#there are a few other Inuyasha songs I probably know pretty well

[cinnamonanddean]

aw thank you for actually reblogging!! let us in on #9 and #14!

Thanks friend! I love these things

9. A song in a language you don’t speak

This was a hard one, but then I remembered my brief anime obsession and this song LEAPT to mind. This was the second closing credits song from Inuyasha and it's been probably at least 15 years but I still know the words - or I guess more accurately, how to make the sounds. What a time that was.

14. A song you love to sing along to

I mean the easy answer to the question is: all of them. I'm a karaoke lover and I sing in a choir, so I will sing along to basically anything, including songs I don't even like. This one, however, is definitely high on my favourites list at the moment. That slide up on "oh mama, Iiiiiiiii'm just havin' fun" in the chorus tickles something in the ol' brain just the right way.

[lostinfantasyworlds]

👀

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

Eeee this is perfect timing, anon! I was actually planning to share this yesterday today anyways, because I know I kind of fell off the face of the earth (writing-wise) after finishing UTNL back in February, and I've been dying to get back to it. So thank you for the opportunity 😁 💕

I have a few WIPs right now, but the main one I've been focusing on is a story that I actually started writing a little over a year ago! It's one of those situations where I wrote a few thousand words on a whim, had the plot and backstory mostly planned out, thought it would just be a long oneshot...but then once I started fleshing it out, it grew far beyond what I originally planned. Now I've got 11 chapters mapped out, and currently have 25-30k words written (which is probably less than half of what the final word count will end up being😅).

I'm going to put the summary and current list of tags here, and then will include more background info plus a small snippet below the cut for anyone who might be interested! ✨

Rating: E

Summary: When Kagome Higurashi returned to her family’s vacation home the summer after graduating high school, she never expected to be reunited with Inuyasha, her former best friend who disappeared from her life five years earlier. Now all grown up, their attempts to rekindle their childhood friendship are complicated by physical attraction, building on memories of preteen crushes and a “pretty much perfect” first kiss. After a summer of fun that blurs the lines between friendship, sex, and love, how will they fare when it comes time to leave for college on opposite sides of the country?

Tags: Friends to lovers, childhood best friends, 90s/early 2000s nostalgia, Maine, reconnecting, friendship, fireworks, underage drinking, sexual tension, friends with benefits, summer romance, first time, explicit sexual content, mutual pining, college, light angst, angst with a happy ending

A little bit of background:

The main inspiration for this story comes from the summers I spent in Maine as a kid. I would go stay at my grandparent's cottage, located in a super tiny town on a secluded oceanfront street. There were a handful of other homes on the road that were usually rented by the same families, so all of us kids would get together and play every year. I never had any kind of romance or even as close a friendship as is portrayed in this story, but I figured it could definitely happen (along the line of kids who make lifelong friends at summer camp)

An important part of this story is that Inuyasha and Kagome grew up during a similar time frame I did, when technology was only just starting to become integrated into everyone's lives. So the first chapter is set in 2008, when they are 18, and the story then spans across several years (with plenty of references/flashbacks to growing up in the 90s along the way)

Normally, the key driving force behind childhood-best-friends-to-lovers stories is both of them thinking that the other only sees them as a friend/sibling figure, which leads to hardcore pining until they realize they actually both feel the same. Which I freaking LOVE. I will read 10000 stories exactly like that and eat it up every single time. But I wondered what would happen if both characters knew (at least on some level) that they share some kind of romantic feelings for each other, but there is something else keeping them from being in a committed romantic relationship

The idea behind the title, as well as the other inspiration for this story, is that I wanted to explore a scenario where Kagome and Inuyasha happened to be each other's firsts for several romantic milestones (first crush, first kiss, first time having sex), but still have plenty of other experiences with other people and don't get actually together until later on in life (despite being in love)

I actually didn't discover this song until I was pretty far along in the writing process, but it's uncanny how perfectly the lyrics of 2002 by Anne Marie fit with this story! (Yes, there will be a playlist for this fic)

And finally, a small snippet! (This is not even the part I wanted to share, but when I tell you that words have not been my friend lately... 😑. I sat there and struggled to edit a piece of one of the key scenes into something I felt comfortable posting, but after two days I finally decided to just give up for now and share a rough part of a random flirty scene that I hope you still enjoy!)

-----------

Carrying their ice cream back to where Inuyasha was leaning against the counter, Kagome immediately noticed that he seemed even grumpier than usual with his eyes narrowed, arms crossed, and jaw set. He had been in a pretty good mood when they first arrived, so the sudden change certainly threw her for a loop.

“What’s your problem?” she asked in a casual manner as she held out his cone. He took it with a mumbled thanks before returning to glaring at the horizon and tapping his foot.

She waited patiently for him to answer while they began eating, watching him with eyebrows raised towards her hairline the entire time.

“You shouldn’t flirt with wolf demons like that,” he finally grumbled. “They aren’t exactly known for being overly respectful of women.”

“I wasn’t flirting.” Kagome rolled her eyes, torn between annoyance and amusement. “It’s called being friendly. Which I know is a foreign concept for you, but —”

Inuyasha cut her off with a quiet growl. “I’m just sayin’, it’d be pretty easy for him to get the wrong idea.”

“And what idea would that be?”

“I dunno…that you wanna follow him home and have his babies or something.”

“And what if that was the idea I wanted him to get?” Kagome challenged with a raised brow, having to press her lips together to keep from laughing at the look of pure shock and betrayal that lit up Inuyasha’s features.

“With that idiot?”

“How do you know he’s an idiot?”

“Because I — I can just tell.”

“Mhmm,” she hummed in mock contemplation. It was far too easy to mess with him. “Kinda sounds to me like you’re jealous…”

“What?” Inuyasha’s eyes briefly widened before looking away, his cheeks flushing a deep red. “I ain’t jealous…just think you could do better."

He was not jealous.

He also had not been watching the borderline sensual way Kagome’s tongue swirled around her ice cream cone to catch any drips that threatened to fall.

Which definitely did not inspire a slew of dirty thoughts revolving around what else she could do with her tongue.

Nope. None of those things were happening.

[dyaz-stories]

Hi! Sorry for the random ask lol but I'm always excited to meet kpop fans within the Inuyasha fandom. I love BTS (they're my favorite!!!) and I enjoy TXT's music as well!

I'd love to know how you got into kpop and what your favorite songs are! <3

Oh you don’t have to worry at all, I’m happy to talk about it :D Basically, it all started when my brother was showing me dances that he thought looked cool, so I asked him if he'd considered learning some of them. He said no 'cause the stuff he was showing me was mainly girl groups stuff and he couldn't see himself doing them. So I was like 'BTS does similar things tho' and I showed him the Not Today MV. After that my Youtube rec were INVADED with BTS stuff and I started watching some of them. What really got me interested was realizing how insanely talented they all were? I kinda got into all the members one by one, starting with Jimin and then the last one I really got into was Suga with his August D stuff, which I really like!

Favorite BTS song is probably baepsae, I'm also obsessed with Pied Piper and that one Jungkook fancam maybe. I also usually really like their ballads too, like I loved Blue & Grey or Louder than Bombs, for example! Also Jin's Awake. I loved the rock direction TXT took with their last comeback, especially in Lovesong, quite enjoyed their new album too (favorite song was Opening Sequence, favorite song from the last one was Anti-Romantic).

These days I'm obsessed with Stray Kids lol, I find their music super interesting. I really like Thunderous and Back Door, and then some of their rap tracks, which tend to be divisive in the fandom lol (Tortoise and the Hare, Muddy Water). Also their ballads are really great and their stuff on The First Take is *chief's kiss* (this is just one of them they have three!).

Other than that, I think Nunu Nana is a bop, and I like softer stuff like Heize's Happen, or Cha Eun Woo's Don't Cry My Love (...yeah they're pretty recent I'm new to that stuff). Also I like a few of Red Velvet's songs, though I'm not super well versed in them!

Which songs do you like best? :3

[mamabearcatfanfics]

It was already written, so I didn’t have to keep you in suspense for long. Here’s Part Two of Song and Dance Man. You can read the first part here, or go read the whole thing on AO3. Enjoy!

🎵

When Kagome had lifted her heavy head from her pillow the next morning and looked at her phone, there were ten messages. One from Shiori, one from Sango, and eight from Inuyasha.

She let her head flop back on the pillow, deciding not to open any of them yet. She wasn’t hiding, not exactly. This morning, she just wanted to pretend for a little while that everything was okay, have a quiet breakfast with her family, who she hadn’t seen for nearly a month, and then deal with the fall out.

The message from Shiori would no doubt be calm and caring. Sango’s message would also be caring, but she was pretty sure it would not be calm. And Inuyasha. She didn’t know. She didn’t know what to think. She’d put that in ‘after breakfast Kagome’s’ problem pile. Right now, she felt like crap, her period had finally arrived, and she needed to stand under a hot shower for at least, forever.

So she dragged herself to the bathroom and took some pain relief, had a shower, rummaged in her childhood bedroom for any clean clothes that still fit and found a pair of cut off jean shorts and a t-shirt from drama club that proclaimed Theatre is my Sport, then walked downstairs to the kitchen to sit listlessly at the table.

Grandpa read the paper, flicking the pages noisily every time he turned a page, making comments on various stories that no one replied to. Mama bustled around in the background, insisting on making her a cooked breakfast even though she’d said she wasn’t hungry. Souta clomped around noisily, calling out to Mama as he tried to find all the missing parts of his soccer uniform and put them in his bag for his game that morning.

Mama slid a plate in front of her and Kagome stared down at the single fried egg on toast as it glared at her accusingly. She deserved to be glared at. She had fought with Inuyasha. She had yelled at him, even after he’d been nothing but kind all morning at her bad mood, hurling her words at him like arrows, aiming to wound. Do you even care at all? Or are you just in it for the sex?! She felt the small amount of appetite she’d had leave her.

The back of Kagome’s eyes prickled with unshed tears, and she stabbed at the egg viciously with her fork, watching the yolk ooze out onto the toast. She should have known things were going too well.

Every few months, her period threw her a curve ball where her emotions got entirely out of whack and she became a paranoid anxious overthinking mess. If it happened when she was working at the theatre and they weren’t too busy, Jakotsu usually sent her home, recognising she wouldn’t be at her best. He jokingly called her mood swings her ‘little demon’ which made some of the youkai members of the crew roll their eyes, but it was true. She felt like an entirely different person when it happened, almost like she was watching someone else use her voice and say things she wouldn’t usually ever say out loud.

It had been so much worse this month, a slowly building feeling of anxiety and paranoia ever since she’d had the Depo Provera shot, wanting to try a birth control that was impossible to forget now she was in a relationship. Her doctor had been asking her to keep a diary of her symptoms, but she kept forgetting, and now look what had happened.

Sometimes Inuyasha said things without thinking. She knew that. He’d just been teasing her. And usually she’d just roll her eyes at him and tease him back, and they’d have a playful argument that led to a tickle fight or something a lot more hands on. But yesterday, she’d taken his words and twisted them. She could see that now. Yesterday, it had felt like her anxiety was looking for reasons to tear the world down around her. That look on his face – she’d hurt him. She had ruined everything.

She loved Inuyasha, even though sometimes he wasn’t the easiest man to love. He was a logical, practical person with a body to die for, who felt safest when he had order and control in his life. It was easy to see he was used to living alone, and sharing his personal space with her still threw him for a loop sometimes. He could be a little grumpy. A little obnoxious. A genuine diamond in the rough who carefully guarded his emotions. He was more a man of action than words, and she could appreciate that. But his sweet nature had been gradually revealed by the caring things he did for her, no matter how gruff his exterior could be sometimes.

She adored him. She’d never dated a hanyou before, and that came with a few extra complexities compared to being with a human, but she had grown to love his youkai traits. The way his ears told her how he was feeling. The way his pupils dilated when he was aroused. The way he took it upon himself to see to her physical needs, wanting to feed her, touch her, care for her. The way he relished how she smelled, how she tasted. He was a much more physical partner than she’d ever had before, and she loved it. How a simple touch from him, a spoken word in that low rumble could fill her with desire. In his hands, she felt cherished, desirable, wanted. She’d always thought she’d had a fairly average libido before, but with Inuyasha… she felt insatiable.

She’d had a couple of girl talks with Inuyasha’s friend Sango about him, and she'd hinted at a troubled childhood without giving any details. After that, Kagome had decided she wouldn’t push him out of his comfort zone before he was ready. He’d probably had to deal with so much growing up, and it was easy to deduce that he found talking about emotions difficult. That was okay, not everyone was good at that, he more than made up for his lack of words with his physical attentiveness and the way he looked at her. She could read the way he felt in those golden eyes.

To her delight, just recently he’d started to share things with her all on his own, just little details here and there, about his Mama or his Pop, family traditions they’d had when he was small, and she’d treated those tiny pieces of information like the gifts they were. And now look what she’d done. He’d probably never share his thoughts like that with her again.

It felt like there was a tight band around chest, making it hard to breathe properly. Her back was stiff from a night of tossing and turning, her lower belly twisted with cramps now that her period had finally arrived, along with a thumping headache that made her head heavy. She hoped the painkillers she’d taken in the bathroom would kick in soon.

The doorbell rang, adding to the family noise in the kitchen, and Souta ran to answer it, a piece of toast clutched in his hand. He was expecting a teammate who was getting a lift to the soccer game with him and Mama, and they heard him call out excitedly from the front room as he opened the door. Her mother sat down at the other end of the table.

“What are your plans for today, Kagome?” she asked absently, stirring her tea.

All Kagome wanted to do was go back to Inuyasha. Touch Inuyasha. Be with Inuyasha. But first they would have to have a Talk. Would he be like her previous boyfriends, and dump her for being ‘difficult’? Kagome sighed and slumped back in her chair. She shouldn’t have run yesterday, but she’d felt like a passenger in her own body, and had been frightened she would say something even more unforgivable than she already had.

Instead of going back to her apartment, she had caught a bus to the other side of the city to her childhood home, rushing in the door to fall into her mother's arms to sob hysterically, and had then taken some painkillers to dull what felt like an oncoming cluster headache and gone straight to bed before dinner.

“My plans? Oh nothing much. Mostly eating humble pie”, said Kagome dejectedly, pouring herself another cup of tea and pushing the impaled egg off to one side with a grimace.

Her mother lifted her head at that and inspected her daughter over the top of her teacup. “It’s going to be alright you know”, she said with a gentle smile, but before Kagome could ask her what she meant, Souta wandered back in, still eating his toast.

‘It wasn’t Kenji, it’s some guy for you, Kagome,’ he said vaguely.

‘Me? But nobody knows I’m here.” Puzzled, Kagome pushed back her chair and went to the door.

And there was Inuyasha. Her heart leapt with joy and the world, which had been dully monochrome and all askew, abruptly righted itself and sprang back into colour, just like the moment Dorothy had opened the door and found herself in Oz.

“Inuyasha?!”

She drank in the sight of him on the doorstep. He was looking more dressed up than she’d ever seen him, wearing an open-necked button shirt and jacket, his hair braided neatly. Even his jeans seemed to have no holes, and his black motorcycle boots looked polished. But otherwise he was indisputably, wonderfully Inuyasha. Her eyes roved over the austere angles of his face, his amber eyes and pointed silver ears, the stern mouth that made her knees go weak, the quiet solidity of him.

She wanted to throw herself into his arms and apologise profusely, but the strained look in his eyes, the tautness around his mouth, made her pause.

“Is everything okay?” she asked hesitantly.

“Fine.” Inuyasha cleared his throat. “Yeah it’s…uh, fine. I just came by because…um, I wondered if you had a balcony”, he finished in a rush.

Kagome’s jaw dropped. She didn’t know what she had been expecting, but it wasn’t that.

“A balcony?”

“Yeah. A balcony. Do you?”

Was this a peculiarly vivid dream? He seemed solid enough, standing there in a shirt and jacket she didn’t even know he possessed, his neatly braided hair revealing every nervous twitch of his ears.  

“There’s a back verandah”, she said cautiously, blinking up at him.

“That’ll do. Can we go there now?” he asked tensely. “If you’re not too busy that is?”

Kagome stared at him. “Inuyasha, are you sure you’re all right? You’re behaving very strangely.”

He huffed. “I know”, he said, his hands fidgeting with the edge of his jacket. “It’s just there’s somethin’ I need to do before I lose my nerve.”

“And this something needs to be done on our back verandah?” said Kagome slowly. He nodded.

She stood aside and Inuyasha stepped past her into the house. Maybe she was still asleep, and this was some sort of lucid dream brought on by those painkillers she’d taken last night. It definitely felt surreal. She blinked slowly and pinched herself, but he was definitely still there. Kagome led him down the hall and through the kitchen to the back door, ignoring Mama and Grandpa’s intense discussion about the need to clean out the storage shed, interspersed with polite requests to pass the tea.

