#this summer hopefully I have the luck to be hired

[reginrokkr]

With that IC content delivered, it is time to dip out for the evening. I'm quite content that slowly I'm able to catch up with things and be able to stay more in tune with my RP partners, which wasn't as possible in earlier moments due to the internship (speaking of which, if you'd like to discuss things with an interaction to lead eventually, feel free to boop this post and I'll drop by your IMs!).

Other than that, this week seems to be one of looking forward to a few things. Thursday will be my last day of internship. Tomorrow I have to make a call to a pharmacy with the potential of a job interview. During this week I should get a call from the pharmacist that interviewed me last week and receive news about the delivery of the provisional title of pharmacy technician (that's a whole can of worms that is best to not open lol). And lastly I will visit the place where I'll continue my studies from September onwards within the health line, going for dietetics! I hope you peeps enjoy the last of the weekend and that you have a good start of the week ♥︎

[locklyle1kanij]

Okay it’s time for part two of my Lockwood and Co fic recs, we’re going into the not as known fics and a lot of them are newer and mostly a bit shorter then the other ones i recommend last time.

(and of course they’re all mainly locklyle)

Also spoilers for The Hollow Boy ending if you haven’t read it, bec a lot of these fics have to do with the ending of that book.

Also if you have any trouble finding theses fics just let me know and i can hopefully help you out. ENJOY!!

“A certain step to falling in love” written by: buttonupshirt

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

Lucy reads Lockwood's copy of Pride and Prejudice

“A turn of fate” written by: IndecisiveScribbler

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

Lucy Carlyle has the worst luck. After getting rejected from what seems like every agency in London, it honestly feels like the world is against her. Fate strikes her with a second chance, though, and she is hired by Fittes as the newest member of Quill Kipps' team. She's prepared to show just how powerful her Talent can be. Anthony Lockwood is having an absolutely terrible time finding a new agent. He and George are struggling, and it doesn't help that Kipps keeps tearing cases away from them left and right. Luckily, he has a plan that will solve both of his problems at once.

I’m other words…

An AU in which Lucy doesn't learn about Lockwood & Co. and gets hired by Fittes instead.

“After the fall” written by: Littlelola

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

THB SPOILERS!! a different way the argument about Lucy leaving L&C could have gone.

“Don’t give up on me” written by: dmh23

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

TCS SPOILERS!! What if after their experience with La Belle Dame, Lucy is absolutely furious at Lockwood for following the Visitor? What if the case forces them to confront their feelings for each other, before their emotions end up causing even more issues for them and everyone around them?

“Drag Me Down” written by: buggybugs

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

After the untimely death of his sister, nine year old Anthony Lockwood is sent to live with a family friend who teaches him how to protect himself. But when a mysterious person drops off a pamphlet when he's seventeen, it's going to change everything. Alongside his untrained psychic powers and newfound friends, George Karim and Lucy Carlyle-Fittes, he'll soon discover that not everything is what it seems. Welcome to Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, where you train hard to become international psychic secret agents....otherwise known as Psychonauts.

[Psychonauts AU, but you do NOT have to play the games in order to read this! The setting and some of the plot points are taken from the game, but a majority of it are worldbuilding things I've created myself to make this concept work so that it can be read by all readers.]

“Give me something to believe in” written by: PiningLikeFineDining

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

A royalty AU where Lucy and Lockwood meet as kids.

(my obsession with Royalty AU’s is honestly pretty concerning lol)

“Glowing Dim As An Ember” written by: LeonaBelle

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

Lukia doesn't remember her life before she was taken in by Mrs. Karlova. All she knows is she needs to get out of Russia and go to Paris, where she's sure she'll find the key to her past. A snarky conman, Anton, and his comrade Georgiy are her ticket out, with one catch: she has to pose as the Grand Duchess Ludmila. Along the way she finds herself inexplicably drawn to Anton, who seems somehow familiar. Lukia's journey is sabotaged by sinister shadows from her past, and only time will tell if she loses her heart or her life first.

(It’s an anastasia au, and it’s so perfect for locklyle)

“Gutted” written by: Savoirfaire

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

THB SPOILERS!! Lucy is staying away from Lockwood for his own good. Lockwood is too proud to ask her to come back. It'll take a miracle to get them back together. That, or a foot of steel rebar through the stomach.

“Happy endings” written by: Shenanigans24

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

an AU where, Lucy Carlyle is a frustrated writer working a part time job that's leading nowhere. Her problem, she doesn't believe in happy endings. Anthony Lockwood, journalist, isn't looking for a happy ever after. He's far too busy. Both end up for different reasons, at evening classes for writers. Do they deserve their own happy ending? Well first they might have to work together to solve a shocking mystery that sounds as if it belongs in a fiction book.

“I Can See You” written by: scarlettaylor

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

Lucy Carlyle is one of the top agents in England, a part of the notorious Fittes Agency. Anthony Lockwood is the founder and leader of Lockwood and Co., an Agency rapidly rising to fame. After the two meet on a case, it seems that fate keeps pulling them together. Navigating being in love as an agent is already a challenge. Hiding it from your respective agencies is a whole other issue.

“just business” written by: menina123

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

THB SPOILERS!! Lockwood’s been looking for a way to get Lucy back all winter, and when DEPRAC decides to host a weekend conference, he finally gets his chance. And if there’s a discount on registration fees for couples (excuse me, pairs)? That’s even better.

(I found this one today and i’m already obsessed with it)

“On The Fence” written by: Mercurial_Rain

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

Lucy Carlyle is an art student that stumbles across the Lockwood & Co fencing club while finishing an art assignment. She doesn't expect to see them again, but then, fate will do as it will.

(OMG i can’t believe i forgot about this one!! It’s sooo good!!!)

“The bizarre brink of feelings” written by:

Mirroringdust (MirroringDust)

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

SPOILER FOR THB
What if Lucy never left after the Hollow Boy and what if her vision became true but in a completely unexpected way?
Lucy and Lockwood face a situation that they can't really understand and a ghost they can't really capture in the usual way. On their final way to fight it, they are trapped in the tunnel, the others already lost. The manifestation pushed them to the brink of their feelings and the only way to not get lost is to admit them.

“The Darkness Beyond The Gates: A Halloween Chronicle” written by: worldofkaeos

Finished

Plot Summary:

A day before Halloween, Lockwood and Co. is suddenly tasked with one of the most arduous and dangerous case they had ever encountered. A group of missing agents, an ancient tale of a peculiar girl, and a sudden outbreak of supernatural Visitors in the midst of order, when things seemed to have already calmed down. The stakes are sky-high; will they succeed in their quest and save these agents? Above all: will they make it out alive?

“The Far Side of Paradise” written by: WhimysInkRibbons

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

It's 1930. All around the country, banks are closing their doors as the fallout of Black Tuesday spirals into economic depression. But Hesperide Manor, home of business magnate Marissa Fittes, is a world of glamour set apart. Lucy Carlyle, an aspiring PI, poses as a maid at Hesperide, determined to uncover the secrets of the manor's history in order to trade it for justice for her own. But when her past catches up to her in the form of Anthony Lockwood, the man who betrayed her years ago, she knows a single misstep will cause both their identities to come crashing down. Lockwood has been searching for his parent's and sister's murderer for years, at the cost of his childhood and the girl he once loved. When fate brings them together again in Hesperide, his heart is torn between his growing feelings for Lucy and his desire to put the murderer behind bars. Striking a tentative alliance, Lockwood and Lucy agree to help each other find the answers they seek. But as the days pass, they find themselves both falling for each and becoming more and more entangled in sinister secrets that the wealthy and powerful will do anything to protect.

“the ghosts that we knew will flicker from view” written by: the_one_that_fell

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

Not long after the establishment of DEPRAC, it was ruled that all children over the age of seven who possessed any psychical Talents were to go through government-funded training. The day Lucy turned seven, she was shipped off to London to study at Fittes House. There, she met a boy.

“The Lost Months of the Hollow Boy” written by: PininglikeFineDining

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

OBVIOUSLY TBH SPOILERS!!Lockwood begins to realize what a life without Lucy entails, learns more about her through an unexpected visitor, and receives glimpses into her past. Takes place between books 3 & 4.

(If you don’t want to emotional damaged DON,T READ THIS!)(but you should read it tho…)

“What I Know Now written” by: wawabird

Ongoing

Plot Summary:

Lucy closed her eyes momentarily and took a deep breath. Opening them she looked at the two in front of her. As of right now they were her only hope, Mary's life rested in the hands of a socially awkward occultist and his dandy of a friend who would not stop staring at her. Fantastic.
A fun little pre-problem regency au :)

I might make a part three but your gonna have to give me a couple weeks to find more because i’ve name dropped most of my favs i think lol but i will probably eventually make a part three… Also if any of the authors see this post, Thank You sooo much and keep doing what your doing <33333 and of course let me know your fic recs because I LOVE L&C FICS!!

[cyberstudious]

Hey!!! I saw that u are working in cybersecurity as someone who is looking for jobs in the software/data science industry it'd mean a lot to me if you could refer me to an open role or help out a bit please?

hi! unfortunately I don't know of any open roles other than just what would be on job search websites (it is really a nightmare out there for finding entry-level positions 🙃) but do let me know if there's anything else I could help out with!

I got my job after doing an internship with my current company, and I got the internship by showing up to a recruiting event they had at my college and just talking to people, participating in the little tech challenge they had, and doing a "by the way here's my resume" when I sent in my answers lol. it still amazes me that it worked but here I am haha.

my top tip I guess is to take advantage of any chance you have to talk to an actual human person, whether through recruiting events or finding industry meetups in your area or something else, because that will make the entire process Way Easier than just submitting a million resumes to every open job alongside everyone else who is also submitting a million resumes to every open job.

also you probably know this, but I was chatting with someone else in the industry recently about how his daughter graduated recently & couldn't find a job (in marketing rather than tech, but still kinda the same boat). he wasn't sure if an internship was worth it or not and I told him oh it's absolutely worth it. from what I've seen and from my friends who are job searching right now, it's basically impossible to get a tech job if you haven't done an internship, and some of the internships out there want you to have experience already. it is truly a nightmare tbh, but any way to get experience will help out. certifications are a big thing in cybersecurity and I imagine that data science is similar?

it really is hard out there right now though so I wish you the best of luck! internship application season is getting ready to start (or at least the big companies always hire their summer interns in September/October from what I've seen) so hopefully some good positions will open up :D

(oh and also obligatory "I live in the United States" disclaimer, idk what the state of the industry is anywhere else)

[eponymous-rose]

It's a fairly busy week, and this kind of thing always helps me stay on-task - here's the day in a nutshell.

7am: Wake up (groggily) - I've found that I like having extra time in the morning, especially early in the week. Cuddles with Clara the cat, a little yoga (I have accumulated enough broken bones and scars that being totally sedentary means my whole body promptly turns to stone), shower, a nice breakfast and coffee while I catch up on work e-mails. A scientist from Switzerland who wants to do a two-year postdoc with me has sent me a document summarizing the research ideas we discussed at our last meeting! It's very neat stuff, and we're going to be putting together an application in the summer to get the full two years funded externally.

