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aonesteddybear · 4 years ago

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Fixation

nishinoya yuu x female reader* x hinata shoyo tanaka is..also there in the background

warnings: e for explicit, 18+, exhibitionism, voyeurism, lots of breast play, very slight dub-con? (noya pushing readers limit a little. he doesn’t really listen to initial no but reader is consenting. i don’t consider it dubcon, but better safe then sorry!)

word count: 2533

notes: noya is a tits man and i live by that. also let me know if you want a part two?

extra big thank to my beta @thisisthehardestthing <3 (also i apologize for the gif but it is..perfect l m a o)

*no gendered terms are used however breast/tits/chest/etc. wording is used. so a male reader who is comfortable with that wording could be able to self insert also!

Nishinoya had always had a fixation on your chest. From even before you two had started dating he’d sneak peeks at them anytime he could, and once you were dating, he couldn’t keep his hands off them. He would always hug you a little too long, insist on resting his head on your chest with an excuse that it was to hear your heartbeat, or try and be the big spoon where he could drape his arms over them.

The first time you two had sex, he had immeditaly fixated on your chest, sucking and nipping at your nipples until they were sore and you had to push him away. You had continued on that night, but any chance he got he was either touching them or had his face pressed into them.

After, it only got worse. No longer was he happy with clothing covering you, and any chance he could get, his hands were sliding under your shirt, groping at your breasts or pushing your shirt up where he could suck on them.

It became a pastime for him; any chance he got he was sucking at your nipples. Tongue running over it as you relaxed on the couch, or pressed against them as you two slept. He was obsessed, and although you didn’t mind his attention, there were times when you wished he would just calm down with his risky behaviors.

He didn’t seem to care if others could catch you, and his confidence only increased with time. He had started with just gentle touches, wrapping you in hugs from behind where his hands gently cupped your breasts, to sliding them up your shirt even in public.

You had gotten used to telling him to ‘knock it off’, to leave it for when you two were at home where he was quite happy with you walking around without a bra for easy access. However, this silent agreement of “if you were home, it was fair game” often became a problem when you had others around and Noya still insisted on the same amount of contact.

Occasionally you could persuade the man with just soft touches, or allow him to steal you off into a room where he could suck at your chest in comfort for a moment before returning together as if nothing occurred.

Yet as time went on, he started becoming more bold. Especially when it came to his friends being present. Which is exactly how you ended up in your current situation; you two were cuddled up on the couch, your back to the corner as his head leaned on your chest while you watched a movie.

Across from you, Tanaka and Hinata sat on the other loveseat. Their eyes were glued to the screen as images flashed across, but you couldn’t focus on anything other than persistent nuzzling from Noya into your chest.

“Knock it off.”

Your voice was low, refusing to turn to look at him as you forced yourself to continue staring at the movie, even as he pressed his face firmly into your breast.

“Why?” he whined back, matching your volume and you knew if you looked down you’d see wide brown eyes staring up at you as he shifted to look up at you.

“They’re right there,” you responded back, and he let out an irritated huff. His face turned back into you, his mouth ghosting over your shirt.

You could feel his lips moving carefully over your nipple, hot even through the thin layer of your tank top. Bras had long since been banned in the house at his request, and now, you had started to regret agreeing to it when you felt his hands slide up your side and push at your shirt.

Your hands flew to grab his, glaring at him as he pouted out his lower lip in annoyance at being stopped. “No,” you repeated and he nipped at your breast then in objection causing you to shove at his head.

“Why not?” he repeated and you frowned in frustration, eyes flicking to where the others observed the movie, still unaware of what was happening a few feet from them. “They won’t care.”

His words were muffled in your skin as he stared up at you with pleading eyes, his hands shaking yours off as he once again attempted to pull your shirt down where he could have access to it unrestricted.

“Yuu,” you hissed out in frustration, grabbing at his hands even as they pulled at the side of your tank again.

“They won’t care.” He repeated, “they all stare at your tits anyway.” He stated voice low, his voice further muffled in your chest as nuzzled into your body. “They’ll be jealous.”

His hands rubbed at yours, moving to again pull at your shirt and you, again, considered pushing him off.

You thought about making some excuse to why you wanted to move so dramatically, or even go to the other room (and why Noya would without a doubt follow you) but as his tongue flicked at your nipple yet again, you realized you’d also have to possibly explain the wet spot he was attempting to leave on your shirt also.

Which is why you let out your let out a still annoyed huff as you shifted slightly, turning to try and focus on the movie even as your boyfriend accepted your resignation at his actions and finally pushed your tank top to the side, revealing your breast to him.

If his touching and licking hadn’t already made your skin pebble up, the cool air rushing over it certainly did. Especially as Noya pressed his face into your warm skin, then wrapped his lips around it.

He was gentle as usual. His eyes focusing back onto the movie as he sucked lazily at your skin.

His tongue ran over your nipple occasionally, teeth nipping from time to time but over all, he just lighty sucked on it. Just enough to keep your skin taut and your body on edge in excitement at the treatment to it.

Despite Noya’s relaxed demeanor, you couldn’t relax, body tense with the knowledge that at any moment, his friends could look over and see clearly that your shirt was pushed to the middle of your chest with Noya’s lips on your breast.

You knew the three of them were all pretty close friends, but the idea of them catching you two still filled you with dread, unsure of how they’d respond to the fact that Noya was blatantly sucking on your nipples in such close proximity to them.

Especially with the fact he wasn’t even trying to hide his suckling from view with his head turned slightly to the side so he could still watch the movie.

His other hand slid up your stomach. Rubbing at your skin lightly as he felt your muscles tense while he groped at your other breast over your shirt. He was content with this for a moment before his hand dipped in your shirt.

He palmed at the skin, kneading at it in appreciation for a moment before he pushed the shirt aside so both of them were in view.

Noya continued the lax playing with your tits, his mouth occupied with the one closest to his face as he pinched and tugged with his hand on your other. As he squeezed particularly tight, you winced, shifting as you pushed at him in objection.

You could feel the smile on his face as he repeated his action, unashamed as you rolled your eyes in annoyance. Your eyes flicked back to the screen at the same time a sharp gasp of “Oh!” sliced through the room.

You felt as if a glass of ice water had been dumped over you, embarrassment turning your body too warm as you looked back at Hinata who seemed just as startled as you were by the sight in front of him.

As you started to move to readjust your clothes, Noya’s hand spread out firmly across your chest, holding you in place as he continued his actions. His teeth dug into your skin in silent warning as you let out a squeak of objection.

Your eyes flicked to Tanaka then, who looked rather curiously at you two before you glanced back at Hinata who seemed just as red as his hair as he made eye contact with you. His eyes dipped down to your chest which was still partially on display.

“Noya-san, what are you doing?” Hinata’s voice was strained, but you could hear something extra brimming in it even if you couldn’t identify what exactly it was.

“Nothin’,” his response was muffled, his lips still pressed to your chest as he held you.

“Oh.”

Silence filled the room as Hinata and Tanaka both stared transfixed at your chest as Noya continued his lazy movements, as if he was just resting on you rather than actively lapping at your nipple under their eyes.

Your cheeks were burning, embarrassment filling you even as Noya rubbed at your skin soothingly, reassuring you that he was right and the two of them truly didn’t care.

Hinata seemed utterly fascinated by Noya’s actions, leaning forward in his seat while Tanaka’s face remained blank while he watched, not giving any hint to his thoughts.

“Noya-san,” Hinata began again, voice trembling, and this time you recognized what he was hiding in his voice: excitement. “Can I try?”

He seemed almost shy at his request, and you couldn’t help the soft squeak in surprise and objection at the idea as Noya paused his playing with your other tit, considering the request.

His lips popped off your chest with a slight pop from suction, and you couldn’t help but blush as he looked up at you adoringly before his eyes flicked back to Hinata. He shrugged lightly, looking back at you patiently.

“Sure, I don’t mind. She has two. Babe?” he questioned, and you swallowed under his watchful eyes, looking back at Hinata who looked ready to vibrate out of his seat at the idea.

Briefly, the question of if he had ever even seen a woman’s tits in person crossed your mind, but you were drawn from your thoughts just as quickly when Noya rubbed at your chest soothingly.

It was a comforting touch, a reminder that you didn’t have to let Hinata try if you didn’t want to. That, if you voiced your concerns, Noya would just as quickly kick both of his friends out and follow you to bed as if nothing had ever happened.

Yet you knew at the same time, that wasn’t what Noya wanted. If it was, he would have never let it get this far. He would have denied Hinata’s request before he even voiced it, and he certainly wouldn’t be watching you like he was right now.

That fact alone was the reason you found yourself nodding, even as more blood rushed to your cheeks in embarrassment.

“It’s ok,” you promised and both boys grinned at you in excitement.

As Noya gestured to Hinata, the red-head bounded over before he hesitated at your side. Noya shifted then, sitting up as he pulled you up with him.

A pointed look from Noya had Hinata sliding onto the couch next to you, his eyes still glued to your chest as he waited for further instruction.

Noya’s hands found the bottom of your shirt, waiting until you nodded before he pulled it over your head and draping it on the side of the couch as he reached out to knead at your chest with his hands in appreciation.

You could feel Tanaka’s and Hinata’s eyes on you as he played with your chest, Noya’s eyes flicking up to you as he smiled in excitement. He leaned forward to kiss a soft kiss to your side.

His eyes darted back to Hinata, who was watching quietly, leaning forward on his legs with his lips parted. As Noya’s lips closed around your nipple, Hinata took it as his permission as well. He leaned forward, his lips eagerly attaching to your other side as his eyes fluttered shut.

The contrast between the two men was immediately clear. Noya had long since gotten over his eagerness, usually favoring a slower approach and treatment knowing he’d have plenty of time at your breast, but Hinata was the exact opposite.

Hinata sucked eagerly at your bud, teeth grazing it as he nipped impatiently, excited as he was.

You couldn’t help the soft tenses against the rough treatment and Noya immediately sensed it, smacking the back of Hinata’s head with an open palm as he yelped, “oi! Shoyo, be nice.”

A snort of laughter suddenly reminded you there was another man present in the room, who now looked quite amused even as Hinata apologized to you. Eyes flicking up from your chest where the two men were still bickering, you looked at Tanaka in concern.

Sensing your worry, Tanaka smiled softly at you.

“It’s okay,” he promised before you could speak. “I just want to watch.”

Noya hummed in response to Tanaka, rubbing his face against your breast, drawing you back to the men below you before his lips returned to your breast, this time watching Hinata as he carefully imitated Noya.

Hinata’s lips slowly wrapped around your nipple this time as he laved at it with his tongue.

“Better,” Noya responded, voice muffled by your breast--which he refused to give up as he pressed you back slightly with his face, and Hinata chased after it.

Your hands idly came up to both men’s hair as you played in it lightly, smiling as they both sighed happily into your skin while they played with your tits.

Your attention flicked back to the now-forgotten movie for a moment before they flicked down to Hinata’s hips, which were now rocking slightly at their own pace into the press of his hands onto his clothes.

Again, you felt your cheeks heat softly in embarrassment, you don’t know why that action would get that response from you. Surely it was a normal response; much more normal than Noya’s content attitude to just simply want to suck at your chest.

Yet you couldn’t look away from Hinata’s relaxed face as he nuzzled further into your breast, sucking at it firmly as he pressed his own palms deeper into the bulge of his pants. The idea that Hinata was getting aroused by the simple action had a pit swirling in your stomach, alongside the gentle sucking of the two men.

A quick glance up at Tanaka showed you he was also palming himself through his jeans at the sight, and meeting your eyes, he smiled bashfully, dropping his gaze to avoid your glance.

As if he could sense the other men's reaction to you, and your quickened heartbeat, Noya pulled back from your chest. As he looked at you with puffy lips from his sucking, he smiled.

A sight that caused you to squirm under the glaze which had Hinata pulling away from your chest in confusion. He looked between you both, unsure what the issue was.

“Oi, Shoyo.” Noya mused, “Wanna see what else is fun?”

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rvmmm21 · 4 years ago

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. pizza or jajangmyeon? .

not sure how you like bottom!futa!irene, but i sure do lol. its fun to flip the roles sometimes. i did this impulsively (and deliriously) at 5am so do forgive the errors.

(my first smut. first off, why did i start off, with no experience, with g!p? and then carrying on from there, let’s just say maybe i shouldn’t do this ever again)

friggin have no idea how much i cringed writing this lol.

...

Hmm… butter, lettuce, carrots, watermelon… Wannie’s oranges and a bunch of grapes for Yerimie.

Joohyun idly twiddled the pen between her fingers, making sure she got the list down pat before leaving the house. It had been too long since she’d done a grocery run, and by the state of their fridge, she could already hear the pizza boy ringing their doorbell.

Those kids, she sighed to herself, they’re going to start turning into pizzas. Or jajangmyeon. Not this time. They’re going to eat a salad tonight if I have to fork it down their throats myself.

Folding the post-it note neatly and slipping it into her back pocket, she grabbed her phone and wallet, giving herself a once-over in the mirror before making for the living room.

“Yah! Give it back!” a voice boomed through the hallway, making Joohyun’s eyes roll up to the heavens. She turned the corner, only just managing to avoid being knocked over by the tornado of a chase that was going on in the house.

Seungwan was jumping on the sofa, one arm up with a phone tightly clutched in her hand. She was waving it around, taunting a screaming Yerim, who was going berserk beneath her, trying to swipe it out of her hand.

“Admit it then!” the girl yelled down, holding the phone out of reach, “you cheated! You bumped me on purpose, because you knew I was winning!”

This riled the younger girl up even more.

“I literally slipped! Plus, you suck! You weren’t even winning you were like 4th!”

“Yeah, still better than 8th you idiot,” she retorted, playfully dangling the phone in front of the sulky girl.

Exasperated, Joohyun turned to the direction of the commotion, one hand already on the door handle. She hadn’t even bothered to ask why this was all happening, already too accustomed to her troublemakers and their antics. She glanced down at her watch.

Oh damn, I’ve only got half an hour till closing. Better sort this out quick.

“Hey! You two.”

Seungwan and Yerim hadn’t even noticed her about to leave the house till now, turning their attention to her.

“Seungwan, enough with the teasing. Give Yerim her phone back. And you two need to stop arguing. I swear, it’s every time… I will ban Mario Kart for a lifetime, don’t make me do it.”

Not wanting to further irritate an already irritated Joohyun, Seungwan hopped off the sofa and handed Yerim back her phone, the two of them now seeming more interested in where she was going.

“Unnie, where are you going?” she asked, casually strolling over to Joohyun with Yerim in tow.

“Just giving us options other than pizza or jajangmyeon tonight,” Joohyun answered simply.

This propelled an entire slew of pouts and protests from her dongsaengs, now engaged in a one-sided argument about wanting to have takeout tonight instead of ‘stupid healthy’ vegetables.

“No,” Joohyun said firmly, “You girls are going to have healthy food tonight whether you like it or not. No more takeout!”

Both girls exchanged hurried glances before rushing past her pressing their backs to the door, effectively barricading her in. The older girl flinched being pushed out the way, and inwardly groaned, eyes rolling skywards once again.

“Yah, let me through. There’s not much time left.”

Yerim looked at Seungwan before turning back to her.

“But unnie,” she sounded uncharacteristically concerned, “How are you going out with those messy trousers?

Joohyun’s eyebrows furrowed when she saw two small smirks creep up the corners of the mouths of the two girls before her. Those smirks could mean very few things, and those ‘things’ meant, more often than not, trouble. She looked down at the loose beige joggers she had on. They were fine? A bit thin and crinkly, admittedly, but they were her favourite pair! And she was just going to the shops, after all.

She looked up again, confused.

“Huh? My trousers? They’re not mess-”

But before she could even finish, Joohyun found the wind knocked right out of her, as she was roughly tackled to the floor, now flat on her back with Yerim straddling her chest. Her legs were pinning Joohyun’s arms down, and despite her commendable attempt at struggling out from underneath, Yerim had positioned herself too far up her chest to allow her any leverage.

“G-get off me, ugh,” she huffed, eventually stilling under the girl’s whole-body weight.

“Oops, sorry unnie,” Yerim innocently giggled, clearly enjoying Joohyun’s pink flushed cheeks as she gave her bum a little wiggle on top of the squirming girl.

Joohyun’s entire view was obscured by Yerim’s clothed core a little too close to her face. She couldn’t even see Seungwan seated in between her legs until she felt two hands shove her knees wide apart. Joohyun gave a small yelp as she felt two legs abruptly land on both her bent knees, weighing them down and keeping her spread.

“Unnie,” a voice from behind Yerim made her presence known, “Aren’t you getting us takeout tonight?”

“N-no,” the heaved reply came. Her lungs were starting to sting from the pressure.

Unfortunately, breathing wasn’t the only thing that was getting a little hard right now.

And it didn’t go unnoticed, either.

“Ooh Yerimie,” Yerim turned back at Seungwan’s snide remark, a smile playing on her lips as she glanced down to the tent forming in Joohyun’s trousers, “looks like your cute little panties are getting Joohyun unnie very excited.”

At this, Yerim beamed, pulling her skirt up higher and bunching it around her waist so Joohyun had a devastatingly clear view of the baby pink cotton underwear she had on. Scooting up a bit higher, she playfully grinded her hips, as her own little wet spot began to form on her panties, knowing the effect she was having on her powerless unnie. Joohyun shut her eyes and groaned, using all her might to will her growing arousal down, but it was getting increasingly hard with the inescapable proximity and the hands that were now rubbing her helplessly hardening cock. Without her consent, her hips began bucking up into the groping hands, desperate to get some friction, desperate to get even harder.

It was getting too much to bear.

She was fully erect in mere seconds.

Seungwan licked her lips at the sight.

“Careful there,” she warned, squeezing her, “don’t get too excited… I want to have some fun with it too.”

The older girl could only let out a breathy moan in response as Seungwan kept massaging her clothed erection. Her mind keeled at the heady aroma emanating from Yerim’s heat, every inhale made her cock twitch painfully incessantly.

She was sure she could have cum right there.

“Little Hyun’s coming out to play now,” Seungwan chided, reaching past Joohyun’s waistband, freeing her swollen member and her full, heavy balls. She couldn’t help but take a few moments to admire the older girl’s prodding length, stiff and pulsing in her grip.

Joohyun gasped and flinched slightly, feeling the heat of a pair of lips trail along the underside of the head, maddeningly light and teasing. As much as she tried to hold it in, more than a few wanton moans escaped her throat when the lips turned from exploring the length of her shaft to wrapping themselves around the whole mushroom head. Thick, juicy lips created a deliciously tight suction as a warm tongue tickled the slit and flicked the sensitive bundle of nerves underneath. Spurts of precum trickled from the girl’s achingly teased cock, which Seungwan lapped up immediately, the salty liquid tingling her taste buds.

Every suck, every lick felt like electric jolts were zipping through Joohyun’s body, making her buck even harder. Little Hyun wanted nothing more but to bury itself in the cavern of Seungwan’s warm mouth. The younger girl knew full well how worked up Joohyun was and what she wanted, needed. But she simply smirked around her cock and carried on with the torture; just the tip. She was waiting for those magic words.

And she didn’t have to wait long at all.

“P-please, oh gosh, pl-please,” the voice was small, barely audible, but Seungwan heard it crystal clear.

Her lips left Joohyun’s cockhead with a comical ‘pop’, leaving her boner springing back and hitting her belly. Precum was still leaking from the tip, now forming a sticky little pool on her stomach. Yerim, who was a huge part of the reason Joohyun’s cock was drooling non-stop, looked back at Seungwan with a sly grin.

They had her right where they wanted her.

“Please? Please what?” Seungwan grinned widely, eyes locked with Yerim’s the entire time.

No answer.

“Hm?” she cupped her hand over her ear, leaning in and pretending to listen.

There was a small, uncomfortable shift from the girl trapped on the floor under them.

“No? Nothing?” Seungwan pursed her lips into a tight line, glancing nonchalantly up at Yerim, who pointedly shrugged, “Well, I guess we’re done, then. We’ll leave you, uh… to it.”

Their smiles grew wider as they heard the smallest of whines followed by adorable hip wriggles, the momentum making her erection slide side to side on her belly like a metronome.

“…p-pleasegetmeoff…pleasesuckit…”

This time, Yerim looked down at a sweaty, heaving Joohyun; fringe matted, beads of sweat spotted across her forehead and the sweetest blush adorning her pretty cheeks.

“What did you say? I don’t think Wannie unnie can hear you from all the way back there.”

A girly chuckle escaped her smirking lips as she beheld a flush of crimson rapidly spread from Joohyun’s neck up to her face.

They’re really going to make a girl say it, huh.

She had a good mind to halt their cruel little game right there, giving them an earful and an early bedtime for winding her up. But she couldn’t take the teasing anymore. It was agonising being ripped from paradise like that. She needed more. She needed it all the way.

And she just broke, trying to ignore the burning in her lungs from having her breathing restricted and her heart racing.

