#which i later return to and think ''oh... that turned into basically gibberish...''

[wr0ngwarp]

an attempted expression of feelings too large and colorful for my monochrome voice.

an overwhelming pressure buildup of fear and anger and joy and so, so much love for the world and the nature of art and self-expression

[abbynx]

La Squadra as babies

because I’ve been babysitting a bunch of them this week and got an idea about it

Genre: Platonic, headcanons, wholesome 

Warning: Kids, cursing

Formaggio 

- A very happy baby. The cute little bean always has a smile on his face when he wakes up from a nap, when he sleeps, and just has the most adorable and contagious laughter. 

- Rarely cries, so that’s an advantage. Like, this boy-- omg, he probably just laughs at people’s angry expression instead of being affected by them. 

- Extremely playful and finds joy in every little thing. So if one is feeding him, he just grabs the spoon, play with it and makes a mess instead of eating. And by this, it won’t be easy to lull him to sleep because he is very active, so you’ll be having the hard time to rock him to sleep. 

- Tries his utmost best to imitate human speech early, but all that’s coming out of his mouth is gibberish. Babble along with him, he enjoys them.

Illuso

- Very stoic baby. Just-- he’s so expressionless that it is creepy to some, but if that’s right up your alley, then there you go. 

- Does not want to be picked up, and will throw a fit a someone does pick him up. So kindly, and slowly put him down as he pouts up at you with his brows knit together. 

- Will cry if someone pulls on his hair ever so slightly, so it’s best to place him in his own corner away from grabby handed babies. No joke, he will throw a fit if something pulled on his hair even just a little bit. 

- Does not need too much attention but if he needs it, he will demand it. So go ahead, pick him up and see what you can do about his whining and crying. All in all, you have nothing to worry about if you don’t burst his bubble of personal space and give him all he needs. 

Proscioutto 

- Independent baby who needs no mama-- okay but seriously, this baby somehow is independent. So yes, you got yourself a low maintenance child who knows what he wants 

- Despite this independence of him there are things he can’t do, like standing up. And even if he doesn’t know how to do it, he will attempt to do so and this might result into disaster. So you will still need to watch over him

- It’s easy to figure out what he is crying about, because he’ll usually point at it. But don’t worry, he doesn’t really cry that much so you won’t have to worry about anything. 

- Extremely unamused to baby games. Peak-a-boo? nope, he’ll just stare at you with his resting bitch face, probably mentally thinking, ‘What are you doing? Do I look that dumb to you? Do think by covering your face I won’t be able to see you? do you think I’ll go out looking for you? no. I can do things on my own.” Well jokes on him, he can’t even walk yet. 

Pesci

- Clingy child will not let go of you so if you need to leave, you’re going to need to put someone beside him so that he can cling to them. Give him Proscuitto, as the babs doesn’t really mind being grabbed. 

- Will cry if he is alone, so it’s best for him to be placed in a group. He likes playmates and he will be basically okay when he is with someone. 

- He likes drinking milk a lot, so you’ll need to make him drink in every two hours and by this he needs to be picked up from the play pen to drink. For a moment he’ll whine because he just abandoned his friends, but will immediately shut up when he had the bottle in his mouth.

- It’s easy to lull him to sleep, thankfully and he is quite the heavy sleeper you don’t have anything to worry about. 

Melone 

- If you have hair, especially long hair, for the love of all good things make sure you tie it and keep it away from his reach. Are you wearing something sparkly dangling earrings? Get rid of it if you do not want to sustain earlobe injuries. Glasses? Oh sis no, get rid of it and take care of the children blind because okay now you get the point-- this is the grabbiest child that has ever been grabby. 

- At even a young age, he has fascination towards everything and is just the curious bundle of beans and will no hesitate to grab something, tug it and just play with it. So due to his grabby nature, you need to segregate him away from the child with long hair and will throw a fit if someone grabbed his hair.  

- If grabbing things was not enough, sometimes he’ll put things in his mouth so watch out. So far he has put his hand in his mouth, your hair, a stuffed bear, and among other things, he has also tried to put Ghiaccio’s hand in his mouth. 

- He is fairly easy to manage, it’s just that he likes to examine things but other than that, he isn’t that difficult to look after. He stays in place, complies to sleepy time, and eats whatever you want to feed him. 

Ghiaccio 

- Oh no here comes the screaming child. He gets what he wants and he will get it, or else he will make the others cry with his loud screaming and toy throwing. Don’t worry this is only occasional.

- He is a force to be reckoned with, but you can always calm him down by picking him up and putting him in a corner to have a cool down. Most of the times he screams like this is when he is overwhelmed by sounds and he’s tired, so it’s best to put him to sleep. 

- For the love of anything holy, do not wake him up. Just don’t. Especially in the middle of the night, or you’d have to calm eight babies and try to put them to sleep again, one by one. 

- He can be playful, but sets up boundaries and makes it clear that no one would bite him. See Melone as an example, whom Ghiaccio didn’t hesitate to throw a wooden building block at the grabby baby after Melone tried to bite Ghia. 

Risotto 

- Extremely quiet and behaved... Or so you thought. So this child is behaved so that’s good, you left for a moment to take care of the other rambunctious children of the bunch, then all of the sudden, he is gone and can be found nowhere.

- Once found, make sure he is at the line of your sight because I swear, this boy doe not even know how to walk and yet he is perched atop the highest shelf out of your reach. 

- Other than that, he is well-mannered, well-behaved and won’t make much of a fuss and he is very obedient. He shares toys to everyone and gets along with them. 

- He is also difficult to lull to sleep. You’d think he’s sleeping already so you set him in the crib and a few minutes later you see him attempting to get out of his crib. So make sure he fully falls asleep and make sure you make the height of his guard rails taller. 

Gelato 

- He is always asleep, so kindly don’t wake him up or you’ll have to wrangle hell’s hound. In moments wherein he is awake, he is one of the rambunctious kiddies so watch out, he likes throwing toys at people for fun unlike Ghiaccio. He will laugh at the sound of the others crying. 

- It’s difficult to feed him good luck. He’s so dang stubborn at the sight of the approaching spoon, so he’ll turn away and just look away from you. And if there’s a time you’d place the spoon in his mouth he’d spit the food back at the spoon. But if you do this to the point of being annoying, he’ll finally swallow his food. 

- He is clingy and always want to be lifted up for some reason. He will throw a fit if you put him down so good luck carrying him around. 

- Gelato has an attachment with a blue, studded teddy bear. It’s crucial you don’t try and pry it away from him. Along with that, a certain child named Sorbet. Please don’t separate them form each other. 

Sorbet 

- Likes to hog toys and that will make the others cry. So kindly try and persuade him to share his toys, he is a reasonable kid so it would be a little less difficult for you to try and convince him to not keep the toys all to himself... 

- But of course, he’s a bit of a negotiator himself and wants something in return. Usually wants an extra cookie, which is bad because that will spoil his appetite but you win some, you lose some. 

- So remember when I said Gelato is extremely clingy to you and wants to be carried around? And in addition to you he also doesn’t want to be separated from Sorbet? Yes, you’re carrying two kids and a blue stuffed bear. 

- Make sure he and Gelato shares a crib. Because if you separate them, they will find ways to climb out of their cribs just so they can lay down and sleep together. So spare yourself a headache, put them in the same crib. 

[logansanderslove]

Changeling Logan (1/?)

Sanders Sides: Logan, Roman, Patton, Virgil, Remy, Deceit (Damien)

Summary: Logan Marsh isn’t exactly all that he seems. He is, in fact, a changeling, being able to morph into whatever he wants. He has kept that fact hidden from his friends for years, but while on vacation, a single slip up breaks it free, and starts something he never could have imagined.

Fic type: Drama, Romantic, Fun

Ships: Logince, Moxiety, Receit (Remy/Deceit)

Warnings: Language

MASTERLIST

Logan walked out to the pool, tossing his towel on the chair as he stripped off his shirt and removed his glasses. Glancing around to see if any of his three roommates or their friends were anywhere near, he sighed, then walked to the deep end of the pool, taking a deep breath. He stood on the edge, closed his eyes, then dove in.

Immediately he felt the odd sensation in his neck, the prickling that travelled over his skin, and he opened his eyes to see his skin had turned a light teal with darker blue spots, smooth and sleek. He took a deep breath with a smile, rubbing his neck, his fingers running over the three breaks in his skin where air and water flowed through together. 

“I missed this…” He murmured, his voice clear as day even under the water. He began to swim around, relaxing in the cool water, finally able to think clearly.

When he had learned that the house he, his roommates and their friends were staying in during their vacation had a pool, he had been overjoyed. The others, of course, didn’t know why, but Logan had missed being able to swim. He had missed the quiet serenity, the relaxing cool touch the water held, and he also couldn’t help but like the beautiful colours that turned his skin when he let out his changeling side. Even though he could really be anything he wanted, able to stay in the water as long as he wanted was his favourite by far. For years, as long as he could remember, Logan had hidden his gift away from all the eyes of his friends, fearful of what they might think. But when he had the chance, he would take it to be who he really was.

Taking another deep breath as he sank to the bottom, he sat on the floor of the pool, looking up at the light blue sky, blurred by the water but still beautiful. He ran a hand over his head through his hair, the webbings between his fingers that had appeared catching the softness of the strands. He looked at his watch, waterproof and nearly indestructible, as well as some of the latest technology, and he smirked. Nearly an hour had passed, but it had felt like fifteen minutes. He let out a sigh, kicked off the bottom to breach the surface, gasping, then he swam to the ladder. Climbing out, he shook his head, pushing his bangs away from his eyes so he could put his glasses on when he walked over to his stuff. He closed his eyes as he felt the blue hue starting to fade away, the gills on the side of his neck disappearing. He had just grabbed his towel when he heard a small noise and he wheeled around to see Roman staring at him with his mouth hanging open, his towel falling from his hand.

Logan immediately felt his heart stop, panic rising in him as the different tint of his skin finally went away, making Roman’s eyes widen even more. Logan slowly put his hands up, shaking his head.

“R-Roman…just stay calm...I-I can explain…” He started, but Roman just made a little weak squealing noise, bringing his hands up to his head as his fingers raked through his hair. 

“I..wha-what...wha...you...AAAA!!!” He cried out, and Logan waved his hands quickly. 

“NO! No, Roman, shut up!” He hissed through gritted teeth, but soon Roman’s friend Remy walked out the door, sipping on his eighteenth cup of coffee that day.

“Hey, baby, what’s up? Why are you screaming?” He asked, and Roman tried to say something, but all that came out was gibberish as he pointed at Logan. Remy’s eyes turned to the intellectual, who tensed up, then Remy chuckled.

“It’s just Logan, Ro. I know you’re not that fond of knowledge or using your brain, so I can understand why he scares you. Ciao, baby.” He patted Roman’s shoulder and walked back inside, letting Logan breathe a huge sigh of relief. Roman still stood completely panicked, and Logan frowned. He walked over, grabbed Roman by the wrist and sat him down, sitting next to him. He narrowed his eyes, meeting Roman’s gaze seriously.

“Look, stop freaking out, I need you to be quiet, got it?!” Logan hissed, and Roman immediately nodded, finally seeming to come out of his daze.

“But...Logan...what, what was that you did?! What are you?!” He wondered frantically, to which Logan just put his head in his hands.

“Roman, I’m going to need you to promise me you won’t flip out.” He said deadpan, and Roman hesitated, then nodded slowly. Logan sighed. “Roman, I’m part of what you might call, well, ‘changeling’ seems to be the common term. In short, I can change into whatever I want, or of the like. My skin turns a different colour depending on what it is, but...as you saw, my skin was blue when I came from swimming, and I additionally...had...gills. That is what happens when I change to-”

“You basically become a merman,” Roman said flatly, and Logan raised his eyebrow, then nodded. 

“I guess that is a valid assessment. You seem to have calmed down a bit. Are you okay?” He asked, and Roman shrugged slowly, biting his lip.

“I mean, I just found out my roommate can turn into different things, I’m freaking out on the inside, but...for your own sake...I’ll keep quiet about it,” Roman said, shocking Logan.

“You’ve never seemed to care about what I have to say in the past, why are you keeping my secret?” he wondered, and Roman sighed.

“Because I saw how scared you got when I found out. You looked terrified. And...I don’t want you to be scared.” He said heartfully, and Logan’s eyes grew.

“I...I don’t exactly know how to react to that, Roman. I always felt that our connection tended to fall on the more negative end of things and that you didn’t much like me.” He said slowly, but Roman just shrugged with a sigh.

“I guess...I just want to sort of mend that, y’ know? We’ve always basically hated each other, and Virgil and Patton are always saying that we should try to understand one another better, so...I want to try to understand you, Lo.” He said with a small smile.

Logan sat staring at Roman with wide eyes, then a smile crept onto his face as well. “Then I, too, will work to be more understanding of you, Roman. I would like to have a better friendship between the two of us.” He said, and Roman grinned, then he glanced at the pool.

“Uh...do you wanna go for a swim with me? I know you were already in, but, if you want…”

Logan chuckled. “Of course.”

Roman smiled a toothy grin, following Logan as they both walked to the deep end. Logan stood on the edge, about to dive when he felt two hands shove him forward and he cried out in surprise as he fell into the pool, surfacing moments later to hear Roman’s laughter. Logan brushed his hair from his eyes just in time to see Roman jump towards him with a wide grin.

“CANNONBALL!!” He yelled, and Logan just barely moved out of the way in time as Roman landed with a large splash beside him. He groaned when Roman popped back up to the surface, laughing, then he stared at Logan with a smile, his eyebrow rising as he tilted his head. Logan held an expression of confusion.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” He asked, and Roman shrugged. 

“Now that it’s not exactly a freaky shock, seeing you like that is pretty cool.” He said, and Logan looked down at himself, biting his lip as he considered what Roman meant. He had once again turned into his aquatic form, his skin blue and almost sparkling in the sun. He looked back up at Roman.

“So, you don’t find it odd in the slightest?” He asked warily, but Roman scoffed.

“Logan, I find you odd just as your normal self, this just ups it a lot. But no, I think it’s cool. Seriously.” He swam closer to him, treading water in front of him. “So, you like, have gills, Mr Fish?” He said slowly with a slight smirk and Logan frowned, then splashed water at Roman.

“Shut up. Yes, I do, but please do not call me a fish, Roman. It’s not exactly a glamorous comparison.” He said with a hint of embarrassment, and Roman’s eyes went wide.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Logan. I didn’t mean to make you feel that way.” It was quiet between the two for a moment, then Roman’s smile returned. “Okay, so you can breathe like a merman. What else can you do?” He asked with great interest, and Logan smirked.

“Well, as you know, when you open your eyes underwater, all you see is blurred, correct? I can see crystal clear, and ironically, I see better underwater than I do with my glasses.” He said with a small chuckle. “I can also hear perfectly underwater, as in words are not broken or muted, but instead sound as if they were spoken right into my ear.” He said, and Roman’s eyes were wide, a bright smile on his face. 

“That is so cool!” He exclaimed, and Logan felt his cheeks flush, glad that it was far harder to detect due to his blue pigment. Roman kicked under the water, still treading water tiringly while Logan seemed to move effortlessly. “So, what’s the longest you’ve held your breath?” He asked, and Logan raised his eyebrow.

“Roman, have you any idea how gills even work? I can breathe underwater. I don’t have to hold my breath, and there’s no limit. It’s just as simple as how you breathe on land.” He stated, and Roman frowned.

“Sorry.” He said sheepishly, and Logan sighed, then rubbed the back of his head. He started to turn when Roman suddenly gasped. “Logan, you have a tattoo?!” He exclaimed, and Logan looked over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow, then his face turned to realisation.

“Oh, ah, yes, well, it’s not exactly a ‘tattoo’, it’s more so a mark that appears when I change form. It varies depending on which form I take.” He said and Roman swam over, then Logan flinched slightly as Roman’s fingers brushed the back of his neck.

“It’s really cool…” He murmured, and Logan’s eyes widened. Roman smirked. “It’s simple, but also elegant. And it’s a beautiful dark blue, too.” He traced the circle with his finger, gently running over the small wave that was centred in the tattoo, a circle that wasn’t perfectly round and had a strike from the top and the bottom leading out.

Logan smiled slightly, glancing to meet Roman’s eye, then a smirk formed and he dove under the water, swimming down a bit then turning to look up, seeing that Roman had also dived under the water, his long hair floating around him as he moved towards his friend. Logan could see the smile on Roman’s face, and he couldn’t help but smile back, even though he knew the other couldn’t see it. In a flash, he turned, kicked off the bottom of the pool, then rocketed up at Roman, his hands hitting his chest and shoving him to the surface. Roman jolted, his eyes going wide, gasping as they both breached the surface. Logan laughed, glancing at Roman, then his laugh died when he saw the confused look on Roman’s face.

“Roman? Are you okay-”

“Logan, go underwater again, I want to see something.” He said, and Logan raised his eyebrow then nodded slowly.

“Uh, okay…” He dove back down, turning to look at Roman, who had drifted down maybe a foot below the surface, his eyes wider than Logan had seen, or at least since he had found out about Logan’s secret. Roman pointed to the surface, and both men swam up, then Logan turned to him when he topped.

“Roman, what is it?” He asked, but Roman just had the most bewildered look on his face. “Roman?”

The other suddenly snapped out of his daze, meeting Logan’s eyes. “Lo...I could see perfectly clearly underwater...like you said you could. One minute I couldn’t, the next I could.” he said slowly, and Logan’s own eyes went wide. 

“What?” He asked quietly, and Roman nodded. 

“Right before you hit me, I was seeing exactly how I would usually see underwater. Blurry. But the second your hands touched me, it was as if someone had wiped the glass and I could see clearly. It’s…” He looked up, shaking his head, then a smile formed on his face. “It’s so cool!” He exclaimed, but Logan merited no response. He appeared to be trying to calculate something but was unable to. Roman swam closer to him, putting his hand on his shoulder. “Lo? You...you okay?” He asked worriedly, snapping Logan back, and when he met the other’s eyes, Roman could see a number of strong emotions hidden in the deep blue, but the most prominent was...uncertainty?

Logan shook his head as he swam to a part of the pool where Roman could stand so he wouldn’t have to tire himself treading water, then he bit his lip.

“I...I never would have thought...not in a million years…” He started muttering, and Roman tilted his head. 

“Logan?” He said quietly, but the other just kept talking to himself.

“I mean, the odds are so incredibly infinitesimal...could it really be- no, it has to be, it’s never wrong, but-”

“LOGAN.” 

The intellectual jumped, looking up at Roman’s concerned eyes.

“What are you saying? What happened?” He wondered, and Logan bit his lip, then took a deep breath.

“Roman, one thing about what I am is that I can only ever have a special connection with one person, one that binds them together. It’s basically...in a sense…” He stumbled on words, then he shook his head with a long exhale. “There is only ever one way that I would be able to find that someone, and it’s by them sharing my powers.” He slowly looked up at Roman. “You were able to share my sight, Roman. A part of my power. That means...we…” He couldn’t find the words, but he knew by Roman’s face that he understood. The man slowly grew a smile, then he snickered. Logan’s face turned to confusion. “What do you find amusing?” He asked, and Roman shrugged with a wide grin.

“I just think it’s kind of funny that the two people who everyone thought were going to hate each other forever turn out to be soulmates. Just kinda ironic, that’s all,” he said with a smile, to which Logan’s eyes shot open.

“Wait, hold on. You...you’re not scared by this fact at all?” He wondered, but Roman just shook his head. 

