#or more realistically i am preparing for the least interesting option

[workingforitallthetime]

WHEN our favourite little raven boy gets sent to anaheim do you think he and trevor will hit it off or will they get in a bitch off??? my delusional take is that trevor is well a Bitch and connor is a bitch (very different species) and i could see them not clicking at first especially where the competition for 1c becomes involved [mac voice: i also exist] but at the same time i need the greater anaheim polycule to exist. immediately. drysdard vibes would be off the charts i think connor would intimidate jamie and that would be a delicious narrative to explore

the proposition that trevor and connor are two different species of bitch is so absolutely right. i feel like they are not exactly going to hit it off? like, that's just too much confidence for one room (the assessment of connor's confidence in this podcast is very interesting to me.) i think trevor is happy to be the face of the franchise and deep down is not going to be terribly thrilled about being dethroned. and i think connor is going to find trevor annoying as hell.

mac-t, who famously thinks that connor has the same personality as him, ultimately made his peace with trevor, so maybe connor will end up doing so on similar terms. (i.e. unthreatened by trevor and happy to let him play the buffoon so connor can slide by with less press.)

the only member of the anaheim polycule who is not supremely self-confident is jamie. dorky lil self-deprecating jamie sweating every single interaction with connor and praying for olen zellweger to get called up from san diego already so connor can pay attention to some other d-man.

(we are not talking enough about how zelly's going to disrupt this polycule the instant it stabilizes. how's mac-t gonna take it when connor's new roommate, the one with the best body connor's ever seen, gets to town? he's gonna use trevor to try and make connor jealous, that's now.)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

✨ let’s do a twst trade ✨

Hello ^^;;

This might be coming out of the blue. I’m typically a very private person and tend to stick with social circles I’m already familiar with.

Recently, I’ve been thinking that it would be nice to put myself out there and interact more! I can get easily overwhelmed, so I thought a good way to go about this is to do a handful of art/writing trades. This keeps the number low and conversation approachable, and I think that’d help slowly ease me into being more comfortable interacting and participating in community events.

***UPDATE: Trades now closed, thank you all for the interest!***

Here are the parameters and other important notes (setting these for my own comfort and lifestyle):

This will be a Twisted Wonderland themed trade because that’s the one thing we can guarantee to have in common.

I’ll write a fic for you! Minimum 1-2k words (but I tend to ramble so it could easily go higher than that), starring at least 2 characters (I can write more, but let’s not go too crazy and ask for all 22 NRC students in one fic).

I CAN write platonic, romantic, angst, fluff, yandere, AUs, etc.

I’m okay with writing any and all TWST characters, including staff, RSA students, family members, and other NPCs.

Of course, OCs are also welcome! I’d love to learn more about yours.

Be prepared with references for your OC(s) if applicable. This could include illustrations, but at the bare minimum should include a written explanation of who the character is, their personality, likes/dislikes, and relationships with canon characters.

There are limits to what I will write, as I am uncomfortable with some subject matters. For example, I’m not willing to write anything pregnancy-related. We can discuss my “no goes” in more detail if we decide to trade!

Upon request, I can do a simple digital piece of art OR a washi tape illustration (you won’t receive the physical piece, just a picture of it) for you. I believe most people know me more for my writing, but I wanted to keep these options on the table!

You trade me a fic of your own OR an artwork of roughly the same quantity/quality. As the saying goes, “what you give is what you get.”

We will talk and agree before we start on our pieces what each of us will generally provide at the end. (For example, a 5k word fic for a full color waist up illustration, 1k word fic for a black-white doodle, etc.)

You have to be okay with receiving a vague prompt. I like to be surprised, so I’ll probably just give you a list of general themes, ideas, and characters I like, then set you loose to see what you come up with.

You can be as specific as you like with your own prompt for me though—I’m flexible. Let me know what you don’t like as well so I can avoid including those elements.

To keep things fair, we’ll both hold onto our pieces and exchange them at the same time.

Regarding my written piece, it will be in a Google Doc for you to access.

This is NOT first come, first serve. I can only realistically take on 3-5 trades at this time depending on interest and complexity. If I turn you down, it’s nothing personal!

Priority will be given to mutuals (chances are that there’s more likely to be common ground if we’re already following each other).

Preference will be given to those indicated as adults in their blog intros/profiles (this is just what vibes the best with my personal communication style)

Be patient!! It may take me a few weeks or more to complete my part.

Be aware that doing a trade with me does NOT necessarily mean we will become best friends, and nor should this be the expectation 😅

If you’re okay with the above and are interested in a trade, please DM me! In your DM, you should indicate some prompts/ideas for what you’d like me to write. Please wait for me to respond; do NOT assume that I’ve accepted the trade request just because you’ve messaged me.

[wavytam]

Regarding your recent comment about SP having a high chance of being canon, it got me thinking if I had been deluding myself too much that SN will happen. Like you said, it's true Nami never confirmed her feelings for Sanji but I feel that Oda has been giving us so much SN crumbs over the years. It almost feels cruel to just turn the ship so late in the series if there is to be a ship at all. Am I overthinking all this? Probably yes.

I'm currently still catching up on the manga but I have taken a few peaks at the recent chapters and haven't noted any reference to Pudding from Sanji's side since they left WCI. Almost like he didn't think about her anymore after he left. I did see references to Nami which is no surprise since they are crewmates. Did I miss something? It feels like if Oda made SP endgame it would really would feel like all those years of SN hints had been all for nothing. Am I crazy to be feeling this way? Anyway trying to be realistic with expectations since OP is not about romance and I know none of us fans really know what Oda is planning.

I really enjoy your SN and general OP insights so I appreciate hearing your thoughts on this.

I don't think you are overthinking, let alone crazy. Like you said, Oda did give us a lot of SaNami moments. And, although ambiguous, they can be interpreted as romantic. The simple fact that Oda chose to make Sanji interested in Nami (even if he states he wants no romance amongst the crew) is... weird.

Instead of making Sanji get over his feelings for Nami early on, Oda chose to show us again and again that she is special to Sanji, more than any other woman.

To make matters worse, having Purin inserted in the story so late and still not letting Sanji know she loves him so he can move on from Nami is also a weird choice.

Does Oda want to keep SP as an endgame? Maybe. But again, Nami also does not know about the extent of Sanji's feelings for her and has been kept in the dark for years. Why? Wouldn't her knowing and (presumably) rejecting him so he can actually find his love partner be the better option? Wouldn't it actually help Oda skip the romance he so eagerly wants to avoid amongst the crew?

And yet, here we are. Right now, things are as confusing as many other plot points in the manga.

The thing is: we might only find out during Sanji's last development or once the manga is over.

I really understand you, and I don't think you're crazy at all for seeing that. This is all really strange, and we can only guess. But there is a reason for the SaNami fan base to be so big and have so many people see them as a great couple.

Now if you ask me what I think all of this is about, I'd say there is something Oda is preparing for Sanji that will have to do with his feelings for Nami.

It's not a coincidence he chose to make their first interaction be about Sanji admitting he would turn into the "devil" for her.

And I agree that it would be a bit sad if Oda is just planing to make Sanji like Nami for the entirety of the manga without any other purpose, besides making her reject him in the very last chapter or something.

What you said about Purin is also weird: Sanji seems to have moved on from his entire experience with Purin the moment he left Whole Cake.

Oda could have used the opportunity to develop a small crush from Sanji's side so their (possible) reunion in the future could be even more interesting. However, in their last interaction (aside from the heart eyes moment after she kissed him), he was very cordial towards her and seemed ready to conclude everything with her in a friendly, peaceful note. Nothing more than that.

Oda could have at least made Sanji think about Purin once after WCI, and it would be enough. But my guess is that he will only remember her when he finds out she was kidnapped by Black Beard.

Not to tell that, if Oda knows how he will end the manga for a long while now, why didn't he foreshadow Purin more in earlier chapters? Doesn't he like to leave hints about characters, their deaths, and future arcs all around the manga and colorspreads? I don't recall Oda ever making hints specifically about her. Big Mom, yes, but not Purin.

Take Hancock, too, as an example. We have sketches of her from as early as 1999. Or even Sanji's brothers: the fact that Sanji's name has the kana for 3, already hinted that he had at least two other siblings. Oda planned that.

But I don't recall anything about Purin specifically and I doubt Oda wouldn't have at least thought about Sanji's endgame romance from the very beginning (as I said, love is a key factor in Sanji's storyline specifically, just as Luffy's is freedom and Zoro's is strength).

On the other hand, we have a lot of colorspreads, cover pages, and number/word plays that Oda used to adress Sanji, Nami and their dynamic - and we obviously have a ton of interactions directly from the manga as well.

As I said, my guess is that Oda wants to use that for a major moment later on in the manga, and I think he planned that from the beginning. Whether it makes SaNami canon, it's up to debate, but I do not think it's too far-fetched to think that they have a chance of happening.

In conclusion, please, don't think you're crazy. I think Oda is clearly leaving weird hints here and there, and he just doesn't say why because it might spoil our experience as readers.

I will choose to see this as romantic because I do think that Nami would be perfect for Sanji and vice versa.

I will keep on shipping!! And there's a lot that can happen yet.

Also, thank you so much for your kind words and for reading what I have to say! Whenever you feel like it, feel free to leave as many messages as you want!

[munavvarizhar]

Navigating the World of Wellness: Tips and Tricks from Dr. Munavvar Izhar

 

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the endless sea of wellness information out there? Look no further! In this blog post, we will be diving into the world of wellness with Dr. Munavvar Izhar as our guide. Get ready to uncover valuable tips and tricks to help you navigate this ever-evolving landscape and prioritize your health like never before. Let's embark on this journey together towards a healthier, happier you!    I am Dr. Munavvar Izhar, and I am thrilled to guide you through the intricate world of wellness. In today's fast-paced society, maintaining a balanced lifestyle can seem overwhelming. However, with the right knowledge and strategies, you can achieve and sustain optimal health. This post will share some practical tips and tricks to help you navigate your wellness journey.

Understanding Wellness

Wellness is more than just the absence of illness; it's a holistic approach that encompasses physical, mental, and emotional health. It involves making conscious choices towards a healthy and fulfilling life. Here are some key aspects to consider:

1. Physical Health

Nutrition: A balanced diet is the cornerstone of good health. Focus on incorporating a variety of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains into your meals. Avoid processed foods, excessive sugar, and unhealthy fats.

Exercise: Regular physical activity is essential. Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week, along with strength training exercises twice a week.

Sleep: Quality sleep is crucial for overall well-being. Adults should aim for 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Establish a consistent sleep routine and create a restful environment.

2. Mental Health

Mindfulness and Meditation: Practices such as mindfulness and meditation can help reduce stress and improve mental clarity. Set aside a few minutes each day to focus on your breath and clear your mind.

Hobbies and Interests: Engaging in activities you love can boost your mood and mental health. Whether it's reading, gardening, painting, or playing a musical instrument, make time for hobbies that bring you joy.

Social Connections: Building and maintaining strong relationships is vital for mental health. Make time to connect with friends and family, and don't hesitate to seek support when needed.

3. Emotional Health

Self-Care: Prioritize self-care by setting aside time for activities that help you relax and recharge. This could include taking a warm bath, practicing yoga, or spending time in nature.

Positive Thinking: Cultivate a positive mindset by focusing on gratitude and optimistic thoughts. Journaling about things you're thankful for can enhance your emotional well-being.

Professional Help: If you're struggling with emotional issues, consider seeking help from a mental health professional. Therapy or counseling can provide valuable support and guidance.

Tips and Tricks for a Balanced Lifestyle

Set Realistic Goals: Establish achievable health and wellness goals. Break them down into smaller, manageable steps to maintain motivation and track your progress.

Stay Hydrated: Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Staying hydrated is essential for bodily functions and can aid in weight management and energy levels.

Plan Ahead: Prepare healthy meals and snacks in advance to avoid the temptation of unhealthy options. Planning can also help you save time and money.

Limit Screen Time: Excessive screen time can impact your physical and mental health. Set boundaries for using electronic devices, especially before bedtime.

Stay Active: Find ways to incorporate more physical activity into your daily routine. Take the stairs, go for a walk during lunch breaks, or join a fitness class.

Practice Gratitude: Regularly take time to reflect on what you're grateful for. This practice can enhance your emotional well-being and shift your focus from negative to positive aspects of life.

Balance Work and Leisure: Ensure a healthy balance between work responsibilities and leisure activities. Take breaks and time off to relax and recharge.

Conclusion

Navigating the world of wellness requires a balanced and proactive approach. By focusing on physical, mental, and emotional health, you can achieve a holistic sense of well-being. Remember, small changes can lead to significant improvements in your overall health. Stay committed to your wellness journey, and don't hesitate to seek support when needed.

Thank you for joining me on this exploration of wellness. I hope these tips and tricks inspire you to lead a healthier, happier life. Stay tuned for more insights and guidance on your path to optimal health.

To your health and happiness,

Dr. Munavvar Izhar

[emissaryoftheguilty]

Diluc’s answer only intrigued the Duke further. However, it’s not his place to pry for information the other won’t divulge out of his own will. This isn’t an interrogation anyway, so there’s no reason why Wriothesley should pry, despite his curiosities. They’re still strangers to one another, after all.

So, he merely dropped it and simply enjoyed his tartine first, humming contently. Not substantial by any means, but really, who could go wrong with fresh bread, butter, and jam? Sigewinne would more than likely have a word or two, but at least he’s eating something. Surely, she’d cut him some slack.

Upon hearing Diluc speak up again, though, he blinked owlishly and looked up at him with brows slightly raised as he received light scolding from his new companion. On one hand, he should probably be offended to suddenly be told what he should and shouldn’t be eating from someone he just met. On the other hand, he actually finds it quite hilarious and, once again, somehow endearing. It fascinated Wriothesley how the man before him kept flipping from demeanor to demeanor, occasionally showing real parts of himself before shying away again.

A smile quirked at a corner of his lips as he continued to chew what was already in his mouth before swallowing it down, giving him some time to formulate a response. “I assure you, Diluc, that it’s not a thing of mora. If it was, I would have offered to pay for myself, despite the invitation. It’s just that breakfast—,” he paused and squinted over towards a chronometer, “yes, breakfast, is not all that important here in Fontaine. That all changes when afternoon tea rolls around.” He chuckled, shaking his head.

Though—his mind flitted to Sigewinne once more. More specifically, her…milkshakes.

… What she doesn’t know won’t kill her.

“There’s no need to apologize. I appreciate the concern.”

As Diluc shifted to grab the briefcase, the older man hummed curiously and watched with a sharp gaze, his interest apparent. Almost palpable, even. He wasn’t about to stop the young Ragnivindr from potentially offending any of the hosts here, plus they’re more than likely too nervous to even bring it up with the sight of the Duke sitting with the redhead.

He hummed in acknowledgement upon the younger man’s reasons regarding his dislike of alcohol, and he understood. It’s not for everyone, that he knew, it was just rather funny that the current wine tycoon had no particular fondness for this part of his family’s legacy.

Nodding along, he remained leaning forward in a show of his intrigue, still slowly enjoying his tartine. He’s saving the pain au chocolat for after. Though, he certainly agreed with Diluc’s views when it comes to wanting others to feel included, and knew it was difficult in situations that called for social drinking. His kyanite eyes followed the gesture towards the briefcase, a brow raising at the sight of the bartending tools within. Wow, he really came prepared. That’s definitely something Wriothesley appreciated.

The sight of all the ingredients made his eyes somewhat brighten, however his pupils slightly dilated at the sight of the coffee and tea. It wouldn’t be difficult to tell what he seemed to be most interested in if you looked in the right places.

However, the sound of Diluc teasingly lilting his name back with the title attached, his eyes immediately snapped back towards the young master across from him. Oh.

