#she had the chance to become a motherly figure not once but twice and each time it ended in somebody dying 💀

[sewerpalette]

Bart & Marguerit because I felt like drawing them again.

Bart the sick Victorian child ❤️🙏

Also AU Designs idk

Why do people draw them as white lowkey

I Need to practice more 3/4 angles, didn’t even think I’d post this but people on my Instagram stories liked it so might aswell haha.

[theauthorandtheartist]

Cliches

This goes along with the Dannymay day 7 prompt: 2nd chances

I don’t know where I came up with this. I just started writing and didn’t stop. I tried to do a story without using dialogue, and I think I succeeded. I had to write this for a school assignment, so I had to explain the Danny Phantom world a bit because my teacher had no idea what it is. 

Cliches are a wonderful thing. We cling to them like lifelines, hoping for a good "happily ever after" to make everything better. In fact, I'm sure you were expecting a "Once upon a time" to start off the story now weren't you.

Yeah, you were.

Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, but here, there are no cliches. No long-lived and well-loved story arcs to follow, no "good guys" or "bad guys" or save the world scenarios. Here, the princess rescues the prince and the dragon is locked in the tower. Here, the evil stepfather can't get the upper hand over his rebellious teen son. Here, the protagonists are monsters and the villains are heroes.

Probably the only cliche in the whole story is the existence of myself, the narrator, who will shamelessly add my own thoughts and commentary to the story as I please; simply because I can.

Pleased to meet you.

Now, with hasty introductions out of the way, let’s get down to business. I am here to tell you a story, though I’m sure you already knew that. It is my job as narrator, to lovingly guide you through the history, lore, and thrilling storyline that the author has painstakingly crafted for you to enjoy. You’re welcome. 

Let’s just jump straight into it shall we? I’m sure you already know everything there is to know about Amnity Park, and you don’t need me to tell you about their slightly paranormal pest problem. Surely you don’t need me to inform you about the daily ghost attacks, or the ghostly superhero known as Phantom who repeatedly confronts the angry spirit and either persuades them or forces them back across the veil. Assuredly, you know all about Phantom’s tragic backstory, of how he was caught in the veil between dimensions, and was officially turned into Schrödinger’s boy -both living and dead simultaneously. Of course you already know about the struggles of being both a hero and a high school student, missing class and skipping sleep in order to keep his city (and his secret) safe. I don’t need to tell you about the ghost hunters in town, who relentlessly hunt and attack Phantom without warning, oblivious that he is their son. 

No, you already knew all of that. 

Still, it is quite tragic to see a family pitted against one another, even if it is due to ignorance. Danny Phantom is nowhere near being ready to confide in his parents, but progress always starts with a first step. This story is that first step. 

Let’s meet our protagonist, shall we? 

Daniel James Fenton -or Danny, as he prefers to be called- is a good looking kid. Tall and muscular, without the air of privilege or haughtiness that often surrounds such people. His messy black hair and sparkling blue eyes are enough to make any girl swoon, though he does not seek out such attention, preferring instead to mess around with his two best friends. While most boys his age spend their nights drinking or partying, Danny spends his stargazing (or more recently, ghost fighting). He truly is the ideal high school boyfriend -but don’t let him hear me say that, he’s a flustered dork most of the time. He does his best to avoid the limelight, even letting the other kids bully him if it means that he won’t be looked at twice. 

Danny Phantom however, has no qualms with spotlights. In fact, he doesn’t mind them at all as long as they don’t get in the way or result in other people getting hurt. His ghostly form does not look dissimilar to Fenton, swapping black hair for blinding white and blue eyes for toxic green. His normal T-shirt and jeans shift into a full body, black HAZMAT suit with white gloves and the trademark DP logo on the front. It is rather easy to spot, especially when he’s flying around and glowing. 

To hide his alternate identity, Danny created two different personas for his two halves, slipping seamlessly into character whenever it is needed. Phantom is brash and hot-headed, a master at distracting his enemies with witty banter and endless puns. Fenton is cowardly and shy, infamous for being too clumsy to handle glassware. Fenton is terrified of ghosts, Phantom hunts them. Phantom is willing to sacrifice his own safety and wellbeing for others, Fenton gets misty-eyed over papercuts. This way, even if someone had thought that a ghost and a human could be the same, no one would ever suspect the two to be connected. 

It was crucial that the two were never suspected. If the world knew that half-ghosts  existed, Danny’s identity as a human would be overshadowed by his identity as a ghost. Ghosts don’t have rights, therefore Danny wouldn’t have rights. There would be nothing to stop anyone from marching down and kidnapping him for use in loads of painful and most likely unethical experiments. After all, the popular opinion on ghosts was that they were evil, semi-sentient projections who could feel no pain. That doesn’t do much to help his case. 

The people need to be convinced that Phantom was a hero, and that process starts with his parents. The Fentons are the leading ghost hunters in Amnity, and they have dedicated their life to catching and researching ghosts, even if they aren’t very good at it. They are a perfect team. Maddie is thin and slender, and her blue HAZMAT suit does nothing to hide her curves, but she is not weak in the slightest. Her proficiency in martial arts and science is renowned throughout the city, and every thug knows not to mess with the red-haired mother. Jack, however, has the dexterity of a brick wall and the mass to rival an elephant. He looms menacingly over all who approach him, but his childish nature and agreeable personality make it easy for him to interact with others -even if he is a little too passionate about his profession. 

 The Fentons are stubborn, but not bullheaded. They can see reason when they need to, and unfortunately, with the infamous Phantom of Amnity Park bleeding out on their doorstep, they need to reevaluate their theories. 

Phantom lay slumped against the porch railing, eyelids fluttering as he struggled to remain awake. It was a rather gruesome sight, and if Maddie didn’t know that he was a ghost, then she would be furious at whoever dared do this to a child. His right arm pressed hard against his wounded side, soaking the white glove in acid-green, ectoplasmic blood. A nasty gash on his forehead leaked the same vile liquid into his snowy white hair, plastering it against his sweaty, pale skin. In all honesty, he looked like he had brought a toothpick to a knife fight. 

The Fentons frowned at each other, debating their next move. They knew how this happened, news of Phantom’s latest battle against the hunter ghost known as Skulker had been broadcasted on every television for the past three hours, what they didn’t know, and couldn’t figure out, was why Phantom had come here. They were his enemies, for all intents and purposes, they were very loud about their threats to rip him apart. But here he was, bleeding out on their porch, and Maddie found herself fighting between her hunter’s curiosity and her motherly worry. 

Phantom didn’t look older than her own son, Danny. She hadn’t noticed that before, but now it was painfully obvious how young he was. It also struck her that he was a ghost, which means at some point or another Phantom had been alive. She couldn’t imagine losing Danny, and this ghost didn’t look older than seventeen. 

She sighed, and scooped the hero up into her arms. The hunting could wait. It was against the hunter’s code to kill anything that you hadn’t weakened yourself, anyways, best to fix him up and let him be on his way. She could chase him down again later. 

Now I know you’re thinking, “but Mr. Narrator, isn’t the hunter nursing the huntee back to health and becoming friends a huge cliche?” And to that I say, yes. However, that is not what we’re doing here. They do not become friends and instantly trust each other because of this little incident. This is a first step, nothing more. 

After calming her husband’s fears, and assuring him that she was fine, Maddie cleared off the dining room table and laid the ghost on top. He had lost consciousness at some point while she moved him, and his head lolled back as she set him down. She frowned at the ghost, listening to his labored breaths. Ghosts didn’t need to breathe, but Phantom had always insisted. She never knew why. 

Jack walked up the stairs from the lab, carrying a spool of glowing green thread. Phantom’s wounds would need stitches, and the special thread wouldn’t fall out when he used his power of intangibility. Silently, she stitched up his side, flinching at his whimpers he made every time the needle made contact. She had to remind herself that he was a ghost, and therefore couldn’t feel pain. Any reaction he gave was just part of an elaborate ruse. 

You and I both know that wasn’t true.

She nodded as Jack brought her some bandages, holding his head upright in order for her to wrap them around his ectoplasm-stained hair. A neon green stain spread out on the tabletop, seeping into the wood. This was fine, she would just have to clean it later so the ectoplasm didn’t bring any food to life. 

Satisfied that there were no other major lacerations, she once again scooped up the teenaged hero and moved him slowly to the couch. His unnecessary breathing had evened out, and she could feel a faint, slow, rhythmic thump against the fingers pressed on the base of his neck. It couldn’t be a heartbeat. Ghosts don’t have heartbeats. It must’ve been her imagination. 

As you can see, Maddie is not very receptive to new ideas. 

Laying him on the couch, she expertly ignored the slight hiss he made as his stitches stretched. He began to softly snore. She left the room. Jack was not much help when she explained what she’d felt, merely parroting her feelings back to her with a few insults directed at the ghostly species thrown in. “Ectoplasmic scum” was a popular one, along with “spook” and “monster.” Maddie didn’t know why she didn’t agree with those insults anymore. 

A soft groan echoed from the other room, and Jack jumped to his feet to grab weapons. Maddie stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. Phantom was no threat now, maybe she could get some answers out of him. A strangled, frightened yelp called from the living room, along with a loud thump and a groan. Upon investigation, she found Phantom on the living room carpet, curled up into a ball and shaking. A small pool of his green blood had soaked through the bandages and was now leaving little polka-dots on the rug. 

Phantom apologized for the carpet. 

At first, Maddie was taken aback. Phantom was hurt. Phantom had nearly died. Again. And he was apologizing about the stains on her rug. She didn’t expect most humans to be that selfless, much less a ghost. Nevertheless, Phantom was apologizing for the carpet, as a thin line of green dribbled down from the corner of his mouth. 

She sighed and drew closer, eyes softening as Phantom flinched and tried to back away. She continued to advance, slower this time, and murmured words of encouragement as she approached. The ghosts glowing eyes held suspicion, but he did not flinch away this time. His usual witty banter was gone, much to Maddie’s worry, replaced by the soft pleas of a frightened child. A child faced with death, who did not want to die. 

She called Jack into the room, and asked him to grab some bedding from the storage closet. She had made up her mind. Phantom was not a threat. Jack warily nodded and left to do as she asked, and Maddie gently took Phantom up in her arms again, wiping the green liquid from his face. He stiffened at the contact, but made no move to escape. 

Soon enough, Jack returned with a feather comforter and several pillows. With Phantom’s telekinetic help, they made a soft nest and placed him gently inside. Maddie fussed over him as Jack stood to the side suspiciously. 

Needless to say, Phantom was very confused. Why was his parents helping him? They hate Phantom. Did they see him change back into human form? Is that why they're being so nice? No, Maddie kept calling him “Phantom,” if she knew, she would call him “Danny” or “Sweety.” His secret was safe for now. 

That still begged the question of why they were helping him, and when he asked, their only reply was along the lines of “you’re not a threat,” which really did more harm than good when it came to calming his nerves. 

Nevertheless, they had saved him, and so when Maddie asked for an interview, Phantom didn’t decline. Their questions were standard, if a bit rude. They were nothing he hadn’t answered before, and he only had to lie twice, when their questions got a little too personal. He refused to answer how he died. They didn’t need to know that. 

His healing factor had kicked in, rapidly knitting the skin back together and repairing the damage to his muscles. The room had gotten progressively more relaxed as time went on, and Jack was no longer shooting glares at him from across the room. Instead, he was questioning him with just as much zeal as Maddie. However, Phantom could feel his time here drawing to a close. Danny Fenton needed to be back home before curfew, and he couldn’t do that if Danny Phantom was in the living room. 

Hastily making an excuse to leave, he said goodbye to his parents and phased through the door before they could catch him. His head, which had been overtaken by an awful headache, protested as he flew down the street and into an alley, but he paid it no mind. Unwinding the bandages around his head, Phantom felt his transformation overtake him. 

His heartbeat sped up, his temperature rose, and his breathing grew more frequent. Granted, his heartbeat and breathing still weren’t exactly fast, and his temperature wasn’t exactly warm, but he could pass as human and that’s all that mattered. Seconds later, Danny Fenton exited the alley and headed home, walking carefully as not to disturb the stitched side under his shirt. 

When he arrived home, his parents were whispering in hushed voices, glancing over at the couch occasionally. They greeted him excitedly as he walked inside, before running downstairs to the lab to go over what Phantom had told them. What Danny had told them. 

He sighed and scaled the steps, making a beeline for the door to his room. He should start his homework, but then again, chances are the ghosts aren’t going to let him sleep tonight, so he should take a nap while he can. Not bothering to change clothes, Danny flopped onto his mattress, asleep before he hit the covers. 

In the later weeks, the Fentons would continue to search for Phantom. However, now it was for conversational purposes instead of experimental ones.  He even visited on his own time once or twice for a chat. The overall acceptance of Phantom increased as well, because if the ghost hunters thought he was okay, then the rest of the people would follow. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better than before, and that’s all Danny could really ask for. 

Who knew it took nearly dying to repair broken relationships? 

Well, I did, for one, but I don’t count. I already know how Danny’s story ends. I know how his secret is revealed, and how his parents react. I know who will hurt him, who will betray him, and who will make amends. I know lots of things, including this: Danny will not live happily ever after. He just won't. There will always be more ghosts to fight, more threats to his friends and family, and he will not live happily ever after. His life will be filled with struggle and pain, and there’s nothing I can do to stop that. 

His afterlife however...well, that’s another story. 

I should tell you sometime.

[sunshinebunnie]

Happy Holidays! If it strikes your creative fancy.. #14 with Bughead for the holiday prompts ask game!

**Squee** Thank you so much for this lovely ask, Sarah!! I hope you like it. 🤗🤗

Kissing Beneath the 23rd Floor

Jughead banged his head against the wall of the elevator when the greenish-orangish lights flickered for the umpteenth time. He hated living in the dorms, but the housing allowance that came with his writing scholarship couldn’t be transferred to off-campus housing (not that it would’ve covered anything other than 21st century tenement housing anyway given New York’s insane rents). As embarrassing as it was to be the only non-residential advisor junior living in a freshman/sophomore dorm, the housing office had at least done him the courtesy of securing him a single on the top floor. While he certainly couldn’t beat the view and he greatly appreciated not having to deal with the sounds of people having sex above him or puking in a trashcan five feet from his bed in the middle of the night, he was at the mercy of the latest and greatest in 1960s elevator technology. Nearly every other week, there were signs taped to the elevators banks indicating at least one or the other of the building’s elevators was out of commission because of repairs. 

The creaky metal box came to a shuddering stop at 14th floor. As the doors slowly opened with a protesting screech, Jughead found himself silently praying that some freshman had decided to play ding-dong-ditch with the elevators. Over the course of the semester, he’d quickly come to learn that the only thing worse than living in a dorm with antiquated facilities was living in a dorm with antiquated facilities with underclassmen. It had taken him a couple weeks, but he’d eventually managed to figure out the tell-tale signs that someone was a freshman and largely avoided getting on to the elevators with them: he’d been subjected one too many times to someone’s wide-eyed story about how it was their life dream to move to New York! as well as a couple awkward instances of being sloppily propositioned by drunk freshmen (men and women), not to mention the especially memorable time after midterms when a comp sci major bawled against his shoulder for sixteen floors because he’d flunked his coding exam. He held his breath as he waited to see whether one of Santa’s “lost elves” was about to get on the elevator with him (he’d already had thirteen unavoidable encounters this week). 

When no one immediately made to get on the elevator, he started to breathe a sigh of relief, only to tense up as a hand suddenly shot between the slowly closing doors. The disembodied appendage flailed for a second, trying to find the elevator’s sensor to signal that someone was trying to get on. As the doors continued shutting, he heard a muffled voice that sounded like it said ‘for fuck’s sake’ as the waving hand disappeared. For a split second, he considered just appreciating his good luck and enjoying the rest of his elevator ride (hopefully) in peace, but then he thought back to what time it probably was. It had already been after 11:30 when Archie’s gig had wrapped up, which meant it had to be nearing midnight or later. The only people he’d run into in his dorm that late at night who sounded as coherent as the person on the other end of the elevator doors were the residential advisors. With a heavy sigh, he reached for the “door open” button.

It took long enough for the doors to reopen that he was almost beginning to think he’d broken the elevator when a cheery, but tired-looking blonde stepped gracefully into the confined space. Her hunter green corduroy skirt was offset by a pristine cream-colored sweater covered with a tasteful motif of poinsettias made out of delicate red glass seed beads. If it had been anyone else, he would’ve immediately glanced at her feet to see if she was wearing the ubiquitous Uggs that nearly every sophomore girl in the building appeared to own; however, he recognized her ponytail. (He should’ve, after all, having been transfixed by it every Monday and Wednesday from 10 to 11:30 during their required survey course freshman year: Intro to Film Studies.) 

Betty Cooper. 

