#wait exactly how many of my ships have never actually met?

[magiccath]

Secrets big and small

tenth doctor x GN!reader

Summary: in which you are forced to admit your feelings for the Doctor, even if you think he will leave you for it

A/N: For the absolute love of my life and favorite beta, thanks for dealing with me talking about this more than I wrote it

The Doctor poked his head out of the TARDIS, his nose twitching as he sniffed the air. After a few good inhales, he popped back inside the ship, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. 

You waited by the ship's console, your hands planted firmly on your hips. The Doctor had promised you a beach vacation, and judging by his face, this wasn’t a beach. Sometimes you wondered how much control the Doctor actually had over the ship, considering it only landed in the places he intended about 25% of the time. 

“We’re not at a beach are we?” 

The Doctor ignored your question and moved over to the console, grabbing one of the many oddly shaped screens attached to the control panel. He pulled his glasses out of his suit pocket, perching the spectacles on the bridge of his nose. 

“Interesting…” He hummed, more to himself than you. 

“Where did we end up this time?” You asked, opening the door to peek outside. You knew better than to walk off without the Doctor, but a little look had never hurt you. 

The minute you opened the door you were met with the bustling noise of a street. All kinds of aliens walked by you, each one unique in their own way. 

“It would appear we landed on the planet Phact, but I’m not sure why.” 

You continued to stare out of the TARDIS wide-eyed, taking in all of the strange creatures before you. Your eyes followed an individual who walked by, a series of tentacles hanging out of his mouth.

“Is it safe?” you asked as an afterthought.

“As far as I know,” the Doctor shrugged, putting his glasses back in his pocket. He moved away from the console to stand at your side by the door. 

You looked over at him, debating if you should tell him that wasn’t exactly a reassuring thought. 

“Since we’re here…” he smiled cheekily, inclining his head toward the door. You laughed and rolled your eyes. The Doctor never could resist a good adventure. 

You followed him out the door, waiting momentarily as he locked the TARDIS up. 

“Remember that time you forgot to tell me it was rude to wear less than three layers on Titan 4?” you ask, watching him slip the key back into his endless coat pockets.

The Doctor shrugs, pushing his hands into his pockets and leaning toward you. “Yeah, what about it?”

“Is there anything I should know about this planet?” you raise your eyebrows questioningly.

The Doctor’s brow wrinkled as he thought about it, trying to remember his limited knowledge about Phact.

“I don’t think so,” he shrugged again, smiling softly. 

You scrunched your nose slightly, not sure you believed him. Still, you followed him.

The Doctor talked excitedly as the two of you walked through the city streets. Most of the time, you only understood half of the words he was saying. Frankly, you just enjoyed listening to him talk.

As you walked your eyes took in everything around you. It didn’t matter how long you traveled with the Doctor, it always seemed like there was more for you to learn and discover. 

The Doctor continued talking, waving his hands about in the air. Abruptly, he stopped to look at a nearby poster. You followed him, trying to peek over his shoulder to see what he was looking at. The Doctor shifted to the side so you could read the sign too, the TARDIS translation circuit making the writing legible to you.

“The 998th Olympic games?” you read aloud, your eyebrows furrowed. 

“That would explain all of the species here!” he smiled brightly, looking at the diverse crowd around you. 

You nodded in agreement, following his gaze. There really did appear to be all kinds of species from around the galaxy. 

“Want to go?” He whispered to you, raising his eyebrows mischievously. 

“We don’t have tickets. Or money.” 

The Doctor wiggled his eyebrows again, pulling the psychic paper out of his pocket. He shook it at you with a mischievous grin.

A smile took over your own face as you nodded, “alright then,” you said excitedly. You’d never been to the Olympics, let alone the space Olympics. 

The Doctor guided you through the crowd towards the giant area, holding your hand tightly so as not to lose you. You tried not to focus too much on the feeling of his hand wrapped around yours. He just didn’t want you to wander off, there wasn’t much else to it, right?

“Y’know I carried the Olympic torch once,” he smirked back at you, still guiding you through the crowds. 

“Why am I not surprised?” 

“What?” the Doctor asked, not catching your comment over the chatter of the crowd. You smiled softly and shook your head, deciding it was best not to repeat yourself.

The Doctor led you to the ticket line, waiting patiently for the guards to check your tickets and let you in. He bounced slightly on his feet, unable to stand still for too long.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” you asked anxiously, eyeing the copious amounts of security surrounding the arena.

“Of course!” the Doctor smiled brightly, rubbing the back of your hand with his thumb. The movement made both of you realize he was still holding your hand, even if he didn’t need to. With a small, hardly discernible blush, the Doctor slid his hand from yours. 

The line moved forward and the guard asked for your tickets. The Doctor winked at you before handing the psychic paper over with a confident smile. 

“Are you serious, mate?” The guard laughed dryly, looking between you and the Doctor. 

“Most of the time,” the Doctor’s confident smile didn’t waver. 

The guard sighed and leaned into his walkie-talkie, chattering softly to someone on the other end. You looked up at the Doctor with wide eyes, urging him to explain.

“Probably getting us a special escort or something,” he shrugged, turning the paper around to see what your fake tickets said. When his eyes landed on the paper his face instantly turned ghostly white.

“Doctor…” you growled softly. 

“W-we should probably run now,” he whispered back. Before you could react, the security guard pulled the two of you firmly to the side. 

“Doctor, what is going on?” You whispered as the guard led the two of you to a police car. At least, you assumed it was a police car. Unless flashing red and blue lights meant something else on other planets, it was definitely a police car. 

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor winced softly as the security guard guided the two of you to an officer. The cop looked you up and down before guiding you inside of the car.

“I would feel a lot better if you told me why.” 

You weren’t necessarily mad about the police car, it wasn’t the first time you had gotten arrested on the Doctor’s behalf. Usually, he was able to get you out of it. You were more frustrated that he wasn’t telling you what was happening. 

“Remember Titan 4?” he winced. 

“Doctor!” you snapped angrily, “I specifically asked you if I needed to know anything about this planet!” 

“Right, I know I’m sorry, I forgot,” he whispered, shaking his head softly. 

“How bad is it?” you sighed, looking down at your lap. 

“They’re not gonna kill us,” he shrugged with a sad smile. 

“What did we even do?”

“You can’t lie on Phact.” 

“Like, physically?” 

The Doctor grimaced, thinking the question through, “not exactly,” he offered. You waited for him to further explain. 

“They can tell telepathically if you lie and that ability extends to psychic paper.” 

“I gathered as such,” you sighed, “but that still doesn't explain why we’re in a cop car” 

“It’s illegal to lie.” 

“Seriously?” you gaped, “any kind of lie?” 

The Doctor nodded.

“Even if you tell your friend she looks fine when she really looks a mess 'cause you want to spare her feelings?”

The Doctor frowned but nodded again, more tentatively this time.

“That’s a horrible idea.” 

“Don’t tell them that.”

You sighed softly in agreement.

“I really am sorry,” he looked at you with those big, sad brown eyes of his. It was very, very hard to stay mad at him when he looked at you like that. It was your weakness.

“It’s fine,” you shook your head. “What are they going to do?” 

Before the Doctor could answer, the car stopped and a cop came around to help you out of the car. The officer led you inside a very space-looking police station to a very Earth-looking interrogation room. You sat next to the Doctor in metal fold-out chairs, a table separating you and the officer. At least they didn’t cuff you.

“Names,” the officer groaned, clicking his pen and hovering it over a yellow legal pad. He had the kind of face and demeanor that told you he would rather be anywhere else.

“The Doctor.” 

“Really funny, what’s your actual name?” the officer frowned. 

“That’s my name,” the Doctor pouted, offended that someone would think it wasn’t. You smiled softly to yourself, finding the Doctor’s disappointed frown adorable.

“Fine,” the officer groaned, scribbling it down on his paper. “Age?”

“904,” he said without blinking. You hid your widening smile with your hand. You were starting to feel a little bad for the police officer. 

“You’re how old?”

“904.”

“Species?”

“Gallifreyan.” 

“Never heard of them,” the officer shook his head, writing it down on his paper. “You lot must age differently,” he grumbled, more towards his paper than the two of you.

“Right, and you?” the officer asked, tilting his head in your direction. 

The Doctor nodded softly at you, urging you to comply with the officer’s wishes. You sighed and answered the same questions. The officer just seemed relieved to write down something less ridiculous. 

“Alright,” he slid the paper pad away from him before leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed “You have been charged with a first-class felony of deception. You will not be fined or executed. To be released from custody you must provide your biggest secret”

“That’s it?” you asked, it seemed a little too simple. The officer nodded, clearly fed up with you and the Doctor.

“Look, folks, let’s just make this easier for all of us and get on with it?”

The Doctor nodded his agreement, casting a nervous look over at you. You nodded back, trying to think of something you could say. You knew easily what your biggest secret was, but you knew you couldn’t say it out loud. Especially not in front of the Doctor. 

“I’m terrified of hospitals,” the Doctor said with a small frown. 

“That’s ironic,” you chuckled, assuming he was making a joke. The officer stared at him for a few minutes, probably thinking the same thing. 

“Checks out,” the officer sighed, writing “scared of hospitals” next to his other notes on the Doctor. “Weird secret, mate,” he added before turning his attention to you.

You fiddled anxiously before leaning back in your seat, your eyes trained on your hands. 

“Does he have to be here for it?” you asked softly. The Doctor looked at you confused, wondering what was so bad you didn’t want him to know. 

“I just admitted I'm terrified of hospitals as a doctor, it can't get worse than that,” he laughed.

“Does he?” you asked the officer, ignoring the Doctor. The cop looked between the two of you; the Doctor staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed at you, and you trying to act like he wasn’t there.

“Yes,” the officer challenged, leaning back in his seat again. You narrowed your eyes at him, wondering if he only said that to see how things would play out. 

“So, what’s your secret?” he smirked, confirming your suspicions. “I’ll know if you’re lying” 

You sighed, trying to steady your racing heart. You wanted to scream, maybe even cry. You wanted to blame the Doctor, even if it wasn’t really his fault. Even more, you wanted to wipe that stupid, smug smile off of the officer’s face.

You took one last look at the Doctor, smiling sadly at him. He looked back at you with confusion, unsure why you were looking at him as if it was the last time you’d ever see him. To you, it felt like it would be. He could never look at you the same, not after this.

“I’m in love with this idiot,” you sighed, cocking your head towards the Doctor. The silence that followed was deafening. While the Doctor’s brain struggled to process your words the officer sized you up, searching for any falsities in your statement. 

“What a strange pair,” the officer shook his head, leaning forward to write on his pad again. “In love with the other one”

You looked at those words scribbled on the thin, crappy paper and felt your heart clench. It was out there now, the Doctor knew. At the moment, you couldn’t think of anything worse. You would rather spend your entire life in prison than have had to admit that.

“You’re free to go,” the officer waved you off, more preoccupied with writing more things on his paper pad. It seemed so simple, yet one little secret had turned your world upside down.

You nodded solemnly and stood up, heading out the door. The Doctor wasn’t far behind you. 

The walk back to the TARDIS was really quiet, a stark contrast from a few short hours ago. You tried not to sulk too much as you walked through the busy streets back to the ship.

The Doctor unlocked the doors without a word, holding them open for you. You walked inside the ship for what you assumed was the last time. The Doctor followed, heading over to the console to mess with a few buttons. 

“I’ll pack my things,” you whispered, more to the floor than the Doctor. You moved towards the hallway that led to your room but the Doctor cut you off. 

“What?” 

“I’ll pack up,” your eyes remained trained on the floor, not wanting to look into his. You knew the Doctor wasn’t going to keep you around after this. It was glaringly clear that he didn’t have those feelings for you, that he couldn’t.

“Why would you do that?” he frowned, moving away from the console. 

“You’re kicking me out.” 

“I think I would know if I was.” He moved so he was standing in front of you, tilting his head down in an attempt to catch your eye. 

“It’s ok,” you shook your head, your eyes trained on your shoes, “I know you don’t want me around anymore.” 

“Is this about the whole secret thing?” the Doctor asked gently.

“I know you don’t feel the same, I never expected you to,” you shook your head, averting your gaze again. “I’d understand if you just wanted to drop me back at home.” 

“Is that what you want?” 

You shook your head, clearing your throat, “It’s not exactly about what I want is it?” 

The Doctor remained silent, his mind working for the right thing to say. He didn’t fully comprehend what was happening. 

“You’re under the assumption that I’m going to drop you because you love me?” He said softly, still trying to catch your eye. 

“Is that not what’s happening right now?” You frowned, confused. 

The Doctor laughed softly, moving away from you with one long stride. He ran his hands through his hair, tugging at the spiky strands. You continued to frown at him, confused by his demeanor. 

“I can establish a psychic block,” he explained, waving his hands about as he talked. You frowned, confused as to why he was talking about this now. “I told the officer a secret, but I didn’t tell him my greatest secret.”

He had the kind of look on his face he got when he was trying, and failing, to figure something out. It was a look you knew well at this point, you had just never been the cause of it. 

“There’s so much of you in my head,” he groaned, waving his hands by the sides of his face, “which is saying a lot 'cause I have more in my head than you will ever experience in your entire life.” 

