#but the thing is...it would be like another like 8 years until the silver case would be localized

[blackopals-world]

I Found Home

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)(Part 6)(Part 7)(Part 8)

Implied relationship

Part 5

Notes: This wasn't supposed to happen yet but I'm working on several chapters at once so this got posted first due to timing. This chapter was meant to go last. (besides I'm not going to pretend that most of you didn't just come here for this guy. I just want to get this over with.)

Malleus

"The Hero"

Grimm wasn't the most social of the kids but he was finally learning how to play with others. From what the child development book says he had a rich imagination and took part in imaginative play with others. He had even shown interest in things like singing and dancing with other kids.

But when art time came Grimm looked upset and yelled at another girl. Yuu had to apologize to the girl and her father. They had an argument which caused Grimm to lose his temper. He wouldn't say what it was about either.

When it was time to go Grimm waited by the car and stared at the crumpled drawing he made in his hands.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" Yuu asked helping Grimm into his car seat.

Grimm shook his head.

Yuu nodded and decided to leave it alone.

When they got home Grimm went to his room without much fuss. Even bathtime was quiet without his usual crying.

When it was time for bed Grimm still clutched the paper ball.

"Mama?" He asked for her while he was deep in thought.

"Yeah, sweetie?" Yuu pulled the covers over him.

"Where is our family?" Grimm unfurled the pater to reveal a drawing of her and him in crayon.

Yuu's voice was caught in her throat. She wanted to wait until he was older to explain this.

"We are a family." She said simply.

"But Erinn said that families were big like hers. A mommy, daddy, sister, brother, grandma, and grandpa. But I only have a Mommy." Grimm asked confused. "I told Erinn that I only had Mama and she said that we weren't a real family without that. So I got mad."

Yuu knew she had to control her emotions and try to explain but it was getting hard.

"We are a family. All the family we need. Erinn is lucky and has a big family already and she doesn't understand what other families look like." Yuu said stiffly "I'm sorry if I'm not enough. If I could, I would give you the family you deserve but I'm only one person."

Yuu quickly finished saying goodnight before retreating to her room. Tears of frustration blinded her.

It wasn't her fault.

She wanted a family too.

Ever since she returned to her world and old life she had tried to find her place. Friends and family were happy to see her again but they had moved on after years of her absence. Everything familiar was now strange. Then came the questions about where she was and what happened. She couldn't answer, no one would believe her. They turned on her with suspicion and called out her lies. News media caught wind and police had questions as well. Everyone wanted to know but she had no answers.

Rumors were everywhere and even the people who trusted and wanted to help Yuu had mud slung their way. She did what had to do to protect them and left. She escaped as far as she could to a place where no one knew her. She wrote her books in solitude and kicked out everyone who tried to profit from her newfound fame.

Conspiracy theorists and true crime fans still hounded her but she had a life where she could be in relative peace.

She had a son now and could live a normal life. Wasn't that enough? Can't she live her life?

Yuu cried for herself, for her son, for their future.

"Are you sure we shouldn't wait until tomorrow, your Majesty? Yuu may be asleep by now." Silver asked pushing aside the foliage with a ball of light he cased in the other.

"Of course, my child of man has always stayed up late in the night. She is undoubtedly awake." Malleus said proudly leaving Sebek and Silver to clear the way. Trails of Will o'-Wisps marked their path to find their way back.

Lilia flew above the group as he enjoyed the scenery. He seemed even more relaxed these days. Silver and Sebek had finally taken over their roles as captains of the royal guards. Malleus was firmly established himself as the ruling king and let his dear grandmother retire to her castle on the coast. She was certainly enjoying the sun in her scales.

Malleus had been hard at work revitalizing his kingdom. Bringing his kingdom into the current Era took effort but he had reached out to Shroud's heir for his assistance. Now the youth of his kingdom had new jobs to look forward to and new citizens had begun to move into their land. Malleus had also reached out to over classmates and found their help invaluable.

Kingscholar and Viper had been invaluable political partners and expanded trade between their lands. Rosehearts had joined him in laying out new laws compatible with technological developments. Ashengrotto had great knowledge of how to take advantage of natural resources in the area. Schoenheit offered assistance in starting an entertainment business hub like filming to take advantage of the vista.

Malleus had developed strong friendships with each of them but none of them could compare to the one that changed his life. Something they all agreed on.

"This place is so nice. So many stars but you can still see the city lights in the far distance. Are we close to the shore?" Lilia couldn't wait to visit another world and go touring with Yuu. His boys may be reserved to just seeing her but he had plans.

"The terrain is dangerous. It's rocky and likely has many dangerous creatures lurking about. How that human can stand being so much peril is beyond me." Sebek huffed.

Silver shook his head and ignored his co-captain.

As the group journeyed through the forest they noticed a small sound break up the buzzing of cicadas. Small sniffles and whimpers echoed and wrapped around the trees.

Lilia as if sensing a child's distress told the group to be quiet as he tracked down the whining.

Tucked into a hollow at the base of a tree a small boy huddled with a stuffed cat clutched to his body for dear life. The poor child cried for no one but himself.

As the group got closer they lit up wisp light around the area. The soft light alerted the boy as he drew closer.

"Hey, there. What are you doing out here so late?" Lilia crouched down to the boy's level to not scare him. "You should be at home."

The boy shook his head.

"You're parents are probably looking for you." Silver said.

"I can't. I'm bad." The boy rubbed his red puffy eyes.

"You're bad?" Malleus asked holding out his hand to Silver who immediately grabbed Sebek and grabbed a handkerchief from the half-fae's pocket. He then gave it to his king.

Lilia took the handkerchief and held it up to the boy's nose and told him to blow his nose. (Crying gets very messy with kids his age and makes it hard for them to breathe with clogged sinuses. Not mention kids have a hard time blowing their nose on their own at a young age.)

The boy wrinkled his face as Lilia cleaned his stuffy nose with practiced ease. The boy tried to weakly fend him off the same way any child does when you try to clean a smudge off their cheek with your thumb. Once he was freed and cleaned up he finally responded.

"I'm a bad boy. I made Mama cry. She said cus of me." He said remorseful.

"Why don't you just say sorry then?" Sebek said tactlessly.

Silver elbowed him and the crocodile shrugged with an expression that said 'What do you want me to say! I'm right!"

"Because I always make Mama cry. Mama is always sad. So I'm going back so I can't make her sad again." He said defiantly.

He was going to help his mother even if he wasn't going to be with her.

"Where are you going?" Malleus asked kneeling beside Lilia.

The boy looked that Malleus's horns with wonder.

"Mama found me here in these woods. But she told me a story of a dragon that lived far in the woods. The dragon was nice and helped the lost princess so I want to find him and ask him to help Mama." The boy sounded really proud of his plan.

"A quest. What a brave boy you are." Lilia ruffled the boy's hair. The boy tried to dodge but failed.

"Hey, are you the dragon?" The boy asked pointing at Malleus's horns.

"I'm a dragon-fae. The king in fact." Malleus responded.

"And you can help my Mama? With your magic? Can you take her nightmares?" The boy asked pleading.

"I will try to help if you lead us to her." Malleus wanted to see Yuu again but he knew he had to help this child first. Reuniting this family was more important right now than petty wants.

Yuu couldn't sleep. She just needed the check. Maybe she was excessive but she just worried. Almost every night she would cheak on Grimm, just in case. She just need to see he was alive and breathing.

Some times she just had nightmares where he...

The parenting manuals said that this was perfectly normal. Her fears were natural and these impulses were a product of evolution and prevention of S.I.Ds.

Wait is there a cut-off point for S.I.Ds? Could Grimm still get it?

Yuu took a deep breath, she just needed to see him.

Yuu opened the door quietly to find...an empty bed.

"Grimm?" Yuu called out.

She began checking the bathroom in case he needed to go potty...nothing.

She checked the kitchen in case he wanted water...nothing.

The living room, The study, her bedroom, the attic, the garage

Nothing, nothing , nothing, nothing, nothing, NOTHING!

Yuu searched everywhere as she rushed outside and called for him. Soon the hysteria kicked in as she banged on her neighbors' doors. Frantically she gathered people to help her find her son.

The group was no less enthusiastic to help as they treated the boy like a little hero on a quest. Unfortunately, this hero was very tired and needed to be carried by the dragon king. Lilia was desperate to have his turn but the bat was way too energetic right now.

Lilia was secretly praying that Yuu lived with children so he could play with them.

Grimm was fascinated with Malleus. He studied the dragon's horns, eyes and fangs.

"Mama said the dragon was best friends with the lost princess. Is that true?" Grimm asked touching Malleus's sharp ears.

Malleus let the boy explore as he thought of a response.

"I cared deeply for a friend who was far from home. She was my best friend."

"What was she like? I like the princess most." Grimm said cheerfully.

"The princess, I mean she was beautiful like any princess. But she was better. She was kind and selfless. She made friends everywhere she went." As Malleus said this little fingers pulled at his lips to get a better look at his teeth.

"She's so cool. I wish I could meet her."

Malleus quickly handed the child off to Sebek. Sebek received no better treatment as the boy pulled on his ears and cheeks. He has pincer-like fingers and speed.

Lilia laughed. Silver was the same way.

Sebek practically tossed Grimm to Silver to deal with. Sliver was fine with Grimm but Lilia's silent pleading made him hand the boy over.

Almost immediately Grimm was asleep as Lilia rocked the boy to sleep. The group sighed in relief.

"So," Sliver spoke up only for a chorus of 'Shh' to stop him. He was just going to ask about the stuffed cat that looked exactly like Grim. Or the fact that his name was Grimm. Just him? Okay.

But the blissful silence didn't last as sirens and shouting were heard.

"Grimm?! Grimm?!" Voices shouted as groups of people searched for the boy.

Safe to say his mother was looking for him.

The group managed to dodge the cops as the found a familiar young woman still wrapped in her night clothes shouting Grimm's name. Bright searchlights haloed around her.

"Yuu?!" Malleus called out as soon as he saw her.

The woman squinted to see through the lights before she gasped. She quietly scrambled through the foliage. She had trouble due to still being in her house shoes, she couldn't even think of changing when her son was missing.

"Mal?" She called trying to see if she was hallucinating.

"Malleus please, you have to help me. My son, he's gone." Yuu begged her hand clutched over her chest.

Malleus didn't know how to respond at first. No words would help. The only thing to ease her is her child.

Lilia came forward and handed the sleeping boy back into his mother's arms.

Yuu's eyes lit up with unimaginable joy like finally breathing after unending suffocation. She fell to her knees as she held him close to her.

"My baby. My sweet baby." She mumbled pressing kisses to his head as tears of relief flowed down her cheeks. "Thank you. Thank you."

The situation took time to clean up as everyone was alerted that Grimm was found. Everyone sighed in relief and returned home. Except for that crotchety old woman next door. Yuu would expect a strongly worded letter soon.

The reunion wasn't what anyone expected but Yuu was no less grateful to her friends.

When they explained the situation, Yuu's eyes dimmed.

"I see, it's my fault." She sighed.

"He was just trying to help you. He doesn't know any better." Sebek rolled his eyes.

"That's the point. He's a child, he doesn't know any better. It's my responsibility not to make him feel responsible for my emotions. He should never see his mother cry. I tried to hid it." Yuu berated herself.

"Yuu, from one parent to another you need to hear this. It's hard, it's always going to be hard, but you're doing great." Lilia said gently pulling Yuu into a hug.

All the stress she had been carrying since she assumed her role as parent bubbles to the surface. All this time she had been carrying the heavy weight of expectations and constantly questioned herself. Everytime she got something wrong she panicked. Every crying fit and scraped knee she blamed on herself. Judging herself based on every parenting manual and blog she read. It all came to the surface.

She felt like she was going to break into pieces.

Suddenly another pair of arms wrapped around her then another and reluctantly another.

This was what she needed. Reassurance.

"Who dares intrude upon my lair." Lilia cackled wrapped in a black blanket.

"I do! Grimm the dragon prince!" Grimm stood proudly over Sebek's(slain in battle, r.i.p) body with a plastic sword in hand.

Grimm had taken to wearing a pair of fake ram horns and pretending to be a dragon recently.

Yuu raised an eyebrow as she drank her tea.

"If you wish to save the princess you must face my minions!" Lilia said waving a hand and sending Silver out to duel with the boy.

"Don't worry! I have my own minions! Go dragon king!Save the princess!" Grimm said sawing his hand this time.

Yuu snorted and held back her laughter as she looked up from her notepad.

Malleus of course assisted as he pretended to battle Lilia.

"Mal are you a king or a minion?" Yuu laughed.

"Are you a princess or are you just wearing a cone hat?" Malleus retorted.

"You've become more sassy with age. Now hurry up and save me." Yuu pouted taking off the pink cone hat.

Malleus picked up Yuu in a princess carry as Grimm cheered.

"My heros~" Yuu giggled as she wrapped her arms around Malleus's neck.

"Where too now my dear princess?"Malleus asked.

"To the study my stead!" She shouted.

Sebet tried to say something before Silver kicked him from their downed position.

"I'm a stead now, am I?" Malleus teased as he carried her off.

Grimm payed no mind. Grandpa Lilia said that they need space. The boy instead leapt onto his uncles who grunted as the air was forced from their lungs.

Upstairs Malleus placed Yuu on her desk chair as she began typing out her new book.

"Finally designed on a name for it?" Malleus asked resting his head on her shoulder.

"Yep, The Lost Prince and the Dragon King"

"Hmm, I like it."

TagList:@kamisatoaiko@professionalreblogs@kai200x@lianreine@loivre@jackalope08@code-roevember @growingupnrealizing @ryxmix @rainbowcake1212@blazestar0525 @botswanasvetlana @shrimpyfishyy @imasimpsowhat06 @nooneknows8976

@utaubara @springdrop-701 @ayachansan @otomyoli @savanaclaw1996 @who-mst @cloudy51 @siren-serenity @ehjane@glacticrose@bontensbabygirl @morokumi @rincommittedarsin @queen-shiba @night-shadowblood-writes2 @colombia-chan @canubringmeacokepls @mikk-o @twistedcece @kbar1013@dreamlessnight @spritofthesea @angelicupiid

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twisted wonderland yuu #twisted wonderland malleus #malleus draconia #malleus x reader #malleus draconia x reader #malleus draconia x yuu #twst malleus #lilia twisted wonderland #twst lilia #lilia vanrouge #silver vanrouge #twst silver #twisted wonderland sebek #sebek zigvolt

[greyeyedmonster-18]

(this has been in my drafts for ages and i finally decided to yeet it out. consider this a little...meditative dribble on sirius and teddy's relationship.

and also as elle woods once said, being true to yourself never goes out of style.

cw: for a little bit of implied homophobia/being rude about anyone who decides to express themselves outside of the "gender binary")

-

It started after they attended a holiday gathering hosted by his cousin. Andromeda had taken the Black Family Tradition of throwing elaborate parties, though the crowd she invited was much different than the ones Sirius had grown up with. Magic and muggle mingling in a comfortable living room instead of a lavish ballroom decorated with too many floating candles. There were plenty of other families invited, Teddy and Harry disappearing for most of the party with their friends (or in Harry's case his boyfriend, the two of them holding hands in the backyard whenever Sirius had ventured away from the other guests and his husband to keep tabs on his boys) and not surfacing until it was time to go home.

Usually, both the boys would sleep late following the party. Not that this was novel for Harry, who Sirius would sometimes have to bribe to get out of bed over the hols once it hit the noon territory because nothing was worse than Harry waking up starving, but Teddy rarely slept past 8. Most days he was up with Sirius, and sometimes it felt like those mornings alone were the only things holding their relationship together as Teddy waded through his teens. But after this party, in particular, Sirius woke up to find Teddy already in the kitchen, sitting at the table with a book of some sort, with only the kitchen windows for lighting.

"Feeling okay?" Sirius asked, as he walked further into the room, noticing that Teddy was already dressed for the day but...off. There was nothing loud, nothing patterned, bright colors absent, just a plain white longsleeve shirt and faded jeans. His nails, which were painted sparkling silver last night were completely bare. His hair was brown.

Just. Brown.

"Good morning," Teddy responded pointedly, not looking up from his book. A minute into the morning and Sirius already was holding back a sigh, knowing his fourteen year olds response was not done with out intention. Knowing that Sirius and Remus both asked for basic common pleasantries before enduring whining from either of their kids.

"Good morning, Edward," Sirius replied, going to put the kettle on the stove, "Sleep well?"

"No."

At least he's honest.

"I'm sorry."

"Whatever."

"Did you make yourself tea or anything?"

"Does it look like I did?"

Sirius inhaled deeply, "Coffee, tea, hot cocoa..."

Teddy finally looked up, "Coffee?"

Fucking finally. Remus's bloody kid.

Sirius stopped with the kettle and leaned against the counter, "You want to take a walk? We could go to that little cafe a few streets over?"

"It's bloody cold, Dad. I think theres snow on the ground."

"Then it's a bloody good thing I'm bloody good at magic and can keep us warm. And you have boots."

"Fine. Will Da and Harry be okay?"

"I...think they'll stay out of trouble for at least another three hours."

--

The walk with Teddy was quiet, his kids hands in the pockets of a coat that didn't belong to him. Teddy had taken Remus's coat out of the closet- brown and decidedly ordinary-- leaving his own floral, pastel purple coat behind. Teddy had also taken a pair of Harry's shoes, brown and faded and simple, Teddy encroaching on Harry's height every day despite being two years younger, taking immense joy in tormenting his older brother.

"Did you have fun at the party last night?" Sirius asked as they walked along the pavement, warming charm melting the snow and clearing the path.

"No."

"No fun and no sleep? Are we in for a rough day, babe?"

"Probably..." Teddy muttered, "Do we have to go?"

"To Andromeda's?" and Teddy nodded, his eyes on the ground, "I don't suppose we have to do anything, but she's our family and...that's what holidays are for. We don't have to go again this year if that's what you mean."

"Mm."

"Did something happen?"

"No, Dad..."

"Try a little harder."

"What?"

"If you're going to lie to me at least try to convince me that nothing happened. Poor attempt, Edward, you've done better..."

Teddy snorted, though his head was still hanging and his hands were in his pockets, "There's...it doesn't matter."

Sirius nodded slowly, processing the information he had in front of him. This was where he usually fucked up with Teddy. With Harry, it didn't take long to get him talking. Harry was almost too eager to drop his defenses, and Teddy was far more careful. Push too hard and Teddy would retaliate, push too little and Teddy would disappear into his room for hours, wondering if anyone was going to care at all. Remus was far better at finding a middle ground. Remus always was. But the fact was, Teddy had chosen to go on this walk with Sirius. Teddy was choosing to tell Sirius something was up, which meant....which meant Sirius had to figure the rest out.

"I love you."

That always worked. For either one of his kids. A sentence that Sirius could always bring out of his back pocket or take down from the attic on a rainy day.

"I know."

"No, like I really love you," Sirius repeated as they were approaching the cafe, "Like, if some tosser came up to me and said 'tell me you don't love your son or I'll punch you in the stomach', I'd let myself get punched a million times."

Teddy snorted again, "Sometimes I question your decisions."

"That's alright, I think you're supposed to," Sirius said, opening the door for Teddy, his kid walking in before him.

Sirius was surprised when Teddy wanted to stay at the cafe, expecting his teenager to want to grab and go as they always did. But Teddy wanted to sit in the cafe that was mostly empty and quiet except for a few elderly patrons and the workers.

"We should get Da something for later?"

"Not Harry?"

"He can have whatevers at home, well just put it in a cup from here so he doesn't know better."

Sirius laughed, "Clever..."

Teddy shrugged, "Maybe."

"Did you change your mind about your nail color?" Sirius asked, looking at Teddy's hands as his kid took a sip of his mystery flavored latte after he had told the barista to surprise him.

"I guess."

"We can paint them again today if you'd like."

"It's okay."

"How come?"

"It's...just okay," Teddy told him but finally brown eyes met Sirius's "...How long have you painted your nails?"

"Since I was...fifteen or so?"

"Has..." But Teddy cut himself off.

Sirius waited for the rest of the sentence to be finished, but it wasn't.

"I...didn't do it when I lived with my parents," Sirius started after a long silence when it was clear Teddy wasn't going to pick up where he left off, "I remember every night before I went back to their house for holidays, I'd sit in the common room and take off my nail polish and all my earrings that were considered tasteless and my jewelry. I would...scrub my face so hard every morning to make sure there was no eyeliner left behind, made sure whatever I packed in my trunk was...acceptable."

"I...didn't know that."

"I don't much like talking about it. It's a hard place to be. I had an uncle--"

"Uncle Alphard?"

"Yeah, I remember I visited him once in France over the summer, without my parents around and he had the best closet I had ever been in. At the time anyway," Sirius grinned, "All his robes were velvet, and so bright, and he had these heeled boots he wore around. I was maybe thirteen? I think my head exploded a bit realizing that...I didn't just have to dress a certain way for the rest of my life."

"And you decided on leather?"

"Mhmm." Sirius grinned, despite his kids attempt at being cheeky, "I did."

"I know you tell me that...no one should make me feel bad about myself. Right? But sometimes they do, and I can't help it. It...just gets loud."

"And when that happens you tell them to shut the bloody hell up."

"Dad!"

"Did someone say something?"

"Yeah. About...me? My hair, my outfit yesterday..." Teddy trailed off, fingers drumming on the table. Teddy had worn a long black skirt to the party yesterday, hair a bright magenta, an old leather jacket of Sirius's on top that was still too big, but Teddy insisted. "I just...sometimes think it would be easier to just...be...khakis."

