#also almost 200 chapters whoa !!!

[crescentmoonrider]

A viper-lizard's tales, chapter 199 "Slow work"

in which Azula doesn't understand the choices she has

read on ffn

read on ao3

#atla #the last airbender #azula #yumi writes #a viper lizard's tales #im kinda tired for some reason... #maybe its the weather ? #we did go from heatwave to Rain Cold #also almost 200 chapters whoa !!! #im going to lose my mind in two weeks #already did when i wrote this future chapter

[omentranslates]

Owari no Seraph chapter 119 full english fan translation

Hello, sorry about the delay in posting. This was my translation for the most recent chapter of OnS that released earlier this month. Due to the official version coming out at the same time, I decided to take more liberties with the localization for fun, so that's why it sounds different. Thank you for reading.

Chapter 119: Our Goal

Ready to go and with no tolerance for stubbornness

Having left behind his "family" to follow his own path, what will Yuu do...?

Yuu: *climbing noises*

Mika: Yuuchan??? Wait up a second, Yuuchan??

Mika: How far up there are you gonna climb? Scratch that, what are we even climbing for?

Yuu: Little more to the top!

Mika: Y'know that saying, about how only smoke and idiots gather in high places? You're not the smoke. And this really isn't the time to be acting out.

Yuu: Nice! Mika, I'm up!

Yuu: WHOA, THIS IS AWESOME! HEY MIKA THIS IS REALLY COOL!

Mika: What is, the view?

Yuu: THIS THING IS SO TALL, OH MY GOD WE'RE SO HIGH UP RIGHT NOW! THIS IS SO COOL!!

Mika: You're so observant.

Yuu: GET UP HERE AND LOOK HOW COOL IT IS

Mika: I have no doubt it's amazing.

Yuu: Great then get up here like I'm telling you!

Mika: Well it's the Tokyo Tower after all, 333 meters tall.

Yuu: Hey, fun fact! You actually like the Tower too!?

Mika: Uh, not really. Everyone knows that.

Yuu: Oh yeah? Guess everyone must've really loved the Tokyo Tower.

Mika: Dunno about that.

Mika: Hm. Well, they might've. It's famous after all, and at one point it was the tallest radio tower in Japan.

Mika: The view's amazing...

Yuu: Right!?

Mika: Back when everyone was alive, before this hellscape.

Mika: Anyways, Yuuchan we're being followed and you know that, so why did we climb this tower?

Yuu: I'd be super tall if I stood at the very tip, huh

Mika: Yuuchan...?

Yuu: *more climbing noises, sounds like he almost falls once*

Yuu: TA-DA! I'm at the very top of the Tokyo To-

Yuu: Oh??

Mika: Ah-!

Yuu: MIKAAAAAAA

Mika: AHHH WHAT THE HELL YUUCHAN

Mika: Ah, well actually, he'll be fine. Neither of us are human anymore. Although I wish he wouldn't have climbed all the way up here if he was just gonna fall straight back down.

Yuu: Ah sick, I survived. That was a super far way down too, man I'm good.

Yuu: I'm alive!

Mika: I am aware.

Yuu: That's called terminal velocity, babey! My falling speed was made constant by air resistance, AND LIKE THIS I HAVE WON AGAINST THE TOWER.

Mika: Wowwww you're so cool.

Yuu: You're making the "will you listen to what I have to say now" face.

Mika: Oh, have you finally deigned notice? It's only been about 200 years.

Yuu: Damn, that's a long time.

Mika: So, Yuuchan, what's with climbing the tower. We're supposed to be on the down-low.

Yuu: Guess I just wanted to get to the tallest place I could. Haha, stupid, right?

Mika: And why'd you wanna do that.

Yuu: Well...I just figured there was something I should see.

Mika: And that was?

Yuu: Everyone.

Mika: Who is everyone??

Yuu: Everyone who died when the world ended.

Yuu: Y'know Mika, I've never really thought about anyone else other than myself and my family. I figured it'd be fine if I could just save my family. If I could save you.

Yuu: If I could save Akane and the kids and Guren and the Shinoa squad and everyone I've come to accept as family, I didn't think I'd care what came after that.

Mika: I'm the same, Yuuchan. As long as you're happy, that's all I need.

Mika: Only one of us needs to be happy, because your joy is also mine. So don't get greedy.

Yuu: Haha, are you telling me to abandon you and live on?

Mika: You can leave everything to Guren. You're his favorite. That girl Shinoa too, did you hear what she said at the end?

Mika: Yoichi and Mitsuba and Kimidzuki, what they were all screaming. They love you, they were begging you not to leave. You heard all that, didn't you?

Yuu: Yeah, I heard.

Mika: And this is your response? Are you seriously ok with that?

Yuu: Ok well, what would you have done if you were me?

Mika: Oh, so you wanna play that game? What would you have done if you were me, then?

Yuu: I'm not doing this Mika.

Mika: NO, JUST GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! You've already abandoned me to live on once, so just do it again!!

Yuu: Mika.

Mika: As long as you survive you can find another family!! You can't deny that!! Go and return that Shinoa girl's feelings, and smile and have some kids, live! Quit clinging to me and to the past! Everything that happened that day is done and gone!

Mika: That day, you gave up on me and found a new life...

Yuu: HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE A NEW LIFE WITHOUT YOU IN IT!?

Mika: DIDN'T I JUST TELL YOU IT'S OVER!?

Yuu: YEAH WELL YOU'RE STUPID SO SHUT UP

Mika: I told you to give up.

Yuu: Not happening.

Mika: Give it up!

Yuu: I'm not doing it and you can't make me!

Mika: Give up! Do it for me!

Mika: Dammit

Mika: Why...won't this work....it isn't working....since I'm your demon I can feel it. You're never gonna let go of this.

Yuu: Sorry, Mika. For leaving you that day.

Mika: I wanted you to. It's ok, so just go live.

Yuu: That day, we could've died together. I don't really have a reason to live for mysellf.

Mika: Do it anyways. Isn't that everyone's struggle in life?

Yuu: I lived really well. I thought about killing myself every single day, it's a miracle I've made it to today. Let's hear some congratulations for that first.

Yuu: CAN'T YOU PRAISE ME EVEN ONCE, FOR MAKING IT TO TODAY WITHOUT DYING EVEN THOUGH I HAD TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU.

Yuu: Giving up on you makes me wish I'd just ended it right then and there. But I lived on and because of that we got to meet again. And now you're gonna tell me to do all that again? No way. Haha, you trying to kill me?

Mika: What's the play, then? You gonna sacrifice everyone else to bring me back? Just like the First wants?

Yuu: No, dumbass, you're smart so use your head.

Mika: Huh?

Yuu: We haven't made any decisions yet because we're not even frickin' thinking. We've always just been in the palms of someone's hand, be it Guren or the First.

Yuu: Guren's really amazing, making all these choices. He's even willing to become the villain to achieve his goals. The First is the same way. You heard, didn't you? When he just cast Ashuramaru aside?

Mika: I heard.

Yuu: The First is going to do literally anything to get you back to life. He's thinking about every place and tool he can use to win. But where does that leave us?

Yuu: We're not thinking ata all, and we haven't decided on anything. We're just kids in someone else's game. So what kind of plays can we make? Where are we right now? Who can we save, who can be betray, what are we gonna do, Mika?

Mika: You said you had an idea, right? What were you thinking then?

Yuu: Oh, no I got nothin'.

Mika: ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS!?

Yuu: I've got something I understand, though. Here, today, we're exactly where we were that day, Mika.

Yuu: We were a lot more helpless back then, but even through all that despair, you thought up an insane escape plan.

Yuu: I know you're smart enough for this. If you put your mind to it, this time we'll both make it out alive, together.

Mika: In other words, you've elected to have me do all the work.

Yuu: Nah, don't worry, I'll be in charge of doing push-ups. If a vampire shows up I'll take 'em out, one chop.

Mika: Well I guess we win either way. Since we have some hope, even if we don't have a plan.

Yuu: Oh I've got WAYYY more aspiration than Guren, the First too. I want to resurrect Everyone, and that wish includes you.

Mika: Here we go with the idiocy again. Are you implying you're going to surpass both Guren AND the First?

Yuu: I'm dumb enough to be able to do it!

Mika: ...what was that about idiots, smoke and high places again? Heh, I can't say I want to join you.

Yuu: So I climbed up to the highest place I could, y'know physically. We've gotta look around and keep in mind who we're saving.

Yuu: We're gonna save eeeveryone, Mika, not just who's family. Everyone.

Mika: And you want me to think up how to do that?

Yuu: Yup, get thinkin', Mika. Should be easier than being a kid running from vampires, right?

Mika: Ok, even if you put it like that-...

Yuu: You can do it, it'll be ok. And if you can't, we'll just die together, nothing to it. If everything from that day is done and gone, we can just die.

Yuu: We either save everything or die together, piece of cake right? That's what we decided that day. You will Not catch me living without you, so think up something good. You can craft a plan that'll give us the win.

Mika: Alright. Let's do it. We'll come up with our own plan.

Yuu: Right, let's ditch this fucked up world.

Although they've made enemies of everything, they take this vow together

End

#owari no seraph #english translation

[veirsewrites]

Okay okay.. I'm not an expert in supernatural beings, but are werewolf immortals too? Like can they live as long as vampires??

Sorry if it kinda sounds dumb, but the question been in my head for a couple of days now.

Whoa whoa whoa, hey, not dumb. Especially because this is all made up anyways and is different in every show or book or movie.

It’s easy to miss, but in the story it’s implied werewolves have a lifespan of about 200 years. I try to make it clearer in this next chapter, but it could also easily be skipped over because it’s on a choice branch.

"Well, at least wait for me to age out first. Finding another business partner would be a hassle."

“Almost two hundred years? But that's a hassle on my part." You give one last toothy smirk.

They age normally until they’re about 30, then it slows down by a lot. So a werewolf could look about 50 but have looked that way for a long time, and in fact are much older.

#wtb lore

[twstarchives]

I’m Really Tired of Watching It

Card: Ceremony Robes - SR Characters: Ace, Riddle, Epel, Mirror of Darkness, Vil (mentioned)

Chapter 1

—MIRROR CHAMBER—

Mirror of Darkness: Reveal thy name.

Ace: Ace! Ace Trappola.

Mirror of Darkness: The shape of thy soul is...

Heartslabyul!

Ace: I knew it’d be Heartslabyul. It’s the same dorm my alumni brother was in.

Riddle: Hey! When your sorting is finished, you are to promptly return to your seat.

It’s completely unacceptable for anyone who calls himself a Heartslabyul student to ever be disruptive.

Ace: Roger that, Dorm Leader! I’m taking my seat now!

What’s with him? He’s so short but real scary.

Anyway, I finished my dorm sorting without any issues...

Next we just wait for everyone else to get sorted, and then the entrance ceremony will be done. I can take it easy ♪

        (Deuce goes up)

Mirror of Darkness: Heartslabyul!

Ace: Whoa, that serious-looking guy is in the same dorm as me? He looks like the kinda guy I’d never be friends with.

Mirror of Darkness: Scarabia!

Ace: Oh~? Seems about right.

Mirror of Darkness: Savanaclaw!

Ace: ......

Mirror of Darkness: Octavinelle!

Ace: How many more people do we have to watch...?

Mirror of Darkness: Pomefiore!

Riddle: ......

Ace: I’m so bored.

The teachers and dorm leaders have been watching the sorting with the most serious looks on.

I know!

This looks like it’ll be a while, and no one would notice if one or two people slipped out till the sorting finished, right?

I should bring someone that looks kinda weak with me just in case.

That way, if a teacher happens to catch us leaving, we could just say we were looking for the infirmary.

Let’s see who’s close to my spot... Oh! The guy in front of me looks super dainty from behind. He’d be perfect to bring!

Hey, you, other freshman. There’s something I wanna ask you...

Epel: What is it...?

Ace: Whoa?!

Epel: You’re... really loud. We’re in the middle of a ceremony.

Ace: M-My bad, sorry.

That surprised me... I thought he was a girl when he turned around...

Epel: ...Did you say something?

Ace: No, no, nothing! What I wanted to ask you about was... Isn’t it boring how long we have to sit through this sorting?

Epel: Well... Yes.

Ace: So let’s go out for a while till everyone’s done getting sorted.

Epel: Huh? But...

Ace: No one’ll know if we quietly sneak out together.

Hey, please? This boredom is driving me crazy!

Epel: H-Hold on a sec! Don’t just forcibly pull my sleeve...!

Ace: Come on, hurry so they don’t see us!

—OUTSIDE NIGHT RAVEN COLLEGE—

Ace: Alright. We should be good here.

Epel: ...Let go of my hand.

Ace: Hm? ...Oh, sorry, sorry. Uhh...

Epel: My name’s Epel.

Ace: Epel! I’m Ace.

Epel: Ace...-kun.

Ace: Yep. So, what dorm did you get into?

Epel: ...Pomefiore.

Ace: Ahh... The dorm leader there sounds like a lot to handle...

I think I remember him giving a passionate speech about how “beauty is everything” and how important it is to “push yourself hard.”

Epel: Yeah, he seems strict... and really difficult... What about you?

Ace: I got into Heartslabyul! Our dorm leader seems pretty strict too...

Well, my older brother was in Heartslabyul too, so maybe he’ll tell me all the best spots inside the dorm for skipping class?

Epel: ...That’d be nice. Plus, you seem like you fit Heartslabyul.

Ace: Hehe, do I? You give off Pomefiore vibes too. I feel like you’d look great in their dorm uniform.

Epel: ......

Ace: What is it? The dorm leader might be scary, but you never know, it might turn out to actually be pretty nice once you get in.

Hey, since we have the time, why don’t we go to Pomefiore?

Epel: No... It’s okay.

Ace: You sure?

Then how about we walk around here? Let’s explore Night Raven College together!

Chapter 2

—COURTYARD—

Ace: Here’s the courtyard~ This must be the best spot to skip, ‘cause my brother was always recommending it.

Epel: Yeah...

Ace: Oh, there’s a bench under the apple tree! Looks perfect for napping on, huh?

If a teacher came over, you could just pass it off by saying “I have a stomachache and needed to rest a little~”

Epel: ...You could.

Ace: ...I kinda feel like I’ve been the only one really talking so far. Are you bored or something?

Epel: No...

Ace: Are you starting to regret sneaking out of the ceremony?

Epel: No, it’s not that...

Ace: Hey, Epel. These responses aren’t really telling me anything.

Are you always like this? If you wanna say something, just say it.

Epel: ...N-No. It’s nothing.

Ace: Hmm... Oh yeah, Epel, are you sure you’re not actually a girl? To be honest, I was really shocked when I first called out to you.

Epel: Wha...! I-I’m not!

Ace: Oh, that was good right there.

Feels like you finally spoke from your heart.

Epel: ...!

Ace: Although, you really hesitate a lot before you speak. We’re both freshmen; you should be more comfortable talking to me.

I’m sure they’re gonna make us introduce ourselves when we start our classes. Are you still going to be so nervous then?

Epel: It’s not like I choose to talk like this...

Ace: What does that mean? You’re nervous ‘cause it’s our first day of school?

Then you’re absolutely going to be nervous on our first day of classes, when you’re surrounded by people you don’t know.

Alright, here. I’ll show you how to introduce yourself.

My name’s Ace Trappola. I came here all the way from the Rose Kingdom.

My favorite food’s cherry pie. What about you?

Epel: Huh...?

Ace: Come on, fast!

Epel: M-My name is Epel... Epel Felmier. I live in... uh, it’s a secret...

I’m good at carving apples... I think. And I like... m-macarons...

Ace: Oh yeah? Macarons. Seems about right. That’s the kinda vibe I get from your looks.

Epel: ...And also BBQ.

Ace: BBQ?!

Ahaha! Who would’ve thought! You really aren’t all like you seem!

Epel: I-I don’t remember saying anything funny...!

???: Hm...? I think I heard a voice just now...

Epel: Ah!

Ace: Crap, someone’s here! Hide!

Riddle: Ace Trappola! Epel Felmier! Where are you?

Come out if you can hear my voice.

Epel: Is that... Heartslabyul’s dorm leader...?

Ace: Shh! Be quiet...!

Riddle: Honestly... I can’t believe they disappeared from the entrance ceremony. I hope they’re not in trouble or anything.

However...

If they were simply trying to skip the ceremony, they will have to be put on trial.

Epel: T-Trial...?!

Ace: Just stay quiet.

Epel: ......

Riddle: Ace, Epel, where are you? ...I guess they’re not in the courtyard. I’ll go back inside.

Ace: ......

Epel: ......

Ace: Phew, we managed to stay hidden. We’re good now.

Epel: Ahh... I couldn’t breathe...

Ace: Sorry. But it’s better than the dorm leader finding us, right?

Epel: You’ve been really pushy this whole time, Ace-kun.

Ace: Don’t say that! You should be happy we got to see the campus before all the other freshmen!

Alright, we should get back before that demon dorm leader catches us.

I hope the sorting’s almost done~ I’m really tired of watching it.

Epel: It’s true there are about.... 200 freshmen... I think.

Ace: Egh, so many!! So that’s why it takes forever.

So how many students is that per dorm...?

Epel: ...Uh, there are seven dorms, so around 30...?

Ace: Wow... I barely managed to get through that boring entrance ceremony...

But next we’re going to have to line up in groups of 30, and walk over together to our dorms... Man, it’s a hassle.

Epel: You seem like the type that doesn’t like moving with groups, Ace-kun.

Ace: I mean, you do too.

Epel: ...Yes. A little bit.

Ace: Hehe. Well, let’s get going. Our dorm leaders might be scary, but let’s have fun this school year!

Nice to meet you, Epel!

#ace trappola #personal story #ceremony robes

[thebibliomancer]

Tides of the Dark Crystal liveblog pt 15

Tides of the Dark Crystal by J.M. Lee because we’re halfway through, whoa-oh I can’t think of a rhyme but we’re in a desert now.

Last times on book: Amri and co are on a quest to unite all the Gelfling clans against the Skeksis. They’ve managed to convince Maudra Ethri of the Sifa to not sail off into the sunset and join the cause. And now they’ve reluctantly hired known thief and smarmy guy Periss of the Dousan to take them on his sand skiff to the Crystal Desert where Maudra Seethi is.

Chapter 15

A storm in the desert, a teeming of Crystal Skimmers, a peril, and some Tavra/Onica content.

Team Naia plus Periss sand sails all day and continues sand sailing when night falls. But people need to sleep so they’ll just leave someone on watch.

Kylan volunteers Amri for first watch. Amri is like ‘hey, rude’ before realizing that Kylan was subtly letting him stay up at night without making a big deal of it in front of the others. And then he’s warmed by this kindness.

Aw, frens.

Some hours later, Naia joins Amri up on the deck because she had a weird, bad dream. She was in the Sog but she was Gurjin. And a message came for Momdra Laesid who reacted in horror to whatever it was. And then Naia woke up.