“Well, here we are on the back verandah”, she said cautiously, wondering what might happen next. This day wasn’t turning out at all like she thought it would.

Inuyasha looked around anxiously and then gestured towards the old-fashioned swing seat that her father had made for her mother when she was a little girl. The paint was faded and peeling and it listed slightly to one side because the chains hanging from the beams were a little off centre.

“Sit down”, he said as he steered Kagome towards it.

“Inuyasha, what’s going on?” She watched as he walked down the two steps to the lawn and moved to stand in front of her, almost treading on her mother’s petunias, his hands clenching and unclenching.

“Just… don’t interrupt.” He took a deep breath, and opened his mouth. And then closed it again.

“What is it? Can I help?” she asked, twisting he fingers together. Kagome was getting really worried. Had he come all the way across town in his best clothes to dump her and now felt unable to go through with it?

Inuyasha cleared his throat savagely. “Sorry”, he said. “I’ll get it this time.” Another breath and then, to Kagome’s astonishment, he began to sing.

 You were meant for me I was meant for you!

Kagome’s eyes blurred with sudden tears. It was unmistakably You Were Meant for Me from Singing in the Rain. His voice was actually quite pleasant, a deep baritone that went off key a little here and there as he hit the higher notes, but mostly rang true. And then, when she thought she couldn’t be any happier, he began dancing! True, Inuyasha was no Gene Kelly, but he was definitely shuffling from side to side and every now and then he even tried a twirl.

 Nature patterned you, an' when she was done You were all the sweet things rolled into one!

His expression wasn’t really that of a lover delivering a heartfelt sentiment. It was intent, frowning as he tried to remember the words and coordinate his dance steps. Once he found himself facing the wrong way, and had to turn round hastily and pick up his routine again.

 You're like a plaintive melody That never lets me free

And then he was holding out his hand, inviting her to dance with him, drawing her up from the seat and leading her down the steps to the garden.

 I'm content, the angels must have sent you And they meant you just for me!

Smiling through her tears, she let him swing her round until he came to a halt with a flourish, looking into Kagome’s eyes at last with a mixture of relief, trepidation and excruciating embarrassment. Even the tips of his white pointed ears were red.

“Inuyasha,” she said, starry-eyed. “You were singing. And dancing.”

He coughed, then smiled at her hesitantly. “I’m not very good, I know. But I-“ She pushed her fingers over his lips to stop him talking.

“That was the best version of You Were Meant For Me I’ve ever heard.” Her voice cracked a little as she stood on tiptoe to put her arms around his neck. “The very best”, she whispered, “and I should know because I’ve heard it a lot.”

He gave her a relieved grin and pulled her close, leaning down for a kiss. But before their lips met, there was a burst of applause from the back door. Kagome’s family, evidently distracted from breakfast by Inuyasha’s singing, were beaming broadly and clapping. Souta whistled.

“Excellent! Very well done!” said Grandpa.

“Kagome’s always needed someone who will dance with her”, said her mother when Kagome introduced Inuyasha to them.

“I’m not really much of a dancer”, he confessed sheepishly, glancing down at Kagome with a blush.

“You looked like you were doing fine to me”, said Grandpa, which just went to show how much he knew about dancing.

Her mother, it appeared, knew more about what had happened yesterday than Kagome had thought.

“I have to admit young man, I had my doubts when you called me yesterday evening. When my daughter arrived here she was very unhappy”, she said, regarding Inuyasha with the severity she reserved for shoppers at the fruit market that squeezed the avocados hard and then put them back. And then she smiled. “But, you seem to have redeemed yourself. Welcome to the family.” Kagome giggled at Inuyasha’s wide eyed expression.

“We don’t like Kagome being unhappy”, her grandfather added. “She was born for laughter.” He broke off as the doorbell rang and her mother clicked her tongue as she checked the time on the kitchen clock.

“That’ll be your friend, Souta. You’d better let him in and then finish getting your soccer kit organised, we need to leave in fifteen minutes.” She turned back to Kagome and Inuyasha with a twinkle in her eye. “If there are to be any more song and dance routines, you’ll have to keep the noise down, I’m afraid, unless you want a larger audience.”

“I think once was enough”, said Inuyasha ruefully. He took Kagome’s hands as her family disappeared. “Was… once enough, Kagome?”

“Yes”, she said, her fingers tightening around his. She knew just how much that dance must have cost him. “Oh, Inuyasha, I can’t believe you did that for me! Especially after yesterday.”

“It was the only way I could think of to tell you how much I love you”, he said softly, stroking back her fringe. “I remembered what you said once about your job. That even though everyone in the company works hard to put a show together, being part of the backstage crew is always faceless because the audience is only there to see the actors shine. I wanted to show you that you’ll always shine like a star to me.”

Kagome’s throat was so tight, she could hardly talk. “Inuyasha…” was all she managed to choke out.

“I love you, Kagome”, he said, his eyes locked on hers. “If you want me to sing and dance for you every day, I will.” He grinned a little, one fang poking over his bottom lip. “You never know, I might even get better at it.”

“You don’t need to do that”, said Kagome, finding her voice at last. Drawing her hands free, she reached up and put them on his shoulders, feeling his strength and his solidity. “You don’t need to dance for me, or sing for me, Inuyasha. You just need to be you. You just need to be there. You just need to love me.”

“Now that, I can do”, said Inuyasha, so obviously relieved that a daily song and dance routine would not be required that she laughed, giddy with happiness. He laughed too and kissed her soundly, lifting her up and swinging her wildly around in a circle. Wild joy surged along her veins, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. The kisses didn’t get too heated, both of them very conscious that they were standing in her mother’s garden and could have an audience at any moment. But the promise of heat was there, and Kagome shivered in anticipation.

“I missed you”, she mumbled at last between kisses.

“I missed you too. You were gone for less than a day and it felt like a year.” He held her tightly, and she leant against him with a great sigh of contentment. “My apartment sounded so empty without you singing in it. I had to leave that damn musical running to fill up the silence.”

“Really?” giggled Kagome, delighted. “So that’s where you learnt the words! And how did you work out the dance routine?”

“Ah.” Inuyasha breathed out a deep sigh. “That was Jakotsu. When you wouldn’t answer your phone, I kinda panicked. Shiori said you didn’t go home, and Sango didn’t know where you were either. I called the theatre to see if you were there, and Jakotsu answered. When he worked out who I was, he made me tell him everything. And when he asked what I was going to do to win you back and I said I was going to sing for you, he said I couldn’t do it without a dance routine too. Made me come to the theatre to learn one. Longest fucking night of my life.”

Kagome giggled even harder. “He probably enjoyed himself.”

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. “He said that if you were prepared to talk to me after seeing the way I danced, you must really love me.”

“He’s right”, said Kagome, standing on tiptoe to kiss him again.

“Now you know why I was so nervous when I arrived. I was terrified I would lose my nerve.”

“I’m glad you didn’t. That’s a song and dance routine I’ll never forget.” Her smile faded. “Seriously, I know how hard that was for you, Inuyasha.”

“I felt pretty stupid. But sometimes, taking a risk and letting go means you can win everything you’ve ever wanted. And I want you Kagome. I want this relationship to work. If you feel I’m taking you for granted, please tell me. I’m sorry I didn’t notice before. I’ve just lived alone for so long, sometimes I forget. I'll make an effort to ask you more about your day, and the very next show at the theatre, I’ll buy a front row ticket. I know I’m not very romantic, but if you like, we could start going out for dinner. I could bring you flowers…”

Kagome shook her head, smiling. “It’s okay. I don’t need flowers. And I don’t need by the book romance. Your dance routine… now that was romantic. All I need someone who’s prepared to take a risk for me, someone who’ll grit his teeth and make a fool of himself to show me that he loves me.”

“And I need someone who’ll make me laugh and push me out of my comfort zone and make me feel”, said Inuyasha, gathering her into him for a long, sweet kiss, then sighing in contentment as he breathed in her scent, nuzzling his nose into her hair.

“So, about yesterday”, he asked carefully. “Are you feeling better today?” Kagome sighed.

“I am so, so sorry about yesterday”, she said. “I started on a new type of birth control, an injection instead of the pills I usually take, and I think it’s not a good fit for me. I’ve never felt that out of control before. I think I need to go back to my doctor and discuss it.”

“Would you mind if I came too when you have your appointment? So I know what’s going on? You really worried me yesterday Kagome", he said seriously, stroking her cheek. "I didn’t know what to do.”

“You would do that?”

Inuyasha scoffed. “Well, it’s not like you’re taking the birth control just for you”, he said, a light dusting of red on his cheeks. “And if it’s makin’ you feel bad, I want to know the right things to do.”

In the garden, a blackbird started to sing, a pure trill of joy. Kagome felt the sunshine on her shoulders and Inuyasha’s warm arm around her, and when she pressed her face into his throat and breathed in the scent of his skin, she thought she would shatter with happiness.

“I think I feel a song coming on”, she whispered, snuggling her head under his chin.

“Yeah?” he said. She could hear the smile in his voice, feel it as he kissed the top of her head. “I don't mind that. Just as long as it’s a duet.”

[dawnrider]

"Is you is or is you ain't my baby" I gotta know cause reading this in my head made me laugh for the first time today but it's probably a drama ain't it so maybe I shouldn't laugh?

Hi @clearwillow!  It’s a little bit of both drama and comedy. It’s heavily self-inspired. It’s a Swing Dance AU with the title inspired by the Cab Calloway song Is You Is. Kagome is a brand new dancer and Inuyasha (presenting human, but isn’t!) is an older, slightly disillusioned, dance instructor. He has a rife relationship with his dance partner/girlfriend and they break it off and come back together all the time.  Kagome ends up caught in the middle of their drama when she invests herself into being an instructor too and she has to work for both of them. All while nursing a crush on Inuyasha...

As if it weren’t bad enough that she looked ridiculous, she felt even more ridiculous.  Kagome knew herself to be awkward and uncoordinated so why on earth she had let her friends convince her to do this, she wasn’t sure.  “You’ll love it, I swear Kagome,” Yuka had promised profusely.  Now that she’d tried it a few times she had to admit the steps weren’t as hard as she’d first thought and she was getting better with practice.  But she wasn’t good by any means.  A few of the leads were as bad as she was or worse and that just made things a jumbled mess.  Counting in her head Kagome struggled to keep her steps since the guy leading her couldn’t seem to.  When the song was over she gave him a small smile and scooted away as fast as possible.

“You looked good out there,” Ayumi told her encouragingly.

Throwing her a skeptical glance Kagome sighed.  “I did not.  I need way more practice,” she stated before taking a sip of water.  Dancing was hot and thirsty work.  For a moment she wasn’t sure what had happened as a twitter ran through the gathered females in the room.  Looking up Kagome found her eyes locked with deep violet irises.  She barely understood her friends’ gasps and giggles of excitement.  “Yash?  Is he famous or something?” Kagome questioned her girl friends.  They rushed on to tell her he was more of a local celebrity, a swing instructor and an amazing lead.  “He’s cute,” Kagome finally admitted.

“With a butt like steel!” Yuka enthused.

Kagome missed the end of their conversation because she was grabbed for another dance with one of the better leads in the room.  “Miroku,” the dark-haired man introduced before taking her into an inside turn.

“Kagome,” replied the young woman nervously.

Miroku’s face split in a grin.  She was doing pretty well though she was obviously a beginner.  “I haven’t seen you here before.  Are you new to swing?”  Kagome nodded as she tried to keep up with his steps.  He was patient with her, not wanting her to quit on his account.  When she told him it was her first time out his eyes widened in surprise.  “You’re doing really well for your first day on the floor.”  She smiled a little in response but he could see she was still nervous.  As the song finished Miroku took her into a gentle dip, lifting her onto her balance shortly after.  Thanking him for the dance, the young woman moved off toward the gaggle of girls he had stolen her from in the first place and Miroku went to greet his friend who had just come in.

“Hey letch,” Inuyasha greeted.  The other dancer grinned his classic grin and stuck out his hand to be shaken.  The two men clasped hands and the taller of the two men smirked.  “Who’s the newbie?” he asked with interest, glancing over at the woman Miroku had just been dancing with.

[shnuggletea]

A Long Night (A MirSan Birthday Fic)

Happy Belated Birthday @sapphirestarxx​. 

Although, I did give you this the other night. But the banner is new as is the playlist. This sweet girl is a lover of MirSan (as we all are) so this is my first for her. Sapphire was one of the first people to friend me in the Inu fandom and one of the things she lamented the most was the lack of MirSan fics. 

So who’s ready for some Miroku x Sango romance with a side of InuKag established relationship? In this “we’re not setting you two up” fic Miroku and Sango have one wild night that hopefully ends well for both of them. This is also me playing with 3rd person omniscient again. I hope that doesn’t bother you Sapphire!!

I was going to do a one shot but for those of you who know me, my one shots aren’t really one shots... expect the next chapter soon!! Working on it today hopefully. 

Playlist is here!

Tags!

@underwater0phelia​ @lavendertwilight89​ @mamabearcat​ @nartista​ @nopenname22​ @echobows​ @superpixie42​ @smmahamazing​ @redflamesofpassion​ @jme-chan​ @cstorm86​ @cicleydark-light​ @ruddcatha​ @lavaffair​ @kirrtash​ @sistasecbhere​ @obsessandfangirl​ @britonell​ @lordofthechips​ @mcornilliac​ @faolenwolf​ @keichanz​ @phoenix-before-the-flame​ @artisticloveexpressitsall​ @lamuertadehambre​ @noyourenotreal​ @mitty-san​ @thenoammonster​ @little-deeluna​ @royaltrashpanda​ @sailorbabydoll92​ @storyweaver2017​ @malditamigs​ @adorabubblesblog​ @lilms-obsessed @petri808​ @anniehcresta​ @fan-dumpp​ @itzatakahashi​ @utakuprincess​ @theschultinator​ @all-too-ale​ @little-inukag-obsessed​ @theseagullqueen​ @queenofthesquirps​ @jolinaaa00​ @knowall7k​ @neutronstarchild​ @fawn-eyed-girl​ @eringobroke​ @sapphirestarxx​ @clearwillow​ @dangerouspompadour​ @misspepperpottss @kagometaishostory​​ @egosolivagant​​ @fandompromptsandfun​​ @fandomartlover​​ @fanficnewbiee​

Chapter One

8:24 pm

“You promise this isn’t a setup?”

“For the hundredth time, yes. We are just meeting up with some people. That’s all!” Kagome called out from the bathroom as she finished lining her eyes. Sango paced in the living room, already in a bad mood. “You need to relax!”

“I’ll relax when this night is over and I’m back in my bed. Alone!”

Kagome emerged, light sundress and heels next to Sango’s jeans, tank, and tennis shoes made them look like they were going to different places that night. “At least wear your hair down?”

Sango rolled her eyes. The last thing she wanted was to go out tonight. The week had been rough enough as it was. Nothing but bratty debutants for clients and with no one calling for a guard this weekend, she had to worry where her next paycheck was coming from. Her roommate, Kagome, was the only real reprieve she got from the paranoid, ‘so rich they choke on their money’, assholes she had to deal with on the daily. So she tugged the elastic out of her hair and let it fall around her shoulders.

“Better?”

“Much.”

Their door shook from the knock someone did on from the outside. Kagome’s boyfriend was here! Due to him being such a stand-up citizen that could clearly take care of (and cared for) Kagome, Sango tolerated him. Actually, she really liked Inuyasha. He was the only ‘down-to-earth’ rich prick she had ever met. She was pretty sure that had to do with the fact that he was the illegitimate child of a CEO and his secretary. He had money now but he didn’t grow up rich.

Neither did Sango or Kagome. And their apartment reflected that; comfortable but cheap along with all the furniture inside it. Sango knew Inuyasha was a good guy when he came over for the first time and didn’t so much as flinch.

“Hey, Baby.” He leaned in and kissed Kagome before entering.

Sango looked away (never comfortable with PDA) but could still hear them whispering. It was sweet, however, it grained on Sango’s nerves. Especially tonight.

“Where are we going tonight?” She had asked Kagome but the doe-eyed look her roommate gave made Sango give up quickly. 

“Out,” Inuyasha answered gruffly.

Sango was pretty sure Inuyasha was only sweet and soft towards Kagome. “That’s been made clear. Got a location in mind? Or are we wandering the streets like hookers tonight?”

Inuyasha grinned, he liked Sango. She was clever and snappish. She never took shit which was why he was sure his buddy was so enraptured. Not his word, fucking Miroku’s (of course). “If you’re into that, I’m not going to stop you.”

“Screw you.”

