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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 11 months

Note

“Crowley is Malleus’s long lost father” theory is popping off right now in like every twst social media community so I wanted to know what your thoughts on it were?

I briefly discussed this theory in the final paragraph of this post (although it is full of spoilers, so please be cautious of that). To reiterate (and to add more details), the main pieces of evidence that come up when discussing this idea are:

Malleus’s dad is confirmed missing, but we never saw a body or have confirmation of his death so we can’t 100% trust that.

Crowley’s past and motives remain a total mystery. (The crow mask he wears is also highly suspicious; why does he never remove it? Why does it resemble the masks worn by Briar Country soldiers? Because Malleus would recognize his father? Because Lilia might recognize his old friend?)

The name of Malleus’s dad may be romanized as Levan/Revan (we don’t have an official English localization for book 7 yet, so we don’t know for sure how it would be written). (Edit: EN has confirmed that his name is "Raverne".) The former looks like the word “raven”, just with the vowels swapped around. And you know who else is a black bird?? Diablo, Maleficent’s crow and right-hand man, similar to how Levan/Revan was Mallenoa’s right-hand man. Who else do we know that’s a crow? Crowley.

Levan/Revan is described by Lilia as someone who “always dumped their work onto others/him”, which is something that Crowley also does to his own students.

So I guess the conclusion is that Malleus’s dad went into hiding to protect himself (especially if we assumed that his wife got killed off shortly after his disappearance; his own life may be in danger as well)?

I think the idea is definitely… interesting??? It would also be a big rug pull since players have been joking since day 1 that Crowley gives the vibes of a deadbeat/absentee dad or someone who went off to buy milk and never came back 😂 But in terms of how likely I think it is to become a reality??? I think it’s definitely kind of shaky if we’re going with only what we know right now.

The problem I have with this theory is twofold. Firstly, it’s counting a lot of omission of information as proof rather than details present as proof (which really could be spun any which way you like if you tried hard enough). Secondly, the main thread of logic here is basically the same as “Ace traitor” theory. We’re drawing conclusions from… a name (in Ace’s case, the fact that his surname isn’t “Heart” like the other card soldiers but is “Trappola”), which isn’t a lot of solid evidence in of itself.

I don’t know if I totally buy that Malleus’s dad would go MIA for literally 400ish years either? Like… he was the princess’s confidant, right? So he must have cared for her very much. Why would he up and abandon his wife (rather than coming to her rescue), his friend (Lilia), his country, AND his unborn child who NEEDS his love magic to be hatched? Why wouldn’t he return once the war was over?? Why would he run off to Sage’s Island and become the headmaster there??? If he doesn’t want to be a present father figure, why have a child at all or put himself in a position where he now has to monitor several hundreds of children every year instead of the one child that is actually his? (I know that Lilia started off not wanting kids and then became more open to the idea over time (ie people can change), but I don't think we can conclude the same happened to Crowley given how dismissive he still is in present day and how little we really know about Malleus's dad's true personality.) And surely if Crowley was Malleus’s dad, he’s not so ignorant as to not know Malleus is his son, right…? But then why forget about his existence 90% of the time and forget to invite him when he knows Malleus is on campus and he had not been there for him all his life???? Why actively be such an asshole???

The mask thing on Crowley is suspicious as heck, yes, but I don’t know if Malleus would be able to identify his father on sight since he never saw him or got to know him before hatching. On the flip side, how would Lilia not immediately notice his friend by voice??? Or by the mask if it is, indeed, his friend’s trademark or a custom from Briar Country? Are we arguing “characters made dumb for the sake of plot”? 😭 (Believe it or not, this is actually the most credible piece of evidence to me just because of how often TWST has employed cases of mistaken identity for the sake of convenience; I wouldn’t put it past them.)

Lilia does describe Levan/Revan as someone who dumps work on others, but he says Mallenoa does the same thing. Yet there are other aspects to Mallenoa which we also learn about. Shirking work is not the entire personality of Malleus’s dad and while his overall character may be inclusive of that, there are tons of traits unaccounted for; we barely know the guy. The Crowley = Levan theory feels like taking a conclusion and working backwards/retroactively changing the interpretation of other details to prove the conclusion we began with, instead of taking suspicious details and synthesizing a conclusion from it.

Anyway! You can see that I’m hesitant about this theory. I’d like more concrete details before I get on board with it because there isn't enough to implicate Crowley specifically—but hey, that’s not to say the idea isn’t interesting or funny 🤔 I’d personally love to see Malleus’s reaction to Crowley Darth Vader-ing him, haha 😂

Side note: It’s also sort of funny how people don’t believe Crowley is Malleus’s dad simply because they think Mallenoa is “too good/hot” for a man as bumbling as Crowley www

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justsomeoneintoomanyfandoms · 11 months

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Hi, I hope you are doing well!

I wanted to ask you if it is possible to request a matchup? It would be for HSR and Genshin please and thank you.

Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: Pan

Zodiac: Pisces

Apparence: I am a black girl who wears big glasses! My vision is pretty bad so I need them pretty much all the time. My height is 5’4 and I guess I am curvy. As for my hair, my hair is curly and reaches to my shoulders.

Personality: My MBTI is INFP. I am pretty timid and calm when it comes to first meeting but once you get to know me, I can be outgoing. A few people often tell me that I am a rather funny person and make the atmosphere much more fun. However, I think that I can be very direct and frank when they come to me for advice.

Hobbies: I like fanfics! Pretty much in any fandom I am, I go read fanfics about my favourite characters and write. I also like very much simping for them as well. Other than that, I watch a lot of tiktok videos (most likely edits and memes) and play videos games like Overwatch, Zelda, Persona and many more! I do some knitting as well as drawing.

Dislikes: I hate peas. I don’t like mosquitoes either. But for some reasons, they love me. I don’t like when people talk over me nor getting disrespected but I guess this is something that everyone hates it.

But yeah that would be all for me, I think. Thank you again for taking my request! Take your time to take care of yourself too ùwú✨

Hi Anon! Thank you for your request! I hope you like your matchups!

In Honkai Star Rail, I match you with...

You and Stelle are pretty similar in your interests! I can see you getting along well.

Modern au Stelle absolutely watches TikToks. She'd love to watch with you sometimes, swapping phones to see the others For You page.

I also see Stelle as a fellow fanfic enthusiast. Please give her recommendations and she'll give you some in return. After a while, you both get a good feel for what the other likes to read.

Stelle will also never judge you because of what fanfics you like to read. She's seen her fair share of weird stuff in her time. She's in no position to judge...

Will never talk over you. I see Stelle as someone who isn't super talkative anyway, so she's usually happy to let you do most of the talking.

Loves playing video games with you. If you feel like playing a single player game, she's happy to play her own single player game next to you. But Stelle's also more than happy to play multiplayer or co-op games with you.

In Genshin Impact, I match you with...

You and Itto are also pretty similar but you have your differences and that makes your relationship even better.

Another one who would spend all of their free time on TikTok in a modern au! Expect to get sent at least four funny videos he's found on there every day.

I don't see Itto as a big reader so he's probably not that into fanfiction but he thinks the concept is cool. He might try to investigate on his own. Poor thing comes across the weird side of fanfics far sooner than he thought he would have...

Has a bad habit of talking over people but only because he gets excited about the topic. He'll do his best to never talk over you; he values what you have to say.

Like Stelle, Itto would love playing video games with you. I see him as someone who would like games like Overwatch.

He'll get the rest of the Arataki Gang in on it as well. You've got a decently sized team behind you now...too bad they're not great players. They'll improve after a while though.

#writing #fanfic #matchup #matchup request #request #honkai star rail #stelle #genshin impact #itto #arataki itto

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utterlyinevitable · 2 years

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ok dri @gryffindordaughterofathena this ones for you! 💖

pairing: colin x penelope rating: general

summary: what if colin loved pen first

a/n: this is the first of ??? parts. let’s see how long my brain can last on this one thought.

Colin Bridgerton was on the cusp of 14 when he fell in love.

Of course, he did not know at the time precisely what the feeling was named. All he knew is the thrumming in his chest, the weightlessness of the heavy air around him, and an urge to dart across the room to be woefully in her presence.

The day Colin Bridgerton fell in love was most unremarkable.

The sky was grey, humidity hung, raindrops ruined any notion of fun for the day. He was left to pursuits in the drawing room, perusing a positively dreary book meant to prepare him for his studies at Eton next season. He had never been one for reading in the first place, would rather be trading tales with others than curled up quietly in a corner, but there comes a time in every man’s life when he must do something he never assumed he would.

His sister Eloise sat at the far end of the room across from her friend, telling stories or gossiping as young girls do. Colin wasn’t paying attention. Or, rather, he wasn’t paying any mind until voices escalated - Eloise’s voice to be certain. His green eyes flicked above the book to watch the scene - he wasn’t about to miss his tenaciously opinionated younger sister being bested. That’s when She looked at him - her pale blue eyes shining with mischief. Looking him right in the eye with an intent to pull air from his lungs, and asked kindly, “What do you think, Colin?”

He was overcome with the washing revelation that she noticed him. They barely held more than a pleasant conversation of more than four lines beforehand. And here she is seeking him out. It did not matter he was the only other person in the room besides the pair. She had brought him into the conversation with an effortlessness like he had always been part of it.

“I think your assessment is spot on, Penelope.”

Then, Eloise stormed out of the room and the sound of Penelope’s laugh rivaled every musicale he had ever attended in his lifetime.

Colin strode over to the settee.

“So what did I just agree to?”

And there that laugh was again.

It didn’t matter what it was, he just knew he’d do it again if it made her cheeks redden and bob with the sounds of her joy.

For the rest of the day, as the girls moved to Eloise’s room, he thought about all the ways he could ensure she would laugh again.

He was intrigued.

_________

a/n: 😬😬😬 Theres 4 instances that summer where colin felt something for pen. so there’s at least 5 parts if I ever manage to come up with something compelling for part 3 and 5. Hope you enjoyed this brain rot ❤️

Edit: ok and yes to fit my narrative ive swapped some minor details around because I feeling like colin being older than pen in the books serves the bedroom culture hopeless girl I don’t want for her. So she’s roughly colins age, just older to sway perceptions for later in part five.

#colin x penelope #polin #polin Drabble #bridgerton.fic

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thewritetofreespeech · 3 years

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MC + Cursed Toddler-fied Boys

prompt: All the boys suffer the same fate as Satan by reading ‘The Forbidden Book of Toddlerization’

Lucifer

You have to wonder why they kept so many cursed books around, just out like this. You would think, like any normal person, with this continuing to happen, that they would keep them locked up or something. But no. They just leave them out for anyone to find….

“I’m going to the meeting!” Lucifer yelled, stamping his foot. His face twist in a petulant frown. It would be rather adorable, if you hadn’t been arguing with him for the past 20 minutes

“Lucifer, we talked about this. You can’t go to the meeting. You need to stay here.”

“No! I wanna go to the meeting! It’s very important and everyone is counting on me!” His arms are wailing now as he stamped his foot more.

Of course, you couldn’t let him go to the first of the month meeting like this. His pride would be wounded beyond compare if anyone else saw him like this. But reasoning with him wasn’t working. You had to resort to more, unsavory tactic to win. “But the meeting was cancelled. Lord Diavolo called earlier to let me know.”

Lucifer stopped stamping his feet and waving his arms to look at you with a vacant expression you didn’t know he could muster. “Really?”

Gods help you. “Yes, really.”

He seemed to think about this for a moment before he beamed, “ok!” His mood instantly brightening. “I believe you, because [Y/N] would never lie to me.” ‘Forgive me Lucifer’ You think to yourself. “What are we gonna do instead then?”

“Why don’t we play a game instead to pass the time? Would you like that?”

“I know chess!” He exclaimed loudly. “Let’s play that.”

Of course, knowing and being good at it were two different things. In this state you were actually able to beat Lucifer several times. When he retuned to normal the day was ‘conveniently’ put away for sometime after.

Mammon

“Mammon. Please. I’ll just be gone for a minute.”

“Nooooooo!” Mammon wailed when you tried to get up again. Clinging to your waist tightly to keep you on the couch. “Onii-chan said you had to stay with me! Stay with me! Stay with me!”

After reading The Forbidden Book of Toddlerization, Mammon had, of course, reverted to the personality of a small child. His brother made fun of him, say ‘what’s the difference’, but Lucifer knew that this could be a disaster if he was set to wander free in this state across the Devildom. So he sat you to babysit him.

“Mammon, I promise I’ll be right back. I’m just going to get us some snacks for our movie.”

“Then let me come with you!” He whined, still clinging to you. In this state it seemed he had also taken on the personality of a baby duck. Imprinting on you and following you around everywhere you went in his room. He hadn’t left you alone for 5 seconds since he got this way. “I promise I’ll be good!”

“It’s not a question of you being good or bad Mammon-chan.” He liked to be called Mammon-chan right now. “It’s that you need to stay here. If someone sees you like this well…they could use it to tease you.”

“No…I don’t want to be teased anymore….” His voice was low, and sad. His bright eyes looking on the verge of tears, like kids do when they’re said, before he buried his face into your side. “Mammon-chan doesn’t want to be made fun of anymore. Mammon-chan also doesn’t want to be alone anymore.”

You sigh. Unable to argue with him when he was like this. Your hand lifted to pet his head, which he seemed to appreciate, before you text Satan to bring you some snacks. He was always reliable and would do it for you.

Once the affects of the book had worn off, Mammon denied any of this happening. The mere mention would cause his face to turn red and yell about how, “that didn’t happen!” You almost wish you had taken a video of it to show him. Guess you would just have to keep Mammon-chan forever in your heart.

Levi

You went to Levi’s room after class to check on him in his….condition.

Since he did remote learning a lot of the time, being an otaku, it was pretty easy to keep him away from people so they did see him in the current state he was in. Apparently as a toddler he didn’t like being around people either.

So, you had set him up comfortably in his room before heading to class. Promising to come back that afternoon to be with him.

“Levi! I’m back! How are you—what are you doing?!?!”

