#the job itself is in the summer but they train in the spring so the interviews are now | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fourtyfourcatss · 1 year ago

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[██��█████ 100%] — [♥️] @sugutoad !

ଳ #how did the two of you meet? ଳ

The late summer storm left behind a trail of dangling tree branches, snapped and weak from the wind and rain. When you first met Toji, it was early in the morning, when the heat did not yet reach it’s greatest and the air still held some resemblance of mild temperatures. Anna Lee patted down her skirt nervously. The adrenaline of being in battle had not left her yet, and her hands still shook as she tried to fix her appearance to something more presentable before going out onto the street. It was a bit humid, and maybe slightly cold with the wind. This empty backstreet was Anna’s little base, somewhere she would unwind before getting on the train and back to Tokyo Prefectural High, and back to her job as a professor. She was somewhat of an early graduate, and started early, but high ranking sorcerers was always given priority, and so, this is just a little appeasement those old men gave in order to sway you over to their side. As if its ever going to happen.

Recently, there had been a spurge of high level grade ones and lower special grades appearing at this location specifically, and you, being the most free of the other teachers at the school and one of the strongest sorcerers, was assigned to combat the spirits here. Being the kind of individual she is, she accepted the order without protest, only to sigh internally from the sheer amount of work she must too. She already has an amazing tolerance for many things, and even with a determined individual like herself, it felt like she was trying to hold sand in her hands.

…Little did she know, a man without cursed energy had come across her trying to cheer herself up a little while ago from a distances away, from the window of his abode a few stories up.

He did not laugh, nor did he smile. But a rather peaceful sensation came over him at the moment. It only bloomed as his half-asleep son adjusted his position in Toji’s arms, head rested right against the place where Toji had held that emotion. He should have known at that point, that his fate was truly “sealed” by then.

He wasn’t enamored with you entirely then, but really, being so attracted to the mere figure of a stranger, isn’t that a bit, pathetic?

(No, it’s not, something whispers, bringing about the scent of petrichor and strawberries to his nose. It feels rather addictive to smell).

And finally, after weeks of hard work, the population of the curses dwindled as Anna’s investigation bore fruit. Spring was approaching, and the weather has set itself colder than normal, especially as the night dawned. Anna Lee shivered, bringing her phone to her ears.

“—This will be your last mission for this area,” a calm voice came from the call, “thank you sincerely, Anna.”

She had a slight grin on her face. “Of course, Principal Yaga!”

“However, I must ask you to leave the assailants to the police.”

“What?” A jolt of shock ran through her, “but… he will never get a proper sentencing then!”

It turns out, a cult had cumulated in this certain province for the past few years in secret, before officially moving here to begin “activities” in person. That apparently included the murder of a large group of selected masses each day, explaining how the cursed energy and spirits gathered up here so fast. If it not be for the existence of cursed energy, perhaps this event would have been buried, for the leader was a cunning man, with weird relations to curses, and even stronger ties to the judiciary system, enough to suppress the jujutsu society’s influence in that field. In the past few days, he had massacred….

more than a hundred lives. Not just a hundred lives, but,

children’s.

It’s enough to make Anna sick in her stomach; her other reason for this surreptitious behavior. She steeled herself, and secretly, snuck back into the cultist’s base.

But it had all fell terribly wrong.

There was not one, two, but three special grade curses. And out of the three… one had abilities that countered yours to a nigh perfect extent. A shedding technique that allowed all that grazed it’s user to shed off, essentially neutralizing your innate technique. The other two you had taken care of already, tricking them into attacking you one on one instead of grouping together. But your stamina has been exhausted, and you felt like a fraying piece of paper.

A blur flashed forward, and the special grade was in it’s knees.

That’s—

The man who had been watching her in the alleyway!

Anna Lee was not a dense individual. Although the man strangely held no cursed energy, a heavenly restriction she had heard that came from a family the Lee clan had planned to entangle her with, before relations broke down, she had noticed from the corners of her eyes his presence in the window. However, she did not say anything for it was she who intruded upon the space close to his property, and it seemed to hold the favorite view of the little boy who sometimes waved at her through it. There was no other clean spots either, so thus, she decided to stay where she was. After all, she wouldn’t come back after this.

SHINNG—

With a heavy strike, the curse was split into three jagged pieces, purple blood pooling onto the ground.

“…You don’t like feeling weak do you, princess,” he said, cheshire cat beam on his face, but it was rather tender.

…And that was how the two of you met.

Haha, did you get the hint I gave you? 🤭

ଳ #so, how is the couple now? ଳ

pretentiously happy and candidly. unlike popular interpretations, i think toji isn’t super verbal when in love. sure, he’ll drop the princess and sweetheart here and there, and the unrelenting compliments paired with a dashing smile. toji’s love language is an even mix of everything except gift giving. but as ive said before in my original matchup post for you, he’s indulgent in all the different but right ways. he’s tethering the line of gentleman and a tired but adventurous man. he’s a grade B tsundere, because he melts just too quickly to reach that grade A spot. the height difference is delicious too, and he’s definitely teasing you over it as all tall people do. definitely a bit obsessed with you, ever since he found out the marriage contract your families binded together when the two of you were teens, making him imagine how life was life if you had been in there, a bit sooner.

PLATONIC RELATIONS.

it leaves gojo absolutely heartbroken. no fucking way his teacher has this kind of man for a husband. this is the only time megumi fully unites with toji to gang up on this man together, absolutely grilling him to oblivion. he considers you a respectable adult, someone he can turn to when he needs guidance, and fully trust. he’s going to be very curious about your lineage too, since jujutsu families outside of japan is hard to find. he’s drilling questions into your ears early morning to late afternoon, and is very fond of you. shoko and geto are closer to you emotionally on the other hand, and the three of you have this silent roundabout way of communicating that leaves gojo winded and confused.

dear megumi absolutely adores you. he copies only the good parts of his dad, and treats you super respectfully but also slightly nonchalantly, megumi-style. but he secretly cares no matter the tsundere front he puts up, something he inherited from his dad. you are genuinely a mother figure to him, and, he adores you dearly. the two of you have days out together secretly whenever he’s feeling saddened or down, and every time, he gains more appreciative of your presence, supporting not just his stupid dad, but also him.

you and yuki tsukomo were partners in fighting in the past, and also, the best of friends. she loves your long hair, and combed it for you many times before, applauding the clothes you’d wear or hyping you up. she’s been the support you have always needed, and with her vibrant essence and your peaceful countenance, the two of you shook the jujutsu world together!

— if you want i can further expand on this tomorrow!

GRADE 1 | ANNA LEE | a fighter with the capacity to shoot into special grade, a living prison realm, however, the higher ups are still split about their own decisions regarding you, and have settled you there in case anything changes.

✧˚ · . DOMAIN EXPANSION:

-> a geometric embodiment of your cursed energy, compressed, drops from your hand and onto the ground, splashing, and suddenly, all around you, cursed energy taking on the effects of the cursing deep trenches compress around the battlefield. only you are exempt from it’s effects. that is it’s drawback. as you grow more accustomed to this ability, you can control the domain more and protect your comrades inside, but as it starts, it hits everyone and everything unrelentingly.

-> it is completely dark, and coral like shapes entangle your foes into place. but it is exceedingly magnetizing to look at. behind you, there is a bridge winding to a small but beautiful and intricate shrine. here, you are left with supreme choices you can take.

1. in exchange for all the cursed energy currently on you, leaving you incapable of fighting afterwards, you can seal any aspect of your opponent for as long as you’d like— forever. however, the strain of it is very strong, and you would need medical attention immediately afterwards and heal for weeks.

2. all those trapped in your domain cannot breathe deeply, as your cursed energy will automatically seal up their lungs, and they would explode from the pressure coming from the domain. not only that, the domain actively pushes away their cursed energy and techniques, redirecting it elsewhere. they are rendered nigh immobile from this domain, and since your energy is everywhere, you can attack anywhere and everywhere you wish. you can “seal” the movements of conceptual and even to the tiniest of physical objects for up to several minutes here.

3. jellyfish also spawn, which will sense and fight for you. their stings will poison and numb the opponent’s senses. thats because of the correlation of your cursed technique, which feels numbing, electrifying, like a jellyfish’s toxin, able to fell over 60 people in less than 2 minutes.

╰┈➤ WEAPON & technique expansion?

a whip sword, 4 feet long unextended, stretching up with your cursed technique. not only can you seal, you can also “unseal” in order to undo your own technique, and this applies in the sense of “unsealing” and “sealing” your weapon, being able to control how it moves and stretches with your innate technique.

ANY BINDING VOWS? none i can think of currently.

#jjk matchups #jjk #jujutsu kaisen power matchups #enjoy anna ♥️

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tenjiiku · 5 months ago

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My Love Burns for You in Clementine Park / alternate universe

Fushiguro Megumi is beginning to enjoy his mid fourties. He has found a suitable LDK a twenty minute jog away from his favourite restaurant since he was sixteen. The owners — a woman now in her early seventies and her son, a new parent — know him by name and treat him like family. (It used to bother him. The closeness. Now it is a refuge.) It is a two hour train ride to Tokyo, is five minutes close to the beach, and thirty minutes away from his older sister’s grave. One space away is Gojo sensei’s. He will lay between them, is the idea.

He has developed a routine of sorts. He will wake up before the sun rises to go on a stroll along the beach shore. Then, after he has stepped on approximately ten large rocks, ran his toes in the sand and his hand in the water (it is saltier here), he will ride his bicycle to the grocery store located five feet below his narrow complex, pick up a package of four, fresh eggs, proceed home and make himself an omelette. He will work his terrible, horrible remote job in which he lectures terrible, horrible college students on economics and, without fail, will always end the day at Clementine Park — where you wait for him.

“What are you reading?” He asks you today, seated awkwardly and stiffly beside you on a bench underneath a gingko tree.

You are an odd person. Ten years his senior. You slouch a lot so you are shorter than him in that regard — but if you straightened out you’d meet him the same. You own an obnoxious bright green coat, which you wear Summer, Spring, Winter or Fall. Megumi has known you for a year, but, truthfully, the only thing he knows of you is your love for books, your tendency to ask inane questions and expect ludicrous answers, and your utter and completely unjustified and unnecessary fascination with finding love in everything, in everyone — all the time; everywhere.

“Breasts and Eggs by Kawakami Mieko-san.”

“Oh.”

You giggle, uhming and awhing. You make small noises between sentences like that — never wanting a moment of silence to befall between you both. You turn to him, a smile drawn on your peculiar features, and Megumi finds his chest restrict itself. You are the strangest, loveliest thing he has laid his eyes on.

“The name’s a little interesting, but it is lovely, Megumi-kun.”

I don’t doubt you. He wants to say. Not even for a second. He thinks. Not ever. That is a little strong. But Megumi does not know how to ever direct his emotions. He keeps them inside, letting them out little by little for those he cares about. Rationing is key to survival.

But you smile again. And your eyes glisten as the mid-August sun colours your skin in its evening glow. You smell of the sea breeze and sweat.

“I see.” He says as a retort. He has to whisper it to save air.

You place your hand on his. He wants to be like this all the time. He doesn’t know how to stomach it.

“Would you like me to read it?”

Megumi nods, letting himself rest on your shoulder and closes his eyes.

If you want to know how poor somebody was growing up, ask them how many windows they had. Don’t ask what was in their fridge or in their closet. The number of windows says it all. It says everything. If they had none, or maybe one or two, that’s all you need to know.

#writing #megumi fushiguro x female reader #jjk spoilers #clearing the drafts #really this is just the result of finishing another kawakami novel

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colleenmurphy · 8 months ago

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Grey Queen's Court / It's Bitch Craft Verse

The Queen still doesn't have a 'true title' yet in my mind but it's slowly getting there. Trying to flesh out the court a little bit, so here goes.

The Henchmen / The Hounds - A band of merry trouble making young Dukes of the Grey Queen's Court. Take on a very dedicated canine appearance while in the mortal realm. Rescues from the Winter King's Court. Training under the Knave of Roses' tutelage.

Lord Petrus of the Greenlands / Thomaz Zieliński - A large nobleman that oversees the midsummer meadows later goes on to become the King of the Rose Court. In the human world he oversees the New York City Parks Department.

The Winter King Fergal the Winter Court / Francis 'Frank' Patrick Flannery - The raving lunatic that once held Col's hand in marriage. A true monster she's set out to hunt to the ends of the earth. Lives for pain and destruction of all that is good in the world. In the human realm he deals in all make and manner of crime and corruption, his latest is running a used car dealership in Hoboken NJ.

Lord William O' Good / Billy Goode - Personal assassin and loyal confidant to both the Grey Queen and King but also the Courts of Spring and Summer. A Secret Keeper in the Society of D'Nan along with his cousin Micajah 'Cage' Astwood / Lord Thistlewood of the Summer Court. Knave of Roses. Owns the local record store 'Goode Music'

Mary Colleen Murphy / Macha Danu Lady of the Roses - Daughter of the goddess Danu and the Imbolc Lord Machallan of the Grey Lands she tip toes precariously through the veils and Fae Courts. Balance keeper & karmic enforcer for women / Key Holder to the Rose Garden. Runs the tavern and bed and breakfast in a tiny little hamlet in upstate New York. Was once a force to be reckoned with in the mergers and acquisitions department of the large city firm. That was long ago before Frank ruined her. Now she'd found balance in the quiet.

Helene Marie Starling / Lady Helene of the Spring Blossoms ( Later Queen of the Spring / Green Courts ) - Daughter to king of the Spring court, King Hervé II and Lady Grace of the Autumn Court. Helene brings both balance and calm to both realms and is a steadfast confidant and best friend to Colleen. Without her vast knowledge of botany and herbology as well as her compassionate nature the world ( and Colleen) would be lost. Brings beauty to the unexpected. Guardian of children and small woodland creatures. In the mortal realm she takes the guise of a small town florist and specialist botany professor at large for the Swanmoore School as well as Chestervale College.

Elizabeth D'Ardenville / Lady Elizabeth of the Summer Court ( Later Queen of the Fae Fire Court ) - Steadfast warrior to her people and equally solid friend to Colleen. She is the spark of imagination in a child's eyes, the burning desire to succeed and the confidence to see it through. Without her mankind would grind to a halt and slowly extinguish itself. Guardian of the Hearth and home. In the mortal realm she exudes confidence and unarmed power; teaches yoga and self defense at the local civic center in weekends. Her day job? blown glass artist who oversees the Artisan Collective Board at Swanmoore School of the Arts as well as instructs the master class

#about colleen #bitchcraft verse

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elsternwick-rp · 4 months ago

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Elsternwick Summer Update! (07-12-24)

Good afternoon, everyone! We truly hope the past few months have been kind to you as the new season has rolled in and made things hot and unbearable! We at the moderation team have been quite busy, and apologize for taking so long to get a new update out, but the wait is over and we're here now! We've got a bit to talk about, so why don't we just get started?

New Arrivals (Circa 07-12-24)

The train has pulled into station, bringing with it many fresh new faces to Elsternwick, we hope you enjoy your stay here!

Byakuya Togami (Danganronpa) - Fuzzy

Homebami Toushirou (Touken Ranbu) - Vape

Pomni (The Amazing Digital Circus) - Rook

Fenlen Mahariel (Dragon Age Original Character) - Fionn

Sari Sumdac (Transformers The Animated Series) - Doot

Stitch (DC Comics, slightly canon divergent!) - Moogles

Celine Crosser (Original Character) - Ceres

Senshi (Delicious in Dungeon) - Doot

River Song (Doctor Who) - Moogles

Rae Taylor (I'm in Love With the Villainess) - Bee

Reserves

We also have a few reserves, hopefully soon, we’ll be seeing them, and look forward to whatever plots you may do with them!

