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chalkrevelations · 3 years

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Moving on to Episode 4 of Word of Honor, and y’all.

Wait, first: If you’re new or just visiting, this is a re-watch, so there are SPOILERS not just for this ep but for the ENTIRE SHOW. Maybe a lot of them. Scroll away and come back later if you haven’t seen all 36.5 eps and want to watch it unspoiled. (They’re all gonna be tagged “word of honor episode reax”)

A couple of big things, first:

So, right up front, I don’t know for sure that this is the first time we’ve heard the word, but it’s the first time I’ve twigged to it in this re-watch. As Zhou Zishu and Chengling are leaving the inn in the morning, at the very beginning of the ep, Wen Kexing asks why ZZS continues to call him gongzi and wants to know if he’s still too much of an outsider for a less formal form of address. He uses the word 外人 (wairen) (at 2:30) for “outsider,” which is how the subs translate it here. Anybody who’s been around for these flailing reactions since the first time I watched the show might remember that I made a deal about this somewhere around in the late 20s of the episodes, based on a post from someone that I scrolled quickly past while avoiding spoilers and that I have NEVER FOUND AGAIN and am STILL LOOKING FOR, that alerted me to the use of this word and its nuances in ep 25. There’s a conversation there about WKX possibly taking over some of Chengling’s training at Siji Manor, and WKX demurs, calling himself “外人.” Youku translated it there as “someone else,” as in having “someone else” train your disciple, and ZZS responds with “And you’re 外人?” again translated as “someone else.” This actually seems to mean “stranger,” or “outsider,” as they do actually translate it here in Ep 4 - presumably someone who’s from outside your sect, at least in the Ep 25 instance, in which WKX is labeling himself that while he’s in the midst of his upcoming crisis, trying to keep his emotional distance from ZZS and Siji Manor. It’s used again in Ep 26, when ZZS finds WKX giving training advice to Chengling, and it’s one of the ways they have WKX and A-Xiang reflect each other, when she uses it in Ep 29, and rejects it as a description of herself, in order to claim a place in Cao Weining’s sect/family (which, now, knowing … GOD. My HEART). Anyway, I found it super-interesting that WKX is using this word here in Ep 4 to push against ZZS’s boundaries, in contrast to the way he’ll use it later, to try to fortify his own walls against ZZS and Siji Manor. I begin to suspect that he doesn’t want to tell ZZS who he actually is because, maybe, just a little bit, he wants ZZS to figure it out, to recognize him, to truly know him (zhiji) without him having to spell it out. We kind of travel back around to this idea near the end of the ep, when WKX is questioning ZZS about the Baiyi sword, and ZZS tells him that their relationship is like the fish that ZZS unsuccessfully tried to cook and threw on the ground – raw (i.e., unacquainted) – to explain why he keeps shutting out and shutting down WKX. Only we know now that isn’t entirely true, and WKX certainly suspects it isn’t entirely true. (Also, just an observation, ZZS says in that later scene that he’s not interested in who WKX is. DON’T TELL HIM THAT, my dude, now it’s going to be 3,246 episodes before he’ll give you any personal info.)

Also, just a note – I think we make the switch from Zhou-xiong to A-Xu in this ep. (ETA: No! I have been reliably informed by @janedrewfinally that this switch happened back at the end of Ep 3 (at 41:18), and it seems to be part of what precipitates the Completely Reasonable, Not At All Flirtatious, Utterly Heterosexual No Really, Like Bros way that ZZS takes WKX's wine jar. You know the incident we mean.)

The second thing that I really started turning over in my head here is the developing relationship between WKX and Chengling, and this is one of the things that took me so long on this one, because I wanted to go back and look at those two, specifically, in the previous eps again, and revisit their interactions both with and without the mediating factor of ZZS. The first time WXK sees Chengling is in the marketplace at the end of Ep 1 when Chengling ends up giving his token to ZZS. But I think the first time WKX sees Chengling is maybe when WKX’s sitting in the cutout window with his drinkie during the massacre of Mirror Lake and ZZS draws the Baiyi sword to protect Boatman Li and Chengling, just before they make it to the boat and float away back to the mainland. I don’t know how much of the beginning of the fight in the abandoned temple WKX then sees before A-Xiang makes her entrance, but there’s a lot of Chengling flinging himself in front of Boatman Li and ZZS in a way that’s not entirely dissimilar to the way Zhen Yan will fling himself at his parents’ bodies in flashback in a later episode, and then WKX definitely sees dying Boatman Li charge ZZS with Chengling’s care, then make Chengling bow, in a parallel to the scene we’ll get later when Qin Huaizhang accepts Zhen Yan as a Siji Manor shidi. In Ep 3, there’s a lot of weird sympathetic looks from WKX as A-Xiang berates Chengling over dinner (she doesn’t quite have this jiejie thing down yet, and she’s probably never had someone younger than her to take care of) for not taking care of himself so he can be strong and get his revenge for his family’s deaths. This time out, Ep 4, we start with the beggar gangs coming after Chengling, which has some resonance with the former Ghost Valley Master and his Ten Devils standing around the bodies of Zhen Yan’s parents and debating what they’re going to do with this kid before they steal him away. You can see WKX’s eyes start to narrow as the lead beggar dude talks, and he eventually even asks them, “What are you going to do if he doesn’t want to go, take him away by force?” We get a LOT of cutting to WKX in this conversation, even though he ostensibly has nothing to do with this, it’s really a convo between Beggar Guy, ZZS and Chengling. WKX pulls focus, and he eventually provokes that fight, and sure, he wants to see ZZS fighting and hopefully get a look at the Baiyi sword, and he even may think that’s the extent of his ulterior motives, but I’m not sure that actually is the full extent of his motives, there. This episode is also when we really see WKX start to encourage Chengling to continue to press at ZZS about taking him as a disciple, including the first use of the infamous “Tough women can’t resist clingy men” saying. Chengling comments that he was just supposed to be Son #3 who stayed home and took care of the old people, and WKX comes back with the Extremely Significant Comment that “When the children want to fulfill their filial piety, the parents have died,” which is not only Extremely Significant, but also sounds like it may be a quote from a poem or other literature? Anyway, a lot of this is just to say, KINDLY AU ANON WHO WAS THINKING ABOUT WRITING THE STORY IN WHICH WKX GETS CUSTODY OF CHENGLING BECAUSE ZZS IS NOT AT MIRROR LAKE, ARE YOU STILL OUT THERE? Hopefully you are hard at work, writing, because I have been having thoughts about this relationship.

What else? Kind of chronologically:

First of all, it continues to physically pain me to have to look at that horrifying facial hair, ZZS. I cannot WAIT to hit Ep 6.

We open this ep on WKX rolling walnuts in his hand in a way that is reminiscent of SOMEONE who we’ve seen do that before – multiple times, given they put that shot of Ghost Valley Master in the opening credits. Nevertheless, I didn’t catch this right away on my first time through. It took me a few episodes, and then I FINALLY noticed the opening credits shot right in front of my face. Point to you, show. Once you know, this ep practically shoves it in your face, recreating not only the walnut rolling, but a dude getting held up in the air and choked out (which we’ve seen before, in Ep 1 (and will see again)) before being slammed down on the ground with WKX crouched over him (which we’ve seen before, in Ep 1). Later, WKX is concerned about his manicure (which we’ve seen before, in Ep 1). It’s actually a little bit funny that both he and ZZS - a master assassin and a guy who literally skinned another dude (and maybe ate him?) to take his throne – are both so prissy about actual, literal blood. Anyway, is it significant or a coincidence that WKX waits until ZZS and Chengling are out of sight before actually going wild-eyed? You know the look I mean.

OH MY GOD, it’s Lovelace. I had blocked this dude from my mind. Eurgh. Nevertheless, there are a number of things I love about his scene, and all of them are related to A-Xiang, my feral beloved - from the way she clomps into the room, completely unworried about stepping the least bit gracefully while making her presence known and stomping (lit. and fig.) all over his dramatic little bit, to the way she berates him, threatens him with “Aunt Luo,” bares her teeth at him, and makes the eye-gouging motion at him. She is the best, and I adore her. I also love how she literally laughs in WKX’s face at his comment that maybe he just wants to be friends with ZZS, OK, is that alright?

The fight with the beggar gangs in this ep may be the first time we see something similar to the cage of spears maneuver in Prince Jin’s throne room all the way up in Ep … what? 30? … although it won’t be the last time we see it, and each time we see ZZS is perfectly capable of avoiding it or escaping it, making me suspect that Tian Chuang only “trapped” him in it because he let them, just like he only got taken back to Prince Jin in chains, in the first place, because he let it happen. We see it at 5:30 with the beggar gang’s staffs, when ZZS breaks it up by literally flinging another dude into the middle of it. We see it at 5:41, when he kicks his way out of the formation. And we see it at 8:15, when the sheaths have come off the swords, and he feints under them to break his way out. Just noticing.

When WKX is talking about the Baiyi sword as they all sit around ZZS’ sad little raw fish in the dirt by the lakeside, he mentions that Rong Changqing created three master works – the White Cloth sword, the Dragonback, and the “Great Wild Land,” per Youku’s translation. ZZS has the Baiyi sword, I assume the Dragonback is Ye Baiyi’s sword. Is the Great Wild Land actually the Ghost Valley? Given what we learn from Ye Baiyi in the back nine about Rong Changqing and his plans for Ghost Valley? Anyway, then we get some magic pipa playing, and ZZS (trying to, apparently) play WKX’s xiao in musical self-defense, and even though he leaves his opponent bleeding, WKX takes the opportunity to make suggestive comments about teaching him how to blow properly, just in case WKX’s been slacking on his act as a cheesy pick-up artist and anyone’s beginning to see through him. ZZS yells at Chengling for his lack of martial skill, then yells at him for crying, because that always works, particularly with traumatized teenagers who have had their entire family and sect massacred like, two nights ago. As a shifu, I’m not sure how you manage to inspire such devotion, my dude. WKX plays the indulgent parent, but also reassures Chengling that ZZS has good reasons for yelling at a traumatized, newly orphaned kid. I suppose he is getting him ready for all the yelling that’s going to go down once they get to Five Lakes Alliance and Chengling has to deal with Gao Chong and Shenshen. Chengling’s response, with WKX’s encouragement, is to ask to be ZZS’s disciple again. Was Han Ying (who I guess we’ve yet to actually meet at this point (EDIT TO ADD: NO WAIT, he was in Ep 1)) this much of a little dumbass to 24-year-old ZZS when Han Ying was 14? (EDIT 2 TO ADD: And who is writing this story, omg.) Although, ugh, that makes me realize that part of ZZS’s bad mood is that Chengling asking to be a disciple must be bringing up a shit-ton of bad stuff for ZZS about how he got all the other Siji Manor disciples killed. (Wen Kexing sees himself in Chengling, making his bow to Qin Huaizhang, one of the few good things that ever happened in his life, while ZZS sees all those red flowers on the mural back in his rooms in Prince Jin’s palace.) A final lakeside observation – A-Xiang pokes at ZZS’s uselessness as a cook here, and WKX will later ask him why he’s so utilitarian about food and drink, when they’re the greatest pleasures of life. (Really, WKX? THE greatest pleasures? Although that’s certainly an interesting comment given where we end up, in the end.) And it makes me begin to wonder – is ZZS so bad at cooking, and does he continue to avoid it, at least partially because he’s already losing his senses enough so that it interferes with preparing a tasty meal?

Also, we meet the Four Scorpion Assassins, and Pretty Arhat and Evil Bodhisattva have some pretty bold names, but now I’m back on my thing about the women in this show, and wondering what kind of enlightenment or release these two feel like they’ve had, and how it may or may not resemble the mindset of the women of the Department of the Unfaithful in Ghost Valley. I’m not well-versed in Buddhism, though, and am maybe not the person to take on how that religious symbolism is or is not used as a metaphor for female freedom in this show.

This is getting kind of long, so one last observation for now, and I think I may have mentioned this before: WKX has color-coded ZZS and Chengling as a unit in the robes he bought for them when he also rented out the entire inn. He’s not in the same color, but he is in a complementary shade and tone, which I find interesting. Also, his sash is sort of salmon, not the red of his Ghost Valley getup, but not completely divorced from it, either.

#wen kexing #zhou zishu #zhang chengling #gu xiang #word of honor #word of honor episode reax

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marjansmarwani · 3 years

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we’re not broken, just bent

7.1k || ao3

When the school year started, Carlos Reyes had not been expecting to fall for the new English teacher. When he met TK Strand, Carlos had not expected to find the love he had always wanted so close at hand. Now that they have each other everything seems just a bit brighter, and a bit lighter. Navigating the twists of turns or life and teaching and relationships isn’t always easy, but if Carlos gets to keep TK Strand in his life, he will do anything to make it work - even if he doesn’t always get it right on the first try.

Or, Teacher AU, Part 2

Revisiting one of my favorite AUs for Day 6 of Carlos Reyes Week. Find the first part here.

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“You would think that by now you would know better than to have your phone out at my table, Carlos Alberto Reyes.”

Carlos looked, startled, from his phone to find his mother looking at him pointedly while his dad tried not to look too amused from his seat across from Carlos. He blinked, before realizing he must have been staring at his phone for longer than he had thought before hastily sliding it back into his pocket. “Sorry,” he offered sheepishly, “were you saying something?”

His father didn’t even bother to contain his laughter at that and his mother rolled her eyes, “I was, but now I’m more interested to know who this boy that has you glued to your phone is.”

“Who says it’s a boy?” Carlos said defensively, ignoring the feeling of heat climbing up his cheeks.

“Unless something significant has changed in the past 2 weeks I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet, mijo,” his mother deadpanned. “He must be something special to make you smile like that.”

“I wasn’t smiling.”

His mom looked unimpressed, but his dad snorted outright, “it’s a good thing you’re a good teacher kid, because you would make a lousy actor.”

“You know if you guys are just going to keep ganging up on me I might just stop coming over for Sunday lunches.”

“It’s not wise to make empty threats Carlos, we all know you can’t resist my cooking.”

“I wonder what it’s like to have nice parents.”

Both of his parents ignored his jab. His dad returned his attention to his lunch while his mother leaned closer, “you know I have to tease you, Carlos, it’s my job. But if this boy makes you as happy as those smiles seem to indicate, then I am happy for you. I’d also like to meet him,” she added almost as an afterthought.

“Mom.”

“It’s a mother’s prerogative, Carlos. You should bring him by for lunch one Sunday.”

His mother was looking at him earnestly, but Carlos turned his gaze instead to the food on his plate, “things are still pretty new,” he admitted, “I don’t want to move too fast. He’s still a little gun shy from some past experiences, I want to make sure we go at a pace that works for him.”

He could feel the gaze of both of his parents on him now, but he kept his focus on his plate. It was something that he had been reminding himself of every day. TK had opened up to him, had told him everything and all the ways his ex had hurt him. He had made huge strides and put so much of it behind him, but Carlos was still wary. He didn’t want to push too hard; he didn’t want to risk what they were starting by being too hasty. What they had right now was so good, and if being patient and a little cautious meant he got to keep it, Carlos was okay with that.

He knew his mother was studying him without even having to see her face. When he did look up and meet her eyes, she gave him a smile, “You have always had a big heart mijo, it’s one of the things that makes you so special. You’ve spent your life always looking out for others, so I just need to ask: is that what you want too? Is that what is going to make you happy?”

He holds his mother’s gaze, and can feel his father watching them both. They’re waiting for him to answer, giving him time to think about it, but he doesn’t need to: “Yes Mom, he makes me happy.”

She smiles wide and reaches out to place a hand on top of his, “Then I am sure we will love him, whenever we get to meet him.”

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“How was lunch with your parents?”

Carlos looked up from the coffee machine on TK’s counter to see his boyfriend watching him from the table. Carlos shrugged as the pot finished brewing, pouring the fresh coffee into two mugs, “Pretty much the usual, but with the addition of them giving me shit about being on my phone because someone was texting me.”

“I refuse to be guilted for wanting to talk to my boyfriend,” TK declared as he accepted the offered mug, “besides, if I had to suffer through Mateo’s niece's softball game, I wasn’t going to do it alone.”

“Good to know I could bring you some comfort in such trying times.”

TK rolled his eyes at him as he settled into the seat across from him and he grinned. He studied TK for a moment, taking in how at ease he looked. It was a far cry from the man he had met back in September, with walls a mile high and still living out of boxes because he was too scared to put down roots. Looking around his apartment now, you would never know.

The bookshelves were haphazardly arranged with books and mementos, and the walls were covered in pictures. Some included the backdrop of the Big Apple, but more and more were of his new life here in Austin. There were pictures of TK and his team on trivia nights and bowling outings. There was a picture from the faculty-student volleyball game, and more than a few of TK and Carlos. It was a physical reminder of how far they’d come; a visual representation of their journey together.

Not that Carlos had forgotten a single moment of it, but it was still nice to see it memorialized.

That reminded him of his mom’s question earlier, and his answer. He hadn’t needed to think about it and here was the proof: he was happy. It had only been a few months, but being with TK Strand was everything Carlos had always wanted, but had been becoming less and less sure he would ever get.

“They asked about you, actually,” he finally said, breaking the comfortable silence.

TK looked up abruptly, surprise written all over his face, “They did?”

Carlos nodded, “They, uh...they want you to come over for lunch with me some week.”

“Oh.”

The response was soft, but it set Carlos’s nerves on end. They were in such a good place, he didn’t want to ruin this. He should have never brought it up, “I told them it was too soon,” he said quickly, “that we were taking it slow.”

“Oh,” TK said again, voice still quiet, “okay.”

There was something in his expression Carlos couldn’t quite identify, but before he could dive deeper into it, TK changed the subject.

“Remind me again why we always seem to save all this for Sunday night?”

Carlos glanced down to his abandoned stack of papers waiting to be graded and back to find TK looking at him mournfully beside his own stack.