“Nope. I mean, sure, it’s not exactly what I expected to happen, but, who knows? This might be the greatest thing that ever happens to us. I mean, I already thought you were pretty cute, now look where I am.” He tilted his head at Logan with a grin, the other stiffening.

“I...what?” He questioned as Roman swam over to him, stopping directly in front of him.

“I said, Logan, that you’re cute and this might actually be fun.” He reached up and brushed Logan’s cheek with his hand, making the other freeze. “Personally, now that I think about it, this could be very fun.”

He leaned forward and before Logan could react Roman’s lips were on his own. His eyes shot open, then they slowly closed as a tingling sensation travelled through his body. He relaxed, and he felt Roman smile in the kiss. The more romantic of the two drew back and Logan opened his eyes to see the wide smirk on Roman’s face. He felt his cheeks flushing and his ears turning hot, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Roman, I-” He tried to form words, and as much as he was trying not to, he couldn’t help but smile. A wave of emotions had washed through him, and suddenly he was calmer and more at ease with his feelings than he had ever been before. He met Roman’s gaze, who crossed his arms and flicked his eyebrows up.

“Like I said. Could be fun.”

Logan laughed slightly, then he nodded. "Maybe it can." He brushed Roman's cheek, the other smiling as a twinkle shone in Logan's eyes, then the changeling pulled Roman towards him, embracing him in a kiss. Roman immediately smiled, holding Logan closer, then he raised his eyebrow as he felt a tingling, and he pulled back to see Logan smirking at him, his skin back to normal and his eyes more loving than Roman had ever seen.

Then again, Roman had hardly ever seen Logan even portray emotions. But he was glad he now did.

Logan tilted his head. "That's interesting. I don't think I've ever turned back subconsciously before. Must be you." He said, and Roman raised his eyebrow.

"Y'know, for a guy who was a bit concerned at first, you've certainly accepted us quickly. Heck, it seems like you're actually enjoying it now." He said, then Logan shrugged, brushing a few strands of Roman's hair away from his eyes.

"And why wouldn't I? I just found my soulmate, and he understands me and cares about me. I cannot ask for anything more than that." He said sweetly, then Roman snickered. 

"You're adorable." He grabbed Logan around the waist and lifted him up, Logan letting out a small squeak of surprise. He held him in his arms princess style, then pressed his lips against Logan's in another kiss. Logan hooked his arms around Roman's neck, then a gasp made both of their heads snap up with wide eyes to see Virgil and Patton standing at the doorway in their swimsuits, Virgil clearly holding back a laugh and Patton smiling beyond belief.

Roman dropped Logan who fell with a splash, surfacing with a frown. “Hey!” He shouted to which Roman just awkwardly shrugged.

Patton stuck his tongue out as he squealed. “OH MY GOD, YES!!! YOU TWO ARE SO CUTE!!” He exclaimed, but Logan shook his head.

“No, this isn’t what it looks like-”

Virgil snorted. “Nice try, Lo, but I think that this is exactly what it looks like.” He then waved his hand. “No worries, it’s chill. You deserve to have someone in your life. After all, you take care of all of us, it’s about time you have someone to take care of you.” He said kindly, making Logan’s eyes widen, glancing at Roman, who stared back at him, then a smile formed on each of their faces. Patton clapped his hands together as he practically jumped up and down in excitement.

“Oh, this is perfect!!!” he said, and Roman raised his eyebrow. 

“How is it perfect? What does that even mean-”

“I mean, now we each have our own boyfriends!!” He shouted, bringing a confused look from both the men in the pool.

Logan tilted his head. “What?”

Virgil scoffed. “For someone so intelligent, I’m surprised you didn’t notice sooner.” He said, kissing Patton’s cheek, who giggled, then he smiled back at the intellectual with a smug grin. Logan’s eyes went wide along with Roman’s, then Roman cracked a grin.

“That’s adorable. The emo and the goofball. What a combo.” He said, then Virgil flicked his eyebrows up.

“And the nerd and the fanciful dork is so normal?” He remarked, to which Roman sighed, heavily agreeing with Virgil. 

Then the curly-haired enthusiastic young man dropped his towel and grinned. “Well, what are we waiting for?!” Patton ran towards the pool, then jumped in the air. “CANNONBALL!!” 

Virgil followed quickly with a laugh, and Logan grinned with Roman, swimming over to the others to have fun in the pool, more quality fun time than they had had together in a long time.

~

An hour later, the group finally retired from the pool, laughing and joking together, exhausted. All except Logan. He still was fit as could be, and Virgil glanced his way as he dried his hair with his towel.

“Hey Lo, I never knew you were such a good swimmer. You’re not even tired. You seem to really enjoy it. Were you like, on the swim team or something?” He asked, and Logan hesitated, then shook his head. 

“Ah, no. I just went swimming very often when I was a child. My brother and I would go swimming together fairly frequently.” He said, to which everyone looked up.

Patton raised his eyebrow. “I didn’t know you have a brother, Logan.” He said, and Logan bit his lip, rubbing his arm.

“Y-yeah. Oliver and I haven’t talked in a while. We had a bit of a falling out a few years ago.” He said quietly, and Roman put his arm around Logan’s shoulder.

“You still have us, Lo.” He said, and Logan chuckled.

“Yes, I do. And I could honestly not be more grateful.” His eyes swept over his friends, then his eyebrow rose when Remy walked outside.

“Hey dorks. Whatcha talkin’ ‘bout?” He asked, and Roman tilted his head. 

“Remy, how many cups of coffee have you had?” He asked, pointing to the mug in his hand. Remy looked down, then shrugged lazily.

“I dunno, baby. I think this might be, like, number twenty-three or six. NO clue. I lost track.” He smiled. “Bet all of you guys had a nice time. Anyway, Damien wanted me to ask what you all want for dinner.”

Virgil’s eyes went wide. “Damien is going to cook for us? Since when?” He questioned, but Remy just shrugged.

“I dunno. As long as I get food, I don’t care. Whatcha all want?” 

Virgil rolled his eyes, but Patton chimed in happily. “PASTA!” He suggested, and Roman nodded.

“That works.”

Logan crossed his arms in a second nod. “That is adequate.”

Virgil sighed. “Whatever.”

Remy took a sip of his coffee, then snapped his fingers. “Pasta. Got it. Thanks, dorks.” He walked back inside then Virgil let out a long breath.

“Since when does Damien cook?” He scoffed, then Patton bit his lip and took a breath.

“Um...I might...might...have been trying to tell him that he should help out around a bit more? And he said he’d start doing the cooking?” He said slowly, to which everyone’s eyes fell on him. Virgil then shook his head.

“New question. Since when does Damien listen to what other people have to say?” He remarked, then Logan clicked his tongue. 

“Now, Virgil, don’t be so demeaning just because you and Damien are not as well connected as the rest of us. It is fine if you don’t like him. Just don’t let that be an excuse to put him down.” He said, and Virgil frowned, then sighed in agreement. Patton took his hand with a smile. 

“C’ mon, Virge. Let’s go change then we can maybe catch some cartoons before dinner!” He said, pulling him towards the door. Once they were gone, Roman turned to Logan. 

“So, you had a falling out with your brother? What do you mean-”

Logan shook his head, sitting down in one of the chairs beside the pool. “Roman, it’s not just that we had a falling out. Oliver...is just like me.” He said, and Roman slowly sat down next to him. 

“As in...he can change like you?” He asked quietly, and Logan nodded, then leaned forward, putting his head in his hand.

“Yes, but to a much larger extent. As I said, Oliver and I would go swimming when we were younger. He took care of me, and I spent most of my time with him. He’s the one who taught me how to control what I can do. But…” He let out a long breath. “After a while, something about him changed. I learned he was abusing his powers, and….it had changed him. A darker tone began to surround him, and he grew more angered, more unstable. I tried to reason with him to stop using his powers so much, to try to break free, but he wouldn’t listen. We got into a fight, he shot me down, and we haven’t spoken since. I...I often feel guilty that I haven’t tried to contact him, but I know he wouldn’t want to see me. It’s better for us to be apart.” He said and Roman’s eyes went wide when he heard the oncoming tears in Logan’s voice. He pulled him close, wrapping his arms around him.

“You don’t have to feel guilty, Logan. Never. And if you’re ever in need of someone to listen, you have me. I promise. No matter what.” He kissed Logan’s forehead, stroking his cheek. “Remember,” he leaned his forehead against Logan’s. “We were meant for each other.” He whispered, and Logan smiled as he closed his eyes.

“You’re right. Thank you.” He said softly, then he turned around and leaned against Roman, looking up at him with a turn of his head. “What do you say, a little while more of just laying here then we get changed for dinner?” He suggested, and Roman nodded.

“Sounds perfect.”

~

Half an hour later, Damien walked outside to find Roman and Logan still talking, and he crossed his arms. “Guys, dinner is ready, get your asses inside.” He said, and Logan spun around with a frown, Roman just flicking his eyebrows.

“You didn’t say the magic word.” He remarked snarkily, to which Damien’s frown grew.

“NOW, dipshit.”

Roman drew back, and Logan sighed, shaking his head, then he stood up and took Roman’s hand. “Come on.” He said, and Roman followed with a smile. Damien raised his eyebrow upon seeing the two holding hands, but he set it aside, not really caring enough to ask.

“Pasta is on the table, everyone is sat down, go put on a shirt and then we can eat.” He said, and both men nodded, hurrying to their rooms, somehow intimidated by Damien’s strict tone. After each grabbed a shirt, walking into the dining room and sitting down, Logan and Roman were both shocked at the amazing display of food before them. Pasta alfredo, spaghetti and meatballs, even primavera was set upon the table, a plate of garlic bread in the middle. Everyone else seemed just as surprised, and Damien looked around.

“What the hell are you all waiting for? The food is gonna get cold if you just stare at it.” He said, upon which all dug in. Patton smiled as he shoved a forkful of spaghetti into his mouth, then turned his head to Damien.

“Wow! I didn’t know you were this great of a cook, Damien! This tastes fantastic!” He mumbled through his full mouth, Virgil rubbing his face with his hand at his boyfriend’s childishness. 

Logan nodded, his eyes wide. “Patton is correct. I am thoroughly impressed, Damien. This food is incredibly satisfying.” He complimented, to which Damien finally smiled. A compliment from Logan was one to be taken with the highest regard.

It was quiet after that, the only sound being the clinks of forks on plates as the meal ensued. When everyone was finished, each having tried every one of the plates that Damien had cooked, they were stuffed. There was still a fair amount of food, and Patton agreed to help Damien package it all up so that they might have it tomorrow. They were all still stunned by Damien’s cooking, and when they had complimented him more after dinner, the typically rude and snarky man had blushed, trying not to smile. However, when Roman tried to praise him, he just stared at him flat-faced.

“What do you want?” He asked plainly, and Roman raised his eyebrow. 

“I...I just told you I was impressed with what you did. It was really good.” He said, but Damien just huffed out a breath, crossing his arms. 

“Yeah, whatever.” He muttered, spiking Roman’s annoyance. 

“Hey, what is with you? I try to be nice, and while you accept everyone else’s praise, you turn mine away. Why?” He demanded, but Damien just shrugged.

“Because you piss me off. That’s why. Plain and simple.” He spoke, and Roman looked taken aback, then another voice joined in.

“Dude, just take the compliment and stop acting like a jerk,” Virgil said, walking over. Damien rolled his eyes.

“Oh great. Now emo nightmare has something to say.” He groaned, then Virgil shoved him back.

“Hey! If you don’t like Roman that much, fine. I get it, he’s annoying sometimes,” he stated, bringing an offended sound from the princely man. “But don’t talk shit about him.”

“Why? You talk shit about me all the time, Virgil.”

“Yeah, well at least I don’t say it to your face, and at least I pretend to be nice. You’re just a jerk. Apologise to Roman.” He said, but Damien turned to face him.

“Make me.”

Virgil’s eyes narrowed, and Roman sighed. “Guys, come on. I don’t even care anymore. You’re both being-”

“SHUT IT.” Both Virgil and Damien said at the same time, shocking Roman, his breath hitching in his throat. For some reason, hearing Virgil’s harsh tone against him hurt, and he hung his head defeatedly. Damien scoffed.

“See? He can’t even take scrutiny well-”

“BOTH OF YOU SHUT YOUR UNCHARITABLE MOUTHS RIGHT NOW.” 

Everyone froze, spinning around to see Logan glaring at them with his arms crossed, his face incredibly unamused.

“That’s enough out of you both. DROP THE ISSUE. Got it?” He ordered, and Virgil nodded quickly, along with Damien. They both knew not to fuck with Logan if he was mad. No one had ever seen him truly, truly angry, but when he was pissed off, they wouldn’t even touch him with a ten-foot pole. Both men scurried off to their respective rooms as Logan walked over to Roman. He sighed, then put his hand on Roman’s cheek.

“Damien hates everyone, Ro, don’t take it personally. He just chooses a new person each day to pick on.” He comforted, and Roman snickered, then stepped forward to pull Logan into a hug.

“I’m glad that I’m yours, Lo. I really am.” He said quietly, and Logan held him close, smiling.

“I’m honoured, Roman. As odd as it was to find out that the two of us, who never truly got along in the past, were destined to be together, now I can’t imagine it being any other way.” He said, and Roman snickered again.

“After just two hours you’ve come to that decision?” He asked, and Logan pulled back with a fake annoyance.

“Yes. I have. Shut up.” His cheeks turned red, then he closed his eyes with a grin. “You’re impossible…” He said, and Roman raised his eyebrow, squeezing Logan’s hand.

“How so?”

Logan felt his ears get hot, and he bit his lip. “You’re impossible not to…” His voice trailed into a soft mumble, and Roman grew a face of curious amusement. 

“What was that? Didn’t quite catch it.” He teased, and Logan groaned.

“You are impossible not to love, you beautiful idiot.” He grabbed the front of Roman’s shirt and pulled him into a kiss, startling the other, then Roman wrapped his arms around Logan with a smile, pressing his forehead against Logan’s when they released the kiss.

“Y’know, I think I’m okay with that.”

To be continued...

Chapter 2   Chapter 3   Chapter 4   Chapter 5   Chapter 6

Taglist: @stillebesat

[thepriestessandthefox-kurakag]

A Request

For the Kagome x Kurama (Inuyasha/Yu Yu Hakusho) lovers and writers out there, I have a request. I have two stunning plots I would someday like to expand on...but, as of now, I cannot. And every time I try, I'm pulled away for some reason or another. Not much is being written these days, and my current focus is the SessKag Week miniseries. (I'm bound and determined to finish it!) Soo...I will share my plots publicly, and if you decide to pick it up please let me know so I can read it! Please also credit me, if only a little, and contact me if you want more information on what I've written on them over the years. (On Switched, I have quite a few notes written.) Without further ado...the plots.

Idea 1: Switched

AU where Kagome was never able to travel back in time and the Shikon wasn't wished away; the detectives are still sometimes called for their aid in getting rid of potential world-ending threats.

Kagome has been unable to find her past friends or any demons at all in her time...and it has depressed her more and more as time slipped through her fingers. Now, she's eighteen...and accidentally makes a wish on the Shikon no Tama around her neck. She wants that adventure again, fighting alongside humans and demons to keep everyone safe. She knew how to do that well...living in a normal society now is strange to her. It doesn't feel like living. She then heads to bed, unaware of the wish made from the deepest depths of her heart.

Meanwhile, in Makai, Yusuke and gang make their way through a hoard of demons to the very end- three War Lords thinking to take Makai back to its old ways. Yusuke makes it to them first and vastly underestimates their power. By the time Hiei, Kurama, and Kuwabara reaches him, he's taken out one and a half of them...and the one he's half killed rams his skull into Yusuke's. Ironically, this demon is a ram demon, and it's lights out for Yusuke...

When Kagome wakes, she awakens to a splitting headache and blurry vision. She tries to blink all of the blur away, and most of it goes slowly...and then she realizes she's staring up at a starry night sky. A red-headed man leans over her with a fond smile.

"I'm glad you're finally awake," he speaks, Kagome completely confused. "That blow to the head had us all worried..." This man...he was demon. Or part.

"Yeah, Higurashi," another voice speaks and she manages to turn her head to see a red-haired full human sitting not far away. "Whaddya think ya were doing out there, playing hero?" He huffs and Kagome's brow furrows.

"It's in her nature," a full demon with gravity-defying black hair with a white starburst snorts from across a crackling fire. "She's reckless, like a wildfire blazing through- get out of her way or get burned." The red-haired human laughs outright while the part-demon tried to hide it behind his hand. Kagome feels a semblance of embarrassment, warmth rising and pink dusting her cheeks. Hiei continues to stare her down, and she begins to bristle. "What? No comeback, detective?" At that, she frowns and hesitates. Detective? What in the world was he talking about? Why were they all talking to her like they knew her? Her hesitation mildly surprises Hiei, his brow furrowing at her.

"Kagome..?" Kurama asks gently, helping her to sit up when she tries to on her own. A mistake. Her head starts to spin and ache, her hand moving to massage her forehead...just to pull back blood. She stares at it a long moment, almost transfixed. She feels sick...she wants to run away, but knows that she can't. Instead, she turns back to Kurama and swallows, the action difficult with a dry throat. His image is slightly blurry from...whatever head injury she had sustained.

"I don't know where I am...," she manages to get out, pulling at the jacket over her and realizing she was only wearing bandages and pants beneath. She firmly keeps it shut. "I don't know who...any of you are." Her voice is husky, and his head tilts to the side as his brows furrow. Worry shines so very clearly within his emerald orbs. Kuwabara jumps forwards suddenly, startling Kagome. Kurama has a hand behind her before she can teeter backwards.

"This is another joke, isn't it?" Kuwabara asks with a grin. "Ha ha, let's trick the loser. Okay, jokes over Higurashi. You can laugh now." He starts laughing boisterously from his belly while Kagome only solemnly stares at him like he's grown a second head.

"I don't think this is a joke, Kuwabara," Kurama speaks up after a moment, the worry she'd seen shining in his eyes coming through in his tone. "He must've hit her harder than we thought..." The last was a murmer, but Kagome heard him clear as day.

"What? She's gotta be kidding!" Kuwabara finally comes down from his laughing, and begins staring at the disturbed woman. "Kagome...tell him! You really do remember us...right? I mean...I've know you the longest. We went to high school together, from seventh grade to the final year..." Kagome's own brow furrows. All she remembers is fighting in and out of the Feudal Era most of her high school days...and wanting desperately to return the past year... Wait. The jewel. Her heart stutters in her chest as she sets into motion, fumbling and patting down her and body for the jewel. All three stare at her in varied degrees of surprise. The jewel. It's not there. She begins to realize that she had made a wish on said jewel, for a more exciting life...but where is it? Her breathing comes faster and is more unstable.

"Where...where is it? The Shikon? It's gone, it's...I...I made a wish. Oh, kami...I made a wish. I made a wish and the Shikon...it granted it...," Kagome speaks brokenly, trying to absorb everything while also shaking and beginning to hyperventilate. Kurama knows some of the lore of the Shikon, and is the only one who doesn't think she's crazy.

"The heck is she going on about?" Kuwabara asks with wide eyes. He's never seen her like this.

"I'm...not entirely sure...," Kurama admits, not jumping on his theory yet. He needs to know things first. "Kagome...it's alright. You need to calm down and take deep breaths or you're going to pass out again." She nods rapidly, another mistake due to her weakened state, and she begins forcing her breaths to come more slowly. "This Shikon you refer to...is it the Jewel of Four Souls? The legendary Shikon no Tama that disappeared with the Shikon Miko some five hundred years ago?"