Spock (Star Trek) - Fuzzy

Drops

Lastly, we have a few drops, sorry they didn't work out, but hope you had fun with them while they lasted! Kani Maki - Rook

Mochi Macciato - Rook

And that's all of the character related updates! As always, if you do not see your name on here, do not fret, let us know! Sometimes we get applications where we cannot reach the provided Discord, and there were a few situations where that happened, please remember to have an alternative way to reach you in your application!

Now, onto the rest of the updates, we have a few events ongoing, as well as a few coming up, so we're very excited and pleased to provide information on those!

Beat the Heat (Seasonal Summer Event: July - Mid September!)

As the overabundant life finally stabilizes with springs end, Summer rolls into Elsternwick, bringing with it blistering heat, strange things washing up on the shore, unique job opportunities... and plenty of ways to keep your muse cool during the inferno!

With a bizarre heat wave in Elsternwick, your muse might be encouraged to stay inside and indulge in hobbies, but you'd be missing out on some fun activities!

As always, the Fae of the Summer Court are visiting to celebrate the occasion, bringing with them mystical ways to keep your muse cool, but you'll need to do a favor for them, is that perhaps worth the risk?

If that's a bit too much, perhaps you'd be more interested in something by the beach? A pop-up board walk has made itself known on the beach outside of Elsternwick, the council assures you it's there for people to relax after examining the extreme amount of objects washing up on the beach, you could help investigate that... or take part in the various activities on the boardwalk! The food eating contest returns, there is a sand castle building competition, and there are rumblings of a watergun fight! No reason you can't have some fun in the sun! There's even a grill set up! Is your muse a real cook, or are they an entry level sous chef? Prove yourself!

However, there are a number of job postings around town, promising a high amount of pay to see the world and help discover lost artifacts, sounds like a good deal! And it might take you out of Elsternwick to some place cooler... but this sounds pretty sketchy, you'll have to think carefully if you want to take part in this!

An Ocean Fishing job posted proves that you could at least go out to see the sea... but is it really worth it...?

Lastly, if you don't mind going on a trip, a water park has recently opened in the town near Midnight Prism, a perfect place to cool down without any of the risks! There are a few reports of people going missing there, but it's very likely nothing, go on, it'll be fun!

As Above, So Below (Elsternwick Story Event: May - August 2024)

A number of earthquakes and tremors has rocked Elsternwick, causing problems with the underground infrastructure, creating potholes, fissures, and odd things appearing all over town!

These rumblings have unearthed strange things that have been hidden under your feet all these years, and the town requires you to investigate before they could become problems for everyone involved!

Reports of missing items and skittering underground have given rise to rumors of intelligent mice, and some have even say residents have already been transformed into rodents!

A fissure deep in the main district has opened, and beneath, you can see long lost and forgotten buildings... is this perhaps a long lost piece of Elsternwick's history? There's only one way to find out...

Mysterious sightings of ne'er-do-wellers emerging and exiting the sewer grates have unsettled the local merchants, they are begging you to investigate and put an end to it, even if some of them tip extremely well!

What lies beneath Elsternwick is truly coming to life, you should take the time to go down, and perhaps learn more about the town's history!

But you best hurry, the infrastructure is already beginning to heal, and the council doesn't want to put off fixing the holes for too long!

???? (Upcoming Event: August - October)

An extraordinary amount of odd objects have begun washing up on the shore of Elsternwick, treasure, lost weapons, and even solidified Mana, the cause of this is baffling the museum & Library, who are studying each of them, the effects of these items seems to calm an odd presence taking root within the library

It may behoove you to head to the beach in search of rare items.... but there are stranger things over the waves, strange ships you've never seen before are taking sail, and even when you head to the library, you swear you see books flying around

What could possibly be going on...?

You'll find out soon enough!

But you best take care, for as the winds of autumn approach, an ancient house within Delta may soon waken...

Update Done!

That about does it for all the updates we needed to put out! You may have noticed we lack the update to the character list (we're planning on changing to a google doc for ease of access!), this is simply because the past few months have been very busy, but we will get to updating it as soon as possible, and it will be present in it's own update post, we hope you'll look forward to it!

We hope you enjoyed reading this update, and we also hope the rest of your Summer season is amazing, be it with us or elsewhere!

Summer gives way to Autumn, and we of course have plans for there as well, including some interesting prompts for Halloween that might just be an odd reflection of what you're expecting!

We can't wait to see what you'll do with both our current and upcoming events! There's still more to learn about the little town on the edge of the nexus point, you'd be surprised what we have in store!

But until then, we hope the rest of your day is wonderful and relaxing!

We look forward to whatever you may be up to, both within and without Elsternwick!

See you again soon!

#elsternwick annoucements #elsternwick rp arrivals #elsternwick events #discord mfrp #discord multifandom rp #discord rp server #discord rp group

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glitxhwayventeen · 2 years ago

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The Taken One

Joshua

Characters: Joshua x female reader

Warnings: swearing, cultural adjustment issues, angst, two timing…? If you can call it that i dont know, soon to be sad Shua days

Author’s Note: So this chapter isn’t a whole lot of reader/Shua interaction. But the next chapter will be. And it’ll be more angsty and sad so sorry for that. Let me know what you think! Shits about to go down friends. Don’t forget to check out Kun’s The Taken One Part One after you read this one! Their parts go together

Please remember that all of these chapters and the content within them are a work of fiction! They’re just for fun/entertainment!

🥀

Paved With Good Intentions Masterlist

The Taken One: Part 2 & Part 3

Kun’s The Taken One: Part 1 & 2

Bold- Korean Dialogue Italics- Thoughts Orange- Mandarin/Cantonese

Tag List- @babyminghao

Usually after a long day full of classes, the stable minded boy would’ve just cemented down in his room. He would’ve wanted to mind his own business while doing his seemingly endless homework his teachers just kept assigning him undisturbed and undistracted. That was his usual routine. Usually.

But today, he felt an overwhelming need to head downstairs. It almost felt like his body would’ve just… shut down if he refused it’s urge. So, he made the unbelievably unprecedented decision to head down to the kitchen, where the very hungry energetic pack spent most of their time, to see what was going on. And boy, was he in for the surprise of his life.

——

You originally didn’t plan on spending the day at your home after your classes ended.

Training to be a translator was absolutely exhausting. It was one of the most sought after careers in korea due to the western influence becoming more and more popular by the day. People wanted to gain a job translating anything and anywhere they could. From YouTube videos to tour guides to teachers, translators were everywhere.

It was a bit of a culture shock in realizing translating in the countries native language for foreigners was a common practice. Back in your home country, there wasn’t much interest in speaking different languages. The main concern was getting a stable and profitable job you could grow to feed your family and allow them to move up in society. Jobs such as CEO or biochemist were the normal desired target for everyone your age. But you never did care about any of that.

Money, position, power. None of it interested you in the slightest. You just wanted to find a way to be useful and contribute what you could to make society a little bit better and easier for everyone.

So when the opportunity presented itself for you to become not just a translator for some random YouTuber, but the main translator for a foreign embassy, you jumped at the chance. You were a polyglot as it was because of your family background, so speaking several different languages a day was nothing new to you. Why not make it your calling in life?

You knew the schooling would be grueling and back breaking, but you figured it would be worth it if you could help people from different places communicate enough to create friendships and bonds that could be of use, something you never saw happen growing up because of the atrocities of war. You just had to get through it all in one piece.

So you had a full set of classes and because you were on a fast track program to quicken your results as per your future employer’s request, you got no rests. No spring, winter, or summer breaks. Just constant studying and memorization.

Despite that, you were doing very well grade wise and you had actually managed to keep up pretty well with the difficult material being thrown at you, unlike some of your classmates who you knew were just hoping to pass the classes with at least a D. Because you were already ahead, and because of your constant hard work and dedication to your future career, you saw no need to head to the quiet library to study. So you opted to go home.

It wasn’t until your former Korean language teacher stopped you as you began to walk out the glass push doors that you realized your new hopeful plans of a quiet night in would come crashing down to a screeching halt.

“_____!” She called just as you managed to guide one foot out towards freedom, causing you to stop to greet her on instinct.

“I need to ask a favor of you.” She panted once she got close enough to you to hold a proper conversation.

Internally, you wanted to scream because you just wanted to relax at home in your nice comfortable bed after having been at the university all day. You wanted to pull your hair out at the thought of having to do one more school related thing.

But you actually quite liked your old language teacher. She was a native of your home country and made adjusting to new classes in a different language easier for you, sometimes even staying far passed her scheduled working hours to work with you so you could nail your Korean tests. So you decided to comply. You always wanted to return the kindness she had showed you when you and your make shift family came to Korea as political refugees anyways.

You gave her as happy a smile as you could and opened your mouth to speak, “Of course Ms. Cai. What is it I can help you with?” You gripped the text books planted firmly in your hand a little harder to your chest.

“One of my exchange students from our neck of the woods is really falling behind and is struggling to grasp the Korean language properly. She really needs to pass the class and it would be such a shame to see her fail,” Ms. Cai solemnly replied, the worry on her face evident.

She always really did care about her students with all her heart. Especially the ones who came from a background similar to her own. Ones like you. Ones probably like the exchange student she was talking about.

You lightly cleared your throat to gain her attention and to get your voice started, “And I assume since you’re bringing her up to me that you’d like me to tutor her?” You replied sweetly, letting your tired heart and persona fade as you saw the sincerity pour out through her souled eyes.

She already knew how packed your schedule was and how hard what you were trying to do was to achieve. You knew she wouldn’t have bothered you if she didn’t think it was urgent. You knew she never would’ve even brought the idea up if she wasn’t completely desperate for your help.

She hurriedly nodded her head, eyes lighting up the second the words left your mouth, “Yes! Yes I would very much like you to! Would you be so kind?”

Between your school and family obligations, you were pretty packed when it came to timing. As much as you wanted to help your favorite teacher keep another one of her beloved students from slipping through the cracks, you just weren’t sure you had the ability to do such a thing. You were already spread paper thin as it was. How were you going to explain to your family you’d be away even more than you already were?

Noticing your hesitation, Ms. Cai spoke up again, “Please _____? For me? You were and still are my best student, if anyone can keep that poor girl from failing my class it’s you!” She pleaded, making it just about impossible to say no.

She had helped you through so much. Sure, moving to South Korea was hard for most people when they weren’t natively Korean but for you, it seemed damn near impossible. Your whole life had been turned upside down when you had to run with your family to safety.

Connecting to a new life that you had previously had no intention of having while dealing with the trauma of being on the run all but broke you. You had to be strong to keep your family together. You couldn’t show any of your pain to those you held most dear because you knew if they thought you could do it, they could too. But even marble had it’s breaking point.

And that’s when Ms. Cai was there for you. She was there for you as your teacher. She was there for you as your friend. She saw you struggling to gain the confidence to go on yet she pushed you everyday to make sure you felt as if you could actually do it.

She cheered you on through every test. She made sure you ate through every study session. She went with you to meet your counselors and advisors to be sure you’d be treated fairly and that you understood all the information given to you.

Hell, she was how you found out about the interpreting job at the embassy in the first place. How were you supposed to deny her a favor when she had all but kept you alive when you needed it most?

And besides, the whole reason you wanted to be an interpreter was to help people. How could you say no to someone clearly struggling to understand what was happening around her same as you had not too long ago?

“Oh you know i could never say no to you Ms. Cai!” You exclaimed, a half proud and half stressed smiled laced on your face as you announced your answer.

Your possibly too caring teacher nearly jumped in excitement at your declaration, “Oh thank you thank you thank you _____!” She cheered while pulling you into a quick rub crushing hug in celebration.

“I promise you, you won’t regret it! She’s a fast learner and she’s a really bright and smart girl. She just struggles with her Korean too much.” Ms. Cai babbled, trying her best to hide her previous enthusiasm.

Bowing your body slightly, you chuckled, “I’m sure she’ll make an excellent student Ms. Cai. I swear to do my best in teaching her so that she can pass your class.”

After Ms. Cai went on with another round of thank yous, promising to arrange and get everything set up for the both of you to converse, you bowed goodbye to the older woman and began to head out the front door of the school one more time as your teacher waved you out.

But as if a lightbulb appeared in your head, you stopped your movements once more to ask Ms. Cai a question that you had neglected to ask before you bud her farewell for the night, “Oh, Ms. Cai? What’s the student’s name so I can greet her properly when we meet?”

“It’s Genji, Xiao Genji.” She smiled, having no idea what that connection would later mean.

——

Bing Bing. Bing Bing.

You groaned, quickly smashing your alarm clock off. The thought of getting up and leaving your wonderfully welcoming bed was almost too much for you to bear.

But you promised you would do your best to help a drowning student. And you always kept your promises.

Letting out a defeated sigh, you managed to roll yourself off of your mattress and trotted out of your master bedroom to get ready.

Ms. Cai managed to get the girl and you on an email chain so you could speak to each other about meeting up. You both met at the school’s library that weekend to get the few meetings over with.

And they all went fairly well. You thought she was a nice, no nonsense person who, though you admittedly realized she could be rather pessimistic, was also thoughtful and understanding.

But, as your midterms were coming up, you started to increase your tutoring sessions as she really needed to catch up. And since the library was closed for some club event that weekend, you had to find another place to meet.

She offered to meet you at your place, but give your… current living circumstances, you quickly shut that idea down and asked to meet at her’s instead. She seemed rather hesitant to agree as well, something you found rather odd as you were certain no one else would have the same issues with others coming over to their homes the way you would. Though she eventually said she’d speak with her roommate and make it happen since she apparently really needed the extra help.

However, the night before the meeting was supposed to take place at her dorm, she messaged you saying a water pipe burst in the building she lived in and that she was now staying with her boyfriend and his friends for a few days while they did repairs. You offered to cancel and reschedule when she had her apartment back for her own sake, but she insisted that all his friends said it would be fine for you to come over to their place for your little tutoring session.

That’s how you found yourself standing in front of a rather nice house not too far from the campus. From the looks of the outside, you naturally assumed many people lived there as it was even bigger than your own home. And your own home was nothing to snooze at thanks to your newest little brother. You figured whoever lived at her boyfriends house must’ve just had a lot of family money or something and paid it no real mind.

But before you could even ring the front door bell, you heard a loud, deep growl emit from the door, causing you to take a few steps back. Genji hadn’t mentioned any about any dogs living on the premises. You started to second guess how well the session would go. Because actual dogs tended not to like you for… reasons you’d rather not bring up unless you absolutely had to.

When you managed to gain the courage to go back to the door and knock, you were met with an open door that Genji awkwardly stood in front of to greet you, “H-Hi _____!”

From when you spoke with her, she seemed relatively calm mannered and certain so the demeanor in which she had portrayed herself right off the bat had you confused.

But you just brushed it off yet again thinking that everyone sounded different over the phone than in real life. Not to mention you figured she must’ve been nervous having you come over to her boyfriends house rather than her own apartment, somewhere she no doubt would’ve been more at ease.

“Um Hi!” You uncomfortably swayed on your heels, gripping your books tighter in your hand by the second when thinking about a dog potentially coming out from behind the girl to attack you. Wouldn’t be the first time it happened.

After a what seemed like eternity of you both just staring blankly at one another, you cleared your throat, “Is it okay if- I mean, can I come in?”

Like she had just been sprayed with a bucket of cold water, Genji jumped at your question, “Oh yes of course! Please!”

You gave her a small bow as a thank you and she stepped aside to let you through the doorway, giving you a strange look when you were probably a little too cautious in your steps in heading inside. But in your defense, if you came home covered in dog bites and scratches, your family would be completely livid. You just wanted to play it safe.

Taking your surroundings in, you noticed just how spacious the inside of the home truly was, “I’m so sorry about that! I’m just not used to having people over here!” Genji admitted, snapping you out of your daze as she brushed passed you and pointed to the small rack against the wall that was about up to your neck in height.

“You can take off and leave your shoes here. They said we can use the kitchen. Most of everybody’s out of the house. The ones still here shouldn’t be too much trouble though! They’re the quiet ones. Mostly anyways.” She joked, giving you a half smile and a playful eye roll.