Sirius reached across the table to pick Teddy's head up gently, "Listening?"

"Yeah..."

"People...can be cowards, so afraid of what they don't understand. People's mind are often so small, and they don't know how to manage when they realize the world is so incredibly big, or meet someone whose mind is twice the size of theirs. And, I know it's very much easier said than done to tell someone to shove it up their arse, or ignore it and...keep being you out of spite. And...some days, and around some people, it is absolutely easier to just be khakis. I do it sometimes still and it's okay."

"But you're...old."

"I'm super fucking old."

"That's not exactly...inspiring, Dad"

"It happens less and less and...you've seen me when I go into court some days, yeah?" Sirius asked and Teddy smiled. Sirius knew his son was thinking of the days Sirius left the house in dresses under his robes or the highest heels he could find in his closet, done deliberately on occasion when certain politicians pissed him off. "People are...going to try to make you feel bad, they are."

"So what do I do?"

"Never apologize for them, never apologize for...being bright and being yourself. And when they try to bring you down, you tell them, they really ought to meet your father."

He felt Teddy lean against the palm on the side of his face, "Do people say things to you?"

"Not anymore, no," Sirius told him, "I'd like to think it's a result of people becoming more understanding and accepting, and...it is, I don't want you to think it's not, okay?" Teddy nodded, "But...and not to play this particular card but I'm a Black, so are you by that, and I'm a politician, and on the wizengamot and...have the power to make a lot of people's lives very miserable--"

"You wouldn't."

"Snot-nosed purebloods don't know that, though," Sirius winked, "I'm happy to meet whoever gives you a hard time. I'll meet their parents too."

"That's cold."

"I told you I love you, not a thing under the sun I wouldn't do for you. I got two Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers sacked on behalf of your brother, some hand-shaking with a tosspot is easy comparatively," he said, carding his fingers through his sons brown curls.

"I think I would've asked to transfer schools if you did that my first year..."

"You'd have to learn French properly then," Sirius said, and Teddy made a face. "So when...the world tries to make you forget who you are and you lose yourself a bit in the noise...there's always, always one thing you can trust."

"Your vault full of galleons and years of dark magic left behind?"

"Something like that."

Teddy grinned and looked down at his mystery coffee, taking a sip, the foam leaving a small white mustache on his upper lip. Sirius was tempted to wipe it off for him, but knew that would be embarrassing for his teenager, who was hell-bent on being the coolest one in the room at any given moment, and besides Sirius relished the moments Teddy looked younger than he was.

Like now, at a cafe table with foam on his lip, admitting he didn't have all the answers and sometimes still needed to hear i love you without an asterisk attached to the end. Teddy hadn't shrugged away from the hand on his head, hadn't told Sirius to stop with the hair smoothing.

"I don't have teal," Teddy said finally, grabbing Sirius's hand with his own, finally pulling it off his hair so he could look down at the tattoos and dark fingernail polish. The gold jewelry adorned even before 10am. "Nail polish? I don't have teal."

"I can fix that."

"Thought so."

#sirius black #teddy lupin-black #dribble #just something that ate at my brain and i had to write #nothing to see here really

[psalm22-6]

After reading this you might be asking yourself, who is this hater who seems to willfully misunderstand the plot? Well his name is Auguste Vitu (above left) and it all began to make sense to me when I found out that he was a journalist supported by Napoleon III (above right). As you can see he even adopted his benefactor’s hair style. Yikes. No wonder he didn’t like Les Mis.

Anyways, can anyone find me other early examples of what basically amount to fanfiction of LM where the author writes what they think ought to have happened? Sure towards the end he’s just listing things he doesn’t like but also his re-write fairly detailed, even if it is only done out of spite. 

Source: Le Figaro, 24 March 1878 (2/3)

Why does Jean Valjean, who has in his pocket his savings of 109 francs an 15 sous from his time as a convict and who has in his bag the bishop’s silver, steal 40 sous from the Savoyard child? And why does he only steal 40 sous, when the child has clean money in his dirty hands? Inexplicable action that goes unexplained. Lets assume that he is punished by forced labor in perpetuity due to the highway robbery and recidivism, this condemnation would be pronounced with Jean Valjean in absentia.

That being said, let us ask ourselves what would happen in a real city, in the case where M. Madeleine found himself obligated, in order to save an innocent man, to reveal his forgotten past to everyone.

Don’t forget that he is a big business man, a millionaire, mayor of the city by decree of the King, and that he cannot be arrested or prosecuted in any jurisdiction without the permission of the Council of State, having been dismissed by royal ordnance. Well! Mister Mayor of Montreuil wouldn’t waste a night and a day running to Arras. He would go, without leaving the city, to the royal prosecutor with whom he conifers daily by duty and, in the privacy of the cabinet, he would explain the situation. The royal prosecutor, following the hierarchy, would warn the general prosecutor who would request the dismissal of the case against Champmathieu until another session. In the meantime, all would be explained. Jean Valjean, or rather M. Madeleine, would ask that his sentence be revoked, making a great effort to show how he tried hard to find the little Savoyard to make up for the consequences of an act that was more thoughtless than premeditated. And because it is public knowledge that M. Madeleine is an honest man who for 8 years has rendered great services to the country and who endeavored by countless means to redeem the faults of his past life, the attorney general, informed by the public prosecutor’s office, would present to the minister’s counsel the following missive:

“Let's avoid the terrible scandal that would arise from the appearance in the criminal court of a mayor appointed by the King; let's not give the liberal press the satisfaction of proving that we choose our mayors from the prisons; M. Madeleine will resign, and the King will pardon fully and entirely the convict Jean Valjean, who will return to the shadows and the silence never to come out of it.”

That is what should have happened because M. Madeleine, as they presented him to us, had become too serious a businessman and too experienced a magistrate to think, even for a moment, of acting otherwise.

There are lots of other extravagances in the play. For example, Fantine descended down to the lowest echelon of vice. Why? Because she was fired from M. Madeleine’s factory because of her status as a single mother. Is that realistic? Is that possible? Would M. Madeleine have lost all sense of humanity? He himself a wretch, would he treat other wretches, less guilty than he, with such harshness? The author of the drama foresaw this objection and had one of the characters say for him “M. Madeleine knowns knowing of what happens in the women’s factor. It’s not him who is firing you, it’s the rules.” But those internal rules of the factory, who came up with them if not M. Madeleine himself?

And what is the significance of the scene where Jean Valjean lets himself be extorted for 15 hundred francs by Thénardier in order to buy the right to take Cosette, when in his pocket he has a letter written by Fantine that authorizes them to give the child to the man who will come to take her?

All of that is outside the realms not only of truth but also any likelihood or common sense.

#les miserables #les miserables drame #my translation

[thatforgottenbasilisk]

One Loop at a Time

Midoriya (Second Iteration) (AO3)

Originally Posted on 8/27/2023

Summary:

Midoriya is first, because of course he is.

Next is Bakugou, not much of a surprise there.

One at a time, the whole class joins in, until they're all in the time loop together. That's when the real fun begins.

Midoriya Izuku wakes up in his bed.

He sits up, gasping, a hand reaching up and feeling his chest, knowing that there is something unequivocally wrong. He can feel his heartbeat hammering against his ribcage, strong and healthy and everything that he was a few moments ago.

Before the world tilted on its axis. Before the darkness started creeping into his vision, before Shigaraki-not-Shigaraki reached into his chest and pulled.

Before he watched his heart turn to a bloody mush right in front of his face.

Things went dark after that, and he doesn't know how much time has passed since then. It feels like it's only been a matter of seconds, but given how it was with Kacchan, it could've been hours, or even days since that happened. He can't rely entirely on how everything went with Kacchan, though, because when he did wake up, he'd been... different. He'd said he'd seen things, heard things, though to Izuku's knowledge, he's never told anyone anything more than that.

Izuku didn't see or hear anything in the time between watching his life end right before his eyes, and waking up here. He glances around, recognizing it as his own bedroom, but something about it is definitely... off. A couple of wayward neurons fire in his brain, calling to mind a scene from the end of an old American movie he remembers watching with his dad when he'd been about eight- a Hero from 1945 was frozen at the end, and in the final scene, he woke up 70 years later in a room that was made to look like a hospital room from that time period. Izuku's pretty sure that that's not what's happened to him, but he's still uneasy from the thought.

It takes another few moments for him to figure out what's wrong: this is his childhood bedroom, in his mom's house. That in and of itself would be fine, except for some of the All Might merchandise lining the shelves that he knows he took to the dorms. There's a Silver Age figurine up high, still pristine in its unopened box, that he's completely certain was accidentally decapitated during The Incident last month, as well as posters that should be torn or defaced or signed (sometimes all three) framed and on display, as fresh and clean as the day that they were purchased.

He slips out of bed, and walks around in the way that he and his classmates were taught in stealth training not long ago, toe-heel instead of heel-toe so as not to make any sound of footsteps. He may be being monitored right now, in which case it's a moot point, but he still doesn't want to alert any possible guards that may be waiting outside.

The first thing that he notices is that it is much easier than usual to keep his footsteps light- he must've been here for a while, if he's lost a noticeable amount of weight in the time since he last tried walking like this, only moments before he... fell asleep, shall he say.

He suddenly realizes that he doesn't like thinking about it. Obviously he doesn't like it, obviously there's an issue with the whole situation, but he feels like his brain is skirting around the whole "death" concept. He doesn't like knowing that he was dead, might still be dead, and he really doesn't like phrasing it like that, even in the privacy of his own head. It's rare for him to have things that he won't even touch, mentally, so he's a bit more unsettled by this development, even though, by all metrics, it's probably the most normal thing about this entire situation.

Izuku goes back to looking around for hidden cameras, or some other obvious indication that this isn't real, when he hears footsteps approaching the doorway, from the same direction as though someone were coming from the kitchen- if this is, in fact, really his mom's house.

There's a knock on the door, and he hears his mother's muffled voice call out, "Izuku! Wake up! You don't want to be late for your first day at UA!"

What.

-----

Izuku goes through the next few hours in a fugue-like state, watching the exact events of his first day of his first year at UA playing back again, like a way-too-realistic recollection. Tenya's just as stuck on the rules as he used to be, moving both of his arms easily, no nerve damage to be seen; Kacchan's just as arrogant as ever, seemingly certain that this will just be another Aldera, full of easily-impressed peers to push around; Shouto's silent and sullen, not even tapping at his legs like Izuku knows he tends to do; and on, and on, and on. Everyone's acting like a first-year, and Izuku doesn't like it.

He wants his friends back. The ones who may have been a bit more damaged, a bit less innocent, but his. Not their past selves, though he still loves them too, but it's not the same.

Is this a quirk? A nightmare? His mind rockets between possibilities, coming up with them as quickly as he dismisses them. It's only when he gets to the Quirk Assessment that he realizes that this is real.

He's reliving the first day of high school. Quite possibly the rest of high school, too.

... There's no reason that he should do exactly the same as he did the first time around. He'd made mistakes and bad decisions the first time he lived through all of this, but now he has the chance to rectify them. He can make the next three years better than they were before.

He can save Sir Nighteye. He can keep Tenya- Tensei, even- from getting injured. He can keep All Might from having to retire so soon.

He can make sure that Kacchan never dies. Never even comes close. Never has to come back.

So Izuku resolves himself to do his best to be his best, to prevent the same events from causing the same casualties, or even any casualties at all.

-----

The USJ is the first real challenge. To be fair, this isn't exactly unexpected, considering that it was the first time that their homeroom had ever encountered villains, but still. It was a lot harder than it should have been to make sure that Aizawa didn't get as injured this time around.

On the one hand, Izuku can admire the man's dedication to protecting his students, especially since for all he knew, Izuku and everyone else were fresh out of middle school, but on the other hand, Izuku thinks that the time he spent trying to keep the Noumu away from Aizawa and everyone else while simultaneously dodging all of the teachers' attempts to get him away from the villains was quite possibly the most frustrating few minutes of his life.

All in all, however, the USJ is a relative success: Thirteen isn't hospitalized, Aizawa gets his scar but without the quirk damage and temporary medical mummification, and All Might's time limit remains the same. Kurogiri and Shigaraki still escape, but Izuku wasn't expecting to be able to prevent that while effectively acting alone.

Now, just the same as before, Nedzu announces that UA refuses to be intimidated by villain attacks and states that the Sports Festival will continue as planned. Izuku thinks that it would have been a good plan, without taking into account how public it all was, especially considering that the attacks on their class, specifically, were ultimately not a one-off like he suspects that Nedzu believed it to be. Shigaraki had explicitly stated at the USJ that All Might was his target, so there was no reason to think that anyone would go after 1-A again- it was just their luck that that wasn't the way the cards fell.

Izuku trains his body in an effort to catch it up with his mind, in hopes of being able to be at least a little more impressive in the Sports Fest. He's not planning on making any major changes, and if he has to lose to Shouto again to get him to use his fire, then he absolutely will- but he'd rather not have to break himself in the process a second time around. While he focuses on training, both with One for All ("miraculously" coming up with the idea for Full Cowling at the USJ was good, but further milestones will have to be spaced out accordingly so that he doesn't seem too suspicious. While All Might may not think too much of it, since he'd been a prodigy with One for All, Gran Torino will definitely be watching with a closer eye) and with his muscle training, he thinks over his name, as well.

Can he be "Deku" again? Should he be? He's not the same person as he was before, he's not the same hero, he can't be. The name grew with him, but part of him feels like he left it behind in his original timeline. He left Deku with Kacchan, both of them lost and unreachable, possibly forever. All that's left is to make something different from the ashes.

Midoriya Izuku cannot be Deku anymore. So, while he strategizes for the Sports Fest, he also ponders his new name.

-----

His placement in the Sports Fest is, ironically enough, exactly the same as it was the first time. Some changes were made, including refusing to fall for Shinsou's quirk rather than resisting it entirely (he mentally apologizes, but he doubts that it would be easy to get Shouto's fire out in a different setting from the Sports Fest, if he even has the opportunity to do so at all), but he still loses to Shouto in the semifinals- but this time around, he comes out of it relatively unscathed, very few scars decorating his hands in comparison to the way they used to, and they seem to just be cosmetic, too. He can still use his arms just as easily as he could before, which means that he doesn't have to use Shoot Style again, though he is currently more comfortable with it.

Maybe he can have a new fighting style to go with his new name.

Speaking of his new name, he's decided that even though he isn't Deku anymore, he's not someone completely different, either: so, he takes on the moniker of Dekiru. He takes it as a promise to himself, that this time around, he can change things. He can make things better, he can do what he set out to do as Deku, he can save everyone with a smile. He can.

He's been given this opportunity, somehow, some way, and he isn't going to waste it.

Tenya still dropped out of the Sports Fest, still got the call about Tensei, even though Izuku had anonymously- "anonymously," someone could've traced it easily enough if they really wanted to- sent a warning about the Hero Killer's presence in Hosu to Idaten just that morning. Tensei is still injured, and still has to retire, and Tenya is reacting exactly the same as he did before.

That's why Izuku follows him to Aizawa's desk when it comes time to submit their paperwork for internships, and "accidentally" spills his water bottle on Tenya's papers for Manual, making sure that he'd have to redo them. This time, he'll make sure that Tenya doesn't go to Hosu, and if he has to use dirty tricks to do so? So be it.

-----

He doesn't know if he should be surprised to see Tenya in the same alleyway in Hosu this time around. He doesn't know if he should be surprised to stumble in on exactly the same sight as he had the first time, with Stain and Tenya and Native to boot.

Should he drop his location ping again? Should he involve Shouto in this whole thing again, and bring in Endeavor for the convenient way to wrap all of this up? The police would use Endeavor's presence, same as they had last time, to sweep under the rug the fact that a couple of first-year Hero Course kids had done their jobs for them and made a mockery of the department- because that's what it had boiled down to. The credit had been stolen from them because the police were embarrassed that they had earned it in the first place.

He will not be texting Shouto.

Besides, he has more experience now, more training, technically a Provisional License, even- he can mitigate harm in this situation, he can do this. He doesn't need to put Shouto in danger again.

So he runs into the fray just a second faster, trying to fight Stain off while trying to tell Tenya that it's his fight too, damn it, there are people in danger, and the fight is much, much harder than he remembers it being. Maybe it's because Shouto was here last time, and now he's going it alone- too late to rectify that- or maybe it's because compared to Overhaul and every other villain he faced later on, Stain didn't cause such a long fight with so much collateral damage.

He'd forgotten that that was because Stain didn't need to. He's fought people with forces of nature at the tips of their fingers, he'd forgotten the power held by someone who beat themselves into power, honed it so that it was just as overwhelming as any other crazy quirk.

Izuku jumps to dodge one sword, but Stain's aim in throwing knives is just as good as when he's wielding a sword- that, or he's just gotten a terribly lucky shot right through Izuku's throat.

He crashes gracelessly to the ground, trying desperately to stop the bleeding, but it's too late. The knife's fallen out, his fingers are slick with blood, and the world sounds like it's underwater. His vision grows dark at the edges, and he knows that this was all just a waste in the end. How was he supposed to make things better? How was he supposed to fix it all-

-----

Midoriya Izuku wakes up in his bed.

He looks around at his childhood bedroom, perfectly identical to the way it was before he moved to the dorms, though of course that doesn't mean anything now. He automatically grabs his phone off the dresser to confirm a suspicion of his- and, as he suspected, the date is exactly that of his first day of his first year at UA.

So... he must be in a time loop. That's fantastic, actually, because he can actually get things right, without making the mistake of being too cocky, too stupid to ask for help again. He didn't have the power to hold the world on his shoulders last loop, and he probably doesn't now, but he will. Now, too, he can start asking questions- is he alone in this? Is it someone else's quirk that's making this happen? How does he get out? So many questions, and so much time to answer them. Technically, he has eternity, right? He's fifteen again, for all intents and purposes, though he should really be... nineteen? Twenty? The months are off, considering that his sense of time in the first loop had been hazy at best.

Well. He supposes that it technically doesn't matter at this point.

Izuku figures that he may as well get ready for his third first day of first year, and really devote his questions about the mechanics of all this to the weekend, when he has time to focus on things that aren't going to school, or appearing normal and unsuspicious. He walks out of his room before his mom even has the chance to knock, all dressed up in his "new" uniform, while his mom cries proudly over him and demands that he let her take pictures when he gets home.

Izuku laughs, and extricates himself to make his way to the train station alone.

He expects it to be the same again. He expects the same routine as the last two times he did this, and he has this in mind when he walks into the 1-A classroom, with only Tenya and Kacchan yet present.

Kacchan is quieter than he was before. He seems more like he did in the first timeline, the real one, after he'd died and come back different. Izuku notices it immediately, because he's not yelling back at Tenya like he usually would, when on the first day he was told to take his feet off the desk; instead, he seems to be flat-out ignoring him in favor of looking out the window. Izuku might've thought he didn't even notice his own entrance into the room, were it not for the subtle shift of Kacchan's shoulders betraying him.

This is... new. Different. Izuku isn't sure how to respond. Did Izuku do something different this morning? Did he arrive earlier than usual by accident? There are so many possible ways that variation could've happened already, and Izuku doesn't quite know how to handle it this early on. Still, this is only his third time living through all of this, so he should probably get used to it, right?

Right. Izuku decides this in a matter of seconds, and sits at his desk, pretending that he's completely uninvolved in the situation. When Tenya notices him and does the usual praise for figuring out the secret part of the Entrance Exam, Izuku decides to more firmly deny it this time- after all, the timeline's already changed. No reason not to make a few more tiny ripples. He spots Kacchan looking at him out of the corner of his eye, and wonders what that's about.

He's sure he'll find out after the Quirk Assessment.

The rest of the class trickles in, and finally, Aizawa sneaks into the room in his sleeping bag. He tosses their gym uniforms at them and tells them to be out and dressed in ten minutes, as per usual. Izuku grabs his uniform and wanders vaguely towards the locker room with some of his classmates, pretending to look as lost as they are, until he passes an empty hallway and feels someone pulling him into it by the arm.

Guess he'll find out before the Quirk Assessment, then. Kacchan stares at him with an unusually calculating gaze- he's seen him size up the rest of the class like that, as well as most villains, but never himself. He'd always thought that Kacchan knew him too well to need to analyze him with that kind of focus, and honestly, he still doesn't feel like he's wrong, because he's probably acting different in some miniscule ways that completely give the game away to someone who knows him like Kacchan.

Still, he waits for Kacchan to speak first. It's only polite, after all, and it could be unrelated to the whole time loop thing. Probably not, but it could be. Kacchan's probably onto him, and he'll have to spitball an appropriate lie pretty quickly, so he starts thinking of plausible explanations for whatever clued Kacchan in on his unusual behavior or mannerisms.

All the possible half-baked stories get thrown out the window completely, though, when Kacchan finally says what he dragged Izuku into this isolated hallway for.

"This isn't your first time living through today, either."

#mha #mha fic #my writing #One Loop at a Time #One Loop at a Time fic

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

Boy oh boy did I make a mistake last night. I stayed up until after midnight, Gracie woke me up at 3:30 to go out, then again at 5:30.

So, yeah, I need all the coffee this morning.

I hope you enjoy the links!

Reuters

Photoshop maker Adobe’s (ADBE.O) co-founder John Warnock died on Saturday aged 82, the company said in a statement early on Sunday.

Another legend gone.

R.I.P. Mr. Warnock.

Akela Lacy • The Intercept

A little over a week after a prosecutor in Georgia indicted former President Donald Trump for trying to overturn the results of the state’s 2020 presidential election, Republicans said they will use a new law to remove her from office.

