#i imagine the cafe is run maybe by a life wizard | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gryffindors-weasley · 3 years

Text

Missing Pieces

Draco Malfoy x Reader

Summary: Years pass since the battle and you’ve loved and lost. But your secret isn’t forever when you encounter the one thing you’ve had to hide from.

Warnings: angst, mentions of death, grieving, mentions of heartbreak, fluff, requited love and kissing

A/N: This is for @iliveiloveiwrite 3.5k song challenge! This fic is based off the song Empty Space by James Arthur, and I’ve gotten a bit carried away with the length on this one. I haven’t written angst in a while, so I hope you enjoy it! Congratulations again, Millie!

You sensed a presence near you, one that lingered behind you ever since you left the shop. One that was only further confirmed when you risked a weary glance over your shoulder, eying a darkened figure slip out of sight just as quickly as you had spotted it. It’d been foolish to be out and about at such an hour by yourself. But you became accustomed to this very feeling over the last four years, it was the only choice you had.

Each time you passed under a street lamp it became a race to get under the next pool of light, as if the glowing sphere that was cast on the cement would make you invincible. You could only hope for that to be so. Because not many people cared for a walk on a chilly evening like this, much less in the drizzling December rain. It was a small town that was rather off the grid after all, you shouldn’t even really be out if you were being honest. But you couldn’t risk being seen apparating nor did you feel like it.

The footfalls behind you were distinct, setting themselves apart against the dull tap of the raindrops on the cracked pavement and you couldn’t deny your racing heart. But you pushed on with a vigor, wanting nothing more than to reach your front door and lock out the world behind you for the night. That’s how you ended every day and every single one to come.

Another hurried glance gave way to the same shadow, a growing frustration forming in the pit of your stomach. Maybe you were just seeing things. Maybe it was just a trick of the eye. The wizarding war had left you rather paranoid after all, and that was never something that’d completely go away. You tried your very hardest to convince yourself you were just tired. However, the soft metallic clinking of what had to be keys was certainly not in your imagination, you knew that for a fact.

You were quick to grip the wand tucked within the side of your boot, fed up as you turned on your heel. “Who are you?”

Your voice was firm as you held your wand tightly in front of you, knuckles white as your eyes squinted to better see in the darker alleyway. It probably wasn’t the best place to confront a stranger, but you had never been one to back down.

A tense silence settled around you, heart hammering away in your chest as your gaze bounced around the seemingly vacant street. It felt like seconds had turned to hours. You were moments away from casting a Lumos spell when the figure stepped out from the alley and revealed themselves. The breath you held now remained caught in your throat, mouth growing dry as your eyes widened a fraction. The gray eyes and platinum hair were unmistakable, the very person you longed to see but knew you couldn’t. He was now standing just a mere two feet away from you.

You were paralyzed in your own thoughts momentarily. Taking in the way his hair nearly tangled with his lashes, or the misty rain droplets that beaded across his pale skin. The forest green scarf that wrapped loosely around his neck, the one you got him for Christmas a number of years ago, now tattered and frayed. Maybe it was the way he looked at you, solemn and hopeful that it really was you. That, it was definitely that.

“Draco?” You whisper, still in disbelief. All the color drained from your cheeks and you nearly dropped your wand, a shockwave of something coursing through your body. You didn’t know if you wanted to run and never look back, or stay.

He swallowed thickly, nearly flinching at the sound of his name falling from your lips after having been deprived of it for so long. His nostrils flared, jaw clenching under the pressure of his own tears as he fought the urge to cage you in his arms and never let go. He couldn’t do that. He shouldn’t do that.

“I thought you were dead.”

The words were strained and low, spoken through gritted teeth as the pain of the last four years doused each one as they fell from quivering lips. It felt as though your heart dropped to your stomach, sitting there heavy as a boulder as tears sting in your eyes.

“How long have you been following me?” You snap defensively, tone ice cold as you try to avoid his statement, finding yourself failing miserably.

“That’s not important.”

It very much was important, though he wasn’t ready to inform you of those details. He’d first found you seven months ago. He was on a home call to the small town you currently resided in, the hospital deeming Draco to be the best fit to heal this patient in particular. Though he was regularly sought out because no other healer within the wizarding world was quite like him, no one held the astounding skills he possessed, and the consideration of that title was something he was rather proud of.

Regardless of the details or their importance, he found himself wandering through the town after he’d finished his job, feeling somewhat compelled to do so. It wasn’t a very interesting place, nothing to set it apart from the next town over or any that happened to be in the near vicinity. However, day in and day out everything had seemed mundane to him, everything blending together in a repetitive and bleak manner. His very world had seemed to have lost its spark. One thing and one thing only had put that miserable town on a pedestal to all the others. You.

He blinked a few times, feeling like his sleepless nights had conjured up the illusion that the very love of his life had been just on the other side of the street, tucked away in a cafe and seated in the picture window. He was more than tempted to cross the cracked street to get a clearer confirmation but the blaring sound of a taxi cab’s horn brought him back to reality. The car promptly swerved around him as he stepped back on the sidewalk, followed by the drivers string of curses out of the window. But he didn’t care, it was undeniably you.

First he was confused, then he was profoundly angry. So much so his skin flushed and burned and passers by had given him odd looks, making a point to avoid him on the narrow walkway. Had you really hated him so much to go so far as to create that kind of deception? One that impacted him so deeply it felt like the air had been stolen from his lungs for months on end thinking you were gone. He was beginning to think you never really loved him at all, that all the whispered promises of a better life together were tall tales spoken in vain.

He’d apparated to his home immediately, unable to bear another glance at you as nausea swirled in his stomach, abandoning the rest of his shift entirely. Resentment filled his empty heart and clouded his mind for days and weeks after that day. The empty space you left behind felt all the more daunting, your memories together no longer a bittersweet recollection as they replayed in his mind. Now they had been permanently tarnished, worsening the utter despair your absence had left him in. Dozens of letters were written in haste and either crumpled or ripped up, thrown across his room with the addition of a nearby object to shatter against the wall.

He hated you. But most of all he hated that he couldn’t move on from you, and yet still, he didn’t want to.

It took him three months to come down from his anger and try and reason with himself. There was no question you had been hit with a hex that day. He watched you writhe in agony at his very own fathers malicious and spiteful doing, those same hands holding him back from joining your side. It couldn’t have been anything but real, your screams permanently engrained in his memory as you left him in the ruins of the courtyard to face his fate alone.

The unanswered questions still fueled his frustration, however, but he found himself returning to that very town. It started as once every two weeks, and when almost four more months had passed he found himself going nearly every day. He wasn’t one to chase after the things that hurt him, but you seemed to be an exception, you always seemed to be an exception. He had been desperate to see you despite the jab he felt in his chest every single time he did.

Now it’s brought him here.

He remained stoic as he stood in front of you, the proximity making it seem as though he towered over your smaller frame. He wasn’t trying to be intimidating, not in the slightest, but it made you take a step back nonetheless. He fought against the unbearable pressure seemingly crushing his chest, weaving its way around his heart and wrapping around his throat as he concealed the tears pressing just behind his eyes. The sight had you at a loss for words.

“Draco I—”

“How could you let me think you were gone for the last four years, Y/n?” His voice was raised by this point, his hands clenching at his sides before he released them, leaving small crescent-shaped indentations of his nails behind on his palms.

This was absolutely not the conversation you were looking to have at eleven at night, certainly not one to be had in the middle of the sidewalk. But Draco had seemed insistent that this was happening right then and there whether you had liked it or not. You were beginning to feel like you never wanted to have this talk, the panic bubbling in your stomach as you scrambled to give him an answer.

“It was for your own good,” You say quietly, throat beginning to ache as you suppressed your tears, your own frustration building. It was a feat that was easier said than done. A stray passerby had looked in your general direction to discern the source of the commotion.

“What?”

“Nothing,” you dismiss, turning to leave.

His hand shot out and grabbed your own, the feeling nearly electric against your skin. Your breath hitched in your throat momentarily. “No, it’s not nothing. I have a right to know.”

His hand lingered in yours for a moment or two longer than it should have before it dropped back to his side, his gaze fixed on you as he waited for your explanation. Of the hundreds of ways you thought to broach this conversation in the many days and months apart, they all seemed to erase themselves from your memory now that the moment had arised. “Go on, tell me.”

You stood there hesitantly, afraid of what he might say. Afraid that he’d turn around and leave you behind much like you’d regrettably done to him all those years ago. Though at that point if he chose to do that, you knew it was something you deserved. You owed him the reason, you knew that. But it took great effort to choke out the words, scared to know what would come of the interchange.

“Your mother,” you timidly managed to get out, quiet voice trembling as you spoke your words carefully. “She saved me after I was hexed by your father. I wasn’t in the best shape but she saved me from dying that day.”

You studied his face, watching the crease between his dark brows deepen, bottom lip beginning to noticeably tremble.

“Why didn’t you come get me?” His tone was angry and insistent, jaw clenching as he tried to process what you had just said.

“She told me it’d be better this way. It’d only cause trouble if they knew what she had done for me because I very clearly wasn’t going to make it, it wouldn’t have made sense if suddenly I bounced back from it. Said we were better off apart because at least we’d both make it out of there alive and in one piece, you could have the life you always wanted for yourself.”

He scoffed in disbelief, looking away from you briefly as if to gather his thoughts that rapidly bombarded him. “You really believe that?” He asks quietly.

You shrug, a tear spilling over your reddened cheek. “Look at all the heartache it’s caused, Draco. What was I supposed to do? Should I have just shown up on your doorstep and said ‘Hey, I’m sorry. I know I’ve abandoned you for a few years and made you think I was dead and left you to be heartbroken, but I’m not really.’ Is that what you wanted?”

“It would have been a start.” A humorless laugh left his lips as he shook his head.

You scoff as you narrow your eyes up at him, drawing in a shaky breath. “Don’t be ridiculous, Draco.”

“Ridiculous? You basically ripped my heart right out of my chest and stomped all over it, and I’m being ridiculous?”

He bit his tongue after that, taking a deep breath to stave off the anger simmering in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t want to say something to further create anymore regrets.

“I didn’t ask for this!” You nearly shout, his expression softening. “I didn’t want this to be our fate, I fought it as best I could because I didn’t feel right living a life without you in it. It wasn’t ever my choice to make, Draco, and I think you know that.” You manage to say, swallowing the growing lump in your throat. “You deserve better than that.”

He looked at his feet, taking a moment to gather himself as he wiped his cheek with a trembling hand. He shook his head then, lifting his eyes to meet yours again with furrowed brows. He took that moment to take you in, to really look at you, something he’s wanted to do far more often than he ever cared to admit. Your eyes still sparkled the way they always do, and it wasn’t just from the tears that glossed over them. Or the way your cheeks and the very tip of your nose reddened in the chilled winter weather, accentuating every freckle that dotted along your skin. He couldn’t bring himself to look away, nor did he want to.

He took a step closer to replace the one you had taken to widen the gap between you, taking a deep breath as he tried to properly articulate his next words.

“If you think for a second that there was any moment in any day that I haven’t thought of you, you’re wrong. You’re etched in my bones, Y/n, there’s no moving on from you. Don’t you understand the only life I’ve ever wanted is with you?”

He was pleading by this point, voice louder than before as he tried to get you to understand his words were sincere.

You wiped your cheek with your sleeve, the cold weather seeping through your jacket no longer there with the fire ablaze in your chest. “You can’t possibly mean that anymore, and there’s no way I’ll let you forgive me either,” you laugh bitterly, softly, and you shake your head again. “Not after that. That would be ridiculous and I won’t allow it.” You inhaled a quivering breath, meeting his eyes. “You’re supposed to hate me.”

He wouldn’t call it forgiveness, but the very person who left his heart in tatters was the same one who kept it beating. Seemingly the only one.

His breath caught in his throat momentarily as he listened to your words, voice wavering as he whispers, “I could never hate you.”

Those five words were enough to make your heart pound so hard it couldn’t possibly remain in your chest. You wanted nothing more than to run to his arms and pretend nothing ever happened, like you hadn’t kept yourself hidden from him for years while he suffered. But you couldn’t forget it. It wasn’t something you could brush under the rug because the guilt wasn’t quite something you could get over.

“I love you, Draco, very much. But I can’t. I can’t just let this go, and you shouldn’t want me to,” you start, tears falling freely and mixing with the rain. “For that reason, I can’t stay, I have to go.”

You could hardly get the words to fall from your mouth, and through your heartbeat pounding vigorously in your ears you weren’t entirely sure if they did.

He opened his mouth to speak, but you knew he’d try and get you to stay and you didn’t know if you were strong enough to hear it. So you turned your back to the love of your life, rushing off as your face scrunched with unshed tears before disappearing around the next corner. He choked back a sob of his own as he followed after you, turning the corner and finding himself to be the only one left.

4 Months Later

Four months. It had been four months since the night that remained burned in your memory, replaying the interchange word for word every time you closed your eyes. For having gone years without seeing him you thought this would be a simple task to do it again. To rid yourself of the pain that came with loving Draco Malfoy. But really this seemed to be the hardest part of it all, the last four years had paled in comparison to this.

The hole in your chest, the one you’d created twice over was widening with each passing day. You saw him in every thing you did, perhaps you really did see him. Flashes of memories would flood your mind and taunt you. Memories of running through the gardens of the Manor like kids every time you looked at the flowers surrounding your home. Memories of nights in the astronomy tower when the moonlight trickled in your window, curtains promptly being closed. Or the pang in your chest when your fingers brushed over the fabric of his sweater that hung in the very back of your closet. The intense, all-consuming heartache was something you’d never wish on your worst enemy. To long so deeply for someone just might be the worst kind of pain.

Four more months of living in the same looping regret, guilt tightly lacing itself around your heart and constricting you more with every day that goes by. You wondered where you might currently be if you hadn’t been so stubborn, if you hadn’t sabotaged the very thing that made you feel the most alive. Or if you had defied Narcissa’s wishes and ran away with him like you always wanted.

The thought of what should have and could have been tore you up the more you paid them mind. It could have been the two of you in that house, decorated with shared books and memorabilia. You could be waking up together for the rest of your life, rather than occupying the mattress alone. But any scenario that crossed your mind always seemed like it was far out of the realm of possibility, and you were at fault for it. So, you continued on with your everyday life.

You walked up the mossy cobblestone walkway to your home with a huff, groceries tucked in the crook of your arm. You were too tired to apparate, having lacked the energy to do so long before that moment. It was proving to be a challenging task just to find the right key one-handedly, having dropped them completely when you looked up. The metal clang sounded as they hit the ground, the paper bag you held crinkling under your tightened grip, but you soon settled a bit as you sighed. You weren’t sure if you could do this again.

The same blonde that had haunted your every day stood just under your covered porch, sifting through the envelopes that carried his name across the front of each and every one.

“I see my letters have reached you,” He says upon seeing you, quiet as he takes the time to look over each one, not even having to glance inside them to know what was thoughtfully written.

You were quiet, embarrassed that he was now aware of your ignorance to them as they accumulated into a pile just outside your door. It hadn’t made matters any better. “I’ve read some.”

It was true, you had plucked a few from the growing pile and read through them, even reread multiple times. But it quickly became unbearably painful to read his words, the metaphorical blade in your heart twisting with every line your eyes skimmed across. So you let them gather—one turning to two, two turning to five, five turning to ten. They sat, weathered by the outside elements with hopes to be opened and read as intended.

You wanted to write back. You wanted desperately to fill pages detailing how much you had missed him dearly, how fully you loved him. You wanted to pour your very heart onto every piece of letterhead you could find in your house and send it to him, he deserved to know that much, he deserved much more than what you gave. Yet you still wanted to be selfish and have him all to yourself.

He laughed softly, holding no humor as he set them down carefully in a much neater pile on the old rocking chair behind him before stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“Why didn’t you write back?” His tone was curious rather than angry, though disappointment was still very much there.

You pushed back your truthful reasoning in favor of a simple answer. “I didn’t feel it was appropriate for me to get your hopes up.”

His brows furrowed as a bittersweet smile formed on his lips, one that hadn’t fully reached his tired eyes.

“Love, I’m afraid that’s already happened the moment I saw you again.”

Your heart squeezed in your chest at the nickname, one you certainly didn’t deserve to be referred to as. It took everything in you not to crumble, not to burst into tears.

“Why are you here, Draco?” You ask, desperately wanting to change the subject to keep yourself from lingering on the way he looked at you, gingerly and full of longing.

He shifted on his feet, a brief silence settling between the two of you as he looked at his surroundings. The gray stone walls of the medium-sized cottage, the bursts of color dotting the perimeter from the blooming flowers planted in unkempt flowerbeds, the worn paint on the porch from repeated foot traffic; it was clear to see the path you walked in on a daily basis.

“Has my mother picked this place out for you?” He asks softly, seemingly avoiding your question as he lightly ran his fingertips over the dark green railing. He feels he’s certain he already knows that answer. “It’s quite beautiful.”

You sigh, cheeks burning a rosy pink when he caught your gaze again. “Draco, what are you doing here?” You repeat.

Once again he’s quiet, mulling things over as he carefully thinks about his next words. While waiting, you find yourself trying not to focus on the way the spring breeze blows his hair out of his face, or the way the tip of his nose reddened in the brisk weather. None of those details should have been important but you couldn’t bring yourself to look away, not really.

“I suppose I wanted to see you.”

The hesitation in his quiet admission was indicative that there was more to it than he’d let on. And once again it felt as though your heart had been somersaulting in your chest, but you fought the warmth that blossomed in waves within your body at the short statement.

“I don’t believe that’s a very good idea for either of us.” Your words were soft and you hadn’t really believed them, not as much as you should have, but it felt like something you were supposed to say.

You could tell his anger had been rising, could tell by the way he turned his back to you and clutched the wooden railing, gathering himself. You could see the deep breaths he’d been taking, slow and steady as his knuckles turned an ivory white. Your stubbornness had always been a quality he had loved about you, but now that very trait was the thing that’s been ripping him apart.

“And just why is that, Y/n?” His frustration was beginning to become more and more apparent as he turned to face you again, cheeks flushed a pale scarlet. He threw his hands in the air to accompany his words, letting them fall back to his sides. He took another deep breath to control his emotions. “Why?”

“What do you want me to say, Draco?” You we’re defeated by this point, the emotional turmoil having stripped you of the light you once held. This very love had completed you while being your downfall all the same. You felt like you wanted to run in this very moment, as far as possible, but your feet remained planted in place just outside your front door.

He looked at you with such intensity, utterly spellbound by you, that you had to look away from him for a moment, his gaze never faltering no matter how many tears had blurred his vision. His nostrils flare as his eyes continue to gloss over.

“I want you to tell me you love me,” He starts, voice wavering though he kept going despite it. “I want you to tell me you won’t leave. Not again. I have tried and tried to rid myself of you and everything that came with loving you, to fill the gaps you left in my life but there’s far too many. I’m afraid nobody will ever hold a candle to you. So please, I want you to tell me you’ll stop running and stay with me.”

You blinked away your tears as you swallowed thickly, voice coming out in a soft whisper. “Draco, please,” you plead, “I—”

He held up his hand, silently asking to continue as he stepped closer to you cautiously, scared that if he moved too quickly you’d slip away again.

“I didn’t have a choice my entire life, and going another minute without you isn’t a choice either, not really,” he chuckles through tears, his lip trembling and he brushed his hair out of his eyes. “I’m so tired of holding grudges. And you can try and keep yourself from me all you want, but I need you with me. I don’t know who I am without you.”

You stood there, clinging to every single word that fell from his lips as you looked up at him. Every passing second was detrimental to the wall you tried to build around yourself, diminishing piece by piece. Your heart pounded in your chest, so much so you thought it might burst then and there. You turned away from him to catch your breath, missing the way his face scrunched in a quiet sob he’d tried to keep you from bearing witness to. But you hadn’t missed the sniffles sounding just paces behind you, and it was something you knew you never wanted to hear again.

You weighed out all your options, rapidly finding yourself unable to find a reason to walk away from this, a logical reason, other than yourself and your inability to let this go. You were tired of fighting, and you were tired of living without the one person you felt you were meant to love. It was useless to do such a thing anymore because no matter how hard you could try to find love in someone else, it always circles back to him.

Against all self doubt and the crushing guilt that told you to let him go and close that chapter, you spun on your heel to find him staring as his breath caught in his throat. You crossed the porch with certainty, leaning up on your toes, fists gripping his coat tightly as you kissed him fiercely. He was knocked back a step or two but his arms were around you in an instant, pressing you as close as he could.

Something akin to electricity ignited across every inch of your skin, and you ignored the nagging thoughts that maybe you shouldn’t be doing this right now. That maybe it was too soon, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care about technicalities and ‘maybe’s’. You parted and he felt it was all too brief as he chased after your lips, but you hadn’t strayed far as you released his jacket, smoothing the crinkled material. You looked up at him, his breath fanning across your face. These quiet, fleeting moments felt like they stretched into hours as you allowed yourself to bask in the moment you never thought you’d experience again.

“I love you,” you whisper, and he laughed softly in relief as a tear slips down his cheek, then another, your lips finding his again in a much softer kiss.

He still held you tightly, fingers splayed across your cheek as if to have confirmation that this was real, that it was really happening. Still to make sure you wouldn’t take off, that you were real.

It was. And he was never losing you again.

—

#iliveiloveiwrite3.5k #draco malfoy #draco malfoy imagine #draco malfoy fic #draco malfoy x reader #draco malfoy x you #draco malfoy angst #draco malfoy fluff

280 notes · View notes

silver-renjun · 3 years

Text

Cafe 7 Dream: Haechan

Word Count: 2, 227

Warnings: violence, stabbing

Read the prologue before reading this!

You walked in to your 8 am class, late as usual. A bouquet of roses was waiting for you at your seat. You picked up the bouquet and read the note attached to it.

You’re the most beautiful person in the world. You light up my life like nobody else. - Haechan

You took your seat and shot a confused look towards Haechan.

“What’s with the One Direction lyrics, dude?”

“No y/n, you’re not supposed to say that. You’re supposed to say ‘Oh my gosh Haechan, you’re so perfect! I want to go out with you!’” Haechan shook his head in disappointment.

“Dude, I told you this wouldn’t work,” Jeno said.

“y/n’s too dumb to figure it out,” Renjun added. “y/n’s only going to get it if you’re direct.”

“Ugh, you’re right. Why’d I fall for someone so clueless?” Haechan rolled his eyes at you. “Do you want to go on a date with me?”

“Sure, whatever,” you answered. You secretly had a crush on Haechan for months, but you did want to be teased by him. Even now that you had a date with him, you were still wary about opening up to him.

Your mind was on Haechan for the entire class. It usually was, but today you had more to think about than just his beautiful honey skin. You wondered why he suddenly asked you out, where he was going to take you, and if you two could really have a sucessful future together.

“y/n! Don’t stop taking those notes! You don’t want your boyfriend to fail, do you?”

His voice snapped you out of your imagination. Perhaps the key passing this class was all that you were to him. You shouldn’t have gotten ahead of yourself.

You spend your day at the cafe working with Mark. The two of you were icing cakes. Haechan was in the back of the cafe baking them. You couldn’t keep in your questions about him any longer.

“Mark. You and Haechan work together the most, right?” you asked.

“Yeah. This is about him asking you out earlier today, isn’t it?” Mark replied. You nodded. “I know the guy is weird and all, but I think he’s pretty genuine when it comes to his feelings.”

“You really think so?” you said with a smile.

“He’s kind of had a crush on you for a while, so yeah. I’m actually surprised he didn’t ask you out earlier.”

You continued your shift with a smile, thinking about what Mark had told you. Maybe Haechan was a sweet guy after all, you just had to give him a chance. After all the customers were gone and cleanup was over, you made your way out the cafe door.

“Hey! Wait y/n!” Haechan screamed, running after you. “You weren’t trying to get away from me before our date, were you?”

“We’re going on the date now?” you said with a shocked expression.

“Yeah, didn’t I tell yo-” Haechan’s voice became quiet after he realized he had never told you the details of the date. “Well anyways, let’s get going.”

Haechan took you to an Italian restaurant. It wasn’t the most luxurious place, but it was definitely fancy for two broke college students. After a short wait, the two of you took your seats by the window.

“This place is beautiful, Haechan,” you said, trying to break the ice between you too.

“If you think water stains and ketchup is beautiful, then sure.”

“I was just trying to be friendly,” you replied with a laugh. “What’s beautiful to you Haechan?”

“Well besides, you?” Haechan gave you a smirk. “I think magic is the most wonderful thing in the world.”

“Like, card tricks?” you raised an eyebrow at him.

“No, not like card tricks. Actual magic. Powers, potions, stuff like that. It’s all just crazy to me, yet so perfect.” Haechan had a look of wonder in his eyes.

“You don’t actually believe in magic, right? You know those are just fairytales,” you said with a smile.

“Magic is real, y/n. The cafe is literally run by magic. How do you think we get so many customers? There’s a love potion in our food to get people to come back. That’s Jisung’s specialty, by the way. He’s a wizard. And Jeno, he’s a water spirit. And Renjun’s an oracle.”

“Oh yeah, right. And this place is controlled by magic too,” you said rolling your eyes.

“It is. Do not eat the mushrooms here. I had to learn that the hard way,” Haechan said with a dead serious expression.

“What, do people with magic abilities just naturally gravitate towards food service?”

“Well Chenle’s parents are like, super big deals in the magic world, so what they do is what’s popular.”

“And what powers does Chenle have?” you asked.

“I don’t really know. It’s kind of a safety concern for his family to just share what abilities they have. They only use them when they’re in serious danger.”

“What about Mark and Jaemin?” You didn’t know why you were so curious, since you didn’t even believe the things he was saying.

“Regular people. Just like you. Well, actually they’ve been exposed to magic for their whole lives, so I suppose they’ve got an advantage over you.”

“And what about you? Since you know so much about magic, why don’t you show me some?”

Haechan paused before answering your question. “I don’t exactly have my powers yet. But if you still don’t believe me, I’ll have Jisung show you some magic tomorrow.”

“Great.” You didn’t really believe what he was saying, but you didn’t want to argue with him either. Like Mark had said, Haechan was a weird guy. You figured that this whole magic thing was just something he did to calm his nerves. After all, he did have a crush on you for a while.

The rest of the date went wonderfully. You and Haechan discussed everything from movies to your childhoods. You enjoyed Haechan’s wit that kept the conversation alive. There was never a dull moment between you two. At the end of the night, Haechan took you home to your apartment.

“I had a wonderful time with you tonight,” you said with a smile.

“Me too, baby, me too,” was all Haechan said before he pulled you in for the most passionate kiss you had ever hand. It felt as if time had stopped. Haechan only let go after he saw you struggling for air. With that over, Haechan left as if nothing had happened.

The next day at the cafe, the boys were begging to hear about your date with Haechan.

“How’d it go?” Jaemin said.

“Did he make a fool out of you? Is that why you’re not saying anything?” Chenle asked.

“Come on Chenle, you know better than that. He probably made a fool out of himself first,” Renjun replied. The dreamies erupted into laughter.

“Well the first thing we discussed was magic. y/n doesn’t believe in it,” Haechan finally piped up. The boys became silent and exchanged concerned glances. “Guys, I told her about your powers. It’s not like we could have kept it a secret with her working here all the time.”

“I’ll show you some magic, y/n. Haechan told you what I do right?” Jisung said, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, you’ve got a thing for potions,” you answered.

“I prefer wizard, but you’re still right.” Jisung grabbed a bottle with a blue liquid from under the counter. “This is liquid joy. It’ll instantly take you to the happiest moment in your life.”

Jisung poured you a cup and handed it to you. You took a sip and were instantly transported to a wedding. You didn’t remember having the happiest moment of your life at some stranger’s wedding until you looked at the couple getting married. It was you and Haechan. Before you could take a closer look, you were back at the cafe.

“Wow. That’s actually crazy.”

“So you believe in magic now, right?” Haechan asked. You couldn’t muster up the strength to reply. You were still trying to process what you had seen.

“So what’d you see, y/n?” Mark asked.

“I, um, uh-” was all you could come up with.

“Probably just some stuff from childhood. You guys know how strong that stuff is,” Jeno said. You smiled at him for saving you from an awkward situation.

You spent your shift working with Haechan, which was exhausting to say the least. Nothing you did was up to his standards.

“It’s okay if you suck at baking, y/n. I still love you,” Haechan said before planting a kiss on your forehead. A chorus of ‘oohs’ and ‘disgusting’ came from the dreamies.

It became a habit for you and Haechan to go on dates after work. He showed you around all the restaurants owned by magical beings. One night, this list included his own apartment.

