#well no okay he got to a challenger semi but. with all due respect to challengers this is a player who was n.21 in the world

[sinnettini]

lorenzo sonego serves, winston-salem open 2024

photos by grant halverson

[snlhostharry]

romeo and juliet thing

harry styles x reader

“rivals” to lovers au 

~3k words

warnings: cursing, mentions of sex 

my piece for @meetmeinfleetwood ‘s to lovers challenge, congrats on your milestone! 

a/n: amazing thing I realized while writing this: if you don’t put it off you can actually get it done in a reasonable amount of time... I will not be applying this to any other aspects of my life 

You’ve come to enjoy album release parties. The first one you’d ever been to was the one for your first album, something someone from your publicity team has put together, which they did a decent job on but you did not have a good time. You were so nervous about the album coming out at all that you tried to use alcohol to calm your nerves, so you can’t really remember anything about it besides briefly throwing up in the bathroom. After that incident, you resolved not to drink before the party ever again and the next few you’d been too for other artists were actually fun in their own special ways. 

By the time your second album is on the cusp on release, you’ve decided that you deserved it after the mess of writer's block you’d gotten in the middle of trying to write the thing, which had gotten so bad that you’d been called into a “special meeting” by management where they talked for what felt like hours about deadlines and marketing and basically tried to intimidate you into finishing faster. Something happened that allowed you to finish, it was an odd timing but it did help. 

But that was ages ago, and you’re trying to focus on the party. 

Which is easy enough, winding through the room talking to friends and investors, small talk is easy when you're trying to avoid something else. You’re talking to someone who’s name you are definitely not going to remember when this is over, when out of the corner of your eye you think you see someone who should definitely not be here. When you're finally released from said conversation you walk around the room, trying to find the intruder. You make your way all the way back to the bathroom, when suddenly the person you’ve been looking for slams right into you. 

You’re far enough in a corner that you think no one can see you, which is good because if anyone got photos of the two of you together you would never hear the end of it. Harry Styles looks at you like he’s been caught in the act, the guilty expression not leaving his face even as he says, “Funny seeing you here.” 

“At my own party?” You ask. 

He licks his lips, trying to buy time to think of something to say. “Before you say anything,” He says, treading cautiously, “I was told to come here.” 

You narrow your eyes, “By who?” 

“Someone who works for me,” He replies, “Which means that someone who works for you gave them the information.” 

You groan, “Of course they did, well at least make sure they get your good side when someone comes around to take photos.” 

He smiles at that, “That’s every side, love.” 

You shake your head, typing a message on your phone and quickly sending it, “It’s not but it’s cute that you think so.” 

“Ignoring that little comment,” He says, seeing that your attention is divided between him and the person you seem to be very angrily texting. “It’s a good song you wrote, I’m excited to hear the rest of the album.”

“Oh,” You say, eyes widening, “Thank you..?” He tilts his head to the side gently, clearly his way of asking a question without actually asking a question. “Sorry, I just didn’t realize we were doing the thing where we pretend this is normal, and you are normally at my party.”

He laughs, “Didn’t know there was pretending involved.” 

“I’m just so used to pretending to loathe you all day everyday that it's just so natural,” You say, and wait to see if he’ll get the joke. 

He shrugs, “Really? I don’t think of you all that much.” 

Your phone buzzes in your hand before you can respond, one message sits unread underneath the ten you’d sent a few minutes earlier in rapid succession. Honestly? I invited him because I thought it would be fun. Of course that would be her rationale for not telling you about this very obvious stunt. Inviting your “rival” to your album release party is the perfect way to get your name in some headlines conveniently before the whole thing goes live, not like you need them but then again you do pay people to manage this kind of thing so they figure they should be doing something. 

Oh yeah, Harry is supposed to be your “rival.” Think of some of the most infamous musical feuds of all time, and then knock it down a few pegs, and that’s where you would put yours and harrys. No one knows how it really started, something between a couple of twitter stans you’ve been told, but it suddenly gave each of your respective “people” the genius idea to milk that kind of exposure for all that it’s worth. The two of you have been pit against each other ever since the release of your debut albums, both self titled and both released within two weeks of each other. It hasn’t harmed either of you, being compared to the other, since you’re both pretty evenly matched in terms of talent. 

It seems to only exist to make the occasional headline when the media remember that it “exists.” There have been headlines wondering if you’ve mentioned him in tik toks (you didn’t) in instagram posts (you were shading someone but not him) and if this whole thing started due to a one night stand that went the wrong way (definitely not). 

You pull yourself back into the conversation, realizing you're being rude trying to think of something to respond to the text message. “I’m sorry, you were saying?”

“Who are you rage tweeting over there?”

“Rage texting actually,” You say as another one comes through, “Fucking Melanie.” 

“Unfortunate that her parents gave her that as a first name.”

You look up at him right away, “Not funny.” He laughs at his own joke anyway, “Melanie-” You say, holding up your phone for dramatic effect, “Is the head of the PR team, which is three people but anyway she is the one who seems to have coordinated this whole thing as a prank on me apparently.” 

“It’s kind of funny,” He says. 

You narrow your eyes at him, “I’m sure from your point of view it is.” Suddenly, someone comes rounding the corner near where the two of you are standing, and you freeze on instinct until they pass right in front of you without even looking in your direction. You realize that in a panic, you’d grabbed onto Harry’s hand and you decide that the two of you are going to have to finish this conversation somewhere else. “Come with me,” You sigh, leading him through the back of the room all the way to a small door that leads to an outside area at the back of the venue. You look at him again, his eyes glinting in the lights hanging above your heads. “What were we talking about?”

“Are you ever listening to me?” He asks, half joking. 

“Don’t take it personally I’m only half listening to everyone,” You answer, “It’s called multitasking.” 

“Seems tiring.” 

“Better than being bored,” You say.

He looks at you for a second without saying and then shoves his hands in his pockets, “Why are we out here again?” 

“I’m trying to figure out what’s the game plan here, if you’re supposed to be seen here alone, seen with me, if I’m supposed to throw some kind of tantrum about it.” 

“Besides the one your already throwing?” 

You stop looking at your phone, “Ouch.” 

“Punishment for continuing to ignore me.”

You turn off your phone and hold it in your hand gently, giving him your full attention. “I’m listening, but only if you’re going to say something that it’s some kind of thinly veiled insult,” You click your tongue, “You’re one of those guys who flirts by making fun of girls aren’t you?” 

He thinks about it, “That’s a type?” 

“Yeah, for people who are still mentally in high school.” 

“So you wouldn't be interested then?” 

You smile, thinking about it. Here’s the thing, despite the fact you very much have been pretending to loathe Harry Styles for two years just so you don’t slip it if someone asks, you recognise now that he is objectively attractive. The curls, and the eyes and the borderline too busy suit jacket he’s wearing (that both of you know costs an exorbitant amount) is all contributing to a look that is working for you at the moment. Also working in his favor? The semi enemies to lovers arc that you have going on in your head. “Despite the fact that I think that kind of flirting is beneath you, at this moment, it’s currently working for me.” 

You take a step forward, closer to him, and suddenly your phone starts going off again. You check it briefly, trying very much not to ruin the moment but very cognizant of the fact that this is your party and people are going to start noticing if you're gone. You look down, see it’s not a life or death emergency and look right back at Harry. “Let me guess,” He says, “She wants you to kiss me for the cameras?”

You laugh, “No, but I’m going to do it anyway.” You kiss him, he leans in and you think that you might just seal the deal with harry styles out on this very nice patio when your phone rings again. You pull away when it’s clear that whoever it is needs you desperately, you look at the message, and groan, “Fucking Melaine.” You look towards the door and back at Harry, “Okay this is not over, but I have to go take care of stuff, so just meet me here after the whole thing is over and we will finish this thing.” 

“Really?”

“Oh yeah,” You smile, “We could be an epic novel of forbidden lovers, like Romeo and Juliet without the ending.” You pause, “Well maybe with the end if Melanie kills me with her bare hands for not talking to this producer she wants me to meet.” 

“Later, then.” 

You take him back to your apartment that night. And you invite him back the next day, and then the week and then a few more times after that. As much as you had meant it a joke at the time, the kind of forbidden lovers aspect of trying to keep this whole thing under wraps is sexy in a way that you would never admit outloud. 

You’ve both become shockingly adept at sneaking in and out of apartments, neighborhoods (Harry has multiple priorities; why that is you're not exactly sure) and sometimes clubs if you're in a group and it’s dark enough that you think no one will see you. 

“Should I climb up through the window?” You ask Harry as you stand in the backyard of his house in London,  swimsuit clad even though you’ve gone nowhere near the pool. 

Harry looks at you from his place on the ground next to you. He’d refused to get a chirhair to sit on, so he just sits on the ground, looking out over the pool and the fence. “Why would you do that?” 

“Romeo and Juliet thing, didn’t he climb through the window to see her?”

He shrugs, wrapping his arms around your bare legs in some attempt to keep your attention on him, “I don’t know, never read it.” He laughs a little, “But I think if you did that some pap would catch you with your ass hanging out of my window.” 

You laugh too, “And you would never fucking stop laughing at that.” 

“No, I would not.” 

You kick your leg out so that you almost hit him right in the face, “Fucker, I thought you were over being mean to me as a tactic. You have successfully romanced me.” 

“Really? Because you’re staring at the house like you’re going to kill me for my money.” 

“You’d put me in your will? That’s sweet,” You turn to him, pulling your sunglasses onto the top of your head. 

“You are so hot right now.”

“It is hot,” You say, looking out at the clear sky, “What an observation.” 

“You’re screwing with me.” 

“Because I’m too tired to screw you at the moment,” You say, “Can’t we just enjoy one day in one of your two properties out in the sun before you start making me exercise?” 

“I wouldn’t call it that.” 

“It is work,” You say, rolling your eyes. “I’ve been thinking about that song you played yesterday, I think it needs to be less.. Ethereal.” 

“What does that mean?” 

You sit down next to him, laying your head in the grass. “Harry Styles is a rockstar, if you’re going to do a sad song, which seems to be your specialty, it needs to at least have a beat.” 

“People don’t want to dance to sad songs.” 

“Dude,” You say matter of factly, “Of course they do, I do and I think I speak for a very large section of the United States population.You need a sad song you can at the very least scream too, if not full out dance.” 

“So what’s your suggestion?” He asks. 

“Add more guitar,” You tell him, “Like a lot more. Take all the lyrics you have and put them on a track that sounds like it should be about your new puppy or something.” 

“Who writes songs about puppies?” 

“It was an example, H.” You sigh, “but you get the point.” 

“I’ll think about it.” 

“Don’t be like that.” He doesn’t say anything for a while, and you let it go as one of his moods for a while. But it goes on for longer than you thought it would be, and eventually you sit up. He’s staring down at his phone, frozen, and then he starts typing without saying anything to you. “What are you looking at?” You ask him, and he doesn’t say anything. “What is it H?” You ask again. 

“Fuck it all,” He says, dropping his phone to the ground, and covering his face with his hands as he laid down with his head in the grass. 

You pick his phone up off the ground and see that he’s opened twitter. Staring right back at you is a picture of the two of you kissing outside a small restaurant from the night before, you rack your brain trying to think if you saw anywhere when you were there and you swore you didn’t. Like it or not, everyone is going to know about the two of you now, including Melanie who had told you not to interact with Harry after the party expressly. “Shit,” You say, and your phone begins to ring the sound of Temporary Fix filling the small backyard. 

“Fucking Melanie,” Harry says, still lying on the ground, “She’s going to ream me.” 

“Well at least she’ll do it to both of us,” You groan, not even bothering to go and get your phone. You stand up, as a tension headache begins to form in your temples, “Well I’m going to get into the pool.” 

“Now?” He asks you. “Seems like the perfect way to avoid this problem, doesn’t it?” 

He also gets to his feet, and takes your hand, “Yeah it does.” 

And together the two of you jump into the pool. 

It’s an hour before you finally call Melanie back, even though you meant to avoid it for at least another hour. You sit at the kitchen counter while Harry takes a call in another room, dreading this call because you do not want to hear her yell at you for nothing, mostly because you're a grown woman and are above being lectured. 

“Were you just not going to tell me about this?” 

“Yes, that was the plan.” 

“I told you not to-”

“Yeah but I had already made plans by then that I couldn’t cancel.” 

“There was one man in the entire world, who you couldn’t fuck-”

“I know, what are the odds?” 

“Could you please stop fucking with me for one second?” She says, “This is serious.” 

“It’s not that bad, for you I mean.” You shrug, “I mean for me my personal business is all out on the internet now and I’ll be permanently known as one of Harry Styles’ girlfriends but for you what’s better press wise than a good ol enemies to lovers arc? I won’t tell anyone the enemies part wasn’t real if you won’t.” 

You hear her sigh from the other end of the phone, and then tap her nails against the desk. “You might be onto something there.” 

“I’m always onto something Melanie, I’m the artist here aren’t I?” And you hang up, before you say something that you’ll regret. You’d meant what you said, you were mostly just uncomfortable with everyone knowing who you're dating, especially the harry twitter stans who are known for being very excitable to say the least, you could see why they liked him so much but you would be lying if you said they didn’t scare you. You think of all the interviews you’ll do in the future where people will ask about him, about your relationship and maybe about how it ended. 

Harry comes back into the kitchen and grabs two beers from the fridge. He opens both and sets one out in front of you. “How did it go?” 

“Fine,” You say. You look at him, “Is this the part where we break up because you can’t be seen with me?” You put your face into the counter and let out another groan. 

“Never,” He says, taking a drink, “No one else I would rather weather this shit-storm with.” 

You smile, “Same here.” 

[mypoisonedvine]

Ties That Bind, Debts That Burden | Curtis Everett x reader

for @stargazingfangirl18​ and @navybrat817​‘s august challenge!  my prompt was the gif!

summary: you didn’t expect the man who bought you to be so kind.  you didn’t expect to fall for him, either.

warnings: death of a parent character, kidnapping, implied noncon/mentions of noncon, sexism, sexual slavery (mentioned), dub con (but not in the way you’re expecting), implied age gap (everyone is over 18!! as always!!), semi-public sex, breeding kink, loss of virginity, pain kink (slightly)

word count: a bit over 4k (and I wrote it all in one day... hey that rhymes!)

[this is another one of those things where the fic itself is dark due to the subject matter, but the character in question is not ‘dark’ in the traditional sense.  so, curtis is a good dude, it’s everyone else that sucks; this is a dark fic tonally, but not sexually per se]

Life in the tail section was ruthless.  It was all about survival, and survival was about being stronger than others.  You weren’t strong.  What you did have was your father, and he had kept you safe all your life, even before the two of you had lived in this terrible place.  He was a sort of leader; people looked up to him, and as a result, they obeyed his wishes to stay away from you.  Even so, you could sense that a lot of the men in the train were just waiting for their chance to take you.  Women who didn’t have significant skills to offer, women like you, were seen as a commodity with only one purpose.  Less like wives and more like slaves, they were traded, sold, and bartered for like clothes or rations.  It made you feel sick, but most of all it made you terrified for what would happen when your father couldn’t protect you anymore.  He was strong, but old, and so tired.  You hated to see how hard he had to work so late into his life, just so that you wouldn’t have to suffer.  

When he died, it almost didn’t feel real.  Even though it was sort of expected with the way his health had been declining for months, it was nothing you ever could’ve imagined.  A world without your father meant a world you were truly alone in… and only now did you confront the real cruelty of life in the tail section.

You woke up to being dragged by your hair; you screamed and kicked, but there was little you could do as you were thrown down onto the floor.  Your worthless fighting was muted as rags were used to bind your wrists and ankles, and a gag silenced you.  You looked up to see you were surrounded by men, with one-- you were pretty sure his name was Jamie, you’d seen him around before-- standing up and hovering over you.

“Her father is finally dead!” he announced to the crowd with a dirty smile that was missing a few teeth.  “I got my hands on her first, but I’m willing to sell her to any reasonable bidders.”

“Five rations,” one voice quickly jutted in.

“Five-- what the fuck are you talking about, man?  Everyone’s been drooling over this little tart for years and you offer me five rations?!  Get a grip,” Jamie spat.  

“Twenty,” another called out.

“Getting warmer,” Jamie laughed.  “Come on, boys, she’s never known a man before.  This is truly a priceless opportunity.”

“Thirty!”

“Thirty-three!”

“Best I can do is thirty-five.”

“This is preposterous,” Jamie scoffed.  “She’s a virgin, and look how cute she is when she cries!  If nobody’s gonna make me a suitable offer,” he growled, suddenly grabbing you by your neck and putting his face right against yours, “maybe I’ll keep you for myself, hm?”

You sobbed and tried to squirm away but it was beyond useless, your bound limbs overpowered easily as he held you down and licked a stripe up the side of your face, just to hear you scream behind your gag.

“I’ll take her,” a deep voice boomed suddenly.  “A hundred rations.”

“A-- what?” Jamie stammered. 

You tried to look around at who it was but you couldn’t see very well in the dark.

“It’s more than enough,” the man continued.  “Hand her over.”

“Curtis,” Jamie greeted awkwardly, and your eyes went wide with recognition, “I… didn’t take you for the bartering type.”

That was an understatement.  You knew Curtis, like some of the more chivalrous men of the back car, was a long-standing boycotter of this sort of activity.  He didn’t even seem interested in the women who wanted to sleep with him, let alone those who were being sold against their will.  Seemed like his patience had worn out, and he was finally giving in to his biological needs, no matter who would suffer cruelty along the way.  Just your luck that it would be you for sale when he gave up on his morals.

“I didn’t take you for the type to stall when he’s offered a great deal,” Curtis replied coldly.  “Now give me the girl and take your payment.”

Something must have changed hands, but you were too busy staring at the corrugated steel floor and hoping it was all a dream that would end any moment.  

You lurched back as Jamie picked you up again, tossing you to Curtis who caught you awkwardly.

“Have fun with her,” Jamie encouraged, “make sure it’s loud enough so we can all hear; a little consolation prize for the rest of us.”

Curtis said nothing as he turned and dragged you to his bunk, ignoring your muffled pleas.  When he set you down, he kneeled beside you and put a hand on each shoulder to brace you.

“I’m going to take off this gag, and your ties,” he offered, “but you need to stop crying, okay?  Everything will be alright.  I won’t hurt you.”

You weren’t sure you believed that, but you tried to steady your breathing.  Maybe if you did what he said, he would be gentle with you…

You nodded slowly, and he untied the gag.  Your sore mouth appreciated the reprieve as you wiggled your mouth around to stretch your lips.  You had sort of assumed that whoever bought you would leave the restraints on, so that you wouldn’t fight back.  But Curtis was so strong and healthy, he didn’t even need to bind you: your body tensed up again at that realization.

“Shh, shh, calm down,” he requested as he worked on the knot around your feet, “you don’t need to be afraid of me.”

Finally your limbs were freed, though that freedom was wasted on exhaustedly falling to the cold steel floor.

“Use this rag to clean off a little,” he instructed, handing you a cloth that had been soaked in water, “and go back to sleep for the night.”

“You… you’re not going to…?” you murmured, confused.

“I don’t believe in enslavement,” he shook his head.  “Your father was a good man; he did a lot for me, even when I had nothing to offer him in return.  He told me to pay him back by keeping you safe after he was gone.”

You hadn’t realized your father knew Curtis so well.  You’d seen him around, sure, but he was more a stranger than anything.

“Thank you…” you whispered, your voice hoarse and ragged.

“You need to rest,” he whispered back.  “You can sleep in my bed-- someone’s already claimed yours, I’m sure.  I’ll be on the floor beside you if you need me.”

Your cheeks burned with guilt.  “Curtis, don’t do that.  You spent so much on me... I don’t want to be any more of a burden.”

“Don’t worry about that now,” he soothed, “we can talk in the morning.  Get your sleep.”

After washing yourself hastily with the rag (focusing most on wherever Jamie had touched you), you slipped into the sheets on his mattress, finding him different from the ones you were used to, but comfortable in spite of the unfamiliarity.  

Curtis settled in on the floor, and in the near-darkness you could just make out the silhouette of his face as he closed his eyes and relaxed against a roll of tattered clothes as an improvised pillow.  You’d always thought he was handsome, and the impression you’d gotten was that he was patient, and honorable, but kept to himself.  You could remember just a few nights ago when you never could’ve imagined this being your new life.  Although you did wonder if Curtis was simply waiting for the morning to claim you, in the meantime you decided to take him at his word and just be thankful that someone seemingly kind had bought you instead of Jamie or his fellow bidders.

Two weeks later...

If anything, it was odd how little Curtis had asked of you.  He didn’t even really talk to you.  Even your father expected you to help him with anything you could; sometimes it was just keeping him company, listening to him.  But Curtis all but avoided you.  All that said, his presence was rarely needed to keep you safe.  People respected your father, but they feared Curtis.  He wasn’t violent-- well, he wasn’t violent typically.  Nearly a week ago he had gone to fisticuffs for you after a man had tried to grope you.  The weird thing was that you hadn’t even realized Curtis was nearby: one moment you were alone and being pulled into a stranger’s oppressive form as he purred in your ear, the next Curtis had appeared and shoved him off of you.  That seemed to get the point across that Curtis’ things were not to be touched.

Feeling guilty, you decided to do whatever chores you could think of while he was away from his ‘room’ (which was, of course, not a room at all but a bed draped with a canopy of tattered fabric in order to create some privacy).  You waited for his return with a little smile on your face, sure he would be grateful for your service and maybe would start to warm up to you more.

