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readingsbylibramc · 3 years

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birth chart reading for @lumieredautomne

hello! welcome to your reading. I’m gonna give you a quick overview of what I’m going to analyze about your natal chart. feel free to ask me anything if something isn’t clear, of course. you’ll find out your dominants’ influence on your persona, your physical appearance, impression on others and the way you approach the world; your ego, identity, the real you; your reactions, your desires, inner emotions; your way of expressing your feelings, your mind and ideas; your desires and approach to love; your energy tank, instincts and temperament; in-depth analysis of each house with their rulers and analysis of heavy aspects; love life + soulmates/karmic partners interpretation; your relationship with your friends; your family life; your approach to career and work in general + possible jobs suggestion; your style, fashion sense analysis; life purpose and past life description; basic transits’ analysis to describe your current mood and, last but not least, your secret skills, how to make the most out of your soul and manifest what you desire based on your birth chart.

🦋 chart shape, dominants

your chart is a locomotive shape. this means that you're a very ambitious person, with a lot of energy. mars has a big influence on you, and your life revolves around achieving your goals and being assertive. the empty part of your life is what you have to develop, hence your family, love life and also your m self-esteem, communication and thinking style.

your dominant planets are jupiter, uranus and neptune. you are an extremely lucky person, if you keep a positive mindset you're able to manifest anything beneficial in your life. you're also particularly intelligent and open-minded, and you could be quite artistic and creative as well.

your dominant sign is sagittarius. you have an amazing sense of humor, your personality is so bubbly that it naturally draws people towards you. you're also extremely open-minded, you rarely have prejudices. you have a knack for spirituality, religion, philosophy... anything that can stimulate you mentally.

your dominant element is fire. you have a warm heart, even though it may be covered by your confidence and independence. in fact, you always strive for the first place. people may be intimidated by your presence, as you're a serious competitor. thanks to this competitive nature of yours you may be very positive and optimistic, making you a good and supportive friend/partner.

🌎 ascendant in pisces, 23° / 3rd decan ruled by neptune and pluto

you appear as a very genuine and honest person. you have a reassuring aura about you, which could attract people to you. in fact, you seem and sound like a healer, hence broken people may find comfort in you. you’re an hopeless romantic, and this may make you look sort of naive, almost childlike. you feel the need to revolution the world, there’s an hidden rebel in you that needs change and justice. yet, you struggle to take action. it’s like your assertiveness is stuck deep inside of you, and you can’t take it out. hence, you cope with this through escapism; you may oversleep, overwork, drink, daydream, do drugs… anything that allows your mind to travel away from your sense of justice. you always want to be seen likeable, hence you may act differently based on the situation you’re in. you’re kind of a chameleon. in fact, pisces usually adopts some characteristics from all the signs, that’s why it’s considered confusing, or even fake. identity issues are also common with this placement, as you may feel the need to be part of a group, yet you can’t. you’re too complex to be part of only one category, you can’t classify yourself. you may often be, or at least look, sleepy. your eyes have a very dreamy look on them, and they’re probably very big and round. possibly, they’re also hooded. your skin may be naturally pale, or at least there’s something light on your face, even like some tiny sparkles in your eyes. you may also have a naturally good skin, and I’ve noticed that pisces rising people tend to have distinctive hands? for example, you may have long fingers or beautiful, natural long nails. also, you could have a button nose and an overall long face, with a pointy chin and a wide forehead.

pisces ascendant square sagittarius venus: this aspect makes you more sociable and prone to interact with people. you’re also most probably very attractive, people are naturally drawn to you. the downside of this placement is that you may suffer from self-esteem issues, as you really care about others’ impression of you. maybe you’re a little bit clumsy too. it’s easy for you to gain popularity, but be careful as it’s not always good. popularity brings scandals too, so people you see in your everyday life could possibly start gossips around you. the good thing about this aspect is that you emanate loyalty, so you usually attract and choose loyal and trust-worthy partners. this placement may also bring issues and problems in marriage with your future partner, even though I don’t think it’s your case. your venus is well-aspected, so I don’t think there’ll be serious problems.

🌞 sun in aquarius, 12° / 2nd decan ruled by uranus and mercury

this is the most intelligent aquarius decan. even though you may face some insecurities, you’re typically a strong-minded person. you strive for independence, as you focus your existence on your witty intellect. you have the ability to achieve great things, as your mind is literally revolutionary, even though you may struggle to make those projects concrete. a downside to this placement is that you may not give enough importance to your words; you’re brutally honest, and you may often hurt someone with your thoughts. even though you may appreciate it, as you don’t like it when people aren’t straight-forward, you probably don’t realize the effect your words can have on others. you’re also quite stubborn, and you take particular pride about your ideals. you may feel offended when people disagree with you. or maybe, you don’t even say your opinions, because you could be aware of the weight of your words and you don’t want to hurt others, or you’re afraid of being judged. people may define you as cold, but you’re really not.

aquarius sun conjunct aquarius mercury: you express your ego and identity through your words and ideas. you’re very opinionated and you protect strongly your beliefs. after all, you probably came up with your ideals after thinking deeply about them, you were too precise to be wrong. you’re also probably an avid reader, and you could do well in writing yourself, as you’re able to properly convey your ideals with your words. also, with your pisces energy you are naturally good at writing poetry, songs or even fantasy stories. your mind is very active, and you feel comfortable letting all your thoughts out. it’s actually a way to relieve stress. you also have a wide vocabulary, and you’re capable of making a formal speech if you have to. you have a memorable way of speaking, as your words are very sharp. it’s hard for you to be ignored for your intellect.

🌙 moon in pisces, 11° / 2nd decan ruled by neptune and the moon

hands down my favourite moon sign! you're extremely empathetic and sensitive, you care a lot about others and you treat others' problems as if they were yours, you get totally immersed in them. you have quite a vivid imagination, you're able to idealize and picture anything you want. while this placement gives you an incredible amount of creativity, it can also make you uncomfortable. in fact, you may actually find yourself imagining every detail of every situation, even the worst ones. let's suppose you hear of a rape at the news; you literally start imagining the scene detail by detail, and it makes you extremely uncomfortable. actually, it literally ruins your mood, as it's as if you actually lived that scene. going back to the creativity matter, you have the soul of an artist; you have very enhanced emotions, and you're able to express them through artistic outlets. you could be amazing at writing poetry, books, art, music... also, your particular empathy of human's intellect can also make you an amazing psychologist or actress, as you're able to understand others' feelings and make them your own. you're extremely spiritual, and if you don't feel like that, you just have yet to have your spiritual awakening. you may be able to talk to spirits, for example, or perhaps you have very meaningful dreams. or maybe, you could literally predict the future through them. you're also most probably an avid daydreamer, you tend to get distracted easily because you're too busy thinking about random scenarios in your head. seriously, you could even make a movie out of them. you're also an hopeless romantic, and you dream of finding not just your spouse, but your literal soulmate. to make it simple, you want all of your daydreams to become reality.

pisces moon square sagittarius jupiter: you enjoy making different experiences and living your life to the fullest, making you also a risk-taker. you may lack self-control. with this trait you get bored easily, and you may have a reputation for being flaky. you tend to overindulge; you may spend too much money, or even develop eating disorders like binge-eating. at least, you're able to build your life again and have a fresh start, but you risk to get stuck in this cycle. you have the potential to master different talents, but you may struggle to develop them due to this placement. you're a procrastinator, and you find it hard to focus on more things at the same time. you may also attract people with different beliefs and ideas from you, causing you to fall out with them easily. there are also positive sides to this placement, though! you're probably naturally lucky, even though luck may not always be by your side. you have a nice sense of humor, making you more likeable.

pisces moon conjunct pisces saturn: you tend to hide your emotions under a severe, strict mask. the way you approach others is influenced by your sense of defensiveness, making you lack genuinity. this comes from a fear of intimacy and dealing with your inner, deeper self. it's like you're hiding from your own emotions, so of course you will never be able to express them properly if you're not aware of them. to learn saturn’s lessons, you need to overcome your trust issues. find someone you truly trust and open up to them; it’s only a small step, but once you become more comfortable with someone else, you’ll start feeling better in your own shoes too, trust me.

🗣 mercury in aquarius, 16° / 2nd decan ruled by uranus and mercury

mercury is exalted in the sign of aquarius, so this is definitely a beneficial placement! you have a very distinctive way of thinking and speaking. you don't like being like others, you don't follow trends. you're probably the trendsetter, and you may find confidence and pride in your ideas and opinions. some may even define you weird, but you have very strong beliefs that could actually be helpful for the world. you're quite 'ahead' of others from this point of view, you're able to find beauty in things without being influenced by others. for example, you may follow a fashion trend before it gets viral. you are able to come up with very innovative ways of solving problems, you're extremely creative. you may even be the type to invent your own words, or perhaps you love learning and reading new words, you have a wide vocabulary. you're also probably interested in science and any darker or logical topic, you want to use your words and theories to change something in the world. you want to leave an impact, maybe even help others through your mind. you have a very witty sense of humor, you most likely speak fluent sarcasm and you're also very astute. I would say that the only problem with this placement is that you may come off as a know-it-all. you're proud of your intellect, you can't help but show it off, but obviously others may be jealous of you or feel attacked. for your voice, I assume you have a very particular tone, maybe even a nasal voice.

aquarius mercury opposite leo mars: this placement makes you slightly more aggressive with your words. as a result, it makes you look more assertive and almost bossy. you could often attack people with words when you get angry, and you can get quite provocative too, even though it may happen in a more passive way. you still have your libra mercury’s elegance and diplomacy in you, after all. even though you’re quite controversial for the way you speak, you’re still very sensitive to others’ words. your self-esteem tends to find its base mostly on others’ opinion about you, and you always look for reassurance from your loved ones. to deal with this hard aspect, you need to think before you speak. if you have troubles understanding others’ feelings, just think about how you’d love to be treated. patience will just come naturally to you.

❤️ venus in sagittarius, 26° / 3rd decan ruled by jupiter and the sun

people may consider you flaky, as you value freedom above all. you may be the type that likes making new experiences regarding love, and you often date your crushes. yet, you feel too limited in a relationship. you don't enjoy committing to someone if that someone isn't perfect for you, you're only completely loyal to the one you consider your true love. you can't give up your freedom, your thirst for adventure and experiences for someone else. basically, your ideal partner would be a risk-taker, someone loyal but not too clingy, that is down to go on a road trip in every moment. someone impulsive, that could help you stepping out of your comfort-zone. you're probably into those youthful love stereotypes, e.g. high school dates. you want your relationships to be filled with excitement, you despise boring, traditional and cheesy things. you may also find yourself being attracted to unavailable people; that is, you could fall for people that are already taken, or maybe they're physically unavailable, e.g they live abroad or in another city in general. you're also attracted to foreigners, and people that have a wise, yet bubbly aura around them.

☄️ mars in leo, 26° / 3rd decan ruled by the sun and mars

praise and success are what motivate you the most. your main goal in life is being praised for achieving your goals, you wouldn't feel motivated without compliments. therefore, you put energy in things that make you feel confident and noticed, as you enjoy being seen. for example, if you feel confident being well-dressed, you could spend hours in the closet to look how you want. you are very creative, you get an energy boost through creative outlets, and hence your hobbies (reading, writing, dancing, singing, drawing, etc.) recharge your battery. this placement also makes you very extra, especially with people you're close to. you may gesticulate a lot, you could as well enjoy mimicking others' voices. you're basically very dramatic, you seem like an actor when you react, but at least you're very fun and entertaining to watch and listen. this placement, it gives you a strong charisma that, and combined with your pisces rising, it makes it impossible not to notice you. you could overreact from time to time, and you may also be particularly pessimistic, but above all you appear as someone very bold and strong-minded.

leo mars square sagittarius pluto: with this placement, I assume that when you were younger you were some sort of victim. you could have been bullied, for example, you used to be insecure about the way you looked and were. you could have felt different from others, and they took advantage of that to make you feel even more insecure. or maybe, it was a parent, or every authoritative figure in your life, that restricted you from following your own ideals. because of that, now you constantly feel the need to prove yourself. you probably tend to accumulate a lot of anger all together, which you need to let all out or you could explode. you could find comfort in physical ways to relieve stress, like punching bags, slamming doors, etc. or perhaps, when you're angry you just get overwhelmed by all of your emotions. you may cry, scream, even throw up in certain cases. on the other hand, you are extremely magnetic and attractive to others, you naturally draw people towards you. you're also extremely passionate in whatever you do, you put your whole heart in doing things you love. you're very hard-working and determined to achieve your goals, making you extremely dedicated.

🏡 houses

your 1st house is in pisces. you are like a chameleon, you're able to detect others' vibe and act in a pleasant way for them, you probably get along with strangers easily. you're very sensitive, but also slightly insecure. in your first years, I assume you had troubles embracing your appearance. you may have felt ashamed of it, and you self-esteem was low. you may have amazing artistic talents and a large imagination. yet, you may often live too much in your imagination. the ruler of the 1st house is in the 11th house: people may see you as very friendly and original, maybe also mysterious. this placement enhances your aquarius energy even more, and hence you may also seem very distracted, perhaps even a bit moody. you have a poweful vibe around you, and you may also have a sixth sense or acute intuition.

your 2nd house is in aries. aries is ruled by mars, the planet of action. placed in the house of money and self-esteem, you could make money easily and fast. you could find yourself receiving money from others quite often, or perhaps you're able to get jobs that allow you to earn a decent income. you may also react easily to diets, workouts, but also when you overeat. you may both gain and lose weight easily. possibly, you could speak very fast and / or loud and you may even suffer from hyperthyroidism. the ruler of the 2nd house is in the 6th house: your future career will allow you to earn a great amount of money. you could be quite wealthy already, or perhaps you'll get so wealthy that you'll gain a reputation for it. you may work with money, so for example as a notary, or even with food or aesthetics / arts. you may also make money from helping people, therefore you could work in the health field for example, or even with animals.

your 3rd house is in taurus. this placement makes you extremely good at making your ideas concrete. for example, if you have in your head the melody of a song, you don’t just hum to it, nor you daydream about how it may turn out. you actually write it down and play it, and it’s good for you to have such a placement with your heavy pisces energy. you can also gain money from these hobbies. the ruler of the 3rd house is in the 10th house: your job may involve communication, you'll most probably interact with other people in your future career. or maybe, you might write stuff, hence you could be a writer, a journalist, etc. possibly, you would do well as a therapist too. also, you could often have to do short trips to reach your college / work place, perhaps in a bus for example.

your 4th house is in gemini. you’ve always been a smart kid, that’s probably what your childhood revolved around. you most likely were a diligent student, and your parents took a lot of pride in your marks. you might have been really chatty with your friends, and maybe you used to get scolded because of that. your parents could have been a little strict or moody with you, therefore you probably used to argue often, but nothing too serious. I don't see you having any kind of trauma from your home environment. the ruler of the 4th house is in the 11th house: you could find yourself having many childhood friends, or friends younger than you. also, they're most likely from your same country / city too, and you may be quite similiar and see eye to eye on a lot of matters. they may be very affectionate and sensitive, and they'll help you dealing with your insecurities.

your 5th house is in cancer. when it comes to light romance, you mainly look for someone caring and affectionate who can help you to grow up and make new experiences. you’re attracted to hobbies that let you express your feelings and emotions. e.g, you may create very personal art or poetry. you may also prefer spending your spare time by yourself at home rather than going out with your friends. it's your way of relaxing and expressing your feelings, you may have hobbies that meet your emotional needs. the ruler of the 5th house, the moon is in the 12th house: you may have spiritual hobbies, that is meditation, yoga, tarots, astrology, religion, etc. you're also most likely an homebody, you don't like clubbing and going out, you prefer staying by yourself or with your loved ones.

your 6th house is in leo. you approach routine and work in a joyful manner. you are productive, but your routine is never boring. you also need to include your hobbies and creativity in your day-to-day life, or you wouldn't be at your best state. mars is also sitting here: your life revolves around being productive. you don't like to waste your time, you always try to learn and gain something useful from everything you do. that's caused by the fact that you're motivated to be perfect in what you like; this, combined with your competitive nature, may often cause you to burn out. in fact, the downside to this placement is that you may overwork yourself too much. this is bad, especially considering your heavy pisces dominance: pisces are all about imagination, creativity, vacation, relax... if you work too much, you don't have time to travel with your mind, you can't relax and have fun. in fact, it may be hard for you to endure too much hard work. you're capable of achieving your goals, but in order to do that you also need a break from time to time.

your 7th house is in virgo. when it comes to love you’re quite picky, and you want your future spouse to match your definition of perfection. hence, you may start losing interest in them as soon as they commit a mistake, even if it’s not serious. because of that, you may often experience break-ups, or even separation/divorce, even though I don't think it's your case; mercury is both well-aspected and well-placed, so I wouldn't worry if I were in you. you're definitely more romantic than the typical aquarius sun. as your pisces moon confirms, you need to feel tied to someone to function at your best. you want everybody to like you, you fear rejection and being humiliated. your reputation is very important for you, and that could lead you to be extremely insecure when others judge you negatively, you're easy to influence. lastly, you could find yourself often thinking about your relationships with others, and also you try to be extremely kind with your words.

your 8th house is in libra. you have a very balanced approach to matters like secrets and sex. for you it’s all about giving and receiving; for example, you may only open up to a friend when they also reveal their deepest secrets to you. you don’t want to feel below them, it’s a sort of mechanism to feel as if you have control of the situation. possibly, you may also experience a lot karma around your relationships. you could date people from your past lives for example, hence your soulmates. or perhaps, when you commit something wrong in a relationship, it'll most likely come back to you. yet, these moments help you becoming more mature and transforming into the best version of yourself. the ruler of the 8th house is in the 10th house: in your job, you'll probably end up dealing with other people's affairs. that means that you could become a notary, work in a bank...

your 9th house in scorpio. you literally give all of yourself in school, even though you might have had some troubles. maybe there were a few bullies/mean girls that caused you troubles, or perhaps your parents influenced your studies too much and you ended up choosing something that you didn't like. yet, jupiter and pluto here indicate that school helps you transforming and growing up. you probably learnt or will learn a big lesson in school that will help you appreciate yourself more for who you are. overall, you went through major transformations during your school life, which helped you to find who you are today. maybe, you’ve changed class/school often, as you frequently changed your mind about the subjects you wanted to study. the ruler of the 9th house is in the 9th: you’re an open-minded person who’s probably into history, literature/poetry, philosophy etc. you may also have a knack for studying different languages and travelling a lot, as they help you increase your creativity and hence your inner child.

your 10th house is in sagittarius. you may gain a reputation for being very joyful and open-minded. you could possibly work abroad, speaking a different language. you may also have the chance to work in a school environment, and deal with people from any country or culture. venus is also sitting here. it indicates that you find pleasure and energy in work, it's your way to feel free and independent, even it you may work under a boss. it's also where you put most of all your energy, you're very goal-oriented and you strive to be the best at whatever you do. your future career will most likely feel very light to you; you could use your creativity to work, hence you could be a singer, a stylist, an artist, a writer... perhaps, you could even work with children in some way, maybe as a teacher since your mc is in sagittarius, or maybe you could work as a stylist as well. anything creative would be suitable for you. last but not least, you may often date your co-workers, or you may meet your lovers or future spouse at your workplace.

your 11th house is in capricorn, with a stellium involving neptune, uranus, the sun and mercury. you’re very picky with your friends, and you tend to be quite serious in friendships and social interactions. you may crack some jokes, but you take loyalty very seriously. at first, you may also find yourself not having many friends. you only started to get to know new people while growing up. the 11th house is also the house of goals, and you work hard to achieve them. you're very assertive from this point of view, you'd do anything to make your dreams come true. you love working in groups, especially if you're the leader. once someone becomes special to you, you'll do anything to protect them. you're an hardworking person who dreams big, you may be fond of manifesting and you hope to achieve all of your many goals.

your 12th house is in aquarius, with also your moon and saturn. there's an hidden rebel inside of you who has the desire to change the world. yet, you can't seem to free this part of yourself. you're a very spiritual person. you may have the natural talent to read tarots, birth charts... you may also have strange, prophetic dreams. in addition, you may feel uncomfortable diving into your feelings at first, you may tend to be a bit too rational and cold during your first years. you may keep your feelings for yourself, but growing up you'll learn that it's fine to show your true self to others as well, and you'll value your mental health more. you may often find the answers to fight your fears into spiritual outlets, such as astrology for example.

❤️ love life, soulmates

in love, you attract virgo, gemini, sagittarius, pisces and cancer. your future spouse will most probably have pisces and sagit placements. they could be quite self-centered at first, they'll have an exceptional charisma and they will care a lot about their appearance. yet, there's an hidden side to them that is very attached to family and affection, just like you. basically, you'll see eye to eye on a lot of matters. you could meet in a fun situation; it could be at a party, for example, or any kind of social gathering. maybe, you may even meet them online. they are most likely from your same country, and they could even be one of your childhood friends. your children will have cancer; they’ll be very fond of you, and will need lots of care and affection. they could be crybabies, but they’ll be very attached to their family. also, they will be very mature yet playful, they'll be very interesting individuals with strong morals.

👶🏻 family life

your mother is a very intelligent person, she's probably very talkative and witty, and she also has a nice sense of humor, even though she could be a bit immature or self-centered at times. she most likely has leo or aquarius placements in her chart, together with libra and / or taurus. your father is also very funny and sociable, he's probably quite extroverted even though he might be more strict than your mother. he’s probably interested in foreign languages/culture. he may be an aquarius, a pisces, a libra or any other earth sign. if you have siblings, they probably have taurus, libra, or earth placements. perhaps, you have an amazing relationship with them, you hardly argue and you're all very mature.

📊 career

you have probably a creative talent to you that could make you quite successful. you would also make a great singer, actress, writer, model, photographer... you'll basically get to communicate something in an artistic, creative way. overall, you want a job where you don't really have to depend on others. actually, you probably strive to be your own boss. you may also have to work abroad, or at least you'll get to travel for your job. you may have to interact with foreign people or even speak foreign languages, and you may also make a good teacher/professor, in general anything that has to do with history and literature.

