#this is 1/2 of what i was hinting at before Teehee

[smittyw]

some oldies revisited + brand new additions to finally complete the weeklong sparkle on collection ✨

special thanks to all my mutuals who send me jerma pics for nefarious purposes, all of u are free to use these to further my agenda

[loopdile]

level 1. “huh, i’ve never heard of this this dynamic before. the world is full of wonder”

level 2 “oh this art fucks actually, i’m kind of curious”

level 3 “hmm there’s actually a lot of interesting stuff to explore here”

level 4 “oh. oh no” (in the revelatory tone of someone who just realized their interest is about to become Brainrot)

level 5 “OUGHGHGHG AUUAGAHH IM SOO NROMAL ABOUT THEM HAHAHAHA TEEHEE” (is not at all normal abt them)

THE LOOPDILE PIPELINE…BEWARE…

I came straight in at "oh. oh no. this art fucks." and I've been level 5 ever since... so happy I've helped build the pipes for another victim <3

There just IS so much interesting stuff to explore!!! They both purposefully create distance. They both have mean senses of humor. They both drop little hints about their wild backstories and then don't elaborate. They're both a bit world-weary and kind of over trying so hard, except oops, they kept trying, they can't not, they're too fundamentally kind and caring – but they sure aren't nice about it sometimes. But that's fine, because neither of them is exactly big on receiving nice sympathies either.

And then you've got Loop's drama against Odile's deadpan. Loop's lashing out against Odile's protectiveness, but specifically the kind where she's willing to dirty her hands and do the hard thing, and Loop's situation is a very hard thing. Loop the unstoppable force against Odile the immovable object.

Odile says she doesn't care for romantic love, and it's believable to say Loop no longer would, either, after the debacle with Isabeau. It could be so freeing to let go of that painful what-could-have-been by deciding to prioritize a different sort of dynamic entirely! And I think Odile would find Loop sooo interesting.

[r4vn]

MAJORRR GIRL TALK UPDATE +18:

................... 😏 teehee

BUCKLE THE FUCK UP GUYS.

sssssssssoooooooooooooo

he came over last weekend 😏

i kissed him first 😏😏

....things happened 😏😏😏😏

LMDAOAOAODJSIFBEBRBE THIS IS CRAZY. guys...first i was looking st his tattoos trying to make small convo bc im SO NERVOUS..we are discussing tattoos and i discuss mine (im tatted yup (i have 2 lol)) ...tension just BUILDINGGG..so we lay down bc im so nervous ...i kissed him first right... then i started rambling how i said i was gonna kiss him first, he shuts me up by kissing me again and making out with me!! @($;#*%;÷*÷kwbdkwdbwodbd AGHHH

also, before i kissed him, during everyfhing, and after. i was TERRIBLY FLUSTERED. LIKE I COULDNT LOOK AT HIM..WE TOOK SMALL 30SEC BREAKS BC I'D GET OVERWHELMED..HE WAS SSOO PATIENT WITH ME.

anyways i climb ontop of him and im kissing him, my long beautiful majestic curly hair keeps getting in the way so i couldnt help but laugh and pull away, still flustered as shit. im sitting ontop of him now, I LOOK AWAY, ANYWHERE BUT HIM. like i said he is being so patient with me telling me its okay and im okay

(throughout these small steamy moments he takes like 2-3phone calls and steps out bc his friend is having a crisis. in the end he stayed with me, and left to see his friend after and kept me updated on that. his fren is okay :D)

so after he comes back from taking the phone call, we are talkin abt his friend, im asking if he needs to leave, he says no, he is massaging my foot rn..and then asks "are you ticklish?" and im like 🧍‍♂️ "do you have intentions of tickling me?" and as soon as he begins to tickle my feet im like "i will kick you in your sternum." and he laughs (im so real and funny) he lays next to me, idfk what im talking about i was probably rambling amd he shuts me up again with making out with me again. to give perspective: im laying on my back and he is laying on his shoulder/side? he leans over me so i wrap one hand over his shoulder and the other under his arm to grip his shoulder..errughgkkgjgjgg

his HAND...DIPS IN BETWEEN MY LEGS GUYS..GGUUYYYYSSSS....HE GOES LAYER BY LAYER. IM STRUGGLING TO KISS HIM AND HE IS GOING FROM MY PJ SHORTS, TO MY UNDERWEAR, TO ME....guys im a melted mess under this man faces close, panting, steamy...guys he has such a nice smile and yk what he does?? whisper "talk to me.." with the slightest smile on his mouth as im literally whimpering and mewing his name. i say "i..i cant." and he then SAYS "why?" WITH THAT HINT OF AMUSEMENT...IM SICCCKKK. he has such a nice voice guys..for my praise kink im SO serious 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭!!!!

that goes on for a bit, we stop..he goes to lick his fingers and im like N O...wash your hands..he listens (like a good boy lol) he comes back..LAYS DOWN ON HIS STOMACH WITH THAT PRETTY ASS GRIN..SLOWLY TAKES OFF MY BOTTOMS AND DIVES IN!! SO SERIOUS YALL!!! as im squirming in pleasure..i distinctly remember hyperfixating on how his tattoed arms secured my thighs and his hands did too....I AM A CAT IN HEAT GUYS. I CANT. I CAAAAANNTTTTTT. (im literally ovulating rn i need him now so mf bad)

we take a tiny break bc ..overwhelmed and flustered again (this isnt very nonchalant man eater raven of me guys ik) i say something about continuing..and he's like "you want me to fuck you?" and i was like "i want you to ask me. for permission" I HAD TO INSERT DOMINANCE I WAS LOSING SO BAD. so he asks lol. "can i fuck you?" "go on.." "...please?" and i smile and nod. he chuckles and slides between my thighs. and FIRST THRUST he grazes my cervix. im like WAIT A MIN..HOLLON..WAIT..WAIT.......BC ONLT 1 GUY COULD REACH MY CERVIX AND THAT WAS MY FIRST TIME LAST YR (yes guys i lost my v-card at 18 im still very new to this field)..so im like slightly shook. and i ask him to go slow in missionary. he does, im like a whimpering panting mess. i feel his arm shaking and i ask him if he is okay. i asked my guy friend days later and he is like "bro is in pure ecstasy and is basically doing a plank position yes he is going to tremble a little" so i was like ahhhh understandable. so anyways he says yes but then i ask "can i get on top?" and he is like sure. i get on top and ngl guys..couple strokes in he did finish PFFT I GOT THAT MEOW MEOWW AHAHAHA. i dont necessarily care if a guy finishes fast (unless its like 10secs in then we needa talk man) but the ENTIRE night was full of pleasure and tension so i was satisfied. he tapped my thigh and i asked if he was okay and he chuckles saying "im about to cum" and im like oh lemme continue then to finish you off! LOL we finish and clean up and he gives me the best hug ive had in a while omfggnfnfnjffjfjfn UGH...And then leaves the end ! lol...so i'd like to say my fling and I are well!! LOLLLL....probably goimg to see him this weekend wink wonk ;)

[maiamaiden]

lengthy dr-localization related rant teehee

there's a lot of things with the dr localization that i tolerate bc it's something that is generally done for the sake of westerners who don't have an understanding of japanese culture and that's something i'm fine with bc obviously there are things that don't translate well. i think a lot of it is stupid bc who the fuck is playing danganronpa and isn't someone who at the very least has surface level knowledge of japan in relation to anime. anyway

normally i give a pass to them changing it so everyone refers to each other by their first name + removing honorifics, even though it's a choice i don't personally like (the way characters refer to each other in japanese is woven in with their individual personalities and removing that takes a tiny bit of their character away). i hate that they gave nicknames to some of them (asahina aoi -> hina, hagakure yasuhiro -> hiro, etc) bc like. why.

anyway i was thinking about the scene in dr1 where yamada is dying and says the name of his killer. in japanese yamada refers to everyone as "last name first name-dono" (i.e. Naegi Makoto-dono) and when he dies he says "yasuhiro-" and gets cut off. the characters and player are supposed to assume at first that he's referring to hagakure yasuhiro because as far as they know that's the only character with that name, but the way he refers to people is a hint that hagakure isn't actually the one he was referring to. instead he's referring to celes, who's real name is yasuhiro taeko, and presumably he would've said "yasuhiro taeko-dono" had he not uhhh died. great. cool twist nothing wrong here

in the english version yamada refers to everyone as Mr./Ms. Last Name (i.e. Mr. Naegi) which technically works since it's still different from how everyone refers to each other by first name in the localization. but when you get to the scene above it completely falls apart. he still says "yasuhiro-" and gets cut off, no changes. same thing, everyone's supposed to assume he's referring to hagakure. except nobody in the localization refers to hagakure as "yasuhiro" because they made everyone call him "hiro". so there's problem 1. problem 2 is that he also wouldn't refer to celes like this, because to be consistant he should be saying "Ms. Yasuhiro" because that's how he refers to people in the localization. but obviously they couldn't have him do that because then it would be obvious that he's referring to a woman and not hagakure. i honestly never even gave this scene much thought before (partially bc my first experience with dr was the oren lp which kept the way names are said, so i already knew what was happening with the scene), but under any scrutiny it's like. yeah wow they certainly tried i guess

[empressawesomecoolness]

Doctor Who: The Ultimate Speedrun Marathon - Series 2 (2006)

Woah. I mean, what a Series! I didn’t know how Tennant and Piper would follow up Series 1, but they did a great job, not just in carrying over aspects from Series 1, but doing new things and carving out a new niche for the 10th Doctor. A lot of fun from all angles.

General Thoughts

I’ve always really loved David Tennant as an actor. Even before I properly started watching Doctor Who, he was my personal favorite Doctor (that might change over the course of this marathon, but that’ll come much later). Now having actually fully seen him in action as the 10th Doctor, I’m really happy that he met my expectations and more. He’s fun and snarky, same as McGann and Eccleston, but he brings this new sorta wide-eyed manic energy that one would probably expect from a 900+ year old time/space traveler. His look is also really fun and iconic, with pinstripe suits, long trench coats, and spiked-up hair. It compliments Tennant’s already tall and slim figure, giving 10 a lanky look reminiscent to a sort of alien Sherlock Holmes. The converse are a fun touch, too.

He’s definitely different from his immediate predecessor, but in a good way that makes sense given his new found attachment to Rose after Series 1 (or at least that’s my reading of it). He’s got a bit less angst, although it does peer through in good dramatic moments. Overall, Tennant’s able to juggle what made the recent previous Doctor’s special and memorable with his own acting sensibilities and personality. He really lends himself well to a character like the Doctor.

In companion news, Rose is just as strong and likable a character as ever. I knew new companions would show up eventually, so this whole Series I was just dreading the moment when it became clear that she’d be gone for good. Although I didn’t expect her departure to be THAT devastating! I mean holy fuck. Despite that ending though, Rose never stopped being an intensely compelling character, despite my assumption that her time as a companion was coming to an end.

As for the other campions, we only see Mickey return in this Series. When the Cybermen return to the show in a parallel universe, Mickey decides to stay behind there and help fight their invasion. It was another welcome surprise moment of character development from Mickey, especially when he finally realizes that he has a life and agency outside of Rose. However, when he’s able to return and help Rose and the Doctor fight the invading Cybermen and Daleks, it feels really truly earned on his end.

Also, how cool was it to see Sarah Jane Smith (played by Elisabeth Sladen) and K-9 (played by K-9) again?! That was a really cool and welcome surprise for me. It also avoids being a plot line of mere fan-service, since we get really cool insight into the life and mind of companions left behind by the Doctor decades before. However, they do eventually reconcile with the Doctor in their own bittersweet moments towards the episode’s end. Although, that reconciliation is a little bittersweet, given Rose’s fate at this Series’ end. I hope she gets something similar later in the show.

Favorite Episodes

Tooth and Claw

New Earth

School Reunion

The Girl in the Fireplace

Love and Monsters

Favorite Moments

Queen Victoria’s hemophilia being explained as a strain of alien lycanthropy was very funny and very Doctor Who. The running gag about Rose trying to get her to say the supposed “We are not amused” line was funny as hell too.

The 10th Doctor meets alien Satan.

Cassandra returning was a shock. I know she got a bit of a redemption arc in this Series’ premiere but I don’t really care. fuck her

I felt so clever picking up on the little references to Torchwood before they were properly revealed towards the end teehee. Making up for not noticing most of the Bad Wolf hints in Series 1 ig.

Madame de Pompadour getting a whole episode to herself in order to fight against evil French masquerade nightmare robots from the future was a welcome surprise.

Alright, that about wraps up everything I wanted to say about Series 2. A great Series itself and an amazingly solid start to Tennant’s iconic tenure as the 10th Doctor. Now, onto Series 3.

[ohimsummer]

🍬 and 🍾 !!!