“Hi, Curtis,” you greeted with a peppy grin when you saw him approaching, jumping up from where you had been sitting.

“You washed my clothes,” he noticed instantly.

Your smile fell when you realized that he wasn’t happy.  “Did I do something wrong?” you asked sheepishly.

“You are not my slave; I cannot make that more clear,” he frowned.  “Never do a chore on my behalf again.”

“Please, Curtis.  You’ve done so much for me, just let me prove my usefulness.”

“You want to be useful?  Stay out of harm’s way.”

“Oh, I see,” you sneered, “you don’t want me to do your chores because I am your chore.  Is that all you see me as?  A debt you are repaying to my father?”

He seemed confused by that question.  “What else could I see you as?”

“A partner!” you protested.  “A woman!”

He grabbed you suddenly, pulling you into him by your wrists.  “Stop talking like that.  I won’t hear any more of it.  Just stay quiet and take care of yourself.”

He dropped you as you began to cry, crumpling into a ball on the floor.

“Don’t cry,” he frowned.  “Why could you be crying, when all I told you was that you don’t have to do anything?”

“I suppose I should be thankful that you’re not sadistic,” you explained with a shaky, weak voice, “but you’re still plenty cruel to me, I hope you know that.  You ignore me completely-- and no one else will talk to me, because they’re afraid to upset you.  I’ve never been so alone.”

He sighed and sat down beside you on the floor.  “I never meant to…” he trailed off.  “I bought you to save you from them.  Not because I had any purpose for you.”

“I have no purpose,” you stated plainly, moving from sad to stoic.  “Don’t you hear how sad that sounds?  Can you blame me for being upset when you’re telling me straight to my face that I’m useless?”

He seemed to at least see where you were coming from with that, looking to the side with an oddly guilty look in his eyes.

Suddenly, he reached to pull up his shirt and you gasped when you saw a cut along his side.

“I fell,” he explained, “and scraped against something.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” you comforted to the best of your ability, “I hope it’s not giving you too much trouble.”

“It’s not, but I’m worried it’ll get infected.”

You thought for a moment.  “I could… help you clean it?”

“Sure,” he nodded, “that would be nice.  Thank you.”

“It’s nothing,” you shrugged as you grabbed a rag to dampen.  “I’ll be right back.”

You cleaned his wound in silence, carefully washing away the dried blood, even when he sucked in breaths through his teeth as you touched the sensitive places.  The task at hand distracted you from your previous outburst; this was exactly proof of why you needed things to do, you’d go crazy otherwise.  

“I don’t think it’ll need stitches,” you informed him as you put the rag away and rolled his shirt back down.  “We’ll just clean it again tomorrow and I bet that’ll be enough.”

“Good,” he nodded.

The day was winding down to a close already, and you looked around to see a lot of the people nearby starting to prepare for bed, if they weren’t already on their mattresses with their eyes and ears covered to block out the distractions of those still awake.

“I think you should take the bed tonight, since you’re injured,” you offered.  Up until now, you’d been alternating nights on the floor; it was the only compromise you two could come to.

“I couldn’t ask you to sleep on the ground two nights in a row,” he shook his head.

“You’re not asking me to.  I’m telling you that I will.”

“I won’t take the bed.”

You crossed your arms and grinned stubbornly.  “Then we’ll both be on the floor.”

“Fine,” he sighed with defeat, “I’ll take the bed, but only if you share it with me.  I can never sleep well when all I can think about is how cold and uncomfortable you must be.”

You were surprised to hear that, because you had always felt the same way on the nights you were in the bed.  Seemed both of you were getting worse sleep than you let on.

“F-fine,” you stammered, realizing how little space the two of you would have to work with on the mattress, “we’ll share it then.”

“Might help with the cold anyway,” he shrugged as he stood up, removing his outermost layer of clothes before slipping behind the curtain that surrounded the bed.  You swallowed, as if you hadn’t realized until now that you were going to be in bed with him so soon.  

You removed your jacket as well; even though you normally liked to sleep in something less bulky than the dress you were wearing now, you figured he would protest if you were in any state of undress while sharing a bed with him.

As you pulled the curtain aside, you found him already on the farther side of the bed, facing away from you.  He was so far off the edge that he surely would’ve fallen if there wasn’t a wall on the other side.  

“Curtis, you’re twice my size and you’ve left nearly two-thirds of the bed for me,” you chuckled, slipping into the covers with him and noticing how much space was still left between you.  “Relax, won’t you?”

“Alright,” he relented, laying back a little as his shoulder brushed against yours.  

“Goodnight, Curtis,” you mumbled as you settled in and got as comfortable as could be reasonably expected, letting your eyes fall shut.  Sure, it took awhile, but with a forced relaxation you were able to drift to sleep and stay that way for quite some time.

At some point, you awoke to the softest noise beside you.  At first you thought it was just your dream, but then you heard it again-- Curtis was breathing strangely, and you jumped up when you heard a strained noise of pain.

“Curtis!” you hissed into the dark.  “Are you hurt?  Is everything alright?”

“What?” he stammered, jolting away from you.  

“You were--” you started to explain, but then you realized he was palming at his trousers; specifically, he was stuffing his cock back into them.  “Oh.”

“I’m sorry,” he sighed, “I didn’t-- sometimes you just-- I never meant to--”

“Are you feeling… frustrated?” you asked him softly, moving a little closer to where he was pressing himself back against the wall.

“It’s fine,” he assured you, “I’m fine.”

“Let me help you,” you pleaded.  “I wanted to help you so much, but there was nothing I could do.  Let me do this, please.  I want you to feel good…”

“Your father, I promised him--” he began, but you interrupted.

“Don’t talk about my father,” you requested.  “You kept your promise.  I’m safe.  Let me thank you for all you’ve done.”

Your hand reached out and made contact with his heaving chest through the thin layer of his shirt, beginning to trail down over his stomach and finally to the hard outline inside his trousers.

“W-wait,” he stuttered quietly, even though you felt him quietly sigh with relief as you palmed at his erection.

“I don’t want to wait anymore,” you whispered-- so quiet even you could barely hear it-- as you leaned in and your nose brushed against his cheek.  “I wanted you for so long, Curtis, did you not know?  Wanted to touch you… wanted to make love with you…”

He let out a long-held breath as you reached into his trousers and wrapped your arm around his length.  It was so hot in your palm; it warmed you in the most intoxicating way.

“R-really?” he murmured.

“Of course I did,” you answered, moving your hand and slowly stroking him.  God, the poor man must’ve been so pent-up: he was bucking into your touch already, his cock so hard that you wondered if it was hurting him.  “Every woman on the train lusts for you.  To have you so close and not be able to do anything about it, it was torture.”

“Nothing compared to what it was like,” he groaned softly, “to want to have you for so long and feel horrible for it.”

You began to pump his cock faster, seeking more of those beautiful noises he was making.  The way his length flexed against your palm made arousal tingle all throughout your body.

His hand slipped to the back of your neck, his fingertips brushing up against your hairline and making you shiver.  He whispered your name and you felt like putty in his hands, so distracted by your own need that the pace of your strokes faltered briefly.

The two of you stayed like that for a few moments longer-- foreheads pressed together, shivering and shaking and panting in each other’s arms-- before a rush of adrenaline gave you the confidence to speak.

“I want it inside me,” you whispered against his ear.  “Please, Curtis, I want you inside me.”

You swung your leg over to straddle him, pushing yourself up off of his chest.  He whispered your name with shock as you lifted your tattered dress and pulled it over your shoulders.

“Touch me,” you begged.  “Didn’t you want to?  I wondered if you did.  I wondered how your hands would feel…” you trailed off as you grabbed his wrists and guided his hands to your waist.  They were strong and rough, and so hot against your skin that you thought you might just burn up right there.  He moved them on his own then, sliding them up to your breasts which he gently grasped.  You sighed a little and melted into his touch.

His thumbs teased your nipples, which were already hard and alert.  You tried your best to suppress your moans, aware that many other passengers were sleeping nearby.  Secretly, the idea that they would hear Curtis pleasuring you was almost titillating.  You hoped it would make them all jealous.

“You’re so soft,” he whispered, “and… smooth…”

“Did you long for me?” you asked, your curiosity getting the better of you.

“Yes,” he finally admitted, “yes, I wanted you.  I want you now.”

You reached down and grasped his cock again, guiding it to your wet, swollen opening.  He made a noise that sounded something like a whimper and a groan as the head of his cock moved through your folds.

As you sunk down, you tried to ignore the burn of his cock stretching you open, though a pained whimper escaped your lips.  

Curtis’ hands gripped your hips tight enough to bruise as you slowly took more and more of him into you.  His head fell back with a groan, lost in the way your walls gripped him tighter than he thought possible.  In that moment, he wanted more than anything to hold you close and never let go.

You shivered as your hips met his, feeling full in a way you could’ve never imagined.  It still stung as he forged a new path inside you, moulded you to his shape, but you didn’t mind because it was him.  

You were so weak that you struggled to lift yourself on top of him, but he gently guided you to lessen your load.  Your body adjusted to him rather slowly, and every time you rocked your hips made you hiss with discomfort along with the sparks of pleasure burning through your gut.  Even when it hurt, you wanted more; if nothing else, the noises of his restrained ecstasy spurred you on.

Leaning down, you laid yourself on his chest so that you could hear him better, and him you.  His arms wrapped around you and you felt small; normally, feeling small meant feeling weak, vulnerable, scared… but in his arms, it was wonderful.  You felt vulnerable, yes, but protected.

Your name tumbled from his lips like a whispered chant as you moved on top of him, and you whispered his name back.  The way his cock rubbed against your insides felt so good that you couldn’t even remember that it hurt before, but then again, you couldn’t remember anything from before right now and you didn’t want to.

Your moans got louder and louder, though they were still relatively quiet, but either way they were like music to his ears, sweet and soft and all for him-- just like you.

“S-stop,” he groaned, “you have to stop.”

“Why?” you gasped, feeling a little guilty for not instantly obeying, and yet too lost in pleasure to stop moving your hips.

“If you don’t stop, I’ll come,” he explained breathlessly, “and you could get pregnant.”

You bit your lip, feeling your face warm with an emotion you were sure you hadn’t experienced before.  “What if that’s what I want?” 

“Fuck,” he sighed.

“What if I want you to come inside me?  What if I want to have your baby?” you continued.

You managed to suppress your yelp as he grabbed you and flipped you both over until you were on your back and he was hovering over you.

“Is that what you want?” he asked with a low growl. 

“Yes,” you gasped, “Curtis, it’s all I ever wanted.”

“Fuck,” he moaned, pulling back and thrusting into you again.  He lifted your legs to rest on his shoulders, nearly folding you in half as he fucked into you so deep that you could scream.  You didn’t, but you wanted to.  “Gonna fill you up so good… you’re gonna be so full,” he promised, “you’re gonna be mine.”

“I already am,” you promised, “I always was.”

He leaned down to dominate your lips with a searing kiss, fucking you deep and slow but with an increasing ferocity.  Each thrust was harder than the last until the most prominent sound was the slapping of skin, your arousal so prominent that it was beginning to leak and drip down your thighs and ass.

“Tell me who you belong to,” he growled, right against your ear.

“You,” you moaned, “I belong to you, Curtis.”

“Fuck yeah you do.”

You gripped his arms tight as you felt your walls spasming with your orgasm-- it was unlike anything you’d felt before, even though you’d touched yourself plenty of times up until now.  Already you knew you were going to be addicted to this feeling.  Poor Curtis; you were going to be begging him to fuck you day and night if this was how good it felt.

The tightening of your body around him, and the way you bit down on your lip to keep from screaming with pleasure… it was all too much for him to hold back any more, and with a stuttered groan he spilled himself into you.  

You wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him into another kiss.  He relaxed on top of you as he reciprocated, both of you basking in the glow of the moment.

“Don’t pull out yet,” you pleaded as the kiss ended, “just hold me a little longer, won’t you?”

“Of course,” he smiled softly, placing one small, delicate kiss to the tip of your nose.

“Did you really want me for so long, like you said?” you pressed, remembering what he’d said and fearing it was just a sweet nothing in the heat of the moment.

“You have no idea how long,” he sighed.  “I dreamed of this; of you being mine.”

“Was it everything you imagined?”

“And more,” he assured with a soft laugh.  “Best hundred rations I ever spent.”

[guiltysecretpasttime]

Blended

I was (thankfully) given some time off during this holiday season; which I promptly used to spend time with the family and recharge at home. Also spent time watching various movies during this time and a little LoK story idea came from it.

In my usual writing preference – it’s still a Lin/Tenzin endgame story but – in sort of a modern setting AU, blended family/semi-highschool themed with ages differed a bit (Lin and Tenzin was aged down by around 5 years). Expect it to be tropey and may be a bit of a cliché. This is written on a whim so if it doesn’t make sense…ah well. Haha! May edit this piece later on…

I’m considering this to be a short story, just a little self-indulgent-written-for-fun type of thing. But if other people enjoy it too then that’s such an added bonus so I’m sharing it with you as well. 😊 Let me know what you think since this is somewhat different from my usual style, I guess.

Also – I have misgivings regarding creating OCs so I’m likely to lean on canon characters and take a lot of creative license in developing them for the story.

 ---

Title (tentative):  Blended

Legend of Korra, Lin/Tenzin, Modern AU, no bending

(Not sure if one-shot or will be multi-part yet)

 ---

Tenzin, Republic City Primary School

“Thank you for making time to meet today,” The silver-haired lady clasped her hands together on her desk. “I know you must have a packed schedule, but I think it would be good to have the check-in session for your daughter today.”

“Yes, of course – anything for my daughter.” The bald and bearded man threw a look at the door’s window, where he could see his daughter swinging her legs while seated at the corridor.

“Ikki is a bright child and she’s been doing her best to catch up with the class requirements. She excels the most at individual tasks.” The teacher continued to talk a little bit more about the projects that the students have been working on.

Teacher Yue handed the father a folder marked “Ikki”. Tenzin carefully picked it up and looked into the contents, smiling as he saw Ikki’s artworks and class outputs.

“However, I see that she seems to have challenges in adjusting in a large class set-up.” Yue shared. “It’s nothing to worry about though. We’ve had several transferees in the past as well and this is usual; I expect that might take a little bit longer since it’s a transition from homeschooling to a big school.”

Tenzin frowned and he hurt for his daughter. His two children had both been homeschooled until recently.

They also had to experience a lot of upheaval in the past year or so – from the divorce, to being uprooted from their childhood home, moving to a new city, and then going to a new school.

He did notice that while his son was as precocious as ever (maybe owing to his young age?), his daughter had become more subdued since their move.

“What can we do for her?”

“Well, we have a big sister-little sister type of mentorship program.” The teacher pushed forward a brochure and several index cards. “It’s mostly an afterschool interaction activity, we have here several students who have been volunteering. Maybe you’d like to ask Ikki to join?” She pointed at the index cards. “Feel free to select which mentor you think would help her best. We usually ask the parent or the student to select their preferred mentor profile from the roster. We would not want Ikki to feel uncomfortable; you’d know her best than any teacher.”

He nodded. After a few moments perusing the index cards and the brochure and pulled out one from the pile. “Let’s go with this girl.”

Tenzin pointed out to a profile labelled Jinora.

 ---

Jinora, Home

The ten-year old girl has just finished putting hair in a bun when she heard a knock on her bedroom door.

“Jinora!” It was her oldest brother. “Mom says I can use the car today – want to leave with us instead of riding the bus?”

“Sure!” She called back, quickly grabbing her backpack. “I’ll be down in a bit.”

“Alright!”

Smack!

“Hey! Why did you do that for?”

“Good morning bro!”

Jinora rolled her eyes good-naturedly. That was probably her other brother slapping the arm of the other one.

Even at eighteen and sixteen years old respectively, they tend to act like children occasionally to the consternation of their mother.

She hurried down, knowing that if she did not do so, there would be no pancakes left for her.

Jinora heard her mother’s gruff voice in the dining room. “Bolin! Leave some eggs for your sister!”

“But, Mom,” Bolin spoke through a mouthful of scrambled eggs. “I’m a growing boy. I need this stuff.”

“And Jinora is a growing girl,” Their mother drolly responded, taking a sip of her coffee after putting down the last batch of pancakes on the platter. “There should be enough from everyone.”

“It’s fine, Mom,” Jinora immediately sat down and her brother forked two pancakes to her plate. “Thanks, Mako.” She slathered butter all over the cakes then squeezed a load of maple syrup.

She ignored Bolin gagging at her left at the amount of sweetness. She also ignored her mother who was hiding a smile and shaking her head at seeing the display.

In their family, it was only Jinora had a penchant for sweets. Her mother said she likely took after her father in that regard.

Her father…her absentee father…

Jinora shook off her maudlin thoughts when she saw Pabu, Bolin’s pet guinea pig, land on her mother’s shoulder, probably hopping from her brother’s backpack which was hung behind his chair.

Pabu began chewing their mother’s greying hair without warning.

Wheek-wheek-wheek.

“BOLIN!”

“I’m so sorry, Mom! Pabu get down from there – leave mom’s hair alone!”

All in all, it was another morning in their household.

It was noisy and sometimes chaotic, but Jinora would not exchange it for the world.

 ---

Ikki, library

Truth be told, Ikki liked going to school. She even liked her teacher and classmates.

She liked to be busy and the activities were very interesting. Getting homeschooled and only seeing their tutor, nanny and Meelo had become very tedious anyway.

Staying at their old home also reminded her acutely that their mother was not there anymore. She did not understand what happened, but she tried to.

It has been more than a year since their parents sat her and her brother down to explain that they were separating but it did not mean they did not love her and Meelo any less.

At first, she thought it might have been her fault (or maybe Meelo’s fault for that matter, he did fart a lot and that annoyed her terribly). Her dad and mom were quick to quash those theories, however. They spoke of drifting apart, change in priorities and other grown-up things that she supposed she will understand when she gets older.

But for now, she supposed as she opened her notebook on one of the long tables in the library, they would need to get used to their new living arrangement.

It was difficult last year as they were shuttled to and from two households. It also did not help that their mother was starting out with her new venture had been spending less time at her home. On the other hand, Ikki noticed their father spending more time with them, cutting down his work hours. It all came to a head when Pema had said she will be moving to another country to establish her new business. And so, they ended up -.

“Hey, are you Ikki?”

Ikki looked up to see an older girl with dark brown hair in a bun.

She nodded her head yes.

The girl gave her a bright smile and extended her hand.

“I’m Jinora and welcome to Republic City!”

 ---

Lin, Future Industries Head Office

Lin tiredly wiped her glasses clean before putting them on again, rereading her email response for one last time before hitting send.

It had been a long yet productive day. Her team had managed to fulfill all the visual design requirements that were due that day. She reviewed the different files sent to the printers, making sure that the final and correct collaterals were attached.

Her last task was to ensure that the last set of proposals were on-brand and aligned with Future Industries’ visual identity. Once she had provided her comments and revisions needed on the file, she sat back as she waited for the files to be uploaded to their server.

She reached for her cellphone, wanting to check on her kids while waiting. She looked at their family group chat and read messages from the last time she sent one.

 Ohana (Lin repressed the urge to cringe. That was the final time that she would ask Bolin to create their group chat)

Lin: Kids – as mentioned earlier, I’ll be home a bit late. No need to drop by to fetch me; have dinner already and don’t wait up.

Jinora: Mom, I’ll be staying behind after class – I got a mentee! ☺ Mako Bolin can you wait up?

Mako: Jinora Bo has training today; I think we can wait for you.

Bolin: Jinora 👍🏼

Jinora: Mako Bolin thanks! 🙌

Jinora: Mako what will you be doing while waiting? You sure you’ll be okay?

Mako: Don’t worry about me. I’ll manage.

Lin scrolled through some more messages. Knowing her eldest, Mako would like skulk off to the library.

Jinora: I met my mentee this afternoon. She’s such a lovely girl.

Lin smiled at this. Her daughter had always been the polite one.

Jinora: Her name’s Ikki and she’s two years younger than me. She said she and her father had first checked out Patola Mountain Primary.

Lin frowned. Patola Primary was far; she went there as a child.

Mako: Kid didn’t like it there?

Jinora: They didn’t have the chance to know. They had to move besause of her father’s job.

Bolin: heeey sorry guys- just about to be done with training. Just gonna shower …unless I just shower at home?

Jinora: Ew, no Bo. Shower first please

Mako: Agree. You’ll stink up the car, bro.

Ding!

Lin drew her attention from her phone as her laptop screen indicated that the files have been uploaded. She hit the send button and packed up for the day.

She was looking forward to spending some quiet time with her kids tonight.

 ---

Bumi, White Lotus Headquarters

Bumi leaned back in his fully ergonomic chair, thinking about how times had changed.

Being in an office was something he balked at when he was younger. But now, after serving a long career in defense and military, he submitted his retirement and come to the aid of his younger brother.

Ah, his only brother – back in the day, he would be hard-pressed to keep contact with his brother.

His brother who took on the role of spearheading their family’s company back when their father died.

His brother who had the task of continuing to revive the company and making sure it keeps up with the times.

His brother, who, despite being the youngest, was tagged by the board of directors as the heir apparent owing to his excellent academic records.

His brother who Bumi had felt envious of at some point. He later on realized that his brother actually missed out on a lot of freedom in his life.

His brother who managed to keep their company part of the Top 100 and make malls relevant again.

His brother who probably made some life decisions for the benefit of their company rather than his own.

His brother who had been through hell and back the past year when he and his much younger wife called it quits. His brother whose ex-wife is now galivanting somewhere in the Fire Nation, expanding a business built on horticulture and floristry.

