at the table she'd sat them at with a snack. It didn't look good to her, but Monique and Dorian cheered at the sight of it so at least they liked it.

She tapped her spoon against the rim of her pot and set it to the side. "What do you two wanna do now?" V asked, taking a seat beside Dorian.

"Mom usually makes us practice our reading and math," Dorian grumbled, his eyebrows scrunching together. "We aren't even going to school yet, it's like lightyears away."

"Lightyears, huh?" V mused, propping her chin against her hand. "That's a pretty long time."

"I know!" Dorian threw his hands up. "She says she wants us to be ready and stuff but it's so boring."

"The worst," Monique agreed. "But maybe since Mom isn't here…" She trailed off and gave her puppy dog eyes.

Yeah, that wasn't going to work on her. "Oh no-"

"Please, V?" Dorian begged.

Then it became a cacophony of pleading words and promises to work harder tomorrow. Taking them on one-at-a-time, but both of them at once? Not even worth considering arguing.

"If I let you skip this lesson time," she started, the kids already whooping beside her. "I said if. "

The two nodded seriously, “We’ll do it,” they promised readily.

V shook her head, squinting at them with a skeptical look. “I haven’t even said what you have to do if you skip your lessons.” Monique and Dorian traded confused looks before turning back to her. “The first rule of any kinda deal,” she held up one finger, “you gotta listen to the whole deal, otherwise you might be signing yourself up for something worse.”

“You wouldn’t do that,” Dorian insisted.

“How can you be sure?”

“Cause you’re nice,” Monique said. “You wouldn’t do that.”

“Maybe not to you guys, but I’ve conned my fair share of gonks.” Their faith in her left a warm feeling in her chest. “Alright, but back to the deal. I let you guys skip, but you guys have to help me make a welcome home sign for Randy.”

Two pairs of wide eyes stared at her, mouths agape. “We’re gonna make a billboard?” They asked.

V bit her lip and shook her head. “Not a billboard, little short on time and really out of our budget.” She rifled through her pockets and pulled out a small device. “Had this bad boy for a while now, usually I use it to pull up my schematics or tweak one of my daemons, but I’ve got an app that’ll just let us create a design we wanna display.” She fiddled with her Agent and turned the phone towards them. “I’ve got the words, but I need two experts to really make it shine, figured you two would be perfect for the job.”

“Really?” Dorian whispered.

“Really really.” She leaned back, her smile relaxed and open. “I can do some graffiti or graphic style stuff, but you guys know Randy best.”

Monique kicked her legs back and forth and stared at the screen with a frown. “Last time we saw Randy, he didn’t want to hang out with us and said we were annoying him,” she mumbled just loud enough for V to hear.

Her heart sunk at the solemn tone of the girl’s voice. That was when Randy had been in Peter Pan’s grasp when he was being gaslighted with promises of understanding and promises of help.

You can tell a kid that their sibling loves them and what they were going through, but it didn’t erase the hurt that kid felt. And they didn’t fully understand.

Even so, reassurance was better than nothing.

“When Randy last talked to you,” V stated, making both kids look at her. “He was going through some tough times.” She picked at her nail as she tried to find the right words. How much did they know about what happened to Randy? “Do you know what happened with Randy?”

Dorian hesitantly shook his head. “We knew he went missing, and Mom said that you and Uncle River found him and brought him back,” he said.

“And he’s been at the hospital because he was hurt when you guys found him,” Monique added.

V nodded her head. “That’s the gist of it,” V admitted. She hesitated before continuing. “Randy thought he had a… friend, but when he went to meet this friend, he turned out to be a bad guy.”

“Like… the bad guys in our game?” Dorian asked.

V fought a grimace. “Worse.” When her statement was met with silence she continued. “Randy was captured and was hurt real bad while he was held captive.”

She’d never get the image of those kids gassed up and comatose, hooked up to those fucking machines out of her head. No matter what she did, she still remembers the frantic way her hands shook as she checked pulses on cool bodies and tugged out crusted IVs from limp arms.

“According to your Uncle River, Randy’s doing much better,” she reassured, trying to assuage some of their unease. “But he’s gonna need you two to help him, even if he’s grumpy and being mean.” She playfully punched her palm. “Sometimes you just gotta break through their defenses and make them understand. Which is why,” V gestured to her Agent, “We’re making him a special welcome sign.”

“And… it’ll help Randy?” Dorian asked.

“Showing him you care and are happy to see him can sometimes be exactly what a person needs.”

Monique and Dorian turned to each other and nodded before turning back to V. “You can count on us!”

V clapped her hands. “That’s what I like to hear!”

#RiVer #river ward #female v #v x river #river x v #cyberpunk 2077 #cyberpunk 2077 fic #my fic

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ladybugsfanfics · 5 years ago

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Shut Up And Kiss Me [3/?] | Tom Hiddleston x reader

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x reader

Style: Part Three of ?

WC: 2864

Warning: cursing, drunkness, some talk about not sleeping enough (sleep deprivation)

Summary: You and Professor Hiddleston have been colleagues for many years now, and through those years the hatred for each other has only grown. Now, as a new school year starts, you’re being told that you have to share a classroom or a class. Neither are happy about the outcome, but knowing you’ll never come to an agreement, you let the class choose for you. Team-teaching is rare in 2019, but it is a lot harder to do when you can’t stand the person you’re doing it with.

A/N: aaa, can’t believe I actually managed to wait a week, but it was worth it because, uuh, before I edited the part i wasnt too happy with it but now I am really proud so like, yeah, also there’s a myth mentioned in this. Said myth is called Thor the Transvesite and i recommend reading it because it is hilarious and one of my fave norse myths. enjoy ^_^

If you want to be tagged, please send an ask or a DM ^_^

Previous | Series Masterlist | Part Four

You lean back in your chair, hands warmed by a cup of hot chocolate that tastes of heaven as you sip it.

Across the room, Hiddleston is approached by Alisha Grant. The head of HR owes you a favor and now you get to see her do the little thing you’d asked of her the night before.The English Literature professor frowns at her words, pulls back in confusion and purses his lips with what you can only read as anxiousness. His feet start tapping against the floor and he pushes his glasses up his nose with his pointer finger.

Dr. Grant smiles at him, turns and leaves, walking towards you. She stops in front of the table you occupy. “Happy?” she asks.

You nod with a beaming smile. “Of course. Now he’s anxious and the rest of part one will be easy.”

She shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “I put you two in the same classroom so you’d become more capable of behaving in each other’s presence, yet here you are, making me do something that helps with the exact opposite.”

“And you love me for it,” you say and sip your hot chocolate with a smug smile. “You find our rivalry as cute as Benedict. God, I was at his place on Friday to talk to him about this research thing I’m doing and he couldn’t talk about anything but our feud.”

“Oh, because you can.” Alisha rolls her eyes again. “Anyways, I’ve done as you asked and now you’ll have to excuse me, I have a lunch to attend.”

“Sure, don’t eat with me. I’m not all alone and bored to death,” you say sarcastically.

Alisha shakes her head, though with an amused smile tugging at her lips. “You’ll have to ask someone else then. Bye.” She gives a little wave and walks away, still shaking her head.

As she leaves, a rather angry professor marches up to you. Hiddleston’s brows are knitted together and his eyes stare daggers at you. You only smile innocently at him, fully enjoying the moment.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asks, his accent more pronounced with the anger in his voice.

You shrug. “Honestly, I’m not sure. Just out here bullshitting my way through life.” You sip your hot chocolate, smiling smugly behind the mug.

“No, you had something to do with Dr. Grant approaching me.” He sits down in the chair across from yours. “What did you tell her?”

“Nothing,” you say, which, in all honesty, is the truth. “We’re friends, okay? I’m sorry she isn’t yours. Jealousy isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but remember to tone it down a little maybe?.”

The neck in his veins bulges out, blue shading the fair color of his skin, and threatening to explode. You purse your lips, though the lower trembles a little and tears starts to form in your eyes. Suppressing a laugh is harder than you thought.

“Oh, shut up,” he says and stands. “Don’t believe I don’t know what you’re doing.”

Watching him madly stalk away makes its way to the top ten things everyone should experience in life. You have never seen something as beautiful (to be honest, his little ass isn’t that bad).

---

“You’re an idiot, do you know that?” Hiddleston hisses at you.

“Excuse me?” You stare at him. “I’m the idiot? Have you met yourself?”

He clenches his fists, opens his mouth, and decides against it. Hiddleston takes a glance up at the thirty students writing away at their computers and chatting with each other. You scoff. If you knew all it would take for him to shut up was to have students in the room, you’d have proposed this idea to Dean McHallan years ago.

The professor takes a step closer to you, close enough for you to hear his heartbeat and feel his breath mix with yours. “I’m not sure exactly what you have as a brain, but I can assure you, it is no bigger than a nut,” he says, venom laced in his voice.

“And I can assure you, it still contains more information than the bloated one you have.”

---

The papers spread out on your office floor make less sense now than they did when you first put them down. Instead of being a fun research project as you hoped, it gives you a massive headache. Nevertheless, you had gotten some very nice ideas for classes.

Your sophomore class had taken a liking to the idea of researching norse mythology in a new way. Reading some of the myths had turned into a great laughing session and been turned into an assignment to study as relics and reports, a great way to learn how to assess a source.

And for the creative writing class on Thursday―you have yet to propose this to Hiddleston―you have an idea to use allusions to pepper in nuance to a story.

But for the moment, as your mind is blank and a pikachu and a bulbasaur pops up, you’re pretty sure the last two all nighters weren’t a good idea. Or maybe you’re playing Pokemon Go with your mind (who knows?).

You startle to a knock on your office door. “Come in,” you say and try to shake away the two pokemon in front of you as you regain your balance. It only works halfway and the person who opens the door steps on them as he comes inside. Actually, it might be that shot or two (shh, it wasn’t more) of vodka you took to brainstorm that does this.

“Why aren’t you going home?” Benedict sighs and gives you a worried look.

You shrug. “Beats me. I really should,” you say and nod aggressively, with a grimace saying ‘you’re-right’.

Benedict tilts his head. “Are you drunk?” he asks and takes a step further into the room.

“Noooo,” you say and hop down from your desk. You land on the mess of papers, mixing up their positions. “I would never.” You furiously shake your head no and then slowly go over to nodding. “Actually, now that I think about it. I might be?”

“Okay, come here. I’m driving you home.” He holds out a hand for you to take.

You accept it and smile at him. “You’re such a good friend.” Your nose scrunches as you coo at him and smile wider, showing teeth.

He nods with a smile. “I know I am. You have your things?”

You let go of his hand and turn around to find your backpack. “Ready,” you say, only to go and get your jacket. You stop mid track and your eyes widen. “Oh, oh, oh.” You scramble to your desk and find a pen and paper, and write down the idea that popped into your head.

“Y/N,” says Benedict, his voice soft, “we should leave.”

You wave at him. “Uno momento,” you say in broken Spanish and finish the sentence. You squeal at the amazing idea and scramble for your coat, putting the note in the pocket. “Ready!”

Benedict shakes his head, though he smiles and follows you out. He locks your office for you and takes your car keys. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow, too, don’t worry about it.”

“I won’t,” you say and hug him from the side. “You’re the best. Not like Tom. He’s the worst.”

You hear the physics professor sigh, but he doesn’t comment on it as you slowly begin to talk about the English Lit professor. He doesn’t mention it as you talk about the man’s personality, nor does he mention it when the words, “he has no business being that hot,” slips out and you let out a heavy sigh.

---

You groan as you get into the passenger seat of Benedict’s car. “You have no idea how much my head hurts,” you say and stare at him through a pair of sunglasses.

“Then you shouldn’t drink and work.” He rolls his eyes, but you notice the smile playing on his lips. “What made you believe that was a good idea?”

“Uhh, I believe it was the all-nighters. After all, when you came into the room I saw pokemon.” You groan at the hazy memory. “Fuck, that’s usually not even a consquence of alcohol.”

Benedict takes a turn out of your neighborhood. “No, but it is a symptom of sleep deprivation. You should take better care of yourself.” He casts a quick glance your way with a worried smile, and then puts his attention back on the road. “What more do you remember?”

You shrug. “Uhh, you helping me. Getting my things.” You scrunch your face to rack your brain for the hazy moments of last night, but not much more comes to mind. “Did I do something stupid?”

A chuckle comes from Benedict. “Be glad I was the one to find you,” he says. “You didn’t do anything stupid until after, though. But I remember you having some bright idea? Care to indulge?”

“Bright idea?” you ask.