“You said we were going somewhere fancy tonight,” you said as you sat down on his sofa. “Your apartment is a dump.”

“Well your idea of fancy is a goblin-owned Italian restaurant, so you shouldn’t be talking,” Haechan replied. Within a matter of minutes, he whipped up a small dinner for the two of you. He sat down next to you and pulled you into his arms.

“You know, you asked me about my powers on our first date,” he said in a soft tone.

“Yeah,” you replied. You didn’t know where the conversation was going, but you were interested in hearing more.

“There is one way for me to get my abilities immediately, but I’d need your help.”

“Sure!” you replied.

“There’s this ritual that will help awaken my powers. I need the blood of a human to do it, though.” Haechan paused to examine your face.

“And I’ve got plenty of blood! What are you waiting for?” you said. Haechan was shocked at your enthusiasm to offer your blood. As weird as the situation was, you wanted to help your boyfriend in any way you could.

“Okay baby. I need you to lie down on the floor and I’ll get things started, alright?” Haechan got up from the sofa and went into the kitchen.

“I feel like I’m in one of those stories. I’ve got a hot, vampire boyfriend who needs my blood,” you said with a laugh before you laid down on the ground.

“I’m not a vampire y/n. Those guys give me creeps,” Haechan replied. He stood in front of you with a knife in his hand. “I promise I’ll make it as quick as possible.”

Haechan leaned down and pierced your skin with the knife. You screamed as the cold, metal blade dug into your leg. Your screams frightened Haechan, causing him to push deeper. His terrified face was the last thing you saw before you passed out.

When you woke up, you found yourself in a hospital bed. You were surrounded by the dreamies. Haechan was sitting by your foot side, crying.

“Did it work? For Haechan?” you asked the boys.

“It did. He’s a fire demon,” Jeno answered.

“But that’s not important right now. He put you in danger!” Jaemin screamed.

“I wanted him to gain his powers,” you said quietly.

“Those rituals are so risky! Summoning your powers like that, you might go haywire!” Chenle yelled.

“But he’s okay, right?” you asked.

“Will you stop worrying about Haechan for one second! He used you! He put you life in jeopardy for his own benefit!” Renjun shouted at you.

“y/n, I didn’t mean it. I just thought maybe I could try not to hurt you, and I didn’t even think you were going to agree with it anyways, and I should have known better, oh my gosh. Renjun even had a vision where I hurt you and I didn’t even listen to him, I just though maybe-” Haechan babbled between tears.

“Renjun had a vision? You knew this was going to happen and you still did it? You knew I was going to get hurt and you didn’t even try to protect me?” you screamed.

“I’m so sorry, please just forgive me, I really tried to not hurt you, I was wrong, I didn’t mean for it to be this way,” Haechan cried.

You couldn’t stand to see your boyfriend in pain. You thought back to what Mark had told you about Haechan. His feelings were genuine.

“I forgive you.”

“What? Oh my gosh, y/n, I’ll never let you get hurt again, oh please, I’ll never leave your side, I’ll protect you for the rest of my life, I’ll-” Haechan threw himself into your lap.

“It’s alright, Haechan. I know baby, I know,” you said as you hugged him and patted his head.

Select another route

48 notes · View notes

daydream-believin · 3 years

Text

Recipe For Disaster 2: Electric Boogaloo

Summary: Jim is NOT happy about his sister’s boyfie. (not a part two despite the confusing name)

Warnings: swearing, a gilmore girls reference, divorce kids got daddy issues

Word Count: 5560, my longest yet woohoo

A/N: here it is im finally done with this. i- im tired. i love jim he was my favorite until doux came along but he can be a little bitch boy sometimes. and the word of the day is giggle im so sorry

tags: @alovesongshewrote hope i can deliver now that you have expectations lmao

It was a good Saturday. The trollhunters trio had gotten an early start on training, and thus Blinky had released them for an early lunch. It was a particularly successful day, with Claire really getting the hang of the shadow staff, so they decided to not make poor Jim cook for once and go out for a treat. And Toby really wanted a sandwich from Benoit’s.

They opted to walk to downtown instead of biking, as a way to cool down. Plus, it would give them time to digest their food on the walk back, before they returned to training once again. Although that was more of a problem for Jim and Toby, since Blinky wanted Claire to start reading a certain book this afternoon. She’d be in the library, quietly sitting while the boys go back to running around and fighting. The spring flowers had just started returning to Arcadia Oaks. The flowerbeds that decorated town added a cheery air to the day. Happily, Jim ran up in front to kick a pebble as they came up towards the bistro around the corner. He stopped in his tracks.

“Is Y/n’s boss flirting with her?”

The other two teens came around Jim to see. Y/n laughed at Douxie’s dumb joke and put her hand on his shoulder.

“And is she flirting back?” Jim asked incredulously.

Claire didn’t take this the same way Jim did. “Aww, that’s so cute.”

“No it’s not. It’s weird. And wrong.” Jim asserted.

“What are you talking about,” Claire lowered her brows with an annoyed tone.

“No, no. he’s right. Y/n doesn’t flirt. Or date. I’m not even sure she crushes.”

Claire shook her head, “That can’t be true, TP. She’s like, old. You two just didn’t notice it.”

“Oh, no, we noticed it. She went to every school dance alone, even senior prom.” Toby added. “It was kind of sad to be honest.”

“Remember that time that big movie star came into town? He was the prettiest guy I’d ever seen, and Y/n was just like ‘eh he’s okay, I guess’. We literally had a fight over that one.” Jim chuckled.

“I literally can’t imagine Y/n in a relationship. She’s just too all over the place.”

Claire rolled her eyes and gestured her hands towards the scene in front of them. “Well, she seems to be doing just fine now.”

Jim didn’t know why, but this made him a little huffy. “Whatever. It’s just a crush, anyways. She’ll get over it soon enough.”

Douxie leaned over to give Y/n a quick peck goodbye before he headed into Mr. Benoit’s to start his shift. He had swapped shifts with one of his coworkers for the day, so he could have the evening off. Y/n headed back to the bookstore. She tucked her hair behind her ear as she left, smiling to herself. The three trollhunters still stood right where they were, staring.

“I don’t think it’s just a crush, Jimbo.”

Jim was outraged. How. How was this happening. He could understand her not telling her family, their mother could be a bit nosy sometimes when it came to her daughter’s personal affairs. But his sister had often said she didn’t have enough time to pursue a love life whenever their mother probed her. There was no way she just started having said time. Right? It was curious, too, that out of all the people she could have chosen in Arcadia, she chose Douchey. That guy had girls fawning over him wherever he went. There was no way Y/n was into that.

Come to think of it, Y/n had been acting really strange ever since she had gotten that job at the bookstore. It was so easy to make her laugh now. She was actually wearing her hair in different styles instead of her signature. She actually enjoyed Barbara’s cooking. Or at least complimented it a lot now. Still a baffling action nonetheless. It was if she was experiencing the side effects of something. And that bookstore reeked of magic. Magic had the power to drive people out of their minds. He’d had plenty of first-hand experience with that. This whole situation was fishy.

“Well, I think it’s so cute they’re together now.” Claire said cheerily. He loved her but she wasn’t exactly the best when it came to making judgement calls. Hell, the fact that she was dating him after all he’s put her through was enough proof of that.

“Well, I think its magic.” Jim deadpanned.

“What.” Claire snapped.

“He’s got a spell on her! Some sort of enchantment. A charm!”

Toby was too tired from training today to deal with this. “I’ll agree, he does have charm, have you had him as a waiter? But not the kind of charm you’re implying here, Jim.”

“Douxie is my magic teacher, Jim. I promise, he’s a really nice guy.”

“Nope. There’s no way my sister would be into a guy, let alone a guy like,” He tried to find the right words but just sputtered, “Like that!” he motioned to poor Doux, who was changing the specials sign out front. Douxie was one of those bistro employees who always got asked to draw up the sign because his calligraphy was so good. Doux had to admit, his handwriting was messy compared to Merlin’s standards, but to Mr. Benoit’s he was a calligraphy god.

Toby looked Doux up and down. “I don’t know man, Y/n is kind of alternative.”

“Yeah, who do you think helps me dye my hair all the time? And sneaks me into concerts?” Claire added.

“Okay. I get that. But he’s just not good enough for her.” Jim said through gritted teeth.

Toby sighed. “Then who is?” he asked wearily.

Jim got defensive. “I don’t know! A prince, maybe. One that’s in line to be king. Not one of those waiting-for-a-brother-to-die ones, but a real one.” He nodded his head like any of that was realistic. “Definitely not just some wizard who works in a bookstore.”

“She’s just some wizard who works in a bookstore, though.”

There was no getting through to Jim. “Think about it guys, my sister, suddenly getting cozy with a magic man? Bushigal. She’s under a spell. I’m going to fight him.”

“No, no you’re not,” Claire asserted, “You’re going to have lunch like we planned AND you’re going to be civil.” Claire and Toby both grabbed one of his arms and dragged him towards the bistro.

***

The hostess guided them to the table. Claire sat across from Jim and Toby. They were handed the menus. Claire showed interest in the lunch specials while Toby flipped to the sandwiches. Jim just brooded while he stared unblinking into the first page. And by chance, and by the fact that this scene would be boring and or pointless if not, Douxie was the waiter for said table. After handing off the check to one of his other tables, he waltzed over to the trio, happy to see his protégé.

“Ello lads, how’s it going? How’d that test go today, Claire?” Douxie ruffled her hair. Jim narrowed his eyes at the sight.

“Horrible! I bombed it for sure!”

Toby rolled his eyes, “You say that about every test, Claire, and then it turns out you aced them.”

“No I mean it this time, TP. I didn’t even finish the last three questions. It was so bad!”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Douxie chuckled. Oh to have the problems of these youngsters. Claire and Toby got into some sort of glare match where they both just made more and more aggressive funny faces at each other. Both finally conceded and they fell into giggles. Douxie was glad to see Claire having so much fun, but he noticed someone else at the table who was not having said fun. His apprentice Claire’s boyfriend, his master’s champion, and his darling Y/n’s brother, looking like his dog ate his homework, or whatever teenagers got angry about these days.

“Cheer up, lad.” Doux grinned at Jim, “Hangry? I get that. You look like you could use a good meal.”

“Well strangely I am in a cafe”

Claire kicked Jim under the table. He tried his best to stifle the grunt of pain. “Don’t mind Jim, he’s a tad grumpy from a bad training session. And we’ll take waters all around.” She smiled. Doux hurried off to go get their glasses.

In the end, Toby couldn’t pick a sandwich. He had three favorites and couldn’t decide between them yet. Jim and Claire had his back. They both got one of them and he got the third. Then they would all share the halves. A good plan. And it was a delicious one. Toby was thankful for his partners.

***

After finishing up training and walking Claire home, Jim and Toby went their separate ways. Toby had promised his Nana he’d go with her and her boyfriend to see a play in the next town over. Jim had promised his mother he’d be home for a family dinner. He wasn’t able to be home in time to cook, so this was going to be a roulette wheel when it came to food. He was betting on Y/n. As he came to the front door, he cracked it first and smelled the air before going inside as to make sure his candid reaction wouldn’t be bad. The aroma coming from the house was heavenly. Alright, Y/n. Jackpot.

Jim swung the door open wide as he strutted in. Everyone was in the kitchen, it looked like. He put his bag up and called to his family that he was home. Which was met with the two voices he had expected, but one he hadn’t. And it was a voice he didn’t want to hear right now. Douxie. Hisirdoux fucking Casperan. In his house. In his kitchen. In his territory.

Jim immediately felt his muscles tense up. He took a deep breath and put on his best fake smile before heading into the kitchen. Y/n was sautéing something over the stove. Barbara was stirring something which meant that she had insisted on helping and Y/n had done the equivalent of giving your younger sibling a game controller that wasn’t plugged in. The offending wizard was leaning over the bar counter from the other side, chatting away as if he had any reason to be here.

Once Y/n caught sight of Jim, she bubbled. “Jim! How was hiking? You three have fun?” she knew where he actually spent his Saturdays but they had to keep up the rouse for their mom. While Y/n particularly didn’t care for the lying, she also agreed with Jim that some things are best kept from worrisome mothers. Barbara gave her enough shit already for her frequent homecomings from bars and shows in the wee hours of the morning with scrapes and bruises. If their mother knew about Jim’s marginally more dangerous late-night escapades, she might actually have a nervous breakdown.

“Oh yeah, it was great. We saw a deer. It had a baby with it.”

“Majestic.” She turned and gestured to the man at the counter, “You remember Douxie, right?”

“Of course,” Jim said through gritted teeth forced into a smile. “In fact we just saw each other at the bistro earlier today.”

A timer went off. Y/n expressed her delight that something in the oven was done. Barb got some plates out of the cabinet, while Y/n pulled the main course out of the oven. She handed Jim the plates and silverware and sent him to go set the table. Jim supposed this was better than having to talk to Douxie. Until Douxie insisted on helping him. Great.

“So, Jim, I’ve heard a lot about you-”

“I’m sure you have.” Jim cut him off. Douxie was a bit confused, but figured he was still grumpy like he was earlier at the bistro. He’d leave the moody teen alone then. Perhaps he be in a better mood after getting some food in him and spending time with his family. Doux would try for conversation again then.

Jim did not get any less grumpy, to Douxie’s dismay. And Y/n’s. Y/n really needed both her family members to like her boyfriend. They were all each other had, and any strife would put a strain on their tiny closely-knit family unit. Y/n loved Douxie, and she wanted Jim and Barbara to love him to. To accept him. It would help put a validity to her feelings. If they liked him then she had made the right choice. She could never be with someone her loved ones hated. And as a bonus, it would be nice if she could give Douxie the family he never had. He deserved as much.

Luckily, Barbara had taken quite a liking to Arcadia’s most charming waiter. Jim however, was subtly hostile. Or at least he thought he was being subtle. It was very apparent to the other three at the table. As Douxie was animatedly telling Barb some story that she was laughing very hard at, Y/n turned to glare at her brother. Jim tried to feign innocence. Y/n rolled her eyes and put some more salad on her plate. Jim noticed the bracelet on her wrist. Funny, she had never been one for jewelry before. But she started wearing this one everyday right around the time she started working at the bookstore. Interesting.

Douxie finished up his story and turned his attention to Jim. He’d try once again to engage the trollhunter. He knew how important this was to Y/n. Douxie was going to make this little man like him if it was the last thing he did.

“I saw the school play you were in a couple weeks ago, Jim. You were quite the actor, and I know Shakespeare’s tough. Have you ever thought of going into it professionally? Claire’s told me she wants to. You two could be one of those celebrity power couples.”

Jim just offered a short thanks that was less hostile but not exactly enthusiastic either. Well, at least Doux was getting somewhere. It’s a start. Y/n was content with this. Jim would warm up to Douxie eventually. It didn’t have to be right away, even if she would have liked that.

After the dinner conversation had died down and the food long gone, Y/n set out to clear the table and clean the kitchen. Barbara also went to help her, but Douxie assured her he’d take care of it. He was a world class waiter after all. He stacked up the plates as Y/n grabbed the dinner dishes. And so the two set off to the world behind the wall, to clean or canoodle or whatever. Jim wasn’t too keen on thinking about it. His mother pulled him into the living room to sit on the couch and preceded to ask him twenty questions about Claire. He was almost happy when the lovebirds came back.

And then his mother made them all play some card game for three hours straight. All while the lovebirds flirted away right in front of them. It was like they had no shame. This guy just had to have Y/n under a spell or something, Jim was sure of it. There was no other explanation. As she giggled at another one of Douxie’s stupid jokes that weren’t even funny, Jim felt sick.

Finally it came time for that douchebag to leave. Jim rolled his eyes at his mother and sister fawning over Doux as he made his way to the door. He slinked over behind them to watch the guy leave and make sure that he left. As Douxie went through the door he gave Y/n a quick peck and said the stupidest line Jim had ever heard. Who does this guy think he is. Once the door was shut and Doux had indeed walked away, Jim scoffed.

“Bet that guy has a bank of pickup lines he’s memorized. There’s no way he came up with that on the fly.”

***

Jim was furious. He fought like a madman during training. Draal was just making it worse by encouraging it; he really liked the kid’s fire today. Draal had no idea what was up with him right now, but Jim was giving it his all. The trollhunter was rarely this aggressive. Blinky looked on as Jim growled and shouted with every strike. He hadn’t seen his son frothing at the mouth like this before. It was glorious. Keep this up and Angor Rot won’t know what hit him.

Claire and Toby were also training, with Arrggh, albeit with not even half as much gusto as Jimbo. They were also a wee bit distracted, trying to wind Jim down from said gusto. He came over to where they were to get some water. Taking this opportunity, Toby tried appealing to him once again.

“Dude, give it a rest, this is just like how you got all pissy about your mom dating Strickler.” Toby was exasperated.

“Y/n can’t date guys, my mother can’t date guys, no men should be frequently invited into our household! No boys allowed! Me and Toby are the only boys allowed!” Jim growled. He stormed off across the keep to go land another hit on Draal.

Blinky blinked. He was taken aback at the hostility from his charge. “So, do either of you have any idea as to what that was about.”

“Right now the winning theory is that this is like, about how heartbroken his mother was when his dad left, so now he doesn’t want that to happen again or something,” Claire sighed. Her teacher really was a good guy. Lonely too. Just like Y/n. They were going to be good for each other. Her boyfriend should be happy for them. Jim took a particularly dirty swipe at Draal. Toby grunted in sympathy. “Or maybe Douxie just poked Arcadia’s most possessive bear.”

***

Jim and Toby were walking downtown, enjoying their free time after a trollhunting mission on this fine Sunday afternoon. That is, until they came in sight of the bookstore. Jim felt that bitter feeling in his stomach again. He knew Y/n wasn’t working today. Douchey would be all alone. Now was his chance to confront this and end it before it got any worse. Toby noticed the malice in his eyes as he stomped towards the bookstore.

“Woah dude, what’re you doing?”

“I’m just going to have a little chat with Mr. Casperan that’s all.”

Toby threw his head back in exasperation. “There no talking you out of this is there?”

“Nope”

The bell jingled as they walked in. The bookshop smelled like Christmas. And Jim was about to try and talk politics with his racist uncle at the dinner table. Douxie came over and greeted them cheerily.

“Good afternoon, lads. Looking for any book in particular?”

“I’m not a part of this. I just happen to be with him physically.” Toby quickly asserted. Douxie quirked a brow at the odd statement. Jim pushed forward aggressively. Doux had the sense to back away from the boy.

“I’m onto you, wizard. Just what did you do to my sister? Did you slip her a love potion? Is that bracelet she’s been wearing charmed?” Jim growled. Toby cringed on the sidelines.

Douxie blinked. “Excuse me?”

“There’s no other explanation for your ‘relationship’. You’ve got to be magicking her. And I won’t just sit here and let it happen. That’s my sister and it’s my job to protect her from creeps like you.”

Douxie took in the boys words, and a deep breath. He tried his best not to sound too defensive and provoke the kid further, “Okay, wow. That’s quite an accusation there, friend.” He moved away from where the boy had backed him into a bookshelf. “You know, out of all that you just implied, the part I think I’m most offended by is the fact that you’d think I’d mess with Y/n’s free will like that.”

Douxie straightened some books on a nearby display. “You know Jim, when it comes to love-” Jim stormed out of the bookstore before Doux could take his lecture any further, grabbing Toby by the arm so he’d follow. Toby mouthed a big ‘I’m sorry’ to Doux as he was pulled out of the store.

***

Jim’s pencil felt abused. He was furiously scribbling the answers to his homework with a heavy hand. He still had a lot of pent up rage, even after accosting poor Doux. After snapping his lead for the seventh time in the hour, Jim decided that switching subjects to Spanish instead of math for a bit might help him calm down. He moved to his bed to start the assigned reading. He laid on his stomach, propping up his head in his hands to see his textbook. His blue eyes perused the paragraphs punctuated by cheesy cartoons. He was halfway through the third page when a knock came at his door. Taking a deep breath, he called for whoever it was to let themselves in. His sister stepped into view.

Jim ran a hand through his dark hair. Here comes the scolding. He didn’t even have to ask if Y/n had heard about what he’d done today. If Douxie himself hadn’t told her then Tobes certainly did. Jim wasn’t proud of it, now that it was all said and done. He knew he deserved whatever Y/n was about to dish out. He sat up and crisscrossed his legs. She pulled his desk chair over and sat backwards in it so that she was facing him on the bed.

That’s it. No scolding came. She just sat and looked at him, neutral faced. He squirmed at the nothing. She lifted up the coffee mug in her hands and took a slow sip, not breaking eye contact with him. Jim began to sweat. He tried to avoid her gaze by looking down at the floor, but he could still feel her eyes upon him. Sighing, he had to admit defeat.

“Okay, so I do feel bad about what I said to Douxie today.” He looked back up to meet Y/n’s eyes. She raised a brow. “It was wrong of me to jump to conclusions like that, I’m sorry.”

Y/n appeared to be satisfied by that. A smile spread across her face and she nodded to him. She stood up, and ruffled his hair on her way out. Still refusing to break her silence, she motioned for him to follow her downstairs.

***

Y/n set her coffee cup down on the table. She pulled another mug out of the cabinet for Jim. Grabbing the coffee pot from its nest under the coffeemaker, she filled Jim’s mug and topped off her own. Sliding the mug across the table to Jim, she sat down. Jim could smell the aromas of the several colorful dishes baking that he could see through the screen of the oven door. Strange, it was already half past nine. There was cinnamon in the air, so at least one of those dishes contained dessert. Jim’s stomach growled at the thought.

“You know I’m not the one you should have to apologize to, Jimbo.”

“I know, I know,” He looked at the ground, “I’ll go talk to him tomorrow after school.”

Silence filled the kitchen again. Y/n took a sip of coffee. This conversation was going to be hard. She wasn’t particularly looking forward to it. She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped. She took yet another long sip of coffee to figure out a good enough way to word this. She took a breath.

“So, uh- listen Jimbo. I- I know it’s tough, ya know, with it just being us. And our family’s tight because of it. But you can’t get so protective that new people can’t join it. Or even try.”

Jim took a breath, “I know it’s just, I-, what happens when we, when you, get so attached to him, and he decides that he doesn’t care for you anymore. When he turns out to be bad. When he just disappears. Like- like they do.”

“Oh, Jim,” She reached across the table for his hand. “That’s my risk to take, Jim. I fully recognize that what I’m doing is hazardous and I could get hurt really bad. But I still chose to do it. I choose it every day. We all do, when we fall in love.”

Jim took a sip and lingered, staring into his cup. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” He chuckled, “I know I’d be devastated if Claire ever wizened up and left me.”

“Look, you gotta trust me okay? Douxie isn’t dad or Strickler. I promise. He’s kind. I trust him. After you apologize, I think you really should start to make an effort to get to know him. If not for me, for Claire dude. And I think you’ll really like him. Promise you’ll give him a chance?”

Jim sighed in defeat. “Alright. I promise.”

She stood up and stretched out her back, making those stretching noises that people do. She checked the food in the oven. The buns were ready, but the quiche still needed a few minutes. She took out the pans and put them on the cooling rack. After fanning them for a few seconds, she turned to Jim, “So you want a spinach bun or a cinnamon bun?”

“How is that a question?” Jim laughed.

“Spinach bun it is then,” She teased as she tossed him the cinnamon one.

“What’s all this for anyway?” He gestured to the oven and the buns.

“Oh, uh, its actually for a date tonight?” She looked warry of how he’d react.

“Okay,” He guessed now would be as good a time as ever to start letting this go, “You crazy kids have fun.” Y/n laughed, relived.

Douxie had just finished up the sweeping and was ready to close up. As he headed to towards the front doors, he took one last look around the place to make sure he didn’t miss anything. All clean and tidy. Whoever opened tomorrow would appreciate it. He flipped the neon sign from open to nope and started locking up. Which is when his girlfriend pounced on him and almost gave him a heart attack. She just appeared out of thin air to tackle him into a hug. Scared the living daylights out of him. Y/n apologized profusely when she noticed him freak out but was still snickering between sorries so she probably didn’t mean it. He asked her just what the hell she was doing here and she picked up a picnic basket that was on the ground to show him.

“I just knew a certain wizard hadn’t eaten yet tonight.”

***

Y/n felt the ground beneath her back through the picnic blanket. The new spring growth had made them a cushion of sorts. Her head rested in the crook of Douxie’s shoulder as his arm was wrapped around her. It was nice here. Comfy. She could smell his hair and feel his chest move as he breathed. Their heartbeats made a nice rhythm to accompany the cricket song and the noise of the trees swaying. The stars were so lovely tonight. Stellar.

Douxie broke the quiet. “So I brushed up on my astrology.”

“Oh yeah?” Y/n quirked her brow. Astrology was one of her biggest interests. She’d loved it since her grandmother had given her a book about it when she was small. It was a well-worn, well-loved book. Her grandmother had handwritten things in the margins too. She’d been talking Douxie’s ears off about it during work earlier that week. Something was just so fascinating about how there were gorgeous balls of light in the sky that could tell you the future. There really was magic embedded in the fabric of the universe. It was sweet that he would care enough to learn about her interests. Very sweet indeed. The fact that he went out of his way just so he could talk to her about something she loved? Tooth-rotting. She wasn’t sure if her heart sped up because she was excited to talk about astrology or because of the sugar rush he just gave her.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve needed to look at constellations, we do have GPS now, but I think I remember enough,” He pointed to the sky, “That’s Pisces, right?”

“Yes!” Y/n couldn’t stop herself from smiling so wide her cheeks hurt.

“And that’s Aries, which marks the beginning of spring,” He looked back at Y/n who nodded to him, “oh, and look! We can see Venus tonight.”

“Hey Douxie, I love you. And You’re really making me want to kiss you right now.”

He chuckled and wiggled his eyes brows teasingly, “Ah, yes, I am aware of the effect I have.” She rolled her eyes and put her hand on his face to push him away. If he saw the blush creeping up on her, he’d just get flirtier. She wasn’t sure she could handle that. Something caught her eye and instantly stole her attention.

“Look! A shooting star! Make a wish Doux.” She pointed to the streak of light that flashed.

“I don’t need wishes when I’m here with you, Love.” If her face was pink before it was bright red now.

Y/n hid her face in her hands, “No! You were supposed to say something silly,” She came back up to look him in the eyes, “not something that makes me want to kiss you even more.”

He leaned his head in closer, “Well, what’s stopping you, Y/n”

Well, that was obviously a dare. She couldn’t not kiss him now. So she did. They melted into it instantly. At first it was sweet and slow, but they got a bit hungrier, and the kiss got a bit sloppier. Douxie smelled like the bookstore, Y/n loved the smell of the bookstore. It was everything safe in her life. He was everything safe in her life. Her best friend. He brought his hand up to cup her cheek. He loved how her lips just fit together with his perfectly. Y/n Lake was everything he’d been waiting for all these years. Soft and kind, with such a beautiful heart. Not to mention, a badass. Yet, even with all his ancient baggage, she still cared for him. Made him feel like new again. Out of all the wizards of Arcadia Oaks, she chose him. He still couldn’t believe it. They pulled apart way sooner than either of them wanted, but they did have to breathe, so it had to be done. Locked in Douxie’s gaze, Y/n broke the intensity to giggle.

“But really, I was setting you up for a joke. You know what you could have done with that, Doux?” She teased.

“I’ll remember that for next time, Love.”

“Ah, they’re super rare. This is the first time I’ve ever seen one in all my stargazing years.”

“Well, we’ve got plenty of time to see the next one. And the next one. All the shooting stars you want. Only seeing them every few decades could make them a special little thing for us.” He said so nonchalantly, as if he hadn’t just implied that he expected their love to last for countless decades. As if it were a given. Suddenly it hit her. She could live thousands of years by his side. She would live thousands of years by his side. This was it. She wasn’t even sure humans could turn this vivid a shade of red. Y/n’s heart was gonna pop if it beat any harder.

“Stars, are you just hellbent on making me combust tonight? It too hot out here for this.” Douxie just laughed, a twinkle in his eye. She focused on her beloved stars to calm her down. She sighed, “The stars really are beautiful tonight.”

“You know what else is beautiful?”

“Me?”

“You- aww, you’ve heard that one.”

Y/n’s snort rung in the air. So, he does just have a bank of pick-up lines he’s pulling from. Interesting. Guess it must be tough having to be Arcadia’s most charming waiter. They stilled again. The comfortable silence embraced them. And they could have basked in it all night, if Douxie had not a burning question he had been waiting to ask his beloved.

