#the premonition dreams are the cherry on top

[personalpagan]

Odin plays chess. Which means, if you want any sort of valuable communication with him, you have to play chess, too. Bring with you skepticism, caution, discernment. Foresight and retrospect. It will take time—chess is a long, complicated game. Odin doesn't rush, and his moves won't always make sense when they happen. But, they all add up, and you have to watch to board closely to make sure you don't miss something.

[randomgentlefolk]

CPC CHAPTER 151

Colonel Snuggles to the rescue!

I heard Lambcat said a few episodes ago were the last fun episode? Well as far as I remember at least. But nah, THIS CHAPTER WAS CHERRY ON TOP.

Frederick?? :') How do you go through around 5 years of military academy and still not know what take out means 😭 Well too be fair, it could mean MANY things, and I would most likely say similar things to him in this situation.

DANG LORENA IS SO COOL??? Like, building all these traps?? SHE MUST GET A+ ON THIS PROJECT. Not to mention she managed to create it to be fairly simple and easy to understand!

Suzie!! I see she has a pretty complicated relationship with denial huh?

DANG, It has been almost 2 weeks since the gala?! Huh. I really thought it's only been like 4 days or so.

Wait. Then how long was the Plaid Princes in that dungeon...? GODAMNNIT LELAND.

Ayyy Colonel Snuggles to the rescue!! :D

HAHA HERE COMES THE HOME ALONE CHAOS (i wish i could build smth like this)

I love it when "silly" looking defenses are use >:D Like the marbles? The chattering teeth? I'M IN FOR THESE.

Heck, how does Lorena build all of these?! DAMN SHE'S SO FRICKING COOL. THE SPIKES? THE HOLE? THE BIG ASS METAL BALL? I'M IN LOVE WITH THESE SETTINGS.

Still kinda curious though. How thick is the palace's walls? Because with all these chaos, there's no way they haven't heard a sound yet. Or maybe that will be shown in the next chapter? Hm, this was supposed to be an invasion, after all. So perhaps it does makes sense for them to not notice a thing about what's going on outside.

Also, where is Beckett and the old guard (we need his name. Please lambcat? Please tell us his name :'D)? I imagine they must be laughing the heck outta these. Either that or they are secretly getting in the palace to warn the princesses!! Maybe through the back door? That door gotta have a use other than being used by Gwen to sneak out to the cpc.

You know, writing these made me realize something. Maybe I'm just not getting something, and maybe I'm just not cut out for huge war strategy, but why didn't they (the plaid army) use the back door? Yes, there are lots of them in quantity and so getting them all in would be a pain, but who's to say they can't just sneak a few in to get the key and open the entrance? That way they can also see where the princesses are! If you want to be safer, have some of them disguised as perhaps a maid? Or a butler. You just gotta avoid Molly and you'll be fine! Well, except if the key is on Molly that is..

Also just wanna point out they are being laughed at by cursed people who Leland hates, the youngest son of the Plaid Kingdom who was deemed to be a failure, and the princels. Idk about you man, but I would feel absolutely mortified if I were you lmfao.

Aside from that, we finally got it.. the satisfying moment..

HAHA! FINALLY, Y'ALL. THANK YOU LORENA! THANK YOU SO MUCH.

OHHH THAT'S WHAT THE PREMONITION IS, ISN'T IT?? The metal ball is gonna roll into the cpc and potentially crush the tent!! That's why Nell moved the tent, right? Yeah, I'm calling it!

GWEN LMAO. She's boutta have some wild dreams with all the noises 😭😭

Well, that's all for now! Imma binge on some shows after this hehe. But honestly my mind still can't get over how the newest fast pass episode is titled "Unhappily Ever After" 😭 I guess I gotta prepare for lots of angst :')

Mono out! (But still in to hear your thoughts)

[lotzzoforangezoutside]

THE LIST III

Original Series

Delayed  |  Rest  |   Surprises  |  The Mexican Coca-Cola is Much Sweeter  |  Have You Met A Stranger  |  The Unnecessity of Physical Distances  |  Silence  |  Things We Say When We’re 700 Miles Apart  |  Cheeks on Desk  |  Lunch with You  |  Sunday  |  2e-10  |  The Secret of the Sky is Not to be Revealed  |  A Fly on the Wall  |  Pink Piglet and His Baby Mama  |  With A Cherry on Top  |  The Turkey Special  |  Together We’ll Mend Your Heart  |  When the Sundog Did Not Come  |  Eight  |  Man on a Mission  |  Childish Games  |  No Other Fish  |  The Ancient Secrets of the Bee Pollen  |  The Goddess and the Scholar  |  Breakfast on the Weekends  |  Particular  |  Pink, Dancing, and Bubbly  |  Rent Day Blues  |  Salt and Sugar  |  Cigarettes Will Kill You  |  Headlong  |  Seven Pound and Six Ounces  |  Second Christmas  |  The Next Christmas  |  Occam’s Razor  |  The Answering Machine  |  Heads and Tails  |   A Month Shy of A Year  |  A Call with Chuck  |  Forgetfulness and Presbyopia  |  The Other Dream  |  The Cincinnati Chili is a Sin to Pass Up  |  Pups  |  Barnes Corners  |  True Love Happens Every Day  |  The Meanings of Thermos  |  Tuesdays With Mulder  |  Old Friend in Oxford  |  Mulder’s Chickadee  |  The Broken Pinky Loneliness  |  The Markings of a Man  |  The Master Of  |  Universes  |  The Cygnet and Dumbo  |  Marks and Scars  |  Waiting for the Ship to Come  |  The Origin of the Walkie-Talkie  |  The Excepted One  | 

AU

A Full House Thanksgiving

Emily AU: And They Were All Yellow  |  |  The Spookys  |  Skinny Noodles  |  Yucky Boys and Fickle Girls  |  Priceless  |  It  |  Spelling Bees and Sing-A-Longs  |  Letter to Santa  |  Christmas at Grandma’s  |  Minime  |  Faithful One-Hundred Percent  |  Deep Space Sparkle  |  Sympathy Pox  | Belong  |   The Year of the Fox  | 

Jacksons AU: The Boy from the Future  |  The Things Said by the Hands  | 

Cricket Universe

Ten Rules of Dating  |  Daddy’s Girl  |  First Day  |  How to Dad  |  The Tentative Trouble with Time Traveling  |  Brought to You by The LGM  |  For the Life of Pie  |  Semi-Grown  |  A Reunion  |  The Trekkie Professor  |  Premonition  |   An Experiment  |  A Late Summer  | 

Conversation in the Very Very Late at Night…. thirteen  |  fourteen  |

Short shorts & snapshots

drabbles…. tau |  upsilon | phi | chi | psi |

[hibiscuswolverine]

Ha ha oops-

My THH rewrite?? Ghost Au??? Idk everyone the same except Makoto gets tired and is somewhat himself. Ghosts get angry and you might think I took something before writing this all down.

CW: talks of gore, and brief mention of attempted su//c//de

-Sayaka is the first ghost he encounters, both in a dream/nightmare/somewhat memory and then in real life. The Nightmare starts somewhat normal enough it’s a memory of a younger him and Komaru walking along the Santa Cruz boardwalk, they escape their babysitters and run off to the beach. Komaru dares him to play hide and seek with her in the mirror/glass maze that’s on the beach, he declines at first(because it’s dark and she made him lose the candy apple he was eating) but after Komaru calls him a chicken it is on. She goes first and then he goes in *cue cute kid running into every other glass mirror*

-NOw the lights were on (dimmed) but then at some point they go out completely and baby Makoto ain’t really feeling it. So he still looking for Komaru with more urgency and starts to call for her.

-When he does find her it’s like they’re in their own solitary cubes but they can see each other through the glass wall. Komaru tries around all sides to get out and reach her brother but she can’t, so then Makoto tries but to no avail, even the side that he came in is blocked off. And then the light behind Komaru’s cube turns on and nothing is there BUT then the left and right lights begin to flicker. Yeah, so uhm she’s screwed but they’re both 5 and 6 and don’t watch horror movies so they don’t know that yet.

Anyway, Makoto and Komaru are obviously very scared and both are trying anything to break the glass but then they freeze because something does crack neither of them caused it. It’s the glass behind Komaru, then it’s the one on the left then the right.

-Do you remember that one scene in Pennywise 2 where Pennywise smashes his head against the glass and then eats the kid? Yeah so Rip Komaru. (I don’t really have a design(s) for monster Sayaka but the middle would be like one based on her actual death, while the other two would be based on her unused execution.

-After watching his sis get eaten Makoto is in a panic but he’s frozen he doesn’t know what to do because like Komaru he is surrounded on all sides. So he huddles himself into a ball in the middle and tries to ignore the glass breaking, it goes quiet and he uncurls himself only to get jump scared.

- Then he wakes up and he gets jumpscared again!! By Sayaka’s actual ghost who proceeds to choke him (causing him to levitate and eyes roll back) and he passes out.

- He wakes up again its morning now the day after the 1st trial and goes to get ready hesitantly in his own bathroom. And finds marks around his neck, and a big ol’ scabbed stabbed wound in his torso, and a few other ones around it. He is very confused cuz he knows he locked the door so he’s just very confused.

-At some point He gets fed up with Sayaka and her ghost shenanigans(scrapping on his door, screaming at the top of her lungs, banging on the door) and just puts a circle ring of salt around his shower. He also has one on the outside of the bathroom door too just in case!