“No thanks. I’m good.” Inuyasha grabbed Kagome by the waist and pulled her in tight to his side. 

Kagome giggled and Inuyasha smiled brightly down at her. It made Sango’s heart ache. She would never admit it but she really wanted something like the two of them had. Comfort, stability, and love.

She grabbed her cropped leather jacket and pushed around the pair. “Whatever. Let’s just get this over with.”

“There’s the spirit!” Kagome cheered sarcastically.

Inuyasha kept his arm around his girlfriend and leaned in close to whisper. Sango wasn’t that far from them but he figured, with the intimacy, she wouldn’t listen. “Did you tell her anything?”

“No, and it wasn’t easy.”

“Nothing about you is easy, Baby.”

She gave his ribs a playful smack; taking in his appearance in full. Her favorite part about her boyfriend? His long hair. It was pulled into a ponytail at the top of his spine right now but tonight it would splash with hers; a pool of silky black hair that neither could tell who was who’s. Sango walked ahead of them and sat up front in the cab. The beauty of tonight was that Inuyasha and Kagome didn’t know where they were going. They only had an address.

Which was why Kagome squealed, Inuyasha groaned, and Sango cursed when they pulled to a stop. “What the hell?”

“Goddammit, I’m going to kill Miroku.”

“Dancing!!!”

It was a dance club, already bursting at the seams with bodies going in and out. A long line (that had Sango hopeful) and a bouncer stood between them and a night full of scantily dressed men and women and overpriced drinks.

Kagome was already swaying to the beat on the sidewalk (yes, it was that loud) and Inuyasha wrapped an arm around his girl’s shoulders before she danced away. “We’re not exactly dressed for this. Maybe they won’t let us in?”

He said, consoling the hope he and Sango had. Neither of them wanted to go inside. But then Kagome turned to face both of them, hitting Inuyasha the hardest with her puppy dog eyes. “But… it looks like fun!”

“If you wanna dance then you can do it at my place. I’ll let you go nuts.” Sango chuckled as Kagome pouted. No way they were getting out of this now, Kagome wanted to dance. “Goddammit,” Inuyasha growled and threw a hand through his bangs, messing up the black mop that fell on his brow.

Sango knew where this was going as Inuyasha stepped up to the bouncer. Truth be told, Sango probably could get them in too; she recognized the bouncer from a work outing a year ago. Times were tough; good bodyguards had to moonlight as bouncers. Maybe she should ask if this place was hiring while they were here?

A few hushed words, some money slipped between them, and they were walking unimpeded into the den of demons. The place was actually called Hengoku (which meant Limbo). It seemed fitting, bodies undulating all over the place as if listless. 

Kagome was trying to go to the dancefloor but Inuyasha kept a tight hold on her; guiding them all to a set of stairs towards the back. He didn’t know where Miroku was, but if he was here he’d be in the rooftop club for ‘high rollers’. And if he wasn’t there yet… then Miroku would be there eventually. 

Grabbing her from his hold, Sango hissed loudly in Kagome’s ear. “You told me this wasn’t a setup?!”

“It’s not! We’re just meeting up with Miroku too! So we can all hang out?!”

Taking a look around, Sango didn’t see Miroku from the stairwell they were on (a clear view over the entire club). “Where are we going now?”

“No clue.”

Kagome caught back up to her beau and Sango caught on to the name of the rooftop bar. Tengoku. Seriously? Was the basement called hell? The roof was Heaven, the middle Limbo, and the bottom was probably a tattoo parlor. Sango couldn’t imagine anything worse than being drunk and near a place to permanently mark yourself.

The music changed; hard beat with the singers talking about Karaoke. At least they weren’t doing that tonight. And she seriously hoped the song didn’t give Kagome ideas. The roof wasn’t as crowded and Inuyasha had to pay their way into it as well. She couldn’t decide if Inuyasha being loaded was a good thing tonight. Because it was clear neither Sango nor Inuyasha wanted to be here. But it did make Kagome happy so they both went with it.

That is until Miroku stood and waved them over. 

Inuyasha broke away from Kagome, rushing up to his friend and punching him in the gut. Miroku groaned and fell back to the booth he had for them, taking several breaths before struggling to speak. “Good to see you too…”

“A fucking dance club? Seriously?!”

Miroku recovered and smirked. “I knew once Kagome saw it, she’d make you guys come play.” The clever bastard considered his soul clean and turned to Sango. “Sango, my dear, so glad you could make it.”

“Drop dead.”

“I just might. You look exceptionally well tonight. I love your hair like that.”

Turning towards the crowd, she hid her blush as best she could. “Whatever.”

Miroku got to his feet again and allowed Sango to sit. She continued to scoot around, though, until she was mostly in the middle. Kagome sat on the other side of her and Inuyasha closed them in, keeping Kagome from escaping to dance. Miroku didn’t sit back down, looking over the group of fine (albeit mostly agitated) friends he had out with him tonight. He let his eyes linger on Sango and didn’t care if she noticed. 

“First round’s on me.”

Inuyasha huffed. “You mean all rounds are on you. And I ain’t a cheap date. You owe us drinkssssss tonight!”

Miroku just held up his hands. “As you wish; Inuyasha, beer and whisky; Kagome, strawberry daiquiri; and Sango…” he paused to think but also to look her over again, “Jack and Coke?” 

“How did you do that?!” Kagome asked, amazed.

Miroku shrugged with a grin. “Special talent of mine.”

He left to get the drinks and Sango turned to Inuyasha hotly. “If this is you guys trying to punish me for something, I promise I’m sorry.”

Kagome hugged Sango sympathetically. Then continued to dance in her seat. That wasn’t going to last long, Inuyasha was going to have to set the bird free. Miroku set drinks down and sat closer than Sango liked next to her. But with Kagome trying to get Inuyasha to stop pouting, Miroku was the only person she had to talk to at the moment.

“Want to make a wager?” Miroku said, a curl of a smile on his lips.

Her eyes danced from his mouth to his eyes and found she couldn’t resist smiling in return. “Yeah?”

“I bet you a dance that Inuyasha dances tonight.”

Sango huffed and glanced back at her friends. Inuyasha had one arm slung over the back of the booth, pretending to watch the crowd on the dance floor. But really he was watching Kagome as she shifted in her seat. Any second now she was going to spring free and leave them behind. Because no way Inuyasha was ever going to dance. 

“You’re on.” Miroku held out a hand to shake and she took it. But then he held on, shaking slow and steady. Sango sucked in a deep breath; Miroku’s eyes were locked on her and made it hard to swallow. But she found the will soon enough. “If he doesn’t, then you have to do something super embarrassing.”

“I’ll gladly strip for you, Sango, but that won’t be embarrassing in the least.”

There was a twinkle in his eyes that both fascinated and terrified Sango. Miroku was just another trust fund baby. He didn’t have to work but he did. Miroku worked hard at the advertising firm and was now the owner. She could see it; someone like Miroku would be a natural at selling shit no matter how useless.

His finger snaked out and started rubbing her palm. That was when she yanked away. Miroku wasn’t deterred in the slightest. He never was as far as she could tell. But the truth was, Sango was the only one that made him feel unworthy. 

After their second round, Kagome got free to dance. It looked like a combination of begging and promises that included some kissing that made Sango uncomfortable to no end. She stayed at the edge of the crowd insight and Inuyasha’s attention was almost completely on Kagome. Save for the small fraction he gave to Miroku.

“I fucking hate you, dude.”

Miroku balked. “Why?!”

“You never said anything about a damn dance club. You know I hate this shit.”

The glance Miroku sent Sango’s way had her worried. “I know. But Kagome doesn’t, clearly. She loves it. And just think how much love she’ll be giving you later tonight? Or how much she would be giving you right now if she wasn’t alone on that dance floor?”

All three of them turned back; Kagome was floating around on a high, twisting to the music without a care. Inuyasha suddenly didn’t give a shit about anything else and left his friends behind. He was welcomed warmly by his girlfriend while Sango grimaced back at Miroku.

“Someone owes me a spin on the dancefloor.”

She rolled her eyes and quickly slung back the rest of her second drink, hoping it would help her. Miroku waited for her at the edge of the booth, taking her hand to pull her to her feet. She ignored the skip her heart did and he enjoyed the rough feel of her skin. Sango had calluses on her hands from all the training she did. It was so different from all the other women he had touched… he probably shouldn’t put it like that but he did do a lot of handshaking.

The song was a little slower but still heavy and suggestive. A woman sang about ‘feeling good’. Miroku felt Sango made him feel good whenever she blessed him with her presence. It was clear she had been hurt, but he desperately wanted to be the one to silence that.

Kagome was curled into Inuyasha; the two oblivious to the pair that now joined them. Sango looked away when Inuyasha grabbed Kagome’s ass to get her closer. Miroku tried to do the same to Sango and she pushed his hand away hard. “Don’t push it!”

He chuckled and grabbed her elbow instead. Miroku put a hand on her hip as well, but she couldn’t bring herself to push him away; his eyes were on hers and she really liked that. They were swaying together; not really dancing together like the other couples were. But then again, Sango wasn’t trying to screw Miroku. But she was enjoying this, being close to Miroku while he was being decent for once. He wasn’t groping her or someone else. And he was silent so she didn’t have to hear his ridiculous promises of devotion. 

Sango liked hearing them, she just didn’t believe the man whore for a second.

The song changed but neither made any indication of caring. Miroku pushed his luck and kept dancing, pulling Sango a little closer. His hand on the small of her back, he pressed his cheek against hers; it sent his hot breath down her neck to her shoulder. She was far from cold but it made her shiver.

Slowly, Miroku pulled and turned, brushing his nose along her skin. Sango knew what he was doing but couldn’t find the want to pull away as he lined his lips up with hers. Now his hot breath puffed across her mouth and cheeks; causing her to shiver again.

“Walk away.”

She snapped out of it just as Miroku did; a loud and angry voice making it over the other noise. And it belonged to Inuyasha.

The couple had drifted away; the distance made by either Sango and Miroku or Inuyasha and Kagome but now there were bodies between the friends. Miroku held Sango’s hand as he pushed his way back to their friends. Inuyasha was squared up to some guy and Miroku cursed loudly. 

“What?” She yelled to him over the music.

He pointed. “That’s Koga. And he has always hated Inuyasha.”

“Why?”

“No clue. Jealousy? Inuyasha was a poor kid until a few years ago when his father found him. Koga has his own money and hates the status Inuyasha received with his money or something like that. Some people just want to hate on others. And Koga… he likes to mess with Inuyasha any chance he gets.”

Miroku said nothing more, pulling her along with him the rest of the way until they stood next to Inuyasha. Kagome was behind Inuyasha, holding tight to the back of his polo and stretching it out. But she was scared. Scared Inuyasha would get hurt and it didn’t seem worth it. The guy came out of nowhere and pulled her out of Inuyasha’s hold. Then tried to force her to dance with him! Inuyasha got back to her fast enough and now Miroku and Sango were with them. So it would be okay, right?

“Koga! How nice to see you again!” Miroku had his ‘seller’ voice on.

“Fuck you, Miroku.” Koga spat.

Two other guys stepped up and Sango glanced Miroku’s way. She felt a little pulse in her heart and thighs when the Letch didn’t back down in the slightest at the new threat. It was… hot. 

Koga stuck out a finger and started ‘adding’. “Half, half,” and when he pointed at Sango, “zero. One against three doesn’t seem all that fair. How about, I get a dance from the girl and we call it even.”

Inuyasha growled and shoved Koga back. “What the hell is wrong with you? She’s not a thing!”

“She’s making my thing ding; far too pretty for you, Tashio.”

Miroku glided between the two alphas with his hands next to his face. “Why don’t we all act like grown men and walk away?”

Sango rolled her eyes at that; it was a nice idea and certainly the grown-up thing to do. However, nothing said or done so far was the actions of an adult. 

The one in front of Sango reached out for her and put a hand on her arm. “Don’t you wanna go dance, Sweetheart?”

Miroku and Inuyasha both lurched; going to help her. It was unnecessary as Sango grabbed the guy’s hand and twisted it back. His arm was now a pretzel and she held tight. “Look, don’t touch asshole.”

“Okay, okay, okay, I’m sorry. Let go!”

Miroku chuckled and she glared his way for a second. “You didn’t say the magic word!”

“PLEASE!!”

She released the prick and he scampered back to ‘his side’. The three of them took a step back now. Miroku still stood between Inuyasha and Koga, putting two men between the creep and Kagome. 

“Enjoy the rest of your night, half-breed,” Koga called out as he walked away.

Inuyasha turned on his heel, grabbed Kagome, and made for the exit. Kagome didn’t fight him on it either and Miroku continued to stand still as he watched the threesome disappear in the crowd. Sango had to stand on top of him and speak in his ear. 

“Are we leaving now?”

He blinked at her; a slow grin spreading on his face before he nodded. Then he tested out a theory, wrapping an arm around Sango’s waist to guide her away. “It might be best.”

Kagome was still trying to calm Inuyasha down while they waited for Miroku to pay the tab. More PDA, Sango turned and took up watch for their remaining friend. The relief she felt at the sight of him was only because Kagome had started giggling behind her. That was the only reason: nothing else. 

Miroku returned his hand to Sango’s hip, his arm wrapped around her. She allowed it but only so she didn’t feel like an odd wheel with Kagome now on Inuyasha’s back. The only good thing about Koga’s appearance was how eager Kagome was to calm Inuyasha (in his book). Not that Inuyasha expected anything else from her; she would have ‘calmed’ him down with a simple ask from him. But he never had to ask and it was one of the things he loved about Kagome.

“How did you know he would dance?” Sango’s question broke the silence between them and it took Miroku a second to follow. She had thought she understood Miroku but now, Sango wasn’t so sure. “How did you know Inuyasha would dance?”

“Maybe I just wanted to get naked for you?” He said with a chuckle but she wasn’t buying it. So he sighed and pointed to the couple before them. “You didn’t know Inuyasha before Kagome but he wasn’t like this.”

“Like what?”

“Happy.”

She looked at the couple again -closely- but it was impossible to imagine with the shit-eating grin on Inuyasha’s face. One he always seemed to have. Save for a moment ago in the club. The guy was prickly yet caved to Kagome’s every wish like it was nothing. Sango should have known the fucker would have danced for Kagome.

“I have to say, I was impressed with how you stood by him in there.”

Sango was giving him a coy look and it nearly stopped his heart. “Oh, come on! Like I’m going to run and hide?”

“I don’t know,” Sango smirked to the sky above, “you strike me as the flight instead of fight type.”

“I am a lover not a fighter, Sango dear.” He whispered, leaning into her ear.

She kept shivering, every time his hot breath touched her skin. It was why she didn’t like Miroku, he was always getting the better of her. Like now. “Miroku… get your hand off my ass.”

“What if I said ‘please’?” Her answer was to glare up at him. Miroku laughed and pulled his hand back to rest on her hip. “Too bad. It’s a very nice ass.”

“Look, don’t touch.” She growled.

“Happily… for now.”

She glared at him again but he was tipped back, looking straight at her ass as she walked. “Miroku!!!”

He straightened and laughed; Inuyasha and Kagome had stopped and turned to face them. Kagome’s head hung over Inuyasha’s shoulder to look down at them. “What are we doing now?”

“Going home?” Sango hoped.

“Mine or yours?” Miroku begged.

“Awe, come on guys! It’s early!” Kagome cried.

“This one’s drunk already.” Inuyasha groaned.

They were silent for a moment save for Kagome’s whimpering (sounding like a puppy). Inuyasha caved quickly and started carrying his load towards a bar or something. Kagome was cheering and rubbing his shoulders like a deep massage so Inuyasha decided to be happy with the choice. Sango looked to Miroku who hadn’t moved at her side. 

“Shall we then?”

His dark brow twisted upward suggestively and she groaned. “It’s going to be a long fucking night.”

“Oh… I really hope so. Especially the fucking part.”

Sango really hoped he didn’t feel her shiver again. At least he couldn’t hear her heart as it danced in her chest. “Keep dreaming, Letch.”

[onthevirgeofdestruction]

35 Q’s for Fanfic Writers

From this post

I’m having a shitty, rude alter-y, crap night so I’m just going to answer all of these to distract myself and focus and to not bother anybody just making my own post and putting it under the cut btw, notice to anyone not aware: since I’m moving I won’t likely be updating anything until I’m done doing so.

1. From one to five stars, how would you rate your writing?  (No downplaying yourself!) 3/5? Could use more editing and description and can be weirdly paced.

2. Why do you write fanfiction? Because it’s better than focusing on pain 24/7. 

3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works? I don’t seem to have a specific narrative voice that people recognize but I’m pretty proud of mostly organic dialogue. 

4. Are there any writers that inspire you? as a rule i never look up to anybody for inspiration but there’s some stuff in my ao3 bookmarks I fawn over.

