#ship: flowers on the chalkboard

[pierswife]

The two sat together, the crackle of the fire being the only thing to break the silence. Jeanne shifted a bit, nuzzling herself further into Albedo's shoulder. Albedo let out a soft chuckle and glanced away from his book for a moment to look at her. "Comfortable?" he asked. Jeanne simply hummed in reply as she leaned the rest of her weight into him. He smiled, content to enjoy this quiet moment with her.

Tada! Happy Windblume! This is the surprise! I finally got art of Jeanne and Albedo commissioned (art by oletarts)! And let's be honest, it's been a long time coming and I'm very surprised it's taken me this long. Manda's Albedo Era has officially returned <3

[a-killer-obsession]

Wavelengths [Killer x Reader, Heat x Reader]

🔞 Minors DNI 🔞

A search for a rumored Vegapunk weapon leads the Kid Pirates to an unexpected new crewmate, with a bloodlust that rivals their own and an incredible power.

CW: Please check AO3 for all current warnings, but general warning for smut, slow burn, serious gore, and really dark themes. AFAB reader, she/her pronouns.

Masterlist || AO3 || Chapter 1

Chapter 27 - The Future King of Spaghetti

Some familiar faces join the crew.

WC: ~4k

Taglist: @h0n3y-l3m0n05 @tremendoushorsepatrolgoth @iggy5055

The sunlight was a little blinding as you stepped out if the clinic and into the street. It was just past midday, and your tummy was growling. No surprise, since you were eating for two now, and lunch was overdue. You licked your lips as you thought about what you wanted to eat, getting whiffs of bread and meat in the air. You tugged at Killer's arm like a needy child. “Hungryyy,” you pleaded, batting your eyes at him. Not having your mask had some advantages.

“What do you wanna eat, mama?” Killer snorted, taking your hand and leading you down the street where the scent of food was stronger, the street opening out to a square that was dotted with various cafes and bistros.

“Mmm…” you brought a finger to your pursed lips and thought about it. You were craving something saucy, tomatoes, oregano, and definitely meat. “Spaghetti!”

Killer's shoulders shimmied with a silent laugh. “That's my baby in there all right,” he stopped in front of you to press a loving hand to your tummy. You rested your hands over his, smiling fondly up at him. “Alright then lil guy, let's get you some spaghetti before mum has no choice but to go feral and start ripping out throats for sustenance”

“Gross,” you giggled as he bonked you gently with his mask, taking your hand again and leading you to a nearby bistro that had a chalkboard outside with neatly written cursive and a cute drawing of spaghetti and meatballs flying off a plate. A cute waitress with a black apron rushed over to greet you as you took your seats at a window table, Killer holding out your chair for you and pushing it in once you were sitting. The waitress began to hand you both menus and Killer waved a hand to stop her.

“We already know what we want,” he told her, and she smiled and pulled out her notebook from her apron pocket. “Two plates of spaghetti and meatballs, and a couple of glasses of juice please. Orange, if you have it. And a straw, please”

“Right away sir,” the waitress smiled, entirely unphased by Killer's mask or gruff appearance. A lot of the islands the log pose took you to were frequented by pirates, and they all relied on towns like this to resupply. The towns themselves often got a good portion of their trade from pirates, so it was a symbiotic relationship. Many towns were wary of pirates, but didn't do anything to fight them as long as the pirates behaved themselves. Nobody at the clinic had seemed phased either, they were probably more than used to getting patients with illnesses that were more than what a ship doctor could handle, considering how many ship doctors were just men with rudimentary first aid training.

You watched out the window as a mother passed by with a small girl holding her hand, another small baby asleep in swaddling wrap on her front. The father had been buying flowers at a small nearby stall while she was distracted, and ran up beside her to gift them. She smiled and smelled the beautiful bouquet, and leaned in to kiss him. He gave his older child her own smaller bouquet, and she squealed and danced around them all before letting her father pick her up as they continued on their way. Killer watched them too, turning back to you with an excited fondness.

“Jesus fucking christ Killer,” your hand fell to your tummy as you turned back to him, “we're having a fucking baby”

“We are,” he smiled under his mask and reached over the table to take your hand. “I'm gonna take such good care of both of you”

“I know you are,” you squeezed his hand and smiled lovingly at him, “what is Kid gonna say though? Fuck what if he tries to kick me off the ship”

“Don't worry about him,” he withdrew his hand as the waitress dropped off the orange juices, feeding the straw in his drink through his mask and taking a long sip. “You're not going anywhere, I'll make sure of it”

“How are we gonna have a baby on a ship?” You hummed, running your finger around the rim of your own glass, “we probably should have thought this through better. I can hide them, visually and audibly, during battles at sea, but what if something happens to us? And where are we gonna keep them? There's not exactly room for a nursery on the ship, we could convert my room but it's so far away from yours, I'd never stop worrying”

“There's a storage room on the other side of my wall, adjacent to the bathroom,” he assured, “it's not usually accessible since you get to it through the navigation room, but we can knock out some wall to add a door on our side and convert it to a nursery. It's mostly just old maps from Paradise in there, we can move them elsewhere”

“Okay,” you puffed out a sigh of relief at the good plan, “that sounds okay”

“It's gonna be fine Yin, don't stress yourself out,” he took your fidgeting hand from your drink and squeezed it again, “stress is bad for the baby. Just have faith that I'll take care of everything”

“Okay Kil,” you breathed, “I trust you”

“That's it mama,” he stroked the back of your hand with his thumb, “just breathe, it's all gonna work out”

“Heh… mama,” you giggled.

“Is that okay?” Killer asked shyly. The nickname had just sort of naturally fallen into place since leaving the clinic.

“Yeah, I like it,” you smiled, the grin turning mischievous, “should I start calling you daddy?”

“Maybe after lunch,” he purred, letting your hand go so the waitress could place down your plates of food, kindly pretending she hadn't just heard that exchange.

“Will that be everything for now?” She asked sweetly.

“Yes, thank you,” Killer replied, and she gave a curt little nod and left to serve another table.

You picked up your fork and twirled your pasta, greedily digging in as your stomach gave another growl. You calmed your feverish devouring after a few bites and looked up to see Killer slurping his spaghetti through the holes of his mask. You openly snorted, it'd never not be funny watching him do that.

“Funny, am I?” He toyed, slurping more spaghetti.

“Yes, actually,” you laughed, “you're fucking ridiculous”

“I'm gonna tell everyone you're scared of needles,” he teased.

“No!” You gasped, “please don't!” He snorted in smug satisfaction, he'd won this round.

“Let's avoid the others for a few days,” Killer suggested, “just spend some time alone together, just the two of us, before it becomes three. I told Kid that's what we were doing anyway, he's not expecting to see us for a few nights. Then we can figure shit out better before we talk to him”

“Sounds like a plan,” you agreed, before performing your best impression of Killer slurping spaghetti. Sauce flicked over your face and you yelped as some got in your eye. Killer laughed, properly audibly laughed, and you felt like your heart might explode as you gave him your brightest smile and laughed with him, which must have looked insane considering the spaghetti sauce on your face.

“Was that supposed to be me?” He laughed, the unique sound slowly fading as it returned to his usual suppressed silence.

“Yeah,” you replied defeated, wiping the sauce off your eyelid, “but it would have been ten times funnier if I had my mask, and there wasn't sauce in my eye.” The waitress quietly passed the table, giving you a wink as she dropped off a large pile of napkins, and you fell into a new fit of laughter. “Our kid is going to be a fucking menance,” you laughed, “the two of us getting together might be a detriment to this planet. And to all the spaghetti on it”

“Here's to the future king or queen of spaghetti,” Killer snorted, raising his glass in a mock toast before slurping down the rest of his juice.

The next three days were bliss, spent in solitude with your lover, talking fondly of your future child and doing all the things normal couples would do between stints of rolling in the sheets. You bumped into the others occasionally, which wasn't a surprise given you were staying at the same inn and the town wasn't that big. You kept your secret for now though, Killer felt it was important that Kid be the first to hear. You had met up with Mohawk to receive some of the advice the doctor had given him to pass along, but for the most part you and Killer just did your own thing, just enjoying your time together.

You found out that Killer had long thought about being a father, but given his mental walls and his lifestyle, it was a dream he never thought was achievable, and he'd given up on it long ago. You didn't have much of an opinion either way, it wasn't something you'd ever given much thought to before finding out you were pregnant, but you were happy to help him with his dream. Killer was such a selfless man, always putting others before himself, making Kid's dream his priority and throwing away his own. You were happy to help him have this one thing, and you swore you'd never seen him smile so much. He splayed his hand out over your abdomen whenever he got the chance, and you'd caught him one morning laying with his head near your belly, whispering to the baby. You almost cried at how sweet it was. Lies, you did cry, in fact you were a blubbering mess, fucking hormones.

The two of you had even snuck into a baby wares shop, careful to check that none of the crew saw you enter or leave, and had fun looking at all the different things and talking about how you wanted to raise your baby. Breastfed or formula fed, sleeping arrangements, attachment style, how old they would be before you started teaching them to fight, his surname name or yours. Totally normal parent things. Though you absolutely refused to name your child Baby Massacre Soldier, what kind of surname was that? Val would do just fine thank you. Not to mention it was all you had of your mother, you wanted to pass it to your child. Killer had no qualms with that, his name was more of a epithet anyway, and he thought it was nice that you wanted to honour your mother.

Whenever you got too tired to walk, you'd both retreat back to the inn, pouring over pregnancy books - which was mostly Killer reading them out loud and you following with your eyes. Not only were you learning about your baby and what to expect, but also getting a bonus reading lesson. The doctor had prescribed you a variety of prenatal vitamins as well as anti nausea medication for your morning sickness, and you were taking them diligently. You hadn't thrown up again since you started taking them, and your sore throat was incredibly thankful for it.

Eventually though, all good things must come to an end, and very much against your will Killer dragged you along to the bar the others had been frequenting to meet up with them the night before you were due to set sail. You entered hand in hand with Killer, and Heat immediately called out to you, excited to spend time with you after having only seen you in passing for the last five days.

“Aye aye, there's the fucking lovebirds,” Kid roared as you slipped in to the booth, Killer pulling you into his lap so none of the other men at the bar would get any funny ideas. It was a large booth, and along with the usual commanders were a handful of colourful looking people you'd never met before, a ginger girl with a large hat currently perched on Kid's lap. “About fucking time you got here, I wanna introduce you to our new friends”

“New recruits?” Killer asked, taking the beer Heat slid in front of him and chucking a straw in it. He slid you a beer as well, but you told him you weren't feeling well and he shrugged and pulled it back to himself.

“Aye, we were already down a few men before Yin's little incident,” Kid replied, he was clearly already a little inebriated by the slow way he spoke, “and with another five down the drain we had to replace them or we'd be down too many next time we hit a fight. This here is Bubblegum, Pomp, the twins - Mosh and Boogie, Hip, Dive, and this girlie right here is Quincy” he gave a squeeze to the girl on his lap and she shrieked playfully.

“More girls?” Killer raised a brow under his mask.

“Aye,” Kid smirked, “first one proved a success, and after the shit the henchmen pulled I thought it was time we made some changes. Too much testosterone on the ship, it's about time they learned chicks can be just as tough, help em pull their heads out of their asses”

You were impressed, you didn't think Kid would ever bring more girls on board, but he'd clearly taken the incident to heart and you were happy to see he'd taken time to consider what went wrong and make changes to remedy it. You were excited to make some female friends, you hadn't had any since Egghead Island, if we weren't counting Delilah. Fuck Delilah.

The new crewmates were definitely a colourful bunch, and their hair and outfits made you sure immediately that they would fit right in with the rest of the crew.

Bubblegum was a tall, thin man, with blue hair that stuck out either side of a spiked helmet, dark lipstick and a heavy coat of red eyeshadow all around his eyes. From what you could see as he sat at the booth, he wore a dark tank top and a necklace made of thick red beads, as well as tan leather gloves.

Pomp was a short, stout man who you could barely see past the table. He was blond, with a spiky beret patterned in grey camo, with a belt that ran crossbody over his bare chest and spiky armbands that matched the band of his beret. His eyes were surrounded in dark green eyeshadow, making him look like a panda in the dim bar lighting.

The twins, Mosh and Boogie, had a similar style to each other. Mosh had bright pink hair, styled mostly slicked down and covering his left eye, with a thick ponytail behind him, while Boogie's was teal and mostly stuck up, save for the fringe that covered his right eye. They both had heavy, black, under eye liner and lipstick, reminding you of Kid's makeup. They both wore very punkish jackets and graphic tees, but what set them apart most was their size. Mosh was maybe the biggest man you had ever seen, as tall as Wire, but where Wire was mostly slim, Mosh was broad, making him an absolute beast of a man. Boogie was also broad, and while he looked close to Heat's height while sitting, you'd later learn he had quite short legs, making him closer to Killer's height.