“P-PLEASE SUCK ME, MAKE ME CUM please, please I can’t takeitanymore, please…” the yells dissolved into whimpers as her mind could focus on nothing but her neglected boner, although it was still as ragingly hard as it was to begin with.

The girls basked in the triumph. The triumph of getting Joohyun to actually voice her needs. They always longed to hear those moans of pleasure as they teased her body, longed to melt that pretentious ice queen façade, to watch her lose herself and come undone under their skillful manipulations. So, getting her to be vocal about what she wanted just added to the thrill.

“Oh!” Joohyun rasped as she felt the base of her cock in a vice-like grip.

“All you had to do was ask, unnie.”

And with that, all Joohyun’s sensory levels spiked off the charts. Both girls doubled their ministrations. Seungwan’s mouth enveloped her rod whole, taking it all the way to the hilt. Her tongue pressed flat against the underside, mercilessly stimulating every single nerve and every single sensitive area it had to offer. Yerim had now pushed her panties to the side, revealing her naked heat, coated in slick. Joohyun felt a hand in her hair, and the next thing she tasted was Yerim’s dripping arousal, nose pressed against her swollen little bud as she grinded herself onto her face.

“Oh yes, unnie, right there,” the young girl threw her head back, eyes shut in rapture as she rode Joohyun’s red face, “Does this turn you on? Eating me out like this while unnie sucks you off? You can’t help yourself, can you? You’re gonna cum. Unnie’s mouth is gonna make you cum so hard.”

Muffled moans of agreement were coming from the older girl as she lapped at Yerim like she was born to do nothing else, while gyrating her hips into the mouth expertly pleasuring her engorged, reddened cock.

It was absolutely unholy.

Seungwan took her mouth off Joohyun, but kept pumping her swollen prick with her hand, left palm kneading her balls, forcing the girl closer and closer to the edge. Her vision was blurring slightly, body preparing for an unavoidably intense release.

Oh my god, it’s coming, I can’t hold it much longer…

“Oh, Joohyun unnie…”

Dazed beyond belief, Joohyun’s foggy mind could barely discern Seungwan’s voice faintly addressing her. She tried her best to focus, but her impending orgasm was greatly overpowering her will to do so.

“You know, I think Yerim and I agree with you. We will eat healthy tonight. You’ve got about ten minutes left before closing, I’m sure you’ll make it if you run.”

The decision to grocery shop had long since been swept away. Joohyun had even forgotten why she was on the floor in the first place, only knowing she was about two seconds away from exploding in pure pleasure.

She paused to laugh, finding herself the funniest person on earth.

“Aw, too bad your pants are a mess though. Can’t go out looking like that. You’ll have to change them first.”

Joohyun didn’t have to be able to see Seungwan to hear the wicked lilt she had in her voice as she spoke.

Wait my w-what?

Just like that, Bae Joohyun wished she could retract all the urges she had to cum. Her eyes widened in horror as she realised what the girls had meant and planned all along. There was no point even trying to distract herself from cumming, not between Seungwan’s tight fist skillfully going to town on her aching member and being encompassed in Yerim’s sweet juices. It was about as effective as cutting anything with a bent knife.

“N-no, please d-don’t,” she tried to beg.

But it was too late. Seungwan had already stuffed her cock back into her trousers, making sure to aim the head right where the crotch area was. Her hand continued to pump the other girl’s shaft until she felt it throb, all resistance shattered. With a fragmented cry, Joohyun’s hips arched, abs clenched and toes curled, drenched in sweat. Light beige turned into the darkest grey as she embarrassingly soiled her joggers with thick, hot cum. A cruel smirk crawled on the younger girl’s cute little face as she gripped it tighter, forcefully milking string after string of virile seed from Joohyun’s swollen cock.

“Oh my god, unnie,” Yerim teased, pausing to join Seungwan in watching the girl forced to cum in her pants, “Such a naughty girl, you couldn’t hold it? We need to work on your self control.”

Joohyun wasn’t listening; her head lolled in a daze, whole body going limp as all her muscles relaxed simultaneously after having been contracted for what seemed like forever. She felt the pressure she didn’t even realise was there anymore lifted off her chest, as Yerim got to her feet to get towels so they could start cleaning themselves and the exhausted, drained girl on the floor.

After Yerim disappeared from her glazed over line of sight, she was almost immediately replaced by Seungwan.

She didn’t miss the smug look etched into her pretty features.

“So, unnie… pizza or jajangmyeon?”

#red velvet #red velvet wendy #red velvet irene #red velvet yeri #wenyerene #smut #this is embarrassing but we gotta start somewhere #smut is still new to me #haha no one likes healthy food #i feel weird #sorry you had to read that #red velvet scenarios #kpop scenarios #girl group scenarios

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afternoonpoppy · 4 years ago

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Movie Night

HEY I DID A THING AGAIN AFTER WAY TOO LONG. In tonight’s episode - What gives Fram hiccups? Apparently everything. The answer is everything.

Allister had never been a particularly big fan of horror movies. In fact, when he thought he would be living on his own at a house in the woods, he had intended to swear off of them entirely. He also hadn't expected Wolfram to be the type to be interested in them either but found himself to be wrong on that count when Wolfram had approached him earlier about watching one. Apparently, Wolfram thought it would be interesting to see some examples of monsters and mythology in this world and so he came up with the horror movie night idea.

While Allister was sitting on the couch and scrolling through a list of movie options on his phone, Wolfram leaned against his shoulder to stare down at the options as well. "What about that one?" Wolfram asked when one about vampires showed up on the list. "I haven't gotten to see much of anything about vampires in your world. Are they as threatening here as they are in mine?"

"Well, I guess it depends on..." Allister paused, something about the way Wolfram had phrased that catching up to him. "Wait, Fram, you don't mean, like... Vampires aren't real where you come from, right?" An edge of fear crept into his voice.

Wolfram spoke nonchalantly, "Of course they are, why else would I have been putting garlic in the - wait, are you saying vampires are yet another thing that doesn't exist here?"

"Where have you been putting garlic?" Allister had thought he'd smelled garlic faintly around the house but was passing it off as his imagination.

"Honestly," Wolfram continued, "this world continues to baffle me. At any rate, I vote we watch that one. It sounds interesting."

"Well, I guess that'll be fine..." Allister didn't do a very good job of masking the reluctance in his voice.

"Do these movies truly make you that nervous? We did just establish vampires are an impossibility here, after all."

"Just like the impossibility of a cute magician being teleported into my basement?"

"Hm... A fair point, I suppose," Wolfram said, smiling a bit. Clearly, he was more adjusted to being called cute these days if it worked in his favor. "What if that cute magician promises to protect you? And provide you with a soft spirit to hold onto as well?"

Allister sighed, unable to say no to that smile. "I'm starting to think this is less about curiosity and more because you just really like scary stories. But, fine, defend me from any vampires and you have yourself a deal."

---

The promise of a soft spirit turned into three at Allister's request. He couldn't help himself, the critters were so fun to have around, and having multiple to pet was a lot like having a group of puppies or kittens present. By the time Allister and Wolfram had gotten to the halfway point of the movie, the spirits had gotten bored and started wandering off elsewhere into the house, but Allister had shifted over against Wolfram's side by then, taking more comfort in his boyfriend's presence.

Allister was pleasantly surprised to find that the movie wasn't actually all that scary, much to his relief. At least, it wasn't scary for him. Something about it just wasn't authentic enough to creep him out like these movies often did. Allister was, however, noticing Wolfram's arms wrapped around his with a tightening grip during the more suspenseful scenes and, when a vampire jumped out at the movie's protagonist with fangs bared, Wolfram leaped with fright and stifled a surprised shout that instead turned into a sharp inhale. Allister held back an amused chuckle and said, "I didn't expect you would be the one so on edge."

Wolfram cleared his throat and shifted his position as he regained his composure and tried to play off his reaction. "I - no, of course not, I simply - hic!" The sudden hiccup left Wolfram with a surprised expression, blushing slightly.

Allister couldn't stop himself from laughing a bit at that point. "Did the movie scare you into getting hiccups?"

Another 'hic' sounded before Wolfram could say anything, causing his shoulders to jump up a little. He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Honestly, of all the pote - hic - potential interruptions..."

Allister wrapped his arm around Wolfram's shoulder and pulled him closer. "Well, it's one of the cuter options."

Wolfram looked at Allister, clearly disagreeing as the word ‘cute’ apparently stopped being in his favor now. "I'd prefer to - hic - watch the rest of the movie in peace if I - hic - had the choice..."

Allister pulled up the streaming app on his phone and paused the movie. "Wanna take a minute to get them to stop, then?"

"That would be ide - hic - ideal, yes..."

There was a slight problem with that, unfortunately. Allister had learned over time that Wolfram's hiccups were actually rather stubborn and didn't tend to go away with the usual cures like holding his breath or drinking water. In fact, the cures that did work were never very consistent. Allister looked back to his phone and quickly switched over to his notes app where he'd been collecting a list of cures for these occasions when Wolfram's hiccups came up at an inconvenient time.

...

Did he really have an entire list on his phone at the ready? The thought struck Allister so suddenly that he couldn't help but laugh.

Wolfram clearly didn't understand what had amused him so much. "Wha - hic - what is it?"

"I just... You get hiccups a lot, don't you, Fram?" Allister said, grinning.

The comment apparently caught Wolfram off guard, leaving him flustered and turning his face bright red. "I - I do no - hic!" Wolfram grimaced a bit as it became obvious he wouldn't pull off that lie. "Well... Well, it's only si - hic - since I've been living with you, I hardly ever had this issue ba - hic - back home."

"Are you sure about that?" It was a bit difficult to believe considering all of the things that Allister had seen give Wolfram a case of hiccups. Eating too fast, eating too much - both of which he was especially prone to with Allister's cooking - the slightest bit of alcohol during the holidays, that one time Wolfram had tried soda, tonight's incident...

"Yes, Allis - hic - Allister, I am. And quite frankly, you should consi - hic - sider yourself fortunate that I'm fine with you seeing me like th - hic - is..."

"So what you're saying is, you were just being cautious enough not to give yourself hiccups in front of other people before you met me."

"I... Well... Yes, I sup - hic - suppose. What is your point?"

Allister shrugged. "Nothing much. Honestly, I just thought it was sort of cute that you get them so much, but I'm honored to hear that I'm special enough for you to not mind."

"I'll never understand how you - hic - can call this cute... Wait." Wolfram looked down at Allister's phone. "You're distra - hic - acting us, find a cure for me so we can continue watching the movie."

"Hmm, I don't know," Allister said with a playful smirk. "If you're going to be so pushy about it, maybe I'd rather not -"

"Allister, I will fi - hic - find something spicy to sneak into your food."

"I thought I was banned from spice."

"Retaliation is a perfe - hic - a perfectly valid exception to the ru - hic - Allister, make these stop!"

Allister wasn't sure when that became completely his responsibility, but alright. "Okay, okay, let's go check the kitchen, I think there's a few things we can try."

#wolfram and allister #hiccup kink #hiccups #Poppy Writes

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ericsonclan · 4 years ago

Text

Free the Fish!

Summary: Mitch and Brody go on their second date to the aquarium when Mitch decides to do something big to make Brody smile.

Read on A03:

“I’m so glad we were able to make it work to meet up today,” Brody’s bright voice had Mitch’s stomach doing somersaults within him. He felt utterly captivated by the feeling of her tiny hand in his. He was trying his best to take in everything she was saying as they made their way through the aquarium, but his heart was thumping so hard in his ears at the realization that they were actually on their second date that he sometimes forgot what he’d just heard.

Brody gasped excitedly, pulling Mitch along as she ran toward a cylindrical tank full of seahorses. “Look at all of them! Oh, they’re too precious!” Her eyes practically sparkled as she watched them drift around.

“Were there lots of seahorses where you grew up? In your…” Mitch paused as he realized he had no idea what a group of selkies would be called.

“In my rookery?” Brody shook her head. “The waters were too cold for them in the waters we frequented. I always thought they sounded so pretty though. Sometimes I’d wish we could live near a coral reef so I could witness all the different tropical creatures up close and in person. Then again…” She tugged her seal pelt closer around her shoulders, “I don’t know if that could compare to the peacefulness of the open expanses we swam in. A reef might end up being too busy for me with all the different creatures running around and bumping into each other,”

“Do you still miss it?” Mitch realized it was a stupid question as soon as he asked it, but he couldn’t take it back.

Brody seemed to consider it seriously though. “I mean, part of me will always miss it. It’s where I grew up. But my mom was right that I should learn to live in both worlds: on land as well as in the sea. And now that I’ve made friends here, it’s really become a second home,” The smile on her face at those words made Mitch’s heart melt. He could feel his tail curling against his leg. He hoped it wouldn’t weird her out if it accidentally brushed against her.

“Wanna go see the otters next? We did have those where I grew up. They’re super sweet, though they’re sort of food hogs,”

“Wherever you want to go,”

Brody paused, looking momentarily concerned. “You are having a good time, right? I know the aquarium isn’t exactly the most exciting place to go,”

“Are you kidding? I love it here! Fish, sharks, I love all that shit. And I mean shit in like a positive sense,” Mitch quickly amended, growing flustered.

“I’m glad,” Brody’s hand in his was warm as they continued along the walkway, flanked by enormous aquarium walls on each side.

As they passed a small crowd standing in front of the octopus exhibit, Mitch noticed a mother reflexively pull her child closer to her. It sort of hurt, but at the same time he couldn’t blame her.

Growing up as a minotaur, he’d gotten used to being perceived as a threat. The looks that annoyed him more were the ones he’d seen peers his own age giving him and Brody throughout the day. Brody could almost pass as human if not for the seal pelt round her shoulders, but Mitch could never hope to blend in. His horns and tail were a dead giveaway. Everyone knew that human-monster relationships did exist, but they were extremely rare. Still, what he and Brody were to each other was their own damn business.

I wonder if Brody knows what we are, Mitch mused as he followed her. I mean, we both agreed that the thing at the coffee shop was a date, but what does that make us now? Two dates in is too early to put a label on things, right? In truth, he wouldn’t mind calling Brody his girlfriend, even if it was fast. He’d had a thing for her ever since he’d caught sight of her big blue eyes that day she helped him free his horns from the hallway wall. But he wanted to be considerate of Brody’s feelings too. Calling her his girlfriend too early might scare her off and that would fucking suck.

They’d reached the aquarium with the otters. Brody sat down on one of the provided benches excitedly, scooting over further so Mitch could sit with her. She looked happy as the show started, watching the otters perform all their tricks, diving into the water or high fiving their trainers for treats. As the show continued though, a more serious, pensive look came across her face.

“Is the show boring you?” Mitch asked. “We can leave if you want,” He was enjoying it, but if Brody was uncomfortable, he was more than happy to head out.

“No, it’s not that. It’s just… I guess I feel a sort of connection with these particular otters,”

“How’s that?”

“They ended up here at the aquarium for a variety of reasons, but none of them actually volunteered to live here. They were all placed here by humans who figured they knew what was best for them. Who knows if these otters have spouses or children they were forced to leave out there alone? Sometimes it feels like that’s how I ended up at Ericson High too. I didn’t want to leave the sea, but my dad wanted to start raising me more like a human and my mom agreed it would be a good learning experience. Not that I’m mad I’m here now, but still it would’ve been nice to have a say in the matter,”

Mitch wasn’t sure what to say to that. He’d never exactly been the most eloquent with words and he didn’t want to say something that would end up hurting Brody rather than helping. Instead, he settled for patting her shoulder a few times before his hand came to rest there. He felt too self-conscious to draw it back and Brody seemed to be fine with it, so he let his hand rest there till the show came to an end.

Once it was over, Brody rose to her feet, looking around them. “I think there’s an outdoor section to the aquarium as well. Would you like to visit it?”

“Sounds cool,” Mitch walked alongside Brody, wondering if he should reach for her hand again. It had taken all of his guts to do it the first time. He didn’t know if doing it again would be too much. He was surprised when he felt something warm brush against his hand and realized Brody was reaching for it. He grasped hers eagerly, hoping he hadn’t surprised her too much with his eagerness. When he looked down at her she seemed happy though, almost peaceful. He was glad.

The first exhibit they came across was actually one with birds: a lorikeet forest. They walked through it hand in hand, joking and pointing out preening and flying birds to compare to their harpy friends Minnie and Sophie. There was a station in there which sold some sort of sugar water that the lorikeets liked to drink. It didn’t cost much so Mitch bought two cups. He ended up giving them both to Brody so he could get pictures of all the birds as they flocked to drink from the cups she held. A few birds landed on Mitch’s horns too, prompting Brody to set aside her cups temporarily so she could capture the moment on her phone. Mitch felt a little embarrassed by the whole thing, but it was worth it to see Brody’s smile.

Eventually they found themselves at the open tank exhibits. There were several pools of water raised only a few feet high so that children could look over into the water and observe horseshoe crabs and manta rays swim round. More adventurous youngsters could even run their fingers tentatively across the surface of the creatures’ backs. Brody and Mitch walked amongst the pools, looking into each one.

“These poor guys must be tired,” Brody noted with a sympathetic smile. “I know it would drive me crazy is every five minutes I had hands coming out of nowhere, poking at me while I’m minding my own business,”

Mitch nodded thoughtfully. It was a similar sentiment to the one Brody had shared back at the otter exhibit. Here were more creatures minding their own business when nosy humans had to come along, drag them away from their homes and use them for their own personal amusement. It wasn’t fair. In fact, it fucking sucked. Maybe it was time somebody did something about it.

Looking around, Mitch noticed they were near the sea lion exhibit. Ideally, he’d break them all out since he figured seeing them captive felt like seeing relatives behind bars to Brody. But he knew that would get shut down pretty fast. Security around them was intense. He did notice a few buckets though that had been left out by trainers after the last show. Normally they held snacks for the sea lions, but right now they were empty. Mitch could feel the gears turning in his head as they made their way over to them.

“Well, I think we’ve seen almost everything. Ready to call it a day?” Brody turned to him with an easy smile.

“In just a sec. First, there’s something I have to do,”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“This,” Without another word, Mitch grabbed one of the chum buckets, racing back to the open aquarium pools. He thrust the bucket into the water, scooping up as many horseshoe crabs as he could in one go. “Free the fish!” he yelled, laughing maniacally as he ran toward the exit. He would find these horseshoe crabs a new, better home as soon as he figured out where the fuck their natural habitat was. This was for Brody. He hoped she was watching.

----

“Well, that certainly was something,” Brody said softly as the two of them walked out the aquarium’s front doors.

“I didn’t even get 100 yards before they fucking tackled me,” Mitch groaned, rolling his neck and hearing a series of pops. “At least they caught the bucket before it fell on the pavement,”

“It was a very sweet gesture,” Brody smiled up at him brightly. “A bit crazy, but your heart was in the right place,” Mitch smiled down at her. “I just wanted to see you happy. I knew seeing all those sea creatures in captivity sort of bummed you out. At least I didn’t get you banned for life from the aquarium though,”

“We’ll find other aquariums to go to,” Brody replied, playfully nudging his arm. “You’re picking the location for our next date,”

A goofy grin spread across Mitch’s face. “There’s going to be another date?”

“Of course! What, did you think that getting beat up by aquarium security was going to scare me off?” Brody’s expression softened. “I know I’ve talked a lot today about missing home, but the truth is if my mom came here tomorrow and told me I was leaving, I’d be sad about that too. I’d miss Willy and Ruby and Clem an awful lot… but I think I’d miss you the most of all, Mitch. I could travel through all the world’s oceans and I don’t think I’d ever find anyone quite like you,”

Mitch felt his face heating up at her words. “I think you’re totally awesome, Brody. Like, the best,”

Brody seemed somewhat flustered by his words. “Thanks, Mitch. I-I think you’re the best too,”

As they made their way to the truck to drive back home, Mitch felt a happiness deep inside him that he’d never experienced before.

Brody was special. If he could, he wanted to keep her by his side for a long, long time.

#twdg #fanfic #twdg moody #twdg brody #twdg mitch #fluff #we are monsters we are proud au

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pandawritespoorly · 5 years ago

Text

With Time: Chapter 34 - Heartbreaker

Author’s Note: This chapter is mostly hero interactions. There isn't too much Lila, you're welcome. As I'm sure you guessed from the title, we've got an akuma, so the reference slides are here.

Chapter Summary: All five heros go on patrol.

First | Previous | Next

“Well, this is the first patrol with all of Paris’ new heroes,” Ladybug declares after a quick introduction.

Kit Mime whoops excitedly, and Honey Bee and Tortue Verte high-five.

“Chat and I are very excited, we’ve never had patrol with five heroes before, and we’ve obviously never been on a patrol with all of you specifically.”

“The point of a patrol,” Chat adds seriously, “is to fit in as many puns as you can. If we are successful, we may get Ladybug to smile - or even laugh - at one. This is the highest honor.”

Tortue nods. Honey Bee and Ladybug groan.

“Challenge accepted!” Kit cheers.

“This is going to be the end of me,” Honey sighs, and Ladybug pats her comfortingly.

“I lost my job at the bank on the first day. A lady asked me to check her balance so I pushed her,” Chat starts.