“Playing with my toys.” Levi replied, with an obvious expression, as a sea of toys stretch out in front of him where he laid on his belly on the floor.

Your brain stopped. Completely at a loss for words. Levi was going to kill you when he returned to normal, because toddler-Levi, left unattended, had unboxed nearly all of his figurines from their packaging. Some of which were incredibly rare, and unable to get anymore.

“I just…I mean…Why?? Why would you do this??”

“They’re my toys.” Levi replied with a pout. Sitting up. “I can do what I want with them. What’s the point in having neat toys if you aren’t going to play with them??”

He did have a point there. But adult-Levi was going to be so mad!

“Do you want to play with me?” The demon asked with a hopeful expression. “You can even be blue Ruri-chan.” The limited edition, color swap Ruri-chan from 1999. He was gonna blow a gasket!

“Yeah. Ok.” But then again, when were you ever going to be able to touch them again.

As expected, Levi totally lost it when he came to his senses. Of course, there was no one to blame but himself, in the end, so he just had to be upset and mope alone. Thankfully, none of them were broken or beyond just out of their originally packaging. He bought them all clear showcase boxes for his ‘ruined’ figurines. Some of them he could rebuy to replace; which seemed to make him happy to have two.

Satan

It had been hours since the affects of the book had taken ahold of Satan. You were starting to wonder if they would ever wear off.

Lucifer had left in search of another book, one that might help speed the process along, and left his younger brother in your care. Of course you were happy to help, but you were getting nervous you would never see the old Satan again.

“[Y/N]-chan?” You look up from your phone, waiting for Lucifer to text you back, to see the blonde demon looking timidly at you from around the corner.

“What is it Satan?”

“Would you….read to me?” His hands holding out the small children’s book he had some how found in the piles of books covering his room.

You smile softly at him. Your heart warmed by his request. “Of course,” you tell him, and the demon scampered over to sit on the bed beside you. His long legs and body tucked neatly into you as he waited for you to tell him the story of a little lost chicken and it’s journey back home. “[Y/N] tells the best stories!”

After 3 stories, he had fallen asleep. When he woke up, Satan was back to normal. He doesn’t answer your questions on where the children’s books had come from, but you spot the red & gold spines on his book shelves sometimes.

Asmo

There was no denying that Asmo was fascinated by art and all things beautiful. He went on and on about it any chance he got. So you shouldn’t have really been surprised when his toddlerfied self just wanted to draw all day.

“Look, look [Y/N]-chan! I finished another one!”

“That’s great Asmo.” You praise. Just like you had done with all the other ones he had handed to you. “Wow! This is really great! Is that a….chicken?”

“No, silly! That’s the white horse for our carriage when we get married!” The demon beamed, then shuffled over on his knees to instruct you on his picture properly. “That’s you, and that’s me. That’s the princess carriage that’s going to ride us off into the sunset. That’s Solomon and Simeon throwing flowers at us. That’s my brothers crying because I got to marry [Y/N]-chan and they didn’t.”

“You certainly seem to have all the parts here.” You praise. Giggling at his enthusiasm and picture.

“I want to have a perfect picture of when we get married. Because I love [Y/N]-chan! And we’re gonna get married and live happily ever after.” He replied, with certainty, with a smile.

“Well, I’ll be glad for that. Why don’t you draw me our perfect house for after we get married?” Asmo scampered off and did just that.

When Asmo came to, and back to his normal self, he took all the pictures he had drawn and framed them. Forcing his brothers and Solomon to take a tour of his mini-art gallery. The piece ‘Marriage of Two Bonded Souls’ was met with some controversy.

Beel

Beel, in his younger days, seemed to have boundless energy. Or you at least had to assume he did, because ever since he had read that stupid book he had been running around.

Lucifer had told you to take him outside. Irritated at hearing his large feet clump around the house, but trying not to show it since it wasn’t his fault. He even let you both take Cerberus outside to help run Beel out. It would be good for the pup too. Get some exercise, he said.

That had been sometime ago, and it seemed baby-Beel and Cerberus were an even match in energy. They had been running around, chasing each other, and play fighting in the back yard all afternoon. You were tired just watching them.

“Beel! Do you want to come in? I think it’s time for a break.”

Both Beel and Cerberus pop their heads up, in a comical and adorable unison head tilt, before jogging over to you. “Break time means snack time right?!”

You chuckle a little. Somethings never changed. “I brought some apple slices & peanut butter for you, for now. We can get you something bigger when we go inside.”

Beel grinned and sat in the grass with the container. “I like apple slices!”

“You do hn?” You don’t think you’ve seen Beel eat an actual fruit on its own. It was usually attached to, baked in, or covered in something, to get him to eat it.

“Yep! They’re crunchy and sweet. Just like you! Though, I guess you aren’t crunchy. Do you want one of my apple slices [Y/N]?”

You blush a little at Beel’s bright, unwavering expression. How could he look so innocent while still looking like that?

He finished his apple slices, minus one, before asking if he could go play again. You let him, but then all of a sudden he spotted playing with Cerberus and stood straight up. Seeming confused on how he got out here and what was going on. “Did I eat an apple? I haven’t had one since….do you think we have more in the kitchen?”

Belphie

It was honestly hard to tell if Belphie was under the spell of the forbidden book or not. He’d been asleep for most of the time; which was not uncommon for him. Then he would wake up and whine a little about something; again, not uncommon for him. Then he would take another nap.

You had figure out that he was still under it’s spell by the requests he was making when he woke up. Juice boxes. More plushies. His ‘blankie’. Eventually it would run its course though, and Belphie would be back to his own sleepy eyed, grown up self. “[Y/N]?”

You walk over to the bed when the demon called your name. The boy half sitting up, but still tucked under his covers. “What is it Belphie?”

“I can’t sleep.” He stated. Which seemed ridiculous since he had been sleeping most of the day. “I miss Lilli. And Be-be. Can you sleep with me?”

You blink at little at the request. You supposed it made since. Kids often wanted someone to sleep with them, so they didn’t have bad dreams or could keep them safe. Maybe that’s why he had been sleeping so much. Because he hadn’t been sleeping well, just sleep.

“Sure Belphie. I’ll lay down with you.” The demon smiled softly, sleepy, before he scooted over to give you some space to lay next to him.

He slept for a while this last time. Clinging onto you in his sleep, with a soft smile on his face. When he woke up, it seemed he was back to normal. “Gosh [Y/N]. If you wanted to sleep with me, all you had to do was ask. You didn’t have to trick me with that lame book.”

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zukka-pegged-by-suki · 3 years

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ok so guys, remember that “my father always says azula was born lucky, i was lucky to be born” line? yeah, now explain to me why tf are we even considering OZAIs words?!?! like some people use this line as an argument against azula when its literally what OZAI SAID?!?!!?!!?!

Zuko’s good and bad luck, as well as Azulas. Was either of them lucky? Let’s see.

Please read all of it before drawing assumptions.

Zuko’s luck:

- has mums care and affection

- has irohs care and affection

- can get away with being a softie as a child, because he may get disregarded and called weak but lets be honest, azula wouldnt have been able to get away with his behavior because she didn’t have firstborn privilege (which is a thing while azulon lived) or mummy’s protection like he did.

before anyone comes at me i’ll expand a bit on the firstborn privilege. as first born he was instantly considered more important by the masses since birth, that might’ve changed later but before neither could bend that much was still a fact. which means azula wouldn’t really have any recognition for anything unless she surpassed him in every way, which is what became her goal especially when ozai became the one who spent more time with her rather than ursa, anyways lets continue.

- constantly receiving second chances; iroh, the gaang minus katara, katara, azula (even if not from the “good” side), ozai (no matter the intentions, this much is true), iroh again, mai, the entire fckng world.

- he had a guide and help throughout his long healing and learning process.

Zuko’s bad luck:

- Unloving father

- Mummy disappears

- Doesn’t train that hard and surprise surprise, is worse than azula. Because if he had really trained hard, he would’ve at least known the formations wether he was able to firebend with them or not, but he was just clearly trying to copycat azula while tripping over because he didn’t have that much experience doing it. This is something no one can change my mind about. How tf did he expect to excel if he didn’t train enough. This wasnt about luck but hard work which he didn’t put in, too busy playing with mum and the little turtleducks. And I do not hate Zuko, I really love him but this is just a fact and he’s too fixed on blaming everyone else for his own mistakes and problems (esp Azula). Like, im sorry to break it out to you honey, but Ozai hates you because he’s an asshole, and that’s his own fault, not Azula’s.

- Scar and exile time, we all know this.

- Ugly haircut because of dishonor

- Finally achieving his goal of regaining his “honor” but realizing it wasn’t what he wanted only when he was already at the Fire Nation palace having all the glory from Aang’s presumed death.

- Katara’s distrust after his betrayal (bc who would’ve expected that to happen /s)

- Getting zapped in an attempt to save Katara.

I mean except for the things related to Ozai, most of this was all consequences from his own actions.

And I’m sorry but I don’t understand the fixation he has with having Ozai’s love. Unlike Azula, he has had his mother’s love and his uncle’s love. He knows what real love looks like and he has never really seen anything that could imply Ozai likes him, while he has Iroh treating him like he’s his actual father.

I’m not invalidating his traumas in any way and terrible things did happen to him, but why is he so obsessed with Ozai and why would he choose him over Iroh, he’s 16 and has been with Iroh since age 13, he was also with Ursa for the majority of his childhood, make it make sense.

Azula’s luck:

- Uh she was born rlly smart i guess

- She had some natural talent and knew to train hard to shape it to perfection, as well as studying a lot about war tactics and shit ig

- Ty Lee and Mai loved her and she loved them back

I mean as far as luck goes, that’s it. Everything else was achieved on her own merit and even if she had no scar, her traumas are just as valid as Zuko’s, neither is worse or better, we do not compare traumas in this house and they were both terrible.

Azula’s bad luck:

- Bad mother (i’ll make a post on why Ursa sucks)

- No second chances

- Mum never said goodbye just like she never said “i love you” lol, except in that one hallucination

- Never has had any real help to heal (i’ll make a post on why the asylum was a trash idea that would’ve never worked)

- Can’t fully trust anyone, not even herself, or will be punished for it

- The only people who loved her, Mai and Ty Lee, “betraying” her (check out my post on that, its under #jinta’s commentary)

- Ozai psychologically abusing her all her life

- Some characters may have been lonely, but she was genuinely absolutely alone. And she knew it.

- Hurt and self-hatred channeled through anger like Zuko did sometimes when he had that shame shave ponytail, but with her, its all the time.

- Even his abuser abandons her

- Everyone hates her but forgives Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee. And it’s so annoying because all Mailee did that Azula didn’t was swap sides almost at the end, if the excuse is that they were being manipulated well Ozai was manipulating Azula so what’s the excuse.

- Is always believed to be lying but usually isn’t (check out my azula always lies post)

- Has a mental breakdown and nobody gives a shit?! Like the first think Zuko thought of was “ooh she’s slipping lemme take advantage of that”

- Has nothing and no one, yay

- Gets thrown into a stupid asylum but not rlly because there are no comics in ba sing se

While Zuko had Ursa and Iroh to protect him and stuff, she was victim of Ozai’s manipulation and psychological abuse all her life.

So when we know Ozai said she was lucky, why tf is anyone taking his word for it??!

Plus when Zuko was born they didn’t know how he would be and Azula didn’t exist so there was no way he could’ve been lucky to be born.

Zuko was very unlucky, but he was also lucky.

Azula was just unlucky.

edit: as bellatrixobsessed1 said, azula had the illusion of luck.

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miserablesme · 3 years

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The Les Miserables Changelog Part 5: 1992 UK Tour

Hello, everyone! This is the latest edition in my attempt to chronicle all of the musical and lyrical changes which the show Les Miserables has undergone over the years. Much like the last part, this one focuses on changes made not to the official libretto, but to one particular production: namely, the 1992-1994 UK tour. However, in contrast to the last part, the vast majority of these changes at least made it elsewhere at some point. This will be a bit longer than Part 4, but still shorter than any of the first three parts. With all that cleared up, let us begin!

Like the West End production before it (more on that later), the UK tour swapped these lines from "At the End of the Day":

What is this fighting all about?

Will someone tear these two apart?

He thus instead sings:

Will someone tear these two apart?

What is this fighting all about?

The first noticeable difference original to this production occurs during "Lovely Ladies". Originally after Fantine's "Ten francs will save my poor Cosette", there was a rather complex section in which the sailors and prostitutes sung different lines simultaneously. It went as follows:

(SAILORS - simultaneously with prostitutes' lines)

Lovely lady, fastest on the street

Wasn't there three minutes

She was back up on her feet

Lovely lady, what you waiting for

Doesn't take a lot of savvy just to be a whore

Come on lady, what's a lady for?

(PROSTITUTES - simultaneously with sailors' lines)

Lovely ladies, lovely little girls

Lovely ladies, lovely little ladies

Lovely girlies, lovely little girls

We are lovely, lovely girls

Lovely ladies, what's a lady for?

The UK tour totally reimagines this scene as an exchange between a prostitute and a pimp:

(PROSTITUTE)

God I'm weary, sick enough to drop

Belly burns like fire

Will the bleeding never stop?

(PIMP)

Cheer up dearie, show a happy face

Plenty more like you, dear

If you can't keep up the pace

(PROSTITUTE)

Only joking, dearie knows her place

This is quite a massive departure from the original! I imagine it would be quite a bit easier to get right given that it involves only two actors, neither of whose dialog overlaps the other (in contrast to the original scene with an entire ensemble of actors with distinct but simultaneous lyrics and tunes). It's hard for me to decide what I prefer. Thematically, the revised version is better, given that it makes the negative and exploitative aspects of prostitution quite a bit clearer than the original. However, lyrically I prefer the original somewhat simply for the sake of consistency. The sick prostitute scene, as it's sometimes been called, is the only point in the entire song where that chorus is used without some variation of the words "lovely ladies". Feels a little out-of-place to me.