“Because we are responsible adults who understand time management?” he offered.

“Sounds right,” TK agreed, turning his focus back down to the paragraph he had been reading. Carlos finished the paper he had been on before he decided they needed fresh coffee and reached for the next one in the stack, only to frown as he read the first line: In the novel Things Fall Apart, the main character Okonkwo…

He doesn’t read the rest, because his classes don’t read Things Fall Apart. He holds it up to TK instead, “I think this is one of yours.”

TK scowled at the offending paper, “Do you want to grade it?”

“I do not.”

“And here I thought you liked me.”

Carlos gave him an unimpressed look and pushed the paper towards him. TK took the offered paper with a dramatic sigh, “I love teaching, I really do, but every time I let the grading pile up I question my life choices all over again.”

“I guess that is on us for deciding to teach English,” Carlos mused, “I hear other content areas don’t have to grade piles of writing each week.”

“So you’re saying we should switch content areas? Just show up tomorrow and tell Judd we’re teaching new stuff now?”

“Gym teacher always did sound kind of appealing,” Carlos admitted wistfully, “it would be a lot less grading.”

“Now that is an idea I can get behind,” TK said appreciatively, running a suggestive gaze over Carlos’s form, “does it come with those little shorts?”

Carlos gave his boyfriend an exasperated look before reaching over to grab a pen, which he threw at him, “Focus, Strand. Work now, play later.”

“Authoritative too - I’m liking gym teacher Carlos more and more.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“Prepping for your SAT tutoring sessions?”

“Yes, actually. Which is why I really need to get this done, if you don’t mind.”

The words had far more bite than he had intended and he regretted them the moment they were out of his mouth. TK’s expression softened as he handed the pen Carlos had just tossed at him, “I’m sorry Carlos, I know you have a lot on your plate right now. I didn’t mean to distract you.”

“No,” Carlos countered, running a hand through his hair, “you’re fine, I’m sorry for snapping. I’m just a little tense, I think.”

“Can’t imagine why,” TK said lightly, “it’s not like you were asked to take over SAT prep for the entire 12th grade on top of everything you already do or anything.”

“Not the whole thing, just the English portion.”

“That’s enough Carlos. And you’re going to do great with it because you're an amazing teacher. And I’m going to help you, however I can - starting with shutting up and getting my work done so you can get some work done, I promise.”

TK gave him a smile and Carlos watched as he returned to his work, biting on his lip absentmindedly as he read, reaching down occasionally to write something in the margins. As he thought he gently tapped his pen against his mouth and when he went to stretch his shirt rode up ever so slightly, giving Carlos a peek at his toned chest. As all this was happening, Carlos made a decision.

“One more hour, then we put it away,” he announced.

TK glanced at him in surprise, “You sure? We still have a lot to do.”

“Nobody’s going to die if these assignments aren’t graded tonight,” Carlos reminded him. “Besides, I can think of many other things I would rather do on a Sunday night when I have you all to myself, Mr. Strand.”

TK confused expression melted and a coy grin took its place, “Oh, is that so Mr. Reyes?”

“I guess you’ll just have to wait an hour to find out.”

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“Remind me again what we’re doing?”

“We’re putting up a bulletin board of 9th graders who have been on the honor roll for the first two quarters.”

“Uh-huh. And why am I - someone who does not teach 9th graders - the one helping you?”

“Because Marwani and Chavez get too distracted during this kind of stuff and while your boyfriend would usually be my choice, he’s grading essays. And you know how he gets when he’s grading essays. Besides, don’t pretend like you’re hating the chance to get to see some more of my face, Reyes.”

Carlos rolled his eyes at Paul as he handed him the next stack of papers to be stapled to the bulletin board in the front entry of the school, “That is blatantly false, I object.”

“Then maybe it’s the fact that you’re too nice to tell me no.”

“I am not too nice to leave you stranded here with no help Strickland, don’t tempt me.”

“It always does my heart good to hear the dulcet tones of inter-grade level cooperation,” a new voice said wryly and Carlos twisted around to see Judd Ryder approaching. “Do y’all need a babysitter or can you play nice?”

“I think we can handle it,” Carlos assured him, “but if not I’ll let you know.”

“Please try not too, I have so much paperwork to catch up on.”

“Ah, the glamorous life of an administrator,” Paul noted as he stapled more student names up onto the board, “next you’re going to wow us with tales of your endless meetings.”

“You laugh now, but give it a few more years and you might just decide to give it a try yourself. I think you'd have a knack for it - both of you.”

“But if we took you up on that you’d be down two teachers,” Carlos pointed out, “better not risk it.”

“Besides,” Paul added as he climbed down from the chair he had been standing on, “I greatly prefer only having to deal with misbehaving teenagers. You can have all the problem-causing adults, thank you very much.”

“I’d try to argue, but you’re right. Sometimes I miss the days where the kids were the only ones I was responsible for. Since I’ve got you here though Reyes, I wanted to check in - how’s the SAT prep going?”

Carlos shrugged, “we’re having our first session tonight, but the signup sheet makes it look like there should be a good turn out.”

“Good. Thanks again for taking on the extra work, I know it can’t have been easy.”

Carlos shrugged again, “if it helps them then why not? It’s only a few sessions, not a big deal.”

Judd nodded and gave him a smile, “Still, I really appreciate it. I do actually have stuff to do so I’m going to head back to my office, try to behave yourselves out here.”

With a wave to them both he was gone, and Paul turned to Carlos with raised eyebrows, “It’s only a few sessions, not a big deal? Man, talk about brown-nosing: you have been a walking stress headache since you took that on.”

“Yeah, but that was all the prep work. Running the actual sessions should be fine.”

“Either you’re Superman or you’re lying to yourself.”

“How are things going in the 9th grade wing? I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to stop by in a while.”

Paul’s look clearly stated how much subtlety Carlos lacked, but he answered regardless, “Pretty good. No major drama for the past few months, thank god. Just a lot of the typical teen drama.”

“Then I guess they don’t change all that much because that’s pretty much how the Seniors are, with the added bonus of college applications. How’s Seth doing?”

“Better. He’s been doing some one on ones with TK and I think they’ve really helped.”

“I think they’ve helped them both,” Carlos admitted, “I think being able to see his past as something to help someone else has been a good thing.”

Paul smiled sadly as he began to gather up the extra supplies, “I’m happy for him. I hated seeing him so ashamed about it, and no amount of saying it was fine ever seemed to get through to him.”

“Are you calling TK Strand stubborn Paul?”

“Perish the thought.”

Carlos laughed as he helped Paul gather the last of the supplies and they turned back towards the 9th grade wing and Paul’s classroom. They walked in silence for a bit before Paul spoke, “Are you sure you don’t need any help with these extra sessions? I don’t know how much help I would be with the actual content part as a science teacher, but if you just want another body in the room or something all you have to do is ask.”

Carlos shook his head and gave the other man a smile, “I’m good Paul, really. Besides, TK has already offered at least 6 times.”

“Still, if you need anything...”

“If I need any help with a bulletin board, I’ll know exactly who to call.”

Paul rolled his eyes but made no comment as they neared his classroom. As they walked by the door to TK’s neighboring room Carlos paused. TK was walking through the room, glancing at student’s papers as they worked. As Carlos watched he paused and crouched down next to a student desk, looking at something on their paper, listening as the student asked their question. He answered, but as he was getting back up he looked towards the door and gave Carlos a smile that warmed him from the inside out.

Carlos smiled back, hoping that even a fraction of the affection he felt for the other man showed in the simple gesture. He lingered for only a moment more before he stepped out of the doorway, hoping he had left before he was spotted by any of his boyfriend’s students. The last time they had caught him in the doorway they hadn’t stopped teasing TK for a week, which meant that Carlos had gotten to hear about it for a week.

Paul noticed his hasty retreat and snorted, “Scared of some 15-year-olds, Reyes?”

“Not willing to deal with my annoyed boyfriend if said 15-year-olds drive him nuts for a week.”

Paul shook his head as he unlocked his classroom door, holding it open so Carlos could follow him in. They dropped the supplies on a table in the back before Carlos glanced at his watch.

“And I have a class starting in 3 minutes. Guess this is goodbye then.”

“Yeah, but try not to be such a stranger. I know you may not like us all as much as your boyfriend, but we’re still here you know.”

“Who are you again?”

Paul rolled his eyes, “everyone’s a comedian,” he muttered.

Carlos grinned, but paused right before he stepped out the door, “we should try to do something as a group after school, soon,” he amended, and Paul smiled at him.

“Apology accepted Reyes. Now get lost before you’re late for class.”

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At the end of his first SAT prep session, Carlos gathered his bag and headed out of his room, locking the door behind him. It had gone better than he had expected because, despite all his insistence that it would be fine, he had been nervous. But it had gone well, really. Yes, the extra prep work wasn’t ideal and it did cut into his free time, but now that the first one was done he realized that he had actually enjoyed it. Which was certainly not a realization he thought he would be having today.

If he was being completely honest with himself, he had been hesitant from the moment Judd had approached him. He wasn’t a fan of the concept of the SATs as a whole to start with, but like them or not they were a part of the college admission process, as Judd had reminded him. More than that, there were scholarships that were dependent on SAT scores. They were a necessary evil their students who were applying to college needed to face, and while maybe some could afford private tutors, most couldn’t.

Looking at it from that perspective, of trying to give students a leg up in an unfair situation, had helped to justify the extra time spent to himself. Now after their first session, he realized that he should have done it regardless. This was nothing more than kids wanting to learn, and he could never say no to that.

He left his room but instead of heading towards the exit, he turned towards TK’s classroom instead. He had told him that they could meet up after he was done, but TK has been insistent that he would wait for Carlos, that he had more than enough work to keep him busy while Carlos was working. Objectively Carlos knew that was true, but the thought that TK had wanted to wait for him to continue their habit of leaving together each day even when his day was significantly longer than usual filled him with such affection he couldn’t even put it into words. If he had to though, he would say it felt a little bit like love.

But he quickly abandoned that thought process. They hadn’t said those words yet and Carlos didn’t want to push. Slow and steady was their pace, and Carlos was loath to do anything to jeopardize what they had.

When he turned the corner into TK’s hallway to find the lone light of his classroom shining into the dark corridor, he was surprised to hear voices coming from the room. He approached quietly, peeking his head into the room and surprised to find his boyfriend sitting at his desk alone.

TK looked up at the sound of his footsteps and smiled at him, holding up his phone so Carlos could see that it was on, and on speaker. There was an unfamiliar voice coming over the line and TK indicated for Carlos to wait a moment before he turned his attention back to the phone, “Dad, I’m going to have to go now, but I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Okay, kiddo. Love you.”

“Love you too, Dad.”

With that TK hung up the phone and beamed at Carlos, “Hey babe, how’d the session go?”

“It went really well, actually,” Carlos admitted as he entered the room.

“I told you it would, but I’m still proud of you.”

Carlos smiled even wider at that, “Thanks, TK.” He watched as TK got up from his desk and began to gather his papers and begin piling them into his bag. “How’s your dad?”

“He’s good,” TK said absently as he searched his desk for something. He made a triumphant noise as he found it, placed it in his bag and zipped it, hiking it up on his shoulder as he turned to face Carlos, “He’s coming to visit.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. He has a good amount of vacation time saved up and figured escaping a New York winter for a bit might not be such a bad idea.”

“Any idea when?”

“Three weeks from now.”

“Wow, that’s exciting,” Carlos said, but really all he felt was panic. He didn’t know how they were supposed to approach this. He wasn’t sure if TK was ready to cross the “meet the parents” bridge, and he didn’t know how to ask. He also wasn’t sure how to avoid it if he wasn’t.

His anxiety spiral was interrupted by TK crossing to him and taking his hand before leading the way to the door. “He can’t wait to meet you.”

“Oh,” Carlos said, unable to hide his surprise, “is that what you want?”

TK froze at the doorway, turning to face Carlos with a furrowed brow, “Of course it is. You’re one of the most important parts of my life, of course I want you to meet my dad. Why, do you not want to?”

“No!” Carlos said hastily, “No, I don’t mind. It’s just, with the whole taking things slow and everything I wasn’t sure…”

He trailed off and TK’s expression softened as he dropped Carlos's hand and instead reached up to cup his face, “Carlos Reyes, you are somebody I am proud to be with, and I cannot wait to show you off to my dad.”

The intensity of his expression took Carlos’s breath away and they stood like that for several long moments: TK’s hand on Carlos’s face as they stood alone in the evening silence of the empty high school.

All too soon TK lowered his hand and gave a lighter grin, “Besides, think of all the embarrassing secrets you’ll get to learn, if you want to come that is.”

Carlos reached out and took TK’s hand in his own and gave him a warm smile, “Well, how could I possibly turn down an offer like that?”

---------

“Are you sure it’s not too soon though?”

“Carlos,” Michelle said, exasperation evident in her tone, “it’s been 3 months.”

“Yeah, but-”

“But what, Carlos? It’s been 3 months, you guys are solid, his dad is coming across the country to visit him and he wants you to meet him. It’s not that complicated.”

He scowled at Michelle who turned her attention back to her salad, jabbing at the arugula with more force than strictly necessary, “You’re mean today.”

“I am not mean, you are insane. He likes you, Carlos! He wants you to meet his dad! It’s not weird so stop trying to make it seem like it is!”

Carlos groaned and ran a hand across his face, “It’s just that we agreed to go slow, because he wasn’t sure if he was ready for anything else and meeting the parents seems like it might be surpassing the ‘going slow’ plan. I already got around it with my parents and I wasn’t expecting it to come up on his end.”

“Your parents want to meet him?”

“Yeah, they mentioned it at lunch a few weeks ago.”

“Did you ask TK about it?”

“I mentioned it.”

The look Michelle gave him was withering, “I would throw something at you right now but I don’t think anything in my salad would make enough of an impact.”

“There’s no need for violence, Michelle.”

“There’s no need for someone as smart as you to make such idiotic decisions either, but here we are.”

Carlos gave her a baffled look and she rolled her eyes before setting down her fork to explain, “When you mentioned that your parents wanted to meet him, what did he say?”

“He didn’t. I mentioned it and he looked kind of like a deer in the headlights, so I told him that I had already told them it was too soon.”

Michelle stared at him for a moment before dropping her head into her hands with a groan. When she looked up again a few seconds later her voice was measured as she spoke, “Did you even ask him if he wants to meet your parents before you made up your mind?”

Carlos held her gaze for several long seconds before he admitted, “No.”

“Carlos Reyes, I love you, but sometimes you can be an idiot.”

---------

Carlos rang the bell and waited anxiously outside the door of TK’s apartment, twisting the paper bag in his hand nervously. TK had texted him that they had gotten back from the airport and that he had picked up stuff for dinner, so logically he knew everything should be pretty much normal. But there was also a huge addition that made everything seem so far from normal Carlos could barely wrap his head around it. That was probably his anxiety talking, but the fact remained.

The door swung open to reveal his boyfriend but rather an older man with a striking resemblance to his boyfriend. Their eyes met and after a moment of confusion Owen Strand - for that had to be who this was - stepped forward with a smile and an extended hand, “You must be Carlos.”

Carlos matched the man’s smile and took the offered hand, “Yes sir.”

TK’s father stepped aside to let him in and waved off his formalities, “Please, call me Owen.”

“Well then Owen, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise, Carlos. What do you have there?”

“Oh,” Carlos said, suddenly remembering the bag in his hands, “Biscuits from Olamaie - a local restaurant.”

“You didn’t have to bring anything,” Owen assured him, “but judging by the smell of those I think I’m glad you did.”

Carlos smiled at the older man, who stepped further into the apartment, clearing the entry hall for Carlos could enter as well. As he steps into the main room his eyes find the kitchen, where TK is pulling a stack of plates from the cupboard, “Hey Carlos, I’m just getting dinner together. Why don’t you and my dad get settled at the table.”

“Are you sure you don’t want any help?” he asked, partially because anytime TK stepped into the kitchen it was a cause for concern in his experience, and partially because Carlos dreaded the idea of having to make small talk with his boyfriend’s father.

TK paused long enough to roll his eyes, “it’s already cooked, all I have to do is warm it up and get it on plates. Pretty sure I can handle that.”

“Okay, but if you change your mind…”

“Go,” TK said with a laugh and Carlos grinned before heading to the table and joining Owen. He sat down and looked at the other man, who was clearly appraising him. “How was your flight?” he ventured, not sure what else to say.

“Good, it was good,” Owen said with a vague nod. Carlos nodded too and they lapsed into silence. He was searching his mind, trying to come up with something to say, wishing he had done a google search of “conversation starters with your boyfriend’s parent” before he came when Owen broke the silence.

“Listen, Carlos,” he said, glancing over at the kitchen where TK was still intently assembling dinner, “I know we just met, but I wanted to make sure I got a chance to say thank you.”

Carlos frowned, he had absolutely no idea where this was coming from, “Thank you for what?”

“For being there for TK, for helping him find himself again. He wasn’t in the best place when he came down here, but I can tell from our phone calls and now seeing him again that he is happier than I have seen him in far too long. And I know that a good part of that is because of you, so thank you.”

“I’m happy you think he’s happy with me,” Carlos countered, “but I didn’t do much. Everything he did, all the healing and growing, is because of what he did, not anyone else. I was just in the room when it happened.”

He wasn’t sure what reaction he expected from the older man, but a beaming smile was not one of them. “I really am so glad that you found each other,” he said, voice thick, “and I am so glad he has someone like you.” He paused and gestured to the pictures lining the walls, “having my only kid move across the country has been hard not only because I miss him, but also because I was worried about him. Coming here and seeing this, seeing you with him, makes me feel so much better. So thank you, really.”

Carlos doesn’t know what to say to that, but he is saved by the arrival of TK bearing a platter of food and a stack of plates. He jumps up to help him carry them to the table and sits down with him.