"Yes," she manages to gasp out, trying to still her racing heart. "That...that was me. I was...and I made a wish. I time-travelled to put it together again, then I couldn't anymore, and I made a wish. I'm not in my life anymore...maybe not even the same dimension..." She looks around, everything looking...odd. Red-tinted. (It's Makai.)

"Do you understand any of this gibberish, fox?" Hiei asks, he and Kuwabara completely confused. Kurama has an inkling...but is only beginning to get it. He explains a theory of what he believes happened, basically that their detective was swapped with her thanks to the jewel...but they only have memory of her.

Basically the same story as Yusuke's, but with some gender differences. And another issue that Kurama now is secretly battling with. He and Kagome had begun to see one another romantically. Finally. There was always some mission or another getting in the way, life issues...work. But they had finally begun their relationship. Kuwabara is the only one unaware, although they didn't actually tell anyone. He has to battle his own feelings about it as things begin to unfold.

Kagome has dreams when she goes to sleep, "remembering" the life she had in this reality. Every night at ten, she passes out and the memories begin and last until six in the morning. When she "remembers", the length of time it covers is the same amount that is erased of her own actual memories. (IE, the first dream she remembers up until "detective" her is five, best friends with Keiko. She forgets any memories she previously had of her actual life with her mom and dad until that day when she was five as "detective" her.) The more time wears on, the more she forgets of her actual life...and the more she remembers that the Yu Yu Gang remembers. She figures this out quickly, and writes her memories down in a journal before looking for a Higurashi Shrine. She can't find it- it doesn't exist. Kagome finds herself torn as time marches on...she wants to get back to her life...but she's rapidly falling for Kurama. Plus, daily dangers and a ramen shop to tend. Higurashi Ramen.

On the other end of the spectrum, Yusuke wakes up in her room just as confused. Actually, more so since he has no idea what the Shikon is or what happened. He's happy with an actual good mother figure, but it feels...wrong. He sets out to find his ramen shop, without luck. Kurama and Kuwabara don't live where they should. Keiko is even gone...which rends his heart. He gets it after a few nights that his memories are being erased, and it only makes him that much more desperate to figure things out. Basically Kagome's story, with gender differences. Inuyasha was a girl. A very moody tsundere girl. But, since the adventures are over...and he doesn't have any real friends...he feels isolated and alone in his search for the truth. The opposite as Kagome. And...he doesn't know it, but the Shikon is preventing him from finding much out. It's not until he wishes to find things and people that he actually does. But it's not until later on in the story.

The intention here was for the writer to jump p.o.v.s between Kagome and Yusuke as they remember and forget more and more, upping the anguish and frustration and tearing Kagome between her lonely life and the tempting new one she was offered...knowing that the person that was actually supposed to be here was leading a very happy life. And she has guilt over that, too.

For what I had in mind for the ending, hit me up.

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

Idea 2: The Dark Miko's Curse

AU, Kagome couldn't go back in time. What separates this one from the other is that she doesn't have the Shikon, and she knows of demons, and wears her miko garb to have reason to carry her bow and arrows so that she can take out threats to humanity. She has worked with other humans and demons and half-breeds to take them out. Yu Yu Hakusho has ended as the series did, but they still occasionally take care of threats.

Kagome senses the presence of a dark miko first, running into a park headlong to defeat her. The Yu Yu group comes in about thirty minutes after, sans Hiei. Kurama leads the way in just in time to watch Kagome just barely destroy a demon with her reiki. It was summoned by Saki, the dark miko. She takes on demons much like Tsubaki did. Kagome and the others speak, finding each other not to be a threat. Youko still exists and comments in Kurama's mind, but his voice is more along the solemn tones of the series. They fight their way to Tsubaki, Kagome getting her arm bitten and broken by a shark demon before they get there. In another turn of bad luck, Saki aims a spark of dark reiki at her. Kurama attempts to knock her out of the way, but they both get caught in the blast. Yusuke manages to use that moment to shoot her with his Spirit Gun, taking her out.

When checked on, Kagome and Kurama find themselves mostly fine...but there's silence in Kurama's mind....and a new voice in Kagome's. The dark reiki was actually a spell disguised as an attack...a switch of power. Kagome got youki and Kurama got her reiki. But with the switch...Youko was also jostled away to the unaware once-miko. It doesn't take Kurama long to figure out what's happened, especially when Kagome talks to, seemingly, no one and becomes mildly paranoid. Her arm is healing fast, though. Something she's grateful for. They come up with a plan of action- study and seek out dark miko to get the spell reversed. But...they both have issues dealing with their powers, and have to work on control together. It doesn't help that Youko is giving her a hard time... Through this, though, they get to know one another quite well, good and bad, and slowly fall for one another. Even Youko begins to approve, the more he sees of her and the more she shows him of her memories. But it can't be easy or simple...hiccups here and there, and threatening enemies. The more time that passes that they have the other's powers, the more opposite of their personalities they begin to act. Kurama has a good heart to begin with, for instance, but he starts wandering into pure and "goody-goody" territory, even becoming somewhat naive. Kagome, on the other hand, begins having darker desires and occasional bouts of blood lust. They feel like they're losing who they really are.

Get with me if you want to know the ending I'd roughly mapped out.

[savvyjabby-blog]

Tagged by @arca-na-na-na (thank you you don't know how much it means ahhh)

One fond memory your muse has of family and/or a close friend.

- Friend, Vicky ( @gdrawsthings ) : Whenever she first managed to get Vicky drunk. Oh god was that a good night. Originally Vicky was just kinda there to make sure Indigo didn't get into too much trouble, but being the prankster Indi is, she kinda switched around Vicky's drinks every now and then, and she's so funny whenever she's drunk. It's not like the whole giggly fit sorta thing, but being able to see Vicky just spew off random facts about the human anatomy while swaying with her steps? Oh, Indigo would kill to see that one again.

- Family, Herc: It was when they were both still relatively young, and Indigo was being scolded by the old creakily man who she stole a "couple" of things from. He started calling over a guard to apprehend her, but then she saw her brother wander off into a cart full of food, and start being hauled away. She began to sprint after him, and the guards began to chase her. It was a whole Scooby Doo chase scene in the city. When she finally managed to catch up to her little brother, she hopped in the cart and hid among the fruits as well, managing to lose the the guards. She turned to scold Herc herself, but she couldn't help but smile at the sight of him holding s bunch of oranges in his arms, smiling and giggling like a little kid.

One fond memory that your muse has of their romantic partner or other close companion.

- Julian: It was one of the night's where Julian wouldn't leave his desk. Vicky had to get Indigo to take him back home for the night bc she wasn't about to do it. When Indigo got there, she smiled st the sight of the doctor mumbling gibberish to himself, trying to keep awake. She transformed into a shadow and slid into his room, snaking around his body silently. She made little shadowy blobs dance around his paper to catch his attention before morphing back into herself, her arms wrapped around his neck from behind. The genuine smile and Sleepy happiness that was on his face the moment he saw her was all she ever needed from him.

One painful memory of theirs.

- Watching her own brother drowned without using her magic to save him. Sure she had sworn off using magic, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and she panicked. She panicked, and that's ultimately what cause the guilt to bleed from her like an ugly flower.

If they have a pet (or familiar) how did they meet? Or if they don’t, how did they meet a close friend?

- Yeah uh, Hades is a lil' bitch. When Indigo had first sprinted about the new city her childhood happened in, she got a little lost, to say the least. When she finally rounded the corner only to find another alleyway, she slumped over and sighed, pulling out whatever she had managed to pick off of some carts in the marketplace as she ran by. And then, out of nowhere, literally no where, this big ass black cat shows up and starts meowing at her, basically begging. She was intrigued, so she fed him, and watched him...well, melt away into the wall. She didn't think anything of it until she returned to her shop later that day to see a black ocelot emerge from the wall, meowing at her. He never really left her alone after that. Don't feed strays.

What is one hobby (or something like it) they started when they were a kid?

- Indigo really picked up pranks as a kid thanks to her father. It started off as just stupid little things like fart jokes or whatnot, but over time her sense of humor has developed to messing with anyone she can.

What was their favorite place to hang out in their past?

- When her mother was still around, Indigo and Hercules would like to sneak off to the small docks just past their home. A lot of times it would be a clear night, so Hercules would ask Indigo about the stars they could see, and she's try her best to remember constellations, but usually she just made some up, like the Bullfrog of the West, or Jilly, the widowed black jeckart crow. And every now and then, they'd manage to see a little white haired boy flash by the dock, his eyes a brilliant pink-purple color.

What is a telling sign they are angry?

- Her magic. Indigo, because she was never truly taught how to keep her magic under control, often has a problem with her magic being controlled by her emotions. Whenever she starts to get upset, her fingers will start twitching, and her only black magic begins to swirl around them. The more upset she gets, shadows will being to scatter about the room, growing along the walls to tower behind her, make her appear more menacing. (I kinda wanna compare it to Dr. Facilier from the Princess and the Frog with just black and purple, less colors, if that makes sense. That's kinda how her magic is.)

How do they deal with an inevitable event they’re not looking forward to?

- Picks at her lips to distract herself. God she has managed to tear open her bottom lip once so badly that she had to put stitches in it. She still picks at it bc nerves are a bitch but ya know, it's satisfying to peel off skin from her lips.

Do they still have a childhood memento? Like a blanket, stuffed animal, or toy?

- Indigo has the coat of course, that her mother gave to her, which her father gave to her mother, but otherwise she hasn't had anything like that since her mother died. Sometimes, when she's feeling lonely or nostalgic, she'll conjure up a raggedy old quilt from the old house that she would keep with her a lot. It brings back memories from before everything began to spiral downhill.

Now tag at least five people if you’d like.

(I love yalls blogs and if you've already done this then just ignore me lol) (also I know v little people on her I'm sorryyyyyy)

@gdrawsthings

@thetootster

@arcanedrabbles

@sweaty-vampire

@radical-snails

[joontier]

Homesick

이호석 Lee Hoseok 

-- Fandom: Monsta X

-- Pairing: wonho x reader

-- Genre: humor; coffee shop! au

-- Word count: 1.6k

-- Summary: You have a paper due by 11:59PM and it’s already 11 and you haven’t had a single paragraph in aND THIS HANDSOME STRANGER CRYING IN FRONT OF YOU IS NOT HELPING

-- Note: One-shot for my ult friend @krwonhoe on twt 언니! 이 이야기를 잘 읽어 주세요~ 곧 만나장ㅇ

MASTERLIST

“He did what?!” you exclaimed, holding your phone to your ears with a vice-like grip.

Amy, the closest friend you had from literature class, called to inform you that your lit professor just moved the deadline a day earlier than agreed on when you had initially planned on sleeping in today – which was basically what happened but still, sleep! Need you say more?  

Your friend chuckled at your outrage, used to the fact that you never enjoyed being deprived of your slumber but you got up from bed nonetheless, inwardly cursing at your professor for being an ass.

You’ve been sleeping for the past eight hours, literally collapsing on the bed once you arrived from your morning class and when you got up from bed it was already six in the evening yet you still felt like you were deprived of such a lovely…hobby.

The end of the academic year was only an arm length away and your literature professor had given an optional extra assignment for those who wanted additional points for the course and your grade-conscious self thought that a paper wasn’t of that much work. Oh how much you regretted this.

When you managed to collect your things and take a shower, you encountered your roommate on your way out, a backpack slung over her shoulder and her other arm carrying a duffel bag.

“You’re coming home?”

“Yup! Sem’s finally over for me! When are you coming home?”

You pursed your lips in reply, and your roommate quickly understood your actions. She gave you a hug and a small squeeze on your shoulder before leaving the dorm.

It was already eight in the evening when you got out of the dorm, downing a full cup of instant noodles on your way out – a staple ever since you entered college. You’d brought your laptop and a few essentials with you on your way to a café you frequented at, and the local barista waved in your direction as she saw your familiar face enter the establishment.

You settled down on a comfy seat by the display shelf, turning on your laptop to go over the details of the assignment. Rubbing your face in annoyance, you stared at your laptop screen for a full minute when the barista comes over and serves you a cookie.

“School’s not over yet?” she asked and you scrunched up your face in frustration once more, and she looked you in the eyes, expecting an explanation rather than mere just facial expressions.

Skye had been working at the café for almost two years now, and you both have been well acquainted with each other, giving out extra cookies or helping her during her shifts – it wasn’t much for your new found friendship, but you both were grateful for each other’s company.

“My lit professor decided to move the deadline for a paper a day earlier,” you frowned, looking for some cash in your wallet and handing it over to Skye who shook her head, denying your payment for the cookie. “It’s on the house, don’t worry,” she reassured, egging you to continue your rant.

“Well, I have to finish a five-page essay in less than four hours, I haven’t had my full beauty rest, and I want to strangle my professor.” Skye laughed at your outburst, mentioning something about having your coffee served a few more minutes later when you’ve finally cooled down.

“You take joy in my misery don’t you woman?” Waving you off, she went back to her place by the counter and gave you a wink, gesturing for you to start with your assignment.

Two hours later, the only thing you achieved was a successful online purchase, an update on Twitter about how much of an ass your professor was, and finishing an episode of your favorite classic – Friends. Unfortunately for you, your laptop’s battery was running low and the only available seat next to the socket was one right across a cute dude that entered the café an hour ago.

Shit.

First of all, you weren’t anywhere near exceptional when it came to any form of human interaction, spluttering gibberish during introductory meetings, having the inability to withdraw from discussions which you had no interest in, the list goes on really. The mere idea of approaching a stranger gave you goosebumps and if you would be able to pull this off, it would be a miracle.

Secondly, the dude is quite the looker! You could barely initiate a conversation with a nine-year-old, let alone an unbelievably good looking man! There was no way you were going to go over there and ask if you could use the other outlet to plug your laptop in.

There was a coffee table that was a snug fit between the two seats, barely leaving any leg space for two people who wished to occupy the spaces and if you did the math correctly, everything about this situation screamed recipe for disaster.

Yet here you were, standing in front of the incredibly attractive man who was staring up at you as you stood there at a complete loss for words. Heaving a sigh, you started, “Hi. Would you mind if I occupied this seat? I really need a plug right now and my laptop’s battery is kinda dead.”

‘Oh god did I say too much? This is beyond embarrassing. Please say no. Please say no. Please sa-‘

“Of course,” he smiled.

Wait what?

“Great. Thank you.” You settled your stuff on the table, legs awkwardly stuck together to one side, the stubborn piece of furniture making you the least bit comfortable. Well, it was definitely better than not being able to get extra points for the subject right?

A few minutes in after your awkward interaction with the handsome stranger, you heard sniffing from across the table and this dude just shed a tear. You didn’t mind it at first, thinking that maybe there was something caught in his eye. Seconds later, you see his hand reaching for the tissue on the table and when you look at him this time, he was full on crying, tears steadily flowing from his eyes.

“Are you okay?”

“Ye- no actually.”

“What’s the matter?” When you checked the time on your laptop screen, two ones were staring back at you in all its glory. Great. Now you had only an hour left to finish the essay and you don’t even have half of a paragraph in. Was it too much of a bad idea if you joined this beautiful man on a bawling session?

“I just saw this video, shit, sorry I didn’t mean to disturb you really,” he rambled on and you couldn’t help but study his godlike features. He was a bit on the buff and muscular side, but his personality seemed to be the polar opposite – a complete softie. His pearly whites were definitely something that you’ll stick to for a first impression, the manifestation of a neat and well-groomed man. He was too handsome that it makes you question if you were even worthy of his sight.

By the time he was done explaining his emotional outburst, mainly driven by his homesickness because he hasn’t visited his family in six months, he mentioned that everything that remotely reminded him of home got the best of him and triggered the waterworks.

It was already 11:30 in the evening and you had lost all hope of passing your homework, all thanks to this stranger.

“I’m really sorry for the rant and everything else, but is there anything I can help you with?” he asked, diverting his eyes to your laptop and the book on classical literature beside it. You wanted to shove the book to his pretty face in frustration, but you were never one to make a scene, besides, you knew you were going to pass that subject, you just needed extra points in case it may affect your GPA to a certain extent.

“It’s okay, really. I hope you get to go home soon,” you smiled in return, taking the charger out of the plug. “I’m majoring in literature. If that’s a paper due tonight and it has to do something with literature, I’m doing it for you.”

Tempting.

“I really don’t want to cause you any trouble.”

“I’m betting my ass you need my help right now. And think of it as returning the favor, alright?” Before you could reply, he was already grabbing your laptop and going over your three-sentence homework.

“Not bad for an introductory paragraph,” he nodded, glancing at you as he typed away. You were speechless. This stranger literally just cried his heart out in front of you minutes ago, and now he was doing your five-page essay, not even breaking a sweat. He only paused to take a sip from his coffee, and he continued to type aggressively on the keyboard. Usually, you’d fight anyone who would do such thing on your sensitive laptop, but at this rate, you really couldn’t care less.

11:50 PM.

Removing your laptop from his lap and placing it on yours, the stranger smiled, seemingly proud of his work. When you checked his work, he really did it, even exceeding the number of pages required. Impressive. You were convinced that this man literally came down from heaven to bless you with his visuals and do your homework.

As you sent the file to your professor, it just occurred to you that you never got the stranger’s name who was now flicking through the pages of your book. What was with this boy?

“Excuse me, I didn’t really catch your name,” you pursed your lips, instantly embarrassed at how you let this man do your paper and you never got his name.

“It’s Hoseok. Lee Hoseok.”

[alphacrone]

zimbits au - jack takes care of a sick bitty

CW: basic flu symptoms (fever, nausea, chills) and pseudo-surprise kissing

When Bittle caught the flu, Jack did not panic.

In retrospect, one (Shitty) might have described Jack’s response as an overreaction, especially considering Holster was the one who got Bittle sick and Jack had barely batted an eye when he came home to find Holster wrapped in several comforters and sleeping soundly on the living room floor. But when Bittle missed class, Jack got nervous. And when he found Bittle in bed in the middle of the afternoon, Jack got scared. And when Bittle announced he had a fever and chills and the boys would have to eat in the dining hall for the next few days, Jack very possibly panicked.

Which is how he now found himself sitting in a desk chair, pulled up alongside Bittle’s bed, a very large bag of supplies from CVS in his lap. Bittle was staring at him in shock and hadn’t spoken in almost two minutes, which did not help Jack’s panic in the slightest.

“I got you a couple water bottles to keep on hand, and some peppermint tea in case you’re feeling nauseated, and Ransom already stocked up on canned soup downstairs. Also here’s some ibuprofen, for the fever, and a cold compress for your forehead--I’ll put it in the freezer in a sec--and a heated blanket for the chills. Plus I got you some of those fashion magazines you like, and, oh! Those water crackers you like, couple boxes, they seemed small. Plus, these fuzzy socks, ‘cause your feet are always so cold.” He held up a pair of fluffy socks covered in ugly blue and red polka dots. “I hope I didn’t forget anything. I can run back to the store if I did.”

Bittle was still staring at him dazedly, mouth ajar. Eventually, he seemed to process what Jack said, and asked, “Did you get a thermometer?”

“Yes!” Jack rummaged through the bag until he found the small, electronic thermometer. “Here, let me just-” He uncapped the tip and hit the button. When it beeped, he gently took Bittle’s chin and popped the thermometer into his mouth.

Immediately, Bittle’s face flushed bright pink. Jack’s worry doubled; was the fever really getting that bad? They sat there, still and silent, for another twenty seconds, until the thermometer beeped again and Jack pulled it out to read 102.1.

Jack sighed in relief. “Okay, a normal fever, nothing dangerous. Your face is pretty flushed, though, so I’ll go stick the compress in the freezer and grab some ice cubes in the meantime.”