"Fantine's Arrest" also gets different lyrics - for a time, at least. I have two different audios from the UK tour, from April and December 1992 respectively. The December audio reverts to the original lyrics for Bamatabois (though not for Fantine). I wonder whether or not someone just forgot to tell the replacement Bamatabois about the lyrical edit, or if it was a conscious choice to revert the scene? I also wonder if the year-plus of the tour after that performance kept the original lyrics or put the new ones in again. Regardless, this is how the exchange between Fantine and Bamatabois originally went:

(BAMATABOIS)

Is this a trick? I won't pay more

(FANTINE)

No, not at all

(BAMATABOIS)

You've got some nerve, you little whore

You've got some gall!

It's the same with a tart as it is with a grocer

The customer sees what he gets in advance

It's not for the whore to say "yes sir" or "no sir"

It's not for the harlot to pick or to choose

Or to lead me a dance

The UK tour initially revised the sequence into the following:

(BAMATABOIS)

Is this a trick? I won't pay more

(FANTINE)

I won't have you

(BAMATABOIS)

You've got some sauce, you ugly slut

You've got some gall!

What's become of the world when a whore from the gutter

Can suddenly get such ideas in her head?

Your job is to lie on your back for your betters

This hideous harlot believes she can choose

Who she takes to her bed

I guess the revised lyrics feel a bit more threatening, as well as a little less contrived. (Who the hell has ever actually used the phrase "lead me a dance"?) Still, I prefer the original ones because the rhyme scheme feels a lot more natural.

More changes occur during "The Runaway Cart". The original (rather clunky) conversation among the townspeople was as follows (with each line separate due to being said by a different person than the previous one):

Look at that

It's Monsieur Fauchelevent

Don't approach

Don't go near

At the risk of your life

He is caught by the wheel

Oh the pitiful man

Stay away

Turn away

There is nothing to do

The UK tour rewrites most of the scene into the following:

Look at that

Stay away

You'll be crushed by the cart

Don't approach

Don't go near

It'll fall on you too

Oh my god, who is that?

It's Monsieur Fauchelevent

He is caught by the wheel

Oh the pitiful man

There is nothing to do

A far more natural progression in my humble opinion, and less repetitive as well.

The later scene involving the townspeople doesn't actually include any lyrical changes. However, like the West End production before it (more on that later), it does take lines that were previously in the singular into ensemble lines. The sequence was generally being performed as follows:

(MALE TOWNSPERSON)

Don't go near him, Monsieur Mayor

The load is as heavy as hell

(FEMALE TOWNSPERSON)

The old man is a goner for sure

(MALE TOWNSPERSON)

It will kill you as well

The UK tour instead staged it as follows:

(MALE TOWNSPERSON)

Don't go near him, Monsieur Mayor

(ENSEMBLE)

The load is as heavy as hell

(FEMALE TOWNSPERSON)

The old man is a goner for sure

(ENSEMBLE)

It will kill you as well

This ensemble business, which was already being used in the West End at the time, is an interesting callback, perhaps, to the pre-Broadway libretto in which much of the segment was sung by the ensemble. Personally I consider this edit an improvement. It feels far more frantic when the entire crowd is involved in the scene.

Once Valjean actually saves Fauchelevent, his lines are originally as follows:

Monsieur Le Maire, I have no words

You come from God, you are a saint

The UK tour changes them into the following:

Monsieur Le Maire, I have no words

You saved my life, you come from God

I guess the rewrite makes the reason for Fauchelevent's gratitude clearer, though it was already perfectly clear to begin with. The edit certainly doesn't hurt anything though.

The preamble to "Master of the House" retains the original "Hell, what a wine" instead of the post-Broadway "God, what a wine" edit.

Similarly, the "Waltz of Treachery" number has Thenardier ask the original "Have we done for your child what is best?" instead of the post-Broadway "her child".

A slight variation can be heard after the “Waltz of Treachery”. Usually Little Cosette asks:

Will there be children

And castles to see?

However, in the UK tour she instead asks:

Will there be castles

And children to see?

This variation also occurs in some early post-Broadway West End performances, and in the Complete Symphonic Soundtrack. I’d be interested to know whether or not that soundtrack may have inspired the choice during the UK a tour.

Interestingly, “Look Down” reverts an exchange back from the 1987 libretto into the original pre-Broadway version. Perhaps drawing from the West End show which was still using the original variant of this particular moment, the sequence officially sung by the ensemble as follows as follows:

When’s it gonna end

When’re we gonna live

Something’s gotta happen now or

Something’s gotta give

Because, as it was originally written, sung by one person at a time:

When’s it gonna end

When’re we gonna live

Something’s gotta happen, dearie

Something’s gotta give

My thoughts on the two variants can be seen in Part 3 of this blog.

Like the Australian tour, the UK tour has Thenardier say "God rewards all the things that you do" during "The Robbery" instead of "the good that you do".

Also, for some reason Thenardier refers to "the brand across his chest" instead of "upon his chest" later in the number.

The UK tour borrows the revised lyrics to “Stars” from the Australian tour and the West End production. Instead of the original lyrics:

A fugitive running

Fallen from grace, fallen from grace

It used these ones:

A fugitive running

Fallen from God, fallen from grace

Instead of these lines:

He knows his way in the dark

But mine is the way of the Lord

And those who follow the path of the righteous shall have their reward

It uses the shortened variants:

He knows his way in the dark

Mine is the way of the Lord

Those who follow the path of the righteous shall have their reward

Finally, instead of these lines:

And so it has been

And so it is written

It used these ones:

And so it must be

And so it has written

You can read my thoughts on all those differences in Part 4 of this blog.

The next noticeable difference occurs at the beginning of “Red and Black”. Previously the song opened with the beginning chords. However, the UK tour added a short musical sting before these chords. If I’m not mistaken, this musical addition was placed in to account for a change in staging. Originally the number began with the barricade set sliding off-stage, revealing the ABC cafe set behind it. However, around the time of this tour the blocking was adjusted. Now, the turntable instead revolved at the beginning of this number, revealing the ABC cafe set on the other end of the turntable and allowing the barricade set to double as the walls of the cafe. I believe the opening sting was added to allow time for this slightly more elaborate staging.

Additionally, as was the case in the West End at the time, no one shouts Enjolras' name during the instrumentals to "Red and Black".

In “Red and Black”, Enjolras usually sings:

We need a sign

To rally the people, to call them to arms

To bring them in line

However, the UK tour replaces it with the following lines:

We need a sign

To rally the people, to fire their blood

And to bring them in line

I guess “fire their blood” has a certain idealistic flair that fits Enjolras’ character, but I still definitely prefer the usual lyric. It conveys the message a lot more directly.

After the number, this is Enjolras’ original remark regarding General Lamarque’s passing:

On his funeral day they will honor his name

It’s a rallying cry that will reach every ear

In the death of Lamarque we will kindle the flame

They will see that the day of salvation is near

The time is here…

The UK tour rewrites those lines into the following:

On his funeral day they will honor his name

With the light of rebellion ablaze in their eyes

From their candles of grief we will kindle our flame

On the tomb of Lamarque shall our barricades rise

The time is here…

Though there’s a bit less rhyming in the revision, it strikes me as somewhat nicer and less clunky-sounding. The sentences’ subjects no longer feel all over the place, and the phrasing is far more poetic.

As with “Look Down”, some lyrics to “The Attack on Rue Plumet” are reverted to their original form (which was also still used in the West End at the time). Thenardier’s official lyrics following Eponine’s scream were as follows:

You wait my girl, you’ll rue this night

I’ll make you scream, you’ll scream alright!

Leave her to me, don’t wait around

Make for the sewers, go underground

The UK tour brought them back to this form:

Make for the sewers, don’t wait around

Leave her to me, go underground

You wait my girl, you’ll rue this night

I’ll make you scream, you’ll scream alright!

You can read my thoughts on these variants in Part 3 of this blog.

As with the Australian tour, Philip Quast changes “we’ll be ready for these schoolboys” into “I will join these little schoolboys” in “One Day More”. Unlike the Australian tour, the UK tour would maintain this variant even after Philip left. You can read my thoughts on this variant in Part 4 of this blog.

That’s it for the first act! The first noticeable difference occurs right before “A Little Fall of Rain”. Instead of opening with the beginning music, the UK tour added a short musical interlude beforehand. In my opinion, this music sounds terrible and feels extremely out-of-place. I wonder whether or not there was some change in staging to account for these extra notes.

After Enjolras' "Night of Anguish", the instrumental music is edited. Originally the number was followed by the same tune which would later be heard in "Drink with Me". However, the UK tour replaced it with a reprise of the tune of "A Little Fall of Rain". This is one of my least favorite edits for the tour. The original music felt highly emotional, and, since it predicted a later number, it implies the sense that, despite Eponine's death, there is more to come and the revolution is far from over. I'd argue that simply reprising a song that just happened suggests a degree of closure that is not appropriate for its context.

Everything is as usual right up until the epilogue. As with the Australian tour, the UK tour uses the “I’ll lead you to salvation” line instead of “And lead me to salvation” for Fantine and Eponine. You can read my thoughts on that change in Part 4 of this blog.

That’s it for this part! If I missed anything feel free to let me know, as my goal is to create a changelog as thorough and complete as possible. I plan on making more parts in the near future covering all the changes that have been made in the show up until this day (discounting concerts). Any feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated. As a side note, both for this project and my own enjoyment, I want as complete a collection of Les Miserables audios as possible. I already have most of what’s commonly circulated, but if you have any audios or videos you know are rare, I’d love it if you DMed me! Until the turntable puts me at the forefront again, good-bye…

#les mis #les miz #les miserables #musical #1992 #changelog #the les miserables changelog #through the years #valjean #javert #fantine #cosette #marius #eponine #thenardier #gavroche #part 4 #blog #long post

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nathanielv537 · 2 years

Text

Log 6

Last lesson before the mid semester break was pretty fun and helpful.

Photoshop tips and tricks

By pressing ‘X’ the foreground color will swap to the background color and vice versa, this shortcut is very handy for quick art.

Here I’m going to use adjustment layers to change this color.

When adjusting hue and saturation, ‘Colorize’ will put every layer onto the same hue.

To better explain this is the result if you don’t tick colorize.

Another tip when using adjustment layers is that you can click that button to have the adjustments only apply a specific layer, which will be the layer below the adjustment layer. This helps when you don’t want to adjust every layer

Here I am making a rectangle selection over my sketch. A quality of life tip is that you should keep ‘auto-select’ off. This is because it feels more natural to select what you want through the layers tab instead of clicking on the artboard. It’s much more efficient as you won’t accidentally select the wrong layer as much as you would with auto-select on.

Handy reminders:

- Moving a selection outside of the selected area will move the entire layer rather than what’s inside the selected area.

- Moving a selection inside the selected will move what is selected as to be expected.

- While holding ‘Alt’ when moving a selection it will keep the original selection in place and instead you will be moving a duplicate of the selection on the same layer.

- While holding ‘Shift’ when moving a selection your movement will be constrained to the horizontal and vertical axis.

- With a selection you can do the shortcut ‘Command + J’ and that will make a layer containing what you have selected.

As a quick refresher we are going back to this image and recoloring different fruit

I’ve selected this orange with the pen tool and refined my path with the direct selection tool.

(Using alt to break the anchor points is very helpful)

With the paths tab I’ve turned it into a selection.

After that we can mask it, make sure that there is a copied background layer.

All that’s left is using an adjustment layer onto the orange and now we got a lime green orange :)

(or you could just call it a lime green)

Summary of first exercise

Essentially what was practiced was our skills in:

Selection tools, Masking, Layer management

Exercise 2

Here we have an image of a person jumping in a funny position. We are going to learn how to utilize smart objects so that we can combine the features of photoshop and illustrator.

First things first we will of course duplicate the background layer as we will be cutting out the jumping guy.

We are going to use the object selection tool as a starter to get somewhat of a shape. There are plenty other methods to do this however this feels the easiest.

I found that doing this sort of editing in photoshop is a matter of working smarter not harder.

This is the selection... It’s not that good but it’s a good start to refine.

We have masked the selection and put it behind a very distinctly colored background to make it easier to see the edges.

Lets start cutting of this weird part.

To be quick and efficient, we’re using the polygonal tool.

Note that when the black and white mask is selected, your two colors will change to black and white. To put it simply think of black to remove from the selection and white to add to the selection.

So with black as my foreground we “draw” (erase) the shadow away from the selection.

(I’m only using a small brush size for example)

Much nicer.

With that in mind we can also reveal what has been taken out of the selection with the white color. So here we are revealing everything that has been picked out by the auto select.

However the hair of this guy will be the hardest to extract. So I will use this helpful and special method.

To start we’re gonna take 2 more copies of the background.

On that top background layer we will desaturate it with an adjustment. (It can be layer adjustment however this is just a one time adjustment)

Then with control + M we can bring up the curves adjustment. What we want is to make the hair very bold so that we can easily pick up on the edges.

Then with control + I we are gonna invert it. And then copy that layer (control + c)

(make sure the whole image is selected when copied)

After that hide the layer and then move onto the next one down.

With the next layer we will create a mask and then...

Paste it into the mask.

With just that layer showing this is what part of our hair selection looks like.

It’s another great starting point for getting the hair done.

After that apply the layer mask then create another one on that same layer with instead of white in the mask invert it to black.

With playing with brush tool this is our result, though it is only one segment of the hair it is good progress.

Another lesson when doing this work is that it often works together in steps that eventually build to the final result.

With file organizing this is how our photoshop project will look.

I’ve done a cut of the entire edge of the body.

Selection and then invert selection.

For the less noticeable parts I’ll just be using the polygonal tool.

Here I went with the brush tool method to get rid of the very very tiny details.

After some time (especially on the hair), this is the final extract.

Moving to Illustrator

Tip: to make sure the image is aligned properly you can use the align tab.

Here I’ve dimmed the photo so that we can draw over it with clear vision.

This is going to be the line that swerves around the guy to give a cool effect.