👚 fashion sense, style analysis

your sagittarius energy screams grunge! you probably love 90s/00s aesthetic, with fishnets, black, burgundy, belts, leather jackets... all of this stuff. also, oversized clothes are a must for you. you may especially be fond of wearing tight tops with baggy jeans or viceversa: tight pants, possibly leggins, with big, long sweatshirts and t-shirts. it's very comfortable, but you still make it look trendy and particular with your charisma. you may also love printed things, especially graphic t-shirts. for shoes, I'd say trendy sneakers and boots are a must in your wardrobe.

👁 past life, life purpose

during your past life, you probably didn’t have as many challenges as in this life. you most likely used to be very independent and stable; perhaps, you were rich, hence you didn’t really need to rely on others to survive. in this lifetime, you need to put your independency aside, you need to trust people and develop strong bonds with them. your path to luck and abundance may be long and steep, but you may achieve great personal success in this lifetime thanks to your relationships with others. you just need to work on your self-esteem and have stable finances without being too materialistic, you shouldn’t over-indulge. money is important, but you probably won't struggle with that in this lifetime, so focus on feeling comfortable with others. you may be meant to marry someone rich, or perhaps you're going to get an inheritance.

🤔 major transits analysis / july 10th

transit saturn is currently conjunct your natal sun in the 11th house; in these days, you could be feeling a little down. perhaps you feel unlucky and unmotivated, you may feel as if your efforts are never repaid. you could also be feeling insecure about your personality and / or physical appearance, and hence you prefer staying by yourself alone. on the other hand, transit jupiter being conjunct your natal moon makes you feel more at peace with yourself, you probably prefer being alone in these last days. you could be feeling quite needy of affectionate, but also quite moody, therefore be careful to avoid arguments.

🧿 manifest what you want, secret skills

with your water placements, you probably have a 6th sense. you’re able to manifest what you want if you subconsciously predict it, even though it may be hard. you’d have to get in touch with your higher self to do so, and hence I would suggest you to light up some candles and meditate for a bit before manifesting, in this way it will be way more effective. you may manifest something while daydreaming, for example. or perhaps, you can also try listening to your own affirmations while you sleep, as you won’t be consciously aware of that. it’s probably the most effective way.

and this is it! thank you for booking a reading, I hope it resonated with you :)

-libramc xx

#astrology

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nosoactivehero · 3 years

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FGO Mastersona Loredump

Because I am That Bitch.jpg, I’m throwing out a bunch of bullshit about my Mastersona/Gudasona/Master OC for Fate Grand Order. Also she’s currently featuring in a fanfic I’m writing, and have gotten two chapters down and posted. So uh....yeah. Trying to spur the writing brain into action. Here we go.

Placing most of this under a cut for the sake of length.

Possible trigger warning for body horror, in relation to scarring/injury.

Yori Hirata is her name and her game is....well, it’s just saving the world, really. White Hair, half up in a loose bun held together with sticks. As time goes on, slowly loses the ability to do like...any other fucking hairstyle on her own, so it’s either the sticks, or one of her servants does her hair. On that note, hasn’t really cut it much since the Grand Order started. Chaldea has many things, but a barber doesn’t seem to be one of them. Regardless, it’s the bun, or she’s laying around while the likes of Nursery Rhyme or the Dress of Heaven does something with her hair.

Eyes are golden/amber in color, and can pull out a good “you are so fucked look when in the right mood. Fair skin, but as the years go on...well, she gains scars and injuries out the fucking wazoo. Like...by the time of the Lostbelts, she’s partially blind in her right eye. And at the very least, a few fingers in her left hand have been replaced.

Additionally, because I am very much That Bitch.mp3, there’s also corruption of the Command seal! Reaching down her arm, and spreading across her back.

She is the daughter of Rin and Shirou, in a universe where FGO took place later on, and a few other things were changed. So why the white hair? Well...that’s all in gonna be in the fanfic, so no spoilers there. But I can tell you that Rin and Shirou are currently living under false identities, and are wanted by the Mage’s Association.

First Servant pulled was Heracles. As time went on, he became part of the Buster ADATS Squad. (Codename for Anti DAT Shit Squad). Quetz and Ruler Martha are also on that squad.

Actually managed to bond with Olga Marie fairly quickly, meaning her death was even harder hitting.

Her main mystic code up until Solomon was the Mage’s Association Uniform, an implicit tribute to the late director...but it was basically burned apart in the Temple of Time. But with the poetic revenge completed, she’s at peace with that. Like it was already decaying after going through every singularity, but it definitely flew apart at the end of arc 1.

Cycles through Mystic Codes after that, has a unique Shinjuku outfit.

Her strategies can be summed in the phrase of “You’re playing Chess, I’m playing checkers” type of thinking. Stupid, direct plans that everyone thinks is too asinine to work in a million years. Singing “Ra Ra Rasputin” to put Ivan to sleep mid-battle? Might as well work.

On that topic? Sea Shanties, she adores them, sings them whenever there’s a sailor or a pirate in the vicinity. Cheers her right up, even at her lowest point. She’s built to be a swashbuckler.

Can cook, learn from her dad growing up. But for some reason Emiya hates her dad’s recipes, so her opportunities to cook are few and far between.

100% romances Mash. Took her out dancing in Babylonia one day, had a moment of realization as they twirled around. Namely, that she was in love. Had their first kiss right before rayshifting into Solomon.

Top 5 closest servants(after Mash) in no particular order: Irisviel/Dress of Heaven, Heracles, Queen of Sheba, Robin Hood, and Quetzalcoatl.

You cannot shut her up, do not attempt to shut her up, because she will bite, and yell louder. Verbally spars with Archer Gil on the regular.

She’s either 100% or 0% energy, farming with servants from down to dusk, or spending a day on the couch. No in-between.

Brash, excitable, takes on everything with an absurd glee.

Really needs therapy.

Regularly needs someone to be a parent for a minute.

Hence the bond with Iri. Has also been adopted by the Emiya clan, forcibly.

Summoned Queen of Sheba WAYYY too early(like I did IRL), to the point where she’s still calling her Midrash to this day. They had a long heart to heart and cry after Solomon.

Carries a weapon on her person, once Mash can’t be by her side 24/7.

Speaking of that, struggles to fall asleep in Shinjuku, since she’s just that used to having Mash in close proximity.

Has a music room built in Chaldea, slowly introducing servants to modern music.

Far too willing to just tackle Servants at random.

Slowly picks up a handful of magecraft tricks as time goes on. Mostly the Einzbern birds.

Just...really a chaotic tired girl who’s trying to get her overdue backpay and vacation time.

Please, give her a vacation, one that doesn’t have her in a time loop.

And that...that’s all I got, really. I do have a drawing of her I commissioned stowed away, if you’re interested! But that’s about all I can think of right now.

#fate oc #fgo oc #mastersona #gudasona #fgo #fate grand order #fate #my OC #original characters #not tagging the servants tho #gudako

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bigfan-fanfic · 5 years

Text

Batdad and Sons (Batdad!Reader x Batfamily Headcanons)

Bruce

Despite both being men, you two remind Gotham of Thomas and Martha Wayne.

Because one of you is a gentle ray of sunshine who is deeply involved in charity work and seems utterly committed to making the world brighter.

Thomas was rather hands-off towards Wayne Enterprises, preferring instead to focus on his medical career and charities that actually affected change for the underprivileged in Gotham. Bruce remembers Thomas always having time for him, stopping everything if Bruce needed to talk with his father.

And the other is a strong, ruthless businessperson with style, grace, and sensuality, who can somehow manage a dizzying array of businesses while still being the ideal spouse and parent in the public eye.

Martha was the head of Wayne Enterprises and an involved boss - she personally saw to the upkeep of each branch of the company (she was the one to hire Lucius Fox). And even with all of these heavy demands on her time, she always appeared in public with Thomas at all of his charities and was involved enough with Bruce to help Thomas plan every family outing.

So, yeah, up to you which one the public thinks you are

Bruce has a constantly-updating social media presence that is run by the Batcomputer’s AI - it keeps tabs on where he is fighting crime and discreetly has Bruce’s account post things about being on the other side of the city

Bruce will occasionally post a romantic photo of you two

You run your own social media account - the Batcomputer automatically reblogs/retweets/likes whatever you post.

You have a lot of cute pictures of the family which the public goes bananas for.

Bruce is a Slytherin. He no longer visits the Pottermore site.

You find yourself making puns a lot while the family is on patrol.

Example: Mr. Freeze has just been defeated by the team.

YOU: Alright, time to put him on ice!

Bruce tends to groan at these because you have a tendency to interject them at inappropriate times. Once you got him to giggle in front of Selina because whenever she talked you just matched her tone but only said “meow”

“Meow meow meow, meow-meow meow meow-meow-meow meow. Meow.”

You do end up kidnapped a lot, as an important Gothamite public figure, and Bruce is generally quite impressed when you escape, because you can either talk an adversary to distraction, or use trickery to escape, or -most impressive - you once convinced a member of the Penguin’s gang to reconsider his life choices and let you go.

Once he got out of jail, Armand became your go-to party planner.

He also now helps Penguin with legitimate events at the Iceberg Lounge. Go figure.

Alfred

The two of you are avid devotees of “The Great British Baking Show”

Alfred never has a soggy bottom.

Dick spends the most time hanging out while you two make stuff, so he’s into it as well

Jason pretends not to be interested, but he’ll still tell you when bread is overworked.

Alfred is so full of wisdom and advice

And he is not afraid to get physical when needs must

Riddler once broke into Wayne Manor

The two of you basically dismantled him using Alfred’s combat medicine training and your own knowledge from working with him

Riddler had several broken bones, severe lacerations, and a mild concussion when he was wheeled to Arkham Asylum’s medical ward

“Y/N Wayne and Butler - BATMAN AND ROBIN????” said the tabloids the next day. Dick couldn’t stop laughing.

Alfred enjoys opera while cooking and baking, but isn’t averse to classic rock.

He also enjoys Beyonce.

You insist on Alfred having a regular day off, but he insists that he doesn’t need one.

“Please, Alfred. For me.”

*sighs* “...Very well, Master Y/N.”

Ravenclaw. He’s a Ravenclaw, definitely.

Dick

You two know all the choreography to “We’re All In This Together.”

And all the songs from the High School Musical series

Since he was little, you took him to every premiere of every Disney movie he wanted to see, press be damned if they made snide remarks about your son wanting to see a princess movie

This tradition has not stopped. Dick’s social media shows pictures of you two still going to every premiere - only now the two of you bring underprivileged children and kids from the orphanage to share in your fun

There’s a picture of you looking very Zen and sitting cross-legged on the red carpet as a bunch of kids swarm around you and one somehow has ended up on your shoulders. Behind you Dick can be seen wearing Mickey Mouse gloves and grinning wildly at the camera, kneeling with his arms around the shoulders of two young orphans

You personally don’t like clowns and trapeze scares you to death, but you never deny Dick when he asks you to go to the circus.

You once bought Haly’s Circus back from the people Mr. Haly had to sell to and gave ownership to Dick. So, technically, the two of you co-own Haly’s Circus now.

Dick once auditioned for Disney Channel (unbeknownst to Bruce). He still can’t quite bring himself to watch Wizards of Waverly Place, knowing that he almost had a role.

Speaking of Wizards, Dick thinks of himself as a Gryffindor - but he was sorted into Ravenclaw.

Jason

Jason gets really emotional over romance - whether it be real or in a movie or a book

He will never forgive Mr. Wickham for what he did

You have had to talk him down from chewing out people who think Catherine and Heathcliff are an ideal couple

And of course, he has shot his television at that one scene in every romantic comedy where things go wrong just before the two leads get together.

A Gryffindor.

Has a sleeveless shirt that asks if you’ve bought tickets to the gun show. Since he has an extensive gun collection, the irony is somewhat lost.

Doesn’t like to be questioned. Likes to question. You bridge the gap using sarcasm, mainly.

He is a superhero movie fanatic. However, he hates it when the love interest dies.

He does smoke, but he knows better than to do that around you. Roy always snitches on him

Roy is very intimidated by you, for some reason

More intimidated than by Jason, that’s for sure.

Maybe because you’ve made Ollie cry before (long story involving too many bottles of tequila, Oliver asking if he was your type, and you responding)

He tends to listen to you when he won’t listen to anyone else

You’ve proven that you don’t put up with much when it comes to him

“I’m gonna shoot this guy right now-”

“Jason you sit your butt down right now!”

“...yessir.”

Tim

Slytherin.

Sleepy. Too sleepy to do much.

Can be found sleeping in the weirdest places. Once he was asleep on top of the wardrobe in Dick’s room, and had no clue how he got there.

You have since insisted that he maintain a strict sleeping schedule.

Unfortunately, you are ignored.

You once gave him glasses that had pictures of his opened eyes instead of lenses as a gag gift. He uses them daily.

Tim likes to watch Jackie Chan martial arts movies. Or the Office. Or Friends. Depends on how many hours he’s been awake.

Tim is always listening to music - anything with a beat.

It helps him stay awake. The longer he stays awake, the louder his music gets.

Tim does not like ice cream - on family outings, he gets sherbert.

He’s very picky. You spent five days picking out the color of the sheets in his room because the current combination “bummed him out.”

He forgets that you aren’t supposed to draw on walls and uses his room’s walls as a piece of scratch paper.

You make him clean it himself.

This was unwise. He leaves it as is until there’s no more room.

Has an addiction to online gaming. He doesn’t know it, but you are his biggest rival online.

Because he always tells you “just one more round” or “until I lose”

So two hours later, when he still hasn’t logged off, you log on and grief him until he rage quits.

Then you console him as he complains to you, and you suggest he take a break from the game for a while.

You wonder sometimes if this can be classified as emotional torture.

It’s for his own good, honestly.

Damian

Hufflepuff and proud of it

As I mentioned, he is a startlingly good performer.

Has secret aspirations of being on Broadway - either in the Hamilton revival he’s planning for twenty years in the future or perhaps in something by Sondheim

His artistry continues into other realms

He writes fanfiction. This is not a drill.

To your eternal embarrassment and silence, you have become an avid reader of his work. (You created a fake account just to reblog and comment your support. Damian is unaware of this)

If you decide to send him to school (Gotham Academy or wherever), he gets into a lot of fights.

Mostly in defense of others, but also the occasional “he looked at me funny” or “said something about my parents”

I’d recommend home-schooling or online school for Damian. It fits better with his schedule so that his sleep cycle isn’t completely thrown off, and it keeps him away from the little creeps running wild in Gotham (there’s a statistic floating around that 80% of the Joker Gang is under 18, and it isn’t completely inaccurate).

He is a history buff, particularly when it comes to battles and battle tactics.

He knows battle strategy back to front

And yet he struggles with Checkers, and for some reason, Monopoly.

Damian was not given a middle name, so whenever you want to middle-name him, you make up some absurd placeholder.

“Damian Fingercrumpet Wayne, get down from the chandelier!”

“So help me, Damian Stipplenibbler Wayne, I will take away your zoo membership!

“Damian Montague Sasparilla Carthaginian Wayne, I want to talk to you right now!

#batdad reader #batfamily x male reader #batman x male reader #batparent reader #batman headcanons #dc headcanons #male reader #headcanons

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words-writ-in-starlight · 4 years

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What of the Three Faces of God do you think The Master's generation is associated with? Obviously Tirandys and Bender don't have their Shanir powers anymore but before their fall.

Are you the same anon who sent me the amazing ask about Jame and Tori finding each other beautiful? I don’t care, but please keep sending me excuses to write essays about obscure bits of this series.

So, first things first, let’s define some systems, shall we? Based on what we’ve seen, most individual Shanir abilities are aligned with one Face or another, with a few exceptions that appear across the board (binding of all kinds, which makes sense, as well as some aspects of soulwalking), but you can sometimes get a mix of Faces in an individual, depending on their abilities. The Tyr-ridan are presumably all one thing, sort of the elemental form of Shanir power, and so are all potential Nemeses, who are always Destruction. Working from that assumption, and other explicitly listed alignments, here are some abilities we know for sure are aligned to one Face:

CREATION: seeing the future, the “overgrowth” stunt that Torisen accidentally pulls in Gates of Tagmeth, forcing the truth from someone (Torisen and Kirien, notably)

PRESERVATION: healing, possibly including resurrection, the more extreme aspects of soul- and dreamwalking, blood-sight (Adiraina, explicitly Preservation-aligned)

DESTRUCTION: claws, true berserker flares, malediction (Brenwyr), soul reaping, tempting (the Tempter, as well as Jame), weakness-finding (as on the Dark Judge)

Side note: Jame’s other primary Shanir ability that we do not see in other people is using the Book. This isn’t uniquely a Shanir trait (even Theocandi sort of used the Book), but I would posit that either Jame is some kind of Master Rune savant, or the ability to use the Book with any kind of survival rate is the sole prerogative of a very niche kind of Shanir. The Book can’t be memorized, even by Jame, but Jame can recall and use runes from the very end of the thing! The “rupture” rune she half-uses in Seeker’s Mask is from the end of the Book, and Jame almost blows out half of Gothregor’s eardrums with it, despite not having the Book within fifty miles of her. Nominal nod to this ability being a potential fringe artifact of Destruction, or of a Shanir over a specific power threshold.

Other Shanir abilities that we aren’t given a strict alignment for include distance writing, Highborn command (I would posit that this is distinct from but related to both tempting and forcing the truth), hag riding, Timmon’s unnatural charm (said to run in his family, also related to tempting/command/forced truth), soul-carrying, and whatever shade-sight allows Trishien to see Ganth. Shapeshifting is not listed here because that is gained from changer blood. Offhand, I’m going to say that hag riding is probably Destruction, and shade-sight is...maybe Preservation? Kindrie can also interact with Willow far more than your average Kencyr, even Tori. Soul-carrying and Command are both demonstrably Face-neutral, like binding, and purely for the sake of symmetry I’m inclined to assign charm to Preservation, to match forced truth for Creation and tempting for Destruction. I usually think of Trishien as Preservation-aligned and Kirien as Creation-aligned, which would also make far-writing Face-neutral. But that’s just me making stuff up.

Anyway! That’s what we know for sure about Shanir alignments, so now we’ll go from there to talk about the alignments of the Master’s generation. God, I hope my read-more is working again.

So! There are two ways to look at this, one based on narrative evidence and one based on narrative structure, but they have the same outcome. I’m going to talk about the second one first, because it’s not as interesting to me--it’s just a little chat about cyclical epics and the way the Master’s generation and Jame’s generation mirror each other.

So, if we look at it from the assumption that the Master’s generation is universally a narrative equivalent to Jame’s, Jamethiel and Jame are obviously Destruction. This is demonstrably true regardless--Jamethiel was definitely the Nemesis in the Fall, even though she wasn’t actually the impetus. The Master and Tori are also direct equivalents, even Tori draws the connection between them, which makes him definitively Creation. I’ll talk about how I think this is supported by narrative evidence later. And then, of course, there is no Preservative aspect of the Tyr-ridan in the Master’s generation, wherein lies the problem--the Tyr-ridan have to be pure Knorth, and Tyrandis and Terribend are half Randir, and Keral yet a further step removed to be half Randir Highborn and half Kendar. However, I think it’s clear that Tyrandis and Terribend, between them, are a good parallel for Kindrie (the one loyal to the end to a Master who doesn’t want him, and the one loyal to the end to his own code of honor, even at the cost of his soul), implying them to be Preservation aligned by this argument. And Keral, of course, is Bane’s predecessor, the previous heir to half-Highborn homicidal Shanir madness. Bane doesn’t actually show a lot of Shanir talents besides blood binding and I think there’s a viable case to be made that he doesn’t have many, and I’m guessing Keral is the same. Gonna tag them both for Destruction, though, because Bane and Jame are antiparallels, it’s why he’s obsessed with her, that is a separate essay though so just take my word for it.

That’s the narrative structure argument, basically. The Kencyrath are an epic, and an epic about cycles and patterns--the war fought and lost on world after world, the children fighting to be their parents or be anything but, the ever-diminishing returns on their battles. We know the alignments of Jame’s generation, and the Master’s generation was Final Battle: Mark I, so by narrative structure we can extrapolate.

In terms of narrative evidence, we actually don’t have a ton--changers lose their Shanir abilities, and Gerridon seems to be operating at a deficit when it comes to Creation powers. So we’re about to get speculative in this part. Jamethiel is Destruction, through and through, I don’t think we need to discuss it at length. Gerridon is either pure Preservation or pure Creation, and I stand by my above theory that he’s Creation--not just because he’s Tori’s narrative predecessor, but because he loses a hand. Now, it’s possible that he’s a powerful Shanir healer who is, for some reason related to Perimal Darkling, unable to access his soulscape (literally can’t imagine what his soulscape looks like, wouldn’t blame him for avoiding it). But I tend to think not. The Master sacrificed his people, his honor, his consort, and pretty goddamn nearly himself for immortality. You know what that blind, irrational terror of death reminds me of? Torisen, so half-mad with fear of the nightmare that showed him his father’s death that he nearly killed himself running straight into the Southern Wastes in hopes of getting away.

Yeah, I think the Master is a Creation-aligned far-seer. Why does he keep getting out-maneuvered anyway? Because the Master’s House is outside the normal flow of time. He lives in the past, in the days when the House was well-kept and magnificent, and he pays for it with what could be his best advantage. Out in Rathillien, though, the Dreamweaver and even the Master both tend to show up in...let’s call them highly coincidental moments. Partly an advantage of the House, I’m sure, but maybe not entirely.

