#I just changed my header cause with how much I look at my page on my phone now I needed to | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

heyeinin · 1 year

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i , once again, for no good reason at all, have redesigned cherp. not posting screenshots of the last time cuz it was ugly and i was just curious what i could get up to with the existing css. this, however, is a ground-up purely design-based rebuild that i did from scratch that required me to brute-force learn javascript because i am.... insane.

heres the link if you wanna click things though 95% of the things you can click do nothing, except the directory menu and the expand/collapse buttons on the prompts. i coded the javascript myself and its only my second attempt at doing so.

notes/fun stuff i learnt while doing this under the cut, with information starting from the top of the doc to the bottom.

so when i started this project my first thought was about how to make the header look less like "cherubplay with the serial numbers ground off" and i decided to go for a single inline "logo"/nav setup. i like the two navbars and actually preserved it on smaller screens/mobile (as is necessary, frankly) but tossed it for the desktop version. i think this looks fun & modern and adds a unique touch that keeps it from looking too much like cherubplay.

the nav bar gave me some trouble. if you click the "directory" button, you get a dropdown of links accessible through the directory (which, since this happens to be a directory page, is the links under "navigation" in the sidebar as well.) this gave me so much trouble-- right now its just a onClick toggler that adds or removes the "show" class, which is just... a single class with the "display: block;" declaration. i did at one point have this as a clickable link that would take you straight from the directory, but if you HOVERED (or rather, onMouseOvered) over the directory button, it would actually bring a popup menu of these links. and when you stopped hovering over the popup link menu (or onMouseExited as the case may be) the menu would disappear. however this proved to be a huge bitch on mobile and i didnt love it so i replaced it with the current onClick menu.

im not sure this is done as best as it can be done. the onClick menu isnt in the nav element, its outside of it, which i think is probably bad for screenreaders. unfortunately i was using a flex div inside the header (which holds the "cherp logo" which is actually text (h1) as well as the navigation links) so when i tried to keep it inside the nav header it just caused the whole thing to expand, which i didnt love. i have no clue how i would go about fixing this right now, so its staying

i was thinking of coding some meta elements for this-- like, say, a toggler for if you wanted to preview the site as if you had a new unread-- but decided not to because i was getting angry. but maybe in the future. for the record, my idea for new unreads was to have a "glowing" (read: span of "(1 unread" with a text shadow of the lightest color) notification in the header. this would obviously be lost on mobile..... or maybe it wouldnt. i just realized ive never tried to apply text-shadow to bootstrap icons. maybe that would work. idk

anyway moving on toooo THE SIDEBAR!

the sidebar on cherp has always pissed me off. everything about it makes me angry. i am not joking. i "fixed it" (read: made it look the way I WANT!!!) in stylus and imported those styles here. here are the major changes i made

i made the search dropdown the full width of the div to match the search box which IS the full width of the div

i moved the dropdown links out of the dropdowns

i made the text size consistent across the buttons, inputs, and dropdowns

i moved the advanced search button beneath the other two (this one i did because i aligned the buttons to the right and i felt it looked silly otherwise.)

i used the hr element which. holld on what does hr stand for. like img srrc stands for image source but what does. okay w3schools was useless for that but i used the hr tag to separate the different sections rather than having two dropsdowns. i think this looks neater.

and now moving on to THE MAIN CONTENT!

the changes here are incredibly minor and are mostly quality of life. however i think they would be useful but even more importantly, fun!

first of all, i changed the nsfw extreme tag to a different color red. the other warning tags-- and every other warning that isnt nsfw extreme (so nsfws and nsfwv) show up as the slightly darker red that the regular extreme warning tags show up as. originally this had a little text-shadow too for a glow but i thought that was overkill becausseeeee

i was thinking that, if you were searching the directory by a tag, it would be fun to highlight the tag you were searching for as it appears in prompts. this would be kind of redundant given that every single prompt that would appear when you searched would obviously have the tag in it, but like..... i think it would be fun.