9am: Dry hair and set off to work! Manage to catch the 9:20 bus and have a chill commute to campus. Check e-mail again on my way into the building and realize our facilities manager has responded to an earlier e-mail, so I detour to his machine shop and chat a bit about the issue (I'm teaching an instrumentation class this quarter, and one of my students has been having trouble with her datalogger). He gives me a new USB cord, so I jog upstairs to try it out - no luck, just empty com ports and error messages galore :(. I also check out some of the hardware, but there are no suggestively bent pins or anything to give clues as to what's happening, and it looks like the console has stopped remote readings altogether. At a bit of a loss, I send him an update and head down to the lounge to get some hot water for my tea, then sit upstairs and quickly skim through the slides for today's lecture, which I haven't actually seen since last year. While I'm doing that, our facilities manager comes up with a fresh new datalogger and offers to configure it for me while I'm in class!

10:30am: Class goes well! We talk about some fun topics that are near and dear to my heart, and while everyone is a little on the shy and less-talkative side today, two different people are brave enough to confirm they got the right answer for the in-class exercise. Early on, the facilities manager comes in with the fresh datalogger, and I hand it off to the relieved student. Hopefully this does the trick! I get through my slides a few minutes early (probably because of the aforementioned quietness), which gives me time before my next meeting to quickly post grades for the students who gave an in-class presentation on Friday, as well as to link to the cloud recording of today's lecture.

11:30am: Research meeting! A colleague and I are co-advising an undergraduate research intern on a project we're seeking funding for (and have just hired a graduate student onto). She's progressing really nicely and just had a couple questions about a polar stereographic projection she was working on ("Is it meant to look that weird?" "Yes, absolutely."). We got her pointed in the right direction for the next couple of weeks, then raided my candy bowl and hung around a couple minutes chatting about how her classes are going. As she and my colleague leave, I see a message from the student with the troublesome datalogger confirming that the new one works! Whew. I send the victorious news to our facilities manager, with my endless thanks. The meeting wrapped up quickly, so I have time to munch on a protein bar (I usually pack a lunch, but I know I'm going out for a big dinner tonight) and enjoy my tea.

I'm a little nervous about a class I'm teaching next quarter - it's a really specialized grad-level class and if it gets fewer than 5 students, it gets canceled. Currently nobody is registered at all. On my colleague's advice, I put together an e-mail to all the grad students to let them know what the course has to offer.

I still have some time before my next calendar item, so I jump into the early stages of a scientific journal review due on Friday. It's a bit of an annoying process - it was originally rejected, and I got brought onto the resubmission when it was a long-ass paper plus 100 pages of replies to reviewers, and now we've made it through TWO MORE ROUNDS of reviews, so it's basically just a giant novel-sized mess of people yelling at each other. But it's gonna get done!

Just as I'm getting into the swing of things, two of my students pop by and stand in the hallway giggling nervously. Apparently they can't find their TA for another class and have a question about class material, so they figured they'd ask me instead - I gently redirect them to, you know, the professor of that course. "Yeah, but we're scared of him," they say, and I try not to die laughing with the knowledge that his wife is in the office next door to me hearing all this. Mixed feelings on this one - on the one hand, I'm glad my students see me as someone they can come to with questions. On the other, it's a time crunch on me that my old-white-dude colleagues don't have to contend with. They eventually head off in search of their professor while I go upstairs for...

12:30pm: Forecast briefing! We have weekly meetings for a national weather forecasting competition we're all in - it involves issuing 4 forecasts a week. I'm... okay at it (usually in the top quarter of competitors, at least beating the models), but we have some RIDICULOUSLY talented forecasters in our group. Today's briefing is entertaining enough, and we all squabble over where we want to forecast next week (the ~1000 participants vote on the city).

1:30pm: Research meeting! This one is with my most junior graduate student, who's a bit overwhelmed with coursework (the first year of our Master's degree is 9 extremely difficult courses before they finally get to do research full-time). We talk through it a bit and he asks for my advice on project/time management, so we chat about pomodoros, the Star Trek Scotty method (always give yourself a buffer and act as though things are going to take more time than they really will), and not writing the entire day off if you wind up doing nothing all morning - you can still hit a reset switch and have a busy afternoon if you need to. Just generally "be kind to yourself, because in the end the self-imposed guilt of not finishing something will stop you from progressing more than anything else." We also talk organizing code and avoiding hard-coding even when it makes the initial time investment much higher. It's a good chat, ending with some restaurant recommendations when he finds out I'm heading to his hometown this weekend! We wrap up early with some specific goals for the next couple weeks, and, after sending in my forecasts for the day, I get back to my review. I also order 5 lbs of candy to refill my candy bowls. It's been that kind of quarter. An e-mail comes in from a student interested in my course and asking for more info! She confirms she's probably going to take it, after consulting with her advisor. Heard from another colleague that she's got one student interested - two down, three to go!

2:30pm: Research meeting! How obvious is it that I like to front-load my week with meetings? This one's with a freshman undergraduate student who's started working with me as a research assistant on a new project... except the project we were originally going to work on together is going very very slowly (our collaborators at a different university are dragging their heels). He met with my PhD student a while back and got really interested in his work, and he apparently knows more than enough coding to be able to follow along, so I went ahead and got him access to 300,000 core hours and 1,000 GPU hours on a national supercomputer to do some exploratory data analysis. As you do. Tragically, the initial project also only works on PCs, and he's a Mac user, so that's another reason to pull him off one project and onto the other. Alas. The project he can't do is a SUPER appealing project to me (very repetitive, boring work that requires little brain-power - please let me do this from time to time!), so I might participate for the heck of it. Meeting ends a little early, so it's back to the review.

3:30pm: We're hiring! It's a dual hire with another department, so it's been a bit fraught, but the grueling two-day interviews roll on. This is number 3/5, so we're getting into the swing of things, and it's time to go attend the public seminar portion of the interview for this candidate. He is... absolutely astonishing on paper, like a once-in-a-generation kind of mind, so I'm already excited to see his talk. We'd be incredibly lucky to have him, although I'm not entirely clear on why he's leaving a super prestigious professorship two years in. I didn't get to schedule a one-on-one meeting with him since he has to leave earlier than expected tomorrow, but I'll be joining him for dinner tonight. The talk goes quite well, although I hear the students buzzing over whether he's genuinely collaborating or just doing the tech-bro thing of coming in and claiming to solve all our problems... Plenty to think about at dinner tonight. I believe this will be what the kids call a vibe check. (We also have a chalk talk tomorrow where he'll present his work to just the faculty + postdocs, so more chances there!)

5pm: Got some time to kill before heading over to dinner at 5:45. I was originally going to do some work, but my brain is a little fried at this point and I may just zone out and scroll for an hour. More tea! That'll solve everything.

5:45pm: Meeting a colleague to go grab the candidate and Uber over to the restaurant together - I love this place! Lots of good food, and plenty of non-alcoholic cocktails and veggie/vegan/gluten-free options, so an ideal spot to bring a guest speaker or faculty candidate. He was very pleasant to chat with and really knew his stuff despite having just had an exhausting day. Good food, good chats all around. Home by 9:30pm, phew.

[cupboardgods]

Hi! I was wondering how you became a grants manager? I'm interested in making a career change, but when I looked into it a lot of the advice was just "find a non-profit and do work for free for a while". Thank you!

Tl;dr: I got grants experience doing simple admin work for NIH during the pandemic, and I have an arts degree and a lot of customer service experience.

But ugh literally. Years ago, I met a woman who "coasted on [her] inheritance" for a decade working unpaid jobs and climbing the ranks at her museum until she got a leadership position. Not only was that really insensitive "advice", but I dont know if you can even DO THAT anymore with the current job market. So I know the struggle and unfortunately that's also the stage I'm at now in my career despite my job experience.

I think I was very lucky to land that arts council job, actually. Recruiters keep telling me that grant review/grantmaking is super niche (they're not even clear on what it is a lot of the time...they think I was writing grants or doing accounting...no).

I think it was a combination of right time/right place and the role being difficult to fill.

Basically, I got pulled into contract work at NIH by a friend in summer of 2020. One of those situations where they really needed people and your education/background didn't matter too much. That job involved supporting grant review meetings, recruiting reviewers, etc. Didn't pay well but was reliable and remote and easy.

Eventually, I was fed up with working there and started looking for arts nonprofits that I could volunteer for and hopefully leverage a job I liked. That's how I stumbled upon the arts council job opening, which was full time and paid a competitive salary for the industry.

I was a good fit bc of my arts background, lots of customer service experience, and also because I was coming from NIH, which is like the best of the best in peer review.

Tbh the responsibilities ended up being much more than what was described in the job posting. My arts council was pretty ambitious despite lack of resources, and also wanted me to revamp everything. I had to learn A LOT on the job. God it was so much. It was a big step up from my previous admin role. Also, going from an NIH institute with hundreds of employees and over $100 MILLION in funding to a tiny nonprofit with 9 employees and a couple bucks was a bit of a shock.

I guess I'd say look to larger organizations to get experience? I live in the DC area, so it's all associations and government contracting here. But I do think my NIH role was the main reason I got the Grants Manager job.

And of course, in a career change, really sell yourself. Make sure you are clear about how your previous experience makes you a good fit. It might be as obvious as "I managed this program therefore I can manage yours too," but if you don't say that, the employers aren't going to come up with that themselves. The reality of the current job market is they don't want to train you and they expect you to have already had the same title they're hiring for.

I'm currently trying to pivot to other nonprofit work--program manager roles, preferably in the arts, but I'm not being picky. But lately I haven't had a lot of success.

Best of luck!

[seongminiz]

don’t be sorry!! it’s ur blog<3

that’s really frustrating though, i’ve had similar experiences as well where doctors are of no help and it’s like, if i knew what was wrong i would just tell them but i don’t and that’s why im asking lmfaooo like isn’t that what they’re there for??💀💀

i wish u luck with ur appointment, and i hope its not too stressful, and u get some answers and hopefully don’t have to do too many more exams, especially any unnecessary ones😣😣

🫶🏻🫶🏻i hope everything will be figured out for u soon!!🩷🩷

- 🧁 anon

thank u my love :') yeah its disappointing when it happens n at this point i've been sick on n off since ~october 2023 ?? which is like concerning asf but its always different stuff so i dont even know if its all somehow the same problem manifesting differently or if its all isolated cases or if my immune system just got immensely fucked at some point last yr n i still haven't recovered

its also frustrating bc i promised myself i'd get a job this summer but i keep getting sick n literally the only thing i tried out was too emotionally/psychologically draining n no one else will hire someone who will only work for like 1½ month since im going to uni in september :/

i keep over sharing aaa ik this is my blog n i can do what i want but i dont want it to get too heavy like this is not therapy lmao

[deathcapyandex]

The Mundane In Macabre - c3

[the mundane in macabre - chapter three]

Chapter one(link), chapter two(link)

Helicopters are a frequent sight over the town of night vale, various kinds exist, though who owns the majority of them is still rather unknown.

The blue belong to the secret police, that much is known, however...

I saw another yellow one today. These helicopter sightings have been increasingly more frequent.

I haven't been listening to the community radio, so I'm kind of behind on the news.

This one though, it dropped a bunch of fliers, missing kid posters, I think the girl on this one was one of the kids that went missing and returned from a summer program at the library, that was some event she came out of I hope she's alright.

Oh but that girl I mentioned before that came to the store and bought a plant? She came back, said the flowers really made a difference in the office but were too short lived.

I finally got her name too! Kiyomi. A pretty name. Just like her, pretty.

