#(Not using this to mark it off but it is featuring it hence the tag :>)

[obsessedwithegos]

BTHB: Locked in a cage ft. Scar to remember with Emil

CWs: Vampire whumpee, Demon whumper, Failed escape attempt, Bystanders not helping whumpee despite recognizing him, Whumpee with inability to lie, Descriptive burns (silver and sun), Near death experience w/ gore, Non descriptive medical whump

Notes: Canon! Lots of build up and not a lot of focus on the actual cage part but I felt like it was important to get this whole story across :3c This is also how Emil got his only scar!

~~~

It was a rare opportunity. Tael went to the basement to get another color ink and left Emil alone and unrestrained. 

The shop’s front door was unlocked as it was daytime and Tael was accepting walk-ins today. 

Emil got off of the chair and slowly made his way towards the front entrance area. He knew it would take a few minutes for the demon to find the color he wanted, it would be enough time for him to escape. 

But if he escaped he’d have to endure the sun. If he was successful he’d never have to see Tael again. If he failed? 

He bit his tongue, he could just go and sit right back in that chair and pretend like he didn’t even consider it. Maybe earn some praise and a reward. 

His eyes wandered to the top of the door where a bell was. He knew the sound of it paired with Tael’s symbol on him would immediately alert him that he had left. 

He takes a step forward, closer to the glass door and the sunlight shining through it. He tucks his hands into his sleeves, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do much to try to protect his face. 

Emil takes a deep breath, walking into the sunlight and grabbing the door handle with one of his covered hands. 

He would regret this, he would, he knows he would from the sun alone. He’d regret it even more if he was caught. 

“Found it!” Tael calls from the basement.

Emil’s time to decide was up, he yanks the door open and bolts out. 

The sun immediately started to burn against his face and neck, his hair couldn’t provide any protection as it was being pushed behind him by the wind. 

He gritted his teeth, he needed to bare it, he needed to be out at any cost. He knew the sunlight wouldn’t kill him so he needed to try to fight through it. 

He doesn’t know how far he got before he heard the running hoof steps behind him, they told him one terrifying thing.

Tael didn’t bother to switch to a disguise and was willing to blow his cover just to get Emil back.

He knew he must have been running for a few minutes at least as he could feel the burn wounds starting to open on his face.  He had managed to reach the main street before a sudden force hit his back. 

Tael tackles Emil, sending both of them tumbling. When they stopped, Tael had Emil pinned under him. One knee right into his back, the other on the ground. One hand on the back of his neck, putting pressure on the nape piercing, while the other was getting Emil’s wrists together. 

Emil was weak, he knew he wouldn’t be able to get the demon off of him but he still tried to struggle as tears fell from his eyes and into his fresh burns wounds. He looks up and sees people, staring at him and Tael.

“HELP! PLEASE!” He cried out, his desperation overpowering his pain “FOR THE LOVE OF EVHER PLEASE HELP!” 

None of the people moved, some even leaning towards each other to whisper.

‘Evher? Don’t they hate vampires?’ ‘Doesn’t he look familiar?’ ‘Is that Father Emil? Didn’t he disappear almost a year ago?’ ‘Maybe that’s why he did.’

Tael takes his knee off of Emil’s back to force him up, still using one hand to hold his wrists together but moving his other hand to the front of the vampire’s neck. “Sorry about that folks! This one was being brought in for more training and got loose!” He explained in an authoritative voice. 

That’s when it hit him. That’s why Tael didn’t bother disguising himself, so he could pass himself off as a vampire trainer. And it worked. 

The people nodded in understanding, some even saying that it was fine and that it was good that he had managed to capture the vampire before anyone could get hurt. 

Emil squeezed his eyes shut before there was a brief feeling of weightlessness. Once the feeling passed, his skin no longer was being burned by the sun. He didn’t open his eyes, he knew where he was.

Tael throws the vampire down onto the concrete ground of the basement “You fucking idiot. What did you expect to happen?! That I’d let you go that easily? How long did you think you would make it in the sun?” 

Emil whimpers “I-” His words got caught in his throat, he couldn’t say he didn’t know. He did know, he considered it before he even opened that door. “I knew I’d regret it.” He answered, finally opening his eyes to look at the demon looming over him.

“You know you’d regret it and you still did it.” The demon scoffed before kicking him in the stomach, earning a loud yelp. “How long did you think you’d make it in the sun?” he repeats. 

“I don’t know!” He cried, he really didn’t know. 10 minutes? An hour? Certainly not more than 3 hours.

“Then how about we test it?” 

“What?” His voice was small. 

Tael moves to a corner of the basement and pulls out something Emil recognized immediately. 

A silver cage that was barely large enough for him to fit in. 

The demon also pulled out some rope. “I’m going to go set this up. While I do that, get out of your robes. When I get back I’ll determine if you can keep the clothes under your robes or not.” He didn’t wait for a reply, heading upstairs and slamming the basement door behind him before locking it. 

~~

When Tael returned, Emil had his robes in a folded pile on top of unopened boxes. He just had a short sleeve shirt, black slacks that were a bit too short for his legs, socks, and shoes on. 

The vampire’s face was puffy, not just from crying but from the burns. 

“Come here.” He ordered. He noticed the hesitation of Emil coming to him, for now he refrained from commenting about it. 

He grabs Emil’s wrists to tie them together with rope he had brought back down. “Even after that stunt, I’ll be kind enough to let you keep your clothes for now.” 

He could barely hear him mutter ‘thank you.’ 

“Look at me and open your mouth.” 

Emil wanted to ask why but refrained. He looked up at Tael and held his mouth open. 

Tael shoved some of the remaining rope into it before using the last of it to wrap around his head to secure it in. He ignored Emil’s whimpers as the rope rubbed against the burns. 

Once he was positive everything was securely tied, he grabbed the rope binding Emil’s wrists and pulled him to follow. He no longer trusted the vampire to walk behind him freely. 

He brought Emil up from the basement, through the shop and up into the first floor of his housing area, then up into the second floor of his house. He stops right before reaching the stairs to the roof. 

“Sit.” He commanded after letting go of the ropes around the vampire’s wrists. 

Emil obeyed, sitting down on the stairs and looking at the ground to avoid looking at Tael.

Tael moved to grab three things off of a nearby counter. More rope, zip ties, and a silver stake. He puts the stake into one of his belt loops and the zip ties into one of his pockets. He used the remaining rope to tie Emil’s ankles together. 

He picks him up, throwing him over his shoulder “You better not fucking scream or do anything to bother the neighbors or else I’m going to make this so much worse for you.” he threatened. 

He heard a small sound of acknowledgement from the vampire as he carried him up the stairs. 

Tael didn’t give Emil any warning or any time to prepare himself before opening the door to the rooftop and bringing him out, exposing him to the sunlight again. 

Emil managed to keep himself still and only let out more whimpers to the pain but nothing more. 

After opening the cage, Tael drops Emil and uses his hoof to force him into the cage. 

Emil bit down on the rope gag and tried to focus on his breathing to try to stop himself from yelling. Silver usually took a moment before it started to burn him but due to already having sun burns it was immediate. 

He was shoved in the cage in an uncomfortable position, his back was on the gridded floor of the cage, his head and neck were uncomfortably craned to fit with his face pressing against the back of the cage, his arms were tucked into his chest and his legs were pressed against the cage door once it was closed. 

Tael pulled the zip tied out of his pocket to secure the door shut, not leaving any chance for the vampire to get the door open.

Once that was finished he walked over to where he was within Emil’s line of sight. He takes the silver stake out of his belt loop and drops it to leave it within his line of sight as a constant silent threat. 

“I’ll be back to get you later.” Tael said before going back inside to contact one of his friends.

~~

There was no escape from the silver cage, Emil couldn’t curl in on himself any further nor move to try to get his skin away from the silver bars. 

What parts of skin the silver wasn’t touching was exposed to the sun. The roof had no plants or umbrellas or anything that would provide shade or mercy from the sunlight. 

Tears fell from his eyes into the burns on his face. The rope gag wasn’t helping as it dug into the burns further. 

Each labored breath pushed him further against the cage walls earning new whimpers and whines. As time passed he wanted to yell and scream but the silver stake that laid not far from the cage was enough of a reminder of why he couldn’t. 

~~

The sky was starting to turn orange when Tael came back out to get Emil. First he took the time to pick up the now hot silver stake, putting it into his belt loop, before going to break the zipties to get him out of the cage. 

The vampire’s skin looked as if it was almost ready to peel off, the parts that were in contact with the silver were purple and black, some bone was visible in the deeper parts like on his face. 

He was visibly exhausted from the constant pain and could barely make a noise as he was pulled out of the cage. 

Tael cuts the rope around Emil’s ankle and wrists before moving to the makeshift gag, ‘accidentally’ cutting his cheek in the process. “I expect you to walk by yourself. I have a guest for you to meet.”

“Y-yes sir.” Emil whispered. Each movement was incredibly painful but he didn’t want to upset Tael any further, not wanting to risk him actually using that stake. 

The demon led him back into the building, periodically glancing back to make sure he was still following. 

He led him down to the basement, where Tael’s friend was waiting. 

They were a harpy and had medical equipment laid out on a table that Tael had brought down for them. 

“Dr Zerys, this is Emil.” Tael introduces the vampire. 

A doctor? Tael had never gotten a doctor for him, he’s always able to heal from any injuries he’s been given so far. He was positive he’d even heal from these burns without medical intervention. 

“It’s nice to meet you, doctor.” It was a struggle for Emil to even speak clearly but he made sure he did.  

Dr Zerys looks at Tael, ignoring Emil for now. “I’m set up so proceed.” 

Everything happened so fast for Emil.

Tael grabbed him by the throat and shoved him down to the ground, sitting on his stomach with his legs on each side of him to further ensure the vampire couldn’t get up. 

Emil choked on his yell, the sudden additional pain was too much for him to even try to stop himself. Though trying to stop himself went out of the window as he saw the silver stake being pulled out and aimed at his chest.

He started to struggle “WA-WAIT! BUT I DIDN’T- I WAS GOOD! I DIDN’T MAKE A SOUND TO ALERT THE NEIGHBORS!’ He cries.

“You really thought I was going to let you get away with your stunt after just a few hours in the sun against silver?” Tael laughed “If you had alerted the neighbors I’d be doing this five more times.” 

With that he plunges the stake into Emil’s chest and directly into his heart. 

The burning was immediate, Emil’s scream echoed through the basement and into the shop leaving his own, Tael’s, and Zerys’s ears ringing. His back tries to arch as pain racks through his body, he could barely control anything anymore. 

The basement quickly filled with the smell of burning flesh and organs paired with sulfur. His hands were clawing at Tael, desperately trying to get him off and to get the stake out of his heart out of pure instinct as the burning sensation was racing through his veins. 

It wasn’t fast, he’s always been told that this would be quick and easy if it ever happened. Instead it was slow and excruciating. 

He could feel what little strength he had leaving him as he started to choke on his own cries and blood. 

When he could no longer claw to try to get the demon off is when Tael finally stood up and got off of him, ripping the stake out with some of Emil’s heart burnt onto it. 

Once Tael was off, Zerys got to work, not having time for anesthesia. After all, Tael wasn’t going to let him go that easily.

~

Emil survived thanks to Zerys’s work. He was weak and going to be unable to move for the next three days but he survived and would heal up almost just like normal. The only sign that would remain of his near death would be a large scar on his chest, directly over his heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~

General tag list: @thebluejaysworld​ (not tagging emmett for general or tael tag bc of the gore)

Kira’s story: @whumpsday

BTHB: @badthingshappenbingo

#owe writing #my writing #bad things happen bingo #whump #whump tag #emil tag #tael tag #dr zerys tag #emil writing tag #dr zerys writing tag #tael writing tag #vampire whump #failed escape attempt #bystander effect #(Is that what it's called???? /gen) #locked in a cage #near death #ask to tag #scar to remember #(Not using this to mark it off but it is featuring it hence the tag :>) #burns #gore #prompted writing tag #if you see me editing this post bc of the amount of times I misspelled 'Tael' as 'teal' .. No you didn't <3 #BTHB: Original work / Original Characters

[hanzaikyou]

Shogo Suzuki Range Analysis

Hi hello guys, and welcome to "Yuuki Izawa posted a thing that got a whole discord curious". So this post was inspired by this tweet, made by Yuuki Izawa in 2019, boldly claiming Shogo as having a 26 octave range.

If that sounds wild, it is because it is. It is wild. Love him though.

Because of that, I went on a little research-assignment-rabbithole, to figure out exactly how wide Shogo's range is.

The Verdict

Based on evidence I'll present in a minute, Shogo has a proven range of Ab2-C5, roughly two and a bit octaves. His comfortable range seems more aligned with being D3-C5 though.

The Evidence

To prove this, I looked through every single show I had access to featuring the man that he sang in... so primarily Hakumyu (many thanks to the Hakumyu Livejournal for that, ilysm, sorry I'm not more active) and Morimyu, along with a couple of stray musicals I had around that supported evidence, which shall be mentioned if necessary.

Lower Limit (Ab2)

I started by looking for the lower limit, and turned first to Hakumyu for this. I searched through the first Live first, then briefly looked through Kazama-hen and Hijikata-hen. (I don't know the names of songs, as I am not fully familiar with the series yet, but please bare with me.)

My first real evidence with this was actually the Fullmetal Alchemist stage, wherein Shogo sings in the middleish. In that song, he hits a low of E3 in the chorus, giving me a start point to look for.

I then went straight to Hakumyu Live, specifically his solo medley (I believe it is?) that occurs roughly 1h13 in to the show. Aside from being possibly my favourite Hakumyu song (can you blame me), I knew that the verses went quite low off the top of my head, so I checked for them, and they presented me with an D3, still quite stable too.

Skimming through the rest of it, mostly jumping chapters and looking for Shogo, I stumbled across the Demon Tag section of Chizaru's song, beginning at 21 minutes in, which hit the lowest note I'd heard from him at Ab2. He performed spectacularly, but there is somewhat of a wavering in his voice that leads me to think that he's kind of reaching for it, hence belief that it's out of his comfortable range.

Then I went on to Hijikata-hen, and ended up finding the song at 1h05, which is of course part of the medley mentioned earlier. The same stable D5 greeted me, giving me the Official Lower Limit. (Side note, I love the song starting at 1h05 so much, but that's for another post.)

Kazama-hen supported this again, with an Eb5 in the song beginning at 1h16. (Kazama-hen also made me cry. But that's also another post.) At this point, I considered the lower pitch confirmed, and moved on to searching for the higher pitch.

EDIT: As the lovely @liliththunder pointed out to me (and many thanks for that), I missed a song at the 45 minute mark in Kazama-hen that goes lower - primarily centering on the C3 and going as far down as Bb2. Due to this, I'm amending my statement, and simply accepting Ab2 as the lower limit. That being said, I stand by the statement that he's more comfortable above C3 or D3.

Higher Limit (C5)

For the higher limit, I decided to search through Morimyu, mostly because I know exactly where all Shogo's high notes in that are.

I did have, as part of the notes I took when scouring the Fullmetal Alchemist song, the high from that, which turned out to be an Ab4. Admittedly, I didn't think that was quite high enough, but noted it down anyway.

I started by looking through the CD for the specific songs that I knew would give me a guide, and found what I was looking for almost immediately. Verdict (II) from OP1 and Beginning of the End from OP3 were my first points of call for their fairly renowned high notes. Both turned out to have a cap of C5, so I used this as my guide from thereon out.

They would turn out to be the highest I could find though. The other two I checked directly by name were Emotion (the OP1 duet with Ikkei) and In This Lonely Room (or the Couch Song from OP3). These had high notes of A4 and Bb4 respectively.

I then skipped through OP4, looking for every Shogo song and its relevant high note, which supported this idea - every high note in that show is either an A4 or a Bb4 save for one, in the finale, that is a C5.

I will note that these top notes do sound incredibly stable, and I'd be curious as to whether he is capable of going further, but no evidence for anything higher than C5 exists in anything I can get my hands on. If someone with access to Tokyo Ghoul could check, I'd be absolutely open to correction there.

But yes, that is that for now - I got my answers and a fun little research task, and you got whatever this is. I'll be doing Ikkei next, most likely soon, possibly tomorrow depending on how much time I have (and not at all because I want to watch his Tenimyu run again... heh). I thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the journey as much as I did.

#worksofcrime #morimyu #hakumyu #suzuki shogo #actor range analysis

[runicmagitek]

Hi there Runic!

I was wondering your opinion on using Scrivner to draft fics vs using Word? Like pros and cons? (Some of the articles online are so confusing! >//<‘)

Thanks so much for the ask, anon! And also thanks for your patience; I wanted to give this some thought, hence the wait.

I primarily use Scrivener and have been using it for a little over a decade. I also use Word during the final phase of edits. I'll list some of my favorite features of each one, followed by the cons.

Scrivener

Organizing a story in Scrivener is where it shines the most. For a longer story, you can break things down by chapter and easily move them around as needed. For me, I use a single file for all my fics and breakdown folders by fandom, then by ships. The use of status markers and labels and custom meta-data, while initially daunting, are also super great to flag what state your draft is in along with any other indicators you wish to use. For me, I like marking if fics are for an exchange or a gift for a friend. I've even customized the meta-data so I can plug in potential tags and ratings as I go!

Snapshots is a neat function that makes a copy of your current file. I use it with each new phase of editing, in case I need to refer to an older version. It's super easy to switch back and forth between snapshots, plus there's a preview to show what has been removed or added from the last version!

There are a ton of compiling options for when you wish to export your story as a Word doc or a PDF or even for epublishing. I don't use this too often, but I have lots of friends who do and it makes proper formatting really simple.

There is a focus mode that removes all the UI stuff and just shows you the words. If this didn't exist, I wouldn't be able to write anything lolsob.

You can set target goals for each document or even the entire file. And if you have multiple documents in a single folder with word count targets applied, Scrivener will add them all up and give you a total target estimate. Really handy for planning out how long your story will be!

THERE IS A DARK MODE THEME.

Word

The grammar/spelling checker is a lot more robust in comparison to Scrivener.

Sharing your Word document and sharing notes/comments with beta readers is a LOT easier in Word. It's similar to how Google Docs works with leaving comments, replying to each other, and marking them as resolved.

Copy-pasting from Word into AO3's rich text preserves the formatting, whereas I've had a lot of wonky issues going from Scrivener to AO3.

Text-to-speech, while kinda weird, is a godsend when I want to read out loud a fic before posting, but don't have the energy to do so.

If you have Word, you likely have a Microsoft subscription, which means you have access to OneDrive, which makes for VERY easy backups. Plus you can get Word on your phone and work off that and your computer seamlessly at no extra cost.

THERE IS ALSO A DARK MODE.

Hokay, now for cons.

Scrivener

Scrivener is not free. It is a one-time fee of $60~. That said, if you participate in NaNo and win, you can get a discount code (I believe it's 50% off?)

It was originally made for Macs, but then a Windows version was developed. The team behind Scrivener is very small and it took… forever to get the Windows version up to speed with the Mac version. There are still some differences between the two, but thankfully both versions are on the same page. Jumping off of this, there is an iOS version, but no Android version.

If you wish to back up your Scrivener stuff, you can only really do that via a Dropbox account. Also, I believe it's not possible to open the same file on different computer types. So if you have two computers (one Mac and one Windows) and want to open the same file on both, it's not really going to work. In my experience, I've also run into issues getting things to sync and open when using two Windows computers. So if you're planning to bounce around different computers/laptops/etc., definitely keep this in mind.

On top of that, for every device you want Scrivener on? You need to pay for that.

Scrivener has got one hell of a learning curve, too. I've been using it for so long and am STILL discovering new ways to use it. It can be intimidating, even after you go through all the tutorials.

Word

This also costs money, but sadly is not a one-time fee AND you need to invest in a bundle plan instead of just getting Word. Home subscriptions range from $70 to $100 a year, depending if you're getting it just for yourself or for your family/friends to use too. For me, I use it with my boyfriend and we use all the programs a bunch, so it works out well for us. This might work for you too if you're interested in having access to things like Excel and OneNote and cloud storage. But if you just want Word, that's not really feasible.