🍬 if you were in canon, what would the fanbase for your ship be like?

sumoru - depressed (#1) our confessions happen at the end of an episode that is right before a hiatus for the show, just to leave everyone on their toes, and then after satoru dies 99% of the fandom is making sad edits and writing angst and drawing the saddest shit known to man

sugumer - also depressed (#2) only it's more bittersweet like after suguru dies there would be a fanart of us happy together with the caption 'in another life' or something like that. stsg coded except slightly less horrible i suppose

sumrei - the fanbase is half very chill and half very mean to + insulting towards us (/affectionate) and it's full of animations/animatics of us with audios from sitcoms

kirssum - hopeful for us for 90% of the show because in aot canon it's still love at first sight but us actually getting together is a slow burn that lasts until the end of the show vdmvkd and i almost die at some point (it's a fakeout so it seems like i actually did die and then i reappear episodes later) and then the fanbase is happy because me n jean kiss at the end of the show and have our happy ending the end <<333

saisum - thinks we are cute and fluffy and domestic, the gag is every character was trying to get us together before anyway so the fanbase also thinks we're stupid but when me n sai are finally official it is a giant relief VKFJVLD

sumhan - fanbase loves us so bad because we are mostly the comedic relief couple <<33 up to our silly shenanigans and being a breath of fresh air amongst all the death (except the occasions where we get serious and look super cool teehee)

susasu - depressed (#3) angst angst angst out the ASS. fanbase mad asf from getting punched in the gut all the time. also they have to watch me suffer exponentially from losing both suguru and satoru in less than two years and then live with those losses afterwards </3

🍾who confessed first, and how did it happen?

sumoru - satoru (technically because he kissed me first but that's in my first kiss post) but to sum it up we had our first smooch at a party and then the next day we talk about it and he confesses :3

sugumer - suguru...i was a little intimidated by his completely ethereal and godlike beauty and his playful/flirty personality </3 so i was second-guessing if he was serious or not and therefore nervous to confess, and he ends up teasing a confession out of me (something like this):

sug: what, do you like me or something ? haha (with his arm around my shoulders and leaning into me🫣) sum: no... sug: aw, really? because i really like you.

sumrei - me. tried throwing out hints because we were already fucking, got into an argument at his place once before we were supposed to sleep together, i called him an asshole and reigen asked "well why do you keep coming around me then?" and i went "because i like you. asshole."

kirssum - jean, i fear i am not good with confessions in most universes and he liked me for a long time (years) so at our at the end of hs, he confessed to me when we were alone and our dates had either ditched us or just weren't around

saisum - mee :33 it was short n sweet and totally spontaneous. okay imagine at the end of a manga chapter after whatever action/drama happened and we're just chilling on the floor reading manga or playing video games in sai's apartment and we start talking about how everyone (king, bang, genos, f*buki) keep trying to matchmake us. and then in the last panel it's just:

sum: wanna get together, then? sai: sure :D end

sumhan - hangeeee :333 we hang out a lot, often alone, and over time tension has built between us until one day after me n hange have been out all day, we're outside looking at the sunset and it's quiet and serene and they just drop the confession out of the blue. and i have the most "😀???" look on my face because it caught me totally off guard and hange starts panicking and then i start panicking and trying to tell them it's alright because i feel the same way and we start laughing (levi is staring at us from nearby but he can't hear the conversation, just thinks we're bein goofballs again)

susasu - me <3 because they display the worst homoerotic tendencies ever so i'm like "oh they're together" and our rs changes in a subtle but noticeable way which leads to a conversation (confrontation?) initiated by satoru which kind of forces the confession out and they confess right after

selfship ask game!

[forgottencormac]

dude i alwaaaaaays love hearing your thoughts, plus im already obsessed w these two so you know i am innnnnn!!!!!! honestly so exciting to see this teehee (also i loooove walks like that!!!! that sounds lovely <3333)

ok so like...first off, cormac thinks cassimir is a GOD and also his best best best friend and he thinks they're bloodbrothers and like???? the idea that cassimir might not feel the exact same way about ~cormac (in terms of friendship...he agrees that cassimir is sm better than everyone else sdakfjlsldkjf) like even at the start i feel like cormac saw cassimir come riding into town and said to himself 'someday that kid is gonna be my best friend' and some dreams, ig, ~do come true ;DDD and anyway he's been stick to him like glue since that time!! honestly i feel like cormac was fueled by pure delusion when they first met he was like 'nothing will ever disturb this beautiful future i see before us' bc cassimir was just tooooo cool like duDE that hair, that black uniform, that irritable glare???? cormac was like 'i wanna travel the world with you' so yeah i think he either ignored or misinterpreted the sarcasm bc he was like IF I ATTACH MYSELF TO YOU LIKE A BARNACLE SOMEDAY WELL BE BFFS basically lajksdkfljsdjf and that's probs the biggest display of sheer determination he's ever made tbqh alksdjfljkdf

i feel like cormac just has this image in his head of cassimir as like the THE coolest, toughest, smartest, most badass etc etc etc man to ever walk the earth and so he's half like 'damn i get to hang out w THIS guy???? and half TEACH ME YOUR WAYS' at all times and anytime anything isn't quite working out for him he just consults his WWCD (what would cassimir do) bracelet (which lbr may or may ~not actually be what cassimir would do but here we are) oR -- his preference -- rides over to malconaire and is like TELL ME WHAT TO DO FRIEND

alksjdfjkdsf by the time cassimir started being nicer cormac had 100% brainwashed himself into thinking they were besties!!! things were going sooo well!!!! and i feel like...[ this ] whole interaction w cassimir as gina and cormac as boyle (ig pimento is cassimir's ~former self in this scenario?? or maybe one of his own siblings or smth, i have no clue but anyway the general point stands hahaha) is sort of how he viewed this situation, i feel like sdlkajfksldf noT papa malconaire getting through to cassimir to be nicer to ppl or ~anything like that heehee

omg yeah he is 100000% cassimir's personal hype man!!!! and he's here to convert nonbelievers too!! which no doubt makes him v popular amongst the og malconaire sisters alksjdfakljdsf speaking of whom!!!! in cormac's perfect world, cormac and cassimir will marry e/o's sisters and that way no one can deny that they're brothers 100%%%%% alsjdflkjdsf but i feel like valentina has def given him a lil hint (a la mrs bennet to mr collins re: jane's upcoming engagement ;D) that sonya's off the table, so he's probs sizing up the og malconaire ladies!!!!

honestly, i think his ideal pairing in his own mind would be eithne bc she's the best blend of every type of loveliness, both personality-wise and physically and, at the risk of quoting gaston, that makes her the best! i think the brigit thing is doomed to fail (well, for many reasons!) bc im pr sure he's lowkey terrified of her/doesn't see her behavior as that of a 'proper' lady (since he's been verrrrry quick to adapt to roderick's way of thinking in these matters!) and, more importantly, he's hardly ever heard cassimir say a nice thing abt her and he 1) memorizes everything cassimir ever says -- only ~kinda kidding -- and 2) he agrees w all of cassimir's opinions so he thinks brigit is the worst and if she can mess w cassimir well!! cormac hasn't got a chance!!! -- and frankly he's right abt that part, at least laskdjfaklsjdf, but i think aoife -- once he realizes that eithne is cassimir's, unless cassimir's already made that clear to him? -- is probs the backup he'd move to, but i ~do think cormac thinks that he's all that, and labors under the impression that ~all of the malconaire girls (sonya and all the og girls, alike!) are in love w him and that he may choose whoever he likes! but yeah, id say his preference goes like:

sonya

eithne

aoife

roisin

brigit

but yeah, like i said, i def think there would've atp have been some occasion on which cormac would've sidled over to flirt w sonya while a varmont was there and cue valentina chasing him off hahaha and from that convo he probs knows that valentina wants cassimir to have an imperial bride and, while he's really disappointed bc he wanted to be cassimir's brother for real!!!! he's also like 'he deserves nothing less! cassimir for emperor!' and honestly the thought of cassimir ~not being his emperor someday would be smth he'd mind far more than the idea of cassimir moving in on eithne BHAHAHAHA ngl i don't think he's really interested in ~any of the malconaire sisters for their own sakes (i might be wrong tho -- i haven't discussed it w anyone yet obv) soooo asjdflkjsdf #husbandgoals

THE GASTON/LEFOU PARALLEL THOOOOO lkjdsflakjsdf its honestly soooo on point!!!!!! i do think cormac is probs less of a good person than lefou frankly alkjdsfkjldsjfk or at least in a v different way bc he's def a drama queen hahahaha but anyway!!!! the point is that dynamic is on pointtttt (esp the 'esp me' part no lie lakjsdfkjsdjfk cormac is PROUD to be cassimir's sidekick!) and he's happy to be taken advantage of by him too ngl!! he feels he's getting sm benefit out of all of this and like idk if 1) he even registers that he's being taken advantage of and thinks its an honor to be so trusted as to be asked to do whatever!!! but 2) even if he does cassimir is so royal and soon to be imperial and like!!!! they're besties and he's sure that cassimir would do the same for him [footage not found] but honestly itd never occur to him to ask cassimir bc you don't ask zeus to order you pizza or whatever lakjsdfkjlsadfj

sdlkfjaksdjkff cormac is frankly DELIGHTED to be considered useful to and trusted by cassimir!!! what an honor to snitch on rian for him honestly lakjsdfkljdsf tbh idk how ~effective he really would be in that position tho bc rian is also terrifying to him, im sure, and honestly there being caverns around lorcan and like lakes like??? things might drip??? on his *king richard voice* tummy flowers!!! or smth!!! and cormac don't do nature lakjdsfkjsdf pluS what ~he considers relevant info probs isn't super helpful but!! he will try as long as it doesn't interfere too much w any of that!!! bc, and this is a mark of true friendship, his love for cassimir outweighs even his love of fine things!!!!!!! at least, that one particular tunic bc he'll just get a new one made!!!!! and there's only one cassimir <3 (i do think deciding between his loyalty to cassimir and life's comforts/his beloved lifestyle would be theeee most trying test he's ever undergone!!!! kljskflsjdaflkj) honestly tho he's not ~wrong abt cormac's future estate!!!! it's malconaire 2.0 if there's anything cassimir wants done there lkajsdfkldjf cormac has no idea what the peasants are doing or why!!!1 he doesn't care!! if cassimir says evict them, they're ouT and eabha can just shut up abt it already! etc!! lajsdklfjsd CASSIMIR FOR EMPEROR 2K24!!!!!!! (cue valentina cheerleading in the bg!!!! lajsdklfjsdkf)

ooc | Cassimir & Cormac

I'm sorry I know you haven't even made his site yet, so this is premature, but I went on a walk today and I just thought about this relationship????

So, first, I feel like Cassimir did NOT like Cormac at all when he first met him! I imagine they met pretty soon after Cassimir came to Malconaire and he was like "who is this loser??? and why won't he leave me alone????" Honestly, he probably was kinda mean to him atp but I can also see where the sarcasm might have just gone over Cormac's head #facepalm

I do think he treated him better as they got older and Cassimir started being a tad bit more empathetic and while he might have been friendly at times, I don't think you could have considered them friends (even if Cormac did lmao) -- that being said, I feel like Cassimir was still frequently pretty annoyed with Cormac, but even then he did like the attention/compliments that Cormac would pay him!!

I think they've become more of a duo though, since the war?? Both because I think Cassimir feels a little isolated and lonely since the events of the battle and part of him wonders if that is justified, but keeping people like Cormac around makes him not think about any of that!!!!! I feel like Cormac is just Cassimir's personal hype man and between him and Valentina, Cassimir is really out here thinking he can do no wrong sometimes ;D

I'm crying because Cassimir does NOT consider him and Cormac to be friends, but in reality Cormac probably ~is his best friend. #facepalm [ Honestly, I imagine that there are some Gaston/Lefou parallels here lmao ]

But Cassimir definitely takes advantage of Cormac!!! He's come to realize that Cormac will do pretty much anything he says and he knows it?? And I feel like Cormac is half his friend/half his servant (even though he's a legit lord in his own right alsjflasjfldsfj -- although that being said, I'm sure he knows that Cassimir has ~royal~ blood)

I think Cassimir is also pleased that a) Cormac is currently residing at Lorcan b/c Cassimir thinks that that should pass to him and not Rian since he is a step-cousin to Padraig Lorcan and he definitely wants any and all dirt he can get on Rian and b) that Cormac is now going to have an estate of his own to manage, which I feel like Cassimir pretty much feels will be his own to control?!??! Like, he can tell Cormac to do whatever he wants him to do and he will do it!

I also think he sees Cormac as a potential husband for either Rosie or Brigit tbh??? I imagine that the northern estate he has been gifted is further away than Lorcan/Hanthom/Malconaire/the capital all are in relation to each other (which reminds me that I should construct a map soon!!) and that it is farther away that they wouldn't be a ~constant problem to him. I think he'd prefer Brigit, because he imagines that she would run away as soon as they are married, but that the harsh winters up there would (~conveniently) kill her but he knows he has talked a lot of shit about Brigit over the years and its a hard one to try to turn that around and start saying good things about her to get Cormac on board??? So he does think that Rosie will be the easier sell

[rinneverse]

꒰⚘݄꒱₊ 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐱. · · · ♡

— pairing: thoma x f!reader

— warnings: service dom thoma, sub reader, afab reader, praise, oral (f. receiving), v. fingering, overstim, facesitting, i am so in love w thoma it hurts. this was written with a chubby reader (me) in mind so be wary of that. (there’s only like 1-2 mentions of it i promise)

— wc: 1.1k of pure indulgent smut LMFAO

— synopsis: thoma takes care of you after a long day.

— notes: old post from my old blog!! i love thoma a lot tho so i’m reposting it here teehee. i also revamped it a bit to post on my ao3 LOLOL . DNI IF U DO NOT HAVE AN AGE VISIBLE ON UR BLOG.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ♡ NSFW UNDER THE CUT! MINORS DNI. ♡

when thoma knows you’ve had a long and grueling day, prepare to be coddled to the max. as soon as you’re through the door he’s already taking your coat, pressing gentle kisses to your forehead as he murmurs, “welcome home, love.”

you let him whisk you away to your shared bedroom, his lithe fingers massaging circles into your aching shoulders. “thoma, dear, what are you up to?” you ask him, a curious look on your face as he nudges you towards the bed. he smiles prettily down at you as you sit on the mattress.

and then he kneels in front of you, large hands grasping your plush thighs as he settles between your legs. you knowingly smile at him.

“just want to make my sweet flower feel better, s’all,” he hums, massaging your legs. you let out a soft sigh as he presses kisses up your inner thighs, nimble fingers sliding under your skirt and hooking under the waistband of your panties as he tugs them down. the cool air against your heat has you shivering and he chuckles.

“thoma... c’mere.” you open your arms for him, hearts in your eyes as you stare at the blond kneeling before you. the love you felt for him was overwhelming and you thought you might go insane if you didn’t get his lips on yours right now.

he rises without hesitation, long arms encasing you in a warm embrace as he leans his head down to slot his lips against yours. the kiss you share is passionate and full of love for one another. you can’t help but smile as the two of you separate, breathing one another in, foreheads pressing together.

“i missed you.” you speak softly, not wanting to shatter the close atmosphere the two of you shared.

“we saw eachother this morning,” thoma replies with an amused chuckle. you shake your head mirthfully.

“still, i hate being away from you. today was too long.”

thoma nuzzles his face into the crook of your neck and your hands move to run up and down his back. your fingers run over every groove and dip, appreciating the muscles of your boyfriend’s back. he lets out an appreciative sigh as your nails gently scratch him through the thin fabric of his t-shirt.

he kisses you once more, this time more desperately, before he’s pulling you in his arms and adjusting the two of you so that he’s sitting and you’re straddling his lap. you can feel the growing bulge in his pants nudge up against you.