5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of? Right now, none of them. It changes normally, anyway. If get too proud then I’d get my ass kicked by RSD if someone didn’t like it so it’s safer this way

6. What element of writing do you find comes easily? Dialogue. 

7. What element of writing do you struggle with most? Organic description, poetic language kind of stuff. I can paint a scene but I’m not so great with bring out out a feeling with description alone.

8. Which character(s) do you find easiest to write? Janus and Virgil are probably tied. They both have things I struggle with but I don’t have to go back and do much adjusting of language and tone with them. Though admittedly my Virgil is signifigantly more foul-mouthed than canon and I tend to prefer pre-AA feral asshole Virgil.

9. Which character(s) do you find most difficult to write? Patton. I write him the least, so people can probably tell. I love Patton, I really do, but it’s so hard to keep away from fanon Patton. 

10. What’s your favorite genre to write for? Angst w/ H/C obviously. Or if you’re talking about regular book genres, Fantasy. I fucking love fantasy world building.

11. Who or what do you find yourself writing about most? Trauma. I blame Daeram. As if Ayri isn’t a giant Angst Demon.

12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about. Slopes. I’m really into it. I’ve got three one shots running right now. Patrons can read the first part of the unnamed cat remus one, there’s also a coffeeshop au tropey nonsense one like eglantine & lycoris, but Slopes is addiction angst. Mmmmm. Virgil is addicted to coke and alcohol and will listening to his friends even be in time? Who knows, especially not me, but there’s already over 30k. 

13. First fandom you ever wrote for? InuYasha. Or was it Harry Potter? Or shit, The Blue Sword? Fuck, I’ve been writing for a long time, I really have no idea.

14. What’s your favorite fandom to write for? Sanders Sides. The characters are the perfect dynamic for writing since they exist in balance of each other and the popular, easy to project on archetypes featured are incredibly fun to do basically any scenario with.

15. What’s the weirdest fandom you’ve ever written for? Weird storywise? Kingdom Hearts? I can’t even follow the plot anymore. Weird Fandomwise? Sanders Sides. Its simultainiously the fluffiest and angstiest nonsense at the same time.

16. Any guilty pleasure trope(s)? Vampires. Gay ones. Gay Vampires. I also love calm tol and angy smol.

17. A trope you’ll never, ever write for. Any tropes that normalize incredibly toxic behaviour or tropes that are inherantly ableist, but I can’t think of any.

18. Wildest fic you’ve ever written? Incorrigible continues to be complete nonsense.

19. Do you prefer canon-compliant, AUs, or something in-between? AUs. I mean closest I even have is canon-divergence other than a single short.

20. Gen fic or shippy stuff? I like it when there is gay nonsense along with a plot that is treated as more important than the relationship the most. But I like both. There’s more shippy stuff in tss so i read more shipping action by default.

21. Favorite pairing to write for? (platonic or romantic!) Anxceit/Sleepxiety, but in general, give me darksides or give me death/j

22. Do you listen to anything while you write? Almost everything I write has a special playlist I listen to to help me write it, but otherwise I listen to my Nyan playlist, an alter is picking the tunes, or a voidfam playlist. I never have music off. When my internet is down I just listen to the songs I own or Anxiety’s theme on loop.

23. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas? I’m fine with all of them. I love working with prompts but I tend to deviate. And I’ve never done a challenge since I can’t do deadlines and bad things happen bingo never sent me a card and I applied three times.

24. One-shots or multi-chaptered works? I am generally multi-chaptered stuff, but I’ve been working on a few one-shots lately that are much longer than most one shots.

25. Have you ever daydreamed about side adventures/spin-offs from your fic? Tell us about them! I was originally thinking of doing some little 13-year-old Dreaming!Roman (y’know, the one with a job) shorts but it turns out I just had an alter of that little bastard and that’s why I inexplicably know more about him then I ever even considered. I still might do them after Dreaming is done. But that’s paced so slowly who knows when that might happen. Otherwise I put stuff in my notes and just do shorts of it if I’m like “oh you know what’s cool???” but since I can’t daydream maybe this question doesn’t apply to me.

26. Is there anything you’ve wanted to write, but you’ve been too scared to try? I want to do more autism stuff, and I’ve had it demanded a few times, but I’m scared of being that explict about it for some reason. Possibly because I might be, possibly because I’m scared of doing it wrong even though I’ve accidentally coded multiple characters autistic. I’m scared of explictly tagging them as such, too. 

27. What’s the nicest comment you’ve ever received? That I can remember off the top of my head? I’m going with one from @a-genz-with-trauma-and-kins. It really helped me out and was just so kind and literally the best christmas gift I got in 2020. 

28. How well do you handle criticism when it comes to your writing? I can handle it alright but Daeram is a little fucking pissbaby about it. Constructive criticism helps people get better, so I appreciate it. I can’t handle critism that is incomplete, though. “i just don’t get it” or “I don’t know I don’t like it” kind of things. If I can’t understand the why to fix it then things get out of control. And then I spiral and RSD for like four days minimum. If it came from an anon or a troll, too, It might not bother me for as long. Things that are just like “this is shit and you should feel bad” just make me laugh. Couldn’t even bother to read it long enough to insult me proper? I don’t care.

29. Have you ever gone outside of your comfort zone for a fic? How did it turn out? I have a few times. Mostly in shorts and prompts, I think. I think they turned out okay. They’re not particularly inspired or anything.

30. Tooth-rotting fluff or merciless angst? Depends on my mood. Am I triggered? give me the fluff. Am I vibin? Angst. 

31. Do you have any OCs? Tell us about them! Fuck, fam, no, I can’t, I have so many. I have multiple original stories and some of them have very large casts and like holy fuck. Or do you mean in Sanders Sides fandom? Um, Morgan and Thorn in PD. The lesbian and her himbo dynamic. I love them. They’re dorks. Morgan is strong person with sharp tongue and soft romantic heart and Thorn is just so kind and so dumb and so exciteable he’s like a puppy. They were just filler characters and I got attached to them. Felton even gets redemption for being an ass later in PD, like oof i never intended to include so much OC content, especially for names I just picked randomly. 

32. Summarize a random fic of yours in 10 words or less. nope I’m doing all of them because these are fun plea for my new self: 2 gay vampires, 4 humans, 1 braincell dreaming while I wake: trauma child needs therapy and so do you break: big oof, oh dragons, oh why, go virgil go rebuild: virgil is so not okay there’s more virgil to deal painful death: gay teens drink themselves into a new religion stargazing: whoops we didn’t realize people actually cared whole castle: everyone will throw down for kid!patton, even you incorrigible: found family with a shot of psychological horror and crack dangerous instincts: wholesome crime syndacite action  slopes: addict gets mugged and thinks that’s just fine with him conflagration: logan avoids everything ever like a champ cat!remus: bored fae shifts gay pining from one person to another  caffeine cyptids: caffinated gay panic goes faster than regular gay panic eglantine & lycoris: more tropes than you can toss a shoe at storytime: overpowered virgil also overreacts literally always

33. Is there anything you wish your audience knew about your writing or writing process? an alter and I write together and I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen, what I’m writing about, or even what year it is. I often don’t even remember what I wrote. There’s no outline. I have an idea and I pick things at random for it. There’s just notes and an evil gleam in a demon’s eye. The only reason I know more than readers is because I take a long time to edit and some of these stories have fucking alters up in my head who can tell me things. Daeram tells me nothing. The writing demon supposedly has all this knowledge but I have absolutely no clue because he does not talk to me, he just fronts and slams out 9k in a few hours or we cofront to write and I’m like “oh no she didn’t” while typing 

34. Copy and paste an excerpt you’re particularly fond of. i’m fond of the entire painful death series and I tried to find something I really liked without spoilers in stargazing and I couldn’t so here’s a random thing from incorrigble: “So, what do you do with your friends?” Patton continued on with a megawatt smile. “Grand larceny,” Virgil deadpanned and glared at Patton, who was taken aback. Remy and Andy just broke out laughing while Virgil tentatively sipped his still-too-hot-cocoa. 

35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want!  slopes my dudes slopes i have learned so much about cocaine! like wow! I thought for a minute it was going to end with MCD around 30k but it swtiched from whump to hurt/comfort and I still don’t know if it’s going to be MCD but look at that funky little coke/alcohol addict go, it’s a medical wonder he’s alive! It’s not like there’s what seems to be a little talked about interaction between alcohol and cocaine that causes a toxic chemical to build up in the liver which can result in liver failure and sudden death at basically any moment! Which is part of why it may result in MCD but this time no ghosts! maybe it’ll be h/c with whump elements or maybe it’ll be whump with h/c elements we can’t know for sure

[winterbites]

Quicko thing I've seen about Yashahime

So, as a recent commenter and the general fanbase of InuYasha have said, the mother of Towa and Setsuna is theorized to be Rin. She's an obviously popular choice to be Sesshomaru's lover/baby mama. Honestly, I would be ELATED if she's confirmed canon as the mother but there are a few complications that need to be checked in order to reasonably explain the theory of her being the mother. Keep in mind, I'm not a guru of InuYasha and I'm going to be referencing mainly the anime canon for this. So, in the case that I get something wrong or miss something, don't mob my house and crucify me amongst my mint garden. With that being said, let's get into it!

So, right outta the gate is the obvious one: Rin's age as she's 11 years old at the end of InuYasha. The seasons never seem to change in the Feudal Era but we know it was spring when Kagome graduated high school and transported back to the Feudal Era. So, as we know that time in the Feudal Era moves at the same rate as the Modern Era due to the 3 year time skip, we can safely say it's fall during the Since Then chapter/episode. I'm not an expert in the Japanese school system but a quick Google search says Japanese high school begins in April and ends in March, so I'm just gonna assume I'm close enough. Anyway, we don't know Rin's birthday but, just for a best case scenario for the theory, we'll say Rin turned 12 during this time. The synopsis of Yashahime is that it begins "a few years after" Since Then and then time is skipped ahead by 10 years. The girls are 14 years old - 10 years + 9 months of pregnancy = they were 3-4 years old during "a few years after". If they were 3, then we'll just say they recently turned 14 as we're only counting the years and not the months or days. Now, in ye olde days girls were generally married off when they got their first period, and that usually happened when the young ladies turned 13-14 years old (due to changes in nutrients in the modern world's food, puberty and, thus, periods actually start earlier so that's why 13-14 years old might seem a bit old for it to start). With that in mind, I'm going to add a year to this Rin is the mother theory so that she can be 13 and become eligible for childbirth. Kinda weird to show a 13 year old as a mother but Miroku did have a 14 y/o girl beg to be his wife (Kagome commented on this as well) so it's obviously a line that Rumiko isn't afraid of crossing. Also, given that Miroku and Sango's twin daughters are 2-3 years old and Sango was a 16 y/o during InuYasha, Sango and Miroku were clearly married and got busy while she was still 16. This is Rumiko telling us that modern expectations don't mean shit in the Feudal Era; what we consider underage is overage in the Feudal Era.

Whew! I think that's the biggest one out of the way, so let's move on to genetics - phenotypes in particular (remember, genotypes have to do with genetic appearance and phenotypes have to do with physical appearance). Typically, children in the InuYasha universe look very similar to their parents. Sesshomaru is the spitting image of his parents: white hair, face markings (Sess takes after his mother in that category along with her pale skin) and golden eyes. InuYasha also takes after both his parents: Toga's tanned skin, golden eyes, white hair and (in his human form) Izayoi's black hair and eyes. We don't know what Kagome's father looked like but she does share many similarities to her mother in pretty much all phenotype categories. The only real difference between the two is that her mother's hair seems to be on the curly side while Kagome's (and Sota's) hair is more straightened, presumably a trait from their father. For an example from Yashahime itself, look no further than Moroha: brown eyes from Kagome, InuYasha's tanned skin, Kagome's (and technically InuYasha's) black hair - hell, she even got InuYasha's doglike behaviors (even if it was meant for comedy relief at most times). Setsuna and Towa though? They don't look a lot like Sesshomaru to begin with, let alone Rin. Assuming Rin is the mother, Setsuna has Rin's hair, Towa has Sesshomaru's hair, and both have Sesshomaru's pale skin; however, both girls have red segments in their hair and both have differently colored eyes, neither of which match their parents. Now, Setsuna and Towa are half-demons and, although we don't see a lot of half-demons in InuYasha, we DO know they don't always look like their parents. Case in point: Jeninji. Jeninji is...well, physically-wise, the general definition of a monster despite his father being godly in appearance along with a very pretty mother. The only other (canon) half-demon we've seen is Shiori, and the only things she got from her mother was her gender. So Towa and Setsuna, two confirmed half-demons, having physical features that match only one or neither of their parents? Fairly plausible.

Lastly is Rin and Sesshomaru's relationship and Sesshomaru's general relationship to the general human race. Sesshomaru fuckin hates humans, no ifs, ands or buts about that one; HOWEVER, there are a few humans that meet his exceptions. I'm fairly positive he only puts up with Kagome (she called him big brother at the end of InuYasha and no shit it looked like he wanted to kill her) because InuYasha loves her and I'm a firm believer that Sesshomaru cares for InuYasha more than he lets on. As I said in a previous post, Kohaku is on Sesshomaru's good list due to his efforts to protect Rin; I think the only reason Sesshomaru seemed to be harsher to Kohaku was because he was a boy and was expected to take care of himself (for example, Sesshomaru expressed annoyance at having to defend Kohaku and threatened to leave him to die but didn't follow through with it). Last human on Sesshomaru's 'this person is ok, I guess' list is, obviously, Rin. He loves her, no ifs, ands or buts about that either but we don't know what kind of love it is and we don't know where it could extend to as she grows older. When Rin died the second time, Sesshomaru cradled her body and probably would've cried if he was normal in literally any kind of way. When his mother (y'all ever realized that Sess's mother doesn't have a canon name?) revived Rin, Sesshomaru crowded her and caressed her cheek. As one of my dad's favorite songs goes, if that ain't love then I don't know what love is. The way Sesshomaru views Rin is never stated, whether explicitly or implicitly, and, in my opinion, Rin is too young to understand whatever type of admiration she has for him. Rin has stated that she wants to be with Sesshomaru for forever and Sesshomaru, who seemed to feel the same way, had obvious plans to retrieve her once she spent more time with other humans - but only if Rin wanted to come along. Also, lets keep in mind that Sesshomaru was reluctant to separate from her to begin with and he still visits her very often plus brings her gifts on each visit.

With half-demon daughters and his general hate for anything human, Rin is by far the strongest candidate to be the mother but we don't know what Sesshomaru is up to during his travels. For all we know, he could've bonded with some other human woman in the time between InuYasha and Yashahime. On a sidenote, and I know this is pretty stereotypical, but clothes (the type of gift he seems to leave her more often than not) is among the top 3 things you give to your boo to woo them (I especially say this 'cause even I enjoy clothes shopping) but that kinda depends on the person.

[jeongahn]

✨ HEHE HELLO MY SUN! 95hua is my gfx and 17joshua is my gif portfolio blogs - Bea 💓

(Don’t) Creator’s send me a  ✨ + your creations tag and I’ll talk about some of your pieces I love! Bea’s creations (gfx) and her gifs and her blog @joshuahong (I still want to tag joshsua, it’s been literal YEARS)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - How do I make this short. Bea. I truly love your work so much, that when I tried to go through your archive from 2015 and onward - all my brain did was “oh that’s a fave. no wait that’s a fave. that one too. OH but THIS ONE-”. I’m not exaggerating. Every single piece. So to keep this condensed, I’m only going to talk about the pieces that gave me the visceral “!!!” because I remember how floored I was at the piece. Just know that EVERY piece you’ve done gives me that reaction. So this ask? This ask is now my own personal hell because I don’t know how to choose 3-5 pieces that I love more than the other. But I will try. This is more of a “walk down memory lane,” - in which I recall how much the piece amazed me at the time it was posted. This might seem long but let me tell you - this is as condensed as I could possibly make it. Like I am pulling my own teeth trying to mention just a FEW of these pieces that I really love. I need a drink. GOD this is obnoxiously long I don’t know what to do.

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

2015

(1) (2) (3)These graphics are so heavily ingrained in my mind that I’m now realizing how much this inspired some of my graphics I did years later. Like??? It set the tone for what I value in a piece of work LOL. And when I look back at my own work now - I can see how much of these “lessons” I incorporated.

For (1) in particular, I adored the bleeding effect on the surrounding gifs! And how each panel bled into one another through those wisps.

 In (2) the COLORS just had me squirming like a delighted little sausage. It fit Seventeen’s image at the time so well. It was youthful, colorful, fresh. Everything that Akkinda was at that time. I LOVED the sparkles and the fucking TREE. Ugh that was truly one of the best graphics I saw at the time. 