Hip was a tan woman with blonde hair styled in a short bob. She looked like she could be Killer's sister, though her eyes were brown instead of his icy blue. She looked the least like she would fit in with pirates, with plain clothes that looked more like a civilian's, but her mean resting bitch face told you she would be a strong addition to the team.

Dive was a tiny thing, her bright green pigtails making her look like a child, had it not been for the short dress and fishnets with heels you saw her wearing whenever she got up. She wore a set of yellow rimmed goggles on her head, much like Kid, though hers had round frames, and when she gave a toothy smile you saw her teeth were all sharpened to points. Something told you those were her preferred weapon, and it made you smile, given your own preference for using your teeth. She was going to be a firecracker, you could feel it.

Last but not least was Quincy; a tall, beautiful girl, with puffy ginger hair that stuck out in two large buns either side of her face, under her giant, crown-like hat. She seemed to have a permanent smile on her scarlet painted lips and seemed like a beam of sunshine, not at all what you would expect of a pirate set to join a notoriously blood thirsty and violent crew. She wore an expensive looking criss-cross patterned jacket over a pretty pink dress, and whenever Kid jostled her you could see the large red ribbon that adorned her waist. She looked more like a princess than a pirate, and the way she was entertaining Kid made you wonder if she was just aiming to be Queen of the Pirates. She was the only one of the group you had some doubts about.

“Thank god, I was over the sausage fest,” you jested, giving the new girls friendly smiles. Hip gave you an almost playful sneer, and something told you you were gonna be good friends with her.

Mohawk appeared silently beside you, wordlessly putting a plain soda in front of you, which you accepted gratefully. You always seemed to be thirsty these days, no doubt due to the fact that you had to piss every five minutes. It was hard to believe it was only going to get worse as you got bigger.

“Anyway, welcome to the crew, I'm Yin, by the way, since our captain didn't bother to introduce me,” you gave Kid a scowl, “looking forward to seeing you all tied to the mast for the week”

The new guys all looked confused and Kid scowled. “Actually, they'll be skipping that, since we're low on men,” he avoided eye contact as you sent him a deadly glare.

“Excuse the fuck outta you,” you growled, “how come I had to do it? You know full well I'm worth fifty men, this is bullshit”

“Yeah well, I'm the captain so you can untwist your panties about it,” he waved his hand dismissively, “if I say they're skipping it then they're skipping it. Have a cry about it for all I care.”

You crossed your arms and gave him a cold stare. To be fair, the other commanders weren't impressed either, but there was no arguing with Kid. Everyone had the suspicion though that he was skipping it for the specific purpose of sparing Quincy, without singling her out.

“Anyway,” Kid continued, “Yin here is a commander, so treat her with the appropriate respect. She'll be in charge of all of the women on board, so go to her if you need help with your girly shit, the rest of us don't want to hear about it”

You were a little surprised to be given control over your own section of the crew, even if it was just a few ladies, but perhaps there was room for expansion in the future. Kid must have been impressed with your display of power, and this was also no doubt part of his subtle apology about what happened.

“Where will they be staying then?” You asked, taking a mouthful of your drink and eyeing your new charges, “you can't expect them to stay with the men, they fucking stink. The marines had us sharing unisex bathrooms which was fine but the men's quarters were always disgusting, even the marines aren't cruel enough to force women to sleep in the same stink.”

“It's already being taken care of,” Kid explained, “the materials to split the henchmen's quarters have already been loaded onto the ship, but it'll take a few days for them to install it and knock down some wall for a new door. We've set up a curtain in the meantime. They'll share the bathroom, they can either set a schedule with the men or get their tits out, I don't give a shit, as long as they don't bring any fucking babies on the ship. I'm making birth control mandatory for all sexually active women on the ship, including you. No exceptions.”

Killer stiffened behind you and you nervously chugged the rest of your drink, almost choking on it in the process. Mohawk's knee started to bounce nervously. Kid quirked an eyebrow at the sudden anxious display from the three of you. You and Mohawk had a tendency to be skittish, but he could read Killer like a book at this point, and grumbled to himself. Killer had no doubt he'd be getting pulled aside before the end of the night, as Kid squinted suspiciously at the three of you and took a slow drink from his tankard.

“Right, yup, of course,” you finally stuttered, “uh, and the girly shit, yup, on it,” you gave him a very nervous thumbs up which did nothing to shake his suspicious gaze. Hip smiled into her drink, knowing full well, between your reaction and the rejection of Heat's beer offer, what was happening. She was a quiet girl by nature, but extremely observant, and therein lay her strength.

“Where are we standing on the log pose?” Killer quickly changed the subject, reassuringly rubbing the outsides of your thighs with his thumbs.

“It's due to reset in the morning,” Double answered, “the ship is already loaded so we're planning to set out by ten, tide should be good around then, winds are supposed to be in our favour as well”

“Okay great,” Killer replied, “any word on where we're due to head next?”

“Locals say it'll be a uninhabited autumn island,” Double explained, “supposed to be about a week's sailing from here, weather dependant”

“Any trouble due on the way?” Heat interjected.

“Marines are apparently very active in the area,” Wire added his own intel, “we'll be skirting pretty close to a base”

“If we come across any marine ships we can take their eternal pose and hit the base,” Kid added, “otherwise we won't bother trying to find it.”

“Oh! How's my mask?” You suddenly remembered. You'd gotten kind of used to being without it but talk of fighting had spurred the memory.

“Glasswork came out fine, they said I can pick it up tomorrow,” Kid told you, much to your relief, “gimme like an hour after we set sail and I'll have it installed for you. The rest of the headset is fixed but we might have to do some fine tuning”

“Thanks Kid,” you replied with a little yawn.

You could feel your eyelids drooping as the other commanders continued to discuss the possibility of taking down the marine base, with the occasional interjection from one of the newbies with info only locals like them would have. You turned in Killer's lap so you were sideways, drapped across his legs and nestling in to him. One of his arms wrapped around your waist to hold you securely against him, while the other rested a hand on your thigh, stroking it lazily. You quickly fell asleep, exhausted from all the walking you'd done with Killer today on top of the pregnancy. At some point he carried you back to your shared room at the inn, removing your shoes and tucking you in for the night.

[NEXT CHAPTER]

A/N: ayeoh welcome to some of the missing crewmates. I excluded a lot of the known members of the Kid Pirates for thematic reasons, it was important the crew be only men for a lot of the story, and I didn't want to add the recognizable men without the women. This felt like a good time to add some ladies in though, so I just picked some of my favs to add back in so I don't get overwhelmed with too many new characters. Also headcannoning that Mosh and Boogie are twins, in reality we don't know much about most of the crew, we don't even know what sort of weapon Quincy has though I do have a fun idea for her. Also I know some people think Dive is a kid but she literally has heels and fishnets in a manga panel, that ain't no kid. She's just a small, feral lady lmao

[bugsnax-community-questions]

Bugsnax Community Questions ~ Poll #25

Put filbo, eggabell and the others in one option because there aren't enough slots to fit everyone.

FILBO: Basic Furniture, Dandelion, Cot (secret), Grumpy Baby Mayor, Pawprint rug, Cloudy paws print, painted hut, Group Photo, Streamers, Garden gnome, snaxburg flag, Golden Strabby, Certificate of completion

WAMBUS: Scarecrow, beechwood, Sauce plant seedlings, Sauce rug, Rustic Bed, Mini Cactriffy, Grow light nursery, Wood panel print, cowboy hats, ceiling fan

BEFFICA: Sleeping bag, Ladder Shelf, bestie print, Bestie (exterior), Fuzzy heart rug, Privacy curtains, Bulletin board, glowing stars, purple lupin, befficas journal, Kiddie pool (technically from floofty)

WIGGLE: Hanging lights, Luxury bed (secret), Gilded (Secret), record player, Palm tree, Platinum Award, Beach Chair + Umbrella, Armoire, Music print, Rock club sign, Psychedelic rug

TRIFFANY: Map of Snaktooth, Drafting Table, Prehistoric Floorcloth, Grumpus Skull, Giant skeleton, Barrel cacti, Dig site print, hanging pots, ancient bugsnax statue 1 (pinkle), ancient bugsnax statue 2 (incherito), Bone and Stone (exterior), Bone and stone bed

GRAMBLE: Lantern, Pink oleander, Weather Vane, Knit Sprout Mat, Hay bales, knit bed, Strabby Hat, Doily Table, knitted (exterior), knit baskets, Strabby print, Bunger bed

CROMDO: Tulips, Police tape (Secret), Bug juice dispenser, Big safe, A single hanging bulb, boombox, money print rug, worn mattress, billboard, Motivational poster, Antique print

SNORPY: Loose Newspaper, Conspiracy board, Blueprint print, Protective coat hangers, Metal plating (exterior), Metalworks flower, Satellite dish, deprivation tank, bookshelf, HAM radio, hot tub

CHANDLO: Red Cedar, Framed jersey, Rock climbing holds, Strong trophy, Hammock, Bean bag, Orange bloodroot, Home gym (secret), Sports print (secret), Gym mats, chandlolier,

FLOOFTY: red ti plant, lab bench (secret), Specimen jar, Pirate ship (exterior), Beheading machine, ecience poster, chemistry rug, test tube lights, science print, Chalkboard

SHELDA: Hanging Planter, Herbology station, Primitive grass, Salt crystal, ebony stained wood, zen garden, Meditation cushion, Prairie grass, wind chimes, desert print, torch

EGGABELL: Family Photos, Eggshell print, medical egg rug, Medicine cabinet, Emergency bell, First aid kit, Draped fabrics, igloo (exterior), snow grump, medical bed

OTHER: Cowboy hat roof (Cactriffy), Planted snak (Cactriffy), Snak print (L), Strabby Shelf (L), Snakgoyle (Snaxsquatch), Matilija Poppy (Snaxsquatch), Eyes (exterior ~ B), Legendary snak rug (B), Snak mobile (C), Sodie Fountain (C)

[masteroffakesmiles]

Yakko, Wakko, and Dot headcanons:

Yakko:

Bi

Gets easily flustered when someone outside his family compliments him and gets real tongue-tied

Will drop the "Hello Nurse" gag if he has an actual crush on someone.

Goes to drown in his ball pit if he's depressed or has a panic attack

Uses his paddleball when he's bored

Not a gamer, but he'll play some visual novels since he likes to read sometimes (likes to get invested in the story rather than the game)

Over-protective of his sibs, much to their chagrin

Dotes on his sibs. Again, much to their chagrin

Mainly the one to go grocery shopping for them

Has separation anxiety if he's away from his sibs for too long

Normally he's pretty even tempered, but hell breaks loose if anything happened to his family (and friends or significant other)

Gets duct tape in his mouth if Yakko's World or a lame pun is even brought up once.

Wakko:

Got his hat from Yakko, and has worn it for 60+ years. He gets angry at someone touching it without his permission (remember Chalkboard Bungle, the teacher wrote an "F" on it. I'd like to think that she messed with the treasure that Yakko gave to him years.

Isn't interested in romance at all (aromantic)

Plays videos games about food (i.e.: Cooking Mama) and said games gave him some experience to cook in the water tower (although he still gets help from Yakko)

Very insecure about how other people see him as he's known to be the "dumb one" or the "eating food guy" (to this day, he—as well as Yakko and Dot—thinks that the opening lines s3e8 of the reboot—were the worst lines to have uttered on television, and thanks to that, the whole episode leaves a bad taste in their mouths)

Easily sensitive

Plays dress-up with Dot

Will go bonkers if you mess with his sibs.

Dot:

Got her flower from Yakko. She's also very protective of it, but even more so. When a stranger tampers with it, she'll go in a violent rage. (this peeve is even worse than being called "Dottie" since this was a gift from her big brother--her loved one and idol)

Aromantic

Is intrested in romance in the sense that she can ship her friends together and even tease here and there. But she hits the breaks if she goes too far.

Bothers Yakko endlessly to go and watch the Barbie Movie.

Doesn't mind doing crocodile tears in public, but when she DOES cry, it's in secret and takes great pains to even hide it from her brothers so they won't worry.

Likes to play cutesy sidescroller games

Helps Wakko with his gizmos sometimes whenever he's by himself.

Will send you to a cemetery if you lay one finger on her bros.

Cares about her brothers a lot, but covers it up with her usual snark.