Now, the changers give up their Shanir powers for immortality, so all of this is guesswork. I’m prepared to suppose that Keral, half-Kendar, probably wasn’t a powerful enough Shanir to be a going concern, but purely based on his rampant overuse of the deepest rooms and rapid degradation (he can’t hold a form at all, but Tyrandis “can never get the eyes right” despite being exactly the same age, suggesting that they’re at the two extremes of how quickly changers burn through their shelf life) I’m inclined to say Destruction. As the Dreamweaver demonstrates, Destruction can also be self-Destruction and, lacking further indications, I’m guessing that Keral went hard in that direction.

Tyrandis...Tyrandis and Terribend, we know very little about. Tyrandis is a changer and Bender lost his soul, and presumably his Shanir abilities with it, so we never see them use anything that would give us an indication one way or another. Bender taught Jame to read the Master Runes, though, and they’re twins, so we know that they were both strong, as Shanir go, because being able to read and use Runes requires a lot of juice. It’s possible that Tyrandis held out against the corrupting influence of the deepest rooms through a link to Creation, it’s possible that Bender is able to resist the corruption of the House by the same virtue that Jame can hold out against Rawneth, Destructive snakes of similar venom. I could probably make a case for any alignment for the two of them, given enough time to cook one up.

Personally I tend to think that they’re both nominally Preservation aligned, as I mentioned above. This is because they hold out better than anyone save the Master himself, and they don’t have the protection of Gerridon’s deal with Perimal Darkling. In fact, Bender was so capable of resisting that he didn’t have his soul taken until he “slipped, for just a moment,” and that’s so reminiscent of Kindrie, emerging from the walled garden of his soul for one moment and finding himself locked out, that I tend to think that Bender had to be a soulwalker. Tyrandis...God only knows what Tyrandis could do before he lost his abilities and his honor to stay loyal to his lord. But soulless Terribend and corrupted Tyrandis are still the most themselves of anyone in that forsaken dimension, and that says Argentiel to me.

#kencyrath #chronicles of the kencyrath #jamethiel dreamweaver #tyrandis #terribend #A N O N!!!!!! THANK YOU FOR THIS #if you don't know anything about the kencyrath and my readmore is still busted i'm so sorry i just...i couldn't NOT #i have so many long posts languishing in my drafts half-finished right now because i don't know if my readmores work #and like. that taz au of the untamed? yeah that's a long boy. don't want that on people's dash without a cut.#BUT THIS!!!!!! i couldn't not post this. it's like. An Essay. and i loved writing it so much.#please send me every niche Fantasy Lit 406 essay question you've ever idly considered about the kencyrath #ANYWAY i'm really personally obsessed with the idea that terribend is preservation-aligned #...hmmm i'm realizing actually that BANE doesn't have a soul for most of the time we know him #so he may have other shanir abilities not easily accessible to him without a soul #i'm also into the idea of tyrandis as preservation because...well. even poisoning jame is an act of preservation is it not?#he's trying to see to the master's inevitable demise as a way of (hopefully) preserving the chain of creation.#and the idea of the brothers as the passive and active sides of preservation (respectively) is fascinating and tragic to me #ALSO. THE MASTER IS A CREATION-ALIGNED FARSEER. I'LL TAKE NOTES AS I REREAD THE BOOKS BUT SERIOUSLY GET ON BOARD WITH THIS #asked and answered #Anonymous

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littlemisssquiggles · 5 years

Note

so I just recently found ur page and I’ve been trolling though a lot of ur rosegarden theories and I love them. Rosegarden is my favorite ship and my favorite theory I’ve read has to be the one were u pitch the sketch for Oscar to be in RWBY China. Anyway, I have a theory I would like ur opinion on. Oscars semblance. I don’t know if you’ve posted about this but, I think it should be plant manipulation (full poison ivy). I know this theory isn’t new but think the evidence is there what u think??

Pleased to meet ya Dark! RWBY China? Oh you mean RWBY Chibi! I’m assuming you meant Chibi XD And awesome, yeah I’ve been noticing your likes on some of my posts these past couple of days. Thank you so much. I’m pleased to hear you’ve been enjoying them. Particularly my Rosegardenones since they’re always my favourite ones to write.

Regarding Oscar’s semblance; I actually shared one or two posts on my idea for Oscar’s semblance including one which was a response to RWBYYoutuber ThatKaitoDan.

Aaah yes, ye ole Oscar’s plant-based semblance. That was one of the first headcanons I heard for Oscar’s semblance and it’s pretty much still a pretty popular one.

But if you’re asking me for my thoughts on this being Oscar’s semblance, I’m gonna be honest with ya fam. I never quite bought into that theory. I mean…Iget it. I get why many folks would jump on this theory bandwagon. Oscar’s semblance must be something Earth-elemental or plant-based because he’s our veteran precious freckled small farm boy, right? When I look at it through that lens, I can see why folks would like it.

However my reasoning for never truly hoping on-board with this theory is because, what do we know about semblances?

According to World of Remnant, by definition, one’s semblance is an extension of their aura into a more tangible form. Basically one’s semblance is a unique power associated with said individual. From what I understand, semblances are meant to represent who they are as a person since it’s more or less a projection of their very soul. Their very being.

Up until this point, you can pretty much say that everyone’s semblance is a reflection of their character and their personality.

This is why I’m not in favour of the plant manipulation theory. When I hear that as Oscar’s semblance, I automatically see the reason being because Oscar is a farm boy and as I said, I get it in that sense. However being a small farm boy from Mistral isn’t who Oscar is. I mean…yes it’s an integral part of his upbringing and past but it’s not representative of him as a person.

If Oscar was someone described to have a love for nature and be interested in plants then I can see that being his power. However, when I look back on Oscar’s story, part of it involved him desiring to be more than just a farmhand. He wanted to do more with his life than what he was raised to be.

So him, having a power that represents the lifestyle he grew up in that he secretly desired to move away from didn’t click with me. It’s no problem if you or anyone else are fans of this theory. That’s fine.

It’s just that I’ve always had a different idea…well ideas, on what Oscar’s semblance could be and none of them involved plants or Earth powers.

In the past, I pegged Oscar on having more of a mind-based semblance. Before, the only person with a mental semblance was Emerald and back in V5, I was hoping that Oscar would become another huntsman with a mind semblance. I was hoping that Oscar’s power would’ve been something along the lines of Telepathy—where he could connect to others through their minds and thus help heal them from within. I figured that could’ve been Oscar’s power since he strikes me as the type of individual who’s always willing to do what he can tohelp others. Despite still knowing very little about him after three seasons,if there is one thing I can card about Oscar as a person is his readiness to help even when he himself might be limited.

He’s always eager to lend a helping hand even when he might not have the right words or know what’s best to make. But he still tries. He will still make an attempt if it meant helping someone in someshape or form.

If I were to play Blake Belladonna and describe Oscar Pine in one word, it would be selfless.Not to make it sound bad or anything but Oscar seems to care very little abouthimself especially in the face of a danger. In the sense that he’s always more fervent to put himself before another. At the time when I made the telepathy theory, I perceived Oscar as the type of person with a knack for connecting with others on a deeper level. Back in V4, Ozpin voiced Oscar that he had the potential for greatness. That he had the aptitude to be the kind of person to give a helping hand when humanity needed it most. And ever since that season, I feel as if ‘helping hand’ is a trait that Oscar has almost come to live up to.

It is both noble and…somewhat problematic how very little Oscar seems to care about himself in the face of others. He wants to do the best he can, even within limits. In my eyes, I see Oscar as an individual whose desire to help and do more is infinite while he himself is often rather limited—whether it’s by his own experience as a huntsmen or his time as himself. He definitely seems like he wants to do more but there are chains that are keeping him from doing so…in a metaphorical sense.

Ultimately I wound up abandoning the telepathy theory for Oscar. Especially now when RWBY After the Fall revealed the CFVY member Fox has that power. Currently, one of my key theories for Oscar’s semblance is Nullification—disabling someone from using their semblance so that, in the event of a threat, they can no longer be a danger to themselves or others. I explained this theory best in its original musing post right here.

My second choice for Oscar’s semblance is Magic. I like the idea of Oscar’s true power being magic itself since it fits into so many things about him. From a fairy tale standpoint, it fits since Oscar draws inspiration from Princess Ozma—the rightful ruler of Oz and powerful magic-user. So it makes sense to me that Oscar becomes a powerful wizard with magic as his signature power.

Another reason why I like the idea of Oscar’s power being Magic is due to the point that I made about Oscar’s character. Oscar is someone who is selfless—willing to do whatever he can even within limitations. Imagine Oscar being forced into a scenario where he wants to do more but he can’t because there’s something stopping him. There’s always something stopping him. Always something holding him back.

So imagine if…in the past, Oscar always wanted to do more but was told he couldn’t for whatever reason. Maybe as a little boy, he was told he couldn’t do certain things other kids could because he was too small in size. Or perhaps as a teenager, he was told he couldn’t help the adults (like his parents) because he was too young. He was just a boy. A child and because of that, he’d only get in the way.

As a huntsman, he can’t help his team as much as he’d like to since he’s still tooinexperienced as a fighter. And the final crutch, he wants to help as much as he can as Oscar—he wants to keep fighting with his friends as Oscar but he’s limited by time since he’s not sure how much longer he has as Oscar.

There’s always something holding Oscar back from what he’s truly capable of doing. His weakness is that he is always limited by something withholding him from his true potential. So…perhaps Oscar’s semblance—his true power would be something that would grant him the unlimited power to do anything.

Currently, magic is a source of unlimited power in RWBY’s lore. Therefore, I believe it’s a power very suitable for Oscar to become a master of. I strongly believe that magic is destined to be Oscar’s hidden strength.

I don’t know if Magic could even be considered a semblance. Nonetheless, like I said, I think it can work for Oscar since it feels like a power he should have given who he is, who he’s destined to become and more specifically, who he was inspired by.

One’s semblance is their own individual power. An ability that is unique to them since it’s an extension of their aura—their very soul. Their very sense of self. So that being said, I’d like to toss out this new Oscar semblance theory.

What if…and this is a BIG IF…Oscar can’t have a semblance.

What if…Oscar will never be able to unlock a semblance since his whole Man with Two Souls thing spiritually prevents him from unlocking a power that’sunique to him.

Hear me out with this one, okay? Like I said, as person’s semblance, in the words of Nora Valkyrie, is their very own superpower. It’s a power unique to them (in most cases) since it’s meant to be an extension of their very soul.

This brings to light a question I wish to ask about the Wizards of Light. Did any of the Wizards before possess unique semblances of their own? One’s semblance is a power unique to them. So my question is, if a Wizard unlocked their own semblance during their lifetime, is their semblance then passed down to their successor upon death since a Wizard’s soul never dies, it’s just reborn in the body of the next candidate in the cycle. And then when that present Wizard unlocks their semblance, do they have control over that plus their predecessors’ semblance?

Is Oscar, as the current incarnate of Ozma, just sitting on a gold mine of powers waiting to be tapped into or…could it be my hunch where Oscar, and by extension, any Wizard of Light, can’t possess a semblance since a Wizard isn’t one soul.

A semblance is the power projected from one’s individual soul. However Oscar isn’t just one soul. He isn’t even two souls despite the key term. Oscar is part of a culmination of many different souls over lifetimes in one body. When I look at it from this perspective, I’m starting to wonder if it’ll be possible for Oscar to even have a ‘semblance’ at all given his ‘condition’.

What if…this might even provide another limitation for Oscar to dealwith.

Imagine…Oscar training and working so very, very hard to unlock hissemblance only for Ozpin (or perhaps someone who’s been studying his aura, like let’s say General Ironwood) to sort of drop the ball on himand say that he’s incapable of ever unlocking a semblance.

As I’ll reiterate again, semblances are an individual’s own unique power. Even in the case of family bloodlines (like the Schnees), this still applies since while blood is thicker than water, it’s not thicker than the soul; that makes a lick of sense. Even with shared semblances, individually, the Schnees are still their own people sharing in the power that their family was built upon and using itas they chose to use it. They may share a power. But they don’t share a soul.

This is the kicker with Oscar. He’s not just one individual. Sadly to say it but, Oscar, technically, isn’t …his own person. His soul is bound to another in a string of many other lives. I can see if being difficult for Oscar to have his own individual power when he’s not just one person.

It’s not even a case like with the Schnees. He’s not inherited a power viablood. He’s sharing a body with another soul who is an embodiment of many.While I still think it’d be cool for Oscar to have a semblance, I’m going totoy around with the concept of what if he didn’t.

What if…our precious small farm boy can’t have a semblance? He’s even worse than Jaune in that regards. With Jaune, it was more or less a mental block and waiting for the right trigger. With Oscar, imagine if he can’t do it at all because of the very thing that’s been his crutch from the get-go. Him being part of two souls. Him eventually merging with said soul and possibly disappearing during all of it.

Imagine…Oscar clinging to the hope of unlocking his very own semblance as a sign that there might be a small chance for him to still be his own person despite everything? If Oscar were to have his own power—a power that represents him. A power that is his and wasn’t something he inherited from another. If he had that then he would still be him.

Picture…Oscar clinging desperately to this goal as some sort of lifeline in a sense only to be told upfront that he’d never be able to have his own unique power since he isn’t his own person. He could never be his own person. Not anymore. Never again.

Can you imagine… Oscar, the boy who has been silently bottling up his emotions over the Merge, becoming hopeful about semblance training only to learn that…no matter how hard he tried. No matter how hard he worked or trained, nothing is going to change. He can’t stop it. He was never going to be able to run away from his fate.

I don’t buy into Oscar fully accepting his fate with the Merge from V6 C9. I feel as if Oscar has become like how Ruby was back in V5. Indifferent and trying to act all brave to keep up appearances when in reality he isn’t truly fine with everything that’s happened to him and is going to happen to him. You cannot convince me for a millisecond that Oscar is 100% fine with the Merge.

I feel like Oscar’s run since V4 has been about him constantly convincing himself that accepting his fate was what he should do. It’s all he could do when there’s been that other side that’s been screaming the latter—the side he suppresses most of the time.

Nope. I think he’s bottling up his truefeelings and at some point, Oscar’s going to have another meltdown like in V5 C5. Probably even worse with more tears. Might even punch a wall in frustration…or SOMETHING with extreme anguish.

Ozpin was allowed his tearful meltdown. I’m still patiently waiting on Oscar’s to happen cause you can somewhat feel it coming.

Back in V5, Oscar was mostly scared about previously fighting in the Battle of Haven. So I could only imagine now what’s really going through his head (literally) regarding the whole idea of signing his body and life away to an entity whose been trying to stop an immortal threat for years and has failed multiple times.

I feel like another epic meltdown is on the way for Oscar. An actual one this time, with tears and lots of wailing. A golden opportunity for Aaron Dismuke to give us his best emotional acting in the history of anime voice acting.

I’d actually be pretty disappointed if it doesn’t happen by now in V7 since; and I cannot stress this enough, Oscar needs to vent. It’s part of the reason why I’ve been dissatisfied with how the Writers just constantly portray Oscar with just being perfectly ok with everything that’s happened to him.

I get that he’s a young, impressionable teenager made to have the maturity of an adult beyond his years but Jeez Louise on cheese, would it kill these guys to give Oscar some more depth and ACTUALLY delve into him as a person and character. I guess, only time will tell for V7 I suppose.

Resuming talk on semblances, if Oscar is revealed to have NO semblance, this is where I can see magic being his substitute for a semblance. When I think about it, Oscar doesn’t really need a semblance. As a matter of fact, there’s no unique power more fitting for Oscar to have than magic in my eyes.

If magic can be a semblance, then I’d pick magic to be Oscar’s true power. He’s meant to be a destined for greatness. So let him be that. Forget semblances all together for Oscar Pine! Let him use magic instead.

Let this small farm boy become the great and powerful wizard I know he’s meant to be. This is why I’m gunning for my theory of Oscar taking the Fall Maiden magic back from Cinder. Since the Maiden magic are connected to Oscar via his connection to Ozma—the original source of the power, I believehe might possess the power to take the Maiden magic back without having to killthe Maidens.

I’m banking on Cinder overpowering Oscar only for him to suddenly start revoking some of the Maiden magic into his body, empowering him.

Man, imagine if karma comes back to bite Cinder in the ass. Funnily enough, when Cinder had ambushed the original Fall Maiden with Emerald and Mercury, she ended up stealing some of her magic with a Grimm that left a nasty blemish across Amber’s right eye. Ironically, when Ruby first used her Silver Eyes on her, Cinder lost her eye on the same side.

Now I’m picturing karma returning to chomp on Cinder again where, just as she blindsided Amber and stole some of her power—imagine Oscar blindsiding her and taking back some of Ozma’s magic.

Then imagine Oscar using that magic to defeat Cinder and similar to Amber, just as how she was made to kneel helplessly while Cinder stole her power—Cinder would be put in the same position as Oscar takes back what she stole. A power that was never meant to be hers in the first place. Isn’t that not what Cinder said to Pyrhha before she murdered her? Wouldn’ that be an interesting scene to see play out.

So Oscar takes back the Fall Maiden powers and thus, becomes empowered with magic and finally unlocks his true potential. That’s my main theory.

Besides, if Oscar’s power is indeed magic then I can see Earth-themed magic being his preference. With the Maidens, they all seem to have a base element ofchoice. For Cinder, it was fire. For Raven, it was ice (even though she’s supposed to be the Spring Maiden?) so for Oscar, earth can his elementof choice as a wizard. This in turn can play into yours and everyone’sfavourite Pinehead theory of Oscar becoming an earth bender of some kind.

I’ll only accept the plant powers for Oscar when it comes to his magical abilities. Those are my thoughts on that. Hope that answers you Dark. Sorry if I took so long in responding. Thanks for the inbox fam~

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#darkangel93rar #squiggles answers #squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #rwby theories #pinehead headcanons #squiggles pinehead headcanons

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xb-squaredx · 4 years

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B-Squared’s Top 10 Games of 2019!

2019 was a year full to the brim of GREAT games, and as is the custom at the end of the year, people love to rank their favorites, so…I’d like to do the same! Of course my own tastes might be different from yours so if you don’t see a thing on here that you liked, chances are I didn’t like it…or more likely, there’s just too many great games out this year, and I couldn’t get to everything. I’d like to stress to that the rankings don’t really matter all that much, especially the farther down we go. Everything on here is an easy recommendation. Without any further ado…let’s take a look at my Top 10 Games of 2019~

#10 - River City Girls

I love action games, but 2D beat-em-ups never really clicked for me. They were largely before my time and I was thinking that it’d be impossible to get me into one in the current era of gaming. And then I saw Marian’s redesign for River City Girls and bought the game. What can I say? Abs are a great sales pitch. But seriously, getting Wayforward on the helm of a beloved classic franchise is already a great way to pique my interest, and while there’s SOME aspects of this game that I don’t quite gel with, it’s a fun, colorful romp through a ridiculous universe that I’d LOVE to see more of down the line. Featuring a role-reversal, with the girlfriends saving the boyfriends this time, River City Girls has gorgeous pixel art, an AMAZING pop-synth soundtrack that’s worth the price alone, and it’s a game that clearly had fun with the concept and that fun rubs off on you. From the stylish animated boss intros, to the co-op fun that can be had with a friend, everything in this game is brimming with charm. Basic NPCs have great designs in their own right, being able to recruit enemies as assists is a neat idea, and it all adds up to a fun, bite-sized adventure with a bit of depth under the hood if you’re willing to give it a look. Can the character designers get a raise for this game, please? And let Megan McDuffie just do all the songs from now on. ALL OF THEM.

#9 - Astral Chain

Most people assumed if we were going to get a Switch exclusive game by Platinum this year, it’d be Bayonetta 3 but instead Nintendo surprised us with Astral Chain, the anime cop action game we didn’t know we wanted. The game boasts great visuals and is probably the most content-rich Platinum game ever made for starters, but for me the true draw is in the combat. Playing as your police officer in tandem with an alien creature known as a Legion, this tag-team action game is unlike pretty much anything else on the market. While the game starts off very simplistic, the Legion itself moving and attacking with no input from the player, over time more and more options unlock and things get considerably more complicated. By game’s end, you’re drowning in options, and once things clicked, combat was always a treat. With plenty of enemies to practice with, Legions to master and a gigantic post-game filled with challenging encounters, I had more fun with the combat in this game than I did with a lot of other games this year. That said, I do feel that Astral Chain could have benefitted from trimming some fat or rethinking its overall structure. For being a new IP with some bold ideas, I’m willing to accept these as kinks that can hopefully be ironed out in a sequel. Oh, and add Lappy to Smash already. You know you want to, Sakurai.

#8 - BABA IS YOU

Puzzle games are hard sells for me, since I don’t like the frustration that often comes from being stuck. You feel dumb, you get embarrassed and turn the game off in shame, or at least that’s my experience. But then sometimes you get a game so clever, so…weird, that you can’t help but be sucked into it. BABA IS YOU is a block-pushing puzzle game, with the twist being that the “rules” of a particular stage are often physically present in levels and are in fact blocks that can be pushed and manipulated by the player. ROCK is PUSH, WALL is STOP, FLAG is WIN and BABA is YOU. But what if you can’t touch the flag because the wall is in the way? Well, make it so WALL is PUSH to move it aside, or maybe make it so that BABA is WIN and you become the win condition itself. As the game goes on, more modifiers and rules are slowly introduced and absorbed into your own internal logic of the game, logic that increasingly has to be broken and remade to suit your needs. It’s a very empowering experience when the solution clicks and the results can often be hilarious and surprising. This game also GOES PLACES the further you go in, and I’d rather not ruin that surprise for anyone who might be looking into the game. Definitely one of the most innovated titles I’ve played in a LONG time. BABA is GOOD.

