#annoying that you can’t copy it… I will put the translation in my about page (:

[timothylawrence]

Hi! What does your mobile bio say? (cannot for the life of me copy + paste it... sorry!)

Hi no need to apologize 😁 it’s lyrics from the song Shim El Yasmin by Mashrou Leila :)

I believe the rough translation is “I would have liked to keep you close/near me”

كان بودي خليك بقربي

#asks #annoying that you can’t copy it… I will put the translation in my about page (: #also the song is abt gay romance soooo 😢 #it’s an Arabic song abt a lost love by an lgbt Lebanese band (: #I understand it in Arabic but if anyone knows a better English translation feel free to correct me LOL

[shadowuponstorm]

An Angel and A Handsome Devil

Jake "Hangman" Seresin is a handsome devil, do I need to say more? Also hope you enjoy reading this! WC: Over 1.8K

Also please don’t repost, copy, or translate my work under any circumstances, I prefer my original work to be on just my page.

“Well, well, am I dreaming, or is that you Angel?” I heard an irritating voice say my call sign from the direction behind me as I tried to line the cue stick up.

“Yea it’s me, don’t cream your pants,” I said as I took the shot and pocketed the ball into a corner to then turn my attention towards the man, *cough* sorry, boy, standing a few feet from me. Jake “Hangman” Seresin, who really should be called the Devil because he put the SIN in SINNER. He’s also a single-minded, self-righteous pain in my ass.

“Oh, don’t be like that, how about me and you go for a round?” Jake says as he leans his hip into the corner of the pool table with a shit-eating smirk on his face.

“In your dreams Seresin, the day we play pool together is the day you finally choke on a toothpick,” I respond as I go back to taking another shot, pocketing another solid.

Jake then leans in and whisper to where I’m the only one hearing him, “I’m not meaning at pool darling, you seem tense whenever I’m around, maybe I can help with that.”

“Ugh, fuck off,” I grunt out as I shoved his shoulder to push him away from me, “You’re infuriating.”

“I think the word you meant to say was charming,” Jake rebuts as I bite back with, “Isn’t there anyone else you can annoy and socialize with? One of your conquests perhaps?”

“Can’t, they’re called one night stands for a reason,” Jake says as he throws a wink at me, making me react with an eye roll.

“Insufferable,” I mutter under my breath before I turn my attention back to the game, I need to win the money I placed on a bet Fanboy and I if I can defeat him in this round. That night, I became $30 richer but not Seresin-free unfortunately. At least I caught a mini break when he had to carry out our new instructor, though I don’t know if Jake knew who he was. Tomorrow’s going to be very fun to witness his embarrassment.

The Next Day

The look on his face was priceless when he realized who our instructor was, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, one of the most elite pilot that has ever walked onto the tarmac of Top Gun besides Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. Everyone else was in shock, but by the look on Rooster’s face, he wasn’t too pleased with his presence and I could feel the tension just by sitting next to him.

“Hey, you good?” I whispered as I leaned in, concerned for one of my best friends and member of the Hangman Hate Club.

“Yea I’m fine,” Rooster mumbled as he starts to tap his pen on the desk, signal he wishes to not discuss it farther, so I didn’t bother questioning it.

As Maverick is going on about the lesson, I rest a hand on Bradley’s knee, to silently tell him that I was here whenever he needed me, but I could feel a pair of eyes staring in our direction. I glance over to see Jake looking at me and once he saw I caught him, I mouthed, “What?”

“Nothing,” he mouthed back as he smiled and fiddled with his toothpick, making me shake my head.

“Focus on him, not me,” I mouth before I turned my attention back to Maverick, who is going on about an upcoming mission and the tactics that need to be practiced in order for success.

After Maverick finished up, we all head to the rows of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to put ourselves through the test of whom is more equipped to move forward to serve the mission. It was decided that between me and Rooster, I was the first one up alongside Phoenix, Bob, Coyote, Fanboy, and just my luck, Hangman, with Maverick being our “Bogey”.

“Hey, how about the losers do 200 push-ups?” I heard someone say into the radio before I respond, “I’m down, let’s do it.”

“Alright, Angel, that’s what I like to hear,” Hangman mentions in the station before I groaned, “Again, Hangman, in your dreams. I’ll be glad to see you join the Loser Lounge.”

“Ohhh haha, she got you there Bagman.” Phoenix shout as I laugh and added in, “You better focus or else Hondo will be purposely miscounting.”

At the end of this flying session, everyone except me had to do the push-ups. I figured Maverick’s move after he took out Fanboy and Coyote, to which I cheered loudly when I heard that lock on. I also hear Hangman laughing and saying, “Way to go”, which I don’t know why he did that instead of messing with me like he always has done since the academy days. I passed by them on my way to the locker room, but couldn’t help sneaking a glance over to Jake, whose skin and muscle was glistening with sweat in a tank top with his flight suit tied around his waist, and for some reason, felt something other than how I typically feel. After I entered the locker room, I shook my head, brushing it off as the adrenaline rush flying gives me, but I couldn’t help thinking maybe not all of him are irritating as I thought.

I open my locker to put my stuff in before I go to take a shower when I heard the door open. Thinking it was Phoenix considering I’m in the girls’ locker room, I say, “How were the push-ups? Grueling as you thought?”

“Oh not at all, I thought it was easy,” I hear Jake’s voice as I looked towards the doorway see him standing there, just looking at me with that same smirk he always has.

“What do you want?” I ask with an uninterested tone, which was fake because I didn’t want him to know I was actually thinking about him just now, “You also better make it quick, Phoenix could come in here any minute.”

Jake shook his head and responds, “No she isn’t, she just left to go home.” before he takes a few steps closer to me to ask, “What were you thinking about just then?”

“It’s really none of your business, now get out, I need to take a shower,” I respond a bit too fast and moved my eyes to look at anywhere else but where he was, causing Jake to raise his eyebrows in curiosity and ask, “Then why can’t you look at me?”

“I-It’s just your face irritates me and I prefer my showers to be peaceful,” I mumble out, mentally cursing myself for stuttering and start to feel my face & neck get hot from blushing.

Before I could allow Jake to tease and make fun of me, I walked off to a different area of the locker room & stripped down to my sport bra and underwear in case Jake followed me, which he did because before I could enter the showers to turn the water on, I felt a hand on my arm stopping me.

“I don’t want to hear it, I told you what you wanted to know and it’s the truth,” I said before I feel two of his fingers go under my chin, turning my head to look into his green eyes, which were so beautiful, before he whispers, “Darling, I think we both know what you said was a lie. Now why don’t you really tell me what you were thinking in that mind of yours?”

After I continued staring deep into his eyes and staying quiet, he smirks before responding, “Maybe while you were watching me do those pushups, you were thinking how attractive you find me and how maybe what you thought of me isn’t at all true. Is that right?”

I thought to myself before I whisper, “How could you tell?” as I felt Jake’s hand move down to caress the side of my neck and watched him lean in to where our noses touched each other.

“Because I notice the effect I’ve had on you ever since you graced us with your presence and our skies with that call sign of yours,” Jake whispered back before confessing, “I’ve been in love with you since seeing you that first day, Angel.”

“I-I don’t know what to say,” I respond out of shock that the guy in front of me, who is always so cocky and full of himself, is confessing he’s had feelings for me for years. Before I could say anything else, Jake interrupts with, “Then don’t.” before grabbing my hand and pulling me into the showers.

“What are you doing?” I ask in confusion before I see Jake start shedding his boots, tank top, and flight suit, leaving him in his black boxer briefs, causing me to turn around to shield my eyes and him to laugh at my shyness.

“Taking a shower with you, aren’t you going to join?” Jake responds from behind me as I stutter, “I-I, um, you do realize I’ve never seen you in this position?” before I hear the water turn on and feel his arms wrap around my waist. Jake then starts to leave soft kisses behind my ear as he whispers, “We’ll take our time, just so you can get comfortable with me.”

After giving it a thought, I slowly nod my head and turned around as Jake and I head to the steady stream of water, which was cold at first but then it warmed up. I let the water splash on my face before I feel Jake pull me close and kiss me, moving his hands to my ass. I scoff before I jokingly mention, “Jeez Seresin, don’t treat me like one of your conquests.”

“You’re definitely not one of them, you’re way better than them, I actually enjoy having you in my arms,” Jake whispers before kissing me once more to then grab the shampoo and other essentials. After we finished up, we grabbed the towels and changed into fresh clothes.

“So Phoenix leaving early was a trick?” I ask as I hear Jake chuckle and respond, “Actually it was, I told her there was an emergency and she rushed over there.”

“You know she’s going to get you for that,” I laughed as I am again pulled in close and attacked with soft kisses on my neck.

“I know,” Jake muttered into my neck after I calmed down, “But at least I got my Angel by my side on the ground and in the air.”

“You are such a handsome devil, Seresin,” I respond as Jake smiles and voices his agreement.

Later That Night

“Oh, great job Angel,” Jake says as he smirks at me as I smile at him and respond, “Not bad yourself Hangman.”

“Wha-,” when did you two become friends?” Coyote asks as he tries to comprehend what’s happening in front of him.

“We settled our differences and now we’re together,” I answered as Jake comes to stand by me and put his arm around me.

“WHERE IS HE?!” I hear Phoenix yell as she storms in the Hard Deck before we all turn to Jake to see him take a head start. I warned him.

#top gun maverick #top gun imagine #jake seresin #jake seresin imagine #glen powell #glen powell imagine

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hii! <3

Me there, since I last asked about getting ungettable fanfics in paper.

Update is that I accidentally found a bit time today and dived into the topic like I always do things: try and fail until you get it right. I know you mentioned something about "just putting it into Word and printing it out like...", but since I almost never work on computers, I felt bit helpless.

So, first I tried on a laptop, but Word there had for some reason no option to add columns, which made me move to the good old phone.

After copying the text to the document, I edited it a bit (deleting double "enter"s, font, size, underlined words etc). That's when it got tougher, because, well, pages.

I made a little model to help me visualise it:

And there came the looong part of organising it all up, but like I said- tries and fails. I figured out two important tips:

1. on every column add a highlighted page number.

And 2. Mark first and last word of the page in different colours.

It helped me a LOT and I might've hadn't managed it without. There's how it looks like:

After that just un-highlighted them and it's just like that:

I still have to get the numbers in control, but apart from that, it's ready for printing! Just gotta remember that every page is double-sided, so the printing has to be... brained.

Dunno if anyone needed this, but thought I'll share anyway. This fic is Coup De Foudre by prettysailorsoldier if anybody was wondering. There are longer ones I wanted out, but decided to take it easy for the first one.

All the love! <3

(referencing this post)

Hi Lovely!

AHHHHHHH!!! I LOVE when you guys share your processes with me!! Thank you so much for this, hahah! The way you did it is actually a print setting in most Word-type applications... on Macs it’s called “print double sided spreads” or something like that, so it will print across a full sheet. LOL AHH I can’t explain it because it’s one of those “natural” things I know because of my job as a graphic designer, but yeah, when we do larger 16 page pubs, trying to remember how a layout will print is annoying LOL. InDesign makes it a LOT easier, heh.

Thank you so much for sharing your process, and here’s the fic you referenced above:

Coup de Foudre by prettysailorsoldier (T, 6,446 w., 1 Ch. || Teenager/University AU || Alternate First Meeting, Skiing, Winter, Sherlock Speaks French, Christmas Fluff) – When John and his friends decide to blow off some steam after finals with a holiday to the Swiss Alps, he's expecting a week of roaring fires, hot chocolate, and snow as far as the eye can see. He is not expecting to fall head over heels for a fellow guest--a young Frenchman known only as "Blue Scarf"--but John's not one to let a little language barrier get in the way, and, with the help of Google Translate, it might just be a Christmas to remember after all. Part 7 of 25 Days of Johnlock

Cheers again for following up!!! <3

#steph replies #replies to replies #chatting with nonnies #tutorials #book binding #graphic design #long post

[josjournal]

Full Moon Ficlet #435 - Deluge

Written for @fullmoonficlet

Stiles sat at the table in the library of the rebuilt Hale house, his head buried in a book while stacks of more books surrounded him. He rubbed at his temples, trying to focus on the words that had been swimming in front of his eyes for the last ten minutes. The latest monster of the week didn’t fall under anything he’d dealt with in the past. Stiles had been up for the last twenty-four hours pouring over every book in the library trying to find something, anything to lead them in the right direction.

Groaning, Stiles stood from the table, stretching until his back felt looser before dropping back into the chair. Reaching for the next book, he pulled it towards him, opening it to somewhere in the middle. He started to curse and shove it away when he discovered it was a spellbook and not one of the bestiaries they had copied from other packs they’d been building alliances with.

His eyes caught on a spell, the words in Latin but he recognized some of them. The spell seemed to be to create a flow of information. Stiles thought it might be like forced osmosis. If he could use it on the books, then it might help him figure out what was happening in the preserve. The random fires were becoming dangerous with the drought currently affecting the area. They would have thought it was a regular arsonist if they weren’t blazing simultaneously across the town.

For a moment, he hesitated, remembering Derek’s warning about using magic without thinking. He knew he wanted to help and Derek was out in the preserve trying to keep the fires under control. He reached for his phone to call Lydia to double-check his Latin but remembered she had a trip to the spa with her mother that weekend and had threatened bodily harm if she was disturbed for anything less than an absolute emergency.

Glancing back down at the text, he chewed his lip for a moment before speaking the words from the page. “Producat usque ad summum flumen super terram de sermonibus siccitatis.” He closed his eyes and waited for the flood of information, predicting it would be at least slightly painful.

After a few minutes when nothing happened, he cracked open one eye and glanced at the book, frowning. He heard noise downstairs, like tapping against the windows just as his phone started ringing, Derek’s name and photo showing on the screen. He tapped the screen open and heard a rushing sound in the background, Derek shouting his name over it.

“What, Derek? I can barely hear you!” The call cut off and Stiles tried calling back but the call went to voicemail. Panicking, he ran down the stairs, planning to head in the direction Derek said he’d planned to patrol.

Yanking open the front door, he was knocked off his feet by a massive flood of water roaring into the house. He scrambled to keep from being pulled beneath the surface as he heard Derek shouting his name in the distance. His shoulders smacked into something hard and he swallowed a mouthful of water as he let out a shout. The last thing he remembered was something clamping around his arm, pain shooting through him before everything went black.

The world was moving as Stiles jerked upwards, water and bile spilling from his mouth. His chest burned as he was gathered into a strong hug, the world tilting ominously. Blinking his eyes, he realized that he was wrapped in Derek’s arms, the both of them sitting precariously on the front door that was floating somewhere near the upstairs landing.

“Did we put in a swimming pool?” Stiles asked, confused when Derek’s body began to shake uncontrollably. “Are you crying?” Derek pulled back, his face was wet with tears, but he was choking back laughter. “What happened?”

Derek shrugged. “I was patrolling and heard a rumble in the distance. At first, I thought it was a storm coming, and the next thing I knew, water was rushing towards me. I tried to call you, but the water knocked the phone out of my hand. I had just reached the house when you opened the door and disappeared.” He pulled Stiles into his arms again, running his nose along his hairline before pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “I thought I’d lost you for a minute.”

“Where did the water come from?” Stiles asked. “Is it getting deeper?”

“I don’t think so.” Derek grabbed the stair railing and pulled the door towards the top of the stairs. He helped Stiles out and onto the second floor. “What were you doing?”

“Research,” he said, heading towards the library, Derek following closely. “I still can’t find the source of the fires and the spell I tried-”

“Spell?” Derek asked, hurrying to the table and picking up the spellbook. “Which one?” Stiles stared at him. “Which spell, Stiles?”

Moving closer, he pointed at the spell, watching Derek’s lips move as he read over the words. He grabbed Stiles’ phone off the table and opened the translation app, snapping a photo of the words and hitting “translate” before handing the phone to Stiles with his eyebrows lowered in his most annoyed expression.

“Bring forth the flood to end the drought upon the surrounding land,” Stiles read, biting his lips and looking up at Derek. “Oops?” Derek cocked an eyebrow, unimpressed, before taking Stiles’ phone back to call Deaton for help with a counterspell.

Cross-posted to AO3

#sterek #fullmoonficlet #eternalsterek #sterek ficlet #my writing

[posusm]

writes final chapter 

dosent post it for a week

as always this au belongs to @delimeful​ 

When Logan first joined the crew aboard the Mindscape, he may have been startled when their smallest member hurtled toward him in a glowing blue blur and slammed into his legs with enough force to topple a more fragile person, but he had been a crewmember for far too long for this kind of thing to surprise him anymore. "Greetings Patton," Logan says easily, adjusting his glasses. "I take it you've accrued information on what has upset Virgil so greatly?" Patton nods furiously.

"We need to read your books on humans!" Patton blurts out, near tears. Logan blinks in surprise, as Patton is not normally one to be so insistent on research. "... Alright? I believe there is nothing found in that book that Virgil could not tell us himself." Logan reminds him. Patton shakes his head. "He doesn't want to talk about it, but we need to learn about birthdays." "Birthdays..." Logan repeats, eyes growing distant as he tries to recall the word. "Ah, yes. I have a section in my studies about that. Follow me."

Patton does not hesitate to trail behind Logan to his lab where most of his research is located. On the way, they pass Roman, who is scribbling in a deep red notebook that none of the others are allowed to read. Logan clears his throat as they pass, making the cravon jump in surprise. He closes the book and smiles up at the two of them before catching the look on Patton's face and jumping into action. "What has upset you, my dear feathered friend?" Roman cries, irrationally loud for how close he is to the two of them. "We need to find out how to celebrate Virgil's birthday!" Patton cries. Roman's furious expression sinks some when he realizes there is no immediate danger to be vanquished. "...Why do we need to do that?" Roman asks, setting his book down on his desk. "Virgil said you're supposed to celebrate with your family," Patton says, sounding miserable. "He's stuck with no way to see them, I can't imagine how scary that would be."

There is a long pause in the hallway before Roman lets out a truly dramatic sigh. "Fine. What do we need to do?" He asks, rolling his eyes. Patton perks up immediately, but before he can begin babbling about how far Roman has come Logan starts to speak. "That is what we are trying to figure out," Logan explains evenly. "We are heading to my lab now to find any notes I've taken on this holiday."

With everything explained and all crewmembers but one in on the plan, they pour over the document, though it is unfortunately sparse in the useful information department.

"Well, it's good we didn't tell Virgil about this!" Patton says cheerfully. "It says here these celebrations are surprises!" Roman frowns. "I don't know if it's a good idea to surprise a human. Fight or flight is not something I want to activate in him." Roman argues, already envisioning the worst possible outcome. Patton rolls his eyes good-naturedly, mood restored at the prospect of cheering Virgil up. "Oh hush silly, he's seen worse!" Patton rolls over into a more comfortable position. "Once when we were living on that planet together, a big kitty-looking thing jumped out of the bushes! Virgil was so surprised he grabbed me and jumped into a tree!"

