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luciftixs · 10 months

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the yi sangela post

I’m having autistic zoomies right now

I want to talk about Yi Sang and Angela because I like them both A Lot and I just think it’s fun to do comparisons. My partner made this lovely checklist with a few similarities I jotted down in a notesapp on my phone before I passed out and I will be cooking a meal thats geared solely to me but ur welcome to try and eat it if u want

Let’s get into it. There is no structure here but maybe we will find it as we go along!

I wanna start w a disclaimer that this is FOR FUN its not actually that serious and ALSO its obviously not a 1-to-1 comparison because these two are also so starkly different in not only their circumstances but also their overall personality when it comes to having deal with said Issues. I feel like tumblr users are more chill these days but after some shit ive seen on projmoon twitter I am covering my bases this is just a Post by a Stranger Online LOL

Let’s take a look at our first point on this silly little chart. That point is:

Bird

Angela’s black dress heavily resembles the feathers of a bird; specifically that of a corvid like a raven or even crow.

Even her head librarian outfit has some bird motifs to it. I’m going to get into corvid symbolism in a second but first

Yi Sang also leans heavily into the bird motifs. His base EGO is named Crow’s Eye View after a poem by the RL Yi Sang, and the narrative draws some inspo from the short story The Wings by the same author.

Wings show up often in some of his EGOS and CGs

Now, it’s not simply generic birds either of them are inspired by; Angela’s black feathers, Yi Sang’s EGO title, they are specifically invoking corvids. Corvidae include many different species of birds, such as magpies and jays, but the most commonly thought of corvids would be the ones with black feathers; ravens and crows. Corvids are incredibly intelligent birds, and they are rich in symbolism and meaning.

Specifically, crows have a heavy association with death and the afterlife. Both Angela and Yi Sang are impacted by heavy losses; Angela is made from a woman who took her own life and is forced to oversee countless loops of people suffering and dying; Yi Sang witnessed his friends being driven apart in a violent manner. His two childhood friends die before him, he wishes he could kill himself and die, and is trapped in a purgatory state with his current coworkers where bloodshed is as common as breathing. Death has marked both of them.

But! That is not the only thing corvids symbolize! In more modern times the birds are said to also symbolize transformation. In a way, that ties into death, as what is death if not the final transformation in life? But neither of their final growths end in their deaths; rather, both learn to find a way to free themselves from the shackles of their past, and to push forward.

THEN WE HAVE

Book as weapon

This one is just silly.

*beats you to death with a book beats you to death with a book beats you to death with a book*

Next point

Narrative haunted by a female figure

This one is in that “not a one-to-one comparison” territory, but it’s still just fun to poke at imo. In Angela’s case, she can never truly escape Carmen’s influence over her. For Yi Sang, Dongbaek is a ghost from his past. Both these women are integral to the overall narrative at hand.

Not only do these women haunt the narrative, but they also mirror the person they haunt. Angela’s desire for life is so strong because, in the end, Carmen wished to live. Dongbaek admired Yi Sang and his dream of flying. She yearned to bloom in a way not dissimilar to a bird spreading it’s wings for the first time. Angela’s Lobcorp design invokes Carmen- her hair color is Carmen’s inverted. She wears the hair time Carmen wore. Dongbaek’s hair has become white from the trauma- the inverse of Yi Sang’s black hair. Yi Sang takes up a Dongbaek identity in a mirror world to further drive home the similarities. These women play a major role in the overall identity of these two characters.

And this is just my brain going “hehe neat” but Carmen’s whole like. Brain stem mimicking a tree and its roots. Dongbaek becoming flowers. Visually very similar vibes.

Onto the next point

Loomed over and controlled by a male figure

This one probably seems second most self explanatory. Ayin meet Gubo Gubo meet Ayin ect.

The deal is simple: you do what we want you to do, and we have employed dubious methods to ensure that you do what we want you to do! Both Ayin and Gubo are self serving when it comes to the end goals. The levels of agency at play here are different; Angela truly had no choice, but Yi Sang’s mental state is not Great and that is being capitalized on him to help perpetuate his isolation and dependency.

Another thing: Ayin and Gubo are just really fucking mean to Angela and Yi Sang. Ayin actively dehumanizes her and neglects her; Gubo verbally and mentally abuses Yi Sang. Fun stuff.

Now, the penultimate point:

Yearning for freedom

This naturally comes with the territory of being a bird. Angela longs to not be confined to a place (Lobcorp or the Library). She wants to experience the world and be free. Yi Sang is similar; that desire to spread his wings and fly. For both to accomplish this, they have a talk with the ‘self’. It’s only by confronting their pasts, and themselves, that they can finally get that push to live life on their own terms.

MY FINAL TALKING POINT

SEXY

Like wow hot a what? And yes I chose fourth match flame because it ties into the whole post like they’re sharing an EGO that’s basically having your hopes burnt to a cinder and also an intense longing for a better life whoa thats crazy

Concluding thoughts

I just like them both a lot. My little caged birds getting out of the cage and mending their broken wings in order to take flight. Very kino. I love them.

If u actually read this thanks ur pog

#project moon #library of ruina #limbus company #not spoiler free #yi sang #angela #long post #perhaps they should... no i shant say it

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cookii-moon · 1 year

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This is my excuse to gush over Dragon form because yes.

Basically headcanon and redesign galore yayy

More under the cutoff since this is LONG. You have been warned.

The first part is an introduction, and then the second is actually talking about my designs and ideas and stuff, plus some thoughts/snippets/headcanons... help me.

SO apparently I am far more stupid than I thought, and the reason I say that is because for WHATEVER REASON, it took me ONE. YEAR. For the thought "Hey Cookie the ninja became dragons that one time" to even properly cross my mind, let alone set in. Which is surprising, because I historically freak out over dragons. You'd think that my favorite blorbos having dragon forms would make me instantly go crazy, but no, it took an entire year for my brain to even realize it was... you know... dragon related... even.though I knew they were dragon related... I just didn't... does that make sense? Probably not.

ANYWAYS

As it stands the dragon forms are forgettable because they're literally just reskins but with different element colors (which makes sense, cause yknow... Lego molds...) and then they vanish which obviously yeah. Who knows maybe they'll come back in dragons rising now that the ninja have their powers again.

BUT THAT DOESN'T STOP ME FROM GUSHING OVER THEM ONE YEAR AFTER THEY WERE RELEVANT.

Hyperfixation transcends the measly concept of time (actually that's probably not true I wouldn't know since I don't think about the very fabric of reality that often) so good luck stopping me.

ANYWAY, so uh... I might or might not have on a whim made messy concept sketches for each dragon form, made up a ton of headcanons, and chosen color scheme... no... no I didn't do that.

Okay yeah I did that.

...I was supposed to do two at a time.

How did I get here. The power of autistic brain.

Time to actually talk about the designs!!

Uhhh I'm gonna go in true potential order... because yes.

First... Zaneee!!!

Without color in case it's confusing

Also you're gonna notice a trend with this being that the drawings are not high quality or rendered or anything and are sloppily colored and that's because they're just concepts. I only did the actual "big" draconic traits because I wanted to get it finished quickly so i had an excuse to talk about it. If I ever do use them for an actual art piece then I'll fully render them n stuff obviously this is just to get across the concept.

So since Zane is a robot it.. would be kinda hard for him to suddenly get like.. organic dragon wings... or whatever...

So instead- he gets cybernetic dragon wings and a tail. Yes i know that still requires cartoon logic. The power of creation just magicked them into existence OK? It makes more sense than randomly growing scales.

The mechanic parts are mostly held together/afloat by the ice energy flowing through them (which is what the crystal-like fragments that make up most of his wings are!)

Also his horns are like a little crown... because... I dunno I thought it'd fit with his haircut and such but also ice Emperor (even though he didn't really wear a crown) look this was drawn at like 2 am I don't know what I was thinking with it or why I didn't actually draw the haircuts as well..

I imagine that he'd be very cold to the touch, especially his wings (which are pretty much sheets of ice) both Jay and Kai have ways of circumventing it, but when Cole has to deal with it (like sitting next to him or such) he gets sluggish pretty quickly. Zane is still trying to figure out a way to ease it a bit.

He also tends to make clanging noise by tapping his tail against the ground when he's upset, or make mechanical whirring noises when irritated. Nobody quite knows why since yknow robot, it's just a quirk.

His ice energy does mean he's gotten a power boost. Just like literally everyone else.

Also this is going to involve me assuming they kept these features because if Lloyd can be part dragon then so can the ninja I dare you to fight me /lighthearted

Jay!! He bird. Feather scrunchie.

"But Cookie that's not a dragon-"

Shhhh If a dinosaur can have feathers so can a dragon they're both giant reptiles OK. Feather dragon. It's a thing.

I'm going to be honest the only thing going through my mind while drawing this was vague wing shapes I can't even put a name to (they were probably from monster hunter... I think... Uh... ) and silkie chickens. Not quite sure why I thought of silkie chickens, but I did. So here we are.

So anyways I love him. HIM!! FEATHER MAN!!!

Also I just realized while writing this he can finally be fugi dove's proper equal and arch nemesis. Amazing.

So while drawing I was like "it'd be neat if he could produce static n such with his wings/feathers" so I took off to the internet and after trying a ton of different "CAN BIRDS MAKE STATIC" "ARE BIRD FEATHERS STATIC" and such search queries I finally came up with that ostrich feathers can have static and chicken feathers were used in computer components and hummingbirds can produce static from how fast they flap their wings. Is that trustworthy whatsoever? Probably not. (Surprisingly the most trustworthy one seems to be that chicken feathers were used for computer components which is funny) But rule of cool. I get to break the laws of physics and reality for my story as long as it's cool. Yay.

He's very fluffy and enjoys using his wings to snuggle up in bed :) Cole also tries to steal him as a blanket during winter. Nya and Lloyd can't because of the static but Cole can't be shocked so Jay just has to begrudgingly accept it with his hollow bones and consequentially low weight. He's also known to let sparks off when he's excited/happy, which is f u n.

Also I used the blue/yellow color palette because they seem to be leaning towards using more yellow in Jay's color themes (like how they started using orange in Cole's or blue in Zane's) and I thought it worked really well here so yeah!! It also helps differentiate him even more.

He sheds like crazy. Especially during winter where he gets EVEN FLUFFIER. (no one knows how it's even possible) Feathers everywhere. Cole and Kai also shed, but they shed skin all in one go (usually..), whereas Jay just leaves a pillows worth of feathers everywhere he inhabits, and it drives them insane.

The type of dragon he is is mostly a flight based species. They hunt in the air, live in the air for most of their lives, and such. Because of that not only does he rarely sit down, but he is FILLED with excess energy. He's also the most natural and second fastest flier, and fastest consistent flier.

Because the type of dragon he takes after is so focused on flight, they also roost up in really high places, so you'll probably find him on the top bunk, up in rafters, on the Monastery roof, etc. He loves that they're on a mountain because it means he can take a flight whenever he wants to. That doesn't stop him from being horrible at evading actual birds, though.

He also regularly makes "chirp" and clicking noises. (By chirp I mean the type a cat will do while looking at a window or such. Look up cats chirping or smthn for an example if u haven't heard it before.)

Could I have just made him a dragon with lightning bolt patterns?

Yes but that would be very boring and uncreative (in my opinion and standards I hold myself to ofc-) SO.

Jay is chicken. Jay uses wings to shoot lightning. Thank you for your time.

Cole. He crystal dragon. He's probably also gonna be a pain to draw (but also very fun) because of that. Yay.

I could of just done magma but I loved the idea of like a crystal dragon. So I made a ninjago related crystal dragon...

... again. Don't ask about the first one.

so uh I chose the colors bc like light blues/purples/white are pretty stereotypical crystal colors (plus I think they're pretty) and then orange... because. Cole. He has little crystal patches all over him and his scales also have like.. small crystals dotted all over.

I feel like whatever species of dragon he is is probably adapted to like.. mostly living in caves? Like cave bats kinda where it goes outside at night to hunt but sleeps and lives in caves, and probably goes deeper in the cave to hibernate. So because of that he can be sensitive to artificial light and doesn't really have any like adaptations for the winter, so he just tries to snuggle up with Jay or Kai to keep warm and gets really tired/sluggish when he's cold because reptile. On the other end he can sense vibrations since his species wouldn't be relying on sight as much, which is very handy.

Unlike Zane, Jay, or Kai, he can't really "fly" exactly. His wings are much smaller because the species kinda adapted to being able to use them as a sort of speed boost thing where they'd use them to get quick bursts of flight to catch prey, but since they mostly hunted on the ground and lived in caves they didn't need full on flight. However it's sorta a peregrine falcon situation where technically he is the fastest of all the ninja in flight, but only during a short burst.

He is also very well adapted to climbing vertical surfaces. His claws are REALLY good at gripping onto things since they were adapted to cling onto things such as stalactites, rock walls, etc. to traverse up ledges and deeper parts of caves, and he can also use his wings (and more specifically their claws) as a third pair of limbs to grip onto walls.

Cole tends to make more subtle noises, he growls when agitated and purrs when content or in pain (yes that's a thing, purring soothes and encourages healing, so cats will also purr when they're hurt or scared to comfort themselves) but it isn't very loud, so it's not easily noticeable.

Kai!!

Again

Could I have done magma for Cole and just given Kai flame wings?

Yes. But I'm not going to, because I find this approach more interesting.

... I joke that it's magma but not REALLy, it's still just.. fire... but his scales are brown cause I thought it fit. So. A lot of people like to draw Lloyd with the kinda dragon ears so I thought it'd be cute if Kai, as his guardian, also had them since, again, a lot of people like to see them as brothers. And I just gave him generic dragon horns. Because dragon.

It's hard to simplify it because... fire... so this is probably the worst sketch..

Look OK he gets to breathe fire. Like that's one of the most iconic medieval red dragon things, he's the fire ninja, he gets to breathe fire and blow smoke out of his nostrils when mad I don't make the rules.

I also kinda went all in on generic dragon tropes (i mean ig they're not as generic anymore because of stuff like HTTYD) because... Kai.

So like hot temper, fire breath, that type of thing.

He also has a hoarding habit, as in instead of cleaning or anything when he uses something and just tosses it aside, he puts it all in an ever growing pile of stuff that he just let's stay there until somebody else cleans it up because they were sick of it. Compared to Jay's feathers it's not the WORST thing in the world.

He's slower than Zane and Jay, but can fly for longer periods of time than Zane. His species is kind of adapted to flying closer to the land. So that they can eat some well cooked cow. Yknow generic dragon stuff.

I also think it'd be funny, since dragons are fiercely protective, if these dragons had a dragapult situation where if they didn't have a kid they'd just "adopt" (in their eyes, in reality it's abducting. Usually.) a random animal and pretend it's their child. Because. Kai.

He's also fireproof, to an extent. He can withstand intense heat (unlike Cole or Jay) and can withstand intense cold (Unlike Cole... poor guy) because fire. He can't dive bomb into a volcano though since it would eventually get through and burn him to a crisp, but in small amounts he'll be FINEEEE...

Im not quite sure if he'd make any sort of draconic noises or anything. I feel like maybe he'd growl when upset, but it'd be louder than Cole? Whereas Cole does it more frequently (probably to be passive aggressive) but it's much more silent. He also has a tendency to involuntarily raise his voice a lot.

Yeah that's about it. Also if you consider lloyd to be a dragon, or think of Nya as having dragon features from when she just became h2o that one time, then the entire group might as well be renamed to Dragon ninja. Even Wu!!

..I feel like Lloyd would be jealous- Like "Oh why do THEY get to go full dragon and have wings when I don’t?!" But he'd never say anything because Lloyd.. but everybody knows something is up and is trying to make him feel better... but it's making him feel worse because it just makes him feel more singled out... oh boy that's uh I'm gonna shut that depressing thought train down right there.

Poor pixal though... she's left out because she's too cool already.

ALSO if you ever use this or want to expand upon it/take inspiration from it PLEASE DO AND TELL/SEND IT TO ME I WANT TO SEE AND HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS PLEASE DHRJGJDJDJ I LOVE WHEN MY STUFF PROMPTS IDEAS

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satansaidmyturnintheh3llscape · 2 years

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Everything Right/Wrong with Ninjago “Rise of the Serpentine” E11: All of Nothing

Kinda casually dropped some Zane angst in here, and a bit of Lloyd angst too. Disclaimers: Show owned by LEGO. This is not a professional review/critique - it’s mainly intended for comedy.

- Intro ✅

- Does Jay materialize out of lightning? Why does he never use this again?? ❌

- ^ I see what they’re trying to do here but shouldn’t at least one of those weapons be placed behind their head? Doesn’t putting all the weapons in front kinda defeat the purpose? ❌

- “Doesn’t that mean it’ll consume you too?” How have none of the Serpentine figured this out? I know Pythor figured he’d be able to control it, but that brings in the whole other sin of where he got that idea from ❌

- “If all we have to do is just get one fangblade to stop him what if we take back the other three? Pythor wouldn’t risk having them all on him. He’s probably hidden them somewhere while he goes for the fourth.” Lloyd is a genius; change my mind ✅

- “Finally, I don’t have to hold back!” Kai is either a liar, or an a*shole ❌

- “But if he can’t bite through your skin, he can’t turn you into one of them!” Great, so your arm is safe, but what about the rest of your body? Or your other arm? None of that is covered entirely in metal. This doesn’t seem like a very reliable defense. ❌

- “And a little soft shoe doesn’t hurt” ✅

- Also, what happens if one of them has to fight a type of snake different than what they’ve trained for? Like, Zane can turn on falcon vision to escape the effects of Venomari venom, but something tells me the others might not be able to fall back on the same plan. ❌

- “I am concerned my old bones can’t keep up.” I don’t have to explain why this is a sin, right? We’ve all seen season 11 - we all know this is bullsh*t, right? ❌

- “So Jay and Nya rejiggered the design…” In the last 5 seconds?!?!?! ❌

- “Shotg*n” There’s literally only one seat ❌

- How can any of them tell which wall drawing is supposed to be of which ninja? Cole assumes he’s the one given the mustache, but the drawing itself is colored red. ❌

- What kind of files is he transferring? Seriously, what could Garmadon find in that computer that could actually help him in any way? I doubt he’ll be able to take over the world using the ninja’s chore chart ❌

- “Every boy has a choice to grow up to be whoever they want to be… but you still have a choice… your uncle has a plan for you!” Say those last two parts again, but slower this time, Garmadon ❌

- “We don’t want your help! And we don’t need you here. Maybe it would’ve been better if you hadn’t come back at all.” “If… if that’s the way you feel…” Haha, well that hurt 😃 ✅

- ^ Okay I get that if Kai opens his eyes he’ll likely get hypnotized, but he still spinjitzu’s (with his eyes closed) WAYYYY too close to the ledge of this cliff for my comfort ❌

- I know that the ninja all make, like, “fighting noises” during battle, but I specifically love the way Jay always says, “WAHHHHHHH-“ ✅

- Zane’s afraid of food? ❌

- OR is it meant to symbolize the fact that Zane’s a nindroid and is afraid he’ll never be able to experience most “human” pleasures (such as food) the same way most humans will? Probably not, but I’ll never pass up an opportunity to drop some angst

- “I’ll let you have the honors.” “Oh no, after you!” Underrated moment that showcases some of Kai’s character development ✅

- HIS ARM AND LEG SLEEVES ARE ROLLED UP- ✅

- They could update the suit (by adding the metal head piece) but still couldn’t make it fit him correctly?? ❌

- ^ “Ouch…” ✅

- Small detail but during Jay’s true potential episode, Pythor gets the fangblade that glows blue. During Cole’s, he gets the one that glows white-ish/brownish, and during Kai’s he gets the one that glows red. In this ep, he gets the one that glows green. ✅

- That pencil is massive ❌

- And how’d they get that and a bottle of hair oil in this cell? ❌

- “Woah, greaseball, how about warning us before you do that?” No comment.

- “I have faith in Lloyd!” Well that makes one of us (I love him but come on-) ❌

- Lloyd somehow “ninja-rolls” UP a steep slope ❌

- “Ninja recover!” ✅

- I would sin Lloyd for doing an unnecessary amount of stunts that only slow him down, but honestly, he’s kinda just learning from his brothers so this sin is on them ❌

- “Come on, Lloyd. You’re the green ninja. You can do this!” Self-hype ✅

- Between Lloyd falling down literally every step and the ninja bobbing their heads up and down in sync with him, there is nothing to sin here ✅

- “I really gotta grow into this thing…” “You can’t win every single line that comes out of Lloyd’s mouth,” I hear you say. And to that I reply, “f*cking watch me.” ✅

- “Or suffer humiliation against… the Green Ninja!” Stop laughing at him, he’s trying his best!