Added a thicker stroke and caps at the end to make it look more flowing.

Save as an illustrator file.

And then back on photoshop you should place linked instead of embedded.

Make a copy of the squiggle and select which parts you want to remain in front of the guy. Then mask.

Looking good so far :)

This is my final result.. Super proud of it :)

Reflection

This lesson was pretty fun. Though I knew most of the techniques I was still surprised by some of the little skills that I learnt. I feel more understanding of bridging illustrator and photoshop together and I definitely feel like I can use this vital skill in the future.

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sytco · 3 years

Text

collision theory [joochan]

pairing: hong joochan x reader

word count: 1k

in which you meet a boy running from the rules and straight into your heart.

a/n: this joochan high school au drabble would NOT leave me alone until i posted it despite knowing i have 2 requests to finish + edit + post but i forgive it because it’s so cute even though i’m the one who wrote it LOL also in future i would be really interested in making this into a full blown fic!! but for now please show it lots of love!!! thank you!!!!!! -ju

The first time you meet Joochan coincidentally happens to be the first time you nearly set your chemistry class on fire.

In retrospect, the new burn you sport on your thumb is minor and will heal up after a week, except your chemistry teacher is also a frazzled worrywart who immediately frog marches you to the infirmary as soon as the panic has died down and advises the nurse to keep you in bed until lunch. It may also be because she’s scared you’ll cause some other big incident that really will cause a school evacuation this time but either way, you’re not complaining because it means you get to miss national history and nap instead.

Or at least, that’s the working plan until someone abruptly slides the curtain of your cubicle back and loudly clears his throat.

Your eyes shoot open and - instead of some random teacher - you see a rather sweaty-looking boy with a shock of light blonde hair, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.

He points to the bed you’re lying on. “Are you on the brink of death?”

“What?”

Something about his voice tells you that he is not joking but you are still dumbfounded.

“I said, are you”- You shake your head hurriedly as soon as you spot how his left foot has started tapping impatiently.

The boy breathes a quick sigh of relief. “Great. Okay. Just - don’t say anything, alright? You never saw me.”

And then without any further warning, he dives under the bed and rearranges the sheets so as to conceal himself entirely from anyone who might have been hunting for a boy clearly breaking the school’s regulations on hair color, and poked their head through the entrance of the infirmary.

All of this happens within the span of twenty seconds before you can hear your school’s discipline officer’s robust voice from across the room.

“Is anyone in here?”

You stay quiet as per Mysterious Blonde Boy’s request.

“Oi, you there”- and the discipline officer draws close to your bed - “have you seen anyone run by here? About this tall and sporting yellow hair?”

Despite not being a good actor, you hope the look of confused innocence on your face is enough to fool the officer and it apparently works because he then sighs in a somewhat defeated manner. “Alright. Sorry for interrupting your rest, anyway. If you do see him, come let me know, won’t you?” And he walks off, leaving you to lean back against the pillows you’d propped up.

Another ten seconds tick by.

“Is he gone yet?”

You jump, not accustomed to hearing a voice speak from beneath you. “Y-yes. I think. He’s not in the room, if that helps.”

“Hm. I’ll stay here just a few minutes more so he can put more distance between us, if you don’t mind.” You don’t really, despite how odd this entire situation is, but you worry about him having to hide all cramped up beneath your bed and you tell him as much.

“I’ve hidden in worse places,” he tells you nonchalantly. “So. What are you in here for?”

You subconsciously look down at your thumb, encased in a thick white bandage that you have already started picking at. “I nearly burned down my chemistry class.”

“Oh, that was you?” The boy’s voice sounds amused now and you flush at how the news of your mishap seems to have already spread so quickly. “My friend is in that class, by the way. That’s how I heard about it. You know Kim Jibeom? Tall and in the music performance club?”

You nod before realizing the boy can’t see you. “He gave a great presentation last week about the lab we did on recombinant DNA.”

“Yeah, Jibeom’s pretty smart,” he says. “But clumsy. And so are you, I guess. How’d you end up nearly committing arson anyway?”

It might be the fact that his voice is so comforting and soft that you find yourself focusing less on the fear that he will think you ridiculous like everyone else might. And so you tell him the whole story: from the way you just had to pick the only faulty Bunsen burner in the whole classroom to the way your partner had neglected to turn the gas off, and finally how your lab coat sleeve had caught on the lips of some test tubes containing Highly Inflammatory Materials to the detriment of your teacher’s sanity. He interjects at the appropriate intervals with funny quips about the whole situation that have you feeling better, like maybe you weren’t the world’s biggest embarrassment - and this is how you end up spending your time in the infirmary, swapping stories with the boy beneath your bed about all the times you’ve both been hilariously unlucky.

In fact, the time passes so swiftly that you both forget about the predicament the boy is in until the bell rings to signal the end of lunchtime. With a rustle, he slides out unceremoniously from his hiding place of the last twenty minutes. And this is when you get your first, proper look at him, at the bright smile on his face, at the name on his badge.

Hong Joochan.

“Thanks for everything,” he says and now that you finally have a face to properly associate with the voice, you feel a little awkward again. You guess he does too because he clears his throat again but much more quietly this time. “Well - I suppose I’ll get going now.”

It’s strange, this feeling of disappointment that has suddenly lodged itself in your throat. “Okay.”

“I’ll see you around probably, seeing as you’re in Jibeom’s class.”

You nod.

He nods too before smiling again and turning on his heel to walk out of the infirmary just as suddenly as he’d run into it.

Left to stare dumbly out the window, you think back to his smile for a brief moment.

Oh. Oh.

You exhale a breath you didn’t know you were holding onto and place a shaky hand over your rapidly beating heart.

feedback is always Always greatly appreciated

#golden child #gncd #golcha #golden child scenarios #golden child imagines #golden child joochan #hong joochan #i know my writing is not very good but #i am trying my best. in future i will be a better writer!!#ju writes

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honeybeesiness · 3 years

Text

an unholy holiday.

word count: 2k.

slight nsfw warning! dw tho, there’s absolutely no smut and it’s 97% fluff. it’s just the reader being a tiny bit of a thottie ;).

‎

two limited edition sucre frenzy tickets.

The next day was your day with the beloved otaku Leviathan. Based off the kind of person he was, you figured that he would want to watch some anime with you or take you to a convention somewhere in Devildom (or the human world if you’re lucky). Binging the TSL series in the beginning of the year for the quiz against Levi proved beneficial to you (aside from being able to make a pact with him), as after that you became quite invested in the series to the point where you would want to name your pet Henry too. You knew Levi liked how you were fond of the series, because it wasn’t every day where he met someone that shared the same interests as him and didn’t put him down for it. With that being said, you were perfectly content with watching TSL or any other series that Levi chose today.

After breakfast that morning, you had gotten a text from the boy in question, who had not shown up for the meal.

💞weeb husband💞: meet me in my room

💞weeb husband💞: wear ur pajamas

You began to grow excited, as your suspicions were seemingly correct. It seemed like you were quite good at guessing what the boys had planned so far, given how you knew what Beelzebub was planning yesterday as well. Were you a psychic? Maybe you just had really good intuition. Or maybe you just knew the brothers so well that guessing came easy for you. Either way, you were smiling like a madman as you typed out a reply.

You: aight fam, i’ll be there asap

You: want me to wear my tsl jammies

💞weeb husband💞: yes

After his swift reply, you slid your phone into your hoodie and bid the others at the breakfast table a farewell. You headed on back to your room to swap into what you called your “TSL Pajamas”, which was just a worn-looking oversized brown t-shirt with the TSL logo on it along with a pair of comfy grey pajama shorts. After you got dressed, you slid down the hall and knocked on Levi’s door.

“Come in.”

And you did, shutting the door behind you. You grinned giddily at Leviathan (who was situated in his bathtub) before turning your attention to the rest of the room. Surrounding the bathtub that was Leviathan’s bed was a large array of snacks and drinks, most of which were your favorites. You didn’t think Devildom had human food like this, and you wondered if Levi went out of his way to get you these things. You were grateful, and you sent him a cheeky look, also deciding that it would be funny to tease him just a little. Embarrassed Levi was one of your favorite Levis, after all.

“Did you get all of this for me~?” You batted your eyelashes, slowly and sensually bending over to pick up a bottle of banana flavored ramune, which you examined while still being crouched. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see the bluenette’s face flush a scarlet color, and that was enough to satisfy you for the moment. “Thank you.”

“LOL, they’re not all for you, you know!” He squawked, still mildly embarrassed, but soon his face returned to its normal hue. “Believe it or not, there are some foods from the human world that actually taste good!”

You rolled your eyes, picking up a packet of chocolate pocky (a classic) as well as another favorite snack of yours before sauntering over to where Levi was sitting in the bathtub. “What’re we doin’? With all these snacks, I would assume you have something in mind.”

“You and I are going to be having an anime marathon.” He jabbed a finger in the direction of one of his PC monitors whose position he changed so the both of you could watch. “I wanna watch TSL and I don’t listen to normies who say no.”

“No. We literally watch TSL EVERY time I come to hang out here! Let’s try somethin’ new for once.” You said defiantly, earning a huff and a mini pout from the boy in return. You were clearly contradicting what you had thought to yourself earlier, but we don’t talk about that.

“FINE. What do you suggest?” He grumbled, pulling his keyboard closer to his lap so he could bring up his Softbun account. You put one foot into his bathtub and his head immediately shot over to look at you, his expression a little bit wild. “What are you doing?!”

You put another foot in. “Getting comfortable, of course, so scooch over! Your fatass is hogging the tub.”

“Excuse me?!” Levi sounded offended, but he was smiling as he (hesitantly) moved over. You plopped yourself down, hanging your legs over the rim of the tub. It was a small, Levi-sized bathtub, and you eyed the boy as he blushed fervently at your close proximity.

“Hey, have you watched Beast Assassin yet?” You asked, pointing at the series on the monitor in front of you. The show was in Levi’s library, but you couldn’t tell if he watched it or not.

He gave you a look that told you that you had asked a stupid question. “You mean the hit series where the protagonist’s sister gets turned into a beast and the protagonist must go on a journey to find a cure for her? OF COURSE I watched it! What are you, some kind of pleb?”

“NO. Shut the hell your mouth, we’re watching Beast Assassin, but we’re skipping to the part where Airitsu first appears because he’s the best.” You snatched his keyboard off his lap and placed it on yours, reaching your hand over the side of the bathtub to move the mouse (which was placed on the floor next to the bed) over to Beast Assassin.

“What are you saying?! Are you crazy?! We can’t just start on the second episode without watching the first! It’s called “Episode 2“ for a reason!” Levi attempted to take the keyboard away from you, but as soon as he laid his fingers on it, the entire room went pitch black.

You were the first to react. “Eh?? Levi-san, it’s so dark! H-Hold me!” But you, in fact, did not hold onto him. You could hear the boy, scoff, though. “Are we havin’ some sort of blackout? Has this ever happened in Devildom, or—?”

“This is SO unfair,” Levi grumbled to himself, and you felt him move beside you. “Just as I was going to click on the first episode of Beast Assassin!” You aggressively shoved him on the arm for that comment, sending him stumbling out of the bathtub and flat on the floor. Since you couldn’t exactly see him, the only way you could tell that he was on the floor was through the sound of skin hitting the tile that was the floor of Levi’s bedroom. “Hey!”

“What, I didn’t do anything!” You “harumph-ed” and crossed your arms, but you were generally curious as to what Levi was up to. And, as your eyes began to grow used to the dark, you could make out his silhouette approaching his desk where the rest of his monitors sat. “What’cha doin’?”

You watched somewhat blindly as he reached over the screens to the shelves that sat behind the desk, grabbing something that you couldn’t make out. You, too, got out of the bathtub, and you stumbled over to where Leviathan was standing. As he sensed you approaching, he turned away from you and hunched over slightly so you couldn’t see what he was holding. You shoved him again, but much more lightly this time.

“If you don’t stop, I won’t be giving you any of these glowsticks!” Ah, so that was what he was holding.

“Glowsticks? You have glowsticks??” From your spot behind Leviathan, you could spot a faint glow coming from his frontside. He turned around to face you, his face lit up by pink and red glowsticks, but still remaining shrouded by the surrounding darkness. He gave you another incredulous look that told you that you asked a stupid question. “Don’t give me that look! I thought that you used them all at the last concert you went to!”

Leviathan squinted at you. “Bold of you to assume that, since I’ve taken you to all of the concerts I got tickets for in the past year!”

That was something that had completely failed to cross your mind. It’s not that you didn’t remember Levi taking you to all those pop idol concerts before (you did), but you were always more invested in the music and the choreography rather than what the audience was doing or even holding.

“Well, I’m sooooorry that I forgot! It’s just-”

“Enough of your excuses, woman.” Leviathan interrupted you with a flick on your forehead. “An otaku never is without their glowsticks.”

“You can’t say that ‘cause glowsticks aren’t even used for anime! ...Unless it’s of Lyricoids. You like Lyricoids, right? You better. Who’s your favorite?” You reached out your hand to grab at the pink glowstick, hoping to distract the bluenette with your chitchat, but he moved his hands away.

“Of course I do! I like Muka. Her voice is so melodic and graceful, and her songs are so beautiful and meaningful. The settings of her music videos are always so detailed, especially with the backgrounds and how the plot of the song is portrayed through the visuals. Muka also always looks amazing in any outfit since her figure is naturally curvy and mature, and the musicians and animators never fail to make her draw the audience’s eyes. I also really like how—”

“I like the OG queen herself, Riku, thanks for asking.” You interrupted somewhat sarcastically, having another go at trying to acquire one of Levi’s glowsticks. “She’s so bubbly and her voice is so versatile that she can sing and sound nice in literally any genre.”

“I agree, but,” Levi moved the glowsticks out of the way once more. “Muka is—”

There were several knocks on Levi’s door, and both of your heads swiveled in that direction. You also took that moment to swipe up the pink glowstick, and Levi glared at you.