“Oh, no, I’m fine, really,” Bittle said, waving Jack away. “I’ll just grab some sleep and be right as rain in the morning.”

Jack frowned. “Take some ibuprofen and drink some water. I’ll be back with ice. Then you can sleep.”

Bittle sighed and reluctantly grabbed one of the water bottles and the medicine. Jack smiled down at him and left, jogging down to the kitchen to toss the compress into the freezer and salvage what was left of their ice cube tray into a small baggie. Like he’d done for so many injuries in his life, Jack wrapped the baggie in a towel, then jogged back up the stairs to Bittle’s room. When he entered the room again, Bittle was pulling off his sweat-soaked shirt.

“Oh!” Bittle tossed the shirt across the room into his laundry hamper, but Jack couldn’t tear his eyes from the flush now creeping down Bittle’s chest. He sat down on the bed next to Bittle and reached out to touch the skin there with the back of his hand.

“Doesn’t feel too hot,” Jack said, frown deepening. “But still, even if you have chills, I wouldn’t use the heated blanket just yet, I don’t like how pink you’re turning.”

“Oh, just give me the ice pack,” Bittle snapped, taking the baggie from Jack’s hand. He pressed it to the back of his neck, shuddering as the cold made contact with his overheated skin. The action tugged at something in the pit of Jack’s gut, but he wasn’t sure why. “Oh, that’s nice.”

“Cool down a bit and get some rest. When you wake up, I’ll make you soup. Keep hydrated, okay? Even if you don’t feel thirsty.”

“Oh, I’m pretty thirsty,” Bittle muttered darkly, but he smiled fondly when Jack handed him a water bottle.

“Sleep well, Bittle,” Jack said, getting to his feet. “I’m right across the hall if you need anything.”

“Thanks, sweetheart,” Bittle said, eyes not quite focused. “I’m just gonna...gonna rest my eyes a bit…”

Jack smiled and closed Bittle’s door behind him, feeling warm all over. Then, with a reluctant sigh, he marched up the attic stairs to make sure Holster wasn’t dead.

When Bittle awoke, Jack knew within a few minutes, mostly because he’d been obsessively checking in on Bittle since he’d fallen asleep. Shitty had caught him peeking into Bittle’s room twice within a ten minute period, but had just laughed and mumbled something about being a stupidly fantastic captain by nature. Jack wasn’t really sure what he meant by that, but was embarrassed all the same.

“Hey, you’re up,” he said when he noticed Bittle’s eyes open and focused on his cell phone. “You hungry?”

Bittle nodded, and Jack was pleased to see his face was a normal, if not a bit sallow, color. “Chicken noodle?” He asked, smiling weakly at Jack.

“Noodle, rice, with stars--though I think that’s reserved for Holster,” Jack said with a laugh. “I can run out and get anything specific, if we don’t have it-”

“No, no, noodle is fine,” Bittle said quickly, and- damn, there was that pink flush on his cheeks again.

“Hey, c’mere.” Jack sat down on the bed and clapped his hand to Bittle’s forehead. It didn’t feel abnormally hot--in fact, it felt cooler than it had earlier--but the pink color was only getting darker. He’d been googling this symptom in between checking in on Bittle and hadn’t found much beyond a horrifying WebMD list of illnesses other than flu that could be causing it. (He’d had to put his laptop away after falling down the lupus rabbit hole. Surely it wasn’t likely Bittle had this rare, serious disease when his symptoms were the same as their flu-ridden roommate’s, right?)

“Jack, I’m fine,” Bittle said, voice strained. “Just hungry. And cold.”

“Here, let me help.” Jack ripped open the packaging of the heated blanket and had everything set up and running in a matter of minutes. Bittle pulled back his covers to wrap the device on top of his sheets and before he could replace them, Jack reached under and grabbed Bittle’s feet.

“Just as I thought,” he teased, casting Bittle a look. “Ice cold and bare. Really, Bits?”

“Leave me alone, I’m sick,” Bittle whined. Jack laughed and pulled the fuzzy socks from his supplies. Gently, because Bittle had started shaking and shivering, Jack slid the socks onto Bittle’s feet. It was an oddly intimate moment, Jack mused, and was grateful that Bittle didn’t seem freaked out or uncomfortable. Jack had the oddest urge to kiss the bone of Bittle’s ankle, sitting there so close in his hand. But he didn’t, and instead pulled Bittle’s covers back up and tucked him in.

“I’ll go start on that soup,” Jack murmured, brushing back a strand of hair from Bittle’s forehead.

“Thanks,” Bittle whispered back, and his skin, barely returned to normal, turned pink as Jack’s thumb brushed against his cheek.

Oh.

Oh.

Jack pulled back, heart racing, and repeated something about soup before backing quickly out of the room. Bittle wasn’t flushed from his fever or some horrible, undiagnosed disease; he was blushing.

And Jack liked it.

In a daze, Jack wandered down the stairs and managed to get the can of chicken noodle soup open without much thought. Ransom was already at the stove, stirring a thing of chicken and stars, and when he caught sight of Jack’s expression he grimaced in understanding.

“Playing nursemaid’s pretty exhausting, eh?” He said, nudging Jack in the ribs with his elbow.

“You could say that,” Jack murmured. “I’ve never really done this before.”

“Yeah, Holtzy was my first patient too, back when we were frogs.” Ransom paused, staring into space for a moment. “Actually, he’s really been my only patient. You gotta wonder what that says about a person.”

Jack didn’t respond, too lost in thought, and they didn’t say much else while they stirred soup, side-by-side. Ransom left with a wink, a steaming bowl of stars in his hand, and Jack just watched the noodles swirl in circles in his saucepan, wondering just what his panic said about him. It said a lot, he decided, but most of it sounded like gibberish to his ears.

Still, there was one thing that stood out loud and clear.

When Jack brought the bowl of soup up to Bittle’s room, he knew what that thing was, and he was ready to face Bittle with this horrifying and wonderful knowledge. But Bittle was asleep again, face squished against his pillow so hard Jack knew there would be lines when he got up again.

With a sigh and a smile, Jack set the bowl down on top of the dresser, far from anything that could knock it over, and left the room a changed man.

Bittle’s fever broke that evening and within a few days he was back to his normal self. Holster’s flu lingered a bit longer, which Bittle called cosmic justice for getting him sick in the first place. Jack watched this argument with a new sort of fondness, wondering why it took so long and a campus-wide flu epidemic for him to realize his feelings for Bittle.

“I wanted to thank you,” Bittle said a few evenings later, as they caught up on classwork in Jack’s room. Bittle was perched in the armchair reading and Jack sat his desk, outlining a paper he should have started days earlier. “For taking care of me this week. I was such a mess, I never get sick. And you were just too sweet. I think most the boys would’ve brought me McDonald’s and some ibuprofen and then left me to shiver to death, but not my captain.”

Jack shrugged, feeling embarrassed. “It was nothing,” he said, not looking up from his laptop.

“It wasn’t nothing,” Bittle argued. “You went above and beyond. Thank you. You’re a good friend, Jack.”

Jack swallowed roughly, throat feeling like sandpaper. Bittle sighed softly when he realized he wouldn’t get any sort of response out of Jack, and leaned back to kick his shoes off and get more comfortable. It was only then that Jack saw Bittle was still wearing the ugly, fuzzy socks.

When he noticed Jack’s gaze, Bittle looked down, mouth twisted together oddly. “They’re really comfy,” he said, almost defensively. “Plus...it was a nice gesture.”

Jack was out of his chair and cupping Bittle’s face in seconds. Bittle’s eyes went wide and when he realized what was happening, he closed the gap between them, meeting Jack’s lips at the halfway mark.

The kiss was short and sweet, the two of them both too stunned to deepen it in that moment. “Wow,” Bittle breathed. “That was-? You’re-? I mean-”

Jack kissed him again, smiling against his mouth. “I am. If you are.”

Bittle laughed, pressing their foreheads together. The skin was a normal temperature, Jack couldn’t help but note. But was there a trace of pink on those cheeks?

“You wanna get dinner?” Jack asked, brushing his fingers along the line of Bittle’s jaw.

“Sure,” Bittle said, hands travelling up Jack’s chest. “On one condition.”

“What’s that?” Jack asked, brows furrowing.

“Absolutely no soup,” Bittle said.

Jack grinned. “Sounds good to me.”

[doglover502]

Reputation

WARNING: The following post is super lengthy. Probably the most lengthy post I’ll ever make.

Decided to release what Reputation would look like if it was a fanfic.

Will contain many unfinished dialogues, finished chapters, and links to pictures. Figured I’d give you all as much of the scope as possible to see how with this whole idea I’ve been thinking.

Enjoy this fragmented half outline/half fanfic piece of work I’ve got!

Intro: For the most part, the same as the original, even if it is now strangely somber toned than the rest of the fic.

Chapter 2: Also stays the same, except the ending is with Fanny being called away on Teen Leader business instead of prepping for a pep rally.

Chapter 3: Fanny and Paddy getting into a fight, over an escaping operative. Most of it would take place in the sky with them spouting insults at each other. This would also reveal that Paddy is Head of the Decommissioning Squad, following in Fanny’s footsteps. The operative escapes from both of them, but Fanny does capture Sonya and Lee from Sector W who were in the area. They would continue their fight at dinner, introducing the rest of their family, with the dysfunctional dynamics between them (mainly Mr Boss not helping at all with their fighting and their mom being more or less oblivious to the fact that they’re fighting at all).

Mom: “Isn’t it lovely to see the 2 of them playing together?”

Maybe, maybe not a sweet moment between Fanny and Shaunie, whom she clearly favors over Paddy for him not being an operative, showing despite Fanny’ abrasive, demanding egotistical attitude, she does still have a heart down there… somewhere.

Chapter 4: Next day. Talk between Fanny and Rachel, maybe pep rally thing still happens. Instead of operatives disappearing though, now a giant KND fight, then teens disappeared. Revealed from the same kids Fanny captured in the previous chapter. Traced back to Patton who had a hand in their escape, gets beat pretty dang hard by a group of bullies that were tipped off by a blonde girl (under the passive-aggressive claim of it being her job) and as a final touch given a swirly. Fanny tries to leave, since she knows he deserved it, at least in the Teen Ninja’s view, but hearing him hurt makes her get pretty uncomfortable, until she decides to help him (The Teen Leader’s job is to look after every teen, even the friendly-to-kid ones), before leaving soaked in toilet water. 

Chapter 5: Investigation, starting with immediate Paddy interrogation. He says nothing, even though she is not convinced. She then started to formulate a plan, or a blueprint, thought the plan isn’t outright stated yet (honestly it’s something big that’s really only done for petty revenge, because that’s how The Fan rolls with things like that). Paddy then says over one of those fork walkie-talkies (they’re in the show, I just don’t know what they’re called) to bring the teenagers back in the morning before anyone gets too suspicious.

Chapter 6: The next day, the missing Ninjas return, but act very different. They keep cancelling their missions, and don’t attack kids. Fanny gets very concerned, but still can’t get any info out of any operative. This is the turning point where she turns to Patton, remembering how he’s friends with operatives. She brings up how she saved him from that swirly (though he would have survived anyway), and states how this means that he owes her something. She more or less tricks him into working for her.

Chapter 7:  Next day, it’s revealed that Patton took their conversation in the last chapter as them becoming friends, and kind of sort of told everyone in the school. Him, still being considered a dork, means that Fanny’s been getting a lot of crud for it by everyone in the school. She immediately goes over to him to set it straight that any relationship they have is strictly business (read: he does stuff for her).  Then she more or less starts Patton off with a series of tests throughout a week, with the first task for him to get rid of his old smell, which he does (later it’ll play a part). 

Fanny: “This is just to see how much you’re willing to do for me.”

Most of them are humiliating; making him wear ridiculous suits, purposefully provoking a bunch of people, Wally included, and being forced to admit some of his most shameful secrets (the bedwetting included, which comes back later). Overall, stuff that Fanny finds funny, but also paints her as a bit of a jerk (which she is. She gets better later).

 Throughout the week and these tests, Fanny talks with Wally of a possible plan to find out what’s going on with their Ninjas. Fanny comes up with a plan to try and kill 2 birds with one stone; ask a favor from her father to attack near an important treehouse sector while she goes out and invites Patton to spend a day with Ninjas, try and get him to act more like a teenager, and prompts him to show up in the morning so they can prepare some things so he doesn’t make a complete fool of himself.

“I thought you said our relationship is strictly business.”

“This is for business. I’m a busy girl, maybe sometime I need you to talk to someone I can’t be bothered with. Do you really think someone’s gonna talk to someone who has unicorn vomit in their hair”, she asked pointing to his rainbow dyed hair. Before continuing, she stopped before asking, “Wait a minute, I don’t remember telling you to get a rainbow hair dye.”

“You didn’t”, Patton explained. “I got it myself when you asked me to get all that hair detangler.”

Fanny stared at him as she thought, That hair was a conscious decision. Oh my god this is gonna be hard.

Chapter 8: (This chapter will be broken up in paragraphs because it’s the longest chapter I have written)

Meetup the next Saturday morning…at 6 in the morning when Patton shows up at her house.

Fanny rubbed her eyes and she grumbled to herself.

‘Who the crud is deciding to bother me at this godforsaken hour’, she thought. ‘I swear if it's Paddy, I'm going to throw him so far-’

Her thoughts were interrupted when she opened the door and finally heard a familiar voice.

"Morning Fan"

Fanny looked up wide-eyed (or as wide as her still half-asleep eyes could open) to see Patton on her door. However, instead of his usual outfit, he now sported a white one-piece footie pajamas, a hood over his head resembling a polar bear. The only familiar clothing he had was his signature pink scarf.

Fanny looked at him, staring at his still rainbow-dyed hair, in a slowly forming face of annoyance.

"What the crud are you doing?!"

"Well, you said you wanted us to go out for something yesterday, so-"

I DIDN'T MEAN AT 6 IN THE MORNING", Fanny shouted at him. "Do ye have ANY idea what it'is t'have a Saturday sleep?"

Patton blinked at her in curiosity. "You have an accent?”

Fanny was slightly taken aback. "No ah-", she then coughed to clear her throat. "No I don't. Anyways, don't you know you're supposed to sleep in on a Saturday?"

Patton nodded his head, smiling. "I did sleep in. Usually I wake up at 5."

‘Of course he does.’ Fanny rolled her eyes. 

"Well, now you know", she said less annoyed. She started to turn around back towards her room. "So, you can go home and just come back lat-"

Before she could finish, Patton took her arm back towards his direction. 

"Negatory, Fan! You said you wanted us to go out today the second I woke up, so, here I am."

"And you didn't bother to change out of your pajamas before coming over?"

"Oh don't worry Fan. I remembered my scarf", Patton said holding up an end to his pink scarf for emphasis.

Fanny rolled her eyes again, before she yawned. "Well, I'm going to change out of my pajamas because I am not about to go outside-"

"The SECOND we got up Fan", Patton interrupted a second time. "Just like you asked."

Fanny looked at him in shock. "Well can I at least get some breakfast first?"

"Way ahead of you on that." With that, Patton pulled pulled out of his pocket a wrapped up rectangular object and handed it to Fanny.

Fanny took it into her hand, still in shock. She looked up to him for a long minute with a look of incredulous.

"You're going to drag me out there right now no matter how much I protest, aren't you?"

Patton nodded. "That sounds pretty affirmative."

Fanny sighed heavily before walking outside. "Well, let's just get this over with."

‘Geez, this guy is stubborn.’ 

Around this time, I thought of the idea that even after decomissioning, Patton would still use the words”affirmative” and “negatory” instead of ever saying just “yes” or “no”. More things change, more they stay the same.

The accent part of the dialogue gets explained later in the fic

She then promptly (after a bunch of morning grumbles), gives him a makeover to make him look more “cool”, just in time when her group (Wally, Bartie, and Virginia), show up only to come with another problem; that Patton’s talking attempt at being cool basically devolves into a bunch of mismatched slang gibberish. 

They’ll be given a signal from Mr Boss to attack that hasn’t come yet. They still have a few hours because it’s still early morning. Until then, they pass the time skateboarding (maybe), phone prank calls,and harassing kids to get out video arcades and give them their quarters, all of which Patton fails at. Eventually, they start daring each other to do stuff during which, Fanny ultimately (and gracefully) dares Patton not to talk anymore. A series of more humorous dares happen (including one for Patton to chug down a 128-ounce soda, this comes back later) which manages to impress everyone, right before Mr Boss gives a signal that the treehouse is now free of operatives. 

They drive off to the treehouse, joking and planning a sneak in while the sector’s distracted. Fanny notices Patton squirming in his seat, but makes nothing of it nor asks (for fear of he’ll start speaking slang again). They go inside the treehouse, which is one that is very electronic based to the point of even having wires on the ground (probably a big tech treehouse reponsible for a lot of the newest 2x4 technology). 

They sneak around, with Patton following visibly fidgeting and uncomfortable, but when trying to speak up is immediately shut down. Fanny hacks into a computer, to try and hack into the Moonbase mainframe to see what they’re up to. She finds out that her Ninja’s are slowly starting to be recommissioned and therefore, no longer wanted to fight the KND anymore. She tries to hack in further to find the weakness or reversal, but just as she’s on the cusp of it, the computer starts to short out. Actually, the whole treehouse and the electric things go out and all haywire. And the source of that can be quickly traced back to Patton for that (this would be in lieu of replacing that algebra incident).

Huge cool escape from wires and sparks and potential fire hazards with them running and maneuvering very fast. Here, Patton ends up being the fastest to the point of even Fanny trying to catch up to him, only doing so by catching onto his scarf. Leave off just in time before getting injured, if leaving treehouse in a gigantic mess. 

After, the start to head off for lunch, where Patton immediately becomes the butt of every single pee joke you could possibly imagine. At first, Fanny takes Patton off somewhere and immediately begins to berate him and how she felt like a giant idiot even thinking to bring him along, to which Patton sadly takes (tears may or may not have started to fall). In another rare moment of sympathy, or empathy, or whatever -pathy it is, (which are apparently becoming increasingly unrare), as Fanny sees him taking all of what just happened and also is happening completely silent and visibly hurt, she immediately pays Wally, Bartie, and Virginia $20 to keep that part of the mission completely mum. 

This is also the turning point in the fic where Fanny gives Patton his nickname Whizzer (though she claims it’s because he ran super fast, though really it’s for both things that happened).

This is the point where the chapters stop being numbered

Probably a few chapters with them bonding even more as well as setting Fanny’s plans into motion. Couple of reveals in each chapter. More for more character traits as the plot moves along.

A reveal that Patton actually does have one teen interest; a love of rock music, albeit slightly older rock music. Turning point when Fanny starts to give him a chance, feeling he isn’t completely hopeless.

Reveal of Fanny’s plan, to more of less stupify all kids up until they turn 13, so they can then train to be Teen Ninjas without any decommissioning or interference. Plans kept in a vault kept inside her Ninja Leader headquarters

Reveal of The Steve, now in college, whom Fanny sees to approve of plan (really just to brag at how great of a successor she is), and how he is Patton’s step-brother (to both of their humiliations).

Show some of Patton’s other abilities aside from running fast. He’s rather strong (this would be something shown early on as some jokes in that he doesn’t know how to control his strength), fit into very small spaces, and hold his breath underwater for a long time. Fanny would probably ask him to be a Ninja, but he’d refuse.

Over the course of this, more Teen Ninja get recomm’d and Fanny starts to lose more control. 

Also a reveal of a Teen version of a Code Module hidden in a vault Fanny has with a special key. 

Even more snooping by the blonde girl in chapter 4, who knows Fanny is hiding something but just not sure of what.