His brother who, despite making some decisions that Bumi might not agree with, is still family.

And if there was anything that their parents taught them – family is permanent.

The ex-military man took a deep breath, looking at their last family photo. For what it’s worth, he liked to think that their fragmented family had found its way back into each other in their adulthood.

Bumi had to admit that Tenzin did have remarkable business acumen that benefited their company, a conglomerate built on the mall industry. With the fourth industrial revolution at hand and the shift towards virtual and digital, the White Lotus Corporation had been challenged during the last years of their father’s life. Tenzin had worked hard to change the ways of working and the culture in the company.

To do it, he had to make sure that there is a buy-in from the board. Ironically, to bring the company to the current century, he had to abide with one of the most archaic practices – an arranged marriage, a marriage that would serve as a press release to the business world in general, that their company was stable and there to stay.

Bumi had been surprised to get a call from Tenzin back then. He had called to let him know of his impending engagement, seeking support. Bumi had cheered, given his congratulations – but named the wrong bride. He had launched into a long tirade, berating his brother for his choices. Tenzin had shouted back his defense.

He still did not understand why Tenzin acted the way he did. However, he could never regret his niece and nephew which came from this questionable business-like union.

Bloop-bloop-bloop.

Speaking of which…

“Hey Uncle Bumi!”

“Hello there, cloudchild!” Bumi greeted his niece with a nickname his sister Kya came up with, given that the kids were actually born somewhere near the mountains. “How’s the new school?”

“It’s great!” Ikki beamed at him and gushed into a long narrative of what she had been up to in the past days.

Bumi enjoyed video conferencing with his niece and nephew. Granted, Meelo had a short attention span but Ikki had always had the flair for storytelling.

It pleased him to see her spark back. He had heard from his brother and their trusted bodyguard/chauffeur Shung that Ikki had been withdrawn during the first weeks in Republic City. It saddened him to learn that the otherwise bubbly child had been affected in that way.

“…And then, I invited her over! Daddy said it was okay – and she’s sooooo nice. Didjaknow she also knows how to play the piano! We practiced a bit. She’s good even if her family didn’t have a piano, they only had this electronic keyboard but it’s so short. But she did well. She said she had a stepdad and it was totally okay. They’re a happy family. D’you think I’ll have a stepmom too? I think it would be okay if Daddy thinks so and maybe we’ll be a happy family here too and you know I joined this contest in school and I-.”

“Whoa, slow down, kiddo.” Bumi let out his booming laughter. “I didn’t quite catch it – what’s the name of your new friend?” He was heartened that Ikki seemed to have adjusted better now.

“Jinora!” His seven-year-old niece practically chirped the name. “She’s actually here!” Ikki turned to someone from beyond the view of the webcam. “Jin, it’s my Uncle Bumi – I want you to meet him!”

“Um, it’s fine, Ikki.” A calm voice of an older child can be heard. “I can wait here.”

“Nooonseeense.” Bumi could see Ikki pull something, rather someone to the camera. “Uncle Bumi, this is my friend Jinora. Jinora, my Uncle Bumi.” She said by way of introducing them.

Jinora gives a small wave and a soft hello.

Bumi gives them a short bow. “Nice to meet you, Jinora. It’s great to meet the friend of my favorite niece (Ikki ­please don’t tell Korra).”

Ikki gives a delighted clap and proceeds into another lengthy tale on what she and Jinora were working on that day at home.

Bumi smiles back at them, observing the children’s banter as they demonstrate the monologue that Ikki was preparing for. It was amusing.

Heh, they could be cousins.

He recalled when he was young, he, his siblings and even the sisters-who-must-not-be-named would stay over in one house after school to work on school projects. It had been one of the highlights of his childhood. He was glad that his niece would be somewhat experience it; he had been worried a few years back when Tenzin and Pema (primarily Pema) were very protective of their kids. It was to the point that they were both homeschooled and basically kept out of the public eye and the public itself.

It can’t be good for socialization. But what can he say? He didn’t have kids so he probably wouldn’t know what he was talking about, right?

He’s just fun ole Uncle Bumi.

Nonetheless, as he turned his attention back to the two girls, Bumi promised himself that he will always be there for his brother’s kids. It’s the least he could do as their godfather.

 ---

Mako, Republic City High

“I worry about Mom.” Mako picked at his dumplings during lunch time, a stark contrast to his brother who was eating a lot (“Coach said I needed to bulk up!”).

“Why? Has my dad been overworking her?” Asami slipped beside him at their usual lunch table. She brought out her packed lunch of pasta and a bottle of coconut water. “Just let me know and I can try to look into it.” She was, after all, interning at Future Industries in her spare time.

“Now that’s just powerplay.” The exchange student from Ba Sing Se High chortled, taking a sip of his sparkling water. “And that’s a no-no and Auntie will definitely get mad if she hears about that.”

“You would know about powerplay,” Bolin swallowed a mouthful of chicken, pointing his fork at the other boy. “Wasn’t that why you got the last slot in the elective you wanted to take this year?”

“Who? Me?” The other boy dramatically placed a hand on his chest, eyes widening. “You think, I Wu would stoop so low as to manipulate the results of the audition for the voice elective? Don’t you think I have enough talent to get into that class?”

Bolin just snorted into his food and Asami choked on her drink. Wu cracked a smile at their reactions.

“Again, Wu – don’t let Mom hear you call her Auntie.” Mako reiterated for the nth time in their friendship. “She hates it.”

“That’s why I do it.” Wu winked at them.

“Wait, Mako, what were you saying about Mom?” Bolin managed to ask in between bites of food. “Is something wrong? I mean, she’s a little bit run-down but she said it’s just because of the time of the year.” The last quarter of the year, after all, is usually the busiest.

“No, it’s just – well,” Mako sought words to explain it. “I’ll be leaving for college, you’ll be away for training, and okay, Jinora would be there but she’s in middle school now…” He trailed off. With Jinora’s aptitude and interests, Mako would not be surprised if she took on a lot of electives and extra-curricular activities. “Mom works too hard, you know?” He ended lamely.

“She has always looked out for us, but yeah,” A shadow passed over his brother’s face. “Ever since Pa passed away a few years back, she poured much of her energy to ensuring our welfare. She’s barely spent time for herself.”

Mako met Bolin’s now worried eyes.

The brothers knew that their mom had sacrificed a lot for them and Jinora.

When they first met Lin and one-year-old Jinora, she had already been under a lot of duress – taking care of a baby, leaving behind Jinora’s deadbeat dad, settling down in a new neighborhood and restarting a career. It had been two years later when she married their father San, who had been a sergeant at the city’s police station at the time.

And, Mako thought wearily, history has not been kind to Lin Beifong at all. While they did have four years (four wonderful years that Mako will treasure for the rest of his life), their fairytale-like family life came to an abrupt end.

San was involved in an armed bank robbery four years later and had not survived the gunshot wounds – leaving Lin behind with two boys at the brink of puberty and a young daughter.

Bolin and Jinora had been very confused at the time. Mako, already fifteen, had been expecting that he and Bolin would be forced into the system or sent off to their relatives in Ba Sing Se. He felt that Lin would not be in any way obligated to take him and his brother in; they were not blood relatives anyway. They were just stepchildren.

To his stunned astonishment, Lin did neither.  He recalled crying in Lin’s arms that night after his father’s funeral.

She had asked him, with a confused expression, why he was packing. Lin wept alongside him as she explained that Mako and Bolin are her sons and there was no way that she was sending them away.

Since then, Mako made sure to look after his mom the way she looked after them. The brothers’ protectiveness was soon well-known in their neighborhood.

Probably also why no one had expressed any type of interest towards Lin even years after…

Mako reflected that it might have been a good move on their part but now it might have been a little bit selfish.

He and Bolin would now need to rethink their strategy…

After all, their mom Lin deserves all the happiness in the world.

 ---

Tenzin, Republic City Primary School – Parking Lot

“Are you sure you’re not just using this as an excuse to have a sleepover?” Tenzin looked over at his daughter, a teasing grin out of place on his face.

“Of course not, Daddy.” Ikki replied indignantly, kicking pebbles as they waited at the parking lot.

“Why can’t you do the project at our house?” He was actually leaning towards allowing Ikki on her first ever sleepover/overnight but he wanted to hear from his daughter.

“We’ll need a big big printer, Daddy.” Ikki raised her arms to show him just how big. “We’ll need to print out my project and Jinora’s mommy has a big printer and lamin-lami-lamintor (“Laminating machine, dear?” Tenzin clarified.) because she frilancets (“Freelances?”).”

“Mmhhmm.” Tenzin looked across the school building, shifting Ikki’s overnight bag on his shoulder.

Ikki timidly approached him the other night, asking if she could spend Friday night and Saturday at her friend Jinora’s house. They had an output required of them of the big sister-little sister program. Tenzin was actually unclear as to what is the specific output that the girls had decided on but it did require a large-scale printer and a laminating machine.

Jinora attempted to explain to him what they were going to do during the last week that they were in his house but he felt out of his depth so he had nodded and let them work on what they needed to.

The father had met Jinora several times already in the past months so he knew the child was in earnest that their intent for the overnight activity would be mainly to finish a project. He also realized (well, Bumi made him realize) that Ikki was old enough for a sleepover (and Pema’s overprotectiveness would be to the detriment of their kids’ development). Additionally, he thought grimly, it would also keep Meelo from wreaking havoc on the work area of the girls.

Nonetheless, he took up Jinora’s mom’s offer to meet up for snacks before she takes the kids home. This would give him a chance to meet the mom, discuss some ground rules and as well thank the mom privately for letting Jinora help Ikki come out of her shell during her first months in Republic City Primary. Jinora did say that her pa and mom used to do the same before she spends the night over at her other friends – the parents meet up, share a small meal, get to know each other. Tenzin thought this was a good parenting tactic; it would definitely assuage his fears as well.

But now, said mom was late.

Jinora had hurried to them, dragging with her a large cartolina and illustration board. She explained that her mom’s work meeting overran and if it would be okay if she rode with them? Her mom will be meeting them at the local diner instead, so they don’t get caught up in traffic.

Tenzin could feel his impatience growing.

So far, this woman was not making a good impression on him.

How on earth she produced a lovely daughter like Jinora was beyond him.

 ---

Lin, Narook’s

Damn Sato, Lin ground her teeth as she finally parked her car into the last parking space in front of Narook’s. Of all the days for a meeting to go over time, it has to be today when she had explicitly asked to leave early to fetch her daughter.

Jinora had provided her enough context to know that making a good impression with Ikki’s dad was important to her daughter.

Lin heard that the dad was some big shot divorced corporate guy, who, she thought, was a bit paranoid about his kids’ safety.

Lin acted as an arts club moderator so she was regularly present at the Republic City High, which gave her chances to meet Ikki whenever she drops by the primary school to fetch Jinora.

The girl was a sweet child – energetic and delightful once she felt comfortable enough with you. It had come to her attention, in the short conversations with the kid, that she was not allowed to go out and play with other kids in their old neighborhood so she was very much excited to have a new friend outside of her class and her family.

When Jinora mentioned their culminating project and their dilemma on the timeline and materials, Lin suggested that they take the project home to work on.

The crestfallen expression of Ikki as she stated that her dad would not allow her pushed Lin to share that she’s willing to talk to the dad to help convince him to give his permission.

The infectious smile that burst on Ikki’s face was enough to convince Lin that she made the right decision.

Now, however, as she entered the diner, spotting her daughter at the corner booth, she froze and started to doubt all her life decisions that led to this moment.

Wondering and questioning the universe what had she done in her past life for her to deserve this.

Across Jinora, beside the talkative Ikki, sat Tenzin – her former boyfriend and Jinora’s father.

 ---

Note: Soooo hmmmmmm. What do you think?

[hobeemin]

A Baker’s Dozen

🍓 Genre: Fluff and a bit of Romance

🍓 Pairing: Kim Seokjin x Reader

🍓 Rating: pg13

🍓 Warning(s): Light cursing, Reader is a horrible cook, crying, a mini nervous breakdown, e2l (?)

🍓 Word Count: 3.4k

🍓 Credits: To my lovely beta @yoongs-jeontae ily 💜💗 and the beautiful @namluve​ for creating this lovely banner and divider ilyt!!

🍓 A/N: to @randomkoalablog my gift to you. Happy birthday!!! I wish you happiness! I hope you enjoy your day!!🎈🎉🎊🎂🍰🧁

Jin didn’t even have to turn around once he heard the crash. Temple protruding, he pressed his chalk onto the board, writing out the instructions for the next in-class assignment. Hearing the murmurs behind him and chairs scraped across the vinyl floor, he clenched his teeth and carried on.

Crust

Graham crackers (crushed) - About 2 cups

Sugar… ⅓  cup

Butter (melted)… ⅓ cup

Filling

Unsweetened chocolate...4 ounces

Sugar… 1 ½ cup

Eggs (chilled)… 4

Salted butter (cold and softened)... 2 sticks

Vanilla extract… 1 teaspoon

Topping

Heavy cream…. 1 ½ cup

Powdered sugar… ¼ cup

Semi-sweet chocolate bar (for grating)

A yelp from behind him paused his actions as he finally twirled around. Brows knit, he didn’t even need to guess what happened. You were covered head to toe in cake flour.

“Y/N?” Jin sighed in defeat.

You squealed, trying to cower behind another student. “I-I...Sorry, Seokjin-nim. I–”

“Don’t even bother,” he interrupted, rubbing his temples. “Go clean up and come back to class.”

Your shoulder slumped, and without a word, you ran out of the classroom. He gave a dubious look to the remainder of the class. “C’mon, clean that up, and we’ll start when Y/N returns.”

Jin considered himself a decent instructor, heck he was one of the best culinary chef’s out there. But unfortunately, in the economy's state, he had to close his restaurant and settle on teaching basic cooking classes. That was all well and good, but the only job available had been at a small, unknown culinary school. So desperate for students, they’d admit anyone. And therein lies the problem: You. 

You weren’t the best cook...okay, that was being polite. You were a horrendous cook, and it was a miracle your place hadn’t burned down from all the cooking accidents you managed to do. Still, you had a passion for cooking, and your dream of becoming one of the best pastry chefs in Seoul would someday come true. 

Jin didn’t hold his breath. On the first day of class, you managed to break an oven, the mixing bowl, and burn the inside of a saute pan. A saute pan?! There wasn’t anything in it!

But Jin gave you the benefit of the doubt. It was your first day, and nerves were high.

Except it happened every single day after that: broken bowls and equipment, tripping over the shock mats, and burning yourself on the stove. It never failed. Jin would have just sucked it up to you being a klutz, but on top of it all, your cooking sucked. There wasn't a day that went by where he’d think about the creme brulee you destroyed. Again, how did you manage torching the surface, and it was raw?

You walked back into the classroom, freshly changed into a new chef’s jacket and pants, and stood at your station. You winced seeing Jin’s eyes bore into you, and you wanted nothing more for the floor to swallow you up. 

“Now that the break is over, we can focus on the lesson at hand,” he began, pointing to the board. “Today we’ll be making French silk pie. A complex dish due to the fact it’s not baked and the eggs will be raw. Now, to start, we’ll make the crust.”

The students got to work getting the necessary ingredients and making the pie crusts. Only whispers were heard throughout the kitchen. Jin walked around, giving small tips of advice as he checked the students' progress.

“Make sure the graham crackers are crumbly, not too chunky or fine; the texture should be there. Perfect.”

He smiled at each student as he went about only stopping at you with a frown. Somehow you were having trouble with the food processor. “Y/N? Something wrong?”

You looked up in surprise, cheeks a bright red. “No, Seokjin-nim, just fixing it,” you laughed nervously.

He queried with a brow stepping closer. “Maybe I can help.” He began assessing the processor looking for any jams. “It looks alright. Nothing seems out of place–”

He spoke too soon.

You decided pressing the button without the top secured was the best idea. With a roar, graham crackers and butter flew out coating you and Jin. The class gasped. Jin let out a depressing noise and wiped the gunk from his face.

“Y/N, stay after class.”

After cleaning up yet another mess, you leaned against the station wanting to bite your nails. Class had ended not too long ago, and it was now empty. Jin instructed you to wait while he went to his office. Your leg shook as you tried to distract your thoughts.

It wasn’t that bad, right?

You nearly jumped out of your skin as Jin entered the classroom, folder under his arm. He looked like he aged a few years in the course of a few hours. With a groan, he set the folder down beside you. You started from the folder to him curiously.

“Know what that is?" he inquired. 

You shook your head. Jin opened the folder revealing your picture with your name across the page. “It’s your progress report for the semester,” he explained, flipping through the pages. “They want me to fail you.”

Your heart sank as you looked at all the failed marks in each of your classes. Lip trembling, you stifled a whimper as he continued. 

“However, I was able to get you one last chance,” he paused, staring at the look of surprise on your face. “As you know, we have a mock service at the end of the week. If you don’t impress the staff, they will fail you, and I can’t do anything about it if it comes to that decision.”

Jin slammed the folder shut, giving you a hard stare, though it softened after a moment. “You’re assigned to desserts. Create something edible, and they’ll pass you for the semester.”

You tugged at your apron, twisting it in your hands. “B-But, what should I do?”

He shrugged, picking the folder up and walked towards the door. “Try not to suck,” he teased before exiting.

You sat there dumbfounded as the news sank in. This mock service could be the end of your culinary career. You had two choices, cry and mope about the situation or put on your big girl pants and kick this assignment's ass. You needed to impress the staff and damn it; you weren’t going to fail.

“Fuck, what am I gonna make?” You sat back down, pondering over the types of desserts you could make. Grabbing the books on the shelf, you flipped through, studying each one.

“Red velvet...no...Lemon meringue...yuck no...Chocolate chip cookies….what am I five?”

Grunting in frustration, you poured over the books filled with millions of recipes until the early hours of the morning. 

Jin found you the next day, drool pooling on one of the books. He walked over, smirking at your sleeping form, impressed to see you so determined to pass. He peeked at your notes curiously. 

“Oh, Y/N,” he whispered, noticing your chef’s hat had fallen over your eyes, exposing your hair, the few tresses tumbling out to rest on your neck. His ears pinked as he brushed the hair aside, causing you to shift and mumble in your sleep. 

Jin stepped back, afraid he’d wake you. He noticed a french cookbook open and grabbed a highlighter. With a grin, he circled one of the recipes and tiptoed back up to the front by the lights.

He cleared his throat, flipping on the switch. “Y/N? Wake up. Class is about to start.”

You yelped, jumping out your seat and looked around in bewilderment. “Oh my gosh! I-I stayed here all night!” You covered your face in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, Seokjin-nim. I didn’t mean to.”

Jin hid his smile and put on a neutral expression. “It’s fine. Just be mindful next time.” He walked over, looking at your workspace. “What are you working on?”

You tried to clean up the mess hastily with a snort. “Ah, just something for the mock service, nothing more.”

“Oh? What do you plan on making?” He inquired.

“I–” You glanced down at the scribbles, papers laid askew. You hadn’t figured out what you were going to make! Jin tapped his foot impatiently.

“Well–”

There. Right on the page circled in yellow. “Macarons!” you blurted out.

Jin feigned surprise. “Macarons? Interesting. That’s gonna be a challenge. If done right, they’ll be delicious.” 

You felt flustered by his smile, averting your gaze. “You think I can do it?”

Not a chance in hell. Jin's smile widened, giving you a small pat on the shoulder. “Put your mind to it and study hard. I’m positive you can do it.” He settled against the station tapping his chin. “The problem is you’re too hard on yourself. You need to gain some confidence. Cooking is, by the bare bones, a science; equal and opposite reactions, molecules fusing, you get the gist. However, passion makes it come alive.”

His eyes twinkled as he turned to stare at you. “You have it inside, just got to find a way to let it emerge.”

You bit down on your lip as you lifted your head to see him staring. Your gaze held until the distant sounds of culinary students grew louder. Jin laughed as he walked to the board. He started to write out the assignment pausing for just a moment. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out, Y/N. I’m rooting for you.”

Now it was your time to get embarrassed. You cleaned up your station, putting the books back on their respective shelves just as the classroom filled. 

Class went by in a blur; your mind was elsewhere. You blurted out the first thing that came to your mind. Now you had to figure out how to make these macarons look and taste spectacular. Your grade depended on it. 

After the last students filtered out, only you and Jin remained. He packed his bag, watching as you looked over the recipe, taking notes as you went along.

He smiled to himself, seeing how determined you were to pass. He walked over, slinging the strap over his shoulder.

“You know,” he began as you sat up from your book to give him your full attention, “a good tip is to separate the egg whites and let them get to room temperature in a ventilated bowl for a bit.” He winked with a shrug. “Just a thought. Good luck.”

You chewed your pen cap nodding. A smile formed as you felt your mood lighten. “Thank you, Seokjin-nim. That helps. Have a good night.”

“Good night, Y/N.” He waved, leaving you in class alone to think. 

You set to work laying out all the ingredients. With a sigh, you glanced at them, ready for war. Rolling up your sleeves, you put on your war face.

“Alright, let’s kick some ass!”

You sobbed on the floor, cheeks covered in flour and sugar. It shouldn’t have been that hard. But after the explosion of flour and you dropped the batter on the floor, all seemed lost. You felt like you’d been defeated until Jin’s face crossed our mind. His smile and reassurance. He was rooting on you to pass. He didn’t want to have you fail out of school. Growling in frustration, you got up, clenching your fists and slamming them on the tabletop. 

“Screw this. I’m gonna pass this class!”

