#my turtle mutual is watching the show and is so funny
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rating tmnt love interests for the turtles
under the cut ;)))
leonardo
radical / raven shadowheart - mirage
6/10
-she seems pretty okay, but i can’t tell how old she is.
-she’s only his love interest in a possible future, not in the main timeline, but she freaking dies in that future lol.
-i mean i think it has potential but there’s not much there. they seemed cute for what we got tho.
-prolly my second fav leo love interest but that’s not saying much.
leonardo’s wife - mirage
5/10
-from his side story vision or whatever
-kinda average bc they’re cute but she doesn’t exist :/
lotus blossom - 1987
100000000000000000/10
-idk what to say they’re my otp lmao
-objectively best romantic relationship leonardo has ever had.
-they’re mutually into each other, work off of each other well, even splinter likes lotus so leonardo’s dad approves!!
-only downside is lotus hasn’t been in anything since and i think that’s why i’m so salty that they paired leonardo with april in the new movie (kinda but i’ll get to that).
venus de milo - next mutation
-1000000/10
-what the.
-that scene was painful to watch holy cow.
-“we’re just a mutant guy and a mutant girl” *lip bite* -> she just wanted a family bro 😭
carmen - archie
?/10
-all i know is that it’s from a possible future and the wiki says they’re implied to be interested in each other but i don’t trust the wiki so i’m skeptical
-also it’s weird for leonardo to date his pupil
koya - idw
-1/10
-*explodes*
-bruh they have no chemistry and he literally crippled her and she hates him for it.
-this only exists for the bad future and i’ll stand by that.
karai - 2012
-1000000000000000/10
-it’s worse than venus bc they both have splinter’s genetics. they are blood related.
-also they’re cousins too.
-“tHeY’rE nOt rLLy reLaTed” okay even if they weren’t blood related, it’s still weird as hell to crush on an adopted or step sibling/cousin. family is family regardless. and in a kids show especially; tmnt shouldn’t be telling kids it’s okay to crush on your adopted/step sibling/cousin!!!!
-karai led leonardo on.
-it sucks bc if you drop the flirting and crush completely, leonardo and karai’s dynamic is really good for both their characters!! new girl in town is legit one of my fav episodes just for how it portrays leo’s conflict with himself as a brother and as a leader. and he and karai’s dynamic is very interesting as friends and/or siblings or cousins.
april o’neil - mutant mayhem
5/10
-i mean it’s just okay imo.
-leo’s crush is adorable and i like their dynamic a lot.
-i just don’t think april is into him romantically. but their friendship is great.
-i honestly want leonardo to move on and let them be good friends. but i don’t want it to be drawn out and excruciating.
-also i want lotus in a sequel or the tv show 😭
raphael
mona lisa - 1987
9/10
-okay so. if i’m being completely honest, in the show they’re not really romantic. she’s a bit flirty but their dynamic is mostly platonic. which isn’t a bad thing!
-i think as a romantic pairing, they wouldn’t get together for a long time, but i do like them as a couple.
-it’s one of those pairings where i like them as both a romantic couple and as best friends and they work for both equally!
-they’re funny i like them.
venus de milo - next mutation
-1000000/10
-oh yeah raphael liked her too …
-blegh.
umeko / ninjara - archie
2/10
-i’ll be real i do not care about ninjara.
-they broke up so it doesn’t even matter.
mezcaal - archie
6/10
-raphael’s wife from a possible future.
-they’re adorable. shout out to archie raphael for being the only turtle to canonically get married.
-he gives her head pats :3
joi reynard - 2003
8/10
-he asked her out how sweet :3
-i wish joi showed up more i would’ve loved to see them interact more
alopex - idw
3/10
-GIRL GET OUT OF THERE HES NOT GOOD FOR YOU
-she was tWELVE when they met
-he was sIXTEEN
-what the HECK.
-also he was so moody toward her several times ugh
y’gythgba / mona lisa - 2012
10/10
-there we go. the best raphael romance.
-idk they’re cute.
-my only issue is that their first episode together is badly paced and i just wish they had more episodes together. but that’s the issue with 2012 in general not just them specifically.
donatello
jhanna - mirage
9/10
-literally the same as 03 except not as much interaction between them, however, donatello did look much more smitten in mirage?? ig???
-but yeah i love jhannatello :3333333
irma - 1987
2/10
-does this. count?
-idk i only included it bc irma kinda flirts with him more than the others and they end up being closer friends compared to the other turtles.
-yeah no i really don’t think this should. be shipped gjdjfj
-she’s an adult. tho it is weird that she flirted with him but ig the writers forgot the implications 😭
-i could see ppl making her a love interest in a version where she’s a teenager too but otherwise noooooooo
-i like their friendship tho they’re funny.
((((also shout out to next mutation donatello for not flirting with his sister so i don’t have to include her lol))))
jhanna - 2003
10/10
-my belovedssssss
-idc that it’s only implied I LOVE THEIR DYNAMIC
-i ship them so hard.
-they have more screentime together in 03 which is why i like it more than mirage.
-also they slept side by side so obviously it’s canon duhhh
renet - 2003
6/10
-included cause some ppl think they were a thing
-they’re cute ngl
-i think maybe they were into each other for a bit but it didn’t work out bc time travel romances don’t work
april o’neil - 2003
2/10
-donatello kinda had a crush on her but thank God it didn’t go anywhere.
-yeah no thanks lol.
-love their friendship tho they bestiessss
mona lisa - idw
1/10
-why is mona a jerk in idw smh
-i’ve already talked about this but yeah i do not like their situationship at all.
-give him jhanna i’m begging fjdjfjdk
april o’neil - 2012
9/10
-yES I RANKED THEM THAT HIGH SHUT UP
-only turtle x april ship i like; otherwise i’m a jhannatello stan
-keep in mind i only rlly “ship” them in season 4 onwards
-season 1 to 3 was their messy phase and they needed to grow up before they got together
-they were totally dating in season 5 fIGHT ME
-they’re idiots and i love them
bigfoot - 2012
-1/10
-fjdkdkskfjskkdjdksdj
-thanks to my sister for making me add this
-yeah what the.
tbh i don’t count batgirl hhh
michelangelo
princess seri - mirage
1/10
-what in the soap opera—
-no bc she seduced him, had his babies, sent him to jail, and left him there when he called out for help; he was justified to hate her
-the way this plotpoint gets dropped and never mentioned again LMAO
-mikey is the only turtle with canon kids 💀
kala - 1987
10/10
-the best michelangelo ship bite me
-THEYRE SO PURE
-the way he looked after her when they first met 😭
-their cute flirting fjskfjdkdk
-i love them
buffy shellhammer - 1987
4/10
-she’s annoying but she’s capable of handling herself so i like her lol
-but michelangelo liking her was super random and was only there bc the episode was a copy of the transformers g1 episode where powerglide falls for a human girl. i’m not joking both episodes were written by david wise and have the same plotpoints.
-“main flame” my butt michelangelo
-maybe he crushed on her bc kala being in an alternate dimension and near impossible to contact made him feel like it was never gonna work or something … that’s so sad omigosh
-leonardo of all ppl telling him it wouldn’t work bc she’s a human is hilarious tho. like boy lotus blossom is into you too and you know this lmao
mitsu - 3rd 90s movie
3/10
-i haven’t seen this movie, but i don’t like time travel romances.
venus de milo - next mutation
-1000000/10
-pls end me
sara hill / horridus - image
3/10
-… tbh i don’t like hook-up dynamics … it’s not romantic to me …
-also idc if a character is curvy but the girls in image comics are drawn so badly like they have no spine,,, just boobs and butt 💀
princess trib - idw
9/10
-finally a good mikey ship
-THEYRE ADORABLE
-the purest idw couple fr
-they’re just sweet to each other and encouraging and gahhhh
-mikey wanted to show her his manga collection to impress her and i think that’s funny
-it is kinda weird that trib is based on tribble from 1987,,, aka the neutrino baby … but whatever lol
renet - 2012
7/10
-i mean y’know whatever they’re cute
-it’s still a time travel romance which is … mehhh for me
-like it’s sad bc i don’t see it working out unless renet quits her timestress job …
shinigami - 2012
4/10
-pls they’re just friends.
-there’s no reason to make the turtles crush on every single girl character in the show 😭
april o’neil - bayverse movies
2/10
-end my suffering.
-making april pretend to think it’s funny was also cringe. like make her tell him to stop pls.
lemme know if i missed one ….
#tmnt#tmnt 2012#tmnt 1987#tmnt 2003#tmnt mirage#tmnt image#tmnt archie#tmnt idw#tmnt bayverse#tmnt 90s#tmnt next mutation#tmnt mutant mayhem#pumpkin stuff#tmnt leonardo#tmnt raphael#tmnt donatello#tmnt michelangelo
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"The Best Revenge is Dressing Well" is still such a good episode. I remain eternally angry there wasn't any room in S2 for Frenchie and Olu grifts. It would have been so! good!
I'm kind of glad I started watching after all the episodes were out, because if I'd ended on "You wear fine things well" I probably would have lost my entire fucking mind. It still feels a little surreal, even on the second rewatch, and that is how I know decades of queerbaiting fucked me up.
The "night night!" awkward slap thing is hilarious and so very them. But the mutual look back!! Oh my god. Is it possible to have a fast burn and pining at the same time?
--
I'm sad there wasn't really time for fuckery in S2, because episode 6 is pure theater kid gone wild. Both Ed and Stede are overdramatic bitches and they didn't really have a chance for pageantry in S2, and that fucking sucks.
Jenks said the bathtub scene was filmed early on, and the rapport between Rhys and Taika made him think a romance could work. I remain absolutely floored it wasn't written in from the beginning, because it feels like an inevitability. Is that what craft* is, making something that feels like it was always meant to be that way?
--
I feel Ed deeply in episode 7 because I too hate nature and become absolutely intractable when I'm hangry.
"Coming Nana, I'm coming for some caaaake!" still hits as hard as the first time.
The problem with extended bits is you have to dance the line of prolonging it just long enough to be funny but also ending it before it gets driven into the ground. (Family Guy never understood this.)
--
I still think Jim/Jackie would have been a super great ship. Two bad bitches (gn) setting aside their differences to have a drink, talk about life and maybe bone? Here for it.
Throwing Calico Jack into the mix is such a great way to highlight the usual state of things on the Revenge. I don't think it's a matter of violence (they're pirates) but rather cruelty and disregard. Whippies. The turtle and crab fight. Karl.
I think the first thing I ever heard about OFMD was the foot touch. I watched the whole "The Chain" sequence before I knew anything about the show. I was intrigued enough to give it a shot, even though I was still suspicious it wasn't a queerbait. (Despite having been informed by multiple trusted people it was canon. That's trauma, baybee!)
Honestly, I still think the most remarkable thing about the show is it gave me feelings about a Fleetwood Mac song**.
--
* There are very few perfect first seasons of television. The ones I can think of are Veronica Mars, OFMD, and IWTV.
** Landslide doesn't count, because everybody has feelings about Landslide.
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Hi, I'm resending my 1.7k celebration ask.
I chose option 2
✨to participate in this one, just give me a fandom, any information you want to share about yourself, whether you want the ship to be platonic or romantic, any characters you want me to avoid, and i’ll get back to you as soon as i can with a ship and a blurb!✨
The fandom: The Hunger Games and TBOSAS fandom. A romantic ship please.
____
Here's a little about myself. My personailty in a few words might be sarcastic, funny, kind and impaitent. My MBTI personality type is INTP. My apparence is I'm a dark blonde, greenish blue eyes, curvy and tall. I wear a lot of black turtle necks and dark academia style clothes in general or at least I try to, I sometimes wear dresses and skirts. I'm a hopeless romantic at heart. I like the music of Adele, Taylor Swift and ABBA, but am partial to some other 70s bands since that is a time period I realky like. I enjoy learning about history and literature, also a bit of baking every now and then. I like books, music and old/new movies and tv shows.
If you can exclude from shipping me with the female characters.
Thank you if you so choose to write this🩷
hi!
thank you for participating :)
i ship you with finnick!
i think finnick likes people he can banter with. he doesn’t mind people that are more soft spoken or not necessarily a people person, but he really clicks with someone when he finds someone who can match his level of humor and wit. peeta is one of the only people capable of meeting his level, and he’d really appreciate having another person he could comfortably communicate with without having to feel separate from them. but as much as he’d appreciate the sarcastic and funny side of you, he’d appreciate the softer and kinder side of you too. as the war progressed, he’d need someone comforting and domestic in his day to day life. being able to understand his mood and knowing which version of yourself he needed you to be in the moment would be so nice for him.
finnick is SUCH a flirt. but at the end of the day, he’s a sucker for love. he’d fully believe in treating a girl right and doing things the old fashioned way, never afraid to spoil you or be affectionate with you whether you were in public or in private. he’d constantly be doing little things that would remind you how much he loved and cared for you.
i don’t know what it is about him that’s making me think this, but i just know he’d love your aesthetic. it’s put together purposefully and with style, and he’d appreciate anyone with taste. after being involved in the capitol for so long, he’d learn to appreciate the finer things in life. and while he’d resent it, he’d also grow to respect and love some aspects of it, including music and fashion. it would be a mutually shared interest.
while he’s a good people person and is athletic and would have hobbies associated with that, he’d also love private ones. he may not seem like the type, but hes definitely a bookworm. something about other worlds and languages would fascinate him, and hed find just about any genre valuable in its own way. it wouldn’t take him much to get him going on some tangent about what his latest read or watch was. and hed find it so endearing when you’d get excited and do the same to him, telling him all about the latest thing you picked up.