You returned the gestured and hurriedly started taking off your wedged heels. Genji seemed to be a few inches taller than you now that you were both on leveled feet, not that you were considered tall by any means yourself. In fact, by Chinese standards you were about average height, maybe a little bit shorter for your age. Genji was clearly above average height for your genetic class, not that it mattered to you. You just found the new height difference rather awkward. You were older than her yet your distance made it look as though she was an adult and you were just a child.

Grabbing the shoes you had just slipped off, she opened up a spot you could reach with ease for you to put your shoes in. You noticed immediately just how many pairs were already consuming the rack. Your guess about there being many people living in the home must’ve been correct. But you did wonder just how many people had to live there to fill up such a huge rack so easily…

Once the usual pleasantries/customary tasks were done, she lead you through the house to the kitchen. Truthfully, you could tell boys had cleaned the place up.

Things were wiped down but not in depth, stuff was folded but not neatly, pillows were fluffed but not fixed in place. You thought it was rather funny seeing how made up Genji and her perfectly styled hair and clothes were compared to the living room and kitchen.

Nevertheless, you appreciated the dedication grown men put into fixing up their house for their guests. Your own brothers would’ve only done cleaning as much as they had only if you forced them to.

“-And this is my boyfriend Junhui!” She beamed, going up and giving the very tall, lanky, and… familiar looking boy in the kitchen a kiss on the cheek.

Junhui, while returning the sweet sentiments of his girlfriend, was noticeably staring at you. And not just in an ‘oh hello you’re new’ type of way.

No, his eyes were deadlocked to yours in a way that’s only happened a handful of times when meeting people that you could count. You knew immediately what was going on. And based on his mannerisms and house size, your brain automatically recognized who he was. Or rather what he was.

You had heard about him specifically through your student multiple times. She never shut up about him actually, which should’ve been your first clue as you thought for a normal person she borderline had an obsession with him. But you had never actually seen him formally until you met him at the house.

Though as you took closer notice of his pointed features and height, you quickly realized you had actually already met him. More than once in fact.

He was an unofficial regular visitor of your home who always seemed to be eating your food and making weird jokes to your housemates that you didn’t always understand. You were usually too busy with homework, too scattered cooking dinner, or too wrapped up in keeping the others from fighting to actually have a proper conversation with him when he was over.

But you knew he was a pretty close friend of some of your brothers. He was from China same as you all were, though you knew they latched onto him like bees to honey for another particular similarity they all shared together. You were totally fucked.

Genji sensed the odd tension in the air and nudged her clueless partner in the side as a cue to say something or introduce himself by himself.

Yet all the boy could say was a small, “Hi” in your shared native language of Cantonese and continued with the staring.

You remembered some of the stories your brothers had told you and how the older boy acted in your home. So you were quite shocked the two paired together as they were practically polar opposites: Genji was stoic and stern, Junhui was sensitive and silly.

“Okay am I like… i dont know- missing something- or something here? Cause you’re both being really really weird.” She asked with her arms folded over her chest in a more confused notion than anything else.

That’s one of the things you did find that you liked about Genji, she always said what was on her mind. No matter how awkward or uncomfortable things seemed to get/could get from doing so. She didn’t seem to care about what anyone else thought. Whereas you on the other hand had practically been hardwired at birth to care what people thought of you.

You gulped quietly, unsure of how to answer your newfound friend without actually answering her out loud in case you read Junhui’s actions wrong. You assumed she knew what you knew based on how she spoke of her relationship.

But you couldn’t take the chance that Genji wasn’t clued in yet on the lifestyle you and her boyfriend shared. It could end up being a death sentence for your family if you did and ended up being wrong.

Finally, after realizing you weren’t going to, Jun managed to speak up, “Well… that’s just because she’s a friend Ji.” He deadpanned, probably hoping she’d catch up on her own. Which of course she didn’t.

She made a sound between a scoff and a snort, “Of course she’s a friend Jun. She’s my friend. I mean why are you two acting so… weird?” Genji scrunched her nose cutely up at her boyfriend.

He leaned down and kissed his naive girlfriend’s forehead sweetly, “Because she’s more of a friend to us than you realize baby.”

She tilted her head to him in confusion, but went on rambling about how he needed to learn how to properly interact with people and speak to them if he ever wanted to make friends with others. It was gonna be a long day for you

——

Aside from the strange encounter, the rest of the tutoring session went just fine. Well, as fine as you could be when your nerves were firing rapidly in every direction as each second passed.

But from Genji’s end, things seemed to be going well. You were having her practice her dictation and pronunciation more in depth this time as her upcoming exams was an oral rather than a written one and she was doing rather well. At least, for someone who hadn’t been in Korea for too long. You were happy with her progress anyways.

Junhui stuck around to watch his girlfriend work on her Korean, something he apparently from time to time also still struggled with. Every so often he would find her mispronouncing a certain word funny and he would giggle, but for the most part he stayed silent.

He did look to you every now and then when he thought you weren’t looking, probably due to your familiar background, but he still said nothing.

You were thankful Genji let the subject of your awkward first meet with her boyfriend go rather quickly, but you were even more grateful Jun didn’t voice what he meant fully out loud about you being more of a friend than she realized once he realized the reason for your hesitation. It meant you didn’t have to have that conversation yet.

You did have a feeling that it wasn’t the last of the conversation as you remembered the people in your house talking about how resilient on certain topics he could be when he wanted to be, but you were hoping to put it off as much as you could.

After everything you had been through and were still dealing with, you really didn’t need the headache of explaining it all and your life story to anybody in depth. Let alone someone who you had just become acquainted with.

Though, him knowing who you were gave you an idea of where that growl from earlier came from. He must’ve sensed someone, or something, foreign and potentially a threat and reacted instantaneously. You couldn’t be mad at him for it, you knew it wasn’t always something he could control.

“So _____, you’ve been teaching my Ji for a little while now and she considers you a friend.” Jun evidently pointed out to your amusement.

You found it cute that Genji thought of you as a friend already. It meant that she took to you easily and that you were doing your job right as a teacher. It wasn’t that you found her thinking of you as such as funny, you were actually glad she liked you as much as she did.

It was just funny that Junhui decided to break through the silence he had created around himself with such a random statement.

You laughed at the boy’s sudden outburst, “Yes I suppose I have. What’s your point?”

“No point really. I mean, she says you’re super smart and all-” He confessed, your cheeks lightening up a shade of pink knowing your level of knowledge had become a topic for them to discuss, to which you gave a polite smile and bowed your head to your student in thanks.

You always tried very hard in school as you wanted to be the top in your career field once you graduated. But sudden compliments weren’t something you were used to getting from anyone other than your family. You were rather used to handing them out to others. So it was a little bracing for you.

“-But she hasn’t mentioned a whole lot else.” He finished, illuminating the thought of him wanting the conversation to start picking up where he wanted it to.

“That’s because she really hasn’t told me anything else.” Genji mumbled in the conversation, throwing a playful glare your way.

While you were slightly annoyed that she was calling you out, you also knew it was semi justified. You weren’t one to make many friends outside of the small circle of friends you already had. You’d just told her the basics like where you were from, that you were in a long term relationship, and how long you had been in Korea for. But she had to practically pry that out of you with a crowbar.

She’d been trying to get more information out of you since you’d met her. It wasn’t that you didn’t want to tell her or that you didn’t trust her with the information. There were just some things you wouldn’t, or rather couldn’t, say to her. Only you couldn’t explain that to her without raising suspicions.

You sighed in frustration as you finally looked up from your paperwork to face the couple, “Well that’s just because I’m not all that interesting.” You informed them both, taking the mug of tea that had been given to you from the counter and bringing it to your lips as a distraction.

Jun laughed dryly, “Oh come on- We both know that’s not true,” He raised his brow at you.

Genji also raised her brow at you, not that she even knew why she was doing it to begin with. She just did it to play along, and you were starting to regret saying yes to tutoring your favorite teacher’s new student.

“I’m just saying, you’ve been at the school for sometime now but I’ve haven’t actually seen you all that much even though we run in the same circles. I just wonder why that is. ”

You knew what he was getting at. You knew. You figured he’d eventually try to get you to admit it. From what you’d been told, the tall boy was as stubborn as a mule at times and also couldn’t really keep secrets. Though you were slightly annoyed at him for it, you were at least grateful he wouldn’t outright say the words himself and that he’d rather have you confess it all out loud.

While setting your tea back down, you shrugged, “Like I said, I’m just not all that interesting to talk about. So it makes sense that you haven’t heard much of or seen much of me before.”

Junhui chuckled lightly, “Oh I’ve heard of you before. Just haven’t actually seen you so up close before.”

Bringing the subject back to where she was interested, your friend continued the conversation, “Well being here as long as you have you must’ve made friends with people no?” Genji innocently tilted her head in wonder.

She still was obviously not catching on to why her boyfriend really even cared about such things but, as she was just as curious as him, she figured she’d piggyback in on the ‘getting to know you’ talk.

“Not with anyone that didn’t come here with me no.” You answered honestly while playing with your mug.

You mostly kept to yourself. Aside from those you came from China with and a select few teachers, you really didn’t speak with many others. Communication wasn’t the problem, your Korean was near perfect. You made sure it was so that you and your family could understand more about the culture you had been thrown into to survive.

You just preferred to not go out so you wouldn’t have to deal with possibly meeting certain groups you had been warned about. You didn’t want to risk running into specific complications and refusing to meet people when you could cut them out.

Plus, your housemates had… certain rules you all had to abide by. One of the most important ones was that no one could go anywhere without one of the males living there for protection. You were even nearly forced to bring one of them along with you to your tutoring sessions. But you finally managed to have them reel in their overprotectiveness by bringing up the fact that the girl you were tutoring was also from your homeland and that she couldn’t hurt a fly. So they reluctantly let you leave the house without a guard dog.

And just like that, Jun found his opening to ask questions that went along with what he really wanted to know, “Oh you came here with people? Who might they be? We might know them since they’re probably all Chinese too.”

There it was. You had thoughtlessly brought the questions you so dreaded into easy conversation with one simple sentence while you were too busy trying to distract yourself from being uncomfortable. Well played.

For a minute, you thought maybe you should create some sort of emergency reason for you to leave in a hurry. You thought maybe you could’ve faked a message notification saying that you were needed back home. But realistically, you knew the truth was bound to come out one way or another.

Since you could already see there was no way out of your situation, you decided it was just best to steer into the skid. Junhui already knew. And if he hadn’t told his girlfriend yet and still wanted you to admit it all out loud and risk her freaking out, that was on him.

“Okay you want the truth?” You questioned them for once, wanting to just get it all out in the open quickly so you would just be done with the topic.

After they both shook their head yes, with Jun giving you an evil smirk to go along with his like the asshole you knew he was trying to play, you rose from your seat and continued, “Fine. If you must know, I came here from China with another wolf pack to escape the escalating war we found ourselves in. That’s all I’m gonna say about that part for now.” You declared with a humph, sitting back down and fixing your outfit.

There was a silence so thick you swore you could cut it with the knife. Jun already knew you lived around wolves. That was something he figured out from his constant visits to his friends at your home. But it was news to Genji.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She quietly quizzed, her voice barely above a whisper as she tried to concentrate on the Hangul ridden paperwork in front of her instead.

“I didn’t even know your own situation until I saw your boyfriend today. It’s not like we just tell people about it if we aren’t required to tell them. So i didn’t.”

It was another pack rule: don’t talk about wolves or their existence to outsiders. People didn’t take too kindly to them, which was why hunters also existed in secret to kill them off.

And since you didn’t want word to spread to them and potentially have them come after your family, you hadn’t ever told anyone about the boys being wolves. Other outsiders you knew who knew about them knew because they were either related to them themselves or romantically involved with them.

“I get that,” she nodded in understanding before looking at you in the eye, “I mean why didn’t you just both tell me when you walked in and figured it out?”

Once again, the silence could make a pin dropping to the floor a loud noise. You felt bad for seeming like you were hiding it from her. Even for that little bit you were there. But it was what it was. You couldn’t turn back time. Besides, it wasn’t like you were the only one hiding it and beating around the bush.

Jun cleared his throat causing her to give him her attention while he gave his mate a guilty look, “Well even though I knew, it didn’t mean it was my place to tell. It’s not like she’s a threat to you or anything. So I just figured I’d bring it out into conversation to make it more natural. Though, based on her smell, word of mouth, and the fact that I’ve been to her place before, I know already know exactly who ___ came to Korea with.”

After about a minute of direct eye contact with him, she turned her gaze back to you with an expectant face. You wanted to say something. You knew you had to say something.

Though instead, you bit your bottom lip in nervousness and felt butterflies erupt in your stomach. Your heart was beating so fast you felt like you were gonna pass out from sheer anxiety, or at least what you could only pin point as anxiety. You didn’t even know why you felt that way. It wasn’t that you didn’t want to tell her. It wasn’t that you were ashamed of anything either. You guess you just… didn’t see the need to tell people anymore about your pack than you had to.

When you opened your mouth to say something back to them, nothing came out. Instead, you heard something small that resembled a squeak emit into the room at the same time. Only it didn’t come from you. It came from behind you.

Turning yourself over in your chair, you noticed a toned boy only a bit shorter than Jun with a glittering gaze staring directly at you in shock.

He had stepped on an older floor board causing it to make a noise that alerted you to his presence. And boy, what a presence it was.

His piercing eyes, plump lips, and perfect nose were enough to make a grown man weep. He was just so pretty. In fact, he might’ve been the most attractive boy you had ever seen in your whole life.

Being in the same vicinity as him made it feel as though time had stopped moving. It made you feel nervous and excited all at once. He made you feel like you and him were the only people in the room…

While you were both too busy taking in each other’s appearance, time had actually still been moving forward for the other two people left in the room.

“God damn it Shua Hyung. What did you do?” You heard Junhui rhetorically mumble under his breath in Mandarin, much to the confusion of his mate, who had still yet to figure out what was happening.

But you knew. You knew all too well what was happening. You had known since you were young what the feelings you were having were….

“H-Hi.” He stuttered to you.

The sudden volcanic eruption of fluttering in your stomach. The enchanted stare the beautiful boy was giving you as he spoke in his stuttering tone. The speed of your heart beating. It all added up easily.

There was just one problem…

“H-Hello.” You wearily responded back to him.

You had already felt the feelings you were feeling before. And the bite mark on the apex of your neck was an all too painful reminder of it as you stared the beautiful boy in the eyes, unsure of what you were supposed to do next.

(Edited 3/18/2023)

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whataperfectwasteoftime · 3 years ago

Text

Born to Run / Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Pairing: Marcus Pike x Marathon Runner f!reader (no y/n)

Rating: E for eventual smut

Word Count: 2.2k

Warnings: TW: Attempted assault (EVERYONE’S OKAY), creepy person being creepy, one punch, some light injuries sustained by reader, the beginnings of pining!Marcus.

Summary: A long training run on your favorite bike trail is interrupted. Marcus discovers the source of the scream and develops a lil crush.

A/N: And we're off! Thank you so much to everyone who said they wanted to be tagged in this! I've never written this much at one time in my LIFE. I'm sure updates will slow down as I am forced to stop writing and get caught up on my actual job that I'm supposed to be doing right now. Let me know what you think. I have no idea if the pacing is too fast, too slow, or just right, if the characters are believable, or basically anything, really. Turns out it's hard to make a silly fantasy in your head make sense as a fleshed out story! Who knew? Not me!

Prologue | Chapter 2

Marathon Training, Week 10

Long run: 13 miles

You

Harder. Faster.

Almost… there…

You tried to control your shaky breathing as you neared the end. You'd been at it for nearly two hours now and you were starting to really feel it. Your legs burned with effort. You were so close...

In-2-3-4, out-2-3-4.

Just one mile to go.