“let me make you feel good, flower.” thoma’s voice is breathless, shaking, and you know it’s taking everything in him to hold himself back from shamelessly rutting against you. the thought makes you giddy. “sit on my face?”

your breath stops. the question has your mind reeling, and your mouth gapes at him and he has the audacity to smile as if he were just asking an innocent little question when it really was everything but.

“okay.”

thoma’s smile widens, a hint of smugness in it as you hurry to shimmy your skirt off. he helps you diligently, expert fingers hooking under the fabric of your clothes until you’re sitting there, completely nude, his own shirt discarded somewhere else in the room. he lays back and grasps at your hips, pulling you forward so that you’re straddling his face. you have a white-knuckled grip on the headboard as you stare down at him.

“don’t be so tense, baby. i’ll make you feel great.” thoma reassures you, calloused hands running down the small of your back, continuing even lower to cup the globes of your ass. he squeezes them playfully and you pout down at him.

“thank you for the meal,” he hums before he grabs a hold of your hips, pulling you down so that your cunt meets his waiting tongue. the sensation sends you reeling, and thoma fucking groans as he licks a line up your slit, stopping to swirl his tongue around your clit. he can feel his cock throb at the sounds you let out, and he inhales sharply before saying, “keep making those noises for me, pretty. you’re so hot, baby, let me make you feel good.”

your back arches as he circles a finger around your weeping hole before slowly pushing two in. he curls them in the way he knows you love and it has you seeing stars, tears gathering in the corners of your eyes. thoma kisses your aching clit before taking it in his mouth, sucking, and you’re sobbing his name, little curses and praises falling from your lips.

your taste alone has his eyes rolling up in the back of his head. he swears he could cum from getting you off alone. and when you rock your hips against his face, he prays to the archons that he doesn’t actually cum in his pants.

“thoma, thoma, thoma,” you chant his name, reaching a trembling hand down to thread it through his soft locks. he groans in your pussy when you tug, and the vibrations make your thighs clench. “m’close, so close, don’t stop!”

he doesn’t stop. he pumps his fingers faster, and when he prods that spongy little spot in you, you let out a sob as your walls spasm around him. he fucks you through your high, leaving little kitten licks on your clit, his fingers slowly thrusting in and out. you’re panting harshly when you come down, twitching from the stimulation. “s’too much, baby, hold on,” you whimper, but he doesn’t listen.

“thought you didn’t want me to stop. c’mon, one more for me, pretty?”

you don’t think you have it in you, but when he attaches his mouth to your sensitive clit you can feel the coil in your tummy tightening, and soon he’s making you see stars again. he pops his mouth off your clit with a wet pop, and you can see that his lower face is drenched in your juices. your face warms at the sight.

“you taste so sweet,” thoma hums as he licks his fingers clean. you tug at his hair with a pout and he laughs.

you shuffle back, giving him room to sit up, smiling as his arms immediately wrap around your waist. he brings a hand up to grasp your chin gently and he presses a kiss to your lips — the fact that you can taste your arousal on him has you weak in the knees.

“told you i’d take good care of you,” thoma chuckles and you roll your eyes playfully.

“i never doubted you. now... let me return the favor?”

thoma grins.

“i’d never say no to what my little flower wants.”

© rinneverse (2022). rbs and interactions are super appreciated !!

[user-needs-new-hyperfixation]

Read the manga, I beg of you

A long but incomplete list of things left out of/changed in the Moriarty the Patriot anime that Should Not Have Been. Spoilers but in a fairly general kind of way, tried to avoid being too specific for the most part.

1. I heard that there’s apparently some copyright issues with the James Bond storyline? So I suppose that’s a fair reason for it being trimmed way down. But still - Albert was M, running MI6, from Chapter 4. Mycroft and the MI6 plotline were introduced before Sherlock. It made the James Bond reveal have way more punch; Moran had already been established as 006, so you know to be like, “ooooh, who is 007?” 

It also explains a lot of how the Moriarty gang is able to pull off large-scale schemes: they have an entire frickin’ intelligence unit who just do what Albert says without asking questions. And Moneypenny! This series doesn’t have enough ladies (literally only Ms. Hudson, Mary, and Moneypenny off the top of my head after Irene dies?!) and then they dropped a whole woman from the anime?! Rude. 

2. The Baskerville arc is...extremely messed up. Definitely could see how people might want to skip it. But it does contain some serious character development, most notably:

         - Fred development (a precious smol bean)

         - William will go do vigilante murder sprees to defend the innocent even if it’s just tying up loose ends of a scandal they’ve already revealed, and will not actively drive The Plan forward

          - William has been deliberately keeping Louis out of actively participating in his schemes, hoping to keep him somehow unblemished, the only one of them worthy of entering the new world. Louis objects. Louis is also scary AF (ya love to see it). 

          - First hints of Moran backstory

3. William was not on the deck being smirky when Enders died; he was still in the theatre box, staring at Sherlock. 

4. Moneypenny and Moran stop a war and assasinate the queen’s cousin or uncle or something. It’s cool. Moran gets a fleshed out backstory. Also I think it’s interesting how there seems to be an understanding amongst the Moriarty gang that their secrets belong to William and he can do with them as he pleases; William tells Moneypenny Moran’s whole story and Moran just goes, “That jerk” and moves on with no drama about it. There's some good introspection from the gang on whether they’re any different than other groups that use the lives and deaths of others as tools.

Side note: Albert has such vibes of being Mycroft’s sugar baby in this arc 😂 He’s just sitting pretty in fancy rooms, hands folded gayly in his lap, smirking and going, “My husband told me I can kill whoever I feel like teehee”. 

5. On the train, William compliments Lestrade on his case-solving. Lestrade blushes. Sherlock hates that.

5. An extremely important conversation between Irene and Sherlock is left out. Like, foundationally important character clarification for Sherlock, where he slips up and gets serious and admits basically his entire goal in life is to turn crime-fighting into a science, into something where status and wealth have no bearing, only fact. It highlights the ways his worldview is not opposed to William’s, and also establishes that he doesn’t do all of this just because mysteries are fun and he’s bored, but because he really does care about justice. 

6. Chapter 31. Just...chapter 31. 

7. A crapload of little things between Sherlock and Liam in chapters 53-55.

8. Bond/Moneypenny and (imo) Bond/Ms. Hudson are both valid ships.

And so on and so forth. If all you've seen is the anime then pleeeease go read the manga! And then come scream about it with me!! 😁

[artaxerxesthegreat]

It All Started With a Smile

A/N: I love the Lost Boys-- I'm a hoe for them, I'm not sorry. This is a Poly!Lost Boys x Adopted!EmersonOC, might be a series, but there will definitely be a part 2. I hope you guys like it. I also used Google to find the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, and it's up for digital download if y'all are interested. I used pages 50-51.

A/N2: This OC is a WOC, again I'm not sorry.

Warnings: MINORS DO NOT INTERACT, 18+, Cursing, second hand stealing, not beta read, hints at a boner (ya gotta squint to see it lol), OC is a bit annoying but who isn't, We really only meet Marko (teehee)

Word Count: 9787

(GIF by @jordanlahey)

MINORS DNI!!!!

Chapter 1

“Well, kiddo, how was the trip?” Glancing up from my book, I pull my headset off, giving grandpa a questioning look, “Didn’t hear me, did ya?”

“Sorry, Papa E.” I give him a sheepish smile, book marking my page, as I sit up on my bed motioning for him to sit as well, “You now have my full attention.”

“Just wondering how you liked the trip over here.” He gives me one of his rare smiles, as he takes a peak at my book, “Homeric Hymn to Demeter, eh? Getting some light reading done before the semester starts?”

I can’t stop the smile that finds its way to my face as I admire the worn book cover, “Something like that, yeah… but I already graduated, remember?”

“Oh, yeah… It’s this growing old business, I tell ya. Don’t do it!” Papa Emerson furrowed his brow staring at a spot on the floor, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the look on his face, which caused him to give me a questioning glance before he started laughing himself. After a few moments, we clam down, and he pats my knee, smiling as he does.

“That was a good laugh, but as far as growing old goes, I don’t think I have much choice.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s true. Can’t live forever.” There’s something odd about what he said, almost as if he doesn’t actually believe it. I can’t help but look at Papa’s face questioningly, as he gazes back at that spot on the floor. A beat of silence passes between us, and before I can question his words, it’s broken by Sam and Michael running down the stairs.

“Those boys are going to tear my house apart.” There’s a grumble in Papa E’s voice as he casts his eyes to my closed door, sending his own hard glare through– like he’s willing those two idiots to stop. Chuckling, I shake my head at his antics, nudging his shoulder.

“Gramps, no matter how hard you glare at the door, and try to send a telepathic command to those buffoons, they’ll never stop… Unless, you know, they break something.” I sigh as I hear Sam’s muffled yell coming from downstairs, and Michael’s panicked voice as the sound of glass reaches our ears, “See.”

“BOYS!” Mom isn’t one to yell– not to me anyway– but when she’s had enough of the bullshit, she’ll let you know, and right now, she’s done with Sam and Mikey, “If you aren’t going to help, go expel all the energy outside.”

Papa E sighs deeply, rubbing his face as he worries about what just broke. Getting up, I walk to my door, glancing out, mom’s already found the dustpan and started cleaning up the broke mug.

“It’s alright Pops, it was one of the mugs I made in ceramics a while back.” Shrugging, I sit back down, smiling at him, “I made it for dad, but I guess it wasn’t something he cared for since it's here.”

“You know, your mother is the only woman I know, that gets the worst deal out of a divorce.” Grandpa looks up at me and laughs at the deadpan look I give him.

“Well, she married a dick, whaddaya expect?... Plus, she’s just so… so…” Sneering at my hands, I try to think of the right word, thankfully grandpa pitches in. 

“Nice?”

“Yes! Like that bastard made your life miserable! Be angry, have rage! You’re entitled to it!” I don’t even try to hide my own distaste for mom’s civil approach to everything, “I don’t understand why– or how she’s so calm about all this?! He basically kicked us out of the house, because he isn’t man enough to go work and find his own place to stay.” By now, I’m pacing around my room, throwing my arms around, glaring at an invisible person as I give them a piece of my mind, “Like, dude, you kicked out your OWN KIDS! If I ever see his face again, it’ll be too soon.”

“Seems like you’re picking up the slack on that anger.” Papa E, has an awkward kind of smile, as he watches me with raised brows, “How do the boys feel about this?”

Sighing, I sit back down, picking at the threads of my ripped jeans, “Sammy is only 14 and has this thought that if it doesn’t work out here, we’ll go back to Phoenix, and dad will magically take us back… and Michael… Mike thinks he’s unbothered, cool, and in control of his very fragile 17-year-old life. I think he thinks that if he doesn’t talk about it, it's not going to bother him, but it does– it bugs the hell out of all of us. I can hide it better, but this is Mikey’s own father. How do you just roll with the thought of your own father dumping you and making you fend for yourself?... That piece of shit.”

“Hey.” Grandpa gives me face for my language, to which I apologize for, “... Well, I suppose I can’t be too hard on you… You’ve always been my favorite.”

Laughing, I lightly push his shoulder, “This wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that I helped you with your taxidermy when I was 7, would it?”

“... Maybe…?”

“Oh geez Gramps.” Sharing a chuckle, I recall when mom found the two of us in his ‘secret red room’ and totally flipped because my skin was turning red from the formaldehyde. On top of that, my throat got super irritated, and I was grounded, forbidden, and banned from Gramps’ workshop– by mom, “Remember when mom came in looking for me, and her eyes totally fell on the floor from how red I looked–”

“-- HA! Do I ever– and I said, ‘Lucy, relax, we’re in a red lit room course she’s going to look red’.”

“Oh my god, YES! And she pulled me out into the living room, then grandma came in from the kitchen, wondering what all the fuss was about.”

“... Yup… She wasn’t too happy.” He lightly chuckles at the memory of grandma walking out in a dirty apron and a wooden spoon with cookie dough on it, then the calm expression on her face morphing to extreme panic. She also ‘grounded’ Grandpa, but not before giving him an earful about responsibility and how not to let children play with dangerous chemicals. 

He was banned from his red room for the next 4 weeks; so he taught me to ride a horse instead… and that is its own can of worms. Let's just say that mom freaks whenever I’m close to a horse.

“I had so much fun, though, I was so annoyed that they weren’t listening to me.”

“Yeah, well, they were just looking out for you. You can’t blame them for doting on you, you’re the only girl, after all.” Papa E gives me a gentle smile as I all but forget my previous anger. 

“That’s true.” A comfortable silence fills the space as we sit side by side, then I hear the faint sounds of the horses neighing, “... Can I go ride a horse?”

“What?!” Grandpa snaps his head to me so quickly, I thought he gave himself whiplash for a second, I can’t stop the snort from the look on his face, “And give your mother another conniption, no, thank you. I plan to live the rest of my days as stress-free as I possibly can.”

“Ah, come on!” I smile widely at him as he gets up, disgruntled, and making his way to my door, “~It’ll be fun~.”

“No.” He points a finger at me sternly, but I still smile at him, mischief dancing in my eyes, “I mean it, Alex. Give your mother a break.”

Losing my smile, I nod my head, picking up my book, “Fine, I’ll just do some more ‘light reading’ then.”

“What about unpacking?”

“I’ll do it later.” 

Laying down, I hold up my book, feeling bored and less enthused about the move. I’m not even reading what’s on the page, just aimlessly flipping through, wondering how in the hell am I going to make living here worth it.

I could get a job to help mom out, but Mike said there wasn’t anything legal around. How does Papa E pay the bills? He’s been retired for ages, but he owns a good bit of land, he has to have some way to keep the lights on, and feed not only himself but the horses also… He does have all that weed in the back…

“Maybe there’s a kitchen hiring?... Nah, that’s not happening, I don’t even like washing my own dishes. Damn, this growing up stuff is hard.” I huff out, slamming my book down on my lap. Turning on my side, I stare at my ‘Return of the Jedi’ poster, “What would Yoda do?... Okay, well, I’m not living in the swamp, so that’s out. Can’t join the ‘Living Force’ either… I could do a Princess Leia and kill my pimp, haha! Yeah, that sounds like a great time… Nanook’s my Chewbacca.--”

“--Knock, knock.” Sitting up on my elbows, I’m greeted with my mom’s serene face, peeking in through my doorway, “Hey Pumpkin, I saw your door was open.”