—
as used to life in the capitol as he is, it wouldn’t be the perfect life for him. hed want domesticity and a life with you more than anything, valuing the simple things in life. when memories of the war or his games would haunt him, he’d wake up next to you, instantly feeling around next to him to make sure you were still with him. he’d feel instant relief when his arm brushed against yours, taking a few moments to himself to catch his breath. maybe he’d read or think about the things he loves to calm him down for a little while. eventually, he’d be rolling back over trying to fall asleep so he wouldn’t wake you up. but his shuffling would wake you anyways, and you’d quietly get out of bed after he passed out again.
he’d find you a few hours later in the kitchen, a mixing bowl on the counter. youd be hunched over the counter with a recipe in your hands, flour covering your apron. he couldn’t help but smile, coming to stand behind you.
“what are you doing, sweetheart?” he’d smile, wrapping his arms around your shoulders.
you’d lean into him, letting him look over your shoulder to read the recipe. “making bread. peeta taught me how, but i can’t seem to remember the steps.”
finnick would snatch the paper from you, chuckling to himself as you rolled your eyes. he’d plop himself down onto the barstool, glancing over your ingredients to see how far you’d made it before he stepped in.
“i don’t think this is your calling, love,” he’d finally chuckle, pointing to a few discarded jars of spices. “aren’t those supposed to be in there?”
“they would’ve been if you hadn’t so rudely interrupted me,” you’d scold, but you both knew you were joking.
he’d smile, leaning back as he watched you work. eventually, he’d reach for the other apron and come to stand next to you, placing the recipe down on the table where you both could still read it.
“alright, what step are we on? looks like you desperately need my help.”
you’d playfully slap his arm, but your heart would warm as you’d hear him giggle and shuffle next to you before he slung an arm around your shoulders.
“seriously,” he’d grin, pointing to the paper. “what step are we on? less pouting, more baking, darling.”
—
thanks again for participating! sorry for the confusion with my inbox and having to wait for so long. i hope you enjoyed this :)
#followers celebration#1.7k followers celebration#1700 followers celebration#1.7k followers#1700 followers#the hunger games#tog#tbosas#the ballad of songbirds and snakes#finnick odair
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you can do whatever you want it’s just funny to complain about ed being villainized in izzy/jack fanfic when you do the exact same thing to stede. like “lucius would want to kill him for what he did to ed” lol is that not what happens in izzy-centric fics except ur talking about ed instead of izzy? it’s fine to woobify one and not the other? be for real.
*long suffering sigh* ok first of all weird flex that you're in my dms about this but whatever, I would not wish you on my beloved mutual so it's fine, second of all we are villainizing Stede in a way that is consistent with his character (pure of heart but unfortunately dumb of ass, runs away as a default response). The sort of vilification of Ed in Calicohands fics that we are complaining about happens in a lot of Izzy fics and is not consistent with his character at all.
There's tons of meta about this but Ed as a character is a man who used violence once when he was young to protect someone he cared about and then got into a career path that necessitated liberal use of violence. Ed is also shown repeatedly to feel bad about that violence over the course of the show, and then at the end of the show he is told by someone close to him that he's worthless if he doesn't start doing that violence that he feels bad about again and that expressing his emotions is a fate worse than death, and that if he doesn't knock off the whole being himself routine he'd better watch his step, so he decides to retreat inwards because he's afraid and because he believes himself to be worthless. He uses violence as a tool to get rid of the one person he knows would be able to see through him and potentially talk him down(Lucius) and he uses violence as a tool to prove to Izzy that he's back to Blackbeard so that Izzy doesn't decide to make good on his threat. The three times we see him use violence as not a part of his job it's when a snake dropped on his head very suddenly (a snake of unknown venemousness btw) and he had a fight or flight response, when he punched Izzy in the face because he tried to murder his boyfriend (pretty fucking restrained actually), and when he was drunk and hanging out with his old buddy and he and Jack made a turtle fight a crab. I will not be apologizing for that one however it was one of the things that he was doing in order to have fun with Jack so its not just on him.
All that paints a picture of a man who A) is not that violent and B) doesn't want to be doing violence anymore. He tells us that on the beach when he's talking to Stede. He says he doesn't want to bite the heads off turtles or feed people their own toes anymore.
But you know what there is. There's a trope of portraying indigenous people, especially indigenous men, as violent savages in order to dehumanize them. And you know what a lot of people in this fucking fandom do in order to sympathize with Izzy? They portray Ed as incredibly violent, much more so than he is in the show. They make him into some abuser. So when he's out of character in that specific way it really makes you wonder why. It's roughly equivalent to making Stede into a villain on the basis that he's a sexual deviant or that he's corrupting Ed with his sexuality. Both of those portrayals would be homophobic, which as Stede is a rich white man, is Stede's major axis of oppression. If your grossed out by the latter(corrupting seductress stede) but fine with the former(violent savage Ed) You might have some shit to unpack.
I'm fine with making a character play whatever role you need them to play in a fanfiction. But when I'm looking for fics that give me a fun premise for Izzy to get his back blown out by Calico Jack(Something I engage in on occasion), I don't want to see a racist caricature standing where Ed stood. I feel like that's a justifiable thing to complain about. I even don't mind it if Ed is the villain so long as he's the villain in a way that makes sense.
Also Stede doing the thing we were talking about in that scenario is not actually that far off from what he actually did. What Stede did in canon was he kissed Ed and then after that happened he left without a word. In the AU we were discussing he fucked Ed and left without a word. In this AU he didn't know that Ed had never had sex before. The most out of character person in that fic is Ed, because it relies on him never having had sex before (despite Jack's dalliance's claims and David Jenkins saying that Ed is the more experienced party "physically") and maybe Izzy, because it relies on him watching Ed spill his guts to the whole crew and for Izzy to not go fucking off the fucking rails, prompting Ed to go off the rails with him. All Stede needs to do in that fic is the same damn thing he did in the show except with a little more cock involved.
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Reblog List
bc i really like to keep track of everything
least to most recent
PLEASE check these out! some of it is fanart, or shitposts, or whatever and the creators deserve recognition so, yea
many are memes. did i label em all? no
⭐️ = *whispers* my favorites
The Umbrella Academy
Too Fucking Funny ⭐️
Harry Potter
Wolfstar
Big Time Rush
“my child is completely fine”
Stranger Things
It’s a Red Flag
Why Nancy and Mike Didn’t Say “I Love You”
It’s 2024
Will is SLAY
TMNT 2012
Mona Lisa - Incorrect Quote
Lego
He’s A Ten Reblog One tehhahah ⭐️
He’s A Ten Reblog Two pshhshahah ⭐️
RotTMNT
Repressed Raph Taking That Hit
Fandom How We Doing
Rise Movie, What To Do
Feel So Normal
We Are Lucky to Have the Movie
How We Got A Movie, Interview
Instead of Through a Window
Donnie Fanart
“Cozy bros” Fanart ⭐️
Don Falling to His Death ft. Incorrect Quotes ⭐️
#5 in Kid’s Titles
Some End-of-Movie-Leo Analysis
“WHAT IN THE BODY HORROR”
No More Responsibilities
Watching Show as Movie Analyses Come Out
Nickelodeon in the Studio ⭐️
Tag Yourself
Mystic Mikey Fanart!!
Us After the Movie
Andy Explain Yourself
“Future Leo living in guilt”
Watching Snow Day Again
POV you are leo ⭐️
“Nickelodeon really knows what they’re doing”
Love the Movie More
LOOK AT THEM
Splinter Comforts Depressed Donnie (humor) (not angst) (it’s for shits) (for laughs) ⭐️
A Lovely Addition to My Incorrect Quote seriously thank you so much i love
Don’t Atello
ATTENTION
Reasons to Watch RotTMNT
Late Night Candy Store
Donnie says no and does it anyway inq
Understand why villains hate the turtles lmao
Leo and Future Leo
Leo is Busy Now, Raph ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Teacups Spinning
You would not believe ⭐️
Ninjago
i will not ⭐️ the in-universe memes bc theres many and itll be too many stars for my eyes, so just know
Whimsy Character until Step 2
Zoom Julien ⭐️
Cole Red-Green Colorblind
Jump Up Kick Back Cycle ⭐️
Looking for Happiness - Incorrect Quote
Tried to Cancel Ninjago
Fame Headcanons
Kai When He Sees Homo/Transphobic Shit - Incorrect Quote
Cole Housewife Mode - Incorrect Quote
Cole Full??? - Incorrect Quote
Both Jays
Wu is Starting to Think ⭐️
Plasma Wedding
Kai Vibe Check - Incorrect Quote
Lloyd Mid-Life Crisis - Incorrect Quote
A Live Slug Reaction
Wu is Starting to Think (again, i apparently reblogged this twice, my bad) ⭐️
Zane and a Lollipop
If You Are Queer
In-Universe Memes
More In-Universe Memes
Dancing Lloyd ⭐️
Lloyd Dancing Rb 2 heehee
Toaster Zane ⭐️
Even More In-Universe Memes
EVEN MORE IN-UNIVERSE MEMES
Zane Beloved
Ninjago Character Quiz!!! ⭐️
G r a v i t y
To Unlock the Dragon Form…
Other
Cookies for Mutuals
Mario Movie, “He isn’t even italian”
Lesbiphobia check:
Owl House Hanging in There Star
Hunter Gender Envy
Animation V Minecraft Ep 30 Update
#reblog#rottmnt#ninjago#harry potter#stranger things#fuck me imma have to go through a load of shit to find em all#why must i do this to myself#big time rush#yo i reblogged so much more than i thought#im crying
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List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last ten people however many you want who reblogged something from you! Get to know your mutuals & followers!! <3
Sorry for leaving this in my ask box for a few days, I was gathering spoons after a very social weekend. Now onto my answer ❤️
1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I love my boys so much, I have watched Mutant Mayhem twice in the cinema (and I have never done that) it is my new favourite film, the soundtrack is perfect, the art is stunning, and is has the amazing ability to balance laugh out loud funny with emotional.
And don't even get me started on the 2012 series...
💖
2. Slow burn romance
(especially with more reserved characters/cultures)
Give me Vulcans who are impossible to read and it's only after they stay by your side when they have the ability to leave that you realise that they care for you too.
Give me reserved British gentlemen (*cough*James Norrington*cough*) who are constrained by society to hold their feelings back. Do they love you? Are they just being a gentleman?
Give me elves who age so much slower, who don't realise they are being slow as they take centuries to court but the mortal they care for only has decades.
Give me fake lovers who are convinced that the swooping feeling in their stomach is just a part of the bit, and anyone's heart would flutter if their hand was kissed with such reverence, or they shared a blanket around a bonfire, or they slow-danced together at their cousin's wedding.
I could easily go on!
💖
3. Deep Space Nine
I could have put Star Trek in general, but it is DS9 that truly makes me happy.
I love the morally grey characters. I love how even the side characters get decent character development. I love the harsh mirror on "paradise" and the good found in the worst of times. I love the filler episodes, the baseball episode, the casino heist. I love the relationships (not always positive!); Garak and Bashir; Rom and Nog; Quark and Odo; Sisko and Dax; Sisko and Jake; Jake and Nog; Sisko and Kira; Kira and Zeyal; Dukat and everyone who hates him. I LOVE the bad guys, I love how compelling they are, how sympathetic they are, yet still ultimately bad. I love the raw feelings, credit to both the writers and the actors for bringing it to life (if you watch no other Star Trek, watch The Visitor for the most heartbreaking performance ever).
💖
4. Food!
My friends have often joked that my special interest is food. I love food, both eating and watching people prepare. I love trying new food, especially East Asian food, though I'm hoping to try more South American food (there's a Venezuelan place on my hit list). I can also spend hours watching cooking shows and have done since I was a child.
I am also the self-proclaimed queen of sauces, be it a pasta sauce, a dipping sauce, a soup (what is soup if not a diluted sauce?). This summer I have levelled up my BBQ game as well!
💖
5. My wife
I know, gay! But she does make me happy, even when I want to be miserable and when I'm just trying to have a good sulk.
💖
Thank you for sending this in, my ask box is usually quite empty and I welcome the change. (I know this turned into more of a things I love list, but a venn diagram of things you love and things that make you happy should just be a circle)
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I see you've been getting quite a few discourse-y ish anons and idk how you feel about it but I figure you might want a palate cleanser so: Favorite ML ship that you never want to happen in the actual show, why, and any headcanons for them??
Thank you, anon! I don't really mind the discourse asks as long as they’re respectful and I like discussing stuff, it's not like I have the opportunity to talk about this stuff offline too. But I did need a palate cleanser (another discourse ask dropped soon after this one was sent), so let’s tackle your question:
I did spend some time thinking about it because I was unsure about what type of ship I would talk about. A ship that could realistically happen in canon? I don’t have any that I care about like that, so I’ll just talk about one that would never happen and I don’t want it to: Adrino (yeah, it now turned into one of these posts).
Adrino is my second favorite in ML because their dynamics got me on the floor and they would be the cutest couple. However, I don’t think the show is interested in developing side couples for Adrien and Marinette and would rather focus on the love square, a decision I support (even if we adrigamis were robbed). I think working on an Adrino romance in canonverse would be doable if they had started earlier, but not only were they never actually do that (though the executives’ reaction if it was ever pitched would be really funny), their friendship is only starting to get the spotlight now in season 4.
(It would also break up djwifi who are absolutely power couple goals right now and we can’t have that.)
That doesn’t stop me from having headcanons about them and dreaming:
They are the kings of mutual pining. Adrien doesn’t make a move for fear of losing his closest human friendship and he doesn’t know enough about social clues to be sure that Nino is showing interest in him. Nino doesn’t think Adrien could ever be interested in him since his only crushes were Ladybug and Kagami and Marinette who were all girls that were nothing like him and he doesn’t want to make a move and make Adrien uncomfortable and leave Adrien without a friend he can rely on.