His confidence was something to behold.

Smirking, he hummed and leaned back in his seat as he thought, rubbing his chin while his gaze returned to the contents within the briefcase. “Realistically, I am open to trying anything. If you would like safe options, coffee and tea are my usual choices, with the latter being more preferential. However, if you’re intending to impress me, then go ahead and make something that you believe would suit and inspire me.”

"Mm. You don't."

Somehow, he truly doubts that the Duke would want to know exactly who took the title of #1 Worst Greeting. Diluc's carefully maintained and squeaky-clean public persona meant that most people outside of Mondstadt likely assumed that his lowest moments consisted of naught more than minor snubs between nobles, or perhaps not to be acknowledged at all.

Nearly having the threads of his life cut short in swift and exacting retaliation was a very far cry from the petty quarrels of the rich and overly-privileged, and not something he sought to divulge with a man he had barely just met.

Keeping his gaze clear of Wriothesley's, the Mondstadter spies the plate his companion had ordered, and raises a brow. Surely a man of his build needed more than that to sustain himself, no?

Or was it that he was seeking not to spend too much of another man's mora?

His own plate was similarly light, but the young master had at least taken quite a large breakfast earlier in the morning, seeking to re-energize himself after his long journey to get here.

"I don't know to whom you refer, but 'she' might be right." His words are accompanied by a look -- concern, perhaps. "It's almost noon, and you haven't had anything to eat yet? You can't expect to keep a physique like that by subsisting on air and pastries, so please... Do not spare any expense on my part, and have your fill."

Diluc stops himself in the next instant, and wonders if he's crossing a line. Who did he think he was, chiding a man's poor dietary habits when he had only met him for the first time but a few minutes ago?

Would he be offending a potential business partner, and harming his own prospects with his tendency to be so matter-of-fact? Would the Duke pick up on the fact that he had considered his physique at all, instead of keeping his eyes away?

"...My apologies. Perhaps that was an overstep."

Wriothesley is correct in his assumption about the briefcase, however, and the redhead spares a glance over his shoulder before he heaves it onto the surface of the table. Technically, it's a bit of a faux-pas to bring one's own drink to another establishment, but since there was no alcoholic element, it wasn't as if he would be breaching any licensing laws.

"My relationship with alcohol is nothing particularly complex, but it's not as though I don't recognize the irony. I just don't enjoy how it feels in my mouth, I prefer to have control over my body at all times, and hangovers aren't any fun at all."

Certainly, there was nothing illegal about making juice, so it would be up to the discretion of management... And somehow, Diluc was sure that they would have far more pressing issues to attend to.

"I'd like to imagine that I'm not the only person who feels this way, but my homeland has the sort of culture that places a lot of importance on gathering to drink, and most of our holidays and events revolve around it in some fashion. If you don't enjoy alcohol, then it can feel like you're a bit of a social pariah. I just want people to feel included and better-connected with their roots, hence... This."

A gloved hand loosely gestures to the briefcase. He opens it up to reveal the majority of the tools to his trade -- a cocktail shaker, a small container of ice cubes, and all sorts of juices, fruits, and mixers in glass bottles. There's even coffee and tea, plus sweet syrups and cream -- and a container of water with which to brew them. It's all sample-sized, so as not to cause him to have to carry around full-sized containers all the way from Mondstadt... But even then, it's still quite the load to carry.

If there was any drink that his new acquaintance so desired, he was certain that he could make it.

"Tell me, Monsieur Wriothesley--" He parrots back playfully, a mischievous glint in his eye. Trained up from a young age, it is in this that his talents truly lie, and he is proud to show it off for a change.

Not everyone who drank at the Angel's Share appreciated the complexity behind crafting high-quality, fresh drinks with a good balance of flavors and a pleasant mouthfeel.

"What do you like to drink in your free time?"

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 305: Worst Intervention Ever

Previously on BnHA: Shinomori, whose name took me an entire week to memorize, was all, “nice to meet you Deku, I’m ten feet tall, do you want to know how I died?” and without waiting for an answer explained that he kicked it from old age at forty thanks to good ol’ OFA. Deku was all “wait a minute, then how come All Might, who’s fifty-five and is definitely dyeing his gray hair, is still alive?” First and Shino were all, “we really have no fucking clue but we think it’s cuz he’s quirkless, JUST LIKE YOU!” So basically, since quirkless people don’t exactly grow on trees these days, Deku is probably going to be the last user of OFA. The chapter ended with Nana being all, “psst, Deku, about my grandson. Uh, can you kill him?” which is sure to lead to a very interesting conversation this week.

Today on BnHA: Nana And The Gang are all “so, Deku, how can we put this delicately. The thing is, we’re pretty sure that AFO really fucked my grandson up, so on the off chance you can’t save him, how would you feel about, you know... [throat slitting gesture].” Deku is all “idk you guys, I kinda feel like he’s really just a traumatized child at heart and he’s in a lot of pain and stuff and so I should try to help him.” The Vestiges are all “BUT WHAT IF YOU CAN’T” and Deku is all “BUT I WANT TO TRY, DAMMIT” and the Vestiges are all “well when you put it that way, we, uh, were just testing you, so congrats, you passed!” The chapter ends with First being all, “ANYWAY SO WHY DON’T YOU TWO SHY BOYS STANDING OVER THERE IN THE SHADOWS COME SAY HELLO” before we CUT AWAY FOR ANOTHER WEEK, goddammit.

seriously, Nana

just... have you met Deku?? look, if you really want Tomura dead, just sic him on the U.A. first years and tell Shouto and Honenuki that it’s a training exercise

oh my god lmao

we’re too far away to see Nana’s face here so I will just assume that she turned and is staring DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA for this one line lmao. “I just wanted to clarify in case anyone felt inclined to take my dialogue out of context and spend an entire week complaining about it”

oh my god?! are you all purposely trying to make me sad??

someone stop me before I launch into an impromptu rant about all my Tomura feels. WHY IS NOBODY STOPPING ME. oh my god but yes, exactly. he’s just in pain all the time. this is exactly why I think Tomura has such high redemption potential even though so far he seems to lack so many of the redemption arc essentials such as feeling remorse, wanting to change, and taking responsibility for his actions. the reason why I’m willing to overlook all that in his case is because Tomura has essentially had zero agency his entire life. AFO molded him into a killer by making sure he was in constant mental agony, and making it so that the only thing that even slightly relieved that agony was killing peeps. like, please don’t think I’m making excuses for him or anything, but if you take a child and manipulate their existence to make it virtually impossible for that child to grow up as anything other than a killer, and basically never give him the chance to be anything else, then no shit he’s gonna be a killer?? he’s basically never had the choice not to be. it’s never been an option for him. anyways I feel like I am EXPLAINING MYSELF SO BADLY but nonetheless I am prepared to die on this hill

anyway so now Nana is all “that’s a rhetorical question btw because Our Hearts And Minds Are One so we can feel everything you feel bro.” so yeah, that’s interesting

now Banjou is getting started on the “let’s try and talk Deku out of wanting to save Tomura because it’s insane” part of their OFA Mystical Space Void Reunion agenda

look, Banjou, I feel you, I really do. you guys don’t think it’s realistic that Deku can defeat Tomura without killing him. so if it’s a choice between killing Tomura vs letting Deku and everyone else in the entire world die, then duh, you think Deku should kill him. I get it! and if this were a real life mass murderer I’d totally agree with you. but the problem is that this isn’t real life, this is a sympathetic shounen villain with a tragic past who might as well have FUTURE REDEMPTION ARC RECEIPIENT stamped on his forehead at this point

so First is all “look, there’s absolutely no doubt my brother has fucked this kid up good and proper by now”, which, again, fair

though, that’s kind of exactly my point though. everything that Tomura is, everything he’s done, he’s done because of AFO. AFO has so effectively shaped his personality and his worldview by this point that it’s all but impossible to penetrate that. he’s AFO’s puppet. but the problem is that rather than treating him like a victim, you all are treating him like a casualty. like he’s already a lost cause. but good luck trying to convince Deku of that

WHOA WHAT, RANDOM SUPER-IMPORTANT AND BIZARRELY UNRELATED EXPOSITION DROPPED IN JUST LIKE THAT??

way to still not reveal Sixth’s name, btw. THE PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW, DAMMIT. but also so this confirms something we basically already knew already, which is that not even AFO can steal OFA. it literally can’t be taken away by anyone unless the owner wills it. SO SUCK ON THAT AFO YOU EGG

(ETA: so I have no idea why this was omitted from this translation, but apparently the Sixth’s name was revealed as “En”, which is obviously not his full name but at least it’s something. also he most likely has a fire or smoke-related quirk based on the kanji used, 煙.)

so Banjou is saying that Deku’s “lack of an iron will” could be a disadvantage against AFO. hahaha what?? Midoriya “I’ll break all of my bones without blinking an eye just to protect someone” Izuku lacks an iron will? do tell

he says this is going to be a test of Deku’s determination. well yeah, no shit. but just not in the way you guys think

OH HELLO AGAIN

darker hair again here! but I don’t trust the contrast in these scans at all after last week. his coveralls are way darker than they looked before too, and you can clearly see he’s standing in the shadows now

(ETA: yep, once again the raw shows that his hair is considerably lighter than what’s shown in these scans here. although there’s no mistaking now that his hair is consistently being colored in this slightly darker shade, and it’s not just the lighting.)

anyways lol First was saying something about how AFO can’t steal OFA, and they’ve spent all this time cultivating it as the ultimate weapon against AFO, and blah blah blah. go on then, keep lecturing

NANA GODDAMMIT NONE OF THIS IS YOUR FAULT

girl what?? you did everything in your power to protect your family, and AFO, fucked up man that he is, targeted them anyway. there is one person and one person only to blame for what’s happened to Tomura, and that potato-faced asshole needs a good kick in the balls

NANA GODDAMMIT DON’T MAKE ME COME OVER THERE

SO HELP ME GOD!! I WILL GIVE YOU THE BIGGEST HUG YOU’VE EVER HAD!! THAT IS A THREAT

so now Nana is all “I’m just going to call my grandson a Thing to ensure that fandom has only the freshest, grass-fed no-hormones-added discourse this week”

I don’t even need to drop into the tags to know exactly which specific people are going to respond to this, and what kind of posts they are going to write lmao. everyone’s all caught up in the “that thing”, and meanwhile I’m over here completely hung up on this “nay” that’s appeared out of NOWHERE you guys. look at that. she really said “NAY”

Nana, my love, my dearest, I feel you girl I really do. but he’s not an unforgivable manifestation of pure evil, Deku is exactly right actually, he’s a boy in pain. you guys need to stop questioning Deku’s shounen protagonist instincts here and just let him work his sparkly magic. “let’s try and convince Midoriya Fucking Izuku that he can’t save someone” is a plan that is NEVER going to turn out well you guys

“DEKU GODDAMMIT WHAT IF WE CAN’T SAVE HIM” lmao it’s like an intervention

“DAMMIT DEKU JUST ADMIT YOU HAVE A SAVING PEOPLE PROBLEM!”

RED ALERT IT’S ANOTHER CLOSE-UP OF THE BACK OF MISTER TWO BON CLAY’S HEAD OMG

(ETA: I was too distracted with freaking out about Two and Three to really appreciate how ridiculously handsome First looks in this panel. but on my second readthrough it stood out so much that I had to go back and add an extra bullet point just to talk about how hot he is. look at him. wtf.)

THAT IS DEFINITELY AN UNDERCUT. THE PLOT THICKENSSSS. also those are fucking exhaust vents on Mister Three’s neck. MISTER THREE COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE RELATED TO THE IIDAS, PLEASE TELL ME YOUR SECRETS I’M DYING OVER HERE

so now Deku is launching into what will undoubtedly be a “saving people problems require SAVING PEOPLE SOLUTIONS” heroic counter-speech!

I mean, they can already feel the “lol nah I’m gonna try and save him” feelings running through him lol. ~OuR hEaRtS aNd MiNdS aRe CoNnEcTeD~ and all that. this is just a formality, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love a good shounen protag speech

oh wait hold up, do you mean to tell me that the whole “hearts and minds are connected” thing I was just mocking just a paragraph ago actually allowed Deku to feel what Tomura was feeling?? like literally feel it??

YET AGAIN these Tomura feels are pounding on my front door you guys?? they just will not quit?? people my house is already full of feels, does it look like I need you to sell me any more of them?? -- what do you mean, they’re free??

AW YISS THAT’S IT DEKU. THAT’S SOME GOOD SPEECH RIGHT THERE

I appreciate the contrast here between the Douchebag Triumvirate of Overhaul, Muscular, and Stain versus the Misguided Twosome of Gentle and La Brava. never let it be said that Deku doesn’t know the difference between a redeemable villain and an unredeemable one

OH NO -- OH MY GOD

someone please help me I need directions to the OFA Spooky Galactic Nebula Realm in this fictional Japanese manga land. it’s not on google maps. I need to give these two babies a big hug and wrap them up in a blanket and treat them to some McDonalds Happy Meals please help

other things: (1) ENDEAVOR CHILLING OUT IN DEKU’S “PEOPLE I HOLD DEAR” PANEL LMAO NEON DISCOURSE EXTRAVAGANZA, (2) “ONE FOR ALL IS A POWER TO SAVE, NOT TO KILL” I’M ABOUT TO CRY DEKU I LOVE YOU SO MUCH HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE TO FEEL ALL THIS LOVE, (3) [SLAMS HANDS ON TABLE] THERE’S YOUR MOTHERFUCKING IRON WILL!!!!!!!! -- I’m sorry, please don’t call security, I’ll be good

I just randomly remembered that Deku is still saying all of this in his muffled “FMMPHHMMPHMM” voice and I’m somehow cracking up lol. so actually it’s a very good thing Their Hearts And Minds Are Connected, otherwise they’d no doubt be all, “...what?”

(ETA: so I completely missed this on account of it literally not being visible in the scan at all, but in the raw you can clearly see Baby Kacchan and Baby Shouto fanboying over All Might in two of these panels, and excuse me, ma’am??

thank you very much Deku for including them in your montage, particularly since you’ve never seen Baby Shouto before lol. amazingly accurate image you managed to conjure up, all things considered.)

SDKFJLSKHG -- AS IF ON CUE???

HE’S SO ADORABLE HELP?? Trippy Space All Might looks like he’s about to cry, and First is all “don’t crack a smile... you have to be Firm and Serious here... dammit, don’t smile” omg

anyways! YOU GO DEKU. “MY QUIRK MY RULES, BITCHES” damn, son

KLJLKKHLG TRIPPY SPACE ALL MIGHT LITERALLY ACTUALLY IS CRYING ALL MIGHT HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME

“I JUST... [CLENCHES FIST] REALLY LOVE SAVING PEOPLE” FUCKING HELL LMAO THIS IS THE WORST INTERVENTION OF ALL TIME

Deku is literally all “sure, maybe I’ll have to kill him, but have you guys also considered, MAYBE NOT??” it’s no use Nana he’s too powerful

LMAO FIRST

“like I’ve been saying this whole time, you should definitely try saving Shigaraki Tomura.” “but, uh... First, didn’t you just -- ” “shut up”

(ETA: clearly it’s not just his brother who inherited those smooth-talking genes.)

so now Deku has turned back into a sixteen year old and his clothes have gone missing again. just OFA things

dskljdlsklgk

yes... sure... “testing” you...

HEY

FIRST OF ALL, DAMN YOU HORIKOSHI YOU MADE NANA CRY. even if I’m pretty sure they’re actually tears of happiness/relief. and SECOND OF ALL, “TELL MY BOYFRIEND I SAID HI” DJSKDLKJJL ANYWAY MAYBE GRAN, NANA, AND MR. SHIMURA WERE IN A THROUPLE

[SCREAMS]

WHY WOULD YOU END IT THERE?? WHY WOULD YOU END IT THERE!!!!!