The night of the mock service had arrived. The kitchen buzzed with excitement as the students prepared their dishes for the guests. Ingredients prepped, utensils laid out, it was now or never. You entered the kitchen, securing your apron around your waist and headed over to the pastry section. There was only one other person with you, assigned to the ice cream. 

Giving a quick hello, you took your premade batter and scooped it into a piping bag. As you worked on piping small circles onto the baking sheets, you barely noticed Jin walking in to wish everyone well. He stopped by your counter with a nod. 

“Hello, Y/N. Everything all set?”

You looked up briefly, still focused on your task. “Hi, Seokjin-nim. My filling is already made, just got to bake the cookies.”

Jin nodded in approval, the slight worry at the back of his mind calming as he saw your expression. You seemed so determined to prove everyone wrong. He cleared his throat with an abrupt appearance. “Ahem, yes. Well, good luck. I’ll be out there with other department heads. Just stay confident when you’re introducing your dish.”

He patted you on the arm and scurried out the kitchen. You had no time to consider what his words and actions meant, not when so much work had to be done. You placed the six baking sheets into the oven, still worrying about the amount you had to make. The plan was to make a few and to be set aside for the department heads and make the others as the rest of the guests ordered them. 

The night rolled on as other students cooked their dishes, going out into the dining room once they presented their meal. They’d get a score and walk back in to continue service. Dinner service crept by slowly making you anxious, bouncing on the soles of your shoes. As dirty dishes cleared and dessert utensils staged, you watched as the plates of macarons were served to the main table. With a gulp, you walked out, wringing your apron between your fingers. You could have sworn you heard your heart beating over the soft melodies coming from the speakers.

It felt like an episode of Iron Chef.

Jin looked around at the dishes. “Y/L/N Y/N, please explain to us what you’ve created for dessert tonight.”

You gave a bow, stretching a small smile across your face. “G-Good evening. Tonight, I wanted to tie the themes of this evening's meals together with this dessert. With how rich the dishes were tonight, I thought it would be better to end with something light,” you explained as the jitters slowly disappeared. “I’ve made for you a vanilla bean macaron with strawberry cheesecake filling. You can taste the vanilla beans in the cookies to give you more of a woody, smoky flavor that plays well with the strawberries. I pureed the fruit but added a few chunkier pieces to give it texture.” You took a breath as no traces of nerves crossed your face. “The drizzle was made with powdered sugar to add just a dash of sweetness. I hope you enjoy it.”

Jin held back his smile as he observed you. “Thank Y/N. We’ll make sure to enjoy this.”

You bowed once more and walked back into the kitchen. As the doors swung close behind you, you let out a massive sigh making everyone laugh. You grinned, heading back over to the desserts. The night had yet to end.

It seemed like a successful mock service. Jin came in the back to congratulate them all as everyone cleaned up the kitchen. As he entered, everyone stopped to see what he would say.

“Your grades will be up on Monday,” he said over the loud groan. He held up his hands. “Don’t shoot the messenger. Again, we were very impressed with everyone. Great job tonight.” He watched over the crowd seeing you chatting with a few of the students, a smile on your face. Biting his lip, he wanted to walk over, but instead walked back into the dining room, still embarrassed.

Like always, you were the last to clean your area, but that was alright. The quietness of the kitchen always soothed your nerves. You hummed, wiping down the counters with the sanitizer, almost finished. Surprised, you noticed some extra filling in one of the bowls. Everyone, well, your colleagues, complimented you on how amazing it tasted. To be honest, you only had a small taste before putting the macarons together. You took your finger and swirled some filling on the digit, bringing it up to your lips. You licked it clean off with a soft moan.

“Damn, that is good.”

A noise from behind made you jump as you looked over to see Jin standing in the doorway. You blushed profusely, trying to cover your hands. “Ah, S-Seokjin-nim! I didn’t realize anyone was still here!”

Jin gulped softly, placing his hands in front of him on the counter, feeling himself heat up. He cursed, trying to think of anything, but what he saw: your lips wrapped around your finger divulging in the sweet filling, had him stopped in his tracks. 

“I...ahem...came back to lock up,” he explained, the strain in his voice. His eyes bore into yours as you glanced away.

“Oh! I’m just about done. I’m sorry for making you wait.” You began wrapping the filling to put back in the cooler.

Jin chuckled, rubbing the back of his head, playing with the hair that tickled his neck. “Please don’t rush. Take your time.” He closed the distance, standing on the opposite side of the counter. “I wanted to talk to you about your dessert.”

You dropped the paper towel as you blinked up at him. “B-But I thought grades wouldn’t be up until Monday.”

He drummed his fingers on the counter and shrugged. “Aren’t you a little curious about what they said?”

You fiddled with the utensils biting your bottom lip. “I mean, yeah. I’m scared about failing. Even more worried, they hated it.” Your eyes met his with hope. “H-How did you like it?”

Jin leaned forwards beckoning you to come close with a curled finger. “You want to know?”

Your head bobbed eagerly. “Yes. Please Seokjin-nim, I wanna know.”

Being this close to him, you noticed the flicks of hazel in his eyes, the fullness of his lips—that chiseled face. Wait, why were you ogling your instructor?! You gulped softly as his eyes lingered on your lips, then back up to your eyes.

“I–”

Loved it.

“Hated it,” he replied.

You felt the air deflate from your lungs as your jaw dropped. Eyes bulging, someone could have knocked you over with a wooden spoon. He looked so relaxed at your expression, still staring. He hated it?! But why? How? It was the best thing you made, and it was edible?! Your lip trembled as the lump in your throat formed.

Jin burst into a fit of giggles, only making you even more confused and suddenly angry. He gasped through the tears, broad shoulder shaking. 

“You should see your face, Y/N! I need a picture.”

You huffed balling your fists. “I’d love to know what the joke is, Seokjin-nim.”

He wiped the tears away, chuckling softly. Coughing, he finally was able to calm down. “That was rude. Forgive me. I couldn’t help it.” He smiled brightly. “I’m just not a fan of flavored strawberry foods.”

You whimpered, collapsing against the counter as a sob wrecked your form. You wailed as all the emotions and stressed pent up from the week came crashing down. Jin ran over to the other side, wrapping you in a hug. Another squeak passed your lips as warmth engulfed you. He rested his chin on the top of your head. 

“Please don’t cry Y/N. I-I don’t want to be the cause of any tears you shed. Please.”

This was unexpected. Your tears stopped as you felt nervous in his arms, perplexed even. Why was he holding you? Still, it was nice to be carried like this, even if he was your instructor. 

You wiggled in his arms, looking up at him. A scowl twisted on your face. “That wasn’t very nice, Seokjin-nim.”

He brought his thumb up to wipe the stray tears. “I’m an idiot. Can you forgive me?”

You gave him a teary smile and nodded. “I couldn’t stay mad at you if I tried.”

He grinned, still holding you. “Why is that?”

“I like you,” you blurted out, cheeks reddened. Crap, he wasn’t supposed to know that.

Now it was his turn to turn red. He grinned, bopping you on the nose gently. “That makes two of us. I like you too,” he said shyly.

Your mouth gaped open. “Seokjin-nim–”

“Call me Jin, Y/N,” he ordered, eyes glittered with mischief.

You blushed once more with a giggle. “Okay, Jin.”

He laughed, pulling you at arm’s length to hold your hand. “You’re gonna pass. And to celebrate, I’m taking you out tomorrow. Sounds good?”

You stood on your tiptoes and gave him a gentle peck on the cheek. “Sounds sweet.”

[puttingfingerstokeys]

how come cassie gets two dads?

So @sxvethelastdance and I have had more than a few conversations vis a vis Raiden being like, thunder dad, and ofc Johnny being like a fantastic father and like, how much Faraday Cage (Johnny/Raiden) was an expression of tired fathers helping each other back to like... some semblance of okay-ness... which ofc is embodied in a friend in need but like, what’re some of the more humorous aspects of Raiden sort of... becoming part of the Cage family? This one isn’t HILARIOUS but it’s a little chuckle worthy.

Ft. Cassie, Raiden, and Johnny (mentions of Liu Kang)

light Faraday Cage, implied Caged Heat 

Broken Timeline (echoes of prevented timeline tho!)

“Cassandra Cage.” 

Cassie nearly jumps out of her skin, and the hair on the back of her neck is decidedly standing on end. She whirls, body tense, despite knowing who is addressing her and being otherwise accustomed to his presence in her father’s home. 

Of late, the god of thunder—well, she supposes he isn’t technically a god anymore, after what had happened with Liu Kang, but he still appears in lightning bolts and his eyes still have that freaky-ass glow—has made himself a semi-permanent fixture around the Cage house. She is glad for it, because the place had started to become desolate and empty without her mother, even if it had been years since Sonya lived with her father. It’s the knowing, Cassie assumes, that makes it hard.

“Jesus H Christ on a FUCKIN’ bike!” The hiss is hoarse, good-natured, but betraying the thumping of her heart. Raiden chuckles and shakes his head, clearly amused by the display. 

“I am not your Earthrealm messiah—perhaps Lord Liu Kang would be a better fit in that role,” he says after a moment, stepping into the room. His eyes, unreadable to most, but never to the Cages, rest upon her only a moment before drifting over her shoulder to the window behind and the back lawn, where Johnny seems to be tinkering with a round, flat platform made of undetermined material—it is clearly heavy, but he has not given up on his quest… whatever that entails. 

“So what’s up? Dad’s outside, messin’ around with… well a landing pad for you, actually.” Cassie sets the pile of magazines aside which she had been transporting to the recycling bin, frustrated with herself and her babbling. There is something about Raiden that brings forth a gush of words, and not the usual, sharp ones which suggest she is in any way in control of her speech patterns. She regards the vacuum cleaner, sitting off to one side, pointing her irked gaze toward it, rather than Raiden. 

A Roomba is hard at work behind the couch in the area just before the foyer. The place is shaping up, almost gleaming, and Raiden is glad to see its emerging cleanliness. Cassie has clearly been matching the Roomba blow for blow in the rest of the house. Raiden only half wonders after the occasion. Earthrealm people have so many celebrations that it is, admittedly, difficult to keep track, though he suspects it is Johnny’s birthday. 

“I see that.” The material of the platform with which the elder Cage is struggling, Raiden decides, must be a thick, vulcanized rubber composite. Johnny has expressed in the past his displeasure at the burn marks upon the lawn, though always in good humor. Evidently now he has made moves to prevent it. “But I am not here to speak with your father, Cassandra Cage.” 

“Mmkay, so… with me, then? Do I need to like, kneel or… siddown or?” She doesn’t know the proper protocol to speak with a god or… emissary or whatever he is, though she has chatted fairly casually with Raiden on multiple occasions; this seems to be a little heavier and they are not on the brink of multi-realm war. “Oh uh—shit, do you want a seat?” 

She clears another stack of magazines from the sofa and gestures. The divine nods and expresses his thanks, seating himself and finally ceasing his habit of towering over everyone in the room. Cassie plops herself on yet another chair then jumps up with a start. “FUCK!” She pulls a deflated whoopie cushion out from under her rear and tosses into a pile that deserves a neon sign reading “trash”. 

Raiden chuckles. “Another of your father’s mementos?” 

“Some’n like that,” she grunts, then straightens, as if recalling to whom she is speaking. Cassie respects Raiden, though she has not nearly so much experience with him as her father and late mother, or Liu Kang, who’s evidently some kind of titan-god-human hybrid thing now. She’s not clear on the logistics of that one, but it’s fine and probably above her pay grade in either case. “Anyway, what’s up?” Smooth, Cassie, just ask the literal embodiment of lightning ‘what’s up’ again. Nice.

“I wanted to express my condolences properly… for your mother and… my apologies on behalf of my older self—my… uglier self.” He shakes his head, sighing, wide shoulders sagging. The hat obscures his face, but she can read his expression via body language. Raiden is heartbroken. “Sonya Blade was a powerful, honorable, worthy representative of Earthrealm and all for which we stand—and she is… she was your mother and—” 

“And she put up with dad, so that prolly makes her worthy of canonization—do y’all do that? Canonize folks? I mean that’s kinda what happened to Liu, right?” She, like her father, speaks over her pain, willing it to flee before her mighty voice. But it still hurts. Like Cassie can read Raiden, Raiden can read Cassie. She, by his estimate, is currently wishing she did not feel the compulsion to speak so loquaciously or frankly with him.

“She is worthy of a great many honors—I only wish that I had been a better person to honor her, a better friend. What I said… It was unkind and thoughtless. She did die with honor, but I… hate that she died at all.” His hands are folded in his lap, his face a stern mask. He is holding together well, due most likely to millennia of practice. Cassie has always imagined his forays into the world of the Elder Gods to be exercises in his own patience and humility, if they’re anything like how Johnny has envisioned them. She trusts her father’s perspective on the subject. He knows a few things about shitty parents, after all. “I am very sorry. Please, accept my apologies.” 

Cassie stands, then, and, in a burst of boldness not unlike her father’s, she seats herself on the couch next to Raiden—at a respectful distance, of course, but close enough to shift her body so she is facing him and her left knee nearly comes into contact with his right. 

She can feel from here that peculiar electrical field her father once described to her when he had downed perhaps one too many beers and it is, in a word, immense. This isn’t even his final form, she thinks almost flippantly. The laughter threatens, but only in that hysterical way it sometimes does at funerals or other somber, church-related events. She reaches out to place one hand atop both of his and finds them, as well, to be immense. Her heart jackhammers for a moment and she wonders if this is what cardiac arrest feels like. Their eyes meet. 

“Raiden,” she says quietly, “I… get it. It wasn’t really you—not this you. I don’t… know anything about multiverse bullshit or cosmic whatever-the-fuck, but I… know you… err, well, I’ve gotten to know you,” she amends, then presses on, “and, more importantly, dad knows you. You don’t have to apologize, ever… Your being around here for him—for both of us—is huge. It means a lot to him and to me, y’know? You’re like the weird uncle that’s hard to explain to the neighbors, or somethin’.” Cassie withdraws her hand, because the electrical current has become too much and she’s gone a little numb in the immediate area. She minutely covers it with the other as she folds it in her lap, imitating him, but secretly trying to rub feeling back into it. 

“I do not do this, be here with you both, to apologize,” Raiden informs her, straightening. “I… have become fond of your family over the years and… it is not something even my nature can overcome. Nor do I want to deny it, Cassandra Cage.” 

“Okay Lord Raiden, I’m—I’ve had it up to here with the whole ‘Cassandra Cage’ thing… Don’t you know me well enough to call me Cassie?” Cassie surprises herself with this outburst. It does not, however, seem to have taken Raiden by surprise. 

“Johnny Cage has said much the same,” he responds. She makes a “see there you go” gesture.

“You and me,” she says suddenly, standing, fists balled, “back yard, winner take all. I win, you call me Cassie—and my dad’s just Johnny, okay?” 

“And if I win.” Raiden stands as well, once more dwarfing her. She suddenly feels foolish about her challenge, but the Blade women never back down. Cage women don’t either. 

“I’ll… make that pizza you like…. With the anchovies.” Cassie pulls a face, indicating she has some objections about Raiden’s choice in pizza toppings. For his part, Raiden seems to consider it. Cassie wonders if he’s considering consulting the Elder Gods, even now, knowing it’s a cruel thought to have. Her contempt for them has not and will not likely ever wane, after what they’ve put Earthrealm through. Death’s more than they deserve, she thinks acidly.

“I accept your challenge.”

Cassie nods, her face grim, the set of her jaw and strongly resembling both her mother and father. She heads toward the back door with Raiden in tow, he heart hammering. Relax, Cass’, she thinks, it’s friendly; he’s not gunna fry ya for this. Just as she reaches it, her father bursts in and tosses his hands up. “I got it, Cass’, I figured out what… I… need…” He trails off as he catches sight of the tall, hat-topped figure behind his daughter. “Is there… uh, what’s goin’ on?” 

Raiden finds his bewilderment charming and his expression softens. “Your daughter has challenged me to Mortal Kombat.” 

“Oh okay well that’s just—MORTAL KOMBAT? Cass’, you gotta be shittin’ me, baby girl; what are you—why? No—Nope I can’t… this is not happening.” 

“Once the challenge has been issued and accepted, it cannot be revoked,” Raiden reminds Johnny, laying a hand upon his shoulder. “But worry not. I have no intention of… cheating. Hold this a moment, will you?”

And just like that, the surge of electricity Johnny had felt when Raiden made contact erupts across all of his nerves and he suddenly feels like he is floating. Cassie once more whirls to face the thunder deity and finds that, in place of glowing, indiscernible irises, a pair of dark, soft ones meet hers with ease and benevolent kindness. Her father, however, is a different story. Reaching up, he pulls off yet another pair of $500 sunglasses (which seem to be in eternal supply in the Cage household) and flashes those strange, glowing eyes at his daughter. 

“Dad?” Cassie’s voice is a strangely hoarse whisper. She shifts her attention and addresses her concerns to Raiden. “Is… he gunna be okay?” 

“He will be fine, Cassandra Cage, now… to Kombat.” He gestures out the back door and, with the sound of her whole name, Cassie’s resolution is galvanized and she leads the way once more, a very human Raiden and a deified Johnny Cage now following her like the strangest band of ducklings ever conceived. 

Johnny watches his hands, lightning dancing between his fingers as he finds his way, dazedly, to a deck chair and plops down into it. “Hey!” He calls suddenly, “can I like… go visit Liu?”

“You can.” 

Before the second syllable is out of Raiden’s mouth, Johnny is gone. Raiden laughs and shakes his head. Cassie’s brows knit together. “Does he even know how to drive that thing?”

“Not at all, but his desire to see his friend will bring him where he needs to be.” Raiden stands back, beckoning Cassie. She notes that he does not seem to drop into any kind of fighting stance as she does and it worries her. She has seen the damage he can do with his lightning, but not without it and she has never, in her recollection, seen him engage in kombat. What the hell am I doing?

“Thunder God Johnny Cage,” Cassie says, the words tasting strange in her mouth. “Who knew?”

“It suits him.”

 -

 The pizza is delicious, in Raiden’s opinion and, though he does not need to eat, there is a certain pleasure in these little indulgences. He is grateful to have learned this lesson from an old friend and he cherishes it when the timing is right and the opportunity arises. This certainly qualifies. They, that is, Cassie and Raiden, are seated on the back patio, the sun slowly sinking, the pizza box open between them. 

“So… why does dad get to be Johnny and I’m still Cassandra?” She does her best to imitate Raiden’s stern baritone, but of course fails miserably and ends up sounding comical. Raiden considers her question and imitation a moment and sits forward, laying his plate aside. He shifts once more and turns to her. 

“Your grandfather Carlton… refers to your father as Jonathan.”

Cassie never asks again.

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #262: Selfie Battle (Pokemon Sword & Shield)

Raihan: (Filming himself in front of his phone) Yoo! What's happening, Galar Region! Your boi, Raihan here is about to compete- ('Heh') Scratch that. I'm about to take home the Selfie Challenge!!!!

Crowds of Raihan Fans: (Roaring in Cheers Right Behind Him)

Gordie: (Look Towards Raihan as he's Filming himself in front of his phone) ('Scoffs') Please. Like he could actually be me in a Selfie Challenge. (Starts Acting Smug like) Everyone knows that I already reign supreme when comes to these kinds of challenges. Am I right, people?!

Crowds of Gordie Fans: (Roaring in Cheers Right Behind Him)

Nessa: (Watching All of this Madness Unfolds) .............Milo, what am I looking at here?

Milo: Oh they're just competing to see who can make the most selfies within the week.

Nessa: (Rolled Her Eyes) Is this seriously their way to boost their own ego status?

Milo: (Chuckles Lightly) You can say that. But I dunno....It kinda looks fun in retrospect.

Nessa: I'm not too sure about that, Milo. I mean taking some selfies is fine every once in a while, but making a whole contest over it for whatever reason is just plain ignorance. ('Sigh') Surely this couldn't get any dumber than this....

Three Days Later.....

Raihan and Gordie continuously take multiple outlandish selfies as both of their respective fans are cheering them on the background.

Nessa: I was wrong......This actually got way more dumber than I thought it would be.....

Milo: I'm surprised they still have more Gigabytes after all the pictures they've taken those days ago....You know I'm actually supposed to be their semi-judge in all of this, right?

Nessa: Really?

Milo: Yep. No one else was interested in to doing it. So I was practically the last person they'd come to.

Nessa: (Place a hand on Milo's Shoulder) I wish you the best of luck in this, big guy.

Milo: (Smiles Brightly) Thanks, Nessa.

Two Days Later......

Raihan: (Clap his Hands) Alright, Milo my man! Let's see those results!

Gordie: (Smiles Confidently and Smugly) I'm not the one brag or anything but I say I'd take the win flawless.

Raihan: (Starts Glaring at Gordie) Don't get your hopes too high there, Rock boy. Cuz the only person who's have any chance of winning this thing is yours truly!

Gordie: (Glares back at Raihan) Keep telling yourself that, Dragon boy!

And with that, the two Gym Leaders began to clash heads with one another....that is until Nessa manage to smack both of their heads.

Nessa: (Extremely Annoyed) Would you two just knock it off and let Milo read the results already?!

Raihan/Gordie: (In Pain) Yes ma'am...... We're sorry.......

Nessa: (Turns to Milo with a smile) Go ahead, big guy.

Milo: (Smiles Softly at Nessa) Thanks a million, Nessa. (Turn back towards the computer and look up some selfies) Now let's see here......By the looks of it, you two have took some pretty impressive selfies so far....(Saw a few Pictures of a clearly Embarrassed Gordie taking a selfies with his loving mother, Melony) Aww, Gordie....I didn't know you would take selfies with your ma.

