#what if next vacation I do two weeks in a row haha

[bzedan]

I just gotta get through today and then my vacation begins. A whole week off! Everyone is asking “oh are you doing something fun?” And I know from experience saying “going to the botanic gardens on a weekday,” or “maybe visiting a mall I read about in a history on malls,” get you a Specific Look and it’s easier to say, “oh haha, more of a staycation.”

#meche chatters #I need to take more time off honestly #I’ve been here five years and the place is tech aligned enough my PTO accumulation is quite a lot #It’s been almost a year in this new role and it’s been fired mostly but now I’m settled so #what if next vacation I do two weeks in a row haha

[official-weasley]

The Irreplaceable Charlie Weasley: Pt. 5, Ch. 1

PART 5: THE YEAR WHEN EVERYONE FIGHTS Chapter 1 - The Magic of America

Nova

I ended up having a great time with mum in America. I have to give Penny credit, Muggle vacations aren't so bad. I can't remember the last time I spent so much time with my mum. In the morning we went to the beach and then for lunch we tried cooking the Muggle way which usually ended in disaster and us laughing. In the evening we went for a stroll and talked about dad and Quidditch and my O.W.L.s panic as they were approaching too fast.

I also decided to talk to her about Charlie because she kept teasing me, like always, and it didn't amuse me at all since all I had on my mind all Summer was Murphy. I told her about his blond hair and blue eyes and how fast he speaks and how enthusiastic he is about Quidditch. Then I told her about Penny and Andre and Tulip's crush on Jae.

I couldn't believe how fun it was talking about these things to her and even though I missed my friends, I wouldn't trade this Summer for anything in the world.

—

This year, along with my list of books and things I would require for my Fifth Year, another letter came. I knew immediately what it was about and I squealed so loudly in my room that mum ran upstairs to see what was going on.

She was a Prefect as well and she knew what was inside the envelope when I swung it around. I got up and we opened it together, standing in the middle of my room.

“Mum, they picked me! I'm a Prefect!” I started jumping up and down, hugging my mum as she started jumping with me.

“Oh, sweetheart! I knew you would become a Prefect.” She cupped my face. “Dad would be so proud.” She gave me a tight hug and then left me to write a letter to Charlie. This was the first time she didn't make her smug face when I mentioned him. Admitting that I fancied Murphy apparently did the trick.

It wasn't even a day when Pip came back with Charlie's response.

Me too!

Was all that he wrote back and I couldn't help but be excited going to the Prefect's meeting on the train with him. Besides us, Andre and Penny became Prefects as well. As it would be any doubt that miss Potions wasn't going to be a Prefect.

Bill wrote to me a few days later and I couldn't help but chuckle at his letter.

Dear Nova,

Charlie was so excited when he found out that you were picked as a Prefect beside him that he completely forgot to tell you that I was made Head Boy. I am in charge of you two now, haha!

I'm joking, we all miss you very much! I hope you're having a great Summer!

But seriously, I am keeping an eye on both of you!

Love,

Bill

The Summer was ending and it was time to go to Diagon Alley. We met Charlie and his entire family there and Charlie and I couldn't stop laughing about how we will mess with Tulip, Tonks, and Jae when they tell us something bad that they did and we'll be able to put them in detention.

Mum allowed me to go and stay with the Weasleys for my last week since she would have to go to work in a couple of days anyway.

I couldn't believe Fred and George when I saw them. They were almost taller than me! Even Charlie, who was always almost the same height as me, was now a head taller than I was and did he get more muscular, or was he always so well built?

Ginny, now 7, was so happy to see me that she almost started crying and I had to let Charlie down easily because I wanted to spend as much time with her that week. At first, he was grumpy about it but understood that spending a whole school year together was enough compared to Ginny, who had me only for a week.

Percy, now in his Second Year, actually congratulated me on becoming a Prefect which was probably the nicest thing he ever said to me. Ron was getting so good at Wizard's Chess that after beating me 3 times in a row, in what seemed like minutes, I didn't want to play anymore.

One thing that I missed the most was playing Quidditch on Weasley's fantastic Quidditch pitch. They finally allowed Ron to play and Ginny became the one who had to sit, disappointed, at the edge of the pitch.

Fred, Bill, and I played against Charlie, George, and Ron. Charlie couldn't believe that I caught the Snitch before him and the twins didn't make him forget it for days! Neither did I since I knew he was going to win the Quidditch House Cup for Gryffindor for the third year in a row anyways!

—

It was time to say goodbye to our families and go back to our second home. I couldn't wait to see the girls, even though I knew I wouldn't have the time to talk to them as much as we usually did on the train, since we would have to patrol the corridors.

After our Prefect's meeting, which was lead by no other than the perfect Bill the Head Boy Weasley, Charlie and I decided to patrol the corridors together to make Penny do it with Andre, at who she stared for the majority of the meeting and I was sure that for the first time, I listened more attentively than her.

I couldn't help myself but walk around the compartment where Murphy was the most. He caught sight of me a couple of times and smiled. I tried to be as casual about it as I could possibly be even though I was sure it was 100% obvious I fancied him.

After I passed the compartment for the fourth time, Orion invited me inside.

“Congratulations on becoming Prefect, Nova.” He said.

“Nothing surprising there, there was a 98,5% chance that Nova would be our Prefect and I only had 1,5% of a doubt that she wouldn't be.” Murphy beamed at me, making me blush.

“Yeah, congrats!” Skye actually smiled at me.

“I hope that won't take too much of your focus off Quidditch. We want to win this year and on our first practice, Murphy will present his new strategy how he reckons we could win against Gryffindor.” Orion explained. Listening to Murphy talk. What a dream come true! Even though I knew I would have to prepare myself mentally for it to listen and not daydream about going out on a date with him.

I decided it was safe to go on a break and I joined my friends in our usual compartment. Charlie came after us, he was proud as he already busted a Slytherin trying to use firecrackers in the bathroom.

“I don't understand, why I wasn't made a Prefect.” Scoffed Tonks, even though I knew she didn't want to be one.

“Why would you like to be a Prefect?” Charlie chuckled.

“So I could get myself out of trouble.” She grinned mischievously.

“They can do that.” Tulip said, pointing at Penny, Charlie, and me.

“You're right! They will keep us out of detention!” Tonks clapped, excitedly.

“Nymphadora Tonks, if you think for a second I will not take points away from you if I catch you doing something, just because you are my friend, you are highly mistaken!” Penny frowned.

“You would take points from your own House, Penny?” I giggled. I knew she would. She was going to be the best Prefect Hogwarts has ever seen. Right next to Bill, of course.

Tonks and Tulip looked at me and Charlie and we shrugged our shoulders. The second Penny looked away I winked at Tonks, letting her know that we would keep their mischief away from Penny.

If we weren't talking about Prefects and our new responsibilities, we were talking about O.W.L.s. The second Penny started talking about them I knew that Tonks was going to avoid her as much as possible this year. I didn't mind it as much as I wanted to get as many O.W.L.s as I could. I was just hoping she would be able to talk about anything else and give us a break here and there.

Deep in conversation, we almost missed the biggest scandal that has ever happened on the Hogwarts Express. Bill stopped in front of our compartment, talking to a girl. I knew she was in his year but I didn't know her name. He looked shy and his cheeks were red and the girl started eyeing him suspiciously trying to understand what was wrong with him.

“So, you see...” He ran his fingers through his long hair. Was he trying to look cool?

“I fancy you and I was wondering if you'd go out with me sometime.” He finished his sentence. Everyone in our compartment gasped. Bill turned around, now more embarrassed than before, knowing he asked a girl out in front of his friends and his little brother.

“Are you joking?” Bill turned back to her as she spoke. “I wouldn't go out with you, WEASLEY, if you were the last wizard in the world.” I felt anger rushing through my body. How dared she! She would be lucky to date a guy like Bill. He was great and attentive and an amazing and smart student. Who does she think she is?!

She walked away, leaving Bill standing there, stupified. I slowly opened the compartment door, careful not to startle him, and pulled him inside.

“Tough luck, mate.” Charlie really looked like he felt sorry for his older brother. I didn't think he would be so understanding about these sorts of things.

“Was that Emily Tyler?” Penny forgot how to closer her mouth.

“Oh, get off it, Bill!” Tonks almost shouted. We all looked at her, eyes wide open. “You deserve so much better than that twat!” Tulip and I gasped at her words. “She's not pretty enough for you and her personality is as much of a myth than the Chamber of Secrets in Hogwarts.” Even though I wasn't completely sure where she was going with that, it cheered Bill up a little.

“Tonks is right, Bill.” I pulled him in a half hug and rubbed his shoulder. “You can do so much better.” His face was still stunned. Poor lad, that rejection even broke my heart.

“I reckon she was dropped on her head as a baby.” Tulip's comment came out of nowhere as she spoke for the first time since Bill joined us.

“Tulip!” Penny scolded her but couldn't hide the fact that she agreed with her.

“You are one of the best students at Hogwarts, you are smart and a great friend and you are pretty good-looking.” Tulip continued, not paying attention to us. Bill managed to give us a little smile after that compliment, his cheeks bright red.

“Yeah!” Agreed Tonks. “I always wondered if you were single by choice?”

“Yes, he is. But not his.” Charlie never knew when was the right time to mock someone or tell a joke. I gently smacked him on the head.

“Don't listen to him, Bill, he doesn't know what he's talking about.” I said.

“Well, he's not wrong.” Sighed Bill and buried his face in my shoulder.

“You will find the right girl Bill, we are sure of it. Wouldn't you say so, Charlie?” Penny hissed his name as she was still glaring at him for what he said.

“Yeah! Mate, listen.” He scratched the back of his head like he did every time he was embarrassed about something, his cheeks slightly turning red. “You're too much of a man for that Emily twat. You can do better and besides, mum wouldn't approve of her anyway.” Charlie awkwardly leaned over me to pet Bill on the head. I couldn't help but chuckle. Never ask Charlie for love advice, got it.

—

Tulip and I paid attention to this year's Sorting Ceremony as we wanted to see in which House Penny's little sister was going to be sorted. We weren't at all surprised she was a Hufflepuff as well and I couldn't help but laugh as I looked at the Gryffindor Table and saw Charlie gave out a sigh of relief. Penny told him on the train that Beatrice still had a crush on him and he was hoping ever since that she wouldn't become a Gryffindor.

We knew that the professors are going to give us more work than ever since it was our O.W.L.s year but what they were putting us through just in our first two weeks was pure torture. After the first week, I had more homework than all the previous years combined.

As we learned that studying is better together, we spent every sunny day down by the Lake, writing our essays and checking each other's answers. Even Tonks joined us since both Jae and Tulip wanted to study as well. I doubted Tulip wanted to study as much as she wanted to be close to Jae.

“It is better to do this a couple of times per week and be on track with homework than doing everything last minute.” Penny scolded her. “We do have O.W.L.s this year, you know.”

“You don't say.” Charlie mocked her while Tonks rolled her eyes.

Days were going by faster than ever, with the homework, the insane amount of Quidditch practice Orion wanted us to have, and studying for O.W.L.s I barely had any time to spend with Charlie and if I didn't like Ginny so much I would say that I regretted not spending more time with him when I was at the Burrow.

#harry potter hogwarts mystery #hp #harry potter fanfiction #hphm mc #harry potter hogwarts game #hp hogwarts mystery #hphm charlie #charlie weasley #charlie weasley fanfiction #hphm #hogwarts mystery mc #the weasleys #hphm fandom #hphm au #hphm characters #hphm fanfiction #weasley family #hp imagine #charlie weasley x oc #hogwarts mystery imagine #hphm imagine #charlie weasley imagine #the burrow

[donaldresslerfanfic]

Rating: M

Warnings: Strong Language, Sexual Content.

Word Count: 3266

Donald Ressler X OC Maggie Waters.

Chapter: Eighty-Five

Chapter Index

Story on Wattpad

Ressler.

I felt as if my world was falling appart little by little. Maybe not so dramatically, but a lot of the things I used to believe suddenly weren't real, Reddington wasn't Reddington, and Reddington wasn't a traitor. Two of the things that defined the beginning of my career in the FBI were no longer the things that defined me.

I felt as if the whole idea of Agent Ressler wasn't necessary. The one reason I was here, being the Commander in Chief for Reddington's case, was no more. There was no Reddington.

I'd let it slip after the briefing of a case that I knew Reddington was an imposter by doubting everything he did, and after the persuit of a tape recording, I got to hear in first row how Reddington had been framed.

I'd been called in as a witness for his trial to explain the Intel I had that made us reach the conclusion that he was a spy and had betrayed us. I attempted to not perjure myself, I really tried, but Liz needed answers. And so did I.

Reddington must've caught up on my attempt, and he asked me why I'd hesitated.

After hearing the tape, I felt half relieved that he was going to be taken out of the death penalty, the jury was going to rule to his favor, I knew that.

James had giving me a call earlier in the week, saying he was going to buy me a drink to celebrate Reddington's capture, and I thought after the trial would be a good time as any.

That was my first mistake, because when he made the connection of me having to testify for being head point in Reddington's case, he asked me about the trial.

"You know I can't say anything" I said, taking my beer bottle and giving him a side look.

"I know you can't. But you can not say it." I gave him a frown and shook my head.

"That's a bad idea"

"You can pat me down, I'm not wearing a wire" he said patting his chest.

"It's not because of that" I dismissed him.

"Why was the trial suddenly closed? It was supposed to be aired"

"Of that I actually have no idea" I said convincingly lying. I knew why the trial had been closed, it was for the immunity agreement and the current deal with the FBI and our taskforce. "Believe me, I was the first one eager to be there for the whole thing. I was very angry when it got shut down"

"But you got to see a little bit of it, you got called to testify"

"Yes" i said with a nod.

"And?"

"I testified" I nodded again. He gave me a chuckle and a shake of his head.

"You're seriously not going to say anything"

"I seriously am, I don't want to go to jail, my daughter's second birthday is in a few weeks"

"Oh yeah" he said in realization. I knew Maggie had invited him. "Still have to buy her something. You can give me a hint about that" he said with a chuckle.

"Give her something with a penguin on it, she'll love it"

"She likes penguins?"

"Yeah, it's somehow her favorite animal"

My eyes diverted to the TV on the wall, Reddington's face was on the screen and in the breaking news segment of every news channel. And of course, they talked about the lastest development, the non-guilty sentence on his traitor count.

James' flashed me a twist of eyebrows and a shake of his head.

"Son of a bitch did it. Unbelievable" he took a sip of his beer, finishing it and motioning at the bartender to give him another on. "How could he honestly?"

"It's not like he had a tape recording of him saying he didn't do it" I said.

"Haha, imagine" he chuckled. It took him a while to actually realize that I'd told him the key piece of evidence that was presented. He gave me a bewildered look, frowning in confusion.

"That's...." He scoffed "that's not possible. Not to sway the ruling like that. It can be that exculpatory"

I shrugged and finished my beer, fishing my phone out of my pocket. I looked at the screen, Maggie's face filling the screen.

"I have to go, but I'll see you in the birthday" I said patting James' back and heading out, picking up the call as I exited the bar. "Maggie" I saluted.

"Hey, are you on your way home?"

"Yeah, I just finished here"

"Good, because I kind of need some help" she said with a tired sigh.

"On my way" I said, then hung up.

Mags was definitely busier than me, she was working on a project all by herself, because it was that important, and the rest of the projects were left on hold. Her routine quickly went back to her being at her office at the house with a lot of blueprints, books she was reading for research, calls at all times, drawings, samples, boxes on top of boxes of materials. She couldn't necessarily tell me what she was working on, but it seemed important.

On top of her work, she'd been planning things for Alma's birthday, and now that she was older she put her two cents in every decision.

I arrived at the house and went straight to the office were Mags was walking around the room with the phone to her ear, whilst I waited for her to finish I changed out of my suit, and she found me when I was finishing with my shirt.

"Hey, I need you to pick up some things from the woman that's got the souvenirs for me, and be careful because it's like a-" she made a motion with her hand "it's glass, so be careful"

Maggie definitely didn't look like herself, she was as hectic as when she was with the casino project.

"Right" I nodded.

"And there's some samples I need to pick up from some other place if you could pick that one up, that would help"

"Okay" I nodded again.

"And I love the kid to death but if you could take her and just-" she sighed "I need peace for like two hours."

"Okay love, whatever you need"

"Thank you" she said with a sigh, then exited the room, I followed and looked for Alma on the way, she was in her bedroom, making a mess out of her toys.

"Hey" I called, she turned around and gave me a sheepish smile "let's get changed, we're going out"

She squealed in excitement, and headed to the drawer to pick something to wear. Honestly she had a better sense of style that Maggie and I combined, so I just let her pick a dress because we were in the dead of summer, and helped her with some sandals.

"Alright, let's go" I said pulling her on her feet and motioning at the door.

"I'm saying bye to mommy" she yelled as she ran out of the room, I walked behind her and watched her barge into the office, then began a string of 'mommies' until Maggie paid attention to her. I reached the door office and saw Maggie bend over and cover her phone with her hand.

"Yes, what" she asked

"Bye" Alma replied.

"Bye love" she kissed her forehead and looked up at me.

"Give daddy a kiss" she said pointing back at me.

"No, Alma let's let Mom work" she threw her head back and I walked to her, picking her up in my arms, she began complaining and Maggie complied kissing me quickly.

"There, now go, have fun" she said motioning at the door.

"Bye" Alma said waving her hand as I walked out of the room, closing the door behind me.

I didn't know why Alma always made Maggie kiss me, at first she was very jealous of me and would want Mags as far away as possible, but now she was all about the romanticism. I strapped her in the car seat and rolled out to the city. Mags had sent me the addresses of the things I needed to pick up, and after I did that in maybe half an hour, I took Alma to the mall and the kid's playground for a while.

Somehow even after I did all that and took Alma to the playground and made her play in every single one of the games, we still had one hour to go, and even though I wanted to give her more time to finish with her work, there was so much I could do with the kid.

We walked around the mall, I bought her another book, I bought her some candy, then she sadly saw the toy store and we lost a good half an hour there. I always bought her something if we were out, but she had so many toys that she honestly didn't need any more. Maggie donated often the ones she didn't get to use or the ones that she was too old to play with, and even then she had way too many. I think we could've gone to three vacations with the money we spent on things for the baby.

I quickly reminded myself of our last vacations, and it felt as if we'd just gone to Miami a few weeks ago, work had consumed my time in ways inimaginable.

At one point we were walking down the mall towards the parking lot, I had a watchful eye on Alma because she didn't feel like behind carried, and someone bent over next to her with an enthusiastic cheer. I looked closely to see one of Mag's friends, one of the many, saying hi to Alma. She looked up at me with a smile.

"Hi Don" she saluted, then looked back at Alma "hi princess, how are you?"

"Fine" she replied. She awed at her and leaned in to cup her cheeks and kiss her in the forehead.

"Just saw you guys and came to say hi" she said finally standing up and giving us both a look "say hi to Maggie for me"

"Will do, bye Crystal" I saluted, seeing Alma walk around her and take off. After a bit of walking and almost reaching the parking lot I pulled Alma up, because I didn't want her run around with cars nearby.

"Who's Maggie?" She asked out of nowhere as I reached the car and unlocked it.

"What do you mean who's Maggie?" I opened the door and sat her down at the car seat. "Maggie is your mom" I explained.