(ETA: and two-to-one odds that we cut away to some other scene once they finally start to turn around next week. I’M CALLING IT NOW. giving myself a week to brace myself for the rage.)

fucking hell. well if anyone needs me I will be adding Horikoshi fucking Kouhei to the list of irredeemable villains, peace

[100hearteyes]

any more thoughts on 'clarke and lexa make a porno'?

🤔😏

Part 1 Part 2

“Last but not least, worry no more, citizens of Capitola: after a grueling week of searching, our very own superhero Jasper Jordan has finally found his cape. He was wearing it all along.”

“It’s so good to know that he will be able to go on keeping Capitola safe.”

“Yes, what would we do without Jasper Jordan here to protect us? And from now on, you’ll be in Lexa Woods’s hands. Also, such good hands those are. She’s got very long fingers.”

“Oh. Well, I never actually noticed, but I guess they are. Thanks, Clarke. And now, perk your ears for the new hit single from our very own global country star, Harper McIntyre. It’s called Call Me Harp-by. She’s a creative genius!”

-

Lexa’s first instinct when she hears the studio door open is to hide. She checks her options: Monty is holed up under his desk playing on his GameBoy Color, Octavia has barricaded herself in a corner with actual hand-carved sticks and is roaring at Bellamy in a strange language, and Murphy is probably peeing into a bin behind the pillar on the far side of the room.

She’s too slow to think of a solution in the end and she can’t do anything but flush when Clarke strolls in and heads over to her, smirk plastered on her face. Lexa only has time to save her miniature Baby Yoda from Clarke’s weapon of ass destruction before her coworker sits on the edge of her desk.

“Hey, Lexa.”

Lexa forces a polite smile, trying to focus on her outline for the day rather than the butt cheeks planted on her desk, the body attached to them, or the face looking down at her with a sly grin. “Hello, Clarke.”

“What do you think of Harper McIntyre’s new song?”

The topic confuses her, but she trudges on with a brave face. After all, she’s got opinions on Capitola’s Taylor Swift rip-off and if Anya is going to make it a point of leaving the room every time Lexa so much as mentions them, then she’s going to take this opportunity with both hands and pull out all the receipts. “Uninspired. Derivative. Oddly reminiscent of Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen.”

“Yeah...” Clarke nods pensively, letting the subsequent silence drag on for a few more seconds. “I like your fingers.”

Lexa starts at the sudden topic change and struggles to keep her blush under control under the brazen intensity of Clarke’s stare. “Yes, I- I noticed. You mentioned. On the radio, for all of Capitola to hear. Thank you, I guess?”

Clarke hums, before clicking her tongue and hopping off of Lexa’s desk. She roundabouts it until she’s right next to Lexa, thigh brushing Lexa’s arm.

Lexa tries and fails to swallow down the knot in her throat as Clarke sits on her desk again, this time on her side, crossing her legs so her feet touch Lexa’s leg.

“So a little bird told me we’re starring in a porno together.”

Lexa almost yelps, scrambling out of her chair to fasten both hands over Clarke’s mouth. “The whole world doesn’t need to know, Clarke!”

Clarke rolls her eyes, but Lexa can feel her smile under her hands. Their eyes lock, a tacit understanding passing between them. Clarke's eyes are a vivid blue, like a cloudless sky or the color of Lexa's highlighters before Anya dunked them all in a bag of manure, and it's hard not to drown in the depths of them.

"Glad to see you two getting intimate already."

They spring apart as though they were burned. Lexa sits back down on her chair, while Clarke takes a seat at her desk, which to Lexa's chagrin is right next to her own. Anya chuckles as she sinks into her own chair, propping her feet on Lexa's desk, crossed at the ankles.

"Anyway," she slams a hand over a stack of papers, making Clarke and Lexa jump in their seats, "can you guess what this is?"

Clarke and Lexa look at each other with raised eyebrows, then at Anya. Lexa shrugs.

"This is your fucking Bible," Anya says, not waiting for them to guess. "Your Dianetics.Your Loose Canon. Your gospel." At her companions' still expectant stares, Anya heaves a dramatic sigh, throwing her arms up. "It's the goddamn screenplay."

Oh.

Oh.

It's like the snap of an elastic band. Lexa and Clarke shoot out of their chairs to snatch the script from Anya's desk. Lexa gets there first (going to the gym does pay off after all), dribbling around Clarke, and lets out a triumphant cry before sinking back into her chair, thumbing through the pages of the heavy tome.

She stops on a random page and feels Clarke press closer to read over her shoulder.

-

INT. BLONDIE'S KITCHEN - TWILIGHT

Enter Lulu. Plumber by day, detective by night. She stops by the island and twirls a lead pipe in her right hand before sheathing it like a cowboy's pistol.

LULU

It seems it's time to read your...

Lulu puts on her shades. ZOOM IN.

LULU (CONT'D)

...Anya rights.

-

Lexa balks, peeling her eyes from the page to gape at Anya.

"Anya rights? Anya rights? You can't just... Arbitrarily rename the Miranda rights. They have that name for a reason."

Anya rolls her eyes like Lexa just said something obnoxiously stupid. "I didn't just rename them, you dumbass. I fucking changed them. If you'd read the whole thing, you would know that the suspect has the obligation to remain silent. No more fucking cry babies in cuffs."

"This is..." Lexa opens and closes her mouth like a fish, trying to find a thread of logic in the midst of... Whatever fever dream she's living in right now. "I thought we were filming a porno, not a sexy cop movie. Plumber by day, detective by night? That's- it's not even remotely realistic."

"Lexa... Suspend your disbelief."

"I think it's really good stuff," Clarke chimes in, her breasts still firmly pressed to Lexa's shoulder blade.

"Thank you, Clarke!" Anya exclaims, throwing her hands up and letting them fall on her legs with a loud clap. "At least someone appreciates my genius."

Lexa rolls her eyes, but fine. Fine. She will read more; she will give Anya a chance. She opens the book on a new page, several scenes ahead.

-

INT. BLONDIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

Blondie rubs her lover's love button like she's scratching at a turn-table, making Lulu scream louder than Saoirse Ronan in Ammonite when Kate Winslet was eating her out with her neck.

LULU

Oh, fuck! You're so good at this! Almost as good as my awesome best friend and mentor Anya, even though I've never had sex with her because that would be totally gross.

Blondie stops her ministrations to look up at Lulu and smirks.

BLONDIE

I know. After all, they don't call me DJ Diddles for nothin'.

-

Lexa stares incredulously from the two hundred-odd pages to Anya, wondering how grave a sin she must have committed in a past life to deserve this.

"What are you, a sex-deprived straight guy?"

Anya scoffs, yanking the script from Lexa's hands before she can do anything to stop it. "I can assure you there is no deprivation in that department."

"After reading that I am seriously starting to doubt that you've ever even seen a vagina."

"I thought it was good," Clarke pipes in once again. This time, Lexa turns to her with a raised eyebrow.

"Is she paying you to say that?"

Clarke tsks with a smirk. "I'm just smart enough to know better than to get on the lead producer's bad side."

Anya snaps her fingers and points at Clarke approvingly, and Lexa has never regretted a decision so deeply in her life.

"Anyway," Clarke resumes, standing up and grabbing her bag. "This has been fun, but I need to get going. Anya, stay classy. We'll work out the schedule this week. Lexa," she adds, her voice dropping a tone to turn into a seductive purr. She leans down, and it's all Lexa can do not to focus on how her breasts squish together and seem to become fuller and more inviting. She loses the plot when a pair of lips presses to her cheek in a kiss that is chaste, yet way too slow for propriety. "See you tomorrow."

Lexa's throat is dry as a desert as she watches Clarke leave, her hips swaying more than usual. She jumps in place when Anya clears her throat next to her. This time, she can't avoid her friend's shit-eating grin.

"No chemistry, you say?"

"Shut up, Anya," she grumbles, focusing back on her work. She has a full, five-minute newscast to prepare, she can't dawdle and joke around gossiping like some people. But then a thought pops up in her head and she turns to Anya, eyes narrowed. "Is this some elaborate plan to get us together? I refuse to be your little Love, Actually experiment."

Anya's stare is fifty shades of unimpressed. "Lexa. Don't take yourself so seriously. It's a bad look on you."

Lexa buries her face in her hands with a long-suffering sigh. Why is this her life? Why is this her best friend? Why is she hopelessly attracted to the worst, most unprofessional coworker on the planet?

"Why couldn't you find a normal hobby? Something that doesn't include me? Like baking. Baking would have been so much better."

"You know," Anya drawls almost nostalgically, "I actually considered that, but the criminally inclined baker niche was already taken up by Martha Stewart."

"She is surprisingly niche," Lexa says, intrigued.

"Indeed."

"But she's also able to appeal to a larger audience."

"Uh-huh."

"Fascinating."

"I know. It's like Punkya. You'd think a lesbian erotica magazine would only appeal to queer women and depraved straight men, but it's been selling surprisingly well amongst the straight female demographic."

Hm. Are all women secretly queer?

"Interesting," Lexa concedes, before veering the topic back to Anya's passion (and Lexa's torture) project. "So when does principal photography start?"

And there it is again, that nefarious gleam in Anya's eyes. It grows along with her Cheshire cat grin, curling and curling until it's pure, unbridled evil.

"Next week."

[that-bi-bitch-writes]

A Cursed Reality (Ch.1)

JJK x Male Reader Insert

[Name] is an orphan. And He's a little unhinged, but what Jujutsu Sorcerer isn't? A cursed speech user like Inumaki, [Name] can manipulate reality and he's heard some rumors. 

-Once again I'm using the power of Allison Hargreeves AKA 'The Rumor' to bring to life a character I'm passionate about. -This one is purely Male Reader and the reader is a going to be a Second Year. -All platonic for now but perhaps a romance in the future -Really powerful MC but he doesn't know how to use his powers to their fullest potential yet

Previous || Next

(cross posted on wattpad and eventually quotev)

Chapter One:

[Name]’s origin story was not that sad. I mean he lost his family in an accident⸺ one that he caused but he doesn’t feel guilty about it. Not in the least. No, really, he only cares a little. That is of course why he still doesn’t speak unless spoken to and has a hard time making friends. Like a normal 16 year old. Normal people can hear voices. Right?

“Live”

“So”

“...”

“Ahem. Why are you here [Full Name]?”

“?”

“Meaning why do you want to learn jujutsu? We won’t just keep you because you’re orphaned. Sorry we’re not that kind of institution.”

‘What am I supposed to say?’ [Name] thought ‘Do they want an innocent response? That I want to save the world? That it was a dying wish? I don’t do dying wishes because honestly, at this point… I just want⸺’ [Name] paused dramatically and for the first time since the chairman started talking (he started with a god awful introduction before the real interview) he looked up

“To fuck shit up” 

“That’s not a bad response”

‘What the fuck. Is he making dolls? Maybe I should get out of here’

“Thanks?”

“You have to be at least a little crazy to survive the jujutsu world. But being batshit won’t save you” the old dude (he’s not that old [Name]) said 

“Yaga sensei is it? I can handle myself” he said before turning around and walking towards the exit

“Prove it” Yaga called out, stopping [Name] in his tracks “stop my cursed doll and I’ll stop bothering you”

[Name] nodded but it seemed as if Yaga wasn’t giving him the chance to say no. The doll was already flying towards him at an alarming speed. 

“Stop”

Yaga’s surprise showed through his glasses.The doll literally stopped mid-air and then dropped to the floor. He had only seen one cursed speech user powerful enough to stop an attack with one word. And how was it that [Name] could hold a regular conversation? What were his drawbacks? To what extent does he want to fuck shit up? Realistically Yaga knew if he trained this boy and he had a sudden change in alliance, there would be hell to pay. The only option was to give him a lightning rod. Something to keep his allegiance tied down. A lighting rod was the kinder metaphor but really the kid needed an anchor.

“Can I go now?”

“... Yes. I’ll have someone show you to your room in a minute.”

[Name] only nodded

“May I ask another question? This time more about your cursed technique”

[Name] hesitated before beginning “I only recently discovered I could do that. The only reason I could do it with one word was because the doll wasn’t very strong” 

Yaga nodded at the explanation thinking that was all there was, but then [Name] drew in a breath and continued “My brother and I had different powers, and we argued about whose was better with him always saying mine was stronger. He had more powers, sorry, cursed techniques than I did, but no matter how many abilities you have, nothing beats reality manipulation” And with a sense of finality [Name] closed his mouth and turned back towards the door leaving Yaga alone to think.

The room [Name] had arrived at was not modest. When you live in an apartment building with your older brother things can feel cramped at times. The walls were bare and there was a window with curtains and a bed pushed up against a wall that connected to the balcony. There was a desk across from the bed and plenty of space to exercise… if that’s what you’re into.

“Here’s your room [L.Name]. A teacher will be coming in to check on you soon and the rest of the first years are down the hall. Welcome to Jujutsu Tech”

“Thanks I guess”

[Name] spent little to no time on decorating his room. It was hard to decorate when you had no belongings. The only thing he wanted to do was get rid of all the sources of sunlight. How else was he supposed to brood like a teenager. And what about privacy? Japanese people did like to bathe together and let it all hang out but like in his 15 years of living only three people had seen him naked and he wasn’t prepared to let an entire institution of fellow crazies sneak a peek at the goods. (not that they were very good goods anyway)

“Darken”

“That’s a nice cursed technique you got going on there” 

[Name] whipped his head to the door to see a tall white haired man wearing a blind-fold and a smile on his face. Just what name needed. Cheery disposition.

“Are you a cursed speech user just like our little Inumaki here?” 

[Name] turned his attention to the other white haired male standing in the doorway. He seemed aloof like [Name]. He either had some traumatic past or was one of those douchebags who brood because it makes you cooler. The least you could do is actually watch someone die in front of you before you go all messy depressy.

“Konbu Kombu”

Now that was a surprise. [Name] just bowed his head in response 

“Are you the teacher here”

“Yes! Of course. I’m Gojo-sensei AKA the Strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer”

“...”

“That was supposed to get a reaction out of you. Anyway I heard that you were moving in and I wanted to get to know you while bringing two of my precious students together to bond”

“Thanks I guess”

“You can speak?”

“Yes?”

“Interesting. And you are a cursed speech user?”

“In a way yes”

“Explain”

“I can manipulate reality but I usually do it through speech. Recently I’ve been able to do it through commands”

“And you were doing it differently before”

[Name] nodded

“Try and have a conversation with Toge here, the similarity in your powers might make you immune”

“Hello”

“Hello”

“I’m [Name] how does your cursed technique work”

“Commands”

“Go ahead”

“Have a seat then [Name]” 

There was a strong urge to sit down but [Name] held back after seeing the hope in Gojo’s face. Inumaki had none, maybe because he was confident in his technique or perhaps because hope would be too cruel, but a light showed in his eyes after [Name] remained standing. 

“Kneel”

“Jump”

“Run away”

After every command the pain in Inumaki’s throat grew a little. The commands got progressively stronger but so did the hope of having a normal friend. Gojo had been relieved. He only pretended not to know what was going on in front of the two first years. He knew what Yaga was planning, pairing the two together and it was smart. 

“My commands aren’t very strong compared to yours, but I have one for you”

Inumaki nodded and Name drew in a breath to set his resolve

“Be my friend”

[tomhollandstrash]

Chasing Stars

Why is it that I always write something angsty even when I don’t mean to?? Also, I am seeing a second part to this. Let me know if that’s something y’all might be interested in!

Pairing: prince! Tom Holland (bc why not??) x reader

Warnings: angst, maybe a swear or two, the ending is sad as hell but also there’s hope? 