Kit grins. “Well they just didn’t appreciate the gravity of the situation.” “Wow! Would you look at the time! We should really start pa-” Ladybug is interrupted as Kit and Chat speak in unison.

“Pawtrol!”

Ladybug sighs, swinging to the next roof. The rest follow her.

“Two windmills were standing on a wind farm. One of them asked the other what kind of music they liked and it said ‘I’m a big metal fan’.”

That one earns a laugh from both Tortue and Chat, as well as a speed increase from the girls.

“Hey, Honey, what do you call a bee that can’t make up her mind?” Chat calls.

“You just call her a bee. No. Puns.”

“A maybe!”

“When the past present and future go camping they argue. It’s intense tense in tents.”

Chat nods solemnly, “It’s too time-consuming, so the past and future go in opposite directions, and the present just stays there.”

Tortue claps. “Good job on th’ tag teamin’ with that one!”

“Let me tell you about my grandfather, he was a good man, a brave man. He had the heart of a lion and a lifetime ban from the zoo.’

Chat laughs, “That one was good.”

Unnoticed by any of them, Ladybug smiles softly at Chat’s laughter. It had been too long since she’d last heard that.

Eventually, the puns die down in favor of a proper conversation. It’s hard to do the usual get-to-know-you questions when they aren’t supposed to know too much about their civilian sides.

After they struggle for a little bit, Ladybug looks up some on her yo-yo, “Alright, if you could hire someone to help you, would it be with cleaning, cooking, or something else?”

“Cooking,” Chat says immediately, “Not only am I terrible at it, but it’d be a good excuse for my friend to come over more.”

“Ooh, that’s a fair point. Very claw-ver. Just ‘hire’ them to make something crazy easy and then you hang out for the rest of their ‘shift’.”

“I’m not sure if I’d need a ton of help with either of those.” Honey shrugs, Ladybug nods in agreement.”

“Probably cleaning, but it wouldn’t be too important,” Tortue decides.

Kit nods, “Same here, though my friends would probably argue that it’s very necessary.” Ladybug nods, “As a kid, did you eat the crusts on your sandwich or not? I did.”

“Oddly enough, I didn’t,” Honey says, “I think I was rebelling or something. One of my friends didn’t either, maybe it was a solidarity thing?” “I did,” Tortue and Chat chime in.

“Nope!” Kit adds, “I was stubborn about it.”

“If you only had one of the five senses, which would you want? Touch, taste, sight, smell, or hearing?”

“Ooh, uh…” Tortue pauses, considering.

After some deliberation, Ladybug speaks up hesitantly, “I’d have to go with sight. It’d be pretty necessary for one of my hobbies.”

“Same here, but with hearing,” Honey agrees.

“Ever since getting my miraculous, I’ve had better sight and hearing, so they’re both important to me, but I’m with you - hearing,” Chat says. Then he winks, “I guess I was blinded by your beauty, my Lady.”

She sighs, ignoring her blush, “I was probably deafened by your terrible puns.”

Tortue is still thinking, “It’s odd that of the five senses, we all kinda’ disregarded three o’ them. It’s between sight an’ hearin’ and we all kind’ agree that the others aren’t necessary - least in comparison.”

“That is kind of weird - that we all value sight and vision over the other three.”

“Ooh!” Kit jumps, suddenly thinking of something, “Would you rather have sight and hearing, but no touch, smell or taste, or have touch, smell and taste, but no sight and hearing?”

“I’d have to go with sight and hearing…” Honey decides. The others nod in agreement.

Chat turns to Tortue and Kit, “Okay, but if you could only have one of the five sense, which would it be? You guys haven’t answered yet.”

“Hearing,” Tortue says.

Kit’s tail flicks indecisively. Similarly to Chat’s belt, the length of fabric seems to be both part of the costume and an addition to his body. He could probably move it purposefully if he thought about it.

“Ughhhhh, I don’t know… I guess… sight?”

The others nod in acceptance.

Ladybug smirks at her screen as she looks for the next one, “I think they phrased this one wrong, because it’s sort of… well here, I’ll just read it. If you could snap your fingers and instantly make the world better, what would you do?”

There’s a brief pause, then in unison, the other four say, “...snap my fingers?”

She snorts, “Exactly! Alright, here’s a better one. If you could relive one moment of your life, which would it be and why?”

“Can we relive it to change it, or relive it to just be there again?” Chat asks.

“How about one of each?” Honey Bee suggests, “Something to change and something to relive.”

Ladybug nods. “Just remember to be vague.”

Chat smiles softly, “I’d relive the last time I saw my mom.”

The new members look at him in surprise, processing his statement and everything it implies. Ladybug just smiles at him, “Good choice, Kitty.”

Kit, Tortue, and Honey nod.

“Probably when I first saw my little sister,” Tortue says, “To relive, that is.”

Ladybug looks towards Chat, but not quite at him, “This may seem odd, but the Heroes’ Day when all those people got akumatized? Outside of the attack, especially afterwards… it was a nice day.”

Chat is the only one to catch the slightly wistful look on her face, and squeezes her hand softly. Ladybug leans against his shoulder.

“When my little brothers were born. They aren’t twins, but I just can’t choose, so both,” Honey decides.

That leaves Kit the only one left to decide a moment to relive, and all of them a moment to change.

“Hmm, if Honey can choose multiple moments that are similar can I? ‘Cause then I’ll choose the times I met each of my friends.”

“I’ll accept that,” Tortue says. No one protests, as it’s really not like there’s any reason to be entirely strict about it.

“I know what I’d change. When I first went into class at the beginning of the year one year, I yelled at some boy that looked like he was trying to put gum on my seat. Turns out I had jumped to conclusions - he’d been trying to remove it.”

Honey shakes her head in sympathy, but Chat smirks, “My Lady, are you telling me you want to change the first time we met? I’m hurt!”

“Wait! You yelled at Chat Noir the first time you met as civilians?!” Kit yelps.

Ladybug groans, “Yeah. That was before even Stoneheart though, so technically he wasn’t Chat yet.”

Tortue whistles, “That was a while back then.”

“Mhm.”

“I missed one day the first day back this year, and uh, something eventful happened to say the least. I’d want to be there,” Chat decides. Ladybug frowns.

That wasn’t his fault.

“I met someone new last year. At first they seemed somewhat annoying, and then they revealed that they were an actual monster, so uh, I’d like to slap them across the face the first time I saw them or something,” Honey Bee says flatly.

“That’s not very nice,” Tortue reprimands half-heartedly.

“Well, neither are they.”

“Fair enough.”

“Okay, I’ll go next!” Kit chimes in, “Hmm, I think that if I could redo any part of my life, I would- oh I know. I’d have myself watch where I’m stepping more. For my dignity and secrecy’s sake I won’t go into detail, but I tripped over something and it was… bad. I was fine, but the things around me?” They shake their head.

“I’d’ve started therapy earlier,” Tortue shrugs, “I spent too long overthinkin’ it.”

Ladybug pulls a few more questions, and eventually they call it a night.

“One last thing, I felt it would be nice to let you know that I may be calling on you a little more frequently for some time. Something has come up in Chat’s civilian life, and it’s unlikely he’ll be able to join me for most battles.”

The others nod, then, as planned, one after the other they take off, taking a slightly extended route to their homes so as to not get an idea of where the others live. Chat and Ladybug come by, take their miraculous, help them from their roof to a window, and go.

Chat retrieves the Fox and the Turtle, while Ladybug grabs the Bee. She’s got a promise to keep.

“Chloe? Are you still up?” The heroine knocks on the window.

The blonde steps out onto the balcony, “Ladybug?”

Ladybug smiles, “A while ago I made a promise,” she pulls out the box, “Chloe Bourgeois, this is the miraculous of the Bee. While it is currently not in urgent need, I am trusting you to use it simply to talk to Pollen, the Bee Kwami.”

Chloe is nodding tearfully, and only reaches to grab the miraculous when Ladybug holds it out to her. As the yellow glow indicates Pollen’s arrival, Ladybug walks a few meters away to give them space.

After a few minutes, Chat lands beside her. He takes in the sight before him.

Chloe has stopped crying, and is chatting animatedly with Pollen, who seems just as happy to see her.

“So, Bug, you’re letting her say goodbye?”

She nods, “She deserves this at least.”

When she yawns, he gives her a look.

“I’m fine, Kitty. You know I won’t have much stamina until spring, that’s all.”

He crosses his arms. “Mhm. Well, I’ll be taking Pollen back to Fu either way. You’re going home to rest.” He pauses, ears flattening, “You deserve a chance to rest before I leave you to fend for yourself. Please don’t overwork yourself.”

She puts a gentle hand to his arm, “It’s not your fault. Remember that.”

“I could get away-”

“But we both know that would only make things worse. No, as awful as this is, it’s for the best.”

“I still feel bad,” he mutters.

“That’s because you’re just good like that. I can’t tell you what to feel, and I won’t try to, but can I at least have you promise to remember that I’m not mad at you about this? It’s for the best that you don’t give those two any more chances to do anything.”

He smiles, “When did you become the one comforting me?”

“When a cat rewrote some dumb rules I had in a book.”

Chat breaks into a wide smile at her words. This is the first time he’s heard her mention the rules without putting any credence in them. He laughs in excitement, sweeping her up into a big hug, “Bugaboo, I’m so proud of you!”

She laughs, returning the hug as he sets her down.

After a few more minutes, Chloe approaches.

“Ladybug, Chat Noir, here’s the miraculous back.”

She hands them the comb, back in the still-open box. Pollen hugs her cheek, and the two say their final goodbyes. Ladybug waits until they wave at each other before shutting the box.

Chloe takes a shaky breath, “Thank you.”

“It’s no problem, Chloe. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Chloe.”

She nods at them both, “Goodnight both of you.”

With that she turns around and heads back inside.

As Chat turns in the direction of Fu’s place, Ladybug grabs his arm gently, “Chaton, come back to my place tonight. You shouldn’t have to be alone in that place any longer than you need to be.”

Chat smirks, wiggling his eyebrows, “Goodness, Ladybug! At least buy me dinner first.”

She turns as read as her suit, “Th-that’s not what I m-meant and you know it!”

“It’s still fun messing with you.”

She huffs, scowling.

“I will though. Thank you,” he whispers more seriously.

---

“I am Heartbreaker! No one else will have to be in a relationship with anyone other than their soulmate!”

Adrien is honestly somewhat happy to see this akuma. Maybe if he and Lila get hit, the date can end early.

He and the girl are standing just outside of the cafe that they just exited. The akuma before them is dressed in various shades of red and pink, with black thrown in for good measure. You know, because otherwise you might think this is a love akuma, but with the black, well obviously it’s completely different.

Applause for Hawkmoth, everyone. Color genius over here.

The woman’s skin has turned pink, and her hair is a similarly dark shade of pink, pulled back into two braids along the side of her head before simply becoming pigtails. The bodice is a purpley-red color that turns to black as it falls down, covering the skirt. The bodice turns into a broken heart shape on both sides, the jagged split down the middle giving the dress four long tails that drag behind her. The skirt itself, poofy and wide, is brighter pink, each layer of it being darker until it becomes a dangerous shade of red and ending at her knees. Her black tights cover her legs, and she’s wearing black heels.

In her hand is a wand. It has a heart as the topper with a crown shape around it, only there’s a split down the middle.

With such an obvious theme, did she really need to announce her name?

Before he can decide anything, and before Lila can pull them into some confined space to ‘wait out the attack’, a red figure lands beside them.

Ladybug looks at them, as if surprised, “Oh, you two were just on a date, weren’t you? Well, it’s not safe for you two to be together, given the nature of this akuma. Mr. Agreste is certainly more recognizable than you, Ms… Rocky? It’d be safer if I take him to a secure location. You can wait out the attack inside.”

Then, before either can even process all of that, Adrien is swept up and away to the rooftops.

“Hey, thought I’d do some extra heroing on the side. How are you holding up?”

“I- uh, what? Better now I guess,” he’s still processing. Whenever he’s on a date he kind of just… leaves his own mind for the most part. Switching out of that state suddenly is a bit startling.

She frowns, clearly still unhappy about the Lila arrangement.

“Bug, as much as I appreciate the rescue, shouldn’t you have left me with her? She’ll get me in trouble when my phone tracker isn’t working,” he points out.

To his surprise, Ladybug smirks, “That’s true, she will try to track your phone. It’s such a shame then that she’s got your phone. Tsk, tsk. What is she to do?”

Adrien pats himself down, quickly realizing that he does, in fact, seem to be missing his phone.

Plagg flies out, cackling, “That was slick, Baby Bug!”

“Anything for my partner. Anyways, I’m going to head to the akuma, and you can join me in a few so it doesn’t seem suspicious.”

---

The attack finally ends when the akuma finally hits them with a beam from her wand. When other couples had been hit, they’d seen the faults of their partner so clearly that many were overwhelmed and broke up on the spot.

Plenty seemed fine, but had still needed a moment to adjust to viewing their significant other in a new light. It wasn’t necessarily bad, just different, and change will always need adjustment time.

When Ladybug and Chat get hit, turn to each other, and see… each other. Sure, there are faults they noted, but nothing that they didn’t already have an idea of. They’ve been together for a long time, and spent almost an entire summer as each other’s sole company. They’ve helped each other at their lowest, and already know the other through and through.

The akuma is shocked, and seems to be growing angry. Before she can do anything however, Ladybug shoots out her yo-yo, stealing the wand and snapping it over her knee.

Purifying the akuma, she waves at the white insect, “Bye bye, little butterfly. Miraculous Ladybug!”

Chat comes up to her side, “Pound it!”

“I can help her, you’d better go somewhere and pretend you were waiting out the attack. Don’t forget - Lila took your phone. She didn’t want you to be distracted.” Ladybug winks, then heads over to the victim.

He nods, hesitating momentarily to take one last look at his Lady before hurrying off to a much less pleasant activity.

---

Author’s Note: Lila is no match for our resident phone thief over here.

Someone didn't promise not to overwork herself~

In case you guys were wondering what Kit Mime was trying to reference for what he'd change, it wasn't something from the story. I decided that in one of his early performances, Child Claude tripped over something and everything went wrong. Disastrous.

Akuma reference slides here!

I'm looking forward to the next chapter.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any thoughts, theories, constructive criticism, or anything really in my ask box, in replies or through reblogs. I love seeing what you think!

EDIT: Someone drew Heartbreaker!!! You can see her here! She’s gorgeous, and I love her so much!!

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#miraculous ladybug #with time #fanfic #new heroes #ladybug #adrien agreste #chat noir #kit mime #honey bee #tortue verte #patrol #lila rossi #akuma attack #ha this is lila's second to last chapter #get out of my face you witch

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miso-vicious · 5 years ago

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RWBY Volume 7 Chapter 1 (Spoilers)

Welcome back, everyone. It’s been too long, and yet at the same time, it feels like only yesterday season 6 had ended. Now that season 7 has premiered, it has opened up a whole new world of excitement and problems for our favorite heroes. So let’s try and break down what has happened and what possibly lies in our future.

It should go without saying, but there are SPOILERS AHEAD.

Welcome To Atlas

After a whole season worth of traveling, our heroes have finally reached Atlas. While we did spend season 4 here, we only ever saw the Schnee manor. This is the first time we’ve seen Atlas in all of its glory. Only, it seems as though Atlas military has taken over the skies and grounds. Most likely due to James Ironwood’s increasing paranoia of Salem. Beacon has fallen, Haven almost fell, it stands to reason that Atlas is next on Salem’s list. Especially since Qrow forewarned him of their impending arrival. And bad luck follows this group like a dark shadow.

And it’s abundantly clear that if you aren’t lucky enough to be born into wealth, you are immediately put at the bottom of the food chain. More specifically, you live on the ground, at risk of crime and Grimm attacks. While the wealthy get to live on the tethered city in the clouds, free from land Grimm, but riddled with corruption.

This is a basic rough draft of the possible hierarchy of power in Atlas, but our information is limited. So don’t take this as fact. As you can see, Military is at the top of this pyramid. Below is Arms Makers and Scientists. This is an all encompassing of what makes Atlas one of the most powerful Kingdoms in the world due its technological and military innovations. Leaving the noble families, first and foremost the Schnee family, at bottom of this pyramid. Because while they bring in at least half of this Kingdom’s income with their Dust Company, the Ironwood had no problem cutting of trade going in and out of the Kingdom, thus cutting off the Kingdom’s and the Schnee Family’s income. But if I can say anything about that bastard Jacques Schnee, is that he isn’t going to let a military ban stop him from making his millions.

Next comes the white collar works, the blue collar workers, and finally, the bottom of the pyramid. It consists of the Dust Miners, Criminals, the Homeless, and the Faunus. Caroline Cordovin’s cold reception of Blake Belladonna in Argus is indication that Atlas is the worst place for a Faunus to be. But since most of the world is prejudice against Faunus, Atlas is a place for desperate Faunus to get work in the Dust Mines belonging to the Schnee Dust Company. Which we all know is dangerous, even life threatening, work, but no one seems to care as long as they keep getting their Dust for their war.

There Is No War In Atlas

In the opening sequence, we see a group of angry civilians yelling at one of Ironwoods propaganda messages. And when one of them throws a rock at the hologram, it glitches and reveals Jacques Schnee. This could imply that Ironwood’s paranoia has been spurred on by Jacques. If Salem were to kick down their door tomorrow, who would be the first to go? Everyone who is on the ground. Most of the military seems to be focused on protecting the main capital, where the Relic is most likely hidden. But there’s no protection for those less fortunate, and I’m sure Jacques wants it to stay that way. I guess it will be Qrow’s job to convince Ironwood that his hologram messages can’t protect these people from Salem’s flying monkeys. And now with two Relics and possibly the Winter Maiden all in the same Kingdom, Atlas is now the most dangerous place to be. With Cinder being unable to fully tap into her Fall Maiden powers (as well as her disappearance), and with Vacuo being a wasteland of sand and death, Ironwood knows that Salem’s next move will be towards Atlas.

And let’s not forget that Winter Schnee has also been drinking the kool-aid. So now the team feels less secure in calling Ironwood and Winter for aid.

And part of his paranoia, Ironwood has drones roaming the streets. They seemed to be keen on Yang’s prosthetic arm, and even took her picture. They’re most likely there to record and document any suspicious activity, people of interest, or dangerous weapons. This is a clear violation of civil liberties and right to privacy, all in the name of “protecting” the people. How would you feel if a drone took your picture because you looked “suspicious”?

And our team has a quick run in with what seems to be drunk upper crust Atlas employees, who are upset because everyone views them as the enemy. And they try to pick a fight with Blake due to her being a Faunus.

Follow The Green Light

Maria Calavera points their destination towards her Doctor’s office, the one she originally intended to visit to fix her eyes. Dr. Pietro is apparently an Atlisian scientist who spends his spare time on the ground in his personal pharmacy, volunteering his time to help those in need. He even works along side Ironwood.

He points out the core of Ironwood’s paranoia: someone hacked into their security system, reprogrammed their military drone forces, took down their flag ships, and many people died due to this. Atlas has some of the best technological achievements, has the greatest developments in robotic based soldiers. And all of it meant nothing. Whomever hacked into their system was either a technological genius, or it was an inside job. Little do they know, it was one in the same.

It has already been established that Arthur Watts is a disgraced Atlisian scientist, as well as a doctor, and we’ve only seen glimpses into his technological feats. While the infiltration into Beacon was lead by Cinder, it’s become clear that Watts was most likely the brains behind the virus that brought down the Atlas military and the CCT tower. He also designed a new stinger for Tyrian Callow after his original one was cut off by Ruby Rose. He even created armor plating for the rest of his tail. It’s not clear what Watts’ angle is, aside from taking down the government that turned their back on him. It could be possible that Dr. Pietro might have had some run ins with Watts in the past. Some have theorized that Watts is Dr. Pietro’s son. But that might be stretching it. While season 5 focused on Cinder, Hazel, and Raven as the main villains, it seems that Watts and Tyrian will be taking the helm this time.

What’s more surprising is that he recognizes Yang’s prosthetic arm, and notes how she painted it yellow. And once Ruby stepped forward, he recognized the girls as Team RWBY.

Cut to a fight between our team and a bunch of tundra themed Grimm. Even after the grueling battle they experienced earlier that same day, they come out on top.

My Fancy Way Of Saying Hello

And we even get a beautiful reunion with our favorite Cybernetic Ginger and Ruby Rose.

We then learn that Dr. Pietro is Penny Polendina’s creator/father. He was able to retrieve her core from the wreckage of Amity Arena, and he rebuilt her. And she’s got a few new updates, including but not limited to a new hair cut, rocket legs, and laser beams. Perhaps he removed her metal cords/swords since it lead to her untimely death. It’s unclear if she is still the same Penny we remember, nor is it clear if she remembers exactly how she died. But this is the first time we’ve had one of our dead characters come back to life, so let’s try and enjoy it.