I haven't experienced this because I've stopped writing novel-length stories in Word, but I've heard from friends that the program slows down after 30k words or so, which is unfortunate and frustrating.

Furthermore, you can't really transition from file to file in Word as you can in Scrivener. You'd need to manage the folders on your computer outside of the program.

Word isn't really designed for book formatting. You CAN do it, but it takes some extra work on your end to format things accordingly, whereas Scrivener has a bunch of built-in features to help with that.

Microsoft is A LOT bigger than the Scrivener team, thus there are frequent updates. And because of that, you need to perform more updates to the program and might even need to reacquaint yourself with features and UI changes.

I hope this helps! Regardless of which program you wish to use, I hope it goes smoothly and you have a blast writing your stories on it!

#runic rambles #writing resources

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

Is WWX a rapist? I’ve heard it said that when he had WLJ bite off WC’s penis, it was rape because it involved forced penetration for both of them. On the other hand I’ve heard people argue that WWX drove WLJ out of her mind but didn’t direct her actions.

Just had to come to me with this one, huh, nonny?

I'll put this under many tags in the case anyone would just like to skip this over, and I will leave this as ample warning. And any of you come here looking for a fight about any of this, I will fucking block you so don't even think of asking me this sort of thing again.

Hearts and Love *(￣∇￣)*

First, let me at least mark the difference between "gui dao" and "mo dao" as it will be important for the courier station antics.

魔道 (Mo Dao): Lit. Devil's way/path/truth

鬼道 (Gui Dao): The Ghost's/twisted/sly, way/path/truth

心 (Xin) Soul/center/core/heart

心魔 (Xin Mo): Devil, Soul/center/core/heart

鬼 (Gui) lit. A ghost/demon/crafty/cursed

With these in mind, the way Mo Dao is crafted as a cultivator, is that you have to have a center/a core, that is innately tuned to be crafted as evil, hence, a corrupted core. To use real mo dao, it needs to come from within to manipulate, not from outer external references, it is the corruption of the self and the still living to craft evil beings.

To use real gui dao, it comes from the dead, the ghosts and the supernatural, in other words not of much of the self. It is using the outside forces of death and non-living beings to use techniques. It is simply using what already existed before to craft an entity.

Now, on to the Wang Lingjiao and Wen Chao scenes and why these distinctions are important and it was just Wei Wuxian manipulating the two's already heightened paranoia's to exasperate the negative energy they fostered between themselves.

1:

In that moment, as soon as she opened the chest, she was able to peer inside.

It was none of her beloved treasures, but the body of a pale, curled-up child!

2:

She snuck within the room once again, found a long clothing pole, and flipped the chest over. Inside of it, her treasure sat peacefully.

There was no child whatsoever.

Wang Lingjiao sighed in relief. With the pole in her hands, she squatted down. Just as she was about to brace herself, she suddenly realized that two bright spots were shining underneath her bed.

It was a pair of eyes.

That pale child from before lay prone under her bed, staring into her own.

3:

As he turned around, the rest of what he wanted to say stuck within his throat. He was staring at a woman in front of his door.

The woman’s features were broken, as though they had been smashed and then pieced together haphazardly. Her eyes stared in two different directions; the left upward and the right downward. Her entire face was horrendously disfigured.

Wen Chao, with some difficulty, was able to recognize her from her scanty robe. It was Wang Lingjiao!

4:

Still on the ground, Wang Lingjiao immediately picked up one of the stools legs, and frantically, she began stuffing it into her mouth, laughing all the while, “Fine, fine, I’ll eat it, I’ll eat it!

Haha, I’ll eat it!”

She had already stuffed a significant length of the stool leg down her throat!

Remember, that just before these confrontations Wang Lingjiao had already assumed that Wen Chao's time was up as well as she herself making plans to run away. They had already turned on each other, as she was planning to move on to a more prospective target, and he wanting her out of the way as an annoyance.

As such, both have created a negative space for themselves, also, remember all of the talismans for protection that they had placed on the outside of the courier station, and their effects which had been reversed by Wei Wuxian. Their 风水(geomancy) physically and mentally has been disordered. Their harmony is broken. Thus, they have cultivated an outside force for Wei Wuxian to manipulate and turn the two against each other.

The above scenes are simply the inner hell they created from their own paranoia and negativity they trapped themselves in. Wei Wuxian only had to change a few character strokes on the protective talismans to sic them on each other while he was on the outside looking in.

5:

Wen Chao cried sharply in pain. It sounded piercing within the silence of the courier station.

Jiang Cheng asked, “Why is his voice so pitched?”

Wei Wuxian responded, “Of course it would sound like that with a certain something gone."

Jiang Cheng replied in disgust, “You’re the one who took it? ”

Wei WuXian said, “It’s wretched if you think that. Of course I wasn’t the one who took it. It was bitten off by his woman when she went mad."

There is no reason for Wei Wuxian to lie here, he has already proudly admitted to his tortures of Wen Chao before hand and his physical abuse against him and Wen Zhuliu. Wei Wuxian's entire persona here was meant to be cruel and monstrous and he continued further torture of course, but it was added on to the existing abuse that Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao cultivated together already.

So, no, anon, Wei Wuxian was not a rapist in any capacity here. He simply played dirty tricks to make these two ruin each other even more by themselves.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #wen chao #wang lingjiao #cw:sexual assault #cw: assault #cw: abuse #this is all i will say on this subject #this took me 4 damn hours for some translation and writing my own additions

[midnight-and-his-melodiverse]

I posted 3,015 times in 2022

That's 3,001 more posts than 2021!

659 posts created (22%)

2,356 posts reblogged (78%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@midnight-and-his-melodiverse

@careful-pyromancer

@blue-kyber

@athena-anna-rose

@multi-lefaiye

I tagged 899 of my posts in 2022

#midnight's rambles - 290 posts

#answered asks - 137 posts

#themelodiverse - 89 posts

#midnight's writings - 35 posts

#wip: starsbitsandbytes - 31 posts

#character: midnight - 26 posts

#character: staticlight - 21 posts

#not midnight's writings - 20 posts

#wip: midnight and the gift of the melody blade - 18 posts

#storyteller saturday - 18 posts

Longest Tag: 125 characters

#theres two series i hate now (the second one i dont hate as much but i just never got into it) and they are: divergent series

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

The Melodiverse: Night Demons (part of "Species: Part I" which is in progress)

NIGHT DEMONS

Note I: (Before the lore begins: I've realized these Worldbuilding things are out of order, that's no matter for now though as I'll be chronologically ordering them soon lol)

Note II: OH BOY, GET READY FOR A LONG HAUL LORE DUMP

Night Demons are one, of seven different types of demons (because mainly they're organized by the type of gem and their features they inhabit) that are widely known and feared as the most destructive of demon, not by their own accord of course.

Their destructive tendencies by their own accident, are known to be caused by "an evil kind of possession" that descends on poor souls who are naive enough to deny their existence.

BACKSTORY

In the ancient times of the Melodiverse, Night Demons were once humans that through their morbid curiosity towards the Melody Gems; being regarded as mystical artifacts back then, realized that they could play pranks on the gems and trick them.

A result of this, ended up with a human being sent to the Discordant Barrens (The Melodiverse's version of Hell), and their punishment was intense exposure to the gem that ended up transforming them into the Night Demons that are known through history in the present day: having blue-hued horns, being controlled by an evil kind of possession, having constellation-covered skin, and having long, thin claws.

Many people who form conspiracies on them, claim that the fact that Night Demons being called a "biological curse" is a lie and propose that it was the demons' fault in the first place for having an evil kind of possession controlling them at every waking hour.

One poor soul, who constantly tries to play off that his species is a "biological curse", is Midnight. He, of course couldn't escape having an encounter with an evil kind of possession, which is how Staticlight came about, along with also being the personification of Midnight's negative thoughts.

APPEARANCE AND FEATURES (featuring Twilight talking!)

Night Demons' features have been well established and set in stone ever since the first myths of them passed around through the coastal town of Concordia and the small urban city of Penwood, and have largely stayed the same.

In many books and texts in the Melodiverse, historians, students of Melodiverse history, and other people, have described their overall appearance. Here's a description from Twilight, who is a student of Melodiverse history, and a budding rocket scientist:

About their appearance: "The appearance of Night Demons are as follows: They have constellation-covered skin, evident of their connection to the stars, hence the name, 'Night Demon', spiky blue-hued horns, white glowing eyes; a hint of the chaos they hold, and long, thin claws."

About their features: "Night Demons are known to have a rare feature that allows them to interface with the more chaotic Melody Gems. Specifically, Dev who is a night demon, has the Anarchy Gem and because of this, is able to assume a human form. Other Night Demons who have Gem Marks (which is the mark they have on their skin, denoting the secondary gem they inhabit at birth) have the ability to use their secondary gem's magic."

An interesting thing to note: "Night Demons, from what I've heard, are a surprisingly fluffy breed of demon. The feeling of their fur is like a cat's: warm, fuzzy, and soft. You would never think me to be the person that declares these things, yet I indeed am."

WORLDBUILDING TAGLIST: @blind-the-winds, @purgatorydotexe, @carefulpyro, @bardic-tales, @365runesofwriting (Ask / DM to be added to, or removed from, the taglist!)

SPECIES TAGLIST: @elijahrichardwrites, @365runesofwriting (Ask / DM to be added to, or removed from, the taglist!)

28 notes - Posted August 6, 2022

#4

WRITEBLR RE-INTRODUCTION lol (because I'm going to be more active on this account than the actual writeblr)

Hiya there! The name's Midnight and I'm 17 and an aspiring author! I've loved reading sci-fi and fantasy ever since I was a kid, and thanks to my dad getting me into the game, I'm also a self-proclaimed D&D nerd as well lol I have four WIPs going on right now, and they all take place in my fictional world I have, called the Melodiverse! Before I list them off though, here's what you can expect from this blog (because it's a hybrid of a primary blog + a writeblr LOL) 1. Obviously some rambles abt the Melodiverse's worldbuilding 2. (sorta?) frequent posts for my writing (I'm working on that!) 3. reblogs of other writer's stuff (cuz I'm supporting others to be also supported myself!) 4. and that's it basically!

WIP LIST Now the main event that y'all have been waiting for: the WIPs I have!

🎶 THE MELODY BLADE SAGA 🗡️

An four book urban fantasy series with the long-standing "chosen one" trope, and two young kid villains! Word count for Book 1 is projected to be 51k as of currently!

Book 1: Midnight and the Gift of the Melody Blade

Summary: A wolf-human boy named Midnight tries to keep a mysterious blade that he recieves on his doorstep one morning secret, as he uncovers the source of strange arcane events disrupting the city, and a young villain who wants the blade for malicious purposes. Synopsis: After a wolf-human boy named Midnight recieves a strange gift from the goddess of his world, otherworldly events pull him into pressuring situations where he's subconsciously told to keep this gift a secret. He doesn't know why, up until he notices a mysterious young villain and a familiar sidekick stalking him. It turns out the sidekick, who was the boy's alternate personality, was charmed by the villain into taking his side. With the threat of corruption moving ever closer, the boy must brandish his newfound blade whilst learning new skills, and restore his realm…

Characters:

Midnight - the main protagonist, and wielder of the Melody Blade, who is a complete pacifist up until Twilight teaches him that not all fights can be solved with peace.

Ambrosia - a side character, and Midnight's girlfriend.

Twilight - a mentor, of sorts, and Midnight's brother who runs the fencing team at Midnight's high school! Staticlight - Midnight's personification of his negative thoughts and fears, as well as being in love with a Night-Demon called Dev over their mutual bond in chaos. One of Dev's sidekicks.

👺 GOBLIN THEFT AUTO 👺

---THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS---

🌟 STARS, BITS, AND BYTES 🌟

Summary:

(Credit to OpenAI Playground)

Stars, Bits, and Bytes follows the adventures of two pilots (Arietta and Quintus) and two young kids (Ottava and Lyric) along their journey to a brand new world, escaping the destruction of their home planet, Terra Melodiae on their spacecraft Titania (which has a cranky AI assistant.) But they have to dodge asteroids, fight space pirates and try not to lose their way as they navigate to this new world. 

When they get to this new world however, they must get accustomed to the strange society that has built up there with robots and magic as far as the eye can see and very strict military force that protects the planet from invaders. 

However through information passed down by the general, the group finds out that Emperor Tetrachord and his army of Silencers wants to destroy this new planet. Even though the two kids are scared to operate the ship themselves and steer it into a great battle, Arietta and Quintus are confident. The four of them must team up and use all the skills they have to stop Emperor Tetrachord from ruining this new world and find a way back to their own home planet.

💎 SILVER MOON SONATAS 💎

---THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS---

31 notes - Posted August 2, 2022

#3

THE MIDNIGHT'S MELODIVERSE MASTERLIST (v2.0!!)

Welcome to the REVAMPED MASTERLIST with color codes for the WIPs! (even though it's been 3 months and that wouldn't have been necessary-- I just wanted a new one, ok?)

UPDATED ON 10/1/2022, CHANGES: Added a section for the Midscryption AU (co-created by Ame and I) and it's stories!

Anyway!!

Overture: Quick Tag Rundown

#themelodiverse - for anything Melodiverse related, mostly excluding worldbuilding, but can include answered asks relating to the Melodiverse in some way, whether it's OCs, lore or otherwise!

#Midnight's OCs - for anything relating to my characters, whether its intros

#Midnight's rambles - For my general posts that (mostly) have nothing to do about my writing, sometimes!

The Curtain Rises: The WIPs and their related content, canon or not!

--ORIGINAL WIPS--

Now for the main event, my WIPs and their related content! These will be color coded for easier reference! (also look at the emojis on either side of the WIPs' titles to familiarize yourself with what emojis are associated with which WIP!

A summary of Book 1's plot, in the form of a news headline: Local Teen Boy Discovers Mysterious Blade on Doorstep, Ends Up Encountering a Strange String of Arcane Events

An actual summary: A wolf-human boy named Midnight tries to keep a mysterious blade that he recieves on his doorstep one morning secret, as he uncovers the source of strange arcane events disrupting the city, and a young villain who wants the blade for malicious purposes.

The plots and summaries for the other books in the saga meanwhile, are under progress hehe

Brief Excerpt:

(nothing yet, sadly)

Some related content, if you desire to look: INTROS (which include the story intro, and character intros) EXCERPTS (in progress!!), INCORRECT QUOTES, MEMES, OUTLINE (This is exclusive content for those subscribed to the "Midnight's Behind the Pages" taglist, of which is still in progress, so stay tuned for the taglist post!)

See the full post

34 notes - Posted September 9, 2022

#2

Well, it's probably VERY late for this...

But here's the August / Writeblr roundup and overview?

Through this writeblr, I have managed to reach 1000 posts!! (half of them being reblogs, but that's no matter LOL)

See the full post

35 notes - Posted September 2, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

MIDNIGHT'S FIRST WRITEBLR ASK GAME!!

MIDNIGHT'S WRITEBLR ASK GAME: PLANETS AND SCENE ASKS!

Mercury: Find a scene in your WIP that contains a mystery or a narrative scene describing mystical elements!

Venus: Find a scene in your WIP that contains fire, and or a scene where something's burning down due to the intense heat!

Earth: Find a peaceful scene in your WIP, which can include: people playing in lakes, running through forests playing tag, or just sitting under a tree contemplating life!

Mars: Find a scene in your WIP that contains a war of some kind!

Jupiter: Find a scene in your WIP that contains a supernatural storm!

Saturn: Find a scene in your WIP that contains a celebration of a tradition!

Uranus: Find a scene in your WIP that contains a scene taking place in winter!

Neptune: Find a scene in your WIP that contains a scene with swimming, sitting by the shore, or: Find a scene in your WIP that either mentions magic, or has a demonstration of a magic system!

Have fun with my first ask game!!

58 notes - Posted September 15, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[cartcoder]

Benefits of Shopify store setup with Premium theme company

Growth in eCommerce means that businesses must have a solid online presence if they want better performance. The most efficient platform for online stores is Shopify, from which businesses may begin to launch their marketing campaigns. While the default themes may not necessarily be a perfect reflection of an organization’s unique personality and functionality specifications. 

This is where the advantages of setting up a Shopify store with an original theme from one professional product company come in. This detailed guide will explore the vast benefits of choosing a Shopify store setup with custom theme services.

What are Shopify themes?

Shopify themes are pre-built layouts, modules, and style options that customize your website. Off-the-shelf themes are ready-made templates that let you change built-in modules and build a great ecommerce website. Themes vary in appearance and functionality between free and premium. Theme choices may be tailored to your online shop's items, branding, industry, or desired consumer experience.

Benefits of Using a Professional Shopify Theme for Your Store

Developers may design custom themes. Custom themes may be created from scratch or modified to enable more complicated functionality or designs. 

Some of the benefits include: 

1. Brand identity and differentiation

Consistent branding With a custom theme in Shopify, it is relatively easy to retain brand identity consistently. Professional firms, however, can customize the design to incorporate brand colors and typefaces as well as the overall look and feel, optimizing an unencumbered customer experience of the brand.

Unique design Businesses can make their mark using a custom theme and move away from the uniformity of regular templates. A one-of-a-kind design makes brand recognition and loyalty possible as people remember what they have seen.

2. Enhanced user experience

Tailored navigation Custom themes give rise to navigation structures that address the needs of an individual business. This guarantees an easy and responsive interface, lowering bounce rates and increasing overall user satisfaction.

Optimized Responsiveness Professional theme development guarantees that the website is not only purpose-built for specific mobile devices. Responsiveness is crucial in the current mobile-oriented Market, ensuring positive User Experience on smartphones, tablets, and desktops.

Faster loading times Since they are optimized for performance, the customer themes have a faster loading time. This optimization is vital in attracting visitors to the site and improving search engine ranks because this speed is one of the significant SEO algorithm elements.

3. Scalability and flexibility

Adaptability to business growth The websites of businesses change as the business grows. Theme building for Shopify Custom themes is carried out with scalability in mind; hence, it will be easy to resize the website depending on product offerings and traffic, among other factors, without compromising performance.

Feature integration Professional theme developers can smoothly integrate custom features and functionalities that address business needs. This flexibility enables you to implement more sophisticated e-commerce features like personalized product recommendations and robust search functionality.

4. SEO Optimization

Structured data markup Custom themes can increase search engine visibility for structured data markup. This markup allows search engines to understand what content is on the site, which might lead to better ranks and click rates.

Customizable URLs and Meta Tags SEO-friendly URLs and meta tags are essential to effective search engine optimization. Custom themes have significant control over these aspects as they follow the best practices and target relevant keywords.

5. Optimized Checkout Process

Customized checkout flow Custom themes make checkout more accessible, one of the more critical parts of e-commerce. It involves simplifying the steps, reducing friction, and having features such as guest checkout to enhance customer satisfaction.

Integration with payment gateways Custom themes allow the switching of various payment gateways with easy plug-ins, thus providing customers with many grounds to select as transactions are smooth and convenient.

6. Analytics and Reporting

Tailored analytics integration Businesses can use focused analytics and dive deep into the interaction of users with custom themes. This data is invaluable to making smart decisions while improving marketing strategies and perfecting every aspect of the online store’s performance.

Customizable reporting dashboards Professional theme development facilitates the creation of personalized reporting dashboards that feature breakdowns for key performance indicators. This enables tracking positive trends in marketing initiatives, sales performance, and customer engagement.

Conclusion

The advantages of a Shopify store setup with premium theme company are versatility and comprehensiveness. The benefits become evident throughout all stages of an ecommerce business’s development – from building a solid brand identity and improving user experience to ensuring scalability, security, SEO optimization, etc. With competition moving online, it no longer becomes just an option but a strategic necessity to invest in designing your custom Shopify theme for any business aiming towards success.

#cartcoders #knightcoders #shopifyexperts #shopifystoredesign #shopifywebsite #shopifydevelopment #shopifysuccess #shopifystore #shopifystoresetup #ecommercestoredevelopment #shopifydeveloper