anyway, aside from that, i divvied up the fandom/character/gender tags with some colors to show where they end and begin. i think this looks neater. it looks nice with a few fandoms and is helpful if you have a LOT of fandoms because it would show where the characters start, so if youre, say, in a tag for a fandom and the prompt has 20 fandoms tagged with 5 characters each, you can see at a glance where the characters start to see if the character you want to play is one that theyre looking for.

this is a minor detail, but in the expand/collapse buttons, i tried to add enough padding that they didnt partially cover up the last word in the prompt. i care.

some final notes:

the code in this is so messy and contains a lot of redundant code or code that i started to use and then decided not to use and just left. it was also my second attempt at writing my own javascript (the first was creating a dark mode for a different webpage) so its probably............ inefficient. but i made it work and im very proud of myself. yes it took hours because i tried to brute force it

its mobile compatible! peek at it on your phone.

i would have liked to have added other features such as darkmode and a meta information toggler (preview a fake unread for instance) but i didnt do that

if you are scrolled any amount down the page, when you click on the directory button, it brings you to the top. i think i know why this happens but idk how to fix it sorry lol

i would have added keyboard prompt navigation which is like my #1 cherp 3.0 wish but unfortunately when i googled it it looked like it required jquery which i am not fighting with until i finish this stupid javascript course on vanilla javascript

........ yup. thats it bye

#éinín feeling chatty!#cherp

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wutlaikalikes · 10 months

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*chirp chirp*

my new Tumblr layout just amuses me lol (just scroll past)

I don't remember when it changed but only how much it annoyed me. My previous theme is called Minimal by arturkim and I like it cause I can showcase whatever I like on the header space and the icon not only act as my blog's identifier, it also reflects on the favicon.

The main body layout is of course for my tumblr posts but it also have a side body for my profile description where here I was able to add tag links I want to highlight. Under that I can also showcase things I liked from other Tumblr users. And, though not seen on the photo below, I can also show Tumblr blogs I am following. Above the headers are more tag links to my interests.

I don't remember when I realize it but the pictures I post or reblog will always be inside a scrollable space and somehow it annoyed me. I tried to temporarily change the layout to different one and switch back but it still put the images on a scrollable space. Turns out that the layout was updated.

So I thought maybe I should just change it to close to my preference. And so I change it to a theme named Chirp by rachaels, which is based on Twitter (I still refuse to call it X).

The pictures are no longer on a scrollable space. The layout background color could also be changed (there were 5 options) and since I prefer dark mode, this new layout is just nice.

I specially like that I can still put my intended description for my tumblr under What's happening section which I don't remember ever seeing on Twitter, maybe it was a space of news highlight, idk. Then there's also that side image that I would guess was intended for an ad space on an older version of Twitter. I was also able to highlight my tumblr just for my art and projects, along with Tumblr blogs of my friends (though they are no longer active) under the Who to follow section. And my favorite part, Trends for you, I mainly add my oshi tags.

My only thing now is that the videos are cropped. I'm not sure how to fix it but I would guess this layout was made before the new wide aspect ratios where added on YouTube.

I actually can also change the favicon to whatever I want and for a moment, I customized the old Twitter logo and used it but honestly it just looks weird!

The header and profile pictures are customizable and of course I used Holostars JP as my header and to change things up I used Hatena from Dogengers: Metropolis (2023) which is voiced by Aragami Oga. These are also inpendent for the chirp layout and doesn't reflect the actual profile picture that shows when you highlight a poster's icon seen on the dashboard.

So for the favicon, I put my current profile picture which is Daidou Shinove so it wouldn't look like that you've stubled upon another tumblr blog.

Also adding this here cause I'll be removing them. I wanted to have a place for it just incase I want to use again in the future.

情報 || 日記 || 好き || アート || 設計 || 欲しい物

情報 (jōhō) - information = this page! 日記 (nikki) - diary = my blogs アート (a-to) - art = artsy stuff i posted 好き (suki) - like = my favorite thing on the internet 設計 (sekkei) = my current and past tumblr avatar and header 欲しい物 (hoshii mono) - things i want = wishlist

Well that's it, I there's really no significant info here. I'm just satisfied with this layout.