Amri suggests it could be an omen but Onica is sleeping.

“I’ll ask her when she wakes... You should rest, too, nightbird.”

Amri stood and yawned. Then he added, “Birds die in caves.”

“Nightworm, then.”

“They’re called nurlocs.”

“Go on!”

Hah! Frens!

I love that they’re the kind of friends who bust each others chops.

So Amri goes below deck and I’m confronted with the idea that this sand skiff has a below deck. How big is this thing? I was picturing...... Moana’s boat. But on sand.

Periss’ ship doesn’t just have a lower deck, it has hammocks. Multiple hammocks. Multiple hammocks with multiple hammocks still vacant. At minimum that’s... lessee Kylan, Onica, Periss all sleeping.... There’s a minimum of five but I don’t know if it would be uneven so there’s probably at least six hammocks!

This is a big, small ship and Periss was scooting around all alone in it.

Anyway, Amri gets into a hammock and passes out almost immediately.

He’s woken up in a hurry by Kylan (although its now daytime so he must have been asleep some hours) because there’s a storm and Crystal Skimmers because it doesn’t rain in the desert but when it rains it pours.

Also, they’re in the basin now so its just endless sand in all directions.

To their right, the sky ended in a cloud of gray dust crackling with lightning rolled like a monster with fire in its teeth. It boiled, unleashed and unconstrained like a whirlpool, in the wide desert.

Also, Crystal Skimmers. Darkened ones.

Geez, I feel like we haven’t deal with the darkening in a while. It barely come up, if at all, during the Sifa stuff. Because of ocean, I guess? I mean, if the darkening works by seeing some darkened crystal veins all that open ocean means that only the deep sea creatures are gonna get darkened and they’re probably bonkers already.

Anyway.

The approaching sand clouds teemed with horrific golden creatures. Their diamond-shaped bodies were bigger than the skiff, the size of the three-masted Sifa ships, with rough, ragged manes and long barbed tails. The creatures crashed out of the sands turned up b the storm to the left and the right and all around them, snapping with enormous gaping mouths.

If you remember the giant flying manta rays that the Dousan use to travel, then its those guys.

They seem huge so I wouldn’t want to deal with a rabid one of them, let alone a teeming of them.

Seasoned desert traveler Periss also decides that the storm isn’t natural either. He would have been able to navigate around it except for the Crystal Skimmers ambushing them.

One of the Crystal Skimmers side swipes the skiff’s starboard float and then gets tangled up in the ropes and starts dragging the boat around.

Periss recognizes this Crystal Skimmer as Hanja, who has the remains of a Dousan harness on its back. He begs Hanja to calm herself but Onica says that she can’t be reached since she’s seen the darkness. And that they’ll need to cut free or get dragged to death.

Seasoned boat traveler Onica takes charge. She and Periss go out to cut the ropes at the bow and stern where the Skimmer harness tangled.

They succeed in cutting the lines but before Amri can pull Onica back into the boat

Just as the starboard float glanced off the racing sand below, another Skimmer burst from below them. Amri felt Onica’s fingernails rip against his palm as the Skimmer snagged her in its enormous mouth, tearing her from his grasp.

ONICA NOOOO!

You’re too delightful to die! We barely know ye!

Okay okay okay Crystal Skimmers don’t have teeth so she’s not getting chewed but its got her good and it doesn’t feel the pain as she stabs it in the lips with her knife because its so maddened by the darkness.

And it keeps diving into the sand with Onica in its mouth which as far as experiences go I imagine is like being in a tumble drier full of sandpaper.

Periss follows the Crystal Skimmer but its flying too high and he says that Onica will have to fly down to them, winged girl Gelfing that she is.

“She can’t fly.”

The tiny, numb voice came from the folds of Amri’s cloak.

“What?”

“She lost her wings in a storm,” Tavra said. “She can’t fly.”

Oh no! Is that her Dark Backstory that we left the Sifa plot without learning? The thing that filled Ethri with much regret?

Naia decides she’ll fly up to the Skimmer and save Onica but her wings are so dried out from the desert that she probably can’t fly and if she did, her wings would probably be destroyed.

Geez, there’s a lot more to having wings than I had ever considered.

Amri decides he’ll do it instead.

But what of his no wings? Necessity is the mother of invention, probably. Amri pulls off two of those fins (that have already been noted to be roughly the size of Gelfling wings) and ties them to his back.

Buuuuut he doesn’t know how to fly. So Amri’s plan has a part 2. He tells Tavra to take over his body like she did before.

OH! That’s coming back up! And her being a spider is plot relevant in a lot of surprising ways this book.

“Amri, I didn’t do it on purpose before,” Tavra protested. “It was an accident! I don’t know how!”

“Well,” he growled, “you’re going to have to figure it out!”

He leaped and spread his arms.

The wind picked up like a hand, thrusting him into the sky. The gusts were like waves, coming from every direction, knocking him and twirling him higher and higher. He had no idea how to navigate, how to fall - how to fly. All he could do was try to keep his arms from breaking as the wind battered and beat him.

“You and Onica made a promise!”

“But I can’t --”

“Are you going to break your promise?”

Oof. Going for the hard-hitting emotional low blow, Amri? You can be mean when needs must, especially for the guy who wants to be the funny friend.

Can’t argue that it works because it works.

Amri is suddenly slam dunked into a dreamfast with Tavra for some important exposition dreamfasting.

A memory of a storm at sea with Onica’s ship broken to bits and her clinging to it as it breaks into smaller bits, holding Tae safe in her arms while the wreckage of the ship and the hail of the storm tear her wings to shreds.

Amri as Tavra fights her way through the storm, scoops up the two Sifa and flies them from the wreckage.

Promise me, someday we’ll sail away.

Tavra and Onica sat together on a misty shore, watching the tide bring in shards of crystalline ice. The seafarer’s lantern glowered nearby, dimly lighting the fog that surrounded them like a protective blanket. They were hidden there, by the silver mist. Or at least they could pretend they were, just for this moment.

To a place where no one can find us. Where there are no Sifa... no Vapra...

Their hands touched palm to palm, fingers weaving together.

Where it doesn’t matter. Where we can just be... one.

I’ve said before that I was 99% sure that Onica and Tavra were dating with all the saying it without actually saying it about their relationship. But, uh, I’m now 200% sure.

This is about as explicit as you can get without having one of them say girlfrens.

Anyway, the dreamfast ends and Amri finds that he’s flying. Or rather, Tavra is flying Amri. Like he’s a giant robot and she’s a plucky anime youth. Mobile Suit Amri.

Tavra is such a good flier even when flying with some juryrigged wings and she’s responding so intuitively to the winds that Amri briefly thinks that the storm had just quieted down since it seems less severe.

But when they reach the Crystal Skimmer, seeing Onica hanging limply in its mouth knocks Tavra out of sorts. The improvised wings get ripped off by the wind and Amri has to climb the Skimmer’s mane towards its mouth.

Now that the drift has ended, I’ll comment that the thing they did, Tavra piloting Amri to take advantage of all the physical skills she has. Its an interesting way to use the two of them. And its an interesting extension of Amri deciding to take up Tavra’s sword to take her role in the group despite having zero experience in swordery or fighting. But as an ultimate move, its probably unhealthy. Since Amri’s deal is that he feels useless and like he doesn’t contribute much to the group. If he starts thinking of himself as just a convenient meat puppet, that’s not great for his self-image.

Can’t deny that it got them 90% towards saving Onica but Amri has to do the last 10%.

The Skimmer dives into the sand - which we can now confirm from the POV character’s POV is an awful experience that crushes and scrapes and suffocates - but Amri manages to pull Onica free right when the creature dives towards the sand again.

He stood, tried desperately to find Periss’ skiff, but it was impossible. All he could see was gold and black, the storm and the din and the deafening howls of the Skimmers. He pulled Onica with him, trudging - any direction, it didn’t matter, he only wanted to be anywhere else. The sand burned his eyes, washed against his ankles, then his knees. He tried to listen, but its voices were too many. Millions of screaming sand-crystals, earth moving like water, singing in a tongue he couldn’t understand.

He turned as the ground shook. A Skimmer erupted under his feet, and Amri’s own scream was lost as the beast’s black maw swallowed them alive.

Geez, there’s just way too much getting eaten by giant beasts in this chapter.

#dark crystal #the dark crystal #Tides of the Dark Crystal #liveblog #Amri #Naia #Tavra #Onica #Kylan #Periss

[thelittlesttimelord]

The Littlest Timelord: The Death of the Doctor Chapter 15

TITLE: The Littlest Timelord: The Death of the Doctor Chapter 15 PAIRING: No Pairing RATING: T CHAPTER: 15/? SUMMARY: The Doctor’s death is looming on the horizon and Elise is growing every day. What the Doctor doesn’t know is that he has 200 years to teach Elise all he knows. Amy, Rory, and River let Elise in on their secret, because River knows she will keep it. What will Elise do when he’s gone?

Loud music played through the speakers in the console.

It was some rock song that Elise had never heard by a human band she’d never heard of. Elise decided she didn’t like Rock n’ Roll.

Amy and Rory played darts while Elise was sitting on the stairs sketching Idris while the Doctor stood in front of the monitor.

“Forty six. Rubbishy, rubbishy, rubbish,” Amy told Rory.

Elise rolled her eyes. She’d never understand human games. She and the Doctor played football sometimes when the Ponds were sleeping and she wasn’t too tired.

“Hello? It's a double top,” Rory argued.

“Wrong side of the wire, mister.”

“You're on the oche, Red.”

The music abruptly cut off.

“Who wants fish and chips?” the Doctor asked.

Rory raised his hand. “I'll drop you both off. Take your time. Don't rush.”

“Er, and you?” Rory asked.

Elise had once again been forgotten. Maybe she needed to speak up more.

“Things to do. Things involving other things.”

“Well, we'll stay with you. We'll do the other things,” Amy said, joining the Doctor on the platform.

“Nope.”

“Whatever you're up to, I'd personally like to be a part of it.”

The Doctor looked at her apprehensively.

“What?”

An alarm went off and the TARDIS lurched.

Elise was thrown from stairs. The Doctor grabbed her before her face could slam into the console.

“Solar tsunami. Came directly from your sun. A tidal wave of radiation. Big, big, big.”

The Doctor pulled levers as he tried to direct the TARDIS.

“Oh Doctor, my tummy's going funny,” Rory moaned.

“Well, the gyrator disconnected. Target tracking is out. Assume the position!”

“What does that mean?!” Elise yelled.

“Do I what do,” Amy told her. Amy ran to the jump seat and put her head between her knees.

Elise copied her.

Rory knelt down on the platform and did the same.

The TARDIS landed and everything was quiet.

The Doctor jumped up. “Textbook landing.”

They made their way to the TARIDS doors and the Doctor threw them open. “Behold, a cockerel! Love a cockerel.”

They all stepped out.

“And underneath, a monastery. Thirteenth century.”

“Oh, we've gone all medieval,” Amy commented.

“I'm not sure about that,” Rory told her.

“Really? Medieval expert are you?”

“No, it's just that I can hear Dusty Springfield.”

There was indeed music coming from the monastery.

The Doctor knelt beside a hole with an exposed pipe. “These fissures are new. Solar tsunami sent out a huge wave of gamma particles. This is caused by a magnetic quake that occurs just before the wave hits.”

“Well, the monastery's standing,” Amy said.

The Doctor took a snowglobe out of his jacket and shook it. Elise failed to see how that helped anything. “Yeah, for now.”

“Doctor, look,” Rory told him.

“Yeah. It's a supply pipe.” The Doctor scanned it with his screwdriver. “Ceramic inner lining. Something corrosive. They're pumping something nasty off this island to the mainland.”

“My mum's a massive fan of Dusty Springfield,” Rory commented.

“Who isn't? Right, let's go. Satisfy our rabid curiosity.”

The Doctor and Amy took off for the steps leading to the monastery. Rory and Elise cautiously followed after them. The steps led to a courtyard.

“So where are these Dusty Springfield loving monks, then?” Amy asked as the Doctor scanned their surroundings.

“I think we're here. This is it.”

“Doctor, what are you talking about? We've never been here before.” Rory said.

“Hmm?”

“We came here by accident?” Amy reminded him.

The Doctor turned to face them. “Accident? Yes, I know. Accident.”

Rory reached out to touch one of the pipes, only to yank his hand back. “Ow!”

“Acid. They're pumping acid off this island. That's old stuff,” the Doctor reassured him, “Fresh acid, you wouldn't have a finger.”

Amy inspected Rory’s hand as the Doctor walked off.

“Intruder alert. Intruder alert.”

The Doctor walked back to them. “There are people coming. Well, almost.”

“Almost coming?” Amy asked.

“Almost people.”

Amy and the Doctor ran off.

“I think we should really be going,” Rory said.

Elise nodded, agreeing with him.

“Come on!” Amy yelled.

“I'm telling you. When something runs towards you, it is never for a nice reason.”

Amy grabbed onto his jacket, pulling him after her.

Elise ran to catch up with them.

They ran into a room full of people in harnesses.

“What are all these harnesses for?” Amy asked.

“The almost people?” Rory guessed.

“What are they, prisoners, or are they meditating, or what?”

“Well, at the moment they fall into the “or” what category,” the Doctor told them.

“Halt and remain calm.”

“Well, we've halted. How are we all doing on the calm front?”

A group of people, the same people in the harnesses, came running into the room. They were all brandishing spears of some kind.

“Don't move!” a man told them.

“Stay back, Jen. We don't know who they are,” another said.

“So let's ask them. Who the hell are you?” Jen asked.

“Well, I'm the Doctor, and this is Amy, Elise, and Rory, and it's all very nice, isn't it?”

“Hold up. You're all. What are you all? Like identical twins?” Amy asked them.

Two people in odd looking suits came down a set of stairs.

“This is an Alpha Grade industrial facility. Unless you work for the military or for Morpeth Jetson, you are in big trouble,” the woman said. She seemed to be in charge.

“Actually, you're in big trouble,” the Doctor said, pulling out his psychic paper.

The woman snatched it out of his hand.

“Meteorological Department? Since when?”

“Since you were hit by a solar wave.”

“Which we survived.”

“Just, by the look of it. And there's a bigger one on the way.”

“Which we'll also survive. Dicken, scan for bugs.”

“Backs against the wall. Now,” one of the men in the orange suits said.

The Doctor, Elise, Amy, and Rory did as they said.

“You're not a monastery, you're a factory. Twenty second century army-owned factory,” the Doctor said.

“You're army?” Amy asked.

Elise smirked as she remembered Amy in Churchill’s bunker.

“No, love. We're contractors, and you're trespassers,” the woman said.

“It's clear, boss,” Dicken told her.

“All right, weatherman, your ID checks out.” She held out the psychic paper as the Doctor came towards her. “If there's another solar storm, what are you going to do about it? Hand out sunblock?”

The Doctor took it from her and laughed. “I need to see your critical systems.”

“Which one?”

“You know which one.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The woman, named Cleaves, led them into room with a vat full of a milky white substance.

“And there you are,” the Doctor said, wonder in his voice.

“Meet the government's worst kept secret,” Cleaves said, “The Flesh. It's fully programmable matter. In fact, it's even learning to replicate itself at the cellular level.”

“Right. Brilliant. Lost,” Amy said.

“Okay. Once a reading's been taken, we can manipulate its molecular structure into anything. Replicate a living organism down to the hairs on its chinny chin chin. Even clothes. And everything's identical. Eyes, voice…”

“Mind, soul?” the Doctor added.

Elise’s eyes met his. She narrowed them, wondering what he was up to. What was he thinking? She knew by the way he was acting that they hadn’t landed there by accident. An idea hit Elise. Was this to do with Amy? She’d seen the Doctor scanning Amy for pregnancy, but the monitor couldn’t make up its mind.

“Don't be fooled, Doctor. It acts like life but it still needs to be controlled by us, from those harnesses you saw,” Cleaves told him.

“Wait, whoa. Hold it. So, you're Flesh now?” Rory asked.

“I'm lying in a harness back in that chamber. We all are, except Jennifer here. Don't be scared. This thing, just like operating a forklift truck.”

“You said it could grow. Only living things grow,” the Doctor said.

“Moss grows. It's no more than that. This acid is so dangerous we were losing a worker every week. So now we mine the acid using these doppelgangers. Or Gangers,” Cleaves explained, “If these bodies get burnt or fall in the acid…”

“Then who the hell cares, right, Jen?” Buzzer, one of the men, asked.

“Nerve endings automatically cut off like airbags being discharged. We wake up and get a new Ganger,” Jennifer said.

Rory nodded, understanding.

“It's weird, but you get used to it,” the other man, Jimmy, commented.

“Jennifer, I want you in your Ganger. Get back to the harness,” Cleaves ordered.

Jennifer left as the Doctor scanned the Flesh.

“Hang on, what's he up to? What you up to, pal?” Buzzer asked.

“Stop it.” The Doctor jerked his hand back and pocketed his screwdriver. “Strange. It was like for a moment there it was scanning me.” He placed his hand on the surface.

“Doctor…Get back, Doctor! Leave it alone,” Cleaves told him.

He finally pulled his hand back. “I understand.”

“Doctor? Are you all right?” Amy asked.

“Incredible. You have no idea. No idea. I mean, I felt it in my mind. I reached out to it, and it to me.”

“Don't fiddle with the money, Doctor,” Cleaves said, her tone patronizing.

“How can you be so blinkered? It's alive. So alive.”

It finally dawned on Elise.

“You're piling your lives, your personalities directly into it.”

There was flash from outside and the monastery shook.

“It's the solar storm. The first waves come in pairs. Pre-shock and fore-shock. It's close,” the Doctor said.

“Buzzer, we got anything from the mainland yet?” Cleaves asked.

“No, the comms are still too jammed with radiation.”

“Okay. Then we'll keep pumping acid until the mainland says stop. Now why don't you stand back and let us impress you?”

Elise did not like Cleaves one bit.

#eleventh doctor #eleventh doctor imagines #eleventh doctor fanfiction #doctor who #Doctor Who fanfiction #doctor who imagine #amy pond #amy pond imagine #Rory Williams #rory williams imagine #the littlest timelord #the littlest timelord: the death of the doctor

[brittle-bone-gabe]

An Introduction: Chapter One - Eddie Kaspbrak

Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five, Chapter Six, Chapter Seven

Summary: Introducing each of the Loser aspiring heroes.

Read on Ao3: Here

Quirks were a scary concept for Eddie Kaspbrak, they were painful, made him sick… sick… sick and more sick. In fact, quirks stemmed from an illness, or at least that’s what his mother told him. Apparently as a child the first sign of Eddie’s “illness” was how high his temperature had gotten; first it was 104 degrees, a cause for concern obviously, so the five-year-old was taken into the hospital. The whole trip there Eddie kept claiming he was fine, the only complaint was from his mother since apparently Eddie couldn’t even feel how hot his forehead was. No signs of the flu or cold, ER doctors assumed it was another type of virus that was attacking his immune system, but after putting him through many unnecessary tests that both terrified him and made him exhausted. 