“It seems that everyone forgets to close it once they leave.” I roll my eyes, but motion for her to enter. I don’t miss her ‘subtly’ looking around my room– one Return of the Jedi poster, a stack of boxes in the corner, a few clothes hanging in the closet, a suitcase open and messy, a half filled bookshelf, a pair of boots, flip-flops, and 4 pairs of sneakers thrown about the room, “At least I started… and made my bed. Did the boys even make their beds?”

Mom playfully rolls her eyes at me, sitting on my bed with a bounce, “No they didn’t, but that’s not why I’m here.”

“Then, pray tell, O’ dear mother of mine: Why hast thou entered mine sacred domain?” Mom lets out a small laugh at the way I dramatically lower my voice, answering in a high-pitched one in return.

“I have come to inquire, if thou– O’ Great One, wishes to be in attendance with thine brothers and I for a trip to the boardwalk?”

“Eh, sounds crowded.” Grinning at mom, I give her a light shrug.

“They have games.” She presses.

“Sounds loud.” I deflate slightly, losing my smile.

“Food?” She offers.

“Sounds like a stomach ache.” I grimace.

“... Boys?” She’s grasping at straws.

“Boys you say?” I’m intrigued, “Tell me more.”

“Oh you.” She hits my leg, and I laugh at her growing smile. Shaking her head, she continues, “I’m going to be looking for work, but I figured it would be a good time for you and the boys to go out and have some fun… So, would you like to come with us?”

“... Sure, someone needs to watch those two.” 

“Thank you, but I just want you all to have fun, make some friends.”

“Mom… Me? Make friends? I haven’t ‘made’ friends since I was 10 years old. Besides, friends are so overrated.” 

“Oh, pooh.” She swings the pillow at me, hitting the top of my head. Smiling, I dramatically fall back on the bed, “Come on, get ready, your majesty.”

“But I am ready.” I look down at my very wrinkled Queen t-shirt.

“Alex. You really what to wear those clothes?” She wrinkles her nose at my day-old clothes, then starts rummaging through my suitcase, “What about this? You’ll look so cute!”

“Mom, I hate pink… Plus, I think that’s yours.” We both tilt our heads to the side, looking at the blouse.

“Oh! This is mine. How’d it end up in your clothes?”

“I dunno.” Getting up, I pull out a cropped black and purple striped bowling shirt, “How ‘bout this, with the acid washed jeans, and… hmm… these paint splattered converse?”

“Very nice… Wait, isn’t that your father’s shirt?”

Chuckling, I look at the cut shirt with pride, “Yeah, but after it met my scissors in an unfortunate accident it became mine.”

“Oh, Alex!” Mom gives me a disapproving stare, before she smiles, “It looks better on you anyway.”

“Duh, everything does.” Tossing the shirt on the bed, I search for my towel, “Thought we’ve been over this before, mom?”

“Silly me, I must’ve forgotten.” Leaning against my door frame, she keeps her smile pointing at my leather jacket, “Remember to bring a jacket, it gets a little chilly here at night.”

“It’s like we never left Arizona.” Mom chortles at my joke, as I press a kiss to her cheek. Making my way to the boys' bathroom, I add, “I’ll be ready in 15.”

………

“So you think mom will be able to find a job in this hellhole?” I spare Michael a glance, waiting for his answer as we work our way through the crowd on the boardwalk. Part of me wishes I just stayed with mom while she did her job hunting, but I know she’d shoo me away to ‘go have fun’ and to ‘be young and happy’. 

God bless that woman.

“Dunno, maybe. I hope so.” He tugs his jacket tightly around himself, as we brush past people, who are trying to get a good spot on the beach. He watches our surroundings like a hawk tugging Sam out of the way every now and again as people aimlessly walk around, probably trying to pickpockets as they bump shoulders with everyone, “If not, we need to get jobs.”

“Yeah, we know how much you guys hate working.” Sammy gives us a playful sneer, and I shove him lightly ruffling his hair in the process, “Hey! Watch it, Alex!”

“You’re such a drama queen, Sammy.” I chuckle, rolling my eyes at our younger brother.

“Am not!” Sam tries to punch my arm, but I take a big step forward, making him punch Mike instead. He gives Michael a sheepish look before running ahead of us, tugging on one of my braids in the process.

“Whatever.” I glare at Sam as he sticks his tongue out at me, while I lightly hit Mike’s chest and point to the different stands on the boardwalk, “I’m gonna go check those out.”

“What about the concert?” Sam’s face is full of childlike concern, as he looks a bit disappointed that I’m “ditching” them, “I promise not to tug on your braids again.”

“Yeah, you better, but I’ll be a few minutes, alright?” I look at the growing crowd making its way to the beach, slightly grimacing, “‘Sides, you know how I feel about crowds. If anything, I’ll be up here, and I’ll be able to see you guys just fine.”

“Alright, just be careful. Come find us if anything weird happens.” I smile at Mike’s words with amusement as he looks down at me, face completely serious, “I mean it, Alex.”

“Yeah, remember, we’re living in ‘The Murder Capital of the World’ now.” Sam smirks at me with raised brows as I playfully roll my eyes at him, turning to walk away.

“Alex.” I groan at the ‘mother hen’ tone Mike gives me, making me stop to turn and look at him, unamused.

“Okay mom.” I sass turning on my heel making my way to the stalls.

I take my time perusing the jewelry, clothes racks, and knickknacks spread across the different tables and stalls. One piece of jewelry catches my eye, when I hear someone let out a whimper, looking to my right I see a boy just got his septum pierced and tears threaten to spill from his eyes. Smirking, I walk over to the very open and not up to code piercing stall and watch as the boy admires his new bling. 

“That’s a rip-off, you know.” A voice says in my ear, making me move away from the sudden voice with annoyance heavy in my features. I’m met with a grinning boy with hazel eyes, with blonde curly hair, in the most… interesting jacket I’ve ever seen— in fact his whole choice of wardrobe is interesting, definitely bold, that’s for sure.

His grin never leaves, but he ends up putting his gloved thumb in his mouth as he waits for me to say something, giving him another once over I tone down my attitude giving him a nod.

“No, duh. If I wanted an infection, I wouldn’t pay $30 to some guy on the boardwalk; not when I can do that at home for free.” Looking back at the piercing stand, I shake my head in disappointment as three girls get ready to get holes placed in their lobes, “Nah, if I want to get more piercings Imma just go to a tattoo shop.” I let out a light huff, flicking my braids over my shoulder, flashing my various piercings. The boy's eyebrows shoot up to his hairline as I send him a smirk. Turning on my heel, I continue to walk around the stalls, smiling at the sound of heavy footfalls chasing after me. Raising a brow, I send a quick glance over my shoulder as the boy crowds into my space once he catches up with me, “Personal space is a new concept for you, isn’t it?”

He doesn’t answer, just smiles widely, moving closer into my space before backing off. His eyes never leave mine during that entire interaction and under normal circumstances I would’ve freaked out, but something about this seems… far from normal, that and I was feeling adventurous. Not really the best feeling to have in the ‘Murder Capital of the World’, but I’m sure it’s fine.

“You’re new here.” It wasn't a question.

“Uh, yeah. How’d you know?” I squint at him, leaning away from him, making him chuckle at the look on my face. By now, the concert is in full swing and the fourth song plays over the speakers, making it more difficult to even hear yourself think, let alone someone else talking.

“Haven’t seen you before.” He shrugs his shoulders, moving closer to me again, causing me to continue to try to have some kind of distance between us. Just because I can’t hear him, doesn’t mean he needs to walk closer, he could just raise his voice.

“And you’ve seen everyone in Santa Carla?” I raise a brow at him as he slowly pushes us to the darker and more secluded parts of the boardwalk. Spinning on my heel, I turn back around, walking to where we just came from.

“Where ya goin’?” He catches up to me quickly, walking behind me. I stop abruptly, making him collide into my back; I have no idea how fast he was walking to catch up to me, but I wasn’t expecting to lose my balance and fall forward from it. Thankfully, he has quick reflexes and grabs my waist, halting my fall, “You alright, girl?”

“Peachy, boy.” My face is stern as I glare up at him, but that damn grin is still on his face– like he just hit the jackpot. Like this I can appreciate his features more; his smooth skin, the chisel of his jaw, the hook of his Romanesque nose, his big doe eyes— that at first glance seem innocent, but upon further inspection show mischief and danger. As the music continues to blast over the speaker, he begins swaying us to the music. He may not be the tallest or strongest looking guy ever, but that doesn’t mean anything; I can feel the strength behind his hands that seem to hold me closer to him, making me feel… the rest of him. 

“Maybe I’m imagining that.” Turning to look up at him, my eyes jump from his lips to his eyes; before I look up at him through my dark lashes, “Or maybe not…” 

Placing my hands over his gloved ones, I intertwine them, pulling them off of me and walk out of his grasp. He rolls his eyes at me as I flash him a wide smile, walking back to the stalls.

“I need to buy something.” I jog over to the table searching for the piece I saw earlier and let out a triumphant laugh as I pick up a small gold skull charm, “Sweet.”

The boy comes behind me, resting his chin on my shoulder, blinking at the charm with a furrowed brow. I hate to admit it, but he’s getting cuter by the minute, and it’s getting hard to think clearly with all this touchy-feely couple shit.

“You like skulls?” He takes the charm out of my hands, looking at it closely before looking back at me.

“Yeah, I like a lot of things, skulls is just one of them. You don’t know me, so I don’t know why you’re surprised.” Chuckling, I take the charm back, giving it to the vendor who bags it, but not before she shifts her gaze between the boy and me. I give her a questioning glance, but she busies herself with the other things on her table, ignoring us completely, “Weird.”

“So, what’s something a girl like you likes?” His voice pulls back my attention as he reaches a hand out to play with one of my braids. Quickly, I pull my head back and holding his wrist in a tight grip.

“A girl like me?” All friendliness is gone from my demeanor as I give him a warning glare, “Don’t touch my hair… unless you want me touching yours.”

All he does is smirk, and hold his hands up in mock surrender, but something in his eyes tells me he understands not wanting to have a random person touch your hair. 

Continuing my perusing, I’m accompanied by my ‘golden noodle haired shadow’ who seems to have a reputation of sorts here, as people move out of our way, with the most apprehensive faces I’ve ever seen.

“So are you gonna keep following me or don’t have someone else you can bother?” I muse, sending the boy a glance over my shoulder. He keeps his eyes on me like a man on a mission, grinning as he does.

“Why? You tryin’ to get rid of me?” His smile grows at the playful eye roll I give him. Shrugging my shoulders, and slowing down my pace, so we walk next to each other, I link my arm with his. I don’t know why I did it, I just did, and he seemed to tense for a moment before relaxing as we walked at a leisurely pace.

“You know, I could get rid of you, but I figure why not get a tour from someone who seems to know this place like the back of their hand? Plus, I get the feeling you know where all the cool jewelry is.” Giving him a grin of my own, he nods his head in excitement, tugging me to all the small shops lining the boardwalk. 

By the time we reach the last shop, I have four bags holding my precious treasures; the great majority of the pieces I bought are going to be made into necklaces, bracelets, and/or earrings– it’s a bonding activity my mom started with me when I was 8. It helps relax us and take our minds off of the stress in our lives, unfortunately during my parent's divorce, we haven’t been able to make or mend any pieces for the past 2 years. 

My smile is bright and cheery as we make our way to the railing on the boardwalk, overlooking the sea of people headbanging and dancing to a very oiled up man playing a saxophone. I can’t stop the face that I make, taking in the man’s appearance, with wide eyes I glance at the boy who just laughs leaning against the railing.

“I mean, whatever floats his boat, I guess… He’s got the body for it.” Tilting my head, I trail my eyes over the performer's body, admiring the chains adorning his neck and waist, “Just wasn’t expecting the hip thrusts though.”

We share a laugh as I look over the sea of people, to find my brothers. Sucking my teeth, I turn around, scanning the ever-growing crowd. Furrowing my brows, I take a few steps forward until I’m stopped by a hand on my wrist, looking behind me, I raise my brow at the boy.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were tryin’ to ditch me.” 

“Who me?” I feign ignorance as the boy squints his eyes at me, chuckling I shake my head at him, “Dude, I can’t ‘ditch’ you when I don’t even know you.”

“Marko.” Not breaking eye contact, he gently tugs me back to him.

“Really?” I scrunch my face, looking him up and down, “You don’t strike me as a ‘Marko’.”

“What do I strike you as?” There are goosebumps on my arms, as he rubs the top of my knuckles with his thumb. He begins leaning his head down towards me, but I pull back, looking up at him with a coy smile.

“I don’t know, but it sure wasn’t Marko.” The sounds of the boardwalk seem to melt into white noise as we simply stare at each other for what feels like an eternity. My eyes track his, and almost like magic I’m being pulled into those hazel pools– Oh man, if my brothers could see me now.

“Oh shit, I need to find them!” Blinking quickly, I take my hand back shaking off the haze I was in, “Well that was weird…” 

Marko pouts slightly, but doesn’t make any more moves, much to my disappointment. Sighing, I rock on my heels awkwardly looking around, “Alright, well it’s been real, and it’s been fun, but I gotta go. So… bye…?”

Marko gives me a smirk as he watches me shift around, “So you are tryin’ to ditch me.”

“Well, I’m not, not trying to ditch you.” Scratching the back of my neck, “But I need to find my brothers, which means we then need to find our mom, so unless you want to meet her this is where we part ways, I’m afraid.” My tone is light and teasing as we start walking through the crowd aimlessly.

“If I meet yours, you met mine.” Marko lightly bumps his shoulder with mine, causing me to laugh at the action, “You’ll have more fun too.”

“Oh?” My questioning glance is meet with a proud smile.

“Mhmm, guaranteed F-U-N.” He drapes his arm over my shoulders, laying his chin on top of my head.