-Speaking of Makoto’s bathroom it is trashed except for the toilet, sink, and tiles. He shattered the mirror and destroyed the shower in a fit of insanity because Sayaka's hallucination was taunting him. So he uses the bathhouse instead for hygiene needs.

-Oh no I didn’t forget about the others, they’re there. They also help him lose his mind.

-Some don’t do much; ie Chihiro, Hifumi, and Sakura (she mostly hangs around Hina but she did have to knock him out once because he was about to take his own life) and Muruko.

- Taka: gave him a really bad migraine for skateboarding in the halls.

Leon: Idk why but he makes him spit up a baseball? I dunno I might change it but for now, he spits up a baseball.

Mondo: kinda takes a chunk out of his calf (with the pickaxe) but the cherry on top is he gets him in the shoulder and by shoulder I mean like really close to the joint but he missed a few inches. BUT he then tries to rip upward and during this process because mondo got melted guess who’s muscles are getting melted??! Luckily Taka walked by stopping the process before the pickaxe could rip through his shoulder blade.

Celeste: I actually wrote about what she did in my goretober Fic! And I am too lazy to state it so you can read it here- :)). OH! BUT I didn’t mention that she set him on fire, (that’ll be explained later)

Sakaya: Well you know.

-The apparitions do get better over time, but when they first enter the spirit realm they’re kinda pissed at first. Now Makoto and his hallucinations of them are a different story.

-The survivors don’t really know what to do with Makoto tbh, like they know he’s suffering and often find him asleep just anywhere. (Makoto doesn’t fear death at this point so if monokuma were to tell him he’s going to die he would just shrug and go back to sleep and that isn’t despairful at all so he lets him get away with it).

-B//ut I do want the kids to have fun so they do with what they got. Not individually too! Like all 5 of them being homies! They play a game of drunk uno, dance to Queen in the concert hall, watch some movies (i.e mostly horror movies cuz I feel like that’s what junko would leave), a jumping contest in the pool, Act out little plays and scenes from books, they play Mario kart- wii sport - just dance-, s’moRES, ARTS N’ CRAFT-

-The Ghosts are there too but only Makoto can see them, and the more the chapters or time progresses the more ‘back to normal’ they begin to look. How? Through ghost therapy sessions, or FTE events idk.

-At one point in time he’s going to kinda lose his cool at one of them and it’s going to be celeste. She woke him up by setting him on fire because he was so deep in his sleep. She called him because the other four (kyoko not included) were attempting to summon something and celeste claims that she can’t fight the thing they summoned that’s in them (now earlier she told him at some point that she was quite a powerful demon,) and needs him to do it. All he does is beat the thing out of them with a bat (one or two hits).

- Now Makoto is frustrated because she woke him up at the ungodly hour of three something, had to do something she probably could have done herself, and then tell him to take them back to their rooms because she doesn’t want them in hers (it's the rec room but shh). He is not having it, he is tired his wounds hurt like a mother and he just wants to go to bed, so yells at her, dogs on her some, and then leaves saying “THESE AREN’T JUST MY FRIENDS THESE ARE YOUR FRIENDS TOO SO YOU’RE GOING TO BE A GOOD FRIEND AND LET THEM SLEEPOVER OK? OK!” I know I know canon Makoto would be a good dog and carry all these bodies down to there dorm but let Makoto be mean for five seconds ok-

- Something kinda chill, because this is being broadcasted (live I assume) right before and after it cuts to commercials, they show pictures that were taken by the remaining students or various artworks of the students from fans, Like SNL.

I Have other ideas for this AU specifically Makoto’s dreams/nightmare/memories and perhaps a few premonitions? But that’s for another time

[sailorfailures]

April 17th is Rei Hino/Sailor Mars’s Birthday!

So how can you celebrate?

♂ Rewatch or reread your favourite Mars-centric chapter, episode, or musical! As one of the earliest established characters, she has several key episodes in the 90s anime. Try episode 010, her introduction; 054, where she reveals her passion for songwriting as she stages an idol-like performance at her school’s culture festival; 070, where she saves enemy Koan from self-destruction; 090, the first episode of S, where she is targeted for her Pure Heart; 103, where she works hard to convince a renowned taiko drummer to perform at a local festival; 152, where an excitable young girl models herself after Rei’s every move; or 183, where she goes camping to visit her sculptor cousin in the mountains. You can also find the Rei-centric manga side stories Casablanca Memory (volume 2) or Rei & Minako’s Girls School Battle (volume 1) in the Sailor Moon Short Stories manga anthologies.

♂ Sailor Mars has several official image songs across different canons you can play for her big day:

90s anime: Eien no MELODY [“Eternal Melody”] (Dic produced an English song for Sailor Mars with the same melody, called Oh Starry Night); Sei · Hi  · Ai ~FIRE SOUL LOVE~ ["Holy · Fire · Love ~FIRE SOUL LOVE~”]; Watashi no “Hito” Gingahen [“The One, Arranged by the Heavens”]; Honoo no Sogekisha (FLAME SNIPER) Musicals: Honoo no MESSENGER [”Flame Messenger”] PGSM: Sakura Fubuki [”Cherry Blossom Storm”]; Hoshi Furu Yoake ["Stars Falling at Dawn”] Crystal: Hi no Umi ["Ocean of Fire”]

Here’s a playlist of all these songs and other Sailor Mars BGM cues!

♂ Why not go out on a dare and try Rei’s favourite food - puffer fish. If you’re not confident in the toxicity of fugu in your area, she also likes all Thai food, so you could visit your favourite local Thai restaurant. Her least favourite food is asparagus, but only the tinned kind - so try and hold off for the day.

♂ Rei has many hobbies, a “jack of all trades” thanks to her dream of being a high-powered multi-career woman. She is shown to be a competent singer-songwriter, even if it takes her a lot more effort than she pretends. Since she dreams of someday making it big as a musician, why not support local talent and see a live show for her birthday?

Rei relies a lot on her ESP and sixth sense, receiving premonitions through dreams and by scrying in flames, but Rei’s favourite method of divination is actually tarot readings. You could shuffle through a deck yourself for a self-reading, or find someone online or in your area who can perform a reading for you.

You may think of Usagi or Minako as the resident “fangirl” of the series, but Rei is a closet nerd herself; she has a large collection of Sailor V manga, and is enough of a fan of the Takarazuka revue to own photobooks. Celebrate by rereading your own favourite manga series or by watching a Takarazuka stage performance.

As a representative of Hikawa Shrine, Rei is very community-minded, volunteering herself for public events, festivals, etc. The subsequent publicity for the shrine and springboard for her own career is obviously not a factor... In her (fiery) spirit, why not involve yourself in your own community-run events and services, volunteering your time and skills on a recurring or one-off basis?

♂ Dress like Rei for the day! Rei has a very forward-focused, goal-oriented personality she likes to show through her clothes, with bold colours, dramatic cuts, and sharp or form-fitting silhouettes. Because she is an expert at tailoring her presentation to the time/audience, her style can vary from cute and innocent to mature and businesslike based on how she wants to be perceived, but common wardrobe staples include miniskirts, tailored tops, statement jewellery, and a killer high heel. She favours vivid colours like reds, purples, mustards, and black.

As Sailor Mars, she wears chunky 80s throwback earrings in the shape of stars (5-pointed to start in the anime, 6 pointed from Super form and in the manga, 4 pointed in PGSM) and iconic red stiletto heels. Her nails are shown to turn firetruck red from her second transformation onwards. Her image colours are red and purple.

♂ In the 2004 live-action Sailor Moon series known as PGSM, Rei wore a name charm bracelet made of beads and crystals that was very important to her and later allowed her to transform. Why not make your own name bracelet with your favourite colours and birthstone beads?

♂ Fav and read some Sailor Mars fanart and fanfic on sites like Pixiv, Twitter, and AO3 - or contribute your own new content! Don’t forget to tag!

Feel free to reply and reblog with your own ideas of how you’re going to celebrate Rei’s day!

Happy Birthday, Rei!

[starcourtscream]

H E A D C A N O N.     *  CHARACTER INTERVIEW .

BASICS  !

NAME.    lydia  rose  martin

NICKNAME.     barbie,  ariel,  cherry bomb.  +  more  according  to  others

AGE.    18.

SPECIES.    banshee.

PERSONAL  !

MORALITY.    lawful / chaotic / good / neutral / evil / true.

RELIGION.      raised  catholic   but   not   v   religious 

SINS.    greed / gluttony / sloth / lust /  pride / envy / wrath.

VIRTUES.    chastity / charity / diligence / humility / kindness / patience / justice

KNOWN LANGUAGES.  english,  spanish,  classical  +  archaic  latin,  french

SECRETS.    her  banshee  identity  (  to  some  ).  haring  voices.  not  being  100%  normal.  can  be  highly  emotional.

PHYSICAL  !

BUILD.    scrawny / bony / slender / fit / athletic / curvy / herculean / pudgy / average

HEIGHT. 5′3″.