He’d wanted an excuse to talk to her, but had never worked up the nerve. Toni, Sweet Pea and Fangs had latched on to him for their group project within the first week of class, and she always seemed to be surrounded by some guy named Kevin and a forbidding brunette named Veronica. Out of all his friends, Toni seemed to be the only one who’d caught him mooning over her from time to time, and she’d jokingly given him shit that he should just bite the bullet and create an Instagram account so he could stalk her properly. 

Jughead was so caught up in his own memories that it took him a minute to realize she was giving him an odd look of searching recognition: it was a look he’d frequently gotten in high school when more popular people from Riverdale High would run into the “loner weirdo from the Southside” around town. Before he had a chance to confirm to her that yes, they did know each other, her green eyes lit up a little, and she said, “Jughead?”

Any ability he had to comprehend or communicate in English–or in any other way, for that matter–abandoned him as he stared dumbly at her in shock. When he didn’t initially respond, the small crinkles at the corners of her eyes started to smooth out as she repeated a little more tentatively, “It is Jughead, right? I remember you. From Film Studies? Freshman year? You always had really insightful comments on all the Hitchcock movies. I’m Bett…”

“…Betty Cooper. I remember,” he finished for her, his brain and his mouth having finally reconnected to one another. 

The tentative look she had was once again chased away by a tired smile as she acknowledged he recognized her too. Betty briefly turned to look at the floor buttons before giving her attention back to him. Having mutually confirmed that they knew each other, they settled back into that semi-awkward silence that tends to pervades elevators when the occupants know one another, but not well enough for casual conversation to come naturally. Jughead watched as she began to unconsciously worrying at the cuffs of her sweater before he said, “I didn’t realize you were one of the residential advisors here.”

Betty ducked her head to the side as she softly tittered for a second before replying, “Oh, that’s because I’m not. There’s a mold problem in my campus apartment, and facility services can’t take care of it until Monday. My friend Ethel is off skiing in the Poconos this weekend with her sorority sisters though, so she’s letting me crash in her room.”

He knew Ethel. She was one of the “motherly” advisors that the more homesick freshmen seemed to swarm around like gnats. Jughead had tried being cordial with her initially–like he was with most of the other upperclassmen in the building–but had started avoiding her more recently after she’d taken it into her head that she needed to Witness to him and had become hellbent on converting him. 

Before the awkward silence descended on them again, Betty prompted, “Do you like being an advisor?”

Jughead let out a dry laugh, which earned him a confused look from her, before he replied, “I’m not an advisor either.”

Betty’s face lit up for the briefest of seconds before her brows started knitting together again. Right as he was going to ask what was bothering her, she said, “You don’t strike me as the booty call type.”

As a creative writing major, Jughead rarely found himself speechless, yet Betty Cooper had managed to strike him dumb twice in under five minutes. He could only imagine how hard Toni would be laughing if she could see him now. His normal embarrassment at admitting he lived in the building was quickly overridden by his desire to disabuse her of the notion that he was somehow preying on young women who weren’t much older than jailbait. Closing his eyes for a second, he centered his thoughts, before steadily holding her gaze as he said seriously, “I’m not. I live here.”

The confusion on her face only deepened as she said, “But you said you’re not an advisor.”

He sighed. This was the explanation he hated getting into with other upperclassmen. He was supposed to be doing a semester abroad at a prestigious writing retreat; however, getting everything settled, he found out the stipend he’d been depending on to cover his living expenses for the four months he was there had been given to a “more challenged” candidate. Unable to make the financials work, he’d been forced to scrap his study abroad plan at the last minute. While getting into the classes he wanted hadn’t been too difficult (the benefit of being a faculty favorite within the department), sorting out his housing had proved much more difficult. Toni had wound up transferring to an all-women’s college upstate at the start of their sophomore year, while Sweet Pea and Fangs moved off campus. Without really knowing any other juniors or seniors, he hadn’t been able to get into a suite with anyone he knew he’d get along with, and he wasn’t willing to risk moving in with another psychotic like his freshman roommate, Malachai. When a freshman decided to de-enroll two weeks before the start of school, campus housing had shoved him into the newly available single and called it a day. 

Rather than get into his sob story with her, he opted for the decidedly more taciturn explanation: “There were complications with my study abroad program, and this was the only available housing left.”

Jughead paused, waiting for the invariable look that decried, ‘Seriously? You couldn’t find a single upperclassman to live with? What’s wrong with you?’ Before he could go on the defensive though, Betty turned soft green eyes full of genuine sympathy toward him as she said, “That must’ve been really frustrating for you. At least, I know when I had to cancel my study abroad plans it was really frustrating.”

A part of him wanted to snap that he didn’t need her pity, but the more rational side of him was able to squash the self-destructive impulse before he did something stupid—like act on it. Instead, he found himself giving her a small smile back as he said, “It was.” 

Silence settled back over them again, periodically broken up by high-pitched squealing from the elevator’s ancient cable wheel. By the time they’d reached the 19th floor, several minutes had passed without them speaking, and Betty had begun looking earnestly at her shoes to avoid the temptation to stare at the enigmatic man sharing the small space with her. She was just starting to daydream about what might’ve happened if she’d listened to Veronica freshman year and simply given him her phone number when she suddenly heard him ask, “What’s the occasion?” 

Her head popped up like a prairie dog at the unexpected question before she briefly glanced back down to take a look at her outfit. “This? No occasion,” she said with a slight blush, “A few of us from the student paper got together to watch the tree lighting at Rockefeller Center, then grabbed some drinks after.”

He nodded sagely, although in three years of living in Manhattan, it had never once occurred to him to go see a Christmas tree get lit up. The image of Betty standing in front of a comically large tree covered in twinkling fairy lights suddenly popped into his head—the whole idea seemed positively Rockwellian to him, and a small sardonic grin pulled at the edges of his mouth. At least, it did, until he realized Betty hadn’t gotten on the elevator at the ground floor, and his good humor quickly morphed into a scowl. “Seducing impressionable freshmen with the romantic holiday atmosphere, Mrs. Robinson?” he asked just dryly enough for it to still be considered a joke, but it was close. 

Betty’s eyes shot wide open, and for the briefest second, he thought she was going to slap him, but instead, she threw her head, her ponytail dancing in time with her tinkling laughter. “Hardly,” she said when she finally caught her breath. “More like letting Trev cry on my shoulder after finding out the guy he’s sort of been seeing this semester has a very serious girlfriend back home in Connecticut, who decided to come down for the weekend as a surprise.” 

Jughead winced. He didn’t know Trevor well, but he’d periodically shared a creaky elevator ride with the quiet ceramics major, and what happened to him was a shitty thing to go through. 

The elevator had just pulled passed the 20th floor when it let out a particularly loud whine of protest before coming to an abrupt halt. The sudden change in momentum caught them both by surprise. Although Betty valiantly attempted to stay upright, her efforts were for naught as Jughead slammed heavily into her with a loud oof. 

“Ow!” Betty cried as her hip slammed into the aluminum grab bar screwed to the wall of the elevator. 

“Sorry!” Jughead said, his hand reflexively dropping to Betty’s waist as he braced himself for the fall. 

His fingers feathered over a sliver of exposed skin on her back as her sweater rode up slightly, and she shivered a little from the unexpected contact. Jughead’s eyes dropped to her lips before sweeping back up to her face. A light blush spread across her cheeks as she looked up at him with something akin to longing, and his heart started to race. Her eyes flickered past his ear.

“Mistletoe,” she said breathily. 

“Huh?” he said as her captivating eyes settled back on his face.

“Someone hung mistletoe from the lights,” she whispered with a husky burr coloring her voice.

His heart momentarily stuttered in his chest. He didn’t normally ascribe to the sort of forced holiday merriment that mistletoe pretended to embody; however, as Betty’s hopeful gaze slowly settled back toward his lips, he found himself leaning infinitesimally closer toward her. 

“Remind me,” he said softly as he felt the humidity caused by the warm exhalations of her mouth so close to his skin, “what’s the tradition with mistletoe?”

Without another word, Betty closed the small gap between them, pressing her plush, velvety lips to his. He groaned against her mouth as all of his synaptic nerves suddenly fired off like fireworks on New Year’s Eve, and he reflexively pulled Betty closer to him. Her tongue probed his half open mouth more eagerly than he was anticipating as her fingers pulled sharply on the fine hairs at the base of his neck, and the sharp sting caught him pleasantly by surprise. Pulling his mouth away from hers, he nipped teasingly at her bottom lip when she let out a small plaintive mewl of displeasure at his having broken off their kiss. 

Jughead couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face as he took in the full scope of her adorable pout. Before he had a chance to make a playfully sarcastic comment though, the stalled elevator slowly started rumbling back to life. His eyes reflexively sought out the floor guide, and he felt his heart drop a little when he realized Betty was destined to get off in two more floors. He could sense his normal “bah-humbug” romantic feelings begin overtaking him again as he realized his shared moment with Betty was all too fleeting. 

As the light for the 21st floor weakly illuminated, Jughead could see Betty chewing on her lip as if she was contemplating a question. As if on cue, he heard her ask in a quietly suggestive voice, “Do you believe in Krampus, Jughead?”

His brow knit momentarily in confusion before he replied a little more brusquely than he otherwise would’ve intended, “No. Why?”

Betty gave him a blinding grin before balling her fist in his soft cotton t-shirt and yanking him toward the creakily opening doors as she said, “Good. Because I aim to misbehave.”

~*~The End~*~

[regolithheart]

Love In The Time of Coronavirus: Chapter Six

Summary: One pandemic, one lake house, and two people who loathe one another. Will they be able to survive the outbreak...and each other?

MASTER LIST

Read on AO3.

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CHAPTER SIX:

It was the end of the week and despite their rocky beginning, both Nesta and Cassian had made it through without causing any physical harm to one another. Much to Nesta’s surprise, they had even fallen into a daily routine with shared breakfasts, cocktails at five on the dot, and even cooking dinner together.

She had enjoyed that part of her days the most—almost looking forward to 6pm when she’d wander into the kitchen to see what they were having for dinner. It was easy to talk to Cassian when most of his attention was elsewhere and with her own small tasks to be done, she could easily ignore him if he was being too…Cassian.

Too Cassian.

Before the quarantine she would have labeled him as irritating—too full of himself and stubborn. Things came easy to Cassian: his smile, his jokes, flirting. He was at ease in every situation because he took nothing seriously whereas Nesta took everything seriously. She didn’t understand how he did it, moved through life without analyzing every minuscule detail of it. 

Before the quarantine she would have labeled him as a beautiful idiot, because yes, she couldn’t deny the fact that he was good-looking. Try as she might, even alone in her bedroom with no one else to judge her. She still couldn’t say those words, that looking at Cassian sometimes made her weak in the knees.

But that had been before the quarantine. After spending almost a whole week with him, Nesta had begun to discover other parts of Cassian. That he was an attentive listener and generous with his time. That he smiled at everything, even when it wasn’t funny. That he stuck the tip of his tongue out when he was trying to be flirty, but also subconsciously, when he was concentrating on something.

And in the span of six days, she had caught herself wondering what Cassian looked like shirtless, at least twice. Once, when she saw him lounging outside on one of the deck chairs. The rising sun had painted his face with a golden glow and she had wondered what it would have looked like, spilling across his broad shoulders. And a second time, when he had off-handedly pulled back the collar of his shirt to reveal that yes, he did in fact know what real pain was as marked by the whorls of black ink on his flesh.

Nesta had allowed herself a two second glance that had her stomach doing cartwheels. She had bit her lip hard enough to hurt and avoided his eyes for the rest of the dinner. 

Yes, Nesta still thought Cassian was brash and too loud. He didn’t know how to respect personal boundaries and made everything his business. And how on Earth he wasn’t able to sit still or in silence for ten minutes straight would always grate on Nesta’s nerves. But he was also all the other small things that she had began discovering as well, the things that made her reconsider how much she actually despised him. 

Which made her flustered for completely other reasons. 

Looking around for something to distract her, her eyes fell onto her phone. 

Perhaps she should finally give Feyre a call. She was beginning to feel guilty for not reaching out, especially because she hadn’t spoken to her baby sister since before their quarantining began. 

Glancing at her watch, she figured now was as good a time as any. 

Feyre picked up on the second ring.

“Nesta, hi. How are you?” Her voice was soft, happy.

“I wanted to check up on you. Is this a good time?”

“Yes, of course. I’m glad you called.”

Nesta could hear people talking in the background, but it had quieted down when Feyre spoke again. “How are things going with Cas—“ She cleared her throat. “How are you doing?”

Nesta scrunched her nose. She wasn’t sure why, but she had suddenly became annoyed. “Fine.”

Feyre was quiet, but when Nesta didn’t provide any further detail, she spoke again. “That’s good… all of my classes are online now… how’s work?”

Nesta shrugged even though she knew Feyre couldn’t see her. “Business as usual. Some people can’t do their jobs when they’re at work or at home.”

Feyre gave her a small chuckle. “Not everyone is as brilliant as you.” She paused a moment. “What about Cassian? Are you guys getting along?”

There it was again, that lick of irritation. “He’s fine. We’re fine. I can actually be civil, you know.”

“I know that! I was just asking. Making sure he wasn’t giving you a hard time or anything.” 

“No.” Nesta felt just a smidge bit guilty. “I mean, he’s not being any more of a pain in my ass than he usually is.” She didn’t know why she was compelled to add, “We’ve been… making dinner together. We’re also taking turns making breakfast.”

“You’re making breakfast?”

“I know how to scoop yogurt into a bowl!”

Feyre laughed. “Can’t argue with you there. You’re the best at it!” 

“Damn right, I am.”

“Do you fan out the bananas and dot the granola with raspberries for Cassian, too?”

“No. He has not proven himself worthy of banana-fanning yet.”

Feyre laughed again. “Good. Only Archerons get fanned bananas.” After a few seconds, she let out a soft sigh and her voice was gentle. “But you’re doing okay?” 

Nesta bit the inside of her cheek. It was always like Feyre to try and take care of them. Sweet, gentle, Elain, she understood, but sometimes Nesta hated the implication that she couldn’t take care of herself. 

“Yes, yes. I’m fine, Feyre.”

“Good. And Elain? Have you talked to her? I try to call but we keep missing each other.”

“I talked to her last night. She sounds bored out of her mind, but I don’t know what she expected locking herself up in an apartment with Graysen.”

“Nesta.” There was that motherly tone again.

“Tell me you disagree.”

“She loves him.”

Nesta’s only response was a derisive snort. 

When Feyre spoke again, the austerity was gone and was replaced with a hint of mischievousness that Nesta had learned to detect years ago. “I’m glad you don’t sound like you’re bored out of your mind.”

“I’ve been busy with work.”

“In a beautiful house with the best scenery?”

“It’s… tolerable.”

Feyre cackled at that. “I’ll make sure to let Rhys know that you think his house is tolerable.”

“Please, don’t. It’ll just make his head bigger. I mean come on, Feyre. Who installs a full-sized sauna in their home?”

Her sister’s giggles were starting to become contagious and Nesta smiled. “I thought that, too, but just give in to the sauna, Nesta. You won’t regret it.”

“Fine, but two Pelotons?” 

“Okay. I’ll agree with you on that one, but it’s so much nicer when we don’t have to readjust the seat every time we want to ride.” 

“Unbelievable. You know, Elain and I had to share one bike until I was ten.” 

“Yes, and I got all your hand-me-downs.” 

Nesta smirked to herself. 

“Listen, I gotta go. We’re just about to eat dinner.”

The photo of Feyre looking so happy with her new found family flashed in Nesta’s mind, making her chest feel oddly tight. “Okay. Have a good night.”

“You, too. Love ya.”

“Same.”

“Bye bye.” Feyre hung up, leaving Nesta’s room feeling even more quiet than it had before.

Wondering what to do with the rest of her day, she gave the book on her nightstand a dejected glance. 

Normally, she would have jumped at the opportunity to spend the whole day reading, but she felt restless and decided that perhaps she should make use of the Peloton and sauna downstairs. It wasn’t as though she had any other plans and it would give her a chance to work out some of her sudden listlessness. 

Silently thanking Elain for making her pack gym clothes, she changed into a matching set of stormy blue high-waisted tights and sports bra and gave herself a once over in the full-length mirror as she pulled her hair into a high pony-tail. Out of habit, she swiped her lips with her favorite mint balm before leaving the room.

The house was quiet and for a brief second, Nesta wondered were Cassian was. Again, his bedroom door was ajar and the room empty and she hadn’t heard him in the kitchen either. 

She wondered if he was stretched out on the lawn as she’d seen him before, during her work days—no doubt spying on her or more likely, trying to get on her nerves and distract her from important emails and conference calls. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that he had chosen to reposition the outdoor furniture to sit perfectly framed in the view from the office window. 

Nesta was debating whether or not she should call him out on it the next time she saw him when she entered the gym and stopped dead in her tracks. 