“So- uh,” She looked to him expectedly, “Do you think there’s life out there?”

Y/n tried not to laugh too hard with Douxie’s very serious tone, “Yeah, yeah I do.”

Now it was Douxie’s turn to smile so wide his cheeks hurt. “Really?”

“Yeah,” She said, “I think it’d be kinda arrogant to assume that with all that vastness up there that we’re the only ones who exist.”

“That’s a really good point.” Douxie said excitedly. He pulled her tighter into his embrace and snuggled. “I think I’m going to use that on Zoe next time she tries to tell me that I’m crazy and aliens aren’t real.”

“Yeah Babe! Win that argument!” Y/n encouraged.

She peppered his face with kisses. That big smile stayed on his face as he closed his eyes in delight. He repaid her with a nose kiss. And she repaid that by starting another snogging session.

***

Little did they know that shoot star was really aliens akiriddion spaceship crash 3below wait shit the akiriddions landed in like season two and ive set this in one ugh just pretend like this makes sense hfhadhiufs

#douxie x reader #hisirdoux casperan x reader #hisirdoux x reader #douxie imagine #douxie casperan x reader #hisirdoux casperan imagine #hisirdoux casperan #douxie casperan imagine #lake!reader #toa douxie #douxie #douxie casperan #my writing

116 notes · View notes

hiro-gari · 3 years

Text

Just saw this post this morning: https://bamsara.tumblr.com/post/648921115261108224/here-i-did-the-shipping-dynamic-thingie-if-you

It got me thinking that the ship dynamics number 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 could be Batarou! Here let me explain what I'm thinking about them..

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

#1 : "Both have equal strength, but one of them is batshit crazy."

Basically Garou and Badd in canon, lol! They're of course equally strong, and Garou is usually the one who goes berserk batshit feral. Back then it was when Garou fighting against the S-Class heroes, nowadays he becomes feral when something bad happened to his beloved delinquent hero.

But that doesn't mean if Badd couldn't be feral, too. In fact, he could be very frightening when he does it. Especially whenever people mocked Garou's past as hero hunter, or worst, saying that Garou didn't deserved a good boyfriend/husband like Badd. It would set Badd on fire, and there will be at least destroyed building at the end of carnage. While Garou on the sideline watching the whole scenes: "Well mark me down as scared and horny." 😳🔥

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

#2 : "The chaotic human with no self-preservation whatsoever, and the supernatural creature desperately trying to keep them alive."

Yooo we had already know Badd is ABSOLUTELY have no self-preservation whatsoever, courtesy by Zenko and Garou. Being so selfless and too determinated by his goals, wont back down at all before he finished the business.. 😔

And Garou is the Human Monster, now that they're dating, will protect and keeps Badd alive at all cost! Sometimes he must dragged Badd away forcibly from the battlefield because Badd is just too stubborn 👿

But if you want the more accurate depiction, I actually have written an older headcanon about it last year. It was about Demon Garou and Human Badd, with Demon Garou slowly becomes "Guardian Demon" for Super Clumsy™ Badd, by saving his life instead of eating his soul because he fell in love with the human.

Badd was desperately finding a way to cure Zenko from chronic illness, and he decided to summon a demon to help him saving Zenko in exchange for his soul. The demon, Garou, accepted the contract and ready to reap his soul whenever he wanted after Garou saved Badd's little sister.

But the problem was, Garou didn't expect that Badd is so clumsy and always endangered his own life. Everytime Garou wants to eat Badd’s soul, he always doing something reckless that makes Garou had urge to save his life. He didn’t want to reap Badd’s soul when he’s in such stupid moment like that, he wants the best time possible.

Then slowly, the demon realized that he doesn't even want to eat Badd's soul anymore, instead he wanted to protect him, to cherish and loving him dearly. Thus, he becomes "Guardian Demon".

You can read the full version of it in here, if you're curious: https://kaincuro.tumblr.com/post/615404377513066496/

Which is it also have been made as a lovely story by @lovelybutnot-ablankcanvas with a title “Dangerous Illusion” in here: archiveofourown.org/works/23665795/chapters/56809585

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

#3 : "The super popular celebrity, and the cafe barista that doesn't know (or care) who they are."

Considering in canon, basically Garou being a "celebrity villain" who debuted for his new career as Hero Hunter in Hero Association HQ. And Badd doesn't even know what Garou looks like (he asked himself "Is it Garou??" when he faced some monsters in sushi shop) or even recognized him at the first glance (he thought Garou just a troublesome punk boy or random annoying civillian).

Now imagine them in AU where: Garou is either a supermodel or a famous singer who likes to drop by in a small cozy coffee shop because the barista is so cute, so he tried to come as a regular to flirt with Badd and also drinking his delicious coffee. Garou genuinely likes Badd's own brewed coffee, or any of his creations. If Badd wasn't on his shift at that day, then Garou just "Bye!" while giving middle finger to any of Badd's coworkers that were unfortunately saw this bastard guy appeared on the shop.

And Badd who doesn't care anything about idols after the whole Amai Mask worshipping™ done by Zenko so he never recognize Garou's public persona than the fact Garou is a super annoying Handsome&Hot™ guy. He just want to get his job done and making some money to pay for Zenko's tuition. Whenever Garou comes (or barging through) into the coffee shop, Badd could sense his impending migraine would also coming soon. Always takes time too long on ordering things because Garou just want to talk with this cutie barista, and trying to get his phone number lmao!

Imagine Garou entering Badd's coffee shop, dressing either like suspicious shady guy, lonely punk teen, or nerdy but Cool™ boy. But I love to imagine Garou usually go with Nerdy Look with an adorable beanie hat and reading glasses, totally different with his appearance when he's on job.

Badd secretly loving Garou's presence (minus the bastard attitude), especially when he was calm and immersed on whatever he was doing, like enjoying Badd's coffee, reading books, working on some work-related documents on his laptop, etc. When Garou talking with Badd (no flirting when he's working), Badd always like to listen his voice. The more they know eachother, the more they attracted to eachother. And they ended up having huge crush and mutual pining, before finally dating!

Badd was honestly surprised when he learned about Garou's other persona as celebrity after Zenko told him or showing some magazine article about Garou, lol! Badd getting his mind blown: "I'M DATING A CELEBRITY???"

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

#5 : "The childhood friends, where one of them kills someone to protect the other, and they must take that secret to their grave."

This is like the Childhood Batarou AU but gets a dark twist. Usually we have kid Badd protecting a bullied kid Garou from Tacchan and the mean kids, maybe as far hurting Tacchan in the process at the max but I couldn't see kid Badd killing anyone, since he's too precious.. 😣💦

But if we seriously get on the dark version of it, maybe kid Badd killed kid Garou's abusive dad? Then they buried the body on the backyard, and since they both lived on some desolate village/suburban area, nobody know the event? Then they keep their darkest secret to their grave. Badd didn't regret on dirtied his own hands by blood, as long as he can protect Garou and nobody would hurting him anymore.

Is this too dark? 😅 I'm so sorry, let's just stick to the pure Childhood Friends with Tiny Hero Badd! 👏😤

This is what I have about Childhood Hero Badd AU headcanon: https://hiro-gari.tumblr.com/post/645500921001000960/

Which is it also have been made as a super heartwarming and fluffy story by @hiro-gari with a title “Charmed” in here (plz check it out guys!): archiveofourown.org/works/30301986

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

#6 : "The fugitive witch running from false accusation of crime, and the tired, magic-skeptic scientist now hiding their friend fron the law."

THIS IS EXACTLY THE UNIVERSAL HEADCANON BATAROU WE HAVE IN THE FANDOM, LMAOOO!! 😂😂😂

Fugitive Garou hiding from Hero Association in Badd's house because they believed Garou is a high-class criminal and a monster who must be punished severely, denying the fact that Garou hasn't killed anyone or even hurting innocent civillians. And Badd is one of very few people who trust Garou and Tareo's confession, so Garou ended up trusting him back by GOING INTO HIS HOUSE FOR PROTECTION, lol! 😆

Now Badd has a stray feral, now tamed, puppy wolf in his home. And harbouring the currently fugitive wanted man could endanger his job, his family, and also Garou himself. That's a tiring daily task to keep people from discovering the truth. But Badd be like, "Fuck the consequences, I wont let anyone hurt Garou anymore" 😠

But if we give it a twist to be more about a Magical AU, maybe Garou is a very chaotic but kindhearted wizard who loves to help bullied kids, poor people, and underdog people in his village. But someone who hates him spreading the false rumours about Garou and getting a mass to hunt him down.

It made Garou furious and he unleashed his anger by his powerful magic that caused the people getting hurt, but nobody died. Kinda regretting his action because it means Garou couldn't stay any longer in his birthplace village, he fled to downtown area in the crowded city far away from his home. But not forgetting to give protection charm for every single person in his village for as a farewell gift, and casted a longstanding protection spell around the village area to repel any bad-intentioned people from entering it.

Then after being a fugitive wizard who looks more like a lone hobo wolf, Garou was wandering around the city without any fixed destination. In the moment of loneliness and desperation, he found someone kind enough to help him (it was Badd) by giving warm food (it was Badd's takeaway fastfood dinner he just bought on the way home after work).

Thus without Badd knowing, Garou following him until they reaching Badd's house (Garou casted a spell to make himself invisible). Imagine Badd was alerted in the middle of night when suddenly there's a suspicious sounds from his kitchen, and Tama was meowing like crazy which is never happened unless there's some stranger intruding his house. When he comes downstairs, he found out there's an invisible force TAKING HIS FOOD FROM THE FRIDGE!

Badd was freaking out and grabbing his metal bat to bonk anything behind that invisible force, but failed because he was disarmed by that force. Then Garou revealed himself that he's a fugitive wizard, asking for a help for a temporary hideout. Badd, who never believed in magic (Zenko is), was baffled at Garou's claim until Garou showed himself what he capable of. Which got Badd awestrucked, and maybe charmed by Garou's awesomeness.

Then their daily life is basically similar like what we have as the universal headcanon, just with a sprinkle of magic 🔮✨

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

#7 : "WHATEVER THE FUCK THIS IS, NO BRAIN."

This can be applied to any Batarou headcanon, either canon divergents or AUs! Even also for them in platonic friendship Shitty Teen Squad, yeah especially this! 😆

They're complementing eachother and definitely would share 1 braincell, in which frustated Genos to no end because it seems he's the one who could make the braincell functional enough make them behave well, lol. But despite all of that, Garou and Badd are a pair of loveable dumbasses 😉👍💖

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

You would immediately know which dynamics I hyperfixated on, hehe 😜

Yeah personally when I saw the list, I think the ship dynamics #3 and #6 have the freshly good potential for Batarou AU stories! That's why I made them like that. Plz someone make it into more coherent story I'm incapable to write them decently enough I will pass the baton to you aaaa-- 👀😫💦

Honorable mention for dynamic #2 because it's a personal favorite (Demon Garou is Perfection™ 😈✨), and also that the hc means so much to me.. 😌

That's all I have to say about Batarou ship dynamic based on the post, hopefully it could entertain you today! 😚👌💕

Thanks alot for: @hiro-gari, @the-goddessfighter, @kaincuro, @garous-nipple, @jusqu-une-etudiante, @guby1620, @lovelybutnot-ablankcanvas, and @krystalseijuro, also all of Batarou shippers in the fandom! Thank you for always giving me encouragement to keep making more silly contents of Batarou, I really appreciate you all! 😭🙏💕💞💖💝

Hope you have a great day~ 😎👍🌸🌼🌻🌷💐

-Little1993lamb-

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

~Lilia:

UM I saw the link and went “no way” because I literally saw that post not two days ago and was thinking about how the first and last ones suited these Boys very well.. BUT also I was like yk who would be able to come up with a brilliant scenario for any one of these??? the emoji anon of course... And, here you are, and you have done just that, and I’m SHOOK like AHHH how’d you know I needed this??

For the first one, I hadn’t even considered feral Badd 😳 I agree it’d be very frightening, since he’s a tough guy but still generally a sweetheart, when he snaps he probably s n a p s and no one is safe

Omg, Demon Garou.. 🤤 *head suddenly empty* Nothing more to say there 😂 But I love clumsy sweetheart Badd ghhhhhsk, I read Dangerous Illusions some time ago and absolutely adored it, I hadn’t seen your original post though, thank you so much for sharing it!! 😩👌

BARISTA BADD yaaas 👏 Especially him doing it for Zenko’s tuition awwe 🥺 he’s totally clueless as to who that nerdy bastard is, I love it!

Ooo the fifth one tho... Reminds me of the flashback scene in AoT where they just... stab the human traffickers 😳 Though I could see it actually, especially if Badd felt Garou’s life was genuinely in danger, and the situation called for someone to intervene immediately 😢 Gave me the feels wahhh

Magical wizard Garou?? All of my yes?? *heart eyes mf* I can just imagine Garou’s troublemaking increasing tenfold with the addition of magic he’d be a top tier prankster, Fred and George meet Garou and Badd especially if he can make himself invisible 😂 dude that fridge EMPTY! I LOVE THIS SM 💖

Ah yes, the last one :”) “two halves of a whole idiot” and annoying the shit out of poor Genos 😂 One of my fave tropes for them for sure!!

Thank you sm for doing this anon!! Your raw creativity never ceases to amaze me 💕💗 THIS IS A BLESSING 🥰 I hope you have a wonderful day too!

#fr tho...#are you hiding your psychic abilities 👀#I’m literally so happy to see this you have no idea #hopefully I can finish some of the shit I’m working on soon #bc I’m about to fall head over heels for wizard garou lmfao #sorry I am such a slow writer 😩#ilysm #😚#batarou #garou #metal bat #opm #headcanons #ship dynamics #submission

15 notes · View notes

stellarcat52 · 3 years

Text

Timeless Blue chapter 10

Douxie took less than two seconds to realize something was wrong. Giant ice spikes filled Hex Tech and the area around it “No, no.. no.. no no...” But even as he entered, the clarity of it’s empty interior was denied somewhere in his heart.

“Claire? Toby? Steve? Krel...?” He didn’t want confirmation that Krel wasn’t there, that their promise had been broken. “What happened here?”

The head of Krel’s fatherly blank suddenly started sparking, mumbling various outdated phrases that just increased Douxie’s urge to kick something. “Woah hoo-“ apparently the impact of Douxie’s foot was what the robot needed to be useful.

A recording blinks up onto a screen. Ultimately it was utter chaos, the order and the guardians fighting, Toby reciting his will, a lot of crashing and yelling.

The recording almost seems to be over as it starts glitching right after Bellroc stepped on it, but a view flickers back for a few seconds. Immediately the camera drops from Krel’s arms and gives Douxie a full shot of what happens next.

Krel had at least one person behind him and a portal pushing Bellroc and Skrael’s magic back at them. Even through the camera Douxie could tell Krel was tired. Maybe none of them had slept in days. The portals dropped and suddenly the camera goes dark.

“No... this wasn’t supposed to happen.” Douxie discards the blank, “no no no..! Augh if only we had more time Arch!” Douxie spoke to the cat on his shoulder, who was equally as troubled as him.

“If we were able to harness the power of the heart of Avalon perhaps we could,” of course Archie was the first to think of any possibility.

“But we’d need something to connect it with, Camelot and all of the stuff on it is useless now.” Douxie tapped his foot, suddenly pacing. “Everyone’s gone and of course it’s left to us to figure this out.”

“They have Nari so we cannot let them get the seals Doux,” Archie put a paw on the book still in Douxie’s arm. “Merlin trusts you to do the right thing, so do all of us.”

“Right. Then I need to go save everyone, no pressure Arch.”

“No one ever said being a leader was easy.”

“Is this why you blew me off Casperan?” Zoe stepped out of the back room, a large ice crystal half melted off of her hand.

It took Douxie a moment too long to think of how to explain anything to her. “It’s okay, after seeing them get through that blue guy, well it makes sense that you prioritized that.”

“Blue guy, Krel. Zoe you’ve worked with combining magic and tech before right?” Douxie got an idea.

“Yeah it’s kinda part of this gig.” She takes one look at Douxri’s face and groans. “This better not get me killed.”

“Trust me, it won’t, I don’t think so at least.” He takes out a shard of Merlin’s staff, “All we need is more time, right?”

———

A projection of Douxie appears in the Order’s lair. “Hisirdoux is here! Hold your hexes!” He calls as Skrael makes a threatening movement towards Steve. “If you still want these that is.” He waves the seals in front of him. “I’ll be at the cafe, see you there.”

———

“Step forward and try your luck, find the seals and win the planet. Remember, you only get one try per apocalypse.” Douxie was grinning and everything was in place. A simple trick, the order could choose any bowl and they’d get a time bomb, then he’d go save his friends.

Honestly the idea of Krel having to absorb direct hits from the order’s magic scared Douxie. He can imagine the blood red and pale blue lines that would run along his already unique arms that could only ever bring destruction, pain. Those things didn’t fit into who Krel was. Honestly the emotions behind magic didn’t match Krel much. Fear and love maybe, but things like anger didn’t seem prominent in him at all.

The order chose and snapped Douxie fully back to the present. In just one swift movement, the bomb went flying to the order, creating a trap of frozen time to engulf them both.

He ran outside to join Zoe in the airship. “You’ve got some guts to mess with time Douxie, how have you changed so much in like, two days?” Zoe looked bewildered by everything Douxie had done that night.

“My whole life people have been telling me I can’t do things, and I believed them so I never tried. But I am strong enough, I’ve been strong enough, just nobody saw it until those guys dared to trust me.” He stared up at the flying castle, a boiling nervousness lingering in his chest. “Plus, it’s not like I had many other options.”

By the time they’ve gotten to the Order’s lair fear has been pushed to the back of Douxie’s mind.

Together, with AAARRRGGGHHH and Archie of course, Douxie helps free everyone. The whole group seemed worried, tired, both or just straight up angry. Krel most of all, just seemed drained, as soon as he was freed he started leaning on Douxie. Despite his own tiredness, Douxie was fully willing to help keep the prince somewhat upright.

“You okay Love?” Krel groans in response, putting one hand to his head as if he had a headache, which knowing the results of overused magic he did. “We’ll work on your magic if you want later, I only saw part of what happened at hex tech but I think you overused it. I’m just happy you’re okay.”

“Not all of us, Nari was put somewhere else!” Claire somewhat interrupted, frantic with nerves.

Douxie notices Krel look down, shame being present in both of them, “Alright. I’ll go get here, you guys head out there and meet up with Zoe, she has the seals. I’ll go get Nari.”

Douxie tried to get Krel to shift over to Claire and Steve, fully expecting that he wouldn’t be able to even stand right now. To his surprise Krel had enough strength to not only stand but walk on his own.

“Not this time. Every time we split up something bad happens, I’m coming with you.” As Krel grabbed his shoulders, using his other hands to pull at Douxie’s, the wizard saw every emotion that conducts magic inside Krel’s eyes in the form of tears, anger, sadness, fear, and love. “I can’t leave not knowing if you’re going to make it out of here.”

Douxie reaches up to wipe away a falling tear. “Alright, everyone else, go to Zoe and try to find a way to help Jim. Krel, Archie, you’re with me.”

Krel cracks a smile, and Douxie only breaks eye contact with him as Archie clears his throat. “I’m sorry lovebirds, but we don’t have enough time to be standing around.”

“Fine,” although Douxie bites his lip before using his hand to pull Krel down for a quick kiss. “For good luck, let’s hope we don’t need it.”

After a moment of shock, Krel smiles. “Let’s go save the world, Master Wizard.”

#timeless blue fic #krexie #drel #krouxie #magic Krel au #krel x douxie #douxie x krel #I know I changed a major plot point #the seals ain’t with the order

38 notes · View notes

too-attached-to-fiction · 4 years

Text

Between The Pages | d.m.

Masterlist here.

Part 2 here

REQUESTS ARE OPEN!

Word count: 1337

Requested: No

Summary: Reader works at a wizard bookshop that specializes in muggle books. One day, Draco wanders in.

A/N: if this gets enough attention I might make a second part because I’m really excited about this imagine but we’ll see! Leave a message in the notes if you do! Also two draco one shots in one day oops (I just want a boy to fall in love with me at a bookstore is that too much to ask?)

~~~

Draco couldn’t remember the last time he’d wandered the streets of Diagon Alley leisurely. It had to have been before his sixth year, when things were simpler and the back-to-school rush surged in his veins. He could feel cold eyes on him from all angles, but he kept his own eyes wandering.

In the Leaky Cauldron, Tom had been kind enough to serve a butterbeer to Draco, but it was clear his presence wasn’t wanted.

His eyes landed on a bookshop, in the far corner of the shopping district, that he was sure he’d never seen before. Before he realized, he was walking through the crowd, curious about what could be inside.

Mother Goose Books had been open for less than a year, but you were surprised about how much business was booming. The store had originally been an empty space in the district, but the owner, an old family friend, offered to sell it for cheap when you pitched her the idea. Most days, you could be found at the front counter, your nose buried in one book while a tall stack of them sat next to you.

Like most of the shops on Diagon Alley, it seemed little on the outside but larger than life once you stepped in. That was, in part, due to the fact that you and the cafe owner next door decided to break down the wall in between your shops for more customer satisfaction. Tea mugs were often littered all over the desk you kept behind the front counter.

The door of the shop clanged open, but you refused to glance up from your book now. The Great Gatsby, like so many other books you had read, was something that you absolutely could not put down.

“Ahem.” Draco cleared his throat, and you nearly jumped off your stool. Bewildered, you looked up to see the platinum blond, adjusting your glasses. “Er, sorry for scaring you.”

“Oh, no, it’s alright. I probably should have said something when the door opened.” You flushed, bookmarking the page and closing the book. “Is this your first time here?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, welcome to Mother Goose Books. We specialize in books, obviously, muggle and wizard. If you’d like to donate anything we’d happily accept, but if you’re just browsing or need a recommendation, that’s fine too.” You rattled off. “Is there something in particular you’re looking for today, Mr. Malfoy?”

“U-um.” He’d never been greeted so boldly, especially without introducing himself. Still, he was sure that there were people who knew him, considering his family and reputation during his school years. “Not really.”

“Do you need a recommendation?”

“Sure.”

“Wizard or Muggle?”

“Why don’t you pick?” You smiled at the response, hopping off the stool behind the counter.

“Follow me, Mr. Malfoy.”

As you walked through the book aisles, Draco couldn’t seem to keep his mouth shut. “So you’re the only one who works here?”

“Its not as if I can really afford anyone else, although I can’t seem to shake my house elf from coming here and acting as one. Normally I’d ask her to grab the books, but I needed to stretch my legs anyways.”

“I’m sorry, what did you say your name was again?” Draco asked as you rounded the corner.

“(Y/N) (L/N). Ravenclaw. I was a year above you in school.” You came to a sudden stop, then reached up on your tiptoes. When your fingers finally grasped the book, you lowered yourself down. Handing the book to Draco, you smiled. “Here.”

“What’s it about?” He asked, but you were already starting to walk back to the counter. He quickly followed you, and minutes later you were at the shop’s entrance. You settled yourself atop the stool again and pursed your lips.

“I don’t suppose you know much about American history, do you?”

“Why would I ever learn that?” You fought to roll your eyes, but instead you shrugged your shoulders.

“It’s nice to know.” You huffed at Draco’s questioning stare. “Anyways, the book relies heavily on American history. I’m sure you understand the elitism of pure blood families.” Draco nodded. “It’s like that everywhere, only, instead of how pure your blood is, it’s about the color of your skin. People like you and I, we get off easy. We’re the ones that make the rules because our skin is pale.”

“Okay…”

“Essentially, one of the common ideas in America during the 19th century was that black people, people with dark skin, were not human. They were treated the same way some treat house elves, as servants. Eventually, that changed, at least a little bit. But people still look down on others because of their skin tone.” You explained quickly. “This book is about that racism.” You tapped the book.

“It follows the life of Atticus Finch, a middle aged lawyer and father of two, living about eight decades ago in America, specifically the deep south. The deep south was where racism was… er, the most apparent. Atticus is a white lawyer that’s trying to help a black man.”

“Why did you give me this book? To Kill A Mockingbird?” Draco asked, and you shrugged. “We just got out of a war about something so similar, and you want me to read this?”

“I’m not forcing you to do anything.” You shrugged. “But if you’re rejecting the recommendation because the plot makes you feel uncomfortable, then there’s the exact reason why you should read it.”

Draco opened his mouth to object, but he stopped when you started up again. “If you read this book, and still feel that pure-bloods are the gods in this world of men afterwards, I’ll refund you, and you will never hear a recommendation from me again.” You promised.

He scowled before reaching into his pockets. “How much do I owe you?” You grinned.

“Three galleons and two sickles, please!”

~~~

One week later, Draco found himself at Mother Goose Books again. He set the book on the front counter, and this time you raised your head before he could surprise you.

“You were…”

“Right?” You asked, taking the last word out of his mouth. “I had a feeling you’d say that.”

“Alright, what’s your next recommendation?”

“Well…”

Within mere weeks, Draco started coming in more and more frequently. By now he was stopping in every Monday and Thursday, always in the afternoon. You’d give him a recommendation, and he’d gladly accept it, always returning to share his thoughts before asking for another one.

“So, why did you open this shop? Why not become an auror, or a potion maker, or-” Draco asked one day as you lead him through the store as always.

“I didn’t want to.” You shrugged, and Draco blinked at you in disbelief. “I’m book-smart, not life-smart. I wanted to spend the rest of my life reading and sharing books with people, and I’m doing that.”

“You never wanted to do anything else?”

“Nope.” You smiled, popping the ‘p’.

Draco shook his head. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

A month or two passed by before you started to run out of books for Draco to read that you had already read. You were trying to figure out what to do next when he walked in, right on time.

“No book today?” He asked with a smirk, and you shook your head.

“I think I’m running out of books to give you. You come so often.” You laughed. “Although, maybe we can be book buddies? Every week one of us can pick a book we think looks interesting, and we’ll read it and discuss the next time we see each other.”

“That… sounds pleasant, actually. I’m not here for a book today, though.”

“Oh?”

“I was wondering if you’d like to come with me to get tea.”

“Right now? Next door?” You asked, red coloring your cheeks.

“Only if you have the time-”

“Of course I have the time. And of course I’ll go with you. Let me just close up shop.”

#draco malfoy imagines #draco malfoy x reader #hp imagines #harry potter imagines #canon what canon #no beta we die like men

159 notes · View notes

a-dreaming-artist · 4 years

Text

A Witches Spell: Chapter 2

Just in case you haven’t read chapter 1 here you go

A Witches Spell Ch 1

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

The potion worked perfectly, while it didn’t have Mirio’s father out of bed within an hour like he imagined, his fever was going down and he was able to keep food down. By Thursday he was able to get out of bed and walk a little. Mirio didn’t let him help around the cafe yet, he wanted to wait till he was feeling 100% ok. So he ran the little shop alone with Nejire. It wasn’t big, and never was super busy, so the two of them were able to handle it just fine.

When Friday finally came around Mirio was counting down the minutes, waiting for the store to close. The cafe closes early on Fridays, that’s when the weekend starts and it’s time for family to be together and even for some adults go out and drink alcohol.

“Togata stop staring at the clock. It’s not just gonna walk off the wall” Nejire was the one who broke Mirio out of his trance, “you’ve been staring at it ever since you opened.”

“Right, sorry” Mirio turned away from the clock, using everything he had to not look at it. 5:30. He just had to wait till 5:30 and he could drop off the small basket with treats inside to the witch- wizard? Witch was easier. He wanted to get them over while they were still warm.

So when the clock showed it was time to close Mirio rushed out, giving Nejire a quick apology and promising to pay her extra for cleaning up. So he hopped on his bike and put the baked treats into the basket, peddling into the woods. The woods were still dark, but Mirio knew where he was going this time so it was much easier. Once he reached the run down cottage he put his kickstand up and walked towards the house, making sure to watch where he stepped so he didn’t set off another trap.

Mirio put on a big smile and knocked on the door, hearing soft footsteps from inside the house. The footsteps got louder, and eventually the door cracked open just a little.

“Who is it..?”

“It’s Mirio Togata! I told you I’d come back!”

The boy got quiet, keeping the door cracked. Mirio thought for a moment he’d shut the door in his face, but soon the witch was opening the door. He was still wearing his white cloak with a black pair of pants and a shirt. He also wore a belt, holding his knife from yesterday along with two bottles of strange looking liquids.

“Why are you here..?”

“I brought you some treats! As a thank you for the potion”

Mirio held up the basket, showing off the different sweets. There were cookies, sweet rolls, and a few other things.