- Also, this scene is much more depressing when you consider the fact that Lloyd’s likely sensitive to being laughed at from all his years getting bullied at Darkley’s 😬

- “Because everybody hates snakes!” Snake-ism ❌

- Of all the Skulkin, why would they put Krunchaw and Knuckle in charge? ❌

- “We’re moving!” “Yeah, the wrong way!” You’re in a cage suspended in air; what way did you wanna move? ❌

- “There is nothing else I’m needed for…” “I need you.” If you listen closely, you can hear my heart shatter ✅

- I’m not gonna quote this entire scene but I am gonna win it because I am weak ✅

- Ninja dance party… the sequel! ✅

Sentence: Does it count as cosplay if Lloyd’s wearing his own suit?

#ninjago #ninjago lloyd #lego ninjago #ninjago kai #ninjago memes #ninjago jay #ninjago nya #ninjago zane #ninjago cole #lloyd garmadon #ninjago wu #ninjago garmadon #ninjago sins/wins

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be-ready-when-i-say-go · 3 years

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Inked

Still on hiatus. But I found an old piece of writing and I revamped it just a smidge! It was originally published in 2018 on calumh-excess. Which is now deactivated. Hooray for finding pieces!

Calum's been watching Jay for a while. She's cute, talented, but a bit of mystery. Should he really give into her? What will it take for him to admit he has a crush?

Enjoy my masterlist (on hiatus)

______________

He watched her sometimes for far too long. The way her tongue stuck out as she pulled the skin and her hand worked steadily with the needle made it hard for him to resist. Her face always seemed to catch the harsh fluorescent lights and reflect it back so that it twinkled against her skin. A slight sheen, but nothing just of ethereal. He wasn’t even interested in any new ink, not seriously anyway. He had slowed on the ink train, but the shop his tattoo artist owned was a nice place to hang out sometimes. When he wanted to get out of his house but didn’t want to actually go somewhere, he could hang out here, listening to the buzz of the tattoo gun, poke his hand at trying a design here or there. They weren't great. He hadn't considered him this kind of artist, but the shop felt like a second home.

Besides, having her around was a more than welcomed bonus.

He wasn’t even sure what it was about her. She showed up about a year and a half ago, under an apprenticeship. Calum’s artist was unsure of her, much like everyone else that asked to work under him. A hazard of the job, according to the job, according to Calum's artist. However, her drawings spoke volumes; the colors and line work were impeccable. She had talent and knew it without being cocky about it. Well, sometimes she wasn’t. Calum watched her run into the occasional asshole that tried to belittle her; she always put her foot down in those situations. He didn’t fault her.

Today’s no different. When Calum walks in, he greets the guy at the front desk, eyes searching for her. He spots her in the back with her oversized frames creating a small glare over her brown eyes. He never quite got the appeal of the grandma-shaped glasses trend, but on her, they worked. She looked wise but soft. The glass pulled him in, felt like she was seeing into his soul. Maybe she was; maybe the pain made people more vulnerable than they anticipated--entrusting someone, a stranger in some ways, to permanently mark you and not fuck it up. Whatever the reason, looking at her felt timeless. Like she had seen it all, and you are just waiting for you to spill all the secrets.

“You finally going to get some new ink?” Calum’s artist teases.

Calum shakes his head, turning his attention away from her. “You finally took her training wheels off?”

“Your girlfriend’s got mad skills. I couldn’t baby her forever. Jay works hard on each piece, learned fast. Got a steady ass hand and pretty gentle for handling a needle.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Yeah, because you haven’t hardly even talked to her. Go for it, you wuss. What’s the worst she says? No?”

Calum exhales a chuckle. "I mean, the worst she stabs me with the tattoo gun. But considering the ink I'm already sporting, I doubt that's really all that bad.”

“Jay would not do that unless you asked for it, ff course. But really, go on, ask her out.”

Calum glances back at Jay. It’s a nickname. No one in the shop calls her by her full name. The only reason Calum heard it was when a client came asking for her. Jay was quick to correct them.

She wipes, clearing excess ink, before dipping back into the small cup. Jay smiles up at her client. Calum's sure they appreciate the reprise. Getting tattoos weren't always fun, but bearable enough to forget about it and get more.

Calum turns his gaze away. “I recommended you to a friend,” he says, hoping that he’ll escape the teasing. It’s not likely to happen. But at least he tries to minimize the ridicule.

"I appreciate it. Are they a first-timer?"

"A second-timer, but they're visiting town and want some new ink. I figured best not to fuck them over."

The two men laugh before Calum's escorted back to look through some new designs. Just in case something sparks his interest. Calum's visit is supposed to be short, but there's not much else on his to-do list for the day. He could kill a few hours here.

When Calum comes out from the back, after spending too much time pretending art was ever a talent of his, he looks for Jay again. She’s not in her corner, nor is she at the front. Calum shrugs, figuring she might have gone for lunch, or home depending.

As Calum walks to his car, he checks his phone. Nothing major's happened.

“Leaving so soon?” A voice states. Calum knows that voice, a little gravelly, mostly sweet. He’s dreamt of it every so often. He prays to hear it when he visits the shop.

He turns to Jay, who leans against the bricks. A vape is wrapped in her fingers. “Gotta get some dinner, maybe make a run to the grocery store," Calum returns. "I've gotten lazy."

She nods. “This reminds me that I can't survive off BLTs forever," she laughs.

"You could try, but I think you'd need other vegetables and some fruit in that mix too."

She pushes up on her glass with a nod. "Ah, yes, gotta get the whole food pyramid." It goes silent between them and Calum gives another nod, raising a few fingers to signal his departure while still keeping his phone in a secure enough grip.

"Hey, wait!" Jay calls out again, taking a half step forward. Calum turns to her. "Can I give you something before you leave?”

Calum nods, not trusting his voice. What would she give him? She nods back to the front door, taking back that initial half-step. “It's inside. Give me like two minutes.”

She disappears inside and Calum stands, his phone still in his hands, staring at the spot she once stood. Just as quickly as she disappeared, Jay reappears. In hand is her portfolio. She flips through before stopping and slides the heavy-duty drawing paper out.

Calum stares down at the green and black drawing. It’s his face, for the most part, that stares back at him. It’s distorted by a crystal ball that glows green. Inside are some instruments and something else, but right now he can’t really put it all together. His eyes keep moving over the lightning bolt, the crystal ball, the uncanniness of his face on a piece of paper, his three-dimensional face somehow translated perfectly into a 2-D space.

“Holy shit, this is amazing,” he breathes. “Thank you,” he says looking back up to her.

She shrugs with a smile. “You’re welcome.”

“Seriously, this is so fucking awesome. I’m going to frame it,” he gushes. He’s too excited to be nervous, or be embarrassed. "What are the dimensions?"

“I'm just really glad you don’t find it too creepy. I was watching you a couple weeks ago when you stopped by. It just sort hit me, the image of the crystal ball and lightning bolt; I had to draw it,” Jay elaborates. "And it's 8.5 by 11--standard printer paper size."

Calum shakes his head, staring over the drawing again. It feels so delicate suddenly in his hands. It’s almost like Jay recognizes the change in his handling. She shuffles her load in her hands and pulls out an empty plastic over. “Here,” she laughs handing it over. “So it doesn’t smudge or anything if you're worried."

Calum slides it in. “Thank you. Again. Seriously.”

“You’re welcome, Calum. Good luck with your grocery store trip and dinner,” Jay nods and then heads back inside. Calum watches the way the denim stretches across her hips, the way her hair billows just a little in the breeze of her strut.

For a moment, Calum can't move. The weight of the paper in his hand is hardly ounces, but it holds him--traps him to the point of the sidewalk. Jay thought enough of him to draw him. What did it all mean? Should he have found the courage to ask her out? He could walk back inside. But what if she didn't like him like that? Would it be too weird?

Calum blinks up into the hardly settling sun and thinks to himself, the second he can come back here, it better be with a bit more courage and possibly a gift certificate. No one can be made about free food, right?

It’s months before Calum can visit the shop again. The tour is a whirlwind and he only gets a few days off between legs. Not long enough to get back home or feel like he had any energy to drive out to the shop. But now that he's settled back in at home, he knows exactly where he's going.

It’s not his typical practice to just walk in and ask for a tattoo. But given the ink already on him, worse things could happen. When he pulls open the door, he notices it's kind of slow. Jay greets him at the front desk. “Hey, stranger,” she grins.

“Hey, how are you?” he asks in return.

“Pretty good. How was it? The tour? See any cool places?”

He nods. “Yeah, got to explore a few cities.” He taps his fingers against the wooden desk. “Do you have an appointment anytime soon?”

Jay shakes her head. “My 2 o’clock had to reschedule. I’m here until 4 before I see anyone. Why? What's tickling your fancy?”

“I was wondering if you could do a tat for me? I know this is very last minute and if you need me to come in another day this week, I totally can.” His words run into each other; his palms start to sweat. He wipes them on his jeans.

Jay laughs, holding up a hand. “Whoa, pump the brakes. One, what are you looking for?”

“You know that drawing you did for me?” She nods. “I was kind of hoping you could create something with just the crystal ball and lightning bolt. I know the drawing itself is kind of big.”

A grin lifts her cheeks; Calum’s heart settles for a second. “I think I can do that. Where are you thinking to put it?”

“Inner bicep.” He watches her gaze land on his arm. The t-shirt is baggy, he at least thought about that with enough advance.

“Give me 30 minutes to come up with some sketches.” Jay pushes away from the front desk and heads to the back, but not for calling to the shop to watch the front desk.

Calum slides into the seat at the front, leg bouncing as he settles down. This isn’t even his first tattoo, but the nerves flood his body. His scalp tingles. The thirty minutes move by too fast, but also too slow simultaneously. The seconds feel like hours but move by milliseconds.

Eventually, Jay resurfaces, waving him over to her. He walks back and looks at the sketches she places out in front of him. There are two different ones. One’s a bit more minimalistic, which is her style, with the lightning bolt in the background and a simple crystal ball at the point. The other is a bit bolder, the ball has a slightly warped edge where it connects to the bolt. It looks like the bolt is melting the glass ball.

“I can whip up more if neither one of them are quite right. But I wasn’t sure if it wanted something a bit more crisp and sharp or not,” Jay explains.

Calum admits that most of his tattoos are more cleaned up and sharp. He likes the idea of playing with a new style. “I like the second one,” he says, tapping it.

“You sure?” He nods, he’s never been more sure of something in his life. “Which bicep? Let me line it up and make sure it’ll fit.”

Calum lifts his left arm up for her. Laying the stencil over his skin, Jay notes she has to make a couple small tweaks. But after that, she’ll be ready. They discuss full color, or just outline, or shading, price, and a few other details before Jay concludes with, “Hop in my seat. I’ll be there soon.”

Calum nods and walks over to her station. Her stuff is already laid out, probably for her canceled 2 o’clock. It’s about five more minutes before Jay returns with the final stencil. Calum rolls up the sleeve of his shirt before she places the stencil. Happy with the placement, he stretches out on the table.

Jay gets herself ready before she brings the needle over his skin. The first puncture always makes him jolt a little, the first jab of pain causes his heart to race. “Do you plan on relaxing now that you're back home?"

"Yeah, for a little bit. I might go see my family, but I know we'll be back in the studio soon. Anything exciting happen while I was gone?"

"I mean exciting things happen every day at this place. But it's not like I could recall them all now."

Calum hums, acknowledging her statement, but not quite sure what to say next. Luckily, Jay's faster to fill in the silence. "You do realize you didn’t have to get a tattoo to have a real conversation with me?” Jay teases, pushing up her glasses.

Calum’s cheeks heat. “It’s not like that,” he chuckles.

“Well, that’s how it seems.”

“You were always busy when I stopped by. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Not always,” she laughs. “But it’s alright. You’re going to have plenty of time while I’m stabbing you to say all those things you didn’t.”

A chuckle escapes him; of course, Jay would have this sense of humor. “Wow, I can’t believe I’m paying so much for people just to stab me and act as a therapy. Maybe I am a masochist.”

“So are a lot of people. Sometimes you just take the emotional pain out in the physical realm.”

“I always imagined people that worked in a tattoo shop to be more heavily tatted,” Calum hums, taking in scattered ink across her arms and one pokes out from the V in her t-shirt.

“I focused it more on my back and legs and not so much my arms. I’m getting there. So, why this one today?”

Calum goes to shrug, but stops himself as he hears the gun nearing his skin again. “Not really sure. It looked cool. I guess it also serves to remind me that fate isn’t linear. There’s going to be twists and turns, maybe some trouble. And that’s okay. Don’t be afraid of the journey. Also, it's really fucking cool art.”

Jay hums her laugh, “Why thank you. Wise brain you got there. Besides, it seems like you also have people you keep close to you.” She eyes the initials and the name under the bird. “Whoever they are to you, I hope you all stay close.”

“Those are my parents' initials,” he explains. “And my sister’s name. They’ve been with me through it all--I love them dearly.”

“So sweet. I wish my parents and I were closer. I tattooed my brother’s jersey number on me. It was my first tattoo.”

“What did he play?”

“Soccer, or for your kind, football.”

“Hey now, it’s played with the feet, it makes much more sense.”

Jay laughs, wiping off excess ink. She cocks her head to the side a little, then goes back in for the black ink. “I’m only teasing. Us Americans are so dumb sometimes. Like why is our football not called something else? Literally, the only thing that happens with the feet is the running. We carry the fucking ball.”

“I’ve wondered that as well!” he laughs. "Does your brother still play?"

“Yeah, the whole knucklehead still plays for his college.”

“What position?”

Jay laughs. “I'll have you know my job as the older sister is to show up and cheer him on. Something defensive? I don’t remember off the top my head.”

“I’ll give you credit for that. I’m sure he appreciates it.”

“He does until he sees with me in face paint on and then he’s acting like he doesn’t know me. Oh, oh wait, I think remember what he does. It’s defensive,” she pauses, lips pursed together, “something fielder.”

“Defensive midfielder?” he asks.

“Yeah, that. But like I said, I show up when I can and scream. That’s it. When he’s old enough, I’ll buy him a beer after his games too.”

“How old is he?”

“Nineteen, we’re three years apart.”

“The only sibling you have?”

“Nah, got a baby sister too. She’s fifteen. If you’re impressed by my eyeshadow thank her. Because she’s the one that taught me how to do it.”

Calum finds himself staring at the red and gold coloring her eyelids. “It looks really nice,” he breathes.

“Why thank you.” She pauses to bats her eyelashes. “I even managed to get those godforsaken falsies on right too. They look good, but the raise hell.”

“I think you’re the first woman I’ve met in LA that’s not obsessed with makeup,” he notes.

“Oh, you were doing so well. There are a lot of people of who aren’t huge in the makeup scene.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he tries to backtrack. “I’m sorry. In my experience, it’s not like that. They’re hiding the fact they aren’t wearing makeup--embarrassed by it or something.”

Jay nods, pushing up her glasses yet again. “Yeah, it’s not easy. We’re told to be perfect, but in reality, we’re just like everyone. We’re human, imperfect and flaw-full and beautiful.”

“Not in spite of, but because of.”

“Exactly,” she chuckles. Silences settles in around them. Calum wonders why she said she was closer to her family, but the way she talks about her siblings doesn’t match. She’s cheering her brother on at his game; she’s sitting down to learn makeup with and from her sister.

“Can I ask a bit of a personal question?” he asks.

“What kind of personal? Do I get a lifeline?”

Cal exhales a laugh. “You can always say no.”

“Hit me with it.”

“Why say that you’re family isn’t close but you clearly take a lot of pride in your siblings?”

“An observant one on my table, I see. It’s my parents. They don’t like that I’m pansexual, say I’m going to hell. My siblings don’t fucking care. I’m still the crazy-ass sister that loves and supports them.”

With a hum of acknowledgment from Calum, it goes quiet again around them for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he whispers. He knows it doesn’t really fix anything for her; it doesn’t take away the potential years of her suffering. It’s the only thing he can offer her though. It feels right to say.

“Oh, no need for you to be sorry. It’s not like you threw me out of the house.”

“Ouch. You’re making it though right?”

“Yeah, now that I work here, things are on the up and up.”

“That’s good; I’m glad.”

“Thanks.”

“Favorite tattoo you’ve done?” he asks, wanting to hear her voice again.

“This one,” she laughs. “Though I had someone ask for a pin-up witch, which was also pretty fucking cool to do.”

Calum remembers seeing that on her Instagram. “That one was amazing! Her lips looked so good; I know that’s a strange thing to admit.”

“Don’t worry. I am quite proud of that myself.”

“Do you have a favorite tattoo on you?”

“The blue jay on my shoulder. My parents would take me on walks when I was still an infant. According to the legend, while they were sitting on a park bench a blue jay landed on me. I didn’t cry; it didn’t hurt me. It just landed for a second and then flew off. They called me Blue Jay ever since. I just shortened the nickname as I got older.” She gives one more wipe. “Finished. Check it out.”

Calum sits up, walking over to the mirror. He grins seeing the melting ball sitting against his skin. He grins over to Jay. “It looks amazing. Thank you.”

“No problem.” They head back over to her station. Jay cleans it and wraps the fresh ink. Calum carefully gets his sleeve back down with a little help from Jay. He pays their agreed price with his card, but slides two fifties over to her. “You do know that’s more than double a twenty percent tip right?”

Calum shrugs. “Is it? I’m bad at math,” he grins. “Treat your sister to a new palette or something. Treat yourself to something.”

“Thank you. Now next time, you come by, I hope we don’t talk while I’m stabbing you repeatedly.”

Calum shakes his head, a grin still on his face. Of course. He had forgotten to get the gift certificate. But possibly asking Jay to dinner wouldn't be such a bad idea. “Give me your number and I can promise the next time we talk, it won’t in your chair.”

She holds out her hand, waiting. He hands her his phone, after unlocking it. She puts her number in. She goes to hand the phone back but just before his fingers touch it, she draws it back. "I mean it--actually text me. I adore memes, dogs, TikToks, your favorite songs."

"I'll actually talk to you. I promise."

Jay hands over his phone with a smile. Calum steps outside the glass doors. Why should he wait? He could do it now. For fuck sake, the last hour had been the groundwork for a clear sign a date was absolutely an option. His fingers hovering over her name. He taps it, and then presses for a call. Holding the phone to his ear, he listens to it ring for a second.

“I can still see you, you know?” Jay laughs.

Calum turns around, catching her leaning against the front desk. “I told you the next time we talked you wouldn’t be inking me.”

“What can I help you with, Calum?”

“Dinner, tonight-- I may have ordered too many appetizers for just little old me."

Her laugh trickles in over the speaker. She drops her head, giving it a shake before looking back up to him in the afternoon sun. “I think I can help you with that. Give me the time and place."

Calum rattles off the name of a restaurant that he had been wanting to try. Nothing too upscale, but not something that would be too casual. "How does 8 sound?"

"I love it there. I'll see you at 8."

“Bye, Jay.”

“Bye, Calum.” As he walks to his car, his phone buzzes yet again. This time a text from his artist, I’m being fucking replaced, I see. I can’t be too mad since it’s Jay. Calum laughs as he slides into his car. Maybe he is getting replaced; maybe he’s not. Calum’s not sure. He is sure that he needs to figure out if he can make reservations and what to wear for tonight.

#calum hood #calum hood fanfic #calum hood blurb #calum hood imagine #calum hood 5sos #calum 5sos #5sos fanfic #5sos imagine #5sos fic #calum hood fic #5 seconds of summer #5 seconds of summer fanfic #5 seconds of summer fic #5 seconds of summer imagine #h writes

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vhsrights · 3 years

Text

A Fast Pass To Love

Pairing: Jemily

Summary: Emily had never been to a theme park, much less Disney Land before. JJ decides to the change that with a week long extravaganza, but some fun things happen on day 1...

WC: 4.7k words

For Mom, Mama, and the rest of the kids of the wack house. (i love all yall) @dykejareau @prentitss @dragisthegame @bridget19 @jay-writes-jemily @ssa-urnansironingboard

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

“Emily, the first rule of theme parks is to wear comfortable shoes and no short shorts. You’re going to get a sunburn.” JJ sat on the bed, watching her towel-laden girlfriend look through her suitcase.