#7 - Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid

OK, so…hear me out. Power Rangers was a franchise I was obsessed with as a kid, and while I don’t follow it anymore, there’s still some love for it flowing in my veins. So when a small, no-name studio puts out a Power Ranger fighting game that takes the simplified controls of Smash Bros. and the tag-team craziness of Marvel vs. Capcom and slaps it all together for a cool twenty bucks or so? Well you got yourself a purchase and it ended up being WAY more fun than I expected. Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is far from the best looking fighter on the market, it’s single-player content is lacking, and it’s roster, while interesting, isn’t as big as a lot of the competition, but damn if it isn’t fun to play. With characters taken from across the franchise’s long history, from the live-action movie reboot to the comic books, each choice has been inspired and resulted in an incredibly varied cast. With no crazy inputs for special moves, combined with a tagging system that lets you cycle through your three-Ranger team quickly, the game is the best kind of chaotic fun, but true masters can command that chaos and channel it into cool combos that make you want to say “Morphinominal!” Considering it’s a budget title, it’s also received a fair amount of updates throughout the year to pad out the roster with both free and paid DLC fighters, a full story mode and improvements to the netcode and overall presentation., so if you passed on it at launch, it’s much improved now. It’s not gonna be a fighting game on everyone’s radar, but I’d rather support it than the grind-heavy slog Mortal Kombat has become…Now just hurry up and add that monster that baked the Rangers into a pizza!

#6 - New Super Lucky’s Tale

If your name isn’t Mario or Sonic, 3D platformers are effectively dead. That said, there’s been a few up-and-comers in recent years that are trying to revive the genre. Hat Kid from A Hat in Time, the duo of Yooka-Laylee, and now Lucky from the folks at Playful Studios. The cute fox has quite the history, starting from the Oculus Rift title, Lucky’s Tale, to a full-fledged platformer on the Xbox One X, Super Lucky’s Tale and now the enhanced port/reimagining New Super Lucky’s Tale on Switch. Halfway between a full-blown sequel, and enhanced edition, the game takes assets from the Xbox original game, tweaking and refining everything from visuals to controls to level layouts. The result is a game that is incredibly well-polished. It looks great, Lucky is a treat to control as he moves from jumping, burrowing and sliding around fluidly, and the variety on display keeps things interesting. We’ve got full 3D levels, 2D levels, auto-runners, and even some marble maze levels and puzzles thrown in for good measure. It’s not a hard game, but it IS incredibly fun, and well made. We don’t get many 3D platformers these days, so cherish what little comes of the genre. I hope Playful and Nintendo continue to collaborate, as they really seem more at home here. Just…maybe don’t add more words to the title of the next game, guys.

#5 - Katana Zero

There’s no nice way to say it: there’s too many pixel-based, side-scrolling indie games out there, so the ones that DO stand out deserve to be celebrated. Katana Zero has a real ‘80s flair for starters, using bright neon, TV and VCR visual effects, and a synth soundtrack to give it some real style. When a game kicks off with you slowing down time and reflecting a bullet back at an enemy with your katana, you make a good first impression! Add in the trial-and-error that is planning the perfect route through a stage, the satisfying slicing and dicing of enemies, the unique, challenging boss encounters, and you have a game that was on my radar for a while, before I finally got into it at the end of the year. Its storyline is pretty interesting too, with some slight variances in how events unfold depending on your words and actions, though it ending on a bit of a cliffhanger is a bummer. That said, when a game leaves you wanting more, there’s worse problems to have. At the very least, there’s some DLC hinted at that might be interesting, as well as the implications that this is the merely the first in a trilogy, and at this point I’m game for whatever developer Askiisoft has in store.

#4 - Luigi’s Mansion 3

The GameCube was an odd era for Nintendo, as they attempted to innovate and try new ideas rather than rely purely on their old standbys. Case-in-point, rather than launch the console with a new Mario platformer, his second-banana brother Luigi got his first starring role in what would become the Luigi’s Mansion series. While not making QUITE as big of a splash as maybe Nintendo hoped, it’s garnered a decent fanbase, and when a sequel was announced for 3DS, people ate it up. Considering the gap between the first and second games, I think many people were surprised at the relatively quick turn-around for the third installment. I was also surprised at the overall quality and how much I enjoyed digging into it. For starters, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is easily one of the better-looking Switch titles, boasting some great lighting and particle effects, with some fun physics implemented for just about everything in the massive mansion. Luigi and company are animated with a lot of expressiveness that never gets old, and the music sets the tone perfectly too. From a gameplay standpoint, the toolset Luigi gains gives him ample options to poke at every nook and cranny, with the slimy doppelganger Gooigi being the clear stand-out. Some of the floors of the Last Resort hotel that Luigi must ascend are particularly massive and intricate too, some floors feeling like Legend of Zelda-style dungeons. While not a particularly challenging game, it’s still really satisfying to poke and prod at everything in sight, sucking in all the coins, gold bars and stacks of paper bills you can handle, not to mention slamming the ghosts around like the Hulk does to Loki. There’s also multiplayer! That I…haven’t really touched but…hey! More bang for your buck, surely!

#3 – Dragon Quest XI S

I don’t consider myself a huge fan of JRPGs. Or at least that’s what I thought before I tried out the Dragon Quest XI demo on Switch. I ended up falling for the game hard and bought the full release, carrying my demo data over and not stopping until I hit credits. Despite having never touched a Dragon Quest game before, outside of an hour or so of VIII, I was overcome with this feeling of nostalgia when it came to this game. That’s because Dragon Quest is THE quintessential JRPG game, the originator of all that we take for granted today. It was nice to feel right at home with a simple, effective combat system, rather than having to watch games re-invent the wheel in an attempt to stand out from the pack (sorry Xenoblade), and the story itself, while predictable and a little basic at times, was told well and told earnestly. It really nailed the feeling of going on a grand adventure, with enough twists on the formula to keep things interesting. The turn-based combat was elementary, but always presented me with fair challenges and lots of ways to solve the encounters laid before me, with enough quality-of-life features added in to minimize grind and make things more convenient. The Switch version of Dragon Quest XI featured a bunch of new content on top of a game that had more than enough going for it, and it’s clear a lot of work was done to make this port as faithful as could be, and it stands out not just as a great port on a system known for some shoddy ones, but as a title that’s brimming with as much polish and quality to rival first-party Switch titles. Don’t ban Hero in Smash and don’t miss out on this game if you haven’t taken the plunge already!

#2 – Devil May Cry 5

The Devil May Cry franchise has had its share of ups and downs over the years. For every game that’s considered a success, you have another game that doesn’t quite measure up. For years many thought the franchise was dead in the water after the attempted reboot, DMC: Devil May Cry failed to grow its audience, but when Microsoft’s E3 2018 show revealed to us a new installment, fans were ecstatic. Devil May Cry 5 boasts crisp visuals, deep combat and trims the fat, removing the wonky platforming and puzzles of earlier games to create a high-octane action experience that ultimately exceeded fan expectations. Its storyline firmly plants Devil May Cry 4’s Nero as a main character in his own right, wraps up the story of the Sparda brothers neatly, and if this ended up being the last title in the series, I think it’s that rare ending that ends up being totally satisfying. Combat is the real draw here though, the game giving players three distinct characters to learn and master. Nero’s robotic Devil Breaker arms allow him a decent amount of variety, while having a balanced, beginner-friendly combat style for new players. Dante remains the king of variety, having more weapons than ever before combined with his signature style switching, though the game is actually designed with all these options in mind so he doesn’t end up breaking the game like he did in 4. Newcomer V ends up being a breath of fresh air, controlling up to three demonic summons at once, forcing players to really think more strategically. The music is incredible too; Nero’s own theme, Devil Trigger, has been stuck in my head since last year and I don’t see it leaving any time soon. All things considered, Devil May Cry 5 might be the best game in the franchise, and a worthy contender for game of the year personally. Now if only we had a special edition with Vergil and the ladies playable…

#1 - Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I got into the Fire Emblem series with Awakening and really liked it a lot, however Fates, the next installment, left a bad taste in my mouth. I couldn’t really get into Echoes, itself a remake of the second game in the series, and I began to wonder if this franchise was really for me. I was willing to give Three Houses a shot, but I was not prepared for the game to blow past all my expectations. Fire Emblem: Three Houses isn’t just a good game, it’s a game that’s redeemed a franchise that’s stumbled a bit in recent years, and it likely cements Fire Emblem as a core Nintendo franchise for years to come. It has class, depth and real heart...with only minor creepy or pervy elements! Making a grand return to home consoles after more than a decade on handhelds, it goes big and it ultimately paid off, on track to become the best-selling entry in the series. The school setting might seem weird at first, and I wondered how well I’d adjust to it, but being able to instruct your units and influence their growth in battle was worth the learning curve. Things are introduced slowly enough that the flow of the game becomes relatively easy to manage, if a bit time-consuming overall. With four distinct storylines you can explore, TONS of character interactions and some interesting tweaks to the strategic gameplay the series is known for, I’m confident in saying that Three Houses is well-worth a purchase for newcomers to the franchise. Divine Pulse is a great quality-of-life addition that lets you undo mistakes, rather than force you to start over from scratch, and overall the UI and layout of the game gives you enough information to make informed decisions without overwhelming you. Makes me wonder how we survived before the games showed us who enemies would target on their turns before now. Admittedly, some aspects of the progression have some issues, especially at endgame, and visually the game really is not up to par most of the time, but these end up being tiny blemishes in the long run for me. They certainly weren’t bad enough to prevent me from starting a new path the instant I finished my first route. If I have one request…just make Claude a gay option. Give the people what they want, Nintendo!

Honorable Mentions

I’d like to add on some honorable mentions here before we close things out, though most of these are things I didn’t even get a chance to play, but they certainly might have made this list. For one, Resident Evil 2 Remake seems like a high-quality reinterpretation of the survival-horror classic, but I can’t do horror so I’ll likely pass it up. It’s also for that reason that I might not get to Control but I might try jumping out of my comfort zone for that one. The confusion surrounding both The Other Worlds AND The Outer Wilds is funny, but they’re both space-based games I’d be keen on getting to at some point down the line; the former is a great Western RPG by the folks who made the GOOD Fallout games, while the latter is an interesting space-faring puzzler with some interesting mechanics I’d rather not spoil for those not more in-the-know. Indie titles Sayonara Wild Hearts and GRIS definitely caught my attention with their great visuals, and in the case of the former, its soundtrack, even if the gameplay wasn’t quite there for me, and the weird fighting-game-but-kinda-RPG that is Indivisible demands my attention sooner or later. Bloodstained is the Castlevania follow-up I keep forgetting is out, and I hear great things about Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. The team behind the Yakuza series recently made a spin-off of sorts, Judgment that hit the West this year and while I like the Yakuza series for its quirky tone and fun combat, there’s still six other games I’d have to sift through, so going with Judgment, which is set to possibly begin a new franchise, seems like a good alternative. And how could I forget the likes of Shovel Knight as we finally receive the last expansion that’s been years in the making? I haven’t touched the King of Cards expansion yet, but I have the upmost faith in anything Yacht Club makes, so that’s surely a game of the year contender. 2019 was crazy good! Glad to close the year out with so much quality, and tons of great stuff to add to the ever-growing backlog.

Hope you had some good gaming memories made this year!

-B

#gameoftheyear #GOTY #GOTY2019 #astral chain #lucky's tale #baba is you #river city girls #devil may cry #luigi's mansion 3 #katana zero #power rangers #fire emblem three house #dragon quest 11 #xb-squaredx

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thelifeoftuan · 5 years

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Journalism Hell

There’s a little known fact about me. Or a fact that is usually forgotten. Either way. In college, apart from my Biochemistry major and pursuit of a career in medicine, I was also a Journalism major.

We’ll backtrack a little bit. Spring 2010 of my sophomore year of college, following a meeting with my advisor within the College of Arts and Sciences for my Biochemistry degree towards the end of that semester, I sort of spun out of control into this existential crisis. Hahaha! Why, you might ask? Well, it was at that meeting that my advisor was reviewing all of my credits and told me that I was on track to graduate the following Spring. And I was like, “What?” He looked over all of my requirements and said that with some good planning, I am set to graduate the following year. And in my head, I, for some reason, started to panic. Hahaha! I was like, “Um, excuse me dude, I’m only a sophomore. I haven’t even taken the MCAT yet, let alone apply for medical school. I’m not ready to graduate.” I remember asking him what my options were, and he was like, either book it and take the MCAT two months ago and apply to medical school yesterday then saunter on over to the commencement department and get ready to apply for graduation... or, do something else. I went home and stewed. ...like stewed to the point where the stew burned. And I was like, “what the shit! I didn’t plan for this!” Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, why am I complaining, right? The prospect of graduating a year early from college isn’t something to be butt-hurt about. But at that time, I was definitely not ready, mentally or emotionally. Not to mention I was nowhere near ready to really plunge into the horrid process of applying for medical school. That would have required me to get together letters of recommendation, transcripts, take the MCAT (and do somewhat well), apply for our pre-medicine committee interview (a stupid and unnecessary process, honestly, in retrospect), decide where I wanted to try to go to medical school and get those applications together... within a matter of weeks, because if memory serves me right, the application cycles started in the summer. So after I (rather unnecessarily, I will admit) agonized about this, I was like, “nah bro, we’re staying the full four years.” And it was at that time that I then embarked on my existential crisis. What the crap was I gonna do that will effectively prolong my stay in college to the appropriate four years? And it took a couple of days. I didn’t want to squander my time (or money, to be honest) doing something that wasn’t worthwhile. But I also didn’t want to over-tax myself. At first, I was like, well? I’ve always seen myself as a writer, maybe I should delve down that route. I initially thought about picking up an English major or minor. I spent hours and hours pouring over the coursework and projecting my class schedules and how that would pan out or if it would even work. And I discovered that it would if I picked up an English minor. And this department was within the College of Arts and Sciences, and so I wouldn’t have to really branch out too far from “home base.” But then I delved further into the required classes and read up on the syllabi (syllabuses? ...silly buses?) and looked up the instructors on the university online database, and review after review for course after course... they were all mostly bad with, at best, a B- average for grades, and I was like, “...I actually don’t think this is for me.” Being a literature buff was not my thing, and I think the English minor/major at my university trains students for that... which, in my opinion, was not worth my time or energy. I barely knew how to read, let alone critically analyze literature. I definitely was not going to risk something that would take shots at my already teetering GPA if I could help it, especially if it was something additional I was taking on. At that point, I would’ve rather graduated a year early and figure it out from there. So I scrapped that idea. And then it was back to the drawing board. Another several days of searching and seeking counsel... and then one day, a random thought came into my head. There was this nice building at the southern corner of the campus that was one of the newer colleges of our university, the College of Journalism. I would always walk by this building but never ventured in. One nice summer day that Spring semester of 2010, I did. And immediately, I felt sort of the same “at home” vibe I had felt all those years ago when I decided I wanted to become a pediatrician. Another little known fact. I actually started writing (for lack of a better term, honestly) before I even decided medicine was my calling. I remember in kindergarten, I had started writing and I remember my teacher reading some of my stories to my classmates. It wasn’t talent. It was a whim. Some sort of strange whim that has carried me forward throughout the years, just like how my aspiration for a career in medicine did. Within the College of Journalism was a major known as Professional Writing. I went home immediately after that day and did all the research I could on this. There was, unfortunately, no minor offered for any of the journalism majors. But the more I read about the Professional Writing track, the more and more I was sold. This major would train me and give me the skills I needed to become a more proficient writer and actually give me an avenue and motivation to continue writing as a potential career. None of that literary crap that made me despise high school English class, but stories that I would actually enjoy writing. I meticulously planned out my current coursework remaining for my Biochemistry major and overlay the required coursework for a Journalism-Professional Writing major... and it was like over-packing for a trip (another one of my wondrous qualities), borderline impractical and insane, but doable if done correctly. I asked myself, “how invested are you in this, Tuan?” I remember taking an afternoon to think about this, seeking opinions from some of my friends. And then, by the end of the day, I decided to go for it. I scheduled a meeting with an advisor at the college who, honestly and I think appropriately, questioned my sanity. I concretely remember him, one, looking at me with his eyebrows raised when I told him my background and experience (or lack thereof), and two, asking me repeatedly, “Are you sure about this?” But when I expressed my extreme interest and drive, he complied and laid out the requirements for me. I would have to take an entrance competency exam (basically a reading and writing exam). Thank goodness the foreign language requirements were the same among colleges, because I was not about to go down that route again (Spanish 3 is a story for another time...). That summer of 2010 would end up being my busiest summer. Because I picked this new major, I would have to get the required prerequisites out of the way before I could even think about starting any Journalism classes. So this required me to take two journalism classes over the summer. And I had also enrolled in a Biochemistry course that summer. So, three classes during that fateful summer of 2010. Hahaha! Not my smartest decision. But it felt like this new endeavor into the world of Journalism breathed new meaning in my life, and I felt rejuvenated and excited. Well, that feeling did not last too long. Hahaha! Mind you, yes, the entire way until I graduated college, I loved my Journalism major and classes, and it was definitely a reprieve away from my science classes and the stress of applying for medical school. But the very first class I had to take, and I will always remember the course ID to this day, was JMC 2033: Writing for Mass Media (JMC stood for Journalism and Mass Communication and was the ID used for all Journalism classes at my university). This was the introductory “weed-out” class for Journalism majors... which shocked me when my teacher, an impassioned writer and, in my opinion, rather poorly directed masters student who took pride in making this class the hardest it could ever possibly be, said to us on our first day, “If you are taking this class in the summer thinking that it was going to be easier, think again.” In my head, I was like, “oh shit.” No biochemistry professor of mine ever said that in any of my classes on the first day, and here I am, at a place I thought was the greener side of things, and there’s this crazy 20-something-year-old lady with an ego the size of the screen projected at the front of the classroom ready to skewer each and every one of us for the next 8 weeks. ...and skewer us she did. She definitely found some sick joy torturing us students in that class that summer. And I was so out of my element. I knew that I had a disadvantage and that this wasn’t something I had a true strength in. Other people in my class seemed to have read all the time and knew how to pick apart articles, had an eye for ads and design, understood the basic workings of PR and broadcasting. Me? I was the lowly writer who really only had the skills of an unpolished kindergartener. ...but I will be damned if I let my first step into the Journalism world be a misstep. So that summer, even more than my Biochemistry class, I worked my ass off more than ever before. Because it was a summer class, we crammed 16 weeks of work into 8... which was not the healthiest thing, honestly, because that required working and studying every single night, because this lady would present us with quizzes almost every single day of class. And this class was Monday through Thursday. Not to mention you had to make a C average or above in this class to be accepted into the College of Journalism (which, yes, is a given for anything, really), but as you will see from the quiz averages of this particular class, that was kinda touch and go, and I feared for my life and the life of my classmates at several points. And thus arrives the main topic of this post. Hahaha! (That took a while, right?) These quizzes we were subjected to tested absolutely everything (but truthfully, essentially nothing) about the supposed skills a journalist should have. Looking back... honestly, it was mostly hogwash, as you’ll come to see. Hahaha! This class was so bad and so hard that I ended up making daily Facebook status posts about it and then compiling them all together in a singular post titled “Lessons in Journalism Hell” posted on my Blogspot exactly 9 years ago today. I think the funniest (and frankly most appalling) thing this teacher did for this class was each morning, she would post the quiz averages of the day before on the large projector in front of the class, which I always wrote down so that I could relay how horrid this class was, and she also put the highest score and the lowest score on the projector and always, without fail, revealed to the class who made the highest score. ...if she had revealed who made the lowest score, she probably would’ve been murdered, honestly, because no one in the class liked her. And if someone made a perfect score, she would put the student’s name up there for all to see. ...it was kinda insane what this lady did. I look back on this course with such comical contempt, because I was like, “if all of my Journalism classes are going to be like this, I have made a grave mistake.” Thankfully, this was not the case. JMC 2033 is, notoriously, and especially when taught by this one particular crazy lady, is the hardest class in the college. I think what made it hard was it was an introductory course that attempted to teach all Journalism majors the basic concepts of journalism and mass communication, which included advertising, broadcasting, PR, and professional writing, and incorporated the necessities of media literacy and competence. I will say that I learned a few things from this class. But was any of it particularly useful? I mean, a good majority of our assignments and preparation for quizzes was to read or watch or listen to something that was published within a specific time window the day/night before and remember every single goddamn detail we possibly could and hope that we even read, watched, or listened to the right thing so that we could answer quiz questions the following morning. ...perhaps that only useful thing I did pick up from this class was a stronger resilience and work ethic than what I had previously. Haha! And so, without further ado, I would like to repost my Lessons in Journalism Hell on my tumblr today, to commemorate a rather miserable yet pretty laughable time in my life 9 years ago when I decided to pursue a Journalism major the summer before my Junior year of college. Each lesson is numbered and dated with a short sentence or two I devised to describe what the quiz was about, followed by the class average (and often my own personal commentary on such average). I don’t remember my own grades from these quizzes, as I didn’t write them down. It felt like it was poor form. Also, the teacher took back our quizzes after we had five seconds to review them (for some dumbass reason I will never understand), so I don’t have them in any archives of mine. But anyway, I present to you, Lessons in Journalism Hell, June 9 - July 29, 2010. June 9 | Journalism Hell Lesson #1: Copy-editing marks. A journalist MUST learn how to copy-edit using the CORRECT symbols and marks. Class avg: 57.7/100 ...HOLY CRAP! June 10 | Journalism Hell Lesson #2: Making distinctions. A journalist MUST learn how and when to use who vs. whom. Class avg: 79.6/100 June 14 | Journalism Hell Lesson #3: AP Style. A journalist MUST learn how to use AP (Associated Press) style of writing. Class avg: 63/100... and teacher said she expected great things from this quiz -.- June 15 | Journalism Hell Lesson #4: Newspapers. A journalist MUST learn how to read a newspaper--and figure out what content the teacher will quiz over. Class avg: horrendously low... T_T June 16 | Journalism Hell Lesson #5: Language Lapses. A journalist MUST learn that you feel bad NOT badly, that mobs are always angry and beatings are usually brutal, and finally, that you are usually nauseated, NOT nauseous...unless you make OTHER people want to vomit. Class avg: 97.3/100 :] June 17 | Journalism Hell Lesson #6: Newspapers Round 2. A journalist MUST learn how to read the newspaper (again), analyze it, memorize important facts, and rely on sheer gut about what the heck the teacher will ask on the quiz. Class avg: 68.2/100 ...my Buddha. -.- June 21 | Journalism Hell Lesson #7: Diversity. A journalist MUST know the difference between an oreo and a twinkie. Enough said. Class avg: 75.7/100 June 22 | Journalism Hell Lesson #8: Diversity Part 2. A journalist MUST learn how to read online news sources about blacks, Native Americans, and gays. Class avg: 43.7/100 ...OH MY SNAPS! We're getting killed by these quizzes! June 23 | Journalism Hell Lesson #9: It's anyone's guess. A journalist MUST know that if he/she WERE smarter, he/she would have made a better grade on this quiz. Class avg: 77/100 June 24 | Journalism Hell Lesson #10: Huffingtonpost.com. A journalist MUST... oh, what the hell. This quiz was completely insane and taught me nothing besides how terribly vague and untimely the quiz content was. All I learned was that huffingtonpost.com updates multiple times and the time frame we journalism students were given was within a 10-hour time span. Class avg: 58.8/100 -- I'm starting to get worried... June 29 | Journalism Hell Lesson #11: AP style round 2. A journalist MUST continue to learn how to use AP (Associated Press) style of writing. Class avg: 70/100 June 30 | Journalism Hell Lesson #12: The Week (online magazine). A journalist MUST not give up. As we are all getting tired of this, refer back to lessons 4, 6, and 10. Class avg: 71.9/100 July 1 | Journalism Hell Lesson #JUST KIDDING: There was no quiz today. WHOOPEE! July 6 | Journalism Hell Lesson #13: Us Weekly. A journalist MUST not let his/her brain melt while reading this tabloid-esque trash. Class avg: 78.1/100 July 7 | Journalism Hell Lesson #14: AP style round 3. A journalist MUST continue to learn how to use AP style of writing. Class avg: 93.2/100 ...WOOHOO! July 8 | Journalism Hell Lesson #15: Pluralizing. It's bitches and hoes! Class avg: 85.9/100 July 12 | Journalism Hell Lesson #16: AP style round 4. Class avg: 85.9/100 July 13 | Journalism Hell Lesson #17: AP style round 5. Class avg. 82.1/100 July 15 | Journalism Hell Lesson #18: NPR. A journalist MUST listen to 20 stories of Morning Edition on NPR (National Public Radio) and remember all the details. Class avg. 76.4/100 July 19 | Journalism Hell Lesson #19: NBC Nightly News @ 5:30 p.m. A journalist MUST watch the 5:30 p.m. programming of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Class avg. 89.3/100 July 20 | Journalism Hell Lesson #20: AP style round 6. Class avg. 85.7/100 July 21 | Journalism Hell Lesson #21: Advertising Age (AdAge.com). A journalist MUST be familiar with AdAge.com. Class avg. 70.9/100 ...and we were doing so well. -.- July 22 | Journalism Hell Lesson #22: PR Newswire (prnewswire.com). A journalist MUST be familiar with a PR tool website. Class avg. 72.9/100 July 26 | Journalism Hell Lesson #23: ESPN.com. A journalist MUST ...seriously?! This is by far the stupidest thing I've studied. Class avg. 75.4/100 July 27 | Journalism Hell Lesson #24: The First Amendment. A journalist MUST memorize the First Amendment... word for word. Class avg. 81.5/100. Awesomeness! July 28 | Journalism Hell Lesson #25: TMZ.com. A journalist MUST read more trash. Ugh. Class avg. 68.6/100. ...GEEZ! July 29 | Journalism Hell Lesson #26: Gawker.com. And so, the last lesson in Journalism Hell before the shit hits the fan. A journalist MUST read even MORE trash. -.- Class avg. 71.2/100 Hahaha! There you have it. Needless to say, I got through this class with an A (thank Buddha. I honestly would have been a little upset if the decision to pick up a second major in college brought down my GPA and further hurt my chances of getting into medical school). My teacher called out my name a number of times because I had made the highest grade on a quiz, and I think my name showed up on the board twice because I had made a perfect score on two quizzes. Each time, I just sunk into my seat and avoided eye contact. I definitely did not take these instances as accolades, because it made me feel really bad because the class averages were so low, and my classmates honestly were not having it with this lady, so I definitely did not appreciate her putting me on the spot. But regardless, I persevered and left JMC 2033 in the rear-view mirror as I started my actual Professional Writing classes the following fall semester. It gave me a giggle to go through this post again. Some comical memories of a pretty grueling summer, for sure, but productive and successful nonetheless. In the end, I definitely enjoyed my classes at the Journalism college, and it was definitely a decision that I did not regret. Anyway, just thought I’d trek through memory lane for a bit on this late night. Till next time. :]