Signing up for a marathon (and signing your entire summer away for training) always seemed like a good idea in the beginning. During the first long runs of the beastly 18 week training plan, you were still fresh with motivation, with excitement, keeping your mile splits fast and your strides light and long. Now, at week ten, almost exactly halfway through the training program, the runs became harder, and longer, while your energy and motivation took a dive. The repetitive nature of the sport easily lent itself to tedium, causing many runners to ‘hit a wall’ as the weekly mileage increased to peak at twenty miles--only 4 weeks away for you. You willed yourself to keep putting one foot in front of the other. One more mile. Should be easy after seventeen of them, right? No problem. In about nine minutes, you can be drinking water and sitting down. Nine minutes. You can stick it out for that long.

You always joked to people who were shocked at your hobby of choice that your running skills were fueled by stubbornness and spite. You never felt like much of a natural athlete, so you considered your abilities to be hard won through years of resilience rather than through any innate talent.

Maybe you were politely asked at fourteen not to try out for the volleyball team for the second time, but you'd be damned if you couldn't wake up in your thirties and run more than a half marathon on a Saturday just for the hell of it.

You started today's run just before the sun's first light was starting to make its way across the sky and the last few drops of rain fell from the clouds above. An early spring thunderstorm had passed through just prior to starting your run, and as the sun began to rise, it bathed the departing clouds in pink and orange hues, giving the well-worn running trail an otherworldly glow as your GPS kept a running tally of the rising mile count in your ear. The threat of more rain must have discouraged other early morning runners, because for once, the popular trail was yours, and yours alone.

With the tempo-driven music thumping in your ears to the beat of your steps, you missed the pleasant sounds of a forest coming to life after a storm. The birds had begun their song, and far in the distance, a rooster crowed to signal the sunrise. With every gentle caress of wind, droplets fell onto the trail with a plop-plop-plop. The little frogs around a nearby pond beside the rather ornate cabin you sometimes admired (when it was visible, which was only when the leaves were absent in winter) were chirping again, but you didn’t hear it over the fast-paced music you’d curated with the sole purpose of driving your steps forward.

Now, the sun had officially risen, decorating the well-shaded trail in speckles of sunlight. Small rays filtered through the still-new leaves of May and flickered in your eyes occasionally, blinding you in small doses as you ran.

It was during one of these moments of split-second blindness that you made out the vague shape of another person ahead on the trail.

Marcus

Without giving much thought to the consequences, Marcus jumped out of the porch chair upon hearing the scream. His empty coffee cup toppled off his leg and rolled in a wide semicircle along the ground as he jogged down the stairs, coming to a stop only when the handle met the wood. He hurried as fast as he could in the flimsy slippers he was wearing towards the dirt path leading into the woods. Leading to the advertised bike trail? Marcus wasn’t sure, but it made sense. Was it someone on the trail who had screamed? He raced along the path, trying and failing to avoid the wettest areas, and caking his slippers in mud in the process. After a few too-tense moments of running on the slippery ground, Marcus finally burst through the trees onto a flat, paved trail and discovered the source of the scream.

You

As your vision focused on the person in front of you, the first thing you noticed was that they were not moving, and you registered that as being odd. They weren’t walking, running, or biking, as one would expect, but standing stock-still, on the same side of the trail as your approaching form. That was the first red flag. The next thing you noticed is that it was a man, staring directly at you. The unbroken stare from this unmoving obstacle caused a heavy stone of dread to sink down into your stomach and stay there. Remain calm. Remain calm. You purposefully pursed your mouth into your best ‘don’t fuck with me’ expression and avoided eye contact. He was still there, still there, still not moving, still staring as you purposefully passed onto the other side of the trail to give this creepy man a wide berth. Don’t acknowledge, don’t react. He was still not moving, still star--

His hand suddenly shot out and grabbed your arm as you passed. “Why are you in such a hurry, sweetheart?” he drawled, and you made the mistake of looking into his eyes, despite all your efforts to avoid it. His eyes were strangely vacant, his pupils dilated. There was still no one on the trail that you could see, but you hoped that another soul was just around a curve, or that someone in one of the wooded lots was awake and could hear what you were about to do. You took a big breath, and let out the loudest scream you could muster, hoping that someone would hear it.

“QUIET,” the man growled, tightening his grip.

“Get OFF me!” you shouted through clenched teeth. You had no idea how to throw a punch. Why would you? You’d never been in a fight in your life. Your knowledge of how to hit someone came only from watching movies, but if there was ever a time to reach inside yourself and pull out Captain-fucking-America, this was it. You awkwardly reached back with your free arm, and swung your fist with all your strength at the man’s face, sending him staggering back holding his now-bloody nose.

Your hand exploded with pain. They never mention that in the movies. They just punch and punch and punch until the fight is over and someone is down. But in real life, it fucking hurt. In real life, you didn’t have any super-soldier serum (or any knowledge of fighting), you were just a runner who put all of her strength behind an admittedly unpracticed swing, and it showed. Ouch, ouch, fucking-OUCH.

But, awkward and unsteady as it was, it worked. You wrenched your arm out of the man’s grip and took a few desperate steps forward, but the adrenaline coursing through your veins after nearly three hours of running made you shaky and unbalanced. You stumbled, of-FUCKING-course, and tripped over the toe of one of your shoes. Your elbows took the brunt of the fall and you felt the skin scrape over the rough asphalt of the trail as you lurched to your feet again, this time successfully putting one foot in front of the other without falling. You launched yourself away from the man and started to sprint at full speed down the trail. You barely made it a few wild steps before another man, this one wearing only pajamas and mud-caked slippers, rushed onto the trail from a small footpath.

Marcus

Marcus held out his arms in a way that he hoped was reassuring, signalling you to stop. His gaze was leveled on the man (still bleeding from his nose) who had attacked you. He barely had time to take in the scene before the man, rendered powerless now that he had an audience, frantically took off in the other direction.

“HEY!” Marcus shouted, starting to pursue the assailant as he fled. The other man hopped a small wooden fence and began crashing through the thick undergrowth. Marcus ran up to the fence and hesitated, turning to look at you, your chest still heaving with exertion, clenched teeth and fists, and equal amounts of fear and fury in your eyes. He looked down at his muddy footwear and decided to make sure you were all right, rather than give chase. It wasn’t that he doubted his ability to catch up to the man while running through brambles to God-knows where in only his pajamas. Nope, definitely not. He balled his fist and let out a frustrated “Shit!” before turning and hurrying back to you, standing alone on the trail.

He held out his arms toward you again--but purposefully not crowding you--in a universal sign of openness, and asked in a soft voice, “Are you alright? Are you hurt? Did he-”

“I’m okay. I’m- I’m okay. He grabbed my arm and I… I punched him.” Still not quite catching your breath, you glanced down at your hand, which was beginning to swell angrily, and hissed through your teeth. The sudden attention to your injuries, combined with the retreating adrenaline in your system, made your hand throb in earnest. Funny how wounds never seem to hurt until you notice them.

“Perfect. That’s perfect.” Marcus nodded reassuringly. “I heard your scream. You did exactly what you were supposed to do. You did great.”

You managed a shaky smile at his words, and looked down at your hand again. “No one ever tells you how much punching hurts,” you said with a small huff of laughter. He smiled in kind, and the still-bruised knuckles on his right hand from his stupidity earlier that week gave a little throb of sympathy.

Suddenly feeling weaker than you cared to admit from the waning adrenaline, not to mention the grueling run, the events of the attack caught up with you and you put your head in your shaking hands. “Oh, my God. Ohhhh fuck. Jesus, I can’t believe-- that fucking--”

“Hey, hey-- I know. You’re okay. You’re safe. I’ve got you.” Marcus moved in slightly closer, still being mindful of his body language and his distance from you. At the words, I’ve got you, you looked squarely into his eyes for the first time, and Marcus felt a slight frisson of electricity as your wide eyes searched his. “I’ve got you,” he repeated, a little gentler still. You gave him a tiny nod and the corner of your mouth twitched upward a fraction. “Listen,” he continued, “I’m going to call the police. I’ll give them the address of the cabin I’m staying at so they can find us on the trail. It’s just back there--” he gestured vaguely in the direction he came from, “and I can tell them to head back towards us.”

You nodded again. “Okay. Thank you, really. I don’t know what I--” you huffed out a breath instead of finishing your thought. Marcus took in your sweaty, disheveled form. You were red in the face, still breathing heavily, with bits of hair sticking up in a way that would have looked comical in other circumstances, and your hand looked to be in bad shape. Yet, you had an obvious strength in the way that you held yourself, giving the unmistakable impression of power and poise. An athlete. As he watched, a bead of sweat from your forehead gained enough momentum to make its way down the bridge of your nose, and Marcus suddenly had the intrusive urge to touch it with his finger, transferring the small drop to his own hand. He mentally chased away the thought as you brought your own hand up to scrub at your face, dispelling the bead on your nose (and a good portion of those still on your forehead) in the process.

He shook himself. Not the time or the place. “We should get some ice on that hand, and I can get you some water, too. I- I want you to feel safe--I can bring you ice and water, maybe some bandages from the house. You can stay here, or you can come with, if you’re comfortable? Get cooled down, have a seat on the porch... Either way, I’m going to stay with you until the police come, okay? I want you to feel safe,” Marcus said again, gently. “Okay?”

You seemed to mentally shake yourself, dispelling some of the fear, discomfort, and leftover adrenaline still coursing through your veins. Your shoulders straightened imperceptibly, and your chin canted upward slightly, giving off a renewed aura of tenacity and toughness that Marcus found troublingly endearing.

“I, uh-- Heh. You uh, you had me at ‘water,’” you said with a small huff of laughter and a lopsided, wry smile. “Lead the way?”

Marcus couldn’t stop the smile that graced his face at your words and at the way you were clearly trying to dispel the events of the morning with humor. He stuck out his hand. “Marcus, by the way.” You swallowed and reached for his hand with your uninjured one, and shook it. Marcus tried and failed not to notice the softness of your palm on his, the firmness of your grip, and the fact that your hand, like the rest of you, was absolutely covered in sweat. Hands still connected, you gave him your name in turn. Marcus repeated it softly, then added, “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Thank you… Marcus.” You said his name while looking directly into his eyes again. Was it just him, or did the direct eye contact last just a fraction of a beat too long this time? When you finally dropped your eyes, was there a little bit of shyness lurking there beneath your lashes? Was he imagining things?

He was in trouble.

Tagging:

@deepstarsco , @thirddeadlysin , and @honestly-shite

#marcus pike #marcus pike fanfic #the mentalist #marcus pike x reader #marcus pike x f!reader #marcus pike x you #pedro pascal #pedro pascal fanfic

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sunfish-studies · 3 years ago

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Greed

✄・・・ Feathery Ink [Karasuno Manager Series]

➜ Pairing: Karasuno x Manager! Reader

➜ Warning: none

➜ Notes: This is a separate series from Crisp Leaves. Similar to Crisp Leaves, manager in this story will be portrayed as a girl. She will be tall. This is just my appreciation towards tall girls, you guys are amazing.

Previous: ‹ Acceptance › | Next: ‹ Moonrise ›

↷ SUMMARY ↶

Hinata’s overwhelming greed to grow–will it be a blessing or a curse for the team?

As the temperature rise, so was the tension–at first you didn’t really acknowledge the heaviness present in the air, but now it was suffocating. Your team certainly had it around them at first, however it now increased tenfold after Hinata bumped to Asahi for the ball. The prickling in the air almost felt as if it was scratching your skin.

“I wasn’t imagining the tension between Hinata and Kageyama-kun, right?” Yachi asked uncertain, but Shimizu nodded in agreement.

“Yeah. But it’s not just Hinata and Kageyama. Ever since Hinata and Azumane bumped into each other, they’re all on the edge.”

“That, and Hinata-kun just blurted out what everyone’s thinking right now,” you added, making the two turned to face you. “Hinata-kun wants to rapidly change, if everyone couldn’t keep up or made their presence clear in front of him…”

They’ll be eaten by that overwhelming greed the orange-haired boy has.

When the penalty was over, you quickly distributed the water bottles and towels with Yachi while Shimizu handled the notes. The absence of Hinata, Kageyama, and Sugawara were clear because as soon as they finished their penalty, the third year asked them to have a private chat outside the gym.

“Azumane-san, you felt that, right?” you asked the older boy, handing his water bottle. “The feeling of being eaten up.”

“Yeah,” Somehow, Asahi didn’t really surprise hearing those words from you. For him, you’re rather different–maybe it’s because you’re quite knowledgeable about volleyball and a quite observant person.

“I think you should try putting him in his place,” hearing those rather bold words from you made his eyes widened.

“P-putting him to place!? L-like scolding him? I don’t think I can.”

“N-no, just declared out loud that the ball is yours? From what I saw, Hinata-kun is trying to steal that ball away from you. You need to tell let him know that it’s not his.”

Asahi fell silent at first, thinking over and assessed what you just said. He found that you’re right–it’s ace’s job to get everyone in the team grounded. He gave you a smile and a nod. “Yeah, I’ll try. Thank you for the insight, [Name].”

“Oh, Hinata-kun, let me see your chin!” Asahi then watched you jogged towards the shorter orange-haired boy.

“Huh? Why?” he asked in confusion.

“You hit it when you’re doing the diving drills, right? At least let me check if it’s bruising or not.” You bent down to take a closer look, although still keeping a respectful distance from the boy so he wouldn’t be having a heart attack.

“A-alright, thank you!”

Your team didn’t stay for too long–once the last practice of the day was done, all of you were already packing to return to Miyagi. This practice camp was short, but you heard Coach Ukai mentioned that it would be even longer the moment summer vacation started–at that time, you will be staying around for a week.

Huffing, you lifted up a big luggage with the team’s necessities and began walking towards the bus in the parking lot. Ennoshita mentioned that if anything’s too heavy, you should ask for someone in the team’s help–however you were reluctant, especially after knowing all of them were certainly tired from practice match and diving penalties.

“Here, let me help you,” suddenly, the weight was removed from you. You were greeted with Akaashi’s figure with the bag in hand, you almost felt jealous on how he could carry it with ease.

“Thank you, Akaashi-san,”

After that you didn’t exchange any word as you approached the bus, but the silence wasn’t uncomfortable either.

“So, how is it being the manager?” his question threw you off guard, not expecting him to start a conversation.

Laughing nervously, you replied. “It felt like being thrown into a room full of color and being doused in ice bath.”

Once again, you didn’t expect him laughing slightly at your metaphor. You cursed the moment you laid your eyes on his figure because how can someone be so goddamn gorgeous from just laughing. Your heart skipped a bit and blood rushed to your face almost instantly.

“I could relate to that,” he hummed. “Especially having someone eccentric in the team, like Bokuto-san for example.”

“Hey, hey, hey, Otohaku-chan!!” As if being called, the mentioned boy jogged towards the two of you. Akaashi put the bag onto the ground after asking if it’s okay to do so. “Be sure to join the summer training camp so you can cheer on me, alright!?”

“That’s a wrong thing wrangled into one sentence.” Kuroo commented, accompanied by his infamous smirk. “And why would you drag other team’s manager when you already have two?”

“Please don’t request anything weird to Otohaku-san.” Akaashi deadpanned.

“What?? Why!? The only one here’s nice enough to compliment me is Otohaku-chan!!”

“You pushed her into doing so, Bokuto-san. Otohaku-san, if he’s bothering you feel free to ignore him.”

“AKAASHI!!”

“Well, Bokuto do have something correct, though,” Kuroo folded his arm across his chest. “Be sure to join the summer training camp. The more, the merrier, you know?”

“I will,” you smiled. You had no reason not to join–a manager’s duty is to help the team grow by letting their mind off doing mundane things, so you would do your best to support your team.

Kuroo’s hand reached out, finding itself on your head again and ruffling lightly. “Then we’ll be waiting.”

