#where it Could have had a 'romantic tint' but ultimately definitely does not

[arisenreborn]

I got Brant from @soloavengers for the character thoughts prompt, thank youuu! <3<3<3

1. What my Arisen thinks of them -

Reverie is admittedly a little intimidated by him, especially when she first meets him. Being called 'Your Majesty' and all of that is... oof, it's a lot. She'd think it was a joke if he wasn't so serious (and did definitely give an awkward laugh the first time he said it, only to stop equally awkwardly when he just stared back at her). But she's ultimately inspired by his dedication and desire to serve the people of Vermund, and it's really nice having someone so reliable she can... yanno, rely on. He's one of the first catalysts that gets her moving in the 'right direction', and in some ways is a bit formative for someone with no memories to call her own. Though she's naturally inclined to help, she takes in a bit of his dutifulness of his. Gradually, she hopes to live up to at least some of his expectations. She does lowkey worry that he doesn't have enough time to relax and unwind. Like, sure he's at the tavern a lot, but is he actually using that time to chill at all when he's still in his armor?

2. What my Pawn thinks of them -

Rann is slightly more guarded about the captain, but that's mostly out of his watchfulness over Reverie. At the start of things he doesn't have the entire picture, but a clearer one that she does, so he takes it upon himself to consider things like: anyone with close ties to the palace could possibly betray her like they did before. Those thoughts are pretty swiftly dismissed though, and he is mostly relieved Reverie does have a true and staunch ally she can rely upon beyond the pawns. He takes a certain measure of pride in such an honorable man supporting her. On the nights where they meet with him, he sometimes get an uncomfortable twinge in his chest watching them huddled close over the table, voices low and unheard across the din of the tavern. Something about the way the captain calls her 'Your Majesty' tugs at him, but he can't place why...

3. What they think of my Arisen -

At the initial announcement of the Arisen's arrival, there's a sense of relief and pride. It's not until later when he meets her post-memory curse that a tinge of concern mixes in there. Without all of those burn scars, he did some research into her history, and finding connections to a guild of thieves was more than a little worrying. But her kindhearted nature and insistence on helping others shone through any of those concerns. To the point he has a whole new set of worries about their Sovran perishing before she's even been crowned. Of course, there's not much that can be done for it given the circumstances, so he can only trust in her abilities. He believes she's a little naive and her memory loss is a great potential danger, but endeavors to cover for these possible risks. His loyalty to the laws of Vermund and the seat of the Sovran were one thing, but by the end his loyalty to Reverie as a person, who has overcome many odds and risked herself for others time and time again, is even greater.

4. What they think of my Pawn -

Initially he regards Rann the same as any other Pawn: with the respect due to those of such unwavering loyalty to the Arisen, but it doesn't go much deeper than that. Getting glimpses of just how much Rann supports Reverie, however, he does feel of a sense of deeply owed gratitude. The Arisen should be leading armies to face the Dragon, not skulking around untangling Disa's plots after all, having to scrounge for coin and food. In some ways he's almost envious of the pawn, being so close and serving her so openly. I think while he's very perceptive he's honestly a bit clueless about just how deep that bond between them goes later on.

Bonus: An extra headcanon I have about them -

It might not be especially ground-breaking but I do think once the armor is set aside, Brant is a big teddy bear and would make an excellent cuddler. He also has frighteningly high alcohol tolerance.

[marveldc-imagines-hub]

That One Valentine’s Day Special (Captions)

Anon said: “Hello!! I saw that your wandavision requests are open and I had to request something! I’m so obsessed with Vis right now, it’s very bad. I can’t think of any specific plot ideas, all I know is that I would really love to see some fluffy Vision just head over heals in love with reader. Kisses, cuddles, all that jazz. Thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️”

Anon said: “maybe a request where it’s valentines and the reader and Wanda team up to get really dressed up and make an amazing dinner to surprise Vision, but when he comes home and sees them both he’s so flustered that either like has a shutdown or faints? And then obviously Wanda and the reader panic and spend the evening taking care of him and also teasing him for being so adorable/fainting? Thank you!!!”

A/N: Combined aspects from both of these requests to make an ooey gooey Valentine’s Day special (which got belated because I lost half of the writing when I transferred it from doc to Tumblr post :’D)!

Don’t think this is the type of dressed up you meant but I hope you like it, either way! The type of nightwear I was going for with Wanda was something like this.

Subtitles/Captions Masterlist

Tip Jar

Word count: 7,117

Warnings: Valentine’s Day sap. Lingerie, passionate kissing, and everyone being flirty (nothing graphic). Reader makes a really, really, just terrible pun in order to compliment Wanda. This was edited very late at night, so there might be a few errors.