[team5ds]

crossing the threshold

[first chapter] [previous chapter] [master list] [next chapter] [read on ao3]

Summary: crossing the threshold signifies that the hero has finally committed to the journey. he is prepared to cross the gateway that separates the ordinary world from the special world. the crossing may require more than accepting one’s fears or a map.

Rating: T

Ships: Yuesi Fudo/Aki Izayoi

Warnings: canon typical violence, all the warnings that come with calamity ganon

consider supporting me on kofi / battle city tiers & above get first access to chapters!

That night, dreams of a woman with hair of flaming red haunted Yusei's dreams. She called him forward into the abyss, dragging him into flickering flames that seared his skin. The scent of flowers followed her as he chased her, as she spoke his name. In his dream, she morphed faces but the hair and sharp grass green eyes were always the same. Her eyes were always framed by thick lashes and sometimes there was a spark of familiarity and adoration, other times she stared past him, and still others held a hatred and contempt that seared onto his skin. Sometimes he'd see a strange triangle mark on his skin, and even other times his hand was bare.

A chilling laughter, promising to overpower him and destroy him in a deep voice that Yusei had never heard in his life. How he was so certain he'd never heard this voice before, he didn't know. He awoke from the dream with a jolt in a cold sweat, sitting upright in the bed. Slowly, every bit of the dream fades into nothingness as he tries to remember where he is. Yusei's eyes dart around the room, collecting as much information as he can while every muscle in him releases the tension built up over the night. He shakes off the nightmare, getting off the bed to put his gear back on. It has not gotten much drier since last night. It is, however, no longer raining. Perhaps the sun could help dry his clothes.

He is in no rush to head back downstairs to Anzu and Honda, unsure of what to expect from them. So he instead takes a cursory look at Honda's books, attempting to figure out if any of them held any hints to who he was. None of them seemed to, so he moved on. Yusei then considers Anzu's strange appearance, and the remark that she had left a journal explaining what happened to cause it in her room. Would she be in her room? It might be worth the risk if he could garner some answers for what happened to cause her to look so young. He didn't think it over too hard before deciding to make his way up to the room that Anzu had declared out of bounds last night.

It was nerve wracking as he walks up the stairs to her room, knowing that if Anzu catches him he'd be in serious trouble with her. He needn't have worried, however. Entering her room revealed a room covered in dust, as if she had not been inside in quite a while. He notes the drawings all over the room, unsure of the significance of any of them. None of them looked to have been drawn by a child's hand. Not that this meant anything. Current Anzu could have just as easily drawn them if Anzu was really as old as she claimed to be. There were also notes all over the room, each of them describing something different. He had no interest in any of the research notes she'd made on the chalkboard and instead focused in on the diary that she'd mentioned. It was open.

There was a small moment where he was certain this was not a good idea. Curiosity, however, got the better of him and he begun to read. Anzu described how he'd been the youngest knight ever appointed to the Imperial Guard. She'd described him as "slight, and not impressive on first sight. I voiced this concerned to King Hideo, and His Highness suggested I sit in to view his training if I had concerns of his ability to protect Princess Aki. It was then I saw his skills - reflexes so fast it was like time slowed down for him, a fierce will to survive, and deadly precision. There was no doubt in my mind that he was the perfect fit be captain of Princess Aki's personal guard. Such a high honor for such a young knight! Then again, considering who his father was, I should have not been so surprised..."

This description of him has him stunned, trying to imagine himself as a captain of a guard. His father was also a knight, if Anzu's journal was to be trusted. Is that who he was? Or was Anzu's view of him colored by the fact she was trusting him with Princess Aki's life? What was Anzu and Princess Aki's relationship, anyway? Anzu didn't bother to explain why she was concerned about Yusei being her personal guard. The implication, however, was that he had trained for this; that he was a knight before he was ever a captain of Princess Aki's personal guard. The next few entries were unimportant, explaining things he already knew about the Calamity, but it was the end of it that truly caught his eye.

"It was the best we could -" and the way the ink trailed off suggested this thought was left unfinished. It left him wondering what Anzu could have possibly been thinking. It did, however, confirm that 100 years ago, Anzu was one of his friends. And now he was sitting here, reading her diary because he was too curious to avoid it. It was a painful pang, and he sets the diary back down in the position he found it. He'd invaded the privacy of a friend, and guilt settled in. It would best, he decides, to not confess what he'd done to Anzu. The explanation of curiosity could only go so far. He was told specifically to not touch her diary, after all.

He heads downstairs instead, pushing aside the guilt. There was work to be done, and he hadn't read the part that Anzu had insisted was the most embarrassing part. He'd only read enough to know who he was in the past. Wasn't that his right to know? Yusei knew the answer to that. He enters the lab through the backdoor, and Anzu is glaring at him with her hands on her hips. "You read my diary, didn't you?"

With this accusation, Yusei immediately confesses. "I only read the pre Calamity pages - I didn't read any farther than that."

"Hmph. At least you're honest about it," she says, crossing her arms. "Still, I asked you specifically to not read it. You can't just go around poking at people's personal things, you know. It's rude. Those were my personal musings."

"I'm sorry, Anzu. You are right: it was rude and I have no excuse."

"Hand over your Sheikah Slate." The demand is so jarring that Yusei instantly surrenders the Sheikah Slate to her. She makes a few motions on it, then has a self satisfied smirk. "There we go. All the data on your Sheikah Slate is now deleted."

"What!" Yusei is horrified. He'd come to rely on the Slate for keeping track of everything that he couldn't remember. For a few moments, he mourns the lost data. Then she begins to laugh, confusing him.

"That was your punishment for going through my things: a practical joke," she says with a bright smile. "It's not really all gone."

"Oh," he says, grateful she didn't actually delete all his data off the Sheikah Slate. He wasn't sure how he'd be able to handle it if everything really was gone. "I'm sorry again for going through your things, really.""Don't even worry about it. You said you didn't go through the most embarrassing part of the journal, so I'll let it go. Just don't do it again. Now give me a nice snap!"

"Snap?"

"Ugh, that was a weak one," she said, rolling her eyes. "It's more like this: snaaaaaap!" She made some more gestures on his Sheikah Slate. "Okay, I did manage to unlock the guidance lock on it. Now let's repair it. Go stick it in the guidance stone for me."

He takes it back, taking it tot he guidance stone as she'd directed. It light up like the ones in the shrines, releasing what appeared to be a blue drop of liquid onto the Slate. When he picked it up off the stone, it was different - new functions were added: a camera, a compendium that had nothing in it, and a photo album that had a stock of photos already in them. Each of the photos stirred something deep in the recesses of his mind - like there was a lock on them begging to come out. As quick as each of those feelings occurred, they were gone. He wasn't sure what the feelings were, either. They were strong flashes that disappeared as soon as they came.

"You should have a camera rune again," Anzu said, snapping him out of his musings. "Take a picture of me and then show me! I want to see if the camera rune works." He complies with her request, snapping a photo of her. He shows her the photo, and Anzu immediately has a confused look on her face. "This doesn't look like me at all... wait, this photo you took of me isn't the only photo on here." She scrolls through them, and slowly a look of excitement is on her face. "Wait, Yoosy, you must have accompanied Aki to all these places! Maybe if you visit them, it'll help you remember. You should ask Lady Asuka about this."

He nods as he grabs the Sheikah Slate back from her, slotting it back on his waist. "I think that's probably true. I'll go speak with Asuka about this right away.""Wait, Yoosy, before you go. We're in need of ancient parts around here. Ancient Screws, Ancient Springs, Ancient Cores... You used to be able to destroy Guardians by parrying their laser beams back with your sword, you know. It used to make me so angry every time you destroyed my research. But it always left them in parts and -"

"I used to be able to parry their lasers? I don't remember this..."

"Yes, you once did it with a rogue one with a pot lid. Anyway, since you'll probably need to destroy some of them on the way to some of these places... I have a favor to ask. Can you scavenge them for parts? Yager in the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab is also seeking parts, and we can provide you with some upgrades to help defeat Calamity Ganon from our research over the past 100 years," Anzu said, a new fierce determination that seemed far too old for her face. "Now... you should go speak with Lady Asuka."

[therequiemforthelost-archive]

Loving Couple Albedo and Jeanne would like to battle!

Happy anniversary Albedo! You've been a mainstay on my blog for two years and my Genshin team since your first rerun. You've brought me so much comfort over the years and have made me laugh and cry during story events. My ship with you is honestly one of the most developed I have and I'm super proud of the relationship that I've written with you.

And since Pokemon ScarVio just came out, I decided to go with a pokemon AU for this year! I'd love to talk about it so please throw some asks about it my way (if you're up to it)! I'll be answering them for the rest of the week!

[quicksilverownsmysoul]

Coffee of the Week

Summary: So watched Mare of Easttown and it’s so good! And Evan peters character is so cute I just had to write something for him!! So in the second episode he said that he gets coffee every morning so I was thinking like what if he goes to the same shop everyday, cause the reader works there and he has a crush on her! But he’s too shy to admit it, but she makes the first move and he’s like a mess

Word Count: 2343

Easttown was a very small knit community, everyone knew everyone, there wasn’t a face you couldn’t recognize. So it created quite the talk when everyone heard that a new detective from out of town was coming down. You worked at the local coffee shop, there were a few others, chain stores, but most people in town preferred the comfort of your locally owned one. You had heard all about this new detective from the high school girls that came in after school. They gushed about how good looking he was, and how charming he was, even some of the older women that came in seemed to be infatuated with him.

You had yet to meet him but he was still on your mind as you drove to your shop. There wasn’t much drama in Easttown so of course a handsome detective piqued your interest. You hadn’t even turned on the lights when you saw someone standing outside the shop peering in. You gave him a curious gaze, he gave you a wide smile, waving at you.

You made your way over to the door and unlocked it, peeking your head out. It was dark out so you couldn’t really make out his features. “Sorry we don’t open until 7.”

“Aw, I was hoping to get a quick coffee before work. I heard this was the best shop in town.” You chucked at his comment.

“Okay come in, I’ll make you one real quick.”

“Really?” He asked excitedly.

“Yeah come in.” You opened the door wider and he stepped through. You made your way back over to the counter and flipped on the lights. “What do you want?”

He looked over your menu, scanning each of the drinks briefly. He glanced over at the chalk board that had coffee of the week scribbled at the top. He nodded his head towards it. “What’s the deal of the week?”

“Nothing yet, I usually come up with something around now but I had a little interruption this morning.” You joked, side eyeing him.

“Sorry.”

“I’m just messing with you.” He smiled at your words. “So what do you wanna drink this morning?” You asked again.

“Surprise me.” You laughed and rolled your eyes. You got to work and made small talk with him in between. “Haven’t seen you around here before.”

“Yeah I’m new, I came down to help Mare out with a case.”

You looked at him over your shoulder giving him a sly smirk. “Ohhh so you’re the devilishly handsome detective everyone’s been gossiping about.”

He blushed at your words, rubbing the nape of his neck in embarrassment. “Well I wouldn’t say that.”

“Oh I would.” You teased as you finished up his drink. “You’re the talk of the town. All the women are raving about you.” You popped the lid on his drink and made your way back over to the counter. You looked him over from head to toe. He was very cute, in his long blue coat, and his perfectly combed hair. “And now that I’ve finally met you I can say that I agree with them.”

He turned into a blushing mess at your words. “I-I well, thank you.” He stuttered out. You handed him his coffee, your fingers brushing against his. He took it with a gracious smile and set down his drink to take out his wallet. “What do I owe you?”

“It’s on the house.”

“No really I-“

“It’s in the house, don’t try and fight me on it you’ll never win.” You said leaning back on the counter arms crossed. He laughed, face crinkling up, dimples showing, you felt yourself turn a little red at the sight.

“Thanks.” He said making his way to the door, he looked at you, silently asking your name.

“I’m (y/n), (y/n (y/l/n).”

“Thank you (y/n).” He said gesturing towards the cup.

“I hope to see you around detective...”

“Colin, Colin Zabel.” He said, mimicking your introduction. You waved at him as he exited your shop. You suddenly had an idea for the coffee of the week. 

The next day Colin was back at exactly the same time. Right when you got to work, before you even turned the lights on, and before you even opened. He watched as you moved around the shop before coming over to unlock the door for him. He smiled at you and you returned it. He looked around the shop while you finished setting up.

It was cute, very old fashioned, it had that hometown feel like everything did in Easttown. There were these watercolor paintings hanging on the walls, of flowers and landscapes. He wondered if you were the one who had painted them. He glanced back at the chalkboard and noticed there was a special written down today. It read Coffee of the Week, The Colin Zabel. He felt his face heat up at reading the name. He cleared his throat and leaned forward on the counter. “You named the coffee of the week after me?”