[seotoolskit]

What are the new techniques for on-page SEO in August 2019?

To be successful, you'll need to use a variety of methods to promote your blog posts, including SEO (you can use the best SEO tool at cheap price such as Ahrefs, SEMrush ), advertising, and social media.

Top On-Page SEO Factors That Affect Webpage Ranking

When it comes to offering a seamless and memorable experience to users on your site, certain on-page SEO factors are key. The following list will help you be at the top of your on-page SEO game:

Site Speed

We live in an age of instant gratification and the same applies to websites. Recent articles indicate that even a second’s delay in loading a webpage can lead to a fall in conversions by 7%. You can check your website’s performance in the speed department by using the very handy Google PageSpeed Insights tool. If you come up lacking, you can do a variety of things to speed up your site, including employing speedy hosting, a robust CDN (content delivery network) and image compression software, minifying JavaScript, HTML and CSS resources, etc. Here is a video from Google’s Matt Cutts which stats that site speed/Page Score is important on-page SEO factor in order to achieve a higher ranking on Google SERPs

Crawlability

Your webpage will be of no use to you or prospective users if it cannot be discovered, crawled and indexed by search engines. And in order to ensure that there are no crawl errors, you must go through your robots.txt file to check if any important pages have been mistakenly blocked from being crawled by Google bot. The Google Webmasters tool will help you keep tabs on the health of your site and avoid such problems. Additionally, deploying structured data mark-up will help webpage crawlers understand your content better and might even earn you a rich search result. If you are receiving many backlinks to a 404 page, make sure that you do a 301 redirect to a related, relevant page in order to hold visitors’ attention and not lose any goodwill. Here is a video from Google’s Matt Cutts to understand more about Crawling the website

Visit Seotoolskit for more exciting and free SEO Content.  

Mobile Responsiveness

Most people surf the internet through a mobile device whether it be a smartphone or tablet. Hence, it is very important to have a website that is optimized for both the desktop and mobile, especially after Google’s 2018 mobile-first indexing stance. While you must ensure that both versions of your site have exactly the same content, it is also crucial to pay attention to other minute details like not having intrusive pop-ups, links that are clustered close together or small font that is hard to read on the mobile version, and the likes. You can simply use the Google Mobile-Friendly Test tool to find out how mobile-responsive your site design is. You can read more about such technical SEO aspects in our post about it.

Content Tags

The title tag of your webpage is critical to its success as it is the first thing users see in Google’s search results. Make sure that you place your primary search keyword as close to the start of the title tag as you possibly can without making it seem unnatural. The meta description carries equal weightage and must contain a decent smattering of keywords that matter. Remember to keep both your title tags and meta descriptions concise, clear, relevant and well-written. While title tags must be 60 characters long, meta descriptions can be 160 characters long – if they are any longer, they will be cut off by Google and the user will not be able to see them as a whole.

Besides the afore-mentioned on-page SEO measures, ensure that your posts’ headings and sub-headings carry the H1 and H2 HTML tags respectively so that search engines understand what your webpage content is all about. Many CMS (content management systems) like WordPress have this feature built-in to their code but sometimes, heavy themes can keep it from happening. Hence, double-check your site code to ensure that your post/page has only one H1 tag and try to include your primary keyword in it.

What is technical SEO

So what does technical SEO refer to exactly? Does it somehow combine the on-page factors with the off-page factors? Well, partly indeed, partly not really…

Technical SEO relates to all the SEO activities excluding content optimization and link building. In simple terms, it covers following search engine requirements in order to improve crawling. These requirements are constantly changing and becoming more complex in order to keep up with the search engines, which are getting more and more sophisticated each day. So we can say that technical SEO is in a state of constant refinement.

Technical SEO needs to be optimized to make the necessary foundation that provides your content and links with the best possible marketing environment so you can shine in the search engine results without any obstacles.

Well, this would be our short definition of Technical SEO.

If you think of SEO like building a house, then technical SEO is all about building a solid foundation. You can look at it as any work done to a site aside from the content itself.

Visit Seotoolskit for more exciting and free SEO Content.  

[kyidyl]

Kyidyl Does Archaeology - Part 3

(As before, parts 1 & 2 can be found via the KyidylCL tag.)

THE PITS

So, we’ve got the info about the site and we’ve got the prep work done, so what next? Digging! But archaeologists don’t just randomly dig, we dig in very precise ways. There’s, generally speaking, two ways to make a hole for an archaeologist (and this *doesn’t* apply to burials.  Burials are done differently.): a pit and a trench.  A pit is usually a specific size and meant to uncover a small area.  A trench is a long area that takes a cross section of a specific area and is meant for exposing lots of area.  When you’re doing a whole settlement often a trench is used because of the volume.  We’re doing a mixture, and we started with two 5ftx5ft pits (~1.5 meters for the non-americans in the crowd.  Good rule of thumb for ft --> meters is that 3ft = 1 yard = 1 meter, approximately.  It’s not exact but if you’re trying to imagine how big something is, it’s a good way of thinking about it.).  

Pit one only had 1 interesting thing and I don’t have any pictures of it really so I’m just gonna tell you about it real quick.  In pit 1 we found a feature, which is a spot where the dirt is a different color in an unnatural shape because humans did something.  This particular feature was a post hole from a palisade wall.  That’s interesting for two reasons: 1, the natives didn’t build palisades until they came into conflict with the colonizers. It isn’t that they didn’t need defenses previous to that, it’s that the people they were defending against didn’t have horses or guns.  Once the colonizers arrived, they started copying their method of defense.  2, palisade walls are made of large trees.  To cut them down they were first burned in the place where the cut was made to make cutting them easier.  And this means CHARCOAL.  

Archaeologists love charcoal.  We can date that shit really easily.  And this particular charcoal was sent out for dating.  Came back as 1700s, which makes sense for this area.  It took the colonizers a bit longer to push up into the mountains, so the dates for contact and treaties and that kind of thing are later than official first contact in the 1400s.  So that’s the latest date we have for the site.  

Now, pit 2.  Pit 2 was, and still is, the most interesting pit on the site so far (we’ve opened a number of others, but it’s...lots of plow scars and jumbled artefacts.).  Archaeologists, as I’ve mentioned, dig this kind of stuff in layers.  So for our site (and I know a few of you following me are also archs, so I need you to know this was the site director’s choice not mine. >.<), we have a sod layer, layer 2 - the plow layer, and layer 3 the layer below the plow layer.  General rule of thumb, at least the way I was taught is that you do it in increments or when the dirt changes color, whichever comes first.  So layer 2 for us is pretty thick.  Here’s what the pit looked like at the end of day 1 after we’d gotten the sod off and started bringing it down evenly: 

The bucket is covering the test pit that’s at the center of it.  The string is the boundaries of the pit, but also we attach what’s called a datum to it.  A datum is a known spot above sea level that you use to make measurements as to how deep something is.  It’s basically a string with a line level and you stretch it out until the line level reads, well, level...and then you use a ruler from there down to whatever depth you’re measuring.  So when we find like...arrowheads and points and stuff (and this pit had several) we record where they were by saying “_____ inches BD”, or “below datum”.  

Anyway, you can see already where there are some rocks and differences in color of the dirt.  It’s honestly not all that interesting but I figured you guys might like to see the progression.  This is that same pit about 2-3 working days later, and this is where it started to get interesting: 

Some of the difference in color there is because some soil is freshly exposed and some isn’t.  The pit in the middle is the remains of the test pit.  The lighter dirt at the bottom is sub-soil for this area, so it’s where the plow zone ends.  The rocks may or may not have been added by people, so we record them just in case.  How you deal with rocks depends entirely on where you are digging.  In Florida, where I went to school, rocks are important because 99% of what they’ve got there is sand and shell.  So if you find rocks they were probably put there by people.  Here? Sometimes it’s just part of the ground and sometimes it’s people.  It really depends on how far down you find them.  This is about midway through the pit so it could go either way.  So we do what’s called “pedestaling” where we dig around them and let them sit on a pedestal of dirt.  You’ll see that in a lot of pics going forward.  The reason that we’ve dug those upper corners differently is because we were starting to see soil color changes and we were investigating them separately.  Good thing too, because they both turned out to be part of a large fire pit feature.  Next slide! 

So here you can see that the dirt in those two areas that we’ve dug is a distinctly different color - it’s reddish.  Reddish dirt is a sign that the dirt has been heated, so we’re following the red dirt here.  The digging changes from going in layers to following these features.  And we’re really methodical about it so that we don’t remove too much or too little and lose the line of the feature.  Here we were lucky, all the dirt inside those features was full of tiny specs of charcoal.  And, in the upper left up there - which was my feature to dig - there were huge chunks of charcoal.  Also a really nice piece of pottery.  Well, I mean, comparatively.  It’s still just a large sherd that I accidentally snapped in two while removing but like it counts.  The square in the lower leftish is ust from like the foam I’d been sitting on.  Getting into a pit - rather than digging it from the sides - is something you do NOT do without permission and a lot of care.  Here, the ground is really solid so I wasn’t going to ruin anything by getting in there and the pit was getting too deep to effectively dig from the side, so I spent a lot of time in weird positions on the flat parts of this pit.  So, anyway, here’s a close up of the feature so you can see what I mean about the charcoal: 

Charcoal is very, very black so when you’re digging it stands out bc nothing else is that dark or that bright.  Everything else is covered in dirt. But you can see it there in the top half - it’s those dark flecks and blobs.  There was a ton of it, and when I say a ton, I mean we got I think almost 300g just that DAY.  And y’all know how light charcoal is.  This was the stuff we sent in for c14 testing along with the palisade charcoal and it came back, if I’m remembering right, mid-1300s.  That’s a period called the late woodland. It matches up with the pottery and points we were finding, but I’ll get to that when I start in on the finds.  

Now, I thought you might need some help with this next image so I brought it into procreate and drew on it.  I know it looks like it came before the previous stage, but it didn’t.  What happened is that we brought the whole pit down deeper to expose the edge of the large features.  We also found a post hole in the process! 

So I’ve marked the layers of dirt in the side wall for you so you can see what I mean when I’m talking about them.  I’ve also marked out the bottom of the pit bc this angle made it a little hard to see.  In the upper right you can clearly see the darker dirt of the post hole.  A post hole is exactly what the name implies - someone dug a hole, stuck a post in it, and later the post was removed and filled with moar different dirt and now it’s a different color but in a distinctly unnatural shape.  You can also see that we’ve long ago dug deeper than the test pit.  The area I’ve marked “bridge” is an area of soil that didn’t have charcoal in it between the two pits that did.  There was charcoal throughout that area - hence the blue boundary - but for the features themselves we were following the red dirt.  And if that feature on the right looks deep to you it’s because it *is*.  I dug it out and followed the charcoal and it went *under* the bridge.  

Now you guys probably don’t realize this, but this is like...stupid deep to be finding this kind of stuff.  We’re like 3ft below the surface here and still going down deeper.  Around here the rate of topsoil accumulation is like...an inch every 600 years or so.  The charcoal coming out of this pit is only 700 years old and it’s 3ft below the surface.  So we’re likely looking at a hole that was dug by the natives for their own use.  The thing that was confusing us was that we didn’t see the feature even start until we were almost at the bottom of the test pit so like...8 inches or so down.  (about 16cm.  1inch is approx 2cm.) But then I was looking through some of my earlier images of the pit and I noticed this: 

(north is the same direction in both pics)

The rocks, the ones that could be either nature or people, approximately outlined the areas we’d found the fire pits.  This is why you document shit.  Even though this is still pretty deep to be finding this kind of thing, it at least makes more sense in the context of very disturbed site.  So there might have been more evidence higher up, but it’s in the plow layer so we’ll never know.  So what was the feature? Well, the two features were actually one feature (and you’ll have to wait till tomorrow’s post to find out how I know that.), and I think that might have been one of these: 

(image credit)

Or something similar anyway, but I have to do more research about native cooking methods in this area of the country.  But it would fit with the two holes and a bridge of dirt with no charcoal that we saw while digging.  

Anyway I know this post is super long but I swear we’re almost done.  When we finally finished digging the damned thing it looked like this: 

(here I’m standing on the north side of the pit, so the top is the bottom in the other pics.) 

We think that this might actually be part of another feature so it’s a little...ah...yeah it’s just weird.  Those rocks were definitely from people, so maybe they were lining the bottom of the pit or something.  If I could draw your attention to the black crud in the wall to the right of the pedestaled rocks, I’m gonna tell you one last story about this pit.  That is a burned like...conglomerate of crud.  It isn’t charcoal (charcoal is fuel for the fire, not what they were using the fire to make).  Here’s what it looked like close up: 

(aw yis macro lense)

See those circles? Those are *seeds*.  I sent it to a former prof of mine who is an ethnobotanist for ID and she says she thinks it’s chenopodium AKA goosefoot, which was a staple food for the natives for a long time.  One variety still is: quinoa.  So basically, what we think we’re looking at is a 700 year old cooking accident.  Or, as my professor put it: 

So forgive the length, and I hope you all enjoyed this installment.  =D 

#archaeology #native americans #history #science #kyidylCL

[bob-events]

Friendship Bonanza Prompt List!

International Friendship Day is right around the corner, and our AO3 collection is going out to our authors any minute! That means we are excited to announce the prompt list for the friendship bonanza - which we have hidden under the “keep reading” because it’s ridiculously long. If you’d like to make a “gift” for any of the prompters, you are welcome to, and we just ask that you either post it to the AO3 collection and tag them (but please mark it as a “gift fill”) or post it on Tumblr and tag them AND us so we can share it! Happy Friending

@nowinnablewar AO3: unseelieCollapsar Will Accept: Fanfic, Other types of media Prompt 1: Skip bounces ideas off Easy Company for the letter he wants to send to Faye. Prompt 2: Easy Company craft a plan to get back at Sobel without getting caught. Prompt 3: A Yank staff correspondent (Reader or OC) interviews the officers at the Eagle's Nest. Prompt 4: Three Musketeers AU with Toye, Luz, Guarnere, and Buck

@softspeirs AO3: sunlightdances Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart, Other types of media Prompt 1: Speirs being soft (either gif moments from the show, art of your choice, or platonically with a canon character, or paired with an OC!) Prompt 2: Nixon + "I wish I didn't care about it" - gifs showing him caring about other characters canonically or fic with platonic friendship or background romance with an OC Prompt 3: Lipton being Easy's Mom and Dad. Fanart, a fic of a missing scene, or gifs from the show! (Post-war AU feat. a background romance is also ok too) Prompt 4: Any happy, smiley moments between Easy boys. Gifs of happy moments, fanart, or a fic of a moment we didn't see on the show! DNW: Character/character slash fic, modern AU

@serasvictoria AO3: Caren80 Will Accept: Fanfic, Other types of media Prompt 1: Chuck and Babe are supposed be doing guard duty at Membury airfield. Chuck takes Babe to a pub instead (this genuinely happened by the way). Prompt 2: It’s Christmas and since Easy is still stuck in Bois Jacques in Belgium, Joe Liebgott decides to share a Hershey bar with Chuck and Tab as a present. Prompt 3: We all know that Luz and Perconte ended up in a barn to steal eggs, but what happened before that scene? Who even came up with the idea to begin with? Prompt 4: It’s 1946 and word reaches Bill that Joe Toye is really struggling with the loss of his leg. He decides to show up at Joe’s place unannounced with Babe and together they will do their utmost to make sure that Joe cracks a smile. Prompt 5: After hearing Joe say that he could use some brass knuckles right before D-Day, Bill finds some for him.

@josephtoye AO3: corawrites Will Accept: Fanfic Prompt 1: Joe Liebgott & Floyd Talbert, one is trying to set the other up, or some other banter-y kind of situation Prompt 2: Johnny Martin & Bull Randleman, any historical AU Prompt 3: Buck Compton & Joe Toye, do with that what you will Prompt 4: Shifty Powers & Carwood Lipton, anything wholesome DNW: Any other characters, angst is okay provided it has a happy ending, no romantic pairings please

@churchkey AO3: churchkey Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart Prompt 1: Don Malarkey & Skip Muck. Canon-era. Don's not in love with Skip , he just wants to spend the rest of his life with him. Maybe the two of them talking about their plan for being "together" (as besties) after the war. Maybe some cute "I've never told anyone else this before" intimate self-revelations. Maybe Don's reaction to Winters splitting them into different platoons. Basically I just want any chapter in the epic love story of their friendship. Prompt 2: Don Malarkey & Skip Muck Post-War Fix-It. Don's the best man at Skip and Faye's wedding, wondering how this is going to change things and if anyone will over love him the way Skip loves Faye (bonus points for background Don/Joe [Toye that is]; pining, long-distance flirting, whatever) Prompt 3: Dick Winters & Harry Welsh. Post-VE Day. Dick is crestfallen after Nix leaves. Harry feels bad for him. He really does. He's also kind of like "now you know how it feels, don't ya?" Still, he hates to see his friend suffer. Just a couple of sad, lovelorn bastards being miserable together. Prompt 4: Dick Winters & Kitty Grogan/Welsh. Post-war or Modern AU (hence you decide if she takes Harry's name). Would super love these two just doing some GBF things together, shopping, getting coffee, complaining about their husbands and trading gardening tips. Maybe the convo gets a little spicy after dark. Maybe they've each got some private dilemma the other helps to solve. Or maybe they just wander around a flea market looking for good deals on Fiestaware. Prompt 5: Lewis Nixon & Harry Welsh. Post-War. ROADTRIP! (Bonus for background Winnix but it's not necessary). DNW: anything sci-fi/fantasy; OCs; xReader; Tab

@how-are-those-nuts-sarge AO3: whoahersheybars_3up3down Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart, Other types of media Prompt 1: Historian AU - one character worked at a museum/was a historian before the war and geeks out over a few things while deployed to their friends = any character/s. Prompt 2: Penmanship - one character has lovely handwriting, but something/s hit them HARD during the war and they write much less pretty; with one of their friends' support, however, their hand steadies and they heal (lotsa metaphors there I know 😅) = any character/s. Prompt 3: Chess - one character teaches the other to play chess = any character/s. Prompt 4: Bicycle - one character finds a tandem bicycle in Austria and convinces the other to go on a ride with them = any character/s. Prompt 5: Anything with Bill & Babe, Malarkey & Skip & Penkala, or Dick & Nix, I love their friendship dynamics so much.

@speirstookmysoul AO3: speirstookmysoul Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart, Other types of media Prompt 1: mentor/mentee bonding Prompt 2: shoulder clasps Prompt 3: overdramatic arguments about non-important subjects Prompt 4: "getting mistaken as family and not correcting whoever’s mistaken”

@kmorecoffee AO3: vintagelavenderskies Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart Prompt 1: gene and renee: diasastrous, chaotic cookie decorating! the rest of the gang can be involved too for extra chaos because who doesn't love chaos. anyways: gene and renee try to make holiday cookies but something goes awry. too much salt and not enough sugar? distracted and accidentally burn the cookies? luz plays a practical joke and switches out sugar for salt? go crazy! Prompt 2: gene and renee: stargazing!!! all the stargazing :) just two friends, vibing, talking about life and whatever comes to mind Prompt 3: can be modern au: chaos in the coffee shop! just the gang's shenanigans at the local coffee shop. mayhaps there's an ongoing bet of how long it takes luz to get banned? DNW: speirs. i mean, i guess he can be like mentioned or featured. but not too much speirs.