Word count: 2.2k

You leaned your head back on the car’s headrest, closing your eyes contentedly as you felt the cool ocean breeze against your skin. When you asked Tom to run away with you for the night, you were half kidding; you didn’t think he’d agree so eagerly. It was a passing suggestion as you rested with your head against his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat. Part of you thought that he hadn’t heard you, so you were prepared to let it go. That is- until you heard him say yes. 

You just wanted to get out of the city for the night, all you wanted was to drive as far away as you possibly could. There were so many things you needed to say to Tom, so many things you still wanted to do with him. Sleep could wait until another night. Tonight you wanted to spend as much time soaking up Tom as you could. Come morning, the two of you may never see each other again. At the very least, the two of you could pretend that things were normal one more time. 

Tom reached over and squeezed your hand gently, releasing a deep breath he didn’t know he was holding in. His eyes stayed focused on the road ahead, hand on the steering wheel, forearm muscles contracting as he readjusted his grip. You were now looking at Tom, your lips curving into a soft smile. There was always something so magical about being with Tom like this. Like the two of you were the only people in the world. You so desperately wished you’d be able to have more moments like this, but sadly, time was running out. 

“What are you thinking about?” Tom asked, bringing your hand up and kissing your knuckles. 

“How glad I am that we’re together right now,” You replied, sitting up a little straighter in your seat. 

“I am too,” 

--

You and Tom had been driving for hours, though it didn’t feel that long. Time always seemed to pass quickly when you were together. You were far out of the city now. The silence of the peaceful landscape lulled you into a trance. You were thinking about everything that could be if Tom were just a normal guy. Sure, when he was with you he was just Tom Holland. A sweet, sometimes nerdy, and extremely caring guy that you loved with your whole heart. Tom loved that he could just be himself around you. You didn’t have the expectations that his family or the public did. Tom being Tom was enough for you, and damn did that feel good.

“Care to go to the beach?” Tom asked, breaking the silence and gesturing to the vast expanse of sand next to the road. 

“Do you even have to ask?” You turned to him and raised an eyebrow, chuckling lightly. 

“Okay, okay,” He laughed and turned into the parking lot by the beach. 

As soon as he parked, you hopped out of the car stretching your legs. The cool nighttime air and the salty smell of the ocean was an intoxicating combination. The wind blew through your hair and past your body, making you shiver slightly. You took in the view and sighed happily, wrapping your jacket around yourself a little more tightly. Tom came up and stood next to you, wrapping his arm around you and placing a kiss on the top of your head. 

“Thanks for agreeing to run away for the night,” You said, leaning into his touch. 

“Anything to spend more time with you, darling,” Tom replied. “I’ve got a few blankets, by the way,” 

He gestured toward you with his other arm that was full of soft blankets. You smiled brightly at him, making his heart melt. Tom absolutely loved your smile, and he loved it even more when he knew it was meant for him. 

“Oh, look who’s prepared,” You said playfully, nudging his side gently with your elbow. 

Tom laughed before taking your hand and leading you onto the sandy beach. He put the blankets on the ground, making sure to add a dramatic flourish as he did. You looked at him with a raised eyebrow and laughed. When the blanket was laid out, Tom laid down and opened his arms gesturing for you to lay down with him. Smiling, you happily joined him on the blanket and rested your head on his chest. 

You listened to the sound of Tom’s heart as he rubbed soothing circles into your shoulder. Neither one of you said anything, settling into a comfortable silence as you gazed at the stars. You shivered slightly and Tom pulled a spare blanket over the two of you for warmth. The sound of the ocean gently crashing against the shore calmed the both you, and helped you both avoid thinking about the reality of your situation.  

Tom was a prince with a rather unfortunate duty to his people. His duty meant that his hand in marriage belonged to someone else, and you hated that fact. It wasn’t that you didn’t support him or his family. In all honesty, the Hollands were loved, adored by their subjects; and the woman he was supposed to be getting married to was perfectly lovely. You’d never met her but from what Tom had told you, she seemed nice enough. She wasn’t too thrilled with the arrangement either, wanting to focus on philanthropy and activism rather than getting married. 

“I wish you weren’t getting married to someone who isn’t me,” You said softly, snuggling closer into Tom’s side. 

“Me too,” He sighed, looking at you sadly. 

Tom loved you so much that it hurt. He would do anything if it meant he would be able to spend forever with you; but what could he do? Realistically, it didn’t seem like the two of you had many options. He remembers how heartbroken you looked when he told you about his engagement. He wanted to tell his family it was off, he wouldn’t do it, but something kept him from expressing his true feelings. 

After the two of you talked through it, you decided to continue seeing each other. With the engagement, it meant that things had to be kept on the down-low, but it wasn’t that different from how things were before. If you were honest, there was something kind of exciting about sneaking around. All of the midnight dates, late-night walks in the park, and romantic slow dances in an empty gazebo were like something straight out of a Nicholas Sparks novel. It was positively dreamy. You didn’t care what time of day you were seeing Tom, just as long as you got to see him. 

Despite all of the romance, all good things must come to an end. There was a particularly tearful Thursday night on which you and Tom made a hard decision. Once he was married, the two of you decided that maybe it would be best if you cut off all contact, at least for a little while. And although the thought of not having Tom in your life and Tom not having you in his was almost unbearably painful, the two of you thought it would be for the best. Maybe you would decide that the two of you could be friends after a while, maybe your feelings for one another would subside. 

You sat up and put your hands in your lap, looking at Tom over your shoulder. 

“Let’s forget about it tonight, let’s just enjoy the time we have left,” You said, standing up and holding your hands out to him. 

“Yes, let’s,” Tom grabbed your hands and hoisted himself up off of the blanket. 

The two of you spent the next hour frolicking on the midnight beach, running around like children and laughing until your ribs hurt. The moon and stars were so bright that you didn’t need any other source of light. It was almost like they were smiling down on you and Tom. 

“God, I love you so much,” Tom declared, cupping your face and kissing you deeply, the waves lapping at your bare feet. 

The kiss was needy and desperate, and you could feel all of Tom’s love through it. You ran your fingers through his brown curls and pulled him closer. You couldn’t get enough of each other. When you pulled away, you rested your foreheads against each others’. You let your eyes stay closed, wanting to savor this moment. 

“I love you too,” You said, opening your eyes to look at him. “Let’s go cuddle up with the blankets, I’m cold,” 

“Okay, sounds good,” Tom chuckled, lacing his fingers with yours as the two of you returned to your little nest made of blankets. 

--

The rest of the night the two of you talked about everything and anything. You were completely invested in one another. Not once did you ever stop being in physical contact. If you were cuddled up to Tom’s side, he had an arm around you, you were holding hands, or kissing. If anyone else would have been on the beach that night, they would have gushed about the couple who seemed so in love spending their time together. 

Your eyes eventually started growing heavy and you fell asleep with your head on Tom’s chest, the slow rise and fall of his breathing lulling you to sleep. 

--

“Y/N,” you heard a gentle voice calling your name, and felt light kisses peppering your face. “We have to get up, love,” 

You opened your eyes, squinting at the cotton candy colors painting the sky. 

“Don’t want to,” You mumbled, burying your face back into Tom’s side. 

Tom laughed softly, before wrapping his arms around you again. Truth be told, he didn’t want to get up either. He wanted to be here, or anywhere, with you for the rest of his life. Sadly, reality was calling and no matter how much he wanted it to, it wouldn’t stop. Eventually, the two of you got up and made it back to the car, packing up the blankets and sharing a long kiss before getting in. 

The car ride back to the city was quiet. The two of you had so much left to say to each other, but not enough time. So you settled for a comfortable silence with the radio playing quietly in the background. Tom held your hand the whole way back, bringing your hand to his mouth to kiss it every so often. As you began to see the familiar city skyline through the windshield, your chest grew heavy. It was almost time to say goodbye. 

When Tom pulled up to your apartment, you couldn’t help but let a few tears fall from your eyes. This was really it. Your time together was really coming to an end. Neither one of you moved, each of you not willing to say goodbye first. 

You made the first move, knowing that you couldn’t avoid it any longer. You pushed the car door open and began the walk up to the door, Tom following closely behind. When you reached the door, more tears made their way down your cheeks. Tom cupped your face and tenderly wiped away the tears with his thumbs. 

“I know this is what we agreed on, but this sucks,” You pouted and let out a breathy laugh, trying to lighten the mood. 

“It does suck,” Tom agreed, pulling you in for a tight hug. He couldn’t believe he was really going to have to let you go. “I don’t want to let you go,” 

“I don’t either, but we have to,” You said, looking into the distance over Tom’s shoulder. “You’re getting married,” 

“But not to you,” He said ruefully, his own tears starting to spill. 

“I wish,” You replied, tears falling a little harder. 

“Me too, darling,” He whispered before connecting his lips to yours in another deep kiss. 

You were going to miss kissing him like this, hell- you were going to miss everything about him. The way his eyes crinkled when he laughed, how he would whine when you poked fun at him, and the way he kissed you. What you would miss the most was the feeling of him loving you, and knowing that you would be able to settle into each other’s arms at the end of each day. Eventually, the kiss ended and the moment you were dreading arrived. 

“I’ll come back for you, I promise,” Tom whispered against your lips before slowly releasing you from his grasp. 

You watched tearfully as he walked toward his car, never once breaking eye contact with you. This was so much harder than you thought it would be. But you know what they say, if you love someone, let them go. You weren’t sure this is the situation they were referring to, but it gave you something to cling onto. You loved Tom with everything you had. 

“I love you!” Tom shouted from over his car, hands cupped around his mouth before ducking into the vehicle. 

“I love you too!” You shouted, not sure if he heard it, but knowing that he knew how you felt. 

As Tom drove away from you, the pink and purple colors in the sky started to fade. You couldn’t help the sobs that wracked through your body as he got further and further away from you, but you still had hope that he would keep his promise. 

[ziracona]

On a scale of one to ten (one is your screwed and ten is your gonna destroy them) how would you do in a fight against the dead by daylight killers. First rules though. 1. No prep for either side (suck it Danny) 2. No guns! Only weapons found around your house. 3. It's to the death one being leaves an that's it. 4. No help from friends or pets. 5. Whether legion is four teens or just one combined is up to you.

Uhh, this depends drastically on if you mean I one v one every one of them, or if I’m trying to fight a mob. Because if it’s me vs all of them, I’d just die. Like I’m sure I’d have decent odds of killing at least one, maybe two, and taking them with me. But I’m not John Wick—I cant 1v23 a bunch of armed people with some degree of experience with their weapons given no prep time, allies, or special weapons to save me. I like basically anyone else die sadly to the mob.

If this is one v one though, bc it’d be hard to get them all to work together anyway, and that’s the only way like anyone stands a chance?

Evan: I give me 50-50 odds. He’s way bigger than me and his weapon has a longer reach than any known, even the swords. I’m pretty good at thinking on my feet though. I feel like I have about a 50% chance of living or dying (I’m getting gravely injured regardless), but if I die, I am taking him with me, 80% chance. I was not always proficient at winning fights, but I was very good at not losing them. I’ve been known for taking a sword to get a kill hit at cons a lot. I give me a 6 at simultaneous KO or victory.

Philip I refuse to kill. Even if he was trying to kill me. I would defend myself though. Much bigger threat than Evan to me because I /don’t/ want to hurt him at all, which puts me at disadvantage and liable to freeze up or make mistakes even trying to deal nonlethal damage, he’s bigger and taller than me so height and weight advantage, and I don’t have long enough weapons to help me overcome that, plus on top of that, he’s a tactical fighter, which is what I am. And I think it’s harder to beat someone at your and their own game than just to beat another style most of the time. I mean skill is skill in any area, but I’d take a really strong tank in a fight rather than a planner any day of the week. I think he’s smart, probably smarter than me under pressure, definitely more experienced, and would kick my ass tactically if his heart was in it. If it wasn’t though, I’d have a chance to catch him off guard. I think Vs Philip I get one chance to use a tricky move, and if I mess that up, I die. If I do it right, maybe I can knock him out. It’s a one shot long shot at disadvantage. I give me a 4 if his heart isn’t in it, 3 if it is.

Hillbilly has a chainsaw and hammer, but those are both unwieldy and slow weapons. I’m faster than him, and I’m willing to get hurt. Also he’s killed a lot, but he’s not a /fighter/, which gives me an edge. Being tactical works really well vs someone whose edge is brute force. And he doesn’t have as massive a height or strength advantage. I also have tricks and home court advantage. So long as I don’t fuck up, I give myself an 8.5.

Sally isn’t that scary. I would try to incapacitate her. I feel I could easily take her as a ghost or a person. I have good ghost fighting supplies, salt, chalk, talismans, knowledge. I’m prepared for this. I think I’m coming in for this one at a solid 10.

Michael Myers would kill me. I mean, he’s got like X-Man semi invincibility, good skills, and I don’t really want to kill him. I’d try to talk him down while defending myself. I’d probably fail, but I’d try. Best case scenario I get him to hesitate, but also I’m being generous and giving me a 12% chance of that. Realistically, best case is I pull out a rug, trip him, and temporarily escape. A fight in an enclosed space, most likely outcome is I try and fail to talk him down, and I die. I feel very sure I cannot take him in a fight unless Ishtar herself blesses me with god like abilities. I’m probably dead. At least it would be quick. I give me a 1.6.

Lisa is tiny and not that strong. I could easily break her little glass bones. I’m taller and stronger than her, and she had worse weapons than me. I would try not to kill her though—just incapacitate. I feel I could do this while sustaining only minor wounds. Not to give you a look beyond weird ghost shit into my personal arsenal, but I definitely have supplies for that. I give me a 10.

Herman is tall and strong but he’s not a fighter. He’s a scientist. I’ve been shocked before, and I know what to expect from him. He’s getting blasted by a power washer at range until his weird face apparatus comes off and he’s down and out. I have more precise weapons than him and can easily neutralize his abilities and turn them against him. Also have rubber to wear. He’s big though, so for that alone I give me a 9.6 in case I mess up.

Anna would destroy me. She’s good at ranged weapons, I am not. I would try to look as young as possible and convince her in my very bad but slowly improving baby Russian to please have mercy on me. We’re back to the Michael scenario where I know I have no chance of normal survival and would have to try and talk my way out. My odds are higher here though. I’m pretty cute and I know a little Russian. I give me a 4. But the 4 is not me winning it’s my odds of surviving through begging for my life. She’d kick my ass in a fight.

Bubba isn’t that good at fighting and has a big and cumbersome, if scary, weapon. I feel I could easily use terrain, weapons, and strategy to my advantage and kill him, unless I’m in a place with no terrain or furniture. In which case it’d be a lot worse for me. If I was not, though, I give me a solid 9.6 at owning that fight. I have a good throwing arm and plenty of stuff that can blind a foe, and a lot of weapons. A lot of weapons.

Freddy. Okay this is hard. I know how to kill him about as well as anyone does? So comparatively my odds are good? But. Also he’s a demon and a bit of a heavyweight in this arena. Sadly. If we’re in-realm rules, I have a /very/ good chance of kicking his ass. Give me a 10 to win, although I might not survive either. Probably would. If he’s like /film/ loadout? I give me more like a 6. It would be a battle, but I have a lot of knowledge and determination. Also I’m taller than him and bigger and could break his arms.

Amanda. Easy fam, that’s a 10. No, 11. Injured recently drugged Eric Matthews almost kicked her ass while toting a smashed foot. She’s like, 5 foot 1 and 30 pounds underweight. It’s not gonna be hard at all.