Patton laughs at the memory, though Roman looks a bit disturbed by the tale of Virgil's athletic prowess. Logan makes a mental note to ask Virgil about the specifics of adrenaline boosting his physical skills. "Here we are," Logan says calmly, flipping to the page he had been looking for. "Celebration of the anniversary of birth in humans."

The three of them crowd around the page, Roman a bit reluctantly, while Logan begins to read aloud. "Family of the subject of the celebration gather in a dark room and wait for the subject to arrive. Once the subject arrives, the family lights the room and shouts 'shock!', though that is a rough translation. Then the celebration begins." Logan takes a breath before continuing.

"The room is often decorated with long strips of colored paper and rubber bags filled with air. The centerpiece of the celebration is a sweet bread with sugary paste. A number of burning sticks are placed on the dessert correlating with the subject's age. The family sings a ritual song and then the subject blows out the fire. Then the dessert is eaten. Offerings are then given to the subject, wrapped in paper. After all of this has taken place, the celebration is complete." Logan finishes.

"Ugh, that's complicated. Do we have to do this?" Roman whines, though he is cut off with a squeak of pain as Patton elbows him in the side. "It's not that bad, guys!" Patton insists, clapping his hands together cheerfully. "We have a whole day to put this together!"

The day moves faster than any of them expected. It was several hours of preparation, with each of them handling different parts. Patton was tasked with finding gifts, as he knew Virgil the best and would, therefore, know what he liked. Roman was in charge of decorating, as he had the best eye for aesthetics, and Logan was going to be baking the sweet bread.

By noon of the next day, everything was ready. The sweetbread sat in the middle of a perfectly decorated table alongside three gifts wrapped in shimmering paper.

Patton was practically buzzing with excitement. "Okay! I'm going to get him! Everyone hide!" Patton trills. The others follow his instructions, ducking under the table. Patton turns out the lights before he leaves, humming cheerfully.

Patton practically runs to Virgil's room, though he slows as he nears the door, not wanting to seem suspicious. Patton leans on the door frame and pokes his head past Virgil's slightly ajar door. Virgil is still lying on the bed, so Patton clears his throat. Virgil doesn't move, so Patton assumes he must be sleeping, and while he's glad that Virgil is getting rest, Patton is not willing to let him mope any longer.

So he tiptoes to Virgil's bedside and shakes his friend's shoulder gently. Virgil, always a light sleeper, snaps awake instantly, reaching his hand out to see what had woken him. "It's just me!" Patton chirps in his own language. Virgil relaxes immediately, flopping back into the covers. "No, don't fall back asleep!" Patton implores, shaking his shoulder once again. Virgil groans, but rolls over to face him. "I need your help!" Patton says, ignoring the sick feeling in his stomach that comes with the lie. Virgil immediately snaps to attention, worry clouding his eyes. "What? What's wrong?" Virgil asks quickly, eyes darting around the room to find some invisible danger. "Nothing bad!" Patton insists, waving his hands to dispel Virgil's worry. He grabs Virgil's hand. Well, really he grabs Virgil's finger, but that can't be helped with their size difference.

Patton drags Virgil through the ship, excitement mounting as he walked. He is practically vibrating by the time they reach the door that the party is behind. He turns to Virgil, hoping his friend can't see his suppressed joy. "Okay, here we are!" Patton announces. Virgil raises an eyebrow. "You woke me up for a door?" He asks, sounding a bit annoyed. Patton can't find it in him to wait any longer, and so he flings open the door and shoves Virgil inside.

The lights go on, and Logan and Roman both dive out from under the table, chorusing with Patton's shout. "Shock!" They all chorus. Virgil takes a step back, eyes wide. "What?" He asks softly. Patton rushes into the room, eager to show off all the work they had done. "You seemed so sad about not being able to celebrate your birthday, so we did some research and threw you a party!" Patton cries happily. Virgil still has not moved from the doorway, and when Patton turns, he is horrified to see tears welling up in his eyes. "Oh! I'm sorry!" Patton trills, feathers puffing up in agitation. "I know were not your real family, but we thought-" "You guys did this for me?" Virgil asks softly, cutting of Patton's worried rambling. He has a hand pressed to his chest, which is not a gesture that Patton recognizes.

"Thank you," Virgil says, and even though there are tears slowly making their way down his face, he is smiling softly.

All in all, it's not the worst birthday party Virgil has ever had. That award went to his party in third grade when he invited the entire class and no one showed up. Sure his crewmates almost started a fire with their complete misunderstanding of what a candle is, and the birthday cake is more of a bread than anything, but they did this for him.

Virgil smiles at his friends as they sing a horribly off-key rendition of Happy Birthday, trying to copy his example from earlier. He laughs when they're finished, and they laugh too.

He may not have his family here, but he thinks he can learn to be happy with the people he's found.

#sanders sides #wibar #virgil sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #aliens #humans are weird #humans are space orcs #my writing

[starryfreckles]

Flavie and Ayumi Live (26 mai 2020 on YouTube francetv slash) 

Translation/Summary -

(I apologise in advance for the typos. i didnt really read this over tbh)

Interviewer: Where are you at the moment?

Flav: I’m at home, in my room

Ayumi: I’m at my country house in my room. [Her friend joined her there when deconfinement happen and now they’re living their best life. There’s sun and everything is good]

Flav is chilling “la vida loca” she says

Is it not too frustrating to live this 6th season in confinement and SKAM France has a reputation of having very involved fans and with the screenings?

A: Yes, its very frustrating but then again it’s something that I haven’t really lived the projections with the fans so I dont know what it does. But just the feedback of social media is incredible. Its a good preview at what can happen in a live screening.

F: Yea I agree. It is frustrating but seeing everyone on social media is kind of reassuring and comforting and like Ayumi said, we dont know that [the screenings] so its not that frustrating.

what kind of reactions have you guys had on social media?

[flav and ayumi arguing who goes first. Its the cutest thing ever. Flav always wants ayumi to go first]

A: Just love and positivity. On my end is really incredible. I thank everyone. It’s really just incredible.

F: Its so wonderful. At night, I really try to read all the dms on instagram and even if I cant respond to everyone, know that I read everything and I translate everything that isn’t in French. If I  were to reply to everyone, it would take a long time so that’s not possible. I dont speak all the languages of the world so I copy and paste is translate to understand.

-video cuts out-

I: we were talking about fan reactions so let’s continue. Have you gotten any that made you surprised, laugh, smile, made you emotional, etc?

A: what is beautiful is that ive gotten many messages from girls and boys who said that they had similar a similar relationship to Lola and Maya in the sense that one helps the other more because of addiction problems. And that’s always nice to hear that they just wanted to thank skam for writing and portraying this kind of story. And of course the reaction of la mif. It’s true the character Jo has been loved by fans. She is so funny and so great and she’s [actress who plays jo, louise] really like that in real life. Like literally from A to Z

Flav agrees.

A: “Louise just played Louise” and it’s just so funny. And everyone online says they want to be friends with jo becuase she made this joke pr did that but she’s really like that.

F: she’s always joking

A: and she just comes up with stuff on the spot

I: we really just can’t wait to see La Mif reunite and see how they are in real life because they are just awesome on screen.

Flav and ayumi agree

I: Maya’s arrival to the season that was a little intense, let’s not lie, is like a ray of light. What does that do to you for having that role of the character who brings light and wonder? (This is kinda hard to translate)

A: its incredible to bring that kind of message, like you said, this light. She is totally this kind of girl that I would love to be friend with. It’s hard to explain. It’s just so beautiful. Maybe flav has something to say.

F: it’s true that you and La Mif brought a light for everyone. Even me when I see my family and close ones they say that they are so funny and new and that they felt my pain [as lola] even if its a show and its feels weird to see you like that because you’re close to us but seeing them [lola + la mif] is a good mix. And ayumi you bring so much like when your face lights up when Lola comes up the stairs its incredible.

A: its a chemical reaction. Its incredible. But flav I saw you on screen and everything that you brought, what David saw. And we lived it but for us it seems natural and on screen and rediscovered the characters and the chemistry at the same time as everyone else.

Flav and Ayumi saying that they havent seen the whole thing before hand and are constantly check their phone for new clips. They have the notifications for the YouTube channel.

F: we at least have the hours for the clips AT LEASTT and thankfully

A: which flav sent me because I didnt have them and she left me panicked for 2 weeks and then she finally sent them over.

F: its great. They’re on my fridge and I cross off each day with my parents and we are one it. My dad everyday is like there’s a clip. So funny.

I: Just so we’re on the same page, there’s a clip today right?

I: [fan question] what do you love the most and the least in the character you play?

A: flav please start

F: I love her “who the fuck are you talking to me like that” and her fuck you attitude. I love that she shows off that nothing moves her but deep down not really, like everyone I guess. I love that about her and she’s so natural. I love her, I really love her. Something negative. That’s hard.

I: you are a very happy, bubbly person. Is there not her depressed, dark side that bothers you?

F: well lola is just full of emotions where we’re going to see everything. But really what I dont like is her fashion sense.

A: im dead. But I was going to say the same thing

F: maya’s fashion sense? You are crazy. And also girl it’s your clothes they used as costumes

A: no no but people have made edits with you know the big pink coat or my outfit at the supermarket and its there that I realised how ridiculous even if they not really.

F: well I think theyre great. Love the pink coat

A: ill send it to you with fedex. I dont have it but ill send it to you.

F: when we were doing costume fittings I told the costume designer that it was simple and that I would be stealing all of these looks. Im going to take a suitcase, im going to take ayumi’s clothes, put them in my suitcase and go back to Vance with them. And I took nothing from lola by the way. She just doesn’t have a style. She doesn’t neglect herself but its her I dont care attitude, again.

A; I love maya’s engagement and her will towards everything and everyone. Shes a teenager but that’s beautiful to be engaged in many causes. She just really wants everyone, her friends, to be well and happy. But otherwise things I dont like outside of her clothes I dont know. Clothes is like the best answer

F: you forgot about her makeup. The makeup artist did her eyeliner and dots under the eyes and I was there like do the same thing with me!

A: that is really the best thing in all of humanity. It was so cool.

F: honestly. The makeup artist gave everything on you but on me she went in the morning like poof poof ‘well that’s it honey, there’s nothing else I can do for you’

A: you forgot the drama hair!

F: oh my god. She would pour oils and everything you want on my head. “You could like cook French fries”

A: flavie says that but you know she can wear whatever she wants and still look good

F: awe I love you

I: Did the age difference between you hinder your ability to be friends?

A: no not at all. What do you think flav?

F: not at all. Im just the baby of the group, im the youngest but we all so dumb together that we don’t realise

A: exactly. We all act like we’re 7

F: all of us together is horrible. The whole mif. Intolerable.

I: how was youre guy’s first meet?

F: ok let me tell you from my point of view because its quite funny.

A: she was so annoying. She looked at me all weird. she was not cool No that’s not true at all. She was adorable. Trop cute

F: I arrive to the production offices and im with David signing contracts and he says don’t move I have a surprise. And im like oh no what has he brought me a croissant or something and he brings back ayumi. So we start talking for like 10 minutes and I did not who she was actually. And I was like who tf is this. I did not know. And im one point im like so she’s the one who plays Maya? It was so funny. It was cool. And then he brought Maxence

A: from my point of view, flavie was so shy and locked off. And I knew who she was and I was honoured and thrill. She was so small and closed off. But honestly NOT AT ALL. i quickly understood the next day that flavie is a bomb! You understand ?

F: at first maybe you were like “I just want to protect this little thing.”

I: so what was the first scene that you guys filmed together?

Ayumi makes it clear that it’s a scene that hasn’t been released yet. And Flavie can’t remember what it is.

A: flav, you are putting our whole relationship in question!

F: I just dont know!

A: ok but the second scene we did together was the scene of Saturday morning after the first urban party

F: OHHH you right! I remember now!

I: but that’s a great scene that fans loved because of the chemistry and people loved it. How did you create that complexity? Was it the writing or did you try to meet up on your own?

F: honestly, not that much because the problem is that I live in Vance. We really tried to see each other but trains made it difficult to see each other just us two, but it still worked somehow. We worked a lot with David but not so much just us too and yet we still manage to create something really strong and powerful.

A: in between scenes we also just talked all the freaking time. And by the time David said action, it was like we just finishing our conversation in the scene.

F: every morning we were always happy to see each other and we didn’t see each other that much but that honestly wasn’t a problem at all.

I: in the YouTube comments, everyone is slightly making fun of flavie for living so “far”

A: [also starts making fun of flavie] oh yea yea basically 45 minutes.

F: BY TRAIN! By car its like 2 hours and a half, so sorry.

A: you don’t even have a driver license! So you have to take the train!

F: alright I almost have my drivers license! Soon supposedly! And don’t worry ill come pick you up in my ride!

Ayumi makes more fun of Flavie for her hours of driving and her basically driving illegally (in France you can only drive at 18 and flav is 17)

I: what was the most difficult scene to film for you?

F: well im not gonna answer. I can’t answer

A: honestly I dont have any. Oh wait yes yes yes! I just remembered. Flav you do know! It’s the scene where I tell you that ive missed you.

F: oh right! You were sick right!

A: yea I had shrimp for lunch. Bad shrimp and in the scene im in process of dying. I have never been in more pain and discomfort.

F: and I was like why is she angry at me? What did I do?

A: and flav is like are you okay and thank god you were there flav because she was telling me breathe and take it slow. It was the difficult

F: for me the most difficult that we’ve seen is was hard because of weather conditions. It was so cold on the whole set but it was the one where we were around the fire and jo sees eliott for the first time, the first urbex party. We were getting fire embers in our eyes so we were all crying and complaining. It was awful. Louise was actually crying so so hard.

A: it was so funny. Louise was actually crying and was joking at the same time whilst crying. We were laughing so hard.

The say that night was still a lot of fun and then they all went to Quentin’s apartment [actor who plays sekou] and the ambiance on set is better than on screen. It was a lot of fun

A: la mif always has a great time, messing around

F: David would say “FOCUS FOCUS”

I: it was mid November, and we all know skam france shooting is very intense and fast. So David was like a police officers. We cant wait to see the behind the scenes. David in the comments says thank you to all the extras who were there until 4am

F:  oh yea honestly. Thank you– just thank you

A: oh yea flav thanks for that. Its great.

I: we know there’s a clip today with a reunion. And fans are expecting a kiss. Are we getting that moment today?

(Silence)

A: listen if there is a kiss, it will happen at a perfect moment

I: there is a lot of pressure on this kiss becuase there are so many people from the LGBTQ+ community who are saying that this kind of relationship is rarely seen on screen. Do you feel the need to do good?

F: its so well written and directed that we do want to do really well. Ok your turn

A: the want to do good, of crows but its already something we want to do. We are not forcing ourselves, because its already there.

They say that its sad for the time being that they have to continue to fight for rights in the LGBTQ community and Ayumi says that with SKAM its all going to change. They always get lovely messages thanking them.

They talk about the ship name and how fans have decided that is going to be Mayla. Ayumi is happy that its Mayla. Flav wanted Loyla. Ayumi says it was their first “fight” and they weren’t agreeing. Even la mif voted on the ship. It was heavily debated.

I: Are we right to have so much faith in Mayla or are you going to break our hearts?

F: for that you’ll have to keep watching

A: well said flav

F: l’amour gange toujours

I: what is next for you two?

F: not much. Im seeing friends at a distant. Stay safe. I was starting to miss my social life. Not going out too much because I really dont want to get “this vicious/awful thing” so yea “la vida loca”

F: project wise everything is on pause but im on a good path. Crossing my fingers. If it happens it happens. Its destiny

A: its destiny. Same thing. There was a movie that stopped before quarantine and won’t start again but there are castings. Until filming starts again, we are all waiting.

I: it’s funny, everything something is said, it gets translated in the comments in five or six languages. Have you taken something from your character and have you left them something?

A: her joy to live at everything. And give her my body to just exist

F: what I took, well nothing. I gave her 7kg more. Well actually I took from her 7kg. That’s it!

I: who forgets their lines the most?

F: ME! But you too kinda. You just talk SOOO fast you start to stutter

A: I talk too fast and then I stutter and it was so cold that that doesn’t help. So in front of flavie, she really made fun of me.

F: I didnt always forget but sometimes when its really long I forgot.

#Flavie Delangle #ayumi roux #skam france #sarah speaks french* #this took a lot longer than i thought #long post #its so long yall #im sorry

[captainkirkmccoy]

It seems that wherever Leonard McCoy turns, Jim Kirk is there. 

He’s doing a short temp shift at the library--he needs the extra credits stat--when Jim shows up at the reference desk, a pile of actual books nearly blocking his face. 

He ignores the books--that’s the rare item librarian’s job and goes back to checking in the holo texts. “Don’t you have class or admirals to annoy?”

“I already stopped by Archer’s. Did you know his beagle had puppies?”

“You need to talk to L’tan if you want to check those out.” Leonard tells him. 

“These are mine.” Jim’s almost constant open expression morphs into one of mock offense. 

“Huh.” McCoy submits a few late charges for holos not turned in on time and sits back, happy to have finished before the end of his shift. “Let me guess? The karma sutra and Vulcan mating ritual guide?”

“No, smartass.” 

Jim slides a book across the desk. It’s in good condition, with a protective wrapping around the hardcover, another surprise, and not a book on sex or eroticism. 

“The House In The Cerulean Sea?” 

“Seriously, one of the best books to come out of 21st century Terran literature. Followed closely--and by the same publisher!--” Jim slides another book. 

“Gideon the Ninth?”

“Really fucking incredible. I’m writing a whole paper on it for a class right now on 21st Century Terran literature with a focus set in space.” At Leonard’s eyebrow lift, Jim shrugs. “It’s an elective.”

“And you’re showing them to me why?”

Jim makes a face at him, like a puppy denied a treat. 

“Thought you might be interested. Never mind!”

Before he can say anything, he swipes the books, nearly dropping a few in the process and walks off. He leaves Gideon the Ninth. McCoy curses. 

***

Two days later and he’s accosted by Gaila as he’s drinking shitty replicator coffee and the saddest cinnamon roll he’s ever tried to digest. 

“Hello Leonard.” She says, stealing a chair across for him like they have a standing lunch.

“Hello, Gaila.”

He picks at the cinnamon roll before giving up entirely. 

“You hurt his feelings.”

Leonard isn’t dumb, so of course he knows who she’s talking about. “Jim Kirk has more feelings than a Vulcan on opposite day.”

“He likes you.”

Leonard sputters on his tepid coffee. “We’re not in second grade, Gaila!”

“James is an awkward bean, Leonard. He is used to waggling his eyebrows for sex and if you’re well--you, that doesn’t seem to work.”

He considers this. “I thought he was having a fit.”

“And, he doesn’t just want sex from you. He wants friendship. More than that. You’re the first person--besides me and Captain Pike, of course, who doesn’t look at him and see his father, for better or worse.”

“The kid’s never around for me to really get to know. And when he does show up--I’m kind of busy.” Leonard admits. He shows up at all of Leonard’s shifts--the clinic with a broken nose, Admiral Archer’s office with random questions, the cafeteria when he doesn’t eat anything, his library shift--

“The books?”