You gaped at him, unsure what you were supposed to say in this scenario. Was this his secret?

“You take up so much space,” he emphasized exasperatedly, repeatedly running his hands through his hair. “Even when you’re not here I’m constantly thinking about you!” He leaned his hands against the console, hanging his head as he continued rambling.

You stared at him like he had grown a second head. No, three extra heads. And a tail. 

“I’m sorry, what?” you asked.

The Doctor moved back over to you, reaching out to cradle your face in his hands. He cupped your cheeks gently and bent his head forward so your foreheads connected. 

“You take up so much space,” he whispered, his breath fanning across your face. “And the fact that you can’t see that kills me, it really kills me.”

“Doctor-” you whispered in shock. In your mind, there was only ever one way that the Doctor could react to your feelings, and this certainly wasn’t it. “Are you saying what I think you are?” 

The Doctor laughed sharply, shaking his head against yours, “You’re clueless, y’know that?”

“You’re not much better,” you frowned back. “But that doesn’t answer my question.” Your heart thudded against your chest, threatening to beat right out of your body. The mere implication that the Doctor could have even a shred of feelings for you was sending your senses into overdrive.

“Yes, I am,” he whispered. That was all you needed. You knew it was hard for him to say things like this. He wasn’t exactly the “I love you” type. The fact that he had said this much already was a wonder. 

You didn’t really think about it, you just kissed him. His lips fit against yours perfectly and the kiss was over much sooner than either of you had wanted.

Your face was still cradled in his hands as the Doctor bent down to press another, quicker kiss against your lips, returning the act of affection. You smiled happily as he pulled back, looking up at him with pure adoration.

“Are you really afraid of hospitals though?” you asked, your eyebrows furrowed. 

“Terrified,” he shook his head.

[heyheydidjaknow]

After a very long week of diving headfirst into this fandom I think it’s only right that the champagne bottle we smash into this here ship is a four thousand word Chuuya x reader. Here’s to what I’m sure will be another few years of this, everyone; hope everyone is down.

Candies

He was glaring at you.

You had no idea when he got on the train. You did not care enough to wonder. What you knew was that he— the man in the hat on the opposite side of the train car— had been looking at you for the past three stops, and while you were fairly certain that you had no idea who he was, you were almost as certain that whoever he thought you were had another thing coming from how intensely he was watching you. Sure, he had the decency to look embarrassed by his staring, but that in no way stopped him from looking at you like you had something to apologize for. It was disconcerting. It was borderline creepy. But neither of you moved, because it was a train, and the two of you would not see each other again anyway.

The train slowed to a stop. Most people filed off. You did not. Neither did the man. You checked your watch, head falling back as you considered the pros and cons of waiting for the next train. You would have to eat dinner late, but you would not have to wonder why exactly he seemed to hate you this much for nothing.

You heard the rustling of clothing next to you. “Excuse me.”

You opened your eyes to the man. You took him in, identified any features that might be helpful for a police report: cold eyes, reddish hair, too many layers. Pretty, but not reassuring. You pulled your headphones off, fearing the worst. “May I help you?”

A pause.

You smiled tentatively. “Is something wrong?”

“I’ll give you five hundred thousand yen if you’ll go out with me.”

You blinked. “Excuse me?”

Reality seemed to catch up with him. “Shit. Uh.” He pulled his hat off, fiddling with the brim as he lowered his eyes. “Is that too little? I can go higher.”

“Do you think I’m a hooker?”

“Huh?”

You leaned away from him a bit. “What kind of thing is that to ask someone? ‘What’s your price?’ Seriously?”

The realization seemed to strike him like a baseball bat to the head. He immediately backpedaled. “That’s not— shit, I mean, that’s not what I meant to—“ he stammered. “I— no, I didn’t mean anything like that!”

“Yeah?” You raised your eyebrows. “That work for most people, asking them what they charge for a night? For fuck’s sake, man.”

“Hey!” He sat up, defensive. “I never said I wanted to take you home!”

You crossed your arms. “Then what exactly are you trying to do?”

“Ask you on a date!”

“You sure have a funny way of doing it.”

He huffed, face red. “Look,” he grumbled, “I don’t ask many people on dates; I’m trying my best here.”

“You could just ask me,” you pointed out. “You could ask me in a way that doesn’t involve offering me money.”

He rolled his eyes, seemingly— and audaciously— annoyed. “I can’t just walk up to a stranger and ask them on a date. Why would you go? You don’t know me; what if I’m a creep? How do you know if I’m worth the time?”

An incredulous smile crept onto your lips. “And you thought that offering me money would make you seem less creepy?”

“At least then you have a reason to show up! At least then I have a financial interest in showing you a good time!” He buried his face in his hands. “It took me a while to get this far and my stop is next and I do not have the time nor ability to actually woo you.”

The absurdity of this whole situation— the sight of an extravagantly dressed pretty boy bemoaning his romantic failings— was starting to get to you. “This all seems like a lot for someone you just met.”

He sat up quickly, steam practically pouring from his ears. “Well,” he explained seemingly in an attempt to regain some composure, “I may not know you yet, but I know that I’ve never seen anyone who looks as good as you do, and we’re on a train; I may never get the chance to see you again if I don’t do something right this second.”

You grinned. “Really?”

“Really. I am fucking this up.”

“A bit,” you agreed. “But you’re bringing it back around, calling me hot.”

He brightened. “I am?”

You shrugged. “More or less, yeah.”

His hands were shaking. You wondered how long they had been doing that. “Well,” he mumbled, “does that mean your answer isn’t a hard no?”

You leaned back in your seat. “I can be convinced,” you said. “Try again.”

He cleared his throat. “Hello.” He made eye contact with you again, the sharpness you had assumed was being weaponized against you seemingly inherent in his gaze. You tried, for a moment, to make out what color his eyes were, but the answer seemed to elude you. “My name is Nakahara Chuuya.”

“Hello, Nakahara Chuuya.” You crossed your legs. “See, this is better. Keep going.”

He gave you a confused look. You liked him, you decided. “Well,” he continued, disgruntled, “I couldn’t help but notice you. You’re easy to see.”

“Interesting word choice, but alright.”

He shot you a look. “You’re nice to look at. Is that better?”

Your smile softened. “Much. Keep going.”

He looked down at his hat. “I was wondering,” he continued, “if you were already spoken for.”

You snorted. “Spoken for?”

“Single,” he amended, irritated. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

You stretched out your legs in front of you, thoroughly enjoying this. “I am both single and without boyfriend,” you assured him.

He nodded sternly. “Then, can I take you out? On a date?”

You considered it for a moment. “Yeah, sure.”

He blinked. “Really?”

“Really.” You leaned back in your seat. “You’re cute, and I don’t think you’ll murder me, and those are my two big requirements, so.”

He chuckled. “High bars. No wonder you’re single.”

“What can I say? I’m hard to please.” You dug around in your coat for a pen, holding your palm up towards you. “What’s your number?”

The redhead paused. “I don’t have a number right now,” he said. “I’m having trouble with my provider. I can give you a time and place, though.” He held out a gloved hand. “May I?”

You gave him the pen and your bare hand. Quickly, he scribbled down an address (someplace in Yokohama), a date (the next Saturday) and a time (six o’clock). As he finished, the train came to a halt at the platform, doors opening with a quiet hiss.

Nakahara Chuuya stood up, fixing his pork pie hat securely atop his head before straightening out his clothes and giving you a stiff nod. “I will see you then,” he promised. “If you’re late by more than fifteen minutes, I’ll assume you stood me up.”

You gave the strange man a smile. “I’ll come early, then.”

He averted his eyes. “Thank you.” And with that, he left you on the train with a date, a time, and a great deal of confusion.

Foolishly, you showed up. You lived neither in nor near Yokohama. Getting to the address the man had given you— which he wrote with poor penmanship— took you some time too. You went through the trouble of dressing as well as he had been the day you met him— which was more formal than you would typically be for a first date with a stranger you met on a train— and went so far as to plan to be there fifteen minutes early. You had no idea why you were so interested in the man. You had no inclination as to what possessed you to show up to meet a stranger in the first place; after all, his assumption that you might think of him as some sort of predator would have been a reasonable one to make. But you had an inarticulable feeling that told you that this meeting would be worth your time.

Or you just thought he was pretty. You weren’t sure which it was.

The address he had given you brought you to a small restaurant close to the Tsurumi river which, if its sign was to be believed, primarily dealt in soba. Despite your planning, you arrived a mere five minutes early instead of fifteen which, in your defense, was still early, but apparently not so early that your date did not beat you there. As you approached him, a look of bewilderment briefly crossed his face.

“Damn,” you joked. “I thought I’d get here first.”

He looked over your shoulder. “You came,” he said, sounding surprised.

“I did,” you confirmed.

“Alone.”

“I was unaware I was meant to bring a plus one on a date.”

“No, I just mean—“ He stopped himself. “Whatever. I’m glad you came.”

You held your hands behind your back. “So am I, though I’m feeling a bit self conscious now.” You looked down at your clothes, then back to his. He had dressed much more casually than you in a loose, short sleeve button up, loose pants and a large dark jacket. He had kept the hat and the choker— which you had not until that moment realized you remembered— but you looked too formal next to him. “I thought you would dress the way you did on the train.”

He gave you a once over. “You look fine,” he said. “You look great, actually. Don’t worry about it.”

A smile spread across your face. “You've gotten more confident since then, too. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t look totally plain next to you is all; you look so stylish.”

He paused, eyes cast down towards his feet. “Thank you. I drank before I came.” He opened the door to the restaurant for you.

You walked past him. “Thank you. Did you drive?”

“Nah.” He shut the door behind the two of you. “This place is out of the way enough to make it not worth the trouble to park. I walked.” He nodded to the hostess, who sat the two of you in a corner away from the door.

The restaurant was a hole-in-the-wall: exposed crossbeams, warmly lit, nearly empty despite it being a Saturday. You took your seat across from him as the woman set a cup of water in front of each of you, leaving you to your conversation. She made no eye contact with either of you before she left. You picked up your cup, taking a sip as he draped his coat over the back of the seat and set his hat beneath his chair. The gloves, however, stayed on. “How long was the walk?” you asked.

“Not far. A couple minutes.” His elbows came to rest on the table. “I can walk you back to your car if you drove, or to the train station if you need. Just let me know.”

“Thank you.” You took a menu from the center of the table, scanning it absently. “To be honest, I’m glad you asked me to do something earlier in the evening; I’m not super interested in being on my own in the dark.”

He hummed in agreement. “Nobody does. I have work to take care of later, but I can’t imagine wanting to stay out past twelve alone otherwise.”

You groaned sympathetically. “Terrible. What do you do?”

He paused. “I… it’s complicated.” He laced his fingers together. “I operate a shipping company under a parent organization operating out of Yokohama. I technically and practically own the shipping company, but I can’t legally operate it unless it’s under the parent organization, so I have all the stress of a business owner with none of the freedom.”

Your lips twitched nervously. “Are you on a list or something? Why can’t you operate a business?”

“What do you– oh.” The brief look of confusion left his face. “I’m a skill user.”

“A what?”

“You know,” he repeated, “a skill user?”

You stared at him blankly.

“I have a gift?”

“Isn’t that a dog whistle?”

“What? No!” He crossed his arms. “I have supernatural abilities.”

You considered it. “You know,” you mused, “I’ve never been on a date with a guy who came out as being possessed to me.”

He opened his mouth to protest, blinked. “Well,” he conceded, “I guess that’s what I’m saying, but that would be a bad assumption most of the time; most gifted users aren’t possessed.”

“Wait, seriously?” Skepticism and deep curiosity battled for supremacy in your mind. “By what?”

He shrugged. “A god, I guess?”

“You guess?”

“It’s complicated.” To your– and his– surprise, he laughed. “It’s funny; I can’t think of the last time I had to actually explain what my deal was.”

You cocked your head to the side. “Do most people just know?”

“More or less.” He shrugged again, looking towards the door. “It’s practical. I use it a lot.”

“I see.” You sat up, taking your cup and turning it over in your hands. “What does it do?”

He did not say anything for a second, brow furrowing. He looked back in your direction, holding out his hand. “Give me your cup.”

You did.

He set the cup down on the table. Slowly, as though it had been set in a pool of water, the cup began to float upwards. “My ability,” he explained simply, clearly taking pride in the way your eyes lit up in excitement and awe, “allows me to manipulate gravity for any object I touch.”

You reached out towards the cup, moving your hand above and below it. If there was a trick to what he was doing, you had no idea what it was. “That is so freakin’ cool,” you gushed softly. “How can you keep it from flying away?”

He was practically glowing. “Basically, I’m counteracting the force of Earth’s gravity for just this object by creating a second center of gravity that only affects the cup.” He pointed to a spot near the center of cup. “It’s around here. So long as the force of the gravitational field I'm creating is greater than Earth’s, the cup will naturally try and be as close to the center as possible. If the gravitational pull were too strong, the cup would go through that point–” he pointed towards the ceiling, “-- and through the roof before coming back down. But if the force is weak, it’ll stay right around the center.”

You took the cup, moving it towards you before letting go. As if attached to a string, the cup moved back to its place, the water inside is sloshing.

The pure, childlike joy on your face was enough for the man across from you to forget, for a moment, the price of his gift.