Tag list: @cyanide-mustard @badasspolygenderfriend (These were the only two on the tag list who confirmed that they wanted to be tagged in everything WandaVision-related; if anyone else on the Subtitles list does, just let me know!)

~~~

“Hey, Wanda?” You hollered to the woman in the other room. You were standing in front of the mirror in the Maximoff bathroom, adjusting the collar of the somewhat too-big shirt you wore.

“Yes, dear?” Your girlfriend hollered back from a couple of rooms away.

“While I definitely get the why we’re doing this,” you continued, tugging the shirt’s shoulders farther to one side, then back to the other, before giving up and moving onto your hair, “with Valentine’s Day and all, you know--”

Wanda piped up, probably to assure you that she was listening more than anything, “Yes, I do.”

You snorted. “--but is there a reason we’re doing so… much?” 

As you spoke, you ran your hands through your hair, ruffling it to give it a bedhead type of look. You faltered a bit when your eyes settled on the ugly scar on your forehead that your hair couldn’t cover without being in a bizarre style. You frowned and dug a finger into the scar tissue, feeling very little other than mild pressure when you did so. 

There was a pause on Wanda’s end. “You don’t think he deserves it, working so hard this past week?”

You reeled back, insecurity forgotten, and quickly left the bathroom. You walked down the hall to where Wanda was working on her own outfit in the bedroom she shared with Vision, rambling away, “No, no, no! I mean no as in no, you’re wrong, not as in he doesn’t deserve what we’re doing. Of course, he does! To be completely honest, he probably deserves it more than anyone in town--aside from yourself, of course--but… For example, we did a lot revolving around food and… Vis doesn’t eat.”

There was another pause and you halted by the closed bedroom door, mainly to pick a rose petal from where it stuck itself to the bottom of your stockinged foot but also because you didn’t want to walk in on your partner.

“But Valentine’s Day revolves around food quite a bit, doesn’t it?” Wanda said from the other side of the door. At this point in your relationship, you could pick up pretty easily how Wanda was feeling by her tone of voice. She spoke thoughtfully, which wasn’t all that concerning, but there was a certain edge to her voice that made you worried; she was going to start overthinking and scrapping the entire idea if you didn’t interfere soon. 

You tilted your head from one side to the other while considering her statement before giving a nod she couldn’t see and responding, “I suppose you’re right there. Lots of holidays do, now that I think about it. Thanksgiving? Turkey. Easter? Candy. Christmas? Just… food in general.”

You glanced around as you spoke. You couldn’t see much of the house from where you stood in the hallway but you knew what to expect when you walked to the main part of the house. All of the house’s lights were off, save for a few lamps that washed the house with what would have been a low, cozy, get-comfortable-before-bed sort of light if Wanda hadn’t used her powers to turn the lightbulbs in said lamps from yellow to a red; because of this change, the dim light gave off a much more romantic energy that fit with the rest of your and Wanda’s decorating. Red, pink, and white rose petals were scattered all across the floor, starting from the front were, where Vision would be when he walked in after work and making a trail to different rooms of the house. One path led to the kitchen and dining area, where you and Wanda had spent a good part of the day preparing various sweet, Valentine’s Day- and romance-themed treats plus dinner and setting up the table with candles and flowers and a pink tablecloth that matched the pink rose petals. Another led to the living room, which was decorated in a similar nature. Thanks to Wanda’s ability to conjure, she was able to quickly clean up the area that was usually hidden under a mess of baby equipment, change the color of the throw pillows and blankets to the correct red and pink theme, and even had “floating” heart decorations that danced across the ceiling on transparent strings; the babies themselves were gone for the night, safe under Agnes’s care once she and you had been able to convince Wanda. Finally, a rose path, accompanied by ceiling hearts, led down the hallway until it made a fading stop at where were you currently stood, leaning next to the bedroom door. The bedroom itself wasn’t decorated and neither of you had really talked about the assumptions that could be made from looking at the trail, but what you had discussed was how many romantic movies Wanda was going to project onto one of the walls after dinner while cuddling would most certainly take place on the couch.

The third path was mainly to guide you down the hallway while Wanda greeted Vision from the kitchen. It was also to lead Vision to go change into his own set of comfy pajamas when you and Wanda would ultimately have to push him to do so after him grumbling about too tired to do so.

Poor thing, you thought while pushing yourself away from the wall. 

Being the company’s fastest and best worker, Vision had become victim to Mr. Hart doubling his workload and as a result, the gentleman had been working like a dog for the entire past week. His days had consisted of getting up way too early only to go into work and be worked to the bone, then come home and relieve Wanda of the babies--regardless of her assuring him that she’d be fine while he rested--until he passed out on the couch sometime later into the night. You’d been surprised, after learning of his synthezoid identity, that he’d need to sleep at all but you supposed anyone would need to recharge after a day like that.

You, on the other hand, had racked up some vacation days and, after a chat with Wanda about the upcoming romantic holiday, decided to add an extra day to your weekend so the two of you could do something nice for her husband. You’d probably regret this on Monday but for now, you were just happy to have spent the day working with Wanda and were hoping the rest of the night went well. 

Speaking of the woman, Wanda had been quiet for some time now, other than the sounds of rustling fabric. You decided now was a good time as any to get involved before she decided that she should do something completely different and cause all the previous work to go to waste, so you knocked. After getting a verbal invitation, you strolled in, only for a sharp inhale to almost propel you back to slam into the doorframe.

Wanda was standing in front of a full-length mirror against the far wall of the bedroom, anxiously fiddling with what little clothing she had on. She wore what looked like a bathing suit but was made out of a sheer, body-hugging, baby pink fabric and embellished with a subtle pattern of roses. Her back was turned to you but you could see from the mirror’s reflection that the piece still left plenty to the imagination with a more opaque version of the same fabric keeping her chest, the bit of fabric held snugly between her thighs, and even an upsidedown V-shaped panel that was framed by silky white bands and reached from the middle of her torso to the lower part of her hips covered. This lovely piece, clothing an even lovelier woman, was paired with similarly colored stockings of the same fabric, minus the rose pattern, and you were both surprised and amused by the addition of a string of pink pearls around her neck and one wrist with matching earrings and a pair of white low heels with a bow on the toe strap. Wanda’s hair was styled in loosely curled waves, making it look shorter than it actually was, and pushed back with a headband that could be mistaken for a minimal tiara, which was also embellished with pink-tinted pearls.

You knew that you were staring, flushed, and with eyes almost bulging out of their sockets--you knew only because you could catch part of your own reflection in the mirror, not because you could feel anything other than goosebumps-inducing tingles travel across your body--but it took Wanda laughing softly and catching your eye in the mirror to pull your slacked jaw off the floor and close your suddenly dry mouth. You eventually also tried to speak but not much other than a stammering “Uhhh…” came out and you gave up, instead choosing to scrub your hands over your face so you would at least look away.

Then Wanda dared to ask, “So, do I look okay?”

You stared at her again but this time it was one of disbelief. “I’m sorry, what?”

Wanda rolled her eyes and chuckled again at your utter belief before nervously running her hands down along a perfect set of curves. You fully believed she had no intention of torturing you by doing so but here she was, doing just that. If it hadn’t been for the awkward look on her face, makeup-free except for light lipstick and a little mascara, your gaze probably would have stayed with the path her hands made over her stomach and down to rest on her hips. You watched her gaze jump worriedly from one part of her body to the other instead.

“Look,” she continued, “I know I look okay, I know I look fine--”

Fine? Only fine? If Wanda asked you to strip naked and run through Westview while screaming her praises, you would do so without a second thought. Well, you probably would have done it regardless of what she was wearing but you wouldn’t be complaining about the extra bit of help.

“--but ever since the twins were born, I feel a little… hmph… wearing something like this.”

While you couldn’t possibly fathom how she could see herself as anything but one of the most beautiful living creatures ever, but you’d also figured out quite a while ago that she didn’t exactly see herself the same way you did. You chewed the inside of your cheek a bit before walking over and wrapping your arms around her; her own hands settled to rest on top of yours. You rested your chin on her shoulder and met her gaze in the mirror one last time.

“I suppose even goddesses have their insecure days, huh?”

Wanda laughed and rolled her eyes so hard you were vaguely worried about them rolling back into her skull. She lightly slapped your arms but still leaned back into your embrace as she scoffed, “Be quiet.”

“Wanda,” you said, “you had kids. You still look great. You look so good. So, so, so good. Insanely good. Earth-shakingly good. So pretty. Very gorgeous. Amazingly foxy. Incredibly stellar. Your mom body? Could demolish Aphrodite in a beauty pageant.”

You rambled on a bit longer before Wanda was smacking your arms again. She looked more at ease now, though, completely relaxed in your arms with her head leaning into the crook of your shoulder and one ankle loosely crossed over the other. 

“Mom body.” She snorted. “Please, enlighten me further about this mom body I have.”

You quickly shook your head and gave her reflection a warning look. “Can’t. If I say much more, it’ll upset the gods. Every single one of them. I’ll be thrown into the pits for all the sinful things I’d have said.”

Wanda’s head fell back as she laughed again; you felt the tickle of her hair against your exposed neck as you grinned against her shoulder. When she settled again, you gave her a serious look, moved your lips to kiss the shell of her ear, then muttered, “But let’s just say you’re a foxy mama in absolutely every sense of the word.”

The woman in your arms erupted with laughter once more, though this time it was short and accompanied by a gentle slap to the cheek. Then her hand rested there, holding your head close as she leaned her forehead partially against yours. 

“You and my husband,” she said with a little shake of her head, “and those ridiculous puns of yours.”

    You nodded slightly in agreement, then tilted your head to peck her cheek. “That one really was just…”

    “Awful?”

    “Yeah, no, not good.” You chuckled and reached a hand up to poke her cheek. “Made ya smile though.”

    Wanda hummed, squinting at herself in the mirror, then huffed. “I suppose.”

    There were a few moments of the two of you just holding each other and soaking up each other’s presence.

    Then Wanda just had to ask again, “Do you really think I look okay?”

    It was your turn to roll your eyes. “Wanda! You’re so pretty! You’re so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so--”

    “You tell me I’m pretty all the time,” she pointed out.

    “I have yet to be wrong,” you countered.

    She looked herself over again. Tilting her head and glancing up at you from under her lashes, she said, “You could call me sexy.”

    “I could,” you agreed, “Don’t want to make you uncomfortable though.”

    Wanda raised a brow. “Did I not just say you could?”

    You snorted. “Was my foxy mama joke not enough? Do you know what havoc me doing so would release onto the world? Would you want the gods to reject me because of my filthy language?” You leaned your head into her neck while keeping your eyes on hers. You waggled your eyebrows and lowered your voice. “‘Cause I’ll do it.”

    Wanda made a face at you, scrunching up her nose and pursing her lips in the special, incredibly cute way that only she could. Then she smiled and ruffled your hair slightly. “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind you calling me sexy once.”

    “Oh, nay,” you insisted, “if it happens once, it shall happen a million types! An unholy, unhinged, affectionate monster shall be released from its mortal prison!”

    Wanda hummed thoughtfully and made a show of tapping her chin and tilting her head. “Okay, deal.”

    You rolled your eyes and smiled. Giving her cheek another quick smooch, you said simply back, “‘Kay, you’re sexy.”

    She smiled back at you and did a single clap. “Yay.”

    “And, hey,” you said, tapping the scar on your forehead, “even if you weren’t a level of beauty that matched an immortal otherworldly being--impossible--at least you don’t have a scar on your face.”

    You saw Wanda’s gaze soften in the mirror before she twisted around in your arms to face you. She gently took your face in her hands and your eyes fluttered shut as she leaned up to kiss you directly on said scar.

    “I like the scars,” she said softly, “It means you survived something, even if you don’t know what it was, and I’m happy that you did.”

    Your eyes blinked back open. “Why?”

    “You wouldn’t be here for me otherwise.” 

    You huffed out a little breath, somewhat involuntarily, and were suddenly very aware of the fact that you two were practically tangled around each other now. You squished your nose against hers in a nuzzle and said in a lower tone, “Lucky you then.”

    She dropped her hands from your face to wrap her arms around your neck. She matched your tone and bumped her nose back against yours, tilting her head a bit. “Very lucky.”

    It was almost like a mutual decision when your lips crashed against each other. 

Having been prone to the feeling of floaty dizziness as a result of your migraines, the feeling itself wasn’t particularly jarring. What replaced the usual undercurrent of pulsing pain, however, was what made this dizziness feel heavenly instead of hellish. When you kissed Wanda, it was like immediate intoxication but instead of booze, it was the taste of the gloss on her lips and the strawberry flavor that still lingered on her tongue from your cooking session earlier that day and the mix of citrusy sweetness from her perfume and shampoo that made you think of candied orange slices whenever you inhaled. You’d always be too busy to mentally describe it while in the moment, far too concentrated on committing whatever part of Wanda’s body that you were touching to memory via your grazing fingertips and adding new scents, words, feelings, images, and whatever else to the catalog of things that reminded you of her in your head, but when you thought about the love-drunk dizziness that followed the initial intoxication after the fact, you equated it to being a little tipsy and stumbling into a warm home. Only this time, home was a woman whose arms and mouth kept drawing you back for one more kiss, and then five more, and the thing that made you tipsy was the way the air crackled with invisible electricity and magic, and the look in her eyes when your eyes fluttered open after parting. 

While time seemed to slow to a stop during your and Wanda’s moment, it hadn’t actually done so at all. This was proven when you heard the front door begin to open, causing you and Wanda to practically leap away from each other. She stared at you with wide, startled eyes and you couldn’t help but note your handiwork; her entire face and neck were flushed a deep red, her hair was significantly messier than it had been previously, that the lip color she’d been wearing had been partially transferred to your mouth.

The admiration could only last a moment. “You’re supposed to be in the kitchen.”

“I’m supposed to be in the kitchen,” Wanda repeated. “My lipstick is all over your face.”

You brushed a thumb over your bottom lip and it came away with a glossy pink. “Your lipstick is on my face.”

Wanda stood in front of you, suddenly frozen except for flitting eyes and hands grasping at the air while she tried to think of something. Then, with a couple of snaps of her fingers, she remembered her magic a moment later. “Oh, I can just-- You look amazing, the shirt’s a nice touch. See you out there!” She snapped once more and disappeared in a puff of red smoke just as you heard the front door swing open and Vision’s voice drifted down the hallway.

“Darling, I’m ho-- Oh.”

Then Wanda’s voice also bounced back your way from where she was probably now perched in the kitchen. Her tone was one part frazzled, two parts cheery, and five parts flirty teasing as she spoke. “Hiya, honey! Whaddya think?”

You drew your attention from their voices to the mirror that you now stood in directly in front of. The outfit you wore wasn’t nearly as polished as Wanda’s, but it had its intimate charm. While the two of you both wore stockings, that was where the similarities stopped. Your stockings were a sheer brownish-black and you wore no form of shoes with them nor any other accessories aside from your lightly ruffled mess of hair. In contrast to Wanda’s overall body-shaping attire, the pair of high-waisted silky shorts that you wore were flowy and loose, and instead of the shorts’ matching tank top with uncomfortable lace straps, you wore one of Vision’s pajama shirts that was a similar shade of red with vertical yellow and dark brown stripes. Posing a couple of different ways for yourself in the mirror, you were pleased to find the red and yellow were an almost match to Vision’s skin and the glowing gem in his forehead; with a little more pondering, you were a tad upset that the shirt you were wearing had yellow stripes instead of yellow spots.

If it had spots, you thought, I could look like a strawberry with a thigh-high chocolate dip.

Pleased with your look otherwise, you aimlessly moved about the bedroom before hovering around the doorway where you could almost make out the rest of Vision and Wanda’s conversation. The plan in place was that Wanda was going to give Vision the itinerary for the night--gifts and cards, dinner, because there was food to be eaten whether Vision ate any or not, an indoor movie theater that Wanda would magically whip up, and the rest of the night spent in romantic snuggling bliss--and then would give you a cue. When the actual process of getting the gifts came about, you were to bring said items to the living room, being somewhat of a surprise gift for Vision in your own right. You glanced towards the bed, where a white clothing box wrapped in a red ribbon sat with a trio of cards, one each from you and Wanda and one Wanda had made on behalf of the twins, who were still too young to do much on their own.

You couldn’t be sure whether it was because Wanda had slipped up and mentioned you--it was much harder to hear them from the other part of the house after their loud introductions finished--or if Vision, clever and curious man that he was, had caught on to your and Wanda’s plan already and decided to uncover it ahead of time. Either way, you suddenly caught a glimpse of Vision turning down the hallway, hovering a few inches off the ground to probably preserve the rose petal trail underneath his feet, and jumped away from the doorway before he could see you. While you couldn’t quite make out what Wanda was saying, you could hear a slight strain in her voice as she tried to get Vision to back down from his cause, to no avail. You only had a few moments to think of something and you decided to hop onto the bed and get comfortable in a casual sitting position, moving the small stack of Valentine’s Day goodies and looking coolly off to the side just before Vision floated into the room.

The soft thud of Vision landing on his feet your attention back over to the doorway and you saw him standing there rigid in his work suit, his gaze roaming over you before respectfully glancing away--only to be slowly dragged back less than a minute later. After watching this process continue a couple more times, you decided to tease him.

“Oh, hey there, crimson toaster oven,” you quipped nonchalantly, reaching up to toy with a stray piece of hair as you did, “how was work?”

Vision’s eyes settled on yours as you watched him with a cocked head. You expected some sort of reply, and for a moment he seemed like he was about to speak. Instead, though, he settled into an almost completely frozen state, jaw clenching slightly.

At first, you were amused. Then you realized he was quite literally frozen, nothing moving aside from the whirling of gear-like shapes in his irises, and your facade broke down a bit.

“Vis?” you questioned, sitting up straighter and moving the Valentine’s Day gifts aside, “you okay?”

No response.

You frowned and got up to walk over to him. “Um, Wanda?”

The Sokovian woman appeared a moment later shimmying around Vision’s form to stand next to you.

“Is he okay?” you asked.

“Oh, dear,” Wanda murmured. You watched as her gaze turned red and she looked him over, using her powers to check that his internal functions were still working properly. Eventually, her gaze stopped at his face and after squinting at him, Wanda said, “Ah. [Y/N], it appears we broke him.”

“I’m sorry?” you choked, “Broke him?”

Wanda seemed much less worried than you felt about the implications of Vision being some form of broken. She instead smiled and stepped up to him, giving you a simple “Yep” before pressing her fingers to his temples. Her eyes flashed red again and a second later Vision’s body sagged into a much more human position. “There we go.”

You blinked and watched as Vision shook himself out, flapping his hands and then rotating his arms and neck with a grumble. 

“Ah,” he said, “much better.”

You eyed him. “Everything’s chill then? His gears got, ah, de-gummed, so to speak?”

Wanda snickered. She was now tucked against Vision’s side and helping him shimmy out of his jacket.

Vision seemed to remember where he was and what was going on because his eyes flitted from Wanda to you and back. When he settled a bit more, he looked at you both in turn, his gaze making a slow, deliberate path down both your and Wanda’s bodies as he took in what each of you wore. Finally, his eyes jolted back up to meet yours, and he responded in a low, gravelly voice, “Well, right now, I’m doing absolutely marvelously.”

You grasped that everything was back on track again and a smirk graced your face. “Well,” you said, clapping your hands together and turning back towards the bed, “as long as the short-circuit didn’t fry anything, the step of the night is gifts.”

Then you were being dragged back to Vision’s side by your wrist and he had an arm around both your and Wanda’s waists. “Now, just hold on there, [Y/N]. Shouldn’t I get to spend some time with my lovely partners, especially after seeing all the effort they’ve put in? Besides, I haven’t even gotten to compliment you about your looks.” He paused and pressed a kiss to Wanda’s temple, then nuzzled the side of your neck. When he moved his head away again, he eyed the way your shirt hung loosely off your shoulders. “Is that my shirt?”

You and Wanda shared an amused glance. She’d told you earlier that day about the anniversary-Hart family dinner mishap she and Vision had had when they’d first moved to Westview, the same day you’d met the couple, and how Vision and the Harts had come home to Wanda wearing an intimate nightdress that had made Vision more than a little flustered; the story is what sparked the idea for the evening’s current attire. She ignored his comment about you wearing his clothes and decided to nudge him back to the plan as hand, brushing a hand over the suit jacket now hanging from her arm. “I don’t know about that, honey, your eyes were certainly saying something.”

Vision pouted and hummed, probably trying to come up with another reason to keep hugging you and Wanda close to his body. After a moment, he chirped, “Ah, well! I brought you each something and something for the boys, and I left everything out in the living room. We can’t open gifts without all of them, what a pity. We might as well--”

“I have an idea.” Wanda interrupted. When you looked from Vision to her, she was still smiling but her eyes sparked with a playful warning. She freed herself from Vision’s hold, much to the tall man’s dismay, and walked over to the bed. She picked up the cards and tucked them under the arm that also held Vision’s jacket, then brought the clothing box over and held it out to you. “How about I go and make sure the food is warmed up and the table is set, then get all the cards and things into one place while, [Y/N], you give Vision the one gift he should still have.”

You raised a brow as you took the box from her and watched her saunter to the door, consciously moving out of Vision’s range. “You don’t want to see him open it?”

“I saw you open one I bought for you, you get to see the one you bought him,” Wanda said simply. “And I have a feeling that we’re better off if we’re not all in the same room until things get back on track, Vision might run the risk of shutting down again.”

You gasped dramatically and pressed your free hand to your cheek. Looking at Vision with wide eyes, you whispered, “How will I warm my bagels?”

Vision narrowed his eyes and made a grumbling sound from so deep in his chest you could feel the rumble where you were still held against him. Said sound and Vision’s overall reaction so far made you perfectly happy with the idea of the night derailing a bit off course, but you knew how much of a stickler Wanda could be when she made a plan and this was just as much a night for her as it was for Vision or you. 

With no further objections, Wanda walked out of the room. The heels she wore gave her a sashaying step and neither you nor Vision were particularly upset as the two of you watched her go. Then the door was shut and you two were alone. 

“So,” Vision said slowly as he turned his attention fully to you, “this is what you’ve been up to instead of going to work today.”

“It is indeed,” you confirmed, “and before you say anything else, I know full well what I’ll be getting into when I go in on Monday.”

“I hope so. You’ll be working harder than I have all week.”

You hummed and chewed on your lip as you thought. “Maybe… I could just… quit my job…”

“Hah!” Vision laughed and waggled a finger at you. “No, no, no, no, no. If I have to endure it, then so do you.”

You grinned and turned away from his finger as if to avoid his complaint. He chuckled and tried to catch your eye, rambling away about Oh, the work we shall both do, but you merely twisted away further, feigning beautiful, blissful ignorance. You even went so far as blocking Vision’s face from your sight with the box you held, which made Vision break off briefly to laugh again.

“--and then, maybe someday you will come home,” Vision continued, catching you in his arms again and tugging you close to him, “and see both of your partners, looking very fetching and being even more wonderful than usual because they’ve set up and entire romantic evening, not only because it’s a romantic holiday but because they specifically wanted to plan something to help you relax after a particularly busy week.” He paused, then added, “And it might even be a little better for you than it will be for me because you actually get to eat the food that’s taken up the entire kitchen.”

You tittered, tilted your head in mock thought even though Vision couldn’t see it, and then lowered your chipboard shield just far enough for your eyes to poke out from over it. “Mm, now that does appealing. Just one question though.”

“Of course, darling.”

You waggled your brows at him. “Which outfit will you be wearing, Wanda’s or mine?”

Vision smirked just slightly but it was enough to set off a volcanic eruption of heat throughout your entire body. You felt his fingers suddenly brushing against yours as he started to gently pry his gift out of your hands.

He said, “Depends on what’s in the box.”

He snagged the box from your hands, revealing your blushing face, but instead of opening it right away, his arm moved around your waist to be with the other once more. He pressed his forehead against yours and you felt a different sort of warmth as the golden gem in his forehead touched your skin. He tilted his head closer still to nuzzle his nose against yours then--

You quickly turned your head away again, flashing him a wicked grin when he stared at you, dumbfounded. You draped your now free arms loosely around his neck, fingered brushing lightly against his neck and fiddling with the collar of his button-up shirt. You shuffled closer to him to eliminate what little space left there was between your body and his, looked him in the eye, and teased, “Careful now, Mr. Maximoff. Wouldn’t want to knock another screw loose in that gorgeous, handsome head of yours.”

Vision’s low chuckle vibrated in his chest, feeling almost like a purr against your own body.

“Or,” you added, “knock one too many screws in?”

“[Y/N].”

“Wind the gears too tight?”

“[Y/N].”

You looked at him innocently; the irritated scowl on his face was contradicted by the mischievous twinkle in his pretty blue eyes. “I can keep going.”

“Oh, I’m very aware of that,” said Vision in that grumbling voice that would probably make you implode every time if it were his regular speaking voice, “but we are never going to get out of this room.”

“Interesting hypothesis,” you said with a very serious nod. “You are welcome to test it or stop me at any time. Now, where was I?”

It took a smirk and a raised brow to kick Vision back into gear but then you were grabbing his face and laughing against his mouth as he all but threw himself at you.

Kissing Vision was quite different than kissing Wanda, although no less addictive. Wanda’s kisses always felt needy but not in the way that one would think. Her kisses always felt like she had been lost up until the very moment your lips would touch hers, and then she was finding refuge and trying to absorb every bit of warmth and comfort that came from the way her mouth melded against yours before the kiss ended and she was alone and lost again. She almost always felt soft and sweet against you but you could feel a wild, restrained power brewing just underneath, and her power seemed to draw out and entangle itself with a power of your own, whatever that power was; the kisses never seemed to last long enough for you to figure that piece out.

When you kissed Vision, you could never get the idea that you were kissing someone not totally human out of your head, but in the best way. One of your favorite things to do whenever you kissed him was to run your hands over his skin and explore every single uniquely intricate thing about him, like the way his skin somehow felt soft and dense at the same time and how it was just slightly textured with lines and grooves that felt inhuman or the way that he didn’t really have a heartbeat or a pulse but rather a gentle constant rumbling of whatever gave him life doing its job, and sometimes this rumbling would jolt or slow depending on where you focused your ministrations. No matter his current state of being--exhausted, flustered, distressed--he was always strong and steady under your hands like he was ready to catch you if you suddenly misstepped or fly you to safety at a moment’s notice should the need arise. You couldn’t help equating the way his mouth worked against yours with the phrase “built to please”; he was always curious and searching in the way his hands and mouth roamed, and he seemed to get the most pleasure when he figured out exactly what you needed and did that--and he was much more often than not oh so very right. 

While Wanda felt wild, Vision felt grounding. When you were kissing Wanda, you were so focused on her body and yours and the energy that wrapped the two of you up in a magical cocoon that you felt like you could start bursting at the seams at any moment. Kissing Vision got you much more out of your head, to the point where you were merely exploring him as much as he was you, which led to the occasional knocking of teeth or finding a ticklish spot that caused the kiss to break into giggles and teasing; maybe you would go back to kissing or maybe the two of you would slip into a conversation so seamlessly that you wouldn’t even notice until a couple of hours had already passed. 

You often wondered if, when you weren’t around and your partners kissed each other, if either of them felt the same thing that you did. You wondered even more often how Wanda and Vision felt kissing you.

This time, though, it was Wanda’s voice from a couple of rooms away, muffled but noticeable, that finally broke the two of you apart. 

“Any day now,” she hollered, although there was no trace of irritation in her tone. “It’s not like we only have a few hours left to celebrate Valentine’s Day or anything.”

Vision’s face scrunched up and he eyed the wall that separated the kitchen and bedroom via another room in between. “Mm, she’s got a point.”

You pursed your lips and squinted at the wall as if you would see red magic permeating it if you did so for long enough. “Do you think she X-rayed us?”

Your partner let out a short little chortle as he disentangled himself from you and looked over the box he’d managed to hang onto during your kissing session. “Even if she did, not like it’s going to be any different once we’re all in the same room together.”

“Good point,” you said. “Mm, more kisses.” You were still curious, though, so you hollered back to Wanda, “Hey, magical girl, did ya see me kiss your husband?”

All you got was a laugh back, which had you smiling. 

Then you turned back to Vision, who was toying with the box’s bow, and said, “Alright, Vis, happy Valentine’s Day. Now give me your tie and your pants.”

You and Vision joined Wanda in the dining area shortly, Vision now dressed in a dark blue set of silky pajamas that matched your own shorts of the same shimmery fabric. Wanda had lit the candles not only at the dinner table but also around the rest of the house and she’d set proper places for three at the dinner table, although only two of the places had been served with simple dinner and various sweet, gaudy treats. After the three of you sat, Wanda gave Vision his cards: a beautifully designed one with a poem on the front and a lengthy handwritten letter on the inside from Wanda, a handmade one with bad Valentine’s Day puns and flustered ramblings all over it from you, and a “hand-drawn” one from Tommy and Billy that had really been drawn childishly by Wanda again as the babies were still too young to do so themselves. As he’d mentioned earlier, Vision had gifts of his own, which included a Valentine’s Day cupcake of your favorite flavor that he had snuck from work for you, cards and flowers for each of you, and a pair of inversely colored, Valentine’s Day themed stuffed puppies for the twins. With Tommy and Billy mentioned, Vision questioned their whereabouts and was surprised that Wanda had even let them out of her sight, though somewhat appreciative.