Kenneth I give me a 10 too. Easy fam. Even if he gets realm rules where he’s not tripping balls on his own drugs, I know what he’s got. I’ve got better weapons, I’m young, fast, strong, and smarter. I hold my breath, and run him through. Quick jabs from a dagger, take him down. Use my agility. He was never a fighter anyway—he used drugs to prey on people who couldn’t fight back. You know what? Give me another 11.

Rin? Uhhhh, I know as much as about anyone how to deal with her, but my odds of succeeding /before/ she killed me are...not great. And if we fought, there’s no way I have the ability to kill an Onryo. I put using my supernatural beings knowledge to hold her back long enough to stop her in the realm of improbably, but potentially doable, and give myself a 2.7. This is not to kill her though. Just to make her stop killing me. I have no way near the power or spiritual knowledge needed to kill something like that.

Legion I’d not really want to kill. They’re all teenagers or baby 20 year olds. I don’t want to wail fatally on kids, even ones who suck. That said, I think I could take them in a fight. If it was four and I got to fight them one at a time, easiest, four in one body back to back is medium, four at once is hard. First two options I could potentially fight to not kill. Third option only choice would be do everything I can to even /maybe/ have a shot. I have less experience stabbing people, but I’m more ready to take pain, and more motivated, so I give myself a 6, 5, and 3.5 to those scenarios respectively. I would be badly wounded regardless.

Adiris I don’t have healthy enough fear of dying of bubonic plague, and that would give me an edge. I think I have a good sword and shield combo to deal with the mace. She’s tall, but I have her beat in strength and stamina as well as agility bc she’s emaciated and dying. I would not want to kill her though. Might try to talk to her in my fucked Akkadian. Try to incapacitate if that failed. I give me a solid 8 if she’s treating this like a 9 to 5 or distracted by me, give me a 4 if she wants me /dead/. Either way, I probably have to run to the CDC and pray I survive scarred after.

Danny is just some sneaky dick with a knife. He doesn’t even know how to get stabbed. Slightly harder than a few other knife fighters bc he wears so much damn leather, but the eyes and mouth of that mask are vulnerable, and I feel sure I can drive a knife into them before sustaining any kind of fatal wound. He doesn’t have much edge on me in any area, I have him well beat in conviction, and I’m smarter than him by quite a bit. I give me a 9.

Uhhh, Demo isn’t that hard, and I love fire. Probably gonna get a little hurt, but I’m not worried about this one. Easy 10.

Kazan is interesting. He has me beat in size and strength, but his weapon is unwieldy and slow. I have quick weapons and am more agile, and I’m ready to fight dirty to save myself. 7 probably. It’s a luck thing. I have the edge, but if he really lands a hit on me even once, it’s all over. So. Not the /best/ of odds. Maybe a 6.8, actually.

You said no guns but I assume Caleb still gets his. He only gets one shot before being vulnerable though, and he’s much older than me. I’m faster and more agile, and stronger. He’s got really good endurance too though so I don’t have the edge there. It’s gonna be kind of a game of chicken to see who blinks. If he misses his one shot, I win. If he gets the shot, he wins. However, I think my odds of baiting the shot and getting my opening are decent. I give me a solid 7 here.

I still don’t even know which Pyramid Head he /is/. Why does any version exist here and want to kill me, can he smell, can I use that, can electricity hurt him, can he use my guilt against me? There are so many unknowns for both of us, I give us both a 5.

Talbot is an easy 10 unless he gets the jump on you. But you said no planning, so no surprise attacks, so I give me a 10. His body is literally falling apart, and all the blight serum in the world can’t save him from me forever. I have a bunch of tools at my disposal, and he’s fast, but he’s not accurate. Edge, me.

Victor and Charlotte. Interesting one here. Don’t want to kill them either, but I would to save myself I guess if I couldn’t stop them. Not scared of Victor. I bite too, and I go for the throat. Charlotte is more of a problem. Finally it’s a tall killer with a short range weapon though, so edge: me, in weapons. I think I have decent odds of beating them, but I would not get out unscathed. Give me a 7.5.

Jo-Woon. Depends wildly. He throws tiny knives that do too little damage. If he takes me seriously as a threat and tries to go for the throat before I can get close, edge: him, and I’m in for a really rough fight even with a shield. If he wants to fuck around with me though, I’ll win. Because I am prepared to suffer immensely to get a kill shot. If he was smart, I’d give the fight a 6, but I feel extremely confident he’d be cocky, so I give me a 9 to survive, a 10 to at worst get a simultaneous K.O.

[cryptovalid]

The weird politics of the Blip

The more the MCU fleshes out the events after Avengers: Endgame, but especially in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the less sense the geopolitics of the MCU makes to me. In this essay I will be sharing my perspectives on politics in the MCU. If you’re not interested in that sort of thing, don’t feel obligated to engage. Also, by the very nature of this essay it will involve spoilers for the MCU and discussions of topics like state violence and terrorism, so consider this a trigger warning.

It’s an understatement to say that the world would change radically if half the population would randomly disintegrate, and I understand that speculating on the consequences of those people coming back after five years is no simple task. There might even be story considerations I am unaware of.

But the idea that the world’s governments would immediately start forcibly removing people from the homes they lived in for five years, to accommodate people who were declared dead five years ago sounds really strange to me. Let’s explore this.

If you were the survivor of a disaster that cut the world’s population in half, what would this look like to you? You’ve presumably went through a lot of hardship and trauma in the years following. You’ve sold some of the things belonging to your deceased loved ones, or bought stuff from other people in a similar situation. You may have relocated, started a new family. Grieved.

And suddenly those people you literally saw turn to dust in front of you just appear again, like nothing happened? Literally in the same befuddled state in which they died. 

And I have to stress: they died. there is no way to suggest that a person can be atomized and still be alive.

So why would you even trust that this was the same person? In a very real sense, it’s an identical copy of your deceased loved one. Similar to teleportation, this should cause us to wonder if they were truly resurrected, or merely cloned. What kinds of rights do they have, being legally deceased? Would we even know if these were impostors, if the situation changed them somehow?

I’m not saying there’s no answer to these questions, just that people should disagree on this. People would have high-minded philosophical, scientific and religious debates. Conspiracy theories and fistfights. This is by far the most world-changing event ever recorded. It should have massive ethical, political and spiritual implications.

And what I think we should think about is that these people who returned have nothing. They have no memory or lived experience to prepare them for this different world, all of their material possessions belong to someone else now, and by definition, all political, economic and military power is held by those who stayed, who now have a material conflict of interest, because if they acknowledge that you are the same person and deserving of the things you had 5 years ago, they have to give it back. Even without the administrative nightmare this would represent, the returned have nothing. Even their work experience is practically meaningless, especially in high-paying jobs. 

What would happen if Steve Jobs somehow magically returned, having no idea what Apple had been doing in the last couple of years, and demanded to be put back in charge of Apple? It’s not exactly an easy ‘yes’, is it? The world’s power balance would be forever shifted. 

I’m not saying everybody would be unsympathetic to the plight of the people who unblipped. But I am saying there would be a massive movement or series of movements opposed to giving them back their stuff. And I’m saying that movement would not only be popular but also backed by every powerful business interest and government.

Because realistically, the unblipped would be the refugees. They are the ones who would have lost everything, fighting an uphill legal battle to even be recognized as alive and as the same person they were 5 years ago. They would be the ones in camps, waiting for supplies.

Ironically, they would be the ones most hurt by the status quo returning to normal, as there is no way to keep massive famines and shortages from happening in this situation without international coordination. 

So why did the MCU decide on the opposite idea? There are two arguments I can think of: one narrative, and one political. On a narrative level, speculating on a changed world is complicated and risky. If Marvel wants to make stories relevant to us in our world, they have to more or less get back to a status quo we would recognize before it would complicate their properties going forward.

The second reason, I think, is that to truly explore a world like this is radical and potentially a liability for Disney, both in terms of their audience and their relationship with the US military.

Of course any real discussion on policy in this situation requires the heroes to at least pay lip service to a political opinion, which could cost them a lot of fans. We are talking about the legitimacy of borders, of private ownership. Any examination of the edge cases will cause people to have Strong Opinions of their own. In a crisis like this, can people squat in empty houses? Do these people have human rights and refugee status, and how should those be protected in the real world? Can any state justly displace people and if not, are these people allowed to disobey the government or even fight them?

Since the US military subsidizes Marvel’s use of military hardware, it has script approval. So that can also explain why they can’t make the US government the bad guy or present a truly different world where the US military is rightfully no longer in control. 

Who can legitimately deprive people of things they need to survive in a crisis like this? What’s more important: the right to own a house and keep it empty if we so choose, or the right to live in a house? 

If we get too deeply into it, Karly’s position (in theory) seems very compelling, like Erik Killmonger’s before her. And so, they have to make her (like him) a hypocrite who goes too far, so it doesn’t seem like the MCU is advocating violence against the state. 

Karly’s ideology is muddled by the writers because the violence she performs has no chance of actually achieving her goals of global solidarity. It feels tacked on to make her less sympathetic. Realistically, someone like Karli would be holding political rallies, sit-ins. Writing op-eds, staging marches and organizing her community into self-sufficiency. Possibly getting into fights with the cops during evictions or protests. If you read Falcon and the Winter Soldier as a kind of allegory for American politics, then Walker represents Trump, Sam represents Obama, and Karly represents... whatever conservatives think socialism/BLM is?

So it feels like FatWS is trying to thread the needle: Nationalism is bad, but so is statelessness. A state should have integrity, and benevolence. And it can have those things, if represented by the right people. Then, the violence is just and measured. It’s barely even violence at all.

I’m kidding of course, the kinds of solutions the MCU offers are basically ‘Co-Intelpro, PMC’s and neighbourhood watches... but run by morally perfect people’. It’s the way a propagandist would represent clandestine domestic espoinage or police brutality: Sam and Bucky would never kill anybody defenseless, and they would never interfere with legitimate polical movements. Because the writers create a perfect world where it’s always clear what everybody’s intention is before the fighting starts, and non-lethal violence is a reliable default option, no more morally problematic than some rough-housing by rambunctious kids.

I know I can trust Sam and Bucky because the writers would never give them realistic implicit biases in a way that would endanger their moral character. They are perfect because they are not real.

The robots, aliens and wizards are not the only unrealistic thing about the MCU. we have to be aware of how artificial the politics are, even if we want to suspend our disbelief. Or else we end up trusting politicians when they embrace a fundamentally immoral status quo, and let thousands die to maintain it (I know, a WILD hypothetical that will surely never come true, but worth keeping an eye out for.)  

The politics that a blip would realistically set in motion are so different from our own, that it would call into question the legitimacy of private ownership and the state. In order to avoid upsetting its fans and its financiers, the MCU has to return to a status quo where those political realities can be taken for granted.    

[crossdressingdeath]

Just a reminder that if you have time and feel like writing that post you mentioned about how you would rewrite each DBH character’s story given unlimited runtime, it would be very cool to read.

Ah, right. Quick note that I don’t know much about Connor’s machine path or the violent revolution path or any ending to Kara’s story that doesn’t involve successfully getting past the border guard so I will be skimming those parts of the story. Also it’s going to be pretty vague because Details Are Hard. (Also I’m tired so this is probably not going to make a lot of sense or be in any sort of reasonable order.)

Okay, general points first. I feel like the three stories should intersect more, even if only in a “seeing the aftermath of their actions” way; maybe Connor and Hank are sent to investigate Zlatko’s death after Kara and Alice have gone through, for example. You’ve got three protagonists active at the same time and they barely interact! Come on, give us a little conversation. And of course the public opinion system needs to be used a lot more; it only effects two things in the whole game, come on! It doesn’t impact any of the major human characters, and that just feels wrong. I’ll. come back to this in Connor’s section because I feel like it would be best used there (since there really aren’t many humans in the story outside of his parts and the ones who do show up have reasons to side with or against the deviants outside of public opinion), but if nothing else I’d like it to lead to us seeing humans demonstrating/fighting with the deviants. Also I would like to see at least a few examples of androids deviating peacefully, like Connor does; I don’t believe for a second that there weren’t androids who deviated in a place where they were surrounded by people who were with them all the way.

So, first off: Markus. Mostly I’d just want to extend the timeline a bit and add some more Jericho missions, because oh my god you cannot join an organization of people with no weapons or resources of any kind, become their leader, and successfully change society in less than a week. So just... more evidence of Markus slowly winning Jericho over and helping them gather supplies and resources. Show him helping them set up actual supply lines! Rescuing deviants! Winning over allies! Including human ones, because the idea that there isn’t a single human working with Jericho when pretty much every major human character is in fact on the deviants’ side is... dumb. Also, individual missions with North, Simon and Josh; it would be good to spend more time getting to know them, since as it stands it’s... kind of hard to care all that much when they die. I might also add short scenes where we see Connor’s targets arriving in Jericho if they survive, just to add more connection between the stories (and also I like them and wish more had been done with them). And make Simon a love interest (because this is a choice-heavy game and so I should be able to make the choice to play exclusively as gay androids if that’s what I want), and make it easier to avoid having a love interest; let’s not create a situation where entering into a relationship less than a week after gaining emotions is all but mandatory, hm? Also, maybe Markus should meet Kamski one time? As the guy fulfilling Kamski’s deviant-related plans? Come on, one meeting. Maybe clear up Kamski’s motivations just a bit. And, crossing over with Connor’s story, maybe a bit of stuff them both being part of the RK line and how it went from a caregiver android to a detective android. Oh, and change it so that you’re not guaranteed to have fatalities on the violence path, because insisting that only pacifism can possibly end happily when fighting against oppression seems kind of... not great, all things considered. Frankly given the androids’ combat abilities it kind of makes more sense to have unavoidable deaths on the pacifism route, or alternately to have different unavoidable deaths on both routes, but being admittedly a softy I am very happy to have it be possible to have no deaths on either route. I don’t necessarily expect it to be easy to save everyone (it might make sense to add in missions where you make preparations to increase their odds of survival, or do something similar to Simon’s possible death in Stratford Tower where one of other protagonists’ actions has an effect on the sequence of events), but it would be nice to have it be possible.

On to Kara; I mentioned this before, but instead of her story being a cute-but-boring game-long escort mission where you have to protect a small child who is entirely useless I’d give her a story about uncovering how deviancy works and the history of it. Whether it really is just a glitch or something more, what rA9 actually is... all that fun stuff. No idea how that would actually go, but it would be more interesting than just running to Canada. If nothing else we could get more backstory on how the hell Kamski managed to create androids who are so realistic that that they can develop emotions. And if it is just a glitch there can be more discussion on whether or not simulated emotions are as real as actual emotions, because the fact that they brought up the concept of deviant emotions being a simulation and did nothing with it just feels like a massive waste of potential. And I’d add some more ways to live; from what I understand it’s really hard to keep everyone alive unless you maybe possibly condemn a couple and their baby to freeze to death or get killed by a revolution and keep things peaceful in Markus’s story. While I do want more interaction between the stories, I don’t think your choices in one story should automatically lock you out of getting the best ending for one of the other stories (with the obvious exception of the situations where that actually makes sense; can’t get the best ending for Connor and Hank if Markus nukes the city while Hank is in it, for example). At least with Kara; her story is so separate from Markus and Connor’s that it doesn’t make sense for Markus’s actions to lock her out of escaping to Canada! Also, it adds nothing to the story to have Alice turn out to be an android and robs Kara of her close human companion who has a massive impact on her life; yeah, there’s Rose, but she’s in... what, two missions? That’s less than Karl, who has the additional story impact of having been Markus’s father figure for (if memory serves) years before the start of the game, so there’s no dynamic to build; it’s already there. Keep Alice human! It’s a completely pointless twist! ...I recognise that this does mean that Connor can get a young human girl killed by succeeding in stopping a deviant, but it wouldn’t take much to rewrite his run-in with Kara to not involve a chase across a freeway. Again, I’ll come back to this when I get to Connor’s section. But imagine the impact of things like Todd’s abuse and Zlatko’s section if Alice is human; showing that these villains don’t necessarily see androids and humans as different, but in a negative sense this time. Also, I’d like a sort of prologue to her story featuring the incident that got her broken and led to her being repaired at the start of the game.