"Nah-ah" she said shaking her head. That type of denial she'd gotten it from Nathan in the off times they were together, even though he was like 8 years old now.

"Ye-ah" I said imitating her tone.

"Nah-ah" she said, now more angry, she had an incredible temper for a two year old.

"Yeah, that's her name"

"She's mommy"

"Nah-ah" I said, with a chuckle. I finished with her seatbelt and got into the car, hearing the beginning of a fit. Alma's fits were mostly just fake crying with her head thrown back and staying still until someone came to try and calm her down. She wasn't the type to trash around and scream at the top of her lungs, at least not for now.

I gave in to the joke after she cried all the way out of the parking lot, and she  usually forgot what she was crying about when we got moving and she got distracted looking outside, but I wasn't about to get yelled at by Mags for making the baby cry on purpose, so I just told her okay, that she was right, and she instantly stopped crying.

I turned on the radio to some music and saw her move after a while to the songs, and she continued until we reached the house.

Alma instantly dashed in, probably to tell on me to Mags, and I busied myself taking out the things from the trunk.

"Hey" I heard Mags from the garage door as I took the box with her samples and placed it at my feet "what's with you making her mad?" She asked, I lifted my eyes to her holding Alma on her arms. Mags was just following along, and Alma looked at me, kind of ducking my gaze for making Maggie scold me.

"I'm sorry" I said.

"I'm going to put you on time out, don't make the baby cry" she said, giving me a wink.

"Okay, I'll stop making her mad"

Maggie looked down at Alma, and she hugged herself to Mag's neck, landing her cheek on her shoulder.

"Are those my samples?" She asked. I closed the trunk and took the box again.

"Yes love"

"Nice" she said giving it a quick inspection "can you put it in my office please, I'll check it now before I make dinner" she said walking out of the garage, I followed and talked with her as we reached the office.

"I can take care of that if you'd like" I offered. Mags looked back at me and motioned at the floor. I heard her phone go off just as I was setting the box down, she picked it up and got right back to it.

I was kind of unnerved when I saw a video playing on her computer, and as  she took a piece of tile that she was supposed to match with the one in the video, the camera panned up and focused on the face of a man that I recognized.

He wasn't a particular big deal but I knew for a fact that he was in the list of people that James and the taskforce I used to work on was after.

I didn't know how to react, I couldn't step in to help, and couldn't step in to tell Maggie not to help. I just wished that she wasn't the kind of professional people turned to for an opinion or work.

I wasn't paying attention to the conversation because I knew that would confirm what I suspected. She hung up and patted Alma on her back, she didn't look like she was going anywhere, and Mags had her on arms as she finished with some details.

"I'll take your offer on dinner" she said pressing play on the video again.

"Roger" I said, turning around and walking out of the room.

Making dinner was easy during the summer, and I got that ready in half an hour. Mags finally made it out of the cave and sat Alma on the high chair of the dining room, then walking a few steps to the kitchen to help.

"Are you done?" I said, trying to sound casual.

"Yeah, at least for what I can do today" she said taking a few plates from the cupboard.

I followed with the food as she finished with the glasses and the other things, then gave me a funny look as I served her.

"Okay, Gordon Ramsey" she said, inspecting the plate "any other hidden talents I should know about?"

"There's many, but I like to keep it interesting" she chuckled, then sat at the table. To be fair, cooking was just following instructions, it wasn't hard to cook something watching a ten minute video on YouTube.

I spent a few minutes looking at Mags sort food for Alma, thankfully she was not picky about the food, she ate just about everything, then she looked at me,  checking that I hadn't served myself anything.

"You're not eating?" She asked, getting to her plate.

"No" I said, she frowned and gave me another look.

"Why?"

"I'm not in the mood" I dismissed. She pouted, then moved her chair to sit closer to me, being a little restricted by the corner of the table.

"Are you okay?" She said placing her hand on my temple.

"Yeah, I guess" I shook my head and took her hand in mine, watching her reluctantly start eating. "I'm just... Disappointed I guess. I mean, first Reddington is not Reddington and now he's not even a traitor. That's the two things that defined my job and basically my career path and now... It doesn't even matter."

"It's not like it doesn't matter" she said, giving my hand a squeeze. "I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of it"

"I can try" I said with a chuckle. "Don't know how far I'm going to get, being about Reddington"

"I think you'll get far enough" she assured.

"You have a lot of faith in me"

"One of us has to" I looked at her with a smile, then leaned to kiss her hand.

This woman was just so damn precious to me.

"I'd like you to be careful" I said before she finished with dinner.

"I'd like you to not spy on me" she said with a chuckle, knowing that I had seen what she was working on. "I also-" she said standing up and walking up to where I was sitting, she threw her leg over my lap and straddled me. "Would like a back massage" She rounded my neck with her arms, and I quietly placed my hand on her waist. "I've been working hard"

"I guess I can do that. I've been your slave all day" I jokingly complained, she opened her mouth in a surprised gesture.

"I thought you would enjoy giving me a back massage"

"Oh, so it's a favor to me then?"

"Yeah" she said with a chuckle, I laughed with her and hugged her by the waist, I pulled her in and kissed her on her neck, hugging her fully. I felt her caress on the back of my ear, and honestly it was my favorite spot. I gave a comfort sigh  and placed my chin on her shoulder. When my eyes landed on Alma I chuckled, she was passed out on the high chair.

Mags pulled back and looked behind her, she laughed as well, standing up from my lap and heading to her she carefully moved the tray forward and pulled Alma up, she was startled at first but Mags shushed her and held her to her chest, patting her on the back.

I cleaned up the table and filled the dishwasher, finding Mags cutting the corner just as I was leaving the kitchen. Mags quietly checked that everything was set, then turned off the lights and we both walked towards the bedroom.

"Why did you make Alma mad?" She asked out of nowhere as I was moving my thumbs on both sides of her neck along the spine.

"She found out that your real name isn't 'mommy'"

She chuckled and turned her body to me, rubbing her neck. She placed her hand on my thigh and patted it.

"Are you okay?" I nodded with my head "you don't need anything?".

"I'm good love".

She gave me a tight lipped smile and moved to lay on the bed, covering herself with just a sheet.

"I have the next few days off to help you with the birthday if you want" I said, laying on the bed myself.

"That would be nice" she said with a sigh, I gave her a quick look, she had her eyes closed and was hugging a little pillow.

I didn't sleep much that night. Reddington may have won this battle, but I wasn't so sure he was going to win this war.

#donald ressler x oc #donald ressler #the blacklist

[youhideastar]

I'm recently rereading your fics again, and I just love them so much. And I was skimming the comments on one of the To Be Seen Aright timestamps? And you mentioned you were working on a threesome scene? Do you have any update on that? Or just general updates about what you've been working on lately? I know having the drive/time/focus to write isn't always easy at the best of times, and now is... Kinda complicated times, so no pressure or judgement. I just love your writing

This question comes at just the right time, because I’ve been guiltily aware that it’s been forever since I posted something and I was thinking, “Should I say something on tumblr? Would that be at all interesting to people?” So: great timing, anon!

Work has eaten my life over the last 6-7 months. I haven’t had two consecutive vacation days in a row since... last April, maybe? And working absurd hours, too. So (1) I rarely have time to write; (2) I rarely have the energy; and (3) when I do have time and energy, I’ve mostly been working on my next long fic, which won’t be done for a year.

But! I did actually finish something short this week (a Vero and Flower piece in the TBSA universe), which I hope to post in the next few days, and I’ve been feeling a little more peppy lately, so I’m hopeful. As far as the threesome scene... that could describe at least two current projects, haha, one of which I have barely started, and the other of which is going to require several thousand more words of lead-in. Also, I have a minimum of 20 WIPs at any given time, which I why I never promise that any specific project will ever get finished, because it just depends on what I feel inspired to work on. I hope that answers your question!

[mokkemusic]

Party Dancecapades! (Another View) Fic

READ ALSO ON FF.NET - HERE 

Summary: This is meant to take place during XYZ Episode 12 aka “the dance episode”. We know Misty and Brock got their Mega Stones and learned about Mega Evolution before the end of the first season of Sun & Moon. Who knows though if they came to Kalos to get them? And could it have been around the same time Ash was in Kalos? Anything’s possible right??

Misty stood in the crowd overlooking the spectacular venue. This sure was Kalos all right. The palace itself looked like something from one of her many post cards. The architecture, the ambiance, the romanticism of it all. She was sure the air just smelled like sweet foreign pastries although, it could be because she was standing right next to the assorted treats and drinks they had laid out across a large table and stretched on from one end of the ball room to another; for the hungry party goers.

She grabbed a delicious and colorful pistachio macaron that matched the color of her long elegant ball gown; savoring the moment and the scene upon her before she would get back to the dance floor. This really had to be a dream. She couldn’t believe that she was actually in this region and that she got to be here and feel like a princess for a day. I guess she had both she’d hate to admit it but her sisters and even Gary Oak to thank for that.

“Bonjour Misty, get packin’!”

“Gary?”

Yea it’s me who else? Listen I’m thinking about taking a trip up to Kalos to learn a thing or two about Mega Evolution. There’s a lot more to it then just special effects you know? I think it would be good for you as a gym leader and all seeing as you need to sharpen your skills a bit—”

“—Hey!”  

“And bring Brocky Boy along with ya! Might as well keep him up to date.

“I have you on speaker Gary he’s right here…

"I hate that nickname you know.”

"Yea yea meet me at the lab at eight and don’t be late!”

Click

“What? What’s up?”

“I don’t know Brock all those Kaloisian girls…”

“Misty! Who do you think I am? I am going there to explore new possibilities In Pokémon medicine!”

She raised an eyebrow. “Your going there to explore something alright. Behave yourself you got that!”

They may not have all been exceptionally close friends, but ever since Tracey was always going to Cerulean to visit Daisy and Gary needed to also meet up with his grandfathers ambitious assistant to help him with something or to take something back to the oak lab. He would always run into Misty and by extension sometimes Brock who would visit his friends on most occasions and talk to them both about the latest information in Pokémon medicine and all the water Pokémon at the gym. Not to mention the occasional Pokémon battles to keep skills sharp and engage in some “friendly competition”, and not to also be forgotten all the holiday gatherings from Pallet and Cerulean. They’ve all became connected and closer.

So when Gary had told her about the possible discovered mega stones for water Pokémon that could perform Mega Evolution including Gyaradosite, there was no way Misty could pass that opportunity up. Unfortunately, for her though, any mention of a trip to Kalos was not something her world famous “sensational sisters” sisters could pass up on either.

“So like where are you going in such a hurry. Oh! Did Ash come back home? Are you headed over to Pallet town? Cause like then w—”

“No.”

“No?”

“No! And it’s none of your business now move out of the way!”

“Now hold it right there little sister! If we are gonna like have to babysit this gym and have to battle and stuff I think we have like the right to know!”

Misty rubbed her temples in frustration reciting to herself “Breathe Misty. Remember to breathe. They need to still be around to watch the gym.”

“Me Brock and Gary are going to Kalos to stud—”

“—Wait did you say Kalos??”

“—Yes Kalos to—”

“—Without us?!?!”

“Oh no…”

“We’re like sooo going with you!”

“Oh no you don’t! This is the first vacation I had in weeks and we are there to study!”

“Oh please! You like love Kalos and all the fancy shops and cafes just as much as we do so you can’t fool us and besides! We know some people there! Like a Pokémon showcase performer friend, Aria is there and we like haven’t catched up in foreverrrr.”

“But Daisy!! Who am I supposed to get to watch the Gym? And what am I supposed to tell Gary?! He only bought three tickets… at least I think it’s three—”

“—Pfft! Please I’ll ask Tracey to watch over the gym and we can like get tickets ourselves! And besides with us by your side you can get access to so many parties and showcases!”

“But we’re not there to…go to…what kind of parties?”

“Where you can dance and wear fancy ball gowns and make up like a princess…”

“Like a princess…”

All 3 of them nod “uh huh..”

“Arghh!!! Fine! You can come!! But if you embarrass me I swear to mew I’m going to use your faces as a practice range for Gyrados hydro pump!”

“Ok..ok..”

“Would you care to dance?” Brock mock bowed.

“Haha, Why yes I would!” she said as her “mermaid” wig hair tickled her shoulder as she mock bowed in return.

“I got to ask why the wig again?”

“Listen its the only chance I get to not be “Misty the gym leader” I am Miltank milking it for all it’s worth!”

“You do see ladies here with short hair right?”

“I know it just feels more…Kalos.”

“I don’t understand what that means.” he chuckled twirling her around. “But you do look very nice.”

She looked to her left and saw Gary twirl his date gracefully as she spun around. They both had skill. He offered her a dance before which his date didn’t mind. Actually if Misty had to be honest with herself, she really liked this girl and they had spent hours before the party trying on dresses and visiting the café’s and shops in the area, leaving snarky comments and threats to both Gary and Brock in their wake.  

Everyone had to have a date for this dance event; even their Pokémon partners.

“Oh no, what Pokémon am I gonna get to dance with Psyduck?!”

“Oh I know! How about my Furret or my Snubbull or really any of my Pokémon cause I have an all female team!” She winked a blue eye.

“Remember guys if something comes up, we can’t stay too long. Professor Sycamore is expecting us as soon as he gets to the Pokémon center here.

“Garebear stop being such a—”

“—Leaf, whatdya I tell you about that!”

The other two tried to hold back their fit of giggles. Yup! Misty definitely liked this girl.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

“Alright, everyone form into circles. It’s time to change partners. Then lets dance!”

Ash was not a dancer. He tried he really tried. He tried to learn Tierrno’s rhythmic battle style, Serena had tried to teach him and he can’t remember the countless of other people who tried to teach him something over the course of his travels about dancing… It wasn’t just that he had two left feet cause in actuality he didn’t. He could have balance and focus, he wasn’t clumsy! Well…ok he wasn’t that clumsy! He tried to debate himself that it was just that he had ZERO sense of rhythm!

He didn’t care though cause he loved it! He just never waited for the music to catch up with the impatience of his feet. He was always ahead of it and he was regretting that now.

Ash could only recall in his mind the one time his dancing was somewhat acceptable and that was a very looong time ago at the Maidens Peak festival at the very beginning of his journey back in Kanto.

“Come on Ash let’s dance!”

“Uh, sure!”

“Woah, ahh…”

It happened so fast that he couldn’t even process what was happening. She grasped his white gloved hand with her own pulling him more into the circular row of rotating suitors. He stumbled over his feet before he looked up. He saw an orange wave of waist length hair, but he couldn’t look at her eyes, they were closed??

She took full lead though (in spite of that) raising his left hand high above his head balanced only by the light tips of her fingers as she took a long bow and in the process making him bow as well.

He just stared. Something about her made him stare for a second, maybe it was the fact that he wanted to say something but nothing ever came out. It couldn’t be though..nah, no way…but…

She stood upright again, let go of his hand and began to leave and her eyes were still closed! She must have really known her way around these kind of things if she could just feel her way around..  she was really graceful. He smiled sheepishly as she passed until he heard someone else speak.

“Dancing’s not hard.”

“Aria!”

“It’s easy just relax!”

“O-Ok.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________

“Psy”

Psyduck’s bill hovered over the edge of the table. So close to that lonely slice of cake.  

“…Psssyyyduuuucckkk?!” She growled out.

Busted! He didn’t hear the click of his irritated trainers heels approaching on the soft carpeting. Misty made her way back again to the table of sweet treats after catching the sight of her daring Pokémon out of the corner of her eye.

His cheeks flushed pink embarrassed or maybe terrified of the reprimand he knew was coming squinting his eyes and bracing himself.

He looked up but her hand wasn’t about to wack him. Her eyes were staring at it instead.

“—Duck?”

She spaced out for a moment running a thumb across her fingertips. A prickling ran through them with a strange familiarity. It was odd? She felt like she was in a trance, though that could have been cause she refused to open her eyes when she passed along the circle, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. It was too enticing just to feel the music and have her feet carry her where she went. She felt as though she was floating in water and she couldn’t risk having that bubble burst. (She navigated just fine.)

“Alright…”

“Huh.” She looked up towards the staircase. As did everyone else in the room.

“Let us begin today’s main event…”

She let out an audible unbelieving breath.

All other words were lost on her ears when she spotted someone. Or rather two someone’s, she wouldn’t have even entertained the belief otherwise. But a bit far up ahead was a Pikachu coming to stand by a boy with jet black hair in a navy blue suit that looked like .. no this was ridiculous.. still…

She moved closer up but a crowd was forming in front at the announcement. She craned her neck and stood on the tips of her toes just to try to get a better angle. She might have started excusing herself through the crowd but…

“Misty!” Gary’s hand had grasped her shoulder. “Geesh! Didn’t you hear us calling you?”

She raised an eyebrow and looked behind him to see Brock and Leaf had gathered their things. The later looking a bit disappointed

“…The battle begins next.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________

They returned the rented dresses and tusks, changed back into their regular clothes and headed up to the reception desk.

“Excuse me Mademoiselle. Did we need to return these?” Brock asked sliding her the cards they received upon arrival.

“Oh” the female the receptionist giggled. “No you are free to keep those!”

“Ah, then I will keep it as a souvenir from the beautiful woman who handed it to me.” He held it to his heart for effect.

Misty’s hand twitched in preparation to yank his ear and save the poor woman.

“Is the party over?” The receptionist asked confused.

“Not yet.” Gary answered. “But we gotta run. This party is just about wrapping up anyway. Professor Sycamore just updated me. We’re meeting with him; He’s staying at the Pokémon center a little ways back here tonight and since it’s already near sunset we’re gonna have a long trek back and I want to get there before it gets pitch black out.

“Oh well then, I hope you all had a wonderful time!” She smiled sweetly. “Please come back and visit.”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh…” Brock stared at her dreamily.

“—Come on Brock!” Misty said forcefully giving his a shove as he was the only one still standing there when everyone else was heading out.

“Wait a minute!” Gary stopped abruptly and held his card up to the light. “Nah, ok we’re good. Let’s go.”

Leaf rolled her eyes and shifted her weight to her right hip and scoffed.

“Figures if it was you—”

“—Well did you get the special card? Hmm?” He smirks.

She stuck her tongue out at him and stalked ahead.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

They all followed out onto the amber golden side street; lit and glowing by the string of street lamps that begun to turn on at this hour.

Misty hung back a bit though a part of her itching to go back inside. Just find out if she was right??

“Hey, you ok?” Leaf looped an arm with hers directing her forward. She didn’t realize she started walking backwards to keep the palace in view just in case she changed her mind…

“Yea..”

“Liar.” She stared into her not buying into it.

“…I know this is gonna sound crazy but I could have sworn I saw… Ash.” She finally said it.

Brock and Gary both stopped several steps ahead, turned their heads and stared at her blinking.

Leaf looked puzzled as well. All was silent for a moment until Gary spoke up.

“Well it’s official someone spiked that punch. I knew everyone there was a little tipsy. It must be a Kalos thing. You know how many cheek kisses I got tonight?” He winced as soon as his brain caught up to his mouth.

“How many cheek kisses did you get tonight? Hmm?” Leaf crossed her arms. Not amused.

“Um.. it’s not important…” he waved a hand and quickly dismissed getting flustered at her scrutiny. He turned back to Misty for the quick excuse.

“How much punch did you drink?”

“None.” she deadpanned folding her arms.