Here We Are Safe, Here We Are Free

And of course, the reunion is short lived. Penny makes a quick exit at the sound of alarms, leaving our team behind. They are arrested by A.C.E. OPs; most likely Ironwood’s personal secret police. Apparently their efforts to protect the city were illegal, since most of them aren’t actually licensed Huntsmen.

They confiscate our teams weapons, take the Relic from Ruby, and are being driven to places unknown.

Mirror Mirror, Who Can I Trust?

Now that concludes what happened in the episode, lets go into what may happen in the future. Namely, the future for the Schnee Family. Now that Weiss Schnee is back in her home Kingdom, she is bound to have a run in with her father and brother. The last she saw of them both was when her father revoked her place as heir to the Schnee Dust Company, right after hitting her. And Whitely Schnee, who played the part of her loving brother, revealed that this was the outcome he wanted all along. With Winter rejecting her place as the heir, and Weiss being removed, Whitely is now the sole heir of Schnee Dust Company. Weiss believes his betrayal is because he’s jealous of her and Winter, because he does not have the trademark Schnee semblance. Even though he claims it to be barbaric, it has to take a toll on him that Winter and Weiss are everything a Schnee should be (smart, powerful, elegant), and he is just... there. It takes more than just a head of snow white hair to make a Schnee, no matter how often Jacques must dye his own.

Even if Winter is pro military, she’s the only Schnee Weiss can trust right now. And it will be interesting to see how Jacques and Whitely have taken to Weiss disowning herself and becoming confident enough to stand up to both of them. Perhaps Whitely will finally see that fame, money, and their company mean nothing to Weiss, she would rather spend her time trying to save the world than kiss their father’s boots. Whitely coudln’t survive one day in the real world. And if he gets a real look at what Weiss has been fighting, maybe it will be all three of the Schnee children against Jacques. Some people believe that that Winter is the current Winter Maiden, hence her name. Which would explain why Ironwood keeps her at his side, since only a Maiden can access the Relics, and her powerful abilities. But I feel like it would be too obvious if it were her.

Atlas Operatives: ACE

It’s unclear if these ACE OPs will be a thorn in our team’s side throughout this season, or if they will be the support system they need. While RWBY, JNR, and Oscar try their best and have come a long way since the beginning, Qrow is the only trained Huntsmen on the team. It will be SO helpful if they had some actual Huntsmen on the team. But knowing our luck, at least one of them will either die or betray us.

Spa Day and Upgrades

RWBY and JNR are getting more than just haircuts and a new wardrobe. They’re also getting weapon upgrades. We probably won’t see them for a couple of episodes, but we got our first glimpse at Jaune’s upgrade in the opening sequence.

He’s like Steven Universe. Jaune’s first instinct isn’t to attack, it’s to deflect, assess his opponent, and protect the one’s he loves. So of course he shield got a big upgrade. Now he has what looks like the shield wall that protects Argus coming out of his own shield. Since all Jaune had to do in this fight sequence was deflect the Cyber Tooth Tiger Grimm with his new shield it for it to disintegrate, it's more than just a shield now. It will certainly give him a new edge when he combines his sword and shield in battle.

Protect Mantle

Who is she? We don’t know. We see her face plastered on posters all over the city that say “Protect Mantle”.

For those who don’t know, Mantle was once the capital of Solitas. The first large settlement made in this northern continent, due to the harsh conditions and the Grimm, it was a hard place to live. Until Atlas came to be, merging their military, governemnt, and school together, they took Mantle’s greatest minds and made one of them most powerful Kingdoms. And everyone in Mantle was left behind. “Mantle was old news- and the Kingdom of Atlas was born. A golden age of prosperity, they called it- but those left behind in Mantle would probably tell you it was the coldest winter they ever knew.” No one in Atlas cares about Mantle. Whoever this woman is, she seems to be the poster child for an uprising in Mantle.

We do see her fighting Tyrian along side Qrow, wielding a crossbow like weapon.

Due to a possible scarcity of Dust down in Mantle, she has to rely on actual bolts instead of Dust to load her weapon. And based on her fighting skills, she may have been a high Atlesian solider, maybe part of Ironwood’s inner circle, but when Ironwood turned his back on those in Mantle, she left to protect them.

On The First Day, The God of Light Created...

Finally, we have what they’re all here for. Through the power of photoshop, I’ve created an image of the Winter Maiden’s Relic: The Relic of Creation.

Of course, they would put Monty Oum’s credit in front of this Relic, since he is the creator of RWBY. And it makes sense that this would be the Relic that would be in Atlas. Atlas is known for it’s amazing innovations/creations. Perhaps, this Relic had certain influences over the Kingdom, giving them the power create things beyond imagination. Since the Relic of Knowledge isn’t a weapon at all, but a host to a being of infinite knowledge, we can only guess what lies in this Relic. Maybe if there’s another being resting in this Relic, they can help our team stop Salem. And since all that remains is Vale and Vacuo, I’ve theorized that the Relic of Choice is in Beacon (the most liberated Kingdom, who is accepting of all its citizens), and the Relic of Destruction is in Shade (the setting of the end of the Great War, and a dangerous tundra of sand).

Look Towards The Future

Here, we have our main team this season. This is the biggest group we’ve ever had. I’m looking forward to where this season will take us. If you made it to the end of my horrible rambling, I commend you. And if you have any additional information or theories to add, please tell me. I’m always interested in all things RWBY. See ya’ll next Saturday!!!

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arlingtonpark · 5 years ago

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SNK 121 Review

TFW you’re relying on someone to pull through and they’re failing badly.

Has anyone ever seen JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure? SPOILERS

One of the villains is this guy named DIO. He’s an asshole.

DIO’s whole schtick is that he is obsessed with being dominant. In the clip, he assaults JoJo’s girlfriend to show his dominance over both her and JoJo.

In JoJo’s, people fight using spiritual manifestations of their own life essence. These manifestations are called Stands, and because they are a manifestation of the user’s essence, Stands are revealing in some way as to the nature of the user.

DIO’s stand is the World and it has the power to stop time. Being able to stop time is absolute domination, both physically and temporally. Physically because you can stop the world and fuck around with everything as you please, and temporally because you are no longer subservient to the constant flow of time. The world stops for no man, except you.

Now Eren is fittingly in the same boat, except worse because while DIO could only stop time, Eren can control the course of events. He can see the future and affect the past. His domination over the world is (theoretically) absolute.

I don’t know what Eren’s plan is, but we get a taste of it this chapter. Zeke asks him point blank what he hopes to accomplish and Eren’s response is the most disturbing thing ever.

“If people try to take my freedom away, I will take theirs away.”

My God.

This statement completely encapsulates Eren as a person. This is the rambling of a deranged lunatic. Worse, even. It’s the thinking of a stupid kid.

“Eren, why did you hit Little Timmy?”

“Because he hit me!”

You cannot hit someone just because they hit you. It doesn’t work that way. You are allowed to hit back in self-defense, but not to exact revenge. Both actions are the same, but the state of mind backing either action is the key difference. The former is the mindset of someone trying to protect themselves. The latter is the mindset of someone trying to hurt someone else.

That’s the faultiness of Eren’s thinking in principle, and it’s even worse in practice.

Eren believes that them trying to kill him gives him license to kill them. Nope, wrong.

Human life is, of course, inviolably valuable, and therefore killing in itself is always wrong. You can kill in self-defense, because the point in that case isn’t the killing itself, but the preservation of your own life. Killing for its own sake is appalling.

Ironically, this deranged narcissist perfectly illustrates why this tit-for-tat way thinking is dangerous. Restraint? Graciousness? Mercy? Can Eren comprehend these concepts?

It’s just so stunning how childish this whole thing is. Eren is opposing a king who would force his will on the future, but since Eren is doing the exact same thing, I can only assume he doesn’t think this is intrinsically wrong.

No, it’s not that Fritz’s vow is wrong, it’s that the same mechanism isn’t being used in service of Eren’s goals. Eren doesn’t think the vow is wrong in itself, he just opposes it because it’s another limit on his freedom.

There is no reason to believe Eren has any boundaries whatsoever. Or any shame for that matter.

This “me-centric” form of morality is called egoism. It’s an utterly disreputable theory that no one defends. It’s the same with the children he killed in Liberio. Killing is wrong, unless it helps me, in which case it is good. By defining what’s good and bad in these terms, Eren reveals himself as the egomaniac man child that he is.

And yet.

Eren is the one who lectures Zeke in this chapter!

This is what Eren has reduced me to, defending Zeke. Why is this happening to me?

Zeke is supposedly the pathetic one, because he has, you know, an ideology. It’s a stupid AF ideology that is completely indefensible, so it is pathetic, but not the way Eren thinks.

Zeke’s opposition to Grisha is incidental to his ideology. It’s not that Zeke is opposing Grisha out of spite, which would truly be pathetic. Zeke opposes Grisha because their respective worldviews are incompatible.

Meanwhile Eren is saying he should be allowed to do mean things to people because they did mean things to him.

The idea that people can just kill others, simply because they tried to kill you is fundamentally lawless. Not to take the fun out of superheroes, but vigilante justice isn’t actually justice. It’s totally illiberal to have one person hold the power to judge, convict, and sentence another.

But it is also totally in character for Eren to support that idea. With Eren, it’s all about power.

I’ve often compared Eren to our 45th president. Whatever the Eren stans say, that is an apt comparison. Eren’s talk of taking freedom from those who try to take his is not unlike something Trump would say.

They are both narcissistic man children with an insatiable lust for dominance. Slighting them creates an imbalance that they must make right, and the world is off kilter until that is done. It’s that one itch they must scratch.

Eren fights because, to be blunt, he wants the world to be his bitch and he will not settle for anything less than that. This is second nature to someone who says the things Eren says. If you think killing is justified just because they tried to kill you, then you obviously do not value human life.

At this point, Eren is undeniably similar to Zeke. He wants to bring his dream to fruition and anyone who gets in his way is just a pissant to be stomped on.

Is Eren redeemed by his (apparent) concern for his friends?

Nnnnope!

While friends do have certain obligations to each other, it is completely obscene to do the heinous things Eren’s done just for their sake.

You cannot define the morality of your actions by how much they help a random group of people. Why are the lives of Eren’s friends worth any more than the lives of the people he’s killed?

The answer is that, all else being equal, they aren’t.

You may care deeply for someone, but that does not justify a killing.

Who is even the hero of this story anymore?

It can’t be Zeke, because his values are anathema to the series values. He may be the audience surrogate this time around, but I doubt fucking Zeke Jeager is going to be the hero when the final chapter comes around.

Eren is theoretically the hero because his values broadly align with the story’s, but his actions are depicted in an almost devilish light. I always hoped the series would tackle the notion of fighting too hard for what you believe in, but…it’s too late for that now?

We’re in the final story arc. It’s weird to only just now be dealing with this meaty idea. Over 100 chapters of “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” and we’re just now getting to the “But not too hard.” part? There’s no way.

Alternatively, this is just one final fake-out in the game of is-he-or-isn’t-he that Isayama has been playing since the Marley Arc. Is Eren evil, or isn’t he? Or maybe they’ll play it as “Can he be redeemed or can’t he?”

Either way, I bet there’ll be some kind of change of heart from Eren soon.

This chapter echoes a point made by Yelena about the titans and their relationship to humanity: that the titan powers will be abused by people because that is just the nature of things. So let’s unpack that.

King Fritz, speaking through Frieda, says that the power of the titans must not fall into human hands lest it be abused. This mirrors ongoing debates about how to deal with certain controversial weapons, such as nuclear weapons.

The (very) liberal position is that nuclear weapons should be banned completely because the risk of abuse is too great. As per usual, the liberal position is taken by King Fritz.

The conservative position, which, once again, is the position the story sides with, is made more implicitly: that the titan powers can be a force for good, it’s just a matter of making sure only good people can access that power.

This conservative position is what underlies US policy towards North Korea and Iran. Those countries are rogue states that the US believes cannot be trusted. (Note, though, that the nuclearization of Iran is supported by Russia, a nuclear power.)

Personally, I believe nuclear weapons should be banned completely. Most countries are at least nominally supportive of the eventual, complete destruction of all nuclear weapons, and international norms have been evolving in that direction.

That is the contradiction of this issue: most people take the liberal position in the long term, but hold the conservative position in the short term.

This is just another reason to think that SNK will end with a ringing endorsement of nuclear weapons, with nary a nod to the need for eventual total disarmament.

See, ungodly amounts of power aren’t inherently bad, we just need special people to wield them for the public good.

Yeah, I get it, we need special people, but you know what? Frodo was special. The One Ring supposedly couldn’t corrupt him, but they still set out to destroy it. Because power on this scale is itself wrong.

Nuclear weapons aren’t the only possible parallel, though. Any controversial weapon will fit. In the United States there is a debate over regulating high powered weapons like the AR-15.

How do you handle such a thing? Do you ban the weapon completely, or just certain people from using it? I won’t wade into something as controversial as that here, though I will point out that the story clearly sides with the position of regulation over a total ban.

The scene in the cave also mirrors Japan’s current nuclear predicament. Japan has many outside rivals and threats, and Japan could build nuclear weapons if they wanted too. They have the technological capability, but in spite of the threat of North Korea, and the tense relations with China, the Japanese government chooses not to.

So, yeah, I’ve had the series pegged as leaning neoconservative and I still think that.

So what does the future hold?

Apparently, an event where Eren… becomes/does something. They both saw the same thing: a future where Eren is this OP chad of chads and a total boss. Grisha looks like he saw the worst thing imaginable. Eren looks like he just had an orgasm.

Since Eren is portrayed in a more sinister way this chapter, I am inclined to believe this future actually is a ghastly one.

Before this chapter, my guess was that Eren wanted to destroy the world using the wall titans, but would somehow come around to using it the way Armin mentioned: defensively.

Having it be preordained that the future holds a version of Eren that people who aren’t Eren will think is abominable throws a wrench into that.

I wouldn’t bet against Isayama somehow finding a way to make it work though. The only other alternative is that this series ends in the most ironic way possible, with the deranged lunatic having his way and “freedom” finally being established.

#shingeki no kyogin #attack on titan #snk 121 #spoilers

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cartoonfangirl1218 · 6 years ago

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Winner’s Curse Ch. 3

Note: There is an Aladdin series character people may or may not know named Sadira. Since I didn’t really explain her backstory or past in this chapter, here is a little wiki so people have an idea https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Sadira. Anyway, hope everyone enjoys.��

Lonnie had decided to opt out of their plan to spy on the meeting in order to stick with her training regime. But she made them promise to tell her about it later if they didn’t get caught. Technically, she asked Jay to promise to tell her later. Jordan was so sure they were an item.

But Lonnie and Jay’s potential coupledom wasn’t the issue now. Now was time to sneak into the air ducts and find their way above FG’s office.

It was sort of funny really.

The Sultan was a former petty thief, their kingdom was still rife with street rats and deliquets even though Sultana Jasmine had been enacting lots of new legislature to fix the issues, and here, the three most lucky (and in Aziz’s case, one of the richest) Agrabahians were wriggling into the air ducts of Auradon Prep like common criminals.

Jay and Aziz army crawled through th steel-ducts with ease despite their broad shoulders crushing them from both sides while Jordan crawled slowly in front, wishing that she had changed into pants before she had gotten in. Everytime she stopped to listen for adult voices in conversation Aziz’s face would crash against her butt.

At least it was better Aziz than Jay. It was enough that the sort of former thief spent time ogling her mother, he wasn’t going to get the pleasure of gazing at her ass this whole time too.

The air ducts were surprisingly very clean for a place that supposedly no one went into. The steel was as polished as Chad Charming’s spit-shined shoes and there wasn’t any evidence of rodent’s existence. Even though rodents were totally allowed on school grounds due to the future queens and princesses hoping to charm them with their beautiful voices or be used to help sew dresses.

The air ducts were also very loud in the sense that they could hear every pipe rushing with water or jiggling and the sounds of muffled voices through the walls.

It felt like an hour already with her knees cramping and she was sure that someone was going to come out of this looking like hunchback. But according to Jay’s sundial watch which she had some suspicion that he stole from Phil when the old stayr had visited to guest coach the tourney team, they had only been roaming the ducts for nine minutes.

“Are you sure we’re even going in the right direction, man?” Jay asked Aziz who swore he knew the air ducts like the back of his hand after he spending all his study halls up in the ducts instead of studying chemistry.

“Yes.” Aziz said tersely, “We just go straight then right at the sound of rushing water then take another left and straight. We should be hearing them very soon. It’s impossible to get lost.”

“If you say so” Jay sing-songed and Jordan could hear Aziz mutter swears under his breath. Even though Aziz and Jay hit it off better than the other Aks had with the spawn of their parent’s enemies, Aziz did have his issues with Jay.

Like his arrogance, his aggressiveness, his kleptomania, the way he took every angry comment as a compliment for him... Okay maybe those were the things she disliked about him.

But she did know that Aziz disliked Jay’s arrogance. It was less about Jay, himself but more about Aziz’s own jealousy. Even though the Agrabhaian prince seemed easygoing and confident, Jordan knew that he overanalyzed everything in his head and then texted her about it. Almost every study period. Since Jay came sauntering in the halls with his leather jacket, Aziz had been asking her that when they were together did Jay look tougher than him? Did he look weak and nervous?

Then there was the thief factor. Yes, Auradon was all about the goodness and stealing and other sorts of crimes were frowned upon and harshly punished, Aziz still aspired to be a good “sleight of hand.”

Aladdin had taught all his children his old tricks from his street rat days even though he warned them that they were never allowed to use it for their personal gain or in public.

Then Jay came along and it was hard to ignore how Jafar’s son was so very similar to Aladdin. Charming, a thief, could talk his way out of almost anything.

No one had said it Aziz’s face that Jay seemed more like Aladdin’s son than he but one can easily surmise that. While Aziz was forced to obey the royal protacle set out for him and not cause any political disasters, Jay was free to do what he wanted, looking like a mini-Aladdin more and more.

And now Jay was implying that Aziz didn’t know how to go through air ducts without getting lost which she knew Aziz was going to take as a dig that Aziz didn’t inherit Aladdin’s skill.

It seemed like they all had their daddy issues here.

Jordan was so consumed with her thoughts that she crawled right into the air duct vent, smashing her nose and getting her caught in all the tiny slits. It took all her discipline not to cry out from the unexpected pain.

“We’re here.” Jordan softly announced through gritted teeth as she tried to untangle her hair without making the vent noisily shake, she took the chance to observe the crowd of people crushed into FG’s tiny office.

FG’s office was a pristine sky blue color with a large oak desk situated near the clear-glass window that had gave view to the picturesque garden that she cared for outside her office. Usually it was warm and homey since FG added small touches like floral bouquets tied to the corners and eves, but now it was stocked with more people than the office could hold and it looked chaotic and disorganized.

Plastic chairs had been brought in, ruining the classy vibe the office usually emitted and the none of the people there looked very happy.

Aurora’s three fairy-godmothers were sitting uncomfortably in the plastic chairs on either side of FG’s desk, arguing among themselves with FG in the middle trying to get their attention. Even though the four women were about the same age there was a drastic difference between FG’s younger look and Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather’s choice to appear in the same plump human forms they had used when they were taking care of baby Aurora.

The great Camelot wizard, Merlin was by the doorway holding a fishbowl in his hand and seemed to be talking animatedly with the fish inside until Mama Odie accidentally hit him in the head with her walking stick when she angrily waved her arms about.

The Blue Fairy and a human-sized, Queen Clarion stood in the middle of the room taking in the sights and sounds around them, looking regal as always though both no longer had their unearthly fairy glow, making them look a bit more sad than Jordan assumed that they were.

Jordan easily spotted her parents, the only two in the room who looked halfway amused by the situation as they casually lounged on FG’s couch that was usually pulled out when a student needed a personal therapist.

Her dad was in his human form, not much different from his genie one. He had on harem pants, a silk blue vest and and curled shoes, looking that he should be in the hot deserts of Agrabah instead of in button-up Auradon. She wondered if FG had another one of her freak-outs when she saw her dad walk in again without a shirt.

At least Sadira was dressed appropriately for the Auradon weather in a green sundress, looking absolutely confused as to what was going on and distracted whenever Genie tried to include her into the conversation.

Jordan tried to listen to the conversation but it was pretty hard with all the overlapping voices and FG’s repeated shouts for “Everyone, please use your inside voices. Please, the students are in class. We have to talk about this civilly.”

Jordan heard a few key phrase like King Beast and the barrier but not much else when she felt a irate poke on her butt.

“Uh glad to know we got here. But we can’t see or hear anything.” Aziz grumbled.

“Oh yeah.” Jordan winced, realizing how boring it must be for the guys to have nothing to look out but each other’s backsides.

She glanced out the vent again to make sure no one was looking up at that moment to see puffs of pink smoke as she used her magic to widen the ducts so the three of them could look out the vent slits shoulder to shoulder.

“You couldn’t have done this before when we were crawling through?” Jay whispered as he pressed his face against the slits.

“I. . . didn’t think of that at the time.” Jordan admitted. It was an issue, living with all these mortals made her forget that she could use her powers to fix inconveniences like this.