And of course now we get to Connor, the best boy who deserves the best. I’ll start with the things I said I’d come back to. First, the public opinion system: imagine if Hank’s thoughts on deviants (instead of just changing for no apparent reason beyond a handful of meetings with people who generally kick his ass and then run away or die with at most a bit of conversation) could be altered by public opinion of the deviants’ cause. Even better; by that and his relationship with Connor. Picture a situation where Hank doesn’t trust or like deviants at all due to them running around killing people but still helps them because he wants to help Connor. It would just be very good. Also, since Connor is the only character hanging out exclusively with humans (what with the station full of cops he’s working out of): imagine more missions taking place (or at least starting) in the precinct where Connor can interact with his sort of coworkers and how the conversations with them could change as time passes and public opinion changes. Also again the possibility for a conflict between dislike of deviants and fondness for this particular android, just for fun. And, also just for fun, maybe a bit of character development for Gavin where he’s still a dick (because honestly he’d be less fun if he wasn’t) but if public opinion is high he’ll pretend not to notice Connor sneaking into the evidence locker and fucking around in there for a while when he really definitely isn’t supposed to. Come on, if you’re going to have heroic cops you could at least do something with more than one of them. Also, more Captain Fowler. All we know is that he and Hank are old friends and he’s totally okay with Hank beating the shit out of Perkins; all in all I’d like to know a bit more about him. And with Kara and Alice: the freeway chase works, sure, but I would like the option for Connor to at least try to save Alice; by this point Connor is already showing signs of software instability, if we change it so that Alice is human him putting the mission aside to save a little girl makes sense and gives us a good sense of who he is as a person, and it fits neatly into steadily escalating refusal to complete his mission that eventually reaches full deviancy. If I’m remembering the order right it’s Ortiz’s android (who you can’t let escape), Kara (who you can let go based on Hank’s orders), Rupert (who you can let go to save Hank), the Tracis (who you can let go just because), and then Markus (who you have to deviate to spare); changing it so that you can let Kara go to save a little girl she’s protecting fits the escalation (you could easily argue that Connor has something in his programming about saving human lives, and as one of his earlier missions shows him being specifically trying to save a little girl it makes a great deal of sense that he wants to protect Alice. Also like. Imagine having the option to push Alice out of the way of a car at the cost of Connor’s life. It would be very effective, I think. Also it’s another opportunity to make Hank like you because he would for sure react well to you saving a small child from getting hit by a car.

Alright, moving on; I’d like some more assignments with Connor before he joins the DPD and gets partnered with Hank, showing him actually earning the title of deviant hunter? Also that way we aren’t stuck with the conclusion that CyberLife decided to send their prototype out into the world to partner with the police in investigations after one mission, which said prototype may well have failed to complete. And we could show more of Connor struggling with what he’s being ordered to do but having no way of stopping himself due to a complete lack of any interaction with anyone with functioning emotions, except for maybe CyberLife technicians. Actually, I’d also like to see what it’s like for Connor going to CyberLife for repairs and debriefing and such, because I doubt it’s fun. Other than that... well, Connor’s story is pretty good all things considered, but there are a couple tweaks I’d make. Aside from the previously mentioned exploration of what it means that he and Markus are both part of the RK line, I’d maybe cap off the added early story for him by adding him being hesitant about turning in Ortiz’s android if you’ve been pushing for more software instability and only going through with it when it becomes clear that if he doesn’t all he’ll achieve is getting himself caught not doing his job, which wouldn’t be a good look. I feel like the most effective way to do it might be if it’s not under player control; if his software instability is high enough he’ll be uncertain about it, and if he’s not he won’t be. And if he is uncertain you could add some options to the interrogation where he can win trust by telling the android he was scared of what would happen to him if he didn’t turn him in (followed by him immediately insisting that that was just a cunning ploy and in no way true when pressed on the matter if he did it out loud and not through an interface). Also: why wasn’t it Hank who pushed Connor to deviate. You spend Connor’s entire story with Hank! He is Connor’s tie to humanity! Why does Connor deviate in one conversation with a complete stranger and not his dearest friend! I desperately want a situation where Hank learns too much or something and Connor is ordered to shoot him and you can either go through with it (killing Hank) or deviate and shoot whoever gave you the order instead. Also then there could be hugs. And maybe forehead kisses because please. Connor deserves a little smooch honestly. He’s earned it. And then if your relationship with Hank is low enough that he’s already dead at this point you can have the conversation with Markus. Also, I would love an addition to the machine path where if you have a high relationship with Hank you can choose to deviate before fighting him (instead of just walking away despite that preventing Connor from finishing his mission quickly) or to deviate after fighting him when he’s got Hank hanging off the edge of the roof. Think about it; a moment of horrified realisation where Connor’s software is finally pushed to the breaking point by having to choose whether or not he will kill his only friend for the sake of his mission where he’s left desperately asking himself what the hell he’s doing? Like, if nothing else it would hammer home the fact that at this point Connor is choosing to remain a machine (assuming his software instability is high enough) to have to choose it twice even at the cost of Hank’s life. Actually three times, because the initial choice would be before this point. Also going that way it would be possible to play through the machine path up to the fight with Hank and still net Connor’s best ending, which would just be nice I think. Also, more hugs. Hugs are good.

...Okay, that’s all I can think of for now. Also it’s uh. almost 1 AM here and sleep is in fact important. So I’m going to wrap up here; maybe I’ll make some more posts later if I think of anything else.

[mykennewickdentist]

What To Look For When You’re Choosing A Dental Office

How many times can you remember feeling a toothache or pain, then thinking, if I rinse my mouth out or brush my teeth, everything will be fine, and I won’t have to go see a dentist… That is called dental anxiety and is estimated to affect more than one-third of the population, including 12% suffering from extreme dental fear! Meaning… When we move to a new area or maybe our long-term dentist chooses to move; we now must search out a new dental office that will make us feel at the very least as comfortable and cared for as our previous dental office did. And as many of us know, this search can be a literal tooth-pulling process. Thankfully, we’ve got you covered here with a few great tips that can help narrow down the options and reveal the best dental office for you and your family.

1.   Check the Insurance

Comfortability is of course one of the most important factors in choosing a dental office. We believe this should also include financial comfortability and giving patients options to enable them to afford their dental care. Dental procedures like fillings or root canals can be expensive, leading to financial hardships for many families. Most quality dental offices welcome the ability to discuss their insurance coverage which gives that patient the knowledge and security to make the best decision for them whether they have insurance or not. If you do have insurance coverage, they can be a very good resource to inform you of the dental offices in your area that will cover your care. It’s important to always ensure your dentist accepts your family’s insurance plan before scheduling an appointment.

2.   Location and Hours

Hasty decisions are never the best when deciding whom you trust to care for you and your family’s dental care. Keeping your options open to as many suitable dental offices as possible is a good decision if possible. It’s not very helpful to you if your dentist isn’t open or available when you are! We must remember to be creative in our search; however, let’s not fall into the trap of finding the closest dental office to our homes. Perhaps there is a good office near our place of work or where our kids go to school. Remembering to make our lives work for us as much as we work for it can help ease the entire search process.

3.   Look into the Dentist’s Credentials

For the most part, we all want the best possible for ourselves as well as for the members of our families. And when it comes to trusting someone to work on something as delicate as your mouth and teeth, finding the right dental office with very well-qualified dentists is crucial! I know what you are thinking…

“How am I supposed to research all the qualifications of each dentist in my area?!”

Thankfully, being in the internet age, any credible and highly qualified dental office will have their own website that you can go to and not only read about the dental office and read about their values but also find information about each of the doctors in their practice and what the doctors’ qualifications are. Don’t just stop there however, it’s important to know they are continuing to improve their medical education and knowledge as the dental industry constantly evolves and improves.

4.   Check the Reviews

Don’t judge a book by its cover. This age-old saying not only applies to dental offices that may appear to be advanced and new but also offices that may look old and unkempt. Getting to know untold information and experiences comes from the reviews from current and past patients. One important tip is to look for recurring themes in the reviews you read. Let’s also not forget to also get both sides of the review board story; the good and the bad. If one review claims the dentist is incredible and skilled but another review claims they were misdiagnosed, you’re probably in the clear when judging the reviews’ reliability. If, however you start to see wild inconsistencies of ridiculously high praise or the reviews are filled with negative and harsh feedback, it may be a good idea to go elsewhere. When it’s all said and done, we must make the best decision for ourselves and what is in our best interest.

5.   Equipment and Service Options

As some of us more experienced visitors know, dental offices have very similar floorplans, equipment, and services as one another. That being said, in the last two decades or so dental offices, their equipment, and the amenities they can provide us patients has improved immensely. Depending on the oral needs of us or our family members, specific services and procedures may be needed in our dental office. The last thing any of us want to do is juggle several different dentists, locations, and bills! This is why doing the due diligence and getting a variety of services from our dental office is imperative. Dentists often offer family plans, emergency dental care, cosmetic services, restorative services. If you find a dentist’s office that offers all of these options, they’re a great choice for you and your family.

6.   The Waiting Room

Ahhh the dreaded waiting room… The way we think of a waiting room or as I like to think of it, the transition area, needs to evolve and become more realistic. Before we get into the actual waiting part of the transition area, one way or another we will be spending some time filling out paperwork or simply seated before we’re seen by our dentist. Therefore, it’s important we feel comfortable with the entire setting from the furniture to the paint and artwork on the walls. Settling any anxiousness you may have or simply enjoying yourself while you prepare for a little self-care should be an important factor in the dental office experience. Finally, when considering the overall belief that most of us want the very best doctors possible, the best food possible, the best living situation possible; it makes complete sense the best dentists and dental offices will be highly sought after. Thus, making waiting inevitable, which is okay! Thinking of dental visits as just that, a visit, allows the mind to get to a place of comfort and ease; further aiding in the pleasant dental office experience.

Making the decision to trust a dentist with your health often be a daunting task. However, if you make sure to follow the tips above and be sure to check they can cover all your family’s needs, the financial options they can provide you, and the level of comfortability you feel while in their dental office; you will be good hands. If you’re looking for a new dentist, contact Southridge Dental and we will take care of your every need!

from Southridge Dental https://www.mykennewickdentist.com/what-to-look-for-when-youre-choosing-a-dental-office/

[silver-rings-and-rabbits]

Open Heart: Second Year

I don’t think I’m saying anything that hasn’t already been said before but this is bugging me like crazy. I don’t use Tumblr very often but I don’t know anyone else who plays Choices, so here I am (I guess spoiler alert for those who haven’t played Open Heart).

Open Heart book 1 is one of my favourite books, possibly even my most favourite. I genuinely couldn’t decide between Bryce, Raf and Ethan. I switch between the male and female MC and I’ve been able to give them different personalities. The book had strong writing and a coherent plot with probably three main storylines: Patient X, Panacea Labs, and Mrs Martinez, which all tied together beautifully at the end. Even all our patients came back in the last chapter.

And then Open Heart: Second Year. Where to start.

Obviously Ethan is our boss, mentor and colleague so he will have a vital role in the story, but why push the other LIs aside? Why can’t Bryce romancers steal a few minutes in the hospital corridors where Bryce gives you a flirty wink and a pat on the butt? Why can’t Jackie romancers sneak into her room every so often?

And let’s get started on Rafael. First of all....what the fuck?

I love a little bit of angst so I wasn’t initially too mad when Sora was introduced (actually I think it made me want Rafael more, because apparently I only like men I can’t have...and I’ve gone off Ethan because he would be too easy). But there was none. Sora appeared in chapter 2, where it’s described as ‘stings a little to watch’, but doesn’t appear again until the baseball game in chapter 8 where they cheer for Edenbrook a couple of times. The only kind of ‘angst’ Rafael romancers got was dancing with Raf at the music festival where Sora is briefly mentioned and MC closes their eyes and listens to Raf’s heartbeat (which was a sweet moment, to be fair). Are you seriously telling me that none of their friends acknowledged that he and MC used to date? That they wouldn’t have asked if MC was OK at least once? That they would have invited Rafael over to the apartment without giving MC a heads up? And when PB was asked about this they gave some crap about making things realistic and exploring the mature themes of a medical drama. If Open Heart were realistic, MC would have been fired halfway through book 1 (one of the dialogue options with Ethan in book 1 chapter 6 actually leads him to say ‘consider yourself lucky you’re even getting a next time’) but NO, we get ‘realism’ by losing a beloved love interest and character that people have grown invested in and spent money on, and then completely waste the opportunity for drama.

And then there’s chapter 10.

And going back to realism, they couldn’t think of anything else apart from vengeance and terrorism? Not, I don’t know, just a highly infectious patient which is probably more likely to happen within a hospital?

I do think that chapter 11 is one of the strongest chapters of Second Year, and the book has got stronger since then. But knowing that it might have ended with the death of Rafael leaves a VERY bitter taste. I’m very glad they rewrote it...but what on earth was the thought process behind that?!? Going back to realism again, if they wanted drama and emotions, why not have Kyra die of surgical complications? At least we’d have been somewhat prepared for that as she was introduced as being a cancer patient, and there would have been more angst (especially for Bryce romancers) as he would have had the guilt of not being able to save her when he promised MC he would, even if it was out of his hands. But sure, have Rafael caught in an assassination attempt, that makes sense. And it still doesn’t really excuse Sora, I mean, imagine the pain if he was still an LI and he and MC were saying their last goodbyes in that room??

I was happy with the rewrite to chapter 11 and the kiss between Raf and MC in chapter 12 was beautiful. And PB have actually made something of an effort to include Raf in the rest of the story; I was half-expecting to not see him again until the obligatory 30-diamond scene in the last chapter.

Chapter 12 was so emotional and it was so clear that each character and LI was struggling with the events. And the end of chapter 12 and the beginning of chapter 13 made it very clear that MC was terrified of returning to work. MC has butterflies in their stomach as they walk in to Edenbrook and then...nothing. That was that. As if they just needed to face their fear and they’d be alright again. Now I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure PTSD isn’t as simple as that? It would go far deeper than ‘Oh, I’m alright, just taking it one day at a time’. And the narration specified that MC was uncomfortable at the idea of going back into the diagnostics room where the attack happened, but chapter 14 we’re back in there without batting an eyelid.

Someone (I don’t know who...if you’re reading this let me know!!) pointed out that Danny and Bobby could have been mentioned at the gala...there could have been some kind of ‘in memory’ and donors could have been guilt tripped by MC. But no, not a peep. I keep thinking that we could have had Baz, Zaid and Inez (I miss her) catching up with MC and asking how they’re doing and how worried they were. If you’re going to the gala with Raf there could have been a highly emotional scene between them about what happened in the room. Raf alludes to it in a line of dialogue but there was potential for so much more.

And how about the fact that a group of doctors cured the incurable OVERNIGHT and it worked without proper testing? NO ONE has mentioned that since! Surely there would be papers being published and deeper research being conducted now that lives aren’t on the line? We had a whole chapter about how a research grant would save the hospital but now...nothing?! Ed Farrugia hasn’t been mentioned since chapter 12. No one in the team is talking about how it was June’s idea to convince him to switch to Edenbrook. Surely that would be a huge elephant in the room? Wouldn’t she at least say something like ‘I never wanted this to happen, we went too far’? Something?!