Dinner was next and went fairly quickly. You and Wanda ate a late dinner while the three of you conversed, mainly about Vision’s day and overall week but also you and Wanda explaining how you’d planned and prepared for the date without Vision being any the wiser. Vision made a comment that he, as an incredibly smart individual with a very expansive range of knowledge, should have noticed something sooner, which led to another bout of teasing from primarily you about how he’d fried his batteries when he saw his partners dressed up in pretty clothing and one of his shirts. Then topic conversations bounced around aimlessly for the rest of the time until both you and Wanda had cleaned your plates and even helped yourselves to some of the other goodies. Vision absolutely refused to let either of you do cleanup work, so you convinced Wanda to go change into something a little comfier--“At least take off those pearls and heels. Don’t really mind the rest of the outfit, though.”--and then went over to prepare the living room for movies by bringing over a few more treats to snack on, cleaning off an area for Wanda to magically project movies on the wall without clutter, and turning the couch into less of a decorative scene and more of a nest of red, white, and pink pillows and blankets.

Finally, the three of you settled onto the couch with Vision in the middle. That wouldn’t last for long, though, as you each grabbed a blanket or pillow and shifted yourselves into a big, fluffy, snuggle pile. You and Wanda managed to end up squished between Vision’s arms, where both of you could comfortably rest your heads on his chest. You could also slip an arm around Wanda and absentmindedly run your fingertips underneath the hem of the pajama shirt she now wore--another of Vision’s; it was a light blue and white striped button-down--and over the rose patterns of the sheer fabric hugging her hips. Instead of starting the movies right away, the three of you laid in comfortable silence for a while, enjoying each other’s company.

Vision briefly had to unwrap his arms to stretch and yawn, the yawn something that wasn’t entirely necessary for him. After placing them back, he murmured, “We don’t normally celebrate these types of things, do we, Wanda?”

Wanda’s eyes fluttered open; you had been watching her lay in quiet, cozy peace and she smiled sweetly at you when she caught you. “Goodness, no. We’ve proven time and time again we’re not exactly the remembering type when it comes to holidays. Holidays, events--”

“Anniversaries,” you offered with a little grin. “Especially those that coincide with meetings with bosses.”

Vision groaned softly. “A minor disaster.”

“Ended well though,” Wanda pointed out.

“And provided the idea for this whole thing,” you added.

Vision hummed thoughtfully and you felt his hand run down your back. “That so?”

“You getting flustered over sexy nightwear?” you said. “What potential.”

Wanda snickered. “What potential indeed. We broke the man.”

“Well,” Vision grumbled, his arms tightening slightly around both of you, “I assure you I’m doing fine now.”

You whispered into his chest, “Only because Wanda put on a shirt.”

Your trio broke into tired chuckles, which then faded into warm silence. It continued for a few moments before Vision pointed out that the movie-watching part of the night didn’t necessarily need to happen.”

That you sitting up and reaching for a movie list you’d compiled much earlier in the day.

“We must watch at least one movie,” you demanded, “and that movie is Grease.”

[bubblegumnebulaa]

chapter 138 rant under the cut (bc if you know me you knew this was coming)

!Spoiler warning!

This chapter. This fucking chapter.

Anyway, either EM shippers are totally delusional and intentionally misinterpreted the events of this chapter so they could finally be vindicated or Isayama actually sacrificed his storytelling integrity and bungled the characterization of his extremely multifaceted and complicated mc in order to appease shippers, making me and many other people look like complete idiots. Somehow, I still have faith in Isayama and choose to believe the former.

You guys have to realize how utterly ooc it is for Eren to abandon his ideals and his friends just because a girl he never showed any romantic interest in said she loves him, right? His entire motivation is tied to the safety and security of his friends, everything he has ever done was, in his mind, for them. So in what world - one that makes any sort of sense - would he just up and leave behind those people to fend for themselves? And to reduce his reasoning for going through with the Rumbling to... being family-zoned? It doesn’t matter if it’s an AU... it makes so sense. It doesn’t at all coincide with Eren as he’s always been portrayed. It’s antithetical to everything he’s ever said, done and stood for. Even if he didn’t want to go through with the Rumbling (which he didn’t), abandoning the people he cares about was never something that was on the table for him no matter what. It’s why I believe what we saw in this chapter was not an “AU” memory he shared with Mikasa (which would break canon if I’m correct because the Ackermans are immune to the founder’s powers), but rather a hallucination she herself induced in order to cope with the gravity of what she had to do.

Mikasa has always had this thing about misinterpreting Eren. I think of that once scene in particular where he finally learned how to use the 3DMG and how he was happy and celebrating his achievement, and Mikasa says something like “he’s happy he doesn’t have to leave me” and everyone looks at her like she has two heads. She’s been established to project, to idealize. When she looks at Eren, it’s through rose-tinted glasses. (See: every time she says something along the lines of “Eren wouldn’t do/say that” when it’s something he definitely would do or say.) She never really understood who he was. I think the mountain cabin scene in this chapter is the ultimate manifestation of this.

He says things that he would never actually say, and does things that he would never actually do. This is because that’s who Mikasa wants him to be, not who he actually is. It’s all a figment of Mikasa’s imagination, a visualization of the one thing that she has always desired most since she lost it: a home.

The alternate explanation (which most people seem to believe) about Eren sending her the AU memories just as she goes to kill him seems unnecessarily cruel? Why would he do something like that at such a pivotal moment? Why would he show her something that has the potential to make her falter, even though we all pretty much agree that he pushed Mikasa away because he wanted her to be able to kill him without hesitation when the time came? It doesn’t add up, which is why I think it’s her fantasizing about what she thinks would have happened had she given Eren a different answer. If someone can give me a different plausible explanation for this in particular I might just change my thinking on it.

And to touch upon the whole “See you later, Eren” thing... I’m not quite sure. I think Eren might have witnessed her hallucination through PATHS. In that moment, though, he was experiencing his own death. We just saw it through his eyes in the first manga panel, and that’s why it’s so important. Not quite sure about the technicalities of this because there’s probably details I’m missing, but this is my opinion on that.

Ultimately, I think this chapter is about Mikasa coming to terms with her romantic feelings for him, not Eren realizing his own for her. He does love her, I won’t deny that. But it’s not in the same way she loves him. Throughout the whole story she never seemed to outright acknowledge that what she felt for him was more than familial love, and I feel like this chapter is meant to show her finally coming to that realization and learning how to let him go.

On the flip side, I am pretty bummed about her being reduced to the designated love interest. She was always a static character with minimal development to me, but I was really rooting for her as I saw her start to detach herself from Eren and come into her own. This chapter was really just a mixed bag for me because, even though she did what I was hoping she would do for years, I feel like she really regressed as a character at the same time. It kind of sucks lol.

But anyway if I’m wrong about all this, I’m gonna look like booboo the fool. But at this rate... I need to make some sense of it. Hopefully 139 will give us the long-awaited Eren POV and tie up these loose ends as much as possible. It might even give us another plot twist (which is likely.) Otherwise... idk what else to say. If Isayama really just did this all for fanservice I will be absolutely crushed LOL.

Edit: I will say I initially simultaneously loved/hated this chapter but now with the added context and explanation from Yams I can say absolute banger

[theblogthatdoesanimethings]

Hetalia! Scenario

Prompt: Reacting to their crush saying “I love you.”

N.Italy: He would be ecstatic and immediately envelop you in a hug. He’d be a bit disappointed he wasn’t the one to confess, but ultimately he’d be happy. He’d start rambling about how happy he is and would get that happy floaty look he always gets. He’d ask a series of questions about what led you to liking him and would pester you endlessly about the things you like about him. Once he’d calmed down, he’d ask you to officially date him and would start planning future dates the moment you agreed. 

S.Italy: He would grow embarrassed immediately. Despite be a flirtatious and smooth person, Lovino gets embarrassed when people call him out on things and express how much they care for him. It would take him a few moments to process that his crush had confessed to him and his cheeks would turned the shade of the tomatoes he’s so fond of. He’d eventually come to his senses and would confess his own feelings to you. Similar to his brother, he’d be a bit upset about not being the one to confess, but he’d get over it (after a month). He’d plan the best first date for the two of you to enjoy. 

Germany: He’d freeze up the moment he heard his crush confess their love for him. He wouldn’t know how to respond to the sudden declaration of affection and his brain would immediately go into overdrive (kind of like that scene with Italy). He would stay still trying to process everything as his cheeks gradually darkened in colour. Eventually, as you patiently wait for him to figure it out, he’d react in one of two ways depending on his day. One would be him clearing his throat while pointedly looking away and confessing his own feelings. The second would be him frantically blurting out his own feelings and growing even more embarrassed than he already was. He’d then spend hours planning the perfect first date that inevitably does not follow his carefully thought out plan

Japan: He would falter for a moment before smiling softly and accepting your feelings by confessing his own, though his confession would be a lot more subtle than the prior threes. Despite his calm facade, he would be embarrassed by the declaration of affection, and he would be very happy even though it wouldn’t show on his face. For the first date, he would take into consideration what his crush likes and plan something he knows they’d enjoy.

America: He would welcome the confession with the brightest smile and his usual loud laugh. He’d internally be very proud of himself for winning the affection of his crush and might mentally compliment himself. He might even have enough courage at that moment to say “Of course the hero get’s the person”, but it depends on if he’s around people or not. If he’s alone with his crush, his reaction would be a bit more subdued, but he’d still send them a big smile and confess his own love for them. He’d probably dive in and pull them into a large hug if they allowed it. He’s slightly embarrassed, but he moves on from that quickly and begins chatting about where they should go for their first date.

France: He’d take the confession smoothly and send them his award-winning smile. He’s a confident person most of the time, and he probably picked up that his crush liked him before they even confessed to him. Regardless, he’d be ecstatic and would immediately confess his own love for you. He would become more physically affectionate with you and would pull you in closer at that moment. He’d plan the most romantic first date and would take you to the best places.

England: He’d falter and grow increasingly embarrassed the longer his crush smiled at him after confessing their affection for him. Arthur is horrible at his emotions, and a confession from his crush would instantly cause his cheeks to flare red and him to reply in stutters. He’d calm down by clearing his throat and looking away from his crush as he struggles to calm his breathing. Eventually he would mutter back that he liked you too and manage to make proper eye-contact after glancing at your reaction a few times. He’d try his best to plan a romantic dinner, but he may need help

Russia: He would be surprised at the confession. He’s not someone who is particularly liked by his peers and can be isolated at times. Therefore, when his crush confessed to him he wasn’t sure how to react, because he was sure the object of his affection could never return his feelings. As a result, he’d stare down at you with wide child-like eyes filled with confusion until you repeated the words “I love you.” The repetition of the statement would snap him out of his daze and he would smile down properly at you and envelop you in a big hug. He’d then whisper his own feelings into your ear while holding you tight against him. He’d leave planning the first date to you because he wanted you to have fun. He’d definitely show up with a bouquet of sunflowers too 

China: He would be embarrassed relatively quickly as well. He’d cover his reddening face with his sleeve and peer at you from above it. He’d mumble a few questions asking why you like him. When you explained why you liked him, he’d gradually lower his sleeve and turn to face you properly. He’d still be a bit embarrassed, but he’d tell you he returned your feelings and would like to get to know you more. He’s not certain about planning the first date, and so the two of you work together to create the perfect first date

Canada: He would be surprised and happy at the same time. He wouldn’t know how to act or respond to his crush confessing their feelings for him. He wasn’t aware that his crush knew of his existence and had never entertained the idea that they would like him in return. Once he got over his shock, he’d smile with tinted cheeks and explain that he returned your feelings for him. He wouldn’t believe that you truly confessed to him and would call you a few hours later to make sure he hadn’t dreamt the event. He’d work his hardest to plan the perfect first date

Prussia: He’d falter for a split moment because he couldn’t believe that someone could love him, but then he’d smile really wide and let out a happy laugh. He’d ramble about how great he is and how great you are because you’d have to be to get him to like you. At this moment, he’d feel a bit vulnerable, which is why he’s talking more than his crush is used to. Once his rambling ended, he’d hug his crush turned lover closely and reiterate his feelings for them. He’d plan the first date and it either turns out perfectly or is a disaster. 

Notes:

Yay! I finally posted something from another fandom!

I have finally decided to include Prussia. He’s one of my favourites and I felt bad leaving him out just because I wanted an even amount of characters and less work. 

From now on I’ll try my best to update at least one fandom by every Friday. That system will only work if I have ideas and requests from people. 

[utterlyinevitable]

the amazon one! thank you!

request: “was it really love if you can leave me for” lyric from thick and thin by lany

Was It

Word Count: 1.5k Warning: angst and a few curse words Summary: This takes place somewhere after OH2 where Ethan and MC started dating.

A/N: I love this song and hope I did it justice! The first part of Do We Have a Future was loosely influenced by this song so if you haven’t read it and love some angst I definitely recommend it 😬

not the best thing i’ve written but thankful to be coming out of my writers block.

________________________________________

It took them so long to finally get to a place of mutual understanding. Far too long for them to finally submit to their feelings for one another. 

One notable spring evening, Ethan and Becca were heading to the Boston Opera House. Ethan had given them both an early shift so they can enjoy a relaxing evening together accompanied by soothing arias. They hadn’t been back in this box together since intern year. Since he kissed her back and immediately brushed it off as nothing. 

They had a lovely time - holding hands in silence, letting the melodies of the orchestra lift their spirits. Becca rested her head on his shoulder when she wasn’t on the edge of her seat in anticipation. Ethan watching her reactions intently - he had seen this opera on multiple occasions and could recite it verbatim. A smile graced his features as he watched her, his mind absentmindedly strolling down memory lane. 

The subtle glances. The hand holds. Miami. The kiss. The hearing. Saving Naveen. The first time. Their last time. The Amazon… 

Look how far we’ve come, he thought. 

On the drive back to his apartment Ethan was still so deep in nostalgia. Although this time he voiced his sentimentality out loud.

***

  Late night three days later Becca was in Ethan’s apartment, hovering at the threshold. She kept her jacket on, making the conscious decision to not make herself at home. This wasn’t the night she would let herself push all of her concerns aside and unapologetically fall back into Ethan Ramsey’s addictive embrace once again. 

Ethan watched with a trained eye as his girlfriend paced back and forth. Becca tried to think of what to say. She knew the words, she’d been replaying and reciting them for days now but for some reason none of them felt right on her tongue. 

The other day in the car Ethan brought up his trip to the Amazon - the ultimate betrayal in Becca’s eyes. She could have handled a casual affair between them, hell she’s had plenty of those, but what hurt the most were the promises he made long before he disappeared. He told her they were going to work it out. They were going to figure this out. Together. They were straight lies off of Ethan’s lips. Becca forgave him once in blind infatuation. She was so caught up in her attraction for him that she forgot how continuously he shattered her heart in those early months. Now that she had him freely, she could see past her rose tinted glasses for the pain that came with this man.  

“That wasn’t courage. It was cowardice,” he explained once again. They’d had this conversation briefly ages ago but he never finished telling her exactly why he needed to flee. “I realized I fell in love with you and needed to clear my head before we began working closely together.” 

Staring out the passenger window her eyes went wide, “What?” 

Becca was already irked by the feelings that surfaced at the mention of his abandonment. A ball started to form in her throat as his words sank in.  

Ethan never ever said that four letter word to her face before. 

Under normal circumstances, with normal couples, that small yet powerful word was meant to warm the insides and elicit an overwhelming sense of euphoria. Instead, Becca’s chest tightened. 

“I couldn’t be in love with you,” he replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “We needed a reset.” 

“You… loved me?” 

“Yes.” Ethan's smile grew bigger as he added, “I love you.” 

Becca felt like she was going to vomit. 

 She looked everywhere but at Ethan as the words began to manifest. It had taken all of her courage to come here and ask the things that were plaguing her mind since last summer.  

“You realized you loved me and… left?” It was phrased as an uncertain question but she meant it as a statement. “Not tell me how you felt?”  

Ethan’s brows furrowed at her question. It was the first thing she said upon entering his apartment and her noticeable distance was concerning him. “You know I couldn’t feel that way. It was unethical.” 

“We’re unethical now, Ethan, and the world hasn’t collapsed,” she retorted.  

With a rueful sigh he confessed, “I was wrong.”  

“Yeah… you were,” she trailed off. She let her eyes glance upwards towards him. Ethan was staring at her, blue eyes storm ridden and full of worry, the creases in his features were more than evident and showing his age. “Were you ever going to tell me?” she just about whispered.  

Ethan took a step towards her, “I didn’t think I needed to.” Instinctively Becca stepped backwards, the door handle mere inches away from her lower back. Earnestly he said, “I thought my actions spoke louder than my words ever could.” 

She knew he was referring to all the truths and secrets they’ve shared, all the hand holding and caresses - the way he seems to put her future before all else - the way he loved her. But the only things coming to the foreground were him pushing her away, leaving, letting himself have her just to then cast her aside like a mistake. 

She stood up straighter, letting the newfound rage building in her core fuel her. “Was it really love if you could leave me for something so small? We slept together and you bolted, Ethan.” 

Ethan took a deep breath in. This was not the evening he had planned for them - they were supposed to have a romantic evening in. But instead they were sparring, and Ethan desperately wanted to wave the white flag in surrender. 

“It doesn’t excuse my actions,” his eyes fell to the floor in guilt as he spoke. “All I can say is I’m sorry for wasting all that time. I’m sorry for hurting you.” 

Becca crossed her arms over her chest at the line she’s heard countless times and bit, “Have you ever had a one night stand before?”  

“Have you?” Ethan retaliated. He regretted the words immediately. He knew he didn’t need to be defensive, he didn’t want to be defensive. He just wanted to have a nice evening with the love of his life, but for some reason she wasn’t happy anymore.   

“Don’t you dare slut shame me!” She moved closer and slapped his arm. “If you didn’t want to be anything more you should have just told me from the start.” Ethan saw how her doe brown eyes turned to black within an instant. He fucked up. Becca continued to poke him in the chest, “Instead of leaving me when I needed you most -” another poke, “every fucking time things get hard you leave.” 

With her finger digging firmly into his torso, Ethan asked, “Where is this coming from?” 

Becca threw her hands up in the air like it was the most obvious conclusion, “I don’t trust you!” 

“Huh?”  

“I don’t trust you not to leave again. I don’t trust you not to break my heart. I don’t trust myself for falling further into you and the next time I might not be able to pull myself back out of the depths.” Becca was breathing heavily now, the spilling of all those emotional words taking its toll.  

“Rookie…” his eyes were a mix of saddened concern and pleas.  

Eloquently with the muster of a thousand suns she added, “We’re not going to work long-term.”

And with that Becca turned on her heels to leave. 

Ethan caught her elbow mid-spin.  

“Do not walk away, Lao.” he used his authoritative voice, knowing full well it would temporarily distract her from her task. “We can fix whatever this is - we’re partners through everything, right?” 

She didn’t respond. 

“Right?” he practically begged.  

Becca kept silent, her eyes fixated on the silver doorknob. 

“Dammit, Rebecca!” he exclaimed through gritted teeth and glazed eyes. “Tell me how to make things better.” 

She shook her head one single time, “You can’t.”  

She pulled her arm forcefully away and walked out the door. 

Left in utter bafflement, Ethan’s hand flew to his hair, pulling at the roots. 

“What the hell just happened?” he asked the universe. 

He wanted to go after her. He needed to go after her and ask her not to hold the sins of his past against him. But he knew Becca better than most and chasing her down would only lead to a bigger argument. 

She couldn’t cut things off so easily. 

She couldn’t stop loving him because of a past mistake. Right? 

They had been through too much the last two years for this to be the end. She was there with him every step of the way - she was his rock. His sanity in dark times. She was his best friend and his savior in every blatant and biblical aspect of the words. 

What did he do for her in return?  

Ethan went over to his bar cart in desperate need of something strong. That’s when he saw it. The small black box sitting next to the decanter. 

Tonight was supposed to be the night. 

Was he foolish for misreading their whole relationship? Was he crazy for wanting a future with the young resident? 

The irony was not lost on him. 

With great force Ethan hurled the small box at the front door. Leaving a small dent in the metal plating.

________________________________________

Taglist: @ohchoices​​ @dulceghernandez​​​ @aylamreads​​ @binny1985​​​ @ramseysno1rookie​​​ @interobanginyourmom​​​ @queencarb​​​ @perriewinklenerdie​ @rookiefromedenbrook​​ @eramsey28​​ @choicesficwriterscreations​​ @heauxplesslydevoted​​ @schnitzelbutterfingers​​ @purpledragonturtles​​ @ramseyandrys​​​ @ermidc​​ @mrsdrakewalkerblog​​ @doilooklikeiknow​ @overwhelminglyaquarius​ @drethanramslay @edgiestwinter @rookieoh

[excuseme-youpretty]

Ecstasy

Pairing: Kim Taehyung / Reader

Side Pairings: None

Rating: Teen

Genre: Fluff

Word Count: 2935

-

Notes: Yet again, this was requested as a prompt by my sister. The theme for this prompt was “Curiosity Shop” but I thought the title “Ecstasy” fit the overall story better. I hope you guys all enjoy!

I also haven’t proofread anything so I apologise for any mistakes!

-

Days as effortlessly romantic as today will always be your favourite way to express your relationship. 

Certainly, there is plenty of merit to be found within those lazy afternoons, your body sprawling across a canvas of clean cotton and your lover’s thighs embroidering your own. Where his hands perfectly frame your pelvis and his soft sleepy breaths puff across your cheekbones like dandelion seeds as dawn dissolves around you. 

But the moments where you can showcase how breathtakingly beautiful your fiance is, and how perpetually charming, by showing him off to the unwitting universe will always be your ultimate favourite.

Because you are absolutely certain that Kim Taehyung is the epitome of ecstasy; the word defined in the bladed architecture of his cheekbones and a smile which is a little too goofy for his godlike exterior. He can read your soul as though it were poetry - where to touch you, how to kiss you, what words to pull from his gilded tongue to make your toes curl upwards.

Yet, his particular brand of affectionate indulgence does not necessarily reside in over the top means of appreciation. There is no triumphant fanfare or elephant-lead parade (although, you are certain that Taehyung would arrange such a feat at a moment's notice if that was what you craved). 

No, Taehyung's adoration can be found in the smallest of expressions; petite gestures which remind you that you are eternally loved.

On this particular morning, Taehyung had pried you from your sleep with a smattering of baby-breath kisses across your face and shoulders, his wide-set smile expanding considerably as soon as your lashes had fluttered open.

He had harmonized his love into your tilted collarbones and presented you with a warm, fresh from the oven croissant and foam-tipped latte from your favourite bakery down the street. His impossibly long fingertips had chorded through your hair as you both ate in comfortable silence, perfectly attuned to an orchestra of birdsong resonating just outside your window.

Only once every single crumb had been polished off did Taehyung, regretfully, tug himself from your side. He had somersaulted toward your bathroom, his strides wide and perfectly chaotic, as he fumbled around with the convoluted dials on your shower to ensure the downpour would reach the perfect temperature for your bodies to intertwine underneath.

After an onslaught of strawberry-scented suds, and the 'accidental' wade of Taehyung's fingertips taking an exploratory turn across your chest, he had carefully pulled you from your shower to drape you in a large towel, wicking all  moisture from your skin in a few eager strokes. 

You had perched on the precipice of your mattress as Taehyung threw your closet doors open, scanning the entirety of your wardrobe with his lips pursed in concentration. It didn't happen often, but whenever your man would take it upon himself to correspond his wardrobe with yours it would always leave a fuzzy feeling in your lower abdomen; like television static, only sweeter.

On this occasion he had settled on a white blouse to match his own pristine dress shirt, similar light-washed jeans, and an adorable indigo purse which coordinated perfectly with the heavily-patterned scarf knotted against his throat. 

You had just barely finished dabbing perfume against your clavicle when Taehyung had enthusiastically tugged you out toward his car, his lips curling wetly against your own to silence any reservations you may have had about this seemingly impromptu rendezvous.

He simply asked you to trust him, his ringed fingers clicking pretty against the radio dial as he thumbed Sam Smith's satin-spun vocals to an all-time high. 

Just like that you were driving through Korea's technicolor streets without a care in the world. Pure ecstasy. 

And that is how you found yourself in your current position hours later.

Taehyung's fingertips are unfathomably long where they loop throughout your own, pouring like honey across your knuckles, and somehow gathering enough momentum to swing pendulously between your bodies.

Across his other wrist Taehyung balances an abundance of overstuffed shopping bags from the various outlets dotted throughout the mall. You lean virtually all of your weight against him, your stomach full of the most exquisite lunch and a plastic straw caught between your teeth to savour your second mango-passionfruit smoothie of the afternoon.

Sometimes being in love with Taehyung is utterly exhausting; a permanent fixture of motion and charisma and effortless conversations which always leave you a little tongue-tied and high on his natural dopamine. 

And yet, you wouldn't have him any other way. 

"Hey, Tae? Can we maybe take a rest for a minute?" You sigh sweetly, nestling your cheek comfortably against Taehyung's domed bicep. "My feet are killing me."

"Of course, Jagi!"

Taehyung guides you toward the large terracotta fountain poised proudly within the mall's centre. You perch against the cool stone, with Taehyung placing your shopping bag collection aside to join you, and sigh softly as he lifts your aching feet from your pointed heels to caress his long fingers around your tender instep.

He massages your skin softly, dissolving all discomfort through persistent compression and a voice as smooth as buttercream. His lips seek out the plush of your temple, tucking away the loose strands of hair he finds with the tip of his nose. 

Taehyung's heartbeat carries a natural percussion with tones akin to tinkling wind chimes and every bit as delicate. You find yourself overwhelmed by the collaborative sensations of sound, rhythm and his earthy cologne.

You lean into your fiance's torso. Another blissful sigh flutters past your lips and across the sticky straw compressed between your teeth. With your head tipped back, you allow your lidded gaze to slowly scan your nearby surroundings. 

Amidst a monotonous canvas of granite stone and whitewashed brick sits a peculiar storefront. A flash of jade woodwork, with wide stain-glass windows and what appeared to be a hand-carved door decorated by spray painted poison ivy decals. 

The facade, although surreal and whimsically furnished, is definitely new. You can't help but find yourself drawn toward it like an energetic moth flouncing toward an open flame; the clash of pigment as stark as a gilded leaf amidst a blanket of snow.

"Tae?" You muse, listening for his small hum of acknowledgment before you continue. "This is new, right? I don't think I've seen it here before."

Taehyung lifts his head to follow your gaze, a sunkissed curtain falling in front of his vision as he does so. He puckers his lips in thought.

"You're right. 'Quirks and Curiosities'. I wonder what they sell there?"

"Hm. My money is on obscure trinkets. Like the type of stuff Jungkook collects in that shoebox underneath his bed."

"Well, in that case!" Taehyung grins, the corners of his mouth stretched skyward. "We absolutely have to go in."

He springs forward onto the balls of his feet with a small, barely noticeable squeal of pure delight, carefully grasping at the marginally empty cup in your hands to toss the dregs into a nearby garbage can. 

He helps you back onto your feet, guiding your soothed soles into your leatherette heels once again. The visual makes you giggle fondly.

In spite of his buoyant bleach-blonde curls and tanzanite contacts, he really does resemble an animated prince falling into a whirlwind romance orchestrated by fate itself.

"Come on, Jagiya! Lets see what we can find." 

Taehyung tugs impishly upon your linked fingers as he gathers your shopping bags within his spare wrist. You roll your eyes and chastise him for his infantile excitement, but you cannot deny that his palpable enthusiasm is utterly contagious. 

The pretty tinkle of polished wind-chimes twirling against one and other is the first stimulant you are met with as soon as you toe across the threshold of Quirks and Curiosities. The second is an overwhelming scent of sandalwood and crisp clean cotton. 

It takes a moment for your eyes to adjust to the sudden light change, all springtime luminescence transforming into something dim and tinted violet from the many mismatched lamps strung overhead. 

A plethora of beaded curtains brush by your cheekbones as Taehyung draws you further into the annex of the shop. There are several shelves, each one littered by an array of unique antiques and special oddities which pique your interest. 

Your fiance appears similarly hypnotized. His eyes are wide, sparkling as vibrantly as blossoming constellations, as he runs his impossibly long fingertips over the top of a large bronze cattle statuette. 

Briefly, your mind is seized by the notion of how much Namjoon would enjoy such a place. All of the unique figurines he could acquire to bolster his ever-expanding collection. But your thoughts are quick to sober; Kim Namjoon in close proximity with anything fracturable is never a good idea.

As Taehyung becomes enraptured by what appears to be a pair of large peacock-feather earrings, you break away from his side to go exploring on your own, making sure to press a small but affectionate kiss against his neck in passing.

You nod courteously at the petite woman poised patiently behind the counter, her kind eyes creased in genuine warmth at the small interaction witnessed between yourself and your fiance. Your stomach flip-flops as a blush seeps across your cheekbones. It always stokes a fire deep within your stomach when your relationship with Taehyung is not only acknowledged, but also treated with respect. 