I don’t understand the GOP. It’s clear the Orange Man is a criminal and needs to be brought to justice but their need for power overrides all else.

I’d expect violence to escalate if any of his cases are dropped.

Pathetic.

Kevin Purdy • Ars Technica

Dominic Szablewski grabbed that code before it disappeared and set about creating a version that’s not just a port. He rewrote the game’s rendering, physics, sound, and generally “everything everywhere.” He documented the project, put his code on GitHub, and has some version of a justification.

I haven’t looked at the code and probably never will but it would be interesting to see the diffs.

Something I learned a long time ago. Don’t be quick to judge others code. Someone else is eventually going to look at your code. Be kind.

The Onion

Texas Cancels School Over Concerns Extreme Heat Not Safe Environment For Shootings

I know it’s The Onion but I can believe Texas would do something like this.

Ben Lovejoy, Michael Potuck, and Filipe Espósito • 9to5mac.com

But yesterday, we learned that it had happened. Apple not only made a U-turn, supporting a Californian right to repair law it had previously opposed, but even went as far as actively endorsing it.

The only reason I can see for Apple’s 180 is they’ve discovered a new way to make a profit by doing it.

Vjeran Pavic • The Verge

The computer on Keegan McNamara’s desk is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The machine sits on a light wood table, bathed in the sunlight coming into the second floor of McNamara’s Los Angeles house. McNamara, tall and blonde in jeans and a light khaki Carhartt jacket, walks over to the desk, sits down, and reaches over to hit the power button. Then he pauses. He forgot something. He digs into his pants pocket, pulls out his keys, picks a silver one, sticks it into a cylinder just to the right of the computer’s 8-inch screen, and turns.

I like this. A marriage of the warmth of wood and the cold of technology.

Annie Palmer • CNBC

Amazon is seeing some employees quit instead of moving to a new state as part of relocation mandate

I’m pretty sure we all knew there’d be a reckoning, even with return to office being unpopular.

Microsoft Excel • techcommunity.microsoft.com

Since its inception, Microsoft Excel has changed how people organize, analyze, and visualize their data, providing a basis for decision-making for the millions of people who use it each day. Today we’re announcing a significant evolution in the analytical capabilities available within Excel by releasing a Public Preview of Python in Excel.

This is a head scratcher. Excel has had a great language and IDE built in for years and years. It’s called Visual Basic for Applications and it’s truly great. In fact we had VBA integrated into Visio and you could do amazing things with it.

WillowTree Blog

Generative AI is transforming how we do business. But early adopters have discovered that large language models (LLMs) can occasionally provide responses that are out-of-left field, off-brand, heavily biased, or just plain wrong. The industry has termed these types of completions: hallucinations.

Developers, don’t let your LLM do drugs.

Strange Loop

Programming languages often prioritize either performance or ergonomics. Swift offers a unique modern type-safe low-ceremony approach taking the best of both worlds that scales from mobile apps to high-performance systems where previously memory-unsafe languages would be used. It also interoperates seamlessly with C and C++.

I’ve been waiting to hear about a high performance use of Swift. I expect we’ll see Swift make its way into an OS level component of macOS some day.

Dan Morrison • yardbarker.com

Hamlin went beyond picking a few crashes at the Coke Zero Sugar 400. In fact, he thinks NASCAR is going to have a crash fest on its hands, as he explained on the Actions Detrimental podcast.

This is the final weekend to make the playoffs and there are a few folks on the bubble. If the Xfinity race last night was any indicator of what’s to come tonight could be a real mess.

[suckitsurveys]

1. Do you typically say “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas”? If I know the person celebrates Christmas I say Merry Christmas, but otherwise I say Happy Holidays.

2. Do you make or serve anything with cranberries around this holiday season? Not me personally, no.

3. Do you collect pine cones, or have you in the past as a child? What have you made out of them/what did you do with them? I’ve collected them for funsies before, but never really kept them. I’ve made bird feeders out of them in school before though. I also like to buy the scented ones around this time of year.

4. Have you/your family ever roasted chestnuts as a holiday treat before? No.

5. Are red and green the colors that you typically associate with Christmas the most, or is there another color that you have in mind? What is it? Yeah, those are the main ones for sure. Also silver and gold.

6. What’s the worst Christmas gift that you’ve ever gotten before, and what made it the worst? Eh.

7. Do you give your spare change to the mall Santas? Is this a thing people do? I thought you just take pictures with mall Santas? Are you thinking of the Salvation Army people? In which case, no, because the Salvation army is homophobic. 

8. Do you get to open up any presents on Christmas Eve? Yes, we host Christmas Eve at my dad’s house and those guests usually bring gifts..

9. Do you believe in the saying that “good things come in small packages”? Sure.

10. Do your family members wrap your gifts, or were they just sitting there under the tree? How about when your parents were kids? Of course they’re wrapped! 11. Do you know anyone who has a birthday on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Have you ever gotten a gift that was meant for both your birthday as well as Christmas, either because it was expensive or because the two holidays are close together? Yes to the first part, no to the second part.

12. Are you someone who needs to work on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, or are you able to have those days off to spend time with your loved ones? I am able to have those days off and then some. My job is required to give us Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, and New Years Day off. A few years ago they started giving us the days in between too. This year, since the holidays are both are Saturdays and Sundays, we have the 23rd to the 2nd off. 

13. Have you ever gone on any sort of Christmas-themed scavenger hunt before? How about played Christmas-themed bingo? I’m pretty sure I’ve played Christmas themed bingo in elementary school.

14. Is Christmas your favorite holiday? If so, why? If not - then which holiday is your favorite instead? It’s definitely up there. I might like Halloween a bit more.

15. When was the last time you sat down and made an actual Christmas gift? How often do people ask you what you want for Christmas and you’re unable to think of anything concrete until after the holidays have passed? I’m going to guess based on the second part of this question that you mean a Christmas list? I made one for this year. 

16. Do you watch “Kickoff to Christmas” or “Countdown to Christmas” movie specials on the FreeForm channel? When do you start counting down the days until Christmas? Nah.

17. Does it ever deeply concern you to know that Santa knows when you’re sleeping, and he knows when you’re awake? He’s a creep.

18. What would you do if your grandma got run over by a reindeer? Well, both my grandmothers are dead, so.  

19. What’s the most unusual thing that you’ve ever wanted for Christmas? (like two front teeth or a hippopotamus, perhaps) I can’t think of anything, but I am sure I asked for weird shit as a kid.

20. Do you donate toys to your local toy drive, or offer food for Christmas meals during this time? I have.

#surveys #at work #christmas

[bmpmp3]

new favourite genre: media from other countries where one specific middle entry or adaptation was localized in english but with like no context about the rest of the franchise (bonus points if its heavily reliant on prior knowledge of pervious entries)

can’t stop thinking about what it would have been like in 2009 if you were a person who knew nothing about the kill the past series or even suda51 stuff in general and you just like. picked up flower sun and rain from your local gamestop on like. a whim. can you imagine

#luckily killer7 was already out for a few years so at least theres that for...some context #sorta #but fsr...even as a person who still hasnt played the silver case (sorry) it is so very much a direct spin off sequel for the silver case #like its not even just references that flew over my head that entire bit on the boat is incomprehensible #and i mean this is a kill the past game so i mean. i imagine with context its not THAT much more comprehensible #but still i imagine you at least get the vibes if you had played the silver case before lol #but the thing is...it would be like another like 8 years until the silver case would be localized #and thats NUTS to me kjdsjfskdsdfds #imagine having to wait that long to play the prequel to fsr....imagine #(although at the rate im going it might take me that long to start playing it hsjdkkfsvkjdmdsmjfs) #(sorry!!! i got distracted and started playing the jake hunter games) #in other news. i want to watch the otogirisou movie so bad. when will it come to me. when will i hold it in my hands #like i have no clue what to expect and i dunno if its good but it doesnt matter if its good!! i wanna see it!! #i wanna see it and imagine being in 2004 watching a weird movie by the director of ringu having no idea its based off a famicom game #i wonder if it'll be like the channel zero adaptation of candle cove #like weirdly reliant on prior knowledge of the story while also not really having much for fans of the original story hjkfdskdmsafnhvjdks #(thats my favourite season of channel zero. maybe for the wrong reasons) #i remember seeing a lot of reviews of the otogirisou movie seem very...confused. maybe the fact that i know the story of the game #and also that i know its a game at all might help me understand it more lol #i dunno it could be fun!! if only the dvd would ship to me sooner!!! give it to me!!!!!!!!!!!!! #foaming at the mouth waiting for a dvd of an early 2000s japanese horror movie based off a famicom sound novel

[maybe-theres-hope]

Tarlos Fic - Dinner Date

3.2k | T | Warnings: Blood, Injuries (mostly minor) | Contains: Judd/Carlos friendship, Tarlos being perfect, blue Camaro (rip)

Read on AO3

“So, what are your plans for the night?” Nancy asked as they exited the ambulance, their shift nearly over as long as the bell didn’t go off in the next ten minutes. 

TK smiled to himself for a moment before he spoke. “Well, Carlos is taking me to Jeffrey’s, so…”

“Holy mother,” Nancy breathed, looking at him with obvious envy. “Do you guys have a ten year anniversary or something coming up? Did he get some kind of commendation at work? Because I know your last one was like a month ago, so.”

“No, no anniversary, that’s in a couple of months. And its three years, Nance.” He chose to ignore her muttering about their mushiness ‘aging me ten years’. “And nothing from work that I know of. Maybe he just loves me?” TK couldn’t stop grinning while they stocked the bus and readied for the handover. 

“He loves you crap ton! Their wagyu strip steak is a hundred and twenty-five dollars!” Nancy had her phone out, obviously googling the menu. 

“Well at least we’ll save money on wine,” TK said with a chuckle.

“I’ve heard of the place by reputation but like, dude, who ever gets the chance to actually go there?”

“TK it seems,” Tommy cut in. “Why don’t you go on? We got it here and you’re gonna need at least an hour to pick out an outfit.”

“And gel your hair. You and your dad are way more alike than you want to admit,” Nancy added with a roll of her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah. You sure, Cap? I can stay and help?”

“I’m sure, kiddo. Go get dolled up for your man. Eat a few bites for us, yeah?” Tommy yelled at his retreating figure. She and Nancy looked at each other with grins as they caught the little skip in his step. 

“So, what do you think the occasion is?”

Tommy looked back at Nancy with a gleam in her eye. “I can wager a guess, but I don’t want to jinx it.” Nancy just gave her a look and went back to restocking.

--

Around 8 p.m., Owen was sitting in his office toying with his phone in his hand, smiling at his last text exchange. 

we’re just leaving the house now, wish me luck!

you’re not gonna need it, kid :)

“Not if I know my son anyway,” Owen said aloud to the empty room. He wondered if it’d happened yet. No incoherent string of emoji’s from TK yet, so he doubted it. 

He was shoving the phone back into his pocket with the bell went off. 

--

“Alright guys,” Owen said into the mic from the Captain’s chair. “Dispatch says three vehicles involved, two still on the road and one went over the side into the ravine. Police are on their way but we’ll probably beat ‘em there. Strickland, Marwani, soon as we get there I want you to harness up and get down in that ravine. Judd, you too. You’ll be in command down there and I’ll stay up top with the other two vehicles. Everybody else you’re with me, got it?”

A chorus of “Copy that, Cap,” and suddenly they were on the scene. 

--

“Marjan, Paul, we’re goin’ down!” Judd called to them as the rest of the crew went over to the silver Prius and black Mazda that were crumpled in the middle of the two-lane highway. Judd wasn’t a prayin’ man, but he sent up a little something to the man upstairs that this went their way. It looked bad. 

Paul arrived at his side first, strapped into his gear. “Marjan’s grabbing the bag from the truck, she’s coming.” 

“Alright. We’ll go down this way,” Judd said, pointing to a safe-ish stretch of hillside. “Can’t see the other car from here but dispatch said bystanders saw it go over. Probably just hidden in the trees.”

“Okay guys, let’s do this!” Marjan called, harnessed and carrying the medical bag and a backboard. “TK’s gonna be sad he missed this. Medical doesn’t get to harness up a lot and I know he loved it. He coulda helped.”

“Nah, he’s got better things tonight. Carlos was takin’ him to Jeffrey’s,” Paul said with a waggle of his eyebrows.

“Ohh, fancy,” Marjan said with a smile. “What’s the occasion?”

They’d reached the bottom and were starting to look through the brush and low-hanging trees for a vehicle. 

“Don’t know,” Paul answered. “But I think Cap’s in on it somehow.”

“What?”

“Yeah,” Judd cut in as he whacked a few branches out of his way. “Carlos came by the station a few weeks ago, and they sat up in Cap’s office for an hour before he left grinnin’ like a possum eatin’ a sweet tater.” 

“I have no idea what that means,” Paul said with a laugh. 

“Hey guys, look!” Marjan called from a few yards to the left. The other two went to her position and saw what she’d found. A track in the underbrush where it had been torn at and flattened. “Think this is the place.”

“Let’s go,” said Judd. They followed the path through the brush for a couple of yards before they caught sight of it: taillights. “Alright, Marjan you go on the passenger side, I got the driver. Paul you see if you can clear some of that brush off the back in case the doors are jammed and we gotta get ‘em out that’a way.”

Visibility was still low despite the lights of the car and their flashlights, but as they approached they saw the car wrapped around the trunk of a tree on the passenger side. “I don’t know if I can get in there, Judd, but I’ll try,” Marjan said as she broke out into a jog.

“Wait!” Paul cried. Judd looked over at him, and he would have said such a thing couldn’t happen to a calm and collected person like Paul, but his face had gone ashen. “That’s Carlos’s car,” he said on a breath. 

“What?” In the dark, now that he was really looking, he could see they were coming up on—what used to be—a blue Camaro. 

“I’m sure of it. TK bullied him into putting that sticker on the back because he said it was too pristine and it needed personality.” He shone his flashlight at the rear bumper and sure enough, there was a SXSW sticker half ripped off from the path the car had taken to get there. 

“Come on,” Judd said, heart rate kicking up.

“Should we call Cap?” Paul asked.

“No, we stay down here and do our jobs, and he stays up there and does his. We’ll get ‘em.” His voice sounded numb even to his own ears, but he was determined. 

“They were on their way to dinner,” Paul said lowly.

“Yeah, probably takin’ the backroads to avoid traffic,” Judd said, shaking his head. Fate was hell sometimes.

When they reached the car, Marjan was yelling. “TK! TK can you hear me?” She turned to Judd. “I can’t get in there. The tree trunk is halfway into the car, probably pinning him to the console. He’s unresponsive.” Her face was also pale, but determined. 

Judd went to the driver’s side and saw Carlos, head hanging to the side facing the broken window. He tried the door as he called out. “Carlos? Hey Carlos, come on buddy. Can you hear me?” The door wouldn’t budge; Judd figured the car had rolled a couple of times coming down the hill, crumpling it like a tin can. Then he heard a soft groan.

He looked up, and one of Carlos’s eyes was trying to open. The other was swollen shut, where he’d probably hit his head on the steering wheel before the airbag deployed. Half his face had burn marks from it. 

“Hey, hey Carlos, look at me, that’s it.” That one eye tracked around before it landed on Judd, drawn to the light of the flashlight on his helmet. “Hey man. We’re gonna get you out okay? Now, can you move your fingers and toes for me?” Judd stuck his head into the window to see down in the floor boards. “Alright, likely no spinal damage. How’s your head?”

“Hurts. Shoulder, too.” His voice was barely audible. 

“Okay, it looks like you dislocated it,” Judd said as he prodded his left shoulder. “I don’t see anything broken but we’ll have to get you out to determine that.”

“TK—“ a wheeze, “TK…first. Been out…a while.”

Judd peered over to the passenger side, where TK was shoved almost fully into the center console, head laid back on the headrest and his face covered in blood. Marjan and Paul were still hard at work outside trying to clear a path into the car. 

“We can’t get to his side just yet, but we can get you out first and then we’ll be able to pull him out this way, okay? We wanna focus on you right now.”

“Alive.”

“Yeah, you’re alive, Carlos. You’re not gonna leave us yet,” he said as he assessed the door panels where they could cut through with the saws they brought. 

“No. TK. Weak, but…alive,” Carlos breathed out, coughing through the end.

“We’ll make sure he’s alive, okay?” Judd said, trying not to lose his professionalism at this whole messed up situation.

“He is.” Judd stopped looking around and looked back at Carlos. The man raised his right hand just as much as he was able, showing where he had two fingers on TK’s radial pulse. 

“Good, that’s good Carlos,” Judd assured him. That meant Carlos had had some minutes of consciousness after the accident before they showed up. “Was he talking at all? After you hit the tree?”

“Little. Minutes, maybe.”

“That’s good, that’ll help. Alright Carlos, we’re gonna get this door off so I’m gonna cover you with this while we do okay?” Judd waited for a small nod before he covered Carlos’s face and torso with his own turnout coat. 

After an agonizing four minutes, the door popped off in a shower of metal and broken glass. Judd removed the coat and went back in to assess. “Carlos? How you doin’?”

“Tired. But won’t…sleep. Promise. That’s bad.”

“You learn a few things from your Paramedic boyfriend?” Judd said with a watery smile.

“Mmm.”

“Judd, I got the back cleared. Maybe we can get in there to at least check TK’s vitals,” Paul informed them. 

“Get on it, I’ma try to get Carlos here out onto this backboard. Marjan, radio for another backboard and have two RA’s ready to go topside!”

“Copy that!” Judd had to admire those two. They never let their professionalism slip too far, though he could see they were worried sick. He could relate. He wouldn’t relax until both of the boys were back up the hill and on the way to the hospital.

From the looks of things, maybe not even then. But he had hope.

“Alright, Carlos, I’m gonna grab your legs and behind your shoulders here and pull you out, okay? It’s gonna hurt like hell, but it’ll be quick.”

“Wait.”

Judd stopped cold.

“Left…pocket. Please.”

“You want me to get at your left pocket?” A nod. “Alright, hang on.”

Judd carefully shifted Carlos’s leg so he could reach into his slacks, which had probably been part of a very nice suit at the beginning of the night. His fingers searched until they hit a small bump, an object no bigger than a baseball, soft velvet over a hard shell. He sucked his lips between his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as he pulled it free in his hand. 

“Keep it…safe…for me?”

Judd looked down at the little black box for a moment, then clutched it tight in his hand before transferring it one of the innermost pockets of his turnout. 

“Of course, man. I will guard this with my life.” He looked up and saw Marjan coming back with another backboard. “Alright, buddy. It’s go time.”

Carlos gave a weak nod and winced when Judd started to pull. 

--

“Welcome back, man. You had us worried there for a bit.”

Carlos opened his good eye to see Judd sitting at his bedside, smiling softly. It took a moment to remember where he was. Hospital. Accident. Tree.

“TK—“

“Is fine. Banged up and will need crutches for a few weeks, not to mention a killer headache with no meds, but he’s fine. All things considered.”

“Where is he?”

“On his way, so you just stay put, okay? You’re pretty banged up, too, ya’know.”

Carlos shifted a bit and winced. His left arm was in a sling, his head bandaged over his left eye, and his right side hurt like hell.

“Broken rib when the tree went into TK’s door, door went into TK, TK went into the console, then the console went into you. He’s got a femoral fracture in his right leg but like I said, all things considered, you’re both pretty well off for how far you fell and probably rolled.” 

“Yeah, he said his leg had gone numb but he could still move his toes. He made sense for about five minutes, then started talking all jumbled, then went quiet. I uh…freaked out a bit after that. I thought he had…” Carlos trailed off, looking haunted. 

“Yeah, and you kept your fingers on his pulse that whole time. What you were able to tell us at the scene helped us treat him. You did good, Carlos.”

“Not good enough to swerve in time,” he said.

“Not your fault. And don’t you dare go thinkin’ it is. I don’t wanna hear it, Carlos,” Judd said in what TK called his Dad Voice. Stern and no room for argument. Carlos just nodded. 

“And uh, hey. I been waitin’ to give this back to you.” Judd stood and walked over to the bed, holding out a tiny black box. Carlos took it and cradled it against his chest. “It better be a nice one, cuz I about had a heart attack while I was showerin’ thinkin’ someone was gonna come get my pile a’clothes and take ‘em to the laundry while I was gone.”

“You didn’t open it?”

“Nah, I figure the big reveal? TK deserves that all to himself.” 

“Owen’s seen it,” Carlos countered, smirking.

“Uh huh. He approve?”

Carlos laughed. “He whistled and said I spent too much.”

“To impress the Cap it must be a lot,” Judd said with a small whistle of his own.

“Well, what was it Michael Scott said? Three years’ salary?”

Judd’s eyes almost popped out of his head, and Carlos laughed harder before wincing again at his broken rib. “I’m kidding, Judd. But I can tell you, no matter the cost, TK deserves the best and that’s what I hope I got.”

“You gonna make another reservation? Soon as y’all get back into fightin’ shape?”

Carlos looked down at the box again for a moment, contemplating. “I…don’t think so.”

Judd had a confused expression on his face but at that moment, a nurse was wheeling TK into the room, followed by most of the 126. Carlos’s face lit up like starlight at the sight of him.

“Hey, babe,” TK said with a smile. His leg was in a full cast, so the nurse was careful in maneuvering him around to Carlos’s bedside. 

“Hey, I feel like you should be the one in bed! Why are you out and about?”