The date continued on. The two of you went back and forth on a variety of simple, surface level topics. You learned that Chuuya was a dog person and that he enjoyed fashion. He said he had been in Yokohama practically all his life. He told you about his coworkers– no details, but enough to get a sense for the type of Motley Crew they were– and how that day was an anniversary for something, though he never got around to telling you what it was an anniversary of. At one point, before your food had gotten to the table, you asked about his gloves, which he had apparently not realized he was still wearing. He explained that he wore them all the time– he said it made work easier– but that he did have the good sense to take them off.

“I’m not a monster,” he had insisted. “I don’t want to get food on them.”

The conversation was surprisingly easy. He was nervous at first and clearly inexperienced– an observation that you chose to keep to yourself– but funny and over dramatic in a way that made the discussions flow jovially between the two of you. He was a sailor-mouthed, irreverent, sensitive man, you found, and he seemed to take great pleasure in your company and a surprising interest in the more tedious parts of your life: your occupation, your friends, your earlier life, all of which he found strangely fascinating. Though you knew little of substance about him by the end of the meal you shared, you could not shake the feeling that the sort of things you learned– the simple, stupid things most people gave out as icebreakers– held more weight than you could understand.

But you were grateful, nonetheless. You enjoyed talking to him.

Despite your protests, he paid for the both of you, and the two of you left the restaurant cracking up over some embarrassing story about school.

“Three days straight?”

You waved him off, laughter still bubbling from your throat. “I know; it was stupid!” you cried. “I swear I was possessed; by the end of it I thought there was a chance– assuming I didn’t have heart attack first– that I was immortal.” You sighed, trying to regain composure; you were gigglier than normal. “But I passed the class, so fuck that guy.”

He set his hat back on his head, pushing it down to rest snugly. “Fuck that guy,” he agreed, having about as much success as you did in wiping the stupid smile off his face. “God– being a teenager fucking sucked.”

“Dude, amen to that.” You looked in his direction, tears from the cold and from excessive laughter in your eyes. “Chuuya,” you sighed happily, “I am having an excellent time.”

“What a coincidence,” he grinned. “So am I.”

You looked up at the sky, which was significantly darker than you thought it would be; you supposed that you had spent more time in the restaurant than you thought. “I shouldn’t walk back to the station any later on my own, though.” You slipped your hands into your own pockets. “So–”

“Can you stand to be out later if I can get you back to the train?” He cleared his throat, apparently hearing the eagerness in his voice as clearly as you did. It was the same eagerness he had when he first asked you here. “What time is it?”

You took your phone from your coat, flipping it open. “Nine-ish.”

“Nine?” He pursed his lips. “Shit, I— no, I can make that work.” He leaned his weight onto one side. “I have to get somewhere at eleven, but it’s not a formal thing.” He looked away, swallowing. “If you want to, I mean.”

You held out your hand to him. “Nothing in this moment would make me happier than spending more of my time with you, Chuuya.” You wiggled your fingers in invitation. “Where should we go?”

He was staring at you, at your body bathed in the warm light streaming from the restaurant’s windows, at your face which betrayed nothing but pure intentions, to your hand which you offered him freely. He wondered if you knew how easy it would be to kill you if he touched you. He wondered if that was something someone like you considered at all.

“Chuuya?”

He blinked, clearing his throat. It did not matter. He took your hand. “Sorry.” He was breathless. “Lost in thought.”

You let him pull you closer, nudging him playfully with your side. “You’ll end up swallowing a fly if you keep your mouth open like that,” you teased. “Do you really like looking at me that much?”

He straightened up, heat flushing his cheeks. “So what if I do?”

“Well, I don’t imagine it’d taste very good.”

He snorted. “Shut up.” He nudged you back, looking forward. “We can sit by the river for a while if you’d like; the streets will be sketchy here pretty soon but nobody goes by the part of the river we’re by.”

“Really? How come?”

He shrugged. “It’s impractical. Nobody important goes to the river, anyway.”

“Nobody important?”

“Huh? Oh, right; you’re not from around here.” He looked back in the direction of the river, starting to lead the two of you there. “The Port Mafia doesn’t dump bodies into the rivers; they throw them out by the dock.”

“The mafia?” You started. “What, like La Cosa Nostra?”

“What you do and don’t know is really confusing.” He rolled his eyes. “The Port Mafia is a smuggling ring operating primarily out of the city; it has nothing to do with the Italian mob.”

“Oh.” You squeezed his hand, following close behind. “That’s terrifying.”

“It is?”

“To know that people are just chucking bodies frequently enough that you know about it? And that there’s more than one group doing it?” You tittered nervously. “I mean, I’d heard a little about Yokohama, but I didn’t know it was that bad.”

He squeezed your hand back, looking over his shoulder in your direction. A wry smile crossed his face. “Huh. That’s funny.”

You walked a bit faster to stay beside him. “What’s funny?”

“That you think it’s weird. I guess it never occurred to me that it was strange.” He tugged you to his side. “You don’t need to be scared, though; I’ll protect you.”

“Oh, will you?”

He shot you a look. “What,” he challenged, ��you don’t think I can?”

“I never said that,” you protested. “It was just a very old-fashioned thing to say.” You lowered your voice to a growl. “‘Don’t worry, dollface; I’ll protect you.’ It sounds like something you’d hear in a noir.”

He opened his mouth to argue, considered it. “I guess if you found that weird, that would be an odd thing to say, wouldn’t it?”

“A little, yeah.”

“Because what would you need protecting from?”

“Exactly.”

A funny look came onto his face. “That’s funny,” he repeated. “That’s…” He trailed off, slowing to a stop on the road.

You looked back at him. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing,” he mumbled. “Just that…” Startling eyes– they seemed to shine under the streetlamps– met yours. “You said you stayed up for three days straight,” he said. “Do you sleep well now?”

You looked away. “I don’t know if I sleep well, exactly; I don’t sleep as much as I should, at least.”

“But it feels normal, doesn’t it? To not sleep much?”

“I suppose.” You turned to face him properly.

His gaze shifted from you to the sky. “You know, I just remembered something.” He started to walk again, pulling you behind. “When I was little, none of us– none of the people I hung out with– had much pocket money, so we made a game out of stealing from the convenience stores in town. The competition was to see who could pay for as little as possible without getting banned from the store. I was never really good at it because I was an easy to read kid, but I remember always going for those… what do you call them? Bonbons?” He made a circle with his thumb and forefinger. “The little wrapped chocolates. I’d always shove one into my pocket because they were always left out and who’s going to give a kid shit for taking a piece of candy?”

You followed beside him quietly, watching him.

He continued. “The other day,” he said, “I went into a convenience store for the ATM, and I must have withdrawn twenty thousand yen or something like that– a good amount. I bought a pack of gum before I left because I didn’t want to be the asshole that just uses an ATM and leaves, and I realized– I think I’d walked a block away when I did– that I had one of those candies in my pocket.” He led you off the path. “I guess I must’ve picked it up while I was paying for the gum. They weren’t even the good chocolates; they were the hundred yen ones, and I knew why I’d grabbed that piece– because nobody’s going to lose their mind over a hundred whatever yen– but I couldn’t for the life of me remember why I’d grabbed it.”

The two of you came to a stop by the riverbed. It was quiet for a Saturday. The water shone under the moonlight, and the man beside you– whose gaze was now transfixed by the reflection– stood next to you, seemingly lost in thought.

You never let go of his hand. “Being a kid kinda sucks,” you said, running your thumb over his clothed knuckles. “You usually don’t have many responsibilities, but you don’t know enough to know what you should and shouldn’t get involved with.”

He looked to you.

“And you get so jealous of the Huck Finn kids– you know the type: no responsibilities, nobody to tell them no– until you get older and realize– too late– that the habits you picked up when you were left to your own devices probably weren’t the healthiest, but by the time you put that together they’re so deeply encoded in your being that they’re a part of who you are and part of how you got this far, so even if they’re unhealthy it’s not like you can give them up now.” You shivered. “It’s frustrating, looking back and thinking about what you could’ve been.”

The two of you stood there, staring at the water. Chuuya wrapped an arm around your shoulders, trying, in vain, to keep you from the cold.

Finally, he spoke. “I don’t think I’ve ever had this kind of conversation with anyone before.”

You closed your eyes, leaning against him. “It’s funny,” you said. “I don’t think I have either.”

His voice was soft. “I want to see you again.”

“So do I.”

“Then we should.”

“We should.”

You did.

[emhahee]

Hi hi,

So like I have a question around your Hayffie headcanon’s. Because if I remember correctly you ship them? If not please ignore this.

Two questions actually

1: When do you think they went from arguing (derogatory) to bickering (affectionate)

2: What do you think happened after the war with them Book Verse v Movie Verse. (I only differentiate because a lot of people have different interpretations because of what happened with Effie book v movie)

I think the progression of Haymitch and Effie’s relationship from genuinely not being able to stand each other to making bedroom eyes at each other was a lot more gradual than what we saw as an audience. Like as readers, we only saw the last three years of the development of their relationship when they had YEARS of lore before that that we never saw. I’m sure when they first met, they were both a lot younger and Effie may not have even been an escort at that point. My guess is that they met when she was just working with the stylists, still learning the ropes, probably caught up in being a regular capitol young adult person, which probably hugely impacted their initial impressions of each other when they started having to mentor together, especially considering haymitch’s demeanor. That’s not to say Haymitch didn’t call her “sweetheart” in his Appalachian drawl just to see if he could make her blush through her makeup. Because he would, and she did. But also, for years and years before katniss and Peeta, Haymitch and Effie experienced the losses of their tributes as one. Katniss observed that each of them have different ways of coping with having to send two children to their imminent death year after year: Haymitch uses alcohol, and Effie lives in a hazy cloud of ignorance about what the games even really are, wrapping herself in the glamour and excitement leading up to the games and presumably tuning most of the event itself out. I think over the years, Haymitch and Effie certainly developed a mutual empathy for each other in this regard, because you can’t really blame someone for how they cope with unimaginable loss and suffering. But I think there was a shift in their dynamic around the time of katniss and Peetas first games, not only when they experienced the hope of having victors for the first time, but simultaneously becoming wrapped up in a rebellion. Effie was one of few constants in haymitch’s life and it is my personal belief that their feelings had been stirring for a long time but probably really took off on the victory tour. I’m sure there were nights where effie had a few too many and started sloppily confessing her feelings for Haymitch and the attendants on the train just looked the other way because it would NOT be a good look in the face of unrest and uprising to have a capitol employee fraternizing with a district citizen. But in that regard it was also 🎊forbidden🎊 which makes it so much better in my opinion. But I don’t think Haymitch would really have been able to admit his own feelings for Effie until learning she had been taken by the capitol, much like katniss wasn’t really able to know she loved peeta until he had been taken, too. And like I legitimately cannot imagine the torment Haymitch must have been experiencing at knowing someone who, on the surface, had such an innocent perception of the world being tortured for her association with him and his colleagues. I think Haymitch got home to 12 after the war, fairly soon after got a phone call, and, remembering his phone lines had been reconnected, knew exactly who was waiting on the other end of the line. And from then on it was game over. Or whatever. At least that’s how it is in my head.

[firstfirerebel]

𝕋𝕣𝕒𝕚𝕥𝕠𝕣

Sumary: When Levi was forced to join the Survey Squad, he left someone behind, someone who had grown to hate him since then...

(Levi was forced to join the Survey Squad by Erwin, that's also why I don't like the ship Eruri [I love both, but together it's just toxic])

Pairing: Levi x fem! Reader

Warnings: Mention of abusive childhood, many traumas (bullying, mental abuse,...), angst, hurt

Years have passed since you last saw him. The guy you grew up with, and the guy who betrayed you.

Growing up was hard for both of you. You had more luck with the standard of the family, but still, your life was hard. Being the kid of two people who hated each other and only communicated by yelling and fighting wasn't exactly a good place for a child.

People around you always found something to mock and bully you. Kids your age were the worst. Except for him, you met Levi when you were forced to go to a club with your so-called father.

He never stopped drinking, so you just went to search for a silent corner to wait till this horror was over. But the only place that was at least a little bit calm was occupied with a dark-haired slim boy.

"Family problems?", you asked him.

"Something like that," he awnserd, and you silently walked towards and sat beside him.

"Wanna talk?,"

He shook his head for a 'No', which you totally got. You also wouldn't want to tell a literal stranger your deepest and darkest secrets, but on the other hand, letting it out would be better. It seemed like your whole life purpose was to hold the burdens of your family, no matter if you could take it or not.

"What's your name? I'm (Y/n). My siblings wanted that to be my name. It's ugly. I know,"

"Levi," he awnserd short and quietly.

"You know, my father is a lot here. It would be nice to have someone here I could spend my time with. Would you mind?",

He just blinked, which you got as a sign that he didn't care. But you weren't someone to give up just like that. Otherwise, you might have never managed to survive.

Breaking the ice was hard when it came to this boy, but after a few times of being there, he even told you that he actually liked your name and thought it was pretty. A little while after that, you caught him crying because some neighbor kids made fun of him (this was before his mother died, so he didn't know how to defend himself cause no Kenny). Those weren't new for you. They also constantly mocked you.