“Yeah.” You admitted with a soft laugh. “It’s the best selling one so far. All the women and girls that have come in have bought it and absolutely love the way it tastes.”  He blushed even more at your words. But he didn’t read into what you were saying, he figured you named it after him because the coffee you had made for him was so good. It was a regular coffee, with two sugars, a splash of milk, a hazelnut creamer and a load of whip cream. You had even stirred in some honey.

While he was lost in thought you had finished up his drink and placed it in front of him. “Here you go, one Colin Zabel on the house. And a scone!” 

“I can’t-” He tried protesting again. 

“Yes you can.” You smiled warmly at him. “The drink you inspired has been bringing in tons of business lately.” 

Colin took out his wallet anyway and placed a $20 bill into your tip jar. You went to fish it out and hand it back to him but he placed his hand over yours, stopping you. “Please take it.” He shyly smiled at you, gently removing his hand from your own. You sighed and nodded your head. His face broke out in a smile. “See you tomorrow!” 

“I’m guessing you mean before I open?” He just winked at you and left. 

For the rest of the day he was grinning ear to ear. When Mare came in she narrowed her eyes at his cheery demeanor. “What’s got you in such a good mood?” 

“Nothing.” Colin said, trying his best to replace his smile with a serious face. Mare gestured to the coffee that was sitting on the corner of his desk along with his half eaten scone. 

“Is that for me?”

“What?” 

“You said you get coffee every morning and said you’d bring me one today.” Mare said as she dropped the stack of papers she was holding onto her desk. 

Colin grimaced, he had totally forgotten he had promised Mare a coffee today. ‘No sorry, I forgot.” 

Mare sighed. “It’s okay, you can just bring me one tomorrow.”

“Or we can go now.”  

“You already have a coffee, why would we go now?” 

“Cause I said I’d get you one.” He said while smiling, hoping Mare wouldn't see his hidden motive of wanting to see you again. Mare just watched him with narrowed eyes trying to figure out what he was after. “Come on.” Colin grabbed his coat that was hanging on the back chair and picked up the keys, jingling them. “I’ll drive.” 

*******************************************************

“You seem way too eager to be here.” Mare said suspiciously as they parked outside your coffee shop. Colin got out holding the door of your shop open for Mare. She just looked at him. 

“That’s okay I’ll go in first.”

‘You do that.” Mare followed Colin into the shop. It was busy, a stark contrast to the empty place Colin was used to when he came in every morning. You were standing at the counter making orders as your employees shouted them out to you. You finished a couple and called out the names of the people who ordered them, You gave them a sweet smile and looked up to see Mare. 

“Hey Lady Hawk!” She just rolled her eyes, but the small smile on her lips showed that she wasn’t annoyed with you. You made your way around the counter and over to her. “What an honor it is to have you in my humble establishment.”

“Oh shut up.” You laughed at her response. “I always come here.”

You scoffed at her blatant lie. “You never come here. You always make your own coffee.” You raised an eyebrow at her, “So why are you here?”

“He made me come.” Mare said, jutting her thumb back towards Colin. He had been awkwardly standing to the side watching you guys talk. 

“Hey.”

“Hey Colin. What brings you back here?’

“Back here?” Mare said, turning to look at him. “You’ve already been here today?”

“Well yeah.” He admitted, eyes darting between your curious ones and Mare’s judgmental ones. “But I promised you a coffee.” He finished quickly with a smile. 

Mare looked between you two, noticing the way that Colin nervously fiddled with the car keys. “Oh okay I get it.” She said, head slightly nodding. “I’m going to go wait in the car. I’ll take a coffee with two creams and no sugar.” 

“You got it Mare.” He tossed her the keys, she caught them and was half way out the door when she stopped. She turned back to face him. 

“Colin.” 

“Hm?” 

“Just ask her out already.” 

You felt your face heat up, but it was nothing compared to Colin. His whole face was flushed red, as he tried to dismiss Mare’s comment. “I- she, um.” He let out a nervous laugh. “She’s just messing with me. A little joke between colleagues.” 

“Ah okay.” You said with a little giggle. “Good to know. I’ll get Mare’s coffee, do you want anything?” 

“Actually yeah I was actually wondering if you -'' You looked at him with wide eyes, he felt his heart beating out of his chest. At the last second he abandoned ship and decided against asking you out. “If I can get the special of the week. But only if I can pay for it.” You just nodded and got to work making their coffees, in no time they were done. You passed them to him and he gratefully took them.  The entire time he was internally kicking himself.

“So I guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow, unless you plan on coming back again today?”

Colin let out an airy laugh. “Nope. Just the two times today for me.” He said in an embarrassed voice. 

“Gotcha.” 

Colin made his way back to the car and gestured for Mare to unlock the door, he handed her her coffee as he slid back into the driver's seat. ”Why do you have two coffees?” He didn’t answer as he put his seatbelt on. “Did you seriously buy another coffee? You didn't even finish the first one.” 

He sighed, “I know.” 

 “So,” She paused, taking a sip of her coffee. “Did you ask her out?”

“No. I didn’t” He said resting his head down on the steering wheel. “I just panicked and ordered another coffee.” Mare snickered at him. She picked up his coffee cup examining it. 

“Well it looks like they took the first step for you.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“She wrote her number on the cup.” Colin yanked the cup form Mare, sure enough there was your phone number scribbled in sharpie on the side of his cup. His face split in a wide smile. Mare watched him glance back at your number and his phone the entire ride back to the station, as if willing it to ring, even though you didn't even have his number. 

It had been an hour or so since they had gotten back to the station. Mare looked at Colin over the top of her report. “You should call them.” 

“I will.” 

“Oh yeah, like you said you were going to ask them out.” Mare snorted from her desk. 

“I never said I was going to ask them out, you said I should.” Mare just shrugged. 

Colin spent the rest of the work day just staring at your number and going to pick up his phone before deciding against it and looking through more of his work papers. By the end of the day Mare had had enough. She pushed her chair over to his and yanked his phone off his desk. 

“What are you doing?”

“Shhh!” She hushed him and she quickly dialed a number and pressed the phone to her ear, waiting for the ringing to stop. “Hey (Y/n). His eyes widened, he tried to get his phone back from Mare, but she just pushed off his desk and wheeled back to her desk. “Yeah, yeah I’m calling from Colin’s phone.” He quickly stood up and made his way over to her desk, she kept pushing him off as he continued to reach for the phone. “He would like to know if you would like to go out with him this weekend. Mhmmm, hm, sounds good.” Mare covered the phone. “She said yes, you can pick her up at eight Friday night.” 

“Give me that!” 

You did your best to hide your laughter, you could hear them quietly arguing over the phone in hushed whispers. “Hello?” You finally heard Colin’s voice, you figured he had won the phone back from Mare. 

“Hey. So are we on for Friday at eight?”

“Of course.”

“Okay then, see you soon Detective.” 

“Okay bye!” Colin hung up the phone and sat back in his chair, smiling up at the ceiling. Mare glanced over at him, hiding her own small smile. 

“You’re welcome.” He just glared at her and she let out a laugh at his expense.

[pacificwaternymph]

Okay, I promised I would draw my new empires OC and I finally have my sketchbook again so here she is! (Sorry about the poor image quality)

Name: Tesha (No surname)

Age: 14

Pronouns: She/her

Race: Spider Hybrid

Tesha was a member of Joey's crew, but fell off the ship in a storm, about a month before he himself fell off. She washed up on the shores of Sanctuary and has been living there ever since.

Character info below the cut

Because of the way her vocal cords are structured and the mandibles hanging from her mouth, Tesha has a lot of difficulty speaking English.

She can say a couple one or two syllable words, including the four cardinal directions, yes and no, danger, hi, and about a third of the crew's names

Think of how endermen can talk, but with spider noises instead

As such, the crew communicated with her with their own version of sign language, which was an incomprehensible mishmash of various different types of sign from multiple empires from both the past and the present.

She also had a handheld chalkboard she could use to write on for those who couldn't decipher the sign language, which was basically everyone who wasn't on the crew

She is extremely physically affectionate, very cuddly, and when she grabs onto you, it's near impossible to get her off

She didn't get involved in battles unless it was absolutely necessary, because she has a distaste for violence and very sensitive hearing, so the sounds of cannons going off was physically painful to her

However, whenever Joey was threatening someone, making negotiations, striking a deal, or really just talking to an outsider at all, Tesha liked to loom in the background, as her spider-limbs gave her quite a bit of height and adds to the intimidation factor

She is fascinated by bees. One time, while at a port, she spied a bunch of bees buzzing around a couple of flowers, and stopped to watch them. Joey and his crew ended up being recognized as pirates and had to hurry out of the harbor quickly, and in the confusion, didn't realize that Tesha wasn't with them until about five minutes after they had set sail

When they turned back around, she was still with the bees, and hadn't even realized the crew members she was with had left her side

Everyone's little sister

I'll make another post detailing her past, how she got on the crew, and why one of her limbs is noticeably shorter than the others. Hope y'all like her!

[medea10]

My Review of Flowers of Evil

How did I get into this anime? Because Flowers of Evil is something no one says, “Oh I want to see that, this looks like a masterpiece”! Oh, I was well familiar with the rotoscope nightmare stories from this and hoped to God my randomizer wouldn’t curse me with watching Flowers of Evil. I was however intrigued to learn that there was a yandere in this anime that’s on Yuno Gasai AND Shion Sonozaki levels. But intrigue can only get me so far when you spend 13 episodes watching…

THIS!

No this is not an exaggeration. Everyone has this kind of cringe face throughout the entire anime series. Be afraid children.

So the story is about this guy named Takao Kasuga. He loves to read and he loves the class smarty-pants Nanako Saeki. He doesn’t just love her, he sees her as his muse and his Venus and all that bullshit. But this is an admiration from afar. Pretty sure Saeki doesn’t even know he exists! One day, Kasuga forgets his book in his classroom. And on the ground, he notices a gym bag that belongs to Saeki. Oh come on, he’s not gonna go down the perverted route and steal a girl’s gym…

So he steals Saeki’s gym uniform. And surprise, one person knew what happened. The class loner, Nakamura! She forces Kasuga to form a contract with her. It wasn’t written or anything, just verbal. However, that doesn’t stop Nakamura from forcing Kasuga to do whatever she wants. But does Nakamura really like Kasuga or is she just into torturing this shit-faced pervert?

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: You know, I’m too thrown off by the animation here that it has temporarily paralyzed me from catching voices or even giving a damn. I’m familiar with only two of the cast mates and the rest is literally my first time hearing it. Okay, I have one comment here. I often forget Mariya Ise could do some damn-ass scary characters like Nakamura. And when she does those murderous screams, forget about it! Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Kasuga is played by Shinichirou Ueda

*Saeki is played by Yoko Hikasa (known for Bea on Pokemon Journeys, Rias on High School DxD, Mio on K-ON!, Hina on Domestic Girlfriend, Kirigiri on Danganronpa, Frieda on Attack on Titan, and Diana on Little Witch Academia)

*Nakamura is played by Mariya Ise (known for Bonnie on Pokemon XY, Levy on Fairy Tail, Ray on The Promised Neverland, Stocking on Panty & Stocking, Mika on Durarara, Dorothy on Black Clover, and Yuuko on Yuri on Ice)

SHIPPING: Oh please, anime Gods, do not turn this into another School Days fiasco. I find myself praying for this a lot these days. But in this anime’s case, please do not go down that route!

So, it was clear from episode one that Kasuga had a crush on Saeki. But this got very perverted very fast when he stole her gym clothes and that lead to the contract with Nakamura. Now is Nakamura romantically invested in Kasuga or is she just a crazy bitch. Let’s chalk this up to a 50-50 split here.

It wasn’t until the fourth episode where Kasuga and Saeki actually spoke to each other. And one episode later, they go on a date and end up in a relationship. One has to wonder if Kasuga would have one day acted on his own and ask Saeki out. All of this happened because he was being forced by that psychopath Nakamura. She tortured this kid and forced him to do so many unethical things. Stripping him naked and putting Saeki’s uniform on him for one! Who does that? So would Kasuga have done these sporadic actions if Nakamura wasn’t in the picture? After he stole that uniform, anything is possible. Now here’s the crazy shit here, Saeki loves Kasuga and she doesn’t care that he stole her gym uniform and did fuck-knows-what with it. She’s mad that Kasuga hid it, but still loves him.

Girl, the fuck is wrong with you?! You must be some special kind of crazy!

By the end of this series, you do see a shift in Kasuga and who he wants to chase after. Saeki or Nakamura?! Let’s just say that during a running away scene, Kasuga was going to go home with Saeki until he saw Nakamura and he chases after her. That’s a pretty good sign that Kasuga has switched gears on who he likes. I won’t delve any further than that as the anime only gives us so much and the rest of this love turmoil between these three characters is covered only in the manga. Probably a sign I should read the manga!