SCARS   /    BIRTHMARKS.     mysterious  claw  marks  on  left  side,  stab  wound  above  right  hip,  pale  pinkish-white  ring  around  throat

ABILITIES /  POWERS.     finding   death,  faking  smiles,  throwing  the  best  parties,  decrypting  ciphers,  applying  lipstick  at  red  lights,  perfect  winged  eyeliner,  can  +  will  kick  ass  in  heels.  intellectually  academically  brilliant.  emitting  fatal  sound  waves  by  screaming,  clairvoyance  /  clairsentience,  predicting  impending  death,  inducing  premonitions,  transcending  her  body  /  astral  /  dream  projection,  opening  dimensional  rifts,  transcending  time  and  space  through  portals.  enhanced  auditory  senses.  psychography  ( automatic  writing / drawing ),  seeing  into  the  upside  down  and  interdimensional  passage,  empathy,  picking  up  on  others’  emotions,  seeing  auras,  communicating  with  spirits  /  mediumship

FAVORITES !

FOOD.    fruit  and  chocolate

DRINK.    wine,  pomegranate  juice,  strawberry  milkshakes

PIZZA TOPPING.    margherita  /  sicilian  style  (  red  pepper  /  tomato,  basil,   mozzarella  )

COLOR.    pink,  red,  blue

MUSIC GENRE.    eclectic.  she’ll  listen   to  pop,   rock,  anything  that  fits  her  mood.

BOOK GENRE.    fantasy,   mythology,   informational   ( botany,   etc.   ),   science   fiction,   poetry,   british   romantic   lit 

MOVIE GENRE.    drama,  documentaries

CURSE WORD.   fuck

SCENTS.    rose,  jasmine,  vanilla,  sweet  orange,   fig,   pomegranante,   apricot,   coconut,  strawberries,  bubblegum

FUN STUFF  !

BOTTOM OR TOP.    top  energy  but  switch

SINGS IN THE SHOWER.    no.

LIKES PUNS.    no.

TAGGED BY  taken  from  the   dash  !

TAGGING   @hargroeve @drivetm @snowinabottle @noblecide @hereticdefied @sawcharcoal @sawscarlet @lghtpulled @vanishcd @campbitch​ +  whoever  else  wants  to  !

[cloudyyoonji]

Koi No Yokan 恋の予感.

Summary: You’re on a hunt to find the boy who keeps appearing in your dreams.

Park Jimin x Reader (Y/N)

Genre: FLUFF!

Word count: yet to insert.

Authors note: hi guys!! If anyone has any imagine ideas for a fluffy or angsty imagine please feel free to inbox!! I’m struggling for ideas at the moment.

_____________________________

His face was burned into your mind as soon as you’d opened your eyes.

The boy with the black hair, coffee brown eyes, slightly pink cheeks and the adorable toothy grin.

As for who he was;

You had no idea.

In the dream, his lips were just forming his name, when you were ripped away by strumming acoustics of your alarm.

Sighing, you picked up the small stack of sticky notes with the pen that rested on top. 

“Day 37, no name - almost name though -. Coffee shop location. He smiled today and held my hand.”

37 days. 37 days you’d been seeing this boy in your dreams. His significance? You still had no idea. But you couldn’t ignore the way the dream felt, the seemingly calm reality. The way he was. The way you felt. The heavy thumping in your chest and the fullness of your heart told you that this boy was important -so much more than a friend. That you needed to find him. 

You subconsciously smile, your heart swelling as you replay the dream in your mind. The way his hand felt on yours - soft and uncertain. It felt so real. 

Just who was this boy?

A hot shower erased your aching mind, allowing you to fully absorb the newly found feeling you couldn't quite place. You’re happy, but not excitedly ecstatic happy. You feel strange, yet calm. Boycotting your normal attire of jeans and a random tee, you instead slip on a light dress, pairing it with ankle boots and a brown leather jacket. 

Maybe, just maybe today is the day. And it was going to be perfect.

*****

“Let me guess, one iced coffee take away?” 

You raise your eyebrows at your friend across the counter. You came to this cafe so often that all the staff knew you well, especially the boy who often worked at the counter. 

"Now now Hoseok, how do you know I didn't want a hot chocolate? Or a mocha?” 

Walking over to the waiting area, Hoseok turns to you, propping himself up on his elbows. “Because you don’t like how a mocha tastes and you always say its iced coffee season no matter the weather y/n.”

You roll your eyes. He really did know you well. 

The sound of the bell signals another customer, your eyes darting to it in an instant. A girl walks in, making you sigh. Your eyes crawl around the room, but you still cannot see him.  

“Looking for someone?” Hoseok asks, his hands reaching for the stack of takeaway cups to hand to the barista behind him. Giving him a knowing look, your eyes flick to the door again. Nope, not him. 

“Ah! you're still looking for him are you?” The female barista’s voice brings your back to reality. Jung Jiwoo, Hoseoks sister, hands you the iced coffee. You feel your cheeks flush in embarrassment. 

“Ah, Jiwoo I didn’t even see you! You two are never put on together...” you trail off, your eyes quickly darting around the room. 

She tks, shaking her head at your bad subject change. 

Your smile at the two Jung siblings, “You two are too much, really.”

You hand Hoseok the correct change and being to walk away slowly, seeing that there are some customers waiting. 

“You’ll find your prince soon y/n!”

You roll your eyes, a smile forming on your lips. You had told him about these dreams a few weeks ago, asking if it made you sound crazy, to which he’d stated it definitely had not. 

“Koi No Yokan,” He said, laughing at the confused look plastered on your face. “It sort of means you have a sense that when you meet someone or see someone for the first time you feel some sort of connection or a premonition.” You laughed; “So its the premonition of love?”                                                    Hoseok nodded, smiling. “Exactly.” 

It did somewhat make sense. You had toyed with the idea after Hoseok mentioned it. There was no logical explanation for what was happening to you. 

Was this boy your premonition?

Sitting down on one of the park benches, you let yourself relax. Today is warm, the scent of spring filling the air in the form of the pungent scents of the nearby cherry blossom trees. In the midst of your thoughts, you catch sight of the messy black handwriting covering the clear cup. 

‘Koi No Yokan ♥’

Laughing to yourself, you snapped a picture of the cup and sent it to Hoseok with the caption “No dream boy yet, but maybe this will be a beckon for him.” 

This boy is determined to help you find the dream boy! 

“THANKYOU FOR BUYING ME COFFEE JIMIN-SSHI!” 

A loud voice broke you from your thoughts, you laughing to yourself at the sound of an overly enthusiastic male.      

“Ah, Namjoon stop! You’re older and more mature than me!” 

The disparity of the other male made you stifle a laugh. Before you heard the reply, your phone buzzed on the table in front of you. “Hair appointment at 10.45.” you read. 

Aish, you forgot about that. 

Picking your belongings up, you begin to make your way to the hairdressers, the mochi-boy completely erased from your mind. 

***** 

Perhaps even Hoseok’s predictions were wrong. A week and a bit later you still haven’t even caught a glimpse of him, with the exceptions of your dreams of course. Somehow, your already bad day was turning worse. 

First, you had somehow spilled ink on your dress by accident. How? You had no idea. And now your regular coffee shop was closed. To make things worse, it was raining. You were desperate for a taste of the bittersweet liquid. Yet despite your bad day, the words spoken in your dream made your heart swell. 

“Sorry... you’re just really pretty.”

Fighting a smile, you pulled your jacket closer to you as you walked into another cafe, sighing at the warm atmosphere. 

“Hi, just one iced coffee to take away thankyou,” you tell the woman, whom barely nods at you in response, only speaking as she tells you the cost of the coffee and to wait in the small crowded space on the other side of the cafe. You pull the buzzing phone out of your pocket, smiling at the text that is displayed. 

“Just because the cafe is closed today, doesn't mean Koi No Yokan can’t happen! Jiwoo and Hoseokie.” 

Before you can even roll your eyes two orders are called. 

“The Iced coffee and mocha!” 

You trudge through the group of people, seeing someone pick up your order.

“Ah sorry, the iced coffee is -”  Your words are cut off as you make eye contact with not the male holding your order, but the man waiting behind him.

His features are as sharp as they appeared in your dream, his slightly pink cheeks, the messy tangle of black locks and those eyes. The brown eyes that you’d seen so many times were so much more enticing in real life. 

And they were fixed right on you. 

Taking your coffee from the man with a mumbled thank you, you found yourself standing in front of him. 

“You’re..” he breathes.

“You... had them too?” You ask. 

Your gazes never leave each other, completely awestruck with each other. 

You feel someone push into you, causing you to trip forward. He catches you by the arm, helping you to walk to a quieter space. 

“I’m Jimin.” He tells you, fidgeting with the lid of his mocha, a faint smile on his lips. 

“Y/n” you reply, your cheeks heating as you realize his gaze was on you.

It's him, the boy of in dreams! But why can’t you say something to him? 

“Sorry,” Jimin apologized, making you look up in surprise. “You’re just really pretty.” 

Unable to say anything, you laugh. 

He looks at you, is expression half amused, half worried.

This time you apologize, “Sorry, it's just... you said that in my dream last night...” 

His eyes form crescents as he smiles. “You said that too.” 

You two laugh, exchanging glances at each other. 

“You know, my friend told me that my dreams were the premonition of love.” He tells you, “Koi no... something it was called.”

“Yokan. Koi No Yokan. Was your friend's name Hoseok by any chance?” You ask. 

He nods immediately, a smile gracing both of you now. 

“He told me that too.” you laugh, rolling your eyes slightly. 

“Well, he was right. Maybe this was... fate?” His eyes questioningly search yours. 