“Yeah, you were about to get your jacket when you had some realization and wrote something down.”

“Oh,” you say. You check your jacket pockets, and true enough, there’s a post-it note inside it. You unfold the note and try to decipher the scrambled words. talk to tom about class. (remember don’t mention your crush shhhh)

You nod, curl the paper and put it back into your pocket. “It was not a good idea and really you should never trust drunk people to have good ideas.”

Benedict laughs and you sit back in silence. You press your lips together as your mind races through the few things you said as Benedict helped you home. Biting your lip, you can’t remember anything that will alert your friend to something you don’t want him to know. Nor did he see the note, so you should be good.

Still, during the next few minutes before Benedict pulls up to campus, your heart beats unsteadily. Your head throbs and your gut churns at the stupid admittance from your drunk and sleep deprived self. The knowledge that said secret is about the person you allegedly hate, that gives you countless headaches throughout the day, and that you’re teaching a class with in a few hours, has your head spin and your throat go dry.

Yup, sure, looking forward to it.

---

“Professor Y/L/N.”

You turn around to the small smile of one of your students. Mr. Holland purses his lips, his grip on a piece of paper turning his knuckles white. “What can I help you with?” you ask him, returning his kind, albeit nervous, smile.

He looks down. “I was wondering if you could, uh, read over this story I wrote.” He hands you the paper and carefully looks up at you. “You don’t have to, really, I just… I have you in both history and this and you said to use classes to ease the workload, and well, I have this story that does a take on one of the myths we have in history.”

“Really?” You raise a brow and accept the paper. The title reads Lady Thor, and immediately you smile knowing which myth he chose. The image of Thor claiming to be Freya and swinging Mjolnir at his new husband and the guests, all the while dressed in a bridal gown that spared no expenses. “Even this one. You know, this is one of my favorites.”

Mr. Holland nods. “Yeah, of the ones you showed us, it’s mine, too.” He puts a hand on his neck and rubs. His eyes avoid your gaze a little, but through his eyelashes you can see him look up at you for a reaction.

You smile wider, eye crinkling at the sides. “I’ll read through it tonight, okay?”

At the words, Mr. Holland visibly relaxes. His arm falls down to his side, and he smiles. “Oh, wow, that’s really cool of you. Thank you so much.”

You widen your smile at him. “Don’t worry about it.”

Mr. Holland nods and shakes his head at the same time, looking like a little kid finally getting that present he wants. “Thank you so much. Have a nice day, professor Y/L/N. Thank you so much.”

You let out a laugh. “Thank you. Have a nice day, too, Mr. Holland,” you say, “see you tomorrow in class.”

He nods and leaves the classroom, last of the thirty students after yet another class of creative writing. You let out a content sigh and gather your things on the desk, tucking the paper with his story carefully into the same fold as your laptop so as not to wrinkle it.

“Uh,” Hiddleston says, and you turn your head and glance at him, “this idea of yours, incorporating other works into their own, it was rather good.”

You raise a brow and fully turn around. “Wait? Is what I’m hearing praise? From Thomas William Hiddleston? From the man who hates my guts?” You fish your phone out of your pocket and open the camera. “Can you say it again, but on camera so I have proof?”

Hiddleston rolls his eyes. “Can’t you just take the compliment? I know there’s not a lot of space in the nut you call a brain, but maybe try to find some for basic mannes.”

“Oh, because there’s more space in yours? Sure, it’s bloated, but we both know how small it really is.” You scoff and turn around, putting your phone back in your pocket and closing the zipper of your backpack. “You know what, Hiddleston?” You turn back to him.

“What?”

“You’re just annoyed that I might actually have the upper hand in this class. That my ideas are better than yours and that, really, I should have the whole class. You know as well as I that the only reason I don't is because you’re too proud to admit I’m better than you.”

The man takes long, quick strides, closing the distance between you two. “I’m not annoyed. Rather I find it fascinating that you’re teaching a class that you’re less qualified for than the rest of the teaching faculty.”

“I’m more than qualified. In fact, I believe I’m more qualified than you in certain aspects of it. All you got is your literature and your language, and sure it helps, but you’re too stuck up with the old you don’t know what’s new and how to actually make these students achieve to the best of their abilities.” You raise your voice. Eyes lock onto his; You can see your reflection in them, see the anger riddled on your face. “The fact that you don’t think I’m qualified is exactly why you’re brain is bloated; It’s because you can’t see facts unless they’re touching your dick.”

Hiddleston shakes his head. “Oh, yeah,” he says, “and why can’t you realize that I never did anything to you and that the only reason you hate me is because you need some action in your life?”

What has that got to do with anything?

You take a step closer to him. “Action? And what action do you give my life?” His breath mixes with yours. “You give me headaches, stomach aches making me want to not show up for work. I’ve missed every birthday of Benedict’s kids because of you and I love those kids. You ruin my life because you can’t see that not everything revolves around you. You’re not the freakin’ sun, but you damn as well might be the Earth being that egocentric”

You’re both shouting now. Your words mix together and distorts into the background. One step closer and you can smell his cologne, One step closer and his heartbeat mixes with yours, creating a rhythm that takes control of your mind. Half a step closer and you’re inches apart, close enough for you to look into those blue-green eyes of his and see the fury sparkle. Half a step closer and you’ll be close enough to only need one push and your lips will touch his.

Neither of you stop shouting, but as you take that step closer, you forget what you’re arguing about, even though your mouth continues to shout words.

Never in a million years would you admit the thought that runs through your head as you take that step. Never in a million years would you act on said thought. But, right there and then, it crosses your mind. It races across, asking a million questions of what would happen if you were to lean up those few inches and capture his lips in a heated kiss that would finally shut him up.

But you don’t act.

No, instead, your voice returns. Instead, your head grows clear. Instead, Tom’s voice slows down, the volume of his voice decreasing.

In that moment, you know with one hundred percent certainty; You will never admit to why you hate him. You’ll never admit it’s easier to hate. Easier to fuel unnecessary rage and unjustified actions. Easier to keep hating and fuel the energy behind it.

Because asking for forgiveness takes courage you don’t possess.

permanent tags: @devilbat @adefectivedetective

tom tags: @inlovewith3 @bookgirlunicorn @mindlesschicca @justawriterinprogress

SUaKM tags: @plooffairy @just-the-hiddles @jennytwoshoes @lokissidehoe @fruitfly123 @princetale @scorpionchild81 @noplacelikehome77 @winterisakiller @lostsoldieronahill @nonsensicalobsessions @cherrygeek86 @louhpstuff @olyamoriarty @sunshinein17 @kthemarsian @kumikowi @secretcupcakekitty @buckygrantbarnes @josis-teacup @runawaygiirl @januarycalendargirl @funny-fangirl @kinghiddlestonanddixon @scorpiomindfuck @dr-kayleigh-dh @inmyworstlies @twhgirl

Bold in the taglist means tumblr won’t let me mention you :(

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donuttrymedebil · 5 years ago

Text

RWBY 7.3 and 7.4 thoughts

Didn’t really have time to do last week’s episode so this post I’ll do both (spoilers for non-FIRST members):

7.3:

- So RWBY and JNR have finally gotten their new duds and ‘do’s and I have opinions on each of them: Jaune’s new weapons, great. Hair, WTF? Lie Ren and Qrow’s outfits look more serious than their previous ones. I almost want to say emo considering both of their histories. Nora’s got less fanservice with her new outfit, while Yang has more (name one other female character with visible cleavage, I dare you!). Both Weiss’s hair and her new outfit make her look bulkier. 50-50 on Blake’s hair and outfit. Ruby’s new hair is probably my favorite of the bunch.

- Leaving Oscar alone with the relic? Something tells me that’s gonna bite them all in the ass later on.

- Already got RWBY and JNR fangirling over the Ace Ops.

- Qrow and Clover seem like they’re deliberately being pushed towards each other. Qrow lost his team, Clover has his, Qrow’s semblance is bad luck, Clover’s is good luck. Qrow looks completely in awe when he finds this out.

- Not to compare the two again, but I got serious Kingdom Hearts vibes with the Ace Ops vs. Geist battle. TELL me no one else sees a giant Heartless with that upgraded/custom form the Geist has?

- Oh hey, look, that guy from the prison ship got a ride home...

- WTF Tyrian, popping out like that Psycho shit?

- RIP prison man...

7.4:

- I keep forgetting the SDC owned all the mines down at Mantle. Took a good second for it to click.

- Yeah, you’re right Qrow, Ironwood’s political critics being dead really isn’t a good look for him or Atlas. Though frankly I care more for the former than the latter.

- Ahhhhh here comes the ‘We’re not friends, just teammates” lingo from the Ace Ops, and here comes the sudden depression from Team RWBY. Seems like the Apathy all over again.

- But, but...why NOT take Marrow, Ironwood? He seems like he would be the guy to liven up a mood.

- Oh goody. Fuckface Jacques is back. Please someone rip him a new one, one second in and he reminds me why he’s scum.

- Ba-BAM! The MINUTE Jacques gets confrontational with Weiss, Ironwood goes into daddy mode. And I really hope Weiss telling him the teammates she left everything for aren’t friends but “family” knocked his ego down a peg. Probably didn’t, but one can hope.

- RWBY and JNR aren’t the only ones who forgot it all started with them trying to study to become Huntsman...I completely flashed back to Beacon when they knew nothing about Salem or the Relics and were just trying to do their studies.

- Vine and Ren are peas in a pod. Nuff said.

- Still awkward hearing Qrow’s new voice for so long in one period of time, but at least we got some good info on Summer; a mission she died on that was a ‘Summer secret’ and not an Ozpin one? Something tells me she may not have fallen to any Grimm...

- Taking a peek in Jacques’ study and oh goody...the OTHER fuckface little shit is back. And he brought a friend...

- ...who by the way is Dr. Watts. Jacques addressing him by first name implies more history than just living in the same kingdom, but since he’s apparently believed to be dead, it’s kinda raising some questions for me about how Watts went from a disgraced scientist to Salem’s lackey.

#rwby #rwby7 #rwby volume 7 #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #jaune arc #lie ren #nora valkyrie #whitley schnee #jacques schnee #winter schnee #james ironwood #qrow branwen #ace ops #penny polendina #arthur watts #Tyrian Callows

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filmfanatic82 · 5 years ago

Photo

AO3 Link (HERE)

Chapter 13:

“And I had a fear of forgiveness

(Said it from the beginning)

I was too proud to say I was wrong

(Said you'd always see me through)

All that time is gone, no more fearing control

I'm ready for the both of us now

But just know that I want you back

Just know that I want you back

Just know that I want you

I'll take the fall and the fault in us

I'll give you all the love I never gave before I left you”

-- Want You Back, HAIM

__________

“Wow.”

Penelope’s eyes pop open at the sound of Hope’s voice. She sits up and cranes her neck backward just in time to spot Hope climbing through the attic window.

“Wow?” Penelope asks. She stretches her arms and then cracks her neck from side to side. Falling asleep on the roof hadn’t been her original game plan. No. Far from it.

But after aimlessly wandering the halls of the school for an hour or so, Penelope had somehow wound up in the one place where she knew she could find a little bit of peace and solitude. And once there, she found that she merely lacked the energy to go anywhere else. So Penelope gave up her fight against the ever-mounting exhaustion of the last few days, curled up with a leftover blanket and closed her eyes.

“Wow,” Hope echoes back and takes a seat next to Penelope.

“So I’m taking it that ‘wow’ is in response to you having read the copy of the journal I left for you?”

Hope nods. “Twice. Cover to cover.”

“Impressive.”

“Had some help with a Celeritas charm, but yeah… I read it twice.”

“And?” Penelope asks with a quirk of her brow.

“And… Wow.”

“You said that already,” Penelope responds.

“I know.” Hope exhales a long breath of air allowing a brief silence to fall between them. “I just… I just don’t know where to start.”

“Fair enough. It’s kinda a lot to process.”

“Kinda?”

Penelope can’t help but let a hint of a smile slip through at these words. “Okay. It’s a shit ton to process. Better?”

“Yes,” Hope replies, matching Penelope’s smile with one of her own. “Did we really take on a pack of rabid werewolves in the middle of the Louvre?”

“Technically it was in the courtyard of the Louvre, but yup... We did. Got a wicked scar behind my left from that one.”

“And Milan?”

“100% true too. It took a good three months for my left eyebrow to grow back but it all happened. Every last fiery moment of it.”

“Caroline’s really a badass, huh?”