She didn't really buy anything this time but she did ask some questions about my store. The usual, nothing major. Just "how long have you had this place running?" "What do you do other than care for and sell plants" "how do you make the medicine?" "Is anything cursed?" "Do you have a dark magic practitioner on your staff?" And "why don't you sell xyz items?".

I'm actually the only person running the apothecary, but maybe I should look into hiring some help with the nursery. Kiyomis pretty smart I'm glad they asked me about that, or I never would have thought about it.

Shouldn't be too hard to find someone to at least help out with plant care, maybe a weekend intern or something.

Ah hold on.. I just turned on the radio, apparently that girl from the flyer, Tamika, is not missing, she's fine, that's good to hear. Things don't feel right though...

Oh that's probably the nausea, lately the box under my desk has started humming, a weird buzzing noise that's kind of making me sick. I think I'll move it somewhere else, like a room in in less frequently. I won't move it outside or some porch pirate will steal it and those hooded figures won't get their property back for sure.

Though it's been a while since I've seen them, since they left it behind even.

The noise is pretty bothersome, I'm not sure I want to open it anymore, but I might just to see if I can get the noise to stop. I'll have to make up my mind soon or the noise might get worse, I'd rather not trigger a migraine for myself if I can help it.

I hope kiyomi becomes a regular, she's really nice and interesting to have around, always something clever or peculiarly interesting to say. She's sweet and funny..and pretty.

Who, some kid just dashed in and hid behind- huh, they're shaking their head at me frantically..oh! Never mind there's no kid here, and if there was they went out and have probably gone home by now, it's just me and the box behind the counter.

Kids are strange, I would know I used to be one...not that I can remember much of it though. But they are strange, always so full of energy and ideas.

Another yellow helicopter just flew overhead, they dropped more missing children posters. Theres more than just Tamika now, they're looking for a bunch of kids.

One looked familiar, not because there's a kid with that description hiding in my store, no there's no kids here at all just me.

Oh right, when I talked about some medication going missing, the pain pills, something else when missing again, almost an entire supply of some seeds are gone. Mostly herbs.

Not sure who wants to grow herbs all by themselves in the dessert, but I wish them luck, just wish they'd payed first.

Hopefully nothing else goes missing or has gone missing. I'll check soon, I have...a few things to take care of before I start closing up fir the day.

I might have found that intern afterall...

[john3vanmba]

New Job (hopefully)

In our third session in Lasallian Business Leadership, Ethics, and CSR, we were taught about the value of work and its purpose in our lives. Miss Pia asked us, “What are you working for?” The question resonated on me and made me reflect about my life.

My career started jumping around different construction companies. I was a field engineer back then doing quality control and assurance. That experience went on for two (2) year until finally deciding the I am not going to do field work ever again because I feel like my physical health is deteriorating with all the heat, solvent, pollutants and dust in the workplace. If you’ll see me, I’m a scrawny guy (laughs). Luckily, in 2015, a large distribution utility company hired me to do verifications and approval on new service applications. It was then that I was exposed to finance and fell in love in that field since then. I kept doing the finance job for more than seven (7) years until finally resigning in 2023 for reason I will not expound; I don’t want to stain the office since my manager there is very kind to me. A few weeks after resigning in the summer, I started a new job in a power generation company. It was a great start and thought the role (mixture of finance and IT) was amazing; but unknowingly, in my sixth month of stay, just the time that I was regularized, the department I was working for, got dissolved and I was moved to a different department and role. I feel neutral with the new role, I do not dislike it but I do not like it either. I don’t really myself doing the new role long term so I planned ahead and made critical decisions. So, I started looking for a new job in December and up until now, February, no luck.

My previous work and current job search made me realize a few things. What does work do for me? I thought I am working to build a career but, all those years, it finally came to me that I am just working for the job and the pay, for me to do or buy the things that I actually like. I work to pay the bills, my father to live comfortably, to help my younger sisters whenever they’re in need and to have funds for my hobbies. I think I decided to change that point of view when I started MBA in De La Salle University, and that is to finally get a proper business or finance degree since I am originally an engineer. I aspire to climb the corporate ladder and become a Chief Finance Officer someday. I was so inspired to reshape my career in my current job but you already know what happened, but I am definitely not giving up, I am very hopeful that I am going to find a new finance job soon; I know God will help as long as I believe.

Here's my hobby if you're curious. I paint scale models like these, either real or fictitious. Left is before painting and right one is the result after painting and a few modifciations.

[eponymoussquared]

Here we go again

I'm not good with stick to projects. Like-at all. However, this one is a bigger one and something I have more inspiration for then the Pandora Story-a series of stories in a universe I'm calling 'One Level Down.' I don't want to say much, because I suck at not spoiling things, but it stems from the idea of 'getting so meta that it circles around to not being meta anymore.' Will it work? Will it flop in its face? Only time will tell.

Story BEGIN!(Ima use some equal signs to differentiate ================================================

Jonah had driven down this road many times before, but that didn’t make it any less uncomfortable. The road was bumpy and jagged, looking like it hadn’t been repaved since it was built. In fact, Jonah thought it probably hadn’t, knowing where the road led. Mr. and Mrs. Camperson,—Jonah was sure that wasn’t their real name, but they refused to offer any alternatives or respond to other titles—the owners of Camp Camp, were nothing if not eccentric, insisting that their campsite be built in the middle of nowhere ‘for an authentic wilderness experience.’ An actually well maintained road, they argued, would break the immersion. The same logic was used for having the road go through the middle of a dense forest, the trees blocking out any light, leaving it pitch black. It felt like the kind of place a monster would leap out from and scare you. Or maybe he just watched too many horror movies. Regardless, he wasn’t sure how the couple had been given permission to build a campsite anywhere, but they paid pretty well. Although he was beginning to doubt they paid enough to cover the potential tire replacement costs…

His train of thought was abruptly derailed when he finally saw the entrance to the main clearing. Although it was really just a large empty clearing, it was distinguished from the swathes of forest around it by a sort of gate made by two large trees with a large sign hung between them. It read, in bright, flashy colors that horribly clashed with the surroundings:

WELCOME TO:

CAMP CAMP! WE PUT THE ‘TENT’ IN INCOMPETENT.

Jonah sighed. They still hadn’t fixed that sign. The builder had added an extra ‘in’ by accident, but instead of suing him or hiring someone else, Mr. and Mrs. Camperson had just kept it that way. Maybe they just found it funny, but Jonah suspected they just didn’t like doing repairs. Despite the exorbitant funds they had blown on a secluded spot in the forest that also had a nearby lake, they seemed not to care about things like ‘cabin size’ or ‘air conditioning.’

Jonah, of course, could just stay in his car, but the campers wouldn’t have that luck. Hopefully he’d be a counselor for a less whiny batch than last summers… at least, he thought they’d been whiners. However, when he tried, he found he was having trouble recalling anything about last summer. Not a single name or face of even one kid. Before he could ponder this more, though, the other counselors arrived.

[mindofharry]

Getting this job was a dream come true for Y/N. Being a dancer and actress was hard during the pandemic. No one would hire, well no one could really hire even if they wanted to. So getting to be in a music video with a famous artist is thrilling, exciting and everything she’s ever dreamt of these few months. She thought at the most, she’d get 30 seconds screen time — which she was happy with — but then her agent called and said that she would be the main dancer. Y/N nearly collapsed then and there.

It was just her luck. After months of not working and being unprepared, she’s the main dancer. Y/N pushed her nerves down and decided that this is good. She’ll get more offers from this hopefully and in the end, it will be fun and get her creative juices flowing.

Harry had asked for Y/N specifically. He had watched her videos on youtube all throughout the pandemic and was utterly enamoured by her. The way she moved, the emotion in her face. It was mind blowing to Harry how talented she was and for some reason Harry thought she didn’t realise that. When coming with the concept for As it was, Harry knew he had to have Y/N in the video some way or another. He got a hold of the director and told them his ideas and then Jeff got in touch with Y/N’s agent and the rest is history.

They first met at rehearsals.

Harry and Y/N had a dance number, that might look easy, but was actually really hard as they had to multitask. So they needed all the practice they could get. Y/N so excited she was jumping off the walls. She had listened to a lot of Harry’s music and thought he was amazing performer. And he wasn’t too bad to look at either.

Harry spotted her first, laughing with the choreographer. She was wearing tight leggings and spots bra with no shoes on. Her hair was pulled up but some baby hairs escaped. He wanted to run his fingers through her hair so badly. She looked radiant and perfect, like a warm summers day.

Y/N saw Harry the moment he entered the room, he was shy at first but once they got talking he was very eccentric. Y/N loved that.

The dance was somewhat intimate, which Y/N always enjoyed.

“You can touch me, Harry,” She whispered, Harry swallowed, holding in a groan. He placed his hand on her shoulder and Y/N shivered at the touch.

“I want to touch you in other places,” Harry admitted.

“Tell me,” Y/N murmured.

“Your tits….” Harry whispered, as they held each other. “God, always teasing me. So fucking perky and your nipples are always hard,” He teased.

“I can feel your erection against me, loser,”

Harry placed a small kiss in the crook of her neck, “And your pussy. I just want to taste you so bad,”

[wolfstarlibrarian]

HELLO I was jw what were your favourite fics featuring POC Marauders without the shitty stereotyping 💜

Also thank you librarian for your content. Honestly this is the top tier rec blog in the fandom due to your amazing taste.

Well THIS is a great ask! It’s nice to see fans looking for authentic diversity in fics as opposed to tokenism. Just about all of these fics have been listed on various library lists, but hopefully people enjoying seeing them listed somewhere convenient. Also, this is just a VERY SMALL selection of fics featuring Remus or Sirius as POC, so if you’re looking for more of a certain representation, just send an ask!

Also, a note to authors looking to include representation (other than their own ethnicity) in their next fic: make sure that you read first hand experiences from multiple sources, research with advocacy groups, and THEN try reach out to a peer who can potentially beta/do a sensitivity read for you. It's important that we all try and learn as much as possible on our own before asking our peers to work as our educators. ❤️

POC Wolfstar

Black James & Cuban Sirius

Be My Baby by @remus-john-lupin It’s the summer of 1963, and 18 year old Remus Lupin discovers dance, love, and even himself. (A very romantic and very gay Dirty Dancing AU.)

Latino Remus

Forget-Me-Not by @halictus-writer

For someone who just woke up with amnesia and a bad concussion, Remus Lupin isn't too dispirited. He'll get through it with the help of his friends, taking it one day at a time, as Sirius says. The only (other) problem? There's something important that he's forgetting.

Retrial by phoenixgal

Remus Lupin, host of the popular podcast Retrial, decides to focus on the case of Sirius Black, a man convicted of murdering his high school best friend, for his upcoming season. Remus has gotten too close to his subjects in the past, so he promises himself that won't happen this time.

Desi Sirius

Young Hearts Intertwined by @goodboylupin

There’s a special kind of magic to a wartime wedding.

Latino Remus & Desi Sirius

A Lucky Mishap by softiejace Of course this would be just Remus’ luck - the library printer breaking when the deadline for his term paper is coming up. And to top it off, the pretty boy he’s been running into all week is there to witness his moment of misery… but maybe he can turn things around?

Sephardic Jewish Remus

Candles in the Darkness by @miraxb

In the winter of seventh year, James, Sirius, and Remus are all carrying their own burdens and fears for the growing darkness in their world. Together, they find comfort and light at the Hanukkah celebration in the Lupin household.