Adrien (as Chat Noir) goes to Ladybug for advice on how to deal with his crush. She is immediately on the Chat Noir/His Crush fanclub and helps him elaborate at least ten crazy confession plans a week (was that how she dealt with her crush??)
Nino goes to Rose and Juleka as they’re the happiest same-sex (and overall tbh) couple he knows. They say they can subtly check if Adrien is interested and end up not being able to go through with the interrogation (Juleka) or not being subtle at all (Rose. “Nino is kinda cute, isn't he, Adrien? If you’re into men. Are you? Do you think Nino is-” “Hahaha, Rose, we’re late for our, huh, thing.” “What thing?” “The thing with the, you know, horses and wegottagobyeAdrien-”)
Nino is the one who confesses first after taking advice from Chat Noir as Carapace. Adrien barely lets him finish before he hugs him.
They hold hands all the time. If they aren’t taking notes in class? Hand in hand. Lunch? Hand in hand. Running from an akuma attack? Hand in- where did Adrien go?
Adrien is very shy about kissing at first, but Nino is very gentle and Adrien feels very safe with him, so he gets comfortable with it soon.
Nino loves sitting on Adrien’s lap and Adrien loves being able to wrap his arms around Nino when he does that.
They mostly have online dates because Gabriel sucks, but Adrien does sneak out at least twice a month to go to Andre’s with Nino or simply hang by his house.
Nino’s family adores Adrien and he loves them right back. His parents call him Adrien Lahiffe to tease Nino and Nino blushes all the time for it, but he doesn’t complain because Adrien gets emotional over that.
(If they ever got married, Adrien would take Nino’s surname and be very proud of being called Mr. Lahiffe.)
(They wouldn't invite Gabriel to the wedding either, good for them. Emilie is on thin fucking ice too.)
Gabriel doesn’t know about their relationship and Adrien doesn’t even try to tell him, too afraid his father would separate them. Gorilla does, though, and keeps it a secret because Adrien is really really happy.
Adrien introduces Nino to anime, who hadn’t watched anything but stuff from when he was a kid, like DBZ. Since Nino is unused to anime tropes, they bother him a lot more, so he’s picky about what to watch. They’re on their third rewatch of Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Nino goes with Adrien and Chris to anime conventions. They cosplay as Utena and Anthy (Chris goes as Naruto) and Nino lowkey hates the event but seeing Adrien happy makes it worth it. (He also gets into an argument with a guy about music in Neon Genesis Evangelion for 30 minutes.)
Nino gets irrationally insecure in their relationship sometimes, but learned to communicate about it better after his break up with Alya. Adrien always goes out of his way to show Nino how much he appreciates him when this happens, with words and romantic actions.
Nino is the first person Adrien openly talked to about how he feels towards Emilie going missing. He thinks his mother would like Nino a lot.
When they grow up and move in together (Gabriel is in jail and only gets vent visits from Adrien), they adopt a turtle called The Quickster (emphasis on the "the") and a cat called Nanami.
#i had to stop bc this was turning into an adrino fic not a list of headcanons kwjdmkokwj#thanks anon this was so much fun to answer ily#marry answers#adrino#adrinino#adrien agreste#nino lahiffe#miraculous ladybug#i know we have (rightfully) seen a lot of adrien dupain-cheng but consider: adrien lahiffe
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Thank you for answering all my previous questions! More for you if I may! What are your favorite Technoblade moments?
oh anytime! <3 i love talking about that kind of thing.
i'm going to have to limit myself for this one, however, because i would name so many moments.
for me, the two biggest moments, the ones that drew me into techno's character from the beginning were showing everyone the vault and his 'don't you see what's happenin' here' speech.
the vault scene really influenced me a lot because i've always been someone who deeply values mutual aid but in minecraft, it's hard to portray that. food is exceedingly easy to get and shelter is as well. but what's not easy to get is gear. things like diamond or netherite armor, potions, etc. so seeing him open up this huge vault full of gear and saying 'take what you need' hit me right in my little anarchist heart.
his speech on the 16th, before the theseus part, is one of my favorites because i could hear his frustration. it never struck me as anger, really, but someone who is distraught about what is happening. c!techno believed that if they put in place a new government, people would be hurt again and he wanted people to listen and see what he saw. (also cc!techno's acting there was fucking flawless.)
of course i'm going to go to my 'safe haven' moment again because i feel like it really shows techno's vulnerability. he's not an unfeeling weapon, he's someone that comes to care about people quickly and takes hurt personally, even if it was a difference of ideals.
and while i could name so many other moments, there's nothing better to me than techno's utter horror when a zombie crushed his turtle eggs.
as far as cc!techno moments not related to dsmp, this whole bit with the trader and the llama might be one of the funniest things ever. i couldn't clip it because it's too long but i lose my mind every time i watch it, he's so funny.
honestly, i know i'm forgetting moments i love and there's moments i'm thinking of currently (for you the world, 'i dropped out of college for this') but if i listed them all, we'd truly be here forever.
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Carolina
Marine Biologist AU that no one asked for but I wrote because I miss my second home. Probably two parts.
Very brief mention of a family members death
"Hi welcome to-" Leo stopped his normal speech when he was met with the two most gorgeous men he had ever laid eyes on. "Welcome to the Fort Fisher aquarium. I'm your tour guide Leo and this is Regulus." He somehow managed to snap out of his shock even though the greeting was all muscle memory.
“Two guides. Must be special." The red haired one laughed a laugh that made doves fly. "I'm Finn." He shook their hands.
"That and both of us wanted a break from sticky children trying to swim with the sharks and gators." Reg smiled.
"Sharks? Like ocean sharks? And ocean alligators?" The shorter one asked in shock and a lot more than a sprinkle of fear.
'Fuck he's adorable' Leo swore internally. "Alligators are typically fresh water reptiles but if you are asking if they are real sharks and alligators, than no. They're they’re hyperealalistic mechanical sculptures." He kept a straight face.
"Cute and funny." Finn flashed him a smile after another angelic laugh.
Leo had to remind himself to not die right then and there.
“Don't worry, Logan" Finn told the other one. "I'll protect you from the scary teeth, baby."
Now Leo was sad.
“Oh yeah, right after you stop ogling over our hot tour guide."
Now Leo was slightly less sad and confused.
“Actually." Regulus pulled out his phone. "Our manager just texted and said he needs someone in the gift shop. Have fun." He left with a pat on Leos back.
Leo glared as he walked away, they didn't get texts from anyone for any assignment. Hence the walkie talkies on their belt loops.
“So, follow me and we can start the tour." +++
“This is our 235,000 gallon tank." Leo stood over top of the two story tall tank. In here we have our eagle rays, round stingrays, whiptail stingrays, hammerhead sharks, sandbar sharks, sand tiger sharks, hammerhead sharks. We also have two moray eels and an abundance of fish including shanks and groupers. And a personal favorite, Sheldon the green sea turtle.” Leo stood on the rusted grate with ease as if he didn’t care about the hammerhead only a few feet away from his toes.
“Um, this is great and all but can we not stand on the edge without a railing?” Logan stayed as far away as he could an the 2 feet wide walkway.
“You’re completely safe don’t worry.” Leo flashed a reassuring smile.
“Okay yeah but-”
“Stop being a baby, Lo.” Finn poked his side.
“I’m sorry I’m scared of falling into a 23 foot deep death cylinder filled with sharks.” Logan defended himself.
“Alright we can go officially start the tour.” Leo laughed. “But we do have to walk across the tank.”
“We what?” Logan asked.
“It’s okay. Just don’t look down.” He decided to risk a wink.
“Listen to the hot guide, babe.” Finn kissed Logan’s cheek. “I’ll hold your hand.”
“I love you, Harzy. But I do not trust you enough to not try and scare me.”
“I promi- no I don’t. Fine.” Finn whined when his plans were spoiled.
“Alright, let’s go.” Leo laughed.
They got across the walkway with only a few exaggerated wobbles to scare Logan. And a very grumpy Logan when Leo told him there was another way around the tank.
+++
“So here we have our bald eagle Maverick.” Leo walked up to the opened enclosure. “He’s five years old and has been here since he was two. He was found on the side of the road nearly starved after being hit by a car. If you look at his left wing you can see it juts out a little. That is due to the bones fusing together incorrectly and it makes him unable to ever fly again.” He recited the well known script.
“Poor baby” Finn stuck his bottom lip out.
Leo blinked away the urge to kiss the sad look off his face.
“If we walk up here you can see the aquariums prized possession.” Leo smiled. “Luna the albino Alligator.”
“Oh my god.” Finn hurried over to the glass.
“She looks like you, lover. Pale as fuck.” Logan teased.
“Luna is one of just 100 recorded albino alligators world wide.”
“World wide?” Logan asked in shock.
“Yeah. It’s an extremely rare genetic mutation and due to the inability to hide from predators they’re numbers are next to zero. Very soon they’ll be no more albino gators.”
“What happened to that alligators toes?” Logan pointed at the dark green alligator.
“That’s Gantur. He still hasn’t learn that Luna’s the leader.”
“She bit them off?” Logan’s eyes went wide.
“Don’t underestimate her. Ready to continue?”
+++
“This is my favorite exhibit.” Leo’s face lit up as they walked up to the touch pool.
“Touch anything as long as you use two fingers and don’t pick anything up.”
“Are those stingrays?” Finn pointed towards the end of the touch pool.
“Yeah. They’re still babies and their stingers have been trimmed. Their barbs are like thumbnails and can be clipped monthly without any harm.”
“What are those?”
Leo’s face lit up impossibly more.
“These are horseshoe crabs.” He held onto one of the dark greenish brown banjo shaped creature.
“They are also called living fossils due to the fact that they haven’t evolved at all since the dinosaurs, around 450 million years. It’s mostly due to the fact that they didn’t need anything added or taken away for survival. They were made perfectly. Now their tails.” He pointed to the long stick like end as it moved around with the help of what looked like scaley gills. “Most people look at it and think it will hurt. But it won’t hurt at all. They are extremely, extremely clumsy and use the long tail to flip themselves back over.”
“Sounds like you.” Finn kissed Logan.
“Rude.” Logan scoffed.
“Horseshoe crabs aren’t actually crabs at all. They’re actually more closely related to scorpions and spiders. Watch.” Leo smirked and flipped it over.
There were five pairs of claws moving around as the gills moved up and down like abs, causing the tail to move with it.
“Here-” Leo grabbed Logan’s hand, he tried hard to ignore the way his skin burned. “Touch it.”
“Oh no I’m okay to just look.”
“Come on, just touch it.” Leo begged. “Please just touch it.” He pouted.
“Oh my fuck you’re adorable.” Logan voiced Leo’s exact same thoughts from before.
“Here” he blushed and bit his lib to contain the smile. “Touch it.” He guided Logan’s hand down to the center of the legs, desperately trying to not think about how close they were. Logan’s t-shirt touching his blue polo shirt with his name stitched in the side. The way he could feel Logan’s breathing against his side, the way his leg was pressed between Logans le- stop it.
“Eww that feels weird” Logan’s laughed raised goosebumps on his arm.
“You’re touch his mouth.”
“Ew ew ew ew” Logan pulled his hand away quickly as Finn cackled.
“You asshole” Logan laughed as he pushed Leo lightly.
“Sorry, but it’s funny.” Leo laughed.
“You are now my second favorite person on earth.” Finn put a hand on Leo’s shoulder. “Oh my god I’m crying.” He wiped his eyes.
“Wouldn’t mind if he stayed our favorite.” Logan smiled.
Leo blushed and moved onto the regular view of the huge tank.
+++
“So how’d you get a job here?” Logan asked Leo as they walked around.
“I’ve lived on the island my whole life and started volunteering here when I was 13.” He explained. “I’m going to UNCW for marine biology. Are you two just here for vacation? Even though it’s April.”
“No. We’re actually moving down here. My grandparents owned the arcade on the boardwalk and left it to me once they passed.” Finn told him.
“Oh. I’m sorry about their passing.”
“It’s okay. Didn’t really know them at all.”
“Well I’ll hopefully see you around.”
“Maybe you don’t have to hope.”
Leo tilted his head in confusion.
“We were just wondering if you would want to show us around the island.” Logan told him. “We’ve only been here for a few days and this is the first place we’ve been to. Not even the beach.”
“Oh that’s nearly a sin.” Leo teased. “I’d love to show you guys around. I get off in an hour.”
“Perfect.” Finn said happily. “Do you want to drive over to our house and then switch cars or do you need to change?”
“That’ll work. There’s a locker room and since there’s next to no one here considering the time of year Evan will probably let me leave early.” Leo couldn’t hide his smile as they walked into the brightly lit gift shop.
Logan let out a loud gasp and ran over to the 6 foot long jellyfish stuffie. “I want it.”
“It’s tentacles are going to strangle you, love.” Finn shook his head.
“Kinky” Logan wiggled his eyebrows.
Finn scoffed as three other people in the quiet store laughed.
“Oh hi again Regulus.” Logan smiled at the black haired man who was sitting on the countertop beside the register tossing a brightly colored foam ball with turtles on it between his hands.
“Hey” He smiled back.
“What’d they need help with down here?” Finn looked around the empty room cluelessly.
“He didn’t help me?” The girl beside him raised an eyebrow. “Hi, Rue by the way.” She waved before going back to glaring at Regulus. “Did Evan tell you to help me?”
“No.” Reg smirked. “Just wanted to leave Leo alone with his crushes.”