Chapter ?: One with Sonya with Patton inviting Fanny to one of their tea parties. Nothing too big, more of a funny chapter that almost gives away Fanny’s plan to Sonya. Basically them fighting literally under Patton’s nose without him noticing a thing. Would also reveal they’ve been close since Patton was a teen and that Sonya was the one who made him his pink scarf. Also some implication on a friendship with The Tommy being responsible for how he is. The end of the chapter would imply that Sonya does feel upset that this is how Patton has become after decommissioning from respected to almost resented. But it does. A lot.

Chapter ?: The chapter was based off an idea from my friend UniversesCollideInc.

Patton inviting Fanny to a friend of his’s party as a “plus one; which takes place at a Chuck E Cheese like kiddy restaurant and she’s the only teenager who got invited. Of course, there’s friction and a fight in maybe the ball pit or arcade between all of the kids and Fan. Or laser tag, with real lasers. Patton, of course, still doesn’t notice, r just thinks it’s all in good fun. Eventually, a game of truth or dare strikes up and one of the kids asks Fanny a truth question on what was her early teen years like or something to which she lies (Paddy, being invited, knowing her well enough to know she’s lying) about how they were amazing. However later she’d go off somewhere secluded (I had this idea that near Patton’s house there’s like this place like this old abandoned playground with a bunch of trees that he would just go to sometime. It was a place no one else really seemed to know about, no kid or teenager. He mainly brings Fanny there just so there could be somewhere she wouldn’t have to worry about anyone seeing her with him) and cried about it. Patton found her, after noticing her van, and that’s when he learns her middle school teen years were just as lonely and miserable as his.

Fanny: How did you find me?

(Patton opens his mouth to answer but then looks confused.)

Patton: Actually I have no idea.

Fanny: I’d laugh if I weren’t so miserable.

Then cue some bonding over how much middle school sucks when you’re not just like everyone else. 

Would reveal some behind Fanny such as her hiding her accent. After this, she starts talking more like herself, at least around Patton.

Also reveal that the blonde girl is actually an older Numbuh 12, as Fanny still remembers parts of the SLUMBER incident, just the non-KND parts. She still remembers the betrayal, but not without any context.

Then Fanny (while thinking ‘I can’t believe I’m saying this.’) says “You know; I think you’re a pretty brave guy, Whizzer.” And when he’s (naturally) confused, continues “You do what you like no matter other people say. I wish I could do that.”

This would probably be around the point where Patton invites Fanny to a sleepover, which she accepts.

Chapter ?: The next night, the sleepover. Probably when Fanny also meets Patton’s mother, and realizes she’s also a big part of his childish behavior. Then followed by this picture and dialogue (tying in part of the tests thing in chapter 7 and Fanny feeling like a giant jerk over it, as she should), which would also be the start of Fanny admitting (at least to between them) that her and Patton are friends. 

Idea that except instead of Fanny finding out about his partial memories from Patton’s sleep talking, she finds out them from a dream journal he’s got that’s mentioned earlier (because that sounds like something he would definitely have). 

(Idea that requested from @minderrific)

At first she just didn’t care, and shrugged it off. She herself doesn’t have a diary of anything like that “(With my nosy brother? Too risky!”). Later on, when she sees him distraught after waking up to get new sheets, she does find it and starts reading some passages. She doesn’t fully understand it, but she knows something is up.

The rest is still the same after with her comforting him, and asking to continue the nickname, and admitting they’re friends.

Chapter ?: The 2 breakfast pics. Older Numbuh 12 threatens to expose Fanny with a lie that she’s working with him to be on the KND side and betray the Ninjas. Fanny tries to break things off with Patton, but finds herself unable too, and is left with a decision, although she is able to at least stall it for a while. She does meet up with Patton again 

Chapter ?: While Fanny is out, Paddy tries to break into that vault to get that Teen Code Module (needs a name), and tries to find the key by planting a bug on Fanny to follow her. That’s when the he learns Fanny’s been secretly hanging out with Patton, as she’s trying to teach him how to stand up for himself.

Chapter ?: That big punch where Patton knocked Wally out. Older Numbuh 12 decides to utilize it as further proof that Fanny’s getting him against teenagers even more, to the point of physically hurting them, and Fanny is forced to break it off, and makes up excuses to why she can’t talk to Patton. Sonya, with new knowledge Fanny’s behind it, decides to talk to her.

Chapter ?: Fanny still ignoring Patton before ambushed by Paddy, Sonya, and Lee. Giant talk, leading Fanny to ultimately say they aren’t friends, she was just using him to try and get information. Patton overhears, and immediately gets upset at her. Though not sad upset, angry upset. Typical friendship breakup scene (yeah I know, clichéd).

Chapter ?: around a week later, Fanny and Patton still aren’t talking, although she does notice since then his old smell from before he met her has come back (it still plays a part). A successful KND ambush commences as more recomm’d teens have fought off, leaving what Fanny more starts to realize are just a mere few left (she’s been very distracted lately). This is when that bet between her and 12 is finally placed to whom gets the Moon base Code Module also gets the Leader position. Also time with Wally and Patton apologizing, and gain “a weird fighty respect” (directly quoted from @socksandbuttons) and later on where Wally kind of helps him to realize (unintentionally) that Patton really can’t stay mad at her forever, and Fanny realizes she can’t either. Wally and Patton fight again, also with comments on Patton’s hands are bloodied and bruised from their fights and his mom would have a conniption (this plays into a small bit in the ending), and Patton gets word through Wally about the bet about to happen.

Chapter ?: The bet begins Fanny attacks the Moonbase, and Older Numbuh 12 soon follows behind. Giant race across operatives, traps, and doors to the Module. Sonya and Lee take Patton to the Moonbase to help her to be safe. He manages to catch up to nearly catch up before older Numbuh 12 uses him to get herself closer to the Code Module. Fanny notices he’s there from his old smell returning (told y’all it played a part), and she finds out Patton has been really hurt and Fanny having to team up with her brother, Sonya, Lee, and The Tommy to save him, even if she has to give the Teen Leader position up. 

An idea I had was the Code Module being kept behind a giant PB&J sandwich wall, instead now Patton is the one allergic to peanuts instead of Fanny like in chapter 5. If that happened, that would also be something that would be mentioned earlier (probably with Fan trying to bake him something like peanut butter cookies and finding out the hard way) 

They make it to her Headquarters where she keeps some medicine stuff and her and them save Patton. Though now she thinks that her popular Teen Leader days are over. Except Patton managed to snatch the Code Module away right before then, technically meaning HE’S the Teen Leader, and would get all the unconditional popularity and not worry about being picked on just for being friendly to children. And his first act…give the title back to Fanny. Therefore being his last act, and having the shortest Teen Leader term. And Fanny’s first act back in office….give the Code Module back to her brother Paddy, so HE can look like a KND hero (she gets annoyed by him a lot, but she does love him).  She also gives him a small gift that she just labels as the key. Fanny regains her Leader position and ultimately discharges 12 from being a Ninja altogether. Paddy at the Moonbase is hailed as a hero, when he opens up and finds the key to the vault; the same Rainbow Monkey necklace that he gave Fanny right before her decommissioning in the now strangely weird-toned from the rest of the fic intro (she still kept it even if she pretended she didn’t).  But, it’s also revealed during her bet she stole a copy of the device hat turned teens back to their side and it’ll probably turned those teens right back to “normal” (she still has Teens to watch, and she can’t go completely soft).

Epilogue: Ends in winter, a day or 2 before winter break. Cuts to Fanny’s bragging about that story to everybody like she did in Chapter 2. And it shows a much more friendly fight with her brother. Still rough, but more light-hearted and in good stride instead of downright hatred. Afterwards she walks off to school with Patton, who’s got a new scarf, a different looking one, (an orange one, in plaid) as a birthday gift, which happened a month after the Module incident. He’d be dressed in a mix of his usual clothes and the ones from the little makeover Fanny gave him (and cool sunglasses, but not as cool as Fan’s). Meanwhile, Fanny is now wearing that hoodie Patton had made her in the the sleepover chapter. It’s revealed in their passing dialogue that Patton is respected more (at the very least everyone gets his name right) and has become something of an honorary Teen Ninja; not a complete one, because he still refuses to fight his friends, but has a position like a children ambassador (more or less organizing the KND/Ninja attacks on each other to make the kid/teen feud just a little less completely hatred filled). Also talk of Numbuh 12 planning a rebellion, maybe for a sequel hook. And then Fanny gives him her gift; a pair of pink gloves for his hands. Some nice happy cozy ending and all that stuff.

And that’s Reputation! :)

It never became a real fanfic, sadly, but it definitely was a fully developed idea. Or at the very least, a developed one :)

Maybe someday I’ll write it like a real fanfic, maybe not. For now though, I think I’ll stick to making more pictures of the story line with bits of dialogue.

If someone wants to take a whack at writing this, or collabing with me to write this, go ahead, I’d love to see it. Just please credit me for the idea if you don’t collab it with me.

Special thanks for the help from @minderrific, @socksandbuttons, and UniversesCollideInc.

I know the plot’s cluttered, the characters are portrayed very differently than they’re usually written (that was intentional, I wanted to play around with just how different an operative could end up when the decommissioning’s over), and it overall needs some work, but I still like it and despite not truly writing it, this is still my baby and I’m proud of what I made it into. 

[woodsens]

Where to Find Guest Blogging Opportunities on fireinsidemusic.com

Correction Appended

On an album of bittersweet childrens tracks that she wrote greater than ten years in the past, the lady who arrived for being acknowledged only as being the piano Trainer offered what, in hindsight, seems like an eerie glimpse of her possess foreseeable future.

Im shifting away right now to a place so far-off, where by nobody is aware my identify, she wrote while in the lyrics of a tune known as Relocating.

When she wrote that music, she was young and vivacious, a piano teacher and freelance songs writer who beloved Beethoven and jazz, sunsets and river Seems, extended walks and every little thing about New York.

On a type of beloved walks, by means of Central Park in the bright sun of a June working day in 1996, a homeless drifter beat her and tried to rape her, leaving her clinging to everyday living. Once the assault, the terms to her track came legitimate. She moved away, away from New York City, away from her previous lifestyle, and all but her closest mates didn't know her identify. To the remainder of the planet, she was — much like the additional famous jogger attacked in Central Park 7 many years before — an nameless symbol of the urban nightmare. She was the piano Trainer.

Now, over the 10th anniversary of your assault, she is celebrating what appears to be her entire recovery from brain trauma. She's 42, married, with a small child. She's Kyle Kevorkian McCann, the piano teacher, and she or he wants to notify her story, her way.

Her health care provider informed her it will choose 10 years to Recuperate, and Sunday was that talismanic anniversary. I experience my life is redefined by Central Park, she claimed many days in the past, her voice comfortable and hopeful. Just before park; immediately after park. Will there at any time be described as a time After i dont think, Oh, This can be the tenth anniversary, the eleventh anniversary?

She spoke in her modest ranch home in a very wooded subdivision within a Ny suburb. She sat in a eating home strewn with toys, surrounded by photos of her cherubic, darkish-haired two-year-outdated daughter. A Steinway grand stuffed fifty percent the space, and at one particular point she sat down and played. Her enjoying was forceful, but she seemed embarrassed to Participate in quite a lot of bars, and shrugged, as an alternative to answering, when questioned the title from the piece. She asked that her daughter and her town not be named.

She calls that working day, June four, 1996, the working day Once i was harm.

Hers was the first in a very string of assaults by a similar man on four Women of all ages around 8 days. The final victim, Evelyn Alvarez, 65, was crushed to Dying as she opened her Park Avenue dry-cleansing store, and ultimately, the assailant, John J. Royster, was convicted of murder and sentenced to everyday living in jail.

But the attack over the piano Instructor may be the just one persons look to recollect quite possibly the most. A part of the fascination should do with echoes of your 1989 attack around the Central Park jogger. But In addition it frightened individuals in a means the attack to the jogger did not mainly because its situation had been so mundane.

It didn't happen inside of a distant Portion of the park late at nighttime, but near a favorite playground at three during the afternoon. It might have took place to any one. The tension was heightened with the mystery with the piano lecturers identification.

For 3 times, as police and Physicians attempted to discover who she was, she lay in a coma in her clinic bed, nameless. Her mothers and fathers were on getaway and her boyfriend, also a musician, was in Europe, on tour. Last but not least, one among her learners regarded a law enforcement sketch and was ready to identify her from the healthcare facility by her fingers, since her deal with was swollen further than recognition. The police didn't launch her name.

The very last thing she remembers about June 4, 1996, is supplying a lesson in her studio condominium on West 57th Street, then putting her extended hair in a very ponytail and heading out for the stroll. She doesn't keep in mind the assault, although she has read the accounts with the police and prosecutors.

To me its like a reality I realized and memorized, she claimed. As though I were being a pupil at school researching historical past.

She will not consider the man who did it. I might need been angry for any minute, although not much longer than that, she stated. How could I be indignant at John Royster? He was declared not crazy, but I guess by our standards he was.

Dr. Jamshid Ghajar, her medical doctor at New York Clinic-Cornell Professional medical Heart, as it was identified in 1996, explained to reporters that she had a ten % potential for survival. Medical professionals had to get rid of her forehead bone, which was later changed, to produce space for her swelling Mind. When her mother made a community attract pray for my daughter, thousands did.

Immediately after eight days, she arrived away from a coma, first within a vegetative state, then within a childlike condition. As she recovered, she slept small and talked continually, at times in gibberish. I was receiving mad at people after they didnt respond to these terms, she mentioned.

Like an Alzheimers individual, she experienced minor brief-term memory and would fail to remember readers the moment they left the place.

More than many months, she needed to relearn tips on how to wander, dress, read and compose. Her boyfriend, Tony Scherr, frequented every single day to Participate in guitar for her. He encouraged her to play the piano, from the advice of her Actual physical therapists, who believed she could be disappointed by her incapacity to Participate in just how she once had. Mr. Scherr performed Beatles duets along with her, enjoying the left-hand element though she played the right.

That was my finest therapy, she said.

In August, she moved back again property to New Jersey, together with her father, an engineer, and mother, a schoolteacher. She visited aged haunts and called good friends, hoping to restore her shattered memory. I was incredibly obsessive about remembering, she reported. Any memory reduction was to me a sign of abnormality or deficit.

Her therapists considered her development was fantastic, but her two sisters protested that she wasn't the deep thinker she had been.

What bothered her most was that she experienced dropped the ability to cry, just as if a faucet within her brain had been turned off. One particular evening, 9 months following she was harm, she stayed up late to observe the John Grisham Motion picture A Time to Eliminate. Just immediately after her father had long gone to mattress, she watched a courtroom scene of Samuel Jacksons character on trial for killing two Adult males who experienced raped his young daughter.

The faucet opened, along with the tears trickled down her cheeks. I thought about my mom and dad, my father, and the things they went by means of, she mentioned. Minimal by very little, my experience returned, my depth of mind returned.

Urged by her sisters, she went back to high school and acquired a masters diploma in new music education.

Not everything went effectively. She and Mr. Scherr break up up 5 years after the attack, though they remain good friends. She dated other Adult males, but she often informed them concerning the attack immediately — she could not support it, she explained — they usually under no circumstances called for a second date.

We've got to search out you anyone, her Good friend David Phelps, a guitar participant, said four many years ago, ahead of introducing her to Liam McCann, a computer technician and newbie drummer. For as soon as, she didn't say just about anything concerning the attack right up until she bought to learn Mr. McCann, after which you can when she did, he admired her energy.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who had usually frequented her at her bedside when she was during the healthcare facility, married them in his Situations Square Business. She wore a blue dress and pearls. Whilst she was pregnant, inside a burst of creativeness, she and her pals recorded Even though Have been Youthful, an album of childrens tracks that she had created prior to the attack, including the song Transferring. Her ex-boyfriend, Mr. Scherr, developed the CD. On it, her spouse performs drums and he or she plays electrical piano.

Is her existence as it absolutely was? Not precisely, however she's reluctant to attribute the differences to her injuries. Her final two piano students remaining her, without contacting to explain why, she explained. She has resumed taking part in classical new music, but basic pieces, because her daughter won't give her the perfect time to apply. As for jazz, I dont even check out, she stated.

She wish to push much more, sensation stranded within the suburbs, but she is easily rattled. She tries to be information with keeping dwelling and caring for her daughter.

Dr. Ghajar, a clinical professor of neurological surgical treatment at exactly what is now termed Ny-Presbyterian Medical center/Weill Cornell Health-related Centre, who operated on Ms. Kevorkian McCann after the assault, reported previous week that her level of recovery was scarce. Shes essentially typical, he said.

Other industry experts, that are not Individually knowledgeable about Ms. Kevorkian McCanns case, are more careful.

Regaining a chance to Participate in the piano may perhaps require an Virtually mechanical procedure, a semiautomatic remember of what the fingers have to do, said Dr. Yehuda Ben-Yishay, a professor of scientific rehabilitation drugs at Big apple College College of Drugs. As soon as brain-hurt, you are often brain-injured, For the remainder of your life, Dr. Ben-Yishay reported. There isn't a get rid of, There is certainly only intense payment.

The greater telling Element of a Restoration, in his look at, is psychological, and on that score he counts Ms. Kevorkian McCanns relationship and youngster as a major victory.

For her aspect, the piano Instructor knows she has adjusted, but she has produced her peace with it. I had been type of a hyper —— I dont know if I used to be a kind A, but I used to be formidable, she states. Why was I so ambitious? I had been a piano Trainer. I dont know what the ambition was about. I actually did return to the person Im designed to be.

[talesofzero]

La Douleur Exquise - Ch. 4

AU; Chapter 4 - The Case of Violet

Shep’s chapter!!! This one tackles some weird ideas, so I hope the execution works. Let me know what you think!

~3k words

Everyone in the brothel said my skin was an odd color, but I didn’t see it that way. However it looked to them must have been similar to Desslar’s skin, but to me, Desslar was the same gray as everything else. He only gained color when he spoke - splashes of red, purple, and white. I’d never seen someone with such coloring.

Clients tended to have the same colors in their voices - greens usually meshed with the shades of red. When anyone spoke, the colors flooded their form and seeped into the air around them. 

Most of the other brothel workers had unique patterns, though. Susumu was beige and brown, Mamoru orange and yellow, Dick green and blue. Daiba was all reds, though some pink had mixed in lately. The new Tadashi was yellow and red and white and blue, and watching his voice was like a symphony. The old Tadashi, now dubbed Monono, tended toward a baby blue. Manabu had an odd mottling of blue and black that always made me anxious.

Zero had the same coloring after things went wrong.

So had Harlock. They’d both stayed that way for weeks before any trace of their old colors returned, but even now the old colors were faint. Harlock’s voice almost never exuded the loud yellows it did when I first met him.

He was the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes. The first thing I could remember. His attempt to speak with me was gibberish to my ears. The words were foreign, but the colors that came along with them were familiar. I felt like I knew those swirls, somewhere once far away.

Harlock, though I knew nothing about him at the time, helped me sit up, and I found myself lying on a bed in an extravagant room. There was another man nearby fiddling with something. The two spoke a brief conversation before Harlock took hold of my hand and tried to talk to me once more. I found myself more interested in his hand grasping mine. Though my hand was bandaged, something about the sensation made my head roar with familiarity.

It was then I noted my other hand bandaged as well, restrictive cloth winding up my arm and across my bare chest. Reaching up, I found it on my face and forehead as well. I must have been a mess.

The other man walked over and fit an object, the one he’d been fiddling with, into my ear. When he spoke, the words formed meaning.