“I think you’re right Jimin.” you reply, your cheeks heating up.

“Well, soulmate, this might be forward, but do you want to go on a date with me tomorrow... if your free that is?”

“Absolutely soulmate.”

[a-damson-in-distress]

From Dusk Till Dawn - Chap. 2

Fandom: Naruto

Pairing: MadaSaku

Plot: Sakura was searching for a purpose. Madara was thirsting for revenge. Little do they know their fates intertwined centuries ago. Once he broke free from his banishment, he would usher in a new dusk. Until he realised that she was his dawn. Historical/mythological AU.

Note: Thank you all for the overwhelming feedback. I honestly didn’t expect this concept to be this well received. I really hope you like the second chapter. Let me know what you think of it. Enjoy. :)

From Dusk Till Dawn - Chap. 1

Sakura first noticed it when the leaves started to fall one by one. 

She kept her gaze fixated on the many trees and flowers in her mother’s vast garden, which were usually in full bloom all year. Unlike in the human world, there was no such thing as withering or decay in the heavens. At least not as far as Sakura knew. She never once saw or heard of a barren tree in all her 500 years, so why were they shedding their leaves now? 

Putting down the book she had been reading, the pink-haired goddess got up from her seat and walked down the steps of her porch and into the garden. As she let her hands graze over the plants slowly losing their colour, Sakura was contemplating alerting her mother but thought better of it. 

The countless rejections of her attempts to go out and explore the world on her own came to mind, how lonely and isolated she felt, how much she craved to have just something that is not controlled by her mother, that is just hers, hers alone. 

Whatever this was that was plaguing their garden, Sakura decided, she was going to find it out on her own, shielded from her mother’s prying eyes.

She continued her stroll through the field of flowers, noticing that leaves continued to fall here and there and that blossoms started to wither slowly, exchanging their vibrant colours for a dull grey. 

Only when she came to a halt in front of the cherry tree orchard, did she notice something even more peculiar. 

While all other plants in her mother’s garden were slowly fading away, her cherry trees were not. The young goddess looked puzzled at the myriad of sakura trees her mother had planted for each of her 500 birthdays. Surrounded by a garden of decay, they still stood strong. 

Sakura couldn’t help but think if these trees could be tied to her by more than just her birthday and the same name. Gazing up at the pink petals stubbornly refusing to leave their branches, she realised that she too, stood strong against this decay. 

And not just that, she stood strong against her own constant frailty. At first, Sakura thought she was imagining things, but she did notice herself become stronger in the recent months, albeit ever so slightly. She had chalked it up to eating more or sleeping longer, yet she was beginning to doubt that now. 

What if that premonition has something to do with it, Sakura thought to herself. All day she had a feeling that her 500th birthday was somehow going to be remarkable, that something extraordinary was supposed to occur. What if this was the night she gained her full strength and found her true purpose? What if the withering garden was a sign of her old, weak self dying and making way for a full-fledged goddess? 

A rush of excitement filled Sakura at the thought of finally being on par with the rest of the gods; crushing boulders like her mother and lifting mountains like Jiraiya. 

Sakura was excitedly thinking about all the things she would finally be able to do, that she almost missed it: the low rumbling of the earth, the sudden drop in temperature, the foreboding darkness covering the moon and suffocating its light. 

It came from the west, she realised. She turned in the direction and stared at the unfurling gloom. Somewhere far behind her, Sakura could faintly make out her mother’s voice commanding her to get back inside. As the darkness kept spreading, however, she tuned out everything else. 

There was a force in the west that drew her in and pulled her towards the source of the eclipse like a blazing light attracting an unsuspecting butterfly. Feeling the earth underneath her feet rumble in sync to her own heartbeat, Sakura started walking towards the darkness as if in a trance. 

A small part of her knew she should heed her mother’s warnings, but her mind was completely blank now, safe for the unexplainable need to go west. 

As her feet carried her deeper into the dark, her form became enveloped in pitch-black mist, obscuring her sight and rendering her blind. Yet she still knew where she needed to go. Something called to her beyond the darkness, some gravitational pull the force of which she had never experienced in all her life. 

Images of her recurring dream suddenly flashed across her mind: a bloody battle long forgotten, a man leaving death and decay in his wake, and crimson eyes staring right into her soul. 

The rumbling underneath her feet stilled all of a sudden, and the black mist stopped advancing. Seconds ticked by where the heavens stood still. 

Nothing moved. 

Nothing breathed. 

Silence. 

And then, all of a sudden, roaring thunder rolled over the sky and a shattering earthquake split the ground beneath her feet as the ominous force in the west unleashed itself upon the heavens in all its dark and destructive glory. 

Sakura held her breath in awe of this spectacle. There was something beautiful in this devastation, she thought to herself, despite its terrifying nature. 

Watching the earthquake lay waste to her surroundings, Sakura realised suddenly it seemed to avoid her. While all the trees in her mother’s garden were swallowed up by the depths of the earth, she stood in the middle of it all, untouched, unscathed, unwavering. 

Again she heard her mother call out to her in desperation, and just as Sakura was about to turn around to look for her, a blazing red light illuminated the sky all of a sudden, releasing a wave of energy that hit Sakura in the deepest part of her being. 

The young goddess could feel the unknown force bubble up inside her, spreading through her soul and filling every inch of her body. 

Never in her life had Sakura felt this strong, this energetic, this fulfilled. It was like a part of her that she had unknowingly been missing all her life had finally returned and etched itself into her very essence. 

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, her mind was suddenly overwhelmed with images of black and red. She could feel herself getting dizzy. 

The last thing she remembered before her body hit the ground was a name that her mind repeated over and over again like a prayer. 

Madara.

He could feel it the instant he broke free. As soon as his form materialised in the heavens with an earth-shattering quake, Madara sensed a powerful force in the east that was unknown to him.

Curious, he thought. Despite being banished for centuries, he still clearly remembered every little detail of his old life in the heavens, including all the divine entities presiding in their respective palaces. 

How could he forget; after all, he was the one that annihilated most of them. 

But this… being was new, he realised, most likely created after his banishment. How intriguing it was that something so young already exerted such a pull on him, Madara mused. 

Whatever it was that was drawing him in from the east, however strange it may be, it did not disturb him. Madara knew, after all, that nothing withstood the might of a dusk god. 

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, inhaling the heavenly air that he was deprived of for so long. When he opened his eyes again, he gazed upon the heavens for the first time in centuries. 

In the distance, he could see valleys crowned with a sea of flowers, rivers running through fields of green like blue veins, and palaces scattered throughout the lands and sitting high on mountain tops. At first glance, the heavens seemed like the perfect idyll, an untouchable fortress immutable to decay or destruction. 

Madara knew, however, that even the home of the gods was susceptible to annihilation. Especially when that annihilation was brought upon by him. 

His return to the heavens was preceded by a wave of devastation, and so, on closer inspection, Madara could see that the valleys were rather crowned by a sea of barren trees and withered flowers, the rivers were nigh on dried up, and many of the palaces lay in ruins. 

Pleased with himself and the fact that even in his still weakened state, he could cause such level of destruction, he let his gaze wander across the lifeless landscape, until he felt a presence behind him. 

Smirking devilishly, he grasped the hilt of his katana and spoke, “I was wondering who would be foolish enough to greet me upon my return. But you always were the foolish kind, weren’t you… Jiraiya?” 

“It is you who was foolish enough to return, Madara. We defeated you once, and we will do it again.” 

A deep chuckle escaped his lips. It had always amused him how naïve the dawn gods were, especially when they thought they actually stood a chance against him. 

He sensed the arrival of more deities gathering behind Jiraiya; he could hear them ready their little weapons for a fight they were doomed to lose from the beginning. 

Madara’s smirk grew when he sensed their dread. They were bold enough to confront him, he had to give them that. But underneath their façade, he could practically smell the fear emanating from their weak little forms. And weakness disgusted him. 

“Is that all you could muster to fight me, Jiraiya? I’m disappointed.” 

“Don’t worry, Madara. Your grand entrance alerted all the heavens to your presence. Soon, you will be dealing with the full force of all the gods.” 

Madara couldn’t help but chuckle at his retort. He drew his katana and turned around to face his opponents. Slowly raising his head to inspect his enemies, Madara could sense their fear growing as they laid eyes on a dusk god for the first time in centuries. 

Surrounded by an aura of dread and death, Madara knew he was the epitome of terror. Even the mightiest of gods would crumble to misery in his presence. After all, there was a reason the dawn gods were only able to seal him all those years ago, and not kill him. 

Staring at the lesser gods facing him, Madara could see their eyes widen in terror as they realised he was preparing for the fight. “Well then, let’s start with some warm-up exercises, shall we?” 

He raised his long katana with the blade pointing to the ground. Grinning deviously, he lowered his arm and stabbed the point of the sword into the earth, releasing a shattering quake and splitting the ground into a massive crater. The cracks underneath their feet grew to giant holes, swallowing up some of his opponents. 

Madara watched with malicious glee as the lesser gods tried desperately to hold on to the edge of the holes, frantically screaming for help, dreading to plunge down into the fiery pits of the underworld where not even gods are spared the torture awaiting there. 

A rush of excitement filled Madara at hearing their dreadful screams and seeing their frightful forms tremble upon witnessing his terrifying power. He hadn’t felt this alive in ages. 

Madara thrived on fear, and after centuries of imprisonment, he was finally going to taste it again. 