Waiting for the remainder of the tests to come back was taking an extremely long time, but it would be worth it if it figured out what was going on, right? Well, Sonia Kaspbrak would soon be disappointed when the ER doctor came back to announce that all the tests came back that Eddie was as healthy as a child could be; minus the growing fever which had jumped up to almost 200 degrees. The doctors and nurses thought that maybe the thermometer was malfunctioning, but after trying four different thermometers and each of them giving the same answer they had to rule that out. Again, Eddie didn’t understand what they were talking about, he felt just fine. 

The only thing that could give them a step in the right direction was when Eddie had let out a sneeze, smoke coming out of his nose. That’s when things were starting to click for one of the ER doctors, ordering the nurse to get a quick x-ray of Eddie’s toes. It was an odd test and Sonia had no idea why that would be necessary, but if they could figure it out that way then by all means. The nurses couldn’t even touch Eddie since whenever they did it was as though they were touching a hot pan, all they could do was talk to Eddie and instruct him how to lay and move his foot during the x-ray. 

That’s when the ER doctor finally had his answer. After seeing the x-ray emailed back to the doctor, he made sure to gather the physical copies so he could show the Kaspbrak’s what exactly was going on with young Eddie. Once the doctor put the x-ray film up on the light box that was hanging in the ER room, Eddie was highly interested in what he was seeing, as he couldn’t believe they ‘got a picture of his bones!’ Sonia had slapped his arm, regretting it immediately as it had burned her, but told her son to shush so she could hear what the doctor had to say. 

“If you notice here, Ms. Kaspbrak,” the doctor had begun to explain, circling the area of Eddie’s pinkie toe with the back of his pen, “he’s missing a joint in this toe.” 

“Okay? What does that have to do with anything?” Sonia snapped at him, glancing over at her son who was playing happily with the toy airplane he had brought along with him. 

“What that means is that this is highly likely this is just a quirk he’s finally manifested.” 

“A quirk?!” Sonia more or less screeched, looking disgusted at just the thought that her son had a quirk. “That’s impossible! He can’t have a quirk! I don’t have a quirk. His father didn’t have a quirk, how did this happen?!” 

The doctor shrugged, surprised at how Sonia was reacting to all of this. ‘I’m not sure. There’s really no connection between-” 

“This is not a quirk!” 

The doctor let out a sigh, reaching behind him to grab the cold cup of water he had brought in with him. “Ms. Kaspbrak, it’s really not a big deal that he has a quirk. In fact, 80% of the world population has a-” 

“No! He is sick!” 

The doctor was no longer interested in trying to convince her that what Eddie was experiencing was just a normal thing to most people. Now he had to figure out how to cool him down so he could send him home and get her the hell out of his ER so she’d stop ordering people around and telling them what Eddie needs when really he was just minding his own business being a kid and had no idea what his mom was doing. 

“Hey, Eddie,” the doctor started, scooting the chair closer over to the bed the five-year-old was still laying in, “can you put your hand in here?” He asked, holding the cold water out to him. 

“Um…” Eddie looked over his shoulder to his mother, who rolled her eyes at the doctor’s request, but just nodded at her son to go ahead to do what he said. “Okay…” A little nervous since he knew that it was wrong, Eddie still dunked his hand into the cup. Steam came from his skin, Eddie watched again in amazement. “Whoa!”

The doctor dried off Eddie’s hand before touching it, it went from burning hot to normal temperature. 

After confirming that Eddie’s temperature did, in fact, go back down to 98 degrees the Kaspbrak’s were free to leave the ER. Needless to say Sonia was not happy at all with the result… A quirk… How absurd, she had purposely married someone who was also quirkless to make sure this would never happen… 

“Isn’t it cool, mommy?” Eddie had asked from the backseat of his mother's car. “I hava quirk!” 

Sonia gripped the steering wheel so tight that her knuckles turned white, grumbling something under her breath. No… No, it was not ‘cool’ that he had a quirk. It was… Sonia had a perfect idea. She pulled the car over on the road she was driving, turning around in her seat to face her son. 

“Honey… you don’t understand.” Eddie looked at his mom with wide eyes, knowing that she was serious. “Having a quirk means you’re very sick.” 

“Sick? But I feel fine.” 

“I don’t have a quirk, honey, and I’m not sick.”

“Oh…” 

“You can’t tell anyone about your sickness, Eddie Bear, okay? Promise mommy.” 

“But…” 

“You don’t want to upset mommy, do you?”

“No…” 

                                                            -----

For almost ten years Eddie tried to keep his quirk under wraps, making sure he carried a water bottle around with him just in case his body temperature stayed in check. Not going to lie, Eddie did work with his quirk behind his mother's back after school, claiming that he was doing an afterschool program. His mother was happy that he was doing extracurricular activities and Eddie would work with his quirk, it was a win-win situation.

Turns out Eddie’s quirk was a sort of pyrokinesis, meaning he could create and control fire. There were a couple of times while focusing extremely hard where Eddie could actually start a fire with his mind, but usually only happened when he got extremely frustrated. So far he was only limited with breathing fire, which was cool, but Eddie wanted to do more with his quirk. The only downside to this was if Eddie pushed himself too much while breathing fire it would trigger an asthma attack, and having that in the field alone he found was quite scary and needed to keep his inhaler close.

About two weeks ago Eddie had sent in an application to a new hero school that had just recently opened up in America, a school that originated over in Japan, apparently one of the top hero schools in the country. U.A. High School was located over in New York, an entire seven hours away from Maine; Eddie wouldn’t mind having that distance between him and his mother. She was overbearing, always telling him that he was sick when really he knew that he wasn’t, she’s never really eased up on it, but Eddie now found a way to stand up for himself. Of course, when Eddie told his mother that he was thinking about filling out an application for U.A. High… saying she flipped out was an understatement… First, she tried convincing him that thousands of kids were going to apply for the school and his application was just going to get lost in with them all. When that didn’t work, she started getting mad, saying he was not going to send in his application and she was forbidding it; Eddie filled it out anyways. She has yet to find that out, yet  she had to remind him of his “illness,” saying that he would be too sick to attend. 

Bullshit. It was all bullshit. He was going to do his best to get into that school, and his mother was not going to stop him from this opportunity. 

Eddie had to make sure he made it home from his field before his mother got back from her doctors appointment. He was expecting his letter from U.A. High any day now, and knowing his mother if she got to it before he did she would throw it away and never let him have it. He didn’t have high expectations about getting accepted, but he would be damned if his mother would cause him to miss his opportunity. She was right… thousands of kids were going to apply, it would be a miracle if he made it in. Well, at least he tried, right?  

After checking the time on his phone, Eddie ran over to his bike that was sitting next to the dirt trail that led to his peaceful spot. He needed to get home ASAP, his mother’s appointment wouldn’t take too long and he had to check the mail. 

He pedaled as fast as he could down the dirt trail, the mail should’ve been there by now. Eddie was so sure it would be here soon, it had to be, he managed to get to the mailbox every day for a week before his mother could, even if that meant he had to skip his “after school activities” just to do so. Nothing. Every single time. Nothing was there. He was starting to wonder if maybe it came a while ago and his mother took it and left the other letters in the mailbox for him to go through. 

After he told a couple of people in his grade that he applied to they just kinda rolled their eyes as if they didn’t believe him, that, or they didn’t believe he would make it anyways. Everyone around him was doubting him so much that even Eddie was starting to doubt himself. Maybe applying for U.A. High was just a mistake, that could’ve been time and effort used for someone else, someone who was better than him. Not many people believed Eddie a useful quirk, hell, most kids thought he was quirkless just because he never demonstrated his while everyone else would take any chance they could to show off their quirk. Eddie was sure that if he used his quirk in school that the teachers would tell his mother immediately, and if she found out she would scold him, reminding him of his “sickness” and how all the other kids were also sick for having quirks. Eddie knew that wasn’t true, almost everyone had quirks, it was just a normal thing, why wasn’t he allowed to be normal?   

Sweat was pouring off Eddie’s forehead, he could feel his body temperature rising to high levels, he had to stop to pull out his water bottle, pouring it over himself so he could be at normal temps again. Recently Eddie’s began to notice that his skin would start to turn pink if he overused his quirk, ultimately causing him to have an asthma attack. He wasn’t ready to tell his mother about that, even though she told him to tell her anything that changes, if he told her about how his quirk triggers asthma attacks there would be no way he’d be allowed to stay after school anymore. Fuck that, Eddie needed all the practice he could get, just in case. Even if he didn’t get accepted to U.A. High he would start applying for other hero schools in the area, but maybe a bit further away from home, as Eddie still wanted some distance between him and his mother. Understandable though, right? 

Eddie stopped in front of the mailbox that sat in front of his house at the end of the driveway, he wasn’t sure if his mother was home or not, as she kept her car parked in the garage. He opened the mailbox to find it empty. Empty? That wasn’t right… It was almost four, the mail should’ve been here by now. Strange… 

He dropped his bike in the front yard before going inside the house to make sure his mother didn’t drop the mail off in the kitchen before leaving to go to her appointment. That had to be it, right? Yeah, that’s what it was… Unfortunately, when Eddie walked in the front door his mother was sitting on her usual spot on the couch, the TV was off which was unusual. Eddie stood there, motionless with his backpack still over his shoulders. The air was tense between them and Eddie had no idea why, so he remained silent until she would say something.

“Eddie Bear,” his mother started sweetly, but her tone made Eddie cringe, knowing that he was in trouble for something. 

“Y-yeah?” He stammered, looking at her, trying to keep his breathing steady. 

“Why do you want to upset mommy?” Again, Eddie cringed. He wished she would stop calling herself that, he wasn’t a kid anymore, he was fifteen and didn’t like being treated like a child. 

“Wh-what do you mean?” Even though Eddie didn’t do anything wrong he still felt guilty as if he did. 

Next to Sonia’s spot on the couch she picked up an unopened envelope that was marked as a letter from U.A. High. Eddie’s eyes went wide, his letter was finally here, but fuck… He was hoping that he could have grabbed it before she did. Fuck fuck fuck. Eddie stepped forward so he could take the letter for her, but Sonia pulled the letter back towards her so he couldn’t grab it. Eddie swallowed hard before taking a step back as his mother stood up from the couch. 

“Can I have my letter? Please?” Eddie asked her, hoping she would just skip past the dramatics and let him have what was his. 

“Absolutely not!” She said loudly, her hands now on her hips as if Eddie actually did do something wrong. This wasn’t fair at all, he knew that what he did wasn’t wrong. “I told you not to apply for that school full of sick people! Do you want your sickness to get worse?!” She demanded. 

“Mom-” 

“Don’t you understand that if you go to this school you’ll be away from me? I’m sick too, Edward! Not like them, but I’m still sick! Are you going to leave your sick mother behind?!” 

“Mom-” 

“Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Or a stroke? I’ll have one or the other if you keep making me worry like this! What do I keep telling you, Eddie? Stress will kill your mother!”

“Mo-”

“What would your father think?!” 

Frustrated, Eddie let out a deep, forcefully sigh, accidentally activating his quirk. Fire came out of his mouth, the rug under his feet caught a small fire. Sonia shreked in fear or either the fire or the fact her son used his quirk, Eddie couldn’t tell and didn’t really care at the moment. He stomped on the small fire so it wouldn’t spread. Once it was extinguished, Eddie let out a (normal) sigh of relief, looking back up at his mother whose eyes were wide, her hand on her chest. 

“I’m sorry,” Eddie told his mother, taking a small step forward, but his mother took a step back to the point she almost fell back onto the couch. “Mom, I’m sorry.” 

“Why would you use your sickness against me?!” She demanded, her face red from anger. 

“I didn’t! It’s not a sickness, mom!” Eddie snapped back at her, leaving Sonia completely speechless as Eddie never talked back to her before. “I’m normal, okay?! I’m normal! Almost everybody has a quirk!” 

While Sonia was looking for the words to say, Eddie took this opportunity to snatch the letter away from her. Talking back and snatching things away from her? Sonia had no idea where she went wrong. Normally her Eddie Bear was sooo well behaved and would never act like this. Eddie turned his back to her, walking into the kitchen as he ripped the envelope open, his heart slamming against his chest as he was getting ready to read what he had assumed was going to be his rejection letter. 

Dear Edward Kaspbrak,

I am delighted to inform you that you have been admitted to U.A. High School! Please accept my personal congratulations for your outstanding application and written exam. 

Nearly twenty thousand students have applied for the limited places for our Freshmen class. We were faced with many more talented and qualified candidates than we have room to host, the Admissions Committee has taken great care to choose individuals who present academic and personal strengths.   

With the card enclosed, you will receive your exam number and test location to decide class placements. Your exam date is also located on this card. If you need help with transportation it will be arranged. In the meantime, if you have any questions please contact us.  

Holy shit, he did it. He actually fucking did it. Tears were in Eddie’s eyes as he was feeling an overwhelming amount of happiness and excitement. Honestly, Eddie had prepared himself for a week to read a rejection letter that he didn’t prepare himself for an acceptance letter. He was so excited that he didn’t hear his mother enter the kitchen. 

“Edward,” she said firmly, snapping Eddie out of his moment of happiness as he slowly turned around to face her, the smile gone from his face. “What does it say.” It wasn’t a question.

“I… got accepted,” he said weakly, as if he wasn’t just overly excited for the first time in his life like he was just mere seconds ago. He looked at his feet, he didn’t want to look her in the eyes. 

It was silent for a moment, scaring Eddie, she never got like this and he wasn’t going to lie, it was pretty terrifying. Eddie had assumed that she was planning his murder and how to get away with it. Finally, she let out a deep, frustrated sigh. Sonia didn’t say a word, instead, she turned around and stomped up the stairs. Moments later Eddie could hear her slam the door to her bedroom shut, so much force was behind it that some of the items in the kitchen shook. 

Well… it was safe to say she wasn’t excited for him.  

#it #it chapter 2 #it chapter one #pennywise #my fic #losers academia #losers club #the losers club #Eddie Kaspbrak #minor eddie kaspbrak #mha quirks #quirks #crossover #my hero academia #my hero acadamy #boku no hero academia #boku no hero au #boku no hero fanfic #it fanfiction #it fanfic #boku no hero fanfiction #fanfic #fanfiction #it/mha #it_mha #bnha #quirk #family drama

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 200: Mushroom Mushroom

Previously on BnHA: We flashed back to Tokoyami’s workplace experience and later internship with Hawks. During the former, Hawks was pretty much one step ahead of his sidekicks and poor Toko the entire time, and they were reduced to running around after him as his cleanup crew. A frustrated Tokoyami asked why he’d drafted him and Hawks said it was mostly because he wanted to talk to one of the 1-A kids about the USJ attack. This frustrated Toko, but he still chose to go back to Hawks’s agency during his For Reals Internship, and this time he showed off some new skills he had learned and Hawks was actually impressed. He revealed to Tokoyami that the other reason he’d initially drafted him was because he thought Toko was wasting his potential: “if you’ve got wings, you should stretch them out and fly.” Back in the present, Tokoyami revealed his new Black Fallen Angel technique, in which Dark Shadow basically carries him around in his arms while they fly around. He busted this move out to rescue Aoyama from Kuroiro’s clutches, but before they could capture Kuro, Kendou’s team switched to their plan B, and Toadette suddenly made a mushroom sprout from the tip of Momo’s nose. Okay.

Today on BnHA: Toadette sprouts a bunch of mushrooms everywhere and it’s deeply and profoundly unsettling and no one likes it and what the fuck is wrong with Horikoshi honestly. Anyway, apparently Kendou planned it so that even if Team A was able to counter Kuroiro with a “light” technique, they’d still end up revealing their location, and on top of that they’d weaken Dark Shadow too. Momo tried to gather her team to regroup, but before they could, Team B’s Manga struck with his incredibly badass quirk which allows him to create physical onomatopoeia. Like, this dude creates a wall of giant letters by shouting something to the effect of “BAM KERSLAM” and it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. Then he makes the air all humid by whispering the onomato for “muggy.” This causes Toadette’s mushrooms to grow even faster, which I hate so much. Anyway, so Momo is cut off from the rest of her team by the giant letters, and Kendou proceeds to attack, knowing she has the advantage in a physical one-on-one match. The rest of the chapter is just Shouto quietly hyping up Momo from the sidelines, which I think we can all appreciate. Go Momo.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 223, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

LOOK AT THIS ADORABLE COVER CELEBRATING 200 CHAPTERS OF THIS RUCKUS

though it’s interesting that they didn’t get a color page! but this seriously is adorable so it’s fine

(ETA: and they probably didn’t get a color page because this chapter is the shortest chapter in history lol. we’re lucky we got what we did.)

I’m trying to figure out if Katsuki is actually trying to smile but just doesn’t know how to do so on command. like, he’s baring his teeth, but it’s not quite as ferocious as usual, ya feel? I feel like he knows the mechanics of smiling on a theoretical level but has no idea which muscles to use, and so he just ended up like that and was all “fuck it that’s close enough.” if you really want him to smile you gotta earn it

meanwhile Shouto is just not making any kind of effort at all. I don’t think he was ready yet

and Iida is clearly the one taking the selfie so let’s take a moment and give him some props for getting as good of a shot as he did considering what he’s working with

this also feels like as good a place as any to stop for a sec and analyze the changes in Horikoshi’s art style over the past 200 chapters. overall it hasn’t changed all that much, but one thing I’ve noticed is that the characters’ faces used to be longer and more angular, particularly the chin area (especially the male characters), and nowadays they’re all a bit more rounded out. also their necks used to be longer. the overall effect is that they all look a bit younger and more adorable. characters like Ochako have barely changed at all, but the difference is much more apparent in characters like Todoroki and Shinsou and even Deku himself

anyways, just wanted to make a note of that, since it’s something that’s been in the back of my mind since Shinsou’s reappearance. now back to our regularly scheduled chapter!

so yeah, mushrooms

something about this is so powerfully and viscerally unsettling. do I have mycophobia??

ffffffff oh my godddddd

or maybe it’s just the ol’ trypophobia acting up. ffffff I feel nauseous in a way I haven’t since fucking Moonfish’s teeth attacks. please don’t tell me the whole chapter is going to be like this, because I’m not kidding when I say that my stomach is doing flips in the bad kind of way

(ETA: yeah it’s definitely mycophobia. fungus creeps me out. this chapter is a fucking nightmare for me honestly. the weird thing is mushrooms are actually delicious. I don’t mind eating them, I just don’t want to look at them or acknowledge them ever basically I guess. anyway. back to this ordeal.)

this is a fucking nightmare quirk. this is up there with Centipeder. if I had this quirk I’d be knocking on AFO’s door all “take it, buddy. go ahead and sign me up for your evil army, whatever. just fucking take it dude”

also just a reminder that her name is actually Toadette. it just is

you know it’s bad when I agree with every word that Mineta is saying

RIGHT?!

fucking Awase trying to play it off like it’s not so bad. even though she has a bad habit of “spamming” them “everywhere.” holy shit. at this rate I’m going to have to cancel the entire class B. you’re all fucking contaminated jesus christ

(ETA: and looking more closely at Awase’s face, you can tell that he’s secretly traumatized and has Seen Some Shit and he’s trying to play it cool here but buddy we know. it’s okay. you’re among friends here.)

so now Kuro is hiding inside one of the mushrooms

didn’t you already try this plan. didn’t you literally just try this and it failed

also wouldn’t Dark Shadow notice that some guy was hiding inside of him? I feel like he’d notice that. no?

so apparently this was Kendou’s plan. she’s counting on A Team not realizing that B Team can take control of Dark Shadow

so they can do that then? then why didn’t they do that earlier when Kuro hitched a ride on Dark Shadow back to their group??