There was once a time when you had deemed yourself unworthy of his advances, of the sweet words which would drip like caramel from his tongue and explorative hands which would hold your body oh so tight. But he had smothered those insecurities underneath a pair of the prettiest puppy-dog eyes you had ever seen and now, with this friendly stranger recognizing your partnership as beautiful causes your insides to glow. 

Absentmindedly running your thumb and forefinger over the cool band of your engagement ring, you divert your attention toward one of the more colourful displays. 

A kaleidoscope of pretty scarves dangle from mismatched hangers, their metallic threads shimmering underneath the dim lamplight and silken tassels catching every little breeze which passes by like party streamers caught in the air. 

Underneath them, a small collection of beautiful coin purses are dotted in a row. Some of them have been hand-stitched into complex creases whilst others carry reflective sequins and enhanced beading. 

But what really captures your attention is a trio of beautifully displayed fans, each perched upon a small wooden plinthe and spread open to showcase their intimate details and exquisite craftsmanship. 

One of them in particular, the largest in the collection, leaves you momentarily transfixed. It is broad and colourful; a distinct lavender hue ombreing out toward filigree lace corrugations. Embroidered butterflies spread their wings across the textured surface of the fan, some soaring sky high whilst others dip their proboscis into a bouquet of flowers so elaborately detailed that you can practically smell their tantalizing sweetness.

Sparing a brief glance over your shoulder toward the adorable shopkeep who had regarded you so kindly, receiving a nod of encouragement in response, you reach out and carefully pluck the large fan from its plinthe as soon as she grants you permission to do so. 

It feels light within your palm, decorative lace tickling your cheek as you bring it close. You focus on the sunkissed crown of Taehyung's hair, on his deliciously deep voice waxing poetic about the pair of earrings now dangling from between his knuckles.

"Tae?" You hum, wafting the fan against your cheeks.

"Yes, Jagiya?"

He turns on the spot, his oval eyes softening as soon as he witnesses the weave of your hips wandering toward him and the clash of purple against your honeyed complexion. 

"Ah, what do we have here?" He hums, holding a hand out toward you.

You teeter into his presence, slowly directing your fan around your body in a deliberate semi-circle, and pitch your voice a fraction higher.

"I'm so fine wherever I go~" You mewl, imitating your beloved friend with a lot less skill and precision than Jimin himself would offer.

Still, it causes Taehyung's smile to expand; pulls an abundance of impish giggles from his throat like popcorn kernels puffing up.

"Much better than Jimin-ssi!" Taehyung cackles, clapping his hand against his inner wrist to prevent damaging the pretty earrings he holds. "But if you tell him I said that, I'll only deny it."

"I understand. Soulmate priorities."

"Exactly!"

Taehyung pulls your body close to his own, his palm pressing snug against your tailbone. His lips make quick work of your flushed cheeks, kissing across elevated bone and pausing to rest on the tippity tip of your crinkled nose.

"Ah, I love you." He sighs.

Foregoing any chance for the sentiment to be echoed, Taehyung opts instead to guide you toward the cash register to pay for your newly coveted trinkets.

"Good afternoon!" Taehyung sing-songs, bowing politely. "I would like to purchase these earrings." He slides the jewellery in question across the counter, fingertips twitching as though he dreaded letting the unusual accessory go. "And my beautiful fiancee seems to have fallen in love with this stunning fan." 

Before you have a chance to offer up your purchase for her eyes to evaluate the attendant's fingers are dancing expertly across the raised keys of her cash register, its numbers as faded and timeless as the adorable knicknacks which surround you. There is a small ping! as the drawer pops open, but Taehyung is quick to press a handful of crisp bills into the woman's hand before she can signify any total.

Part of you knows that you should object to Taehyung's unique brand of generosity. That he has already done far too much for you over the course of your relationship; especially today with his impromptu shopping spree and fancy luncheon.

But you also know that Taehyung would object. That he would unravel his bottom lip in an emboldened pout that will leave you breathless whilst he insists that he needs to more. And it always culminates in him going above and beyond to spoil you far more than is necessary.

So instead you tuck your smile into the mapwork of Taehyung's shoulder and attempt to hex away the heat which swirls like lava beneath your skin. 

After all, it is quite exhilarating to be worshiped by the man who maintains ownership of your entire heart and soul. Why not indulge, at least a little, if it makes you both happy?

"Please, keep the change." Taehyung insists, and when the shopkeep inhales a sharp breath of surprise you feel your heart swell with pride. 

After tucking his wallet back within the confined of his far-too-tight jeans, your fiance gathers the small bag containing his newly purchased earrings and loops it in place over his wrist where it joins countless others. He braids an arm around your midsection and you both thank the friendly employee one final time before returning to the sterile ceramics of the bustling shopping mall. 

The sound of water slapping loudly against cool tile and an abundance of discarded wish-laced pennies almost feels too chaotic in comparison to the impenetrable silence that Quirks and Curiosities had seemingly perfected.

Your eyes take a minute to adjust to the sudden influx of concentrated light as your pupils shrink from necessary dilation back to their regular size. Still, your vision burns, and you find yourself raising your fan toward your eyes out of instinct alone, hoping to disperse some of the rays which trickle like honey between your eyelashes. 

Taehyung watches the display with an overt fondness. 

"You know, I'm thinking we might have made a huge mistake in buying that fan for you, Jagi."

You squint at him in confusion. "Why?"

"Just think of all the terrible jokes Jin-hyung will make as soon as we get home."

You give pause. Attempt to mentally condition yourself for a persistent circus of 'perfect fan' and 'fan-tastic' puns before they arrive. And if you concentrate hard enough you can just barely make out Seokjin's telltale laugh like perfectly-manicured nails on a chalkboard. 

You ignore the urge to cringe. Because, as irritating as his poorly conceived jokes can be at times, you simply wouldn't want your Jin any other way.

"Worth it." You muse, whipping your fan enthusiastically in front of your face. 

Taehyung grins, pulling your body against his own so that he may press a kiss to your mouth. He lingers, his neatly-sculpted cupid's bow clinging to your lower lip as he autographs his name on your flesh with a brief - albeit deliberate -  catch of his teeth on tongue-warmed skin.

You sigh as soon as you part from each other, your fingernails finding purchase on his silken neck scarf to keep him from straying too far. 

"I love you, Tae." You purr, tilting your head back just far enough so that he can glide the tip of his nose against your own.

"I love you more, Jagi." 

Taehyung presses a fingertip to your mouth before you can attempt to protest his ludicrous, and frankly defamatory, statement.

"Now, come on. It's time to buy my future wife some pretty new shoes! Ones that don't hurt her poor feet quite as much."

Once again you are completely susceptible to his bewildering enthusiasm. 

And as Taehyung draws you past the large fountain you had once taken solace in, pausing to capture the very moment that his lips had burned an entire midsummer sunset across the underside of your jawline, residual thoughts from your morning return to you with picturesque clarity.

Kim Taehyung really is the epitome of ecstasy.

[warriorofdragons]

Light in the Dark Chapter 13: Brunch and Budding Feelings

Word Count: 6.9k

Warnings: Language, Mentions of mythical animal abuse

Note: {Övüsi is in these brackets}

“Here,” Saerthon says.

Kandomere takes the extra pair of purple tinted glasses from him and puts them on.

And then Saerthon carefully removes the shards of the broken mirror from a black plastic bag and places them on the table.

They both stare at them for a moment.

“Are they inert?” Kandomere questions.

“I believe so, it’s hard to know for certain without looki-“ Saerthon begins.

Kandomere rips off his glasses and stares directly into the shards.

And nothing happens.

He straightens again, adjusting his jacket and glances back at Saerthon whose mouth is agape in shock.

“I would say it is inert,” Kandomere says calmly.

“ARE YOU MAD?!” Saerthon demands.

“Not at all,” Kandomere replies.

He stares back down at the shards.

There’s a part of him that still feels guilty about what had happened to his Bright.

And there’s no reason for him to be incapable of facing the same danger she had.

“See to it that it is contained nonetheless, we will need it in the case against these elves,” Kandomere says and sets the glasses down and walks out.

As he makes his way back to the office his mind wanders to yesterday’s events.

In the heat of the moment he had forgotten to tell her how he feels before attempting to kiss her.

He sighs and shakes his head, how could he have made such an easy mistake?

Considering last night was his first conscious attempt at starting a courtship with her, it’s not going very well.

He has not made such a mistake like this since his youth!

Although he has never sought a courtship with someone from another race before and there are bound to be differences in their approach. He has so little information to go off of in her reaction to know whether or not she actually wants a romantic relationship with him. She has been affectionate with him…but he has no way of knowing what is platonic for humans and what is not.

He runs his hands through his hair, should he apologize?

She did leave rather quickly…he should definitely apologize.

She’ll be coming to work soon, perhaps then he can find a moment to speak with her.

                                                                      *******

You turn your alarm off and roll over.

It’s been hard to sleep at all.

You’ve just been replaying what happened yesterday over and over in your head. You let out a sigh and pull the comforter around you tighter, the comforter He gave you.

How are you supposed to go in to work today?

Maybe…you could call in sick?

No, that wouldn’t work…the elf would definitely know you were avoiding him.

You feel so confused right now, why would he try to kiss you?!

And YOU almost kissed him back!

Not that it wouldn’t have been nice to…what are you thinking?

He’s an elf he wouldn’t want to Date you, not only would his family not approve of you, neither would any of the other elves. Besides he probably would much rather prefer to marry a sophisticated elven woman.

It’s not like you have a lot to offer him as a human.

You feel tears slip out of your eyes and onto the pillow.

Then why do you feel so upset?

You wipe at your face and force yourself to climb out of bed, you can’t avoid going to work forever, and someone is coming to pick you up afterall.

You grab some clothes and put them on and begin slowly preparing for your day.

As you stare at yourself in the mirror and put on your red lipstick you remember Kandomere’s lips on yours…

You sigh and rub your lips together and then stuff the lipstick into your purse.

Brushing your hair out of your eyes, you take a minute and examine yourself, you’ve chosen to wear a mint dress with pink and purple flowers and a matching pair of mint heels. You hear a loud knock on the door and peek your head out of your bathroom and then grab your things and head to the door.

As you open the door you blink in surprise and stare at the burly, red-haired man in a brown suit occupying the hall.

“What’s the matter, Princess, surprised to see me?” Montehugh asks.

“…No,” you mutter and step out into the hall and close the door behind you, “Where’s the elf?”

“He’s busy at the office with something,” Montehugh says.

You lock your door and nod and then follow him down the hall.

You’re silent as you ride with him to work.

“Oh hey uh….I think the Boss wanted to talk to you about something? He said it could wait till today?” Montehugh asks.

You turn from your window to stare at him, “Did…he say what it was about?”

Montehugh frowns and shakes his head, “No, he didn’t.”

“Oh,” you mutter and start to turn back to your window again.

“Hey, you doin’ okay?” Montehugh asks.

”Of course, I’m fine,” you lie.

Montehugh glances at you briefly, “You just left in a hurry last night is all.”

You glance down, “Um…there is actually something I should probably mention…I….don’t have my magic.”

Montehugh does a double take, “Shit, really?!”

You nod and stare forward.

“Does the Boss know?” Montehugh asks.

You shake your head, “No....”

He sighs, “He needs to know, when we get to work you HAVE to tell him.”

You nod.

“How did this happen? Was it the Basilisk’s venom?” Montehugh asks.

“I think so? It’s the only thing major that happened recently I can think of,” you say.

Montehugh hums, “Maybe you just burnt yourself out? You ever try to blow out a candle, but it doesn’t go all the way out before slowly coming back?”

“Yeah?” you ask.

“You just gotta give it some time,” Montehugh says, “That little flame will come back you just gotta not blow it out again.”

“Kind of like when your immune system is too tired from being sick to fight another one right away?” you question.

He nods, “You’re magic’s just a little strained, it’ll come back on it’s own, and proper rest will help big time.”

“I…didn’t know it could get strained, there’s been times were it’s been more difficult to do spells but never for very long,” you explain.

“You’ve been dishing out bigger and bigger spells lately and having to go against equally powerful magic users, things you’ve NEVER done before, there were bound to be some consequences to that,” Montehugh explains.

“I suppose you’re right,” you whisper.

“Hey, don’t take it too hard, Princess, you should have never gone up against those witches,” Montehugh says and shakes his head, “I’m sorry that you did, me and the Boss just wanted you to TELL us about magic, and maybe…track them. It ultimately though wasn’t our decision to send you in there.”

“What do you mean it wasn’t your decision?” you question.

Montehugh exhales slowly, “One of the bigger bosses told us to send you in if shit went south, he’s one of the ones that’s still suspicious of you, being a Bright and all.”

You think back to the man that had said something to Kandomere and how he had looked at you, and how whatever the man had said had almost pained the elf…

“Was he…trying to get rid of me?” you ask afraid.

Montehugh glances at you and shakes his head again his expression marred with worry, “I fucking hope not, it’d be the biggest mistake he’d ever make. Don’t worry alright, me and the Boss are going to keep you under our wing, we’re not letting anybody from the MTF do shit to you.”

You nod, ”Thank you, Montehugh.”

You walk through the main room and find Hernández and McTavish at their desks.

“Hi,” McTavish says.

“Hola,” Hernández says with a yawn.

“So they arrested that goblin yesterday and brought him in for questioning,” Hernández says.

“Has he said anything about the gryphons yet?” you ask.

McTavish shakes her head, “No, unfortunately not, he’s refused to say anything at all in fact.”

“Yeah, apparently he keeps singing loudly and off key showtunes every time Davidson and Hodges try to ask him anything more than his name,” Hernández says.

“I..okay,” you mutter.

“BUT the good news is he hasn’t even asked for a lawyer yet,” McTavish adds.

“Yeah we’ll see if we can get a chance to talk to him ourselves, see if we can get him to do something over than sing,” Hernández says.

You see Montehugh walk back into the main room and then head towards you.

The other two agents turn to stare at him as he approaches.

“He’s not in his office he’ll probably be…” Montehugh trails off as you both stare at the blue-haired elf striding into the room.

Kandomere’s eyes scan the room nonchalantly and when they fix on you he stops abruptly.

Oh no.

“Alright, come on, Princess,” Montehugh says and waves for you to follow him.

“What’s going on?” McTavish asks.

“I just need to talk to Kandomere….about…” you trail off as you lift your hand to rub at the mark on your neck that has now faded to only a pinprick.

Hernández nods and puts a hand on Gwen’s shoulder.

“I’ll….be right back,” you promise.

You follow Montehugh and he leads you over to Kandomere.

Kandomere studies you both carefully as you near him and then Montehugh jerks his thumb in the direction of the elf’s office. Kandomere seems to come to his senses and begins heading to his office ahead of you both.

When you reach the door, Montehugh opens it for you and you step inside.

The elf is in the process of removing his jacket and setting it on a coat rack next to his couch.

Kandomere glances up at you briefly, “Have a seat.”

You sit down in a chair in front of his desk and clasp your hands together nervously.

“Boss, there’s something I think the two of you should discuss,” Montehugh says.

Kandomere inhales and then turns to stare at you and he wets his lips.

You chew on your bottom lip and glance down and continue to fidget with your hands.

“It’s about her magic,” Montehugh states.

You glance back up at the elf and he raises his brows and blinks rapidly.

“Her magic?” Kandomere questions confused and then he crosses his arms.

“Yeah, I thought she might avoid telling you, so I wanted to make sure you heard it from her,” Montehugh explains.

Kandomere looks from the man to you, not angry but concerned.

“It’s gone,” you say.

“Not gone, just burnt out,” Montehugh quickly corrects for you.

Kandomere blinks a couple of times and takes a breath and then shakes his head, “Since when?”

You’re quiet as you lift your left hand to your neck and rub at the spot.

Kandomere’s head tilts back as he places his hands on his hips and then steps behind his desk.

Montehugh was right, you were going to avoid telling Kandomere, especially considering how guilty he already felt.

Kandomere sighs and looks to you and his face softens, “Try not to worry yourself too much, your magic will come back to you.”

“That’s what I told her,” Montehugh says as he moves around your chair and sits in one of the chairs to the left against the wall near the filing cabinets.

You nod at the elf and make eye contact.

He opens his mouth to say something and then closes it and turns to stare out his window.

“Perhaps I can make a few calls and see if there are any adverse side effects for Basilisk’s venom we don’t already know about,” Kandomere continues as he rolls up his sleeves.

You stare at his back and the way it flexes as he finishes with his right sleeve and moves to his left. You have the sudden desire to press yourself against his back, and those arms…

You lift your head up as you try to get a better view when you hear someone clear their throat loudly. Your head turns to the left and you lock eyes with Montehugh and you immediately lower your head and pretend to be fixing your hair.

The elf turns at the sound and stares at Montehugh.

You had completely forgotten for a moment that Montehugh was still in the room.

“Maybe Saerthon knows a thing or two?” Montehugh suggests his eyes darting to you briefly.

The elf nods, “It’s possible.”

You don’t really want to pay a visit to Saerthon today.

“Shall we?” Kandomere asks.

You furrow your brows together, “Now?”

Kandomere seems confused by your question, “Yes…”

You sigh and stand up and walk to the door and the elf follows you.

He does not place his hand on your back like he usually does, and you’re both grateful considering how awkward everything is between you two and a little sad.

And it occurs to you it’s because you Want his touch.

Part way down the hall Montehugh, who had been following the two of you, breaks off from your group to step into another office.

“Are you not coming?” you ask stopping to stare at him.

He shakes his head, “Nah, I got some paperwork to do, so you two go on ahead.”

You look back at the elf and then slowly begin walking down the hall again.

When you step into the elevator Kandomere hits the button and moves to rest his hand on your back and stops himself and puts his hands in his pockets instead. You stare down at his right hand and then up at his face and then stare forward again and cross your arms.

So he doesn’t want to touch you anymore…

That’s fine.

It’ll…make things easier.

You continue on to the lab building and Kandomere leads you to Saerthon’s office.

He knocks on the door and after a moment it opens and the older elf appears.

“Oh, hello,” Saerthon greets surprised as he stares at the two of you.

“May we come in?” Kandomere asks.

Saerthon raises his brows and opens the door wider and waves a hand, “I don’t see why not.”

You both step into the elf’s office and Kandomere shuts the door behind you.

“Come to check on our progress?” Saerthon asks with a smile, “We should be ready to hand over your Aunt’s belongings to you by Monday all you’ll need to do is meet with the lawyer first and-“

“Saerthon, what do you know of Basilisk’s venom.?” Kandomere interrupts.

Saerthon furrows his brows confused, “I have already told you what I know.”

“Yes, but are the effects different for a Bright?” Kandomere questions.

The other elf looks to you and then back at Kandomere, “I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

“Can it make a Bright lose their magic?” Kandomere asks.

Saerthon blinks, “I. DON’T. KNOW. Every Bright is different and it’s impossible to say what affects one will affect another.”

Kandomere inhales and then stares at you, “Step outside for a moment, please,” he says and he opens the door for you.

You stare at the door and then at Kandomere and step out of the room.

He closes the door behind you and you hear the conversation continues in Övüsi.

“{I thought you were supposed to be an expert?}” Kandomere demands.

“{Yes, on magic artifacts. SHE is not a magic artifact,}” Saerthon says loudly.

“{And yet you can’t figure out why one has claimed her either,}” Kandomere says.

You turn from the door to stare down the hall.

The key.

You begin to quietly move down the hall.

”{Honestly, if I didn’t know any better I would say you were getting Attached to this woman,}” Saerthon says.

You pause.

You hear Kandomere’s voice next, but it’s too low for you to hear, and then the door opens and he steps out. He glances around and then finally spots you further down the hall from him.

Kandomere briskly walks towards you and his eyes glance down the hall, “What are you doing?” he asks softly.

You glance down the hall behind you, “I…I don’t know,” you admit quietly.

His hand moves to tilt your chin up, but you shy away from his touch.

Kandomere seems hurt by this and withdraws his hand, “We’re not that desperate,” he whispers, “We’re never going to be that desperate.”

You bite your lip and nod and then walk past him towards the way you had come.

When you walk through the lab you see the Specialist wandering around checking books, you try to avoid her, but she sees you and waves to you.

“You’ll be happy to know that you’ll be getting your things back soon,” she says smiling wide at you.

“Yeah,” you reply dryly.

She takes note of your tone and shifts the books in her hands, “I’m sorry, I know this is a difficult time for you and that it’s not helped by having strangers go through your family member’s belongings.”

You just nod and stare around the room.

Kandomere steps beside you and seems to be waiting for you to leave, “This is your last day, yes?” he asks the elven woman.

“It is,” the Specialist says with a nod, and then she turns to looks at you, “There are a myriad of old canvas paintings that had been hidden amongst other things of your Aunt’s…I’m not certain if you’ve seen them before…”

You shrug your shoulders, “I know she has a few.”

The Specialist shakes her head, “More than a few, there are dozens of them, even some from when she was a young girl.”

You’ve definitely never seen any pictures of Selina that young, maybe she was worried they would get damaged since they’re probably the oldest paintings, still you would like to see them.

“I’ll look at them later,” you decide.

The Specialist nods and turns away as she resumes her work.

You leave the lab and head back towards the office building, and when you and Kandomere both step onto the elevator, Kandomere glances at you and then down at the floor.

You turn to him and stare at him.

He meets your eyes and inhales, “I think we should talk about what happened last night,” he begins.

You don’t want to.

You really don’t want him to just turn you down like this.

“There’s nothing to talk about, Kandomere,” you interrupt.

He blinks and stares at you.

“Nothing happened, so there’s nothing to talk about,” you say with a smile.

He opens his mouth slightly and then slowly nods.

You smile at him again and then step off the elevator when the door opens and leave the elf behind.

You find your way to McTavish and Hernández’s desks who then proceed to brief you on every known Batteredwings member.

And after a couple hours you all head to the break room for coffee.

Hernández is fiddling with the machine trying to get it to turn on, “Come on, you piece of shit.”

“Hey, are you ok?” McTavish asks.

“Huh? Oh…yeah,” you mutter.

“Are you sure? You seem a little sad,” McTavish continues.

You shrug your shoulders, “It’s just not a good day.”

“How come?” Hernández asks turning to you.

“I don’t know things are just a little weird right now,” you say.

“Because of your magic?” McTavish asks quietly.

“Yes…and no,” you continue.

“Okay, what happened?” Hernández asks with a raised brow.

“What makes you think something happened?” you ask defensively.

Hernández crosses her arms.

“Alright, so yesterday…me and Kandomere…” you say rubbing your arms, “Almost kissed,” you whisper.

Both of their eyes widen.

“What?!” Hernández exclaims in a hushed tone, “And you weren’t going to tell me?”

“Wait,” McTavish say closing her eyes and holding her hands up, “Why almost?”

You sigh and shrug your shoulders, “I got embarrassed because a bunch of other agents almost walked in on us and they would have assumed I was sleeping with him and I…I’m just so confused right now,” you blurt out.

“Woah, take it easy,” Hernández says.

“I just don’t know what to do,” you admit.

McTavish puts her hand on your arm, “It sounds like you need to talk about it, so how about we all go to lunch?”

“It’s not even noon yet,” you say.

“Then we’ll do brunch, that’s what people do in this town, right?” Hernández says, “Come on, there’s a café right around the corner.”

                                                                  *******

Kandomere’s mind races as he paces his office.

She said that nothing happened so there’s nothing to talk about, and she had smiled when she said it. A smile that didn’t reach her eyes… another indication that she’s putting on a face for him.

But why?

Why would she feel she could not talk to him about it?

Perhaps she wishes the subject to be dropped because she wished it never happened in the first place?

His heart sinks.

He stops pacing and stares over at his partner, Montehugh, who is currently sitting on his couch opening a snack he got from the vending machine. Their lunch order hasn’t arrived yet and if Kandomere wasn’t so torn up about this woman he would have likely done the same. The elf catches sight of Montehugh’s wedding band on his left hand. There’s something about her response that is unsatisfactory and he’s not sure how to proceed or if at all. She didn’t exactly turn him down, merely dodged his questioning. That’s what’s bothering him, the lack of being able to address the situation. He needs some form of resolution, he needs a definitive answer from her.

But how should he go about that?

In a way that she will feel comfortable discussing it with him?

He stops and stares at Montehugh, “Ulysses?”

His partner stops just as he’s about to take a bite of his cupcake, “Yeah, Boss?” he sighs.

“You’re married, yes?” Kandomere questions.

Montehugh stares blankly at the elf and then blinks and glances down at his hand, “Yeah.”

“How did you go about courting your wife?” Kandomere asks.

“Court?” Montehugh questions confused, “Boss, where is this coming from?” he continues shaking his head.

Kandomere glances down at the floor and exhales slowly, “Our consultant and I…nearly shared our first kiss last night.”

Montehugh’s brows raise and he sets his cupcake down on a napkin, “Nearly?”

Kandomere sighs and resumes pacing.

Montehugh remains on the couch absorbing this new information for a moment.

“Is this why she left in a hurry?” Montehugh asks, “And why you had me pick her up this morning?”

Kandomere falters for a moment and then paces once more.

“Ah, so she turned you down?” Montehugh questions.

“Not…exactly,” Kandomere responds.

Montehugh shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders.

“We were…interrupted and I tried to discuss it with her today but she said ‘that nothing happened and that there was nothing to talk about,’” Kandomere explains.

“Ouch,” Montehugh replies.

Kandomere sighs and runs his hand through his hair.

“So was this before or after she was checking you out?” Montehugh questions.

Kandomere’s eyes widen and he turns towards the man, “What?”

“Was this before or after she was in your office?” Montehugh asks.

Kandomere blinks, “After,” he answers.

“Then there’s still hope for you yet, elf,” Montehugh says with a smile.

“She was?” Kandomere begins hopeful.

“Oh BIG TIME. I’m surprised you didn’t notice actually, but to be fair you had your back turned,” Montehugh says.

Kandomere puffs out his chest a little and smirks.

She DOES find him attractive.

But that still doesn’t answer why she is avoiding him.

“How should I proceed with this courtship?” Kandomere asks.

“Again with that word, what are you talking about?” Montehugh asks.

“Do humans not have courtship rules?” Kandomere asks.

Montehugh stares at him confused and now Kandomere is also confused.

“The steps one would take to woo their potential future spouse?” Kandomere questions.

Montehugh’s brows raise, “Ah ok,” he says nodding, “I don’t think humans have called it that in the last oh I don’t know, two hundred years?”

Kandomere stares at the man, “I am more than a hundred, myself.”

“Look I get that courtship may still be an elf thing, but it’s not a human thing anymore, so you’re gonna need to change your approach,” Montehugh says.

Kandomere blinks and then puts his hands in his pockets, “What do you suggest I do then?”

Montehugh snorts, “You think I have a fucking clue?!”

Kandomere glares at him angrily.

“Look, I’ve been happily married for more than twenty-five years,” Montehugh says holding up his left hand, “You think I have any idea how to date?”

Kandomere straightens and tilts his head to the side.

“Alright, if you still want my advice, I say just ask her out, plain and simple,” Montehugh says.

“Ask her to dinner?” Kandomere asks.

“If that’s your first instinct, then yeah,” Montehugh says.

Kandomere nods, “Dinner would be an appropriate start in a courtship.”

Montehugh smiles, “See? Just be your usual self, she seems to like you well enough.”

Kandomere’s brows furrow, “But what if she says no?”

Montehugh sighs, “That’s always a possibility, I got dumped three times in a row before I met my wife and asked her out. But considering how you two are with each other I got a feeling she’ll say yes.”

“How we are with each other?” Kandomere questions crossing his arms.

Montehugh shakes his head and smiles, “Boss, you let her sleep on your couch, WHILE wearing your expensive suit jacket. Name the last time you let someone do that?”

He can’t.

Because he’s never let someone else sleep on his couch at work.

“Not to mention how you were when we first found her. You and I both know you didn’t need to be so attentive when she was recovering, you could have delegated that to someone else, anyone else,” Montehugh continues.

That was because he had felt responsible for her safety.

She was vulnerable and scared and needed someone to protect her…and he had wanted to be there for her.

And he has been there for her and he wishes to continue to be there for her.

He wants her in his life and it’s a terrifying and daunting task of entering a new relationship, but he’s wiling to take the plunge if she is.

It’s a lot to take in all at once, but he knows what his next step is.

“If you’ll excuse me for a moment,” Kandomere says.

Montehugh huffs as he watches the elf briskly walk out of his own office.

He has to find her.

He has to find this woman who has quickly found a place in his heart.

                                                                  *******

You’re sitting at one of the outdoor tables of a café with Hernández and McTavish, and despite the fact that there’s an amazing spread of breakfast foods in front of you, you can’t find it in you to eat any of it.

Your stomach is too busy being twisted in knots at the moment.

“Alright, so you almost kissed him, and then you were embarrassed because other people intruded on your intimate moment with the elf, correct?” Hernández asks.

“Correct,” you confirm.

She nods, “So what’s the issue now? What’s the part you’re confused about?”

“I’m actually fine now and I’m…not going to try to kiss him again,” you lie.

The two agents exchange confused glances.

“I thought you liked him?” McTavish asks.

You shake your head, “Kandomere’s nice and all, but I don’t want to date him.”

Hernández narrows her eyes and then wafts the steam from her coffee, “Mmm smell that Gwen? It’s a cup of bullshit.”

You roll your eyes and cross your arms, “I…look I already told Kandomere that nothing happened between us.”

“You told him what?!” McTavish exclaims.

“So the elf did try to talk to you about it and you….just brushed him off?” Hernández questions.

“Okay, wait a minute did you actually want to talk about your feelings or not?” McTavish asks.

“I think she wants to avoid her feelings,” Hernández says.

“There aren’t any feelings,” you lie.

You’re feeling embarrassed that you even brought it up.

You just want to drop the subject and go back to the way things were.

Hernández raises her brows and stares at you.

McTavish shakes her head and reaches for one of her muffins, “She’s in denial.”

“Oh big time,” Hernández says.

“I’m not in-“ you begin.

“Yeah, you are,” Hernández interrupts.

“You two have been giving each other these soulful looks for ages now, so you should just ask him out already,” McTavish says with her mouth full of banana nut muffin.

Your shoulders droop, “Kandomere and I…would never work out.”

“WHY?” Hernández questions.

“BECAUSE he’s an ELF,” you state.

“Are You bothered by the fact that he’s an elf?” Hernández asks.

“I…no,” you admit.

”Then what’s the problem?” McTavish asks.

“Kandomere’s an elf, and I’m…not,” you say, “He wouldn’t want me.”

Hernández throws her head back and groans, “MI DIOS! Was I this bad?!”

You stare at her confused for a moment.

She lowers her head and glares at you, “Just date the elf already!”

You shake your head, “I don’t even like him,“ you lie.

“BULLSHIT!” Hernández exclaims, “You two are so fucking soft on each other I think you’re actually going to give me cavities!”