“Badass doesn’t even begin to describe it. She’s the reason we survived Milan… and about a million and one other attacks too,” Penelope replies with an underlying bittersweet tone to her voice.

“Do you miss her?”

Penelope laughs as if the answer should be obvious. “More than I thought I would. But, weirdly enough, I have this gut feeling that I’ll see her again soon. Like either, I’ll just wind up on her doorstep again one day or she’ll just up and hunt me down. If that makes sense.”

Hope nods with a silent understanding. They sit side by sit for a moment or two, just existing in each other’s presence and the —

“Would it be strange if I said that I’m kinda jealous of my other self?”

“Jealous?” Penelope asks not fully following the Tribrid’s train of thought.

“Maybe jealous isn’t the right word.” Hope exhales and runs her hair over her ponytail. “More like envious? I don’t know… Reading about all those insane things we did, I couldn’t help but wish that I had gotten to experience them firsthand, you know?”

“Who says they still can’t happen?”

Hope straightens up a bit at these words. “What do you mean?”

“Well, if the journal doesn’t work and history ends up repeating itself then my ass is going to be on the first flight I can grab to Belgium. And, as you already read, I can’t do it alone, so…”

“Are you asking me to go to Belgium with you, Penelope Park?” Hope asks.

Penelope instantly feels her cheeks redden and she shakes her head, in an attempt to downplay the significance of the moment. “No… I just meant… If things don’t…”

Hope gives Penelope a playful nudge. “Count me in.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Of course,” Hope replies. “Whether you like it or not, you’re stuck with me, Park. So if you’re going to Belgium, then I am too… Especially if it means I get to wield a crossbow.”

“Deal.”

“Good.” Hope lets out a light laugh and leans her shoulder into Penelope’s. It’s a small gesture, but one that Penelope can’t help but find comforting nonetheless. It’s as if by reading the journal, Hope has somehow become yet even more infused with Penelope’s Hope than ever before. Almost to the point where distinguishing between the two is practically impossible.

“So you gave a copy of the journal to Josie, right?” Hope asks, breaking the silence once again.

“Yup. Hand-delivered it to Lizzie roughly three hours ago.” Penelope replies with a yawn.

“Wait…” Hope whips her head around and locks eyes with Penelope. A noticeable look of sheer horror washes over her face. “You gave the journal to Lizzie?!”

Penelope nods. “Yeah. I went to their dorm room and she’s the one that answered the door, so I--”

“Fuck,” Hope says, cutting Penelope off. She runs her hands over her auburn ponytail, trying her best to keep her ever-rising anxiety at bay. “What if she reads it?”

“So?”

“So? Do you know what’s in there?”

Penelope doesn’t mean to, but she lets out a laugh. “I would hope I know what’s in there. I mean I did live it… Besides, it’s not like Lizzie wasn’t going to find out one way or another.”

“Finding out second-hand tidbits from Josie and reading it word for word are two very different things, Park” Hope fires back. “Oh god, Madrid… Madrid is in there! How am I going to explain Madrid?”

“Breathe, Mikaelson,” Penelope responds with an underlying reassurance to her voice. “Josie’s going to read about Madrid as well, so you’re not the only one that’s going to have some major explaining to do.”

“Right…”

Another momentary silence falls between the two of them as they watch the first rays of the morning sun peek out from the horizon, then—

“So how long do you think it’ll take before Lizzie and Josie hunt you down?”

Penelope shrugs. “Depends…”

“Depends on what?”

“Depends on if they cheated like you did and used a Celeritas charm or not,” Penelope replies with a bit of a smirk.

“For the record, I didn’t cheat.”

“Whatever you say, Furball.”

“I didn’t.” Hope crosses her arms in mild annoyance. “It was 800 pages. It would’ve taken me at least half a day to read it without any help.”

“Only half a day?” Penelope questions and Hope answers with a harder than usual knock to her shoulder.

“Hey! For the record, I--” Hope trails off as something in the distance catches her attention. She slowly rises to her feet as her face transforms into a look of pure and utter concern.

“Hope?” Penelope asks. Her eyes follow Hope’s and instantly spots tiny black specks moving along the treeline at the edge of the forest.

“Is that…”

“Yeah… Shit! It’s too soon. Triad isn’t supposed to be here for at least another few hours,” Penelope responds. She runs her hands through her messy raven locks as her mind begins to race.

She ought to be prepared, but...

But there is no preparation. Not for what’s about to transpire.

“What do we do?” Hope asks, pulling her eyes away from the rapidly approaching tactical swat team and locking them in on Penelope.

Penelope bites down on her bottom lips for a moment or two and then--

“C’mon… I’ve got an idea.”

__________

“Where are we going again?” Hope asks as she races to keep up the pace with Penelope. The two zig-zag their way through the chaotic sea of confused and panicked students, trying to get down the main staircase without taking anyone out in the process.

In the short matter of time from when they first spotted of Triad to them reaching the main entranceway, the whole school seemingly has been made aware of the incoming attack.

It’s as if by magic… Or some divine intervention… Or maybe a hybrid of both. Penelope doesn’t have the time nor the energy to decipher who exactly alerted the whole school but is beyond thankful nonetheless.

“To the basement. Long story, but there’s an anti-magic relic down there that needs to be destroyed and fast. If Triad reaches it first, then they will activate it and we’ll be powerless,” Penelope responds.

“Wait? Why is it down there in the first place?”

“I’ll give you one guess… He’s your pseudo sensei.”

“Alric?”

“Bingo,” Penelope replies with a huff.

“Why would he…”

“No time for explanations now.” Penelope and Hope reach the first-floor landing and start to round the corner. “I promise, I’ll--”

“Hope Marie Mikaelson!”

Lizzie’s voice slices through the steady sounds of the ongoing movement causing both Penelope and Hope to freeze dead in their tracks. They slowly turn around just in time to spot the blonde-haired siphoner marching towards them.

“Shit,” Penelope says under her breath. “Liz, this is the best time to--”

“Not now, Satan,” Lizzie cuts Penelope off as she closes the rest of the distance between herself and the two of them. She stops just inches in front of Hope, locking eyes with the Tribrid, and then, without any warning whatsoever, grabs hold of Hope’s cheeks and plants a kiss that is nothing short of life-changing upon her lips.

Hope’s eyes widen with pure, unexpected shock. She tenses for a split second, unsure of how to react, before giving in to her instincts. Hope threads her hands through Lizzie’s platinum blonde hair, deepening their kiss as she does. This is a moment both Hope and Lizzie have been waiting for since the first time they laid eyes on one another.

And Penelope can’t help but smirk in satisfaction as she watches her best friend fall even harder than ever before in love with Lizzie Saltzman. It’s a moment she’s been secretly waiting to see play out ever since traveling back in time.

Finally, Hope pulls back out of the kiss and smiles. “That was--.”

“Amazing,” Lizzie finishes Hope’s sentence with an exhale of air. Her face lights up as well, unable to take her eyes off of Hope.

“Yeah… That,” Hope responds still not fully recovered from the sheer shock of the kiss.

“Ahem.” Penelope clears her throat subtly reminding them of her presence. “As much as I love seeing you two finally come to your senses and all, we’ve got more pressing matters to attend to.”

“Satan’s right,” Lizzie chimes in causing yet another wave of shock to wash over Hope. “Josie went to go see if she could go track down that relic you mentioned in the journal in our dad’s office while I tracked you two down. We were going to set-up a protection barrier so those gun-toting freaks couldn’t bust in but we couldn’t siphon anything off of the walls.”

“Shit. That means Triad got to the relic,” Penelope replies with a huff of frustration.

“You read the whole journal?” Hope asks Lizzie, eyes growing even wider than ever before.

“Yes. Three times,” Lizzie responds without missing a beat. “And we’ll discuss Madrid later… And the nipple piercings.”

And Hope just nods, still unable to find her words.

“What relic?” Lizzie asks, turning her attention back towards Penelope.

“It’s some anti-magic relic that your dad has stashed in the basement. It’s been activated. That’s why you can’t siphon. We need to go destroy it asap in order to get our powers back.”

“I know a back way into the basement so we can slip in without being detected.”

“Good.” Penelope pauses for a moment and runs her hands through her raven locks, trying to dispel her growing sense of dread.

Josie is already in Alric’s office.

Alone.

Unprotected.

It’s too close… Way too close for Penelope’s liking.

All it will take is for the wrong member of Triad to show up and--

“I’ll take Hope and we’ll handle the relic. You should go help Josie,” Lizzie says, almost reading Penelope’s thoughts.

“But--”

“Go, Penelope.” And suddenly there’s a flash of an oddly reassuring look deep within Lizzie’s icy blue eyes. As if to say that on some level or another she gets it.

“Okay,” Penelope says with a nod.

“We’ll meet you there when we’re done.” Lizzie takes hold of Hope’s hand and then starts to drag the still dazed Tribrid back through the crowd of fleeing students. She gets all of three steps, though, before stopping once again to look back at Penelope. “Oh, and Park… If you let my sister get shot again, I’ll kill you myself.”

“Got it.”

Lizzie gives Penelope a smile and then without another moment wasted, disappears into the sea of chaos with Hope trailing right behind her.

__________

Penelope makes it to Alric’s office in record time. She isn’t sure exactly how she manages to do it, but she’s there nonetheless in less than three minutes flat.

There isn’t a Triad in sight and yet…

Penelope wraps her hand around the door handle and takes a deep, sobering breath as her ears pick up on the unusual stillness of her surroundings.

It’s quiet.

Too quiet.

There aren’t even the muffled sounds of movement coming from the other side of the door.

Why is it so quiet?

Fear begins to bubble up in the back of Penelope’s throat and she fights the urge to scream out Josie’s name.

Is she too late?

Has Triad already been here?

Penelope scans the hallway once again for signs-- any signs-- that the black fatigue clad operatives are nearby. But there’s nothing.

Nothing but the stillness.

Penelope takes a moment to swallow down the dry lump of long-repressed emotions and then with all the courage she can muster, she pushes open the office door.

“Jo--”

But before Penelope can finish uttering Josie’s name, she feels an object collide with the back of her skull, followed by a sharp pang of blinding pain, and then--

Blackness.

#posie #josie saltzman #penelope park #hope mikaelson #hizzie #lizzie saltzman #legacies #wlw #ao3 #fanfic

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onestowatch · 4 years ago

Text

Boy Willows Drops Dreamy Music Video for "Fila" [Q&A]

Boy Willows, aka Landon Fleischman, makes music that offers a deep amalgamation of incandescent alt-pop, jubilant jazz, and psychedelic-tinged folk. Impeccably paired with sensory lyricism and passionate vocals, he delivers a hypnotic and singular resonance.

The LA-via-Maryland artist recently shared his new single "Fila" with Dylan Minnette of Wallows. On "Fila," Boy Willows stretches out to embrace relatable themes of vulnerability and healing both inwardly and outwardly without feeling overbearingly serious. "Fila" serves as a therapy session between two friends as they cope with being alone in different ways. Nestled in a warm and gentle soundscape, the sonic components are woven with nostalgia, charm, and a bit of whimsy. We caught up with Willows for a quick Q&A about the track and the equally nostalgic and whimsical music video directed by Boy Willows, shot by Seannie Bryan (Madeline Kenney, Skullcrusher) and edited by Jordan Pories.

Ones to Watch: This song, although short and sweet, seems to have a lot of complexity to it. It sounds like throughout the single, the main characters are grappling with feelings of loneliness and figuring out how to cope. What is this song about to you, and how did this song come to be?

Boy Willows: I think both verses deal with the thoughts that bubble up when you feel useless, small, or alone, but what I love about the song is there's a twinge of hope. My goal with Fila was to spur myself into believing that I could create my own reality of acceptance and momentum. I had been feeling isolated a while before the pandemic hit - on the perimeter looking in on other people's social circles or relationships or success. My hope was that by acknowledging these truths in a song, I could start to take up my own space, make my own club of acceptance per se.

What was the creative process like for the single? What made you want to go for this very ethereal sound, and were you inspired by anything in particular?

I worked on this super grand, minute-long glitchy harmony thing and pitched it down an octave (oooo). It was so soothing and slow and big, I started producing around it, and I felt like I was in a dream where I could say anything I wanted, no matter how heavy or light.

What are your thoughts on girls that wear Fila?

Haha, in short, they're cool. This song is truly a peek into all the thoughts that were swirling around my brain, making me feel alone - and one of those thoughts was about aging. I wish this wasn't the truth, but I was feeling fear about getting older. I wrote that line about Filas and didn't think much of it or even really understand why I wrote it until a couple nights ago. It's definitely a light-hearted observation about youth culture, but I think I wanted to poke fun at it cuz I felt like I wasn't a part of it for the first time - and that frightened me. It's insane that even that line was born out of the fear of being left out, but I'm pretty sure that's the true true.