(ETA: lol exactly how long did it take me to realize this was a flashback)

ah, okay, so that was part of the plan. hold up, let me just shut up and read this whole thing before I cast any further judgement

...well that tells me absolutely nothing. okay so they thought that would work, but just in case it didn’t, they had a plan B also which we’re about to see take effect now. okay then so let’s see it!

so meanwhile Momo is telling her team to stay calm and that they need to regroup

and now there’s a lot of noise coming from deeper within the training ground

what the hell is happening here. this almost sounds like it’s purposely meant to be a distraction

now something is zooming down the corridor too fast to be seen

(ETA: lol those were the letters)

OH SHIT!!

IS THIS MANGA’S POWER?? HOLY SHIT!?

and if it is, then why are they surprised? surely the first fucking thing they would have done upon seeing Manga would be to ask what the hell their quirk is. like, if I personally saw someone walking around with a speech bubble in place of a head, I wouldn’t be able to fucking sleep at night until I knew. it’s just one of those things. you gotta know

we have a new Best Quirk ladies and gentlemen. sorry, whoever it was that had the previous best quirk. you had a good run

(ETA: so I just got done answering an ask about the class B quirks and I gotta say, Horikoshi really outdid himself with most of them, they’re amazing.)

can he only materialize katakana or can he do hiragana, kanji, roman alphabet, etc.? inquiring minds want to know

(ETA: I bet you he can do all of them. Manga ilu)

also class B has several people with no actual heads or faces and I’m very curious as to how they see, hear, etc. he doesn’t have eyes, people!!

but I still love him though

wow his letters are so sturdy that Aoyama’s laser can’t even scratch them. holy shit. you know two paragraphs ago when I was all “best quirk” but like jokingly? well now I’m thinking real seriously on it, let me tell you though

okay what

okay now I’m pretty fucking sure this is in fact the strongest quirk of all time!?

lmao Satou is wondering the same thing as me about Manga’s powers. “how would those onomatopoeia work in foreign countries?”

(ETA: Viz’s translator Caleb Cook took this to be Horikoshi’s way of saying “lol sorry in advance for this bruh” which I find hilarious.)

and Sero’s all “I DUNNO JUST BE QUIET AND WATCH.” Sero I feel personally attacked

oh shit it looks like Manga’s wall cut Momo off from the rest of her squad

well you know what, if Horikoshi had to make them lose for plot reasons, then this is about as good of a job as he could have done. you know that if Momo had remained with the rest of her team they would have pulled out a victory. Kendou knew that cutting her off from the others was key

OHHHHHHHHH SNAP

YESSSSSSS BRING ME MY BADASS LADY BATTLE

damn Kendou’s attack was so powerful that the impact still hit Momo even with the shield up

whoa, had we seriously not gotten one of these for Kendou before? even with everything she did during the Fanfic Lodge arc?

I love that she was smart enough to know that she wasn’t smart enough to best Momo. like, that’s not a knock against her at all; according to the character book Momo has S-ranked intelligence, the highest you can get. she’s on a level matched only by the Rat Principal and fucking All for One (and All Might, but he’s S-ranked in everything and clearly that’s just because he’s All Might)

and for the record, Kendou herself has A-ranked intelligence, which is the same level as Mei and smarter even than Deku and his Big Hero Brain. so yeah -- she’s good

and I got a bit off track, but anyway I was just trying to say that I love that she knew she had to strategize so that she could battle on her own terms

she’s shouting that she won’t give Momo any time to think

and she’s diving in with some more attacks!

so now it’s Momo’s turn, though! this is how she lost to Tokoyami in the sports festival! he took advantage of the fact that she needed a moment for her quirk to activate, and also to think of a plan. this is a weakness Momo has to overcome if she’s going to keep moving forward

ooh, Todoroki is still quietly confident in her!

so now Tetsu’s looking at him in surprise

and now Momo’s thinking back to what Kendou said about Momo constantly outshining her

and she’s thinking that Kendou couldn’t be more wrong, that even now she’s still just a novice

yes!! show her, Momo!

LOOK HOW SUPPORTIVE HER BOYFRIEND IS

fuck me, I’m gonna have to figure out how to work Shouto into this polyamorous MomoJirouKami triangle thing. why does everyone in 1-A have so much respect and admiration for each other??

and especially for someone like Momo, who even now is still so hard on herself and lacks confidence, to have someone who has such absolute faith in her is so, so huge. and Shouto is just so fucking eager to tell the whole fucking world how much he believes in her and how she’s going to kick ass and just wait and see

YESSSSSSSSSSS

oh my god. I’m so fucking conflicted!! I want Momo to kick ass so bad. but I don’t want 1-A to just sweep all five battles. and I also want Kacchan’s team to win because he needs a fucking win! but if anyone else from 1-A wins leading up to his group, then I feel like he can’t because that would mean 1-A wins the whole thing then and there, and Deku’s group becomes just a formality at that point

also holy shit you guys, this chapter was only 10 fucking pages. and one of those was a (black and white) cover page. this has got to be the least amount of fanfare I’ve ever seen for this kind of milestone, particularly for a series at this level of popularity. damn

but I’m guessing Horikoshi just needs a break, which is fine. probably it’s either shorter chapters, or One Piece-style frequent weekly breaks, or else unfinished chapters like we get every so often. I generally think it’s good for the writer of the series to get to sleep more than three hours a night, so sure, you know what, do as many 10-page chapters as you like. I’ll be grateful for whatever lol

(ETA: apparently Horikoshi mentioned in an author’s comment back in December that he was moving. so that may well be why the chapters got really short for a while. the last half dozen or so have been a consistent 15 pages each, so hopefully we’re past that now and I can get my solid weekly fix for the next couple weeks until we hit Golden Week and WSJ goes on break and I fall into withdrawals and have to compensate by seeing Avengers: Endgame seven times sob.)

#bnha #boku no hero academia #yaoyorozu momo #kendou itsuka #fukidashi manga #todoroki shouto #and whatever toadette's name actually is #I genuinely don't know #but tbh I'd rather her not become enough of a recurring character for me to have to learn it #sob #anyways #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #nothing like referencing a viral flash animation from 2003 to show how cool you are #how do you do fellow kids #mm #yes

[jadekitty777]

Successive Failure

I’m a little later then I said I would be on this one. I intended to release this one in-between the hiatus, but one of the final scenes was giving me some trouble, but I still hope it was worth the wait! Ever since this volume decided to bring Qrow’s addiction as a more prominent plot point, I wanted to try my hand at a proper introspective piece for him, and this is what resulted.

Rating: K+

Word Count: 6k

Ao3 Link:  Successive Failure

Warnings: Lots of cursing and alcoholism

Summary: No matter how many times Qrow has tried, he has never able to put the bottle down for good. You’d think that’d be his greatest failure in life. You’d be wrong. [A What-If scenario of Volume 6, Chapter 9 – What if Team RWBY found Qrow in a different way]

~

“Give me the strongest you got.” Qrow ordered the moment he sat down.

The bartender’s curvy mustache waggled as he gave him a sharp look over. “You ain’t from around here, are ya bud?”

Annoyance tinged through him. He knew some bartenders were always out looking for the next strange person to talk with; but Qrow certainly wasn’t interested in spilling his life story. “You’re a regular ol’ Sherlock. Can I just get my drink?”

The other was not amused with his attitude, not that many ever were. In answer, he reached under the bar and placed a bottle on the desk. It was pretty unassuming, just a shade of dark-green, with a label on it that read ‘King Taijitu Venom’ on it. The two-headed Grimm hissed at him from underneath the title.  “Argus’ breweries are some of the finest in the world. To the point some of the bottles need special permission to be exported. But this one right here?” He tapped the bottlecap. “Is so potent it’s been illegalized for transport. Only people in Argus can purchase it, and only by the shot.”

As he scanned the words, he quickly discovered why. 67.8 APV. He’d never had anything stronger than 35 before, and it had knocked him on his ass by the end of the night.

He had to admit, it got his interest piqued. “Is it that good?”

“Let’s just say one shot has put even the biggest of guys under the table in the hour. You? I’d give twenty minutes.”

He slid a lien card across the bar, smirking confidently. “That a challenge?”

~

Qrow has had many terrible ideas over the course of his 40-year lifespan. Sneaking from one bar to another to take two shots of pure poison in a bottle somehow only ranked in the top five.

Still, as he wandered around the streets of – where was he again? Didn’t matter. As he wandered the streets, trying to find his way back to the house, he had to wonder why he didn’t try this sooner. He felt great! The liquor had burned like whiskey but tasted as fine as a martini. Worth every bit of the 200 lien it cost him.

“W-Whoa!” Qrow stumbled as the ground underneath him upheaved, grasping onto a light pole to keep himself upright. A bubbling in his chest turned into laughter and he swung himself around it, doing a decent rendition of ‘Singing in the Rain’ in one of those wishy-washy musicals Tai liked to watch. He let go of it, kicking up some snow bunched along the curb of the sidewalk, before tapping and twisting across the road, going on about sunshine in his heart and other such nonsense.

As he twirled once more on his heels, he noticed two bright lights coming towards him. Ah, right, the spotlight! Time for the big finish! He held up his arms, grinning widely, as the lights sped towards him.

“QROW!” The voice – a fan no doubt – was echoed with a great big noise that must have been the baseline reaching the crescendo.

He took a deep breath, ready to belt out the chorus for his audience – when something slammed into his body with enough force to jar his bones and rattle his brain around in his skull. It made the whole world spin.

“What were you doing?!” The voice, his fan, shrieked from above.

He blinked away spots, confused on how he’d suddenly ended up back on the sidewalk. He craned his neck, trying to focus on the tiny lady atop him. As her face came into view, his heart leapt. “Flowerbud?”

“Ruby!” Another, more boisterous, woman yelled, before she came into view. Huh, when had Raven dyed her hair? “Is he alright?!”

Okay. Not Raven. She wouldn’t care about his wellbeing for a millisecond.

“What kind of idiot stands in the middle of traffic like that!” This third lady was much shriller as she came to stand beside not-Raven. Unfortunately, even in his wildest woes of drunkenness, he couldn’t forget the face of a Schnee.

Which had an even more unfortunate side effect of pulling him out of his stupor enough that he realized it was not Summer but his niece hovering above him. It was also her fist that hit him hard enough on the chest that some of the air rushed from his lungs, making his voice squeak ironically when he gasped out, “Pipsqueak?”

“How much have you had to drink?”

“Uh,” It took a moment to calculate, “Just two shots.”

“You’re lying!” Something seemed off about Ruby’s voice, but he couldn’t place why. Maybe he was still hearing Summer’s ghost in its tone.

Another hit jolted him from that train of thought. He swiped out for her hands – and was she using her semblance to keep them away from him because he was having an awfully hard time catching them. “Will you cut that out? Everything’s fine.”

“Fine? …Fine?!” He flinched a bit, her voice too loud. “Nothing’s fine! Oscar’s missing, everyone’s upset and you almost got hit by a truck! You, you-!” Lost for words, she just gave a yell of rage, before she was up and storming down the sidewalk, her cloak billowing behind her like a windstorm. After a moment, she gave another cry, kicking a Styrofoam coffee cup so it skittered across the concrete.

He knew something was really wrong though when she fell to her knees, pulling her hood up over her bowed head, wailing loudly.

“Ruby!” Yang hurried over to her.

Above him still, the Schnee and – wait, where’d the fourth come from? – shared a look, before the former nodded her head towards the sisters. “Go on. I’ll get him home.”

“Are you sure?” Blake looked between her and him warily. Not that he cared about that. Not one bit.

“Don’t worry. I’ve… done it before.”

He did however care about his niece who sounded really, really bad. “Kiddo?” He called to her, struggling to get to his feet. By the time he’d managed it though, dainty fingers were wrapping around his bicep, tugging him away from the sidewalk and away from his niece. “Hey, leggo!” His assailant didn’t answer nor concede. He tried to pull away, only to stumble even more when black glyphs appeared under his feet, magnetizing his boots and forcing him to stay on the path. “Ice princess, ya hear me? I said let go! I have to check on Ruby!”

“You’ve done enough.” She wouldn’t even look at him.

He was glad she didn’t because he knew that tone. Had heard it all his life, sewing itself into his head like a song that he couldn’t find the rest of. A tune that just wouldn’t quit replaying those few beats, no matter how many times he tried to distract himself from it.

It was the tone that said: I’m disappointed in you.

~

When Qrow was 30, he had hit rock bottom.

It had been a slow weathering. At first it was simply the pressure of the underground mission, the secrets so few knew looming along his back like a phantom. Then, Raven left, carving a hole in his team and family that not even Summer and her boundless optimism knew how to correct. She didn’t get long to try before her life was stolen next and with it, she might as well have taken Tai’s as he lost himself to grief so endless, no amount of effort could pull him out of the pit he’d fallen into. Qrow, left alone for the first time, felt like he’d lost all semblance of control. Aimless, guideless, he turned to the only thing that could bring him joy anymore, as false as it was.

He was no stranger to drinking. In the tribe, it was common place for twelve-year-olds to be declared men, and with it, were allowed to sip on the neck of a bottle. At Beacon, he made a lot of his connections through rave parties and throwaway dances, always with a cup in hand and praised for his ability to find ‘the good stuff’. Maturity and fitting in, that’s what drinking meant for him.

Until it didn’t anymore. For as much as he scoffed at his sister for it, he knew – whether physically present or not – he was just as good at running away.

As the years progressed, he became more of a master at that than anything else. By the time he’d truly woken up, Tai had gotten a new job as a teacher, Yang was seven, and Ruby was five. And apparently Qrow, drunk, stupid Qrow, was their babysitter.

But that was kind of the thing about black out drinking. He made promises he hardly remembered and had entire weeks months of his memory just splotched out like a gothic painter got a little too eager when they put the paintbrush to his brain.

So when he finally woke up to a puppy he hadn’t even known Tai had adopted yapping incessantly at him and found the house disturbingly empty, nothing but the grooved tracks of the girls’ play wagon disappearing into the forest left behind, he knew he had fucked up. Cursed himself as he rushed out after them, taking to the sky as he prayed to whatever Gods he didn’t believe in at the time that they would just let him be lucky.

Just this once, please, just this one time and he’ll never drink again.

They answered and he got to bring both the girls home that day.

He repaid Them by trying to convince a seven-year-old to keep a secret she shouldn’t have to hold.

Tai found out anyways, because Ruby was too wide-eyed over just how cool she thought her uncle was to understand why she wouldn’t tell her daddy about his brave rescue.

Qrow remembered that day with more clarity than he would have liked, down to the very way Tai manhandled him out of the house and tossed him into the dirt.

“I’m done.” Tai had seethed. He was beyond livid, red in the face and every inch of him shaking as he contained the need to pummel him six feet under. “You either get your fucking act together or you get the fuck out of my house.”

Though he’d later be grateful, the Qrow that day was nothing but indignant as he rose against him, “The fuck? I save your kids and you kick me out?”

“You were supposed to be watching them!” Tai shrilled back. “I’ve tried my best to be patient and understanding and all you do is spit that back in my face! And you know what? I’m tired! I’m tired of giving you extra money every week. I’m tired of calls at 2 A.M to come pick you up from the bar. I’m tired of having to explain to the girls why their uncle is never around, even when he is.”

“At least drinking’s a better excuse then the damn pity party you’re still throwing.” Even as he said it, he knew he had crossed a line, and deserved every bit of the black eye he received for it.

“You know what? Fuck off.” Tai snarled down at him, before turning back for the house. Turning back from him. “You want to go kill yourself, then be my fucking guest!”

“Y-Yeah well-!” Qrow scrambled for a response, digging as dirty as he could go, “I’m sure you’ll be happy to be rid of me! Better off without your bad luck charm hanging around, right?!”

For a moment, it made his brother-in-law pause but when he looked back at him, there was no sympathy, only disappointment. “Wow. Playing the manipulative card? I thought you were better than that.”

And then, to add salt onto the newly cut wound, the door was slammed in his face and Qrow found himself homeless.

He’d like to say he’d immediately cleaned up his act and came back into the house with his tail-feathers tucked between his legs, but that’d be a lie, so he didn’t. In fact, he never told anyone how he spent the next few months, scavenging about and doing less than savory missions for quick cash to feed his addiction.

His second awakening came when he found himself locked in a prison in Vale after trying to steal a six-pack from the grocery store. Nothing was more pathetic than being given his one phone call and realizing he had absolutely no one to dial.

So he called Ozpin, explaining without explaining that he found himself in a bit of trouble and needed some cash. He had expected to be hung up on. He had hoped to be wired the money. What he got was his former headmaster coming down to the station in person to bail him out. And boy, was that ride back to Beacon ever awkward and uncomfortable, Qrow silently wishing he could sink into the leather seats until he disappeared for good.

Oz didn’t ask any questions until they were closed up in his office, making Qrow feel like he was seventeen and about to be scolded for breaking the holographic projectors in the computer lab. Again.

“So, care to tell me what that was all about?” Ozpin asked, pouring him some hot chocolate.

“Don’t suppose I can just say no and accept a week’s detention like the good ol’ days, huh?” Qrow accepted the cup, even if he likely wouldn’t drink it.

He chuckled in return. “I’m afraid not. Being a graduate means I can no longer dole out corporal punishment.” He pushed off from the desk he lent against, saying as he rounded it, “However, I’m still an excellent listener, if you want to talk about anything.”

He stared hard at his reflection in the muddy surface. “Who says I got anything to say?”

The other sat down, humming, “Well, I suppose if you don’t we can merely spend the time catching up. It has been quite awhile since I’ve last seen you.” Qrow slunk down a little more in his seat, pretending he didn’t know why that was. Oz went about pouring his own cup, adding as he did, “It’s a little ironic you showed up, actually. Taiyang called a few days ago, asking if I’d seen you.” Brown eyes peered at him over shaded spectacles. “He’s worried.”

That finally got him to snort, crossing his heels on the edge of the desk. “Yeah. Sure he is.”