“Gabriela,” McTavish says.

“Don’t Gabriela me! This is important Gwen,” Hernández says to her partner before turning on you again, “You can lie to yourself all you want, but you can’t lie to me, because I’ve been where you are.”

You lean back in your chair silently.

“You can’t be afraid to live your life because other people don’t approve of your choices, alright? Because you never know, one morning you might wake up and find that your head over heels in love with the person sleeping next to you and then suddenly find yourself shopping for an engagement ring to propose to your girlfriend of six years,” Hernández continues.

You slowly uncross your arms, you hadn’t thought of it like that.

“I know you’re scared, shit I’m scared still, this world isn’t very accepting of ‘unconventional’ couples. But if you don’t follow your heart and see where this goes? You are going to be kicking yourself for it later,” Hernández says.

You take a breath and stare down at your untouched food.

You…actually really do like Kandomere.

You have for a while now.

You were caught off guard when he had initiated a kiss.

You didn’t want to let yourself hope that he would ever reciprocate the feelings you had for him. Feelings, that you’re still sifting through, but…you really like him. You actually want to cuddle with him on your couch again and watch shitty documentaries.

“Do…you think he likes me?” you ask still worried.

“Absolutely, he’s never been like this with anyone before,” Hernández says.

McTavish nods in agreement.

You smile and then frown, “So do I….ask for his number or something?”

Hernández pauses for a moment, “You could probably just pick back up where you left off, just talk to him this time.”

You nod, “That’s…probably a good place to start.”

You finally pick up your utensils and start eating your food.

“So when were you going to tell me that you were planning to propose to Josefina?” McTavish asks.

“Uh…I was actually going to ask for your help in picking out a ring,” Hernández says.

You listen to their conversation about rings and think about what you’re going to say to Kandomere now.

After brunch you all head back to work, and as you walk into the main room there’s a few agents standing near Hernández’s and McTavish’ desks. Hernández steers you all towards them and you see Davidson and his partner Hodges are talking to a handful of other agents.

“Yeah that goblin hasn’t said shit,” Davidson says.

“Unless, it’s singing,” the short-haired, blonde man Hodges adds.

“Isn’t this the third time you’ve ‘interrogated’ him?” Hernández asks in annoyance.

Davidson turns to her, “Yeah so?”

“And you still couldn’t get anything?” Hernández asks.

Davidson pushes back his greasy hair, “Well, I’d like to see you do better, Gabi.”

You watch as Hernandez’s hands clench into fists, “My name is Gabriela Elena Maria Hernández.”

There’s a slight upwards tilt to Davidson’s mouth, “Gabi, if you want to hear the goblin’s little songs so bad why don’t you just go talk to him yourself?”

“Maybe I will, afterall SOMEONE needs to do their job around here,” Hernández remarks and turns on her heel. The other agents around Davidson eye him with disapproval and then start to disperse, and Davidson seems irritated by the lack of an audience.

You and McTavish follow Hernández back to the elevator and take it down.

“You can’t let him get to you,” McTavish says softly.

“I know, I know,” Hernández grumbles.

You all walk out of this building and towards the one where you’ve spent time recovering from injuries.

McTavish opens the first door and you and Hernández follow and then McTavish opens the second door into the lobby area of the building.

Hernández approaches the desk of the guard stationed in the front, “We need to speak to the Batteredwings member that was recently arrested.”

The guard nods and pulls out some paperwork for Hernández and McTavish to sign and then makes a call over the radio.

After a few minutes a second guard appears and then escorts the three of you up the stairs and to one of the interrogation rooms and unlocks it.

Hernández and McTavish enter first and you follow them shortly after.

As you step into the interrogation room, there’s a four-foot tall, green and freckled goblin seated in a chair behind a table in ripped jeans and a cutoff jean-jacket vest with a white, stained tank top on underneath. You also notice that there’s a feathered wing embroidered on the vest with tattered feathers outlined in red thread.

The goblin is grumpily slumped in his chair with his arms folded over his chest.

“So Gargef-“ Hernández begins pulling out her own chair opposite the goblin.

“GARG,” the goblin growls.

Hernández sits down and stares at him, “Alright, Garg. You’re in some pretty deep shit.”

Garg rolls his eyes and scoffs.

“Something funny about that?” McTavish questions seriously.

The goblin’s eyes dart to McTavish and then briefly to Hernández before he stares at the wall.

“YOUR van was full of illegal gryphon organs, and we already know your friends were intending to sell them. So possession and intent to sell…” Hernández trails off and tsks, “That’s a whole lot of jail time. But maybe…if you tell us where your amigos are keeping the gryphons we could cut you a deal.”

Garg turns back to Hernández and snarls, “Yeah right, I ain’t tellin’ you shit lady!”

“So how exactly does a gang go from chicken fights to gryphon fights?” McTavish demands now pacing back and forth in front if the table.

You watch Garg closely and see that there’s a flicker of nervousness in his eyes, but then he tilts his head up and says, “It’s called expansion.”

“Expansion?” Hernández prompts.

“Yeah, you know enterprising. We’ve been pushed around for far too long by all these bigger races,” Garg says.

“Ah so it is a power grab then?” Hernández asks.

“People underestimate us, think since we’re small and green we’re not a threat. So the Boss wanted us to bring in some bigger ‘entertainment’ to prove to everyone else that we’re not to be fucked with,” Garg continues.

Hernández nods, “And how did your ‘Boss’ come across these gryphons? Must have been pretty hard to wrangle them all yourself.”

Garg snorts, “Not really, we got the first two from some smugglers and then we drove out to a known nesting site, shot them full of tranquilizer and brought them back here on trucks, and now…everybody is talking about us.”

McTavish continues to pace back and forth behind you, “So where are they now?”

Garg shifts in his seat uncomfortably and falls silent.

“WHERE ARE THE GRYPHONS?!” McTavish demands again and slams her hands down on the table.

Garg’s eyes widen and he leans back in alarm and looks to Hernández.

Hernández puts her hand up and McTavish steps back and stares at the goblin.

“Just tell us where the Batteredwings are keeping the gryphons,” Hernández says calmly.

Garg looks between Hernández and McTavish and then he looks to you and you feign a worried look at McTavish and Garg glances back at Hernández.

“Alright, just keep that Dwarf away from me!” Garg exclaims pointing at McTavish.

Hernández pretends to shoo her partner away and McTavish turns around and smiles at you.

Garg leans in towards Hernández, “We’ve been keeping them separated and only bringing them out for fights, but the Boss isn’t happy with just one on one gryphon fights anymore, so we’re planning a big event at the end of the month with all of them together.”

“So they’ll all be in the same place at the same time?” Hernández asks, “But you don’t know where they are now?”

“Yeah that’s all I know, only the Boss knows where all of them are,” Garg says.

Hernández nods again, “So who is this ‘Boss’ of yours? If you’re so proud of how the Batteredwings are doing, why trust an elf to be in charge? I thought you hated elves just as much as everyone else?”

Garg opens his mouth and then closes it and leans back in his chair, “I want to speak to a lawyer.”

Hernández sighs and stands up, “Then I guess we’re done here.”

“For now,” McTavish adds.

And then you all step out of the room again.

There’s now an additinal guard standing outside and they both enter the room to take Garg back to his holding cell. You follow Hernández and McTavish back down the stairs and out of the building and then back across the grass once more.

“Hey, we’re pretty much done for the day,” Hernández says.

“Already?” you ask surprised.

Hernández yawns, “Yeah, it’s only a half day today, so we’re just going to take you back up to get your stuff and then head out.”

“I think ‘Your elf’ didn’t want you to overwork yourself after just getting back,” McTavish says with a smile.

You smile to yourself.

You take the elevator back up and head back towards the desks to gather your things and then start to head back to the elevators.

“We’ll be just a minute we just have to tell some of the other agents what Garg told us,” Hernández says.

“You can go ahead and head down to the ground floor and wait for us there,” McTavish says.

You nod and head towards the elevators again.

As the doors start to close you hear a familiar voice say, “Hold the elevator.”

                                                                 *******

“Hold the elevator,” he says as he watches her disappear into it.

His Bright pushes the hold door button and he strides into the elevator. She glances up at him briefly and then presses the ground floor button.

The doors slowly close and the elevator begins moving.

He stands beside her fidgeting with his hand as he tries to think of a way to ask her while simultaneously resisting the urge to wrap an arm around her.

He notices her glance at him out of the corner of her eye.

Well, it’s now or never.

He turns to her and she looks up at him curiously.

“Would you…” he begins as he stares into her beautiful eyes as she blinks slowly, “Like to join me for dinner?”

Her eyes widen slightly in surprise and the elevator stops and the doors open.

The woman turns towards the doors and he’s afraid she’s going to leave without even answering, but instead she just stands there and says nothing.

Then she slowly blinks and she turns back to look up at him, “Like a date?” she asks softly.

He wets his lips and nods slowly.

She gives him a small smile and glances down shyly and then her eyes meet his, “I would love to.”

Kandomere’s heart leaps and he smiles, “I’ll pick you up tomorrow at seven.”

She smiles wider and nods.

He reaches for her hand and brings it to his lips and she gasps as a furious blush colors her cheeks. He then trails his lips lightly over her knuckles and she continues to blush and starts to glance down shyly, although she makes no move to withdraw from him.

God, he adores her.

He starts to let her hand go and she seems to remember that she had got on the elevator for a reason. Her hand slowly slips out of his and she walks backwards out of the elevator.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” she says.

He smiles wide at her and she returns it.

“Goodbye, Querida,” he says.

“Goodbye, Kandomere,” she says and then she walks away finally.

Kandomere exhales and pushes the button for his floor and takes the elevator back up.

The elf walks confidently back into his office and Montehugh stares at him, “Well? How’d it go?”

Kandomere stuffs his hands back into his pockets and grins, “She agreed to a date.”

Montehugh claps his hands together, “See? Now was that so hard?”

“Immensely,” Kandomere responds, “But it seems I have preparations to make for my date tomorrow.”

[love-and-monsters]

Alien Encounter Pt. 10: Confession

The book contained no further answers for what the symbol meant. At least, not that I could read. There were few images, except for other symbols and a few pictures of other members of Valain’s species. It made the text almost impossible to decipher. Still, I flipped through it, trying to see if there were any words I could start to decipher. Considering that I didn’t even know what sounds any of the letters were supposed to represent, I was having a hard time getting anywhere with it.

It wasn’t until bright, golden light started to filter through the windows that I realized how late it was, or, really, how early. I’d been reading by the pale, greenish light of one of the small, bioluminescent plants Valain kept around the house. I’d been reading constantly throughout the night and I hadn’t gotten anywhere with it.

I moved to put the book back on the table where I’d found it, but my legs had locked from sitting in the same position for so long. As soon as I made to straighten them, I fell to one side, almost hitting my head on a table leg.

“Anya?” Valain jolted awake, looking around in panic. As soon as he saw me lying on the floor, he scrambled over. “Are you all right?”

I pushed myself up awkwardly. One of my arms was definitely bruised and my wrist ached; it had never healed properly since I’d broken it in the crash. “I’m fine. Just fell over.”

Valain reached for the book. “What were you doing with this?” he asked. His tone was sharp.

“I was, uh. I was trying to read it?” I offered. Valain put the booked back on the table and flipped through a few pages, apparently examining them for damage. After a few minutes, he seemed satisfied and he placed the book into a cabinet.

“Be careful,” he said. “That book’s old. Really old. It’s been in my family for a long time.”

“Sorry,” I said. Valain shrugged, sitting back on the floor next to me.

“It’s more my fault for leaving it out, I suppose,” he said. “Were you, uh. Reading through it?” He looked faintly nervous. That did not give me a great feeling about what that symbol meant.

“I was trying to, but I couldn’t piece anything together. Learning a completely alien language isn’t easy,” I said.

“Your translator doesn’t work on writing?” Valain asked, tapping a finger against his head, roughly where my translator was implanted. I shook my head.

“Nah. It was optimized for interspecies communication, not for written translation. I think it’s tied to the auditory processing center in my brain, so it does nothing for anything that’s been written down.”

Valain considered for a moment, then grabbed a tablet from the table and typed something out on it. “So if I were to say “Good morning,” he said as he typed, “and write it down at the same time, you would be able to understand what I was saying, but you couldn’t read this?” He showed me the screen. It was just several odd symbols.

“No. I can’t. I just said that.”

Valain turned the screen back toward him and frowned at it for a moment. “Well,” he said, after a moment, “I suppose that makes it easier to teach you how to read.”

I blinked at him. “You want to teach me how to read?” It didn’t seem so strange, really, but it had never been something that had come up throughout the months I’d spent with him. I’d just assumed he hadn’t really known how to teach me and had simply left it at that.

“It might cut down on your boredom if you have to be by yourself a lot,” Valain said. “And it’s a good skill to learn regardless.”

“Do you want to start now?” I asked. Valain nodded, smiling at the obvious eagerness in my tone.

“I should get the book back down,” he said. “It’s not exactly a simple book to read, but I don’t have much else I can give you to start off with. They don’t allow us Interconnect out here and I think learning with a book is a much better feeling than trying to read on a pad.” He retrieved the book and brought it down, setting it in front of me. I took it and carefully skimmed a few pages, locating the one with the symbol on it. I fully opened the book and held it out to him.

“Let’s start here.” One of Valain’s ears twitched. His expression wrinkled slightly as he looked down at the page. I couldn’t tell if he recognized the symbol or not. Then he gave a shaky-sounding laugh and reached out to grab the book.

“Maybe we could try a different page?” he offered. His grin was too large and slightly too anxious to be real. He had definitely noticed the symbol. “Shouldn’t we start at the beginning? That’s more reasonable, isn’t it?”

I frowned. “Why not this page? It doesn’t really matter, does it?”

Valain frowned. “If it doesn’t matter, why do you want it to be this page in particular?” His voice was still a little anxious, but I could tell he was trying to bluff his way through it. It was strange how well I could discern his mannerisms and tones after only a few months with him. Usually it took me a while to figure out alien mannerisms, but he seemed like an open book.

“Well,” I said slowly. There was no need to hide this from him, was there? I would have to tell him eventually anyway. “I was thinking that the symbol there looks like the one that you put on my vaya yesterday. And I was just wondering what it meant.”

Valain looked at the page for a long moment and I thought that he wasn’t going to answer. Then he took a deep breath and smiled. “I should have been more careful with the book,” he said. “All right. If you want to know it, then you’ll have to read it for yourself. I’ll teach you how to read the summary.”

As it turned out, learning how to read was a slow, and ultimately frustrating process. The alphabet was entirely different from any other language I’d learned, and that wasn’t even getting started on the word structure and grammar.

“Okay, so try to sound this one out,” Valain said, tapping the fourth word in the sentence I’d been struggling with.

“R-” I started, then stumbled to a stop. “Ah, rl-”

“No,” Valain cut me off gently. “Sal only makes an ‘l’ sound when it’s paired with vet. Right now, it’s paired with nos. So, what sound does that make?” He looked at me hopefully. No matter how much I screwed up and how long it took me to figure out even the simplest words, he was always patient and understanding. Whenever I managed to get something right, he looked beyond proud.

“Uh.” I squinted at the page. “Um. Does it make an ‘o’ sound?”

Valain beamed at me. “Yes, that’s it!”

I let out a breath and continued with the word. “Romantic?”

“Mmhmm.” Valain shifted the lamp we were huddled under a little closer to us and leaned into my shoulder. I could smell him, I realized. It was a pleasant smell, not unlike the smell that sometimes came after a rainstorm. “Try the next one.”

“Romantic… l… life?”

“Love,” Valain corrected. “You were close.”

“Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”

Valain stared at me. “What?”

“Nothing. It’s just an old saying.” I sighed as I peered at the book again. “You’re sure you can’t just read it out to me?”

“No work, no reward,” Valain said. “That’s an old saying here.”

I groaned, but Valain wasn’t moved. It was almost a sort of dance at this point. I would suggest that he read out loud to me, he would refuse, and we would go back and forth until I got tired of sounding out words and we went to bed. Despite the difficulty of the whole affair, I still liked it. It was a cozy, quiet time, where our attention was focused on each other and the book.

Admittedly, having Valain so close to me didn’t exactly make it easier to concentrate, but I didn’t really mind.

“The domain of romantic love is… or is that belongs to?” I asked, glancing at Valain.

“It could be either. In the context, it doesn’t matter,” he said.

“Okay, so then the domain of romantic love belongs to…” I stopped. “What does that say?”

“Sobaria,” Valain said. “She’s the aspect of love and connections between people.” He tapped the symbol on the page. “That’s her symbol.”

My stomach did a flip. I couldn’t tell if it was due to excitement or nerves. “Oh,” I said in a slightly strangled voice. Valain gave me a small smile and cleared his throat.

“Keep reading,” he said, tapping a claw against the page. “You can do it.”

I licked my lips and looked back at the page. “Er. The… realm? Of Sobaria ex… extends to… all forms of love… but romance is her primary sphere.” It was getting easier to read the more I tried. Valain seemed tense. I could feel how nervous he was just from how quick his breathing was. “Her… symbol… remains a… popular way to… declare… romantic interest.”

Valain shrank back slightly, ears pinned to his head. His skin had taken on a distinct, dark blue tint. He was blushing. I stared at him. “That symbol is used to ask people out?”

“Typically, yes.” His voice wasn’t a lot stronger than a mumble. “Often the tradition is to give someone food with the symbol written on it. If the person eats it, then they’ve accepted. If they don’t, it’s a rejection.”

 I frowned. “Were you trying to trick me into saying yes to you? Because I didn’t know what it meant?”

Valain shrank close to the ground, almost pressing himself against it. “No, no! It doesn’t count if you don’t know what it means, obviously not!” He stared down at the ground, unable to look into my face. “It was a stupid idea to give it to you, really. It didn’t do anything, it didn’t really mean anything because you didn’t know what it meant. B-but I just felt like… it was something I wanted to give you. Even if it didn’t mean anything to you, it meant something to me… and I thought doing it traditionally would maybe help me get my courage up to ask you properly.”

I felt like my entire body was shaking with every beat of my heart. My mouth was dry as a bone. It took several convulsive swallowed to get it wet enough to speak. “You want to ask me out? Romantically?”

Valain peeked up at me, then looked back down at the floor. His tail swished back and forth. “Yes. I’ve wanted to for a little while. It’s all right if you don’t want to. I understand that it might be weird for you, because I’m not the same species and because of the situation we have here. I just wanted you to know, I guess.”

“It’s not weird to me to date an alien. It’s always been a possibility to me. Are you sure you’re okay with this?” I asked.

“I’ve spent the last few years feeling like I couldn’t connect with anyone around me. Then you came and suddenly it’s so easy to connect with you. I don’t care what species you are. I know that I love you.” He stiffened as the words spilled out of his mouth. I felt my own face become a mask of shock. He came out of it first. “It’s true,” he said. “I do love you.” He swallowed. “I suppose I just thought it would be better if you knew. I didn’t want to keep it a secret anymore.”

It was hard to find something to say. “I… don’t know if I exactly love you as well,” I said. Valain’s ears drooped and I heard his swishing tail hit the ground with a thud. Still, he kept a smile on his face, though it had become significantly strained. “No, no, I don’t mean that I don’t love you at all!” Valain frowned, strained smile dropping away to be replaced by a look of confusion. “It’s, um. Complicated, I guess. I think I have a crush on you, but I want more time before things get more intense. I’m not saying no, I’m just saying… can we take it slow?”

Valain smiled. This time, it was a gentle, completely relaxed smile. An understanding smile. “I didn’t anything to come of what happened during the picnic. I wasn’t trying to trick you into a relationship, really. I don’t want to pressure you into doing anything you don’t want to. I like you a lot. I want you to be happy. If going slow makes you happy, then I want to do so. We can go as slow or as fast as you like. I just want to make you happy.”

His voice was warm enough to make me smile, almost involuntarily. “Thank you,” I said. “That makes me feel better.”

“I’m glad.” He pressed close to me, letting our shoulder press together. I felt him glance at me, hesitating briefly to ensure that I was still comfortable. When I relaxed against him, he did the same against me. “Would you like to keep reading, or do you not care anymore now that you know what Sobaria’s symbol means?”

“I’d like to keep reading,” I said. “I think I’d just like to spend a little more time with you.”

Valain’s tail curled around my waist. His fins tickled across my stomach and his cheek was very close to mine. “I think I’d like that as well,” he murmured. I felt my breathing catch as his breath touched my cheek. After taking a moment to get myself back under control, I looked back at the book and began to struggle my way through the next paragraph.

It didn’t feel quite as frustrating this time, somehow.

  Miles away, just above the upper atmosphere, a silvery spacecraft hovered. “Target located,” the onboard computer and navigation system droned. “Spacecraft of Anya Everson has been locked onto. Descent into atmosphere will begin just after nightfall on the surface.”

[pilferingapples]

For the ask meme poetry smash for ship and Bahorel for character if they have not been asked?

Aaaah this one will definitely have to be under the cut XD

Bahorel!!

How I feel about this character:

TARGETED, ATTACKED, SINGLED OUT. :P

I love the way he’s introduced right up in the context of state violence and civil unrest and then his intro just saunters on cheerfully into Wacky Fun but then veers back into Social Uprisings-I have a Lot Of Feelings about that kind of Chaotic Joy combo  and this post is already so long but AUGH, MY FEELINGS. 

And aside from All My Emotions about him as a character in the story, he and Prouvaire were what really got me to look into French Romanticism in particular and now I’ve got a major Life Interest and all this metacanon overlaying the fictional character and the whole dang novel  so it’s a  whole This Character Changed My Life thing now?!? 

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character:

more Romantically than romantically, really, but you know it’s Prouvaire XD  ..and also I’m open to being sold on about any pairing for him, really, depending on how it’s written-- he’s not a very picket-fence-domestic character to me so there’s no big contradiction there :P

(This also includes the Laughing Mistress- I like a lot of versions of her, but not every one, and she’s a character fans pretty much have to make their own, so! it’s not a thing I can say I *always* enjoy reading)

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character:

his instant Avatars of Paris Unite!! bond with Gavroche, of course :D 

My unpopular opinion about this character:

He’s not replaceable or graftable onto the other Amis in any way that works with any sort of detailed adaptation!  He’s got a specific character and a specific role and it’s important,  dang it, there’s a whole dialogue about the role of street violence in the ideal of the revolution in there and  how it gets cyclical and put him in your adaptations and give him his scenes, you cowards  **shakes fist**

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

Wow it’s great that after the uprising he took on Gavroche as his Apprentice Hellraiser and went on to long weird successful career as a civil activist /organizer, what a good story ;__; 

Favorite friendship for this character:

Leaving aside the two people Already Named, I’ve got So Many Feelings and Ideas about his friendship with Enjolras? They’re so wildly different (and Bahorel knows it!)  and so intense in ways that are actively contradictory but they obviously work well together and love each other and that is fascinating to me! 

My crossover ship:

Well now that Fixa’s mentioned it I’m never going to be able to not  think of him with Porthos, being Terrible Carousing Combat Nightmares together XD

002 Shipping  Questions

Poetry Smash

When I started shipping them:

agh geez, I don’t even remember Not?  When I first read the book, maybe?!? I know they’re in some of my very earliest fanart (and if anyone reblogs it I will DELETE IT oh gad the Shame but still...it’s a Record...)  Even before I knew The Backstory, I recognized them as having , potentially, one of my Favorite Ship Dynamics, so I was sunk early on XDAnd then I found out about the Metacanon and My Life Was Changed Forever.

My thoughts:

I don’t see this pair as ever fitting into the “ settle down”  pattern ever, at all. Not just in the sense that I don’t think they’re a Permanent Lifebonded Monogamy kind of pairing (though I very very much don’t; I can see them going through phases of being intensely Together and phases where they don’t see each other for weeks outside of gatherings with other friends and they’re always open to New/ Other Grand Romances, it’s all good, they Follow Their Passions) , but  in the sense that I don’t think they’re a  calming  force on each other at all. There is no Reasonable One in this relationship--they run on a “ Yes, and”  basis. Like:“ We should go to the top of Notre Dame in the night, so we can see the city under the stars.” “ Yes! And we can recite some of the grand combat from Hugo’s novel when we do!” “ Yes and! we should take a great banner proclaiming the endurance of the Republic and hang it for all to see!” “ Yes! and--”  

At no point will either of them even consider saying “ wait, but--”, it’s just constant amplification until they wake up three days later going “what omnibus hit me and where did I get a llama”  and that’s essential to how they Work as a pair, romantically or otherwise 

What makes me happy about them:

Hijinks! Emotional soul-baring! Cheerful but serious fascinations with Death (the Ultimate Betrothal!) !  

What makes me sad about them:

DO YOU REMEMBER OUR SWEET LIFE **sobs forever**(does this question even need to be answered in this fandom, really)

Things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Nuh-uh-uh, listen, SOME fancy people might be so very buried in fanfic for their pairing that they can be all picky, but me? this? there are like five people who write anything for it EVER and I Love Them For It, maybe we have some different interpretations!  maybe they do settings or stories I wouldn’t write if I could write! But they’re singing a version of My Song even if it’s in a different key and I just vastly appreciate it *__*

Things I look for in fanfic:

...ex...istence... A Lot Of Feelings , displayed very openlyAlso both of them being coequal Partners in Havoc, action and emotion-wise , in their own way.

My wishlist:

i always love Magical Realism or Fantasy-tinted AUs with these two?  And i love it when someone can write into their heads a bit and it feels Real And Right--that’s too subjective for me to name Specific Things but I know it when I see it and I am always Elated. 

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

Oh, I don’t think of them as “ ending up with”  each other, or anyone? Neither of them is a very...Ending Up With kind of person. I never think of them as a permanent, exclusive kind of thing, and I have zero problem with people writing them having other lovers or even spouses; it’s easy for me to imagine them still wandering happily into and out of each others’ paths forever regardless of whatever else is going on. 

...Anyone who’s gonna be with either of them long-term needs to be totally onboard with The Romanticist Soul, though,or their life will be hellllllll, gad, imagine trying to live with that kind of Energy when you don’t share it?!? 

My happily ever after for them:

 a young but thriving Republic , where there’s room for Weirdo Artists and their movements to develop without censors and arrests , and a large house somewhere in Paris with friends and people wanting to argue with them going in and out all the time. Everyone’s Fine and all the duels end in comedic misadventure, IT’S FINE EVERYONE IS FINE.

[prettywordsyouleft]

Different Kisses with Kyungsoo

Thank you @vnrgaard​ and @nyx-goddess-of-choas​ (requested privately) for requesting Kyungsoo’s kisses! I figured since today is his birthday, it would make complete sense to fulfil this request now – not only do we get some stellar kissing with Soo today, but it means I’ve ticked off another request on my list so it’s a win/win! I feel like I went really in-depth in some points because Kyungsoo is my ultimate bias and I have no chill, but I hope you enjoy the extra content all the same! I didn’t do the conclusion like I usually do as this is already longer than usual!

(I’m sorry I couldn’t help but use this gif even though it’s missing his face >_>)

When Kyungsoo kisses you it’s as if nothing else matters in the world anymore.

First kiss:

Your first kiss with Kyungsoo was a long time coming and yet still blind-sighted you. He was a regular at the boutique movie theatre and café your family ran, appearing at least three times a month to watch old films at the last viewing time of the night. He’d always come to that last viewing, and in the beginning, it used to irk you as hardly anyone would come that late at night and you could close up if no tickets were bought. Soon, you knew his order well, smiling at him happily when you saw him. At first, he wasn’t one to talk after asking for a ticket and his snacks, his eyes darting away whenever you caught his gaze. After a couple of months though, he started asking about your day, shyly making basic conversation with you until it didn’t feel awkward any more. You would laugh with him, he would tell you about some of the things he had been up to or about his dogs. You loved animals and this was where your conversation really deepened, once you had an established common ground, you discovered more about each other as you got his snacks ready each time.

Sometimes you would sneak into the theatre with the guise of quietly cleaning up the aisles behind him, and you would find yourself more entranced by the man who appeared for the late night session and had the most beautiful round eyes that looked out at you warmly from behind thick-rimmed glasses.

“Why don’t you just sit down and watch it with me?” he said one time when you were cleaning, not looking over his shoulder at you, but all too aware of how close you were. You had sat behind him and watched on, but not at the movie. From that moment on, you started coming in to watch with him. You’d sit in the same row and then finally next to him, analysing the movies together and discussing your thoughts when it ended. You highly anticipated Kyungsoo’s appearances and the feeling that would overwhelm you every time his hand would brush against yours in the popcorn he shared with you or if his knee hit yours. You were falling for the dark-haired man, and you didn’t know what to do about it.

The feeling was mutual for Kyungsoo. Even as someone who was an avid movie enthusiast, he had blurred the lines of why he came to this theatre over time. Initially, he liked the feeling of being in the older styled theatre to watch the classics in. The atmosphere was enticing, but your smile was better. He felt juvenile whenever he approached you; wanting to tell you how beautiful you were but not wanting to scare you off either. The growth of your relationship made him more frustrated, you could discuss everything together except the obvious feelings you both held. He wanted to make you his, to tell you that he dreamt of you and how your smile was embedded in his mind. But every time he’d think of how to tell you this, to utter the words he had practised so many times aloud at home as if lines for his own acting, he’d feel as if the words got lodged in this throat and wouldn’t come out. He’d simply stare at your smiling face dumbly until you finally got up out of your chair and gestured that the session was over. Another wasted chance.

After seven months of visiting the theatre, the sessions were no longer enjoyable. It was heightened, the tension thick as each slightest movement caused friction. He couldn’t concentrate on the movie and when you moved your leg it made him groan. You asked if he was okay and he stood up immediately, preparing to leave. You got up as well and grabbed his arm, looking at him with concern. None of the words wanted to work, but his lips knew what needed to happen, finding yours and kissing you with demand. He had hoped for a soft, tender moment for the first kiss, but he was desperate to let the feelings that had been pressing against his ribcage all night long out. It surprised him when you kissed him back with just as much energy, holding onto his shirt to ground you in the moment.