“You don’t need to thank me…”

“Of course I do! You saved my father's life! Your amazing!”

The boy grabbed the top of his cloak hood and pulled it down, hiding his face even more. He started to mumble a few things, to quiet for Mirio to hear. Finally he spoke up again, letting go of the hood.

“It was nothing… but... alright…”

Mirio handed the witch the basket, hearing a quiet thank you after. The boy took a step back, ready to close the door, but Mirio didn’t want it to end just yet.

“Hey, I uh, never learned your name”

The cloaked figure stopped his movements, clearly contemplating whether he should tell his name to a stranger or not. Finally he spoke up, after a minute of silence.

“I’m… Tamaki”

Mirio was already smiling, but somehow he was able to smile even more.

“Is that your first name? I mean, I assume it is”

All Tamaki did was nod, glancing at the treats in the basket. Mirio tried to think of what to say, he was fascinated by the little witch in front of him. What did he know? How long has he lived here? Was he the one who released the sickness across town like that lady said?

“We should have a mini picnic!” Tamaki looked up, his facial features still hidden. The hood cast a shadow, and thanks to the patio cover the sun couldn’t reveal anything. “It’ll be fun! We can talk, and I can thank you a ton more”

“Please stop thanking me”

——————————

Tamaki had no idea why he agreed to sit with the blonde boy, but for some reason he did. They both sat on the edge of the patio since his porch swing was currently broken. He really needed to fix it. Mirio was talking a lot, saying different things about his life. Mentioning the cafe his father owned, his best friend Nejire, and what his town was like.

“Man and all the rumors about you? They’re all so wrong!”

“Rumors…?”

“Ya! Everyone thought you were some crazy old lady who was hunched over, had super long nails, and that your face was so horrific people will have nightmares for years! That one could be true though, you know since I haven’t actually seen your face”

Each rumor made Tamaki cringe, of course that’s what people thought of him. The thought of everybody talking about him made him sick, wanting to just crawl into a hole and never come out. It doesn’t matter if the people don’t actually know who he is, just the fact that they talk about him is upsetting. They weren’t supposed to know about him.

“Good to know everybody’s afraid of me” Tamaki mumbled, once again pulling at the hood of his cloak. Mirio gave him a questioning look, his only answer being a quiet “nothing”.

“So what about you?”

“What about me?”

“Anything about you! Just tell me about yourself, I wanna know! If you don’t mind, of course” Mirio smiled widely at Tamaki, hoping his smile would make the boy feel comfortable. Moving his hood slightly, Tamaki saw Mirio’s smile. Instantly four words came to mind, almost as if they’ve been waiting for this exact moment.

Just like the sun

He had never met Mirio, but for some reason it felt as if he’d seen that smile a thousand times. That warm smile that was just like the sun, a smile that made Tamaki feel like he could do anything. It felt like he had butterflies in his stomach, appearing all because of one single smile.

“Hello? Earth to Tamaki?”

Mirio was now waving his hand, having a worried expression. The cloaked boy must have gotten lost in his own thoughts, being far to quiet.

“Did I make you uncomfortable? Sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have talked so much. Or asked you to tell me about yourself” he let out a soft laugh, it sounded like it was traced with a little bit of sadness.

“It’s fine.. I was just thinking” Tamaki let go of his hood completely now, putting his hands together and fidgeting his thumbs. He was never good at talking, especially when it came to himself.

“There’s not much to say.. but… I’ve lived in this cottage all my life… it was just me and my mom… usually I would read different stories… I always liked King Arthur” Mirio’s eyes lit up, hearing that they had something in common made him giddy.

“No way, really?? Me too! My dad would read me his adventures all the time!”

Tamaki resisted the urge as best as he could, but Mirio’s burst of energy and excitement made him smile. Something he hadn’t done in awhile. Mirio started to explain his favorite tales from King Arthur, Tamaki happy to just sit a listen.

It was dark now, the sun had gone down only a few minutes ago. Once it was gone Mirio finally realized how long he had been gone from town, and how long he had been rambling to Tamaki.

“Oh geez I totally cut you off didn’t I?” Mirio laughed awkwardly, “sorry ‘bout that. I get carried away sometimes”

“It’s alright”

Mirio stood up and stretched, looking up at all the stars in the sky. He grinned a little after finding a constellation, bringing his head down and turning to Tamaki.

“I should probably head back home before my father starts to freak out. Thanks for letting me talk your ear off! I hope you enjoyed the cookies”

“I did… thank you for bringing it… and keeping me company”

The blonde smiled wide and waved goodbye, walking back over to his bike. He told Tamaki he’d see him later, riding off before the witch could protest. If he was going to at least. His entire ride home he kept his smile, thinking about Tamaki enjoying his company. Maybe one day the boy wouldn’t be as nervous around Mirio, maybe even open up a little more. They could even be close friends one day.

Mirio couldn’t wait for that day.

Chapter 2

“Togata stop staring at the clock. It’s not just gonna walk off the wall” Nejire was the one who broke Mirio out of his trance, “you’ve been staring at it ever since you opened.”

Mirio put on a big smile and knocked on the door, hearing soft footsteps from inside the house. The footsteps got louder, and eventually the door cracked open just a little.

“Who is it..?”

“It’s Mirio Togata! I told you I’d come back!”

“Why are you here..?”

“I brought you some treats! As a thank you for the potion”

Mirio held up the basket, showing off the different sweets. There were cookies, sweet rolls, and a few other things.

“You don’t need to thank me…”

“Of course I do! You saved my father's life! Your amazing!”

“It was nothing… but... alright…”

Mirio handed the witch the basket, hearing a quiet thank you after. The boy took a step back, ready to close the door, but Mirio didn’t want it to end just yet.

“Hey, I uh, never learned your name”

The cloaked figure stopped his movements, clearly contemplating whether he should tell his name to a stranger or not. Finally he spoke up, after a minute of silence.

“I’m… Tamaki”

Mirio was already smiling, but somehow he was able to smile even more.

“Is that your first name? I mean, I assume it is”

“Please stop thanking me”

——————————

“Man and all the rumors about you? They’re all so wrong!”

“Rumors…?”

“Good to know everybody’s afraid of me” Tamaki mumbled, once again pulling at the hood of his cloak. Mirio gave him a questioning look, his only answer being a quiet “nothing”.

“So what about you?”

“What about me?”

Just like the sun

“Hello? Earth to Tamaki?”

Mirio was now waving his hand, having a worried expression. The cloaked boy must have gotten lost in his own thoughts, being far to quiet.

“No way, really?? Me too! My dad would read me his adventures all the time!”

It was dark now, the sun had gone down only a few minutes ago. Once it was gone Mirio finally realized how long he had been gone from town, and how long he had been rambling to Tamaki.

“Oh geez I totally cut you off didn’t I?” Mirio laughed awkwardly, “sorry ‘bout that. I get carried away sometimes”

“It’s alright”

Mirio stood up and stretched, looking up at all the stars in the sky. He grinned a little after finding a constellation, bringing his head down and turning to Tamaki.

“I should probably head back home before my father starts to freak out. Thanks for letting me talk your ear off! I hope you enjoyed the cookies”

“I did… thank you for bringing it… and keeping me company”

Mirio couldn’t wait for that day.

#Mirio Togata #bnha mirio #miritama #tamaki amakiji #bnha tamaki #fanfiction #AU fanfiction #witch au #BNHA au #mirio x tamaki

18 notes · View notes

theyearoftheking · 4 years

Text

Book Fifty-One: Everything’s Eventual

“There comes a time in most lives when we must face the deaths of our loved ones as an actual reality... and, by proxy, the fact of our own approaching death. This is probably the single greatest subject of horror fiction: our need to cope with a mystery that can be understood only with the aid of a hopeful imagination.”

I had dinner once with a guy who was trying to either relate to me, or impress me... the jury is still out. Once he found out I was from Milwaukee, he told me how he had once seen Ted Bundy’s apartment in downtown Milwaukee.

Slow blink.

Ted Bundy was never in Milwaukee, dumb ass. You’re obviously talking about Jeffrey Dahmer, and comparing the two is like chalk and cheese. Completely different victim populations, MO’s... basically the only thing they have in common is both being white men. Oh, and Bundy is considered more conventionally attractive. If you were to listen to the Parcast Serial Killers podcast on Dahmer, they described him as, “good looking, by Milwaukee standards...” So, there’s that.

This conversation still upsets me years later. It should have upset me more that the “Bundy in Milwaukee” guy went on to talk about his wife’s STD, but that’s a conversation for another time.

I didn’t choose the Dahmer life, it chose me. When he was captured in 1991, I was my daughter’s age, and it was the most sensational piece of news to hit Milwaukee... well, maybe ever. The details about the half-eaten corpses, the body parts in the freezer... I couldn’t get enough of it. Had I not stumbled across my mom’s copy of Small Sacrifices years earlier, it’s possible Dahmer could have been the catalyst for my murderino obsession. Sadly, Diane Downs got to me first. I was obsessed with the pictures in the middle of the book... it was the first time I realized monsters are real, and human monsters are scarier than anything Stephen King or Dean Koontz could dream up.

Sidebar: check out the Two Face podcast, told by the daughter Diane put up for adoption. I’m obsessed.

But, Dahmer is my local serial killer, so my knowledge is complete and wildly inappropriate at dinner parties (remember when those were a thing?). There’s even a local neighborhood bar that does a Dahmer walking tour; where my sister talked me out of buying this especially cool t-shirt... she felt it was too on-the-nose. She might be right. I even dragged a friend with me to see My Friend Dahmer... because I was scared of looking like a creeper at the theater alone. Every time we drive past Columbia County Correctional, I make sure to remind my (very annoyed) daughter that Dahmer was killed there.

My point is, I know a lot about Jeffrey Dahmer. What’s one of the key things I know? HE’S NOT BURIED. HE DOESN’T HAVE A GRAVE. HIS PARENTS HAD HIM CREMATED AND SPLIT HIS REMAINS.

Once more for the cheap seats in the back:

JEFFREY DAHMER DOESN’T HAVE A GRAVE.

Why all the shouty caps?

Because Steve doesn’t know this. Steve is blissfully unaware that he has a character bragging about sleeping on Jeffrey Dahmer’s non-existent grave. I can’t even give you a good review of Everything’s Eventual, because this bothers me so much. It’s like the fucking Starbuck’s cup someone forgot to remove from the Game of Throne’s scene. It bothers me that much.

Here was my reading process on this short story collection...

Autopsy Room Four: Creepy! This is the shit that haunts my dreams. Good start to the collection!

The Man in the Black Suit: Fun! A Castle Rock mention

All That You Love Will Be Carried Away: Are we to the Little Sisters short story yet? I need a Dark Tower fix...

The Death of Jack Hamilton: I love a good mobster story. And this one mentions the Dillinger gang shoot-out at Little Bohemia, so yay for a Wisconsin reference! Great story.

In the Deathroom: Escobar. Meh. If we’re going to do back-to-back mobster stories, the Dillinger one was better.

Little Sisters of Eluria: Swoon. Double swoon. Steve uses the line, “tintinabulation of the bells.” Tintinabulation is a word Edgar Allen Poe completely made up, but it’s an excellent example of onomatopoeia. This is an example of what I have to show for all my student loan debt (thanks, Cares Act for the deferment!): the fact I can both recognize and give an obscure example of onomatopoeia. And spot Poe like a boss bitch. This story is set post Wizard and Glass, and ties back into The Talisman; and almost makes up for the Dahmer slippage.

Everything’s Eventual: Thought provoking, but I’m really looking forward to finishing this collection and diving back into The Dark Tower universe.

L.T.’s Theory of Pets: Trigger warning for violence towards animals. I once had Blood and Smoke- an audio book collection Steve did; and this story was included. I’ve never forgotten it. It’s a classic.

The Road Virus Heads North: A Derry mention! Oh, and Dahmer too. That’s fun.

Lunch at the Gotham Cafe: Weird. This is the second story that includes a Dear John letter, and a jilted husband. Wonder what was going on with Steve and Tabby... Oh gross, a Donald Trump and Ivana line. *Swallows vomit*

That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French: Oh good, 1408 is next!

1408: DAHMER DOESN’T HAVE A GRAVE!!!!!!

Riding the Bullet: Oh, a Castle Rock mention. But, um, DAHMER DOESN’T HAVE A GRAVE!

Luckey Quarter: Why is lucky spelled wrong? And also... DAHMER DOESN’T HAVE A GRAVE!!!

So, yeah. Full disclosure. Re-living the Dahmer’s grave story just made me crack open a juice box full of sangria. Fun fact: the friend who made this sangria, is the same one I dragged along to My Friend Dahmer. She is a lovely, wonderful, generous human being; who is not the least bit fazed by my serial killer knowledge. And her sangria is delicious too.

Total Wisconsin Mentions: 35

Total Dark Tower References: 51

Book Grade: B- (generous, considering the Dahmer gaffe)

Rebecca’s Definitive Ranking of Stephen King Books

The Talisman: A+

Wizard and Glass: A+

Needful Things: A+

On Writing: A+

The Green Mile: A+

Hearts in Atlantis: A+

Rose Madder: A+

Misery: A+

Different Seasons: A+

It: A+

Four Past Midnight: A+

The Shining: A-

The Stand: A-

Bag of Bones: A-

Black House: A-

The Wastelands: A-

The Drawing of the Three: A-

Dolores Claiborne: A-

Nightmares in the Sky: B+

The Dark Half: B+

Skeleton Crew: B+

The Dead Zone: B+

Nightmares & Dreamscapes: B+

‘Salem’s Lot: B+

Carrie: B+

Creepshow: B+

From a Buick 8: B

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: B

Storm of the Century: B-

Everything’s Eventual: B-

Cycle of the Werewolf: B-

Danse Macabre: B-

The Running Man: C+

Thinner: C+

Dark Visions: C+

The Eyes of the Dragon: C+

The Long Walk: C+

The Gunslinger: C+

Pet Sematary: C+

Firestarter: C+

Rage: C

Desperation: C-

Insomnia: C-

Cujo: C-

Nightshift: C-

Gerald’s Game: D

Roadwork: D

Christine: D

Dreamcatcher: D

The Regulators: D

The Tommyknockers: D-

Next is Wolves of the Calla. I am so stupid excited to finish off The Dark Tower series. Only 18 years of Steve left to go, and a little over 3 months to get it done. Stay tuned.

Until next time, Long Days and Pleasant Nights, Rebecca

#jeffrey dahmer #ted bundy #diane downs #shaker's cigar bar #hangman tours #parcast #serial killers #columbia county correctional #the talisman #the dark tower #constant readers #stephen king

2 notes · View notes

mrsren · 5 years

Note

I love post-Epilogue fics so could you write a fluffy one where D and H get together?

Hi, I hope you enjoy this! I’m not sure how fluffy it is? But I tried my best. Post Epilogue, Divorced Hermione, Hermione is not yet Minister of Magic (which may be screwy with canon, but I did not google it.)

It starts in a coffee shop that opens on a corner in Diagon Alley in the middle of October. Hermione’s constantly busy, and she takes her coffee to go each morning. Formerly a devout drinker, she’s changed her ways a bit since Arthur gifted her a muggle coffee machine during the last family Christmas.

The last family Christmas you’re likely to ever spend with the Weasleys.

Her mind is traitorous, and she elects to push the thought from her mind. Her divorce has been finalised for months, and while Molly will never be pleased about it—the witch didn’t believe in divorce—that doesn’t matter to Hermione at all.

She prattles off her order while staring at the menu overhead, eyes skimming the new seasonal selections. But then she glances down, and her eyes widen a fraction. “Scorpius?”

The blond grins and takes her money. “It’s nice to see you, Mrs Weasley.”

Hermione internally flinches at the name, but that’s how it goes, for the most part, these days. There’s so many witches and wizards who look down at her, whispering that it’s going to hurt her ability to run for Minister, that the name should roll off her back now. But it doesn’t.

“When did you start working here?” Hermione asks politely, and machines behind him whir to life.

“Today’s my first day on the register. Dad says I should get a job to appreciate money more.”

She’s taken aback, not because she pretends to know Draco Malfoy in any capacity, but it’s such a sound statement that she finds herself agreeing with the man. Hermione laughs. “I see. Any particular reason he wanted you to learn that?”

Scorpius’ eyes lighten as he scratches the back of his neck. “Oh, well, I might have spent more money than I should have to take a girl on a date.”

She lifts an eyebrow, and her question remains unspoken.

“Just,” his voice cracks, “two hundred galleons.”

Hermione chokes, her eyes shooting open. “I imagine it must have been a very nice date.” She says. It’s not her place to pass judgment on someone who’s not her child. “I can only imagine how he reacted.”

“Yeah.” Scorpius clicks his tongue. “It wasn’t that nice of a date. I took her to a muggle carnival she wanted to go to and lost all of my—Dad’s—money trying to win a stuffed animal.”

“Oh,” she laughs softly, taking her drink from him. “Those are rigged. You never stood a chance.”

He glowers at her. “I’ll keep that in mind next time. Have a good day.”

She hears him ask the next customer how she can help them.

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

Scorpius is behind the counter the next time she visits the shop, and greets her with an excited wave as he helps someone else. Hermione doesn’t know why Malfoy’s son is so eager to catch her eye when she hardly knows him—beyond an attempted relationship with Rose in the year previously, which Hermione thought was going to work out.

But it was one of the things that Ron had ruined with his intense dislike of Slytherin. Still, Rose and Scorpius remained good friends, but it’s not to say Hermione sees him often.

As she lingers in line, someone bumps into her, and there’s a muttered apology that’s a low rasp, and she’s already apologising herself and—

“Granger?”

Her head snaps up, and she recognises Malfoy instantly. His eyes are hardly widened, but she can tell he’s just as surprised to see her as she is to see him. Hermione swallows as he looks her up and down, and then does it again once more, and it takes a full ten seconds before she can muster anything to say. “Did you come to visit your son?”

While most of their classmates have let themselves go, Malfoy is certainly no in that category. Wearing a well tailoured suit, he adjusts his the knot at his throat, and Hermione can see he’s done well to take care of himself. There’s a throb in his throat before he answers her. “Yes, actually.”

She nods. When the question had popped out of her mouth, she hadn’t considered what she’d say next. Hermione and Malfoy aren’t on bad terms, not by a long shot when their children were attached at the hip during the term, but they’re not friends.

“Hermione, the usual?” Scorpius calls, leaning on the counter.

“Yes, please.”

Malfoy arches an eyebrow. “You have a usual?”

Hermione shifts her weight, and it feels like everyone in the coffee shop is staring at them. But there’s hardly anyone there now, and it’s all in her head. This isn’t like her to be affected by someone just because they were physically attractive, but it’s been a long time since anyone has looked at her that her mind comically shorts out.

“I drink a lot of coffee.” Hermione laughs. “Probably too much if I’m honest, but it keeps me going.” It’s too much information, she thinks and she regrets it immediately.

“I was sorry to hear about you and Weasley,” Malfoy says softly as they step to the side, making way for the next customer.

Hermione’s just grateful he doesn’t say the word divorce because she’s heard it enough recently. “Were you?” She asks, and she’s not sure why at all.

He chuckles, half-way leaning against the counter while sliding his hands into his trouser pockets. “I suppose not. He’s still kind of a tosser.”

She can agree with that. “Right on the nose.”

He pays for her drinks as Scorpius hands it to her, and the look between father and son does not go unnoticed.

“Are you seeing anyone?” Draco asks when Scorpius is out of earshot, and Hermione’s cup freezes just as it brushed her lips.

“I—Pardon?” She breathes.

Malfoy’s smirking, and a shiver unfurls on her spine. “I asked if you were seeing anyone. It’s a yes or no question, but if you need some time to get back to me…”

“No,” Hermione blurts. “I’m not seeing anyone.”

His smile is barely there, but the corner of his mouth twitches. “Would you like to get coffee sometime?”

Hermione gives a short laugh as she looks around them. “Well,” she drawls. “We’re already in a coffee shop, so how about right now? If you’re not in a hurry?”

“Maybe one where my son isn’t watching me,” Draco suggests, and points over her shoulder.

Scorpius is standing there, holding a piece of parchment with a scribbled: I told you so.

“There’s a cafe down the street?” Hermione offers, readjusting her bag. “Or if another day would work better for you…”

As he takes her hand without hesitation and leads her down the street, Hermione has the thought that perhaps things fall apart for other things to fall into place.

It’s oddly whimsical for her.

But then again, Draco Malfoy is holding her hand and running his thumb along her knuckles so anything is possible.

48 notes · View notes

theycallmemoosey · 5 years

Text

Welcome to Hogwarts (1/7)

Harry Potter x Teen Wolf AU

Chapter 1/7 (Chapter 2 Here)

Derek Hale x Reader

A/N: Guess who’s back!! This was requested by @drunklili and I really hope I have given it justice. I have poured everything into this because I am such a huge fan of both fandoms so this literally gave me life. I will be back to writing all my lined up requests and ideas soon, it has just taken some time for me to get back on my feet. I really really hope you enjoy my first series! Moose :)

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

Standing in front of that legendary wall was terrifying, knowing that your whole future was right through that pathway to the greatest wizarding school in history.

“Go on, sweetheart, you’ll be ok” your dad stroked your back, sensing that you were nervous.

“Just run. You’ve seen others do it, right?” Your mother added, smiling lovingly.

“I just wish you could come through with me”

“We wish we could too…would it be easier if we said goodbye and left? So you could go alone now?”

“Maybe” you nodded, reaching up to hug your parents for the last time, waving them off as they climbed back up the steps to the cafe. Turning back around, you kept staring at the wall, trying to convince yourself to just run through it.

“Your parents can’t go through either?” A voice asked next to you, standing and staring at the wall just like you.

“No” you laughed, “This is my first time”

“Oh me too” she smiled. You turned to look at the girl, who appeared to be the same age as you, with a head of messy, curly hair, “I’m Hermione”

You shook her outstretched hand, “Y/N”

“So you’re muggle-born too?”

“Mu-muggle?” You laughed, furrowing your eyebrows in confusion.

“Non magical people…so we are witches, obviously, and our parents are what we call muggles. We are muggle-born because we are the only witches in our family”

“You sure know a lot about this whole…thing” you chuckled, fiddling with a tag on one of your trunks, “I only found out about this last month! Since then I’ve been learning something new everyday”

“I read a lot” she matched your laugh, “Want to go in with me? I’ll sit with you on the train and tell you everything I know”

“That would be amazing” you smiled, your eyes flicking to her trolly full of her belongings, landing on a cage with a ginger cat, “Oh your cat is beautiful!”

“Thank you! His name is Crookshanks” she smiled proudly at her cat, “What pet did you buy?”

“I-I didn’t” you looked back at your trolly, noticing how empty it was, “My parents’ and I didn’t realise that we are allowed one until we left Diagon Alley. We completely overlooked it with the excitement of the whole…you know, ‘You’re a witch, Y/N’ thing”

“Maybe next year” she placed her hand on your arm in comfort, “Want to go through together?”

You gripped onto your trolly, “Let’s go”

————————————

“So…what are the house names again?” You asked Hermione, having learnt half the history and general knowledge of Hogwarts before the train even set off.

“Gryffindor, house of bravery, loyalty and courage; Ravenclaw, the house of wisdom, intelligence and creativity; Hufflepuff, the house of dedication, patience and fairness and finally Slytherin, the house of ambition and determination. Although, arguably, Slytherins are known for-“

“Oh my god, finally! A near empty carriage!” A red-headed girl cried out when she looked into the compartment where you were sat with Hermione, “I hope you don’t mind but literally every compartment down this train is full or…have weird looking people in it”

“It’s ok” you laughed, offering the seat next to you, “I’m Y/N, this is Hermione”

“Lydia” she smiled back, placing her white Persian cat next to her, “So how long have you two-“

“SCOTT! HERE’S ONE!”

“Oh good” Lydia sighed, “Here they come”

A trio of boys stumbled into the carriage, taking their seats. A jet black haired boy with broad shoulders sat opposite you, smiling politely at you. You quickly looked over towards Hermione, who was blushing just as much as you.

“What are you three doing here?” Lydia huffed, crossing her arms.

“You know these guys?” Hermione asked.

“Hermione, Y/N, this is Scott” she pointed to the boy with dark, wavy hair before pointing to the boy opposite you, “That’s Derek”

“I’m Stiles” the third boy said, his cheeky smile making you giggle slightly.

“Nice to meet you guys” you smiled at them all individually before raising your eyebrows excitedly at Hermione.

“Jesus, Lydia, did you have to let Prada walk around the train freely?” Stiles pointed towards the white cat, who was scratching at the compartment door.

“She doesn’t like being confined in small spaces”

“So…” Hermione cleared the air, “How long have you guys known each other?”

“Well, Derek and Scott are brothers and we’ve all been friends with each other from at least third grade, which in this country is what they call…year 4?” Stiles explained.

“Longest 3 years of my life” Lydia groaned.

Lydia and Scott squabbled about their friendship while Scott started to get to know Hermione. You giggled and looked out the window, seeing Derek open his book from the corner of your eye.

“Have you always known you were…magic?” You blurted out, your eyes widening when you realised what you had done.

“Sorry?” Derek laughed, lowering his book.

“How long have you know that you were a wizard?”

“Well…ever since I can remember”

“Oh! Your parents are magic too?”

“Yours aren’t?”

“I’m what they call a muggle-blood” you stuttered, seeing him smile.

“Because that isn’t obvious enough”

“Excuse me?”

“Muggle-born. The phrase you’re looking for is muggle-born” he chuckled, “How much do you know about this world?”

“I know that I am a muggle-born and what a Hogwarts is”

“You’re in for a long 5 years” he smirked and leant back, going back to his book.

A small, bucktoothed boy slid the door open, stopping the loud chat of the compartment.

“Has anyone seen my toad?”

—————————————

“Oh my-“

“Hagrid!” A dark haired boy with glasses ran past you happily towards the giant, who was towering above half the year.

“Harry! Good to see ya!” He chuckled, “Right, first years! Follow me! Off to the boats”

“That’s Harry. He’s a legend in the wizarding world” Hermione explained as you stared in his direction, “I met him on the way here”

“Why is he a legend? He’s 11” Stiles pointed out, butting in between the two of you.

“He survived ‘You Know Who’”

“No I don’t know” you furrowed your eyebrows.

“You don’t know about the dark lord? The most evil Wizard in the world?”

“Funnily enough, no”

“It’s not a story for now” Lydia interrupted, “She’s just learnt she’s a wizard, we don’t want to worry her anymore”

“Alright kiddos, listen up!” Hagrid boomed, “Get into groups of 6. The boats will steer themselves but a couple of you will have to take the torches”

As Hagrid climbed into his boat, Scott offered Hermione his hand and helped her into the boat, shortly following her. Stiles clambered in behind his best friend, followed by Lydia, Harry, a chatty red head boy and a tall boy with a head of curly locks.

“Thanks, Scotty” Derek huffed, climbing into the next boat. You cleared your throat as you realised that you had been left alone on the docks.

“Want to sit with me? Seems like we’ve been left by the rest” Derek offered his hand, and you took it smiling.

“Thank you” You sat down next to Derek and passed the torch to him, “You nervous?”

“Nervous?”

“Yeah, about starting school? I mean…look at it!” You chuckled breathily, gesturing towards the towering castle.

“You’re telling me you’re not excited? You get to live in a castle and learn magic. That must be pretty exciting considering that not so long ago you thought you were a muggle”

“It’s terrifying” you whispered, feeling your heart race as you approached the place you would call home for the next 7 years.

———————————————

Having met back up with the rest of the gang, you were introduced to Harry, Ron and Issac, who Hermione had met on the train. The castle grounds were huge and you thought that you were dreaming. It was everything you could have imagined and more.

“God these stairs go on forever” Stiles whined behind you, making you giggle as the rest of the students chatted around you.

A woman with a tall, pointy had stood at the top of the staircase, with a warm sort of smile you would expect from your grandmother - firm, but caring.

“Welcome to Hogwarts” she proudly said, “Now, in a few moments you will pass through these doors and join your classmates. But, before you can take your seats you must be sorted into your houses. Now while you are here, your house will be like your family”

“Trevor!” Neville randomly cried out, rushing towards the toad that was sat at the woman’s feet, making the rest of the crowd giggle, “Sorry”

“We’re ready for you now” she stated calmly, “Follow me”

You gulped as the crowd began to follow her.

“Calm down, you’ll be fine” Hermione said encouragingly, taking your hand.

“Let’s just hope we’re sorted into the same house”

The great hall was enormous and make your heart stop. Students were sat patiently at the longest dining tables you had seen in your life. And the candles - oh my god, the candles, were floating in mid air.