“Because you were still asleep and he’s an absolute menace. We made multiple apologies to the staff on his behalf for the last hour,” Owen said as he walked into the room behind his crew. “He’s a stubborn little shit. Always has been, always will be. You sure you’re up for that?” He asked knowingly. TK was still looking at Carlos, blushing at his dad’s ribbing. Carlos met his eyes and said, “Yes.” He blushed more. 

“In fact,” Carlos continued. “I’m ready to get started. I’ve waited too long anyway. I mean, how many times do you and I have to beat death before I get the nerve to do this?” He said, looking into TK’s beautiful eyes which were looking confused. 

“What are you talking about, babe?”

“Look, I’m sorry this didn’t go how I planned. And I’m sorry I can’t get down on one knee right now, but. I hope you love me enough not to mind.” He lifted his good arm, his hand holding out the box. “A little help, Judd?”

“It’d be an honor,” the man said before leaning in and opening the box, since Carlos only had one good arm. 

At the sight of the contents of the box, TK’s eyes went as big as saucers. Surprise was written clearly over every inch of his features, which were all still beautiful even scarred and stitched up as they were at the moment. God, Carlos loved this man so much. 

“Tyler Kennedy Strand, you are the love of my life. I tried so many different scenarios in my head of how this speech would go, before I just said screw it, I’ll speak from the heart. You’re kind, funny, sexy, sweet, and everything in between. You can’t boil water and you absolutely can’t properly separate laundry. I have a dozen pink shirts as proof of that.” At this, the gathered group chuckled and TK went bright red. “Ah, but you also know just how to ease the tension from a long day just by hugging me on the doorstep. And I can always count on you to be there for me when the world gets too much, when what we see out there creeps in too far. And I want you to know, that I want to be that for you too, for the rest of our lives. So, TK. Will you marry me?”

The room was silent, apart from the hum and beeps of the machines. Everyone on the edge of their proverbial seats, but no one having any doubt to the outcome. 

“Oh, my God! Of course I’ll marry you! Yes, yes! Yes!” The last was said through TK’s fingers covering his red face, hiding the few tears that had started to fall. He held out his left hand to Carlos, who Judd had kindly helped by removing the ring from its box and handing it back to him. He slid it over TK’s finger, smiling like an idiot the whole time, barely registering the whoops and hollers of the 126 throughout the room. 

He only had eyes for TK. 

“I love you,” TK breathed through his happy tears.

“I love you too, baby. Always.”

“Oh, my God, dude, were you seriously surprised?” Nancy asked incredulously once the commotion had died down.

“Well…yeah? I didn’t expect this at all,” TK said, looking sheepish. 

“TK…my dude…he was taking you to Jeffrey’s! How could you not know?”

Once again, the room erupted in laughter and TK ducked his head again. Carlos reached out and touched his chin, catching his eyes again.

There was nothing but love there. 

CLEARLY every Tarlos fic I write has to have a proposal in it *shrug emoji* 

Also I wrote this in like an hour after I had a dream so please excuse any typos I didn’t catch!

Please reblog if you liked it! I would really really appreciate it :) Thank you for reading!

#tarlos #tarlos fic #carlos reyes #tk strand #911 lone star #brooke writes

[nanaminokanojo]

Play the Game | Nanami Kento X You | Part 1/8

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NANAMI!! 🎂

CHARACTERS: Nanami Kento X You (fem!reader | PLEASE READ THE NOTES BELOW*) | Gojo Satoru | Geto Suguru | Shoko Ieiri | Utahime Iori | other JJK Characters CHAPTER COUNT: 1/8 WORD COUNT: 5,000+ GENRE: romance | fluff | slight angst | eventual smut | ooc depictions | female reader with described appearance* | modern au | rich people au | aged up characters CHAPTER TRIGGER WARNING: profanity | alcohol use | age gap | strong/mature/suggestive language | mentions of bullying, injury SPOILERS: n/a

collection masterlist

one - two - three - four - five - six - seven - eight

"Play the Game" Masterlist

The final road before the bend that led to Gojo Manor stretched before Nanami, signaled by the consistent shield of the ancient cryptomeria trees that lined the road side. The forest was a momentary relief from the glare of the sun reflecting on the windshield of his silver Lexus. Such was the inconvenience of driving in the middle of a bright day when the sun was at its pedestal, making no room for shadows, no reprieve from the heat. He detested it.

A sigh escaped his lips. It’s supposed to be the beginning of autumn, he was thinking for the umpteenth time that day. He would really appreciate it if the Siberian winds would herald the actual beginning of the season. Yes, he thought. That would be nice.

The weather was, nevertheless, the least of his worries, and as he finally made the turn to the incongruously long gravel driveway of the estate, the real cause of his anxiety reared its head to the surface, presaged by the denser shadows of trees and the high gables of the colossal structure that housed the seat of the Gojo clan. It was supposed to be unfounded, his apprehension, or so he tried to convince himself since deciding to make an appearance earlier than expected. He couldn’t keep it at bay anymore when the emotion was mixed with hopeful anticipation. An odd combination, indeed.

He had no choice but to come, or rather, he wanted to come. It was for an important occasion anyway, Gojo Satoru and Utahime Iori’s wedding week specifically. If he was being honest, he wouldn’t miss it for the world. If it was significant to two of the most important people in his life then the same applies where his views on the matter was concerned. After all, he greatly appreciated it that Gojo chose him as his best man, well one of them anyway. The man could never make up his mind if he tried so, breaking the traditional order of things, he has two “best men” – him and Geto Suguru.

Much to the groom-to-be’s disappointment, Nanami initially planned to show up a day before the ceremony itself. It was an added displeasure to the fact that Geto wasn’t going to show up until later that week as he was overseas for work. Gojo still probably was disappointed since Nanami did not exactly say anything about showing up earlier. But when he saw an opening in his jampacked schedule which was rare, he took the opportunity to take time off work. As annoying as Gojo was, he did not deserve to have two absent best men on his wedding week. Besides, a week away from the firm wouldn’t hurt, and he thought it was a good way to unwind before his big case.

If he would be able to unwind anyway.

The man had been sure of how he would manage through the occasion if he only spent a maximum of two days surrounded by crowds which were sure to be invited to the happy celebration. After all, nobody ever expected the young master of the Gojo Clan to ever be serious enough about anyone romantically, much less get married. Now that he had to stay for longer, giving chances to more occurrences of a variety of events, he wasn’t so certain. Anything could happen at Gojo Manor. Anything.

His optimism relied on that fact. Troublesome things usually happened with Gojo and Geto together, throw in the other members of the family and the other clans in the area, but Nanami was betting everything on this week.

A pair of cool, aqua eyes met his dark orbs the moment he stepped into the semi-outdoor ballroom of the opulent house. It was always like instinct, the way Nanami’s senses seem to heighten and hyper focus on one person, all else tuned out and seemingly nonexistent. Like always, without a hitch, he found you.

Alas. If he was questioning the reason for his hopefulness, that wasn’t the case anymore.

There you were, stood on the elevated corner by the refreshments table. You appeared like a celestial being walking among mortals, the halo of silvery white hair shimmering under the sunlight filtering through the room making you seem as if you did not exactly exist in the same realm as everyone else.

You were initially not paying attention to anyone despite your cousin, Miwa, chatting away beside you. But then, you leaned towards the latter when she whispered something, being equally conspiratorial by raising your champagne flute to your mouth. By the looks of it, prior to that, you have long tuned them out, Miwa and her friends, what with your poor attempt at pretending to pay attention. Nanami knew you have mastered the art of doing so since you were a child. It wasn't on purpose, or so you say. You were simply oblivious most of the time or you just didn't care. And you tended to only see and hear what you wanted.

At the moment, he was the object of your attention. He was sure of it, unable to help but to be much too aware of it, nerves pulled to their limits like piano strings conditioned to make sounds at the slightest of touch of its ebony and ivory keys. The feeling he had made you real, existing. He wasn’t imagining at all.

At times, he still could not believe that he watched you grow up to the person you are at present. The first time he knew of your existence was when Gojo invited him and some of their other friends to that very house in middle school. You were just as remarkable as a child as you are as a grown woman, much too quick-witted and eloquent at six even as your nanny carried you astride her hip, looking very much like a female infant version of Gojo. The bright blue eyes you shared with the male shone with the same intelligence he possessed, probably more, even without doing or saying anything. It just emanated from the two of you even if Gojo behaved like an utter idiot at times.

You shifted your line of vision to Miwa who was inconspicuously flailing her hands as a silent and agitated command for the other girls to disperse when she saw Nanami approaching. In a split second, you were alone. Miwa has always been unreasonably fidgety around him but he never quite understood why.

"I seemed to have driven away your company," he said to you the moment he was within earshot, watching you exchange your empty glass for another that's full.

You finally faced him, your scintillating eyes glittering under the wide skylights above. They were fathomless as they were luminous, shining with mischief. It was a familiar sight. From a state of tedium, they seem to come alive at the idea of tormenting him.

"I don't mind."

Of course not. The corners of his mouth curled inconspicuously at that similarity he shared with you. "I seem to always offend that cousin of yours."

"Not really. Frighten is more like it." Your eyes stayed on him even as you drank from your glass.

"Frightened?" Nanami repeated with inflection. He knew Miwa was awkward around him, but it was news that she was afraid of him. He didn’t have anything against her since unlike you, she was actually a sweet girl.

"Well, you have always been purposefully abrasive, you have taken the language of sarcasm to a whole new level and you are a grouch," you told him without batting an eyelash when everyone else was intimidated by him. You were probably the only one who could treat him that way. Not even your brother who is his best friend could do that and mean it.

His planned glance turned into a sidelong stare when he saw how you were eyeing him the same way. The difference was that you had a knowing look about you, evident in the way your eyes shone with diablerie and the contumelious curl at the corners of your luscious lips.

"Is that your opinion of me?" he asked, his expressions remaining stoic. Inside, it was a different story. You are the last being on earth he wanted to view him the way others usually did. He always thought you acted around him differently – defied him, messed with his head (and heart if he was being honest), and annoyed him – because you saw him differently, too. He liked that idea, the feeling it gives him. It was already enough that you are forbidden territory because you are his best friend's little sister. He didn't want you to turn out to be just like everyone else.

You grinned but didn't satisfy his query with a response. It was just like you to keep him guessing that way. You loved your games and especially loved to play them with him. He liked to play along at times, but it gets difficult to keep up with your antics. Your thought process was something he still has to figure out despite years of knowing you.

Seeing that he wasn't getting anywhere by engaging you, he said, "Where's the groom-to-be?"

You pointed at the direction of the wood-framed glass doors leading to the indoor salon where your brother was speaking to one of the organizers for his wedding.

When Nanami followed your line of vision, he found the person in question. On a long table before Gojo were different arrangements of flowers, all in shades of pink, cream and white. Honestly, he saw no difference but Gojo was eyeing them as if choosing the right one will solve global warming.

"Being fussy about the flower arrangements more than his bride, obviously." Shaking his head, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his grey, pinstriped slacks before facing you again. "You think it's a good time to step in?"

At that, you smirked openly. "Wanna play a game, Nanamin?" you asked, appearing and sounding innocent as you addressed him with that nickname you knew he hated.

"Sure," he said without hesitation, knowing well the kind of person you are when you’re refused.

"No protestations this time, I see. You're learning."

He shot you a withering look, pushing his glasses up his nose. "That coming from a childish brat. I won't take offense." He immediately regretted saying that when he saw how your eyes glinted with something sinister. What it was, he didn't know, but he was sure about one thing: he just walked into another one of your traps willingly.

"Whoever gets a rise out of Satoru wins," you said, cocking your head to your brother's general direction.

That was easy, he thought. The fact that he showed up for the week-long preparations for the nuptials was enough to draw out a profound reaction from Gojo. Nanami was just that kind of best friend – absent. In his defense, he did make it to the important parts just in time, but this was something new to Gojo. For all he knew, he wasn't even expecting him to arrive until the wedding.

"Fine." He nodded at you, the action very minute. He was never big on actions. "We'll talk about the compensation later."

You returned the gesture with saccharine mordacity to it. "Alright." However, instead of moving towards the goal, you walked towards the other direction, signaling for him to go first.

It was an easy victory. The moment he walked into the salon, Gojo’s attention was immediately pulled away from the flower arrangements, his eyes going wide as saucers as he took in the fact that his best man arrived way ahead of time.

"Who are you and what have you done to Nanami Kento?" he asked aloud, making some of the guests for the day's luncheon turn towards them. He was evidently elated, his wife-to-be coming to join in, hugging Nanami while he clapped the man on the shoulder.

"I wouldn't miss this happy occasion for the world," Nanami told the couple, trying his best to convey his thoughts without sounding patronizing. That would be overdoing things even if it meant he would win against you. He wasn’t big on emotions and sentiments either.

All the while, his eyes furtively strayed to you, his competitor, watching you from way across the ballroom, sipping leisurely at your champagne as if you cannot be bothered. However, if Nanami thought he has seen the worst that you can do, he couldn't have been more mistaken in his life.

In the next moment, you entered the salon, appearing self-satisfied as you sauntered towards them, looking like a queen surveying your domain. "Well, well. If it isn't the big shot lawyer himself, coming to grace us with his presence!"

He clucked his tongue, reading through your ploy. You weren’t exactly one for theatrics most of the time, typically straightforward and brutally frank, but your games were as intricate as they were vexing. Nanami turned to face you just enough to conceal his expression from Gojo and Utahime, arching a brow at you in both challenge and question.

In a flash of black and white, you have taken your place in front of him barely a foot away. Your intention to further close the distance between the both of you only became evident when both your hands shot forward, taking possession of both sides of his face as you willed him to bend to your height, tiptoeing to make up for the remaining space. In a brief but seemingly drawn-out sequence of events, you staked your claim on his slightly parted mouth in a scorching lip lock.

Nanami was momentarily distracted by the faint taste of champagne, that detail registering in his brain before the sensation of your pliant lips pressed against his. The realization dawned too late making blood rush up to his head and for his ears to ring as he froze and burned simultaneously. His arms had unconsciously found their way around your slender waist, the feel of your warmth under your taffeta dress searing his palms. It was more for the purpose of steadying himself than you on your precariously high heels. The mere touch of your hand made him incoherent, but the feeling of your lips on his drove him to irrationality. The slim likeliness of the act happening between him and you made it feel as if he was going to pass out or wake up from a long, vivid dream.

He was there. He exists. You were there, real as can be. And you were kissing him.

Gasps erupted from all around, and before he knew it, you have pulled away, releasing your grip on him. As if he couldn’t dig his grave any deeper and punctuate his loss any further, Nanami leaned towards you, chasing your lips, attempting to continue your little interlude, uncaring of where you were or who was watching. After having a tiny taste of it, the absence of your touch affronted him like no other. If having you that close was what it meant to lose, then he will gladly have it.

Your laughter snapped him out of his trance. When his vision focused, he found you leaning away, your hand pressed against his chest to keep him at bay.

“Eager, aren’t we?” you said loud enough for him to hear, and for everyone’s benefit, you droned on, saying, “Been dying to do that since I saw you come in.”

Dazed, he just stared at you before him, the fact that he did not just lose to you within the premise of the game registering in his mind like a flash of lightning. Blood rushed to his head, heat permeating from the base of his neck to his scalp when his eyes strayed to Gojo who looked scandalized.

“You…what…” the other male endeavored to speak, but nothing coherent came out of his mouth, his blue eyes rapidly shifting between you and Nanami while his fiancée giggled beside him.

Indifferent to everything else and your sights only set on the object of your trickery, you tittered, savoring the hilarity of the situation. At least, to you, it was funny. “See you around, Nanamin,” you drawled and left with that confident gait, shaking your head in levity.

He wanted to join in on your conviviality, but the idea dissipated faster than water under intense heat when he saw his best friend eyeing him like he was about to castrate him. Nanami straightened up, rearranging his expression to that of quiet shock, laying it on thick by blinking cluelessly as if it was typical of him but Gojo was having none of it.

Ah, the joys of losing to you, he could just think despite his impending doom. Or maybe he was doomed to begin with. He couldn’t care less with the pleasant tingling of his lips and the memory of yours, the taste lingering on his tongue.

“You and me, in the game room. You’ve a lot of explaining to do.”

**

If Nanami would be asked how many times he lost to you, he wouldn’t have an answer. At least not for what is healthy for his pride and because he lost count. His only consolation was that he wasn’t the only one who had ever been under your thumb over the years you have had the upper hand. You’ve always had the advantage, and one way or the other, regardless of the odds of the games you played, be it tomfoolery or serious bets, you invariably have a way of turning them into your favor.

He could well say his chances of winning cases in court is higher compared to the fact that you always bested him in life. It frustrated him to no end.

“Wanna play a game?” Those were always the words which heralded a series of infuriating inconveniences that he, along with some other individuals, had to be subjected to ever since you acquired your penchant for mischief and seeming thirst to challenge if not victimize people.

Those words, paired with a ridiculous nickname of your choosing for each of your conquests gave one no choice but to engage. The way you say it was enough to rile even someone who just happened to be listening, as if you were surreptitiously patronizing the person of your choosing. The unreadable expression on your face when you initiate your games also makes one’s hackles rise. While Gojo had the same tendency to be condescending when he wanted to be, you were exponentially more menacing compared to him.

In your defense, you never did it to everyone. It was as if you have a rationale behind the selection of people you felt like messing with. Your criteria was not something that is known to anybody else. At first, it was just Gojo. Then Geto and Shoko Ieiri, another close friend of your brother, got a taste of it until finally, it was his turn. Anyone none the wiser would think your ‘affections’ were solely focused on Gojo’s friends, but apparently, it wasn’t the case.

There were three kinds of people where your games were concerned: people you didn’t give a damn about, those you liked to play with and those you engaged with but eventually stopped being a pain to.

Most people around you were the first type since you mostly didn’t give two fucks about them. For some reason, it had become a sort of status quo in the Gojo household to be included in your sphere but few were lucky enough to hold your attention long enough.

The third kind were people who seemed to have reached an understanding with you. Geto, Utahime and Shoko used to be casualties in your ploys, but after a game or two, they’ve eventually ‘graduated,’ and you treated them like equals. Apart from that, there seems to be an exceptional case when you did not have to inflict yourself on the person just like in the case of your closest friend, Itadori Yuuji. That kid was special somehow, and Nanami thought perhaps he was, too, until you got started with him.

As for him and Gojo, they were still people you liked to torment. His theory was that you were looking for something from the people you play with. If you find it, you stop. It wasn’t a theory anymore that it was a sort of defense mechanism if he deduced right, judging from the situations which led to the change in your behavior.

It all started when you came home from boarding school overseas after finishing your freshman year in high school. Gojo had invited them over as per usual for the summer events being held at their estate but suddenly started talking about his concerns over you.

“She’s distant,” he said with a sigh when asked about it. Apparently, your parents were upset over you decision not to attend the school of their choice anymore and threatened to drop out and run away if they insisted further. “And there seems to be something wrong with her. She seems different somehow. Very snappy and always in a foul mood. She rarely leaves her room, and when we try to help, she gets angrier.”

“She’s in that phase, huh?” Shoko mused. “Want me to talk to her?”

Gojo insisted to do it, being all dramatic and saying he had been a lousy brother. But that’s when you started being the way you were. You weren’t an angry teen anymore, just someone who indulged yourself by toying with others without regard to whose expense and to what extent. Most of them were harmless, but you very nearly endangered two of your friends, too.

Nanami dug his own grave when he purposefully tried to have a go at you, pointing out your mistakes in an attempt to intervene at that time. You used to be rather passive where he was concerned, polite even, but then everything changed that night.

He was somehow glad that you decided to approach him when you needed help when you usually gravitated towards Geto, surprised to see you at his doorstep past midnight and looking ashen.

First, you dared this new girl, Kugisaki Nobara, to sneak into the abandoned factory at night, and the girl ended up hurting yourself. You looked so regretful and distraught while explaining what happened on the ride to the factory, and for the first time, he realized that you only ever challenged people you held a certain degree of fondness for. Everything ended well without anybody else knowing of your mishaps but him, and in a twist of fate, she even became your first real friend.

And then, you started yet another game with Fushiguro Megumi, effectively getting him kicked out his father’s clan. You weren’t exactly aware about the deeper reason as to why his family wanted him to be close to you, only that you found displeasure in it because he was a groom candidate. It was common among old clans like yours, and when you dared him to tell your parents he had no intention of marrying you, your brother had to intervene and take the boy in, ending up registered under Gojo Clan instead. While his family was trash in all sense of the word, you were still at fault since you ruined his only chance at being accepted by the clan head. Still, he, too, became your friend, and more than that, an adopted brother.

“Is this some attention-seeking behavior you’ve learned somewhere?” Nanami asked you that time.

“I get attention without as much as lifting a finger being who I am.” You snorted. “I can’t expect everything to be positive though.”

He was taken aback by your statement then. Still, he tested his theory. You were different after all. While some people admired you for your genius and your otherworldly looks, there will always be those who hated you for it. It was like a repeat of Gojo, except that he had them, his friends. Whom did you have?

“Are you being bullied at school?”

At that, your pupils constricted, your bright eyes turning icy as you regarded him. You were quiet for a moment as you stared, not exactly enraged but your brows furrowed together. Nanami could see the cogs in your brain moving through your eyes when you slowly grinned and said those four words: “Wanna play a game?”

He’s been losing to you ever since, not really knowing what you want and what set you off, hell-bent on making him miserable at every opportunity you could take.

It wasn’t all different at present.