"Hey! Three against one? You're cowards!" After you managed to distract them from Levi, you tricked them into believing you went home when you really went to search for your friend.

You found him leaning onto a brick wall and sat beside him in silence.

"Thanks, but why did you do that?",

"Because it's OK if they make fun of me, but not if they make fun of my friends. I don't care what they do to me. I look out for you. And I know you look out for me. That's what friends are there for,"

Since that incident, nothing parted you guys. You even switched your birth necklaces to show that you were connected. But everything good must come to an end.

When his mother died, you didn't see him for weeks, so when you went to look for him, you met his uncle Kenny. You both pep him up again, and since your family didn't care about you, you decided to be with Levi since he needed someone after losing his mother.

Kenny taught you how to defend and provide for yourself, but that was it. He left you when you had learned it all.

"Even if he's gone now, we still have each other. Nothing really bad can happen to us as long as we have each other,"

It was you. Always you. You were the one who comforted him when he had to deal with shit. You were there for him to fix what society broke. And even after you allied with others, you two were the closest. No one could come in between.

That's what you thought.

After your team took Isabel in, you thought it would only become better. She even called Levi, her big brother, to his annoyance. It was like a sting right to your heart. But Isa didn't know what you both had gone through together, so you felt guilty of feeling this way. Besides her seeing him like her brother, didn't mean you were replaced! Your bond was stronger than that of siblings or lovers. Once you swore to never let anything part you, you'd never be separated, never.

Until one order changed everything.

You thought it was the Military Squad, but nope, it was the Survey Squad. You were the only one who managed to get away. But you watched from a distance how a soldier pushed Levi into a puddle of mud that had the consistency of water. Hell for him...

But when you went to go closer to hear what they were saying. You only heard Levis annoyed:"I'll join the Survey Squad."

A punch into your guts. He'd leave the underground. He'd leave you! Breaking the promise HE made you. And for joining a squad?!

You weren't someone who cried. When your whole body was covered in bruises because of a fight that didn't go as planned, no tear. Your family yelling and insulting you, no sob. But now your eyes became watery, and your vision blurry. It felt as if you were suffocated. Breathing was almost impossible.

As if the whole ground you believed to be steady and safe just tore open to devour you.

No, you wouldn't cry! Not because of him and especially not while still seeing him.

A few weeks after that, you luckily met Kenny again. It was more like he found you.

Since that scene, it was like you had to go through every trauma you experienced again, but this time on your own without someone at your side. Kenny told you of his new job at the Military Squad and that he could need a tough girl like you.

Training and years in hiding. That was your whole life from then on. With nothing on your mind, then to finally throw this damn birth necklace of him away. It was your kind of connection, your bond, after all.

Allying with the man that once left you and him. Just to tell humanitys strongest soldier one thing.

And finally, the day came. The Survey Squad decided to turn against the Military Squad. And that was your and Kenny's time.

Fighting your way to his side, just to slowly rip his birth necklace off your neck, look at him with disgust, and throw it into a mud puddle before his feet. With one word on your lips.

"Traitor"

[bemusedlybespectacled]

so, I'm thinking a teensy bit more about character death and, specifically, the death of a main character in a comedy show that I'm actually okay with. I'm talking about Death in Paradise.

Just as a primer for people who weren't raised by teaboos, it's a murder mystery comedy show, the premise of which is that there is one white British detective inspector guy who solves murders with his group of local cops: basically Midsomer Murders but on a fictional Caribbean island.

The comedy is always that he's some kind of socially awkward nerd who clashes in some way with his otherwise-entirely-Caribbean office, especially his black female second-in-command, even though they've at this point had four different DIs and I don't know how many changes of supporting characters.

The first two seasons, with DI Richard Poole, are your typical cozy murder-of-the-week-type mysteries. And then the third season starts, and the first mystery of the season is who killed DI Poole.

Like, it literally opens exactly like a normal episode, with a cold open establishing the suspects and showing us the murder victim before cutting to the jaunty theme tune and opening credits. It's just that this particular murder victim is the main character.

And then the plot progresses in exactly the same way, with a different white British nerd guy leading the investigation, because THE PROTAGONIST FOR THE PAST SIXTEEN EPISODES IS DEAD.

Now, some key differences between this show and OFMD:

It's a murder mystery show, so the rules are inherently different. No Muppet physics here: people die all the time and they die in totally normal ways, like getting stabbed with an ice pick or drowned in a fish tank or turned into a science class skeleton.

While this was the first time a main character was killed off, it was not the first time the DI had been killed. The pilot had Richard solving the murder of the previous DI, only for it to be revealed that his black female second-in-command of that episode was the murderer (Camille Bordey, his actual #2, isn't assigned to him until the very end of that episode). Like, shocking twists about characters you thought were "safe" was established in the very first episode.

The death actually affected the fucking characters and the fucking plot.

It's been like ten years since this episode aired and I still really like this episode, even though it gutted me the first time I watched it (and I don't like the later seasons nearly as much). Like, it's not my favorite (that's 2x06), but it's definitely in my top three. Because even though this is the episode they killed off DI Blorbo From My Britbox, it's also an episode about him.

The comedy is toned way down because the entire office is gutted by his loss. They have to do mundane things like call his parents to tell them he died and review CCTV footage and wait for lab data like it's just a normal case when it's not. At every step, there's a "what would Richard have done?" moment. And even though this is the episode that introduces the new DI, Humphrey Goodman, the summation at the end is entirely about Richard, with this pretty sweet line:

You know, bizarrely, I'm the only one who never met Richard Poole. But during this case, I… I feel as though I've got to know him a little. Mostly by the effect he had on those around him. But it seems we all forgot one very crucial thing: he was a detective. A good one. I think he made a discovery, had a theory about what he discovered, and then sent home for evidence to corroborate that theory. And in doing so, he has, in essence, solved his own murder.

His presence is felt throughout the entire episode, even though he's only alive for the first three minutes or so. His death is disappointing (especially for those of us who shipped him with Camille), but it actually has an impact.

So when they brought back Camille in S10, years after she was written out, they also brought back Richard: Camille imagines having a conversation with him when she’s worried that her mother is going to die, and he gives her advice and comforts her. And that scene makes me cry every time I watch it, because it's clear that she misses him as much as the audience does.

We didn't get that in OFMD. We didn't get an acknowledgement of how Izzy impacted the other characters (except Ed, in the weakest way possible), or even them looking sad for longer than two minutes. We sweep past it immediately and go directly to a wedding and then Stede and Ed settling down together.

There’s no gravity to it. There’s no time to process the loss. Hell, for the characters, there ISN’T a real loss. And if the characters don’t care, why should we?

[sgiandubh]

Wait. Ship on and don't panic are things you've said a few times. Who is panicking? Why wouldn't we still ship? Are there "shippers" who actually think Sam and Alex have a thing? I said "shippers" not anti's (I know what they think). It drives me bonkers that Sam isn't allowed to have friends of either sex (never mind business partners). Before Alex it was Luke and/or Matt Neal.

Dear Panic Anon,

That is a very good question and thank you for finally asking it: I think it was much needed.

Maybe panic is not exactly the right word; that being said, I wanted to trigger a reaction. And judging by your speedy comment, I was right on the money.

After ten years of shenanigans and innuendos, our troops are weary. Much of the sadness that punched me in the gut, as soon as I opened this page, came from at least five years of non-stop, unsanctioned and therefore perfectly irresponsible bullying from Mordor. It is one thing for the leads to try (and fail miserably) to gaslight part of their fans. It is another thing altogether to see a faction of the fandom constantly trying to gaslight the other one.

This has consequences: some people are tired, confused and also very thirsty. Some play both sides (I know who you are and you will soon be blocked, all of you). It is not easy to tell who's who and much less to trust someone: I consider myself immensely lucky to have almost immediately met some extraordinary people that I consider friends. So maybe it's my Southern mamma side, but yes - I do tell people not to panic for nothings, in an attempt to prevent/stop unneeded drama.

As for Norouzi... that guy only had to be spotted at the Keepers of the Quaich gala for vicious speculation to immediately start. The Dimwit from Madrid bets her quarter of a braincell that S's coming out is imminent. Meow Kabob dragged herself out of her basement, after two weeks of eerie silence (I wonder why...). Many newbies are confused and probably shocked at the state of play - and what is worse, unwilling or unable to choose a camp.

And look at you, thoughtful Anon, perfectly summing up the situation: 'Sam isn't allowed to have friends of either sex (never mind business partners).'

How come, 'isn't allowed'? That is such an arresting thing to say.

The very way you worded it speaks volumes. About how ridiculous and abusive this whole dynamic is. About how mean and stupid these people are. And then be glad S doesn't give a flying fuck anymore about whatever this fandom thinks. It is my firm conviction and I am glad it is so. It is the only way to remain sane when you know you are the focal point of all this menagerie.

Let them eat cake play bingo, Anon.

He does it his way. And it works, of course it does.

[pcetstcrtured]

so this is a really a low effort, minimal, end of 2023 follow forever. but i really wanted to at least do something because all you really have put up with so much when it comes to me & you deserve it. i just - don’t have the time today to really get on my laptop & do fancy graphics & whatnot. also please note whether you end up on this list or not - i love & adore you so much, i’m more grateful for you than you know, & thank you for following me. <3

@wintersreplies - my bae, my best friend, the absolute sunshine of my life. rach, i adore you so much - i really hope you know this by know. i can’t believe we’re coming up on eight years of friendship here shortly. i can truly say i don’t know where or who i’d be without you. thank you for sticking by my side through all the bullshit, for watching me grow & supporting me through it all, through all our ups & downs. thank you for always writing our kids with me, & i love you & adore you, & i can’t wait to see what 2024 brings for us.

@liveshaunted - stevie, my love, i love you so much. i can’t believe how long we’ve known each other, can’t believe how long we’ve been writing together, & the fact that we’ve stuck by each other throughout so many different blogs & such, i love that for us. i love the fact that we always have thirty million threads together on whatever blogs we’re on (well working on getting there for your one piece & other ones but you get me). & the fact that we have about thirty million ships & plots together because the limit simply does not exist when it comes to us. i love you, i adore you, & here’s to so many more years of friendship.

@heartfe1t - kenna, my sweet sweet kenna. i know i’ve said this before, but you’ve hands down gotta be one of the nicest, kindest, sweetest, people i know & the world could truly use more like you in it. i love you so much beyond words, utterly adore you, you know? we’ve also honestly been friends for quite some time & i’ve loved being able to watch you grow in that time because you were still such a smol human when we met. thank you honestly just for being you, & always staying by my side, even when certain things happened & when so many others didn’t want to. i love you, i love all our kids together, & thank you for always being you. truly, i’m excited to see what else we can accomplish in 2024 & beyond.

@inspotlight - hales, i honestly can’t believe we just really became close this year because it feels like we’ve been friends forever, but i’m truly so glad we have. i really think i needed you in my life, to be honest. i appreciate you so fucking much, you stood by me & supported me when i really needed it this year, especially with you know, certain shit, & i’ll never be able to put into words how much that means. you’re honestly such a great person, a great friend & i’m so lucky i get to call you mine now. i love you, i adore you, & thank you for being MY friend. & i can’t wait for so many more years of friendship.

@ravenbraved - terri, my squishy, of course you had to have a spot on here. i actually can’t even remember when exactly we met but i know it’s definitely been a few years by now & i’m so grateful for those years. you’ve truly become one of the best friends i could ask for & i love you so much beyond words. you’re so supportive, kind & caring, & something i’ve really needed to be honest. even when you just send me ‘i love yous’ i can’t even tell you how much that mean to me & makes my day. you’re truly one of a kind, a spot in the dark & the absolute best squishy a planet could ask for. let’s see what this new year has in store for us & ps zoey/luke forever tyvm.

@childrenofslumber - nicky, now you definitely had to have a spot here because yes we’ve been friends for a while & yes you’ve had one several times before - but i just, i really gotta get sappy here for a second, but this past year or so you’ve just, you’ve really been an absolutely amazing fucking friend to me, okay? like i’m bad with words & can’t fully express how much you have been - but you’ve been there during times i really needed it & just been so kind & supportive & the fact that you always send me stuff that reminds you of me or our kids, makes me smile so much. i know i can be slow af when it comes to messaging, but i love you so much my disaster bff, i’m so fucking grateful for you, & here’s to so many more years for us.

@percentstardust - rissa, hello my love, yes you get a spot too. because i mean, it’s literally this past year that we really met & became close & such, but truly i’m so grateful for it. getting to know you has been amazing & my life has been made all the more better for it. whether it’s talking about our scream babies, or barbie babies, or our interacting & teasing each other on twitter, i love it all, i love talking to you, & i’m so glad to know you, truly. i can’t wait for so many more years of friendship & to see where 2024 takes us. i love you, i adore you, & … #samloomisforever.

also a bunch of other people i need to tag because i utterly adore you & you’ve also made my 2023, & so many other years, worth it & i wouldn’t be the planet i am without you & i want to give you ALL my love - @endtown @chrmiing @goseabrook @isdeathlystill @forgottcnboy @shackld @goldshadows @starsweepers @fullofhcart @lcveblossomed @ofblackskies @depictedblue @freezegirl @bravevolunteer @takeflight

& … probably several others i’m forgetting. but again, if you’re not on here i promise i still love & adore you so, & you really & truly did make my year a good one. every single one of you that follows me has made this year worth it, especially considering most all of you have dealt with me & my thirty million blogs. i love you guys, i love you all so much, & here’s to 2024! wishing you all the happiest & best new year, & thanks for putting up with this messy little planet <3

[spaceratprodigy]

11 24 29 dealer choice for ship I can't decide 🧡💖

@darkfire1177 — [ OTP Prompts ]

Guess what bestie, ur gonna get some Cybill/Iris!!