“The ceiling…” you whispered to Hermione.

“It’s not real” she explained, “It’s just bewitched to look like the night sky. I read about it in Hogwarts: A History”

“Oh” you muttered, “Mind if I borrow that book sometime?”

“Is that a hat?” Stiles pointed out in front of you, “It’s a shabby old thing”

“He’s going to have the shock of his life” Derek chuckled with Scott. For a pure-blood wizard, Stiles wasn’t the most knowledgable about Hogwarts and it’s ways.

“Will you wait along here please?” The professor asked, the students in front of you gathering in a circle, “Now before we begin, Professor Dumbledore would like to say a few words”

“Who’s-“

“Headmaster” Scott whispered quietly to you.

Dumbledore stood and announced the start of term notices, going on about Forbidden Forests and corridors that would lead to a most painful death…what had you gotten yourself into?

“Now when I call your name,” the professor continued, “Come forth and I shall place the sorting hat on your head and you shall be sorted into your houses”

“Good luck, guys” Scott whispered.

“Hermione Granger”

Hermione gasped and released a long breath. You smiled and squeezed her hand before letting her go to the chair, hearing her mutter words of encouragement to herself.

“Mental that one,” Ron said, “I’m telling ya”

“Ok…GRYFFINDOR!” The sorting hat yelled, causing the table directly behind you to clap and cheer. Hermione jumped off the chair and smiled quickly at you before joining her new house.

“Drace Malfoy!”

“Y/N, if I can offer you one piece of advice, it would be to stay away from him” Lydia warned.

“What? Why?”

“Remember that story Stiles and Hermione tried to tell you earlier? Let’s just say that Draco is a huge fan of that story”

The hat hadn’t even been placed on his head before it was announced he was a Slytherin.

“Of course he was sorted into the house of the evils”

“The house of the what?” You turned back to Stiles

“Most of the witches and wizards that were in Slytherin would always turn out to become evil and work for the dark lord. It’s just tradition!”

“Ronald Weasley!”

“He’s a Weasley? Automatic Gryffindor” Scott joked, making the rest of you laugh when the sorting hat had announced that he was, in fact, a Gryffindor, shortly joined by Scott, Stiles and Derek.

“Lydia Martin!”

“See you on the other side!” You smiled, moving to stand next to Harry as Lydia confidently went towards the sorting hat.

“RAVENCLAW!”

“That was quick” Harry announced, “She must be really intelligent”

“Harry Potter!”

The room went silent as Harry’s name was announced.

“Go on, it’s ok” you tried to encourage him, pushing him up the steps gently. It took a while but he was finally sorted into Gryffindor, the entire house standing up to cheer. You were happy for him as he joined the rest of your newly made friends.

“Y/N Y/L/N”

You hurried up the steps, feeling your hands shake when you saw all eyes on you. Your friends at Gryffindor smiled at you and you sat down carefully, hoping and praying that you would soon be sat next to them.

“Mmm…ok…I see…” you heard the hat say, making your heart race faster, “A tricky one I must say…but I must go with my instinct and it says…”

“Come on Gryffindor, come on Gryffindor…” you thought to yourself, closing your eyes in hope.

“SLYTHERIN!”

Your eyes snapped open and your heart dropped, you saw the smiles fall off of the people you desperately wanted to be sat next to.

“Off you go, dear. It’s ok”

You slowly made your way to your new house, the rest of the students smiling and ushering you to your seat. You had been ushered opposite the one student you prayed you wouldn’t sit near.

“Y/N, right?”

“Right” you looked down at your hands.

“I’m Draco” he smiled, “You’re not nervous are you?”

“Would it be so wrong if I was?”

“What’s there to be nervous about? You’ve just been sorted into the best house in the school!”

“Right” you nodded sadly.

“I have a feeling we’re going to be great friends” Draco stated, before continuing watching the sorting ceremony.

You already wanted to go home.

————————————————

The feast was well under way and everyone was talking about their summer holidays and tucking into their endless plates of food. You, however, hadn’t eaten anything and you were already homesick. You looked over your shoulder at the rest of the gang talking and laughing. Lydia had already made a few friends in her house, talking with a girl with long, wavy, brown hair. You were happy for her, but part of you wished it was you.

“Hey, kiddo…everything ok?”

“Hm? Yeah, fine” you mumbled, picking up a spoonful of peas.

“Yeah you sure look it…” he chuckled, “What’s your name, kid?”

“Y/N”

“I’m Jackson. 3rd year”

“Nice to meet you” you shook his outstretched hand.

“Didn’t want to be a Slytherin then, huh?”

“What?” You said quickly, watching Jackson laugh to himself, “I never said that”

“Oh come on. I saw you look at your friends over there at Gryffindor. You wanted to be with them, right? Or were your parents in Gryffindor?”

“Oh, my parents didn’t come-they aren’t-“

“SHHH” Jackson quickly hushed you, looking around his shoulder before leaning in closer towards you, “Are you…muggle-born?”

“Yeah…why is that-“

“Listen, you can’t tell anyone, ok? At least, no one in the house. Slytherins are known for being pure-bloods”

“What are they?” You asked confused, looking around you to see if anyone was listening in on the conversation.

“You don’t know-how long have you know you were a witch?”

“About a month or so?”

“Oh kid” he laughed to himself, sitting back up, “Listen…tell no one. If anyone finds out, there will be consequences”

“What does that mean?”

“Just…trust me, kid. I know first had what some of these people will do to you if they find out you’re not….pure”

“You’re a-“

“Don’t say it out loud” he mumbled, taking a bite of roast chicken.

“You’re like me?”

“And you’re like me” he smiled, “Just stick with me, kid. We’ll make a fine team”

———————————————

“Am I late?” You rushed into the classroom, sliding in the seat next to Lydia.

“No, no you’re good. You look like rubbish though”

“Is it really that bad?” You looked at her wide-eyed.

“Um…why were you late?” Lydia tried to change the subject.

“I overslept. I couldn’t sleep last night”

“How come?”

“Nerves? Homesick? The fact that I’m in a house that might hurt me should they find out I’m not pure or whatever?”

“Who told you that?”

“A third-year…he said that I shouldn’t tell anyone that I’m muggle born or I might be in serious trouble”

“He’s right” Derek piped up from behind you, “Especially that Draco boy. If he asks, lie. Seriously, you don’t want him or his family to find out that you’re a muggle born”

“Noted” you breathed out, the class hushing around you as Professor McGonagall, you learnt her name as, walked into the classroom.

“Alright students, open your textbooks to page two and start the questions on the opposite page. Begin”

You huffed and turned the page, looking up momentarily before witnessing a fully grown woman shrink down to the size of a cat. Oh, no wait…a literal cat.

“What the…”

“Animagus” Lydia explained, “A wizard or witch that has the ability to transform into an animal. Apparently its a very difficult and dangerous spell to perfect. But you couldn’t expect any less from McGonagall. She’s incredible”

“You’re telling me” you laughed breathily, shaking your head and turning your attention from the cat sat on the desk at the front to your textbook.

You were shortly interrupted when Harry and Ron noisily ran into the classroom, walking at a fast pace and out of breath towards the front desk, muttering to each other. McGonagall lept from the desk in between the two of them and transformed back into her usual form.

“BLOODY HELL!”

—————————————

“You weren’t at dinner”

You looked up from the book you were reading, jumping at the sound of Jackson’s voice as you had thought you were alone in the common room.

“Not hungry” you shrugged, going back to reading your book.

“Liar” Jackson laughed, throwing a wrapped up sandwich onto your book.

“Thank you” you mumbled, placing the book next to you and unwrapping your dinner.

“This is the third day you haven’t eaten with us”

“And…?” You asked, a mouth full of food.

“It’s not healthy! You can’t isolate yourself for the rest of your time here”

“I can and I will”

“I know you’re scared and I know you don’t know half of what’s going on around you, but you can get through this”

“Scared? I’m terrified of talking to anybody in Slytherin. I barely get to see the rest of the guys I met on the train and my only true friend is a 3rd year. That’s kinda sad”

“Why don’t you try talking to someone then?”

“Didn’t you listen? I’m terrified of-“

“No, no I heard. But if anyone asks anything that may, you know, expose you…just lie”

“No way. If anyone found out I was lying, I would be in more trouble than I would be if they found out that I’m a mud-blood”

“A what?” Jackson’s tone sounded harsh and it made you flinch slightly.

“Mud-blood”

“Who taught you that?”

“I just heard it being mentioned around the others” you whimpered, fearing you had upset and offended Jackson.

“A mud-blood is a derogatory term for people like us. You can’t just throw that word around, Y/N”

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know”

“No, I know you didn’t. How could you have done?” He sighed, leaning back into the sofa opposite you, his eyes drifting over towards the entrance of the common room, “Here comes the rest of them. Try and talk to someone…make a friend”

“I have one”

“Someone your own age” Jackson winked, standing up quickly and heading up towards the dorms.

You sighed and picked your book back up, only to be interrupted once more by a boy you really could not be bothered to talk to.

“You weren’t at dinner again, Y/N. We’re beginning to think that you may not like us”

“No need to worry, Draco. Jackson brought me something back” you said, not looking up from your book.

“Jackson? As in Jackson Whittemore? The third year?”

“Yes, as in Jackson Whittemore”

“You want to stay away from him, Y/N. My father says that he’s a mud-blood” Draco chuckled, making you cringe, “He denies it of course, but there’s something up with him. I know it”

“He’s in Slytherin and he’s not a bully…maybe that’s what is confusing you” you smiled patronisingly at him before standing up and heading back to the dorm, but you paused when he spoke up once again.

“You really don’t help yourself, Y/L/N” he taunted, “I know you don’t have many friends around here. I see you on your own most of the time. Pansy tells me all about the ways she and the other girls tease you in the dorm. But when someone charming and willing to be your friend comes over to try and talk to you, you just push them away. I may have been joking earlier but maybe I was right….maybe you don’t like the rest of us”

“It’s….It’s not that I don’t like you” You answered, turning back to him, “It’s just that, I’m not like you”

—————————

“HERMIONE!” You called out, running towards Hermione in the courtyard.

“Hey Y/N, everything alright?”

“I was wondering if you would be able to help me? I am so behind in potions class right now and I can’t get to grips with the homework Snape set us”

“I’d be happy to help you. We can go to the library just before dinner?”

“Oh, Hermione, you lifesaver thank you so much!” You squealed, squeezing her arm in gratitude.

“Honestly it’s not-“

“It’s LeviOOOOsa, not LeviosAAA” Ron mocked to the rest of the Gryffindor first years in front of the two of you, making Hermione pause mid-sentence, “She’s a bloody nightmare, I’m telling you”

“Hermione don’t-“ you started, but she had already picked up the pace and started to walk past the group of boys.

“It’s no wonder she hasn’t got any friends!”

Hermione budged past Ron, making the group of boys stop in front of you.

“I think she heard you” Harry stated plainly.

You huffed, “Now you’ve gone and done it, haven’t you. You and your big mouth”

“Come on, Y/N, I was only kidding”

“Yeah, well, funny joke, Ron. As you can see, everyone is laughing” you scolded, running off after Hermione.

You found her later in the girl's loos, hearing her sobs echo in the tiled room.

“Hermione?”

“Y/N? Is that you?”

“Yeah…yeah just me. You’ve had me worried sick all evening!” You laughed breathily, standing in front of the toilet cubicle door Hermione was behind, “Lydia saw you come in here earlier and told me you were crying…is this about Ron?”

“Of course it’s about that big headed, big mouthed idiot!” She burst out of the toilet cubicle angrily, her eyes were red and puffy with tears threatening to fall down her flushed cheeks.

“He doesn’t have a filter…sometimes he can’t help it. I’m sure he-“

“Of course he meant it, Y/N!”

“That’s not what I was going to say” you said sternly, “I was going to say that I’m sure he was only saying those things about you because he’s insecure about himself! I mean, think about it. He’s the fifth Weasely to come to Hogwarts and he obviously isn’t matching up to his brother’s standards. You’ve seen how humiliated he gets in classes, especially Snape’s”

“Snape has it out for everyone” she laughed in between her sniffles, a small smile creeping onto her face.

“Let’s be honest, Ron is just jealous that he gets picked on in class and that he can’t match how incredibly talented and smart you are. You know, for a muggle-born, you probably know more about the wizarding world than any pure blood there is”

Hermione giggled and wiped her nose with her robe, “Thank you, Y/N. Really”

You went in to hug her, “It’s just the truth”

“Y/N…”

“No, I mean it Hermione, it’s the plain honest truth and-“

“Y/N!”

The panic in her voice made you let go and turn around, only to come face to face with a giant, green and warty troll carrying what looked like a large log. You gasped and the two of you walked backwards until your backs hit the door of the toilets.

“Quick, in here” Hermione grabbed you and pulled you into the cubicle, shutting the door instantly. With a heavy swipe, the troll had broken the tops of the toilet cubicles, causing you and Hermione to scream loudly.

“Y/N? HERMIONE?” You heard Scott call out, the door to the girls’ loos slamming loudly.

“MOVE!” Harry ordered, rushing towards the troll as the two of you crawled underneath the toilet cubicles.

“HEY! PEABRAIN!” Ron called out as they were chucking the splinters of wood towards the troll.

“Peabrain? Really, Ron?” Stiles snarked, Derek looking at him with wide eyes.

“Stiles, in case you haven’t noticed, there’s a great big troll there!”

“And he’s coming towards us!!” Scott yelled, hurling another splinter of wood at the troll.

In a blind panic, the log hit one of the ceramic tiles above where you and Hermione had decided to hide, causing the pipes to burst and a cloud of dust to make you both cough.

“HELP!” Hermione cried out.

Harry rushed forward and grabbed onto the end of the log, crying out when the troll had lifted him 6ft in the air, making him land on the troll’s shoulders. Harry stuck his wand into the nose of the troll quickly, trying to cause a distraction to let you and Hermione scurry away out of danger.

“Ewwww” Ron and Stiles said in unison.

“Scott, help Harry!” Derek ordered, rushing to help you and Hermione out from underneath the sinks.

“WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!” Scott pointed his wand at the log that the troll had started to swing at Harry, causing it to float directly above his head. It dropped and instantly knocked the troll out, Ron and Stiles rushing to get Harry out of the way before he was crushed.

“Is it…dead?” Stiles asked cluelessly.

“I don’t think so…just knocked out” Harry breathed out heavily.

“Are you two ok?” Scott asked, concern in his voice.

“Fine,” you both said in unison.

“OH!” McGonagall cried when she had rushed into the entrance, followed by Professor Snape and Professor Quirrell, “EXPLAIN YOURSELVES! ALL OF YOU!”

“Well, uhhh, you see” the boys stuttered.

“It’s my fault, Mrs. McGonagall” Hermione announced, causing the rest of you to turn and stare at her bewildered, “I went looking for the troll. I’ve read about them and thought I would be able to handle it. If they hadn’t found me, I probably would have been dead”

“Be that as it will, it was an extremely foolish thing to do” McGonagall scorned, “I would have expected better from you, especially you Miss Granger. Five points from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgement. As for you boys…”

“We promise we didn’t mean any harm!”

“Be quiet, Mr. Stilinski! I hope you realise how fortunate you all are. Not many first-year students are lucky enough to tackle a troll and live to tell the tale. 5 points to Gryffindor. Each! For sheer darn luck!”

“Pardon me, Professor but…Y/N…she helped too” Derek pointed out, making you blush.

“So I see. 5 points to Slytherin too. Now all of you, head back to the common rooms and explain to your prefects why you are late!”

All of you stumbled away, talking quietly amongst yourselves about the battle with the troll. You lingered at the back, joined by Hermione.

“You alright?” She asked.

“You didn’t have to take all the blame. I was there just as much as you were. And why lie? You didn’t go looking for the troll!”

“It was easier than explaining why Ron has such a big mouth”

The two of you laughed, but were shortly interrupted by Derek as you approached the corridor where the two houses would part ways, “Y/N, can I speak to you for a second?”

“Sure. I’ll see you tomorrow?” You asked Hermione, who smiled and nodded before joining the rest of them, “You didn’t have to ask McGonagall for the points for me”

“You deserved them just as much as the rest of us” he smiled, “You sure you’re ok? Lydia told us you went to go and speak to Hermione after seeing her cry. What was wrong?”

“Oh, just Ron being Ron. You know what he’s like” you laughed, “In fact, I think I might just…you know...trouble always seems to follow those two”

“Harry and Ron?”

“Those are the culprits”

“I think that’s a good idea. I’m not sure Scott or Stiles would agree, but I think you’re right”

“I’m going to head back. I can’t imagine how many questions I’m going to be bombarded with when I get back to the dorm”

“How is the dorm?” Derek queried, also having noticed you weren’t going to any of the feasts recently.

“I mean…it’s a dorm. Girls are mean. Boys are mean. People are just generally mean. Doesn’t help I’m in the house of the mean”

“Do you really see it that way?”

“Doesn’t everybody else?”

“I guess so. I’m not sure why, but I feel like I was always destined to be a Slytherin”

“Is that so?”

“It is so” he smiled, a small silence passing between the two of you, “Well, goodnight, Y/N”

You smiled and waved as Derek went on his way back to the dorms, “Goodnight Derek”

—————————————

The sound of cheers echoed across the school grounds as the quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin was in play. You promised Harry you would go and watch him, but you couldn’t bring yourself to spend any more time with the horrible girls that would tease you. You found yourself perched underneath the largest oak tree in the grounds, right in the middle of one of the castle’s many courtyards. Everyone was at the match, so you were surprised when a voice pulled you away from the book you were reading.

“Thought I would find you here”

“Why aren’t you at the match, Derek?”

“I could ask you the same thing” He laughed, taking a seat next to you against the tree, “What you reading there?”

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”

“Oh yeah? Any good?” He grabbed the book from your hands and flipped it over, inspecting the cover.

“It’s interesting…never knew there were so many magical creatures”

“You muggle” he laughed, making you slap his arm in offence, “I’m kidding. It’s a lot to take in for someone who’s not known about the wizarding world for long. You’re doing well”

“I wouldn’t say I was doing well”

“You kidding me? You’ve already mastered some spells that took me years to learn!” He said, giving you back the book and leaning against the tree with his arms crossed, closing his eyes as he took in the midday sun, “I would say you’re doing exceptionally well”

“Thought you would be at the match this afternoon? Harry’s playing” you broke the momentary silence.

“I’m not a fan of sports. Never have been. My brother on the other hand? He wants to play quidditch professionally. He loves it”

“He must be pretty jealous Harry got on the team first then, huh?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe” he chuckled, looking at you from the corner of his eye, “I saw Jackson Whittemore was playing this afternoon”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“I always see you two together. At the dinner table, between classes and during free time. I thought something was going on between you two”

“Awww you jealous?!” You teased.

“As if!” He exclaimed, “I just thought-“

“Well, you thought wrong. We just get on and he’s really the only nice one to me in the house”

“The only one?” He said, surprise in his voice.

“Well, I mean…Draco is nice to me. Not that I want him to be”

“Oh, he definitely has something for you”

“Ew gross” you shuddered, “Never going to happen”

“W-w-what are you t-t-two doing?” The voice of Professor Quirrell made both of you jump, “Why are you not at the qu-qu-quidditch match?”

“Sorry, Professor, I didn’t realise we had to go” you apologised quickly, closing your book and standing up.

“Hurry b-b-b-back to your dorms now before someone else f-f-finds you here and you get in w-w-worse trouble”

“But Professor, other students aren’t at the match”

“Are you arguing w-w-w-with me?!” Quirrell raised his eyebrows.

“No, not exactly, but I just feel that you are being rather unfair and-“

“D-D-D-DETENTION!”

“WHAT? What for?!” Derek shouted.

“Derek, leave it. Don’t argue with-“

“F-F-For both of you!”

“Hang on, she didn’t do anything!” Derek argued, following Quirrell who had already started to make his way back to wherever he came from.

“Derek! Just…just leave it. It may be detention but it will beat having to hang around in the house”

Derek sighed, still looking in the direction Quirrell went.

“You ok, Derek?”

“Fine…fine…I just feel like something is…off with him”

“He’s just got a stutter”

“Mmm…” Derek hummed, turning back round to you, “Want to go and play a game of Wizard’s chess?”

“Sure” you smiled, following him to the great hall.

——————————————

“Derek? What are you doing here?”

“Of course you two are here” Derek laughed, noticing Harry and Ron stood outside Hagrid’s house, “And of course you managed to drag Hermione into this too”

“Y/N?” Hermione and Draco said in unison after seeing you emerge from behind Derek.

“Hey”

“Ok, I have to admit, I am the ONE person I thought would not be caught dead in detention, but yet, here I am. What are you all here for?”

“Out of bed after hours” Ron explained, leaning in slightly towards you and Derek, “Draco the snake over there ratted us out”

“What were you doing?”

“We were seeing Hagrid. We had to ask him about something he said and-“

“Alright then, let’s head into the forest” Hagrid announced, fixing up his crossbow.

“The forest?! Students aren’t allowed to go in there!” Draco exclaimed, sounding more worried than ever, “And there are werewolves in there!”

“Ah there’s more than werewolves in those trees, Malfoy” Derek teased.

“That’s enough from you, Derek” Hagrid warned, “Let’s go”

The group of you followed Hagrid into the dark shadows of the forbidden forest, accompanied by Fang, Hagrid’s slobbery dog. You all stopped suddenly when Hagrid spotted a pool of liquid shining in the moonlight.

“What is that?” Harry asked inquisitively.

“See that?” Hagrid asked, showing the tips of his fingers covered in the mysterious liquid, “That is unicorn blood, that it. This one has been hurt bad by sumfin. So…it’s our job to find the poor beast. So, Ron and Hermione, you’ll join me. Harry and Derek, you go with Fang. Malfoy and Y/N, I’m afraid you two are on your own”

“Fine by me” Draco smiled at you, making you cringe slightly.

“Stay safe” Derek whispered as you and Malfoy passed them, heading off into the unknown.

“I’ll have my father informed about this. This is servants work!” Draco moaned.

“I’m sure you will, Malfoy”

“How ironic that we were put together, Y/N. I finally feel like I can get to know you”

“There isn’t much to know about me, Malfoy”

“How many times? Call me Draco”

“Again, Draco…there really isn’t much to know about me”

“You’re so quiet and shy. I only ever see you nose deep in a book”

“I enjoy reading. Beats sitting around doing nothing” you grunted, climbing down a steep collection of rocks.

“You don’t have very many friends…why is that?” He asked, making you sigh in frustration.

“Honestly? No one in the house likes me. All the girls tease me and-“

“They’re just joking” he interrupted.

“Well, it’s not very funny”

“You hang out with that Jackson guy a lot…in the third year is it?”

“You certainly ask a lot of questions, don’t you Draco?” You huffed at him.

A moment of stunned silence passed before you heard Derek shout for help.

“DEREK!” You shouted, running towards the sound of his voice, eventually bumping into him at full speed.

The both of you groaned, Derek offering his hand to help you up, “You alright?”

“I-I’m fine. What was wrong?” You asked with panic in your voice, looking behind you to see Draco panting.

“It’s Harry. We found the unicorn”

“Harry’s in danger?!”

The three of you ran towards where Derek and Harry had found the unicorn.

“Woah” you breathed out when you came to a halt, seeing Harry talk with a centaur, of all things.

“HARRY!” Hermione called out from behind you, Fang having led them to where they were. The centaur galloped off and Harry turned back around, seeing the anxious faces of the rest of you.

“Are you alright, Harry?”

“Fine…I’m fine”

“Well…I suppose it’s time we headed back to the school now, hey kids”

“You don’t say” Draco huffed, already storming back towards the castle grounds.

“You sure you’re ok?” Derek asked, hanging at the back with you.

“Yeah, just a little shaken that’s all. How are you doing?”

“I’ll live”

“For now at least” you joked, making Derek laugh quietly.

“Let’s just…not get into detention again, agreed?”

“Agreed”

———————————————

“Y/N! It’s been forever!!” Lydia slid into the bench opposite you, Prada walking across the table freely.

“Lydia! How are you?” You smiled at her, “Prada still claustrophobic?”

“Always. She’s been a nightmare. I might just leave her at home next term. How are you? Made any other friends in the house yet?”

“Friends? No. Enemies? Perhaps”

“Oh, Y/N” Lydia stroked your hair, “You can always come and find me or any of the boys during free time”

“I don’t want to be a burden”

“Oh don’t be silly, I miss talking to you!”

“What about you?” You quickly changed the subject, “Any new friends?”

“Of course. From the first day! In fact, here she is now” Lydia pointed to the doors of the great hall where the girl with long brown hair you saw sitting next to Lydia on the first day was.

“Lydia, you left Prada’s bowl by your bed”

“Thank you so much!” Lydia smiled, “Y/N, this is Allison”

“Hi, nice to meet you” she greeted you, sitting down next to you, “Slytherin?”

“And you’re a Ravenclaw” you smiled tight-lipped, “What time does the train leave tonight?”

“6 I think…can we sit in the same compartment?” Lydia begged.

“Oh, I-I promised Hermione that we would travel together. We live pretty close to each other so we’re going to-“

“I’m sure there will be room for more than 2 people. We’ll come and find you later”

“Sounds like a plan” you gave up, “It was nice to meet you, Allison. I’ll see you later?”

“See you later” she waved, following Lydia and Prada.

You spotted Hermione talk to Ron and Harry and decided to join them, “Hey guys”

“Hey Y/N” Harry greeted, Ron grunting after him as he was focusing on the wizard's chess game.

“Are you two not going home?” You asked the boys, noticing that they didn’t have any of their things with them.

“Mum and Dad changed their plans. They’re going to visit my brother Charlie in Romania”

“Is that the dragon training brother?” Hermione piped up.

“That’s the one”

“What about you Harry?” You asked him.

“My uncle and aunt don’t want me back” he sighed, commanding a chess piece to move.

“You’re welcome to stay with me, Harry. Same for you, Ron. My parents’ wouldn’t mind”

“Thank you, Y/N, but we don’t want to be any trouble”

“Where are the others?” You asked, searching the hall for Stiles, Scott and Derek.

“Stiles left a couple days ago, his dad wanted to take him away for the holidays and I think Scott and Derek have already gone to the station”

“Oh” you sighed, wanting to have wished them goodbye before you left for a month.

“Hey, do you want to go?” Hermione prompted you, pulling a hat over her head.

“Sure” you nodded.

“Remember, the restricted section” Hermione raised her eyebrows before heading off towards the door.

“Oh, Harry…” you started, before leaning down to whisper in his ear.

Harry smiled gleefully, “Bishop to D6 - checkmate”

“NOT FAIR!” Ron groaned, folding his arms in a sulk.

You laughed, “Merry Christmas guys”

——————————

Months had passed since you left the castle for Christmas. You returned, meeting the same old group on the train and laughing about your Christmases and awful presents you all got from various old family members. The next few terms went a lot better since the last term. You think Draco had asked the girls to stop teasing you, as they would try and get along with you instead. Behind their bullish facade, a lot of them were just normal girls that had normal interests. You got along well with a girl named Astoria in particular.

Harry, Ron and Hermione ended up going on a huge adventure and they all ended up coming back from the depths of the castle with cuts and bruises. Harry was even hospitalised. They never told you what it was that happened, but as long as they were safe, you weren’t too worried about the whole story. However, it was to your surprise that Professor Quirrell disappeared suddenly one night. Many of the girls theorised that the man had driven himself mad and he walked straight off the cliff. You didn’t believe them, but you did agree with Derek’s earlier prediction. Something wasn’t quite right about that man.

It had come to the end of the year, and it was evident that Slytherin had won the house cup, so the house had a pre-ceremony party in the common room beforehand.

“Y/N!” Jackson called out, “You came!”

“Astoria dragged me here, although she’s over there with Blaise…” you pointed to where Blaise and Astoria were sat on one of the sofas, chatting away about god knows what.

“I’m glad you’ve made another friend other than a stinky third year”

“Well I didn’t want to say anything” you teased, making him push you lightly.

“Go and socialise and I’ll see you in the great hall for dinner” he smiled.

He kept his promise and slid into the bench next to you when the time came. The banners were Slytherin green and silver and the feast was twice as tremendous as usual. When Dumbledore announced the houses’ positions, your eyes flickered over to the Gryffindor table. Much to your dismay, your group of friends loomed more than disappointed. Stiles, in particular, looked to be having a strop right next to a fed up looking Derek. However, Dumbledore announced the final points for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and much to everybody’s surprise, Neville Longbottom. You couldn’t show it, because god knows the bullying you would receive as a result, but you were beyond happy for your friends. Draco caught the small smile on your face and breathed heavily, catching your attention and making your smile drop immediately.