“But these ones make me look cute. Fine, I guess I’ll just have to wear these ripped jeans and my green flannel with the graphic tee. Are you all ready?” Emily finished rifling through her things and slipped into the bathroom.

“Yeah, I’m all dressed. I just need to put on my mascara, hat, and shoes. We still have like 20 minutes before we leave, so just go according to that.” JJ tugged at her watch and moved to the edge of the bed, leaning towards the wall mirror to apply her mascara.

Emily spends little time in the bathroom, zipping through her routine and deftly putting on her clothes. She washed her face and put on moisturizer before throwing open the door and reentering the quaint bedroom. Their room had a view of the buzzing city below but was drab with bland walls and sparse artwork. A king bed decorated the middle of the room positioned directly opposite the magnanimous flat screen. The room may have been drab, but its accessories all but made up for it.

“Your mascara face is cute,” Emily announced, watching her girlfriend carefully apply the product, her lips just barely parted.

“Oh, really?” JJ finished her left side and paused, turning to look back at the brunette. She grinned at the devilish smile on her girlfriend’s face and faced the mirror once more.

“Yeah, I think you should do it more often.” JJ looked at Emily through the mirror and playfully rolled her eyes. She then felt the bed sink under Emily’s weight as the brunette climbed on from the other side.

Emily inched forward, careful to not disrupt JJ’s mascara. She knew from experience that it was not a good choice. Coming up behind the blonde, Emily snaked her hands around JJ’s waist. She set her head gingerly on JJ’s shoulder, beaming at their reflection. This trip was a first for her and she couldn’t think of anyone better to do it with. After another minute, JJ brought the tube down, carefully sealing it and setting it off to the side. She leaned back against Emily and placed her own hands on top of hers. “Babe, come on. I’m done. Are you all set with the backpacks and stuff?” She spoke quietly, relaxing into Emily’s embrace. No matter the time, she always found sanctuary in the brunette’s arms.

“But how about, we just sit here? I don’t want to move.” Emily fake pouted.

“Sure, if you want to miss the water rides and all of the food shops,” JJ answered calmly, knowing that Emily simply needed a little incentive to get moving.

“Oh, never mind. Let’s go. I think everything is packed. Here, I have the list so we can go over it.” Emily fished around in her pocket for a quick second before pulling out a neatly folded piece of lined paper.

JJ chuckled and moved to grab the dark backpack from the edge of the bed. Grabbing its zippers, she opened it quickly and waited expectantly for Emily. The brunette muttered the first part of the list as she quietly checked with herself for the things that she was responsible for.

“Okay, I have all of the snacks and the water. Do you have the medkit, the socks, the fresh shirt and pants for us both, and sunscreen?” She repeated each item slowly, double-checking with the blonde. The method was tried and true, and once they’d gotten through it all, they were out the door.

————————————————————

“Never? You’ve got to be kidding. There’s no way. It’s not possible.” JJ sat on the carpet on top of her folded legs. She had an incredulous look, not understanding how what Emily was saying could be true.

“Nope. I’m serious, never. Mother just was never the kind for theme parks. Plus, she always had a stick up her ass so because she didn’t want to go, I couldn’t either. She would just find extra lessons to stick me in.” Emily sipped her dry, red wine.

“It was odd never knowing what got kids so excited at theme parks. I mean, what’s so cool about waiting in line for hours on end just to be thrown around in a metal car?”

“Oh. My. God. I cannot believe you! That’s it. You, Emily Prentiss, are coming with me on a trip to Disney World. We are doing a full week-long trip so that you can see the magic that so many kids that go there, love. I used to go there on school trips and once with my grandparents. It’ll be perfect.” JJ turned back to her wine, missing the love that was so apparent in Emily’s expression.

“Perfect, just like you?” Emily couldn’t stop herself from the sappy comment. She was tipsy and over the moon in love with JJ.

“Yes, you sap. You really are a hopeless romantic. Pen was right.”

“Of course she was. Pen is the “All-Knowing Goddess” and she never fails to live up to it.”

“You know that I like you very much, right?”

“Always, I’m irresistible.”

“Oh my god, no, you’re insufferable.”

“You love that about me.”

“Got me there.”

————————————————————

The bus ride was turbulent but neither minded. Emily was jittery with excitement and JJ was calmly seated. The brunette had the map to the area that they were visiting in her hands. To her, it looked like someone had drawn spaghetti and put random locations for things on it. But, despite her struggle, Emily refused to ask for help. It was a pride thing. That, and she had told JJ she could do it. She couldn’t go back on her word now. Watching Emily’s internal struggle was amusing for JJ, knowing that the woman would never be able to figure out the map.

“Ah, Magic Kingdom. This is our stop, Jen,” Emily stated boldly with hopes that JJ couldn’t tell that she had no idea where to go next.

“Alrighty, Map Master, where to next?” JJ raised her eyebrows at Emily as they stepped off the shuttle. This is going to be interesting.

“Uh, we can take a left here and go to the Hulk part. Wait, no, that would be a right. Hold on, I know what I’m doing.” Emily’s eyebrows furrowed as she tried to make sense of the winding paths on the page in front of her.

“Sure you do. Take all the time you need.” JJ stood by her, arms folded in amusement.

“Okay, follow me.” Emily faked her confidence, starting off in the left direction. She silently prayed that wherever they ended up was somewhat decent.

After nearly an hour, neither the Hulk ride nor the other options that she had suggested were visible. They had wandered up to the Adventureland area, currently standing in front of what looked like the show’s bar. They had managed to stop by a couple of the drinks stands and buy things there, but the rides that Emily had wanted were nowhere to be found.

“Do you want my help?” JJ finally chipped in, ready to let Emily stop stressing over the godforsaken map.

“No!” Emily answered immediately, but instantly remembered that she was getting them nowhere. She followed up with another answer, this time more quiet. “Yeah. But only because this stupid map is super confusing and whoever designed it needs to take a map drawing class.”

JJ chuckled and took the reins. From there, they walked for a few short minutes before arriving at the ride that Emily had been searching for. She had just missed the pathway and taken a wrong turn. The blonde beamed over at her girlfriend, who playfully rolled her eyes.

Weaving through the crowds of people seemed much easier with JJ in the lead. They made their way through several rides, including Splash Mountain. The subsequent gift stores that they visited were very attractive as well. Emily and JJ were not immune to their charms, buying a Stitch plushie that both felt was perfect. Its soft, fuzzy texture and inviting look made it exactly what they wanted. Emily even had the thought that they could pass it down to their kids. It would be a memento for the day, one that she knew she would never forget.

————————————————————

JJ and Emily came up to a small area in front of the castle. Emily’s stomach had growled about three times in the past 30 minutes and they still hadn’t gotten any food. She hadn’t eaten more snacks because JJ had asked her to wait for the Dole Whip that she wanted to try. JJ, on the other hand, was tired. She hadn’t done the whole theme park shebang in years, forgetting the physical toll it took.

She let out a deep sigh, pausing to lean against the partition. A few steps in front of them, two Disney princesses were having a lively conversation. Cinderella, who was a bit taller than Belle, was blushing at whatever the other princess had just told her. Their giggles barely reached Emily and JJ’s ears. Emily smiled at the lighthearted demeanor of the women. They weren’t currently in character, but their costumes and attitude alone were enough to make the Disney World experience magical for children.

Cinderella looked over Belle’s shoulder and caught Emily’s eye. The woman beamed and waved. The gleeful energy radiated off of her. Belle turned around upon seeing what Cinderella was doing. She also waved at the couple, getting a nonchalant wave from JJ and Emily.

JJ pulled out her phone, looking up if the restaurant she had wanted to go to for dinner was still open. The sun’s rays beat down on the couple but JJ and Emily had learned to weather it after years of travel. As she was scrolling to find the link to their website, Emily and JJ heard a squeal in their vicinity. Both of their heads jerked upwards, searching for the source of the outburst.

Their eyes landed on a child that looked roughly 7 years old, dressed in a Belle costume that was similar to the princess that was standing next to them. Poofy fabric and dazzling sequins made the little kid’s gown look extravagant. The petticoat twinkled and flew back against the air as the young princess made their way up to the adult Belle. JJ and Emily didn’t realize what had happened until the princess tugged on the older Belle’s dress, head tilted back to showcase eyes full of wonder.

“You look just like me! I’m princess Belle.” Their voice was high-pitched, sounding almost like an animation in real life. “Mama, look! It’s princess Belle! We look the same!”

The child turned back to talk to a group of people. Emily and JJ’s eyes followed the young princess’ and saw a small group of people. Two women stood close together, the taller one’s arm placed on the other shoulder. On their right, a child had one of the women’s hands in her grasp. She looked between both Belle’s, excitement apparent in her expression, their mouth forming a little “O”. They were dressed as Rapunzel, the light and shimmery purple of the dress popping against their darker, red hair. Accent spots of gold were scattered around the costume, shining amidst the entire ensemble.

The women were not in costume, but their outfits were nonetheless stylish. The taller woman had on a light beige shirt, its sweater-like fabric tucked into light-wash blue jeans that were ripped at the knees. The ensemble was completed with a dark leather jacket that was sleek, not having many embellishments. Beside her, the woman that was holding Rapunzel’s hand was in a sundress. Its material was light and flowy. Patterned lavender flower bouquets were spread across the dress. It had a deep neckline, offset by the floppy sun hat on her head.

Seeing those women and children made JJ’s heart soar. They were exactly what she had pictured in her head of Emily and herself, far off in the future. Getting a glimpse of what that life held for them was overwhelming. In one sweeping motion, the blonde turned Emily’s head to the side and kissed her. Her other hand laid on the brunette’s waist, pulling her closer so that she might never have to let go. When they eventually pulled apart, Emily looked at her with amazement. She didn’t know what had given JJ the sudden need to kiss her, but she wasn’t mad about it.

“Any reason for that kiss, milady?” Emily added the joking lilt to her voice, hoping to understand what had overcome her girlfriend.

“Just, that you’re perfect. Also, those kids, they remind me of what I want our life to be like. Not now, but later in the future. It’s just everything I imagined, and I can’t wait for us to be there.” JJ’s eyes were wide and doe-like, melting Emily’s heart on the spot. She brought her hand up to rest on JJ’s cheek, her thumb brushing against it lightly.

“OH MY GOD. YOU CAN LIKE PRINCESSES TOO?” The women all but jolted up when the shrill voice broke through their bubble.

They turned to the origin of the sound, eyes once again falling on the miniature Belle. Their finger was pointed at the couple. A dazzling smile sat on their face, the jubilation barely containable. Emily recovered from the shock and realized what was going on first. She knelt down, making eye contact with the child.

“Of course you can. You like princesses, princes, kings, queens; whatever you want. Look, you see her?” Emily pointed back at JJ, waiting for the little princess to nod. “I really like her, and she happens to be my queen.” She watched the child’s eyebrows raise, laughing softly at their mirth.

“Wait, can I tell you a secret?” She leaned in as did the kid, their ear tilted towards Emily.

“Well, actually the thing is, I love her and I’m gonna tell her tonight. What do you think? Is it a good idea?” Emily smiled while the thought of telling JJ she loved her filled her with warmth.

The young princess stood back up, switching glances between JJ and Emily. They noticed the way that JJ looked at Emily. Even if the brunette couldn’t see her girlfriend, JJ looked at her like she held the world in her hands. Luca, the child, started jumping up and down.

“Yes! Yes! Do it! Do it!” Enthused, Luca turned to the grownup Belle. They switched glances from Cinderella to Belle, deciding whether or not to ask the question on their mind. “Is she your princess too?”

Luca pointed to Cinderella, asking Belle. The woman in the leather jacket took a couple of steps forward, reducing the distance between herself and Luca. She placed her hand on the kid’s shoulder and looked over at the women gratefully. Emily giggled and so did JJ. Belle, shifting her eyes from Cinderella to Luca and her mother, snapped back into character to answer the question.

“Why yes, she is. We have our own castles too, so whenever we can go to see the Fairy Godmother and the Beast whenever we want! You have to admit, she’s pretty cute too.” The princess snuck a glance back at their girlfriend, excitedly spinning the tail of their “fairytale romance”.

Luca gasped, their expressions amusing everyone around them once more. However, this time they turned all the way around to face the other woman and little kid. Stopping to think for a second, Luca rested their head in their hand. Coming to the conclusion that they wanted, Luca beamed and pointed at the little Rapunzel. Everyone’s eyes followed their finger.

“B! B! B! You’re Rapunzel and I’m Belle! You’re a princess and I love you!” The child that had hung back’s face lit up with the statement.

“Oh my god! We are! I love you too!” The young princess was practically shouting across the short distance between them and Luca.

The words sounded funky because of the slight Irish twang that pervaded her accent but melted everyone’s hearts regardless. Wasting no more time, B broke out into a sprint towards Luca who did the same. They collided mere seconds later, wrapped in the tight hug. Around them, “Mama” returned back to the other woman. Both children stood wrapped in each other’s arms, delighted at the realization that they had come to. It was the innocence and naivety that made that moment so much more beautiful.

After nearly a minute, B and Luca let go and looked back at the two women that they had come with. Emily and JJ noticed their stance, for example, how the woman in the sundress so slightly leaned into the other’s hold. They watched the way that “Mama” looked at her, noticing the softness that couldn’t be categorized as anything but love in her eyes. They caught on to the way that the couple’s hands linked, their fingers entwined behind their backs, almost as if to hide it.

During those moments, JJ and Emily didn’t notice the two children walking up to them. The couple only broke their gaze when Emily felt a light tug on her flannel. Looking down, she saw B and Luca standing with their hands joined together. Wondering what else the children had to say, she playfully raised her eyebrows to nonverbally ask them to talk.

“My name is Luca, and this is B, my princess. They’re really pretty and I love them a lot. I think you’re really cool and that you should hang out with us sometime. Bring her too.” Luca spoke and pointed at JJ as they finished their sentence.

The two adults joined the children, smiling.

“I guess since Luca and B have already made their introductions, we should as well. I’m Lauren and this is my friend Hannah. Luca is my kid and B is theirs.” The woman in the leather jacket looked down at Luca and B, and then over to Hannah.

“I’m Emily and this is my girlfriend, JJ. It was nice to meet you. You as well, B and Luca. Maybe, we can hang out the next time we meet. Enjoy your trip princesses.”

With that the 6 people parted, leaving Belle and Cinderella back at their post. Emily and JJ made their way to get Dole Whip. They made a few pit stops along the way, picking up souvenirs that were just tacky enough. It started when Emily caught JJ trying on a pair of rainbow Mickey Mouse Ears. She admired her girlfriend from afar, watching her admire the way the headband sat on top of her blonde hair. Emily walked up behind JJ and wrapped her arms around her waist.

“I am so buying you that. You look so cute.”

“Only if you get one too. We have to be matching or Pen won’t let you hear the end of it.”

“I guess you’re right. I would look good in that. You think she’d let it slide if we got her something too?”

“She might, but I wouldn’t,” JJ smirked at their reflections.

“Okay, okay. How about I get us some shot glasses and these and we call it even”

“Deal.” Emily picked up the shot glasses, with decorations and prices that reminded them that they were having the time of their life in Disney World.

Now, with their Stitch plushie, shot glasses, and rainbow headbands, JJ and Emily looked like proper tourists. Emily usually preferred to blend in with the locals and stay low. The more untraceable, the better for her. But somehow, standing JJ in their themed gear and countless souvenirs, the memories seemed worth it. She had her arm pulled tightly around JJ’s waist, feeling the blonde’s body heat against her own.

The sun had begun to set. It left the sky painted with several different shades and tints of pink and orange; the blue having faded away in the last hour. Each color created a mosaic-like glow down on the people as they prepared for the fireworks. JJ had raved about the fireworks show since that first night that Emily had confessed of her inexperience. The brunette was still slightly hesitant but decided that if JJ loved it, then it was good for her too. She pressed a soft kiss into JJ’s hairline as they weaved through the crowds of people to find a good spot for the show.

The last of the sunset passed rather quickly, leaving the crowds under the luminescence of the park’s decor. The rides that they had wanted to go on were already over, so this was the last thing on the first day’s itinerary. Emily was just about to ask JJ when they should expect the show to start when an employee in a decorated, Disney jacket approached the crowd with a megaphone. They spoke loudly and clearly, reciting memorized instructions on the show that was to begin in 2 minutes and the manners that the crowd had to use for it.

Promptly as announced, the fireworks began in 2 minutes. The display was gorgeous. Each little buildup created a unique pattern of firework in the sky. Emily found her attention captured, the magnificence making her heart glow. Everything around her was too much. She felt overwhelmed with love and remembered the secret that she had told Luca. It was now or never.

“Hey, Jen?” She felt the blonde’s weight shift from where she was, tightly tucked into Emily’s body.

“Yeah?” Emily’s neck tickled with the puff of air from JJ’s words.

“Today was perfect. Every day, actually, is perfect with you. I don’t know how you do it, but you make the world seem magical. Everywhere I look, I see something beautiful, and with our jobs, I didn’t even think that was possible. Being with you, made me realize that the world is good and can be good. It made me want to be good, better actually, just for you. So I guess, what I’m trying to say is that I love you. I love you and everything about you. You opened my eyes, Jen. I don’t think I’ll ever have the words to thank you enough for it.”

JJ held back tears at Emily’s words. The pure emotion that she heard in the woman’s voice was enough alone to make her sob. Her heart felt like it was glowing. Emily had that effect on her since they had met. Being here, standing by her side felt surreal. They were at Disney World, arguably the “most magical place on Earth”, but JJ thought differently. To her, anywhere by Emily instantly became enchanting. She didn’t waste a second in replying.

“I love you too, Emily. You were one of the best things that ever happened to me. I could shout it from the rooftops, but fireworks at Disney World work too.” JJ smirked and hugged Emily tighter. “I had dinner reservations at a restaurant that I came to as a kid for after this. Are you up for it? I just think that it would be a nice way to end today.”

“Of course. I was going to suggest take out for dinner, but that sounds so much better. We can head out as soon as the show is over.” Emily answered her and then turned her head to look up at the illustrious show once more.

They stayed for the show, even clapping when the fireworks subsided and denoted the end of the program. JJ and Emily sauntered through the flow of people, looking for an exit. On the way there, Emily stopped them in front of the magnanimous tree. Its decorations shined strongly against the dark, night sky, twinkling almost as brightly as the stars. Placing JJ strategically against the fence, she snapped a few photos. Jumping when she felt a light tap against her shoulder, Emily turned to see Hannah’s wide smile. They gestured for her phone, asking if Emily wanted a picture of the couple.

“Why don’t you hop in there next to her? I can take the picture of the two of you.” Emily obliged them, taking quick strides to join her girlfriend’s side. Their smiles were radiant.

Only two pictures had been taken before purple and yellow things ran out from behind Hannah. The couple didn’t realize what was happening until JJ nearly doubled over with the force that collided into her side. She looked down to see B, and the kid was clinging to her shirt. JJ didn’t have time to respond before the same thing happened to Emily. Luca had made their way to surround the brunette. Both kids had a mischievous smile on their faces, adoration in their eyes.

“Oh, I am so sorry. Kids, come back here. Let these two lovely ladies have their pictures.” Lauren’s voice rang out from behind her friend.

“No, it’s okay, let them stay. After all, we have to take pictures with the princesses in Disney World. Come in close for the picture guys!” JJ laughed and responded, earning delighted agreement from B, Luca, and Emily.

“You two are too kind.” Hannah shook their head and readjusted the phone’s camera angle.

The family took their leave of JJ and Emily, leaving the happy couple smiling as they made their way out of the theme park. The journey to their car was long, but it felt like two minutes to the women as they talked about their adventures of the day. It was a sweet resolution to a long day of fun. Arriving at Rigatello’s right on time, JJ and Emily were seated with haste.

JJ was buzzing with the high of their confession, grasping Emily’s hand tightly. Her mind was zipping with memories that they had made today. She had come to this theme park as a kid, and Emily had rejuvenated that childhood passion that she had for places like it. It reminded her of the fun that she used to have with Roslyn. All that confirmed was that Emily was perfect for her, through and through. Emily couldn’t keep her eyes off of JJ. The baby blues were reminders of how JJ was changing her view on the world, one step at a time. The blonde was the key to her future, and maybe one day they could have kids just like B and Luca. The thought of their own children was exhilarating to Emily, knowing that she had almost given up the hope of motherhood before JJ. Those kids were goofs, but so cute. We are definitely making yearly trips to Disney with our own, and maybe I’ll be able to convince JJ to dress up with them.