@grimreapersbutt answered these with me 🖤✨ thank u van ily ily

–

11. Who leaves notes in the other one's lunch? (Bonus: what do they say?)

Iris is more likely to be the one leaving notes for Cybill. Cybill can cook well, but not anything he'd ever be willing to subject Iris to.

Iris already loves to cook, travels with a pan and cooking/eating utensils, and was already showing Cybill just how much she cared about him when cooking for him and June on the road. And she only gets better as time goes on as she gets accustomed to cooking with what's available, plus later down the line when they settle and she starts her own garden at home base! Truly putting her entire heart into it.

She would be writing so many mushy gushy notes. Telling Cybill how much she loves him, adores him, every little thing about him she cherishes, how grateful she is that they met and an endless amount of thank you's for everything he's done for her. And if she's in a particularly saucy mood, I have no doubts in my mind she'd leave him something a lil spicy to chew on. And yes, she is signing every single one of those notes with a lipstick kissy.

Iris does tend to visit down the road to Sanctuary pretty often so she can visit Preston and help around the settlement, especially with rebuilding. And if Cybill stays back (they don't exactly like being separated) I can absolutely see her meal prepping for him and the babies for the day, leaving him sweet notes saying how much she's gonna miss him and how she can't wait to be back in his arms. But every now and again Cybill sneaks his own notes into her lunch before she heads out and she melts over them! She has lil mementos she takes with her everywhere she goes and anything Cybill gives her she would cherish and it'll never leave her side, I'm tellin' ya.

–

24. Sleeping/cuddling positions? (Big spoon, little spoon, etc.)?

They often like to sleep facing each other! Optimal position for spur of the moment kissing, and brother lemme tell ya, they're gonna be kissing a lot. Night time kissies before bed? Yep. Sleepy lazy morning kissies in the sunlight? You better believe it. They invented love, and they are relishing in it every moment they can. They like being close, laying on each other's chests, actual snuggle bugs. When they spoon, it is more likely for Iris to be the big spoon and Cybill to be the little spoon. It makes him feel safe, and she is already such a physical, snuggly person that being able to hold him in her arms at night and nuzzle her face into him would bring her so much comfort to know he's there, he's safe, and that she isn't alone.

Iris spends a lot of her story with bad sleep issues, often pushing herself not to sleep at all. Often out of fear, often because she has frequent nightmares. And once Cybill and June are with her, she'll never forgive herself if she fails to keep them safe. But being with Cybill eases that. She feels safe with him, comfortable, god she loves him so much. She can finally rest. Her nightmares don't haunt her like they used to. They still exist, and sometimes he'll have to help her through them. But it's better than it was.

–

29. First date? (Give as much or little detail)

So, we were thinking about their first date being them singing a duet at The Third Rail!

They get dressed up all nice like the lil romantics they are so they can have a proper date and ough it is darling.

Iris telling Cybill about how, before she met him, she used to perform occasionally with Magnolia for some caps whenever she'd stop by Goodneighbor every now and again. Something leads to another and one of them asks the other of they'd wanna sing together.

Cybill is good at singing, but Iris knows this. Him singing lullabies to June, and how lovely his voice was, was one of the earliest moments of her falling for him. I don't doubt in that time he's also heard her sing sweetly, considering how much time they've spent together by now. But he's never heard her on stage.

Cybill is gonna be so nervous to sing in front of other people, but Iris is gonna be there by his side singing with him. And once they start, their voices melt together so beautifully, their eyes are locked onto each other, they're looking so stunning, the world around them just falls away. The only thing in this moment is them. When they finish, Cybill dips Iris into such a passionate kiss, grand finale of a lifetime fr.

And if you see them holding hands and sneaking away to the backroom, don't even worry about it. Loud moans? Nope, don't hear a thing. Are they leaving, clothes disheveled, Cybill covered in smeared lipstick kisses, Iris covered in bite marks? Mind ur business.

[justamessedupdisneyprincess]

Lost in labyrinth mall! An onward fanfic! This fic focuses on Izzyley, a SI x Canon ship!

Part 3!

Izzy and Barley happily chatted during the drive to the mall. Along the way they had exchanged music, which was a little activity they tend to do during any road trips. Barley may introduce Izzy to a song he likes whilst Izzy would do the same. The elf was quite surprised to learn about Izzy’s preferred genre. He didn’t know exactly what she might like but it certainly wasn’t something so loud and full of energy and melody. Her love of dubstep was quite ironic given how she tends to hate most loud noises around her. She even introduced him to a new type of genre he has come to really like, even purchasing some of those songs for himself! Metalstep. Which is exactly what it sounds like. Izzy enjoyed many of his songs as well, she liked rock and metal as well. But she has a weak spot for a “sick” drop. Which would be the last thing one would expect from her.

“So ummm…I’ve actually been having some weird dreams where I can make music.” Izzy started at some point in the conversation.

Barley laughed a little. “Pretty much anyone can make music if they pour their heart’s fire right into it.”

“Yeah, but I mean like with mind powers. Like I can make my own dubstep out of thin air.” Izzy added.

Barley laughed a bit harder, he can see what she meant by weird then. “Now that would be one heck of a skill! Y’know I would listen to anything you make.”

“Well they actually sounded super good! Which kind of makes me wonder if I could become a DJ or something…but then I try to make music and it’s so much that I don’t have any idea what to do.” Izzy sighs. “I can hear the drops perfectly in my head but I can’t figure out how to make them a reality. It gave me a newfound respect for musicians.” She sounded a bit frustrated. In some cases Izzy had dreams where she wished so hard for it to be real, these types of dreams were one of them. Of course there are ones she is grateful that are not only real but she hopes to never ever have again, such as anxiety dreams about her teeth falling out, those ones always unsettle her.

Barley shrugs a bit. “You might be able to one day with enough practice. Actually ya know what. I know you totally can do that.”

Izzy chuckles a bit. “I dunno, it all seems pretty complex to me. I guess one day I might try and learn more about it.”

Her creativity, that was just one of the many things Barley loves about her. She is talented with quite a few things, such a writing, drawing and even sculpting. But the main thing that made her stand out were her ideas. She had so many of them, so many it can get overwhelming for her at times. She would often describe how she doesn’t get art block or writers block, but rather she gets so many ideas she doesn’t know where to start. She calls her brain a factory for concepts and that it’s both a blessing and a curse. Because of how bizarre and unique her ideas are though, Barley has grown obsessed with hearing any stories she may come up with.

They finally arrived at the mall and managed to find a park as well. Izzy looked on ahead and noticed a large tree just in front of the entrance, but this was no ordinary tree…it was alive! But alive in the sense it was sentient and aware. She saw the movement but this was her first time seeing anything like this! “Barley…Is it just me or is that tree moving?” She says nervously, worried if it may be a sign the ancient mall was haunted. Then she thought…’wait…this place could totally be haunted if it was literally a bizarre labyrinth where hundreds of explorers died in horrific ways!’

Barley nodded her head and couldn’t help but giggle as he saw the unease on her face. “Yep, he sure is!” He says.

Izzy looked over at him with a puzzled expression on her face. “He?”

“Haven’t you ever met a whispering elm tree before?” Barley replied with a little teasing smirk.

The imp’s blue eyes shot wide open. “No, I haven’t met one before! I did see them in movies before though- to be honest I actually thought they were fictional.” Izzy says, clearly amazed.

“Yeah, they are actually pretty rare now. They were rare in the olden days but now…it’s like shiny Pokémon sorta rare.” He says, just to give Izzy a better idea.

The couple began to walk towards the entrance. “I…kinda feel sorry for them though. Do you think they ever get bored or lonely being stuck like that?” Izzy asks, as usual she was the type to overthink things but in this case she did have a good point.

The grin on Barley’s face grew larger, as he had more knowledge to share. “For saplings maybe.”

As he had expected, his inquisitive girlfriend cocked her head to the side like a puzzled dragon pup. “Eh?”

As usual, Barley was happy to enlighten her, after giving her a little teaser for it first though of course. He just lots to see her little reactions! “Old elm trees can pull themselves out of the earth and use their roots to walk around.” Barley stated. “However, they can’t walk too far for too long because of how big and heavy their bodies are. So basically, they prefer to be sitting in the soil but they are not bound to it…or at least most of them are not.” He looked a bit saddened as he said this. He then leaned down to Izzy and whispered into her large pink ear. “Don’t bring it up but…the stupid idiots who decided to modify the place built tiles all around this guy and now he can’t move anywhere at all…he is a bit touchy bout it…rightfully so…but best to keep quiet.”

Izzy’s blank expression changed into an extremely exaggerated look of utter rage. Little wrinkles could be seen around her frown and eyebrows, her scowl was that intense. “Those thoughtless, inconsiderate ****s…!” She says with a growl, she has a very dirty mouth and tends to curse without even releasing it.

It actually took Barley a while to get used to her unique language. “Ok, I think ****s is a bit much. But I pretty much do agree with ya.” He says, smiling as he came to admire her feisty personality. She had a real strong sense of right and wrong and he loved that about her as well.

Although upon arriving it seems like Izzy completely forgot about Barley’s warning to not speak of this topic around the old tree, she was just too worked up! The whispering elm looked over to her in shock as she suddenly asked him a question that came from the heart. “Ummm…excuse me? Are you feeling ok?” She asked, worried for the tree’s mental health.

Barley gulped as he immediately clings onto Izzy, almost protectively. “Haha…pssst…don’t provoke him…” he whispered.

The tree spoke in a loud and booming voice, which caused customers who came and go to stare intensely as they pass. “Well if it isn’t the poor excuse of a knight! Think you can whisper around a whispering elm, can you?” He says, sounding angry.

Barley smiled awkwardly. “Aha…so you remember that do ya?” Izzy looked puzzled as her head flung back and forth between the two.

The talking tree had not only a mouth but eyes and a nose as well! His little face scowled, like an angry bitter old man. “How could I forget the man who broke my favourite branch?!” He says bitterly.

“Aww, c’mon, buddy! That was just an accident!” Barley pleaded.

Izzy looked more and more puzzled but the negative energy was starting to make her anxious. She was desperate for answers but had been cut off by the furious old tree. “Um- what’s-“

“If I tore off an arm of yours will you say it’s an accident?” The tree swayed around, a few leaves fall down to the tiles that were placed over him, locking him in place forever.

“Well that depends. If you tore off my arm with the intent to do so that sure as heck won’t be any accident…but-“

“Don’t play games with me! I’ve had enough of you youngsters! Always treating us elm folk as if we were nothing more than mere objects.” The tree sways more, the creaking wood echos around the parking lot in an unsettling manner.

Poor Izzy’s head kept snapping between the two who seemed to have been arguing. She got more and more anxious as she is still left in the dark. Barley continued to defend himself as best he can. “Hey, I was the one trying to help you, remember?”

The whispering elm scoffs. “Some help you were.”

“What is going on?!” Izzy suddenly shouted out. Every living soul quickly glanced towards her, but she ignored the unwanted attention from strangers who passed by, she was just desperate to figure out what was happening.

That is when the whispering elm finally seemed to acknowledge her. “Well young lady, this man here decided to sit his fat rump on my favourite branch and he broke it right off!”

Barley frowns a bit. “I told you it was an accident! Besides…it’ll grow back.”

The tree laughed sarcastically. “Grow back you say? That branch has been part of me for over 50 years! Do you really think it will even grow back the same? It will look completely different! Not only that but for it to simply “grow back” would be decades worth of waiting! Might I remind you time feels even slower being stuck in this retched gloomy place forever?! Why, with the lack of sunlight I am surprised I haven’t even died by now from malnourishment.”

As the tree angrily went on a rant Barley grabbed ahold of Izzy and dragged her inside the mall. Izzy looked back at Barley, still confused. “What was that all about?” She asks, she knew there was more to the story than that. Barley may be reckless but she can’t imagine he would climb all over him and break branches without a valid cause for it.

Barley groans a bit, seemingly embarrassed. “It…wasn’t my finest moment. I was trying to dig out the tiles and help him escape but…the mall cop got to me and I tried to climb away from him and uh…you can probably imagine the rest….argh! I should have done it by nightfall!”

Izzy angrily glared back at the direction where the tree is. “You were just trying to help…Hey, when a whispering elm’s branch breaks off does it hurt them?”

Barley looked quite surprised to hear her ask more questions so soon. It was not like her to move on so quickly. “Erm…well it doesn’t not hurt, but it sure as heck isn’t like getting an arm torn off. From what I have studied it’s more like a small sting, like a paper cut if you will.” Barley says, he smiled a little at the little joke he made towards the end. After all, paper is made from trees.

“Did he need that branch as an arm to grab things?” Izzy asked next.