He picked up his katana and strode towards Jiraiya and the other remaining deities. 

“Your god wants you to dance for him,” he exclaimed with a grin, raising his sword. 

In one fell swoop Madara separated the head of a young god from his shoulders, his grin widening as he watched the body slump to the ground to his feet. 

His pitch black eyes pierced the trembling forms of his enemies, instilling terror in their hearts and rendering them motionless. Not even an experienced warrior like Jiraiya dared to take a step. 

He was going to enjoy this thoroughly, Madara thought to himself. 

The war for his vengeance had begun, and he just drew first blood.

As he had expected, they were no match for him. Madara cut through the lesser gods who dared to stand against him with the experience of countless battles won and even more lives taken. 

After they seemed to have recovered from the initial shock of his return, many more gods came. Some who had to rashly put their fighting prowess to the test and lose their heads in the process; others who simply had to confirm their suspicion and hurriedly left again after witnessing his bloodlust. 

Madara, however, did not care about that; he deliberately let Jiraiya and some others alive. Nobody would spread the word about the carnage he caused better than those who had witnessed it first-hand. 

But for now, Madara decided, he would retreat. Even though he missed the thrill of battle and even though his power was still unparalleled by any of the dawn gods, it would be unwise to overexert himself at this point. After all, Madara knew it would take some time for his true power to return and for his Sharingan to finally reawaken. 

Until then, he would make himself comfortable. 

And what was more fitting for the mightiest of all gods for proving his superiority than constructing his palace on the highest peak of the mountain range overlooking the heavens. 

As Madara walked across the plateau he chose for his residence, stones, bricks, and wooden beams whirled all around him, stacking themselves up and covering the ground to form walls and floors. Pillars erected themselves to support the ceiling as if they were controlled by some unseen force; lamps ignited themselves to provide light; gold, silver, and gems placed themselves in every chamber, adorning every corner of the magnificent residence. 

Before long, Madara was standing on the balcony of a splendid palace perfectly representing his divine nature: cold, sombre, and most of all, pitch-black. 

As his long robe fluttered in the morning wind, Madara let his eyes wander across the valleys beneath him. 

The dark veil of the night was just about to be pierced by the first sunlight from the east. Dawn broke free from the clutches of the night and would reign over the world for the next few hours, until it was again replaced by dusk, in an endless dance of death and rebirth. 

As he kept his gaze fixated on the sunrise, the raven-haired god felt it again: that inexplicable pull from the east. It was the first thing he had felt as soon as he stepped foot in the heavens after his banishment. 

Having been engaged in battle soon after his arrival, he had paid it no attention at the time. But now, there was no ignoring it. 

Madara felt the unknown attraction so clearly it was almost tangible. 

He could not yet explain what exactly that force was; he could only tell that it was very young, the youngest among all the divine entities he could sense in the heavens. 

Taking a sip of his wine, the dusk god decided he would look into this peculiarity as soon as his full power returned. 

But for now, he needed to rest. 

As sleep took over his mind, Madara’s dreams were haunted by flashes of pink and green and an orchard of sakura trees standing amidst ruins.

[hanami--dango]

Prompts! ANBU Itachi meets Akatsuki Sakura!

Also age!swap au? Or timeline what timeline.

Pistols at Dawn this is me reaching and you wanting to run

-

Sakura Haruno is fifteen years old when she betrays Konohagakure.

Itachi remembers it clearly, because that was the day his brother came home from the end of the war, blind in one eye with an unconscious, bleeding Naruto slung across his back.

He stayed in the hospital for three days, watching over his older brother and his teammate. As it turned out, Sasuke’s blindness was reversible, and Naruto’s injuries, though severe, were never life-threatening. It was either by virtue of Tsunade Senju’s medical prowess or the sloppiness of the enemy nin that both survived, and Itachi wasn’t sure to whom he should be more grateful.

But the third bed laid empty like an unspoken question.

When Itachi worked up the courage to ask, Naruto’s expression crumpled like a house of cards, his heartbeat spiking on the monitor. Sasuke turned his face away, staring out the window with his single unbandaged eye, his raspy voice guttural - angry and sharp.

“She said she was tired of following orders.”

The realization lanced through him, that it was Sakura Haruno who nearly carved his older brother’s eye out, who was responsible for the fresh scars on Naruto’s body. Disbelief permeated him; it was also Sakura Haruno who single-handedly sustained and healed their vanguard, Konoha’s crucial push into Kusagakure. It was Sakura Haruno’s fists that destroyed the Kannabi Bridge and cinched Konoha’s victory. And years ago, it was Sakura who-

Memories of the emergency room, the murmurings of overworked medics and nurses, slowly unfurled in his mind. As he sat there, next to his father and mother, wondering if his aniki, the heir to the clan, would lose his prized doujutsu, if the fourth Hokage would lose another family member, he anchored onto the whispered hope.

If they had cut deeper, the Hokage’s son would have died from blood loss.

If they had managed to swipe any lower, Uchiha-sama’s eye would be beyond saving.

We’re lucky-

How fortunate-

It’s amazing-

Sloppiness, indeed. Eleven-year-old Itachi sits in his plastic chair, and witnesses the break of Konohagakure’s infamous Team Seven. Naruto’s beeping heart monitor punctuates Sasuke’s deafening silence, and everything comes to a quiet and terrible sort of sense.

-

Itachi learns, as he enters ANBU and rises quickly through the ranks, to detest violence. Moreover, he learns to hate war. Seven years later, Itachi is still cleaning up the consequences of the Third Shinobi war. There is no justification for such wide-scale destruction and needless death. Entire villages are left ravaged, wiped off the map, caught in the crossfire. Vagabonds who have no place to call home form dangerous criminal rings. Orphanages are near to bursting with not enough resources to feed the children through winter. Ninja villages that were on the wrong side of the war still rumble in discontent and increase border activity.

Among the muddy waters, Konoha intelligence catches wind of an group more sinister and organized than simple B-class missing-nin.

And then, one by one, the jinchūriki end up dead.

-

When Minato summons Itachi to his office, he doesn’t expect Senju Tsunade to be there, with a thunderous scowl on her face.

“I need you to meet our spy,” the Yondaime says without preface. He sifts through the paperwork on his desk until he comes across the scroll he wants, “at this disclosed location. You are to go alone.”

Itachi takes the proffered missive and unravels its contents. The rendezvous location will be at the destroyed Kannabi Bridge. Behind his porcelain mask, Itachi’s lips tighten, and an uncomfortable picture starts to form in his head.

His scroll erupts into flame, until there’s not even ash left.

“I was not aware we had a spy in Akatsuki,” and then he adds belatedly, “Hokage-sama.”

“This is our first direct contact since they were implemented,” Tsunade answers. She steps forward and gives him a look that could level mountains, “Let me be clear here, Uchiha. Nobody but the people in this room knows about this. If you compromise-”

“What Tsunade-hime means,” Minato interjects, and her teeth click when she snaps her jaw shut, “Is that this mission is of paramount importance. What our mole will reveal will determine how Konoha will react. As our top agent we’re trusting this task to you.”

Then, Minato smiles his smile that he thinks is disarming, but really, just reveals the lethal shinobi he is underneath.

“You tell no one.”

Not your superiors, not your clan, not to Sasuke, and not to Naruto.

Itachi hears his orders loud and clear, and disappears in a wisp of smoke.

-

He has it figured out by the time he arrives at the rendezvous point an hour early, so it’s no surprise when he finds one Sakura Haruno resting underneath the shade an oak tree.

There a sort of quiet tragedy about her, but that air disappears when her eyes flutter open. They are chips of ice, drilling into his porcelain mask as if she could divine who he is underneath. It’s been nearly ten years since he’s been face to face with her, and a selfish, indulgent part of him wonders if she ever remembered the little boy she saved once upon a time.

Sakura takes her time rising from the ground, brushing off her garish black and red cloak. Itachi  stands still and watches her movements. She moves deliberately, hands out in the open and not hidden by the cloak’s sleeves. Though Sakura has become infamous enough that every hunter-nin in any country knows she can kill without use of hand signs or a weapon. Tsunade had been thorough in her training.

Days before this meeting, Itachi thought of a thousand ways of how their conversation might go. There’s a certain anticipation that had been building within his chest, squeezed tight like fist when he sighted her. There were questions he wanted to ask that went beyond his station. He wondered if it would be cruel to tell her about her old teammates. How Naruto talks about her like the war took her, how Sasuke talks about her none at all. He wanted to tell her about how Konoha has been without her there - because if she was willing to forsake her home in order to protect it, shouldn’t she have a right to know? All these thoughts swirled in his mind as Sakura squared her shoulders to fully face him. Then, she speaks first and shatters all his imagined expectation.

“You are ill.”

He smothers his natural instinct to flinch. Sakura cocks her head infinitesmally, staring at his chest as if she truly could peel back his layers and see the disease festering there. He finds it more ironic than amusing that with just three words she’s revealed his longest kept secret. Not even his clan knows. She flicks her eyes back to his mask when he doesn’t reply.

She moves forward - glides really - towards him. Her tread is silent as she sidesteps the bridge rubble now overgrown with moss and lichen. She pulls back her billowing sleeve, revealing her pale, slender wrist and brings her fingertips just below his collarbone, where his black under armor meets his ANBU vest. His Sharingan flares in response, but it’s not combat chakra that envelops her hand.