The couple was making light conversation when a short, stockier waiter approached their table. Their face was lit up and animated, the enthusiasm apparent in the waiter’s words. Taking a good look at JJ and Emily, Pablo, as the waiter had introduced herself, immediately began listing off items that they believed the pair would like. The interaction was short and lively, Pablo off soon to get their waters. Not a few minutes had passed before they returned once more, however they had some extra beyond what JJ had ordered.

“Don’t worry, it’s on the house. You two deserve it. Y’all are a beautiful couple. Thank you for coming to Rigatello’s. Now, do you know what you want to order?”

“I’ll have the beef cannelloni and she’ll have the chicken scampi? Yeah, one chicken scampi for her.” Emily gave out their orders and soon they were left alone again.

The food was decadent and the wine, which they learned was a house specialty later, was rich and smooth. JJ and Emily talked about kids, what Emily loved about the day, and the future. That day had been their first day of seven, and Emily had already fallen in love with Disney World. They left great compliments with the waiter and went on to their hotel. The women dragged themselves into bed after changing into their pajamas. Both were asleep within seconds of their heads hitting the pillow, arms wrapped tightly around each other.

#jemily #userluthor #a trip to disneyland #a first i love you story #i love this one so much #idc if i say that about every single one #jennifer jareau #emily prentiss #cm #bau #writing #prompt #mc content hours

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wordsfromthesol · 4 years

Text

Just A Facade (2/2)

Author: @wordsfromthesol Pairing: Jason Todd x Reader Taglist: @zphilophobiaz @anousiemay @malfoys-demigod @pricetagofficial @somnibats Summary: Dick is very confused that his brothers seem to all be getting along with you, and worse…wanting to help you. And wait…were you dating his brother?! Warnings: Violence, cursing, violence...more violence Word Count: 2.0k

You woke up in one of Jason’s t-shirts, in his old room, very confused. As you moved to get up the pain racing up your side jogged your memory. “Shit, Jason’s gunna be so pissed at me.”

“You could say that again!” You heard his voice coming from the bathroom.

You slowly made your way to the bathroom and leaned against the door frame. “It’s not like I meant to get shot Jay.”

“Yeah, well, you could have told my idiot brother when it happened.” He stepped towards you, placing his hands on your shoulders. “Or even ME when you got to the cave.”

“I thought I could handle it…why was your brother there in the first place?” The question came out a little more accusatory than you meant. Jason took a step back and threw his hands in the air.

“Because, apparently, you tried to kill him last week.”

“He’s still on that? Ugh, I pulled my punches as much as I could without being glaringly obvious. Next time he shouldn’t be in the way of the actual target.”

“Maybe you should just tell him.”

“Why? He doesn’t need my life story.”

“Y/N/N…”

“Oh you’re one to talk mister come back from the dead and don’t tell anyone.”

“You didn’t even know me before I died!”

“So! I know you didn’t tell your brothers!”

“I know you’re doing this to distract me, and it’s working, but you need to tell him. He won’t trust you, and it will end up getting someone hurt on this case. And if that someone is you –” Jason’s voice trailed off.

It was your turn to throw up your hands in exasperation. Unfortunately, you had forgotten about your recent injuries. “Agh!” You grimaced as your hand went to your side.

“See, that’s a sign that you’re being too stubborn.” Jason smirked before pressing a kiss to your lips and lifting you up. He carried you until you got to the cave, where he gently set you down, allowing you to still use him as a crutch.

“Y/N!” Tim exclaimed at the sight of you, “I’ve found something!” He waited for you and Jason to arrive at his side before he continued. “So, they made a mistake coming after you.”

“How do you know that was related? A lot of people want me dead…”

“Well, I didn’t at first. But then, looking through your pictures…the ones you didn’t originally give us,” Tim shot a judgmental stare your way.

“Oh you would’ve done the same thing.”

“WELL, one of them caught the van…long story short I was able to trace it back here,” Tim points at the screen, “once they left your apartment.”

“Alright, I’ll do some recon then. Come on blue bird.” You gestured to Dick.

“It’s Nightwing – wait you want me to come?”

“Well I know I’m not going to be let out of here alone, so I’d rather just hitch a ride than have one of you bozos follow me.”

“She’s not wrong.” Jason stated plainly as he tossed you a bottle of pills, “Take one before you leave, and please don’t rip my stitches.”

“I’ll try my hardest.”

The two of you sat in silence on the rooftop for nearly an hour. Finally, Dick couldn’t take the silence anymore.

“Alright, you gunna try and kill me again, or what?” He finally blurted out, still trying to figure out why you requested him as your back-up.

“What? I never tried to kill you, calm your feathers.”

“Last week!”

“I had to make it look real…I wasn’t alone.”

“Yeah, I noticed that…”

“I know you don’t agree with my life choices Nightwing, but I don’t have much of a choice in the matter.”

“It may not be easy, but you can get out.” Dick made the comment as if it was from personal experience.

“No.” Your voice turned somber, “I can’t. My parents decided to pay for their freedom with mine. If I leave…they’ll just take my sister. There is no out for me.” Your eyes focused on the building below, not daring to face him.

“Sister?” Dick was quickly realizing how little he actually knew about you.

“Heh, yeah. I doubt she even remembers she has one. I got her out, found her a family. She was only four…I haven’t seen her since.”

“Huh, that’s why you actually dropped the act for a minute when you presented this case. I thought you were hiding something.”

“I was. My past.”

“How old were you?”

“Six.”

Silence rang through the night, as the two of you watched the building. Taking photos and notes of all the ins and outs. Finally, the two of you decided it was time to leave. Just as you pulled into the cave, Dick asked one more question…or tried to.

“Are you and Jason…”

“I’m going to let you talk to your brother about that one.” You interrupted his thought before scurrying out the door.

“Well, what did you find?” Tim eagerly awaited for another piece of the puzzle to fall into place.

“Didn’t see any kids, but there were definitely too many guards for a store called ‘Windows, Doors, and More’. Even if it is in Gotham.”

“So we check it out in the tomorrow during the day. By we, I obviously don’t mean you Y/N/N.”

“Yeah yeah Jay, I gathered.” The sarcasm dripped off your response.

“While we’re on that subject…” Now Tim and Damian had turned their attention to you as well. “We think you need a suit. A secret identity. These people found you too easily.”

You chuckled at the mere thought, “Yeah okay. I don’t have any family, there’s no point.” You didn’t notice the sorrow fill Jason’s eyes at your apathetic words.

“Fine, if you won’t do it for me then how about your sister. Just because she doesn’t know about you doesn’t mean others don’t.” Jason’s frustration was apparent.

Before you could comprehend the words, your fist collided with Jason’s jaw. Immediately, you stepped back. Your hands shaking.

“Hit me all you –” Before Jason could finish your hands cupped his face.

“No no no” you whispered more to yourself than him. A tear fell from your eye as your mind finally caught up. “Jay, I’m so sorry.” You pressed a kiss to his lips, then another, and another before enveloping him in a hug. “You’re right. I need to protect her. Protect you.” A faint smile grazed his lips and he pulled you from his chest, keeping his hands resting on your shoulders. The silence seemed to go on forever, until Damian couldn’t take it anymore.

“Finally! Now come see the suit we had designed for you.” It was the first time you had ever heard Damian Wayne excited for something.

You gave Jason a smirk, “You already had it made?”

“For almost a year now.”

“So you guys are together, right?!” You heard Dick’s confused voice bellow in the background. No one answered him.

The next day came and went and a plan was made. Your role was made minimal, and by minimal you meant being forced to sit as the look out on the rooftop across the street. Though you understood, you still couldn’t sit back and watch everything go down. You waited until you heard clear fighting happening in the warehouse when you made your way to the roof. Timing the break-in with a gunshot, you crashed through a second story window and made your way to a locked back room.

The five of you had narrowed the location of the children down to this room. It was the only thing that made sense, and you were determined to get these kids out. The lock was easy to pick, however, you were not expecting someone on the other side. Someone who knew exactly who you were, despite your newfound disguise.

“Oh look who saved me the trouble. I think I owe you another bullet for the number your friend did on my face.”

“Ya’know, he’s right outside…why don’t you just go pay it back now.”

“Somehow I think hurting you will do just that. But don’t worry, he’ll get his turn to.” As you pulled the gun holstered at your side the man delivered a swift jab to your injured side. The gun fell to the floor and you charged at him, dropping to the ground just before making contact and sweeping his legs from under him. He collapsed to the floor and you jumped on top of him, putting as much force as you could against his neck with your arm. As you felt your grip loosening you threw back your head and crashed in into his. You felt him go limp under your weight.

“Where the fuck are the kids.” You mumbled to yourself. You begin searching for a hidden panel or room. As you heard gunshots barrel through the warehouse, you looked down and noticed a locked hatch. Making quick work of the lock, you pulled the hatch open and were met with eight terrified eyes staring up at you.

“It’s okay, you’re safe now.” You reached your hand down, offering it to one of the children. After what seemed like hours, a brave soul took it in theirs. Thankfully, the others quickly followed. You soon realized you couldn’t get them out the same way you came in.

“Shit, alright guys. I need you to cover your ears.” You placed your hands over your ears as a demonstration before you set a small charge at the far wall. “Once this goes off you run through the opening and wait in the alley behind the next building. I’ll be there as soon as I can. I promise.” As the children nodded you set off the detonation, grabbed your gun, and positioned yourself between them and the door. You knew the noise would draw attention.

A man soon rounded the corner, only half the kids were out. You shot directly through his knee cap. He wasn’t alone. Upon hearing the shot, the second assailant somersaulted directly into your feet. You stumbled backwards, forcing the last child out of the opening. Your momentary loss of focus allowed the man to push you into the wall. He held one hand around your neck and the other around your wrist. He continued to slam your wrist into the wall until you were forced to drop the gun. You quickly latched your legs around his waist and jabbed your free arm into his side. His stumbled backwards, loosening his grip as he stumbled to stay upright with the additional weight. You pulled your other wrist from his grasp and launched it at his jaw. You heard a crack as your fist made contact. The hand at your neck flew towards his own jaw. As he was off guard, you fell into him, forcing him to fall backwards onto the ground. Just as you stumbled to get up, Jason raced into the room.

“This was not the plan!”

You smirked, “But it worked. Kids are in the next alley. Be a good birdie and go get them Nightwing.” Dick rolled his eyes but complied. Without a word, Damian and Tim joined him. Jason’s eyes trailed towards your neck, which was already starting to change color. Before he could berate you, you continued, your voice heavy. “They were kids Jay. They deserved a life. They deserved a choice.”

Jason pulled you into his chest, “They did, but now we have no one to question. There’s no way these idiots were the masterminds.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, we’ll figure it out. Together.”

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fanfalc-616 · 3 years

Text

The Rights Of A Nindroid

Chapter Thirty-Two: How The Game Is Played

(Previous Chapter Here)

Yesterday I realized that posting two chapters over Memorial Day weekend was not my best idea, so I waited until today to post the next one I had prepared dhjsgdh

Cole looks at the computer again, blinking a couple times. “You can’t be serious,” he mutters, more to himself than anything.

He flashes the device a glare before turning back towards the main room. “Guys?” He calls. “We’ve got a problem.”

In any other circumstance, it might’ve been funny how quickly Kai bolted in- but as of now, with Zane being gone for over a year, it’s hard to find humor in much of anything.

The others follow soon after, of course, but by that time Kai’s already next to him, a thousand different stressed expressions flashing over his face.

“What’s wrong now?!” He demands, practically vibrating with his intensity.

Cole holds his hands up in a way that’ll hopefully be calming. “Okay, okay, take a deep breath. It’s not that big of an issue, we can figure this out.”

Jay peers over his shoulder, looking at the computer. “Uh. Actually. That looks like a really big issue.” He chuckles nervously, and Cole can already see the freak out that’s coming.

“What is it?” Lloyd prompts, but before Cole can answer, Kai’s already talking.

“Oh hell no!” He protests, concern flashing over to rage. “Is that-“

“A smear campaign.” Cole finishes, looking back over at the site. “Against Lloyd.”

With that, Lloyd comes over. The surprise on his face seems to wither into a more hurt and guilty expression. “I-“

“Alright, I get that we haven’t met in person, but I hate Harumi.” Kai suddenly declares. “So what if Lloyd opened the serpentine tombs?! The Great Devourer was Pythor’s fault! And that was years ago, too! Counting the tea, he was what, eight?! How is that fair?!”

Nya grimaces. “As much as I hate to admit it, she has a point. And with all the chaos we’ve gone through-“

“It’ll be easy to find things to blame on him.” Cole finishes, the realization sinking in.

Jay makes grabby hands at the computer, and Cole rolls his chair back to let him reach it. Glancing over at Lloyd, he fights back a wince at his expression.

“… okay, the serpentine thing is valid. A low blow, but technically valid. But accusing him of purposefully summoning Morro and the Preeminent just to see his dad again? Come on!” The ginger crosses his arms with a scowl, and Cole can see Kai preparing to say- or more likely, shout- something else.

Before he gets the chance, Cole stands up from his seat, intentionally getting everyone’s attention. Forcing confidence that he doesn’t feel into his voice, he tries to redirect the conversation. “Alright, this isn’t ideal,” he admits, “but we need to keep going. There’s gotta be records for times people have won things with a smear campaign against them, right? We can research them and figure out how to counter this.”

Kai opens his mouth, but Nya talks over him. “That’s a good idea,” she agrees. “I don’t think there’s ever been one in an election this big before, but we can definitely get some ideas from that.”

Looking back to Lloyd for confirmation, he sighs internally at the way the blond is still intently staring at the screen, clearly dozens of thoughts flashing through his head.

Putting a hand on Kai’s shoulder, Cole leans down enough to softly whisper in his ear. “Go take Lloyd somewhere he feels calm,” he suggests. “You’ll both be able to do more when he’s doing better.”

For a moment, Kai looks like he wants to argue. But after a glance at his honorary brother, he hesitates, and then gives a small nod.

“C’mon, Green Bean, let’s go take a break.” He starts guiding Lloyd away, and even though the blond looks conflicted, he lets himself be led out of the room.

With that, Cole turns back to Jay and Nya. “How about you guys do that research?” He offers. “I can do some digging on Harumi while you do.”

“Sounds good.” Nya gives a nod and looks over at Jay. When the ginger keeps staring at the computer, she sighs, glancing back at Cole.

Tapping Jay on the shoulder, Cole waits for him to look back. “Huh?” The other frowns, clearly not having been paying attention.

“With me, Sparky. I’ll give you the rundown.” Nya grabs his arm, and Jay gives a guilty smile.

“Let’s go, then,” he nods his agreement as she leads him out.

Once the two have left, Cole turns back to the computer, giving the campaign- or more accurately, slander- another glare. But he quickly changes gears, opening a new webpage.

“Alright, Harumi…” he mutters, beginning to type out her name.

“Let’s find out just why you’re so desperate to win.”

{ { { { { { { { { { ~ } } } } } } } } } }

Sentry narrows his eyes at his internal screen, trying again to get answers.

It’s obvious at this point that the direct approach isn’t working. It’s been thirteen months since Zane was taken- meaning Cryptor has been there for over two and a half years.

So they’re still working on this election plan, unable to do anything that might have a more immediate effect. It’s not ideal, but at least he’s begun to make some progress.

Actually… hang on. He might have something here. Another thing on the candidate running, Rune Duncan. He’s seen enough about Harumi to know that she’ll be the competition no matter what, but if he plays his cards right, he might be able to work with Rune enough to-

Perfect. According to this security camera, Rune was last seen entering a shady part of town- a place that usually only gangs meet up.

Hmm. If Sentry can’t get him to help, then maybe he can at least get some blackmail on him.

As he heads out, he sends a message to Dad letting him know that he’ll be out for a while- he knows that he’s been working on rescuing Cryptor, so he probably won’t need a rundown on what exactly he’s doing.

It takes him only about fifteen minutes to reach where Rune was last seen- Borg Tower isn’t exactly close, but with this, Sentry is nothing if not determined.

Quietly, he makes his way down the alley where the candidate was last seen. This place is insanely suspicious, so he-

“And what are you doing here?” A voice behind him prompts.

Flinching, Sentry spins around. How did this guy sneak up on him?! With all the sensors he has, it-

Wait. Looking over the guy’s dark ginger hair and tanned skin, he suddenly recognizes him.

“Looking for you, actually.” Sentry forces a smile he doesn’t feel as he studies Rune. “My name’s Sentry. I’m the general of Borg’s security forces.”

Rune arches an eyebrow, but all Sentry can think of is how out of place he looks in this back alley with a three-piece suit. There’s definitely something going on here.

“Huh. Well, you found me. Is there something you need?” He sounds unimpressed and maybe even a little annoyed. But there’s no way Sentry’s going to back out now.

“Yeah, actually. I wanted to ask you a couple questions.” Sentry keeps his forced smile, but he knows the other can see past it- he’s not exactly trying to hide his malice, anyway. “Maybe a bit about your past, if you don’t mind.”

Rune tenses for a moment, but then relaxes. But even then, the discomfort is still visible on his face- even though he seems to be trying to hide it. “And if I decline?”

Letting his smile turn cold, Sentry looks him dead in the eyes. “Y’know, I wonder what the public would think if they heard about a finalist in the Emperor Election poking around in a place like this. I don’t think that would look too good for them, now would it?”

There’s a tense moment, both of them staring each other down. Sentry doesn’t break eye contact- instead, he lets them glow an even brighter red in an unspoken threat.

Actually, it’s longer than a moment. Time seems to stretch on as the two of them glare into each other’s eyes. He’d check his internal clock to see how long it’s been, but that would involve glancing away, and he refuses to be the one who flinches first.

After what feels like an eternity, Rune looks off to the side with a growl, crossing his arms.

“Ask away.”

The tenseness coming off of him clearly shows that he’s got something to hide. And one way or another, Sentry’s going to find out what.

“Alright.” He pauses a beat before choosing to lead with a statement instead of a question- though it’ll hopefully get him more answers then outright asking.

“Whoever made you this fake identity did a horrible job.” Rune’s eyes widen the smallest amount, but Sentry keeps talking. “I dug everything up in a matter of weeks. The family tree, the missing records, the faulty information… honestly, I’m surprised that I’m the first person to realize.”

The ginger clenches his jaw. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Seriously? That’s got to be one of the most transparent bluffs he’s ever seen.

“I think you do, actually. I’d just like to know why you can’t run with your real one. You got something to hide, Rune?” He puts a little too much emphasis on the name, making sure the other gets the point.

There’s the beginning of another stare down, and this time instead of indulging him, Sentry tries something else.

Not breaking eye contact, he runs a scan on the other- maybe he can compare it to the ones in the criminal database and…

His thoughts clatter to a halt as he looks at the results.

“Oh,” he gets out. “That’s why.”

The other starts to say something, but Sentry speaks before he can as he finally fully processes the information.

“You’re a nindroid, too.” He breathes.

And he is. The scan shows it, he- Sentry’s never seen such a believable hologram as a disguise, but there’s no other explanation! That-

‘Rune’ narrows his eyes, and Sentry notices him starting to draw a blade from behind his back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he repeats, this time with more force.

Taking a step back, Sentry lets the possible scenarios flash through his head, struggling to figure out what the hell is going on. The design doesn’t match Cryptor or Zane’s, and it most certainly doesn’t match the ones Dad did, so-

“Who built you? Why are you doing this? Do you- do you not know what’s at stake here?! Who even are you-?!”

He’s cut off when he’s tackled, the move so abrupt that he can’t counter. He struggles underneath him, but in less than a heartbeat, there’s a blade pressed between his scope and skin- a spot that underneath connects almost directly between his CPU and motor functions.

The cloak drops, and he stares at the other’s metallic skin, worn and scratched from who knows how many battles.

Red eyes boring into his own, Sentry feels himself almost shiver at the dark, smug expression the other nindroid has.

“You want to know my real name? Fine.” The voice suddenly has a more distorted, robotic lit to it, his vocal box not hiding his true nature with the cloak dropped. “I doubt you’ll get the chance to use it…”

“But I’m known as Mr. E.”

#the rights of a nindroid #trauma #psychological torture #torture #ninjago fanfiction #angst #zangst

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mycroftinthemindpalace · 3 years

Note

6, 20, or 44: choose whichever one inspires you :)

Prompt request from @daggery: I went with 20 - “D..did you just make that noise?” There’s a good chance I’ll come back to the other ones too. Thank you!