Barley thought for a moment. Whispering elms can use their branches to swat at things but they could hardly be used as extra limbs to assist them. “Eh…not really. I mean he can move it for a bit but he can’t actually use it for much of anything other than swatting enemies away in Quests of Yore.” Barley stated casually.

Izzy suddenly turned around and stomped her way back towards the grumpy tree. Barley quickly realised why she asked such questions, to try and figure out if he had any right to be angry or upset. She was already furious to see the way he spoke to her boyfriend, but she needed more answers to try and see his point of view. As she had suspected, the tree was just vain about the branch’s appearance, nothing more, nothing less. “Oh no…Izzy! C’mon, just leave it alone!”

[japanifornication]

20 fic questions

i was tagged by @mutxnts thank you ash!!

1. how many works do you have on Ao3?

21, ayyy, one less than ash!!

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

189,718. this does not surprise me.

3. what fandoms do you write for?

ace attorney and very rarely ff7 and the last of us.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

late night (257 kudos), tasting (121 kudos), finality (114 kudos), alive (91 kudos), distance (88 kudos) all of these are ace attorney, three of them are part of a series lol.

if we want to include my art that i've posted to ao3, holding would actually be in second place, with 218 kudos.

theoretically another fic should be in the top five instead but i left it out because i just don't like it and don't plan to update it again/will prob remove it at some point (it was my first in the fandom, was trying to do a case fic before realizing i am bad at them).

5. do you respond to comments?

i try to always respond but sometimes i just don't know what to say! that being said i am always open to chatting about my fics. please. please talk to me oh my god i want to talk about ace attorney.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

oughhhh....... i guess no one told me it would be beautiful? it's one of my shortest fics and part of just a short series of a post-apocalypse au. it's not exactly the angstiest ending, i have another series in mind for that, but the whole fic has an undertone of angst, and series will too. i just write it in spurts when i feel the need to write something that isn't one of my WIPs.

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

i think most of my fics end on a sort of higher note! my fics have strong undertones of angst but with lighter endings, but i think the winner would go to status :) because it's the happy ending to the long angsty series! and also it just makes me happy, i feel like i really stuck the landing, we get to see the boys laugh over the most absurd situation and it makes me laugh too.

8. do you get hate on fics?

i've never gotten hate on a fic but shortly after i posted fic that met this description in the tags once, someone i follow made a post making fun of the idea that edgeworth would ever be a sexy dom. listen we are all playing in our own sandboxes.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

we all know me, come on now. i write trans phoenix getting railed in all configurations smut. every e-rated fic has at least one creampie. we know this.

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

i don't, but i do have one in mind. i've been planning a severance ace attorney fic for a long time.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

no

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

no

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

kind of? tybalt wrote a fic in the universe of one of my series! which kind of counts? idk! but he didn't feel like posting it so i did lol (he's co-author on it). but i do RP a lot, just none is published yet. maybe some day.

14. what’s your all time favorite ship?

of all time??????? tifa/cloud/aerith probably

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

ohhh god maybe my vampire fic, wait for the morning. i'm trying. i'm trying for the homosexuals.

16. what are your writing strengths?

i think i'm best at writing dialogue honestly, that is what i love to write the most, especially arguments. otherwise in the Real World i am very good at writing passive-aggressive but still somehow polite and professional emails to get shit done.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

i have a lot of problems with just repetitive vocab.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i have a lot of feelings on this i can't exactly elucidate well. i only speak english fluently. i have a very beginner's knowledge in french. i'm also indigenous, but i don't speak the language of my people, which despite being one of the largest indigenous speech communities in the US, still only has around 2,000 native speakers.

so... i have a lot of feelings about language that take up a lot of space in my chest. but i just am kind of stuck writing in english. if i need to write dialogue in another language, i try to source from friends who speak the language first, then elsewhere on the internet if i don't know anyone directly who speaks it (e.g. asking in a public discord or reddit or somewhere), and use online translation tools as a last resort.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

theoretically it was accidentally tomb raider when i was in 3rd grade but i didn't know that's what i was doing at the time. intentionally, the first fic i ever wrote fanfic for was ff7.

20. favorite fic you’ve written?

i really and truly cannot choose here. it's like picking your favorite child. for the writing skills alone i have to pick wait for the morning (unfinished, i'm sorry). clarity is another one i think shows off some writing skills, idk, i just like it! for the characterization, something about decadence really floats my boat. and for the one that really earns its e-rating, it's tasting (especially chapter 3), my magnum opus of smut.

i am tagging.... who am i tagging. i hate tagging ppl bc i get sooooo anxious that ppl will be annoyed but i am going to tag @sandboxer @m-aximumjoy @samioli if you want to do it, and i have forgotten everyone else's tumblr urls in this exact moment it's like the men in black just memory-wiped me

[icebluecyanide]

Alex Rider S03E03 Reaction

These are my unspoiled reactions to episode three.

Time to get Alex to Scorpia!!

Liveblog

Aww they are really sad about Alex

Alex going with Nile!!!

So many armed guards!! MALAGOSTO

Bless, Nile is giving him nothing

Not yet??? Love how eager Nile is to kill lol

Ahsdlfhs maybe you shouldn’t have plugged in the Scorpia stick!!!

“Sorry I thought that was obvious” lmao I love how Blunt comes out looking so well in Scorpia when you put him up against incompetent and doubtful politicians

“I’ve isolated this computer entirely” yeah… maybe you should have done that before plugging in the stick…

Gosh the home secretary… the fact that Scorpia wasn’t even going to give a demonstration at first seems kind of doubtful but then I guess they never expected their demands to be met any way and this is more a way to get back at the Department, so this sort of tension between politics and the Department is good for them

Alex why are you just walking up to a random Scorpia person lol

“It’s not like he’s going to be there” ahsdfhs Kyra lmao

“To finish you, to put an end to Scorpia” it’s interesting how in the show Scorpia is so much more involved in Alex’s earlier missions & Yassen is connected to them, which means that Alex doesn’t go into this just wanting to know about his dad, but he’s actually got some grievances with them already

“You look so much like your father” eeeeek

Your father was one of us!!!

Why is the Home Secretary still involved ahsdlfdhs doesn’t she have a job

It is mildly funny to me how the Department seems to consist of exactly three people at this point. Like the data scientist really was just the fourth person in the building huh

Pizza 😂 okay i will admit that is smart, wonder if it’s also a callback to Alex infiltrating Mrs Jones’s flat in the book

Does he look like his father? xD but also !! John backstory!!

Ian walking away hitting John the hardest 😭

“He became a very close friend of mine” oh so I guess she did know him?? Then what about the file??

Lmao Tom and Kyra getting arrested

My father was a killer 😭👀

Oh are they giving Scorpia an actual motive lol

How would Alex recognise his handwriting?? I know in the book it’s somehow identical to his own but how does ahorz think handwriting inheritance works??

Three years of service?? The second letter is from the book but gosh no mention of Alex’s mother so far huh 

Ohhh the letters are addressed to W, so I guess maybe John never learned her name?? In all three years?? Despite romancing her??

It seems so silly to me how Mrs Jones and Crawley are like actually meeting people and joining excursions. Why are they so visible??

“John never changed who he was, he only changed the people he worked for” 👀

‘This could be your home’ she says about an industrial underground complex with poor lighting ahsldfhs

Is Alex going to join because of Yassen 👀 Feels like he will need an extra reason at this point, maybe she’ll tell him about the Department killing his dad tho

Is Scorpia listening to their communications??

I’m sorry this is very sad and all but like, why are Smithers and Mrs Jones so emotional at all the casualties. Surely you would need to be able to compartmentalise in a job like this

In fairness, Malagosto is probably an upgrade from the Department’s headquarters

Oh like, real Alex/Kyra ship fuel huh

Gosh Alex agreeing to help end the Department even if he has no idea how many people will be killed. But he wants to end them for what they did to his father

I WANT YOU TO MEET YOUR TUTOR AHSLDFHSLFHS

YASSEN!!!!! CANONICAL TUTOR YASSEN!!! HELLO ALEX!!

Overall

Yassen is Alex’s tutor which is everything I ever wanted!!!!! Loved the backstory stuff, love Blunt, love angsty Alex, can’t WAIT for the Malagosto training scenes, THEY MADE YASSEN ALEX’S TUTOR!!!

Thought/predictions

I’m fascinated at how Mrs Rothman never once mentioned Alex’s mother despite her apparently being in the picture because Alex was six months old. I feel like it’s a hint at the discrepancy in her story, how I guess maybe she didn’t know about his mother until she learned about the fake death too and that’s part of why she wants revenge. 

Not entirely sold on this John actor ngl, but I do love that we got some flashbacks and I’m desperately craving John&Yassen flashbacks which I’m pretty sure we may get next ep with Yassen back in the picture. Gosh I’m so excited.

Tom and Kyra might get in trouble with Scorpia maybe or something, I have to admit I don’t really care much about their plotline, and it looks like Jack will stay side-lined this season, or at least while stuff takes place in Malta.

Tutor Yassen!!!!!! I need him to spar with Alex omg omg they are really giving us what we want here.

Questions

What is Invisible Sword?? This scene was very close to the book, but I can’t quite imagine them going with the vaccines storyline after 2020.

How much does Yassen know about John and what really happened? Apparently John’s death/Albert bridge was super classified within Scorpia, and Yassen does seem to be decently top ranking, and it looked like he was just waiting in the next room for Julia to do her big reveal, so it’s unlikely he wasn’t aware. He can literally see the paused shot of John lying ‘dead’ on the bridge lol. But does Yassen know the truth? I have to imagine he doesn’t, or rather, I don’t want him to be lying to Alex :((

Why *does* Scorpia want to train Alex, actually? In the book his time at Malagosto was honestly more testing rather than training, but what does Julia hope to get out of it? Do they want Alex to take out Mrs Jones as part of the revenge plot? Then again, no reveal about it being Mrs Jones who gave the order, so maybe they will stick to a general ‘the Department/Alan Blunt did it’ and aim Alex at them like that.

[dragoneyes618]

New crackship idea: Cupid from Pegasus and Maya from Valkyrie.

No, wait. Hear me out.

 Cupid is the god of love. In the Pegasus series, he has the power to make anyone fall in love with him. But he can control it. He doesn't like using it, and he'll only do it if he really has to. Most of the time the power is dormant, although he's already exceptionally handsome and charming and everyone likes him. But then if he uses it suddenly he seems magically beautiful and anyone who sees him loves him. 

Maya is the most beautiful of all the Valkyries. She already had the power to charm people. At the end of the last book in the trilogy she gains the power to augment this ability and make everyone fall in love with her, but she can't turn it off. She'll be like that forever. It's implied that she'll have to start living in seclusion like her great-great-grandmother because she can't live among other people, even other Valkyries and Dark Searchers and gods anymore, because anyone who sees her falls madly in love with her. 

So I thought, Hey, they both have love powers! 

Only the thing is, Cupid can control his powers. Maya can't. 

So I thought, maybe at some point they met somehow, and he offered to give her tips on how to handle her power. She can't turn it off, but maybe she can learn how to direct or lessen it so she can interact with other people sometimes. And over the course of this, they fall in love with each other.

And the two of them are the only ones they would actually trust to love each other, because if anyone else would claim to love either of them they would just think - and probably be right - that it's a side effect of their magic and this person did not actually love them. But I headcanon that the two of them (and Vanir-Freyja) are the only ones who are immune to each other's power. So because they're the only ones who can't be magically enchanted to fall in love, they then do genuinely fall in love.

Also I know that Cupid already has a wife named Psyche. I worked that into the backstory.

 In the Pegasus books, it's mentioned only in the last book that he has a wife. Emily knows that Psyche is one of "Cupid's many girlfriends" and then someone mentions that Psyche is actually Cupid's wife. So it seems that even if he does have a wife he's not exactly faithful to her. 

However, I thought of my Cupid/Maya ship before I reread the Pegasus books. And instead of letting canon ruin my ship, I decided to change things. ;)

So in this AU Cupid and Psyche were married, exactly what happened in the myth, but she was born as a mortal human and after a time didn't want to be immortal anymore. After hundreds of years she asked the other gods to revoke her immortality, and she aged and lived out her natural lifespan and died. 

Cupid asked her every day for the rest of her life to reconsider. She always refused.

When Psyche died, Cupid was very sad but honored her wishes, and has been grieving her ever since. He goes around with all his girlfriends in the hope of finding some solace but he never does. Until he meets Maya.

There's also a thing about Cupid's mother Venus. It didn't seem like he had a very healthy relationship with her. Like he always seemed obsessively concerned with what his mother would think of him and what he was doing and very worried if she'd be disappointed in him and so on.

Like in book 2, he didn’t want to use his power not because he had qualms about enchanting people to obsessively love him above all else and destroying their lives, but only because his mother would be disappointed in him.

 So! Here he is a very dutiful son and always honors his mother's wishes and always agrees with her, and the only time he ever disobeyed her was in the matter of Psyche. Until he meets Maya. That’s the second time.

Not that Venus specifically dislikes Maya like she did Psyche, she just doesn’t think anyone else is good enough for Cupid. It doesn’t help that Maya is very beautiful and after the events of War of the Realms is probably quite famous on Earth as the beautiful Valkyrie who led the giants away and saved everyone.