When you both pulled away breathlessly, there were still no words shared, but the smiles you gave each other – mixed with sheer happiness and relief – made you both realise how much the other had wanted this for a long time.

Public kisses:

Kyungsoo is the king of fleeting subtle touches when in public. He’s not going to outwardly show any PDA towards you except holding your hand, but he’s definitely still active in expressing his affection for you. His most common move is brushing his hand against the small of your back unexpectedly as he walks by you, looking discreetly over his shoulder to see your reaction. He likes playing with how much pressure he holds your hand with as well, to let you know he’s thinking about more than just walking at your side pleasantly. These unexpected (even after all this time they still surprise you even though you anticipate it) gestures make your heart beat faster and you smile up at him warmly, Kyungsoo knowing just how much you love when he does this to you. Sometimes you try to give him little messages back and watch as his cheeks flush as he tries to keep his expression nonchalant. You know all too well that he’s dying on the inside as you do and the look he gives you makes you very aware that when at home he’s going to hold you to him for some time so you best forget about any plans you had.

Despite not really showing your relationship off with PDA, you’re not a stay-at-home couple either. You go out when you can, mostly to try new restaurants that Kyungsoo is too excited over or to watch movies at theatres other than your own – of course, you still go there too for special occasions. A lot of your dates occur at night time which seems to suit Kyungsoo, as if the darkened atmosphere brings less attention to him and allows him more chances to touch, smile and gaze at you adoringly.

And if you can’t get out properly, night drives are definitely a thing. With the tinted glass on his car, he has no worries about placing his hand on your thigh or encasing your hand in his, lots of light conversation and sweet gazes or gestures occupying the space as you travel around mindlessly. You have to admit, you love nothing more than watching him drive and snuggling up into the passenger chair with some part of you touching him, sometimes allowing things to grow to an insatiable level, with a strong desire to get back home and make sure your love is heard all around the bedroom.

Private kisses:

Being together at home is one of Kyungsoo’s favourite things. He loves all the time he gets to spend with you, but there’s nothing more that speaks to him than doing the most mundane domestic things together. For him, it shows promise for your future together as a married couple, and he takes great pride in establishing good routines now as you are dating. He is methodical and diligent, and your home shows this whenever he is not away. You admit that you’re not nearly as onto things cleaning wise as he is, but he’s definitely improved your attempts with how easily he can get you enthused to help him with tasks around the house. The kitchen is his baby though, and cooking together is the highlight of most days. Sometimes he allows you to assist him, teaching you recipes so you can make them when he’s away, and others you merely assist by watching him in his element and handing him the seasoning or something. Either way, the kitchen makes Kyungsoo’s pride shine and it’s so attractive that you cannot help but move to give him a  back hug and kiss him when he turns around, telling him how attractive Chef Soo really is. It makes him beam shyly but he continues with more vigour, satisfied he makes meals that touch you with his efforts and for their impeccable taste.

He is a hopeless romantic and a bit of a love-fool when it comes to you. Whilst out in public he barely touches you, at home cuddles are a big thing. He loves holding you to him, even going as far as making you sit between his legs as you both read your own books/scriptures to feel connected to you at all times. Kisses to the top of your head are mindlessly placed upon you, and you angle your head to peck his neck in response, sometimes stopping for a deeper kiss and then smiling at each other. He’s not super clingy though and can allow you to do your own thing without disrupting you, knowing how important it is to have your own individual time too. All the same, if you’re in the same space, his eyes often trail off his own task and over to you, random compliments being delivered to you when you least expect it. He is gentlemanly, and takes really good care of you, ensuring all your needs are met and cares a great deal for your health too. He still courts you to this day, pressing the doorbell some nights instead of coming inside and thrusts your favourite flowers at you with a knowing smile on his face. Even after all this time, you can excite each other well, the romance between you only growing in its flames, not dying off.

Making out:

Kyungsoo worships you physically and making out sessions are passionate and sensual. They aren’t planned, there’s no obvious one size fits all trigger like with some idols I’ve written for, it could be as simple as seeing you in his favourite colour on you, or watching you do something mindlessly that makes his heart beat faster and he has to grab you. Likewise, you have your own weaknesses for Kyungsoo and will be unable to resist kissing him yourself in those moments too. Admittedly, you do spend a lot of time on the sofa, so it seems like this is the most obvious location for make-out sessions. All the same, when a making out session is initiated there is a need to establish it, your lips entangling as quickly as your hands are fumbling for more of each other. Touching heightens the experience and Kyungsoo loves nothing more than playing with the tempo. clearly he doesn’t mind messing up his own tempo omg I am so lame. Slow and sensual means he can drag out each kiss he places upon your body as his hands run over you slowly, excruciatingly so. Then when he has you begging for more, he’ll oblige in picking it back up, crashing his mouth against yours whilst your bodies grind, press and grip at each other in response. There is no way things are cooling down any time soon, and even if there isn’t a lot of time between whatever is scheduled next, he’ll make sure the ultimate high is reached. Granted, most of the time there’s nothing on and Kyungsoo can take charge of that tempo all day and night long if he wants to.

I have a subheader for you all too:

Stressed kisses: When stressed, the need for physical connection to ground him sometimes outweighs the usual sensual desire that comes with making out. Movements are harder, rougher, Kyungsoo’s hands feel as if they’re gripping right inside of you. It’s never cruel, and whilst a lot of people enjoy writing Kyungsoo as a dom, this is as far as I see it going. His need for you is evident with the demand of his lips on yours, bruising you and biting at your bottom lip to hear you moan. Travelling your body and leaving several love bites on you and feeling your own desperation for more will turn his mood softer, now anchored in the realm of pleasure and not so much on why he had needed you in the first place. His fast-paced and hard actions decrease and you know you’ve helped him overcome some of his frustrations, now needing to deal with the ones you share from the sexual tension.

Morning kisses:

Since Kyungsoo’s favourite way to fall asleep is with you spooned against him and an arm draped over your waist, it makes sense you generally wake up in this position too, squinting when you feel the sun filtering through the gap in the curtains. He often stirs around the same time as you do, planting a kiss on the top of your head and tightening his grip around your waist. You love the mornings with Kyungsoo, his voice is huskier and lower than usual which you still can’t get used to, a giddy smile crossing your lips as he greets you quietly. There is no immediate move from either of you to face one another, content in the way you can reach his shoulder and upper arm if you angle your head to kiss him, and his own lips find their way to the nape of your neck, kissing the soft skin near your ear. Sometimes he’ll playfully chuckle or talk when he’s this close, knowing that you’ll shudder in delight at the heaviness of his voice there as you sleepily chat with each other. Eventually, you’ll turn around in his arms and be greeted with those heart-shaped lips spreading into a lazy grin before he reaches forward to kiss you tenderly, playing with your hair until the alarm goes off. And as much as you want to remain entangled in each other for the rest of the morning, you’re both pretty good at getting up and organising each other for the day, lots of gentle caresses and endless smiles shared over breakfast.

I will say that since there is a sensual way to how your mornings start, especially since Kyungsoo is always enamoured with how beautiful you are first thing when you wake up, there is a definite chance of forgoing the morning pillow-talk for morning sex. He can’t help himself, he’s so in love with you and having you in his arms is already so intimate for him. You both love starting the morning out with your bodies connected in intricate pleasure.

Making up:

Due to the mutual belief that communication makes a relationship stronger, you don’t fight often. This doesn’t make you entirely immune to arguments, but you definitely don’t have as many as some couples I’ve written for due to the prompt approach of dealing with things. Kyungsoo’s biggest “fault” would be that he’s a workaholic and takes on a lot of side projects that keep him away from home most of the time. Much like in Hanbin’s kisses – another workaholic – this does sometimes cause insecurities in the relationship. There is no doubt that you both love each other but the lack of time you have sometimes for your relationship strains it and this is where the majority of your fights stem from. You want more of his time and to not feel second place to his job. Of course, he understands you but it frustrates him all the same as he does the best he can by you. You knew when you started dating what you were getting into, and being the honest type, he is as transparent as he can be with his schedule so you know what’s going on in his world all the time. But that’s the problem, you know about him but you feel like he doesn’t know what’s happening in yours enough. He’s not there when you got a promotion in your new job to celebrate it with you, or when you’ve had a hard day and you could really appreciate more than a five-minute phone call with him to calm you. You try to understand it because he’s been like this from the start and is really attentive to you, but some days your insecurities get the best of you.

Fighting with Kyungsoo is logical even with his temper attached; he knows how to throw it all back at you with little room to argue it rationally. You get defensive and say petty things back until you’re both too overwhelmed to continue and silence fills the room. You’ll generally escape to cry and he’ll sit and brood over it for some time, wondering where he went wrong. How he can make you feel as important to him as he thought you already knew. Being the perfectionist he is, Kyungsoo will see it as he’s failed you despite it just being the situation’s stressors. Eventually, he’ll come and find you in the darkened bedroom or bathroom, silently pulling you into his arms and holding you tightly as you whisper how sorry you are for being insecure. He’ll tell you not to do that right then and wait until you’re both calm to approach new tactics to help your relationship, but until then, you’re both entangled in each other. Kisses are sporadic but deeper than most, your still heightened emotions being the reason for the needy tone in the way you’re kissing one another in apology.

Practice kisses:

I love writing this for idols that act because it’s always a fun section. A great way to involve you in his projects is by practising lines with you from his drama or movie work, helping Kyungsoo perfect his delivery with someone he feels at ease with. Since you have a similar appreciation for the visual arts, you also like going through his lines with him. Kyungsoo puts his all into it even when it’s just you two and it’s like you’re getting a premiere of what you’ll see displayed on a screen in the near future. You don’t just love all the romantic parts, but the drama and the way he can naturally make you shed tears as if you were the main character yourself that you’re speaking for.

Kyungsoo finds it adorable how invested you get in the storyline too, and it’s him who breaks character first, grinning at you as you wipe your tears aside or get really frustrated by what is happening in the scene. “God, you’re so cute,” he mutters and you whine that he’s interrupted your best work yet, his smile growing as he takes you in his arms. He apologises with his lips, kissing you softly and stealing your breath much like he does your heart whenever he acts with you. You have to admit, you aren’t as upset from him breaking from the script and sometimes it encourages you to forgo the fictional world you’ve been steadily involved in for some time, focusing on your own with Kyungsoo instead.

Demanding kisses:

Since a lot of your time together is still movie/drama related, it’s not uncommon for you to watch a lot of things together at night. The difference from when you binge on k-dramas by yourself and when you watch with Kyungsoo is how he critics the acting. It’s a never-ending learning session for him on how he can improve as an actor, and like how we mentioned it in his making up section, this workaholic uses all the tools he can to analyse his own performance. But you just want to enjoy the time together, to snuggle up and not see the mental notes he’s taking from the serious expression on his face. He gets so wrapped up in watching that he sometimes isn’t as aware of you at his side as he should be. Irritated, you let out a heavy sigh before demanding his attention, curling up further into his side and reaching to place your lips on his neck. You’ll hardly receive a reaction out of him sometimes, but with your hand now over his waist and kisses being pressed up to his jawline, his attention shifts to you. The hard gaze he gives you makes you send him a challenging one back and he smirks, grabbing your face and holding you there as he kisses you passionately. Somehow you’ve ended up in his lap and this has a high probability of heading towards a make-out session – not that either of you really mind. But he’ll pull back and give you a look which makes you sheepishly shrug at him before he takes your mouth hostage again, the analysing all forgotten about, unless it’s over how well you’re kissing now. Way to make him stop, and reap the rewards too!

Jealous kisses:

Kyungsoo is naturally protective of you, and it can sometimes come across as a little possessive. He’s not going to control you or prevent you from living your own life, but you are his significant other in his eyes and if someone so much and tries to make a move on you or is overly friendly in front of him, they’re going to feel the intensity of his death glare even from across the room. Depending on the situation, he’ll act accordingly to social protocol but once he’s got you away from the situation he’ll kiss you hard, to settle his heightened emotions down. Half the time you’re not sure why he gets so jealous when he knows just how much you love him, but secretly you kind of like when he kisses you like this, as if he’s claiming your lips and soul as his. Like they aren’t already.

Small note – you get along really well with his EXO members but if one of them gets too much and makes him jealous of the attention you’re giving them, he’ll smack them down, no questions asked.

Scolding/nagging kisses:

Kyungsoo is a bit of a nagger. He likes things done a specific way and you’re not always going to match that. If you’re clumsy or get sick after his strict instructions to always wear a scarf when it’s cold out, he’s naturally going to scold you for it. He’s not overly rude about it but he can irritate you and make you feel like you can’t do anything for yourself when you have bouts of clumsiness and he’s treating your wounds whilst telling you off for not thinking it through. You pout heavily and mutter that we can’t all be perfect like him, which annoys him and you know it. Kyungsoo is self-critical and sees himself as far from perfect, so using that word rubs him the wrong way, especially when the person he loves the most in this world is hurt and he’s worried for you.

But most of the time, you can handle his scolding ways with a kiss, as if you’re healing his worries about you. Whilst he’s tending to your sprained ankle and telling you off for the umpteenth time for not looking where you walk or something of the like, you reach over for his face, stopping the nagging midway and kiss him firmly. He’s rather surprised and his lips only half pucker up into the kiss, blinking at you in confusion when you pull away. “I know you mean well, Soo, but can you just let me bask in your affections and not be scolded for being clumsy yet again?” He’ll sheepishly bite back any remaining words he has, nodding at you as a small smile played on his lips. You are too charming at times for him.

Exhausted or reassuring kisses:

Naturally, Kyungsoo exudes manliness and mannerisms that are suited to leading you within the relationship. And whilst you’re capable of being bold and a go-getter yourself, you don’t actually mind Kyungsoo’s protective approach to your relationship. But it isn’t unbalanced at all. Whilst he’s not always going to have long conversations about his feelings with you, and chooses to show his love as opposed to uttering it to you all the time, he doesn’t hesitate to know when he needs to rely on you. He has no shame in openly showing his weaknesses to you and letting you take control too. It’s rather exuberant to be the person who can hold Do Kyungsoo up when he is exhausted or needing reassurance.

You can tell when he needs you as soon as he’s walked through the door, the way his movements are different from usual. There’s no ease to even the smallest task and you’re already waiting for him when he finally comes up into the apartment, diving into your waiting arms and holding you tightly to him. There’s an added weight as he leans against you for support and your hands gently rub over his back to comfort him. He doesn’t always explain why he’s tired; most of it’s self-explanatory from his work. He definitely doesn’t need you to point that out and you never do, instead, you lead him down to your bedroom slowly, helping him out of his excess layers and into bed. When he wakes up next, he’s so thankful for the care you showed him, staring at you sleeping beside him quietly and reaches over to brush your hair away from your face so he can gaze at you further. Sometimes you stir and he’s instantly apologetic but you don’t mind, smiling gently at him as you move your hand to cup his cheek lovingly. Soft and gentle kisses are delivered in short bursts, Kyungsoo feeling so encased in your love that he’s rather speechless. You smile and tell him no words are needed, that you’re always going to be here for him and nuzzle him gently, telling him to rest up and let the worry and weariness of the day go.

Night kisses:

I just mentioned how he’s not so forthcoming with love confessions all the time, but the one place you can expect them is in bed at night time. Much like your dates being in the dark, it seems like when the lights are out he can openly discuss all the thoughts within his head with you. He has never shied away from telling you about the future he hopes to have with you, getting married and having children are often discussed during these sessions. But he doesn’t stop just there, telling you of how much he needs you and relies on you at his side. How much he’s dreamed of you and him, of times when you’re old and grey together, and as soon as what he wants to achieve with you in the next six months too. Kyungsoo is incredibly thoughtful and affected by your place in his world. All of these words seem more intricate than if they were to be mentioned during the day and you appreciate night time pillow-talk like this with Kyungsoo, mentioning your own dreams you have for your future together. It’s so intense that the words will peter out and instead be replaced with sensual touching and kisses; drinking up each other’s desires for all that you had just envisioned together and becoming completely intoxicated. This is definitely going to end in a night full of lovemaking, and bringing you one day closer to everything you both dream of.

_______________

All rights reserved © prettywordsyouleft

Other EXO members: Suho // Yixing // Chen // Chanyeol // Kyungsoo // Sehun

[Different Kisses Masterlist] | [Main Masterlist] | [Request Guidelines]

[unknown-art1]

The Ultimate Wingmen

Summary: Pearls and Maya find a sketchbook that reveals a defense attorney’s secret crush on a certain prosecutor. What happens when these girls decided to become his best wingman? What ridiculous acts will these girls get into to help their friend Phoenix confess his love?

Pearls ran towards Maya carrying a blue book with a label on top that said Wright’s Sketchbook “Mystic Maya! Mystic Maya! What is a sketchbook?”

              Maya paused a Steel Samurai episode on the television and explained to Pearls “Well it’s kind of in the name, it’s just a book full of sketches or I guess mini drawings if you want to call them that.”

              Pearls flipped through the pages of the blue book as she asked “Umm, are most of the drawings supposed to contain drawings of the same person?”

              Maya tilted her head; and thought that’s strange, who is this person that’s worth filling most of a sketchbook with? Maya hopped up from her seat and strode over to Pearls so they could look inside the sketchbook together. It was full of pictures of the friends they encountered through their murder cases like Detective Gumshoe, Franziska Von Karma, Larry Butz, and Mr. Godot, but the person that reoccurred the most throughout the book was Miles Edgeworth.

              They continued to flip through the pages; Pearls wasn’t lying when she said there were a lot of pictures of the same person here. Every couple pages they would find a new picture of Edgeworth sometimes it would be drawn as a headshot, other times it’d be drawn as a full body pic, but occasionally there was full blown illustrations dedicated to him. Each picture was drawn with great care and Phoenix seemed to pay attention to the even smallest details, but what was so special about Edgeworth of all people that caused Phoenix to draw him this much?

              Maya mumbled out loud “What could cause someone to be passionate about drawing a specific person?”

              Pearls thought about it for a minute and responded “I think he really likes Mr. Edgeworth, they are friends aren’t they?”

              Maya pondered that statement for a moment, while yes it was true they were friends, a lot of people were friends with Phoenix, so why was Edgeworth different? She thought about it for a few more seconds and remembered about what Pearl said and how Phoenix seems to really like Edgeworth.

              And then a realization hit her and she exclaimed, “Nick likes Edgeworth!”

              Pearls gave a puzzled look at Maya’s outburst and replied “Of course he does, their friends after all!”

              Maya shook her head “No, Nick likes Edgeworth romantically! That is the only possible way to explain why he’s so fascinated with drawing him.”

              A little gasp escaped Pearls at this new development “But Mystic Maya I thought you liked Nick romantically! Aren’t you upset your feelings are unrequited?”

              How did she learn the word unrequited? That’s a big word for someone her age. Has Pearls been reading romance novels or fanfiction I’m unaware of?  Maya wondered.

              Maya responded “Nah, I never liked Nick that way. I rather go out with a burger than go out with Nick.”

              A giggle escaped Pearls at Maya’s response.

              Maya stated “But now we have an important job to do.”

              Pearls asked “What is it?”

              Maya shouted “Obviously to help Nick and Edgeworth get together!”

……………

              Later, Maya kicked down the door and ran inside the Wright & Co Law Offices with Pearls following swiftly behind her and yelled “NICK! WE KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS FOR A CERTAIN PROSECUTOR!”

              Pearls shouted “Mr. Nick, where are you? We want to talk to you!”

              They saw Phoenix nowhere in sight. So there was only one thing to do! It was time for Maya and Pearls to investigate to find the missing Nick!

              Maya pointed to the other room “You look that way and I’ll go look in his main office okay?”

              Pearls nodded her head up and down and then scurried off into the room. Maya began to search his office and immediately spotted a plant. If anyone knew who had been in this room it was definitely Charley.

              Maya began to interrogate the witness, “Did you see him Charley? Did you see Nick in this room?”

              Charley remained silent.

              She let out an annoyed sigh, “The silent treatment? That’s so typical of you Charley,” Maya cracked her knuckles,” Fine, I didn’t want to have to do this Charley, but you leave me no choice!”

              Maya grabbed the sides of the plant pot and shook it back and forth spilling dirt out onto the floor, and further interrogated the plant “Where is Nick hiding Charley? I know you know where he is!”

              Charley suffered through the harsh interrogation and remained silent, since he was literally just a defenseless plant and couldn’t do anything else.

              Phoenix asked “Did you honestly believe a plant was going to tell you were I was at? You’re acting stranger than usually today.”

              Maya dropped the plant, spilling more dirt out in the process, then spun around and found Phoenix actually sitting at his desk for once. The loud thump of the plant plot hitting the floor alerted Pearls and she ran into the room to make sure Maya was okay.

              Pearls spotted Phoenix and said “Mr. Nick! We have something important we want to talk to you about!”

              A pit in Phoenix’s stomach began to form as he saw them both wearing a determined look on their face. When they teamed up like this there was no way for him to escape whatever conversation they wanted to have.

              Phoenix asked “What do you want to talk about?”

              Maya leaned against Phoenix’s desk and said “Well your crush of course!”

              Phoenix felt his cheeks slightly warm up “C-Crush? I don’t have a crush.”

              And at that moment several psyche-locks appeared around him clearly contradicting his statement.

              Pearls brought out a Magmata “Good thing I brought this. I thought something like this might happen.”

              Pearls chucked the Magmata at Phoenix and yelled “Take that!”

              As the Magmata collided with Phoenix’s chest he let out a loud “OOOW!”

              And it was time for them to break the psyche-locks! The first question was who was Phoenix’s supposed crush they were referring to? This was simple enough for them to answer; all they had to do was present Edgeworth’s profile to him. The girls caught a glimpse of Phoenix’s face tinted a light red color, before he asked for evidence to back up this claim. Then Maya pulled out Wright’s Sketchbook revealing all of his drawings of Edgeworth inside and she began to smack a page of a book similar to how Phoenix would smack a sheet a paper during a trial proving a contradiction in a witness’s testimony.

              Maya and Pearls didn’t know it was possible for a human to turn as bright red as Phoenix was now. He looked like a bright big tomato, but there was still one lock on him and they had one final question they had to solve for him.

Who or what was preventing him from asking out Edgeworth?

              It seemed like a simple answer why it is probably the fear of ruining the friendship of course, but they tried that and it failed. The lock still remained on him, so it had to be some deeper more personal reason for hiding his feelings for Edgeworth along with the fear of ruining a friendship.

              Maybe it had to do with something with a past relationship, past relationships could negatively affect people in future ones, they had seen something similar like that happen on a TV show once. But had either Maya or Pearls seen him in his last relationship? In all the time they worked with Phoenix had they even seen him in a relationship in general?

              Maya whispered to Pearl “I wish we could phone a friend like on those game shows, when we didn’t know the answer to a question.”

              Pearls rubbed the bottom of her chin as she thought before she excitedly whispered to Maya “We can call someone!”  

              Before Maya could ask what she met by that the next moment she saw, her sister, Mia standing before her dressed like Pearls. Maya thought that’s what Pearls meant! She called Mia for help!

              Mia stated “I think I can handle this question from here Maya.”

              Mia faced Phoenix and whipped out Dahlia Hawthorne’s profile.

              She stated “If I remember correctly the last girl you dated was Dahlia Hawthorne wasn’t it? That woman who hated you and planned to murder you, but you never saw her true nature until much later since you were naïve and blinded by young love. Isn’t that correct? Dahlia traumatized you after that incident didn’t she? That’s why you’ve haven’t dated since that incident because you’re so scared that you will be hurt more.”

              The pit in Phoenix’s stomach grew; since Mia had been his mentor for so long she could read him like a book. He will admit he’s scared. He’s terrified He’s afraid of getting attached in the end and getting hurt even worse. That’s the real reason why he’s avoided dating for so long because he’s terrified about what would happen.

              He felt a hand on his shoulder and another hand wiping away tears from his eyes.

               Phoenix looked up into his mentor’s eyes and listened to her words “Don’t let this event prevent you from getting the things you want. Learn from it and don’t let your past hold you back it’s the only way you’ll move forward in the world. It’ll take time for you to get over that event, but you’re surrounded by friends who care for you Phoenix, don’t ever forget that.”

               Through his tears Phoenix managed to say “T-Thank you Mia.”

              A small smile spread across Mia’s face and she turned to her sister “I believe my job is done here. I think it is Pearl and your turn now to help take care of him Maya.”

              Maya hugged Mia “We will, and Mia?”

              “Yes?”

              “I really miss you.”

Mia planted a kiss on top of Maya’s forehead “I miss you too.”

              Once their hug had ended Mia left and Pearls was back in her place. Tears stained Phoenix’s face and the girls rushed over to comfort him. Maya and Pearls that day made a vow to Nick to always be his best friends and be by his side when he needed comfort. And when Phoenix was ready they would one day help him court a certain Prosecutor.  

……………

              Maya ran ahead and pointed to a small café “Here it is Nick! This is where you will be meeting Edgeworth today!”

              The café was stuck in between a sparkling boutique that displayed expensive looking clothes in their windows and a flower shop decorated with an assortment of different colored flowers in the front of it. The café itself however had a chalkboard stand outside displaying their special offers and huge windows covered most of the front of the café to allow any passersby to glance inside the establishment. It was a relatively calm time to visit the café since there was only a couple customers in the restaurant. There were two friends chatting at a table, a lady quickly typing away something at her computer and a man sipping his drink and staring out the window at and observing the people walking along the streets.

              Phoenix responded “Seems like a nice place. How’d you guys convince Edgeworth to meet me here anyway?”

              Pearls appeared next to Phoenix and replied “Mr. Nick, we can’t reveal that information!”

              A perplexed looked appeared on his face “Why?”

              Maya posed dramatically next to Pearls and stated “It is part of are wingman duty to keep our techniques secret!”

              Secret techniques? What exactly are these two girls planning for me? Phoenix pondered before he was broken from his thoughts at the sound of a new voice.

              “How are you doing pal?”

                             Pal? Why did that word seem familiar?

Phoenix glanced at the owner of the voice “Detective Gumshoe? What are you doing here?”  

Gumshoe replied “Maya and Pearls asked me to contact Edgeworth for your,” Gumshoe awkwardly rubbed the back of his head,” umm to confess your feelings correct?”

Phoenix’s face was on fire from how embarrassed he was “You told him?!”

Pearls responded “Of course so Mr. Nick! He needed to know why it was so urgent for you to meet with him.”

                Phoenix covered his burning face with his hand; this situation seemed to get more embarrassing as it went on.

              Gumshoe patted Phoenix’s back “Don’t worry Pal I didn’t tell Edgeworth about your crush on him. I told him you two have important business to discuss. It’s your responsibility to admit your feelings for him.”

              Pearls stated “I believe if anyone can do it, Mr. Nick can do it!”

              A small smile crept onto Phoenix’s face at Pearl’s faith in him “Thanks Pearls.”

              Gumshoe looked in the other direction “Looks like Edgeworth has finally shown up.”

              They all turned their attention to a silver haired man adorning his signature magenta jacket with the rest of his attire. He got out of his car and was now walking towards the café to meet up with Phoenix.

              Maya said “Nick I think this is your cue to go chase after a certain prosecutor,” before she gave him a wink and pushed him in the direction of the one and only Miles Edgeworth.

…………………….

              Edgeworth and Phoenix sat at a table near the entrance of the café sipping their drinks, when Edgeworth suddenly asked “So what important business did you want to discuss with me Wright?”

               Phoenix’s heart began to beat a little faster, he could do this. He just has to confess his feelings for a man he likes, why would that be so hard?

              He replied “Actually, it’s not about business at all,” a nervous smile appeared on Phoenix’s face as he rubbed the back of his head,” I wanted to talk to you about something personal.”

              Edgeworth took a sip of his drink and raised an eyebrow in curiosity “What is it?”

              Phoenix took a deep breath and responded “Well I wanted to confess to you that I really like-“

              Then suddenly a loud “EDGEY-POO,” interrupted Phoenix’s confession.

              Phoenix didn’t even need to look at the owner of the voice to know who it was all he could think right now was are you kidding me? This has to happen to me now?

               Everyone in the café was alerted by the yell and turned to see Oldbag running towards Edgeworth at hyper speed.