“[Name]-san is already good friends with Fukurodani and Nekoma’s captain,” Ennoshita, who watched the interaction from the sidelines, commented. Sugawara and Sawamura nodded in agreement, smiling proudly. You were known for being rather reserved, but seeing you began to have more friends were a huge development.

“It’s good she begins to open up and make friends, but,” Ennoshite flinched from the murderous atmosphere surrounding Sugawara. “I hope they could limit the physical contact with our dearest manager, though.”

“Right? They’re too close to my liking.” Sawamura added, smiling but with menacing intent.

“Whoaa!! You’re so tall!” as if the world was trying to spite the two, Lev joined into the picture–his hand found yours and immediately had them in his grip. “And pretty!”

Ennoshita had to refrain Sugawara and Sawamura from murdering the oblivious first year.

It was quite late at night the moment all of you were back at the school. Assuming it was late, you didn’t have any reason to stay longer and need to go home as soon as possible. However, noticing how the gym was lit, both you and Yachi decided to check it out–finding Kageyama and Hinata were in there with net fully set along with volley cart.

“Huh? You two aren’t going home yet?” Yachi asked.

“It’s quite late. You should get some rest instead.” You added, knowing how harsh the practice match and penalties combined together.

“Yachi-san, [Name]-san, if you don’t mind, could you throw us some balls?” instead of answering, Hinata requested some help.

“Huh? I can do that?” Yachi yelped.

“You just have to throw the ball above Kageyama’s head.” Hinata pointed out.

“S-sure, I’ll give it a try.”

“If you’re tired, switch with me, Hitoka-chan.” You said and she nodded.

Yachi throw ball after ball for Kageyama to toss while Hinata tried to hit it–and he failed. The ball didn’t sync at all with him, his movement didn’t fully pull out because he’s too focused on the ball. It’s not just second or third, with every ball being tossed, not once did Hinata successfully spike it.

“One more time!” Hinata called out, however there’s no ball this time because they already used it all.

“Instead of practicing an attack we’re not sure you’ll ever be able to do, you should be working on the attacks we’ve been using as well as serving and blocking!” Kageyama spat.

“But if this quick doesn’t work, there’s no point in me being on the court!”

“And I told you, your will isn’t needed for that quick! I’ll give you tosses that won’t be stopped by blocks!”

“But then I’ll never get better!” Hinata argued.

This is bad, you internally said. It’s not the usual bickering the two always do.

“The prelims for the spring tournament start next month! They’re right around the corner, what do you think will be an effective weapon for us? A complete quick or an absolutely useless quick!? Huh!?” Kageyama yelled, his hand already clutching onto Hinata’s collar.

“N-no fighting, guys.” Yachi stuttered, trying her best to get situation under control. “Calm down, Kageyama-kun. You, too, Hinata…”

“I want to be strong enough to compete by myself!” Of course, the two wouldn’t give any spare second to your friend’s pleading. And Hinata’s words seemed to be the trigger that snapped the chord.

“Your selfishness is going to destroy the team’s balance!” shouting in anger, Kageyama threw the shorter boy to the ground–the sound that echoed throughout the gym made both you and Yachi winced.

“L-Let’s all be f-friends, o-okay!?” Yachi stuttered.

“Stop it you two,” you stated, making sure to said it out loud so it could be heard. “Fighting doesn’t solve anything.”

Your heart thumping against your chest, your ears were ringing from the adrenaline rushing in your bloodstream. If you or Yachi couldn’t do anything, thing would escalate to a bad degree–the worst would be fist fight. And that would result the two being suspended from club activities. Separating the two physically wouldn’t be a good thing either–as much as you want to, you’re a girl and it would be dangerous.

“I’ll toss to anyone who’s essential to winning.” Kageyama declared. “But I don’t think you’re essential to winning right now. And I don’t feel any different now.”

“Kageyama!!”

Hinata certainly didn’t accept those words–picking himself up, he threw himself to Kageyama and clutching on to him.

“Damn it, let go!”

“I won’t let go until you give me a toss!”

The second time Kageyama threw Hinata to the ground full force, you knew you had to stop this somehow. Turning to look at Yachi, who’s standing behind you, you said, “Call someone, Hitoka-chan. We have to stop them!”

“B-but, what about you [Name]-chan-!?” she yelped, not wanting to leave you alone in a place where two boys were fighting.

“I’ll be fine, now go!” Yachi immediately bolted towards the exit to search for anyone who’s near–now that left you with the two. “Stop it, Kageyama, Hinata!”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

“That quick was stopped!! Today and during Seijoh’s match!”

“Are you trying to say that my toss was a fault!?”

“Enough!” You tried to pry Hinata away from Kageyama, holding onto his arm and pulled it. And it didn’t end up good for you. Maybe he was too blinded by anger or desperation or your existence currently didn’t exist in his mind, he shoved arm to shook you off.

His elbow hit you right in the stomach, which made you winced in pain and the sheer power you never thought he had thrown to the ground. If it’s only the ground then you wouldn’t have any difficulties, but you forgot there’s a volleyball cart near by and your back just happened to hit that first before the ground.

There will be bruises without a doubt.

Their yelling flew past your mind because the pain from your back and stomach already had your mind occupied. Soon, you heard another yelling and another set of footsteps. Yachi immediately ran and kneeled beside you.

“Y-you okay, [Name]-chan!? B-blood! You have blood on your arm!” she yelped, hands trembling.

At the mention of blood, you lifted your arm automatically–Yachi was right, there’s a long cut running from your elbow to your wrist. You didn’t even feel any pain from it, maybe it was being overshadowed by the pain from your back and stomach even though the cut was dripping blood.

It was a rough night for the four of you.

“This will be enough,” you said, making Kageyama stopped on his track to look at you. “My house is just around the corner. Thank you for walking me home, Kageyama-kun.”

“Y-Yeah…” he replied in stutters.

You didn’t immediately turn your back to him and walked away–because he was shuffling on his feet while looking here and there, you knew he had something else to say. Kageyama isn’t the best in pouring his mind into words, that’s why after knowing that you tried your best to be patient and let him composed himself to talk.

“Is there something you need?” you coaxed, noticing he couldn’t get his thoughts straight.

“Uh,” Kageyama lifted his hand, finger picking on the band-aid you put upon his cut from where Tanaka punched him. “Y-your arm,”

“It’s fine,” showing him the long cut, he stiffened when he rested his eyes on it. “It stopped bleeding and I already cleaned it so it’s fine.”

Silence fell between the two of you for the second time.

“Sorry…” Kageyama finally said–you almost didn’t hear it from how soft he spoke.

“It’s fine Kageyama-kun, it’s my fault anyway. I should’ve waited for Tanaka-san instead of trying to stop you two on my own.” You sighed. “I’m worried about you two more, to be honest…”

The raven-haired boy outwardly grimaced at your statement.

“But, I know everything will fall into place soon,” you quickly added, trying to ease the guilt Kageyama was feeling. “Hinata will find a way to have mid-air battles, and you will look for a way to do something with your tosses. Then in the end, everything will connect and Karasuno will have a new weapon.”

“…Yeah,”

Seeing Kageyama’s shoulders shook slightly, you understood this also took a toll on him somehow. Stepping forward until you’re one foot away from him, you reached your hand out to gently hold on to his. You didn’t really know how to comfort the opposite gender, usually you would just pull Yachi into a hug when she’s not having the best feeling. Kageyama replied to your gesture by tightening his grip on your hand.

Not caring for the time, you choose to stay with Kageyama until he let go.

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beardedmrbean · 2 years ago

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In just a few months, communities around Finland will start working on the wellbeing services counties that are replacing the country's old system of hundreds of individual municipal social and health care services.

When that happens at the beginning of next year, more than 200,000 people will effectively have new employers that pay them for their work.

Nearly half of Finland's 21 new wellbeing service counties plan to use the same salary payment system that has continued to cause major problems in Helsinki since it rolled out in the spring.

Due to the salary database system's issues, many capital city workers have been left unpaid, underpaid and there have even been cases of former employees being paid for work they didn't do.

The problems at the City of Helsinki, which is Finland's biggest employer, have continued into the summer.

The Minister of Local Government, Sirpa Paatero (SDP), told Yle on Sunday that she wants to receive a comprehensive report about the problems in Helsinki so that similar issues do not happen as social and healthcare reforms roll out.

Experience with system since 2021

Some of the areas that are using — or are rolling out — the system that's caused so many headaches for city workers in the capital include Western Uusimaa, Vantaa and Kerava.

Kimmo Sarekoski, Western Uusimaa's wellbeing services HR preparation director, said he has followed the difficulties in Helsinki with a bit of concern.

However, the region started using the system, made by IT firm Sarastia, at the beginning of 2021. But unlike Helsinki, which is using the system exclusively, Espoo is only using it partially and handling the rest of the job internally.

"Espoo has been using the system since last year, and 60 percent of our payments have been made with that system," he explained.

"Because of this, it's likely we will see fewer mistakes," Sarekoski said.

CEO: Proper training, data transfer vital

Mika Kantola, the CEO of Sarastia, the company behind the salary database system said he feels for the Helsinki city employees who have dealt with salary problems over the past months, but that there's nothing wrong with the technology itself.

"The system pays salaries based on the information which is entered into it," he said.

Noting that building massive, new operations from the ground up is not easy, Kantola said it is very important to train staff and get them used to new routines.

He added that he does not have concerns that the system will be strained by the heavy workload when welfare counties start using the system in earnest.

Another matter is for the regional services getting the new system up and running with the correct transfer of data from old databases.

"Of course, along with our clients, we will correct all eventual errors as quickly as possible," Kantola said.

Big change

Meanwhile, Anne Sivula, the county HR preparation director in Vantaa and Kerava, said she was concerned about the problems in Helsinki.

However, the transition to set up the wellbeing county of Vantaa and Kerava will be easier as the city of Kerava already uses Sarastia for its payroll needs.

"The payroll workers will not have to learn a new system" she explained.

Despite that, Sivula acknowledged that setting up the wellbeing county will still require a good deal of effort, because while Kerava uses Sarastia for its payroll, Vantaa's social and health care services currently shares another system with the Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital district (HUS).

However, she said that dialogue with the Sarastia company has been continual.

"This will inevitably be a big change. Everything probably won't go perfectly at the beginning of the year, but work is being done to make the transition as smooth as possible for the employees," Sivula said.

#nunyas news #updates from up north #this is going to be a thing to watch

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the-himawari · 4 years ago

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A3! Magazine Interview Translation - 2D☆STAR Vol. 11 (½) [Summer Troupe]

A roundtable discussion unveiling the addition of Summer Troupe’s newest member

Kumon-kun is an Undisputed BroCon!!

*Please read disclaimer on blog

---

——Congratulations on your 4th performance, “First Crush Baseball”. Hyodo Kumon-kun, the newly added member, could you please introduce yourself to our readers who are meeting you for the first time?

Kumon: Hyodo Kumon! Currently a second-year in high school! My blood type is A, and my birthday is July 20! My hobbies are watching baseball and collecting jerseys! Umm, also…

Yuki: A brocon.

Kumon: Ah, right, right! I’m a brocon!

Tenma: Don’t say that so proudly…

Kumon: But “brocon” means “you love your big brother”, doesn’t it? I really, really looove my big bro! So I’m a genuine brocon!

Kazunari: Yep yep, that’s one of Kumopi’s charm points!

Misumi: It’s the same with my triangles~.

Muku: The same… I wonder if it is?

Yuki: Just so you know, the brother that he loves so much is the Autumn Troupe’s Classic Delinquent.

Tenma: Classic delinquent…

Kazunari: Yep, fyi, he’s Autumn Troupe’s Hyodle!

Tenma: Those add-ons aren’t helping! It’s Juza-san.

Kumon: My big bro is super, super, duper~ cool, right! I’m the happiest person in the world to be born as my big bro’s little brother…

Misumi: You’re lucky~. I’ll give Kumon a Triangle-kun, swimsuit ver.~

Muku: Uwahh, it’s a new one! His swim ring and straw hat are so cute!

Kazunari: I designed it!

Yuki: And I’m the one who made it.

Muku: Oh, it’s a collaboration between Kazu-kun and Yuki-kun!

Kumon: I-is it really ok for me to receive such an amazing thing?

Misumi: Yep, take it~.

Kumon: Sumi-san…!

Tenma: Err, that’s not something that you should be so moved by! In the first place, why are you suddenly giving him a Triangle-kun…

Misumi: It’s cause Kumon’s cute~.

Kazunari: Ah, did Tenten want one too?

Tenma: Haa!?

Yuki: The hack hasn’t gotten many Triangle-kuns, right? At any rate, it’s because you’re a hack.

Tenma: Don’t call me a “hack” twice! It’s not like I really wanted one or anything…

Kumon: For me as the newcomer to be so brash… I’m so sorry!

Misumi: Tenma, I’ll give you lots when we get home!

Muku: Fufu. That’s great, right, Tenma-kun?

Tenma: Like I said… Ahh, I don’t care anymore! Do whatever you want!

——Now that their talk has heated up, let’s move on to the next topic. What are your honest impressions now that your 4th performance has finished? Also, how was Kumon-kun’s acting?

Kumon: You’re asking about my acting too!? Asking that is scary… I’m nervous…

Muku: Kyu-chan, are you ok? Your face is getting pale…

Kumon: I think I improved from the time of my initial audition, but there was never a day where I could say all my lines smoothly…

Kazunari: Nobody minds that, ‘kay?

Kumon: I messed up my standing position too, and somehow managed to get everyone to follow through for me…

Misumi: That happens all the time~. We’re a team, so it’s natural to help each other!

Kumon: There was also a time I was too flustered during my quick-change and the button on my shirt came off…

Yuki: Seriously, you're lucky I was waiting in the wings at that time, right?

Kumon: There were countless times where I accidentally talked over Tenma-san’s lines too… I only caused trouble for everyone…

Muku: …

Misumi: *Stare*…

Kazunari: …

Yuki: …

Tenma: W-why are you guys looking at me like that?

Yuki: No reason. We’re just wondering if you’ll say something to this infamously negative guy.

Kazunari: Your speech here is important! Leader Tenten!

Misumi: Go Tenma~!

Muku: I’ll whisper too…! Umm… Tenma-kun! Please be kind to him!

Yuki: Muku, that definitely wasn’t a whisper.

Muku: Haa! I accidentally put power into it…

Kumon: Making everyone be so considerate of me… I… I…

Yuki: Seeee, say something already, you hack. Or else who knows how far these pessimistic cousins will sink together.

Tenma: You guys are just hyping it up as you like! …*Sigh*. It’s true, Kumon’s acting was clumsy and he had a lot of misses.

Kumon: Yeah…

Tenma: But, everyone’s like that in the beginning, and we were able to make it safely to the closing night. You picked up on the adlibs well and you’re the one who carried the baseball scenes for us. Good job. You did well.

Kumon: Tenma-san…

Muku: That’s so great, Kyu-chan…!

Kazunari: Ohoho~, Kumopi and Mukkun have been moved to tears. It makes me remember the curtain call on our closing night~.

Misumi: There, there~.

Tenma: You guys are overreacting…

Yuki: Well, your acting will improve as much as you want from now on.

Kazunari: Yep, yep! We’ll work hard together from now on, right, Kumopi!

Muku: I’ll accompany you if you want to practise on your own, so let me know anytime.

Misumi: I like Kumon’s earnest and straightforward acting~.

Tenma: …And there you have it. You can make proper use of your failures in our 4th performance for our 5th performance. But aside from the troubles and failures… Even though it was your anticipated debut stage, are those really your only impressions?

Kumon: Eh…

Tenma: Do you have nothing else to say after you stood on stage for all those days and did your best at acting comedy?

Kumon: …It was fun. The play we put on with everyone was super fun! So I thought I wanted to act more and more with everyone as the Summer Troupe!

Tenma: Geez, see, you do. That’s the most important thing, alright?

Kumon: Ehehe, yeah!

——It looks like Summer troupe’s bond has grown stronger. “First Crush Baseball” was a baseball-themed story, but if you all were to watch a game, would it be baseball? Or another sport?