Gordie: ?!!!

Nessa: (Saw the pictures herself) Aww... That is precious.

Raihan: (Smirks at Gordie) Guess you really are a Momma's Boy after all, huh, Gordster?

Gordie: (Blushes Even Harder) Yeah?! Well at the very least it worth something!! (Turns Away while mumbling silently) And besides....I was only trying to make my mom happy with those posts....

Nessa: (Smiles Softly) And that's very sweet of you, Gordie. (Smack Raihan on the shoulder) Stop making him feel bad, Raihan!

Raihan: Alright! Alright! (Turns to Gordie) Sorry, man.

Gordie: ('Sigh') It's fine I suppose....

Milo: (Chuckles Lightly as he pulls up pictures from Raihan, most of which involves him and Leon just hanging out) You know, for rivals, you and Leon sure do hangout a lot lately.

Nessa: (Saw the photos herself) No kidding. How the hell were you guys able to afford a freaking yacht?!

Gordie: (Starts Smirking At Raihan) So, Raihan, is there any particular reason you would hang out with your fierce rival so very often? Any reason at all?

Raihan: (Starts Blushing while turning away) We're not a couple if that's what you think!

Gordie: (Smirk even wider) Never said you were.

Raihan: I- ('Heavily Sigh') Look, man, we're just two bros, hanging out with each other. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Milo: (Smiles Softly at Raihan) That's perfectly okay with us, Raihan.

Nessa: (Smiles as well) Yeah. We have no room to judge. (Glares at Gordie Menacingly) Isn't that right, Gordie?

Gordie: (Completely Terrified by Nessa's Glare) R-Right! There's absolutely nothing with that at all.

Raihan: (Smiles Brightly) Thank, you guys. You too, Gordie. It really means a lot..... (Went back to Smirking) Still gonna beat you in this challenge, though.

Gordie: (Glaring Back at Raihan) We'll see about that, Dragon boy!!

Nessa: Annnnnd they're back .....(Turn to Milo) You think you could wrap this up so we can go home?

Milo: Sure thing. (Tallying up the votes from Pokemon fan viewers) And now....the winner of the First annual Selfie Battle is.............(Check the results)........huh.

Raihan: What is it, Milo?

Gordie: Did it said who won?

Milo: Well...... according to the votes, it said that....neither of you won the challenge.

Raihan/Gordie: WHAT?!

Nessa: So...if neither of these guys won, then who did?

Milo: You guys aren't gonna believe this....buuut...the actual winner of the challenge of the whole thing.....is Alli.

Raihan/Gordie: ALLI?!

Nessa: Huh. I.... honestly didn't see that one coming...

Raihan: But that doesn't even make any sense!

Gordie: How was Allister able to beat both of us?!

Milo: You guys remember those paparazzi that usually follow us sometimes?

Gordie/Raihan: (Slowly Nodded his head) Yeah......

Milo: And remember how we all agreed that Alli is the most precious being in our lives?

Nessa: Yeah. Alli's such a peach.

Milo: Yeah well.... apparently everyone on the internet thinks so as well. (Shows the gang pictures of Allister being completely camera shy as he starts sprinting away) It seems like these were taken for awhile.....(Shows pictures of Bea punching the day lights out of the photographers) Up until Bea stops them, of course.

Nessa: (Smiles Softly) I'm glad she's being a good sister to the boy.

Milo: (Smiles Softly) Me too.

Gordie: You know....In all honesty, (Smiles a little) I'm actually happy for the little guy winning the contest.

Raihan: (Smiles Brightly) Me too, man. I'm more than happy to take 2nd Place anytime.

Gordie: (Slowly Turn towards Raihan) I'm sorry. Since did you get to decide who gets 2nd Place or not?

Raihan: Since now. (Shrugged while acting Smug like) I mean, With all due respect, Gordie, but I believe my selfies are clearly superior to yours in every single way.

Gordie: (Glares up to Raihan yet again) In your dreams, Dragon boy!! The only one who truly that runner-up spot is me!!

Raihan: (Glares up at Gordie) Yeah right! Like you had any chance to beat me in the first place!

Nessa: (Watching Gordie and Raihan argument unfolds) I'm getting tired of this....(Place a hand of Milo's Shoulder) Hey, Milo, let's ditch these guys and go out to eat somewhere. I'll pay for the both of us on the way there.

Milo: (Happily Accepts Nessa's offer as he got up from the chair and walk away with her) D'okay!

@keyenuta

@26shann

@cyber-wildcat

@ink-correctsmashbrosbloo

@ma-lemons

@mariah2014

@gengar-sans

[cinnamonzor]

BrattyShipping Headcanons Pt. 2

Previous Installments: Part 1

Apprenticeship

- What, you thought I was just gonna gloss over the brunt of Bede’s character arc? Why would anyone wanna do that? It’s an awesome arc and it deserves to be shown.

- Whenever Opal’s tutelage got particularly frustrating, Bede’s primary method of motivating themselves into not murdering her was spite. While spite toward Chairman Rose became more prevalent as they grew to accept the reality of how he treated them (I mean, come on. He couldn’t even remember their name even after years of supporting them), they initially channeled their spite toward Victor and Gloria. In Gloria’s case, it was almost definitely actual spite, though in Victor’s case it was more generalized rivalry and determination to prove themselves to him (of course, they just interpreted this to be a different kind of spite).

- You know that trope that’s used in about 70% of fan-fics following Bakugou where the cocky asshole character is starting to pine for someone but interprets it as anger or something? That’s pretty much exactly what Bede goes through because they’re smart as hell but too emotionally dense to figure out they genuinely respect and are grateful to Victor.

- Since Hattrem/Hatterene is an empath, she is MORE than aware of her trainer’s actual feelings. She mostly just gives them the same disapproving look whenever they blatantly misinterpret their growing feelings for Victor. Were it not for her attachment to Bede, she probably would have strangled them at some point.

- Opal starts to pick up on at least their respect for him when he keeps going on about “finally showing him my true potential.” Being, well, Opal, she starts getting crafty and uses this knowledge to help motivate her protege.

- “You’re never going to get that boy’s attention with that sour attitude.” “My attitude is perfect! I can get his attention by stomping him into the dirt before he can process what’s happening!” “Perhaps, but where’s the fun in that? Only by channeling the essence of pinkness can you truly feel satisfaction in your victory.” “Hmm... True...” [Both looking smug for different reasons]

- Victor gave them his League Card when he received theirs (mostly out of courtesy), which they tack to a corkboard alongside Rose’s card in their new living space in Opal’s guestroom. They dub it their “vengeance board” and write motivational vows of spite on sticky notes that they tack around the pictures. Needless to say, this is one of Hatterene’s main sources of irritation at her trainer’s sheer emotional density.

- Meanwhile, Victor starts becoming increasingly unsettled by Rose in the wake of learning what he did to Bede. He begins to note occasional suspicious bits of his behavior and can’t shake the feeling that he’s not as nice as his usual demeanor displays. Oleana’s interference only serves to further his suspicion.

- Bede watches the League qualifiers with Opal, still fairly upset about not being able to compete themselves. Victor and Gloria defeat Marnie, Hop, and the other challengers to earn their roles in opposing brackets of the semi-finals. Upon watching the twins’ success, Opal and Hatterene note Bede’s notably differing reaction between, “figures that brat won,” and, “good. Looks like I finally have a chance to prove to that idiot what I’m truly capable of.” Opal finds it incredibly entertaining while Hatterene is damn near ready to break something over their head.

Galar League

- On the day of the semi-finals, Bede “sneaks” out to Wyndon to crash Victor’s impending match. Opal is well aware of their plans, but lets them without saying anything for her own amusement and as the final step in their quest to self-acceptance.

- Victor is fairly surprised to see Bede when they barge onto the battlefield, but he’s ultimately glad to see they’re doing okay. When Bede starts “pouring their heart out to him when they’ve never lost their cool before,” Victor is substantially surprised by the difference from the Bede he initially knew. He wholeheartedly accepts their challenge, even before the judges officially give the go-ahead, looking forward to seeing just how much Bede has grown.

- It was a surprisingly close match, but Victor ended up so engrossed in the battle that he practically forgot the massive crowd was surrounding them the entire time.

- After Bede’s defeat, Victor concurs with the crowd’s demands for them not to retire from battling, parroting his earlier sentiments that they shouldn’t lose hope after one mistake. It’s just not like them. Bede refuses to admit its Victor’s support that convinces them to continue their rise to the rank of gym leader, using the crowd’s will as an excuse that Victor easily sees through. He wishes Bede the best of luck in their endeavors on their way off the battlefield, which they reluctantly reciprocate towards Victor’s upcoming matches.

- Gloria grumps about Bede just lucking their way into a gym leader position, but Victor reminds her they’ve gone through a lot to get where they are and have clearly started working to make up for their mistakes. He finally convinces her to stop acting sour about it by reminding her that they are still very much being forced to put up with Opal’s antics, which brings a smug smile to his sister’s face.

- Bede continues watching the rest of the semi-final matches from the stands, sitting next to Marnie without actually recognizing her. She finds her best friend after the day’s matches are over and reports her observations of Bede’s not-entirely-concealed investment in his battles.

- After winning their way through their semi-final brackets, Victor and Gloria face off in the tournament finals to determine who will challenge Leon for the title of Champion. After Gloria ultimately claims victory, Bede storms down to the locker rooms and greets Victor with a bonk on the head and an appalled scowl as he steps into the hallway, informing Victor that they knew full well he made an intentionally sloppy call near the end of the match. Victor admits to somewhat throwing the match, explaining that he felt he made the right call. He states that the battle could always have ended up in either of their favors were it not for a couple lucky breaks, that Gloria was always more suited for the title, and that he never actually wanted to become Champion in the first place. Being Champion meant becoming the most sought-after public image in the region and regularly dealing with crowds and fans, plus it would make following his actual dreams more difficult due to the busy schedule of the role.

- Bede takes some time to accept Victor’s decision, but ultimately has no choice but to reluctantly acknowledge how much thought he put into it. When Victor inquires why Bede cares so much in the first place, they sputter about not wanting their rival to make them look worse by extension. Seeing through the tsundere act again, Victor plays along, but warmly thanks Bede for being so concerned about them anyway as he heads to watch the Championship match with Hop and Marnie.

Darkest Day/Championship Match

- While raiding Hammerlocke Stadium, Victor sends Hop and Gloria ahead while he battles Rose in the power core. As the two fight, Victor firmly calls out Rose’s shortsightedness, making a point to cite his neglectful and unnecessarily harsh treatment of Bede when it was obvious all they wanted to do was make him proud of them.

- Before Rose turns himself in for his actions, Victor has him write a formal apology to Bede, since his treatment of them was never really acknowledged in any of his other apologies. He hands it to them on their way to the stands before Gloria and Leon’s match, advising them to wait until after to look at it just to avoid any potential “unintended breaks in their cool.”

- Bede decides to trust Victor and reads Rose’s apology later that evening. They keep their distance for a bit, mostly since they know better than to crash the celebration the others throw Gloria just to talk to her brother. They have enough social awareness at this point to not show up uninvited to a party for someone who still clearly dislikes them where someone else they still have yet to make amends with (Hop) is guaranteed to be.

- They use their still fairly-prevalent roster of Psychic Pokemon to determine which hotel room Victor is staying in, writing a note on the now-empty envelope and slipping it under the door for him to find.

- As per the letter’s request, Victor heads to Wyndon’s Battle Cafe the next morning, where Bede waits to thank him somewhat less reluctantly than their other admissions have been. After Victor happily accepts Bede’s thanks, he inquires as to why Bede would go out of their way just to thank someone. Failing to deny that they went out of their way, Bede admits to both Victor and themselves that they’ve grown some sort of respect towards him.

- Victor warmly affirms Bede for their growth and restates that he feels they’ll be a great gym leader, as well as complimenting the genuine smile they show soon after. As they finish their brunch, Bede insists on finally exchanging contact information since “it’s only natural for rivals to have a basic means of contact.” Victor makes a joke about Bede asking for his number after a “successful date,” which mostly just invokes Bede’s pouty glare before swiping Victor’s Rotom Phone and plugging in their number before storming out.

- Victor ends up getting stuck with the bill, but he decides it’s worth it.

- When Bede returns to Ballonlea, Opal’s definitely connected the dots about their festering crush on Victor. She welcomes them back in her own fashion before informing them that she’s doubling down on Fairy-Type boot camp to make up for the days they were gone. Whether they admit it or not, Bede also believes it’s worth it.

- Hatterene just decides to accept their progress for now for the sake of her sanity.

Still more to come! We haven’t even gotten to the actual relationship yet! That’s like half the fun!

[levelrazearts]

Sun and Moon

So, just watched the last episode of the SM series, specifically the subbed cause I was waiting for it to come out so I could write this, making this the 6th fully completed series that I've watched of the pokeani, with XY, OS, Orange Islands, DP, and BW, which is the order that I watched them in cause I am chaos incarnate, but I've got to say, I thoroughly enjoyed every single episode that this series produced, which is a first given how I felt about the previous series, and I'm really glad that I experienced this as it was still continuing and not after the fact. From seeing Alola for the first time to seeing Brock and Misty show up to the Ultra Guardians to the Alolan League, I'm very glad that this series went the way that it went and chose to do things differently than other series did, and that's in part due to how the games had gone so yay. Guess I'll go over some of the highlights now.

Spoilers Below, thoust have been warned.

The characters, my god, the characters really helped this show become an emotional rollercoaster both in joy and sadness.

Ash and Pikachu: The boy and his best friend are back and for the first time is in a mainly non-changing setting, taking a break from traveling while also exploring the Alolan region and all that it all has to offer. His training and experience is still there which was nice to see after XY, and his battling effeciency has definitely improved, with only a couple of loses here and there. Here it's almost as if they're both home, which is what Alola is all about, home and family, which allows them to both grow in ways we haven't seen them grow before. And let me say as someone who is a real big fan of electro ball, electro web is the perfect replacement for it, acting as a defensive move really helped provide some interesting combos in and out of battle, which really helped in the end. And let's not forget, seeing these two finally achieve their dream of winning a League after 22 years, it's a real heart warming moment, especially for those who have grown with this series since day 1 like me (more or less lol). This was a relaxing and reinvigorating journey for them, one they desperately needed and one that they deserved, along with all their accomplishments throughout.

Kukui and Burnet: Sure when Kukui was first introduced, I was a bit iffy on seeing him host Ash and Pikachu as it felt just a little bit weird, but seeing him grow into a father figure for Ash was something that I didn't know I needed, and with the introduction and later marriage of Burnet, it was also a great family relationship between everyone that we hadn't really gotten to see Ash experience due to his absent father and considerable amount of time away from his mother, and to see that just about every other character in the series acknowledge that Ash was a lot like Kukui was really heartwarming, even from people such as Guzma and Nanu. I hope we get to see more of these two and their family to-be in the new series.

Ash's Pokemon: I'm putting this all as one cause really, they were all great and this is the best way to say it, they were his closest 'Mons to date, with Ash putting as much love and care into their training as possible, and the results were a strong and reliable team that were also family. With Rowlet, it was a bond of listening and acceptance, wanting to stay as a basic evolution so he could stay in Ash's bag and sleep, Rockruff having a found a forever home and someone who helped to push him further with his limits and later his troubles in battling, Kitten finding trust again as well as someone with love forever, and being able to evolve due to that love and determination, Piople in a promise to return home, gaining a second home and family, and Meltan finding his place in the world, a best friend in Rolwet, and evolving to Melmetal, pushing as hard as he can for those he love. It really was/is everyone at their best and true-est. You also have the family pets with this setup in a bird, dog, and cat with a beautiful purple birb and metal protector. Seeing them stay in Alola, as much as it hurts, I think is the right choice for Ash to have made, for they're as much of a family to the professors as Ash was, and will continue to be, and I love that.

Kiawe: THIS FIRE BOY IS MY FAVORITE. I can not express how much this character has grown on me, especially within just the first season. At first, I thought he was going to be the serious-stick to the rules kinda guy, and I'm not a big fan of those, but then he started to lighten up, episode by episode, and then came the Dugtrio episode, and from there on out, he was my favorite. He's just written really well, super funny especially with his expressions, and overall a lot like Ash, but more focused on responsibilities. Not to mention, he's loyal to everyone, as seen in the Tapu Fini arc, which is one of my favorite episodes/arcs. All of his Pokemon were great too, Turtanator especially, as much as I love both his Marowak and Charizard, I feel that Turtanator was his best, in both personality and relationship wise, not to mention he was just to cute. Seeing him working on becoming an Island Kahuna is really befitting of his character as he greatly respects traditions and is the perfect role model for any youngin looking to be a challenger or trainer.

Lillie and family: So much growth, and so much more to go I feel, Lillie was a real great character to add in and I'm so glad that they went in a different direction than what the game had held and her overall arch from being someone who was afraid to touch a Pokemon, to now wanting to set off to find her father, truely a beautiful story, and her mother and brother also were great characters in their own right, as both supportive and riverly and both fueling her desire to become better than before, it's great to see the theme of family carry over into what is the supporting cast, making them feel more important than ever and I love it. Her relationship with her Vulpix (Snowy) was really touching and watching them both grow was more so. And seeing her be able to reunite with Magearna and by extension, her father through memory was so heartbreaking, I really hope we get to see the conclusion to their trip. As for Lusamine, I'm again, really glad they went a different route with her, making her a caring yet grieving mother instead of a careless one, and she was a definite highlight whenever on screen. And Gladion was just as much so, seeing him loosen up throughout the series was a blessing and reuniting with his father's Zoroark was just as heartbreaking, but seeing him in the semi-finals of the league, bursting with laughter with Ash at the amount of fun they were having, was really sweet and so in character with who he had become. Again, I really hope we get to see the conclusion to their trip to find Mohn.

Lana: She's the Meme Queen and my second favorite of the cast. Her constant joking contradicts her almost serious tone and allows her to be one of the most humorous of the cast, and I love it. While she didn't have to many arcs throughout the series, she was a strong Battler and fought for what was right no matter the risk, and I like that. Her dedication to making sure everyone was okay and safe while at the same time having fun was a neat touch. Her Poplio was also pretty fun, and seeing it evolve into a Brionne and later Primarima was a great growth to someone who was seen on the lower side of the spectrum in regards to power, and now it holds the spot of one the more powerful Pokemon within the group. And the addition of her Eevee (Sandy) is just heartwarming, and that haircut is to freaking adorable. Time will hopefully tell if it'll evolve or not, and I hope we do see that come to fruition, along with the search for Manaphy. Overall a joy of a character.

Mallow: An aspiring chef while not that much of a goal, was definitely a new direction to go in regards to a menu for both people and Pokemon, but I feel her growth came most in the form of both her Bounsweet and Tapu Fini arc, in how her Bounsweet evolved to help their friends, which is derived from her wanting to help others as much as possible, which I find to be perfect. And the Tapu Fini arc, well I guess it's more of an episode, really explores the trauma that she faced when she lost her mother and her regrets of having said things that shouldn't be said, and later gratitude for her mother leading to a Shamin appearing before her was really one of the most heartbreaking parts of this whole series, and even in writing this I was beginning to tear up. And while Shamin has now left, I do think it's message has remained in that one should be grateful for all that is now in the moment instead of grieving on the past forever, to make amends were possible, and to look to better the future, hence the Human/Pokemon menu/resutsrant she's hoping to bring to life. A great amount of growth in such a short time, this is a goal again I hope we get to see sometime in the future, as she's the only one to stay in Alola (unless Kiawe is as well which not to sure on that).

Sophocles: Easily the most panicked of the group, it was great to see him find his footing whenever he could and stand his ground, and improve his battling skills, which was really a testament to just how smart he his. Little by little, he has grown into a stronger and braver person and I love that. His Togedemaru was also the funniest Pokemon throughout the whole series next to Turtanator I think, and seeing him grow with his Chargabug and later Vikavolt was really something special. Becoming an Astronaut is also something that his growth has led him to be able to do, as the journey to space requires a lot of training to become stronger to overcome the effects of zero-g and as well as bravery to venture out that far, and just like with everyone else, fits him perfectly. And as much anxiety as he has, he's always been able to overcome it, be it with the help of his Pokemon or his friends, it's really admirable. What's more to say about him? He's going to achieve great things just like Clermont before him I believe.

Team Rocket Gang: I think this is the most that I've liked them in a long time, mainly due to them not causing as much trouble as before, and that's thanks to Bewear, who was able to change them into less-troublesome people and I hope we see that carry over into the new series, and eventually see them leave TR for good to start their own lives for better and worse. Mimikyu and Mareanie were also great highlights in both their personalities and abilities, and seeing them be left behind with Bewear and Stuffle feels right even though it hurts just as much. I will certainly miss bear mom.

Rotom-Dex: A character I initially didn't like, turned out to have grown on me, and I'm glad he was there, as he was like a brother to Ash in a sense, and was a bit of comic relief at times, a I enjoy him a lot more than his debut which is good. I'm sad to see him go as I was hoping that was him in the SwiSh promo images, but who knows, maybe it is. I would certainly hope to see him again in the future. As for now, him mapping out a new land is a good fit for him, and he deserves his job.

Honorable mentions

Hau: His voice is perfect. His desire to become better is pure, and while untrained, he's got a lot of potential for sure. I really hope we get to see him again

Guzma: A perfect antagonist, who only appeared in like what, 10 episodes? but I wish we had more of him to be able to grow with, cause there's potential there for it. Here's hoping that we get a more informative conclusion to him in the future.