“What have you two been talking about?” TK asks as he serves food onto plates for everyone.

“Oh, just getting to know each other,” Owen responded breezily, “and I think I like this one TK.”

“That’s good dad,” TK quipped, meeting Carlos’s eyes, “because I like him too.”

Carlos smiled back at him and as the food was passed around, the conversation morphed. Soon enough it was Owen holding court, filling Carlos in on all of teen TK’s antics while TK grimaced from his seat.

“And then,” Owen was saying, already laughing, “he decided…”

“Okay!” TK interrupted, face going red, “I think that’s more than enough for one night. Pace yourself dad, you’ve still got a couple more nights here. Wouldn’t want to use up all your material.”

“Oh, don’t worry kid: I have no intention of leaving any stone unturned or any story untold.”

“Great,” TK deadpanned, “remind me again why I was excited for you to visit?”

Carlos chuckled and TK turned his attention to him, “And you are enjoying this far too much.”

“I would say I am enjoying it the appropriate amount, actually,” Carlos corrected.

TK narrowed his eyes at him but Carlos just laughed before glancing at his watch, “it’s really late, I should go and let you two get some sleep too.”

“See you tomorrow, Carlos?” Owen asked as Carlos rose from the table.

“Count on it,” Carlos assured him, “there are so many more stories I still need to hear.”

“I’ll walk you out, you traitor,” TK said with a roll of his eyes.

Carlos waited until they were at the door before he spoke, “I really like him.”

“You only like him because he provides you with premium blackmail material.”

“True,” Carlos mused, “but I also like him because he’s a lot like you. Besides, when you meet my parents it will be exactly the same, I assure you. I’m just enjoying this before the tables are turned.”

TK's gaze was piercing as he studied Carlos, “When I meet your parents?”

Carlos nodded, “When. As in, whenever you are ready. I realized I should have asked you if you wanted to before just assuming you didn’t. So the ball is in your court: if you want to, I’d be honored to bring you home to my parents.”

TK smiled and leaned in to kiss him. When he pulled away - far too soon for Carlos’s liking - he smiled, “I’d like that a lot, and I think we should. Maybe next week, after my dad leaves?”

Carlos nodded, “consider it a date, Tyler Kennedy.”

“Oh he did not tell you that!” he exclaimed, throwing a glare back to where his father was still sitting.

“I like it.”

“And you’re lucky I like you, not everyone can get away with using that and live.”

“Oh, so I’m special?”

He said it as a joke, but the way TK held his gaze nearly toppled him. There was so much more intensity in his eyes than Carlos had been expecting, “You’re very special to me, Carlos Reyes.”

They head each other’s gaze in the doorway to TK’s apartment in the late hours of the night and Carlos could practically feel all the things going unsaid between them. Now wasn’t the time to say them yet, but maybe, he thought, that time could be soon.

----------

Carlos checked the clock on the wall above his desk. 8:01, the exam had just started. He leaned back in his chair with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. He knew that there was no reason to be here, he knew there was nothing more he could do. He had spent 5 weeks preparing these kids though, and had offered to come in early on the Saturday of the exam for any last-minute questions and pep talks. There had been more than a few takers but now they were all in the gym, opening their test booklets and Carlos was left with nothing more to do but wait.

Logically he knew he could wait and worry just as well from home, but somehow being here made him feel a little better. He pulled a stack of papers from the turn in tray on his desk on the pretense of grading them while he waited, but he knew that he wouldn’t get anything done. He was just considering maybe attempting to organize something instead when there was a soft knock at his door. He looked up to see TK, standing in the doorway with a tray holding two paper cups, a bag, and a warm smile, “Hey you.”

“Hey yourself, what are you doing here? Not that I’m not happy to see you,” he added hastily, “I just wasn’t expecting you.”

“Why, because it’s Saturday before 9 am and you're in your classroom?”

“More or less, yeah.”

TK grinned as he entered, setting down the bag to drag one of the chairs up to Carlos’s desk so he could join him.

“Usually you’d be right,” he admitted as he pulled two foil wrapped burritos out of the bag and handed one to Carlos, “but I knew you would be here, and I knew you’d spend the whole time worrying. So I figured you should at least have breakfast while you worried. And coffee,” he added pressing one of the cups into Carlos’s hand.

Carlos was too stunned to say anything, so he took a sip of the coffee. It was perfect, exactly the way he liked it. He set down the cup and studied TK, who was sipping his own coffee.

“You’re perfect, have I ever told you that?”

“Maybe, but a guy can never get too sick of hearing it.”

“So modest too.”

TK rolled his eyes but smiled as he settled into his seat at the corner of Carlos’s desk, unwrapping his burrito.

“Thanks for coming, I appreciate it. I could really use the company.”

TK nodded, “I figured as much. Besides, I kind of like spending time here, it makes me a little nostalgic.” At Carlos’s questioning look he explained, “this is where we had our first real conversation, and where I decided that you were someone I should risk getting to know, even though I was afraid of it ending up exactly where it did.”

“Oh, so you were scared of me?”

“Eh, I was,” TK said dismissively, “turns out you’re not that scary. And,” he added, voice going more sincere, “it turns out I wasn’t as broken as I thought. I just needed someone to help me see that.”

Carlos smiled at him, but soon enough his eyes were pulled back to the clock. It was 8:05 now.

“Okay, spill.”

“What?” Carlos asked, looking over at TK with a bewildered expression.

“Spill. I know you’re nervous, but maybe if you tell me why, I can help.”

Carlos took a deep breath and let his eyes wander to the clock one more time before turning his focus back to TK, “I know I’ve done everything I could think of, but this is still an important test. Most of the kids taking it today are taking it again in hopes of raising their scores so they can qualify for more scholarships. There’s so much riding on this; it could determine some of their futures. And, I just don’t know if I did enough - if I was enough.”

“Carlos…”

“There are so many other people in the department TK, I don’t know why they asked me. I’m not anything special, and this whole time I keep thinking that someone else could have done a better job. I’m worried that I let these kids down.”

“Carlos,” TK said again, more forcefully, “you are special. Don’t ever say you’re not again. You were asked because you are an amazing teacher. Don’t deny it,” he said when Carlos opened his mouth to interrupt, “because I’m right. I’ve seen you with your classes. They don’t only respect you, they trust you. They feel safe enough to ask you questions, to show that they don’t know something. And you have never responded to any question with anything less than understanding and compassion. You always find a way to help. That’s why they asked you - because you are the best at this. Sure, maybe someone else might be better with the technicalities, but no one can hold a candle to Carlos Reyes when it comes to helping students grow. It’s one of the things I love about you.”

Carlos could already feel emotions building within him at TK’s words and the sincerity with which he said them, but his last sentence froze him in his tracks. He was pretty sure his brain was short circuiting; it kept playing the last sentence on loop: It’s one of the things I love about you.

“Carlos?” TK asked, expression furrowing in concern, “are you okay?”

“Do you mean that?” Carlos asked instead.

The look he gave him in response was truly baffled, “mean what?”

“You said ‘it’s one of the things I love about you.’”

TK’s eyes widened for just a second, before he smiled, “Yes,” he said softly, “I do. I love you, Carlos Reyes, because of all of that and because of so many other things.”

Carlos blinked rapidly, trying to clear the tears that had tried to sneak out without his permission. This was everything he had ever wanted; TK was everything he had ever dreamed of. He had wanted this for so long, and he had felt the same way for TK for months now, even if he had been denying it. To hear that his boyfriend felt the same way meant more to him than he could ever possibly say.

So he settled on the next best thing, “I love you too, Tyler Kennedy, more than I have ever loved anyone. More than I thought I could ever love anyone.”

TK rolled his eyes, but it did nothing to detract from his beaming smile, “You just had to use the full name, didn’t you?”

“Unfortunately for you, I love it because it’s yours; and I happen to love everything about you.”

“You are a sap Carlos Reyes.”

“Yeah, but that’s one of the things you love about me, right?”

“Definitely,” TK agreed, before glancing at the clock. Carlos followed his gaze; it was 8:15 now.

“We still have 3 hours,” TK noted, “I think that might be time to get through some of the other things, if you’re interested.”

Carlos leaned forward to give him a quick but tender kiss. He took a moment to rest his forehead on TK’s, savoring the feel of the contact for another moment before he pulled back and grinned at him, “I’m interested in anything, as long as it’s with you.”

-----------

The next afternoon Carlos pulled into the driveway of his childhood home. He put the car in park and turned to look at his passenger. TK was fiddling with the collar of his shirt and anxiously smoothing it for imaginary wrinkles. Carlos reached over and grabbed one of his hands.

“Hey,” he said, “stop worrying, you look perfect. They’re going to love you.”

“Are you sure?” TK asked and Carlos’s heart hurt to hear his voice so small and full of doubt, “I can’t imagine that too many parents would love the idea of their child dating an addict.”

“What matters is that you have overcome it,” Carlos said firmly, “and that I love you. That’s all they need to know, and it will be enough.”

They had said those words roughly a hundred times since TK had first let it slip in his classroom yesterday morning and each time Carlos could feel his heartbeat just a little bit faster. He loved TK Strand and he was loved by TK Strand. Nothing in the world had ever felt so good. Now he was going to take TK inside to meet his parents where he would undoubtedly learn all sorts of embarrassing stories and become that much further entrenched in Carlos’s life and in his heart. He couldn’t think of a better possible next step than that.

He leaned over to press a kiss to TK’s lips, smiling when he felt some of the tension melt from the other man. When he pulled away he met TK’s gorgeous eyes and squeezed the hand he was still holding.

“It’s going to be fine and I’m going to be right beside you, no matter what.”

“Promise?”

Carlos nodded with a smile, “Yeah, I promise. There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

#911 lone star #911 lone star fic #carlos reyes #tk strand #tarlos #my writing #tuserjamie #usermaximus #userac #userkimmy #userjilly #tuserpaige #aanathema #jazzyjezz #carlosreyesweek2021

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bluerose5 · 3 years

Text

The Ghost of Paradise (Exile AU)

Chapter 2: By the Minute

Rating: M

Word Count: 3,796

Tags: Mass Effect: Andromeda, Scott Ryder, Reyes Vidal, Reyder, Pre-Relationship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Exile, Flirting, Secrets, Complicated Relationships, Eventual Romance, Rivalry, Engineer/Mechanic Scott Ryder, Jealousy

[Read it here as well on ao3.]

“Our agents say that you were speaking with Reyes Vidal at Kralla’s,” Nola said. She didn’t even give Scott a chance to breathe. The second he was through their gates —which were still a work in progress— Scott was ambushed. “Do I even want to know what you have planned?”

Scott grinned at her.

“Why must I always have something planned?” Scott asked. “Reyes is a good friend. For all you know, we could have been catching up over drinks.”

“‘Could have’ doesn’t mean that you were.”

“Fair enough.”

As she fell into step at his side, Nola led him around while they spoke, appraising their growing community with pride.

“Scott, as governor of Paradise, should I not be made aware of any transactions that might affect us?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“Tell me what I need to know then. Nothing more, nothing less.”

As if he could refuse her insistent prodding. Every time he left, he always forgot how relentless she could be upon his return, but only when it pertained to matters that could have both predictable and unforeseen effects in their future.

In a way, Scott was grateful to have someone with that type of dedication on their side. They’re going to need it.

“I swear, it wasn’t anything particularly groundbreaking,” Scott promised. “I gave him some seeds from our latest project in exchange for a long-ranged scanner modification. That’s it.”

“Hmm… A decent enough trade.”

“Glad to have your approval.”

Of course, it was too much to hope that she would leave it at that.

“What is it for?” Nola asked.

Scott knew from experience not to lie to her face.

He sighed. “I’m going to scout out some of the Remnant ruins nearby. See if I can get a read on their bots, or a turret if I’m lucky.”

She cocked her head to the side and considered that for a moment, lips pursed.

“Promise to be careful then. I know you would gladly give your life to protect any of these people, but we don’t need you to throw it away because of pure recklessness,” she reminded him. “If it comes down to an altercation, we would rather have you here than some lousy turret schematics. Besides—” She shrugged. “You would probably be the only one who could make sense of them anyways. You and that stupidly genius brain of yours.”

Scott scoffed, suddenly uncomfortable as he shifted in place.

“Got it from my parents, or so they say.”

Ellen and Alec Ryder. The woman who literally gave her life to perfect biotic implants and the man who created a whole new type of AI. Quite the legacy to live up to.

Good thing Scott wasn’t living his life based on their achievements. Andromeda was a whole different playing field compared to the Milky Way. The work he was doing with Paradise was incredible in its own right. At least, he liked to think so.

If he could change at least one person’s life for the better in Andromeda, then he considered that a success.

Based on the feedback he was receiving from the residents, he was doing a damn good job, and that was enough for him.

But Nola had a point.

People relied on Scott now. As much as he was willing to dive headfirst into danger, he needed to refrain from doing so.

“I’ll be careful,” he promised her. “If things start to go south, I’ll ping you and Nakamoto.”

“Thank you,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Scott hated to worry her so, but there was that one other matter.

“If it’s any consolation to you,” Scott said, trying for a lighter tone yet failing, “Reyes offered to accompany me on the trip.”

Nola stopped short, and Scott skidded to a halt. She narrowed her eyes at him with a sneer curling at her lip.

“No, that is not of any consolation to me. Scott Ryder, you know how he is.”

“Charming and witty?” Scott tried for his best smile, but Nola wasn’t buying into that bullshit, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Flighty and untrustworthy, especially once his back is against the wall.” Then, she amended her statement, taking on a slightly accusatory tone. “That’s assuming you didn’t pay any of his ridiculous service fees.”

“Puh-lease.” Scott chuckled. “If anyone should be spending their credits, Reyes should be the one paying me for my company. I’m a treasure not many can afford.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Nola snorted, “but at least you know your worth.”

“They say that time is money, after all. I’ll make sure to charge him by the minute while we’re together.”

“Please do, and make sure to get a picture of his face once you show him that bill.”

Scott was only happy to see her smile again.

“Will do,” he said.

“While you’re at it, drop a few hints here and there that Paradise might be looking to contract out some exclusive deals with top-rate smugglers. Leave out the ‘top-rate’ part, of course. Can’t have that going to the poor man's head.”

“His ego is already insufferable enough without the compliments,” Scott agreed, “but isn’t the whole point of secrecy for you and I not to draw attention to our connections here?”

“A woman can dream though, can’t she?” Nola sighed.

“So much for Reyes being ‘untrustworthy.’”

Nola didn’t even hesitate, brushing off his attempt to use her words against her.

“Skill is skill, and we don’t exactly have the people or resources to be picky right now. Everything is a commodity on Kadara, even integrity. If he betrays us, we’ll deal with him, simple as that.”

Right.

Still, it was laughable to think that the Charlatan would take on a contract with some of his direct competitors.

Although, that sounds like exactly the type of stunt that Reyes would pull. More than likely, he’d have an ulterior motive for doing so, but Scott could see it happening.

Did he support the idea, though? Definitely not.

“I don’t know,” Scott muttered. “I couldn’t see Reyes limiting his business to one group, especially if we’re only starting to get our feet wet.”

“You would know how he operates better than I, but I suppose that attitude is understandable. Disappointing, but understandable.” Nola grumbled. “Well, if nothing else, tell him the least he could do is give you a discount.”

“Trust me, I’ve been working that angle for a while. No such luck.”

“Greedy bastard.”

As they finished up their routine patrol, they soon switched direction, heading towards Nakamoto's clinic to conclude their meeting. There, Paradise’s leaders convened. They reviewed the requests that their colonists posted on the message boards around the settlement. Together, they decided on what matters they could approve for certain and which ones would be placed on the docket for a community vote. After that, they moved on to logistics, including topics such as requisitions and inventory.

To draw the meeting to a close, Nola relayed their latest numbers for colonial development. Water production was steady. However, food stores would be struggling soon to keep up with the recent influx of residents, so security personnel and all of those who knew their way around a gun were strongly encouraged to increase hunting and foraging activities while out on patrols or while performing their daily tasks. A roster will be posted on the local message boards to look for volunteers who would like to fill a full-time hunter-gatherer role.

Hopefully, what few angaran scientists they had amongst their people would be able to process their first batch of nutrient paste after their next harvest. It wasn’t exactly the tastiest solution available, but it was a necessary one if they were to survive.

In terms of population, there was a rapid spike in enrollment when word spread that Paradise actually got shit done and held true to their promises, but they expected the effect to eventually plateau once people settled in. Angara enrollment was up at the moment, especially after Scott appointed Nola as governor, and they have even seen a few Initiative members join up, having made the journey all the way from the Nexus to be reunited with friends, family, and loved ones.

Scott asked that they spread word for people to be warm and welcoming. The request probably wasn’t necessary, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Their community would make no friends by tearing people apart, and they prided themselves on being close and tight-knit.

It was important that they not only claimed to be but that they acted like it as well, backing up their words with actions.

Security assignments were then posted. Patrols would have to be upped to make up for an increase that they were seeing with gang-related attacks. Once automated security measures were in place, they would revisit the matter in order to assess which sectors needed heightened security. Emergency drills would be held at the end of the week.

With all of their needs addressed, Nola called the meeting to a close.

Once the meeting was adjourned, Scott approached Nola and their Head of Security, requesting a full census to be done within a day's time. Scott needed names, numbers, faces. Each citizen’s profile needed to be updated within their database.

If Scott was going to make an effective defense matrix for the colony, then he would prefer to program an IFF system that only a select few could remotely activate. For the system to work as intended, all of the colonists' photo IDs and biometric profiles would need to be kept current and constantly updated in real-time.

Nola promised to see to it that Scott got what he needed, shooing him off.

Apparently, he was hovering, but Scott could take a hint. He could tell when he was no longer needed, and he knew that Nola worked best when he wasn’t constantly worrying after her like a mother hen.

Departing from the settlement, Scott cloaked himself the second he went beyond the boundaries of their walls.