#life of tuan #journalism #professional writing #lessons in journalism hell

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nutslovesdolts · 5 years

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My Take on Angsty Dragonslayer (kinda)

(I got permission to use the idea for this from the original person also this is a different spin on it)

(This goes off Yang being a Mother that experiences periods of intense depression and or sadness after birth being near the baby so yeah)

(In my Dragonslayer stuff if theres a kid involved I'm gonna have em named Amber so yeah)

...............

Yang's point of view: *It had been a year since Yang left... she ran away from Jaune and her newborn Amber almost 2 weeks after her birth... but why? Every time she looked at her, she felt so much dread... so crushed... she couldn't tell Jaune... he was so happy... so she ran... and ran*

*by this point Yang was falling apart... not a minute went by where she didn't want to go back and be with her husband and child... but how could she... what could she say... how could anyone ever forgive what she had done... she had become Raven and she hated herself for it...*

*She had even been keeping tabs of the two, and Ruby who had stepped in to help Jaune after their attempts to search for Yang had failed... Ruby stepped in to help take care of another...*

*Yang began to cry quietly into her cracked and dirty hands, the tears pouring out as they always did...*

This had to end...

...............

Jaune's point of view: *1 year... 2 weeks past his daughter's first birthday.. a year and two weeks since the love of his life... his wife... his reason to live... had left...*

*all through that time he wanted to shut down... to give up, but he wouldn't complete the cycle... he wouldn't be the Tai to his Raven... but even that thought always just added to his sorrow*

Ruby: Jaune...? *Ruby asked placing a hand on his shoulder, knowing full well what was wrong*

Jaune: ... sorry... I just... ... sorry

Ruby: ... It's not your fault Jaune... you've been a great father to Amber and you know she needs you

Jaune: *smiling sadly* but not without the help of her Auntie Ruby... I can never make this up to you you know...

Ruby: you don't ever have to, besides... Yang... she was basically my mom for a good part of my life... she... ... I owe it to her at least...

Jaune: ... Ruby...

Ruby: hmm?

Jaune: do you think she's ok...?

Ruby: Amber? Jaune you do such a good job taking care of her oh co-

Jaune: No... Yang... *looks at Ruby with tears in his eyes* I just... miss her so much...

Ruby: *softly hugs Jaune* ... me too...

Jaune: *crys into Rubys shoulder until he hears Amber crying updtairs* Thank you Ruby...really *he goes upstairs leaving Ruby on the couch*

............

Ruby's point of view: *she and Weiss had been helping to take care of Amber (and if he was really honest, more so taking care of Jaune) ever since Yang left... Ruby was so worried Jaune would just shut down like her father did but somehow he stayed strong... or as strong as he could... Ruby just couldn't understand how Yang could have left him, they were so madly in love and she was SO excited to be a mother... Yang always spoke to Ruby in private how much she wanted to give her child everything her own mom had denied her...*

Ruby: *sighed for a long while and got up for a snack, checking the cabinets she found very little... Weiss had been helping financially support Jaune for a while even offering to have Jaune and Amber come live with her and Ruby, but Jaune was very adamant about staying in case Yang came back and no one wanted to push him, that being said Jaune was never very good at taking care of himself, case in point the empty cabinets (minus the stacked baby food filling most of the leftmost cabinet)*

Jaune: Amber is asleep, hopefully for the night, she was pretty tired after all that running around with you today haha

Ruby: she's not the only one haha, also Jaune, you may want to run down to the store, all you have is leftovers and tea

Jaune: oh right... I ment to go earlier hehe *he said rubbing the back of his neck* I'll run over there now

*he grabbed his coat and went to the door* If she wakes up just sing to her, you know she loves it

Ruby: I will, be safe!

Jaune: I always am *he said knocking his shield and walked out the door*

................

Yang's pov: *She had seen Jaune's breakdown from afar, but what hurt more then anything was watching him sing to Amber to calm her down... she could read his lips... it was the same song he always sang to help calm Yang down whenever ptsd struck or she would have a panic attack... he was always there for her... but she left him...*

*she slid down the limb of the tree she was perched in and started sobbing... not quietly like always, but unhindered as if all that she had done came back at once... she fell out of touch with the world around her... and neglecting to see the blond haired warrior walk down the path in the direction she was perched...*

................

Jaune's pov: ok so I have to get milk, flower cookies *he smiled at both Ruby and Amber's favorite snack, a small bit of the cloud over him lifting for a brief moment* eggs, vegetabl... * he paused as he thought he heard a voice*

*he strained to hear where the source may have come from as he followed the sounds forward down the path*

*as he got close he thought it sounded a bit like Yang... but it couldn't be... he crouched and crept quietly forward*

*he kept onwards until he was at the foot of a tree looking up he saw a woman crying, her hair was torn dirty and matted, her clothes were patched up so baddly it seemed like none of the original material was there at all, but what caught his eye the most were her arms... or arm... one was muscular but thin compared to the other... and the other was...*

*Jaune went completely still for a moment... her other arm was a metallic rusty color, where there had once been yellow paint there were now red stains and scratches, the yellow only helping to highlight the damage...*

*he felt tears fill his eyes but forced them back... she was shaking, and sobbing... his Yang needed him...*

............

Yang's pov: *she could hear something climbing the tree... she knew it was probably a Grimm coming to kill her... with how many negative emotions she was spewing it wouldn't surprise her if she was attracting every Grimm in Remnant... ... it was ok... she deserved this... she would just let them take her... she was finally defeated...*

*she tensed up tightly as she felt something touch her real arm before realizing it was comforting... not painful, something had wrapped itself around her...*

.............

Jaune's pov: *he was holding her again... his Yang, his wife, his love... but she never looked up, not stopped her tears*

Jaune: *he knew what he had to do... he started to sing...*

((Admin note add your own favorite song here, I won't make you try to figure a tune out))

Yang: *she started freaking out more, it was Him... it couldn't be him... not like this... not to her...not after all she had done... ... but here he was, holding her... loving her, calming her like he always used to...*

*she heard his voice shake a bit and felt tears on her sholder... she still couldn't move... sh just couldn't, what could she do...*

Yang: .... Ja... I....

Jaune: *hugging her tighter* shhhh... Just... please don't leave... pl..please... come home... *he put one arm under her legs and his other behind her back* can I take you home? *he gazed into her Lilac eyes for the first time in what felt like an eternity, he wiped her hears away and stayed there for a moment, just resting his hand on her face*

Yang: *she couldn't speak... she couldn't move, afraid that if she did her body would carry her away again... so she just gazed back longingly into his eyes*

Jaune: *this was all he needed, he slid off the branch with Yang in his arms and hit the ground with a heavy *Thud* before walking back to the warm glow of their house in the distance*

.......

Ruby: *she heard the door opening again* Jaune, what did you forget? There's no way you made it there and back alre-

*she dropped the tray of tea she was holding letting it shatter on the floor... in the doorway there was the Knight, holding in his arms her lost sibling, very much worse for wear... she wanted to be mad, she wanted to SCREAM at her how could she do this... but instead she just felt happy sorrow welling in her chest...*

Jaune: Ruby... she can't talk yet, can you go draw up a bath...? I don't think she has had one in a long time... *he said giving the still frozen Yang to Ruby hesitantly*

Wait before you do *Jaune began to take the rusted metal off of Yang's arm and got no protest, the skin where the arm was connected to was raw and dirty, giving the impression it hadn't been off in a very long time* I'm not sure I can... see... Yang like that for a bit... or if it's even right to... sorry

Ruby: *gently taking Yang from his arms, with a knowing look* I'm her sister, it's alright

Yang: *Jaune had never in their relationship passed up a chance to see her without clothing before... it actually hurt hearing his words..., she was almost glad Jaune had taken her arm, it was something she couldn't live without meaning she couldn't just run again*

...........

Jaune: *he took Yang's arm to the now dusty workshop and placed it on the table, before she left Jaune had become quite a master of maintenance on the prosthetic, always earning a reward from Yang for a job well done... the thought made him sad for a minute before he looked at all the work thag had to be done*

Jaune: at least this'll take my mind off stuff...

..............

Ruby: *she had stripped her sister with much difficulty, her clothes had practically fused with her skin, the number of cuts and scars with dried blood made Ruby wonder how the heck she hadn't gotten infected... she then realized she hadn't *

Ruby: you know... *she started, never looking at Yangs eyes as she lowered her into the water* ... I may never understand... but you're my sister and I'll always be here for you... but dad... well... when you're ready you need to talk to him...

Yang: *any calmness she felt after being placed in the water was now long gone hearing about her father... oh god what had this done to him...* I...

Ruby: don't... just don't try yet Yang... please... ... just pull yourself together... *Ruby said running her hands through Yang's now matted and disheveled hair*

Yang: *she just began to cry again...*

.....................

To be continued in Part II if anyone wants it,... yeah this was a nightmare to write on a phone... also yeah I may have hit the word/paragraph limit and yeah... so stay tuned?

#dragonslayer #rwby #yang #rwby yang #yang xiao long #jaune #rwby jaune #jaune arc #rwby ships #whiterose #that counts right?#yeah...#dragonslayer part 1 #agnsty dragonslayer

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amphetameme-queen-blog · 5 years

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If you slip up...

Here’s my master list of how to take care of yourself after a b/p, stay strong my lovelies!

1. Physical Damage Control

Teeth -

It's usually a warning sign to have bad teeth as someone less than seventy years old. It's a 'classic' symptom of bulimia and I've heard a lot of (rookies) swear by brushing their teeth. DON'T FUCKIN DO IT MAN. I used to b/p anywhere between three to ten times a day at my worst, but I always kept a handy supply of TUMS or antacids on me. Your teeth become weakened when you b/p in the first place, so the abrasiveness of toothbrush bristles tends to wear down on your enamel. I never brushed my teeth after I would purge, and I've been b/p'ing on and off for about four years now. Like I said - ten times a day at the worst. I went to the dentist last month and they said that my teeth were like, perfect. It was actually shocking. Thank god for chemistry I suppose.

So how does it work? Well, the calcium carbonate (the main ingredient of TUMS) neutralizes the hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) on our teeth like it would in our stomach. It's basically a high school chemistry equation.

CaCO3+ HCl -> CaCl2 + CO2 + H2O.

The symptoms you'll get (after an antacid) is basically just burping up the CO2 lol. It's much more preferable to tooth decay, might I say. OH and if you don't have any antacids on you, baking soda works in the same way. Just put a teaspoon of baking soda into water, swish it around your mouth, and spit it out. It doesn't taste great, but you could probably mix it with a little alcohol-free toothpaste so it tastes more minty. I highly recommend against swallowing baking soda because it will most likely irritate your stomach and make you even more nauseous, and not in an emetic way. (Ana butterflies don't get any stupid ideas it's not gonna work like you think). Swallowing baking soda just makes you kind of uncomfortable, really.

Y'all need to floss too. I sound like I've got a major stick up my ass, because who actually flosses flossing is for old people and l0zers fuck that shit. Nope. Flossing once before you go to bed helps your teeth against yellowing, in my experience. I wouldn’t recommend flossing post-purge as your gums tend to be much more sensitive. ‘Cuz who’s trynna get gingivitis yeah no one.

Sinuses -

Remember that time you (regrettably) b/p’d on rice? And you felt that rice grain up there and took a napkin and blew fuckin snot rice into your napkin, like the sexy beast you are?

Yeah I remember that too.

It’s pretty apparent that stomach acid anywhere besides your stomach is a recipe for havoc. The stomach acid eats away at the mucous membranes in your nose, leading to constant sniffling, loss of smell, and chronic sinus infections. Even if you don't feel irritation in your nose immediately following a b/p, the acid can still lead to damage.

So how do you remedy this?

From my experience, the Neti-Pot saline rinse is the best bet. You can use the one that looks like a tea kettle or the one that's a squeezy bottle - both do the same thing. I have the squeezy bottle and it's really simple to use. You add water up to the fill line

And then you pour the saline packet into the bottle and mix thoroughly (just shake the bottle). Be sure to use FILTERED DRINKING WATER because tap water often contains heavy metals like copper or iron, which isn't good for your nose. Then put the plastic bottle with the saline-water solution into the microwave for approximately 35 seconds, and be careful to make sure it isn't too hot. Make sure it's just slightly warm and then screw the cap on tightly. Lean over a sink and gently squeeze the bottle into one nostril until the water comes out the other. Don't worry, it doesn't provoke the dreaded “oh god there's water in my nose I feel like I'm drowning” feeling. Your sinuses are connected and because the water is warm (like body temperature) it won't come as a shock to your body. Repeat the process on both nostrils until the bottle is done.

I've had actual chunks of food come out of my nose before, and I'm like, “shit, that would have just been hangin out in my nose the entire time?” So it's really important for preventing sinus infections or acid damage to the nasal cavity.

Electrolyte Imbalances -

If I had a dollar for the amount of times I've seen THAT PICTURE of the dead bulimic girl I would be richer than Donald Trump. Yeah, she died from gastric rupture blah blah blah but I always see blogs referencing that picture with the danger of heart failure and death in bulimics.

Despite how frequently I used to purge, I'm not dead yet! Hurray I guess! I used to get serious heart palpitations after a long day of purging, but I could mitigate some of those side effects with proper hydration and electrolyte drinks.

I ain't talkin no purple Gatorade shit either. Gatorade isn't as hydrating as one would think. It's made for athletes who are working out and sweating, and releasing salt through their skin. Gatorade replenishes the sodium and sugar, but if you're not working out/sweating a lot, the extra sodium could cause water retention *panics* The best option for electrolyte-replenishing is coconut water, in my opinion. It's naturally high in potassium, which is the principle electrolyte lost by vomiting. Pedialyte takes a close second for hydration because it's designed to replenish electrolytes, like if you have the flu or something. You can buy Pedialyte over the counter at most (American) pharmacies.

Electrolytes are important in muscle contraction, which includes the heart. This is why many bulimics die from heart attacks

Of course, the best way to get potassium is through potassium-rich foods. Some examples:

Avocado

Acorn squash

Spinach

Sweet potato

Wild-caught salmon

Dried apricots

Pomegranate

Coconut water

White beans

Banana

Source: Dr. Axe

Y'all also gotta be mindful of your magnesium too. Magnesium is lost (most notably) through diarrhea and thus laxative abuse. Here's how to remember the electrolytes:

Potassium is lost through Purging and Magnesium is lost by taking Mega Shits.

I'm laughing bahahah but I shouldn't be because the magnesium thing is no joke.

2. Psychological Damage Control

The Post Purge Freakout-

Quit playin. You know what I’m talkin’ about, that anxiety like fuck fuck fuck what did I just do I’m a worthless human I deserve to-

Stop.

These thoughts seem real, like ground-breaking realizations that affirm your worthlessness and desire to continue hurting yourself with ED behaviors. Diffusing these thoughts feels like the hardest thing to do in the moment, of course, but self-care is one of the most important factors in preventing another episode. I’m not trying to be some over-simplifying, self-righteous therapist who thinks that mindfulness is the only way out ‘it’s all about positive self talk, honey!’ Nah fam, anyone who’s dealt with the vicious cycle of bulimia knows it’s not that fuckin’ easy, and so I’m not trying to sugarcoat the fact that post-b/p self-care can be really goddamn difficult.

The best post-b/p self care I’ve implemented is putting on cozy pajamas (if you’re at home) and just taking a five minute break from what you’re doing to listen to music, draw/write, or go on a short walk. Let yourself feel comfy and secure, like being wrapped in a warm fuzzy blanket. Give yourself just five minutes to collect your feelings, and realize that a past slip-up can’t determine the future. Because that’s all it is - in the past. What’s in the past is done, and no amount of hateful self talk or self-injury will change that. But what you do in the present is what matters. Think about it as a fork in the road -

“Okay, so I just binged and purged, I have urges to hurt myself or compensate for what I just did, but what will happen if I don’t do either of those things?”

Nothing.

You might panic. You might cry. Let the tears come, if you are in a safe place where you feel you can do so. We know that the day might have sucked, but time stops for no one. The next thing you know, it’s the next morning. The sun is shining through your window, you are alive and your body is resilient. BOI IT’S A NEW FUCKIN DAY! YESTERDAY WAS A CAN OF SHIT, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT, TODAY DOESN’T HAVE TO BE. The important thing is that you lived through those horrible feelings, and you’ll remember that. You’re stronger, more resilient, and persistent than you think. You don’t even have to be in recovery to apply this. That’s not what I’m getting at. If you’re pursuing a goal, whether it be eating at regular intervals or meeting a certain calorie limit, there are going to be times you might mess up. And good god, it is absolutely okay.

Imagine yourself going to bed the next night, realizing that you had your first binge free, purge free day since you could remember. Knowing that you fought your urge to b/p will help you remember that next time, “hey, I’m stronger than my urges.”

I guess what I’m emphasizing here is self-forgiveness. I know a lot of people’s ED’s are driven by self-hatred and you’re all such beautiful human beings who deserve to love yourself as others love you. Wow. That got really deep real fast. But hey, I’ve been through it all.

Yo. I'm gonna add more to this, but only if people are interested in my ED-related writing. I'm actually working on a blog right now but I figured I might as well post some stuff here for feedback. PLEASE comment I would love to hear from you guys. 'Do I write like a sappy self-help book'? 'Is it relatable and/or helpful?' Let me know in a comment or DM what you're feelin about it. Sending hugs!

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butterfly--empress · 5 years

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KH3 Boxart...And Chess Pieces...