Standing in the middle of the room, toweling off his brow was Cassian. His t-shirt was loose and the V of the collar hung low, revealing the sculpted hardness of his chest. Muscles defined and taut in a deep bronze, glistened with sweat. The dark curling ends of his tattoo rippled as he moved—like ink gliding over water—and Nesta’s fingertips tingled.

Looking up, his finally saw her standing in the doorway. Their eyes locked for what felt like an eternity and then he spoke, breaking the spell.

“Morning, sweetheart.” He grinned, slinging his towel over his shoulder.

Nesta crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes. “Don’t call me that.”

Cassian chuckled, making it sound like she’d just told a joke instead of sending a death glare his way. 

“I’d ask if you were lost, but judging from your outfit, it doesn’t look like you’re on your way to the ball.”

Nesta watched as Cassian’s eyes dragged from her sneakers up her legs, then torso, and then… 

She turned, walking over to the stationary bikes, hoping he hadn’t caught the flush that was beginning to bloom across her chest. 

Looking at the Peloton, Nesta began to question her decision. Thinking she should switch over to the treadmill, she felt Cassian’s breath against the shell of her ear. 

“Here, let me help.”

How he had managed to sneak up behind her without her noticing was a surprise, but not as big of one as how close he had gotten. She could feel the heat radiating off of him and if she took a half-step back, there was a strong chance she wouldn’t have been able to stop herself from melting into him. 

Instead, she straightened her back and at the sudden lost of heat, knew that Cassian had widened the distance between them. Chancing a glance behind her, she saw him leaning against the treadmill. His hand gently—casually—rubbing the back of his neck.

“You need special shoes for that,” he said, jutting his chin towards the pedals. “Feyre’s are in the cabinet. You wear the same size, right?”

Nesta took her time retrieving the shoes and putting them on, anything to give her a moment to even out her breathing and collect herself. It was only the surprise of running into him that had thrown her off. 

Focus, Nesta. You’ve seen a muscled man before. 

When she got back to the bikes, Cassian was already tinkering with the levers and bolts. 

“You’re taller than Feyre. We’ll have to adjust the seat.” He held out his hand. 

Nesta swallowed, but did not let her hand slip into his. Instead, she nudged him away with her elbow to give herself some space.

Cassian chuckled. He remained standing where Nesta had pushed him, but he was still close enough for her to feel the rumble of his laughter on her skin—close enough for her to smell the salt and sweat on him.

She scowled. 

Cassian moved behind her to tug at the seat, adjusting it to align with her hip before leaning over to tighten the screw, fixing it into place. She watched as his arms flexed, the tight chords of his muscles shifting easily beneath that deep copper skin. 

She realized she had never stood this close to him before, so close that she could see a bead of sweat glide down the chiseled stone column of his neck and she hated the tightness she was feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she also couldn’t look away. 

When Cassian straightened, Nesta bristled. 

“I need you to hold your arm out so I can adjust the seat distance. Elbow at the seat front.” 

This time, Nesta did finally allow Cassian to guide her and the gentle brush of his hand at her elbow, her arm, felt oddly intimate. His palm was calloused and the scrape of it against her skin made her spine tingle. 

His hands were so big.

Nesta was reminded of where she was when Cassian told her she could get onto the bike. Eager for the distraction, she locked her shoe into the pedal and swung her leg around to the other side. Again, she felt the heat of Cassian’s body close to her skin, this time from the hand hovering just above the small of her back.

“I can handle it from here,” she said, dismissing him.

Clearing her throat, she began scrolling through the classes on the screen, not chancing a look at him.

She had already felt too vulnerable in the five minutes standing next to him and now that she was sitting on a bike, her feet locked into place, she couldn’t allow herself the possibility of toppling over, or worse, not being able to escape if he fixed her with one of his looks. 

Cassian didn’t say anything until he got to the door. Not turning back, he said, “Have fun,” before leaving.

It wasn’t until Nesta heard the door click shut that she let her shoulders sag. Expelling a deep breath, she shook out the tension in her arms, her neck. 

Scrolling through the classes, she decided a ninety minute power ride was exactly what she needed to shake the unfamiliar jitteriness that had suddenly seized her entire body. 

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

Cassian let his forehead rest against the wall as he released a shuttering breath. He had made it to the end of the hallway before having to stop to collect himself. Slinging his towel across the back of his neck, he grabbed both ends and tugged firmly. 

God.

He had barely made it out of there. Had surprised himself when he was able to say something that wasn’t a declaration of how much he wanted to kiss her, touch her. 

He hadn’t been expecting it, her showing up at the gym like that and in those clothes…

He had always thought she was gorgeous. She had taken his breath away the first time he had laid eyes on her and in their subsequent meetings, she’d only proven herself more and more beautiful. But today… with that thin material matching the exact color of her eyes and clinging to each and every one of her curves, he couldn’t help himself. He just had to be near her.

And so he moved—stalked in three long strides—close enough to touch her, but not daring to. 

He had half-expected her to turn around and snap at him. To claw at him with her nails and her words. And when she didn’t, and he saw the blush against the shell of her ear, exactly where his breath had been, he thought that maybe…

But her back had stiffened and so he backed away, tried to plaster on that cool exterior he could easily hide behind, not wanting to make her more uncomfortable than she had been. Of course, he was only human and when she walked off to find Feyre’s shoes, Cassian’s eyes had followed her. Followed those long legs, the curve of her backside, and the swell of her hips as they swayed. 

He had had to muster every bit of strength in his body to remain calm. And for a moment, he had considered leaving the room to escape the torture. 

But as soon as she’d come back within arm’s reach of him, he couldn’t walk away. And she had let him touch her arm. 

It had been the most chaste of touches. A past Cassian would have laughed at himself for being so modest, but it had set his hand on fire. Her skin was so soft, and for a heartbeat, he had let himself wonder if she’d let him touch her anywhere else. Her shoulder? Her neck? Those pouty lips? 

If she’d let him, he’d trace his fingertips across that delicate skin to mark her—let her know where his mouth would follow. 

Cassian groaned.

He felt foolish, like a giddy teenager touching a girl for the first time, instead of the grown man he was. One who had taken many lovers, all of whom had let him do much more than touch their elbow. 

And that was the problem, wasn’t it?

They had let him—wanted him to, begged him, in fact. But Nesta… all she did was push him away and brush him off. She had glared at him and bristled at his closeness. And when he was done being useful, she had dismissed him wholly. 

Cassian had thought that she was finally beginning to thaw against him. Their interactions had become cordial, almost friendly at times. But again, she had managed to prove him wrong. 

He raked a hand through his hair, tugging hard. Then pushed himself off the wall, and headed upstairs, looking to take a very, very cold shower. 

[diabolikotaku]

Vampire! Yui Komori Headcannons

Sorry it took me like three million years to answer you!

Vampire Age: 17

Human Age: 117

Her father is Seiji Komori, the Vampire King

Goes by Christian name in demon realm: Solomon 

The youngest of four

Her eldest brother Yusuke, her older sister Yuna, her twin brother (who was born 2 hours earlier) Yuito, then Yui.

Yusuke and Yuna are fully Japanese while Yuito and Yui are half East-European

Yusuke and Yuna had a different mother than Yuito and Yui.

Yui has an orthodox name: Anastasia (Anya) Vasiliev

Yuito is Aleksandr (Alex) Vasiliev

Yusuke and Yuna go by catholic names: Jeremias and Juliette Lazarus

Her mother is Natsia Vasiliev

She was a low-class vampire who was filled with greed, so she decided to become a handmaiden at Seiji’s manor in order to seduce him, have his children, and demand money.

After all of her plans failed, she drugged Seiji and raped him

Once she was pregnant, she threaten Seiji to spread all over the demon realm that he committed adultery with a low class demon, unlike his current wife Hanako (Helena Lazarus) if he didn’t give her enough money so she could be comfortable

She didn’t even want to keep her children once she got the money, so she ditched them with Seiji.

Alas, Seiji still loved Yui and Yuito. So he and Hanako kept them nd treated them like family.

She was born with Yuito on June 21, 1901

The reason why she was made the ‘heiress to the Komori throne’ was because Yusuke fell in love with a werewolf (violation of vampire law) and was banished to the Miasma islands in the demon world (it’s just really hot and everything at some weird black miasma around it he’s immune to, he and his wife Yuri are living happily together), Yuna loathed absolutely everything about Seiji and swore to never associate with him or anything involving the vampire throne, and Yuito just calmly passed the responsibility down to Yui.

She couldn’t say no at that point

She has many nicknames in the demon realm, such as: Anya the Blood Heiress, the Trinity Cross, the Rose, etc.

Yui lives by herself in the Komori Manor, with the exception of a few servants.

For someone who’s loaded, you’d think she wouldn’t have to lift a finger.

Nope, she does all of the cooking, gardening, and sometimes cleaning herself

She needs something to do to pass the night time

That’s why she was so happy when Seiji told her that she was having guest staying with her from now on...Until he explained her situation.

Basically, six people with pure blood are sent to the Komori manor as ‘food banks’, one of them is the true blood Adam and will help make her the Eve of the demon realm

She had to pick wisely on who her Adam would be

Nevertheless, she was still happy about not being alone.

Yui has the complete opposite demeanor of what a vampire should act like/are perceived to act like.

Most vampires are sadistic, cruel, unforgiving, wouldn’t look twice at a human, usually arrogant, thinks everyone around them are weak, etc.

Nah, Yui’s all like: smiling, giving kindness to others, being helpful, friendly, caring, motherly, nurturing, equal to everyone, understanding, etc

So that’s why the Sakamaki brothers brushed her off when they first met her.

But now we get into her Sadistic side.

Yui has a completely different personality in her that sleeps, only wakes up to feed or pretty much take control when she feels like it. Sadistic is very much like the typical aristocrat vampire.

Normal Yui hates talking about or when Sadistic wakes up because it means she’ll lose control and Sadistic will destroy the trust she built with her humans.

When Sadistic wakes up, Yui’s eyes turn blood red.

Yui has to watch everything Sadistic does and she can’t take it.

That’s why she tries so hard to get along, have people’s trust, and make up for Sadistic’s words

Yui has some control over Sadistic, that’s why the boys don’t die after Sadistic feeds on them.

she tries to drain them like a juice box!

Yui is very innocent while Sadistic is very nasty and so not innocent if you catch my drift.

Sadistic is fond of punishments

Yui cries as she watches in horror what Sadistic does to the boys.

Has a fox and an owl familiar

The fox is named Xian and the owl is named Fester

Yui’s favorite colors are dusty rose, lilac velvet, pink ruby, and cream.

She’s quite up to date with what’s happening in the modern world.

switches between old-time clothes and modern clothes if not at school.

will sometime say old-time things by accident

still doesn’t own a phone (and Seiji didn’t put a land line in.)

When the Sakamaki brothers first discovered she was a vampire, Subaru was the one to pull out a trinity cross (gift from mother)

She dead ass pulled her rosary from under clothes and smiled, “You have one too? I figured you weren’t too deeply involve with religion by how you act!”

This confused the brothers and resulted in Ayato smacking Subaru up the head.

When she was little, she couldn’t bare to hurt a creature for blood, so she starved herself until her father make her drink blood via transfusions/cups of blood so she wouldn’t die on him.

She stopped doing that when she was around 13 in vampire years, but it always hurt her on the inside to hurt someone for blood.

She really does care for all of the Sakamaki boys, even if they brush her off because she seemed weak or she terrified them.

She helped Ayato find something around to Manor to do as a past time because there was no internet here...Or a phone line.

Gave Reiji the room with the largest study and always 

Showed Subaru where her personal little chapel was so he could pray.

(Even though he would always criticize her about not being right) She would bake sweets when she can for Kanato.

Introduced crossword puzzeles to Laito

Showed Shuu the music room

Yui actually used to play the piano when she was younger, but became rusty

Yuito and Yuna never learned how to play one

Yusuke was an excellent violinist and she always loved to listen to him play

That’s why Yui was happy to hear Shuu knew how to play the violin.

Yui is a hopeless romantic, when she just hit ‘puberty’, she spent all day in the library reading romance novels and dreaming of her ‘one true love’. When she gets the chance to, Yui buys romance novels in town and indulges in them.

Well, she sure gets a selection...

and they’re certainly no prince charming. 

For being this old, she’s bound to have at least one lover in the past, right? You’re correct! She used to spend her time with a human artist back in 1981.

His name was Takizawa Hayato

He taught her how to draw, or at least he tried too. 

Yui’s still pretty bad at drawing people, but she can draw landscapes pretty well.

It only lasted for a little bit when he found out she was a vampire (and he questioned why she stayed the same age as when she met him while he aged). 

Yusuke had to kill him.

Over the years, she learned how to crochet doilies out of pure boredom

And also learned how to sew a bit, you really have nothing to do after years of no internet.

Knows some Russian along with Yuito

Yusuke and Yuna know Italian.

Met Cordelia once

Yui didn’t really like her

Also that one time was when Seiji killed her because of some unknown reason.

If this were formatted like the actual games, then there would be a part in one of the boys’ route where she would lose a lot of her own blood and Seiji would give her a transfusion of Cordelia’s blood. Thus Cordelia becoming one with Yui.

Let’s get into some Otome Game shit :

(We’re going by Haunted Dark Bridal btw)

The best endings:

All: Marriage

maybe kids?

Becoming ‘Adam’

overcoming the shitty parts

Bad endings:

Ayato: Yui gets amnesia and doesn’t remember Ayato, making him crazy.

Kanato: Yui kills Kanato but keeps his corpse as a doll.

Laito: Sadistic becomes the controller of Yui’s body and abuses him for the rest of his days.

Shuu: Yui dies in a fire

Reiji: Yui is killed by Karlheinz

Subaru: Yui locks up Subaru and he is forced to become crazy like his mother.

Routes:

Ayato: Since he is main bae in the original series, there’s gonna be lots of cute things, 

Kanato: i feel like there might be a lot of bonding in this route, of course it’s eventual, but when the time comes Kanato just clings onto Yui. This can help out a little bit with his complex about being the ignored child and help him move on. Possibly help him grow up a little? But then again, we love our man-child.

Laito: ear porn This route could go either ways, it either helps Laito rip away the playboy act and get over his problems about his mother (and him being sexually abused) or it helps him become more...Child-like again? Like before Cordelia fucked him over. 

For the triplets, there might be a discovery arc about why their mother was involved with a family of vampires for some reason.

Shuu: I feel like Shuu’s route would probably be a healing route for him, from being cold, emotionless, tired, and shut-in, to someone who can get over his past. Even though it still lingers, I think Yui helps him out with his ptsd and depression and he gets better throughout the playthrough.

Reiji: The route that holds most of the actual plot. But there is still memorable moments between Reiji and Yui that satisfy the soul and goes over some of Reiji’s issues.

Subaru: Maybe a mix between a healing and a discovery route. Like Subaru finds out his mother was involved with the Komoris somehow and he’s trying to get the answer some how from Yui, the more time they spend together they fall in love and they have to come over some epic plot I can’t think of while he tries to heal after the ptsd of watching his mother suffer her days in that locked cage his father called her room.

All of them will have the main plot of the story, though.

In each route, Yui’s struggles will be revealed.

Ayato: Her mother, definitely 

Kanato: Sadistic’s origins

Laito: Her mother / Struggling with controlling Sadistic

Shuu: Hayato / the depression of being practically immortal.

Watching all of her friends grow old and die while she doesn’t change

being unable to friend humans because of this

generally has been alone her whole childhood besides her family.

etc.

Reiji: being maltreated because of her mother’s intentions

the  other servants knew about this and some of them maltreated Yui harshly.

Subaru: Her self-worth / the fear of hurting those weaker than her

Maybe some other alternative bad endings would be either Yui or one of the boys becoming Yandere over the other person???

There has to be saucy stills because is diabolik lovers, you cannot expect less.

Maybe add a rival to the boys were he’s trying to obtain Yui in order for her to love him or just kill her, idk.

The Komori family is filled with pure-blooded vampires that go back for several generations (well, except Yui and Yuito)

Has a summer home and a winter home. The summer home when the bounty hunters get into town and the winter home for when the war was happening in the city the summer home was located at.

Sadistic formed in her when the servants were abusing her, when Yui had enough Sadistic came over and killed the servants and hid them before Yui ‘woke up’.

The only kind of makeup Yui knows how to do is Victorian-styled.

Makes her own perfumes and makeup from flowers and such

Before this whole ‘Adam and Eve’ stuff, Yui was supposed to get married to a high-class vampire family’s eldest son, but he was killed by Yuito

The son wanted to kill Yui and sell her organs and blood to the lower-class vampires and demons for a price.

sleeps in a regular bed

Locks herself in her room when blood moon arrives because she doesn’t want to hurt anyone during that period of time. 

Sadistic doesn’t come out, this is a whole new monster Yui doesn’t understand.

2nd year

Considered popular by the students, but not ridiculously popular.