He was almost halfway back to Port when he received a message from Reyes. Figuring that he was in the clear, Scott made sure that the coast was clear before deactivating his cloak.

Pulling up his omni-tool’s interface, Scott opened the message. Along with it, there was a set of coordinates, sent from Reyes’s location.

R: Think I’m ready to cash in on those shuttle repairs. Wouldn’t mind the company right about now.

Scott’s fingers hovered above the holographic keys, contemplating his next move before deciding to hell with it.

S: Miss me that much?

R: Am I that obvious?

He didn’t even give Scott a chance to reply before he sent another message.

R: If it’s still in question though, let me put it bluntly.

R: I want to see you.

Scott pursed his lips, cursing his stupid heart for racing in response.

S: Give me a few. I’ll be there.

R: I’ll be looking forward to it.

Before he could embarrass himself, Scott closed out his messages. He quickly made his way to Port, grabbing his bag of tools and gear before venturing back out into the badlands.

From there, Scott followed the coordinates to a cliff, overlooking a nearby valley. The sun was slowly but surely sinking down over the horizon, lightning up the sky in array of pinks and oranges and reds.

Reyes was already waiting for him by the time he arrived, the shuttle powered down for the moment.

However, the second Scott noticed that Reyes was facing away from him, he instantly slowed his walk to a crawl. He bent his knees into a slight crouch and shifted his weight with each step, toe to heel as he snuck his way up behind him.

“You look like you’re waiting for someone.”

Scott delighted in watching him him jump in shock, only to have a blade at his throat in the blink of an eye.

As soon as Reyes realized who it was, all the blood drained from his face.

“S–Scott!”

Hands raised in surrender, Scott raised an eyebrow at him incredulously.

“You know, I was kind of expecting a warmer welcome,” he admitted, careful of the firaan's sharp edge. Keema must have given it to him. “Have to say, though, would it be weird if I was a little turned on right now?”

Reyes scoffed.

Trailing the blade along the outline of his throat, Scott swallowed thickly when he eventually felt its pointed tip press underneath his chin. Reyes tilted it up, and Scott followed, lest he risk being cut.

Their eyes met, and Reyes smirked.

Bastard was toying with him.

Retracting his knife, Reyes sheathed the firaan while Scott tried to catch his breath. The goosebumps left behind in the dagger's wake soon receded, yet a warm heat lingered.

“Tsk.” Reyes huffed at him. “Ryder—”

Uh-oh, back to last name basis. From experience, that meant trouble.

“You know better than to sneak up on me!” Reyes scolded.

“I do,” Scott said, not even afraid to acknowledge it, “but I love getting a rise out of you.”

“What if I would have hurt you?”

“But you didn’t.”

Scowling, Reyes placed his hands on his hips. Shaking his head, he pinched at the bridge of his nose.

“Scott, what the hell am I going to do with you?” he asked, releasing his nose, half-fond and half-frustrated.

“I’m sure we could think of something.”

Reyes hummed in agreement, watching Scott approach the shuttle with his bag tossed over his shoulder. He dropped it to the ground, then immediately got to work.

Watching him closely, Reyes leaned against the side of his shuttle with a thoughtful look.

“Maybe I could take you on a date?”

While Reyes tried to sound confident, his attempt ultimately failed. Instead of forming the words into a bold offer, they fell flat, sounding more like an uncertain question.

Scott stopped what he was doing. He spared Reyes a brief glance, only to return his attention to the task at hand, hiding his flushed face.

“Wouldn’t Zia disapprove?” Scott asked, being rougher than necessary as he practically took apart the control panel.

Envy curled inside him, spreading like an infection through his bloodstream. There was a sharp squeeze around his heart as it was encased in the feeling.

Reyes called him out on it, way too perceptive for his own good.

“Ryder, are you jealous?” Reyes chuckled.

Scott glared, causing him to throw his hands up in surrender.

“Just asking.”

“And if I am?” Scott retorted.

“Then I’d have to put your mind at ease.”

“It’s really none of my busin—”

Reyes closed the distance between them. Reaching out, he cupped Scott’s cheek, brushing his thumb along his bottom lip. Weak as he was, Scott leaned into his touch for a split second. His eyes threatened to flutter closed, but he had to remain firm about this one matter, if nothing else.

As he started to pull away, Reyes said, “There is nothing going on between Zia and I.” Scott froze into place. “We went out for drinks a few times, nothing more.”

“You swear?” Scott asked, narrowing his eyes.

“I swear.” His voice grew heated, impassioned. “I might be a bad man when it comes to many things, but I wouldn’t ever lie about that to you.”

Scott considered that before replying, “Well, like I said—” He cleared his throat, eyes averted. “ It’s not really any of my business, so I don’t know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pried.”

He trailed off, uncertain why he was acting that way.

Reyes furrowed his brow.

“No need to be sorry. If you had crossed a line, then I would have said so.”

“Even then, you’re not mine. Your relationships are your own.”

“I could be.”

Scott regarded him skeptically.

“Could be what?”

“Yours,” Reyes answered instantly, staring intently at Scott. “Just say the word.”

If only they weren’t both keeping secrets from each other at the moment, then Scott might take him up on that.

Turns out, being with the Charlatan would be a huge conflict of interests. Who could’ve guessed?

Silence settled between them. It was as if the whole world was awaiting Scott’s answer with bated breath. Time itself seemed to stand still in anticipation.

“I—” He struggled to find the right words. “Give me time.”

That’s all he could ask.

Reyes’s hopeful expression fell, and that alone felt like a stab to the chest. Scott's breathing trembled a little, as if it was becoming difficult to continue drawing in one breath after another.

God, he didn’t want to hurt him, but neither of them could really afford to rush into things half-cocked.

Scott copied his earlier gesture, reaching out to cup Reyes’s cheek. The change was almost instantaneous, how the tension drained away, only for Reyes to melt into Scott’s touch. He leaned into his hand, starved for affection.

Scott swallowed thickly, unable to pull away, let alone take his eyes off of him for even a second.

“All I ask is that you give me time,” Scott repeated. “That’s not a ‘no.’ I just need to think a few things over, iron out a few details.”

Reyes listened, then agreed.

“Alright.” He pulled away with a small, private smile. “As if I could deny anyone such a reasonable request, especially you.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Returning his attention to the shuttle, Scott got back to work. After all, he didn’t want to neglect the poor bird, and it appeared that the shuttle was in desperate need of a little TLC.

His diagnostics only confirmed his suspicions.

When a couple of sparks resulted from his prodding, Scott chastised Reyes for mistreating their baby. Reyes grew defensive, both of them falling back to old habits as they bickered.

This was the type of work that Scott did on the Nexus after he got sidelined and shafted. Systems repairs, shuttle repairs, routine maintenance… That sorta thing.

It was how he met Reyes to begin with. Few pilots had the energy to hang around and talk shop with Scott while he worked, especially since a lot of them had only recently returned from failed colonization efforts. Understandably, most people didn’t want to entertain idle conversation after watching their friends die out in the field.

That was fine by Scott, but Reyes had always gone out of his way —even then— to make sure that Scott had anything and everything that he needed.

They might have taken his shuttle out on a few joyrides together, gotten in trouble for wasting fuel, but Scott wouldn’t trade that time they spent together for anything in the galaxy.

Even now, it felt natural to settle back into their old routine. While Scott worked, Reyes watched, and they talked about anything and everything.

Time passed, and Scott only got deeper into the repairs and modifications. Despite the setting sun, he still broke a sweat, a light sheen glistening upon his skin.

Eventually, he had to take off his shirt, leaving him in a plain tank top that quickly got dirty along with his hands.

Swiping at the perspiration beading at his hairline, Scott grunted as he came to a stopping point for now. He reached for his bag, but what he was seeking wasn’t there.

“Shit.”

Turning towards Reyes, Scott huffed at him.

The bastard wasn’t even trying to hide his staring. Face flushed, he was biting teasingly at his bottom lip, brown eyes dark as he watched Scott through a hooded gaze.

Getting to his feet, Scott crossed his arms over his chest.

“See something you like?”

“Definitely.”

“You’re shameless.” Scott shook his head in disbelief, tsking under his breath. “You’re just as bad as that one time when Gil Brodie asked for a ‘second opinion’ on some fix he made. Turns out, I ended up doing almost all of the work while he sat back and watched.”

“Smart man,” Reyes noted, giving Scott a thorough once-over. “This Gil must have great tastes.”

Scott snorted.

“Flattery will get you nowhere. If you really want to make me happy, then you would grab your water bottle for me.”

“Did you forget yours?” Reyes asked, slightly concerned. After all, being caught out in the badlands without water was just asking for dehydration or heat stroke.

Nevertheless, he got the bottle for him. Scott placed his hands over Reyes’s, shrugging with a flustered blush.

“Yeah,” Scott sighed. “I thought I had packed it! I don’t know where it could’ve wandered off to.”

“Perhaps you were in a bit of a rush to get here,” Reyes said, trailing off suggestively.

Scott figured that he would allow that.

“Perhaps,” he agreed, “but what else do I keep you around for, if not the water? You wouldn’t want the guy repairing your shuttle to get dehydrated, right?” Scott smirked. “I could get delirious, and it would be very unfortunate if I just so happened to forget to install an essential component.”

Reyes gasped dramatically, relinquishing the water to Scott, who was quick to take a swig.

“You always have to watch out for the pretty ones,” Reyes grumbled. “Always causing trouble, keeping secrets…”

There it was again. That sense of knowing , that sense that both of them were holding something back. It was left unsaid. Neither confronted the other about it, but they knew that the secrets were there.

Before the sudden lag in conversation could get too awkward, Scott took another swig of water and asked, “So, you think I’m pretty?”

Reyes chuckled, glad for the change of subject.

“Kian seems to think so,” he muttered. Leave it to him to avoid the question. “He keeps asking when you’re going to start working for him at Tartarus.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“As a dancer?” He had to make sure he was hearing right.

“Yep.”

“Could you imagine?” Scott scoffed. “Me, shaking my ass for money? A tempting offer. It would probably be more profitable than the odd jobs I take on here and there, but I think I’m fine where I’m at.”

“Damn,” Reyes sighed, “what a shame.”

Scott raised an eyebrow in his direction.

“You saying you would have come to watch me?”

“Not only that, but I would have paid to watch you,” Reyes said, “especially if I could have gotten a private show out of it.”

Scott tried to imagine it, grinning in spite of himself.

“What’s so funny?” Reyes wondered.

“Nothing, nothing,” Scott said, brushing off his concern. “That just made me remember a thought that I had earlier.”

“What about?”

“Oh, you know.” Scott gestured vaguely. “Just that I should start charging you a fee for when we spend time together.”

Reyes winked at him.

“It would be worth every credit.”

#mass effect #mass effect andromeda #scott ryder #reyes vidal #reyder #mreyder #my writing #my fanfic #scott ryder x reyes vidal #exile au #hopefully tumblr doesn't screw with the order of my paragraphs again :/

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lovelahela · 4 years

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𝐢𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤 ↠ 𝖎𝖙 𝖑𝖎𝖛𝖊𝖘 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓 [day six, @it-lives-week]

❛ the power is back, and it’s more powerful than ever. you must band together and defeat it once and for all... or die trying. ❜

n.b. i’m basing this off my ilitw mc taking jane’s place and everyone survived in both ilitw and ilb, so some plot points are interchangeable. plus, ilitw and ilb mcs’ characteristics are obviously interchangeable depending on how you played in your own playthroughs/how you have written them.

significant characters.

↠ (DETERMINANT) mc: it lives within main character [LI: determinant]. possible faces to choose from: caucasian, south asian, middle eastern, latina, african. sexuality is determinant. nerve subject to change.

↠ (F) marisol reyes: it lives in the woods main character [LI: noah marshall]. filipina. bisexual. nerve subject to change.

↠ (F) harper vance: it lives beneath main character [LI: tom sato] african-american. pansexual. nerve is not subject to change if your mc survived ilb.

↠ (NB) jamie mcleod: it lives within side character [LI: mc or andy kang]. singaporean, irish. pansexual, demisexual. nerve subject to change.

↠ (F) sun-hee ‘sunny’ pong: it lives within side character [LI: mc or dan pierce]. south korean. bisexual. nerve subject to change.

↠ (M) okeyo ‘oak’ liao: it lives within side character [LI: mc or jocelyn wu]. kenyan, chinese. bisexual. nerve subject to change.

↠ (F) jocelyn wu. it lives in the woods + it lives within side character [LI: mc or okeyo liao]. pansexual. nerve is not subject to change.

romance.

↠ so i don’t know if this is gonna make sense but like in the game harvest moon, you can choose to/accidentally activate “heart events” that set your LI up with a different character, so i thought it would be a cool change for you to see an LI option end up with someone else if you don’t romance them. would probably be paywalled though, kind of like grace/aleister in endless summer.

↠ jaimie would not have intimate scenes until the second half of the book if mc has established a strong relationship with them.

plot points.

the plot isn’t complete, these are just some ideas i had in mind. i may change some or even all of them when i write my it lives 3 au.

↠ [this piece of information is not revealed until late into the story] noah ends up finding a ritual that allows him to bring marisol back, on the condition that he would have to give his soul up to the power after six months and take her place.

↠ in the midst of arguing with his former westchester friend group after revealing his face to them to propose an alliance in order to put a stop to the power, they are interrupted by marisol entering the room, looking and wearing exactly the same as she had on homecoming night, dazed and confused.

↠ noah, having thought the ritual hadn’t worked, is just as shocked beyond belief as the rest of them. it is then concluded that marisol does not remember a single thing during her three years as jane’s replacement (though memories come back to her in bits and pieces through nightmares and flashbacks throughout the story), and believes it is still homecoming night and the last thing she remembers is speaking to jane. they do their best to ease her into the fact that 3 years have passed.

↠ the main character’s parents were members of the society prior to their death, but they were away for college during the events of it lives beneath. upon hearing of their deaths, they move temporarily to pine springs, and notice that something was off with the quaint town.

↠ they take it upon themselves to investigate further into this and later discover the society by following one of its few remaining members into a forest. they are kidnapped, then immediately recognized as the child of their highly esteemed comrades, so they then decide to go easier on them and explain everything about the cult and their parents’ place in it.

↠ they are interrupted when a group of strangers [it lives beneath main group] bust their operation and the chief of police ends up hauling off what they then believed to be the last remaining members of the society into jail. meanwhile, tom, imogen, danni, and harper reveal what they had left out about josephine vance and the power that once lived in the lake.

↠ the main character, harboring bitter anger towards their parents’ greed for the power and how it got them killed, is immediately motivated to put a stop to it, so they are introduced to connor green, whom tom knew was organizing a group to fight against the supernatural force. together, they move to a town they suspected contained it: northbury, oregon - which was equidistant from westchester and pine springs, both of which were an hour away.

↠ the main character is introduced to the westchester group, including marisol and jocelyn; however, only connor, noah, jocelyn, dan, noah, and andy had decided to move to northbury. the rest decided to remain in their respective towns since they weren’t far away anyway.

↠ in an attempt to blend in with the locals and gain information about the recent disappearances simultaneously, MC makes it their mission to get to know the most significant current residents of northbury that ava cunningham and parker shaw had pulled up information about: jamie mcleod (the younger sibling of one of the missing victims), lawrence khan (northbury’s chief of police), jiao-long liao (occult studies professor at northbury university), and sun-hee pong (a college student who had been caught trespassing on properties including the homes of the missing victims multiple times, and the daughter of one of the missing).

↠ upon their arrival, more people start to go missing, and the gang discover that northbury has had a much darker past than westchester and pine springs combined. disappearances date back decades, and the rates are alarmingly high for a town that appeared to be bustling with residents. a local conspiracy blog/forum exposes numerous reports of dead animals cut in a ritualistic/sacrificial manner, sightings of a dark humanoid figure wandering in the trees at night, and rumors of a secret underground cave full of occult symbols drawn with blood on the walls, dust-coated skeletons, and a myth surrounding an ancient monster that was offered sacrifices by its people unknowingly.

↠ honestly this is all i have planned so far lmao but a few more things i had in mind were: (A) there could be a bad ending where they don’t defeat the power, meaning noah’s soul is claimed and he becomes the new redfield (B) if the power is defeated noah gets to stay alive and ends up with marisol, goes to culinary school, all that good stuff (C) i was thinking that even some characters without nerve could have multiple fates depending on how the story goes and who lives, like connor and jocelyn, and maybe it could be dependent on the nerve of others that way the stakes are higher and you’re more motivated to keep the nerve high. e.g. if MC’s nerve is low and they can’t complete a certain task that could save others, jocelyn ends up doing it instead and dies in the process.

so yeah this is mainly what i have in mind for an it lives 3 book! i hope PB change their mind one day and revisit it because it’s truly their best series.

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mamashitty · 3 years

Text

fic writer interview

tagged by the lovely & talented @blackinkpen

Name: Ash

Fandoms: the big and most obvious one: Check Please! it’s really the only fandom that I’ve written fics for. it is also the fandom that I reads the most fics for as well. it’s my little bit of comfort. I have done a lot of writing in what could be considered the HP fandom, but I never wrote fic for it. just over a decade worth of RPing with a close group of writing friends. we’ve completely made our own (and may I biasedly say better) world within that world. I’ve never really read HP fic, and never written it. I focus on OCs who technically live in some version of the world, so I don’t really consider myself part of that fandom anymore.

other fandoms I love to read but am too chicken shit to write in: Hannibal; One Last Stop; Schitt’s Creek; Red, White, and Royal Blue; The Old Guard.

I’m still kinda’ anxious about writing in the Check Please! world, but I’ve done it, and I’ve always had fun when I get the courage to do it, and the will to finish things.

Two-shot: I…I have probably read a few two shots, but none are springing to mind. I’d call myself a fan. I like even numbers. I’ve never written one myself. but I’d be willing to read some if anyone wants to suggest ‘em from: Check Please or One Last Stop or any of the fandoms listed above.