“Misty ..” Brock started carefully “You know that’s a little hard to believe right?”

“I know. I know! It’s just I saw a Pikachu—”

“—A lot of trainers have Pikachu’s.”

“He was with a boy with black hair!—”

“—Lot of trainers have black hair.”

She threw her hands up in the air exasperated.

“Well he has been in Kalos right?! I mean he—”

“—So are thousands of other trainers…”

After this back and forth for a while trying to convince her that was sorta…impossible. Garry got the biggest smirk.

“You know what I think it is?” They all turned back to him. “I think that it’s just you wanted Ashy-Boy to be the one you were dancing with tonight. So naturally your mind would come to that unbelievable conclusion.”

That was it. He knew exactly what button to press to stop this conversation dead in its tracks. He chalked it up to a win in his book of comeback arguments he’s been ever slightly more defeated in winning ever since inviting Leaf along.

Her cheeks to the bridge of her nose flushed a pink hue. She opened her mouth, closed it, then quickly opened it again.

“Fine! You know what?! Let’s just forget this!”

She gritted her teeth and stomped ahead now leading the group back to the Pokémon center.

Maybe one day the next time she saw him back in Pallet she would just subtly bring up if he was ever at that location… at that particular time… on that particular day in Kalos? It started to sound even more un-convincing. Maybe they were right, Kalos was a big region. It was too big of a coincidence as well.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Seriously what were the chances that could even happen?! A coincidence like that?!

Ours wasn’t coincidence.

“Huh?”

“I don’t believe it could be just a coincidence that I met you out of all people.”

“What do you mean—”

“Ash?”

“Huh?”

“You ok? You kind of zoned out there for a minute.”

Authors note: Collaboration with @pok3n who made me actually turn into a fic instead of just a head cannon. She also attributed some of her own dialogue and ideas that were frekin fantastic like the opening flashback scenes and a lot of other things. I honestly wouldn’t post anything if it wasn’t for her. But we talked though it and decided.. yea ok it might work lol (your amazing!)

Special credit to @pkmncoordinators The addition of “Leaf” was inspired by TAC. Her mannerisms, personality, the teasing nickname she calls Gary “garebare” as well as I think all of her Pokémon being female is all a credit to that masterpiece and its author. It’s basically my personal established Leaf cannon. Also made me a conflict/leafgreen shipper not gonna lie lol.

I know this is just a one shot but I will say this I wanted to explain my reasoning in more detail on the way I wrote this. Cause it’s something I never did before but also it was just gonna end up being a 10 page authors note and I don’t think anyone wants to read that. But if any of you do read this and are kinda confused as to something or just have a question about it my ask box and messages are open! (They always are) odds are I have the answers :)!

I will possibly expand upon the Kalos Mega Evolution Research Trip as a separate story in the future. This was just that specific memorable scene. Also I might expand on the Gary & Leaf backstory which was how they reacquainted with each other possibly in the anime. I recently posted a little head cannon about that I might explore more.  

And Lastly… This honestly my favorite thing I have done! I would make it a full fledged comic if I had any drawing capability whatsoever cause it’s essentially one scene with dividers. But since I don’t oh well.. I’m just happy I could make it into a fic. I didn’t do anything this complicated before so initially it was just gonna be a very vague head cannon and I didn’t think it was gonna work. But it did and I’m just so so proud of this! :,)

#pokeshipping #misty waterflower #ash ketchum

[s-j-ace]

The Same Question

Chapter Five

Characters:  Shuichi Saihara, Ouma Kokichi

Words: 10600

Summary:

After Detective Shuichi Saihara encounters mysterious thief Kokichi Ouma  for the first time, a game of cat and mouse ensues as both men ask  themselves the same question. Why exactly does the elusive phantom thief  do what he does?

This is Chapter Five, Here are Chapters One, Two, Three, and Four

Read on AO3

[Log of Text Messages from Maki Harukawa’s Cellular Device]

From: idiot #1

Hey Makiroll <3

How was your flight?

From: Me

Good

Well

You know

I was on an eight hour flight

So that was never going to go well

But I just got to the apartment and I made some tea

So I’m good now

It’s nice to be home

From: idiot #1

Haha I bet

Man I wish I could be home to greet you!

I’d give you a big hug and kiss right now if I could!!!!!!

From: Me

Gross

From: idiot #1

D:

From: Me

…

If you were here right now I’d tell you I love you with my words

Like an adult

From: idiot #1

What no kiss?

From: Me

Hm

Maybe a small one

From: idiot #1

:D

From: Me

If you’ve shaved

From: idiot #1

D:

From: Me

:P

I gotta wean you off kisses kaito

That way you won’t have to go cold turkey right away when you go on your big trip

From: idiot #1

My big trip?

Lol, you make it sound like I’m just going overseas or something

From: Me

Well space is treated as international waters by most countries

From: idiot #1

I guess that’s true?

Hey!!

That’s a space fact!

Maki Roll!!!!

From: Me

Shhushhhh

From: idiot #1

:D

From: Me

Oh hey

Speaking of big trips

Have you heard from Shuichi at all?

I’m concerned that he may be mad at me

From: idiot #1

Whaaaaat

Why would shuichi be mad at you

From: Me

Well

I didn’t back up his clowns stealing toilets from the louvre thing

And then clowns stole toilets from the louvre

I’m worried he may feel as though I’ve gaslit him

Or something

From: idiot #1

What

How did you know about the toilets

From: Me

It was in the news?

Wait, so you heard a different way?

From: idiot #1

Uh

From: Me

So you have heard from him

From: idiot #1

Oh yeah

I don’t think he’s mad at you

He’s pretty preoccupied with the clowns I think

And besides you know

My sidekick isn’t really the type of guy who like

Gets mad

He’s more likely to like

Think you’re mad at him                                                        

And then be mad at himself for making you mad

From: Me

Shuichi gets mad sometimes

I saw him punch a guy once

And he listens to those songs that are just people screaming endlessly about hating other people

From: idiot #1

Yeah but he cries while doing that

Also I meant like

He wouldn’t get mad at you like that

Because you’re friends

From: Me

Yeah

You’re probably right

I still want to go visit him tomorrow

Say I’m.. sorry? Or something

Is this the kind of stuff that apologies are for?

From: idiot #1

Well I mean like

If you feel bad like by all means feel free to let him know

But Shuichi probably doesn’t think it’s a big deal

From: Me

Yeah but I still want to

From: idiot #1

Also I don’t think visiting him would be super productive

As far as I can tell he isn’t back from his trip yet

From: Me

What

But it’s been a month since he left

Isn’t he bored of Paris yet

From: idiot #1

No I think he’s like

Going other places too

From: Me

wym

Like, he’s doing a tour of europe?

That sounds nice

From: idiot #1

No I think it's more like

He’s still on the case

Cuz last week he was in Taiwan

And the week before that he was in Egypt

And some robberies happened there

From: Me

Oh

So he didn’t take my vacation advice at all huh

From: idiot #1

Yea I guess not

But hey

Not giving up is a good thing!!

From: Me

But what if you need to give up something that’s hurting you

Like smoking or murdering or drinking or overworking yourself because you equate productivity to self-worth

From: idiot #1

Then don’t give up on trying to get better!!!! You gotta believe in the best version of yourself

From: Me

|:/

Is he at least going to take a break long enough to come home and see you off

From: idiot #1

Uh

From: Me

Maybe I could text him to remind him and casually slip in the fact that I may be a little bit sorry that I thought he was insane

I mean obviously he’ll want to come see you before you go

You did tell him right

Kaito

Kaito

...

You forgot to tell him

From: idiot #1

Well I don’t know about forgot

It’s more like

There was never really a good time? To tell him?

From: Me

…

I’m changing your contact back to number one idiot in my phone

From: #1 idiot

Ouch

Will you change it back if I tell him today?

From: Me

Maybe

Do you even know where he is?

From: #1 idiot

…

No

From: Me

… well you better find him before I change your contact to “best friend loser”

From: #1 idiot

Implying that I’m your best friend and a loser or implying that I lost our best friend to the thrill of chasing a group of fiendish clowns

From: Me

Both

From: #1 idiot

Okay okay I’m already texting him --- Shuichi Saihara spent the start of his day awkwardly trying to fit in with the rest of the people sitting in the front row of the exceedingly fancy audience at the first show of fashion week in Milan, Italy. He knew he should technically feel exceedingly lucky that he even got into the show, let alone that he got one of the very expensive front row seats. The Milan fashion week people were certainly the most cooperative of any potential DICE targets he had tried to warn previously. Probably because Shuichi made sure not to just send the warning through Interpol this time, and the fashion people actually cared about their careers enough to take the threat of a break in seriously. Except, Shuichi wasn't sure all the security should be placed around the stages and dresses like they were. The most typically valuable item on sight was never really DICE's MO.

That's why he was here, wasn't it?

In the front row. With all these strangers. Who were giving him weird looks. Did that lady just whisper to her friend while looking directly at him? Wait no, don't look at them. Or maybe do look at them? What if they were DICE members who only just spotted him? Right, right, all these people were suspects. Job before social anxiety Shuichi.

Refocused, Shuichi made some observations around him. He scanned the crowd, but didn't see any of the DICE members he would recognize. He did see that security guards had been helpfully placed by the doorways. He wondered if any of them were interpol agents. If they were, it wasn’t anyone he knew. Probably for the best anyway. Agent Ishimaru was mostly likely still pretty steamed at him. He hadn’t been letting Shuichi look at the notes DICE sent to Interpol, even though their team didn’t seem to have as much luck translating them as Shuichi had in the past.

Wait, there was one entrance wasn’t there? Maybe he should watch it? After all, there was no guarantee that DICE wouldn't just walk right in. Like they did in Nevada. And Cairo. But weirdly not Taipei? It seemed like they had abandoned whatever they were going to use Doctor Iruma’s EMP bombs for after failing to get them... Or were the bombs the heist after all and DICE had just waited for him to leave Taiwan to carry out the heist and actually weren’t in Milan at all and Shuichi was a big old idiot? No, they had to be in Milan, he had seen the airport tapes and done the research. But were they at the show? If they weren’t that’d be good news for the next season of fashion, but probably not for Shuichi’s case...

Ok, he just had to make sure that even if they were here nothing got stolen. What was he saying? Oh, yeah. Just walking in was probably less likely here, with all the security and all.

But wasn't it just like DICE to pick the path less likely than one would expect?

As the intro music cued in to the beginning of the fashion show and the house lights dimmed, all Shuichi really knew was that he should be ready for anything.

Two spotlights did a bit of a dance on the catwalk before they too faded and the whole room was pitch black.

There was a moment of silence.

…

And another.

…

And… another…

…

People started murmuring in the crowd.

Shuichi heard some English lady say, "What, do they expect us to have night vision?"

"It's all part of the show, dearest," said the woman next to her.

Shuichi thought for a second.

…

And another.

…

And a-

…

They stole the lights didn't they. --- Kokichi Ouma had to be honest with himself, as he continued on his circuitous route throughout the vents which overlooked the first show of fashion week in Milan, stealing all the lights from this year’s venue wasn’t very inspired. He was essentially reusing the Taipei 101 idea that hadn’t come to fruition, but Queen had insisted he needed a powerful light for his next project and the rest of DICE seemed to have formed some sort of blood pact to support whatever his next heist idea was as long as he didn’t make them watch the cinematic masterpiece Cats (2019) at their last movie night.

Kokichi himself hadn’t actually seen Cats (2019) yet. He kept reminding himself to, after hearing of its reported cursedness, but he just hadn’t gotten around to it. DICE had watched it for the first time without him, and now every time Queen brought it up Kokichi felt obligated to shut him down for the sake of maintaining his own authority. “Now Queen, obviously I love Cats (2019) directed by Tom Hooper and starring Franceska Hayward, as a fellow enthusiast of the cinematic arts, but for the sake of everyone else…” Cue eight sighs of relief courtesy of your one and only super awesome boss.

While thinking absentmindedly about his and the cinematic masterpiece Cats (2019)’s passing like two ships in the night, Kokichi checked where all his pieces should be on his internal chessboard. The locations of four fake guards, two fake handymen, and three vent crawlers popped up on the schematics he had memorized of the event hall. All busy dismantling lighting equipment or keeping an eye on a certain detective.

The word detective sent a third train of thought spiraling. Saihara really had shown up, hadn’t he? Kokichi hadn’t even sent a note this time and the detective was already here in the front row of the audience. That was probably the main reason Kokichi felt it was fair to upcycle the same plan from Taipei. Usually he’d get bored of an idea after tossing it around for a bit, so he had to act fast before his own lack of motivation became his undoing, but with Saihara around he didn’t have to worry about entertaining himself with his plans. Whatever the detective would do in response was bound to be far more interesting.

Okay he was almost in position for the first hit, and Ace was about to cause the black out in 5… 4… 3…

Oup, the light already turned off. Now Kokichi was just shuffling through the dark old vent getting ready to drop down and steal the lights from whatever room was beneath him while counting to himself about nothing and having three incongruous trains of thought at the same time.

The reason behind Kokichi’s super special secret ability to be thinking about three things at once was that A) he was a genius and 1) he was still on a sugar high from the gelato that he and his hench people had gotten for breakfast, and everyone knows sugar make brain work good.

Also! Gelato is just like… Ice Cream ++. Just like, better ice cream. It was just smooth and creamy instead of cold and chunky all the time. Kokichi could eat a lot more of it without getting a brain freeze than the regular stuff, and he wanted to get as much of it in him as possible before they left Italy forever. He’d ‘reluctantly’ promised they’d get some more to celebrate after the heist was done, but it was mostly because when they were plotting their escape he didn’t want to deal with a sugar cr-

*CREEEEAAAAAAK*

No, a crash, silly vent making a stupid noise, a sugar cra-

*CRACKOOM*

That was the last sound Kokichi heard before the ceiling crumbled beneath him. --- Shuichi Saihara realized that, by all means, the black out was rather clever. It completely stifled any immediate action on the part of an investigator. Even if Shuichi was right and it was the stage lights that were stolen, waiting to confirm the fact would only give the thieves more time to escape. He’d probably be able to bumble around in the dark searching for the entrance, but then what?

   Then his phone buzzed.

   Oh. Duh. He thought.

   Quickly he pulled out his phone, swiping aside whatever thing Kaito had just sent him to access his phone’s flashlight feature.

"Lights!" He shouted. "Use your cellphones as lights!"

He repeated these directions once more in the best Italian he could manage, hoping he sounded authoritative enough to garner a response.

There was a great shuffling all around him as the audience muttered and reached for their phones.

Then, as Shuichi turned on his own phone's flashlight and raised it up, he watched everyone in the audience do the same. Hundreds of little lights flickered on around him, the image of the runway becoming clearer every second.

As if that were their planned cue all along, the first models began to strut down the catwalk, every glitzy gown and sparkly suit seemingly illuminated by a thousand stars in the night sky. The audience oohed and aahed, and maybe Shuichi would've found the sight pretty cool too if he hadn't been looking up at an entirely different catwalk altogether. The lighting deck above had apparently been stripped bare during the black out. Shuichi knew that both sides of that catwalk let out to the heavily guarded backstage area. So where did DICE go?

Wait… were those horizontal air vents over the catwalk?

Shuichi started making his way over to the security guards near the exit.

God, when would architects of security systems ever learn? Why would you ever put a horizontal vent right above whatever it is you're trying to not get stolen? It's child's play! Any thief with at least one limb or a very ambitious set of teeth could steal something with a horizontal vent over it, and yet no one ever thought to check them until it was too late!

When he reached the guards he said hurriedly in a low tone, “We need to check the vents right now.”

Both guards gave him weird looks and Shuichi felt his confidence immediately wither.

“Parla solo italiano.” Said the guard to the right with the long dark brown hair tied in a tight bun. Speak only Italian. Shit.

Uh. Okay. Um.

“I ladri hanno... colpito,” Okay, ladri means thieves. Yeah. Uh. Was colpito the right word? Maybe? It sounded like culprit. What was the word for air vent again... “Controllare l'uscita… dell'aria!” Yeah! It was dell’aria. Okay. Good. Italian spoken.

Except now she was giving him an even weirder look.

“Cosa hai detto signore? Lardo hanno colpito? Qualcuno sta lanciando lardo tra il pubblico? Lardo nelle prese d'aria?”

Ah. Uh. That was a lot of words. Cosa… hai detto… what did you say sir. And then. Something about lard?

“Lardo….” Had she not heard him correctly through the loud music of the show happening behind them? His eyes wandered to the other guard, a man about the same height as the woman with the same dark brown hair color. Both guards were wearing sunglasses, but the man’s face suddenly scrunched with obvious anger.

“Hey! Are you calling me fat?” He accused with no hint of Italian accent.

… What? Why would he… Unless…

The woman cracked her knuckles. “Ti faccio vedere dov'è il lardo, ragazzo duro.”

Before Shuichi could even begin to decipher what that meant, the woman put him in a headlock.

DICE . Shuichi realized as the man took a cloth out of his pocket. Shuichi smelled the sweet, familiar scent of a volatile anesthetic. Probably chloroform or something of the sort….

Luckily this wasn’t the first time Shuichi had been in a headlock, and she wasn’t even holding a knife to his neck. He tucked his chin into the arm restraining him, holding it with his right hand as he brought his left up and over the front of her face. In one smooth motion he flipped her over on her back.

Officer Chabashira had taught him that. Tenko had been one of his better friends on the force. Though she spent most of her time beating up other cops for being misogynist pigs than catching criminals. Then again that strong sense of justice was something Shuichi actually liked about her. He hadn’t seen much of her after she quit the force, though. He heard she opened a studio for something called “neo-aikido” but had been too afraid of too many things, like that she wouldn’t recognize him and that things would be awkward and then she would yell at him for being a degenerate male, to check it out. It was probably for the best anyway. If she were here right now, she’d definitely yell at him for betraying the number one rule of her aikido teachings...

“Shuichi don’t use neo-aikido on girls. If a girl tries to kill you, you deserve it.”

Said “girl” trying to kill him landed in a roll, and probably would have tried to grapple him again if she hadn’t crashed into a nearby audience member.

Shuichi made a break for the exit. He expected to be intercepted by the other guard, but the man turned instead to help up his partner.

“You okay, sis?” He asked concernedly.

“I’d be better if you weren’t letting him get away, lo stupido!” She replied tartly and also, Shuichi noted, without much accent.

He managed to get through the doors and found that the guards that had been assigned to stand outside the entrance were no longer there. That meant that he would most likely have to find his way backstage by going around the building if he wanted back up, so he started running.

   He’d probably have to shake his tails first, he reminded himself as the doors burst open again behind him.

   Shuichi changed course, making a couple of quick turns. Around the corner near the exit he saw the sign for the men’s bathroom. Of course! The bathroom! There would definitely be a vent outlet in the bathroom.

   He opened the door and quickly ducked in. He hoped that the DICE members wouldn’t follow him in before he got to the-

   Shuichi froze.

The scene that lay before him was one familiar to him since childhood, but yet every time he saw it he hoped to never see it again.

A body was sprawled face down on the bathroom tile, blood splattered on the ground all around the head. Shuichi realized that he recognized the blood soaked hair’s strange purple color, although it seemed to be tied back for some reason…  He looked up at what was apparently a hole in the ceiling and deduced that the thief had been crawling through the vents when he fell. The rubble on the ground around him seemed to confirm that. Shuichi…. Shuichi couldn’t tell if he was breathing from here.