Has her fair share of fans

when some girls were trying to intimidate Yui about staying away from the Sakamaki brothers, she just scoffed and told them she can’t avoid them since they live with her.

And she also told them that they wouldn’t be into girls like them, it shut them up real fast.

Helps Subaru and Ayato study (even though it’s a difficult process)

Favorite foods are: fruit tarts, parfaits, and pancakes

wants to have three children

She’s afraid of turning someone into a vampire after the incident with Yuna and a past lover.

Still can’t swim

Follows her father’s orders without a fail.

Including keeping in 6 human boys for food.

Will occasionally take the boys out to the town next to the school.

Feels bad for the boys since they can’t go out often, so she places in vases of flowers to liven up the dark manor.

Somehow, she has met all of the sakamaki mothers one what or another.

Karlheinz actually tried to kill her once, however he was mistaken by Yuito and got badly injured.

That’s all I got for now~

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S2 Ep 31: You Can’t Spell Marriage Without Mai

First off, when I got to this episode, I turned to my bro and said “WHAT” and he said “Right? This episode is the best. It’s all down from here” and I was like “YOU SAID THAT TWO EPISODES AGO” so now I know Bro can never be trusted.

If you had told me the plot of this episode before I watched it, I’d say “no, that is Mario Party Fanfiction, and you’ve changed all the names.” That is where this episode went.

Does Mario Party Fanfic exist? Quick Google search, one moment. Dear Lord. OK, I’m back.

Now guys I want you to know that every time a ship comes up in Yugioh, I write like...10k words about it, math equations appearing around my head, as I try to figure out what the freakin hell anyone is even doing and if the writers even know what they’re doing, and I’ll just promptly delete it. I just want you to know the service I do for you. Every time it comes up I start ranting about what the hell an ancient Egyptian would even understand about modern romance and then I stop myself and go “No! Focus!” and I’ll Ctrl-A and I’ll just *delete* and feel a burden lift off my shoulders and into the ceiling like a prayer.

And then this episode happened?

And I’m just like...

...

well I TRIED to spare you.

Please admire how many people they stuffed into Mai’s very small convertible. I half expected them to drive up to Kiki’s Delivery Service.

In case you’ve also forgotten something that happened 40 episodes ago, Mai saved Joey last season by giving him a McGuffin as well as a gross ass handkerchief (which he doesn’t have anymore, the whole 'will they ever return the gross ass handkerchief’ plotline seems to have left the building) and finally, here, halfway through S2 we’re going to actually address why Mai would have any compassion for this bundle of awful kids.

I mean, Joey is still in high school and Mai is like 24 (although some say 44???) so I’m pretty sure they were trying to make it seem platonic or motherly between these two but eh, I don’t even know with this show, man. I mean she and Joey are 8 years apart but Serenity is 4 years Tristan’s junior despite Mokuba being 1 year younger than her and like right there. (Mokuba’s like 12 by the way, something surprising I found out when I did a Google Deep Dive on everyone’s canonical weight a few episodes ago.) And then Pharaoh is like either 5000 or 16-ish depending on who’s asking, so age doesn’t seem to be ever an inhibiting factor in this show.

But as is Yugioh tradition, any space that could possibly be filled with any growth between a boy and a girl--even platonically--must be absolutely derailed by something exploding.

(read more under the cut)

Stepping out from inside of this limousine is a man who wears sunglasses at night, and so at first I thought “oh hell it’s Pegasus’ security, he’s back” But he’s...he’s not. I really, really wish it were.

Joey literally wiped his hand off on the ass of his jeans before trying to shake the hand of this guy he has never mentioned before in his life but swears is his favorite person in the world.

Jean wisely left him hanging.

Joey is SO ready to see a ship in this show actually do something. So ready, that he is willing to accept Mai and this rando we’ve never seen before as canon, despite the fact I’m pretty sure a chunk of last season was trying (rather unsuccessfully) to pair him up with Mai?

It’s not where I expected this episode to go! I really thought we were going to go and play a tourney? We were meeting up with Kaiba at a stadium one block away - he’s just sitting there on his big ass dragon shaped chair and like “omg the moment I walk away they get completely distracted, every single time.”

Anyways, lets get to a flashback where very fancy people in pastel suits were playing cards because apparently cards isn’t just for streetfighting.

I have been wading through 1.5 seasons of these characters doing these elaborate dances around each other to never ever speak a word of commitment or relationship, and I’ve been pretty OK with them doing that. Honestly, the less romance in my Yugioh, the more satisfied I am, but then, after 1.5 seasons of basically nothing but Serenity wearing some bandages and needing a lift from the hospital, suddenly we have this random guy show up and profess marriage, and it is the most whiplash this show has ever given me.

I will accept demonic weird ass devices threatening children, spooky magic, bad history, and all sorts of weird ass outfits but like marraige???? wtf?????

Which is something that Mai seems to know because she turned him right down as you should when a person you’ve never met before decides to marry you based on your ability to coordinate cards in a deck.

Joey honestly thinks being a rich star will automatically make you marriageable material, because I guess Joey completely forgot about Seto Kaiba, a very famous billionaire who is maybe one of the least marriageable people on the planet.

So what gets me about this episode and what makes it so freakin weird is that everyone here accepts this as the rules from this point on.

She MUST be married if Mai enters and then loses this game. Welcome to the Yugioh universe. This is how card people dating works. This is law, she has to accept this proposal if this card game based on chance loses.

Anyways, Yugi’s here to be the voice of reason in a dating episode and that’s something I didn’t expect to write in a sentence.

Yes, his motive was “Mai, this will take too long” not “Mai, you don’t know this guy, and he’s probably crazy” it was “Mai please, I know the world will end when I enter this tourney and so you have nothing to lose and it’s the best time to marry a stranger actually, but can you not? It’s taking SO LONG.”

Duke Devlin in the back still trying helplessly to keep up with what the hell is going on since he wandered on this team by complete accident four episodes ago.

And yes, it’s THIS that makes Joey not like this guy. Not the part where he proposed out of the blue, nearly ran over them with his car, stalked Mai for like a year, and then completely disregarded Mai’s common sense. No--this part, where he threatened to kick Mai out of the competition. That was the low blow to Joey.

You will lose this duel and gain a husband.

That is an actual line from the show, folks, this show went places.

aaaaand Mai starts losing right away.

DAMN

IT.

This is the one thing I thought was pretty much in the bag. That there would not be the concept of one of these characters getting married. That was the One thing I was sure of. But I was not only wrong, but this is like the most bizarre wedding I’ve ever seen on TV. It’s basically a shotgun wedding but with cards???

And what makes this more bizarre, and it was something I only noticed after watching this episode, is that we’ve seen this type of behavior before. But at the time, back in the beginning of this season I was just like “that was just a really weird thing that happened that wouldn’t possibly be accepted as normalized in this universe.”

Like, remember that creepy DDR guy who dueled Yugi so that if he beat Yugi in a match, that creepy guy would become Tea’s boyfriend despite never spending more than 2 minutes with either of them? That despite the fact that Yugi isn’t even her boyfriend, it was like something all three of them were like “I guess I have to go through with this now.” At the time I just assumed that was an insane thing that happened. I just assumed that would never come back.

This was the episode where suddenly I realized, maybe the big issue with these kids dating is a hell of a lot more than just actually going on dates. Maybe it’s because I didn’t understand what their love language is. It’s not Receiving Gifts, Quality Time, Acts of Service, Words of Affirmation, and for sure as hell isn’t Physical Touch, it’s the 6th, not very often talked about love language, that’s right, it’s Cards. Rewrite everything, Gary Chapman. Tear it all down and reshoot all those Ted Talks, we forgot something.

Like, sometimes I forget that these guys live in a universe controlled by cards. I mean we’ve seen cards and romance intermingle twice. (three times, if you count Rebecca, who might be engaged to Yugi now? It was kind of a really weird ending to a card game) Pegasus even tried to resurrect his dead wife through cards. All these cards currently exist because of Pegasus’ undying love for Cecilia (who is...OMG I forgot that chick might be alive somewhere)

What I’m saying is that...What if this is how they’ve actually dated this whole time? What if this whole time that I assumed no one was dating they......they actually...were? What if I just didn’t notice, because it was just so freakin weird? What if this is more like how in a Jane Austen novel, if someone goes on a walk with someone else it’s basically like 3rd base?

Like, remember Jane Austen’s Persuasion, where Captain Wentworth went on a walk with Louisa and she was like “hey catch me, I’m 14 years old!” and then she tripped off a wall and got a concussion and he was like “DAMN IT! Now I have to marry her!” and everyone was like “Well congrats on getting married, Louisa.” and then she fell in love with a sad poet who gave her soup once while Captain Wentworth was getting his nuptials planned out in Bath and so Louisa dumped Captain Wentworth’s sorry ass and he was like “OH THANK YOU. YOU ARE SO 14.” And then sad soup man showed up in Bath while Wentworth and the rest of Louisa’s family was quickly crossing out “Wentworth” on all the marriage invitations and sad soup man was like “Before Louisa, I was in love with this other chick, but she died, so I’m pretty stoked I found Louisa.” and Captain Wentworth was like “You’re such an asshole for cheating on your dead girlfriend, I would never do that, you ass!” and then immediately married Anne Wentworth by writing her one single letter saying “hey, want to get married Y/N?” despite the fact that he went well out of his way to avoid her the entire book?

What if that’s been going on in the background of Yugioh but I just didn’t know because, unlike Persuasion, I never took a college class on Yugioh Dating Customs so I have no idea when it ever happens.?

See, this is the stuff I usually delete but like psh whatever, it’s a dating episode, so for once this isn’t a tangent, and yes, I am reading too much into this, thank you.

Anyway, after Joey asks Yugi what to do and then telephones what Yugi just told him to Mai enough times, Mai beats Jean Claud Magnum and avoids a lifetime of...whatever that would have been like.

However, something is off about that game and it takes a card wizard to explain it to us although it was...........really obvious.

This is the third time someone on this show was abducted by a ninja net.

She gets kidnapped by a guy in a ninja jet suit contraption and this is her reaction!? Freakin lucid dream what the hell?

This is the weirdest show I’ve ever watched. Not so much because it has stuff other shows don’t have, but because it forces me to have these expectations of what I think it is and then, once I get comfortable, completely changes it. Last episode Bakura murdered 3 established characters in a graveyard. Like, not even random people, Bakura murdered 3 named people with funny accents we’ve known since last season. That was already completely insane for a kid’s show to do. But rather than address whatever the hell is going on with Bakura, we’re just going to add more to the pot and throw in this crazy asshole, too. For kicks.

Like this is a filler episode somehow? This filler episode would be an entire season of any other kid’s show.

So this episode ends with Mai hanging from a flag pole in a miniskirt, but it’s not like anyone in this city would ever peek their nose out of their window to see what the hell is going on, so at least she doesn’t have to worry about upskirting an entire town. Just these two people.

And like, Joey’s such a mess in that head anyway that like who freakin cares? He’ll probably wake up tomorrow without any memory of yesterday thanks to possession, drowning, getting beat up, tied up, and then this oncoming concussion.

I’m pretty sure she should have stabbed him right through with this duel disk?

(the dialogue really does imply that if he had done this himself she would have been cool with it. How freakin weird is Mai?)

And then he just lets her go? Makes you wonder if it was an abduction or just a game he thought she would enjoy? I don’t know. This episode was all over the place. I mean...maybe he really thought she’d like getting caught in a net and being flown all around Domino? I don’t freakin know.

Like, in my opinion she was stalked for over a year and abducted with several witnesses. But, no one is calling the cops. So like...was this weird to them? This was very weird to us...but like...maybe Mai was like “hm, that was a so-so date.” because this type of behavior is just how this universe does?

....

....

Yugioh, are you OK?

Anyways, next week:

Is the tourney cancelled because after episodes and episodes of tangents, no one ever freakin shows up and Kaiba has to go back to school to do a Chem final? Does Duke Devlin ever even do anything? Does it take 20 minutes for Bakura to walk through security because he keeps setting off the metal detector with his invisible necklace that he can never take off?

[teresa60521-blog]

Side Effects

chapter 19: 2 weeks

If Uraraka felt trapped in the Bakugou home before giving birth, she definitely felt trapped now. But she was glad that she wasn’t thrust into the chaos of the outside world and that she was wrapped up with this tiny bundle of joy who just so happened to cry and whine half of the day.

Uraraka would be lying if she said she wasn’t enjoying it.

She liked having somebody being dependent on her and  being able to take care of somebody. She had been told in the past that she has a motherly quality about her but she didn’t see it until she actually became a mother. It still didn’t feel real. Uraraka felt like she would be giving the baby back to somebody.

It was also nice that Masaru and Mitsuki believed in her parenting abilities. They didn’t hover, only lent her a hand when she asked for the help. They were always ready and willing to assist, Mitsuki more so since she was home most of the time unless she was running errands or having lunch with old friends. Masaru still worked, coming home late but always making time to say hello to his grandchild.

When Uraraka had asked them if they wanted her to leave, Mitsuki had looked at her like she was insane.

“Where are you gonna go?” Mitsuki had asked and truthfully, Uraraka hadn’t even thought that far. She had just wanted to get out of their hair. “You’re welcome here for as long as you like. Better you than my son.”

Uraraka had laughed but it was greatly appreciated. She finally belonged somewhere.

She just wished that Bakugou had stayed with them too the past few weeks.

She understood completely; school was still the most important thing to Bakugou. He still was driven to become a hero and having a baby didn’t affect him as much as it did Uraraka. She was still recovering, the pain mostly gone but her emotions still off kilter. Uraraka wanted to start shaving off some of the excess baby weight but she had to wait until she was all healed. Bakugou’s life didn’t have to slam on the breaks; he was just able to keep on going like nothing had happened.

Uraraka was thankful that he kept in constant contact, asking about Kazumi and how both she and the baby were doing. He was making up for the time he had lost during the pregnancy and that was all Uraraka really wanted. It would just be better if he was actually there with her.

He had come home the first weekend and with this next weekend rapidly approaching, Uraraka couldn’t wait to see him again. She just wanted a little help and a little bit of family bonding time. Because that’s what they were. A family.

Friday before Bakugou was due home Uraraka was sitting on the couch, holding Kazumi close to her chest. Kazumi was sleeping, had fallen asleep in her arms after drinking from her bottle, and Uraraka couldn’t find it in herself to put her baby girl down. Just two short weeks after she had given birth she was head over heels in love with her daughter. She understood what some new mothers said when it was the best feeling and experience in the world.

Uraraka felt her phone buzz against her leg and she made sure Kazumi was secure in one arm before opening the text.

>> these asshole wont leave me the fuck alone

Uraraka smiled as she read the text. She had gotten similar texts from Bakugou over the course of the week, him complaining about how their classmates wanted to come see the baby and how they hovered asking for pictures. She didn’t mind if they came over to meet Kazumi, she just didn’t want to overwhelm the infant with too many people and if the whole class came over it would be a lot . But she didn’t mind a few people coming over.

Bakugou was pretty adamant about them not coming over though. In fact, he said they were never ever allowed in his house again.

<< why?

>> they wanna fuckin come over even tho ive told them 100000000000 times hell fuckin no

<< maybe it’s easier to just say yes?

<< i wouldnt mind it if they came over

There was silence from Bakugou now and she knew he was pissed that she had disagreed with him. She just shook her head and let him fume in silence, putting the phone down beside her. In that moment Masaru sat down on the other side of the couch with the newspaper. He smiled gently at her and then glanced down at Kazumi through his glasses.

“How is she?” Masaru asked as he settled against the back of the couch. His voice was gentle, quiet so he didn’t wake the sleeping infant up.

Uraraka shifted Kazumi in her arms and the baby twitched, making a purring noise in the back of her throat and shaking her head. Uraraka rocked her a little bit until she settled down and was lying still in her arms again.

“Sleepy.” Uraraka smiled softly and rubbed her thumb across the back of Kazumi’s hand. She could already see growth in her baby and she thought it was amazing.

“Mm.” Masaru unfolded the newspaper. “And how are you doing?”

“I’m also sleepy. But happy. Much happier than I was when I was pregnant.”

“I told you Katsuki would come around.” Masaru sounded so proud of himself and Uraraka couldn’t even be mad. He was right and there was no denying that. Uraraka wished she had a little more faith when he had initially said this to her but everything that happening at the time led her to believe otherwise. Bakugou was being really rude and just downright awful. Uraraka didn’t think she was going to have a happy ending.

The future was still uncertain but for now, she was living the happy ending fantasy.

“I’m glad he did.” Uraraka whispered. She checked her phone again but there was still no message from Bakugou. She let it go, knowing this was nothing to get upset about. He could not respond to her and she would be fine with it. She spent a little more time with Masaru, talking about Bakugou and Kazumi and a little bit of Masaru’s job. He was still a fashion designer and he did in fact create some hero costumes. They weren’t worn by super popular heroes by any means but it still made him feel good to know that there were young heroes out there wearing the clothes he designed.