The stories: From being in a school, to saving a second reality, this has got to be one of the best written series for Pokemon. Starting off in a primary location and slowly visiting each and every other island was a new approach and I'm glad that it was done as such, cause again it greatly highlights the familial aspects of it all, and how much Alola means to the people and Pokemon that inhabit it. If I had to choose my favorite arc, it would probably be the Tapu Fini arc (Poni Island arc, as I'm now remembering what it's actually called) as it greatly highlights all of the characters and allows them to grow in their own, as well as mess with our emotions and I'm all about being forced to cry. That, and the Alolan League Arc, it's just so rewarding to see Kukui's dream come true, and as a result to see one of Ash and Pikachu's biggest dreams come true, not to mention that Pikachu vs Tapu Koko battle is so beautifully animated. Seeing this class become closer and closer was truely something that Pokemon hadn't tried as hard to do before, and I'm really glad they were able to do it here. And again, by changing the format of traveling to staying mainly stationary, you get a sense of home with Kukui's house as resting place, the Pokemon School as a daily experience, the city as a whole as a part of something close. Again, it's something Pokemon was missing and again, I'm glad they were able to do it right by this. If there were any negatives that I had, I guess it would have to be A. The promotional material for when this was first starting up didn't do it justice, as it put me off from watching this, and I hate that, cause this is all great. B. Would have to be that we weren't able to see any of Ash's previous companions return like Brock and Misty or even experience their reactions to Ash finally becoming a Regional Champion, but hopefully we'll be able to see that with this new series.

The animation: OH MY GOD IT'S THE BEST. This is some of the best that the series has ever produced and I'll be hard pressed to say I don't think it can ever be topped. Especially with the final league battle, Pikachu vs Tapu Koko, seriously one of the best fights ever. There are also so many hilarious facial features that this art style was able to pull off and I thank the people responsible for that because I still get a lot of good laughs from them, I really don't think any of it could have been pulled off with the BW/XY art style, as much as I love that one, I feel that this is truely superior.

Z-moves: I was wondering how this would be handled as in the games, the z-crystal acts as a held item for the Pokemon, and it seems to not be the case here, as shown with Rowlet and his Everstone, which I like, along with that as epic as the move name appearing on screen whenever the z-moves is performed, I do like it not being there in the dub. Also seeing that only one z-moves can be performed unless with assistance from the Tapu's was a nice touch too. As far as favorite z-moves goes, it has to be either Gaurdian of Alola, or 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt, my gosh those two are so beautiful looking and good and just seeing them clash was aaaaaaah, the best thing ever. I hope they can treat Dynamaxing right just as they did Z-moves.

Overall: This is my favorite Poke series to date, topping out the previous holder of XY, with how much love and attention was put into it, the overall result is one that anyone can jump into and instantly fall in love with. I highly recommend this series to any and everyone, it's just that good. I also recommend listening to the Japanese songs cause they kick ass so much omg. Like, Type: Wild, is my jam right now omg. A perfect 100 across the board. Really sad it came to an end, but grateful that it happened. Here's to SwiSh, hope you can be just as good.

[helloprettybb]

drawing you in

The long Spencer x Reader is taking, well a long time. So here’s a semi-short one and I really hope the other one will be done by next week. Also, this is a high school AU because I haven’t done one in a while.

Warnings: like a curse word or two. I don’t remember how many.

Word count: 1.3k

Going into freshman year of high school, you expected to be the lowest at the totem pole. In fact, you weren’t even surprised when upperclassmen may or may not have purposely shoved you in the hallway. But what you didn’t prepare for was the sudden abandonment of your friends. Although not all of them left, the ones that stayed weren’t in any of your classes and didn’t share a lunch with you. The lack of close friends forced you to befriend some acquaintances from middle school. Luckily you knew at least one person in all of your classes, so for the first days, you clung to them to prevent yourself from acting even more awkward. 

It was fine until your Biology teacher opted for new seats. Much to your chagrin, you were moved from the only girl you knew in your class. Your teacher claimed the seating chart was generated randomly by the computer, but you mentally called bullshit because a group of boys, who you assumed were friends from the cringe-worthy handshakes and loud laughter, were grouped together in the back corner. As you watched seats being filled, you finally heard your name and sat in your assigned seat. Luckily it was in the back of the classroom because aside from the arbitrary seating chart, the teacher already got on your nerves. 

Opening a book to block everyone else out when a voice broke your concentration, “Hello. My name is Spencer Reid.” You close your book and meet eyes with a boy who looked too attractive to be a freshman. His well-groomed, brown hair and sharp clothes betrayed his youthful eyes, which screamed underclassman. 

“Hi, Spencer. I’m Y/n.” you introduce politely. Although you didn’t know everyone in your grade, you’ve never seen him before high school. You definitely would have remembered a face like that.

As if he read your mind, he informs, “I’m new. I just moved here this summer.” 

“Technically we’re all new,” you comment offhandedly, trying not to sound too bitter towards someone you just met.

“At least you have friends. I don’t even know who I’m sitting with at lunch today.” he shrugs, trying to act casual but you could see some anxiety by his fidgeting hands.

Maybe it was to spare him of another lonely lunch or the small, primal attraction you have for him, but you offered, “You can sit with me.”

“Aren’t you sitting with other people? I’m sure they wouldn’t want to sit with me.” he chuckles a little at his self-deprecating joke.

“I’ve just been sitting with people I barely know. Sitting with you wouldn’t make a difference.” you shrug, not knowing why you are trying to convince the cute boy to sit with you.

“Okay.” he gives in and smiles. He looks even prettier smiling. You didn’t know why you thought that way about someone you just met but didn’t know whether to mentally scold yourself or let it be. Luckily the teacher started lecturing which allowed you to distract yourself from him. The lesson was a review of the past years, so as you almost drifted off, you glanced over at Spencer’s paper. You watched as he sketched a rabbit. Before striking up a conversation, you checked to see if your teacher, who you inferred was a little hard-of-hearing because of the number of times it takes to get his attention.  

“That’s really good.” you compliment quietly to not draw attention from the teacher, who is still invested in the lesson. 

“Oh, it’s nothing.” he repudiates nonchalantly while shading in the ears. You continue to watch him draw until the bell rings. You and Spencer leave class together and start down the hallway to the lunch room. You keep a respectful distance in the crowded hallway into a stranger shoves you into him. Due to your heavy backpack, you almost topple to the ground, but Spencer catches you before you could fall, although he couldn’t prevent the embarrassment from showing on your face. 

He lets go of you and stepping away from him slightly, you apologize meekly, “Sorry.” 

“It’s okay.” he chuckles politely. Unable to recover, you walk in silence until you reach the cafeteria. You and Spencer find an empty table and set your belongings down. You catch a couple making out over his shoulder and instinctively cringe. Spencer sees the expression on your face and turns to see what’s behind him. 

“Did you know that one 10-second French kiss transferred 80 million germs from one partner to the other?” he asks, even though you obviously wouldn’t know that.

“It’s not even the germs that disgust me.” you scoff, thinking Spencer wouldn’t care about your rant over gross PDA. 

“No?” he asks, raising his eyebrow as if challenging you to elaborate.

“I’m fine with couples, even though most don’t even last in high school. But it’s just repulsive to me that people have the nerve to exhibit this intimate past time in front of hundreds of people. I came here for school, not to watch a bunch of horny teenagers suck on each other's lips.” you realized it became a rant and expected it to be offputting for Spencer, but instead he chuckled lightly which caused you to laugh comfortably. “And don’t even get me started on couples holding hands in the hallway. They form a slow-moving line in the hallway that prevents people from getting past. If they’re going to hold hands, at least walk briskly!”

“I agree, although you explained it more vividly.” he smiles which causes you to mirror him. “Personally, I don’t like all the germs that come along with public displays of affection. There are already so many germs in the atmosphere in a public space and sharing saliva with a person makes it even worse.” he shares a little more scientifically.

You sigh and admit, “Maybe I’m just bitter because I’ve never had anyone to do that with.”

Over the course of a couple weeks, you and Spencer grew closer by sitting with each other at lunch every day and working together in biology. You realized from the beginning the extent of Spencer’s modesty when he spouted out answers quickly all while claiming it wasn’t a big deal. Much to your dismay, you still had lingering feelings for Spencer. Although you felt like your feelings were reciprocated since he started this sweet flirting thing between the two of you.

You and Spencer find your now usual table and sit next to him. He pulls out his notebook, which you gave him when scrap paper wasn’t enough. “Did you draw anything new?” you question curiously, unable to see his notebook. What started as a polite inquiry has now transformed into an investment in his endless sketches.

“Only the most beautiful person in the world,” he replies absentmindedly. You glanced over at his paper and see a face that resembles yours too much.

“Is that supposed to be me?” you ask assuming it was part of your little game and instead of a response, Spencer just smirks as he continues to fill in your hair. You feel a slight blush forming so you joke, “It can’t be. She’s too perfect.”

“Well, I guess that means you’re perfect in my eyes.” he flirts, giving you a cocky grin.

You loved the endless flirting, but it bugged you a little that this was all for fun. Knowing what it could do to your blossoming friendship, you decided to be upfront. “Do you actually think that about me?”

Spencer softens and confesses honestly, “Of course. I’ve thought that way since the first day we met.” 

You smile the jest, “You know, if we weren’t against public displays of affection, I’d probably kiss you right now.”

He tilts his head innocently then states, “I think we can make an exception.” You laugh and give him a quick, sweet kiss on the lips. Spencer turns to his notebook and draws a heart around your portrait as you rest your head on his shoulder.

[mrlenes]

“Downworlder,” the demon breathed, and touched his long, spidery fingers to Simon’s cheek. “You must have had a heart that beat so strong in you, when it still beat.”

marlene mckinnon is nineteen years old and she is a member of the order of the phoenix. the pureblood is a former gryffindor and was from the class of 1978. she is a dragonologist and looks like maría gabriela de faría.

welp it’s 6:19 am why am i this way but hello it is jane again !! marlene is someone i’ve played a bunch, but it’s been a while since i’ve played with a different history, so i’m still ironing out a few kinks but i’m v v excited!! (also despite what the quote up there may imply, a) i do not like cassandra clare as a person and b) marlene isn’t a vampire fhkjsahjkasfkhj i just like the sentiment of it for her very much)

marls is the same age as the marauders & lily, but she’s a july kid so she’s still to have her birthday —- july 21, 1960 (cancer-leo cusp, and we’re going to pretend that her moon is in sagittarius and her rising is in aries (truthfully i have no idea what her moon & rising would be factually so we’re just... gonna direct the stars fhjksfdhj))

the cusp is excellent for her, because the warring nature of the two signs makes a mess, which is a good description of this lil miss! 

x: Cancer is a water sign ruled by the moon, and possesses cardinal traits. On the other hand, Leo is a fire sign ruled by the sun and possesses fixed traits. The sun is associated with masculine energy and is symbolic of daytime, while the moon is associated with the feminine energy and represents nighttime. Fire and water, sun and moon, sensitivity and fierceness, masculine and feminine energies... it all builds into marlene mckinnon, a girl built of empathy & war, with a penchant for night time & wild things

also re: her bday, she’s due to die the day before she turns 21 bc we love smiling

sibling death tw // ok!! marlene was the youngest of five for almost all of her life, but about 5 years ago, when she was in fifth year (i think), her parents adopted a four year old boy named wren, who’s now nine. she had four older siblings: johnny (29), tommy (27), lorraine (24), matthew (22). johnny was in gryffindor, order member, died (possibly saving marlene & someone else on a mission) ; the others are tentatively still alive, though they slowly get killed off during the war, until it’s just marlene & wren & her parents that fateful night at the mckinnon residence (july 20 1981) of Death™. // end death tw

POTENTIAL CONNECTION/WANTED CHARACTERS: i would absolutely love her siblings around, any of them. i’m semi-flexible abt the names & fully flexible abt when or how they die (if we’re following canon, my only request is that some die before the 20th of july and nobody survives after it) —- all of her older siblings are adopted. i was thinking tommy (& johnny) were taken in after tragedy struck their parents, who were either sibling or cousin to one of marls’ parents (chants: sean teale! sean teale!), but that’s just an idea. i’m rly open to anything, and i’m down for some to have been biologically full-siblings to marls (preferably matty or lorraine, though) if you have a fitting fc in mind, but otherwise!! i would love any of them, and while i do have some ideas (mostly broad strokes —- johnny as the guidance, lorraine as the beating heart), i’m genuinely just really keen to have any of them around and am super open to talking abt anything that you might want to change!!

ok back to marls

youngest of five for most of her life, now scored a kid brother whom she’d do anything for (she thinks) (she hasn’t exactly had to test it) and four elder siblings whom she loves completely and who were instrumental in how she grew up —- surrounded with love and people who protected her even as they challenged her. ( who’s that back there, trailing after tommy and lorraine —? little marlene mckinnon, tiny fists balled up as she marches behind them — where’s she gone now, the little rascal —? oh, up that tree, get down from there, no not by jumping merlin fuck — ) 

her siblings are all pretty different from each other & johnny was the only one in gryffindor and he’s a completely different kind of gryffindor than marls. whilst both had that same good heart at their core, johnny was noble and brave and an excellent leader, and marlene has always preferred being a second, being there to back someone up (she’s never been good at letting people go in alone) & was something impulsive and daring. between her siblings, she learned how to fight, how to trust, how to land and, possibly most importantly, how to fly

hogwarts shenanigans

marlene was a chaser at hogwarts, but she’s always been a slightly better flier than player. she’s never been particularly focused on getting goals —- her talent and interest was always in setting up the goals, in the daring of diving for the quaffle, in the speed and risk of rocketing across the pitch to get the quaffle to one of her teammates to score. she likes racing to get the quaffle, and setting it up, like the gameplay dynamics of the chasers working in tandem to get the quaffle down to the other end of the pitch. she’s always been fast, that’s the thing about marlene mckinnon: on the ground or in the air, she’s always been quicker than you can believe. quite possibly was the fastest player in the school, but that in no way translates to the best — her personal vote for that is james, though she acknowledges the skill of others such as gwenog jones, lucinda talkalot, ludo bagman and emma vanity for the one year she saw her play. a good player, she thinks, tends to be a little better-rounded, and not only has good instincts, but also good insight, and an ability to both strategise and to take direction. marlene’s flying is often characterised by the risks she’ll take — as well as her creative moves, like the mckinnon flash — and under leadership she disliked, it probably wouldn’t end as well. however, she trusted, respected and loved james, and she was very happy to have him as a captain. 

appalling at herbology and potions

like, awful

in second year, she once had a situation with these magical vines that attacked her, and that pretty much sums up her entire herbology career & then potions is terrible because of the fiasco that is her focus

she managed to scrape a high enough grade to get into it at newt level, thanks purely to her wonderful friends who managed to get her studying on track enough, but then she dropped it in seventh year — she’d kept at it because it’s necessary for a few career paths, and many of her friends, she knew, focused on it because it was a requirement for aurordom, but she had an inkling that aurordom would actually be a poor choice for her, especially given how little she trusted the ministry, and by the time she was starting seventh year, she had decided to drop it (despite her father being a member of the wizengamot & one of her brothers being involved somewhat in the ministry, the trust was.... not present fdshjsdfahjk)

on the other hand, she loved comc

comc, dada and charms were her three best subjects, and she was v good at all three of them

dragons!!! she spent her time in history of magic classes drawing up schematics about how they could obtain dragons, manticores and other xxxxx creatures

she quite liked history of magic, though it’s v selective bc she can only focus on the elements which interest her

she’s got a lot of thoughts on the treatment of lycanthropes by the wizarding society (they’re not positive thoughts lmao bc the treatment of werewolves and other part-humans is so terrible; she has a lot of thoughts about the registration system, and its initial purpose and what it’s used for now, and also beyond werewolves, the treatment of vampires and other part-humans) and she had them prior to her discovery of remus’ “furry little problem” but they’ve certainly not subsided since

general (this is all over the place i’m sorry)

empathetic and it can be a real problem for her honestly?

also, she’s not very good at letting go emotionally? she’s absolutely capable of caring about someone and not endorsing or forgiving them, but she tends to carry people around in her heart and under her skin forever and that’s an immensely difficult thing for her to try shake or even address

bad at processing emotions, like,,, so bad LMAO

she really needs to talk things through to make sense of her emotions but does she? not that often! a good example of this is when johnny died & she didn’t rly process it well bc she considered it her fault & therefore didn’t want to waste people’s time talking abt it which.... marlene pls

a v tactile & physical person, so she’s often shown affection that way (when people are okay with that) but also means that when she wants a distraction, she often craves physical connection (but also like, in hogwarts and stuff, before the war Really Hit her day-to-day life, kissing and sex and the like were just kind of... a fun and good natured end to some shenanigans & she never considered it more than that & it wasn’t even really a distraction, it was just... a natural evolution to some of her nights —- whereas now, sometimes it’s a v genuine distraction) —- sometimes that just looks like sitting w a friend in their kitchen in the quiet of the night, drinking until they can’t see the reflection of people they couldn’t save in each others’ eyes anymore, but sometimes it’s Touch. truly just being in people’s presence, particularly the presence of her friends & people she trusts, just... rly helps her 

really really good for a fun time though!! hit her up for shenanigans always

loves sugar quills, like so much,,, eats sugar quills like most people breathe

does Not Like cats or birds

diehard for her friends

she’s very much led by emotions, and when those are conflicting, it can be a situation — but she tries, and she has a good heart, and when it comes down to it, she’ll always do what she thinks is right, even if it can be a messy road to getting there

she laughs a lot, idk, she’s not rly one to back down from a fight but her general state of being is probably more quips and laughter

and going off above abt how she’s a pretty physical person — she just always has been, running around the grounds when she was younger, being so involved with quidditch when she was older, and things being tangible are really grounding for her? it’s also sort of how her reflexes work best — she can duel, absolutely, but she’s also pretty good in a physical fight

not v good at defensive or healing magic though so if any of her friends want to help her out w/ that, hmu!! esp if your character wants to get more proficient at physical fighting as well, marls is defs down to help w/ that! i’m hoping like... it’s been a year and a half, i would hope she’s better now at defensive and healing magic, but she’s still never going to be Great so that’s always connections fodder

after graduating, she went into magizoology!! she just... rly fucking loves magical creatures

her focus is on dragons

she lived.... somewhere after hogwarts, and then some time later (6-12 months ago) she and mary moved in w alice after frank and her split up

marlene’s empathetic & angry abt it

v good at shades of grey, not so good at black and white —- you know when harry and ron save draco from fiendfyre, and it’s like... harry insists they have to save them, and then ron punches draco in the face later? marlene is Both. she’ll try save you — risk herself to save you, even if you don’t deserve it — but she’ll be Mad abt it & happily deck you later ( she’s not exactly mad about saving people, or trying to, she’s more mad at herself for it some days )

joined the order straight out of hogwarts

sits on benches at 2am eating cake batter

rly good at making breakfast food, less good at proper food

she will come to ur flat / ur always welcome wherever she’s living to pop in at 2am after an order mission and she’ll make you french toast

night owl

wanted connections

just... quickly

hello mckids // siblings!! 27, 24 & 22 (can be order or not)

god help the girl // i would love someone to have been appalled at her defensive/healing magic skills (lack thereof, rly) and forced her to accept their help, which might have been in the past or still going! marlene is v happy to help w physical fighting in return

we don’t talk about fight club // marlene is actually a good teacher in some ways, bc she’s p good at connecting to people, so going off the last point: if you want some physical fight training or you just want something to spar/rail against, mar is available. also, less friendly, but if you’re someone she doesn’t like, she’s also available for an actual fight

fwf // you know porn without plot? this is fuck without feelings. or maybe fuck w friends! which sounds like a bad tv show but there u go. anyway! people she’s hooked up with at hogwarts as generally a laugh / good time, people she’s hooked up with post hogwarts as both that & as a distraction

learn to process bench // i would... rly dig someone (possibly someone her age but could be older, cant be younger) who was on the mission w/ her where her brother died bc heck maaaaaybe they got her to talk (or maybe they’re both bad at processing & they just. Look At Each Other and don’t talk lmao) // MARY MACDONALD.

feelings are too hard // fwf but........ with feelings that she hasn’t rly given a moment to think abt. possibly does still hook up with & resolutely ignores that feelings are there, possibly hooked up with once & never has again bc wow she is not examining that, or perhaps she’s never actually hooked up w them and managed to get complicated feelings that she won’t address (which... is a double problem if they have feelings for her) regardless! either way, it’s v possible she’s somewhat aware there’s Something going on in her chest but hasn’t addressed it so doesn’t Fully Know bc she’s a fucking idiot (and it’s equally possible she does know and is just... Ignoring It)

more to come!!