What a way to end the thief’s crime spree...

He willed himself to put one foot in front of the other. Then he did so again. Then he got over his shock and walked up to the body. These things get easier, he reminded himself.

Shuichi kneeled down to take a look, careful not to contaminate any of the blood spatter with his shoes. There… really was a lot of blood. There were no obvious signs of breathing…

Okay. Shuichi needed to check the pulse to see if he should call an ambulance. Maybe there was still a chance…

He reached for the man’s wrist-

The man suddenly sprung up, thrusting his huge grinning, and now blood covered, clown mask into Shuichi’s personal space. “It’s a lie!” He exclaimed

Shuichi startled, falling on the floor. Shock ran through him as the thief began to cackle his signature laugh.

“Did I surprise you?” He teased, blood pouring down his mask, “Were you going to scream and cry in terror?”

Shuichi looked at him in shock for a solid ten seconds. The thief in return looked at him, leaning back and forth a little dazedly. Shuichi watched a drop of blood separate itself from the man’s chin, going to join the puddle on the floor.

“Oh, sorry…” The man disrupted the silence. “I should be saying something real witty just about now… I’m just a little light-headed from the blood loss. Yeah. This is. This is real blood.”

Then the shock was over and Shuichi found himself reacting by standing up, grabbing the thief, and putting him in a standard police academy arm lock on the ground. As much as the move required speed, Shuichi tried to be mindful of the head wound. He didn’t want to give the thief the chance to escape like his mistake in Taipei had, but he also didn’t want to further injure him.

The man still made a grunt of pain when he hit the ground. “Wow, detective, you’re a lot better at police brutality than you are at dressing for fashion shows.”

Shuichi remembered the people in the front row of the show who had been giving him odd looks. He frowned. “What’s wrong with the way I dress?” He muttered as he tried to figure out how he could hold this guy down and also grab a bandage from his coat pockets. Which were very functional, thank you very much.

“Well, some people might say that the all dark clothing kind of makes you look like an evil villain.” He said with the same dazed tone in his voice. How much blood was he losing? Shuichi couldn’t tell with the mask still on. He moved to take it off-

The door opened and Shuichi saw two security guards come in and Shuichi turned slighty to look at them. Thankfully they weren’t the two from before. Perhaps they had figured out the vents were the escape route already and had come to investigate?

“Like those guys.” The man beneath him muttered on. “They might think black clothing is kinda.. Villain looking. Not me though, I think you look like a sexy motorcycle.”

Shuichi frowned at him. Wow, he sounded very loopy. He was losing a lot of blood.

Shuichi turned to address the guards, who were seemingly frozen in shock. “Scusa... ma potra-no, uh, tresti, potresti chiamare,”  what was the gender for ambulance again? “a-ambulanza-”

The woman from before burst in, the other DICE member pretending to be a security guard at her heels. She pointed at Shuichi, exclaiming, “L'uomo in cima a quel brutto bambino è colui che ci ha attaccato!”

“Vroom vroom” The man beneath him giggled out before Shuichi was picked up by the two guards and slammed against the wall.

“Sei sicuro che sia lui?” One of them said to the Italian-speaking DICE member. “Quest'uomo sembra molto debole.”

“Quello è lui. Deve essere uno dei ladri.” She was… calling him one of the thieves? “Sono addestrati in aikido, ricordi l'incontro informativo?”

“Certo, certo.” Said the guard in response, obviously lying. If he had been to the l'incontro informativo - the informational meeting - then he would know who Shuichi was.

“Tu non capisci!” Shuichi exclaimed.

“Stai zitto, straniero.” The other guard shoved him up harder against the wall.

“Boss! What happened to you?” The male DICE member exclaimed.

His “boss” propped himself up on his elbow and swung his legs like a tweenager at a sleepover party. “Well, it’s a funny story! But at this rate I’m going to pass out from blood loss before I tell it to you!” His lackey gave him a concerned look. “Neeheehee… just kidding.”

“Wait I-” Shuichi started to say. The guards shoved him harder against the wall and he winced before going on. “I have some bandages and gauze in my pockets somewhere.”

The DICE members all turned to look at him. The man who had dressed as a guard looked at him hopefully, but the bleeding thief only gave him a blank stare and the woman fixed him with a steely glare.

“Aiuteremo questo piccolo bambino straniero.” She said icily. “Voi due potete prendervi cura del criminale.”

“What can I say Saihara?” The thief muttered as his lackeys helped him up. “Ya.. Ya shouldn't've worn all black to fashion week. Yup. That’s the… That’s the moral here.”

As they shuffled away, Shuichi realized there was nothing he could do. Even if he fought both security guards and managed to escape somehow, it would only prove to them that he really was a threat, and that was aside from the fact that he wouldn’t be able to do anything to capture the thieves on his own. He’d have to wait until they brought him to someone who actually recognized him and by then it would be too late.

The impossible is possible, all you gotta do is make it so.

“... I’ll stop you.” The detective said, resolution clear in his voice.

“I’d like to see you try.” The thief muttered in response.

Then the door shut. --- “Man… You’re really bleeding a lot there, boss…” Clubs muttered as Kokichi buckled himself into the seatbelt of their getaway car. After putting him down in the back seat, Clubs got in next to him, taking his usual spot in the middle seat even though there wasn’t really a need yet. Maybe he was anticipating the arrival of the rest of the group. Or maybe he was just being Clubs. And Clubs always sat in the middle seat. Not because of a reason but because he did. People operated from their own internal self as if the person they constructed from their thoughts and actions was more important to maintain than any law in the land.

Italian cars were… really weird huh? Very smooth… Like, like… Gelato.

“I’m fine.” He said. Ugh how unconvincing. “I’m just... pretending to bleed.”

Clubs frowned at him. “How could you possibly pretend to bleed?”

Kokichi was! Going to come up with a very, very good explanation. As soon as he just… sucked that blood back in… yeah… gelato… they were supposed to get gelato…

“He can’t.” Spades ducked her head into the car. “We need to stop it. Do you have a cloth or anything on you?”

“Only the one…” Kokichi muttered. He was thinking about the kerchief he still had in his pocket from the detective. Not that either Spades or Clubs knew that. They probably just thought he was going crazy. Well fine he didn’t want them to know about it anyway. They’d just get blood on it.

“Here,” Clubs took off his own bandana and put it on Kokichi’s head. “He’s still bleeding.” He reported.

“That’s why we’re taking him to a hospital.” Spades replied, now taking her place in the driver’s seat of the gelato car.

   Ugh, what? No.

   “You can’t take me to a hospital. It’s the first place they’ll look.” He wasn’t going to let the detective catch him at a hospital of all places… What kind of Phantom Thief got caught in a hospital… Lame… Lamey-lamey-lamooo….

   Spades put the key in the car and started it. “Fine. We’ll go to a mafia doctor if we have to.”

   Kokichi shook his head and felt the fluids roll around inside and outside of his skull. Part of him wondered if he could just sit in this car forever and bleed out until he died. The other part of him was sure that he was doomed to be immortal. “Nope. You crazy or something? We cannot get mixed up in organized crime. They murder people and we don’t do capitalism. Crime should be disorganized or else-”

   “Okay! Fine! We’ll go to a fucking Farmacia and pray that you don’t have a concussion!”

Kokichi snorted. “I can’t have a concussion. I’m too smart.”

Clubs gave him a look. “Boss, do you know what a concussion is?”

Kokichi squinted. He’d only ever seen the word being used by people making fun of jocks on the internet. “Isn’t it like a sports thing?”

“Well, actually,” Clubs said in an informative tone of voice. “It’s a serious brain injury.”

“You listening to your fortnite buddies again?”

“No, we learned that in junior high.”

Hah. School. Lameass. Kokichi never needed school. Who needs school when you have google, video games, and anime?

“I’m a serious brain injury already, I think I’ll be fine.”

“No, you won’t be, you could die.” Spades was on her phone, probably looking up italian pharmacies.

That would be fine too. Haha. What a good… A good joke… brain…

“I’m just woozy. I need… like a gelato. We’re getting gelato. We gotta wait for the rest of the gang so we can get gelato.”

“No, I texted them, they can all fit in the other car, you need medical attention.

Kokichi frowned. “There’s seven of them. That car’s a five seater.”

“We’re clowns boss.”

Right. Clowns.... Clowns…. Horses.

“Sis, don’t you think we should wait for King? He’s got his nurse certification, so he should be the one to help with injuries.”

Horses?

“No, this is a different kind of thing Clubs, with head injuries you have to act fast. King can catch up to us with the rest.”

Why weren’t there clown horses?

“Boss, don’t fall asleep. Clubs, make sure he stays awake. See if you can find concussion tests online” She handed her brother her phone.

Kokichi imagined a horse in clown makeup… they’d have to make it a real big red nose. Juicy like gelato…

“Boss, stay with us.”

“Only if we’re going to get… get gelato.” --- Shuichi Saihara was still in police custody, locked alone in one of the back rooms of the fashion week venue and wrestling with his own inadequacy, as he often did, when Agent Ishimaru arrived. He was holding a briefcase.

The interpol agent usually announced himself loudly to whatever room he was in, but today he entered quietly, closing the door in that stiff way of his before sitting down at the interrogation table across from Shuichi.

Shuichi expected him to start yelling again.

He didn’t.

Instead he said, “Mr. Saihara. I am disappointed to see you here.”

“... I am too.” Shuichi said after a moment’s pause. “I almost caught the thief today.”

Kiyotaka looked like he was about to say something along the lines of a reprimand, but he paused and took a breath instead. “Perhaps… perhaps you did.”

Shuichi was still trying to piece this together.  Was Kiyotaka mad at him or not?

“But, Mr. Saihara, I would ask you to consider…” He paused. He put the briefcase on the table, but didn’t open it. “That it is not your job to catch this thief.”

Shuichi felt indignant at that. But clearly Kiyotaka was going somewhere with this. “... as a detective, I often find it is my job to solve crimes.”

“You-” Kiyotaka grimaced. “I must apologize, Mr. Saihara, for speaking so obtusely. Yet there are some matters of rule violation recently brought to my attention that require me to handle this situation with a delicacy I am not known for.”

Oh… was this about…

“Just tell me the truth.” Shuichi said.

Kiyotaka took another breath.

“Shuichi Saihara, it has recently aggrieved me to know that you have recently been impersonating an interpol officer at crime scenes involving the DICE cases to further your vigilante investigations. Is this true?”

Vigilante was a little harsh…

“Yes.” Shuichi replied honestly. “I have been asking local law enforcement for access to flight records and airport security information in order to track down DICE--” Kiyotaka visibly tensed at this admission, but Shuichi kept going, “--but I sent every piece of info I’ve uncovered to your team. I know that it’s against your protocol to respond to them, but I’ve been right every time and-”

“And to some that could be very suspicious.” Ishimaru finished for him.

Shuichi grew wary. “What do you mean?” He asked.

Ishimaru sighed. “Do you know the name Kyosuke Munakata?”

“Yes.” Shuichi replied. “Isn’t he the new Secretary General?”

“Yes. The officer in charge of our day-to-day practice. He is my direct superior.” Ishimaru began opening the suitcase, which had two simple latches sealing it shut. He took out a small white envelope and handed it to Shuichi. “This is from him.”

Shuichi took the envelope and looked it over. There was no address on the outside, or stamp, or anything really. Just a foil laminate seal, with two characters interlaced stylistically in it. “未” and “来.” Future.

“You do not need to open it here.” Ishimaru went on. “But I can tell you what it says, if you want.”

Shuichi set the letter down on the table, “What does it say?” he asked.

“If what my superior has told me is to be believed, it is an offer of employment.”

What.

His disbelief must have shown on his face, because when Ishimaru kept going he acknowledged, “I was just about as surprised as you. To see my superior want to reward a rule breaker such as yourself… but then he explained it to me like this. He said, ‘If that young man was able to use our resources to such consistent efficiency, then he should see no problem with transparently putting his methods towards our cause. But if he is not so transparent and refuses our offer, well then we have reason to suspect his intent in this case.’”

Shuichi blinked. Really?

“You’re saying that… the Secretary General suspects that I’m in league with DICE.”

“That is correct.”

"But I-"

"Frankly I do not agree with Secretary General Munakata's deduction."

That was… some relief at least.

"I think that you will refuse this opportunity because, despite your tendency to believe the law does not apply to you simply because you don't believe in it, you are a good detective."

That was… not not where Shuichi thought that sentence would go.

Ishimaru pulled a chunky manilla folder out of the briefcase next. And then another one. And another. And… yeah he ended up pulling out five overflowing manilla folders.

"Do you know what this is?"

"... No."

"This is a print out of the files we have on you."

"What?" They had files? About him? What was he, an international security threat?

Oh… Maybe that was what Ishimaru had just finished telling him wasn’t it...

"Each of these files is a year since you joined the Towa city police force." Ishimaru gestured towards two slightly thicker files. "And these are the two years after you quit." He riffled the papers coming out of the side of one of the folders with his thumb. "Each packet of paper in these outlines a specific contribution you have made to getting a case solved. Everything from missing kids to the Novoselic Diamond case."

Oy vey...

"There's about forty or so cases in each of these files. That means you solve, on average, forty cases in a year. That's about three cases every month."

That wasn't so much. It  wasn’t uncommon for Shuichi to be looking into more than one case at once. Except this month…

"This month you've solved zero cases.” Ishimaru seemed to read Shuichi’s mind, but the statistics hit him like a knife to the chest when read aloud. “You've been too busy doing what? Chasing a troupe of clowns who nab the occasional toilet or light fixture?"

… ouch.

"I don't mean to be harsh, Mr. Saihara, I really don't. You'll have to forgive my tone. But these DICE guys simply aren't worth your time. A month spent chasing them is a month you could use to much better effect on a different case. One involving the safety of children or national treasures, rather than the carpets of closing museums."

Ishimaru paused, letting Shuichi absorb what he just said. Then he started placing the folders back in the briefcase.

"So, Mr. Saihara, I think that I may be able to get my superior off your back, but only under two conditions."

He closed the lid of the case.

"The first being that you reveal to us in detail whatever method you have used to divine DICE's machinations from airport documents."

He closed the latch on the right of the briefcase.

"And the second being that you return home effective immediately and cut all ties with this case."

He closed the latch on the left.

"Do you find issue with these terms?"

His usually active hands found a resting place atop the case.

“...”

“Well?”

Shuichi couldn't quite understand how he had gotten here. In his head, until this moment, it really had seemed like he had been doing the right thing. He remembered that when he first latched onto the DICE case he had managed to keep it on the back burner while he dealt with the cases of clients. It had struck him as odd that a string of high scale robberies such as theirs would go unchecked for so long, going back five years or more. It hinted, to him at least, at a missing factor. Perhaps each hit was a calculated strike paid for by a foreign government, or a scheme funded by an underground criminal organization, or perhaps just another play at developing a network of untraceable capital to benefit a small group of people. Yet when was the last time Shuichi had spent any serious time looking into those connections?

It occured to Shuichi, then, that perhaps his ego was behind the wheel of the past month or so, when he'd spent the majority of his time exclusively tracking down DICE. Instead of actually assessing the threat that DICE posed, if any at all, he wasted time tracking down where they would strike next. To do what, catch them in the act? He didn't have the power to arrest them if he did. Even now, when he was closer than ever, all he had done was worsen his already tenuous relationship with the international police. The only plausible motive behind his own actions was that he investigated DICE simply because he knew that he could and he thought that he could do it better than anyone else.

But that wasn't true, was it?

He might think he was especially clever, but as soon as he revealed his methods that special cleverness would run out.

And he was tired, wasn't he? His head was perpetually sore, his eye sockets ached, and his limbs were weighed down by a the familiar slowness of a confused circadian rhythm anytime he didn't have a cup of coffee in his hand.

What Ishimaru had just done with the case files felt like an intervention. Like when TV nutritionists would show someone how many Coca-Colas they drank a month by building a tower of cans or filling a swimming pool with them in order to stop that person from drinking so many Coca-Colas… except Shuichi's Coca-Colas were investigative contributions to criminal offenses.

Maki had been right. He needed a break from this case. What kind of detective was he anyway…

Shuichi swallowed the lump forming in his throat and started talking.

"Well the only thing from the airport you need are logs of ticket purchases and the security footage from the gates if those aren't enough. DICE is an organization of ten people, so you're always looking for a bulk purchase of 9 to 10 tickets at the same time, although they can be from different airports... It doesn't matter who the tickets are purchased by or what identities are attributed to them, only that they're purchased at the same time. I say 9 or 10 tickets because sometimes DICE members will infiltrate the flight crew."

"Like in Paris."

"Like in Paris." Shuichi confirmed. "From there you can essentially pin down what flight they're on. Then you can figure out the general vicinity of the next crime… and I think from there is mostly luck."

"I don't believe in luck.” Ishimaru pressed on. “I believe in hard work. I think the same can be said for you."

Haha. Maybe.

Shuichi was hard pressed to think of anything that wasn’t already pretty obvious, though.

"... I suppose if you really cared to, I would think up all the possible targets after some preliminary research and try to warn them. You probably know this already… but DICE's targets have a trend of being rather famous or rather high security locations in big cities. Honestly, though, a lot of my encounters with them were due to chance."

He really wasn’t lying about that. The Paris, Taipei, and Cairo encounters were essentially pure coincidence.

Ishimaru paused, seemingly weighing this information for any fraudulence in his head. Then, he simply nodded. "Very well, Mr. Saihara. Thank you for cooperating with our investigation."

The agent stood, picking up his briefcase. "I hear that you've already given your testimony to the Italian authorities. In truth, however, we expect this case to be wrapped up shortly regardless of the details of this particular robbery, considering the substantial forensic evidence left by the perpetrator of these crimes." That was one way to refer to a pool of blood on the bathroom floor... "Is this of any consolation to you?"

"Yes, some." Shuichi felt the untruth of the statement even as he said it. It wasn’t how he would run the case, if he were in charge. Blood tests were highly unreliable for tracking down a criminal that could be from anywhere in the world, especially in a contaminated place like a bathroom. And if that criminal has never been taken into police custody or gotten blood work done before then the test would be completely useless. As a detective, he’d want to do his due diligence at the crime scene anyway…

… But this wasn’t his case anymore, was it?

Ishimaru took him at his word.

"Very well," He said.

The man pulled out of his pocket a phone, which Shuichi realized to be his own, and handed it to him.

"Your coat and other confiscated items are outside. Feel free to leave at any time."

Ishimaru did a quick bow in lieu of a verbal farewell, leaving the room in an orderly fashion.

After the door shut, Shuichi was in silence again.

He turned on his phone. As the screen lit up, he was greeted by a few messages from Kaito. He remembered, guiltily, swiping them aside when he had taken out his phone before his confrontation with DICE.

Now, he opened them. --- [Log of Text Messages from Shuichi Saihara’s Cellular Device]

From: Kaito

Hey Shuichi

How’s it going man

From: Kaito

Are you like chasing clowns right now

Ok

Text me when you’re not chasing clowns down

From: Me

I am no longer in the career of chasing clowns down

From: Kaito

Oh shit for real??

Did you catch them?