“Coming through!” Mal yelled, loudly enough that if the two students up ahead did not get out of her way and were run over, it was their own fault. Fortunately for everyone, the two kids dove in opposite directions seconds before Mal barreled down the staircase. She had spent way too long with helping Jane practice her spells, and she was definitely going to miss lunch, and if she missed lunch, there was no way she could get through an hour and a half of science that afternoon. They were doing lab, and the smell turned her stomach when it was full. On empty, she’d probably pass out, and Mal would die before she’d let that happen.

Two more floors to go before she reached the bottom, then a quick left turn out the door, a brisk run across the courtyard, and lunch was hers. She was pretty sure they were serving pasta today, and Hades help everyone if there was no pesto left by the time she got there.

“AAHHHH-EEEEEEEE!” Mal froze with half a staircase to go. Mal was used to people shrieking, but not in Auradon. If it were Jane or Melody, she’d have cared, but not stopped. If it were Audrey, she might have turned back just to laugh, but that girlish squeal had not come from very far away.

In fact, it had come from her dorm room, which meant it was Evie, which meant Mal was probably going to miss lunch because the piercing scream had not even ended before Mal was turning on her heel, darting back up the stairs (bumping into one of the two students who were not quick enough this time to avoid her), and breaking down her dorm room door.

She panted, out of breath in the doorway. Her eyes scanned the room for some signs of trouble. The window was closed, there was no blood on the ground, no shattered glass in sight.

As a matter of fact, there was no Evie in sight either.

The only thing out of place in her dorm room was the tall, brown-haired boy in a leather vest, standing on her bed, pressing himself against the wall, his eyes darting wildly around the floor.

“Jay?” She asked, closing the door behind her gently. Jay’s head shot up. Upon seeing her, his wild eyes stopped moving. Like a chameleon, his face changed rapidly from white to slightly green to dark, dark red. “D..did you just make that noise?”

“What noise?” His question would have been far more believable were it not asked two octaves above his usual pitch. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Uh, what noise?”

Mal set her backpack down. “The loud girlish squeal that just came from this room.”

Jay scowled. “I don’t recall any such noise being made.”

“Did you yell?”

“...yes. In a manly fashion.”

Mal smirked. “I’m pretty sure you shattered two downstairs windows with that note you hit.”

Jay’s shoulders relaxed as he slouched down the wall and plopped onto Mal’s bed, sitting cross-legged and cross-armed, and pouting like a three-year-old. “Did not,” he muttered.

“So what made you squeal?” Mal jumped up next to him and mimicked his posture. His lips twitched in a very obvious attempt to keep from smiling.

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit.”

Jay hesitated, his eyes flickering back to the floor. Mal followed his gaze, then reeled backward as he jumped to his feet and adopted his previous position at the head of her bed, wide-eyed. He raised a shaky finger and pointed. Mal turned and caught the tail end of a tail, bolting across the room and beneath her dresser.

“A mouse?”

“Get it out get it out get it OUT!” Jay yelled, his voice rising once more. Mal stuck a finger in her ear.

“Chill, dude.” She hopped off the bed, grabbed Evie’s yardstick off her design table, and swept it underneath the dresser. The mouse raced out and ran directly into Mal’s backpack, perfectly positioned at the dresser’s end. Mal zipped it quickly, shot a wary glance at her friend, bouncing from foot to foot and wringing his hands in front of him. “Be right back.” And with that, she was out the door.

Jay immediately collapsed on the bed, a bead of sweat dripping down his forehead. He released a breath he had not realized he was holding in, and closed his eyes. The hellion was gone, but now he would have to deal with Mal. Mal’s mocking, Mal’s laughter, Mal’s incessant questioning as to why Jay, son of Jafar, had turned into a sniveling, trembling coward at the sight of a white rodent half the size of his hand.

He’d been nine, and Jafar had been angry. He’d brought back a lamp, thinking it might please his father and make up for the otherwise pathetic haul he’d gotten that day, but Jafar had taken the lamp as a personal insult. It was an ordinary lamp, one that might sit on a bedside table and plug into the wall if the Isle had any electricity to light it, not the kind from Jafar’s story. Of course, Jay didn’t know the difference, not then. When he’d proudly presented it to his father, Jafar had sneered. He’d called him stupid, and useless, and he’d broken the lamp over his head and kicked him out.

“Come back with something of worth or don’t come back at all,” his father had said, right before he locked the door.

Something of worth. What the hell did that even mean? To Jay, a pair of shoes that still had soles, and a sketchbook for Mal were things of worth, but to Jafar they were trash. He knew because Jafar had told him so. He’d been working for his father for four years at that point, and he still didn’t know what would earn him a place at the dinner table and what would be thrown back at him. There was no point in trying to figure it out either; what Jafar deemed worthy changed on any given day. And that day, Jay determined, nothing would please his father. Might as well find himself a dry place to sleep and try again in the morning.

There was a storm that night, and Jay was cold. The alley would be filled with goblins and rascals also looking for shelter, and Jay knew better than to sleep when they were around. The wharf was out too; he’d stolen a medallion off Harry Hook last week, and he doubted that the pirate had forgotten.

That left the woods. Jay crept through the muddy undergrowth until he found a shrub big enough for him to slip in. It wasn’t cozy, but there weren’t any thorns and the bush had kept the grass mostly dry. There was even something soft there for him to rest his head on. His head hurt from where the lamp had hit it, and it didn’t take him long to fall asleep.

He slept well, better than he usually did on the nights Jafar kicked him out. He dreamt he was in a castle, not a dark one like Mal’s, but one that was brightly lit and stocked with food he’d only seen on TV. He licked his lips, again and again.

And then woke to find that it was him who was licking his lips, but a fat, white mouse.

Jay screamed. He screamed and knocked the mouse off his face, and then flung one from his shoulder and pulled one out of his hair. He scrambled out of the bush, away from the woods, and back to Jafar’s shop. He ran in, even though his father had not yet granted him permission, and tore of his clothes as he went. Only later, when he went to retrieve them, did he find another mouse huddled in his sweatshirt pocket.

Jay shivered at the memory. He could still feel them, pulling at his hair, pawing at his clothes, licking his mouth. He ran his hands up and down his arms, trying to pull himself together before Mal returned.

She didn’t say a word when she came in, just shrugged her backpack off and pulled an apple out of her coat pocket. She held it out to him, and he accepted, taking a bite that was way too large for his mouth, but if he kept chewing, he didn’t have to talk. She’d brought one for herself as well, and pulled out her sketchbook as she ate. She balanced it on her knee, keeping it tilted at just the right angle so Jay could not see what she was drawing. Probably him, standing on her bed, screaming in terror. He internally groaned.

“Mal,” he started as soon as he’d finished the fruit. “About the mouse. It’s...”

“The spawn of the devil,” Mal said without looking up. “I would have killed it, but I figured there was, like, a 60% chance that it was related to one of Cinderella’s mice, and I never would have heard the end of it if I’d murdered Jacques second cousin or whatever.”

Jay blinked. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

She snapped the sketchbook closed and stuffed it back in her backpack. Hopping off the bed, she held out a hand to him. “Walk me to chemistry?”

He smiled. “Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.”

They were halfway there when Mal asked him if he’d ever considered going out for choir, noting that, if his tourney dreams didn’t pan out, he’d make a great soprano.

#daggery #disney descendants #descendants fanfiction #prompts #jal #jay son of jafar #mal bertha

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angelliev · 4 years

Text

Lover Boy - JJ Maybank x OC - Part Three - Rocking with the Waves

Word Count: 3K

Summary: Aria just can’t get enough of JJ and his affection, making him absolutely irresistible and a familiar face arrives in the Outer Banks, along with suspicion from her father.

Warnings: Smut, some cursing, hopefully no typos and unsafe driving?

A/N: Words can’t even describe the joy and happiness I am experiencing from the amount of people who have read my writing. Thank you so much guys! I sincerely appreciate it. I hope you enjoy! (Not my GIF. Credits to the owner. I don’t own the show or the characters.)

Lover Boy Series Masterlist

Birds sing their little toons outside, the warm morning air kisses my skin and the sun beams down on my face through the windows. These are typical mornings I wake up to. Except in my own bed. By myself. Instead I wake up to the sound of a beating heart and my head laying on a naked chest that continues to rise and fall. I glance up to see JJ still asleep, his handsome face so calm without a worry in the world. I couldn’t help but lay a kiss on his warm cheek causing him to stir. For a while I just lay there drawing shapes on his chest. This causes his eyes to flutter open. He smiles down on me.

“Rise and shine lover boy.” I crawl on top of his naked boy under the sheets. “Oh, something’s rising alright.” He smirks. I lightly smack his shoulder. I have to admit though, his raspy morning voice is quite the turn on. “It’s not even noon Jay.”

“I take it that’s a no, on morning sex? It would be a real good way to start off the day.” His hands start to play with my bed hair. I simply giggle at him.

“How do you feel?” He asked genuinely concerned. “Different. Like a good different. It hurt a little at first, then it began to feel really good.” I never knew just how close you can become with someone. “Want me to me make you feel really good again?” His question laced with lust. “God, yes please.” “Good girl. Now lay back and enjoy the show.” He smirks before laying a kiss on my lips and kissing a trail down my body, taking his time. The anticipation begins to start a pool of wetness to form down below, especially when he starts kissing and nipping at the peach soft skin of my inner thighs, littering them with more love bites. When he finally reaches the region that requires the most attention, he glances up at me, holding eye contact and places my legs over his shoulders. My feet rest on his slender soft back.

“So wet for me. We’re you dreaming of me perhaps? Did I treat you so good last night?” His breath fans my pussy and he plants a kiss there, causing me to squirm. “Tell me babygirl, what do you want me to do? I need words.” His teasing look becoming too much. “Please, I want you to taste me. Make me feel good. Please baby.” I practically beg. He licks a stripe up my folds making me gasp, never taking his eyes off my pleasure filled face. My petite finger comb through his hair gripping hard, while his lengthy ones enter my core curling in. His lips attach to my sensitive clit, making me moan. He hums out of satisfaction as I continue to tug on his luxurious hair. His free hand comes up to grope my left breast. His fingers began to pick up speed as they thrust in and out of me.

“JJ, I’m so close.” I breathe out, my feet start to dig into his back and hips begin to buck. He grabs a hold of my hips stabilizing me. The familiar euphoric sensation washes over me as I reach my orgasm, making my toes curl and my back arch off the bed. My juices coat his fingers. He brings the glistening digits up to his lips, licking them clean along with my dripping hot core. I can taste myself on his intoxicating lips when kisses me so passionately. He’s so addictive like nicotine. I simply can’t get enough of him.

“You taste so good babygirl. Did you know that?” I giggle at the closeness and his hot breath fanning my neck before attacking it with soft kisses as I hold him close to me. We lay there enjoying each other’s presence in the morning sunlight. Unfortunately, our moment is interrupted by the ringing of my phone. On the screen I see Charis’s number.

“Hello?” I answer. “Hey where are you? Your parents called to ask if you were with me. Don’t worry I covered for you, said you crashed at my place, but they want you back home like asap. Just tell me where you are.” Shit. I didn’t even think about that. “Shit, I’m at John B’s chateau.” “What are you doing there?” She asked confused. “I’ll explain everything when you get here. See you soon.” I hang up and sigh. JJ looks up at me.

“I’m sorry, but my parents want me home.” He just smiles at me. “No worries babe.” He grabs my phone and punches in my number. “When will I see you again?” I asked hopeful. “Soon. I’ll take you out somewhere fun. Ever been surfing?” I shake my head yes. “A girl after my own heart, this should be fun, after all I’m the best surfer in the OBX.” I chuckle at his cocky attitude. “I have a question for you Jay.” “Mm?” I was a little hesitant at first to ask this question. “What does this make us?” I nervously bite my lip. “What do you want this to be?” He asked while playing with my hair. “Something more than just sex. I really like you JJ. I want to be close to you all time. I want to be intimate.” I confess hoping I don’t sound clingy. “I like the sound of that. Let’s give this a shot and see where it leads us.” “Do you think we’re going too fast?” “Nah, plus I like going fast.” He places one last kiss on my lips before we both gather our clothes.

Stepping out onto the porch, I see Charis’s car. I turn back to JJ who didn’t even bother to put on a shirt. “I’ll stay in touch that way we can hang out again.” My fingers play with his. “Sounds good.” He uses his black bandana to tie up my hair in a ponytail, making the butterflies in my stomach erupt. I loved the fact that he willingly let me have one of his belongings. I place a kiss on his cheek. Before I could turn away, he grabs my waist planting one last passionate kiss on my lips. My arms wrap around his neck, pulling us closer. Our noses touch even after pulling away. “I’ve got to go. I’ll see you soon.” I peck his lips. “See you soon beautiful.” He finally lets me go; I turn back to steal one more glance before opening the door. He sends me a wink, making me chuckle and blow a kiss.

I can feel Charis’s burning gaze on me as I situate myself. “Oh. My. Fucking. God. What the fuck just went down?” She doesn’t even take the parking brake off before hammering me for details. “I may have spent the night with JJ.” I can feel the heat radiating from my blushing cheeks. “Wait, did you lose your V card?” She asked astonished. It just hit me that I was no longer a virgin and I just lost my virginity to JJ. Not being able to process words I just smile and nod yes. This sets her off. “Holy fucking sweet baby Jesus shit! You had sex with JJ Maybank! Holy shit! About time you got dirty in the sheets!” She hugs me tight. I’ve been the virgin of the group for a while now. Charis lost hers freshman year, while Sarah lost hers last summer. “Oh my god can we go before my parents lose their shit? My dad is already pissed at me.” I plead. “Right sorry, I’m just still trying to process this. When did this start between you guys?” “It started since we first met.” “So, are you guys just hooking up or are you dating?” “We’re kind of taking things slow.” This makes her laugh. “Bitch please, you skipped slow and went straight to speeding.” “What I mean by slow is that we’re still getting to know each other.” “Oh, I think you guys got to know each other a lot.” She laughs and continues to drive. “I need you to promise though that you won’t tell anyone about us. I really like him and my dad would lose his shit if he knew about us.” I plead. “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me splinter bean.”

After showering, changing and covering many hickeys, I come downstairs and walk outside to the balcony to find my family and a familiar face. “Damian?” I asked surprised. “Hello Aria. Nice of you to finally join us.” He lifts up a glass. Damian Prescott. He’s my older brother. We get along a lot more than Jennifer and I do thankfully. He’s not around much though. He lives in Las Vegas. He works business with my dad. Standing next to him is a woman about his age.

“Hey, I didn’t know you were coming out here.” I give him a welcoming hug. “Thought I surprise you. I’d like to introduce you to my fiancée, Rebecca.” What?! “Fiancée?! You’re getting married?” This all came as a shock to me. He’s kind of womanizer, so for him to be engaged all of the sudden definitely surprised me. “Yes. We just bought a house here in figure eight and are planning on having our wedding here. Rebecca here is an international model and fashion designer.” “That’s impressive. Congratulations. I’m really happy for you guys, and it’s a pleasure to meet you Rebecca.” I hug her. “Likewise, darling.” I am still trying to process the surprising news.

“Where have you been Aria?” My father asked out of the blue. He stares me down with interrogating eyes. I sometimes wonder if he and Ingrid are long lost twins with their helicoptering tendencies. “I spent the night at Charis’s.” I say as calm and convincing as possible. Last thing I want to do is have him find out about who I was actually with. “Nice bandana. Where did you get it?” Asked my nosey Jennifer. “I found it earlier this week on the beach.” For the rest of evening I had to deal with peering eyes, but I didn’t let that bother me, instead I began daydreaming about seeing JJ again.

Next Day…

Today is a perfect day to go surfing. There’s not a cloud in sight, parents or Jennifer. Only me, my surfboard and soon JJ. Not a single soul stops me from leaving the house and jumping into JJ’s muscular arms kissing him long and hard. “Why hello there. I missed you too babe. You ready to go?” I nod my head excitedly. I couldn’t help but gaze at him while he was driving the van. His eyes were so focused on the road, yet he still kept his warm hand on my bare thigh. The wind blows past his hair as he drives. He seems so carefree.

“See something you like?” I blush embarrassed that he caught me staring. “Sorry. You’re just so beautiful.” I have no shame as I continue to admire his attractive features. “Awe, aren’t you sweet? C’mere.” He pulls me into his lap as he comes to halt due to a stoplight, my legs lay across the middle console. “Is this safe?” I ask, but not really caring. “Probably not.” He closes the gap between us to keep me quiet and I had no urge to protest. The annoyed drivers behind us say otherwise as they honk at us. We both laugh as continues to drive.

I then noticed a fully healed scar on the back of his hand. I trace over it hoping that it would just disappear. It saddened me to see a scar had littered his beautiful skin. “What happened?” I asked curious. “Oh, probably just a cut from something I accidentally did.” He lied brushing it off like it was nothing. His eyes said otherwise, but I didn’t want to push it.

We walk down beach surfboards in hand ready to have some fun. The warm water hitting our feet and soon engulfing our bodies. The two of us let out cheers as we successfully ride out some waves. He wasn’t kidding when he told me that he was a very talented surfer. It was heartwarming to see him in his happy place. Neither of us keep track of the time. We didn’t notice the day passing by as the sun was about to set. It was then when we decided it was time to leave the water and dry off. This time I catch him staring. “See something you like?” I tease about to tie up my hair, but he stops me. “Don’t, I like it down.” He says taking the hair tie away. He places a slow and passionate kiss on my lips making me smile and pull him closer. One thing led to another, now we’re laying down on the beach blanket having a heated make out session.

I was thankful that we were both wearing swimwear as I began tugging at his swim trunks. He pulls away surprised. “You sure?” “Positive. I want you to take me right now.” My encouragement only seems to excite him even more as he removes my bottoms and covers the two of us with an extra blanket. He strokes my slit with his tip teasing me. “You want this babygirl? Want me to fuck you out in the open?” His dirty talking turns me on even more, making me desperate. “God yes please. Make me yours.” That’s all he needed before plunging in so deep. His hand clamps over my mouth to contain my loud moans. “As much as I love to hear you moan my name with that pretty voice, we don’t want to get caught.”

His thrusts were a lot different from last time. These were faster, deeper and harder, which only increased the pleasure. His grunts were a little louder too. A bead of sweat began to form on his forehead and a little bit of his damp hair fell over his face as he continued to thrust into me. JJ and the colorful sky were both so gorgeous, a sight I could get used to. He spreads my legs further apart and grabs my hips creating a deeper angle, now hitting the spot that craves the most attention, making me moan loudly, neither of us giving a damn. “You like that babygirl?” He pants through moans.

“JJ!” I scream and my vision goes white as I tighten around him, milking his hard cock, making him throw his head back. He joins me shortly after, his hot cum spewing inside of me, riding out his high. The two of us stay there for a moment catching our breaths. “JJ, that was amazing.” I say dazed. This earns me a breathy chuckle from him “You can say that again. God damn you’re so tight around me babe.” We both laugh together.

We both enjoyed the peaceful silence in the van on the way back home, the two of us feeling spent. I was disappointed when we pulled up to my house. “I had a lot of fun today JJ. That was one hell of a first date.” He looks back at me. “I’m glad you had fun. I’m looking forward to seeing you again.” “Me too. See you later.” I kiss lips before exiting the van and grabbing my surfboard. I blow him a kiss and he returns it with his infamous wink that makes me weak in the knees. I place my surfboard in the closest, and grab a bowl of strawberries to snack on. Before I could go upstairs, I am stopped by my mom.

“Hey sweetheart, I didn’t hear you come through the door.” She greets me with a smile. “Oh, I just got back.” “I never seen you wear that sweatshirt. Is it new or something?” She’s referring to JJ’s Fast Arch gray sweatshirt that he lent to me when he noticed I was cold earlier.

“Oh this? It’s not mine. My friend let me borrow it because I was cold.” This is officially my new favorite shirt. It smells just like him. Weed, mint and the ocean. I still feel engulfed by him as I wear it. “That’s nice of them. What did you guys do today?” Oh, if only she knew. “We went surfing.” I only told her half the truth. “That sounds like fun. Did you use sunblock? Do you need aloe gel? You’ve been drinking plenty of water, right?” I chuckle at her. The only time she asks me a billion questions is when it’s over my health. “Yes, mom I used sunblock and drank lots of water.” I reassure her. “Okay, well take this with you anyways.” She hands me a bottle of water. I laugh. When is she not carrying water? I swear if she were to be charged for anything, it would be possession of too much damn water. “Thank you, mommy. Goodnight.” I kiss her forehead. “Goodnight love.”