#blog #design

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ironnahas · 2 years

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White day game cast

#WHITE DAY GAME CAST HOW TO#

I stuffed my pockets with anything vaguely attention-getting. When I was five or six, I took the message of Sierra graphic adventures into my heart: Pick up everything that isn’t nailed down. Has a game ever shifted how you act outside of it?

#WHITE DAY GAME CAST HOW TO#

Has a game ever changed your behavior? I don’t mean in the way that Dark Souls teaches you how to play it, learning patterns, correct combinations of button presses in Tekken, or the precise moment when to tap A in Ninja Gaiden to account for NES-era platforming clumsiness, internalizing a game into the motor neurons of your fingers perfectly. The goal in the end is to say “I lived, motherfucker.” Survival requires persistence, the continuation of the self. Turns out, that’s not a habit that’s helpful in survival horror games either, which is a weird revelation to have. Mostly I just like the reminder that someone was here, that I exist, and have an impact on the space around me. I always try to do better-I understand their frustrations, I apologize-but change has been slow. Usually for other people-my partners, parents, the people who are left to contend with the consequences of my leaving the spaces I inhabit constantly looking like they’ve been rummaged through. Whatever the process behind it, I just don’t close things fully, if at all. A lot of doors stay open because I’m never sure if I’m finished with whatever’s beyond them. I’ll keep the fridge open while cooking until the beeping prompts someone to tell me to close the damn thing. Sometimes I underestimate how much force the smooth-glide hinges on a cabinet require to shut, or don’t want to make noise by overestimating how little force is required to shut something properly. Continued abuse of our services will cause your IP address to be blocked indefinitely.See, I have a problem: I never close doors. Please fill out the CAPTCHA below and then click the button to indicate that you agree to these terms. If you wish to be unblocked, you must agree that you will take immediate steps to rectify this issue. If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here. If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we'll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior. Overusing our search engine with a very large number of searches in a very short amount of time.Using a badly configured (or badly written) browser add-on for blocking content.Running a "scraper" or "downloader" program that either does not identify itself or uses fake headers to elude detection.Using a script or add-on that scans GameFAQs for box and screen images (such as an emulator front-end), while overloading our search engine.There is no official GameFAQs app, and we do not support nor have any contact with the makers of these unofficial apps. Continued use of these apps may cause your IP to be blocked indefinitely. This triggers our anti-spambot measures, which are designed to stop automated systems from flooding the site with traffic. Some unofficial phone apps appear to be using GameFAQs as a back-end, but they do not behave like a real web browser does.Using GameFAQs regularly with these browsers can cause temporary and even permanent IP blocks due to these additional requests. If you are using Maxthon or Brave as a browser, or have installed the Ghostery add-on, you should know that these programs send extra traffic to our servers for every page on the site that you browse.The most common causes of this issue are: Your IP address has been temporarily blocked due to a large number of HTTP requests.

#White day game cast

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i-am-kone-uzina · 2 years

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I feel like I should have posted this earlier but this is something that I didn't realize needed explaining until Jason pointed it out.

My species has a spectrum of genders, and 3 primary sexes (in addition to a spectrum of intersex configurations, of course). This post is going to be more general; I'll get into biological specifics another day. It's also gonna get a bit rant-y. You'll see...

The first sex is the xina, whose pronouns are often xi/xir. In our trade language, Kaskhoruxa, the romanized letter "x" is pronounced as [ʃ] (or "sh"). Xinas are typically taller, and have more variety in feather colors. Additionally, they have 2 long forehead feather stalks. I'm a xina, as indicated in my profile header.

The second one is the gina, with the pronouns gi/gir. This sex is the most common, about average height, and average feather color variety. They have three forehead feather stalks, which are a bit shorter than xina stalks.