Uraraka told him maybe she would get her clothing reworked by him, but Masaru reminded her that technically she and Bakugou had matching designs as they were made by the same designer. Their costumes had predicted their love perhaps.

She carried Kazumi carefully upstairs and laid her in the bassinet beside her bed. She didn’t know when she was supposed to move Kazumi to her crib but she figured she had a couple of months. She wasn’t ready for her baby to grow that big yet. She liked rolling over in the morning and seeing Kazumi sleeping peacefully surrounded by the baby blanket her friends had made.

Uraraka fell asleep pretty quickly that night, having been up early that morning with her little girl. Kazumi woke her up once or twice in the middle of the night and Uraraka was still getting used to that. Hopefully Bakugou could come relieve her in the middle of the night tomorrow. However, the two still weren’t allowed to sleep in the same room and there were no chances that Bakugou would hear Kazumi in the first place. Bakugou was surprisingly a heavy sleeper, but so was Uraraka. She wondered when that would catch up to her. When there was a baby screaming two feet away from her though, it was hard to miss.

Kazumi woke her up at around eight and she was fed and changed, put into a cute baby blue onesie with clouds on it. Uraraka had specifically told Masaru and Mitsuki that she didn’t care about color of clothing for her daughter and didn’t want her daughter to be subjected to the gender dichotomy at two weeks old. Colors didn’t have gender and she was going to dress her daughter up however she wanted.

Kazumi just so happened to look very cute in blue.

Uraraka was just lifting Kazumi from her playpen when the front door swung open, hitting the wall with a loud thud. She blinked wide eyes in that direction and a fuming Bakugou emerged, one fist clenched tight at his side and the other palm flat on the door. Uraraka could see his fist trembling in fury from her position in the middle of the living room.

“Katsuki?” Uraraka’s eyebrows pinched together.

“Uraraka-san!” That did not come from Bakugou, as Bakugou would never be that formal. Instead, it came from three distinct voices, each belonging to Kirishima, Midoriya and Iida respectively.

Well, that explains why Bakugou was so annoyed.

Kirishima, followed by Kaminari, bounded in around Bakugou who seemingly had been trying to block their entrance. He was no match for Kirishima’s mass of muscle though and the two came forward, Iida, Midoriya and Tsuyu following right behind that. Uraraka was still a bit shocked and looked at the familiar faces.

“Oh, hi guys.” It took her a moment to compose herself but when she did she smiled. Kazumi was secure in her arms, awake and blinking big eyes up at her mother. Uraraka let her baby put her tiny hand around one of her fingers but kept her attention on her friends. She had undone the paws on the onesie she was wearing, her other hand still covered so she didn’t scratch herself in her sleep or when she was just wiggling around.

Uraraka was definitely surprised though to see so many of the faces she missed. She hadn’t had much interaction outside of Bakugou and his family, their family. Seeing her friends from school made her light up and feel warm inside. She could have only predicted how the train ride over to their house had been, especially with Kirishima and Kaminari coming along.

“We have come to see how you’ve been doing.” Iida said, glancing from her to Kazumi and then back to Uraraka’s face. She thought it was amusing, knowing he wanted to hold the baby immediately.

“They fucking stalked me here.” Bakugou gruffed and sat down on the couch, holding his arms out for Kazumi. Uraraka graciously placed her in his arms and Bakugou held the baby possessively against his chest, glaring at the faces of their classmates.

“You said we could come!” Kaminari shouted and Bakugou bared his teeth, holding Kazumi closer when she started squirming a bit.

“Shut the fuck up.” Bakugou spit.

Uraraka felt an incredible amount of pride seeing Bakugou being so protective over their daughter. It was almost surreal, him being so gentle when he was always so brash. He held Kazumi like she was delicate china and really, she was. “Be sure not to squish her.” Uraraka reminded and Bakugou shifted his grip on her, no complaints.

It was amazing how parenthood could change somebody, even if that parent wasn’t around as often as the other.

Kirishima poked his head real close to Kazumi’s. “She’s so small.”

“She’s a baby you fuckwit! Don’t get too close, if you breathe on her she’ll die.”

“She will not die.” Iida declared and began rummaging in his bag. “It is very important that we clean our hands before we hold the baby so it doesn't get any illnesses we may be carrying.”

“Who the hell said I was going to let you hold her, Four Eyes?!” Bakugou barked but it seemed like all of them ignored him as they squirted hand sanitizer into their hands. Uraraka didn’t have any gripes about letting the five of them hold Kazumi but her boyfriend looked like he was about to snap at anybody who came in a five foot radius of him.

Uraraka placed a hand on his shoulder and Bakugou jolted at the soft touch. “They can hold her.”

“They’re all fucking idiots, they’ll drop her!” Bakugou argued.

Tsuyu ribbited and placed a finger to her lips. “I thought fatherhood might mellow you out, Bakugou-kun, but looks like I was wrong.”

“A-Asui-san….” Midoriya said nervously.

Bakugou looked like he wanted to lunge but the baby in his arms kept him seated. He never had any problems picking a fight with any gender.

“Katsuki, they came all this way to see her.” Uraraka didn’t want to have to wrestle Kazumi out of his arms but would if he didn’t give their friends a chance to hold her. They held each other’s eyes in an aggressive gaze for a couple of beats before Bakugou sighed and relinquished his short hold on her. Uraraka lifted her and rounded the couch, bringing her to the center of the little semicircle their friends had created.

“This is Bakugou Kazumi.” Uraraka introduced with a soft smile. All of their mouths dropped in awe as they stared at the tiny wrinkled creature in her arms. Kazumi’s eyes were half open and she couldn’t decided who to focus on, so many new faces beginning to overwhelm her.

“Who wants to be the first to hold her?” Uraraka asked, ignoring the sharp intake of breath coming from the blonde behind her.

“Me, me, me!” Kirishima was bouncing excitedly.

“You better sit the fuck down.” Bakugou warned, spreading out on the couch so Kirishima had no choice but to sit in the armchair. “If you drop her it’ll be the last thing you do.”

Kirishima pouted but sat down in the chair, holding his arms out. Uraraka instructed him on how to properly support her and laid her in his arms, watching Kirishima’s face morph from excitement to nervousness.

“I can’t do this.” Kirishima said immediately, looking down at her face.

Uraraka laughed and kneeled in front of him. “Don’t want to hold her anymore?”

“No, I’m gonna drop her, please-” Uraraka lifted the baby from his arms and Kirishima fell back with a dramatic sigh. “That was too much pressure.”

“Fucking piss baby.” Bakugou mumbled under his breath.

“I would like a turn!” Iida raised his hand high and then placed it tight by his side when Uraraka rose onto the balls of her face and walked over to him. She repeated what she had told Kirishima, saying the same thing to both Kaminari and Tsuyu after they were done holding Kazumi. Bakugou had put up a strong fight about Kaminari holding Kazumi because of the nature of his quirk. He didn’t want her to accidentally zap her and in all honesty Uraraka was a little nervous about that too.

“I have perfect control of my quirk!” Kaminari sniffed and Uraraka sighed, allowing him to hold her. There were no shocks present and it seemed like Kazumi enjoyed being in his arms most, eyes widening as Kaminari blew raspberries at her. She couldn’t smile yet but Uraraka had no doubt that if Kazumi could, she would be the smiliest baby ever. Uraraka couldn’t wait to see her baby girl smile.

Things boiled over when Uraraka went to place Kazumi in Midoriya’s arms.

“Absolutely not.” Bakugou stood and got in between them. Midoriya blinked up at Bakugou and Uraraka sighed. She knew Bakugou would be childish over this.

“Katsuki-”

“I’m not going to let my daughter be tainted by this fucking nerd.”

“Kacchan-”

“If the only insult you can come up with is ‘nerd’ then I think your opinion is overridden.” Tsuyu said matter of factly.

“Did I ask for your opinion you goddamn toad?” Bakugou said, not even casting her a glance.

“Hey!” Uraraka frowned and bounced Kazumi a little when she noticed her face scrunching up, getting ready to start wailing. “If you’re going to be nasty then you leave. You’re not the only one who gets to make decisions about my daughter. And since you didn’t even want her in the first place, you shouldn’t even get a say!” She knew that she was playing dirty and the hurt that flashed through fiery irises made her chest clench. But all Bakugou did was turn around and stomp up the stairs.

With an exhale, Uraraka turned once more to Midoriya with her usual gentle smile on her face. “Do you still want to hold her?”

Midoriya nervously glanced at the staircase. Uraraka knew he was waiting for Bakugou to pop back out and start screaming at him, but it didn’t come. “Oh no, no, no, I don’t think th-that’s such a good idea.”

Uraraka smiled and kissed Kazumi’s head. She had calmed down, no waterworks, only curious eyes scanning the room and landing on Midoriya’s face. The two shared a look and Midoriya squared his shoulders like he was preparing for an epic battle.

“I’ll hold her.” Midoriya decided.

Uraraka gently laid her in his arms and Midoriya was clearly nervous but he cradled her as he had heard the others be instructed. Supporting her head, supporting her bottom, holding her securely but not too tight. He was a natural. Again, Uraraka wondered what he would be like as a parent. But he wasn’t the one who held her heart. The one who did was sulking upstairs, trying to control his emotions.

“She looks like Kacchan.” Midoriya mused.

“Well she is his daughter.” Uraraka stated with a little laugh.

“A miracle, truly.” Kaminari mumbled and Kirishima elbowed him in the ribs, telling him not to be a dick. Uraraka was kind of grateful for that. She knew she made a poor choice though it was the right choice for her. She and Bakugou fit together like two puzzle pieces; perfectly.

Midoriya held Kazumi for a little while before returning her to Uraraka’s arms. She started crying a little, fake tears, tears that said she didn’t want to leave the warmth of Midoriya’s embrace. Uraraka placed a pacifier in her mouth and wiped her tears, cooing at her daughter. When she looked up, all five of her classmates were looking at her with a strange expression on their faces.

“What is it?” Uraraka asked nervously.

Iida cleared his throat. “You have changed, Uraraka.”

Uraraka’s smile was wavering. “Is that good or bad?”

Iida shook his head. “It is very good. You are happy and that is all that matters to us. You deserve happiness.”

Uraraka’s brown eyes watered and she closed them for a moment, regaining her composure. “Thank you.” She was glad somebody thought so.

Iida returned her smile and the five of them stayed for a couple more minutes before departing. Uraraka took to spending more time with Kazumi for the rest of the night and put her down after they all ate dinner. She pumped some more breast milk (that was uncomfortable) and made up three bottles before she finally confronted Bakugou in his room.

“I’m sorry about earlier.” She said, standing in the doorway.

Bakugou looked up from his phone and nodded. “You better be.”

“Don’t be like that.” Uraraka’s shoulders slumped.

Bakugou stood and walked to her slowly. Uraraka knew better than to back away; she had nothing to be afraid of. His warm, blistered palms came up to cup her face gently, red eyes meeting hers like they had hours before. “Deku makes me so fucking mad.”

“Why?” Uraraka whispered. “Why couldn’t you just put aside your differences? Don’t you want me to be happy? Iida does. They all do. You constantly go out of your way to provoke me or somebody else. Or get a reaction out of us.”

“I know.” Bakugou spoke through clenched teeth. “God I fucking know it. I just… I can’t… Fuck.” He always had a hard time putting his thoughts into words. Uraraka was patient, she always was.

“I don’t want Kazumi growing up without you. I don’t want her to grow up with her father being angry all the time and yelling at me and us arguing. I want this to work. But you have to work on yourself first.” Uraraka explained.

Bakugou’s brows creased. “Are you dumping me?”

“No!” Uraraka shook her head quickly. “I want to help you. For us. For Kazumi. Let go of that anger. Tell me about your worries. I was the only one talking in the beginning, I think you owe me the same.”

Bakugou released a trembling breath. “Fine.”

They moved to Uraraka’s room where Kazumi was sleeping just in case she woke up and needed them. They leaned against the pillows facing each other, Bakugou taking her fingers in his hand, pressing on fingernails and the pads of her fingers. The whole time he spoke quietly of his nightmares and his PTSD to every single shitty thing that happened in their first year of UA that were still affecting him.

It was the closest they had been in a while. Uraraka felt like she learned more about Bakugou in those couple of hours than she had in their entire relationship. And it was wonderful . This was what Uraraka wanted, to feel closer to him, to feel like they were an actual couple.

Falling asleep with their fingers twined together, their sleeping baby girl in her bassinet beside them, things were definitely starting to piece together quickly. All the puzzle pieces surrounding theirs were coming together, beginning to finish the picture.

[peaches-of-1]

Chapter 5: Carwash

Black!Reader x E’Dawn

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It was a perfectly hot day, and you two had switched out shifts to see each other more and talk about what you were. You understood Vernon’s frustration. Hyojong was a really nice guy, and you two were always so close and cute with each other without even trying to mean to. He was someone you wanted to date.

There was no doubt in your mind about that. You had to make sure there wasn’t one in his. You approached him and called his name just as his friends dumped a bucket of water on his head. All words disappeared as he complained and started to take off his shirt.

[4 Weeks and 3 Days ago]

You guys did a full run through of the show today in practice since it was the first time that everyone was not sick and on time. It was in costumes, too. The competition was just over a month away.

“Great going! Wendy, Peter, great chemistry as always. Everyone, take a ten minute break while we finish up writing our notes.”

E’Dawn held your hand and kissed your cheek. Everyone was sure you two had to be dating now, but you weren’t. Yeah, you two were into each other, but you didn’t really think of him as your boyfriend in your head just yet.

You two drank some water and had some snacks while taking your break and some of the other members surrounded you. They hadn’t been at the party where he kissed you on the lips, so they were even more in the dark than you had planned.

“So?” A girl asked. “You’re dating now, right? He’s your boyfriend, right?”

“We haven’t really given each other titles yet.” You looked at him, looking for an answer.

He agreed, “I mean, we like each other. We’re just trying to see if it’s actually going to work out romantically before we do the whole names thing.”

They collectively groaned.

“You’re fucking kidding me, right?” Amber asked.

Even Jisoo was confused, “You’re still not actually dating after he kissed you... on the lips?”

“Twice.” E’dawn replied and took a drink while you nodded.

“Once when I got back and went to pick up my hanbok and then at the party, oh, three times. Christmas.”

He nodded in realization, “Rigghhht”

Rosé rolled her eyes, “You guys are impossible!”

To be fair, much of your current social media had been just the two of you throughout the holidays. Group pictures here and there. His mom had gone on and on with childhood stories about Hyojong, going into great motherly detail about his sickness as if she were talking to a future daughter in law.

She almost started making a registry list for you two as well.

“Hey, guys, gather around. Big news!” He said.

Everyone gathered around, and Hyojong pulled you into his lap. All ears were opened to what the choreographers and the girl who doubled at the treasurer were stood in front of you all.

“We got some bad news.”

“One of the backers for the dance team has just gotten really sick and is rightfully using his money to take care of his health. However, this means that we don’t have enough money to travel to Jeju for competition.”

Hyuna nodded, “He supported all of the dance teams and said he would give what he could, but we told him to take care of his health first. This affects all teams. S.H.E and H.I.M and Urban Shine.”

“We need to do something to raise money if we want to have any chance of competing this year. We’ll search for other backers, but we don’t have that much time. Does anyone have any ideas?”

Jennie spoke up, “We could have a bake sale!”

Not a lot of dancers were fond of baking, apparently. They gave skeptical looks and someone brought up that would take a lot of organization and a lot of resources, a lot of paying out of their own pocket. A few were ok with that, but not enough for it to be a solid plan.

___ spoke up, “We have cute guys and hot girls, so how about a bikini car wash? Or a regular car wash. It can be a semi-competition with each dance team trying to raise the most.”

“What about those of us who overlap?”

“We can schedule who works for what team at certain times so that you can work for both. It should start with sign ups first, and if you don’t wanna do the car wash, you can do the bake sale!”

“That way we can cover more ground and reach different audiences. Not everyone needs their car washed.”

The rest of the time was spent doing sign ups and going through trouble spots in the choreography. The car wash was going to be next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.

People brought their own buckets and towels, but special car cleaning soap was bought as well as things to clean windows. Luckily, it had stormed a lot last weekend and the sun was good and bright now. Everyone was in shorts and thank tops. Some of the girls were in bathing suits and bikini tops. You were in a cute one piece and some distressed shorts.

This was more about raising money than getting to show off. You were seeing someone, sort of. Hyojong was with you with the co-ed car wash which was getting less cars than the all girl team. Still, a huge black truck covered in mud pulled up in your section.

“Hey, oppa, I have a question.”

“Sure, jagiya, what is it?”

Your heart fluttered, “What are we? Like, if we had to give it a name?”

He smiled at you, “Just like we said. We’re ‘talking’, figuring if things are going to work out the way we want.”