“What if a serial killer busted the lights and is out to kill us.” You mused, scratching your chin. “He’s being awfully polite if he’s knocking on the door, though.”

You were on a roll with your stupid statements today, for Levi gave you another look, this one being much more annoyed. He didn’t bother to correct you, and instead said, “I hope he kills you first because you’re being so annoying.”

Your reply was immediate, and the knocking was heard once more. “Jokes on you, I actually want to die.” Pink glowstick in hand, you marched to the front of the room and opened the door. “Stab me, daddy.”

“...What?”

You blinked several times and held up the glowstick to the person’s face. It was Satan, and you shuffled awkwardly in your spot. “Oops.”

“I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear that.” Satan surveyed the room, and his stiff posture relaxed— if only a little. “Good, you two aren’t the only ones whose rooms are affected by the blackout.”

You leaned against the doorframe. “This happened to you too?”

Satan nodded. “And the rest of us as well. It is unusual, is it not? This never happened before.”

“Well, I hope it gets fixed soon, because Levi back here,” You jabbed your free thumb in the man’s direction. “is being the biggest prick. He said he actually WANTED me to die! And for what, being annoying? Sheesh, how harsh.”

Satan smiled a little bit, glancing back at Leviathan, who he was only able to see thanks to the glowstick he was holding. Upon hearing your words, Levi marched up and slammed the door shut.

You held up your hands in front of yourself in mock surrender. “Let’s just agree that we’re both being annoying.”

“But YOU’RE the one who’s being annoying!”

“Agree to disagree?”

“...Fine.” ‎‎ ‎‎‎

i have a headcanon where Levi uses crackhead/internet/gen z humor so i decided to incorporate that into the story :”). had a lot of fun writing this!

also, if y’all forgot, Levi legit sleeps in a bathtub 😤.

‎

and yes that is a Sayaka Maizono/Danganronpa reference in the beginning ;)

‎‎‎

Beast Assassin = Demon Slayer. Airitsu = Zenitsu.

Lyricoid = Vocaloid. Muka = Luka Megurine. Riku = Miku Hatsune.

taglist: @wetleafwrites :: @midnight-moodlet

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rosesloveletters · 2 years

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Q, R, and U!

Hello, darling, Anaya🥺🥺 How are you, dear? I hope you're doing well on this fine Thursday!! Sending you lots and lots of love, good vibes and hugs. Thank you for asking🥰🥰 (any excuse to discuss Will & Jake👀)

Q-Question: If you have a question for your partner, how do they generally answer it? With a specific explanation, rambling, looking it up with you, etc.

Jakob: It depends on what my question is that determines his response method. Jakob is very well-educated and knows a lot about a lot of things; there's not too many things I could ask that he would not have some sort of answer for. If it's anything to do with writing, he's almost too eager to help. Usually with Jake, there's lots of rambling involved because his mind moves faster than his mouth whenever he's really, really excited.

Will: If I have a question that requires a direct, somewhat concise answer, I'll go to Will. My Wilhelm is very straightforward and to-the-point; he can even be rather blunt, depending upon the situation and what is being discussed. Will is just as educated as Jakob, though he will normally look things up with me if need be. He pays attention to detail, but things that don't require his immediate attention are things he will pass over and not commit to memory the same as Jakob does. Will does not know as much about story writing like Jake, but he is a master at proofreading and editing, so if my question lies in that department, he's my guy.

R-Reassure: How do you comfort them when they’re upset? How do they comfort you?

Jakob: Jakob likes to be cuddled when he's upset and will often crawl into my lap unannounced; I quickly put away whatever I was working on and focus on him and his needs. He likes to talk about the things that upset him because getting those things off his chest helps him feel less bothered by them; talking about it makes his troubles seem small enough to manage. He really likes having his hair played with or his beard scratched. Sometimes I can make him laugh by swapping our glasses and wearing his while he wears mine. He comforts me in much of the same ways. He likes to rub my back and he will ask questions to get me comfortable in opening up to him about what's going on; he'll kiss my neck and face until I'm smiling or until I hug him and hide my face in his shirt so he can't get to me to kiss me anymore. He also will read to me sometimes, if I want him to.

Will: Wilhelm is trickier than Jakob when it comes to him being upset. He doesn't like to discuss his troubles unprompted and I have to work hard at pulling them out of him if I really want to know what's going on. If I act really sweet and charming I can usually get him to do whatever I want, so I'll look at him sweetly and touch his face and he'll almost always start babbling away about whatever it is that's upset him. Will is very grumpy when he's upset about something but I don't let him get away with being mean to me or to Jakob, which he will try to do. He does like his alone time, so if he needs it I'll leave him alone to calm down or we will go for a walk together in silence until he feels right enough to talk to me. It's amazing how much hugs seem to help him too; he really likes long hugs. If I am the one upset, Will feels like he's got to jump in and act immediately. As the protector, he doesn't like to see Jake or I upset because of something he didn't cause or couldn't control. He will hold me like Jakob does and he'll talk to me gently because I like the sound of his voice.

U-UwU: Do either of you use emojis a bunch? If it’s a universe where phones don’t exist, do either of you draw little faces and symbols on letters? What does the other think?

Jakob: Jakob and I draw little notes in the margins or each other's journals all the time. Sometimes while he's asleep, I'll grab his journal and write him a lengthy love letter on some of the unused pages. If I look closely, there's lots of cute little doodles of our names together, mine with his last name. We draw tons of hearts on each other's work and write little notes to each other about anything and everything or we will make comments on each other's work for the other to find written around the text. Jakob's cursive handwriting is beautiful!

Will: Will isn't one for too many mushy notes or drawings, so I always leave him little doodles on blank pages that I stuff into his coat pockets while he isn't looking. Sometimes he finds them during meetings with townsfolk and he'll stand there blushing while he reads them, hoping no one notices the look on his face. He feigns exasperation as he shoves the note back into his pocket, sometimes rolling his eyes along with it, but he actually thinks it's sweet and he keeps every one that I write. If he's in a romantic mood, he'll write one back or make a little drawing for me, but the thing about Will is: his handwriting is horrible. And he cannot draw. At all. I love it so much because it's so him; he's embarrassed about his handwriting/drawing skills, but I always tell him how much I love it and that I want him to draw more things for me.

questions from: Mundane Selfship

#🌹grimmrose #self-shipping #💌#💌 mutuals

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creativeskullcreations · 3 years

Text

Outside chapter 23: Final Showdown (part 1)

Just as a warning everyone this chapter, and the next one, both have quite a bit of violence. Bones will break. people(and Puppets) will bleed, and somebody may or may not be dead by the end of this. So don't say I didn't warn y'all.

Also chapter 24 should be up next week, cause I wrote out both parts of this as one whole thing before splitting it. It just needs to be edited now, but that can be done tomorrow after work. Also we’re pretty much at the end now. But more on that later, for now enjoy the Final Showdown.

Stacy stayed limp, even as she was tied up by her wrists. Her eyes remained closed, as Mortimer grabbed her face and turned it this way and that to check for consciousness. As she suspected, he refused to even try anything until he knew she was awake to experience it. Even after she'd been feigning sleep for hours.

'You freaks are all the same...' She thought as she swung gently against the wall, listening as Mortimer stalked around the room, muttering under his breath. 'Oh wow, I think he's practicing his villain speech. Loser.'

Her inner monologue of mocking Mortimer did little to keep her fear down. It was only old habits from her childhood that helped her facade stay up in the face of Mortimer suddenly slamming something. The sounds of pages being flipped, and more muttering, this time about Riley. Or maybe about Owen, it was difficult to tell.

Listening to him walk back and forth, muttering and turning pages in a book, Stacy found herself in a tense boredom. It wasn't the first time, and wouldn't be the last, but it made it difficult to keep up her facade. Briefly, quietly, she wished something would happen to get this show on the road.

Unknown to her, however, the door to the Sound Stage had slowly been pushed open, two humans peering around the edge. "Looks pretty safe." Will muttered as he eased the door open wider. "Remember, just grab and go."

"Right." Scout whispered back as she crept into the room. It seemed empty enough, though there were runes and magic symbols scribbled all over the walls. And, hanging in front of one that seemed to be drawn in blood, was her Puppet body. Biting the back the cry of her Host's name, she made her way over to her.

Trembling hands reached up to try and fight the knots around the fabric wrists, but stopped at the sound of heavy footsteps behind her. Turning, she saw the slow, lumbering approach of a Sock Puppet, one that was quickly speeding up.

"Shit!" She hissed out as she dodged around it, noticing Will coming inside and drawing his gun. He didn't get a chance to use it when the sound of wood hitting wood came, and the Sock Puppet relaxed, stepping to one side to reveal Mortimer.

"I can't say this is much of a surprise to see." He started as he walked his Host forward. "I knew that you would make your way to me. Why don't you join me now for some tea?" He stepped aside and gestured to a small, round table set up for tea. He turned to go take his spot at the "head" of the table, and Will raised his gun to aim at his head. Scout grabbed his arm and forced it down, looking pointedly at the Sock Puppet. He stuck it in his pocket and they went over to the table, followed by the Sock.

They stood next to each other, across the table from Mortimer and very aware of the Sock behind them. Neither of them touched their cups, though Mortimer himself did take a long drink from his.

"So you've made it this far in, and all for little Scout." He started after finishing. "Tell me now, how were you planning on getting back out?"

Will held up his gun in response, and it was almost immediately taken by the Sock Puppet. He glared after it as it stared down the barrel, but didn't try and get it back.

"Ah well, a model attempt at the very least, but guns are not allowed. Far too messy, annoying, and loud." A poor rhyme, in Scout's opinion, but Mortimer did seem pretty distracted. She didn't miss the way his eyes kept darting to Stacy.

"Has she woken up yet?" She asked, blatantly turning her head to look. In the corner of her eye she saw him follow her gaze.

"Sadly, not quite yet. I feel there are conditions still not met. Perhaps you know why she remains still unconscious. I feel like I've missed something quite... obvious." His eyes roamed over her, and she avoided meeting them, suddenly scared he could see right through her.

"Well, I have no fucking clue what you're talking about." Will replied nonchalantly. "But if you give back that Puppet, I promise my friends and I will leave, quickly and quietly and with no more harm done."

"Somehow, I don't believe you." Mortimer took another sip of his tea, staring unblinking at the man. "How do I know that what you say is true? No, better to take care of this problem now, and put all of you down."

"Put us down?" Scout repeated quietly.

"Of course! Can't have defective hosts running around. You'll ruin all of our carefully laid plans, before we can take a final bow." He explained, drawing himself up and gesturing grandly. "No, it's better to deal with you now."

Grabbed from behind, Will almost gagged on the necrotic smell coming from the Sock Puppet Hosts. Scout seemed unaffected, probably used to it even now. He kicked back, catching the groin and yanking out of the one handed hold. Leaping over the table, he grabbed the pot of hot tea and flung it, catching both Mortimer and his Host in the face.

The howls of pain distracted the Socks, allowing Scout to escape and run over to Stacy, who by now was watching with wide eyes. Puling on the knots with trembling, clumsy fingers, she couldn't get them loose before being pulled away and thrown.

"Scout!" It was weird hearing her own voice from the outside, as she scrambled to get up. She pushed that thought from her mind, more worried about how Stacy had just blown their cover.

Luckily, Mortimer seemed too preoccupied with Will, who was throwing the tea set at him one piece at a time. He hadn't gotten him with anymore tea, but it certainly distracted him. Noting the Sock lumbering towards her, she dodged around it, grabbing the dropped axe as she went.

'No time to try those knots again! Aim properly, and don't fucking hit her or I'll never hear the end of it!' She ran straight for Stacy, chopping the rope with it as she went by. It was a little high, but she heard the soft thump of the Puppet hitting the floor as she led the Sock around.

Turning a tight corner, she intended to grab her swapped Host on a second pass, but almost stopped when she couldn't find her.

'Oh no!' Mortimer and Will were still fighting each other, and the Sock certainly hadn't grabbed her, so where was she? 'Fuck I am so dead!'

-----

Sammy sat next to the bag, surrounded by small, evil Puppets. Canon was in his lap while Bit was on his head, and the other two were sat next to him watching as their Hosts paced in the narrow hallway. They had some makeshift clubs, and Mason had rigged up a quick trap, but other than that they were pretty defenseless.

"We're gonna die." Bonzai muttered. "They're gonna come for us and all we have is three Hosts to defend us. Not even any vents to escape into."

"Quiet you!" Bit snapped. "They're so much bigger than Riley and Nick, and they took out Daisy!"

"They're not bigger than Rosco, however. To him, they would surely fail to come out better." Stitch said quietly. It was hard to tell what that one was thinking, in Sammy's opinion, but he thought she seemed rather sad about that.

"Ooh, Stitchy, bad rhyme. Do better next time." The red haired one told her sister mockingly. She got a glare in reply, but the yellow and orange Puppet said nothing more.

"Or just stop. They're gonna kill us all anyways, so why even bother." Bonzai piped up.

"Nobody's gonna kill you. Don't be so negative." Sammy told him, only to receive his own glare. "Look, once they get back we're all gonna leave and burn this place down, and we'll bring you guys with us. It'll be fine."

"Also we kinda don't have a choice in the matter anymore." Lisa added, pausing in her step and leaning against the pipe she'd found. "Pretty sure if you guys die, then so do we."

"Which is so, so creepy!" Mason muttered with a full body shudder. "Ugh..."

"Oh quit your whining. Scout's gonna love that we rescued her siblings!" Lisa said, and both Sammy and Mason just gave her blank looks.

"I don't think so. She's never even mentioned them." Mason pointed out. The blonde just shrugged, unending optimism still in her voice.

"Maybe she just didn't want Stacy to worry? You ever think about that?"

Sammy just rubbed his temples as the two devolved into arguing. "I really need a joint." He muttered. The Puppets stared at him in confusion, and Bonzai started counting his actual joints to make sure he had them all.

Anymore arguing or questions were stopped, however, by the sound of heavy, slow footsteps approaching. In the distance was a soft glow, slowly growing larger and brighter. And closer.