 Which leads to Maya's mother telling Venus that if she even thinks of giving Maya a hard time like she did with Psyche, Venus will be getting a little visit from Maya's mother, sisters, brother, uncles, cousin......The good old shovel talk, only it's not Cupid who's getting it. 

Eir and the rest of Maya’s family also have a little talk with Cupid, because after the events of The Runaway and War of the Realms - gaining Brundi, Vonni, Sarah, Mims, Michael, and Kris as family, only for Brundi and Skaga to die days later (and both Freya and Kai died in the final battle. Sure, it wasn’t permanent, they rose again, but considering that Skaga and Brundi didn’t die again that must have been quite traumatic for the rest of the family as they worried whether or not Freya and Kai would wake up) I imagine that the family is all somewhat overprotective of each other.

Not that Cupid has any intention of ever harming Maya (and they warn him that he’d better not think of being unfaithful to her, either - he has a reputation, what with aforesaid assorted girlfriends, and they’re going to be keeping a very close eye on him) but they want to make absolutely, definitely sure.

I’ve thought of a way for them to meet. After the events of book 6 of Pegasus, Jupiter wants to consolidate his rulership after all the Olympians move to Titus and he takes over rulership from Saturn. After the events of War of the Realms, the final book in the Valkyrie trilogy, Odin wishes to ensure that all the realms are at peace and there are no more threats lurking in the shadows. 

So the Roman pantheons and the Norse pantheons decide to make an official treaty with each other.

Up until now, they’ve had a peaceful, albeit uneasy, coexistence with each other. They don’t generally speak of each other, to the point where many of the younger members of Olympus and Asgard are unaware of each other’s existence. But they do exist; after all, Chiron notes in Rise of the Titans that gods from other cultures such as Pele exist just like the Roman ones do…

The point is, now they decide to make a treaty, and Cupid is part of the Olympian group sent to Asgard to represent Olympus/Titus and negotiate the terms. And he and Maya meet.

I also thought of this one funny scene where Maya and Cupid are kissing for the first time when Freya and Kai walk into the room. There's a minute where they all stand staring at each other in silence before Maya says "You saw nothing," and they're like "Right! Nothing! Bye!" and then run.

[shameonmeeguiltypleasure]

Heyyaaa so in your SMB fic does the whole bridgerfam know or atleast have an inkling of Colin's affections for Pen? I mean considering that they've known Colin their whole lives, I'm thinking they're fine-tuned (to a degree) to his actions like how I imagine someone to watch a ticking time bomb lol and and see how he moons over Pen like a fool or do they just think that he sees her like a toy he thinks is his? I'm sorry if this is confusing but I just realy want an insight of how the Bridgerton looks at Polin through the years

Not confusing at all, thank you so much for the question!!

And I loved that you asked because I always adore giving analysis and character studies for my SMB verse 🥰😂

It's sad, but to be honest, the Bridgerton Fam have blinders on when it comes to Colin. Again, this is a 'Depends on who you ask' sort of situation.

Violet: She knows her son has a dark side, but to what extent? She actively chooses not to think about how far he'll go to satisfy his greedy/selfish nature (She enables and excuses her children a lot unless it's a 'the whole ton knows' kinda thing). Because of that, she excuses the treatment Colin gives Penelope as innocent (Until she can't lol). She's always known that his affection for her is true, but (and she would never admit this out loud) she wasn't confident it could be something like love. Colin obsesses, he's greedy but his interest always seemed fleeting. So she didn't encourage romantic interest between them per se (just pointed it out when she thought he was showing a little TOO much interest in Penelope hence his blow-up at his brothers) but she also didn't stop it because she is weak for her children.

Anthony: He teases and he notices how Colin's actions can come across, but Colin said it's not like that and so he's choosing to believe him. (Until it's not but let us leave Anthony to his choices because he had to prioritise after Edmund died and Colin's dark tendencies weren't (as far as he knew) actually hurting anyone).

Benedict: He's always known. You can't bullshit a bullshitter. He took it upon himself to make sure Colin's attention on Penelope never crossed the line as they grew up. By this I mean, Ben was the one to make sure the two weren't left alone for too long without himself or Eloise. He made sure that when Colin walked Penelope home, it was exactly that. In many ways, Benedict was the only reason Colin subconsciously didn't cross the line with Penelope. How? Because Benedict loved to gossip about the scandalous little adventures he had at his orgy parties and the many ways Gentlemen acted incredibly ungentlemanly with a lady and aren't we lucky we weren't raised like uncouth savages, Colin? Aren't we lucky that we're proper gentlemen? We would never take advantage of innocent young ladies unaware of such flirtatious actions, right Colin?

Daphne: She didn't think there was anything wrong with the way Colin treated Penelope. Colin wouldn't hurt Penelope, she was too important to him. He loves her? Oh....you know, now that I think about it, yes that makes sense. Good for him, I can't wait to have Penelope as a sister.

Eloise: Penelope is not a toy to share, she is a living breathing, intelligent WOMAN! Colin doesn't get to just drag her about and make choices on her behalf! What right does he have!? He better not mess with Penelope or I'll kill him myself! Eloise didn't get why Colin hovered around Penelope so much, but she knew she didn't like it. She didn't care if they met first. Penelope was her sister of choice, her platonic soulmate. Colin could fuck off on another ship to who-knows-where! He's not mooning over Penelope! He's plotting to STEAL her from me!! Francesca: Did I know Colin had feelings for Penelope? Not at first. I thought he was just trying to piss off Eloise again. Penelope isn't a toy, but she might as well be one with how Eloise and Colin fight for her attention. Did I ever think they'd get married? Not really. I didn't think Colin would EVER get married, let alone to Penelope. She could do so much better if you ask me.

Gregory: What? Colin has feelings for Penelope Featherington!? Since when? But- But I- What?

Hyacinth: Obviously Colin loves Penelope. Have you seen the number of times he looks down at her? I measured the distance you know, he's got the best view at his height. And the way he eats when she comes to afternoon tea! Ugh, it's disgusting! He might as well just ask her to sit on his plate and say bon-appetite. Wait- This is an anonymous interview right? Anthony will kill me if he reads this.

In summary Anon:

Violet: No she did not know it was love but she's glad that it is.

Anthony: No he did not know because Colin said he'd never marry Penelope Featherington.

Benedict: Yes he did know and it was only a matter of time before Colin's greedy little self would drive him mad with desire.

Daphne: No she did not know but isn't it nice that Colin fell in love with his best friend.

Eloise: Yes but she refused to acknowledge what it was until Penelope told her she wouldn't mind Colin for a husband.

Francesca: Yes in a way, only because Colin loves to piss off Eloise and what better way to do that than to fall in love and make Penelope fall in love with him too.

Gregory: No. He very much did not know Colin had those kind of feelings for Penelope.

Hyacinth: Yes because Colin has hungry eyes and she learned at an early age that if one wished to eat in the Bridgerton home, they needed to beat Colin to the dinner table. Afternoon teas with Penelope usually meant she could eat more than usual because Colin's hungry stare was well and truly occupied.

:)

[jonphaedrus]

2022 fic year in review

2022 was a weird year. i pulled an all-nighter on feb 16 and i was possessed by the ghost of prfr past and an opera only i care about and then i woke up ten months later (kidding. i have not woken up at all) nearly a million words later and with my entire life in slight disarray and an unbreakable obsession with pokémon villain from baby jrpg fake france

anyway let's do the breakdown. im gonna take some questions from the overall ao3 wrapped lists going around, and then do the greatest hits/thoughs of all my fav fics from every month of the year (by posted date, including if it was adjusted for reveals; im not taking into account when things were "actually" written, but also neither will ongoing wips still unfinished count)

total word count in 2022: i waited to post this until id posted my final fics of the year and got the final count and cant stop staring at that 780k total. wtf. some of this is wips from across multiple years updated in 2022 (and much of it is roleswap which is going to get bumped into 2023...) but it's the most i've ever written on my own, ever. multiple past years combined. i stuggled so much with writing from 2018-2021 and i thought i'd never find it as easy or relaxing again and to have found joy in my words makes me so happy. LOOK HOW MUCH I WROTE! WHAT THE FUCK!!!!

fav fic i wrote this year: not counting ongoing wips (sorry roleswap. otherwise roleswap would be like the #1 thing on every answer), "tomorrow you must love me" is the best thing ive ever written (before roleswap) and it was such a joy and struggle to work on. i was so nervous and scared writing every bit of it but it came out exactly the way i wanted to. learning how to write longfic (for me) has been such a beautiful experience and it's made me so happy to share with others!

fav fic i read this year: "do let the old enmity be" by sam (my favorite gift anyone has ever given me on ao3 i cant—i cant even handle it i melt i explode i climb onto the rooftop to holler across the atlantic ocean), both fics in sam's mutual pining series (i have read both of these fics so many times... my favorite sam fics. or close to my favorite sam fics. we met because of mp1... these two STUPID, STUPID FUCKING FISH!!!!) and "mira vs. sasha cant" which might not have been written for me but it was written to infiltrate my brain and give me strength beyond imagining. oh, my god, it's so good, please read it. I AM NO LONGER ASKING.

fav series i read this year: royals having a nice time by ba_lailah. if you like polyamory, gender, sex (both the kind you do with other people and the bits attached to the body), pregnancy, family, parenthood, developing relationships, realism and worldbuilding, kids, the complexity of monarchy and the realities of rule, really REALLY REALLY hot porn, and some of the best bdsm ive ever read, treat yourself and go read rhant. there's a 250k novel coming this year. it's incredible. worth your time. go. read it.

fav exchange this year: fic in a box. the chance to play around with mediums and stylesheets and the exchange community around fiab was lovely. all the pinch hits i wrote were so much fun—i literally don't think i saw a single prompt i didnt adore!—and the mods were fabulous and i got LITERALLY THE BEST GIFT EVER. fiab is honestly a ton of fun. if you're new to exchanges and you want to try something a little out of left field, i really recommend fiab! the signups can be sort of esoteric but don't let the mediums or the complexity of the rulesets scare you off (they almost scared me off but sam coaxed me through it like a nervous small mammal) or the 10k minimum. you can break that up in so many ways (vids, art, cross stitch or knitting patterns, pixel art, voxel art, interactive fiction, asw remixes, comics, poetry, drabbles, standard fic, social media...) that it's really accessible and encourages so much thinking out of the box. i am SO EXCITED for next year.

fav ship i wrote for: GEE, I FUCKING WONDER.

fav character pov to write: you might think "prfr, either half" but no. it's shauna, actually. i love writing her and her perspective on things. she's so relatable and i just. i love her. her voice comes so easily to me, i cant wait to write her more in 2023

fav scene i wrote: a three-way tie between "as you treated him, so shall i treat you" which is just one scene but it set me on such an unexpected and amazing path to meeting some of my best friends and the most important people in my life and improving my craft and becoming so much happier on every axis ALL BECAUSE I DIDNT SLEEP AND I WAS MAD NOBODY ELSE HAD WRITTEN LYSANDRE GETTING STEPPED ON.... the scene with shauna and augustine in the grass in "with tenderness and pretty words it is easy to conquer good girls' hearts" which was a lot of catharsis for me as well as augustine and shauna, and a very specific chapter late in roleswap. i'm not saying which one. that's for me to know and you to find out.

wip i finally finished: inspired by the ficwip server, i've been working (slowly) on some of my old wips, and finally finished starry heavens, which was meant to be done like eight years ago. it's character studies of every major character in tales of symphonia, and getting to see it in full and my growth as an author over the better part of the last decadeis a little humbling. ive come so far! writing is great actually!

wip i've yet to finish: roleswap. 2023. we will do it. it will be done. as soon as my fffx is draft complete, roleswap is my heart and soul.

most read fic: it is (a little unsurprisingly given how long it is...) roleswap! which makes me so, so happy. sam and i have worked so hard

longest fic (completed in 2022): "tomorrow you must love me" at 57k

shortest fic: apparently it was "in which the author reaches the end of his rope" at 193 words. i didnt even remember writing this so jkhlkdfjhglsdhkfg

fav fic title used: "RÉEL FIBSHING: LUMIOSE CITY EDITION" which is twine-style interactive fiction about magikarp jump, set in sam's "as the night the day" universe which i wholeheartedly adore and you should go read it.

biggest surprise while writing: how much easier it is for me to do multi-chapter and longform works! i've always really struggled in the past to stay committed and complete things, but this year i've really started to move into the realm of being able to just... write longfic! that's very exciting to me.

fav comment received: shout out to ao3 users yelp, who is an absolute delight in exchanges. like, seriously, yelp is such a sweetheart. omg. i would write for them in an exchange again in a heartbeat and their comments are so sweet.... and also every other comment i got. thank you ;;v;; they make me so happy... i hardly ever even know what to say

fav fic author i read: i wonder who that ao3 user samifer is. what a guy. in all seriousness, this year my favorite authors were my friends. they helped me out, gave me advice, and made me feel so full of love i can't even begin to say how much. i'm so lucky to know these amazing people and i can't encourage you to read everything by sam, kay, neku, lailah, or sushi enough. theyre all amazing fabulous authors and fantastic people and i love them so much. you should go love them too!!!!!

total fics/chapters uploaded: 174. i said that aloud and my husband said "holy crap babe" from the other room. what the actual fuck

what am i most looking forward to next year: FINISHING ROLESWAP IM SO EXCITED ITS ALL IM THINKING ABOUT!!! IM SO READY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

ok and finally under the cut my favorite fic from each month of 2022!