I pass by my sister when she got a whiff of my new scent. “God, did you and your so-called friend get stoned while you were at the beach?” Jennifer criticizes. “No, and eavesdropping is really rude. You should get a new hobby.” She rolls her eyes. “So, who did you go to the beach with?” She asked. “Who I hang out with is none of your business. Goodnight.” I slam the door shut with a huff and let the events of earlier replay in my head. I shower and go to bed in JJ’s shirt, letting the aroma bring me peace.

I mindlessly let my fingers travel down to my wet folds and begin playing with myself. I imagine that its JJ’s fingers thrusting and curling inside of me. I imagine the dirty things he would say to me as I chase after my own orgasm. His name leaves my lips in soft whimpers as I finally finish off the night in pure bliss.

#jj maybank smut #jj maybank #lana del rey #obx netflix #the outer banks #jj maybank x reader #jj maybank imagine #jj maybank fic

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coolgirl · 4 years

Note

Jason expert rate Jason’s designs

sorry for being late i was busy with school but now i’m free so to celebrate. jason indulgence.

pre-crisis not robin

very cute. i like that it has a lil more of flair to it? the collar and the lines on the gloves and the shorter cape.. also love it has pants. king rlly king. wonder if they already knew he was gonna be robin anyways or if they were still considering nightbird. anyways, 8/10 bc its cute

pre & post-crisis robin (bc its basically the same)

i mean its a classic.. however it reminds me jason was the only robin who was simply given dick’s clothes rather than like. have an unique look? which sucks. 7/10 middle child syndrome is REAL

post-crisis robin (winter edition)

OKAY NOW THIS. i absolutely love. is it tacky? oh yes without a doubt. i still love the pants and the sleeves. finally winter clothes for this child, especially considering his new titans scene where he was bitching about the costume not being snow proof. he got what he wanted! 9/10

new 52/rebirth costume by

EPIC. IDC I LOVE IT.the circles on his arms and his boots.. the lines on his legs.. i just love it. i love the red mask too… it feels.. not more unique, but feels more jason-y than the other costume. 10/10

NOW. onto older stuff

hush

as u can see im VERY confusion about the pouches and the straps?? why??? whats the purpose.. generally its fine. the white strand moved a nation and i think the chest piece is cool, but everything else.. uglee. like the long as hell jacket and him looking 40 years old like why r u 19 looking like fifty? ugly white man. 5/10

winicks/utrh version

LITERALLY A CLASSIC. i love this costume sooo much. like jason obviously grew out of it, as in it wouldnt make sense for him anymore to go with something like this as his main costume because i feel like this fit the utrh mood (him not veing a vigilante/hero/villain whatver but trying to be a mob boss n shit) and it just. fucks. i love the helmet just being plain with no stupid mouth or nose shape. i simply love it. 10/10

nigthwing

its just. its just the nightwing costume. didnt even try he just stole that from dick. he still rocks it and looks better than dick, and u gotta give him points for accessorizing with his dagger. 7/10

red robin

im not. a big fan of this costume.. i think the cowl is ugly, it just does not work for someone as big as jason… however i do like why he took this mantle and what it meant.. 6/10 no words head empty.

oh brother. furryman

ITS SUCH AN UGLY COSTUME. muzzle batman walked so muzzle red hood could run. its just. ugly like ugly. i dont like the ears or again the muzzle or whatever the hell is going on in the arms.. its just so edgy. 5/10

WANNA KNOW WHAT A SEXY EVIL BATMAN COSTUME LOOK LIKE?

Injustice 2 batman

I2 HAD IT IN THE BAG BABY. i like that its like classic batman costume but again! with some jason touches! the red eyes, the electric tiddies making a comeback.. epic genuinely epic. 10/10

and if ur not into evil jason

100% dad ‘i have my life figured out’ batman jason

just like the nightwing costume this is just. batman costume. nothing special or different from it so its like did u even try? BUT in this scenario it actually means smth that he stuck to bruces costume.. sweet.. but boring. 7/10

speaking of. evil ugly designs. ugh i hate this.

this motherfucker

ive never. ever. felt as humiliated by a costume than thetime jason wore this. like MORTIFYING RLLY. its DISGUSTINGGG. the helmet shape. the fucking WHITE. the SKULL PLEASE WHO DESIGNED THIS WHO HATES ME IN PARTICULAR SO MUCH??? THIS MAN DOES NOT FUCK! HES UGLY! HE STINKS!!!! the red guns are epic that much i can say. LOOK AT THOSE PANS GOD ITS SO HUMILLIATING. 0/10 WORST COSTUME EVER.

HOWEVER. winick and the artist spun GOLD from it, because next time jason wore possibly my favorite costume to date

this motherfucker…2!

like look how much better it looks with a little of swag.. the helmet without eyes.. the belts.. the fucking leather jacket.. keeping the red guns/gloves.. like seriously i dont know a better man. the skull is still awful and i wouldve replaced the white for black and MWAH best costume. like the black part at the top make it all red and the white make it black.. god this jason fucks massively i love him. 11/10 my favorite by a landslide perhaps

new 52/rebirth red hood

OKAY I KNOW theyre slightly different (rebirth has shorter sleeves and a more padded look) but to me its like. same thing. okay i think its.. fine. its not phenomenal but its not ugly.. i like the brown jacket more than the black jacket i have to admit, its more distinctive and i simply like the color more, however i do not.. like jason having the bat symbol.. but thats also a me thing about how badly written this is. anyways. the helmet with the mouth disgusts me and everytime its drawn like that its humilliating. like. 7/10. maybe 7+. when it has the mouth or like nose ANY FACIAL EXPRESSION RLLY its a 5.

wingman

oh i absolutely despise that helmet. he looks like fucking. terminator. its the ugliest shape ive ever seen and the visor is.. huge. i dont like the shoulder pads either idk what the fuck its going on with the thing around his neck either.. like hes. knockout batman and i HATEEE IT. damians costume slaps tho. i just… its… ugly. like.. 3/10.

get damian back arc red hood costume

oh im a HUGE fan of this design.i love how his costume is designed in a way thats like. if jason was a dnd character he absolutely would be a tank. the padding, the red undertones everywhere, i just.. love it. i like how all the costumes were done to reflect their personalities you know.. i like this robin red hood hybrid. 9/10 would even say 10/10 bc i just enjoy how gleason draws jason.

red hood/arsenal costume

its like. i dont hate it completely (i love the way the hood+helmet looks) and thats.. yeah thats pretty much all i like about it. i HATEEEE the vest i hate it fr.i hate how huge the sumbol is and idk this costume just does not spark joy. 5/10

outlaw costume

okay this one. this one drives me insane. because like. okay i dig parts of it. i like the lack of sleeves. i like the gloves thingies. i like the hood. i could get aboard him ditching the helmet - it breaks all the damn time anyways. i like the stripes on his pants in the boots. ALL SEPARATE? NEAT. now i hate. hate. the muzzle. like WHY IT LOOKS SO UGLYYY LIKE SO UGLY like unless the artist GETS IT and is SEXY it looks awful. look at this

AWFUL. also like it made sense for when he was on the run and he had to make do and assemble a costume from what he had but like now hes sponsored by lex, get that man a goddamn new suit already please. anyways. 6/10.. like i said i like many elements from it but its still.. kinda ugly all together and depends A LOT on the artist.

three jokers

im torn on this one.. i think its a bit boring.. i dont rlly like the top part, it reminds me SOO much of that one tt issue where he beat the fuck out of tim while wearing a robin costume like i understad the implications of him wearing a costume thats similar to the robin blouse but im not a big fan.. also i prefer the brown leather jacket. its like not his worst costume by far but not the best.. like pretty basic? i would say 6/10

NOW SOME AUS.

tiny titans & lil gotham

okay these two are like. pretty much the canon versions of robin and red hood HOWEVER they both have details that are different from the original version and DESERVE a mention. the curls on robin jason and jasons red gloves/belt are ICONIC. whoever designed them knew what they were about, so 10/10 best bapy jason.

arkham knight

does the person who designed this know how much theyve done for the lgbt community? i hope they do. i love.. a lot about this costume. i love the ears, i love how techno it is, i love the layers to it.. im.. not a big fan of the whole military thingy but i have to admit that applying it to the design itself is kind of neat.. i love the colors too and how.. practical it is while being. well. kinda dramatic? the whole bat aesthetic.. yeah. i love it. 9/10

arkham red hood

this one.. when u think about it the outlaw version is VEEERY similar to this one: the pants, the hood, the jacket eve. however i like this helmet so much more, i have a weakness for eyeless (??) helmets.. i like the little details of it as well, i remember that pic going around of it being held together with like. fuckign stitches and bandaids. legendary. i love this look, i would say 9+/10

injustice 2 jason

okay gonna go ahead and say it: not a big fan of the helmet. it looks like.. a bug? the lenses do not spark joy. this bitch has many styles and like toners etc and i will no rate them all. i think its a pretty basic design, not the best but not the worst either. like if it was an exam i would make them pass but make faces at what im reading like eeehhhgh. 7/10.

hag jason

middle one is like literally, on the outside and superficial level, just. his usual costume. the jacket and the grey kevlar and the bat. now the gloves are sexy as hell.. and in the whit ebackground one u can appreciate the under costume better and i really like it?? i just.. like the design. I HATE HOWEVER the bat helmet. WHY IS IT HOLLOW?? BITCH HELLO?? AND THE BATMAN SYMBOL DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! and i like things making sense!!!. we will not talk about jason in this book. like.. 8/10. maybe 9 if im feeling it.

hag jason 2: the hagger and the furious

hes just.. a little old man.. he cannot change this.. i like this design. i like seeing jason grow old. wish it wasnt in this context. my father rlly. 8/10

—-

am i forgetting any jays.. i wont do all animated robins because they all look the same and the one that doesnt i do not like. SO HERES my thoughts..

#Anon #jason todd #jason.txt #THIS has been my weekly jason rant. come back next week for more

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demonfox38 · 4 years

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Completed - Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete

Oh, man. You guys remember playing video games? And not working all the time? I did that for once!

Quick question—have you ever watched "The Princess Bride"?

I'm assuming there's a good chance that you have. It's a somewhat popular cult film known for its lighthearted narrative style and trope-setting lines. Even when it gets dark, it remains pretty whimsical, which is a reason a lot of people are attracted to it. It's a perfectly fine movie! And yet, I literally cannot sit through the whole damn film without getting drunk. I can maybe manage 20-30 minutes at a time before the saccharine levels build up too much and I have to shut it off.

Is it unreasonable? Absolutely.

Is it how I feel about "Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete"? Yeah. Pretty much.

I managed to pick up a copy of this game in an actual store prior to, well, everything vile in 2020 happening. (If you're in the Des Moines area—the Southgate Shopping Center location for "Jay's CD & Hobby" happens to be where I found this. They're priced competitively compared to PriceCharting.com figures, for what that's worth!) This RPG has been on my list to get around to for quite a bit of time, and I try my darnedest to get physical copies where I can. The nice thing about the release I got was that it had a "Making of" disc that included information on the developers and translators for this game. It's a lovely feature, so if you're interested in it, you should totally check it out. There's also a music CD and a cloth map in this release as well, which is an interesting offering. It's nice that the publisher Working Designs really cared about this game. It seems like they had a bit of a family and friends operation going on, at least on the American side of the house. Makes it hard for me to pick on them.

"Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete" is the remake of the Sega CD game "Lunar: The Silver Star." Both games revolve around Alex Noa, Dragonmaster enthusiast and aspirer, and his adopted sister / love interest Luna. (Yeah, it's one of those.) As party members pile up and the plot progresses, a mystery around the previous Dragonmaster and the disappearance of the planet's goddess Althena emerges. Childish ambition gets serious, and the fate of the planet falls on the shoulders of five squabbling dorks. And I do mean that in a very nice way.

The primary draw of this particular remake involves significant plot restructures, as well as animated cutscenes, voice acting, and a whole damn musical solo by the heroine. Ya see, in the original release of "Lunar: The Silver Star", Luna gets basically dumped off at some docks, only re-entering the plot upon her kidnapping. "Silver Star Story Complete" does her the favor of not only gracing her with a song of her own, but allowing her to tag along with the party for that gap in time, developing her relationship with Alex, his friends, and most importantly, the audience. Good call. Good call.

From what I've seen in the developer documentation and IMDB listings, Working Designs did their best to try and keep as many of the voice actors from the Sega CD release as possible. (Granted, that was, like, 4 people, but it's nice they went to the effort.) The voice acting itself is okay. Of the time. There's really only one nitpick I can make here, and it has to do with a very flat line read that Mia's voice actress has for casting spells. Like, it's "Summon elemental powers 😑." Just like that. The emoji is built in. Completely devoid of enthusiasm. Otherwise, everybody's doing their best to keep lip synced and in character. It's a bit of its time, but it's fine.

Also—I suspect there may be a programming flaw based on audio sample retrieval. I had a soft lock with the game when it failed to load that particular line in one battle, and the game just refused to continue without that being played. There really needed to be a timeout for that function.

In addition to vocal work, the game has a plethora of animated cutscenes. Like the voice acting, their style and production are very of their time. Mostly, digitally redrawn from hand-drawn cells and processed with Quicktime/Adobe Premiere. It's not the highest quality animation ever, but for how much is there and the budget these developers had, I think they've aged well enough. There are some 3D models in the mix that aren't particularly great, but at least they didn't put their whole stock into using them, either. It's more in the Rough Draft studios style where they used it for machines or large buildings.

There's a lot of side mouths going on, though. Might drive a few people nuts.

Finally, the game's music has been updated. Of note are the themes "Wings" and "Wind Nocturne," which both feature actual goddamn singing. Between these two, "Wind Nocturne" is genuinely the better song, particularly in English. (The Japanese lyrics for this song are just too on the nose, especially if you know where the plot is going.) "Wings" is okay, I guess. I don't like it because of how tepid it is, especially compared to the Sega CD's "Fighting Through the Darkness." Like, "Wings" is more complex in terms of musical structure, sure. It's a crime to lose the drive and energy from "Fighting Through the Darkness," though.

The rest of the music? Eh. Fine. C. Nothing I'm going to be downloading. Not like "FIGHTING THROUGH THE DARKNESS! ALL IS EVIL, STILL WE MUST PRESS ON—"

Hey. Liking cheese is a part of getting through this game. And the translation is very loose and cheesy. Naughty, too. It reminds me of the days when you could theoretically trick one's parents into buying a hyper sexualized or violent anime at a Suncoast. Not that I did. The nearest Suncoast to me was in Sioux Falls. The best I could pull off was hanging around old Geocities and Tripod sites, trying to figure out what was censored out of the English releases of "Sailor Moon" and "Tenchi Muyo." Oh, and the one time IFC was airing the 1980s "Vampire Hunter D" movie. (Look—for as much as American TV is censored, you will remember the times you saw boobs on air.)

Was that enough dated references for you?

Being dated is a bit of a problem with "Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete." Even as a revamp, the best portions of this game are all easily obtained with either a visit to YouTube or The Spriter's Resource. I mean, bam. Motivation for bromide hunting is literally gone that quick. (Well, unless you're a completionist, I guess.) Not that the game's developers could have predicted the rise of YouTube, but the company mentions its own website in its documents. It was on the beginning edge of the Internet's rise to common use and power, and unfortunately, that same tool can easily share the best parts of the game without the game itself. (Okay, the game itself, too. Let's not pretend to be naïve about that.) It's just something to consider when deciding whether or not to play a game or if you plan on building a game of your own. The game itself has to be good, you know? It can't just be about flashy trappings anymore.

Also, as you may have sussed out, the game's target audience is pervy teenage boys. You know how people today get creeped out by Ariel and Jasmine's ages? The whole emphasis on them being sixteen and being in questionably inappropriate attire/situations for their ages? That problem's here too, but with a fifteen-year-old wearing what may only be erotic to magical clowns getting her brain scrambled into simultaneous ultimate power and complete submission to the villain. Yep. Yep. There's your warning!

The actual game portion of this game was the main reason I struggled wanting to continue playing it. When it's behaving, it's a vanilla turn-based RPG. Keynote: behaving. Several dungeons like to throw either restrictions or status ailments at you. This can be as benign as messing with player controls. It can also include robbing HP, MP, or entire party members as it sees fit. Even the last dungeon has two floors where it inflicts the party with random sleeping, which effectively locks you out of using two party members at the beginning of each battle at random (and possibly, them getting killed if they are targeted for an attack.) And yes, this does persist into a boss fight!

What really pissed me off about this game was something I learned completely on accident. See, I'm a somewhat regular visitor to The Cutting Room Floor. I like learning about what has been changed between various versions of a game, as well as what was intended to be buried by the developers. I know I have no way to prove this, but I accidentally ended up on the "Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (Playstation)" page by clicking on the "random page" option. (I was hunting for dirt on "Lupin the Third" games at the time and got bored.) And. Well. Why don't you go ahead and scroll down to those enemy statistics and get back to me?

Oh! And the bosses scale to your level! Isn't that nice?

The stat fuckery in this game bit me the hardest for two bosses in particular. I only managed to get past the Vile Crustacean through item abuse, as the party healer Jessica just can't heal enough to compensate for the damage you are taking at that point. (It's like healing 40 points vs. taking 60.) Also, unless you are forewarned well before that fight happens, you're not going to be able to load up two rejoining party members with healing items so that they can actually help in the fight. So, enjoy that. The other one was the dog pair in the volcano (I think Bronze Dogs?). Not that they were the worst, but you get hard locked into that dungeon, so good luck if you run out of items.

I should also mention being frustrated with the menuing in this game. For some reason, it wants to default your first action on getting into a battle after booting the game to AI. And no. No. That AI? A wasteful parasite. Keep this game on manual at all times.

Also, have fun switching items around when your characters have a full inventory and want to slap on that nice, shiny bracelet you just picked up. I suppose I can't get too mad about the inventory situation because this is likely a remnant of an era where you had exceedingly limited memory for unique item storage. I.E., shit was probably in literal stacks or a hard-coded block. But, it's still annoying to work around.

Also, at the risk of spoilers—did you read on that TCRF page about what the programmers did to make sure that the player never got rid of Alex's Ocarina? That's the kind of hacky crap I'd expect out of freshmen programmers. Key item inventories exist for a reason, you know.

I think I played this game at the wrong time of my life. Not that I could have played it at either variants' original release time, but this was probably a game I should have tackled when I was 16-22 years old. Like, in high school or college. I was trying to use this game to ease back into playing longer video games again. (Working from home for six months fucked with my ability to long-term plan. Also, I spent several days working 14+ hours coding forms in July.) So, my patience for it just wasn't there.

Like, obviously, there are good parts to this game and good-hearted people behind it. (Ya know. Pervy shit aside.) I really liked party healer Jessica in particular. It's always nice to have a cleric that has the physical strength to hit shit until it stops moving. Even if the game is firmly locked in the 90s, that was a pretty fine decade. Probably the best one I've known. So, it's not the story or the older nature of the game that put me off, really. It just comes down to not having patience for a game that wants to drag things out.

I mean, I'm the first one to say not to give up on "Tales of Symphonia" until you meet Zelos Wilder. This game is kind of like that, but that point being hitting Disc 2 of 2.

I do anticipate on getting to "Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete" at some point. Might not be right away. I need a breather. But, I'm hoping my reaction to it will be like how I felt about "Shining Force 2" in comparison to "Shining Force." Hope's gotta spring up, right? Even when the world's screwed.

And no. 🙂 I do not anticipate on playing "Lunar: Dragon Song." 🙂 I saw a speedrun of that. 🙂 I'm good.

#post game evaluation #lunar: silver star story complete #long post

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meditatemoremedicateless · 5 years

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Gold Can Stay: The First Of Many (epilogue)

Art by @nerdylazorz

Summary: Max, Chloe, and Rachel reach the end of their journey in LA, but their lives together are just beginning.

In tribute to @raycats and @loveisstrange-vn.

Part 8 of 8 Read the full story on Ao3 or ff.net.

My first time seeing L.A. is . . . not impressive.

We arrive about half an hour before rush hour, but even so, there is traffic into and throughout the city. We drive by an untold number of small businesses and chains until the whole city sort of blurs together. It was like this for me in Seattle too, at first, but without a place to get settled, the feeling never quite fades. The plan is to sleep parked near the beach somewhere tonight, so the three of us agree to eat something and make our way to Santa Monica Pier.

The Pier has all sorts of stuff - a small amusement park and an arcade, for starters - but we don't have much time before closing. Around sunset, Rachel grabs my hand and waves at Chloe, dragging me along swiftly to the Ferris Wheel.