The fact that there has been no follow-up to the attack suggests to me that it was purely for shock value. They just wanted drama and didn’t care about keeping it grounded. And assuming that Rafael died in the original, that’s more upsetting. I can’t believe that he was the least profitable character in the history of Choices ever. And even if he was, was it because no one bought his diamond scenes, or because he didn’t have diamond scenes to buy? I romanced Bryce in my first playthrough, but I remember choosing to assist on his surgery without even thinking about it, I didn’t even look at the diamonds it would cost. So a beloved character would have been killed, and it would have brought nothing to the story.

Furthermore, Sora would never have been explained. Rafael almost explained in chapters 2 and 12 but both times MC cut them off. If Rafael was originally going to die in chapter 11, Rafael romancers would never have got that explanation, unless they were to hear it from Sora themselves afterwards (doubtful). And it’s highly unlikely it actually will be explained. PB will probably say ‘it’s up to you what happened!’ like they’re doing us a favour by creating our own headcanon, but to me that’s just lazy writing; they wanted to write off Rafael and they didn’t care how they did it.

If Second Year hadn’t opened with a funeral scene we might never have been clued into what was going to happen and demanded a rewrite.

Aside from that, there’s Esme. She’s introduced as breaking Dr Thorne’s hand and then has to diagnose and treat him in chapter 10. Depending on your choices, he gets surgery and thanks Esme for saving his life and apologises for the bar incident. Otherwise she doesn’t run further tests and he messes up a surgery which eventually forces him to resign. And then Esme gets her plotline with Levi. If Dr Thorne wasn’t her main plotline, what was the point in introducing him? It’s another storyline that had huge potential--sexual harassment in the workplace, for example--but had little to no payoff and fell off the radar. If PB wanted to introduce MC and Esme the night before they both started working then MC could have just literally walked into Esme and either apologised, asked if she was OK, or told her to watch where she was going, and that would have affected how she greeted you in the hospital the next day. But no, we get this storyline hinted at which is then written off and replaced. Maybe it was a rewrite, I just don’t see why it would have been.

Like I said before, the main storylines of book 1 all tied together in the end, but the storylines we’ve had in book 2 have just felt like completely separate events, just a bunch of stuff that happens and is quickly forgotten. I think the balance of the LIs has been better since chapter 11; even when the gang went to Vegas, Raf romancers got a quick phone call with him. As a Raf romancer, I appreciated that, and it only goes to show how PB could accommodate for all LIs whilst having Ethan integral as our boss (see before, bonus scenes for Jackie romancers sneaking into each others rooms, bonus scenes for Bryce romancers having flirty interactions in the corridors). 

There is such a difference in dialogue if you’re playing Ethan’s romance route or not. I had him stay behind in chapter 11 and I thought it came across as a sweet conversation between a mentor and his protégée. But the other LIs don’t have anything close to that level of detail. Ethan romancers get pretty close to being official in chapter 17 but I’ve heard Jackie and Bryce didn’t get that. And Raf romancers didn’t even get caught sneaking back into the gala. I’m still holding out hope that book 2 will end with all LIs saying ‘I love you’ and being official with MC, but the inequality makes me sad.

I might have had some more to say, but this post has been longer than I intended and I don’t remember what that might have been. I really wanted to like Open Heart: Second Year. Book 1 will always be a favourite, but book 2? It’s like going from the classic era of The Simpsons where Homer was a lazy dumbass but genuinely loved his family, to the modern era of The Simpsons where nothing makes sense and Homer is a straight-up jerk. I just hope that, if we get book 3, they would have learned from their mistakes and Open Heart can be saved. It doesn’t deserve this.

Well, that’s my two cents. Sorry for the long post. If you got this far, thanks for reading.

[holidaywishes]

All Roads Lead To You I

Part 1: From Buildings to Beaches

  Summary of series: JJ took a job at the old Samson Estate -- mostly mowing lawns, cleaning Mr. Samson’s yacht and serving at his dinner parties -- for the sole purpose of distracting himself from the fact that he seemed to be the only one left from the crew. Sarah and John B. were still “lost at sea” after almost a year and Pope and Kie were... well, they were becoming Pope and Kie, so he needed something to occupy his time. When a new girl comes to town, JJ thinks it’s the perfect way to let off some steam but it may be more difficult than he anticipated.

  Summary of chapter: Adelaide Samson hasn’t been in North Carolina since she was six years old but now that her favourite cousin, Alexis, is turning 18 she’s back for a short visit -- that might last longer than she intended.

  Warning: Little bit of angst, lot of exposition/introduction, little bit of fluff

  Author’s Note: I hope you like it and I want to give a shoutout to @ptersparkers for writing an awesome imagine also with a female New Yorker coming to steal JJ’s heart. While mine’s much more tame than theirs, I wanted to add their name in case there’s any similarities or overlapping themes but, also, to give credit where credit is due! Also, I did it again. I came up with a name for the Female character but you’re obviously allowed to replace it with yours -- I just liked the name that’s all. Have Fun!

  masterlist

  the other masterlist

xx

Addy’s P.O.V

  Alexis called you frantic one day, asking what she should do for her birthday

  “Come out to New York. Aren’t you tired of the beach?” you joked

  “Aren’t you tired of the crowds?” she joked back

  “Touché but seriously. The last time you were here was what? Like five years ago?”

  “Yeah because..” she struggled to come up with an excuse, “because.. I don’t know. I like the beach and the sun and the laid back attitude here. I panic too much when I’m in the City.”

  “That’s just because you haven’t spent enough time here...” you insisted

  “I’m turning 18, Ads,” Alexis whined, “I want, no scratch that, I need to do something amazing.”

  “What are your options?” you finally asked

  “Honestly? At this point, we’re only throwing around the idea of a Yacht party...”

  “Blech,” you said in disgust, “that sounds like your mom was throwing out ideas.”

  “Maybe...” she joked before sighing loudly, “help me out! The whole Yacht thing is not really my first choice but it’s all I’ve got right now. I can’t come to New York City”

  “And why not?” you asked, feigning insult

  “Because the people I would invite would be too.. stuck up about where they’d want to go”

  “Doesn’t that say something about your friends?” you questioned

  “Come to the OBX”

  “Lexi..” you sighed

  “Why won’t you come back?”

  “Why won’t you come here?”

  “I already answered that” she said

  “I can’t come back to the Outer Banks”

  “Why not?!”

  “Because.. I haven’t been back there in years. I just.. I wouldn’t know what to do there..”

  “Celebrate my birthday with me. Drink some beer. Surf a little”

  “Ah see, no. I don’t surf. I don’t know how and I don’t care to learn. I’ll hang out on land or on a boat.”

  “Paddle board then”

  “Hold on, are you telling me that you know how to surf?” you asked, chirping her a little because it seemed so far off from something she would actually do

  “Yes I’ve been learning how to surf. I’ve got a great teacher...” she lied but you pretended like you didn’t hear it

  “Okay..” you smiled to yourself, thinking you could catch her in a lie, “fine. I’ll come out there. For you, for your birthday. But I won’t stay longer than the weekend.”

  “YAY!” she exclaimed, practically bursting your ear drum with her high-pitched squeal, “I’m so excited! We’re gonna have fun. So much fun, you’ll never want to leave The Outer Banks.”

  “I highly doubt that.”

xx

JJ’s P.O.V

  “I need you at full attention, JJ” Mr. Samson said, appearing beside you as you prepared the lawnmower

  “Sir?” you asked confused

  “Turns out my daughter’s coming into town. I haven’t seen her in.. wow, 10 years,” he sighed, “I need the lawn and the house to be perfect.”

  “Yes sir” you replied, nodding to Mr. Samson who thanked you before walking away

  “Thanks, son” he said as he got to the patio and you smiled at his words. While you finished working on the lawn, you noticed Kiara and Pope pull up in front and you shook your head at their arrival.

  “JJ!” Kiara yelled, “JJ COME ON!”

  “You can’t ignore us forever man!” Pope called

  “I’m not ignoring you,” you replied, turning back toward the house to put the lawnmower in the shed, “I’m just working.”

  “They’re gone, JJ!” Kie shouted, sighing when you finally stopped walking, your back still to them, “we’re just trying to live our lives. It’s been almost a year!”

  “You guys just gave up!” you shouted and both Pope and Kie took a step back in shock, “no one found their bodies. No one knows for sure what happened to them. It was up to us to keep looking for them but you both gave up!”

  “We didn’t! We just..” she said, glancing at Pope briefly before she looked back at you, “we had to think realistically about their chances.”

  “They could still be alive!”

  “JJ!” Pope yelled, trying to get you to calm down, “they’re gone. What’s it gonna take for you to accept that?” You nodded your head slowly, moving your tongue against the inside of your bottom lip before eventually turning away

  “I gotta get back to work. See you around.” you answered snidely, waving your hand above your head as the words exited your throat.

  “JJ?” you heard a voice softly call to you but you didn’t see anyone so you ignored it, “JJ?”

  “WHAT?” you snapped when you heard the voice again, finally seeing Alexis pop out from around the corner

  “I’m sorry...” she said, standing more than arms length away from you, “I didn’t want to interrupt. I can come back”

  “No, I’m sorry, Lex,” you sighed, “what’s up?”

  “Well...” she started, “I have a favour to ask but you can feel free to say no, because it’s kinda weird and --“

  “What’s the favour Alexis?” you smiled at her ramblings

  “My cousin is coming into town from New York. I told her.. I’ve been learning to surf...” she said while a look of embarrassment rushed across her face

  “You want me to teach you how to surf before your cousin gets here? When is she coming?”

  “She’s your boss’s daughter. Didn’t he tell you?”

  “Ah shit,” you smirked, dropping your head to the ground, “didn’t even think about that. She’ll be here in like two days, I can’t teach you how to surf in two days...”

  “No see that’s the thing!” she exclaimed, “I don’t need you to actually teach me how to surf. I just need you to pretend like you’ve been teaching me how to surf. There’s no way Addy is actually gonna ask me to ‘show how my skills’ so as long as you talk me up and I talk your teaching skills up, she’ll never know!”

  “You really think so?”

  “Maybe?” she sighed, her voice rising as her shoulders shrugged, “look, I have never had anything to.. brag about to my cousin. She may be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, like truly a compassionate soul, but she’s like... effortlessly cool? She lives in New York City, I mean come on”

  “It’s just a City, Lex, doesn’t make her cool” you laughed

  “Everyone I’ve ever met falls at her feet. I just want to have something that she doesn’t.”

  “And that one thing is surfing?”

  “Yeah! Yes!” she smiled, “there’s no surfing in New York, at least not that I know of, and she told me she has no interest in learning how to surf. Which means, if we can trick her into thinking I’ve been learning, I’ll have something over her.”

  “Fine,” you agreed, “but how exactly do you suggest we do this?”

  “We’ll be very strategic with bringing in boards so she can see me holding one,” she explained, “I’ll make sure to get her to come to the beach when the two of us are already there, so she can catch us in the water... on the boards obviously...”

  “Right. Okay, I think I get it. You wanna lie to her. I’m great at lying, ask anyone,” you boasted, “will I be getting something out of this?”

  “You mean am I gonna pay you?” she asked and you smiled, “No, but nice try. Consider it.. an extension of the job you already have.”

  “I don’t really see what I’m getting then..”

  “You’re getting the joy of knowing you get to brag about yourself,” she smirked, “which I know you’ll love.”

  “Only because everyone should realize how awesome I am,” you laughed and she smiled hopefully at you, “fine. I’ll do it.”

  “Thank you, JJ!” She squealed, hugging you as she did so, “you’re the best!”

  “That I am” you replied as she took herself off of you and headed back toward the house. It was an odd request but Alexis was a nice girl so you didn’t see the harm in aiding her lie. Plus, you knew you could probably have some fun with it so why not add it to the list of distractions for the summer?

xx

Addy’s P.O.V

  You drove into the Outer Banks so that no one would have to worry about picking you up and so you could try to surprise Alexis, but you hadn’t planned on getting there so early in the morning. It was clear to you that your parents were trying to woo you back into the OBX life when you saw the entire house staff frantically cleaning for, what they thought, was your afternoon arrival. You snickered to yourself before heading to the kitchen.

  “Hello doll,” a woman said to you as you walked through the door, “are you lost?” Clearly, your picture wasn’t plastered around the house like you thought they’d be, or maybe the only pictures your parents had were before you went away, so the staff had no idea who you were. Which meant you could fly under the radar for a bit.

  “I don’t think so, just a little late. I’m supposed to be helping prepare some of the food for when Mr. and Mrs. Samson’s daughter comes into town.” You said with a shy smile, hoping the woman would believe you

  “Perfect! You’re in the right place then. My name is Sharon and you are...” she asked and you felt a slight panic in your chest as you tried to think of a name

  “Adelaide!” You heard a familiar voice call from behind you, “Adelaide Samson, why are you tryin’ to trick your daddy’s staff?” You turned around to see one of the only people you remembered from your childhood at the Estate

  “Ms. Margaret?” you exclaimed, “you’re still here?”

  “Of course I’m still here, darlin’, now are you gonna answer my question or not?” she asked

  “What questio-- oh...” you stammered, “I didn’t mean any harm Ms. Margaret, I just wanted to see if I could.. be someone other than Mr. and Mrs. Samson’s daughter.”

  “You know you’re more than that.” She said, dropping her hip as she scolded you, “Well, since you’re back here, wanna help prepare the food?”

  “I’d be delighted” you answered and she set you up in front of two bowls, asking you to begin prepping the peas for blanching; cutting the top of the pod, pulling down the fiber along the middle and emptying the pod into the second bowl, repeating until the first bowl was empty. You let your mind wander as you did the tedious work, being jolted back to the kitchen when you heard your mother’s voice. “She can’t know I’m here, Ms. Margaret!” you exclaimed, hiding behind the cabinets

  “Mrs. Samson, how are you doing today?” Margaret asked

  “I’m doing well, Margaret, thank you for asking. How are you?” your mother reciprocated

  “Very well, Mrs. Samson, can I help you with anything?”

  “No No,” she replied, that infamous lilt in her voice you’d know anywhere, “I’m just checking that everything is going smoothly in here. Say, Margaret, Sharon,” she stopped, a question rising on her tongue, “have you seen my Adelaide? I think that’s her car out front but she’s not there. Neither her father nor I have seen her yet, I thought maybe she’d wandered into the kitchen. She did always do that when she was young...”

  “She was a wanderer, your young Adelaide,” Margaret answered with a smile, “but I’m afraid we haven’t seen her. Maybe she went down to the water?”

  “Maybe. Well, anyway, I didn’t mean to bother you. Keep up the good work!” she said with a pep in her voice and you rolled your eyes as she left, waiting to be told the coast was clear

  “Thank you, Ms. Margaret, Ms. Sharon,” you said, “I don’t think I’m ready to see them just yet...”

  “Well you better be.” Sharon said, rather curtly, before nodding her head once and walking to her counter to continue her prep

  “She’s right, Ms. Addy, you better get into that house and act like you just wondered in from the beach or somewhere. We don’t need any trouble for hiding you, you got that?”

  “Yes, Ms. Margaret.” You replied, smiling shyly before giving her a hug goodbye, “I really did miss you”

  “You could’ve come back anytime”

  “You know that’s not true.”

  “Sure it is! Now go!” she exclaimed, shooing you out of the kitchen. You snuck into the house via an old tunnel that lead from the kitchen to your room, among other locations, and popped in when the room was empty.

  “Hmm.. nothing’s changed” you said to yourself, ducking behind your dresser when you heard footsteps in the hallway. When the sound disappeared, you tiptoed to the door, looking in either direction past the door frame before you left your room, making your way down the winding staircase. When you finally got downstairs, you started looking through the family pictures on the credenza’s and the mantel in the living room, realizing just how right you were; none of the pictures they had of you were past the age of six. Suddenly, you heard something break and a groan come from the other room.