I loved not only the sonic atmosphere you created, but also the story of you told through the lyrics. Do you have a favorite verse from this track or one that speaks to you? What is your approach when it comes to songwriting?

I just love how much the endings of each verse stick out - "I just feel like I don't deserve this life." It's a line you could interpret so many different ways, and each way would be true. When I'm working on a song, it starts with the music. I picture where it takes me, how fast I'm moving, if I feel cool or angry or defeated, and if I'm lucky, a phrase will fall out of my mouth that feels true, even if it doesn't make sense at first.

I think the music video does a great job of visualizing the lightheartedness of "Fila." What was the creative process like, and what was it like working with your team on the video?

There's this fucking incredible animated video called Satiemania from 1978 made by this Croatian animator, Zdenko Gašparović. In it, there's a delectable section where it's just different shoes walking in an impossibly groovy way. I wanted that tone of animation mixed with the camaraderie and fuckit-energy of The Pharcyde's "Drop" music video. I brought those ideas to my genius creative friend/ shaman, Jordan Pories, and we got to work, exploring the world of the song, trying to amplify and showcase everything in a dreamy, slow way. Seannie Bryan is a recent friend of mine and a killer DP. She captured the dreamy light perfectly. We rolled up to the spot at 6am. It was 90 degrees, and we knocked it out in an hour and a half, only stopping once because I was going to throw up from spinning.

Dylan Minette's voice perfectly compliments the laid back yet introspective vibe of the song, and it looked like y'all had a lot of fun doing the music video. What was working with him like, and how did he get involved with this single?

He and I go way back. We used to be in rival boy scout gangs. No, I do lighting for Wallows, and we met through that. One day on the tour bus, I was showing him some new tunes, one of which was "Fila." It was 35 seconds, and he said it needed to be longer, so I said, "hop on in." He added his verse, and we were OFF TO THE RACES. He's got a really strong creative compass and just knows what he likes. We finished the song in a couple days - fucking painless, dare I say, very enjoyable bordering on a lot of fun.

Tell me about Desert Mike. I feel like although rattlesnakes do deserve some love and I agree that the war between them and human beings is senseless, I'm not exactly in a rush to give them a pat on the head...Ok, but for real, tell me about this clip at the end. Is it an easter egg for a future single? In your last single, "i love it when you talk," you intercut the clips of you with film footage from the 80s and 90s. Is Desert Mike a Boy Willows creation or a relic from the past?

SHEESH, am I paying you?? because if not, then I SHOULD. The Boy Willows canon is a long, meandering labyrinth of characters that doesn't conform to traditional standards of "time" or "being funny" or "good. Desert Mike exists in all Boy Willows worlds, though, this much I can say. In the ILIWYT video, Desert Mike easily could have made a feature, and now I want to know who you've been talking to...your ability to connect the dots is...suspicious.

Has the pandemic effected you or inspired you as an artist? If so, how?

Really hot take comin at ya, I think the pandemic is not good. Bad even! I lost my job, so financially, I've been very inspired to survive haha. This isn't the sexiest answer, but the truth for me is, I put everything into my music but am also looking for a job - sometimes balancing those two things is really fucking hard. Instead of feeling inspired to write about my difficulties, I just want to solve them. So I'm really looking forward to landing a part-time gig as a call representative for Spirit Airlines, so I can get back to making my music.

Once the world comes to a state of a new normal, what's the first thing you want to do?

I'd love to travel somewhere new with my friends. A friend of mine is living in New Zealand working on an alpaca farm. You bet your ass I'm flying there at the first chance.

Alternate fun idea: Get a table at a restaurant, deep in the back, as far inside as possible. Order one appetizer every 30 minutes and stay there for a minimum of nine hours, just being so loungey and just snacking hard, mozzarella sticks flying every which way, napping in marinara sauce.

When shows and concerts are back, who do you want to see, and who do you want to tour or play with?

When touring comes back, I would LOVE to tour with Jadu Heart, Far Caspian, Sure Sure, to name a few. I just want to crowd surf for a month straight honestly. Give a ton of sweaty hugs. I want to see Toro y Moi, Thumpasaurus, Squirrel Flower.

Who have you been listening to throughout the pandemic? Are there any Ones To Watch?

A lot of Tribe Called Quest for long drives. I'll put "Check The Rhime" on repeat. I just discovered this dude named Shuttle his song "Boy" is fucking groooovy. I'm an OG KT Tunstall stan too - I've been bumping her 2013 album "Invisible Empire" like a mad man. Kevin Morby for the campy vibes, Rufus for the stank, Lomelda for the love, Van Morrison because if I get married, my first dance will be to "Crazy Love," and I like to daydream about that when I drive. Last but most important, The Prince of Egypt soundtrack.

Oh also, I've been listening to a lot of Anna Burch, Far Caspian, Bea1991, a compilation of geese wearing hats, Mei, Shuttle and this new artist you HAVE to listen to - he's a little out there but give him a try, Drake.

youtube

#Boy Willows #Fila #Dylan Minette

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letstalksymphogear · 5 years ago

Text

Symphogear, EP.4

Last time on Beverly Hills 90210!

Hibiki begins to understand the true nature of the Sam Reimi Spiderman trilogy as she lives the life of a superhero by night and a normal student by day in the most miserable way possible. Constant cockblocking from the duties she explicitly chose to do distance her from her significant other Miku, as it drives wedges into their friendlationship. As Hibiki breaks off a plan prepped weeks in advance to see rocks fall from the sky, she takes out her frustration on the local Kamen Rider villian rejects before coming up to see Tsubasa, only to be greeted by a new face...

Let us continue!

As the situation tenses between the three gi- hey! Hey, wait a minute! This is a flashback! That’s no fair. You’re just going to throw this to us while we’re trying to do this stuff? Get it together, show.

The show hauls our asses to a flashback, because God knows we needed one right now. It’s not just any flashback, though. It’s a flashback of our favorite redhead, Kanade!

In a straightjacket.

While everyone is staring.

“i dont usually do this but you’ve got a bad case of catch-these-handsitis”

“oh god, she’s so wild, and angry... i... why am i hoping she’s single...?”

“aye. this is the fate of all rabiosexuals out there.”

Kanade is tied down because she’s the sole survivor of a Noise attack, and more importantly, she really, really wants to fight the Noise. What she doesn’t know is that she is potentially a new candidate for a Symphogear relic.

“oh... we’d pair so well... our colors are diametrically opposed...”

“GIMMIE A FUCKING GUN AND A TEN PIECE CHICKEN MCNUGGET MEAL YOU GUY FIERI LOOKING ASSHOLE”

Genjuro, who suffers from Compulsive Child Adopting Syndrome (CCAS), immediately comes to the conclusion to adopt this tiny gremlin. It helps that her parents are, well, dead.

Fatherly instincts vibrating intensely.

Genjuro talks to this small child, who is currently 99% anger and 1% chicken fluff, scanning their conviction towards working to the goal of fighting the Noise.

In retrospect, his methods are a bit weird. Feeding into the extreme edginess of a 14 year old scorned isn’t exactly the best thing in the world. Unfortunately, as we established before, the only thing that can fight Noise are Symphogear, and the only reason he’s not in the front lines is because he can’t wield one.

Kanade naturally obliges this deal, her braincells having long since perished alongside her parents. Then Perish indeed, Kanade.

“buddy im being trained as a samurai in modern times and i still could not fathom going as hard as you”

The pact is sealed. The child is adopted. Genjuro’s adoption addiction relapses, and he’s going to have quite a long talk at AA (Adopters Anonymous).

The thing about Genjuro that makes him an interesting character is that he actually really, really, really hates the idea of having to pit children in fighting these horrible threats. Unlike a lot of male characters who have a strong sense of manliness but a poorly written way of expressing it, Genjuro manages to be a compassionate person in the face of all this terribleness. He’s the only person to think about throwing parties for these girls, and trying to give them any sort of sense of happiness and normalcy to their lives, now changed forever by machinations he has been put in charge of. He’s the Anti-Gendo. He doesn’t tell Shinji to get in the robot. He makes sure Shinji is well enough to be in the robot, and would never do so otherwise, knowing the mental toll.

That’s why ultimately, he is The Dad.

So, with that in mind, they prep Kanade to recieve the relic assigned to her. One of the major elements of using relics is compatibility. Kanade is not naturally compatible to Gungnir; they have to slowly ease her into it.

“mumble mumble cant wait to kick their asses mumble mumble”

This is a process that takes years. The show doesn’t do well in showing this, but it takes many, many years for her to be compatible after endless medical examinations and controlled situations.

The experiments, naturally, hurt like a bitch to boot.

“genjuro she’ll be okay, right?”

“flip a coin on it, tsubasa”

“oh shit yall see this news? pornhubs gonna buy tumblr! damn, i can make an all in one profile now.”

When you’re forced to watch your newly adopted daughter torture herself to be compatible with an ancient, musty cursed relic.

After all that, Kanade still isn’t compatible. Of course, nothing is simple with Kanade. You may ask yourself, “Why did Genjuro have to tie up Kanade in a straitjacket? That seems pretty abusive.”

Simply put, it’s because Kanade has never fucked around in any second of her life, having taken off all the devices on her, taken a direct syringe of the stuff she’s trying to synchronize with, and directly inject it into her, herself.

Fear.

“i am so SICK, and TIRED, of all this namby pamby wimpy ass standard shit. YALL MOTHERFUCKERS THINK I WONT GO FULL THROTTLE?! MY LIFE IS FULL THROTTLE. I! AM! GONNA! GET! SHIT! DONE! TONIGHT! BOYYYYS!”

Tsubasa, likely already going through puberty by this point, simultaneously understands both the concepts of fear and arousal witnessing this near suicidal display of absolute madness immediately.

Holy shit, Kanade.

You know shit’s bad when even Ryoko is afraid.

Turns out, however, that Kanade did the right move in becoming compatible with Gungnir, at a very physically demanding price.

Really, physically demanding.

“shouldnt have had that massive spaghetti carbonara before doing all this shit but fuck i really liked that fuckin’ spaghetti slorp slorp go the sauce ooooooooh god this is bad”

“HAHA IM FINE- IM FINE EVERYONE- THIS- THIS IS JUST THE SPAGHETTI- I HAD BEFORE THE- BEFORE THE PROCEDURE IT’S NOT- IT’S NOT BLOOD I SWEAR- OH I AM FEELING LIGHTHEADED- DON’T WORRY YOUR PRETTY HEADS IM GOOD! OH- OH FUCK-”

The scientists, who have been easily staring at this entire situation for more than 5 minutes or more, have not stepped in to do a single damn thing, as if overpowering a 14 year old to stop her from injecting a dangerous thing that could directly kill her is completely out of their paygrade. Genjuro wakes them the fuck up and likely briefly contemplates firing some of these morons.

“so this is what’s called... getting lost in the sauce...”

The scientists scramble to keep Kanade from vomiting more marinara sauce but Kanade exerts but a mere fraction of her now developing Symphogear abilities, knocking them all out with ease.

“this is some shit right here, damn”

Kanade pulls some Independence Day theatrics on everyone, as a 14 year old on the verge of death typically would if given the opportunity. Death may be certain but you at least get to go out in style. Will Smith would be proud.

The half-life of Tsubasa’s fearousal reached completion as it has mostly decayed into fear at this point.

However, the relic pendant begins glowing. This is likely the one thing that keeps Kanade from dying. An interesting comparison given Hibiki’s own survival and gear manifestation.

Kanade achieves super saiyan.

“THEY ALL SAID I WAS LOST IN THE SAUCE... AND THEY ALL THOUGHT THE SAUCE WAS LOST IN ME. BUT NOW... I AM THE SAUCE!”

Tsubasa’s fear directly transmutes itself back into arousal per the first law of alchemy. Something to note is that Tsubasa was naturally receptive to her own gear; she didn’t need to go through the medical process Kanade went through. It’s because of this that Kanade earns Tsubasa’s admiration for life, even long after she dies.

“THE SAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUCCCEEEEEEEEEE”

And so, the unambiguously gay duo known as Zwei Wing formed. Singers by day...

Noise slayers by night.

Saving the country, singing in the country, bonding together... in the country. Truly, there is no more iconic duo than these two.