There was a sigh, Oz dropping all pretenses that he didn’t already know what was going on. “Qrow, I understand why you might feel that Tai’s actions were out of spite, but-”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m a burden.” He slumped further, setting the full cup on the floor. “Got it.”

His old headmaster gave him a reproachful look, before sternly saying, “No. You are not the burden, Qrow. Your drinking is. You need to separate yourself from the vice if you hope to beat this.”

Beat it? He could hardly live without it. “Drinking IS part of who I am.”

“Do you truly define yourself in your head as a drunkard?”

“Well… what would YOU define me as?” He challenged right back.

“A huntsman.”

It was so simple.

And yet so wrong.

“Ha, haha!” Qrow smacked his own forehead, craning his neck over the back of his chair as he laughed towards the ceiling. “You got to be kidding me! Oz, I haven’t done an honest mission in years.”

“Then do one.”

“Okay, it was funny the first time, not so much the second time.” He spat.

“I’m being serious.” Oz turned slightly, bringing up a display to the left of him, scrolling through a listing. “How about Grimm control in the western sector? Or escorting the trade lines in Argus?”

“H-Hey.” Panic suddenly clogged his throat, Qrow sitting up straight. “Oz, wait. I’m out of practice.”

Hardly deterred, the man hit a few keys to pull up a new list. “Well, there are certainly plenty of easy rank missions to be done as well. How does transporting rations to stationaries sound?”

“Bad. They all sound bad.” He snapped. When that didn’t even earn him a cursory glance, he smacked the top of the desk. “Oz!”

There was a horrible screech as one of the cogs underneath the glass surface suddenly popped out of place, the rest of the gears coming to an awful, ear-piercing stop. They both looked down at it, Qrow giving a low groan before thumping his forehead on the cold, glass surface.

After a moment, he heard a sigh. “It’s easily fixed Qrow. Other things, I’m afraid, are not. Especially the longer you allow them to remain unrepaired.”

When he turned his head to peer up at him, he didn’t know what to make of the look Ozpin was giving him. It was full of compassion and, worse yet, understanding in a way that made his stomach flip sickeningly. “Look, Oz,” He said as he sat up, “I get what you’re trying to do and I appreciate it, I guess. But, it’s not…” that bad. The rest of the sentence faltered in his throat. He hadn’t slept in a bed or had a decent meal in weeks.

He tried again. “I can-” Stop? If he had the means to get it, he’d be downing a shot in a heartbeat.

“I don’t-” Need help? He was just in jail, for maiden’s sake!

And as he tried to find a way, any way, to justify himself, to argue for a desire on the worst of days even he hated, he realized he’d run out of excuses.

If he didn’t do something now, then what? How much further could he lose control of his life, until he couldn’t come back from it?

For the first time in a long time, Qrow remembered what it was like to be afraid of himself.

The strength he found to finally speak was tenuous at best, coming out as nothing but a whisper, “I’ve really fucked up, haven’t I?”

Oz’s smile was kind. “We all do things in life we regret. But, it’s not in those errors that we should crucify ourselves. Rather, it’s in those choices we make after those errors that we should judge ourselves.”

And so, Qrow made one.

For the following months, he stuck around Beacon and spent his days in a waking hell as he forced himself through a rough detox. Daily shakes, cold sweats, physical, aching pain that wouldn’t quit no matter how many painkillers he swallowed down. On the worst of them, the ones where the need became so strong he knew he was going to fail himself, he would have Ozpin lock him in the vault, knowing it was the only place his wings couldn’t get him out of.

When he returned to Patch, it was on orientation for Signal’s new school year. He never really felt cut out to be a teacher, but being a headmaster himself, Ozpin was able to secure himself the opportunity, encouraging him to take some time to recover and retrain himself while also helping the future generation do the same. In a few years, Oz told him, he’d want to see him return to the field as a Huntsman once more.

It was the first time in a long time that Qrow felt eager for something that didn’t come in a bottle. After being lost for so long, finally he was able to remember what he had wanted in life. To be a legend, unforgettable and revered.

But, first, there were a few people he needed to make things up to.

Ruby and Yang were simple. Young as they were, they couldn’t grasp the full impact of what had happened that resulted in his sudden disappearance, just the sorrow left behind and the joy of his return. However, blindsided as he was, Taiyang wasn’t so easily swayed, making it clear he’d have to earn his trust back. So used to breaking things in life, Qrow wasn’t even entirely sure how to fix that, but for once, he wanted to. This was the only family he had left, and by Gods, he was going to make sure he kept them. So, he stuck around and proved to Tai, to the girls, and even to himself that he really could be a functional adult and he didn’t need a crutch in life to get by. What had weathered away was rebuilt even slower, but little by little he was invited to spend more time at the house, doing everything from sharing dinners to marathoning series together. Eventually, he started to call it home again.

It wasn’t until Tai gave him permission to train Ruby that he truly felt forgiven though. He’d never taken anything so serious in his life as he did showing his niece how to be the extraordinary huntress he could already tell she would be.

Despite all his efforts though, he never stopped drinking, not really. He couldn’t manage to fully abolish the itch that would bite at his skin whenever the temptation would get to be too much. The most he accomplished was making sure his addition wasn’t the thing running the show anymore. But it was something. Something he could take a measure of pride in and hold onto.

His life was his again and he was going to make the most of it.

At 40, Qrow found himself waking up in a hospital and was hit once more with the realization he had fucked up.

~

Three problems made themselves immediately clear the moment he opened his eyes:

The headache beating across his skull was so terrible, taking a jackhammer to it would have been kinder.

The incessant beeping coming from somewhere in the general vicinity just needed to shut the hell up.

The soft whimpers of someone crying was simultaneously the least bothersome and the most terrible.

The last measure was magnified tenfold when he finally turned to see who it was.

“Ruby?” His tongue felt heavy and slurred, even though he knew he was anything but drunk right now.

She jerked, a startled gasp escaping her. She hurriedly wiped at her face. “Uncle, you’re awake!”

He glanced around the room, at the high-tech gizmos settled against the walls and the IV line going down into his wrist, and a sinking feeling started to settle in his gut as he pieced together where he was. “Why am I here? What happened?”

“When we got back, you were on the floor and you wouldn’t wake up. We thought you hit your head.” Ruby swallowed some, her lip trembling. “We weren’t even sure you were breathing and even when Jaune tried to heal you, you just started to-” Her voice caught and she looked away.

Something in him felt like it was breaking, seeing her cry like this. “Rubes, hey.” He tried to reach out for her, but she dodged his attempt, hurrying for the door.  

“I got to go tell the nurse your awake. He needs to check, things. I’ll be back in a second.” She couldn’t manage to even look at him as she slipped out the door.

It was more than a second, or even a few minutes, and Qrow didn’t have to wonder why. The image of Ruby, strong, surefire, almost unshakeable Ruby, probably holed up in a bathroom somewhere to compose herself because of him left a bad taste in his mouth and a guilt so heavy he was sure it’d crush him. (Gods, he wanted a drink.) The least he could do was try and look a bit more presentable by the time she got back and not like… not like he was dying. He struggled to sit up, but just a few inches sent a ripple of pain through his stomach and he swallowed down the instant nausea before he could throw up over himself. He laid still as much as possible, waiting out the agony until it passed.

Alright, bad idea.

He looked around, trying to think. Some beds came with remote-y things, right? It was Atlas tech but Argus was a close enough neighbor, maybe they’d imported.

He had just spotted a possible candidate to his plight, tucked away in the corner of a side table, when the door opened and in walked his niece and a young man in earth-toned scrubs. A gray and white banded tail curled around him as he approached the bedside.

“Mr. Branwen, it’s good to see you up. I’m Nurse Arma.” Qrow tried not to snort over how on the nose that name was. Unperturbed, the nurse continued, “Let’s sit you up, okay?”

Sure enough, the remote he had been eyeing was the right one, and the gears underneath it whirled, slowly lifted him into a sitting position. Qrow had to shut his eyes against another roil of pain – not just in his gut but all over, like he’d been zapped by a thousand volts of lightning dust.

A hand fell to his arm, pinching lightly. “Looks like you’re mostly hydrated again. How are you feeling?”

He glanced quickly to his niece, hidden in the far corner of the room and still refusing to look at him. “Well, ain’t the worst I’ve ever felt, if you can believe that.”

Arma chuckled, writing some things down on the chart he carried as he looked over one of the nearby machines. “Glad to see the alcohol poisoning didn’t destroy your sense of humor.”

“Wait, what?” The fact hit him like a train wreck. He’d been bad before, but he’d never… “That’s what happened to me?”

The smiles were gone, the other turning away from the IV bag to focus on him. “Do you remember anything from last night?”

Last night? A quick glance at the window told him that the sky was a soft, pale shade. He had grown so accustomed to reading it during his years when a clock and a calendar weren’t exactly common finds in a woodland camp, that he knew it was early morning. “I left one bar to go to another and then, I think there were some lights? That’s it.”

That was apparently not what the nurse wanted to hear as he frowned down at him, before glancing across the room. “Ruby, would you like me to tell him, or would you prefer to?”

She withdrew a little further in her corner, murmuring back, “You can. I can’t say it.”

“Alright.” Arma set his clipboard down on the side table, turning his full attention back to his patient. There was nothing about that piteous look that Qrow liked. “The story I was told is your nieces and her friends were out looking for one of your teammates that had gone missing.” Missing? Who had-? “During their search, one of them spotted you running into the street, right in front of a truck. Your niece here used her semblance to get you out of the way, but you were so intoxicated you couldn’t answer why you’d done it. You don’t remember that?”

Qrow could barely breathe. “I… N-No.” Had he been trying to…?

Oh gods, and Ruby and Yang had both witnessed it.

The armadillo Faunus only nodded and continued, like he wasn’t shaking up Qrow’s entire psyche. “One of them brought you back to the house, before going back out to continue her search, hoping you’d be able to just rest it off. But in the meantime, your blood alcohol concentration continued to rise, until it reached dangerous levels. That was when your teammate that was supposedly missing returned to the house, and he found you lying on the floor, unconscious and unresponsive. He called the rest of your team to notify them of the emergency, and they all rushed back home. One of your other teammates tried to use his semblance to heal you. He didn’t think that it wouldn’t work for a non-physical wound.”

He braced himself as he braved asking, “So, what happened?”

“If I had to guess? His semblance probably jumped your BAC into the highest peak possible.” The man held out his hands like a consolation even as he delivered the blow, “You had a seizure. Two, in fact. One there, and one shortly after you were admitted to ER. During the first one, you bit through your tongue enough that we had to stitch it.” Well, that explained why talking hurt. “The one here was much more severe. You would have asphyxiated on your own vomit had you not have had anyone to clear your airways. After that, the doctor ordered a catheter to clear some of the fluid in your bladder and an IV for the dehydration. We’ve been monitoring your progress overnight. Thankfully, no other complications came up; but, as you can imagine, it was a pretty scary experience. For everyone involved.”

Qrow couldn’t look up anymore, and instead stared down at his trembling hands, feeling the shame and humiliation tangling its way through him. “Yeah…”

He heard a sigh, Arma picking back up the clipboard. “You’re very lucky, Mr. Branwen. Had they been even an hour later, you probably wouldn’t be here anymore.” He stepped towards the doorway, saying as he went. “The doctor will come check on you in a bit and release you once she’s confirmed you’re well enough.”

With him gone, the following silence was almost suffocating. It felt like it took everything it had in him to speak up. “So uh, hey kiddo, what say we order some hospital food and complain about how awful it is?”

No answer.

“Or, maybe a game? I’m sure my Scroll’s somewhere.”

He saw her jaw twitch but her eyes remained stubbornly focused on the window.

His hands curled into the sheets. “Ruby. Say something. Please.”

“You want me to say something?” She said, turning, a storm in her gaze. “Okay. I’ll say something.” She stomped towards him, stopping at the end of his bed and yelled, “Do you know how mad I am at you?!”

“I-”

“No! Shut up!” She cut her hands through the air, her voice rising another octave, enough to make him flinch. “Do you have any idea what it was like, coming back to you just lying on the floor like that? I’ve never been so terrified as I was sitting out in that waiting room, wondering if you were even gonna make it!” She hitched over another breath, tears flowing anew. “What was I gonna do if you died, huh?! What was I gonna tell dad? That his best friend was just too STUPID to control himself? And Yang’s so upset with you, she won’t even come in here!” She lifted her arms up to the ceiling as if to curse the heavens, “I don’t even know I feel! I’m hurt and sad and, and- I just want to shove Crescent Rose through your head!”

As quickly as it was there, the bluster blew out of her, and as her arms fell and her body slumped, Ruby looked almost small again, in a way that made Qrow remember the innocent, little girl who so looked up to him for so many years. Looked at him like her idol and hero and who would go around school telling anyone who would listen about how her uncle was just the best and she was going to be just like him. Who would bounce at the end of his bed, bright-eyed and begging him to tell her another story about his missions or who would don her blanket like a cape and go running down the halls, fighting off imaginary foes.

And in her visage now, he could see that vision of him shattering around her. It pained him, to realize he’d caused it. He never meant to fail her too.

Ruby sniffled, saying to the tiles, “I know what Professor Ozpin did hurt you, Uncle, and it’s been real hard for you. But you were wrong about something.” She looked up, catching his gaze and holding it in a way she couldn’t before. “You said no one wanted you, but that’s not true. I will always want you to be a part of my life.” The words struck him in the chest, and he couldn’t breathe again. “If dad and Yang were here, they’d say the same. I know you think you’re unimportant and unneeded, and I think you focus so hard on that you can’t always see it, but you are family. And us losing you will break it more than you think it will.”

Qrow twisted the sheets in his hands. “Ruby, I-” His voice faltered. Fuck.

“I just…” She lowered her head. “I don’t know what else to do, uncle. What am I doing wrong?”

His eyes widened.

“If I could just figure out how to-”

“Stop.” Though his voice had been firm he barely felt steady, everything around him ready to upheave. He watched the way his knuckles turned white, the way his arms trembled. The way a single droplet fell from his chin, splotching a wet spot into the sheets. “Look. I know you want me to say I’ll just quit and everything will just be fine. But, I’ve been trying for years. I… don’t know how. To stop.” He chuckled bitterly, hitching over a sob. He couldn’t remember the last time things hurt this bad. “It’s like my semblance. I don’t want it, but I can’t get rid of it, either.” In the corner of his eye, he could see the blur of red growing closer. “But none of this is your fault, kiddo. All this? Being here today? It’s on me and me only. You, Yang, Tai?” He finally looked up at her. “You guys aren’t the reason I fail. You’re the reason I try at all.”

This time, when she hugged him, he didn’t try to pull away like he had at the farm. Instead, he sighed and sunk into it, enjoying the rare warmth and comfort it brought, even if he wasn’t sure he deserved it.

“Uncle Qrow?”

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

Qrow blinked his eyes open, staring at the silver rose-patterned emblem pinned to Ruby’s coat, seeing his reflection in it. He smiled weakly back at it. “Yeah kiddo, love ya too.”

~

Qrow stepped out of the bathroom, adjusting the last button to his dress shirt. “Gotta say, my normal clothes are definitely more comfortable than that scratchy gown y’all threw me in.”

“I’ll lodge a complaint with the fashion department, just for you.” Arma quipped, placing a tray on the side table, nodding to it. “Your personal artifacts.”

“Thanks.” He still felt sore and his tongue was a definite mess – he’d decided to take a look at it the moment he had access to a mirror – but after a small meal and enough water to fill a lake, his nausea and his headache had both tempered. Enough for the doc to clear him for release.

“Take care, Mr. Branwen.” Arma headed for the exit but as he reached the threshold, he paused, looking back. “And… for your sake, I hope I don’t see you back here.”

“Yeah, me nether kid.”

Once he’d left, Qrow crossed over to the table, sitting down on the edge of the bed. He pocked his scroll. Slowly slipped back on his bracelets. Then his rings. And, finally, his necklace. All the while avoiding the largest item there until it was all that was left.  

He sighed, reaching out and picking up the flask, hearing the slosh as he did. It triggered the itch, the one that left his skin tingling, his mouth watering.

If drinking two glasses of the strongest alcohol in the world was only in the top five worst things he’d ever done, he was pretty sure him undoing the cap of his flask was vying for the number one slot.

“You’re such an idiot.” He whispered as he lifted it.

~

He stuffed his hands in his pockets, following the signs down the hall to the lobby. It wasn’t hard to spot Ruby, between her standout clothing and her high-pitched voice shouting his name as she waved him over.

“Gee, glad the whole cavalry didn’t come running.” Qrow jibed.

She shoved him for it. “They’re outside. The staff doesn’t like a lot of us, uh, ‘weapons-toting kids’ hanging around.”

“Well, at least we’re already here when firecracker decides to deck me right back through the front door.”

“Uncle…” She reprimanded as she turned for the exit.

He followed after her. “Bet you five lien she does it.”

“That’s awful!” A beat, then Ruby smirked. “How about a box of chocolate-chip cookies instead?”

“Deal.” He chuckled, throwing an arm across her shoulders as they walked through the doorway.

~

Back in room 104, it wouldn’t be discovered until the orderly finished cleaning up the room.

Left upturned in the sink just outside of the bathroom was single item.

A metal flask, the last droplet of alcohol having drained out of it some time ago.

#qrow branwen #ruby rose #ozpin #rwby #fanfiction #Chase Firekitten's Tale

[bat-besties]

On Impawsibility - 7

Chapter 1   Chapter 2    Chapter 3    Chapter 4   Chapter 5   Chapter 6

Chapter 8   Chapter 9

A popular!Logan and loser!Roman high school AU based on @2pointomg’s idea with eventual Prinxiety. 

impossible 

ɪmˈpɒsɪb(ə)l

adjective

·       not able to occur, exist, or be done.

Eg. It is impossible to fund both the sports and drama programmes with the school’s limited budget.

·       very difficult to deal with.

Eg. The situation which Logan Sanders, Student Body President, is in after he convinced the school board to cut the unsuccessful drama programmes is impossible.

·       (of a person) very unreasonable.

Eg. Roman Prince.

To Roman, nothing is impossible. Not following his older brother Patton to acting college, not being a loser taking on the school’s popular Student Body President and definitely not writing and performing an epic school play with no money and six cast and crew members.

Edited by @alpacasarethegreenestanimal, who has an amazing fanfiction on AO3! If you like superheroes, sarcasm and Virgil angst then you’ll love this

@toolazytothinkofcreativename

@entitydark

@romanasanders

@barclays-sides

@cashmeredragon

@jughead-is-canonically-aroace

@immacrazyfangirl

@narniasfinestavengingsociopath

@featuredfander

@what-a-catch-joe

@mightaswellenthuseaboutbooks

@candiukas​

@whatamessofwords 

@zoalis

Logan’s father had made him promise to do his best in the debate, and to be careful of the New York boys as his own heart had once been broken by a pink-haired artist from the Bronx. His mother had told him to not bring revision and have fun instead. As soon as he got onto the coach Joan was in charge, making sure everyone was ready, and he’d uninstalled email from his phone so the only motions he’d be worrying about were hypothetical questions with meticulously researched answers. His bag was full of notes and Agatha Christie novels. Virgil and Roman had never been connected to debate at all.