Lisa and Mason brought their weapons up, and Sammy stood and forced the Puppets behind him. He had a broken broom, while Mason had another pipe, but none of the weapons felt like they'd be enough as they saw the giant, mutilated dog Puppet.

"Oh." Lisa swallowed thickly, voice small and quiet. "That must be Rosco."

-----

Will had never fought anything like this before. Even the most violent and aggressive of haunted dolls had been just that, dolls. But Mortimer had a full grown, if severely malnourished, adult man attached to him which made it very difficult to get the upper hand on him. And he was all out of things to throw.

'Gotta get that gun back.' He kicked the Host and knocked him away, before turning towards where Scout was trying to deal with the Sock Puppet. She was definitely making use of the prosthetic, however clumsily. But, he could still see the gun held in it's free hand, even as it tried to grab her with it.

"Hey! I need that gun!" He called out, dodging another attempt at being grabbed. Whether Scout even heard him he couldn't tell, but a few seconds later the gun went whizzing by his face, hitting the far wall before he could even register it. Thankfully, it didn't go off, but he and Mortimer did take a second to stare before they went back to fighting.

"Thanks for the fucking warning!" He called out sarcastically, trying to find an opening. At least now he had a chance to get it, if Mortimer would let him.

"Fuck off!" Was Scout's reply as she repeatedly smashed her fist into the side of the Sock's Host. It seemed to be working, as it was starting to go down, or at least act disoriented, and it was giving Will ideas.

There weren't any chairs, and he was out of tea sets, but there had to be something else he could use for a weapon. Some half-rotted cardboard set pieces, the table, but nothing really useful. So he punched Mortimer in the face, hearing a snap as he broke the Puppet's nose.

A howl of pain, as a thick, red sap leaked out. "You horrible, defective Host!" He snarled out, nose snapped and bent.

"Ha! Oh shit..." He turned and ran as Mortimer chased him down. "Shit! I fucked up!"

Scout watched this with the dying Sock Puppet. "Hell yeah you did." She punched it again as it tried to stand back up, and it sank to the floor. She then grabbed the axe and yanked it out of the wall. She went to go help Will, but stopped when she saw more Sock Puppets coming out of the doors.

"Oh fuck me..." She whispered, as half the group went straight for her.

-----

Lisa was screaming. She was aware she was screaming, but could not stop screaming even as she repeatedly whacked Rosco on the head with her pipe. She had no clue what she was screaming, but Mason would tell her later that it was a mash of swears in both English and French.

Mason, on the other hand, was struggling against two out of three Puppets by himself. Yes, three, as Riley had managed to grab the bag and reattach Daisy's head, and also put her eyeballs back. Luckily she was still without a real Host, so it was fairly easy to kick her away when she got too close, but it was annoying and a distraction. And Riley only had one arm, oddly enough, though it didn't seem to stop her from putting her all into her attacks, with him barely able to hold her back at times.

Nick hung back and gave mockingly encouraging words to the other two, but didn't do a lot to help otherwise. He only joined the fight when Sammy managed to sneak up behind him and stab his Host with the broken end of his broom.

"You ass!" Was the artist's response, already feeling his Host begin to bleed out. He stumbled after the stoner, who managed to keep just out of reach while smacking his head, the sound of wood against wood echoing in the small space.

"Diediedie why won't you die?!" He sang out as he drummed against the Puppet's head, disorienting him enough he couldn't fight back, even after Daisy switched her attention to Sammy. Clawing her way up his body, he had to quickly start smacking her until she finally let go and dropped off. He then stomped on her until Nick managed to come to and grab him, pulling him by the back of his shirt and choking him.

Mason saw this and brought his pipe down hard on the arm holding Nick, feeling more than hearing the bones snap under the metal. He howled in pain, letting go of Sammy as he flopped down, other hand flailing trying to catch himself.

Mason grabbed Sammy and started pulling him back towards the door, taking Riley out with a well-timed head-shot as they passed. Which, conveniently, distracted Rosco and gave Lisa an opening to escape.

As she joined them in their attempt at fleeing, pausing only to grab up their Hand Puppets, Sammy and Mason kept their weapons up. The Handeemen were starting to recover, and they had inadvertently trapped themselves.

Backs to the Sound Stage, where Will and Stacy were possibly fighting Mortimer, and in front of them were three royally pissed off Puppets and a dog-monster. Lisa wasn't sure if they should push forward, or try and fall back, but looking at what was ahead of them made her blood rush from fear.

Survival was not looking good.

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lutbys · 3 years

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‘Santa’s’ secret rig

Day 2 of Christmas at Hogwarts:

3rd – a rigged secret Santa planned by the extravagant Hermione has you panicking for a gift to give to Ron

Ron Weasley x reader

Hermione has always been sure of herself, always have, always will. It’s a trait she admired as she learned to love herself and grow as a better person. So, as Christmas time rolled in, she never knew her cheeky plan to set you and Ron up in a secret Santa turned for the worst.

“Neville”

Her ears perked up when you whispered his name, peeking through the small piece of parchment you were holding which, true enough held your statement.

“Neville?”

That wasn’t supposed to happen? She had clearly rigged the draw so why weren’t you reading out Weasley’s name rather of Longbottom’s?

Her feet quickly lead her to the ginger haired boy, who to no surprise, held a blush as radiant as his hair.

“Who d’you get?”

“I got y/n! Pretty lucky huh?” at least one worked. Saved her from the hassle of having to deal with two problems.

“Excuse me” Hermione dismisses herself and took in the sight in front of her. The secret Santa group was much bigger than their usual friend group, varying from different houses so they could widen their acquaintances. So how was she going to find who got Ron? The swap is in three days, there was no way she could sift through everyone.

That night, she stayed up later than she would, a peculiar behavior that doesn’t occur much, but had to be done. Once she hears your breathing slow and your body still from slumber, Hermione sneaked to your side of the shared dorm, reaching for your bag that leaned against your dusty briefcase.

And just like that, the girl switched the two papers, which, not to toot her own horn, looked identical to each other.

She slept soundly knowing her hijack was going as planned.

Hermione entered your dorm with the sight of you gleaming at your bedsheets. It was then she realized you were actually admiring the spread of candy you bought a couple days ago at Honeydukes, oblivious to the switch. Poor girl.

“Come here! Look look! I’m going the be the best secret Santa yet!” She walked up to your bedpost and fingered the different packages that laid in front of her, from chocolate frogs to cockroach clusters, it was safe to assume you had bought the whole shop.

“This is what you’re getting Ron? Come on y/n, I thought you could do better than that. A confession of love maybe?” Hermione teased, watching her best friends eyes widen as your hands instinctively slapped her arm.

“What are you talking about! I got Neville remember?”

“Are you sure?” her teasingly manner made you rummage through your bag for the same piece of paper you read a couple days ago. True enough, instead of the seven-letter name you were expecting, his name was etched on the center of the parchment in perfect handwriting.

Ron

Your eyes widened at the sudden change, reading it over and over again to make sure you weren’t hallucinating,

Then how did I remember it being Neville?

“But weren’t you the one who asked me that night? How could I make such a careless mistake?” Hermione turned her back towards you, afraid that her mischievous grin would ruin her genius plan.

“Oh! I don’t know! I’ve been so busy these past few days, who knows what I remember?”

“Mione! What do I do! This is far from what Ron deserves and the swap is tomorrow! Merlin, I’m screwed.” You pushed the candy aside, the excitement and enthusiasm you had a couple minutes ago completely diminished.

“Exactly what I said! This is the time you should confess! Come on y/n! When else are you given an opportunity this big! And close to Christmas to top it all off!” Hermione took your hands in hers, giving a convincing enough stare for you to break.

Straight after dinner, the whole group gathered again in the room of requirement. Harry managed to conjure up the same one all because Ron had left his potions textbook in it, a typical trait of his.

Hermione sat herself next to nerve wrecked you, your hands shook the small envelop you were clasping.

This is going to be good.

“Why don’t we go counterclockwise?” And the secret Santa swap started. One by one everyone started to reveal themselves, and laughter erupted after every present given.

A couple of you were the last to go, and soon, your turn kept coming closer and closer.

“Ready y/n?” Hermione watched you meekly nod as you fingered the corners of the envelope.

“M-My secret Santa. Was Ron.” You quickly handed the envelope to him, your face getting hotter and hotter every second.

Merlin, he’s going to hate it

Ron carefully opened the envelope and its contents. Inside held drawings of a basket, a checkered mat, and foods he recognized as his favorite.

“I don’t get it.”

His eyes shifted between the drawings and the girl in front him who was chewing her lip nervously.

“It’s a picnic! I know its not much but for an evening of your choice, I will set up a picnic with all your favorite foods and I will treat you like a gracious host.” You stutter, your nerves going haywire as he goes through every illustration, quietly chuckling.

“Treacle pudding. Only you know that’s my favorite y/n” his statement made you blush, reminiscing the time the both of you snuck into the kitchens all because he was craving a bite. “Thank you, really y/n/n. This is the best gift anyone’s given me.”

Your eyes connected and in that moment in time, the world stopped, and the surrounding noise went quiet. In that moment in time, it was just the both of you.

“Ron! What about you?” Hermione interrupted, pushing his wrapped gift closer. The flustered boy lost track of his words, instead of forming a coherent sentence, he was a blubbering mess.

“This is for you.” He said after composing himself, pushing the gift to you.

It was obvious whatever hid behind the wrapping paper was a book, the structural integrity gave it away instantly. But what you did not expect was it being the reenactment of your favorite book. The same book that brought you and Ron closer, the same book that made him fall completely in love with you.

You ran your fingers through the embossed design of the front cover, this edition was far better than the one you had now, the gold finishing gave the book another form of life, it was a beauty.

“Ron, I can’t believe it.”

“Do you like it? It was a hard find but I knew seeing the look on you face would be worth it.” Your heart soared as he fumbled with his words, the fact that you were awestruck made him giddy.

It didn’t take long for you to completely jump on him, engulfing him in a hug. His whole being made you loose your senses, you could smell the same scent when you made your amortentia potion, your skin tingled as he hugged your waist, and you didn’t have to look to see that he had the same face he made whenever he was with you.

And you with him.

“So who got me then?” Neville looked like a mixture of angry and confused. In the span of the whole swap, Ron managed to get two gifts whereas Neville got none.

“There must’ve been a mix up in all this. This is why you shouldn’t be too adventurous and invite so many people Mione” Harry lectured, knowing well into the early stages that this gathering wouldn’t have worked as perfectly as the girl planned.

The little light in your brain shone, that little minx!

You watched you best friend grin sheepishly at the situation, apologizing to the poor boy who sulked by himself.

“It’s okay Neville, I have a bunch of candy from Honeydukes that I can give you. Better to give it away than let it go to waste.”

“Thank you y/n, you’re a blessing.”

As for Hermione, you pulled her arm closer to you as you whispered, “I don’t know whether I should thank you or hex you, you sly fox.”

“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have a lovestruck boy on his knees for you darling.”

#Ron Weasley #Ron #ron weasly imagine #ron weasley imagine #ron weasly x reader #hogwarts #weasley family #prompt #christmas #christmas at hogwarts #season #christmas fic

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theastrophilearchitect · 3 years

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Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Writing journey #4.

15/05/2021 07.22 My break has officially been over for five days, and i have done some writing, but it’s been incredibly inconsistent, so I decided to start this blog post over. Bay Tree has been archived, and though FSB isn’t done, I’ve realised I need to take a step back. It’s why writers leave weeks at a time between drafts--so when they return, they’re in a different mindset, and can improve their work.

For this same reason, I need to take a step back before I finish my outline. My thought process is becoming monotonous, which means I’m losing my excitement. When you start a project, you have the idea in your head as perfect, and when those ‘vibes’ become tangible, it is less exciting. That’s unavoidable. But I just need to take a step back, so when I return, I have fresh ideas, and the plot becomes more exciting to me.

So today, I’m going to start brainstorming a new idea I had, which I don’t have an alias for yet, and I have an idea to essentially bind every project I have together, but not in Grishaverse- or Shadowhunters-style where you need to read ten books just to read the one you want. Just a nod to anyone who does read multiple, like when Aelin falls through worlds and sees Rhys and Feyre for a split second.

So. Let’s brainstorm.

My plan, I think, is to alternate weekly. This week, I’ll work on the new one, next week I’ll do FSB. I could just take this new idea and apply it to FSB, except I just don’t see how that would work. I have different worlds in mind, and this new one is a fantasy where FSB is sci-fi(/fantasy. It’s kinda both).

16/05/2021 07.07 I really wish I was a pantser. Even though I haven’t got to the editing stage, my favourite part of writing is implementing new ideas and making changes, but I’m just not a pantser. I need to know where each part is going. Instead, I have to sit here, brainstorming, for days, to figure everything out.

18/05/2021 07.06 I did a lot of work on the 16th, but I was busy yesterday, and didn’t get any writing done, because, when I was free, I was just reading. So, I’ve decided I’m going to at least write before I leave the house, which gives me about 45 minutes this morning.

23/05/2021 18.30 Based on the fact it has been five days, I think you can tell how good I’ve been about keeping writing. The problem is that I don’t actually have much past a concept for my new project, so I’m trying to figure out how, precisely, I could merge the two projects. FSB is interesting, but doesn’t have a huge amount of depth, which adding the characters from the new project would absolutely do, while the new project is lacking plot, which FSB (at least the first book I’ve planned) does. So, I’m going to start a new Scrivener project, and consider how I can merge the two concepts while implementing both plots.

Is it too much? I have only two main characters in FSB, but five in the newer one, which gives me seven main characters, divided into three groups. And do I want to write a book with so many separate storylines? I know readers (myself included) always end up favouring one storyline over another, getting annoyed when certain POVs come up. I don’t know what to do.

I could keep the new project, but implement FSB? Hold up. New Project (NP) has two protagonists who could undergo a similar development to the protagonists of FSB... I had a plan for the male protagonist of FSB, his arc, which wouldn’t work for NP’s male protagonist, but would work perfectly for its female protagonist...