The moment he heard the click of the doorknob and your scent – a mix of crisp autumn air, vanilla and a hint of something that reminded him of happiness – registered in his brain, he froze on his chair in the study where he was currently taking notes on his upcoming case. It was a trade-off for the length of time he would be gone from the law firm he worked at. His grip on his pen tightened that he thought he would break it to splinters when he saw you from his periphery, still looking like a goddess, fresh and gorgeous despite the day's affairs.

You were so painfully beautiful that concentrating on the file before him was proving to be difficult. Everything else didn't make sense to him whenever you were in the same room as he is. It didn't help that you kissed him in front of everyone just a few hours ago. He couldn't forget the feeling no matter how many times he convinced himself that it was just you playing your games; that it was nothing. He wished it was otherwise, not that it helped in his cause a bit.

"What on earth was that about?" Gojo demanded, pulling him aside to the game room like a child who did something naughty. In fairness to him, he was still fond enough of Nanami to offer him a drink but, indeed, he thought, what on earth was that about?

He shrugged. "Have you met your sister? Surely, you know just what crazy antics she has up her sleeves. She gets her annoying side from you anyway."

The answer seemed to have placated the male for the time being but if you were going to continue with your mischief, Nanami has no way of telling where things can go. And judging by your confident gait and the complacent grin swathed on your countenance, you were up to no good again.

He carded his fingers through his blond locks, leaning back on the chair as he furtively watched you.

"Do you need anything?" he asked calmly despite himself.

"Hmm. I won," you murmured, rounding the heavy oak desk before vaulting yourself up on it to sit just beside his papers, your eyes zeroing in on the files.

He shot you an accusing glare. "What was that about?"

You arched a brow at him, wrenching your gaze from the documents with a frown, the way your eyes widened in mock innocence making him want to box your ears. "What was what about, Nanamin?” The preposterous nickname rolled off your tongue tauntingly. “I thought you hated questions that can be openly interpreted."

"Why did you kiss me?" he snapped.

"Well..." You openly mocked him with a smile. "Could there be any other reason apart from our bet?"

"Of all the things you could think of, you went for something that would give your brother a heart attack not to mention that it put me in hot waters."

“Isn’t that the objective of our little bet?”

He sighed. "This is the last time I'm indulging you."

"Eh? You said that the last time we saw each other, too." You feigned exasperation. "Doesn't change the fact that you lost again though."

"What do you want?" He finally sat up straight, stacking the documents on the table. "Why are you sitting there anyway?"

"You're right." You jumped off the desk and much to his confusion, instead of taking one of the seats at the other side of the table, you swatted his arm from the papers and sat on his lap like he was an easy chair.

"What –"

You turned to him then, your faces just inches from one another. "Is this better?" you asked as if you saw nothing wrong with your iffy position.

Nanami didn't know what to do with, his arms remaining still on his sides while he just stared at you as if you grew two heads. "Is this another one of your games?"

You leaned closer to him, your bright eyes drowning him. "You tell me." You laughed then. "I wasn't the one who couldn't get enough of this afternoon's kiss."

He shrugged before he could run away with his thoughts. You were right. He did want to kiss you more, but it wasn't as if he could.

Just then, you reached over and removed the glasses that were always perched over his nose then wore it yourself. "What are you doing?"

"You look better without them," you commented.

"I need them for reading." He rolled his eyes at you. "Get off, Y/N."

"Hmm? Is that really what you want?" you taunted, your hand having found purchase at the back of his head, fingers toying with his soft hair.

He placed a hand on your thigh, slowly climbing up to your hip, reveling in the feel of your warmth under his touch. He looked at you seriously then and leaned away, surprised when you frowned momentarily. It was so fleeting, he didn’t know whether he was imagining it when he saw disappointment on your face. That was a first.

"Y/N, Just tell me what you want. You won the bet after all."

Shrugging, you stood up as if you weren’t just perched on his lap. "Go figure," you quipped, sounding pissed off. "Think of something I would actually want. It's up to you."

“Another game?”

“Think of it as you want.”

"What?"

You slammed the door close in your wake before he could get an answer, once again leaving him there puzzled at your reaction and exasperated with himself.

-end of Part 1-

First of all, Happy Cake Day to the love of my life, Nanamin!

I made him a lawyer here cause that's freakin' hot!!!

*I used “you” here, but since my character is Gojo’s little sister who is established to be his female clone for reasons essential to the plot, she possesses the same blue eyes and white hair. I did not exactly want to create an OC (although technically, I did by describing Y/N), but I opted for the best of both worlds in this fic, leaning more towards the literary aspect of it as opposed to it just being reader/you-oriented. I hope this isn’t iffy to anyone, and yeah, i’m not being exclusive or whatever.

Everyone's aged up here as well, including the younger characters which will be included in the story.

Thank you so much for reading. Likes, comments and reblogs are deeply appreciated! Hope you enjoyed it.

© ORIGINAL WORK BY nanaminokanojo. CHARACTERS ARE INSPIRED BY GEGE AKUTAMI'S JUJUTSU KAISEN. [20210703]

PHOTO/IMAGE/GIF/FANART SOURCES CREDITS TO THE RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

#nanami #jjk nanami #jjk nanami kento #jujutsu kaisen nanami #jujutsu kaisen nanami kento #nanami fluff #nanami smut #nanami kento smut #nanami kento fluff #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #nanami x you #nanami kento x you #jjk x you #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x you #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk smut #jjk fluff #jujutsu kaisen fluff #jujutsu kaisen smut #nanami fic #nanami fanfic #nanami kento fanfic #nanami kento fic #jjk fic #jjk fanfic #jujutsu kaisen fanfic

[peterneptune16]

Why I love RoseGarden (Full Essay[?, Idk what to call it])

Reason 1: How They Support Each Other

Okay so this is probably the biggest part of this all but I really wanted to talk about this because- Oscar and Ruby have supported each other A LOT, so of course this gonna be the 1st reason I discuss, but enough of my rambling, onto the reasoning:

Let’s take a look at the past 4 Volumes real quick and do an alaysis of 7 scenes in particular

-Volume 5-

Scene 1: Dojo Scene (V5 Ep5)

In the scene that all RoseGarden fans, including myself, love so much. We have Ruby comforting Oscar and being there by his side to give him support and encouragement to keep pressing onwards, to keep going on cause he will get stronger and that just by being there, it already says alot about him. This shows that Ruby does believe in Oscar and knows he can do this, he just needs a little help along the way. A little push.

Scene 2: Ruby is Hurt Scene (V5 Ep12)

In this scene that all RoseGarden fans ALSO love, Oscar immediately rushes to Ruby’s side whenever she is hurt by Emerald and knocked down. Kneeling down and encouraging her to get back up and keep fighting, telling her that they need her. This shows that Oscar has already developed pretty strong feelings for Ruby atleast as a friend by this point in time, despite them not knowing each other for very long.

-Volume 6-

Scene 1: Ruby reassuring Oscar (V6 Ep4)

In this fairly short scene, we see Ruby return Oscar’s cane back to him and comfort him after what just happened with Jinn. When Oscar asks her if he is just another one of Ozma’s lives, Ruby is quick to reply saying that he isn’t, that he is his own person. Even putting her other hand ontop of his, showing that she does genuinely care for Oscar and doesn’t want him thinking that he doesn’t matter, that he’s not just another Ozma, that he’s Oscar Pine and that wasn’t changing.

Scene 2: Oscar reassuring Ruby (V6 Ep10)

In this also fairly short scene, we see Ruby looking doubtful about the whole plan she has involving Cordovin’s Mech. Obviously having a hard time believing that it’ll work out, to which Oscar steps in and reassures her that it will work. His confident smile during this all, shows that he does believe in the plan and isnt just saying he does for Ruby too feel better, but that he trusts her and knows that it’ll all work under her leadership.

-Volume 7-

Scene 1: Ruby trusts Oscar to keep the lamp safe (V7 Ep3)

In this scene, which is somewhat short, Ruby hands the lamp off to Oscar, cause she is going down to the Tundra. She knows that Oscar will keep the lamp safe and out of the wrong hands while in Atlas, which he does, all the way until he ends up getting ambushed by Neo and the lamp is stolen. (Not focusing on the Oscar side of this scene here, but we will discuss that in the next scene analysis) The fact Ruby shows no restraint when handing the lamp off to Oscar, despite the fact Ozpin is in his head and could return any minute for all they know, shows that she really does trust Oscar as Oscar. She knows that he knows the right thing to do and isn’t worried about what choices he’ll make.

Scene 2: Oscar takes the burden off Ruby’s shoulders (V7 Ep9)

In this scene, which gets build up in the previous scene with Oscar asking Ruby if hiding Oz’s secrets from Ironwood was a good move or not, we see Ruby and Oscar, very nervously, talking about how they feel about telling Ironwood. In which they both reveal that they both think they should tell Ironwood. Which I think is all well and good, and really cute, but I’m more focused on what comes after. Ruby says that she’ll tell Ironwood what Jinn told them, but upon seeing she is needed elsewhere, Oscar immediately steps up to take on the burden of telling Ironwood what Oz was hiding, no matter what Ironwood’s reaction would be. He is willing to take this huge burden off of Ruby’s shoulders because she needs to do something even more important at the moment, and he doesn’t wanna hold her back from doing it. Despite how Ironwood may react, Oscar shows no fear or hesitation and is more than willing to do this for Ruby, in place of her.

-Volume 8-

Scene 1: Ruby going to find Oscar (V8 Ep1)

In this scene, which is an absolute gold mine for all us RoseGarden shippers, a good amount goes on. First off, Ruby goes out to find Oscar, though she likely is unsure if he is even alive, and eventually does find him. When she does, she is visibly very happy too see him again, alive and somewhat well. Oscar and Ruby are then seemingly talking about what happened in Atlas, with Oscar claiming that every choice he made was the wrong one. She then reassures him that he just did what he thought was right, that they all did, and that she is just glad to see him alright. Too which he blushes upon being touched by her and told that (Boy definitely crushing but more on that later). This whole scene was just really cute and wholesome too see how Ruby does care about Oscar alot, and that she is happy too see him alright. Which is really just- pure. While also reassuring him that he isn’t too blame for all that happened, that he can’t be beating himself up over this all and it isn’t his fault.

So basically, I just like too see these scenes because they show that the two have alot of trust in each other, and are always there to reassure each other through anything, that they’re there for each other, and are always a support for one another. That one can always lean on the other for support if needed, they’ll be their rock. Also if the pattern keeps up, possibly another Oscar supporting Ruby scene coming this volume! Cause those are always in the later half of the volumes, while the Ruby ones are always in the earlier halves.

Reason 2: How They Inspire Each Other

How Oscar inspires Ruby: While he may not inspire her as much as she inspires him, Oscar still does inspire Ruby in a few ways. She seems to be genuinely impressed with how he handles things despite being so young. Like when he successfully lands the airship despite being just a fourteen year old farm hand. She seemed geniunely surprised and impressed, and this probably isn’t the only time he has made her feel that way, so it seems safe to say that Oscar in some way does inspire Ruby.

How Ruby inspires Oscar: Ruby inspires Oscar in a whole multitude of ways. Ruby is the inspiration that gave Oscar a reason to keep pressing on and keep fighting despite everything, despite how scared he was. She made him realize his true inner strength and bravery, made him realize that he can do this. After that talk she had with him in Volume 5, he seemed much more confident and ready for the road ahead. She also inspired him to see himself as more than just the next Ozpin in Volume 6, or atleast, tried too. It was hard with how much others were kind of holding him back from doing so due to their frustrations with Ozpin at the moment, but It seems Ruby was in some way able to help Oscar realize that he is more than just Ozpin part 2.

Reason 3: Oscar’s (Hinted at) True Feelings

Something that was pretty much confirmed this volume is that Oscar does have some deeper feelings towards Ruby, most likely a crush, whenever he blushes at her just putting her hand on his shoulder and saying that she is glad too see him alright.

But this was not the first hint that Oscar may have some feelings towards Ruby, as there have been a few sprinkled throughout the series if you look close enough. Which is something that I really like about this ship, there have been small subtle hints too it for a while now, in reality, since the very beginning. When Oscar first even meets Ruby, the first thing he seems to notice about her is her eyes, and says the quote “You have silver eyes” but the way he says it and the look on his face, gives more the impression of him finding them unique and beautiful, rather than a source of power like most other people would. (A girls eyes are also often one of the first few things a guy notices about her and finds attractive, which seems to be the case here for the young pine tree)

There was another moment when they first met that also gives the impression Oscar may have started having some sort of feelings for her right off the bat, keep in mind though, I’m not saying this was a crush just yet, rather he just found her pretty and/or attractive in some way. This was that whenever the two first met and Oscar saw Ruby smile and giggle, he immediately blushed and became a little bit nervous around her in an adorkable way. (A smile is often another thing a guy first notices about a girl he finds attractive, as is her laugh)

Another thing I wanna mention is that he almost always looks at Ruby whenever the two of them are in a room together, she doesn’t even have to be saying or doing anything and his eyes will still drift towards Ruby without fail. Which could just be a cute subtle way of showing his growing emotions towards Ruby as the series progresses. And if he ever sees her in any sign of danger he is always quick to call out her name and usually reach out towards her.

Aswell, the next point I’d like to mention in this segment, is how Oscar changed up his outfit to have bits of red in it. But, this red doesn’t really make much sense at first glance if you look at it, as it seems to just be there cause it looks kind of cool on his outfit, but this is RWBY and almost everything has some kind of significance too it, especially colors, so this could be one of those cases where a character adds a color to their outfit too show a fondness or closeness for another character. To show a closer attraction towards them, as it was confirmed people in Remnant do that. But who could this red be for- none other, than Ruby Rose herself. The only one with red as their main color and the one Oscar has grown the closest too across the course of the series. Like how Jaune has red in the form of Pyrrha’s sash, to show he still has a close bond with her, even after her untimely death. Or how Ren and Nora both wear pink, idk if that counts, but I think it does dang it. Anyhow, I think this is possibly a cute little way of showing how Oscar has grown stronger feelings for Ruby, add onto it she was the first one too comment positively on his new combat gear, saying it looks good. Aswell it looks like the exact same shade of Red as her combat gear.

For the final point I’d like to mention this segment, is one that I will spoiler warning the whole post for because of the fact that it just really does mean alot for Oscar’s character. It’s that Oscar was the one to offer a hug to Ruby, not the other way around, when they met up again in Atlas. Ruby has been the one too offer a hug to everyone else but never really the one to get offered a hug, and Oscar has always been the one to recieve hugs from others but not offer them himself. So seeing Oscar offer a hug to Ruby and seeing his smile just seeing her again- my fucking heart y’all-

So I think CRWBY has been dropping small hints all along that Oscar would grow feelings for Ruby somewhere along the way. And he just now is starting to see those feelings as more than just close friends, but rather that he has a developing crush on Ruby.

Reason 4: It Isn’t Really One Sided

Though Ruby may not exactly feel the same way about Oscar that he does her and we don’t have as much evidence for her as we do for Oscar, we do have some small pieces of evidence here and there that suggest Ruby could possibly start feeling similar feelings for Oscar that he does for her.

The first thing I would like to point out is that Ruby seems to look out for Oscar in alot of ways, and she seems to keep an eye on him whenever they’re in a fight or whenever he is in any sort of danger. The first time this happened was during their sparring match where she was quick to call back to Oscar after she knocked him down, like she was asking if he was alright, and then again in the same sparring match when she rushed too his side when Ozpin handed back the controls and he seemed hurt and exhuasted, a clear look of worry across her face. She also kept her eye out for Oscar whenever Hazel went after him during the Volume 5 fight and was quick to let the others know that he needed help, which shows that she was worried for him during this fight despite the fact Ozpin was also there, she was worried for Oscar nonetheless. She was also the first one to ask Oscar if he was okay in Volume 6 when they saw him again, which was honestly adorable. She also kept her eye out for him during the Volume 7 Mantle fight, whenever he killed that sabyr and didn’t notice another jumping up to strike him from behind, she was quick to be the one to respond by shooting it and giving a nod and smile to Oscar, almost as if showing she was proud of Oscar in some ways for how far he’s come as a fighter over such a short time actually fighting, and also reassuring him that she had his back in this. It was also cute how in the first episode of this volume, she was the one who went out to go find Oscar, she was the one who reached out too him when they saw each other again, and she was clearly happy too even just see him again, she likely didn’t even know he was alive or even down in Mantle, but she was still going to go look for him. Then of course there was this past episode, where she noticed that Oscar was right beside Emerald and she immediately went to draw her weapon before Oscar stepped in to stop her, showing pretty much an identical expression and reaction to the one Oscar had whenever he noticed her get knocked down during the fight at Haven. Which, these just seem like really cute and sweet moments on Ruby’s part, how she kind of is always there looking out for Oscar whenever he is possibly in any sort of danger or is hurt in any way and she is actually there to help prevent it, like she’s protective of her farm hand Cinnamon Roll.

Another thing I’d like to mention is that she is a bit awkward around Oscar at times, sort of like he is around her. She seems to hug herself a bit whenever she is around him and it’s just the two of them together, as she did this both in Volume 5 and Volume 7, like she is a little bit nervous, and she gets a little gigglgy and awkward, making it seem like she has some part of her that does have some kind of awkward dorkish feelings toward Oscar, similar to how he can get kind of awkward and nervously flustered around her aswell, she’s just better at not showing it.

Like I said, there are less pieces of evidence for Ruby’s side of things than there are for Oscar, but she does seem to have a few hints here and there that she may at some point reciprocate the feelings he feels for her, just towards him.

Reason 5: Extra Little Details

These are just small things here and there honestly, just cute things about these two that could possibly hint at them being a possible thing in the future. Or maybe they’re just purely coincidental, who knows? I still pretty much just find them cute regardless, needless to say, this is my weakest of the five points. But I still wanted to mention these things cause they do contribute a little bit.

Oscar and Ruby’s main colors are complementary. This is a point that is extremely obvious to anyone who just knows well- anything about colors. Red and Green are complementary colors, and these two have the main colors of Red and Green. This is a bit of a weak point, but it’s still cute none the less and given how important colors are in RWBY, ya never know.

This next point is really pretty weak and honestly just for fun, but, their eyes do complement each other a bit. Light Green and Light Yellow are colors that complement Silver. Though this is probably unintentional, It’s just something cute I wanted to note.

There are other things that could be considered cute small pieces of evidence, like how Oscar has an Aunt and Ruby has an Uncle, or that Miles has defended RoseGarden saying that the ship is fine with the age difference stuff. But those things are pretty much well known by anyone else who ships RoseGarden and more than likely just to RWBY fans in General, so I’d feel a bit wrong putting them here and giving them too much attention. I did want to mention them but that’s about it. Anyways, onto the conclusion.

Conclusion

So in Conclusion, There are quite a few reasons that I ship RoseGarden, but hey, this is just my personal opinion. Honestly I’d love too hear anyone else’s opinions on the ship aswell! And if there are any reasons that you ship these two that I didn’t list here, feel free to tell me, I’d love too hear them! Just please be respectful in replies, after all, these are just ships. We all ship for fun so may aswell just keep discussions about ships fun. But that’s all for now and hope others like this post and like the ship for these reasons aswell! Hope everyone has an amazing day ^^

#rwby #ruby rose #oscar pine #rwby rosegarden #rosegarden #rwby rosepine #rosepine #ruby x oscar #rwby volume 8 spoilers #volume 8 spoilers #rwby v8 spoilers #rwby spoilers #v8 spoilers

[strqyr]

I'd still love to hear your thoughts on Cinder not dying/defecting/feel-face-turning, regardless of rambling.

okay i'm trying to keep this as cohesive as possible but like. no promises. this might also get long because boi do i have some thoughts about cinder.

1. "and most importantly, it would be given the power to choose, to have free will to take everything it had learned and decide which path to follow – the path of light or the path of darkness."

now, as the fall maiden, choice is obviously a big part of cinder's character, and this quote perfectly encapsulates how the show treats choices – mainly by ensuring that knowledge is important when making one, and that characters can choose differently when they gain new knowledge.

this has already been seen in effect amongst the villains in volume 8; when they learned about salem's actual plan, hazel and emerald changed and chose the path of light, mercury is at crossroads but is definitely looking towards the light, and tyrian already knew the truth and stuck with the path of darkness.

however, if "the final word" is anything to go by, cinder doesn't yet know the truth. nothing has changed for her, thus she doesn't have new knowledge to rethink her position, and until that happens, throwing away the possibility that cinder can choose differently does disservice to the show.

(the rest is under read more because yeah. this got long.)

2. the lesson of fall in the story of seasons.

what i've seen a lot is that for cinder to change, she first needs to have everything she wants (in this case, the maiden powers), only to realize that it doesn't actually help her in a way that she wanted. and while i do see some merit to this, it doesn't fit with the lesson associated with fall in the fairy tale;

– "[...] however, i have lived in these woods alone for a long time, with no one to love and nothing to my name. [...]"

"but sir, do you not see? you have so much already."

the point isn't that the wizard wants something, gets it, and realizes it's not enough. it's that he already has something, he just needs to realize it.

and that's something cinder needs to realize too. while her hunt for the other maiden powers is fueled by her want for power, but also to eliminate other powerful threats – "it's not about overpowering the enemy. it's about taking away what power they have." – she doesn't actually need them to achieve what she truly wants; freedom, safety, a place to belong.

if this is a lesson cinder is intended to learn, then it doesn't exactly fit with her being and staying as a villain.

3. cinder's backstory.

after 8 or so years of waiting, we finally got cinder's backstory – or at least, the part of it that explains why cinder is the way she is.

but what it also established is that cinder has never had what the show highlights as very important for each character, so that they can heal and to allow them to make better choices; a good support system, whether it be friends or family or both.