“Do you know we met when he gave me a book--an Orion book of poetry, one of his favorites. It was the first physical thing I had of home since leaving.”

She looks over his shoulder for a moment, eyes tracking a memory but then she blinks, focusing back on Leonard. 

“His Orion is a little rusty but we spent hours talking about it. It was lovely.” She smiles, content at this new memory, rewriting the one from before.\

He drums his hands on the table, thinking. “Okay.”

“You know what you need to do, yes?” Gaila says. 

He does.

****

It takes him five hours, six bookstores and antique shops and one shady, alley dealing to find what he’s looking for. 

And then another two hours, one embarrassing conversation with Archer’s assistant and getting lost in the Academy’s underground tunnels before he finds Jim. 

“Sit! Sit. No, thank you for the kisses but no. Sit!”

The small basement space that was once a bunker for admirals in early Starfleet days now looks like a puppy daycare. 

A long blue plastic tunnel bisects the space, with small hoops and a slide. In a pen sits Jim and around Jim are squirmy, tiny beagle puppies. 

“Is this your repayment to Archer for making his last assistant quit?” Leonard asks. 

Jim leans his head back to look at him upside down. A puppy takes this opportunity to bounce and Jim finds himself attacked by the cutest beagle army Starfleet has ever seen. Leonard is not as coldhearted as he thinks and reaches down to take one adorable puppy who yawns in Leonard’s face and then licks his chin.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” McCoy gestures to a bag he abandoned on the floor. “You forgot Gideon the Ninth.”

“Nah, you can keep it.” Jim tosses a training toy to the corner of the pen and the puppies fall over themselves to get to it. 

“I can keep a 300 year old Terran book in pristine condition?”

“Just thought you might like it.”

Leonard rolls his eyes but can’t help but grinning. “Sorry bud.” He tells the puppy and puts him down among his litter-mates before reaching into the bag to pull out his offering. 

He hands it to Jim. 

“Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in Vulcan. Bones, are you shitting me right now?”

“I am not.” Leonard doesn’t even try to hide his grin. He needs to send Gaila a thank you as soon as possible. 

“And, holllllly shit, it’s signed by the translator.” 

Jim is up and out of the pen, crashing him with a hug. 

“My dad used to read me this book when I was a kid. Figured you could use a challenge.”

“Thank you.” Jim says, clutching the book to his chest like it was a missing piece of himself he didn’t know he had forgotten. 

It doesn’t take them long after to become inseparable. They spend time down in the agility room with the puppies, reading to each other from their favorite books, spending free weekends tracking down obscure copies in bookstores along the coast. And it becomes a tradition on their anniversary. Bones--he becomes Bones pretty quickly--even proposes to Jim with a book, their love language becoming the physical print of words, the musky pages preserved over generations, a reminder of their beginning.

                                                         ***

For @brevityis, who asked for fluff. 

#mckirk #fluff #jim kirk x bones #jim kirk/bones #jim kirk/leonard mccoy #jim kirk x leonard mccoy #star trek fic #brevityis

[cheri-translates]

[CN] Shaw’s 2020 Birthday R&S

🍒Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for an R&S which has not been released in EN!🍒

[Prologue]

The birthday event begins with MC in an antique store, in search of a moderately priced antique. She had asked Shaw for help since she’s been having difficulties finding one

Unexpectedly, Shaw gives her the keys to an antique store the next day, telling her to take whatever she wants

Even though MC knew early on that Shaw used to have a mentor who owned an antique store, she still feels strange about it - she’s unable to associate antiques, which are filled with rich history and culture, with Shaw

She wonders if Shaw visited this antique store regularly in his childhood

She notices that a drawer is open:

There are several yellowed exercise books lying inside, and “Shaw” is written on the bottom right corner of the covers in pencil.

MC: Could these be Shaw’s exercise books when he was young?

Curious, I take out these “major discoveries” from the drawer, my mind whirring with countless questions.  

At the back of my mind, I have a feeling that this place has a special meaning to Shaw.

MC: Maybe, for Shaw’s birthday…

While I’m thinking, something else in the drawer attracts my attention.

There are three copper coins, the colours antique, under sheets of writing paper. Covered in dust, they seem to be calling out to me voicelessly.

~

[Chapter 1: Exam Results]

At 4pm on a Friday afternoon, the math teacher wraps up her final point and closes the lesson plan.

The black board is decorated with the homework for the weekend. The teacher pushes up her spectacles. There is a big stack of exam papers on the table. “Last week’s exam scripts have been marked. Come and take them when I call your name.”

“This time round, most of you have improved. Only one student did not pass.” She takes up the exam script at the very top, flips it open, her eyes sweeping across the last row of the classroom, stopping at the seat at the very corner.

“Shaw.”

Hearing his own name being read, Shaw unwillingly stuffs the interesting comics underneath the table, taking his time to stand up. At the same time, the whole class cannot help but turn around and look at him evenly.

Sensing the surprised and teasing looks in their eyes, Shaw instead raises his head high and walks forward, stuffing a hand into his pocket with a devil-may-care attitude.

Taking the exam script from the teacher, Shaw stands in place, flipping through the script to look at the questions he got wrong.

Well, he did get more questions wrong than expected…

But math itself as a subject is annoying. It’s fine if he doesn’t do well.

He folds the exam script, folds it again, and again, before stuffing it into his pocket, turning around to return to his seat.

The teacher’s eyes unhappily trail behind Shaw, before she once again talks in a serious tone. “This time, everyone has to have their parents sign the exam script. I’ll check them on Monday afternoon.”

Shaw raises his eyebrows in mild disdain. It’s just a signature after all.

The old man copies the calligraphy of the Tang and Song dynasties so perfectly that even experts cannot tell. A mere signature wouldn’t be difficult.

He retrieves the stack of comics from underneath the table and puts them into his bag. With sufficient preparation for the end of school, he waits for the end-of-class bell to sound.

~

[Chapter 2: After School]

Entering June, the cicadas grow increasingly chirpier.

Over 60 years old, the antique shop shopkeeper sits on a rocking chair, fanning himself while checking Shaw’s homework. The prescription of his reading glasses is too shallow, and he has to squint. “The way you write this… Why does it look like a dog crawling. It’s so crooked.”

Shaw takes an eraser to erase a sentence he has copied wrongly. He cleans it till there is not a trace of it left. In an elevated volume, he answers, “It doesn’t matter if the words look ugly as long as I didn’t write it wrongly.”

While saying this, he feels through his pockets and takes out two exam scripts. “My teacher says this one needs a signature.”

Taking the script from him, the shopkeeper laughs until he rocks back and forth. “Kid, it’s fine if you don’t score well, but your luck couldn’t be any worse. Even if you take wild guesses, you couldn’t have gotten such low marks.”

He sits upright, sighing a few times. He folds up his fan and takes out a ball-point pen from his front pocket. With a practiced motion, he signs them.

He sighs deeply. “Shaw, since I’m not your parent, I shouldn’t be teaching you anything.”

Shaw had just closed his pencil box with a “pa”. Hearing his mentor sigh, he takes out his exercise books from his bag again, before returning to a state of studying. “All right, all right, I know what you’re going to say…”

“I won’t talk about big life lessons. Your school teacher would have talked about it more than I have. From today onwards, apart from the homework your teacher has given you, you are to write two pages worth of math questions, and copy a short essay every day. Only after you’re done will I teach you my craft.” He stands up, holding a tea cup and walking towards Shaw. “Whether you agree or not, give me an exact answer.”

Shaw doesn’t make a sound but merely furrows his eyebrows.

The shopkeeper laughs. “Just look at your capabilities - even a math question can stump you. If you can’t handle this small difficulty, how can you think of yielding something big?”

“I’ve never found math difficult. I simply don’t like math.” Shaw sets aside his exercise paper and takes out a brand new sheet. “Next time, I’ll let you sign an exam script that has 100 marks.”

“Wow, look who’s ambitious.”  

“Hmph, this is nothing.”

~

[Chapter 3: After School]

There is only one class on Wednesday afternoon. After school, Shaw carries his bag and runs towards the shop.

Once he enters, he sees his mentor eating some kind of medicine – small white and yellow pills in his palm.

“Why are you here at this time? Oh it’s… I forgot, it’s Wednesday today.” The shopkeeper talks while he turns around to walk into the kitchen. “Put down your bag and wash your hands. I bought a big watermelon!”

Shaw knows the old man has high blood pressure, some heart issues… He doesn’t have a concept of these things, but knows that it isn’t something good.

Without a sound, he puts his bag down and takes out his exercise books and practice questions.

“Don’t rush to do your homework, come eat some watermelon first.” The shopkeeper puts half a watermelon into Shaw’s arms and guides him to the outside of the store, bringing two small stools over for them to sit.

The watermelon, which was just taken out of the fridge, glistens with water droplets. The red flesh has a spoon stuck in it. Shaw scoops a big chunk from the middle. It’s very sweet.

The shopkeeper is also holding half a watermelon, but eats very slowly. Noticing Shaw staring at him, he sighs and shakes his head. “I’m old, so I can’t just eat these cold things…”

While saying this, he looks towards the drawer inside the store. “Your mentor is 62 this year.”

“When people become old, they love to talk about reason. They don’t want you to walk the crooked path they have because it’s a waste of time. You’re still young, so you think you have a lot of time to spare, so you don’t notice. I want to teach you that this is wrong. You need to spend the time of walking down a crooked path to do other things.”

After saying this, he points towards the whole street lined with antique shops. “You can’t just look at these. Learning calligraphy and painting today, and tomorrow jade, and thinking you’re living a serious life. Spending months and years to take care of this palm-sized shop – You can’t live like this. You are my disciple, and I will teach you all my skills. But apart from this, you still have to learn other things. Whatever you can learn, learn it all, and learn it well.

“You have to look at the big world, craft a career, aim higher, be more forward looking…”

He looks at Shaw affectionately. “Put in more effort, learn all my skills, and then get out of here!”

Shaw turns towards the watermelon and lets out a glum “humph”. “You’re old, but I’m still young. I still can’t differentiate plus minus multiply and divide. You’re old so you should be the one putting in more effort to live for a long time, so I can take my time to learn all these things.”

It’s summer, so the night comes late. The clock already signals the time as 6pm, but the light has not yet dispersed.

Shaw puts a brush back into the drawer, takes off his gloves and wipes the sweat off his forehead. “Old man, I’m hungry. Why not let me join you for dinner?”

In the kitchen, the shopkeeper is washing vegetables. He takes out a small box from the fridge, pulls back the curtains and returns to the shop.

“I didn’t cook your portion, but you can eat this if you’re hungry.” He removes the cover of the small paper box, and Shaw’s eyes widen.

“What, you think I wouldn’t remember your birthday?” The shopkeeper retrieves a cake from the paper box, and removes the plastic surrounding it. “Once you’re done eating, go home quickly!”

Shaw takes a spoon, muttering in a small voice, “It doesn’t matter if I go home late anyway.”

“Today is different. A child’s birthday is the same day as a mother’s suffering… But you’re too young and still can’t understand this. On other days it’s fine, but today is different…” The shopkeeper holds up his tea cup and goes to the counter.

[Note: The actual phrase is: “儿子生日母亲的苦日”, which doesn’t have a direct English translation. The meaning is that the day a child is born is also the day the mother suffers in childbirth to bring him into the world]

“I don’t know why adults don’t have an issue with you hanging out here all the time. But I can tell that you wear clean clothes every day, and that your shoes are polished. These are because of your parents. Let this old man add one line of reason – if you’re angry with your parents, you’ll regret it eventually.”

Shaw lowers his head, biting the spoon and says evasively, “No one’s angry with them.”

“You don’t call this being angry? It’s not that I’m picking on you, but boys should manage their tempers better. If you’re unhappy, you have to say it straight out, don’t just keep it boiling in your heart without a sound and then wait for someone to come coddle you. With your personality, in future, you’ll become a person who never speaks from the heart. Even when you’re with someone you like, you’d put on a front – That wouldn’t be good.”

“Old man, what are you thinking all day long?” Shaw retorts, not bothering to clean his mouth which has been dirtied with cream. “I will never have someone I like. I play soccer with a few guys in class, and they spend the entire day talking about who they like. It’s so annoying.”

The shopkeeper laughs at how Shaw says this with an air of righteousness. “Which is why I say you’re still young.”

Shaw digs into his cake and lets out a “hmph”. “I’m not young. I just haven’t grown taller.”

The shopkeeper sips his tea. “Guys do take longer to grow. Maybe you’ll be taller than me in two years.”

“Two years is way too long,” the plastic spoon dangles from Shaw’s mouth. “The best thing would be to wake up one day and suddenly be taller. Mm… I want to grow to this height. No.”

He stands on a chair, using his hands to gesture until he is satisfied. “At least here.”

The shopkeeper responds with a sweeping gaze, “That’s 180cm though.”

“180cm is very good.” Shaw sits back on the chair contentedly. “I’ll make a wish to grow to 180cm.”

~

[Chapter 5: Fate]

The shopkeeper looks at the clock on the wall, and slowly puts down his teacup.

“Since it’s your birthday, I’ll read your fortune.” He pulls open the drawer and takes out three old copper coins.

Shaw finishes up the last bite of cake and throws the packaging into a bin. “You’ve already read my fortune many times and the results are always the same. Yet you’re doing it again?”

The shopkeeper looks slightly down, but his voice remains calm. “I have nothing else to do anyway.”

The first throw, one heads and two tails.

The second throw, one heads and two tails.

The third throw, two heads and one tails.

…It’s really not much different from the last reading.

The shopkeeper shakes his head, his hand ready for the fourth throw. The copper coins fall on the table with a jingle, and a combination which has never been seen before appears – all three are negative.

“Wow, there’s a change!” The shopkeeper says in a higher pitch than usual.

In the middle of downing his drink, Shaw almost falls off his chair at the shopkeeper’s sudden outburst.

The jingles from the copper coins continue. The final two throws are no longer the same ones as before.

Shaw looks at the coins. “What does this mean?”

“It means that in the future, you will definitely not always be alone.” The shopkeeper rubs Shaw’s head with a bright smile on his face. “I was always worried about what would happen to you, with such a stubborn personality, if I weren’t around anymore…”

“Of course I wouldn’t always be alone. I’m not alone now.”

Shaw puts the three copper coins in his hands, looking like he doesn’t take the reading to heart – He has his family, pretty good friends, a few friends from the neighbouring class who buy tidbits with him. His life will continue this way.

Even though it’s a little boring, but he wouldn’t be alone.

“Also, old man, you won’t have any problems, and will definitely live for a very long time.”

Shaw speaks, and softly repeats the sentence, “You will definitely live for a very long time.”

The dusk has begun to settle outside. The shopkeeper holds the copper coins between his fingers, and gently sighs. “That’s why I say you’re still young.”

~

[Chapter 6: Birthday Present]

After packing his bag, Shaw looks at the clock on the wall – he should reach home by 7pm, just in time for dinner.

“You’re leaving already? You don’t want your birthday gift?”

The shopkeeper appears from behind the counter, tossing his gaze to the cupboard. “It’s been there for a whole day and you still haven’t found it yet.”

Usually displaying antiques, the drawer now has within it a box wrapped in colourful paper. Shaw curiously walks over and rips off the packaging, revealing a small wooden box.

A dark brown Rosewood bracelet rests in his hand.

In his eyes, this is something only an adult can have.

At his age, he would have received books, stationery, toys or models – none of which he likes.

He is always treated like a child, but he has grown up since a long time ago.

“This bracelet isn’t something expensive, it isn’t that much of an antique, but it is made of quality Rosewood.”

“If you’re bored, you can play with this, and learn to manage your temperament. You’re still young, so it’s fine if you’re still impatient and stubborn. But if you continue with this little attitude of yours, you’d lose out eventually.”

“In this line of work, you need to have patience. One, only when you manage your emotions would you remain focused. Two, good things come to those who wait.”

“The change in your life is also something you will have to wait for.”

These words completely fly over Shaw’s head. He puts the bracelet onto this wrist, coils it around multiple times until it can stay on.

“In future, no matter what you face, you have to be calm, and be patient.” The shopkeeper gently taps Shaw’s head, and frowns. “Have you committed all this to memory?”

Shaw rubs his head, his eyes still trained on his present, completely engrossed with it. “Ahh – yes I remember, I remember!”

“What do you remember?”

“Remember… that I have to hurry home for dinner!” Shaw turns around and grabs his bag, disappearing out of the shop. Before that, he raises the hand that dons the bracelet and waves.

The stars flicker, and the light is reflected in Shaw’s eyes. His eyes are smiling.

#mlqc cn #mlqc #mlqc shaw #love and producer #mlqc spoilers

[twixtandshout]

Tagged by @pidgeonpostal! And not tagging anyone else because I have SOILED the original template (soiled it!!) in deference to my [brushes off skirt] mostly clean public-facing appearance.

...I’ve been making a lot of Spongebob memes lately for someone who has not seen Spongebob.

How many works do you have on AO3?

71!

What’s your total AO3 wordcount?

...306,834. Jesus.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Uh. Many! I do a lot of one-offs (and/or start long things I never finish) in many different places. My top three fandoms by fics written are RWBY (29), Undertale (25), Gravity Falls/Transcendence AU (4).

Bet you can’t tell where my hyperfixations have fallen. 

I’ve also got some Pokémon and Sonic the Hedgehog fics back on my ff.net account, or I think I still do, anyway, but let’s never go back there pls

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Sweeter Than Honey (Undertale): Taking a Completely unsurprising first place, with over 600 more kudos than the runner-up, the haphazard Underswap fic featuring a post-college self-insert I wrote just after high school! I shake my head some at how overblown and ridiculous the gap between this and all my other stuff is (c’mon, guys, I’ve written way better fics), but this is also the fic which prompted me (and at least one other person!) to start using they/them pronouns. I’ve gotten a lot of really sweet comments about how seen and appreciated it’s made people feel, so I can’t get down too far about it.

2. To Be A Hero (BNHA): I don’t count myself as part of the BNHA fandom, for a number of reasons, but for something that’s arguably the main motivation for the entire plot, Midoriya’s quirklessness is something I’ve never thought has been handled well. This fic marked the first time I (somewhat tentatively) claimed the disability label (thanks again to Sweeter Than for prompting that realization) to hold that lens over canon. It also really shot up my chart, dang! It’s the only thing here I’d consider “recent.”

3. Three-Sentence Shipping (Undertale): Self-explanatory.

4. Brothers Beyond Bonedaries (Undertale): Ah, the way-overcomplicated AU³ I got nowhere close to finishing. One of the things I really like about Undertale is the interface screw, how Toby Fox uses the medium of the video game to pull off crazy things and enhance his game, but most of the fic written for the fandom seems dedicated to explaining it away, grounding it, rather than taking it to the next step and messing with the medium of fanfiction when you keep the story going. I tried to do something cool like that here, playing with questions like narrator and authorship and breaking the fourth wall, even taking the “final boss” fight to a “totally separate” fic reached through the first by link – but, well, then I never finished it, which probably didn’t make anything less confusing for the poor folks who missed the intent.