Going under read more because I know people still haven’t played or finished the game.

So I don’t usually get too over worked on doing a lot of speculation pieces because i’m either 30/60 right to wrong and the stuff I’m wrong about the writing goes in a complete 180 and then I’m going, wait? WHUT?!

In short, I don’t like to speculate too much in regards to Kingdom Hearts because one really never knows where the hell Nomura and his team is going with this, so whatever happens I just go along for the ride.

But ya’ll...YA’LL I WILL talk about my hopes that I have low expectations for but can we just talk about that secret ending for a second!

Okay, 1st: Nomura that sneaky son of a bitch thinks he’s so damn clever with this boxart. He never draws things for the sake of drawing them and I’m sure a lot of us had speculated that the city/world/town that our favorite guardians of light are at, would be a new world to explore in the later half of the game.

Because it sure as hell ain’t none of the already known original Kingdom Hearts Worlds we know.

But wait...not once has this world ever showed up for all of 50 plus hours of gameplay, we NEVER see this world.

Until Sora and Riku show up in it in the DAMN secret Ending but wait, there’s more!

We actually DO get a glimpse of this world for the Verum Rex game trailer when we go to Toy Story but at the time I didn’t really pay much attention to how similar it looked to the damn backdrop of the city in the boxart because my main attention was on: HOLY SHIT! NOMURA, YOU SLY MOFO VERSUS XIII IN MY KH3?!

I was also going, wow this looks really good...almost TOO GOOD and TOO WELL THOUGHT OUT for just a game trailer for an obvious final fantasy game parody for toy story or as a good reason to explain why Sora and crew shows up there to help with the Heartless.

Basically, Nomura hinted at where the next arc of the story will go! But I don’t think this is his first time doing this, the artwork with the sora, riku, roxas, namine, kairi, donald, goofy and mickey standing on tall white pillars for KH2 hinted at what we now know as the Final World in KH3.

What I hope Nomura is doing is carrying over core concepts and ideas he had for versus XIII and adding them to KH! The only reason I hope for this, speculate this might be true is because Versus XIII, like the FF13 Trilogy was dealing heavily with the cycle of life and death(eternal sleep) in accordance to the Fabula Nova Mythos.

Ven’s Chirithy tells Sora in so many words: Dude, every time you come here you raise my anxiety because you are LITERALLY hopping in and out of Limbo like it’s nothing! Like what kind of soul(heart) do you have, to totally disregard teetering between life and death?!

And then Sora’s all like: Don’t you know? I disregard the rules and literally make my own! BTW, I’m totally coming back for you, because we are friends now, okay! I’m this close to being this universe’s jesus, i literally fall down into realms of darkness via golden doors showered with glorious golden light!

Have you accepted your Lord and Savior Jesus!Sora into your life?

Chirithy: I just said don’t bring your sunshine ass back here because if you do, you might actually die! Not just be stuck in purgatory, like really die dude! This is the Final World...FINAL...you DO know what that means, this is like purgatory for lost hearts souls. Because I don’t if I could help you the second time in re-piecing you back together! \TT_TT/

Sora: I’m totally coming back for you! >^.^<

Chirithy:....He...he’s...a really...sweet kid...yea...a really sweet kid...

...Basically, I feel like The Final World isn’t particularly Heaven, probably more akin to a place of purgatory for lost or wandering hearts(souls) like, you aren’t really dead but you aren’t really alive either.

Because let’s face it, majority of characters in this game, never really truly DIE...not counting a very SELECT FEW...I wouldn’t be surprised if Nomura decides to recon Ephemer’s death later on through some Deus Ex Machina (which is why I don’t bother trying to speculate ANYTHING with this series)

Anyway, i went on a tangent there.....yea I think the Verum Rex game world is the same world on the boxart and I hope it’s a sign that Nomura is going to actually carry over ideas from versus 13 into KH, now that we got basically what amounts to Limbo or heaven depending on how to interpret the Final World, even the hashtag on the instagram post basically says it in so many words.

The Place where hearts return. And it’ll make sense if the next arc does focus on the thin line between life and death or in KH’s terms...DDD 2.0 >_>

----

So I watched the cutscene with young Eraqus and Xehanort again and noticed that yes, it is being set up for Sora to throw hands against the Foretellers, Luxu!Xigbar and most likely Master of Masters.

And I am so here for it!

Now the thing I wanna know is...aside from Riku obviously, who is gonna help him out? the new character, Yozora and his crew? Is the gang going to try to find a way to bring he and Riku back?

....Will Kairi really and truly get to do ANYTHING?!

...Just hope it doesn’t take 7plus years to get there to know D:>

Also, also...Nomura, please take your time and construct a better put together story...I will rant long and hard about this later...

But if you HAVE to do that annoying thing where I HAVE to buy a Nintendo Switch to play a few tie in game in between 3 and 4 again..at least I and the rest of the fandom will KNOW THIS TIME, they actually contribute to the overall plot of Kingdom Hearts...because BOY was it never implied the first go round.

#kh3 #kingdom hearts iii #sora #foretellers #master of masters #luxu #you know #i really don't care or mind #if kh4 came out within the next 3yrs on ps4 #i just don't want to go through another decades long dry spell #i mean like #nomura your close to 50 brah #just saying #i don't want to hold kh4 in my hands #another ten years knowing your 60...just saying #i already have slight anxiety over the author of an ice and fire never finishing because of old age...

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edh-a-to-z · 6 years

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Budget EDH - Tajic, Blade of the Legion

Check it out here: (deck link)

Hail planeswalker!

I had been working on a deck tech for Angus Mackenzie (the next in my series of alphabetical commanders, coming soon!) when I realized something.

It’s crazy prices - Angus alone is over 150. Crazy expensive manabase (for maximum effectiveness), and basically pricey overall.

So, I wanna see if I can make a deck out of spare parts. Spare parts and under $50 dollars. So, here we go!

Tajic is a straightforward commander - get some dudes on the board, smash in.

We need Voltron parts, Tokens to go wide (plus go-wide support), some utility cards, and a cheap mana base. Let’s get to it!

Voltron

Our plan is to get Tajic out, soup him up, and lay waste.

We want evasion, haste, and damage. Luckily, Tajic is indestructible, which makes him much stickier - we can get away with leaving him around.

We want Tajic to swing through without problems, so that means unblockable on trample, and we need to pile on the damage (we also want him swinging at +5/+5, but that’s a token problem).

For unblockability, we need Spectra Ward. Protection from all colors is functionally unblockable. Hot Soup doesn’t have a downside for us, Whispersilk Cloak is great, and Rogue’s Passage are great and cheap.

Inquisitor’s Flail has no downside and doubles it’s equipped creatures damage, and Sword of Vengeance gives us a boatload of buffs. Relic Seeker is a cheap option to fetch us equipment, and Thalia’s Lancers can fetch us any legendary including Tenza, Godo’s Maul which works great with Tajic.

Open the Armory and Godo, Bandit Warlord are cheap tutors.

Tokens

Captain of the Watch; by Greg Staples

Sunhome Guildmage can pop out hastey tokens and buff the team. Captain of the Watch is one of my pet cards, as she’s a one-man army and buff. Myr Battlesphere can bring an army and clear blockers, Trading Post gives you options and very scary 0/1 goats (that can attack!), Chancellor of the Forge is a fatty with tokens, Darien King of Kjeldor just went down in price. Conqueror's Pledge, Nomad’s Assembly, and Increasing Devotion are one-card armies

Paying to make tokens with Master Trinketeer, Oketra the True, and Drogskol Cavalry are also options.

There’s also some options for tokens not involving creatures. Assemble the Legion, Mobilization are great.

Utility

Cast Out, Banishing Light and Oblivion Ring are some great removal options.

While we wanna avoid board sweepers, as we’re so devoted to the board, we wanna try out a few - it’s not like Tajic will die! While OG Wrath is over budget, we can consider Rout and Sublime Exhalation. Solid choices both, and both budget.

Rapid fire:

Draw from Staff of Nin, Mentor of the Meek, Magus of the Wheel and Skullclamp is a must.

Firemane Angel and Frontline Medic are great Battalion creatures.

Forsake the Worldly, Oblation, Swords to Plowshares, Condemn, Darksteel Mutation, Duergar Hedge-Mage,

Marshal’s Anthem and Cathar’s Crusade are THE anthems.

Adriana Captain of the Guard wants you to hit everyone, and Nobilis of War and Veteran Swordsmith make sure your tokens hit hard. Bring in Phantom General and Intangible Virtue as well.

On the defense, use Pariah on Tajic (he can take it!), and Plea For Guidance to get that (and any other) enchantments.

Chandra, Flamecaller nets you cards and can spam out creatures.

Stonecloaker, Sun Titan, Archon of Justice, Boros Guildmage, Twilight Shepherd, Hellkite Charger and Hoard-Smelter Dragon I didn’t feel like sorting. But they’re fun.

Mana Base

This is gonna be interesting.

Take a look at all those dual lands. Rugged Prarie, Sacred Foundry, Plateau. Look at them and weep.

We’re a guildgate kinda deck.

Start with 15 Mountains and 15 Plains. Plus Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse. Then Needle Spires, Boros Guildgate and Garrison, Wind-Scarred Crag, Slayer’s Stronghold also help. Add some cycling lands and cheap utility lands as you see fit.

On the manarock side of things, we use Boros Keyrune and Cluestone, Darksteel Ingot, Commander’s Sphere and Mindstone for some light ramping.

After Building the Deck

We want Tajic, our commander, to hit the ground turn 4, and by turn 5 be a swinging 7/7. With some help, he should be able to kill another player with commander damage in 2-3 good swings. We also need him activated. If that means we swing in with a 0/1 Goat and a 1/1 Solider, do it. Make tokens often and fast - swarming is our backup plans. Don’t worry about board wipes, we have so many bodies on the field it’s easy to come back.

Bargain with your opponents - especially one’s in White or Black who can exile or -X/-X Tajic. Our only real fear is that, or Pacifism.

Diplomacy is quick and hard in EDH, and time your attacks to kill someone with another’s help.

Once you go a couple rounds with this deck, take it apart and analyze what works for you. Add some better cards from your collection, or experiment with some bulk you have.

Tajic, Blade of the Legion; by James Ryman

So, there you have it. Under 50 bucks. Uses a lot of EDH staples that can be used later, and can easily be upgraded to a more token based strategy, or a better equipment package.

Well campers, that was fun. If you want me to feature another budget commander, let me know! Questions, comments, ideas, hit me with it, I’m always looking for stuff in my inbox!

#mtg #edh #edhatoz #commander #tajic blade of the legion #atoz commander #budget commander #budget edhatoz #budget edh

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cj-jacobs · 6 years

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The Sex Elf

(Bechloe one-shot, 10k words)

Merry Pitchmas, awesome nerds! I didn’t do the official Secret Santa thing because I was so paranoid I wouldn’t get this done in time and didn’t want to disappoint anyone, but I’d like to gift it to the Bechloe fandom in general, and most especially as a surprise gift to @annakendrick4ever , because she’s been so supportive of my fics and is just an all-around sweetheart. I hope everyone who celebrates Christmas had a great holiday!

Not for the first time tonight, Beca finds herself wondering if it’s wrong to be this horny on Christmas Eve.

Because it feels wrong. Dirty, somehow. Not seasonally appropriate. After all, Christmas is supposed to be about wholesome, childlike, non-sexual things. Family things.

But then, the whole notion of family is precisely what’s put her into this situation, Beca muses, as she clumsily wields a screwdriver in an attempt to secure the wheel onto a doll stroller intended for her four-year-old daughter. Family, and the fact that in approximately five months theirs - hers and Chloe’s - is set to expand by two. And, most crucially, the fact that she’s the one carrying those two, and thus the one dealing with all the crazy, out of control hormones that pregnancy has brought in its wake.

For the ninth or tenth time in the past fifteen minutes, Beca finds her gaze drawn against her will to the other side of the master bedroom, where Chloe is wrapping presents, using their king size bed as her table. She’s got all her materials laid out on it; shopping bags full of gifts, ribbons, bows, tags, scissors and tape, boxes, and half a dozen rolls of wrapping paper, chosen specifically for color variety. But it’s not the paper or the presents that are drawing Beca’s attention, it’s Chloe herself. From here, Beca can only see her from the back. She’s dressed in a dark green romper printed with tiny red and white candy canes. In addition to this, she’s sporting fuzzy Christmas socks, dangly snowflake earrings, and a headband with a pair of perky cloth reindeer antlers. The fact that in spite of this ridiculous ensemble, Beca finds herself gazing at her lustfully says a lot about the current state of her libido.

Because no matter how hard she tries, her mind keeps sliding right back to sex. Her entire body is suffused with a kind of sensual energy like nothing she’s ever felt before, and it’s never satisfied for long. The fact that she’s already partaken of some afternoon delight today means nothing, because that was hours and hours ago, and these days the urges cycle back around continuously, with no let-up, multiple times every day.

Idly, she finds herself wondering, Is this what Stacie feels like all the time? Is that why she-

No. Picturing Stacie’s sex life is not going to help. Dolls. Strollers. Christmas. Wholesome family things. That’s what she needs to be thinking about. Focus, she commands herself.

“How’s it goin’ over there, Mrs. Claus?” Chloe calls to her, as if sensing her distraction.

Beca surveys her work. “You know, I’m pretty sure the only reason my mom sent an unassembled toy is because the thought of me doing this in the middle of the night was hilarious to her.”

Chloe smiles. “Or,” she suggests tolerantly, “maybe it’s because that kind is cheaper, and that’s all she could afford.”

“Nah,” Beca rejects this idea. “This is payback, for all the Christmas Eves she didn’t get any sleep. See, every year she tried to get us to celebrate Hanukkah instead, and we never would take the bait. I’m telling you, this is a revenge gift. She is one sadistic woman.”

Laughing a little, Chloe reflects after a few seconds, “I think it’s just, like, a law of parenting, though, right? That we have to spend at least one Christmas Eve trying to assemble a toy?”

“Maybe. Except we aren’t assembling it. I am.”

“Hey. I’m busy over here, too,” she chides her.

Indeed she is. Beca finds herself trying and failing once again not to look as Chloe bends over the bed to cut another segment of wrapping paper, the tightness of the romper clinging to and perfectly accentuating her curves. Beca watches as she runs a pair of scissors down the middle of a sheet of glittery silver paper in a straight line. Normally this sound is one that for no particular reason grates on her nerves, like fingernails on a chalkboard. But tonight it sounds almost lewd. At the moment everything seems specifically designed to work on her hormones, not her nerves.

The funny thing is, she’d never wanted to be pregnant. In fact, until just a few months ago, she would have been adamant that it was the one life experience above all others she was determined never to go through. But then she’d changed her mind. She’s still not entirely sure why.

Because after Violet, she and Chloe had basically accepted that they’d never have another one. The pregnancy had been difficult; Chloe was sick a lot in the beginning, then the end had come abruptly, six weeks early, and Beca had spent a harrowing few days at the hospital with a premature baby and an unconscious wife, wondering if her life as she knew it was about to end. By some miracle, everything had turned out fine. Fine, that is, except for one small thing. Chloe had been warned by her doctor that another pregnancy wouldn’t be a good idea. At the time, it had seemed like a small price to pay.

But yet, here they are. Expecting not just one, but - in the most shocking news of their lives - two more.

And to everyone’s surprise, no one’s more than her own, Beca has found that pregnancy agrees with her. Not only has she not been sick, not even once, and not only is she possessed of more energy and a better mood than usual, but her sex drive has shot through the roof. Actually, one might even say it’s starting to be a bit of a problem. Needing sex so many times a day has its downsides. It’s convenient that her studio is located here on the property, which means it’s easy to duck in for a brief tryst, but having a four-year-old who’s not yet in school makes things more complicated. Violet’s three mornings a week at daycare and her daily two p.m. naptime have become blessed interludes of carnal indulgence.

Beca finds her thoughts wandering back to this afternoon’s session, her body remembering just how it had felt to be pinned under Chloe and clinging to the headboard as she…. No. That’s not going to help either. Shaking her head a little to clear the lust fog, she forces herself to focus on the damn doll stroller. It takes every ounce of her concentration to make sense out of instructions like Squeeze the metal bracket on the wheel to open it, slip the wheel onto the end of the rod, and release the bracket. She’s not even one hundred percent positive she knows what the hell a bracket is, and the words squeeze and slip look like porn in her current state of mind. But she’s doing her best.

Finally, the last wheel seems to be locked into place. “Okay. Moment of truth.” She practically holds her breath as she gives the pink stroller an experimental push forward, then pulls it back, making sure it rolls properly. “I think it’s finished. Thank God.”

“No pieces left over?” Chloe asks.

Beca looks into the box. There are approximately nine pieces left over. “Nope.” She strategically covers them with the instruction sheets. “We’re good.”

Wincing as her stiff muscles protest, she pulls herself up from the floor. “But, um, just to be on the safe side, let’s make sure we never put an actual baby in this thing.”

Chloe has also paused briefly in her assembly-line gift wrapping. She’s sipping from a glass of red wine, looking at the bed as if measuring how much is left to do. Beca approaches behind her and presses herself up against her back, wrapping her arms around her. Chloe sighs a little and leans back into her, bringing her free hand up to squeeze Beca’s arm.

Though her stomach is only just beginning to pop out, the roundness subtle enough that if she wears a baggy shirt it’s not even that noticeable, standing like this, Beca can feel the difference. Odd to think that in another few months, she won’t be able to stand like this at all. She presses herself even tighter against Chloe, to take advantage of it while she can. Nuzzling up into the spot just behind her ear, she murmurs, “Have I ever told you how sexy you look in those reindeer antlers?”

“What reindeer antlers?” Then Chloe gasps, her mouth forming an O of surprise. She suddenly reaches up and yanks the felt antlers from her head. “Oh my God, I forgot I had these on!”

Beca gives a loud laugh. “Seriously?”

“How long have I been wearing these?”

“Like, all day.”

She marvels at the antlers, amazed. “No wonder the Fed Ex guy was giving me such a weird look.” She tosses them aside, jokingly accusatory. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought you knew. It’s not like it’s the strangest thing you’ve ever done on Christmas Eve. Remember the year you put jingle bells in your bra?”

Chloe giggles a little at the memory as she takes another sip of wine. “That was a good Christmas.”

With her arms still wrapped around her from behind, and using the subject as an opportunity, Beca now unfastens the top few buttons of the romper and slips a hand in, wondering, “Anything in there this year? Oh, wow. Not even a bra.”

“I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not gonna work,” Chloe informs her with a grin, although she leans back against Beca and makes no move to stop her.

“I’m trying to feel you up. And, I think it already did work.”

“You know what I mean. I’m not gonna let you distract me. Not tonight.”

“Can’t you take a break? I need you,” Beca whines, trying to make it sound like joke begging instead of actual begging, which it is.

“Babe, look at the time. Santa’s on the clock, here.”

Beca glances at the digital clock next to the bed, shocked to see that it’s almost three in the morning. “We shouldn’t have waited until the last minute to do all this,” she mutters petulantly against Chloe’s shoulder.

“I know, but everything’s been so crazy. And a lot of my spare time lately has been taken up by someone demanding sex.”

“Really?” Beca asks. “Who?”

“That would be the person whose hand is currently in my shirt.”

“Oh, her.”

“Yes, her. And she’s not gonna be too happy about this, but I have to get back to work now,” Chloe sets her wineglass aside on the trunk at the foot of the bed and delicately removes the hand from her shirt, over Beca’s sad-sounding protests. As if to compensate her for the loss, Chloe turns to kiss her.

Sensing her opportunity, Beca tries to make the most of the kiss, but she’s distracted by another, non-sexual craving.

“Mmm, I can taste the wine on your mouth,” she murmurs against Chloe’s lips.

Chloe seems bemused. “You don’t even like wine.”

“No, but I like alcohol. And I miss it.” She pulls her back in for another deep kiss. She can feel Chloe actively trying to resist letting things heat up beyond a certain level, but at the same time Chloe is such a good kisser that it’s hard for her to fight her natural instincts. Beca tries to take advantage of her internal battle, using her tongue in a precise and practiced way that draws Chloe into being the aggressor. It works for a few seconds, but then Chloe seems to realize what she’s doing, and she uses all her willpower to pull back and break the kiss.

“Really?” Beca asks.

“Really.” Then Chloe cups Beca’s face in her hands, briefly leaning forward and pressing their foreheads together. “But maybe later, okay?”

Beca sighs, apparently giving in.

But just then Chloe jumps a little, turning to glance behind her and down toward her ass. “What was that? Did you just pinch me?”

“What? No. Why would I- ?” Beca makes a face of exaggerated innocence. Then she seems to think of something. “But, oh, you know what I bet it was? I bet it was the sex elf.”

Chloe tilts her head. “The what, now?”

“You’ve… never heard of the sex elf? For real? That’s insane. I thought everyone knew about this.”

Crossing her arms, Chloe plays along, waiting for her to explain.

“The sex elf is that little creature that goes around on Christmas Eve, pinching people. And when you get pinched, you become overwhelmingly aroused. And you have to get laid, like, right then. You have no choice.”

“Really. This is fascinating.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t know about this.”

Chloe narrows her eyes in mock seriousness. “Are you sure that’s not leprechauns you’re thinking of?”

“What? No.” Beca makes a disgusted face. “Gross. Leprechauns are, like, ugly little Irish dudes. Who care way too much about the color green. The sex elf is hot. And, frankly, she prefers it if you’re not wearing anything.”

“Oh, so the sex elf is female?”

“Well,” Beca shrugs. “Yeah. Obviously.”

“Obviously,” Chloe agrees. She smiles and then leans forward for one more light kiss, getting Beca’s hopes up. “Well, it was really sweet of her to pay us a visit. It’s too bad she couldn’t have stuck around to help with some of this.” She gestures at the gift-wrapping mess.

“Yeah.” Beca grimaces. “I think she’s really just… more about the sex?”

Chloe nods, amused, but then looks regretful. “Beca?”