It is sunset by the time the ride starts, and Rachel wastes no time taking my hand and resting her head against my shoulder.

"Tired?"

She nods, nuzzling me. "All this driving's got me wiped. If there's one thing Arcadia Bay's got up on LA it's got to be the time spent cooking in a pickup truck waiting for the car ahead of you to move ten feet."

I let go of her hand so I can wrap my arm around her instead.

"Yeah, you're right. That's the only thing Arcadia Bay's got going for it."

"Yep," Rachel replies, nodding even more emphatically. "Only thing."

I stroke her hair and she leans on me even more, like a cat pressing against my leg.

I ask her, "So, what's it like being back in LA? Is your strength returning? Do you like Fallout Boy again?"

"1) Yes and 2) I never stopped."

She sits up straight, though still so close to me I can keep my arm around her. We're at the height of the wheel and her face turns wistful.

She says, "It's like . . . watching a movie trailer. Being back here on an adventure is more fun than it will really be when I move here, I know that. It's going to be really hard, even with a job to get me started. But all the same, I can't help but be excited to return. To be back home."

Even though I've never lived in L.A., I know what she means. Home is waiting for us here - both the new and different, and the intimately familiar. It's the future.

"I can't wait for a holiday to come and visit you," I say, squeezing her shoulder.

Rachel laughs, warm and sweet. "I haven't even left yet!" she giggles, waving it off. After a beat, though, she says, "By the way, I'm going to get a queen-sized bed, so when you do visit, we can sleep together comfortably. I'm looking forward to more motel-style comfort instead of fighting you for my covers."

I dodge the taunt with an, "Aww, you're sweet," and kiss her cheek. She turns to me for another kiss, long and gentle, and her giggling softens to silence.

A minute later, our foreheads resting together, I say softly, "Be my girlfriend." I had planned to ask, and ask all cute like 'Can I be your girlfriend,' but in the moment I just want to have her, to know that she's choosing me like I'm choosing her.

"Okay," she whispers back, and the instant I see her crack a smile, I kiss her again.

The kissing continues for a long time, my self-consciousness gradually fading away to press kisses to her neck and collarbone. Once we finally pull away to take a breather, I feel the need to blurt out, "Just so, um, you know - I've always wanted to have sex on a Ferris wheel. Not this one specifically, but, um -"

My sentence quickly mutates into meaningless mumbling as Rachel's hand slides from my knee along the inside of my thigh. That draws out a smirk on her face, and she leans close to me like she's going to start kissing my neck. I'm steeling myself against turning into just a puddle of a person when she whispers, strangely husky, "Oh yeah?" right against my ear.

I'm still racing to figure out how to deal with very suddenly wanting to have sex on this Ferris Wheel when the ride stops with us half-way down. The ride is over. It's time to get off go.

Rachel kisses my cheek and leans back as if we were just casually avoiding the ride. "I'll have to bring you back here sometime then, huh?"

I don't think I manage a coherent response before it's time to get off the ride.

We spend most of the next day at a tattoo parlor. Even though I promised Rachel that this is what I wanted to do to celebrate, I hadn't been all that into tattoos until I moved back to Arcadia Bay. Plus, it hasn't even been a month since it became legal for me to get a tattoo!

Despite all of that, I'm the first one to decide on a design I like. I'd been sketching out different deer over the past week, but after I do a few tweaks, I show it to the artist and she assures me it'll be easy enough to do.

I barely bleed, which I take to be a good sign, even if it hurts like hell. I get a small doe on my right shoulder blade, looking up at three stars in the sky. If Chloe and Rachel get why I added the stars, at least they don't say anything about it. Even I think it's a little cheesy.

Chloe's much faster about making up a design than Rachel, and she's in right after me. She shows three designs to the artist, but after mulling it over (and being egged on by Rachel), she decides to get all three design on her forearm - a raven, a blue jay, and a butterfly. She insists she has a good reason for each of them but refuses to explain to anyone 'who isn't her wife' so Rachel and I are just left googling them to get an idea.

Typical of Chloe, the designs are interwoven and complex, so she only gets the outline done, but even that takes long enough that Rachel is finally able to get an idea of what she wants.

Rachel had a bunch of different designs to start with, but once things got narrowed down to animal themes, she started getting creative. She didn't show us the final design (that she pulled off the internet) and insisted we'd just have to find out once it was taking shape.

I don't know why, but I kind of assumed Rachel would be stoic when getting her tattoo - the dragon wrapped around her calf was so large, I figured she must just be immune to the needle. But as it turns out, she's actually a baby about it. A few minutes after they start work on her shoulder, though, she asks me to sit next to her and hold her hand so she'll stay still. She practically crushes my hand over the next hour, but I can't say I mind being relied on for something like this. For a first date as girlfriends . . . it's pretty nice.

Chloe and I take guesses every few minutes at what the design is as soon as we see it has a wing, but since we both wouldn't stop guessing 'Sphinx' we totally missed the griffin until the head was complete.

We emerge that evening from the parlor looking like we got the shit beat out of us and with so little money I need to text my Mom to make sure we'll have food on the trip back to Arcadia Bay, but it's worth it.

I run into Victoria for the first time the day after we arrive home in the shower room before classes start. She spits toothpaste out in the sink and wipes her mouth the second she sees me, and I brace myself for whatever stinging witticism she has ready for me.

She just says, "You burn really bad, Caulfield."

That's . . . fair. I shrug. "I wasn't really born with the sun in mind, I guess."

I'm not really used to seeing her this early, before all the makeup and styled hair. She looks gaunt, but softer. Almost approachable. Almost.

"How was your trip?"

I smile as best I can this early in the morning, scratching the back of my head. I should have brought my bracelets so I'd have something to fidget with during a conversation.

"It was a great time, I think. I got a lot of really great photos and, I mean, it was my first time in California for anything but a stop in LAX. It's beautiful down there."

She shrugs. "If you like the semi-desert, I guess." If it's meant to be cutting, she doesn't put the usual amount of work into making it sound harsh. So much of her usual spite looks drained away - that, or I'm just really off-guard seeing her without makeup.

I'm waiting to go into the shower and she's waiting to leave, but neither of us actually moves to end the conversation. Instead, we stand there in awkward silence for a moment.

Finally, she says, "I actually . . . saw some of what you posted on Instagram. They were, in fact, great shots. Even the candid ones," she rolls her eyes on the word 'candid', but I think she just means 'pictures of Rachel.'

"Thanks," I reply, smile coming a little easier this time. "Have you heard back about your submission to that gallery?"

"Not yet," she says, shaking her head. Then, settling her stare on me, "But don't get too comfortable. Even if I don't make this one, there will be another. I'm going to come out on top once all is said and done this year."

Even if she's trying to be intimidating, the whole thing feels a little too shonen for me to be cowed. "We'll see about that," I reply.

Satisfaction coats her face, and she finally grabs her shower caddy and goes to leave. Just as she reaches the door, she gives a little back-handed wave and says, "Mazel tov, by the way," and is gone before I can say anything back.

There are many firsts on Tuesday, December 24, when Rachel and I sneak off before a Christmas party with her dad and buddies from his band. It's a crisp, cold afternoon, sunset already fast approaching before it's even hit 5pm, and I hope I'll at least have a few minutes of light for photos by the time we reach the light house.

Rachel pauses when we reach the top of the path, and she drops my hand as I pull away.

"How . . . how did that get here?" She asks, pointing at the lighthouse door where my guitar case sits.

"Trickery," I offer, and she follows me cautiously.

"I thought we were here to take photos," Rachel says, eyes narrows with suspicion, arms crossed over her body. She takes a seat on one of the rocks surrounding the fire pit, and I sit across from her, pulling my guitar from the case.

"Oh, we are. I just didn't say what of."

"What of, then?" Rachel asks, even more suspicious now.

"You. But I have something for you first."

"What is it?" she asks, edging into playful hostility. "Some sort of . . . romantic trick? A sneak attack? 'Hey there Delilah?'"

"Close, and don't think I didn't consider playing that song. But no. I, uh. I wrote something for you."

Rachel's face drops into sudden horror. "You didn't."

"I did."

"Max," she whines, "that's way too good of a gift. I'll - I don't know, cry or something."

"Babe," I begin. It works like a charm, leaving her doe-eyed, if still grumpy. "Please let me play my song for you."

She pouts, pulling her legs up close to her torso so she can rest her hands and head on her knees. "Fine."

She looks nervous, and it makes me want to kiss her, but I can't give in yet. Rachel's so beautiful and sweet that it's hard to ignore, but at the very least, I can channel my frustration at not touching her this very instant into playing.

I strum the keys and tune the guitar one last time, and then begin.

Ashes to the ground Fall the wrong way round World upside down I know I know

Home a distant time Smoke ore clearer skies Everybody lies I know I know

In every way you do More than I could say you knew And life is so strange it's true But so are you

She sits eerily still, eyes trained on me. There's no smile or anything like I expected, but soon she buries her face into her legs with her eyes closed. I don't know what to make of that, but I keep playing.

I will play the game I will take the blame I will break the same I know I know

In every way you do More than I could say you knew And life is so strange it's true But so are you

Ashes to the ground Fall the wrong way round I will let you down I know I know

In every pause you knew Take my breath away, you do And life is so strange it's true But so are you

It's not until the song is over that I can finally hear what I was missing. Softly, softly Rachel cries, and as soon as I hear it, I drop the guitar along the side of a rock. She looks up as I approach, wiping the tears off her face.

"Baby - baby what's wrong? Are you okay?"

Rachel looks up at me, taking a few seconds while she struggles for words. After a second, she forfeits even that, and reaches up, cupping my face with her hands, pulling me down into a kiss.

"I - I told you I'd cry, dammit." She sniffles as we rest our heads together.

A feeling of awe fills my chest, warm and radiant. Not as energetic as electricity, but just as intense. Something new.

"I love you," she whispers.

It's the first time. And not for a second do I doubt it.

It's the first time, and I'm shaking. The cold wind from the light house makes a good excuse, but just the process of peeling off my clothes in front of her is what really makes me tremble. I haven't been topless in front of someone since I was a child, and the feeling of Rachel's hands on my sides are something totally new. She strokes my back while we kiss until the shivering stops, although it comes back in bursts every time she finds a sensitive spot on my skin with her hands or mouth.

That feeling of wonder refuses to leave, and I'm enveloped in it. I've never had what I'd call a 'religious experience,' but if I were to imagine a feeling of holiness, it would be this.

I don't know how many times I say 'I love you,' but it's too many to count.

The weeks after Rachel leaves are the loneliest I've had since I moved to Seattle, and Chloe is right there with me. We try to keep up our regular hang-outs, and when that fails, we try reverting to old habits. After about an hour of doodling on scraps of paper (and Chloe's bedroom floor) with songs autoplaying from her computer, a familiar track comes on. She sighs seconds into the song and rolls onto her back, and I follow suit a moment after.

"Rachel's alarm?"

She nods, "Yeah," patting at her vest pocket for a second. "God that makes me want a cigarette."

"Out?" I ask, reaching up towards the ceiling. The bracelet Rachel made for me isn't as brilliant in the dark of Chloe's room, but it's still pretty.

Rachel lifts her hand up as well. She's wearing a blue and white bracelet I feel like I haven't seen in a long time, or like I've only seen it in old photographs.

"I'm trying to quit, actually."

"Oh, for real?" I roll on my side, and Chloe drops her hand back onto her chest.

"Yeah. I mean, that stuff will kill ya, you know."

I place my hand on top of hers, more than a little happy and very lonely. "Proud of you."

Chloe doesn't respond; all she does is close her eyes and smile, waiting for the song to finish playing.

Anon asked: if youre cis why are you talking about trans issues on the internet. these arent about you. stop being a transphobe and shut the fuck up.

Every part of that makes my blood boil, and I'm not entirely sure why. I just know to the core of my being that they're wrong, even though I've expressed similar sentiments before. I don't particularly care what cis people have to say about trans issues online. But I've thought about this so much, I know it's not just something I made up on the spot. Is that what's really pissing me off, or is it . . .

noirangel: look, I get that you have good intentions behind being mean to me on Tumblr, but I'm going to need you to stop. I provided sources where I could, and drew from the experiences of trans people I know, including myself, wherever I couldn't. I'm not shutting up because these are my real, lived experiences, as well as those of people around me, and I don't appreciate this shit in my ask box just because you want me to be quiet. Please fuck off.

Holy shit. I said it. I really said it.

I'm not sure what to do next. I just typed it out online - can I just leave it like that? Does saying it one time make it true? How do I really know I'm trans?

This deteriorates quickly while I rapidly refresh my blog, waiting to see if there's any reaction to what I said. The first response I get is just a like, but even that feels like a breath of fresh air. The first person to see this, at least, didn't reject me. That's something. But there's someone I'm a little more concerned about than random people on the internet.

Max: hey hon, i've got kind of a weird question. Max: do you think you would still be interested in me even if I weren't a girl?

I expect a lengthy pause, maybe lots of suspicious questions.

Instead, Rachel responds after about thirty seconds with:

Rachel: yeah babe lol Rachel: ur hot and i love you Rachel: why?

God. God, I love her.

Max: haha I was just wondering. Max: I love you too ^^

I drop my phone onto my chest and let out a sigh of relief. That's not quite coming out just yet, but the security for one day is all I need right now.

Our first fight wasn't something I expected at all - I hadn't even realized at first we were having it. It clicked right around,

Me: Do you seriously think I'm cheating on you? Chloe and I are your best friends Rachel, we wouldn't just choose to blow everything up just because you're living away.

Rachel: I know, and I'm not saying that. And it's not like I think you would have chose to do anything, but things happen, you know? Maybe just one time when she was drunk or - or something.

Me: But we seriously didn't.

Rachel: I - o-okay. Fine. If you say so.

Me: Rachel.

Rachel: What, Max?

Me: Look, I get where you're coming from, but I'm seriously capable of making choices around these things. I don't just fall into romantic or sexual situations by pure accident - it doesn't really work for me that way. And if I thought something were going to happen between me and Chloe, I'd talk to you about it. Because I seriously, really wouldn't want to blow up our relationship because my relationship with Chloe has been changing.

Rachel: Has it?

Me: What?

Rachel: . . . been changing.

Me: Oh my god! No! Because I made conscious decisions against it. Please trust me.

Rachel:

Rachel: . . . you're right

Me: Hon, are you crying?

Rachel: Um . . . yeah, sorry, a little. It just, um.

Rachel: Sorry. I just realized none of this shit is about you, exactly. I'm expecting a lot of my own mistakes out of you and that's - that's not fair.

Me: What do you mean?

Rachel: I don't think I've ever been very . . . uh . . . forthcoming with you about what my and Chloe's relationship was like before you came back to Arcadia Bay.

Rachel: We, um . . . so. We were dating, I guess. We never made it super clear, but it was definitely a romantic thing.

Rachel: I loved her.

Me: I know.

Rachel: Did Chloe tell you?

Me: No. Do you remember that night in the motel in San Francisco, right before we started dating?

Rachel: No? Wait, yeah. Shit. Did you hear us talking?

Me: Yep.

Rachel: Well, fuck.

Rachel: Well, yeah. We were together. But we weren't very good at it. I know Chloe blames herself a lot for how it all fell apart, but if we're being honest, I think I was sabotaging it from the start. Chloe loved me so much and it really scared me - like I wasn't worthy of it or I'd mess it all up. Or something. So I made . . . sure of it. And I cheated on her. A lot. And I'd tell myself it was accidental, or that we weren't officially together so it didn't really count, and, just, stupid stuff like that.

Me: That's . . . pretty messed up, sweetie. But I think I get it.

Rachel: Yeah . . . you remember Frank?

Me: Your ex?

Rachel: Yeah. I started seeing him while Chloe and I were still together. She never actually figured out who I was with, but once she realized I'd cheated on her, she blew up. And things were a total mess for a while, until I stopped seeing Frank and put things back together. And that's . . . right around when you moved back. And . . . we just never really talked out everything that happened.

Me: That . . . makes my first year back make a lot more sense.

Rachel: Yeah.

Me: And to be clear, I think you really messed up.

Rachel: I know.

Me: But I know Chloe doesn't hate you for it, and I don't hate you for it. But I know she's confused and hurt, still. She loves you.

Rachel: I know.

Me: I love you, too.

Rachel: I love you, too, hon. And . . . I. I miss you.

Me: I miss you, too.

Rachel: I miss Chloe too. Not just right now but . . . these past two years. Ever since you came back, it's felt like she's had eyes only for you, and I've been stupid jealous. It made being friends with you complicated, in the beginning. For a lot of reasons.

Me: I can definitely understand that. I'm not mad. We found our own rhythm - eventually.

Rachel: Ha! Just in time, too.

Rachel: Please don't tell Chloe that I miss her. I want to work things out, but it's still too . . .

Rachel: I'm still not ready.

Me: I won't say anything, I swear.

Rachel: You swear?

Me: I swear! I just said so.

Rachel: Okay. I love you. I'm sorry I dragged you down into all of my feelings like this. You're not me.

Me: I love you too. And you're not who you used to be either, Rachel.

Me: Let's . . . in the future, when something like this comes up, let's just talk, okay? I know things between the three of us are complicated, but I think we can make it work. I super believe in us.

Rachel: We're star-crossed, huh?

Me: Totally, actually bound by celestial forces.

Rachel: Even if we weren't, I'd still choose you, you know.

Me: You sap. I love you.

Rachel: I love you, too.

Our graduation is out on the football field across from the main school buildings, with about 100 chairs set out for students and faculty while families sit on the bleachers. It's uncomfortably hot, and most of the students are actively shading themselves with their mortarboard if they think they can get away from it.

Principal Wells clears his throat and says, "And now, we'll be hearing from our Salutatorian, Kate Marsh."

Kate graduates as our Salutatorian thanks to her taking 1 less AP class than Warren, and her speech is the one I'm really interested in hearing. Not that Warren's wasn't good exactly, it's just that he had me look it over a half-dozen times because "you're good at English" even though I scraped by the minimum GPA for college acceptance. Kate has been guarding the content of her speech carefully for months, but knowing her, she probably outlined its entire structure and theme months ahead of time before submitting a totally different speech a few weeks ago.

Kate walks slowly up to the podium, although she and the other students giving speeches are seated only a few paces back from it. She takes a few seconds to look at the paper with her speech, looks up at the audience, takes a deep breath, and smiles.

"I'd first like to say thank you - thank you to Blackwell Academy's staff and faculty, for the exceptional education and facilities you provided to us as students; thank you to my classmates for making this school the most challenging and rewarding year of my life; thank you to my family for supporting me this year and every year until now; and thank you to my friends for making Blackwell my home away from home.

I would like to speak frankly about my high school career. When I say it was challenging and rewarding, I do not mean that just intellectually, or, as those of you who have been through high school might say, socially. I've suffered from depression for many years, most acutely since I entered high school. It wasn't that I was bullied or had exceptional struggles in my life; my brain just ticks a little differently than others. When I came to Blackwell Academy, I lost the familiar things that kept me standing, and even with the excellent instruction available to me here, I couldn't imagine getting through this school year. I guess you could say it was a dark time for me.

But there was light here, and it reached me. My teachers were a light - they treated me with kindness and dignity, and helped me continue my work even when there were days I couldn't make it out of bed. My friends were a light - they stood by me, listened to me, supported me, and loved me. My faith, which had never connected closely with my school life before I came here, was a light I shared with many people, some of whom had the same background as me, but most did not. All of these lights showed me the way forward, even when it was slow and stumbling."

Kate pauses, as her voice is shaking too much to speak coherently. She takes two deep breaths, and continues.

"The kindness I was shown as a student at Blackwell was the most meaningful thing I found here. It gave me hope. Hope not necessarily that I would get better - I do not know if I will ever simply 'get better' from depression - but hope in kindness's power to shine a light, to cast out the dark. To make the world better, even on the smallest scale.

I cannot guarantee that this is what we all found here - our senior years were nothing if not messy, complicated, and different. But I know that this light is precious, and that I will take it with me from this place. It will continue to guide me forward, and I hope that I can be a light for others through kindness and compassion. I want to help make a world where there is always a light there - that if you reach out, there will be happiness waiting for you. I won't be alone for trying. I know that, at least. And a few other things, as I did manage to do pretty OK in school by the end."

Victoria is sitting two seats down from me, and I think she's the only person who doesn't laugh at that. She's made-up, flawless, and sad. We never really became close, and right now, I regret that. I think it's easy to regret the things you did or could have done at the end of the year.