In (3) - the way you oriented the text was amazing. It was a lot of text but the way you spaced it out and added these visual breaks made it so easy to digest. Like one panel is text heavy. Then another panel is image heavy with a bit of text.Then there’s a gif panel with more text but also spaced out with more image. The balance is fucking incredible Bea. And literally - that’s how my own mind is programmed to make gfx now so it’s nuts seeing that it might have been influenced by your own methods I viewed over the years. LORD, I should call you professor?

2016

Very few things I never heal from. This manipulation of Jeonghan and Joshua from the Chocolate MV? Is one of them. The Chocolate MV in general? Is another. But okay I recall how I gasped because of how GOOD this was. It’s still hitting me. Your brain is so sexy Bea. Also, I’m bummed we never got Mint Jeonghan. But like, who cares? Bea edited a mint Jeonghan and that’s all I’ll ever need. I would literally frame this LOL. Like I’m half considering slapping it onto my corkboard just so I can look at it often.

I would literally pick every single piece from 2016 but I think JiHan was my most favorite and I can’t tell if that’s the bias in me that’s making these decisions. 

2017

This is the coolest shit I’ve ever seen lmfao. I wish I had something more flourished to say but I remember thinking how fucking genius you were for highlighting the teaser like this. Since it was so scenic. And rather than making a hardcore gfx out of it - you just enhanced the vibe with text, coloring, and a bit of texture. You also did this same concept with Jeonghan and it just...oof it was so perfect. 

And then later on, when all the teasers were released - THIS stunning piece of work was done. I was SO impressed by the way you did the gifs with that cross effect. It’s not easy showing 13 pieces of anything. But you did THAT. And ALSO used the images of the teasers, you’re a MAD MAN BEA. A GENIUS. I’m still so shocked by how well done is this.

And you know what this talented fuck did WITH THE ACTUAL MV? You’re not going to fucking believe this. You’re really not. Why am I suddenly so angry. Just look at THIS and you’ll understand full well, why I am SCREAMING. I’ve NEVER seen anything done like this at the time it was posted. Like Bea REALLY set the fucking tone with this gfx. To this day I can’t think of a single gfx that captures an MV THIS WELL. UGH it’s BRILLIANT. If I HAD to pick a favorite - like you threatened to burn my pumpkin patch - I would choose this one. But because I’m not being threatened I’m now making this LONG ASS POST on WHY I LOVE BEA’S WORK SO MUCH-

I recently watched InuYasha in all of it’s entirity because I thought of this gfx a while back lmfao. Jeonghan as Sesshomaru and Joshua as a half demon? Satiates something inside of me. Anyways. The tones used here always get me. The soft beiges and purples at so NICE. I think I mentioned it reminded of buying lavenders out of burlap bags in romantic market places LOL. But the vibe still fits. The movie poster vibe is something you didn’t do often back then so it was cool seeing you try out a different style! The way top right and bottom left are correlated is something that flew right over my head back then. But now? I’m eating this shit up. It’s delicious. 

Shout out to the “Story of the Moon” series Bea did with Meanie, in which she insp credited herself. Is that not, the biggest flex? I love all your star crossed lovers concepts. Bea loves to: yearn. OH btw, here’s the actual Story of the Moon. It’s so sweet. Probably not the original but SO pretty either way. I think this might be the original. Re: Bea loves to learn.

I swear I’m done with 2017 but I gotta mention part 2 of Demon!JiHan. I never realized how much I loved this series of gfx. Bea. This is GOOD shit.

2018

This is GREAT. One thing I loved about YMMD concept was how the gradient reflected on the concept of day to night. So I adored how Bea did this! It was a clever way to utilize 13 images since the aspect of day and night happen in 12hr cycles. 

Just know anything Bea does of JiHan is most likely going to be some GREAT work because of the way a storyline is involved in it. I remember you talking to me about this concept so seeing it come into fruition was pretty fucking cool. Again. Bea loves to yearn. The colors reminded me of the 2015 piece I adored so much.

She did it again with the flawless approach on Demon!Jihan. It’s like year by year it becomes more and more sexy. I LOVE this. The editing on this is more “today Bea”. It’s got such a nice use of shadow and saturation. I remember those images were so hard for me to edit because of the shadow so I didn’t edit them LOL. But nothing stop’s Bea’s expertise. The red tones really get me. I love how this series went from soft burlap bag of lavender to reddish hues. It feels aggressive and I LOVE that.

This is probably the best birthday graphic that ever exists. Again Bea was so clever with how she displayed a lot of images from Joshua’s ENTIRE career. Along with text. Not just eras. Not just songs. But Joshua as a person as well. Whenever I see this I feel so fond. You can smell the love radiating off of this gfx. Joshua would be SO honored.

2019

This is so pretty. Like it reminds me of salwar kameez lmfao. I remember this fondly. It’s like they’re what is inside of a string light. Not light bulbs. It’s Seventeen’s Vocal Unit.

Shout out to this graphic that is reposted literally everywhere. Bea you unlocked every Carat’s deep want: Tatted!Seventeen. Your talent with manipulations is unreal. The tattoo series and Cyber/ Humanoid series really showcase that. Another shoutout to how Bea inspired that one set of teasers with the pressed flower freckles. I want this in a resin dish. Who on Etsy will do this for me-

(1) (2). The dichotomy of these 2 graphics still get me. In (1) there’s this warm and luxurious vibe. Then in (2) it’s the same luxurious vibe, but creepier than the previous because of the icy feel. It’s so neat. Both are SO beautifully done. I love the shimmer tears on Joshua in (1) and the icy sparkles on Vernon in (2). 

2020

I REALLY love this set. The BUTTERFLIES are you KIDDING ME??? I love them. I’m so glad you incorporated them. I love how you subject edit. The way you create glow on the face is so nice. It literally reminds me of using “How Many Carats?!?!!” on the face. Which is SO fitting lmfao. On this work it’s a bit more... “soft glow” but I had to mention it. Joshua with the monarch butterflies makes my heart warm. I dunno if Monarchs are California’s butterflies. But so many places in my town are dedicated to Monarch butterflies so when I think of California, I think of Monarch butterlfies. Anyways I adore the FLUSH on these images. It’s so INNOCENT

I love the entire Cyber series but the way you did everyone’s bionic arm? INCREDIBLE. I can’t even begin to understand HOW you did this Bea. It almost makes me angry that you do this shit for FREE. I get to look at this for free? It feels illegal. I was so floored I missed several details. Like how you made the lighting work with this neon light vibe. That takes a GOOD artistic eye and you clearly have that. Jihoon’s current of energy on his face? U G H it’s so GO OD. I want to stare at it forever. WAIT the BACKGROUND as well. Listen the more I stare this. The more details I realize I miss because I’m so caught up in one detail. It’s just such an incredible series that you execute so flawlessly. 

I just really love this. I can’t describe why. It’s just so nice to look at. That panel with Joshua’s glitter tears (p2)? I love it. All of it is so satisfying to look at and I got that entire vibe from the MV in general. So this was an appropriate way to display it!

I have yet to see all of your 2020 gfx so instead I’m gonna rb them and gush lol but really Bea. All your work is so good and if I could write a book on how much I appreciate them - (clearly) I would.

[meggz0rz]

INU KPOP AU

CHAPTER ONE: A KING’S PLAN, AND A VOICE WITHOUT A FACE

-MIROKU-

“Miroku?”

Miroku looked up from his phone, knowing he probably looked as bleary-eyed as he felt. Sesshomaru, always a fan of dramatic flair, kept the lights in his top-floor office purposely dimmed, and so even in the waiting room outside the double doors to the inner sanctum, it was hard to see very well. Or at all, really.

Kagura stood there in her smart straight-legged jeans and heels, chewing on the lid of a ballpoint pen and squinting down at her customary appointment diary. It seemed even after years of working side-by-side with her oh-so-famous household name of a client, she hadn’t completely adjusted to the lack of visibility either. 

Miroku had thought to ask her about it once, several years ago, and she had just shrugged and laughed quietly to herself, saying something about Sesshomaru “having his quirks just like every other genius” but saying it with clear fondness.

“You can go in now. ‘The King’ is ready and waiting.”

They exchanged a smirk, and Miroku stood up from the plush bench (which wouldn’t have looked out-of-place in a museum exhibit about Louis XIV) and cracked his neck.

He’d only been waiting forty minutes. New record.

But then again, Sesshomaru ran on Sesshomaru time. And if Sesshomaru needed to delay a meeting to call his psychic and see just how the stars were aligning today for creative efforts...well, more power to him.

“Ah, Miroku,” Sesshomaru said, giving the slightest hint of a smile as Miroku poked his head in through the heavy office doors. “Come on in and have a seat.”

Miroku ambled up to one of the large high-backed chairs in front of the desk and dropped himself into it. This room was even darker, as Miroku had well known, and so when the chair on his right spoke, he had to fight not to jump in surprise.

“Sup, Rap Monk.” Inuyasha wasn’t smiling welcomely, but he did, at least, raise a single hand in greeting before returning the bitter scowl to his face and staring across the desk at his older brother.

“I wish you wouldn’t call me that anymore,” Miroku sighed, running a hand over his face. “I didn’t choose that stage name to begin with, and it’s haunted me ever since.”

“Would you like something to drink, Miroku? Coffee, tea, sparkling water?” Sesshomaru held up a hand as if ready to summon Kagura to retrieve whatever it was.

“No, I’m good, thanks. What’s this all about?”

Sesshomaru took on a solemn posture, folding his hands upon his desk. If he noticed Kagura scurrying around behind him and frantically lighting even more of the candelabras that dotted every other surface in the room, he didn’t give any indication as he heaved a great sigh. 

“As you know,” ‘The King’ began, “my foolish little brother was just dropped from Naraku’s label. The group is disbanding and the label is reassigning the other members to various new projects.”

“Dropped? Fired, more like,” Inuyasha growled under his breath. “Thrown out like it was nothing, and after all these years I busted my ass - “

“There is obviously much to say about this,” Sesshomaru interrupted sternly, “but that is not what I’m concerned about at the moment. That’s not why you were summoned here, Miroku.”

Summoned. Like I’m a slave on retainer. 

Well, to be fair, Sesshomaru’s album sales didn’t lie, did they? 

Miroku would jump on command if he had to just to get a piece of the action, especially after long months of sporadic freelance producing work that were threatening to force him to - gasp - downgrade his apartment in Seoul. The very idea!

“I’m guessing you want me to produce some tracks to start Inuyasha off on a solo career?” Miroku awkwardly rubbed at the back of his neck. “Are you gonna finance him to start out or - “

“I can finance my own damn self if I need to, thanks.” Inuyasha leaned back in the chair and crossed a leg over his lap. 

And that was probably true. 

Inuyasha, in the very beginning, had purposely signed to a label unconnected to his outrageously famous brother, had done his best to gain fame the hard way with talent and commitment and that charisma of his. He’d been, inarguably, the breakout star of his group, and had become the face of Naraku Entertainment.

Until a few months ago. When it all came crashing down.

The press had freaked out. The fans had freaked out. But Naraku Entertainment’s decision stood, and all that momentum had been squashed like an unexpecting insect on the kitchen floor.

“We are of the opinion,” Sesshomaru said, in a way that made it sound like it wasn’t anyone’s opinion but his own, “that we need to keep Inuyasha behind-the-scenes for now, so to speak. In order for him to come through this unscathed, we will need the power of the fans behind us.”

That wasn’t going to be easy. The Japanese fans had at first been outraged on Inuyasha’s behalf, but in the span of twenty-four hours they had turned, blaming him for busting up their favorite group, blaming him for being selfish.

Sesshomaru must have seen the uncertainty on Miroku’s face (which was once again, a miracle in this candlelit room covered in crushed velvet drapery), because he quickly went on. “We’re going to extend this company of mine, this label, to include a whole new crop of Japanese idols and entertainers. And we’re going to concentrate almost entirely on the Korean market.”

“Ahhh, so that’s why you wanted me to fly up here,” Miroku said, breaking into a sly smile. “Because I’m based in Seoul now.”

“We’re going to start with a female group. A small one, no more than four or five members. I want girls fluent in both Japanese and Korean.”

“A girl group? Why not a - “

“Because if it’s a bunch of guys, the press is going to think I’m just forming a new group for myself, and they’ll go ballistic and call me an ungrateful egomaniac,” Inuyasha supplied, glaring down at his clenched fist on the arm of his chair.

“Precisely,” Sesshomaru said. “And besides, this will be something grand, something the world has never seen before. A group of Japanese artists performing entirely in Korean for Koreans. It will make the home market see what they are missing, and will drum up support for a glorious comeback for all.”

“Uh...huh…?” Miroku gave a bewildered frown. “So you want me to...what, exactly?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, he’s hiring you, idiot.” Inuyasha’s tone was growly, but from what Miroku could see in this cave of platinum records and eccentricity, he was smirking.

“To…?”

“To help me, to help Inuyasha form this group, produce and write the songs, and grow the label’s influence in a market you must know quite intimately by now.”

Holy shit. “Oh, okay, yeah that sounds like a plan.” Understatement of the century right there.

“Your first task is this,” Sesshomaru said, “I already know I want Ayame in the group. She’s been going through a similar situation with her label as Inuyasha was with his, and she’s looking to make a change. I can handle that part; she’s a good friend.”

To a man this famous, Ayame, who at one time was built up as “Japan’s Newest Idol Princess,” a girl whom everyone between the ages of twelve and forty knew, was simply “a good friend.” Oh, to live the life these people lead every day.

“A-Alright.” This was happening so fast. One minute you’re thinking of selling your old memorabilia to make rent, and the next…

“I want the others to be largely unknowns. New discoveries. I don’t want the typical formula, where girls in their early teens sign horrific contracts and are reduced to dancing, singing soldiers by the time of their debut. I want the emphasis to be that here at Taisho Entertainment, we don’t need that kind of rote repetition to make stars from nobodies.”

Miroku was starting to pick up what Sesshomaru was putting down, and it both intrigued him as a concept and terrified him beyond belief. “You want to form a fully realized K-pop girl group using girls without any formal training in the system?”

“That’s exactly what I want.”

Miroku gulped. That meant combing through thousands upon thousands of Japanese girls, weeding out the ones who couldn’t speak Korean first, then weeding out the mediocre ones, then weeding out the ‘girls-who-sing-well-but-have-no-stage-presence’ and the ‘girls-who-can-dance-their-feet-off-but-have-voices-like-dying-cats’...

“You got it.” Why do I feel like I just signed up for guaranteed panic attacks and insomnia for the next several months, or even years?

“I’ll expect a list of some good prospects to explore by the end of the week,” Sesshomaru said, “You’ll need to work closely with my brother on this. The priority here is untapped talent, and if we find a girl who’s usable, we’ll help her learn the rest.”

Time to hit up karaoke bars and YouTube, I guess.

“You’re dismissed. I’ll summon you both again in a week’s time to look over what you’ve found and work out our plans from there.”

Like a good little soldier, Miroku stood and left the office. Inuyasha sighed behind him and followed, but at a more reluctant pace.

“Where do we even start?” Inuyasha griped, shoving his hands into his pockets and kicking at the ground. 

Ding-ding-ding. Lightbulb. 

“Wait,” Miroku said, pulling out his phone and going to his streaming app. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it a second ago. I found this duo on my random playlist just last week. Apparently they’re based at Busan National University, they’re Japanese nationals, and they play the coffeehouse circuit.”

Inuyasha peered over his shoulder at the band’s profile page, emblazoned with the words ‘JxK, LOL’ which was, admittedly, a pretty terrible name for a band under any circumstances. 

“No photos,” Inuyasha pointed out, raising an eyebrow. “That’s promising. You’re right, Miroku. Brilliant idea. I see why my brother’s gonna pay you a million gazillion - “

“Alright, alright,” Miroku said irritatedly. “Enough with the snark. I know we don’t know what either of them looks like, but just listen to this girl’s voice.”

He chose a song and hit play.

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: HI I WILL BE COMING IN LIKE THIS QUITE FREQUENTLY TO TELL Y’ALL WHEN TO HIT PLAY ON THE LINK FOR MAXIMUM IMMERSION. OF COURSE YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO IT ONLY WHEN I SAY SO, YOU CAN LISTEN TO YOUR HEART’S CONTENT HOWEVER THE HELL YOU WANNA, BUT STILL, CONSIDER THIS YOUR CUE TO PLAY THE SONG IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY OK BYEEEE)

They both stood there, both utterly enraptured. 

As the song played, the skeptical furrow in Inuyasha’s brow seemed to gradually smoothe out, and Miroku had to fight back a laugh of triumph. 