Most popular multi-chapter: Samwell Elementary School (it's my only!)— I am proud of myself for finishing it! I know I had a lot of fun writing it, but I haven’t revisited it. I want to change the title as I don’t think it quite fits. but I have no regrets writing it, and I’m still proud of it even if I think it’s probably fairly weak in terms of the writing.

Actual worst part of writing: anything where I need to do a lot of description. OR where my characters are supposed to be suave and flirts. like, I dunno how to flirt. and also when my characters are supposed to be smart? like, I’m not smart and that’s okay. but I have this sick fascination with smart characters and then I’m screwed when I need to make actually use their smarts, yanno? dialogue too can trip me up, but I think that’s because I’m so used to RP writing where I can bounce off of someone else’s dialog. when I’m writing it all myself I worry everyone sounds the same. just gotta’ practice more.

How you choose your titles: song lyrics, random words from the story, objects that are in front of me, filler titles that I mean to change and then never do, ridiculous one sentence summary of what’s happening, quotes, anything that amuses me. I’m a wild card when it comes to titles, I guess. it changes with the mood.

Do you outline: not really. for longer ones I try to at least do a bullet list outline, but often I deviate from that. I like to just let my writing go where it wants to go, even if it wants to go in the EXACT FUCKING OPPOSITE DIRECTION I WANT IT TO GO. I’m one of those writers… especially with my original characters who has like very little control over WHAT their characters do. I dunno. I tell them to do something and they laugh at my audacity.

Ideas I probably won’t get around to but wouldn’t it be nice: so. many. ideas.

but there’s this big one with Zimbits where they live in a world I’ve created, and I’ve started this fic so many times and just. stopped. but there’s magic and Jack and Bitty and the rest of the gang. and I do want to actually write it one day. I have images of it in my head, I can almost smell it and taste it and feel the magic but when I sit down to write it I just fucking freeze.

there’s also this AU where Bitty is a dog trainer and Jack gets a doggo, and I just want them to bond over their pets. and Jack’s competency kink at Bitty being really fucking good at his job even when he’s pointing out where Jack could use some work. I used to work at a pet store, and I just got inspired by the doggos and trainers there lol.

another version of the Samwell Elementary School but this time *everyone* is a teacher. And there’s tension. BECAUSE OF COURSE.

Librarian!Bitty and single!dad Jack.

OH oh oh. Flea Market Flip with the Samwell Crew. So many ideas. So little faith in myself in actually writing thes lol

Callouts @ me: stop being afraid of my ideas and insistent that I can’t do them justice. because I’ve been doing some kind of writing my entire life, and I’m not complete garbage. trust that people like what I write if they told me that they do. fake it ‘til you make it with the confidence or something.

Best writing traits: fuuuuuuuck. so, I dunno. But I’m good about writing nearly every day. most of that is in RP with my friends or my attempts at novels. I wanna get better at consisent fic writing—but I’ll say, I’m good at at least making words come out even if I’m not always good at finishing longer things. At least I make time for myself and my writing. with two young kids and a parnter, I think that’s cool. highfive to myself.

Spicy tangential opinion: writing is hard, but I think a lot of times, we get so stuck in our own heads that we make it harder than it needs to be. even if what you write is pure garbage, you are getting something out. and that something can be edited and turned into something amazing. give yourself time and the grace to fuck it all up. no one is perfect, but your fics and your ideas, are still fucking amazing and probably better than you realize. its hard, but doable. eventually.

tagging: @wrathofthestag @doggernaut @marvel-girl-13 @weneedtotalkaboutfic and anyone else who wants to do this!

#fanfic writer interview #fanfic meme #mamashitty

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squidlyskeet · 3 years

Text

Joyride -0.007

Pairing: StreetRacer!Bakugou x Fem!reader

Genre: TokyoDrift!au, Noquirks!au

Status: Ongoing

TW: Violence, Blood, firearms, eventual nsfw, 18+, mentions of anxiety and OCD disorders, grand theft auto, gang activity, eventual soft yandere Bakugou.

Summary:

It started with a simple question. “What do you say Y/n? You coming?”

After the sudden death of her mother, Y/n is sent to live with her estranged aunt who made a home in Tokyo, Japan. Weary of what this new adventure might mean for her future, Y/n lets loose for her first night there, but how was Y/n supposed to know it would lead to a car chase? A car chase in the passenger seat of a very angry, very hot, street racer’s super car.

A/n: Bold Italics means the words are spoken in Japanese. PLATONIC UNCLE MIRIO SUPREMECY🥰 -Squidlyskeet ✌🏻✌🏻

The morning sun filtering through the partially opened curtains of my window had a light beam blinding me awake before my body was ready to get up. I groaned in annoyance at my light sleeping. I pulled my hand out from under my covers to slap my alarm clock before it could go off and wake me further, but confusion set in when my hand fell through the air instead of hitting my bedside table.

On top of me was an orange oversized hoodie, a skull of some sort on the front as the logo. It wasn’t the hoodie that grounded me back to reality, but the smell.

A man's musk of Burnt sugar, and Gasoline.

My thoughts cleared as I brought it to my nose and inhaled deeply, the smell a comforting one as I used it as a security blanket when yesterday’s events came rushing back.

Getting off the plane. Seeing Noel again. Finding out she was in some type of street race gang. Cars. Helicopters. Maps. Police.

Burnt sugar.

Orange.

Him.

Bakugou.

A mystery of a man, with words that don’t fit his actions, a foul mouth, and a temper that explodes so fast it could rival a bomb.

He really was unlike any man I’ve ever met, even just from knowing him from one night. His hateful words didn’t match his actions, telling me I don’t matter and then making sure I was safe the whole way through the police chase. Rechecking to make sure the harness was buckled correctly umteen times, and then helping to unlatch them when I was too shaky to do it myself.

Allowing me to play my music, when he didn’t seem like the type let anyone touch his radio.

Apparently also allowing me to use his hoodie when I unknowingly fell asleep in his car.

How did I get inside anyways?

Jesus I hope he didn’t carry me, although he wasn’t nearly as vicious as his tone would portray, that didn’t mean he still wasn’t a jerk.

I threw the hoodie from on top of me and shook the thoughts of the confusing explosive man from my head.

Promising myself I’d revisit them later I stretched as I stood, wincing when the muscles pulled taught over my bones. I must have been sore from the car chase last night, my collar bones took most of the impact from the harness when I flailed around in Bakugou’s seat like a wet noodle.

He didn’t have a bar to hold on too anywhere in the car, so that left me to try and sit straight in the thick straps iron like hold on my torso.

I figured a hot shower would do the sore muscles some good, and grabbed my towel off the hook before opening the sliding door and walking down the hall.

I was just about to open the bathroom door when I heard voices, whispering but harsh with anger.

“..Mirio, how could you. She’s only eighteen! Literally, we were just supposed to show her that Japan could be her home.” I heard a thump, I assumed that was Noel throwing something at him. “Now what, huh? How are you gonna fix this one? And you better not say any more dumb shit about ‘he’s gonna help’. You saw the way he treated Camie.” Her voice was growing louder as she continued to scold Mirio.

I leaned further into the corner trying to hear better, I knew eavesdropping was bad, but they were talking about me.

“If you would just hear me out about it, he would help. You wouldn't have to worry about her. We aren’t gonna let anything happen to Little Chick.” He replied, his voice even and full of confidence.

My heart warmed at the nickname he donned me with.

“Hey guys is everything okay?” I called out from around the corner, allowing them a moment to collect themselves before I stepped out fully.

“Oh! Y/n, did we wake you? I’m so sorry honey. I was trying to let you sleep in,” She shot a livid expression back at her boyfriend before turning back to me. “Are you hungry?” She asked.

I stepped from around the corner and looked at the two who were in the kitchen, on either side of the island. Noel looked primped for the day already while she cleaned up her breakfast mess, and Mirio was sitting at the island, broad shoulders hunched over his food like a gremlin and shoving it in his mouth like someone would take it from him.

I couldn’t help myself from a giggle, especially at the thought that just minutes before Noel was reprimanding him while he looked like this. Mirio noticed and visibly changed his eating stance, sitting back taking a more respectable approach by softly placing the food in his mouth while avoiding eye contact with Noel.

I laughed harder when I saw that she held up a wooden spoon as a threat, glaring at him like a mom would her child.

“I was just going to shower but I’d love some food, so I suppose it’ll just have to wait.” I said when I finally calmed down enough to speak.

I picked up a plate and served myself some rice and eggs,taking a little of whatever sauce Noel had set out with it. Taking a seat at the island next to Mirio, I looked down at the food before me in hesitation. I wasn’t a picky eater by any means, but the choice of foods was throwing me off.

“It’s so good, just give it a try. Rice is served three times a day here so get used to honey.” Noel said while handing me a long packet, I took it without a second thought.

I understood that it'd be rude to turn down what was offered to me, but I couldn’t help but long for French toast.

“Ehem -I uh- I don’t know how to use chopsticks.” I spoke, both Mirio and Noel looked at each other and back at me.

Before they started laughing.

My face flooded with heat and embarrassment, and I forced myself to sit there and not run back to my room and hide. I hid my face in my arm before I felt the chopsticks being yanked out of my hands.

Cold metallic replaced it, and when I looked I sighed in relief. A fork, thank the lord. I started eating as quickly as I could so I didn’t have to sit with embarrassment flaming my cheeks.

“We‘ll have to work on that later Little Chick, not many places here will have forks and stuff for you to use.” Mirio said, talking around the food shoved in his mouth.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Noel's playful scolding piped up from the sink. “So what are your plans today Y/n?” She asked me, sounding a little forced to be casual.

The tensing in her shoulders made me a little suspicious, but I chose to ignore it.

“Since I start school tomorrow, I wanted to maybe go out and explore a little, maybe find someplace where I could get a job. I was hoping maybe you and Mirio weren’t busy today, I don’t need to stay with me. Maybe just drop me off?” I explained.

I wanted to help pull my weight here. I always did at home, and sitting here all day while she had to go to work would make me feel terrible. I was using her stuff and I didn’t want to freeload.

“You don’t have to get a job Y/n, I promise we are doing just fine here. As for exploring, Mirio and I can’t make it. We’ve already promised that we’d go with the guys to the beach today,” She said as she finished up the dishes. “We were actually going to ask you if you wanted to come.”

Noel smiled at me, and as much as I wanted to make her happy, the beach was a big no from me. The sand in places I don’t want them, the sun beating on my skin, but mostly the tight swimsuits. I didn’t have a second thought about before I gave her my answer.

“I'd love to, but beaches really aren’t my thing,” I said, before pausing. “N-not that I don’t appreciate the offer! I just -uh- I really don’t like going to the beach.” I gritted my teeth, annoyed at myself. I hated how my voice stuttered when I got nervous.

“I’ll just find, like idk, a bus or something?” I continued meekly when no one said anything.

Noel and Mirio had their eyes locked on each other in some kind of silent communication, and I looked between the two, back and forth, trying to figure it out.

Finally Noel just gave a defeated huff and nodded her head at Mirio with a flick of her wrist.

“Fine.�� Was all she said before grabbing Mirio’s empty plate and turning back to the sink.

My confusion grew further when Mirio stood up out of his chair and pumped his fist into the air.

“Awesome. Thank you baby, I promise you won’t regret this,” He reached into his pocket to pull out his phone and scroll through it. “I gotta make a phone call, and then I’ll be back in to get ready baby.”

He blew her a kiss before putting his phone to his ear and walking to the front door.

When it slammed shut I looked back at Noel, confusion painting my face and my food long forgotten.

“What was that all about?” I asked.

“Nothing sweetie, just some driving arrangements for you. If you still wanted to go exploring that is.” She said over her shoulder.

“Yes, thank you! I was kind of dreading trying to figure out the transport system here.” I replied honestly.

“As for a job, if you really wanted one, one of my closest friends owns a Bakery shop. Although I don’t know if that would be the best idea for you, schools in Japan are very different from the ones in the US.” She explained.

I was excited that she mentioned something about a job, but was weary, because as she said, schools were very much different. I didn’t doubt my academics though, I was always able to keep my grades almost perfect, and how hard could it be?

“I’d love that, thank you for the offer. And thank you for the food,” I slid from the stool, getting up to hand her the plate. I’d have to take note to wash dishes at dinner tonight.

“I’m gonna go get in the shower, I feel like I need a good scrub after last night's adventure,” I said while walking away.

I heard her distant ‘ok honey’ while I headed back towards my towel and the relaxing hot water calling my name.

Hopefully, today will go better than yesterday.

———————————————————————

💥Bakugou POV💥

I slammed the paint gun down on the work bench beside me. I kicked my foot forward, launching the steel toed boot into the bucket that sat on the ground in front of my work station.

I growled when it hit the concrete wall with a loud ring. My already pounding headache became that much worse when the sound rattled my brain.

I turned around to look at my half painted car that sat in the middle of the garage bay. The orange was my favorite but I couldn’t decide if I was sold on the gun metal grey I chose when I finally settled on a color. The orange accents I liked, but the color was so dull.

“Oi. You good?” I heard from a couple bays down.

Todoroki.

“Oi, shut the hell up half and half. I’m just sick of fucking painting.” I yelled back, mad that anyone was in the garage to even hear me.

It was morning and I hadn’t slept yet, skyrocketing my annoyance to the point of violence. I knew I needed sleep, but there was nothing I could do about it until this damn car was done. I had shit to do, and if I tried to drive it, even still half orange, I’d probably get a complimentary bullet straight to the forehead.

“Damn, can you two stop arguing for like five seconds.” Sero chimed in from his bay on the other side of the building.

“Maybe if you’d have painted this for me I wouldn’t be so damn pissy.” I snapped back at him, making sure my voice was loud enough for him to hear.

While I wasn’t great at painting -I’d never admit it- I was still half decent. I could paint a car and have it look fine, but no one matched Sero’s skills. He could have an old beater looking sleek with a new paint job.

My forte was more along the lines of upgrades and ‘go fast’ parts. If you wanted to go fast, I’m your go to guy. Nitrous had to be handled carefully, and no one else here had quite the gentle touch I did when it came to the explosives.

“Kaachan, maybe you should take a nap on the cot in the back.” Midoriya said next, his bay being directly across from mine, I heard him clearly.

His towering frame was crouched underneath a car mounted to the lift, and in his hands he had a torch. Most likely trying to get the VIN number off of any parts that could be traceable.

A day in the life at the chop shop.

I was about to go off on the optimistic twat when the familiar ring of phone brought me out of momentary rage.

I recognized the ringtone and immediately sighed. What did this overgrown idiot want now? I debated on not answering when my tired brain finally caught up, and I almost slapped myself.

Was Y/n alright?

The thought had me lunging and fishing through my tools I haphazardly threw on the table for my phone faster than I’d like to admit.

“Hello?” I answered when I finally found it.

“Bakugou, what’s up dude. I gots some news.” Mirio’s cheery voice filtered through the phone.

“What’re you calling me for?.” I cut straight to the point.

“Noel agreed. She was a little against it at first, but then the little chick started talking about wanting to go everywhere and do all kinds of stuff and she finally caved.” He explained.

I sighed in relief, but immediately felt myself tense when a thought occurred to me. I wouldn’t be able to go get her or start my duties as an escort until this car was done. What if she needed something up until then? Sure, I said Shinsou and Denki would take care of it, but now that I knew she was my responsibility for certain , it ground my gears that other people could potentially mess up on my behalf.

My annoyance grew with myself too when I realized I was actually relieved I’d be allowed to escort Y/n. If anything here they, and she both should be grateful I was even wasting my precious time on this. It didn’t change the fact though, that I couldn’t officially start until I got some sleep. Or that I’d be entrusting her with the two biggest idiots on our squad, simply because I couldn’t let myself allow her in a car with someone who might take too much of an interest in her.

Godamnit, I hated trusting people with things I was supposed to be responsible for.

“Ok. Well does she need anything right now?” I wanted him to say no. I was tired, and I didn’t want to deal with any of this right now. I just wanted to finish this car and go to sleep.

“Yeah actually, she was talking about wanting to go find a job. We tried to talk her out of it, but she said she felt ‘obligated’ or something.” Mirio replied.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to work out the headache behind my eyes at his statement. My annoyance, and now my anger, were rising rapidly.

“Why does she need a shitty job? Just tell her I’ll get whatever she wants. I’m her escort for fucks sake.” I said through the phone, my tone flat and exasperated.

“Oh yeah, that’ll go over just fucking great won’t it Bakugou. ‘You don’t have to worry about money at all Y/n, Bakugou will get you whatever your little heart desires with the money he makes lifting and chopping cars for a living.’,” Mirio paused, laughing loudly. “I’m sure that’ll go just as smooth as sandpaper my guy.” Mirio snorted through the phone.

“What the hell does she need a job for anyways?” I growled back in response. I was fully prepared to spend whatever I needed to get her to not go out today.

If for nothing else just so I could sleep without having to worry that shit for brains one and two didn’t mess anything up.

“Something about she wants to help Noel pay bills or for the house or whatever.” He replied, his tone uncaring and bored.

“Fine I’ll buy Noel's house then. How much?” I growled, getting fed up with this conversation.

“You can’t buy it, cause I already did. There was no way I was letting my girl struggle for anything. You better change that attitude though Bakugou, I have a feeling Y/n isn’t the type of little chick that would be impressed with you throwing your weight in money around simply because it benefits you,” He sighed, clearly understanding that I wanted no part of dealing with this. “She seems like more of a girl who values trust. I’d start there with her, instead of you know, literally buying her a house so she doesn’t leave it.” Mirio finished his rant.

I was so done with his ‘insightful’ rambling.

I rolled my eyes with a quick explanation on why he could go fuck himself, and hung up the phone.

I turned to set it down and pick the paint gun back up, while also doing a quick scan of the shop.