Half Syrian Remus

I Tried Writing Your Name In The Rain, But It Never Came, So I Used The Sun Instead by @prefectmoony

Don’t get Remus wrong. He loves his friends, he does! Loves them to the moon and back in fact. They’re his people, his favorite part of everyday, his found family. He’d do anything for them. But the thing is that doesn’t take away from the very simple fact that his friends are fucking ridiculous. Remus knows this, has known it for five years now. But it doesn’t stop him from startling awake on the morning of his sixteenth birthday surprised by the sound of fireworks exploding in their dormitory and a raucous chorus of “Happy birthday Moony!” being shouted into his ear with jaunty gusto.

Chinese Sirius

got a fascination (with your presentation) by @alifeincoffeespoons

When Remus thought of Oxford as a child, he envisioned turrets, laughter, and an unnameable, unforgettable magic. He did not envision vomiting his breakfast all over himself while standing in the halls of St. Catherine’s College.

Cut Your Bangs by @notmycatsname

"There’s something about him that catches Sirius’s eye. His voice is a little whiny, almost off-key. Sirius has heard it time and time again in the bands that Lily plays through their speakers at their apartment but it sounds more genuine, almost heart breaking, through his voice. Remus’s voice."

Black Remus, Desi Sirius & James

Palo Alto by NachoDiablo

Modern AU set in Silicon Valley. It's easy for Sirius to ignore his mixed-up feelings while he's got Remus all to himself, but when Remus starts dating again, Sirius is forced to figure things out before Remus moves on for good. Or before James and Peter strangle them both.

Japanese Remus and Taiwanese Sirius

kavaluan (means white lily here) by @claudiafekete 1926, Taiwan. Japanese empire's prized colony. Remus needed an interpreter. Sirius volunteered.

Philippino Sirius

Problems with Narrative Structure and the Rules of Manly Engagement [+Podfic] by @xinasvoice

"There were easily six hundred people living in the Paramount building in downtown San Francisco. That was a lot of neighbors to get to know, but it only took a single day of living there for Sirius to notice Remus."

Latino Remus & Japanese-American!Sirius

Discards by @picascribit​ When 21-year-old assistant librarian Sirius spots a cute hipster college student at the Seattle Public Library, he just needs to figure out a subtle way of determining whether he’s into guys. But Remus’s life is more complicated than Sirius knows.

Native American Sirius

Grimsfall by @remus-john-lupin

There is a legend in the old city of Grimsfall that a large, black creature used to emerge from the forest at night, and anyone who met its gaze would be driven to madness before the thing dragged them into the depths of hell.

Mexican Remus & Sirius

A Whole Queer County Fair by @bigblackdogfic Two queer Mexican kids talking, having sex, and feeling their feelings in Arizona.

Indigenous Australian Remus

Among The Gumtrees by WolfstarGarden Sirius inherits his uncle's farm, but finding the right farmhand isn't as simple as he'd hoped: Sirius just couldn’t help but wonder if fantasising about his straight farm assistant was maybe one boundary breach too far. On the other hand, perhaps Remus shouldn’t suck on the end of his pen while lost in thought.

South American Remus

The Delegate by @wanderingbandurria

It’s 1921, and Sirius Black is a sailor that wants to prove himself as a political agitator. He sets foot in a lost, forgotten port in South America, where he’s supposed to help with the local organization of syndicalists. He’s not expecting to meet a brown-eyed man who is there to help put his words into Spanish. A man that’s really not interested in anything but doing his job. Nothing more.

Thai Sirius

Whatever Words I Say -orphaned fic

When Remus Lupin is hired to control the antics of famous lead singer of the Marauders, Sirius Black, he knows he has his work cut out for him. Sirius is contrary and has absolutely no chill, and loves pissing off the press. Remus feels up to the challenge, but he certainly does not expect to fall head over heels in love from the moment he meets the charismatic singer.

Something Beautiful -orphaned fic When Remus Lupin’s ex talks him into a drunken tattoo mistake, he goes to his friend and co-worker Lily for help. Luckily her husand’s best mate is a tattoo artist who can help with the cover up. Unfortunately for Remus, the tattoo in in a rather compromising area, and he’ll have to get over his embarrassment. Luckily for him, Sirius Black is just the man for the job.

So many fics and yet so many more to go! As always, feel free to reblog with your own recs!

[gerec]

Au-gust 2022

Find previous prompts here: AU-gust Challenge 2022

7. Science Fantasy

Pairing(s): Cherik Warnings: None

Star Wars AU! Follows after my ficlet Hunting for Beskar :D

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Erik mutters, as they slip quietly up the gangway of the docked Imperial Cruiser. They’ve managed to evade the spaceport patrols thanks to Summers’ intel, while McCoy has managed to override the security systems without triggering any alarms. So far, everything is going exactly to Erik’s plan – intercept on Brentaal, midway on the Hydian Way trade route between Corellia and Ord Mantell – and it certainly looks as though they’ll actually get away with stealing the shipment of Beskar from his former employers.

Except that everything has gone just a touch too smoothly, given the intricacy of their planned heist and the size of their payload, and Erik has been doing this for too long to believe that the luck they’ve had so far is going to hold.

At his side, Charles grins at him, as though he knows exactly what Erik’s thinking, and he curses again for ever agreeing to another one of Xavier’s mad and always lethal operations. As fantastic as the sex is every time, he’s not sure it’s worth getting a blaster shot in the face (there was that one time too where he was almost fed to a Rancor on Nal Hutta) though Erik has a bad habit of forgoing all common sense around the Xavier siblings.

Behind them, their motley crew of smugglers and mercenaries follow, armed to the teeth with enough ordnance to take out a few Imperial platoons. And that’s not even counting the Mandalorian who hired them for the job, who Erik hasn’t actually heard speak to anyone except Charles. Between ‘Howlett’, Raven, Summers and two of Erik’s own – Angel and Janos – there should hopefully be enough people on hand to haul the Beskar back to the ship.

(His co-pilot Azazel and McCoy are waiting for their signal, ready to come in turrets blazing to extract them if needed.)

His knowledge of the cruiser’s layout has them bypassing all the hot spots and chokepoints, and soon enough they’re on the detention level where he knows the Beskar is stored. The cargo bays are entirely too open and difficult to defend, so anything of real value ends up being stowed away in cells behind security doors and shield generators.

(That’s a rule Erik himself recommended and implemented fleet-wide, while he was still working under Shaw’s command.)

Of course, once they get there, the Beskar isn’t the only thing they discover, and Charles’ face drains entirely of color before he’s shooting the panel to the cell door and setting off every conceivable alarm.

“What the kriffing Bantha’s ass are you doing, you maniac!” he seethes, as Charles shoves past him to quickly rewire the doors. Only Raven seems unfazed by her brother losing his damn mind, going wildly off plan to very quietly get in and get out without alerting the Imps. “You’re going to bring the entire ship to our location and get us all killed.”

“I know,” Charles says, his voice stripped of all its usual smugness and irreverence. There’s a determined look in his eye that Erik doesn’t know – has never seen in all the time they’ve spent together on and off-mission – and he realizes in an instant that something very big and very terrible is about to be revealed. “Erik, I need you to take Howlett, Angel and Janos and grab all the Beskar you can carry. I’ll create a diversion to buy you some time to contact the Genosha for pickup.”

Snarling, Erik grabs Charles by the arm and doesn’t let go, anger and fear making him less than amenable to taking orders from his some-time lover. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.”

McCoy’s voice comes over the comlink then, crackling with static and barely discernable from the sirens blaring overhead.

Charles, whatever you’re doing you’ve got T-minus one minute to do it. Stormtroopers on your level, headed your way.

And that’s also when the contents of the cell reveal themselves to Erik and the others; three young teens all wearing force suppression collars, who fling their arms around Charles and hold on to him like a lifeline.

“Master Charles,” one of the girls whispers, as Charles hugs them all fiercely, hand gently stroking the girl’s long red hair. “I knew you weren’t dead.”

“It’s alright, Jean. I’m here,” Charles says.

“He will be if we don’t all get out of here,” Howlett interjects. “Run now. Talk later.”

Too stunned to argue, Erik can only nod in agreement, and hope they make it out alive so he can get some much-needed answers.

[the-zebra-dragon]

Last week we went to the Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT) as part of our summer vacation. Technically we were in St. Louis for a wedding, but my sister had free tickets to the garden through her work, so we decided to take a few days and do all the fun St. Louis things.

Now, MOBOT has been under construction for a while for a new visitor’s center. As luck would have it, the day we were there, the Garden Members were having an exclusive preview of said new visitor’s center. My family (+sister’s roommate that tagged along) are not members, so we figured we’d see it some other time.

MOBOT is famous specifically for it’s massive tropical greenhouse, the Climatron. It looks a little bit like THIS:

And is home to over 400 varieties of plant life, according to Wikipedia. It’s fantastic and a fun place to walk through (and air-conditioned!) and I highly recommend it. This is also where we met Diane.

Diane, if I remember correctly, has volunteered at the Botanical Garden for 15 years. She was walking through the Climatron and stopped to chat with us near the end, when my sister and her roommate were throwing water bottles at us and telling us to hydrate. Diane asked if we’d enjoyed our visit thus far (Yes) have we been here before (Yes) and most importantly, did we see the pitcher plants in the middle of the Climatron? (Absolutely)

At this point, I’m vibrating in hyperfixation. I FUCKING love pitcher plants, dudes. Yes! I saw them! I know so much about them! They are my beloveds! Diane asks me if there are pitcher plants that are bigger than the Climatron’s. I practically vibrate out of my skin with a “Yes! Some can even catch small mammals and reptiles!” I didn’t even get to mention the Bats! Diane is thoroughly impressed with me regardless! She would hire me on the spot if she had that authority, and tells me as much. She continues asking questions about pitcher plants. I continue answering them. Diane continually says she wants me to work at MOBOT. I think it would be a dream, personally.

We eventually part ways with Diane, and head out to the Home Gardening Center. In retrospect I maybe should have asked about keeping my pumpkins safe from pests (squash bugs FUCK OFF challenge). We wander the demonstration gardens for a bit before realizing among their veggies that we’re all starving. You cannot eat the veggies out of the MOBOT veggie garden, because if everyone with vaguely sticky fingers did there would be no vegetables to display, and that defeats the purpose.

Luckily, MOBOT has a tram system, and there’s a stop right outside our current location. Since they do have to pay their workers, however, the tram is five bucks per person if you’re not a member. It is what it is. We’re resigned to shell out thirty bucks (hopefully to replace the dead cobra lily in one of the nearby flower beds, may it rest in pepperonis) when someone hollers at us from the tram. It’s Diane! She remembers us!

Diane, in addition to being a volunteer, is a member. And members, she points out to the tram driver, can bring five non-members onto the tram free of charge. Our group is six. The tram driver, feeling the spirit of giving, lets our sixth person on under her own membership. Diane asks where we’re heading as the tram starts moving. We explain that we’re looking to get food, and also could we leave the garden and come back? Is that allowed? Diane confirms that’s allowed, BUT she has a better idea.

The tram takes us around the long way, past the Japanese Garden, Henry Shaw’s house, and one of the botanical museums. Somewhere in there I tell the story of Persephone, as her statue resides along this route, and I have a cat named after her. We make it back as close to the front as is possible by tram, and Diane marches us to the old visitor’s center. It is connected to the new one by a single door, guarded by a nice young woman. Diane tells her that we’re with her, and we’re all going into the new visitor’s center. The young woman is fairly certain this is breaking some rules. Diane tells her it’s fine.