AO3: Muccamukk Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart Prompt 1: Renee & Augusta/Anna: Any backstory about how/if they knew each other before, their different points of view on things. AU where Renee doesn't die and what they do after the war. Would prefer racism not be the focus of the story, though it can be an element. I like it when there's queer characters and romance isn't the focus. Prompt 2: Winters & Guarnere: Something with them getting to know/respect each other better set early in their relationship, especially between Day of Days and Bastogne. They have such different outlooks, but in the end very similar values, and I'd love to see that explored. Maybe they get stuck together and have to survive? Prompt 3: Randleman & Garcia: I'd love to see more of Bull mentoring the replacements, especially Garcia, and how their relationship changes as the replacements get combat experience and integrate with the company. Would love to see growing respect for each other. I like it when there's queer characters and romance isn't the focus. Prompt 4: Guarnere & Martin: They have matching tattoos! They got in so much trouble with each other and were so ride or die even post war! Bill went to Martin's wedding! Pat and Frannie wrote too each other during the war. I would love them getting to know each other, or small moments of affection. Or just write about Pat and Frannie. That's fun too. Or Bill & Bull & Johnny. Or Bill & Joe Toye. Basically any configuration of this is great! Prompt 5: Powers & McClung: Basically them chilling in the woods silently understanding each other? Healing through chilling in the woods? Comparing their experiences as country boys on opposite sides of the country? Post war stuff where Shifty's so badly hurt and Earl's PTSD? I like it when there's queer characters and romance isn't the focus. DNW: Focus on character death (mention of canon stuff is fine), graphic sexual violence, hopeless endings of utter sadness, character bashing, zombies, AUs that change the setting (turn left AUs fine, AUs that add magic etc fine). PoV characters having strong racist or homophoic views.

@papersergeant-pencilsoldier AO3: papersky_pencilstars Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart, Other types of media Prompt 1: Airborne OT5 (Liebgott, Grant, Mcclung, Ramirez, Babe) missing scenes - can be fluffy or angsty (fallout from Chuck getting shot?), dealer's choice! Prompt 2: Mortar Trio - Early days at Camp Taccoa Prompt 3: Dukeman & Perconte & Tab (bonus Trigger?) teasing the replacements Prompt 4: Renée LeMaire  & Gene Roe- (everybody lives AU) connect postwar (I would die if this was a letter fic, but it absolutely does not have to be!) DNW: webgott (platonic or romantic background)

Prompter # 11 Will Accept: Fanfic Prompt 1: Dick, Nix, and Harry being involved in some shenanigans during their downtime in Mourmelon. Prompt 2: Bill and Babe reminiscing and sharing Philly stories. Prompt 3: The friendship between Smokey and Lip because I think it deserves more hype :) DNW: Nothing NSFW

@dansssks​ AO3: danesaber Prompt 1: Dick & Nix: The time they offered to protect Kitty for ice cream and Vat 69. Prompt 2: Spina/Babe/Gene: College AU? Prompt 3: Spina & anyone: They show Spina all their booboos Prompt 4: Mortar Squad: Any au, cannon or modern Prompt 5: Harry and Moose: Go sheep shopping as a present for Winnix on their new farm.

@anthrobrat AO3: anthrobrat Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart Prompt 1: Any of the Last Patrol OT5 (Chuck, Babe, Lieb, McClung, Ramirez) owning a business together - coffeshop, bar, accounting firm? Don't care. Can either be a post-war or modern AU setting. Prompt 2: Skinny Sisk and anyone being bros during the war. Maybe him and Frank deleted scenes in Bastogne fox holes Prompt 3: Shifty & McClung shenanigans during leave. The cat story is hilarious, and I'm sure there are more, and I just love these two because they are so calm and collected but McClung is a total wild card. I would also take a modern AU of them being besties. Prompt 4: Shifty and Popeye being best friends after the war maybe? I just imagine them at each other's weddings being disasters. I would also take the two of them as friends in a modern AU Prompt 5: Any friendship prompt that gives life to the lesser known characters would be awesome imo. DNW: Speirs or Lipton as main protagonists.

Prompter # 13 Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart Prompt 1: shifty powers and floyd talbert - mermaid/fisher au Prompt 2: babe heffron x reader - ice hockey/team manager Prompt 3: dick winters x reader - college au! tutor au Prompt 4: easy company boarding school au DNW: pwp/smut

@mercurygray AO3: mercurygray Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart, Other types of media Prompt 1: Harry + Nixon - marriage, divorce, and everything in between. Prompt 2: Shifty + Smokey - Guess we're not in Kansas anymore - or Mississippi, or Virginia. Prompt 3: Tab + Grant - Chuck's really just here to keep Tab out of trouble. Prompt 4: Bill + Babe - First jump's the hardest - and while the jump into Holland is easy, what comes after it is not. Prompt 5: Tipper + Luz -  Tipper's pretty good at impressions, too. DNW: Liebgott and Webster (as a unit; individually they're fine.)

@lyselkatz AO3: Lysel Will Accept: Fanfic Prompt 1: Any group shenanigans/friendship fluff including Skip, Smokey, Nix, Bull. Prompt 2: "The guys are stranded on base without pass (or requisitioned to work overtime to meet an important deadline/exams, if modern AU) Prompt 3: Smokey does his best to cheer his brothers up with his peculiar brand of silly (Valentine) gifts. Extra ❤ if Skip and George offer their help. Chaos and ensemble fluff ensue. (+ playing Cupid/background ships if you like)" Prompt 4: "Lieb and Hoobs are bored so they decide to troll Web. Since it's valentine's day soon they'll play crack!cupid for fun. Prompt 5: Web is a shark nerd and Pat has a great shark smile. Infallible logic, right? (Input from the other guys /ensemble shenanigans are welcome)" DNW: Nothing I can think of, since it's a friendship fest

Prompter #16 Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart, Other types of media Prompt 1: found family taking care of each other (feat. liebgott being happy and content <3) domestic fluff Prompt 2: anything fluffy coffee shop AU or flower shop or tattoo parlour or bakery or anything along those lines Prompt 3: university AU but they are the professors! DNW: webgott, fantasy AUS, omegaverse, mpreg, anything mafia related, not too much angst

Prompter #17 Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart Prompt 1: Era switch: take the boys and put them in the Vietnam War. WWI? The Korean War? The American Revolution? Any conflict that you're comfortable with. Prompt 2: The Pacific AU? Put the BoB men in the Pacific. How they get there or why they are there is all up to you. Maybe their parachute infantry regiment was simply assigned to the PTO instead of the ETO after training. Maybe Japan didn't surrender as quickly as they did. Anything. Prompt 3: Supernatural AUs are my favorite. Preferably I'd love to keep them based in the WWII era, but you can switch it up if you'd like to -- I'd be fine with that! Any type of supernatural is cool with me. I'm aware this might be super vague but I really don't mind whatever you go with :) Prompt 4: Role-switching scenarios: putting men from within the series in each others' positions. DNW: Romantic shipping, characters (Cobb, Sobel, any higher ranking officers above Winters like Sink), modern-day AUs, aged-down AUs (high school/middle school/college with the purpose of aging down = no); a/b/o trope; nsfw (no sexual material; show-level gore okay).

@mariamegale AO3: mariamegale Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart Prompt 1: Babe and Julian being best friends. They are snarky, excited, happy and having a good time together. Bonus if their boyfriends are Eugene and Spina, accordingly! Prompt 2: Baberoe. They're dating, but they're dating their own best friends. With romantic feelings taking the back seats, I'd love to see a healthy relationship of two people in love but doing normal platonic things because they're also each others' best friends in the whole world! Prompt 3: Roe and Spina being tired doctor friends, meeting up in between shifts or calls, being tired and exasperated and just having their sandwiches and a moment of god damn peace. Prompt 4: George Luz and Babe Heffron being best friends. They'd be a disaster, but that disaster that also knows how to step the fuck up if shit gets serious. But mostly they're a disaster. Prompt 5: Joe Liebgott and Eugene Roe. They're roommates, they're pals, Joe likes smoking weed, playing mario kart and complaining about whatever dipshit he's gone out with now, Eugene is trying to make it through med school and enjoys the soothing background chatter of Joe blabbering on about this guy's shirt, or whatever. DNW: Canon era (Ambiguous era is fine if you don't like writing/drawing modern!), Carwood Lipton, OCs, xReader stuff

@mizunoir AO3: mizunoir (but I use 49thpersona for reblogging stuff) Will Accept: Fanfic, Other types of media Prompt 1: Hogwarts AU! Would be lovely if it would include Babe. I leave it up to the artist if they would like to portray one specific house endeavours or all 4 houses befriending. Prompt 2: Stargazing, can be set in modern times or in the original timeline. For angsty interpretation it would be nice to read/see some Eugene and Spina bonding. Prompt 3: Stargazing (original timeline or modern times). For more crack-ish one it could include for example: Luz, Toye, Guarnere, Babe etc. But I leave it absolutely open - include whoever you want! Boys share their music taste. Bickering and reminiscing of the good times free of war ensues. Can be platonic, can be slightly shippy, AU or modern - up to the artist. Preferably including Babe with Eugene.

@thrillingdetectivetales AO3: ThrillingDetectiveTales Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart, Other types of media Prompt 1: Bill & Babe: Bill talks Babe through gay panic about his extremely obvious crush on one John T. Julian, convinces him to ask Julian out, and demands to officiate their wedding (not necessarily in that order) Prompt 2: Harry & Nix (with bonus Buck?): commiserating about trying to keep Dick out of trouble Prompt 3: Blanche Nixon & Ann Winters: they know each other because their idiot brothers are """"friends"""" but they both know what's up and cover for Dick and Nix at various times throughout their lives Prompt 4: Kitty Grogan & Franny Guarnere & Pat Martin: they meet because their fellas are on the line together and keep each other sane throughout the war Prompt 5: Floyd Talbert is everyone's best buddy DNW: No mpreg/pregnancy in general, no rape/non-con (dub-con like drunk!sex or sex pollen or hatesex is fine), no modern AUs, no ABO/dynamics, no kidfic.

Prompter #21 Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart Prompt 1: Speirs & Shames: These stern, "unlikable" men are just not very social or nice, but they get each other. Outcast gay solidarity. Prompt 2: Kitty & Nixon/Winters: Nixon and/or Winters gets to meet Harry's special girl at last. Harry's made her sound like the romantic lead of a novel and really cool, and they are completely unprepared for the tall, awkward chess club captain. Prompt 3: Babe & Guarnere: Post-war readjusting of a friendship. Disability, marriage, kids on the way, Babe is gay. You know, the usual. DNW: xReader, OCs, hopeless angst, AUs, heavy focus on heterosexuality

@aloraundomiel AO3: ElfLadyArwen Will Accept: Fanfic, Fanart Prompt 1: Dick admires Eugene’s medical skill and always shows interest in learning from him while he’s on the job. Eugene uses it to his advantage, making sure Dick takes care of himself (because shaving doesn’t count) under the guise of ‘teachable moments.’ Any battlefield setting would work. Prompt 2: Nix and Harry are joined at the hip, two class clowns who wind each other up.  When one gets them into deep trouble, the other one is always there to get them out again. Prompt 3: Dick Winters is jealous of Ronald Spiers ruthlessness/ability to detach and athletic prowess. Ronald Spiers is jealous of Dick’s empathy and ability to earn loyalty through compassion. Each man agrees to give the other lessons in order to be more well rounded leaders. DNW: Please no Blithe. Never Blithe. You can leave out Compton too.

@bandofmorons AO3: bandofmorons (pseud for sonsofmahal) Will Accept: Fanfic Prompt 1: Babe & Lieb friendship!! I don't have a ton of specifics for this, I just want them being friends and getting into shenanigans but also being supportive of each other... like they're just guys bein' dudes but they're also pretty close ya know! They take care of each other when they need to! Ideally this would be a modern AU, maybe they're college roommates or something? Prompt 2: But mostly I just want to see them goofing off but also being helpful when shit goes down or something, because that's what friends are for. Prompt 3: Some kind of traveling AU with the 5 officers (Winters, Nix, Harry, Lip and Speirs) all as friends and how going on a big trip like that can strain a friendship when something goes wrong or just from people being tired from traveling so much... maybe it's a cross-county roadtrip, maybe it's spring break in Europe, maybe they're going backpacking in New Zealand or something.. I just wanna see how all those 5 boys' different personalities interact on a big logistical venture! Prompt 4: I'm not picky about who necessarily but I want to see Webster getting close to & forming a close friendship with someone in Easy! I feel like in the show/fandom he gets a bad rap for being pretentious (which, fair) but I think it would be awesome to see him becoming good friends with someone and feeling more accepted among the company bc of it. This could be a canon-compliant thing or it could be a modern AU where the boys are all friends. Background Webgott would also be cool as long as Lieb is supportive of Web befriending more people. DNW: explicit sex

#band of brothers #hbowar #events #event #fb21 #bobevents

[celest1all]

forgive me | draco x reader

request; Hey! Can you do this draco x reader maybe a muggle AU (not necessary) where they had a really bad fight and the reader goes in a cab to her house but she realizes that the driver is trying to kidnapper like maybe she starts getting dizzy and disoriented so she calls draco and although they had had a row he is really worried and saves her You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to Thanks!!! And sorry English is not my first language :)

warnings; angst, shouting, swearing, fluff, hurt/comfort

a/n; i may have strayed away from this request, but i kind of got carried away, whoops. thankyou for this <3

> masterlist <

•••••••

The rain pattered down against the window of one of the many, many rooms in Malfoy Manor. Usually you would be able to hear the sound of the water droplets hitting the glass, but not today. Oh no, all you heard was shouting and screaming. All coming from your’s and Draco’s mouths.

Draco had been extremely off with you recently, he barely talked to you and when he did he would always reply with short answers; “I gotta go” or your particular favourite, “I’m busy, Y/N.”

Not only did he not talk to you, he also reverted back to his old ways of glaring at you down the coridoor’s at Hogwarts. The places you two used to share a kiss when no one was looking, was now replaced with sneers and stares.

So you brought him up on it. And he didn’t like that at all, not one bit.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” You narrowed your eyes at him and shook your head. He knew that it was a question there was no answer to, so decided to walk around his bedroom. The bedroom you two have spent so many hours in. Hours of fun, happiness, love and pleasure. But those were just a distant memory now — being long forgotten.

“What do you want me to say, Y/N? Hm?” He shouted back with just as much power. “That I got bored of being around you twenty four seven?”

You felt your stomach drop at his words, not expecting him to have said something like that. “You were on my arm all the time and it was bloody annoying! At one point, I wanted Pansy to be draping herself all over me instead of you!”

You froze. Draco knew how you felt about Pansy and how always compared yourself to her. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that she pretty, she was like a walking goddess in green and silver robes. She was funny, smart and — even if she didn’t come across it — really nice. She was everything you wished you could be.

“What?” You whispered, all the breath in your lungs had apparently disappeared. Draco’s face fell when he finally clocked onto what he just said, regret taking over his features.

The wizard starting spitting out excuses, apologies — he even tried blaming it on you for a second— before you cut him off. “I’m done.”

You grabbed your coat and began making your way to his bedroom door. You were probably about five centimetres away when you felt his hand wrap around you wrist, pulling you around to face you.

“What do you — what do you mean you’re done?” He asked, with a hint of worry lacing his words. “With me or the argument??”

You sighed and looked up into his eyes, “You decide, Draco.”

With that, you walked out of his bedroom and out of Malfoy Manor. Luckily for you, you didn’t actually have that far to walk since your house was the only other house near Draco’s.

The cold winter air nipped at your nose as you walked to your home, making you want to cry even more. You wouldn’t cry, you wouldn’t allow yourself to cry. Because you knew if you did, you wouldn’t stop.

But you were scared. Merlin, you were scared. You were scared for Draco and what the mark on his arm meant for him, scared that your relationship had just ended and scared for your family and friends lives.

Before you knew it, you arrived at the familiar black-painted door which you had grown to hate over the years. For some reason, you had a slight nagging feeling your stomach — like something wasn’t right. However, you dismissed it due to the fact you just had a huge argument with the love of your life.

You carried on into your house and hung up your coat. The first thing you realised that your parents were probably still at the Ministry of Magic or making ther way back, and the second thing you realised was that it was abnormally quiet. Too quiet.

Logically, you knew that there was most likely nothing wrong or no impending doom, but you weren’t known for your logical thinking. Hence the reason you walked up the stairs to your bedroom, trying to ignore the feeling of immediate danger.

By now, all logic had been thrown out the window as your mind began replaying yours and Draco’s argument. You were so caught up in reliving it through your brain, that you didn’t even notice that there was someone in your bedroom. They were hidden, but they were still there. Waiting for the right moment to strike.

Which was now. Or so they thought.

In the nick of time, you had managed to dive behind your bed before whoever it was had successfully used the Cruciatus Curse on you.

You were still unaware of who they were, but you certainly weren’t going to hang about and ask them about their bloody backstory.

You sensed that the mystery person was waiting for you, so you decided to make the first move. Or rather, you threw something their way so it sounded like you moved. Thankfully, they fell for it — whoever this person was, they weren’t that bright — giving you the perfect window of opportunity.

“Petrificus Totalus!” You waited a few seconds just to make sure that the spell had worked, before moving from your hiding spot.

You peeked around the corner of your bed to see the not-so-hidden intruder laying on the floor, stiff. Which you expected, obviously, but what you didn’t expect was to see none other than Draco Malfoy making his way up your stairs.

You blinked quickly as if he would disappear, but he didn’t.

“Merlin’s beard, Y/N!” His mouth was wide open with shock as he stared down at the body on the floor.

“He’s not dead, if that’s what you’re wondering.” You looked down at the person, finally getting a good look at who he was. You didn’t recognise him, but you theorised that it was either one of You-Know-Who’s followers, or someone your parents pissed off. Either way, you weren’t too pleased with the outcome.

“Do you recognise him?” You asked, now looking at Draco intently. He shook his head at you, still slightly shocked.

“I’m sorry.” You apologised after a few seconds of silence.

“No,” The wizard shook his head and manouvered his way around the person on the floor. “I’m sorry.”

“I shouldn’t have said those things about you or Pansy, or anything for that matter.” He sighed, taking your hands into his own. “I was being a dick by ignoring you—”

“And sneering at me in the corridoors.” You added, raising your eyebrows at him.

“And sneering at you in the corridoors. Point is, I was bloody idiot, and I’m sorry. I understand if you won’t forgive me, Y/N.” He rubbed your knuckles, something he always used to do.

“I forgive you.” You smiled softly up at him, looking into his eyes. For a moment, you almost forgot there was somebody else in the moment. Almost. “Bloody hell!”

Draco’s eyebrows furrowed in worry, “What is it?”

You pointed to the man on the floor and shouted, “Get him the fuck out of here!” Malfoy’s eyes widened in realisation and nodded quickly, already dragging him out of your bedroom.

“Don’t forget to use The Memory Charm as well!” You yelled after him.

You heard him chuckle lightly and say, “Of course, love.” You shook your head at his antics and sat down on your bed, finally feeling a little bit happier with you’re life.

In the end, forgiveness is a virtue.

tag list; @accio-rogers / @angelinathebook / @strawberriesonsummer / @theojuicee / @coldlilheart

if you would like to be on the tag list, feel free to ask <3

#draco fanfiction #draco malfoy imagines #draco malfoy x reader #draco x reader #draco malfoy #draco malfoy x y/n #harry potter imagines #angst #draco malfoy x you #reader insert #requested #request

[livesincerely]

Thoughts on sub Davey? 👀

(Disclaimer at the top, this answer stayed safely in T rated territory, but feel free to scroll past if this isn’t something you’re into 💕)

(Also, this ended up being a whole essay, then fun bullet points at the end, so sorry in advance, I’m just like this)

00000

So 👏🏼

I have already been called out a few times in comments/replies on the lowkey dom Jack vibes that show up in some of my possessive Jack fics, and also for that one scene in the first part of the domestic au.... 😅 I didn’t intentionally include dom/sub themes in those fics as I wrote them, hence why they’re not tagged that way, but there’s certain overlap between possessive character behaviors and dom character behaviors, so it’s understandable why they’d be read that way.

But as for like, actually writing a dom/sub thing? I’m not sure, honestly. I’m pretty happy playing with the dom/sub undertones that show up every once and a while—if I ever went full on I’d want to put some proper research into it to make sure it’s coming across appropriately (safe, sane, and consensual darlings! learn it and love it.) But I’m not against the idea? I guess I’d have to think on it more, and I’d need to have a prompt/scenario that I really loved, because writing smut is time consuming enough as it is, and I’m sure a dom/sub fic would only be more so.

But, as for thoughts on sub Davey...

So, while I do write Davey as the more submissive of the two, it’s honestly more that Jack is dominant than it is that Davey is submissive.

Jack is just a more, for lack of a better word, aggressive character. He’s a leader, he’s impulsive, he’s protective, he’s more hot headed, and I think (especially in a canon era setting) he’s more territorial. As the leader of Manhattan, he’s used to being listened to and there’s very much the sense that the Newsies are ‘his’ boys and lower Manhattan is ‘his’ terf, and everyone is his responsibility—which, since he’s the leader, then translates to being the one that’s willing/used to stepping up and making the first move, and in a sexual/romantic situation that turns into the dom Jack vibes that spring up in my fics.