[doktorpeace]

Top 5 Games Of The Year #4

Yakuza 0 is a pretty special game both individually and as a part of its franchise. It’s the first time Yakuza has taken a step backwards chronologically, in order to better explore already established characters and what led them to the events of the first game. It gets a lot of praise already and I’m just here to heap a little more onto the pile because it well deserves it. Although the series at this point is no stranger to having multiple protagonists and Majima has technically been playable before the special feeling Yakuza 0 elicits by having two protagonists wasn’t really lost for it. Compared to the four in Yakuza 4, or the frankly over padded five protagonists in Yakuza 5, taking a step down to just two and placing an almost equal emphasis on each really does the game’s narrative and pacing wonders. Yakuza 0′s story is really good it is an excellent crime drama and among the best main plots the series has to offer. While some might argue other entries, usually 2 or 4, can stand up alongside it I feel 0′s has an edge in some areas. Largely in terms of pace, ambition, and intrigue. For instance, 2 doesn’t really mess around with plot twists, the entire game basically waves a giant flag over Ryuji saying he’s the final boss and the whole plot exists basically just to get to his and Kiryu’s legendary fight. And that’s fine, it doesn’t try to be more than it needs to be and that’s okay. 4 meanwhile has more intrigue and some good twists in there but its pace is much poorer in my opinion. Your mileage may vary on the bullets plot twist, too. 0 has some legitimate plot twists and it does a great job getting players engaged and interested in what’s going to happen next. To get back to 0 though, it doesn’t sacrifice characterization to achieve the quality of its plot either, far from it. It’s the first time we’ve seen a young, hot blooded, and frankly really stupid Kiryu. Kiryu’s never a smart guy but getting to see how he handles situations and behaves before 10 years in prison and subsequent stories smooth his edges and temper his personality is really a treat for fans of the character and newcomers alike. He’s fun, relatable, serious when he needs to be, and most importantly he’s still perfectly recognizable as Kiryu. He is still absolutely that amazing protagonist that you know and love, he’s just young, dumb, and full of.....well you know. On the other hand Majima is almost unrecognizable in this game, being calm, well dressed, a charismatic and professional showman, dissuading others from fighting, all while being openly depressed to boot. This take on Majima still feels fitting because the way he phrases himself is familiar, his gut reactions feel right for the characters, and ultimately this game contextualizes not just his transformation into the Mad Dog of Shimano fans know him as later but many of his actions through the rest of the series. Just ignore how his story here and how he’s written in Yakuza 5 violently contradict one another. We can all just pretend Y5′s Majima writing isn’t canon. The strength of characterization extends to the game’s side characters too, including ones who alongside Majima and Kiryu return from the main series. Nishiki, Kashiwagi, the Lieutenants, Tachibana, Lee, and more are all memorable and great characters. Just, uhh, don’t expect many women in the main plot is all. I don’t want to talk too in depth about the game’s story so as to avoid spoiling anything but it really is a treat. The script takes advantage of player’s expectations in a meta sense, that ultimately this will be Kiryu’s game because, well, Yakuza 4 and 5 were Kiryu’s games in spite of the other protagonists. Those guys all got good, moving stories too and they are all well worth experiencing and having around but ultimately Kiryu is still the most important guy on the block. Not so, here, as by the halfway point of the game players might notice that Majima’s ‘half’ of the game, his half of the game’s chapters, are quite a bit longer than Kiryu’s. Majima has a lot more legwork to do in the story because it is his story, and while Kiryu gets the true final boss fight and is very important to the events at hand as well it’s really Majima who’s the star here. This game is an excuse to explore his character and it does not beat around the bush on that intention. If you are a fan of this franchise you really do have to experience this story. All too often prequel games just end up softening or weakening the existing narratives they’re trying to pay homage to or trying to strengthen but Yakuza 0 expertly dodges that bullet by never missing a beat in terms of quality relative to standard Yakuza entires. My only real issue with the story, honestly, is that Makoto is about as much of a McGuffin as she is a person. The game does take time to develop her both directly and indirectly but ultimately she spends about as much time just being a plot device to be ferried around by one man or another as she does getting to talk and do things.  The gameplay is very refined compared to other games in the seires, I would argue it’s tighter and more fun than Yakuza 6′s, even, if only due to the sheer variety of Heat Actions (effectively super moves; ranging from the silly to the bombastic to the brutal to a handful that made me shout ‘HOLY SHIT HE DIDN’T DESERVE THAT!!!’ at my TV) present in 0. If you like beat ‘em ups you’ll like Yakuza’s playstyle; each character gets 4 fighting styles earning three through the story and a fourth through side content. The fourth fighting style for each one is essentially a bonus, letting them fight in their ‘iconic’ styles, Dragon and Mad Dog respectively. To be honest they’re both underwhelming, Mad Dog is maybe Majima’s weakest fighting style and Dragon, while strong, requires a lot more heat than what it naturally builds to stay competent. The fighting styles are still fun though, they add plenty of new and unique options to each character to justify getting them, they’re just not going to win you the game for free or anything. Of the character’s main fighting styles the only real issue I have is the disparity in strength between them, both internally and between each other. No mincing words here, Majima is obscenely overpowered compared to Kiryu. Breaker Style annihilates every challenge in the game with next to no effort besides Mr. Shakedown fights, which aren’t really fun anyway. That said Slugger easily bashes in Mr. Shakedown and even Jo Amon. Majima will breeze through all of his content even on higher difficulties. Comparatively Kiryu can have a pretty rough time in some fights. This is due in part by his fighting styles being really well balanced internally, they’re all useful and thus the player may actually feel like swapping between them mid battle or between encounters. Kiryu not really having an overwhelming option generally means he can be very expressive, my fiancé and I played him very differently for instance on our runs. Whether you most enjoy his fast, invulnerability frame heavy, dash cancelling Rush style which takes a very high amount of investment to become good but I would argue is maybe his best style once you get it there, his brutish item swinging, semi-grappler Beast style which absolutely decimates indoors fights, or the more well rounded, heat action heavy Brawler Kiryu’s got something for everyone. Each of his styles also get a great variety of unique heat actions, all three to environmental cues, and Beast and Brawler to equip-able and overworld items. While Majima’s fighting style are also expressive and a ton of fun to use they just feel too safe and too easy compared to Kiryu. He gets absolutely stellar results and gets them quickly for extremely little effort in the ridiculously fast, low profile attacks of Breaker. Not to say Breaker isn’t fun, because it is, breakdancing to beat people up is hilarious and fun and its heat actions are flavorful to boot, it’s just really overpowered is all. After some investment his Ballerina With A Baseball Bat fighting style, Slugger, also becomes nigh impossible to challenge for the AI thanks to it losing its primary weakness of the bat bouncing off of walls it hits after you put only moderate investment into it. While the least varied of Majima’s styles in terms of heat actions, Slugger is great fun if you ever wanted a proper weapon based fighting style in Yakuza. It feels like what Shinada should have played like. Majima’s starting style, Thug, is a fun grappling and street brawling style that requires a lot of precision to use well and is very well suited to one on one fights should the player be so inclined to not opt for his better options. It makes use of baroque kicks, eye pokes, strangles, and back turns. It’s also Majima’s only style that can make use of non-baseball bat items for heat actions as well as most of his environmental heat actions, and Majima has some GREAT heat actions under these conditions, helping Thug keep a niche compared to the other styles. Honestly, if you like Tekken you’ll probably like Thug. These great fighting styles would be pointless if the game didn’t have fun enemies and situations to pit you against and thankfully it does. Its ‘dungeons’ are a lot of fun and some of the boss fights really stand out. Thanks to the sheer myriad of context based Heat Actions even just fighting the random mooks in the street stays fun for dozens of hours as you experiment to see how you can fuck up some chumps today. It’s deeply gratifying and a lot of fun. While the optional Mr. Shakedown fights are a chore, they are all optional besides the first one so there’s no real reason to bother with them unless you’re doing a 100% substory completion run or REALLY need to grind money in a game where money is already free. Some of the boss fights are a bit mediocre, too, but overall they’re good fun. I do think Yakuza 0 is at its strongest though when it’s making the player fight room after room of enemies, dozens at a time, and just letting them feel like an absolute champion while doing so, really letting them revel in just how strong and cool Majima and Kiryu are. Yakuza 0′s side content is both one of its greatest strengths and in my opinion an area where it shows the most weakness. While Pocket Circuit, Karaoke, Cabaret Club, and the Sub-Stories are absolutely excellent and I truly cannot stress enough how fun they are the game also has a myriad of seemingly half baked minigames based off of real life activities for you to do, a lot of which have unnecessary RNG. Even Bowling has RNG...BOWLING, come on! The Pool, Darts, Bowling, Catfight Club, and other such minigames feel very rushed in execution and for all but the last of those feel like poor simulations compared to other games I have played. Catfight Club is just a really, really, shameless and sexist ‘Watch almost naked women ‘’’’wrestle’’’’’. Also, opposite Majima’s deeply flavorful, engaging, well written, and fun club management minigame Club Sunshine, the aforementioned cabaret club, Kiryu gets Real Estate Royale. Which is about as fun as you think. It’s literally standing around waiting for money to grind for you and then going out and investing it into properties. While the storyline attached to it is decent enough and has some good moments for Kiryu the minigame itself is just dreadful and grossly slow paced. Which is funny to say, because I think it takes less time to complete than Cabaret Club, but it feels like A Lot Longer because it just isn’t fun. There’s the Telephone Club, which uhhh, you can have Kiryu do to get laid. It’s funny in a tongue in cheek way but it’s also not my cup of tea besides laughing at Kiryu’s great dialogue and body language during the interactions. Basically, play Karaoke to hear Kiryu’s beautiful singing voice and also THE ONLY GAME IN THE SERIES WHERE MAJIMA’S SINGING ISN’T JUST AWFUL SCREECHING! 24 Hour Cinderella is a gift to the world and you need to play it. Cabaret Club is also where the vast majority of this game’s female characters exist, as hostesses. While the game could take this opportunity to be sexist (and one could argue it is, for sure) the writing present in Cabaret Club for the platinum hostesses and their story lines is just as good as anything else from the game. They’re worth talking to, learning about, and seeing their development. In all honesty they can almost fittingly serve as a nice break from the game’s intense story, giving the player a breather with some whole and comedic interactions. The Sub-Stories which make up this game’s version of side quests (because yes, this is a Beat ‘Em Up Japanese Crime Drama RPG) are also basically all amazing. The writing is heartfelt, funny, and just really good. They all have strong opening hooks without forcing the player to immediately get involved and despite being 100 of them they’re basically all really memorable. This is also where the game pays Kiryu back a bit for his lost story content relative to Majima, giving him 60 of the 100 sub stories. They’re all great ways to get to see more aspects of these characters and the citizens of Kamurocho, please give a bunch of them a try if you play this game. I also briefly want to talk about the settings of the game, Kamurocho and Sotenbori. They’re literally just the real life Japanese districts, Kabukicho and Dotenbori by SLIGHLY different names. If you play this game enough you’ll know some real life actual locations in actual real life Japan like you’ve been there. You’ll be able to navigate at least a few square blocks of Japan without a map, it’s amazing, and it’s really something special compared to other games. Also, I’m not exaggerating, the overworld(s) of this game are only a few square blocks large but the game plays that to its advantage. Navigating from one side to another of either one takes a minute or two at most and the streets are always PACKED with content. It’s impossible to wander around playing naturally without falling ass backwards into a dozen or more of the game’s sidestories and inevitably getting sucked into playing a few of them and seeing how good they are. I love this game’s map, it’s so brilliant in its design by simply being true to a real life location. Yakuza 0 also sports stellar sound design. The sound effects are BEEFY, hitting things feels amazing and nothing sounds out of place or off beat. The bombastic, over the top hit sounds really sell Majima and Kiryu’s overwhelming power and it just makes every fight satisfying. The soundtrack similarly is good, and while much of the soundtrack isn’t what I would call listening music, the Karaoke selections, specifically Bake Mitai, sure are. I’m not really the kind of guy who can tell you why the sound design is good, it just is, trust me.

All in all, Yakuza 0 is a stellar game and is exemplary of both what a modern beat ‘em up AND a modern RPG should strive to be like. It is a masterpiece in its own right and I’m glad that its success in the western market has secured this unique, beautiful series a future. Please play Yakuza 0, it’s regularly on sale on both PS4 and Steam and it deserves your attention. If you’re ever alone on a Friday night, just remember these Yakuza, and you’ll have a great time.

[thorne93]

The Newcomer (Part 4)

Prompt: You’re Y/N Beauchamp, daughter to Wendy Beauchamp. When you’re sent away to Spenser Academy, you have no idea what waits for you there…

Word Count: 1743

Warnings: language, violence, anger…

Notes: This is for @xx-multi-fandom-imagines challenge! Crossover of The Covenant, and the show Witches of East End. Beta’d by @like-a-bag-of-potatoes and @carryonmyswansong. Wouldn’t be possible without brainstorming with @carryonmyswansong, so thank you for that, darlin!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Caleb wasn’t exaggerating when he said it was a lot to take in. He took you to the library in his mansion where the boys pieced together their own histories for you. Tyler told you about the Simms, Reid filled you in on the Garwins, Caleb the Danvers, etc.

They elaborated more on spells they could cast, such as a Darkling. Darklings could manifest on their own. They could come in the form of a dead spirit. Or it could be a real spirit itself warning someone that possesses their type of magic of death. Seeing a Darkling was never good, it was usually an omen.

They explained to you that they didn’t want to use out in the open, so you respected that. Caleb seeme the most conservative with it, probably due to his dad. Reid on the other hand was so lax with it, it hurt you to watch him abuse them sometimes.

But, you tried to do everything to keep him from needing to use them.

Whenever possible, you used a copy of Freya’s Brain-batch brownies. A special batch of brownies that helped sharpen the mind. It was like a temporary eidetic memory. Anything that someone had seen or heard in the last month was instantly accessible, like a computer without any lag. It came in handy for tests. It wasn’t cheating because it used the person’s own memories, it just sped up the process and sharpened the processing.

The guys really liked your brownies and were thankful that you were willing to use your powers and share them with them.

To show your appreciation of them taking such good care of you, you got them each little enchanted gifts over the course of a few weeks. After you poured your heart and soul into ideas for them, you began gifting them.

First, Pogue’s was a bewitched helmet. It would protect him even if a semi-truck hit him.

“You got this for me?” he asked as you handed it to him in the shop.

“Yeah. I figured you know, to say thanks,” you said with a shrug. “Try it on, make sure it fits.”

He pulled it on and sported it around for you for a minute before taking it off. “So… what’d you do to it?”

“Why do you always think I have an ulterior motive?” you asked, sounding hurt.

“Because you do,” he reminded with a laugh.

You returned the chuckle as you nodded. “Well, it may or may not be enchanted,” you said with a shrug.

“I knew it. Is this… okay? It won’t shine a light for your grandfather will it?”

“The King? No,” you assured with a shake of your head. “A measly little helmet isn’t going to do that. But that isn’t all…” You walked over to his very expensive, brand new Ducati. You waved your fingers over the bike three times, chanting a spell you’d heard Ingrid do once on her brand new car.

“Now what the hell did you do?” he asked as he sauntered over to the bike, examining it for changes.

“I simply made your bike so that it would never need to be repaired. Aside from oil and gas, this baby is ready to travel coast to coast every day for the next fifty years,” you informed with a gleaming smile, boasting your powers a bit.

“Oh man. Wow. Thanks, Y/N. I don’t know what we’d do without you,” he said before he punched you lightly in the shoulder.

“I perish the thought, Perry,” you teased before sticking your tongue out, making him laugh.

Next was Reid’s. Which was an enchanted ring that only activated at his touch. It was a dragon that curled around itself.

The two of you were standing in his dorm as he took the little velvet pouch from you and dumped the ring into his palm?

“Jewelry?” he asked incredulously. “I’m not really a dragon man but…”

“Forget about the dragon. Put it on,” you instructed.

He gave you a curious look but obliged. Once it was on, it tightened around his finger and the jewel in its eye seemed to illuminate.

“Woah, shit. What’s it doing?” he asked, jumping back a little, intrigued more than anything.

“It’s a protector. It’s first job is to protect you, but I know how sometimes you hate sitting in class. This will give you an illusion to cast. The illusion can talk, respond, think just as you would, but you can leave it undetected.”

“That’s badass,” he noted. “So how long? How do I get away without being spotted?”

“Whenever you want to leave, wave your other hand over the dragon, say ‘exitus’ and it’ll cloak you while it creates an illusion based on your current state. You'll have about sixty seconds to get away before you’re spotted again.”

“Wait, but even if i skip class, I’ll still be missing information, which means I’ll flunk.”

“Oh, didn’t I mention the ring is also a recording device? As soon as it’s activated, it starts.”

“Holy shit. You thought of everything,” he complimented as his gaze danced between you and the ring. “This is awesome.”

You shrugged with an impish grin. “I try. I know you’d like to use your powers to escape so… maybe this will help. But don’t abuse it! Please?” you requested. “I don’t want you falling behind and then your mom is coming to find me to beat my ass.”

“Hey, I’d never let that happen,” he assured before throwing his arm over your shoulders. “But I won’t abuse it. Promise.”

“Thanks, Reid.”

Following that was Tyler. His gift was a tad more practical, but he needed it.

Sitting in the library, he was swamped with books.

“Hey, Ty,” you greeted as you sat down across from him.

“Hey, Y/N.”

“Busy studying?” you questioned.

He didn’t glance up at you at all, he merely responded, “Yeah. Sorta. Could we catch up later?”

“Oh, yeah sure, I just need to give you this,” you said, sliding a royal blue book with gold patterns on it towards him along with a black fountain pen. “I’ll be off now.”

“Woah, what the hell is this?” he asked, picking it up. “Is this more homework from Chem? God I swear--”

“It’s not schoolwork, dude,” you assured. “This is a Learner Ledger,” you informed proudly.

“A what?” he wondered, a trace of annoyance in his tone.

You heaved a sigh and yanked the book back, opening it. “Put your notes in here. Write down whatever you hear in lecture or learn here. Tap the pen, this pen exactly against the last page of notes. The ink will disappear but all of the notes will be here.” You reached up and poked him in the forehead.

“How is that different than taking notes or your brownies?”

“I’m glad you asked. The brownies are temporary, mainly right before an exam. These will help with pop quizzes and finals. Not to mention, how often have you taken notes and actually retained anything?” you teased and he threw a crumpled up ball of paper at you. You laughed as you swatted it away. “Hey, I’m just saying. I can take this back if you want,” you said, starting to pick it up.

Quickly, his hand was across the table, grabbing for the book.

“I’ll take the damned book.”

“Atta boy,” you said with a wink before you got up.

That only left Caleb. What could you possibly get a guy who never used magic, rocked on the swim team, studied hard, and never asked for a single thing?

But that’s when it hit you. You pulled out your potions handbook that Freya had made for you and looked for what you needed.

It was only a few nights later that you showed up at Caleb’s doorstep, pizza and a two-liter in hand.

“Y/N,” he greeted with a touch of fondness and shock. “What brings you by?”

He stepped aside to let you in and you explained, “Well, I’ve been giving each of you guys gifts. Sort of a...well a thank you for all that you’ve done.”

“You don’t have to do that,” he assured. “We’re happy to take you in and look after you.”

You shrugged and nodded. “I know, but what kind of Beauchamp witch would I be if I didn’t graciously thank my new witch family?”

He grinned widely at you. All of the boys had gotten to know a lot about your family’s history -- what you could remember and what you’d been told. Not to mention, each of them inquired about you to their families that filled in the gaps as well.

“Fair enough. So my gift is pizza? I heard you gave Pogue an enchanted helmet…” he said with a raised eyebrow.

You laughed lightly. “I did. But no, the pizza isn’t your gift. Could you show me where your mom keeps the alcohol?”

Caleb hesitated for only a moment. He didn’t like people knowing about his mom, but with it being a small town, everyone knew. However, you were different. You’d been over to his house enough to know the problems that went on at home. You’d even been by several times to see his father, help with errands. You were just like the other boys, a part of the family. He didn’t keep things from you, and he even confided in you once about his mom’s alcoholism.

“Uh, sure,” he said uneasily. “What’s up?” he asked as he started to usher you into an ornate den.

“I have something that I think might help both of you.”

He showed you to a cabinet that was full of liquor bottles.

“This,” you said, holding up a small vial full of candy green liquid, “is a healing potion.” You uncorked one bottle and put a drop in, repeating the process as Caleb watched you. “So now, when your mom drinks, every drink will heal her. It won’t be addictive though. So she’ll feel better, but she won’t put together that the alcohol is doing it.”

“Damn. That’s pretty good,” he complimented.

“I know!” you boasted with a proud grin. “That’s my gift to you,” you assured, taking his hand and squeezing gently. “The other part of my gift is a night off from taking care of everyone. You and I are going to have a movie night, with pizza and drinks, alright?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he teased.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Forever Tag:

@cocosierra94

@essie1876

@magpiegirl80

@letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked

@iamwarrenspeace

@marvel-imagines-yes-please

@superwholocked527

@missinstantgratification

@thejemersoninferno

@rda1989

@munlis

@thefridgeismybestie

@bubblyanarocks3

@igiveupicantthinkofausername

@kaliforniacoastalteens

@feelmyroarrrr​

@kaeling

@friendlyneighbourhoodweirdo

@damalseer

@heyitscam99

@yknott81

@sorryimacrapwriter

@glitterquadricorn

@xxqueenofisolationxx

@little-dis-kaalista-pythonissama

@bittersweetunicorm

Sebastian Stan:

@nedthegay

@lostinspace33

@alwayshave-faith

@elleatrixlestrange

@buenostardissherlock

@lenawiinchester

@the-red-world-of-jess-chibi

@memory-of-a-goldfish

@shamptain-shmerica

@crazybutconfidentaf

@esoltis280

@alwayshave-faith

[some-cookie-crumbz]

Busines Ventures

Business Ventures Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Pairing: Kidge Summary: Originally intended as the Kedige Week Day 5 Prompt Fill: Competition. I really love watching American Ninja Warrior and could totally see all the cast members of Voltron participating. Standard Disclaimer: If you read and enjoy this, please give it a like/ reblog so I know if I should write more.

It had been Shiro’s suggestion that they compete nearly two years ago.