“Oi,” I yelled, getting everyone’s attention. “Where the hell is the dunce face and purple top?” I questioned.

“They went out on a run, they just checked in twenty minutes ago, they said they’d be back in about thirty.” Jirou yelled from under her car, banging on something I couldn’t see.

“Someone get them on the phone, I want them back in three minutes.” I commanded.

Everyone stood for a minute, but no one had the nerve to fight with me. They knew how I got when I was tired and angry.

Kirishima stepped out from behind the black Audi he was working on, phone already out and dialing. I knew without a doubt he’d back me up, and I couldn’t be happier he did what I said without causing some kind of scene unlike Midoriya's, who’s expression revealed that he might. While I didn’t match Midoriya in bulk-I was close, but the man packed on muscle like a grizzly bear-, I matched him in height, and in a fight with him, I’d win. Just like I always did.

“Shinsou said ‘I can't believe he thinks we are that slow.’” Kirishima said, clearly repeating the purple top's snarky attitude.

I scoffed, turning to grab my phone off the bench again while scenarios of how today could go wrong played through my head.

I shot the text as quick as I could, shaking my head and putting the phone back down before regretting asking Mirio for Y/n’s number.

______________________________

👄Y/n POV👄

Unknown #: This is Bakugou. Save my number. Shinsou and Kaminari will be your ride for today. I will call u later for a full report.

I stared at my phone, jaw hung open. Did I really get a text from Bakugou? And what the hell a full report? What is that supposed to mean. I tapped the screen to save his contact, before hesitating, and then cracking a smile when I typed in his name.

To AngerManagement: uhhh..hi Bakugou? who is Shinsou and Kaminari again? And what’s a full report?

I was trying to push down my smile when I got a text back almost immediately.

From AngerManagement: Just pick up the dam phone when I call u. They r on their way, they already been given orders 2 do wht evr u want so you better tell me if they dont.

I could barely contain my smile now. Orders? Hah. I wouldn’t make anyone follow my orders even if I was a queen. That would be cruel, my whims could get out of hand.

I rolled my eyes before replying back, hoping to get a reaction out of him.

To Angermanagment: i’ll be waiting on your call ☺️💕

I giggled at my use of emoji’s, hoping that beyond anything else it’d irritate the moody man. Something tells me he wouldn’t take very kindly to the sentiments insinuated by them.

I’d realized only then that he’d said they were on their way, and I was still on the bed, in nothing but a towel, staring at my phone like a goon. I threw my phone to the bed, and rushed to pull clothes out of my half unpacked suitcase, when I finally settled on some leggings and a corded knit sweater, I looked in the mirror. I threw my hair into my favorite simple style and was mid make-up application when I heard the sound that was quickly becoming familiar and hard to misplace. The deep rattle of a souped up engine, although this one didn’t sound nearly as loud. On the other hand, the music that was spilling out of the car was the loudest I’d heard yet, I could almost make out the song from wherever they were on the street, and that in itself made me start mentally preparing for the barrage of sounds I’d probably experience later.

I continued my make-up, trying to hurry, as I heard the engine cut and a knock on the door. I knew Noel and Mirio were getting ready to leave, and it made me feel bad that they had to entertain the two guys until I was done.

The sound of rapid japanese traveled up the stairs, and with it the sound of footsteps. My speed make-up came to a close with the last swipe of my mascara wand just as Noel peeked her head from around the corner.

“Well you look cute,” The blonde smirked, “Those two idiots are here by the way. I have no idea why Bakugou would send them of all people, but I guess it's better than you taking the bus. I don’t care if you make them wait, and neither does Mirio, but Shinsou can get a little testy, so it’s up to you.” Noel rambled, clearly nervous.

Probably to literally leave me in the hands of strangers. I was nervous too, but if she and Mirio trusted them then I suppose I would too.

“Another testy racer? Jesus will I ever catch a break,” I mumbled to myself. “It’s fine. I’m done anyways, let’s go.”

Following Noel down the steps, I saw them before they saw me and the dots connected. Kaminari and Shinsou were the two idiots in the lawn chairs at the race.

This was just my damn luck. They are -or at least Kaminari- the reason I’m still having heart palpitations from last night's car chase.

“...if anything happens to Little Chick in your care, I’ll hunt you down, am I understood?” Mirio was standing tall, arms crossed and looking intimidating as we caught the tail end of his never ending threats.

My heart swelled, but internally cringed.

It’s been so long since I actually had people who care about me, I was stuck somewhere in the middle of craving and appreciating the actions, but not knowing how to accept it.

“Mirio.” Noel’s stern voice cut through the tense atmosphere of the foyer.

Mirio’s face dropped in surprise and his fierce expression was replaced with an easy going one.

“Oh, hey baby, hey Little Chick. Let me introduce you, this is Shinsou Hitoshi,” Mirio pointed to the man. I didn’t get a good look at him at the race and my jaw dropped at the vibrancy of his purple hair. “And this is Kaminari Denki, he is a player so don’t talk to him unless you have to.” Mirio said, but smiled as he was talking.

“Hey man! I’m trying to make a good impression here.” Kaminari replied, almost whining as he scoffed and ran his hand through his yellow hair.

“No need, that first impression ship has long since sailed. You know, when you made me voluntarily get into a car with Mr. Anger Management.” I spat back at Kaminari, mad, and not moving until I received an apology.

On his left, Shinsou let out a laugh, while Kaminari’s face heated to an embarrassed beet red. If I didn’t know any better, it almost looked like fear flashed in his eyes before he schooled his expression.

“I uh- I’m really sorry. It was only meant to be a joke, I didn't think anything would come of it. And I get a little mischievous when I’m tipsy.” He replied, rubbing the back of his neck and looking at anything but me.

“You’re forgiven. Thank you for apologizing, I’m Y/n L/n, please, call me by my first name.” I introduced myself, to which both men spoke their hello’s to me with a courteous bow.

“Well, if introductions are done, Mirio and I have to leave, Amajiki is waiting on us. I expect you two will remember what it was that Mirio said?” Noel cut into the awkward moment, trying to get the show on the road.

“We’ll remember. We should be going too.” Shinsou spoke, his voice deeper than I imagined.

“Goodbye sweets, text or call if you need anything!” Noel kissed me on the cheek and Mirio side hugged me before waving us out the door.

“Your chariot awaits Miss Y/n.” Kaminari’s laugh echoed in the foyer as he opened the door and ushered me out.

My first thought about the newest car sitting on the curb, was that it had to be Shinsou’s. The purple color of the car matched his messy locks, and as funny as it was the black accents matched the black bags under his eyes.

I didn’t have much longer to think on the topic, only because Shinsou had the driver side door open with his seat pushed up and was waiting for me to get into the car.

It’s only a few hours Y/n. You can do this.

I huffed as I climbed into the seat in the back.

Here we go again.

————————————

“TELL ME WHYYYYYYY-”

“AIN’T NOTHIN BUT A HEART BREAK!!”

Three hours.

I’ve had to sit in the back of Shinsou’s car and listen to their incessant caterwauling for three hours.

The only thing getting me through was the boba tea Kaminari recommended and counting down the seconds until our next stop. Finally, after they chauffeured me across Tokyo, we were pulling our way up to what was -thank fucking god- our last stop. The bakery Noel had told me about.

It was a quaint little building, attached to other quaint little buildings. A bookstore to its left and a humble tea shop to its right, an introverted heaven and I could already tell I’d love it. I was anxious to get the introductions with the woman Noel told me about done and hopefully she’d like me.

“Do you want us to come with you? Or are you okay going in yourself?” Kaminari asked from the front seat.

“I think I’ll be good, thanks though,” I began to unbuckle the harness strapping me to the seat and Shinsou got out to pull the seat out to let me out.

“If you hear the horn honk make sure you drop whatever you're doing and come back to the car, only precaution but you can never be too careful.” Shinsou said as I hopped out and began making my way to the door.

I saluted him with a smirk and opened the glass door that rang out with the cute tinkles of bells on the other side. I looked around the shop and gasped. I really was in love. It was a greenery heaven, with ivy plants climbing the brick walls and exotic ferns gracing the corners. The Pink of the cookies and cupcakes in the display looked not only delicious but complemented the color palette of the place perfectly.

“Hello, welcome to Yin’s Cakes, how can I help you?” A gentle voice rang out from behind the counter and brought me out of my jaw dropping awe.

“Oh hello! My name is Y/n, I’m actually here to talk to you,” I replied, taking the last few steps to the counter with what was hopefully a friendly smile on my face.

Yin’s expression visibly dropped, confusing me. Her eye’s became apprehensive as she looked at me and then shifted them towards the floor to ceiling windows on the other side of the room, to where Shinsou’s purple Audi sat on the other side.

She grimaced, and shifted her gaze to the floor before clearing her throat.

“Look…I don’t want anything to do whatever you and your racing buddies have going on. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Yin said, unable to make eye contact with me from behind the counter where she stood.

“Uh..they are just my ride for today, I’m Noel L/n’s niece. I was hoping to talk to you about a job..” I drifted off, hoping she’d just hear me out.

Yin’s face heated from the neck up at the misunderstanding and she stuttered on her next words. “O-Oh! Noel’s niece? Jesus I’m so sorry, you should’ve started with that. Of course, she called me this morning. Come with me!” She waved me around the counter, and I went willingly.

“Okay so, I won’t have you fill out an application only cause I trust Noel’s word and we need help bad. We’ll get right into it, this is the kitchen and where all the magic happens! I’ll have you come in early mornings to start baking with me just so you can get the basics, and then in a few days when school starts you’ll come in in the afternoons to work those shifts. We start at four in the morning and close at five, over there is the co-owners office. She is sweet as pie, but don’t go in there if you value your life, she gets weird about it. Mmmm..let me think, I think that’s all,” She stood against the metal workbench, covered in flour with her pointer finger touching her chin. She really was pretty. “Are you okay to start in the morning?” She finished.

Man can she talk. I was trying to process everything when the door chimed once again.

“Ope! One second honey, I gotta grab this.” Yin rushed from the kitchen only to be stopped by a feminine voice, smooth as honey.

“That’s alright Yin, it’s just me,” A woman walked from around the corner and my jaw dropped. Dark silky hair tied into a flawless high ponytail. High cheekbones and sharp dark grey eyes, and a body to die for dressed in designer silk. “Oh, and who do we have here?” The woman smiled at me, and I swear my heart fluttered and skipped a beat.

“H-hi, m-my name is Y-y/n.”

Smooth, real smooth.

“Oh shit! Well what do you say Y/n, start tomorrow?” Yin asked again, clearly forgetting about our previous conversation.

“Y-yeah, t-tomorrow. Four then?” I asked again, and Yin vigorously nodded her head, her thousand watt smile borderline blinding me.

“Oh, you're our new employee? What a precious thing you are,” The woman’s soft smile was comforting and a huge contrast to Yin’s infectious enthusiasm. “I nearly forgot my manners I’m so sorry,”

“It’s nice to meet you Y/n, my name is Momo Iida. I’m the co-owner of Yin’s cakes.” Momo bowed politely as she said it.

And for the rest of my time at Yin’s Cakes, the only thing I could think of was how pretty the name Momo Iida was.

————————————

Taglist: @thatonegeekchick @garnet-redtailedhero @nightlygiggless @miydizzle3000 @akaashisus @notyourfavorIte @oikawasb1tch @breadmouthbread

I think this is everyone😭💕💕

-Squidlyskeet ✌🏻

MASTERLIST

#my hero academia #mha #this took a lot longer than i thought it would #uhgggg #bnha au #bnha fluff #bakugou x fem!reader #bakugou x you #bakugou x y/n #bakugou fluff #bnha bakugou #tokyo drift #mha angst #bnha angst

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

Text

tagged by @rose-blooms-red

rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and interests you and i’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it!

Only going with Batfam fics since that’s the fandom I share with Ro, and like, I’m ridiculous and work on literally dozens of WIPs for years at a time in fits and starts, in the idea of occasionally finishing one and posting it in completion which works great in theory but never seems to work out that way in practice OH UNKNOWABLE UNIVERSE, INEXPLICABLE ME.

Which means my Batfam WIP folder, as in fics that are actually in existence in bits and pieces because non-linear writing FTW (dubious), is already ridiculous enough as is. Keep in mind this is the accumulation of like....literally five or six years of adding content and writing stuff here and there. But yeah, also keep in mind like, I’m just ridick. Thing you gotta remember is I write primarily for me, to just get things out of my head. Like, I do really like external validation too, but I’m very very weird in that like, I have tons of stuff people have never read, original and fic-wise, and its not like...because I don’t want people to read them, its just......Things Happen and then they don’t and....yeah. This has been a presentation of Deep Thoughts, By Me. Let’s just say management is aware of the issue and its being worked on.

SERIES

KINGS OF THE SKY (aka that one where Jason doesn’t die, one-shot installments)

Weapons of Choice - Dick POV during his Robin days

Teachable Moments - Jason POV when he calls Dick after the Felipe Garzonas case and everything jumps ship from canon

Blood of the Covenant - Jason POV while Dick’s recovering from the Church of Blood storyline, plus enter The Adoption Issue

There are other later installments that make sense to me but wouldn’t make sense to anyone else without the in-between pieces, so just leaving them out even though whole ones are entirely written ahfishflahfal

BURY YOUR DEAD, LAY THEM DOWN, LET THEM REST (aka Ric fix-it series, plus addressing Lots More, one-shot installments)

Tell Me Your Secrets, I’ll Make You A Ghost - Duke POV with Dick pre-shooting, plus with Cass in near aftermath

You Can’t Take It With You, But Don’t Leave It Behind - Cass POV immediately following previous one, Interlude-ish

The Dead Don’t Live Here Anymore - Ric POV, bonding (slowly and awkwardly and very very dysfunctionally) with Jason and Cass at the same time, hello powderkeg, meet match

The Good Die Young and the Bad Aren’t Dead - Jason POV investigating things hinted at in the previous

Welcome To Purgatory, We Hope You Like Your Stay - Tim POV confronting then awkwardly teaming up with Damian who has Plans re: these Nightwing impostors

Life After the End of The World or What the Hell Are We Even Supposed To Be Doing Now - Jason POV confronting Cass about the secret she’s been keeping re: Dick but its not what he thought it was

A Ghost, A Zombie and a Dead Guy Walk Into A Bar - Ric POV, with Cass and Jason again

The Long Dark Night of Richard John Grayson - Ric vs the door keeping his memories locked up tight

Two Houses, Built In Shadow (aka that one where I build a rival family of villains/antiheroes to act as the Batfam’s foils)

Smoking Guns and Smoking Mirrors - Dick POV and Babs POV, introducing Dick and Babs’ counterparts - 3 chapters plus epilogue

Werewolves of Gotham - Jason POV, introducing his counterpart, 5 chapters

Ghosting the Machine - Tim POV, introducing his counterpart, 3 chapters plus Interlude-y epilogue

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil - Duke then Steph then Cass POV, three long-as-fuck-dear-god-what-was-I-thinking chapters

Providence - Bruce POV, introducing his counterpart, seven thankfully much shorter chapters (its all relative, shut up)

Queen’s Gambit - Dick POV then Cass, pinning down the identities of the rival fam before they can figure out theirs first, format to be determined as everything written for this part is an incomprehensible mishmash of paragraphs out of context hahaha I do things smart

Way Down Deep Where The Sun Don’t Shine - Jason POV, the climax and denoument, five chapters plus epilogue

MULTI-CHAPTER STANDALONE FICS

They Never Said Saving the World Would Go Like This - that epic saga of Dick and Kyle

The Spy Who Forgot To Come In From The Cold - the Spyral + amnesia fusion fic

Ghosts of Graysons Past - John Grayson makes a deal with his old buddy Boston Brand to save his son from his fate at the hands of the Court of Owls, and Jason gets roped into riding shotgun via ‘so apparently I can see dead people now, but not all dead people, just SOME dead people, the really really loud ones’

99 Views To A Kill - that Dick and Boone Vengeance Academy AU

Been There, Done That - Dick fosters then adopts a kid being fucked over by the system in ways eerily similar to his own past, aka does the Bruce Boogie and projects like whoa

The Vienna Game - the Batfam versus a global criminal gang with secrets upon secrets and unveiling some of theirs in the process

The Brothers (Most) Grim - that one where Jason is thrown by Dick being a mob enforcer then supervillain as he prepares to make his return to Gotham, Things Then Do Not Go According to Plan, Dammit Dick

The Patron Saint of Robins - the one where Dick doesn’t forget but everyone else still does

Shadows Cast - that one where Jason becomes Flamebird and he and Dick focus on abused kids in specific

Hunt the Dark - that one where Dick learns some magic in the in-between Robin and Nightwing time, which comes in handy when Jason’s return from the dead is accompanied by some unseen supernatural predator stalking the ghost that got away

SHORT(ish) MULTI-CHAPTER STANDALONE FICS

First, Do No Harm - aka the one where Dick saves a fairy and the fairy’s a little shit about it

We’ve Only Got Nine Lives, Let’s Waste Not A One - aka the one where Dick and Selina bond over something and Bruce has no idea what it is and its driving him nuts - not cute, very angsty, I am sorry

The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side of the Tracks - aka five times Dick taught a sibling how to trainsurf plus one time they reminded him he gave them good stuff to go with the bad

The Boy in the Red Hoodie - years later, Dick realizes the kid he taught a few self-defense moves during that brief time he ran away in Robin: Year One wasn’t really named Peter anymore than he was really named Freddy

Once Upon A Time In Gotham - that de-aged to a teenager fic

Forget Us Not - Jason and Dick are revisited by reminders of a case they worked on together when Bruce was ‘out of town’ years ago while Jason was still Robin

The Centuries Can Wait - that one with Amelia Crowne versus William Cobb over the course of generations

ONE-SHOTS THAT HAVE NO EXCUSE FOR NOT BEING DONE, WHAT AM I EVEN DOING (oh right, I guess technically I have SOME excuse for fanfic not having been the biggest priority in my life for a few years but look I am Drama, hear me wax rhapsodic whilst emoting most verily)

Where Other Leaves Did Fall - Dick POV, Dick discovers relatives from Amelia Crowne’s side of the family, aka his grandfather had a half-sister he never knew about

Point of Origin - Jason POV, fall-out from the Bruce mindwipe reveal in Identity Crisis and how it might have made his relationships and way of interacting with Dick and Jason in particular like...swerve

Two Wings and a Prayer - Dick POV, Court of Owls wingfic, look, I am me, you had to know there was a wingfic in here somewhere

Sitting In Darkness, Still Waiting On That Dawn - Jason POV, Dick dealing with the revelation of his family’s history re: The Court of Owls

Tell Me No Lies - Jason POV, despite the years and the death between them, post-UTRH, Jason still knows his brother’s tells, and his brother knows his....its why they’re avoiding each other

Witness to a Crime - Cass POV, that thing where you notice things no one else does, but not always knowing what they mean

We’re Just Not Gonna Talk About These And The Passage of Time, That Asshole

Born Under a Bad Sign - and its sequel. They still exist! In theory!