LOOOOOONG NO DIALOGUE MOMENTS: Dude, I know you’re trying to set the mood for certain moments, but I think you can dial it back a bit. This complaint isn’t just what happened at the beginning of episode 9; it took forever to get the main gist of this story in the very first episode. I had no idea what the main premise of the story was until the last five minutes of the first episode when Kasuga stole Saeki’s gym uniform.

Now I’m not knocking serious moments where there is no dialogue between characters for a long period of time and we just watch the animation of them walking or doing something. Hell, Neon Genesis Evangelion had famous scenes like that. But the elevator scene didn’t last six fucking minutes. Neither did the scene where Shinji kills Kaowru. In episode 9, we watch Nakamura and Kasuga walking from the school to home and watch the whole walk after destroying the classroom. I guarantee you, you could leave this episode running, fix yourself a bowl of cereal and toast, eat it up, go to the bathroom to have a good yank, then finish it off with watching a Che Guevara documentary…and Nakamura and Kasuga would still be walking home! I’m exaggerating and I don’t care. I feel like being an asshole here.

OH DEAR GOD, WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!: Very rarely will I ever look at an opening or ending theme song in literal fear. In fact, the last one to be so morbid was with Attack on Titan’s second season ending. I mean, the imagery alone should tell you that this is full of spoilers and possessed by the devil itself. Now that I think about it, that’s still undefeated. But Flowers of Evil’s ending theme is a close fucking second. Have you heard this thing? It sounds like Bjork singing in Japanese, synthesized, while a cat walks on a keyboard and having a seizure at the same time. Thank God there are no actual visuals for this other than the flower featured on Kasuga’s book. I don’t think we can handle anymore animation from this nightmare fuel.

ENDING: The writing is on the wall!

And the floor, the ceiling…that classroom is just a fucking mess!

Kasuga’s one bad deed led to another and another in a domino effect. And instead of a little devil on his shoulder, he has a classmate that’s a sociopath. Kasuga has guilt about hiding so much from Saeki in this relationship and he wants to tell her everything he did. Nakamura says, “Nah, you’re going to write it all over the classroom and let the whole world know what a piece of shit you are”. Let’s just say Nakamura and Kasuga went overboard and completely destroyed their classroom. Kasuga gets a bit of a lucky break as the other vandalism covered up his name on the chalkboard confession. But two people have caught onto Kasuga’s crime, Saeki and Kasuga’s mother.

Saeki put two and two together when she noticed the ink smearing on the ground resembled the flower art work on Kasuga’s book “Flowers of Evil” and her stolen gym uniform was placed right there. As for Kasuga’s mother, she put two and two together when she heard what happened to his classroom and noticed Kasuga’s behavior and dirty clothes from the night of the crime. Won’t be long before everyone knows what Kasuga did.

What now, shit-face?

Run away with Nakamura to the next town. Yeah, why the fuck not?! Saeki ends up tracking them down and tried to convince them to come back and for Kasuga to be truthful. Saeki wants Kasuga and I almost want to say the same, except hanging around this psycho-bitch for a while has caused him to try to stop Nakamura from leaving. Having Saeki see Kasuga go after Nakamura isn’t really a good look! At this point, it really feels like his love for Saeki was nothing more than lust.

Dude, isn’t there a rule about not messing with crazy…like, don’t stick your dick in crazy?! This dude has got one crazy bitch on psycho-yandere levels and the other that’s about to turn into Kotonoha from School Days in about five seconds. Well, no one left town today as the police were called to look for Saeki because her parents are overprotective types and they take the other kids in.

We get a small time-leap of one month after the night in the police station. Nakamura’s been ignoring Kasuga and Kasuga ends his relationship with Saeki. Dude, stop trying to stick your dick in crazy! Kasuga tries to speak to Nakamura again and it fails. So he visits her at home and meets Nakamura’s father and grandmother. Then, he sneaks into her room and reads her private journal that talks about Kasuga a lot. Dude, you are stepping in uncharted territory! Drop the journal and get the fuck out before Nakamura comes home. So Nakamura comes in her room and finds shit-face reading her journal.

*sighs*

First, I would like to acknowledge that Mariya Ise has one hell of a throat to scream as much as this crazy bitch does. Second, the fuck did I just say, ya dumbass?! Here we get another chase scene between Kasuga and Nakamura. What follows is…I can’t place my thoughts on this. Weird imagery, out of place dialogue, and possible scenes of future stuff to happen! A rape scene involving Saeki, a festival, a hideout, a knife, and fire! Thanks for the cryptic message guys, really appreciate it! Either the anime ran out of money or they’re fucking with the audience. Kasuga says he wants to form a contract with Nakamura and that’s the end!

Hmm, this anime came out in 2013 and it is now 2021. All the buildup and no word on a sequel! We all know that sequel ain’t ever coming. You have a better chance of a continuation to Haruhi Suzumiya than you do with this hunk of shit.

Okay, maybe ‘hunk of shit’ is too mean. This wasn’t a terrible anime. It was weird as fuck, the animation leaves a bad impression, but overall it wasn’t that bad. Now the manga to Flowers of Evil is a favorite to many. Probably because the characters don’t look like a cringey meme and there aren’t so many awkward pauses with no dialogue. Unless there’s a whole volume of Flowers of Evil out there where we just look at pictures of Nakamura and Kasuga walking home where they don’t say a fucking thing! I am not letting that go! Charlie Brown movies didn’t go to that level you guys did!

I was interested with each passing episode to see what Nakamura was going to do next and what she was capable of. I couldn’t make out if she was going to be homicidal or suicidal or just impact psychological warfare on her prey. It was the latter for this series, but I heard of some attempted seppuku going down in the manga. I’d like to think maybe one day a different studio would pick up this series, but I seriously doubt it with the rotten reception this adaptation received. It was said that the director to the anime saw this more as a live-action series than an anime and that’s why we have the rotoscope animation. It wasn’t until 2019 that we got a live-action adaptation to Flowers of Evil. Not sure how people felt about that adaptation, but even I have a feeling that it was much better than the anime. Hell, a Netflix adaptation probably would have turned out a better product. It would be nice for this to get a reboot, different studio, different director, and smash everything that has the word ‘rotoscope’ on it

Yeah, if you can get over watching the animation, give it a watch. Episode one drags, but it picks up the second Nakamura confronts Kasuga.

If you would like to watch Flowers of Evil, Crunchyroll and Hidive have all 13 episodes available for streaming.

Okay, now that I’m finished with that sociopathic nightmare let’s pick another Sentai Filmworks anime.

HELL NO! I am not reviewing, “My Teacher Accidentally Made Me Horny”. That’s what I’m calling it and you should all do the same. NEXT!

Okay…I have no idea what the hell this anime is, but it looks harmless enough.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Werekitten AU: Cat-astrophe Chap. 2

Hey everyone! Here is the next chapter!

I had to take some time with this one as I didn’t know how to end the story. But it's here and it's ready to read!!

Not much to say other than, I hope you enjoy it!

After that turn of events happened, Mu, Hat Kid and Timmy were continuing their sightseeing adventure across the Metro. The three found an ice cream stand and each bought ice cream for themselves to enjoy on their walk. While they were walking, they stumbled upon a group of metro cat police surrounding an alleyway.

“What’s going on?” Hat Kid asked.

“I don’t know?” Mu replied, shaking her head. “Let’s check it out!” She beamed. Hat Kid smiled as the two girls decided to check out what all the fuss was about. The kid trio went through the crowd and gasped at the sight they saw.

The Lazy Paw Cat thief from last night was found brutally murdered. It left no pons, only blood and a dead corpse. “What in the world!” Timmy shouted.

Mu chuckled in delight. She enjoyed crime scenes, especially the ones she committed when stopping the mafia. “Oh boy a murder scene!”

“No no no.” Hat Kid repeated. “It’s not a murder Mu. It’s a MYEURDERR!” Hat Kid shouted, correcting her best friend as she acted like the Conductor. Timmy and Mu rolled their eyes knowing their friend had been spending way too much time with the Conductor.

“So who did this?” Timmy asked.

“A Werecat!” A metro cat spoke up. The kid trio turned to the Metro cat, who was wearing big glasses.

“Huh?” The kid trio were confused. “What’s a Werecat?” Hat Kid asked.

Then another cat spoke up. “You three haven’t heard of a Werecat before?” She asked them. The kids shook their heads. The cat sighed and told the kid trio the story of the Werecat. “Legends say, a creature called a Werecat lurks in this world. They look like humans, but can transform into cats like us, but feral.” She explained.

Mu and Hat Kid smiled interested in the story, while Timmy looked frightened and nervous.

The cat continued her story on the Werecat. “Now many of us cats think Werecats are just legends, but recently many cats are saying they’ve seen a real live Werecat.”

“Really now?” Mu replied, she was now interested in this probably more into it then Hat Kid was. “Do you know what they look like?” She asked.

The cat shook her head. “No one got a look at the Werecat, we don’t know what color fur they have or if it's someone living close to the Metro.” The cat then looked back at the crime scene, which made the kid trio look back at it. “All we know is that the Werecat leaves their signature.” The kid trio saw the signature; right above the body was a bloody paw print on the wall.

“Alright everyone! Step back, this is a crime scene and we need everyone out of the way!” A cat officer commanded as they pushed everyone back so they could get back to investigating the crime scene. Once the kid trio were pushed away, Mu quickly grabbed Hat Kid and Timmy and took them somewhere alone.

Once the mustached girl saw she and her friends were alone, she gave a smirk. “You're thinking what I’m thinking?” She asked.

Hat Kid smirked, agreeing with her best friend. “Oh yeah.” She replied. The two girls high fived each other and said at the same time: “WERECAT HUNTING!”

“Oh no! I’m not being pulled into your shenanigans, Mu!” Timmy shouted, disagreeing with the duo.

“Come on Timmy, it’ll be fun!” Hat Kid reassured him. “It will be like those mystery or monster movies we watched!”

Timmy sighed knowing Hat Kid was right; he did enjoy those monster and mystery movies the two watched together. “I guess, but I know how you and Mu get when you two team up.”

Mu and Hat Kid looked at each other and chuckled. “True.” They both said at the same time.

“Look, all I’m saying is that this Werecat is a killer, and from my knowledge of movies we are putting ourselves in a life or death situation.” Timmy implied.

“Didn’t we all get into life or death situations since we landed here?” Hat Kid corrected him giving a smug smile.

Timmy glared back at his partner, “Don’t tell me.” He groaned, not wanting to be reminded of all the dangers he and Hat Kid went through since arriving on this planet.

“See.” Hat Kid pointed out. “So what could another crazy adventure do to hurt us?”

Timmy would reply and say “everything and anything” but Hat Kid was right. He then sighed and gave up. “I guess one more adventure wouldn’t hurt.” He sighed. Mu and Ha Kid cheered as a brand new adventure awaits them. This time no Time Pieces will be needed for this one, thankfully.

“Well, ready to head back to the ship and plan?” Hat Kid asked. Mu and Timmy nodded and Hat Kid pressed the teleporter on her watch and sent her, Mu and Timmy back on the spaceship and planned their hunt for the Werecat.

At a studio, Bow was getting ready for a photoshoot. She was wearing a green and blue sundress with her hair tied in pigtails by green polkadot ribbons. When she looked at herself in the mirror she gasped at what she saw, but soon the Empress came barging into her room.

“Bow!” She shouted. Bow gasped and turned, seeing the Empress, who was now disguised wearing a hat and glasses. “Care to explain this?!” The Empress then shoved her smartphone in the young idol’s face. Bow was confused for a second, till she looked at what was on the smartphone. Her eyes widened when she saw the news report on the murder of the cat thief.

Bow gulped and looked up at the Empress, “I-It wasn’t me.” She whimpered.

“Are you sure?” The Empress asked. Bow sighed as she handed the Empress her phone back. She was about to reveal the truth, but was interrupted by one of the photographer cats coming in.

“Bow, are you ready?” The cat asked.

“I am!” Bow quickly replied. She was relieved the photoshoot was about to start, making her not reveal to the Empress about the murder. As Bow walked out of her room the Empress grabbed her shoulder causing the idol to turn to face the taller cat.

“We’ll talk about this afterwards.” The Empress stated. Bow sighed and nodded, before the Empress let the young idol go on her way for her photoshoot.

The photoshoot was normal, Bow wore many different clothes and in different poses as the cats took pictures of her. Bow was smiling, but hiding the anxiety she was going through with the news story the Empress showed her.