Her healing chakra feels the same as it did ten years ago, and unbidden, he closes his eyes as it  sweeps through his chest.

“Breathe in deeply,” she says, and he does. Itachi can immediately feel the difference, how his breath doesn’t sound wet or hitch in his throat.

“Hold it,” Sakura murmurs and he opens his eyes to find a small wrinkle in her brow. His Sharingan reveals to him what the naked eye doesn’t; the striations of green in her eyes, the faint spatter of pale freckles, how her lashes are more dark pink than brown, the stray candyfloss hairs caught in those same long, delicate lashes. She has a faint scar on her right cheekbone and Itachi clenches his fists to keep from touching it, to see if her skin is as smooth as it looks.

“Exhale.”

He breathes out slowly and wonderment seizes him. The pain is gone. He feels sharper now that he doesn’t have to divert his energy in suppressing his symptoms.

That’s twice now, he wants to say but doesn’t in risk of sounding foolish.

“It’s gone,” he says instead and lets his gratitude shine through in his tone.

“For now,” Sakura murmurs, and lets her hand fall away. There’s a crinkle in between his black armor and vest. A note.

“Whatever reasons you have for hiding that,” she taps his chest once, looking up at his mask, “Is surely not worth your life.”

He has no words to rebut her statement without sounding childish, so he inclines his head once.

The first threads of dawn filter through the canopy and Itachi has a strange premonition that this will be the last time he will see her. The lines seem deeper on her face as she turns away.

“They’re well,” he blurts, and stops her. After a pause, he says in a quieter voice, “They miss you.”

He doesn’t need to say any more. Over her high collar, he can see the ice in her eyes melt. She gives him a small smile, like spring breaking through winter’s frost. In that moment, as she coalesces into cherry blossom petals, he wishes fervently, vehemently, naively, that somehow, some way, he could bring her home.

-

When Itachi goes home that night, bone-weary and tired in places he can’t name, he brushes off his family’s concerns and goes straight to bed. He lies there, blanket drawn to his middle and hands laced over his chest. He stares at the rafters of his room, the dust motes floating in the moonlight cast from his windows. He closes his eyes and sees petal pink and mournful spring green eyes. He remembers the grace of her hands when she pressed her delicate fingertips against his chest. Healer’s hands. Never had he knew a more subtle tenderness until that day.

And when he slips into sleep, he dreams of what he had wanted to do differently. He dreams of curling his fingers around hers, to see how she might fit in his hand. To feel her skin and see if she was as cold as she pretended to be. He dreams of what he wanted her to do. To mention the day she saved him as a child, that it was a memory that she thought of often. He wanted her to speak his name, wanted to know how it sounded in her lilting, womanly voice.

When Itachi wakes up the next morning, he is once again Uchiha Itachi of Konohagakure. He slips on his ANBU uniform, piece by piece in methodical silence. His vest, his armguards, shin guards. His tanto is strapped to his back. He pulls his bone white mask over his face and flash-steps into the cool morning, towards the Hokage’s Tower.

The Yondaime is waiting for him.

But he pauses.

Itachi grips the scrap of paper Sakura had slipped into his vest, its weight like lead in his fist. He unfolds it and drinks in her elegant handwriting. It details the other members of the Akatsuki organization, and their goals, their targets. The kind of information his comrades have died for.

He should go to the Hokage right away. He should be reporting this information so the village can mobilize, gather allies, and strike before the start of another war even begins.

(No more tragedies, no more orphans, no more Sakuras.)

At the bottom of the note, there is a single emphatic line, different from the almost clinical tone she had listed the information.

‘Protect him, please.’

Him. Naruto.

The air leaves his lungs.

He is eight again, Sakura’s long pink locks flutter in his peripheral, surrounding him with a pleasant floral fragrance despite the wear of war. There’s a wide bandage on her cheek. The rush of adrenaline still lingers in his system. His would-be kidnapper lays unconscious among the wreckage of felled trees. The scent of splintered wood and churned dirt is thick, but Sakura’s gentle knuckles under his chin draw his attention to her face. Her regard and concern is a heady thing, and there isn’t quite a word to describe the clarity and verdant of her eyes. He is eight years old again, and her concern is novel and strange, but not unwelcome. Her thumb brushes against the cut on his brow, the healing chakra cool and soothing. He almost protests when she withdraws her touch, but her eyes keep him silent. They are kind and compassionate and Itachi is starved of those things - he drinks them in greedily.

“Are you okay?”

Itachi is eighteen again and he is an ANBU operative for Konohagakure. He’s sworn his complete loyalty to his village and to his Hokage. Haruno Sakura is a traitor and an S-class missing ninja. His mind flips through the cold, impersonal facts about her listed in the Bingo books. Her appearance, her height, her known jutsu, her last known appearances.

It doesn’t mention how the green of her eyes changes in filtered sunlight. It doesn’t mention the fragile line of her shoulders, weighed down by the burden of being a double-agent. Doesn’t mention what breaking the trust and love of her friends cost her. Not the kindness she still harbors, not the unwavering loyalty to her village that turned its back on her, not her stalwart and unerring sense of duty.

As Itachi steps through the threshold into the Yondaime’s office, he draws a line in his mind. The dream he had, the memory of her saving him as a child, the grace of her hands as she cured his illness with a single touch - those are the things he allows himself, private and ensconced from reality.

He tells himself, as he crosses the room with long, purposeful strides, not to think about what ifs. Naruto is the village’s strongest soldier, and its biggest liability. He’s also the Yondaime’s son, Minato’s only surviving family. There isn’t anything he wouldn’t do to protect him, not after Kushina died and left the fox to their child.

Itachi crushes his emotions as Minato reads over Sakura’s note with a grim face. He doesn’t dare hope for anything more, doesn’t think on how she’ll never be able to come home. War is coming again - it’s a sentiment he can read in the lines of the Hokage’s face without him even parting his lips. What is one stranded spy’s life in lieu of a village’s worth? Of a son’s?

Itachi knows the answer, and tries not to feel bitter.

end.

[jamesquinlanmeservy-author]

The Deadliest Sins Excerpt

  Chapter 1

  The “Coyote” sat in the booth, drinking stale coffee, eating a crust of cherry pie, and writing in a five- by nine-inch ring notebook. He had to record his thoughts, his feelings. That’s what his shrink said. His shrink was an asshole, but at two Benjamins a session Coyote didn’t want to waste the advice.

  The gray-haired waitress shuffled over in dirty house shoes. She was wearing faded gray sweat pants and a shirt with stains and smudges of flour.

  “Coffee?” she asked.

  Coyote looked around the shabby café. It was narrow, with a six-foot counter on one side and two ramshackle booths on the other—one of those had duct tape holding a leg together. There were no other customers. The varnished seat of the booth had turned to a gummy residue, but the top was worn smooth. Mounted in one corner of the ceiling was a defunct surveillance camera, its wires disconnected and hanging. The coffee in the bottom of the carafe was black and thick as syrup. She calls this drain cleaner coffee?

  He was polite. “No,” he said. His voice was gruff, deep for a man barely five and a half feet tall. He was wearing a charcoal-colored Burberry coat, black leather gloves, black Western Stetson, crisp white shirt with imitation-pearl snap buttons, creased blue jeans, and Western boots. He wasn’t a big man by any standard, but only a few men had made the mistake of seeing him as “small.”

  The woman said, “Closing in five.”

  He ignored her as her shoes scuffed across the stained black-and-white tiles. He dug deep in a pocket and pulled out a crisp twenty-dollar bill. He slid the twenty under his cup and read what he’d written so far:

  I’m tired. Tired of everything and everyone. People disgust me. Food doesn’t taste good. No happiness anywhere for me. I see people pretending to sing, their words full of hate and anger and violence. They dance with faces showing hate and confrontation. What are they so unhappy about? Why do they want to disrespect everything they got for free? They won’t work. They think they can be rich and happy taking drugs. They dishonor their parents and each other. They fight from a safe distance with texts and computers and phones. Cowards.

  Everyone is out for themselves and the only thing they can agree on is that their elders were wrong, racist, or homophobic. They don’t see why “elders” always talk about the past, about the lessons that took a lifetime to learn. They are confused about who they are, who anyone else is, angry that their elders didn’t give them more. Why should they take any blame or responsibility?

  This is where my mind goes when I’m on the road. Alone, thank God. My dreams are visions, premonitions of things to come. Slackers, drug addicts, and alcoholics, irresponsible, arrogant pretenders surround me. They have created a world where they matter. They don’t. If the last three or four generations were wiped from the face of the earth, we wouldn’t notice. They contribute nothing. They do nothing. They want everything. They’re using my air.

  “Time,” the old woman said.

  Coyote got up. He couldn’t wait to leave. The smell of putrid coffee mixed with the odor of fried onions was enough incentive to go. He walked out the door, his boots crunching on rock salt. He pulled his coat tighter against the frigid air, looked down the street at the car with the fogged-up windshield. The asshole had made Coyote wait. Coyote respected that.

  He tugged the coat collar up around his neck and face. He pulled a cigarette from inside his jacket and lit it. Holding it between his lips, he slipped his hands into his pockets and turned down the alleyway.

  The Deadliest Sins Excerpt The Deadliest Sins Excerpt Chapter 1 The “Coyote” sat in the booth, drinking stale coffee, eating a crust of cherry pie, and writing in a five- by nine-inch ring notebook.