And for me, since it feels natural to have Jack be so dominant in most situations, Davey compliments and counters that by being more passive, more diplomatic, more level headed. Additionally, Jack’s got the whole “I’ve always had to fight for everything I have, so I sometimes don’t know how to stop” thing going on, so it feels natural for Davey to foil Jack and be more submissive. Plus, Davey’s got the whole “world’s most oblivious smart ass” thing, and I love that for him. Flustered Davey is second only to flustered Jack... 😉

But, for me, Jack and Davey’s relationship is all about balance and give and take: Jack needs Davey just as much as Davey needs Jack. So, depending on how established their relationship is at the time, Davey swings wildly between being an unknowing distraction (letterman fic, everybody wants a taste) and being an absolute tease (you only have to ask, possessive kisses 1 & 2 of lets cut to the chase). Because, even though Jack has lowkey dom vibes/major protective and possessive vibes, he never acts on them unless Davey 1) gives him permission or 2) provokes him into acting, which in context is permission.

And god does Davey provoke Jack. It’s always so funny to me (even as I’m writing it) because it always takes Jack a while to catch on. And he tries so hard to resist, even when all he wants is to just press Davey up against the nearest flat surface and wreck him. And that scenario is never not fun—I live to lovingly torture Jack Kelly. So, I’d say that whenever Davey is being more submissive in bed, it’s 50/50 odds on if it’s because he’s actually flustered and instinctively succumbing to Hurricane Jack or if he’s intentionally pressing every one of Jack’s buttons. (Like I said, he swings wildly between innocently oblivious and purposefully provocative)

Honestly, Jack is probably the one who’s the most unchanging and predictable as far as what gets him going and Davey sort of does what he wants depending on his current mood. Like, for example, I have a whole unfinished tease entry where Jack’s been a little shit all day, flirting with and flustering Davey while he’s trying to work just because Davey blushes so easy and Jack loves it, but then Davey turns the tables on him later. It’s a sort of “service top, yet still playing the game” Jack matched with a “take charge, knows exactly how to get what he wants” Davey, if that tells you anything about my thoughts on their relationship.

And it’s sort of a role reversal, but sort of not: Jack’s super into it because he’s just super into Davey full stop—he doesn’t care if Davey wants to take the lead. And even as Davey’s taking the lead, there’s still that give and take/push and pull because it’s still Jack and Davey, if that makes sense? Idk.

Anyway, long story long, for me Davey and Jack are just really well matched and really into each other. Davey has subby tendencies but they’re mostly reactions to Jack’s dom tendencies, of which there are many. And Davey is always a tease, but whether it’s on purpose or accidental just depends on the circumstance. I don’t know if I’d ever go out and write a full, full dom/sub fic, but I’m really enjoying the hints of it that are coming through in my usual style, and I’m not against the idea.

***

It occurred to me after I wrote all of the above that you may have wanted a more... fun answer, not just ramblings on character and relationships. So have some bullet points? 😅

When Jack calls Davey “David,” in that low, growly, demanding voice??? Davey literally feels like his knees are gonna give out, just melting right on the spot, shivers down the spine, totally pliant and dazed. And it only happens when Jack’s really revved up, so it always takes Davey off guard when he says it. When it comes to playing the game and the back and forth between the two of them, Jack saying “David” is like, the ultimate dom move and usually the final warning before he absolutely wrecks Davey.

The easiest way for Davey to tease Jack is to wear any of Jack’s clothes, but especially his t-shirts or his jackets/hoodies. Jack cannot keep his hands off of him when he does—it kicks Jack’s possessiveness into high gear, and he’s already the more impatient one, just generally, so that’s a sure fire way to provoke a reaction when Davey wants to play the game. The only thing better than Davey wearing Jack clothes to tease him is Davey wearing Jack’s clothes for any other innocent reason, especially in a pre-getting together scenario. Because flustered, possessive-but-trying-to-hide-it Jack is so much fun. I mean, that’s literally the letterman fic in a nutshell, and it’ll be a big feature of the quarantine fic (once I get around to it 😅)

(I also just love clothes sharing as a trope, but I’m sure that’s obvious by now)

Also! Davey’s taller but Jack’s bigger and stronger than he is. And Jack is absolutely capable of holding Davey down, picking him up, and just generally man handling Davey around. I think it’s the letterman fic that has the scene where Jack holds Davey’s hips in place and grinds up into him because he’s being a mouthy shit? Yeah.

Davey gives Jack shit for constantly marking up his neck with hickeys, but he actually kind of loves it. He likes wearing Jack’s marks on his skin, sure—particularly the ones Jack bites into his neck and shoulders and the ones that show up on his hips and thighs from Jack’s fingers—but what he really loves is how Jack reacts to seeing the marks after the fact. Because wow

I’m sure there’s more, but this is already wayyy too long lol. Hope that made some kind of sense? Or, at least, wasn’t too horribly confusing?

00000

@umbre-honest

#*ask #*editor's note #thoughts? is a dangerous phrase to send me because i will genuinely just start rambling #but i hope this was somewhat interesting? #idk i tried #you: *sends ask* #me: here’s some nonsense #but thank you!! #blessings on your house 💕

[bluefirewrites]

Sky High Mall!AU Part 2

Hey this is another excerpt from the Sky High Zach x Magenta WIP that I never finished (hence WIP). 

It’s a Mall!AU where the characters are kids with summer jobs at the mall. No powers and it’s set around the time the movie came out- 2005. 

Part 1: https://bluefirewrites.tumblr.com/post/636284063233327104/sky-high-mallau

Would be Rated T and there’s excessive use of language throughout. 

This excerpt would be Zach’s perspective working at the music store at the mall. Enjoy!

_____________

Zach booked it down the mall, zooming past the crowd gathered at Sonic Boom, the music store

The music store he worked at.

The one he was supposed to be at right about now.

He pushed through the crowd, getting to the front where his coworker was working the register, seeming to throw the albums at the customers because it was that busy.

Zach loved his job... on any other day. He was a total musichead and he thought it was a long shot to even snag the job, considering it was common knowledge that it was run by Boomer who was a total hardass and pretty unforgiving to those who he deemed had shitty music taste.

He had seemed to wow him enough during the interview, which had been merely them talking about the music he listened to. Thank god, he had just enough of an eclectic music taste that he was able to keep up with whatever soft rock ‘80s classic question that Boomer threw his way.

The Black Eyed Peas album just dropped today and everyone had been clamoring to get in to grab it, so it meant all hands on deck. But only the hands that Boomer could afford to pay right now, so it was only Speed there at the moment.

Zach leapt over the counter, shedding his jacket to reveal his shirt already sporting his name tag, “Yo, is Boom here yet?”

“Cutting it close, freshie,” The senior looked like he wanted to throttle him for leaving him hanging longer than he should have. But it was only like 5 minutes, and Zach had been rushing from summer school to make it home, get ready, then come straight to the mall. He did the best he could.

“You know you can stick a hat on it right?” Speed ruffled his hair while tapping his own cap, messing up the gel that he had put in there before he came to the store and greasing up his hands in the process.

“Hey!” Zach cursed him out for deflating his hair as well as making him pick up the slack while Speed wipes off the hair gel.

Speed always pulled shit like this on him. He hated having shifts with a guy who loved to pick on him, and not in the friendly-joking way that he was used to.

For the next couple of minutes, the two of them were able to go ring up the crowd quickly, even shrunk down the amount of people in the store to half of its capacity. It was still busy, but it was more manageable than before that it actually freed up Speed to do his laps around the store, trying to quell the crowd and mitigate whatever problem came up that would have resulted in calling in the manager.

20 minutes later, they both had a lid on the situation. Only because they were pretty much no more copies of Monkey Business. Zach was about to check if they had more when he realized that the store was eerily quiet. He had just noticed that the TVs around the place were turned off and no music was playing in the store.

Zach went for the sound system dial towards the back of the store but Speed came from behind and beat him to it, “You snooze, you lose, freshie.” His coworker sliding in a Snoop Dogg CD he had snagged from earlier.

He groaned. Zach didn’t mind Snoop, but Speed would play it almost nonstop every time Zach can’t reach the dial fast enough. Speed had almost no taste, always playing chart toppers and whatever cute girls would request (which usually would be chart toppers).

Speed waltzed over to the records, getting high-fives from a couple of customers on the way over, “It’s what the people love!”

“Not Boomer,” Zach pointed out, whilst walking over to the main displays up front. The crowd had kept bumping to the table so he had to make it look tidy.

“But Boomer ain’t here. He’s never here,”

Zach looked up and caught a glimpse of his hair on the main monitor that was supposed to feature the Black Eyed Peas music videos. Shit.  It was sticking out in weird places and looked deflated in others. He ran his hair through it and tried to zhuzh it up with his fingers but nothing seemed to be staying.

“Aww.You’re still pissy about your hair? Did you a favor, dorkwad,”

Zach rolled his eyes. Normally, he would try to steer clear of Speed and try not to notice him. But his co-worker seemed to be in such a talkative mood today, “It was fine the way it was, Speed.” He finished resetting the table cloth and arranging the display how it was supposed to look before turning around to help a customer find a Celine Dion CD.

“Stop being such a tryhard,” Speed said to him as he passed with the customer, “The ladies like it when you’re chill.”

“How would you know that?” A new voice added. Once Zach successfully helped the customer, he whirled around to find his buddy, Will. He took notice of the blue shirt and gray khakis and figured he had work today at Champs. He barely saw Will anymore due to Zach having summer school and their schedules never seemed to match up.

“Shut the fuck up, Stronghold,” Speed sneered at the newcomer.

Will paid him no mind while he shook Zach’s hand before bringing him in for a quick hug, “Zach-Attack!”

“Will, like it’s not great to see you, cuz it is. Great. To see you, that is,” Zach kept on the lookout for Boomer while walking towards the register because Speed had left it unattended, “Kinda not a good time right now, man.”

Will greet a few other people he knew around the store. He scanned the big displays and the cardboard cutouts on the front, “BEP?”

“BEP,” The blonde confirmed, “And I’m already on Boomer’s bad side for fucking up with the Mariah Carey launch.”

His friend clicked his tongue, recalling that certain incident. Zach remembered that Will had been working his shift downstairs when he heard Boomer let him have it. He had heard Boomer all the way from down there- that was how bad it was.

“How were you supposed to stop a bunch of nimrods from defacing her cut out?”

Zach shuddered at the thought of all the obscene Sharpie marks all over Mariah Carey’s cardboard figure, “I swear, Speed had something to do with it. That guy has got it out for me ever since I started working this joint,” he whispered.

“It’s because out of everyone here, you’re the customers’ favorite. You actually know your shit,”

Zach figured that it was somewhat true. They would get regulars pretty often and they always seemed to gravitate towards him. Zach did enjoy making connections with everyone no matter what their music taste was.

One time, this one guy came in, all in orange, who had been tentative in asking where the classical music selection was. Luckily, Zach got to him first before Speed could roast him. And good thing too, because that guy became one of his favorite regulars. He might be working at Radio Shack, the last he heard from him.

“Thanks, man,” Zach really appreciated it. Sometimes he couldn’t help but get all up in his head at his job. He wanted to do really well and hopefully one day he would have worked enough hours to save up for a car. He had been getting real tired of having to rush on his bike everywhere and being constantly late.

“But seriously, scatter. Don’t make me have to kick you out.” he joked to his smaller friend.  

“Yeah, Stronghold. Go back to dealing with smelly feet all day,” Speed yelled from his side of the store.

“You’re just jealous because I got the job and you didn’t,”

Zach had to hold back a laugh seeing Speed getting worked up so quickly. He had heard Speed bitching about being passed over the job at Foot Locker constantly. The guy had been a total sneakerhead so it had been a crushing blow to his ego that a freshman got the position while he was stuck working for cantankerous Boomer.

“Whatever, man. You probably got it because you’re a Stronghold,”

Will shook his head, the jabs of his dad being the Mayor never really fazing him much anymore, “Remind me again, how did you get the name, Speed, again?”

The rotund bully growled. Everyone knew that there were two stories that could have explained how Speed got his infamous moniker. One was because  all the joyrides in his Jeep that resulted in property damage. The other well… had to do with distributing contraband. Bringing up either, was cause for a beatdown.

Speed advanced towards Will, ready to punch him square in the face, no matter how many onlookers in the store gathered around to watch the debacle. Zach had to vault over the counter, to get in between the two when all of the sudden a resounding yell broke through the clatter that made all parties involved wince and cover their ears.

“Ladies, enough!”

Boom strolled in, aviators perched on his crooked nose, commanding the attention of the room- as if his voice didn’t do that already. He came up beside Zach, poking at Will to step backwards until he was out of the store,“Shouldn’t you be downstairs, Stronghold?”

“Yes, Boomer,” He shouldered his bag before throwing a passing glance at Zach. Good luck, he seemed to emote.

Rightfully so because all of the sudden Boomer marched over to him, “Why if it isn’t Superstar, here to grace us with your presence,” His eyes landed on the BEP display and noted the dwindling number of albums, “Restock those will ya? And Speed” he turned to the older boy, “you’re relieved of your post.”

Speed looked up to the heavens, “Thank fuck.”

“Language!”

He straightened up, “Sorry, sir,” Then he ducked for the back, switching off Snoop Dogg as he did so. Zach followed suit to where they did inventory and found another box of the albums and hauled ass back out to replace the albums on the display.

“Now, get to that, will you,” Boomer ordered while counting up the till to see if everything was where it should be, “And if I see a hint of Sharpie on either of those cardboard figures, your ass is mine, kid.”

Zach almost let out a laugh but remembered it was Boomer. He meant everything to be a threat, “O-okay,” he managed to get out without laughing. Then he saw Boomer closing up the register and heading for the door, “Wait? You’re leaving already?”

“Yeah. I’m the owner. I can do what I want,”

“I mean, since I’m like the only guy here and it’s a pretty busy day- I thought-”

“You thought what? That you need help?” he seemed to project the full force of his voice at him that Zach cowered against his better judgement.

“Listen, I started this shop to fill it with music,” His boss went off, “Real music. Not what passes off as music these days. Those hip grinding degenerates are showing up by the boatloads today and I don’t wanna be here when they do.”

A little boy approached the man, tugging against his cargo shorts, “Excuse me, where are the Eminem CDs?”

Boomer looked at the kid with disgust and shimmied him off, “That’s my cue,” He scrounged his pockets for the keys and tossed them Zach’s way, “Here, you’re closing up today.”

“What the-?” Zach nearly fumbled with the keys, “Again?” He had been closing every night this week, despite not actually being allowed to, with him being 15 and all. But Boomer had an arrangement with Ron Wilson, security guard who patrols at night.

“Don’t mess this up for me, Blondie!” His boss yelled just an influx of people arrived at the store, hungrily grabbing the CDs off the display he had just finished restocking.

“I’ll try,” he responded, knowing full well that Boomer could not hear him. Speed sped by, sticking his tongue at him on his way to freedom. The line of people had started forming and Zach cracked his knuckles- no choice but to face them on his own.

#sky high #sky high movie #sky high 2005 #sky high au #sky high fic idea #zach x magenta #magenta x zach #zach sky high #magenta sky high #zach braun #magenta lewis #zagenta #guineaglow #tagging this even tho these excerpts don't show them meeting yet #haha #speed sky high #boomer sky high #will stronghold

[mcheang]

Lila’s unlucky shadow

This content features a lot of Lila-bashing. Though I’m not sure if bashing=salt so I’m just gonna put bashing in the tags. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This idea came out of nowhere. It was just a thought that Plagg is the kwami of bad luck and it snowballed into this. I realize this may seem a tad OOC, but what’s fanfiction without indulgence.

Furious at Lila for Onii-Chan, (hey, she nearly caused Ladybug’s death), Adrien decides to avenge his lady. So Plagg is asked to give Lila bad luck.

The kwami is eager to be let loose. Adrien just warns Plagg not to go overboard or Lila will just soak in the pity and take advantage of his classmates. (And yeah, he doesn’t want to feel guilty for requesting Plagg’s help)

Being tiny and intangible has its advantages. So while Lila is paying attention in class, she doesn’t notice Plagg hiding behind her head. Because’s he’s intangible, he doesn’t even mess up her hair...at first. Basically this is how Plagg always curses Lila. He does this several times, even more than Adrien’s request should have caused, as you will soon see.

1. Lila is stuck with Chloe as a project partner for the duration of the class. True to form, Chloe refuses to work her share. And since Sabrina promises that Lila is supposedly a bright student and super friendly/tame, Lila can’t exactly stand up for herself. Everyone else is too busy to notice Lila. So she grits her teeth and completes the assignment, determined to get back at Chloe. However, when she reports on Chloe, everyone else gives her pity but don’t make a big fuss, they’ve all been bullied by Chloe and just share stories. Caline just asks Lila to be the bigger person.

2. Puberty has been kind to Lila. Not anymore. Pimples and body odour make themselves known. People don’t really want to be around Lila. Deodorant doesn’t seem effective and when Lila asks Adrien for advice, he says he can’t help her because his facials use cinnamon. (When Marinette made cinnamon rolls, Lila smacked it out of her hands and claimed to be deathly allergic hence her overreaction)

3. Bad hair day...or should I say days? Plagg also may or may not have thrown spit balls into the back of Lila’s head. Only they weren’t made of paper. Nope. Plagg is a cat and he coughs up hair balls. Yeah...these are easily combed out but they give Lila’s hair an oily texture and make the strands limp (remember Snape?) She thought there were dust bunnies.

Once Lady Noire detransforms, Marinette bribes Plagg with cheese treats from the bakery if he will haunt Lila. Plagg is just so happy people want him to cause chaos. Plagg promises this deal will remain between them, just like he promised Adrien.

1. Lila is haunted at night. Plagg only has to be there once but his power causes it so that whenever Lila is ready for bed, the lights always switch off, it sounds like there are claws on the windows, something scurrying on the floor, her closet door creaking, and why do her feet feel clammy? Lila is plagued with nightmares. She is too tired to even take advantage of her class’ sympathy.

2. While spending time with her Mother (something Lila cherishes), Lila accidentally trips on the stairs and twists her ankle. She is confined to the hospital. She has an incompetent nurse looking after her. So when her friends visit, Lila is too overdosed on anesthetic to take advantage of the situation. When Lila is released, the most logical solution would be to sit in front. But then Chloe would never move. And Lila does not want to be the new Sabrina. Adrien makes it clear he and Nino are a package deal, and Lila hates Marinette. So Lila insists walking will speed her recovery. When Adrien says Plagg was kinda harsh with the broken bone, Plagg rolls his eyes and says the girl exaggerated. Lila threw such a tantrum she got rushed to the hospital over a sprained ankle. Adrien’s response: oh...never mind, keep up the good work. Marinette already suspected Lila faked her injury because she herself had a broken ankle and Lila’s bandaged ankle in a boot should have been a cast.

3. The Césaire twins got gum in Lila’s hair and try to help by snipping it off. Lila can’t stop them in time because her hands are tied with cleaning the dishes. Lila has to go to a real hairdresser who says all her hair has to go. Lila ends up with a pixie cut, and she does not rock it.

When Marinette was nearly akumatized, Tikki asks Plagg for the same favour, bribing him with cheese danishes, guilt tripping him about Kwami Buster, and using the pity plot by confessing she was so scared inside the akuma purse. Plagg falls for it, and also because he doesn’t like Tikki glaring at him. He also doesn’t mention to Tikki that Adrien and Marinette also got him to do this because....well...CAMEMBERT. Yeah...Plagg goes on such a crazy cheese fest that it is a wonder how he hasn’t gained an ounce of fat or gathered Adrien’a notice, though Lila’s body odour has started to remind Adrien of the stinky cheese, not exactly but close enough. Perhaps Lila has developed a liking for blue cheese?

1. Lila’s experience as a model is painful. Not at first, though. She is given hair extensions and lots of makeup. Her appearance is airbrushed. But then Lila gets bad reviews for her first model shoot and Adrien’s fans target her with harsh emails. Adrien has to play nice so he tells her to ignore it, that’s what he usually does. Natalie isn’t sympathetic. “You want to be a model, you need to learn to accept that there will be people who hate you.” When her classmates suggest she filter her email, Lila starts getting hate mail and is bullied at home because Dupont is too protected. Mrs Rossi is concerned and decides to end Lila’s model career since her baby is so distressed. Adrien is thrilled and gives Plagg a gigantic round of Camembert. (Credit for inspiration goes to @coke-and-candy I believe there was a follow up fic about negative critics but I couldn’t find it)

2. Lila claims to have gotten backstage passes to Jagged’s concert. Alya is happy because Marinette got them the same passes for herself, Alya, Adrien and Nino. Lila fake smiles. On the day of the concert, Lila fakes an injury and begs Alya not to tell Jagged because she doesn’t want to worry him. Alya keeps her word but Lila nearly cracked a tooth when the newspapers published a photo of Jagged presenting Marinette as his new personal designer. No matter what lies Lila spins, celebrity or injury-related, people just keep raving about Marinette.