Luckily, everything was alright throughout the photoshoot and Bow showed no sign of nervousness. Bow and Empress then drove back to the Empress’s shop, Le Felin. Once the two walked in, the Empress quickly shut the door and turned towards the idol with a glare.

“Alright, now will you tell me what happened?” The Empress asked.

Bow sighed as she turned to face the Empress, guilt was painted on her face. “Well, there was this cat thief and I had to stop him so…” She paused not wanting to say what she did to the Lazy Paw Cat thief.

The Empress sighed and shook her head. “Bow this is the third time you did this. I told you to keep your-” The Empress was then cut off by Bow.

“I know! This time was different. This cat stole something and I needed to stop them.” She explained.

The taller cat’s ears flopped down as she slowly made her way to the idol. “Listen Bow, you're an idol, and you're part of my gang.” The Empress told the idol. “You need to lay low on your powers because one day you’ll be caught and we’ll both be in trouble,” she paused to make Bow look up at her, “and you don’t want me in trouble, right?” Bow nodded slowly. The Empress then let go of Bow and patted her on the head. “Good kitten. Now, I’ll be doing work, and you do whatever it is you do as long as it’s not that.”

“Okay.” Bow replied. She watched the Empress leave to her own quarters leaving Bow alone in a quiet empty shop. Bow sighed and walked off to her own part of the shop, which was her bedroom. She turned on the lights and her room glowed.

The idol’s bedroom was painted mint green as photos and posters of her were all over the wall. She had a big bed with flowers all over it, a desk and a mirror. Bow collapsed on her bed and quickly passed out before she cleaned herself up and changed into pajamas. She had a long day, and was tired, which was acceptable for an idol like her.

Not too long after falling asleep, Bow’s eyes snapped open showing her having cat iris’s. She quickly got up and looked at the sky before opening the window and leaving her bedroom to venture the Metro.

Meanwhile, back on the ship Mu was drawing her plan on the chalkboard just like her plan for taking down the Mafia. “Alright, so here’s the plan.” Mu stated. “This plan is very, very simple.”

“Will it involve us doing something to the Werecat like selling it to some monster collector?” Timmy asked.

“No!” Mu said back. “We’re just going to get photographic evidence that it exists and then get money.” She explained. Timmy nodded in reply.

The two then heard Hat Kid humming as she drew a picture in crayon. She stopped doing what she was doing and turned to her friends. “I thought we could talk and befriend the Werecat.” She nervously answered as she showed the drawing of her, her friends and the Werecat with a rainbow over them.

Mu rolled her eyes and shook her head in disappointment. “Hat Kid, this is a dangerous creature. The closest thing we can get to it to be friends with us is to steal fish from the Mafia.” She pointed out. Hat Kid rolled her eyes in response.

“So, we’re just going to look for the Werecat and once we find it we take photos of it?” Timmy asked.

“Yep!” Mu replied with a smile. “See I told you it wouldn’t be too dangerous.”

“Well, alright.” Timmy shrugged. However, the young boy still kept his eyes on Mu. “However, we should stick together and not separate. Got it.”

Mu sighed. Splitting up is fun! You cover more ground, especially in a place like the Metro. “Fine.” She groaned. The trio then grabbed their cameras before Hat Kid set the coordinates on her telescope to send them back to the Metro.

“Ready team?” Hat Kid asked.

“Ready!” Timmy and Mu replied. With that, Hat Kid and her friends got sent back to the Metro.

[pierswife]

okay but i think albedo would appreciate your company in dragonspine. just you, him, the quiet hum of the alchemic machinery, the faint glow and warmth of the fireplace, and the unforgiving landscape of falling snow. there's a certain comfort that he takes in your presence, in just having you near him and he thinks that perhaps he should ask you to just sit with him more often in the future.

*beats my fist on a table* THIS. THIS IS THE SHIT I LIVE FOR. JUST COMFORTABLE SILENCE WITH NO NEED FOR TALKING CAUSE YOU'RE JUST COMFORTABLE AROUND EACH OTHER AAAA

*aggressively slapping this*

THIS IS THE SHIT I LOVE.

[lesserfandomappreciation]

Bumi II with an s/o that is Zuko’s daughter?

This evolved into so much more than what I was aiming, but here you go. Enjoy!

Bumi II with fem!s/o that Zuko’s daughter (Legend of Korra)

They have been friends since childhood and it shows. Those visits to the Fire Nation were not always possible with the Avatar’s schedule, it did not stop the two from forming a bond at a young age. By “bond” I mean “rivalry” and by “forming” I mean “kick starting a strange competitive rivalry that baffles to this day.”

Bumi as an adult has some sense of common sense, he just chooses to put it to the side sometimes. Bumi as a child is a Sokka gone feral with a need to bug others. S/o being a proper princess with manners was going to become a rival to him at some point or another, it was just natural.

The distance between their homes made it possible for this rivalry to peak and fall with lulls of peace when visits were over. It’s when they both join the newly minted United Forces that things go from “meh” to “oh no.”

Both families knew this day was coming. Aang and Katara knew for sure that the way those two acted, the universe would play a joke on them and force them to spend time together. Zuko knew, but was really hoping that the forsaken day would never come. The amount of damage reports he gets about his daughter and Bumi’s antics...

Their rivalry only worsens with their cadet-hood. Bumi’s happy-go-lucky attitude is nails on a chalkboard for s/o. What’s worse, his cheery attitude means getting unfair attention from higher officers despite his terrible antics, while all her hard word and diligence is commended but hardly noticed. It’s infuriating! To Bumi, her being so diligent and so hardcore about their positions only makes him want to rile her up more to see the cute angry looks on her face. It’s always hilarious to see ‘Miss Princess’ get all frustrated.

Cadet-hood brings a strange moment of understanding though, at least in the final year of it. They unfortunately have to spend more time together much to the amusement of their comrades and commanders. Pranks have gone down somewhat, but the same back and forth hasn’t been lost. It does give them something neither excepted to have though. Understanding.

It strikes Bumi as odd that his rival/friend from childhood is always working hard. In fact, the moments where she is angry with him are the only moments he really sees her not working or training. Chatty as ever it doesn’t long for him to figure out from co-workers that he’s really one of the few friends she has on the ship. Women aren’t common in the new United Forces yet, and there’s a lot of sexism in what is proper in a military/what isn’t that affects her. Princess or not, she’s had to work hard for what she has because she’s had to no choice. 

It explains why she gets so frustrated with him. Bumi gets to make jokes, slack off, be silly and more and no one bats an eye. A female cadet doing that, a royal one at that, would just be proving all the lies and rumors that some of the others believe in. Who wouldn’t be upset with that? 

S/o isn’t without a sense of humor, or a sense of being. There’s a time and place for everything; she’s just of the personal belief that the middle of paperwork isn’t it. A lot of her days and nights are filled with work, and work, and work, and it’s not like she can really complain about it to anyone. Bumi’s jokes and cheeriness are frustrating, true, but time together as cadets has laid the foundation for something new. Respect. Pranks have gone down, he’s respecting her space more even as he’s wasting her time with some form of positive chatter but... it’s nice. Kind of. Not that she would ever admit it.

Plus, despite his cheery attitude he knows when to get serious. It’s strangely refreshing to see to the happy-go-lucky dork be intense and take things seriously from time to time. And she’s not sure why that is yet.

Bumi is strangely the first one to address it. There’s a shift in his behavior around her - a subtle one but one that s/o can recognize. He’s still a jokester but he’s also the one checking in to see how she’s doing, the one who when he sees her working actually sits down to help and then drags her to get a bite from the cafeteria. It’s a strange unexpected shift and s/o is still waiting for the other foot to drop, to figure out what prank he’s up to, but honestly it’s so nice to have someone actually care she doesn’t think about it too much.

Though it is hilarious to see to him pout over the accusation of being up to something. She stifles a laugh at the face he makes.

This weird friendship actually becomes very strong with time. Cadethood become Lieutenant-Hood, Major-Hood, and just keeps going. They make a strange pair, the cheery man and the intense woman, but they’re an interesting duo. It’s amazing to see them work together on missions; having known each other their entire lives they’re almost in perfect sync on rescues and combat missions. And maybe, just maybe, there might be a tiny spark of admiration of each other.

Bumi’s had it for a while. There’s something about a woman who can kick butt and keeps people alive because it’s the right thing to do that hits him right in the heart. He’s just been so sure that she doesn’t see him that way that he’s tried to settle for friendship.

S/o did not ask for this. Definitely did not want to be awake in the middle of the night thing “oh no” as the realization hits her straight on the head.

S/o makes the first move. Bumi has been too much of a jokester for too long for any potential moves he has to actually work (jokingly flirting too long does tend to do that) so it would have to be her taking initiative to actually get the ball rolling. Still, it’s one of his favorite stories to tell, the time “Miss Princess asked me on a completely professional outing that could or couldn’t be a date, don’t make it weird you airhead.”

He acts like a hotshot about it now, but s/o will gladly point out that she’s not the one who had to be pulled back on board after going overboard.

Military power couple. Bumi may be a jokester but he wound up Admiral for a reason, with S/o holding a powerful rank as well. The two work incredibly well together, and their relationship outside of work has only made them that more dangerous in the field.

No where near as dangerous as the time the Fire Lord and the heir apparent to the Fire Lord were told by the second princess that she was dating Bumi, but that’s a story for another time.

Bumi will drop the worst lines on her, with goofiness that would make Bolin cringe, but he’s the one whose face flushes when she takes the lead with word and with action. A single surprise kiss to the cheek will have his head in the clouds for the rest of the evening.

He may be a verbal guy but action and physical contact are his love languages. The first time she placed her head on his shoulder, s/o could feel him go stock still and warm up under the contact. It’s one of the few times she seen him go completely quiet.

Bumi is cheesy, I’m sorry. Over the top gestures like kissing her hand, badly arranged flowers, shouting from the rooftop that his partner is the coolest are going to happen. He has 0 shame as she reminds him he can’t just climb a tower to shout such nonsense, he’s not going to get it.

He is there for her though through thick and thin. Yea he’s got a sense of humor but if he senses that his s/o is genuinely having a bad day he will gladly hold her for as long as she needs and press soft kisses to her forehead. He’s learned there’s a time and place for a joke.

I have more headcanons but this post is long enough as is. To summarize: powercouple mixed with the sunshine/serious trope, rivalry to playful banter, genuine respect and kickassery tropes.

[dangermousie]

2019 END OF YEAR KDrama Post

Wow, I haven’t made one in years. This is going to involve only dramas that came out in 2019 because I watched a hell of a lot dramas made prior to that and trying to figure out which ones will give me a headache.

DRAMAS WATCHED (In order of liking from most to least as opposed to pure quality; I am including if I’ve seen at least two eps AND feel it was enough to make up my mind; yes I realize that’s inaccurate, but that’s my list)

Extraordinary You -  A philosophy and religion course AND a love story, and perfect at both.

My Country - a brutal, passionate, intense masterpiece of a sageuk. This is how they should be.

Crash Landing On You - the two eps that have aired brought my joy in watching kdramas back to me so vividly. This is everything. 

Encounter - the perfect noona romance of the year for me. It seems to have little plot (powerful older woman, idealistic younger man) but the characters made me love them with an unhealthy amount of attachment and the mood is just perfect. 

Haechi - smart traditional sageuk with a heart. This one will make you love it but also respect it in the morning :)

Queen: Love and War - Period, romance, mystery, helpless king and feisty heroine. It’s everything I love in one package. 

Chocolate - if, like me, you like slow old-school melo with genuine grown-ups, this one is for you. Ha Ji Won and Yoon Kye Sang are both incandescent in this. 

One Spring Night - a rare slice of life that worked for me so so much. I rooted for the main OTP like crazy (I did skip all the sister stuff though because boring to me.) It’s just a breath of fresh air.

The Tale of Nokdu - a rare funny youth sageuk that worked for me (except, ironically, for when they tried to be politics-heavy and serious about it.) Wonderful OTP, funny situations and just generally a delight. 

Memories of the Alhambra - I can hear people screaming that I put this so high, but this is a faves ranking, not objective one, and I loved the unusual premise (it ultimately fell apart but it tried), and Hyun Bin’s performance was out of this world and the aaaaagnst and I enjoyed waiting for it each week until almost the end. That ending though!!!!!

Psychopath Diary - this is black comedy at its best and hysterical and smart and somehow got me invested in the hapless protagonist. 

Hotel del Luna - clever and funny and smart. Hong Sisters largely back to form. I found the sageuk parts more engaging than modern ones, but what else is new.

Search WWW - some parts of it worked for me more than others, but it had solid writing and cool characters and some interesting OTP(s). 