5. Spirit and Such (Gravity Falls: Transcendence AU): A whole fic written to line out a particular image I had, which, naturally, never made it to the page. I consider it a bit of a cautionary tale for myself when it comes to writing (near-)original content; there’s a lot I look back on and cringe. I still love the characters, though – well, the important ones – and I think just stepping away from the tried-and-true Mizar formula nets it a star sticker here.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

>w>; I try, but a lot of the time I just don’t have anything to say? Like, oh, you liked it? Neat. There’s not much to respond to in comments like that, and then I’m weighing falling down on an ~obligation~ to respond to every message in my inbox vs annoying people with copy-paste fluff responses all down the page. Plus I know I make more of an effort to comment on things that didn’t get the attention I feel they deserve, so if I’m driving up my own comment count with nonsense, am I preventing myself from being in a position to receive more comments later? And then if I do comment, am I being too effusive or running people’s ears off explaining things they don’t actually need to know? Sometimes people just want to express interest or admiration and don’t necessarily want a whole peek and guided tour behind the curtain.

Can you tell I have anxiety? x3;

Anyway, I do respond when I can. And I keep most of the comments I’ve gotten to go back and reread. 

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hm, hmm. Lots of stuff in the TQ Nonsense series would probably qualify! I’m thinking of Unfixable, Wolfsong, and Ethanol. And there’s Bursting Through A Blood-Red Sky (I Can Live, I Can Breathe), of course, but that was always intended to have a fix-it epilogue. It’s just that I wrote it in a couple of hours day-of, stared at it, and decided I didn’t wanna just then. But now that’s As Long As You’re Still Burning Bright (I’m Still Awake), and that’s probably the best romance I’ve written, so that one worked out.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?

Now and then! When the urge strikes. Uhhh, I’ve got a series of Doctor Who x Undertale crossovers I actually made a whole dang verse for that never made it to print. Get a couple great comments on that every few months or so. I think the World Trigger x Undertale crossover is probably weirder, though, by virtue of WT being a very small fandom. My enthusiasm kinda sputtered out on that one.

Mostly I just daydream crossovers with whatever happens to catch my eye at any given moment. I have a lot!!!! Though odds are out on whether I manage to remember any of them once the initial thought’s passed, lol.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Gotten a couple eyebrow-raising comments, but I think mostly I’m just too small a writer to draw that kind of attention.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t? think so? Think my tastes are a little niche for most people to bother ^^;

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I had someone apologize once for any language mistakes in their comment cause they had to run it through a translator! That’s not what you asked (the answer is no), but it’s very flattering to think that someone liked my fic enough to read and comment despite the language barrier.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! :D @pidgeonpostal was gracious enough to agree to co-write Five Nights at Denny’s with me off an idea about shoes. This has fulfilled a long-held dream of mine (collabing with someone, not the shoes) and also introduced me to some lovely people.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Who has time for just one? ;3c Honestly, I care more about the characters and how the relationship – any relationship – between them changes them than I do about ~A Ship~ as a solid, bounded noun-object. I’ve got characters I like more and less and feelings about who does and doesn’t have chemistry in which directions with whom, but finding anything that agrees with those preferences is hard, harder when you take alloromanticism into account. I’ll play in any sandbox with cool toys, especially if other folks have already built sick sandcastles there.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

[kicks every single unfinished fic further under the bed] What nooo no WIPs here, everything on my account is either finished or does not exist

I’ve got a couple extra chapters of Sweeter Than floating around unposted, but 1. that fic’s a mess 2. high school Twixt and post-college Twixt are different people and trying to contort myself into three other me-shapes just cause people Like this fic is not something I’m super interested in 3. it’s headed for an emotional dip and I’d rather leave it where it is than post two chapters, stall out again, and leave folks with a bad end.

As for other fics... it’s looking more and more likely that v7 of my Yellow Brick Road AU will never actually make it out. >w>; I’ve got some really great ideas, but not enough to make me feel like I know what I’m doing, and that’s a big roadblock. Plus trying to engage with RT’s Atlas-Mantle worldbuilding in any serious capacity is... a headache. I can’t recommend the Happy Huntress Cinematic Universe enough, but it leaves some pretty big shoes to follow! And I’ve got small feet. <w<;

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue’s fun, probably as an extension of characterization. I love tearing into what makes people tick, especially against the backdrop of their environment, the story they’re in, and the people they’re up against. Voice is a double-edged sword; I’ve been told my writing is really recognizable and individual, but on the other hand, I’ve been growing frustrated with with the limits of my narrative ability. There’s a strong rhythm I keep when I write (you might notice it here, even) but that leaves me feeling predictable and stale. I’m not sure I’m great at setting as a matter of course, but I’m pretty good at describing setpieces where the need comes up; that comes from my background in poetry, as does the fun I have with sublimating and abstracting complex imagery. And I think I bring some needed nuance to the universal. For good or ill, I don’t do what “everyone else” is doing.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Well, writing, for one thing. If I don’t know how something’s going to go and don’t have the urge to write it, it isn’t getting done, which means there’s a billion things that will never see the page and a few hundred more that are never getting finished. I lose momentum easily and have a hard time getting started, and I put way too much standing on finding a foothold with other people; as critical as I am of my work, I have high expectations for the stuff that passes muster, and it never seems to measure up. I’m also really uncreative. Yeah, I can mix up elements and extrapolate events, but coming up with things wholesale is really hard, which is why I avoid it wherever possible and steal/reskin stuff from other places instead.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Something along the lines of “Hoo boy, I am Not qualified for this but hopefully it’s decent anyway.” Maria’s Spanish lines haven’t been a big deal – I’ve used it sparingly and, as a Latin language, it should be easy for English-speaking audiences to pick up on the gist – but I’ve had a harder time with Tai’s Chinese, both because I have Even Less background there and because it is, of course, an entirely different language system. If I write it out in English or Romanized italics, am I colonizing it or changing the meaning? If I write it out in the presumed-original characters (presumed because it’s Google Translate and who knows if I’m even barking in the right forest), am I confusing or alienating my presumed-majority-English-speaking audience? Where should I put the translations? Should I put the translations? And for Frisk’s sign language, thinking back, are the brackets I used instead of quotes alienating/infantilizing? I like that different characters give the text between a different feel, but I’m not an ASL speaker – and I’m pretty sure the word is “speaker,” which would only reinforce that that demographic would rather I didn’t do that. It’s important for all these characters, I think, that they use non-English language where it makes sense; it’s part of who they are. But as a white monolingual English-speaker, I don’t think I can really weigh in.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

Thaaaat’d be Pokémon, followed closely with Sonic the Hedgehog. Whether those fics are still on my ff.net account or not (pretty sure I’ve purged them, but you never know) I’ve still got a couple saved to a folder on my current laptop, ostensibly so I can look back and see how far I’ve come and more practically to allow for the possibility of furthering group cohesion through public shaming.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I still like the idea behind The Man Who Is Atlas, and Burning Bright (Still Awake) gets props for being my current fic, though it’s currently in that spot where I’m excited to get new chapters posted but also quietly marking everything up in red pen. I think Harbinger gets the crown here, at least for now.

#answerin' stuff

[fantranslatorbychoice]

Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi Volume 6 Chapter 5 - The Tanuki's Marriage

T/N: Hey y'all, here's Chapter 5. I didn't notice at first that the sentences in the original text were separated into paragraphs and stuff so I am putting that stuff here today lol Oh well, hope you all still enjoy. Also you can try the recipes but at your own risk, I am not liable for any mishaps for following these recipes lol

Also if you like this translation, you can heart it, share the link, reblog, I just respectfully ask that DO NOT REPOST ELSEWHERE. This is my contribution to the scant English content of this fandom, and I worked really hard to finish this thing, it’s not like I just copy-pasted everything. I even had to build the kanji in Jisho one by one. Try it and you’ll see what I mean.

You can rave about this, rant about this, reblog, like, reply, but if possible please link back to this page. If you’re unsure how to do that, just copy the web address of this page. If you’re on a blogsite just insert the web address as a hyperlink as a link back to here. Honestly if this light novel was officially-published in English, I wouldn’t even be doing this right now... And if it did, I’d take this offline to support the publishers and Yuuma-sensei. Creators support creators, is what I believe in. I’ll prolly do 1-5 once 6-10 has been done, or however long I can manage to translate the raw texts, it can take a toll at times.  As previously-mentioned in earlier chapters, if you stumbled upon this one, the two seasons of the anime covered volumes 1-5, so other than the extra details, you didn’t miss much stuff. Here’s chapter 5 now

P162 That is, the morning of the inn being closed for the day. Today in Yugao, is the debut appearance of the Kiseki beef shank made into beef stew. Since yesterday the meat has been soaked in red wine, and the ingredients for making Demi-glace sauce has been prepared. Because I have some ketchup and Worcestershire sauce that I prepared myself, I could successfully make Demi-glace sauce. Alas, Ginji-san handed over to me, with so much regret, his treasured but also very important red wine... "When we were given Kiseki beef, I decided that I wanted to make beef stew." Orio-ya is so generous, they gifted us so much with all cuts of the Kiseki beef. We couldn't eat all of these in one gulp so for sure it's all going to get refrigerated but, I was thinking that the beef shank is absolutely going to be made into beef stew.** I immediately pulled out the shanks soaked in red wine, and sauted them in the frying pan. After searing both sides, I added the red wine marinade with bay leaves and boiled them down. Ah, it's been a long while since Kakuriyo has been this peaceful, the fruity fragrance of the red wine... T/N: Yeah the tastiest part of any meat is the one that gets the most exercise and the nearest to the bones, but seriously, give it a chance to soften and it just has so much flavor. Just like the limbs of fowl, or pigs, the limbs just have so much flavor and collagen lol dang it no I can't be hungry now T_T Also marinating in red wine with bay leaf is a legit way to add flavor to red meat, if you're a meat eater you can try this. or if you want to kick it up a notch, use balsamic vinegar, either way it helps soften the tough meat parts. Of course, I can't guarantee if you'll like it, but I tried this once, it mellowed the beef taste and the annoying stench of the meat. But hey that's just my two cents lol try at your own risk P163 While the meat was boiling down in the red wine, I started cutting the vegetables that I'll add in the stew. White onions, garlic, and I added a lot of the seasonally-apt shimeji mushrooms. I sauted all of these in a pot, and added the boiled-down meat with the red wine and bay leaf marinade, and added more water before simmering these in a low fire. Slowly but surely, slowly but surely. It seems that it will be done boiling after an hour or so. "After this, hamburger. I will make a sauce for the hamburger." Not only beef stew, but I'm also deciding on cozying up today's menu with hamburger. I want to use the Kiseki beef in succession, and with the especially-made Demi-glace sauce I was also thinking that I want to serve Western-style hamburger here in Yugao. I promptly made a sauce for the ground Kiseki beef hamburger patty. A beef-only burger patty** without onions. Binders would be panko and cow's milk, sprinkled with salt and pepper and then mixed altogether, shaped into small flattened circles, and I have made the hamburger's shape. Yeah, this is 100% branded beef, a beef-only hamburger is somehow extravagant... With the ingredients that I normally have, the supply is always made affordable, and I want to serve a lot of Western-style food for the Ayakashi. "Aoi! This is terrible, terrible!" This time, it was O-ryo who flew inside Yugao. Normally it was Kasuga who does this. Why O-ryo? T/N: So historically, Japanese people didn't normally eat meat since it's an expensive product, and beef is the most expensive of all. Their burgers are normally beef and pork, or pork and chicken, mostly mixed meat so it won't be too expensive. I actually tried curry-flavored beef and pork deep-fried burger patty, it was actually good and crunchy. hwah... P164 I think she may be hungry, but it doesn't seem to be the case. O-ryo's face has gotten pale. "Kasuga, Kasuga is going to quit Tenjin-ya!" If she was extremely panicking, it's because of the sudden announcement. I couldn't understand where it all began, and I just blinked my eyes a lot. The simmering noise of the boiling pot echoes all around... "Wh.. What do you mean by that?" "That's the point! Really, Kasuga is going to quit? She’s gonna quit being a waitress, she's gonna leave?" "Wh..." Why? Before the inn's closing break, we ate amberjack shabu-shabu in our girls' night-out, we had fun while putting things together in the pot as we were chatting. "Kasuga.. Kasuga, she has decided to get married!" "Marriage, Kasuga, that Kasuga, who's she going to get married to?" "That girl, until now she hasn't told her personal history, but in reality she's unbelievably, an Ojou-sama!**" Speaking of the Ojou-sama that I met in Orio-ya, I remembered Yodoko Ojou-sama, I wonder if she's also an Ojou-sama from a rich family? T/N: Ojou-sama=お嬢様=a young girl or a daughter of a noble or a pampered upbringing. Yeah, I know right, even I was shocked. Oh well, we need a plot twist here lol And you think she's just a follower, but apparently Kasuga's got nobility in her blood. Ma, ma, maiya gwahahaha oh well who would’ve thought right? P165 "Kasuga, Kasuga is... The Emperial Court's Minister of the Right**, The Great Tanuki, Lord Ieyasu's youngest daughter!" "Whaaaat?!" Ehrm... My reaction was surprise, but it seemed that it was lacking as I had no idea what it meant. Simply put, she was the daughter of an esteemed person in Kakuriyo? O-ryo went "Ahhhhh come here right now!" and dragged me towards the main building. "A- Ai-chan! The pot is cooking, look after it! Mix it if it looks like it's about to get scorched!" "OK Aoi-sama!" Instantly, from inside the pendant Aoi-chan who already has her black-haired ogre-girl look jumped out. Wearing her personal apron, she tended to my precious pot. Immediately we went to the main building, and the excitement of every employee with the topic in question has pumped up. "That girl was somehow, unexpectedly, the Minister of the Right's daughter, wasn't she?" "Why is she a waitress here in Tenjin-ya?" I could only hear the hushed and surprised voices of the Ayakashi. "Oh well, anybody would be surprised. It's no match, the Minister of the Right's position is like a Hachiyo, an esteemed person. I had no idea and I pushed around and scolded Kasuga. I might get punished after this..." It wasn't only O-ryo who was worring about this. Even Akatsuki in the front desk, he also remembered, and for sure couldn't calm himself down as cold sweat T/N: It's like a left and right wing something, like two opposing factions in the government. Heh, too much political stuff, I don't even wanna touch that. Major spoiler alert: Our old pal Raijuu is a leftist. Ouch. P166 flows down his face. "Oh, I see." I was thinking of asking Kasuga's relative the Gesokuban Chiaki-san, but he wasn't in the lobby. The Gesokuban were in charge of the straw slippers and geta sandals of the guests, and their work is like bellboys that bring the luggage into the rooms, I often catch a sight of them before business hours. I have seen him call in a row the ogre kids who do a lot of different kinds of chores, and make a roll-call on them... "Say, Akatsuki, where's Chiaki-san?" "Ah.... Chiaki-san is with Kasuga in Odanna-sama's office. In relation to that, Chiaki-san is the Minister of the Right's younger brother.. If he was esteemed, I should have been more respectful to him..." Mortified at being too late now, Akatsuki had a distant look. Confirming about Kasuga and Chiaki-san's positions, they were from the North-west's Hachiyo, the Bunmon Tanuki. Kakuriyo's biggest and most difficult school to get into, "Bunmon Imperial University" is where the Hachiyo, who is also the University Director resides, and it seems that Chiaki-san is the son, and in turn Kasuga is the granddaughter. Incidentally, Chiaki-san's brother is Kasuga's father, which O-ryo and Akatsuki previously-mentioned has the position of the Minister of the Right in Kakuriyo. Talking about the North-western Lands, it is a college town, they have a prestigious university and large hospital institution, a research facility and a huge library, they have talented scholars and doctors, they have a lot of graduates that become government officials, it didn't engage in trade and commerce but the Hachiyo has great political powers, P167 it's a particularly unique place. But if that's the case, why were Chiaki-san and Kasuga working at Tenjin-ya? Also, why did she decide to quit working in Tenjin-ya now? "I'm.. Going to Odanna-sama's place." "Wait, Aoi, I'll go too!" O-ryo and I hurriedly left the front desk and climbed up the central staircase. "Hey, you two! Don't you dare disturb Odanna-sama... Oh well, I guess I'll go too" In the end, Akatsuki came with us too. The three of us went to the topmost floor where Odanna-sama's office was.

"Oh..." Outside the room, Ginji-san the Wakadanna-sama was standing with his arms crossed. When he saw us, he looked like he's saying "So, you've come?". "It's useless, guys, it's not work-related." "But... Ginji-san..." "I understand how you feel but... Hey!" I wasn't listening to anything that Ginji-san was saying, and we all placed our ears in the gap between the sliding doors, and eavesdropped P168 on the conversations inside. "Truly, your mind cannot be changed, Kasuga?" "... yes. I will quit Tenjin-ya, and I intend to marry into, the head of Hyourijou Castle in the Northern Lands." In such situations Odanna-sama's voice had always been calm and collected, even now when Kasuga has already reached a point where her mind cannot be entirely changed. "Chiaki, do you think that it's a good idea?" "...yes, Odanna-sama. With the marriage of the two, the instability of the Northern Lands, our North-western Lands can prove it and help hold the issues at bay. In addition to that, the chaotic Northern Lands can find a bit of stability." "...oh, I see." I wanted to hear more of Chiaki-san and Odanna-sama's conversations, but O-ryo suddenly raised her voice hysterically and shouted "Did she say Hyourijou Castle?!" "Hey O-ryo, shut up!" "But.. it's the head of the Hyourijou Castle of the Northern Lands!" "O-ryo be quiet!" Me and Akatsuki and O-ryo were suppressing our voices, when suddenly the sliding door opened with a rattle, and the three of us, like dangos, fell inside the room. "You lot..." P169 "O, Odanna-sama" Odanna-sama stared down at us with his astonished, red eyes. We tried to dodge it in any way, and the three of us just ended up wearing lop-sided smiles. "Aoi-chan, O-ryo sama, Bantou-sama" "Haha... So everyone eventually came, didn't they?" Even at Kasuga and Chiaki-san, the three of us smiled crooked smiles at them. "Say Kasuga, is it true that you're getting married to the head of Hyourijou Castle?" "O-ryo sama... Yep, that's the plan." "Even so! That head's an extremely old and senile, bedridden old man! You, are you going to get married to a senile old man who's about to die?!" O-ryo was very well-informed. Well, she did came from the Northern Lands. That's why her face was full of bewilderment. "It's not like that, O-ryo. The Hachiyo of the Northern Lands has finally been replaced." "...really?" "In the Northern Lands, the Great Old Sage who has been the Hachiyo for a very long time has retired. The next Hachiyo who took the position was the Old Sage's youngest grandchild, the Young Master of the Hyoujin** Tribe. Kasuga's marriage, is to that Young Master, Lord Kiyo." "..."