“Reg” Leo pushed him.
“It’s mutual.” Finn said and Logan nodded.
“Okay. I’m gonna go ask Evan if I can get off early so I can show you a tour of the island and then get changed and I’ll be back down.” Leo changed the subject quickly.
“They’ll show you a tour of their bedroom and then get you off early.” Rue said quietly but not quiet enough. Leo shoved her hard as Logan, Finn, and Reg cackled.
+++
“So are we ready?” Leo walked back down in shorts and a UNCW t-shirt.
A cropped UNCW t-shirt.
“Uh- yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah.” Finn stuttered failing to make it look like he wasn’t staring at Leo’s tan abs.
Finn on the other hand had no shame. His eyes raked his entire body as his mouth went dry.
“Alright. I’ll follow you guys?”
“Huh? Oh yeah.” Logan nodded.
“Get it Knut.” Reg cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted as they left the gift shop and headed outside to the 100 degree weather.
@lumosinlove
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happy hanna day !!
@himitsu-luna/@thechoppersan. happy birthday to my sistah from another mistah !
i find it really cute and amazing how you were my very first mutual on tumblr and now you're one of my favorite people in my life that i have the pleasure to bother ahem, speak to everyday <3 i literally adore your whole being - like every single cell - with all my heart. if your future boyfriend/husband doesn’t appreciate and love you as much as i do, we’re feeding him to fairy the dog from the untamed, or just lock him up at eden residences with all the creepy people mehehe.
but anyway cue the real icky yucky cheesy stuff:
— an ode to miss turtle head.
everyone needs a hanna in their lives.
get yourself a hanna that routinely sends you ‘good morning’ and ‘good night’ messages.
get yourself a hanna that leaves you texts to check up on you if you haven’t been online in a while.
get yourself a hanna that puts up with your endless fictional crushes, and fully supports your imaginary relationship with them.
get yourself a hanna that puts up with you talking way too much and sending paragraphs while watching movies/shows together.
get yourself a hanna that easily falls for your pranks and jokes and gives the cutest/funniest reactions.
get yourself a hanna that patiently listens to your rants and ramblings.
get yourself a hanna that effortlessly makes you smile and laugh even during tough times. y’all i can’t count the amount of times i have literally wheezed and laughed till my stomach hurts because of this girl. gold-standard humour.
get yourself a hanna that makes dirty jokes out of nowhere and you can’t help but love her even more for it. don’t be fooled by that innocent halo aura, guys.
get yourself a hanna that watched the whole intro of a show so quietly and then the first thing that she says is ‘oH hE sHOWED hIS cHEST’ :)) this is why we get along so well, you see.
get yourself a hanna that almost missed the entire scene because she was paying a little too much attention to how smooth the character’s skin is. smh.
get yourself a hanna that tells stories of her pets or whatever happened in her day or the dreams she had at night in such a cute, funny way that is bound to make you smile no matter how down you’re feeling.
get yourself a hanna that always tries to make everyone feel included in the group chat and reply to everyone even though the topic is changing every second and hard to keep up with (chaotic gc moments but gotta love those 😭)
get yourself a hanna who is so so gentle and soft yet so admirably strong.
get yourself a hanna whose quiet confidence and optimism is so contagious.
get yourself a hanna who always has something nice and kind to say about everyone and just makes your heart warm with how pure-hearted she is.
get yourself a hanna who is a caring, loving older sister, an adorable little sister, a fun best-friend, and a cool, quirky grandma all in one person. it’s the most lovely four-in-one package deal.
so yes, get yourself a hanna, but not my hanna heheheh 😝
#happy hanna day yay ! <3#sistah#i even changed my timezone setting to brazilian timezone so this better be posted at 12 sharp mehehe
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Leonardo x Reader- Oneshot
“Guys I’m back!” Between school and your track practice, you tried your best to squeeze in time to see your favorite people err...turtles. Mikey jumped up with a wide grin and Donnie offered a small wave.
“Oh Donnie thanks for the advice yesterday, my knees feel much better!” you pulled out a twelve pack of juice boxes handing it to him. He smiled giving a small thanks. “Thank you.” He spoke happily. He was already pulling the first one out.
“I take it ya won your race.” you nod at Raph’s question, and he patted you on the back, maybe a bit too roughly because you stumbled. “Came first place. My third one this week but who’s counting.” you boast.
“I wish we could watch your races, I’d like to see you beat all those other people.” Mikey said.
“I got my brother to tape it here.” taking out your phone you pulled up the video and they all started gathering around to see. With the four of you huddled in a circle, Leo raised a brow when he walked outside. “Are you guys planning another prank.” he asked unimpressed.
“Nah, (Y/N) is showing us her last race.” Mikey says enthusiastically. Leo looked a bit curious now, and when he walked over to take a look you flushed, clicking the button as soon as your race ended.
“O-Oh, look at that I think my battery just died. Maybe next time.” you mutter. Raph sent you a little smirk, and slowly they all started to disperse. Leo looked a bit disappointed, but he didn’t voice it.
“I-I should get going, practice starts in half an hour. I’ll check back in tomorrow. It's my off day.” Just like that you were heading out the lair, and Leo watched you leave.
“Does she hate me or something?” At first he thought he was imagining it, but every time he was around you made it your mission to disappear. He didn’t understand it because you weren’t that way with the others. And he was pretty sure he hadn’t done anything to make you think ill of him. So why were you being so distant?
“You just intimidate her.” Raph states doing push ups.
“Intimidate? Why do I intimidate her? If anything she should be intimidated by you.” Leo defended. He didn’t see himself as an intimidating person.
“Ya so blind it ain't even funny.” That just annoyed him more. Raph was speaking in riddles and it was irritating him. Of course he was way too prideful to come out and ask, so he just walked away.
“You think she’ll ever tell him?” Donnie mutters from the side. They all knew the reason behind your quick escapes, and truthfully it was entertaining to watch, especially since you and Leo were just so bad and being forward about your feelings. Donnie had once insisted they just set you both up, but Raph was adamant on letting you figure it out on your own. He didn’t like getting in the middle of these kinds of situations, or maybe he just wanted to see Leo squirm a bit. Either way, it would play out.
~~~
“Guys check this out!!’ Donnie’s eyes made all of their heads turn. Raph and Leo stopped their little play fight, heading over to the screens.
“It’s (Y/N), she just finished third in her national meet. This is playing live.” Now they were all watching attentively, Mikey cheered when he saw the shot of you running up on the screen.
“And our third place finisher, do you have anything to say to your friends and family.” The reporter turned the microphone to you.
“I’m just really grateful to my family for always pushing me hard, especially my miserable brother.To all my friends old and new, thanks for the endless support.” You were smiling and breathing a bit heavily, clearly still winded from the race.
“Any message for the special someone in your life.” The question made your cheeks slightly flush.
“Oh uh I..” your gaze drifted, but then you looked right at the camera.
“Leonardo, thank you for being my inspiration. '' Leo's eyes were wide, and Raph shoved him playfully. “Oooooo! Our fearless leader’s got an admirer.”
“Well you heard it folks. Thank you again for tuning in and congratulations (Y/N) on the amazing race. “ The reporter moved to other runners, but Leo’s eyes were still glued on the screen. He tried not to read too much into it. But his heart was still pounding in his chest. It’s not like you’d confess to him, yet those words felt far greater than any confession he could imagine.
“I think she broke him brah.” Mikey was poking Leo insistently, but he didn’t budge.
Donnie smiled from his seat. “I recorded it Leo, if you want to watch it again.” Leo’s eye hardened, and he straightened his shoulders, letting out a small sound as he left. It seemed to be his only response lately whenever he got flustered. He still hoped though, that maybe you meant something more. That you wanted something more.
~~~~
“If it ain't Bolt.” you giggle at the nickname, flexing your muscles. “What can I say, can’t keep all this raw talent contained. “
“Shell yeah you can’t!!” After celebrating with your family. Of course you came to hang out with the boys. They were family too after all. You saw Splinter and he walked over with a smile.
“Congratulations (Y/N).”
“Thank you Master Splinter.” With a small bow, he was off, and Mikey was grilling you on the whole experience. Raph was sitting on the couch listening. As you were giving major details, you couldn’t stop yourself from searching out Leo. You knew for a fact they saw the interview, and your blood had been practically pumping since then, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the race. When you were done giving Mikey a rundown, you excused yourself, heading for the one place you could always find the blue eyed leader. You gripped at the metal of your medal in your hands. You were excited to show him it. Stepping through the hall of the training area, you caught sight of him on a mat. He was standing but his eyes were closed. He looked completely concentrated.
“Leo..” usually you never disturbed him when he was meditating, mostly because he could always tell when you were there. His eyes opened slowly and you gave a little wave.
“H-Hey.”
“Hey, I saw your competition. Congratulations (Y/N).” Hearing that from him had a completely different effect than all the others. You blush, fully stepping in. “Thanks Leo.” you never seem to be able to keep your cool when you're in the same room as him, it’s crazy. His eyes watch you. The pretty tint of red on your cheeks. Your wandering eyes. It’s so cute to him, and now he can’t stop himself from asking the question that’s been burning in his mind.
“(Y/N), what you said..I just, I feel like I can’t take much credit for you performing that well. If I’m being honest I was under the impression that you disliked me.”
“W-What! “
Leo chuckles at the look you’re now wearing. “ You run out the moment you see me, I could only assume that’s what it was. Raph also said that you’re intimidated by me, which was even more confusing. “
You really sucked at emotions, you realized that now. With a small sigh, you tucked the medal into your pocket. You’d have plenty of time to show him that later. “Leo I..I am intimidated by you. But not for the reasons you may think.” The look in his eyes urged you to continue.
“When I first met you guys, I’m not gonna lie it freaked me the hell out. I never believed things like this existed and I started questioning a lot. After a while though, I got to know you and your brothers and it showed me that we weren’t very different. You were just like everyone else, maybe even more. Leo to me you’re just so incredible, every night you go out and risk your life expecting nothing in return. You put your family first, you lead your brothers with so much confidence and ease that it just...it amazes me.”
Leo hadn’t looked away since you started talking, and his sapphire orbs were conveying so much. “You amaze me in so many ways and that’s why it's so hard for me to be around me because you do intimidate the hell out of me because I’m terrified that you’ll see right through me and realize just how crazy I am about you.”
“(Y/N)...”
“I really like you Leo.”
There, you finally said it. No more stolen glances or silent wishes. Everything was out there.
He started walking closer, and you kept eye contact, heart pumping briskly.
“I have no idea what I did to deserve someone like you (Y/N), but I’m happy that we actually have mutual feelings.”
“Are you saying that…”
“I thought it was obvious.” He whispered.
“Guess we’re both pretty bad at this.”
He smiles, and the hand that rests on your cheek heats up more than just the skin it’s laying on. The final step makes you inhale, and when he leans down, your eyelids lower. You push unto your toes to balance out the height differences, and Leo’s hand runs down your cheek, to your shoulder as he plants a much awaited kiss to your lips. The little sound you let out is involuntary, and Leo smiles into the kiss, wrapping his other hand around your waist as he pulls you closer.
Your hands even out on his strong firm chest, and your delving deeper and deeper. You’ve been dying to experience this, and you can’t get enough. It doesn’t feel like enough. Leo must be thinking the same. Your lips part and as you’re about to rejoin, Leo opens his mouth slightly slipping his tongue in. You quiver, whining at how great it feels. He invades your mouth with incredible precision, and you try your best to match him. You moan, you can’t help it. This is too good. Leo arm tightens around your form at the sound, still driving you mad with his wet tongue.
Oxygen, that’s the sole reason you part. Leo is reluctant, you can tell, but he needs to get a breath just as much as you. When he separates, your grinning and huffing, quite the same as when you finished your race.
“I guess..I should be glad that I intimidate you, I’ll try to do it more often.” His cheeky response just makes your grin widen.
“I have absolutely no complaints. “
It really wasn’t such a bad thing.
#leonardo#tmnt donatello#love#raphael#donatello#shy#cute#confessions#track#athleticreader#leoxreader#tmnt2014#tmnt fluff#michelangelo#teens#races#new york#friendship#friends to lovers
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February 23, 2021: His Girl Friday (Part 2)
Gotta say, I’m loving this movie...but FUCK Walter, holy...
I, uh...I was going to look up a GIF of Walter from Sleepless in Seattle to bring up a point...but then I found this GIF of a gerenuk eating popcorn, and I HAD to use it Because, I mean...look at that shit. That shit’s gold. Also helps that I love gerenuks.
And yet these are the only two GIFs of gerenuks on here? C’mon guys, get on this. They have the longest neck of any antelope species, they’re like stretchy impala, man! AM I ALONE ON THIS? HAVE YOU SEEN THEM EATING???
...Wait...OH RIGHT MOVIE. Sorry...I like gerenuks. ON WITH THE RECAP (Part 1 right here)!
Recap (2/2)
After escorting Mollie out of the room and scolding the men for their conduct, Hildy gets a call notifying her that Bruce was arrested for stealing a watch. Uh oh; looks like we know what Walter told the short guy to do. GODDAMN, WALTER IS A DICK. I get why Hildy divorced him.
Hildy goes down to the jail and convinces the jailer to release Bruce. As they head home in a car, Bruce realizes that his wallet has been stolen, as well as other things from his pockets. Yeah, wow, so Walter’s an absolute asshole...and I’m starting to wonder whether or not Hildy and him are getting back together after all. GODDAMN, I hope not. Because he literally had a dude steal all of Bruce’s shit, JUST to keep Hildy there. Absolute asshole.