By Lost Ways - oh yeah, I was supposed to get back to posting that huh, I should do that, okay, righteo, that’s a mea culpa my dudes

Tagging anyone who wants to be tagged lol, cuz I suck at this but if you see this and are inspired to do this as well, you can totes blame me for the tagging!

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thesunnyshow · 4 years

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Name: Alana

Writing Blog URL(s): @jinyoungsir

What fandom(s) do you write for?: GOT7, BTS, Monsta X, Stray Kids, Ateez, NCT

Age: 27

Nationality: American

Languages: English

Star Sign: Aries

MBTI: I’m not sure. I’ve taken the test so many times but I never remember the result.

Favorite color: Black

Favorite food: Potatoes! All forms of potatoes!!

Favorite movie: Harry Potter? Jurassic Park/World? Twister? Jaws? I love movies...it’s so hard to choose!

Favorite ice cream flavor: Vanilla with lots of fudge & brownie bits.

Favorite animal: Tigers! I like big cats and the way they move.

Coffee or tea? What are you ordering?: Coffee- Peppermint White Mocha HOT! Or any flavor tea hot or cold as long as it’s sweetened!

Dream job (whether you have a job or not): Writing and Traveling. Something far from the 9-5, ‘working for the man’ type of job.

Go-to karaoke song: ‘Shoop’ by Salt-N-Pepa (thank u Deadpool)

If you could have one superpower, what would you choose?: The ability to manipulate time because I am late for everything and also, I would 100% pause the timeline for a little mental health break once a day.

If you could visit a historical era, which would you choose?: Idk if this counts but I low-key would have loved to be a pirate. So whatever timeline that fits into.

If you could restart your life, knowing what you do now, would you?: No, thank you. I already have a defiance disorder. I’m not going to be under 18 ever again. I like doing what I want when I want as an adult lol. Everything turned out okay.

Would you rather fight 100 chicken-sized horses or one horse-sized chicken?: 100 chicken-sized horses. I hope I drown in them. What a dream.

If you were a trope in a teen high school movie, what would you have been?: I AM a teen highschool movie trope lol my husband and I met in school at fourteen.

Do you believe in aliens/supernatural creatures?: YES, because the world is just too big for there not to be.

Fun fact about yourself that not everyone would know?: I stopped eating pizza for several years for no real reason other than not wanting to eat pizza and then just starting eating it again one day as if I had never stopped.

When did you post your first piece?: I think it was May 2019.

Do you write fluff/angst/crack/general/smut, combo, etc? Why?: Mostly fluff & humor because I’m kind of soft and I really love a feel-good fic. Any angst I write is typically resolved by the end because I live for a happy ending. And occasional smut strictly for the spice.

Do you write OCs, X Readers, Ships...etc?: OCs & xReaders.

Why did you decide to write for Tumblr?: I love/hate the format tbh but mostly because of my tumblr community. I love being able to meet and talk to new people easily thru the platform.

What inspires you to write?: Everything! Songs, movies, commercials, personal events, etc. Sometimes it’s just a word, phrase, or picture.

What genres/AUs do you enjoy writing the most?: I’m a major sucker for friends/strangers to lovers! and I LOVE a good Mafia/Gang/Assassin!AU. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you can catch me writing dad!au stories.

What do you hope your readers take away from your work?: I just hope it makes them feel good. Laugh, smile, cry, yell, uwu, just- all the emotions.

What do you do when you hit a rough spot creatively?: Take a break. Read a book, dive into a k-drama, binge a few fics. Sometimes I just have to put the laptop away until I’m ready to start again.

What is your favorite work and why? Your most successful?: My favorite story is probably ‘Over The Top’ with GOT7’s Bambam. It’s a dad!au about bam’s twin boys’ first birthday party. I’m quite attached to their family dynamic in the story and may even revisit twin terrors Somsak & Somchai in the future. Most successful? Probably the ‘Bubbles’ series, a Monsta X OT7 fiesta. I had a lot of feedback while posting that series and made a lot of friends. (It was also my first actual fic & it jump-started this blog!)

Who is your favorite person to write about?: Jackson Wang or Park Jinyoung from GOT7 and Han Jisung from Stray Kids.

Do you think there’s a difference between writing fanfiction vs. completely original prose?: This is kind of a tough one because, yes- as a fanfic writer I’m using a real person as a character, however, the storyline, the dialog, the emotions, the actions of the characters are all organic. I could take any one of my stories and replace only that person’s name and it would be considered entirely original. So, I guess I would say it’s not so different.

What do you think makes a good story?: Great dialog.

What is your writing process like?: Sometimes I get an idea and go straight to word vomiting and editing. Sometimes it’s planning the title, characters, tags list, & summary then not looking at it for a few weeks until I’m ready to write it.

Would you ever repurpose a fic into a completely original story?: Yes. All of my stories are AU (non-idol verse) so I would totally repurpose them.

What tropes do you love, and what tropes can’t you stand?: Love: friends/strangers/enemies to lovers, + grumpy character only soft for their love interest. Dislike: Love triangles, angsty slow burn, cheating, etc.

How much would you say audience feedback/engagement means to you?: IT IS EVERYTHING. I love reading tags, getting aks, getting messages, it warms my heart, and really motivates me to keep going.

What has been one of the biggest factors of your success (of any size)?: When I write and I really like my own story, it feels like a success.

Do you think fanfic writers get unfairly judged?: Yes, they certainly can be. I think people who don’t understand fanfiction can have a very narrow mindset and belittle fanfic writers because of that misunderstanding.

Do you think art can be a medium for change?: Yes. Even if its something as small as changing one’s mood.

Do you ever feel there are times when you’re writing for others, rather than yourself?: Not usually. I try to only write things that make me happy and if I ever get requests I’m not into, I usually won’t write it. If I’m not enjoying myself and the story, it’s not worth the pressure I put on myself to write it.

Do you ever feel like people have misunderstood you or your writing at times?: It’s definitely possible, but I haven’t had many issues with this so far.

Do your offline friends/loved ones know you write for Tumblr?: My mom, dad, sister, husband, and two other friends know.

What is one thing you wish you could tell your followers?: I’m always here to make you laugh and smile, whenever you need it. I hope my stories can bring you joy.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers who might be too scared to put themselves out there?: Do it for yourself. If you are enjoying yourself then it’s worth it.

Are there any times when you regret joining Tumblr?: I love this hellsite. I’ve been here since high school and I have no regrets.

Do you have any mutuals who have been particularly formative/supportive in your Tumblr journey?: AJ: my favorite bean, Chelle: my fav writer & inspo, Megan: my hype squad gf, Leena: my sisterwife, Na: my #1 supporter, and Val: my JJP/Wonu Soulmate.

Pick a quote to end your interview with: “mo0n Mo0n JiN m0oN!” - Jeon Jeongguk

BONUS ROUND: K-POP CONFIDENTIAL

#jinyoungsir #thesunnyshow #featured author #episode 43 #got7 #bts #stray kids #monsta x #ateez #nct

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silver-lily-louise · 4 years

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Shadowhunters Rewatch! Episode 1x02: The Descent into Hell isn’t Easy

- The descent into hell isn’t easy but it’s easiER when you have cramps and there’s a plumber opposite your bedroom again lmao Let’s do this

- Damn Jace no need to be RUDE

- I really love the dilapidated church cover thing btw

- See the tech was something that bothered my sister about the series, she preferred the more medieval feel of the first book and movie. Personally I love it lmao but then again I’m more of a sci fi nerd than her

- I totally forgot the misinformation thing they did after the revolt ew. What kind of coverup bullshit

- Lol early Sizzy moment #godbless

- I feel like this whole ‘runes on the floor will kill mundanes’ thing is underutilised in the future… may have to use it in a fic lol

- HA I forgot they made Izzy’s lack of cooking skills show-canon as well lol

- Additionally Alec’s character development is very interesting to me in a ‘wtf did Magnus see in s1 Alec’ kind of way, so I’m starting a separate list to try and track his motivations and biases and stances to see how they shift. Probably gonna do the same thing for Maryse bc I buy her redemption but I can’t quite pinpoint WHY I do (except my favourite thing is when people are nice to Magnus lmao)

- OH LOOK IT’S HODGE. FUCK U HODGE (ahem. Moving on)

- (Main shadowhunter squad looking around their parents) Isn’t there ANYONE HERE WHO WASN’T A FUCKING TERRORIST??? (Shh Louise we only know Jocelyn and Luke so far)

- Clary I get that you feel bad but apologising once was enough, Hodge is a big boy who can make his own decisions lol

- ‘What is a GI Joe’ lmao

- ‘No training and no plan gets you killed’ I think that’s interesting, because it speaks to Jace’s idea that as long as he trains hard enough and have a plan, things’ll work out.

- I thought it was pretty cold of Clary to seriously consider Jace’s ‘what if Dot is working for Valentine’ point, but then again LUKE has turned on her as far as she knows so I guess that’s a reasonable amount of suspicion

- Izzy looks so proud of herself aw bless

- ‘Jace is the ultimate protector’ oh no oh help I’m having smol-boy-Jace-Wayland-carving-himself-an-identity feelings

- I just noticed the runes drifting in the background of the UI all Matrix-style lol. Can u believe Shadowhunters tried to tell us that WARLOCKS were the #extra ones lmao

- ‘A little too much in my opinion’ imagine thinking Izzy is straight lol couldn’t be me

- ‘He’s in good hands with the boys’ oh POOR Simon XD

- LOOK at the connection between these two. I’m love them. Can u believe they were already kindred souls BEFORE becoming parabatai, truly beautiful

- oKAY canon divergence I want::: Simon leaving without a hitch, googling how to kill demons and FIGURING IT OUT. He comes back for Clary and now the gang have this mundane demon-killer on side lol, and Alec’s all like ‘he’s a fucking MUNDANE he can’t be here in Shadowhunter business learning secrets and getting himself killed’ and Izzy’s like ‘he killed four demons wtf you worried about bro???’

- Seelie scouts??? The Clave really will make a show of unity when it suits them huh

- They were KIDDING about the floor runes are you KIDDING me XD I figured it was just a continuity problem lmao (also I know they’re being dickheads but that little smirk between Jace and Alec is maybe the first time we properly see them as a brotherly team aha)

- Okay but with hindsight you can really tell this whole cold demeanour ISN’T Magnus. His mannerisms are SCREAMING ‘coping mechanism in a time of crisis’ rn

- That being said if Dot’s magic is dangerously low I bet he regretted leaving her behind alone and vulnerable, she’s a grown woman who can make her own choices but it’s kiiiind of a dick move especially since he entreated her with sarcasm instead of earnestness to try and convince her to come with

- It continues to be exceedingly funny that Pandemonium is never mentioned outside of S1, when it’s painted almost as Magnus’ MAIN job in that. I mean it kind of makes sense that we see his public face in this beginning and his more personal details later on – the warlock stuff, the clients and politics that are more ‘core’ to his job and identity – but still. Not even MENTIONED, I don’t think. XD

- All of them stepping out of the van… Scooby Doo vibes lol WHERE is my mystery-solving AU with these five???? Do I have to write all of my unvoiced fanfic ideas myself??? Unbelievable

- Clary talking about the void she felt… I’m not crying about 3x22 you are

- ‘Wasteful warlock life’ Valentine. My dude. She has CENTURIES to learn and love and travel and experience, and you’re wasting your handful of decades on racism But go off I guess lmao (loser)

- I know the liquid is bad but also there is a HUGE bubble in that syringe. Valentine how is she gonna be useful to you after a mahoosive stroke

- Random shot of the moon. I mean I love her but WHAT ‘Look it’s night-time!!!! Spooooooky!!!!’ XD

- Okay Izzy is halfway-smitten, lbr. She and Simon fit so well okay

- ‘I can’t be here anymore’ Listen s1 Alec is a serious, grumpy lil shit but he DOES have a sense of humour okay

- Jace LET THEM HUG :C

- ‘We carry it to remind us that light can be found in even the darkest of places’ Jace stfu it’s a TORCH X’D (Like, no disrespect to traditions in general, but that one just SMACKS of Clave Sanctimony lol, and by Jace’s next line he knows that aha)

- …Is Nephilim the dative??? I need to look that up lol. Also think it’s funny that Hell (in its various realms) is the one place Shadowhunters CAN’T go, re 3x21

- ‘You assume I have feelings’ Jace. Bro. You are perhaps the CRYINGEST CRIER IN THIS SHOW. Let go of the toxic masculinity friend, you’re gonna be nicer once you do <3

- I’m revisiting my earlier point: WHY ARE LITERALLY ALL OF THE PARENTS CIRCLE MEMBERS LMAO

- ‘No more I’m sorries, you’re a Shadowhunter now’ YIKES if that don’t say it all about Shadowhunter hubris lmao. Apologies are good and necessary <3

- RECOGNISED THE CLAIRVOYANCE RUNE, HIGHKEY PROUD OF MYSELF AHA

- Think how much less beautiful and adorable the Malec wedding would have been if Brother Zachariah looked like this kind of Coraline experiment gone wrong lmao

- I’m not always a fan of a flashback but that ‘you’re strong enough’ one definitely makes it seem less like Clary’s just being reckless aha

- ‘It’ ALEC STOP BEING SUCH A RUDE BITCH. Also I do love Sizzy but I definitely think Izzy needed to be in a less defensive position when they got together (re ‘he passes the time’, I don’t ACTUALLY care I’m just a heartbreaker out for a good time), I’m kind of glad they waited until her caring side had been more nourished instead of stifled

- SIMON. YOU SAID YOU HAVE SEEN HORROR MOVIES. WHY DID YOU PUT HEADPHONES ON

- ‘The night children have broken no laws’ Wait, so kidnapping a Mundane ISN’T against the law??? I mean I get Shadowhunters not being able to KILL them for it - …oh. OH. HANG ON. Are the Accords just to stop Shadowhunters KILLING Downworlders for the smallest of crimes???? Does Raphael mean ‘kidnapping no longer constitutes a capital punishment (like it did before)’??? Either this is a script issue (bc if Shadowhunters protect Mundanes, kidnapping one SHOULD be against the law) or a hint of just how fucked up the Accords are, that ‘the law’ isn’t the law how WE understand it but instead ‘things which are still valid excuses to severely punish Downworlders, when we used to do so willy-nilly’ :S

- Season tagline: ‘Everybody wants that damn cup!’ Valentine wants it to wield it, the Clave wants it APPARENTLY to protect people from Valentine, Luke hinted that the werewolves want it, now the vampires…. Damn.

This one gets an 8/10 for enjoyment – I’m having fun! – and actually a 7/10 for quality. Not NEARLY as many script issues and cringe factors as in the first ep lol. Thanks for reading. ^^

#louise rewatches shs #rambling on #long post

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koskela13 · 4 years

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I’ve been talking recently with @snapzone about this last night, who also discussed it with a friend of his, but if there were an AU of my Chalked Up AU, everything would be the same, except instead of both Rudy and Penny getting turned into Snaps, it was just Penny, and Rudy was devastated by this turn of events, feeling incredibly guilty about what's become of his best human friend, and would try everything he can to dechalkify her.

To start off, we both thought it’d be a really good but very sad idea if Penny went through it as a self-sacrifice, so I came up with the idea that with Rudy having minutes before he couldn’t use the magic chalk anymore and Penny only having mere seconds, she grabbed the chalk out of his hands, drew a portal into the Real World and pushed him out of ChalkZone before chalking up, to Rudy’s shock and horror. And if you’re wondering how safe it’d be for Rudy to get back in without the same thing happening to him, the countdown to the process restarts whenever a human leaves ChalkZone and reenters the Real World.

Now you’re probably wondering, how would the two fare after this turn of events?

Well, with Rudy, even though he’d have his name cleared in the Real World of something he was accused of at School-- A part of Skrawl and Natalie’s plan to have Rudy chalk up was by getting him blamed for something and so few people believing him that he’d run away into ChalkZone. --he would see (and be heartbroken by) the consequences of his friend basically disappearing off the face of the earth. Everyone would be wondering where Penny could have gone, asking whether she ran away out of fear of the consequences of failing or got kidnapped, to the point that they’d put up missing posters and even send out search parties for her. But when all attempts end in vain after months and months of trying to hold out hope, they’d eventually presume the worst, that she was dead and her body was nowhere to be found. And Rudy would see all of this unfold, wishing he could tell everybody Penny was relatively safe and where exactly she was, but realizing he couldn’t bring himself to do so, because that would mean revealing ChalkZone’s existence to the world, one of the last things he would want, especially considering the consequences that alone would present.