3. Plagg visits her wardrobe and wrecks everything. Lila is flabbergasted but the claw marks suggest a wild animal got in. She isn’t totally wrong. Plagg invited some animals to make a mess of the girl’s room. Lila doesn’t want the class to volunteer to clean up her room, on the off chance her Mother shows up. But she does mentioned how she donated her entire wardrobe to charity. Chloe overheard and decides to be nice in front of Adrien. She dumps designer rejects on Lila. Of course, Lila doesn’t know that. Marinette does tell Alya, but Adrien pretends to care for Chloe’s improvements and comments that Lila seems to like them anyway.

When Lila rifles through Adrien’s locker and throws away the Camembert, Plagg narrows his eyes. “Alright, Liar, no more games, this is WAR!” (I was having trouble imagining what could anger Plagg even further. Credit for inspiration to the fanfiction Camembert Ice Cream by @quicksilversquared )

1. Lila starts to lose her voice and her throat hurts.

2. When Lila tries to communicate by writing, her hands undergo a seizure so she can’t pick up a pencil.

3. For some reason, the only way to cure her throat is to eat a regular diet of healthy but utterly unappetizing food. Lila has to say goodbye to junk food and sodas. Her water now tastes bitter because of the health supplements dissolved in it. Even with her voice returned, Lila can’t talk too much or she will strain her voice. It’s a shame oral presentations are over or Lila could have really used that excuse.

Plagg is satisfied. He got vengeance for 2 heroes, Sugar Cube, and most importantly himself. All this chaos has been nice, but he’s exhausted. Time for a cat nap.

(Note: needless to say, Lila won’t be causing trouble for quite some time. Plagg’s curses have only strengthened each other because...well, like calls to like. By the time Plagg’s curses run out, Marinette and Adrien would be living happily ever after, Tikki would be content, and Plagg would be munching on Camem-...hey....WHO ATE MY CHEESE TART? PLAGG!!!!!)

#plagg fic #plagg appreciation #ladrien #ladynoir #adrienette #ml fic #ml fanfic #ml fanfiction #miraculous ladybug fanfic #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #miraculous ladybug fic #lila bashing #lila karma

[vannahfanfics]

Weddings and Wisteria Trees

Category: Mild Romantic Fluff

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Characters: Fumikage Tokoyami, Ibara Shiozaki

Additional Tags: Feudal Japan AU

Hey, everyone! Here again with a story for @bnhabookclub​‘s Bingo Event, for the prompt “Forced to Get Married.” This is my first time writing an arranged marriage story, so I hope it’s to y’all’s liking! :)

Ibara stared blankly into the curved surface as the mirror as one of her attending ladies brushed her long, trailing strands of summer green hair. The rhythmic, gentle tugging against the roots of her hair would typically be soothing, but on this day of all days, Ibara could not find joy even in the simplest of things. Not even the gentle rustling of the emerald leaves against her window or the sweet scent of the sweet pea perfume that one of the other servants spritzed against her wrists, ankles, and collarbone could bring a smile to Ibara’s face. No, today, Ibara was to marry a man that she had never met.

“My Lady, you look a little pale this morning,” the woman who’d been brushing her hair tutted as she tipped Ibara’s chin up with a few fingers. With the same stony expression, the bride-to-be turned her face to look down at her legs, which were flush with the rose of life as compared to the pure white silk of her slip. “Have you taken ill?”

“No, I am not ill,” she answered quietly. While it would be an excellent excuse to avoid meeting her suitor, it just wouldn’t do. As the daughter of a wealthy merchant and artisan family, Ibara’s sole responsibility was to wed an established man. She had no choice but to fulfill this role, lest she bring great shame upon her family and their name. Regardless of my feelings about it, I must perform this duty. Father and Mother’s business would be ruined if I refused the hand of this man. Ibara would be given several hours before the ceremony to acclimate to her soon-to-be husband. She was grateful at least for that small window of time; she couldn’t imagine walking into the anteroom to wed a complete and total stranger. All she knew about him was that he hailed from a distinguished samurai family.

Her servants knew better than to gossip with Ibara about her impending marriage, so they busied themselves with preparing Ibara’s clothes. She would not don the pristine white bridal kimono until right before the ceremony, but the garment she would wear to the pre-wedding meeting was arguably more stunning. Ibara stood and raised her arms perpendicular to her body so that her servants could slip a kimono of dark green fabric over her figure. White stitching outlined large, fan-like leaves across the material, and the plants were filled in with jade cloth the same shade as Ibara’s magnificent hair.

Her parents said that Ibara was born with green hair because her mother had prayed to the local forest god for fertility; the deity had blessed her, and colored Ibara’s hair as a reminder of its divine blessings. The long, luscious locks marked Ibara’s most striking feature, and its novelty had attracted attention from many notable suitors across the continent. Luckily, Ibara’s parents were gracious enough to choose a groom who was close in age to her. Ibara didn’t know how she would cope with marrying someone twenty years her senior.

“You look radiant, My Lady,” one of her attendants hummed as she straightened the hem of Ibara’s kimono. The royal girl blinked slowly at her reflection in the mirror. Under normal circumstances, Ibara would most certainly agree; the green hues of the fabric accented her emerald eyes and vine-green locks, while her skin provided suitable contrast to the earthy tones.

As Ibara stared at herself in the mirror, the ladies threaded a hairpin wrought from thin gold wire into her hair; a clothed peony bejeweled with topazes and jasper stones adorned the accessory, and light, wispy gold ribbons trailed down from the piece. A servant skillfully wound it through a braided section of her hair to create a regal and tasteful hairstyle. Yes, under normal circumstances, Ibara would find herself quite gorgeous indeed. However, that cold pit of dread and trepidation swallowed any and every positive emotion. The ball of darkness was like a wicked weed, smothering all other flowers of feeling with cold indifference.

Ibara forced a smile on her face as the sliding door to her bedroom opened, and her parents walked in.

“Oh, my dear, you look stunning,” her mother crooned as she approached the eighteen-year-old girl. Ibara politely closed her eyes when her mother leaned in to kiss her lovingly on the cheek. Her parent flashed her a bright smile through the silvery reflection of the mirror. Ibara’s own smile was strained and false. Either her mother didn’t notice, or she ignored it. Ibara’s father moseyed over to grasp her by the upper arms and lean over her shoulders.

“Are you ready, darling?”

“Of course, Father,” Ibara responded smoothly. The lie rolled off her tongue like syrup- with practiced ease. “I am more than ready to do my duty to the family. This marriage will be prosperous for us.” The wealthy merchant smiled widely and patted her shoulders approvingly. Now that the preparations were complete, they swiftly bundled Ibara into a carriage. The wagon featured the height of comfort- minx fur comforters, feather-stuffed pillows, and silk curtains- but Ibara fidgeted endlessly amongst the luxurious items. Nausea spun her belly around, and the jostling of the carriage on the uneven dirt path worsened it. Ibara pushed her head out of the window, hoping the cold air would settle her sickness. It calmed somewhat, but her throat remained tight with unease, making every breath harsh and laborious.

The Tokoyami estate resided in a nearby valley, which belonged to a rich daimyo who made his fortune by maintaining and operating large commercial farms. According to her parents, the Tokoyami family was one of the samurai clans that managed the sprawling collection of farmsteads. The local farmers spoke highly of both the daimyo and the small assortment of samurai that maintained the peace and order. Hence, it relieved Ibara that she wouldn’t be immigrating to a lawless, turbulent region- if the rumors proved right, anyway. The estate was a mere two-hour journey by horse-drawn cart.

Not a long voyage by any means, but it was the longest two hours of Ibara’s life.

Ibara gulped down several breaths of air when the carriage driver opened the door. Though she’d possessed access to the window, it seemed like the air beyond the cart was fresher and crisper. It flooded her lungs with an uplifting cold- only for a few moments. When Ibara’s slippers met the bright green grass, the reality of her situation slammed back down upon her shoulders. Phantom aches of the burden she bore made her back muscles burn and throb. She hardly registered taking her father’s arm and walking down the cobblestone path leading to the mansion. Ibara’s main priority at this point was breathing.

Her lungs seemed none too keen on inflating and providing her body with oxygen. Focusing on breathing appeared to further their disobedience, so instead, she attempted to focus on her surroundings. Shady wisteria trees lined the neat stone pathway; their wispy fronds curled over the lane to create a tunnel-like atmosphere. The feather-like branches ruffled in the breeze, mirroring Ibara’s waves of green hair, which rippled like green water as the wind played the strands like harp strings. The floral fragrance of their creamy purple plumes mingled with the scent of sweet pea still dousing Ibara’s skin. She found the aroma soothing, so her nerves settled just a bit.

They jumped back into high-gear once the house came into view. It was a magnificent, grand structure with an ornate porch stretching around the building, adorned with a white lattice trellis trawling with dark green vines. Through the gap in the porch above the stairs, she could see a sliding door painted with a lovely rendition of crows resting in the branches of an oak tree. Ibara huddled close to her father as they strode up the path. While her parents exuded auras of confidence and poise, anxiety bled from Ibara’s pores like dark, putrid water. When they stepped up onto the portico, the front doors slid open to reveal a dark-haired man and woman wearing regal purple-and-white kimonos.

“Welcome to our home. Please, come inside,” the man said with a regal bow. Ibara pressed against her father’s arm, regarding the noble couple with wide eyes. As the man raised his head, his gaze flickered to her. The deep ruby hue of his irises unsettled Ibara. Ibara likened them to bright red blood, and the image of the liquid leaking from her mangled, dead body suddenly bloomed in her head. The nausea returned full-force, but there was nothing to be done. Her parents quickly ushered her into the abode.

The polished wood beneath Ibara’s feet made not a creak as she hobbled alongside her father. A maid poured five glasses of aromatic ginger tea and distributed them to the families as they sat on cushions around a small coffee table. Her suitor was nowhere to be seen. Ibara wasn’t sure if that relieved or disconcerted her.

“Your reputation proceeds you, My Lady Shiozaki,” the head of the Tokoyami household smiled at Ibara with a respectful dip of his head. “Truly, words of your beauty do you no justice. You are even more splendid than the rumors suggest.” Though Ibara’s tongue was as dry as sandpaper, she forced herself to provide a small word of thanks. “We have much to discuss concerning the wedding ceremony to be performed at dusk,” he continued with a languid wave to her parents. “My son, Fumikage, is much eager to meet you. He is waiting in our garden out back.”

“My attendant shall escort you,” the mother piped up with a serene smile. The maid shuffled forward, bowed to Ibara, and then gestured toward the hallway leading out of the room. “We would like to give you this time to yourselves to get to know each other.”

Ibara knew this meeting was coming, but it did not stop all the starch from dissolving from her knees. She clutched the edge of the coffee-table in a white-knuckled grip as she pushed herself to her feet. Thankfully, the skirt of her kimono hid her wobbling knees. Ibara took a few moments to discreetly gather herself by steadying her breathing and steeling her nerves. It worked only just enough for her to take some tentative steps towards the attendant. The young girl immediately turned and disappeared into the thin hallway leading into the interior of the house. Ibara sucked in a breath and, without looking back at her mother and father, followed the servant.

Sunlight filtered in through the cloth windows to cast the hallway in a bright gold atmosphere. The stripes of light dappled across Ibara’s dark green kimono to dye it the brilliant emerald of her eyes. They walked for about two minutes before they came upon another sliding door. Ibara could hear birdsong and the babbling of window drifting through the thick cloth panes. The servant bowed to her once more.

“This is the entrance to the garden. When the preparations for the ceremony are complete, I will fetch you. Please excuse me,” the maid said, bowing deeper. Ibara acknowledged the young maid with a curt nod. Dismissed, the maid shuffled away down the hall. Ibara sucked in a nervous breath and faced the door. By all rights, it was an ordinary sliding door, but to Ibara, it looked like the entranceway to another dimension. Does it lead to Heaven or Hell? she wondered with an anxious gulp. Her fingers trembled as they slotted into the groove in the smooth wooden frame. The door rattled quietly as she drew it open. Fresh air carrying the aroma of various plants jumped through the gap, and the breeze ruffled the skirt of Ibara’s silk kimono friskily. Ibara opened the door halfway and shyly peered around it.

A garden extended behind the small porch ringing the backside of the structure. A massive wisteria, which dwarfed the specimens lining the path leading up to the house, dominated the back corner of the backyard. Its purple blossoms swayed in the gentle breeze like noiseless windchimes. A rock pathway meandered from the wooden steps around the grassy expanse, trailing around iron-wrought benches and flower patches and a koi pond with a small bubbling waterfall. Songbirds flitted through the grass, pecking at the ground in search of seeds and grubs. Ibara could see no one in her direct line of sight, so she cleared her throat and hesitantly called, “Hello?”

Ibara flinched when she heard the distinct sound of grass crunching underfoot. She used the door to shield the majority of her body as the footsteps approached. Suddenly, the songbirds scattered into the sky with frantic chirps and twitters to disappear into the leaves of the oak leaves looming over the garden wall. Ibara’s eyes widened as a young man strolled into view and squinted directly at her.

He was a handsome fellow; there was no doubt about it. His hair was a deep black like his parents’, shining with a violet tinge in the bright sunlight. It was close-cropped around his neck and ears but fluffy around the top, poofing out at the back not unlike a bird’s fluffy short tail feathers. He wore a cotton yukata of violet accented with lavender and white underlayers. A hand rested on the deep purple hilt of the katana secured to his hips. What captivated Ibara was his eyes, however- like his father’s, they were a deep crimson. They set like hard-cut rubies in his pale face, but their glittering harshness didn’t unsettle Ibara as before. Gleaming intelligence and curiosity shone within those vermillion irises, and Ibara found herself intrigued.

As Fumikage stared at her, Ibara remained huddled behind the door.

“Miss Shiozaki?” he called inquiringly. His voice vibrated with a deep bass, but it carried a light-hearted tone. Ibara’s anxieties began to wane, so she crept out from behind the door to walk out onto the porch. A pink haze appeared on her cheeks as his eyes visibly widened in awe. “F-forgive me,” he stammered after a few seconds of staring and hastily turned away. “I am simply overcome by your beauty…”

“You’re too kind,” Ibara smiled shyly. To be honest, she had not been sure what this son of a prominent samurai would be like; she was relieved to find him courteous and even a bit meek. Curiosity soon began to overtake her hesitations, so she walked closer to the top of the steps leading down to the garden. Fumikage’s gaze flickered to her, and before she could begin walking down the steps, he rushed forward to offer her his hand. “Thank you.” His hand was soft and welcoming as it gently embraced her fingers. He guided her down the steps and, when she regarded him expectantly, brought her hand to his mouth to respectfully kiss the top of her hand.

“I am pleased to make your acquaintance,” he smiled gallantly. Though it was purely customary to address her in such a way, Ibara could detect genuine joy swimming in his bright red irises.

“As am I,” she responded kindly. Fumikage’s gaze slowly trailed to her flowing waves of jade-green hair. When Ibara noticed his captivated stare, she giggled and offered him a swathe of her locks. He began to stammer and sputter refusals, flapping his hands about, but Ibara pushed the chunk of hair forward with a gentle laugh. “I don’t mind. It isn’t every day that you see a woman with green hair, no?” Fumikage gulped audibly but nodded and timidly took the hair in his hands. An awed breath ghosted past his lips as he admired the sheen of the green mane, and his thumb slowly trailed over the smooth strands, as if he appreciated the most beautiful gemstone. The way he drank in the luster of her hair made her cheeks redden further. Under his intense gaze, Ibara felt nothing less than a goddess.

“Simply marvelous… I have never seen anything like it…” Fumikage murmured. His gaze flickered upwards, and his red irises locked with Ibara’s green ones. With a nervous cough, he hastily dropped her hair and straightened back up to maintain some sense of poise. “Miss Shiozaki-”

“Ibara,” she corrected. A red hue blazed over the entirety of his face, and Ibara chuckled at how cute the young man was. “We are to be married today. Please, call me Ibara,” she insisted. He wrung his hands uncertainly for a few seconds.

“R-right then. Ibara,” he nodded, saying her name slowly like he was experimentally rolling it over his tongue. “As such, you may call me Fumikage.” He blushed fiercely when she repeated his name. “A-a-anyway, would you like to stroll with me around the garden?” he asked and offered her his arm. Ibara glanced around the extravagant backyard; it stretched along the entire backside of the manor, with the back wall a small black line in the distance. The stone path wandered through the garden, and its meandering curves would provide a nice long walk indeed. Smiling amiably, Ibara hooked her arms around Fumikage’s. A heat rose to her face when she felt the solid muscle hidden beneath the thick cloth, so she tried to focus on maintaining a friendly aura rather than on indecent thoughts. As she rested her hand on the thick of his arm, he draped his over hers. His touch was gentle and kind.

The walked in tandem along the winding pathway. Ibara esteemed the bamboo water fountain that filled the air with a repetitive, calm tapping as it flowed water into the koi pond. They paused beside the small pool, and Ibara watched the fish swimming along the muddy bottom. They flitted through the roots of the lotuses blooming on the surface in their big green pads, the shadows dappling their red, white, orange, and black multicolored scales. Ibara could barely see her reflection in the clear water and flushed when she noticed Fumikage smiling adoringly at her. After a few more minutes of watching the fish swim, they continued on their way.

“I am told that your mother crafts luxury clothes and accessories, and your father sells them, and this is how your family made your fortune,” Fumikage said after some time strolling down the path. “Did your mother make this?” he asked with a gesture to the ornate hairpin adorning her hair. Ibara raised a hand to touch the cloth-and-wire construction.

“Yes. She made it especially for this meeting.”

“She is very talented. I will have to extend her my compliments,” Fumikage smiled as he appreciated the lavish fixture. “Are you also a seamstress or craftswoman?” Ibara flushed and looked bashfully down at her feet.

“My mother taught me the craft, but I am not nearly as talented. My father says it is unbecoming of someone of my stature, but the servants say my true talent lies in the cultivation of plants…” she admitted meekly. Ibara possessed a great love of plants. From a young age, she had frequented their manor’s herb garden, which the cooks used rather than importing spices. They said that Ibara possessed a “green thumb”- an inherent ability to make plants flourish and thrive. “It is not a very useful talent for a noblewoman…”

“No!” Fumikage interjected, and she peered at him out of the corners of her eyes. He blushed slightly and adjusted his tone to a calmer one. “N-no,” he repeated softly, “I think that is a charming gift. I-if it pleases you,” he stammered with a sweeping gesture to the garden, “you can have leave of this place as you wish. The servants tend it, but if it made you happy, I would have you tend to it as you desire.” Ibara could not hide the eager expression that bloomed over her face.

“Really?!” As she enthusiastically looked around the garden, ideas for improvements sparked in her mind. Fumikage chuckled as he watched her glance around fervently. After a few seconds, she recalled her place and looked down at the hem of her dress in embarrassment. “Ah… Forgive me.”

 “Do not ask forgiveness,” he corrected her. His hand twitched once before resting under her chin to tilt her face up slowly. Her eyes widened when they met his ruby irises. “If this place makes you happy, then I am delighted.” His thumb swept once across her cheek in a feather-light touch before his hand dropped back to his side. A bright red tinge appeared on his face, and he cleared his throat gracelessly. “Sh-shall we continue…?” Ibara nodded sagely, and, feeling slightly bold, pressed herself a little closer to Fumikage. If he took notice of her intimate action, he didn’t acknowledge it.

The sun inched across the blazing blue sky as they ambled down the garden path. They discussed many things, including their respective childhoods and interests. Ibara had been surprised to learn that Fumikage was not merely a samurai in training, but also practice. He recounted a harrowing trail of hunting bandits in the nearby mountains for the daimyo, and how his first real battle had earned him a scar on his forearm. He showed it to her. Ibara marveled at the thin white line crossing the otherwise unmarred skin, and gulped when she imagined a sharp blade biting into the flesh of her own forearm. A phantom stinging pain slashed at her limb, and so she clutched it tightly.

“Did it hurt?” she whispered, eye flicking up to his. Amusement danced in his crimson eyes as he chuckled at her.

“Yes, it did hurt,” he chortled. “But I am better for the wound. I lived to fight another day and learned my sword better to prevent it from ever happening again.” Ibara nodded slowly, tracing the thin and unassuming scar with her fingertip. She jerked away when Fumikage flinched, and she wondered if perhaps the area was still sensitive. When she opened her mouth to apologize, he laughed. “That tickled.” She blinked a few times. She smiled with a soft giggle.