[daleisgreat]

Guardians of the Galaxy

We are mere weeks away from the release of the latest Marvel Studios film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, so naturally it felt right to pull 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy (trailer out of the backlog box. I specifically remember thinking that this was going to be the first full-on flop from Marvel Studios. The comic it was based on was around off and on over the years but I never considered it a top-tier book from Marvel by any means and could not name a single character by the time the film arrived. GotG was certainly going to be the first Marvel film to focus on a character that was not in the upper-echelon of Marvel Heroes such as Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and Thor. I also despised the original trailer for the first film. For whatever reason it played before nearly every film I caught at the theater for several months before the movie hit. The preview gave me all the wrong vibes that this was going to be full of bad jokes from a bunch of unknown heroes in the cosmic branch of the Marvel Universe that will go right over my head. I could not have been happier to be so wrong.

GotG centers around one Peter Quill aka Starlord (Chris Pratt). The film starts off with him as a young child at his mother’s deathbed, when all of a sudden a mysterious spaceship abducts him and the film immediately jumps a couple decades ahead where Quill is now a ‘junker’ (futuristic treasure hunter?) residing in a intergalactic community somewhere in another universe. A routine quest for a mysterious orb goes haywire and lands Quill in prison. It is here where Starlord teams up with some unlikely allies. His new comrades consist of Gamura (Zoe Saldana), Rocket the raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), the monstrous brute Drax (David Bautista) and a full sized animated tree capable of speaking only five words Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel). Ronan (Lee Pace) is GotG’s lead villain. He is a lieutenant of the high and mighty Thanos, but breaks off from him after he finds a new source of power. Minus Groot, Marvel did a tremendous job with the casting. I will give props to Quill for this being his big motion picture breakout performance after several years on the ensemble mockumentary TV series, Parks & Rec. Saladana proved she is already capable of sci-fi greatness in the latest line of Star Trek films and went on to double down on that expertise in another sci-fi franchise. Bautista went above and beyond what anyone expected out of a pro-wrestler. Bradley Cooper shows all kinds of range with his voicing of Rocket, but Marvel could have saved a good chunk of money on the budget by having anyone voice Groot. Vin probably commanded a high dollar since he is in the midst of riding the success of the Fast & Furious money train. Watching the GotG unwillingly come together to break out of prison in a fantastic scene and transition into a well-oiled machine by the time they take on Ronan in the final act is simply an awesome experience. Part of the reason on how they got there is a stunning job in the CG department. GotG got nominated for two technical Oscars for Best Visual Effects & Best Costume Design. After witnessing a few of its dazzling-yet-intense spaceship duels and watching the behind-the-scenes feature on the multi-hour process of what Saladana and Bautista had to go through in makeup justifies the film as being a Oscar contender in those departments.

What also helped round off this sublime audio/visual package is a five star soundtrack consisting primarily of 1970s pop hits such as “I Want You Back,” “Hooked on a Feeling,” and “Cherry Bomb.” Director James Gunn stated in the commentary for the film that Disney got every single song he requested approved for the soundtrack, and I am presuming Gunn must have spent a great deal timing when each and every song would kick in at just the right moment to add that extra dose of impact. A couple of my favorite examples of this are when the Guardians are planning their final assault on Ronan to “Cherry Bomb” and the opening title screen where Quill is dancing away to “Come and Get Your Love.” I remember being super giddy the day Google generously released the soundtrack for free on its Play Store and it has been in a consistent rotation in my running playlists ever since. There is only one noteworthy qualm I have with GotG and it is the fact that it is too lighthearted. Do not get me wrong, nearly all the jokes and zingers in here are clever and witty and each character has several standout lines/moments in the film that cracked me up. That there is the problem however! Unlike other past Marvel films that know when to cut back and get serious, this one never lets up on the jokes, so the few times that GotG attempts to have a pivotal, meaningful moment in the movie I found myself waiting for the surprise gag to come from out of nowhere to steal the scene, and in a couple of those moments that is exactly what happened. Again, that qualm is not a deal-breaker by any means and when you are dealing with a talking raccoon and tree as two of your main actors, I could see why Marvel felt like they had to dial up the jokes to help the audience suspend their disbelief. They just dialed it up a bit too much.

There are a few extras on the BluRay you can easily cruise through in no time, but are worth consuming. There are four minutes of deleted scenes with or without commentary from James Gunn. If you have watched past Marvel films on video, you know they have some of the best produced gag reels out there, and GotG does not disappoint with a killer array of bloopers that culminates with a spectacular dance-off you have to see to believe. Intergalactic Visual FX is a seven minute look at the costume and makeup design that made me get sympathetic for what Saldana and Bautista had to go through every day on set. Guide to the Galaxy is a 21 minute all-encompassing behind-the-scenes look at the film hosted by Gunn where he explains the world lore, interviews the cast and goes into what it took to pull off the huge final battle scene. Finally Gunn goes solo for a commentary track on the film, and it is a decent solo commentary where he has a lot of notes filling everyone in on the backstory of the universe from the comics and a lot of recollections about the casting for the film. Guardians of the Galaxy made me feel like a fool for doubting it as it went on to be both a critical and commercial success. It is one of several movies I have seen in the theater twice. If you somehow had my original premonitions on this film being a flop and avoided it because it featured a lot of characters you were unfamiliar with then go ahead and put those reservations to the side and watch this immediately so you can be ready for the sequel in a few weeks. I recommend watching it solo so you can avoid others judging you as you jam out and get your dance on to the songs throughout the film! Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Creed Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Hercules: Reborn Hitman Ink Interstellar Jobs Man of Steel Marine 3 & 4 Mortal Kombat The Replacements Rocky I-VII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Wild The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Days of Future Past

[wickedgentlemen]

[CHARACTER PROFILES]

Category: Human / Low Fantasy

Name: Amadeus Wolfgang

Playable by the ages: 18-20 ~ 20-24 ~ 24-28

Nickname: Hurricane

Occupation: He is the lead singer of the Rock Band named Checkmate. He also studies Social Politics at the University.

Sexuality: Straight.

Likes: To drink, smoke weed, complain about the ~system~, to pick up unnecessary fights, have sex with strangers, compose, learn new languages, to skip classes.

Personality trope: Troublemaker Rock Star

He is good at: Singing, composing and fucking.

Favorite band/Singer/Composer: Scorpions, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Led Zeppelin. Don’t make him pick one.

Attraction level (0 means no attraction, 5 means really attracted): Men: • Women: •••••

Relationship stereotype: Amadeus likes to see himself as an one night stand. He’ll probably never call again, won’t even remember your name.

Top or Bottom: As a straight guy, he tops, but I must confess he would accept a woman topping  him with the proper toys.

Important relationships: Banshee - Younger brother, Tony - Best friend and rival.

Nationality: German

Theme song: Muse - Uprising

–> TIMELINE

16-18: He was having a hard time struggling to live alone in England. People mocked his accent. He hated London, but he hated his father even more. Started the band with Banshee and Tony, until they had a fight when he was 18. The band was separated.

18-20: Became a sort of depressed junkie. Played the rock drama queen all the time, breaking things around the street, passing out on the corners, living a suicidal dark time, always being saved by his little brother.

20-24: Restarted the band and joined college. Did not cut the drugs, but calmed down with them. Was able to pose for some photoshoots as a model and called attention on social media.

24-28: Checkmate became a famous rockband and they started playing on big events and tour around the world. Amadeus kept his rockstar pose all the time, called the media attention all the time by episodes of aggression, by getting a fan pregnant, for being too high at some parties.

Important considerations: Amadeus left his hometown because he couldn’t deal with his father. The fact that his father kicked his younger brother out made him uncomfortable forever and he had to leave too. Amadeus lost three of his best friends to unfortunate events in his life, so he is very afraid of losing people, that’s why he avoids serious relationships.

—–

Fantasy Only: He has premonitions. If we pick up a fantasy RP, Amadeus will be able to foresee some of the events and this usually drives him crazy as most of the time he is not able to prevent bad things from happening.

—–

Category: Human / Low Fantasy

Name: Ludwig Wolfgang

Playable by the ages: 16-18 ~ 18-22 ~ 22-26

Nickname: Banshee, Little Hurricane

Occupation: He plays guitar on Checkmate. He also studies Social Comunication at the University and play as a DJ on a local nightclub.

Sexuality: Gay.

Likes: To drink, smoke weed, to dance at the club, play at the nightclub, going out with friends, party hard, spend money.

Personality trope: Sassy silly.

He is good at: House keeping, cooking, dealing with people.

Favorite band/Singer/Composer: Halsey

Attraction level (0 means no attraction, 5 means really attracted): Men: ••••• Women: •

Relationship stereotype: Banshee is into older men, that are usually not openly gay and probably married. He loves a person with a very stable life, but not so stable mind.

Top or Bottom: Bottom.

Important relationships: Amadeus - Older brother.

Nationality: German

Theme song: Halsey - Hurricane

–> TIMELINE

14-16: He had an intense abusive relationship with his father because the man just couldn’t accept the fact that Ludwig was gay, so he ended up spanking the boy out of the house and Ludwig left to never come back. He was alone and decided to ask for a ride at the street. His goal was to go anywhere far away from home. His road trip took away a whole year of his life, when he spent time with all kinds of people. He worked as a prostitute and made almost everything for money, until he found his way to England, aaccompanied by some punks he met in Amsterdam. There, he found a job as a DJ on a local nightclub as was able to rent a room. Amadeus showed up when things were settled and they started living together.