“yall sing pretty”

“anyway bye”

Kanade’s initial motivation for getting Gungnir was to kill the Noise indiscriminately with no hesitation. It slowly dawns on her, though, that helping people... is good?

“the sauce lost me. i got lost in the sauce. i became the sauce. but... why don’t i... share, the sauce? because... people like sauce... and i like sauce... and we can bond together... liking sauce!”

Kanade and Tsubasa have a Captain America moment running together as Kanade muses about how singing for other people feels way better than just pure murder funtimes.

“hey, uh... tsubasa... it just hit me. i like sauce. and... you, you like sauce. do... do you want to share sauce together?”

“kanade as your girlfriend ive literally heard you talk about sauce metaphors for the last several years and if you dont think i wont slurp your sauce down without hesitation you’ve got another thing coming”

“hell yeah! ive still got some of my original leftover marinara to share!”

No heterosexual explanation whatsoever.

Not a damn one.

Oh yeah...! Because by shedding tears, the reality you face is...

Nehushtan? Weird end of a sentence, but okay.

We’re thrust back into the present time, present day, as we’re back in our three way throwdown.

Genjuro is an extra large McFuckingPissed with Large Fries and a Shake, supersized.

“you want some sauce with that? lmao, sorry, too soon”

As the werewolves come out in full force, the tension strengthens while a battle brews nearby...

“yall think you’re getting your hands on this goddamn armor without realizing im officiating this here gay pride parade. and guess what? you’re cancelled.”

“didn’t know clowns were part of the acronym, let alone capable of managing it. either way, you’ve gotta be at least this tall to use the armor.”

“so why not make like a hobbit, drop the armor, and burrow back to whatever hidey hole you came from, bimbo baggins!”

“guess you didnt read the books, moron. last i checked, bilbo doesn’t lose his traveling partners.”

“that low blow only comes at the cost of outing yourself as a fucking nerd.”

“im not ashambed. im gonna blow your mind with some math: my foot, plus your face, subtracting the teeth from your mouth, equals an ass kicking.”

“NOTHING IN THAT FORMULA INVOLVES ANY ASS WHATSOEV-”

Hibiki gets in the way immediately, citing the ethical ramifications of fighting humans as opposed to talking to them, conveniently forgetting this was the same person ready to body her merely an episode or two ago.

“hey first of all please don’t say bimbo thats really degrading, and second of all clowns aren’t actually in the acronym but im sure there are some gay clowns out there so please dont talk like that and thirdly im sorta short and that hurt my feelings and fourthly killing is fucking bad, tsubasa, let us not commit human on human murder”

both of them, in unison, i shit you not:

“yo, you like murder? shit. i like murder too!”

“like oh my god! murder is my favorite hobby. i take it back, you’re chill. still gotta die, though.”

Hibiki is casually tossed aside from this fight, given her very ideas are anti-thetical to fighting as a whole.

A real sick battle ensues.

Something to note is that our spunky opponent has another relic at her disposal which summons Noise. This relic is called Solomon’s cane. You’ll learn more about it later.

Not a pretty sight.

Tsubasa is losing. Not only is she losing, but the enemy cool kid reveals a very notable detail of her plan: She was distracted Tsubasa on purpose. The real plan...

Was to kidnap Hibiki.

In an ironic twist, Tsubasa’s inability to work with her teammate not only put her teammate in danger, but explicitly allowed her opponent to fulfill her mission of trying to capture her.

“i changed my mind kick her ass please oh god”

Hibiki still has not learned her lesson.

Tsubasa gets her ass kicked. Her opponent pulls every punch in the book, with some lowdown dirty fighting.

Unfortunately, Tsubasa, having learned from the Kanade Amou Private School Of No Brain Cell Combat, she pulls the last ace from her sleeve.

“lmao bitch whatre you gonna do, sing?”

“i didnt design my hair like a fucking 8th note for nothing, you cabbage patch kid”

“then let’s hear it, motherfucker.”

#symphogear #symphogear season 1 #recap #anime #comedy

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guessmonsta · 7 years ago

Note

Tsukishima in- "I'm the teenage heir to the throne and I'm the next in line to marry. My parents arranged me with the princess from the neighboring kingdom and GOD I hate it because I'm only interested in science and- oh wait? The princess isn't a snob? She's into science and wants me to teach her more? Ok well, maybe this isn't so bad after all..."

I reference my other royal au in here as well! Bravo if you get it!! (which I still need to finish but I’ll get around to- oops!)

June 18, 1879

Tsukishima Kei liked to start off his mornings with a warm mug of imported tea and a nice book on the balcony. It became a ritual of his that the rest of the palace knew well enough not to disrupt. The maids, the cooks, even his own parents, were wary about walking in on the prince before he had time to stabilize himself. Although, this very morning, the flow of his routine was dammed off.

Kei barely had time to poke his head out from underneath his sheets before the grand doors of his bedroom were pushed back. He wasn’t fully awake enough yet to even scowl at the intrusion, yet he buried his head back under the sheets to retaliate. Mere seconds later, they were whipped away from his head in what seemed like worry and panic. He was awake enough to scowl, now, rolling around and shooting a glare up at the maid who dare awake him.

“What.” Was all he managed to hiss, grabbing the sheets and cocooning himself again.

“Your father ushered me to retrieve you. It’s urgent, your highness.” The maid stammered out quickly, her foot tapping against the hardwood of his floor out of impatience.

“He can wait another hour. Tell him “your highness” couldn’t care less.”

He smiled sardonically up at the maid before flipping over to his other side, finding refuge in between his pillows. He heard the maid sigh and stomp over to the other side of his room, and promptly yank open his blinds.

“I’m not here to play games, your highness. Please, if your father says it's urgent, it must be urgent.”

“Have you met the buffoon?” Kei yawned, barely sparing the maid another glance. “It’s probably to discuss how the ball went last week. Or what theme his idiotic dinner party should be this Sunday. If it’s so urgent, tell him to get me himself.”

Kei heard the maid growl as she stomped out of his room, slamming the doors behind him. They really should get more polite maids in this palace, Kei thought, sitting up in his bed and ruffling his hair. He slapped around his nightstand for his glasses, fumbling around with them for a bit before raising them up to his shirt to wipe off. Before he had any time to put them over his eyes, his door slammed open again. Kei groaned, slipping on his glasses as angrily as one could slip on glasses, and turned towards the door. His father stood in the entry, with his mother close behind, not saying anything until Kei muttered an agitated, “what?” for the second time that morning.

His father cleared his throat, making his intrusion inside of Kei’s room and standing at the foot of his bed. The King was not a stern man, and never had been. The locals sometimes called him a loon, a man so completely out of his mind that he sometimes forgot that he had an army out on the battlefront. Nevertheless, he was respected, and Kei never really knew why. Perhaps it was because of his mother, The Queen, logical and prolific, who kept him in line with every decision he made. She stood in place at the doorway, she never liked to invade his privacy.

“Get dressed and meet us in the dining hall in a quarter of an hour.” For the first time in Kei’s life, he had heard his father's voice come out in a serious manner, rather than a lighthearted, teasing tone. He cocked his head and took a double take at his father's face, looking for telltale signs of eyebrows twitching or forehead scrunching to give away that his sternness was just a petty joke, but Kei couldn’t find any.

“If it's such an urgent ordeal why not tell me now?”

“It’s indecent to discuss in pyjamas.” The king finally broke the scowl on his face with a fake smile, and clapped his hands together. “If you aren’t down by the time I expect you, I have no choice but to send the knights up to retrieve you. Are we clear?”

“Yes father.”

The king turned on his heel and walked towards the door. The queen caught Kei’s eye and shot him a sympathetic smile, before tugging the door closed once the king passed through. Kei sat in place until he heard the doors knock together, and he must’ve been holding his breath, because all at once he let out a deep exhale. He flopped back down towards the pillows on his bed, just missing hitting his head against the headboard. He rolled around a bit, not wanting to get up but not quite wanting to fall back asleep either. He hated to be grouchy like this, but he wondered if he would get his cup of earl grey when he met up with his father. He lay there and thought about the situation for a couple more minutes, his mind running through every possible scenario he could run into. “Your brother was killed by his wife’s younger brother”, was a likely possibility. Yet, so were, “I was thinking about setting up my next dinner party to look like The Last Supper” and “I think my next portrait should be in violet, no?” The man was an enigma, and not in the positive way.

He finally came to the realization that being a mopey young adult wouldn’t bring him any appeasement from his father. So he lugged himself up, threw on whatever outfit was laying across his dresser, and trekked down toward the dining hall. He figured he must've looked like a wreck, because on of the maids shot him a wry smile. He was usually one to care about his image, but today, he couldn’t care less. He was doing everything out of spite.

Once in the dining hall, his father gave him the same wary, disappointed glare the maids had. If he wasn’t allowed to talk back to his father, he might as well aggravate him in other ways. Though he considered himself to be proper and mature, he wasn’t proper enough to just appease the old man.

“Do you have any idea why there's such an urgency?” His father asked. The room was dead silent, despite for the cacophony of crow calls coming from the gardens. Kei wasn't really paying attention to what his father said, nor would he, further on. He wasn't one for the whole royals scene, it was so pretentious, everybody two faced like a deck of cards. They would kill for power and marry for it too- it was all so confusing to him. Kei, though it wasn't very accepted, was more into science. Twenty years prior did Charles Darwin from England publish his book on the theory of evolution, and though he technically wasn't allowed to have it in his possession, he hid it behind all the religious texts and manuscripts in his library. Skeletons of giant lizards that roamed the earth millions of years ago were being dug up across the Atlantic and past the Mediterranean, relics of the peoples of humanity's past dug up from the deserts in Ethiopia, and, through all the things Kei didn't understand about royalty, it was why nobody else in his palace found any of it interesting. Was he insane? How could they think that something so present and real was merely just works of fiction? Kei recalled a museum up in England adopting some of the reptilian bones into their exhibit, and Kei figured that if he ever became King, he would do that one day as well. Start up science museums to compete against the arts in city center. His father best be dead by then, though.

“Did Akiteru die?” Kei responded to his father's question with another half-assed one. He was picking at his nails.

“What?”

“I asked if Akiteru died.”

“Why the hell would Akiteru be dead?” His father roared, and Kei scrunched his face up in disgust.

“I dunno. Seems like the only thing that seems plausible if you’re so serious.”

“No, I-” The king groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “It’s about you.”

Kei remained silent, watching his father with bored eyes. All he could think about was the crows outside and his tea.

“You're coming to the age where we believe you need to have a partner.” At this, Kei’s heart absolutely plummeted, tired eyes were blown wide, every cell of his skin left tingling in complete and utter shock. His father was saying things to him but he couldn't hear them, his ears were ringing so loud that he couldn't even hear himself think, but the blood rushing through his ears was very much avid. There was no way that his father was being serious about this. His father was midway through a sentence before Kei cleared his throat and more or less yelled- “I’m only sixteen!”

“Which is exactly why we’ve found you a nice woman to marry!” His father roared back. He watched his mother flinch. “She’s from the neighboring country, she’s sixteen, just like you. Not only will this be good for you, go out and learn to talk to other people your age, but it’ll be good for the politics of this nation. When people find out that our countries are merging the economy-”

Kei zoned back out again. His father was marrying him off so he could make more money off of trade? He lived in a gold plated castle, the people of the village were wealthy, employment was high, merchants were everywhere, what more did the man need? Kei felt himself tear up, though he wouldn't admit it, and shot his mother one helpless look. The one she gave him mirrored his, this whole situation was out of his hands.

“Akiteru got to choose who he wed.” He said, sternly.

“That’s because he had a social life, he went out and found himself somebody to wed.”

“But that still isn’t fair!” Kei got up and slammed the chair into the table. It was like he was being possessed. It was very uncharacteristic for him to get angry, but Kei liked being alone, especially at a time like this, when he was still learning and developing. Though he wouldn’t consider himself to be one, he was still a child. He bit his lip and ultimately slammed the chair to the floor, one of its legs snapping.

“You can pay for that with the money you get from the economic boost!” He turned around and walked away, and shot a death glare at the maid hiding behind the crook in the wall. He went back up to is chambers and, as dramatically as one could shut French doors, he did. He grabbed a record off his bookshelf, placed it on the player, and let it play so loud that it forced its way past the incessant ringing of his ears. That was another thing Kei enjoyed that his father didn’t- music. Music and science, that was the only closure Kei needed in his life. Not some stupid girl from some stupid kingdom who would increase the rates of the old man’s gluttony. He could only imagine what she was like- his future partner. He doubted he would every love her, she was probably some ditsy little thing, hair done to the gods and her linens eye catching- which probably got his father's attention in the first place. She was probably thrilled for a wedding, her fairy tale ending, he would hate to break this stupid girls heart; but that's just what had to happen.