The new visitor’s center is gorgeous, y’all. We all follow Diane down to the snack bar for sandwiches (we were planning to eat a big dinner, so we didn’t need a whole lot). She makes sure we don’t need a membership to actually buy the food. Once that’s all settled, she tells me she’ll see me soon (presumably as a staff member) and promptly vanishes into the garden, never to be seen again by us.

There’s good in this world, guys. There always has been. And sometimes it’s in the botanical garden, and it’s curious about pitcher plants.

[ellie-e-marcovitz]

End of year

A/N: Well, somehow, we’ve arrived at this point: the end of Year 1! It’s been almost two years since I started this. Enjoy!

The rest of the year passed with us continuing to try and figure out what the runes meant. It was the Friday after exams that the grades appeared, posted in the middle of the common room notice boards.

The entire house gathered around the notice board, eager to see how well everyone did. Rowan took top marks for the first years in the house, except for in Astronomy, where we tied. I didn’t do too badly in the other classes as well, managing to even scrape a passing score in potions.

I suspected some outside influence, possibly McGonagall insisting that Snape not fail all the Gryffindors. That, or he had gritted his teeth while giving me the ‘Exceeds Expectations.’ Either way, I wasn’t complaining.

When we weren’t puzzling over the rune code, we were out on the grounds, enjoying the sunshine and the chance to relax. Evenings were spent socialising in the common room or starting to pack our trunks, leading up to the end of year feast.

It was during the afternoon the day of the end of year feast that Angelica knocked at our dorm room door, and asked to see me.

I wiggled out from underneath my bed, where I had been extracting my book collection. “Yeah?” I asked, coming to the door.

She looked serious. “Professor Dumbledore has requested to see you this evening. In the courtyard.”

I gulped. “Why?”

She gave me a shrewd look, almost calculating. “I assume to talk about what did or didn’t happen in that corridor.” A pause. “Good luck, Ellie. You’re going to need it.”

So this was going to be the inevitable punishment.

Rowan and I spent the rest of the afternoon in the common room, Rowan doing most of the talking. I didn’t really pay attention, especially after Angelica flicked her head towards the portrait hole, as if to say, “Go.”

I got up, and headed out, pulling my robes around me. I got a little ways down the corridor, before I heard footsteps running after me.

“Ellie!” Rowan called, hurrying up to me. “I wanted to catch you before you meet with Professor Dumbledore again!”

I sighed. “I’m sorry Rowan, but I’m pretty sure I’m on my way to be punished for our attempt. I can’t ask the Headmaster if he’ll hire you to be a professor someday.”

“It’s not about that.” She shook her head, before turning contemplative. “Although, if the opportunity presented itself… That would be really cool…” She shrugged, before glancing around. “No, it’s about the rune code we found.”

I gestured her to continue.

“I managed to find an obscure book about ciphers this morning, when I was returning a stack of books. I think I managed to figure out what it says.”

My eyebrows jumped. “That’s amazing, Rowan. What does it say?”

“The Ice Knight stands guard past the Vanished Stairs.”

A dawning realisation. “I do remember Seeing stairs and a suit of armour in my vision…”

“It’s definitely ominous,” Rowan agreed. “And since we found it in the cursed ice, it must be connected to the cursed vaults.”

“Ssh…!” I hissed. “Not so loud!”

Rowan nodded, remembering. “I’ll spend the summer holidays searching for any references to Ice Knights and Vanished Stairs at Hogwarts.” I nodded in agreement. I’d be doing something similar. “Hopefully, I’ll have it figured out by the time we return for our second year.”

I was less optimistic. “If we return…” I muttered, and Rowan joined me as I headed down. “I’m half-expecting to be expelled.”

“I hope not,” Rowan fervently countered. “I want to solve this mystery with my best friend.”

I grinned in response. We made our way downstairs, and Rowan paused in the entrance hall, near where the class rankings were posted next to the point hourglasses. I continued on to the courtyard.

It was quieter, the first stars starting to emerge as the sky darkened. I thought I even might’ve spotted Venus, but figured it was the wrong time of year. Professor Dumbledore stood near the fountain, gazing upwards as well.

“Ah, Miss Marcovitz, you have arrived.”

“Hello professor.” A moment passed, each of us watching the stars appear. I took a seat on the fountain, finding it easier than standing.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked, as we watched. I nodded, before feeling my nerves grow. “The quiet night, the crisp air — it truly puts your troubles into perspective, doesn’t it?”

“In some ways, yes.”

“I oftentimes come here when I need to make an important decision. Such as what might happen with you, Miss Marcovitz.”

“Am I going to be expelled, Professor?” I asked, nervously, bluntly, turning to face him. Professor Dumbledore gave a short shake of his head.

“You have made many, many mistakes this year, Eleanor,” he stared down at me, and I cringed at the use of my full name. “But you have also demonstrated bravery, compassion, and resourcefulness. You’ve shown great promise for the years to come. So I and the other heads have decided not to expel you.”

I heaved a sigh of relief.

“All things considered, I believe you have earned one hundred points for Gryffindor.” He gave another enigmatic smile, as my eyebrows shot up.

“One hundred house points?!” I exclaimed, shocked by the number. The most I’d managed during the year had been twenty. “Um, wow. Thank you, Professor Dumbledore.”

His expression turned stern. “But, a thought. In the years to come, you must also be mindful of how your decisions impact the others around you. Remember, Eleanor, it is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.”

I felt distinctly uncomfortable, and took a glance at the stars. “Can we talk more about the cursed ice? And my brother? And the cursed vaults?” I asked quietly, not wanting to think about his words for now, even if it would stick in my mind.

“We can.” He replied. “And we will. Next year.” He pulled out an elaborate pocket watch, one not unlike the one my dad carried to parties. “Now, the end of year feast is about to start, and I imagine Miss Khanna is anxiously awaiting your arrival in the Great Hall.”

I nodded, before hurrying off, anxious to tell Rowan.

I slipped into the Great Hall moments before Dumbledore himself entered. Thankfully, my entrance was largely covered by everyone cheerfully talking and not being the last one to enter. Though even Charlie was there before I was. I took the seat across from Rowan, next to Charlie, and she silently handed me my hat. I slipped it on just as Dumbledore entered from one of the side rooms off the Great Hall.

The chatter quieted some as he approached his podium, though not completely. “Another year, gone, and yet there is still so much to learn…” he started, and a wave of silence rippled across the Great Hall.

“Another year has come to end,” he started again, now more clearly heard. “And I hope you all have learned much this year, because I certainly feel like I have learned from you.” An enigmatic smile, his eyes twinkling in the candlelight. “But enough of my blathering. There is a House Cup to award, and a fest to enjoy.”

The last of the murmurs stopped, as everyone turned their focus to who might win the cup. “In fourth place, Slytherin, with 650 points.” A chorus of ‘Boo’s came from the green clad table, along with groans. Snape looked displeased.

“In third place, Ravenclaw, 780 points.” Scattered clapping came from behind us, though also coupled with groans.

“In second, Hufflepuff, with 890 points.” Again, scattered clapping, but this time coupled with bewildered murmurs at the change of position.

“And with 970 points, Gryffindor!”

The table erupted in cheers, and more groans could be heard from the Slytherin table. Penny tossed a double thumbs up in our direction briefly.

“Congratulations, Gryffindor, for winning the House Cup!” Dumbledore congratulated, leading the applause.

“We did it, Ellie!” Rowan cheered, arms flailing cheerfully above her. The clapping eased, though the atmosphere stayed euphoric, as Dumbledore started talking again.

“Now, please, enjoy the feast, and enjoy your summer holidays.” He finished, and the tables erupted in applause again, as the tables filled with food.

The feast passed in a riot of chatter that left my head spinning by the end of it. I managed to pack a couple more items, before crashing.

The next morning was chaos.

The last items were packed away, the final search of the dormitory undertaken, pets coaxed into the appropriate travelling carriers. Hoots had been reluctant to go back in his cage, after a year (give or take a few days) of not inhabiting it.

I pulled apart an old Daily Prophet, lined the bottom with several of Rita Skeeter’s columns, and tossed a few owl treats in for good measure. He was less reluctant after doing so.

“Crazy owl,” I muttered, tossing his cover over the cage, and heaving the cage and my trunk down to the common room. Together, me and Rowan dragged our trunks down to the entrance hall, where they were being gathered to go down to Hogsmeade Station.

The first years would be going back across the lake, and I was looking forward to doing it without crutches. Notices about not using magic over the summer holidays were being handed out, as we filtered out of the entrance hall. Mine came with another note:

Enjoy your summer holidays, Eleanor. And remember.

The note was as enigmatic as the person who wrote it. I shoved the note in my pocket, along with the notice. It probably wouldn’t mean much to mum and dad, other than potentially incite a fight. Mum would probably set me extra work, and dad would probably confiscate my wand for the summer, to keep me from using it unnecessarily.

We gathered with the rest of the first years, Charlie joining not long after.

“Ever’one here?” Hagrid asked cheerfully, to a chorus of nods. I also noticed Jae skulking over, after having attempted to skip the boat ride back. We headed down to the boathouse, and I shuddered a little as we entered. Something felt… Off. In a way I couldn’t really explain.

“No more’n four to a boat!” Hagrid restated, as everyone clambered in. Ben joined me and Rowan, looking a little less afraid of the boats this time around, as did Penny. Jae was with Charlie and Corey, who looked a little green.

The trip back across the lake was smooth, even if the Giant Squid popped a couple of tentacles up, as if waving goodbye. There had been some shrieks of shock, but also several others, including Charlie and Liz, who waved back.

Arriving on the other side of the lake, the platform was bustling with activity. We found our trunks and owls, and found the compartment we sat in on the ride up. Loading our trunks into the racks above was easier in some ways (no crutches), but also harder without the strength of adults.

Trunks and owls safely stowed, we wandered the corridor some, looking for people. Walking the length of the train, I recognised Tonks and her shock of bright pink hair. She waved cheerfully at me, which I returned. A little further on, I noticed Tulip, and she gave a tiny, almost unnoticeable nod, before ignoring us.

We continued on, and I started looking for the remaining two members of our dorm.

I had already traded addresses with Jasmine and Annika, not long after finals. Rowan promised to give me hers on the train ride home, which left Iðunn and Rose.

We happened to run into each other halfway down the train, and quickly traded addresses, just before the final whistle sounded. Shouts from the platform conductors set us scurrying back to our compartments. Arriving back, we found Ben waiting, trunk on the ground.

“D’you mind if I sit with you?” he asked. “Merula and her group kinda took over the one I used last time.” Me and Rowan shared a look.

I shook my head. “We don’t mind, Ben.” Rowan nodded in agreement.

Ben looked relieved, and we helped him hoist his trunk onto the rack, as the train slowly moved off. Soon, we were hurtling through the Scottish countryside.

We chatted happily for awhile, before we each delved into a book. Ben got a head start on his Charms homework, I wanted to finish off the book I’d begun just before the ice room, and Rowan started a mystery I hadn’t seen before now.

I tried to get comfortable in my uniform skirt, even taking off my shoes, but I still felt awkward with Ben sitting across from me. Eventually, as we crossed into England, I insisted on changing into our muggle clothes.

It ultimately came down to Ben changing in the loo, and me and Rowan trading off the compartment. I had planned ahead – I’d dressed with my favourite soccer jersey under my uniform button up, which meant it didn’t take me very long.