“How long is that gonna take?”

“Don’t know. I hope it’s not long, though.”

The car was rinsed and dried off before driving away. Another car came up as you tried to continue your conversation with your...with E’dawn, but the driver was really interested in talking to you.

He was asking you about your time in Korea, and your...and E’dawn had to switch out to work with the guys. You sighed and continued the conversation, trying to get an actual donation from the dude. He gave $200 check to the cause and gave you his phone number. He wanted to be your sugar daddy.

The next car came, and you went to go work with the rest of the girls.

Hyojong had nearly frozen when you asked him to give your relationship a title because he wanted to be your boyfriend. He wanted to be yours in every way, shape, and form. But he wasn’t sure about how you felt and was too nervous to ask.

Before you could ask him something more, he switched out with one of the guys from H.I.M for washing cars. Lots of the other guys had their shirts off, but E’dawn didn’t feel like being a show off today. Even as the other guys tried to undress him, he fought them back and held his shirt down. The choreographer had to tell them to break it up like they were immature children.

“We’re getting that shirt off of you.” Hui said. “One way or another.”

“Good luck!”

You started working with the girls and thought about how you didn’t know what his schedule was, so you didn’t know the next time you’d get to talk to him. You made sure to check after the next switch. He wasn’t there this time, but he’d be there after you left. Sighing, you asked some girl to trade times with you and she eagerly accepted, being really shy around guys especially when most of them were now shirtless.

When you got to talk to E’Dawn again, you asked him how he felt if you did start calling him your boyfriend. He wouldn’t answer. You understood Vernon’s frustration. You were being straight forward with what you wanted but weren’t getting the obvious reply. Hyojong was a really nice guy, and you two were always so close and cute with each other without even trying to mean to. He was someone you wanted to date.There was no doubt in your mind about that.

“Just...I really like you. I do. I’m just nervous that we’re moving too fast if we put labels on each other.”

Your co-ed shifts were up and you went to go work the bake sale. There was a fan on the girls selling them, so it was perfect. Some were dancing for money since guys were selling sweet things while girls so it was sort of crowded. It brought even more people over to watch and buy, so they kept going with it.

Matthew put some hip-hop on, and it was a song that you knew. You started moving your hips and waist and he noticed, motioning you over. He was bouncing to the music, and he was the best hype man. As you got more in the music, your hips got a mind of their own.

“Shimmy shimmy yay, shimmy yay, shimmy ya (drank)/Swalla-la-la (drank)/ Swalla-la-la (swalla-la-la)/Swalla-la-la/Freaky, freaky gyal”

You basically started twerkin’ and throwing your hips in a circle for everyone who was watching with Matthew telling you to go off and leaning down to get a better view. You started smiling and laughing.

“Twerk it, Wendy!” He said, and you did while giggling.

Before you knew it, your shift selling food was done. You gave him a high five and went back into the direct heat, getting sprayed with a hose as you went to the co-ed car wash.

“You got them hips, girl!” Lisa smiled.

You grinned back at her and did a little shake, grabbing a sponge. It was a nice break from stressing about your relationship, but then you saw him again. You had to make sure there wasn’t one in his. You approached him and called his name just as his friends dumped a bucket of water on his head. All words disappeared as he complained and started to take off his shirt.

The girls and guys all stared at him as if he were doing it in slow motion. They all swarmed him and asked for “help” with simple things once he stuffed his shirt in his back pocket and arrived at the co-ed car wash.

This was the first time you had gotten jealous over a dude, and you hated it. You really did, but you couldn’t help it. All he did was become a blushy mess and pose for the girls who fawned over him.

You sprayed down a girl who was reaching out for his stomach, “Back the fuck off! He’s mine!”

“It’s not like you guys are actually boyfriend and girlfriend, so what’s the big deal, (Y/N)?”

Making eye contact with each other, you hoped he’d say something. He didn’t say a word. You turned around to turn the water off before you could storm away properly. He called out your name. You went back to the bake sale to switch places with someone so that you could dance some more.

[Two Weeks and One Day Ago]

You guys had gotten more than enough money to go to Jeju and stay in a hotel for competition since some anonymous benefactors gave donations. Matthew said it was probably because of you, and you smiled. He asked if you wanted to eat out with him and his friends. You said of course and spent the night busking with them.

E’dawn didn’t text you all night, so you just decided to enjoy the time out with your other friends. You felt J Seph hug you to his side and say how much fun he was having hanging out with you. Matthew, Somin, and Jiwoo agreed saying that you should hang out more. They asked if you had anyone to room with.

You were gonna say yes, but then realized that Rosé and Lisa would be rooming with Jennie and Jisoo. The girls got excited and said you could room with them and that they just needed one more person. You suggested Amber, and they were all for it.

The boys said that they were gonna ask Amber, and you squinted at them.

Hyojong looked at his phone. He had dropped it on the way home and the screen was...it basically exploded. There was nothing he could do until tomorrow afternoon, so he just pouted and played video games in the living room. He was gonna text you to ask if you were ok or having fun.

Now he couldn’t without feeling overbearing. Like, using someone else’s phone to ask would feel like too much to check in on how you were. He sighed and had trouble getting to sleep. E’Dawn stood out on the balcony when he died again.

Hui came to join him after a moment, “You good?”

“I am such a chicken, Hui. I am a wimp. Such a loser.”

“Anything I don’t know?”

His pout intensified.

Hui pat his back, “What is it?”

Hyojong leaned on the ledge, “I want (Y/N) to be my girlfriend so badly. Like, I should’ve said something when she told the other girls to back off. It would’ve been simple enough to agree with her or say yeah, she is my girlfriend, but I didn’t, like an idiot.”

“Wow, dude, you screwed up.”

“No shit. What do I do?”

He thought a moment, “Make sure she’s the first person you contact when you get your phone fixed tomorrow. Ask her about her night and go from there. Tell her how you feel, ok?”

“I will.”

[Two Weeks ago]

Shit hit the fan! Hyojong got his phone fixed and decided to check on your social media so that he had topics to bring up when he talked to you about what you had done last night. The last one wouldn’t play which was stupid.

Anyways, he called you to be a good friend and to tell you how he felt instead of making excuses. The phone was answered.

“Hey, (Y/N). I’m so glad you picked up. I saw that you had a great time last night, and--”

“Hey, Dawnie.” It was a man’s voice. “Good to hear from you.”

He scrunched his brows, “BM?”

“Yeah. (Y/N) still asleep in my bed, and she has a wicked hangover. She told me to answer it for her.”

Hyojong was having a really hard time not to misunderstand. (Y/N), his potential girlfriend, had gotten drunk with friends and was now sleeping in the bed of one of the most handsome of them. He had to have been in the bed with her or the phone would’ve rung for more time.

“She slept in your bed?” He asked.

“Yeah. I wasn’t gonna have her sleep on the couch, and I wanted to keep a close eye on her. I have a bathroom closer to my room anyways, so I thought why not, y’know?”

A flame lit in his stomach. They wouldn’t do anything, right? She like him, not Matthew right? She wouldn’t be petty enough to actively make him jealous, right?

“Ah.” E’dawn replied. “Yeah.”

He sighed, “Where were you last night, dude? She kept checking her phone, probably waiting for a message from you. Is your phone broken? Obviously not--”

“Well, actually.”

Hyojong stopped talking when he heard some moaning. It sounded like a bed was shifting. More moaning.

Matthew chuckled, “I’m not your daddy, but thanks for that.”

“That’s not what I said, you doofus!” She was speaking English, but it was easy enough for Hyojong to understand.

“Then what did you say?”

“I said--”

The unmistakable sound of throwing up came through. Matthew quickly hung up to deal with the situation of a puking girl. E’dawn still had questions, but he would have to wait until later to get them answered. However, he was angry and upset. Fine, fine, he was jealous. He could’ve and should have been the one looking over her instead of Matthew. Why hadn’t she gone with one of the girls instead?

Was their karaoke duet that good that something happened that she didn’t put up on social media? He looked at the others’ profiles and still, nothing about flirting or anything similar. He tried to convince himself he was overthinking but he couldn’t.

His face wouldn’t reveal his feelings, though. He was only a bit quieter today, too. The whole apartment was rather quiet since everyone was trying to get ahead on homework and projects in order to go do some fun things. Hyojong included since he had to record a presentation to show his teacher for a grade since he didn’t have time to do it in class.

Usually, he’d be asking (Y/N) for help in his English class but decided to let her rest for the day. He decided just to wait for her to call her. She’d do that, right? Especially if she knew that she called, wanting to explain what happened instead of letting him just wonder. That was the kind of girl she was. Didn’t want any misunderstandings about who she was.

Matthew sat on his bed where you were sitting, handing you some Dawn 808 since it was a typical hangover cure in South Korea. It was gross, but you thanked him anyways. Hopefully it would work.

“Who called earlier?”

“Ah, it was E’Dawn. I told him we were sleeping together.”

You nearly spat the drink out, “WHAT?”

He laughed, “I’m joking! I explained that offered to take you in since none of the other girls could carry you and Taehyung was drunk off his ass and not in the state to take care of anyone, well. Not all that. I just said I was taking care of you...”

You two stared at each other. Hyojong probably thought you were cheating on him or something. Well, can’t cheat on someone you’re not actually with. You sighed.

“You ok? Should I call him back?”

“No, don’t. If he actually cares, he’ll call back. Or text or whatever. Mind if I stay here until I feel better?”

He pulled you into a hug, “Physically or mentally, the answer is yes. Make sure to tell your roommies where you are, ok?”

“Ok.” You grabbed your phone and tried to focus on the screen to send a text to your group chat.

>> At Matthew’s. Hungover. I’m ok. Just a really bad headache and my stomach hates me. I’ll be back later today or tomorrow. I’m very lucky to have cute and helpful friends.

After you sent it, Matthew’s phone pinged. You had sent it to the wrong group chat, but were already laying back down, so he didn’t say anything. He just smiled and left the room.

[One Week ago]

Everyone was worried. The competition was soon, and you guys would be boarding a plane in four days. Stress of the impending deadline was stressful enough, but with you and Hyojong bickering over every messup and minor detail, things were worse.

He lifted you up a bit higher than previously, and you yelled at him for not being careful and not caring about you at all. You turned a millisecond faster than he was, and he was on you about being offbeat and being selfish.

“It’s not all about you!” The both of you screamed at the top of your lungs.

It was time for a much needed break. They broke up in teams to talk to you guys and see what was going on. The two of you had been perfection just the other night. People asked what you did with Matthew, and you said nothing. He said the same. Jiwoo, Somin, and J. Seph agreed that nothing happened while they were out together or when they went home. Matthew was bad at secrets, so he would’ve said something.

You were mad because he hadn’t called you, because he hadn’t asked anything about that night, because he didn’t seem interested in being your boyfriend even though he had acted like it. Had your first two love interests really been fuckboys? Say it ain’t so.

Hyojong was pissed since you didn’t say anything about having slept in Matthew’s bed. Were you really so upset that night you had to go flirting and partying without him? It had been like this for days, and he wished you would just say something! Anything about why you chose him out of all four people you had gone out with.

Everyone except you two realized there was some disconnect. Why weren’t you talking to each other about this?

“My phone was broken!” He yelled when someone asked why he didn’t contact you.

“Yeah, and his brain too, probably!” You replied.

Amber spoke up, “Listen, I don’t know why the fuck you won’t just talk to each other about this and work things out, but we’re in Hell Week, crunch time. We don’t have the luxury of you two bickering like 12 year olds, ok? During this practice time, we practice. You’re Wendy and Peter, not angry idiots, ok?”

“Ok,” You two said with your arms folded and not looking at each other.

She made you guys make eye contact, “Now shake on it. In character.”

You held out your hand and Hyojong shook it with a huge smile on his face. Despite your anger, you smiled too. Practice continued, and you both tried to be more patient with each other, being passive aggressive in commenting on flubs instead.

At least you guys made progress, somewhat.

Doing one more chapter since I decided to split up this once as it was becoming too long.

[elysiumrp]

Meghan Isabelle Roberts || Registered Werewolf || Pro-Equality Portrayed by Melissa Benoist

Biography /

Meghan was born in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois and lived in the same exact house for her entire childhood. It was rather typical, her parents went to work, she went to school, and they all returned home every night. Holidays were spent with family, and birthdays were celebrated by all, but there was one family member that was never around, her mom’s sister, Meghan’s aunt, Cynthia. Throughout the early years, Meghan had just been told that Cynthia lived in New York City and wasn’t able to fly out to visit them because she was so busy, but when she was fifteen, she was told a family secret that she was instructed to take to the grave. Aunt Cynthia was a vampire, and she hadn’t aged a day since her late teens. One year later when Meghan was sixteen, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, and life as she knew it grinded to an immediate halt. The necessary treatments led her to being unable to attend high school, and at one point she was even given a terminal diagnosis. Still, even after she lost her ability to go to school with her friends and to attend her extracurricular activities, Meghan was still driven enough to attempt to finish high school online, and finish she did. Although her parents tried to hide it, she knew that her condition wasn’t getting better, and conversations were overheard multiple times that toyed with the possibility of contacting Aunt Cynthia. The world was one of which she knew nothing, but fear of the unknown was little compared to the fear of dying. Meghan went to New York with the intention of becoming a vampire, but she left a werewolf, and as a part of a pack nearly twenty strong (and continuing to grow over the year away). They took up safety in Canada, but it was far from what it seemed as things up there were as chaotic as things in the city, they were just fighting against other werewolves as opposed to humans. It’s been twelve months since Meghan left the city, and now that she’s coming back she’s about to be hit with a cruel reality. Not only are things in the city still far from how they left, her Aunt Cynthia has been killed in the meantime too, and without a way to contact Meghan, nobody was ever able to let her know. The one familial connection she had in the city was gone, and although she has been cured of her cancer and has become part of a pack, somehow it is almost certain that the loss of her only family member is going to leave her feeling very much alone.

Important Points /

-- When Meghan found out that her Aunt Cynthia was a vampire, she couldn’t help but be in shock. It went against almost everything that she had ever believed in when it came to her world view, and the realization that vampires were out there was something that was almost impossible to believe. It was silly, but in time, Meghan actually started to enjoy the fact that she knew something that the rest of the world was unaware of. It was especially exciting during the Twilight phase when her friends were going crazy over vampires and would try to research them to find out if they were truly real or not, but would come up with nothing. There were times that Meghan wanted more than anything to reveal what she knew to her friends, but she was trapped between feeling that they would think that she was crazy, and knowing that no matter how tempting it was, she couldn't betray her family. Meghan's parents didn't know much more than the fact that Aunt Cynthia was a vampire, so Meghan was in for even more surprises when she finally got to New York City and learned about werewolves and witches too. It took her years to process the vampire thing, and wrapping her head around everything else was another challenge in itself.

-- Originally, Meghan couldn’t help but think that perhaps her Aunt Cynthia would be able to fix her situation of having to live with terminal cancer and allow her an even longer life span by turning her into a vampire. She read as much as she could about vampires, but of course sources were sketchy, many of them were wrong, and reading still couldn't prepare her for the reality of it all. The cruelty of some vampires turned her off to the idea unless it was a last resort, and she tried magic to fix herself, but little came from it besides negative consequences that took months to reverse. In the end, Meghan decided to approach Kyle Davidson to ask him to turn her into a wolf, and turn her into a wolf he did. She figured that controlling her anger would be easier, and safer for all, than trying to control her bloodlust, and when she considered that, the choice seemed all too easy to make.

-- It took the death of Andrew Kingsman to drive Meghan towards Kyle Davidson and ask him to fulfill a promise he made to her once and for all. He had said that if it got to the point where she wasn’t herself, he would turn her into a werewolf. With dark magic inside her and the weight of blaming herself for Andrew’s complicated "death", Meghan became a member of the Davidson Pack as a wolf, and ultimately has grown to become one of Kyle’s right hand people. They have had a close bond, even with supernatural groupings and werewolf packs becoming illegal in New York, and one of their wolves being killed by a hunter which ultimately drove them to Canada. The Davidson Pack was her family and none of them have done anything yet to betray her as far as she knows. Humans have started to become cruel because of their fear, but Meghan feels that she has seen the good that supernaturals can do. After all, they saved her life. Meghan wants nothing more than for their to be a unity between supernaturals and humans, even if it goes against what the alpha of her pack wants. Technically he's said nothing of the sort, but she can read between the lines of what he says and how he acts. Now that she's back in New York, the first thing that she wants is to see her aunt and apologize for things that went wrong between them. After that, she wants to start helping the supernatural and human communities move towards an understanding.