“ENOUGH!!” FG shouted, startling everyone in the room and the three teens that they almost hit their heads against the air duct ceiling. They never heard FG sound like she was reaching the end of her rope before.

“Let’s review the situation, calmly, civilly.” FG said through clenched teeth through Jordan could see a bead of sweat drop trail from her forehead as she made eye contact with each figure in the room.

“King-I mean Prince- I mean. Well Adam doesn’t want us to bother King Ben about the Isle’s Coven. He feels like his son would be too overwhelmed by the situation.” FG said.

“WHAT?! Not tell the king? The villains could take over again if this Coven manages to break down the barrier. And we’re supposed to not stress him about this sort of danger?” Merlin cried, holding his fishbowl like it was a sword, he jabbed the air to make his point and caused water to spill all over Queen Clarion’s dress.

“I know. But he still a boy.We have to report to Adam instead and he said it will be tricky to find a way to fix this.He said that it is a slippery slope. IF he allows us to use magic to fix the barrier and keep the villains at bay, then he would have to make concessions and then everyone would be using magic again and the whole point of the Magic Ban would be moot.” FG sighed.

“That is brilliant. I say we do that idea.” Genie clapped and the sound of bodiless applause filled the room while others like Mama Odie, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather nodded in agreement.

FG aimed a withering glare to them, “I know you have made no effort to obey the Magic Ban, but if you would look around you, it has been very helpful. People are putting their work and effort into things instead of using magic as a shortcut. It keeps law and order. We have seen what happens when magic is used wrongly. Need I remind you of Jafar? The Magic Ban is right. The Magic Ban is-”

“But the villains aren’t going to follow our Magic Ban so it makes no point.” Merryweather cut in, “We are all good people. We all use our magic responsibly and to help others. The Magic Ban is only hurting us. It is making us deny who we are.”

“All for some royal brats who think we would beat them in some competition that doesn’t exist. But Fairy Godmother, you cannot say you enjoy this sort of life. You were able to help so many with your magic. You can’t say you would have made Cinderella’s dreams come true with some sewing supplies.” Mama Odie added.

FG stuttered something incomprehensible, clearly flustered with how this conversation was veering into her personal feelings which now that Jordan thought about it, she didn’t know much about FG’s feelings towards the Magic Ban. Sure, FG always seemed to follow King Beast’s lead and espouse how wonderful the Magic Ban was for the kingdom but it seemed like she had her doubts about it too.

“Let’s focus on the Coven. How are we going to stop them?” FG abruptly said. “FG, you do know that we are going to have break the rules if we are to stop the Coven.” Fauna placed a comforting hand on FG’s shoulder.

“I- But.” FG stammered, “We have to follow the laws. That is the right thing to do. I told Adam I would find a lawful solution.”

Sadira ignored FG’s words as she launched into her own solution, “I was thinking we could join together and remake the barrier again. It would take some time since we are all pretty out of practice. I know my strength isn’t what it used to be at least, but if we do it over the next couple of months. Maybe we can get the barrier back to its full strength.”

“But what about the villains inside?” The Blue Fairy questioned, “They are probably are using their powers as we speak to break it from inside. We don’t have a couple of months, we need a solution now.”

“Well who is in this Coven? How competent are they with magic? Because if it is Mad Madam Mim again, we can just sicken her with measles.” Merlin suggested.

“No, no Madam Mim.” FG managed to speak. “According to the goblins that gave us this have been taking trash back and forth from the Isle. It’s the Coven of Thirteen as they call themselves. And it’s ranks include, Maleficent, the Evil Queen, Queen Nerissa, Ursula, Mother Gothel, Jafar, Nasira, Mozonroth, Yzma, Morgaine Le Fey, Dr. Facilier, Circe, and Queen La.”

The room went silent at the list of intimidating villains.

Jordan side-eyed the two guys next to her and saw that their faces were similar to her own. Jaws dropped and eyes wide. Those thirteen had their powers back?

“And the Blue Fairy is right. Cassandra of Delphi unfortunately couldn’t come today but her vision implied we didn’t have much time.” FG said solemnly.

None of the adults in the room moved, they all seemed frozen in place by the new revelation.

“I suppose we should reconvene next week about this . . . situation.” FG said and all the adults slowly ushered themselves out, whispering among themselves.

Once the door closed, FG sat at her desk and put her head in her hands, looking small and exhausted. When she had suggested that they eavesdrop on this meeting she never thought it would be about something so serious. Her stomach clenched as her mind turned over FG’s words, “We don’t have much time.”

#my fanfic #my fanfiction #winner’s curse #disney descendants #jay #jordan #aziz #fairygodmother #chapter three #flora #fauna #merryweather #the blue fairy #sadira #merlin #mama odie #queen clarion #genie #eden

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gyeommine · 7 years ago

Text

MONSTA X as Roommates

wow sorry this has been a LONG absence. i am swimming in school work and deadlines atm so bear w me. my final exams are this year so i am trying my best love u all <3

(all gif creds to the original owners)

Shownu:

( AN ACTUAL ANGEL )

okay so he’s a typical male but he tries really really hard okay?

he’ll say he will do his chores, make his bed or do his laundry

but he’s a busy sweetie

so he’ll fall asleep in a crumpled duvet

and it melts your heart so you have to do it

and he’ll always thank you super sincerely where his eyes disappear into his face and honestly ur roommate is the most adorable human alive.

u always catch him being an actual dad

he’ll be in his favourite sofa crevice, scratching his chin w his arm up in that position the bois make fun of him for.

and you have to try with all your might to not burst out laughing

instead you send a picture to the mx groupchat.

it’s called tender blackmail.

he also falls asleep on the sofa a lot but u can’t move him so

another dad thing he does is that he’s lowkey super protective

he’s not often an emotional person so it’s quite well hidden

but he does worry if you’re home later than him and will probably call u.

and will let out a prominent sigh of relief when you respond

lets you wear the baggy shirts he doesn’t wear anymore or so he claims

it just makes him chuckle when his shirts completely drown you

you also get to see a v sincere side to shownu

you can clearly see how his performing on top of variety shows exhausts him (esp when he claims variety is not his thing)

but he’ll never snap at you when he’s like that

because he’s so sincerely appreciative of having you around

but doesn’t disguise his dumbness

you guys can’t have many expensive ornaments

bc he’ll go to thoughtfully polish it to cheer you up

and end up breaking it

he’s a literal sweetheart that tries so hard, love him please

Wonho:

(wOW i would protecc this man w all my heart. purest)

he would be the sweetest roommate in th world

even tho he’s busy 24/7

he’ll sometimes randomly buy you your usual coffee

or he’ll see you’re almost out of milk or something

where he’ll promptly restock so you don’t have to

he’s incredibly thoughtful

it makes you a lil sad sometimes when he’s particularly busy

bc you miss him like crazy

but when he gets the chance, he makes sure he hangs out w you and dedicate some set time to his best friend

bc he really appreciates you

you’re both each other’s main support

he knows that when he walks in through the door after a shit day

you’ll be sat on the sofa ready to hear him out

it leads to way too many profound chats till like 3 in the morning

he’s a lil’ bit protective

on the rare occasion he’s not working and you’re not home

he’ll be snapchatting you, texting you

‘wonho i was just at the gym?’ ‘can i come too??!!”

and then suddenly you’re hanging out as per

living w wonho is the chillest thing

except when he neglects to wear a shirt when he’s having a lazy day

and you’re red in the face, throwing fabrics at him to cover him damn self.

friends or not it’s illegal for wonho to walk around like that

you both gel without arguments

you like the same films, music and even like to eat at similar places

never any arguments over takeout lol

you even end up giving each other skin care tips

which makes for a pretty blissful living arrangement if you ask me.

Minhyuk:

(a visual??????)

okay you two are the ultimate best friends.

you have a long list of movies and tv series/anime that you two have to watch together

primarily because you know how whiny and salty he will be if u break it

you’re both pretty relaxed roommates

like the dishes don’t need to be done right this second

magically chores still get done

thankfully, minhyuk isn’t the typical gross male

but he will probably shamelessly steal food that you have labelled

which is probably the only source of any conflict in your house.

when you’re both at home

you better believe this loud ass will wake you up super early to go do something together

“time to bond (y/n)!!!!” “what r u, 5?”

but you’re lowkey kinda grateful that he wants to do stuff with you

since you’re always afraid you’ll lose him to his schedule

you’re still super super close

you guys create your own dance routines and memorise current choreos that are trending

you prank each other, which may involve you printing pre-debut pictures of minhyuk and plastering them everywhere

you have you’re own handshake that may or may not last for like 5 minutes

and if either of you forget it oH THE b e t r a y a l

did i mention that minhyuk is a massive drama queen?

but in a funny way (unlike a certain member who’s about to follow)

you will have named your shared apartment, no doubt

and will reference its name in the invites of the house parties you guys host

you basically act like siblings when their parents go out for the evening... 24/7...

Kihyun:

(his smile could sAVE lives. it’s so bright)

the ‘drama queen’ i previously mentioned

if u wanted a relaxed roommate, dude look elsewhere

i reckon yoo kihyun is a clean freak

he is mad about a rota of chores, to ensure it’s equal

but i can imagine him redoing them anyway if they weren’t done exactly how he normally does it.

this causes some some minor bickering

it’s always resolved when you ask what you’re doing for dinner that night

you guys have this insane ability to just drop arguments in a flash

which is why the intense cleaning regime never bothers you

plus, it contents your parents that you don’t live in a pig sty

(and silently wish that they could hire kihyun to clean on the side)

but beneath the bitterness, he can be super thoughtful

he’ll remember a food you were craving that one time

and suddenly you’ll find it in the cupboards

when you ask, he’ll shrug it off

but he lowkey loves to cook for you.

you guys will love to buy furniture together

prepare yourself for many trips to look at random decorations or house plants to liven up your two dead souls

relishing the simple joys like buying new plates or cutlery like the secretly middle aged people you are.

surprisingly, yall have a v similar ideal

i can just picture this modern (not to mention spotless), monochromatic apartment in seoul

mx and your friends will be so jealous of how well you run your appartment together

although they quietly question your friendship, yall get it each other

your closeness is measured in bitterness and insults

and you don’t really need anyone to understand your friendship

bc it works

Hyungwon:

(ONE OF THE BEST LOOKING PPL IN KPOP HANDS DOWN hOLD me)

this living arrangement will be the exact opposite to living w kihyun

“organised mess”

it’s just you guys are always so busy with your careers and lives

so tidiness happens to be the bottom of the priority list

except when parents come over

then you’re doing hurdles over each other to tidy up

trying to find as many convenient dark spots in the place to hide unwashed laundry

when you are both at home

it’s a quiet contentedness in each other's company

you’ll most likely message each other instead of yell

but when you do call out to him, it usually takes 3-6 times before you receive at least a mumble in response

you’ll probably text each other when you’re right next to each other

well, if hyungwon’s even awake

you will definitely leave passive aggressive notes to each other

‘close the cupboard u moron - love (y/n) xoxo’

and hyungwon will reply on the same cupboard door

‘even ur writing is loud omg - hyungwon’

and the door will be wide ajar

and you’re genuinely not sure whether he hasn’t noticed the actual issue or is blatantly ignoring it

nevertheless, it’s your guys’ sense of humour

you guys probably stay up a lot together when you’re both free and not feeling up to doing much

a few beers while watching some b-rate movie to laugh at

but the film will soon be forgotten and you’ll be talking about anything from love to what vegetable you identify with

and end up falling asleep on the sofa next to each other at 6 am

and the cycle starts all over again

Jooheon:

(one of the sweetest dimpled people alive)

a golden, pure apartment

you guys are inseparable and the cutest friends alive

yall really take care of each other, even if its a little out yours’ way

you both can immediately sense when something is wrong

when you drag your feet into the flat, your face completely drained

jooheon is alert and ready to let you rant about your day

and he’ll offer to pay for food that night or cook something

likewise with him. you just sense when he needs a cry or a moan.

you guys are also super goofy

jumping around like 10 year olds to your favourite playlists

having your own lip sync battles and completely slaying the raps

i can also imagine you two having a redecorating day together

you playfully bickering over a shade of blue for the living room

idk it just seems like something you guys would do together

you also leave sweet notes for each other

especially if you don’t see each other at home for a while

you’ll wake up to a lil’ sticky note wishing you a pleasant day

it’s honestly sickly sweet

you’ll prank and tease the other members when they come over

because you guys are an unstoppable, mischievous duo

unfortunately shownu doesn’t really scare like jooheon does

so the tables over turn :/

jooheon has also put a ban on horror movies

because he’s so jumpy and he knows he’ll never live it down

you guys will also share a bed in a completely platonic way

like you have just missed your best friend

so you have a sleepover... in the flat you share... as adults

everybody just assumes you’re dating and mx think you should

esp when jooheon gets lowkey jealous when you go on dates, since he’s so openly protective of you

but you guys know where you’re at

and you’re happy as best friends

I.M:

(i love this gif of changkyun. look at his cheeks ahhhh)

you guys are long-term childhood friends so the apartment vibe is chill

you have been friends so damn long, you know exactly how each other click so there are rarely any problems

if there is, you threaten to blackmail w the thousands of ugly photos you have of him.

then you remember he has an equal amount as you, and the actual issues is dropped within seconds

because you guys are still goofy through it al

like i said, it’s a v chill household

chores get magically done, eventually, but there’s no real rush

but you are both rarely there to have to thrive in it

it does make kihyun want to die a little when he visits

changkyun is often at his own studio

and you’ll receive calls asking you to listen to something he’s produced and see what you think of it

it means you guys end up spending more time at his studio than the apartment you both pay for lmao

but it doesn’t bother either of you

sometimes, it does take some prompting from you to stop him from overworking himself

what you guys love to do is go out on drives

just drive somewhere completely random, sit and watch the night creep in

you guys can pretty much talk for hours and hours

be it reminiscing, talking about the future or about the new music that you have been listening to

this does mean changkyun always has headphones in

so you’ll have to call his name repeatedly to get his attention

your apartment will also always smell good

you both end up buying heaps and heaps of incense and candles

careful in not making the landlord believe you guys are doing drugs lmao

but it just creates such a relaxed atmosphere

and you don’t have to think too hard when buying each other presents

sorry if the lengths aren’t v well balanced. i had LOADS of ideas for some members and fewer for others. curse of writer’s brain grrrr. some of these were so cute, and i would so room w changkyun tbh

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thevoidbreather · 3 years ago

Photo

The epic black metal journey with WITHERED LAND (interview)

Interview held by: Nenad Popović (from Helly Cherry Webzine).

Belarus. How much do we even know about this country? Mostly just things we got from media. So, just politics. That's why all the other aspects of this country are pretty unknown to us. That makes Belarus a bit exotic. Especially alternative and underground scene. Is there any, how it works? We'll try to give you answers (at least partly) with a little help of Olga Kann since she is active participant.

At the moment the most actual is hers atmospheric epic black metal project Withered Land. Album The Endless Journey was released few months ago (on digital platforms) and few days ago we got physical version on CD via Naturmacht Productions. With Olga we will talk about this debut album, about her inspiration, how she creates, thinks and as we said, about local scene. So let's start this journey.

Withered Land is not your first project. Since you come from music family, I assume making music came naturally. But please, tell us, how was your music development?

My family listened to music a lot, but did not play. And, probably, they have always been skeptical about any my undertakings. There was no one who specifically showed or advised what you need to do to become a musician. If I may say so, the street raised me as a musician.

Every person you meet in life teaches something. How you can do it and how best not to do it? I have always wanted to create music, not just play in a band, but to carry my own creativity and vision. I am a commander by nature. But from this role, when all responsibility is thrown off on one person, you also get tired sometimes. There was a time when I closed all projects and left all projects for several years. It was such a Buddhist departure from everything. To rethink why you need to move on.

But for many years now, music has been the basis of all my activities. I make the arts for albums, shoot videos / photos, I am constantly in the field of musicians. I continue to work on the several projects in completely different genres. So, I get less tired of each of them. And when there is no inspiration for one, there is often inspiration for the other.

So, in what moment and why you decided to form Withered Land? What was your motive?

The idea to form such a project was born a long time ago. But it took time to come to this. I had and still have a lot of ideas that are difficult to implement right away, and in fact, it would be wrong to implement everything at once. Every work needs to mature and I also need to grow with it. Specifically for this project, the preconditions were born out of love for symphonic classical music and for the harsh Nordic sound. And of course, a lot comes from the love of books, films, history.

Life is not always the way we would like it to be. But a person always has something that no one can ever take away from him - his dreams. In our fantasies, we can fight dragons, travel through endless universes, do absolutely anything. No one will reproach for this, will not interfere. This genre truly created by dreamers for dreamers, we create our own worlds, where you want to escape in a difficult moment or dive for a greater thrill.

However, sometimes it seems to me that there is no such style in which I would not like to create at least one album. I am a broad-spectrum music lover. So I can (or I try) create my own fairy tale where it couldn't be.

In what way was it different from your previous bands and projects?

In all my projects my task is to compose and mainly play bass. But this particular project is much more personal, both in terms of the tasks performed and in purpose. Here I feel quite natural, although this genre is not to say that my favorite or the one in which I know better. But it is quite comfortable to create in it. It does not require rush, it is made by people for people and is not focused on the commercial aspect.

This is how I see the life of this genre. Albums are like whole books here, complete works that you create when you have something to say. I really love to write lyrics, in this genre it is of great importance. Like a visual art, everything is interconnected and has meaning.

Inner freedom comes alive here. I communicate a lot with one-man projects, these are people who are full immersed in their work. They are brave enough to withstand the burden of criticism on their own, but they are also often ready to help each other, to collaborate. And each of them, like a storyteller, gives not just music, but immerses you in a whole fairy tale.

I would like to use the opportunity to ask you about Belarus scene. I know that there are some great metal concerts and here and there we get some infos about underground hardcore/punk scene. But in general, Belarus scene in kind of exotic to us. So please, tell us more about it. I am asking you this so we can understand the atmosphere and environment that you live and create in.

For me, this is also a kind of exotic. We have so many great musicians, but when it comes to getting invited to the band, many don't have the time, energy or motivation. Or they are busy with their own projects. Now the stage, like the whole society, is going through a difficult period. We are back at the time of Stalinist repression. Bands that touch politics in any way are severely persecuted, banned, and members can be arrested. I do not know how this scene will develop in the near future, besides, the pandemic adds to this all the severity.

Over the course of several years, a lot has changed, it became sadder than it was before. This is if in general. And if we talk specifically about my projects, I always do something almost without days off. I invite my foreign friends for cooperation remotely. I try to keep myself busy so as not to have time to think about how creepy the world has become.

Black and folk are probably the most popular genres in our country. But it is a pity that many talented projects are falling apart, it is not so easy to play in a full-fledged band here. Although, in my opinion, there is a good groundwork in death metal, a strong skeleton is being formed. And the core-scene deserves a special attention.

Is it hard in Belarus to find people interested enough for the underground band? Is that the main reason why Withered Land is one-woman project?

Specifically, this project was not originally conceived as a full-fledged band. In Withered Land I take a break from people, I do not expect anything from anyone and I am not disappointed. And people are not disappointed with me and my temper, haha. If we talk about other projects, then maybe yes. It's basically hard to find anything here, haha. We have a poorly developed typographic sphere, in order to print discs / T-shirts, and even at a good cost, you have to try hard in search. Also with musical instruments, amplifiers and accessories. Much has to be ordered from abroad.

There is no such concept as a manager, a producer; development of industry is late for many years. It is not surprising why many people quit this business or play for themselves at home for their own pleasure. There are enough musicians, but the overwhelming majority lacks faith in what they are doing. And for various, economic, family, psychological reasons, they leave the business sooner or later.

But everything suits me. In my life, there are enough people who are nearby (or a little further, hehe).

Do you wish and is there any possibility or needs (for live performance for example) to turn it into full line up band? I know Alexander did vocals for this release but I don’t know if he is regular or session member?

The only thing stopping me from turning the band into a live line-up is the pandemic and the lack of concerts, hehe. Well, also the workload with other projects may impose some restrictions. But in general, I don't see any problems with putting together a live line-up for Withered Land.

Alexander is always ready to join live performances, we play with him in several projects and he is ready for any activity. I also have fellow guitarists who are generally tired of being active, but they never mind going on tour.

So, like many others, I am waiting for the planet to return to normal.

What are advantages and disadvantages of having one-woman project?

As I noted above, there are probably only advantages in this. I do not worry about the difficulties of interaction; I completely make decisions and freely create at a leisurely pace what I want. When I need help, I can always get it. In addition, I myself actively help others; this is a common thing.

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Now let’s talk about your first album The Endless Journey. It’s atmospheric epic black metal conceptual release. I understood that your lyrics are about nature, people, inner struggle, changes and development of both, humans and nature. Where do you get inspiration from? Please tell us more about that.

It always seemed to me that the devastated land is what just surrounds me. A metaphorically scorched earth, ready at the same time to be reborn in order to then wither again.