“Oooo he can spell!” Placing my hand on my chest in faux shock, I’m given a scoff and light shove.

“Shut up.” Marko rolls his eyes, but is smiling as he looks at everyone but me; it’s like he’s shy, but he doesn’t seem like the type.

“Well, maybe I can meet them next time.” Shrugging my shoulders, I stop walking, looking around the crowd for my brothers; then I spot Sam’s weird coat thing, “He wears the weirdest shit.”

My eyes shift to Marko, as I pause for a moment, “And Sammy isn’t the only one.”

“What’s so funny?” He squints his eyes at me, making me shrug and look away from him. He didn’t seem to like that, and grasps my shoulder, turning me to face him. Putting my hands up, I give him my best poker face.

“Nothin’.” I try to hide my growing smile from Marko by looking back into the crowd again. Sam looks so lost as he spins in circles, possibly looking for Mike. “Look, I gotta go, but maybe I’ll see you around?”

“I’m here every night.” He’s thrown out his line.

“That so?” And I’m the dumb fish swimming to the bait.

“It is. Maybe next time I can show you the sights.” Oh yeah, I’m a dumb fish.

“I thought I already saw the sights?” I trail my eyes over his form slowly and deliberately, when I lock eyes with him, his expression lets me know that he understood my hidden meaning.

I may have taken the bait, but he wasn’t expecting a catch this weighty.

Taking a few choice steps towards me, he stops when his chest touches mine. Tilting his head, he looks down at me with hooded eyes, “You liked ‘the sights’?”

“Oh sure! Why do you think I’ll be back tomorrow night?” I raise my chin up to him, giving him a sly smile, “How many brothers did you say you have?”

“Three.”

“Awesome, hopefully I can see three more sights.” I pause for a moment looking over Marko’s face with concern, “Just out of curiosity, how old are you– like, you are over 18… right?”

“You have no idea.” His words were mumbled, but I heard them clearly as I give him an unsure smile.

“What was that?” 

He smirks at my questioning gaze, “I’m 19.”

“Oh sweet!... And your brother’s…?” 

He sighs, raising his eyes to glance at the sky, like this was the dumbest line of questioning he’s ever been through, “I’m the youngest, so everyone else is as old as shit.”

“HA! My brothers feel the same about me. Speaking of my brothers, I really need to go find them. Til we meet again, Young Marko.” Grabbing his hand, I kiss the top of his gloved knuckles, giggling at his wide-eyed face, “See ya on the flip side, dude.”

With a skip in my step, I creep up behind Sammy, slamming my hands on his shoulders– scaring the poor kid– smiling gleefully at him.

“Alex!” He places his hand on his chest as he takes a deep breath, “Oh geez, you scared me. I thought you were someone else.”

“My bad, bro. You headed somewhere?” I give him some space before we walk side by side.

“Yeah, I found a comic shop! I figured you’d want to come.”

“Hell yeah, dude. Let’s go– wait, where’s Mikey?” I look around the crowd, trying to find Michael’s jacket.

“He’s following some girl.” Sam rolls his eyes, making his way through the crowd, while I’m stuck in place gapping like a fish. Once his words sink in completely, I run after him.

“What do you mean, ‘he’s following some girl’? Why is he doing that? Did he forget where we moved to?! Why am I related to an idiot?” Sam laughs at my words, giving me a look I’ve seen too many times to count, “I know I’m adopted, damn, you don’t have to keep reminding me.”

Wrapping his arms around, Sam rests his chin on my shoulder, “Adopted or not, you’re still my older, sassy, cool, and annoying sister, and I love you no matter what.”

“Alright, alright, let me go. People are starting to stare.” I glance around the crowd, feeling out of place and self-conscious about Sammy’s display of affection. Just because we were raised together, doesn’t mean everyone else knows that– it wouldn’t be much of a problem if we were the same race, but one look at us, and you know we aren’t ‘brother and sister’. Sure, Sammy and Mike don’t look alike, but both take after their parents… and I take after mine. Growing up was very interesting, but I wouldn’t trade my doofus brothers for the world. 

Let’s just say, I add more… color to their lives.

“Let them. I’m hugging my sister, a few stares from random assholes isn’t going to change that.”

And they add color to mine.

I snap my head, staring at him with wide eyes, “Ooooo you cursed. I’m telling mom.”

“What?! You curse all the time!” He lets me go, glowering at me.

“Yeah, but I’m an adult, I can.” Flicking his forehead, I hand him two of my bags, “I won’t tell mom if you carry these two bags.”

“... You’re a slave driver, you know that, Alex?” He grumbles, but takes the bags.

“Consider it penance for my people.” I lightly shove him forward, as he stares at me with his mouth hanging open, “Close your mouth, you’ll catch flies.”

“What’re in these bags, bricks?” Sam opens one of the bags, peering inside with furrowed brows, “Why is it so heavy? It’s just jewelry?”

“It’s not that heavy, Sam. I only got a few pieces.” Rolling my eyes at his whining, I start feeling the weight of my own two bags… and they are kinda weighty. Stopping at a picnic table, we place the bags down looking at the contents, “Okay, so I bought a bunch of little skulls, feather charms, an assortment of beads, a few chains, and patches– wait, patches?”

I pull out three stacks of random patches ranging from hellfire and skulls, to crude innuendos.

“You also got stickers– ooooo, you better not let mom see these.” Sam holds up a sticker with a topless lady sticking her forked tongue out. Snatching the sticker from him, I quickly put it back in the bag. He looks at me, unimpressed, and the way he crosses his arms, makes him look just like mom.

“I didn’t buy these!” Gazing in another bag, I see that it has rings, bracelets, and a few earrings. Saying that I’m feeling confused is an understatement, “I don’t understand, I don’t remember…”  I feel Sam’s eyes on me as I try hard to remember if I did actually pay for any of this shit. Then it hits me, “That little bastard.”

“Who?” 

“Nothin’, c’mon, I’ll deal with this later.” Gathering my bags, we continue our trek to the comic shop. Once we reach, we smile at each other like the nerdy little idiots we are and go our separate ways– Sam goes right to Superman, and I go to X-Men. 

All my attention is placed on finding a new comic to add to my collection, but as I pick up comic after comic, my enthusiasm is slowly fading at the inconsistency of the comic placements. It’s like they were haphazardly placed, or just put down next to the comic that “looked” like it belonged to. Scoffing, I toss the comics back, annoyed that whoever did this, literally had one job, and they couldn’t do it. Turning around, I scan for Sam, wondering if he’s having the same problem I am; with wide eyes, I see that he has a whole different problem.

Two boys, around his height and age, are basically accosting him, as he probably tells them, he isn’t looking for trouble. Gritting my teeth, I make my way over to them, ready to fight these two little bastards if I have to– and seeing this is the ‘Murder Capital of the World’, I just might have to.

“What’s going on here?” Crossing my arms, I stare down the two boys, who jump at the sound of my voice. They move closer to each other, glancing between each other and my brother. The one with brown hair squints his eyes at me, sizing me up, before speaking– in the MOST ridiculous voice– taking a step towards me.

“This is a private conversation, it doesn’t concern you.”

“Oh, I think it does.” I hate when I speak like this because I sound like such a mother, but sometimes that’s the only way to make children listen to you– and listen, they did. Both boys blink in mild fear and confusion as Sam sheepishly shrugs his shoulders. And that’s when I catch a glimpse of the comic in Sammy’s hands, “Oh, hell no. No way, no how.”

Holding my hand out, he places the comic down, giving the boys an ‘I told you so’ face, “I told them I don’t do horror comics.”

“And they still pushed this on you?” I’m annoyed– you can hear it clear as day– jutting out my hip, I place the comic down on top of the Superman comics, “Let’s learn a life lesson, shall we boys? When someone says ‘no’, don’t go and pester them, or push them into doing something they don’t want, or like. If you’re not careful, you might wind up in the pokey. Thankfully you two are young and can learn from this mistake,” Stepping forward, I jab them both in the chest, giving them a warning, “Don’t make it again.”

A few seconds of silence go by as the two glance at each other, nodding back at me. Smiling oh so sweetly, I beckon for Sam to follow outside. 

“Okay, but I still haven’t gotten a comic I want yet.”

“Ugh, Sam.” Turning around, I tilt my head at him, as he pouts at me. Rolling my eyes, I hang my head, defeated, “Alright, get your effing comic, but be quick about it.”

As I turned away from the trio, I couldn’t help but hear the sounds of harsh whispering that sounded along the lines of ‘who is that’, ‘are you in danger’, and ‘she’s scary’. All of which brought a smile to my face, because let’s face it, when an Afro-Latin American woman tells you off, it’s scary as hell. 

They are so lucky I can’t speak Spanish, I would’ve cursed them up and down until the coqui’s came home. Glancing at them from over my shoulder, I see that Sam does seem to be searching for a comic, but those boys are still trying to push the horror comic on him again. Growling, I get ready to tell them off, when I see movement out of the corner of my eye; turning to see what it is, it’s a group of people guffawing loudly, almost like they were intoxicated. Furrowing my brows, I watch as they laugh and sneer at… me, I guess… but they’re also eyeing the comics in the cart next to them.

“Uhm, do you know who works here?” I keep my eyes on the group of people, while speaking to the boys over my shoulder.

“Us. Why?” A part of me wants to keep quiet about what’s about to happen due to the amount of suspicion coming from ‘Baby Rambo’, but swallowing my pride, I point at the group.

“I think they’re–” I jump at the yell that came from the seemingly quiet, dark haired boy.

“--HEY, WAIT!” He takes off at the group with Baby Rambo in tow, “COME BACK, YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR THOSE!”

Puffing out my cheeks, I turn to Sam, who’s just as lost as I am. Not knowing what else to do, I point to the exit, “Wanna go home now?”

“Yes, please.” His voice is heavy as he shakes his head at what we just witnessed. I ruffle his hair, making him swat at me again, laughing I put my hands up in surrender, successfully lightning the mood.

“So where do you think Michael is?” My mind is going through a bunch of different scenarios as to what could’ve happened to Michael following a random girl on the boardwalk.

“Not sure, but if we see a girl running for her life, I think that means we found him.” We share a laugh, wiping our imaginary tears. Catching my breath, I pause for a moment, seeing a blur of blonde move through the crowd. Trying to see through the crowd, I lose sight of the blonde hair, frowning, I look back at Sam, but he’s not next to me anymore. Fear lurches in my chest as I look around for my baby brother, but instant relief washes over me when I spot him AND Michael. Breathing out a sigh, I walk over to them, hands in my pockets, “There you are, c’mon let’s go.”

Walking ahead of them, I hear Sammy chuckle, “She stiffed ya man, let’s go.”

At this I freeze, look over my shoulder with a face Sam describes as “The Joker”; basically, my eyes get wide with glee, and my smile is board line insane– according to Sam, but this is the same kid who thinks monsters live in his closet still. I’ll admit, it isn’t the most innocent of smiles, and it can be a bit creepy, but I just hit the ‘blackmail jackpot’! Who wouldn’t have an insane smile on their face, when they find the reason their brother’s being a total creep; I mean, just wait until mom hears about this!

Not moving from my spot, I reign in “The Joker” smile, glancing between Michael and the girl. She’s cute, with big brown doe eyes, even bigger brown curly hair, and she has a sweet kind of smile on her face, almost flirtatious, as she looks Mike up and down; but her smile fades away when she sees me. Raising a brow at her, I give her a smile of my own, sizing her up– unfortunately, the rest of her is blocked by a dude in all black. 

Moving my attention to him, I can’t stop but smirk at the white hair he has; he gives me a once over, seemingly annoyed by my presence. At that moment Sam moves to my side, whispering something to me in my ear, but I wasn’t paying attention– he was giggling too much, and White Hair was staring at me hard. I’m not one to back down from a challenge, so I stared back just as fiercely. He shifts his gaze between Sam and I, and I guess something clicked, because the hardness in his eyes softens, and he smiles at me.

My own gaze softens as well, but instead of smiling, I squint at him, because that was a random 180, and nothing good comes from those. The sound of revving engines gets my attention, and I realize that there are more people with this duo. A brooding brunette with a child sitting on the back of his bike, who seems to be yelling at the person next to them, but that person isn’t paying any attention to the small boy; the reason being because they’re staring at me.

I’m greeted with an all too familiar grin, and mischievous hazel eyes; my eyes widen slightly at the sight of Marko, and that’s when I look over the group again. Locking eyes with Marko again, his smile confirms my unspoken thought.

These are his brothers.

He gives me a small nod, switching his gaze between Sam and Michael, I give him a lopsided grin, and a mild head bob, making him chuckle as he turns his gaze to the other blonde next to him– and this guy is… Woooo, I don’t think words can describe him. He has wild blonde hair, a black jacket, black mesh top, THE dirtiest white pants known to man, and seems to be headbanging like there’s no tomorrow.

… Huh, I described him… Sweet.

Shaking my head, I look back at Michael who is still staring at this girl like a love struck fool, and I don’t stop my eye roll. I’m never going to let him live this down– EVER! Looking down at my sneakers, I walk over to stand next to Michael, place my hand on his shoulder, squeezing it harshly. His tenses up, wincing as he finally acknowledges my existence… Well, the look on his face says that he had no idea I was there in the first place, so I give him the same look, only mockingly.

“What? Did you forget about me?” I send little glances to the girl, as she watches us with curious eyes, “That cuts deep, dude.” Michael gives the girl a sheepish, and embarrassed look as he brushes my hand off of him, and being the older sister I am, I’m going to take it a step further, “Wow, you don’t want me to touch you? That’s a first. Guess that means I won’t be sleeping in your room tonight then, huh?”

He snaps his head at me, cheeks turning red, with pleading eyes– to be fair, the last time Michael and I slept in the same room was when I was 10, and we shared a bunk bed, but these guys don’t need to know that.

So with a triumphant smirk, we watch as White Hair, snickers at Michael, and speeds off of the boardwalk with his gang in tow. Poor Michael, stands there, watching with a crestfallen face as the bikes disappear from our sights. Leaning on my hip, I sigh, watching with him for a few seconds before looking up at him.

“You know they aren’t coming back, just because you look so pathetic.”