Love is Beautiful Life is Wonderful - has the weekend drama slowness but it lovely and fun. 

When the Camellia Blooms - it was well made and the OTP was great and the acting top notch, I just don’t tend to go gaga for slice of life dramas, especially ones involving market ladies, much. 

Flower Crew Joseon Marriage Agency - competently done, pretty period piece about nothing. It was enjoyable and forgettable at once.

Catch the Ghost - I put it as high as I did because the OTP really did have lovely chemistry but the story was a complete mess, the police work made no sense and the heroine’s character was like nails on a chalkboard for me.

Joseon Survival - I got about four episodes in and liked it a lot but then Kang Ji Hwan turned out to be a convicted rapist, they replaced the lead and I didn’t go back. I kind of want to because I liked what I saw and I am madly curious as to whether they changed the main character or just said he had a different face now, no explanation. 

The Last Empress - pure inconsistent trash but so entertaining!

Vagabond - I made it eight episodes in before I realized that I would have as much fun staring at traffic. It’s a competently done actioner but without more, actioners never work for me, so this was a viewer/drama mismatch.

Arthdal  Chronicles - incoherent, visually odd and boring, this is arguably the worst drama this year but I am giving it higher place because the cast really tries (even if it tends to fail because it has nothing to work with) and because it attempted something different even if it failed spectacularly. SO BAD.

Melting Me Softly - yes, my brain was fully melted by this soulless, charmless waste of Ji Chang Wook and my limited free time.

VIP - Any drama that makes the main mystery and thrust of the story who the husband cheated on his wife with is BORING. Seriously, this is not exactly Hercule Poirot. They wasted their cast - I have NO idea why Lee Sang Yoon agreed to be in this as a one note character and Jang Nara is playing a second scorned wife in a row but without even the entertainment value of her previous outing.

Abyss - aptly named. The best thing I can say about it is it didn’t offend me but oh boy was it dull.

Absolute Boyfriend - I loved the manga but it’s time to accept this can never be adapted well. They wasted the cast and that ending was just an insult on top of a trash heap.

The Lies Within - you cast that cast and deliberately have no romance. You are dead to me. 

Woman of 9.9 Billion - competently made, but it’s everything I dislike - dour unpleasant bored people behaving as if they are in a particularly dreary art-house French movie but without any nuance or interest the latter came provide. 

Love with Flaws - shrill, dumb, neither acted nor written by anyone trying at all. 

Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung - objectively, it’s not the worst drama on the list, but it’s everything I hate in one package - willfully ahistorical but not cleverly so, male lead incapable of acting, the characters so one-dimensional they disappear, this purports to be a period drama but about as period as a space ship. God, I loathed this. 

FAVORITE DRAMA

Extraordinary You - smart (so mind-bendingly smart) and moving and totally unpredictable and with so many things to say about free will and religion and self and nature of memory and narrative, this had an insane impossible premise and yet somehow managed to do it full justice and stick the landing. 

WORST DRAMA

People with Flaws - this is different from least favorite because even if I loathed e.g., Rookie Historian or Woman of 9.9 Billion, I recognized some positive features; it’s just certain things really rubbed me the wrong way due to personal preferences. But this shrill hot mess of a drama is really everything that’s wrong with dramaworld.

FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER

Prince Yeoning, Haechi - fiercely smart, strong, tormented by the duality of his birth (royal father, servant mother) but not letting this distract him from his purpose, loyal to the bone, and with integrity nothing can shake but where you can feel that it’s not easy and that it costs him.

FAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER

Eun Dan Oh, Extraordinary You - a go-getter who remakes the world (literally); smart, cheerful, strong, beautifully human. She feels so real and yet is larger than anything around her. 

NEEDS TO BE MURDERED

Yi Seung Gye, My Country - a sociopath destroying lives in his quest for power and control, even the destruction of his own family barely gives him anything but momentary pause. He is the reason for the tragedy of MC. 

FAVORITE SHIP

Eun Dan Oh x Haru, Extraordinary You - their love is literally universe and god-defying. They have loved each other as different people in three separate worlds (and counting), and have defied loss of memory and even loss of self as well as death, the end of worlds, and their god and the narrative and literally anything and everything, to be together.

Runner Up: Soo Hyun x Jin Hyuk, Encounter: tender and decent and his bringing her back to vivid life and the way they love and support and compliment each other.  

Probably gonna be on list if doesn’t go haywire: Crash Landing on You: she is a SK heiress, he’s a NK officer, they have mad chemistry and so much potential.

NOTP:

Tae Mi x Morgan, Search WWW - love the actors, love the chemistry, love the characters in terms of the way they are written, but they are absolutely wrong for each other and there is no future of any sort but misery ahead. None of their issues are resolved but are swept under the rug. It’s a cautionary tale, not a romance. I did a long rant before so not repeating. 

BEST SECONDARY OTP

Scarlett x Ji Hwan, Search WWW - they stole the shippiness in the drama for me. Cooky and adorable and noona romance done right.

FAVORITE SCENE

Haru’s final disappearance, Extraordinary You - the lights start to go out, the world literally dissolving, Eun Oh and Haru clinging to each other, with his telling her she was his beginning and the end. His name, the one she gave him, is the last thing he hears. In a drama full of amazing scenes the very gist of which was defying the very creator and universe and meaning of existence, this was the one that stayed with me the most.

BIGGEST CRUSH

Seo Hwi, My Country - I have a thing for deeply honorable, deeply tortured period badasses with long hair and a death wish (see Choi Young in Faith etc.)

BEST SCENE STEALER CHARACTER

Yi Bang Won, My Country - he started out as an antihero and ended up as arguably a tragic villain (or maybe still an anti-hero) but oh boy, was he magnetic and fascinating and sucking out all the oxygen whenever he was in the scene.

NEEDS A SEQUEL

Memories of the Alhambra - WTF ending was that?! All that misery and no real resolution?! Dammit!

TROPE THAT NEEDS TO DIE

Youth Sageuk - I hate most of them! They are anachronistic and dumb and honestly, what is the point of having fully modern people in period clothes? Just make a modern show and call it a day.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

Melting Me Softly - Ji Chang Wook’s first project back from the military was an unfunny, unmoving, pointless mess with not an ounce of genuine enjoyment despite the excellent pedigree of everyone involved in front and behind the camera.

Arthdal Chronicles - the makers made excellent Queen Seon Duk, Tree with Deep Roots and Six Flying Dragons. The cast was uniformly A grade. The result was an open-ended, boring, incoherent mess that looks like a bad sort of a drug trip and made about as much sense. 

BIGGEST GOOD SURPRISE

Extraordinary You - I had zero interest in yet another high school drama with no actors I recognized. By the end, EY was an emotional brainy twister of a marvel that became my favorite drama of all time. I’ve been watching dramas for over 13 years so that’s saying something.

2019 DRAMAS I HAVEN’T SEEN THAT I MOST WANT TO WATCH

The Crowned Clown - I love sageuks and cast and it looks so smart and emotional

Angel’s Last Mission: Love - my next contemporary - I watched a little and loved what I saw

Fates and Furies - I saw a few eps and classic melo is so up my alley.

Clean with a Passion for Now - I like the cast and it’s a year of falling for hot weird bosses apparently.

Graceful Family - I love makjang and Im Soo Jung.

The Secret Life of My Secretary - downmarket Beauty Inside and I loved BI.

Love Affairs in the Afternoon - artsy adultery FTW

Item - I don’t like crime stuff but I am here for Joo Ji Hoon.

My Strange Hero - seems a little cooky but I am fond of Yoo Seung Ho.

MOST ANTICIPATED IN 2020

King: the Eternal Monarch - Lee Min Ho and Woo Do Hwan and parallel worlds and written by Kim Eun Suk. Yes Please.

I should probably make one for cdramas too though that one would be rather shorter.

[therequiemforthelost-archive]

Because my wrists do be doing me a very hurty, @camellias-and-coriander did me the biggest fucking solid and finished up the JeanneBedo birthday art for me for his birthday ;;w;;

Happy birthday my love, I'm very glad that you're a part of this world and the things that inhabit it <3

[trashboatprince]

I said I’d wait to write for this au after I finished with the Reverse Big Bang, but I at least wanted to put out a cute one-shot for the Ineffable Gardener’s au.

Summery: How Francis and Crowley first met, completely inspired by the first drawing for this au. 

Warning: None, just Crowley making a fool out of themself in front of Francis (And Francis is NOT Aziraphale, he’s his own character in this au, same with Nanny Ashtoreth)

On with the fic!

--

Francis looked up from the small slip of paper to the building before him. It was the right address, but why did Francis feel like he was at the wrong place? Piece of Eden looked very much like a café, there was even a little sign indicating it as so, but he had been informed it was a greenhouse.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to go inside, he could use a nice drink.

Francis opened the door, surprised to find the café itself was rather small, with just a few tables, the counter was only about fifteen feet from the door, and it was about the size of a living room. He then noticed that one wall was completely occupied by obscured windows and a single door.

He wanted to slap himself, he hadn’t even realized that this building was much larger than he had paid attention to. He had been so distracted by the confusion of the café outside that he hadn’t noticed the large attachment that clearly indicated a greenhouse. “Oh, you silly man.” He mumbled to himself as he approached the counter.

A young woman with long, dark hair, and large glasses stood there, smiling a bit at him. “Good morning,” Oh, she was American, how fascinating, “what can I get for you?”

Glancing up, Francis took notice to the chalkboards hanging over the counter, each written with different menu items. One was for their various coffees, another for teas, then pastries, sandwiches, and soups, then information for the store like a website and such.

The tea menu caught his attention and he ordered something called ‘The Tree of Knowledge’. The woman, whose name tag read ‘Anathema’ smiled a bit more. “That’s a good one, you’ll like it.”

“I rather like the name, it’s strange though, never been to a place that sells Biblical themed teas.” He spotted another one up on the menu called the Serpent of Eden, and under that was Guardian of the Eastern Gate.

“Oh, those are just the only ones we have, the original owner was named Eden and thought they were funny. The new owner kept the teas, says they’re good flavors and they found the names as a tongue-in-cheek joke.”

“Well, I still like it.” Francis smiled brightly, paying for the drink before stepping aside to wait for her to make it. He looked towards the doors with the frosted windows, he could make out the shadows of plants through the distorted glass. “Is the greenhouse open, miss?”

“Yep, the owner’s in there now, bet they’re giving those plants a good tongue lashing.” Anathema chuckled as she put the lid on a to-go cup. Francis raised a bushy eyebrow at this, was she making a joke? He thanked her and gave the cup a sip, pleasantly surprised by the strong yet delightful taste of the tea.

He may have to come back here to try some of the other flavors, he thought as he made his way to the door of the greenhouse, stepping inside.

It was much warmer in here than he thought, goodness, he shouldn’t have worn a sweater over his button up. He could hear music playing from somewhere inside the building, which was surprisingly bigger than he had expected. There were beautiful plants all over the place, many of various species and colors! It was rather beautiful in here, and Francis would love to plant some of these on the church grounds.

However, he had nowhere to start.

Looking around, Francis perked up when he heard a voice from somewhere around a corner. “-if I see anymore spots, it’s the mulch pile for you!” He shrunk back, oh dear, that sounded a bit harsh.

Someone stepped into his line of sight, and Francis blinked, for some reason, he felt a bit warmer.

The stranger was dressed in clothing that should be worn by someone who was modeling, not working around plants. A dark green apron, embroidered with pink flowers on the bottom of it, was over the expensive looking outfit, with a little name tag pinned to the front.

This employee, they had to be the owner from what Anathema said, had a fiery mane of red hair, pulled back and clipped in some sort of ponytail. They also seemed to be sporting dark shades across their freckled face.

Francis swallowed, feeling a bit flushed, before approaching them as they were misting what looked like a fern. He brightly smiled at them when he came to a stop. “Ah! Excuse me, my dear! I’m the new gardener at the local church, and I was hoping you could help me out!”

The owner, whose name tag read AJC, seemed to stare right at him, while their hand around the mister seemed to tighten suddenly, putting cracks into the cheap bottle. “Sure.” They said in a rather calm voice, despite the damage they gave the bottle.

The blond winced. “Are you okay?!” He asked, reaching out to gently take the broken bottle, just in case they cut their palm or fingers.

They seemed to register what was happened and stumbled back, their face starting to turn a bit red. “Y-yeah! Fine, sorry, was, uh, just had a- how can I help you?” They quickly replied, trying to cover up their fumbling with a customer service voice.

“Oh, right, uhh... do you mind helping me figure out what is best for the church grounds? I’m the new gardener for them, and, sadly, I am not exactly blessed with a green thumb. I fear I might do more damage than good if I don’t have a bit of help.” Francis chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck, feeling a little overwhelmed.