~~~~~~~~~~

After the sun had reached the highest point in the sky to beat down upon them, the pair of young nobles reclined under the wisteria tree to partake in its lovely shade. Their shoulders touched as they lounged against the thick trunk, and every subtle movement that made their arms brush sent crackling fire through Ibara’s nerves.

“Your home is truly beautiful,” Ibara sighed contentedly as she watched a few cotton-white butterflies dart through a nearby flowerbed. They perched on the bright blue flowers to suckle at the nectar within. Ibara felt more at ease than she ever had in the splendid garden, even if she was seated beside the man she was to marry in a few hours.

“I am relieved you find this place to your liking.” He was silent for a few seconds, then fidgeted uncomfortably. “To be honest,” he confessed with an awkward scratch at the back of his neck, “I was concerned that you would be unhappy in coming here. I understand that marrying a man you have never met is daunting…”  His vermillion eyes flickered to her face, and he flashed her a discomfited smile. “But I hope that you can still find it in yourself to learn to love me…”

“Fumikage,” Ibara whispered in admiration. The boy’s eyes were sad as he stared forlornly at the katana resting against the tree trunk. He is as uneasy about this as I am, she realized. She reached out to grasp one of his hands with both her own. “There is… much I do not know yet about you, just is there is much you don’t know about me,” she admitted with knitted eyebrows and a frown, “and I would be remiss to deny that I am still uncertain.” Fumikage looked at her uncomfortably.

Smiling sweetly, she reached up to run her fingers through his fluffy raven hair, finding it softer than a bird’s down. “I do not know yet what is to become of the two of us in this union, but there is one thing I can say for certain. As we take our vows with the gods as our witnesses, I will mean every word, because I have never met a man as kind and true as you.” He flushed red at her high praise, and he looked down at their adjoined hands. “I came here afraid to meet the man I was to wed. I am not afraid to learn to love you anymore.”

“That relieves me,” Fumikage murmured with a tiny smile. He edged out his thumb to stroke Ibara’s knuckles adoringly. “I am lucky,” he laughed and looked up with a bright smile. “I never imagined that I would marry a woman blessed by a god.” His hand pushed into her waves of green hair to tuck it behind her ear; as it retreated, it came to rest on her cheek, thumb sweeping arcs under her eye. She leaned into his touch, smiling at the peculiar softness of his calloused hand against her face. “I am sure the god looks upon you fondly, being such a generous and honorable woman as you are.”

“You flatter me,” she chuckled. Her eyes grew lidded as Fumikage’s continuous caresses eased her into a sense of security and comfort. There was no lie in his touch; though they had just met, genuine care and love existed in his soft strokes over her skin. Ibara’s eyelashes fluttered demurely as his smile widened.

“You may not want to look at me like that,” he warned spiritedly. “I may do something quite unbecoming of one of my stature.” At the usage of the phrase she had uttered not long ago, Ibara laughed good-naturedly.

“Well,” she smiled invitingly, “I think we have established that I am used to doing things unbecoming of my stature.” His lips curled upward into a smirk. Ibara shifted so that she was facing him fully as his hand pushed further against her cheek. She inhaled deeply in expectation as his face began to enclose on hers. Fumikage’s gaze trained on her lips, which parted slightly in preparation. The tip of his nose brushed against hers. Her eyes fluttered closed so that she could abandon herself in the feeling of their lips melding together.

Ibara released the breath she had been holding in a slow, contented sigh. Fumikage’s lips were soft and supple as they worked against Ibara’s mouth in hesitant, gentle motions. It was a sweet and chaste kiss but not without incredible feeling. When he pulled away, her eyes fluttered open, and she regarded him bashfully. He observed her with similar shyness, and he squeezed her hand firmly.

However, before he could say anything, the servant called from the porch. Though the young girl probably couldn’t see them in the dappled shadows of the large wisteria, the two nobles separated a bit and let go of one another hands to avoid any undue scolding. Fumikage shouted back to acknowledge they had heard the servant’s summons before looking at Ibara with a wan smile.

“Are you ready? It seems our parents have agreed on the final preparations.” Four hours ago, a pit of dread would’ve balled up Ibara’s belly, and nausea would’ve tainted her answer; now, after spending this short time with the young samurai, she was remarkably at peace. She stood and brushed the grass bits from the skirt of her kimono, and then breathed in calmly.

“Yes. I am ready,” Ibara nodded and exhaled a deep breath. She cast him a pleasant smile and extended her hand. “Walk in with me?” she requested hopefully. Fumikage raised an eyebrow at her, weighing the options. Their parents would likely disapprove of their closeness; after all, it was improper to be so intimate before one is married. He decided that he didn’t care and grasped her hand, using the other to grip his sword and use it as leverage to push himself up. Ibara flushed when he interlaced their fingers and smiled affectionately at her.

“All right, then. Let’s go.”

The wisteria flowers kissed Ibara’s face and shoulders as she walked through them, almost as if they were offering her their congratulations. The doused her in their floral perfume and deposited their small lavender petals in her long hair. The pond bubbled a little louder as she passed, or so she imagined, like it was celebrating the union to come. Smiling shyly, she rested her head on Fumikage’s shoulder as they approached the porch. He didn’t say anything, but instead leaned his head against hers with a slight nuzzle, threading his raven hairs with her jade ones.  

“Do you think they would consent to letting us marry under the wisteria? It’s such a splendid tree.” Fumikage chuckled and nodded his head, making their hairs twist further together.

“I am sure that can be arranged.”