“Let’s try that. Can you understand me?” His voice was mostly brown broken by pools of dark blue, different from the reds that appeared when he spoke to Harlock.

For some reason, I knew I was unable to respond aloud, so rather than open my mouth, I nodded. It felt like the appropriate response, a form of confirmation.

“Can you speak?” he asked.

This time I shook my head.

“This is going to be a little difficult then,” Harlock said, a curious mix of orange, yellow, and purple. “My name is Harlock. This is Zero.” He gestured to the other man, who nodded. “Your ship transported here, so damaged it was basically scrap. We weren’t able to salvage much from it, and you were pretty badly injured.”

“I don’t know anything about a race with gold blood,” Zero said, “but with how much you lost, I’m amazed you’re still alive.”

My head listed to the side. It seemed we were of different races, not just different languages. 

“We’re humans, if you didn’t know,” Harlock offered. “Our blood is red, so we were pretty startled when we saw you like that and didn’t have a transfusion available. Luckily we have a sexaroid who was able to make enough sense of your anatomy to hold you together. Your wounds were largely superficial, likely caused by shrapnel. Whatever you had a fight with, you probably lost.”

“He did come out alive, so that’s something,” Zero said.

Another human knocked and entered the room with more bandages in hand. I later learned that humans could identify themselves in varying ways, and this one expressed “woman” rather than “man.” The variation in the translator took me by surprise at first, but I grew to a base understanding over time. Humans had a variety of identities. All the same but all different.

“Oh, he’s awake,” she said in flashes of yellow and orange as she pushed the tray into Zero’s hands. “How are you feeling?” she asked me.

I offered a smile in answer. Nothing hurt, so I felt content. Confused and lost but content.

“He can’t talk,” Harlock said.

“Have you tried giving him something to write on?” she asked. The two men looked at each other, and she rolled her eyes. “His race may not have a written language system, but it’s worth a shot.”

Perhaps women were the smarter variety of human. I was unsure, as I only met a few in my time at the brothel. She introduced herself as Kei and wrote it in some strange, flowing symbols on a square of what I later learned was paper. Harlock wrote his name as well, though the symbols were entirely different, several simple ones in a row. Zero wrote his name the same way, but his writing curved and flowed where Harlock’s drew to points.

When they handed the paper to me, I realized I didn’t know my name, but writing I could grasp. They peered at the paper with eager eyes as I sketched out a message. “I do not remember my name. I do not remember anything. Thank you for helping me.”

When I handed the paper back to them, they all frowned at it. Zero used some small device to scan it. His brows pinched as he looked at the device. “Whatever the language is, it’s not showing up in records. Decoding it may take some time.”

“It looks kind of like sheet music,” Kei said, tilting the paper and her head.

What followed was several hours of gesturing and doodling and yes or no questions, until I was finally able to convey my lack of memories to them. Zero suggested they turn me over to some sort of authority figure, but Harlock’s voice swirled with colors at the idea. “We don’t know who attacked him,” he said. “It’s not safe to turn him over to anyone right now.”

Zero’s voice dipped in hue. “Harlock, we know nothing about him. It’s possible…”

“You’re honestly going to look me in the eye and tell me you think he’s dangerous?”

I hoped they didn’t think that. I would never wish any harm to them or anyone else. Zero must have sensed that, as he sighed and shook his head. “Regardless, we can’t keep him at a brothel.”

“Sure we can,” Harlock said. “He can work here once he’s better.”

Zero’s eyes went wide. His whole body tensed.

Harlock threw his hands up. “Not as a whore! Just as a helper or something! Just so he can make some money!”

Despite Zero’s reservations and my own confusion of human customs, I became the new helper. They called me “Guitar Ship” for a while. Apparently my now-ruined craft looked like something called a guitar, but that was shortened to “Ship” almost instantly, and that was steadily slurred to “Shep,” which stuck.

But once I realized what the brothel business entailed, it became clear to me that I was better suited to being one of the whores than attempting to help cook or fix anything. More often than not, that resulted in a bigger mess.

Harlock did not approve of the idea one bit once I finally managed to explain my goal. “Shep, I appreciate your enthusiasm,” he said, though his voice became distressingly pink. “But it’s just… the anatomy… you don’t... it’s not…”

Before he could become more anxious, I offered my hand. “Hm, what is it?” he asked. Part of him seemed to understand, though, because he placed his hand in mine. I’d figured it out once the bandages came off, why a physical connection gave me such a rush. I knew what I could do.

I knew what Harlock wanted.

In a blink, the office around us became a bedroom I’d never seen, though it was all an illusion, like a dream - Harlock’s dream. Because I made the dream in the image of his views and desires, I saw color as he did. But I wasn’t part of what he wanted.

Harlock’s eye was wide with confusion and surprise as he spun to look around the room. His clothes had changed as well into some sort of odd pirate getup. 

“What is this?” he asked. “What’s going on? Shep?” But when he turned back, I was not myself. I was the person he desired. “Zero?” he choked.

“Relax, Harlock,” the Zero of his dreams said, placing his hand to Harlock’s cheek and leaning in close. “Isn’t this what you want?”

“No.” Harlock placed his hand to Zero’s chest. “This isn’t real. Enough, Shep.”

The dream shattered as Harlock came back to himself and tore his hand from mine.

Of all the times I wished I could speak, that was the greatest. I’d wanted to make Harlock happy, to give him what he wanted, but his shoulders were taut, his hand slapped over his mouth. Despite my intentions, I’d hurt him.

Harlock jolted as I fell to my knees in front of him. I had to apologize somehow. All I had were my actions, so I bowed my head. If he wished to hit me, I would take it.

Instead of a blow, Harlock breathed a laugh. I peered up to find him kneeling in front of me. His smile seemed forced, his eye worn, but his words weren’t far from their usual shades. “Sorry, you just startled me. Remember, our rule is absolute consent. I know it’s hard for you but you need some sort of affirmation before making a move on anyone. I don’t want...” He shook his head. “So you can manipulate people’s minds?”

I nodded. That description sounded crueler than I liked, but it wasn’t incorrect.

“I can understand how that would make you a good worker, but if you’re able to access clients’ ideals like that…” His gaze drifted toward the wall. “You might see some disturbing things. I wouldn’t want you to be under that kind of stress.”

I couldn’t understand why he was concerned for me. He should have been upset. He shouldn’t have been the one to apologize to me.

But that was just like him, always more worried about us than himself. Even after I was able to show him that I wouldn’t allow clients any dreams that broke the brothel’s rules, he checked up on me after every new client.

And after what happened to Zero, he sat by the locked door of Zero’s room for endless hours, murmuring apologies in that black and blue voice. Apologizing for something he couldn’t have predicted or controlled, just like with me.

But things got better. Colors returned. Daiba appeared with all his fires of red and Mamoru with his blinding oranges and yellows. Mamoru in-particular I could always see coming. He was always talking, so vibrant his color bled all over. It was infectious in a way.

“Shep,” he whined as he dropped into my lap where his brother had been not long before. “I lost most of my clients. Give me some of yours.”

I patted his cheek, uncertain what he was talking about. He didn’t seem too upset, so it must not have been a big deal.  

“What did you do?” Zero asked. “And who said you could come out of timeout?”

“I didn’t do anything. Some guy bought my brother exclusive, and he’s paying for all those clients I would have had, but now I’m going to have all this free time. I’m gonna be so bored!”

Manabu appeared as well, having tiptoed down the stairs when Zero wasn’t looking. He clambered over the back of the armchair Zero sat in, forcing Zero to scooch over and make enough room for Manabu to squeeze in next to him. “What?” Manabu cawed. “Susumu got a client to himself? Aw, I could have taken the client.”

With a worn smile, Zero ruffled Manabu’s hair. “Maybe next time. How about we have Monono make us some tea right now and just relax instead?”

Zero, Dick, and I had clients scheduled for Monday night, so this was our last chance to relax until then, but the reality was that Manabu could be soothed by horrible, bitter tea no matter how upset he got. Zero was just playing that to his advantage. He sent Tadashi to let Monono know of our request.

“So is Harlock going to be the one to let most of my clients know they can’t have their incest kink fulfilled anymore?” Mamoru asked. “Because I’m not dealing with that.”

A new voice with the same colors flashed from the entryway. “Can’t I have two seconds of being here without you saying something gross?” Kei called as she strode in. Her travel bag slid from her shoulder and hit the ground with a thunk. Whatever was in there sounded heavy.

“Kei, is that the equipment we sent you to get?” Zero asked, frowning at the bag. “Please be careful with it.”

“Don’t worry. I have it padded,” she said. “Anything interesting happen while I was gone?”

“Daiba got a brother,” Mamoru said.

“More brothers? Jeez, don’t we have enough?”

Tadashi popped back out of the kitchen with a bag of chips he was eating by the handful. “He’s makin’ the tea,” he said through his munching. “Who’s that?”

Kei stared at him for a stretch, a deep frown forming along her features. “Did Harlock pick out that maid outfit?” she asked at length. “It’s pretty cheap looking. We have to get him a different one.”

“I picked it out!” Tadashi squeaked. “It wasn’t cheap!”

Kei put her hands on her hips. “Well, it looks like a costume. Don’t worry. I’ll get you a better one.”

“Anyway,” Zero called over them. “Kei, this is our new maid Tadashi Daiba. Tadashi this is our other bodyguard, Kei Yuki.”

“Daiba and his brother have the same name?” Kei muttered. “Well, anyway, nice to meet you, Tadashi. I’m going to go put my stuff down and wash up. Don’t be gross while I’m gone, guys.”

She scooped up the bag and headed upstairs. She must have spotted Daiba on the way because the red of him barking spilled out from the upstairs hall.

Our tea arrived shortly, while Mamoru continued to whine, and Manabu lounged against Zero. Zero was the only one Harlock would allow Manabu to get close to to ensure no one got too handsy.

“My client should be here soon,” Zero said after he finished his tea. “I’m going to go ahead and get ready. You should too, Shep.”

I nodded as Mamoru and Manabu began pouting. I would have given them some of my clients if I could. I had no use for the money Harlock gave me. He said if I ever remembered where I came from I could use the funds to buy a new ship and return, but I was content with my home.

After stretching out my legs, half-asleep from Mamoru lying over them, I headed for the stairs. As I reached the base of them, Desslar turned the corner at the top. His expression was plain, his eyes straight ahead. We walked on opposite sides going opposite ways, but when he reached the same step as me, he paused.

“You’re not Gamilan, are you?” He sounded as though he already knew the answer, and his words were now far more red and purple tinged with black.

I shook my head. I wasn’t certain what I was, but I felt we weren’t the same.

“Strange,” he said. “I feel like we’ve met.” He continued down without another glance, so I ripped my eyes from him and hurried upstairs. Passing my room, I knocked at Susumu’s. 

“Coming,” came the muffled response through the door. We didn’t lock our doors unless we had clients, yet I heard the bolt snap out of place. I tried to keep myself from looking too anxious as he opened the door. “Oh, Shep.” He smiled, but his words were all wrong, all black and mottled with blue. I couldn’t help but let my expression twist with concern. Something was wrong.

“Did you come to check on me?” he asked. “Everything went fine, so don’t look all worried. He was pretty easy to take care of, honestly.”

But the colors were wrong. It was like an infection had spread to him, the same one that claimed Zero, Harlock, and Manabu, the one that made them stare off at nothing with heavy, worn eyes. I took Susumu’s face in my hands, trying to speak with my eyes, begging him to tell me what was wrong.

He simply looked confused. “Shep, it’s alright. Everything went fine. Don’t you have a client soon? You should get ready for them.”

I so desperately wished for a voice, but all I could do was press my forehead to his. “Shep,” he sighed, drowning in that horrible blackened blue. “I’m exclusive now. You’re not allowed to touch me.”

I had no proof, no voice, no understanding, so I let him go to take care of my client instead. No one else seemed to notice anything amiss. The next morning Susumu smiled and laughed along with the rest of us. But that hue remained in his voice, and when he thought no one was looking, I saw his gaze grow distant, glazed with pain as he lost himself in that horrible color.

I would not allow it to infect anyone else in my home, in my family. I would free them from it.

[adventureswithten]

A tenth Doctor x fem!reader where he meets the reader for the first time because the reader got caught with some sort of alien and then the Doctor comes and gets her out but then she starts helping him and then he asks her to travel with him sorry if it's not specific but please do something along these lines :) thanks!

These things that had kid napped you were… unique. That was a nicer word than calling them creepy. Because they kind of were. You shivered silently as you remembered the slimy touch of their frog like skin, glowing green. The slime wasn’t the only thing frog like, the whole group of them were basically six feet tall, giant walking frogs, with red orange eyes too far apart and long fingers with sticky round pads on the ends. What they wanted with you, you really weren’t sure.

At first you’d thought, some guy at the pub had drugged you, then you thought maybe you were just dreaming. Near your flat you’d watched what appeared to be a little tree frog hop from the rose bush and block your path. You bent down to see if it was injured and in a split second you’d been snapped, teleported to a holding cell. You’d no idea how much time had passed or even if you were on the same planet anymore. Which really seemed bizarre but then again, you’d always had a wild imagination. The question was, what did they want with you?

As if procured by your thoughts two “guards” opened your cell and began to walk you down the bamboo lined hallway. You could’ve struggled or tried to run, but the point seemed mostly moot. Where would you go? And more than likely you’d just be caught by more frogs. Best to just play civil and nice and maybe sweetly ask them to take you back home. Perhaps they were peaceful. Or maybe even though you couldn’t understand their croaky and high pitched words, they could understand you.

Moments later you were second guessing your decision not to run. They had you sitting in a big round hot tub sized thing filled with stick plasma stuff. It was gross but it rendered your arms and legs immobile. Just perfect. Across the walls you could see x ray images and weird computer screens. The words were gibberish but you could clearly see pictures of brains and such. That was just peachy, you been abducted by brain suckers.

For a moment you fancied a white night coming in an rescuing you. But that wasn’t quite right. You didn’t really want or need a hero, but someone with more brains than brawn. With a heart so big and intelligent eyes, kindness radiating off of him in waves. He’d swoop in and instead of killing your captors he’d cleverly negotiate your return and then sweep you off into the sunset to a library where you could connect with one another over your favorite books.

It was at that moment, as a gooey green tentacle was perched by your ear that you became relatively sure you were dreaming. Because only in a dream could you think of something and it actually happen. And when it did your surprise and shock felt very undream like.

“Let her go and I won’t harm any of you.” A voice said from your left and you turned immediately. Just beyond the view of a glowing green extended finger was a man, at least he appeared to be for all intents and purposes. He wore a blue suit, a bit disheveled but still somehow looking handsome on him. His chocolate brown hair was a mess of long points dropping over his forehead and on his feet were red converse matching his tie. Your mouth popped open on surprise but you quickly closed it in an effort not to give another opening for brain collection.

A heated discussion began between the frogs and your new hero, but you could only understand half of it.

“I’m the Doctor. You know who I am. You know what I’ve done. If it’s imagination you want look to the stars or any other planet but do not harm anyone or anything!” He ordered. Then he sent you a cheeky sideways grin. A blush rose to your cheeks. The frogs seemed instantly startled and backed away with their webbed sticky fingers held up. Apparently this man was intimidating, but for the life of you you had no idea why.

The tall man walked over to you and gave you a serious stare.

“I’m going to need you to NOT panic. But I’m going to have to pull you out because your arms and legs won’t work.” He said.

“I’m paralyzed?!” You cried and he looked thoughtful a moment.

“Well, not paralyzed exactly. You just have lost mobility of everything below your neck. Okay so you’re paralyzed but it’s temporary!” He answered and for a moment you were relieved. From his pocket he pulled a strange metal devise with a blue glowing tip making an odd noise and suddenly you felt the plasm drain from the tub and you flopped to the bottom. With a groan you thought about how this was turning out to be nothing like you’d hoped.

With skinny arms stronger than you imagined the Doctor hoisted you up and wrapped your arms around his neck as if carrying you piggy back style. With one hand on your wrists and the other on his sonic screwdriver he began speaking.

“This species is protected by me. As are most others.” He said. Then, you felt your fingers becoming mobile again and smiled.

“Wait!” You said. The Doctor paused and you could see him cutting his eyes at you over his shoulder. They were brown with flecks of gold and in them you saw pain and loneliness and it made you hurt somewhere deep inside. Finally with your finger you pointed over to your bag in the corner. You carried it everywhere and since this was a dream, you had an idea.

The Doctor caught sight of what you pointed to and grabbed it from the corner, more of he frogs backing away at his approach.

“Reach inside. Give them that notebook.” You said to him. The notebook in question was one you had filled with all sort of ideas, for children’s books and fantasy creatures, poems and pictures of colors you liked. You felt bad for anything that didn’t have an imagination. And even though they’d kidnapped you, you wanted to help these strange beings.

The Doctor didn’t ask any questions and you said, “if they can translate it, they can have it. Maybe it’ll be enough.”. The Doctor didn’t tell you right then how wonderful he though you, or just how brilliant and amazing you were, but inside he knew he’d want to spend more time with you. If he could.

As he carried you away, you felt the feeling coming back to your arms and found yourself locking tighter around his neck. As he made his way down a corridor you noticed a blue telephone volume box and were confused.

“Hm. That’s weird. Why would I put one of those in my dreams. No one uses them or sees them about anymore.” You said aloud and you heard an adorable chuckle from your hero.

Everything else sort of seemed like a blur, the sort of control room that didn’t match the outward appearance of he blue box. The noises and the whirring and blowing youd heard it make, and sitting on the floor waiting for your legs to decide to work. By the time they did, the blue box fell silent and the Doctor was leaned over his controls looking forlorn. Assuming your alarm was to go off at any minute you opened the doors and found yourself in your little flat.

Poking your head back inside, “You wanna cups? It’s the least I can do after you saved my mind.” You said and he gave you a white toothy smile that nearly made your legs go numb again before following you out. With shaky limbs you put on the kettle and decided to take a quick shower while the Doctor sipped his tea. Moments later you emerged in cotton shorts and a loose fitting tee from the powder room and were relieved to find he was still sitting on your sofa.

“So who are you exactly?” You asked him. His eyebrows shot up in surprise and gingerly he set down his tea cup.

“Oh I’m the Doctor! Bit of a traveler really. It’s nice. No job, money, taxes, bills. Just me and my TARDIS.” He answered.

“Sounds kind of… solitary.” You said, the smile falling from your lips before you covered your mouth to yawn.

“ ‘Spose it doesn’t have to be. If you wanted to, well, come with me.” He said. You thought a long moment before you answered him.

“How about you ask me again in the morning. When I’m disappointed to find this was all a dream when I wake.” You said and turned to go back to your room. You stopped to barely whisper, “But if you are real, please stay.”

And he did. He watched you sleep and tucked you in when your covers fell away. He marveled at your home and the little quirks that made it yours personally. He felt happy just to be anywhere near you. So, when dawn broke he barely could hold back his joy when he asked, “Ready to go?”.

[sheepydraws]

And So They Lived (4/6)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Odd couldn’t say for sure when he graduated from the floor to Sissi’s bed, bumping shoulders when they laughed, or leaning in ever so slightly when they cried. Was it before or after they started planning movies and snacks in advance? Well, that had to be after Sissi gave him her number and was always texting him about new things to watch, or sometimes, yes, just cute cat videos, but after Odd changed her to ‘Elizabeth’ in his contacts, so he could claim she was someone else, and set her texts to a tone he never used otherwise, so he wouldn’t pick up his phone in front of his friends. 