I spotted Charlie a little ways down the train as I waited for Rowan, and I waved. It was hard to tell if he noticed, which left me feeling a little disappointed, before Ben returned and we quietly chatted. I also watched the English countryside zip by, enjoying the varied landscapes and the clattering of the train.

Rowan slid the compartment door open with almost impeccable timing, as I thought I spotted Merula out and about. Me and Ben ducked in, hoping she hadn’t seen us, before pulling the curtains across the doors, and turning the compartments lights on.

It was far more comfortable, even if Ben raised a brief eyebrow at my jersey. I briefly stuck my tongue out, but said nothing else.

There was a knock a little while later, which turned out to be Penny. She ended up the compartment with us, looking both nervous and excited at returning to London. She had also changed out of her uniform, opting for a patterned sundress.

We quietly chatted the rest of the way back into London, and I spied various buildings as the train made its way closer to Kings Cross. I even managed to pick out Wembley, through that wasn’t very difficult.

The train pulled up to the platform with a hiss, as me and Rowan were putting our books back in our trunks. Ben seemed nervous, so I scribbled down my home phone and handed it to him.

“If you want someone to talk to,” I noted, and he gave a shaky grin in response. I also traded numbers with Penny, and Rowan gave me a slip of parchment with her address on it, which I added to the other pieces in my pocket.

“Let me know if you find something that might help with next year.” She said, and I nodded.

Trunks down from the racks, hugs and “Have a good summer!” said, we split up. Penny going to get her trunk, Ben hurrying to the platform as if being chased by an Imp, and Rowan wandering the corridor, looking for her parents.

Exiting onto the platform myself, I searched for mum, dad, and the twins. I noticed Charlie, along with his brother Bill, greeting their parents and younger siblings.

There were also goodbyes from other students. “Later, Ellie!

“Yeah, have a nice summer Marcovitz!” I gave a tight grin at that one, not entirely sure if it was complementary.

I even got a tight smile from Allison Green, as she headed for the barrier. Scanning the platform, and tuning out the chatter, I found mum and the twins not far from the barrier as well, standing just to the less crowded side of it.

Mum had thought ahead, finding a luggage cart, which I happily placed my trunk on. “Ready to go?” she asked. I patted my pockets.

“I think so.”

THE END (for now)

[Summer]

[mcgnussen]

after monaco, all i feel is pain. wtf happened to both mick and kevin's cars? I didn't go into this week expecting points but i'm just worried about the rest of the season. haas strategy has sucked the past couple of weeks, which messed up mick and kevin's chances at points, mick had a second costly crash which can really hurt their budget again, mick still has no points, and at this point im nervous that if this keeps up, the team will continue to struggle and mick's seat will be threatened. i really hope i'm wrong about this and i still have faith in both drivers and the team, but wtf is going on? what's your opinion on all of this?

i definitely feel your pain, anon!

there are so many layers to this, so i'll share my opinion on several things you mention.

haas needs to have a serious conversation about strategy. i don't know how they can solve their problems, but something is going wrong there - and as you say, it has hurt both kevin and mick in their hunt for points. if i was at haas right now, i'd consider trying to poach a good strategist with experience to help. they need to talk about how they are not backmarkers anymore - and they have to play it safe more often. better to consistently be in the points than to take crazy risks to try and get a position beyond what the car is capable of. haas does have a track record of taking these risks, but it has been more apparent this season than ever before and they need to go back to basics. it is obvious this weekend that k-mag was pissed at them for butchering his qualification, so i hope as team leader that he will have some words with them and that might put them in the right direction. before kevin joined, they actually didn't even have a tyre specialist - he made them hire one in his first few months there, so kevin has shown that he can influence them.   

their luck needs to change. there is no question that haas has fucked up strategy multiple times, but there is also no question that luck has not been on their side the last few races. bad luck can't continue indefinitely, they just need one good race again and then hopefully luck will be on their side again.   

mick. unfortunately, i think today was quite significant for him - and not in a good way. today was mick's golden chance. with kevin retired and out of the race, he was the team's only focus, their only chance at points, and then he drives into the wet and loses control of his haas. monaco is a tough track, but you have to keep in mind that others also had the same challenge and didn't put it into the wall.   kevin has done minor damage to the car this season, and this is the second time mick totals the car which means that almost everything has to be changed again. with the budget cap this season, that is just not something that can keep happening. the question is: does the haas split in two too easily - and by doing that, needlessly do extra damage to the car? or is it that mick just wrecks so much worse than they have done in the past? (obviously excluding grosjean's last race for haas). the car splits in two for safety, i know that, but i don't know how sensitive that mechanism is, if you understand? like some cars used to have a very sensitive airbag that would deploy if the vehicle was merely tapped. i wonder if the same thing is happening here or if mick just have had two really big crashes this season.   i will stand by that mick is safe and we should cut him some slack until the summer break. but it's clear from the monaco gp report that guenther's patience is wearing thin. it's understandable for a rookie (which he basically is because of how bad the 2021 car was) to not score points as often as their experienced teammate, but they cannot afford to keep having him wreck the car. for mick, everything will depend on the next races and how he does in comparison to kevin. it will also depend on haas and sponsorships. but i will say he has not driven his contract home yet, but luckily for mick, he still has a good amount of races left to do so.

[serenasoutherlyns]

Not a Summer Crush Part Two

a/n: enjoy part two I hope! any feedback will make me fall in love with you 12 times. this one features much hijinks!!

Part Two

Immediately after you hopped on your bike, you began to regret your most recent conversation, your tendency towards flights of spontaneity. It hit you that you had not only turned down drinks with Cabot and Novak's important friends, you had invited them to watch you get your boogie on with all of your airhead dance friends at a somewhat raggedy club in Brooklyn.

What. Had. You. Done.

With any luck, Alex would not mention anything to Casey and the two of them would go to whatever wine bar the other senior ADAs and fancy defense attorneys hung out at with Gillian Hardwicke and whoever else, tell them how weird you were being, and never look you in the eyes again. You tumbled into your apartment, raining papers, carabiners, chapsticks, and hair ties as you hung up your bag and helmet. You made especially sure to hang up the key to your bike lock because four times in the last month had seen you frantically biking back to your apartment for it and countless more had featured you searching through the jungle of tiny bowls full of coins and wires and keychains before you left. When you made it into your living room, two little hands wrapped around your leg, tripping you. Your fall was cushioned by your fluffy area rug, but you were startled enough to yell "fuck."

Leaving no time to spare, you heard a high-pitched voice behind you yell, "Auntie, that's a bad word!" You got up and scooped the little home invader into your arms.

"Léa," you said, "how did you get into my apartment?" The six-year-old giggled as you tickled her.

"I left Mr. Cuddles on your couch. Papa gave me the key."

"Well, did you find Mr. Cuddles?" You asked, and Léa held the teddy bear out for you.

"Yeah, I did, but then I heard you and I got so happy because Auntie is home!" You melted at that, grateful to have the girls in your life, without having children of your own.

"OK, sweet girl. Thank you for the welcome. Why don't we go surprise Papa?" You picked up the laughing kid and slung her over your shoulder, walking down the stairs to your best friend's apartment.

"Ash," you said as you opened the door. "I think I found an alien in my apartment. I don't know what it is but it's very silly." Léa protested, saying she was a girl and not an alien. You plopped the pile of giggles on the couch and greeted Ashley with a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Are we still going out tonight? The babysitter's still coming?" Ashley was juggling the two-year-old and a pot of spaghetti at once, trying to get the girls fed so he could have a rare fun night out with you and the others.

"Yep, Emma is on her way right now. And we," he said as he took your hand, "are going to dance all night long." He turned you around in the kitchen, causing Yasmin to coo in his arms. "And you, my Meena-Beena, are going to be the best little dance prodigy in the world, aren't you?"

You took her from his arms and spun her around again, saying, "If I have anything to do with it, though, you're still going to college."

"Natch," Ashley agreed with you. The doorbell rang and Ophélie, the 12-year-old, raced to let the high school girl Ashley had hired to watch them in. Ashley explained where everything was to be found, then the two of you practically flew out of the door. You changed into more appropriate clothing at your place, then caught the subway. As you traveled, you broke the news to your best friend.

"Hey. So. I may have invited a couple newbies," you told him.

"Shouldn't be an issue, it's open night and there are going to be like, 20 teachers there."

"Right. Um. Yes. But."

"What, do you have a crush or something?" You hit him.

"No. But they are my supervisors."

"Both of them?" you nodded. "Well, it's a good way for them to get to know you I guess?" You laughed nervously.

"Hopefully, they don't even come," you said wishfully. Ashley changed the topic and the two of you rode the rest of the way without discussing Casey and Alex-- but they stayed in the back of your mind.

---

Casey walked into the darkened room first, holding Alex's pinky with her own, pulling her in behind. Casey had been reluctant at first, but now that the decision was made, she wasn't going to be bashful about the experience. Besides, she had danced before, unlike her wife. Alex's upbringing had been so very proper and protestant, about the only dancing she'd ever experienced was the waltz that she and her fellow wealthy little kids had been taught in cotillion, then told never to do again outside of a ballroom. Casey, on the other hand, had been raised around all types, and had gone to her fair share of swing nights as a kid. Still, nothing like the way everyone was moving in the little club. The band was on a small stage towards the back of the space, and the room was filled bursting with beautiful women wearing flowing sequined dresses and handsome men in crisp button-downs.

Standing just inside the doorway, Alex caught your form first. You were wearing your favorite dance outfit, a simple red crop top with a silver circle skirt. Your hair was secured in a casual bun. Your tall (and, curiously, male) partner's hand sat firmly pressed between your top and your skirt. She watched, transfixed (like many others there tonight, you were often the center of attention), as he lifted and spun you around, quickly and masterfully. What was most beautiful, though, was the unreserved grin that seemed stuck in its place, except when you lifted your head back and laughed after your partner whispered something in your ear. Alex and Casey made their way over to the bar and sat down with two mojitos (neither of their usual drinks, but half the people at the bar had them. It seemed fitting), and watched you whirl around with ease and clear pleasure. Casey thought she'd never seen you look so beautiful than right then, in your element, moving as naturally as anything.

"So," Casey remarked to her wife, "Either Ashley is a man or Haley's dancing with another partner."

"Or I heard it wrong," Alex offered.

"She's stunning, isn't she?" Casey said, a dreamy, captivated tone in her voice. Alex replied with a sigh and a hum.

The two women didn't get all too long to discuss you, though, before you saw them and came bouncing (Rita Calhoun doesn’t lie) to the bar, Ashley following close behind you.

"You two made it! Alex, Casey, meet my partner, Ashley Laurent. Ash, this is Casey Cabot Novak and Alexandra Novak Cabot, my esteemed supervisors from the DA's office." Alex reached out for a handshake, but Ashley made a "tsk" noise and pulled her in for two kisses on the cheek.

"We kiss on the cheek," he said, the smallest hint of his accent (French, Alex thought) showing through, then did the same for Casey. The way Casey comfortably returned it was adorable to you, as was how Alex tried her best despite her stiffness. You saw Casey rub her thumb along the back of Alex's hand in a calming motion, and without meaning to, you traced your left thumb over your right hand. "I've heard so much about you both," Ashley continued.

"All good things," you interjected with urgency, knowing Ashley's talent for embarrassing you in front of important people.