From: Me

No

I was just asked not to try to catch them

Very politely

By interpol

From: Kaito

Haha

That’s my sidekick

Making the international police scared for their jobs every day of the week

From: Me

That’s a funny way to look at it...

From: Kaito

Hey don’t be blue about it Shuichi

You got off the clown catching clock at a good time

If you catch a flight home sometime this week you could come with us to the open house at JAXA on friday!

From: Me

Oh is that this friday?

Man I totally

Spaced

On that

From: Kaito

Aklsjdfasflkdj

Since when do you do puns

From: Me

I would be fine if you deleted those messages actually

From: Kaito

Too late I already sent that to Maki

From: Me

:( rude

From: Kaito

She says she’s disappointed in both of us now lol

From: Me

Haha that sounds like Maki

why would she be disappointed in you tho lol

From: Kaito

Uh

There might be something I forgot to tell you

From: Me

What?

From: Kaito

So

Do you remember when we were in DC

I had to go to NASA (america’s JAXA basically) and meet with some people

And then I told you I had to tell you something over steak dinner

But then you had to tell me you said you wanted to do a “stake out” not “go out for steak”

And we kind of forgot about it

From: Me

Oh uh

Vaguely?

From: Kaito

Well

The thing i was going to tell you and then forgot to tell you

Is that I’m going on my first mission next week

From: Me

Oh

Like

A space mission

From: Kaito

Yeah

Just to the ISS though

I’m gonna be running experiments in the kibo module

For a few months

Maybe a year

From: Me

Uh

You’re leaving next week?

How long have you known?

From: Kaito

Like, a few months

From: Me

Oh

From: Kaito

Haha yeah

Kinda forgot to tell you

Thats on me

From: Me

Its fine

From: Kaito

Phew glad i got that off my chest

Can you believe Maki Roll thought you’d be mad at me?

From: Me

Haha what

No its fine

Everything’s cool --- [Log of Text Messages from Shuichi Saihara’s Cellular Device]

From: Me

What the hell???

From: Maki

I know right???? --- Shuichi put down his phone, feeling like a plate on a table that just got the table cloth pulled from beneath it and yet some how found itself shockingly sedentary. He internally recalculated his schedule. He'd need to get on the next plane to Japan as fast as he could.

He opened the door. The lights outside the holding room seemed to have been taken as well. There was an officer with a flashlight who helped him grab his stuff.

Weirdly, on the way out, Shuichi looked back through the little window in the door to the holding room. The lights had gone out in it as well. Wait… wasn't there a vent in that room too?

As soon as the thought occurred to Shuichi he forcefully extinguished it.

Not my case. He reminded himself.

Then he turned, nodded to the officer, and walked out the door. --- Kokichi Ouma sat in the back seat of one of DICE's get away cars with a fresh bandage wrap on his head, slurping street vendor Gelato and trying to convince himself this was another win. Sure, the heist went well. Rook, King, and Queen had been on vent duty with him and had managed to sweep up his unfinished light fixture nabbing route. They were actually about to pick Rook up from the final rendezvous point right that second.

Which brought Kokichi to the discrepancies indicating he may be suffering a loss here.

For starters, no one was smiling. They had just pulled off a major haul and nobody was happy about it. Kokichi thought that if he got into the car where no one had seen him go splat from ceiling to floor he wouldn't have to deal with this, but Queen, King, and Bishop were really out here acting like he had died or something. He didn't even have a concussion! They did all the tests! King checked him out like forty times, he just cut himself on the edge of the broken vent!

But Bishop was stone faced behind the wheel and Queen kept pausing the tikkertap of his fingers on the keyboard to look back at Kokichi. Even King was just sitting there trying not to stare at him. Kokichi could tell he was worrying about him because if King wasn't worrying about him then he would be texting Rook. Those two were insufferable. Did he say insufferable? He meant inseparable. Like they always say next to each other when they could and texted each other the entire time they couldn't. If King was texting them it meant he was looking for emotional support because he was worrying about Kokichi but thought that he should try and make sure Kokichi didn’t know he was worrying about him, which was annoying as hell.

They weren't looking at him like their boss right now, they were looking at him like their kid brother.

He tried not to let that turn his stomach. He had gelato left to put in there, after all.

Ok, them thinking he was weak for bleeding out wasn’t the only option here. Maybe they were just antsy to be done with this heist.

Kokichi couldn’t really argue with that sentiment, though. Not because this one was a trash fire, even though it kind of was, but because he wanted to get onto the next one. Once they picked up Rook, they could figure out where they were going next and Kokichi would have another chance to match wits with the detective. With Kokichi's big screw up today it had only been due to Spades and Clubs's intervention that he hadn't gotten caught. Saihara was right on his tail and Kokichi still had no idea how he was doing it. It was like a puzzle, like an actually hard one. Kokichi spent a few moments thinking up possible methods, crossing out a few, and sorting the rest of them into piles based on likelihood in his head.

He only realized he had been silently spacing out for six minutes when the car stopped. He heard the trunk open and close

King scooted over into the middle seat and Rook came in to sit on the right hand side behind Queen. Kokichi thought about that for a second, because King had automatically assumed that he should be the one to move to the middle seat. Did it speak to Kokichi’s authority that it wasn’t even a consideration that he should move over to let Rook into the car, or did it speak to their interpretation of his fragility? Well, Kokichi was never asked to move over in the back seat. Then again, he usually sat in the front. Wait, wasn’t he in the seat behind the driver? There was a gif set online somewhere where two white guys are in a car and one explains to the other how the seat behind the driver’s is the safest seat in the car. Had everyone subconsciously thought of that gif set when they sat down in the car? Or were they merely following a pattern of behavior because Kokichi was never asked to move over when someone got in the car. In fact he was never asked to move over at all, not even when he was taking up a lot of space on the couch. Again, that could be a sign of his inherent authority. Except maybe it didn’t mean anything because DICE members asked each other to move over as a sign of antagonism and they just didn’t antagonize him like that. Were they afraid of him? Or maybe King just scooted over because Rook was coming in on his side-

Wait, rewind. Were they afraid of him?

Kokichi rethought the silence that had encompassed their ride thus far. Now that he reconsidered, the silence had almost seemed anticipatory, as if something were weighing on their minds more pressing than fresh banter or celebration. He had thought they were just anxious to finish off the operation, but now that Rook had stowed the goods and was safely in the car, the tense anticipation of something to come still hung heavy in the air.

As the car started back up, Kokichi noticed Rook and King exchange a glance. Bishop checked the rear view window at a suspicious angle. Rook’s hand went over the shoulder of the passenger seat, obviously palming something they were handing to Queen.

Kokichi spun a wheel in his head. Get out of the car? Confront them? Change the topic? Make them feel so bad for him they have to drop everything? Strike fear into their hearts of what his reaction would be towards untoward news? Maybe he should do a food crime to make them realize he was fine? Except he had finished his gelato, so what was he supposed to do? Eat the paper cup his gelato was-

Oh, oops.

While Kokichi had been considering what to do, it turned out he had also been methodically folding the finished gelato cup in his hands. Now, it was in his mouth.

Wow, he hadn’t thought this out, huh? He was trying to look less like a person with brain damage, not more . Well, too late to take the paper out of his mouth, he had already committed to the bit.

Kokichi pretended not to notice that everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch him with dawning horror as he chewed the former bowl to pulp in his mouth. It still tasted a little chocolatey. Mostly in an unsatisfying way, though. You know how when you eat the last bit off your spoon and you end up tasting mostly the spoon which just leaves you wishing you had more ice cream and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Except instead of a spoon it was this paper bowl. He felt the fibers dampen and rip apart under his teeth. The gnashing filled the car with sound.

Then he swallowed.

The car was once more filled with a petrified silence, this time on Kokichi’s terms.

“You four have been scheming behind my back.” He announced, emptying the car of silence with the sound of his voice.

At Kokichi’s words, everyone in the car flinched into an avoidant position. Bishop took the car out of park and started driving, Queen went back to typing on his computer, and King leaned as far away as he could from Kokichi without unbuckling.

Rook was the last player standing and braved looking Kokichi in the eyes.

“Uh. So.” They started roughly. “We just thought that….”

“I knew what you thought as soon as you volunteered for the last rendezvous point this morning.” Kokichi interrupted, bluffing wildly, “Just show me what you got out of it.”

   “Just one sec, boss I’m uploading it to the computer.” Queen muttered, probably dragging around files from the SD card Rook had handed him. When he finally did turn the laptop around to show Kokichi, an audio player was open. He also noted on the task bar that file explorer,

Mozilla Firefox, and Fieldwire were open but minimized.

Kokichi grabbed the computer and put it in his lap before pressing play.

“Well the only thing from the airport you need are logs of ticket purchases and the security footage from the gates if those aren’t enough.” It took Kokichi a couple seconds to recognize the voice. “DICE is an organization of ten people, so you're always looking for a bulk purchase of 9 to 10 tickets at the same time, although they can be from different airports... ”

Kokichi opened Fieldwire. It was the program that DICE used to share blueprints with one another. Queen had started a new project that had been shared only with Bishop. He opened it.

“It doesn't matter who the tickets are purchased by or what identities are attributed to them, only that they're purchased at the same time.”

It took Kokichi a  few moments to figure out what exactly he was looking at.

“I say 9 or 10 tickets because sometimes DICE members will infiltrate the flight crew.”

They were blueprints for a plane.

“Like in Paris” A new voice cut into the recording.

“Like in Paris” Shuichi replied.

There was a minute left on the recording. That was how long Kokichi had to figure out what the hell was going on here and what his response should be.

Detective Saihara using information from airports had been a possibility that crossed his mind before, but Kokichi hadn’t highlighted it any more than his other theories, which ranged from secret spy gear, to omniscience, or to just plain old random chance.

Obviously the same could not be said for those of his cohort. They had suspected public air transport was the root cause of their encounters with the Detective long enough for Queen to draw up these blueprints and recruit Rook to bring evidence for some sort of pitch they were planning.

They had figured the detective out before him.

Kokichi had thought of the detective’s successes as challenges, exciting roadside attractions to disrupt an otherwise monotonous road trip through life. How had he not stopped himself even once during the past month to ask himself how they looked to the rest of DICE? To his subordinates, Saihara’s successes seemed less like fun interruptions and more like real obstacles towards goals they all commonly held. In other words, setbacks revealing failures in Kokichi’s plans.

The worst thing was that Kokichi wanted to be angry at these four for this intervention bullshit. Angry that they took away some bit of mystery solving fun from him. Angry that they wanted to take away something that he had felt good about. Angry that they were undermining his authority by going behind his back.

But he wasn’t going to be angry. It was a stupid, pointless thing, his anger.

Being a supreme leader of ultimate evil isn’t all tulips and tirades. Everything Kokichi did needed to have a purpose, because he knew that DICE were always watching him, looking to him, making judgements and changing their perceptions of him in their minds.

What would being angry here accomplish? It would only strengthen their impression of his sudden unreasonableness. Even if he explained his motives, they didn’t hold up very well upon inspection. What was that Boss? You’re so bored by us that you feel the need to endanger us by playing mind games with a boot licking private eye while we do all the work? Oh yeah, we totally understand. Wait right there while we never fully trust you with anything ever again.

If anything DICE had a right to be angry at him. What had he been doing these past few weeks? How had they figured out this plane thing before him?

Was there some part of him that was actively sabotaging himself? A part that wanted him to fail just for the thrill of it? Maybe he had known how Saihara was really tracking them, but had just ignored the obvious answer because he didn’t want the mystery to be over yet.

How could his friends trust him if he didn’t even trust himself?

Kokichi had ten seconds to wrap up this train of thought before the recording was finished. No more questions, only answers, lets go.

The plans for the airplane were by all means exactly what DICE would be looking for in a plane. It was small enough as to not require a massive amount of runway space but large enough to house everyone comfortably. There were some rather intricate illustrations of those convertible mechanisms that Queen had gotten really into earlier that year. How long had he been planning thi- no questions. Fold out tables, couches, a TV, things that could turn a vehicle into an on the go hideout in the blink of an eye. Kokichi estimated the total cost of everything to come out to around ¥1,190,401,200. Which is. A lot of money. But most of that money would probably be for the engine, which if you buy legally would be around a billion yen. If he factored out buying legally, the rest of the blueprint would probably cost around ¥1,081,200, a much lower figure. Renting a hangar would cost a little less, but that price was more flexible depending on what Bishop said their monthly earnings were.

Kokichi googled ‘Japan Aerospace.’ He was in luck, the first thing that popped up was an article about a new JAXA mission.

The recording stopped.

Showtime.

Kokichi let them breathe in the silence a bit.

Then, when they were good and nervous, he enacted his plan.

“Bishop, tell Queen how much we earned this month.” He requested calmly.

Bishop replied readily, “About ¥2,000,000, Boss!”

Whoa. What? Were they really making that much a month? Kokichi supposed they had been robbing high security locales on a weekly basis, but somehow he had still viewed their team as barely scraping by. What was even the point of the heists anymore if they-

No time for questions, Kokichi had to use that figure right now.

“Do you know what that figure means, Queen?” Kokichi asked, knowing that Queen never thought about the monetary cost of his projects for more than three seconds.

“Uh… Money?” Yeah, okay, Kokichi needed to remember not to target Queen too much, even though he seemed to be the ringleader of this insurrection. That would only serve to force the other members of DICE to pick a side, which was not the ideal dynamic of a ten person group.

“It’s exactly how much money we would need to rent a hangar and build an airplane covertly in Kagoshima next month.” Kokichi clarified.

“... Uh boss,” Bishop interrupted hesitantly, “I hate to contradict you there, but most airplanes would cost a hundred times that-”    “I’m not talking about how much it would take to build most airplanes.” Kokichi interrupted the interruption he had expected to occur. “I’m talking about how much it would take us to build an airplane.”

Kokichi then turned the laptop back around to show Queen the article about the manned launch to the ISS happening next week. He scrolled down to a picture of the engine taken at the launch site in Tanegashima. When Queen’s eyes lit up and King let out a sigh of relief, Kokichi knew that he had gotten away with it.

He managed to play off this whole month-long debacle as a waiting game, pretending that he had the very same understanding and intentions as the rest of them since the start of the month.

They’d get on different planes, booked at different times to the international airports in Tokyo, and then ship out to the JAXA launch site on Tanegashima, fuck things up a little and steal some rocket level engines. And Kokichi would stuff down the emptiness that curled in his gut at the lost prospect of a very interesting adversary.

… empty, huh?

Why would cutting his losses make him feel empty? Why-

No questions.

…

He should get some more gelato. Things were good when he was eating gelato.

#shuichi x kokichi #shuichi saihara #shuichi danganronpa #kokichi ouma #kokichi danganronpa #oumasai #saiouma #fanfiction #Phantom Thief AU #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 killing harmony #writing #im gay lol

[janelevy]

the ladies go bowling!

this was a request from @thena0315 but i’m almost positive this ended up straying from what you imagined it would be, so my apologies haha!

summary: the ladies of med go out for the night to have some fun. to be honest this turned into an absolute crackfic because i ended up making fun of the crazy crap the med writers have inflicted on the women in this show. i got some hella bad news today so i really needed to make myself laugh, and this helped! i hope y’all like it too <3

mentions of cheating, sexcel (barely), and reesker!

“I can’t believe you’re making us go bowling.”

Natalie stopped and stared at Ava with her mouth hanging open in disbelief. “Hey! What’s wrong with bowling?” She motioned at the building in front of them. “I take Owen here all the time. It’s really nice.”

April smirked. “I don’t know, I sooner would’ve expected you to take us to an orchestra or opera concert or something.”

“Why would I take you to an orchestra when you can hear me play the violin in the comfort of my living room?” Natalie asked, adding an eye roll to show she was joking.

Despite that, Sarah frowned and clicked her teeth nervously. She was the last person to hop out of Natalie’s massive SUV. Nat claimed it wasn’t a minivan - it was a Honda Pilot or something like that - but with plenty of interior space and seven seats, it may as well have been a van.

“Your living room? With your kid’s toys all over the floor to, like, trip on? No thanks,” Sarah said.

Maggie crossed her arms at the youngest doctor. “Hey, Reese, be nice. You know Nat is the cleanest one out of all of us.”

“Still, though. Children make me nervous,” Sarah replied.

“Why?”

“I dunno... they’re just. A lot to handle all at once. I can deal with craziness from adults, we do that at work every day, but kids... yikes.”

They all pretended not to notice the way Ava’s hand slid comfortingly down Sarah’s arm, nor the way Sarah’s shoulder lingered close to the surgeon’s as they walked inside the bowling alley. To help conceal her surprise at that, Natalie gave an exaggerated sigh. “Ugh, it’s so hard being the only mom in the friend group sometimes. You’ll understand someday when you have kids of your own.”

April nodded, but Ava snorted. “Bold of you to assume we - she will have kids.” She was quick to correct herself, but they all still caught her misstep. Maggie leaned close to April and muttered in her ear, “I wish Monique and Doris could’ve come along to hear this.”

The place was pretty busy for a random Thursday night. The five of them had decided to go out after work together since their shifts all ended around the same time and the day had been fairly quiet, so nobody was drop-dead exhausted (yet). They all piled into Nat’s car in the hospital parking lot; someone suggested going to drink and dance at Molly’s, but it was shot down and somehow they ended up here of all places. A couple of kids high on nachos and fruit punch sprinted past them screaming, and Sarah grimaced.

They all chipped in to buy an hour of bowling along with five pairs of stinky, well-worn bowling shoes. Of course they’d seen and smelled much worse, so the shoes weren’t a huge issue. As they headed over, Natalie at the lead, she asked, “Wait, which lane are we at again?”

“Trauma three,” Maggie answered automatically. It was only when the others started laughing that she understood her mistake. “Oops. I meant lane three. It’s been a long day.”

For the most part, they passed time with small talk and cheering on each other’s utter fails. Nearly every time Sarah’s ball landed in the gutters, and Maggie’s ball had a knack for slipping right in between easily hittable pins. Of course only Nat seemed to have some talent, but that could be accounted to her frequent weekend visits with Owen. 

About halfway through April bought everyone a plate of crappy bowling alley nachos to share. “Bet eating these won’t land us right back at work,” Ava joked. Sarah dropped a plastic cheese laden chip in her mouth and went to take her turn. The first round she hit two pins, and the next none. This was really going great.

Then she went back to where the others were sitting and was greeted with complete silence. It was like a solid brick wall of silence, in fact. Sarah halted, the soles of her too-small bowling shoes screeching on the floor. All four of her coworkers were just sitting, staring at each other in apparent shock. “What?” Sarah demanded. “I’m not that bad, am I? Remember that time Ava’s ball didn’t touch a single pin two turns in a row? That was, like, twenty minutes ago.”

“It’s, uh...” Natalie gulped and shook her head quickly. “It’s nothing.”

“It obviously wasn’t,” Sarah countered. She chuckled nervously and stepped up on the platform where the table was. “Seriously, what happened?”

Ava swallowed her bite of nacho and gestured at Natalie. “Nat here shared that she thinks her lovely ex Philip is stalking her. I just did surgery with Connor on that prick’s daughter. See? No big deal.” Then she shoved another nacho in her mouth, neon orange cheese dripping on the table.

The pattern of big revelations during Sarah’s turn to bowl was far from over, of course. Next time she went, she was three pins away from what would’ve been a miracle strike, and again when she returned to her friends, nobody uttered a peep.