‘Alright, guys, we’re almost there so we need to wake up a bit.’ An orange beanie popped over a seat.

Susan threw a travel pillow at Joan and groaned, ‘It’s five in the morning!’

‘We’re going to do word association games!’ Logan sat up, grinning at Joan, who had looked right at him when they suggested that.

‘Debate!’ shouted Miles at the back.

‘Happiness!’ was Logan’s reply.

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

Below-gan a cheerfully shabby apartment near the best theatre school in New York City, a bespectacled teen was psyching himself up to ring a doorbell with a pawprint on it and a handwritten label in multi-coloured felt tip. ‘You need help, kid?’ asked someone half-dressed in costume for their audition in Heathers. ‘I’m fine, thank you.’ replied Logan stiffly, trying not to stare at the garish tartan blazer.

The girl squinted at him for a moment. ‘You Patton Prince’s little brother?’

If there was one thing Logan wanted to do less than approach the brother of his nemesis the night before the most important debate competition of his life, it was small talk. ‘I sure am.’

His voice was shaky and he was desperately avoiding eye contact. Taking pity on him, the girl quickly leaned over him and pressed the button. ‘Patton, your brother.’

There was a crinkle on the line while Logan awkwardly manoeuvred himself under the girl’s arm. ‘Send him up right away! Boyo am I glad to see you!  Whatcha doing out here? Well you’d buzzer come right up. Thanks Gabriella. Good luck!’

‘Thanks Pat!’ The girl shrugged at Logan’s scowl, put her croquet stick over her shoulder, and marched off, whistling ‘Candy Store.’

Recalibrating the school legend of Patton Prince with this goofy character, Logan started up the stairs, needing to reach the apartment as quickly as possible before he began to panic and rethink this truly, truly awful plan. Oh, look at that – he was already panicking! He paused outside 109, rehearsing what he would say. Then he rapped smartly on the door. It was flung open by a – woman? With glasses? He’d thought that Patton was a guy, but clearly-

She was singing. She was singing at him. She was wearing a trilby. A man jumped out behind a hat stand and swirled her into a kiss before two more men came out with synchronised jazz hands. Unsurprisingly, the group’s singing was very good. In time with the music, a man in a baby blue polo, the same glasses as Logan himself and a trilby jumped out ‘I want to be a part of it – New York, New York!’ He cut out suddenly, leading the other four to trail off, looking at him in confusion.

‘Who are you?’

Logan tried to practice socialisation, he really did. He could do small talk with students, ask intelligent questions about music with Elise and had stopped using probability percentages and fronts in his discussion of weather. But he was not ready for this. The display explained Roman but not really anything else. Patton recognised the boy in the doorway – although based off the pictures Roman had sent him he should have devil horns in red biro ink. It just took him a moment to process what that particular boy was doing here, some thousand miles away from their home town. The boy readjusted his tie and decided to break the silence. ‘Greetings, Patton Prince. I am Logan Sanders, the Student Body President of your alma mater, Simmons High.’ He paused for a moment, observed the expressions of the five roommates and explained further. ‘I am not Roman. Nor do I like or even tolerate singing, dancing and such frivolities in make-believe.’ When no-one responded to this he continued. ‘However, I am here about Roman and his play. On behalf of the school.’

Patton’s face broke into a sunshiny grin, ‘Well, shucks, come on in.’

Logan quickly unlaced his shoes, although he didn’t like the lack of formality that afforded him. He was pretty sure that the yellow of the hallway walls and the purple of the carpet were clashing colours, and he did not understand why there were multicoloured handprints on the kitchen cabinets or a host of stuffed animals on the sofa even though the average age of the occupants was twenty-two. Despite the fact that the other four students had each been in the middle of something before trying to surprise Patton’s little brother, they made themselves comfortable in the living room, interested in the next instalment in the saga Patton relayed to them each week. Logan elected to stand, not taking off his backpack.

Larry spoke incredulously over the quiet noises from Patton making tea in the other room ‘Logan who closed the theatre programmes?’

‘I did not close the theatre programmes, I advised the school on the best course of action to take to help the sixty-five students in sports-based extracurriculars.’ Logan replied to a spot one metre over Larry’s head.

Dot continued – ‘Logan from Patton’s old high school? In Florida?’

Corbyn broke in, ‘Do you want to sit down, at least? We’re not scary people.’

‘Yes, yes and no thank you. Scariness is subjective.’ Logan still couldn’t make eye contact.

‘What’s your favourite Disney film?’ was Sloane’s question.

‘Big hero six. I fail to see how that is relevant to the matter at hand.’ He was being weird, he was being weird, what would Virgil say? ‘Since we are all destined to die alone anyway.’ Reading the room, he should not have taken socialising tips from a guy who hissed when people annoyed him.

‘Well…’ Sloane replied, trying to keep his expression neutral, ‘I have a Baymax plushie in my bedroom if you want to hold it?’

‘I am not a child.’

‘So…’

‘Yes please.’

Patton nudged the door open with his hips, holding three mugs in each hand. With a swiftness caused by bitter experience, Corbyn took a few off him. Logan was now sitting cross-legged on the floor holding a Baymax toy and cradling a mug of tea, surrounded by college students and cartoon memorabilia.

Patton sat near him, leaning his back on an empty armchair. ‘So, kiddo, what’s up?’

‘You may be aware that Roman is attempting to put on a play without any school funding.’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, I am here to ask for your assistance. It is likely students here would donate to putting on the play given their passion for theatre and probable affection for you. As both a fourth year and scholarship student it is also likely that you could ask a scout to go and see the people performing, as well as the set and costumes.’

‘I’ll do whatever I can, sure. People love an underdog. How’s Roman doing?’

‘Whoa, whoa, whoa!’ broke in Corbyn, ‘Logan, do your parents know where you are? Why are you in New York?’

‘I am here for a national debate competition.’

‘Yeah, I’m still a bit confused.’ added Sloane, ‘aren’t you trying to stop the play, so they won’t get funding.’ He broke off at Patton’s ‘parental warning’ eyebrows.

Logan put his mug down on the coffee table with a bang. ‘Falsehood!’

‘Alright slugger, calm down. Sloane here was just getting a little carried away, is all. I’m sure you’re all president and correct.’

‘Humorous.’ said Logan with no expression whatsoever, ‘If you are in accordance with this plan, then I shall leave, I have a competition tomorrow after all.’

‘We do need to iron out some details first. Could I get your number?’

As they exchanged numbers Dot made an escape back to her thesis, but the rest of the students were in this for the long-haul.

Corbyn was not going over his Hamlet monologue one more time, so he grabbed a piece of paper and a pen in the intent of taking notes. ‘How much money do you need?’

‘About $200 should be sufficient. That will cover costumes and the last few props.’

As Corbyn scribbled that down Patton tilted his head to the side. ‘Roman didn’t mention that you co-ordinated this with him. He could have just called me.’

Logan stood up a little straighter, ‘Well, uh, the thing is – he doesn’t know I’m here. Technically he does know that I am in New York, but not that I visited you. I asked Talyn for the hypothetical price of costumes and decided to set this plan into motion.’

‘A random, anonymous act of kindness?’ squealed Patton.

‘…sure.’  This was strictly true, even if Logan’s reason for not wanting to have a conversation with Roman and his friends was a little more complicated than that. ‘It is common knowledge that you came here for college, and Elise asked her older brother where you lived. He gave me the address on the condition that I told you ‘spotlight llama’. What does it mean?’

Patton burst into laughter. ‘Just a little incident involving us two when we were in ‘Singing in the rain’ together. Nothing to…’ he broke off giggling, ‘Nothing to….hoo boy….nothing to allarma you.’

Inside jokes and people laughter at something Logan didn’t understand. Another one of his favourite things.

‘So rather than talk to Roman and email Patton, you estimated the costs of the costumes plus props and visited us in New York?’ asked Corbyn, looking up from his sheet.

‘I do not understand everyone’s confusion. I am here to help. Just let me sort this out.’

‘You don’t have to do too much. I know I may seem like a big ol’ goofball but I’m four years older than you and perfectly capable of doing this. We just need to find a way to transfer the money.’

Logan frowned at Patton. ‘I never said you weren’t capable. I do not doubt that you will perform your part of this adequately.’

The man shrugged guilelessly as Corbyn smiled down at his sheet, still not quite used to Patton’s ability to read people after four years. ‘Well, let’s sort this out.’

Eventually everything was prepared and Logan got ready to go back to the hostel for dinner and last-minute practice with the team.

As Logan put his shoes on, Patton leaned on the garish wall opposite him, looking at the door rather than into Logan’s eyes.

‘Everything’s going to be fine, kiddo. Be easy on yourself.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘A feeling.’

‘The bane of my existence.’

Patton smiled then held the door open for him. ‘Good luck tomorrow – have a de-great debate! Yeesh, not my best. Ooh, also! Say hi to Elise for me! And tell Roman to sleep and to call me if he has a problem with the play.’

Logan straightened his shoelaces, then stood. ‘I can’t do that. From the way your roommates were behaving, you should know how much Roman dislikes me. I mean, he thinks I would sabotage his play!’

Patton folded his arms and raised his eyebrows. ‘No. You’re going to tell him. You’re going to tell him that you came to New York and asked me for help, and you’re going to tell him that I think you’re pretty neat, and you’re going to tell him to stop overworking himself on the play and to go out on the weekend with his friends, and you’re going to do the same thing!’

Logan saw his mother in that speech and was rightly scared of the sound of tough love.

He nodded.  ‘Alright. Thank you. Farewell.’

So Roman hadn’t told Patton that Logan didn’t have any proper friends now. Perhaps it was hard to tell when from the outside Logan was objectively one of the most popular people in their school. Still, it was a small mercy, and since he had no intention of following through with any of Patton’s orders he was glad that there was at least one promise he wasn’t breaking.

#sanders sides fanfiction #patton sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #sanders sides #sanders sides fic #sanders sides au #prinxiety

[yvssanjay-blog]

A Series to Savour - Part II

And here I am again, trying to put together my euphoria of seeing Team India triumph in Australia against the oddest of odds. If you are here reading this, I assume you might have read the first part which covered the Adelaide debacle and the Melbourne revival. If not, you may read it now!

Coming back to where I left in the previous post, 2020 ended with an absolute bonkers of a turn around from India and guess what – 2021 started with 2 outstanding test matches, totally unexpected and other-worldly stuff, each of them classics in their own way. This would be long, but I hope you read on till the end - watching this series was an extraordinary experience!

Chapter 3: Grit and Survival

Alarm Time: 4:58AM. The cold January mornings cannot win against me now. Body and mind are in sync. Got to wake up and catch all the action, that is it! No two thoughts about not waking up! Series is level 1-1.

Toss: Another toss gone in favor of Australia. But the good news is, Rohit Sharma is available now to help Rahane. But wait, Umesh Yadav limped off in Melbourne. So, Saini is in too. And India have to deal with David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith in SCG. Tough work ahead?

We started by sending back Warner early, rain stopped play, then resumed and the day ended with Labuschagne and Smith all set to torment us on day 2. But, almost shockingly, Labuschagne played a wrong shot and Jadeja got a wicket and that was what was required. Wickets kept falling at one end, Smith kept batting at the other end. He got to his century, and now, after 8-9 down, he started his ODI mode of batting. There is no way he is getting out, and then, a moment of magic! Out of nowhere, Jadeja swooped in from square leg, shot a bullet throw with one stump in sight, hit it and caught Smith short while attempting a 2nd run. Whoa! Mind blown! That throw there felt like an antidote to Guptill’s throw in WC2019 (if you remember!).

Alright, we have to bat now. Not an easy total to overcome, but India have started well. 50+ with no loss. A little drowsiness crept in due to lack of sleep, but Rohit didn’t allow me to doze off. He was out, and Gill was gone too! On Day 3, many impactful things happen. Rahane chops on, Hazlewood had an extraordinary fielding moment to runout Vihari, Pant was smashed on his elbow, Pujara got to his slowest 50 ever, Jadeja was smashed on his thumb – his bowling hand! Oh God! The list is never ending. That day just spelt doom for India. Pant wouldn’t keep and Jadeja wouldn’t bowl in the 3rd innings. There was no way India was going to come back into this test. Australia piled on the runs pretty quickly with Green going berserk and they declared with a 400+ target. Most importantly, India would have to bat out 132 overs.

Dream: India bat out the 132 overs. Pujara gets a fine hundred and India some how manage a draw! 

34 Overs were done with on Day 4, Gill and Rohit gave a decent start again, but both were gone before end of the day. On Day 5, Rahane was done with in the 2nd over itself. Now, 96 overs to play and 7 wickets in hand. Out strode Rishabh Pant, who did not keep all through the 3rd innings, with no protection to his hurt elbow. Now, Rishabh Pant is Rishabh Pant. I don’t know what goes in his mind. I am very clear what goes through Pujara’s though - just bat! But Pant, after a slow start, begins to target Lyon. Heart is pounding too quick to his hoicks down the ground. In between, Paine was dropping catches. But Pant would continue. The new ball is due in 2 overs. India needed close to 150 now with almost 50 overs to play. Pant in the 90s. Till then I was counting balls to bat out. But now, I started counting the runs to get. And then, all the luck Pant had, suddenly deserted him and Lyon’s ball flew off his edge and was caught in gully.

Switch modes! Count the balls again. Without Pant, India is not chasing this down. Suddenly Pujara smashes 3 4s off Cummins. Whoa! Has Pant rubbed his intent into Pujara now? No! Hazlewood cleans up Pujara. Vihari and Ashwin somehow manage things until Tea – Vihari already tore a hamstring and Ashwin had a horrible back pain. 36 overs to bat out!

Last session started with Ashwin being given out only to be overturned by DRS and Australia continued their short-ball barrage! Ashwin found it tough but hung on. Jadeja was padded up – I am not sure he can hold a bat with his left hand. I was standing close to the TV, watching every over – just the 6 balls – closely, take a walk during ad breaks, again come back to stand in front of the TV. Over by over, Vihari and Ashwin were continuing to block. 25 overs to go, 15 overs to go, 10 overs to go, 6 overs to go. God! This is nerve wracking stuff. One wicket here, and everything will cut loose. Vihari edges one off Starc, but Paine drops it again. I am dying! 1 over to go. And finally, the Aussies decide to shake hands.

Yes! India’s grit allowed them to grind it out on a Day 5 pitch in Australia against their best attack, survived 130+ overs with a one-legged no.6, a bad-back no.7 and a one-handed no.8 waiting. The most satisfying and heartwarming draw I have ever seen. I had a smile imagining the guy who was assigned the job of compiling the highlights package of that last session! We are going to Brisbane with the series level. Who would have expected that after that 36/9?

Chapter 4: Heroes & Hysteria

Alarm Time(s): Brisbane has a 5:30AM start but weather forced 5:00AM starts from Day 2 onwards. So the wake up time switched between 4:50AM and 5:20AM. Decider guys! Bring it on!!

Toss: Australia haven’t lost in Brisbane for 32 years, and they had the best start. Win the toss, and start batting. What about India? No Vihari & Jadeja (obviously!), no Ashwin (hmm, okay!), no Bumrah also (shocker!) and India play 3 debutants (yes, I’d call Thakur a debutant) and recall Agarwal.

India get Warner and Harris cheaply, but as a sweet surprise, Sundar, on his debut, gets Smith out cheaply as well. But Labuschagne bats on with Wade and he gets a 100, scores moves past 200. Looks like a routine Aussie dominated day, and again, India fight back. Natarajan, on his debut, sends back both Wade and Labuschagne. Another wicket and India would be in the driver’s seat but Paine and Green bat it out. Thakur has an excellent spell on Day 2 to get Paine and Cummins which was preceded by Sundar cleaning up Green. 4 runs and 3 wickets. Woohoo… an Australian collapse I thought. But the tail wagged. 50+ runs for the last 2 wickets. India start by losing Gill early and Rohit got out in an outrageous manner – as per Sunil Gavaskar – but he was done in by Lyon I felt. Again, it is up to Rahane and Pujara to bail us out on Day 3. Some excellent balls, some rash shots, some terrific catching and 2-point-something sessions later, India were 188/6. About 180 runs behind. The average experience of the remaining batsmen – 1.8 Tests!!

And then comes the partnership I enjoyed the most all through the series - Sundar & Thakur! Thakur pulls over square leg for a 6 to open his account, he plays some delectable drives, hardly plays a loose shot against the spinner – very controlled in his defense. Sundar on the other end was playing as if it was a net session – casually blocking, some wristy flicks and neat driving down the ground. Slowly the lead was coming down, and I was dancing inside. Is this for real? This has probably never happened before – a debutant no.7 and a 0.1-test experienced no.8 defying Australian fast bowlers in Gabba. Such assured was Thakur’s defense against Lyon, it was an extraordinary moment of triumph when he danced down the track and lofted him for 6 and he reached 50 – my hands automatically clapped, almost involuntarily. Sundar hits a no-look 6 over long on and he too reaches 50 a little later. His half-century celebration was, I felt, cute! What-a-knock young man! The score crosses 300 and India slowly cutting down the deficit. And then the Australian pace attack, in a space of 10 overs and 20-something runs, take all the 4 remaining wickets. The lead, what could’ve been 100-something is now a meagre 33. Relief!!!

Day 4, with Australia having 10 wickets, is supposedly going to be a long day for Indian bowlers. Warner and Harris are scoring briskly, 80-something for no-loss and again, India fight back! How many times are we turning it around – just WOW! In a span of 6 overs, Australia lost 4 wickets. But Smith was still there, with Green and the lead was over 200 in no time. The first instance of the pitch misbehaving – Smith gets a shooter, fends at it, Rahane grabs it. Siraj is ecstatic, so am I. An Indian fast bowler feasting at the Gabba! India in here with a chance to have a less-than 300 target. Lots of discussion about the weather – Australia is not declaring. They are batting on! Lead is now above 300. I am a little towards the rain gods now – this pitch is too much for India to bat out a draw. With 328 as target, after a magnificent 5-for from Siraj and Thakur’s 4-for, India to bat now. Just 2 overs and rain stops play, over to Day 5 now – 324 runs, 98.1 overs and 10 wickets!

Dream: India, instead of playing out for a draw, play positive cricket and conjure up a win. We win the series 2-1 and yes, India breach the Gabba Fortress. 