I wonder what Victoria regrets.

"This really has been the most rewarding year of my life, but I think the best one is still to come. Thank you."

Kate bows her head for a moment at the audience as the class and families erupt into applause, then walks away from the podium.

It's some time still until we all throw our hats in the air to conclude the ceremony, but no sooner has mine gone flying than I'm out of the row of chairs and running straight towards her.

"KATE!"

"MAX!"

She holds her arms open and just sinks the impact as I barrel into her, doing my best to crush her with a hug. Luckily for us both, my upper body strength is pretty pathetic.

"You're amazing!"

"No, you're amazing!" she yells right back even though we're 0 inches apart. "And thank you!"

"NO, THANK YOU! That was such a good speech and-"

She shakes her head. "No, come on, weren't you listening?" She drops her hands from around me and takes my hands. "Thank you. Seriously. I love you."

I beam, and squeeze her hands. "Am I your light?"

"Yeah," she answers without hesitation, and I blush.

"Oh, shit, um, I was teasing you, I thought you would say something witty and now I'm, uh-"

She's pleased, wiggling a little bit at my discomfort. "C'mon, say you love me back; I'm like, super anxious right now."

"I love you. You're the best." It feels so good to say that, but I'm doing my best to not fall in love with her at such an inopportune moment.

"Second best, but I think that's probably good enough," she says, pulling me back into a hug. "Stay in touch, okay? No getting so distracted with LA you forget about me."

"I could never, Kate Marsh."

It's some months later that I come home from class to find Chloe sitting on the couch at our new apartment, watching How It's Made with the volume about as low as it can go while still being audible.

"Hey Chloe," I greet her, dumping my backpack near the door.

She turns and waves, only mouthing a 'hello.' Curious, I walk over to find Rachel asleep on the couch with her head in Chloe's lap, curled up so she can fit.

"Oh, there's my beautiful girl," I croon, crouching down in front of them and stroking Rachel's hair. She stirs at the touch, but does not wake up.

"She fell asleep like an hour ago; I've been too scared to move her, like a cat," Chloe whispers.

"I understand."

A minute passes while I pet Rachel and Chloe idly strokes her arm with her thumb, and even though I'm exhausted from the day, I feel light.

"I'm so fucking happy." I sit cross-legged in front of the couch, no intentions of stopping what I'm doing anytime soon.

"Good day at class?"

I shake my head. "Mediocre day. But my life is . . . well. I kind of love it."

Chloe doesn't say anything, only closes her eyes and smiles. For a second, I think I see Rachel smiling, too, but she only nuzzles my hand before falling back asleep.

Art by @cahlart

#gold can stay #life is strange #love is strange #max caulfield #chloe price #rachel amber #pricefield #amberfield #amberprice #amberpricefield #polyamory #fluff #happy ending #long post #fan fiction #ben writes stuff

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dragimalsdaydreams · 5 years

Photo

WHEW BOY, I’ve been itchin’ to draw these designs up for quite a while now and finally got around to it, haha. I’ve struggled a lot with my personal style for MLP ponies, trying to make something nice out of “realism with MLP proportions” with.... mixed results, lmao. but I was inspired by @jayrockin‘s tiny sapient ungulate au to draw up my own more specevo designs, and I think I finally got something here I rly like

while I took heavy inspiration from Jay’s au (esp for the pegasus wings, which I will discuss in further detail in that section), I genuinely want to make something of my own here, and hope that comes through. if I’ve failed to do so, I apologize Jay, and I’ll be happy to delete or shift designs as needed-- I don’t want to infringe on ur designs or anything,,

anyways, I have a lot to say abt these designs, so I’ll throw it under the cut

BASE

while this is basically the starting point for my ponies-- the “unaligned” base-- it got me thinking about how it could possibly appear in-canon. magic is such a critical element of pony life, it would have to be something pretty drastic to strip a pony of all unique, class-defining features. which leads me to believe that if it would ever occur in the show, it would have happened in Starlight’s equality town. I imagine this wouldn’t necessarily be on purpose, but perhaps an unintended consequence removing a pony’s cutie mark? or maybe just a consequence of the particular spell Starlight used? either way, she prolly wouldn’t complain about “equalizing” her townsfolk on yet another level (tho she might have to explain why she gets to keep her horn for the removal spell). either way, it’s fun to imagine a uniform, blank set of unaligned ponies..

I had a hell of a time trying to figure out the relationship b/t magic and evolution, and how that translated to hexapods vs. tetrapods and the presence of a magic horn. my tentative lore is that alicorns are the basal ancestors of ponies (briefly: vertebrate hexapod clade >> ungulate-analogue clade >> magic-horn clade >> alicorns >> ponies). the eventual division of labor in early pony society redirected magical energy towards the most essential morphology for the three classes of labor, resulting in earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi. though the genetic structures for horns, hoof-nails, and wings (+ secondary traits) are still present in any given pony’s genetic code-- it’s simply a matter of whether the switch for a particular set of traits is activated or not

physical remnants of horns and wings are still subtly present in ponies who don’t have those structures, in the form of a small bump on the skull and reduced wing-nubs just behind the front legs. often, the bump or nubs will have some identifying pelt pattern, though this isn’t always the case

now since my take on ponies is that they’re ~technically~ all genetically alicorns, this has the potential for more of a gradient b/t classes. in rare cases, an individual may be born with two different classes of magic+traits activated at once, dubbed a “bicorn”. however, without the regulation of a powerful alicorn to consciously divvy out the traits/magic in an individual’s body (as was the case for Twilight’s ascension), these traits/magic don’t express to the full extent that they could have if they’d been activated individually. as an example, I think Fluttershy would absolutely be a “bicorn”-- a pony who has the innate earth-bound magic of an earth pony, but the physique and wings of a pegasus (and I would hc her with small, underdeveloped hoof-nails as well, in this case). without the full extent of air magic to keep her aloft, Fluttershy can barely keep up with her swift pegasi cousins, and she doesn’t have the brawn typically associated with earth ponies. she’s still a very successful pony in her own right, but she had to find unique ways to fill in the gaps between earth and pegasi life that weren’t necessarily inherent to either lifestyle. due to their perceived ‘lack’ in cohesion and magic, some ponies call bicorns “the beggar’s alicorn” (or if I wanna be rly mean and up the age rating on this au, “the bastard alicorn”)

now past all that nonsense abt the classes, I want to detail some universal traits among pony anatomy.

for one, ponies have dexterous lips that they use to hold and handle delicate objects, much like manatees. this is basically reused from my past suggestion for Jayrockin’s own pony designs, but retrofit for my take on pony faces. since my faces have more pointed, upturned noses, I figure that the lips could hold an object in place, while rabbit-like nose-twitching could direct the angle of the object (like for writing). the bottom lip may still be able to help in angling, but the nose is the more directive force, in this design. this also makes it so the tip of a pencil is up in a pony’s direct line of sight, even if the pencil is a simple straight-line stick rather than more ergonomically-designed. this is important to me b/c I don’t know if more complex writing structures would necessarily be available in early pony society, so if ponies only have simple sticks to write with, I still want them to see what they’re writing lmao

this also directly influences ponies’ long, flexible necks. since pony heads are treated as an extra limb for dexterity (especially in those ponies without horns), the head needs to comfortably reach different parts of the body

pony “hooves” are essentially meaty mitts covering three inner toes. the thick padding and leathery skin usually obscures the internal anatomy, though sometimes indentations are visible (especially in earth ponies). the middle toe is the main anchor of support, with the side toes providing extra support. they also allow for some dexterity, as the side toes can pinch together well enough to even hold thin objects like pencils. while the overall construction of the legs makes dexterous use of the "hooves” a bit difficult, it’s not uncommon to see certain professions gravitate towards hoof use over lip use. many earth pony artists, for example, tend to use their hooves so they can keep their faces an appropriate distance away from their pieces to view the “big picture”, and painters in particular prefer the wide strokes they can get with their hooves

UNICORN

unicorn horns have a keratin shell with an inner base of bone. the center of the bone houses a thick bundle of neurons which extends back into the base of the brain. the keratin covering is composed of overlapping layers that grow into place as the unicorn ages (the tip is the oldest, while the base is the youngest). most newborn unicorns are born without a horn, but the first layer of the horn quickly breaks skin and grows into place within a few weeks of birth. a groove runs up the dorsal side of the horn, acting as a funnel for magic, which then spills into and out of the lips between keratin layers

unicorn spines tend to be rather long, consequently leading to long necks, torsos, and tails. their skulls are also usually a bit long compared to others. this overall length usually isn’t obvious when looking at a unicorn on their own, but next to any other class, they look a bit stretched

additionally, unicorns tend to style their hair long as well, coveting flowing tresses. hair appears in several different places on the body besides the head/neck and tail, such as the chin/jaw, throat, ear tips, and fetlocks. while individuals from other classes can sometimes grow hair in these extra places, it’s a rather rare trait, and seems to be associated more with bicorns than full-blood pegasi or earth ponies. interestingly, hair only seems to sprout from the end-half of unicorn tails rather than the full length as seen in other classes-- some ponies joke that unicorns’ first ancestors stole hair from their tails to fill out the rest of their bodies

PEGASUS

so this is where I more heavily reference Jayrockin’s designs, and where I apologize if I didn’t make my wing designs unique enough from Jay’s... I just LOVE the look of cartilage-lobe wings, and it makes so much more sense than *suddenly feathers* in pony anatomy, imo (unless I were to just make all ponies’ fur/hair highly-specialized feathers, which is.... I mean it’s not a bad idea, but I’m not super into it)

anyways, pegasus wings vary across individuals, with different shapes and sizes leading to different flight styles. all wings are too small to support a pony without magic, but there is still a sense of relative loading and wingspan that leads different modes of movement. all wings have four fingers, with the first digit usually serving as a kind of alula. the cartilage of the lobes can reach as far as halfway up the length of the fingers, though they can be smaller. due to the lobes, the fingers only have one joint about halfway down the finger, near the start of the cartilage. the cartilage spines near the elbow also have one joint, and can range from 2-4 on a wing. pegasus tails are much stiffer and straighter than those of other classes in order to support tail spines and webbing for flight. 2-4 pairs of spines sprout from the base of the tail and are constructed similarly to the spines on the wings. sometimes the webbing of the back edge of the wings and the front edge of the tail connect, but this is uncommon

pegasi are generally the tallest of the classes, with long, thin legs and necks providing ample height. to handle the forces of powered flight, pegasi torsos are much stiffer than those of other classes. while pegasus wings aren’t especially muscular due to the reliance on wind magic, they still bulk up the torso with thick pectorals (still on the fence over whether they need a shallow keel tho..)

pegasi usually don’t have upturned snouts, but rather a straight slope with a small snout tip, giving the overall skull an aerodynamic wedge shape. their ears are also smaller to cut back on wind disturbance

pegasi hair tends to grow rather short, and even then individuals will usually keep it cropped short so it’s less of a hassle while flying. tail hair generally only sprouts from the very tip of the tail, sometimes extending down some of the underside of the tail. unlike the mysterious short range of tail hair in unicorns, this growth pattern is a direct result of the tail spines/webbing. while pegasus hair is sparse, pegasus fur tends to be thick and fluffy, especially around the torso and neck. this helps insulate pegasi when flying high in the chilly skies

EARTH

since earth pony magic seems to be driven by tactile connection to the earth via their hooves, I gave them hoof-nails as a more distinct conduit for their magic. they’re designed after elephant toenails, so they’re thick and blunt

besides that, earth ponies have bulky, thick physiques to match their typically labor-heavy lifestyles. not much more to say since that’s a p universal hc for earth ponies so ¯|_(ツ)_/¯

#mlp #mlp:fim #My Little Pony #my little pony friendship is magic #this is like half my own personal drive for specevo half love-letter to jayrockin's designs asdfgfgh I'm sorry..#I have some Thoughts abt social dynamics/communication but I only rly have a handle on it for earth ponies so far so maybe later..#notes #specevo

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goldstonegolem64 · 4 years

Text

Book 1 Hope returns Chapter 43 Best laid plans By Goldstonegolem 64

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYLLvLneU2k

In Galra central command.

Thace Had spent the passed three weeks reading over ever reports from everyone that was on level eighteen through forty two the day Voltron attacked . Each one was the same as the next they either were I saw so an so from what ever department go down to that level or I was at my work station. An with no leads Lady Haggar took it upon herself to get the Answers and with over Six hundred and forty people to an interrogate. It gave Thace an opening to do his current mission. As he walked toward one of the main control rooms. As he walked towards his objective he felt someone watching him . He didn’t want to draw attention to himself so he kept moving .As he made it to the control room the feeling stopped. Which wasn’t a good sign

“ If your going to kill me then show me you face I'd rather not be stabbed in the back “ Thace said as he turned around to see two of those Super Soldier thing that Haggar introduced a few days. Each wore a helmet that hide their face it made Thace a little uneasy when ever he saw them. He noticed that these two had green on their uniforms which meant they were under the lead ship of that vines freak meaning that this two survived his training regiment . Their was about fifty of those thing in the begin four were killed off when they face voltron and the Valkyrie. Most of the Others were killed off by Root Rot’s training as he called it leaving only ten of them with more to come

“ Hello fleet commander Thace it nice to see you today “ A deep raspy voice

Thace felt a chill up run up is spine as he felt hot breath on his neck. Thace turned around to see the hulking vine monstrosity that was Root rot towering over him .” Hello Root rot what bring you down here?”

“ I’m just taking my best students for a walk before we depart for are mission” Rot said with a wicked smile on his face

“ And what is that mission?” Thace asked now a little worried

“ Well seeing as that Commander what's her name again Helner was it failed Lady Haggar Has decide to send me to conquer the planet of Olkarion. Now what bring you down here” Root rot asked

“ Same as you just walking “ Thace said

“Please try that again Thace.“ Root rot said as he started to lean in closer

“ What do you mean “ Thace said as he reached for is blade only to find at it wasn’t there

“ Looking for this “ Root rot said as he held Thace’s blade in his hand “ It’s been about six hundred years since I've last seen one of these “ As they said that a few dozen blades of the same make started to come out from between the vines that made up his body “ So Now I will ask again What really brings you here Agent thace “

Thace felt a twinge of fear run down his spine as he saw each one of the blades. As he looked at each blade he remembered when he first joined the blade he read about how about six hundred and forty two years ago thirty nine blades when out to kill a bio-terrorist. Only one returned and they were drive man by the experiences. But he didn’t have time to waste So he remembered his training then spoke” As i said before i’m just walking same as you now my i have the blade my sister gave me for my birthday last year “

Root Rot starred at Thace for a few seconds. Then a wicked smile came across his face as he handed the blade back. But as thace reach out for it. Root Rots hand unraveled and wrapped around Thace’s arm and pulled him closer and whipped “ You may fool everyone else here but you can’t fool me. I'm guessing you're really here to sabotage this console as well your the one that let Voltron and the Valkyrie escape. But don’t worry I won’t tell not because we share the same goals. I just like to watch my prey squirm. So watch your back. “ Root rot said as he released Thace's hand “ Blackthorn , Ironwood lets set out were heading out soon. Goodbye Thace try not to die while I'm away” Root rot said as he started to walk away followed by his suburbanites

Thace stood there for a few seconds not know how to handle what just happened . All he know was that his mission had compromised. But he still had to do it . So He entered the control room . Pealed of off one of his nails and pulled out a small chip that would allow him to Sabotage the Command central defenses from his office . He then pleased the chip under the console and then left the room to return to his office to connect his personal computer to the console. After a minutes the door to the control room opened again and two figures appeared walking into the room

Elsewhere

In the castle of lions Everyone stood around a holo projector.

“ Hey hunk “ Snap” Walk up” Snap jay snapped his metal fingers in front of the sleeping yellow paladin

Hunk awake startled by the sound “ Sorry I've haven't sleep well that passed few days what did i miss.”

“ Lance you up” Shiro said

Lance walked up to the Holo projector “ Ok Here’s the plan that the beautifully pidge as come up with. First were going to build a massive Teludavs Ring that’s going to teleport The command center way from the main fleet .Which will allow Us and the rebel feet that General Asmo is work on getting to help us. “

As Lance explained the plan. Allura was looking and the room an as she did everything changed or more appropriately everyone changed everyone looked older. Shiro’s hair was fully white.he wear glasses and had a little bit of stubble on his chin Also his prosthetic was a little bit bigger it no longer had an upper arm it was just a metal hand and forearm and their was a disk was that glowed blue attactech to where the joint would be . Adam looked the same just a little older looking, same with Lance and Pidge. Hunk hadn’t changed much either he was a little muscular and his hair was shorter , Matt was the same a few more scars here and there . Beau was in that new body that Pidge, Matt , Jay,hunk, La-sai and himself were working on. The bodies design looked like what Pidge called a World war 1 fighter pilots uniform with Jay’s salvagers helmet as the head. The bodies color was a mixture of blues and reds. Then there was Keith and Jay that had the biggest changes to them. Keith was much taller then before his hair was longer, He had a purple marking or burn scar on his face. He was also wearing the same robes as kolivan . An as for jay he had a bushy beard and a thick handlebar mustache, his hair was longer and nearly touched the floor. Also his right eye looked like it was half closed do to a scar that line over the eyelid. He also had a tail that split into two sharp bone blade tails that wrapped around his waist . As for the rest of the crew they all looked relatively the same.

This wasn’t the first time she Saw them like this it happened every so often that she didn't pay it no mind. She just thought it was a side effects of her being in cryo sleep for ten thousand years . But as these things happened more frequently. She started to look back on that dream she had a few weeks back where she saw those gravestones of all her friends and she started to think that maybe it wasn't a dream Maybe it was a warning of things to come in the coming years .

“ Allura your up” Lance said as he pointed towards Allura

Allura shook from her stupor “ Yes We’ll be splitting up to for teams. Shay, Rax, Coran and i Will go to the Balmare to Collect a Crystal strong enough to power the ring. Well Hunk, Keith Nyma,and Rolo with Go collect Skulltrite from a weblum. While that is going on Shiro, Matt,Adam and Lance will go to Beta Traz to rescue an engineer named Slav. As for the rest of the team you will go to Olkierion an defend it from any Imperial warships that might come near the planet. Now An questions ?” Allura asked

“ just one from what the blade has told us there are more of those discount Valkyries now mixed in with the normal Warships and probably in side of the command center along “ JAy snapped his fingers trying to remember the names of the four other robeast pilots “ Skyver,Harley,Quinn and that thing i still don’t know or want to know the name of still working with the empire meaning that they will be there to defend the command center How are we going to handle that many enemies at once?”

“ Yeah Jay right there is only so much Voltron and Valkyrie can handle ” Shiro said

“ Yeah and i really don’t want to be thrown around like a rage doll again “hulk said

“Well i have come up with a way to handle that problem” Pidge said as she changed the image on the holo projection. To Show of a familier Cube “ Seeing as we're going back to Olkierion I was thinking about Asking Ryner if she could reprogram those cubes we fought before.” Then the image changed again to show of the titanic Knight that helped them. And if possible maybe we could Call on the help of that Valguard figure.”

“Yeah If we could get their help it could really turn the tide in a favor ever more” Adam said

“ But how are going to contacted that thing the first place” Jay say a little skeptical

In the back of jay’s mind “ I could try and play that song it used to contact us the first time when we get to Olkierion ”

“ Ok but how are we going to do that val. I mean yes we have deep space comms but how do we know it’s going to responded” Jay replied out loud.everyone looked at him “ Sorry Val was talking to me and brought up that maybe we could possible use that song to contact Vanguard.” Jay said rubbing the back of his head embarrassed .

“ That’s not a bad idea “ Shiro said

“ But what makes you believe that this Vanguard will come and help us “Kolivan asked

“ Well it seemed to have some sort of connection To Val and Voltron. It said that it was so happy to no longer be alone. So i going to take a guess that it will do anything no to be alone again ” Lance said

“ Well we will only find out when we try it . Now everyone Get ready and head out to your missions “ Allura order. She watched as everyone left the bridger . An after a few minutes took to the hem and opened up three wormholes The first one had the blue lion flying into it . The second one had the yellow lion fly into. While the third hole had the Valkyrie, Green lion , The prometheus fly into it. After that she closed those Wormholes she opened a huge wormhole and slowly flow the Castle of lions into it. She prayed for everyone's safe return and hope nothing back happened to Oklierion while the were alway. But she had to push that to the back of her mind and focused on the task at hand.

Author’s note

The next three posts will be other story i’ve been working on

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