They walked into the house, and so began the first moment of the rest of their hopefully blessed days together…

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

Tag List: @deliathedork​ @sadistiks @wesparklebitch​ @simplybakugou​

#bnhabookclub #bnhabookclub bingo event #tokobara #tokoyami x ibara #ibara x tokoyami #ibara shiozaki #shiozaki ibara #tokoyami fumikage #fumikage tokoyami #my hero academia #mha #bnha #boku no hero academia #my hero #mha fanfic #mha fanfiction #bnha fanfic #bnha fanfiction

[goodproofingwater]

Chapter 13 | Tinder Tommy

Word Count: 2522

Taglist (if you would like to be added just ask!):

@a-dorky-book-keeper @ishoutmarcoandyoushout @idesiretomhardy @theamuz @blinderscaps @peakywriting @justanothershelby @contemporary-mary @auroravipers @moonyscardigans @peakysxshelby @miss-shelby-barnes @vintage-fantasyyy @ly—canthrope @morgan-1830 @i-love-you-green @l0tsofpennies @exploringmycosmicsoul

Notes: 

Thank you all so much again for being so patient! I am going to go back and number all the chapters so they are easier to read through, hence the name on this one being a chapter name and not a wordy name (i am so bad at those!). Anyway, please feel free as always to send me any feedback or questions or comments on Tommy or his girl!

You are left with nothing but filthy texts as Tommy’s workload increases to the point where he barely leaves the office, and you wonder on more than one occasion how he would react if you showed up at his office and offered to help him to relax. But you hold back.

You know that this new relationship, if you could call it that, hangs in a very delicate balance of respect, business and lust, and although the more you learned about him the more you saw yourself feeling more than just the need to get on your knees for him, you don’t want to do anything that could change the way he feels about you. At least not until he is more clear with his own intentions as to where this is going.

And so when Jonathon walks into your office and asks you to make yourself free for a meeting at 2pm the next day, you feel a flush of arousal at the thought of being under Tommy’s keen gaze once more.

It had been weeks since you had seen him, and you dress in a white shirt, black pencil skirt and heels for the meeting, pushing your hair back into a slick ponytail in an effort to look professional in case your expression gives away just how interested you are in the man you failed to mention you were sleeping with.

Heels click along marble floors as you walk into what feels like an entirely different world. Shelby Company Limited’s headquarters were not at all what you had been expecting as you got to know a man who was so fond of whiskey and cigarettes. It’s front facing wall was made up entirely of glass, the white floors matched the white marble reception desk which you approached with caution, allowing Jonathan to take the lead as you did your best to hold your jaw tight as you looked around.

Everything that wasn’t white was silver, steel or black save for a huge painting of library shelves which had been composed in such a way that it looked 3D. As you moved towards it clipping the small visitors tag to the black suit jacket you had chosen to wear, it looked as though you were walking through the stacks. It was only when you were standing next to it that you saw the blocks protruding  from the canvas, and you had been so transfixed you hadn’t heard him approach.

“Interesting isn’t it?” His voice is like silk against your ears, delicious and enticing even when he has his professional face on. “I bought it at an art fair when we moved into this office specifically to entrance those waiting for a meeting. I find it has a way of affecting someone’s mindset.”

“Affecting someone’s mindset how?” You answer without thinking, Jonathan’s eyes darting to you as it seems you disrespect one of the most powerful men in London by talking without a proper introduction. Tommy’s eyes bore into yours, his tongue running along the back of his teeth as his lips remain slightly parted, forcing you to remember how he looks at you as you take him deep in your throat.

“Usually in my favour” is his response, and the eye contact lingers for only a moment before it’s broken by Jonathan holding his hand out.

“Good to see you again Mr Shelby.” He offers both of you a strong handshake as you introduce yourself, a small smirk washing over his lips as his thumb grazes the back of your hand in a way that lets you know he’s enjoying playing this game. That he understands from the short conversations he’s had with your boss that you have not told him the full extent of your ties to Shelby Company Limited.

“Likewise, but I will say Jonathan that you’d be seeing me a right side more if you had accepted my offer.

Jonathan’s smile falters, transforming into something you had never seen before, something fake and on the verge of a grimace as if he had been expecting the jibe, but not so soon or in front of company.

“Well while I’m always willing to help Mr Shelby my answer remains the same. I have loyalties to my film and I won’t be leaving any time soon.”

“Shame” he speaks, but he looks bored, as if this was a well rehearsed dance that he was eager to get out of. And maybe it was. Perhaps this very conversation happened much more regularly than you knew.

Just when you were about to step forward to prompt the men into moving, Tommy’s gaze turned to meet another man you had not heard approach regardless of the echo of the hall.

He was inches taller and years younger than the man you had been used to dealing with, a familiarity dancing on the features of the two men made you wonder if this was the younger brother he spoke of when you first met. His shoulders were broad and strong, his back straight and the air of superiority that radiated off of him was infinitely more frustrating than that of his older counterpart.

The younger man wasted no time in running his eyes up and down your body, his gaze hungry and although you could almost feel the smirk willing to form he kept up appearances.

“What time do you call this, Michael?” Tommy shook his arm to force his sleeve down as he made a show of looking at his Rolex, one which you shouldn’t know that he slept in, one which had left marks on your stomach where he had held you flush against his body.

“Sorry Tom had some acquisition orders to sign off and thought it best to get them rolling before this meeting. Michael Gray. Chief Accountant.”

He holds your hand a beat too long and Tommy notices, guiding the three of you into a lift which looks like something from a science fiction film. The floor is a giant light box, mirrors making up two walls and doors on the other two, and Tommy taps a small fob to an almost invisible black circle to force the box to move.

As Jonathan deals with the pleasantries you wonder how much Tommy has told his Chief Accountant. Does the man who is making no attempt to hide his lust know that his boss had you on your knees less than a month ago? He doesn’t show signs of recognition, only a lack of respect in the form of his eyes taking in every inch of your body that he can.

You get to the floor in under a minute, your stomach curiously okay for such a short flight up 26 floors and you are about to comment when the doors open into something the polar opposite of the reception.

Mahogany radiated from every inch of the room, the desks on the main floor large and important, each of them with an old fashioned green lamp and a chair to match. It felt like hundreds of staff as you walked past rows of desks, each member working on laptops and screens which vastly contrasted the desk beneath them.

The mixture of antique and modern was something that shouldn’t have worked but it did, and you were slightly dazed by obviously amounts of money which had been pumped into things which could easily have been bought for cheaper.

The wall of windows remains, and Tommy leads you toward it before turning left through a set of mahogany doors marked “Managers Suite”.

A large break out desk, also mahogany, sits in the middle of what could only be described as a small hall and two regal looking doors lined each wall, with one double set matching those that you had just come through sitting at the far end of the hall, elevated by a few steps.

There were less people here, but you could see the resemblance between some of them immediately, eyes which matches Tommy’s gazing up at you from a younger version of him, being attractive clearly running through genes.

Tommy led you through the double doors which sat upon the raised platform and into an office filled with more mahogany and polished brass, the wall of windows extending across the back wall of his office with blinds had drawn to fight the glare which must easily catch the screen on the laptop which sat on the huge mahogany desk.

But he did not lead you to the chairs which sat opposite, rather to the small square table which held steaming cups of coffee, a white sugar bowl piled high with brown sugar and a small milk jug to match. Each of the cups were decorated ornately, and were sitting on matching saucers.

You sat on the chair opposite Tommy, with Michael on your left and Jonathan on the right, and you listened as your boss and Tommy discussed formalities.

You could feel Michael’s eyes on you as you did your best to pay attention, and you glanced over at him only once his name was mentioned.

The small smile which washed over his features at your eye contact made your pulse race, his tongue darting out to lick at his bottom lip making you swallow thicker than you would have expected especially with Tommy sitting so close, and it’s the older man clearing your throat which diverts your attention from the younger.

“Why don’t you derail the case for us, Mr Gray” Jonathan speaks, and Michael tears his eyes from you to speak to the lawyer, unveiling a tale of a woman who is spreading a rumour that he sexually assaulted her while they both drank at a bar. The story went on that Michael was with several others, including a man of great influence; Jeremiah Jesus, who saw the woman happily partake in the flirting and touching, and a woman, Polly Gray (who turned out to be Michael’s mother) who overheard the woman scheming to “take Michael for millions” by pretending otherwise.  

It wasn’t long before Tommy began to bring you solidly into the fold, asking for your opinion on matters that otherwise would have been left to Jonathan, knowing that the lawyer would not be able to refuse his whims considering the cost of the service. And the best part was that instead of being incensed that he was losing control, Jonathan seemed incredibly impressed by how you were dealing with it.

“Well the thing about defamation claims Michael is that you have to prove that they’re not true.” You hope the implication in your words isn’t too much, but the silence which stretches as they wait for you to continue speaks volumes.

“I’m asking you if you did it” His leans back, confidence injected into his every move

“Do you really think I would do something like that?” You’re glad for the smirk on his features only for the satisfaction which comes from wiping it away.

“Yes. So did you?” Your fire takes him aback more than anything else, and his eyes dart between your questioning gaze and tommy who pretends to stroke his face in an attempt to hide his smirk.

“Like I said” Michael continues, clearing his throat and leaning forward to take his coffee cup and sip, “there’s proof I did nothing of the sort. And I would never treat a woman like that” The second sentence seems to come as an afterthought, his eyes meeting yours as he says it, and you bite your lip as you move your gaze to Tommy who has gone from smiling to serious in the space of a moment. His eyes met yours as his thumb dragged along his bottom lip, and Jonathan spoke to Michael as you practically felt Tommy undress you with his eyes, dominance filtering through his body language as you failed to hide your attraction to his cousin.

The tension was broken as Tommy fixed his attention to the task at hand, and as the meeting came to a close you began to realise the full weight of what you had done by introducing Jonathan to the idea of helping Shelby Company limited. But It wasn’t until after you had exchanged business cards and loaded goodbyes and you were walking across the courtyard having left the building that you realised its effect on your career.

“You were excellent in there,” Johnathan smiled, “I get the feeling that this is the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership”

And although he was offering you drinks and lunches to say thank you for such an affluent deal, all you could think about was when you would see Tommy again is a less professional capacity. And, if you were being totally honest with yourself, what it would feel like to be bent over that huge mahogany desk.

-

Tommy couldn’t help but watch as the gorgeous figure hugging skirt you chose clung to every inch of you, slowly testing his patience, slowly driving him crazy with the thoughts he had to bat off in an attempt to stay professional. Your hips moved as if in time to music toward the lift, and you shook hands with him and Michael, the smell of your perfume intoxicating him more than it had done when he had woken up next to you.

Something about being in this professional setting, or something about the hint of jealousy he felt as you eyed his cousin, had him keen to book in another date, another tryst, another excuse to touch and lick and kiss you.

When he had finally returned to the managers suite, he grabbed Michael’s arm before he had the chance to disappear into his office. It was not lost on him that Michael had been looking at you the way he had, and although he was a man who was not the exclusive kind, he was also not okay with sharing.

“Don’t even think about trying to fuck our lawyers strategist” he takes he professional angle, but the smirk which spreads across Michael’s face tells the older man that he doesn’t care for professionalism in this instance.

“But she’s—“ a moment of realisation washes over the blonde, and his smirk turns into a grin before he speaks louder than Tommy would have liked, “that was the girl from your phone wasn’t it? The one who’s been sending you nudes?”

Tommy swallows, lips parted ever so slightly as he lets the silence talk for him, and Michael let’s out a short laugh before he shakes his head.

“Well damn, a body like that and brains too.. I would be an idiot not to try something..”

The grip on Michael’s arm tightens, and John notices, freeing himself discreetly from the conversation he was having with his executive assistant incase things took a turn for the worst.

“I’m telling you Michael. She’s off limits. Both because of the defamation case, and for your own sake.”

But lines being drawn had never done anything but enthuse Michael to break them, and the shit-eating grin remained on his lips as he sneered, “we’ll see”

#tommy shelby fanfic #tommy shelby imagine #tommy shelby #peaky blinders fanfic #peaky blinders imagine #peaky blinders #lauren writes #tinder tommy

[castycasty]

Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and Tiktok on hot sit, see latest apps racing to overtake them.

CastyCas

Tumblr

Tumblr, also spelt Tumbir and pronounced Tumbler is a microblogging social networking site founded in 2007 by an Americaan computer programmer David Karp.l

Bloggers in Tumbir can follow fellow bloggers, they can make posts, comment, reblog and start conversations, like other people's posts or comments, upload texts, images, videos, quotes and links as well as start a group chat. Art works, personal thoughts, original GIFs, edited remix of celebraties can also be shared on Tumbir.

A Tumbir user can link posts with twitter and facebook, they can also tag other tumbir users as well as privately chat with other Tumbir users one-on-one.You can just be an onlookers watching and reading what others are writing, saying and doing without qualms, if you are the shy type like me.

Tumbir says it is a place where users interests connect the user with and to his or her people, Tumbir touts itself as a place for freedom of expression,where users can say whatever and however using it's queuing tabs to say it whenever.

The beauty of Tumbir is that since December 17th 2018, Adult content is prohibited, although not completely as LGBTQ contents is known to be promoted and protected by the platform, just like Facebook.

Tumbir is available in Android and windows.It also allows you to chat secretly using inbox features. Group chats, story boards, Queuing and dashboard are some of the unique features of Tumbir with which it intend to outshine facebook.

Users interests are shared and respected in Tumbir hence serving as a foster home to many, as it allows them to express their individuality and to be who they really are and what they really want to be.

Tumbir allows it users to like and stay connected with stuff that matters to them, with Tumbir, you can express youraelf, be yourself, connect with your people and join millions of communities across millions of hashtags.

Currently, Tumbir has 167 million users worldwide, it has about 441 employees, it headquaters is located in New York City.

Tumbir has about 500 millions blogs, 500 million monthly visitors, 172 billion posts and about 21 million daily posts. Tumbir is 12Mb app, making it a non space consuming app.

Yahoo bought it in 2013, at 1.1 billion dollars, it was later sold to Automatic at about 300 million dollars due to decline in advertisements revenues.

Promoters of Tumbir hope that one day Tumbir and not Facebook will be the talk of the town.

 Parler

Parler is a U.S based news based, micro blogging social networking service app which was launched in August 2018 by its founder John Matze.

It is being ardently promoted by political conservatives in America who tout it as alternative to Twitter which they believe is strifling free speech.

Parler is multilingual just like it's arch rival Twitter, it has it's headquarters situated in Henderson, Nevada US.

Parler currently has about 5 million users world wide, and has been downloaded over 1 million times on the Google play store, it has been touted as the fasted growing microblogging site of 2020.

The promoters of Parler say parler is unique in the sense that it's a commenting platform that's not biased, promotes free speech and solidly focused on protecting users right.

They say that parler enables its users create their own community and enjoy contents and news in real time while applying moderation tools to filter contents, they say it empowers users to control their social media experience and be a verified member of the community.

Leon Rife, a parler user wrote this about parler on the internet;"Super easy to use, whipped right through registration page, so i can't understand how others seems to be having a problem with it. I've been using this app for about a month, as well as Twitter and really enjoy parler as the superior app for content and expression...great app and great platform.

Another parler user, Tom lane said the app is wonderful for open self expression, "if you're looking for a Twitter alternative, this is it..."

The oops about the app especially for Nigerian users is that unlike Twitter, Parler requires your valid means of identification for you to be verified, unverified users may have their experience limited as people who don't like what you posted or commented can label you as a robot which may earn you some unpalatable repercussions.

Can parler displace or even stand neck to neck with Twitter? Only time shall tell

Telegram

Telegram was the massaging app that forced WhatsApp to go into end to end encryption, because that's exactly what telegram say it is all about.

Telegram says it is fast, synconizable, unlimited in the amount of data users can upload, download or send. They say they are secure, powerful,reliable,fun filled, simple in use and accessibility, respects users privacy as well as enables secret chats which deletes itself immediately after sending and after reading by the reciever.

Telegram doesn't accept advert and doesn't advertise itself anywhere, despite that, it has 500 million downloads as against whatsapp's 5 billion downloads on the Google play store. it is a 22.92 Mb app as against whatsapp's 23.81 Mb, people prefer smaller apps to larger ones as they strive to conserve space, hence, telegram's increasing popularity.Critics say that telegram's strict encryption fuels and supports the spread of terrorism.

It was developed in 2013 by Russian brothers Nikolai Durov, Pavel Durov who is the chief executive officer CEO, and an entrepreneur Axel Neff.

Telegram has it's legal headquaters in London UK and its operational headquarters in United Arab Emirates.

Telegram has about 400 staff, about 400 million active users. It is presently in the top ten of the most downloaded app of apple and Google app stores.

This massaging app enables users to securely connect with family, classmates, co workers and others. It is a cloud based instant massaging, video telephony, Voice over internet service app which enables fast and secure usage.

Remember that Telegram has never advertised itself anywhere, all its users come after recommendations by users who are mesmerized by its strong principles and quality features.

It's available on Android, IOS, Windows phone, Windows computers, Mac Os, GNU/Linus platforms, in almost all the countries of the world and accessible in 15 different languages.

Telegram was Instrumental in the recent anti government uprising in Iran.

Triller

Triller is owned by the owner of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, it was founded on December 5th,2015, but was retooled, reactivated, reinvigorated and updated on August 5th 2020, in what analysts see as an attempt to rival tiktok.

Triller is a video creation application where an Android phone owner who downloads the app can produce own music videos using the songs that are available in the music library. Triller is a video creation app which also works as a social media platform in various ways.

Thanks to the current situation of tiktok in the face of US president Trump's threat of banning it, Triller is blazing the trails in the hope of catching up with tiktok and even overtaking it.

Triller says it is not seeking to rival tiktok, afterall it is older than tiktok, as it was founded in 2015 while tiktok was founded in 2017, instead it sees itself as the "adult version of tiktok", matured tiktok so to say.

It is available on Android's Google play store, it is 43.93 Mb app as against 58.98Mb making it a darling of users with low end smartphone.

Triller has 120 million downloads as against tiktok's 1 billion downloads, but it's known to have a growth than tiktok.

Trump campaign, snoop Doggy, Lil Wayne, Alicia Keys, Eminem and other celebrators have opened triller accounts as triller continuous to cash in on tiktok's China connection backlash.

Promoters of Triller say that Triller enables users to show off their unique talents.

If you know tiktok and you know Triller, if you see Tiktok you see Triller because Trillion is a copycat with advanced modifications. It remain whether American's Triller can beat China's Tiktok in China's home field of copycating.