Surprisingly, the weather is clear. So back to counting overs now. 98 to go! Rohit goes early but Gill and Pujara (that man again!) somehow manage until lunch. Especially Pujara, is he really human? Kept taking blow after blow on his body but kept soldiering on! It didn’t feel like he was going to move, whatever is thrown at him. After lunch, Gill smashed a 6-4-4 in a Starc over and Pujara finished that over with another 4 – 20 runs in 1 over. Is India going for the win? This is really a dream chase! Lyon gets one to edge, and Gill is gone. Another batsman gone in the 90s in the 4th innings. The captain walks in! What is his plan here? Block, wait and then decide? No! Rahane was in super attacking mode – he hit a 6 of Lyon which was the peak Rahane I know. But the attacking intent costs him his wicket. India 3 down. 161 runs away. 43 overs to play. Pujara at one end! Surely India can draw this. I was really glued now. Tension!!

Out walks Rishabh Pant again, at no. 5. This is the same Pant who hit 97 in Sydney in almost similar situation. But, the same Pant who attacked Lyon at will in Sydney was very cautious and calm this time. He did try one or two big hits, one was a stumping chance missed, the other was a huge 6. But Pant did not want to get carried away. He wanted to probably take it into the last few overs. May be, turn it into a T20 chase? What composure - is he just 23? While Pant was grabbing all the attention, at the other end, Pujara got to 50 (this is now slower than his SCG 50). The new ball was taken. 22 overs remaining. 100 runs to get. India can actually win this. I can’t take it anymore! It has come to a zone where watching this game was dangerous for the weak hearted.

2nd ball with the new ball, Pujara is gone. Is that it? Is the new ball going to be the Australian ally? No! Pant reached his 50 of 100 balls with Agarwal at the other end, but Agarwal throws it away. 63 to get. 80 balls remaining. Sundar joins Pant. It is soon 50 to get of 48 balls. Sundar, out of nowhere, smashes a 6 and a 4 of Cummins. I am on my feet. I don’t know where I am. I have lost note of everything around me. I am only watching, I am just clapping, I am shouting as if the players can hear me, I can hear my heart pounding. 39 of 42. Pant cheekily sweeps one for 4, then smashes another 4, and then a ball hits the rough and runs for 4 byes. 15 of the over. 24 of 36. I am jumping. I am speechless. It is like I am in Gabba.

Another 9 run over now. And I am actually shivering (even typing these last few lines). 15 of 30 balls. Victory up for grabs! Pant on 76. In that 96th over, Sundar reverse sweeps and is bowled. What have you done boy? Why? Tension! Thakur walks in. 10 of 24. Pant pulls one for 4, I want to shout. I want to cry. Wait wait! Pant wants to hit a 6 and win it, flies of the edge, luckily in no man’s land. Heart is probably beating the fastest ever. Thakur is out. But they have crossed. Pant on strike, 3 to get. He drives, they run 2, are they coming back for 3, no the ball has run down and touched the ropes, India have won! India win!! I am out of of my mind. I was alone in the room. No one to hug. No one to share with. I wanted to run on the streets. I shot myself a selfie video with TV in the background. I have never experienced this, even after that Dhoni 6 in 2011. This is something else. My heart was swelling with pride, my mood was really high! I had patted myself on the back for putting aside every other thing and watch this incredible moment.

Wow! That was the highest high I have experienced watching the end of a test match. Few things will stay with me for a lifetime – the 20 run over which was orchestrated by Gill, the resilience of Pujara all through the series (that hit on his finger when he immediately left the bat, ouch!), that hook for 6 by Sundar off Cummins and that last punch down the ground by Pant – and along with these special moments, just trying to gather myself that India did all of this without a lot of their regulars. Take a bow Team India!! What is the life lesson learnt here – “Life will give you opportunities, you’ve got to grab them and turn them in your favor, deal with the obstacles and ultimately relish the challenge and achieve the unthinkable!”

[rhina988]

Indecent Proposal - Chapter 2

Read Chapter 1

Thank you for such wonderful comments on the Chapter 1, I’m really flattered you liked my writing. 

Hope you’ll love this chapter as much as you did the previous one,

Much love.

Melody’s POV

“Knock, knock” I said and peeked inside Jamie’s hospital room, with a big smile on my face. He always got happier when I came by.

“Mely!” he squealed from happiness “You’re here.” he said with the biggest smile and his bright green eyes sparkled from joy immediately ”I already thought you might not come today”.

“Whaaat?” I said in a goofy way making a funny face ”How could I not visit my favorite man in the whole wide world.” I said and snuggled against him on the bed.

Jamie is my best friend. We’ve known each other almost our entire lives, but we’ve gotten really close after my parents died. Since I was a teenager when the accident happened, Jamie was there every step of the way, helped me to go through the horrible period and he became as close to me as an older brother. Unfortunately, Jamie was diagnosed with a kidney failure six months ago, so he started going to dialysis. When we finally though he could live like that for a couple of years, before we could get money for the transplantation, his other kidney started to fail as well, making his condition much worse. Money is the biggest issue, since just the transplantation costs over $200 000. Still, he’s an incredible optimist.  Jamie is always so positive, and convinced a miracle will happen and save him. He’s a true believer.

“I know your job’s crazy for the past few months, so I thought...”

“Never, in a million years would I let my job come between us. You know you can always count on me” I interrupted him and gave him the biggest hug “I love you to the moon and back. Never forget that” I said and kissed him on the cheek.

“I know Mely, I love you too. ” he said and sighed “I’m so glad you’re here now” then he snuggled against me “So, how was your day? Was Jared a dick again?” he asked and laid his head on my chest. I could tell he needed someone to be there for him right now. I guess today’s treatment wasn’t as easy as others sometimes are.

“You know, same old asshole Jared. He tried to belittle me again, but Emma handled it masterfully. I’m so grateful she’s my boss, you have no idea.” I said and thought how she always acted so protective of me. Maybe it was because she knew everything about my history, and that I didn’t have such a wonderful life. However, she never acted as if she felt sorry for me, which was great, I hated when people were giving me the “Awww poor thing” look. 

“She sounds amazing. I’d like to meet her someday” Jamie said and smiled “It’s good to know you have someone else to protect you when I’m not around” I saw him smiling with relief. And probably enjoyment, since I was running my fingers through his short dark hair to make him relax.

“Even superheroes need a sidekick sometimes right?” I asked and giggled a bit.

“Mhm...” I could tell Jamie was already falling asleep, while I patted him on the head. This means he hadn’t rest the entire day. Every time I come to visit him we end up talking for hours. A few times that he’d fallen asleep like this was after an exhausting dialysis, so I knew he waited for me to come so he could see me. It must’ve been horrible. 

“Oh honey, you’re so tired” I whispered, kissed him on the temple and got off the bed. “I’ll see you tomorrow” I said as I was leaving the room, looking at him finally resting.

OK, now I could go to my sweet sweet home, and get some rest myself. I can’t wait to get in a hot bath and unwind with a glass of white wine. It’s been so long since I pampered myself. And I could also see if there’s some other possibility for Jamie’s condition. Maybe we can find a more affordable surgery for him somewhere else. Even though the US has the greatest specialists in the world, $200 000 is a lot of money. Not to mention how much he’ll need for the recovery.

Jared’s POV

I’ve spent the entire night thinking about Emma’s suggestion. The morning was finally here, and I was supposed to decide whether to propose to Melody or not. Wow, this sounds so surreal, PROPOSAL. Like this. Now. I couldn’t believe what was going on in my head, but I decided to take a chance. 

I took my phone and called Emma “Hey, are you up yet”? 

“You’re joking right” she said on the other side of the line.

“Do you, like, ever sleep?” I asked with a giggle.

“With such a dictator as yourself. I’d consider that a rhetorical question. What’s up?” she was clearly busy already, probably about to come over and I was obviously distracting her from getting ready.

“Um... I thought about your suggestion... so ... I guess I should do it.”

“Great. I’ll be there soon, so we’ll go over everything again” Emma said and hung up.

Now it was time to talk to Shannon about it. I got dressed and went to see if he’s up yet. As I was passing by the kitchen I saw him making coffee.

“Hey...morning.” I said and leaned against the kitchen island. Shannon was still standing next to the coffee maker barely able to speak. He couldn’t utter a single word before he got his dosage of morning coffee. 

He turned, looked me over his shoulder and nodded his good morning.

“So, I wanted to talk to you about something”. I said and sighed running fingers through my hair.

The coffee was ready, so Shannon poured it into a big mug and took the first sip. You could literally see him radiating after that one tiny caffeine intake. 

“About what?” he asked me and sat on a chair, still not fully awake.

“You know how the reporters were merciless with me for the past couple of weeks? ”

“Yeah. So?” he said and took the second sip stretching himself a bit on the chair. Now he was getting more awake.

“Well, Emma found a way to stop it” I said and scratched my short beard.

“Of course she did” Shannon said already knowing I’d say that. Emma was always the mastermind behind all the fix ups in our lives “What’s the plan”?

“I’m getting married” as the words left my mouth Shannon almost chocked in his cup of coffee. He started to cough and couldn’t believe what he heard.

“What the fu...” he continued to cough and got up from the chair. He stood in front of me and calmed a bit down. “Repeat that.”

“I know it sounds a bit crazy, but I’m getting married”

“You? Married? How on earth would that idea ever cross your mind?” he was clearly frustrated.

I just looked at him and raised an eyebrow

“Right. It’s Emma’s idea” Shannon said and sighed gripping his head in disbelief “And who’re you supposed to marry?”

“Melody.” I said and looked down. I couldn’t believe I was actually gonna propose to her.

“Oh my God” Shannon said through a funny giggle “This just keeps getting better and better. You can’t stand that girl. I mean obviously it’s some defense mechanism of yours, you must be affectionate to her to some degree but...”he started to babble and pace across the kitchen.

“Whoa, whoa whoa... I don’t like her like that... I mean, I don’t like her at all.  ” I said when Shannon started laughing and waving his head, clearly thinking the opposite. “What? What are you laughing about?” now I was a bit pissed off.

“Come on, man... you’re acting like a 10-year-old around her. You’re constantly teasing her, or trying to convince yourself she’s not good enough, just so you could have an actual reason to care less about her... which I wouldn’t even know why you’d do anyway, but you do it. Everyone can tell. ”

“Do I have to spell it out for you? I. Do not. Like. Melody. AT ALL” I said word for word and looked him straight in the eye.

“That’s too bad, ‘cause you’re marrying her mister” Emma’s voice suddenly creeped out of nowhere.

“Jeez Emma.” I flinched and saw her holding a bunch of folders and her iPad “I’m only marrying her if she accepts it.”

“She will.” Emma said and tapped me on the shoulder.

“And how do you plan on asking her?” Shannon was curious.

“I haven’t thought about that really” I said and looked at Emma.

“What? I have to think about that too? ” Emma rolled her eyes.

“No... I guess, I could ask her today when she comes over. ” I said and shrugged my shoulders waiting for Emma’s approval.

“Sure, but be gentle. You know how she is around you. You’re always such an ass with her, she might be afraid when she sees that you want to talk to her alone.” Emma warned me.

“Fine” I said through gritted teeth “When is she coming?”

“In an hour or so” Emma said and went to her office to work.

Now all I could do is wait and pray everything will go as planned. Wow, this was actually happening. But what if Melody says “no”. Emma keeps reassuring me she would never reject the offer, and that money is the certain means to our goal, but what if Melody really isn’t that kind of girl. The more I thought about her the more I was torn. 

Melody’s POV

Ooof, that was some night. I can’t remember the last time I slept so well. I must’ve been incredibly exhausted. Now it’s time to start a brand new day at The House of Horror, as I like to call it. It’s not always that bad to be there, but this strange feeling in my stomach was telling me today is gonna be unlike any other day before.

---

“Hello? Anybody home?” I asked as I walked into an empty living room. “Emma? Shannon?” I didn’t call for Jared’s name on purpose, cause I was hoping Emma would immediately pop out of somewhere. As I was walking towards the kitchen, suddenly, Jared popped out in front of me.

“Hi Melody” he said with strangely appealing voice.

“Hello Jared. Is Emma around?” I asked and looked left and right to see if she might be coming from somewhere.

“Yeah, um, she’s here... but she’s busy now” he was clearly uncomfortable around me, so I wasn’t really sure why he was still here talking to me.

“OK, I’ll go to the office and...”

“No, no... actually you and I need to talk” he interrupted me and looked at me worryingly.

Now I was startled. This is why I was feeling weird the entire morning. “About what?” I asked as he was walking by me and heading to the sofa.

“I need your help with something” Jared said and sat down looking at me still standing “You should probably sit down for this”.

Now I was seriously worried. What on earth would HE need MY help for. And why would I even want to help him with anything? It’s not like he ever treated me nicely so that I was supposed to feel in debt to him or anything.

“You need my help?” I asked in surprise.

“Yes. You see, the thing is... the past couple of weeks have been a real nightmare for me. You know that, and I need the headlines to stop. For good.” Jared started to explain and his voice became more calm as he talked.

“Right... but where do I fit into all that?” I still couldn’t imagine what he was about to ask me.

“Well, if I am to become less promiscuous for the public, I need to settle down.” he said and raised his eyebrows, probably thinking I’m guessing where he’s going with this.

“You mean, find a girlfriend?” 

“Something a bit more permanent.” he said and smirked a little.

I was quiet for a moment and then it dawned on me. He wants a wife.

“Oh... so a wife then?” I was intrigued for a moment.

“Exactly. I need to get married. So I was thinking you’d be the perfect candidate.” he just blurred it out in a second.

Now I was shocked. I just stared at him and didn’t really know what to say.

“Wha.... Are you... I’m...” I literally couldn’t form a sentence form the shock.

“Hey, hey, calm down” he came closer to me and took my hands into his. I jumped off the sofa the minute his skin touched mine. I didn’t want him anywhere near me, let alone holding my hands.

“No, don’t touch me” I was already on the other side of the room and I looked at him with disgust. “Please tell me you’re joking, because this can’t be serious suggestion”.

“I’ve never been more serious in my life” Jared stood up and put his hands in his pockets walking towards me.

“No, no, don’t come closer. I just... you’ve never treated me right, and now you’re proposing this... proposing to me... I can’t..” I started pacing across the room with arms crossed over my chest.

“I need your help. That’s all. It wouldn’t even be an actual marriage. We’d only be living together and be the happy couple for the public, but we’d have our own separate lives” he said thinking this would make me calmer, when it only made things worse.

“Yeah. So, basically, you need to use me. As everyone and everything else. That’s what you always do. You did it with all those girls, and God knows who else, and now you want to use ME!!!.” I was furious. Jared was now right in front of me, and as my words became louder and heavier his eyes became darker. “Well I’m not one of your dolls. You can’t use me and toss me away later.” I said and looked him with despise.

He was clearly irritated by my behavior, so he turned away from me and started pacing across the room, while I was now looking through the window. I closed my eyes and sighed, while we were both silent. Then he spoke again.

“Fine. $100 000, then?” 

I opened my eyes and turned towards him only to find him smirking at me.

“Excuse me?” I couldn’t believe what he was saying.

“I’ll pay you, $100 000 to marry me for a year. Then you’re free to go and you don’t have to see me ever again, if you don’t want to.” he crossed his arms over his chest and wiggled his eyebrows.

I was baffled. I couldn’t believe he could stoop so low and actually try to buy me off. I smiled ironically, licked my lips and walked towards him. I stood before him, leaned my head to the right still smiling. Then I looked down, waved my head, took a deep breath and slapped him with all the strength I could find in myself.

He growled, put his hand on his cheek and looked at me furiously. 

I came even closer to him looked at his, now dark blue, eyes and said through gritted teeth “You can’t put a price on me” then I walked out of the house and went straight to my car. I needed a long drive after this.

Read Chapter 3 

Feel free to comment and leave feedback.

Let me know if you’d like me to tag you in the next chapters.

Hope you enjoyed it.

@legolasothranduilion @chris-evans-whaaat @woohooargentina-blog @nikkitasevoli @wolfgirl1074

I hope I didn’t leave anyone out.

For some reason I couldn’t tag @nuu-nuu , so if anyone can do it for me please do so. I don’t get this blog in suggestions when I start typing in the username. And I’ve checked if I spelled it correctly and I did, so I don’t know why I can’t tag it.

#jared leto #imagine jared leto #jared leto imagine #fan fiction #fiction #fan fic #fan fiction writing #celebrity imagine #story #relationship #Indecent Proposal

[kin0seok]

IAU(Idol Arts University)

this is the first fic I’ve ever written. I’m not a writer so don’t judge lol.

this is pretty much fluff, comedy and thirst, there won’t be any smut sorry. read if it you want. I’m writing this for my own enjoyment really, but some mutuals told me i should post it. 

SF9 X Pentagon X Laith & Kari (there will be other random idols thrown in here and there)

This a multi chapter fic and it’s gonna be hella long

The Main characters are fixed. their based off of me and my BFF

I’m Laith in the story btw. 

IAU is a somewhat Small Private Arts university. This is what happens when two boy crazy/Thirsty girls get thrown in the mix of it. 

                                    Chapter 1: This is Paradise

Laith had just stopped the moving truck in front of their new place when she looked at her bff Kari and said “Can you believe we just bought this place, what are we about to get ourselves into?”

“I honestly can’t, but it should be a fun adventure!” Kari replied, “And Dahlia said this place should be paradise for the two of us!”

“why do you think she would say that?” she looked at Laith with a slightly puzzled look before opening the door of the truck and hoping out.

Laith shrugged slightly while wondering the same thing to herself. She did find it odd that Dahlia said that, but then again she did know her and kari the best out of all of their friends. What exactly would be paradise to the two of them?

The two girls had decided it was time for something new in their lives, they were getting tired of the same old boring thing day in and day out, they were craving adventure. Adventure so happened to find them one day when their friend Dahlia offered to sell them her place and her business. She owned a cafe and dance & music studio near a private arts university, it had practice rooms for dancing and sound proof rooms for practicing music and also a few small recording studios. Dahlia thought it was perfect for the artsy town, there were already a few cafes in town and a couple of dance and music studios but she figured one with a cafe connected would be perfect for a place that was near the school. Plus there wasn’t a dance or music studio near the school, of course they probably had to have their own stuff in the university but it was a small university that opened only about 30 years ago and only had about 200 or so students. So Dahlia opened her business a few years ago and it was always frequented by the students of the university, so much so that the school decided to sign a contract with her to make it exclusive to the universities students.

Laith hopped out of the truck and looked around, the business was located a few blocks away from the school in a beautiful neighborhood of vintage brownstone houses. Laith had always wanted to live in a place like this, being a small town girl she wasn’t a big fan of cities so she never had the opportunity to live in a place like this before, but she decided it was time for something new and she’d seen pictures of Dahlia’s house and she absolutely loved it.

Kari came around to the side of the truck that Laith was standing on and looked at her watch. “ Where the hell is Dahlia? She said she’d meet us here at 9 a.m.”

“You know Dahlia.” Laith replied, “ When has she ever been on time for anything? Hell her mom even says she was late for her own birth!” “Shit you right.” Kari replied with a chuckle, their friend honestly was never on time for anything. It would have been better to tell her to meet them and hour earlier and have her actually show up on time.  