“I know they’re your friends or whatever, Y/L/N” Draco hissed under his breath to make sure that you were the only one who could here him, “But at least try to act like you belong here”

You gasped a little bit and looked down, feeling Jackson’s hand on your lower back in comfort. When the house cup was awarded to Gryffindor, the rest of the houses celebrated and threw their hats in the air. You wanted to celebrate, god knows you wanted to celebrate, but you knew you couldn’t.

“You can be happy for them, you know. Don’t feel like you can’t” Jackson whispered in your ear.

You smiled and nodded subtly in agreement.

“LET THE FEAST BEGIN!” Dumbledore announced, and the houses began to eat their food greedily. You looked up from your plate and saw Lydia, who smiled politely at you before going back to her conversation with Allison. Your eyes then flickered over to Gryffindor, where the rest of them were all chatting happily. Derek made eye contact and smiled, winking at you quickly. You blushed and waved slightly, much to the annoyance of Draco.

School had ended for summer and you rushed out of the Slytherin dorms to meet the rest of your friends at the station.

“Y/N!” Lydia cried out dramatically in true Lydia fashion, “We were beginning to think you would never come”

“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss getting in a compartment with you crazy people for the world” you smiled.

You all clambered on the train and squeezed into the compartment. The sound of Stiles going on about how his owl had ruined all his term papers drowned out as you watched Hogwarts slowly become smaller and smaller as you left the station slowly.

Sure, this year may not have been the best year it could have been and it certainly wasn’t the year you were expecting to have, but you wouldn’t have changed it for the world, and you couldn’t wait to come back next year.

73 notes · View notes

diceforanaltmode · 5 years

Text

Team Fire: Session 3, Egg?!; Part 1: Reunions? Breakfast?

Team Fire has continued their adventuring and at last we can bring you more of their shenanigans! Thanks to Hawke for providing recordings for this session and for the rest of the party for taking so much of their time to help with the transcription of all ~3.5hours of it - now you have an even more detailed account of all the hijinks! The full summary came to 30pages/10k+words, so we’ve split it into four parts to make it a bit easier to read on tumblr - click through to Session 3 part 2 at the end to keep reading!

TEAM FIRE

Rodimus by Frosty (tiefling sorcerer) Drift by Space (earth genasi rogue) Ratchet by Hawke (firbolg cleric) Magnus | Minimus by Tuna (half-orc paladin | human/tethyrian wizard) Megatron by Briar (goliath paladin) Rewind by Robin (high elf wizard) (out for this week, but back soon) First Session | Second Session

We begin our adventure with the party asleep after their long day defeating Zeta. In the middle of the night, Rodimus wakes up in the room he shares with Drift, with the sudden sense that someone has gone, like that feeling when people say they know that a relative has died, but also a sense of relief, like it was a shitty relative. To help himself get back to sleep, Rodimus casts sleep on himself.

Ratchet passes out in bed asleep, just conks right out. He dreams of his memories of what happened to the hospital. What Megatron did. But still, Ratchet rises early and rolls out of bed. He’s getting ready for the day when there’s a knock at the door.

“Yes?”

Roller’s voice comes through the door. “Ratch, it’s me, can I come in?”

“Yeah, sure.” Ratchet opens the door.

“Ah, hey, you doing alright? You sleep okay?”

“Ah, yeah, yeah, Slept pretty well.”

“That’s good. Hey, uh, I got a message from Orion, asked if we could meet to catch up since we didn’t really get to yesterday.”

“Oh, did we now.” Ratchet says sarcastically. “Yeah, the little screaming match yesterday,” Ratchet coughs. “Anyways - yeah, did he want to meet with both of us, or?”

“Yeah. To, y’know, avoid any shouting matches again, there’s a cafe a couple streets down, if you wanted to walk over, they open pretty early, and the coffee’s better than what Swerve serves - but don’t tell him I said that.”

“I’ll always take a good coffee.”

“Alright,”

“I’ll be ready in ten,”

“Okay, I’ll meet you downstairs.”

Ratchet and Roller walk over in companionable silence. Ratchet’s still reflecting on the last day, after having spent the evening mostly drunk, and Roller doesn’t force any small talk.

As they walk into the shop, they see baskets of bread and bagels and rolls, rows of pastries in glass cases, and in a large, round case, a whole cake, decorated with frosting shaped like yellow flowers. There are a few others in the cafe eating breakfast or picking up a loaf of bread for the day, Rung and Nightbeat are finishing up their breakfast.

Orion is in a back corner, halfway through a mug of coffee and an apple turnover, and, talking to an Aarakocra woman, dressed in similar armor to Orion, who looks upset and angry. As Ratchet and Roller get closer, she stands up to leave, and they overhear Orion say, “Alright, I’ll ask him.” Orion looks up and acknowledges Roller and Ratchet.

Ratchet grabs a coffee and then joins Orion. There’s a bit of awkwardness because the last time they saw each other, Orion was screaming at the scourge of Kaon and they had just killed Zeta. Roller follows, getting a coffee and a bearclaw. Ratchet and Orion both sit with their backs to the wall, while Roller has his back to the room.

“Thank you for coming,” Orion says, “It’s good to see you again in better circumstances.”

Ratchet stares into his mug of coffee for a little bit, before taking a deep slurp. “So, Orion, how’s the mind control been?”

“Well, better now that you all got rid of Zeta. Things aren’t quite yet coming back, but I’ve been talking with the AVL folks and they’ve been filling me in on what’s happened, they’ve been filling in all the guards. That’s also - the woman who just left, she’s also in the guard, she had the mind control, and, well, we both had the same thing, but she had it worse because - well, we can’t remember, but her kid is gone, and from what we can piece together, she thinks Zeta ordered her to bring her kid to him and leave the kid.”

Ratchet makes a horrified face at the notion.

“I take it from your reaction that you didn’t see any sign of the kid when you made your way through the castle.”

“To be honest I was a bit preoccupied on our way out making sure you got out, so no. We might be able to go back, search the premises if it helps, if - I’m not sure.”

“Yeah, I - assumed if you’d seen someone you would have made sure they got out, but I promised Ekalu I’d ask, since you were in the castle.”

“Yeah, I - I could ask the others when I get back to the tavern…” Ratchet says, trailing off to mutter, “her fucking kid...”

“I appreciate that.” Orion says, to Ratchet’s offer.

“Her fucking kid.” Ratchet mutters again, shaking his head.

Orion looks very downcast. “Fortunately from what we can tell it seems her kid was only gone a few days at the most, maybe a week. So at least not the entire time Zeta has been here.”

“So - you want to stage a search and rescue?”

“I wouldn’t know where to start. There’s the map the AVL showed you, I wouldn’t know where else a kid would be,” he considers, “unless there’s some part of the castle that Zeta built recently, something the AVL wouldn’t know about.”

“Yeah, I have an idea.” Ratchet says, “and you can rule out the high-security dungeons, we combed through those.”

“I heard. I -” Orion pauses, frowning, “ - what happened in there? I - You don’t - you don’t have to give me all the details.”

“Ah, not much, freed a lot of men, stumbled across a repentant warlord. Ya know, everyday things.”

“So you really buy it?”

“Coming back to this city was a mistake. I - I’m,” Ratchet considers. “He didn’t try to murder us. I don’t buy it. I don’t buy it. But - well, for now, he hasn’t tried any shady things, so - that’ll have to be enough for the moment. Drift - one of my companions on that job, Drift, seemed - rather opposed to taking Megatron down or securing him, or, or even just letting him say in the cell - you know, he was in a variable voltage harness, we didn’t have to let him go.” Ratchet sighs. “This whole thing’s been weird from start to finish.”

Orion sighs. “Well, for what it’s worth, seeing as you’re part of the reason I’m not under Zeta’s mind control anymore, I wouldn’t say coming here was a mistake,” he says. “How’ve you been? It’s been, what, fifteen, twenty years?”

“About. On the road, odd jobs. Trying my best. Trying, sometimes failing. Hmm,” he pauses, considers, “patching up people, the old wandering cleric life. I’ve - I’ve come here for First Aid originally, didn’t think I’d, you know, do the whole fighting a Vampyric overlord thing. I’ve been - y’know, I’ve been undercover.”

Orion nods. “Oh, First Aid’s here, that’s good,” he says, then adds. “They were debriefing all of the guards, they said they’re going to start up city council elections again, get things running back the way they were supposed to be.”

“Oh, well that’s good.” Ratchet considers his coffee. He’s not much of a morning conversationalist, not that he’s much of a conversationalist at any other time. Then, “I’m really glad you’re okay. I’m really fucking glad you’re okay.”

Orion smiles. “I’m glad you’re okay too.” He sighs. “After everything happened in Iacon - just - it’s been hard not to worry, these past few years. And, knowing what you were up against in there - I’m real glad you made it out of there okay.”

“Yeah, I got out, and I -” Ratchet huffs, “I might be so foolish to say I might have some opportunity here, which is - better than nothing. Better than nothing at all.”

“Well, that’ll be good to hear. I don’t know if I’m going to stay in the city.”

“Wait,” Roller interjects, “why - why wouldn’t you stay here?”

Ratchet leans in, skeptical. “Any plans, Pax?”

“Y’know, I - in Iacon, I tried to see what I could do working within the system, and in Kaon I tried to see what I could do outside the system. Then I tried looking for a reformer in Zeta and that obviously didn’t work out -”

Ratchet scoffs.

“- yes, I know, if you had been around you would probably have had more sense and talked me out of it, but - I don’t know what happens next. And I don’t know if there’s a place for me in rebuilding this city. I don’t know how many people recognize me only as someone who worked for Zeta.”

“That’s… if it’s any consolation, if the mind control thing gets out, we might be able to stir up some ruckus, get some new souls on the crew,” he says. “The mind control - it wasn’t you. It wasn’t your fault. I get not wanting to risk things. I get - having been forced to spend time as Zeta Prime’s mook, I get that.”

“Yeah.”

“So - what’s your plan? What’re you doing? Where’re you going?”

“I don’t know yet. I think I’ll have to see.”

“All right, well, hit me up when you’re going out into the world. I’ll prepare a big well-wishing speech, and maybe some flowers; hell, I could arrange a cake.”

Orion laughs. “If that’s true, you’ve changed more in the last twenty years than I could’ve imagined.”

Ratchet grins. “Hey, you never know how the times change, you never know where things go.” Ratchet looks at Orion’s plate. “Suppose you want to get proper breakfast food; you don’t look like you’ve eaten much.”

Orion takes a couple more bites of his apple turnover, “Eh, I’ll be fine, I’ll - well, I suppose I’ll get something else.”

“Alright!”

Ratchet finishes the rest of his breakfast in the cafe as well - exactly three and a half peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fancy ones. The cafe staff are a little confused by the order, but they make it in good time, the bread is delicious, the peanut butter is good, and the jam is made in house, and it’s just prime.

As Ratchet sits back down to eat, Roller asks. “So - what about you, Ratch? What are you planning to do? I know you talked to First Aid about maybe setting something up here.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking of - looking around, looking for people who can help, Y’know, we’ll need a place, people to help, to spread the word. It’ll be good to have a place again, where people - where anyone can go to get themselves patched up. For now, I’m staying, helping Aid, so I suppose I’ll keep to the headquarters.”

“Yeah, that’ll be where most of the political decisions are getting made. I, uh, I don’t think Prowl’s slept all night. I saw him on the way out.”

“Oh boy.”

“So if you want to know where things are being decided about how to rebuild, how to get things back running again - I know back before Zeta, there was - I don’t know if it was quite what you were talking about, but there were some clinics, a couple of them, in this town. Might be getting those back up to what they used to be.”

“So I’ve got a point to start. That’s honestly more than I would have hoped for.”

“Glad to have you here, Ratch.”

Ratchet lets out a long sigh. “Same.”

Roller chuckles.

---

After waking up, Magnus goes downstairs to check in with Dominus, and Rewind steps out so they can talk. Magnus walks in and immediately Dominus tries to leap out of bed to hug her but falls instead. She catches him before he can hurt himself.

“Thank you, sister, I -” Dominus sighs, “I keep thinking that I should be feeling better but it’s - it’s still taking its toll.”

“You have - you need as much time as you can possibly get! Don’t worry about it.”

“Ah thank you, I’m terribly sorry.” Dominus lies back down, propping himself upright just enough to give Magnus a hug.

“I heard from Rewind that you and your friends were able to kill Zeta and free the city”

“Ah - I - yes.”

“That’s unbelievable, sister. And I -” Dominus looks at his sister, very sincere, “thank you for keeping yourself and my husband safe.”

“Of course! Of course.”

“How are you doing now? Are you alright?”

“I - I do not know. I’m here now, I saved you. It’s been a long road to here. It’s been three years and - and I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

Dominus reaches out and pats Magnus’ forearm before sighing. “I think everything will be alright. I think it will take some time but everything will be - will be alright now. Found a place that I think can be a safe home in a way that -” Dominus pauses. ”In a way that Iacon couldn't.”

“That’s good. That’s very good.“

“Maybe not,” Dominus says quietly before continuing. “Of course that’s - that’s because of you, because you freed the city, so thank you and thank you for coming to find me.”

Magnus is trying to hold back tears.

“I - thank you Dominus. I -” she trails off. Dominus hugs Magnus again, not wanting to let go.

After all the heavy talk Magnus tries to make small talk with Dominus.“So - uh, the hammer?!”

“It’s - it’s quite alright, I know you sister; you don’t need to try and make small talk. It’s quite alright.”

Magnus sighs. “True. Thank you. No - but seriously- why did you make the hammer?”

“Oh, I - Rewind said he gave it to you. Do you like it? Do you like it?!” Dominus asks excitedly.

“It’s absolutely fantastic!”

“I’m so glad! I thought you’d appreciate it. I certainly hope it was useful to you. I’m glad I was able to finish it before you came, although I would’ve liked to give it to you under better circumstances.”

“Heh - yeah it’s - hm,” Magnus considers. “I don’t know how else to describe it; it’s just- useful. Very nice. And you put so much detail on it, so it’s nice to see your work again.”

“From you sister, that’s the highest compliment.”

“Thank you.”

Seeing that Dominus can’t take much more conversation and needs to continue resting, Magnus says, “you need to rest more and knowing me I will pass out if I do not eat something in the next five minutes so - please do rest.”

“I will. Rewind brought me something to eat earlier but please make sure you get yourself something, many things.”

Magnus laughs a bit at the wording. “I intend!”

Dominus gives Magnus one last hug before leaning back on the pillows and closing his eyes. Magnus places a hand on Dominus’ forearm, kisses his head, and says, “Please sleep well brother, I love you.”

“I love you too, sister.” --- Continue to part 2!

#game recap #team fire

5 notes · View notes

dmxlfoypotter · 6 years

Text

a night in a cupboard

this is a short little drarry fic that @distressedslytherin requested many months ago. my most sincere apologies that it took this long. but please enjoy it nonetheless.

“hey, watch it!” potter furiously whispers to the boy stuffed inside the storage cupboard with him. perhaps harry’d be in a much nicer mood if the student pressing into his rib cage (merlin help them both) was someone other than draco malfoy, but alas, the world works in unfortunate ways.

“it’s not exactly easy to ‘watch it’ when you’re invisible. you could take that ridiculous thing off, you know. i doubt filch would bother checking this cramped space. hell, one of us can barely fit in here alone.”

harry wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry or do both from the irony of it all. harry happened to be experienced with small spaces, cupboards in particular. after all, he had to live in one for most of his influential years. the dursleys weren’t really the the most welcoming to harry potter, not at all.

harry heaved the invisibility cloak off and blanketed it around his legs. “we shouldn’t be here in for much longer. filch should be gone soon. then we make a run for it. or you make a run for it.” harry shrugged. “i have an invisibility cloak.”

“you could always share it,” draco muttered. he leaned back into the cupboard wall and let his eyes flutter shut. draco looked ages younger like this. tired. exhausted. like he hadn’t had rest in years. and perhaps he hadn’t.

“long night, huh. what were you even doing roaming the halls of hogwarts at this ungodly hour?” harry asked. “you have a secret lover?”

“ha, what a joke.” draco sat up now and turned towards harry. “hogwarts doesn’t really have a lot of guys lining up to date a malfoy. and if there were, i don’t know about them.” draco laughed sarcastically. “if you should know, potter, i sneak out at night to fly. the view of the night sky, the calamity of the earth, everything at rest — it grounds me. reminds me that i am nothing more than a speck in the infinite spectrum of the universe.”

“oh” was all harry could say. he’d expected some nefarious plot of doom, but instead, he found a boy with a passion.

“how about you, potter?” said draco. “what’s your reason for wandering around at night?”

“don’t laugh,” harry warned. “but both of my parents went here, fell in love here. granted, they didn’t like each other right away, but they were still here. they spent their formative years here. and i don’t know, there’s something about walking in the same halls that they’ve been in. i don’t remember much about them, but like flying does for you, malfoy, walking the halls my parents were in, it reminds me who and what i am.”

draco was quiet. then he said “i'm not going to lie to you, potter, but this is nice — this night. and even if this goodwill between us goes to hell in the morning, i appreciate this conversation.”

harry looked at draco now. “and i think it’s only fair that i not lie to you as well. I truly hate this, everything about it.” and harry would be lying if he said he didn’t catch the absolute hurt that flashed across draco’s face.

“fair enough,” draco mumbled sourly. “i suppose a conversation with a no-good malfoy is agonizing to saint potter. i digress. you are entitled to your own opinions and feelings.”

“it’s not because of you.” harry quickly said. “not at all. the conversation was lovely — you are so terribly lovely.” harry waved his hand. “just let me explain.”

“then explain,” said draco. it might have been the low lighting or the fact that harry’s vision was awful, but harry could have sworn that there was a faint pink blush painting draco’s cheeks.

“you know that i lived with muggles — my aunt, uncle, and cousin — when i was younger. i had nowhere else to go, and the dursleys, they didn’t want me at all. they neglected me, made me live in a cupboard under the stairs. when they finally gave me a room, they barred the windows and locked the doors so that i'd miss the hogwarts express. ron had to steal a car, merlin, to save me.”

“they made you live in a fucking cupboard?” draco exclaimed incredulously. he quieted down when harry shot him a warning look. “potter...” harry could practically feel the anger radiating off of draco.

“it’s really okay, draco.” harry said. “i live with the weasleys now, and i couldn’t be happier. it’s in the past, and that’s that.”

“no it’s not!” draco exclaimed, filch be damned. “you are always so okay with all of the bad things that happened, is happening in your life. it’s so unfair!”

the sound of approaching footsteps halted harry from replying to draco, who shot him a look of alarm and pure panic. harry quickly gestured for the blond-haired boy to scoot closer, then heaved the invisibility cloak over the both of them.

“potter, will we be—”

harry elbowed malfoy’s side, eliciting a muffled oof from him, and glanced toward the door. the worst thing than being caught in a cupboard was being caught in a cupboard with a malfoy. not that harry minded.

harry held up a finger, meaning one second. he squeezed his eyes shut and quickly muttered under his breath.

“okay, we should be good now,” harry finally said after taking the time to bang on the wall multiple times. “filch won’t be able to hear us, but it’d be best if we remained under the invisibility cloak just in case.”

“did you just cast, merlin above, a wandless spell?” draco blurted out, impressed. “that’s amazing! not even a legal adult yet, and you can already go about the world without a wand.”

“trust me, draco, i can’t do much. maybe accio a few things here or there. and what use will levitation do me?” harry was very much aware of how close he and draco were sitting, but neither made any action to move, and harry liked this, being this close to draco that he could feel draco’s breath on the side of his neck and that harry could see the small mole underneath draco’s ear.

“but can you imagine? you’d be the best the aurors would have had in ages.”

“me, an auror?” harry laughed. “i suppose it’d be expected of me to uphold and maintain the wellbeing of the wizarding world — after voldemort’s gone, that is. everyone’s depending on me to save the day, but there’s a chance i can’t, and... i'm not sure.”

“well, what do you want to do, harry? other than what’s expected of you or what everyone is asking of you. you, what do you want?”

“honestly, draco? i want a family. i want to move away from the city, establish a quaint cafe somewhere. peace and quiet, perhaps children one day. a wife, a husband — whichever, doesn’t really matter as long as it’s love.” harry let out a long breath. “how about you, draco?”

“that sounds absolutely lovely. how i yearn for a life like that. as for what i want, that’s irrelevant.” draco sighed, rolling his shirt sleeve up to the crease of his elbow. “perhaps, potter, this will speak for itself.”

harry squinted against the low light, and there, on draco’s pale arm, was an unmistakable dark mark. “draco...”

“it’s too late now. i'm on the wrong side of the war, harry. there’s nothing i can do. naive as i am, i actually wanted to become a healer. crazy, isn’t it? now, how would you feel if a man taking care of you had this — this mark on his arm?”

“oh, draco. what have you done?” harry reached out, and traced draco’s dark mark gingerly. “what have you done?”

“i made a terrible mistake. my father, he said he’d be proud of me if i took the mark like he did — would have proven that i was a true malfoy. now all i am is some pawn, fighting for a cause that i don’t even believe in. harry, i don’t want to hurt people. you have to believe me. i didn’t know it’d get this far.”

“draco, we’ll fix this. i swear to you that i will fix this. i don’t know how or when but we’ll fix this.” harry said with determination shining in his eyes. “you’ll become a healer — the best healer the world has ever seen.”

“you think so?”

“of course i do. you're the smartest person i know, next to hermione. draco, first thing in the morning, you have to apologize to every person you’ve ever ridiculed, but for now,” harry held out a hand, “let’s go fly.”

“but filch!” draco protested. “what if he catches us? what about our brooms?”

“we have this invisibility cloak, and if filch spots us, we’ll outrun filch for sure. and as long as we leave no evidence, how could we get in trouble? and brooms aren’t a problem. i keep mine in the lockers down in the gryffindor locker room, and if you don’t mind, we could share one.” harry stood up and offered a hand to draco. “now, what do you say?”

draco accepted harry’s hand, grasped it. “then let’s go fly, potter.”

prompt sent by @distressedslytherin: draco and harry get locked in a room, both get frustrated but soften up eventually and confess to each other and kiss? drabble? please?

side note: i didn’t write a kiss into this drabble :P i kinda forgot about it until the end, and by then it was too late. whoopsies.

side side note: ikr, i still post my own stuff? even i didn’t know that lol.

#drarry #drarry fanfic #drarry drabble #drarry fic #draco x harry #draco and harry #draco malfoy #harry potter #dmxlfoypotter #my writing

268 notes · View notes

cinnbar-bun · 5 years

Note

WILDCARD: Mysmes as gbf units (what element, what weapon they'd use, what race they'd be and so on)

*rubs hands together* I was MADE for this

Zen: Light element- I’m kinda gonna base this on his outfit for when he played Zorro. He’d be kind of mysterious but over-dramatic- he’d introduce himself as an aspiring actor, flirt with Danchou for a bit and be all ‘hehe obviously the god’s regret making me this handsome’. He has a rapier on his side and Vyrn roasts him literally every second like ‘yo dodo bird do you even fight bro????’ and Zen gets SO offended. His fate episode has him basically chatting your ear off and you’re like ‘why is he even in my crew-he’s as chaotic as Aoidos???’ But as you level him up he is the sweetest thing ever and his v-day+ white day cutscenes would be the absolute cutest things ever!!! He’d be so suave you’d have a heart attack!!

Rarity: I’d go off on a limb here and say maybe r or Sr, since he’s the “easy” route, he’d prolly be one of the easiest to get. I’d also say he’d be a fan favorite real quick, so he gets an sr summer skin and sr event character, maybe an outfit or two as well.

Skills: Based on his personality, I think he’d be one that can charm enemies with a cheesy skill name like ‘dazzling skin’ or ‘blinding smile’. Also based on his rather hot-headed personality, he’d prolly be someone with ‘hostility-up’. I’d even say when you get him to level 45 and earn his last skill, he’d have a skill that heals or takes hits for you, the MC.

Weapon: Rapier, as said before. I think he’d call it ‘Zorro’ or something else that’s entirely stupid. When you summon his weapon, it’d be called ‘radiant rapier’.

Yoosung- Wind element. He’s an absolute cutie and would prolly be a hermit in the forest chatting it up with his animal buddies and you gotta drag his butt outside while he screams about the sun. His whole character arc is him getting utterly ROASTED by Vyrn and literally everyone because of how much of a NEET he is. Lyria and Danchou try to reintegrate him into society and trust people more. He starts off as ‘happy’ in his fate episode, gets melancholic in his skill episode, then becomes truly happy in a cross episode with another character.

Rarity: Sr. Unfortunately he’s not as popular as most, so he probably gets an event unit at most besides his original. I think he’d eventually be recognized as being a great character and may get a summon stone though.

Skills: I think he’d be a healer/buffer to the crew. So he’d be healing with a skill called “Superman Yoosung to the rescue!!” and then a buff for wind characters like “NERF THIS WIND LOLOL!!!” And then his last skill will be a really sentimental one like “I’ve become stronger now” and it places a defense shield on him and ally.

Weapon: Staff. He’s a healer, but his sprite has like a bird and deer somewhere. If you were to summon him, it’d be called “Staff of Life”.

Jaehee- Is a tired woman who you bump into because she’s busy trying to deal with Jumin’s shit. She apologizes quickly and Lyria is like “OMG BUT WE NEED TO HELP HER!!!!’ So her whole character arc is you helping her she should achieve her dreams and then suddenly she’s like ‘yeah LEMME QUIT AND START A CAFE!!!’ She becomes great friends with Sandalphon becuase they both bleed coffee and are done with everyone, but have a soft spot for the captain, and have massive crushes on their white haired besties (i mean whaaaaat).

Rarity: Sr. She gets an original, but a second sr version where she has finally achieved her dream. It’s a really cute closure to her character, and Jumin doesn’t act so OOC to fill a quota lol.

Skills: She’d be debuffer/ buffer extraordinaire. Cooldown times shorten, atk goes up, and she has a stackable skill ‘The faster you finish, the faster you can leave!!’ in which her hostility and atk goes up, her def goes down, and she HITS HARD!!!

Weapon: stack of papers Idk tbh, maybe a tome, but it’s referred to as a staff (call it a gd book jfc Cygames lol). She’d probably earth element and WILL BREAK THE EARTH IN HALF!!!!

Jumin- The rich, stoic prince of a kingdom you end up meeting on accident. He only joins you because you found Elizabeth the 3rd and he was very grateful. So imagine Percival on steroids and that’s Jumin as a GBF character. He’s quick to call bullshit, but every time Vyrn or Zen roasts him it flies over his head/he roasts them back a thousand times harder. His arc is him learning to trust his FEEELINSS!! Also becomes close with Dante and they both philosophically discuss cats like they’re their gods. His V-day and White Day cutscenes will be the EXACT SAME AS SIEGFRIED!! HE’S AWFUL ON V DAY BUT ON WHITE DAY HE’LL BE COMPLIMENTING YOU AND BEING HAWT BUT THEN HE’S LIKE ‘I RESPECT YOU’. DUMB IDIOT STILL DOESN’T KNOW FEELINGS!!

Rarity: SSR. He’s quickly become a fan favorite and has two ssr versions, his original and maybe a halloween/ christmas version, and then an anniversary skin where he’s wearing a dashing tux and it will say on the description, ‘Can you keep up with me’ or something safdsjgnfljsnjkn I’m dying CYGAMES MM COLLAB WHENST????

Skills: He’s a dark debuffer/ defensive character. He can hit hard but he is more focused on longer battles where survivability is more necessary than him nuking. He’d have a def down for enemies and it’s called ‘I get checks’ and a def up for all allies called ‘Ahh- to be with Elizabeth the 3rd again’

Weapon: A beautiful sword/ lance that is very pristine and glorious. It’s gonna have a diamond on it somewhere and it’s gonna be a reference to how his father gave him that pen.

Also!!! He gets a cross-fate episode with Zen where they both roast each other before actually talking out their feelings and working it out. I can also imagine an episode where he delves more into his distrust of women and why he focuses on his Elizabeth so much.

707- He’s so god damn chaotic you wonder WHY THE HELL IS HE EVEN ALLOWED??? Okay so you end up meeting him when Rackam is trying to fix the Grandcypher and homeboy shows up, suggests some ideas and him and Rackam go nutso over ships (this version of cars). He has a lot of inside jokes and is very memeable for a GBF character, becoming a notorious part of the April Fools event. His fate episodes start off happy before becoming depressing and you’re like wow why don’t you just run me over with a boat huh???