The owner seemed to have eased up, smiling just a little bit. “At least you’re admittin’ you need help, most people think they can do it but then I get complaints that their plants died in a weak. Sure I’ll help you, uh...”

“Francis, lovely to meet you.” Francis smiled, holding out a hand.

They took his hand, giving it a small shake. “Crowley, same. So! Let’s pick out some plants!”

--

If anyone would like anymore, I’m happy to write up more for these two as a ship. 

[shannygoatgruff]

Big Scary Love

(Header made by the talented @flowers-in-your-hayr​)

For @a-mess-of-fandoms​ Kayla’s 1K Writing Challenge: Prompt #20 (prompt in bold in text below)

Characters: Ivar || Ubbe

Genre:  Romance

Warning: None

Rating: PG

Summary: A little brother seeks approval as he’s about to make the biggest decision of his life.

A/N: I was supposed to have written and submitted this one-shot for @a-mess-of-fandoms​​ months ago, but I suck! I have struggled with this thing so much. I have literally rewritten it 19 times. I don’t know why one-shots are so hard for me. The only have to be one scene, but I struggle with did I choose the right scene, how much do I want to say about it, did I find resolution? Needless to say, I was never happy with anything I wrote. It still didn’t turn out exactly as I hoped, but it’s close.

Congrats on your many followers! I’m sorry I’m so late.

Big Scary Love

Lothbrok’s Bar and Grille sat approximately two miles south off of exit 131B  between Kattegat and Hedeby. 

Established in 1990, the bar was built from the ground up by the Sigurdsson brothers, Ragnar and Rollo, as a place where the blue-collar people of both towns could get a good meal and stiff drink. It was also the place where Ragnar’s sons had grown up and naturally where they chose to carry on the childhood tradition of their monthly family game night. 

Dating back to when Bjorn first taught Ubbe and Hvitserk how to play Go Fish, when they were the ages of 6 and 4. respectively, the boys would meet at a table in the back of the restaurant to play games. It helped keep them close, especially since Bjorn lived in Hedeby with Lagertha and the other boys lived in Kattegat with Aslaug. But, the bar was in the middle, on neutral territory. It provided a place where they could all gather and remain close when distance and the common dislike between the adults threatened to tear them apart.  

Almost thirty years later the tradition continues at 7:30 pm on the third Thursday of the month. Bjorn and his wife Gunnhild, Ubbe along with his wife Torvi, Hvitserk and his girlfriend Amma, Sigurd with his boyfriend Kalf, and Ivar who vowed to start bringing his girlfriend, Cami, would gather, at the table in the back left corner, to play the game of choice according to whose name was next on the chalkboard. 

Watching the door, Ivar’s brows raise when he recognizes his older brother cross the threshold. Slowly, he continues to organize the colorful money so that all the faces aligned in the same direction and before placing it back in the bank. A quick nod acknowledges the fact that Ubbe is headed to the bar to get a drink before he takes a seat at the large table in the back corner of the room, already set for the brothers’ monthly game. Tonight’s game is his pick, Monopoly.

Ubbe shivers slightly, trying to knock off the outside chill as he brushes the fresh snow from his black wool pea coat. As he approaches the bar, he removes his gloves and smiles at his younger brother. “Hvitserk,” he sings, clasping the younger Ragnarsson’s hand before drawing him into a manly hug, “How’s it going, brother?”

“Pretty good,” Hvitserk answers patting his brother on the back with a smile, “What are you doing here so early? We’re not supposed to meet for another,” he looks up at the clock built into the ship’s wheel on the far wall, “hour.”

“Ah,” Ubbe puts one his foot on the wooden rungs of the bar stool and balances his weight on his other leg while he plays with the coaster, “Ivar asked me to meet him here early.” He looks over his right shoulder toward the table in the back and holds up a finger to his youngest brother and then points to the bar to ask if he would like a drink. “Do you know what’s up with him?”

“He probably wants you to help him cheat,” Hvitserk explains as he takes the towel from over his shoulder and wipes down the side of the bar to Ubbe’s left. “The usual?” He prepares two drinks, when Ubbe holds up two fingers, for both of his brothers. “Oh, Angrboda just made a huge pot of Helga’s seafood stew.”

Ubbe’s eyes light up as he nods his head, “That sounds great. I’m fucking freezing. Send over a large bowl with bread, yeah?” He knocks on the bar twice, as is customary, before picking up the glasses and makes his way to the table.   

Ubbe sits the drinks on the table and smiles cheerfully, “Hey, baby boy.” He walks around and hugs his brother’s head before leaning down to kiss him on the top of his hair, “How you doing, kid? You good?” Receiving a pat on his forearm, he playfully pushes Ivar away before flopping down on a chair beside him.

“Hey,” Ivar answers watching his brother sit, holding an awkward smile on his lips, “thanks for meeting me early.” He takes a look out the window at the falling snow covering up his uneven footprints on the sidewalk, “It’s getting bad out there?”

“Nah, not really. Should have a good covering come morning, but nothing too bad.” Ubbe picks up his glass and takes a drink, stretching his lips across his teeth as the sour taste of the vodka gimlet settles on his tongue. He takes note of the way his brother is arranging the game pieces and watches for a moment before he speaks, “So…what’s going on? Why did I need to meet you here before the others?”

Ivar takes a sip of the Guinness Stout and picks up the Chance cards to arrange them all in the same direction, “Well, uh, Ubbe. I wanted to talk to you, about…about, Camille.”

“What about her?” Ubbe isn’t sure where this conversation is headed. He’s only met her a handful of times and she seems nice enough, though he’s not sure she’s the one for Ivar. There’s no reason for him to feel that way, it’s just something in his gut that says the relationship will be short-lived. 

“So,” Ivar takes in a deep breath. Having rehearsed his speech for the better part of the day, he struggles to remember to pace himself and breathe, “You know we’ve been together for a little over a year now and things are going in a really good direction with us. She’s moving in with me. We’ve even talked about looking for a small house together.” He looks up from the game box to gauge his brother’s reaction. Unable to read Ubbe’s face he continues, “I want to ask her to marry me.”

Ubbe coughs down the gimlet that gets caught in his throat as he swallows. He sits back in the chair and leans against the backrest folding his arms across his chest. He tries to keep his mouth closed to let his brother finish but the words start to spill out his mouth, “Oh, Ivar,” he chuckles, “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.” 

“Why because she’s Afro-Latina and not Viking? I thought you of all people would understand that our differences don’t matter to me. Hell, I’m different, and it didn’t stop her from wanting to be with me,” Ivar defends.

“Of course not, brother. I’m not a dick,” Ubbe places his hand on his brother’s arm to calm him, “I only meant that she’s your first girlfriend. I get that you’re excited, and everything is still pretty new with you two. But, you don’t have to run out and propose to the first girl that you -” he raises his brows and ducks his head to signal Ivar what he’s talking about. “You will have lots of relationships. You will meet a ton of beautiful women that will blow your mind in bed. Hell, you might even want to marry them all. We all know Bjorn tries to,” both brothers chuckle at that, “but it’s not necessary.”

“You don’t understand, Ubbe.” Ivar interrupts, “it’s not like that.”

“You don’t understand, kid. Bjorn will never release your shares from this place before you’re 30. Especially not if he knew you would be just turning it over to some girl and knowing you it would be without a prenup. Without the interest on that trust, what will you do for money, huh? Work for Hvitserk?” He raises his brow at Ivar while ignoring the flash of anger in the younger man’s eye. “Rollo and Father put every dime and ounce of sweat they had into this restaurant to give us a legacy. You are too young to remember, but there were nights when Father would not come home because he was here laying the foundation, brick by brick. There were also many times when Mother had nothing but soup to feed us all because there was no money to buy meat; father spent it all to see his dream come true. His dream was for us to have a better life and we did. When he died, we all got a piece of this place and the money from it is for our future.”

Ubbe blinks his blue eyes thoughtfully at the younger man beside him, “Besides, baby boy, you are so impulsive – as soon as you get an idea, you jump on it. You don’t always think things through. Have you really thought about this?”

“When Bjorn decided to join the Army and go to war, we didn’t tell him he couldn’t go. We let him go live out his dreams of being one of the Avengers. And was Hvitserk being impulsive when he decided that he wanted to take this place over after Helga died? He did not know the restaurant business. Liking to eat and running a restaurant are two different things, but none of us tried to talk him out of it?” Ivar rolled his eyes and slammed the game cards onto the board, “We all rallied around him and pooled our money together to help him remodel this place how he wanted. We promised that even if he fucked up we would pitch in and help keep this place afloat. My money is here, too. I should be able to have it if I want it.”

“But, Ivar…”

“I’m not finished, Ubbe,” Ivar runs his fingers through his long, loose hair and pulls it over to one shoulder, “When you decided to marry Torvi, a woman that had three children that weren’t yours, did any of us say anything? No. We could see that you loved her and that she made you happy and that was enough. And Sigurd? He was scared as hell to tell us about Kalf, but in the end, it was fine, because he’s our brother and we support each other. But why not me?”

Ubbe takes another drink and sets his cup down silently. He regards his little brother and smiles at him softly, “Because you, my little Ivar, are my baby brother and I don’t want you to get hurt.” He squeezes Ivar’s shoulder lovingly, “I have always looked out for you. I have been your legs since you were a child. You are a part of me, brother, and I must protect you.”

“You can’t protect me from love, Ubbe. She’s my big scary love,” Ivar’s eyes drop bashfully as the blush stains his cheeks.

 “Your what?”

“That’s what we call it – big scary love. You know that love you feel all the time, but sometimes you wake up in the morning and you just say to yourself, ‘I love the fuck out of this woman?’ It’s that love that after a year I still feel fluttering in my chest when I hear her ringtone and why my world spirals out of control when I see tears in her eyes. And she loves me that way, too, Ubbe. I mean, look at me,” he opens his hands in surrender, “In my opinion, the best thing you can do is find someone who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you. Well, she does. She loves me like that and so much more. My legs, crawling around, breaking bones, the pain, my temper...hell, she loves me despite those things. To her, they are just additional sides of me to love.”

Ubbe listens to his brother, trying to keep the tears that threaten to spring to his eyes at bay. He can hear it in Ivar’s voice that he is truly happy. Now, he regrets not getting to know Cami better, but he admits to himself that he did not think that their relationship would last. “I am happy that you found love, Ivar.”

 “She’s pregnant.”

Ubbe unintentionally holds his breath as he tries to think of something else to say, but no words will come out. Why can’t Ivar see what he’s doing? This is all the more reason for him not to make this mistake.

“That’s not the reason why I want to marry her, though.” Ivar smile doubles in size as he thinks about the prospect of becoming a father, “I’ll admit the idea of having a baby is like…fuck! But, I want to marry her because I want to make her my family. I want it all, Ubbe; a family of my own, with her. She’s it for me.”

 “So, what do you want from me?”

With a shrug, Ivar relaxes, “Your permission? Your blessing? Congratulations? I don’t know. You’ve always been my favorite brother – I guess I just want to know that I’ll still have you in my corner. I don’t give a fuck about the money from the restaurant. If Bjorn wants to be an ass and tie it up for years, so be it. I’ll get a real job and stop living off of the family name. The only thing I want is Mother’s ring. I want to propose the right way…and maybe you in my corner.”

Ubbe cups one hand around Ivar’s cheek and gives him a few hits, “My baby brother has finally grown up!” Leaning in, he places his other hand on Ivar’s other cheek before pulling his face toward him to kiss him on both cheeks, “You’re going to be a father and husband! I’m so proud and happy for you! Of course, I will stand up for you, brother. All I have ever wanted was for you to find your own happiness.” Ubbe can’t stop the laughter coming from him as he notices Hvitserk coming over to the table. “And it would be my honor to give you Mother’s ring.”

“Sorry, it took so long. Porunn was late for her shift again. Know any good people needing a job? I could use some help around here.” Hvitserk says, sitting the bowl of soup on the table. He looks at his brothers and smiles at them laughing like loons, “What are you idiots up to?”

Ubbe gives Ivar a knowing smile as he hugs him around the shoulders. “Nothing. Just our brother here has some wonderful news to share tonight when the others arrive.”

Nodding, Hvitserk punches Ivar’s arm and picks up Ubbe’s glass to toast, “Well, to whatever your news is, Ivar,” he clicks glasses with his youngest brother and finishes off Ubbe’s drink. “I’ll get you another, Ubbe.” As he turns to walk toward the bar, he yells over his shoulder, “And you’re not banker during Monopoly tonight, Ivar. You always cheat!”

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