(this is also what i believe to be the difference between team strq and team rwby and why rwby is successful in ways strq wasn't, but that's another discussion for another time.)

cinder didn't have anyone who would have taken her out of a bad situation. she didn't have anyone who would have understood why she did the things she did.

instead, she was basically deemed irredeemable by the one person she looked up to, and has since gone from one abusive situation to another.

now, cinder's actions are her own, and she holds full responsibility for them. this isn't "it's okay for cinder to act the way she does in the present", but when someone has had the odds stacked so against them, how can you say that they're not even allowed to try to be good anymore, that it's too late?

4. the grimm arm (and the silver eyes).

another thing "midnight" did, was to establish a connection between the grimm arm and the shock collar.

so, if the show intends to stick with it's "abuse victims get away from their abusers and live better lives afterwards", you can probably guess why the theories about salem killing cinder or fully turning her into a grimm don't quite... work.

more so, the writers have already planted seeds for the possibility that ruby is going to destroy the arm without killing cinder. i won't go into full details since i've and many others have talked about this particular theory before, but the talk between ruby and maria in v6, the existence of the hound and reactions to it, it's all building up a connection that is, hopefully, leading to something.

(additionally, the hound being a person is another thing that cinder doesn't know about.)

obviously, for ruby to remove the grimm from cinder, they would have to be on better terms than they are now. they don't need to be super-besties or anything, since by now i'm assuming everyone knows cinder uses the grimm arm to siphon maiden powers, plus in "the final word" weiss and jaune witnessed the connection between the arm and salem, so honestly? removing the grimm is in their best interest anyway.

"so why not just kill cinder?" someone might ask.

because she's still the fall maiden and that's risky as hell, not knowing where the powers might go. at least cinder is a known quantity, and if she's allowing to be targeted by silver eyes in the first place to remove the grimm, she probably isn't trying to be a threat anymore.

5. the parallels with raven.

this is one of the early reasons why i started to believe cinder would not work for salem for the entirety of the show. just like tyrian and qrow, cinder and raven serve the same "role" their respective groups and thus parallel quite a bit.

they're both maidens, "opposite" ones at that. they're professional projectors. i love them. they're the ones who will push the limits of the rules they've been given for their own personal gain.

the main difference is that salem is much better at manipulating people than oz, and knows how to keep tighter leash. we've already seen cinder nearly break away once – if anything, it's only a matter of time before it happens for good;

the most defining moment for raven is that she found the truth about salem, decided working for ozpin was not so great anymore, and she left.

– "leo did what any sane person would in his position - he looked at all the information he had in front of him, assessed the situation, and made a choice." - raven in v5c11.

this leads us back to the first point; cinder doesn't have all the information to make an actual informed choice.

this could also mean that if / when cinder does ditch salem – perhaps after finding out the truth about her plans, or the hound – she's not going to switch sides like emerald did (and mercury likely will), but rather she'll be on her own for a while.

6. carefully chosen words and parallels with ilia.

it's no secret that the writers choose their words carefully even in the show to avoid lying about plot points. this is seen with the spring maiden reveal by never actually saying vernal is the spring maiden (they actually talked about this in the 13th episode of rwby rewind [v5], if you have first still i recommend watching at least the q&a section of it, there's a lot of good stuff there) and likely with the mystery of summer as well, and how they've never said summer is dead, only that she went missing, or never came back, etc.

it's also something they did with ilia prior to her redemption:

– "do not concern yourself with past failures, ilia. focus on the future. we have an opportunity for redemption." - corsac in v5c5.

and something similar has also been done regarding cinder:

– "i want you to understand that failure. i want you to understand why cinder must be left to toil in her isolation until she redeems herself." - salem in v6c4.

in both of these cases, "redemption" is used as a way to affirm the path ilia and cinder are already on, rather than them turning a new leaf. yet that's exactly what ilia does, so why couldn't the same apply to cinder?

especially since ilia didn't know what else to do. she was on a path she wasn't completely comfortable with, but didn't have any alternatives herself, so she kept going until she was given one and an opportunity to choose differently.

it sounds eerily similar to cinder, who was set on one path when she was younger, told that's all she'll ever do, and that's exactly what she has been doing; because just like ilia did, cinder doesn't think there's anything else for her. it's this or nothing, until cinder herself or someone else gives her a reason to think otherwise.

–

i think that just about covers all the important points. this was fun to write but also. i've been at this for hours. i never gave this much focus to any school essays...

can you tell i love cinder very much?

#rwby #cinder fall #cinder redemption #miki-13 #ask.strqyr #the main point is knowledge is important when making choices #and the choices one has made so far have been made with lacking knowledge #you can't say with certainty that they can't change their path in life #i will answer other asks later #for now i must take my dog outside for a walk

[hoodharlow]

At the Top of Cherry Hill

El Novio Quarantine Edition: Part 4

AN: Here’s Part 5! Sorry for the delay, the past few days I was going through it, but now I'm better <333 Hope you enjoy this. Thank you at @tekweela for the Cal picture ilysm

Requested? No

Warnings: almost smut, the consequences of not using any sort of contraception or birth control, and an angsty ending :)

Claudia huffed and rolled her eyes at Calum before she took the sunscreen he offered her. She angrily rubbed some all over her face. She just couldn't believe he and Medelyn would set her and Danny up like this. She barely tolerated him and now she was forced to walk five miles with him under the blazing sun.

Ever since the baby shower they haven’t talked. When the stay at home orders became mandatory, they moved back to Diego and Soni’s house. They agreed to not talk about the baby shower incident until they were ready to have an actual conversation. The three months they spent at their parents’ house were awkward, but luckily for them, their parents didn’t pick up on it. Though their older sibling did.

On Junior’s day off from the restaurant he went over to their parents’ house and instantly noticed the twins were in a fight. In his twenty one years of being their older sibling, he always knew when they were in a fight. He called them to the yard and lectured them, trying his best to figure out why they were arguing. Claudia made up some reason because if he knew the real reason he would have murdered both Danny and Paco.

Calum got out of the car and motioned Claudia to do the same. She grabbed her mini Prada backpack from the back seat. It was a gift from Calum after they watched 10 Things I Hate About You on loop for a week, and Claudia always acted out the part where Chastity and Bianca talked about the differences between like and love.

She put on her mask and awkwardly tugged her bike shorts by her inner thighs. One of the reasons why she hated the summer was the awkward tugging between her thighs wherever she would wear shorts or rompers. She tugged her sport's bra and handed the sunscreen to Calum.

"Can you get my back?" She asked him sweetly.

"Don't start anything." He warned her

He tapped the bottle on his hand to get the last of it. "Did we add sunscreen to your list?"

"No," Claudia shook her head. She bent down, pressing her ass to Calum's crotch so she could get her phone from her backpack. She pushed herself a little more rougher when she got up with her phone. "Let me add it."

After getting Duke from the back, Calum tugged Claudia towards the black Ford 150. Danny had his back to them as he changed Sebastian's diaper. Medelyn waved to them as she fixed the stroller.

"I didn't think he knew how to change a diaper." Claudia mumbled to Calum.

"Claudia," He warned.

"I'm just saying that he spends so much time in the shop with Beatriz Hernandez—"

"What the fuck is Beatriz doing in your shop?" Medelyn asked Danny as she handed Sebastian to Calum.

He gave Claudia a glare. "Why do you always have to make me look bad? What does the person I hired as the receptionist of my shop have to do with me changing diapers? Nothing. No más quieres abrir el pinche osico Claudia." Danny turned to Medelyn. "I didn't know who Beatriz was until esta came in to get her tattoo and told me. I can't just fire her because of some shit that went down in high school."

After a few awkward moments of silence, Medelyn spoke up. "I kinda got a headache. Maybe we should do this another time."

"I agree." Calum nodded.

Danny collapsed the stroller and placed it in the back of the cargo bed. He whistled at Panchito who was with Claudia and Duke and helped him up. He secured him and went in the truck.

Calum helped Medelyn with Sebastian and went up to where Danny was sitting and talked briefly. He nodded and patted the door. He scratched behind Panchito's ears before going back to Claudia.

"It wasn't even five minutes, Claudia." He said, sitting on the picnic table near them. He pulled off his cap and brushed his hair with his fingers. "Do you know what I would do to have Mali living twenty minutes away from me?"

"Cal…"

"Let's just go home Claudia." He said defeatedly. He took Duke's leash from her and went to the car.

He let Duke sniff around while Claudia catched up.

Calum didn't mean to make her feel bad, but he was exhausted. They didn't see how lucky they were to be so close. They weren't separated by an entire country and an ocean like him and Mali. The only thing that kept the twins apart were their massive egos.

Duke halted and looked behind him. His ears perked up, alert of his surroundings. He tugged Calum to the opposite end and barked.

Calum heard a soft whimper. He cautiously let Duke approach the whimpering sounds.

"Claudia, can you help?" Calum asked her when they reached the sounds.

"Yeah." She took his hand and crawled to where Duke was.

There was a small dalmatian puppy curled up under a rock that provided some sort of shelter. Its bones slightly poked through as it shivered.

"Here," Calum said, handing her his shirt.

Claudia set it on the ground and reached for a snack in her backpack. Cursing that she only has cherries, she pitted the seed of one of them and offered it to the pup. It hesitated and ate it. It ate a few more and allowed Claudia to place it on the shirt.

She wrapped it up and picked it up. She hummed quietly hoping the puppy would relax.

"It's okay," Claudia said softly. She rubbed its head.

"Let's head back. We can take her to Duke's vet. They have walk-ins on Saturdays." Calum said.

Claudia kept the puppy on her lap while Calum drove them to the vet. Duke protested once recognizing the vet's logo.

"It's okay mi vida." Claudia told him quietly. "We're gonna go see that your new friend is okay. Te quedas con Cal, va?"

Duke laid back on his seat. Calum helped Claudia grab her things and her mask. He opened the door for her and slid back in the car with Duke.

An hour or so passed when Calum’s phone began to buzz. He lifted it from the cupholder and answered it once seeing it was Claudia.

“What happened?” He asked.

“Can we keep her? Please? The vet tech said that she's about ten weeks old. Then they scanned her in case she was chipped and nothing popped up. They are bathing her and gonna give her all of her 8 week shots.” Claudia explained. “Duquito didn't try to fight her when we found her. She's just so precious. They were gonna take her to a shelter.”

“She’s going to be your responsibility. I’m not picking up her shit.” He said in a tone that reminded Claudia over dad when her and Danny asked for a dog.

“I pinky swear...what does Duke think?”

“Let me ask him.” Calum put Claudia on speaker and turned to Duke. “Do you want the puppy to stay with us?”

Duke lifted his head and yipped excitedly.

“Yay!” Claudia quietly squealed. “We’ll see you in a bit. Love you guys.”

Another half hour passed when Claudia and the puppy came out of the vet. The dalmatian looked nothing like the one they found on the hiking trail. It was a complete 180.

"So this is Cherry," She said, introducing Calum and Duke to the puppy.

Duke pushed himself onto the center console and sniffed Cherry. He happily yipped at her. He curled up and laid back in his spot.

Calum stretched out his hand to her. She nudged his hand and sniffed it. She licked his hand.

"You should have named her apple or apricot. That way we could have been ACDC." Calum joked as pulled into the street.

Claudia kissed the top of Cherry's head and gave Calum a pointed look. "In my defense I was going to pack some apple slices, but you rushed me."

***

Claudia gently knocked on their bedroom door and poked her head in. She cleared her throat. In part to get Calum's attention and to muffle her moan. Something about Calum shirtless in only black pants and that damn belt with the big silver buckle sent her spiraling. All she could think of dropping to her knees and letting him have his way with her mouth.

"Everything alright?" He asked her as he placed some shirts in his suitcase.

"Just letting you know dinner will be ready in five." She said, eyeing his ass through the mirror.

"Is that all?" He asked, knowing that look she had.

"Yeah." Claudia closed the door and went back to the kitchen.

Calum was just making sure his pants and favorite belt still fit. He had most of his clothes packed, save for his undergarments. He pocketed his phone and went downstairs.

He poked his head in the living room and saw the two dogs peacefully napping on their beds. His mind wandered to when he and Claudia had kids and he was checking in on them, sleeping without a worry in the world like Duke and Cherry.

Calum and Claudia haven't brought up the topic of starting a family in almost two months. Truthfully they only talked about it once in the driveway of her parents' home after they took her nephew to get stitches. haven't brought it up since then.

"They are literal angels." Claudia whispered, bringing Calum back from his thoughts.

"Yeah." He agreed. He pulled her close to him.

"Are you still mad from earlier? You know, me not knowing when to talk and ruining our hike." She quietly asked.

"I wasn't mad. I was in a weird headspace. I miss Mali and the fact that you have Danny so close to you and you both choose to not talk about what happened at the baby shower made me slightly disappointed, I guess. I know he hurt you with what he said and his actions, but at the end of the day he's your brother." He shrugged. "I know it's not my place to tell you how to work through your feelings and it's up to you to figure out what and who are best for you."

"You're right… I'm sorry for being an inconsiderate dumbass and ruining our hike."

"Apology accepted." He said, kissing the top of her head.

"Speaking of knowing who and what are best for me...you and this belt are currently what's best for me."

"I figured when you were eye-fucking me earlier."

Calum pulled Claudia to the kitchen so they could have more privacy. He leaned down and captured her lips. It didn't take long for them to deepen the kiss.

“Let me turn off the espagueti verde.” Claudia mumbled, pulling away from his lips. She leaned over and turned off the heat. She smiled and took off her shirt. “Where were we?”

“I think you were going to drop your panties and let me bend you over the counter." He said.

"That sounds about right." Claudia nodded. "But I'd prefer it if you took them off."

"That works too." He smiled.

He caged Claudia in, pressing his growing hard on as he leaned down to kiss her. Calum pulled down the silk camisole and exposed her breasts. With one hand he toyed with her breasts as his mouth descended down to her jaw. He gently nipped and sucked, leaving love bites around her neck. He continued his journey down, showing love to her small tattoos and until he reached her panties.

Calum kissed her 'wildflower' tattoo and pulled down her panties along with her camisole. Wordlessly he placed one of her legs over his shoulder. He sponged kisses all over the inside of her thighs, making Claudia grow impatient.

"Cal," she whimpered.

One of her hands was already gripping his curls. Claudia unsubtly bucked her hips for some relief, but she wasn't getting any of his.

"Turn around." Calum said, dropping her leg and getting up from the floor.

"I wanted your mouth." She pouted before she turned around.

"I know." he said, kissing her shoulder. "You'll get it in a bit."

Claudia rolled her eyes and bent at the waist, jutting her hips back and gripping the counter. Calum stifled a laugh and pushed her further up the counter, so they were at the same level.

"Tell me again why you have a tall counter." Claudia asked,lightly kicking the air.

"Tell me again why you're short," he retorted.

"Excuse you, I'm 5'6."

"On a good day, you're normally 5'5, Claudia." He said, in the same tone she said it when someone asked her how tall she is.

Claudia scoffed and looked back at him. "Do you wanna get laid or what?"

"I'm joking," he said, kissing her. "I'm gonna get a condom."

Claudia watched him pull up his pants and take his car keys. He had an extra stash of condoms in the glove compartment.

Coincidentally, Claudia had run out of birth control at the same time Calum told her that he was planning on going to London to work with Mali on her album. He was leaving in three weeks.

Claudia didn't see the point of getting her ten week supply. He was going to be gone for two months, and her pills were specifically programmed to be taken at the time she bought them. If she waited to take them when Calum came back they wouldn't be effective.

"You didn’t buy any when you went to Target right?" he said, coming into the kitchen.

"No. Are we out?" she said as she pulled herself up so she sat on the counter. She reached for one of their decorative dish towels and covered herself.

"Yeah." he pushed back his curls and leaned against the counter. "How do we finish a 36 pack so fast?"

"Considering the amount of quickies we had in your car while we were at my parents' house." She shrugged.

"I bought that pack about two weeks ago after Ashton did his album shoot here." He deadpanned.

"Oh," Claudia giggled shyly.

She leaned forward and pulled him to her lips. She wrapped her legs around his waist and deepened the kiss. She let Calum's hands wander all over her body. Claudia slowly reached down and pumped his cock.

"Fuck," Calum groaned. He leaned his forehead against hers and watched her hand work on him.

"Cal I need you in me." Claudia sighed.

"We don't have any condoms." He reminded her, kissing down her neck.

"I know… just this one time?"

Calum pulled away to make sure she was okay with what they were going to do. "Just this one time."

***

Claudia checked her calendar once more, hoping the date wasn’t off. Her period was about six weeks late. She was supposed to get it the week Calum left for London. She didn’t think much when it didn’t show up. Her period was usually late when she was stressed about something. Calum traveling across the country and Atlantic Ocean in the middle of a global pandemic was something she worried about.

Six weeks later and nothing.

She chewed on the loose skin around her fingernails as she waited for the timer on her phone to go off. Annoyed that in the ten minutes she waited only an actual minute passed. She got up and went to the kitchen.

Cherry and Duke lifted their heads from the couch as she passed them. Cherry got off and followed her. She sat in front of Claudia’s stool and waited for her to get her snack. Claudia rolled her eyes and tossed her a baked treat. Duke came in seconds later and asked for one as well.

Claudia grabbed a bowl of fresh kumquats from Calum’s tree and began taking out the juice. Weirdly enough the bittersweet flavor helped her with morning sickness. If anyone saw her, they’d be confused as fuck seeing her eat kumquats. Everyone and their mother knew she detested them and would do the most if she was near them. The same thing with pickles.

She knew something was up when she went out to get lunch with KayKay and Sierra a few days ago. KayKay was the one to point out that she didn’t tell the server to remove the pickles from her chicken sandwich.

Her phone went off. She cursed and got up from her stool. A loud crashing sound came from the backyard, making her halt. She waited a few more seconds and she heard the same sound in the little area Calum works out in.

Panicking, she scooped up Duke and motioned Cherry to follow her upstairs. She quickly rushed back and swiped her bowl of kumquats. She pushed the dogs in the closet and grabbed her laptop off her bed. While she waited for her laptop to load she called Danny.

“Do you know what time it is?” He snapped.

“I think someone’s trying to break in.” Claudia spoke in a hushed voice.

“What?”

“I said, I think—”

“I heard you. Did you call 911?”

“No, I don’t want Cal to get the notification that the police came. Can you come and bring Panchito? Cherry is still at that phase where she lets everyone pet her. He could bite the burglar and we can just say it was self defense. Like who are they gonna believe? Me or the robber. I mean technically I’m not the homeowner, but my mans is you know. And sure, Panchito doesn't live here, but like we can just say—”

“En un ratito llego.” He said hanging up.

Claudia set her phone down and logged into the Ring website so she can get access to the cameras Calum got installed before they left to her parents’. She cursed as the website glitched and sent her back to the shopping tab. She grabbed her phone and went to the app store to download the app. Another five minutes passed and she logged into the app. She found cameras that aimed where she heard the sounds and sighed in relief. It was the neighborhood cat.

The elderly woman who lives up the street owns it, but she let’s it roam around the neighborhood. Claudia has seen it a few times chilling at the top of some people’s fences.

She checked the other cameras and dialed Danny.

“What?” He said, stifling a yawn.

“So I checked the cameras and it was a cat.” Claudia said, opening the bedroom closet.

“You don’t need me to come over?”

“No, sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m like ten minutes away. You want carne asada fries?”

“Please.”

“Te veo en un ratito.”

“Bye Danny.” She said hanging up.

Ten minutes later Danny showed up with her carne asada fries and a bat. Cherry went up to him and sniffed him. She yipped excitedly and wagged her tail.

“She’s growing fast.” He said scratching behind her ears.

“I know.” Claudia said, leading him to the kitchen.

Danny set the bat under his seat and grabbed one of her disinfectant wipes to clean the to-go box before setting it down on the counter. He took a fork Claudia offered him.

“I have sparkling cider if you want or do you want a beer?” She said, placing the bottle on the counter.

“Is it apple and grape?”

“Obis jobis.”

He motioned Claudia to hand him the bottle. He opened it with his bottle opener keychain while she grabbed some cups.

“When is Calum coming back?”

“Tomorrow, his flight is at twelve London time and he lands around four in the afternoon.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah…”

They awkwardly ate in silence, only talking to pass around la salsa verde.

“Danny?” Claudia began, getting his attention. “I’m sorry about blurting out that Beatriz thing to Mede. It was fucked up and uncalled.”

“Don’t worry about it. Mede and I talked it through… I’m sorry about the whole Paco thing. Especially what I said about you not putting out. That was pretty fucked up.”

“Apology accepted.” Claudia said, sipping her sparkling cider.

“I think la güerra and him are a thing.” He said.

“I knew it! I was watching her snapchat story a few weeks ago and saw a familiar tattooed hand.” Claudia laughed.

They fell into conversation. Lurking La Güerra’s, their cousin Vanessa on their dad’s side, social media Claudia and Danny were able to figure out that their cousin and Paco have been a thing around the start of quarantine. The conversation moved to Danny and his tattooing.

While they hung out on the couch with the new medical drama playing in the background, Danny inspected the tattoo he did on Claudia's knee a few weeks ago. "It healed nicely," he said, smacking her knee. It was two fish skeletons in circular motion, but one fish was shaded while the other was outlined.

"Thank you. I have another appointment in a few weeks. I think I'm going to get it on the inside of my ankle. Sara drew this cool picture and she let me use the drawing." Claudia sipped more of her sparkling cider. "Who was the first person you tattooed at Ivan's shop?"