July 18, 1879

The day finally came for Kei to finally met his “bride to be.” It was exactly a month later from when Kei first received the news, and ever since then, his life has been a miserable, expectation reaching goal. He was expected to woo her parents, charm her, and be a good model for his parents teachings as well. It was all bullshit. He heard that the kingdom just south of his had broken a rule of thousands of years. The King and Queen let their daughter, the princess, be wed to some commoner, the local cryptid, as well. If they were as modern minded as to let their daughter do that, why wouldn't his parents at least let him choose which princess or duchess he would like to be with?

He sat at the garden tables with his hands folded in his lap. His parents stood behind him, and across from him, another cast iron chair sat. His parents were going to leave him alone with her whilst the monarchs went off to chat about political business, he supposed. Was his father really expecting him to fall in love with somebody, in theory, so immature? He sincerely hoped that she hated him, and cried about it, so the whole marriage would be cast off. He had went to bed rather late last night, and according to his mother, taking three shots of espresso before a meeting was not proper, so his bitter stature was dialed up.

As if one some sort of miraculous cue, the gates to the gardens opened up, revealing two monarchs and, to Kei’s surprise, no princess. He had set high hopes that there was none at all. Though, his hopes and dreams died when the king and queen separated to reveal a girl standing behind them, her arms crossed, one of her eyebrows cocked. Her father looked behind himself to gaze at her, and almost magically her arms unfolded and her smirk was replaced with what Kei could only describe as an angelic smile. Good, she clearly didn't want to be here, either. At least they had that in common. Though, when her father turned back around and went to greet his, the princess turned to her mother and hissed something in her native language, her mother merely shaking her head and replying the calmest she could. Oh, god, the girl was pissed.

Her father guided her to sit across from Kei, and she refused to look at him at first, before her mother ran a knuckle across her spine that made her shoot straight up.

“Acquaint yourselves, you two.” Kei’s father hummed, pretentious as always, as the four adults walk mock triumphantly back into the palace.

“Fist off, may I say, you don’t mind me talking this dress off, do you?” She said bluntly, placing both elbows on the table and resting her head upon her hands.

“Your dress? Are you mad, woman?”

“Not my entire dress! Just the unnecessary skirting material. It’s bullshit!” She whispered the last part but cringed a bit when Kei cocked his eyebrow up at her. “Oops, I forgot, I’m a lady.”

Regardless, she stood up to shimmy out of two petticoats and some tulle, and took a moment to release the windings of her corset. Kei almost found himself laughing. Who in the world did this girl think she was, some kind of circus? Perhaps she was making herself undesirable like he intended on doing, which wasn't quite working, in her favor. This rendezvous oughta be entertaining, the thought.

She sat down again, petticoats and all on the floor,and she smiled up at him.

“Hi, I’m __ __, the pleasure is mine.”

“Oh, is it, princess?” Kei smirked. “Kei Tsukishima.”

“Lovely.” She fake smiled. “You don't seem like much of a charmer, bless you. Most of the princes my parents set me up with are too prim, or proper, or way too uptight about morals. They would’ve called the pope if I dared touch the binds of my corset. That was the first test, and you passed, so thank you, for that.” Kei allowed himself to chuckle, at this.

“I take it you don’t want to be here either?”

“Cripes, no.” She shook her head, her curled hair bouncing with her. “My parents don’t let me do my hair for myself but expect me to get married. How foolish.”

“I agree. Though, your country is really wealthy and that's all my father tends to care about-”

“Same for mine-”

“And I don’t think he’s going to let this go.” Kei bit the inside of his cheek, then rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, Father’s been sweet talking about your’s more than he has about you. I didn't even know your name before I got here.”

“Neither did I.”

“Cripes.”

They sat in silence for a moment, __ not knowing what to say, and Kei really having nothing to say at all. The tingling feeling of his skin was coming back. He was nervous.

He was nervous because she wasn't what he had expected. He had a plan set out and everything. He was going to ignore her if she flaunted her dress, ignored her small talk conversation. Tell her he’s seen prettier in Charles Darwin's book on evolution, and he was talking about the tortoises. His plan had backfired, she drew the cards in this game. She threw half her outfit off and spread her legs and crossed her arms and, oh god, she picked at her nails too. Kei would rather die than admit that she had the upper hand at this obvious provocation game, but he wouldn’t. He didn't dare.

“You shouldn't have undone that corset- you might as well use looks to mask that ugly personality of yours.” He uttered, but he only heard her chuckling.

“It’s a surprise your parents made us gather out here- with how pale your skin is. I’m surprised you haven't melted in the sun yet. This isn't Romania, you know? Did you catch the wrong train back to Transylvania?” She shot back, refusing to make eye contact, rather plucking a rose off the bush and plucking off its thorns.

“Mm. At least I could do some damage as a vampire. The prince of Norway called, he’s missing his favorite troll. Won’t you go back to him?”

“First of all, the prince of Norway is a wang.” She laughed. “And second, make fun of my height when you don’t look like a Roman pillar.”

“Where I’m from, the taller you are, the more powerful you are. Doesn't seem to be the case where you come from.”

“Oh, please. I could prove Darwin's theory of evolution wrong right here, right now.” Kei twitched at this, refusing to say anything, and beckoning her gaze. She looked up at him and smirked. “It clearly cannot be correct, because look at you. You look like a hominid from one million b.c.e. There’s no way I came from the likes of you.”

Kei didn't expect this, and he didn't expect himself to laugh at her joke, but he did. He had to cover his face with his hands because between the heat of the sun and his embarrassment, his face was growing red. She smirked with satisfaction. He wiped at his eyes and wiped the smile off his face with it, then cleared his throat.

“I appreciate that.” he nodded. “I wasn't aware that you were interested in science.”

“Well,” She shrugged, her eyes advertising. “There's not much I know, but out of the things I do know, I hold them rather close. My father won’t allow me to purchase any scientific texts.”

“Just hide them behind the other books.”

“What?”

“Make space behind the bookshelf to hide them there. I’ve had maids smuggle in all of mine.” Kei shrugged. She finally looked up at him, straight in the eye, and he noticed that they were so full of something spectacular, it made his heart lurch.

“Are you serious?”

“How many times do I have to repeat it? Just when I thought you were actually and intellectual human being you-”

“Can you show me?” She asked, suddenly, her face turning red as well. “I mean, only if you’re okay with that, that is.”

“I would have to tell my parents that we’re going to see my novel collection, then read on my balcony- if you’re able to tolerate that utter shit.”

“I will for Darwin.” She shrugged, standing up and picking up her petticoats. She contemplated them for a moment, just staring at them, the with one leap, threw them over the rose bush.

“They won’t notice.” She walked alongside him, tightening her corset as she did. His gaze lingered on her for a moment, before he turned away and shook his head. The idea of marriage as still absolutely dreadful, but something told him that it wouldn't be as miserable as intended.

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu angst #haikyuu!! headcanons #haikyuu!! imagines #haikyuu!! scenarios #Tsukishima kei

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yoshimickster · 7 years ago

Text

Rwby Volume 5 Episode ten-ITS GOIN’ DOWN Y’ALL-Micksterecap(spoilers)

HEY Y’ALL-sorry I’m late, I just saw the new Star Wars, SUPER good, although I feel Mark and Carrie stole the show from the newbies(may she rest in piece)-NOW LET’S SEE WHO DIES!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-the episode STARTS WITH-

ANGSTY COFFEE TIME! Qrow’s coffee I should mention most likely NOT full of booze, as its been shown he’s a happy drinker not a sad drinker...kind of...the BETTER version of alocholism, but still...

The two have a conversation that is BASICALLY this:

Qrow: We’re fucked.

Ozcarpin: Now we’re not.

Qrow: YES-we are.

Ozcarpin: NO-we’re NOT!

Qrow: ALL OF MY CASUAL FRIENDS ARE DEAD OZ!

MEANWHILE IN THE RWBY ARTISTS ROOM

ArtguyA: You think killing off all of Qrow’s colleagues is a cheap way to not show what they looked like?

ArtguyB: Look the animation people BARELEY have enough money to do a full crowd anymore of a new town, BARE MINIMUM YO!

3:00 RUBY-then walks on in to ask the VERY pertinent quesion of if the Beacon Academy relic was stolen by Cinder-BUT-t’aint. Ain’t blaming her for worrying though, you can’t be too careful around the Legion of Salem’s unnamed faction(seriously RT, its been TWO SEASONS-give them a NAME).

4:00 She THEN asks his cane is a relic-AND-it ain’t-SORRY FAN THEORISTS! And NO-this isn’t the episode where we learn what the hell that stupid thing DOES! FIVE FREAKING SEASONS!

Well that was a fun little informative scene, now to get the other students and get this show on the-

4:22 *BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*

DAMMIT QROW-don’t answer your scroll in a meeting, that’s just RWDE!

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY-its going DOWN-the trap is straight up mother-fucking going DOWN! ALSO-anyone else find it weird how all photos are 2-D paintings? Its gotten so I can’t tell what’s an actual painting or just a photograph in this universe.

Thankfully both Oz AND Qrow realize its probably a trap as they have fully functioning brains.

5:17 A CUT TOO-

Raven and Leo having one of their CLASSIC bull sessions. I’d also make a joke about the two having an affair but...yeah Raven can do better than this wuss, and considering how much I hate her that SAYS something.

Leo “Cowardly” Lionheart reveals he betrayed Oz because he’s afraid of Salem and FUCK HIM-unless he redeems himself. Yeah, FUCK HIM UNLESS HE REDEEMS HIMSELF!

ALSO-did anyone else think the reason he was working with Salem was because Vernal was his daughter? That’s what I thought, but I guess I was wrong.

CLOSE IT OUT-with Salem trying to tell Leo he was doing right by him while OBVIOUSLY talking about her own cowardly ass-AND BACK TO THE BELLADONNA HOUSEHOLD! Man I was expecting we’d have to wait 10 minutes for that, PHEW!

WE THEN SEE-Kali isn’t dead-HUZZAH! ALSO-

6:58

Angry cat mom is judging you.

Seriously, when the person you’re protecting can defend herself better with a damn TEA tray than you can, yoooooooooooou suck. Seriously these guards are like those faceless rebel soldiers in Star Wars Rebels-GET IT IN GAME YO!

NANANANANANA-BAT FAUNUS! ALSO-bunny dude is still alive, good on him! Well...alive for NOW at least.

Thankfully though-

7:08 Mama Belladonna don’t TAKE none of that shit! THIS IS HER HOUSE MOTHER FUCKER! All while the OTHER gaurd is in the background being all “WAH-I’m INJURED!” SUCK IT UP LADY-we got amputees in this show gutsier than you! So chop off your arm, robo-up, AND GET BACK OUT THERE!

7:13 Look at that face, that’s the face of someone thing “Seriously? I’m going to get killed by a TEA TRAY?!”

But enough about whether Kali survives or not-WHICH NONE OF US ARE PARANOID OVER-A CUT TO-

7:15 THE END SCENE FROM LAST EPISODE! One would THINK this would be where the ep starts, but we just REALLY needed confirmation that Lionheart was a pussy, THAT wasn’t something we couldn’t get from subtext alone!

7:36 Blake than pisses off Ilia which prompts her to LUNGE down-

BUT THEN-

7:37

7:38

HO-LEE-SHIT, that was some NINJA stuff right there! Kudos Baby Belladonna, kudos.

Its then a CUTTHROAT BATTLE of angtsty whip sword faunus VERSUS angsty whipsword faunus!

7:56

OH SHIT-she did an Injustice 2 Clash! Risky move, if successful you take away 30 percent of their HP, in not YOU can lose HP.

Blake LOSES said clash(like I said risky), prompting ILIA-*

8:36 To go FULL ON faunus ninja mode! Okay its SCARY how much these two have in common, I can not stop being sad that they aren’t on the same side.

8:46

Ilia: Why couldn’t you just LEAVE?!

Blake: Because I run away too much.

DAMN-good self-burn, and during a DEATHMATCH no less.

Blake THEN figures out the BEST way to smoke out Ilia-

9:01 IS BY SMOKING HER OUT! FIRE-gloooooooooooooorious fire! ALSO-can Ilia’s camoflauge work against Blake’s nightvision? If so...DAMN-that’s some X-men shit right there.