"Pleased to hear it," Casey said. You could tell that Alex was getting nervous, she had the same look on her face as she did before a difficult case. You felt a pang of guilt for having invited them, worried that you'd maybe pressured them into doing something they didn't want to do, or worse, that they'd come out of pity.

Ashley could tell you were overthinking and wanted to make it either worse (for his entertainment) or better (for your benefit). He took Casey's hand and told her, "You know, my partner here is one of the best dancers in the state. I'm sure she'd love to show you some of the ropes."

"Oh, Ash," you said, then turned to Casey, "Only if you want to. And he exaggerates my talents."

Alex spoke up, then, to say, "Not if what we saw earlier was any indication." You couldn't help but scrunch up your eyes and nose, flattered and flustered and a little embarrassed.

"I'd be happy to dance, Caroline, but I don't want to steal your partner, Ashley," said Casey.

"Nonsense," Ashley said, "besides, I need a break, the kids exhausted me today. I'll stay, keep this one company." You couldn't argue with him any longer, and as the band started up the next song, you took Casey's hand and led her onto the outer corner of the floor.

Your heart sped up when you noticed Casey's subtle signs of nervousness. "No need to worry, half the people in here have no idea what they're doing," you said. You placed your hand around her waist and put hers on your shoulder, keeping a friendly distance between the two of you. "The trick is pretending like you're confident, and people will think you are." Casey noticed the way your voice went up as you said it, like you knew how she was feeling quite well. "And I usually follow, not lead. So, I'm out of my comfort zone too."

You had no need to say the last thing, Casey thought, as you showed her the basic steps. "It's also, really, quite simple. When I step forward, you step back." She followed your lead. "Good! Yeah, that's exactly right," you told her. "I wouldn't even believe you were a beginner," you flattered her. It was a little choppy, but that didn't matter. As you felt her get into the groove of the movement, you let go of her waist and spun her under your other arm. She gasped, quietly.

"Now, the real key here is remembering to move your hips," you said, when you took her waist back in your arms. "You gotta let them guide you. You head should barely move up or down."

"I think you lost me there," Casey said.

"Here, feel," you replied, moving her free hand to your own hips. "Notice how I let them swing every time I move my feet?"

That seemed to work (though you saw a quick moment of an emotion you couldn't quite place wash over Casey), and she was soon dancing with relative ease for a newcomer. Of course, she was in good hands with you.

Alex watched the two of you as you led Casey along the floor. From work, Alex knew you were dedicated and thoughtful, but she'd always thought of you as shy and high-strung, despite your unguarded countenance. You had no problems in court, but outside of it, you would trip over your words, avert your glance at praise; you wore your insecurities on your sleeve. You were always vulnerable, too. More than once, she'd seen you get teary in your office or when speaking with a victim. You were never the first person to leave, and you took some of the most detailed (yet nearly illegible) notes she'd ever seen.

There was nothing shy about the way you moved, the way you showed Casey how to move herself. She found herself paying attention to the way your hips rolled to the music, how you never let Casey know when she stepped wrong. It put her at ease, knowing her wife was in good hands. Everything about you looked natural, comfortable, free.

"How long have you two been together?" she asked Ashley, sipping her drink (it was very minty). Part of her didn't want to know, but that part was overpowered by her curiosity.

"Ten years this fall. We met her first year at Stanford, at a ballroom rehearsal. She was so cute," Ashley said.

"Oh yeah?"

Ashley nodded emphatically, a nostalgic look in his eyes. "She grew up in a really intense studio. She was so strict about rules, and like, crazy competitive. I used to wind her up on purpose, messing with my technique to get a rise out of her."

"I really wouldn't've taken her for a big rule follower."

"It doesn't come naturally to her, but she got good at it," Ashley said. Alex thought he sounded proud of you, like something about you had come a long way. "She's so much more chilled out than she was at 17. But aren't we all?"

Alex was amused at the idea that anybody would call you “chill” and attempted to imagine what you would've been like at that age with little success. Then again, you kept surprising her. The way you seemed as you danced was very different to how you were at work.

"Now, tell me, Alex. Does she really have to put in all those hours? You don't seem like the kind of supervisor who completely disregards work-life balance."

She thought of how to reply to that, not wanting to get you in any hot water at home. Ashley was right. Now that she was older, married, and caretaker of a sizeable plant collection, Alex took a healthier approach to hours. She also remembered being your age and working every second that she could, every moment that it took to be as thorough as she could.

"No, she doesn't have to work so much," Alex ventured. "In fact, I'm not even technically in charge of her schedule. Everyone can choose how much they work, as long as they're meeting targets. Which, unfortunately, means that we sometimes get people who just do the bare minimum."

"I'm sure Caroline isn't one of those people," Ashley said.

"She's not. She's one of the most productive and successful in the office. With the younger ones, for the first few years, they either take a while to get acclimated to the work and need babysitting, or they work too hard and need someone there to remind them to breathe." Alex felt bad that Ashley had clearly seen some element of stress in you that she failed to pick up on. She tucked that away as a conversation to have later. "I was like her. So was Casey. We both calmed down a little, but it took some quite, uh, extreme events."

Ashley, for all his disregard for the norms of conversation, knew when not to push people, and could see that Alex was feeling a bit on edge. "Would you like to dance the next one with me?" he asked, but Alex's eyes widened as she adamantly refused.

"I'm happy to just watch, you don't want to see me try."

Ashley wanted to push more, but he didn't want to risk alienating your boss, so he filled the space by telling embarrassing stories about you in college. When the band began winding down for their first break, the bartender played some pop over the stereo as the dancing crowd made their way to the bar to rehydrate. You and Casey returned to the booth where Ashley and Alex were sitting.

Casey slid in beside Alex, giving her a quick kiss. You sat next to Ashley, leaning your head on his shoulder. You let out a sigh.

"It's been a minute since you taught a newbie, Bug," Ashley said to you.

"Hardly," you replied, shooting him a glare for using your nickname from your college team. "Casey's very capable." You couldn't resist complimenting her, the way she smiled at you was too precious. "You were great," you directed at Casey.

"Please," she said, waving a hand at you and taking a sip of her mojito, watered down slightly by the melting ice. The four of you managed a very engaging conversation (thanks to your partner's valiant efforts) for the next couple minutes, until Ashley's phone rang.

"That is the babysitter. I'm so sorry ladies, I gotta take this." Everyone at the table took the opportunity to check their phones.

"Hi, Emma. Is everything ok? What happened? Is she running a fever? The thermometer is in the bathroom cabinet, can you check?"

You pushed your glass away and rubbed Ashley's shoulder, knowing how upset he got when any of his kids were in trouble.

"No, 99 isn't technically a fever, but you said she threw up? On Yasmin? Well, that's certainly gross. Um, no I wouldn't make you deal with that, here," his brow furrowed, and you started to pack up your things and his, surely you, too, would be going home to help. "Emma, I'm coming home now, should be 20 minutes or so. Léa's lovey is on her bed, if you get her that and wrap her up in a blanket on the couch, she should be OK. Ask Ophélie to entertain Yasmin and stay with Léa for me, can you? You're a gem, kid. OK, I'm leaving now, see you in 20." You started to get up with him, Casey and Alex looked concerned.

"Casey, Alex, I am so sorry to leave, but it was great to meet you two," he said.

"Léa was fine two hours ago when she attacked me," you said, addressing Ashley. "Alex, Casey, I'm sorry I got you two out here and have to leave so soon."

"What? No, you stay here, love." You opened your mouth to argue, but he insisted. "You have guests, and I'll be fine alone. Léa's always sick, and Phélie can watch the baby for me." You tried to help him again, but he wouldn't let you. You gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek goodbye, and he waved kindly to Alex and Casey as he hurriedly walked out the door.

When he was gone, you said to the other women, "I think he does too much. I work all the time. I wish I was there more to help." You played around with a straw wrapper as you talked (Alex noted, you seemed to fidget when you felt guilty).

"He seems like he's OK," Alex said, remembering how Ashley had expressed a similar sentiment to her earlier.

"Do you need to work fewer hours?" Casey asked, "because you're doing more than well."

You sighed as you thought of what to say. "Ashley's a wonderful father. No questions there. But I do think he puts too much pressure on himself."

"There's one thing you two have in common," said Alex. You only nodded in response, looking around the room. This was your happy place, and Casey and Alex somehow fit perfectly in it.

---

You all left the club right before the crowd started to die down. You were tired, and you knew Ashley would need a hug once the girls were in bed; plus, you could tell Alex and Casey were wearing out (you couldn't get Alex to dance, but you and Casey were on the floor together about half the night-- an old student of yours pulled you away from your table as the band began again, but you found Casey another partner for a few songs). As you rode home, your nerves were completely calmed. You realized that you had nothing to worry about in the first place and felt pleased at how the evening had turned out.

As soon as they reached their apartment, Alex took Casey's hands and kissed her, lightly at first, deepening when Casey parted her lips. Casey moaned, muffled, as Alex threaded her fingers through her hair and gave it the gentlest of tugs.

"We have a bed, Lex," Casey said, pulling away slightly.

Alex hummed against Casey's jaw. "You just look so beautiful tonight."

"I don't always?"

"Oh, you do. I just kind of can't believe how perfect you looked dancing."

"Well, you really have Caroline to thank for that one."

Alex made a sound that landed somewhere between a whimper and a squeak.

"Am I wrong?"

"No, you're right," Alex said. "That's the thing."

"I know," Casey replied. "Too bad she's apparently both straight and taken."

Alex giggled. "I mean, how would that conversation even go."

Casey nodded in agreement, turned on her heels, and pulled Alex down the hall, pushing her onto their very fluffy bed.

"'Hey, I know I’m 15 years older than you, married to Casey, and we’re kind of your bosses, but do you want to have a threesome?'" Alex continued in a low tone of voice, comically seductive, running her hands under the hem of Casey's tank top, pulling her closer with the fabric.

Casey laughed into her collarbone, welcoming Alex's lips as she kissed down her chest.

---

The next week passed quietly. It was a two-case week for you, one of which ended in a plea bargain, giving you more free time than usual. Alex kept bringing you coffee, and you kept running with Casey, though the weather was beginning to be too hot to do so outside (Casey, who was raised spending summers with her grandmother in Georgia, didn't believe there was such a thing; but your poor bay-area body was not suited to temperatures much above 75°). Wednesday evening around 8:00, when you were working late, tying up the details of a sexual harassment case at Manhattan Arts High School, you knocked on Alex's office door, hoping she was still in and would be willing to give you some feedback.

You heard a noise from inside, an "mm-hmm" that you took to mean "come in." You didn't wait to open the door, thanks, again, to your already limited inhibitions and the focus you had when you got deep into a case like this.

It was slightly too soon.

You quickly turned around and all but ran away, apologizing with what felt like every word in the dictionary. That was it, you decided, you had to quit. It was a good run, you thought, but you now had no choice but to leave, change your identity, and move to Spain.

Or something. Why wasn't the door locked?

You made it back to your office, just down the hall. As you fretfully packed papers into your backpack, you heard the click of high heels approaching you, caught a glimpse of blonde hair through the window. Part of you wanted to hide under your desk, but you stayed standing, hoping that if you didn't move, she wouldn't see you (not unlike a child attempting to avoid a bee sting).

Alex tapped her knuckles on the glass in the door, not waiting for you to respond before she opened it and came in. You started to apologize again, but Alex held her hand (her distractingly pretty hand) up at you.