JANUARY 2022 -- SINCE THE DARK (owain & l'arachel, gen)

i've been doing nagamas since the very first year and it's still one of my favorite exchanges. getting to play around with a narrator as fun as owain and contrasting him with l'arachel was great and seeing their crossover interactions was so good. nagamas gr9 actually. 10/10 exchange will always participate again

FEBRUARY 2022 -- AS YOU TREATED HIM, SO SHALL I TREAT YOU (prfr, m)

what else, lol? i didnt sleep i listened to an entire opera, i blacked out, i woke up ten months later and discovered i'd moved in and written like four novels. i am never moving back out. i love everyone in this house. especially sam.

MARCH 2022 -- IN EVERY PLACE, AT EVERY TIME (prfr, e)

inspired by sam prompting for phone sex and mutual pining, playing around with academia and conferences and giving this the most #onbrand title/chapter title/summary combo i could come up with this also led to me meeting new dear friends!!

APRIL 2022 -- TOMORROW YOU MUST LOVE ME (prfr, e)

im so stupid proud of this fic. setting up a plot this complex with so many moving pieces and multiple povs and multiple mediums and dealing with so many real life issues was a lot of moving pieces but it was so, so worth it. it was worth all of the work because it's one of the best things ive ever written and it came out just how i wanted to and it helped me make my friends happy and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa i just love prfr and writing c/c/c has been just amazing and I WILL KEEP GOING NEXT YEAR!! THIS YEAR WHATEVER IT'S 2023 NOW BUT WHATEVER ITS STILL 5783

MAY 2022 -- WHO COULD USE FORCE AGAINST A HEART LIKE HIS (IV) (prfr, e)

sam prompted me for using bdsm as therapy and i wanted to write cnc and it spiralled very out of control. one of the questions someone asked early on with c/c/c was what happened at The Incident and i'd intended to write that and playing with vanilla sex and safewording and cnc and trust was really difficult and i've struggled off and on for most of the year with this series of 5+1 but every one as i've finished it has been such an accomplishment even when it's been hard. especially when it's been hard.

JUNE 2022 -- 'TIS NOT LONG BEFORE THEY FEEL THEIR FEEBLE SOULS BEGIN TO REEL

how, HOW, HOW??? WAS I THE FIRST PERSON TO (APPARENTLY??) WRITE T4T SEX POLLEN FIC ON AO3? anyway it was fun and the result is sexy sexy sex

JULY 2022 -- AS THOUGH IT WERE POSSIBLE TO COMMAND LOVE

sam asked for prfr one bed and then FIFTY THOUSAND FUCKING WORDS LATER they finally made it to the bed and fucked in it. good for them.

AUGUST 2022 -- SILKEN DALLIANCE

the entire writer's month challenge was an experience (writing that much every day for a month... im glad i did it but im not doing it again i dont think dfkjhgkdfhg) but of all the fics i wrote i think this was my favorite. i really struggled with this prompt and i wasn't all that happy with it as i was writing it/right after but as time has passed i've been more and more proud of it.

SEPTEMBER 2022 -- TIRED OF THIS BODY

i dont really have anything insightful to say here. uh. getting into new and slightly unexpected kinks is character growth?

OCTOBER 2022 -- ONE CANDLE IN THE RAIN

something something if i had a nickel for every trans serial killer au i've written id have two nickels which is a weird number of nickels to have for something this specific and niche. anyway getting into new and slightly unexpected kinks (and then getting your friends into new and slightly unexpected kinks) is character growth

NOVEMBER 2022 -- WHO COULD USE FORCE AGAINST A HEART LIKE HIS (V)

i stuill have mixed feelings about this fic. i think this was like... my fifth or sixth attempt at writing it, and it honestly still didnt turn out exactly how i wanted it to and im a little bit frustrated by that, but as much as i tell people it doesn't have to be perfect it just has to be done, i struggle with "done, not perfect" and "done, not perfect" here meant i finished this and it made me happy. ive learned a lot this year and one of the things i learned was to let go of perfection and finish stories and be happy with the growth from them. this grew out of so many ideas and the way it ended up is just right just the way it is.

DECEMBER 2022 -- AZURE AS ANTEDILUVIAN SONG or RÉEL FIBSHING: LUMIOSE CITY EDITION

fiab was such a good exchange ;__; i had so much fun and i can't wait to do it again next year. pinch hitting and treating and getting to write for some of my best friends and trying out new mediums was so much fun and i definitely feel like i grew a lot as a writer in the process. writing interactive fiction was a new one for me (i've never written anything even like a choose your own adventure even just for friends before as a kid or anything) and it definitely was a new experience, especially playing around with 2nd person like that, and twine had a learning curve, but it was a fun learning curve c: azure as antediluvian song came out of me all in one go based on a prompt without even intending to write it. kazuha is my favorite genshin character and i loved this au concept and getting to play around with ayato was unexpectedly enjoyable! genshin lore good.

[chuuyanakaahara]

I’m so in love with Act of Faith, I don’t even like SSKK very overly much but I read the preceding fic anyway just to get to it so it would make sense and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the SSKK you wrote!! Usually it’s not my thing (I don’t really like the common fanon interpretation of a relationship dynamic between them, and I think I prefer AtsuLucy tbh) but you converted me for the purposes of this fic!! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE your Chuuya and the messy messed up bitter but not broken relationship dynamic you’ve got going on for SKK! Chuuya still loving Dazai but bitter and done with it all and not willing to go there with him again, and Dazai clumsily trying to get him back but determined to do it without actually like, talking about anything important or being straightforward about anything, is how I’m reading it. I can’t wait to see how everything resolves itself!

oh my god thank you so much ?? this is the highest of compliments :o

ironically, i like skk more than i like sskk too; i'm a multi-shipper at heart (as i'm sure you know) so i write / read a ton of different ships, and while i like sskk, it doesn't interest me nearly as much as skk ! i hope i was able to make their dynamic interesting & up to par bc i find that canon sskk tend to have a much more rounded dynamic than fanon, where i think they often get flattened out ! atsulucy is a good ship too theyre really cute together - plus, there's something to be said about changing the trajectory of your life because of someone you met, like lucy did...

and thank you so much on the skk dynamic compliment !! you've got it down - that was exactly how i was writing them; their dynamic is screwed-up and it's been fractures in so many ways, not by time but by each other, and chuuya is wary because he lives with his heart on his sleeve and last time he let dazai have it,,, well. dazai is trying in the way that dazai knows how - but it all comes down to the communication. that's their biggest problem right now, as far as act of faith goes; they trust each other, that much is certain. you cannot drop off the side of the building on blind faith that your ex-partner is right about something if you don't trust him. it's just not something you do.

but they won't talk about it. that's where their fallacy is and where the fractures begin; there is so much hurt and bad blood and lovey dovey moments and soft firsts that they will not acknowledge and who are you if not the experiences you've lived? how can you talk to someone like you're friends if you never want to acknowledge the memories you have together?

[textfromtheboyjohndoe]

Axar

Jeff was homesick, again, increasingly often the past few days. He’d known that it was basically a one-way ticket coming here, but since he’d grown up in a Govhouse as a pioneer orphan, he had de-facto no family. All had been spread across the galaxy during the Bio-diaspora, and in the Govhouse he’d rarely made friends. Exactly one to be honest, but Jannod had elected to stay behind and become a teacher. On the other side of Jal was a woman, about five years older than he, whom he vidchatted with on a weekly basis, but he could hardly call Grace his friend, as he had never met her in person or chatted with her on anything but official business. What vexed him was the fact that he could even become homesick for the Govhouse, because it in itself was just a space station hung in an Earth/Moon Lagrange, and he’d never been physically able to visit Earth. 

He walked alone through the Corridor-streets of the Hond-Fold in which he lived, passing Jalians who looked at him mildly amused, ever friendly, but always keeping their distance. Magnay was visiting a different Fold with Thorace and his other pupils, to see if they could convince anyone else to accept another Gaian, but many were still in the “let’s wait and see what happens with the strangers” phase, and the Grand-All-Mother of Hond-Fold had definitely declared that she would only allow one Gaian or other off-worlder into the fold at a time, until they saw that it was either detrimental to keep them alone, or that they could understand and adapt to fold law and culture. Since only a few Jalians spoke Gaianglish, and he still spoke only rudimentary Jalian, he was surprised when he heard someone call his name. He looked around and saw a rather tall and gangly Jalian wave and walk towards him. “Good Day honored Gaian-Jeff!” he called from a distance, other Jalians looked around in surprise. As he approached, he even did the unimaginable and held out his fist to make an old-fashioned fist-bump. As surprised as he was, Jeff had never been the squeamish type, so he held up his fist at about the same height, and the strange Jalian fist-bumped him and gave him a grin, actually bearing his teeth, which was even stranger and would have been a open affront to another Jalian. In fact, Jeff noticed a couple of Jalians passing by, who quickly changed directions, expecting a fight to break out at any second! “Honored Gaian-Jeff!” he exclaimed enthusiastically “I am named Axar, and I am so excited and pleased to finally make your acquaintance!”

Jeff looked at him, and said “Honored Jal-Axar, thank you for your introduction, if I may ask, your business and how you speak Gaianglish so well?” Axar looked highly pleased but offered the usual range of polite but exaggerated humbleness, “Honored Gaian-Jeff, please, you flatter me unnecessarily! My language skills are most un-notable. I have just returned from space-faring on the Gaian ship Hitherto and was contacted by the Great-Teacher Thorace, who requested that I accompany you, and continue to show you more of the fold” he paused waiting for Jeff’s reaction, but carried on after a second, “Also, Great-Teacher Thorace has great confidence in you to carry yourself respectfully within the Fold, but has had heard some rumors about some of our Fold-Kind, who are not altogether pleased about the acceptance of Off-Worlders into the Fold, and may try to taunt you or coerce you into making a mistake.” Jeff looked around, then back to him “Oh, well then if Thorace deems it better, then of course I accept his wisdom, and of course your honored company, but please, call me simply Jeff!” Axar looked rather pleased and nodded his head vigorously (which was also quite un-Jalian) “Please Jeff, then I request that you simply call me Axar”.

“So, tell me Axar, what was your duty and length of stay on the Hitherto?” Axar, still looking quite pleased like an overzealous schoolperson answered “I was also as a cultural exchange, much as yourself, but instead of being on a station or planet, I was accepted onto the Gaian ship Hitherto, explicitly to learn, and later teach our Fold-Kind about space-faring. My duty was learning about navigation as a potential cadet of the Gaian Space Academy. It was planned that I stay three Gaian years, but alas, I wished to leave the ship for a season after only one Gaian year, as I found it most difficult living without any other Fold-Kind to converse and friendship with”, his face falling somewhat with the explanation. Jeff considered this and replied “I understand, as I was also just thinking about the situation, that I also have no other Gaians around” and explained about Grace and the thoughts and concerns of the other Folds. Axar listened intently and nodded his head again. “I hope that the Gaian ship Captain Jonathan is willing to accept me back onboard when they pass again in ten nights”, (Jalians counted in Jal night times which were roughly 14 Earth days) “That is if the Grand-All-Mother allows me to leave again, and possibly take a companion. She is still negotiating with the Gaian Space Academy.”

They walked along in silence awhile, until they heard a clicking and clacking and shouting in the distance “Oh!” exclaimed Axar “A game of Frok!”, speeding up his pace. Jeff hurried after him until they came to a group of Jalians standing around a type of amphitheater. Down below, were six Jalians standing around a shallow basin, and in regular intervals and varying levels around the walls of the basin, were indentations. The Jalians were taking turns rolling balls looking to be around the size and weight of Gaian bowling balls (still a popular pastime on Gaian stations and planets) into the basin, and trying to either knock their teams balls into, or the other teams balls out of the indentations. Up close, it was amazing how loud the collisions of the balls, and even more surprisingly, how loud the usually reserved Jalians themselves were! He saw Jalians passing “leaves” (Jalian money) and yelling what Jeff recognized as obscenities back and forth, as the players looked very concentrated. He was amazed as one player rolled a ball with a flip if it’s wrist down into the basin, hitting one of the other teams balls, which ran up the basin wall, and knocked a ball the same color as his from one indentation, into a higher one. The crowd went crazy, yelling and gesticulating at the player, who turned around in a circle, with his arms raised and bearing his teeth, which naturally made some of the spectators go even wilder. Jeff looked around and saw Axar passing leaves, and talking with another Jalian, but when he noticed Jeff watching him, he looked sheepishly back, and came back to his side. “Oh, please forgive me honored Gaian-Jeff, but it has been so long since I have watched a good Frok, and even longer since I’ve seen a player make such a spectacular play like that!” Jeff smiled lightly, and said “Please Axar, I am happy to see that Jalains play sports and wager like this. I guess it’s something universal!” Axar nodded vigorously, and exclaimed enthusiastically “Come Jeff, when the game is over, then I will take you to a dining-room and explain the rules, maybe tomorrow, we can find a Frok-bowl to try our hands in it together!”