ALSO-I can’t believe I never noticed this before-

9:10

9:11

HER SUIT CHANGES COLOR! THAT IS AWESOME! Must be like, specialty cloth made special by U.A’s support class, because what CAN’T a supersmart busty teenager do?

Ilia than gives a bunch of “Bla bla bla-terrorism gets results” BS-UNTIL-

9:54 AW-HA-SHIT-Blake froze your whiiiiiiiiiiiip sword! Into what looks like a candy cane even! HAPPY HOLIDAYS from this racially charged deathmatch!

Blake than KNOCKS THAT SHIT AWAY-and then pounces on her-

10:01 Iiiiiiiiiiiin the most SHIP-baity way POSSIBLE! HAVE FUN WITH THAT-Blackcammo shippers! And yes that’s the ship name-SO SAYETH MICK THE NERD!

But seriously though, the two than have a REAL good cray-RIGHT BEFORE-

10:36 He is Ghira Belladonna, the High Chieftain, and he’s the best he is at what he does, but what he does, ain’t that nice!

BUT THEN-

10:40

OH SHIT-please don’t do him li-

10:46 ZOOP-nevermind, judo throw! Look at Fennec’s face here, is mother-fucking SURPRISED!

10:49 AND HE JUST PULLS THAT SHIT OUT-I fucking LOVE THIS GUY!

Ghira THEN PROCEEDS to take on BOTH Albain brothers at once because of COURSE he fucking does!

SUN THEN DASHES ONTO THE SCENE-to fight Ilia and protect Blake! ALMOST BOYFRIEND VERSUS ALMOST EX-GIRLFRIEND-let the battle begin!

11:51

D’aw, he initiates clash just like Blake does, that’s cute!

Ilia then tries to zap him again-BUT AW SNAP-all out of dust cartridges! See this is what happens when you raise your kids on action films, conditions them not to reload bullets, AND THEN you get mess-ups like this.

The two are neck in neck, Ilia RIGHT UP AGAINST a breaking support beam-RIGHT BEFORE-

12:09 The SADDEST of sad Blake faces. She could stop a WAR with those tears.

BUT THEN THE PILLAR BREAKS ANYWAY!

12:17 It was at this point Ilia realized, she fucked up. SHIT-what if she dies, I don’t see ANY way of her surviving tha-

12:21 HAIL TO THE MOTHER FUCKING HIGH CHIEF! MAKE STATUES OF HIM-people will buy the SHIT out of them!

BUT ITS NOT OVER-

12:39 Ilia escapes-BUT-its too heavy for greatest person ever Ghira-SO-Sun gets his golden boys to help-WHILE-

12:55 Officer Nick Wilde than goes DOUBLE DOWN on the dust blades-CHARGING RIGHT AT THEM, BUUUUUUUUUUUUT-

13:00

Blake pulls away Ghira-RIGHT BEFORE-

13:03

Fennec falls under it and THEN-

13:04

BUDDA-GOD DAMN BOOM Y’ALL! Oh...oh my lord...that was amazing. That fight scene both took away AND gave me life.

But enough about that, WHAT ABOUT KAL-

13:11 ZOOP-nevermind she’s good. Man, why do they even HAVE bodygaurds, the Belladonnas plus house-guest did WAY more of the fighting than those scrubs they hired.

13:19 D’aw, cute little mama/cub hug. I’m sure NOTHING will unsettle this sce-

13:31

“EVERYTHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!”

GAH-holy crap! I guess we can scratch HIM off the list of possible reformed villains. He is gonna have QUITE the vendetta if he survives.

He then LUNGES at them, in typical Albain fashion-BUT

13:40 ILIA ZAPS HIM...wait she had more bullets? GIRL-you gotta figure out proper reload times! I know I shouldn’t be complaining given you helped take out a bad guy, but damn girl.

Ilia then gives herself a good cry and CUT TO-

14:01

RIGHT OUTSIDE BELLADONNA MANOR...HUH-I’m so used to cuts transitioning from random scenes I figured we wouldn’t see the direct aftermath until next ep. Good change up guys!

14:25 HEY-look, its Rat guy! I didn’t know he was a cop! Nnnnnnnnnnneat!

14:43 ...hey wait a minute, how come Ilia ain’t in handcuffs? You know she STILL helped in premeditated murder, that should count. CLEH-we get a possible new gay friend, so that’s cool.

After all that...things get...even more tense when Blake...makes the most poignant speech of the year about hatred and letting others speak for you. I was going to quote it, but its just too damn poignant and beautiful that I can’t do it justice.

AND THEN THE REST IS GLORIOUS-Ilia says she’ll stand with Blake, Blake than forgives her, faunus left and right joins the cause-THIS SCENE-

18:12

“You stabbed me!”

Ilia: I-

*PINCH*

Ilia: OH!

Sun: There, let’s just call it even.

CLOSE IT OUT-with Ghira mentioning the attack is 2 weeks away, they need to army the SHIT out of their new recruits, and Blake makes a cute reference to the sea captain-BEST EPISODE EVER! SERIOUSLY-this was FUCKING amazing! Oh sweet satan how are they gonna top THAT?!

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pendragonfics · 7 years ago

Text

Rebel Loner Girl (& the Babysitter of The Year)

Paring: Steve Harrington/Reader

Tags: female reader, fluff, punk, you’re a loner, character development, family dynamics, dysfunctional family, past Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler.

Summary: You thought it would be a simple drop off for your sister to go to the Snow Ball, but when you have two options,

a) sit in the car and read Will Buyers' Spider-Man comics, or b) catch a ride anywhere else with Steve Harrington

--it's kind of obvious which one you'll go for.

Word Count: 2,330

Current Date: 2017-11-16

Your dad didn’t want to do it alone. But then again, Chief Hopper was a man who never really got it his way, anyways. But you went along with it. Helped your newfound sister to look pretty, pick out a dress, and look decent enough to go to the Snow Ball. You remember when you were that young – heck, you’d almost skipped it, except that your dad all but made you go. So, after making El look presentable, you got into the car with your dad, and heard all the ground rules for her to follow for the dance.

“Remember, you’re going to school here next year, so you can make friends then.” He tells her, looking in the rear-view mirror of the police truck. “And don’t get too close to boys – Mike in particular.”

“Dad,” you groan, rolling your eyes.

El nods. “Yeah, Dad,” she joins in. “I won’t be stupid.”

He harrumphs at that, but reluctantly agrees. Soon enough, you make it to the school, and while you take a picture of your sister half-heartedly smiling, and usher her inside, you see as your dad gravitates to where Mrs. Buyers is by her car. But when El is inside the middle school’s gym, you see that your dad is nowhere near the car, and the keys, unlike usually, aren’t left in the ignition.

“Uh, sorry,” you walk over to where he’s talking with Mrs. Buyers, sharing a cigarette. “Aren’t we going home? I have a paper I’m working on for biology.”

Mrs. Buyers gives your dad a look. “Jim, I thought you told her.” She half-scolds.

You square your jaw, crossing your arms. “Did you change plans without telling me?”

He flicks the butt of the cigarette onto the asphalt of the school parking lot, and crushes it under his boot. “Yeah, but I told you, last night, after dinner. You said, yes dad.”

You stare at him. “I thought you were telling me to clean up the dishes!”

Joy gives his arm a small thwack. “If you want, I think Will has one of his comic books in the back of my car, something like, uh, Spider-Man?”

You shake your head, shoving your hands into your jeans pockets. “Um, no thanks, Mrs. Buyers, I’ve already read those.” You look to your Dad, “Not cool,” you add. But just then, when you look across the parking lot, you see a familiar face. “I’m taking off. Bye!”

You wave a hasty goodbye to the adults, and book it across to where you see Steve Harrington with his fancy BWM. He’s dropping off Dustin Henderson, one of El’s friends, and before he can drive away, you place a hand on the bonnet, and probably scare the guy half to death.

“I need a lift.”

He raises an eyebrow at your beat-up jeans and wild hair. “I just finished being chauffer, Hopper,” he says, and after a beat, adds, “C’mon, get in. Where to?”

You don’t waste a second, practically racing to get to the empty left-hand side of the car. “Anywhere but here, Harrington,” you roll your eyes, “Are you picking up Dustin after, or was that just…”

He shakes his head. “Yeah, I’m doing his Mom a solid.” He puts the car into gear, and starts driving off. “And ‘anywhere’?” He asks, “What are you, some kind of rebel loner girl?”

You shrug, sitting lower in the seat so your knees touch the dashboard. “I don’t know. You tell me, demo-dog bait boy.” You glance over to the driver, and your classmate, and add, “Not going to lie, the last week? Hectic as hell. You really helped us with that shit, dickbrain.”

He laughs. “I’m the dickbrain?”

You nod. “Yeah.” Out the window, you see a sign for the local cafe, and point it out. “Turn here. I think I have twenty dollars and a need for terrible diner food.” You grin, and add, “My dad can’t cook for shit.”

Steve turns the car into the parking lot, and getting out, you realise the gravity of the situation. You, freak beyond compare, are hanging out with Steve Harrington, the Hawkins’s own Mr. Popular, at a diner while the kids are dancing to the MTV hits. But you don’t freak out over it. He might have just been ditched by Nancy Wheeler, and you’re you and the only person you’ve been with was Danny Welch in fourth grade, when he kissed you.

But before the pair of you walk into the diner, you stop him. “I just want to apologise for calling you dickbrain, Harrington. You’re not half bad, especially with the kids. You did, uh, some good.” You find it hard to compliment the guy you’ve just been laying it on thick to, and coughing into your fist, you add, “C’mon. I want waffles.”

You don’t see it, but Steve’s smiling. Well, not face-to-face, but you do, in the reflection of the diner’s glass door. But you don’t comment on it. Instead, you order waffles, and a tall vanilla milkshake and the same for Steve, before he can object. You select the booth, and you sit, pushing your sneakers on the seat opposite, beside Steve. He looks at the scuffed Converse shoes, and sits quietly for a second, car keys still in his hands, a band aid (not rainbow) on his forehead.

“I don’t get it, Hopper. You’re fine when your Dad and the kids are around, but when we’re alone, you’re moody, like at school.” He crosses his arms, “I don’t get it. You’re a funny person, __________. What changed?”

The waitress brings over two shakes, and two plates of waffles, with little bottles of maple syrup on the side, and silently, slides them in front of you both. You wait until she’s out of earshot, and making sure that nobody is prying, take a deep breath.

“He’s not my Dad.” You tell Steve.

He raises an eyebrow. “Wait, I thought you were, like, his daughter’s twin or something –,”

You laugh. “I’m the product of a drug addict and a shitty mother,” you grin, and tuck into your waffle, and with a mouthful, add, “I was in the foster system, years and years,” you swallow, and add, “I’m trailer park trash by birth.” And you’re the town’s resident rich kid.

He shakes his head. “Yeah, but you kicked ass, like, majorly. You took out at least three demo-dogs with your machete. Doesn’t matter that you’re adopted, you’re still awesome. Hell, bad to the bone.”

You crack a grin at that. “Not too bad yourself, Harrington.”

Steve’s got a mouthful now, and he says, “Can you teach me sometime that move you make, with the machete, when you,” he motions with his fork a figure-eight swinging motion, flicking syrup onto your shirt, “It’s epic. Where’d you learn it?”

You waggle your eyebrows. “My own design. Awesome, right?”

By the time the end of the Snow Ball rolls around, and the end of your waffles and shake, you’re back in the Hawkins Middle School’s parking lot with Steve Harrington, just in time for him to take Dustin home, and for you to get a ride home with your Dad and El, and hear all about it from her. But before you jet, you turn to him in the driver’s seat.

“Sorry I had a cow earlier,” you look at your hands, unable to hold his gaze, and add, “I guess shitty childhood equals shitty teenager.” You laugh. “It’s good that we could hang out, you know, when the world isn’t ending, for once?”

He nods. “Yeah, it was great.” There’s a noise outside, and the pair of you see the doors open, and tons of kids stream out from the school. “Maybe we could hang out again sometime?”

You pause. “Like, with other kids from school…?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, with you.”

There’s a knocking on the car window, and you turn to see Dustin Henderson. His hair obviously has product in it, styling those curls a million times bigger, and he has a big smile on his face, showing off his new set of teeth. Before you can blink, or even tell him to stop pressing his face into the glass and to let you leave the car, he cries out, “Steve! You got a date with __________! Guys, I told you!”

You and Steve both shake your heads, but you pipe up, “Yeah, a date, har-har,” you laugh it off, and turning to Steve, you peck his cheek with a quick kiss, and add, “Yeah, I think it was. Why don’t you call sometime? I’d like that.”