"Mede." He said, pulling Cherry to his lap. "She and her sorority sisters were in San Diego because UCSD was hosting an event for all of the sororities or some shit for the weekend. Ivan told me I earned my own chair and the whole day none of the walk-ins wanted me to work on them. It made sense, I was barely 20. Anyways an hour or so before closing Mede and few of her sorority sisters showed up.

She recognized me and I freaked because she remembered me. The girls with her teased her and she got all shy and shit."

"No mames estas enamoradisimo de Mede." Claudia teased him.

"I'm pretty sure I've been in love with her since high school— anyways, they all wanted to get the sorority's name and a symbol relating to the ocean. I drew their designs and no one wanted to get them. So Mede volunteered. She got it on her side boob because she didn't want Deacon Pepe and Marcela to see it. You know how they are about tattoos."

Claudia nodded as she turned back to get a blanket. "Doña Marcela literally made me wear long sleeves to soccer games and track meets because my tattoo was inappropriate." She said, lifting her arm to show him her first tattoo she got when she was sixteen.

It was spatula and baseball crossed together with a soccer ball like royal arms that represented her and her brothers. The spatula was for Junior because he followed their father's footsteps and became a chef. The baseball was for Danny because he was their high school's star player. Lastly the soccer ball represented Claudia because soccer was her thing.

"Like my dad was there when I got it done." She said.

"At least she didn't forbid you to be near Mede because you made homemade tattoos at the back parking lot at school."

"The fact that you didn't get caught still amazes me."

"Dr. Vazquez caught me but was impressed and let me do one on him." Danny shrugged.

"Shut up!"

"I swear. It was a pinup girl on his calf."

"That's so weird!" Claudia cringed.

An hour or so passed and they were still talking, but Claudia began dozing off. “I should get going." Danny said.

"When Cal is done with his three week quarantine, we should all hang out." Claudia offered.

"Yeah, I'm gonna leave you that bat in case someone does try to break in you get them with it."

"Dude don't scare me."

"I'm kidding, mensa." He said, giving her a side hug. "Where's your bathroom?"

"The door closest to the front door." Claudia said, checking her phone.

He nodded and went. She closed some apps and noticed her period app. "Shit!" She got up and bolted to the bathroom. "Wait Danny!"

"What the fuck Claudia!" He exclaimed, exiting the bathroom.

"Did you see them?" she asked, so she wouldn't have to see the results.

"No, I'm not touching your pee." he grimaced. "Do you not know?"

Claudia shook her head and hugged herself. "I don't wanna see."

"Go see."

Claudia groaned and slipped in the bathroom. She crossed herself and quietly prayed that they were all negative. She glanced at the test and cursed.

"So you're gonna have a new niece or nephew." Claudia said awkwardly as she came out of the bathroom.

"Fuck! Claudia, you're the smart one." Danny began lecturing her. "How could you two be so irresponsible? Of all the tests to fail you decide to fail a pregnancy test?"

Taglist: @f-mu @another-lonely-heart ​ @sunshinebabycal-deactivated2021​​   @calumscalm ​ @karajaynetoday ​ @cherryxwildflower ​ @myloverboyash ​  @idontneedanyone ​ @findingliam-o ​ @5-secondsofcolor ​ @mulletcal ​ @sexgodashton ​ @fckingpernico ​ @2fangirl4u ​ @calpops

#calum hood smut #calum hood fluff #calum hood imagine #calum hood one shot #calum hood series #calum hood one shots #calum hood imagines #calum hood fanfic #calum hood fanfiction #calum hood fan fiction #calum hood fan fic #El Novio series #el novio quarantine edition

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hey Steph, got any good old (maybe new?) bedsharing fics for a fanfic obsessed lurker?

Thanks 😘

Hey Nonny!!

Hahha! I actually just did a list recently of my old ones, but I just double-checked my offline lists and I actually DO have some fics on my next Bed Sharing list, so GUESS WHAT? Your ask is the one to start the next Bed Sharing one, LOL.

As usual, if anyone has any they’d like to add, especially if they’re brand new fics, let us know! <3

BEDSHARING Pt. 5

See also:

The Speckled Blonde / BedSharing

BedSharing Pt. 2 and Insecure Sherlock

Bed Sharing Pt. 3

Bed Sharing Pt. 4

Bed Sharing “Just Happens”

Soft. Happy. Content. by inevitably_johnlocked (G, 223 w., 1 Ch. || Sleepy Cuddles, Bed Sharing, Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Spooning, Morning After, Sherlock POV) – Sherlock reflects on his state of mind.

And When The Night Is Over by Simply Isnt On (K, 329 w., 1 Ch. || Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Platonic Bed Sharing / Not Slash) – Sherlock and John sleep together.

I Knew You Loved Me by inevitably_johnlocked (T, 743 w., 1 Ch. || Morning Cuddles, Fluff, Clingy Sherlock, Idiots in Love, Slice of Life, Morning After, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Declarations of Love, Pet Name, Bed Sharing, Snuggles) – John and Sherlock share a lie-in the morning after their first time. So fluffy and gross your teeth will fall out. Part 4 of I-J's Tumblr Ficlet Collection

Sleep Tonight by Jenn1984 (T, 1,220 w, 1 Ch. || Hurt/Comfort, Bed Sharing, Worried Sherlock, Sick John, Hugs/Cuddles, Touch Neediness) – Fingers begin prying open his jacket looking for a wound and John would really like to swat at them. No, he's not hit anywhere, he's just damn sick.- John Watson has a fever.

Loved. by inevitably_johnlocked (G, 1,231 w., 1 Ch. || First Sherlock POV, Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Nose Kisses, Morning After, Love Confessions, Morning Cuddles, Emotional Sherlock, Sentiment, Bed Sharing) – Sherlock reflects on his relationship with John. Part 5 of I-J's Tumblr Ficlet Collection

Here to Stay by MockJayPhoenix12 (K, 1,574 w., 1 Ch. || Post Reunion, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Headache, Bed Sharing, Care Taker Sherlock, Hand Holding, Fluff) – On Sherlock's first day home, John wakes with a migraine.

The Perfect Place by SilverSmile (K+, 1,955 w., 1 Ch. || Humour, Romance, 5 and Ones, Fluff, Experiments, Bed Sharing) – Sherlock attempts to find the perfect place to sleep, but his little experiment proves to be far more difficult than expected.

Insomnia by TheSingingGirl (K+, 2,635 w., 1 Ch. || Friendship, Humour, Bed Sharing, Sleepy Sherlock) – Sleep is merely the next frontier in what has become the battle to keep Sherlock alive. It's because of this that John ends up in bed with a sociopath.

Human Body Pillow by Lunavere (K, 4,122 w., 1 Ch. || Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Five and Ones, Sleepy Johnlock, Bed Sharing) – A story about the five times John fell asleep on Sherlock, and the one time Sherlock fell asleep on him.

The Myth by AGirloftheSouth (M, 4,329 w., 1 Ch || Sex Toys / Anal Beads, PWP, Romance, Bottom John, Prostate Stimulation) – Sherlock believes something to be a myth. John proves him wrong.

When We Sleep by PrincessNala (K+, 6,660 w., 1 Ch || Post-TGG,  Alternating POV, Bed Sharing, Anxious/Worried Sherlock, Hurt/Comfort, Hugs) – Sherlock needed to feel every beat of his heart, every rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. It was the only way to completely assure himself that John was alive and right there next to him, and not dead, no, never dead…

To be loved by Strange_johnlock (E, 12,436 w., 8 Ch. || Post S3, Established Relationship, First Person POV Sherlock, Pet Names, Soft Sherlock, Mild ADHD, Protective John, Captain Watson, Body Appreciation, Bottomlock, Rough Sex, Travelling for Holidays, Introspection, Sherlock Loves John So Much It Hurts) – John is so deeply integrated into the work, both as my conductor of light, and as a great shot with a vicious right hook who tackles men -and women- no matter their size all in my defense. He protects me with all he can without question, and this loyalty is surely more than I deserve. Or: Sherlock is counting his blessings.

There's So Much Labour Just in Breathing Lately by Susan (E, 12,708 w., 1 Ch. || Post-TRF / Mentions of S3 Events, Romance, Angst, Grief/Mourning, Grieving John, Mutual Pining, Meddling Mycroft, Therapy, Ambiguous Hopeful Ending, Infidelity) – The dreams he hated most – the ones that left him a sweating, shaking mess when he woke – were the ones in which Sherlock was just Sherlock. Laughing or drinking tea. Sitting across the table from him at Angelo’s eating pasta. Trailing his open hand behind him on the way to the bedroom. “C’mon, John. I’m about to have my way with you.”

Kintsugi by distantstarlight (E, 14,772 w., 1 Ch. || Post S4, Emotional Hurt / Comfort, Regret / Remorse, Loneliness, Separation, Drug Use, Healing, Protective John, Sad Sherlock, Dev. Rel., Complicated Relationships, Love, Angst With Happy Ending, Sherlock is Called Freak, John’s Penance, Voyeurism, Doctor/Caretaker John, Guilty John, Detox, Fingering, Love Confessions, Cuddling, Slight Non-Con Turns Enthusiastic Consent, Virgin Sherlock) – Sherlock Holmes becomes estranged from the man he had once considered his best friend after John lets him down horribly in public. It seems that the world's only consulting detective will be on his own once again...or will he?

The Burning of the Leaves by blueink3 (M, 15,915 w., 3 Ch. || Post S4, Angst, Reichenbach, Parentlock, Past Jolto, Idiot John, Sherlock’s a Mess, Puppies, Fluff, Possessive / Jealous Sherlock, Pining Sherlock, Sherlock POV, Matchmaker Sholto, Melancholic Feelings, Emotional Sherlock, Domesticity, Love Confessions in the Rain, Kissing in the Rain, Pet Names, Panic Attack) – After the events of series 4, Major Sholto invites John and Sherlock to lunch one day. It nearly proves to be too much for their tenuous relationship as the past haunts the present, putting the future that Sherlock so desperately wants at risk.

A Silver Sixpence by _doodle (NC-17, 16,400 w., 2 Ch. || LJ Fic || For a Case / Case Fic, Fake Relationship, Humour, Romance, Marriage Proposal, Awkward Idiots, Cuddling, Touching, Kissing, Love Confessions, Bed Sharing, Friends to Lovers, Fake Until It’s Not, Schmoop and Fluff, Bottomlock) – “John, we need to get married. It’s for a case, not any romantic notions on my part pertaining to our partnership,” Sherlock said, with brutal honesty, and without even looking up.

Division by MrsNoggin (E, 19,542 w., 11 Ch. || Coffee Shop AU || First Kiss/Time, Fluff, Barista Sherlock, Clingy Sherlock, POV John, John’s Limp, Bed Sharing, Fluff, Sleepy Cuddles, Sensuality, Touching, Virgin Sherlock, Insecure John) – John likes mysteries. And every morning he dips into the local independent coffee bar with his newspaper and ponders another... one Sherlock Holmes.

Out of the Woods by SilentAuror (E, 20,471 w., 1 Ch. || Post S4, Romance, Slow Burn, Flirting, Drunk Sex, Practical Jokes, POV Sherlock, Bottomlock, Possessive John, Pining Sherlock, Frustrated Wanking, Frottage, Hand Jobs, Blow Jobs, First Kiss/Time, Virgin Sherlock, Love Confessions, Soft Sherlock, Dancing, Bum Appreciation, Hanging out with the Yard) – Sherlock is fairly certain that John has taken to flirting with him of late, but can't be entirely certain of it. At least, not until a case takes them into a forest, along with Lestrade's team and something happens that will change everything about their lives...

Insanity in the Middle by DotyTakeThisDown (E, 28,010 w., 8 Ch. || Equestrian Sports AU || Alternate First Meeting, POV John, Pining John, Bottomlock, Clueless Sherlock, First Kiss/Time, Passionate Kisses, Hand Holding, Caught Making Out, Bed Sharing, Spooning, Blow Job) – John is a world-class eventing rider with a gold medal and several four-star wins to his credit, but he's never won at Rolex. Sherlock is an up-and-coming rider taking the sport by storm.

A Home for Us by sussexbound (M, 30,581 w., 12 Ch. || Scars, Bedsharing, Grief, Doctor John, Hurt/Comfort, Post-TRF, Implied/Referenced Torture, Sherlock POV, Pining Sherlock, Suicidal Ideation, Heavy Emotions, Clingy Sherlock, Hallucinations, Disassociation, Emotional Turmoil) – He has been on the road for two years, and he is exhausted. He’s almost accepted that he will never see London (John) again—almost. But then there are nights like tonight, where he is weak, and all he can think of is the warmth of the flat they once shared, the crackle of the fire in the hearth, the teasing smile playing at the corner of John’s lips, the boxes of half-eaten Chinese takeaway balanced precariously in their laps. He aches at the memory of it, at the realisation that it is something he may never experience again.

Anchor Point by trickybonmot (E, 49,856 w., 80 Ch. || Truman Show AU || Psychological Drama, Suspense, Slow Burn, Dark Characters / Fic, Alternating First/Third Person, Protective John, Anxious/Worried Sherlock, Tender Moments, Love Confessions, Hand/Blow Jobs, Cuddling, Jealous John, First Kiss/Time) – The world tunes in nightly for Sherlock, the ultimate in reality TV: Sherlock Holmes, a real person with a legendary name, unknowingly lives out his life in a staged setting contrived by his brother. Things get complicated when a retired army doctor joins the show to play the part of Sherlock's closest friend. This fic borrows its concept from the 1998 film, the Truman Show. However, you don't need to have any knowledge of the movie to enjoy this story.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by SilentAuror (E, 50,635 w., 1 Ch. || Post-S4/S4 Divergence, Case Fic, For a Case / Reverse Fake-Relationship, Conferences, Marriage Equality, Travelling / New York, Pride, Homophobia, Bottomlock, Marriage Proposal, John POV, Sexuality, Love Confessions, Emotional Love Making, Public Hand Jobs, Blow Jobs, Passionate Kissing, Needy/Clingy Sherlock, Virgin Sherlock, Touching / Hand Holding, Bed Sharing, Little Spoon Sherlock, Intense Orgasms) – John and Sherlock go to New York to attend a conference run by the National Defence of Traditional Marriage Coalition in order to investigate the potential bombing of the annual Manhattan Pride parade. As the conference unfolds, John finds himself repulsed by the toxic ideology being presented, which becomes relevent to his own unacknowledged issues and his friendship with Sherlock...

A Goose Quill Dipped in Venom by Polyphony (M, 52,748 w., 16 Ch. || Celebrity John AU || Alternate First Meeting, TV Host John, Supermodel Mary, Character Death, Mystery, Romance, Case Fic, First Kiss/Time, Meddling Mycroft, Drug Abuse, Doctor John, PDA, Deductions, POV Sherlock, Toplock, Sexual Tension, Angry/Rough Sex, Hopeful Ending, Asperger’s Sherlock) – Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective, is called in to a very ordinary although brutal murder. Something is badly out of tune with the whole scenario and Sherlock finds himself becoming more and more obsessed with the crime - and also with the victim.

Isosceles by SilentAuror (E, 56,609 w., 7 Ch. || Post-S4, POV John, Original Male Character / Sherlock Dates Another Man, Love Triangle, Jealous John, Virgin Sherlock, Sexual Coaching, Angst, Romance, Domesticity, Unrequited Feelings, Miscommunication, First Kiss/Time, For a Case, Friends With Benefits, Bottomlock, Love Confessions, Spooning) – After solving a case for a major celebrity, Sherlock gets himself asked out. When John asks, he discovers that Sherlock has no intention of going, at least not until John agrees to coach him through whatever he might need to know for his date...

Lunar Landscapes by J_Baillier (M, 57,046 w., 21 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || S3/TAB Fix-It, Slow Burn Angst, Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Confessions, Drugs, Pain, Medical, Injury, Sherlock Whump, Mental Health Issues, Panic Attacks, Romance, Secrets, Tragedy, Trauma, BAMF John, Doctor!John, Drug Addict Sherlock, Injured Sherlock, Grieving John, Idiots In Love,  Protective John, POV John Watson, PTSD Sherlock, Sherlock is a Mess, Medical Realism) – An accident forces John to face the fact that Sherlock's downward spiral had started long before his flight to exile even left the tarmac.

Repairing the Broken Things by BakerTumblings (M, 75,252 w., 15 Ch. || S4 Compliant, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Medical Trauma, Hospitals, Big Brother Mycroft, Misunderstandings, Realizations, Severe Accident, John Whump, Pneumonia, Medical Procedures, Bed Sharing, First Time, Healing, Happy Ending) – "I'm calling today to notify you that there's been an accident."

Just To Hold You Close by sussexbound (E, 70,841 w., 18 Ch. || Alternate First Meeting, Sherlock POV, ASD Sherlock, PTSD John, Demisexual Sherlock, Bisexual John, Cuddling/Snuggling, Platonic Cuddling, Enthusiastic Consent, Bed Sharing, Love Confessions, First Kiss/Time, Sexual Tension, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Cuddle Negotiations, For a Case Until It Isn’t, Hair Petting, Sexual Negotiation, Anxiety, Trust Issues, Slow Burn, Panic Attacks, Frottage, Hand/Blow Jobs, Referenced Self Harm / Abuse / Suicidal Ideation, First Kiss/Time, Anal) – When a woman is murdered and the last person to see her alive is recently invalided army vet turned reluctant (and prickly) professional cuddler, John Watson, Sherlock Holmes is pulled into a world of intimacy and intrigue he never could have imagined. John is a conundrum and mystery: frank yet reserved, tender yet angry, open yet afraid. Sherlock is instantly drawn into his orbit, and begins to feel and desire things he never has before.

Gold Rush by ShirleyCarlton (E, 71,783 w., 17 Ch. || Post S3 / No Mary, Friends to Lovers, Mentions of Past Sexual Abuse, First Kiss, Case Fic, Slow Burn, Alternating POV, Switchlock, Angst with Happy Ending, Marriage Proposal, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Abduction, Anxious/Insecure Sherlock, Miscommunication, Emotional Lovemaking) – John has divorced Mary and pops round to 221B one evening to find Sherlock in the middle of a case. As Sherlock tries to find the identity of a young woman’s stalker, John realises he can no longer deny his feelings for Sherlock – which then, to their befuddlement, turn out to be mutual. Shy kisses and tentative embraces ensue. But will Sherlock be able to cast off a shadow from his past that he thinks might prevent John from wanting to stay?

Thermocline by J_Baillier (M, 83,557 w., 14 Ch. || Scuba Diving AU || Adventure, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Marine Archaeology, Asexual Sherlock, Horny John, Relationship Drama, Technical/Scuba/Wreck Diving, Slow Burn, Underwater /  Medical Peril, Doctor John, Hurt Sherlock, Anxious Sherlock, John POV, Protective John, Body Appreciation) – John "Five Oceans" Watson — technical dive instructor, dive accident analyst and weapon of mass seduction — meets recluse professor of maritime archaeology Holmes. As they head out to a remote archipelago off the coast of Guatemala to study and film its shipwrecks for a documentary, will sparks fly or fizzle out?

Kintsukuroi by sussexbound (E, 91,823 w., 20 Ch. || S4 Compliant / Post-TLD, Grief / Mourning, PTSD, Internalized Homophobia, Therapy, Past Abuse, Alcohol Abuse, Nightmares, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Depression, Anxiety, Bed Sharing, Love Confessions, Cuddling, Suicidal Ideation, Masturbation, Minor Character Death, Sexting, Frottage, Inexperienced Sherlock, Rimming / Anal / BJ’s, Emotional Turmoil, Finding Each Other) – “I love you.” Sherlock sees the words hit John with almost physical force. He reels back a little, jaw twitching and eyes filling. “I love you,” he repeats, a little softer, a little more gentle, as earnest as he possibly can. Because they’ve been teetering on the brink of this thing for years, and it had become painfully obvious over the last few months that they were at a tipping point. This had to happen. Now it has. Now they can see where they end up. The tears in John’s eyes spill over, and he wipes at them angrily. “Do you even know what that means?”  

The Summer Boy by khorazir (T, 94,706 w., 6 Ch. || Post S3/Post TAB/Alternate S4, Friends to Lovers, Flashbacks, Sussex, Bullying, 1980′s Kid Sherlock, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Inexperienced Sherlock, Grief/Mourning, Pining Sherlock, Background Case Fic) – About half a year after the fateful events at Appledore, Sherlock and John embark on a private case in Sussex. For Sherlock, it’s a journey into his past, bringing up memories both happy and sad that he has locked away for almost thirty years. For John, it means coming to terms with the present – and a potential future with Sherlock. Part 1 of the The Summer Boy series

Northwest Passage by Kryptaria (E, 95,157 w., 27 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Canadian AU ||  BAMF!John, Canadian John, PTSD, Anal / Oral Sex, Rimming, Emotional Hurt / Comfort, Drug Rehab, Falling in Love, Pining Sherlock, Love Confessions, Sherlock’s Violin, Panic Attacks, Switching, Anxious / Protective Sherlock, Hugs for Comfort, Suicide Mentions, Healing Each Other) – Seven years ago, Captain John Watson of the Canadian Forces Medical Service withdrew from society, seeking a simple, isolated life in the distant northern wilderness of Canada. Though he survives from one day to the next, he doesn't truly live until someone from his dark past calls in a favor and turns his world upside-down with the introduction of Sherlock Holmes." Part 1 of Tales from the Northwest

The Bang and the Clatter by earlgreytea68 (M, 137,049 w., 37 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Baseball AU || Slow Burn / Dev. Rel., Possessive/Obsessive Sherlock, Jealous Sherlock, Mutual Pining, Body Appreciation, Depression, Closeted Sexuality, Family, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Ogling Each Other, Anxious Sherlock, Panic Attack, Drunkenness, Talk of Forever, Big Feelings™) – Sherlock Holmes is a pitcher and John Watson is a catcher. No, no, no, it's a baseball AU. Part 1 of Baseball

Against the Rest of the World by SilentAuror (E, 151,714 w., 20 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Post-TRF, Hiatus Fic, POV First Person Sherlock, Present Tense, First Kiss/Time, Big Brother Mycroft, Escaping from Capture, Soft Sherlock, Toplock, Insecurity, Infidelity, Travelling, Introspection, Pining Sherlock, Depression, Fantasies, Yearning for the Past, PTSD Sherlock, Suicidal Ideation) – Sherlock has been away from London for nine hundred and twelve days and counting, and has no idea what sort of reception to expect when he finally returns.