“Shut up, Alex.” He sneers at me, bringing a smile to my face as Sam and I watch him stomp off. I nudge Sam, wiggling my eyebrows at him, “Watch this.” Sam looks at me expectantly, as I clear my throat, smiling, “~They’ll be back tomorrow night~!”

Mike stops in his tracks, looking at me over his shoulder with untrusting eyes. Sam laughs that the sudden interest Mike has now, and I smile as Mike’s face morphs into hope. He rushes back over to us, tightly holding my arms, he begins to shake me back and forth.

“Wait, they are?! How do you know?! Do you know her?! Did you talk to her?! What’s she–”

“Whoa, WHOA! Slow down, Lover Boy! Let’s just say I have a reliable resource.” I shake Mike off of me, smoothing out my jacket.

“Who?”

“Who?” 

I frown at my brothers as they ask the same question almost in sync, “‘Who?’ What’re you guys? Owls?” Shaking my head, I walk ahead of them towards the exit, “Never mind who; c’mon let’s go find mom.”

Finding mom proved to be easier than we originally thought, because she was already waiting for us in the parking lot, as we neared the car, Sam started to tease Mike about how he struck out with Big Brown Doe Eyes. Mike retaliated by flicking Sam’s forehead and getting into the front seat before him. Sam whines about it, until I whisper in his ear.

“Let him have this, we have blackmail on our side.”

Sam’s face looks like it’s about to split in two from his smile, we side into the backseat, and mom looks at us with her sweet smile that crinkles around her eyes when something wonderful happens.

“I see smiles, did you all have fun?” Her voice is way more chipper than it’s been since we arrived in Santa Carla.

“Yeah, something like that.” I glance at the back of Mike’s head, as he glares at us from the rearview mirror. Looking back at mom, I incline my head to her, “But it seems like you’ve had a pretty good night too.”

“Oh! You’ll never believe it!” She gushes as she looks at each of us, we all have a pretty good idea as to why she’s happy, but we wait for her to share. Smiling even more brightly, she confirms our thoughts, “I got a job!”

“Yay! Congrats mom, that’s great.” Leaning over, I give her a hug and kiss her cheek.

“Does this mean we can get a TV now?” We all ignore Sam’s question, as we give mom her spotlight.

“Oh, thank you, sweetie. I wasn’t sure if I’d find a job, but I did.” Her smile is still going strong, and has me wondering if something more happened. 

“She’s just really happy about getting a job.” 

Pulling out of the parking lot, she turns the spotlight on us at the sound of Sam complaining about my ‘heavy bags crushing his feet’.

“So, Alex, did you have a good time?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess.” Giving her a light shrug, I hold up my four bags, “I got some jewelry for us to work on, but since you’ll be working I don’t know how much we’ll be able to do…”

“We’ll find time. I promise.” I match her smile as she gazes at me through the mirror; but there’s something bugging me– something about her smile that rubs me the wrong way. It’s so happy, and genuine– it’s one I haven’t seen in about 3 years– I don’t want to ask her if she ‘meet someone’ while job hunting, but the nosy part of me reaaaalllly wants to know.

“... No. Now’s not the time.” I glance at Sam and Mike, knowing that if mom really did find that ‘someone’ they aren’t going to be thrilled– hell! I’m not thrilled… but I should be, it’s just hard. Sighing, I lean against the door frame, watching the city lights blur by; the sound of bike engines has me looking around out of Sam’s window and my own I hunt for the bikers, and I’m not alone, Mike is doing the same thing, which gains mom’s attention.

“What? What’s going on?” She begins to panic a bit, as she looks at the dimly lit road, and then at us.

Mike and I share a look of mile disappointment, but reassuringly smile at her nonetheless, “Nothin’ mom, just need to watch out for bikers is all.”

“Oh, I thought I was about to hit something.” She breathes out a sigh, rolling her eyes the way only a mother can, as we continue home.

My mind is still occupied with mom’s smile and this new job, and sucking on my teeth I lean forward glancing up at her.

“She’s still smiling.” Biting the inside of my cheek, I clear my throat, “So, mom.”

“Hm?”

“This new job– what is it?” I try to keep my voice as light and as innocent as I can, but it’s kinda hard when her smile widens again. 

“It’s at a video store–”

“So we are getting a TV?!” Sam leans against me, pushing my face into the back of mom’s seat. Growling, I elbow him in the gut, making him sit back wincing, “OW!”

“Back off!” My voice is low, as I glare it him, making him gulp and scoot away from me.

“-- Well, no, not quite. Televisions cost money, and I only just got my job. But if you want one so badly, you can always save up and buy one.” Mom’s genuine smile shifts into a playful one as she watches Sam’s hopefully continuance morph into one of confusion.

“But… I don’t have any money. I used up the rest of my allowance to get toys for Nanook, and we won’t get any ‘til you give it to us.” Sam is out of sorts as he goes huffs out a sigh, crosses his arms, glaring at the floor. Mom just laughs as she pulls off the highway towards the smaller streets.

“So it’s a video store, sounds fun.” I give mom a smile, bringing her back on topic, and that ‘oh so happy’ smile is back, “Which store?”

“VideoMax.” She’s beaming.

“Uh-huh– met anyone?” Calm down, Alex, again, she could just be excited about the job. 

Letting out a chuckle, I shake my head, “I like how I asked ‘which store’ like I know where anything is here. God, I’m an idiot.”

“At least you finally admitted it.” Mike chimes from the front, smiling mockingly at me, to which I respond with a smack to the back of his head, “Wha– HEY!”

“That’s for thinking you were being cute.” I glare at him as mom chides the both of us, “He started it.”

“Did not!”

“Did too.”

“Guys, please! We’re almost home– look, we all just had a nice night out, let’s not ruin it with petty arguments.” Mom looks at the both of us pleadingly, waiting for our answers; rolling our eyes, we give each other stony smiles ‘apologizing’ and looking out our respective windows.

Michael and I haven’t always been like this, but I can’t figure out why he’s turned into a dick around me, but if he doesn’t change his tune, he’s going to get punched in the face. For now, I’m just going to chalk it up to the move making things different and stressful. We still love each other– we both know that, and mom knows it. Unfortunately, she also knows we don’t mean our apologies, but she’s not going to push us since we’ve appeased her. Sighing, she continues to talk about ‘VideoMax’ and her boss, but I tune her out, glancing up at the moon, the cloudy night, and the few stars that can be seen, and the body falling out of the sky–...

.

.

.

Looking back over the ocean, I frantically look for any signs of a body hitting the water, but I never see any. Blinking in confusion, I try to focus on the water again, but I still don’t see anything– it’s too dark, and we’re too far away.

“I need to get a grip, how would a body fall OUT of the sky? There aren’t any planes.” For good measure I look up searching for airplane lights, and there aren’t any. Gulping, I shake the forbidding feeling that moves up my back, settling on my neck. Rubbing my neck, I can’t help but wince at the feeling of hands squeezing my shoulders; shivering, I zip up my jacket, looking up at the sky again, “It was all in your head. Relax, Alex.”

“Yeah, relax.” 

It almost feels like someone whispered deep in my ear– which would really be in my head, but it wasn’t my voice, it was foreign, and it sounded like a guy. I glance at Sam, but he’s in his own little corner of the car, probably still thinking about his TV problem, while Mike is leaning his back on the seat, eyes closed.

“Alright, so… it wasn’t either of them.” Looking in the trunk with fear and timid movements, I’m greeted with an empty, dark trunk, “... I’m losing my mind. Awesome.”

I wasn’t able to dwell on my questionable grip on sanity, because mom has already pulled into her parking spot, turns off the car, turning to look at us with that smile again. Not sure if I should feel grateful or not for the car coming to a stop, as we take that as the queue to get out and head inside; I’m the last one out, since no one wanted to help me with my damn bags.

Huffing, I pick up a few pieces that slipped out of one of the bags under the driver's seat. Reaching under mom’s seat, I pull out the last skull charm, placing it in my jacket pocket as I flip my braids out of my face, “I’m gonna beat up that little imp, next time I see him.”

I’m not so annoyed with the fact that he snagged a few things, as I am that he put them IN MY BAGS, and didn’t say anything. If he got caught, we both would’ve gotten in trouble, and I’m not trying to make my mark in Santa Carla a bad one… at least not yet.

Slamming the door closed, I start my little trek to the house, taking a moment to look up at the sky again. Smiling, I close my eyes as a breeze blows by…

“See~...Ya~.... Alex~.” 

Opening my eyes quickly, I look around the fairly well lit walkway, but with a frantic expression that would have my brothers in stitches. My heart is pounding in my ears, as I press my lips in a thin, tight line, slightly sucking them in, trying to hold back any potential scream from coming out prematurely. 

Not gonna lie, the voice almost sounded like Marko, but there’s no way.

Is there?

Not seeing, or hearing anything, I open my mouth ready to ask the age-old question that gets people killed in every horror movie…

“Nope, not today.” Booking it to the front door, I swing open the door, making Papa E look at me with a scrutinizing gaze. Closing the front door, and locking it, I give him a wide awkward smile as I make my way to my room.

“You alright there, kiddo?”

“Oh, yeah! Totally not hearing things in the wind or anything.” I giggle out nervously as Papa E stares at me for a few seconds with the same expression– it almost seems like he’s trying to figure me out, but then he just blinks, gives me a nod, and takes a swig from his root beer, making his way to his Red Room. I look at him confused, “Uh, okay… Good– good night?”

Shaking my head, I head to my room, tossing the bags on top of my suitcase, laying down with a heavy sigh. Taking out the skull charm, I stare into its black eyes, thinking back on the events of the night. Tonight was definitely one for the books, I did things I wouldn’t have normally done back in Phoenix. Maybe this move was exactly what we all needed, who knows what lies ahead? This is our fresh start, a new chapter in our lives where we don’t have to worry about so asshole making our lives miserable anymore. We have a chance at something great, something wonderful.

“Marko, huh?” Grinning widely, I toss the charm in my suitcase, and get ready for bed. 

While I brush my teeth, I pick up my book rereading what I skipped over– which wasn’t much, “Cha’ter 3, ‘Sh-ing, O Muse o’ Hermes, t’e Sh-on of Zeus,’ blah blah blah…” Spitting out the toothpaste, I rinse quickly, making my way back to my room, reading on the way, “‘... Cronion wooed the fair-haired damsel without the ken of the deathless gods or mortal men. Now when the purpose of mighty Zeus was fulfilling…’ Zeus really doesn’t know how to keep it in his tunic.” Making my way to my room downstairs, I slip under the covers, opening my book again, “‘... In that hour she gave birth to a son, subtle of wit and wile, a robber,’ this sounds vaguely familiar, ‘a reiver of cattle, a captain of thieves, a prowler of the night, a pilferer at gates, who was ere long to make known fine doings among the immortal gods.’” Closing my book, I stare at my comforter with a deep crease in my brow, “Is… Is the universe telling me Marko is Hermes?”

Shifting my eyes around my room, I seemingly wait for someone to just pop up and give me the answer, but of course that isn’t going to happen. Of course, Marko isn’t the god Hermes, even if he does seem to be an almost perfect replica of the god.

 “Even if he does have similarities to Hermes, he isn’t him at all.” Scoffing at myself, I place my book on my nightstand, turning off my lamp, “‘Sides, it’s not like he can fly.”

Laughing to myself, I close my eyes, falling into a deep and calming sleep.

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

Taglist: @jezabella8 @thelostone91

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Really hope you guys liked it❤️🦇❤️🦇❤️🦇❤️🦇

[captainsway]

i saw the dumbest fucking take made by you know who and it’s just

“genocide” is one of those modern, real life princples you argue shoud not be applied to SW. It is literally defined by the very same people who define what war crimes are…..

like there’s so much wrong here.

1) genocide was actually first coined by a polish jewish man, raphael lemkin, in 1944 while trying to stop the same atrocities from happening from the world wars

2) he created the genocide convention that was adopted by the UN where it was first criminalised and held as international law

3) different languages had words for genocide before 1944 lmao it’s just now there was a universal term

4) genocide isn’t fucking modern, you can’t just say shit like that??? because there’s a literal list of genocides throughout history before the term was coined like if you want to say ‘genocide is modern teehee’ then what about indigenous americans? the actual holocaust? the fucking english empire???

5) yeah war crimes is specific to the fucking UN which stands for united nations which literally doesn’t exist in star wars for certain acts in war according to the law. last i checked the galaxy far far fucking away doesn’t abide by the laws of earth lmao also the gffa does have a war crimes handbook and we only know two of the laws in it. even if they did follow the actual geneva convention (which, again, doesn’t fucking exist in star wars), the jedi didn’t actually break any of the laws and thus committed no war crimes lmao like???

6) meanwhile genocide is a fucking atrocity that happens in every point of history and is also seen in fantasy and scifi??? like what do you get out of saying that this isn’t genocide because star wars doesn’t have a magical word for that??? lmao i guess they can’t be speaking basic because it sounds like english to us looool like we get it your poor uwukin only killed a religious group and helped destroy their home, their knowledge, their culture, and hunted them down to murder them but you don’t want to call it genocide because it makes him look bad lol

7) genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people for being a race, ethnicity, culture, religion, etc (like idk killing the children???). you can still kill people of a certain group if they’re combatants during a battle and it’s not a fucking war crime jfc like if you’re going to throw words around at least learn what they fucking mean

like honestly if you don’t want to be called a genocide apologist, stop fucking saying shit like one.