              Edgeworth’s eyes flew open and yelled “Not you again!”

              Before Edgeworth could flee the scene Oldbag wrapped an arm around his shoulder which prevented him from leaving his chair.

              Oldbag leaned in closer to Edgeworth’s face and asked “Did you miss me Edgey-poo?”

              The sudden proximity of their faces made Edgeworth extremely uncomfortable and he turned to face out the window behind him trying to silently plead to any passerby outside to help him from this insane women.

              Edgeworth stated very clearly “No, not at all”

              Meanwhile this conversation was happening Phoenix pondered what the heck just happened in the last five seconds to cause things to be like this? Is this a sign the world doesn’t want me to confess my feelings?

              Phoenix broke from his thoughts when he felt someone poke his shoulder from the table behind him. He turned around and saw Detective Gumshoe, Maya and Pearls trying to disguise themselves with comically large newspapers while they watch the event unfold from behind him.

              Pearls whispered” Mr. Nick! I read in a book once you need to fight your romantic rival for Mr. Edgeworth’s love or otherwise she’s going steal him away from you!”

              Phoenix whispered back “I’m not going fight an old lady!”

              Maya rolled up her sleeves “Then I’ll do it! In order to be the ultimate wingman for you Nick I’ll defeat her and get her away from Edgeworth.”

              Pearl stated “I’ll help you too Mystic Maya! I want to help be the ultimate wingman too!”

              Detective Gumshoe said “Count me in too.”

              Phoenix frantically whispered “Wait Detective Gumshoe you’re the law! You shouldn’t condone this type of behavior.”

              Gumshoe stated “Protecting Edgeworth is more important to me than following the law now!”

              The three of them hop up from their seats at their table and they begin their attack on OldBag. Maya and Pearls ran over to the other table and used their combined strength to pry Oldbag off of him. The old lady scowled at the two girls at their rudeness; however she didn’t punish them and attempted to go back Edgeworth when she was met with Phoenix Wright standing in her way.

              Oldbag ordered “Move out of the way whippersnapper! I was talking to him.”

              Phoenix corrected her “Actually I was talking to him first, so if anything you interrupted my conversation. And second of all, he clearly seems uncomfortable by your presence and he obviously doesn’t want to talk to you. So I think it’d be better for everyone right now if you just left.”

              Oldbag raised her left fist in the air “I’ll show you a thing or two, punk if you keep acting like that!”

              Suddenly a click sound was heard near Oldbag’s right wrist and a handcuff was placed on it.

              Detective Gumshoe grabbed Oldbag’s left hand and placed the other hand cuff on it “I’m sorry ma’am but your causing a scene in the café so I’m going have to remove you from the area.”

              Oldbag tried to break free “I’m not causing a scene! If anything, this spiky haired attorney is the one causing the scene!”

              Gumshoe dragged Oldbag out of the café and replied “No, he was just sticking up for someone he cares about.”

              Edgeworth got up from his seat and walked over to the three of them “Thank you for your help everyone. That lady was truly something.”

              Maya responded “No problem Edgeworth we were happy to help, but I think Nick still has something important to confess to you.”

              He can’t believe Maya still wants him to confess after they literally just saw Oldbag dragged out of this place in handcuffs, this wouldn’t be one of the most ordinary confession story, but none of them were normal people so if anything something like this should have been expected.

              Phoenix finally confessed “I really like you Edgeworth.”

              Edgeworth looked confused at this confession “You do know we’ve been friends for a long time Wright? I would hope you would like me as your friend by now.”

              Pearls exclaimed “No Mr. Edgeworth! I made the same mistake as you too, but Mr. Nick means he likes you romantically!”

              Edgeworth sits in silence for a moment and makes sure he heard it correctly and mumbles out “Romantically?”

              Pearls replied “Yeah! Being romantic is like when two people trust each other a lot, go on dates together, and kiss each other a lot! I think that’s what Mr. Nick wants to do with you.”

              Maya glanced over at the two blushing men not daring to meet the other in the eye “I think you broke them, Pearls.”

              Pearls let out a little gasp and apologized “I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to!”

              Maya replied “I think they’ll be fine Pearls, but our jobs as wingmen are done for today. I think Nick and Edgeworth can handle it themselves from here.”

              The girls left the café and only an attorney and a prosecutor remained. It took them a while before either got the confidence the look each other in the eye. Phoenix seemed to cover his face with his hands in embarrassment and Edgeworth seemed to stare at everything besides Phoenix’s face.

              It took a couple minutes before Edgeworth stated “I wouldn’t be opposed to going out with you.”

              Phoenix quickly removed his hands from his face to see if Edgeworth was serious, but he was still avoiding Phoenix’s gaze.

              Phoenix tried to confirm what he heard “Are you telling the truth?”

              Edgeworth turned to face him and replied “Of course I’m telling the truth, I wouldn’t lie to you.”

              A huge smile formed on Phoenix’s face and he instinctively wrapped Edgeworth in a hug. He could feel Edgeworth stiffen up at first at the sudden contact, but then after a moment he slowly relaxed in the hug.

              Edgeworth explained “I haven’t ever really done this before, so forgive me if I’m slow at this relationship thing.”

              Phoenix replied “I haven’t done this in a long time actually, so I guess we can try to go at our own pace together, but I want to ask you something important. Is it okay if I kiss you right now?”

              Edgeworth’s face tinted a light pink and he mumbled out “Yes.”

              He pressed a light kiss against Edgeworth’s lips; and both the defense attorney and the prosecutor wore a face full of blush for the rest of the day because they were really happy and excited to see where this new blossoming relationship would take them.

[greatdrams]

No longer lost in translation, a Whisky Tourist’s Guide to Japan

Tokyo has long had a special place in my heart, when I visited the first time I was a whisky fan who was exploring a city that had long been a fascination to me, now a decade later I returned with work and my experiences were a little different this time. Here is the GreatDrams whisky tourist's guide to Japan.

Check out the GreatDrams Ultimate Bar Guide to Tokyo too

Also see the detailed look at the Hakushu Distillery

Finally check out the most unrepeatable Japanese whisky tasting I've ever taken part in

Japan is more westernised now, easy to navigate and easy to communicate. Only time I needed my Google Translate app was in Duty Free to explain the concept of a flight transfer. Last time I was here it felt like another world, now it feels like my world; easier to navigate and communicate than France was when last there a year ago.

But has this westernisation come at a cost? I’m not sure in truth, but there were obvious let downs for me; I had spent ages pre-trip relearning business customs, phrases for getting around and how to order various sushi and drinks, but none of that was needed. And only one bar, Bar Butler, hand carved the ice balls whereas last time I was in town every bar did.

Maybe I have a romantic view of my last trip here a full decade ago, tho unlikely as I remember it vividly as I was ill for much of it with a form of Guillaume-Barre disease that effectively paralysed all the muscles in my face, meaning I had to manually chew and drink all drinks including neat whisky through a straw (would not be able to do that in the West now, but straws and plastic bags are everywhere here) which set in six hours after I landed in Japan and lasted until ten days after I was home. It was scary but I was so convinced I’d never be back here, and I am not one to really dwell on stuff like that, that I travelled the whole city, saw it and experienced it all. Who knew; the face freeze might have spread elsewhere as Guillaume-Barre often does, but it normally starts from the legs up, so I had to get on with things whilst I could.

Hence why I don’t think there is a huge amount of romantic rose tinted glasses retrospection here… although last time I did get to meet a monkey and have a photo with him, though like most photos from that trip I look miserable despite having an absolute belter as my face muscles could not raise a smile… I must have been the moodiest-looking tourist ever.

What hasn’t changed is the how busy and the extreme individuality of nearly every citizen within a culture of extreme conformity.

One of the things I was most impressed with was the people; they are so approachable and gentle, even if they cannot speak English they do their best to work out what you are saying.

The best example of this was when I was bar-hunting I kept getting to the address on Google and then drawing a blank as the addresses are so random and there are so many floors to each building with very few properly sign-posted that it is so hard to work out how to get in there unless you know the area. With that in mind I had to ask a LOT of people for help with directions and two in particular were incredible. If they can’t direct you they will walk you where you need to go, as noted in my Ultimate Bar Guide to Tokyo, “there was one guy who walked five blocks in circles asking people until it was clear it was impossible to find the place, then there was the guy who walked back from where he was going to discover the bar was on the 8th floor of his apartment block and he never knew. Be prepared to clock the steps in trying to hunt them down”.

Unbelievable.

[divider]BARS[/divider]

Japanese whisky was once the pride of each bar, now a selection of limited edition and single cask Scotches haves replaced that as they cater more for locals - which is understandable, but a challenge for tourists.

If you’re looking for bars, firstly check out my Ultimate Bar Guide to Tokyo, but here are the ones I would highly recommend:

Butler Ginza Branch

8 Chome-7-7 Ginza, Chūō, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan

Le Connaisseur

〒104-0061 Tokyo, Chūō, Ginza, ８丁目-４-２６

Tokyo Whisky Library

〒107-0062 Tokyo, Minato, Minamiaoyama, ５丁目5−24 南青山サンタキアラ教会

[gallery type="rectangular" link="file" ids="33051,33052,33053"]

Bar Benfiddich

〒160-0023 Tokyo, Shinjuku, Nishishinjuku, 1 Chome−13−7 大和家ビル

El Calvador

SK Bldg 4F, 1-3 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Shinagawa Highball Bar

Exit Shinagawa Station using the East Exit and walk about 300 metres straight ahead of you, you cannot miss it

[gallery type="rectangular" link="file" ids="33047,33048,33049"]

.

Hibiya Bar Whisy-S II

8F Noco Building 5-6-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku

[divider]BUYING WHISKY IN JAPAN[/divider]

No whisky tourist's guide to Tokyo would be complete without a list of retailers you should try to visit if you’re looking for interesting whiskies, although there are no guarantees that there will be any gems, but you simply never know and ranges seem to change daily in some of them:

Liquors Hasegawa

http://www.liquors-hasegawa.com

〒104-0028 Tokyo, Chūō, Yaesu, 2 Chome−1, 八重洲地下街中4号

Liquor Mountain

1-2-16, Kabuki-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

Shinanoya World Wine and Foods - Shinjuku

Absolutely brilliant range of bottles - including limited edition Scotch and Irish whiskeys, as well as standard Japanese bottlings. 〒160-0021 Tokyo, 新宿区Kabukicho, 1 Chome−12−9 タテハナビル

A family-run liquor store about 300 metres down the road (east)

Just down the road from World and Liquor Mountain, I’m pretty sure it was a mom and pop store and was crazy cluttered, but at the back of the shop was a glass-fronted cabinet with a load of local bottles as well as some Scotch offerings and various interesting Japanese bottles too.

Isetan Department store

Great store, like the Harrods of Tokyo, and not only has it got a few great bottles there you can buy samples of many of the bottles they sell so you can try the stuff as well as buying it.

〒160-0022 3-14-1, Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

Isetan Duty Free store near the Ginza Station

Address: 104-8212 4-6-16, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

The best part of this store is that, whilst their range is super-limited, you can buy the bottles and pick them up at the airport once you are past security to save on your luggage packing, given you will probably have other bottles to pack in as well!

  [divider]MOVING AROUND THE COUTRY VISITING DISTILLERIES[/divider]

Tokyo, and Japan a whole, is really easy to move around, make sure before you travel you get a JR Pass from jrpass.com, it will cost £206 with special delivery and arrives super-swiftly. This will be your gateway to Tokyo and the whole of Japan as, as long as you use any of the JR lines which take you all over the place.

$rfsn_creative.generate('refersion_client/4644/creatives/dynamic/30030-d1efe313b3b721082c0bc9f5b5a4a605.json', { aid: '1445123.87f2d' });

Make sure you get a SkyRoam device, I hired one for around £115 plus £7 per day I was away and it was invaluable; it is effectively ‘internet in your pocket’ and actually felt like I was carrying ‘the internet’ each day. Good battery, allows you to connect five devices at once to it and mimics a local 4G network which you then connect to without paying more than your daily fee through SkyRoam. Marvellous. At times I got better connection than I do in my office! Buy here, and yes for this one I have an affiliate link as I was so impressed with it. Use coupon code GREATDRAMS to save 10% on your booking... win-win. 

One thing to say up front; don’t expect many, if any distillery exclusives to add to your collection, Suntory do not seem to see the value in them and the distilleries I visited were too young to have mature spirit, although Asaka had bottles of their spirit that had been aged in various casks for up to six months available for around £28 - £40.

Gaia Flow

Travel on the Bullet Train from Shinagawa Station, which takes about 50 minutes - I would advise going to the ticket booking office and reserving a seat free of charge as these trains get really packed and you do not want to stand all that way.

Once you arrive at the Shizuoka Station, take a 35 minute taxi to Gaia Flow. Taxis will be outside the station to the left, and they are unlikely to know where you are going so show them the address and if you have a GPS device pre-load it so they can have a look.

Definitely call or email ahead of your visit as their visitor centre won’t be fully open until mid-way through 2019 but they are set up for brief tours if you so desire but it is courteous to let them know before you arrive so they can be free.

Asaka

From where you are staying take the JR line to Tokyo Station, which is MASSIVE, and take the bullet train to Kohriyama Station which will take about 80 minutes if memory serves. Then get a taxi to the Asaka Distillery. Again get in touch before going to ensure they are available and able to show you around. They have a shop which take cash only, but where you can try numerous young versions of their spirit including one maturing in Mizunara wood. They usually have limited edition whiskies in for purchase too that are limited to around 300 bottles each.

Hakushu

[gallery type="rectangular" link="file" ids="33044,33045,33046"]

Nearest station: Kobuchizawa, 1 hours 59 minutes from Shinjuku station in central Tokyo, then a 15 minute taxi to the distillery (or use the courtesy bus put on by the distillery at the weekend if it works with your itinerary). Simple.

[divider]IN SUMMARY[/divider]

Check out the GreatDrams Ultimate Bar Guide to Tokyo too

Also see the detailed look at the Hakushu Distillery

Finally check out the most unrepeatable Japanese whisky tasting I've ever taken part in

Japan is a phenomenal country with awesome people and an amazing amount of things to see and culture to experience so make sure you plan well and pay attention to train times as they are NEVER late.

The post No longer lost in translation, a Whisky Tourist’s Guide to Japan appeared first on GreatDrams.

from GreatDrams https://ift.tt/2NJgEkA Greg

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #472

“we don’t deal with outsiders very well  /  they say newcomers have a certain smell”

Does your favorite uncle have any children? Yeah; he has one son and a daughter. If you want children, what are some of your reasons for wanting them? I don't. I'm selfish with my alone time, and I want to live for me. I don't want to essentially hand over my life for someone else, give my all for them, and then I wind up not being enough. I don't want the financial burden. I don't want to be responsible for another human being. There are so, so many reasons I don't want kids. Does a career in finance sound interesting to you? Noooot at all. When you cook a dish that has beans in it, do you prefer to use canned or dry beans? I don't cook, but you also wouldn't catch me dead cooking beans. After finishing a bowl of cereal, do you drink the leftover milk? No. What’s something that’s been bothering you lately? I've been pushing it to the back of my mind to avoid panicking, so I probably shouldn't even talk about it, but I worry quite a bit that Girt will eventually leave me because of me not being "adult" enough, like having a job, a car, knowing how to do basic adult stuff... you know. I don't feel like he will, given just how devoutly he's been by my side since HS, and especially now that we're together, I'm working harder towards those goals, but still. I worry it'll happen. Do you use dry shampoo between washes? No. What’s the most severe allergic reaction you’ve ever had to something? I've never had a severe one. What was the last show you binge-watched? Psych with Girt. I quite liked it. Have you ever lived with someone you didn’t get along with? No. What’s something that bothers you more and more as you get older? Political issues. Do you have a fitness tracker? No. Who was the last person to kiss you on the cheek? Girt. What is your favourite sauce to eat with spaghetti? Just your normal tomato sauce. Where do you usually sit when you eat dinner? ... In my bed. :x Do you think your ex ever loved you? Yes. Have you ever had a filling? For my teeth? Yes. Should tattoos be meaningful? Get a tattoo for whatever reason you please. It doesn't necessarily have to be meaningful, no. Do you think wisteria trees look cool? Get a wisteria tree. Do you like to eat strawberries? Get a strawberry. There doesn't need to be a big story. Do certain times of the year remind you of certain people? Yes. January is like... all about Jason in my head because within that month is his birthday and our former anniversary. Are there any negative points to being in a relationship? Uh, there's probably something. What the most recent good news you’ve heard? Just today actually I got a phone call about some genetic testing I had done to see if I carried the malfunctioning gene my mother has that makes her more prone to certain types of cancer. My sisters and I all got tested, and all three of us are good! Our pancreatic, breast, and ovarian cancer risks are the same as your average person walking down the street. Would you hug your bf/gf’s best friend? I don't know his best friend. I don't think I would upon just meeting him, though. Who was the last person in your family to have a baby? My older sister. Would your parents be okay with you dating someone of another race? Mom wouldn't care less, while I don't really know about my dad. Not that it would matter what he thought. Do you like when friends stop by unexpectedly? NO NO NO NO NEVER DO THIS. I have to be mentally prepared for company. How strong are your feelings for the last person you kissed? I really, really love him. It's funny how wildly my emotions flipped from platonic to romantic with him just by giving it some deep thought. How close are you to the last person you hung out with? Can you be your complete self around them? We're very close, and yes. I'm still extremely shy for him to know some things, but ultimately, I'd tell him a whole lot. Is music a daily part of your life? Usually, anyway. Did you go to your high school’s graduation? Yes. Did you do anything sexual last night? Naw. Do you think the last person you Facebook messaged is a virgin? Doubt it, he's been in at least one serious relationship before. Ever want a monkey as a pet? I would absolutely fucking never, even if it was moral and possible to give them all they need as a pet. I've never been that into monkeys, anyway. What’s the scariest bug you’ve ever seen? I've seen a massive stag beetle at least once and it was such a fuck no. Do you think it’s alright if people baby talk to babies? Yes...? They're unfamiliar with the world and need gentleness to establish trust and a positive bond in general. There is nothing wrong with treating babies like, well, babies. Ever take a nap in a hammock? I don't believe I've ever fallen asleep in one, but I definitely used to just chill out and close my eyes on the one we used to have at my old place, under the shade of the trees. Who’s the best character in Rugrats? I don't have an opinion on this, surprisingly. I adored that show as a kid and had two video games for it. Pop-Tarts or Toaster Struddels? The latter. But both are tasty. Ever want to make out with someone, anyone, didn’t matter who? Er, no. I have to love you. Smack someone on the ass lately? This question is worded so uncomfortably lmao but no. Someone smack your ass lately? Still an uncomfortable question but no. Do you like puppies more than adult dogs? They're cute, but no. Adult dogs are generally calmer and actually know where to use the bathroom. If you go grey as you age, would you dye your hair or let it be? I plan on dyeing my hair for a loooong time if it's something extra I can afford. Is there a historical figure you find interesting? If so, who? The first person who came to mind was Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Girl power, man. Was there a family secret you weren’t told about until you were an adult? I guess maybe my dad having done serious drugs for a while. I don't know if anyone would've told me that as a kid. Have you ever seriously vandalized someone else’s property? I've never vandalized, period. What do you usually order from Olive Garden? SPICY SHRIMP FRITAAAAAAAAASSSSSSS <3 What is in the back seat of your car right now? I have no idea what's in the back of Mom's car, actually. I don't pay attention. What was the last thing you threw up? I'd assume whatever I had for dinner with the medication that made me vomit. What color is your mom’s hair? Since chemo, it was growing back completely gray, so now she dyes it black. If you were to join one of the armed forces, which would it be? Yeah, no. Not even entertaining this. I'd rather die. If you swapped genders for a day, how would you spend it? Ha, it's weird, the first thing that came to mind was "how would I look in makeup?" because men in makeup can look like fuckin babes so I guess that's what I'm doing lmaooo. Have you ever been to see stand-up comedy? No, but I would. I think it sounds fun. Have you ever been in a submarine? No, but that'd be cool. Do you believe there used to be dragons? No. I wish. Where did you go on your first ride on an airplane? Ohio. Have you ever appeared on YouTube? lkajsd;lkfjae yes Have you ever planted a tree? An apple tree, yes. Which celebrity do you find the most annoying? I don't care. Does your best girlfriend have any talents that you don’t? She can animate pretty darn well! Have you ever written a song? Guys when I was a little kid I wrote a song to the Nintendogs theme fucking kill me Does anybody send you money in the mail for your birthday? My grampa on Dad's side used to, but he's deceased now. He would do that for me and my sisters, and I always thought it was so wild, because it was like, a lot, and this man barely knew us at all because of how far away my dad's family is. Do you have any scratches on your cell phone? No. Do you know anybody who has a birthday in November? I mean I'm sure I do, but no one off the top of my head that I know well, anyway. What monster would you be most afraid to have in your closet? Ghostface bc I've been afraid of him since I was a kid, and I HATE knives. Which Adam Sandler movie do you like the most? I don't know if I have a favorite. He's also just in so many movies though that I could never think of all of them. Have you ever been abused by a police officer? Yikes, no. Do you know anyone who is very ignorant? Boy, do I. I know plenty. When was the last time someone said something mean and offensive to you? I don't know, and I'd rather not try to remember. Would you ever film a vlog of yourself giving birth? ?????????????????????????? NO????????????????????????? WHY WOULD I WANT THAT????????????????????????????????? Do you think your hair looks best straight, wavy, or curly? Straight. Name 3 YouTubers you would like to meet in person: Markiplier obvs, Rhett & Link are a pair channel, so I count them as one unit, and uhhh just one more... Snake Discovery/Emily & Ed. I could hang with them, man. What makes you more creative? Music. Have you ever slow danced with anyone? Yeah, one person. Who’s the last person to send you a message on Facebook? My sister Misty. She's making me this really cool Halloween-y wreath to keep on my door year-round. She's really good with crafts and is making some beautiful ones. What’s the last magical thing you experienced? I'd rather keep it private, but the general gist is just realizing how much I love someone again. Were you raised religious? Yes. Didn't stick. Never felt "right" or "at home" in any religion. If you had a lot of money, do you think you would use it wisely? I hope I would. I feel like growing up poor, it could go either way. I do THINK I'd use it pretty wisely, at least. Maybe go a bit too hard into things I seriously love (like tattoos), but then be really stingy in other areas. Do you like the same colors now that you did as a kid? In general, yes. My favorites are still all shades and tints of red. Got any nicknames that you rarely even use? Not nicknames I use nowadays, no. Nevermind what gender you ARE, what gender do you WANT to be? I’m fine being female. Do you ever feel ashamed revealing your age? Absolutely, because of how little I've accomplished. Based on your running speed, what animal would you be? Like, a tortoise probs. :^) Can you read in public? Only if it's quiet. Pokemon, Digimon, GI JOE, Barbies, or other? Pokemon, duh. What’s something that makes you really stressed out? Not having a job, to name one thing. Are you any good at science? I've always been really good at (most) science, actually. Like language arts, it's just something that naturally "clicks" for me. Do you go on any forums on the net? Just KM right now. Got any secrets you honestly can’t say to anyone? It's not that I can't, like I don't have any deep, dark secrets that would rock someone's world if they knew, there are just things I'm never sharing. Believe in voodoo? Nah. What’s something you’ve tried really hard at? To be a decently successful photographer, but let's not get me started on that travesty. :^)

[meandmyechoes]

The more I think about my first romance novel, the more I find something odd.

[28th March 17:46]

I keep referring to it as a ‘favourable experience’, and there is no question the writing is what made me fall totally head over heels about quin tress, but I also just, can't?

I mean, yes. It's very passionate, dramatic, scenes and gestures I can only dream of. And it's all very bisexual and fantastical of me. But I also, don't really see it in that 'omg they totally belong together here are my sixty headcanons of them' sense?

I am very involved in the pairing, but also don't really, actively 'ship' it — like the way I have the ability to with Rhayme or Latts (since it's the same author that indoctrinated me to Captain Rhayme). I could imagine them being happily ever after and silly shenanigans and slow-burn. But the concept of a quin tress fairytale ending is so wild. I can only ask if this has to do with my personal view on relationships. Does this tie back to how I say the hottest thing a heterosexual couple can do is fuck (and the spiritual experience is emphasized with a same-sex partner)? - anyway, ace brain (probably) speaking.

I know the plot leaves little room for 'the future' and fed me well on all tropes possible. But, it just never occurred to me to put them in any other clichés or invent a missing scene.

Winding up, I don't think their relationship is 'weak', but it's very motivated by circumstances and once you take that out of them, you are a little bit lost. For example even during the illicit affairs month, I… can't really propose one date that does not seem tonally insensitive. (I can think of them being cloak dorks and Vos bringing her to ice-cream, that's it, after a long hard moment) Really, all I possibly want is that sweet, sweet angst and canon is already there so I have no complaint.

It's just… I don't really get why it has to be the two of them that fall for each other. I understand why they did, and I believe it— Perhaps it's much more a physical attraction thing that I don't really have personal experience with.

I don't know if quin tress classify as slow-burn because 10 chapters still seem a little quick in the grand scheme of things. (aside: I'm quite disappointed Ventress wasn't doing much in the last quarter of the book.) My point is, they do feel a little bit puppet to tropes, and while it's deliciously written, there's not much potential outside of canon. And that lack of inspiration makes me grimace a little.

[3rd April, 01:39]

I’ve scrolled through the dd tag and let the book sank a little. I am better articulated to talk about the sexist criticism now.

It's a romance story, and when I judge it by that (lower) standard, it ticks the boxes. However, it might be a weakness as well, due to the projectability of the heroes. And yes, the whole assassination is dumb. Yet, tcw has been consistently this dumb at us. The last two times when she's more rooted in the dark she failed, sent Savage and failed, so she's gonna do it again with Vos… after she put down her desire for revenge. right. ans surprise! Our "assassination" plan is to find Dooku and duel him directly. right…

I've read a review that says the romance takes away from the plot. However, the romance IS the plot. The book IS supposed to revolve around the two of them. I do agree them becoming begrudging allies then partners is a more unique approach, more rewarding as foils as well. but I guess a romance is easier for the convention to process ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

With the "Ventress lose agency in falling for Vos". Now, I can't dictate how each of us buy into their physical attraction and chemistry (or lack thereof), and there's no denial that a conscious human being is making that choice for the fictional character, I think the stance on this topic is really tinted by the above two factors, which are very different starting points.

I kept Katie. Lucas's foreword vividly in mind while reading. She said this is a story about people seizing chances to rebuild. That there's always a choice. Cliché as it is, I believe ~the power of love~. I believe there exists someone you're willing to sacrifice everything for, to overlook everything for, to forgive - to love them, warts and all. So, yes whether you think Ventress loses her agency to the romance, or if that's a conscious choice on her behalf, is swayed heavily by how much you buy that they are the one.

[10th April, 10:30]

So Mr. Partner has finished the book too. He didn't offer particular insights, but we discussed briefly the overall pace and bits of characterization. He did made me rolled with laughter describing Vos through a childish, tropey lens. Regarding the topic of this documentation - the quin tress relationship, I've been more or less really enjoying it as a guilty pleasure. I don't read romance novels at all, and this is tooth-rotting sweet angst. 

Yesterday I’ve been thinking a bit more about this. I do love this ship, I just don’t believe they’d be two people who find each other again and again in every life time, in every universe. That’s why, as magnificent as fireworks, it also won’t last.

It's very nostalgic to indulge in a heterosexual relationship, and pair it up with taylor swift songs. If I have a boyfriend as devoted as Vos, I'd fall one hundred percent. And if I'm faced with an bombshell like Ventress, I would not be able to have any agency I swear. Either way, in my headcanon, Ventress is happily away on adventures with Lassa :3

To explore this, it’s not entire impossible for quin tress to separate peacefully after this incident, but would that cheapen the build before? The entire motivation of dark!Quinlan hinges on his vision of their future. And say, Ventress did saved him and survived. How would he balance being a Jedi and his feelings - that’s publicly exposed to the Council? (sidenote: i really don’t like Ch. 27 where a bunch of old men are questioning their love life, but uhhh yes, I’m a sensible person!) For now, I’m seeing another Obitine situation. And honestly how bad that an outcome is. It’s not like Ventress died for her war crimes! The show gave her a full pardon! So Idk man. Why can’t she leaves him because she loves him and she exiled herself and they never see each other again WHY NOT FILONI WHY NOT.

Now I’m lamenting more what could’ve been with the two arcs. In Filoni’s original sketch, Aayla and Maul were involved. Man, that could’ve been the dream. I skipped to translating the last two chapters and all the way I was just fuming at how stupid it was. There are difficult technical terms but I really enjoy voicing the characters. But it just takes away bit of that formality and Shakespearean tragic factor having them talk in my native tongue???? haha

Prelude: [12th March 22:37]

since dark disciple heteronormatively gave Rhayme and Ventress boyfriends, I'm gonna go ahead and sign the charter that says "all sw characters are bi"

which got me thinking, I insist that Quinlan and Ventress must fuck (and I insist they did, with the implication from when Quinlan "had seen her by starlight, just her"), but why didn't I think that way with Rhayme and her? Maybe it's because the story never pushed me there. I'd wish it indeed have more to do with I'm aspec than internalized homophobia (that I look down on everyone), but I also think, fucking is literally the hottest thing a heterosexual relationship can do? Every selling point, either be appearance or intellect, leads up to the ultimate goal of reproduction?

But oh my god, space lesbians, beating up pirates, sharing a wine, teasing hairs and finger tips. That's so goddamn romantic

[edit: i know that is an extremely skewered and unfair view, but i’ve met maybe, one, boy on my intellectual level. it’s a game of probability ok]