“Okay, so she can sing,” Inuyasha said stubbornly after the last notes rang out and they were left in silence once more. “She can really sing. But aside from knowing that she’s somewhere in the huge-ass city of Busan, how can we possibly find out more about her? We don’t even know her name!”

With a flourish that would have made Sesshomaru tear up with pride, Miroku pulled up the band’s tiny social media page. Still no photos or details, but there, aha, a small list of upcoming gigs (all coffeehouses and restaurants, of course).

“Guess we got a date,” Miroku snarked.

Inuyasha sighed, blowing a lock of silvery hair out of his face. “Guess I gotta pack for a flight to Korea.”

“Pack for a week,” Miroku called after his retreating back, “It’s gonna be a busy one.”

[sailorshadzter]

author interview.

oh wow, i was tagged by @amymel86 @orangeflavoryawp & SOMEONE ELSE BUT IVE LOST YOUR TAG IN MY SEA OF NOTES. IM SORRY BUT I ALSO ACKLNOWLEDGE YOU WHEREVER YOU ARE. 

thanks so much for the tags, everyone!! :P

Name: Shannon

Fandoms: well, there’s a LOT of them, haha. Jonsa, obviously. but there’s also: hinny / harry potter, inukag / inuyasha, usamamo / sailor moon, zutara / atla, hakyona / akatsuki no yona. ive created a lot of content for those fandoms, but im also into a lot of additional things ive not got around to writing for. 

Where You Post: here on tumblr & ff.net. 

Most Popular One-Shot: oh definitely my JIMSA oneshot. 

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: i dont do these as often anymore, but when winter ends, spring begins is probably my most popular fic. i never got around to posting it here on tumblr & its not finished (lol last updated in feb oops) 

but there’s also the finished in my darkest of nights, you are the light that guides me home which is a hinny fic that was an idea i had a long time ago for a role play. it never panned out so i used it in a fic instead. it’s actually old & someday id like to rewrite it because its kind of awful. but its close to my heart. 

Favorite Story You Wrote: oh! hard to choose!

i’m enjoying working on the role reversal fic, where sansa goes to dragonstone as queen in the north, to meet viserys, rather than jon meeting daenerys. ive been meaning to finish that next chapter. 

BUT i also started one where margaery is alive & comes to sansa at winterfell after they reclaim it from the bolton’s. im excited to continue it. 

however, writing wise, this one shot i wrote using a writing meme is one of my personal favorites. for whatever reason, it turned out really well written (i think) and i was pleasantly surprised when i reread it just the other day. 

Story You Were Nervous to Post: honestly, none haha. 

the worst thing that could happen is something just doesnt get a lot of notes or whatever, but even thats not a big deal to me. 

How You Choose Your Titles: i SUCK AT TITLES. i miss role plays because i could just use song lyrics lmao. sometimes i come up with some really good ones but overall i usually tweak song lyrics or think for days and days and days about it. 

Do You Outline: NEVER. 

Complete: as someone who mostly writes oneshots.... A LOT. like i cant even begin to think about how many ive really written. the story i upload my tumblr jonsa prompts to has 92 itself and i have a separate jonsa prompt story for my own ideas that’s up to 41. and stepping out of the jonsa piece... ive got dozens of zutara & hinny stories like that as well.

it’s a lot. okay. a lot. 

In Progress: i dont like this question LOL

okay ive got so many it’s not even funny. this is why i never look @ my ff.net page because it just shows me how many there really are. 

but alright

ive got: - chapter 4 of the role reversal fic

- chapter 2 of the au where jon is kitn & sansa is married to joffrey in KL 

- chapter 2 of the newest one, where margaery comes to winterfell. 

- chapter 2 of the au where jon is the last targaryen & him 

+ there’s a few i WANT to update. like my mulan / zutara au. & there’s a harry potter au that ive been itching to work on. 

SO YES, A LOT. 

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started: Im one of those people who starts everything. i literally have nothing “coming soon” that isnt already started. this is why i have 65000 projects going all at once. 

Do You Accept Prompts: always! 

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: i know i said it above, but im really enjoying the role reversal fic. it’s getting me out of my comfort zone. 

but im also excited to work on something else. it’s been all jonsa ALL THE TIME (and there’s nothing wrong with that!) and im ready to write for one of my old faves here pretty soon!

this was fun!

i tag: @angrykittykrys @anniebibananie @cat-stark +anyone else who wants to do it because i suck at tagging people lol

[lostinfantasyworlds]

Hi! First of all, I just wanna say that UNTL is definitely one of my best reads this year. Thank you for sharing that masterpiece.

What should we look forward to next year? Any WIPs?

Omgggg I am so honored sldkfja;sd thank you so so so much 🥺😭 ❤️I just —

I do have a few WIPs and I will give little summaries of each under the cut!! They are in order of when I will most likely finish them)

 Under the Northern Lights post-canon PWP oneshot - I’ve had all kinds of little snippets pop into my head of Inuyasha and Kagome’s lives together within the UTNL universe, and I always write them down. Most of them are smutty because I can’t seem to help myself hahahaha. This one is the most fully-formed idea that I had a few months ago, and wrote down a whole rough draft in my phone. It actually takes place on New Year’s Eve, which is why I was hoping to have finished UTNL well before the end of the year so that I could have posted this follow up oneshot on/around NYE, but OH WELL. It’s mostly just porn anyways, but includes a tiny hint of plot that actually ties in with the epilogue! (you will see a reference to “New Year’s” in the epilogue, so just know that you will eventually be getting to read the whole story 😉)

The First and Last - Modern AU that could either be a long oneshot or a multi-chapter depending on how long it ends up being. Currently it's only about 4.5k words, but still super rough so it could definitely end up being multi-chapter. I'm so excited about this one because childhood-best-friends-to-lovers is one of my all-time favorite tropes (Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable were my first ship before I even knew what shipping was...), and now I'm FINALLY going to have a story of my own using that premise! This story is inspired by the summers I spent as a kid at my grandparent's cottage in Maine. It was in a very tiny coastal town, and was on a quiet street with a few other summer homes, so I would see the same kids every year and we would all hang out. And I may have had a smol crush on one of the boys that I would see each summer😏. So this story is InuKag in a very similar situation!! I love this one and can't wait to share once I go back and fill in all of the middle parts 🥰

Sometime Around Midnight - Modern AU multi-chapter based on  a song of the same name by The Airborne Toxic Event. I actually came up with this as my first multi-chapter AU back in January/February before UTNL randomly forced its way into my brain and took up my entire life for the rest of the year. I'm still really excited about this one, and have a whole elaborate backstory planned out, but am actually really stuck on how I want the plot to go past the initial couple of chapters (which starts off as pretty much just a retelling of the lyrics of the song). It won’t be super long, probably only 3 - 5 chapters, but I really can't decide on an interesting enough way to end it 😆.  I'll figure it out eventually, though!

The Girl at the Rock Show -  Modern AU enemies-to-lovers fic that I wrote for @goshinote’s birthday back in October! I was only able to get it to the point of being a super rough draft (that was still over 6k) by the time of her birthday, but I promised to get back and finish it eventually, which I still plan to do! I debated whether to publish it, since it’s very much written for Jane and her interests with lots of inside jokes/references lol , but I figure I might as well share it because someone else might enjoy too! The basic premise is that Inuyasha and Kagome are both working at a concert venue and do not get along at first. But....✨sexual tension✨is there and so begins a FWB type of situation that of course turns into something more...

A couple of canon-based very short oneshots - I have ideas for little missing scenes I would’ve loved to see in canon every so often, and have a couple of rough drafts written. One is my version of a little follow-up to the almost kiss in TFA episode 18, and the other is a post-canon idea of how InuKag’s first kiss might have happened based on the manga where they never kissed inside the jewel! Both are short and sweet and very fluffy. I started off with most of my ideas being canon-based, so I like to return to that as kind of my bread and butter after writing a lot of AU. I just love love love Inuyasha and Kagome’s dynamic in canon, and I consider it a fun challenge to write within that world and keep them as in character as possible!

Apart and Together (very tentative title, pls ignore lol) - This is actually the first fic I ever started writing after finishing the series! It is basically just my ideas of what might’ve happened during the 3 year separation, and how their reunion would have gone. It’s actually already like 20k words hahaha, but I started it so long ago when I knew nothing about writing, and have shifted my views on certain things, so it will require a lot of editing/restructuring to get it finished. Eventually!

Untitled Multi-Chapter epic-style long fic based on Darling in the Franxx - Post-apocalypse AU where demons (led by Naraku) have taken over the world and humans are forced to live in small areas under constant attack. Inuyasha and Kagome (and others) are paired up on a mission to gather fragments of the Shikon Jewel, in an effort to stop Naraku from getting them first. They don’t get along at all at first, but learn to trust and rely on each other over time, although they grew up as part of a selection of kids that were raised to be soldiers so they don’t know much about humanity/love/etc. Also there is a twist! The premise is loosely based on the anime Darling in the Franxx, minus the sexual robot stuff hahaha. This will probably take me forever to write tbh. I have a loose idea of the plot, but nothing really written so far. I want to write the entire thing before posting, so it might not end up getting posted next year but we'll see!

That is ALL of my WIPs that have actually been fleshed out into full story ideas! I have a handful of random scenes jotted down in my phone that could potentially become stories if I thought about them a little more, but I don’t like to have too many open WIPs at once, so I’ll try and get a few of those out before trying to come up with anything else.

Thank you SO SO much for this question, and for your support of UTNL! It means the world ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

[thetygre]

 30 Day Monster Challenge 2 - Day #4: Favorite Mummy

1.) Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo)

There’s something to be said for loss of Boris Karloff’s tragedy and nuance with the 1999 Imhotep, but you know what else Boris Karloff’s mummy didn’t have? Style, baby. And reboot Imhotep had style for days. Summon the plagues of the Old Testament, raise more mummies from the dead, shape the very elements to his will; Imhotep was a force. Could that same character have been done with more subtlety and a deeper backstory? Yes, of course. But the real question is; would it have been as fun?

Also, let’s talk about character design here. Mummies don’t really offer a broad range of options in terms of character design. No matter how much jewelry or old robes you put on them, they’re always going to be covered in bandages. But the reboot, like Karloff, got around that by offering different designs and costumes for different states of regeneration. Starting with a desiccated corpse and evolving to a full-blown high priest, with each stage having its own personality. My personal favorite is probably the second form, with the mask. Masked undead are always a little bit extra creepy. The ability to fit that much creativity into the character design ties to the spectacle of Imhotep as a villain, and that, more than anything, is the character’s strength.

2.) Imhotep (Boris Karloff)

Karloff’s mummy is the mature one, the sympathetic one. If the mummy as a monster can be said to have tragedy or deeper meaning, than Karloff embodies that in his character. His Imhotep is a man lost in time, desperate to reconnect to the world he is lost. But at the same time, he is very much a monster; he is a punishment for disturbing the past. Mummies are ultimately rooted in Gothic horror, and, similar to ghosts, remind us of the horror of history and the sins of our ancestors. In addition, mummies, like Frankenstein’s monster, are born from man attempting to meddle with things that humanity simply is not meant to know, whether that’s knowledge or literally just going into somewhere with a big ‘keep out’ sign. Karloff’s mummy conveys both aspects of the mummy creature as an archetype. It’s just, y’know, he doesn’t breathe locusts or summon sandstorms.

3.) Tomb Kings (Warhammer)

This might be kind of cheating since the Tomb Kings are as much skeletons as they are mummies, but they’re all generally ancient Egyptian themed. While they lack that certain punch that their 40k equivalent the Necrons have, the Tomb Kings make up for it in aesthetic. Even the most basic soldiers are dressed up in bronze and gold. On top of that, Tomb Kings aren’t just human mummies either; horses, scorpions, and even sphinxes are all part of the Tomb Kings’ forces. The Tomb Kings are a demonstration of just what can be done with the idea of mummies when you put your imagination into it.

4.) The Arisen (Mummy: The Curse)

The late child of the New World of Darkness, the Arisen are the preserved mages of an ancient magical empire that existed in Earth’s prehistory. The Arisen are a blend of Karloff and Vosloo, mixing spectacular magical powers with the somber reality of the passing of time. Each Arisen can rise from their slumber for only brief periods of time, and each time they lose a little more of their memories. They are some of the most powerful, indestructible entities in the World of Darkness, but they have to operate on a time limit. It’s the idea of how unfathomably ancient the Arisen are that gets me; predating humanity, watching all civilization rise and fall. It takes the idea of mummies as guardians to an entirely new level.

5. ) The God of the Valley (Discworld)

It’s kind of hard to talk about this one for spoilery reasons. Pyramids has mummies galore in it, but there are a few that stand out. But this one makes us think about how mummies can reflect aspects of even modern culture. He makes us question things like duty, responsibility, and tradition. The borderline between ritual, respect, and insanity isn’t always as clear as we would like it to be, and it’s even more complicated when that ambiguity is simultaneously toxic and necessary. Also, for aforementioned spoilery reasons and just a general lack of fan art for the Pyramids Discworld novel, no pic unfortunately.

6.) The Boneguard (Tailchaser’s Song)

Cat mummies! Tailchaser’s Song is a cat-focused fantasy, complete with an evil cat Sauron figure. Said evil cat overlord has a variety of minions, and his most disturbing are a group of apparently undead cats with psychic powers. While described more skeletal than desiccated, they’re given Egyptian names like ‘Bast-Imret’ which gives a pretty obvious nod to their inspiration. It’s well known the ancient Egyptians mummified cats as sacred animals, and I’m glad I was able to see something interesting and kind of creepy actually done with the idea.

7.) Saint Hakushin (Inuyasha)

Our first non-Egyptian mummy is a monster-of-the-week that I only even know about by chance from a random episode of Inuyasha. Hakushin is a sokushinbutsu, the mummified remains of a Buddhist priest who entered a state of mummification while still alive and then died from asceticism. Hundreds of monks have tried this process, but only a few have ever actually succeeded. Hakushin demonstrates that the idea of the mummy is not exclusive to Egypt, both as a death ritual and as usage for a monster. Mummies are universally uncanny in whatever culture they appear in, while at the same time evoking reverence and fascination.

8.) The Dead Ones (The Halloween Tree)

These mummies come to us from the catacombs of Mexico. The environment of the city of Guanajuato lends itself to a natural process similar to embalmment, preserving bodies in pristine condition. They are easily the most horrifying mummies I have ever seen, with their faces contorted by postmortem shifting. Ray Bradbury saw them once, and they terrified him out of Mexico. At the end of Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree, our cast of characters is confronted with the catacombs and have to race through the mummies to save their friend. The book’s first adventure is actually in ancient Egypt in the tomb of a pharaoh, so this serves as a potent contrast. Egyptian mummies are created intentionally, made out of reverence and respect. But the mummies of Guanajuato were made by accident, unearthed when their families could not or would not pay the burial tax on their graves. They are a harsh reminder on the reality of death, a confrontation with what becomes of us after we are put in the earth, and something that is inevitable for everyone.

9.) The Fallen One (SyFy Channel Movie)

Giant mummy of a nephilim! First off, again, I love the idea of monster mummies made from something other than humans. Giants have an extra layer because it makes you imagine how bizarre the actual process of mummification must have been. This thing’s brain must have weighed at least twelve pounds and been the size of a pumpkin, but it was still pulled out through its nose by a hook. There’s also the ties to conspiracy theory lore here. The nephilhim, giants, and their remains have a significant theory in conspiracy lore, whether they’re the products of fallen angels, aliens, or both. And there’s only one thing to do with an idea that crazy; make a horror monster out of it! I don’t give a toss about the movie. It was so crappy I couldn’t even find a screenshot for it. You’ll have to settle for this giant mummy from Gatchaman instead.

10.) Mummy Gundam (G Gundam)

It counts. G Gundam was a trip, y’all. This is literally an old Pharaoh Gundam (there were multiple) that was destroyed in combat, mummified, and then resurrected by the Devil Gundam, giving it magic powers like bandage control and regeneration. Its pilot was mummified too, so there was just a straight-up mummy in bandages doing martial arts in the cockpit. See what I mean about this show being wild? I just love the image of a giant mech rising out of a sandstorm, like a piece of the landscape itself, combined with a mummy coming back for revenge. The gundam was never even alive and it still came back from the dead like some angry, vengeful god. That’s just straight up stupid fun.

[kordeliiius]

Spring Anime 2018 First Impressions

This season is looking up to be a pretty big one. For some people, it's because several huge series such as Tokyo Ghoul, BnHA, and Stein's Gate are returning to the screen all at once. But for me, who got into hardly any of those, it's more because I feel like I have more on my plate than before. Heck, there were a few more shows here and there that didn’t quite make my watchlist, but I feared I wouldn’t have enough time to get through all of them, so it’s back to the usual one or two per day. Without further adieu, let’s get into it!