Tumblr’s glitching. It wouldn’t let me reblog a post earlier, and now it won’t let me save this draft. Please, no.

Okay, so I had to copy what I’d written for today, disconnect and reconnect to the Wi-Fi, then wait for my drafts to load to paste it. Going great!

21.00 So I didn’t get a huge amount done, because I caught up doing ~evening things~, but I at least have a plan going forward, which is an accomplishment

30/05/2021 09.29 I’ve spent the last couple weeks doing everything I can to avoid writing, but i now have an insane amount of free time, so I have no excuse. I want to use this time in a productive way, and, for me, that means writing.

03/06/2021 10.31 I swear to god, I’ve had ‘writing’ on my to-do list every single day, except not doing it is probably my own fault, because it’s been so far down on the list. Also, I’m doing a buddy read, but am also unfortunately descending into a reading slump, so even reading 50 pages takes me about 90 minutes--they’re not even long pages.

I actually went back onto my old Wattpad account earlier, where I found a load of old, unfinished stuff, but none of it was as bad as I thought it would be, and the ideas weren’t bad. I just really have no idea what it is I’m writing right now, and I hate trying to figure it out.

11.30 There are so many Ss in the word ‘assassin’ this is not okay.

This is actually going so well. I have two storylines in my head, a complex cast of characters, and I’m so looking forward to plotting this.

04/06/2021 08.04 Look at me, two days in a row. Anyways, I’m thinking I ought to name these characters ASAP, because it’ll be easier to shape them to their names than it will be to find a name which fits them once they’ve been shaped.

14.41 Here’s what I’m realising: I like to pants plots, but I can’t do that while I’m actually drafting, so I think my plan is actually to bullet point everything that happens, then revise that, then start drafting, so the story is basically set in the first draft.

I’ve actually gone through a lot of stuff--I have workable plot material!

17.16 So, me being me, I’ve semi-outlined (I say semi-, it’s more like a tenth) a trilogy, meaning I have ideas for three books following this storyline, and it... makes sense. It’s the kind of story where I can follow multiple arcs, a few at a time, instead of several overarching ones, or maybe it’s just that I’m letting myself.

07/06/2021 16.44 I don’t have a damn clue what I’ve spent the day doing. I haven’t done anything in a couple days because it was the weekend and I was busy, but I’m back now. The thing is, I haven’t spent the day reading, watching, drawing, or doing anything, really--it’s escaped me. But, at the very least, I’ve relaxed, so who cares?

I’m not applying story structure to the ideas I’m having quite yet--rather, I’m just developing them to see how they bloom on their own, then I’ll fit it in; it just seems like a more natural and effective way to develop.

Yeah, no. It’s too late in the day for this. I have zero motivation.

08/06/2021 09.49 Maybe I’ll accomplish something today; who knows? Certainly not me.

I’m now applying the 3-act structure, but I’m realising I have way too many details worked out for this--switching to more acts.

22.20 Why am I doing this to myself? I wish I could say I’m not entirely sure, but it’s because I can’t sleep, because this project, and my character Lihan, are the only things I can think about, so here I am. I don’t want to be a night writer, but que sera sera (I wish I could type accents on an English keyboard).

23.22 I accomplished more in the last hour on this project than I have in the last four days.

09/06/2021 - 1,115 words 09.29 I really hope I don’t prove today that night-writing is my sweet spot--I don’t want it to be. Can the world just let me have a functional sleep schedule??

Anyways, so, as I’ve mentioned before, I use Scrivener, which enables me to sort which documents are part of the manuscript from the ones that aren’t. I’ve been working outside of the manuscript, but I think I’m going to move them into it--I have a plan I believe will be more effective for my own drafting. I think I very much need the events to be set in stone before I begin writing in actual prose, so how can I do that? Especially when I also enjoy pantsing, but not in prose?

Here’s the plan: I plot out the main events, then bullet point everything in very high detail, similar to what many people call a zero draft, in which they draft a book in short form. I’ll sort the bullet points into chapters (but not scenes, because as I discovered with Bay Tree, I find scene-blocking makes the narrative less natural), leave it alone a while, then revise, so I can have my plot more-or-less set in stone before I work on prose.

As a result, I’m going to shift my plotting into the manuscript section, because it is, essentially, an early draft, and also I want a word count as a progress metre.

13/06/2021 - 1,611 words 8.18 Alas, I have been busy the last few days, but I’m here now.

9.20 The amount of secrets and who-knows-what in this story is genuinely absurd, but I’m sure I’ll clean it up eventually.

14.01 A few days ago, I came across a post about balancing large casts, which is exactly what I have, and the first thing it mentioned was the two-trait rule, in which every character has two traits completely unique to them, to help both reader and writer differentiate. Which I’m now going to implement.

14.42 I have these two characters, and I know exactly what I want their dynamic to be, except I can’t decide who should be which part of it.

I have made my decision. It probably works better now, but it does alter their roles, so I need to fix that.

I literally swapped them round solely because I decided one was taller than the other and thought it would be more interesting if the short one was the sadist. Why do I make my own life so difficult?

14/06/2021 - 1,574 words 11.08 I didn’t make an enormous amount of progress yesterday, but I did make some, and made notes of ideas for relationship arcs last night, so I count that a victory (forced optimism--surprisingly effective). I’m currently just working through bullet-pointing book one, while making notes of events I want in the rest of the series (I’m projecting three books, and telling myself I will finish them). I’m currently fiddling with one of my storylines to see how I can mould it to FSB’s and OH MY GOODNESS I JUST HAD A GREAT IDEA must take notes, one moment pleaseeee.

Okay, so I have four bullet points for relationship arcs and an idea to adjust one of the storylines--I’d say I have six main characters, two of whom are really the protagonists, two of which are my favourites, and the other two are fun, but in need of development. They’re split into a group of four and a pair, and I’m definitely more into the storyline of the four, mostly because the four contains my two favourites, and it’s more developed than that of the pair.

I’ve been keeping a list of things to add: motivations, loose plot threads, plot points I want to include--I really need to re-organise it.

On another note, I am so glad I named the characters as early as I did. I’m debating having two of the characters swap names, but I don’t think I will, because I will absolutely mix them up, and one of them is part of the perfect ship name.

My mouse isn’t working. I changed the batteries, but it’s not working, so now I get the joy of trying to figure out if the batteries I put in are just old or if the mouse no longer works, which would suck.

Yes, I’m going to describe this. Mostly because when I changed the batteries the first time, it took a minute to stop working, and this will waste a minute. So, first set of batteries, which we’ll call set 1, don’t work. I don’t know if it’s both or just one, but if it’s one, I don’t want to throw away both. I take out set 1, I put in set 2. Set 2 works perfectly. So it’s not the mouse. Now I take out battery 2B, and replace it with 1A, so I have 1A and 2A in here. I know 2A works, but I’m not sure about 1A, but the mouse works, so 1A is fine. Let’s replace 1A with 1B.

Yep. 1B is the problem child. 1A works fine, but 1B doesn’t. Lovely. Crisis averted. It would’ve really sucked it I had to get a new mouse. And back to writing!

12.13 I’m bouncing between documents as I organise, which means my word count is actually decreasing, so I feel like I’m making significantly less progress than I am.

I just realised my two protagonists are cousins. I’ve had it in my head that one’s father was the brother of the other’s father, but somehow I didn’t realise that makes them cousins.

I’m about to delete a list because I’ve reformatted it--my word count is currently at 1,958, but is really about to drop.

AND NOW WE’RE AT 1,572. My session word count is -32. Minus thirty-two. I hate it here, but it’s fine, because we’re ~developing~.

15/06/2021 - 2,113 words 09.39 It’s not even technically summer yet, but it’s too hot, and I hate it here. All the windows are open, so everything’s cool, there’s a nice breeze, and lots of light, but the birds are so loud, and I have to keep all the doors closed because the open windows send them swaying and slamming. You know when you close a door when all the windows are open and it slams? Yep. Not into it.

I feel like every day I try a new way to organise my plotting. I’m unsure as to whether that’s helping me or holding me back, because it forces me to review what I have, which usually sparks new ideas, but I’m not convinced I’ll ever get to the end as long as I keep doing this.

21/06/2021 13.40 I spent the latter half of last week with zero motivation, then I was busy at the weekend, but I’m here now. I’ve been trying to make myself write basically all day--I have a plan, and a list of things I’ve come up with the last few days, but I just couldn’t make myself do it. I’m not in a good mood, but maybe this will help.

I have, however, just reminded myself that I need to prepare this week’s post, because I sincerely doubt either this or my ongoing Recent reads will be ready for Friday. Actually, if I do quite a bit of writing this week, this post might be, but I’m not willing to bet on it.

And oh, crap, now I just want to write a blog post.

No. No I don’t. I started looking at the list of ideas I had, and now I’m just not feeling it. I’m pretty sure when I open my document for this project I’ll lose all motivation too, but it’s worth a shot.

There’s a specific relationship in an anime I recently watched that I want to pull apart--there’s this ship, and the author of the manga has called the two characters ‘soulmates’. There’s just this huge amount of tension between the two, and I want to re-watch the show because I love it, but also so I can take notes to figure out what was so effective about it.

13.53 I’ve been doing this for 13 minutes, but I do think I need to leave this project/outline alone for a bit, give it an opportunity to ruminate, to evolve. In truth, I may not even come back to it until I’ve re-watched the anime I was talking about so I can tear that ship to pieces.

17.33 So I just learned brainstorming is apparently significantly easier on paper. Hm. I’ve just worked out so damn much, stuff I’ve been struggling with.

18.00 I have successfully tied up so many plot threads, simply by working with pen and paper. This is revolutionary. (I know, not really, but it is for me, someone adamant about working with a keyboard and monitor)

22/06/2021 09.42 Seriously, why did I never try actually working on paper before? Something about holding a pen to paper and scribbling and drawing a mindmap--it just works. I’ve been obstinate about avoiding working on paper because I hate physically writing, yet here we are.

25/06/2021 11.09 I’m really not managing much reading at the moment--since I started reading manga, my attention span has just gone down the drain. I’m currently reading Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater, and I don’t think it helped that I had to stop less than a third of the way in to do a buddy read, but I just don’t have much motivation to read it, though I do so want to. I haven’t been listening much to audiobooks lately either, because when I’d usually listen--when I’m getting dressed, waking up, going to bed etc.--I just want to listen to music, because I also recently fell down the well of k-pop, and the group whose discography I’m getting to know at the moment is BTS. Basic, but they’re the fifth group I’m doing, and they have so many songs. Which would happen after eight years, but still.

I want to read so, so badly, but I just don’t feel like reading Mister Impossible. But I do want to finish it before reading anything else. I think I’ll finish my current audiobook, then if I’m still feeling stagnated in Mister Impossible, I’ll switch to the audiobook of that, then just take a break from reading until I’m ready to actually read.

But this post is for writing, not reading. I did write on the 23rd, but I just didn’t update this post. The 24th I was busy, but my wall is now covered in post-it notes of world-building, characters, gods, plot points, and a whole load of other stuff.

Also, I had an idea for a book title this morning--not for this one, just in general--and when I went to add it to my list, I found a title that would so suit this project. I don’t want to say it, but let’s just say this project will be called ItLotG--or not. That’s a hideous combination of letters. I promise it is actually a good title.

11.52 I’m having another crisis over these two characters. I’m thinking it would make more sense to have L’s betrayal ‘arc’ initiated before the catalyst, or rather have it be the catalyst, except the problem there is that they’re not in the city they need to be in to receive that offer.

UNLESS,,,, what if this point happens just while they’re in the capital.... I’ve got it.

17.16 I’ve been taking notes this whole time of everything I want to happen in books 2 and 3, and I have so much now i think they’ll be so much easier to plot than this one.

The downside of working mostly on paper is that my plans on Scrivener have been refined to one document, which is now only 878 words.

Right now, there’s a glaring hole between the midpoint and the ending, but my climax is one of those where the climax itself is a very small part of a bigger event, so if I figure out what I want to happen in this big event which is essentially the whole of the third act, I should be able to fill in the rest of Act Two with the setup for that.

So I’m leaving it there for both today and this post. In the last month or so, I decided to start over and mash two projects together, which created a whole new storyline I love, and now I’m mostly done with the first outline. I want to treat outlines as more than just preparation for drafts, because I find notes so much easier to edit than actual prose, and I hate writing without a clear idea of where I’m going.

I think I’m going to call these ‘runs’--an outline is a run through, a draft a run through, so I’m nearly done with my first run, and I’m very proud of that, so go, go write the idea you have, drink some water, take a nap if you need one, eat if you haven’t eaten in a few hours, and I’ll be back with another writing update innnnnnn probably august, honestly.

Go write that idea!

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worryinglyinnocent · 4 years

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Fic: Down the Rabbit Hole

Summary: After meeting online, Belle French and Aiden Gold have their first date in a rather unusual location - a bookstore.

Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling prompt: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”

Rated: G

Down the Rabbit Hole

After seven and a half months of what could only be described as truly horrendous internet dating, Belle French knew that she had found the one when her latest match agreed to have their first date in a bookstore.

Aiden Gold was a little older than most of the others she had matched with, and looking at his profile, it was obvious that he was far different from all her previous potentials.

Belle knew that it had been a mistake to let Ruby set up her profile for her. Aiden was the first person she had matched with after having gone through and laboriously changed all her settings. Belle was somewhat ashamed that it had taken her so long to realise what the problem with her online matchmaking service was.

The first thing it said on Aiden’s profile was that he was a single father. He was looking for a serious, lasting relationship. He was an antique dealer by trade, and liked reading, cooking, and spending time with his son, who was fourteen and had been the one to set him up on the website in the first place.

He seemed to be just the kind of person that Belle was looking for, and yet, when he had come up in her matches, she had been reluctant to make the first move and contact him. He was almost too good to be true, and she couldn’t help wondering what the catch might be when she did meet him.