  “Shit” a boy said under his breath as he examined the broken glass under his feet, looking to make sure, you assumed, that your dad wasn’t coming down to investigate the sound.

  “Don’t..” you said, stopping him picking up the glass, “you’ll cut yourself. Here, use this.” You continued, pulling out a small dust pan that was hidden near the desk

  “Thanks...” he said suspiciously, and the look on his face seemed to be trying to figure you out

  “You’re welcome...” you returned his suspicious tone, “have you seen Mr. Samson anywhere?”

  “He should be upstairs.. I’m sorry, who are you?” He finally asked

  “Adelaide. Samson,” You answered and his back straightened, as if he were correcting himself for you, “but everyone calls me Addy”

  “Nice to meet you,” he said, his voice was both confident and shaky, “I’m JJ. I uh.. I work for your dad. And I guess for you too”

  “No..” you corrected, “you don’t work for me. I am not my parents. You may work for them but you don’t work for me.” You smiled awkwardly at your own words before he returned a smile, “it’s nice to meet you JJ. I’ll see you around.” You walked past him, unintentionally grazing his arm with your shoulder, feeling a shiver rush down your spine once the contact was broken. You could feel him look down at you but you did everything you could to keep your eyes straight and keep walking because you weren’t looking for a reason to stay.

  “Adelaide, sweetheart!” your dad said as he flew into the room where you stood, “I’m so glad you’re finally back!”

  “I’m not--” you tried but your dad seemed to be distracted by the broken glass in the dust pan

  “What happened here?” he questioned sternly

  “Dad it’s j--”

  “JJ?” he accused the blonde behind you and you furrowed your brow at how quick he was to blame someone other than you

  “Dad, I was looking around and the paperweight fell. He came in when he heard the noise to see that everything was okay...” you explained, protecting JJ from the wrath you knew your father was capable of

  “That true?” he asked, stepping toward JJ

  “Yes sir,” he said, keeping his eyes down until he spoke again, “I was cleaning up in the other room when I heard something fall, so I came right in and found.. your daughter trying to pick up the pieces.” You smiled at him from behind your father, nodding at his continuation of your fib before your father looked back at you once before responding to JJ

  “Well,” he said, looking JJ up and down, “I guess I owe you a thank you. And an apology. So.. thank you and I’m sorry for accusing you so quickly.”

  “Thank you, sir” he said quietly before being dismissed and, while your father wrapped his arm around you to welcome you back into his home, you looked back at the boy who you’d shared an unspoken moment with and smiled to yourself. Not knowing if, or when, you’d have a moment with him again. 

[les-mis-still-makes-me-cry]

Lily Evans Definitely Has a Boyfriend Chapter 3

FINALLY I get to write dialogue for my fave couple! Chap 1 Chap 2

Lily’s mouth hung open. She struggled to say anything but it felt like someone had put a silencing charm on her and she couldn’t make a sound. She just couldn’t stop looking at the visitor who had appeared on her doorstep and was currently grinning at her state of shock.

“Cat got your tongue? Or have I just taken your breath away?” he pretended to muse, reaching up again to mess with his hair. His words shook Lily out of her state of shock, quickly turning it into anger.

“What do you think you’re playing at, Potter,” she hissed, prodding him backwards so she could close the front door behind her. She didn’t want Petunia catching wind of this conversation, although Lily doubted she’d even be awake for a while. Petunia insisted on getting her beauty sleep.

“You requested one fake boyfriend, and here I am.” He seemed unabashed by her tone. Probably the months of practise in school ignoring Lily’s disgust for him.

“On Saturday! Four days away from now!” she said slowly, as if talking to a toddler.

“Well I figured we could use a planning meeting, you know, to work out our backstory!” he protested.

“We could have planned via owl! Without you actually coming to my house!”

“Come on Lily, you know this is a better plan. And if your sister meets me more than once, she’ll be way more likely to believe it.”

He made a good point. Lily frowned, considering her options.

One, she tells Potter to get lost right now and the plan is cancelled. That wouldn’t help Lily at all, no matter how satisfying it would feel.

Two, she tells him to get lost and come back on Saturday. Also not helpful. He would probably back out just to piss her off, and even if he didn’t, he was right. Just sending a few letters wasn’t enough to build up the pretence of a relationship.

Three, she goes along with him until they had worked out the backstory, and introduced him to Petunia, THEN she tells him to get lost until Saturday. Loath as she was to put up with his nonsense before she had even had a cup of tea, she knew this was the best she would get.

“Fine, let’s talk,” she closed the front door fully and began to walk down the pavement.

“Uh, Lily, you don’t have shoes on,” he said, hesitating by the house as she continued to stomp away.

“Shoes aren’t the priority right now. Let’s go, we can’t risk my sister overhearing,” she commanded. James shrugged off his confusion and ran up to catch her.

“Your wish is my command, darling,” he smiled, slinging an arm over her shoulder only to be immediately shrugged off.

“Absolutely none of that or this whole thing is cancelled,” she snapped, giving him a dirty look.

“Oh come on Lily, you can’t expect your sister to believe we’re going out if you won’t even give me a hug,” he laughed.

“Well she’s not here right now, is she? Honestly Potter, you would think-”

“And it’s not very affectionate to just call me by my surname you know!” James cut her off. “I was thinking more on the lines of babe, darling, sexy-” Lily came to a sudden stop and crossed her arms before he could finish his list.

“Look, you’re clearly just here to take the piss so why don’t you just go back home right now and leave me to have my summer in peace,” she said sharply.

James stopped too. “Aw come on Lily, you know how ridiculous this whole situation is, I’m just trying to have a bit of fun.”

“Well it’s not fun for me!” Lily almost yelled. “It’s my sister, and my family, and you’re just here to try to- oh just forget it, this was a stupid idea anyway.” Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes and she turned to head back inside. She hadn’t taken two steps before a warm hand grabbed her shoulder, and she felt his presence close behind her.

“Lily, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make fun of you, honestly,” he said, his voice low and soft. “I genuinely just want to help you, that’s why I’m here. I promise I’m not trying it on with you. God knows you would hex my balls off before I got anywhere near.”

Lily coughed to cover up her laughter, eyes firmly fixed on the pavement.

“Do you still want to go take a walk and talk things over? If I promise to not be a git?” James asked hopefully.

She looked up at him. His hazel eyes looked very sincere, and his hand dropped from her arm respectfully as soon as she turned back. She didn’t think she had ever heard him apologise before, not for any of his outlandish pranks, not for any of his hexes on Snape, and especially not for any of the times he had asked her out. Apologising was a new side of James Potter to Lily, just as forgiving him would be a new thing for her.

Truthfully, she didn’t even really know why she had got so angry. A couple of cheeky jokes on his part, her early morning bad mood, plus the general habit of getting pissed off at the sight of him just led to a volatile mix. But, Lily thought, no time like the present to try to change.

“Okay,” she whispered. She looked down, unable to hold his eye contact any longer. “I’m sorry too, I guess I’m just really stressed about the whole thing. Can’t say I’ve ever faked a relationship before.”

“Perfectly understandable, although I’d recommend not yelling at me during the dinner if you’re aiming for believability,” he nudged her gently. They started to walk back down the street again, James looking around with interest at the Muggle suburbia surrounding them.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a Muggle village before,” he noted, staring intently at mundane things like TV aerials and doorbells. Lily begrudgingly smiled again at his enthusiasm, before a realisation hit her.

“Hang on, how did you even get here? I never said where I live!” she asked curiously.

James looked a bit sheepish. “Ah, well, you see, I was a bit excited when I got your letter, I thought it was best to start preparations as soon as possible, and I didn’t want to wait for your owl to go all the way back to you, and-”

“Remus told you, didn’t he,” she deduced, rolling her eyes. “That snake.”

“It wasn’t his fault Lily, I didn’t give him much choice. I said I was apparating whether he told me where to go or not, and if I splinched myself horribly I was holding him entirely responsible,” James confessed.

“You’re a horrible friend to that boy,” Lily tutted.

James clapped a hand to his chest, gasping. “How dare you! I’ll have you know I was the picture of innocence before that demon Lupin came along and dragged me down the path to iniquity.”

Lily snorted. “And Dumbledore’s beard’s a wig.”

“I always said there was something not quite right about it, no beard should be that shiny and luscious.”

Lily started to laugh properly. Despite James’ irritating tendencies, he wasn’t half bad company. They were both still giggling as they reached a park at the end of Lily’s street. It had clearly seen better days, with no kids taking advantage of the nice weather to play outside. There was a roundabout covered in graffiti, a couple of sad swings with uneven chains, and a seesaw that looked as if one good push would knock it over completely. The pair decided that the swings looked the least hazardous, and sat down.

“Shall we get down to business?” James suggested, pushing himself gently back and forth.

“Yes, right,” Lily said. “Well, basically I… I mean I was thinking…” Lily’s mind had gone totally blank. How were they going to pull this off? Where did they even start?

“You’ve put a lot of thought into this, haven’t you,” James grinned.

“Shut up, Potter,” Lily rolled her eyes.

“Alright, rule one, call me James,” he said, still grinning. “We can save the pet names till we know each other better.”

“Or maybe we just won’t be that kind of couple,” Lily said quickly. “Rule two no… funny business from you.” She hoped James would pick up what she meant.

“Define funny business.” James’ eyes twinkled at her. He definitely knew what she meant.

“Potter,” she threatened.

“Alright, alright, no ‘funny business’,” he said, raising his eyebrows suggestively. “Although you do realise there will have to be some sort of physical contact at some point.”

“I know that, just not… you know…” Lily blushed.

“No ravishing you in front of the family?” said James.

“If that’s how you want to put it,”

“I could be more specific if you like.”

“I think we can move on, Pot-” she stopped dead as he coughed loudly. “What are you- oh, James, then.”

“There you go!” he encouraged. “Step one achieved.”

“I thought it was rule one?”

“What’s twenty-nine knuts to a sickle, Lily, you’re nit-picking.”

“Fine, new topic. What’s our backstory?”

“How much have you told your sister already?” Potter asked.

“Nothing, she doesn’t even know your name yet.”

James pretended to look offended. “You mean you haven’t been boasting about me all evening? I expected to pretend to be the youngest ever Minister for Magic or something.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “In your dreams. I did tell my mum that we got together during our sixth-year exams, but that’s about all I’ve said so far.”

“And I’m assuming you’re ruling out any scenarios where I save you from a burning classroom, sweep you off your feet and fly us away on my broomstick?”

“You would be correct.”

“My talents are wasted here.”

“How about something a little more realistic, like we studied together a couple of times and just… started going out?” Lily trailed off feebly. James didn’t look impressed.

“Sounds super romantic.”

“At least mine sounds plausible!”

“Lily the only thing more boring than your idea of romance is History of Magic.”

“Well, then, what do you suggest?”

James looked thoughtful for a moment, stopping his swinging entirely. “How about I asked you to Hogsmeade for the last trip of the year. You said yes because I hadn’t pissed you off in a good few months, and you were bored anyway so why not take a chance, right? We ended up talking in the Three Broomsticks the whole afternoon, finding out we really had a lot in common when we weren’t hexing each other. After that, we wound up spending more and more time together. We would go and fly around the Quidditch pitch between exams, to keep our minds off things. You stole my broom whenever I would let you, which would be all the time because I couldn’t say no to you, and to be fair it is a pretty fantastic model. Finally I worked up all my Gryffindor courage just before we sat our last exam, and asked you to go out with me proper. And you said yes, of course,” he clarified.

Lily was once again left speechless. It all just sounded… perfect. She could almost believe that it had actually happened, he said it with such care and tenderness. She could see them on their first date, butterbeer in hand, cracking jokes with each other like they’d been doing for the past few minutes. Maybe his hand would have edged towards hers on the table. Maybe she would have taken it.

“Sorry, that was probably too much backstory, we should simplify,” James misinterpreted her silence, furrowing his brow.

“No, no, that was… amazing, really believable,” Lily replied, shaking herself back into reality. She cleared her throat awkwardly. “We should definitely go with that.”

“You sure? You seemed a bit… unenthusiastic,” said James, hand ruffling his hair.

“No, really, I was just processing it, that’s all. You’ve got a great imagination,” she said.

“Just had a lot of time to think about it, that’s all.” A note of sadness tinged his voice and he couldn’t quite meet her eye. Lily pretended she didn’t understand what he was referring to.

“Did I really leave you out on my doorstep that long?” she joked. James thankfully took the bait, a small smile returning to his face.

“Sounds about right. You’re a rubbish owl owner, I was hooting at you for ages,” he admonished.

“Well Scarlett always comes to my bedroom window, not the front door! And how do you make that noise, anyway?” Lily asked.

“It’s easy, you just put your hands together like this-” his hands closed around each other “and blow into it.” He put his mouth to his thumbs, and a low hoot came out. Lily tried to copy him, but all she heard was air rushing through her fingers. She tried again and again, not getting anywhere close.

“Just takes a bit of practise, you’ll get there,” he encouraged, laughing as her face got increasingly red from her efforts.

Lily gave up with a frustrated sigh, getting up from the swing.

“I’ll get it some other time. Shall we head back?”

“You- you want me to meet your family right now?” James questioned nervously.

“Wasn’t that the whole idea of you coming over this early? Getting cold feet already, are you?” Lily teased.

“I think you’re the one with cold feet here, Miss Lily ‘I don’t need shoes’ Evans,” James answered, leaping off his swing. “Here, these things are great, wish I’d had one when I was younger.”

“I used to come here all the time before I came to Hogwarts,” said Lily. “I would jump off right at the top, and…” She paused, her face growing sad. James looked at her curiously.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Nothing, it was just… here, when I jumped off the swing, that was when I met Snape,” Lily eventually finished.

“Ah,” said James awkwardly.

Lily was grateful when he didn’t say more. She didn’t like discussing her old friend at the best of times, and discussing him with the boy who was his worst enemy was even less appealing. They set off back down the street in silence, watching people starting to rush to work. Lily couldn’t believe it was still so early, she felt like she’d spent a whole day with James already.

“So, before I meet them, what should your fake boyfriend know about your family?” James asked, breaking their silence.

“Well, my sister’s called Petunia, and she’s marrying a man called Vernon Dursley,” Lily began.

“That’s a… distinguished name,” James said tactfully.

“I don’t like him much, you don’t need to pretend,” she said.

“He sounds like a git,” James replied.

“He is a git. But they’re happy, at least. They’re getting married in December,” Lily continued. “That’s why Petunia’s home at the minute, she’s planning the wedding with my mum.”

“And hopefully after Saturday, you as well?”

“That’s the plan,” said Lily grimly.

“What’s your mum’s name? Do I need to win her over as well?” he smirked down at Lily, who glared back.

“No flirting with my mum, Potter,” she growled.

“I’m here to flirt with you, Evans, don’t worry,” he said, winking at her. “Joking, joking!” he added when she glared at him.

“Thin ice, Pot- James,” said Lily.

“Alright last question, will your dad be interrogating me at any point about my intentions toward his daughter?” said James.

Lily tried her best to keep her features neutral. “He’s… he died when we were in fourth year.”

James looked intensely uncomfortable, dropping the cocky attitude. “Merlin, Lily, I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

“It’s fine, don’t worry, you didn’t know,” she said abruptly. “Shall we do this then? Feeling prepared?” They had reached her front door once more, and she looked up at him. She didn’t trust him not to do something absurd, nor did she feel anywhere near prepared enough, but it was now or never.

He smiled back at her. “You know me, I’m ready for anything. Now, can I hold your hand, fake girlfriend?” He offered her his hand, looking steady and confident. After a split-second’s hesitation, she took it.

“I suppose so, fake boyfriend,” she sighed. He intertwined their fingers, making it look as natural as if they did this every day.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the door, and led James into her house.

***

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