Connections /

KYLE DAVIDSON ; Kyle Davidson is the sole person that Meghan trusts with her life more than herself at the moment, mainly because he's the reason that she's alive today--literally. He had made a promise to her that if she ever ended up in a state where she was no longer able to have a quality of life that he would help her, and after she became infused with dark magic, it fell to that. After becoming a werewolf, it didn't take Meghan long for her to get in control over herself thanks to Kyle and for that she's forever grateful. Out of everyone, she is closest to Kyle and will discuss anything that he wants to talk about. It doesn't happen often, but Meghan feels as though she's the one holding him together after everything he's been through after leaving New York. It's not obvious, yet she knows there's a resentment towards everyone, mostly humans, and that's something Meghan is working to try and fix.

BROOKLYN DAVIS ; If there were anyone that Meghan wished could be her older sister or her favorite aunt, it would be Brooklyn Davis. Brooklyn was the mother to the pack, just as Meg feels that she is like a motherly figure to Kyle, so it was obvious why they have the friendship that the two currently share. Both are Kyle's seconds – if he could have two of them – they were always found standing next to each other during meetings, and are usually both asked for advice before Kyle makes his decisions. Yes, the two had vastly different upbringings, but they have relied on each other for guidance and for attempts at lighthearted fun during tough times. Meghan is excited to be in the city again with Brooklyn this time, and she hopes that it won't be as harsh as it was in Canada.

SARAH PARKER ; From the moment Meghan met Sarah Parker, she has hated her. Meghan is usually the type to give a person a second chance on things, or simply try to put up with a person as opposed to simply write them off. With Sarah, however, it has been instinct that told her to steer incredibly clear of the blonde. She knows that Kyle dated her, Sarah has made it clear to everyone, yet the way he treats her tells Meghan that he's brought her into the pack just to be on the safe side. Whether she was the crazy ex-girlfriend or someone that is blackmailing him, Meghan is going to keep her guard up at all times with the woman. She's not the type of person that she wants in her life, and honestly if Meghan could have her way, she would have asked Kyle to make her leave a long time ago. She's just a good influence on the pack dynamic in the slightest.

ALEXANDRA JACKSON ; Alexandra Jackson is a werewolf from New York City that Kyle asks her to get in communication with every so often, Meghan doesn't really know much about Alexandra Jackson other than the fact she helped Kyle out when Andrew died to help take care of the body. It's something that Meghan is personally grateful for because of the connection that she had with Andrew. Supposedly, Alexandra has actually started to make a name for herself she since helps a majority of the community out when it comes to matters like bodies or coverups (something that is all too common in the supernatural world), and since she works as a medical examiner, a lot of the time she can even forge legality. Meghan has only had to call Alexandra twice for help, but now that they're finally back in the city, Meghan is actually somewhat excited to meet the other werewolf face to face for the first time.

NOAH PEARSON ; Meghan met Noah Pearson before he got turned into a vampire, and was able to grow closer to him after he became a vampire. They haven't had much time together, but the time they have spent around one another has brought up little concern. He seems like a genuinely good person that was just dealt a bad hand with the whole vampire thing, and although they certainly weren't close, Meghan would certainly go out of her way to strike up a converastion with him if she were to ever see him again since she is now back in the city. As far as she knows, Noah has done pretty well as a vampire over the few months that she was around, and right now what the community needs is supernaturals that can provide good examples for both their peers, and for humans as well to prove that they're not all bad.

ISAAC ELLSMAN ; Meghan almost felt like part of the Davidson Pack before she was a werewolf, so she knows what it must be like for Isaac. Although he is considered a member of the pack, he's not technically a werewolf, and that's always something that is a bit difficult to adjust to. It was Meghan that fully convinced Kyle to keep Isaac around because she knew that they needed a warlock in the pack, and someone to do magic, especially with how dangerous things are, is really indispensible. Being able to put up protection spells is an incredibly important asset, and his personality helps the pack too. There's not doubt that Meghan likes his company because yes, he may be cocky at times, but that doesn't change the fact that he's a funny person that knows how to make a situation lighter.

ISABEL SUMMERS ; Isabel Summers was a girl around her age that was swept up in the supernatural community just like she was. Of course, Isabel was born into it, and she was a witch as opposed to a werewolf, but they had similar personalities, and this caused them to bond rather well. Meghan hasn't talked to Isabel in a year, and since they really weren't that close, she never reached out to her, but Isabel certainly is a person that she wouldn't mind reconnecting with. She can only imagine what the girl has had to go through over the past year with trying to survive living in the city, and Meghan knows that Isabel has gone through so many things first hand that she has to have a good idea regarding what the actual tensions in the town are like.

MEGHAN ROBERTS IS CURRENTLY CLOSED

[kershellemikeladykiller-blog]

Chapter Four

Bobby wasn’t the “I’m sorry, baby. It’ll never happen again, baby” abuser. He was the “And so what” kind of abuser. He didn’t care. He didn’t have to. There would be no rescuers for me. He made sure of that. In addition to inducting me to the Hall of Pain, he disconnected me from the world. No more Facebook. No Twitter. Hell, no cellphone.

The cellphone thing was smartly done. I didn’t see it as a sign but I should have. Six weeks before we left, he asked me to do some trust challenge that he saw on Twitter. Twitter challenges are fun, right? Everyone jumps into them. Only there are so many that it’s hard to keep up with them all. Who was I to miss a chance to become a viral star with the man that I loved? He said that the challenge was to raise money for his campus and that they were trying to get attention on the news in addition to do one of the largest live studies in the country. They would be famous, he said. His football scholarship would get larger, he said. Who was I to get in the way of the dream of the man that I loved. So, we got one cellphone. One password for each account. We would alternate using it and Saturdays we were together so there was no need to schedule time for it.

I know. I was stupid. But I was in love and I wanted him to do well. Who was I to get in the way? I wish I had gotten in the way.

As soon as we got to Arizona, he deleted my accounts. He made me delete Gmail too because that was the only one that he didn’t have access too. He was clever. He had set me up a long time ago and I had foolishly fallen into his trap. Intimacy was no longer….intimate. It was a requirement. Did I know better than to have sex before marriage? Yes. I grew up in church like everyone else. But a boot to the face can change that really quickly.

I don’t know what making love feels like. We never made love. Not once. Not that I know of. Bobby just….took it. And I could not say “No”. Not unless I wanted to live. A series of grunts and puffs was the signal that the ordeal would be coming to an end. I have often heard girls say that they feel the earth move from under them. I often lay face up in the darkness wishing that it would do that. Because that would mean that it would probably be ready to swallow me.

Bobby lay huffing and puffing beside me. I lay there with tears in my eyes. My stomach hurt so much these days. My genitals felt like sandpapered wood. No butterflies. No warm feeling at the pit of my stomach. I felt empty and sick. Is this what Marvin Gaye sang about? He shouldn’t have been very rich.

“Go make me a sandwich,” Bobby murmured. My mind knew that I was supposed to get up right away but my body refused to cooperate. I was spent. In every sense possible.

“Don’t make me talk twice,” he said slowly. His voice was low and soft. A warning. I urged myself to get up against the pain. I was hurting all over but I had to go. Not just because he told me to, but because I needed to get away. I managed to roll off the bed and shuffle my feet into my moth-eaten bedroom slippers. The cold floor met my heel through the hole in my shoes. I shivered and continued on. It wasn’t like I didn’t know something was wrong with the picture. I just didn’t know what to do. Who to call. This is not what they prepare you for in school. They just assume that everyone will be treated well. They don’t prepare you for the possibility of abuse. Because in the mind of someone, if it doesn’t happen to me. It isn’t happening to anyone.

I trudged down the hallway in the dark and I headed to the kitchen. I knew very well that there was nothing to eat. How to make it materialize? Beyond me. I rummaged through the cupboards hoping that God had put something there for me yet again. A crust. A crumb. Something. Day old bread and a tin of sardines. Beatable? You tell me.

As I warmed the bread, I soaked it so that it would seem fresh. It was a trick that I invented by accident but that seemed to work really well. While that was warming, I tried to figure out what to do with the sardines. I would have to season it well so that he would only yell about it being sardines. As I diced the tiny fish, I remembered how my mother would make meals out of nothing too. I wasn’t very appreciative at the time but I see how those skills helped to keep me alive. Literally.

I missed my mother. I did. I was a splitting image of her. The only one of us five who looked anything like her. All the others took after that. In the beginning, before Bobby, we were like peas in a pod. Inseparable. We could talk about any and everything. She was pretty much my best friend. I remember telling her about Bobby for the first time. I remember the conversation.

“He’s great, Mom.”

“I’m sure he is. But don’t throw your pearls before swine, baby.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means be careful, Janelle.”

“Of what? We aren’t doing anything!” “I’ve been around the block Janelle. Just be careful.”

I was convinced that she was overreacting. Parents are never just overreacting.

“JANELLE!”

I jumped, dropping the knife in the process. My heart was working overtime. I looked over at the bread just in time to see it crisping.

“Y-yes?” I answered timidly. There was a pause and I swore I heard him coming. My heart beat faster and I could feel my chest tightening. I squinted in the dark as the thuds became heavier. I backed up to steady myself on the counter. I was mentally preparing myself for a beating. Just then I saw a light flicker on in the distance and heard the steady stream of water.

“No crust.”

That was it. That was all.

“Okay,” I replied timidly. My chest released but only slightly because I knew that it was far from over. The sardine test was on the horizon.

***

I got to go outside as often as the trash van came around – once a month. Even then I was timed. On the rare occasion that he wasn’t home, I was too paranoid to enjoy it. I wouldn’t walk as quickly back to the house but that was about the only leisure that I took. The buildings stood against one another like soldiers in an inspection line yet at the same time, they were leaning against one another for support. Grey wooden structures fenced in by chain link only reemphasized the condition of my mental state. Boxed in, inescapable but yet leaning on something. Holding onto something. The houses were like matchboxes so as you can well imagine the rooms, the “apartments” were not the most comfortable. We learned to make the most of them. I didn’t necessarily have a choice.

Our apartment building stood as the Goliath of the neighbourhood. We were surrounded by homes of eight or more people. Children’s toys lay askew on the small lawns around us. Evidence of life and the promise of a future. I envied them immensely but that was all that I could do. Envy and hope. I imagined that they came out on the stoop at evening and talked about their day. They probably talked and laughed and comforted one another. They probably ate together too as they watched the children play. As cramped as they were, they were glad to be with one another. They had each other to lean on. They made the space bearable for one another.

I got to come outside as often as the trash van did and when I did, there was one person that was always there to greet me.

“Good mornin’, doll! How you today?” the round greying lady cooed.

I peeked out from under my hoodie at her shyly. I always wore a hoodie outdoors. I didn’t need the questions and there would be many from Mrs. Jenkins. I gave her a small wave and a small smile – my customary greeting to her. She was the only one who had seen me more than once since…….since…I couldn’t remember.

“Glad to see ya this mornin’!” Mrs. Jenkins called, propping herself on the fence. I slung the garbage bag onto the rising heap with a great heave. I dusted my hands off on my sweatpants and I turned back to go inside. I would linger a bit today since Bobby had gone out to meet his boys.

“Lordy, I wish someone from the county would come clean this mess up sooner,” she lamented. “Them flies is becoming unbearable.” I nodded demurely and kept my head down. My bruises were still fresh and my hoodie was starting to get holes too. I avoided eye contact at all costs. How to describe Mrs. Jenkins. The only things that come to mind is Ma’am from Tom and Jerry. Well her bottom half anyway. Her face was round and pudgy. She was dark in complexion and had lovely brown eyes. She was a motherly figure all in all and I enjoyed my encounters with her, albeit very short.

“Yup. Breeds all kinds of disease for everybody. It’s just a mess. Makes no sense to call no one no how. They never listen.” I let her prattle on. That way, I could enjoy the fresh air and just being outside. It was partly cloudy but the sunrays reached through the greying cotton balls. I inhaled – facing away from the garbage heap, of course, -  and tried to appreciate it all. I literally didn’t know when I would be out again. I would have to wait until the next month.

“…..standing on the lawn.”

I looked over at her now. I was so busy enjoying the outdoors that I was completely ignoring her. As usual. I never answered her anyway so I didn’t think that she would mind. But I looked over to acknowledge her anyway.

“Yep. Strange. I just don’t know what’s goin’ on no more. Just sad.”

I nodded again and then anxiety took over. Our conversations were usually quite short since she was the one doing all the talking anyhow. I started moving back to the building. I had almost gotten to the front step when I heard Mrs. Jenkins.

“Hey!”

I turned around. This wasn’t part of the routine. She walked as close to the fence as she could get. She looked left and right and left again. Finally she looked across the street from us. I backed up ever so slightly to catch what she was trying to say to me

“Missus Ellie’s back in town,” she said. “She always knows just when to leave.”

I looked at her and nodded. I didn’t know our neighbour had returned. She was a travelling saleswoman but Mrs. Jenkins said people hardly ever saw her. I knew nothing of her, of course. Just what was told briefly to me.

“She’s a rolling stone, that one,” whispered Mrs. Jenkins, winking at me. I nodded again and waved at her. I had to get back indoors.  But she wouldn’t stop talking to me.

“She sure been bashed about but she always picked herself up. Left to her alone, she wouldn’t have made it.”

“Nice for her. Goodbye,” I said softly, turning around to go in. It was too long now. I had spent too long outside. I felt like Bobby would know if I didn’t leave right then. As I quick walked up the porch, I could feel her eyes on me but couldn’t shake the feeling that this was more than idle banter.

[variationalpokemonbreeder]

Jack and Frost (Drabble)

Shitty backstory of Ayala and the Weavile twins she has, which are named ‘Jack’ and ‘Frost’. I hope the pun is obvious.

 The woman hummed idly as she gingerly ran her fingers along the soft feathers which surrounded the Weaviles ears. The pair had come to nuzzle close to her side to insist on being given some affection. As such, she had taken to gently stroking the velvety extrusions that sprouted from their heads. Her actions were rewarded with affectionate nuzzles and a series of content purrs and clicks. These notoriously aggressive Pokemon were surprisingly docile and affectionate when it came to those whom they were close to. Such could be said about an array of predatory Pokemon. Rough and merciless where hunting was concerned; but tender and attentive when it came to mates, young, and other trusted members of the pack. To them, she was either viewed as the Alpha or as a motherly figure. She would like to think that their obedience was a result of them viewing her as a higher ranking member of the pack.

 Albeit she understood that Pokemon were a lot smarter than people were willing to give them credit for. The fact was that she had earned their trust and stayed with her of their own will. Why they were willing to listen to her instruction made little difference in the long run. She had trained them and their obedience was so on point that she only needed to whistle and snap her fingers to command them. Verbal commands were there simply to specify a behavior. She relied upon a mix of visual and sound based cues, and all of the Pokemon she owned had a firm grasp at what each signal meant. She may not have been someone who enjoyed the concept of sending Pokemon into battle; but such did not prevent her from training them to the best of her capability. She came from a Battle Royal family, after all. Next to everyone in her bloodline had attained some sort of championship using the Pokemon on their team.

 Her family disowned her for deciding to become a breeder. Not merely because it had been considered to be a waste of time and money in their eyes; but because she had dared to stray away from the path they had set up for her. She had attended private classes meant to teach her the proper ways to handle an array of Pokemon. These were creatures which would obey depending on how they were treated and what their relationship with a trainer was. With her, trust was the most important. Such was why she was so keen on keeping and breeding Pokemon that she was capable of forming social bonds with. Every Pokemon breed had a series of traits that one needed to pay attention to in order for a level of understanding to be met. There were certain types in the Pokemon field which also required the ability to portray a specific level of authority.

 Such was why she did not have any Dragon type Pokemon. Not because she was afraid of them or because she disliked them; but because she was not yet able to properly put herself in a situation where she would be able to earn their respect. So as much as she would love to be given the chance to raise and breed dragons, she was not yet in a situation where she felt she would be able to handle them. Her mother was a prime example of what could happen when one decided to take care of a Pokemon which they were not yet ready to handle. Obedience was not merely given, it was earned. Earned through respect and trust. The Hydreigon that her mother had captured had been disobedient because they did not trust or respect her. The heightened aggression was a trait true to that species of Pokemon, but she could guess that it had been far more violent than usual because it was so unhappy.

 The end result of that dangerous mix of poor handling skills and hostile emotions had been a violent attack which put her mother in the hospital. Unforseen complications during surgery had been named as the official cause of death; but it was the Hydreigon that had killed her mother. The death of her mother in turn, cost her the presence of her father; who was in no way willing to abandon his lifestyle of travel for the sake of raising a toddler. Her family claimed that the Hydreigon had been properly released, but given what she had come to understand; she would assume that the creature had either been abandoned, given away, or put to death. The people in her family were cowardly when it came to dealing with a known danger. She did not believe that any of them had the willpower to release a dragon from its ball, when it had already proven to be capable of killing someone.