Kumon: It’s definitely baseball for me! Of course I like playing it, but as expected, watching baseball is the most fun!

Muku: I guess it’s baseball for me too. I’ve been going to watch Kyu-chan’s games, and we’ve been watching baseball on TV together since a long time ago.

Kazunari: Samesies~. I really started liking it after performing it on stage! I’m especially attached to second base!

Tenma: You do get interested in the position you played yourself, huh? I can’t help but watch it when it’s broadcast, and my eyes always drift towards the catcher too.

Misumi: I get it, I get it~. I’m also into baseball! Since the shape of the home plate is like a triangle~.

Tenma: Is that why!

Kumon: Ohhh! The baseball lovers have increased! I’m super happy~!

Yuki: Hmm, I don’t particularly have a sport, but anything apart from soccer.

Muku: Eh? Yuki-kun hates soccer?

Yuki: I don't particuarly like nor dislike soccer itself, but when it’s on TV, those guys’ cheering gets so fired up that I can’t stand it. The temperature in the room rises.

Tenma: (Winter troupe’s) Tasuku-san and them, huh…

Kazunari: Eh! It’s rare for Tax and them to get so hyped-up, so it’s fun and I like watching it together with them.

——And so, your 5th show is currently underway, is that right? Since the play is about ninjas, there are all sorts of actions scenes, but did you undergo any special training?

Tenma: We watched videos of Autumn Troupe’s plays and used them as reference on how to utilize our movements and spacing in action scenes.

Kazunari: It’s hard when you try doing it though~. Four guys moving around on that narrow stage looks awkward if you don’t figure out a way to showcase it.

Tenma: We got Director and (Autumn Troupe’s) Sakyo-san to watch us countless times, and then finally solidified it.

Muku: At first, we were worried we wouldn’t be able to keep up with Misumi-san’s agile movements, but when we tried it, we were able to catch up and move with the tempo too so it actually went well.

Yuki: Saying the Triangle Alien’s movements are agile is putting it lightly.

Kumon: Sumi-san’s kunai handling was super cool too!

Misumi: Ehehe~ thanks~.

Tenma: I’m glad the Summer Troupe doesn’t have anyone who’s seriously bad at exercising.

Kazunari: Strictly speaking, the only one who’s unathletic in our Theatre Company is (Spring Troupe’s) Itarun, right~? (Winter Troupe’s) Azu and Arinrin both don’t like excercising either, but it’s not like they’re unathletic.

Yuki: More than a miracle, it was thanks to that gamer’s obsession that he was able to get through the Spring Troupe’s 5th play.

Muku: We have to do our best too so we don’t run out of stamina until our closing night!

Kumon: Alriiight, then let’s run home today! We’ll go on a run!

Tenma: Yeah, I’ll pass.

Kazunari: Good luck, Kumopi!

Yuki: Go ahead by yourself.

Kumon: EHH!? E-even Muku won't…?

Muku: U-ummm… If it’s just a little bit…

Misumi: I’ll run too~.

Tenma: Geez. Don’t let it affect tomorrow’s performance.

——Speaking of summer, it was Yuki-kun and Kumon-kun’s birthdays a little while ago, right? Did you all throw a birthday party together?

Kazunari: ‘Course, we held surprise parties for both of them 𝅘𝅥𝅮

Kumon: We sure spent a long time thinking together about what kinda design we should go with for Yuki’s birthday cake.

Tenma: Well, it’s because Yuki’s fussy about designs. It was a relief Kazunari did a good job of getting everything down into an illustration.

Yuki: The sugar candy torso was cute. Thanks.

Misumi: We struck out together on Kumon’s birthday~!

Muku: We went with a cushion that was modeled after Sakura High's uniform, and we were really glad Kyu-chan accepted it just like we hoped he would!

Kumon: I’m super happy with it already… and it’s a treasure of a lifetime for me! But since it’s a nice chance, I’d be so happy if we could all have matching ones together someday.

Tenma: That’s true. How about it, Yuki?

Yuki: …Well, I’ll make one for everyone if I feel like it. Personally, I like Sakura High’s uniform too.

Kumon: Yay—! Thanks, Yuki!

Yuki: The hack can make his own though. I’ll teach him how to make it.

Tenma: Haa!? Why am I the only one who has to make it myself!

Yuki: Because you’re Tenma.

Tenma: That’s not a reason!

Muku: U-ummm… It’ll be Kazu-kun’s birthday soon, right! Do you have any present that you want?

Kazunari: Hmmm, something I want, eh~. …What do to, maybe there’s nothing.

Kumon: So selfless!

Kazunari: That’s not what I meant by that~. Lemme think! How about Mukkun? Your birthday’s after mine, right?

Muku: Me? Hm~mmm…

Misumi: Could it be, Muku doesn’t have anything either?

Muku: Ahaha. I think I’ll have something, but when I’m asked like this, nothing jumps out at me.

Kazunari: Right~. Then let’s think about it together!

Muku: Yeah!

——Now then, please leave a message, including any announcements from MANKAI Company, to your fans.

Tenma: There were various troubles this time as well, but following Spring Troupe, Summer Troupe was able to safely raise the curtain on our 5th show as well. I want to create the very best play with these 6 members, without missing a single person, all the way until our closing day. Please continue to support Summer Troupe from now on as well.

---

| Spicy Cuisine Research Society

#a3!#a3! translation #summer troupe #act! addict! actors!#part 2 on hold for now #tbc one day #im too tired to read more vertical text :')

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natexarnoult · 3 years ago

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hey all!! my name is mads and i’m 23, use she/her pronouns, and live in mst! i’m so excited for y’all to meet nathan - he’s a char i’ve had in mind for a while and i’m stoked to finally bring him to life! i’ve included some main points about him under the cut, along with his bio and a couple extras for him - please message me if you’d like to plot :D

Nathan comes from a single-mother household... at least, until he was in high school.

Nate knows who his father is and is trying to build a relationship w/ the man but is still hurt from his mother hiding his father’s identity & not hiding the truth.

He is very much a ‘trust-fund’ kid but is working hard to distant himself from his parents’ wealth and build a name that isn’t connected to his parents.

Nathan truly is a sweetheart but has a hard time expressing this to those he cares about - he grew up in a home that wasn’t welcoming to affection and is still trying to break this habit.

He’s been in Heartsdale for several years and I’m so open to creating some pre-existing connections with him! Friends, ex friends, exes, enemies - anything! Please just message me so we can chat :)

He graduated from UCLA with an art history degree but is more interested in actually making art than learning about it - he travels a lot as he likes to make his show room diverse and brings in pieces from all around the country.

Nathan lives above his gallery but spends most of his time outside of both his gallery and his apartment - it’s either a midlife crisis and he regrets his choices or he’s just trying to meet new friends, who knows?

His pinterest is here and is constantly being update; please follow me if you feel so inclined!

Annnnnd: bio here as well:

Nate’s parents met while his father was on a school trip. A senior studying art history at Harvard, he’d taken the trip as an excuse to ‘see the world’ - if that world meant England, sure. His mother was the manager at a museum they visited on the trip & his father found himself returning to her canvas filled institute daily. They spent hours talking, sharing their love of paintings and critiquing some of the pieces her museum had chosen to display. Neither of them wanted to admit that their time together would be coming to a close - his trip was only for 3 weeks over the winter holidays - but on his last day in the country, Nathan’s father left a note within her bedside drawer, his address and phone number scrawled sloppily across a spare receipt & he snuck out before the sun was up. Saying goodbye would be too hard.

He returned to the States. He graduated. He got a job. He went years without hearing from the woman he’d met. One day, when his father was leaving The Met - he’d become a director of programs - his eye landed on a woman who looked so familiar, her hand clutched by a child, no older than 10. That moment was Nate’s first memory of his dad.

He remembers sitting in his dad’s house, a wide and bright space that was 20 minutes from where they’d met on those huge steps. This man had given them a ride and was now setting tea in front of his mother, but Nate was playing with his dog. He remembers snippets of the conversation - his mom was apologizing a lot. Apparently she hadn’t wanted to see him. They were in the States to visit her sister, Nate’s aunt. He remembers that this man kept looking between his mom and him & he looked so confused. Finally, he remembers a silence falling over the room and the man asked a question. Nate couldn’t make it out but his mother’s response was clear, definite; “Yes. He’s yours.”

At the time, Nate had no idea what that meant. He hadn’t yet been given the talk and his mother didn’t explain her relationship to this man. She introduced him - Nathan couldn’t remember his name - and said that he was an old friend from college. But soon, he found himself with this man more often. His mother invited him to join them at his aunt’s birthday party. When they flew back home to England, his mother would often be stuck on the phone with her old friend from college. One day, a year or so after their New York trip, his mother was picking him up from school, nervously pressing her thumb nail into the steering wheel. She asked if he remembered her friend from college, the one they’d seen while in New York. Nate did. She asked if he’d like to take another trip to New York to see his aunt, to see her old friend from college & maybe stay longer this time - like maybe the whole summer holidays?

They stayed the whole summer and when fall came around and it was time for Nathan and his mother to return home, he was sad - he was going to miss his aunt, he was going to miss the excitement of living Stateside. The rest of his year was almost a blur - his school year went by relatively painlessly, though he had begun to feel the hurt of being one of the only brown kids in school - and eventually spring had returned. His mom, again, sat him down and began asking questions. Eventually, and now Nate was smart enough to see where this was going from the start, she asked Nate how he would feel about moving to the States, about living with his aunt for a while. The move itself was quick and before he knew it, Nate and his mother settled in the States. He spent his days at school and his afternoons in extracurriculars - his new school had an art program that Nate was excelling in. They spent nights hanging out with his aunt or his mom’s college friend and for the first time in his young life, Nate felt comfortable. His mom’s friend had begun taking him to the museums, explaining the complexities of the canvas hanging on the walls and asking for his opinion on the work.

When Nate was about halfway through his junior year of high school, his mother and her college friend were both in the car when he was picked up from school. It wasn’t entirely all that weird - he wasn’t dumb enough to think that they weren’t dating, but Nate did always wonder why his mother never broached the subject with him. It’s not like he was a little kid anymore, for fuck’s sake - if your kid is old enough to date, they’re old enough to know who you’re dating. Nate probably couldn’t tell you the rest of what happened that day. He remembered getting home and grabbing a snack, as he always does, and he remembered getting told to sit down by his mother, that she had something important to tell him.

Nate’s life split into the before and the now - before Stephen was his father & now. While typically a rather well-mannered teenager, Nate was furious. Sure, his mom didn’t have to disclose her love life if she didn’t want to, but to know that Stephen was his That they’d known since the start and never told him? He thought back to their first visit to New York, when they ran into Stephen on the steps of the Met - he remembered his mom was surprised, thrown off her guard, but never uncomfortable, never not wanting to be around this man.

He slammed the door on his way out of the house, hopping on his bike and riding off. That night was the first night he ever acted out - Nate made it to his friend’s place out in the suburbs and snuck in their basement window. The rest of his friends, along with a couple girls he knew from his English Lit class, were circled around a small table, upon which sat a small tray & a bong. Nate welcomed the small act of rebellion, in the face of such shocking news, & spent his night testing his limits.

His parents, as he now so affectionately referred to them as, soon regretted telling Nate at such a volatile age. He soon spent all his evenings with his friends, sneaking into the house after midnight (if he’s early) and going straight up to his room. They tried not to push it and Nate was torn between appreciating being left alone and pissed that no one cared how he felt. His mom had tried to address it a couple times but Nate always shut down, refusing to give her more than a two word response.

It went on like that for 2 years, silence, short answers, tension. At 18, Nathan found himself going off to college, moving across the country to attend UCLA. He lived off his parents money, figuring the least they could do after years of absconding from the truth. And he lived lavishly - drinks on him every time his friends went to the bars, new clothes, new shoes, everything he could want.

He graduated with minimal rule infractions, an MIP here, possession of controlled substance there. But his parents always paid for a lawyer, flew out for the week and handled everything for him. After college, Nathan bounced around for a year, spent a couple months in LA, three in New York, and another 6 or so in a van his parents had financed, driving around the US.

Six months on the road proved to be exhausting, however, and Nathan found himself back in one of his first stops at the start of his trip, Heartsdale. It wasn’t long before he signed a lease on an apartment downtown and spent his days as a barista at Legal Grounds. He didn’t necessarily need the job - his parents still financed his whole life - but it was nice to have something to meet people in town. After a while, however, being a barista became boring. Nate spent his time admiring the local work they had pinned for sale on their walls, admiring the fine line work and critiquing in the way he’d spent four year training to do. On a walk, he found himself fantasizing about owning his own gallery, having his space to curate an experience. Nate’s eyes caught on every single ‘For Lease’ sign downtown, pausing and forcing himself not to take a peek inside. It wasn’t reasonable, he told himself. Irrational, at best. He had no experience managing anything, no experience building something from nothing.

And yet… he couldn’t help. One brisk morning, the sun was bright against a For Lease sign, practically screaming the numbers at him. His fingers were typing the numbers into his phone before he even realized what he was doing. It was 4:23am, the downside of an opening shift at a coffee shop, and he wasn’t expecting anyone to pick up anyway. “Morning, uh,” he paused - was he really doing this? “My name is Nate Arnoult and I’m interested in the space you’ve got on 1st and..”

Moving in was quick, it only took 6 months before Nathan settled in the space above the retail spot. He spent his first night with his friends, drinking and dancing. His friends, just as ecstatic as he, commended him - Nate had been hemming & hawing about opening a gallery space for months and to finally have a space, a place to start… Nathan was on cloud nine. And it went better than he thought it did. The art scene extended out of his small town and he was able to show pieces from all over Georgia. He even flew out to other states, offered small artists a space in his show room. The rest, he supposed, is history. He’s been living a comfortable life and still maintains contact with his parents, despite their rocky past - not friendly, but not fatal either.

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xlucygraysongbirdx · 3 years ago

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What is your absolute favourite thing about the Weasley-Potter family household and what do you think was the main thing they were most excited about seeing/doing when they arrive at Hogwarts for the first time, when they were younger?

I love so many things about the Weasley-Potter family and I have no idea where to even start!!

I think the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the Weasley-Potters is: Chaos. They are quite possibly the most chaotic family (even worse than mine) to ever exist, and there's not a time when they're all together that there isn't some form of chaos happening. Whether it's an argument over dinner about who gets the potatoes next, or a scuffle over a lost Quidditch match, whether that be played or watched, or which member of the Holyhead Harpies would absolutely crush James Sirius in an arm wrestle (spoiler: it's all of them!)

Another thing that springs to might with this chaotic family is: love. Despite the chaos and the fights that are often being thrown around (Dominique often comes up with some creative insults), they love each other so dearly. And it shows in everything they do. They cheer so loudly during their sortings, no matter which house they get sorted in, they are there at every Quidditch match, chess tournament or duel that a member of their family partakes in, and help each other study in the lessons in which they struggle. They're a tight knit and loving family, despite what most people see on the outside.

And here is what I think they're most excited about when starting (and bonus Hogwarts houses):

Victoire (Gryffindor): Vic's most excited to see Hogwarts itself, she's heard all the stories growing up of the war, she's even seen pictures, but she's never seen the real thing. Being a part of the first generation born after the war, Vic wants to see the place that made her so important. Not to mention she wants to see the place where her mother fought a dragon, and prayed one day she'll be just as badass.

Louis (Ravenclaw): Much like they're older sister, Louis dreamed of seeing the castle. Truth is, Louis was rather scared to start Hogwarts. Every Weasley, up until Louis, had been sorted into Gryffindor, but Louis was much more preserved and favoured the harmony of books and history and they dreamed of Ravenclaw, being up in the tower (not too far from his cousins) and feeling like he finally belonged.