"I am very sorry," she said, "that you saw that. In our defense, we were only kissing, and you usually keep to yourself after about 6."

You had trouble making words come out of your head.

"Anyway, Casey feels horrible. So, I came to apologize and see what you needed."

You continued petrified, wondering how Alex wasn't livid. You noticed a deep red mark on her neck--You noticed her neck.

"Oh God, did we freak you out that much, Haley? It's ok, you didn't do anything wrong. We were the ones making out at work," she said, trying and failing to resist a smirk.

At that, you were able to break out of your overwhelmed silence.

"Uhm," you began, almost whispering. "It's the Manhattan Arts case."

Alex nodded. "That one's tough. That's why I gave it to you."

You nodded, suppressing a squeak.

"It is. I don't know what to do because the complainant is also a co-conspirator with the perpetrator in another case."

"Right. Why don't you come to my office, and we'll all look over it together?" Alex saw your expression fill with fear again, the same kitten-ish look she'd come to know and love. It was painfully cute. "You don't have to. But we do have leftover pad Thai." That was enough to convince you, though you were still taken aback and shaken up.

You went to Ashley's apartment first when you went home that night. He and Ramin (home from his business trip) were cuddled up together on the couch watching The Bachelor, the girls were long asleep. You greeted the men, slipped your shoes off, and padded into the living room, sliding onto the couch beside them. Ramin turned down the TV and slipped his free arm around your shoulders. Ten years of friendship between you and Ashley had made you more than comfortable with his husband, though you'd only known Ramin for four. You three didn't need words anymore, they could both tell when you were having a hard time. You were glad Ramin hadn't seen everything Ashley had-- while you weren't very skittish about sharing your personal life with the people close to you, you and Ashley had been there for one another's darkest moments.

Ramin patted your head, mussing your frizzy hair. "Wanna talk about it?" Ashley asked you, but you shook your head.

"Tea," you said.

"Fair enough," Ramin replied, amused, rising to put the kettle on. Ashley scooted over to give you a hug.

You were in a far better mood after a few pots of chamomile and a few episodes of The Bachelor when you went to bed that night (well, Thursday morning). You were still confused, though. Something in your core warmed up every time you closed your eyes, the image of Casey sitting in Alex's lap, her hair messy, their lips pressed against one another, was stuck in your head. You were still mortified, that was all.

---

Alex made good on her promise of drinks that Saturday. Things had smoothed over since Wednesday; she'd left a cookie and a note beside your coffee on Thursday morning that read: Consider this biscotti your olive branch, and, well, who could stay uncomfortable after that. As they left their apartment, Alex sent a text to their friends reminding them that they had a guest that night.

Alex: Everyone, Haley's coming out with us tonight.

Casey: That means best behavior. No being cruel.

Sophie: ...Rita.

Sophie: We were all thinking it.

Serena: ^

Rita: I'm a very sweet person!

Pippa: You made Gillian cry last week.

Rita: That sounds like a her problem.

Gillian: It kind of was.

Pippa: 💖

Casey: Just, be nice to her. Please?

Serena: We will!

Rita: Fine.

Satisfied, they walked the short distance to their regular bar. As they approached, they saw you standing outside, looking up the other direction of the sidewalk and fidgeting with your keys. Casey noticed what you were wearing first, a black A-line wrap dress that showed off your shoulders. Alex, on the other hand, noticed you were wearing your hair in its natural loopy curls when you usually straightened it.

The way the setting sunlight hit your face as you turned your head in their direction caused Alex's breath to hitch in her throat. The way you idly brushed your fingers along your neck as you tucked a curl behind your ear made Casey's mouth go dry. They shared a quick glance, their eyes talking for them, saying: we're in deep, aren't we?

The second you saw them coming towards you, you grinned wide and waved both hands, bouncing on your toes.

"Rita was right," Casey whispered to Alex, still out of earshot of you, "she's exactly like a bunny."

Alex squeezed Casey's hand tightly. You greeted them excitedly, resisting the urge to hug them both (where did that come from?) by holding your hands behind your back after you waved. They returned your greetings gracefully and led the way into their haunt, Casey, then Alex, then you.

Everyone else was already there, you were sure they must've gotten there before you. The bar wasn't quite what you expected; it had much more of a homey vibe than you thought it would. A mostly 30-something, professional-looking, crowd populated the place's tables, drinking mostly wine and whisky, talking over candlelit tables. You felt more at ease, now that you knew what you were getting into.

You were even more at ease when you realized that sat around the table you were approaching were all familiar faces. Honestly, if you had to pick which defense attorneys to spend an evening with, you could do much worse than Rita Calhoun and Sophie Devere. You knew Gillian would be there, and you were pleased to see Serena Southerlyn and Pippa Cox as well (you always admired the field of legal advocacy, you might've gone into it if the money wasn't even worse than prosecution. Pippa and Serena both clearly came from some amount of wealth-- you most certainly did not, and student loans called).

Pleasant hugs and hellos were shared around the table. Casey introduced you.

"Gillian, of course, you know ADA Haley, but for you others... Pippa, Serena, Rita, Sophie, this is Caroline Haley." Gillian raised her glass to you; Pippa gave a warm smile and a wave. Serena pulled out a chair for you, and you took it.

"Lovely to meet you, officially," said Sophie.

"We could use someone interesting," Rita added.

You had expected to feel anxious. You always did in social situations, and you had the Zoloft in your cabinet to prove it. And you did feel the familiar buzzing of worry in the back of your head. But something about the way Casey and Alex looked at one another and then at you made you feel safer than usual. It was a cozy, pleasant feeling.

Wait. Is that? Was it? No. Certainly not. Unless?

You let their conversations go on without chiming in much. Like you usually did when you met new people, you just watched and sipped your drink (gin and soda, your go-to. Serena had insisted on buying you a drink, Rita teased you for going with something so cliché but stopped after one jab. You'd seen Pippa give her a warning glare, thought you'd seen her squeeze her thigh as well, though that could just be your somewhat wonky eyesight). Noticing your anxiety, Alex gave you a friendly pat on the shoulder that made your stomach flip.

Eventually, at a lull in the talking, Alex turned her attention to you: "What's Ashley doing tonight, Caroline?"

Your expression lit up; you were always excited to brag about your best friend. "He's at the studio; he runs rehearsal on Saturday nights. His company is one of the best in the city." You could've said more, but you didn't want to ramble like you tended to when you were nervous.

"Oh. When do you teach? You're always at the office late." Alex asked.

You sighed. "I wish I had far more time than I do. I teach mostly workshops right now, one or two weekends a month." You saw everyone around the table react with some surprise.

"And you two didn't scare away the babysitter last week?" Casey added.

You chuckled in response. "I hope we didn't. The girls are usually very well-behaved, but poor Léa's always getting sick."

"How old are they, Caroline?" Pippa asked.

The only thing you loved more than bragging about Ashley was bragging about your nieces.

"Ophélie is 12, Léa is 6, and Yasmin is 2. I'm biased, but they're the brightest children on the planet."

The way you sounded when you spoke about the girls spun Casey's head. Alex had never wanted kids, and Casey had always been on the fence. But your clear pride had her feeling very drawn to you in that moment.

"Forgive me for saying," Sophie began, "But aren't you a little young to have a 12-year-old?"

"Or a 6-year-old, really," Gillian added. Alex wanted to say something, remind her well-meaning friends that, sometimes, people didn't want to discuss every detail of their personal lives with them, but she held back, knowing how composed you could be when you wanted. You paled, knowing where this conversation was headed.

"Oh, um," you said, "They aren't my kids, technically. Ophélie is Ashley's youngest sister, and Léa is Ramin's from his first marriage. Yasmin is Ashley and Ramin's only child together, but they have full custody of all three. But I've been in their lives since Ophélie was 4." You saw the confusion build on Casey's face, her brow furrowing like how it did when she was focused in on her notes.

"Who's Ramin?" She asked you.

"Ashley's husband?" You replied, "he didn't mention him to you? He usually can't wait to talk about him."

The subtle confusion turned to true befuddlement on the part of Alex and Casey, both.

"He didn't mention a husband," Alex said. "I actually assumed you two were together?" Casey nodded.The other attorneys watched with varying degrees of curiosity and chaotic joy. You swore you saw Rita cover a smile with her napkin.

You realized the place where things had gone wrong. "Oh, oh my gosh, I can absolutely see where you would get that impression if he didn't bring up Ramin. He was pretty out of it the other night."

"You said you'd meet him at home when he left, called him your partner, kissed him," Casey listed.

"He told me about your first date," Alex added. Their tones were humorously incredulous, teasing. You could feel your cheeks heating up. This hadn't happened in quite a while.

"Dance partner. We live on the first and second floors of the same building. And well, you know someone ten years, you build up affection?" you paused. "It's an easy mistake to make. Besides, did he tell you how said first date ended?"

"No, actually. You and Casey got back from the dance floor before he finished the story."

You hid your head in your hands for a moment. "Well, I'm glad he didn't, because I'm not sure I could've handled the mortification." Everyone at the table kept looking at you, expectantly. "It ended with me coming out to him, then crying into his shoulder about it. So, no second date."

"It's all good, Caroline," Serena said, helping your nerves. "I'm sure Alex just wasn't paying attention. She's like that."

Alex shot her a playful frown. You felt at ease, more comfortable and wanted to share more with the group.

"When Ophélie was in preschool, I used to take her to music class on the weekends. I was still a junior in college, so I would show up to these fancy Palo Alto mommy and me classes with my backpack full of textbooks," you told, reminiscing on your younger years with your niece. "I swear, every new session, I'd walk in and another one of my professors would be there with their kids, the looks on their faces were just so priceless." Nobody seemed bored of you yet, so you kept going. "That little girl is the reason I became a lawyer," you said, in a more serious tone.

"What do you mean by that?" Pippa asked, her passion for protecting kids showing through.

You took a deep breath, not having meant to get so deep tonight-- but you opened up whenever Casey or Alex was around.

"When Ashley sued for custody, he had just graduated and was working in the ensemble of a dance company. I was a couple years behind him, but we were super close, and I was there for every meeting and hearing." You tested the waters, looking around the table to see if anybody looked bored. Seeing no signs, you continued. "And I remember just thinking the attorney was just the coolest person on earth. She convinced a court that this 22-year-old contemporary dancer was more fit to raise a child than that child's wealthy mother. She would work on everything seemingly tirelessly... she eventually found a way to prove that emotional abuse was occurring in the birth mother's home and that Ophélie would be better off Ashley's. When he got custody of Ophélie, I knew I wanted to be like that attorney, prove the supposedly unprovable."

"Wow," Gillian said when you finished talking.

Rita gave you a raise of her eyebrows, said, "Well, you certainly are interesting."

Everyone looked at you like they were trying to figure you out. Casey seemed to be on the verge of tears, and you were holding back some of your own. You sipped your drink, still thinking about how proud you were of Ophélie and the other girls, how lucky you were to have them in your life. You knew it was time to change the subject.

"So, Serena," you said, "Casey told me you two used to play softball together back in the day?" The whole table erupted in laughter, apparently at Serena for being a terrible pitcher.

---

That night, while Casey and Alex dozed off holding one another, Casey murmured softly to Alex, "Baby, you know you'll always be enough for me, right?

"Of course," Alex replied, her voice sleepier than her wife's. "I love you, Case."

---