Proving A Point by elldotsee & J_Baillier (E, 186,270 w., 28 Ch. || Me Before You Fusion || Medical Realism, Insecure John, Depression, Romance, Angst, POV John, Sherlock Whump, Serious Illness, Doctor John, Injury Recovery, Assisted Suicide, Sherlock’s Violin, Awkward Sexual Situations, Alcoholism, Drugs, Idiots in Love, Slow Burn, Body Image, Friends to Lovers, Hurt / Comfort, Pain, Big Brother Mycroft, Intimacy, Anxiety, PTSD, Family Issues, Psychological Trauma, John Whump, Case Fics, Loneliness, Pain) – Invalided home from Afghanistan, running out of funds and convinced that his surgical career is over, John Watson accepts a mysterious job offer to provide care and companionship for a disabled person. Little does he know how much hangs in the balance of his performance as he settles into his new life at Musgrave Court.

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #my fic recs #bed sharing fics #bedsharing #Anonymous #e-rated fics #longg post

[flashfuture]

Timeline for DC Earths

So there is a lot of different earths and terms thrown around and I thought I’d help break it down as best I can. This is all my understanding if someone has other thoughts let me know. A few of these lines are wavy

So Golden Age this began with Superman in the spring 1938 and continued until the fall of 1956 with the introduction of the Flash 

However this is not our first shift. Many can note in DC comics that in 1955 there was a shift from Earth-Two to Earth-One. This can be noted for example in Batman #96 which is what many would say is the first swap to Earth-One. It was not however officially noted by DC until the mid 60s that it was different Earths and before hand could have been seen as retcons. 

Now in 1956 the Flash was introduced and is widely regarded as the major shift into Silver Age comics. 

The silver age ran until 1970. For DC the the end of the silver age is attributed to Hal Jordan becoming world weary and his plucky optimism draining away. Another major point would be Roy Harper’s drug abuse which was posted due to the Comic Code Authority (CCA) rolling back some of their restrictions. Many would mark the end of the silver age firmly in 1973 at Marvel Comics with ‘The Night Gwen Stacy Died’ This pushes us into the Bronze Age of comics which was considerably darker in tone. 

The Bronze Age is the shorter periods of time running from the 1970s to 1985 because of DC. Some would argue the Bronze age pushes further than ‘85

To explain DC’s role in the split up comes a big DC term- Pre/Post Crisis. This is referring to the 1985 event Crisis on Infinite Earths. Barry Allen died as a result of the Crisis. Many Earths were destroyed and everyone was on a new earth that we call well New Earth

Pre-Crisis is everything that happens from 1956-1985. Post-Crisis is everything that happens from Barry Allens death to Flashpoint. Crisis for many is the end of the Bronze age that pushes us into the Modern age

Some would argue that the Bronze Age lasted into the 90s. Also worth noting that some refer to 1984-1991 was the Copper Age for the popularization of comic collections

Back to DC. Infinite Crisis is another crisis that came out in 2005-2006. This crisis re-established the multiverse. Final Crisis is another one you might see mentioned but actually did nothing to the continuity so I’m gonna skip this one. 

Flashpoint was the next major event in 2011 where Barry Allen went back in time to rescue his mother. Some hand wavy stuff later and we have the New 52 which was an entire reset of the entire DC Universe. Everyone was decades younger and many backstories were redone. This new world is often referred to as Prime Earth

It was not until 2016 with Rebirth was everyones backstories generally reset to their post crisis origins and in some cases pre crisis origins. For example Dick Grayson pre crisis became Robin at 8/9 years old. Post crisis he became Robin at 12/13. Rebirth reset his age to 8 or 9 at his adoption

Now most recently we have Infinite Frontier following the Dark Metals event. Still on the Post-Rebirth continuity which remains on Earth Prime

More terms just to throw it out there- 

A retcon is when in current continuity something is added to a backstory. (More often than not it makes no sense but you just go with it) 

A reboot is a major change to the continuity of the world. Crisis on Infinite Earths and Flashpoint are perfect examples

A soft reboot is when a minor change is made that affects everyone but doesn’t mess with current continuity too much. Rebirth which just reset backstories is one and Infinite Frontier looks like it too will be a soft reboot of the status quo.

And just a little key here to break down what I said above:

Earth-Two is the Golden Age Earth (1938-1955)

Earth-One is the Silver Age Earth (1956-1984)

New Earth is Post Crisis Earth (1985-2011)

Prime Earth is Post Flashpoint Earth (2011-Present) 

I’m sure I missed some things but this is just a general overview of some stuff so hopefully terms will make more sense and a timeline is clearer. 

#dc comics #comic book fact dump #superman #batman #flash #crisis on infinite earths #infinite crisis #flashpoint #rebirth #infinite frontier #retcons #golden age #silver age #bronze age #modern age #timeline stuff #it's confusing I know #I hope this helps at least one person #if anyone has questions I'll do my best to answer too

[colormeyondublue]

Chapter 8: Trenvik

Chapter 7 Here - Chapter 9 Here

The next morning, you wake up feeling a little nervous. Yondu’s words and anxious behavior are still fresh in your mind. You wonder to yourself who these disloyal men may be. You have an idea who a few might be, but they’ve never really bothered you apart from the occasional catcall. Most of the time if you made a snide comment back, they would leave you alone. You idly get ready and fix your hair in a braid. This morning feels strange.

A knock at your cabin door breaks your train of thought. You head toward the door, putting on that silver bracelet Yondu got you. You open your door and find the most unexpected face there to greet you.

It was Trenvik.

Trenvik was a race that you had never seen or heard of before boarding the Eclector. Kraglin told you he was Chorak. Apparently, they were an isolated kind and they were not sociable. He was…odd to say the least. He has lemon yellow skin, with puke green blotches covering his neck and face. His eyes are a piercing green with yellow speckles, and he has goat-like pupils. His facial features are sharp and hollow, and he is totally hairless. Trenvik leans against the doorframe with two of his 4 arms. The other two arms are above you, all 6 fingers gripping the ledge over your head. He was tall – very tall. You would guess around 7 feet. His body was lanky and lean. You recall he has a very unnerving gait to his walk. Something about him always made you very uncomfortable. Maybe it was the croaking sound that always seemed to seep from his throat when he would pass you on the ship. It could have been the fact that you had caught him staring at you a number of times in the mess. He’s never spoken to you – until now.

“Y/n.”

“Uhh…Hi. Trenvik – right?”

“Why are you hiding – in your room?”

His words are measured and unnerving. You begin to fidget with your feet, gripping the door handle tighter.

“I’m not hiding, I was actually getting ready to get some breakfast.”

“Breakfast? My dear, it’s almost halfway through the day. You are a bit late for that.” His mouth spreads into a nauseating grin. Sharp, needle-like teeth showing beneath his thin lips. He leans in closer to you.

“Oh my gosh! It’s that late?! I had no idea! I’m sorry, Trenvik, I really need to go.” You try to push past him through the doorway and pull the door closed behind you. “It was nice speaking to you!”

“Not so fast.” He grabs you by your wrist and pushes you against the wall next to your door. “Why are you in such a hurry to get away from me?”

“I – I’m not. I’m just late. I have to get to w-work.” You stutter.

He slowly releases his grip on you. His eyes travel up and down your body, as if he is trying to decide if you’re lying or not. “Very well. We can finish this later.” He finally says.

He takes one step back and you turn to run down the walkway toward your office. Trenvik watching you as you flee.

As you reach your office, you slam the door behind you, breathing rapidly. You start to feel tears welling in your eyes when your wrist comm dings. It’s Yondu.

“Yondu?”

“Hey Darlin’, you alright? I haven’t seen ya all day.”

“Yondu! Umm…yeah. I slept through my alarm. And I’ve been dealing with some weird anxiety today. I just feel strange. On top of that, Trenvik came to my door a little while ago.”

“What did he want?” He asked with clear aggravation in his voice.

“I don’t know. He was just trying to talk to me I think, but it felt creepy – like there was something else. His whole demeanor was sketchy.”

“You in yer office?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Stay right there honey, I’m on my way.”

The comm beeped again, and Yondu was gone. You let out a heavy sigh, and sit down at your desk. Music…I need music. You reach for your holopad and pull up the music files that Kraglin got you a few days prior. You begin to find more and more American music. That was a huge comfort to you, regardless of what era the music was from. A song that came through your speakers almost broke you. “Devil’s Backbone” by The Civil Wars. You heard some of their music when you were back home, but this song was new to you.

Oh Lord, Oh Lord, what have I done?

I've fallen in love with a man on the run

Oh Lord, Oh Lord, I'm begging you please

Don't take that sinner from me

Oh don't take that sinner from me

Oh Lord, Oh Lord, what do I do?

I've fallen for someone who's nothing like you

He's raised on the edge of the devil's backbone

Oh I just wanna take him home...

You begin to think about the events that unfolded that morning with Trenvik. What if something does happen? What if Yondu does make me go back to Earth? I can’t leave him. He’s everything I never knew I needed. He’s brave and strong and true. Sure, he’s a criminal…but I don’t care. Sure, he’s a pirate, but I love him. I don't want to live a life without him in it. You look up at the screen of the holopad and the tears begin to fall. The last thing you want is to be the reason that Yondu runs into trouble with his crew. You don't want to be the reason someone freaks out and he gets hurt. You definitely don't want to put him in a situation where he would have to hurt someone else. He’s been through so much in his life. From being a battle slave all those years ago, being exiled by Stakar, and now he’s questioning his crew’s loyalty.

...Don't care if he's guilty, don't care if he's not

He's good and he's bad and he's all that I've got

Oh Lord, Oh Lord, I'm begging you please

Don't take that sinner from me

Oh don't take that sinner from me

What you didn’t know, is that Yondu was already in the room. He’s been silently standing inside the door listening to the music, hearing the lyrics along with your short breaths.

“Y/n?” His voice is barely above a whisper.

“Yondu!” You whip around, tears evident on your cheeks. “I didn’t hear you come in. What did you need?”

“Baby…what’s wrong? Did Trenvik bother ya?” You think his words over and absentmindedly rub your wrist where Trenvik grabbed you earlier. Yondu sees this and he raises his voice, “Did he put his hands on ya?!”

“Well…yes. He grabbed my wrist in the walkway. I’m a little scared of him, but he didn’t say anything hurtful or inappropriate. I just don't like the feeling he gives me. It’s…intrusive and creepy.”

Yondu's expression then turns angry. Eyes flashing with a seething light. Just as he is about to speak, the comm on his wrist beeps and Kraglin could be heard. “Cap’n, the crew is gathered in the mess fer the meeting.”

“Thanks, Kraglin, I’m headed yer way.” Yondu’s eyes meet yours, and he sees how worried you are. He forces his emotions to calm. “I’m gonna go talk to the crew. I’ll get this settled sweetheart, just ya wait and see.” He caresses your jaw with his hand, and places a single kiss on your lips. “Do ya wanna come with me? Ya can stand by me if that makes ya feel better ‘bout the whole thing?”

“I guess so.” You shrug.

“C’mon, darlin’.” He leads you out the doorway and toward the mess. Once there, you and Yondu walk up toward the officers table at the front. The platform you follow him to is raised and Yondu leans in close to you.

“Stay close ta me, I don’t expect much trouble, but I’d rather be safe in case anyone decides to get stupid.”

You take one small step back, but stay near Yondu’s side. The men in the mess are talking amongst themselves loudly. Kraglin approaches the Captain and murmurs, “Everyone is here sir, they’re all yers.”

Yondu clears his throat and lets out one loud, sharp whistle. His arrow flys up to his ear, and the room is immediately silent. Your heart is beating quickly, and you put your hands behind your back so you can fiddle with your fingers without being seen.

“Now…I bet ya’ll are wonderin’ why I called everyone here. It’s been brought ta my attention that some ‘a y’all think that I am keepin ya on a short leash around y/n fer no reason. It ain't fer no reason. Y/n is off limits, because she’s mine! It’s safe fer ya'll ta assume that she is my girl. I don’t want ta hear another complaint from anyone on this ship about y/n being off limits. If anyone has a problem with that, you are free to depart one of two ways: at our next port, which would be Knowhere, or out the airlock! If I get even the tiniest wind of more talk regarding y/n or this mutiny crap that’s been floating around, I will not hesitate to send this arrow straight through yer skull! Is that clear!?”

A resounding “Yes sir!” echoed through the mess.

“Not a single one ‘a ya is ta lay a hand on her. You do not speak to her in a manner she doesn’t like, and if ya do ya’ll can believe that I will know about it, and I will skin ya alive.”

The murmurs began again as Yondu turns to say something to the first mate. You scan over the crowd nervously. You catch Trenvik staring straight through you from the back of the room. His icy stare sending the worst chills down your spine. You overhear some mention of the Captain going soft, and something about you being his personal whore. The word “whore” lights your blood on fire, and you begin to see red. The murmurers start to get louder and the room is clouded with harsh laughter. The noise starts to get overwhelming. Without thinking, you yell into the room as loud and you can manage. Yondu snaps his head in your direction at the sound of your voice.

“SHUT IT!!” Your fists are clenched and your arms are shaking. Yondu can see the rage burning in your eyes. Anger is an emotion he has never seen you wear before. He isn’t sure if he should stop you, or let you continue. He keeps his eyes on you while you speak.

“Most of you in this room only know me as the Secretary – so to speak. Some of you have never spoken to me, where as some of you,” you glance in Tullk and Geff’s direction and smile softly, “talk to me on a regular basis. Yes, I am in a relationship with the Captain. Yes, I am his girl. Now, I have no authority here, but because I am his girl, I will not tolerate any mention of the Captain going soft! Some of you may have no idea what I am. Some of you might not be familiar with where I’m from. Sure, I’m Terran, but I’m more than that. I am human. We care for our own, deeply. We love, we defend and we protect. We Terrans may be small, we might be weak, and hell, we may not even be that smart by galactic standards – but back on my home planet, we have a saying: It takes a village. The meaning is simple…in order to survive, we have to work together. We have to care about each other. For thousands of years, my people have been beating the odds left and right. We’ve survived hostile environments, fierce predators, and devastating plagues. Just 4 Earth years ago, our global population reached over 7 and a half billion people! We survive because we figured out a long time ago that love is our strength, not our weakness.”

Apart from your words, the room is so quiet you could hear a pin drop. You take a big breath in, and continue.

“The point is, this crew could be a whole hell of a lot better off if you guys would trash this idea that caring about someone makes you soft! It’s absolutely ridiculous! Love can bring on a strength in each and every one of you that you never knew you had. It doesn’t even have to be romantic love, it can be something as simple as friendship and respect for one another, and for your Captain. Just know that this entire crew would be so much stronger and much more resilient if you would consider my words. With this knowledge, and with Captain Udonta at the helm, this crew could do anything!”

The crew just stares back at you, with a mixture of bewilderment and confusion on their faces.

“However, Rome wasn’t built in a day. So…just think about it.” You smirk confidently, and cross your arms.

Yondu just stares at you. It’s hard to read what he’s thinking, as he remains expressionless. He looks back out over the crew. “Yer dismissed. Get back ta work!”

Kraglin discreetly says something to Yondu, and he glances at you before leaving the mess as well. Shit…I might have way overstepped my boundaries. Yondu is probably pissed. Great.

Yondu turns to you. “Yer done with yer work fer the day. Come with me.” You follow Yondu out of the mess and straight to his quarters.

#Yondu and The Secretary #Yondu Udonta #yondu x reader #marvel #fanfic #gotg #gotg fanfiction #ravager #kraglin obfonteri #kraglin #eclector

[the-beskar-alchemist]

Bucky x reader imagines that live rent-free in my head (I'm not a writer, but I really needed to get these off my chest)

I'm typically Mandalorian-centric, so if you prefer to avoid this little tangent of mine I have added a cut for your convenience.

My ADHD has me daydreaming CONSTANTLY, so if you're reading this than you don't mind tumbling down the rabbit hole with me...

1) Chubby!Baker!Bucky x Coyote Ugly!Reader - Reader has a meet-cute with Bucky at his bakery right after it opens one morning. A case of PMS leads reader to the only bakery with a dessert that will help her feel better. Reader is a bartender at the infamous Coyote Ugly in New York, fluffy romance ensues, reader stops by every morning at the bakery to visit Bucky before the bakery opens, and sometimes he'll even wake up in time to drive/walk her home after her shift.

2) Fullmetal Alchemist - Bucky is insecure about his arm, so he tries to avoid letting reader see it. Reader is an anime fan and LOVES the series Fullmetal Alchemist, so they decide the best way to show Bucky how cool his arm is would be to introduce him to their favorite cyborg character: Edward Elric. Fluff ensues, Bucky jokingly refers to reader as his "Winry".

3) Supernatural/FaTWS - During one of his therapy sessions, Bucky can't help but notice that Dr. Raynor has a new piece of artwork hanging on the wall across from the couch. It's a strange symbol that seems a little cultish, but Raynor brushes it off as something she found to "add variety" to the room. Later another super soldier is spotted wreaking havoc on New York.....a soldier with long dark hair....black clothes...and a silver arm. Some dark themes. (The symbol in question is a tulpa, when Bucky concentrates on his past life as the WS, while staring the painting, he inevitably brings the "character" to life).

4) Bones/FaTWS - Reader is sick of how Dr. Raynor speaks to Bucky, and asks if it's possible for him to get a different therapist, one with better experience in handling a veteran. They enlist the help of former colleague Special Agent Seeley Booth to help convince his former therapist, Dr. Gordon Wyatt, to accept the position. Booth also provides some wisdom on how to live with  red ledger as a former sniper, as well as having connections with the assassination of a president. Definitely some angst.

5) Law and Order SVU/FaTWS - Similar to the Bones crossover, except reader's former colleague is Dr. George Huang, a forensic psychiatrist and criminal profiler for SVU. Can Olivia Benson and Dr. Huang help heal Bucky in the way that he truly needs as a special victim himself?

6) The Mortal Instruments/Post-Endgame/Pre-FaTWS - Steve isn't actually dead, but fakes it in order to go into hiding so that he can finally "retire" in peace, but still stay in his regular timeline. The only people that know of this are reader and the people of Idris, Shadowhunters, who have agreed to give the great Captain solace in exchange for his services in helping to protect the sacred country. Because of Idris' supernatural protection, both divine and otherwise, Idris is undetectable by even Wakanda-standards, making it the perfect place to hide. Until Bucky finds out the truth, and demands reader take him there. Can he forgive Steve? And why was the Captain so desperate to run away from his best friend? AAAAAANGST.

7) Doctor Sleep/FaTWS - Reader is gifted with the "shining", and tries so hard to avoid accidentally side-stepping into other people's heads, but sometimes their efforts are futile. Reader accidentally side-steps into Bucky's head, and he hates the idea of yet another person messing around in there. He avoids reader as much as possible, but they're neighbors so they still encounter each other in the apartment building. One night Bucky has a nightmare, and reader can't help but sense it with the "shining", immediately racing to help. Angst for sure.

8) The Matrix/(whichever movie you choose honestly, they could all work)....-  Instead of Agent Smith spreading like a virus, it was Hydra that attempted to overthrow the virtual world of the Matrix, and overpower the Machines. Steve is the "One" the free-minded have been searching for, he is freed from the alternate reality, but Bucky remains behind. Bucky's "infected" by Hydra, his programming is rewritten to become the Winter Soldier. Can Steve help free Bucky's mind from Hydra's control? Or will Hydra take over and destroy Zion for good?

9) Gilmore Girls/Chubby!Baker!Bucky x Reader - Reader moved to New York from Stars Hollow a few years back, but will occasionally go back for a visit to see their favorite Inn owners Lorelei and Sookie. Reader gushes about Sookies cooking and baked goods.......and a slightly jealous Bucky is a little miffed that his Cupcake/Peaches (you pick) enjoys someone else's baking besides his own.

10) Treasure Planet with Pirate!Bucky - Captain Steve Rogers is a respectable sailor who becomes an unfortunate pawn in a scheme to steal a spherical map that leads to the legendary Treasure Planet......and Pirate!Bucky will do anything to get his hands on some of the riches.

11) Conventions with FaTWS!Bucky - Reader convinces her grumpy boyfriend to let loose and enjoy a comic book/anime convention. Bucky thinks it's silly at first, but he can't help his fanboy side when he sees some people cosplaying as his favorite characters. There's also the dealer's rooms where he discovers the feeling of buying things he likes just because, realizing how much he missed choosing things for himself. Bonus points if Reader cosplays as one of his favorite characters.

That's all I have for now.....I may fuck around and add more later lol

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky imagine #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes imagines #i'm stuck in my own head #send help