He couldn’t explain exactly why he had to do that, but this whole thing with Sissi—whatever it was—was like spun sugar. If Odd breathed a word, the moisture from his breath would destroy it. Or, more likely, he would be made to tell everything about it. At some point that went from uncomfortable to the spilling of secrets. Odd Della Robbia would be nothing if he couldn’t be trusted to keep secrets. 

He couldn’t tell someone about the time Sissi snapped at him, “You’re not even watching the movie, you’re just staring at me!” without betraying her confidence. At least, not if he told the whole story.

Odd had panicked and said what he had actually been thinking, “Why do you go by Sissi?”

Sissi pulled back, surprised. She thought about it for a moment before saying, “If I tell you, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.” He said, already preparing his lie for when her question came too close to being about Lyoko. 

“You have to answer honestly.”

See, the truth is we all got a little too obsessed with this D-and-D campaign we were doing… “I will.”

Sissi pulled her blanket a little tighter around her. “I’m an idiot.”

Odd bit his lip before he could say something stupid. The possibilities were endless.

“I saw this movie one year, about this girl who became empress of Austria when she was sixteen, and I thought, that’s what I want to be when I’m sixteen. ”

Odd laughed automatically, and Sissi looked startled for a moment, but then she laughed too. 

“I don’t think that makes you an idiot.” Odd said, but somehow it was the wrong thing to say and Sissi’s laughter turned into a nasty cackle.

“She went crazy.” She said before he could ask. “She wasn’t even a great ruler, and then her son killed himself, so she basically ran away from court and didn’t do anything but obsess over her looks. She was-she just-” Sissi’s words tripped over themselves for a second and she coughed. Odd smacked her back and a minute later she continued, although slightly more clear headed. “If I had bothered to look up literally anything else about her besides that movie I would have realized how stupid taking her name was, but I thought it would make me glamorous and powerful.”

“You didn’t need the name for that.” Odd said without thinking.

Sissi rolled her eyes. “Please.”

“No, seriously.” Odd almost reminded her of the time she went to Lyoko, how everyone was watching her as she seized up the scanner. ‘What are you all staring at?’ She asked, flipping her hair over her shoulder before stepping inside. ‘If you guys can do it then I certainly don’t have anything to worry about.’ She had turned to face them before the doors slid shut and her eyes had been bright, her jaw set with defiance. Odd could still feel the tingle of fear at the base of his spine when he realized that Sissi was braver than he was, willingly throwing herself into what could be just a virtual void.  

Then he remembered that she didn’t remember and his mouth shut with a click.

“So do I get to ask you a question or what?” Sissi said, shrugging off the few words he had said.

“Sure.” Odd mumbled.

“Why did you bring a fucking dog to school with you?”

A snort of laughter escaped Odd. It was the absolute last thing he had expected her to ask, after Ulrich’s shoe size.

“I’m serious!” She said, shaking him by the shoulder. “It must have been so much work! First you had to get the dog up here, then you had to get it past the school, then you had to keep it a secret for years. Like, I thought you were a slacker!” They were both laughing in ernest now, and it was several minutes before they could stop. It really was absurd, when Odd thought about it, how much trouble Kiwi had caused him. If it weren’t for Return To The Past he wouldn’t have managed to keep him a month. 

Odd let his head fall back with a clunk against the wall. “You want the angsty, thirteen year old me reason?” He asked.

“Why not?”

“I was worried I wouldn’t have any friends. That’s it. I was willing to smuggle Kiwi through airport security and risk getting expelled for that.”

“Well, I guess you shouldn’t have worried.”

Odd opened his mouth to correct her, but of course he couldn’t. If it hadn’t been for Kiwi getting kidnapped, and his own lack of spacial awareness, he might not have had any friends at all. He might never have known about Lyoko or learned to fight properly, or watched his life flash before his eyes over and over, a larger chunk of it being XANA attacks every time.

“Odd?” Sissi’s head was on one side. “You’re getting all far away again.”

Odd shook himself. “Sorry. I miss the little bugger.” Although when he was with Sissi he usually managed not to think about that sort of thing. He didn’t break out in a cold sweat when she texted him, nor did he have dreams where she was dead, even though they must have almost killed her a hundred different times. 

“Do you want to finish watching this?” Sissi asked in a soft voice. 

“I’m kind of tired. Maybe tomorrow.”

Sleep was coming to Odd more easily every day. Though he was sluggish getting up. It was like he wasn’t doing anything but the world kept moving around him. Ulrich was already up, and Odd found him in the quad, standing around a bench with the rest of their friends. 

“Good thing you’re here.” Yumi said when she saw him, “XANA’s at it again.”

“What’s up with her, it’s like every other day now.” Odd said.

“She’s getting desperate.” Aelita said. “We’re so close now all she can do is try to slow us down.”

Yumi nodded. “Maybe you should all stay here over summer break too keep an eye on her.”

“Oh, it’ll be over by summer.” Jeremie said. He stretched, tilting his face towards the early morning sun, and smiled.

And the war’ll be over by christmas.

Ulrich and Odd had been out getting lunch when Jeremie had cracked a code, or coded something that hit XANA’s last nerve. Yumi’s text had been mostly gibberish, but to them gibberish meant drop everything and run. 

They could hear metallic banging and screams as soon as they were on the factory floor. Odd pounded the elevator button, not sure if it would work, if it was safe, but Ulrich jumped in, and Odd followed.

The elevator doors slammed shut around his ankle. Odd’s vision shook wildly, black spots burst before his eyes. He screamed as the elevator started down and his leg went up.

Ulrich grabbed Odd’s thigh and pulled, wrenching him free. For a second they lay on the ground, panting, before the elevator plummeted. Unfortunately for XANA spending less than a story in free fall couldn’t kill a human. The doors opened at the bottom floor and stayed that way, the better to kill them with. 

Cables danced around the super computer’s mainframe, shooting sparks across the room. For a moment it was hard to tell which were sentient and which were merely cut. Odd’s ankle  ached and was encircled by scrapes and red spots that would be bruises soon. When he tried to stand pain shot up his spine, but he ignored Ulrich’s outstretched arm and charged into the room, towards the mass of cables wrapped around Aelita.

Someone screamed, bright blue sparks flew through the air and the world shattered.

Ulrich was shaking him. 

“Odd? Odd? Odd!”

Odd flailed, landing several blows on Ulrich until he turned on the overhead. Light flooded the room and Odd felt his memory slide back into place. He panted, studying the familiar surroundings of their room, squinting at shadows until he was sure nothing was lurking in them. 

“Are you okay?” Ulrich asked.

Odd almost laughed. 

Ulrich sat on the bed next to him and threw an arm around his shoulders. “It’s okay. We’ve all had them.”

Words spun through Odd’s mind. Don’t say that, don’t say this is normal, it’s not normal, god, no, I just don’t want to think about this, I just want to leave it all behind.  

Why wasn’t it comforting to hear that someone understood?

Odd wasn’t going to sleep that night. He told Ulrich he was fine, and somehow the boy got back into bed, rolled over, and was out cold, but Odd knew he would be staring at the ceiling till dawn.

He picked up his phone, thinking maybe he would find a stupid comic to read, but when he opened it it was still on his texts with Sissi.

We should watch West Side Story. He typed, before settling in to wait out dawn.

Her reply came just before breakfast. Is it good?

It’s awful. (But not gross)

??? k.

They bootlegged it, and from the opening credits to Nardo’s death Odd ripped it to shreds. He didn’t realize that Sissi wasn’t joining in till she pressed the space bar and said, 

“Odd, can I ask you a question?”

“Only if I can ask you one.” He replied. They had had this exchange more then twice by now. 

“Why did you decide to kiss every girl in our grade that one time?”

Odd threw his arms out melodramatically. “I was looking for love.”

“If you’d actually been looking for love you wouldn’t have made it into a game.” Sissi’s eyes were dark and serious and Odd swallowed his mirth.

“Come on, Sissi, it’s not like anyone actually expects to find love in middle school.”

Sissi twisted her fingers around each other. “I know, I know. That’s why sometimes I would wonder if you were going to try and kiss me.”

Odd’s heart tripped over itself in his chest, but as he tried to process these sudden palpitations, she continued.

“I used to think about how funny it would be. You trying to woo me or something.” She laughed, but it was short and sharp, like she’s just trying to prove how hysterical the whole thing is. “I thought it would be kind of interesting to see how far you were willing to go for that little challenge.”

“What, like you were going to make me buy you dinner? Flowers and stuff?” 

They both laughed. Because it’s funny, damnit. The idea of Odd being nice to Sissi, taking her on a date, it’s laughable. Ha ha ha ha ha.

“So,” Odd said, scrambling for a question that would bring things back to normal, “Were you really in love with Ulrich back then?”

Sissi flushed. “What? Why?”

“I get a question now. That’s my question.”

“I mean, he’s cute. And in middle school where there are like three cute guys that’s like gold.”

“I just can’t believe you really liked him enough to go through all that trouble.”

“Dog. Airport security.” Sissi deadpanned.

“ But Kiwi looooved me,” Odd crooned, rubbing his shoulder against hers until she laughed and shoved him away. 

“But middle school.” She said. “I mean, yeah, no one finds love in middle school, but they definitely don’t if they aren’t willing to chase it.”

“Again, love is not something you should chase.”

Sissi shrugged. “When I was little my dad used to say, ‘You want that, Elizabeth? Well then you’d better think of a way to get it.’”

“Yeah,” Odd said, leaning towards her so she had to look at him and listen to his point, “But Ulrich isn’t an ‘it’.”

Sissi’s eyes went wide, and Odd realized that he had slightly miscalculated the distance between their faces. She was so close he could feel her breath on his lips. The silence continued long enough for Odd to brace himself for a shriek, or to get shoved right off the bed.

He wasn’t expecting her fingers on his collarbone, just enough pressure to push him back into place.

A beat. Then, “So you don’t like West Side Story.”

“No. Not really.”

Sissi scooted off the bed and stretched her arms over her head. “Let’s watch something else, then. I don’t have time for movies even you don’t like.” She opened her dresser and rooted around her dvd collection.

“Sissi? Can I ask you a question?”

She was bent over, halfway in the dresser, but Odd could tell she froze for a second. 

“Yeah?”

“Why do you still go by Sissi? When we talked about it, it kind of sounded like you don’t like it anymore.”

Sissi stood up with an armful of dvds, and sighed. “I think I’m stuck with it now. I’ll just wait till I can reinvent myself in college.”

“Should I call you Elizabeth, though?” Odd wasn’t sure why the request sounded so intimate, but he felt the urge to follow it up with, “So you can get used to it again, I mean.”

Sissi traced the spines of the dvd cases she was holding, then she looked up, caught his eyes, and smiled. “You should.”

A firework exploded in Odd’s heart. He asked another question, trying to ignore his sudden palpitations. “You’re going to college?”

“Yeah, I sent off a bunch of applications already.” Elizabeth perched on the edge of her bed, just below Odd. “I’m not sure which I’ll chose till I get the answers back. You?” 

“I dunno. I applied to some art schools, but I’m not sure I’ll go, even if they take me.” His tongue got thick for a moment, that pull he gets at the back of his throat when he’s about to say something he shouldn’t, but he shook it off. “Either way I’ll probably wind up back in Italy.” He watched Elizabeth’s profile, gauging her reaction to his words. She didn’t seem to have one. She studied the movie cases again before setting the stack on the ground.

“What about Casablanca?” She said. “Have you seen that?”

He had, but if she had too he had a feeling she would just say ‘oh.’ and he’d have to leave. He shook his head.

“It’s good. Sad, but…Yeah, it’s good.” She climbed over him to get back to her rightful spot on the far side of the bed, her shoulder against the wall, and pulled her computer into her lap. A few minutes later title music poured from her speakers.

It was already late when they started the movie, and at some point Odd noticed that he was slowly sliding down the wall onto Elizabeth’s bed. 

“Elizabeth,” He whispered, “I think I’m gonna fall asleep.”

“It’s not-“ Elizabeth yawned for a minute straight, “-that bad.” She finished. 

“No, but I’m gonna fall asleep anyway.”

“Here.” Elizabeth sat up, picked up the laptop, and put it between herself and the wall. She lay back down and turned onto her side. Odd wasn’t sure what that was supposed to accomplish, so he shut his eyes for a moment to carefully consider the problem. 

He woke to the credit music playing.

“Elizabeth.” He said.

Elizabeth made a noise that might have been acknowledgement. Odd reached over her and closed her laptop before setting it on the floor. He fished his phone out of his pocket and squinted at the screen. Almost two in the morning. He pretended to consider leaving the warm, cozy bed so he could walk through the freezing night to a bed that was just as standard issue uncomfortable, along with being cold and unslept in.

“Can I stay here?” He mumbled as he switched off the lights. 

“Yeah.” Elizabeth replied, surprising him slightly. However, his brain was already shutting down again. Heaviness rose in his limbs as he slid back towards sleep.

Part 5 

A/N: Technically I have been in the room while Casablanca was playing twice, but the first time I immediately fell asleep, and the second time I was pointedly ignoring it, so I can’t remember a frame of it. Eh.

I hate West Side Story for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is that we see Nardo and Rosa interact, we see them talk to each other in short hand, like they’ve been together for a long time, and when Rosa comes in with his jacket you think she has it draped over herself, but no, her shawl and his jacket are actually the same colors. My heart shattered when I saw that. It’s the only good use of color in the entire movie. AND MARIA HAS THE AUDACITY TO ACT AS THOUGH HER AND TONY’S LOVE OF LESS THAN A WEEK IS MORE POWERFUL OR SOME SHIT WHICH IS WHY TONY WAS TOTALLY JUSTIFIED TO KILL NARDO AND THEN SENDS ROSA OUT TO TAKE A MESSAGE TO TONY WHICH LEADS TO HER GETTING SEXUALLY ASSAULTED. 

Like, fuck that. 

[shiroe-is-my-baby]

First Chapter of The Wolf Whisperer

Just a little thing that I started working on a while back and decided to come back to. Really excited to get back into writing my original works, and this is one that I‘m looking forward to. Hope you like it! (It’s only a rough draft so their may be some errors, I’m still working to perfect it!)

"What's the point, Mom?"

My mother looked at me through her eyelashes, like she always did when she's angry. It gives me all the information I need to know. She's done having this argument with me. But it was a valid question for the conversation. Her and my dad were sending me to a public school, six hours away from our research base. I've been homeschooled my entire life. The only thing I'd be experiencing is my senior year, maybe senior prom. What's the point of going if I'm already basically out of school? My dad tells me that it's because I need to learn how to communicate with other people. He says that it's for the best since I've only ever been with my mom and dad basically my entire life. But the idea of going to school just doesn't sound right to me. I belong here with the animals that my parents and I take care of. I belong deep in the woods where there's only us and nature.

But, unfortunately, I don't have a say in the matter. I have to go to a public school, where there's a town and a population of 650. I can't even imagine how small the school itself is.

My mom helps me throw the rest of my bags into my dad's car, and my dad hands me a bag of snacks for the road. My Aunt Rachel lives about 20 minutes from the school that I'll be attending, and that's where I'm going to be staying. I haven't seen my Aunt since I was seven years old. Ten years later, I'm going to be staying with her for a full eleven months. I hope her and I can get along. I have no idea how I'm going to cope with being away from my parents and being in a whole different place. I'll be exposed to a lot of new things, as my mother says.

The only thing that comes to mind is people. People who will be complete strangers to me, as I will be complete strangers to them. I'm not even sure how to begin to make friends. Another reason why I'm dreading this move. And yet another reason why my parents think I need this experience. "You ready to go, pumpkin?" My dad asked, opening the driver side door of his truck. I nodded, even though I was lying. Something kept telling me that I needed to go, but another part of me was forcing me back. This was my home. My family was my whole world. Living without them seemed wrong. I’d never been away from them, especially for this long. I wasn’t sure if I could actually pull it off.

But I could tell my parents really wanted this for me.

I wanted to make them proud.

Clutching my turquoise blanket to my chest, I climbed into the passenger side of my dad's truck. The vehicle, which is intended to make it through the forest with no problem at all, is too high off the ground for me to climb up it. My short, stout legs always struggle to hoist my body up into the seat. But I manage to get inside and cover myself up just as my mother makes her way outside. She looks terrified to see me off, but I can tell that she’s excited for me. She always gets this twinkle in her eye when she gets anxious. Whether it’s with a new experiment, an idea that she’s been thinking of, or just seeing the family succeed. She’s always smiling, with the creases of her eyes showing all of the happiness for her.

My mother leaned in close, planting a kiss on my temple, having to stand on her tip toes. That’s one of the things that she and I have in common. We’re both incredibly short.

She smelled of honey and ginger. The same smell that she always has, since the day that I was born. It’s how I recognize her, and how I’ll always remember her. I breathed it in like it was the last time I would smell it. Like it was my oxygen. The fumes caused me to tear up, but I quickly fought them back. I didn't want my mom to worry. She might think I was crying, and I didn't want her to start crying either. Then, I'd definitely start to cry. Then, my dad would start crying and we'd never stop. My family was the kind of family that showed our emotions easily. We were very open and honest with our feelings. If we had a problem, we would voice it, and fix it together. That's another one of the things that I'm going to miss.

"I love you, Saph. Be good for Rachel."

"Yes ma'am."

When my mom smiled, her beauty radiated through the rest of her features. She beamed like sunlight, and it was almost impossible to look at her. But I did; I looked at her. I memorized the way her face looked, and the way she curled her hair. I took note of how she wore her white buttoned up blouse with dark jeans, with a few buttons undone to expose just a little cleavage. I remembered how her face shines, and her make-up adorned her face, making it look pristine and perfect. I will always remember my mother this way. Until I get to be with her again.

"Don't forget to call!" she screamed as I slammed the door, waving at us while my dad pulled out of the driveway. Some wouldn’t call it much of a driveway. It was mainly just a patch of road, with pebbles and grass for miles. But it was one of the qualities that made our home different. The small research base that I called home for seventeen years, seemed farther away with every foot we left behind. The trees around it seemed to swallow it up the further away we were. I waved back to my mom, watching her as she got smaller and smaller in the rear view mirror. Her auburn hair tousled in the wind, and she hugged her jacket tighter against her small frame. She held a hand over her mouth, and I saw the tears forming in her eyes. At least she waited to cry after I was safely feet away. She looked more beautiful even when she was crying.

It always amazed me how I look nothing like my mother. She was talented and smart and beautiful. Not only was she top of her class, but she graduated several years early. This allowed her to get a job before she was even out of college. But even though she could have a job at a corporate office or some fancy science lab. She chose to stay with my father, in this ragged and misshapen lab out in the middle of nowhere. I couldn’t imagine making a choice that big, but looking at my dad, I can see why she would make that decision.

These thoughts brought me to the conclusion that I was different from my family. I was short, with wide hips and couldn't catch up with them in terms of knowledge. I knew enough about our research to help out, but I wasn't able to keep up with the statistics and the calculations. It all sounded like gibberish to me. But I could read a book in two days, and recite all of Shakespeare's works in the drop of a hat. Painting was one of my favorite things to do, and it was something that I did quite often when I was stressed or moody.

My mother always told me that I was special. She told me that even though I wasn't good with numbers, I was prefect in the arts and could understand written form.

"Everyone is good at something," She tells me, "But not everyone is good at everything."