EDIT: also lmao like you want to say genocide doesn’t exist in star wars but there’s literally a whole page on the genocides and massacres in star wars like jfc take a hint and stop being an asshole who harasses people over something that’s actually disgusting

[zorobae]

Okay, so after not reading One Piece for more than a year, I caught up on all the chapters I missed by now and just wanted to write down my thoughts~ I also intend to make edits again. It’s been a while, though, I hope I still remember how lol. First and foremost, I’m really glad to be reading Oda-sensei’s great writing and to be in this world again, so to say. I missed this consistently-good quality of writing, the blend of action+emotion+humor and of course, I missed my adorkable Strawhat crew ^-^ I stopped reading where the second Wano Act ended so I picked up from there until chapter 1009. A lot of the chapters in Act Three are flashbacks from Kozuki Oden's life. He is an interesting and well-thought-out character, to say the least. I found it quite hard to wrap my head around his demise, though. That was just too... unfair. But then, if the point of that incident is to make us readers despise Kaido more; mission accomplished. I gotta say, for me, the highlight of those flashbacks was to see the Whitebeard pirates. The way that crew treated each other like family and they all called Whitebeard "pops" will never not be endearing to me. I lk hate that Oda indirectly brought up Ace in Oden's flashback (when Roger talked about his unborn son). Maybe I'm just overly emotional but I think it's a testament to Oda-sensei's writing that any reminder of Ace still makes me sad. I think that Toki and her relationship with Oden was also quite sweet. Oda-sensei never spends too much time on romance but he still manages to give those relationships weight. I was moved by how perfect Oden and Toki were together, how understanding and supportive of each other. When Toki said "we are not your weakness", right after she lost her husband... that was a powerful moment imo.

Coming back to present time; it's actually stupid how happy it made me to see Jimbei finally catching up with Luffy and all now ten Strawhats reunited! Didn't last long of course but hey, at least they're all still on the same island this time xD I’m so glad that Jimbei joined the crew for good now - the traditional toast to a new crew member has yet to come, though. And I wonder if maybe Yamato, even if just temporarily, might also join. Yamato is a badass character so far. I think her weird pretense as Oden is a bit off-putting but I still like her. I am actually confused about her gender identity now, though. Does he actually identify as male himself or is that solely because he’s pretending to be Oden? What she’s doing seems to be “identity theft” rather than being genderqueer. But either way, it hasn’t been confirmed yet. I really hope Oda-sensei will confirm her gender soon. For now and until we get any confirmation, I’ll still headcanon her as genderfluid. I definitely think it’s easy to tell that she’s genuine in her support for the Kozukis and the Strawhats. Also, there were some flashbacks with Ace... I both hated and loved those. Yamato, having to tell Ace he mentioned his brother too often was not okay TT-TT Speaking of Ace’s brother, Oda-sensei hinted that Sabo got announced dead but as is the rule with OP; if there is no corpse, he ain’t dead.

I haven’t checked how far the anime is but the rest of my thoughts might be spoilery so I’ll put them under a cut~

Luffy and Zoro are my faves but Is2G, I love all ten of the Strawhats with all of my heart. And yet, there’s one Strawhat who I always hope will do better but .... /sigh/ They are outnumbered 6:1 and somehow, Sanji still lets himself be distracted by women. And not even friendly ones but women who are also his enemies. Luffy and Jimbei assumed that Sanji stayed back to clear distractions for them - which was really sweet but not exactly true. I can’t believe there are fans who are arguing about who’s the #2 among the Strawhats. I mean, Zoro is fighting against Kaido and Big Mom and protecting his Captain as best as he can while Sanji got caught in Black Maria’s net cuz he’s a huge perv. And some fans still feel the need to debate who’s better.... Okay then. It’s not unexpected but it’s just disappointing cuz we all know how strong, protective and determined Sanji is. He can be better than this. I hope that he, and all Strawhats, will get their moments to shine at some point during the rest of this arc. Well, actually Chopper might have already gotten his moment when he cured the Ice Onis. That was pretty badass, and got even better when he punched Queen and reminded everyone he ain’t a racoon-dog teehee

Right now, at the end of chapter 1009, it looked like Big Mom would fall off of Onigashima. If she really does, it’ll probably take a while before she can fly back up somehow and anything like that would obviously help Luffy, Zoro, Law and Kidd. I wonder how tf Kaido can both keep the island floating and also fight at the same time. If they should defeat him while it’s still floating, is the whole island gonna crash down? Anyway, I can’t wait for Luffy to kick Kaido’s ass. I’m kinda hoping Momonosuke or one of the Akazaya or maybe Yamato will deliver the final blow or something. I also hope Oda-sensei won’t give us ten or so chapters of Kaido’s tragic past cuz I really don’t care lol. I’d rather see Oden’s dream of an open and peaceful Wano fulfilled~

[jooniperhun]

The End of the Rainbow | ot7 (1)

pairing: tall!black!reader x bts, poc!reader x bts, woc!reader x bts, black!reader x bts

genre: fluff, strangers to friends to (maybe) lovers [later], romance [later], comedy, misunderstandings [later], (slight) angst [later], smut (maybe??) [later], idol!au

rating: PG-14

wc: 2.3k

warnings: swearing

notes: the boys won’t make an appearance until chapter 2 but there is some foreshadowing in there (hint hint); pretend that corona never happened; most of the geographical locations/distances will either be made up or not named because I’ve never been to Korea lol whoops; this reads more like a reader-insert sorry that’s my default writing setting; and the boys’ backstories and such won’t be all that accurate because I’m the author and I say so teehee :)

“Text like this is spoken in Korean.”

“Text like this is spoken in English.”

summary: Your current job as a travelling housesitter has taken you to many places, some strange and many wonderful. When the acquisition of a new client takes you to Korea for three months, you wonder if your self-esteem can survive being around so many other-worldly looking people. Also, not to be paranoid or anything, but maybeperhaps you’re being stalked by the same seven strangers? They’re pretty loud and always surrounded by a tonne of people, so you write it off the first few times.

But this shit is getting excessive, chile. And annoying…

Rhetorical question, but what lies at the end of a rainbow? You hope that it’s a pot of gold, but with the way that your luck has soured, it might just be seven short(er than you), rowdy leprechauns ready to flip your world sideways…

Chapter 1: New Beginnings

Usually, when it came to social outings, ___ would go out of her way to make sure that she looked her best. Her wild mane would be tamed, her makeup would be carefully, painstakingly applied, and her clothes wouldn’t hold a single wrinkle. This, however, isn’t ‘usually’— this is an airport, and ___ currently couldn’t find it within herself to give a single, flying fuck about her appearance after the flight that she had just had. 

That isn’t to say that it was terrible— she was flying first class, for Christ’s sake! Not to mention that she didn’t have to spend a single dime on it (excluding the multiple new outfits and lashes that she purchased for herself because if she was anything, it was slightly vain). But a roughly 18 hour flight, combined with slight motion sickness? It doesn’t matter how comfortably she had dressed, or how attentive the flight attendants were, or how delicious the food was— ___ walked off of the landing strip probably looking exactly as she felt (read: terrible). 

Luckily, the good thing about airports was that she wasn’t the only one. No one paid her any mind, too worried about themselves and finding their respective luggages and families to be giving some rando more than a passing glance. 

She was officially in Seoul, South Korea, and she couldn’t read a damn thing.

Okay— slight exaggeration. Most of the signs had English (and Spanish, and Chinese, and Japanese) translations beneath the larger blocks of Korean, but her damn near-blind ass missed that the first time around. 

The airport looked as airports tended to look— large, modern, and clean. There was a beautiful netting of glass in the ceiling that let gentle rays of sunlight in. The walls were similarly comprised of the netting design and slanted outwards, away from all of the passengers. Statues and abstract constructions divided the masses. People from all walks of life milled around, looking for their luggage or anxiously waiting for their plane to arrive.

Incheon International Airport, Terminal One, Flight DL27. ___ reminded herself over and over of the number of where she would go for Baggage Claim, scanning the area and mumbling slightly to herself. She adjusted her dark shades and hefted her purse (her only carry-on) higher onto her shoulders, following the crush of fellow passengers into the depths of the fragile looking place. 

There were a lot of people walking around with black facemasks and shades on, so she was glad that she wasn’t the only shady-looking sista walking around. Inwardly snorting at her own pun, ___ nearly walked past her destination. 

It was honestly this part of each trip that gave her the most anxiety— that is, waiting for her suitcase to come around on the conveyor belt.

She had heard and read multiple horror stories about too many passengers never recovering their luggage. Either stolen, lost, or dropped from the airplane itself— if it could go wrong, it went wrong. But it’s not like hers’ is particularly interesting to look at. It was a simple, standard black. Only a red, knotted ribbon tied around the handle marked it as her own.

Ten minutes of fretful bag checking later, ___ finally found it. She gave a silent sigh of relief and turned towards the exit. Then, her anxiety flared right back up when she realized that she would have to hail a taxi to get to her destination. 

Honestly, her people-meter was getting a little bit too full for her to actually be initiating direct human interaction right now. 

But she would persevere! Even if her persistence could use a bit of work, she’s faked confidence enough times to make it. 

Getting a taxi to stop for her was like pulling teeth. By the time that she had stuffed her menial baggage into the trunk and clambered into the front seat, her temper had risen a few notches. She’s had a long two days. The flight wasn’t kind on her stomach or her sleep schedule— not to mention the fact that she felt disgusting. A shower sounded so nice right now… She didn’t want to be on the streets any longer than she had to be, dammit!

Donning her ‘Customer Service’ voice (as she liked to call it), she politely rattled off her destination to the driver in Korean. He was on the younger side for the profession (at least, from what she’s seen), with neatly laid dark hair and slightly tanned skin. His dark eyes constantly shifted from the road to her when they were stopped for traffic, but he luckily seemed to sense her mood as he did not say anything more than the polite initial greeting. 

All in all, it was a 30 minute drive filled with determinedly unawkward silence. ___ sent a quick text to her employer to inform them that she would be at the house in a bit, then sent another to her mother to let her know that she touched down safely. Almost immediately, her phone began to buzz.

Rolling her eyes, ___ answered. “Good morning to you too, Ma.” She said as her full lips tilted up in amusement. Upon hearing the English, the driver sent another glance in her direction.

“Hey, baby! It’s night time for us right now (we just got finished eating dinner). How was your flight?” Her mother’s voice gave a slightly tinny echo as she spoke, and the sound of shifting fabric clued ___ in to the fact that she, indeed, was probably on the toilet.

“Tiring. I forgot to buy Dramamine, so it was a fun time for me.” She switched hands with her phone so that she could look out of her window more comfortably. Little snatches of the city flashed by before they turned into a slightly more residential area. The houses here were large and gated, yet closely located. “How is everyone doing? No-one dead yet, right?”

Her mother snorted. “Yet is correct. Turns out, ya’ sister got herself a lil boyfriend—” ___ had to stifle her laugh before she gave herself away, “— and ya’ daddy wasn’t too happy when he found out. Her fast ass is sitting in her room right now, phone taken and everything. Woulda’ gotten an ass whoopin if we found anything triflin’ in it, but she’s clean.” Yeah, only because of her advice. No sending nudes back and forth, no secret folders dedicated to trifling shit, and no conversations going further than normal teen-girl gossip. Those were her three cardinal rules to sneaking around with a boy, and it seems that her little sister had done well to heed them.

“And the lil’ boy? Anyone we know?” ___ asked, playing along. If her parents found out she already knew about him, her ass would be grass, too. 

“Yes!” Ma exclaimed frustratedly. The driver jumped at the sudden loud sound in the otherwise silent car. “That nigga, Devin. Lives a block down from us? You know the one.” She gave the appropriate gasp at the news while rolling her eyes. Devin was a sweet boy who had a good future ahead of himself. There was no goddamn way she would waste her painstakingly gathered advice on someone who wasn’t good for her sister.

“Dam— I mean, wow. You think you know the people you live around...” She caught herself quickly before she cursed. Even halfway across the world, her fear of her ma’s wrath was still very, very healthy.

“I heard that, but I’ll let it slide this time.” Her mother’s tone was amused despite her previous outrage. 

“Anyways, as I was saying… I don’t see anything wrong with Devin. He was a nice boy, last time I talked to him.” From the cover of her shades, ___ watched the driver watch her from the corner of his eye. The car began to slow.

“Tell that to ya’ daddy. He—” Ma began to rant as ___ pulled the phone away from her ear. 

“How much do I owe you?” She asked quietly, hands dropping to rummage through her purse for her wallet as she cradled the phone between her ear and her shoulder. “—Alright, Ma. Imma have to call you back. We just pulled up to the house and I gotta get situated.”

Handing the driver the appropriate amount of Won, they both left the car to remove her luggage from his trunk. “Okay, sweetie. Love you! Call me again when you get settled in.” Her mother echoed as she mouthed a quick ‘Thank you,’ with a shallow bow.

“Gotcha. Love you, too! Bye.” She hung up and grabbed the handle of her suitcase, making it extend before dragging it behind her towards the house that they had stopped in front of.

She couldn’t really see anything past the high, brick walls and iron gate. Spotting an intercom, she quickly checked her reflection in her phone’s camera before she could press the button to call her employer.

Removing her silk head-scarf, she found that her high puff had held up reliably under it. She quickly stuffed it into her purse and pulled out her glasses case to place her shades in. Shoving that back in, too, she smoothed out her black jeans and checked for stains on her yellow top. It was only after assuring that her face was, indeed, clean that she rang the buzzer.

A red light blinked on before a voice answered. So there was a security camera for surveillance? Good. “Good morning! You must be ___, right?” Her voice was smooth and low, like velvet. It hinted towards an older age, especially when compared to the commonly high pitched tones of the youth.

“Yes, good morning.” ____ stepped back slightly to bow. The gate unlocked with a soft click, and she made her way up the driveway. She could only see one car at the moment, but from the size of the house— no, mansion—, she was sure that a lot more were probably in the garages (yes, plural).

The mansion was a modern white with a lot of windows to let in natural light. The lawn was cleanly cut and the rich, emerald grass shined with small droplets of morning dew. There was actually a surprising amount of yard space, which was ideal for pets and children. The only thing that she would be needing to worry about this trip was a dog and some plants, though.

Little solar-powered lights lined the walkway that ___ walked down. They looked nothing like the one-dollar versions from the Dollar Store, and definitely cost a lot more, too. She climbed a few stone steps to reach the porch. On either side of a dark-wooded door, two gold vases stood guard. They were almost as tall as her and intricately carved with little, delicate flowers. The welcome mat that she stood upon was a sensible dark brown and had a looping Welcome swirled across the front in white. 

She rang the doorbell and patiently waited.

A few moments passed before the door sprung open. The lady that answered was small and adorable in her old age. Her dark hair was sprinkled with white streaks, and her large, dark eyes were creased with laugh lines. The same lines were also wrinkled around her mouth, but they did not take away from the traditional beauty that she still held. Her cheeks were rounded and scattered with pink, and her skin was the color of milk. She was dressed in a fashionable black pantsuit and wore black pumps that boosted her height. 