T/N: Hyoujin Clan- directly translates to Ice people Clan. Something. I did say previously in my earlier translations that direct translations will be minimized. Also if you’re interested on what Kiyo looks like, I’ll prolly post a photo here, he’s depicted in vol 8′s cover. Oh gawd, that’s a long way off but don’t worry fams we’ll get there somehow P170 It's impossible for me to know who that is, O-ryo who's acquainted with the dealings in the Northern Lands just looked puzzled, and Akatsuki just went blank. Behind us, was Ginji-san who, one way or another was the only one who looked like he had a full grasp of the situation. "Uhm, I...." Suddenly, Kasuga stood up, and only went to the entryway where the three of us were still lying down, and went in front of us. When I looked at her face she seemed like an adult, and in an instant, the cheerful and innocent Kasuga that I knew had gone off elsewhere, and I felt a painful sense of loss. Could it be that Kasuga, with regards to her engagement, in her heart she truly doesn't despise it? But from my point of view, I have no choice but to accept it. "When I saw these people's faces, somehow I felt hungry. Odanna-sama, what is good to eat on mornings like these?" "...Kasuga" Were we worrying that much, to that extent? Everyone understood that, and while we were in the middle of not saying anything, Odanna-sama wordlessly stared at me. I easily understood him without him saying anything. "Ka...Kasuga! If you want, let's go to Yugao. I'll give you something I made. For today, I made something called beef stew. I really want you to try it!" P171 "Beef stew?" "Yeah! I'll also give you hamburger steak that I cooked with it. It's like when Kasuga was in her Tanuki form, it's brown-colored cooked food. It's delicious--!" "..." Amidst the confusion they only got perplexed, and didn't even seem to hear that it was delicious. Everyone's faces only spelled "What is she even saying?". But the beef stew, it's definitely delicious!

I dragged Kasuga to Yugao. Before business hours, everyone else went back to their work posts, and it seems that I'll be taking care of her hunger. When we got to Yugao, Ai-chan has diligently looked after the pot for me. "Thank you, Ai-chan, you did a great job--" "OK--- I wanna eat something swee--t!" "As your reward, I'll give you some test-trial manjuu. Ah, that manjuu's a secret. We haven't given that to anyone yet." P172 "Yaaay!" Ai-chan with her manjuu, and her cup of milk, immediately sat on a chair and took her break. Now then. The time for the beef stew's ingredients to boil down has been sufficient. To this I'll put in some parboiled potatoes, and add more Demi-glace sauce, and add some seasonings while I mix it from time to time. Kasuga sat on the counter, and lazily propped her chin with her hands. "Kasuga, just wait for a little bit. The beef stew still needs to be boiled down some more. While it's doing that, I'll make you a little something to eat, OK? Have you eaten an avocado?" "...Avocado? I've seen one in an illustrated encyclopedia, but I haven't eaten one." "Hee hee. It's something like the ones in Utsushiyo, but in Kakuriyo, the Southern Lands where there's plently of heat they have started to grow it and other similar vegetables too. You might be surprised when you first try it, but once you get used to eating it you'll get hooked. It's because avocado is called 'the butter of the fields'." Butter isn't really something special in Kakuriyo, so she might not understand anything. But Kasuga's interest seemed to be deep, and her eyes got round with wonder. While the stew was boiling down, I went ahead to make something. Avocado and persimmon, the sweetness is entirely Japanese. P173 Firstly, the in-season persimmon's skin was peeled off, and the flesh cut into cubes. The avocado was also cut from the sides, the two halves were rotated on the round seed's axis, and between the half with no seed and the half that has the seed attached to it, the one without the seed was used. Doing that was quite fun. The lovely light green flesh of the fruit appeared. I quickly scraped the flesh off, and also cut those into cubes. Along with the persimmon cubes I cut a while ago, I served all of these in a glass bowl, and in true Japanese fashion mixed these altogether with a citrus dressing. Alright, it's nicely done. I served this with a spoon and placed it in front of Kasuga. "OK Kasuga, this is Japanese-style avocado and persimmon. Please try it." "Wah, it's pretty. Green and orange. I really love persimmon too, so I'm going to eat it now--" Instantly, Kasuga's face naturally fell into a smile. Holding a spoon, she took a huge bite, and tried the avocado that she was deeply interested in. "Wow, this is amazing. Feeling the avocado's texture for the first time, it's a fun and soft food, isn't it?" After this, she bit into the avocado and the persimmon at the same time. "Its seasoning, the persimmon's sweetness, its taste is really like a side-dish for rice." "Is that so? The persimmon's sweetness and the avocado's mellow texture and taste suit it well, and if it's just the persimmon it's going to be too sweet. The citrus fruit juice, along with toasted sesame seeds and soy sauce dressing give it a Japanese flavor and taste." P174 While Kasuga was eating a lot of the side dish, I took out the hamburger patties that I made that morning, and I pan-fried those in a shallow pot. When the surface looked brown enough, I poured in about two to three ladles of the beef stew, and simmered this for five minutes. And again, in a smaller frying pan I made a runny sunny side-up egg... "Kasuga, between white rice and bread, which one would you like? Beef stew goes well with either one..." "Hmmm.. Definitely it's rice." "OK, I get it. Even I too, like Western food with white rice, it's good enough." Along with the hamburger patty, I have asked Ai-chan to heat and cook some simple stir-fried foods and serve them in dishes, such as this beef stew. Par-boiled broccoli were also added as a fluffy touch. I added some cream and swirled it around with a spoon, and lastly I topped the hamburger with the runny sunny side-up egg. The white rice was also shaped into a sphere, and plopped it over a plate, like Western style. I placed all of those on a festive four-legged tray, and brought it to Kasuga's seat. "Alright. Tea house style, moon-viewing beef stew hamburger steak is served--" "Wooow. That really smells good. A while ago, the wafting smell made my stomach growl. There's also a fried egg on it-- And tonight's also a full moon, isn't it? It really looks like the Full Moon's spherical form." "Hee hee. Since it's already autumn, in Utsushiyo it's a time where anything with fried egg is "something for full moon viewing" and it's always added in a set meal." P175 In the food industry, a hamburger steak with a fried egg is called a moon-viewing burger, among others. When adding a runny fried egg, it always make it seem even more delicious, it's a mysterious and puzzling force. "And it's really a tanuki-colored cuisine, it is." "It's a fact that tanuki-colored cuisine is the model of deliciousness. If I could, I'll eat it for lunch.” If it was me, I would eat the beef stew with left-over toasted bread crusts on the side. Yep, it's enough to fill the stomach. I pried apart the meat with a spoon, and it crumbled off. I took a bite of that beef stew. Oooohh, the meat! The meat!! It's soft and moist, there's no stench, the thick and rich Demi-glace sauce really ties everything together. This is really over-the top extravagance! "Wow, wooow! What is this, this is soooo good Aoi-chan! The runny egg yolk, the hamburger and the stew eaten altogether, it's already the best. So many flavors all packed in one bite" Having one bite of the whole thing, the corners of Kasuga's mouth stretched wide, and her Tanuki ears went plip-plopping a lot. This time she bit into everything, including the large carrot chunks and  the shimeji mushrooms. "Hmm... crumbly---" P176 Cooking food with Kakuriyo's state of the art Youkai-fire platter and spiritually-powered pot allows the fire to pass through the vegetables' core, the sweetness and deliciousness of the vegetables get trapped inside, and is suitable for cooking stews. "Aoi-chan you've already given me hamburgers before, but this is the first time that I've eaten beef stew. For me, I really enjoy foods like these. It's because foods like these have a rich taste and depth. I have read about these in a book, but I couldn't imagine how these would have tasted like." "Kasuga, you've read something about beef stew from a book?" "Yep, the library in the Land of Bunmon had so many books. There's also a book on the history of Utsushiyo's culture. It was a book that was about Western cuisines, when we. Were. Young. We had so much fun having wild imaginative ideas. Since I was a child, I was raised surrounded by so many books.” "..." We? Kasuga ate some more hamburger, and slurped in some more beef stew. After this she ate more white rice, and took in some beef stew again. All of the flavors blend well together in one bite, "Ah, it tastes good--", it makes the body weak. Seeing Kasuga's satisfied and fluffy face, I was delighted. While I was eating nearby, I initiated by saying that "The stew also tastes good with bread", and started eating as such. P177 In my case the umami envelops the bread, there's a resounding crunch, this has become a devilish food. Together, the bread crust that's always looked over, it has become an illusionary steak. "Phew, my stomach's all full!" After all that, our luxurious lunch has ended. Who would have thought that before business hours, we're already full and satiated? But for sure, without a doubt our strengths came back because of the food. "I'm glad that my stomach's gotten full. When you said that you were hungry, it was a surprise. Everyone was shocked. Back there when Kasuga said it out loud, it was of a large extent." "Ahaha. Well it was an important conversation with Odanna-sama, and I was already hungry for a while, it was because of Aoi-chan." "What are you saying? When I saw you, you didn't particularly appear to be hungry when you were talking with Odanna-sama." Uhm, yeah, that was a lie. "After that, just when it was about to get really serious, Odanna-sama pushed me to appear as "The I-wanted-to-help" person. "Really, Odanna-sama somehow made you do that? He's always dignified and composed, he doesn't give me that impression. In front of Aoi-chan, he's expected to be different." "Ah, when you see him that way, his movements are considerably mysterious." "Odanna-sama, he's really wrapped in mystery, isn't he?" P178 Kasuga and I, when talking about Odanna-sama, I realized that the meanings of "mysterious", were quite different. I recalled what my situation was, but after learning about Kasuga's circumstance the clarity has slowly gotten dimmer. "Say, Aoi-chan, are you going to get married to Odanna-sama?" She deliberately asked that question. I normally handle such questions lightly, but with Kasuga this time, it's a heavy-handed question. Her situation and mine's, they're a bit similar. "I'm not going to get married. I still have Yugao to tend to right now." Saying that, somewhat I couldn't understand why my body, in my chest, I felt so much discomfort. What the heck is this. "But Aoi-chan, you don't dislike Odanna-sama anymore?" "Well, uhm, hearing you say "dislike', it's not the answer anymore but.." "If that's the case, you like him now?" "Uhm, that is..." My eyes started swimming. Kasuga was determined to get into my head, and she looked at me quietly. "It sure doesn't seem to be that way. But I, do not know anything about Odanna-sama." That was more or less my refusal. Not really, I do know something about Odanna-sama. Contrary to what he looks like, he's a mischievous prankster, P179 and he's unsophisticatedly kind, when I see him make his moves, his strong drive leaves me wondering why... he has supported me in very important times, he's also become trustworthy, I've learned a lot being with him. And yet, I still don't know a lot about him. Odanna-sama's inner self that he holds dearly inside, I mostly don't know about it. I don't know anything about that, and he doesn't easily say anything about what he likes. Like myself for example, if I told someone that I knew nothing about "I like you", I still think that despite doing that, I still know nothing about them. "That is why, I would want to get to know more about Odanna-sama... But he's not telling me anything." "...Hmph" While Kasuga was grinning at me, I was drenched in cold sweat. What the heck, I feel like I wanted to run away... "Hee hee, that's good, Aoi-chan. It's very unnatural of you, but with time, as expected, you bestowed a great deal to Odanna-sama." ".. Kasuga?" Kasuga looked up at Yugao's celiing. Those eyes, they seem hollow somehow. "Kasuga, Kasuga getting married, you really don't dislike it?" I placed my hands on Kasuga's shoulders, and asked her earnestly. P180 It seemed that Kasuga has already been resolute of her marriage, and I wanted to ask what her true intent was. "Marriage to the Hachiyo of the Northern Lands. That is not a politically-motivated marriage." Kasuga continued to stare up at the ceiling, I only saw her flit her gaze to me once. Between those brown-colored bangs I could only see her eyes, she doesn't appear to be a mere waitress at all. Over there, she's already sharing the burden with the North-western's Hachiyo, being the daughter of Kakuriyo's Minister of the Right. A holder of many positions and degrees and ranks, but nevertheless a single Tanuki girl. "A politically-motivated marriage cannot be helped. If I do it by myself, so many risks and significances can arise. Bunmon Tanuki, are scheming creatures. Because Tanuki are extremely weak, it's the only way to live this long." Kasuga pointed to her head and suppressed a laugh. "The Hachiyo of the 'Land of Bunmon' is the Institutional Director Baba-sama**, and in each land the Tanuki under her command are sent out to gather and collect information and intel. Wherever you go and whichever way how, the Land of Bunmon will never be at a disadvantage. For example, my dad. He steadily accumulated power and influence in the Imperial Court, and eventually became the Minister of the Right. And then there's Tenjin-ya's Chiaki. That is my father's younger brother, he may be my uncle but when he was employed back there, he was an outstanding investigator. Odanna-sama likely knows the Tanuki's circumstances, and he must have deliberately hired Chiaki, I think." "... uhm.. Tanuki's circumstances?" "And now, I am going towards the Northern Lands. How I'll do that, I only have my T/N: Baba-sama, basically Kasuga's granny is the Hachiyo as well as the Institutional Director aka the President of the Imperial University in Bunmon. I am still wrapping my head around this. Honestly I am still confused and doubtful as to why I am even translating this sh** when I'm still actually learning Nihongo honestly I hope my translation even make sense to you all srsly I have no idea what I'm doing lol but rly send help pls T_T P181 intent to do so and nothing else. With that, gradually, bit by bit, leaping into the innermost parts of each land, the steadily increasing influence of us Bunmon Tanuki have been exposed. .. And that, is the way of the Bunmon Tanuki.** "..." That was an incredible story. Also, it's a really frightening tale. But with that reasoning and explanation of the circumstances, I am just as clueless as before. I wonder if Kasuga is fine with that. "Kasuga, have you fully grasped what marriage is? It seems that your fate was to be born under a Hachiyo's household but selecting your marriage partner, can you be honest with that?" "...Aoi-chan?" "I am, in a way worried and troubled about Kasuga and what could happen. Is it possible, that, if Kasuga is being forced to get married, then I..." For me, that has always been the case. But Kasuga hid her face in her sleeve and stiffled a laugh. "Aoi-chan. Everyone's like Aoi-chan, but I'm a girl who does not go against my destiny." ".. what?" Kasuga's speech, her explanations allowed her thoughts to pass through, and in some way she sounds like an earnest adult. With that gaze, and voice, and words. T/N: LOL I wanted to translate this part as "And that, is how the Bunmon Tanuki do." Srsly it's the direct transliteration of the original text lol if you understood the reference, Hi-five y'all P182 "I think Aoi-chan guessed that wrong. I didn't say that I was reluctant to get married. Rather, I was only anticipating it. Kiyo, is not someone that I didn't know." Kiyo. For sure, that's the name of the new Hachiyo of the Northern Lands. "Kasuga, you know the person you're going to get married to?" "Yep, I know him well. Because he's my childhood friend." "Childhood friend?!" "The last time that we met, I was still a small Tanuki. That being said, he's my first love." "Whaaaat?" Kasuga placed her index finger onto her lips and said "It's a secret". That was a shocking revelation. Surely, she did say something about her first love when we had the girls' night-out. "That's amazing, Kasuga. You're going to get married to your first love." ".. hee hee. Well, somehow he might not like me..." Kasuga's foolish demeanor, is a bit self-deprecating. But soon after that, a shadow fell over her facial expression. "I did have worries, it was a painful thought...That I didn't not want to get married**. When I leave Tenjin-ya, I'll be very very sad." Until now her calm voice has been OK, but her voice has started to shake a bit. With a face that's almost into tears, Kasuga broke into a smile. Her expression, it's easy to see that she's trying to hide her flurry of emotions, T/N: I told you guys, there's inception raised to the nth power with the double triple quadruple negatives srsly I can't even rn O_o P183 but I was emotionally welling up with what I truly feel inside. I see. Kasuga wasn't against her marriage at all. She's surely marrying the Hachiyo of the North. And therefore... she won't be staying at Tenjin-ya any longer. "Thank you, Aoi-chan. You gave me delicious food to eat. Aoi-chan's cooking, not only strengthens the weak body, but also fills an Ayakashi from the inside." "Ka, Kasuga..." "Aoi-chan, you're awesome. You came from an overwhelmingly unfavorable condition, and now this is where you've come. It's by your own strength." "..." "As for me, what will I do? My only plan is getting married to a Hachiyo, I only have myself." Eventually, Kasuga went back to Odanna-sama's office, she has to return and continue their talk. It's Kasuga's courageous attitude. As for me, I couldn't comprehend the entirety of her complicated heart, I could only fill up her hungry stomach and nothing else.

It was in the middle of Yugao's business hours. "What's wrong, Aoi-chan? Your face seems out of it, and you only keep sighing." "Are you sighing because there's not many customers?" P184 "It's not that. But yeah, that too." It was our frequent customers Juujirou-ojisan and Tsubame-obasan, the Ayakashi couple who lives in Gintengai, and for today had their feast of the beef stew topped with fried egg. The two were locals who didn't stay at Tenjin-ya, but goes into the baths and later to Yugao to have their meals, once a week. "Yet I was surprised. It seems that the Hachiyo of the North has been changed. It's in the newspaper extra delivered to Gintengai. The Hachiyo looks extremely young, it's the hot topic among everyone." Juujirou-ojisan slowly pulled the newspaper out, and opened it in front of me. "Ah! Can I look at that for a bit?" "Oops" I hurriedly borrowed and opened Juujirou-ojisan's newspaper that he was reading, and I eagerly looked at the newspaper publication's colored photo. On the picture, wrapped in a pure white kimono, and holding a Buddhist ringed staff made of ice, was an ephemeral-looking young man. "This boy..." As expected, he was still young. With regards to Ayakashi he's probably older than me, but based on what they look like, he looks about 15 years old. It's probably because Ayakashi live very long lives, when one is said to be very young, then the Hachiyo is probably very young indeed. That boy was Kasuga's first love. P185 Also, he is Kasuga's prospective husband. He's.. He's a handsome youth... "Would it be alright if that boy becomes the Hachiyo? Kiyo-sama is sickly, it's said that he's practically always in the University Hospital in the Land of Bunmon." "It can't be helped. There aren't any other successors among the clan of Hyoujin, you know." Snow lady, snow man, icicle lady and other generic names were used for the members of the Hyoujin clan's Ayakashi. Among the entire group, O-ryo surely fits in well. But O-ryo looks like an adult, remarkably... The ties of that one clan is so strong, it's peculiar that when one becomes the Northern Land's Hachiyo, they have to come from the pedigree line of the Hyoujin Clan's head, but they couldn't gain the support of the entire populace. "The previous generations of the north were majestic, but the successors were raised to be lazy and always sick and bedridden. It's a good thing that a strife between the foolish heirs erupted, other than the youngest grandson Kiyo-sama, they should all just die." "You're believing those rumors again! I'm sorry Aoi-chan, there has been unsettling stories among our people." Tsubame-obasan slapped the drunk Juujirou-ojisan's behind, and after a bit has left the restaurant. I sent off these regular customers, and finally Yugao's business hours has ended. The newspaper that they left as it was, I worried about it from time to time.

End of Chapter 5, Volume 6. Previous - Intermission 2 Next - Chapter 6

References:

Wonderful site for the youkai references

Other stuff I used to do this: Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary (you can buy here, I’m not sponsored btw). I was about to buy the older edition but then the newer one came out 2013 so I bought that instead. Worth buying since I was able to find nearly all of the words I needed just by stroke pattern alone.