16-18: It was hard for him to make a living with fake IDs and being a minor, but by the age of 18, he finally was able to launch himself as a DJ at London and started working on more than one club. When the band crashed, he dedicated himself to save Amadeus from death and to pop music.

18-22: The band came back and he dropped some of his night jobs to study more about playing guitars. He joined college and met some new people.

22-26: Checkmate became a famous rockband and they started playing on big events and tour around the world. Banshee had real fun with his brother’s trouble as they seemed to draw more attention to their band and made them some sort of sex symbols to the world. Banshee started speaking out for gay children around the world.

Important considerations: Being a prostitute was just a small part of his background and he definetelly won’t go back to that. But Banshee takes almost everyone to his bed, because he really enjoys sex and naked bodies. He is into polyamorous relationships.

—–

Fantasy Only: He has the addictive voice power. Whatever Banshee speaks makes him sound “desireable” and “wanted”. It feels like he has a magnet on his voice that attracts people toward him. It’s not imperative, but people feel like they could do whatever he asks, just because his voice is way too delicious.

—–

Category: Human

Name: Axl Cinnamon

Playable by the ages: 18-22~22-26

Nickname: Cinnamon

Occupation: He works as an accounter at a local bookstore. He does practically everything there, not just accounting.

Sexuality: Gay.

Likes: Coffee, work, studying, rock concerts, party, reading, writing, smoke weed, doing drugs, sex.

Personality trope: Angry lone wolf.

He is good at: Almost everything. He loves to write, is the best student, works like hell.

Favorite band/Singer/Composer: Guns’n Roses

Attraction level (0 means no attraction, 5 means really attracted): Men: ••• Women: -

Relationship stereotype: Cinnamon looks for people who are as lost as himself. He loves the bohemian life and young boys, but he sticks to the older and confident ones so he can feel he is not doing wrong by seducing a younger into parties and drugs and not even exposing them to the risk of contracting HIV.

Top or Bottom: Bottom.

Important relationships: Courtney Cinnamon - Older sister.

Nationality: US American

Theme song: Placebo - The Bitter End

–> TIMELINE

16-18: Had to leave home because of lack of attention from his parents. They had no money, nowhere to live and no education. His sister worked on a local brothel where he joined not so long after her. He started working with men of all ages, until he started with the drugs. Everything happened really fast and Cinnamon fell right into the pit of addiction. He got sick and was kicked out the brothel. He kept working as a prostitute, but this time he was around the streets looking for men. That was when he got raped and got HIV.

18-22: Got into a rehab and spent some time there. Fell in love with a destructive boy who became also abusive and obsessive. Fled the rehab and met his sister again who was pregnant and about to marry the guy who made her pregnant. He got some money from her and found a room to stay. Started working on a coffee shop and saving for studies.

22-26: Joined college to sudy Law. Became a workaholic and started to really succeed in accounting. Gained the trust of many people and could get a better place to live.

Important considerations: Cinnamon was deeply abused in his past, so he has many reservations considering relationships and people. He is HIV positive and had some trouble treating AIDS when it manifested years ago. He fears that people will hate him because of the HIV, so he keeps his distance, but he is a very loyal friend and a trustful employee.

—–

Category: Human

Name: Christian Ayame Inagane

Playable by the ages: 16-18~18-22

Nickname: Lolliphlox

Occupation: Dragqueen performer at club Vortex.

Sexuality: Gay.

Likes: To drink, party hard, sleep the whole day, working out, gossiping.

Personality trope: Drama queen.

He is good at: Dancing.

Favorite band/Singer/Composer: The Chainsmokers

Attraction level (0 means no attraction, 5 means really attracted): Men: ••••• Women: -

Relationship stereotype: Chris likes to show off beautiful men and desirable lovers. He is into band guys, popular boys and ascending stars.

Top or Bottom: Definetelly Bottom.

Important relationships: Cheese - Twin Brother, Aiken - Older Brother, Dashiel - Boyfriend.

Nationality: US American

Theme song: Garbage - Cherry Lips

–> TIMELINE

16-18: Chris came from a japanese mafia family where he was forced to do all knds of strange things. After an episode caused by his older brother’s rage, that ended with his father killed, Chris was sent to a tutor to take care of him and Cheese. They joined expensive schools and started to live a normal life, but Chris was always worried about his appearance more than anything. He feared people would judge him by his past and played the cool awesome girl all the time. By the age of 18, he was free to go and moved to Dashiel’s house.

18-22: Chris found a job on a night club and joined dancing classes. He spends most of the time trying to get better at dancing and makeup styling. He is addicted to working out, but he drinks a lot.

Important considerations: Christian is discovering himself as a transexual girl, but he still avoids the theme cause he is afraid of what people will think. He is not really good at anything, but he does his best to take care of the ones he loves. He dreams of having a family with children one day. Chris has a boyfriend but he is deeply into polyamorous relationships.

—–

Category: Human / High fantasy

Name: Kazimir Van Den Berg

Playable by the ages: 16-18~18-22

Nickname: -

Occupation: Theatre backstage helper.

Sexuality: Bisexual.

Likes: To read, to travel, listening to people, the sunrise, classic music, feeling loved.

Personality trope: Scared boy.

He is good at: Cleaning, backstage handling, makeup, figurine.

Favorite band/Singer/Composer: Vivaldi

Attraction level (0 means no attraction, 5 means really attracted): Men: ••••• Women: •••

Relationship stereotype: Kazimir is into bigger and masculine men that can impose their will. He loves to be dominated, so he’ll probably fall for anyone who shows the will to possess him.

Top or Bottom: Bottom.

Important relationships: Edward - Best friend.

Nationality: Belgian

Theme song: Sopor Aeternus - Consider This: The True Meaning of Love

–> TIMELINE

16-18: Started serving at a local theatre because this was all he could do. he was born blind and didn’t learn to do most common things during his life. But later, he started to see and was able to work as a normal person. He lost his parents on a fire accident, so he lives with his aunt who is an old angry lady.

—Fantasy category only:

18-22: Was abducted by Magnus, who was a very powerful vampire. Kazimir turned into a vampire and started to learn how to deal with the darkness who haunted him and was also the source of his powers.

Important considerations: Kazimir is an easy to play character, cause he fits almost all of the Role Play routines that might appear.

—–

Category: Human / High fantasy

Name: Andreik

Playable by the ages: 16-18

Nickname: Dreik

Occupation: Board and card player.

Sexuality: Demisexual.

Likes: Playing games, listeing to music, walking alone in the dark.

Personality trope: Angry asocial red head.

He is good at: Cheating, playing and math.

Favorite band/Singer/Composer: Tchaikovsky

Attraction level (0 means no attraction, 5 means really attracted): Men: • Women: •

Relationship stereotype: Drake is into teachers and he probably seeks a father in all men e finds.

Top or Bottom: Bottom.

Important relationships: Setzer - Best friend.

Nationality: Armenian.

Theme song: Rilo Kiley - Portions for Foxes

–> TIMELINE

16-18: He is a very reserved boy who never met his parents and grew up in an orphanage. He prefers cards than people and spends most of his time creating probability algorithms to win on card games. Dreik is on the spectrum, so he has dificulties when it come to deal with people.

—Fantasy category only:

18+: Dreik became a vampire in a very old past and he still behaves as an impulsive teenager. He has fun picking up fights and kicking human asses.

Important considerations: He is not a very easy character to deal with because he is always very angry and repulsive to people, so consider not picking him if you don’t want to deal with this kind of personality.

—–

Category: Human / High fantasy

Name: Mikhail Weiss

Playable by the ages: 16-18

Nickname: Mika

Occupation: Pop singer, model.

Sexuality: Slightly bisexual.

Likes: Singing, speaking out for human rights, having friends, dealing with people, parties and dancing.

Personality trope: Happy bright smiley boy.

He is good at: Singing, composing, dealing with people, showing empathy.

Favorite band/Singer/Composer: Sia.

Attraction level (0 means no attraction, 5 means really attracted): Men: ••••• Women: ••

Relationship stereotype: Mika loves all kinds of people, as long as they’re alive enough to love him back!

Top or Bottom: Both.

Important relationships: -

Nationality: German

Theme song: Sia - Unstoppable

–> TIMELINE

14-16: He lived in a small provincian town where his father worked in the field. His father wanted him to become a famous scientist and to work with mathematics and physics, but Mika always hated that and wished to grow as a great public performer. He ran away with the circus and started practicing daincing and acting.

16-18: He was singing in the streets for money, when a man stopped by and offered him an opportunity to record an album. Mika debuted as a pop singer and posed for many famous brands, but he has many problems dealing with the show business abusive market and needs to learn how to live by himself.

—Fantasy category only:

16-18: He lives in a post-apocalypict world, where the cities are isolated and the air outside is toxic. Mika debuted as an important singer and his songs are about revolution and protection of the ones who live outside the big cities and have no right to health and care. He is being watched by the most powerful organizations, who have no interests in seeing someone giving power to those who should stay down and serve. He is not afraid of provoking a war and he will stand to fight side by side with the poor and isolated.

Important considerations: Mika is an easy to approach character, but keep in mind that he is not an adult yet.

—–