Rarity: SSR. Super popular and has like…five variants lol. I say he’d be a fire nuker all the time except for one ssr variant, in which it’s a dark version where it was a ‘what if he fell into despair?1!!!!???’ Super depressing story holy cow. He’s got an event sr in there, it’s pretty good. He’s prolly also got a summer, Christmas, or Halloween variant somewhere there. Of course, because of his popularity, he gets skin or two as well.

Weapon: I imagine him using a fire gun. Like imagine a better Rackam. It’d be called something like, “hacker’s resolve”.

Skills: Fire nuker. He’s horrible for long distance fights, but he focuses a lot on enmity, hype, and hostility up fights where he needs to hit hard and fast. For sure has a skill called, ‘I’m in’, and “Defender of Justice-707!!’ and after you complete the heart-wrenching skill ep. he gets his final skill called, “god forgive me”. It’s so depressing T-T

Also!! Has a cross-fate with both Yoosung and Unknown where they focus on family and growing past their own background.

Unknown- A very scary dude when you first meet him, who tries to kill you on sight. Lyria…does something and he’s like, ‘I need to get revenge so I’ll stick with you if you let me kill people’. His episodes start off VERY dark and disturbing, but gradually get happier as he becomes more acquainted with the MC. I’d say he’s basically like Azazel where he’s so tsundere about everything and you’re ‘okay brooooo’. His valentines day cutscenes would be absolutely hilarious as he’s like ‘ew why would I take anything you make’ to ‘i dreamt of eating your chocolate again’. His white day scenes would be SOOOOOO worth it tho, he gets you a bouquet of flowers with special meaning and is blushing and tells you to take it before he freaks out.

Rarity: Originally a water sr, but then got a wind SSR version that represents him growing and becoming ‘Saeran’ again. It’s a super amazing growth that makes everyone weep when they!! see!! the!! baby!! smile!! He prolly has a Halloween version where he dresses as the phantom again.

Weapon: Firearms. Tons of guns and explosions.

Skills: He’s an attacker/debuffer. He can hit hard like his brother but can ACTUALLY TAKE A HIT AND NOT DIE!!! I can imagine he’d have a self heal skill called ‘mint eye elixir’ where he drinks a potion and heals, but if you do it too much he eventually can be knocked out or raise his atk a lot but get killed by getting slapped too hard. He’d have tons of debuffs where he blinds and confuses foes, and his last skill would be called ‘unraveled chains’ where he boosts his atk and def. His SSR version would be a lot different and more focused on buffing everyone up, and he’s so good at it. They’re mostly related to flowers and how he’s grown and changed as a person, and how he finally reached happiness.

V- He is a blind wizard. That’s it. That’s literally how you meet him you go ‘lol there’s no such thing as a-’ and V saves your ass from getting run over by a cart or something. You beg him to join and he’s like ‘well of course I’ll help you wonderful children!!!’ His v-day and white day scenes are absolutely heartbreaking yet so emotional because he talks about his past with Rika yet says how he can finally ‘see’ the light since joining you. His story IS SAD!! SAD!! SAD BOI HOURS AT ALL TIMES!!! A BLIND MAN IS CRYING OVER HOW HIS SINS WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO WASHED AWAY AND HE SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO GET A SECOND CHANCE AND!!! SO SAD!!

Rarity: Water SSR plus a dark sr from an event where he’s in his mint eye clothes. Gets a Halloween skin where he’s dressed as a detective trying to find his happiness and will to live.

Skills: Self-sacrificing skills that buff everyone up. It’s so sad because he’s so good at buffing everyone and making everyone a tank but you just… dude you wanna talk about it?? Do you want a healer omg man, I’m so sorry.

Weapon: Blind wizard. He uses a staff, which doubles as his walking staff.

#long post #mystic messenger #gbf

10 notes · View notes

seaside-roleplays · 5 years

Text

Wishlist

Hiya ♡ Just a terribly bored girl who likes to spend her free time writing out the lives of fictional characters! You can find me using discord more than anything, as I can use it wherever. If you didn’t already see, I’m 21 and a Female. That matters for some people, for example, I won’t write out mature topics with people under 18.

I double, triple, and enjoy F//, M// and M/F. Fandom and original are both fun! I have a list of fandoms further down that I am happy to discuss or rp ♡ As far as fandoms go, I am OC friendly, and will absolutely play your desired love interest ♡

If you find yourself wanting to write together, shoot me a message! It is the fastest way to catch my attention! please include what plot/pairing you are looking to do rather than just ‘hey, are you looking for an rp?’

Ideas

- Kingdom Hearts, I finished playing 3 and really want to roleplay with someone. Oc/Canon or Canon/Canon if I ship it. I can play your character's love interest if you can play mine ^^ My first girl can be paired with Saix, or Axel if that is an easier character to play. My second girl has Demyx as her love interest. I would be happy to tell you more about them if doubling up is something you want to do. I have played all of the games //or at least watched all the cut scenes hehe// So I have confidence in playing most characters. Shipping wise feel free to ask and I can tell you. It's faster than me listing them.

- A Love Live School Idol Festival Themed rp, we make our own unit of school idols and roleplay their adventures, highs and lows, could be a F// or completely platonic! also open to a M/F romance between 2 idols of different units //ex.Starlight Four vs Phantom Five//

- Miraculous , I want to do something with my girl who is a ballerina with a swan Kwammi, who has Marinette/Ladybug as her love interest. Can play Adrien/Cat Noir for you, otherwise I'm not as confident with the other canons. Could also just use Oc's and do our own thing. I just REALLY want to play my favorite black cat superhero. Chances are I will 100% make a pinterest board or something for the roleplay *-* I do have a couple ideas in mind regarding some villans // Jellyfish and Monarch Butterfly??//

- Something with an animal cafe, where the workers there have animal like traits, a maid/butler has a crush on a human patron or fellow worker. A cute magical slice of life. A slow burn romance, that can play out as the seasons come and go

- Something like "A Simple Favor" . 2 single mothers meet each other through their children wanting a playdate. One being very bubbly and cheery, the type to make beautiful home cooked meals, do arts and crafts and run a blog. The second a chic business woman who lives a life of lavish events and the finest clothes money can buy. These two women over time fall in love, despite their different worlds. Sharing their passions with one another and watching their children grow. A sweet F// really

- F// spy or partners in crime kinda plot! need help building this one!

- A witch curses a princess so that no man will ever fall in love with her! This backfires when the princess thanks her, as she is actually very into women. A cute F// rp

- A Fire Emblem rp with oc's? Basically build our own world? this one would be a lot of work. I do also have one Nohrian Cleric who I would love to use, fairly open minded about who I pair her with, so you don't have to worry about me claiming anyone. Happy to double!

- Something based off the mangas Beasts of Abigaile , the Case Study of Vanitas or Mermaid Boys I am very into these recently and am happy to do oc's or canons. or, build something similar of our own.

- Magical girl stuff. Sailor Moon, Winx Club, Shugo Chara, Pretty cure, etc. I would love to do something akin to a second gen or using various anime as an inspiration to the rp!

- A Marvel rp, specifically with the Thor universe. I would like to do an rp with Loki x Oc, where I play as Loki, since I miss playing him. I saw Thor Ragnarok and didn't know I needed to see Loki in a suit. Prefer that your character had a faceclaim, and not picking on if they are male or female really, like I said, I just really want to play Loki and have him fall in love, and yes, I have seen infinity war

- Adding to the Marvel fandom, I am also happy to play spiderman/Peter Parker for your oc, or Venom/Eddie Brock for your oc. I'm looking to get some experience playing as them, so I would not be expecting us to double, as I don't have an oc of my own that could fit with them.

- Black Butler, I really got back into this and am dying to do something with oc's or canons //maybe even a good canon x oc?// I want to use my oc who would be a maid, similar to Seb, a demon who also has a thing for ciel, not so much romantically. Happy to play Alois, Sebby, undertaker, ciel, or claude for you.

- A cute slice of life rp? a pinch of magic? Maybe a young wizard and witch? one from big city the other from a small town in the country?

- Peter Pan based rp, I had a few pairings and ideas in mind, the 2 I most crave are Captain Hook//TinkerBell and Captain Hook//Peter Pan. I just want to play a captain hook using Hugh Jackman as Hook's FC. BxB or BxG is fine by me, I'm just looking to have the roles reversed, where Hook is the good guy, taking in the lost boys who peter intends to 'thin out' when they start to grow up, and having them join his crew for refuge. He tries to save as many as he can, but sometimes he shows up too late or things get in his way //peter's trusty pet croc?// I like the idea of having there be a routine of Peter collecting a new 'Wendy' Perhaps as a sacrifice to keep him young and keep neverland's magic? Plot with me?

- Very much wanna do a Red Riding Hood style rp, can be cute and fluffy or dark and eerie! The cuter plot would be an academy that teaches two entirely different crowds, the first being the Red Hoods, a class made up of boys and girls who will go into the world and become protectors to ordinary folk. While the other class is the wolves, those either willing to learn to control their gifts, and those thrown into the academy in fear of them running loose with no supervision. Dark and eerie plot could be more historical fantasy, again, there being a group of Red Hood's, who protect their villages and towns from the werewolves that stalk the borders, ready to pick up one weak and foolish enough to stray from home. A red goes hunting in the woods, as they are the only ones experienced enough to fight back, and finds a trapped wolf, and chooses to help them. The wolf then taking shape into a human thanks the Red Hood and promises they won't forget the kindness. This could also be swapped, where a Red has harmed them self and can't get back to the village, and a wolf assists them. Can be F// M// or F/M. I prefer to play the wolf if I can, but am just as happy to play a Red Hood. ^^ we could do multiple pairings for this as well

- Something inspired by ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ with the seasons and times of day each having a court/kingdom?

Genres

- Fantasy stuff! Give me your zodiac based rp's, take me to lands where princes and princesses are made to wed, throw all your wizarding and witchy worlds my way. These are what I want! I want to be able to do something that will be imaginative and exciting! Elves, fairies, royalty, fairytales [modern and historical], werewolves, vampires, I love it all!

- Horror, I love me a good scary plot! I've gotten in to playing corpse party again, and would love to see something under the genres of haunted school, a town with a murderer on the loose, dealing with supernatural creatures with morbid tendencies, and ghots with traumatizing pasts and violent deaths. I love me some gore and horror.

- Romance, give me a rp where there is drama, heartbreak, love and friendship. I love love love romance based roleplay's. High school based ones with angtsy teens, day to day living, coffe shop romance, I will take it if it has a compelling plot and a character I can fall for!

- Harvest Moon, I mean, it could be pokemon based, or just straight up village living, I crave that simple life kinda roleplay, it's a game series I do adore, and will always find joy playing

Fandoms!

Marvel~Overwatch~Kingdom Hearts~Love Live~Miraculous~Fire Emblem~Case Study of Vanitas~Mermaid Boys~Sailor moon~Winx Club~Shugo Chara~Precure~Kuroshitsuji~Aikatsu~Corpse party~Final fantasy~Harvest Moon~Rune factory~Persona~Pokemon~Tokyo Ghoul

16 notes · View notes

jonathangroffcentral · 6 years

Text

In Conversation With Mindhunter’s Jonathan Groff

Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images

Actor Jonathan Groff has already enjoyed a huge degree of respect and recognition for his previous roles in theatre (Hamilton and Spring Awakening), on TV (Looking and Glee) and also in film with the hugely successful Frozen. Lately however he has found a whole new audience, who are singing his praises for his outstanding performance as Holden Ford on Mindhunter. In my extended interview with Jonathan we talk about his early years, his first roles, working on Mindhunter, his thoughts on David Fincher’s directing technique and so much more. (x)

By Paula Courtney - July 29, 2018

PC: So how are you?

JG: I’m doing well. I’m in Pittsburgh.

PC: I’m in Edinburgh: have you been?

JG: I’ve never been.

PC: Well you must put right that wrong.

JG: I know and there’s that famous theatre festival there.

PC: Yes and it starts in about a month; actually it’s the worst time to come to the city: it’s jam-packed then.

JG: I have friends that have been over there during that time and they loved it there.

PC: It is really good because it opens the city up much more. We are getting a lot more cosmopolitan, in that the cafés and venues are open much later.

JG: And are you liking that or is it taking away its charm?

PC: I like it because it’s similar to when you visit other parts of Europe where you can be sitting outside at a cafe at 10 p.m. – guaranteed we don’t always get the weather. Especially on a Sunday, I don’t know about America but Sundays could be quite boring when I was a kid: there was nothing open, nothing to do. So yeah, I like it where it’s going.

JG: Nice.

PC: What about yourself: what kind of town is Pittsburgh?

JG: Well Pittsburgh is interesting, kind of like what you are saying about Edinburgh: where it has been becoming more cosmopolitan, probably in the last decade or so; it’s sort of like Hipster Land now. It was a kind of big, industrial town and then it crashed and now there’s cool coffee shops and bike stores. There are actually really incredible restaurants! My friend actually has a place in New York called Caselulla, it’s on 52nd and 10th, (it opened when I was doing Spring Awakening back in 2007) and they opened a sister location in Pittsburgh. So there are people from all over the culinary world coming and taking up space there, which is interesting.

PC: In the past British food was slated for being bad but it’s turning around nowadays, which is great. Having said that some food in these fancy places I’m like, ‘What even was that?’ (Both laugh)

I always like to begin an interview talking about the person’s name. I’ve read your middle is Drew: does that have any special reasons as to why your parents chose that or did they just like it?

JG: My mom wanted my first name to be Drew after her older brother. He just passed away a couple of years ago but yes, his name was Drew. My brother’s name is David; he’s my older brother. I think there’s Jonathan and David in the Bible, who were very close friends, and I think my mom and dad liked the name Jonathan and they associated it with the name David because of that.

PC: You were born in Pennsylvania: what was it like growing up at the time you were aged around 8 -10 years old? What kind of boy were you at that age?

JG: Life was good. My dad trains horses for a living in Lancaster PA. We didn’t live on a horse farm – our house was separate from the horse farm – but in the summer I spent a lot of time with my brother and our friends running around this kind of giant, grassy field on our farm. There was a corn crib there – a giant structure you put corn cobs in after you get them out of the field – that was always empty over the summer and we would climb and play in that. There were lots of little barns we would play in and horse stalls. The first play I ever did was when I was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in my dad’s barn: we sold tickets to our parents; we have video footage of people coming to the show. It was very kind of creative and ‘country’.

PC: Is that because you had to make your own fun, because you didn’t have access to museums, art galleries etc?

JG: Yes definitely. I mean, once we got a Nintendo in the late ‘80s that definitely took up a lot of time as well. For better or for worse my brother and I spent a lot of time on the Nintendo, but my mom and dad were very athletic and cool, and they really liked the outdoors, so my mom was always trying to get us out of the house and get us playing outside – took us on bike rides. We were outside a lot: for which I’m really grateful. I feel grateful that there really was a nice situation for us growing up because there was this horse farm, but there were fences all around it, so it wasn’t like we were just in the middle of nowhere. Our parents were always up on the top of the hill and we would go acres away and play: so it was a great balance of having independence, but not really. We could go off on our own but our parents were always aware of where we were, they didn’t always have their eye on us but it was a nice balance.

My mom grew up in a small town called Strasburg in Pennsylvania where she’d climb out of her back window and run through the streets and play. She tells all these stories about meeting her friends at the pool – just stuff you would never do now because it would be so dangerous for kids to roam the streets at 5, 6 & 7 but she grew up in a town where there was this level of freedom and independence that would just be impossible today, because now it’s way more populated.

PC: And also because people now often say they don’t even know who their next door neighbour is. In those days, where I grew up in England, it was really rough and there were some very unsavoury people but on the flip side there were more good people than bad, who looked out for each other and their families, so we could play out all day. Certainly where I live now we know our neighbours but I’ve heard lots of people say they don’t know theirs. When you have kids it is a fine balance: it can be a big bad world out there never mind what we see on Mindhunter…

JG: Yes.

PC: Did you have a nickname in school?

JG: I did not. I used to hate it in elementary school when people called me Jonny; I don’t know why I didn’t like that nickname.

PC: I suppose it would be just like Groffy or something, if you can add a ‘y’ to a name people do tend to do that.

JG: Yes, I have way more people now call me J Groffy, they call me JG, so I have lots of nicknames now but I didn’t have any in high school. In middle school which is 7-8th grade here (you know 10-12 years old) I was very obsessed with being cool and having the right clothes and going to school dances and hanging out with the ‘cool’ kids. I was very obsessed with the social ladder at age 11 & 12. And then, once I did the 8th grade play – which I guess I was maybe 12 or 13 at that time – I just found my love for theatre and then I didn’t care at all where I fit in the social scene.

PC: Really? Because you do look like the type who was in with the ‘cool’ kids.

JG: All of that kind of need and headspace that was taken up thinking of trying to be cool or whatever, was gone almost in a blink of an eye. As soon as I did the play it was like ‘boof’ and it was gone – all I cared about was theatre. Then there are these two great theatres in my hometown: one is called the Fulton Opera House, which is a regional theatre where they would have actors from New York come down and perform in the plays; and then there’s another theatre called the Ephrata Performing Arts Center, which is a community theatre which would hire local actors. So once I was 13-14-15-16-17-18 I spent all my free time after school working at those theatres, whether that was playing parts or being in ensembles in the musicals or working with as backstage crew. I just became obsessed with theatre and acting and then that’s all I did, all I could be about, throughout high school. I had friends in high school and I would do the high school plays and stuff but I spent all of my social time at these theatres – I had a handful of friends at high school that I connected with but I wasn’t quite as involved – I was always thinking about theatre outside of school.

PC: You were always going to be an actor it seems, weren’t you?

JG: Yeah I thought I wanted to be an actor when I was in the barn playing Dorothy at 4 or 5 years old but then, once that 8th grade play happened, and I started meeting people in the community that were from New York who made their lives being actors, that’s when I really became keen on the idea of pursuing that.

PC: What was it that drew you? I mean: are you sort of the sort of person that likes to be in the spotlight, did you like the confidence it gave you or the closeness you feel with people when you are in a play? I was an amateur stagehand at one point and there was always a feeling of being lost after a play run finished.

JG: For me, the desire to act always comes from a place of play, imagination and daydreaming and play, and all of that is really where that joy comes from, and it just has really always turned me on. You know everybody acts for different reasons: people act from a place of pain, expression – a sort of exorcism of that – but for me it’s always come from a very joyful place and a sort of place of imagination. I think there was a part of me… you know I was not out of the closet when I was in high school and I wasn’t living fully a gay life until I was 19 – that was the first time I was ever with anyone sexually and then I didn’t come out of the closet until I was 23 – so I also think there was an element of escapism in acting that probably helped me express myself when I was sort of not expressing myself, in retrospect. I think that was there definitely an element of it but even now (even with Mindhunter) I so enjoy playing ‘pretend’.

PC: I have spoken to a lot of actors who have said that acting is an escape for them: whether that’s from a terrible childhood or whose parents have said, ‘Acting is the last thing we want you to do.’

JG: My parents actually – when I was thinking of going to college and wanting to major in theatre – they encouraged me to not major in theatre, but to move to New York instead and just pursue acting. They said, ‘You know you love it and you have so much experience in community theatre and whatever, why not just go to New York instead of paying 40 thousand dollars to train in acting?’

PC: Yes. I interviewed an actor who has been in a couple of Quentin Tarantino productions and Quentin Tarantino said the same thing to him, ‘Don’t bother going to acting classes, just act wherever that may be and watch two films everyday.’ That worked out great for him.

JG: For me experience has always been the best learning tool and if you are lucky enough to be able to get experience… I’ve always learnt on the job, that’s always been the best way for me. Jumping in and trying it, and getting to work with different people and different directors and different actors and different musicians – and taking stuff from all of those experiences.

My parents, even though they are not at all in the arts, somehow instinctually knew that, aside from the fact they didn’t want to help me pay for college, (laughs) they really supported me: they knew it’s what I loved. My dad trains and races horses for a living and my mom was a physical education teacher, they centralised on things they were really passionate about. So when I said I wanted to be an actor – even though they didn’t know a lot about acting, the passion that I felt for that – I think they recognised that so they were very supportive in my pursuit of that as a career.

PC: It’s like what Holt [McCallany] said in his interview with me. Obviously his parents were in the business, but he said when he and his brother got to university level his mother said, ‘I will pay for you to study anywhere you want.’ She was that supportive – and of course he ended up in France. Amazing to have that kind of support.

JG: Yes it’s amazing! Holt and I have that in common actually. He was very close with his mother. It’s so funny because we often talk about how we spend all this time in Pittsburgh, when we are acting in Mindhunter, talking to these serial killers. One of the many consistent qualities is that they have all have troubled relationships with – mostly – their mothers, and how he and I have had just the opposite experience.

PC: Yes I know with Holt he couldn’t have been more loved, by the sounds of it. You wonder: would they have turned out differently had they had that love and support? I don’t know how much you have researched serial killers, but does that just apply to men, or is that a factor in female serial killers too?

JG: That’s a great question, most serial killers are men (at least the ones on Mindhunter are) I don’t [know] to be honest if female serial killers have a troubling relationship with their parents. We talk a lot about nature v nurture (that sort of age-old question) how someone naturally dotes when they’re young and then it’s their environment that cultivates the bad behaviour: is it more one than the other? I think it’s still a question people are still trying to answer and it’s one that we explore a lot on the show.

PC: I suppose if the show runs and runs eventually, if not this coming season, it will feature a female serial killer.

PC: So you said earlier about your parents being very into physical education: was there any pressure to do sports? And with your dad: he didn’t expect you or your brother to follow him into the horse business? What does your brother do?

JG: My brother runs a company in Lancaster PA: he is a businessman. We are very different from my parents. My dad actually comes from a long line of dairy farmers: he is the oldest brother of his family and he was meant to take over at the dairy farm; it would have been the appropriate next step for him. He was not passionate about dairy farming and he was not passionate about cows (was not a fan of cows) – cows are incredibly hard work and you have to be really into it. He didn’t want to do that so he found another avenue, through family friends, and discovered a passion for horses. He would not have wanted to demand that my brother and I go into the horse business because he was sort of permitted that freedom, as the oldest son, to get out and to do his own thing. He would have loved it if we were in the horse business. I’m sure that would have been amazing for him to have that happen – it would have been a great experience and a bonding experience for us – but it doesn’t always add up that way. We became close in a different way. He’s still racing the horses. And my mom: the great thing about her being a physical education teacher for my brother and I was, even though we didn’t go into teaching or Phys Ed in any way, she instilled in us passion for exercise and running; we were doing races when we were in elementary school, in 4th grade we were doing the three-mile run or whatever and when we were on vacation. She instilled in us that love of being active. She will be 64 in the Fall and she looks so young because she took care of herself and she exercises.

My brother, even though he is a businessman, gets up every morning and works out. Certainly, as an actor – for example on a show like Mindhunter – you get issued with your costumes at the beginning of the season, then we have 10 months of shooting and I can’t get fat! (Laughs) On the set there’s always food going around and I wake up every morning, religiously, and exercise, and that’s partially because it’s great therapy and it’s great to stay in shape, keep my mind clear or whatever and that’s a lot to do with the fact my mom gave me that habit when I was a kid.

PC: What about horses? Did you get to ride any? Are you an accomplished horse rider or were they purely for breeding?

JG: No! Well my dad does harness racing so he’s not on their back, he’s behind them. So I’m sure if we had shown any interest at all, my brother and I, I’m sure that he would have gotten a horse we could have ridden around and that would have been really fun. But my mom kind of instilled in us a fear of being around the horses because, in those times that we were playing around on our own, she didn’t want us to go near the horses and get kicked. So we grew up with sort of this fear of horses, funnily enough, and then occasionally on Saturdays we’d have to shovel the horse poo out of the stall – just everything about the horses as a kid was what we would eye roll about. So we were never really around them.

The first time I had to ride a horse was for a movie I did called Taking Woodstock: which was my first film that I shot in 2008. It was directed by Ang Lee and the final shot of the film was me riding up this hill on a horse at sunrise. So I took some horseback riding lessons for a couple of months and I invited my dad to the set on the day that we shot the scene where I rode the horse up the hill and so it was this very proud moment, ‘Look Dad! I know how to ride a horse!’ I’m 33 now but I did get on a horse eventually and he was there to see me do it, which was a special moment.

PC: I’ve been on a horse a couple of times but it was really scary especially when they lower their heads to eat grass, it’s so scary.

JG: Oh totally and they feel your fear. I find them very skittish and very sensitive and you jerk the wrong way and they flip. Each horse has a different personality but as a whole they are very sensitive so the minute you are scared in front of them they are basically all over it, so trying to get ‘Zen’ and breathe…

PC: Are you a sucker for musicals, or theatre in general? In your free time would you go see a straight play or do you think musicals are so much better?

JG: Good question. I mean my heart is always in musicals, because that’s what I started [out] doing, but I was just in New York this week (I had a couple of days off so I went there) [and] I chose to see two straight plays. I love theatre in general. I’m a junkie – a total theatre junkie – pretty much anytime, anywhere, I love live theatre in any form. For me when a musical is great there’s nothing better. To successfully put a musical on and all the elements come together – the choreography, direction, music, orchestra and all of that – it’s just a miracle that a musical ever works (there are so many different elements to it) so when that is all kind of ‘cracking’ and it all comes together, there is nothing more exciting to me than that. I don’t discriminate: I love all live theatre.

PC: What was it like doing the voice-over for the character Kristoff for Frozen? How does that differ from other mediums, since you wouldn’t necessarily feel connected to the other actors like you would in a film or show where you are side by side? I assume they record the voice over segments separately?

JG: The big revelation for me was that doing a Disney film is the same as re-enacting a Disney film when you are a kid in your bedroom, because you are just totally alone in a padded room (‘now you’re in an ice storm’ so you have to pretend ‘Anna’) using your imagination; so it’s harking back to the days of me being in a room alone acting out Peter Pan or Mary Poppins.

PC: I’d never thought of it like that but yes you are right.

JG: I never met any of the other actors: well I’d met them but I never worked with other actors. I didn’t see them throughout the whole process until we were sitting there watching the first screening of the movie together. They cut it all together and that was very surreal to see how… You are really, as a voice actor in those animated films, a small piece of a big picture. There is so much work and so much effort goes into it and how it comes together is really just phenomenal. They videotape you while recording and then try to match your mouth with what the character does, and it’s pretty amazing.

PC: Did you cry when you watched the first screening?

JG: I think I did cry.

PC: You would have to be hard-hearted not to!

JG: My mom and I will still watch. I mean it’s been years (and now we are recording the second one) it still has not sunk in fully yet that I’m in a Disney animated film – very surreal.

PC: What about the technology they use in The Avengers for Ultron? Where they have sensors on the actor’s costume. That would be cool on Frozen.

JG: Motion capture you mean. They don’t use that on Frozen: they have a little video camera in the recording studio, so the animators can sort of reference if there is a gesture or something while you are making a vocal sound. They match the gesture, like if they are saying ‘Wow what was he doing there” they can reference it visually, but they also use their own faces as well. It’s just fascinating to watch the process. We had a session with the animators about where you breathe from and where you sing – what’s happening in your mouth when you’re singing as opposed to talking – to help them animate the singing part.

PC: Returning to family stuff: I read somewhere you have roots in England, Scotland and Germany. I have been burnt before where I’ve referenced something and it turns out there is no truth to it… so have you?

JG: No! Maybe I’m just not aware of it. (Laughs) Years ago we did one of those genetic test things with my family and I think we were West German; I think that’s where most of our DNA was from; I would have to go back and look at it.

PC: How has it changed for you in everyday life since Mindhunter blew up? Can you still ride the subway? Can you still go your doctor’s surgery and go shopping without wearing false glasses, nose and moustache?

JG: It hasn’t changed at all, not even a little bit. Yesterday I was in a coffee shop in Pittsburgh and the girl was saying, ‘Are you in Mindhunter?’ I have a very sort of ordinary white boy look and I don’t really have distinctive features that stand out in a crowd, so it’s great.

PC: I suppose, say someone like Johnny Depp, you might recognise straight away.

JG: Right. When I was in high school and I came to New York I saw Kristen Chenoweth. She is a famous musical theatre actress and she’s [done] some TV stuff – she is barely 5ft tall, blonde, just like this petite, little blonde girl, when she walks around she looks like she has a spotlight on her, just the way that she looks. I remember seeing her in Times Square, I went, ‘Oh my God! That’s Kristen Chenoweth!’ and went over to her and spoke to her and got her autograph. I don’t have that quality.