Just then a loud Harley Davidson motorcycle pulled up in front of the moving truck and a long legged brunette with pale skin and bright green eyes got off of it. “Sorry I’m late guys, trying to put a whole house's worth of things into storage is a bitch and a half!”

“It’s cool Dahlia, we were expecting it.” Laith said to her long time friend, “Don’t you think we know about your lack of time management?”

“My time management skills aren’t that bad! Anyways, come here and hug me you bitches, it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other!” Dahlia replied as she ran up to the two friends and embraced both of them.

The two girls embraced for a while, it had been almost 3 years since they’d seen each other. Of course there was facetime and the skype call here and there but they hadn’t all been in the same place at the same time for what seemed like an eternity. They had all been best friends since college, meeting when Laith and Dahlia were seniors and Karina had just entered their university as a freshman. They had met in a boring English Lit. class that Laith had needed to retake after failing for the 3rd time and Dahlia had decided to keep her company, and hopefully she could help her pass this time. They had both just happened to sit next to Kari who was sitting in a row of the lecture hall alone when their super attractive professor walked in and Laith looked at Dahlia and said “I might have to fail this shit for a 4th time!” to which Kari replied, “Bitch me too! I mean not for a 4th time cause this is my first time taking the class, but if he keeps teaching it there may be a 4th time.”

To that comment Laith replied “I’m Laith and this is Dahlia, we’re now best friends and you can’t object to it.” while extending her hand for a handshake.

“I’m totally cool with this!” Kari replied placing her hand in Laith��s and shaking it. There and then begin the crazy friendship that belonged to the 3 of them. They were practically the same person. Especially Laith and Kari, there was no separating them since that day.

“Sooo…. Are we just gonna stand out here hugging all day or what?” Kari finally asked. They’d been driving all day and now that they were here she was ready to move her stuff in and get things started.

“Oh!” Dahlia exclaimed, “I have to give you guys the keys and go over stuff for the business and studios with you guys before my flight in 4 hours!”

“God forbid you’re actually late for something again!” Laith replied sarcastically, “Though i’ve never known you to be late for a flight. I guess you’re only on time when it’s something you want to do.”

“I mean I could just totally keep the keys if you’re going to be a bitch” Dahlia looked to her and said as she began to dangle a set of keys in front of Laith’s face. “Behold the keys of paradise! I can totally keep them if that’s what you want.”

Laith grabbed the keys out of Dahlia’s hands. “The fuck you are, and anyways why do you keep calling this place paradise?”

“You’ll see.” Dahlia told her with a wink while she placed her arms around Kari’s Shoulders, “Anyways I’m going to take Kari inside the cafe and go over business stuff because I know how much you hate it. You can start moving boxes Ms. She-Hulk.” And With that Dahlia and Kari turned and proceeded to walk into the cafe.  

“Who the fuck are you calling a She-Hulk!” Laith yelled after her while walking to the back of the truck and opening it so she could start moving some boxes in. “I can’t help that I’m slightly strong.”

Looking into the truck Laith begin to survey what was inside and decided to move the boxes of unimportant non-breakable stuff first and save the rest for when Kari came back. She grabbed 2 somewhat heavy boxes filled with books and stacked them on top of eachother. After getting the boxes situated in her hands Laith realized that she couldn’t see over them, “Well shit.” she exclaimed to herself, “I probably should just bring in one at a time, but i don’t feel like taking multiple trips.” She stood there and thought for a moment before deciding. “Fuck it, We’ll do it live and the house is just right there. What could possibly go wrong.”

In Laith’s case a lot could go wrong in a short period of time. As she began to walk towards the house with the two boxes she forgot to account for the height of the curb as she stepped up. The tip of her shoe clipped the curb and being unable to stop herself she began to fall forward.

“OH FUCK!” She cried out as she prepared herself to faceplant in the worse way possible with the two boxes. Luckily for her a curious bystander had been watching her as she talked with herself about whether she should carry both the boxes in at once or just one at a time.

“Whoa!” The bystander said as he ran towards Laith and caught her and the boxes before they hit the ground. “Are you ok?”

Having closed her eyes in preparation for her untimely demise because of the street curb Laith slowly opened them upon realizing someone had saved her. “I’m totally good!” Laith replied to the stranger as she got herself upright. Bending down she lightly rubbed the ankle she had tripped with checking for any sore spots, the last thing she needed was an injury before her new life could begin.

“Luckily for me I’m pretty sturdy! I think my body was made strong because I”m so -.” Laith’s words were halted mid sentence as she finally looked up at the stranger and was met with one of the most handsome faces she’d ever seen.

“Holy shit… I mean thanks!” she said as she tried not to look anymore weird than she already did.

The boy was tall with perfectly tanned skin, a strong neck with a very attractive adams apple. Which led to a jawline almost sharp enough to kill a man, plump lips perfectly high cheekbones and attractive kind eyes.

“You must be one of the new owners of the cafe and studio!” He said to Laith While motioning behind him to the cafe, “Dahlia noona said that two of her friends had bought it from her!”

“Yes I am.” Was all Laith could say in response to the gorgeous guy that was standing in front of her. Most of her mental strength was being used try to get her face to not look like a deer that was about to be hit by a 1 ton truck. She wasn’t sure if she was succeeding because the gorgeous guy let out a light chuckle. God why was even his laugh hot as fuck Laith thought to herself.

The stranger stuck out his hand and offered it to Laith to shake, “I’m Hongseok. You are?...” he asked her while looking at her expectantly waiting for her to take the hand he offered.

Still feeling awestruck it took Laith a minute or two to realize that Hongseok was Introducing himself to her. “Oh! Sorry!” she exclaimed while taking his hand and shaking it, “I’m Laith. You know Dahlia?” she asked him.

“Yeah I”m a Junior at IAU. I come here all the time, our school set it up to where the students have exclusive rights to use the cafe and studios.”

“Oh yeah, Dahlia told me all about that! By the way, what does IAU mean?” Laith asked him, to be honest she wasn’t very familiar with the school. She new a few famous and actors came from the school but she’d never looked it up.

“Idol Arts University. It’s just a few blocks that way.” Hongseok said point to the direction in front of him, “Speaking of which I should go, I’m gonna be late for class! If you’re still moving stuff in when i’m finished with classes I’ll come and help you move the furniture and stuff in, how does that sound?”

“That sounds like the best thing ever” Laith replied trying not to seem like she was totally down for him to move anything and everything she owned, “I’m sure we’ll still be moving stuff in, if you haven’t noticed we have a lot of shit.”

Looking over into the truck Hongseok replied, “It seems like you do! Well Laith it was nice meeting, and I’ll be back later to help you move. I really gotta go though!” And with that the boy jogged off in the direction he sad the university was in.

Forgetting the two boxes she had planned on bringing into the house just moments ago Laith ran inside the cafe to go tell Kari what just happened. “BITCH! She was right!” she exclaimed.

“What the hell are you talking about Laith.” Kari replied looking at her friend curiously. Who was right?

“Dahlia was right! This place is paradise.” Laith as she begin to tell her friend about everything that just went down outside. “He’s Fucking gorgeous! I nearly needed a whole bottle of water just looking at him!”

“For real?!” Kari exclaimed with excitement, then suddenly sounding slightly dejected she said, “Damn, why did you have to meet him first?”

“Don’t worry.” Dahlia suddenly interjected, “There is more where that came from.” A grin suddenly appeared on her face. “I wasn’t lying when I said this place would be paradise for you two. I know what kind of boy crazy thirsty hoes you two are. Did you not look up what kind of school IAU is?”

“No…..” Kari responded looking at Dahlia with a look that clearly said ‘why would we possibly need to look that up?’

“It’s an all boys school, and all the boys that go there are that gorgeous.” Dahlia told them . Smiling even bigger as Kari and Laith looked at each other with wide eyes.

“If the way Laith Just described this Hongseok guy is true, then this place is fucking paradise!” Kari exclaimed suddenly feeling very excited

“Oh it is.” Dahlia said to them, “I hope you’re prepared for what you just walked in to.

“You bet your ass we are!” Laith excitedly said “Dahlia I’m now going to leave everything I own to you in my will.”

“Even that gorgeous black and red victorian dress?” Dahlia asked, she’d been eyeing that dress since Laith showed her the picture of it.

“No, everything but that, I’m getting buried in that.” Laith said. There was no way in hell Dahlia was getting her hands on that dress. And as the friends bantered back and for a while, neither Kari nor Laith knew what one hell of a ride this new adventure was going to be for them.

#fic #fanfiction #kpop #sf9 #rowoon #dawon #youngbin #trey #inseong #jaeyoon #hwiyoung #yoo taeyang #zuho #pentagon #kino #hongseok #jinho #hui #e'dawn #shinwon #yanan #yuto #wooseok #yeo one #my tentastic babies #my sensational babies #kpop scenario #new ultimate bias ceo #hongtimus prime #the 3rd prince

[callmewhisper-blog]

13 November, 2018

Today I have almost finished my Contain The Found Object project for art. I had to borrow one of Sir Chewy’s dog bone things for it. It will be placed in a rather weird looking clay orb thing with rocks and twigs and a clay snake on top. The orb is kind of like a big rubber band ball looking thing, pretty much. If I get a picture of it when it is complete, then I will try to add it on here, since my description skills are sort of… lacking.

Derek started talking to me out of nowhere today in class… well technically before class. Just asked what chapter I was on in the homework. That was about it. I told him I was on chapter three, really I’m stuck on chapter one, and that I will be doing homework all week pretty much. He said that was how his week was looking too, and then I joked about running away and finding alcohol with what's his name from Anthropology. I can only ever remember the guy’s nickname…. Flippy. 

Anyhow, the 11th was dad’s 43rd birthday, and as always it was also veterans day. The 12th was Jenevive’s birthday. I think she just turned 24… maybe 23? I can’t remember which. In July, I will be turning 22… and I still don’t have a photo ID. Sucks to be me I guess, haha.

Nancy has been having it rough lately, I’m not sure how to help her, but I know she needs it.

As for Alvin and Marsha? I don’t know and I don’t want to know. They can keep their drama away from me and I won’t mind at all.

This week has been nothing but course evaluations so far. It’s annoying. But after those we get to go back to class as usual. I guess it’s not so bad….

I’m really bad at keeping up with this whole journal thing, I’ve noticed the long gaps in between entries and I find it almost laughable, really.

Sam came over on Friday night. We played a bunch of PS4 games, took a walk, grabbed some Chinese food and watched most of Deadpool 2 before we got tired. Saturday afternoon I went home, obviously, and monday I came back here to school after my doctor’s appointment.

That’s honestly about it, really. I haven’t had much else exciting go on lately. I have a surprise for Kane when I see him next. So, I guess I am low-key hoping that we get scheduled together over my thanksgiving break.

I had asked for them to put me on for my whole break, since I really don’t want to deal with grandma. She’s been so mean lately. She has been ripping people apart and screaming at them over nothing, really. Mom, me, etc… There’s no reasoning with her, no calming her down… she’s just been a bitch. She told mom that Alexis’ friend Gena has no friends and is completely ignorant and obnoxious. Mom explained that Gena has autism, like my brother, so she doesn’t have social skills. Grandma’s response was “I don’t know about that.”  I had told her the same thing before, and she told me to stop making excuses for other people’s behavior. I wasn’t making an excuse, I was trying to explain why she is the way she is… which isn’t rude or obnoxious, by the way. She just doesn’t get when things are jokes, so she takes everything seriously. Oh, and I should mention my grandma formed this opinion because Gena doesn’t believe in God. SO WHAT!?

She’s just been so nasty with everyone and I really don’t want to deal with all of that. I know me well enough to know that if she starts her shit over thanksgiving dinner, I will open my mouth and things will go terribly wrong. So, my solution to the problem is going to work. My psychiatrist said I should work on not using avoidance strategies, but in this case I think it’s the best way to go.

In lighter news, Alexis is going to the dance with her friend Lance. They both like eachother but neither kid has the guts to ask the other, so I told Alexis that I was confiscating MY Fallout 4 disc until she asked him. She keeps saying I took HER game and complaining, but truth is…. I bought it, it’s mine and the PS4 is mine too! The only game that is hers is the new Spiderman game. That’s it. The other ones are MINE….the console is MINE. Either way, I’m not giving it to her until she asks the kid.

I have dress rehearsal for _____ (our school’s talent competition) on the 28th. The show is the 30th. The first place prize is 200 dollars, and I don’t know if 2nd and 3rd get anything or not. I forget…. I just know that I have 15 days to get the 25 language version of Let It Go memorised perfectly. I keep tripping up towards the end. I will be alright though, I’m sure.

On top of this, we have our chorus concert on December 7th. I’ve got lots of things going on it seems. Finals, chorus concert, a competition….

In other news, I think I have a serious man problem here. I never use to be so guy crazy, but lately it’s just bad. I see them and I’m just like “Whoa….”

Kind of like “DUDE” in my accounting class.

On a much more serious note, recently in Pittsburgh there was a shooting at a synagogue called the Tree of Life Congregation. I think eleven people died, and I am not entirely sure how many were injured. Pastor Man made a beautiful sermon on how hate has no place in our church, and how we must love everyone as god loved everyone, with no exceptions to that rule. He did it in honor of what had happened there, and he put a sign in the garden of the church that said in many languages, “Hate has no place here.”

I worked that sunday, so I didn’t get to attend, however, I did write to the synagogue. I told them about what our pastor had done, I told them about how, despite our difference of religion I still wish for the families of victims and injured to be able to mourn and heal peacefully, and that I hope god may bless them all with some sense of comfort in these times, because Pastor Man was exactly right, hate has no place here. No place anywhere. I never hated Jewish people anyhow, but I still think the message needs to be heard.

If it were a mosque, though, and not a synagogue, would people still react with such kind hearts? I find it sad that I have to even question that… but we live in an age where people will help anyone but a Muslim. Anyone but a middle eastern person. Anyone but a gay person. Anyone but a minority….

“For god so loved the world, he gave his only son.”  Reads the bible. It does not say “For god so loved the world, except the..” If you want to pretend you are high and mighty, remember that verse. God so loved the WORLD. The whole fucking world. Jews, Muslims, Gays, Hindus, Crippled kids, the good, the bad, the rich, the poor, the sick, the healthy…. The whole damn world. No exceptions.

We are not God. We do not get to choose what race, religion, sexual orientation or culture is right or wrong, if any! That’s not our place.

People fear what they don’t understand. Fear can lead to hate, and this year has showed that many many times in the last 10 and ½ months. So maybe, just maybe, we should stop being so fucking afraid. Love thy neighbor and all that…. It’s not a hard concept.

#hatehasnoplacehere #randomrant #moving stuff over part 5

[fic-dreamin]

The books are certainly an adventure Diana Gabaldon is a literary genius! I am hooked. I began reading Outlander Book 1 in October, 2016. After I finished the first book, I didn't hesitate to immediately move on to the next in November. Since then, I've completed each new book in the series per month. It's now April, 2017, I'm almost done with An Echo in the Bone, Book 7. Of course, I know I will read Book 8 next. No "spoilers" here. Luckily for me, I didn't have to wait every few years for the next book in the series. And since I read a book a month, that also kept the characters and story flowing nicely. The books are certainly an adventure, characters and story line are very well developed. No "spoilers" in this review, you'll have to read the books yourself. ;) Enjoy! Go to Amazon

Disspite the # of pages, this book is a fast read! This book was a fast and exciting read from beginning to end. I can say that all of the books in this 9 book, (999+ pages per book) series are fast reads and educational too, esp parts of the medical descriptions as I'm an RN and know the procedures she does.Jamie and Claires' love for one another, shows no boundaries, being an example to other member's of the Fraser family. There are many secrets and you will not be sorry to pick this book up, open to the first chapter and read, BUT it's best if you read the first book in the "Outlander" series, and go from there! Go to Amazon

It never gets old You'd think 7 books at nearly 1000 pages each I'd grow tired if this story. But I don't. And that's a tribute to Gabaldon's storytelling. This book we find Brianna and Roger back in their own time. My like of her hasn't changed much, but my respect for him continues to grow. Roger' s character in the books is well rounded and complex. His duty as a father and husband is unwavering, if we could all find a man as devoted as him. Without hesitation or a plan he went back through the stones for his son, I am on edge to see how he figures out Jem isn't there. Or will Jen go by way of the tunnel? Or will Brie grow a pair and follow Roger to bring him back since he'll have no way of knowing he went on a goose chase? And Ian, cannot wait to see how his love turns out. Claire and Lord John, holy whoa! How will Jamie react. Curious to see Jenny's adjustment too. Go to Amazon

Diana Gabaldon I thought is was time to purchase the latest 2 books in Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series. So many things have been written and/or said about Ms Gabaldon's books. With the advent and continuation of the Starz "Outlander" series, Ms Gabaldon has touched global audience. I call them my "glimpses of history as seen through the eyes of a meticulous researcher". She weaves facts and fictions into a well-knit continuous saga that has me looking at stone circles while pondering the history I was taught decades ago and wondering "what if...". So it's time to read these books and see "what was". Go to Amazon

Love this book! Love this book. My paperback has been falling apart, so I bought a Kindle version to take while traveling. This series has been outstanding! I know it is a great love story, but I like the historical things and Claire figuring out how to practice medicine 200 years in the past. (I've tried to watch the STARZ series, but the actress they have for Claire just isn't right and kind of messes up the better images I have in my head. Of course the male actor playing Jaime is amazing and fits my image almost perfectly. He is definitely easy on the eyes. Funny thing is I have seen him acting in some other things and didn't think much of him one way or another, but this role is perfect for him.) Go to Amazon

Disappointed I only just discovered the Outlander Series in September and thanks to my late arrival and the convenience of my Kindle, I was able to move through the series with a click of a button at the end of each book. It took me about 4 months to finish through book 7. I'm not going to go deeply into what I liked and disliked about each of these books, but I will say that when I read the 5 star reviews, I agree wholeheartedly, and when I read the 1 star reviews, I also agree wholeheartedly! I loved the setting, especially in Scotland, the time travel, the history, and the love between the main characters. And I loved the developing story of the lives of Claire, Jamie and their daughter Brianna, her husband Roger and their lives on Fraser's Ridge. There was a haunting quality to the books that drew me in and had me feeling as though these characters and the events in their lives were real. Yet, to be honest, I could have done without the excessive violence (mostly in the first book), homophobia (which I got from the Jack Randall character), and often cringe worthy, repetitive sex between Jamie and Claire. I mean, come on - really - the answer to every tragedy and catastrophe in their lives was to have sex with each other?! That became cartoonish and diminished the otherwise likable characters. But suffice it to say, both good and bad, the Outlander Series appealed to me enough to keep me reading through 7 books! Go to Amazon

I couldn't put this book down! Another killer book in the Outlander series Five Stars Five Stars Five Stars Five Stars The Outlander Series Four Stars Engaging. Five Stars