“What now?” Sarah said, face falling.

Ava jabbed a finger in Maggie’s direction. “She forged Nat’s signature to get Ben out of the hospital last week, then sneaked him back in as if nothing happened.”

By the third time, this was really getting old. Sarah walked up to the table of stunned women and she almost swore from the glint in Ava’s hazel eyes that she was enjoying this drama. 

“Well?” Sarah growled. “What did I miss now?”

“April cheated on Ethan and kissed Crockett yesterday.” Ava polished off the nachos, and every crunch grated on Sarah’s nerves.

“Maybe I just shouldn’t even go for my next turn,” Sarah said, sitting back down as April got up to go. “Apparently you all choose to say something interesting when I’m gone.”

Ava winked. “Maybe that’s not a coincidence.”

When Sarah’s final turn rolled around a few minutes later, she honestly did not want to vacate the area. It was too tempting to stick around and see what would be revealed next. But they insisted nothing would happen and shooed her away. Sarah didn’t even care which direction her bowling ball went; she dropped it on the floor and practically kicked it to get it moving faster. Somehow, though, she still missed it despite making every effort to rush through her turn.

Sarah zoomed back to the table, panting, and looked around at the thoroughly shook expressions on everyone’s faces. “Come on!” she whined. She swung her head toward Ava. “What happened?”

Ava smiled widely at her. “Well, Reese, I let it slip that we eloped six months ago so I wouldn’t get deported to South Africa.”

Sarah knew her jaw had to be on the floor at this point. A flash of anger passed through her only to be replaced with relief. “Well,” she sighed, shrugging. “At least now we can kiss and hold hands in front of everyone at work. I was really getting tired of hiding it.” She dropped down to perch herself on Ava’s lap and grinned politely at the others. “Anyway, I think you all might need some help.” She threw her arm behind Ava’s shoulders and planted a big kiss on her cheek. “You know, guys, I actually really like bowling. It’s like, super therapeutic, even better than Dr. Charles. We should do this again for sure. Ooh, and can we invite Elsa next time?”

Ava laughed, but all that she got in response otherwise was stunned silence.

Then April asked, “So... are we just gonna forget what happened with your dad, or?”

Natalie leaned over the table to look at Ava. “Ava, how’s Cornelius Rhodes doing?”

Sarah and Ava frowned at each other. Oh, shit. 

#chicago med #sarah reese #ava bekker #april sexton #natalie manning #maggie lockwood #reesker #fanfic

[seromreven]

title: s’ agapó.

anonymous requested: “May I make a request? John/Paul, doesnt matter which one, proposes to the other sometime around '66? Obviously they couldn't do it legally moreso one of them asking the other to be their spouse on a personal level. I'm shit at explaining my thoughts sorry haha.”

warnings: alcohol, babeey.

author’s note: aw, anon, deary, you explained it well!

---

1966,

Paul felt hot and sweaty in the steaming Greek sun as he laid on the edge of a stark white beach chair, absorbing all the sun’s rays that shined down upon him. It was his first vacation in a long, long, while and it was peaceful. And he was here with his boyfriend, John, who were still sleeping inside their rented villa. It was a big day. Paul, who had finally gotten over his worries and qualms about his sexuality and all that came with it, had planned the day out to lead to one big thing; the proposal of marriage to John. 

Now, marriage between two men wasn’t legal. Basic romantic relationships between two men had barely just gotten legal earlier that year. And Paul still had no plans to get out and open about it as much as he had come to self-acceptance. The proposal would be purely… ceremonial. Romantic and a promise to each other; to be with each other and true to each other. One night stands and frisky affairs were something Paul was more than willing to sacrifice for the thoughts of spending the rest of his life with John.

--

John woke up to a light afternoon breeze shifting through the linen curtains of the open balcony doors. The door to the bedroom stood wide open and through it came a wave of the delicious smell of grilled chicken, spiced just right with purchases from the local market. He rolled over in the bed with a sigh as he slowly allowed himself to wake up as he stared at the bare ceiling. 

It was in the middle of the first week of his trip to the Greek isle he had completely forgotten the name of. Something Greek, surely, but overall he didn’t quite care to know its name. All he cared about was spending time with his boyfriend, Paul, of… many years. Who, by the way, John noticed was missing by the side. The sheets were neatly done with his lover missing. He patted the missing spot before groaning as he forced himself to sit up straight and swing his legs over the edge. He sighed in relief when the warm soles of his feet hit the comfortably cool floor.

As it smelled of cooking all through the house; John quickly deduced that Paul could only be in the kitchen. They were all by themselves in the house; no ‘servants’ as their relationship still were quite secret. John wanted nothing more to flaunt his love and show it to the world! But he had to respect Paul’s hesitance about it. John was very well aware of the damn bigotry of the world but, fuck, he just wanted people to know Paul was his and he was Paul’s.

He heard shuffling in the kitchen, the sound of metalware moving around and the hissing of water hitting the sink, and slowly made his way down the stairs; quietly so as to take his partner by surprise. Paul stood with his back turned to the open doorway; dressed smartly in a light blue, almost white, henley tee and white shorts making John feel underdressed in his briefs and a hastily thrown on bathrobe. John sprang lightly on his feet and grabbed Paul by the waist with the yell of ‘boo’ as his fingers touched Paul’s lithe figure. Paul loudly yelped and turned around in John’s hands with his hand on his heart, the other holding a knife.

“John! Don’t do that! I could’ve stabbed you!”

He breathed heavily, putting the knife aside as he calmed himself down. John, of course, was grinning at the reaction he had gotten and kissed Paul lightly on the cheek; immediately after he stepped aside to look at what the knife had been used for and saw rows of various vegetables lining the table. He quickly snatched a slice of tomato which earned him a playful slap on the wrist by his boyfriend who now too had turned around to resume his slicing and dicing. Time quickly passed by with Paul preparing and cooking the food while John ran around doing anything but helping in the kitchen. He was absolutely shite at anything that could go in there and resigned himself to get dressed and distracting Paul with various dirty jokes and puns and whatever he could think of.

The wind was still as they ate on a patterned picnic blanket on the terrace; in the hot evening sun with candles lit all around them. It was romantic, despite the obvious fire hazard it made. 

Paul was fighting up the urge to stand the speech he had long gone through his head. He wanted it to be romantic, teetering on the edge of the dramatic but not so much that it would scare off John. He had gone over it with the same fever he gave his musical work and he had hoped and prayed that it would all pan out like he so desperately wanted. He swallowed deeply as he got loose from John’s intertwined hands in his to get the last part of his grand plan. Two wonderful glasses of champagne that he got from inside. His legs felt weak as he went through the house to the kitchen and he took heavy breaths as he worked his way back to his boyfriend and, hopefully, future fiancé.

But his steps faltered as he came to the terrace steps and almost dropped the glasses he was holding (now for dear life) as he blinked in shock at John on his knees, looking up at Paul with watering eyes. In between his thumb and index finger; he was holding, very carefully, a small ring. It was nothing out of the ordinary but Paul’s heart soared at the sight of it. Both were silent. 

John was unsure of what to say or do next; it had all been very impromptu. Sure; he had gotten the ring days prior after waking up early and feeling a sense of love and family he had never felt before as he looked down at Paul’s sleeping form. But he hadn’t planned for it to go quite like this. In fact, he had never planned for it at all. But the ring had been in his pocket ever since he bought it and there was something magical about this evening and of how the warm light hit Paul wonderfully; casting loud reminders to John of when he first fell in love with Paul and of the ring burning in his back pocket. But Paul was silent still and dangerously so in John’s mind. 

But it was not unacceptance that kept Paul quiet. It was the exact opposite and, well, shock. Soon he would see the humour in the situation but it wasn’t quite time for that yet. For now, he looked down at his lover who had had the same idea as him all along. He went to his knees and carefully placed the glasses on the brick flooring before softly placing his hands on both sides of John’s head to pull him into an equally soft kiss.

They parted and John, with a smile to rival the Greek sun earlier that day, laughed in an equal mix of relief and hope, “is that a yes?” And it was answered by the most enthusiastic of nodding he had ever seen as Paul pulled him into another kiss.

#request #the beatles #john lennon #paul mccartney #mclennon #beatles fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic

[heyamandahey]

Remission to Mars

December 30, 2019

It can feel so trite to see another yearly round-up as 2019 comes to a close, and a new decade lies ahead. On the other hand, this isn't exactly my Spotify year-in-review, and considering I likely would not have celebrated my 34th birthday this summer had I continued to ignore my symptoms, I am doing a monthly highlights recap because I am alive to do it. My personal growth does not end at age thirty-three.

January — No noticeable breathing issues, but I do notice every backbend in yoga has been making me cough. I feel like it's been like this for the last few months. As an aside, I ask Gavin to be my boyfriend. He agrees!

February — I am sniffling essentially around the clock, but I presume this pesky symptom will go away. Gavin tells me he “doesn’t want to mess this up.” I meet up with some friends in Berlin over Presidents Day weekend.

March — One of my best friends, Samantha, gets married in Florida. I feel like my neck has aged two decades overnight from the sudden puffiness. I guess that anti-wrinkle cream doesn’t work. I regret choosing a strapless dress. As one of the bridesmaids, I am blowing my nose regularly from what feels like a post-nasal drip and insist to everyone I am not sick, despite coughing every four minutes. 

April — It is getting difficult to breathe normally at night unless I am on my side. Inhaling steam and taking OTC meds are no longer sufficient. An x-ray leads to a CT scan to the ER and ICU. Later that month, I would meet Gavin's parents at his thesis presentation, and he would tell me he missed me. 

May — My parents come to stay with me for nearly the entire month. After two biopsy procedures, I receive an official diagnosis for what all the medical professionals had suspected from the very beginning: mediastinal lymphoma or PMBCL. We delay starting chemo by a week, so I can attend my older brother's wedding in California, held the same night as the Game of Thrones series finale. That made it into my little brother’s best man speech, haha.

June — I start birth control and complete two rounds of chemotherapy. My hands fumble and drop an inordinate number of objects from the neuropathy, including my phone. My hair falls out even faster than expected, so we have a head shaving party. I am really so lucky to have such supportive friends and family through this entire process. Gavin indirectly tells me he loves me. 

July — After my third round of chemotherapy, I am officially halfway done with treatment! Gavin breaks up with me very suddenly. I am devastated and confused. My magnificent friends and family continue to support me for a very different reason now. I see a therapist for the first time.

August — My little brother comes up to visit me for a few days over my birthday. I am very happy he's here to celebrate with me; we normally only see each other in the winter months.

September — My last round of chemo! I declare mouth sores to be the worst part of the entire treatment. Outside of that, one of my cousins gets married in San Francisco, which also gives me an opportunity to see my older brother. Beyond family trips, I speak with a third therapist. On our second appointment, she sees no need for me to come back.

October — I finally get the PICC line removed and am officially in the clear! A good friend and I embark on a weekend yoga retreat, and at long last I am able to unfreeze my gym membership. 

November — A couple girls and I travel to Seoul, South Korea, for vacation. We had been planning it long before even my diagnosis, but it feels like there's so much to celebrate on this trip. Even if I am currently hairless and boyfriend-less, I know both states will be temporary. 

December — All of my neuropathy is gone! I have been going to the gym three to five times a week, sometimes taking two classes in a row. My hair is growing back, and even my dad encouraged me to leave the house without a wig. What a way to speak familial love without using the three words. 

What lies ahead now?

A routine CT scan has been scheduled for mid-January. I can't remember with 100% certainty if scans are to be done every six months or so for the next two years, but I believe I read something along those lines.

I still have four scars from my second biospy. Despite using lightening creams, it’s been slow to see much progress. I am considering getting a tattoo to cover it all up, and since I have never taken the time to get one, that would also serve as a new experience.

Despite all the awful things happening all around the globe and my propensity to brood over problems large and small, I am choosing to remain carefully optimistic and looking ahead toward a fresh start. As they say, change is the only constant. While good things may not last forever, neither do the bad.

___

#remission #pmcl #lymphoma #mediastinal lymphoma #new year #2019 #december 2019 #nye 2019 #nye #cancer survivor

[74399777]

So a lot of people have asked me why I buy so many copies of Taylor Swift’s albums on release day. And I’ve never really explained it to anyone, mostly because I’m almost certain that my explanation won’t really give much clarity.

I was first was introduced to Taylor Swift in 2009, I was 14, in my freshman year of high school, and didn’t have any money of my own so I resorted to listening to her music on YouTube. I couldn’t buy any albums of my own. I couldn’t attend any tours. All I had was YouTube. One day, my grandma and I were at Walmart just picking up some items for her. Anytime I went to Walmart with her, she would let me pick out one thing to get, so this time around, I picked out Taylor’s first album, cleverly titled “Taylor Swift.” Haha. The next time around, I picked out her second album, Fearless. By this time, I knew the songs because I had been listening to them on YouTube. But there was something special about owning the music you love. In 2010, Taylor’s third album, Speak Now was released. I was still in high school and had no income of my own, so I, again, could only listen to it on YouTube.

When Taylor’s fourth album, RED, was released, I had a small job that was barely paying, but it was something. Up until this point, I had never been able to purchase my own albums, much less a concert ticket to see Taylor. I had missed every show she had done in Dallas, because I just did not have money to buy a ticket, regardless of how badly I wanted to see her. That changed with the RED era. While I didn’t have much money, I had some. So I was finally able to buy a copy of the album on release day. Just one. One copy. I also saved up for months and bought tickets to see her on the RED Tour. This was the first time I had seen her live, and even though I was in the nosebleed seats (section 443), when she came out, my hands and legs were shaking so hard I thought I was going to pass out. (I didn’t. Just... You know. Clarification.)

Two years later, 1989 came out. I now had a little bit better of a job that paid a little more. When album release day came around, I had requested the day off from work. I didn’t have a car, so I had my mom drop me off at Target at 8am, before she went to work. I went alone, with my little bit of money I had from my little cashiering job. This time, I bought four copies of her album. And even better tickets to The 1989 Tour. I was in section 126!

The reputation era rolled around after a hiatus in which Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were determined to destroy her career. This time around, I had moved up in the company I work for and made more money. I took my vacation on album release week, and on album release day, I bought 18 copies of the album. When the reputation Stadium Tour tickets went on sale, I got floor tickets for both nights, and night two, my sister and I were only FIVE rows away from Taylor’s stage. It’s something that I never thought would happen to me, as I never imagined I’d ever get close to this woman that I’ve idolized and supported for the last ten years.

Taylor’s new album, Lover, was released about less than 48 hours ago. On the morning of release day, I went to Target and bought 33 copies of the album. Taylor’s Speak Now, RED, 1989, and reputation albums have all sold over a million copies in the first week of release. She is the only person in history to ever achieve this. The reason I buy so many is because I want to help her continue to break records, and if I can afford to, I do. I went from not being able to support her by buying even a single album to being able to buy multiple copies of the album in one trip.

And while this still may not make sense to anyone, it’s what makes me happy and my ever-growing Taylor Swift album collection is one of my prized possessions.

@taylorswift

#taylor swift #1989 #red #reputation #fearless #speak now #lover #red tour #reputation stadium tour #album release #release day

[soul-write]

Let's go in a vacation

Valentine's Day Special / 30 Days Writing Challenge

Two Dorks in Love - Ship: Cassidy x Robbie

Day 9: (Unnecessary) Spoiling

-------

It was a warm night of summer. Robbie and Cassidy were in their bed , watching some old movies. Neither of them had to go to work for the next week.

"Sidy , can I ask you something?"

"Sure! What's up , dreamer boy?"

"Before I say what I actually wanted to say , I need to point out that you spent too much time with Johanna and GD."

"Haha.. Why? You don't like being called 'dreamer boy' , dreamer boy?"

"You can call me however you want and I won't be mad."

Robbie said that with a serious , yet cocky tone that made Cassidy blush. She took the closest thing to her - which , thankfully , was a pillow - and throw it into him.

"Stop saying stuff like that in such way!!"

"Okay, okay!!" Robbie couldn't stop himself from laughing. And because Cassidy always found his laugh cute and contagious , she joined him.

After they both stopped , Robbie continued to talk.

"What I wanted to ask you was where would you want to go this week? Because y'know we have this free week and we shouldn't waste it.."

"Hm.. I haven't thought.. Maybe in the countryside? I haven't saw a farm up close in ages!!"

"This can be an option. But I've thought of somewhere else.."

Robbie got up of the bed and started to search for something in his backpack that layed at the foot of the bed.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?.." At this point , Cassidy abandoned the movie and was watching Robbie search for God-knows-what.

"Ah! Here they are!!" Said the blue haired , pulling out two pieces of paper from the backpack and giving them to Cassidy.

She took a minute or two to study them , her face didn't showing any emotion.

"Robbie?"

"Yes?"

"Are these two tickets to Roma?"

"Yes."

Cassidy just nodded, put the tickets on the night table , calmly picked up a pillow and started to beat Robbie with it.

"You. Just. Bought. Two. Tickets. To. Fricking. Rome. Without. Telling. Me?!"

After Cassidy finished her small vent , she thrown the pillow on the floor and let herself fall on the bed. Robbie was trying to stop his laughs. He imagined all the reactions she could have , but he didn't expected this. They both took a couple if minutes to calm down and Robbie broke the silence.

"I wanted to make you a surprise."

"This is more than a surprise. This is spoiling. Unnecessary one to be exact."

"It's not unnecessary. You deserve a break. And you always wanted to go to Italy."

"Still!!"

"Well there's no going back now , right?"

Tagging list: @minny-king - @jess---writes - @spellboundinks - @oheoo - @writersloth - @human-nonsense - @writerproject - @theshadowsofthenight - @brennawrites - @focusdumbass - @jaywrites101 - @thepassioncrisis - @connie-fictional - @charvaughn-writes .

Additional notes: Me? Actually posting two days in a row? Surprisingly yes.

#soul write valentine's day special #30 day writing challenge #unnecessary spoiling #let's go in a vacation #two dorks in love #cassidy x robbie #oc; cassidy #oc; robbie #writers #writing #my writing #writeblr #writers on tumblr #original writing #creative writing

[365daysofmchart]

Reflecting on McHart: 3x03 (Between the lines)

Ah, what the hell! Kurt may not have been in the episode, but let’s do a mini, reading-between-the-lines reflection for 3x03 anyway!

1. Can we just talk about how, yes, they’re fully committed now and ready to live together, spend their lives together... but they still have their own things. I mean, Diane is running about at all hours, day after day, and Kurt is (well, assumably) totally cool with it. Further, Diane is fine leaving Kurt for hours in the evenings--she’s not overwhelmingly concerned that he’ll take advantage of the time and cheat again. That balance. That trust. They really are starting over!

2. A moment of appreciation for the fact that everyone is listed with their first and last names in Diane’s phone (Liz is even listed as Elizabeth Reddick-Lawrence)... but then Kurt is just Kurt--her Kurt--nothing further required. I just love the simplicity and familiarity in it. (Though, apparently, he still doesn’t quiiite rate the top spot in her favorites, haha.)