Meanwhile, the journalists read Hildy’s article, noting how good it is. And it is good, but it also obviously feels pretty goddamn manipulative, which is accurate. Again, I get why Hildy wants to leave the profession. Hildy returns as the put odds on how long her marriage will last, and calls Walter on the phone.
She says the following to him:
Now, get this, you double-crossing chimpanzee: There ain't going to be any interview and there ain't going to be any story. And that certified check of yours is leaving with me in twenty minutes. I wouldn't cover the burning of Rome for you if they were just lighting it up. If I ever lay my two eyes on you again, I'm gonna walk right up to you and hammer on that monkeyed skull of yours 'til it rings like a Chinese gong!
...HOLY SHIT. That was fucking GLORIOUS. She hangs up and storms out, understandably enraged, and bids her farewell to the newspaper business. Meanwhile, Earl’s being interviewed by a psychiatrist in a prison across the street. He’s tired, but they still have more questions for him, despite the fact that he’s being executed the following morning. He once again states that he’s innocent.
Hildy says a finally poetic farewell to her fellow journalists, and then BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!!! From across the streets, gunshots ring out and an alarm bell goes off! It’s a jailbreak, and Earl Williams has escaped! With some quick edits, the boys make their calls, and Hildy calls Walter, letting him know that she’s on the job! JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU’RE OUT
As the journalists (and Hildy) are in pursuit, we quickly learn what’s going on through the reporters on the phone, as well as through a call from Hildy to Walter. She demands more money from him, as she had to spend Walter’s money to bribe the info out of a cop. In exchange, she gives him the scoop.
The doctor was getting Earl to re-enact the incident, but to do that, they needed a gun. So Sherriff Peter B. Hartwell (Gene Lockhart), a bumbling idiot of a sheriff who’s been appearing sparsely throughout the film, gave him the gun. Earl took the gun, and Earl SHOT the gun at the doctor, who will survive.
With that, Hildy’s about to get off the phone and leave in a cab with Bruce. In response to that, Walter sends a woman, Evangeline (Marion Martin) to “handle” Bruce, and I assume he’s getting her to seduce him. HE. IS. A. DICK. He also sends the short guy with the hat, Diamond Louie Paluso (Abner Biberman) over to give Hildy the money in counterfeit bills. GOD I FUCKIN’ HATE WALTER
Bruce calls Hildy once again as she’s about to leave. He’s been arrested. AGAIN. Evangeline’s in the background, and he explains that he’s been arrested for “mashing”. What’s mashing? Well, according to the post-gazette, it’s public sexual harassment. Apparently, in Omaha, you could be charged $5 for calling a woman a “chicken”, $10 for “honey-bunch”, $15 for “turtle-dove”, and $20 for “baby doll”. I mean...bring that back? I genuinely want somebody to go on Judge Judy to contest a $50 fine for catcalling someone on the street, BRING THIS SHIT BACK
Unfortunately, Hildy doesn’t have money to bail Bruce out this time, and needs to get it from Louie first. She leaves, and the Mayor (Clarence Kolb) arrives with the sheriff to talk with the journalists. The journalists basically tell each of them that they’re idiots, and leaves them behind. And as the two talk to each other, another man, Joe Pettibone (Billy Gilbert) comes in with a reprieve for Earl from the governor.
However, nobody else knows about this, and the sheriff’s men find Earl at that moment. They decide to go through with it, and tell Pettibone to claim that he got last as they tell the Sheriff’s men to shoot to kill.
Diamond Joe shows up with the counterfeit money, and Hildy tries to get him to confess his crimes to the cops. He leaves in a rush, leaving Hildy alone...until Earl shows up with a gun. And he’s NOT happy. He holds her at gunpoint, telling her not to try anything. All he wants is to be left alone.
Hildy manages to get ahold of the gun, and Earl gives up without any struggle. Hildy calls both Bruce and Walter to tell them the news, and that’s when Mollie shows up unexpectedly. She genuinely does seem to care for him, and Hildy ends up letting her in. And JUST THEN, some of the other journalists come in Hildy hides Earl in a desk, and Mollie fakes a fainting fit.
And THEN, just as Hildy’s trying to hide Earl from the curious journalists, Bruce’s mother Mrs. Baldwin (Alma Kruger) shows up, angry at Hildy for giving Bruce the run-around, and more than happy to have their engagement called off. However, she also reveals that Hildy told Bruce at Earl was there, riling up the reporters, and ollie distracts them by telling them she knows his whereabouts, then JUMPS OUT OF THE FUCKING WINDOW, but she LIVES, and then WALTER shows up, and
...Ow. OW. OK, where was I?
Right, Walter uses Louie to get Mrs. Baldwin out of there, while Earl is still in the desk. Hildy tries to go save both Mrs. Baldwain and Bruce, only for Walter, ASSHOLE that he is, schmoozes Hildy into going along with him, rather than taking care of Bruce. Goddamn it, Hildy.
Walter calls the paper to tell them to scrap the front page for the story that the newspaper has caught Earl Williams, which is technically true. Bruce shows up, having been bailed out, and is understandably frustrated. Fact of the matter is, Hildy’s kind of all but abandoned him for the story, and he wants to know if she ever ACTUALLY loved him. And honestly...this is NOT how I saw this going down.
He leaves, telling Hildy that he’s going off on the 9:00 train. However, Hildy, now completely lost in the story, doesn’t really hear anything Bruce is saying, and it’s weirdly tragic to me. And when Hildy asks where Bruce went, Walter says that he’ll be back. I...FUCKINHATEWALTER.
Hildy realizes this too late, of course, and that’s when Louie arrives, fresh out of a car accident, in which he and Mrs. Baldwin was involved. There’s a possibility that she’s died, putting YET ANOTHER thing on Walter’s shoulders. He’s genuinely a piece of shit, by God.
And as Hildy’s going to try and find Mrs. Baldwin, THAT is when the sheriff and the other journalists show up, all suspecting that Hildy knows where Earl is. Ever the disgusting shyster, he tries to con the men to carry the desk with Earl in it out f the building, which is something he’d been trying to do to keep the scoop in his grimy hands.
AND THEN, MRS. BALDWIN SHOWS UP. She accuses Walter, rightfully, as having her kidnapped, and he tries to con his way out of the situation once more, while Hildy’s trying to make amends all the while. Cornered and accused, he bangs on Earl’s desk three times to emphasize his point. And, uh...then Earl bangs back.
Jig’s up.
The capture leads to all of the journalists calling the main office, making stories about the capture all the way. They leave, and the mayor and sheriff remain with Hildy and Walter, and the two look finished.
AND THEN THE MESSENGER FROM BEFORE SHOWS UP WITH THE REPRIEVE. See, they told him to “come back later”. Well, it’s later, and he delivers the reprieve RIGHT in front of Hildy and Walter. Learning that Williams was reprieved, and that the Mayor and sheriff knew this and are STILL hanging him (with the Sheriff even about to kill him earlier in front of everyone)...well, it seems we have a predicament, is what I’m saying.
And after that, the two basically mutually blackmail each other, and the Mayor and sheriff leave. And with that, Hildy notes that they were lucky to get out of that scrape. And after all of this, AFTER FUCKING EVERYTHING...she’s still in love with Walter, isn’t she? Which is funny, because Walter reminds her of Bruce, and tells her that he’s the one who wired the bail money to him.
He says that he’s trying to do something noble for once (bullSHIT), and tries to get her out of there before he changes his mind. But Hildy calls him out on his manipulative bullshit, which he denies (BULLLLLLLSHIT). He tries again to push her away, and she resists it, saying the story needs to be finished. But still, he pushes her away, and bids her goodbye with a kiss.
AND THEN HILDY GETS A CALL FROM BRUCE
Jesus. He’s been arrested again, this time for passing the counterfeit money that he got from Hildy got from Joe got from Walter in the GODDAMN FIRST PLACE. And it’s at this point, after promising to take care of it, that Hildy breaks down. Because, GODDAMN APPARENTLY, she NEVER wants Walter to let her go without a fight, and is ACTUALLY REVEALED TO LEARN HOW MUCH OF A DICK HE’S BEEN.
And they decide to remarry. And he tells Hildy to carry her own suitcase. And this is NOT A HAPPY GODDAMN ENDING. JESUS CHRIST.
And yet, AND YET...this movie is fucking fantastic. I mean, FUCK WALTER, and Hildy’s gonna have a TERRIBLE time with him, but GODDAMN do I like this movie! More in the Review! See you there!
#his girl friday#howard hawks#cary grant#rosalind russell#ralph bellamy#gene lockhart#walter burns#hily johnson#romance february#romance film#screwball comedy#user365#365 movie challenge#365 movies 365 days#365 Days 365 Movies#365 movies a year#motionpicturesource#classicfilmsource
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The Art Of Remembrance (Part 25)
They are on another boat almost immediately after leaving the first. Azula is beginning to think that the majority of her life has been spent on boats. When she had said that she wanted to get things moving right away, she hadn’t expected Zuko to call a meeting within the hour of their homecoming. She certainly hadn’t anticipated it to conclude so quickly and with new plans for stricter and lengthier patrols and a promise for a deeper search for anyone with a connection to the Vine Research Facility. She had only a night in her own bed and then she was packing again. Not that she isn’t pleased that things are moving so quickly.
Even still, she is just about as apprehensive as Katara is thrilled to be venturing back into the relentless frigidness of the poles. She wishes that she can be on the boat head for the Earth Kingdom and Lake Laogai. She has only just begun to truly appreciate the Fire Nation sun on her skin and she is straying from it once more.
Her phantom finger tingles at the thought of a reunion with the nippy winds.
Azula sits on deck watching her homeland fade into a speck on the horizon. “Maybe I can heal those for you.” Katara gestures to the scars. “If we have some time, there’s this spirit oasis in the north…”
“No!” Azula says much too quickly. “I’d rather not leave one freezing place for another.” She brushes her fingers over the lightly raised skin. “I don’t mind them anyways. I hadn’t even noticed they were there for a while.” She shrugs. She doubts that Katara would have if she hadn’t made a show and tell of them at the council meeting.
“Are you sure?”
Azula nods, “I think that they suit me.”
“I can’t disagree there.” Zuko props himself up against the banister.
“Have you and Sokka been getting along?” Katara asks. “He mentioned that you guys really patched things up at Fire Lake.”
“Yes.” Azula confirmed. “He has been very helpful.”
Katara smiles. “He’s been saying a lot of nice things about you to Aang and the others.”
Azula returns the smile, though she is still somewhat nervous for the dinner time conversation.
.oOo.
Sokka thinks that the only reason he has managed to get Azula out of her cabin and into galley is because he has linked his arm around hers and practically dragged her there. As he recalls, the last conversation that they all had together had been awkward.
As expected, Azula sits rather quietly, only opening her mouth to taste the dish in front of her. He watches her crinkle her nose and mutter, “more sea food.” This time there are no alternatives so she forces herself to stomach it. He tries not to laugh at her assortment of appalled faces. “This is worse than your cooking.” She remarks on one occasion.
“Gee, thanks.” Sokka grumbles.
“Hey! Hey!” Toph bursts out. “Show me fire finger again!”
Azula blinks.
“Come on! If you hold it close enough, I might be able to feel its shape.”
“Alright, come over here then.” She gives a reflexive beckoning hand gesture.
Toph springs up from her chair and waits for Azula to make good on her promise. The princess holds her hand just close enough to Toph for her to be able to feel the heat. “Sweet.” She chuckles as she makes her way back to her seat.
“Getting more comfortable?” Sokka asks quietly.
“A little, I suppose.” Azula replies. Though her posture suggests that she is still having some difficulty adjusting to so much company.
“Tell them about how you escaped from the Vine Research Facility.” He suggests.
“I’d rather not talk about that.”
.oOo.
She’d rather not open that discussion, but she isn’t sure what else to say. Especially not to Mai who still seems to have a particular hatred of her. Sokka, Zuko, Katara, and Toph seem to welcome her, Aang doesn’t seem to mind her, and yet she still feels out of place. Like she is intruding in what would have been a tension free meal.
“Sokka told me that I killed you?” She looks at Aang. Decidedly, this isn’t a great topic to be had over dinner.
“Yeah.” He rubs the back of his head. “But I’m still here so...uh...yeah…”
“I don’t remember why I did that.” She says, feeling her cheeks begin to color. “But I suppose that I should apologize for that.”
“That’s a good start.” Katara agrees.
They all look at her and it occurs to her that she is actually supposed to do that now. Apparently just mentioning that it is appropriate to apologize won’t suffice. She clears her throat, “I’m sorry that I fully engulfed you in flames.” It is terribly hard to offer such when she doesn’t know precisely what she is apologizing for.
“You used lighting, see.” He lifts his shirt. On his belly is a rough star shaped scar. Azula swallows. It is much too similar to the one she’d spied on Zuko earlier in the day when she’d caught him running through his firebending forms.
“Did I...give those out a lot.” She gestures to the scar.
“Not too often, just twice. As far as I know.” Aang replies.
The relief must have shown on her face because he offers her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about it. It’s healed now.”
She thinks that he is being too nice. She doesn’t think that she would be able to let something like that go so easily. “I gave the second one to my brother, didn’t I?”
“Yeah.” Katara answers. “It was scary to watch.” She wraps her arms around herself.
Azula’s stomach lurches again. It is just one more thing to add to her growing list of unlikable traits and past misdeeds. She very nearly asks Sokka what is wrong with her. Instead she has another bite of turtle crab. Her face scrunches. Even a tense conversation can’t truly overpower her hatred of the dish.
“I guess that, that’s why no one want to talk to me.”
Sokka reaches under the table, takes her hand, and squeezes. “That’s not true, Toph and Katara are talking to you now.”