Keith had spent a decent amount of time watching and following American Ninja Warrior, but never been close enough to the big cities with actually participate. That year, however, he and Shiro had been on vacation in Los Angeles visiting with Matt Holt, Shiro’s college roommate, and the event was taking place while they were there. Matt had insisted that they all try to get in as a walk-ons, due to a promise he’d made his sister. Keith had been a bit hesitant to participate at first, but Shiro and Matt had both seemed pumped at the idea, so he opted in as well. They spent an entire day in line, but they got their chance to run the course.

And it was the thrill of a lifetime for Keith.

He and Shiro were two of the only walk-ons that made it all the way through the course, and Matt had fallen off at the spin cycle right before the warped wall. On top of that, Keith had the third fastest time of any competitor, earning him a huge amount of attention from not only the commentators but also the audience. He became a favorite as he accepted the offer to keep competing in that years run, and actually made it to the semi-finals. The next year, he managed to actually make it to Stage 3 of Mount Midoriyama in Japan.

Much like the greatest Ninjas before him, Keith ended up getting a nickname of his own; Cherry Bomb. The moniker came from the fact he’d worn all red when he did his walk-on run, and the fact he was such a speed demon. Matt had encouraged him to get a twitter and use the nickname as his handle so he could interact with other Ninjas and fans of his runs. It was kind of fun answering questions about things like his training schedule and the like. He also liked getting to talk to the other competitors’, as they often had really helpful advice to offer him.

And then he found out that the most recent American Ninja Warrior challenge was going to involve three-man teams going head to head.

He had figured he’d just pair off with Matt and Shiro, but then found out that the teams had to be one female competitor and two male. Matt and Shiro had formed a team with their friend, Allura, and Keith had no idea what he was going to do. He wasn’t particularly close with any other competitors, and most of them already had teams figured out. He had every intention of just bowing out until the next solo-run, when Matt had sent him a text stating nothing more than, “6933 N. Euclid Ave. 1pm. This Thursday.” At first, he thought Matt had mistexted him and sent one saying as much. Matt had responded by resending the previous text, only this time everything was capitalized.

So, because he was curious and didn’t have any gut feelings telling him otherwise, he headed to the specified location on the specified date.

It turned out to be a small deli shop, where you could buy the meat or also buy an actual sandwich made with freshly sliced cold cuts. “Cherry Bomb! Over here!” A voice called from one of the little booths along the wall opposite the door. He glanced over and slowly cocked his head at a grinning young woman, settled into the seat with a glass of soda in front of her and another glass across from her. “I hope a water is okay for now. I wasn’t sure what you’d want to drink.” She said once he reached the table.

He looked around for any familiar faces before looking back at the girl with a raised brow. “Do I know you?” He asked skeptically, lightly rapping his knuckles along the top of the table but hesitating from sitting down right away.

She flashed him a bright grin, cocking her head so that her side ponytail slid down along her shoulder. “I’m a friend of a friend, looking to strike a deal,” She mused.

The spark in her brown eyes spoke to him and he gasped quietly, slowly sliding into the vacant side of the booth. “Wait… I do know you. You’re Pidge, aren’t you?” He asked in surprise.

She beamed and leaned back, taking a smug sip of her drink. “Good call. Most people in the circuit haven’t been able to recognize me since it’s been three years since my last run on the course,” She mused.

“Well, your hair was short back then,” He commented with a small shrug. Pidge was the handle on one of the female competitors he’d seen before, but she hadn’t competed at all in the two years since he’d starting participating. He remembered watching her last run in the semi-finals, three years ago, where she ended up breaking her ankle and fracturing her foot when she miscalculated a dismount. Even still, she’d powered through that agonizing pain to scale the final obstacle, the warped wall, but had to forfeit out of attending the final round before Mount Midoriyama. After that, she went dark on the Ninja circuit and he hadn’t heard about whether or not she planned to return or not.

“Yeah, tends to get long with time,” She mused with a small shrug. She then leaned forward on the table, grin wide and curling a way that called to mind the Cheshire Cat. “Anyway, I heard you were planning on stepping out this time around. Mind if I ask why?”

He took a sip of his water and hummed quietly. “Well, I don’t really know anyone other than Shiro and Matt personally, so the idea of asking to join a team… I figured I’d offer to be an alternate for their team, just in case they need it,”

“Yeah, my brother mentioned that, but he didn’t seem to know if you’d be interested if there was a team looking,” She said. Keith cocked his head and did a double take then leaned back, the family resemblance finally shining through. It was more noticeable, he thought, when he called to mind what she’d looked like three years ago stand on top of the Warped Wall at the Las Vegas Qualifier, grinning and waving at the stands of on-lookers. “So… If I were hypothetically trying to get a team of my own together and was hypothetically thinking you’d be a great addition…” She trailed, watching him expectantly.

“You want me to join your team?” He asked.

“If you’re only backing out because you don’t have a team, then yes. If it’s more that you want to take a year off, though, I can respect that,”

“Do you already have another teammate signed on?”

“I have someone I’ve been talking to. You happen to know Lance McClain?”

“Unfortunately,” He groaned quietly. He remembered Lance for the previous year. McClain had gotten in through the qualifier in Miami and then spent the next two courses up on Keith’s heels. He was an awful mix of quick and tactile with the added traits of being boisterous and loud, leaving Keith feeling a bit smug when he managed to knock the other man out of the running by beating his completion time by a mere three seconds.

She laughed. “Hey, he’s a bit of a ham, but every team needs one, right? Plus he can keep up with you pretty well, so you’d probably work well with someone around to keep you both in check,”

“And what about you?” He asked with a small smirk, cupping his chin in one hand and leaning into it. She raised one brow and made a questioning noise. “You haven’t competed in three years.”

“May not have been competing, but I’ve been keeping up on my training. Plus, we have another six months for us all to get on the same page. We all live pretty close to each other so we should be able to start coordinating to start training together,” She explained with a dismissive wave of her hand.

He took another sip of his drink and stirred the ice with the straw. “Take it you picked us due to the proximity thing?”

“Not really; that just turned out to be a beneficial coincidence,” She laughed. She then shook her head and leaned forward, eyes bright. “I wanted to try and get the fastest, most skilled players in the game together. Back when I competed, I always had good times; I may be a bit on the short side, but that just makes me more aerodynamic. You and Lance are both about even in regards to speed, which’ll be a huge benefit since that means you two can practice through running against each other. Lance is good at figuring stuff out on the fly, coming up with a work-around when he needs to. Meanwhile, you’ve clearly got the experience and background to make any new challenge a breeze for you. You come from a background of free-running, track-and-field, and a few years of gymnastics, so you’ve got the physical ability and grounded mental state. I think that if the three of us work together we have a chance at taking the whole thing.”

He stared at her for a moment, at the large grin and excited eyes she was flashing him, and found himself smiling in turn. This girl was certainly strange, but she knew what she was talking about. He held out his hand to her. “The handle might be Cherry Bomb, but I prefer to just be called Keith,” He said.

Her grin somehow widened even further and she took his hand in hers excitedly, shaking like a madman. “It’s a pleasure! My name is Katie, but everyone just calls me Pidge,”

[rune-chaser]

OKAY 4 for lyric melody and carnelian, 20 for sybil and 40 for raiiza!

WAHOOOOOO THANK YOU THANK YOU AGAIN!

4: What relationship does your character have with their parents and siblings?

Lyric: THINGS HAVE GOTTEN....... COMPLICATED. Lyric’s entire family has since passed, due to unfortunate circumstances. BUT BEFORE ALL THAT. Lyric got along fairly well with their fam! Not EVERYONE because when you have like 20 other siblings shit gets crazy but! They managed! Lyric was closest with their twin sister Melody! They were both born from the same egg and well! were inseparable ever since! Lyric was raised well by their parents given they were some of the older siblings, but had a small amount of distance once their other siblings came along! They never held anything against them for that though!

Melody: WELL! She’s the twin sister of Lyric! She always admired her sibling for challenging most of what their family did (bards/performers and the like!) And Were always very close. Even set off from their small home town together! Melody was fussed over a lot in the family by siblings and parents alike. She was always very very sick as a child, and it stuck around with her when she grew up, even though she eventually got... semi-okay. She’d still have spells of sickness and such but! She appreciated the worry, but always did feel she was holding people back.

Carnelian: WELL HER RELATIONSHIP WITH HER PARENTS WAS ALRIGHT- A little rough given her rebellious nature, she or her twin brother Jasper were SUPPOSED to take over the Flint family business, which is very well known and respected in Draconia! But Nel never wanted to be in business and Jasper also wanted to pursue a more academic path! So she had a bit of a rocky relationship with them for awhile, and didn’t get MUCH better when she jumped into a marriage with a Military Leader, named Jacob. AND DUE TO EVENTS HER PARENTS NOW THINK SHE IS DEAD. WHOOPS! Her relationship with her twin brother is they’re very close! They have a lot of squabbles, Nel often makes fun of the fact that her brother needs glasses and she doesn’t. Call him a Nerd, and generally antagonize him, but in a loving way. She knows he has her back if needed, and she’ll always have his if he asks. I mean after all! You can’t just ask ANY sibling to help you fake your death, now can you?

20: What is the biggest mistake your character has ever made?

Sybil: OH, MAN. DEFFINATELY CASTING DARKNESS ON THOSE VILLAGERS. THEY WOULD DEFFINATELY SAY CASTING DARKNESS ON THOSE VILLAGERS. Before that it would have been letting their friends go into the woods during Mid-summer. BUT NO ONE TECHNICALLY DIED DURING THAT. A LOT OF PEOPLE DIED WHEN THEY CAST THAT SPELL.

40: Where does your character feel the most at home?

Raziia: OOF THIS IS A ROUGH ONE. Raziia felt most at home with Kalim and Wren, but, when they were gone, she had a hard time feeling that, and never really has since. She never felt at home with her birth parents, and never let someone get close to her after Kalim and Wren went missing. Until she met the party, then a select few she allowed to try and get to know her. The second closest, probably was during a calm snowy day in winter, with no wind, and the snow was just falling in the pine forest she was in, looking around it was just her, no enemies, no monsters, no parents. And she felt that, for the first time in a while, she could breathe.

[s-o-n-de-r]

Feminism & self-realization: Party Nails reflects on a roller coaster 2017 and touring with women

It’s January 2018. I’m prepping for a two-day Ableton workshop I taught in Los Angeles the next week. 

I’m writing blog posts for SoundGirls.org. Last fall I toured with PVRIS and Lights, this winter I released a new single and video, and I’m working on a full-length record to release this spring. I’m adding new designs to my merch line and new songs to my set list. I just announced local shows and will be announcing a new tour soon. I’m working my dream job (jobs). However you want to say it.

A year ago, I wanted to quit.

I was sick with a cold all of January 2017. I was working double shifts three times a week at two different restaurants, working normal shifts the other days, incorporating new songs into my Ableton Live set, running rehearsals, adding finishing touches to my forthcoming EP, and setting up a record release party for the first week of February. I was also in a legal battle with a small publisher who had refused to support me and was now refusing to let me go. Every morning I’d wake up with a jolt, even with the cold and often having worked for 12 hours the night before. My legs were in constant pain from standing up at work, and I was losing weight from skipping meals due to double shifts and understaffed workplaces.

I knew it was essential to have some merch for my release party – through merch, I could raise a little extra money so I wouldn’t have to work so many doubles, and I could spread the word about my music. However, literally all of my money was going to my bills and my publicist. After considering asking a friend to borrow money, I decided to run a Kickstarter. I kept my goal low as I was deathly afraid of not meeting it, and not meeting it meant I wouldn’t have any merch at all. I raised $1200 in two weeks from a small pool of fans, friends and family. I had just enough time to get the shirts printed. On a whim I’d also decided to get eight pairs of unisex underwear with PARTY NAILS printed on the bum.

Even though it was exciting to have these items in my hands, I had no idea if anyone would actually like them, let alone buy them.

I called, texted and emailed everyone I knew who might come out. It was embarrassing at times. I’d been playing shows around LA for two years (and playing my own songs in New York for a decade before that) and wasn’t nearly as buzzy as some of the buzzy bands I’d recently shared bills with. How could someone keep trying at something that clearly wasn’t ever going to happen? “I suck. I must have always sucked,” I thought to myself.

The release party actually went really well. The venue, Bardot, did a great job of pairing me with other artists who drew their own crowds. People I reached out to showed up, including fans who had been around since day one (there were only a handful, but it meant the world to me to see them)! My friend Zoe Zoe stood in the front directly in front of me, cheering me on. T-shirts were sold. Photos were taken in the Party Nails-themed photo booth my friend built for the occasion. The underwear were a hit.

The next week my management said I needed to get started on a new record right away. My immediate reaction was, “Already!? But I just released a record!! Isn’t that enough?” (I mean, yes. But also no. Because making records is incredibly time consuming. Because good songs are hard to write. Because working on a waitress’s income with no additional financial support is extremely challenging.) Another blow was that no one wanted to sync my new music (put it in commercials, TV shows, etc.) because there were too many publishers with whom to clear. This made me angry because a big reason I’d been okay with co-writes to begin with was that it meant that more people would feel invested in the songs’ success. Ninety percent of the songs on Top 40 radio have more than one writer and producer—some have more than 10! But I wasn’t well-known, which meant that multiple writers was actually a disadvantage.

Even though I didn’t want to keep working like a dog carrying smoothies and spilling hot sauce down my front every damn day, I had no choice if I wanted to keep making music and growing my fanbase.

The next months were full of tears, anxiety attacks, songwriting in my bedroom in the middle of the night, writing out the pros and cons of quitting, therapy, creative breakthroughs, cancelling social engagements because I couldn’t deal with seeing people, and many, many calls with my close friends, who became my creative and emotional cheerleaders.

Lynn Gunn of the band PVRIS had come to my EP release show with a mutual friend of ours. I had met her once before on FaceTime, but I didn’t know her well at all. I admired her a lot and was honored that she had come. We had started discussing the possibility of Party Nails joining PVRIS on their next tour, which was a dream come true for me. I felt totally insane for even entertaining the idea that a tour like this would come through.

I decided I wanted to try a new setup for my shows. I was tired of feeling drained. I was tired of being a “singer” and having people ask my guitar player about how the songs got made. I didn’t want to make the mistake of trying to “prove” myself, but I felt like something wasn’t clicking.

I’d been wanting to redesign my live set so I could interact with it more, and after a friend lent me his Ableton Push, I had what I’d been wanting to use to do just that. Jordan, who I’d met when she was interning at the studio where I made my EP, had mentioned in passing that she would be down to play bass for Party Nails whenever I needed someone. So I decided to take her up on that offer, and we promptly started rehearsals. My previous live setup had been drums, bass, guitar (all played by males) and me singing. This new setup would be Jordan on bass and me singing, playing guitar, and interacting with the Ableton Push. We would incorporate live drums at a later point, but for now they were electronic and part of my rig.

We had so much fun playing our first show, which was at Tenants of the Trees during their monthly party, Mereki’s Clubhouse. I LOVED being on stage with another woman. I had played with girl friends before, but when I was much younger and not in a professional setting. So I’d never thought much about it. But it was impossible to ignore how different my energy felt. I no longer felt that I needed to worry about how the rest of my band felt while we were on stage, in rehearsal, setting up, etc. I felt like Jordan was in her own bubble and I was in mine, and sometimes these bubbles converged and sometimes they did not. I felt like whatever energy I brought to the stage, she amplified. It clicked. (Also, we listened to Katy Perry on the way to soundcheck, which I hadn’t done with my previous bandmates and meant a lot to me.)

When the tour with PVRIS was confirmed, she agreed to come along as my bass player. She was already friends with Lynn which meant that there was a guaranteed amount of good times to be had! I hired a drummer who I met at one of my restaurant jobs. We programmed his electronic drum pads to incorporate the sounds he’d need, played a few shows at home to sort out the kinks, and we were ready to go. (I definitely spent a lot of time worrying about my tour budget, but I’ll spare you the details because they are boring and I think you already get the picture: there wasn’t a tour budget.)

Three shows into our 10-show run, I got a message from a fan who told me about an interaction she’d had with my drummer: He had been inappropriate with her. Since this first notification, many others told me similar stories, during and after the tour. I detail how we went about sending him home immediately in this blog post for SoundGirls.org.

Every day on tour I watched Lynn work her ass off. PVRIS’ stage set up was huge and complex—it took up a whole semi-truck when it was all broken down! She was consistent in her banter, her singing and playing, her look, and the stories she told through video screens on stage. She and her bandmates respected each other. Taking in their live show, I was in awe of their band. A female-fronted and executive-produced act with kind and inclusive fans, on the road supporting their newest record. It all came from her and her desire to create. It was so exciting to me.

Lights exercised backstage, and took care of her daughter, Rocket, with the help of her mother who came out with them. She made the balance look easy. Every soundcheck she did, she sounded like her records. Her voice is a powerhouse at every moment. Her live band were so sweet – Brody lent me his guitar one night when mine was having issues.

The front of house engineer was a woman by the name of Karen, who was doing double duty as engineer and Lights’ tour manager. Lights’ and PVRIS’ merch people were both women. PVRIS’ tour manager was a woman by the name of Lisa, who’d managed Vans Warped Tour (among other things) for many years. We were surrounded by women in music. I didn’t have another big tour to compare it to, but one of the production managers (who was a man) said that it was very different to work with female bosses. It was less dramatic, kinder, and more organized, he said. It set the bar very high for myself, Jordan, and our photographer/tour manager Naz (also a woman).

Every night toward the end of our set, I would tell the audience I would be at the merch table and would love to meet them. And every night there was a line waiting for me when I got there – teens, grownups, parents and their kids, and older couples with their partners.

“You inspire me to be trust myself more.”

“You make me feel powerful.”

“Thank you for existing.”

I was so grateful for the support, and I felt an almost maternal instinct coming on. These were real people with real lives and feelings, and they now were going to watch me. What could I do to support them? It was very easy for me to commit, then and there, to provide love and kindness through my actions and interactions, and a sense of empowerment through songwriting and performance. I will never break this commitment.

We got back to LA just as the Harvey Weinstein stories were breaking. Every day there was another woman stepping forward and outing a man who’d abused his power and sexualized the women around him. I hoped that our drummer was learning by association.

In October, in my home studio, I set out to keep working on new music. I felt different than I had the prior October when I was struggling to finish my first EP. Then I had been tied up in a bad publishing contract, I was surrounded by men who were a generation older than me, and I was finding footing and compromising and being called bossy and crazy even by people who loved me. (Sexism is insidious.) This October was different. All of that messiness was behind me. I had toured with my stage design and my songs, and I had been rewarded with something I’d been wanting my whole life: an audience.

This past October and November, I also taught a Beats by Girlz class in West Lake, Los Angeles. I told my students, all teenage girls, about my experience on the road with female-fronted bands and a mostly female crew. I told them why Beats By Girlz was a music production class for girls and non-binary youth only.

“Music and audio, like many other fields, is still male-dominated. Beats by Girlz was formed to provide a safe and nurturing space for girls and non-binary youth to learn the skills they need to work in music and audio.”

This statement of mine was met with indifference in our first class. At first I was actually impressed with how much these girls didn’t care what boys thought. Tech is cool. I know what beats I like. I can do whatever I want. Show me what you know.

But. It’s not what women think and want that is the issue. The issue is what it is like for women to do these things when they are surrounded by only men.

Over the course of our class, I watched my students develop a sense of curiosity and confidence that was (unfortunately) not matched by the girls who were in the co-ed music production class.

That is why Beats By Girlz matters. That is why hiring women matters.

Think of all the stories and love that could be created by allowing more women to grow, fully and completely. Think of the work that could be done and art that could be made, if it from a place of comfort instead of anxiety. Think of all of people who don’t get to work with people that look like them, talk like them, engage with life like them. Think of what a drain it is to constantly be the “Other.” Think of the cruelty that is refusing to see that journey.

I see the journey, and like other tragedies of our society, it breaks my heart. But I am happy because this year provided me with the tools, materials, and audience to engage with that journey in the best ways I can: as a musician, as a teacher, and as a writer. I want to keep creating fun songs. I want to keep them fun and emotional, and real. I want to keep working toward a career of producing and writing, not just writing and singing. I want to encourage other non-male musicians around me to develop the skills they are interested in, even if those skills are currently male-oriented. I want to keep playing with women and hiring women. I want to keep working with men who don’t make things harder for the non-men around them. I want to be someone my fans can trust and look up to, and who gives back through teaching and writing. I want to talk about music, about sex, about being a responsible person. I want to take bigger and bigger risks as an artist, to tell stories that will heal, excite, relieve, and move people.

I don’t love how news becomes clickbait and how real stories need to be edited down to headlines that grab peoples’ attentions. I don’t like how money comes before responsibility and how a story doesn’t matter unless it sells. I don’t like how we don’t want to know the truth sometimes. But I’m grateful that the stories – the journeys – of women and non-binary people are now something we want more than ever. My broken heart is humbled to be alive and able to contribute to that in some way.

—

This special guest post was written by Party Nails’ Elana Carroll for sonder. We’d like to thank Elana for taking the time to write about such relevant and personal topics. Photos were taken by sonder editor Andrew Friedgen and sonder contributor Amanda Iglesias.  Like this? Sonder is an independent music, travel and photography publication at sonderlife.com. Give us a follow here or at our Twitter, Instagram or Facebook if you like this!

Also check out:

Our 2017 feature on Party Nails 

Our index of every band we’ve photographed

Photos from PVRIS’ fall headlining tour that Party Nails performed on