In my lyrics, I try to convey the dualistic nature of a character or location. Try to show both the beautiful side and the unpleasant side. On the debut album, all 5 songs are 5 separate stages of the protagonist's military journey. And in each of the songs there is a certain unexpected twist. I really fell in love with this character, this lonely, noble, but suffering horseman. For me it was difficult to make such a final that turned out to be. But, I am already working on continuing his story. I'm not sure if this will be on the next album. But the continuation will be for sure.

In this album the emphasis was on everything - on music, on visuals, on lyrics. It's a whole story with a cinematic performance. If you close your eyes and listen to the material, then through the eyes of the hero you will be able to carry yourself from the beginning to the end of the journey.

It's the story of a warrior about the merciless battles, his difficult struggle and longing for home's shores. It's a gloomy narration about the esotherical experiencing death and return from other side. A story of a bitter defeat and emptiness inside, but with some hope yet. To some extent, this is a story about karma. When someone reaping death, immersing the hands in more and more blood, he shouldn't expect nothing but blood in return.

In all, I am very impressed by the story of the heroes who lost, but fought bravely, who did not retreat, even knowing that they were doomed to failure in advance.

In the future, I would really like to finish a concept album about Hannibal Barka, I was very inspired by the works of Titus Livy and some other historical literature. In general, I read a lot of different historical literature, war novels and the collective images of warriors come from there. The withered land is all that wars leave behind, at first, it is watered with blood, then it dries up. And it will take many years for everything to return to normal (maybe).

And for sure, I also inspired by nature. Belarus is a country of a thousand lakes. There are also beautiful forests here and breathtaking nature overall. It is a pity that there are no epic mountain ranges, otherwise I would disappear in the mountains for days on end. But in general, our nature is wonderful, authentic.

How hard it is to do arrangements almost all by yourself? How long was this album prepared?

In principle, not difficult, I like to do arrangements. This is painstaking work. The background to the creation of the album is much longer than its creation itself. It took a long time to make up my mind and realize that the time had come to bring the matter to the end. I was gaining experience and waiting for special inspiration.

It's always difficult to get started, but the more you do something, the better you get, just like in any matter. It is important not to stop at what has already been achieved, to constantly comprehend new things. Asking questions and comprehending the answers.

How the fans and how the critics reacted to The Endless Journey?

Mostly positive, there were a lot of kind words, and a lot of pre-orders. For a debut album, this is quite pleasant. My big greetings and respect to everyone who liked the material of the project. I don't pay much attention to criticism now, it is useful sometimes, but the time resource is limited and I try to use it as productively as possible and create something new.

Since we’re near the end of this interview, tell us what happens next for Withered Land? In what way it can evolve, by style or theme?

I've been working on new material for a long time. Songs and ideas have accumulated for several albums ahead. As I said earlier, there will be a continuation of The Endless Journey, and of course, there will be a new concept too.

I am also looking forward to the denouement of the virus story to give concert life to this project too. There will be many new songs ahead, new invited members, and some relic instruments.

We’ve reached the end. Plaese feel free to mention everything you think it’s important and we missed to mention it and send message to our readers…

Many thanks to the webzine, to everyone for their interest, who support the project and are interested in its fate. Special thanks to my friends from Evolucija band. I invite you to join the endless journey that has already begun.

You can follow the band here: https://www.facebook.com/WitheredLand/ https://www.instagram.com/withered_land/ https://vk.com/witheredland https://witheredland.bandcamp.com/releases https://open.spotify.com/artist/5w4a5XKRga0xwQDRlbCBys https://music.apple.com/ru/artist/withered-land/1575102229 https://www.deezer.com/en/artist/138192192

Naturmacht Productions: https://naturmacht.com/ https://www.facebook.com/naturmachtproductions https://www.instagram.com/naturmachtproductions/ https://twitter.com/naturmacht_prod https://www.youtube.com/c/Naturmacht/videos https://naturmachtproductions.bandcamp.com/

#interview #intervju #withered land #naturmacht productions #helly cherry webzine #nenad popovic

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jjevents · 5 years ago

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Lessons Learned - Cancelling an Event Due to Covid-19

When the unimaginable occurs within a week of your event

Ever wonder what REALLY happens when things go wrong at your favourite events?

Lessons Learned is a series that I wanted to share about the behind the scenes life of an event planner. Everyone always gets to see the amazing food and Instagram worthy pictures but the reality is, the behind the scenes planning doesn’t always feel quite as flawless. There are inevitably a long list of problems to solve and people to please to get from abstract vision to stunning experience and the lessons learned along the way are certainly worth sharing.

Now, with more time on my hands, it seems only appropriate that my first installment of this series should focus on my most recent event catastrophe – COVID-19.

Every March I work on a large scale 2 day event that attracts hundreds of attendees. After several years working with this client, the details behind each aspect now run like clockwork – that is until the coronavirus hit us like a ton of bricks. Less than one week before the event was set to take place, we were forced to cancel and all of my years of experience could not prepare us for how things unfolded.

The weeks leading up to this event, there were no known cases in our region. It appeared to be business as usual. The 11 days before load in only two cases were announced. According to our provincial health authorities the risk in our area was considered extremely low, and so we carried on.

A week out from the event and final numbers needed to be submitted for food and beverage along with a number of final sign offs that committed us to an array of different services and vendors. In the midst of our final preparations, a few cancellations began to slowly trickle in. These turned out to be our proverbial canaries in the coal mine but since our area was still operating as business as usual, we again, continued on.

Then on March 11, 2020 the World health organization declared what was happening a Pandemic and life as we knew it was going to start changing rapidly and so was this event.

Lesson One: Postponement vs Cancellation – Communication is Key.

With almost a year of planning for this event, no one wanted to see it cancelled. So a decision was initially made to postpone the event.

It was essential that we communicate with all event stakeholders as clearly as possible which meant a multitude of emails, phone calls, website updates, social media posts, advertising changes – the works. In those initial first few days it seemed like making this happen was still a possibility. So this was the initial messaging that was shared with all of the attendees while we went to work on crisis management for an event that would not be happening as originally planned.

Lesson Two – Event Partnerships – Strong Relationships Make a Difference

In order to assess how we could move forward, we needed to have some very open and honest conversations with all of our event partners about possible scenarios for the postponement or cancelation of our event. Not one of our contracts talks about anything as disastrous as a pandemic and truthfully if these contracts were to be left enforced it would have been financially catastrophic to my client. It should be noted this was March 12th and at this point neither the city or our provincial government had banned public events. We were a bit ahead of the curve and no relief was yet in sight.

As it turns out, our venue and supplemental partners were also doing their own damage control, but the overlying tone was that we were a long time client and they were committed to working with us to ensure the sustainability of this event. These were gestures that were legally not necessary at the time but thanks to our strong relationships, they ensured that our event would eventually live on one day – A huge relief.

Lesson Three – Patience, Patience, Patience

Being one of the first events forced to cancel, there was no roadmap or other events to look to for direction. We were it and information was limited. It’s easy to assume that refunds should automatically go out and plans for a new date be organized but with nearly 600 separate stakeholders, making these decisions without fully understanding the financial repercussions just wasn’t a possibility.

We had to be patient and wait until more information was available – not an easy ask with so many involved in such a large scale operation but we did it and it ensured clarity and organization once the final call had been made.

A wise women said to me while this was unfolding that it’s in hard times that we see who are true partners are. In the weeks that have followed, we have found that we have many amazing event partners who are just as committed to the long term sustainability for this event as we are. Our stakeholders have been incredibly patient and understanding as we work through the hundreds of refunds and our entire team has banded together in solidarity as we work through every new challenge that comes up.

We don’t yet know what the world is going to look like on the other side of this pandemic but after working through the stress and uncertainty that has overwhelmed this project over the past month, I’ve never been more confident that our industry will find the strength to adapt our resources to ensure our events live on and evolve for the better.

#covideventmanagement #eventprofs

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toloveadevil · 7 years ago

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The nagi and the water nymph

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Trivia: “Nagi” or “nagini” is the female term for “naga”.

Catalina belongs to @mysticbaconslice / @ask-appliancealliance

Margaret belongs to @Inverted-mind-inc / @ask-the-nightshift

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A chubby nagi named Catalina was slithering around in the thick forest of Solefon. The sunrays that pierced through the tree crowns made her brown scales glimmer a little bit. She was pretty bored, there hadn’t been much to play with since the humans decided to make a new route outside her territory.

She loved to scare and hypnotize people, it was pretty hilarious how they could end up either looking or do in those situations.

There hadn’t happened much that day, well with the exception of a party a few hours ago, in the middle of the night, but besides that she hadn’t done much else, besides buying a few things from a merchant, including some one-time-use scrolls, some food, healing salve and that sort of things that a mythical creature like her might need to live and defend herself with.

She was about to take a nap on her own personal sun rock, when she heard singing in the distance, and oh boy what a beautiful song it was, Catalina just HAD to check it out.

After a bit of time, she found the source of the beautiful singing, a nymph, more specifically a water nymph, was sitting on a rock at the edge of her spring minding her own business, while singing.

Catalina took note of the “little” nymphs appearance. She was pretty slim, had delicate smooth skin, long fiery ruby hair that lit in the sun, she had necklaces and bands made of shining pearls dangling around her neck, wrists, ankles and waist, sapphire blue eyes and her clothing consisted of just enough clothes to cover her top and bottom, her belly and back was still exposed.

She had to admit that the nymph was pretty cute, but she was more focused on her new target, since there were no humans around, she could try to either scare or hypnotize this unsuspecting woman and have a bit of fun.

The nymph was about to go back in the water when she felt something coiling around her ankle. She looked down to see the tip of Catalina’s tail having trapped her, but before she could do anything, Catalina had already trapped the nymphs entire body in her long thick tail, leaving only the head to be exposed.

Catalina locked eyes with her catch, a sly smile appearing on her face. With a slight hiss, and a sense malice she simply said “Hello, there cutie.”

The nymph struggled, but not as much as Catalina had expected, she did notice a small blush on her face when she said “cutie”, but what caught her of guard was when the nymph simply answered “Um, hello miss, c-can you please let go? I-I promise not to disturb you again.”

While the nymph was a bit nervous that was it, she was not scared or terrified, just a little bit nervous, and casually asked to be released like that. It all came as a surprise to Catalina who’s used to people screaming or beg for mercy. Though now she felt a bit bad, the nymph’s singing was good, and now she made her believe she was being a bother, she was hit with a slight bit of guilt, which was unusual.

Catalina responded with “Look it wasn’t your song that was bothering me, in fact I really like it, you’re a good singer, and a cute one to. What’s your name?” While squishing her a bit harder with her tail, and still trying to keep herself to look dominant and intimidating.

Ones again a slight blush appeared on the nymph’s face at being called “cute”, she made a slight whimper when Catalina squished her a bit harder, but she did answer the question by saying “Th-thanks, a-and my m-name is Margaret. I-if I weren’t bothering you then, w-why did you c-capture me?”

This was the chance Catalina had waited for, she did arrive to scare her, and now was her chance, a little lie could perhaps give her a scare, it worked on people who didn’t know much about her anyway. “Why I was just looking for a meal, then I heard you singing and you looked good enough to eat!”

That last statement was a lie, she had already eaten herself full at a party only a few hours ago, being part snake makes one have a big appetite, hence why she was banned from entering the food eating competition they were holding, she broke that rule and joined anyway and won. Plus, she doesn’t like to eat people, she sometimes threatens to do it, but NEVER does it. EVER.

It did get a reaction out of Margaret though. She began to panic and tried to get free from the nagi’s coil, but she couldn’t even get an arm out, and her spring was too far away for her to reach even if she could. Margaret realized she couldn’t get free and was trapped at the mercy of the nagi. Tears began to appear on the woman’s face, and instead of being filled with excitement when she scared people, Catalina now instead began to feel guilt and regret. This was the first time she had done something like this and felt bad about it.

Margaret looked up at Catalina with begging eyes, they were full of tears, “Pl-please, just let me go!” she said with a saddened voice that pierced Catalina’s heart like a spear made of nothing but pure guilt breaking through her defenses and hitting her right in the core and shattering it to pieces that than went up in dramatic flames of regret.

Catalina loosened her coil around Margaret, she watched as the nymph gave a confused look, and then ran back and jumped into her spring, swimming into one of the many grottos hidden inside it.

Catalina slithered off, she didn’t want to be near the spring again after what she just did, and for the first time in her life, she felt a new feeling. Self-hatred.

She wanted to apologize to Margaret, but how was she going to that? And she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to forgive her, or even believe her after that round.

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Some time passes, and in the grotto under the spring in which Margaret was hiding, the nymph could feel her belly growl. There weren’t any fish in the spring, and while there was a tunnel that lead to the ocean, she could not survive in the salt waters, so her only option was to temporally leave the spring to get some food.

Hesitantly and shaking, Margaret pulled her head above the surface of the water and looked around, she was afraid that Catalina still might be around. The coast seemed to be clear, so she jumped out of her spring and started to carefully to sneak away, so she wouldn’t alert anyone of her presence.

Margaret found some trees that bore fresh, grown fruit, and she decided to take some of them. She collected as many fruits as she could carry, and began to sneak back to her spring. It seemed like she made it, she sat the fruit by her side, as she was going to prepare a little bubble that the fruits could fit in, so she could take them to the grotto without being wet (the grotto also has an underwater cave with air).

Margaret then felt a chilling present, like there was a darkened shadow nearby, something evil, and it was right behind her.

She jumped into the middle of her spring, but used a little magic to be able to stand on the water, as she looked what that evil presence was.

It was a deformed humanoid creature, grey and silver in color, it’s face was almost completely blank besides a huge skeletal-like grin that reached from one end of the face to the other, it’s hands and feet were clawed, and it hissed in a demonic echoing sounding voice.

Margaret didn’t know what this creature was, but maybe she could get an answer. “Who are you?” she asked in a scared voice, it was obvious that this thing was definably not a benevolent creature at all.

“That is Secret” the creature answered in a low raspy voice, “And you’re “Margaret”, my next victim.”

The creature charged towards Margaret at a terrifying speed, enough to be able to run on the surface of the spring without magic, on one hand it had readied it’s claws for attack, while in the other it had prepared an all-consuming fire that went from its fingertips to its elbow.

Margaret was able to dodge the creature’s attack, while she’s never been a fighter (and most likely never will be), she was much faster and stronger now that she was IN her spring, rather than outside and away from it, although, not as strong as the creature was.

She tried to dive into the deepest cave that were in her spring in hopes of the creature would be unable to follow. She was wrong, the creature didn’t need to breath, so it could easily hunt her to the bottom. It was also here that it became apparent that the fire the creature was summoning was magic in nature, since it was able to burn underwater.

For the most part Margaret simply tried to keep a distance from the creature and dodge its attacks, but she knew deep down that she simply couldn’t keep this up.

The creature finally got a hit in with its sharp claws. The claws ripped through Margaret’s skin and flesh, leaving three large, deep claw marks on stomach. The blood from her wounds began to flow out, making small red clouds in the water, if this kept up, she would soon run out of energy and collapse.

After a few more seconds her vision began to be blurry, she could barely swim anymore, and she felt the claws of the creature holding her around the neck. She was pulled out of the spring and onto land, where the creature threw her at some large boulders to make sure she wasn’t going to escape.

She was helpless, the only thing she could do, was lay down in the dirt and watch as her demise grew nearer and nearer, “I will claim your soul, just like I claimed theirs.” She heard the creature growl out of its jagged mouth, as it was right above her.

Its claws dug into her chest, but there was no blood, this was a different kind of wound that the creature had opened up. In pain, her eyes where fully opened as she saw the creature was trying to rip her soul out of her chest with one hand, while holding her down with the other.

Everything seemed to be over, when suddenly a loud hiss could be heard, and the creature was punched in the face by a fist that belonged to a familiar face, Catalina had returned.

Margaret was terrified by seeing the nagi again, after their last encounter.

She tried to crawl away from the fight, but every time she moved just a little bit, it was painful, and there was still blood seeping from her open wounds.

Catalina and the creature traded blow for blow, while she was stronger in terms of physical strength, the creature outclassed her in magic and speed, but sometimes 1 advantage is enough. The creature was reckless, believing in its own superiority and arrogance which lead to it being open and having it’s guards down many times during the fight.

The creature charged Catalina’s throat with a burning claw, intending to rip it out, brutally. He had underestimated Catalina’s flexibility, while it’s true she was on the chubby side, she’s still a nagi, and snakes are known to be quite flexible. She dodged the burning claw, and she could feel the heat emanating from it. She quickly bit down on the creature’s shoulder like a jaguar would it’s prey, the poison bite of Catalina began to take effect, although slowly, and the creature’s movement began to slow down.

After battling the half-paralyzed creature for some time, Catalina used one of the one-time-use scrolls she had bought earlier, he arm was covered in magical tattoos and thunder surrounded her hand and arm. With a strengthened, thundering fist, she uppercuted the creature to the other side of the forest, multiple of the tree crowns the creature hit on the way, exploded into countless pieces of wood and leaves, and landed right on top of a huge forest troll, who began to beat the creature to a pulp, with a little help from its family.

Catalina was covered in brushes, scratches and bleeding wounds, but she’s been through worse and lived. She looked over at Margaret who were still trying to crawl away, a blood trail following her. Catalina slithered up to Margaret and carefully coiled her tail around her, to make sure she was in a “still” position.

Margaret began to panic again, but barely had any energy left to fight back, but still enough to make too much movement for Catalina to safely use some of her items.

Catalina hold Margaret’s cheeks firmly in her hands, and looked into her eyes. Catalina’s eyes began to turn into a spiral of different colors, and with a soothing whisper, told her to relax. The spirals made Margaret relax, and she soon fell asleep in Catalina’s coils.

Times passes, and Margaret wakes up, finding herself in her spring with her wounds patched up. She looks around only to find the nagi laying near the edge of her spring, looking worried at her.

“Why did you heal me? Weren’t you planning to eat me?” Margaret asked, confused as to why the nagi healed despite what she had said earlier today.

Catalina simply shakes her head, and states what the deal was. “I’m not the kind of nagi who eats people, what I said earlier was just a lie, I wanted to scare you. That’s something I like to do, whether it be by hypnosis, constriction, scare tactics or small lies like that, I like to see the scared looks on people when they get scared of me, but not with you. After what happened I felt bad for what I did, it’s rare, but it happens. I can understand if you won’t forgive for what I did back there, just know that I’m sorry.”

Margaret swam over and took Catalina’s chubby hands and placed them in her own small delicate ones. “Listen. You saved my life from that creature and healed me up, and you apologized for what you did, and you feel bad about it. I’m able to forgive you for what you did, and I’m going to do it. Right now, though, I’m more worried about YOUR wounds and brushes.”

Catalina was ones again taken by surprise by this lady, by how forgiving she was, her kindness, sweetness, all of it. She couldn’t help but blush when the little lady held her hands. She was not used to this kind of affection, or at least not when people gave it to her without being hypnotized first.

After Margaret had taken her turn patching Catalina up they sat by the edge of the spring and stargazing at the night sky. There weren’t any clouds, so the star shined bright. Catalina was the first to break the silence. “The stars are pretty, but do you know what’s prettier?”. Margaret looked at Catalina and asked “Who?”. Catalina looked at the little nymph with a seductive smile. “You~<3”.

Margaret’s face turned red, she was so easy to fluster, and Catalina couldn’t help but find that adorable. Pretty much everything about the water nymph Catalina found adorable. She gave a kiss on her forehead, which made Margaret give a little squeak and blush even redder and tried to hide her face in her hands.

Catalina laughed at this, and slapped a hand on the nymph’s shoulder. The night grew late, and Catalina felt sleep by herself. She didn’t realize that she still had Margaret trapped in her coil from the stargazing snuggle, and usually Catalina was the type of nagi who hugged their tail in their sleep, this time she ended up hugging Margaret in her sleep, which of cause made the shy lady blush, and when Catalina wakes up in the morning, she will properly be embarrassed about it to and make countless apologies for it.

One thing was certain, the friendship between Catalina and Margaret is strong, and who knows, maybe it would grow to be more than simple cuddling and teasing (on Catalina’s part) later on.

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quietpagan · 7 years ago

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TH What Falls and What Grows 11

“But he who dares not grasp the thorn

Should never crave the rose.”

― Anne Brontë

Alexandra spent the rest of the evening, through the night, and into the morning tearing through Kanjigar’s library. It was an incredible collection – as vast and diverse as that of Blinky’s brother’s. There were anthologies of poems and sagas that Kanjigar liked –

- And damn, was it weird to think of Kanjigar in both past and present tense –

- and books of obscure lore; personal diaries of previous Trollhunters; the short, bloody journal of a Gumm-Gumm that ominously cut off in the middle of the page; several incongruous human comics and graphic novels; pages of construction details for pieces of Heartstone Trollmarket that Alex guessed Kanjigar had been helping with; letters from people who needed the Trollhunter’s help, and from others thanking him; Supernatural-esque journals of how to defeat certain creatures; sixteen beautifully illustrated manuscripts, both human and troll; stone tablets covered in swirling carvings and indecipherable runes; the entire Lord of the Rings series and accompanying books; a bunch of rocks delicately carved with notes from a goblin spy; a page from what Alex really, really hoped was a Codex Regius; two books that she knew by smell were bound in human skin, and another that was bound in troll skin, which was as impressive as it was gruesome, because the troll would have had to have been alive at the time of the skin-removal; and a much-annotated list of children suspected stolen to the Darklands (her name wasn’t on it), to name a few. It was heaven.