3. Have we ever seen Diane wearing such a dainty necklace before??? 

Anyway, I like to think that this is the kind of jewelry that Kurt might buy her. He knows she loves jewelry and he does feel the desire to buy her a piece every now and then. But the larger, more fashion-forward stuff she usually wears to the office he wouldn’t even attempt--he has no clue. The smaller stuff though, he likes to think he has a better idea of her taste... and it’s just generally harder to go wrong. Besides, that’s the kind of jewelry she tends to to wear on the weekends, and/or when they’re out at the farm, or when they’re on vacation--when it’s just the two of them--and so he likes to buy jewelry that they can sort of enjoy together, you know? A thoughtful gift for those more thoughtful moments between them rather that some flashy thing to show off to the world.

4. Not exactly McHart but I just had to bring it up anyway... IS DIANE MICRODOSING AGAIN?!?!?! ‘Cause last we knew she had been on her first refill and shortly after that had dumped a vile. So why did she still have some in her desk??? And because this is a McHart post on a McHart blog, let me pose these questions: Does Kurt know? (Did he even find out/was he told about when she had been microdosing before, when it had been starting to become a bit of a habit problem?) How might this affect their relationship (especially now with all of this stuff with the Trumpkins)? And on a lighter note... microdosed sex???

Alright, that’s all I’ve got, LOL! It’s looking like Kurt won’t be in next week’s episode again, but fingers crossed for the next! (But hey, I guess we’re getting out those gap episodes early? So we’ll that many more in a row later!)

Have a good week! -E

#those early years really did teach me how to pull some McHart out of anything #McHart #reflecting on mchart #Diane Lockhart #The Good Fight

[soupberries]

Burn The Stage The Movie: My Experience and Thoughts

I know this is an art blog but I really felt like sharing my thoughts!

This post will consist of:

The general cinematic experience

My thoughts on the movie itself! (I will put this bit under the “Keep reading” tab. I hate spoilers as much as the next guy!)

So - let’s begin!

(Disclaimer: Opinionated)

PART 1: THE GENERAL CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE

The local cinema where I live is located at the top floor of a shopping mall with only one other shop nearby it, which is a restaurant. Take this into consideration.

I arrived at the mall with my friends at around 8 o’ clock. The movie was at 9.15pm but I wanted to get there early because I knew there was a small giveaway for a mock ticket designed by BTSMalaysia on Twitter, and I was afraid if I was late I wouldn’t be able to get it. The cinema lobby was fairly empty except for a small group of people in the corner who were quite obviously ARMYs. One of them had an ARMY bomb and was walking around like he had a duty to do, which he did - it was to hand out the mock tickets. I knew he was the guy I was supposed to approach but I was suddenly frozen with fear and I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I don’t know what came over me. All these doubts flooded into my head, I was scared I was gonna make a fool of myself. Luckily my friend went to approach him for me and we got our mock tickets T_T

After that we went off to go get some food since we still had like an hour till the movie started. I met up with another friend of mine around 8.30pm and she told us that they were having a flash mob up at the cinema lobby and they were playing BTS songs. So we went to go check it out. Surely enough, there was a crowd of people surrounding only two people in the middle who were dancing to Dope (which was being played in the lobby). The cinema was the one playing the music, by the way. Not the crowd. So I guess it means they were encouraging it. Nobody seemed very disturbed by it, and I really hope nobody was. It was cute in a way? Seeing everyone so excited. If the cinema had played more recent and easier songs I think more people would’ve joined in, not just the two. The playlist consisted of Dope, DNA, Baepsae, Anpanman, I NEED U... those kinds of songs. I’ll admit I did kinda cringe though.

It was interesting to see the local ARMYs because sometimes I feel so isolated? But there’s actually a lot more than I would’ve thought. A lot of them seemed to be university and college students, and there were a few parents there too.

I’m so so very glad I got seats right at the back of the cinema. I had a friend who was sitting in the middle rows and she said she was disturbed by the people behind her who were talking during the emotional moments. I hope my friend and I didn’t disturb the people in front of us though... but all we did was make comments once in a while about how cute BTS were haha. 

While the ads were running some people were irritated by how many ads there were which is understandable but it was still annoying. Whenever one ad finished, there would be people going, “Please, please, pleeeease,” but when the next ad played they all groaned. Like just... don’t? When the BTS ads started playing a lot of people screamed which doesn’t make much sense to ME but people are excited, okay, I get it. When the movie finally started some people tried to start the fanchant but got shushed and not to be mean but it was kinda funny. This is a MOVIE, not a concert. We should treat it as such. Anyway it gave me some faith in local ARMYs. They were well behaved and I was impressed. Prior to the movie I was SO afraid of my experience being ruined by “no jams” and “Koreaboos”. But it wasn’t! Surprisingly I didn’t hear a single word of Korean from anyone there. Either that or I’m not observant, haha. I’m glad I didn’t hear it, nonetheless. Nobody had their ARMY bombs with them - or if they did, it wasn’t turned on in the cinema hall. There was no screaming (except for the first few shots of the members when the movie started - which I expected). Everyone reacted and laughed along and I think we all enjoyed the movie. I was happy. 

PART 2: THOUGHTS ON THE MOVIE

From here on I will be talking about the movie, which means major spoilers! Only click “Keep reading” if you’ve already watched the movie or want to be spoiled!

It was very, very different to the YouTube Red series. I thought I was gonna be basically the same thing, which is why I initially didn’t want to go. But after seeing the trailer and how much new content there was, I decided I would. 

Anyway. I like how this movie had a narrative? The whole “Desert, Together, Sea” thing. I just love how they incorporated their hidden track into their movie. I was surprised the movie didn’t touch so much on their struggles? Well it did, but from a different angle. It just wasn’t as explicit as the YouTube Red series (ie. the fainting, the fights, the insecurities). I feel like the movie highlighted more on their togetherness, their family-like bond. Not just with each other but with their staff and even Bang PD. And on BTS’ relationship with ARMY. 

The movie shows the side of them we will probably never ever get to see - them being themselves. When they were having their little retreat thing and messing about and having fun in the pool, I couldn’t help but think, “They look like ordinary boys. Having fun with each other, eating, drinking, chatting.” It must be hard to find that balance, you know? Between your idol life and your ordinary life. 

It was fun to see the shots of them just hanging, like Jinminkook eating together and joking together and being, well, themselves. 

They touched on the pressure they feel to deliver the best performance they can to their fans - which must be an awful lot of pressure, I can imagine. Jimin was so visibly upset at his mistake even after all his brothers were comforting him, telling him he was cool... it was, well, not sad. I don’t know the right emotion to explain it. It was just interesting, I guess? Because, like I said before, we will never get to see this side of them. All we see are the glittery outfits, dazzling smiles, on point performances, an occasional cosy V-live. It can be hard to remember that they, too, are humans. 

I wish I could understand Korean so I could’ve gotten Jin’s jokes! The part with him and their personal trainer (?) was so cute. It really does show the bond they have with their staff. And when they were all having dinner together, when Namjoon gave a toast, saying “We couldn’t have done it without (the staff),” (or something like that) and one of them replied, “Well said!” and everyone laughed. Even after they toasted I noticed Jimin chatting to one of the staffs at the table in a friendly way. These boys, they’re so humble. 

When they had the meeting with Bang PD - man, that totally put him in a new light. I always see people online calling him not-so-nice things and accusing him of mistreating members, which may or may not be true. But you can’t deny that he cares for BTS. (Or at least seems to, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.) They have said he’s like their father, and the movie showed that. He told them that it was important for them to be happy, and that he was scared that if they continued the way they were that they would be miserable. I just thought that was nice.

The way Yoongi was so excited about all the music equipment in the shop was so cute! They seemed so happy to have a day to themselves to just go out and shop. In fact, they seemed very happy about vacationing in general. When Jin announced that they got a week’s vacation after their Taipei concert he looked very excited. I hope they get more holidays. 

I feel like the thing that makes them so humble is the fact that they are AWARE of the fact that this isn’t going to last forever. I feel like that’s what keeps them going, too. How Yoongi said, “There will come a day when we can’t do this even if we wanted to.” Hits hard, man. 

I loved how they kept joking about them winning the BBMA and how they kept mentioning it? Not in a prideful way, like... I don’t know? It was just fun. How Hoseok said jokingly to the cameraman, “Hey, you’re working for a BBMA winner!” They were obviously very excited about winning it. 

WHEN YEONTAN POPPED UP OH MY GOSH it was so so cute! Everyone in the cinema uwued together haha.

Oooh and when Hoseok hit that high note in Stigma? Wowwww!

Another part which I learned something new was when Taehyung and Hoseok were in a car and Taehyung played 4 o' Clock for him... and he said he wrote it to the character he played in Hwarang - Hansung! That's so cute of him. But turns out it wasn't written to Jimin like we originally thought? Though that was just speculation by Namjoon, right? Anyhow. Taehyung is precious.

There was one line of the narration which stuck out to me, I don’t know why? It went something like, “When you present yourself with confidence, not conceit, you will captivate the hearts of thousands.” Which is very true! In the case of BTS, I feel like one of their major appeals is how humble they are. They present themselves in a way that is confident, but not arrogant.

The relationship BTS and ARMY have is a very interesting one. Codependent. BTS helped ARMY and ARMY helped BTS. We never fail to show our gratefulness for each other. They highlighted this in the movie too.

I didn’t get very emotional during the movie, though. I didn’t cry (I don’t know if I was supposed to - I felt like I was). Some things that made my heart hurt were the orchestra versions of Sea and Spring Day! Please release those tracks! I need them!

Also, a side note... who was the narrator? I have a feeling it wasn't a BTS member so it felt kinda weird. But I suppose BTS are quite busy and may not have had time to narrate a two-hour movie. I don't know.

All in all, it was a sweet movie. BTS’ teamwork is astounding and I truly believe it was fate that brought them together. 

As a business student, I feel like this movie was a very smart idea. It brings benefits for all - the cinema company, BigHit, BTS and ARMY. Cinemas get money, BH and BTS get money as well as gaining consumer (ARMY) trust and loyalty and potentially even more clients (fans) from ARMY who brought their non-ARMY friends. ARMY get new content and a whole new understanding of their faves. Win-win, yes? Don’t mind me. That’s just Business Lily speaking. 

But yeah, that’s all I can remember... It was enjoyable, but perhaps I would’ve enjoyed it more if I wasn’t sick with a flu haha.

That’s all I have for now! Thank you for reading

#lily talks #burn the stage

[shadowreine]

The Art of Falling in Love - Chapter 4

Fandom: Mystic Messenger

Pairing: V x MC (reader/custom MC)

Chapter Summary: In which MC has a chat with some of the boys.

Note: Finally an update! October was kind of a busy/stressful month, so I apologize for the wait. Thanks so much to everyone who’s been reading/liking/commenting on this fic so far. It means a lot to me. <3

Chapter 4: Candid

Once you returned to your apartment after dinner, you were ready to finally collapse into your bed and sleep, especially after such a long, eventful day. However, sleep eluded you. You lay wide awake, tossing and turning, your mind running at a million miles a second. You thought about the party, what went well and what didn’t, and what suggestions for improvements you could posit to RFA. You thought about the GCA and made a mental checklist of all the paperwork you had to submit in order to obtain a visa for working abroad…which brought to mind the fact that even before you could start that step in the process, you needed to stop procrastinating on working on your lesson plans for the upcoming semester—which was two weeks away, no less—and you needed to do a good job. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be needing a work visa at all. You let out a groan in the darkness of your bedroom, knowing that these anxious thoughts would never let you rest.

Ever since Hana had suggested your class could focus on art this semester, you couldn’t shake the idea. It was a good idea, and you were very low on ideas at the moment. The only problem was that you never really considered art as one of your strong suits, so you didn’t think you could excel at teaching it… But Hana was right, children love doing art. Maybe she was also right about asking Jihyun for a little help…

“Jihyun, Jihyun…” you said out loud, testing out the name. “Jihyun…”

V was a punchy name, short and straightforward. It was a good moniker for a hip photographer. But Jihyun was soft, almost a whisper, a pleasant sound sliding off the tip of your tongue. Now that you thought about it, it suited him better than V ever did.

Part of you regretted declining his offer to have dinner with him because you didn’t know when you’d have the chance to see him in person again. You imagined he’d be busy trying to get resettled into the city. He’d likely want to find a new place to stay. Maybe he wanted to meet up with others he might’ve lost contact with. He’d probably be caught up doing his own thing for a while, and you’d rejected your only chance to catch up with him.

Though, you couldn’t have just canceled on Hana. You had responsibilities, you had your own life. You had to make compromises. Wasn’t that adulthood? You couldn’t just drop everything because someone from your past decided to turn up again.

But… you just really wanted to see him.

You let out a sigh and turned onto your side, frustrated that your thoughts were keeping you awake. You grabbed your phone from the nightstand and checked the time. It was half past midnight.

Might as well check the messenger, you thought. Throughout the evening you’d received RFA app notifications, but you hadn’t been able to check any before now. Opening the app, you logged in and read the past chat logs. Only Zen and Yoosung had been there. Zen had entered the chatroom sometime after he finished his show, and Yoosung was taking a break from LOLOL. Zen told Yoosung about how Jaehee had waited for him outside the backstage door with her girlfriend Soomi (along with a dozen other rabid fangirls clamoring for his attention), and he sent a selfie of the three of them. Zen was the focus of the picture, of course, while Jaehee and Soomi stood together behind him, leaning so that they were in frame. This was the first time you saw what Soomi looked like. She was cute and petite, her blonde hair cropped short in a stylish bob. Jaehee and Soomi had matching poses, both winking at the camera and holding up their hands in a peace sign. They looked like they were having a great time, and you couldn’t feel happier for them.

Zen and Yoosung then spent the rest of the chat lamenting how much they wished they had girlfriends too and feeling sorry for themselves. Your eyes glazed over as you scrolled to the bottom of the chat. By now you knew very well how much the RFA boys, except perhaps Jumin, regretted the lack of romance in their lives. Sometimes it was cute that they had so much love in their hearts that they wanted to share it with someone, but more often than not, it got repetitive and eye-roll inducing, so much that you wished they could just find someone already so they could stop moaning about it.

Once you reached the bottom of the chat, you logged out to the main user interface to check everyone’s status updates. As you looked at the row of user icons, you started to feel like something was missing. The icons felt too big, as if there could be room to fit one more comfortably among them.

Then you realized why: Jihyun’s icon was missing. It had been missing for a long time, actually, but now that he was back in the country, it felt wrong not to have him in the messenger.

After Jihyun left to go overseas, Jumin asked Seven to revoke his access for security purposes. He wouldn’t have had time to log into the messenger on his travels anyway, so there’d been no point in keeping his profile active. Even though you were about to travel abroad yourself, you couldn’t see yourself staying away from the messenger for too long. RFA had become like family to you, and you’d want to keep in touch no matter how far away you went.

You wondered if Jihyun still had the same phone he used two years ago, or if he’d deactivated his service altogether. Come to think of it, since he wasn’t on the messenger, you realized you had no way of contacting him.

A window popped up on your phone screen indicating that a new chatroom had been opened. You looked at the time–it was almost one o’clock in the morning. Who could be online at this hour?

You entered the chatroom. Seven greeted you.

707: Hello, pretty lady!

MC: Seven, you’re still awake.

707: Yup. So are you, I see.

MC: Can’t sleep.

707: Me neither. Still reeling from the high of the party?

MC: lol sort of. I got a lot on my mind right now. How was your evening?

707: Fine fine. It was pretty good actually!

He sent the emoji of him excitedly shouting “yahoo!”

MC: Good day at work?

707: Yup! I was super productive. Got everything done in record time… I see Zen and Yoosung are complaining about being single again. SMH. They’re just jealous that Jaehee has more game than them.

You laughed out loud. Sick burn, Seven.

MC: You’re not wrong, lol. Jaehee can be very sweet and charming when she has the chance to relax every once in a while. I’m happy that she and Soomi found each other.

707: They wouldn’t have met each other if you didn’t push Jumin to give Jaehee a vacation.

MC: Yeah… That’s true…

As if summoned, Jumin Han entered the chatroom.

707: WHOA that’s creepy, dude.

Jumin Han: What are you talking about? Good evening, MC.

MC: haha hey Jumin...that is a little creepy.

Jumin Han: ?

707: We were just talking about you.

Jumin Han: I see. I just read the log.

MC: I think you’ve read enough books on witchcraft that you’re starting to become a witch yourself, Jumin. Speak of the devil, and all that.

707: Hehe where’s your broom, witch boy?

You didn’t ask Jumin what he was doing up so late because he was always awake at this hour, either spending time with Elizabeth the 3rd or doing business with investors and companies in different timezones. On the rare occasion that you had a bout of insomnia, he would be in the chatroom, keeping you company until you finally fell asleep.

Jumin Han: Will Yoosung and Zen ever get tired of complaining about not having significant others?

MC: Probably not. Though, I feel like once they do get girlfriends, that’s all they’ll talk about on here.

Jumin Han: You’re probably right. I don’t know which is worse.

707: Jaehee is pretty modest about her relationship. They should act like her! Speaking of Jaehee, as I was saying before Jumin interrupted us with his creepy black magic, I think Jaehee has you to thank for meeting Soomi, MC.

MC: Oh, that’s more credit than I deserve. I just yelled at Jumin.

707: lmao you did yell at him

Well, you had typed in all caps in the chatroom, which was just as good as yelling. A few months ago, Jumin had swamped Jaehee with so much work that Jaehee broke down crying on the phone with you. You felt so awful and helpless at first, but after you did your best to console her and hung up, you decided that the only way to fix the problem was to go straight to the source.

Jumin was unreceptive to your suggestion at first, which you’d expected, but once you laid out all the reasons why it was a good idea to give her a break and why she deserved one, his cold, distant attitude started to irritate you. You tried to be civil, but the man was as stubborn as a mule sometimes. So you snapped and capslocked on him. Then once you said your piece, without warning, you logged out of the chatroom and called his phone to tell him off some more.

Jumin Han: I’ll admit I’ve never been yelled at like that before.

MC: I didn’t *yell*.

Jumin Han: You gave me a very stern lecture.

MC: Well, Zen yells at you on here all the time.

Jumin Han: I correct my previous statement—I’ve never been yelled at like that by someone whom I respect.

You knew that was high praise coming from someone like Jumin Han. Sometimes you couldn’t help but have the utmost respect for him too. After the incident, you learned that Jumin had been so stressed due to his father’s current romantic engagements and the prolonged absence of his best friend, and he had taken it out on his assistant. You felt bad for yelling at him, and you apologized to him personally on the phone the next day.

After that, he decided to give Jaehee three weeks of vacation. Jaehee was resistant at first, but you convinced her to take the offer. She spent those weeks off the messenger and met Soomi at one of her favorite coffee shops downtown. They hit it off rather easily, and the rest was history.

Jumin Han: Anyway, I am glad that Jaehee has found someone she cares about deeply. It seems to have made her more motivated in her work.

707: …

MC: sigh

Jumin Han: What? It’s true.

707: Only you would make something that’s supposed to be romantic into something totally not;;

Jumin Han: I don’t understand romantic relationships myself, so I see no point in commenting on it.

MC: I guess I can understand where you’re coming from. I’ve had enough of talking about romance for one evening.

707: Oh?

Seven sent his heart eyes emoji.

707: Who else are you talking about romance with, MC?

He sent the same emoji again.

“Oh crap,” you said to your screen. Suddenly the whole awkward conversation you had with Hana came back to you. You couldn’t very well tell Seven or Jumin that you and Hana had talked about Jihyun. You had to play it cool.