“Good morning!” ___ bowed lowly with a sweet smile. Her eyes, large and slightly too round to truly be almond shaped, disappeared into crescents. With her face transformed so cutely by just a single smile, one would find it hard to believe that ___ had a mean, mean resting bitch face that, when combined with her not inconsiderable height, gave her a naturally intimidating demeanor.

Endeared, the woman bowed back. “Please, come in.” She invited, stepping aside and letting ___ and her suitcase drag in. 

***

She was still getting situated in the guest room when the door slowly creaked open.

Though she couldn’t see anything from where she was seated on the bed, the tell-tale pattern of claws clicking against the hardwood floor cued her in to who was entering— Mickey, a cute, little Shih-Tzu breed with floppy ears and a brown and white coloring. Despite the fact that he was male, Mickey had two tiny, powder-blue bows woven around his ears. His matching sweater creased slightly as he padded towards her.

“Hi, sweetie!” ___ cooed, reaching down to give him a gentle pat on the head, “Are you looking for some company now that Grandma isn’t in?” 

Mickey had been (surprisingly) very calm upon his introduction towards ___. He barely reacted (outside of a few weak wags of his fluffy tail) to her squealings of how cute he was. Perhaps it was behavior that he was used to.

He settled down onto the carpet next to her bed, the ideal spot for her to reach down and pet him if she wanted to. It was a good move on his part, because that was exactly what she wanted to do. 

___ was a huge dog lover— in fact, she just loved cute, fluffy animals in general. Cats, llamas, sheep— you name it. She tolerated reptiles, and if she had to handle insects, it was usually with gloves and a healthy bit of distance. 

The moral of the story is that she adored fur-babies, and until Mickey’s owner came to pick him up or his Grandma came back home, Mickey was her dog.

a/n: Thank you all for reading the first chapter! I really hope you liked it. The fun stuff starts next chapter, so please stay tuned! I have so much planned *evil laughter*

[demyrie]

question: how comfortable would you be writing a piece in which tsuyu has/confesses she has a crush on aizawa? since it's not that uncommon and it's a bit hinted. And of course he now has to reject her but somehow I'm really curious on how aizawa would handle that situation, how he would navigate it (i mean, is still a young one's heart and all). Has the potential of being both funny and heartwarming, I think. He's such a softie dad.

Hmmm! I’d never thought about this before, mostly because the T5u/@izawa stuff i see is all very ... unfortunately real and intended and ick and I go into an immediate rage. But I definitely do catch the drift that Tsu is one of his closer students and have sort of wanted to work that into my fics for a while, like her bringing him tea and things because he might be sick, etc and generally being the “your students love you!!!!” voice of 1-A.

Word barf half-fic underneath the cut!

If I were to write it, it would be ever-observant Aizawa being utterly aware that the crush is happening, and watching her fidget ever-closer to telling him. She’s young, she’s the most fucking beautiful pure-hearted amphibian in the world and he obviously doesn’t want to hurt her but 1) he doesn’t feel that way duh, 2) he’s also very tired and also out of his depth and, to a certain extent, can’t deal. So, I see him pre-empting her and purposefully misattributing her crush to someone else, just so they can talk about it in certain terms.

So, for example, he sits her down and talks about how it’s obvious she has feelings for (someone he spends a lot of time with, such as Present Mic, so the switch-up is believable). He would be very steady and kind and explain to her that Mic is a very good person, and he can see why she would like him, but as a function of Mic’s job as a teacher, his purpose is to protect her and help her. No matter what, it’s not possible for him to return those kinds of feelings. He would acknowledge that it’s difficult to look at someone on a daily basis who is unreachable, but she should know that Mic cares for her in the extent that he can and Aizawa wants her to talk to him if she ever has any other questions or hard feelings. They are all there for her, in whatever way she needs, to help her find her purpose.

Tsuyu is super smart and she would get it and leave with the knowledge she needs: the impossibility of a certain kind of affection, but the very real presence of support and platonic care even through touchy subjects such as these. She would leave a little crushed but with a safety in her heart (and maybe notice that Tokoyami is there for her in the same ways Aizawa described, plus others! teehee).

THEN, I would pan over to all the teachers at the bar that night, griping about how fucking difficult it is to be teaching a bunch of kids coming into legit puberty and how, with the combination of authority and the overwhelming allure of having famous Heroes on staff and kids navigating their coming-of-age need to be seen/validated, crushes on teachers are inevitable. 

Aizawa is already drunker than he should be, because such exchanges fucking DRAIN him and he is worried he doesn’t know what he’s doing, but the rest of the O(Teach)3 (plus All Might) are telling him he did good. Mic is hand-waving it away and saying that he’s a real teacher now, because crushing on sensei is practically a rite of passage, but honestly he still doesn’t understand what Asui sees in him lololol??? (cue mic getting whacked) Midnight is GUSHING about how she fucking LOOOOVES being the hot teacher, about how being the subject of that “young fire” gets her all hot and bothered, but it’s also a private sort of thing: she’s incredibly strict about not encouraging it on a personal basis and even not accepting gifts from the young men and women who are attracted to her, because she’s well aware of the power dynamic and doesn’t want to betray that trust or mislead them. Mic is like whaaaaaat my students give me gifts all the time, and Midnight is like exactly and you should be more careful, you’re just oblivious! (But really Mic just thinks everyone has a crush on him and thats cool yooooo he loves the attention)

All might is quiet and is maybe thinking about how some of his students have hidden feelings for him (not Yagi Toshinori) and Aizawa looks from Mic and Midnight arguing and just drunkenly complains about how tired he is and how teaching is hard. Yagi chuckles and tells him, though it may not mean much, he thinks he handled it perfectly. In his opinion, he can’t blame Asui for her feelings -- there’s a lot to admire in him, first and foremost his level of care. He values not only the bodies and fitness and success of his students, but their hearts, their happiness, and that alone is enough to bewitch.

Aizawa blinks and blushes into his drink, the end!

[pinksweatergettingbetter]

alright mothers an fuckers lets get down to some PL vs AA

-

alright so the last person who owned this game has 2 save files, one in the first and one in the third slot, both named chucky. one’s just past the tutorial, the other’s hanging around at some place called ‘knights garrison”

unnerving

i feel like I'm running into a creepy pasta

-

a work of fiction eh

-

oh fuck

accent guy no

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wee woo wee woo, here come the doll people of Layton Land

-

oh shit

it’s fully voice acted. i wasn’t expecting this...

aw. i guess i cant do my voices... that stinks.

-

“fuck you let me sleep forever”

i love him he's so grouchy

true wet blankie

voice wise i like Nick’s but I’m not as much a fan of Maya’s

-

oh its not fully voiced! great. this is actually kinda nice– i get to do voices, and the dramatic moments have their own dialogue track

-

ok now that I'm done laughing about the Puzzle memes being very accurate, it’s time to see if i can solve a fucking puzzle

-

ok. im. already totally mystified. welp.

I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN

-

once again my inability to parse things renders logic puzzles a bitch

it isn't helpful that they didnt detail the way the witches interact with the paths before submission but

(sigh) i knew the Layton sections would suck

not objectively, just for me because i’m ass at logic puzzles

my expertise lie in point and click adventures

-

his name is CAR ACCIDENT

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carmine: I'm probably fucking dead pls help

layton: well i never!!

-

layton: it is my belief that you are in quite considerable danger :)

-

OH GENTLEMAN

WE GOT ONE FOLKS

-

do towns have districts? i thought that was more of a city thing

-

THE BOOK

YOU FOOLS

-

now, once again, i do know some details about how this game concludes, and i must say I'm really curious about how the fuck this all works if its not actually magic

-

EVIL BOOK ADDED TO INVENTORY

ok so this stained-glass window place is kind of like the logic interface? it stores all the things we’re wondering about at present..?

-

very howls moving castle-y

also i appreciate the fuck out of these cutscenes

-

Layton: ,,,yes, that was careless of us

boy this guy has cucumber coolness out the wazoo

-

the Trunk eh

-

hint coins are so satisfying to find

-

aww moving is so cute

-

holy fuck

that was one helluvan accident

-

...i really hope they dont count how many tries you do the puzzles

BUT I DID IT

EAT SHIT

-

OH OK

JUST SOME FUCKIN CTHULU SHIT

THATS FINE

-

boy people sure like hiding money in lamps

-

luke!! dont fall into diagon alley!

-

Luke: this is bad professor!! theyre getting closer and closer!!

Layton: ...hmm................

-

thats a magic cloak right there

-

“Isn't this us, Professor?”

“Surely not– my ass is not that flat!”

-

BADGERS

OMENS OF DEATH

-

oh here we go

prologue to the AA part

ooh haven't heard that theme in a while

-

camera: [pans up violently enough to physically ruffle espella’s very short skirt]

-

oh thems drugged eyes

its in all the animes

-

hmmm. so is this like a dual world thing where we exist both in our world and the world of Laborynthia at the same time or

-

ooh english court is pretty

-

dghfgsh i love nick’s voice so much

much better than Reigel

he’s just got the general feel of Phoenix down better, i think

-

a cargo of badgers huh

-

calling it now the badgers are full of jewels

this is straight up The Chipmunk Adventure territory

also i dont blame her for wanting something to cuddle after the shit she’s been through

-

eee he’s doing his pick-up-quirks-from-other-people thing

-

oh hey the save sound is the exact same sound as the original.

also thats interesting– there’s a hint system in place in the court sections as well

-

whoa i wasnt expecting that epic an objection for the first contradiction

also im not sure if i like this remix of nick’s theme. it’s orchestrated but its not quite as crisp as i’d like...

-

your chocolate bar sounds like a mouthful of chips mr smiley

-

johnny just has a pile of bars behind him with one bite taken out of them

-

i love this game but the decision to make the text roll off in this weird, halting way is making it really annoying to read out loud

-

OW

MAYA WHERE DID YOU GET THAT FUCKING PIPE

-

“I kind of like living, thanks”

its ok baby nothing can kill you

-

“in my long, six month career

im crying so many good jokes in this game

-

whoa phoenix’s shock animation is a lot more violent this game XD

-

“This is my work outfit. It gets very hot in the kitchen, you know”

it’ll be hotter when you spill soup all over your exposed midriff and arms, babe.

...also is it really ok for you to be toting a meat cleaver around in court

-

“I may be short, but I’m well-proportioned! And that’s what matters!”

oh maya

-

“What does it matter which way she held it?” well for starters it would be impossible for her to hit you with it if she held it the way she did

“So the defendant attacked the witness holding the pipe backhanded...”

no, that just doesn’t work out, especially with her being so short. she’d have to be above Aldente to strike her that way, and even so it’s still an extremely cumbersome way to do that. You can only really hold a knife backhandedly

-

wait a minute

they’re 

they’re pointing it out 

they’re saying it IS bullshit, they’re-–

s-something that makes no fucking sense, ACTUALLY makes no fucking sense!

its not a plothole! they’re calling it out!

i... i think I'm in love 

-

that poor eel

also phoenix is a sea urchin again teehee

-

fuckin’ knew it 

chipmunk adventure. 

-

ok so wow. this is really amazing. maybe im being extra-complementary cause i just finished SOJ but... wow. everything from the soft colours and gorgeous lighting to the excellent cinematography to the fluid, interesting character sprites, to the pretty orchestral remixes to the fun and engaging writing, to the spectacular cutscenes... its all just so excellent it feels like a friggin gale of fresh air compared to SOJ

and this game came out in 2012. thats four years before SOJ, and just one before DD, and yet the difference is staggering. i don’t know if its a budget thing, or if its the director’s fault, but theres just something about the animation and camera angles thats so much better. everything is so smooth– no character ever jumps from animation to animation– they slide into it naturally 

and the slow pan-up on Aldente as she got cornered was pretty good at conveying a real sense of anxiety 

plus, the fact that we don’t find out who tried to kill her is genuinely unsettling. PLvAA doesn’t need to be bloody or gorey to convey a sense of uneasiness or fear– just that lingering mystery of a fourth person– and where they disappeared to– is enough to give me the shivers. ...although it is 1 am and I'm prone to being nervey

i have only 2 tiny nitpicks, these being the sequencing of the music (cuts off very abruptly rather than fading away) and the odd way the dialogue halts all over the place for no reason

otherwise, sublime first case

ps- still love nick’s new voice. dreamy, if a little stiff 

pps- espella you cant just leave evil books lying around. 

[carina-xvx-hellebore]

}A few things I noticed after beating Destiny 2 that I think are really neat.{

}1: The number at the end of an Exo’s name does indeed signify the number of times rebooted immediately after being human. This is brought to light (teehee) by scanning a book behind a set of bars that can be slid under, after which Ghost explains the significance of the number (although his source is Amanda).

2. Osiris is alive and presumably well. This is evidenced during one of the first possible Adventures on Nessus, where Ghost has to hack into several Vex data thingies. Once all is said and done, Failsafe says something along the lines of “A user known as ‘Osiris’ sends his regards”. 

3. The Traveler definitely appears to be machine-like in structure. I won’t make any uneducated theories or assumptions here.

4. The Ahamkara are definitely alive. This is more of a backed theory of mine than an official detail, but let me dork out for a bit, here. As you may have seen or heard from a fellow Guardian, if you look closely at the methane ocean of Titan, you will occasionally spot a massive, spiked being just barely breaching the surface. Not only do those spikes match the appearance of the Hunter Artifact, Ahamkara Scale, but judging from distance and appearance in size, the creature can also be compared to the concept art of the Ahamkara. Lastly, a reminder of one of the flavor texts of the Long Tomorrow 9G armor set. “Some of ‘em survived. I know a fellow says he saw a Wish Dragon on Jupiter a ways back.” This, combined with the Ahamkara Grimoire Card that very blatantly hints at their survival, nearly (but admittedly not quite yet) confirms that they’re definitely not completely extinct. Now, what planet is Titan a moon of, again? ...Saturn. It’s further away from Earth than Jupiter; further from the Light, but the planets are neighbors. Therefore, it can still be theorized that, before Destiny hits its end, we will see, up close and personal, the wrath of a Wish Dragon.{

}But we must accept that all of this is speculation... oh reader mine.{