It was a Library of Alexandria, in a pocket dimension underneath a small California town. In fact, she was sure that one of the scrolls had come from the Library of Alexandria.

Blinky could spit in her face and kick one of her cats right now and she’d forgive him immediately.

She left only once, before getting too deep into anything, to get more lamps and a pot of tea, but as soon as she approached the first shelf she lost all sense of time.

Hopefully Kanjigar wouldn’t mind her digging through his stuff, but if he did, it was too bad. She’d landed a punch on his chest and he was a fucking ghost, so he could deal with her reading his love letters to Draal’s delightfully crude mother.

It was weird. She was looking through the personal items of a dead man, but a dead man who could still berate her for it.

This will be entertaining, Alexandra thought, deliberately setting her tea cup down on a hand-drawn journal of medicinal plants and tapping her feet to one of his Santana records. She got comfortable on Kanjigar’s neatly-made bed, now stacked with disorganized books, and only was pried from the room when Blinky and AAARRRGGHH came to collect her mid-morning, bearing food and apologies.

She was in a good enough mood that Blinky was ��forgiven’ for the whole Changeling debacle, and they finally put the incident aside and settled in the Forge for a proper training session.

Blinky was convinced that her sword skills, such as they were, would at least allow her to get away from her opponent. So, she was banned from using the sword for the next several sessions. His lessons instead included, but were not limited to: rock climbing, dodging fireballs, being attacked from all sides by larger opponents, being attacked from all sides by smaller opponents, and then archery, which she actually rather liked.

“Where in the hell would I need to know how to climb a damn rock?” “Your fights will not be restricted to only Bular, Master Alexandra! What will you do if confronted, for example, by a hydrabeast? One cut, and you will have a multitude of opponents instead of just one!”

“Then I set it on fire.”

“Where will you get matches,” Blinky said dryly.

Alexandra dodged a rock, caught it, and threw it at his head.

“A hydrabeast has weaknesses under its scaly armor,” Alex said, remembering her texts and making Blinky grin even as he ducked. “Strike when its scales are flared, and then kill it.”

“Excellent, Master Alexandra! Just be sure to – “ Alex didn’t hear his next words, as she was barreled over by a stone arm from behind.

“Ah. Yes. Do not get distracted while trying to think of how to defeat your opponent,” Blinky said.

Alexandra huffed and picked herself up, throwing herself at a large blade as it flew past her. Digging her claws into the rock, she pulled herself to the top of the blade and ran along its flat edge, and then jumped onto a moving level when the blade reached its zenith.

“And…oof! You’ll find all of these opponents in Arcadia?” “Oh, surely not,” said Blinky, as he activated another part of the Death Arena and forced her to dodge a swath of flaming arrows. One nicked the edge of a horn.

I swear if I lose another goddamn eye…

“You’ll be hard-pressed to find a rust-troll or Batmugg here, but that does not mean that one may not come, or that you might not be called away to a different locale. As Trollhunter, your protection spreads over the whole of the human and troll worlds, and you most likely will have to travel extensively to fulfill your duties.”

“Your domain stretches farther than Arcadia,” said a whispy voice, one that Alex wasn’t entirely sure was not in her head.

“Not you assholes again,” she hissed, as the red of the Forge began to dim. She quickly jumped to the main floor and ran over to Blinky, surprising him when she grabbed him by the arms. Surely they wouldn’t grab her and Blinky. The darkness and stars receded as quickly as they had appeared, and after a moment she let go of the other troll, who looked completely stunned.

“You were summoned?”

Alex nodded, still giving the Forge a look-over. When she glanced back at Blinky, he had his hands over his mouth and something suspiciously twinkling in his eyes.

“What?” “The Trollhunters of old – they gave you council?” “In…a manner of speaking,” Alex murmured. In the distance, she heard the tapping of Vendel’s staff. “They mostly insulted me and offered bad advice.”

Blinky rolled his eyes.

“Only you, I believe, would take being summoned by our most esteemed warriors as a session of ‘bad advice’, and refuse another summons.” “I’m busy,” Alex said, and threw her sword across the arena, where it lodged in the side of a stone statue’s head.

“And you are about to become busier.”

Alex and Blinky turned to the bridge, where Vendel was slowly making his way across. AAARRRGGHH was following him, looking unusually glum.

“Ah, Vendel! Perhaps you would like to see how our Trollhunter – “ “I know how she progresses,” interrupted the larger troll, completely ignoring Blinky and standing directly in front of Alexandra. She refused to back down, even though his cataract-sprinkled eyes seemed to bore right through her.

“What I am interested in is how she manages on an actual assignment.” Blinky, not to Alexandra’s surprise, did not argue but instead clutched his hands behind his back. She and he both knew that it was far past time for her to do some actual troll-hunting.

“Your physical training goes well, Trollhunter, but you must be able to assist in any situation. Many will not involve battles or fights, but will be tests of how you deal with people and how sound your judgement may be.”

“What’s the assignment,” Alex asked. Vendel briefly looked over at Blinky.

“The Killahead Bridge, as you may know, was torn apart and scattered, to various locations around the world, some of which even I don’t know about.” “Has something gone wrong,” Blinky asked. Vendel nodded grimly.

“I have lost communications with one of my contacts in England. She was supposed to send me an updated census of trolls in the United Kingdom, but has not answered my letters or scrying-calls. I want our new Trollhunter to check on her and ensure that both her post and what she guards are secure.”

Alexandra nodded, already gearing herself up for the assignment. “Alright,” she said. “Where in England does she live?”

“I have absolutely no idea.”

I guess this is part of the test.

It certainly was going to be a test, because she and Blinky needed to go to the museum, and Alexandra had no idea if Nomura would be there or not. She hoped to hell that she didn’t have to encounter the other Changeling, especially since Nomura would possibly recognize her.

Blinky wouldn’t be swayed from accompanying her, and when AAARRRGGHH found out that his friend was going he decided that he was coming too, and Alexandra wanted to claw her eyes out. She could run a recon mission, but not with two other trolls, neither of whom was particularly good at being sneaky. She was feeling testy already.

The reason they had to go to the museum was to find some sort of text that hinted at locations of some of the Bridge’s pieces. To prevent discovery or betrayal, there was nobody who actually knew the locations of more than a few pieces; instead, they knew where to find clues to some of the pieces. It was horrendously complicated and convoluted, but effective; in order to put together the bridge someone would have to go through dozens of people and go on hundreds of scavenger hunts. It wasn’t efficient, but Alexandra could appreciate the complexity.

“Why not just smash the pieces,” she muttered later that evening, when night had fallen and she, Blinky, and AAARRRGGHH were scoping out the museum. “Just turn it to dust and scatter it on a beach somewhere. Boom. No need to guard fucking dust.”

“The Killahead Bridge is an object of immense power,” replied Blinky. “Each stone is seeped with magic. One cannot simply destroy it.”

AAARRRGGHH, ineffectively hiding behind a short tree, nodded in agreement of his friend.

“Would if we could,” he rumbled.

“Exactly. Now, should we proceed, Master Alexandra?” Alex kept her eyes on the museum but nodded. She’d had them waiting and watching the place for almost two hours, just to see if anyone came or went, and since no one had shown she really couldn’t put it off for much longer. Her lower hands worried over the loading of the little gun she’d brought, in case she needed to shoot Nomura in the face.

“Come on,” she whispered, stowing it in her back pocket. “And stay quiet.”

She led them around the back of the building. From her pocket she felt a little stone amulet, something Blinky had gotten for her from a shop. It was inscribed with a sigil that meant sight, and then violently chiseled over. Apparently it was supposed to cause any cameras to go dark in its presence, but Alexandra knew it was unnecessary. She’d only been to the museum once, but once had been enough to see that the cameras were not in operation. It was a good thought, though.

She jimmied open a window just barely large enough for her to fit through. She and Blinky had to find a door for AAARRRGGHH, which made her grit her teeth, but she stayed silent about his and Blinky’s presences. Two of the doors were alarmed, but the third, a maintenance door hidden behind an over-crowded archiving room, was not. Together again, Alex led them silently through the halls, her ears strained for any sound. They turned the corner to a hallway under construction, and that’s when the smell hit her.

Goblins.

It was faint – probably from the other end of the museum – but the scent was distinct and put her on edge. She backtracked and took them around another section of the building, going at an almost snail-like pace until they reached a small room dedicated to manuscripts. She shoved Blinky forward and he looked around before silently pointing at a large book under a glass case.

Luckily for them, the museum had been more concerned with architecture than security, and Alex lifted the glass case off without any alarms sounding. Blinky paged through the book, eyes roaming at impressive speeds, and Alex stood guard with AAARRRGGHH at the doorway.

She didn’t like the presence of goblins here. When she first visited the museum over a year ago, they hadn’t been in the museum, or at least she hadn’t smelled any evidence of them. So it was a new development, and Alex wondered what had changed. Whatever it was and whatever Nomura was getting up to, it wouldn’t be good for Trollmarket. Everything seemed to be happening in Arcadia; understandable, since it stood directly above the largest population of trolls in North America, but by Alexandra’s count there were three changelings in the town, as well as goblins, and the son of Gunmar. Wherever Bular was, something important was happening. She knew that they were looking for ways to get the Bridge back together, but had they really found enough pieces to begin building?

The disappearance of Vendel’s contact was an even worse omen if the actual rebuilding of the Bridge was becoming a reality.

A very soft aha drew Alex’s attention away from the deserted hallway. Blinky had found what he needed.

Alex shushed him when he began to explain what he had found, and carefully replaced both the manuscript and the case it was under. The three of them tiptoed through the empty museum again and encountered nothing of concern, until the last hallway before the maintenance door.

The scent of Bular hit her like a brick to the face, and by the way AAARRRGGHH froze behind her she knew that he had recognized it, too.

And he was close.

Alex motioned for the others to stay still, smacking Blinky into submission when he kept gesturing for her to don her armor, and she crept forward into the hall, keeping close to the shadows and the walls. She wanted her armor too, but it was too shiny and it clanked to high hell.

A bright light flashed through a doorway at the end of the hall and Alex hastily beat a retreat, grabbing Blinky and AAARRRGGHH and rushing them as quickly as she could to the maintenance door. There was no was in hell that she was going to risk getting caught for the sake of checking that out. Whatever Bular was up to in the museum would have to be a mystery until Alexandra could come back without two huge liabilities walking around with her.

She refused to let them stop or speak until they were safely inside Trollmarket again, the portal shut behind them. A cold shiver ran through her shoulders even though she knew they had not been followed, and she shook it off with a huff, still creeped-out.

Blinky waited patiently for her to gather herself.

“Yes, Blinky, what did you find?” “Have you ever heard of curse tablets?” Alexandra, jumping down the crystal staircase, pursed her lips.

“No, I can’t say that I have. What are they?” “Well,” Blinky began, climbing down behind her, “They are sheets of metal inscribed with a text, sometimes names, sometimes prayers, sometimes pleas for justice, that are buried or placed in tombs, or even occasionally tossed into wells. They originated in the Greco-Roman age, and the manuscript I found featured illustrations of several of them. One held an untranslated inscription thought to be a form of Celtic language; it is, in fact, Trollish.”

“Ancient troll curse?” asked AAARRRGGHH as they made it to the bottom of the staircase.

“Indeed it was, although not so much as curse as a plea. It was incomplete, but from context I can infer that the words inscribed were ‘may he never rise’. ‘He’, of course, is referring to Gunmar.” They scooted through Trollmarket for a minute, until Alexandra finally asked, “Alright, what the hell does that mean? Where is the stone?”

“The stone, Master Alexandra, is in Somerset, England,” said Blinky triumphantly, walking ahead of her and turning them in the direction of the gyre portal. “In the waters of Sulis, in the valley of the river Avon and the Roman baths built thereupon!”

“Hate gyre,” AAARRRGGHH muttered beside Alex.

Blinky loved the gyre. Where spars and fights thrilled others he just got tired and grumpy, but the gyre pumped his adrenalin and made him feel like he was flying. He felt a little bad because his friend loathed the experience so much and so he made up for it by not using the device nearly as often as he would have liked, but Alexandra seemed to get some enjoyment out of the turns and flips and immense speeds gained by the machine.

Their foray into the museum had not nearly been as exciting nor as dangerous as he had anticipated; he wished they could have stayed and explored a little longer – so many wonderful artifacts! – but Alexandra had been on edge the entire time and even AAARRRGGHH, who rarely had a problem being above ground, had tensed on the way back. Blinky had only figured out that the smell of strange troll had been Bular’s scent later, when the excitement of figuring out the clue had faded slightly.

The gyre trip was relatively short, from California to Arizona, where they would catch a bridge to London.

The New London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, was the only place where a troll could travel by bridge from North America to Europe. The bridge had originally been built over the Thames river before being sold and relocated to Arizona in the late 1960’s. A new bridge had been built in its place over the Thames, and the two London Bridges shared a magical connection that allowed trolls to move between continents without having to resort to hiding away in a boat or a plane.

The actual crossing of the portal was one of the most interesting experiences Blinky had had in the whole century; the process was a mixture of a typical portal opening using a horngazel and something akin to Platform 9 ¾ from the Harry Potter series, hidden from human sight by use of the tunnels under the bridge. They emerged in the London underground just as night was beginning to fall, and they caught another gyre to the city of Bath in Somerset County. AAARRRGGHH, who had never been to England apart from their initial crossing to the New World, was fascinated by the landscape and architecture they saw when they finally departed their gyre. Alexandra too looked around with interest, and Blinky wondered if she had ever left the United States. He himself had been to England a few times before the migration, but so many things had changed in the hundreds of years since that he recognized nothing.

They emerged from the underground just as the sun began to rise, which meant that they would have to wait the entire day before they could explore Bath. It was not a popular troll destination and did not have many places to stay the day, so they opted to remain in London until nightfall. Most of the underground was bedding down, but although Blinky found them temporary lodgings Alexandra was more interested in exploring than sleeping. Both Blinky – who had been recognized by several of the stall-keepers in the market that surrounded the portal – and AAARRRGGHH, who spent nearly an hour meeting-and-greeting with people who wanted to have a word with the famed former general, retreated to their rooms for some well-earned sleep. Alexandra watched them from the other side of the market, having ducked away as soon as they’d arrived. Blinky was everything but subtle, and she wanted to have a little time to herself before he outed her as the new Trollhunter.

The market was quite extensive. Built in the troll counterpart of a busy airport, it wasn’t really as homey as Heartstone Trollmarket, but the stalls held a more international selection of cures and curios, and there was an immensely greater variety of trolls meandering about. She actually wandered past a group of her and Blinky’s kin, but as they only spoke Norse and a universal Trollish, she didn’t stay any longer than to say that she was from out of town and no, she wasn’t kin to Edda’s husband Ragnold.

Alexandra – who still didn’t have any money, Trollhunting really didn’t pay well at all – swapped her old, faded (vintage, she called it) sarong for an actual pair of pants, and traded in one of the hairballs she now hoarded for a small history book and the most recent edition of the troll equivalent of a newspaper.

For the first time, Alexandra found herself in the local watering hole, sitting by herself in a corner table with a drink of questionable palatability in a stone cup under her nose. She faintly remembered the foul smell of glog from her Darkland days and did not count herself lucky to have encountered it again, but it seemed like the popular drink of the establishment and she was trying to be popular-ish. Really, her head was pounding and she probably looked even more tired and disheveled than she felt, but hey. Effort. ‘Be nice and a people person’ was penciled into her schedule for the next millennium, or at as long as it took to get a decent reputation.

She probably looked unsociable, sitting alone with a book under her nose, but if she was going to be with these people, performing this role, living this life until she died, it was going to get very tiring to keep up an entirely fake persona, especially when that persona was supposed to be gregarious. When she first entered Trollmarket she had a distinct personality she had assumed, but keeping it up for the next forever was not something she was willing to continue.

She read for an hour or so, only getting up once to refill her disgusting drink. As far as bars went, it was a good one, quiet-ish and atmospheric.

A group of trolls at one of the middle tables kept giving her looks, their gazes moving from her freshly-scarred face up to her horns, down to her arms and the hand she was tapping on one knee. It had been a while since she’d been given a good appreciative glance. She wasn’t sure exactly what passed as attractive for trolls, but since no one here yet knew her as Trollhunter and the group was staring at her biceps, she assumed that she made the bar.

Sorry, boys, Alex thought with a measure of amusement, I don’t have a second of time for you.

She hadn’t had a relationship in a while, but was not in need of one now. Another complication might just kill her.

Did trolls even do sex? She hadn’t actually got to a book that really described the physical process of making whelps yet, a gap in her knowledge that, in relation to current events, was not actually important but seemed glaring anyway. She knew, at least, that there were ‘gronk-nuks’ and a need for some trolls to wear pants or loincloths, so there had to be some useful bits somewhere.

Considering that most trolls were seven feet or taller and nearly as broad, Alex wasn’t quite sure if she really did or really did not want to know. The fact that she herself only wore a vest out of habit, not need, was a stark reminder of how little she knew of even her own anatomy.

Either way, she wouldn’t be finding out from experience anytime soon, so unless she wanted to bug Kanjigar into giving her a horrendously awkward Talk she’d just have to guess.

It might annoy him, though…

Her growing amusement was interrupted by a presence at the end of her table; she looked up to see one of the males from the middle tables grinning at her.

“Enjoying your stay in London, love,” he said in Trollish, standing in a posture that he probably thought was rather roguish.

Oh, Lord, it’s like he looked it up in a book. ‘How to be Creepy and Cliché, 101’.

“Until now,” she replied sweetly, pointedly tapping a finger against the back of her book.

A female from his table egged him on, and he sat down in an unoccupied chair.

“No need to be like that, woman, I’m just trying to be friendly – “ Alexandra tossed down her book, grabbed him by the collar of his vest, and hauled him out of his chair, slamming his face against the table hard enough to cause it to crack. Spilled glog softly dripped on the floor. The bar was quieter, but not silent, clearly accustomed to rowdy patrons. The male’s mouth was bleeding and he tried to pull away, but Alexandra had two extra arms and leverage, and he was pushed down again.

“So am I,” she said in his ear. “But talk to me like that again and you’ll see me be unfriendly.”

He trembled against the table for an instant before she let him go, and as he tumbled to the floor Alex picked up her book, made an apologizing gesture to the annoyed barkeep, and settled back down to read, keeping one eye on the bleeding troll. She silently crowed in triumph as he massaged his jaw and stared at her. He was blushing greatly and Alex realized with a jolt that she had probably just done the troll equivalent of flirting outrageously. He watched her for another moment, his friends at his back shouting for him to try again, but he slowly retreated. Alex watched him down the rest of his drink and leave the bar.

She really was enjoying her stay in London.

Around nine in the morning she dragged herself into the city above, Changing quietly in the shadows before blending in seamlessly with the crowd of the Underground. The problem of money was resolved by pick-pocketing a tourist with a fanny pack, and she got a train to Bath, using the travel time to update her appearance.

The baths were unlike anything she had ever seen before, and part of her wanted to take a flying leap into the green waters. The rising sun was at an angle to perfectly illuminate the yellowed stone walls, casting deep shadows into corners. Outside there was a bit of morning traffic, but in the baths it was quiet, and peaceful, with only a few human voices mingling with the sound of flaming torches and rushing water. A few pigeons cooed as they bathed themselves, and from the top Alex could see a magnificently built cathedral. She felt peaceful – but she couldn’t just perambulate with no rhyme or reason; she had a job to do.

The baths seemed innocuous enough, but she scoured the place for any sign of troll or Changeling activity. She knew there was at least one troll around – Vendel’s contact, who had gone missing – but she didn’t know if the woman stayed in the baths or if she lived elsewhere. There was a faint trollish smell in some of the quieter rooms; the shadowed nooks and rising steam actually made very good cover for any troll working around, especially in the East baths and changing rooms, but whoever Vendel’s friend was, she was good – Alex didn’t see a single trace of troll. Considering that the woman was missing, that could be a very good or very bad thing.

“Gunmar wafa prieklan,” she muttered to herself whenever she passed an employee of the Baths, giving them a knowing look as she did so. Most of them smiled politely and moved on, but the receptionist in the tiny gift shop snapped her eyes on Alex and sharply grinned.

“Gunman wafa prieklan,” she replied, putting down her western romance. Alex briefly allowed her eyes to glow. She’s put on a new face on the train, wrapped in a floral scarf and with pigtails, jeweled glasses, and a small gap painted between her front teeth with ink from a pen she’d eaten, and with a Welsh accent she was the picture of a country-girl touring the city.

“Stricklander sent me,” she said, casting a brief glance to the door before leaning on the counter.