Freddie(Gryffindor): Freddie's one and only mission when starting Hogwarts was to get up to as much mischief as his dad and uncle with James. He succeeds, ending up with his first detention on day 2 (the Marauders Map didn't quite help him as much as it used to help his Uncle Harry.... or James is just a terrible navigator).

James Sirius(Gryffindor): James wanted to meet McGonagall. He was so excited to get to Hogwarts, it was all he spoke about during the summer (driving his siblings absolutely insane), and get up to mischief, but deep down he truly wanted to meet the woman who had helped his dad through school. His parents often spoke very highly of her.

Dominique(Gryffindor): Dominique was pretty excited about Quidditch and getting to see her first match. She'd seen hundreds of matches, but everyone of them was just as exciting, and she could not wait to see the team she would play for eventually on the pitch. The pitch that countless of her family members had played and won matches.

Albus(Slytherin): Albus was far too nervous to be excited about anything, but if there was one thing, he wanted to sit next to his brother and enjoy the welcoming feast.

Rose(Gryffindor): Making new friends! All Rose really wanted was to go to school with Albus and make new friends, be exactly like her mum and dad. Oh, and make the Quidditch team as soon as possible (if James could do it in his third year, she certainly could).

Molly II(Slytherin): Molly wanted to see the ghosts! Particularly The Bloody Baron (good job she ended up in the right house for that). She'd been fascinated by ghosts her entire life (maybe it was the movie her Uncle George let her watch when she was far too young), but she had always wanted to meet one.

Roxanne(Hufflepuff): Roxanne wanted to meet the House Elves that worked in the kitchens. She often spent time there during her years at Hogwarts helping out, just because she truly wanted to. Her Aunt Hermione helped her knit some hats for them, just like she did back when she was in school.

Lily Luna(Gryffindor): The second Lily Luna was free to her own adventures in the school, she went straight to the greenhouses. She's not great at herbology, or tended to flowers in general, but she loved nature and she loved Neville, so she spent quite a lot of time there. Lily had a bit of trouble making friends in her first year, so she preferred the comfort of plants.

Hugo(Hufflepuff): Hugo was most excited for the train journey to Hogwarts, excited for the sweets trolley and a new adventure ahead of him. Hugo often gets nervous about things where they cannot predict the outcome, but there's a sense of comfort knowing Lily Luna and their sister Rose will be there also. A part of them knew they wouldn't be in the same house, but they had Roxanne too and there's nothing more important than family.

Lucy(Ravenclaw): Lucy, true to her Ravenclaw nature, wanted to join the Wizards Chess Club. She signed up on day one, and by the end of the first school term, was winning pretty much every match she played.

If you want to talk about writing or headcanons, send me an ask! :)

#enjoy having your heart shattered by Albus'#this got extremely long #I do apologise #thank you so much for this ask!#I have loved answering it #I truly love talking about the Weasley cousins!#i hope this is what you wanted and lived up to expectations!#hp next generation #cc

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cancerbiophd · 4 years ago

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I've heard from my PI that he thinks I will be graduating next spring/summer, which is such a light at the end of the tunnel. That and reading about your post-PhD have been the only thing keeping me trudging along, especially with my PI asking everyone to start giving their 110%... Any tips for getting through the last year? I just feel like I've been running on fumes before, so idk how I'm going to be giving 110% until my thesis defense.

Hey K.T.! Omg, time flew! I can’t believe you’re already on your last year. Congrats on all your hard work and reaching the final year! I totally know how you’re feeling right now. The last year is the toughest in many ways, especially when dealing with not burning out. I’m glad my post-PhD tales are helping you, and hopefully I can offer some mores words of encouragement here!

Take more breaks. You’re at a point akin to an old phone that is slowly getting battery-wear and needs to be charged more often throughout the day. You may find yourself working more and more, so to balance, take more and more mini breaks throughout the day. It also helps to plan enjoyable things during these breaks so you always have something to look forward to, and they can be as small as watching another episode of your current show or taking a nap.

Prioritize your health and well-being. Whatever system is working for you--keep doing it. It’s easy for us to sacrifice the things that keep us healthy when we have a lot of work to do (eg. when our PI is demanding 110%), but it’s especially crucial to keep our health at top shape during these demanding times.

Work with your PI to compromise, probably now more so than ever. You may find yourself needing to put your foot down and saying no to projects that are unrelated to your dissertation (and some PIs may not be doing this maliciously--sometimes they don’t realize everything you have going on). Related, I would advise not to take on any more new students to train, unless it’s guaranteed to help you with finishing your dissertation (eg. someone dedicated to doing time-consuming data analyses).

Delegate more to other members of the lab (eg. junior and/or more permanent members). Not only will this free up your energy and time in the lab as you phase towards focusing on writing your dissertation, but it’s also part of passing down your knowledge for a smooth transition once you leave.

Make a timeline of major tasks and proposed deadlines. This is something my PI had me do continuously throughout my last year--she recommended I print out a calendar of my remaining timeline and to work backwards from my expected defense date so I could get a sense of how much time I had for each task, when the last possible date would be to run any large time-consuming experiments, etc. And then as my experiments were planned out, I could work forward and adjust other deadlines (like my defense date) accordingly. The timeline was definitely not set in stone in any way though--I was constantly revising mine--but it did a) help me get a better sense of how my time could be best structured, b) make the big black tunnel of the unknown future less dark and stressful, and c) show me that “one year” may sound like a long time, but when broken down into experiments and deadlines, it’s not that long at all! Related, this timeline also gave me an answer during job interviews for a ballpark of when I might be able to start.

But still remain flexible and take everything one day at a time. You can change your timeline--you can extend your defense by a few weeks--but you can’t change your priority to your own health and well-being, or just unexpected curve-balls for that matter. And when the weight of the future feels too overwhelming (which may happen more and more often during the last year), forget about it all and just focus on what you need to do right now, be it the next step in your protocol or the next line of your dissertation. Grad school is very much like climbing a mountain, and the best way to reach the summit is one step a time, and with plenty of breaks along the way.

Have a buddy who’s going through the same exact process in your support system. There is so much comfort and power in knowing you’re not going through tough times alone. Sometimes there’s no better relief than hearing “omg same here”. It’ll also help during the dissertation process, as they can be a 2nd pair of eyes to help you edit, or someone to help figure miscellaneous things out like what format to use for your dissertation, etc.

But don’t compare yourself to others. It’s inevitable that some of your colleagues in grad school will graduate before you, and some will graduate after you. I know the thought will always be there, but we have to remember that everyone is on their own uniquely tailored path, so it’s like comparing apples to oranges, and doing so can only lead to bad vibes. (And we don’t have time for bad vibes, do we!)

Consider any extra obligations very very carefully (including those outside of grad school). You may have to ask yourself: “Is this the best use of my time right now?”

Related, I do not recommend starting a full-time position before you’ve defended. Writing your dissertation and preparing for your final defense is already a demanding full-time job in itself, and there just simply isn’t enough hours in the day--or energy--to do that and start a new position at the same time. Two positions that I interviewed at (including the current one I’m at now) asked me if I would be willing to start while I was just working on writing my dissertation, and I’m sooo grateful my PI talked me out of it (as I probably would’ve had to push my defense back by like 2 months if that were the case!) I have more advice on writing a dissertation here.

This too shall pass. I know it sucks right now. But time will always move forward, and effort will never betray you. You know that you have it in you to keep climbing this mountain, because look at how far you’ve come!

Good luck! I’m super proud of you, and I can’t wait for the day I can call you Dr. K.T.! And I’m always here for you if you ever want to talk about anything ❤️

#astudyinphd #grad advice

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jaybear1701 · 4 years ago

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March 29, 1970

Astronauts are a rare breed, and Pam is still amazed that she, of all people, has a front row seat to the American heroes. A rather unique one at that, where she bears witness to facets usually shrouded from the rest of the country, catching glimpses of what lies beneath the carefully curated air of confidence and capability.

For all the stoicism of the likes of an Ed Baldwin, or the laid-back charm of a Gordo Stevens, there’s a thread of vulnerability that ties them together, tense and taut. It emerges as the nights wear on, and the liquor flows freely. Pam has bent her ear long enough to recognize it for what it is–an unspoken acknowledgment that, despite hours upon hours of meticulous preparation that can stretch for months or even years, the precariousness of their jobs means it could all go belly up without a moment’s notice.

She observes this uncertainty–this fear –even in the ASCANs, every time they walk into The Outpost with one less candidate in tow. Pam makes sure to give an extra generous pour of whiskey whenever she sees the exhaustion in Tracy Stevens’ eyes or the weariness in Danielle Poole’s polite smile. Tries to make the already taciturn Ellen Waverly laugh whenever she folds ever inward into quiet solitude.

Yes, Pam knows the weakness of these titans of space. They know she knows. And though she’s an ally, and not quite a friend, her discretion makes her an honorary member of their exclusive club. But sometimes that privilege can be a bit too much. Too overwhelming to play unofficial therapist as she fixes cocktails and cracks open beer bottles for hours on end.

And so, she welcomes the breaks, and doesn’t hesitate to accept when her boss tells her to clock out early on a slow Sunday afternoon. It’s Easter after all, and even the astronauts know better than to spend it away from their families.

Pam’s halfway out the door, already in her own little world, when she nearly bumps into someone while crossing the threshold.

“Pam, hi.” Ellen, startled, takes a step back as Pam exits and lets the door swing shut behind her.

“Hey,” Pam greets, stomach fluttering in pleasant surprise.

In jeans and a white blouse, Ellen’s the most casual Pam’s ever seen her. She takes in Pam’s denim jacket and the purse slung over her shoulder. “You, uh, heading out?”

“Yeah.” Pam nods. “Got a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card for the rest of the day.”

“Oh.”

Pam’s not sure if the flash of disappointment in Ellen’s brown eyes is a figment of her imagination. “Didn’t expect to see you here on a holiday.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.” Ellen shrugs sheepishly. “Took a walk and just ended up here, I guess.”

Pam gives an exaggerated grimace. “I don’t know whether that’s sweet or sad.”

Ellen laughs. “Definitely the latter, for sure.”

Of all the ASCANs, Ellen’s the one Pam knows the least about. Not that she hasn’t been curious to know more about the introverted trainee. She knows better than to push, preferring to let people open up at their own pace. But when an opening presents itself…

“Won’t your family wonder where you are?” Pam ventures.

“Ah, family’s back in Connecticut.” Ellen slips her hands in her back pockets. “So…”

She’s alone , Pam realizes with a swell of sympathy, and before she can think better of it, she blurts out, “You should come with me.”

Ellen’s eyebrows shoot up. “W-where?”

“Anywhere’s gotta be better than here.” Pam doesn’t know what she’s doing or why she’s doing it. But it just feels right . “I mean, unless you want to spend the rest of your holiday in this shithole. No judgment.”

To Pam’s relief, the corners of Ellen’s lips curl up. “Lead the way.”

It’s a beautiful spring day in Houston, still pleasantly cool as the days creep toward the heat of summer. Pam brings Ellen to her favorite park, where budding trees line the banks of a small pond in bright pastels of pink and green and white. The sun glints off the rippling water and, judging by the way Ellen’s eyes light up, Pam knows she made the right decision.

“So, how’s training going?” Pam asks as they walk side-by-side along a paved path that winds around the pond, taking their time.

“It’s…” Ellen squints into the distance before glancing sidelong at Pam. “Don’t you get tired of us unloading on you?”

The question catches Pam off-guard, and she doesn’t answer right away. “No one’s, um, ever asked me that.”

“Probably because a lot of us are narcissistic assholes,” Ellen says the expletive so matter-of-factly that Pam can’t help but laugh. “It’s true! You know it.”

“Not all of you.” Pam nudges Ellen’s shoulder with her own. “Listening’s part of the job.”

“Doesn’t mean you don’t get tired of it,” Ellen points out, prompting a noncommittal hum from Pam. “I could go on and on about how it’s tough and stressful, but I’m guessing you’ve heard it all before. I’d rather know more about you.”

“I’m really not that interesting,” Pam deflects even as warmth prickles up the back of her neck.

“Try me.” Ellen looks at her with such open, genuine interest that Pam caves. She’s not quite sure what it is about Ellen that makes her want to open up, but she does and she goes with the flow.

She leads them to a row of empty benches situated beneath pergolas covered in plants that twist up and around wooden posts to create a tangled rooftop of sweet-scented blooms.

“Let’s see.” Pam takes a seat and angles herself toward Ellen, who mirrors her. Their knees are almost close enough to touch. “Grew up in a small town outside of Austin. Got my bachelor’s in English from UT, to my parents’ deep and never-ending chagrin.”

“Which part didn’t they like, if you don’t mind me asking?” Ellen tilts her head to the side, curiosity etched across her pretty features.

“Take your pick. It was bad enough their only daughter wanted to go to college–because a woman’s place is always in the home, of course,” Pam rolls her eyes, “But she also had to go and pick a quote-unquote ‘useless’ degree.”

“It’s not useless,” Ellen says sincerely, once again surprising Pam.

“Thanks, but I know it’s not exactly practical. I mean, not like an engineering degree or anything.”

“Engineering’s overrated.”

Pam wrinkles her nose, incredulous. “Says the woman who’ll be up in space mapping out the universe in a few years.”

“I’m serious,” Ellen insists. “Outer space is exciting, don’t get me wrong. But sometimes I think people get too caught up in the external, when there’s still so much left unexplored within humanity’s…” Her hands grasp at the air as if the right words hang invisibly around them. “I don’t know… innerspace? And the arts navigate it.”

Lips parted, Pam is left speechless and, if she’s honest, a bit flattered.

“God, that’s cheesy, isn’t it?” Ellen winces.

“No, that’s…” Without thinking, Pam reaches out and brushes her fingers against Ellen’s knee. “That’s really sweet. Thank you.”

Gaze drifting down toward the brief touch, Ellen clears her throat and looks out toward the water, seemingly fascinated by a family of ducks floating along the surface. “You’re welcome.” A light shade of pink dusts her cheeks. “And so you ended up in Houston because?”

“Isn’t it every little girl’s dream to sling drinks in a NASA watering hole?”

Ellen chuckles. “Definitely was mine. Except I wanted to do it on the moon.”

Pam shakes her head, amused, very much enjoying this playful side of the normally staid astronaut candidate. Truthfully, Pam’s not even sure herself anymore why she’s remained in Houston. What had seemed like a good idea after college has slowly faded in the wake of her ongoing indecision about what exactly she wanted in life.

“I figured Houston’s not too far from home,” she finally says. “But far enough away that I can figure out my shit without my parents’ constant disappointment.”

Ellen ducks her head, dark hair partly obscuring the wistful expression on her face. “I get that.”

Pam stifles a sudden and unexpected urge to smooth Ellen’s hair back behind her ear. She leans back and crosses her arms, to prevent herself from doing something monumentally stupid. “Are you saying your parents aren’t thrilled their daughter could be the first American woman in space?”

“Yes,” Ellen answers candidly. “And no. My parents are definitely proud. Supportive, even. But I also know they wouldn’t complain if I just settled down, got married, and helped with the family business.” Her voice is soft in its resignation, and Pam can’t help but empathize.

“Expectations are a bitch, aren’t they?”

Ellen laughs, the sound musical, and Pam’s heart throbs without warning. “Yes,” she turns her head to capture Pam’s gaze. “Yes, they are.”

Ellen’s always been pretty–Pam’s not blind. But in the sunlight filtering through the canopy above them, she’s particularly radiant, and Pam quickly forces herself to tamp down on the warmth spreading through her chest. This isn’t the right time or place, and most definitely isn’t the right person, for those sort of feelings.

“I, um, I’m glad I bumped into you today,” Pam says to fill the silence stretching slowly between them, self-consciously brushing her bangs to the side.

“Me too.” Ellen looks out over the water once again, wistful. “I had no idea this was even here.”

“It’s not like you all have a lot of time to sightsee,” Pam points out. “But if you ever need a tour guide, you know where to find me.”