“Azula, you did some scary stuff.” Katara cuts in. “Even if you don’t remember it, it’s really hard to…”
To be around me, she finishes.
“...For us to forget about it.”
“Yes, I suppose that it would be.” She glumly admits. “You’re afraid that I’m going to do it again, yes?” She can’t say that she isn’t afraid of such.
“Something like that.” Katara replies.
“But we gave Zuko another chance, so we’re going to give you one too.” Aang beams.
For the first time during that dinner, her belly tickles with something other than anxiety and shame. She decides that it might be hope. “Thank you.”
Sokka squeezes her hand again.
Conversation is less tense from there; they talk more freely and about more mundane topics. About likes and dislikes and about hobbies and bending. There was a lighthearted debate about which element is the most superior. She was disappointed that Sokka’s ‘highly esteemed fifth element’, the element of surprise, took victory. She had even managed a pleasant conversation with TyLee about a mutual dislike of the approaching cold.
And yet she still wandered back to her cabin with a sense of unease and a tinge of helplessness.
.oOo.
“Every time I hear more about my about myself, I like…me... less and less.” Sokka watches her drop herself onto her mattress. “Haven’t I done anything good for anyone?”
Sokka thinks for a moment. “That’s the funny thing about wars. One side looks worse than the other.”
Azula fixes her golden gaze upon him.
“There are a lot of people who think that you did good. I haven’t talked to many of them, but there are a bunch of generals and soldiers who probably think that you were a great leader. You were doing what you thought was a good thing for your nation.”
The princess nods, seemingly satisfied with his explanation. “I suppose, yes…”
“But…?”
“Everyone still looks at me like I’m going to either set this ship on fire at any moment or that I am going to set them on fire at any moment.”
He nudges her, “you’re an intimidating person, is all.”
She rubs her arm, “apparently not intimidating enough.”
He slings an arm over her shoulder. “You love my nudging and my terrible jokes.”
Azula sniffs hauntily. “Your jokes make me want to pitch myself overboard.”
“More or less than having to eat turtle-crab?”
“More.”
Sokka shrugs. “Look, I’m just saying that everyone still has to get used to you. It was easy for Zuko because he’s your brother. And it was easier for Katara because she saw you…” he almost says vulnerable, but decides that the princess wouldn’t take well to that word choice. “Because she saw you right after you got out of the tundra. She has a soft spot for people who get hurt like that.” He explains. “The others still need to get to know you, this you, better.”
.oOo.
“This me.” She mutters “But what about the old me. What’s going to happen when I get my memories back?” What happens with the old clashes with the new. When old rivalries and resentments meet new bonds and kind gestures.
She anticipates confusion and turmoil. A maddeningly irresolvable inner conflict. She wonders which memories, which opinions and viewpoints will take precedence in her mind.
“You’ll keep making progress, that’s what.” He answers quite boldly. “That’s what you’re good at, making progress and pushing forward. You’re still going to remember all of this.”
“But what if I decide that my old memories and opinions are more valuable to me. What if they’re more dominant?”
“So what if they are?” He alters the question. “You’re more like the old you than you realize.”
Her stomach lurches again. Once more, she is certain that her discomfort displays on her face.
“That’s not a bad thing.” He smiles softly. “There were so many great things about the old you. You were...are resilient and determined and strong.” He pauses. “You’re confident and to the point and you’re smart and cunning.”
“Keep going.” She prompts with a half smirk.
“And you don’t need any more ego stroking…” He trails off with a chuckle. “You were all of those things before and you still are, you just channel them differently than before.”
Azula clasps her hands over her belly as though that will steal away the nervous fluttering. “Yes, but if I get my memories back then I might decide to channel those things as I always have. I might get my memories back and decide that the things I hated about Zuko are more potent than the things I like about him now…”
“Then I guess you’ll just have to form really powerfully good memories now.” He shrugs.
She stares at the ceiling, the boat lolls and rocks. She likes to think that all of her moments with Sokka will be enough to keep her soon to be inner conflict at bay.
“Hey?”
“Yes, Sokka?”
“Do you even want your memories back?”
“Of course I do.” She replies. “I need them, they are mine and I am going to take back what is mine.” And yet she fears what is hers more than anything else in the world. Perhaps more deeply than she fears the merciless tundra. “I need to know who I was. I need them.”
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1034.
Do you play minesweeper or solitare or anything to pass the time?
>> Ah, back in the day... I used to bang out games of solitaire like it was my job. Started with actual cards while I was in the psych ward and then when I got a laptop years later it was over, lmao. Anyway, nowadays my “mindless digital fun” of choice is this Kitten Match game on my phone or playing the flash games on Flight Rising. Also, crosswords, although that’s a little less “mindless”. Like, I could listen to music while playing Kitten Match, but I could not do that with crosswords.
Do you believe in life after death?
>> It sounds like a horrible concept, to me. I mean, I’m sure it could go well (Inworld is an example of an afterlife I could get behind), but frankly, one life is so intense and difficult and exhausting that I can’t imagine having to go through another one after this one. And a possibly-eternal one, at that?? Oh, dear god please no.
What do you think of Oprah?
>> I don’t have any thoughts about her. I like most of the movies I’ve seen her in and I never really watched her show. She’s mostly a meme to me now, I don’t even know if her show is still on the air or not. (Although, come to think of it, the other day a mutual posted a video of her with Brené Brown, who is a pretty new sensation, so... yeah, maybe she is still on the air.)
Do you write a lot of surveys or do you just take them?
>> I don’t make them anymore, I just take them.
What’s something you’re really good at?
>> I’m not sure yet.
How big is your bedroom?
>> Not very. It’s the smaller of the two bedrooms in this apartment and you feel it pretty quickly once you start putting furniture in. It’s why I only have a twin bed and not a full. But I’ll gladly take a small bedroom of my own over having to share, any day.
Do you like to go bowling?
>> No.
Do you usually remember your dreams?
>> I usually don’t, unless they’re one of the formulaic “I am homeless in a metropolis that also has weird incongruous natural features in the middle of it like mountain ranges” dreams. The formula is so well-known to my brain that it’s not hard to recall those dreams upon awakening, but anything that deviates from the formula is harder for my brain to hang onto and convert into images that my waking brain can recall.
Do you think they mean anything?
>> I don’t know if my dreams mean anything, especially when I so rarely remember them and cannot track patterns or anything.
Have you ever had a crush on a teacher?
>> Something like that.
Besides bzoink, which websites do you frequent?
>> I don’t frequent bzoink, but I do frequent tumblr, Flight Rising, various streaming websites, reddit (through a third-party app), and the Lifehacker suite of websites.
Who was the last person to come to your house?
>> ---
What’s your birthstone? Do you have anything with it?
>> Emerald. No.
Have you ever had carpal tunnel?
>> No.
Are you one of those people who is really smart but has no common sense?
>> No?
Do you think fast?
>> I don’t know how fast I think.
What browser do you use?
>> Firefox is my default browser, but I use Edge Chromium for tumblr and Flight Rising because they work better here for some reason.
Are you clumsy?
>> No.
Paste the last thing you copied.
>> The last thing I copied was this survey...
Have you ever eaten at Hooters?
>> No. I am completely opposed to eating there.
Do you like turtles?
>> Sure.
Do you have to have goggles when you swim?
>> ---
How long can you stay awake?
>> Nowadays, no longer than about 18 hours. I mean, I could push it if I really had to, I guess, but my well-being would deteriorate pretty rapidly.
Where were you going the first time you were on a plane?
>> From North Carolina to New Jersey.
Do you have a good memory?
>> My short-term memory is unremarkable in its averageness but my long-term memory is heavily fragmented and unbalanced thanks to both trauma and drug use.
Are you usually more blunt or polite?
>> I think I do pretty well balancing assertiveness with tactfulness. Sometimes I’m probably less tactful than I could be, but I do my best.
Does it take a long time to get to know you?
>> It depends on how much of me someone wants to know. It’s very easy to gain a superficial knowledge of me, because I have social media accounts and Discord and what-not. But to plumb the depths probably takes a long time. I say “probably” because I have no real data for this since... uh, no one’s really... well, you know.
Is there a specific historical period that you’re interested in?
>> Most of them are some level of interesting.
Tell me something funny that happened today.
>> Nothing funny happened today. Except stuff on the show I was watching.
Do you know anyone with a really obnoxious laugh?
>> No.
Do you hold grudges?
>> I mean, sometimes.
How much was your allowance when you were a kid?
>> Ha! As if.
Can you do push-ups?
>> I can do a few from the knees.
I usually assume people online are girls. Do you do anything like that?
>> No...
When you were growing up, did your family move around a lot?
>> I wouldn’t say “a lot”, but the few times I did move were traumatic enough, so.
Do you use public transportation?
>> Yeah, when it’s not COVID times.
What’s your favorite punctuation mark?
>> I don’t have one.
Have you ever had surgery?
>> No.
What’s something you’re really proud of?
>> I don’t know.
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Bookends ; A Witchlands AU
Chapter 7
When a relentless Evrane encourages him to be more adventurous, Aeduan explores the possibility of what life might be without Owl. Meanwhile, Iseult can't help but feel that Safi is keeping something from her.
Summary: Iseult det Midenzi never expected to go to a top university, so when her mother falls ill and she is forced to drop out to make ends meet, life has never seemed so unfair. But when she starts working at the local library and is unexpectedly assigned in the Children’s Room, a certain monosyllabic man and his thrice-damned demon child start showing up and Iseult begins to wonder if the threads of fate have a plan for her after all.
Previous chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Ships: Iseult/Aeduan, Safi/Merik, and more… stay tuned!
Tags: modern AU, college setting, family, friendship, humor, fluff, slow-burn, romance, eventual smut
Read on AO3: here
Tag list: (please let me know if you’d like to be added!) @lseultdetmidenzi @twilightlegacy13
* . * . * . * .
Aeduan prowled the bookshelves in the Children’s Room barely containing his impatience. The room was unusually busy for the morning. He’d overheard one disgruntled parent grumble about the schools being closed for a teacher development day and thus every corner was crawling with rambunctious children. It didn’t help that Evrane and Owl were late. Or that the main desk was absent one black-haired librarian.
Wherever Iseult was, Aeduan envied her. The cacophony of electronic bells and whistles and high-pitched prepubescent voices migrating from the computer island was giving him a headache. Every couple minutes one of the more stern looking librarians would instruct them to keep their voices down, adding to the fray of noise as well as Aeduan’s irritation. The library should provide headphones, he thought grumpily.
“No books today?” came a voice behind Aeduan.
He turned around and found Evrane and Owl walking down the aisle.
“You’re late,” he said tersely.
“Yes, well,” Evrane breathed happily, clasping her hands together and sharing a look with Owl that he was surprised to see returned by the child, “we were finishing a puzzle.”
“A puzzle?” Aeduan stared at her incredulously. “Evrane-”
Evrane held up a finger. “Ah. Trust. Remember to trust me.”
They locked each other in a staring contest. Aeduan held in a breath, impulse strained against his chest-
He conceded with a curt nod. Evrane smiled.
“So what’s on the agenda this weekend?” Evrane asked as Aeduan knelt down to help Owl into her coat.
Aeduan shrugged. “The same as usual.” They had fallen into a post-session rhythm over the last few weeks, usually involving non-threatening topics like weekend plans or the weather.
“I’ll pick up the girls from school tomorrow and they’ll stay the weekend. Lisbet has some sort of group project she needs to go to for her science class, but other than that it should be uneventful.”
Evrane nodded, then eyed him more closely. “And what about you?”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. Do you have any plans?” The manner in which she asked this question suggested only innocent curiosity, but bells were going off in Aeduan’s head. He finished zipping Owl up and stood to face Evrane. He squared his shoulders.
“I just told you.”
“I mean any plans that don’t involve the girls. Or,” she added as an afterthought, “those girls, at least.”
“Owl will be-”
“Anyone who isn’t Owl, Lisbet, or Cora.”
Aeduan shook his head, confused. “Who would I-”
“I don’t know, Aeduan,” cut in Evrane, followed by a single exasperated laugh. “Perhaps a friend. Or maybe you’d like to do something on your own.”
Aeduan’s jaw locked. This was definitely outside of their mutually unspoken established topics of conversation. His chest swelled with barely controlled annoyance. “I can’t very well leave Owl at home without someone there to watch her.” Each word was pronounced with an obvious effort of forced civility.
“No, you can’t,” Evrane agreed brightly. “The people handling your adoption case will be very happy to know that you know that.”
“Then what exactly would you suggest I do? Get a babysitter?”
“Yes!”
Aeduan waved a hand between them. “Look, if you’re trying to offer-”
“No, of course I’m not volunteering. I know you would never willingly accept my help. Again,” added Evrane with a flash of her emerald eyes. Before Aeduan could bite back, she was already herding him back into her line of thought. “If not me, then someone else. Perhaps Lisbet. She’s responsible enough.”
“She’s young.”
“And perfectly capable.”
Aeduan pinched the bridge of his nose. He was suddenly very tired. Things had been going so well. Why was she pushing this? When he lowered his hand, he planned on asking her just that, but then she caught it with her own and everything inside him went quiet. The skin was warm and her touch forced his gaze to meet hers.
He’d seen her every week since she reentered his life, but only now was he suddenly struck by how much Evrane had changed in the last 13 years. Nothing could take away her beauty, but there were little wrinkles branching out from the corners of her eyes like tree roots. He wondered what she was seeing on his face.
“I’m only suggesting for your own sake,” she assured him calmly. She didn’t let go of his hand. “When was the last time you had a moment to yourself?”