Letting out a sigh, I leaned my head against the door, and watched the world pass by. The world that I once came to know. Entering a strange place is always scary. Especially, when you don't know anyone. Not even the person you're staying with. My dad sat in the driver’s seat, stealing glances at me. "I know you're nervous, Sapphire," He said, "But you'll make lots of friends. If you're like your mother, you'll even attract a few boys." I chuckled, looking over at my dorky dad. He pushed up his glasses, his eyes returning to the road. Everyone used to wonder how my dad got with my mom. If you just look at him, you'd assume he was single and lonely. But my dad beside my mom, he looked confident and happy. They were the perfect couple. She was the smart and beautiful one, and he was the also smart but extremely geeky one. His dark hair was short and clean cut, similar to the slight stubble on his face. When raising me, my mom always said he was a proud dad. He tried to get me into science experiments and equations, even though all I wanted to do was paint and read. He soon realized that I was unique. Unlike the two of them, I was interested in music and literature.

But they were proud, none-the-less.

"Aren't dads supposed to be afraid for their daughters to get boyfriends?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Oh, sweetie, I am very scared. But I won't stop you from being a teenager. I know you're going to have them. Just don't be stupid."

"Yes Dad.”

My dad wouldn't have much to worry about on that department. I've never been around boys, so I wouldn't even know where to begin with. My mother always told me that it's best to let love come to you. The more you try to find it, the less special it becomes. I'm going to miss my family’s helpful words of encouragement. Sometimes I think that we should write greeting cards because of how cheesy we are. I'm going to miss everything about growing up here. It wasn't the best childhood, but I enjoyed every moment of it.

The ride to Aunt Rachel's was five hours and 30 minutes. That meant being stuck in the car with my dad and his music. His taste was that of a normal dorky dad. He enjoyed the classics. As in Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, and others that are amazing composers. Growing up, that's all I listened to, until my mom grew into classic rock and indie music. My music taste was a little different. I like to tune the radio to something that I usually can only catch on weekends in the afternoon. I can hear a faint noise of the popular station, which I usually let play softly in the background while I paint. I like the new music, but it's hard to get that out here in the woods.

"Dad, can we listen to the radio for a bit?" I asked, politely.

"Sure, Hun."

He turns on the radio, and the farther out we get, the more clear the sound becomes. I enjoy being able to hear what was background noise my whole life. Dad seemed to enjoy making me happy, so he didn't bother to argue when I asked him to keep it. The music made the drive a lot easier. I was more focused on what was playing than how many miles we traveled. My heart was no longer torn in half because of this move, but I was happy and content. The music that played was light and happy. It gave me a sense of hope.

Although, I couldn't seem to get this nagging feeling off my chest. The kind of feeling that someone was watching me. That kind of thing that always gave me a strange feeling in my stomach. I didn’t like it. I hated the feeling that something was out of place. I looked out of the window but didn't see anything that could be causing such an emotion. The only things I could see were trees and deep woods that we kept passing by. It was like an endless loop.

I shrugged it off, my mind returning to the song.  Even though I tried to forget about it, I couldn't shake off this feeling. That someone or something was watching us. It stayed with me through the entire ride.

Even when we'd stop to get gas, I'd feel as if something was following us. But when I looked around, I saw nothing. Whatever this feeling was, it had to be because of the move. I hadn't had this kind of feeling ever in the past. It seemed strange, but almost like something was calling to me. Luring me to this town that I had no acknowledge of before this move.

All the more reason to consider this move the next chapter in my book of life. The next step in finding my true self.

Even if it seems seventeen years too late.

[woodsens]

The 12 Worst Types best beginner keyboard piano

Correction Appended

On an album of bittersweet childrens music that she wrote more than a decade back, the lady who arrived to get recognised only given that the piano teacher available what, in hindsight, seems like an eerie glimpse of her personal foreseeable future.

Im moving absent nowadays to a location so far-off, the place nobody knows my title, she wrote from the lyrics of a song referred to as Shifting.

When she wrote that music, she was young and vivacious, a piano teacher and freelance audio writer who liked Beethoven and jazz, sunsets and river Appears, lengthy walks and every little thing about The big apple.

On a kind of beloved walks, via Central Park in the bright Sunshine of the June day in 1996, a homeless drifter conquer her and tried to rape her, leaving her clinging to life. Once the assault, the terms to her music came legitimate. She moved absent, away from Ny city, outside of her outdated lifestyle, and all but her closest buddies didn't know her title. To the rest of the environment, she was — like the much more well known jogger attacked in Central Park seven yrs before — an anonymous image of the city nightmare. She was the piano Instructor.

Now, within the 10th anniversary of your attack, she is celebrating what seems to be her total Restoration from brain trauma. She is forty two, married, with a little baby. She is Kyle Kevorkian McCann, the piano teacher, and he or she hopes to explain to her Tale, her way.

Her medical professional explained to her it will take ten years to Get well, and Sunday was that talismanic anniversary. I come to feel my everyday living continues to be redefined by Central Park, she claimed a number of days in the past, her voice delicate and hopeful. Just before park; following park. Will there at any time certainly be a time Once i dont think, Oh, this is the 10th anniversary, the eleventh anniversary?

She spoke in her modest ranch household in a very wooded subdivision inside a The big apple suburb. She sat inside of a eating area strewn with toys, surrounded by images of her cherubic, darkish-haired 2-yr-aged daughter. A Steinway grand stuffed 50 percent the room, and at a single position she sat down and performed. Her playing was forceful, but she seemed humiliated to play various bars, and shrugged, as opposed to answering, when asked the title from the piece. She requested that her daughter and her city not be named.

She calls that day, June 4, 1996, the day when I was damage.

Hers was the very first in a string of assaults by precisely the same man on 4 women about 8 times. The last sufferer, Evelyn Alvarez, 65, was crushed to Demise as she opened her Park Avenue dry-cleansing store, and ultimately, the assailant, John J. Royster, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in jail.

Still the assault over the piano Instructor would be the one particular people feel to remember probably the most. Part of the fascination must do with echoes in the 1989 assault over the Central Park jogger. But Additionally, it frightened men and women in a way the attack within the jogger didn't simply because its situations have been so mundane.

It didn't happen in a very distant part of the park late during the night, but in close proximity to a well known playground at 3 inside the afternoon. It could have occurred to anybody. The stress was heightened by the thriller with the piano teachers id.

For three times, as law enforcement and Medical doctors experimented with to see who she was, she lay inside a coma in her clinic bed, nameless. Her moms and dads were on trip and her boyfriend, also a musician, was in Europe, on tour. Last but not least, among her pupils regarded a law enforcement sketch and was able to detect her from the clinic by her fingers, mainly because her face was swollen beyond recognition. The law enforcement did not release her name.

The very last thing she remembers about June 4, 1996, is offering a lesson in her studio condominium on West 57th Road, then Placing her very long hair inside of a ponytail and going out to get a walk. She won't try to remember the attack, Though she has read the accounts from the law enforcement and prosecutors.

To me its similar to a actuality I learned and memorized, she said. Just as if I have been a pupil in school studying record.

She won't take into consideration The person who did it. I may need been angry for any minute, although not much longer than that, she mentioned. How could I be offended at John Royster? He was declared not crazy, but I assume by our expectations he was.

Dr. Jamshid Ghajar, her health care provider at Ny Healthcare facility-Cornell Healthcare Heart, as it was identified in 1996, informed reporters that she experienced a 10 per cent possibility of survival. Medical practitioners experienced to get rid of her forehead bone, which was later replaced, to produce home for her swelling Mind. When her mother manufactured a community attract pray for my daughter, countless numbers did.

Soon after 8 times, she arrived outside of a coma, to start with inside a vegetative state, then in the childlike state. As she recovered, she slept minor and talked consistently, sometimes in gibberish. I used to be having mad at folks after they didnt reply to these words and phrases, she claimed.

Like an Alzheimers affected individual, she had very little brief-term memory and would ignore guests once they remaining the space.

More than various months, she had to relearn the way to walk, gown, examine and produce. Her boyfriend, Tony Scherr, frequented every day to Perform guitar for her. He encouraged her to Engage in the piano, in opposition to the recommendation of her Bodily therapists, who believed she would be pissed off by her lack of ability to Enjoy just how she at the time had. Mr. Scherr performed Beatles duets with her, participating in the still left-hand portion though she performed the correct.

That was my best therapy, she said.

In August, she moved again residence to New Jersey, together with her father, an engineer, and mother, a schoolteacher. She visited outdated haunts and named friends, striving to restore her shattered memory. I used to be pretty obsessed with remembering, she mentioned. Any memory reduction was to me an indication of abnormality or deficit.

Her therapists believed her development was fantastic, but her two sisters protested that she wasn't the deep thinker she had been.

What bothered her most was that she experienced lost the opportunity to cry, just as if a faucet within her brain had been turned off. A person evening, 9 months just after she was harm, she stayed up late to look at the John Grisham Motion picture A The perfect time to Get rid of. Just immediately after her father experienced long gone to bed, she viewed a courtroom scene of Samuel Jacksons character on trial for killing two Gentlemen who had raped his younger daughter.

The faucet opened, plus the tears trickled down her cheeks. I thought about my mom and dad, my father, and what they went by means of, she explained. Minimal by tiny, my experience returned, my depth of mind returned.

Urged by her sisters, she went back to highschool and acquired a masters diploma in tunes schooling.

Not every thing went nicely. She and Mr. Scherr split up 5 years following the assault, even though they continue to be good friends. She dated other Guys, but she usually instructed them regarding the assault straight away — she couldn't aid it, she mentioned — they usually hardly ever known as for the second date.

We have to uncover you anyone, her Mate David Phelps, a guitar participant, said four yrs ago, in advance of introducing her to Liam McCann, a pc technician and amateur drummer. For once, she didn't say just about anything with regard to the assault till she acquired to grasp Mr. McCann, and after that when she did, he admired her strength.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who had normally frequented her at her bedside when she was inside the healthcare facility, married them in his Times Sq. office. She wore a blue gown and pearls. Whilst she was pregnant, within a burst of creativeness, she and her mates recorded Even though Were being Youthful, an album of childrens songs that she experienced prepared ahead of the attack, including the tune Transferring. Her ex-boyfriend, Mr. Scherr, developed the CD. On it, her partner plays drums and she plays electric piano.

Is her life as it absolutely was? Not accurately, nevertheless she's unwilling to attribute the discrepancies to her injuries. Her previous two piano college students still left her, without the need of calling to explain why, she stated. She has resumed taking part in classical new music, but simple pieces, for the reason that her daughter would not give her time and energy to exercise. As for jazz, I dont even attempt, she claimed.

She wish to generate far more, sensation stranded within the suburbs, but she is definitely rattled. She tries to be articles with staying dwelling and caring for her daughter.

Dr. Ghajar, a medical professor of neurological operation at what is now identified as New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Clinical Center, who operated on Ms. Kevorkian McCann after the attack, said last week that her amount of recovery was rare. Shes basically usual, he said.

Other specialists, who're not personally accustomed to Ms. Kevorkian McCanns case, are more careful.

Regaining the ability to play the piano might contain an Practically mechanical method, a semiautomatic remember of what the fingers ought to do, mentioned Dr. Yehuda Ben-Yishay, a professor of scientific rehabilitation medication at New York College School of Medication. When brain-wounded, you happen to be always brain-injured, for the rest of your lifetime, Dr. Ben-Yishay stated. There's no overcome, There exists only intensive compensation.

The greater telling Portion of a Restoration, in his perspective, is psychological, and on that rating he counts Ms. Kevorkian McCanns relationship and kid as a major victory.

For her aspect, the piano teacher understands she has changed, but she has designed her peace with it. I was type of a hyper —— I dont know if I used to be a Type A, but I was bold, she claims. Why was I so formidable? I used to be a piano Trainer. I dont really know what the ambition was about. I actually did return to the person Im purported to be.

[woodsens]

The Worst Advice We've Ever Heard About best portable keyboard

Correction Appended

On an album of bittersweet childrens songs that she wrote over ten years in the past, the lady who arrived for being recognised only given that the piano teacher available what, in hindsight, looks like an eerie glimpse of her own upcoming.

Im going away now to a spot so far-off, where nobody understands my name, she wrote within the lyrics of the track referred to as Transferring.

When she wrote that tune, she was young and vivacious, a piano Trainer and freelance songs author who liked Beethoven and jazz, sunsets and river sounds, extensive walks and every little thing about New York.

On a kind of beloved walks, through Central Park in the bright Sunlight of the June day in 1996, a homeless drifter beat her and attempted to rape her, leaving her clinging to lifetime. Once the attack, the words to her song arrived true. She moved absent, out of Ny city, from her previous daily life, and all but her closest good friends did not know her identify. To the remainder of the entire world, she was — just like the far more popular jogger attacked in Central Park seven decades before — an nameless image of an city nightmare. She was the piano teacher.

Now, to the tenth anniversary of the attack, she is celebrating what is apparently her entire recovery from brain trauma. She is 42, married, with a small child. She's Kyle Kevorkian McCann, the piano teacher, and he or she hopes to explain to her story, her way.

Her health care provider informed her it could choose a decade to Recuperate, and Sunday was that talismanic anniversary. I sense my existence has long been redefined by Central Park, she explained numerous days in the past, her voice delicate and hopeful. Right before park; following park. Will there ever be considered a time when I dont think, Oh, Here is the tenth anniversary, the eleventh anniversary?

She spoke in her modest ranch home within a wooded subdivision in a Ny suburb. She sat in the eating area strewn with toys, surrounded by pictures of her cherubic, darkish-haired 2-year-aged daughter. A Steinway grand loaded 50 % the place, and at one place she sat down and performed. Her enjoying was forceful, but she appeared humiliated to Enjoy more than a few bars, and shrugged, in lieu of answering, when questioned the name in the piece. She asked that her daughter and her town not be named.

She phone calls that day, June 4, 1996, the day After i was harm.

Hers was the primary inside of a string of assaults by the same male on four Ladies around 8 days. The last victim, Evelyn Alvarez, 65, was crushed to death as she opened her Park Avenue dry-cleaning shop, and in the end, the assailant, John J. Royster, was convicted of murder and sentenced to everyday living in jail.

Nevertheless the attack around the piano Instructor may be the 1 men and women feel to recall the most. Part of the fascination should do with echoes of the 1989 attack on the Central Park jogger. But Additionally, it frightened persons in a means the assault around the jogger did not for the reason that its situations ended up so mundane.

It did not take place inside of a remote A part of the park late during the night, but near a favorite playground at 3 from the afternoon. It might have happened to any individual. The tension was heightened because of the thriller of your piano lecturers id.

For 3 days, as law enforcement and Medical practitioners tried using to determine who she was, she lay inside of a coma in her medical center mattress, nameless. Her dad and mom have been on getaway and her boyfriend, also a musician, was in Europe, on tour. Finally, one among her students recognized a police sketch and was able to discover her while in the healthcare facility by her fingers, simply because her confront was swollen past recognition. The police didn't launch her title.

The very last thing she remembers about June 4, 1996, is providing a lesson in her studio condominium on West 57th Avenue, then Placing her prolonged hair in a very ponytail and heading out for a wander. She doesn't don't forget the attack, Even though she has read the accounts from the police and prosecutors.

To me its like a point I learned and memorized, she explained. As if I ended up a scholar in class researching record.

She will not take into consideration The person who did it. I may have been indignant to get a instant, but not much longer than that, she explained. How could I be indignant at John Royster? He was declared not insane, but I assume by our specifications he was.

Dr. Jamshid Ghajar, her health care provider at Ny Hospital-Cornell Health-related Center, as it had been recognised in 1996, instructed reporters that she had a 10 p.c potential for survival. Medical doctors had to remove her forehead bone, which was later on replaced, to generate home for her swelling Mind. When her mother built a community appeal to pray for my daughter, hundreds did.

Right after 8 times, she arrived away from a coma, initially in a very vegetative state, then in the childlike point out. As she recovered, she slept minimal and talked consistently, at times in gibberish. I was obtaining mad at people today if they didnt respond to these terms, she claimed.

Like an Alzheimers client, she experienced minor brief-expression memory and would overlook visitors the moment they left the room.

Around various months, she needed to relearn the way to wander, dress, read and write. Her boyfriend, Tony Scherr, frequented daily to play guitar for her. He inspired her to Enjoy the piano, in opposition to the advice of her physical therapists, who assumed she could be disappointed by her incapacity to Enjoy the best way she once experienced. Mr. Scherr played Beatles duets together with her, participating in the remaining-hand section while she performed the proper.

Which was my ideal therapy, she claimed.

In August, she moved back household to New Jersey, along with her father, an engineer, and mom, a schoolteacher. She visited aged haunts and named good friends, trying to revive her shattered memory. I was very obsessed with remembering, she said. Any memory reduction was to me an indication of abnormality or deficit.

Her therapists considered her development was fantastic, but her two sisters protested that she was not the deep thinker she had been.

What bothered her most was that she experienced misplaced the chance to cry, as if a faucet inside her brain had been turned off. A single night time, 9 months immediately after she was hurt, she stayed up late to view the John Grisham movie A Time to Kill. Just soon after her father experienced gone to bed, she viewed a courtroom scene of Samuel Jacksons character on demo for killing two Adult men who had raped his younger daughter.

The faucet opened, as well as tears trickled down her cheeks. I thought of my mother and father, my father, and the things they went as a result of, she mentioned. Minor by little, my sensation returned, my depth of thoughts returned.

Urged by her sisters, she went back again to school and acquired a masters degree in audio training.

Not every little thing went effectively. She and Mr. Scherr break up up five years once the attack, nevertheless they remain close friends. She dated other men, but she usually told them concerning the assault without delay — she could not assist it, she claimed — and they under no circumstances identified as for just a next date.

We've to find you a person, her Mate David Phelps, a guitar participant, claimed four several years back, in advance of introducing her to Liam McCann, a computer technician and beginner drummer. For the moment, she didn't say everything with regards to the assault until she bought to be aware of Mr. McCann, and after that when she did, he admired her energy.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who experienced typically frequented her at her bedside while she was in the medical center, married them in his Times Sq. Business office. She wore a blue gown and pearls. Although she was Expecting, in a burst of creative imagination, she and her good friends recorded While Ended up Youthful, an album of childrens music that she experienced composed prior to the attack, including the track Shifting. Her ex-boyfriend, Mr. Scherr, created the CD. On it, her husband performs drums and he or she plays electric piano.

Is her everyday living as it had been? Not precisely, nevertheless she is hesitant to attribute the discrepancies to her accidents. Her previous two piano learners left her, without the need of calling to explain why, she reported. She has resumed participating in classical new music, but basic items, for the reason that her daughter would not give her time and energy to practice. As for jazz, I dont even consider, she stated.

She want to generate additional, sensation stranded from the suburbs, but she is well rattled. She tries to be material with remaining household and caring for her daughter.

Dr. Ghajar, a medical professor of neurological surgical treatment at exactly what is now termed New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Healthcare Center, who operated on Ms. Kevorkian McCann following the attack, explained last week that her amount of recovery was uncommon. Shes essentially normal, he said.

Other specialists, who're not personally aware of Ms. Kevorkian McCanns scenario, tend to be more cautious.

Regaining a chance to play the piano may well involve an almost mechanical approach, a semiautomatic remember of exactly what the fingers ought to do, mentioned Dr. Yehuda Ben-Yishay, a professor of clinical rehabilitation drugs at The big apple College University of Medication. The moment brain-hurt, you might be normally brain-injured, for the rest of your lifetime, Dr. Ben-Yishay said. There isn't any cure, There's only intense payment.

The more telling A part of a Restoration, in his see, is psychological, and on that score he counts Ms. Kevorkian McCanns marriage and youngster as a significant victory.

For her part, the piano teacher knows she has improved, but she has built her peace with it. I was type of a hyper —— I dont know if I used to be a kind A, but I had been bold, she claims. Why was I so formidable? I was a piano Instructor. I dont understand what the ambition was about. I actually did come back to the person Im purported to be.