“Not sure about a tour guide,” Ellen glances at her, almost shyly, out of the corner of her eye, “but I wouldn’t say no to a friend.”

Pam pretends to mull it over. “Yeah, I guess I could put up with you. Until you move to space, that is.”

“Oh, well, thanks for doing me that favor.”

“Don’t mention it, but don’t think this means you’ll get free drinks or anything.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Ellen says with a gentle smile.

Pam returns it, trying but failing to ignore just how light her heart feels.

#ellen x pam #for all mankind #ellen waverly #pam horton #spacepoet #fam fic #famk fic

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narniaandplowmen · 4 years ago

Text

The Wild Abandoned

Fandom: The Witcher

Pairing: Geralt/Jaskier

Also on AO3

6773 words.

General Audiences / No Archive Warnings Apply

Complete

When he arrived back at the foot of the mountain, Geralt most decisively went in the complete opposite direction of Jaskier’s smell. He didn’t hear the animal following him at a safe distance.

* * *

Jaskier didn’t necessarily plan on following Geralt. They just happened to be travelling in the same direction, that was all.

CHAPTER 1 - The Wild Abandoned

Animals following him wasn’t that unusual, all things considered. Most creatures were curious about this strange, not-quite-human being travelling through their territory, but even when Geralt fed them the scraps of his own meal none of them had followed him for - Geralt narrowed his eyes and mentally tallied. For five days, at least. Of which Geralt spent only three asleep, deciding to hurry his travels as his coin ran out. He had heard rumours of Posada looking for a Witcher, and - although he hated himself for it - he hoped none had shown up yet. He did not have to check his purse to know there was only one coin left in it, nor did he need to check his supplies to know they were dwindling. Geralt sighed as he heard the creature following him speed up to catch up with the chestnut mare. Whatever it was, it would be scared away as soon as he arrived in Posada. If there was any lesson Geralt had learned over and over and over again during his time on the Path, it was to never get attached.

In Posada, he met a bard named Jaskier, and his life changed.

Two decades later, on a mountain, half the continent over, his life changed again.

When he arrived back at the foot of the mountain, Geralt most decisively went in the complete opposite direction of Jaskier’s smell.

He knew the smell of humans lingered, but five days, an equal amount of baths in the Gwenllech and three un- and repackings of his supplies later, Geralt could still faintly smell the bard’s distinctive, pinewood, autumn leaves and wolve’s fur smell, although the flowery perfume he usually masked it with was gone.

Geralt tried to blame his surroundings for creating the smell, but he knew there were no pine trees to be found for at least a hundred miles.

It was still the middle of summer as well.

He didn’t hear the animal following him at a safe distance.

* * *

He knew it was still too early to arrive in Kaer Morhen, so although this far North wasn’t his usual territory, he took whichever jobs he could get. The benefit of breaking out of his usual stomping grounds was, aside from the fact that the ‘Butcher of Blaviken’-legend was not tied to his name, that Jaskier’s joyful catchy kind annoying songs hadn’t reached the area either. A group of drowners, two frighteners, a wreight and a cockatrice later, he could almost forget what happened on the mountain.

Almost.

It wasn’t till the beginning of October, after the wreight but before the second frightener, that Geralt noticed he was being followed. The animal seemingly attempted not to get noticed, timing his footsteps at the exact rhythm of the latest Roach, a horse with a surprisingly consistent walk. Geralt did not know how long it had been following him, but that night he purposefully didn’t finish the rabbit he had hunted and roasted, throwing the bones with plenty of meat in the bushes behind him, in the general direction of the sound of softly padded paws touching the forest floor.

The next day, the bones and meat were still there.

The sound, however, was gone.

He tried not to let the overwhelming silence bother him.

Three days later, Geralt was almost convinced his offer had scared the creature away. Either that, or the pouring rain had caused the animal to give up on his curious pursuit, and find shelter somewhere in the cavernous mountains. The resulting floods paid Geralt’s next meal and shelter as he took care of the drowners plaguing one of the small Northern villages. They pay had been small, but the citizens thanked him for arriving so quickly. For a moment he feared that the villagers would burst into an all-too-familiar song, but instead they told him a neighbouring place needed his help as well.

After fighting the second freightner, the now-familiar sound of the animal’s steps returned. So did the rains, and Geralt decided to cut this season short and turn his meandering route into a direct journey to Kaer Morhen, the closest thing to a home he knew, except for- No. The closest thing to a home he knew. Geralt stared at the deer-made path ahead of him and banned all thoughts from a certain bard out of his head.

* * *

The creature, whatever it was, kept following him. If his medallion hadn’t stayed silent, Geralt would almost be worried. It was far away from its own territory now that the towering, deciduous-treed and cavernous Dragon Mountains had been replaced by the equally towering but pine-treed, steep-cliffed Blue Mountains. The creature hadn’t accepted a single offer of food, or shelter, or warmth. Not even when Geralt, silently cursing his own idiocy, had called out into the forest that the food thrown away was intended for this mysterious pursuer.

Geralt almost considered travelling the long way so he would pass through the planes, simply to see if the creature would follow, would allow himself to be seen, but that morning he woke up covered in a thin layer of snow.

He saddled Roach, saw his latest offering of food was once again ignored, and hastened his journey towards Kaer Morhen.

The creature followed, even during the treacherous journey towards the Witchers’ Castle.

Geralt almost resented the idea of wintering inside, since the creature would surely leave before spring.

‘You can’t follow me inside, you know. A castle isn’t fit for wild animals to thrive,’ Geralt had called into the dark two nights before arriving home. ‘You should go back. To your territory. To your family, if you have one. And if not, I am sure that you will be able to start one, if you are strong enough to follow me this far.’

His reply, as usual, had been silence.

The next day, the creature followed still.

* * *

‘Geralt! You’re uncharacteristically early,’ Vesemir greeted him at the gate.

‘Stayed North this time. I- I was already on my way back, simply hurried my way when the snow started.’

‘You were on your way back? Did that bard of yours finally take that teaching position Oxenfurt has been begging him to accept?’

Geralt placed his bags on the stable floor a little more violently than needed.

‘He’s not my bard. And I don’t care what he is doing right now. It’s not my concern.’

That evening, after a bath in the hot springs and a nice bowl of soup eaten next to the safety and warmth of the fire, the entire story came out, and Vesimir’s heart bled for his young pup.

* * *

Geralt didn’t mention the strange creature that had been following him until Eskel arrived two weeks later, mentioning that he had been followed for the last days of his journey home.

He wasn’t jealous at all when Lambert, arriving five days later, reported he had seen a wolf-like creature from a distance. Nor did he find an excuse to leave the dinner table to train his frustration away when Lambert said he had even fed the creature, for it looked haggard and ragged.

* * *

They didn’t speak of the creature till mid-December, when the three men went out into the snowy wilderness to hunt for fresh meat.

The creature was still there, following them from a distance.

‘If that thing ate every living thing on the mountain, we might not catch any prey at all,’ Eskel wondered aloud after two hours of fruitless searching.

‘Well, it clearly didn’t eat every living thing on this mountain,’ Lambert replied, to a frowning Eskel.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, we’re still here.’

‘I would barely call you ‘living’,’ Eskel retorted, steadying his stance just in time for Lambert to pounce on him.

‘Shh guys!’ Geralt hissed, focussing on a sudden burst of sound in the forest. A running predator, a fleeing prey, breaking branches, noises rapidly going louder until CRACK a frightened deer broke through a frozen bush, leaping over Eskel, a panicked cry as the Witcher grabbed her leg and pulled her down.

‘It does feel pretty unfair,’ Lambert mused as they dragged the carcass back to the castle. ‘This isn’t our prey, we stole it from that wolf. Should we, like, leave a part of it as some sort of thanks?’

Geralt ignored his two brothers but did hold out his bloodied sword when they decided to leave a part of the animal behind.

The next morning, the Witchers were woken up by a loud howl. When Geralt looked outside, he saw a bloody trail leading from the forest to the castle gate, where their offering was returned. ‘Looks like we didn’t steal its prey after all.’

* * *

The knowledge that, outside of the thick, stone walls, there was some creature looking out for them, made it a strange winter. From the brief glances in the dark evening, they had concluded it must be a wolf, but no reasoning for its seeming loyalty could be found. There was no magic, no curses or spells, no laws of surprise offered to pregnant wolves that could explain the presence of the animal. It didn’t seem to want shelter, and offered food was only touched occasionally. Any attempts at luring it out of the forest failed, as the wolf seemed to know when they were watching.

Geralt didn’t attack his brothers more aggressively during their training when the only consistency they could find was that the wolf didn’t seem to want to accept anything from Geralt, nor show itself when Geralt was nearby.

He also didn’t resent Vesemir when he told them one morning that he had seen the wolf prowling around the castle, and that when he had spoken to it, it had sat down and listened, its head slightly tilted and bright blue eyes surprisingly intelligent.

And that spring, when he travelled south and heard the creature following him, he most certainly didn’t feel relieved.

That was, not after he heard the news that the famous bard Jaskier had gone missing, hadn’t been seen in almost a year. Rumours were that the last time he was spotted, was in the presence of a certain white-haired witcher.

His arrival in larger cities was met with thrown rocks and angry insults.

He had almost forgotten what it felt like to be called a butcher and a murderer.

It was yet another reminder never to get attached.

The first coherent thought in Jaskier’s mind as he carefully made his way down the mountain was his internal surprise that he wasn’t crying. In all the songs of heartbreak and rejection, there were tears, heartbroken cries of anguish and dramatic falling to the knees. But the reality was that Jaskier was empty. Completely and utterly empty. For once he was devoid of words, devoid of song, devoid of poetic descriptions, laughs, chatter, of everything that made him the apparently so burdensome travel companion as he was.

The second coherent thought in Jaskier’s mind as he gathered his stuff from the inn and made his way into the forest was that he was lucky he never showed his more useful side to the Witcher. If he had, his broken heart would now most likely be literally torn to pieces. Geralt didn’t kill monsters, only if they hurt others.

And isn’t that what he did?

* * *

It took him half a day to find a body of water large and still enough to reflect his entire length. On the edge of the cave’s pool, lit by a hole in the ceiling letting in the midday sunlight, he started taking out his belongings, dividing them into three neat piles of ‘keep’, ‘toss’ and ‘hide’. The cavern itself gave ample opportunity for ‘hide’, and whatever he deemed unworthy of keeping was tossed in the ice-cold water. Whilst he waited for the stillness of the water to return, he methodically packed the rest of his belongings, taking in each item with precision.

A spider building his web in the opening between the light bright world of the insects and the darkness of the cave the eight-legged creature preferred, looked down at the strange man below him. He seemed to stare into the water for an eternity, before the form shifted, turned, and ran.

* * *

He didn’t necessarily plan on following Geralt. They just happened to be travelling in the same direction, that was all. Sure, there were quicker ways to reach the undiscovered regions north of Haakland, but those weren’t safe. Passing through planes and cities in this shape would certainly cause his end.

Jaskier told himself that travelling as a human would only slow him down.

He told himself that he couldn’t perform with this emptiness inside.

He knew that was nonsense, he knew he could act, pretend, and nobody would notice.

He followed Geralt anyway.

* * *

It was almost as if the past two decades hadn’t happened. It was almost as if he was still a young wolf, on his way back home after receiving his education, following a mysterious rider smelling of adventure and death and destiny.

Like last time, it took Geralt an embarrassingly long time to notice his presence. Unlike last time, he had gotten quite good at timing his footsteps to match that of Roach’s. And unlike last time, Geralt had thrown meat and bones in his direction.

Jaskier refused to eat. He could take care of himself, without being a burden.

He made sure to take a different route that night, knowing the direction in which Geralt was headed. He was practised with catching up to the Witcher by now, he was almost surprised that he had been able to find the man at all. If he was the cause of all of Geralt’s suffering, you’d think someone with Witcher training would be able to avoid him.

Then again, you’d think someone with Witcher training would know what he was.

* * *

After fighting a lost garkain without Geralt noticing a thing, Jaskier decides to follow the man for the Witcher’s own safety.

He does not allow himself to think about why Geralt is so out of form that he doesn’t notice a garkain following him for a full day, or the fight happening less than fifty miles from his camp. Instead, Jaskier blames the rain for Geralt’s sudden ineptitude.

He rejoins Geralt after he exits the village where he, according to two children playing witcher-and-monster a little too far into the woods, has defeated a freightener. He ignores every offering of food the Witcher throws in his direction. Not even when the man stupidly yells into the forest that the food was meant for him. There are enough squirrels and rabbits to hunt himself.

He never allows the Witcher to see him.

* * *

They are about a two-days journey away from Kaer Morhen when Geralt addresses him again. ‘You can’t follow me inside, you know. A castle isn’t fit for wild animals to thrive. You should go back. To your territory. To your family, if you have one. And if not, I am sure that you will be able to start one, if you are strong enough to follow me this far.’

If Jaskier were human, he’d laugh. ‘What do you think I am doing,’ he thinks instead. ‘Where do you think I am going? My territory is not where you finally noticed me following you. My territory is here, with you.’

It’s that last thought that makes him halt. His territory isn’t the Haakland’s mountains anymore, it isn’t the pack he left behind, nor is it Oxenfurt, nor is it any court he has performed at. His territory for the past twenty years has been Geralt.

But Geralt’s territory has never been him.

He follows Geralt to the top of the mountain and then makes his way down to await the Witcher’s brothers.

* * *

Eskel notices he is being followed after an hour. Lambert after fifteen minutes. As some sort of price, he allows the Witcher to see him, for just a bit.

He graciously accepts the offered food. He stays on the mountain, unable to leave his territory.

He knows it’s pathetic, he knows he should leave, he knows he will easily be able to take up the position as Alpha and lead his family through Haakland and beyond.

He stays near Geralt anyways.

* * *

It is well into December when he hears three pairs of footprints and silent banter echo through the forest he has now gotten to know so well. The Witchers, out for a hunt. He shrugs, listens where they are headed, and turns to run the other side.

He follows them, of course. And when he sees a lost deer that could feed him for the next month to come, he chases it towards them.

He wastes his precious energy that night dragging their pitiful offering back to the castle’s gate. An Alpha takes care of his pack, not the other way around.

He only eats from their offered food thrice. Twice out of politeness, and once because he is desperate. There isn’t much game and the mountain is cold.

* * *

He doesn’t approach the castle when he knows Geralt is watching. He knows the others have seen glances of him, and he secretly wonders if Geralt is frustrated that he is the only one who hasn’t. He wonders if Geralt has even noticed that he is the only one who hasn’t seen him.

In mid-February, during a particularly bright night, Vesemir talks to him. It’s mostly stuff Jaskier already knows: about who and what the Witchers are, about their history, about their home. But it is also things he doesn’t know. Vesemir tells about Lambert’s love for a Witcher from a different school, about Eskel’s insecurities regarding his scars, and finally, right before dawn starts to break, Vesemir tells him about Geralt. About how he most tortured of the children adopted into in Kaer Morhen managed to find joy on the Path in the shape of a brightly-coloured bard, who followed him and cared for him relentlessly for twenty years. About how he could finally let go of the heavy burden of his responsibilities, how he could finally see it as a joy rather than an oppressive fate. About how he realised the mortality of this human bard when he visited a village just as the little boy whose life he once saved was being carried to his grave by his grandchildren. About how all of the Witchers learned to never get attached. About the danger of the wolf being there, for it is clear the inhabitants of the ancient castle are getting attached to his weird loyalty.

That spring, Jaskier follows Geralt on the Path. He is his territory, after all.

Jaskier is too forgiving. When Geralt exits the first big city with wounds and quickly forming bruises, he is once again reminded the rest of the world is not.

#geraskier #geraskier ff #jaskier #geralt of rivia #the witcher #the witcher ff #the witcher fanfic #the witcher fanfiction #geraskier fanfiction #geraskier fanfic #eskel #vesemir #lambert #written by me #made by me #The wild abandoned

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