Notes:

I won’t be doing impressions for anything continuing from last season. This consists of: Black Clover, CCS Clear Card

Decided to not watch Golden Kamuy after all; Decided to add Comic Girls to the list

Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi - A show like this might remind a person of Noragami, Inuyasha, Kamisama Hajimemashita, or Spirited Away because of the heavily-emphasized youkai theme, though none of them put such an emphasis on food, so I'm looking forward to how the show sets itself apart from the crowd. At the moment, I'd say it's alright. The animation is nothing special, but I immediately became a fan of the color usage, with the OP drawing me in, and I specifically remember seeing that initial shot of the Hidden Realm with a color-contrasting town and mountain range against the night sky. I found a few of the character designs to be intriguing as well, though I'm a little concerned as to how far the show will go in terms of personality. It's gonna take a little more than them being attractive to drag me in this time. I'm at least glad that the main synopsis is out of the way and we've already landed in wonderland. I decided to watch this show pretty last-minute, but I like it enough to keep going!

Magical Girl Ore - Hooooooh boy where do I even begin with this one? So. Basically it draws you in by throwing all the cliches in your face. Reusing shots, childhood friends, embarrassing teenage drama, the sentient ahoge, super long attack names, the power of love, etc etc. The intro to the first episode was like Tokyo Mew Mew and Precure (and maybe even One Punch Man?) had a child that liked to occasionally break the fourth wall, and I loved it. I wouldn’t say the show is quite as outrageous as something like Pop Team Epic, though it certainly is outrageous. Certainly looking forward to the fun I’ll be having with this one, though I’ll probably dread watching it in public...

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai - I don’t watch very many romcom animes, though for one reason or another I decided to check this one out. After looking into it, I discovered that it’s being made by the same studio who adapted Nozaki-kun, so this’ll be interesting. Getting into the actual show, I admittedly didn’t like Teresa riiiiight away (probably because she was introduced with the typical “gaikokujin” stigma), though like some other watchers, I can’t help but feel like there’s a mystery surrounding her. She did hesitate in saying her last name, after all. I recall the synopsis saying that she and Alec were from Luxembourg, though in the show they’re calling it Larsenbourg? Weird. At the moment, a voice that really stands out to me is that of Ijuuin’s, I found it amusing to listen to. (I also looked up his VA, and found out he’s apparently a big deal.) I feel like the voice acting is good in general. This show has a slow start, so I honestly don’t have much to say about it, yet it seems promising to me.

Comic Girls - Sure enjoyed watching this one! I first showed interest in Comic Girls because I like to draw a lot, myself, and I plain and simply love manga, so I thought that a whole series dedicated to the process would be an excellent idea. And I feel like the first episode got the feeling of an artist down pretty well. Though I'm more experienced with general classroom settings rather than a (college) dorm, I think this anime accurately portrays communication with artist peers, the joys and pains of creating, and living in a new environment. It's also good as a comedy, and it makes good use of gags such as typical manga cliches, using panel-like screens for scene portrayals, Kaos' oddly adorable nervousness amped to the extreme, and how everyone is gay for Tubas, but don’t quite admit it. While some things are obviously exaggerated, all the characters seem real, and the fact that this is a cutesy, colorful slice of life doesn't prevent it from showing us their struggles as artists. I almost didn't test this show out, but I'm ultimately glad I did.

Hinamatsuri - I REALLY LIKED IT! I really liked it. That’s the least I can say right now, haha. We’ve just begun and this show is hilarious. You wouldn’t think a show with a yakuza and a psychic little girl would work, but it honestly does. I’m not sure why it took so long for it to be uploaded anywhere, but the intro hooked me with its fast-paced, non-stop animation, and from what I can tell, that part was a flash-forward that gave us a preview of the plot. I like the setup and the characters quite a bit, and I just know there’s gonna be more along the way. Also, can I just say that I really like how they draw the hair in this show? I don’t think I’ve seen something quite like it before.

Boku no Hero Academia Season 3 - Not the strongest start for a new season, to be honest. A lot of the episode was simply dedicated to flashbacks, recap exposition, and what some people would call filler, I guess. So far not a lot to get us prepped for the upcoming plot, other than what was already stated or implied at the end of the last season. Other than that, I thought the OP and ED were quite nice! The OP song was really hype and modern-sounding in my opinion, and I liked the ED because it started off by showing pencil concepts and keyframes, which are something I always like to see. Tasty. Can’t wait for new characters and for things to get real dark in the near future.

Piano no Mori - I actually liked it more than I thought I would. the characters and their personalities drew me in immediately, and I can’t wait do see how the relationship between Kai and Shuuhei grows. This is just a little suspicion, but I’m hoping the series uses magical realism somehow. The prominent example in this first episode was when the piano in the forest would play for Kai and no one else, and for this to truly be MR, it can never be explained. It’s something I’ve been wanting from an anime ever since I started studying the genre again. And you know what? I’m just gonna say it. The use of CG isn’t bad. In fact, they kinda had to use it, considering how fast these kids’ fingers are flying and the kind of camera movement they’re going for. It looked something straight out of a game to me; it clearly looked like it had effort put into it. And hey, why couldn’t Houseki be that smooth most of the time? I’ll be looking forward to the rest of this show, and appreciate some quality music while I’m at it.

OOOOOOF that was a lot to get out. For now, I’m gonna sit back and watch what I’ve chosen and just have fun with it. See you in a few weeks for the usual ongoing impressions!

[dawnrider]

Stocking Stuffers

A combination of new comfy jammies, the wrapping paper tube boop war and putting my own kiddo to bed inspired this post-Christmas drabble. 

@fantastiqueparfait, @thunderpo, @bearpluscat, @clearwillow, @noviceotakus-blog, @cammysansstuff

(I know it looks like the English Sarah/Sara, but it’s the Japanese version. Also, see lyrics here if you’re unfamiliar with the song.)

Inuyasha smiled as he watched his wife, huffing in frustration at the scotch tape that stuck to her fingers.  The last of the Christmas gifts for their three year old would go into the stocking and then she would go back to sitting up with their four month old who was currently fretting in his arms.  He bounced the baby while keeping an eye on the stairs to make sure Iz didn’t creep down and spot them decorating and wrapping.  Fortunately Sara was not hungry, just tired, or she would be wailing in his ear.

Kagome was dressed in a long nursing nightgown he’d given her for Christmas just after they found out they were pregnant with Sara, a thin robe tied off haphazardly at her waist.  Her long dark hair was pulled up into a messy bun on top of her head, her eyes fierce as she did battle with a package of socks that would go in Izayoi’s stocking.

He had never set eyes on anything more beautiful in his life.

“You’re so sexy when you wrap toddler socks,” he said with a chuckle, his amber eyes bright in the glow cast by the string lights on the tree.

Kagome paused to look down at herself, tossing him an annoyed look before going back to her task.  “I’m not sexy at all like this.”  Inuyasha opened his mouth to protest, snapping it shut when she turned on him, fire in her brown eyes. “If you say ‘you are to me,’ I’m swatting you in the nose with this roll,” she warned, waving an empty wrapping paper tube in his direction.  Despite her ferocious tone, Inuyasha could barely bite back a laugh.

Kagome rolled her eyes at him, slapped the last piece of tape on the seam and let out a sigh of relief.  She gathered up the other little wrapped items and stuffed them into the waiting oversized stocking with Izayoi’s name on it before hanging it back on the nail sticking out of the mantle.  He dipped down, grabbing the empty tube she’d threatened him with earlier.  He used the very end to tap Sara’s nose.  Their infant daughter’s hazel eyes crossed slightly to look at the cardboard, mouth opening and closing in a mimicry of speech and little hands grasping.  He repeated it, smiling when her tiny nose scrunched and she let out a little sigh.  A third time resulted in a soft squeal and a snort.  “Smells kinda funny, don’t it?” he asked her.

“Even I think it smells funny,” Kagome commented, arms full of wrapping supplies on her way to the storage box.  Inuyasha waited to see if she would organize it, or dump… Yup, she’s tired, he thought, smirking at how his lovely wife dropped everything into the bin and popped the lid closed without a second thought.  He handed her Sara and took the bin without a word, going to stash it in the attic.

When he came back down the pull-down stairs, carefully returning them to their place in the ceiling, he could hear Kagome softly singing to the baby in the nursery.  The inuhanyou stood just outside the doorway, finding the muscles in his shoulders relaxing as he watched Kagome nurse Sara.  He recognized the tune she hummed under her breath, the same song she’d sung to Izayoi since she was tiny.  Their toddler still referred to it as “Mommy’s song,” not knowing it was “A Bushel and a Peck.”  Kagome continued to hum it, even as their pup went completely limp in sleep, dabbing the tiniest dribble of milk from her pink cheek.

Inuyasha tiptoed in, gently scooping his silver haired daughter out of his wife’s arms so she could sneak away while he moved Sara to her crib.  Sometimes they could slip out without her waking. Sometimes she woke the moment he stopped touching her.  Tonight, fortune shined on them and Inuyasha let out his own sigh of relief.  Sara let out a squeaky sigh in her sleep, but didn’t wake.

“A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck,” he murmured against the back of Kagome’s shoulder when she carefully closed the door.  She let out a breathy laugh at her husband sweeping her off of her feet - clad in fuzzy slippers - and carrying her to bed.  “Sleep, Kagome.  I’ll go check on Iz one more time.” She only groaned, kicking off her slippers and rolling over.

Their first born was sound asleep in her toddler bed, unaware that she would be getting a brand new “big girl bed” come morning.  Inuyasha was not looking forward to putting together that self-assembly nightmare tomorrow, but seeing the look on his little girl’s face when she saw her brand new canopy princess bed - a combination of a pink gauzy material Kagome had found hung over the frame of the convertible loft bed - would be well worth muddling through the wordless directions.  Izayoi had been asking for a princess bed for months.

Her little puppy snores in his ears, Inuyasha carefully closed her door and went to check on Sara once more, just to make sure she was soundly asleep.  Her sleepsack was slightly tangled with her feet, but he was able to tug it loose without disturbing her.  He started her sound machine on the lowest setting, then slowly turned it up until the soft swooshing of a heartbeat in utero filled the room.  She was barely out of “the fourth trimester” and obviously found the sound very soothing because he could hear her breathing become more even.

The inuhanyou couldn’t help patrolling the house one more time, checking locks, making sure the alarm system was set, and closing the blinds.  He trailed back up to the master and simply gazed at his wife in sleep.  As he had guessed, she was exhausted, and had fallen asleep almost immediately, not bothering to take off her robe.  He knew it would probably bother her later, but they would be up in a few hours with Sara again anyway.  In the meantime, he wanted her to sleep as much as possible.

Kagome mumbled something unintelligible in her sleep, making him grin.  Inuyasha changed into his sleep pants before tucking himself in with his wife, his mate, the mother of his beautiful daughters.  “A barrel and a heap, and I’m talkin’ in my sleep about you,” he murmured as his nose found its favorite place at the junction of her neck and shoulder.  “Cause I love you, a bushel and a peck.  You bet your pretty neck I do.”  Kagome simply sighed, completely asleep, and settled into his embrace in that instinctive way he so loved.  Like she was meant there. Like they were meant to be together like this. Best Christmas ever, he smiled to himself as his own eyelids started to droop.

Even if she was wrapped in a comfy nightgown with messy hair, Kagome was the best gift he’d ever gotten, who then gifted him the two pups asleep in their beds. Merry Christmas to me.

[shnuggletea]

Here’s the update I promised! Thanks again for asking Anon! All you waiting for Kagome to be a badass, your time has come! It's going to be a little bit before I update this one again. I have a lot going on right now as far as writing. Things I promised to finish with their due dates coming up. Which means a pause on this fic but new fics to be posted soon. I'll pick this one back up mid-October so expected an update probably November 1st.

If you want more, more fics and faster updates, check out my Patreon!!

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And for anyone interested, here’s the playlist. I’ve added some new songs to it as well.

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Chapter Fourteen

The guards flanking Naraku took off his last chain and stepped back. Kagome stepped back too, moving down the line of her friends until she stood between Miroku and Hiten. Free, Naraku began stretching, his bones popping as he got himself loose.

“Light and dark. I have to say I’ve been curious about this since your arrival, Doctor. Who will win out in the end?”

Onigumo was about to wet himself with excitement while she was close to vomiting. “I’m not going to fight him, are you mad?!”

“I hoped you’d say that.”

Already freezing, stuck outside without a coat again, her fear made her feel hot instead. Onigumo tapped his finger to his chin, looking over her friends and mouthing the words to ‘Eenie Meenie’. “This one.”

Watching on in shock, Kagome did nothing as they ‘helped’ Hiten to his feet and pushed him towards Naraku. “Here you go, eat up.”

“What?!” She screeched.

“If you won’t fight then I’ll just feed Naraku here all your friends.”

“NO!” 

Her tears felt as though they froze on her cheeks, rushing towards Onigumo. His guards stepped to his aide, standing between her and him. 

Miroku shoved her back with his shoulder to her thighs. “Kagome, remember what I told you? Don’t show yourself!”

“It’s too late, he knows…”

“But not all you can do!” He hissed. 

Stepping back, she looked at Hiten. Nothing but resolve was on his face. “It’s okay, Doctor. Don’t give these bastards what they want.”

Naraku’s hand grabbed Hiten’s neck, using the other hand to rip the necklace she gave him off first, then his nails dug in. Hiten’s eyes rolled back into the back of his head and the color of his skin went from pale to ashen. She watched, unable to look away as his aura was taken away. Pretty color sucked into the darkness and snuffed out. 

His body fell to its knees and she followed, not taking her eyes off of Hiten’s face. Naraku dropped the hollow shell and it shattered to dust at his feet. Mixing in with the snow, it turned it all to an ugly gray. 

She didn’t even realize she was screaming until she cracked, her voice breaking with a sob. Her hands and knees were in the wet sludge, adding her tears to the moisture that was the melted snow when she heard laughing. 

It broke through the thick silence that had settled over all of them. Slowly, she pulled her eyes from the frozen ground to glare up at Naraku. “I didn’t think I’d be able to do that with the runes. Good to know.”

“You fools. Now he’ll kill us all!” Sesshomaru shouted like it was a fact. 

“He’s not going to kill me. I’m the one that kept him fed.”

Onigumo was gloating. And also picking another victim. With her still on the ground, she made no indication of fighting. Hiten had told her not to, Miroku had warned her, and Inuyasha was quietly begging her at a tenor she was sure only she could hear somehow. 

She looked at Kanna and Shippo, both wide-eyed and terrified. Kanna met her eyes and shook her head. Kagome wasn’t sure what Kanna meant; did she mean don’t save them or don’t let her die?

Then she looked at Maten. His aura was flashing with his rage and sorrow. Unable to do anything, he never looked so broken. 

A scream broke her from her own self-loathing. Two hollow men were pulling Kagura to her feet. 

“No.” It came out as a whisper but she was sure everyone there heard her. 

Onigumo grinned wide and pointed at the pregnant demon. “This is the one you wanted released, isn’t it?”

It was all a sick joke to him. Sesshomaru was trying to tear through his cuffs. “Naraku, you son got a bitch, don’t you touch her!”

Naraku was stoic, looking over the woman that was being brought to him and seriously considering Sesshomaru’s words. “We’ve been through a lot together, haven’t we?” He was talking to Sess. “But it’s two meals for the price of one. And one is a dog demon.”

Naraku was going to swallow Kagura and the baby whole. 

“No!”

She slapped her hands to the ground and flew up to her feet, energy bursting from her from somewhere deep inside. Somewhere where her fear was lodged as well as her body was taken over by something else inside her.

Kagura was passed to Naraku and his eyes were on her. Kagome had the drop on him, surprising everyone out on the field with her speed. Including herself. 

A hand on Kagura’s back, she shoved her out of Naraku’s hold and twisted, her elbow going up and over her shoulder. The result was Kagura on her knees, a short distance away, and Kagome’s elbow in Naraku’s nose. 

It wouldn’t kill, but it would hurt long enough to do what she needed. 

The same hand she used to push Kagura to safety now burst with light. Purple and in a shape, it was like a bubble, floating a little until it stuck to the ground surrounding Kagura’s defenseless body. 

“Kagome!!!” Kagura screamed, her voice a little warped from inside the bubble.

Kagura was safe but now she was dangerously close to Naraku, who took hold of her arm and used it to toss her across the yard like a rag doll. She rolled for a while, using her hands and knees in the dirt to stop herself before she collided with the wall. 

Ripped and dirtied, she slowly pushed up off the ground, doing a sad push up that only got her face out of the mud. 

Now she was right before Inuyasha. He was staring, slack-jawed at her. Then at Naraku, his eyes glowing red while he growled. Everyone was looking at the bubble, pretty lilac that shimmered in the fluorescent lighting. She bit her lip when Naraku approached it only to giggle when he touched it and got sent back a few inches. 