“He is anxious to make sure all loose ends are tied up. Are you sure every troll is accounted for?” The other Changeling nodded, lightly fingering her necklace of beads. Alex noted that several of them looked to be carved out of teeth. Jesus.

“There were only the two,” she said, “And our spy overcame them easily enough. There’s not much you can do against a horde of angry goblins.”

Alex, who had known a horde of angry goblins, nodded in agreement.

“There’s also the matter of the stone…” The other Changeling allowed her eyes to flash in annoyance.

“I’ll find it when I find it,” she said. “There’s only so much information you can get out of a corpse.”

“Which is why I’m here,” said Alexandra. “Stricklander is very insistent about getting the stone as soon as possible.” “What, he can’t be arsed to come and get it himself?” “He’s too important, the bloody twmffat.” They shared a mutual grin. Nobody liked Stricklander, who was more pompous than a peacock and enjoyed pretending that he was the boss. Alex was glad that most Changelings had an immediate comradery, born of being the outcasts of both worlds. They’d happily stab each other in the backs at a moment’s notice when it became necessary, but until then any Changeling was as good as family as soon as they met.

“I’ve got until tonight,” Alexandra said. “Information from one of our spies says that a delegation from Trollmarket will be coming around. They’ve noticed the absence of their contact here.” The Changeling cursed, quietly and fervently.

“I can’t get my information organized that quickly,” she hissed. “Is this someone we can take out?” Alex shook her head.

“They’ve got the general AAARRRGGHH with them,” she said. The Changeling paled. “That’s the only one I know of for sure. There are two or three others.” A pair of tourists came in then, giggling about the taste of the spring’s water. Alex gave them a smile and turned back to her fellow.

“Is there somewhere we can meet for lunch?”

It was nearing nightfall before she got back on the train, her head buzzing with information but her heart heavy with guilt.

She never used to be guilty about killing someone. It was always a necessity, for safety or secrecy – as this murder was as well, but she still felt bad.

In her defense, she had tried. She’d told the Changeling – Emma Anglia – that she was working for the Trollhunter, that Gunmar’s rise would bring nothing toward the improvement of Changelings’ lives, that there was a place for her in Trollmarket.

She had a sizable cut down her breastbone from Anglia’s reaction, and a shoulder that had been wrenched when the woman had thrown her against the wall of an alleyway. The killing looked like a mugging gone wrong; Alex still had the woman’s wallet, but she’d thrown the earrings and necklace into the river. Anglia’s address was in the phone book and Alexandra had taken a look around, but there were only a few bits of paper and keepsakes in the hideaways she’d found.

Anglia’s verbal information, however, was startling. Alex knew that Bular was looking for the pieces of the Killahead Bridge, certainly, but she hadn’t known that they’d gathered enough to start building. And they were building it in Arcadia; no wonder there were so many Changelings about. It was rare to see two or more Changelings in a single state, let alone one town. This was very bad.

Anglia had had a fetch in her apartment, tucked away in a chamber only another Changeling could access. Alexandra spent two hours copying the woman’s handwriting before she sent a message through it, saying that she – Anglia – had received warning of a delegation from Trollmarket coming to investigate the disappearances of the trolls in Bath, and she had to run before she found the stone. It would keep Stricklander from sending anyone else for a while, and Anglia’s lack of communication would not be suspicious.

Alexandra got back to the London trollmarket and her temporary lodgings as night fell, and collapsed on her bed about a half hour before AAARRRGGHH dragged her back out.

“You look quite tired, Master Alexandra,” commented Blinky as she quaffed down an enormous mug of Turkish coffee which had been spiked with what smelled like lighter fluid.

“I’m good,” she replied, although her arms were beginning to shake. “Let’s get going.”

A/N: Got a few more references to the book in here. I love Blinky in that book; he’s even more verbose than he is in the show, and is delightfully and unintentionally rude, and is just as overdramatic as show!Blinky.

Fuck this was longer than I expected. I researched the shit out of ancient witchcraft and spells and the Roman Baths, which I only picked because I wanted to write about something I’d actually been to so as to make it more realistic, and now I know to how to find the difference between California and London time and more about the London Bridge(s) than I ever needed to know. It’s true, though, that they shipped and rebuilt the bridge from London to Arizona.

The thing about the curse tablets is true; there are many found in the Roman Baths in Bath, England, and a couple of them feature the only examples of written Celtic text, inscribed with Roman letters but in an untranslatable language. For the sake of this story I’m gonna call it Trollish.

The Roman Baths were really cool and we got to drink a little water from one of the springs there and I loved the architecture and the caves.

I hope you enjoyed the paragraph of library p0rn, because I sure loved writing it.

Going to have to split this up into two chapters, because I’m exhausted and don’t have the brain-space to keep writing for now. Sorry this took so long, but I’ve been a$$-fucked by work and school and there wasn’t room or time to write. Hopefully we’ll be hiring someone soon, so I’ll actually have days off again.

And I hope everybody enjoyed the eclipse! I went upstate to my favorite city and got to see totality! It was cloudy, for the most part, but still really, really cool and special.

#drabble #trollhunters #blinky #aaarrrgghh #vendel

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healthnotion · 6 years ago

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A New Generation of Prigs, Prudes, and Squares

Oftentimes when young people look back on the period of the 1940s and 50s, they see themselves as completely different than those who came of age during that time. And in many ways, they are. The rising generations hold far more progressive attitudes on issues of race, sex, gender, and more, and see themselves as quite a liberated group.

Yet in other ways, today’s teens and 20- and 30-somethings — Generations Y and Z — are in fact surprisingly like their midcentury counterparts.

Today we’ll take a look at how, and examine whether these striking parallels, and the fact that modern young people are a lot more prudish and “square” than is often appreciated, is a cause for pride, or concern.

Commonalities Between the Modern and Midcentury Generations

Morally “Clean” and Wholesome

While the popular trope is that “young people today are worse than ever,” this is decidedly not the case when it comes to common vices. Today’s younger generations are much more like the clean-living young adults of the 1950s than they are like their GenX and Baby Boomer parents.

Both Millennials (those born from ~1981-1996) and iGen’ers (~1997-TBD), are significantly less likely to smoke, drink, and have sex than previous generations.

When high school students in 1980 were asked which substances they had recently used, 30% had smoked cigarettes and 72% had consumed alcohol; today, those numbers are less than 20% and 40%, respectively. While in 1981, 43% of high school seniors had tried an illegal drug other than pot, in 2011, only 25% had done so. Just between 2008 and 2014, drug and alcohol use dropped 38% amongst teens.

According to a survey done in England, the number of young adults 16-24 who abstain from alcohol entirely rose 10% between 2005 and 2015.

At the same time, young adults are having their first sexual experience later, and having less sex in general. While in 1988, 60% of boys had had sex by the time they were 19, in 2010 that number was 42%, and overall, the number of sexually active 9th graders has dropped by almost half since the 1990s.

In iGen, professor of psychology Jean M. Twenge reports that “In fact, more young adults are not having sex at all”:

More than twice as many iGen’ers and late Millennials (those born in the 1990s) in their early twenties (16%) had not had sex at all since age 18 compared to GenX’ers at the same age (6%). A more sophisticated statistical analysis that included all adults and controlled for age and time period confirmed twice as many ‘adult virgins’ among those born in the 1990s than among those born in the 1960s. . . .

Even with age controlled, GenX’ers born in the 1970s report having an average of 10.05 sexual partners in their lifetimes, whereas Millennials and iGen’ers born in the 1990s report having sex with 5.29 partners. So Millennials and iGen’ers, the generations known for quick, casual sex, are actually having sex with fewer people—five fewer, on average.

The phenomenon of this “sex recession” has been found not only in the United States, but in other developed countries as well.

More Materially Than Existentially Minded

Members of Generations Y and Z may be dressing for work in gray cotton hoodies instead of gray flannel suits, but their desire for a stable job, and willingness to keep their head down to make good money, is remarkably like the midcentury men who once donned that corporate uniform. Similar too, is young adults’ focus on getting ahead over contemplating the deeper questions of life.

As Twenge reports, “Entering college students are more likely to say it’s important to become very well off financially (an extrinsic value), and less likely to say it’s important to develop a meaningful philosophy of life (an intrinsic value) . . . the differences are large, with 82% of 2016 students saying that ‘becoming very well off financially’ is important versus 47% saying ‘developing a meaningful philosophy of life’ is important.”

In fact, the number of college freshmen who said “being very well off financially” was important was the highest ever since the survey was begun in 1966 (a year in which only 45% of students said the same, and having a philosophy of life was rated as students’ most important value).

Comfortable With Censorship

The 1950s are often remembered for the period’s censorship movements — attempts to ban books and music that contributed to juvenile delinquency and purge public institutions of communist sympathizers.

Today’s generations, while ostensibly more open-minded, have become increasingly comfortable in advocating for the same kind of restraints on free speech — albeit in the service of very different targets. While Generations Y and Z are not concerned about things like pornography or communism, they do feel a desire to censor speech and media related to issues of race, gender, etc.

The number of stories in which college students protested a certain speaker coming to campus or called for the firing of a professor who said something deemed inappropriate are of course legion. But the evidence that young adults are less tolerant of unfettered free speech, and more sure of the idea that certain types of it can be “dangerous,” is born out in research studies as well.

While an increasing number of modern college freshmen consider themselves to be above average or better in their tolerance of different beliefs (about 80% of students rated themselves as such in 2016), about 70% believe that “colleges should prohibit racist/sexist speech on campus,” the highest number since the survey started in the 1960s. And 43% believe “colleges have the right to ban extreme speakers from campus,” a number double that registered in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

Other studies have found similar results. As Twenge shares, “The Pew Research Center found that 40% of Millennials and iGen’ers agreed that the government should be able to prevent people from making offensive statements about minority groups, compared to only 12% of the Silent generation, 24% of Boomers, and 27% of GenX’ers. . . . More than one out of four students (28%) agreed that ‘A faculty member who, on a single occasion, says something racially insensitive in class should be fired.’”

The Strengths & Weaknesses of the Rising Generations, Mirrors of the Midcentury

To those who are only familiar with the popular narratives surrounding the rising generations, it may be surprising to find commonalities between them and those of the mid-20th century. But for those who’ve studied the Strauss-Howe generational theory, it shouldn’t come as a surprise at all.

Formulated more than 25 years ago, the theory posits that 4 generational archetypes repeat themselves in a regular pattern, and predicted that Generation Y would mirror the Greatest Generation, and that Generation Z would mirror the Silent Generation (and that both these generations would be fairly similar to each other: the Silent Generation largely followed in the footsteps of the Greatest Generation, as iGen’ers have Millennials, though there are differences; GenZ is actually even more conservative about vice, money-minded, and comfortable with censorship, than GenY). “Mirror” generations match up with each other as to where they reside in the reoccurring cycle and share characteristics that, though they can manifest themselves in very different ways, emanate from the same archetypical “personality.”

Each of the 4 generation types that make up the cycle possess a unique constellation of strengths and weaknesses that are a product of the environment/circumstances under which it came of age. A generation’s weaknesses will push the pendulum of the culture’s zeitgeist too far in one direction; the strengths of the next generation then work to restore balance and push it back the other way . . . while their own flaws plant the seeds of new problems, which successive generations have to correct for in turn.

A generation’s strengths and weaknesses are not two separate things; rather, the latter are but the shadow sides of the former.

Generations Y and Z, who came of age during the Great Recession, were reared by overprotective parents, and learned that anything they said or did could wind up on the internet forever, evince a (literal and metaphorical) sobriety, prudence, steadiness, well-adjusted friendliness, pragmatism, and flexibility that contrasts with the more passionate, idealistic, but immature and ideologically rigid dispositions of Baby Boomers, as well as the more cynical and edgy bent of GenX’ers. (We should note that the Baby Boom and GenX generations have their own strengths in comparison to these younger generations, which were partly formed in response to the weaknesses of the Greatest Generation and the Silent Generation; around and around the cycle goes.)

Much good has come from the traits of Generations Y and Z. That they started to have sex at a later age may mean that fewer young adults got into a serious relationship they weren’t mature enough to handle. The teen birthrate has fallen 67% since 1991 (by half between 2008 and 2014 alone), and the rate of drinking and driving among those ages 16-19 is down 54%. Just since 2002, there’s been an almost 40% drop in drunk driving among all young adults of legal drinking age.

Teenagers take school more seriously; 9 out of 10 think it’s important to get good grades and nearly 84% now graduate high school — a record high. And Millennials’ sober approach to finances has them saving more, including for retirement, than Baby Boomers and GenX’ers, as well as carrying less credit card debt than past generations did at their age.

Contrary to popular belief, the divorce rate has been falling, not rising, over the last 30 years; those who married in the 2000s are so far splitting up at even lower rates (especially among the college-educated, of whom only 11% have divorced), and if current trends continue, nearly two-thirds of marriages will never involve a divorce.

So Millenials’ and iGen’ers’ frugal, stable, “wholesome,” ways have wrought laudatory behaviors. As the sociologist David Finkelhor argued in an op-ed for The Washington Post, the younger generations are “showing virtues their elders lacked . . . We may look back on today’s youth as relatively virtuous, as the ones who turned the tide on impulsivity and indulgence.”

Yet as with all virtues, these traits also have their shadow sides.

The caution and prudence of Generations Y and Z can unfortunately trend into over-anxiety and timidity — and this is especially true in the case of the latter cohort.

As Twenge reports, the youngest generation is simply less comfortable taking chances:

iGen’ers’ risk aversion goes beyond their behaviors toward a general attitude of avoiding risk and danger. Eighth and 10th graders are now less likely to agree that ‘I like to test myself every now and then by doing something a little risky.’ Nearly half of teens found that appealing in the early 1990s, but by 2015 less than 40% did.

iGen teens are also less likely to agree that ‘I get a real kick out of doing things that are a little dangerous.’ As recently as 2011, the majority of teens agreed that they got a jolt out of danger, but within a few years only a minority shared this view.

After studying iGen thoroughly, Twenge concluded that “They are obsessed with safety.” This abundance of caution emerges in data points like the fact that iGen’ers are less likely to get their driver’s license by the time they graduate high school, and to physically confront someone; “In 1991, fully half of 9th graders had been in a physical fight in the last twelve months, but by 2015, only one in four had.”

But Twenge notes that iGen’ers are not just concerned about physical safety, but emotional safety as well. And this carefulness, which Millennials also evince, and which extends to avoiding any anxious, or awkward, or hurt feelings, creates a trepidation about pursuing things of real significance — paths that lead to healthy adventure, personal growth, and vital fulfillment in many of life’s domains.

Take relationships.

As Kate Julian observed in her Atlantic Monthly piece on the “sex recession,” given that sex of every type and stripe is absolutely everywhere because of the rise of digital porn, it’s ironic that young adults are not only having less of the flesh and blood variety, but are seemingly becoming more prudish about engaging in what is, of course, a highly vulnerable act. Anecdotally, she notes, young people seem to be feeling more inhibited about their naked bodies in general, and are even much more likely to change behind closed doors at the gym than older folks. We are surrounded by sex, yet our age feels strangely unsexy; we can explore sex without taboo, but don’t know how to be sensual.

As Julian further observes, the fact that young people are having less sex may bespeak not only a decline in physical intimacy, but in the kind of emotional intimacy that leads to relationships of every kind.

Indeed, while about the same number of iGen’ers say they want to get married and have children as Baby Boomers did at the same age, and almost ¾ of college students would like to be in a loving, committed relationship, young adults are finding it increasingly difficult to engage in the face-to-face interactions required to make these goals happen.

Twenge reports that “The number of teens who get together with their friends every day has been cut in half in just fifteen years, with especially steep declines recently,” and that “18-year-olds are now going out less often than 14-year-olds did just six years prior.”

Young adults, used to being able to mediate their social engagements through technology — which allows them to control the conversation and edit their communications — are increasingly avoiding in-person interactions, which require the riskiness, and vulnerability, of responding on the fly.

Financially, risk aversion shows up in young adults’ reluctance to start their own businesses. We popularly believe that the rising generations are more entrepreneurial than ever, and it’s true that Millennials admire start-up founders and like the idea of becoming one themselves more than previous generations. But the number of young people actually starting their own businesses has in fact gone down over the last two decades, not up. As EIG co-founder John Lettieri told the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, “Millennials are on track to be the least entrepreneurial generation in history.” Young adults are increasingly putting the desire for financial security ahead of an interest in hanging out their own shingle.

Risk aversion can also manifest itself in greater conformity. The flip side of pushing for greater censorship in society, is that its silencing wind can blow back on you. Everyone becomes more fearful of accidentally making a verbal gaffe. It’s not surprising then that, as Twenge reports, “iGen’ers are more hesitant to talk in class and to ask questions—they are scared of saying the wrong thing and not as sure of their opinions. (When McGraw-Hill Education polled more than six hundred college faculty in 2017, 70% said students were less willing to ask questions and participate in class than they were five years ago.)”

Millennials and iGen’ers also show their increasing conformity in their diminishing ability to think and act creatively. Studies have shown that while IQ as well as scores on standardized tests like the SAT have gone up since the 90s, measures of nearly every aspect of creativity, including the ability to think flexibly, be playful, express emotion, daydream, generate new insights, elaborate on ideas, and deviate from mainstream patterns, has decreased over the last 25 years. Today’s young adults are smarter, and better test takers, but less original and unconventional, and more literal and narrow-minded.

The most worrisome aspect of the rising generations’ risk aversion is their desire to achieve external security at the expense of internal development. Generations Y and Z are not only much less religious than older ones, but as mentioned above, they prioritize the building of wealth over developing a philosophy of life of any kind. Young adults may be better behaved, but this “morality” seems to be driven more by fear (of messing up their lives/career prospects) than undergirded by a profound why.

That today’s young adults might feel they don’t have space and time to contemplate life’s great questions is understandable; according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, people don’t feel they have the freedom to seek transcendence and higher levels of consciousness until their more basic needs are met, and young people, raised in uncertain times, believe they have to keep their head down and focus on practical matters to get ahead. They’re too busy competing with peers, and hustling to make a life for themselves, to look up and reflect on the greater meaning of it all.

But while it’s true that people who come of age in more stable times have the privilege of greater room for contemplation, finding existential purpose should never be thought of as a luxury. It’s an essential for human fulfillment and happiness. It’s no coincidence that at the same time that students have been de-prioritizing developing a philosophy of life, and fewer believe they are above average or better in terms of their spirituality as did in the 90s, they’ve increasingly rated themselves as lower in emotional health than students did 20 and 30 years ago, and rates of anxiety and depression have statistically risen on campuses across the country.

When many young adults look back on the 1940s and 50s, they’re apt to think, “I’m so glad not to have lived in that time. Everyone seemed so stifled, repressed, and conformist, cultivating shallow relationships, and putting on a happy facade which hid a miserable, stagnant reality. The men lived lives of quiet desperation, not seeking much more than to commute every day to a boring job and work up the corporate ladder. That’s not the kind of life I want.”

But trade taking the train to a traditional office with taking a bus to an open-plan working space (with a ping-pong table but just as long hours), reaching for a bottle of whisky in a desk drawer with grabbing a bottle of Soylent, and making the neighbors jealous by parking a new Bel-Air in the driveway with posting pictures of an exotic vacation on Instagram, and the lives of folks then and now may not be so different after all.

Embrace Your Generational Virtues; Go Your Own Way on Their Shadow Sides

Ultimately, no generation is “better” or “worse” than another. Each has unique strengths and weaknesses that propel the cycle of generations, and history, onward.

As an individual within a particular generation, you ought to lean into your generational strengths, to embrace the role of reviving those virtues which previous generations allowed to wane. But at the same time, you want to be aware of the shadow side of these virtues, and intentionally work to mitigate the way these generational weaknesses can be detrimental to your personal character and well-being.

If you’re a member of Generations Y or Z, you should feel sort of honor bound to bring back values of modesty, frugality, prudence, responsibility, diligence, and consensus building. At the same time, you ought to watch that your sense of caution does not bleed into cowardice, that your steadiness does not steal your spontaneity, that your desire for security does not squelch an appetite for risk, and that your pragmatism does not end up as an excuse to ignore life’s deeper questions.

The children of younger Millennials and of iGen’ers will become the generation that parallels those who fomented the countercultural revolution during the 1960s, and even further back, catalyzed the Second Great Awakening in the 19th century. If the generational theory holds up, this generation will one day look with disgust at our lack of inner depth and passion, and will rebel against what they see as an empty, complacent, conformist, spiritually sterile society.

That cultural shift may be fated. But you might still individually buck the trend. So that your grandchildren will think, “Grandpa sure was a man of good character, a hard worker, a go-getter . . . who also really had soul.”

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Further Resources:

Our article on the Strauss-Howe Generational Cycle Theory

Podcast with Neil Howe about the generational cycle theory

Podcast with Kate Julian about the “sex recession”

Podcast about The Coddling of the American Mind

“How Millennials Could Be the Next Greatest Generation of Personal Finance”

“A Cause Without Rebels — Millennials and the Changing Meaning of Cool”

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