The only person he could see trusting himself enough to tell about Penny’s predicament is her mother, as at least telling her would give her the comfort of knowing that her daughter’s alive. But tell me: If you were him and had to walk up to your best human friend’s house and tell her mother “Hi, Mrs. Sanchez! I just came to tell you that Penny’s alive, but the bad news is she’s made of chalk now and can’t live with you anymore, because if she so much as comes into contact with any Real World liquids, she’ll die!”, would YOU really expect her take any of this well? No. She’d freak out about the whole revelation that her daughter was a living drawing now and that she’d be going out into an alternate dimension almost nobody had even known about at this point. Besides the possibility of her being upset with him, his fear of how she’ll react to the news is why he can’t even tell her, as much as he wants to.

And that’s not even delving into the fact that if Rudy DID bring Penny back into the Real World looking like Snap and bearing chalk properties, that would raise even more questions, the media and government would get involved, and Terry Bufont, Vinnie Raton or Dr. Von Doctor (or all three) would be determined to expose ChalkZone.

But not being able to tell everyone where Penny is without causing trouble for ChalkZone isn’t the only big problem with Rudy’s current situation. When Penny was human, at least he had someone who could stall for time in the Real World while he was in ChalkZone or distract people and keep things from getting worse. Without her in the Real World to pal around with or talk to (as, again, she has to live in ChalkZone now), he doesn’t have his stall/distract card anymore, so now unless he can convince someone else to help him without having to tell them about ChalkZone, any situation where he could have benefited from getting some extra time has gotten a lot harder for him.

So, yeah, while the regular Chalked Up AU still has its hardships, Rudy has it much worse here because after Penny’s chalkification, life for him in the Real World has gotten so emotionally rough and keeping ChalkZone safe and secret would become so much harder than it was before that he’d actually be on the verge of cracking as he’s trying to both maintain his position as protector of ChalkZone and find a way to return Penny to normal.

But speaking of Penny, she finds that she surprisingly has it easier on her side.

Not that she doesn’t have her own hardships with this situation. When she chalks up, she’s horrified to learn that besides being a Snap now, she can no longer be able to live in the Real World without risk of dying. Not only that, she had to live with the knowledge the she’d eventually be presumed dead given enough time in the Real World AND the fact that while she remained 11, everyone she knew and loved, Rudy included, would grow old and eventually pass away, a thought that hits her the hardest of all.

With that said, there are ups to where she is now, namely, that she won’t feel isolated. After her Snapping up, a lot of the Zoners like Rapsheeba, the Von Snaps and Blocky do whatever they can to make sure she feels at home in ChalkZone, and thanks to her self-sacrifice, many of them will even come to see that she was more than just a third wheel, having been essential in helping Rudy protect ChalkZone on more than one occasion and, if things turned out differently and Rudy listened to Snap and trained her to be an artist, even had potential to be a second Great Creator.

Of course, her closest companion during these trying times would be Snap. Feeling the most responsible for Penny, Snap would be the one who most helps her settle into her new life, shows her the benefits of being a Zoner (while trying to do so without depressing her about her old life), and introduces her to some of his favorite things to do in ChalkZone. He also knows her the best out of all the Zoners and takes her out on expeditions not just around ChalkZone City and the surrounding area but around the world, which is something he wouldn’t have had time to do if it was him and Rudy, so she can learn all about the flora and fauna of the world, which may take a VERY long while to finish but can be accomplished considering Zoners are ageless. Essentially, Snap and Penny would come to be best friends as time goes on and she fully comes to terms with being a Zoner.

But yes, having said all that, this WOULD cause a rift between Rudy, Penny and Snap. While the two Zoners are off having adventures and hanging out with their friends and loved ones, Rudy finds himself starting to visit ChalkZone less and less after that first summer when his best friend chalked up, being tutored come the next school year which makes it a bit harder for him to go to ChalkZone without anyone noticing. Heck, even when he does visit, he has to time himself every time he enters so he doesn’t worry about turning to chalk before he can leave and/or find a way to rehumanize Penny.

Not only that, but as time passes and Snap and Penny hang out more and more without him, Rudy starts to feel like he’s drifting away from his best friend, while Penny, despite enjoying her time with Snap and the other Zoners, shares his feelings, and they both wonder if they can handle moving on without each other. Plus, just as Snap got jealous of Penny when Rudy brought her into ChalkZone for the first time, now Rudy is getting jealous of Snap with how much Penny and him are hanging out while he’s not around, leading to a good deal of drama between the gang. Granted this sort of drama is in the regular Chalked Up AU, too, as friction starts to develop between Rudy and Snap over the latter wanting Penny to learn to be an artist like Rudy and not leave ChalkZone behind, but here the fact she’s having a great time with Snap while Rudy’s missing out on these things just adds fuel to the fire.

And that’s what I have for this alternate version of my AU for the time being. And actually, it’s an interesting alternate take now that I think about it. Now, while the Chalked Up AU where both Rudy and Penny turn into Snaps will always be the main AU, this Buckette AU (as I’ve decided to call it) is still an interesting concept in and of itself, and I’d love to revisit the idea again when I come up with more for it.

Oh, and before I forget to bring it up, yes, the Chalklantis fountain is still a thing in this alternate AU, but instead of just needing one creator like in the regular AU, here it has to be two creators that need to find it. And seeing as Rudy would be extra determined to keep ChalkZone secret and safe after the events that lead to Penny chalking up, he’d probably try to find other solutions to dechalkify her.

#ChalkZone #Penny Sanchez #Snap #Rudy Tabootie #Bucko #Buckette #Chalked Up AU #Snapped Up AU #Buckette AU #Bill Burnett #Larry Huber #Fred Seibert #Frederator Studios #Nickelodeon

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annacwrites · 4 years

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the wip list

Alright, gang. Buckle up. This is going to be a long one, and at this point I can’t even bring myself to be sorry about it. I meant to put this off but then I started thinking about it, so here we are (at 1:05 in the morning when I have to work at 8:30, what am I doing?).

I’m going to break this down in a couple of ways—fanfiction vs. original fiction, fandom (if it’s a fanfic), series/universe (if it’s in one), and then the individual books themselves (if I have the ability to do that, because quite frankly, for some of these I don’t because I have no idea what the titles are or where I’m splitting the story yet).

Also, “WIP” is an incredibly broad term here. In some cases it means I’ve already written the whole thing but I plan to 100% rewrite it (and haven’t started yet). In some cases it means I’ve written half of the thing but haven’t finished yet. In some cases it means I have it all outlined but haven’t started writing yet. In some cases it means I haven’t really touched an outline on paper yet but I have it all worked out in my head. Take the “in progress” part of WIP with a grain of salt.

(Putting this whole thing under the cut because it is so freaking long. I apologize if the read-more doesn’t work on your dash. Idk what tumblr is doing.)

Starting off easy—the fics:

Harry Potter: (JKR can fuck off with her transphobia and cultural appropriation and all the other stupid and fucked-up shit that she’s done/promoted but, as I said to my friends, she can pry my next-gen fanfics from my cold dead hands. Cursed Child is not canon in my life because I’ve never read it and I don’t care what nonsense she came up with.)

The “In Your Arms I’ll Stay” universe (Tedtoire/Scorose):

The first fic in this universe is the first fic I ever finished. 110k words followed up by a ~137k word sequel. It is a disaster and a half but it’s also my baby and I fully intend to rewrite it one of these days. It is full of standard Tedtoire trope-y nonsense—best friends since childhood! two-year age gap! jealousy about other relationships! obliviousness!—and at 15 I thought it was a really good idea to try to turn it into a mystery too, which is a mistake that I have every intention of rectifying because it was unnecessary and I just didn’t know how to do drama and tension back then.

Anyway. It will probably be two parts again when I rewrite it because one part per school year just works, yeah? We’re covering Vic’s fifth/Teddy’s seventh year and Vic’s sixth year/Teddy’s first year out of school over the course of these parts.

Within this universe we also have Heartbeat and Bone, which is a Scorose fic that I’ve written probably 75% of already but have no intention of actually finishing before I rewrite it. I want to get the stories in the right order so that I can get details straightened out, so Teddy and Victoire get the rewrites first and then I’ll be revisiting this fic. Also full of trope-y nonsense (and my continued acceptance of the headcanon that the Heads have their own dormitory at Hogwarts, because it’s just too much fun that way).

some things were meant to be (Tedtoire):

Oh god, another fic with a cliché title taken from Can’t Help Falling In Love. I have zero regrets because it fits them perfectly.

This one is... half-done? I fully intend to finish it but I need to finish the outline first. It was my 2019 NaNoWriMo project and I am 100% just writing it for the lols (and because Teddy and Vic are like... my comfort ship where writing is concerned). I wanted to play with a different universe and change up their relationship and roles at school a bit, but once again... trope-y nonsense. It’s unavoidable with them. There is obliviousness everywhere.

Star Wars: (it’s Reylo, okay? It’s Reylo. I don’t want to hear it about how the ship is ~so terrible.~ That is literally the furthest thing in the world from a hot take, you can’t say a single thing that I haven’t heard before, and I’m a grown adult and can do what I want. Bite me.)

looking for the map that leads me home (Reylo):

Stole the title on this one from We Take Care of Our Own by Bruce Springsteen, because why the fuck not, right?

To put it simply: musician AU. To put it a little less simply: he’s got a dead career, she wants to have even the slightest shot at one, Rose is the best, Poe’s a singing heartthrob, Finn is a love-struck goofball. You know, all that fun stuff. The entire thing is based on a playlist that I made and every chapter has a song that acts as its theme. I haven’t touched it since January 2018. I want to finish it eventually but it’s not really at the top of the priority list.

There’s a few other fics from other fandoms that I’ve started and never finished but the odds of me touching them again are like... nonexistent, so I’m not including them here. I’ll update this post if anything changes on that front (but it probably won’t).

Now for the complicated part—the original fiction:

Maker’s Magic

This is a trilogy (or at least, it’s supposed to be). This is also a rewrite of the first story I ever finished—the fantasy novel that I wrote for my first-ever Camp NaNoWriMo back in August of 2011, when I had literally no clue what I was doing at all and essentially stole the plot structure from The Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and built my own story around it. This is not a good way to write a piece of fiction that you want to publish, kids, but it is a damn good way to get your feet wet when you’ve never really written before.

I am reworking this story entirely from scratch. The characters are... kind of the same as the original story. Kind of. Maybe. I’ve changed a few names and merged a few people together and scrapped some others and entirely shifted the backstory of pretty much everyone, but... they’re definitely still the same, right?

Basically, at this point the plot is really only similar to The Obsidian Trilogy in that we’ve got a trilogy, we’ve got some elves, and it’s your standard good vs. evil fantasy story (in its own unique fashion, of course). I’m still working out the details of this rewrite, but this is kind of the Holy Grail of all of my writing projects and the one that I’m most concerned about getting right, so I’m anticipating that I’ll be in it for the long haul on this one. I’m hoping I might be able to get a draft of the first book done this year, but... we’ll see.

(I also don’t want to give too many details about this project, ‘cause it’s the one that I’d really like to maybe publish one day, so...)

The Willow Hill universe

This started as a single story plus a standalone sequel set in the same universe, conceptualized when I was fourteen and missing horseback riding terribly (so yes, it is a story for all those Weird Horse Girls™ out there). I wrote a good portion of it, then deleted it, then rewrote the entire thing, then deleted it again a few years ago because I was no longer satisfied with the writing quality (after hitting top 100 on the Teen Fiction list on Wattpad way back when, so... I didn’t do too badly as a 16-year-old, but the writing still sucked). I’ve been promising a rewrite to my Wattpad followers since 2016 or something like that (2014? Whenever the hell it was that I deleted it the second time) but haven’t delivered at all.

I now envision this universe as a duology plus the aforementioned standalone sequel, except it’s not entirely fair to call it a YA duology in that the first book is definitely YA, but the second is more romance-y?

I originally just revealed the main character’s endgame relationship in the epilogue of the story, but I love both her and her boyfriend and their relationship so much that I decided that I’m going to be self-indulgent and write the story of them actually falling in love with each other, so that’s book two (so really, you don’t actually have to read book two to understand anything, I’m just writing it because I want to and it’s also kind of a present to anyone who read the original story when they were also a teenager and is now an adult who wants to read other stuff).

Book one is now about the teenage struggle of crushes and trying to figure out what it is that you actually want out of your life and what you value (I say “now” because it was definitely way more self-insert-y the first time I wrote it and it is decidedly not at this point). It’s also sort of a love letter to trainers who are amazing and the kind of person we should all be so lucky as to be coached by.

These characters are my comfort characters where original fiction is concerned since they’ve been bouncing around in my head for the last ten years or so, and I’m hoping I can get at least the first book rewritten in the next year-ish, partly because I’ve been promising it for so long, and partly because I just really enjoy this world and I want to get back to it again.

The Coffee Shop Chronicles

AKA, I lived in one coffee shop on my university campus for pretty much the entirety of my college experience and it was a very inspiring place to be, so this has less to do with coffee shop AUs and more to do with the fact that I met several of my favorite human beings on this earth over a vanilla chai latte and mutual sass with the baristas.

(One of said baristas is very near and dear to me and introduced me to another regular who is now a very good friend with the statement “You’re both sarcastic assholes. You’ll love each other.”)

None of the characters in this universe are based on actual human beings whom I know, but I liked the idea of the campus coffee shop serving as this thing that tangentially connected all of these people to one another, much in the way that I am tangentially connected to god knows how many people via my barista friend. Essentially, the idea is that the stories in this universe are all standalone, but the characters sometimes cross paths with one another at Caffeinated, so it’s sort of... Easter-egg-y in terms of who pops up where in which story.

Currently I only have two stories in this universe that are legitimately plotted out, but there is room for any number of spin-offs based on whichever characters show up in those stories (or don’t—that’s the fun of it being a coffee shop. The barista is the only reliable character). Those two stories are as follows:

Chance Encounters (title so totally subject to change, also stealing the terribly summary from the Wattpad draft that never saw the light of day):

For Bennett McGuire, things with guys just didn't seem to want to go her way. From the disasters that were her attempts at dating in high school to the problem that had been Elijah Becker, she hadn't exactly had the best luck. With all that in mind, it made perfect sense to swear off dating until she finished college—that is, it made sense until one frozen day in February when Gordon Evans walked into her life. After that, who was to say what would happen?

What’s Your Metaphor? (once again, enjoy the terrible summary from the Wattpad draft that never was. I am cringing reading it but also too tired to come up with anything better):

"What's the point?"

It's a question asked widely, for all sorts of reasons, and it's one that April Hayes didn't know the answer to any better than anyone else. All she knew was that she had her plan, and she was going to stick to it, because it was the only thing that seemed to have any sort of logic to it in her life. The things she thought, the things she believed—well, they all fell before the plan, because she didn't have time to ask herself "What's the point?"

That is, she didn't have the time to know the answer—her answer—until one guy by the name of Drew Collier showed up and made her consider things that she had never even thought of before.

High Blood

Yinz can go read my WIP introduction post for this one. It’s a fantasy story. Just for the hell of it, here’s the summary from said WIP introduction post:

At the age of seventeen, Thessaly of Averak had a choice—take the crown of her people and her place as her father’s heir, or set it aside to become one of the High Warriors, dedicated to protecting their people and the country that her long-dead ancestor Enred built after leading its citizens out of a long and bloody war. Amidst raids and famine at the borders, she gave up her crown to better serve the people that her family rules.

Ten years later, all is quiet. At least, all is quiet until Beca’s pendant is stolen by a thief who disappears into the night on the journey back from the summer palace, Tess gets herself stabbed, and the discovery is made that the rock-solid foundations of their family’s claim to the throne—and the peace that depends upon them—are laced with hairline fractures.

(I didn’t write anything to speak of for Camp NaNo July 2020 and actually wound up deleting my project for this on the NaNo site because my dad was hit by a car while cycling the Friday before the weekend when I was planning to write like... 30k words to catch up, so obviously I gave up on that plan (he is doing well now, thank you for asking). I’m hoping I’ll get around to this one eventually because this particular universe arguably has the most potential for having multiple stories set in it, fantasy-wise.)

Emerson’s Lights

Natalie Flynn has been best friends with Evan Acheson practically since birth. They've stuck together through thick and thin, from her braces in seventh grade to his jump to stardom as a singer-songwriter their freshman year of college.

She’d do anything for him, but spending a week with him on tour involves a lot more than she bargained for, culminating in the turn of events that is Caleb Blake, lead singer and primary songwriter of opening act Emerson’s Lights, moving into her house for the better part of a month.

She always knew there would be complications being the best friend of a rock star, but this? This was one that she didn’t bet on.

(Aka, girl meets boy in a band trope. Yay.)

(NaNoWriMo 2020 project)

The famous musician story (this thing doesn’t have a title right now and I’m not even going to try)

Stupid, trope-y nonsense idea that I came up with for my own personal amusement and nothing else. I’ve written a few chapters of it but genuinely have no idea where this falls in the hierarchy of things that I want to get done. Long story short, she’s in grad school for history, he’s a famous musician in town recording for a new album, they meet in the library, she pretends she has no idea who he is, and shenanigans ensue.

And that is where I think I’m going to leave it. There’s four other stories that I can think of off the top of my head that I could theoretically add to this list, but they are legitimately just ideas right now so they can be added at a later date when they’ve manifested themselves a little more strongly. There’s also another quartet in the Willow Hill universe that I came up with in high school that could theoretically be added but I think I might just steal those character names and give them their own little world instead. We’ll see.

Basically, if you didn’t get the point from this list: I am working on a lot of things, and when I say I’m writing, it could mean literally anything on this list (or any of the other ideas that I have floating around). The stories/universe here are the most likely candidates for my time, depending on whether I’m doing a deep dive into my writing or just playing around with something fun, and hopefully (god, hopefully) I’ll be able to move one or two of these to a “completed works” list in the next year(ish).

(Or at least, as complete as a draft ever gets before you start going in on it again.)

#the wip list

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