Eventually, though, curiosity overcame her, and she had made that first tentative step, sending him a message and beginning the dialogue that had led them to their first date. The first litmus test of any potential partner for Belle was the bookstore test. If they agreed to their first date being at Down the Rabbit Hole, the antiquarian shop tucked away in the heart of the city, then she knew that she had met someone who was likely to be a kindred spirit in some way.

Aiden wasn’t the first to agree, but he was the first to agree with the same amount of gleeful enthusiasm that Belle herself always felt at the prospect of spending time in the company of very old books.

She was waiting just outside the shop, looking around for her date. She hoped that he would turn up. She’d had plenty of experiences in the past where she’d just been left standing outside the shop for half an hour waiting for someone who was destined never to arrive, to the point where Tilly had come out and taken pity on her, inviting her in for a cup of tea as consolation. Belle peered in through the window; she could see that Tilly was behind the counter again today, and she wondered what her young friend would say when she saw her come in with another prospective partner.

Aiden rounded the corner right on time, and as he got closer, Belle gave a tentative wave. He waved back a little shyly, and she smiled. Yes, she was definitely on to a good one here. True, she might be projecting because this was the first match she’d had in so long who was even halfway decent and there was a tendency towards rose-tinted spectacles in such cases, but even so.

“Hello.”

“Hello. You must be Belle.”

Belle nodded. “It’s nice to meet you, Aiden. Thanks for agreeing to meet up here.”

“Not at all, I love this place.” There was a little pink tinge of embarrassment to the tops of his ears, but it seemed to fade under Belle’s optimistic nod of agreement.

“I do, too. I think that it’s my favourite place in the whole city. Well, aside from my own home, of course.” Now that she came to think of it, with the gurgling pipes and the old, creaky infrastructure, maybe the bookstore took her top spot after all.

Aiden opened the front door for her, and Belle gave a little curtsy before stepping inside. “Why, thank you.”

“Hi Belle!” Tilly jumped off her stool behind the counter as Belle entered. “I’ve been waiting for you to come in all week; we’ve got a brand-new George Eliot first edition in. Well, brand-new to us, obviously, not brand-new to the world in general. It’s Middlemarch, I know that’s your favourite of hers. Do you want to take a look? I kept it back off the shelves especially so that you could have first dibs on it.”

Belle smiled at Tilly’s infectious enthusiasm and good mood.

“Not right now, Tilly. Thank you for thinking of me, though.”

“You’re welcome. Oh, hello Mr G, I didn’t see you come in there.” Tilly paused, and Belle could almost see the cogs turning in her mind before her face lit up in a eureka moment.

“Oh, this is perfect! Fate is a wonderful thing. I was just saying to Margot the other day that I really need to get you two to meet, and I don’t know how it hasn’t happened before since you’re both in here so much all the time. Belle, Mr Aiden Gold. Mr G, this is Belle French.”

“We’ve actually already met, Tilly.” Aiden’s ears had gone decidedly pink again. Tilly looked between the two of them and a knowing little smirk began to show at the corner of her mouth.

“Well, don’t let me keep you from getting to know each other better. Just call if you need anything.”

With that statement, Tilly skipped off into the back room of the shop, and Belle wondered how long it would be before she came out again offering them cups of tea.

There was an awkward silence for a few moments; she and Aiden were the only ones in the shop, after all, and Tilly’s sudden absence seemed very noticeable.

“So,” Belle began, going over to the shelves and beginning to run her fingertips along the familiar faded spines. “How did you find this place?”

“It was a very long chain of events, really.” Aiden came and joined her by the shelves. “I was looking for a bookbinder to assist me with a tricky restoration, and eventually I tracked down Margot. Through her, I found Tilly and this treasure trove.” He gave a soft chuckle. “Bae says that I spend more in here than I do on paying off the mortgage. What about you? I know you’re a librarian, so I know you love books, but swapping one palace of books for another?”

“I don’t know. I think that there’s something about old books in particular that just draws me to them. They contain so much magic and mystery, all those secrets waiting to be uncovered. You can find things in here that you would never even consider before you saw them here, and some truly one of a kind works that would never make their way onto library shelves. Take this one.” Belle pulled out an anthology of fairy tales bound in faded brown leather. “You’d never find something like this in my library.” She flicked carefully through the old pages, looking at the exquisite illustrations. She was aware of Aiden looking over her shoulder, but she didn’t mind.

“It is beautiful,” he said. “I think there’s something in the atmosphere of a place like this. The secrets of old masters waiting to be retold and rediscovered. What was it that Cicero said? A room without books is like a body without a soul.”

Belle couldn’t help but giggle. “I have that quote framed on my bedroom wall.”

“And I’m sure you subscribe to the notion.”

“Of course. There are books in every room in my apartment. Including the bathroom. It’s good to have an old favourite to read the bath. One that can take getting dunked in bubbles.”

“Not one of these ones, then.” Aiden returned to perusing the shelves as Belle desperately tried to get all thoughts of bubble baths out of her head. That was not at all appropriate for a first date, even if said first date was really going swimmingly and Aiden was just as good-looking in real life as he was in his profile picture on the website.

“You know, you’ve both been in here enough times to know that there are some comfy armchairs on the second floor if you want to have a cosy chat.”

Tilly had come out of the back room again and was pointing up at the mezzanine above them. Belle looked at Aiden, who looked back at her. It would be harder for Tilly to interrupt them up there, even if she was doing it with the best of intentions, and Belle was definitely comfortable enough not to need a timely rescue from this date.

“Shall we?” she asked. Aiden nodded and they made their way towards the tight spiral staircase in the corner of the shop.

“You know, Tilly, I’ve never managed to work out how you managed to get those chairs up there,” Aiden said.

Tilly just laughed. “Oh, getting them up there was easy, Mr G. I’m more concerned with getting them down again.”

Leaving them with that cryptic comment, she took her place on her stool behind the counter again, and Aiden and Belle made themselves comfortable in the chairs on the mezzanine. Tilly’s acknowledgement and overt approval of their date gave Belle encouragement that this was definitely something that could go the distance, an independent third party who knew them both giving it the thumbs up, so to speak.

“You know, I think that Cicero was really on to something. You can’t deny that it’s these books that give this place its atmosphere. It wouldn’t be the same if the shelves were full of kitchenware.”

Belle burst out laughing at the image and before she knew it, she’d set Aiden off too. It was so long since she’d found someone that she could laugh with like this, and about books as well.

Once they’d collected themselves, she sneaked a sideways glance at Aiden, only to discover him doing the same thing. The blush in his ears really was adorable, and Belle couldn’t wait to get to know him better.

#rumbelle fic #A Monthly Rumbelling #Belle French #Mr Gold #AU #first date #first meeting #pre-relationship #Fic: Down the Rabbit Hole

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asteroiideae · 3 years

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1, 4, and 7 for the meta writer ask!

1. Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

Right now, I’m primarily writing on text-based rpg forums (specifically a Harry Potter one, at the moment, because I’m still a basic sixteen year old at heart I guess lol) but I’ve recently started writing a series of vignettes based on my Scum & Villainy TTRPG party, which has also been a lot of fun! It’s difficult to measure “progress” on my text-based rpg writing, but I’ve been on the same forum for about six months now, running 12 characters, and nearly all of them are heavily involved in the plot, which I consider an accomplishment! My S&V vignettes I’ve only just begun -- debating whether or not anyone would be interested in reading them/whether I should post them up anywhere. I think what I love most about both projects is that they’re purely collaborative! I’m working with other people, their concepts, their goals, and I have come to absolutely adore using my writing (and improv) to support other people’s creative pursuits. ** gonna go out of order so I can drop my writing under a read more, if I can lol 7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree? Oh man this is such a difficult one to answer???? I don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about my writing style, honestly. I tend to write from my gut -- I don’t pre-plan a lot, I just immerse myself into my character and then whatever gets written down is what’s happening? (pour one out for my writing partners who get a rough 20 minute response without my proof-reading or editing!) But I guess probably what I’d say I’m known for in my writing circles is my strong sense of character? I’m pretty good at shifting language/pacing/style to suit whatever character voice I’m attempting to convey, and I spend most of my focus on developing those voices. lol idk I don’t consider myself particularly gifted at, or known for, anything beyond that. (Maybe, negatively, I’m bad about utilizing setting. Where the fuck is this scene taking place???? I sure as shit don’t know. I’ve been trying to work on improving that, though.) 4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

Jess, you really came in with the ones I knew I’d struggle with! lol I tend not to be shy about things I know I do well, but I always squirm a little when asked what I like about my writing, for some reason. But! I’ll share two recent pieces that I liked -- gonna drop them under a read more, but I’ll say what I like about them here. 1. The first is a post from my Harry Potter rpg? I really liked it because I don’t often write hardened/wearied characters in such long-standing relationships? So getting to do an entire thread between a mutually-battered couple cleaning each up after a fight is shockingly intimate, and heart-warming, and idk I really love the way this post in particular came out, as a result. 2. I wrote this literally last night as a warm-up! In my Scum & Villainy game I swap between playing twins, and I hadn’t gotten to play as Ditha for several months, so I wanted to get back into her headspace -- which I did by writing something not in her POV? It’s very short, but I love how neatly it captures and introduces who Ditha Thorn is as a woman, without being long or complicated. from this post, if anyone else wants to receive a novel about my writing I guess.

1. Csilla Voronin & Alastor Moody (from Lightning Struck Itself) Csilla Voronin looks down at Alastor Moody, and raises her eyebrow just a fraction. "I'm in better shape than you are." It's probably true; she's still got all her parts attached, and only the one (admittedly larger and absolutely cursed) wound to contend with. What it isn't however, is entirely true. Csilla is good at lying to everyone but this man, which is why she usually deflects rather than tries to outright tell him an untruth. Her fingers gently run through Alastor's blood-matted hair. It's not worth pressing him to see someone tonight; not in the least, because she wants to tuck him into bed as badly as he wants her to. "Alright." "As if I've ever been paid a wage." The retort comes easier to her lips than the more honest answer: nothing about this relationship is above, or below, her. She draws her fingers from his hair, now safely pushed back from his ear, and studies the mess; sighs, a sound more empathetic than anything else. "It's going to hurt like a bitch." As she draws away, Csilla drops a brief kiss into the crease of Alastor's forehead, using her forearms against the tub to push herself upright. She picks up her wand in one hand, and disappears through the door into the hallway beyond - only to return a moment later with the first aid kit from the kitchen table. She drops the thing onto the sink, and begins to rummage through it. Alcohol wipes, and gauze, tumble out of the kit and into her hands, and she tucks a few between her palm and her wand. "Were you going to ask me something?" She reaches for the distraction, even as she pauses to shimmy out of her trousers, and drops them unceremoniously atop the messy sink. The first aid supplies go onto the toilet lid, while she toes out of her socks. "Or are you just tired?" Either is possible, but Csilla privately suspects the latter. Free of her socks, she balances one hand on the side of the tub, and carefully sets one foot in, nudging Alastor until she can lower herself into the water, knees trapping his thighs between them. She summons the first of the alcohol wipes into her hand with a lazy flick of her wand, and carefully tears it open. All the warning he gets is a steady, apologetic, glance -- and she presses the wipe to the soot-and-blood caked remains of his ear. Her free hand holds his shoulder back against the porcelain, and her legs pin him mercilessly down. Better to get it over with quickly, than to draw the affair out. 2. Ditha Thorn, Scoundrel (from Scum & Villainy; The Morning Glory) It’s just warm enough that the air carries the earthy aroma of cow dung; it’s hardly romantic, but that’s what spring smells like - the ground thaws, and with it, the excrement from innumerable livestock herds. The young woman sprawled on the faded plaid blanket doesn’t seem to notice it, though. She’s leaned back on her forearms, long hair brushing the blanket as she tips her head back to look at the stars. Beside her, a similarly aged boy traces a shape in the air. “Do you see it? Right there, that little blinking light.” He jabs his finger at the sky suddenly, a grin spilling out over his features. “That’s the place, I think. If they’ll take me, I’ll go there to train.” The girl’s expression cools as she narrows her eyes on that point; the youthful curves of her face going hard with disapproval. “What if they don’t?” He sighs, shrugging out of his jacket suddenly, and dropping it on the girl’s legs. For a while, the only sound is the rustling of the late winter breeze through the shorn stalks of corn in the field around them. Although the girl’s expression doesn’t change, she scoops up the leather jacket, slides her arms into the sleeves and wraps it around her shoulders. “Then I guess I’ll be stuck here, too.” He leans forward, wraps his arms around his knees. “I’m not stuck here,” the girl says suddenly. She sits up, drawing her knees to her chest in a mirror of his own posture. “I’m leaving after graduation, there’s nothing on this rock for me.” That uncomfortable silence returns, and the boy shifts back and forth, clearly trying to find a way to dispute her words - but unwilling to do so while sitting alone with her in the dark. The moons begin to creep towards the horizon, the light fades, before either of them speaks again. “Everyone’s stuck here, Ditha.” He drops his arms, pushes himself off the ground and onto his feet. “Maybe your sister’s smart enough to find a school or a job willing to take her, and maybe the Legion will take me, but what do you think you’re gonna do to get out of here?” The girl, Ditha, blinks several times - her eyes still fixed on the stars. “Sounds like a challenge.” A slight huff is the only response to her quiet statement; the boy has known Ditha long enough to know the worst thing to do is dare her to something. Instead he bends down to tug gently on the blanket. “Come on, Di. It’s time to go.” She stands up, lets him lift and shake the sandy dirt out of the blanket, watches him fold it with eyes that barely reflect the faint light in the dark. When he offers her his hand, after tucking the blanket under his arm, she shakes her head. “I’ll find my own way back to town,” she says, in a tone of voice he’s never heard before. He shrugs, turns toward his truck - she’ll probably follow, he thinks. Where else is she going to go? But when he reaches the vehicle, turns with his hand on the door, Ditha Thorn is nowhere to be seen.

#ask post #aster writes fic #lol oh my god I am so sorry this is so long #please forgive me Jess I always do this

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