MC: Oh… I just had dinner with Hana tonight. She told me all about her new boyfriend.

Seven sent his gasping emoji.

707: The hot new actor Hojin Park! He and Hana were spotted smooching down in the Maldives last week!

Again with his heart eyes emoji.

MC: …Are you stalking my best friend, Seven?

707: It’s not stalking when paparazzi pictures of them are posted on every celeb gossip site!

MC: I am not going to talk gossip about my own friend. If I did, you’d probably try leaking it to the media for a quick buck.

707: They pay a lot of money for ~insider info~ you know.

You sent an emoji that depicted you giving a very unamused side-eye.

707: Fine, fine. I won’t ask about Hana’s love life. You need to lighten up, MC. Maybe you need a l-o-v-e interest of your own, eh?

The heart eyes. Again. You dropped your head into your hand. Why was everyone so hung up on romance this evening? You needed a change of subject, quick.

Thankfully, Jumin seemed to have the same idea.

Jumin Han: I think this conversation has derailed quite a bit.

MC: Thank you! Can we talk about something else, pls?

Jumin Han: I actually came onto the messenger to make a request of you, Seven.

707: Hmm, ok. What is it?

Jumin Han: I’d like you to grant Jihyun access to the messenger again.

Your phone almost slipped out of your hand.

Jihyun...on the messenger again? Weren’t you just thinking about that only minutes ago?

MC: Oh?

707: Oh, I didn’t even think of that. Does he want to get back on?

Jumin Han: No, but I imagine he’d like to be, once he gets a new phone, that is. He deactivated his old phone some time ago, and he needs to get another one first. I’ll pass on the information once it’s available.

707: …Do you think it’s a good idea?

Seven’s question took you aback. Why wouldn’t it be a good idea? You asked him what he meant.

707: …never mind. It’s nothing. When he gets a new phone, let me know, and I’ll add him back onto the messenger.

You didn’t know what to say. Where had his sudden hesitance come from? You would have thought Seven would be one of the more enthusiastic about his return. You remember Seven once telling you that he considered Jihyun almost like a father to him despite their relative close age gap. He trusted him more than anyone. In fact, back when you first met the RFA, you noticed there were secrets that Seven and Jihyun had kept between only them. Seven had come to Jihyun’s rescue at Mint Eye, after all.

...That was two years ago, though. The more you thought about it now, the more you realized that since then, Seven hadn’t spoken much about Jihyun at all. He certainly never brought him up in the chats of his own volition, and whenever someone else would mention him, he didn’t have much to say.

But he seemed happy to see Jihyun at the party earlier, didn’t he? Well, now that you thought about it, perhaps he wasn’t so much happy as he was shocked and…confused. Almost as if he had truly believed he never would see his old mentor ever again.

“We have a lot to catch up on, I think,” Jihyun had said. And Seven had agreed.

There was something tense about the exchange, some underlying thoughts and feelings that you couldn’t begin to decipher. That must have been what bothered Seven now. What was the missing link between them?

MC: You ok, Seven? You sound weird.

707: I’m fine. Gotta go, though. Long day.

He signed out of the chatroom before you could type another message.

Jumin Han: …

MC: Is it just me, or did something sound off about him? Does Seven not want Jihyun back on here?

Jumin Han: He seemed hesitant about it at the very least.

MC: Why? You don’t think it’s because he doesn’t trust Jihyun, do you? I know he had trouble with keeping secrets from everyone, even to Seven, but he just doesn’t seem like that kind of person anymore…

You weren’t sure if that were entirely true, but everything you knew about what he’d gone through seemed to indicate that Jihyun had had enough secrecy for one lifetime. The man you saw at the party didn’t look like someone who would harbor any secrets.

Jumin Han: I agree. I’ve been with him all evening, and he is definitely changed.

MC: …wait. You’ve been hanging out with Jihyun?

Jumin Han: Yes, he’s with me right now.

“What?” you said aloud. Jumin had been chatting with you all this time and Jihyun was with him?

MC: Really? Where are you?

Jumin Han: At my penthouse. I invited him over as a guest, since he currently has nowhere to stay.

You were typing to ask what he was doing, but your fingers froze over the screen when a picture popped up in the chat.

This time, your phone actually did fall out of your hands...and landed right onto your face, since you were lying in bed. You let out a pained shriek and massaged your nose. Then you jolted up into a sitting position and looked back at your phone.

Jihyun was in the photo. He was standing next to the dining table, across from where Jumin seemed to be sitting. He was pouring himself a glass of red wine. You could tell it was a candid picture because Jihyun’s eyes appeared as though he’d looked into the camera just as it was being taken, his brows raised in a half-expression of surprise. It was cute, actually. But that wasn’t what got your attention.

What got your attention was the fact that his hair was wet, sticking to the left side of his face. He had a towel draped over his shoulders, and he wore gray lounge pants and a white tank top...

MC: …

Jumin Han: He just got out of the shower. He’s jet lagged, so that’s why he’s still awake, if you were wondering.

You were actually wondering why his bare arms looked appealingly firm and smooth, and why his tank top clung so tightly to his slender but lean torso…but you weren’t going to type that.

MC: Um, thanks for the pic haha

Jumin Han: I thought I should prove to you he was in fact here.

MC: You didn’t need to do that lol. I believed you.

Jumin Han: He’s asking me who I sent the photo to.

MC: Oh...what did you tell him?

Jumin Han: You.

You blushed. Should you take a selfie of yourself just to make it fair? You couldn’t do that. You probably looked like a mess after tossing and turning in bed for a few hours… Wait, why did you care what you looked like? You’d sent less than flattering pictures of yourself through the messenger before.

Jumin Han: I need to go. Elizabeth the 3rd should be put to bed soon, and I’m going to keep Jihyun company.

MC: Okay. Tell Elizabeth the 3rd hello for me.

You debated whether you should add another line. Oh, why not?

MC: ...and Jihyun, too.

Jumin Han: Will do. Goodnight.

Jumin logged out, and so did you. You lingered in the main UI a little while longer, wondering what Jumin and Jihyun were up to right now, what they were talking about. Jumin must have liked having the chance to catch up with his best friend, especially considering how much you knew he’d missed him and worried after him since he left. You could only hope you got your chance, too.

You went into the messenger’s photo folders. Even though Seven had taken away Jihyun’s access to the app, he kept his photo folder untouched. You opened it and looked at the newest picture of him. Out of curiosity, you told yourself. Once it expanded across your screen, your heart did a flip in your chest, which was a sensation that utterly confused you. It wasn’t as if you weren’t used to being friends with so many pretty people. Part of the reason why it was so easy for you to initially believe that the RFA were AIs in a dating simulator was because they were all too good-looking to be real. Even now, you would catch yourself admiring just how beautiful Zen looked in his selfies, how well Jumin wore his business suits, how cute Yoosung and Seven were in an adorably nerdy way. Even Jaehee was exceptionally gorgeous.

Yet somehow none of them made you react the way you reacted to this picture of Jihyun. What was happening?

You reasoned it was because you’d never seen him like this. So candid, so...underdressed. You felt as if you shouldn’t be even be looking at it.

Get a grip, MC.

You exited out of the app, tossed your phone onto your comforter, and collapsed onto your pillow, trying desperately to wipe the image out of your mind so you could finally, finally, get to sleep.

#jihyun kim #v x mc #vxmc #mystic messenger #mystic messenger v #mystic messenger fanfic #mysme #mysme v #i'm participating in nanowrimo with an original fic on top of writing this fic #so rip me i guess #taofil #my fic

[thedaveandkimmershow]

"It can be raining like crazy and then fifteen minutes later it's fine."

That's Kimmer, by the way, commenting on yesterday afternoon's sudden deluge of rain.

Deluge.

Of rain.

All that rain came with intense flashes and branches of lighting accompanied by thunder that was much like a bulldozer careening around an industrial kitchen.

It was very clangy is what I'm saying.

We managed a reservation at Margaritaville for lunch, scoring a table on the covered "Indecision Porch" in front of which everyone on foot passes. From our perch, it's impossible not to see certain things.

For example, a tall young man with his arm draped lazily around the young woman he's with. Kimmer thought first-date. My bet's on they're a couple and she's not super happy about it because at one point he leans down and over to kiss the top of her head and the look on her face at that moment is one of enduring it.

I noticed a number of families wearing uniforms, bright green or orange t-shirts that make them impossible to miss by family members even from low earth orbit. Which is a good thing 'cause all these families have little kids in tow.

I saw a coupla brothers, older and younger, and caught the moment when the older brother put his arm around the younger and they took off running.

Took.

Off.

Running.

I saw a father try to put his arm around his daughter but she kept ducking it. And when he finally relented... she took his hand instead. ♥️♥️♥️

I saw off-season Santa driving an electric cart, dressed from head to toe in a red warm-up suit.

I saw someone wearing a "Free The Dinosaurs" t-shirt and now I want one of those t-shirts too.

Plus, you know, I really do want to free the dinosaurs 'cause I'm environmental like that. 😁

I also realized during lunch that Kimmer's scheduled for us a vacation, a vacation, and a vacation. Right now we're on a three-and-a-half day stay without obligation, responsibility, or agenda. That vacation'll be followed by five days of all things Disney starting Monday. And the last two days are no-obligstion free time again.

Lovely!

Our lunch was also accompanied by a live steel drum band performing popular covers that caused me to indulge a mental game of "Name That Tune". I wasn't very good at it though eventually I figured out most of the songs. Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" was one of the most well known along with the "Guilty Feet Have Got No Rhythm" song by George Michael that's actually "Careless Whisper" by Wham 'cause I just looked it up.

After lunch, it's nap and relax time. And then it's time for night bowling 'cause it's this thing we both really want to do and I stood in line this morning for nearly forty five minutes waiting to get a reservation.

We had a great time, by the way. I started off with three strikes in a row which felt really bizarre. Kimmer took a few frames to get her groove back and ended up improving her score with each game while my game seemed to get worse.

Still.

Night bowling. The missus 'n me.

♥️♥️♥️

Not long after we finished, Linzy's flight landed at Orlando International and, while we were hunting around for a dinner sandwich for her, she managed to land in our hotel's lobby.

She was pretty wiped out much as we were a few evenings ago. It's amazing what air travel takes out of you. Not sure why. And that three hour time difference is always a bigger deal than it has any right to be.

We finished the evening with Linzy getting us hooked on that Netflix series "Lupin", "a retelling of the classic French story about Arsène Lupin, the world-famous gentleman thief and master of disguise." (Wikipedia)

We blew through two hours of this foreign language subtitled action/mystery show, only stopping 'cause it was 230.

A.M.

A few hours later, 6AM, I'm up again 'cause Rachel's plane lands a little after six. It winds up landing about ten minutes after six and I meet her in the hotel lobby after she Lyfts the final leg of her journey to a most welcome sleep 'cause she's been flying all night, having a classic red-eye experience.

Now, we didn't get to bed 'til 230 this morning. And Rachel didn't get any sleep on the plane 'cause they kept it so cold. So I'm figuring she's just gonna maybe say a quick hello to Kimmer 'n Linzy before going to sleep while everyone goes back to sleep.

Haha. NOPE.

We haven't all been together as a family for a long time now and suddenly (and for the week) the band's back together again. So a lot of catching up ensues. And a lot of laughter followed by shhhhh's 'cause it's still earlyish in the morning.

At some point, though, not sure when, I nod off.

It's 10AM!

Yeah. It's 10AM and this is one of those experiences like when I used to get up super early on Sunday morning's to do my paper route and then went back to bed again after finishing it only to get up a few hours later.

It felt like a different day every time. Even after those few hours of sleep.

And so it is this morning.

While the girls remain essentially comatose after their travels, Kimmer slips downstairs to Starbucks whilst I take a glorious shower. "Glorious" in that it really does seem like a completely different day.

:-)

After clearing the room, checking out, and stashing our bags at the front desk for a few hours, the missus 'n I indulge mango smoothies by the pool whilst talking life 'cause that's what old people do. Then we're off to Trader Joe's with Santiago, an Uber driver who shared bits of life with us as we did with him. We talked about New York City where he lived before, we talked a little sights of Orlando where he's lived since oh-three, we talked a little bit Seattle where his best friend's younger brother lives (and also where we were born & raised), and then we talked a touch of Puerto Rico and Hurricane Maria.

It doesn't take us long at Trader Joe's, a coupla bags worth, really, before we hail another Uber back with Carlitos from New York State… . Westchester. We talked old school sports video games as well as the challenges of proper car maintenance before dropping off again for one more best.

Burger.

Ever.

At The Hideaway Bar & Grill.

😁😁😁

Eventually, it's time to end Vacation #1 with a Lyft from our driver, Wanell, to our rental condo at Floridays. We talked the recent Haiti earthquake a little and quickly determining that all his friends and family are okay. Alive and uninjured. Then, because we were passing it, we talked Icon Park with that crazy tall rotating swing guaranteed to induce nausea and vomiting. The Kraken roller coaster was another candidate on which we all voted would produce similar results as we passed Sea World. And then, finally, somehow, we talked alligators 'n fries.

I don't know what to tell you. Rachel was super interested to hear about it.

And so on.

We're pretty much having a Maui experience here where there seems to be more time in our days. More hours than just the 24 we're routinely allotted. Because once you start having to count the time between one event and the next… your day just gets away from you. Sometimes at light speed.

And we're not doing that.

These are not full days of To-Dos. This is nearly all unstructured time. And when it's unstructured time… the day just unfolds and keeps unfolding.

It's crazy how much livable time there is on any given day.

Seriously. There really is.

Anyway, this first vacation, part 1, the one before our Disney vacation, wraps up today. And tomorrow… we dive head first into, well...

We're about to find out.

🙂🤔😁

#vacation #vacation stories #disney springs #universal's cabana bay resort #trader joe's

[canaryatlaw]

Okay, well today was exhausting and difficult but overall still good, somehow. Normal stuff, up at 8:45 for court, I was kind of miffed because I just had a short status date with only me and the judge and normally when I tell the coordinators that they’ll stick me at or towards the front of the line, but that didn’t happen today so I didn’t end up finishing until like 10, which wouldn’t have been too big of an issue except oh it’s Tuesday, which means it’s my clinic day. Joy. So I spent a while assigning cases and trying to get a handle on everything. This was of course the worst day, because I had two more court cases all in front of the same judge, at 11 and 3, so yeah, it’s a lot. I did know this in advance and considered asking to switch clinic days with my work day, but he was on the rotation this week to do Monday and then he’d have to do two days in a row, and I didn’t want him to feel like he needed to say yes because I was asking and stick him with two days in a row (which yes, I do with some frequency because we rotate mondays and I’m always up on tuesdays, but I’ve gotten used to it at this point, so it’s different). But I made it to the 11 am court date which of course involved more waiting. It was a case with one of our Spanish speaking clients, and generally when counsel and clients are waiting to go into the courtroom they’ll put them in the same breakout room, which just ends up being super awkward when I speak very little Spanish (basically what I can remember from four years of studying it in high school) so we just kind of wait there in awkward silence until we’re let in, so that’s always fun. Once we got into the courtroom it was clear there was a breakdown in communication, because someone covered my last court date for this case and the notes got lost somewhere along the way, so I’m expecting the other lawyer to have discovery requests but find out he doesn’t even have the paperwork....(which I mean he definitely could’ve asked the clerk for a copy of, but whatever) so I was like yeah I’ll send that to you and then hopefully we can figure things out there, so a fairly pointless court date, but oh well. I had a little bit of a break when I mostly worked on clinic stuff until I logged on for my motion hearing, which I was both excited and nervous about. Given everything and with them suspending hearings for so long, it’s been quite a while since I’ve actually had a contested argument, so I was looking forward to that, and of course ready to go for the jugular knowing what this asswipe has been doing to my client (who is so incredibly sweet), so I was plenty pumped up. Beginning was fine, started asking questions and was able to get the screenshots into evidence so that was a big relief. Once we finished the judge asked the dude if he wanted to cross examine the client, to which he said know which is good because I would’ve just objected every time I could (which is basically always when people don’t know the rules of evidence) until he got frustrated and gave up (it’s very effective). But he just comes with some bullshit evidence about how we can’t prove it was him and that he was getting stalked too so clearly it was this mysterious third party who knew all of their personal information that was targeting both of them....yeah that was a new one. The judge let me have a rebuttal afterwards and while I’m shredding his argument he tried to interrupt me and start talking and I was just like “I’m speaking now, don’t interrupt me” followed by the judge saying the same thing which made me happy a bit haha just getting to shut him down like that, and it happened another time too cuz this guy was just off his rocker. The judge took so long making her findings and I was nervous she was going to be like oh you should’ve sent out subpoenas to prove where they came from (social media subpoenas generally take at least 6 weeks to process), but thankfully she found my client’s testimony to be credible and extended the order for another two years, which is a big win. We did have two motions pending, the second being

called a petition for rule to show cause, and now that we’ve proved our side of things it’s now the dude’s burden to prove why he shouldn’t be held in contempt of court, so that will be fun, especially being that once the judge was clearly ruling for us the fucking guy left the zoom call like a fucking child and I had to hold back a laugh at just how ridiculous it all was. I have a follow up court date in the morning to get the new order entered and set the next court date, and we’ll see where we go from there. But yeah, I was really happy about this because it was a really big victory and I mean this poor girl’s life has been turned upside down by this asswipe and I want him to get all the potential consequences available, and we’re heading in the right direction at least. While I was in the hearing my boss who had been at the office today offered to drop off the Christmas presents two clients had sent me, which was very convenient because I was going to ask my work buddy when he’s in the office tomorrow if he could drop them off since we don’t live that far from each other, but this was just easier. So once the hearing ended and I debriefed with my client I went downstairs to pick those up, along with some office supplies she dropped off which were very helpful. There’s one big box and then two smaller presents (that were from the same people). I opened the big box first and when I was pulling it out I saw it said Steve Madden on the box and I was like whaaaaaaaaaatt??? So I pull it the rest of the way out and open it to find this super cute Steve Madden bag that definitely was expensive, so I was kind of surprised about that. The second presents, the first little box I open has a little charm in it with a card saying in memory of their son/brother whose death precipitated the events that the order came out of, and I just felt really touched that they’d think of me like that and share something so personal, it definitely meant a lot. The last one from the same people, I open to find 2 $100 gift cards, one of them for visa and the other American Express, one of them being target themed but you could spend it anywhere. So I was kind of blown away by all of these presents and just that they’d think of me like that. Both of the cases had required a good amount of night and weekend (and sometimes on vacation) work, so I definitely put a lot of effort into them, but like I said in the thank you emails I sent out, knowing I’m able to help someone out of a bad situation is absolutely the best part of my job, and that will always make me happy to help in whatever way I can. So that was a lot, but yeah. I had a good amount of work to finish and ended up working until about 7:30, after which I turned on Chicago Med. the laptop situation did not resolve overnight (as I expected) and I tried to restore it from a backup on an external hard drive but that failed so I tried the migration assistant thing again and apparently the issue was there was too much content on my old computer than space on my new one, so I went through a bunch of stuff and just deleted it until it would work, and I did get it to start working so I was very glad about that. Hopefully it’ll be done in the morning and we can go from there. Once I got that figured out I showered and started to get ready for bed, and now it’s like 1:45 am and I very much need to go to sleep, so I’ll be doing that now. Goodnight my friends. Sweet dreams.

#daily journal