~~~

Part 2: [26th April, 15:15]

It has been… a month, since I finished Dark Disciple and I feel like it’s time to conclude all the thinking this book has made me do.

On the wider reflection about attachment and the Order, I still have to do more reading on it to form a concrete opinion. This theme won’t be touched on in this post yet, but I cannot shake how intriguing it is to compare “falling” in love to falling to the dark side. The temptation, and the submission to their emotions, the irrationality, the newfound curiosity, it all incites. Very curiously, it was Anakin. Skywalker who commented that one is “blinded by love”

Okay, so what I’ve been scratching my head off the past two weeks is how I look at the romance between Asajj. Ventress and Quinlan. Vos. How would I define it?

Now this is as much as an exploration of how I view romantic relationships. Well, I’ve decided it wasn’t “love”, it was an “affair”. It was an affair because it’s a rush of passion, it’s a secret, it won’t last. Before I chop my own head off for bluntness, I mean it in, of course they are hopelessly in love with each other, that’s the exact premise of why it moved me so. But it wasn’t a complete relationship, wasn’t a healthy, sustainable one by any objective standards. Then, that’s the exact contradiction. Oh to throw caution in the wind with you, or to build a future with you?

Both are things I want a lot, and the ideal is of course one after the other. What quin tress had (in the end) is definitely not something I’d want for myself, but it’s so fantastical, it’s alluring, just like the concept of falling in love - opening up yourself and trusting another person, is - it’s risky. That’s why it’s a sweet, sweet drug.

I’ve been so angry at all the red flags in this relationship. Reading this book, getting into both of their shoes, yelling NO like their best friends. But ultimately, what they had is unique to them and I can’t influence it in any way. Re-reading, I find myself holding myself back at all the places I was furious about going ‘You are smarter than this!’. Because it’s a tragedy, and the beautiful thing is they chose each other (I guess).

The other day something on the dash inspired me to really think about ship dynamics. I, unashamedly admit, I’m VERY into Obi/Quin/Ventress in any and all combinations. *cough* I will not explain further.

Aside, the elephant was I’ve never been in a relationship or felt physically attracted to any person in my life. I suppose that’s a reason it took some time for me to really buy into them more than friends. I do accept the premise and I did discover they share quite a bunch of traits, but it confused me a while what made them cross the boundary, and it was, physical attraction (that the book was selling so hard I was blushing hot). But what really frustrates me, not that I couldn’t invest into two paper people’s love story, but was why my body is governed by hormones so bad. I could say things I wouldn’t dare depending on the day of the month. I have to be honest, I love them both a lot, and I would like to date them both, and I can see myself in either of them. Again comes another contradiction, is it a good thing to have characters so easily projectable, or do I want to see myself in more complex characters like them?

I probably lost quite a few cars stalling this train of thought. This book brought me a lot of emotional upheavals and a lot of food for thought. It brought me down to reflect on my romantic worldview and sexuality because I have nothing better to do. It totally challenged me as a writer and it’s just a really good novel by its right, regardless of the absurdity that is The Clone Wars. It’s a lot of firsts for me. And I really should find something better to do.

[forgle]

Five Weeks In Detention Chapter 4: The Third Week

Read it on AO3

Chapter 4/6

Word Count: 2578

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Piper definitely had a crush.

She was willing to admit that now. She was willing to admit that as soon as Annabeth and Percy hugged like two people who love each other. It was clear as day that they’d go through hell for each other just in the way they’re faces looked when they saw one another.

Piper thought it was kinda ironic that she could tell other people’s feelings with one look but it took her three weeks so realize her own.

Though, I did make sense that she had a crush on Annabeth after spending four hours in her presence every day for two weeks. And texting her constantly when they aren't together. And thinking about Annabeth.

Thinking about Annabeth more than any “just friend” should.

Thinking about her how lemony colored hair shines in the sunlight, how her skin looked like buttercream frosting, and how her eyes were like stone. Piper wondered what it would be like to run her hands through her curls. She didn’t care if it was tangled.

‘Thinking about a probably straight girl who has a boyfriend.’ Piper reminded herself. As she and Annabeth got lunch during school.

“I came up with a design for a building last night, I ended up staying up really late drawing it,” Annabeth said as they walked to their table.

“Can I see it?” Piper asked.

“Um, yeah, I just need to give it a few finishing touches.”

They sat down at the table where Leo was already sitting. Annabeth pulled out a notebook and started drawing. Piper tried to distract herself with her food. She took one bite and spit it back out.

“What's wrong?” Leo asked.

“Lunch is extra shitty today.” Piper pushed the tray away.

“Should've brought yours from home.” Leo took a bite of his enchilada. Piper stuck her tongue out at him.

“Oh god, that really is awful,” Annabeth said, with food still in her mouth. “How can you fuck up a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?”

Piper leaned forward towards Annabeth, “How about I throw this out and we get Chinese food after detention, Annabeth?” Piper turned to Leo, “Without Leo.” she added.

“Hell yeah,” Annabeth pushed her tray of food away and went back to drawing. Piper picked up both trays and took them over to the trash. After she threw out the contents of the trays her mind went back to Annabeth. Piper turned on her phone and was faced with her and Annabeth's recent texts.

Another issue with Piper’s unrequited crush is the fact that it’s commonplace for platonic girlfriends to be somewhat intimate while still remaining platonic. For instance, last week, when Annabeth spent a day with her probably-boyfriend, Percy, she felt perfectly comfortable with texting Piper pictures of the swimsuits she somehow found to ask her opinions on which she should get.

Piper wasn't prepared for that. And she didn’t want to be creepy but Annabeth looked good in the swimsuits. Piper felt perverted when she looked at the pictures. It's not like she did or even thought perverted things, the feeling just came with it.

She was now distracted by the photos and didn't even notice that she was just standing there by the trashcans like a weirdo. One swimsuit was a black one-piece which Annabeth said she preferred. The other was a pink, purple, and blue tie-dye which she said Percy wanted her to get. Piper never responded to her. She just changed to subject a couple hours later and assumed Annabeth pucked one out on her own. She looked great in both.

Piper put her phone away and walked back to the table. Annabeth had finished drawing and was now looking at something on her phone.

“Oh, yeah, which swimsuit did you end up picking, Annabeth?” Piper asked as she sat down.

“Neither, I found a one piece in the same tie-dye, Percy was so happy I picked on with the colors of the bi flag.”

“Are you bi?” Piper asked.

“Yeah,” Annabeth said, shrugging as if it were the most obvious thing ever. She scrolled through her phone and held it up, “Here’s a picture of the swimsuit.”

Annabeth looked good in this one too. But that wasn’t important. “I can’t believe I didn’t know you’re bi,” Piper said.

“There's a big flag pin on my backpack,” Annabeth said.

Piper was willing to admit that was pretty obvious. “Can I see your drawing?” Piper asked.

Annabeth put down her phone and held up her notebook. There was a pencil drawing of a tall skyscraper with trees around the bottom and notes about the height and how many floors the building has written next to it.

“It's really good,” Piper said.

“What kind of building is it?” Leo asked.

“A made-up company’s headquarters,” Annabeth said, putting the notebook down. “Maybe your future mechanic company, Leo.”

“Hell yeah, when I'm rich and famous for being a mechanic you're designing the headquarters of m company and my giant mansion.” Leo took a bite of his food.

“You couldn't afford me.” Annabeth leaned across the table and took a bite of Leo's enchilada.

Piper looked down at her phone and started scrolling through Instagram. When her stomach growled she prayed to any god that was listening that she wouldn't starve to death before the end of school.

***

“Siri, find a Chinese restaurant nearby,” Annabeth said into her phone from the passenger seat.

“There are three Chili's near you,”

“No!” Annabeth said. Piper laughed.

“Here,” Piper said, looking it up on her own phone. They picked out a restaurant and Piper set her phone in the cupholder while it read her directions.

When they arrived they realized the restaurant they had picked was really just for takeout. So they each bought a serving of vegetable fried rice and took their takeout to a park and found a shady patch of grass to sit on as they ate.

Piper took a bite of her rice. “Y’know for takeout, this is really good rice,”

“Definitely,” Annabeth said her mouth full.

Piper took off her shoes so she could feel the cold grass on her skin. “By the way, Annabeth,” she started.

Annabeth looked up from her food.

“You’ve only lived here a couple months right?”

Annabeth nodded.

“But your brothers have been here a while, I met them on Halloween last year. I remember ‘cause they can to my house wearing headdresses and face paint.” Piper used air-quotes as she said “Native American”

“I held their candy hostage while I gave them both a lecture on cultural appropriation. Anyways, did like your dad and stepmom get married after Halloween or something?” Piper said.

Annabeth smiled put down her rice. “Well, um that’s a kind of long story-” she took a deep breath and Piper was afraid she had crossed a line. “-Um, when I was about ten, I wanted to go live with my mom in New York, so I did. I lived there until this summer when my mom and I could barely stand each other anymore.”

Piper scooted closer to Annabeth. “What was New York like? I mean, besides your mom.”

Annabeth smiled. “Other than my mom, New York was fantastic. Usually, after school and on weekends I’d just go hang out with Thalia, which was so nice, I mean, Thalia’s the best, she raised me better than my mom every did. Also, she was actually the whole reason I went to summer camp. She was a counselor and suggested I go so I wouldn’t have to spend the whole summer around my mom.”

“Is the summer camp where you met Percy?”

“Yeah, I made a lot of friends there. I was kinda hard not to when I went there every summer for six years. The camp was the only thing that seemed real. Everything else felt like it had no purpose”

“You really loved that camp, huh?” Piper had never seen Annabeth speak so fondly of something.

“I mean, yeah, I even had my first kiss there.”

Piper raised one eyebrow. “With Percy?”

There was a faint pink tint on Annabeth’s cheeks. “Yeah,” she looked down at her lap.

“Why are you blushing? I think it’s romantic that you’re still dating our first kiss.”

Annabeth looked up “I’m not dating Percy,”

“Do you want to? You two clearly love each other. And not to brag but I’m kinda the ultimate matchmaker.”

“Everyone keeps asking me questions like that.” Annabeth huffed, “Percy and I dated for five minutes one summer and he’s still my best friend, so I do love him but I’m not in love with him.” Annabeth looked up at the sky, squinting.

With those words, Piper felt like a million pounds had been lifted off her shoulders. Knowing that Annabeth was single was one of the best feelings in the world. Piper was almost tempted to tackle Annabeth to the ground and kiss her right there.

And kiss her some more.

And drive her somewhere where they could make out. And buy her flowers and all kinds of other gifts. Anything that made it clear that Piper was attracted to Annabeth.

Instead, since Annabeth was still looking at the sky she took some rice from Annabeth's oyster pail.

This, however, caught Annabeth’s attention. “You have your own right there!” she said, gesturing towards Piper’s oyster pail.

“Yours tastes better,”

Annabeth took a bite of Piper’s rice. “And so does yours.”

“We could just trade,”

“But then the flavors would change. It’s a known law of the universe that someone else’s food always tastes better than your own.” Annabeth said before taking another bite of Piper’s rice.

They kept eating each other’s rice and talking for nearly an hour. Eventually, Annabeth abandoned Piper’s food and laid down in the grass with the sun on her face. Piper stayed in the shade and cringed at the thought of Annabeth getting a sunburn on her face. It seemed like it would hurt like hell. “Annabeth, you’re gonna get a sunburn, you’re white.”

Annabeth sat up, her face somehow already looked a little red. “You people of color are so lucky, with your melanin and whatnot,” she returned next to Piper, “But my people did steal your land, enslave, rape, and murder your people and I’m still privileged despite that so I think I’ll be okay.”

“How woke of you,” Piper said, resting her elbows on her legs, just above her knees.

“I try,” Annabeth laid back down on the grass, with all of her skin still in the shade. “Do you read poetry, Piper?”

Piper snorted, “No, I’m not a hipster or a millennial,”

This time it was Annabeth’s turn to snort, “You’re the biggest hipster I know,”

“One, I wear tacky lesbian fashion, and two, have you looked in a mirror lately?” Piper counted off her points on her fingers.

“Whatever, anyways there was this poet, Sappho, in ancient Greece, and she lived on this island called Lesbos and the citizens were called lesbians. Anyways, Sappho and all her other gay friends all loved girls so much and wrote poems about different women so much that it’s what Lesbos was known for and that’s why women solely attracted to women are called lesbians.” Annabeth said. Piper wondered how the hell Annabeth learned this.

“Man, I wish I was so gay that an entire Island was known for being gay because of me.”

“It’s pretty impressive,” Annabeth said.

“Do you know any of her poetry?” Piper asked.

“Just one but it’s really short, it may just be a fragment of one. ‘The moon appeared in her fullness when women took their place around the altar.’”

Piper thought Annabeth was a little like the moon. Pale and still mysterious no matter how close you get. But still comforting with her constant presence despite the mystery.

Piper smiled. “That’s a great poem.”

“Yeah, I have a whole book of her poetry at home,”

“Of course you do,”

“It was a coming out present from Thalia.”

Piper laughed. Annabeth smiled so her one tooth stuck out. Piper smiled when she noticed the tooth. The tooth that was undeniable proof that Piper got Annabeth to smile, and that it was a 100% real smile.

Annabeth pulled her phone from her pocket and her smile fell a bit when she unlocked it. “My parents want me to go home.”

“Then I guess we should get going,” Piper gathered up their oyster pails and fork.

“I don't want to,” Annabeth said, but she sat up anyways.

Piper found a trash can and threw out the empty oyster pails. She and Annabeth got in her car. Annabeth picked up the bag their food came in off the floor. “Oh, there’s fortune cookies,” she said.

Annabeth handed one to Piper and broke open the other. “This is so tiny, how can someone read this?”

“Here,” Piper said, holding out her hand. She read the tiny print aloud “‘If you speak honestly, everyone will listen,’”

“Oh, that’s boring,” Annabeth said, taking the paper back from Piper, “Why couldn’t it have told me I’m gonna be a millionaire?” she asked before taking a bite of the cookie.

Piper cracked open her own cookie, put the broken halves on her lap, and read the paper, “‘Pray to God, but row towards shore.’ “What the hell? That makes no sense.”

“What’s with these shitty fortune cookies?” Annabeth asked, with a mouth full of her cookie.

Piper took a bite of her own. “At least the cookies themselves aren’t bad.” Piper backed out of her parking space and Annabeth picked out some music. Annabeth’s house wasn’t far from the little park so it only took a few minutes to reach it. “You know, I’m wondering why your parents haven’t been asking you about the mysterious girl who drives you places,” Piper said as they reached Annabeth’s house.

“Well, as far as they know you’re an Uber driver,” Annabeth said, reaching back for her backpack.

“They think you just end up with the exact same Uber every day?” Piper asked, somewhat shocked.

Annabeth pulled the latch on her door. “They aren’t very observant.”

“Well, bye,” Pipe said, giving a small wave. She wanted to compliment Annabeth on something, to make her feel good and also think about Piper. She considered complimenting her hair. “Uh, bye,” Annabeth said, pushing the door open. Well, this was Piper’s chance.

“By the way, Annabeth,” Piper said. Annabeth looked over her shoulder to look at Piper. “I like your hair today,” Piper said, followed immediately by, “Wait, no, that’s not what I meant to say, um,”

Piper collected her thoughts. “Your hair looks nice today,” she thought about each word as she said it.

“Thanks,” Annabeth said. “Yours looks good too.”

Annabeth waved Piper goodbye and beelined for the front door of her house. Piper watched Annabeth, making sure that she got inside.

Usually, after Annabeth got inside Piper would immediately drive off, but that day, she just hid her face in her hands, groaned, rubbed her eyes, and then drove off, homebound.

[arcadeidea]

Spacewar! [1962]

Spacewar is still the first video game. Not technically: the developers of Spacewar were already aware of a playable Tic Tac Toe implementation on the very computer they were working on, which by that point was already a more-than-decade-long tradition for computers, not to mention Tennis For Two [1958]. (For greater detail on this cascade of history, watch Ahoy's fantastic and dry documentary The First Video Game.) These prior works are only trivia, though, and false starts all of them. They're what you find if you look at the past not on its own terms but on ours, applying a rigorous schema of definition aspiring to the condition of a science, searching for something specific they couldn't have known they had. Tennis For Two is the only game of that protozoic era to be relevant or even known of to anyone in the field for the next several decades, and even then all that was required of it was the mere fact of its existence (its status as a trivia item) for the sake of a something so banal as a lawsuit. They are worthy of honorary mention, but a medium is not a prescription, it is a chain of tradition. Not only is Spacewar wholly original and something only achievable with a digital computer and not an attempt at transferring a real-life game, but more importantly and ironically, it did not exist in a vacuum.

Spacewar is not something you apply a definition to, Spacewar IS the definition. Although nothing so strident and bold and definitive was intended as it would be with later games, when it was taken as a prototypical guide by those who followed, that is what it functionally became. Not to be too precious and romantic and mythologize it ("First there was nothing, then there was Spacewar!"), not to be too essentialist about it ("Spacewar contains the seeds for all what followed"), not to use it to answer What Doth Games and fall right back into the checklisting trap — but we can read the game itself as a manifesto, a collection of precepts and assumptions, and one of the creators (JM Graetz) was even considerate enough to give us an itemized list of exactly what the MIT Tech Model Railroad Group hoped to achieve in making Spacewar:

1) It should demonstrate, that is, it should show off as many of the computer's resources as possible, and tax those resources to the limit; 2) Within a consistent framework, it should be interesting, which means every run should be different; 3) It should involve the onlooker in a pleasurable and active way — in short, it should be a game.

The expressed reason video games exist as a distinct artistic medium, as anything more than a shadowplay of traditional games and sports, is to show off the power of our computers. I use that word — power — and not the more prosaic and accurate "computer resources" that Graetz used for a reason. It's 1962, and it can not be put out from anyone's mind, viewer, player, or creator, that computers would be instrumental in a real Space War of the foreseeable future. Or even a terrestrial war, which was the sole practical purpose and reason for the existence and funding of computers up to this point in history (if we take pure mathematics for its own sake as "impractical.") It's a show of force, it could even be a threat if it were leveraged in a Cold War propagandistic context against those with weaker or nonexistent computers and not with the giddy, childish innocence that it was created and received with. Better to call the spirit "utopian frivolity," though. Self-proclaimed hackers brought not only Spacewar to the system, but the music of Bach and by extension his rosy vision of the divine and human. Perhaps these programmers may have had their imaginations circumscribed and imprinted with the hitherto military legacy of computing, not to mention American culture... but these eggheads messing around saw the potential of computers reaching far beyond that, towards a hi-tech Arcadia. There's much to admire there, but it carries the unmistakable stench of classical tragedy, and Spacewar serves as a testament of the damnation from within: not just that it is a window into an imagined future of nothing but war, but that its explicit priority is the poisonous ambition to simply use more and more resources, again endemic to American culture as much as it is to future game development culture.

Things like "crunch" weren't around yet, of course. Spacewar is sometimes casually attributed to Steve Russell as the lead or main developer, as in the current lede of its Wikipedia article. The original concept was borne of three-man bull sessions with Russell, but then the very first step towards practical implementation was taken by a fourth man. Russell then created a barebones prototype, including the ships and their ability to turn and thrust and shoot (and it is not mentioned, but presumably, to die.) In response to playtesting, he added background stars. After that point, it became stone soup. Other people in the Tech Model Railroad Club would have a bright idea — bespoke controllers, accurate background stars, freshly optimized ship-turning code, death animations, hyperspace warp, and the big one, the central gravity-well star — and then just implement it themselves. The end result is a game that's simple, but surprisingly polished and full-featured, especially compared to our image of early games as clunky, primitive, blocky things. It reminds one of the hagiographic myth of early-90s Id, a very small team of friends having as much fun making the game as they are playing it, all leaving their personal touch on the work. Steve Russell was not the auteur with a hand on the tiller and an eye on his vision, but one crucial member of the team. It's all very kumbaya, non-hierarchical, no pressure, if we take testimony about its development on face value and don't chuck it out as rose-tinted nostalgia.

This stands in contrast to the game, which is a fantasy of violent domination in competition, with a definite winner. We could unpack the implications of that more, and what it all means that the very first video game was of war, but, well, we'll have plenty of chances to in the future to say the least. Two opponents, precisely balanced and equal in a space ballet, identical in every way except for visually (the distinctive silhouettes of the needle and the wedge are a minor triumph in character design.) Hey, maybe there's some Tic Tac Toe influence there! Spacewar's idea of gaming is inherently multiplayer, and that makes sense. Solo games like pinball or Solitaire card games exist, but the large majority of games at this point that inform what we understand a game to be are all communal activities. The game even came with inviting options to modify the game's parameters to suit the player's preferences.

[I must confess now: other than maybe a couple minutes at a computer museum with a partner, and a few minutes in the middle of writing this awkwardly sharing a keyboard on a browser emulator with my dad, I don't think I've properly played this. I'm just a tourist. Is this an analysis of Spacewar or of JM Graetz's The Origin Of Spacewar? This is more of a programming note than anything about the game, but part of why I'm starting this project is because I've always been on the outside looking in when it comes to gaming. I've always loved reading about games more than playing them, and this writing and canon-exploring endeavor is a hope that I can fill in the gaps and to force me to form my own thoughts. And what's the point if I can't well play the game for myself? Unless I change my mind, I'll be largely avoiding multiplayer games whenever I possibly can, because not only can securing a Player 2 in these early non-online games be an awkward or high barrier to clear for me, and not only are many of them ephemeral, and/or hard to fix in place and get a read on, such as here where the intention is that every run is different because of the guile and fumbles of your human opponent even though the game blatantly remains static, but their basic legibility depends even more than usual on practiced skill that I just haven't personally built up.]

The game is inherently hostile to your continued existence, and both players are only empowered to make it even moreso. Movement is constant, although very slow so as to facilitate strategic marksmanship over spray-and-pray. It's not an anxious atmosphere though, the edge of threat and action is what keeps the player engaged, throws them into interaction and thought. The central star is the key that makes this dramatic and dangerous gameplay: it makes it impossible to stay still, and it serves as the passive threat of death, one that can't be defeated, only negotiated. The only other gameplay element to speak of is your human opponent, but the star serves as the personification of the game itself. It shares something in common with the roulette wheel, not in the randomization which is more in play with the Hyperspace Warp Hail Mary, not even in the gravitational pull, but in the way it stands as an emblem that ultimately, you're playing the game on the terms of the game-maker and at the mercy of physics. Maybe it's only a small philosophical leap from playing against the computer's game and a player to designing a game played against only the computer.

Spacewar exists already at the fruitful intersection of abstraction, simulation, and fiction that games will never escape. You don't get to brake, but instead have to apply reverse thrust, in a nod to simulating what space flight would really be like. But you can pivot freely without applying any thrust at all as though on a Lazy Susan, so that your nose is always pointing in the opposite direction   of the thrust for quick visual clarity. Your bullets don't obey gravity like your ship does. These have their respective knowingly-silly technobabble explanations, papering over the gap between simulation and abstraction with fiction. War is its name and theme, but it's really more of a duel, boiling war down to a single dogfight. Space is its name and theme, but it's not empty and it's not infinite, it's a closed area smaller than a sheet of paper that wraps around at the edges and corners, which if I'm visualizing correctly, would resolve to a teardrop shape (which is then projected onto a rectangle, which is then projected onto a circle.) In each case, we are presented with a small slice of what we understand through the minimal text (the title) to represent an almost incomprehensibly bigger idea.

We easily understand its shorthand mostly through intertextuality. We only understand what we're looking at, and why we can regard war with frivolity, because of the pulpy science-fiction wrapper. The inspiration for the concept is explicitly cited as low-culture "genre fiction" for nerds like the seemingly endless procession of science-fiction B-movies through the movie theaters. Specifically singled out is the cheesy space opera book series The Skylark Of Space. The yearning for the combination, a Skylark Of Space special effect B-Movie, was exactly what produced the creative energy in the bull sessions to dream up the totally-unprecedented gameplay concept of Spacewar. That's right: the first original video game was genre trash born of frustrated aspirations of filmmaking. Doesn't get much more fitting an inauguration.

Spacewar spread like a folk song, not a commercial proposition. The determination was made that there was simply no consumer base, so the source was handed out to anyone who asked. Somehow or another, a fellow hacker would catch a look at Spacewar, then return to their own machine to recode it from scratch if it wasn't a PDP-1, and people would keep adding onto it themselves. That's a remarkable method of propagation that has its successors such as the Type-In game but it relies heavily on a baseline of common computer literacy that necessarily dies out as computers get both more widespread and infinitely less demanding on the user to learn how to program just to use it. I can't help but feel a twinge as Spacewar is cloned into Galaxy Game [1971], one of the first if not the first coin-op arcade video game. Money makes it ugly: Is it stealing when it was freely and casually distributed before?