Merriam-Webster's Japanese-English Dictionary (the red-covered 1996 version is apparently out of print right now). This is what I have been using for a very long time, I bought it when I was still a fetus (yes I am old so what lol), and after so many years, when compared to newer editions, I still prefer this one since its entirety is Japanese-English, the English to Japanese gloss are just 16 pages tops, so you get more Japanese words for your buck. But that’s just my opinion, maybe other people prefer the Jap-En x En-Jap IDEK.

Basic online dictionary, Jisho. Knowledge of verb conjugations  and other words are necessary since not all have entries.

If you can read Japanese, you can buy the whole set in Amazon Japan, they’re shipping worldwide now, I think.

#Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi #kakuriyo no yadomeshi light novel #kakuriyo no yadomeshi light novel english fan translation #kakuriyo no yadomeshi volume 6 chapter 5 #kakuriyo no yadomeshi volume 6 chapter 5 english translation #kakuriyo no yadomeshi light novel translation

[distinctivelibrarians]

@mcghosts for your prompt for a continuation of my Old Guard Leverage fic! Thank you!

Stain the Morning Sun

(read on ao3)

It takes...weeks. Months. To translate most of the journal. When the days are bright, and the nights long, Hardison finds it fun. It’s a new challenge - and one he can hold, can turn over in his hands and pick apart. So, it’s already a step up on the whole not dying thing he’s got going on.

He finds experts. Pores through decades old dictionaries and forgotten dissertations. He can’t quite wrap his head around the actual language, but he can pick out words, here and there, phrases, as more time passes.

He’s had to have Parker steal the journal back five times from overenthusiastic professors before he starts just giving out copies. It gets him less data, and more people calling him a liar and a fake, but it also means less damage to the journal itself.

Parker...Parker’s interested in the journal, sure. Flits around him while he’s working on it. Asks questions occasionally when he makes some excited chirp or annoyed grumble - often enough, he doesn’t even realize he’s made a sound at all until she’s popping up at his side asking what he’s found.

But it’s not the same. Not for her.

She’s...not better at this, than him. But she hides it better.

She takes bigger risks in her jobs. Comes back more full of energy than Hardison thought one person could hold.

She doesn’t ask what he doesn’t offer, and she just.

Lives.

And if both of them are pretending the journal ends one page earlier. Well.

Like he said, she hides it better.

Hardison wouldn’t even call it pretending. As far as he’s concerned, that page does not exist. If he wasn’t sure they’d wreck the binding tearing the damn thing out, he’d toss that singular page into the fire.

Just thinking about it puts the taste of copper and lead in his mouth.

And, frankly, there’s only so much orange soda a man can drink to wash the taste out.

(No, no, Alec! Look at me! Look at me! You’re going to be fine - you’re going to be- you’re going to be okay! Somebody call 91- Nope. No. Nu-uh. He had enough nights waking up screaming, ash on his tongue and no sound coming out, a pain in his chest flaring bright and hot and the memory of bright light searing into his brain, even as all he can hear is his Nana screaming. He had enough nights. Enough mornings. Enough days. Without the added memory, thank you very much.)

What really pisses him off though - what really sets his teeth on edge?

He’s not even fucking mad.

But he should be.

He should be so fucked off about being left alone. He should want to tear the journal apart, piece by piece, just for that last page, just for that weak attempt at an apology.

He should.

But he isn’t.

And, because emotions are a goddamn mess on the best of days in the best of people, that’s what pisses him off.

Because, as much as he can, he gets it.

Oh, sure, he didn’t at first. At first, when he’d found the journal full of chicken scratch over a hundred years old written in a language far older than even that, with one page in the back picked out in carefully precise english, he’d read through it with so much excitement, he’d given himself whiplash when he’d actually read the page.

I’m sorry I can’t be there.

The rest of the page talked of others - a small group, together for a century. Another, closer to home, that this stranger collided with and ran away from.

Nowhere in there did it say why they were separate. What made them - either this stranger and his friend, or hell, him and Parker - different, if they were all in this together.

So, yeah, when Hardison first read it, he’d been pissed.

And he’d been scared.

And then he’d started translating.

They weren’t perfect translations - not by a long shot. Not quite google translate levels of bad but… close. Very close.

But they spoke of everything. And absolutely nothing.

Daily observations. A passing memory. Stories shared between two kindred spirits.

He can’t get the depth, but he can scratch the surface. And what he’s seeing is a pair of lonely people, passing by each other in a dwindling orbit, but never quite colliding. One managed to find a family in that loneliness, as far as he could tell. It took halfway through the damn journal for him to get names for the faces in his dreams - but that moment he connected them? Connected Nicky and Joe and Booker and Andy with the flits of memories he only barely got to see…

Parker’s eyes, her smile, when he shared that finding with her would stay with him for the rest of his days, he was sure.

The last page had been signed with an ‘E’. Simple as anything, and all the more annoying for it. Hardison doesn’t get the name ‘Eliot,’ or ‘Sophie,’ until he’s almost done with the journal.

And by that point...he’s not mad anymore.

He doesn’t have the years, yet (and that is still terrifying to think of, so no thank you), to understand the loneliness that prompted the secrecy and the avoidance. Not by a long shot.

But he has a hollow in his chest, some nights, remembering those years before Nana. Those months before Parker.

There’s a… comfort, in knowing yourself. In knowing who you can count on and limiting it to yourself.

Parker gets it, probably better than he does, in her own way.

So. Yeah. Hardison gets it.

The page’s words sink like fire in his bones - pain flaring from his sternum uncomfortably hot and bright, and he knows he should be mad.

It takes months to admit he never was.

---

“You think we’d fit in with them?” He asks, softly, into the dark. The apartment he’s got right now is large. Spacious. And empty. The windows overlooking the city stretch from floor to ceiling, and, at this height, the cars are just twinkling lights, zipping by and creating fluorescent memories across the asphalt. If he squints his eyes just right, they bleed into the stars above.

“...Maybe.” Parker says, from somewhere above him. It’s soft enough that Hardison knows she’s still thinking on it. Stays quiet to give her time. “Maybe not. Does it matter?”

And the question’s genuine, sinking into the quiet between them with a weight that makes Hardison’s shoulders sag. “No, I guess it doesn’t.” They had their family. And, who knows, maybe a new one would come along and fit right in that empty space that even Hardison could see, thousands of miles away.

But it wasn’t them. They were where they were for a reason, and it wasn’t with Andy and them.

And, as he watches the lights twisting and dancing so far below, he could admit, to himself and Parker, that that was okay.

---

“We could try to find them?”

“Who?” And Hardison doesn’t even need to look over to know Parker’s glaring at him. Groaning, he pushes himself away from his computer, meeting her glare head on. “Okay, why?”

“Why not?”

“Because he doesn’t want to be found. And, apparently, neither does Sophie.” After all, it’s been months, and the journal was still their only point of actual contact.

They still had the dreams, of course. Flashes of a tired face and a worn out body, brief glimpses of bright eyes and sharp smiles. But nothing...nothing to hold onto. Nothing to give shape to the names they had.

And, most days, that fact still hurt. But, after the initial fervor had died down, after him and Parker had settled into...into whatever it was they were doing, he could admit that the sting was muted now.

She doesn’t even bother replying out loud.

“All we have are names they likely made up about a century ago.”

A quirk of her eyebrow.

“First names, at that by the way. Not even a fake last name. I can track an alias. I can not track a first name pulled out of nowhere.”

Rolled eyes.

“...Alright, alright, I already looked. Nada. Zip. Zilch.” Hardison admits, throwing up his hands and turning back to the computer.

He wanted to find them as much as Parker did. To at least get...he didn’t even know. Not closure, that’s for damn sure.

But something.

Something he could touch, and turn over, and work with.

But they were impossible.

“You checked into Dubeniwhatever’s offer?” He asks, in some vague hope it’ll throw her off the trail for a little while. The snort he hears tells him he failed miserably, but, thankfully, she seems to take pity on him.

“Looks easy enough. He said he’s bringing in two others - a roper and a hitter, but that’s normal.” Normal, easy, clean.

Hardison could work with that. “Friday, right?”

When he doesn’t get a reply, he glances over. An open window is all that greets him back, and all he can do is smile.

#leverage #alec hardison #parker #violence tw #brief non-graphic description of someone in the aftermath of being shot #long post #my writing #ff

[spn-headcanons-daily]

Hello people of the crazy spn fandom, how are we doing? (not well)

Wanna read some headcanons?

Since the finale, which brought me a new flavour of disappointment, I started to create a list of made up facts/headcanons (don't know how to call it better) of what should in my opinion happen to characters instead. Points about Dean and Cas from this list are slowly turning into my first actual fanfic, but points about Sam and Eileen are more difficult to write into a short story, so for now they are just staying as facts in a list. And I decided to post them here.

Will anyone ever read it? - Probably not.

Will that logical fact stop me? - Definitely not.

I'm going to post these ideas in order, one in each post. They can't count as actual fanfics, but they are long

Side note: I do not accept 15×20 as canon. Nope. It doesn't exist. I chose to completely ignore it, and by now I successfully erased it from my memory. Except for the part that in a few years Sam has a son named Dean (actually not really, but I'm going to call him that for simpler understanding, if you read it you will later find out why). And also Miracle the dog stays, he is a good boy and deserves the best.

I also should mention that in my imaginary world they saved Cas. And I have an idea how, and I think it's a good idea, but that's for another time, 'cause for that part I'm actually writing a fic (and it's becoming longer and longer, I don't know how to stop, it's out of control, please send help)

So they all know now that Cas is alive and he is okay.

Also you should keep in mind that English is my second language which I didn't study properly like a normal person but instead learned purely by watching tv shows, so feel free to kick my ass for any mistakes, there's probably a lot here.

If you read this shit below and liked it at least a little bit, please live something in the notes to make me feel less lonely and useless. Thanks :з

So, too much words, huh? Here is the first headcanon idea:

SAM WRITES A BOOK

After their big victory brothers still hunt monsters, of course, but now, when they are finally not constantly forced to save the whole world, their days are far less busy. They even have free time. And Sam makes a decision to do something useful with it.

Sam pulls together all his previous research, goes through hundreds of books from the library, adds other sources, and he writes and publishes a book. A really long book. It takes him almost a year from the first idea to the completion of it. This book is sort of a database, a full encyclopedia of all supernatural things that the Winchesters and the other hunters they know encountered over the years, with an accurate description of how those things look, what they do, what they want, where you can find them. And, of course, how to stop them, kill them, or protect yourself from them. The content is quite impressive, Sam put all his time and soul into it, checking and double-checking all information, comparing sources and trying to grasp the essence of each part of the lore and put it on the pages as short and simple as possible.

The book is called "The hunter's manual". Eileen insisted on that title - both Sam and Dean (who didn't help that much but nevertheless felt invested) right until the publishing kept offering something different. Sam wanted a long and self-explanatory name for his beloved creation, Dean wished for something more "pretentious and catchy".

It was supposed to be just a wiki-style website at first, but halfway through work Sam got excited about creating an actual book, so through some acquaintances they found a publisher, who knew about monsters and other stuff after his encounter with some vampires and another hunter, and agreed to publish a book in exchange for a right to sell its copies.

Eileen fully supported the idea of the book, but after a few weeks she gets quite annoyed by the fact that sometimes she literally can't pull Sam away from the book writing process. Dean jokes that his brother got married to book before he married Eileen, which somehow leads to a long serious conversation about marriage and love and life in general. But actually Eileen understands the importance of Sam's book for him way more than Dean, who thinks about it only from the practical point of view.

Sometimes Eileen is also worried for Sam, because he spends too much personal resources on his project, and she is the one who reminds him when he forgets to eat in time or not sleeping enough, and makes him remember to take care of himself. Eventually she becomes quite invested in the process, and she helps Sam with a lot of research and gaining information from other hunters across the country. She gets an honourable mention in the book's authors' information page, under a fake name, of course, but it still counts for them.

In a few years Sam's book becomes a handbook for almost every hunter in the US, and it even gets translated into a few other languages, because turns out it considerably eases your life to have one source for all basic material for the hunts, instead of going through the whole libraries of controversial information.

A few people got their book signed by Sam and Dean: the Winchesters at this point became sort of legendary figures in hunters' world. Dean complains that this is not the way he planned to become famous. Sam objects that his brother has no right to sign the book and therefore shouldn't be complaining when he lets him be part of his fame.

The hunters now often give a link to a digital version of the book to all ordinary people who had to face something supernatural and now know that it's all real - because if they are already aware of the nightmares of this world, this book's instructions will help them to be safer in the future. This digital version is also heavily redacted, to contain only information for protection: no summoning rituals, for example, as well as no any other things and information that could potentially hurt anybody. This version was created after some dumb teenagers, who encountered a ghost before, got their hands on an unedited book and decided that summoning a demon could be a good idea for a party entertainment. It definitely wasn't.

Ironically, some time later this book accidentally becomes fairly popular among the general public, as a book in the fantasy genre, and now passionate fans of the "supernatural" books in the long internet discussions are accusing mysterious author of "The hunter's manual" of ripping off their favourite series. Sam finds it amusing and sometimes when he is bored anonymously goes into some forums to argue with fans.

#supernatural #spn #spn fic #spn fandom #sam winchester #eileen supernatural #saileen #sam deserves better #spn fanfiction #spn headcanon

[vickylamore]

Noises Of The Rain

A/n - this was something I've never written and I'm honestly really glad I had the chance to write it. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to write about something I use to stereotype. I hope I did a good job with it. I’m sorry if it’s not the best, please let me know what you think.

Summary - You've always struggled with yourself and you always wished you were what was considered normal. With your thoughts all over the place, you didn’t think you were going to reveal what you felt so soon.

Pairing - Min Yoongi x reader, Jung Hoseok x reader.

Genre - Songwriter au! Fluff, slight angst.

Warnings - low self confidence, reader has ADHD and RSD (rejection sensitive dysphoria).

W/C - 3k+

Rating - PG-13

--

With the sun already setting and the day coming to a close, you sat in the dimmed room on the couch, an empty cup of a combination of milk and honey on the coffee table. You had turned off the television and you had the door closed so no one could disturb you as you continued to work, your brain focused on the sheet of paper in front of you.

You wouldn't think that this would be the ideal career choice with the way your mind was wired. You had nothing against people who always assumed that you were going to be this hyperactive person with weird quirks.

You wish that they wouldn't assume and do some research before trying to talk to you about ADHD.

It hurt deep down, and you can’t help yourself but compare yourself to others. People who are considered normal by society. It was annoying too, especially when you would let people that you had RSD on top of ADHD.

The thing is with RSD is that you didn’t mean to be super sensitive, it just the way you are. You didn’t want to think about the coffee you spilt on Carlos so long ago or when you left Luna on read on Instagram but you did. Your mind always drifted off.

You weren't the stereotypical 'I’m super hyper and I'm a sugar bug who gets an hour of sleep every day and somehow wakes up energized'. You were more reserved but at the same time loud.

You loved to keep to yourself but loved talking to people. It's who you are as a person and you can't change that. So finally, you learned to embrace yourself since it did take some time to fully appreciate yourself.

Though deep down, you’re still working on it.

You had always compared yourself to other kids, something you endlessly regret doing because it affected your confidence. Not to mention that when you hit your early twenties, you had applied to so many agencies that could potentially take you as a part-time songwriter.

You were close... but they'd always take a good look at your medical records and assume that you were never going to get work done because of your “condition”.

You found it stupid how people would judge you based on one small fact about yourself. They could care less about your achievements or awards or skills and qualities. They rather base their decision on one sentence.

At first, they didn't tell you that you were the problem. The more constant it got with other agencies and the more rejections you got, you thought that it was because of the way you talk or the way you interact with others.

You were constantly regretting most things you said in the interviews. The famous what if echoing in your mind each time you wanted to go to bed. You couldn't help it; the words of what you said earlier in the day replaying in your mind like a record on an endless loop.

You started losing hope. You didn't want to, but with each no that came your way, you started to lose all the hope you were holding onto.

But you quickly got it back when you got a certain call from a certain company.

You use to publish your work on Instagram to a small trope of followers, making sure to write your signature all over the page so no one could copy and steal it.

Well, on pure coincidence, the company saw your account and learned that you were a songwriter. Immediately, they called you and it's now where you work.

You've been with the company ever since the boys debuted. You never liked the idea of the media on you because you're their songwriter for the group, so BigHit made sure to keep you hidden but still gave you credit on the songs you wrote with other songwriters and occasionally BTS themselves.

Despite it being a few years since you’ve been with the company, you hate the attention so you rather stay in the shadows and watch others enjoy and appreciate your work from the anonymous viewpoint.

You were gifted; writing was your getaway. Your safe haven. It's like a universe where you can't be judged. You can write for hours and hours, sometimes spending six to seven hours fiddling with words and sentences to make the perfect verse associated with a concept.

At first, you didn't care about what others thought about your songs but as soon as you joined the writing team, you were more diligent about what you put down on paper (not to mention that a lot of your songs were in English and that the other songwriters need to translate it).

Especially now that people are singing them.

The boys have been really supportive of you, even though almost half of them don't know about your medical side. It's not that you didn’t want to tell them, it's just that you didn't want to be perceived a certain way. So ultimately, you kept it a secret with only a few knowing. Plus, it’s easier to let them believe about you being a constant daydreamer and a person to pull all-nighters.

Now writing around 11 pm is nothing new to you, you'd sometimes go sleepless nights just to write some stuff.

But today, this specific night, you weren't clicking with your own thoughts.

You didn't think that your constant mumbling was annoying. Neither the fact that your pencil was repeatedly tapping on your notebook. You didn't think that it would bother anyone, especially with the rain sounds playing in your earbuds; it made it hard for you to acknowledge the world around you.

Therefore, when some of the members of the internationally famous boy group walked into the room, you didn't notice. You hadn't even heard them talking or sit next to you.

You were too concentrated on the piece of paper in front of you that you most likely hadn't blinked in a minute. The more you started at the paper, the more you got irritated with yourself because you couldn't get any words on the paper, no new ideas flowing and no concepts coming to mind.

You couldn't just write anything without deep meaning, without a thought process, without having others analyzing every verse and specific meanings of certain words. You weren't going to stop writing or rather move from your sport until you're able to come down with something.

With something that you're satisfied with.

That also makes you even more frustrated; the fact that you're getting nothing done is infuriating. And the fact that you were too stubborn to let this go and take a break is exhausting.

You knew that if you took a break from your criss-cross sitting position on the couch right now, there's no telling what you'll be focused on next and it'll be really hard for you to pick up where you left off.

You didn't notice how hard and loud the tapping of your pen had become before you heard someone calling your name.

Even then, you refused to acknowledge the person; it's as if the person's voice was underwater, the sounds of the pitter-patter of your rain sounds in your earbuds seemingly making it more realistic; mixing your imagination with reality.

It's weird really; the way your mind zones out and focuses on one thing and nothing else sometimes for hours on end.