Aeduan swallowed painfully. “I don’t know,” he admitted finally, the confession rough against his throat.
“Well,” Evrane smiled and she gave his hand encouraging squeeze before releasing it, “maybe it’s time to start thinking about what you can do to change that.”
* . * . * . * .
“Goat tits! This is the worst.”
“If you had done it last night-”
“Iz!”
Iseult hovered by Safi’s shoulder, coffee pot in hand, as her friend tried to scribble down her 9th and final (wrong) answer on a very crumpled looking piece of paper. Her giant calculus textbook lay open on the table, the polished circular area barely big enough for her other school materials, let alone that monstrosity, as it was meant for coffee, not serious work. Well, if you could call whatever Safi was doing serious, which incidentally, Safi didn’t.
“You do know all of that is wrong, right?” Iseult asked.
“Of course it’s all wrong!” Safi snapped, hand not stopping its’ frenzied movements. “What do I look like? A mathematician?!”
No, she didn’t. In fact, she didn’t really look much like Safi either. She’d spent far more time in the bathroom getting ready that morning than she normally did, and the result was a very different image than Iseult was used to seeing at 10 A.M.. Safi’s face was bare as it always was, far too beautiful to be needlessly hindered by make-up, but it looked fresh and clean, and the long shower she had taken had given her golden cheeks a lovely rosy glow. Her hair was prettily braided and pinned around her head like a crown and, if Iseult wasn’t mistaken, she thought she caught a whiff of fruity perfume on her. To top it all off, Safi had left her sweatpants and Cleaved Man hoodie crumpled on the floor and chosen to investigate the contents of her closet, leaving Iseult open-mouthed when she came sweeping out from behind the curtain into Jitters wearing a form fitting burgundy turtle-neck and floral corduroy skirt that showcased her long, lean legs and knee-high suede boots. There was a good chance her calculus professor wouldn’t even recognize her.
“Better to hand something in than nothing and get zero marks though. This,” Safi tapped the paper with her pencil, “shows I care.”
Iseult snorted. Safi put the last finishing touches on her (wrong) answer with a flourish, then carelessly stuck the sheet of paper into her open textbook and slammed it shut.
“I’d say ‘job well done’, but we both know that’s not true.”
Safi grinned smugly at Iseult, looking more than a little satisfied with herself.
“I think I deserve another donut after all that.”
“Of course you do,” Iseult said rolling her eyes and turning to retreat behind the coffee counter. She heard the scrape of Safi’s chair as she got up and followed her. While she got another pot of coffee started, Safi no doubt went to inspect the pastry display. A sharp gasp of horror came from behind her back.
“No sprinkles? What is this? The Grapes of Wrath?”
Iseult, wiping her hands on her apron, turned around. “You know, after watching you bullshit your way through your calculus homework, it’s comforting to hear you make a literary reference.”
Safi scrunched up her nose at the display case. “John Steinbeck taking up cranial space in my head doesn’t change the fact that there are no more sprinkled donuts.”
“Reference Jane Austen and maybe they’ll magically appear.”
Safi glanced over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow at Iseult. “You’re not as funny as you think you are.”
“And you will be fine going a day without a sprinkled donut despite what you may think. Pick something else.” Iseult felt like a mother reprimanding her child.
Safi looked back at the pastries with a forlorn sort of sigh. After a moment’s careful deliberation (for these truly are some of the hardest decisions we are presented with at 10 in the morning) she slid the glass door open and reached for a banana chocolate chip muffin.
“A sensible substitute,” Iseult congratulated, waving open a brown paper bag and holding it out for Safi to deposit her muffin into. Safi dropped it in, looking resentful, but Iseult knew she was hamming it up. Safi had no issues when it came to expressing her anger.
Safi took the bag from Iseult and glared down at its sprinkle-less contents. The raw judgement burning behind her eyes, all directed at a defenseless muffin, made Iseult think of something.
“Hey, you haven’t run into that guy from the bar on campus, have you?”
The paper bag crinkled under Safi’s hands as she rolled the top closed. “What guy?”
“That asshole who,” Iseult hesitated, mentally wincing at the memory, “yelled at you.”
Safi’s hands froze. “Ah,” she merely said, then resumed twisting the paper bag, despite it being well and closed. “The ingrate thwarted by a single button.”
“Yeah, him. Have you seen him?”
Safi gave the bag a final twist, then looked up at Iseult, offering her a closed-lip smile. Her shoulders bounced once and she shook her head. “Nope,” she said brightly. She strolled out from behind the counter and back to her table. “His tits probably fell off from frost exposure and he’s holed up in some hospital somewhere awaiting reconstructive surgery.”
Iseult watched Safi carefully. For whatever reason, her tone had snagged on something in Iseult and held her in place. Somewhere wrong. A lie, possibly.
But never, in all their years of friendship, had Safi lied to Iseult. And never had Iseult lied to Safi. They told each other everything. Safi had told Iseult about her uncle and the years she spent growing up with an alcoholic. She had told her about Chiseled Cheater and the false kisses they’d shared. She had told her about her parents and how she missed them and would trade anything to have them back. Anything, except Iseult.
And Iseult had told Safi about Gretchya. A childhood filled with loneliness and endless beratement. She had told her about not being able to make ends meet and needing to drop out of school. She had even told her that she had never been kissed until last summer.
Now, suddenly, Iseult was wishing she hadn’t asked about the Nubrevnan. The snag was no longer a snag, but twisting itself into a tangled web of wrongness with no obvious beginning or end.
“I have a proposition for you,” Safi announced, slicing through Iseult’s thoughts, though, the knot remained fully intact. A living, breathing thing now. The shift in topic seemed to feed it, pull it tighter into submission, so that all Iseult could do to contain it was stare at her friend.
“How would you like to go to a party on Friday night?”
“Well, you know how much I like parties,” Iseult managed to reply deadpanned.
“I know, but it’s at Vaness’ and I’ve always considered her parties more like sophisticated soirees, you know? She doesn’t put up with the bullshit you get at other parties on campus.”
“I guess.” Safi wasn’t wrong. Now busy working on her masters, Vaness didn’t have time to involve herself in the antics of college. In truth, she never had. It’s how she’d earned herself the title of the “Iron Bitch” in just the first week of her freshman year. Even before she graduated, she’d displayed a low tolerance for her peers and the debauchery they would find themselves in every weekend. Her parties always had an air of opulence around them and were strictly invitation only. Except for her infamous end-of-the-year party. That was open to everyone and it almost always ended with the cops shutting it down by sunrise. At least, they had last year. Iseult had been so drunk, she didn’t even remember how she’d gotten home that night.
“Are the Hell-Bards playing?” she asked, diverting her mind from racing off to memories she didn’t quite have the mental energy to duel with so early in the day.
“I said it was going to be a classy affair. Classy.”
“So, no?”
“No.”
“Good. At least the soundtrack to the evening won’t suck.”
Safi’s face brightened. “So you’ll come?”
Iseult relinquished a nod. “Yeah, I’ll go. If only to watch Vaness skewer Leopold with one of her nails.”
Safi bellied a laugh as she pulled on her coat. “I think he rather enjoys it. One may say he encourages it.”
“You think?” Iseult asked, genuinely curious.
Safi shrugged, then paused. A dangerous smile crawled onto her lips. “Jealous?”
“I could ask the same to you,” Iseult volleyed back. “Don’t even try to deny that you’ve never thought about Vaness in that way.”
Safi feigned insult. “I wouldn’t dream of it! There isn’t a soul among us that hasn’t fallen under her spell.” She started to back away towards the door. “Are we still on for dinner tonight?”
“Yep! But hold on, I have a favor I need to ask.”
Safi stopped her descent and took a couple calculated steps back towards the counter. “A favor?”
“A proposition,” Iseult amended, co-opting Safi’s earlier choice word.
“If it’s for me to ditch class and run away to Marstok with you, then the answer is yes. You’ve never had a better idea.”
“I was wondering,” Iseult went on pointedly, “if you’d be willing to go to Ryber and Tanzi’s book club with me next month.”
“I already said I would.”
“You did? When?”
Realization burst across Safi’s face. “Oh that’s right! I told Ryber and Tanzi last week. When we had lunch together.”
Iseult felt the line between her brow form before she could stop it. “You had lunch together?”
“Yeah, last week. Tuesday, maybe? We ran into each other on the way to the dining commons and ended eating together. They’re really great. I like them a lot.”
“Yeah,” Iseult was barely able to say. The image of Safi, Ryber, and Tanzi sitting at the dining commons, laughing together, without her made the knot in her chest from earlier drop into her stomach and melt into something different entirely. “I like them too."
“When is it again?” Safi asked.
Iseult swallowed hard. “She said they meet the second Friday of every other month.”
Safi whipped out her phone and tapped the screen a couple times before her eyebrows bounced in surprise. “Oh. So, Valentine’s Day?”
“Oh. Um, I guess,” Iseult replied. She hadn’t known that. Not that it made a difference. She’d never had a date for Valentine’s Day, nor any other calendar day of the year for that matter. Nothing in the last month had indicated that this year would be any different.
Iseult noted the small frown that appeared on Safi’s face as she looked down at her phone’s calendar for a moment too long before slipping it back into her coat pocket. With some effort, she smiled at Iseult.
“That should work for me. Unless I get roped into a shift at the Cleaved Man. Lord knows Stix probably has eight dates lined up for the evening.” Safi bristled with a resentful huff. She caught Iseult’s eye.
“So… are we going to Marstok or not?”
* . * . * . * .
Aeduan’s boots hit the concrete hard, his conversation with Evrane replaying over and over again in his head. He wished she hadn’t said anything. He wasn’t angry, but now that the idea was out there, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. A list was beginning to form with all the things he would do if he didn’t have to keep an eye on Owl every second of the day. Simple things, like going for a run in the evenings. Or taking a ride on his motorcycle when he needed to blow off steam. He missed the adrenaline, missed cutting through the air like nothing could hurt him. Maybe Evrane was right. Maybe Lisbet wasn’t too young to watch Owl. If not her, then who else could he trust with that responsibility?
A whimper broke out behind Aeduan. He’d been, without even realizing it, walking much too fast for Owl. Monster. 10 minutes and he was already forgetting the child.
“Sorry,” he murmured, stopping and kneeling down to make sure she’d heard him. Passersby walked around them on the busy sidewalk. He adjusted Owl’s scarf. Her eyes rolled down to the concrete.
Avoidance. She was avoiding him.
Aeduan’s heart sank, all fantasies of his motorcycle whooshing out of his head. How much of his conversation with Evrane had she understood?
“What would you like to do this weekend?” he asked her, his big hands curled around her scarf. “I think it’s supposed to snow overnight tomorrow. Want to build another fort for Blueberry? The other one is almost all melted.”
Owl said nothing.
“Or maybe we could have a snowball fight with Cora and Lisbet. I bet we can take them.”
Nothing.
Aeduan brought his forehead close to hers so that their noses were almost touching. “Maybe,” he whispered, drawing out the word, “we could make a decision over a muffin?”
Owl sour expression cracked. Relief flooded Aeduan’s heart when her black eyes made contact with his.
Stopping at Jitters after a session with Evrane was becoming somewhat of a weekly tradition. More than once he’d been tempted to pay a visit on days when they didn’t have an appointment at the library. There was something comforting about starting off the morning with a fresh pastry and hot cup of coffee. Or maybe he’d mooched off of Owl’s bowl of Cheerios for his own breakfast one too many times.
It wasn’t long before the bell above Jitters’ entrance door was jingling its welcome, but just as Aeduan stepped inside, he froze.
It wasn’t the grouchy barista from his first trip (though he had, unfortunately, seen her since then). No, it was Iseult behind the counter. Wearing an apron. Pouring coffee.
Iseult.
Her round face shone like the moon, as much of her chin length hair as possible pulled back in a messy bun and a headband resting on top of her head. Wisps of stray hairs fell around her face and in her eyes as she wiped her hands on her apron and pulled out a pile of receipts from the front pocket. Aeduan had never seen her so relaxed. Or with so much color in her face. Cheeks rosy pink, like she’d just finished with the lunch rush. It softened her somehow.
The bell hanging above Aeduan’s head stopped swaying and went silent. Waiting for the verdict.
He could run. Turn around and leave and the girl would be none the wiser. He’d have to make up some excuse to Owl, but how hard would that be?
Idiot, he cursed himself. He was a former police officer. The son of Ragnor Amalej. What would his father say if he saw him running for the hills because of a simple librarian? His mother would have smiled. She would have told him again the story of another man who was kind and quiet. A man who had stumbled over words and given her no choice but to fall in love with him.
That woke him up. He was not his father. And he certainly did not - and would never - have feelings for this plain girl, this librarian. That thought was enough encouragement to get him through the door.
Iseult’s head rose at the sound of the door slamming and the violent jangle of ringing that came with it. Her expression, so ordinarily cool and unreadable, popped with surprise at the sight of him.
“Aeduan.”
His name sounded breathless on her lips. Had he been paying attention to anything outside of her lovely, pale face, he would have felt the something it stirred inside him.
“I didn’t know you worked here,” remarked Aeduan matter-of-factly as he approached the counter.
Iseult’s features smoothed back into place. “Yes. I work here and-” Her gaze fluttered up to the ceiling for a second, then back down. She brushed her hair out of her eyes, possibly a nervous tick. “And at the library.”
Aeduan nodded. She was staring at him thoughtfully. Expectantly. He was here for a reason, wasn’t he?
“I was at the library today.”
“You were?”
“Yes.” Aeduan paused, then thinking that perhaps he should say something else, continued. “I wanted to get the next book in the My Father’s Dragon series… but you weren’t there.”