Beca waits, giving her an expectant, somewhat pleading look.

“It’s not gonna happen,” Chloe whispers, dashing all her hopes.

Momentarily accepting defeat, Beca sighs heavily and drops onto the bed, stretching out directly on top of Chloe’s present-wrapping workshop. “Fine,” she sulks.

“But, you know, if you’re bored, you could help me finish this up,” Chloe suggests.

“Uuhhh,” she moans. “You know I hate wrapping presents, dude. I’m carrying your children! Isn’t that enough?”

“Oh my God,” Chloe laughs at her. “Enjoy that excuse while it lasts.” But she doesn’t insist.

Beca tries to relax and coerce her body into a zone of patience, but now that she’s actually lying on the bed, the urge to touch herself is nearly overpowering. It hasn’t been this strong since she was sixteen and puberty finally slammed into her with the finesse of a car crash. She sits up again, crossing her arms and tucking her hands away to keep them out of trouble. Not that Chloe would mind. But she has a feeling that trying to get herself off while her wife ignores her and wraps presents for a four-year-old would be not so much sexy as pathetic.

Instead, she watches Chloe work, pondering the absurdity of being awake in the middle of the night wrapping gifts in paper that’s going to be torn off and thrown away in less than six hours. Being a parent is strange. But it’s pointless to question it.

Chloe has her own distinctive manner of wrapping presents, a way of folding the paper which is like nothing Beca has ever seen any human being do before. Somehow, the packages always end up looking great. But like so much else that she does, Chloe goes about it using a bizarre method she seems to have invented on her own, as if no one ever taught her the normal way to do it. Momentarily distracted from her lust, Beca finds herself watching with amused fascination as she finishes taping up the paper on one gift, then with a flourish adds a stick-on bow - not in the center, but in one corner.

Shaking her head with a fond smile, Beca mutters, “You’re so weird.”

Turning to set the package on a pile of already-wrapped boxes in a chair beside the bed, Chloe lets out a breath of relief. “There.”

Beca perks up, hopeful. “That’s it? You’re done?”

“Well, I’m not done done. I’m done with the big stuff. There’s still all the stocking stuffers.” She lifts a plastic bag from the floor near the side of the bed and turns it upside down over the comforter. Approximately thirty small items tumble out.

“What?” Beca looks at her like she’s crazy. “You’re not gonna wrap all those, are you?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Chlo, they’re stocking stuffers. The stocking is the wrapping. That’s the whole point.”

Chloe shakes her head. “No, because then when she dumps it out, she’ll be able to see all of it at once. Where’s the surprise, where’s the anticipation? I want her to have to open each one, individually.”

“Oh my God, that’s-” Beca digs her fingers into her own hair and vigorously shakes her head, making a clenched-teeth sound like “Mrrrmmm.” It’s the sound she makes when she’s trying to keep herself from saying something she’ll regret. After restraining her worst impulses, she drops her hands and settles for, “You know that’s gonna take forever, right?”

“I don’t care how long it takes,” Chloe says stubbornly. “We’ve got all day.”

Beca lifts one of the items from the pile. “You’re gonna wrap these socks?”

“Mm-hm.”

She picks up another item. “This roll of Sweetarts?”

Chloe nods. “Yep.”

“You’re gonna wrap this lip balm. This one, individual tube of lip balm.”

“That’s right,” Chloe confirms, and because there’s a slight edge to her tone now, Beca decides she should probably back off. She carefully sets the lip balm back onto the pile, suppressing an eye roll like a good girl.

While Chloe starts in on the stocking stuffers, Beca reaches over and grabs her phone off the nightstand to check her messages. There’s a handful of Merry Christmas texts from the Bellas, nothing out of the ordinary. The one from Aubrey, however, makes Beca narrow her eyes in suspicion. It reads Merry Christmas Beca! Hope this one leaves you satisfied ;) ;)

Setting the phone back on the nightstand, she ponders the meaning of this for a few seconds.

“Hey,” she says casually. “You didn’t tell Aubrey about my whole… horniness… issue, did you?”

“Of course not.” But Chloe doesn’t look at her.

“Because I just got a weird text from her. And, now that I’m thinking about it, I’m pretty sure I overheard you on the phone earlier saying something about a… what were the words? Crazy little sex fiend.”

Chloe shakes her head slightly and frowns, but still doesn’t glance up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Beca studies her face for a few seconds, taking note of how hard she’s now trying not to laugh, and the continued lack of eye contact. “You did!” she suddenly gasps, letting her mouth fall open in pretend shock. “Dude, you told her?!”

“Beca,” Chloe protests, finally looking up at her. “Come on. Aubrey’s my best friend. I tell her everything!”

“About our love life?”

“It’s not like she’s gonna judge you. She’s been pregnant before, she knows about the hormones.”

“Okay, wow.” Beca plays up her mock outrage, a hand on her heart. “I can not believe that you would betray the sanctity of our marriage like that. Honestly? There’s only one way that you could ever make this up to me.”

“Hmm,” Chloe muses, snipping off a length of ribbon. “And what way would that be?”

“I’ll give you a hint,” Beca tells her. “It involves you taking off your clothes. Right now.”

Attempting to tie the ribbon around one of the stocking stuffers, Chloe responds only with a slightly pitying look.

“No? Damn it,” Beca mutters. “I thought the guilt trip was the way to go.” She thinks for a few seconds, trying to come up with a more effective angle. Then she suddenly asks, “Is it just me, or is it really hot in here?” As she says these words she slowly pulls off her shirt, leaving her in nothing but a pair of sweatpants and a lacy black bra.

“Nope.” Pressing her lips together to try to stifle a smile, Chloe shakes her head and concentrates on her battle with the ribbon. “I’m ignoring you.”

“Really? You can ignore this?” Beca cups her own breasts and pushes them together and up, trying to create some amplified cleavage.

As if to prove her right, Chloe glances up at her, again trying not to laugh.“Why are you wearing one of your sexy bras under your pajamas?”

“Because a girl needs to be prepared. Especially when her wife is resisting her seduction attempts.”

“Oh, is that what this is?” Chloe teases her. “A seduction? See, I didn’t get that.”

“Well, now you know.”

She snips out a small rectangle of paper, just big enough to wrap a toothbrush in. “You know what this is, Beca?” she says reflectively, pointing at her with the scissors. “It’s karma. For all those years I tried to get into your pants in college, and you wouldn’t let me.”

Beca widens her eyes with pretend dismay. “That is so twisted! For most of that time, I didn’t even think you were serious, I thought you were just messing with me.” She’s quiet for a second, as if considering how much she wants to reveal. A little awkwardly, she admits, “It’s not like I never thought about it. I had some pretty inappropriate dreams over the years.”

“Really?” Chloe looks intrigued. “You never told me that.”

Pursing her lips, Beca nods. After a pause, she adds, “First one was after the shower thing.”

“What? That was only the second time we met! Even I didn’t have a sex dream that early.”

“Yep. What can I say?” Beca shrugs. “Guess my dream self is kind of a slut.” She considers. “And, now, apparently, so is my awake self. Which could end at any time. So…” she holds her arms and gives a little shimmy of invitation, “you might want to get on this, while it lasts.”

“Well, that is hard to resist, when you put it so romantically.”

“Right?”

“But I think I’m still gonna have to finish these presents.”

Beca gives a dramatic groan at yet another failure. “You are killing me, lady.”

After another few minutes of watching her, Beca decides to try some props. She picks up a long tubular roll of wrapping paper and holds it so that it springs up from between her legs. “What about this? Does this do anything for ya?”

Chloe looks over at her, teasing, “If it did, it would be bad news for you.” She reaches out and snatches away the roll of paper. “Give me that, I need it.”

As it’s yanked away Beca hisses sharply and stares down at her left hand. “You bitch. You gave me a papercut!”

“Aww. Poor baby.” But she doesn’t sound particularly sympathetic.

“Ow.” Beca stares down at the shallow cut between her fingers, musing, “Why is this making me even more turned on? Am I into this? Maybe this is my kink.” She looks up at Chloe and asks in a flirtatious tone, “You want to give me another one?”

“Don’t tempt me,” she smiles, picking up her wine glass and draining what’s left of it, as though dealing with Beca’s current mood requires all the alcohol available. “Although…” she says after a few seconds, biting her bottom lip as an idea occurs to her. She sets the empty wine glass aside. “Speaking of kinks.” Now she bends forward over the bed, balancing herself with one hand on the mattress, her face coming tantalizingly close to Beca’s. She lets her voice drop into a breathy, lascivious register. “You know what would make me really, really hot right now?”

Beca watches nearly hypnotized as she approaches, staring first at her eyes and then at her mouth, only inches away. She tries to say the word “what?” but isn’t quite sure it comes out.

“The sight of you, in this bra…” Chloe coos seductively, actually running her fingertip down the bra strap and then along the edge of one of the cups as Beca follows its progress with rapt attention. Chloe pauses for dramatic effect, waiting until Beca looks up at her again, then concludes in a whisper, “Wrapping some of these stocking stuffers.” Then she leans back and straightens up, punctuating the performance with a quick wink.

“Hm.” This is the only response Beca can immediately manage as she tries to remember how to breathe. After seeming to consider the proposition, she says doubtfully, “See, I feel like that’s not one hundred percent true? I feel like I might be getting used, here.”

“Well,” Chloe tosses her a roll of tape, “guess there’s only one way to find out.”

Realizing there’s no point in continuing to fight it, Beca decides to give in and help. Even if it doesn’t actually make Chloe hot, it’ll at least mean they’ll be finished with everything sooner, which will still, hopefully, bring her closer to sex. It’s a no-brainer. So they divide the pile of remaining items up and get to work.

Wrapping things that aren’t in boxes turns out to be easier and more fun than Beca would have predicted, since it’s okay if it looks messy and there’s almost no way to get it wrong. Eventually, Chloe gets tired of standing and climbs onto the bed, sitting across from her. They trade the tape and scissors back and forth, losing them both every few minutes under the growing drift of wrapping paper scraps covering the bed.

At one point Beca seems overly amused with herself, and Chloe looks over to find her wrapping Scotch tape around the paper covering a plastic My Little Pony toy, over and over and over again, essentially mummifying the poor pony.

“What are you doing?” Chloe giggles.

“You wanted the anticipation factor. Let’s see how long it takes her to open this one.”

The piles of gifts keep diminishing until finally, finally, the very last box of sidewalk chalk is wrapped and added to the bag of finished items, ready to be crammed into the jumbo-sized stocking waiting downstairs.

Beca hardly dares to believe her own senses. “So, that’s it then? We’re done. With everything.”

Chloe looks around, considering. “What about the doll stroller?”

“Okay, we are not wrapping that,” Beca says firmly. “I’ll throw a sheet over it or something.”

“Then… yeah.” She looks back at Beca. “I guess that’s it.”

Trying and not succeeding very well at keeping her eyes from gleaming with pure lust as she stares at her, Beca offers, “Sooo, do you need like a bathroom break, or…?”

Chloe seems amused by this. “No, I’m good. I- “

But before she can complete this thought, Beca has pounced on her, with a kiss so forceful and bruising that both their mouths will probably be sore tomorrow. But she’s past caring. She pushes her back toward the middle of the bed, angling for the pillows, the wrapping paper crackling loudly underneath them. Chloe squeals in laughter, breaking the kiss to say, “Let me clear the bed off first!”

“Nope, it’s fine,” Beca gasps. “Leave it. We can knock this out in, like, five minutes.”

“God, that’s so sexy,” Chloe breathes against her ear. “Tell me again how fast you can be, it’s such a turn-on.”

“Shut up,” Beca laughs.

With Chloe now up against the pillows at the top of the bed, Beca climbs onto her lap, straddling her, almost undone by the instantaneous pleasure of even the light friction of this much contact. Oh God Oh God Oh God. She hasn’t even progressed as far as taking her sweatpants off yet, but even through the fabric the welcome pressure of Chloe’s body has her eyes rolling back in her head. In the past this would have been barely enough to register on her, but she’s so excruciatingly sensitive that any touch at all is already like a mini-orgasm. Immediately she begins rocking against Chloe in slow waves, trying to keep her movements sensual instead of desperate.

At the same time, she unbuttons the front of Chloe’s romper for the second time tonight and peels it off her shoulders, ducking down to return to the bare skin with her lips. She feels Chloe’s expected shiver as she tilts her head back to allow Beca easier access. Her collarbone is her secret erogenous zone, in the same way Beca’s ears are hers. It’s a surefire way to kick her passion up a few notches. As she kisses down the ridge of her shoulder and then along the top of her chest, she feels Chloe’s fingers working at the bra strap on her back. Without too much effort she unhooks it and Beca shrugs it off.

She continues working her way along Chloe’s collarbone and then back up her neck on the other side, but the fact that her breasts are now free is making her antsy, and she straightens her spine and lifts herself higher against Chloe’s body to put them nearer her mouth, hoping she gets the hint. She does.

The sensation of Chloe’s tongue tracing circles over one breast, followed not too long afterward by the enveloping warmth of her mouth clamping down on the other one sends a surge of heat blooming upwards from between Beca’s legs, and her thighs lock around Chloe’s hips in a preliminary spasm of pleasure. This in turn causes Chloe to press up against her and then to nip at her with her teeth, a feedback loop that jolts Beca with an even sharper stab of ecstasy and an increased frenzy to her writhing.

Suddenly she realizes that she’s too close. Way too close, for this early in the game. To try to slow herself down, she grasps Chloe’s head in her hands and physically pulls it up and away from her chest, signaling that she wants to kiss her. Chloe looks a little surprised, since Beca isn’t normally the type to want to go back to the preliminaries, after they’ve already gotten down to more serious business. But she happily obliges, sliding her hands up Beca’s bare back and pulling her even closer as she angles her head up and into the kiss.

As Chloe has gradually shifted further back into the pillows, Beca has worked herself lower down her body, and now Chloe’s pelvic bone is positioned directly between her legs, up against the precise spot that’s been begging for attention for hours. Still, this shouldn’t be enough contact, she knows it shouldn’t. And yet her lower body is behaving as if it is, almost as if it has a mind of its own, her squirming becoming more deliberately rhythmic, her hips rotating with purpose while her kisses gradually lose focus and then break off completely as her breathing grows more ragged.

Because it’s happening. All of a sudden she knows it’s happening, and either she can slam on the brakes completely or she can help it along and make sure it’s as satisfying as possible. She’s already past the point of no return. No sense in wasting it. So instead of fighting it she doubles down shamelessly, using every ounce of her strength to grind herself against Chloe’s lap, while Chloe assists her along by pushing herself up against her while simultaneously tugging downward on Beca’s hips.

Then she shudders and her back bows into a taut arc, her head practically upside down, and if Chloe wasn’t hanging onto her around the waist she would definitely fall over backwards. She hangs there suspended, waiting for it to spasm itself out. Every day the orgasms seem to be getting bigger, somehow. They’re more powerful, they take up more space inside her, and they last longer than she would have once thought possible. The bliss that floods through her now is so piercing that it brings actual tears to her eyes, and she has to make an effort to keep from screaming. Instead she makes a noise that probably sounds more like pain than pleasure, but it’s the most restrained she can manage.

Finally, feeling shaky and a bit lightheaded, still breathing hard, she steadies herself and rises back to vertical. The force of her grinding has pushed Chloe all the way back into a nearly reclining position, with Beca still straddling her midsection. Taking in gulps of air, mortification gradually settling in with the slowing of her pulse, Beca now looks down at her beautiful wife, at her messy hair splayed around her on the pillows, one strand caught in a snowflake earring, her lips swollen from the force of their brief but intense make-out session.

Chloe stares up at Beca, her eyes sparkling with mirth, stunned but also a little impressed. “Was that- ?”

Beca now covers her face with her hands as she realizes exactly what she just did. “Yep,” she confirms in a small voice.

“Wow. You weren’t kidding. That was fast.”

Beca only winces and shakes her head a little, hands still covering her face.

Chloe is enjoying this way too much. “I didn’t even touch you yet.”

“I know.”

“You’re still wearing your pants.”

“Oh my God, I know. Stop talking about it.”

Chloe giggles and pulls her down, and Beca allows herself to fall against her, laughing into the side of her neck, glad to hide her burning face.

“Jesus,” she whispers. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Chloe tells her, stroking her back. “It’s sort of flattering, in a… weird way. Also kinda hot,” she admits.

Beca takes a deep, shuddering breath, releasing it and feeling most of the tension drain out of her body as her pulse finally slows down. “I really needed that.”

“I shouldn’t have made you wait so long.” Chloe’s still rubbing slow circles on her back. “You need some time to recover, before the second half?”

She hesitates, but then accepts the offer. “Maybe just a few minutes.” Shifting off Chloe and onto her side, they lie facing each other, separated by only a few feet.

“Your face is all red,” Chloe smiles. She places the back of her hand against Beca’s cheek, as if checking for fever.

“That’s the color of shame,” Beca informs her, only half joking. She likewise reaches over and carefully extracts the hair that’s tangled in Chloe’s earring, then strokes it to smooth it out.

Inching closer to her across the pillow, Chloe nuzzles into a slow, lazy kiss. For a long while she seems content to keep it at this level, as if they have all the time in the world, and from the way she’s seeking out cuddles even in the midst of what’s supposed to be sex, Beca senses that she’s not in any big hurry, physically. Waiting for her energy reserves to return, she finds herself drifting into a kind of dreamy, hazy post-orgasm euphoria as they continue making out like teenagers. Beca’s fine with letting her set the pace, she just hopes she doesn’t fall asleep before Chloe decides she’s ready to kick it into high gear.

But suddenly Chloe stiffens and raises her head, like she’s listening.

“What?” Beca asks drowsily.

“I thought I heard something. In the hallway.”

“Maybe it’s Santa. Maybe he wants to watch, that old perv.”

Chloe gives her a distracted smile.

“That didn’t turn you on, did it?”

“Beca, shh. I’m serious, I hear something.”

Beca raises her head to listen as well, and confirmation shortly follows; there’s what sounds like a faint, feeble knock at the door, almost more like a scratch than a knock. Maybe one of the cats, Beca hopes. Please let it be one of the cats.

But then they hear just outside their door the one sound that no parent ever wants to hear in the middle of the night, especially while attempting to do what they’re attempting to do.

“Mommy?”

They stare at each other.

“What the hell?” Beca hisses. “Why is she awake?” Suddenly paranoid, she asks, “I wasn’t that loud, was I?”

“No,” Chloe assures her. “Maybe she’s sick.” In a loud, upbeat voice, she calls, “Just a second, sweetheart!”

Beca sits up and searches for her shirt under all the wrapping paper on the bed, then yanks it back on, not bothering with the bra. She starts toward the door but then suddenly remembers they have a bigger problem than just incomplete sex.

“Shit, the presents,” she whispers. “What do we do?”

“Um,” Chloe casts around for a solution. “Blankets!”

As fast as they can, they tug the comforter from the bed and cover the piles of presents on the floor. Beca grabs a knitted afghan to drape over the stack of gifts in the armchair in the corner, while Chloe snatches a spare sheet from a nearby laundry basket, tossing it over the doll stroller.

“Hold on, we’re almost there!” she calls again, trying to sound normal. She looks around, asking Beca, “Is everything covered?”

Beca smirks. “Not quite everything.”

Chloe looks down at where Beca’s gesturing, realizing that she’s still topless. “Oh.” She laughs and yanks the romper back up onto her arms, and is just finishing the last button when Beca reaches the door.

Checking to make sure Chloe is ready, she pauses, then swings it open.

On the other side, waiting in the hallway, they’re confronted with the face of tragedy. Violet stands there in her brand new blue and white snowman-printed Christmas pajamas, the one gift she’d been allowed to open tonight before bed, but the expression on her face is anything but festive. She looks wretched.

“Sweetie.” Chloe’s voice is drenched in pre-emptive sympathy. “What happened?”

“Did you puke?” Beca asks, getting right to the point.

Shell-shocked, Violet stares into the middle distance as if she’s barely aware of their presence. In a quiet tone of disbelief, she says, “He didn’t come here.”

“What?” They look at each other, uncomprehending.

Repeating herself, Violet emphasizes each word for the benefit of their challenged adult brains. “He. Didn’t. Come. To. Our. House.”

“Who didn’t?” Beca demands.

Violet finally looks up at her, her mouth a tiny O of surprise, flabbergasted that her mother could be so stupid. “Santa Claus!”

“Wait, did you go downstairs?” Chloe looks dismayed. “It’s not even morning yet.”

Ignoring this question, Violet shakes her head and walks a few paces into the room, then spins around and comes back, then repeats the process, wringing her tiny hands and looking distraught.

“Uh-oh,” Beca mutters. “She’s pacing. Where have I seen this before?”

“Violet, oh my God, this is just a misunderstanding, please don’t freak out,” Chloe begs her.

Without seeming to hear her, Violet continues her pacing. “I can’t believe this!” she rants. “This is the worst Christmas of my life!”

“Oh, man,” Beca winces. “Out of all four?”

“Beca.” Chloe shoots her a warning look. Then she takes Violet by the shoulders and gently guides her over to the trunk at the foot of their bed. “Honey, come over here, and listen to me for a minute.” She sits down and pulls Violet up to sit next to her, telling her, “Santa Claus is going to be here, I promise. It’s still early, there’s plenty of time.”

“No. He’s not coming. And I know why. It’s because I did something bad.” She’s really playing up the melodrama, sticking out her bottom lip in a pout that she must have learned from a sitcom kid.

“What? No, you didn’t,” Chloe tries to comfort her. “You’ve been really good this year.”

“I wasn’t good yesterday.” Violet looks at her, saying pointedly, “You don’t know, Mommy.”

“Ohhh.” Now Chloe’s catching on. “I see.”

Beca approaches, lowering herself to the edge of the bed a few feet from Chloe. Trying to sound as if she’s taking this seriously, she offers, “Is there something you want to tell us?”