PC: I’ve asked that question before and other actors have said there are just so many famous people wandering around New York at any given time that it’s not the same like if you came to Edinburgh, you would be swamped. One actor told me he saw Bruce Springsteen in Manhattan and he was being a complete fan boy about him but he didn’t stop him and ask for his autograph even though he was dying to. Maybe people just leave you alone.

JG: Yeah, maybe.

PC: I always like to ask what life lessons has a person taken from their parents or grandparents. When the time comes, hopefully years and years away, when you look back and say, ‘Oh I remember this about my dad or this is why I’m this kind of person.’ You are obviously a nice person, a gentleman: has that rubbed off on you from your parents?

JG: The biggest thing would probably be discipline and the appreciation and sort of joy that you get from working hard: both my grandparents worked really hard; my parents worked really hard. When I was at that formative age 9-14, I would mow my grandmother’s lawn and I’d worked for my dad on his horse farm – they were always forcing us to do stuff we didn’t want to do. We were sort of like ‘ugh’ through all of those years when you are going through puberty and being forced to do manual labour. Then coming out of the other end of it and understanding the value of it and the sort of joy that you get from working hard and, when it’s over, feeling pride in what you achieved and looking forward to doing it again. That’s something my parents have that I know they took effort to instil into my brother, and I don’t know if that quality comes naturally or not in people, but it was definitely kind of forced upon us. Now it might show itself as being as simple as learning all your lines before you come to set, or being really prepared for an audition: just having that respect for yourself and respect for the people who you are working with so are prepared in doing the work. Doing the ‘math homework’ version of your job is something that my parents instilled in me when I was a kid, that I take with me. I remember my mom always saying, ‘It’s important to always make a good first impression.’ I remember ‘Have respect for people who are older than you’ was a golden rule – we talked a lot about that when I was a kid. But the biggest thing was probably the value of working hard.

PC: That is probably reflected in the fact that you didn’t want to go to university or whatever and just wanted to get in there, hands on, get your hands dirty and do the work.

JG: Yes, they instilled in me that desire to learn and work. From an early age I was such a sponge. Once I got to high school age, and was meeting those people from New York who were working in my hometown, I was just asking questions, then I was going to New York in my senior year of high school and then I finally moved to New York when I was 19 – taking classes and waiting tables. Getting the understanding: you get out what you put in; if you work really hard and put a lot in, that work takes you somewhere. Sometimes it doesn’t always take you where you expect it to go but it definitely helps.

I just read this really great book called The Creative Habit, by the choreographer Twyla Tharp, and she talks about her creative process and other people’s creative processes – other famous artists and how they do their work. She just really drives home the point that, no matter how lucky and brilliant someone is initially (and perhaps there is an artist who at one point, you know, just got lucky, they basically sneezed and became famous through something), she talked about if you want to have a long career, anyone that is considered an expert or quote ‘genius’ – brilliant at what they do – nine times out of ten they have a very intense work ethic and they work really hard at what they do. It’s a myth that some people are just brilliant and can do whatever they want. When you look at all the people who have had success, a lot of it is hard work, and I feel grateful that my parents have instilled that quality into me at a young age.

PC: Holt said about you, in his interview with me, that you always turned up on set with your lines learned – that was one of the things he admired about you.

JG: Well he’s the same way. I will never forget when we rehearsed our first scene (the first scene we shot together) it was where we were teaching at road school and we were talking. He was talking about motives and stuff and for the first rehearsal we were both off-book. We were set up ready to play and I’d never really met him before – I’d met his mom, we were familiar. But we got there and I went, ‘Wow! Okay, cool. This is going to be fun.’ You never know what your co-stars are going to be like, and he showed up and it was very clear we both had a similar kind of desire to do well. We wanted to come in and we wanted it to be good and we showed up ready to play and we just had so much fun the first season, because we both had this deep desire to do a good job, and to be there for each other, and to make something great. We wanted to fulfil David’s [Fincher] vision: we both have immense respect for him and what he does, and we just wanted to do well together.

PC: It’s a mutual respect you and Holt have. I asked him how he would describe you and he told me you were so ‘infectious’, as in: ‘Always happy, eager to work and a pleasure to work with from day one,’ those were his words. I asked him, if I ever spoke to you, how would you describe him? He replied, ‘Ah, you know, the grumpy one, the guy who arrives on set at 5 a.m. grumpy until I’ve had coffee.’

JG: That’s so not true! We are a very interesting pair because we are very opposite in many ways and sort of like it is in a show, sort of like an ‘Odd Couple’ dynamic between the two of us. But at the same time he makes everybody laugh.

PC: I love his deep, hearty laugh.

JG: Yes, he has that quality I don’t have where he’s always the life of the party, everybody shows up and he’s always telling jokes. He’s always like shooting the shit with the guys on the crew, making everybody laugh and smile. He’s just got this jovial, infectious energy that is just so specifically Holt – honestly I don’t know anybody else who has the energy that he has.

PC: He is so passionate as well when he speaks, you can hear it in his voice.

JG: Totally, totally and he’s incredibly intelligent.

PC: Yes he is, it is like when I watched the interview where he is speaking away in French and you are looking at him in wonder, like: ‘Where the hell did you learn to speak like that?’

JG: Oh my gosh that was a trip! We did this press tour. He’d talked about how he’d gone to school in Paris, he had a flat in Paris… He’d talked about all, but it had never occurred to me that he speaks fluent French! So we were in Paris on this press tour and all of a sudden he whips out this French – I was like: what?

PC: It is written all over your face.

JG: He just is endlessly fascinating and is constantly surprising.

PC: Some French people have told me he actually speaks the language very well, not some pigeon French.

JG: Yes! That’s what we were asking the Netflix people that were based in Paris, that were French – they were saying yes. They were like, ‘You do have an American accent but you speak the language so well.’ He’s just such a character that guy.

PC: I have such a soft spot for him. He goes out of his way to help people. He’s just lovely!

JG: He’s such an old school gentleman – they don’t make them like that anymore. He’s just got class. He would say this and credit it to his mom. She was Midwestern and very well-mannered; she had impeccable manners. She was very humble and very gracious, always thought about other people first. We don’t have that as much anymore: it’s very old-school. He’s like a guy from another time in a lot of ways. His nature and his manners are just very special.

PC: He is so nice with his fans too.

JG: His mom became a famous cabaret singer and she had very personal interaction with her fans. That’s part of the beautiful quality about him.

PC: Is Holt going to be your forever friend?

JG: Oh absolutely! Absolutely! We’ve gone to see a bunch of plays together in New York; we went to Shakespeare in the Park last summer.

PC: Yes, he was saying, ‘I will get Jonathan over when I go to London. He will drag me to all the plays and musicals. We will just spend the whole weekend at the West End.’

JG: Yes. When we were on the press tour in London, we went to go see a play. That surprises me because Holt doesn’t seem… I mean, even on Mindhunter, in the past he’s done all these action movies, he’s played a lot of cops, he’s played boxers, he plays a lot of meat-heads and so you wouldn’t guess that he’s very cultured, loves cabaret, friends with the writers of Kiss me Kate for example.

PC: Holt knows everyone like Liam Neeson and Clint Eastwood.

JG: I would kind of expect him to know those guys – that makes sense to me because those guys are action type actors, that to me I can understand but, for example, when we went to the memorial service for his mother, he knows Steven Brinberg, who is a cabaret artist famous for doing a Barbra Streisand impression. I was like, ‘How do you know Steven Brinberg?’ It’s just hilarious that he’s very close friends with him. When you know Holt’s body of work in action films you just wouldn’t put those two together.

PC: Yes I watched Holt on the Jimmy Fallon show he was teaching Fallon some boxing moves and he was very ‘New York’ Manhattan-like, very different to how he is. It’s that whole different perception of him, to what comes out of his mouth especially when he speaks French. Most actors I’ve spoken to have been lovely, but there is just something about Holt that is special. Actually all of the Mindhunter cast – and I don’t know if it’s coincidence or if it’s particularly driven that way but – (those we have dealt with so far) I think are really special. They are really supportive of each other. We have remained friends with a core group of them. I don’t know if these people were especially handpicked by David or the casting people with that element of being young and ambitious and kind. I have seen this once before that was in cast and crew members on NBC’s The Blacklist but it’s rare.

JG: Well I think David doesn’t have time for bullshit. He’s not going to waste time. He’s all about the work. He’s all about finding the best way to tell the story and has a hard-working discipline and I think partially intentionally (but maybe subconsciously) finds people that want to work. Not to have this thing lead into the next thing but to have them go work on specifically that job. Which sounds like obviously something everyone would do but. like you said, generally it’s not. I think David, whether it’s intentional or not, ends up surrounding himself with people that are there to work. In the case of Mindhunter, you’re right: it is a very special group of people and that’s partially just that simple fact that everyone is there because they want [to be there], they’re showing up to work and trying to make something that’s really good.

PC: Yes, and they are very supportive of each other’s work too, like when Cotter Smith and Jack Erdie did a play in Pittsburgh together recently, both David and Holt turned up to watch it.

JG: Totally.

PC: Tell me more about working with David Fincher. Obviously his name is on everyone’s lips nowadays and we know his style of directing – we all know he may shoot the same scene 70 times – but there’s much more to him than that. I always like to get information first hand, if I can. What kind of impression has he made on you?

JG: Well it’s just the whole idea, for me at least, [of] having complete faith and trust in someone and knowing that they are going to take you somewhere that is interesting, and working with him is different to working with anyone else. One of the reasons being that you go, ‘Okay, I will just do whatever you want,’ because I so believe in him and in his brain and in his vision, and his point of view, because he’s just proven time and time and time and time again – with all of his films and projects – that he’s one of the most interesting, creative people working today. So just to get the opportunity to be a part of his world is exciting and especially with this TV experience, particularly right now, in this very moment, it’s the first time he’s ever come back to a television show. He directed the first two episodes of House of Cards and he was Creative and Executive Producer on that show, but he never came back to direct it again. He very much had his hand in every episode on the first season of Mindhunter. We weren’t sure if he would come back and do the second season or not, because he has never done that before and now here he is, and we are working on the second season. Just to get that extended time with him and to see how… I guess the thing that is so inspirational about him is that he doesn’t sit back and go, ‘Okay, we know what we are doing. We know who these characters are. Let’s just continue comfortably down the road we were going down before.’

We came back to the second season and obviously some of the sets are the same, and we actually basically know who the characters are, where before we didn’t know what the show was yet – we were still making it. So there’s that element, which is great. But it’s still the same process as it was the first time around: it’s not laid back and comfortable; it’s not pressing the same notes; he’s really trying to move things forward and make things different, evolve it and grow it and change it as it goes along – that’s just an artist that is always searching, always changing and always asking the questions. He’s just always trying to get to a better version of the truth: in the writing, then in the shooting and in the editing, he just never stops working and never stops asking questions, and it’s just so rare to find someone like that.

PC: So how does it work that David Fincher directed the first two episodes and the last two: what happens in-between when he hands the reins over to another director but is obviously still on set?

JG: There’s a bit of a balance: you know he lets them do their thing and they are of course directing in the context of the world he created, so he can’t just hand it over.

PC: It’s not total control for them, he’s leading it?

JG: Yes, he’s set up the vocabulary of the show and the vocabulary of the shot and how the show is made, so they are allowed a certain amount of creative freedom, but in David’s world. In the first season he would occasionally come on set and help us stage certain scenes or certain shots in the morning, then he would leave and let us figure it out from there, or he would let the director set up their shot then give them notes later. He was literally in Pittsburgh for the entire year so his presence was there regardless of if he was on set or not. But then in rehearsals and stuff – because one of the other things about the show is we get a lot of rehearsals, we get to read through all the scenes with the writers before we shoot them – he’s there for all of those.

So we are always talking about the intention of the scene and what the intention will be on the day. He said this great thing on the first season that I’ve really stuck with: that when the writer is asking, ‘Why do we have to bang out every specific word of the scene before we start shooting?’ David talked about how, when you show up on set the crew gets the sides, the actors get the sides, the extras get the sides – everybody gets a copy of the sides – and everyone will have a different interpretation of what these sides mean and how the scene is going to look, so you want the scene to be as specific as possible once it gets into the hands of all those people. So that there is this innate direction of where the scene is going by the specificity of every word, of every line; and really taking the time to craft that out – so everyone getting their hands on those on the day, on set, is very important. Even just the attention to detail in that regard, in the writing and in the rehearsing, affects how the guest directors will then come on and direct the scenes because we spent so much time rehearsing specifically – exactly – what every line, and every word, is intended to express.

PC: Can you say to David Fincher, or the writers, ‘I don’t like this line,’ or, ‘This line isn’t something I feel Ford would say.’ A lot of writers are very precious about their work (and of course you wouldn’t do it just because you could) but would you be able to challenge a line and make a suggestion about what would fit better or is that totally off-limits?

JG: My sort of personal thing is to sit back and let it happen, let the evolution of the writing take its course without me saying… As an actor I find you think, ‘Oh I don’t know if I would say it like that?’ And then you start saying it ‘like that’ and it ends up being a great surprise; ‘I wouldn’t have thought I could sing like that but now this is actually adding a dimension I wasn’t aware of.’ So my tactics, certainly in this Mindhunter experience, is to let the writers write – and just because David is so involved and has the whole thing mapped out in his head, I’m pretty quiet during that part of the process. I just take the tack of: I’m just here to try and make whatever they give me work. That’s my own personal philosophy.

PC: I guess you’d have to struggle with yourself to imagine doing it better than the vision Fincher has in his head.

JG: It’s kind of going back to that thing of working with different people and being inside of different processes. I’ve done shows where they would say ‘Action’ and we would improv for about a minute into the scene and then we would get into the vibe of the scene and then improv out of the scene – and that was really fun, and stuff would come out that was really unexpected and great, and that they would use sometime in the edit or whatever. This process is the complete opposite of that – absolutely no improvisation – everything is planned within an inch of its life and like you said: when you are in the room with a brain like David Fincher’s, I’m just going to let him take the reins. For me at least that’s part of the joy of this process – being submissive to his brain.

PC: I hate asking questions you will have already been asked a 100 times or more but: how did you get the role, basically? I have read how it happened but I like to hear it from the horse’s mouth so to speak.

JG: I met David when I auditioned for The Social Network in 2008 and didn’t get it. Then I was doing Hamilton on Broadway and they sent me six or seven scenes (which are just pages of dialogue) and I put myself on tape in New York on a Monday or Tuesday, and then they responded immediately and had me put myself on tape again on Thursday, and then I flew myself to New York that Monday (it all happened in about a week) and sat with him in his office.

PC: What was that like? Obviously you had met him before but you must have been blown away thinking, ‘I could be the lead on a show that David Fincher is doing!’ Do you have to pinch yourself or do you feel you have earned it?

JG: It’s a total dream. I honestly didn’t believe that it was going to happen because it was too good to be true. Even when we were in rehearsals in LA, I really would go home and think, ‘I’m certain it’s not going to work out,’ and then we are shooting it and I’m thinking, ‘It’s still not…’ I was so excited about it. I just didn’t believe it was real until it came out, actually. It really wasn’t until about half-way through the season of shooting it – when it was clear that it was going forward – [that] I started to go, ‘Okay, this is really happening.’ Every step up until that moment I was too excited to let myself even think that it was real.

Photo by Eric Charbonneau/REX/Shutterstock

PC: Television is such a fickle world as well: you just can’t call what’s going to be a hit and what’s not. Obviously, because it had David Fincher attached to it, there’s going to be some sort of success but it’s not guaranteed.

JG: Totally! You never know what’s going to happen.

PC: I think I read that at the end of a day’s shoot you weren’t thinking, ‘Oh my God! There are all these serial killers going about!’ That, in fact, you were raring to get your teeth into the role you played. Did the things that you found out whilst filming affect you? Like when you are at home eating dinner: did the what’s and why’s cross your mind or did you just go home and switch it off?

JG: I’m not a method actor. The minute I think about what we are talking about is real, I just don’t want to go there, because I think, ‘Wow! These are actual people who actually did these things.’

PC: Who could be living next door to you!

JG: It’s too much to even think about, so that – combined with the fact [that] in the first season I was in almost every scene – I would go home and not even have time to even think what we had just done. I would be memorizing my lines for the next day, trying to keep up and not lose myself as far as the preparation for the work goes; there’s just so much work to do, it didn’t linger with me that way. It wasn’t like I had reflective time to sit and think ‘wow these people’… I was like: ‘Okay, what are my lines for tomorrow?’ It was more about the logistics of problem solving and telling the story than it was sitting and meditating on the reality of what went down.

PC: What about when filming finished? I know some of the cast have explored serial killers further and like Holt saying he wants to interview a serial killer (he told me that he had written to one).

JG: He wanted to go and talk with David Berkowitz.

PC: Yeah and Anna Torv said she had read up a lot about it after filming finished.

JG: There is not a part of me that wants to meet David Berkowitz: just the idea of it makes me feel scared and weird – and what would I say?

PC: And what he would say? Yikes, I agree it would be really scary. It would be too real, not pretend anymore.

JG: Too real! On this show we are trying to tell the story as respectfully and accurately as possible and then I just don’t want to think about it.

PC: Everybody raves about how outstanding Cameron Britton was as Ed Kemper and rightly so: apart from him, is there anyone in particular who stood out for you or just overall whose performance was great?

JG: Good question. In my audition scenes they were with the Kemper, Brudos [Happy Anderson] and Richard Speck [Jack Erdie] and what I loved is that they were all different, and this show isn’t just serial killer of the week. You get the information from the serial killers and you get a little window into their lives, but then you also see the evolution of the FBI agents and how they get savvier and how they put things together, and the psychology of getting somebody to open up in a different way – so for the Brudos thing, the idea of the shoe. And even when Holden goes back and interviews Brudos and they talk in the third person about his killings – that I found really chilling – what a creepy, strange way. It almost makes it feel even scarier to hear him talking about it. When he’s talking to me he’s sort of deflecting, deflecting, deflecting and then how he talks in the third person – I found that really scary.

PC: When Kemper hugged Holden and you had that panic attack, I could really feel it in my chest, like, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!’ Imagine that actually happening! I’d probably just die of fright, on the spot. You just don’t know what his next move could be.

JG: Yeah it’s scary and I think that the show does that really well: where you feel a sense of safety – because you’re in this jail it feels like a contained environment and they seem so docile – and all of a sudden you realise how dangerous they are and that feeling kind of comes in and out through the course of an interview; all the interviews are that way. I love that quality of the story, it’s very complicated. It’s not like you go, ‘Oh my God!’ It’s like, ‘Okay, that seems like a normal question.’

PC: What do you think of how your character evolved from, I think you said someone who was possibly a virgin, impeccably dressed, boy next door, to how he became near the end of the season and how he will be in season 2? How he was affected by the sexual nature of the killings: in that he grew up more or his eyes were opened more?

JG: Yes, I think so – certainly there’s an element – and John Douglas (who the character is based on) talks a lot about the heaviness and the horror and the depravity and the sadness of the victims’ experience. You know he had a complete mental breakdown in dealing with the stuff on a daily basis and being so all consumed by it. There’s that aspect of the evolution of the character that I think is really interesting, and that’s reflected in the scene where his girlfriend puts on the shoe, and it’s the first time you realise that work is kind of coming home with him and he starts to lose it a little bit. And then, obviously, at the end when he runs literally into the arms of Ed Kemper and is sort of lost.

But the other kind of evolution I find really interesting in the character (maybe the most surprising) is that idea of narcissism and the idea of taking credit for creating something and I think it’s such a human, and American, and embarrassing quality of: ‘I made this. I’m taking credit for this. I started this.’ I say at one point to Wendy, in the one scene, and seeing how that sweetly intentioned, buttoned-up kid, gets a little full of himself, and watching that quality bubble to the surface of Holden I think is really surprising . That quality of narcissism coming to the surface and really loving the fact that he is such a, quote, ‘revolutionary character’ with revolutionary ideas. One of the things that David always talks about doing, that he loves, is that he’s only interested in an argument on-screen where both characters are right and Holden has that scene where he walks out and looks at the OPR [the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility] and says, ‘The only mistake I ever made was doubting myself.’ Holden is never wrong in his actions and in his ideas but the way it sort of transforms him is a very discerning and a little scary: that he’s seemingly so innocent [yet] becomes so monstrous and egotistical.

PC: It will be interesting to see where it goes and how far it will go next season.

JG: Exactly. I love playing that because it’s so rare that you get to play someone that is kind of so innocent, that takes such a journey like that by the end of the season.

PC: I was looking through some fan forums and these are some descriptions that written about you… Someone asks: ‘What do you think about Jonathan Groff?’ Someone else replies: ‘It’s impossible to list just one – he’s an incredible package, not just his body and perfect bone structure, his seductive eyes, playful and innocent. Lips that make the most adorable smile…’ Need I go on? My point is, I wanted to ask: what you see when you look in the mirror?

JG: Oh my God! What do I think when I look in the mirror?

PC: Yes, do you think, ‘Oh today I look dreadful. I have a spot’? Or do you think, ‘Yep, yep you look pretty good today son’?

JG: The latest thing is… well first of all I don’t love looking in the mirror (it’s not my favourite thing). The other day I had to look in the mirror in a scene that we were doing – and I really don’t like looking in the mirror when I’m playing Holden, because it makes me laugh. Looking in the mirror while acting just makes me feel crazy. Some actors love to watch back on the little monitor screens, like, ‘Okay let me see that back, see how it looks.’ That just makes me feel so self-conscious. I would so much just rather watch it all after it’s been cut and made up. I don’t love watching myself in the process. The main thing that I found when I looked the mirror was – because I had a couple of days off and I went to New York – I’m 33 and I’ve never had facial hair and now I’m getting a beard; I am actually able to grow facial hair. That has been the latest revelation looking in the mirror I’m like: Oh my God!! Basically I can go maybe a week and a half and have a normal person’s 5 o’clock shadow, but now it’s been a couple of days of not shaving and I’m starting to grow facial hair.

PC: Wow! You will be able to have one of those full beards that the hipsters have.

JG: Yes and I’m like: I’m officially getting older; I’m starting to grow facial hair; I’m starting to feel more like a man. (Laughs)

PC: I often get messages from people who have been grateful that someone I’ve interviewed has helped them through something by talking about their own experiences, whether it be depression, grief or something else. I know you had a scare with skin cancer and wondered if you would like to talk about that.

JG: Yes of course. Skin cancer for me was so undramatic, in that I just booked for a physical check-up and I’d never gotten my moles checked, so the doctor recommended I did. They saw a mole that looked weird and they cut it out and then they saw that it had like a melanoma cancer in it. The great thing is to get it out before it spreads, have it cut out and then there’s nothing else to it. So before it had spread, they just cut it out and now I make sure I’m wearing sunscreen every time I go in the sun and I get my moles checked once a year. I wasn’t in the hospital; I didn’t have to go through any treatment; I just have this scar on my chest from where I had it removed. It didn’t feel life-threatening or scary in any way when it happened.

PC: There is a fan debate about how you got the scar on your chest and equally the scar on your bicep: that you allegedly got from some woman’s stiletto or something. Is that true?

JG: That is true. I had a light scar… Let me see if it is still there. I had a light scar there from when I was doing “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Glee and I was wearing a T-shirt and we were doing the run through. We were just rehearsing it and the stiletto scraped my arm down my bicep – it was pretty hilarious. I had a scar there definitely for a couple of weeks, then it was a light scar and now I think it’s completely gone.

PC: Shows you how dedicated your fans are that they are discussing your scars online in a forum.

JG: That’s impressive that they know so much.

PC: Your meaty thighs are another whole thread!

JG: That’s amazing!

PC: Which word do you find yourself using more than others and do you have a favourite word?

JG: I’m trying to stop saying ‘like’ and I’m trying to stop saying ‘totally’. I’ve had lots of friends in my life who say I say ‘totally’ a lot, so that’s definitely a most used word that I’m trying not to say. The other thing I’m trying not to say is: ‘That’s so interesting’. I say that a lot. And I’m trying to not go up at the end of my sentence per David Fincher: when you talk like this and you end a statement like it’s a question. I’m trying to stop doing that.

PC: You are putting a lot of pressure on yourself! Do you have a favourite word?

JG: I’d say my favourite word is ‘yes’.

PC: How would you spend your perfect day?

JG: It would depend what I’m doing at the time… You know what my perfect day is? It’s waking up, doing some form of exercise – be it yoga or spin class or going for a run. Then it would be maybe having breakfast: making it alone with the radio playing. Then hopping on my bike – this is all taking place in New York by the way. Go on a bike ride to Central Park and then meeting my friends in Central Park at Sheep’s Meadow. Eating and hanging out for a while there.

PC: What’s Sheep’s Meadow?

JG: Sheep’s Meadow is a big sort of grassy area in Central Park. Then maybe go over to a restaurant… let’s see… where would I go? I would go to some restaurant on the Upper West Side, near Central Park, and have a late afternoon lunch with my friends.

PC: I need more details: a meat, fish or cheese dish?

JG: I would go to The Smith and have steak salad and a glass of rosé then I would go back home to my apartment; I would take a nap. Then I would hop in the shower. I would get back on my bike ride up to Midtown and I would perform in a Broadway Musical. Then I would go with my cast members again to some bar afterwards – where I would have a whiskey – and then I would hop back on my bike and ride home. Perfect day!

PC: Do you ride your bike a lot to get round New York?

JG: Yes that’s how I get around. I love it. When I was there two days ago I rode my bike everywhere.

PC: That’s how people don’t recognise you because you are wearing a bike hat: do you wear a hat?

JG: Yes of course.

PC: What could you not live without?

JG: Music!

PC: That takes us nicely to the next set of questions…

What was the first record you ever bought or the first download you ever downloaded?

JG: The first I ever bought would be Brittany Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time” on CD – it was great.

PC: Is there a song that takes you back to a special time in your life?

JG: I remember listening to that song “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None The Richer when I was in 8th grade doing the 8th grade play. It was in the movie She’s All That and I remember I had to kiss my friend Emily in that play and I just remember the anxiety of having to kiss her and that song being on the radio.

PC: How old were you?

JG: 12 years old.

PC: Aww… was that your first kiss? Did it all go fine?

JG: Yes it was fine.

PC: Do you have a song that you must blast out when it comes on?

JG: Pretty much anything Beyoncé, but especially “Grown Woman”.

PC: Is there a movie soundtrack that you particularly love?

JG: When I was in 2nd grade I used to obsessively listen to the soundtrack Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, with Kevin Costner.

PC: With the Bryan Adams’ song that was in the charts for months?

JG: Yeah exactly. That one.

PC: What about now: what movie soundtrack would you put on?

JG: I love David O. Russell films and I’ve always loved the music in his films so I bought the Silver Linings Playbooksoundtrack; I bought the soundtrack for Joy. I just love the music in his films so definitely one of those two.

PC: Apart from musicals, is there a specific genre you favour or do you just love music generally?

JG: I found out that at Beyoncé’s Coachella concert (which I’ve now watched about 150 times) when she has this long 5-minute intro and it starts with a drum roll, and then this sort of like New Orleans jazz music playing in the background – I learnt that the tune is from this band called The Rebirth Brass Band so I’ve been listening to a lot of their music. I’ve been listening to a lot of New Orleans Jazz. I will listen to anything though.

PC: What about live music? Do you go to many live gigs?

JG: I wish I went to more. I don’t go to a lot of live gigs and every time I go to one I always think I wish I watched more live music. That was even the case with the last one I went to, I can’t even think off the top of my head who that was. The best one was definitely going to the Formation Tour [Beyoncé].

PC: Obviously you are a wonderful dancer. Are you always up first on the dance floor – or do you take a bit of persuading?

JG: It depends on my mood. Last time I was dancing was at the opening of Frozen on Broadway and I was definitely the first person on the dance floor.

PC: So you are on a road trip with only a dog for company, not a goat and not a horse: what’s on your playlist?

JG: I would drive all the time – I love driving. Beyoncé, Frank Ocean – let me just look at my phone – Bobby Darin (I’ve been listening to a lot of his), the Black Panther album, Alesia Keyes, The Carpenters, The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed , Kendrick Lamar, Barbara Streisand, Chance the Rapper, Lolo (my friend Lauren Pritchard from Spring Awakening), Sara Bareilles, Jackson 5, Elton John, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, Amy Winehouse and Billy Joel.

PC: What does music mean to you?

JG: It’s like the reflection of every joy, sadness, confusion. Music is like life to me: there just a reflection in absolutely everything. I love it!

#jonathan groff #mindhunter #interview

24 notes · View notes