 The Weavile shifted against her so that they could try to climb into her lap. She bit her lip slightly at the feel of their claws hooking into her clothing whilst they climbed upon her. She was not afraid of them but such did not prevent her from being aware of the potential damage that could come with these physical displays of affection. They would not hurt her intentionally; but accidents could happen. She wrapped her arms around their sides to hold onto them and began to trail her nails across their stomachs as they cuddled up to her. These were an odd pair of Weavile no matter how she came to look at it. A set of twins whom had left their home in the icy mountains of their own dictation, for the sake of moving into her barn. She eventually captured them properly to prevent them from being stolen; but the basis of their original meeting was something far more complex.

 She was not an official Pokemon ranger but she had undergone enough training to have access to the medical equipment that could often be found at Pokemon centers. So long as she made a call to let the officials know that she was taking wounded Pokemon under her care, she was fine. Such was just a precaution to assure that someone would be able to come and check up on her routinely; just in case accidents came to happen. She had been out with a Pokemon Professor at the time. They had made a journey to Snowpoint Temple for the sake of studying a recent disturbance in the area. Increased levels of aggression were being portrayed in the Pokemon residing there. The air had been absolutely frigid and being outside had been hell. She had gone along at the Professor’s request, because from their perspective, she had an unusual skill when it came to dealing with Pokemon.

 They called it the ‘One bite phenomenon’. Really she would have preferred to call it the ‘First blood rule’, considering the basis of it. There was no real basis for understanding it, but the Professor suspected that there was a special energy about her which put Pokemon in an unusual state of hesitation after they had attacked her the first time. They would call it the One bite phenomenon because Pokemon would refrain from attacking her after biting her the first time. She called it the First blood rule, because Pokemon became hesitant to attack her following the first time they hurt her enough to draw blood. This was all a matter of circumstance and dumb luck as far as she was concerned, but the Professor had been convinced that they would be safe. He had the training and she had this phenomenon of an ability about her that made chances of attack severely plummet after the first blow was dealt.

 She had opted to leave out how she would often notice that a Pokemons attitude would shift about as she handled them. She had once had a Psychic type trainer insist that she had a magic touch that would allow her to tame and communicate with any Pokemon if she were to put effort into honing her skills, but call her a skeptic. Not every Pokemon could be tamed; because not every Pokemon wanted to be taken from their home in the wild. So even if she did have some unusual power that would allow her to tame and communicate with Pokemon, it was going to be impossible for it to work on all of them. She would opt to pretend that she had no such ability if only for the sake of being left to her own devices. Either way, she had never been severely attacked by the same Pokemon twice. From the Professor’s point of view, that had been reason enough to believe that she was good company for the investigation.

 What they found upon arrival was something worse than she had been able to anticipate. There were dozens of badly wounded Pokemon roaming the area surrounding Snowpoint Temple. Because of the pain they were in, they had become incredibly hostile. Many attacked out of the desire to protect themselves from being dealt more painful wounds, and because of fear. Predatory Pokemon suffered the most severe injuries and many of them had clearly not been able to hunt properly. So Prey species were littered in painful gashes and bite marks, because they had been attacked by a Predator which was not fit enough to properly take them down. Long story short, the root of the problem had been the Weavile twins. They were alone and without any sort of pack to protect them. One had been severely wounded and could not walk, yet alone hunt or protect themselves from scavengers.

 Two scared Pokemon desperate to survive had caused all of the chaos by Snowpoint Temple. The wounded sibling was helpless and their brother, unwilling to abandon them, began to attack anything which approached. The faded marks on her arm and chest were proof enough of what had transpired following this discovery. The Professor had set out to summon as many able bodied rangers as possible so that they could capture and rehabilitate all of the wounded Pokemon. She, being the idiot that she was, crawled into the pit of ice that the Weavile had hidden themselves in so that she could try to help them. She had been bitten a total of three times, and scratched more than that. True to her first blood rule, once the Weavile drew blood their level of hostility dramatically dropped even as they continued to try and protect themselves. The first bite had been the worst.

 The unwounded but exhausted sibling latched onto her arm with jagged teeth and bit so hard that she would have worn that her bone broke. When she did not take that as the warning to leave they bit again, but did not draw blood. Her upper arm was left needing some stitches and the bruises took nearly a month to heal following the event, but she had been firm when it came to enduring the pain. Be it from the fear or from the exhaustion, the unwounded sibling stopped trying to attack her after the third bite, and instead began to try and drag her out of the den. The noise had been the worst of it. Hearing them scream into her ears to try and deter her had been almost enough to make her cry. When she reached the wounded Weavile and picked them up, the terrified creature immediately lashed out. They tore clean through her jacket with their claws and sliced open the skin on her chest.

 Again, the first blood rule came into place. The hostility dropped dramatically with each blow, so despite the fact that the claws continued to leave bleeding trails on her skin, the damage was far less severe than anything prior. She took the wounded Weavile and pushed herself out of the den. Their brother followed after, and continued to scream at her. They had been terrified and did not understand her intentions. Rangers had helped to better situate the Pokemon and she had been rushed to the Pokemon Center shortly after. The wounds on her arm and chest had needed stitches and naturally she had been scolded for taking such reckless action. She had insisted on being the one to rehabilitate the Weavile, but her inquiry had initially been rejected. She was allowed to take charge only after the rangers had spent three consecutive days failing to get the Pokemon to eat.

 The wounded Weavile had been treated and was naturally confined to a small space to prevent them from agitating their injuries and undoing the effort that had gone into their treatment. Apparently the Pokemon had suffered from a broken leg, and damage following that had been the result of another Pokemon coming by to try and finish them off. The siblings were kept together to keep them calm, but recovery was impossible if neither would be willing to eat. She took to calling them ‘Jack’ and ‘Frost’ so that she could differentiate between them. Jack had been the wounded sibling whereas Frost was the one whom had worked themselves to exhaustion trying to protect their brother. Both of them were incredibly thin at the time and it was determined that they were not eating because of the stress. Again she took to methods that later resulted in her being scolded.

 She put her skills as a Breeder to work by whipping up a batch of the meaty mush that she would prepare for the Predatory Pokemon when it came time to wean them off of the formula. In the case of the Weavile, she included berries that grew in the harsh frozen climate and a mixture of eggs and meat. The meat and berries had been put through a grinder, then mixed with the cream and eggs and cooked into a soupy mash. The end result was something that looked akin to vomit, but it was a perfectly edible substance that she would sometimes eat over rice. The first feeding was done through force; or at least it was where Frost had been concerned. She had flat out shoved her hand into the Pokemon’s mouth after collecting some of the mush with her fingers. This resulted in her being bitten again but blood was not drawn. Rather the starving Pokemon immediately wrapped their claws around her wrist to hold her hand in place whilst they sloppily cleaned the food off of her hand.

 Following this Frost began to eat as soon as she put the bowl in with him; and Jack followed suit, because they trusted their brother. She had kept them on this diet for five days, and then made the transition to raw food. She gave them whole eggs, berries, and cubed pieces of meat. It took two weeks of careful diet control and skilled medicinal treatment to get them back into condition where they were deemed capable of being released. Pokemon were quick to recover when cared for properly, and luckily medicine was advanced enough to speed up the healing process where broken bones were concerned. A few decades ago, it would have taken four to six weeks for the injury to have healed enough for the Pokemon to be able to safely walk and run upon it. Now, thanks to changes in medicine, that recovery time had been cut in half. Modern medicine was really something else.

 She had spent a lot of time with the Weavile during those two and a half weeks that she was out by Snowpoint Temple. Once every few days she had been forced to go back to the Ranch to make sure that everything was in order in terms of her Pokemon and the land. The Weavile twins would not behave for any of the Rangers whom attempted to care for them; which only better implied that they belonged out in the wild. For sake of her protection these dangerous Pokemon were kept in reinforced cages that they could not destroy with their claws or other such attacks. Even so, she had not been afraid to feed them by hand or slip her arm between the bars to try and help with grooming. How hands on she was with them had been entirely dependant on whether or not they would swat her arm whenever she reached into the cage. Once the day had come to release them she and a pair of Rangers ventured out into the snowy terrain to see them off.

 The pair had rushed off into the snow as soon as they had been released from their balls. After that she had spent a few hours at the ranger station relaying information on how she had cared for the Pokemon. She had been lectured for taking actions which could put her in danger, but nothing else came of it. Really there was nothing that could be done to reprimand her behavior. This was a world where people were encouraged to walk into a Pokemon’s habitat and captured them. The only rules set up when caring for wounded Pokemon were rules that had been established for the sake of keeping the people and the Pokemon safe. Disobeying a rule could get you fired but not much aside from that. The fact remained that she had been the only one whom had succeeded in interacting with the Weavile in a manner which did not immediately result in violent response.

 Once she had given them the information they wanted she went home. Two days following this, she found the Weavile twins sleeping contently in her barn after starting her morning chores. The Pokemon had somehow managed to track her down. She could only assume that Pokemon who spent their lives living in a frozen wasteland would have excellent tracking skills. They must have been able to hunt her down by scent or by following whatever aura it was that the Professor believed she gave off. Either way, they had found her and it had been made clear early on that they had every intention of staying. A few days after finding them in her barn she had tried to put them back in their natural habitat again, only to once again find them in her barn a few days following this. Jack and Frost had decided that they wanted to be her Pokemon and there was really nothing that could be done to change their minds.

 Such was how she had wound up with these cuddly little Predators; and she loved having them by her side.

[raceandspeculation]

Ellen Ripley’s Character Transformation in Alien and Aliens

Jennifer M. Enriquez

Professor Shante Smalls

English 3690

20 February 2017

Sigourney Weaver took the role of Ellen Ripley, in the first film of Alien in 1979 and had become a legendary role model for the rest of the sequels. Her role as “Warrant Officer Ripley - who was to become her Significant Other,” (Gibson 36) made the films genuinely popular to this day and fans are wanting for more. Soon Alien V will come out this May 2017 in theaters for the continuation of Aliens versus Ripley and the fans are excited and eager to see Ripley’s new role. There are some fanatics today, who would argue that the first two films of Aliens were the best and the others were a total failure. However, each film has been directed by a different director - Ridley Scott in 1979, James Cameron in 1986, David Fincher in 1992, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet in 1997 - all of these directors brought their vision to the films and their version of Ripley. Also, keep in mind, the writers and producers have been male in each other films (Scobie 80). Ripley’s character and personality changes throughout the Alien films, however, Ripley’s role in each film varies from a lone survivor to motherly, and finally a hero.

In the first film of Alien - directed by Ridley Scott - it was seen that “Alien was a basically male anxiety fantasy: that a man could be impregnated was the ultimate outrage,” (Taubin 94) but that all ended when the leading role character was a woman - Ripley. This had led to ask many questions about the film and its role in feminism. Ripley takes the role as the “hero” in the film, and it was shocking. From the beginning of the film, Alien introduces five males and two females (Ripley as one of the females) scientists and mechanics on the ship in outer space, on their way home (Earth) from the mission. We were lead to believe from the beginning that the captain of the naval ship would be the fearless leader in the film. We were wrong. Usually, in action films, males take the lead. Men are known to show their strength and dominance in any given situation; also if the male hero dies, then it is seen as an admirable death. Ripley’s took the role as the “hero” leading to “the degree to which is surprising, admirable, or not so admirable that a woman should be assigned such a role,” but, “it was seen as admirable that Ripley is cool, resourceful, courageous, and able to save herself without the assistance of a man” (Scobie 82). In this film, Ripley is “the career woman whose nurturing impulses are invested in her cat” (Taubin 95). She follows protocol and at one scene when her crewmembers wanted to bring their in their crewmember who had a specimen (the alien) on his (John Hurt) face, Ripley was not going to let them in. The captain then broke the protocol and let them in; the ship then was in danger, and they did not know it themselves. Once they discovered it was a rare specimen, they were ordered to bring it back with them. However, the situation lost control, and eventually, it cost almost all of its crewmembers’ lives. Ripley’s role as a tomboyish figure made a suitable difference from what was expected from a female role to a more shocking surprise - a woman taking control without any assistance from men or anyone else. She was able to save herself (and the cat) from the alien, who had killed all of her crewmembers, by blasting it out in outer space.

In Aliens, James Cameron’s film occurs after Ripley blasted the alien (the xenomorph) out in space. Fifty-seven years has passed by, and she was in deep hypersleep with the cat in her arms; Ripley is then awoken and found out she has been asleep for half a decade. From the director’s cut of Aliens, Ripley is showed a photo of an old woman and is told that it is her daughter and that she had died already; her daughter had no living descendants. This burden of losing to be part of her child’s life wounded Ridley. She never had the chance to be a mother for her daughter. When Ripley decided to go on a rescue mission for the colony, send by the company, with protection with soldiers, to look for survivors of the colony, she finds Newt. Her role in Aliens, Ripley takes the adoptive role mother of Newt, who is “a little girl who is the sole survivor of the aliens’ attack on the colony,” (Scobie 86).  Their emotional bonding brought them together, and it shows a reference of the first film; to “the last words of Alien are: ‘This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off’” (Scobie 86). This bond brought them closer together since they share a similar experience: Ripley was a sole survivor from Nostromo and Newt is the only survivor from the colony. What is unique about Ripley and Newt is their names. Newt’s name is “Rebecca,” but she insists being called “Newt” which is the name that “would associate her with animal life, a disavowal of her humanity,” (Scobie 86). Ripley was never referred by her first name “Ellen” always by her surname. Newt was discovered hidden in the pipes and traveled through the vents to escape from the aliens running loose in the colony. She was an “animal” trying to survive from its predator, the aliens, just as Ripley when she was escaping from Nostromo.

Ripley’s relationship between herself and the Alien is uncommon to see through our eyes - a rare unknown species that is not known to us; its countenance is frightening, and its blood is acid. Ripley struggles for survival against this alien and is traumatized of this alien after her. Ripley is not the only protective role in James Cameron's Aliens, as the alien queen “guarded by her warriors” as she “lays eggs” is also a mother (Taubin 95). In Aliens, Newt is abducted by the xenomorphs and taken to the Queen’s hive. Ripley had the chance to escape and abandoned the colony, but she went back alone and took charge in finding Newt at the hive. There’s a scene when Ripley finally finds Newt but then is confronted by the Queen. They “battle each other for the possession of Newt,” and hence appears Ripley’s famous line, “Stay away from her you bitch!” (Scobie 86) This scene portrays as “the refusal of the ‘monstrous feminine’ of the archaic, devouring mother,” (Taubin 95) and Ripley is not going to make the same mistake to leave a child behind. Ripley did not do this out of guilt, simply because she did not want to be once again the “sole survivor” (Scobie 86). Both mothers, although each has their purpose, are very similar; they both are at stake for survival. The alien’s “instincts are geared to simple survival: of itself, of its species,” and to keep reproducing as the Queen keeps “plopping down dozens of eggs and producing indiscriminate offspring” (Scobie 86). On the other hand, Ripley is too trying to survive, to save her species and not let any alien come to Earth.  Ripley knows if the aliens arrive on Earth, it could be the end of the human species. When Hicks, the robot, rescued Newt and Ripley, they reached the ship to take them back to earth. As they descended from the ship, Ripley realizes the Queen was attached to the ship. As the Queen tries to capture Newt, Ripley battles against the Queen. Ripley then defeats the Queen, by once again blasting it into outer space. The film concludes with Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and another wounded soldier, to return to hypersleep and back home (well that’s what we think will happen).

Ellen Ripley was shown to be a tough, courageous, fierce, role model woman in the first two Alien films. We saw her change from career woman following protocol calls, to lone survivor, to leader, and to an adoptive mother of Newt. Ripley challenged her role as the lead - female in the films. From the given situation she was involved in with the Aliens, Ripley was able to manage to go through her fear of the aliens. She was able to defeat them twice - one xenomorph and finally the Queen, the mother of the xenomorphs. The xenomorph is a strange species that carries acid in their blood and places their offspring to burst out from the human chest. Its image is disturbing, unfamiliar with humans to have ever seen, but it has made us aware of how vivid one’s imagination can carry. Each of the Alien films had its purpose when it was released. For example, the release date of Alien in 1979, the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, became the first woman elected ever to hold that position (Gibson 41). Perhaps, this was the film that decided to show that casting a lead female role in the Alien films made a major impact, a time for a change. Ripley, in the end, shows she was able to take control to become a leader and to this day still be admired by her actions taken place in Alien Series.

Word Count: 1640

Works Cited

Scobie, Stephen. “What’s the Story, Mother?: The Morning of the Alien.” Science Fiction Studies, vol.20, no.1,1993,pp. 80-93., www.jstor.org/stable/4240216. Accessed 20 Feb. 2017

Tinkcom, Matthew, and Amy Villarejo. Keyframes: Popular Cinema and Cultural Studies.London: Routledge, 2001. Print.

Taubin, Amy. “The ‘Alien’ Trilogy: From Feminism to Aids.” Women and Film: A Sight and Sound Reader (1993): 93-100. Ed. Pam Cook and Philip Dodd. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, Mon. 20 Feb. 2017.