You hadn't even noticed that your attention is now solely on your pen, the tapping becoming more frantic as it masks the rhythm of the pitter patters of the rain.

The longer it went, the faster it became and the more you lost interest in the notebook you were writing in. It's not that you wanted to; it was pretty easy to not pay attention to something you've been doing for hours.

Now, you were drumming the pen as if it was the end of the world. You can feel the beats on the tips of your fingers as your eyes focus on the only thing keeping your mind busy. The way the waves of sounds pulsate your fingers and how it matches up perfectly with the sounds of the rain falling. It's almost as if you could-

"(Y/n)." You jump when a hand touches your shoulder, your eyes snapping to the figure next to you. On instinct, your pen escaped your grasp and hit the floor.

You stare back at the pen and immediately facepalm, an embarrassed look on your face. You purse your lips before closing your eyes. "The pen- I'm so sorry!"

I swear I'm really a clown! Like, I've been doing it for a while and now-

From the corner of your eyes, you see Yoongi cringe slightly. You were going to ask why exactly he reacted that way, although you didn't think you said anything wrong. Sitting next to you, Hoseok points at your ears as your hands slowly make their way to your ears, gently taking the earbuds out. Despite taking them out, you can still hear the thunderous noises from the rain from your earpieces.

You realize how dead quiet it is, how it's almost an empty, eerie silence engulfing the room. The only thing someone would hear would be-

It's so quiet so that means that my pen clicking was like the same sounds I was listening to. Or a woodpecker packing on the walls... no- a toddler endlessly knowing on the door.

Oh look, I must be a toddler since I'm literally acting like one. Now that I think of it, toddler pout and complain a lot.

So I'm basically a toddler that pouts and complains a lot...

You grimace at the thought of how loud the sound on the button endlessly clinking was. You run a hand on your face, a tired expression displayed. "I swear I was working and then I got interested in the pen- it must've been so so annoying! Oh my god!"

I mean I was working and then I became an annoying toddler so-

You bury your head in your head, an embarrassment blush rushing to your face. You cringe at yourself and you're already thinking about how you make a fool out of yourself in front of your friends.

That's great, they probably think that I’m weird... but they may already know that since they’re the only two I’ve told...

"(Y/n), it's okay." You hear Hobi whisper from next to you. You feel your journal be taking off from your lap as he scoots closer to you. A small nudge gently rocks your body, "I promise it is."

"I should've noticed-"

You hear a deep chuckle from the corner of the room, "you were invested in your writing."

"But I got nothing done!" You scream into your hands, though it's muffled behind your limps.

"Aish~ don't say that," Hoseok pokes the sides of your hip, smile giggles escaping your mouth. "I'm sure you got something done."

"Yeah, my ability to be thinking of like a million things."

"Multitasking." You snort at Hobi's comment, your eyes rolling behind your hands.

"Me? Multitasking?" You turn your head towards the brown-haired male, an unconvinced expression on your face. "I'm still the same (Y/n) that folded her clothes twelve times and I STILL wasn't satisfied with it."

And here I am rambling about my problems while they're probably exhausted from all the training they've done today. I'm like- the most annoying and most self-centred person ever.

Like why am I talking as if I'm the most important person in the world? As if I'm royalty?

You know what, now that I think about it, being royalty for a day would be so cool. Like, imagine being served grapes from a gold plate and being treated like a princess.

Of course, without the whole tiara part. I mean, I'd be like a chill princess. One that people would love- not that people actually like me now but still.

"Lemme see," you close your eyes and lean your head on the headrest of the couch. You sigh out, trying to collect your endless thoughts.

I'm so tired that like I could sleep through an earthquake. I could be like that squirrel from Ice Age that gets in endless trouble and somehow outruns an earthquake.

It's so weird- like how can a tiny skinny little thing do anything for an acorn.

You reopen your eyes and stare at the ceiling, your eyes focus on the blank colour on the floor above you.

You know, sometimes I wonder how life would be without having ADHD or RSD. Like hoe would it feel to not be always sensitive and be sulking all the time.

Like how would it be if I was just whatever society deemed normal? I am normal right? I'm just as normal, I just have a few different quirks.

Haha, quirks that's funny. What would the others think of me if I ever told them? Will they treat me with a precious diamond or a piece of hypersensitive jewelry that would break if you even just look at it them wrong? Will they avoid me... it's sad because some have done it in the past.

I hope they won't. Speaking of which, I need to tell them one day.

"What's on your mind?" You don't bother looking at Yoongi as you sigh out, lightly biting your cheek.

Maybe they'd just ignore me. Maybe Yoongi and Hobi will ignore once they settle that I'm too much. Maybe I'll just leave the company if it gets to that.

"I'm sorry." You say surprisingly low. You want to stop the tears from filling your eyes. "Gosh, imagine being stuck with someone like me."

You stiff a sniffle as you furiously blink your ears, trying to drive away from the tears.

"What?" The boy next to you speaks as he moves closer to you. "What do you mean?"

You chuckle to yourself, drawing patterned on your things. "I mean, I'm a mess, a self-centred person that literally only thinks about herself. Like, it's really annoying-"

"But who said that you were self-centred? Or annoying?"

You lick your lips before shifting in your seat, "no need to lie to me Yoongs... I know how you feel about me."

"Hilarious." The black-haired male sits to your left, running a hand through his hair. The other male only stays quiet for a while.

"If you really think that you're annoying, I would've avoided you since you first arrived." You scoff to yourself again, gritting your teeth in slight irritation.

"Then why don't you?" You let out a shaky breath as you close your eyes again. You don't notice the sudden lump appears in your throat, the feeling sending a chill down your spine. "Why waste your time talking to me- a person that's always daydreaming, overthinking, really sensitive- like there's no benefit to talking or being friends with me."

A silence falls into the room as small tears fill to corners of your eyes. You bit your lip before let out a small and barely audible sob.

What am I doing? I don't understand. One moment, I'm apologizing and the next I'm pushing some of my closest friends away.

Am I afraid of letting go? But I'm doing this to myself? I deserve it. Maybe I just don't-

"Now let me stop you right there." Your head slowly turns to Hoseok. You almost shy away from the look he's giving you. It's strong and determined despite the small glint of irritation in his eyes, all you see is empathy shining through.

"If you think for a second that you don't matter to us, you’re wrong. You matter so much, so please stop speaking lowly about yourself." The male wraps his arms around you for a hug, your head rested on his chest and his chin resting on your head. "Don't think that about yourself, because it isn't true."

"But it feels true." You mumble lowly, a small sniffle sound echoing in the room. "I keep convincing myself that it is and it's tiring. Slowly, I start to believe it and-"

"Then don't." Yoongi turns to you with a stern look on his face. "Don't listen to the negative thoughts, don't go down that rabbit hole." The way he said it makes a shiver run down your spine. You shake as it happens, Hoseok only holding you tighter.

"But it's hard." You choke a sob, "I try, I really do but it's hard to be different. It's so tiring looking around and knowing that everyone around you is normal and does normal things and you're just you, a person that's not normal and sometimes I hate it. I hate being the way I am sometimes. I wish I was different-"

"But you can't be different." You close your eyes as Yoongi talks, "you can't wish for something you know can’t happen. All you can do is work hard (Y/n). You've earned your position here, you've earned the right to be you and just because society sees you as different doesn't mean you need to listen. If it wasn't for you being different, you wouldn't be next to us. You wouldn't know us and we wouldn't know you."

"Yoongi's right," Hoseok says softly, his finger combing your hair. He watches as your body shakes in light sobs, tears streaming down your face. "You are sweet, imaginative, creative and you're able to relate to people. You’re bubbly and have so much energy. You love what you do and we love you, so stop hoping for a different outcome of life."

Yoongi grumbles under his breath, running his hand through his hair. "This is the first and last time I'm saying this. Only to you and no one else. I love you and you are an amazing charismatic person so stop wishing to be whatever society deems as normal. You wouldn't be the same person you are right now. The same person we all know and I don't want to imagine you any differently because I like you just the way you are."

You stop sobbing as you wipe your tears away. I don't deserve them.

"You do deserve us, as we deserve you," Hoseok replies as he plays with a few strands of your hair. "We'll be here to help you through everything, just tell us because we are here for you."

You nod your head and interlock Hoseok's hand with his own as Yoongi sends you his signature gummy smile.

I love them like my brothers and I know they'll help me through everything. I’ll try not falling down, I'll try to stop comparing, I’ll try to be me. I have you guys to help me through it. Just like the rain, they're what calms me after a cloudy day, the pitter-patters on my windows.

They're the calm noises of the rain.

#bts x reader #bts x you #bangtan #bangtanidx #bts fic #jung hoseok x reader #min yoongi x reader #sope x reader #requested #request #btswriterscollective

[sweetsyncraft]

SweetSyn’s Guide To Etsy

(I will add more as I learn more) 

When I officially started my Etsy in 2018, I had no idea what I was doing. I’ve constantly had people asking me what tips I had for getting started. Unfortunately, I told them you needed a following to make sales. Boy was I wrong. SEO is the key. Buckle up, I’m going to learn you a few things. (I’m Texan don’t judge me for that sentence.)

“Search Engine Optimization”, which is the reason when you search for something on Etsy, you see a bunch of bland titles. Being Creative with titles will only hurt you. You need to have targeted, keyword-based titles and tags, to make sure you end up at the top of the food chain. 

Listing Titles

This part is long due to the fact that I never knew how important this was.

The best way to do this is to start typing in what you’re selling into the Etsy search bar. Any related autocomplete phrases that are related to the pop-up list, is what should be in your title. (Keyword 1 - Keyword 2 - Keyword 3 - Keyword 4) and so forth. For example, I simply clicked on the search bar and it gave me a list of the current most popular searches. One of them was marble earrings, and the first listing had the best selling badge. Their title was “Handmade Polymer Clay Marble Triangle Earrings | Minimalist Geometric Earrings | Hypoallergenic Surgical Steel Stud | Multiple Size”. The second listing, from another shop, was “Marble Stud Earrings, Marble Jewelry, Round Stud Earrings, Wedding Stud Earrings, Marble Studs, Statement Studs, Minimalist Studs”. 

I know how tempting it is to come up with a clever name for your listing, but Etsy doesn’t like that. Putting a long title full of keywords makes it more likely for someone to see your listing without searching through 240 pages. Yes, there were exactly 240 pages of marble earrings. The last one, way at the end was simply titled “Rosé Marble Earrings”. I don’t know about you, but I have no idea how to put that little mark over the ‘e’ when typing on a computer. 

The second part of this is being more specific than just ‘marble earrings’. If someone is looking for something more specific than marble earrings they’re going to search more of what they want. This is how you separate yourself from everyone else on those 240 pages. The two listings I found were round studs and the other was geometric triangles. Maybe I hate circles, and I specifically want triangles, so I search “marble triangle earrings”. That’s in the title of the first listing, I’m going to find that listing. 

DO NOT PUT YOUR SKU’S IN YOUR TITLES! You will lose sales because of this. Your title is very important, no one is going to be searching “866798Q”

Additionally, Etsy will not show more than one or two items per seller on any given page of search results. That way smaller shops have a bit more of a chance. Make sure you’re targeting different keywords per listing, or you’ll be competing with yourself. 

After a few months, go into your listing analytics to see which keywords are getting that listing more views. You may find that your main keyword, or the first few words in your title, isn’t working as well as another one. If something is working better, make it the first part of the title, and you should even more views. 

Adding titles in other languages will not help your listing. Etsy automatically translates for other languages. 

I’ve seen a few people say that Etsy has changed and that they don’t like ‘title stuffing’. However, that’s not the case in what I’ve seen. The entire first two pages of marble earrings were nothing but long ‘stuffed’ titles. 

This is a comment from an admin of one of the Etsy Facebook groups I’m in, he is a social media marketer: 

“YES title stuffing is bad and you should not do it, because Etsy & Google do not count that as quality SEO.

However, we must first understand exactly what "Title Stuffing or Keyword Stuffing" really is.

Keyword stuffing is when someone fills a webpage (in this case an Etsy title) with the same keywords they want to rank for, over and over again in hopes that the more times they use the keywords the more relevant Etsy and Google will see their page or listing.”

...

“Now as far as your Etsy title goes you should absolutely use your keywords, but not repeated over and over again, while also keeping a non-robotic tone.

2 examples of title stuffing:

1. Title stuffing for one specific keyword, example (baby shirt): Cute Baby Shirt | Baby Shirt | Boy Baby Shirt | Soft Baby Shirt | Matching Baby Shirt | Baby Shirt Gift

Basically stuffing the same word over and over again.

2. Title stuffing for the maximum keywords: Comfy Baby Shirt, comfortable, for boys, for girls, gifts, cheap, organic, cotton, romper, jumpsuits, newborn, baby clothes

Both of these examples are using spammy tricks to rank high. But this will not work and both Etsy and Google will ignore you.

You want your title to sound fluent and not like a robot while using your keywords.

Also, you want to avoid changing up your titles too much, because your listings SEO needs to season a bit for maximum effectiveness.”

Tags 

A major thing that I have learned over this process is that your tags must be written in sentences and not individual words. For example instead of marble, earring, earrings, geometric, geometrical, your tags should be Marble Earrings, Studded Earrings, Geometric Jewelry. MOST IMPORTANTLY! Use ALL 13 tags! Think about what makes your product unique, you don’t need to repeat categories and attributes. You also don’t need to use the same keywords as your title, unless you want to highlight a certain keyword. Tags and titles that do not relate to your listing, can have a negative impact on your visibility. 

Fill out everything you can on the listing, such as categories and attributes, which also act like tags. The more you fill out the more likely someone will find your listings. 

Adding tags in other languages will not help your listing. Etsy automatically translates for other languages. 

Pricing

Be mindful of everyone else’s prices, customers are not only going to look for quality, but also the best deal. Though, you don’t want to end up making a negative profit. 

Cost of goods (per product) + Profit (I like to do the cost of supplies x2) + Shipping (if you’re doing free shipping)  = Price

The reason I double the dost of supplies for my profit is for in case something goes wrong, I still made a little money for my time. You made need to adjust this to compete with other sellers.  

Shipping

Etsy gives priority to listings with free shipping in the search results, it also sounds a bit better to the customer. Don’t worry you won’t lose out on money by offering it, all you have to do is include the shipping cost in the price. 

However, if you do plan on offering international shipping, I recommend charging for it. I live in Texas, and it costs $8 dollars to ship a sticker to Canada. Whereas shipping to Maine only costs 70 cents. 

Play around with shipping options, it took me a long time to learn that sending stickers as a letter, instead of a package or flat envelope, is MUCH cheaper. The downside, there is no tracking number. So I only recommend this for items that are very cheap to remake. 

Photos

Your product photo is the first thing that is going to be seen when someone is searching for an item. I made the major mistake of not caring what my photos looked like for the longest time. From lazily taking a screenshot of my Cricut design space for a decal listing, to setting my mugs on my tacky paint-covered table. Don’t do this, make your photos look professional. Now I’m not saying go hire a photographer to take your photos. Simply lining a bix with paper, or draping a sheet over a chair can create a perfect backdrop.  

Put your best photo first. 

A 2017 survey showed that 90% of Etsy shoppers said the photo quality was very important in their decision making. Think about it as, if you don’t take the time for quality photos, that most likely means you’re not taking the time to make quality products. 

When posting your photos on the web browser version of Etsy, your image needs to be at least 2000 pixels wide. A simple way to fix this, the way I do, is resizing the photo in Paint 3D or a photo editor. Another way is simply making the listing on the mobile app because it won’t have that requirement. 

Description

I don’t know if this is true, but I’ve heard it from a few people, repeat your title in the description. 

This is yet another thing I struggled with. I felt that the title said enough, what more was there to explain about a car decal, other than the size? Well, a lot. Now I’m not saying be one of those annoying recipe pages, that gives their life story before getting to the ingredients and the actual recipe. Just make sure it tells exactly what the customer expects to receive. 

Don’t copy someone else’s description, develop your own voice. Give all the details you can about your product, because just like policies, this can save you from something going wrong. The customer isn’t able to touch your product and get a full feel of what it is. A well-written description can be the make or break of a sale. 

Play 20 questions with yourself. 

Reviews

You’re bound to get a bad review at some point. Don’t let it be the thing that shuts you down, and ruins your shop. Message the customer and see what you can do to change their review. If you can’t change it, don’t worry. Learn and improve from it. When looking at reviews, I hardly ever take the negative ones seriously, unless there’s a lot of them. If you have 50 good reviews and 5 negatives, you’re going to be okay. 

Sometimes you have to take the hit and lose some profit. Say their package gets lost in the mail, and there’s nothing that can be done about it. You may have to refund them or send them another. Something I’ve always done to keep customers happy, if something goes wrong I send a small freebie with the replacement. Usually, it’s something extra that I have laying around. 

Marketing

Social Media is your best friend! Use everything you can, and HASHTAGS! HASHTAGS! HASHTAGS! Before I even started TikTok or Etsy, I wanted to have a huge Instagram following. I ended up with 1,000 followers, just by using a ton of hashtags. No matter what site you’re using, if it allows you, use every hashtag under the sun. This is where you can get extra with it, especially Instagram and Tumblr where you don’t have a limit. Just make sure you separate it from your caption. 

Using social media to grow a following can help so much! I would never have made it through 2020 without my following. Seeing a more personal side of you can help a lot, and you’ll even make some amazing friends along the way! The most rewarding thing is when you’re told you inspired someone to start making arts and crafts or living their dream. 

Other Information

Make sure your policies are clear. If you do not offer refunds or returns, and a customer reports you for not refunding them, this will save you!  

Experiment with things, see what works best for you! Having a following and ignoring all of this worked for me for two years. Eventually, my TikTok views dwindled, meaning sales went with it.

The more items you have listed, the more likely you are to be seen. Try to post something new once a month. Additionally, the more you have the more likely someone that found exactly what they wanted, will buy more from you. If they see something else they like while looking at one item, you’re making more money.

Categories are much easier to do on a web browser. All you have to do is type in what your listing and it will give you suggestions. Mobile Etsy is nearly impossible to figure out where to list decals and stickers. You’d never guess to look in electronics, would you?