It takes only a few seconds for Violet to decide that she does want to tell them, since she’s obviously suffering from a guilty conscience. “Okay.” She hops down from the wooden chest and comes to stand in front of them both, then takes a deep breath. “Yesterday…” she stares mournfully at her socks, looking for all the world like she’s about to deliver a eulogy. “I peed in the plant.”

Chloe and Beca glance at each other, baffled.

“What plant?” Beca asks.

Violet sighs, miserable but determined to press forward with her confession now that she’s started. “The big one. In the living room. With the red flowers.”

“My poinsettia plant?” Chloe asks, her voice strained as if she’s already trying to hold back laughter.

“In the dirt,” Violet specifies. “Not the flower part.”

“Oh.” Chloe nods slowly, but then clamps a hand over her own mouth.

“Because the Grinch was on,” Violet adds, warming to her narrative now. “And I had to go real bad. But I didn’t want to miss it, so I didn’t go yet. But then I couldn’t wait any more. So I went in the plant.”

Pressing her lips together hard, Beca glances once at Chloe and then looks quickly away before they make eye contact, certain that then they’d really lose it. Because they both know that their daughter is sensitive about being laughed at, it would be a bad idea. But this is one of those times when it’s practically torture to fight it.

Beca manages to master herself first. To buy Chloe some time to get it together, she comments, “I can see how that might be tempting. That white pot does sort of look like a toilet.”

This apparently doesn’t help Chloe, because now an odd stifled snort comes from behind the hand she’s holding over her mouth.

Beca adds, “And, I mean, who wants to leave the room when the Grinch is on, right?”

Violet nods, glad somebody gets it. “But it was still bad,” she points out.

Finally, Chloe regains her composure. She lowers her hand, saying sympathetically, “Sweetheart. That’s… I mean, yeah, okay, that’s definitely not a good thing. We don’t want to make a habit of… peeing in plants.” She’s forced to stop again, still avoiding meeting Beca’s eye. “But it’s good that you told us.”

“No,” Violet shakes her head tragically, refusing to be consoled. “It doesn’t matter. Because Santa already knows. Like in the song.” Suddenly she face plants onto the bed between them, uttering a muffled, plaintive wail. “I ruined Christmas!”

Chloe and Beca trade dumbfounded looks over her back, neither having any immediate idea of how to fix this mess. Beca still really wants to laugh, but she can read the Don’t in Chloe’s gaze as easily as if she’d said it out loud. Shutting her eyes for a second, she considers their options in this supremely ridiculous situation. She feels responsible, since if it wasn’t for her raging sex drive, they probably would have already had the presents under the tree. But there’s clearly no way to explain that to their daughter.

She opens her eyes again with an idea. It might not work, but it’s worth a shot. “All right.” She takes a deep breath. “Hey,” she nudges Violet. “Would you sit up, please? And stop being such a drama queen? There’s something we need to tell you. About Santa Claus.”

Though she drags out the process, Violet does finally pull herself up from the bed and turn around to face them, intrigued.

Chloe, however, looks confused, and more than a little concerned. She pulls Violet into her lap, as if to protect her from whatever Beca’s about to say.

“It’s a big secret,” Beca adds, “so you have to promise you’re not gonna tell any other kids.” She shoots Chloe a look over Violet’s head that she hopes conveys Trust me, but Chloe still seems nervous, obviously wondering where on earth she’s going with this.

But Violet is now hanging on every word. “I promise,” she says solemnly.

“Okay. Here it is.” She lowers her voice to a discreet level. “Santa Claus?” Here Beca takes a long pause for maximum dramatic impact, starting to enjoy herself a little. “He doesn’t actually care whether you’re good or not.”

She can sense the relief washing over Chloe as she realizes what Beca’s up to.

“Yes he does,” Violet insists petulantly.

“Nope,” Beca shakes her head. “He doesn’t. Parents just want kids to think that, so they’ll be good. But the truth is, Santa doesn’t give a crap. About anything you do. He’s gonna bring you stuff no matter what.”

“It’s true,” Chloe chimes in. “He really doesn’t care. The song is a lie.”

Mulling this over, Violet seems to want to believe them, but she’s not quite there yet.

“In fact...” Beca looks around as if she’s about to impart even more confidential information. “Did I ever tell you about the Christmas Eve when I stabbed my brother in the shoulder with a pencil?”

Violet looks shocked. “Why did you stab Uncle Chris?”

“I had to.” In her most serious tone, Beca explains, “Because he called Nicole Scherzinger a skank.”

Thinking about this, Violet wants to know, “Who’s Nicole…” she struggles to pronounce the name, “Scherrrr...zinger?”

“She was a Pussycat Doll,” Chloe supplies helpfully.

“Yeah,” Beca agrees. “Well, I mean,” she shrugs, compelled to add, “not just a Pussycat Doll. She was, like, the lead Pussycat Doll.”

Still seeming deeply confused, Violet asks, “Who were the- ”

“You know what, that’s not important,” Beca quickly interrupts her. “The point is, she wasn’t a skank. She was a superstar. And a very important part of my childhood. And I’m pretty sure that I was trying to kill my brother with that pencil. He still has graphite lodged under his skin, to this day.”

“He does,” Chloe confirms. “I’ve seen it.”

Looking back and forth from one to the other, Violet considers this.

Now Beca pauses, waiting until she’s sure her daughter is listening to every word. “But you know what? Santa didn’t even blink at that attempted murder. He still brought me every single thing I asked for that year.”

After processing this new information, Violet does finally seem to be reassured. But then another flicker of worry crosses her face as she glances at the clock. “But it’s almost morning. Maybe he just forgot.”

“He didn’t forget, I promise,” Chloe tells her. “Actually,” she throws out impetuously, “he’s on his way to our house, right now. We know that for sure.”

“How?” Violet demands.

“Because…” Unprepared to provide evidence, Chloe casts a desperate glance at Beca, but Beca gives her a tiny shrug; she’s all tapped out on bullshit. “Because, he just texted us!”

Beca bites the inside of her cheek, hard, just as Violet turns to her for corroboration. She nods, saying carefully, “Yep.”

“No, he didn’t,” she sulks, but it’s clear she wants them to prove her wrong.

“Yes, he did,” Chloe insists. “Right before you came in. He texted to say he’s almost here. What, you don’t believe me?”

“Let me see it.”

“You want to see the text from Santa? All right.” She seems to be racking her brain for inspiration. “Bec, give me your phone.”

Beca squints at her, dubious. “O-kayyy.” With an expression of You sure about this? she nevertheless retrieves her phone from the nightstand and hands it over.

Navigating easily to her message app, Chloe at first looks frantic as she taps through the threads, but then her face lights up with triumph as she reads something on the screen. She angles the phone toward Violet, pointing at a received message bubble in the left column. “Here it is. Right there, see it?” She reads it out loud. “It says, Almost there! Don’t give up on me ;)”

Violet studies the words for a minute, twisting a lock of her hair around her finger as she concentrates on trying to sound out the letters.

Chloe isn’t lying, this is precisely what the text says. Of course, what neither of them tells Violet is that this is actually a text from Chloe herself, sent yesterday afternoon during Violet’s nap, in response to one from Beca which reads How close are you to home? I’m in bed about to start without you.

After a few more seconds of scrutinizing, Violet reaches her verdict. “Kay,” she finally says, accepting their word for it.

“Okay?” Beca reiterates, trying not to look as relieved as she feels. “You believe us now?” She snatches the phone back before Violet can change her mind.

“See, silly? There was nothing to be worried about,” Chloe squeezes her reassuringly.

At long last, they’re rewarded by their daughter’s smile, which breaks over her face and lights it up with joy, like the proverbial rainbow after the storm. “I know,” she tells them, as if she’s been fine all along and they’re the ones who’ve been freaking out.

Unfortunately, now that her inner peace has been restored, Violet for the first time seems to notice the odd condition of her parents’ bedroom. Taking in her surroundings with perplexity as she slowly looks around her, she asks, “Why is there blankets on everything?”

“Um, because the roof was leaking,” Beca says fast, knowing that out of all the nonsense explanations they’ve cooked up in the last ten minutes this is surely the lamest. “And we didn’t want the furniture to get messed up.”

“Oh.”

To keep her from dwelling on this long enough to remember that it hasn’t rained at all in the last few weeks, Beca hurriedly changes the subject. “You know, you should probably get back to bed. The thing is… Santa might be a total pushover when it comes to the naughty thing? But he really does want you to be asleep when he gets here.”

“Yeah, it’s true,” Chloe nods. “That part is actually pretty important. We shouldn’t take any chances.”

“Okay,” Violet agrees immediately.

But Chloe doesn’t release her just yet. “So, do you feel better about everything now?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you excited about tomorrow?” She gives her a gentle shake.

“Uh-huh.” Violet is now beginning to squirm to get out of her lap.

“You’re gonna have so much fun,” Chloe promises her. “I bet you’re gonna get every present you asked for, and probably some that you didn’t even think of.”

“Yeah. But, Mommy,” she finally runs out of patience. “I have to go.”

“Oh, okay,” Chloe laughs, finally letting go of her. “You’re right, you should go. Kiss first!”

After she accepts the kiss with barely-concealed haste, Violet starts to run right out of the room, but Beca interjects. “Ah-ah-ah! Hey. Are you forgetting something?”

With a heavy sigh, Violet turns and comes back for yet another goodnight hug and kiss. “We already did this, before,” she can’t help pointing out to Beca.

Beca laughs. “Yeah, well, if you’d stayed in bed we wouldn’t have to do it all over again.”

Violet has no desire to argue, since time is of the essence. Released from Beca’s hug, she heads back to her bedroom at a sprint. Chloe waits in their doorway while Beca follows their daughter down the hall to her room, where she watches as Violet springs into bed. Giving her a last wave and a reminder to go to sleep fast, she gently closes the door. Then she comes back toward Chloe, smiling, both hands raised in the air for a soft and soundless high-five.

Chloe hangs onto her hands and tugs her back into their bedroom. After the door is shut behind them, they both lean against it, finally allowing themselves to laugh, but not too loudly.

“Did that really just happen?” Chloe asks in a low voice. “Oh my God, I thought you were gonna tell her about Santa Claus.” She gives Beca’s shoulder a playful shove. “I would have killed you.”

“I know,” Beca smirks. “Sorry. Nice save with the text, though. We should have just started with that.”

“Oh, yeah,” Chloe says modestly. “I guess it’s a good thing she can’t read too well yet.”

Beca laughs, then both are quiet for a few seconds as they bask in the relief of pulling the whole thing off.

“So, I don’t want to sound cocky,” Beca says, sounding deliberately cocky, “but I think we’re nailing this parenting thing.”

“Totally,” Chloe concurs. Then she winces a little. “I mean, except for the part where she might be traumatized for life after seeing a Christmas tree with no presents under it.”

“Right. Except for that,” Beca agrees. She looks around the room at all the mounds covered by blankets. “We should probably get this stuff downstairs. Before she wakes up and has another existential crisis.”

Chloe nods, taking a deep breath and looking ready for action. “Let’s do it.”

It takes five trips to get everything to the living room, five excruciatingly slow trips as they tiptoe down the upstairs hallway and the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible. Beca makes a special detour out to her backyard studio to retrieve her own presents for Chloe, because it’s the only place that’s safe to hide them from her wife’s snooping habits.

On their last trip from the upstairs bedroom, as she sets her final load of presents down on the floor, Chloe suddenly asks, “So, I have to know. Did you really stab your brother to defend Nicole Scherzinger’s honor?”

“I mean…” Beca maneuvers a large rectangular box into an armchair next to the tree and then lifts her hands in a hapless gesture. “He called her a skank. What was I supposed to do?”

“Aw, baby,” Chloe gives her a sympathetic pout. “I can’t believe you thought you were straight for so many years.”

“I know,” Beca mutters sheepishly. “I’m an idiot.”

Once all the gifts are finally unloaded in front of the tree, they work on arranging them. But every time Beca puts a present in a particular place, Chloe moves it to a different spot. So she gives up and lets her handle the fine-tuning of the visuals, standing back to watch while eating the cookies left out for Santa. She’s earned them.

Eventually, her attention drifts over to the large, nearly tree-sized poinsettia on the floor near the window, in its gleaming white pot. “I don’t think I’ll ever look at that plant the same way again.”

Chloe gives a loud laugh, remembering the cause for this assertion, then claps a hand to her mouth to stifle it. She glances toward the doorway, as if to make absolutely certain Violet is nowhere in evidence, saying in a low voice, “God, I thought I was gonna lose it. She looked so guilty.”

“I know. That’s why I was trying not to make eye contact with you, dude. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep it together.”

Coming to stand beside her and examining the plant, Chloe muses, “I guess I should probably change the potting soil tomorrow. But I mean, it could have been worse, right? At least she didn’t poop in it.”

They both stare at the flowers for a few seconds in silence.

“We have a weird kid,” Beca remarks.

Chloe smiles, nodding a little. “True. But I wouldn’t want any other kind.”

Unconsciously, Beca rests a hand on her stomach. Only after she’s noted her own gesture does her mind catch up, and she finds herself wondering what these two will be like, whether they’ll resemble Violet or whether they’ll have totally different personalities from their big sister, or even from each other. Wondering what kind of trouble they’ll inevitably get into, what they’ll be afraid of, what they’ll love, what kind of people they’ll become. Thinking about it makes her feel dizzy and out of her depth, so she stops herself. One day at a time.

She looks over to find Chloe watching her, a soft, thoughtful expression on her face, as if her mind is on the same track.

After a few seconds Chloe looks around, making sure the job is totally done. “Oh, hey, come over here a minute.” She draws Beca toward the doorway, positioning her so that she’s facing the room. “This is the best part.” Then she turns the lights out, leaving only the Christmas tree lights on.

Chloe comes back to stand beside her, and they look out at the room.

“Wow,” Beca breathes.

They gaze silently at the spectacle of their own living room transformed, the presents spilling out from under the tree, covering a large section of the floor, even stacked in the chairs nearest the tree. Violet’s stocking is too heavy to hang on the mantel, so it’s laid in front of the gifts, bulging and overflowing, some of the items scattered on the floor around it because they literally wouldn’t fit inside. Near the fireplace is the doll stroller, which Chloe has covered with a Christmas-themed tablecloth, so it mostly blends in with the other wrapped gifts. The effect of the entire room is impressive, to say the least. It looks like something from a magazine.

“Isn’t it pretty?”

“It’s beautiful,” Beca says in all sincerity. “She’s gonna freak out when she sees all this.”

“That’s the idea.” Chloe smiles with excitement. “Don’t let me forget to take some pictures, before she rips into everything.”

“You have to admit, though,” Beca can’t help pointing out, “that’s a lot of stuff for a four-year-old.”

“Some of it’s for us, too,” Chloe offers in her defense. “It’s not all hers. But yeah,” she acknowledges, “most of it.”

“You don’t think we’re spoiling her too much?”

“I hope not.” She concedes, “I know I might have gone a little overboard. But I just really wanted this Christmas to be special, for her. Because...” Chloe hesitates, almost as if she’s not sure she wants to say the next words out loud, or maybe she just needs a second to get her emotions under control. “Because it’s the last one with just the three of us.”

Somehow, as implausible as it seems, this is the first time such an obvious fact has occurred to Beca. Maybe, on some unconscious level, she’s been avoiding thinking about it. Staring at the Christmas tree, she’s stunned into poignant silence by the emotion that hits her as she contemplates this truth.

Chloe continues in a quiet voice. “Next year is gonna be so different. We’ll have a five-year-old, and two infants.” Noticing that Beca still hasn’t said anything, she adds quickly, “And it’s not that I’m not excited. I am. So beyond excited, and, just, over the moon. But at the same time…” she pauses. “It won’t ever be like this again. You know?”

“Yeah. I guess that’s true,” Beca admits softly, marveling, “She’s not gonna be the baby anymore.” Struggling to find the right words, she adds, “I mean, she’ll always be… our baby. But…”

“I know. I know what you mean.” Chloe takes a slightly shaky breath and lets it out. “So, anyway, that’s why I maybe overdid it, a little. I just wanted this one to be special.”

Beca finally looks over at her, then reaches out and takes her hand, lacing their fingers together and squeezing hard. “It will be.”

Chloe raises Beca’s hand and presses a kiss to the back of it, her eyes bright with unshed tears, thanking her without needing to say the words.

Looking back at the tree again, Beca shakes her head, just a bit overwhelmed. “God, it really is gonna be crazy, isn’t it? To go from one kid to three.”

Chloe starts to speak, stops herself, then forges ahead. “Are you scared?”

Not entirely sure how to answer, Beca thinks about it. She wants to be honest, but she can also feel a kind of vulnerability radiating from Chloe as she waits for her reply, as if she needs something from her.

“Nah,” Beca finally says, looking over at her. “We got this.”

The grateful, beautiful smile which lights up Chloe’s face pierces straight into Beca’s heart, and somehow makes her believe in the absolute truth of the words she��d just uttered.

“Yeah,” Chloe agrees, sounding as if she believes it too.

Drawn by an impulse too powerful to fight, Beca turns to her and pulls her close, holding her face with a reverent touch as she moves in and presses their lips together, slowly and softly. This time it’s not a lustful kiss, but one of pure love. They’ve been together long enough that Chloe instinctively knows the difference, and she lets herself melt into it with her eyes closed. There’s no mistletoe in this particular doorway, but they don’t need it.

After a few seconds Beca tastes salt, and realizes with mild surprise that Chloe is crying. She pulls back a little. “Hey.” Reaching up, she uses her thumbs to smudge away a few of the tears. “I’m the one with the hormones, here.”

“Sorry.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. That’s just it.” She looks down and places her palms over the subtle roundness of Beca’s stomach, in the same reverent way Beca had just touched her face. “I’ve never been this happy in my entire life, Beca. After last time, I honestly didn’t think we’d ever be doing this again.” She looks up and meets her gaze, but doesn’t move her hands. “I hope you know this is the best Christmas present you could ever possibly give me.”

As usual, this level of emotion makes Beca a bit uncomfortable. “Well, good,” she jokes with a little shrug. “Because I didn’t get you anything else.”

Chloe leans closer, grinning. “I know that’s not true, but even if it was? I wouldn’t care.”

Beca smiles too, wrinkling her nose into another kiss.

“I love you,” Chloe mumbles against her lips.

Now, as if her hormones are indeed living up to her comment from a minute ago, Beca feels an unexpected surge of emotion. She wraps her arms around Chloe and pulls her into a hug, since that at least allows her to hide her face. Waiting a few seconds until she trusts her voice not to break, she speaks directly against her ear. “I love you too. So, so, so much.” She swallows hard against the knot in her throat. “Like, it’s honestly disgusting, how much I love you.”

Over her shoulder Chloe makes a sound that’s halfway between a laugh and a sob, and squeezes her tighter. They hold each other like that for a while, barely moving except for hands stroking over backs or kisses pressed into hair.

Leaning her head against Chloe’s shoulder and closing her eyes, Beca loses track of time. She’s drifting in a pleasantly euphoric trance state, wishing they could somehow just teleport straight to their room and go to sleep, without actually having to walk up the stairs. She summons the energy to mutter, “We should get to bed.”

“Good idea,” Chloe agrees, sounding sleepy as well.

But then suddenly, out of nowhere, Beca feels a tiny but sharp twinge of pain on the bottom of her ass. “Ah,” she jerks a little. “What the hell was that?” Finally they separate, and she leans back and peers at Chloe. “Did you pinch me?”

“What?” Chloe’s face is the picture of innocence. “No.”

At first Beca’s genuinely confused. But then Chloe adds, as if just thinking of it, “Oh, you know what I bet it was? I bet it was that sex elf, again.”

A slow grin now replaces Beca’s puzzlement. “Really? You saw her?”

“Does she look a little bit like a miniature Pussycat Doll?”

“That’s her,” Beca widens her eyes. “Oh my God, you did see her.”

“Then, yep. She was here.” Chloe bends closer and whispers, “And I bet I know why.”

“You think?”

“Mm-hm. I bet she’s a little miffed that we didn’t quite... finish the job, earlier.”

The erotic tone of Chloe’s voice acts as a trigger, and in an instant Beca’s libido wakes from near-slumber and she’s flooded once again with a tidal wave of desire. It hits her with such unexpected force that she feels her toes clench on the rug under her feet. The orgasm from half an hour ago is suddenly as irrelevant as if it never happened. So much for going straight to sleep.

“Wow, those pinches really work,” she murmurs.

Chloe giggles and kisses her again. “I’m counting on it.” Now she takes Beca’s left hand and lifts it, staring down at it and turning it over, palm up, as she strokes a spot between her fingers contemplatively. “You know, I was just thinking, maybe I could get into that whole papercut kink of yours.”

Beca smiles, but then pulls back a bit and regards her with a curious look. “You do know I was kidding about that, right?”

Chloe only raises an eyebrow mysteriously and kisses the precise spot where the papercut had occurred, then turns in a seductive manner and begins leading her toward the stairs.

“Right?” Beca repeats, allowing herself to be pulled along.

Still no answer, aside from a coy smirk.

Beca teases, “Okay, see, now you’re scaring me a little.”

Chloe laughs as they start up the stairs, and then laughs even harder when Beca admits, “Still really turned on, though.”

#bechloe #bechloe fic #bechloe fanfic #merry pitchmas 2017 #hope it's ok if i use that tag even though it's not part of the official gift exchange #if not let me know and i'll delete it #i realize this fic feels almost more like sendrick than bechloe in parts lol #i've been watching a lot of interviews lately #but i do think that's kind of how beca and chloe would be after a few years of marriage you know?#i think beca would be more mellow and goofy #and chloe would be more centered and mature #oh and there's actually a lot more backstory as to why beca's pregnant #why she decided she wanted to do that and everything #but that whole saga is a little too serious for the tone of this story so i tried to limit the exposition to just what's necessary #if anyone wants i may eventually write those sections of their story as well #oh and i'll put this on the fic sites when i get a chance #and i forgot to say this takes place about a year after No Kissing if that's not clear

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