A small frown crinkled at the edge of Iseult’s eyes. “Was Hilga there? Or Rosa?”
“I-” Well, this was more than a little embarrassing. Good thing she didn’t know he was a former cop, top of his precinct, destined to make detective, and incapable of finding a book.
“I didn’t have time to ask,” he lied.
“Oh.” Such a small word. It carried the weight of thought that could not be read on her face. “I can look for it tomorrow.”
“You don’t have to-”
“It’s no trouble-”
“We’re only a couple chapters in-”
“I really don’t mind,” Iseult insisted. She hesitated, then added, “I can give you a call and let you know whether or not it’s in.”
“Oh. Well...” Aeduan took a bracing breath and tore a napkin from the basket on top of the display case, then grabbed one of the pens from the chipped mug sitting next to the register acting as a pencil holder. He clicked the top of the pen with his thumb, bent over the counter, and started writing. When he was finished, he slid it across the counter to Iseult.
“My number,” he explained.
Iseult peeled the napkin from the counter and held it up with both her hands. The way she held it made it look fragile, like it might break if she were to drop it. Her lips rolled inward, and for the first time since meeting her, she seemed to have trouble meeting his eyes.
“Thank you,” she finally said. Finally looking at him. “But I have your contact information at the library. From when you registered for a card.”
Aeduan could practically feel the inferno of embarrassment that ignited in his blood. He half-expected her to shove his number back to him or, hell-gates, what if she crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash? But instead she surprised him: she folded the napkin carefully and slipped it into the front pocket of her apron.
“Is there anything else I can help you with?”
Aeduan swallowed. Once. Twice. Then shook his head. “No,” he muttered, his voice little more than a rasp.
Iseult blinked. Confused. “You don’t want anything?”
“Want?” It took a moment for her meaning to penetrate his abnormally thick skull. “Right. Yes. Hot Coffee. Medium. And two blueberry lemon muffins.”
“To go?”
And away from this devastating conversation? “Yes.”
There would be no more attempt at conversing from his end. He was spent. While Iseult prepared his coffee, Aeduan busied himself with observing the cafe even though he’d seen it a dozen times before. It was emptier than usual. The same nondescript instrumental music played from the old stereo behind the counter. The only thing out of place was the smoldering mound of charred wood and ash in the fireplace. The normally popping fire seemed to have died and was in need of more wood.
“Do you want hazelnut?”
Aeduan jerked his head over his shoulder. “Excuse me?”
“Do you want hazelnut with your coffee? I sometimes like to top mine off with it. It goes really well with this blend.”
Aeduan split his gaze between Iseult and the small jar of ground hazelnut in her hand. He wasn’t even sure why she was asking him, but without his permission, his mouth was forming a succinct ‘sure’ and he returned his attention back to the cafe.
“Oh!”
Aeduan swung around at the sound of Iseult’s startled gasp. She wasn’t there.
Taking an urgent step forward, he braced his hands on the counter and craned his neck over the display case. “Iseult?”
“I-I’m alright,” a muffled voice came and a split-second later, she popped back up from behind the pastries. Color had blossomed on her cheeks, fanning out across the bridge of her nose. “S-she just startled me. That’s all.”
Aeduan’s eyes narrowed. “Who?” he demanded. And then he noticed Iseult’s downturned gaze traveling to a place next to him. Oh. Oh.
Owl was looking more red in the face than Iseult. It was alarming how much tension those two chubby cheeks could conjur. He knew this look. It was the same one she gave the car seat the moment before he would force her down in it and buckle her up.
Well, no time like the present. They’d been to the library enough times that he supposed it was time for a proper introduction, so he scooped her up in his arms, then angled them both to face Iseult.
“Owl, this is Iseult.” Iseult. He’d never said her name out loud before. It poured like honey from his mouth. He licked his lips; it took him a moment to form more words. “She works with Evrane at the library. She’s the librarian who picked out all your books we’ve been reading together.” When Owl made no show of having understood a word he said, he tried to coax some reaction out of her with a gentle bounce on his hip and an encouraging, “Wasn’t that nice of her?”
Owl twisted her head and hid her face in the crook of Aeduan's neck.
Well, it was a reaction. Just not the one he was hoping for.
He shifted on his feet and forced himself to look at Iseult. “Sorry,” he apologized gruffly. “She’s… shy.”
“That’s alright,” Iseult murmured, and Aeduan could have sworn he saw her lips harbor a small smile as she fidgeted with the strings of her apron. “I’m shy too.” Then, her lips quivered. “Is s-she... your daughter?”
No.
That’s what he was supposed to say. It was the truth, wasn’t it? Owl was nothing to him unless the adoption succeeded. Yet nothing had felt so wrong to him.
No.
The word stopped his heart. Sent his stomach to roil.
“I would like her to be,” Aeduan heard himself admit. A slow rasp. Like something heavy being dragged over concrete. “I… I’m applying for adoption.”
Aeduan watched Iseult’s pupils dilate. The tremble in her lips quieted. Then: “That is admirable.”
Aeduan exhaled. Warmth spread in his chest. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t even notice Iseult tapping the keys on her register. He barely understood what she was saying when she said, “Your total comes to $5.79.”
Numbly, Aeduan pulled out his wallet from his back pocket with one hand while his other arm was full of Owl. He managed to pull out several bills and handed them across the counter. When she handed him back his change, he dropped it into the tip mug next to the register.
Owl seemed intent on staying hidden in his neck, so he did his best to pick up the bag of muffins and his coffee with one hand without dropping everything. The transaction was over, but Aeduan found himself staring at Iseult, her staring back at him, her hands folded over each other in front of her as though it was taking some effort not to fidget with her apron strings. It relaxed him somehow, seeing those delicate pearly white fingers locked together. She was nervous; he wasn’t alone.
Aeduan's wrist rolled at his side. He sucked in a breath. “Do you-”
The bell jangled as the entrance door swung open and a stick figure of a boy came flying in.
“Sorry, sorry I know I’m late!”
He was a blur of gangly limbs and patchwork colored skin - some dark, some light - as he skidded to halt behind the counter, heaping apologies onto Iseult like his life depended on it. On and on it went and Aeduan just stood there, despite the fact that he had nothing to do with whatever this stranger was babbling about. In the midst of the boy’s mounting hysteria, his voice pitching higher as it went on, Iseult’s eyes slid to Aeduan’s, her expression as quiet as ever. Something passed between them, but Aeduan wasn’t sure what.
“It’s alright, Cam,” Iseult finally interjected over the boy’s apologies. Again, she glanced over at Aeduan. She looked like she wanted to say something. But for some reason, Aeduan spared her the chance. He forced a rough cough from his lungs and, giving her a brusque nod, spun away from her entirely and made a beeline to the cream and sugar station. Behind his back, the boy’s voice piped up again, and Aeduan heard the shuffle of feet and voices trailing away as though they were moving their conversation to the back. Iseult obviously had her hands full with an incompetent employee. There was no reason he had to trap her in another staring match that would inevitably go nowhere.
Those eyes. Aeduan gritted his teeth as he uncovered his coffee thinking of them, how they had looked at him when she’d called him admirable. Him. Admirable. She had no right calling him that. She didn’t even know him.
Well, he reasoned, stirring cream into his coffee and watching the flecks of hazelnut Iseult added spin around and around and eventually become swallowed by the whirlpool, she hadn’t exactly called him admirable. She was only commending what he was doing with Owl admirable. Admirable. That was one word for it. Or stupid. Impulsive. Completely insane and beyond his reach.
The bells over the entrance door tinkled and Owl, who had been glued to his side for the last 5 minutes, stirred slightly in his arms, her tiny frame expanding and drooping with a sleepy sigh.
Hell-gates, what was he doing? Trying to adopt a kid? Who was he kidding? It didn’t matter who his father was or what family he came from or that Iseult thought it was admirable. He was still Aeduan Amalej. He may not wear the badge or carry a gun anymore, but he still had his reputation as the demon of his precinct who had given up his soul for the cause, for justice. That was something he couldn’t shed so easily.
Aeduan popped the lid back on his coffee cup and his hand froze. Cold crawled across the back of his neck like a spider. It was only when a familiar voice spoke from behind him did he know why.
“Well, well, if it isn’t my partner in justice.”
#the witchlands#baeseult#iseult det midenzi#aeduan#safiya fon hasstrel#owl#aeduan x iseult#truthwitch#bookends#my fics#mine
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Top 10 of the 2010′s
I was tagged by both @megabadbunny and @jemsauce to list off my Top Ten of the 2010′s. So... here goes!
I got my first real job all on my own. I had had a job previously doing daycare for a friend (who was actually in the process of shutting down her home business). While that was technically a real job- I had to be finger-printed!- it was pretty much handed to me. In 2010, I started my baking job. I know I do a lot of complaining about it... and it’s mostly earned... But, this job was my first step to real freedom. As angry as I get with the company, they were the only company to call me back in a year of submitting applications.
A few months later I got my first apartment all on my own, also. I had never lived on my own, having moved from my parents house to living with my best friend and her hubby and then to his parents’ house. I remember how nervous I was at the thought of spending so much time alone. What would it be like not to come home to people? I’m an introvert, but I was used to having people. I’ve loved the hell out of living by myself. Sure, I would love to find a partner (for lots of reasons) but this time to myself has taught me how to relax and just be. Coming home to a space that is all mine was exactly what I needed. I sometimes wonder if I can being re-domesticated. lol
I took out a loan on a car almost all by myself (my dad co-signed my loan) and paid it off all by myself and when it quit on me recently I bought a brand new car on my own (for real this time). So much adulting!
I got a kitty of my own. I’ve had kitty companions all my life, but this one is all mine (and she doesn’t really like anyone else so it’s for the best! ha!). I won’t sully my previous companions by saying she’s the best kitty ever, but she is the best kitty of this decade. She’s exactly who I need- smart, sassy, and incredibly cuddly.
I fell in love and got my heart broken. I know that sounds sad and on my worst days I wonder if it was worth it. But on all the other days I’m grateful that I know what it felt like- that I was capable of such a strong feeling for someone.
Because I fell in love I wound up on Tumblr! When those bad days hit I sit and think of all you guys... I wouldn’t know any of you if it weren’t for the heartbreak and you guys are more than worth it. In my Tumblr time I: fell in love with Doctor Who, discovered David Tennant and subsequently fell for him too, learned that there’s drama in an social setting no matter how nice everyone may seem, but that even in the midst of that you can forge lasting bonds that are worth the trouble.
Through Tumblr I also discovered a whole new queer vocabulary. I went through a number of labels before settling on biro ace enby (and I still hold the right to change my mind, all things being fluid). Bonding with other queer folks here has been a godsend that I hope I repay by trying to pass on all the encouragement that they’ve given me (and that I desperately needed when I was younger). Special shout out to @skyler10fic who taught me ace labels I didn’t even know existed and who’s transparency and authenticity on this site made me want to be more open, both to myself and others.
I discovered two of the people that I consider my dearest friends: I think my first real chat with @jemsauce centered around accidentally coming out to my best friend as an enby and omg-I-needed-to-talk-to-someone-about-it! Though, I think there was mutual blog commenting before that. In any case, it’s spawned what I consider an epic friendship that’s only gotten stronger in the interim. Jem you’re sharp, strong, funny and supportive in all the best measures. Your creativity never ceases to amaze me and watching your art continue to bloom/improve has been a pleasure (and especially awesome when it’s mine ngl! haha!). Our chats are a highlight of my week and each visit with you has been a highlight of the 2010s. When I’m with you and yours I feel like I’m part of the family. The other person is @onthedriftinthetardis: from Sour Blob, to my showing up a bit schnockered and upset in your chatbox, to nerding out over dinosaurs (and anything else we find interesting!), to your uncanny ability to curate amazing goodie-boxes... You are one of the most accepting, supportive, generous, clever (especially with awful puns lol), unfailingly-kind people I know. I love our serious and silly moments. Visiting with you and seeing baby turtles (!!!!!) was such a fun time and attending your wedding was an absolute honor.
I rediscovered my love of baking from scratch and sculpting. I’ve done both all of my life in one form or another... But things really took off this decade. I discovered that I rather like abstract sculpting thanks to my Bestie’s Art Party Prompts. I hope to play with more clay in the coming year. As for the baking... Doing it for a living helped me learn new things and realize some things I thought were hard, just aren’t. The 2010′s saw me learn how to make bread, bagels, muffins, and oodles of different cookies. I’m hoping in the next decade I can successfully tackle pastry!
I learned who I was. I was 24 at the beginning of this decade. I was dragging around a lot of labels from my teens and early twenties... Things that people told me I was. Half-baked ideas of who I might be. Crippling fears and uncertainties abounded. But, really? My life as something that was wholly mine started in 2010. My job, my car, my home, my cat, my art, my found family. I hope to walk in to the 2020′s with all that to bolster me as I find more self-discovery and keep working towards improvement.
Some other names I would like to drop (please if you’re not listed... assume I’m a doof before you assume I don’t love you!): @davinasgirlfriend // @wordsintimeandspace // @draco9236 // @creativebec // @ktrosesworld // @chocolatequeennk // @fleurdeneuf // @maitre-kuroneko // @acreasy1 // @stupidsatsuma // @pellaaearien // @darthtella // @courtxxvincent // @aapicula // @spiritwho // @getbacktoblogwarts // @blueboxesandtrafficcones // @colourinside // @caricature-of-a-witch // @fracturedmind // @lastbluetardis // @thedoctorofsteel // @emeraldlady // @bad-----wolf // @sequencefairy
Also, if I’ve tagged you then you have an excuse to do the thing. Or if you’re reading it, bless your heart. lols
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