Helpful Sites

https://keywordseverywhere.com/

https://www.thesaurus.com/

https://erank.com/ 

https://www.keysearch.co/

https://www.keywordtooldominator.com/

https://seller.tools/

Resources

https://printify.com/blog/2020-etsy-seo-secrets-all-you-need-to-know/

#etsy #etsy seo #seo #search engine optimization #search engine organization #etys seller #small business #sweetsyn #sweetsyncraft

[omophagias]

bookposting #22

tender is the night, f. scott fitzgerald: 3.5 stars, i’d say. i really do like his prose style. it…there’s some l-word, i forget which—languid, that’s it. it felt very languid. i was less a fan of the flashback parts, partially because i didn’t like being in dick’s head as much as i liked being in rosemary’s. it also sometimes felt like fitzgerald was kind of wobbling around on the border between “no, obviously dick isn’t meant to be a sympathetic character, he’s a self-destructive asshole” and the, like, not being really sure whether he was extending that “you shouldn’t like him!” to the part where he marries his teenage psychiatric patient. (fortunately the autobiographical resemblance didn’t get that far…?) really what i was mostly thinking by the end was, damn, fscott and zelda, i really wish you’d lived in a time when it was easier to get divorced. but, you know, on the list of books about people just really fucking themselves over, this is one of the better ones. i think i got it because i can’t / couldn’t stop thinking about “patient is the night” from over the garden wall.

the fire next time, james baldwin: 5 stars easy. i really wish i’d read it sooner; i ended up reading it because i bought my roommate a copy for his birthday and wanted to be able to write him a decent further-reading list to go with it. i just was completely awed by the facility with which he was able to touch on so many different things and draw them back together into a whole, and he was such a writer. i don’t know that i can really talk about "down at the cross” right now without just quoting massive passages because it just speaks so completely for itself. read it.

trouble the saints, alaya dawn johnson: three stars? this is kind of hard to talk about because i theoretically like a lot about it. alternate-universe 1930s-1940s where at the age of 10 some people of color gain a power called “the hands” along with occasional semi-prophetic dreams, “the hands” basically give you one superpower like “can see a person’s worst deed by touching them” or “can sense threat to oneself”, protagonist’s power is unfailingly perfect aim, which she uses to kill for the mob. i think maybe it was a marketing issue, because from the blurbs and so forth it seemed to be being sold as much more of a straight up and down fantasy noir, which is absolutely not what you’re getting. it’s extremely character-driven and thematically very concerned with passing, liminality, justice, ancestral trauma. i will say i didn’t care as much for the middle third, i thought dev’s narrative voice was not interesting, especially compared to phyllis or tamara. it’s…i don’t know, i think it’s interesting and it’s definitely something i’d enthusiastically recommend to other people but i just didn’t really click with it. maybe a prose issue, idk, it got kind of dense sometimes in a way that didn’t really work with the plot, imo.

the story of silence, alex myers: rating…i don’t know, i feel like it might be a book that’d improve on rereading, provisional three because i felt a bit disappointed. retelling of the roman de silence, a 13th century french poem about a lord who, due to inheritance law, raises his afab child silence as a boy and which i haven’t yet read (which might be one of the reasons it didn’t click, i couldn’t tell if/where myers was deviating from the story beyond the obvious change to the ending—in the poem, silence ends up married to the king; in the book, silence escapes that fate and the fate of being forcibly externally gendered in general). i think that probably its best strength is as a prose adaptation of the poem, because it definitely has the feel of, like, the better prose adaptations of arthurian poems (which this is, merlin is in it). but on its own i’m less sure; there’s not really a lot of character exploration. i’m gonna donate my copy because it’s a 400-page hardback and i don’t want to pay to send it home, i can get a paperback in the states.

wakenhyrst, michelle paver: two stars. oy. a very boring gothic horror with not enough horror and far too many diary entries from the main character’s terrible father. remarkably unsympathetic treatment of the housemaid who is being, frankly, sexually exploited by said father. also i felt like there were digs being taken at margery kempe, which is less serious but still annoyed me. paver really, really likes doing epistolary/diary-based horror—she did it in dark matter, which i did like—but these ones are just not well-done, the shift back and forth between them and the main character’s perspective doesn’t do much, and the horror—which as far as i can tell is the maybe-real ghost of the father’s sister who he let drown in the fen when they were kids coming back into the house—is just not given enough room to get really settled and also not really successfully integrated with the big spooky 15th century painting that’s also part of the whole thing somehow.

one-way street and other writings, walter benjamin, trans. j.a. underwood: three stars again? i don’t know; i think that a lot of it was very well-written / translated but i was missing the referents to actually engage with it. also i was really, really tired when i read the first two essays. i did like “one-way street,” it felt kind of like invisible cities in a way, and “hashish in marseille” was funny because like dude we’ve all been there, we’ve all been high and unable to stop staring at people’s faces. i think overall the things that i understood i liked but i didn’t understand as much as i wanted to.

the dunwich horror and other stories, h.p. lovecraft: three and a half, four, something in that neighborhood, graded to the lovecraft curve (a curve somehow squamous and rugose!). overall the stories were pretty well-selected—the dunwich horror is definitely one of his best, the thing on the doorstep is very interesting as a story, like, thematically; the dreams in the witch house didn’t work as well for me because it is kind of about a guy double-majoring in math and folklore too hard (and what the fuck is “non-euclidean calculus” anyway, howie), accidentally discovering teleportation, and then getting chased by a witch and and her half gef the mongoose / half vladislav cat familiar in the form of evil shapes, the lurking fear really dropped the ball at the end and is basically a dry run for the rats in the walls; i had no idea what was going on in hypnos, and the outsider is a decent sort of twilight zone-y tomato in the mirror couple of pages. i think really what i found most interesting about this collection is that it made it very clear to me that lovecraft was deeply, deeply obsessive about eugenics. which, i mean, i’d already known he had the ingredients for it (seething, all-consuming racism; classism of the “augh the inbred hillbillies!” type that was very foundational for american eugenics; his personal concern with / fear of hereditary mental illness; interest in what was in the 1920s cutting edge science) but i hadn’t quite put them together until looking at the dunwich horror and the lurking fear and their presentation of rural new englanders, combined with the, you know, his stuff about innsmouth (as always i say: THE FISH PEOPLE DID NOTHING WRONG) and the racist implications therein, which crops up in dunwich and in thing on the doorstep, the way all three are very, very concerned with genealogy / heredity… shouldn’t have taken me that long to figure it out. one thing i did like about the lurking fear was the moment when the narrator, atop the hill where the abandoned house of the ill-fortuned and vanished martense family stands, looks out over the plain and suddenly realizes that the weird earth mounds in the area are all radially emanating from that hill. it’s an actually effective spooky moment! i thought it was gonna be giant mole people! it isn’t, it’s the martense family having somehow managed in 100 years, through some really committed inbreeding, to devolve into weird voiceless subterranean cannibalistic hominids. boo.

#.txt #book review #.bookposting

[indigosandviolets]

The Secrets a Book Can Tell

Pairing: Joseph Liebgott x OC x George Luz

Word Count: 2,564

Summary: Andrew and Luz watch a movie even though Luz just can’t seem to shut up, but soon they’re all called to Bastogne. Andrew remembers how he came into the possession of the book he refuses to die without, but then the possibility of dying seems to only get worse as they start the march to Bastogne.

Notes: This chapter was originally just gonna have a minor flashback with Albert, but since someone said something about wanting to learn more about Andrew’s past, I made that a whole part!

Part Eleven of We Happy Few

-

The darkness of the room would have been perfectly coupled with silence, moving and working together to create a peaceful place as the men of Easy Company watched a movie.

That silence, of course, was not going to happen, all in favor of Geroge Luz.

“Gotta penny?” He said as the scene changed. Andrew nudged his side, trying to get him to shut up. Andrew had just wanted to hold hands with the lovable goofball, but because he kept talking he kept drawing attention to himself.

“Shut up, Luz,” Toye said, not turning around.

“Come on, I’ve seen the move seventeen times.”

“And I haven’t,” Toye replies, turning his head to look at Luz. “So shut up.”

Luz, being Luz, didn’t pay any mind. “Gotta penny?”

Andrew nudged him again. “George, stop,” he whispered. He had only seen the movie once before, and he barely remembered where that line even was, if it existed. It seemed to be Luz’s favorite, and he persisted.

“Gotta penny?” His voice was becoming more exaggerated, and Andrew was a blushing mess.

“George, please, quit it.”

“C’mon, it’s my favorite part,” He whispers to Andrew before saying the line again. “Gotta penny?”

Toye looked back at him again, ready to kill and Andrew could see it. He prayed that Toye didn’t have his brass knuckles. Luz stayed focus on the screen. “Gotta pen-ny?”

The woman finally says it, and Luz cheers. “For fuck’s sake, George,” Andrew says, pinching the bridge of his nose. Admittedly, he did love the idiot, but he wanted a quiet movie where they wouldn’t get caught while doing slight, domestic things. Luz had deflected that by, well, being Luz. Luz turned to Andrew after, his always present goofy smile lurking on his face.

He leans over into Andrew’s ear, whispering, “You know you love me.”

As Luz pulls away, Andrew glares at him. It’s not a mean one, it’s just an annoyed one, and Luz knows it based on the little laugh that he lets out.

Going to the movie had already been a strangely emotional thing for Andrew. He didn’t let it show, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the first time he and Luz kissed before the movie (which they did before this one, just a lot more hastily than that first time) and the circumstances around that kiss. He also couldn’t stop thinking about how he had been pulled out of the said movie to kiss Liebgott.

Now, this time it wasn’t Liebgott, but they were pulled out of the movie -- everyone was. Welsh took up the attention of the room, standing up at the top of the stage in the front of the makeshift theatre. “Get your gear, everyone, we’re moving out. Take everything you’re gonna need.”

That’s not really what Welsh said, but Andrew was sent straight into getting ready so quickly that he couldn’t remember exactly what the Lieutenant said.

Andrew buttoned up his jacket as fast as possible, threw as many warm clothes his combat bag would carry as far down as possible, followed by a few packs of cigarettes and half a bar of chocolate that he had stolen with Liebgott from the canteen.

He slipped on his winter coat and hat before throwing the bag over his shoulder. As he did so, a book fell off his bed in the haste. He picked it up carefully like the book was so fragile that it would snap in half at too harsh of a touch.

It was All Quiet on the Western Front, the same copy and edition he had carried with him from Toccoa. He rubbed his finger over the now worn spine, moving to the corners of the cover. They had been bent over, rumpled, becoming soft. He opened the book, and other than his name written in a soft pencil, a message had been written in on the back of the front cover.

Remember, read to Luz!

Andrew’s fingertips touched the messy note, remembering how Luz had asked him to read to him that fateful night in Normandy. He sighed, slipping the book into the inside pocket of his winter coat and stepping out with the rest of the men, ready to get in the douche-and-a-half’s.

-

Andrew acquired All Quiet on the Western Front from his brother, Albert. Albert had always been a novice reader, in fact, his second choice for his major in college was literature, but he stuck with finance and business instead. Having no other real male figure to try and emulate in his day-to-day life, Andrew too picked up a love and real passion for reading.

It had started off small, with reading a new book once a month after Albert had moved out. It became a rock and grounding for Andrew to become more in tune with himself -- and to tune out his parents as well.

This soon escalated to two, to three, to four, averaging one a week. He couldn’t get enough of the words as they seemed to fly off the page, and he also couldn’t get enough from the escape of his parents. He read anything he could get his hands on, it was like an obsession.

All Quiet on the Western Front, though, wasn’t one of those books that he read in a week. Albert had left a copy behind, but it was well-read, torn in many places. There were even whole chapters missing from here they had been ripped out (Albert used them for inspiration and note-giving). What he could read, though, was mostly in German. Albert had went out and gone and bought a German edition of the book, learning the language just to translate the book. Andrew couldn’t understand it, other than the simple “Ja” here and there. It was a nightmare to read, and it was one of the things that Andrew had taken with him when he stole the truck and drove to Chicago.

“Al,” Andrew said one night as they sat on the couch after dinner. They had been listening to the radio, hearing updates about the war in the Pacific. Andrew had already looked into enlisting for the Army that morning. “Why in the name of God did you have to leave me a book in German?”

Albert shrugged. “Motivation, I guess.”

“Motivation for what?”

“To get you to visit me,” Albert said, smile wide on his face. Andrew now remembers that he and Albert did share a smile. There were several things that the two of them didn’t even come close to being similar in, but you couldn’t deny that the Marin boys had the same smile. “Took you, what, three, four years?”

Andrew hit his older brother’s shoulder. “I hardly call it a visit.”

“Then what is it?”

“An escape.”

“Yeah, that works.”

Andrew held the German edition in his hands for a moment before giving it over to Albert. “Half of it’s gone, by the way. You ripped out a lot.”

“I know,” Albert replied, taking the book and holding it up to the light. “You know, I forgot half of it.”

“The book?”

“Well, that, but I forgot half the German I learned.”

Andrew laughed. “What good you are to the Army.”

“That is why, my dear brother, you are going instead.”

Andrew sighed. “If they’ll take me.”

Albert looked over to Andrew. “They’ll take you, don’t worry. I hear they need guys for their new Airborne program.”

“The hell is that?”

“You think I know?”

Albert got up, placing the book on the coffee table before he walked over to his bookshelf. He scanned it for a minute before pulling out a newer copy of the same book -- this time, in English.

“Here,” Albert said as he gave Andrew the copy. “It’s brand new. You’re gonna need something to read when you have downtime.”

Albert and Andrew couldn’t have expected that downtime for reading to happen where the book actually took place, but that night, Andrew tucked the book away into his bag after writing his name on the inside cover, not sure when he was going to read it.

-

Andrew sat beside Liebgott and Babe, nestled between the two, his knees pulled up towards him to keep in as much warmth as possible. Everyone was talking to a replacement -the name he didn’t quite catch, maybe Ray? - what why he had so little on him.

“You need four pairs of socks,” Skip Muck tells him. “One for your feet, one for your hands, one for your neck and pair for the balls.”

Everyone seemed to agree. Everyone was asking the replacement of what he had on him and what he needed.

“You got cigarettes?” Someone asks, and the replacement nods.

“Yeah, I got a half-”

Andrew can’t hear the rest of the sentence as everyone grabs for cigarettes, even Liebgott and Babe. Andrew puts his hand on Lieb’s shoulder. “I got you a pack, calm down. I’ll get it out when we stop.”

“You gotta coat?” Liebgott asks. And he asks it again. He keeps asking it until another matter is deemed more pressing, that of which he turns to look at Babe and Andrew to say, “I gotta piss.”

“Bit late for that, isn’t it?” Andrew tells him.

“No shit,” Liebgott says, turning away. Andrew knows that Lieb is being a little short with him, but that’s mainly due to the fact that he still felt awkward around Babe after what happened before Eindhoven. Despite this, Liebgott moved his hand around Andrew’s waist, most of their bodies covered by the winter coats so that no one would see it. He accomplished this by timing it with when the truck lurched as it went over a rough patch on the dirt road, knocking everyone into each other. This was a perfect time, Liebgott seemed to decide, that he give a little reassuring squeeze to Andrew.

“Why the hell are we even comin’ over here anyway?” Guarnere asks everyone. “We’re supposed to jump outta planes, not ride out and march to the battlefield.” Andrew knew that Guarnere was always somewhat passionate about the things he thought were problems. “This is the fourth Army problem, right? They should be sendin’ in the sixty-eighth, not the one-o-one.”

Andrew leaned his head up to get his voice over to Guarnere. “We’re still Army, Guarnere. They’re gonna send us wherever the hell they want to. It doesn’t matter if we’re armored or not.”

“The hell do you know, Marin?” Guarnere says.

“Guarnere, where the hell have you been the last two years?” Andrew replies. “You of all people should know that Mister Eisenhower doesn’t give a shit about who gets sent in. As long as the problem gets resolved, they could send in the fucking coast guard and he couldn’t give a shit.”

Guarnere turns, patting the replacement on the shoulder. “That’s Andrew Marin. Second smartest guy in the company.”

“Who’s first?”

“That’s Bull.”

Andrew looked down, smiling to himself. It didn’t sound like a lot, but to be second to Bull? He could only dream.

As the truck came to a stop, Andrew, Babe, and Liebgott were the first out, and Babe and Andrew stood by a pit that had been filled with gas, waiting for one of the Lieutenants to get it lit. Andrew almost did it with his lighter, but he needed it -- he smoked too much to not have one on him. They also waited on Liebgott, who had gone to resolve the pressing matter of having to piss.

“It’s so goddamn cold, Babe,” Andrew says as the fire finally reaches them. Andrew didn’t think that the smell of burning gas would actually be comforting.

“Remember how they said we’d be home by Christmas?” Babe tells him. “Way back before Market Garden?”

“Jesus, yeah, I do,” Andrew laughs. “I wrote to my brother about it too. What a load of good that does now.”

“Hey, at least you and Liebgott will be together for Christmas.”

“Yeah, if we don’t freeze our asses off.”

“Hey, kiddos,” Liebgott says as he returns to Babe and Andrew. “How’s the fire?”

“No one else is gonna here us, you don’t have to say kiddos, Lieb,” Andrew tells him. “It’s good. How was the piss?”

“As good as a piss can get while you’re freezing your ass off,” Liebgott replies, standing beside Andrew. “I would not recommend it.”

Andrew chuckles, looking up from the fire and out to the road. He doesn’t quite see it at first, but there’s movement. A lot of movement. Men, disheveled and battered and bruised, walking on the road, out of the town they were supposed to go into. Andrew taps on Liebgott, making him look at the marching men.

“What the hell happened to them?” Babe asked. “They look like complete shit.”

“I have no idea, Babe.”

Andrew looked over to Liebgott, who didn’t say anything. He just looked back at Andrew, and Andrew could feel just how scared they both were. Not of what was ahead, but for each other, worried if they would get through the hell that walked before them alive. If the guys there had only been in for a month and looked like this when they were pulling out — while it was starting to get cold — what the hell was going to happen to the rest of them?

Out of the corner of his eye, Andrew saw Guarnere talking to one of the men. Now, if there was anyone who only took the absolute truth, it was Guarnere.

“I’ll go talk to Gonorrhea,” Andrew tells them. “Just get what you can find, yeah?”

“Drew, what-“ Liebgott starts, and Andrew turns around. “What do you expect him to know?”

“He’s talking to one of ‘em, so he knows more than us,” Andrew says. “Plus, he holds more power, being as we’re only tech corporals and he’s a goddamn sergeant.”

Liebgott purses his lips before he sighs. “Fine, but be careful, alright?”

“I will be. We promised, remember?”

With that, Andrew turned and walked to Guarnere, who had just stopped talking to the soldier from the fourth army. “Bill, what’s going on?”

Guarnere looks at Andrew. “It’s a goddamn suicide mission, that’s what it is,” Guarnere tells him. “They probably went in there with 200 guys, now they’re comin’ out with 93. Just get their ammo and pray to God you’re not gonna be dead before your birthday, Marin.”

Guarnere walks off to get ammo from the men before Andrew can ask another question. He steps back from the road. His birthday is in less than two weeks and Guarnere was telling him that he might die before then. Terrible thought, he knows, but that’s the truth. Anyone could die out there, be it God’s will or good ol’ Mr. Hitler’s.

Maybe that’s why Andrew brought his book, because he knew he wouldn’t die without it. Because he knew that if he did die, no one else could have that copy, with the worn cover and dog eared pages and cracked spine and message about Luz talking about a promise he hadn’t quite carried out yet, because if he wasn’t able to read it to Luz, no one would know but him and Luz. Not another soul could have known what happened on that night in D-Day, only Andrew, Luz, and All Quiet on the Western Front.

-

tag list: @alienoresimagines @fromcrossroadstoking @easyroses @leximus98 if you want to be added, please let me know!

#band of brothers #joseph liebgott x oc #joseph liebgott #george luz x oc #george luz #andrew marin #babe heffron #bill guarnere #joe toye #harry welsh