“You bitch!” Naraku growled. 

Now she was laughing outright, barely containing herself while Naraku slowly smoked from her energy frying him. “Please, by all means, take a step inside the bubble!”

“Is that it?” Her neck screamed in pain but she still turned it to Onigumo who was examining the bubble now, “Defensive tricks? Don’t you have any offense?”

Pushing to her knees, back on them again with the others, she spat out the blood in her mouth in his general direction. “I don’t fight.”

“That’s no fun,” Onigumo clucked his tongue, “we need a strong Miko, not just another run of the mill healer.”

Every molecule in her body screeched to a painful stop. “You’ve…. you’ve used other Mikos?!” A grin spread on his face and her skin crawled. “You’re a monster!”

“No, that’s the monster,” he pointed to Naraku who was glaring at her hard, “and you interrupted his dinner.”

It was slow but Naraku was gunning for her, moving fast but not too fast so she couldn’t see him. He wanted her fear to be spiked. 

White and red flashed before her, making it impossible for her brain to keep up. Even more so when gold was blocking her vision. There was red in them, like paint dripping towards his pupils. “Kagome, get up.”

Inuyasha was kneeling before her, blood seeping from his shoulder. Pulling away from his magnetic hold, she found Naraku, slowly pulling himself out of the wall. It was a deep Naraku-shaped crevice and Inuyasha had put him in it. 

“Get up!”

She didn’t understand, reaching out and touching his face instead. What was Inuyasha doing before her? 

The guards grabbed him a second later, pulling him to his feet and dragging him back to his ‘spot’. Naraku was making his way over to her again, walking this time. 

“Kagome, get up!!!” This time, Miroku was screaming at her. 

Tilting forward, she got up just as Naraku wrapped his hand around her throat. “Some Miko you are. Can’t even save yourself or a couple of lower demons.”

“Lower?” She spat. “Look who’s talking. You have to suck up those lower demons just to exist!”

He was squeezing now, cutting off her air and it felt like her head was going to pop. With her hands on the wrist of the hand that held her, she shot a jolt of energy into him, surprising herself again. Naraku squealed and tossed her, rolling again after flying through the air for a few seconds. 

This time, the knees and thighs of her friends stopped her. They all begged her to get up, tears in the children’s eyes. Getting to her feet didn’t last long though, Naraku backhanded her and took her off them again. 

Her ears were ringing and tears blurred her vision, which also spun. It was a concussion most likely but it didn’t matter cause now Naraku looked over her defenseless friends. “The Hanyou disgusts me. As does the cursed human. A mirror might be tasty though.”

Kanna whimpered and then kicked her little legs at Naraku, trying to break his hold on her as he lifted her off the ground. Onigumo and his guards stood back, not doing a damn thing more than shift their weight and keep their guns at the ready. 

Kagome felt eyes on her; her attention pulled right to Inuyasha and his face. His red eyes used to scare her, a sign that she was in trouble. But it was never her in trouble with him, it was him upset with worry and pissed he had to save her ass. Now, his red was coupled with purple, bright marks under his eyes that made him look just like his brother. 

“Go.” He was whispering but she still heard him. And it looked like no one else did just like earlier. “Go, get out of here.” She shook her head. Partly because she didn’t understand but mostly because she couldn’t leave. “The runes aren’t designed for you, you can walk out of here. Do it now while they’re distracted.”

“I can’t do that! I can’t leave you here, they’ll kill you!” The lopsided grin he wore didn’t make her believe any different, they would all be killed if she left them. 

“We’re all dead anyway.” His eyes danced up and behind her and she looked past the lights for the first time. Finding nothing but more guns. 

They were going to gun them all down. 

Onigumo was going to have his fun, force her to show her gifts, then kill all her friends anyway. Knocking Naraku out would be the cherry on top if these guns could kill him. He feared them but she wasn’t so sure they could kill him. Or that anything could. 

She was angry. Angry at the world for locking her in here, for locking all these innocent people up and throwing away the key. Pissed that people like Onigumo and Shikon were profiting off it, enjoying themselves, a bunch of sadists. Terrified for her dear friends, all of them shaking with rage and fear. 

But she was mostly raging because Kanna was still kicking for freedom while Naraku planned to drain her clean. 

Falling to the ground hard, Naraku screamed as he gripped his shoulder instead. Kagome’s hands were in the air near her chest without fully knowing what she was doing. The part of herself that understood and was rational had shut off and now she was nothing more than an angry Miko set on purifying. 

The purple disappeared before she really got a good look at it, but she was already stretching her arms apart again, pulling back on her bow made of light, another arrow of the same energy at the ready. 

“Shit!”

Naraku ran, rolling to the ground while she let her arrow fly. Again and again, she pulled back and sunk an arrow into another evil creature. Guards mostly as Naraku continued to dodge and Onigumo used his men as a shield. When she couldn’t get the ones she wanted, she tilted back and let more arrows zip through the darkness. They lit their own paths, finding and sticking into the chests and shoulders of the guards above. The ones with all the guns pointed on all her loved ones below. 

When she pulled her aim back down, Naraku was inches from her. So she put the tip right in his face, watching as it glowed on his pasty skin. “That’s a cute trick.”

“Is that why you’re shaking?”

He was shaking. Either with anger or fear but she didn’t kid herself, Naraku was too cocky to fear her. “Nothing you do will save you or your friends. You’re all going to die, one way or another.”

Arms still chained wrapped around Naraku’s neck from behind, red was all she could see. “Get the fuck out of here!!!”

Inuyasha had somehow gotten his cuffed hands in front of him and away from the guards. But since most of them were motionless on the ground the only ones remaining were surrounding Onigumo. 

With his shoulder not quite right, Kagome figured it out quickly. Inuyasha had pulled his arm out of its socket, wrenched his arms around over his head, and rushed to her aid. 

“Are you listening to me? Leave, Kagome!”

Leave? No, she couldn’t do that. Not without the others. And never without Inuyasha. 

He was still holding Naraku off her, the two almost evenly matched with the runes in place. The runes that kept all of them trapped here. Runes that now flowed beneath the stone walls around them. 

Holding the bow and arrow in both hands, she ‘snapped’ them in half. The result was a wave of purple washing out over the yard. Anyone still standing hit the ground and didn’t get back up. Everyone kneeling was untouched by the light, leaving Inuyasha which she hadn’t considered until too late. It had her heart racing with unimagined fear until she saw Inuyasha pushing Naraku’s weight off him. 

And then stopping when he stood before her, human. 

“He ain’t dead, just knocked out for who knows how long.” He was stroking her cheeks, looking her face over with black irises and growling at the bruise she surely had on her jaw. “Kagome, can you hear me?”

She could but it was like her mouth refused to answer him, too focused on her mission. Which wasn’t over yet. 

Inuyasha tried to stop what she was doing, putting a hand up in the air even after he trapped her in his hold. Cuffed wrists on the back of her ribs, he pulled her hard into him and she twisted her fingers into a fist. Cinder block bursts and dust rained down, the runes ripping from inside the walls. 

“Kagome, don’t.” Someone was warning her and she looked blindly over into Inuyasha’s eyes. He was begging her. “Just go. Leave us.”

“No.”

It was that simple, twisting her wrists and causing the runes to burst into flames. All the runes that once enclosed the yard were now ash on top of the snow. 

Everything went black after that, but she feared nothing knowing she was in Inuyasha’s arms. 

oOo

It was the light. Although soft and pleasant, it had been months since she felt on her face while slumbering had her heart racing. 

Shooting up in bed, a small bed but with a far thicker mattress on it than before and softer sheets, she was met with Kagura’s concerned gaze. “You’re awake?”

“Where am I?!”

She took in the room and it looked like a bedroom of a small cabin. Then she took in Kagura, looking comfortable in her long sweater and tights, sitting in a small armchair with a hand over her belly. 

“You’re in the middle of nowhere, as we all are,” she said with a giggle as if that made sense, “family cabin left to the boys years ago…”

The door flung open and Kagome’s body tensed, showing her how sore she was. The small whimper she released was heard by all the demons now in her room, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru entering, but it was Inuyasha who flew to her side. Kneeling beside her bed, he helped her sit and kept a gentle hold on her after. 

“What happened?”

“You don’t remember?” Sesshomaru asked with no emotion to tell her how he felt about it.

“I remember… the yard. Oh god, where’s Shippo? And Kanna?!”

Inuyasha’s hold went from gentle to tight, keeping her on the bed instead of rushing out as her mind wanted. Her body was another story, losing all fight easily and falling back on her ass to the soft mattress. And fell even deeper when Inuyasha started rubbing comforting circles into her back. 

“They’re just in the other room with Jinkostu and Maten,” Inuyasha told her, his voice soft and full of so many emotions, she couldn’t figure out how he felt either. “What else do you remember?”

“I… I’m not sure. It’s all… hazy. I hit my head. A few times. Pretty sure I should be dead?” 

Inuyasha fisted the material of whatever she was wearing, thicker and softer than her scrubs. Sesshomaru actually smirked at her. “We all should be dead. You saved us.” Then to her added shock, he bowed his head. “Thank you, Miko.”

“Don’t call me that!” Everyone tensed and she didn’t understand why but settled when she did. “Just… please don’t say that word.”

Kagura tilted her head to the side, a sad smile on her lips. “You’re safe with us, Kagome.”

“Yes, I know. But you’re not safe with me.”

“Unless you go nuts again and purify us all, I can’t think of anyone we’re safer with! Especially since…”

Kagura quickly silenced and Kagome turned to Inuyasha who was glaring at the pregnant woman. She had expected Sesshomaru to challenge it and head-butt Inuyasha, but instead he took Kagura’s hand and pulled her up from her chair. “We’ll give you some privacy.”

Now alone, Inuyasha didn't move away from her, keeping his hand on her spine as he rubbed it up and down. “Inuyasha, what are you not telling me?”

He moved, sitting on the bed instead and took her hands in his. “How are you feeling?”

“A little sore but mostly just annoyed!!”

Chuckling, he lowered his focus to her fingers as he played with them. “You’ve been asleep for a few days now. I wasn’t sure you were going to wake up.”

Taking one hand, she ran it across her scalp, looking for proof of her injuries. “I’m surprised too. I at least know I had a concussion…”

“You really don’t remember?” Dropping her hand, she shook her head no. “You went full Miko,” he ignored her hiss at the word and continued, “took out all the guards, Onigumo, and knocked Naraku out cold. I think you healed yourself in the middle of it as well as all of us. Kanna should have a crushed throat right now! And Kagura… well she should be dead.”

“Protection is what I’m supposed to do. Not kill people.”

He must have heard her distress on her voice, releasing her hands to cup her face. “You did protect. They were going to kill all of us and take you away to some lab to do… terrible things, Kagome. And they weren’t people, you know that. Those guards and Onigumo stopped being human long ago. They weren’t even demons.”

His thumb brushed across her cheek which was how she knew she was crying, smearing wetness in its wake. “Is everyone okay? Really?”

“Yeah, everyone is fine. But you scared the shit out of me! Again!!”

She grabbed his hands, placing hers over his as a sob tore free. “Hiten… poor Hiten…”

Inuyasha pulled her into his arms with that, her face in the crook of his neck for her to wipe her tears on. It was soft, the t-shirt he wore now instead of his scrubs. She had it under her cheeks and in her grasp. 

He said nothing. She said nothing, just released a few sobs for her lost friend. Until there was nothing left but hollow feelings and a pit of fear that remained in her belly. “When I saw Naraku… drain Hiten… all I could think about was…” She caved into him more and he tried to hush her, but she wanted to get this out, feeling so selfish for it. “All I could think about was him doing the same to you.”

Inuyasha tensed from her admission but only tightened his hold on her. Pressing his face to the side of hers, she felt him speak into her hair. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, the last person you would think about is yourself. But you don’t need to worry, you heard him yourself. He doesn’t want a Hanyou.”

That reminded her, “I’m sorry for what I said to you.”

“It was no worse than the shit I said to you, trying to keep you away from me.” He said with a chuckle. “It worked as well on you as it did me.”

Pushing away so she could see his face, she wiped her wet cheeks and looked up into his brilliant golds. They were shining more than usual today. “So you didn’t believe me? I didn’t hurt you?”

“Demon, remember? I can smell your lies.”

“Really??”

He laughed and got to his feet, careful while helping her to hers. It was then she noted what she had on and it obviously wasn’t her scrubs. “Kanna and Kagura changed you as well as got the dirt off you. We couldn’t leave you covered in mud and blood.”

Inuyasha sounded sheepish about it. As if he had watched or worried she thought he had. “It’s fine. Thank you.”

The baggy sweats and oversized t-shirt reminded her of wearing her boyfriend’s clothes. So when Inuyasha turned away for a second, she sniffled the collar of her shirt. It was Inuyasha’s. That explained his face, she was wearing his clothes again. Probably reminded him of the night they spent mostly naked together.

He took her hand and led her out of the room. Her room was small but the living room wasn’t, stretching up with big and bright windows. The happy sun filtered through thick trees, cutting shadows along the floor made of light-colored wood. It was a wood cabin on the side of a mountain. Perfect place to hide a bunch of prison escapees. 

“Are we ‘on the run’ now?”

Inuyasha gave her hand a squeeze, still in his hold as he took her towards the couch. “Yes. But you don’t need to worry about that right now.”

“Kagome!!!”

Her thoughts were shattered when a fuzzy and warm Kitsune jumped on her, wrapping his arms around her neck hard. Another body hit her middle and she looked down to find the white hair of Kanna, hugging her middle. Jinkostu remained on the couch, smirking up at her. Getting free, she went around to Maten and he stood instantly for her. 

“I’m so sorry…”

She broke again and Maten pulled her into a hug. “It’s not your fault.”

A growl broke them up, Maten glaring over at the angry puppy, Inuyasha. “Chill dude.”

Looking around quickly, she noticed someone was missing. “Where’s Miroku?”

“Outside. Meditating.” Shippo answered like that made sense. 

Inuyasha caught on to her confusion quickly. “He is used to the runes holding him back and keeping his curse at bay. Before we were incarcerated, he used to meditate all the time to keep from sucking everyone around him up without control. So that’s what he’s doing now, trying to get a handle on it again.” Inuyasha’s face suddenly soured before turning away from all of them. “Jesus, what is Kagura doing? She’s going to burn the place down!”

“Better go save Sessy!” Jinkostu purred.

Inuyasha passed her a look before disappearing. Literally, his demon power was at full without runes so he was so fast, she couldn’t see him at all as he made for what she assumed was the kitchen. Now with her attention fully on the group in the living room, she took note of what was going on. 

Kanna, Shippo, and Jinkostu sat watching cartoons. Fully engrossed. It warmed her heart and rid some of the guilt in her belly from what she had done. Guilt that swelled a little when she looked over at Maten. He sat with them but wasn’t watching. Instead, he stared out the window and on into the distance. Following his stare, she could just make out a small town in the far away. Her vision was pretty good so she wondered what the demon could see with his. Whatever it was, it had his full attention while she returned hers to the children. All three of them.

The cartoon was Bugs Bunny and, even though old, Shippo and Kanna didn’t seem to mind. Jinkostu laughed every time a character got hurt while Shippo laughed every time anything happened period. Kanna was quiet but that no longer bothered Kagome like it used to.

The episode ended, a bunch of commercials, when it cut away suddenly to a newsbreak. Maten got to his feet at attention. 

“We’re coming to you live with a special news report. Last night, the demon prison, Dākukēji, experienced a jailbreak…”

“Oh boy, here it comes,” Jinkostu whined.

“Turn that OFF!!”

She jumped, Inuyasha suddenly behind her. He was very protective of the tv suddenly and it had her heart in her throat. So she put a bubble around it, Jinkostu stopped dead in his tracks to the screen and Shippo jumped to get to the remote. 

“... police are tracking them down as we speak but warned all not only in the area but the whole country to be on the lookout. Demons now walk among us again…”

The screen went black, Shippo getting the remote and turning it off. She turned, Inuyasha wrapping his arms around her to try and stop her from whatever he thought she might do. Glaring, she let her anger of being kept in the dark wash over her and Inuyasha had the decency to shiver from it. 

“How many got out?!”

“I thought you wanted to free us all? That we were innocent?”

He was using her words against her so she used her hands against him, pushing on his chest hard to get her release. “Who got out?!!”

“All.” Sesshomaru answered, leaving the kitchen in all the chaos to stand near them. “Everyone got out of the prison. Every demon left in the world is once again free to do as they please.”

This is actually the end of part one. The next chapter starts part two, Cell Mates: Freed. I've decided this is going to be like a three-part series. I hope you enjoyed part one!