As you leave, you go to your sister, and hear all about her night. But back in the car, Dustin’s already buckled in, and on the edge of his seat to hear more about what he just heard.

“So?” Dustin asks. “She’s so scary, but cool.”

Steve smiles to himself. “Yeah, she is,” he turns the key in the car. “C’mon, Henderson, let’s get you home.”

---

It’s about a week later, and for once, when 5:15PM rolls around, there’s the sound of tyres on the gravel driveway, and you and El race out to see your Dad pull into the yard of the house you all live in. It’s a rental, nice, a little squishy, but you don’t have to share a bedroom (a relic of your childhood as a foster-system kid), so it’s great. And it’s even greater, because coming into the house where you’re still watching the show M*A*S*H*, is the scent of takeout pizza, and soda.

“You got cheese?” El asks, whisking the pizza box out of his hands, and into hers, “Yes! Best night ever!” She carries it to the lounge room, and begins eating it while sitting on the shag carpet.

You look to your dad, who hands you the soda, and tosses his keys into the dish by the door. “It’s been a busy couple of weeks since we got Will back,” he says, kicking off his boots, “We haven’t gotten to talk much.”

You shrug, carrying to soda to the kitchen to grab tumblers to drink from. “We talk enough, Dad,” you whine, “you know about my grades, and my friends. Oh, Mrs. Gillespie called by earlier, she brought a basket of her oranges to say thank you. I didn’t get what for, though…”

Your Dad, the amazing Chief Hopper puts a hand on your shoulder, interrupting your train of thought. “I didn’t mean that kind of talk, Pebbles,” he puts his gun and badge in the safe under the sink (a design so you two kids don’t shoot each other, as well as kept where he can use them), and a hand on your shoulder. “I meant with you. You hear all about the crap that happens at my work, I’d like to hear about yours. Any new friends, or boys?” El laughs at a joke Klinger made on the TV in the next room, and you’re silent. He adds, “What happened with you the night of the Snow Ball with you and John’s kid, Steve?”

You make an exasperated noise. “Geez, pushy, much?” you complain.

Gathering the tumblers, take the soda to the loungeroom to grab what pizza you can before your sister devours the whole thing by herself. But instead of avoiding the topic, when you hand El her glass of soda pop, she pipes up, “Dustin told Mike and Mike told me that Dustin said he saw you kiss Steve Harrington,” she parrots something out of the mouth of some prep, and adds, “He’s cool.”

Your Dad raises an eyebrow. “You kissed this kid?” He pushes a hand into his hairline, making it look like it’s receding even more. “Can’t believe my girls are growing up…do I need to give you the talk?”

You blanch. “Ew, no!”

As if on cue, the telephone on the wall rings, and grateful for an interruption, you take your slice of cheese pizza away from the conversation about your private life to the landline. “Hey, this is the Hopper house,” you say.

“__________, it’s Steve, from, uh, school. Harrington.” he stammers, and you hear him groan on his end of the line. You glance around the corner, and see the advertisements between the television show playing, speaking about the politics going on in Washington D.C. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

You laugh. “No, you’re not interrupting,” you say, taking a bite of your slice of pizza, “What’s up? Don’t tell me. You want me to come on a secret mission to get all the Hawkins’ Middle School kids to know about that kiss.” Before he can say a word, you add, “It’s cool, don’t sweat it. I just don’t want people calling me a bimbette because you just broke up with Nancy.”

“Who cares what they think,” he says, “I liked it.”

You still, “Even though I’m a freak?” you ask.

There’s a small chuckle. “Freak or not, you’re still the bomb. If you’re not busy next Saturday, I got tickets to a drive-in movie, the new Star Wars? If you can’t, I get it –,”

“– sure, I’m free,” you pipe in, “Pick me up at five. I’ll bring pretzels, you bring soda. It’s so overpriced at the place,” you all but interrupt the guy, “Uh, see you at school?”

He agrees, and after saying goodbye, you hang the phone up. But it’s then you turn to see your Dad and little sister standing there, watching you adamantly from where the kitchen linoleum meets the loungeroom shag carpet. El’s hardly keeping her amused, yet excited smile from her face. Your Dad’s got his curious worry lines deepening by the second.

“Was that your boyfriend?” El asks.

You don’t groan. You don’t kick a fit. You don’t flip off your adopted family, you don’t lie. Instead –

“I’ve got a date with Steve Harrington,” you whisper. “Next Saturday.”

#steve harrington #steve harrington stranger things #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington/reader #steve harrington stranger things x reader #stranger things x reader #stranger things fanfic #stranger things imagine #chaotic--lovely #pendragonfics #Female reader

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spacyparker · 7 years ago

Text

The difficulty of dating

MASTERLIST - PROMPT LIST

Request : Hi! Can you make a Peter Parker x Reader where the reader is Tony’s cousin and she has superpowers too (Telekinesis and Pyrokinesis and she’s kinda more serious than Tony) ans she’s an avenger and Peter has a crush on her and he asks the Avengers for advice and each one gives him an advice and they all fail until he tells Tony about it? ( by @zainab-al-huwaizi )

Characters : Peter Parker x reader

Word count : 1.6k

A/N : Okay this is the first part guys, I had fun writing the summaries on my phone and I can’t wait to write the other parts (there will be 3 parts for this actually). ENJOY and don’t forget to tell me what you thought and that my requests are open !

The Stark Tower hadn’t been so occupied for such a long time. It was like a family reunion, everyone was there. Bruce Banner was in the lab all days doing no one knew exactly what, some experimentations Tony and him talked about all the time as if the health of the Earth depended on it, Steve Rogers watched the television with Sam Wilson making up for lost time with the most important films of the century, Natasha Romanoff passed by everyday to check on everyone but she was also busy outside doing some minor missions for Nick Fury and for herself sometimes, Scarlet Witch was locked inside of her bedroom yelling at Vision when he came in her room through the wall without even knocking or warning about his entrance. And there were two new persons in the tower, Peter Parker who didn’t live here but loved to hang out with the Avengers, and Y/N Stark, Tony’s cousin, whom he offered to stay in for few months since she had helped the Team a couple of times and he needed to learn more about her powers.

For a reason no one knew, Y/N was a mutant, one of the last on Earth after the X-Men things. She was born with powers and it was a total mystery for the Stark family since she was the only one to have some. Y/N was really powerful, she was gifted with telekinesis but also pyrokinesis. She spent her days training with her cousin Tony to figure the limits of her powers and how dangerous she could be because she didn’t fully control it. Anyways, she only showed up for dinner or when she needed some rest, despite she hated to lie down doing nothing.

The first time Peter had seen Y/N was when he fought Captain America standing by Iron Man’s side. She was there, in his team, and he already had a pinch to his heart. She seemed to have his age,or maybe she was a little older, and the seriousness stuck on her face had him shook. When he was all friendly with his enemies and talking, Y/N screamed at the other team having no pity for them, she even had sent Hawkeye at the hospital.

Peter entered the living-room, where Captain was still watching TV and Falcon threw pop corn on some intelligent machines Tony had made, laughing his ass off since the robot was searching where the food was coming.

“Here’s the baby spider !” Sam exclaimed. “Don’t you have school ?”

“It’s five pm Mister Wilson, it makes hours now that school is finished.”

Peter joined the team months ago, but he still couldn’t call the Avengers by their names, it was either their last names or their heroe names. Not that they didn’t want him to, but he was just too intimidated to do so. He always felt like a kid in front of them and May had taught him to call the older oned by their last names. He was just following the rules.

“Is it your juice time already ?” Falcon giggled, loving to treat him as a child to annoy the spider.

“Shut up Sam, I didn’t hear the reason why the gremlins can’t eat during the night !” Steve retorted.

Peter felt discomforted right away, he came today for a special reason and he was starting to think he would look like a damn fool after he’d ask his question. Why was he asking them anyway, and not aunt May ? Oh, right, because the last time he asked, he finished with his girlfriend’s father as an anemy. Not that it was aunt May fault but… Maybe she just wasn’t her lucky charm. Plus, Steve and Sam were both men, maybe they had some victory stories to help him.

“Actually, ehm…” Peter took the speak back. He was blushing and all, rubbing his arm by unease. “I… I need an advice.”

Both superheroes watching TV looked up to the spider boy, immediately interested on what he was willing to tell even if they had no clue what it was about. “Okay kiddo, we’re listening.”

“Okay, so…” It was hard to launch into explications but once he started he couldn’t stop. “I like Y/N. Like, she’s always on my mind since I saw her the first time when I stole your shield Captain and she’s just so wonderful and we talked few times but she doesn’t seem to be interested in me which I understand because I’m sort of a loser and she’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen but I was wondering how I could catch her attention up, right I don’t want to give up before even trying but obviously flirting is not for me and I need help you guys please don’t let me down. She… She’s great.”

Sam and Steve were arching an eyebrow, speechless of what Peter just confessed. But he was only fifteen and they knew how hard it could be at this age to be confident with girls. Steve knew it the most, he also was a loser back in his childhood and everyone was into his best friend Bucky forgetting about him.

“Well, first you should learn how to breathe when you talk and also how to pause.” Sam assured. Peter sighed, he didn’t take any pause because he was too stressed to do so, it was the first time he admitted someone -Ned didn’t count- he liked Y/N.

“I know what you need to do, Parker.” Steve said, making his representative smile with hope. “You just need to buy a bouquet of roses, and take her to the bal.”

Sam and Peter both remained speechless. The bal, was he kidding ? What was that supposed to mean anyway, the bal ? There was homecoming, but beside that… ? “Bal isn’t a thing anymore nowadays, Captain.” Sam made fun of him.

“Are you telling me I’m old ?”

“You’re like 100 ! Of course you’re old, such a handsome guy but still old.”

“Do you mean I should take her to a club ?” Peter cut them in their little fight. “I’m only 15, do you know that or… ?” He passed his hand in his hair awkwardly. That wasn’t his best idea to ask Captain some advice.

“Really ? Tony told me you were 14.” Peter groaned, Tony really had to learn how old he was. “Anyway don’t take on board what this relic just said, he’s out-of-date. I'mma tell you what you really need to do. Take her anywhere so you’re both alone, and talk to her about things, and other things, tell her things you like and dislike, don’t be too distant, then tell her you like her, be honest, she’ll notice anyway.”

“Somewhere we can be alone… I don’t know such a place.”

“Take her on the rooftop, girls love height.”

Peter came back to his apartment to change his clothes and put some perfume. He wanted to be as handsome as possible for Y/N, make a good impression. Earlier he had the guts to ask her if she wanted to join him at nine on the rooftop to help him with some homeworks, and she agreed even if she didn’t understand why he wasked her and not someone else. They weren’t that close and she certainly was less brilliant than him.

He was back at the front of her door at 20:53 but waited 21:02 to knock. The poor little boy was so stressed he didn’t want her to think he was ahead of time, anyway he was. She opened her door, she had just brush her hair and Peter could smell her shampoo flavor coming right to his nose. A real delight. She hadn’t take the trouble to change, which was normal since she thought she was just going to help him with his homeworks.

“So, how old are you, I don’t even know.” Asked Peter while climbing the stairs to go to the roof of the tower.

“I’m seventeen, but I know I look quite your age. Puberty had not hit me yet.”

Peter bit his lower lip. “You don’t need puberty.” He whispered and Y/N smiled, not answering. “So, uhm… Do you… Do you like heights ?” Y/N frowned, what was that question, really ? Peter was only trying to have a discussion with her and he remembered what Sam said. “Okay, that was weird. It’s just… It’s for class, my homeworks you know” He started lying. “I have a presentation and…”

“Am I the subject of your presentation, Peter ?” Y/N noticed he was nervous, and decided to gently play with it. She wasn’t dumb, and she understood by his clemsiness that he might have a little something for her. She thought it was cute. Peter was the only boy of her age or almost she talked to.

“No ! No you’re not you’re ! Not that you’re not interesting enough to have a presentation all about you but.. Okay there’s no presentation.” Peter sighed and he sat down on the side of the building, his legs in thin air. He remembered what Sam also told him. Be honest. “I like you.”

What Y/N responded him made his heart stop for a second. “I know.” He was so shocked he lost his balance, and suddenly fell of the roof. Wearing his web bracelets as always, he catched up on a window stopped his fall. The coincidence had him stopped right in front of Captain watching TV, and Sam whom turned his head to see Peter. He giggled, thumbs up.

“Good job kiddo !” Peter could read on his lips.

PART TWO

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