The third one is the lina, with the pronouns li/lir. This one is the rarest, and a bit special, and I'll get into why soon. Linas are shorter on average, with very few feather colors on average, and five short feather stalks on the forehead. Linas also have a higher probability of having various genetic mutations (put an asterisk disclaimer here). Usually it's nothing too extreme, but higher skin cancer rates among linas are common (again, disclaimer that I'll explain later). One of my parents was a lina, which led to a lot of trauma in the caravan I grew up with (which I'll explain now).

My people have a rampant, systemic problem with intersectional ableism and sexism (mostly due to religion, ancient hierarchies, and superstition), and linas get the worst of this by far, while xinas benefit from "xina privilege" (xinas, on average, are more likely to be promoted, get paid more, etc). It's really fucked up, super widespread, and unfortunately still very normalized, even if many don't want to admit it. People like to treat it as a silly superstitious thing, but it's so much more than that when you're the victim. In my childhood caravan, I was considered "tainted" just for having a lina parent. There are recent movements trying to spread awareness and address misinformation, but this is still a deeply-ingrained problem all over the planet, and we have a long way to go. To give you an idea of how deep this goes, the higher rate of skin cancer I mentioned earlier could also just be the result of systemic neglect, where linas often find themselves exposed to the sun way more often, usually against their will. Think outcasts and scapegoats, in particular. Those studies are still being revised and looked into, with the newer generation of geneticists slowly taking over the field.

I could literally go on about this for pages, but I'm not going to right now.

Time to change gears a bit.

Without getting too much into specifics, the actual anatomy between the sexes of our species is super similar, and the novice Human would claim they're identical, and they almost are. Mostly, it just comes down to different hormone levels and chemical balances in the body, which alter the nuances of how the genitals function. Ekxinas (which is the name of my species, in case I never clarified before) who are intersex usually have hormone/chemical levels that fall somewhere between (or outside of) the 3 primary sexes, and in the past these individuals were just classified as linas, until intersex visibility and representation began to be more widespread.

Also, of course, there are a lot more gender identities and pronouns out there as well, but that will get its own post in the future! Ever since we invented the Internet on our planet, there's been a major cultural shift in a lot of ways, largely for the good, and people are finally realizing that the "age-old standard" might have been causing incredible amounts of harm for untold generations. If you ask me, the Ajokona share some of the blame for this, as they have directly reinforced and benefited from the toxic old ways, but it also wasn't the Ajokona who outcast me and my parents, and also made us completely lose contact with my lina parent.

Anyway...

Not going into specifics right now, because I want to plan out better how I would explain this first (also I need to do some reading, because I'm not a doctor, and want to make sure I'm not talking bullshit). Mostly wanted to give some context to pronouns, and I kinda went off-topic a little. Oh well. It's something that has literally given me trauma, so, you know...

#oc blog #world building #conlang #spec bio

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cerberus-writes · 2 years

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hi!! i'm trying to use the simplebar in my game and i, for the life of me, can't get it to work. would you mind doing just a basic step-by-step explanation of how to install it? i'd really appreciate it ;A;

hiiii i'll try my best to answer this considering i've not touched anything semi-related to this in like. months LOL

just a disclaimer in general that this is probably going to need some coding knowledge, and i've probably got some guides or whatnot in my coding tag if you have general questions about that and StoryInterface! also, if anyone is wondering what on earth this is about, simplebar is a custom scrollbar plug-in that you can check out right here, it's pretty cool.

actual instructions are under a read-more bc the post got pretty long oops

first step i did was include the entirety of the simplebar.js into the story javascript, which involved going through the installation manual and looking at the bit that talks about using the <script> tag. what i ended up doing was grabbing

all the text from the urls and just putting that directly into the file, though you could probably use the <script> tags directly in the story header.

this is the part i'm talking about on the simplebar github page:

so my js file in my editor ends up looking something like this once i've added it in:

go and do the same for the css as well, pretty much using the same method you used for adding the javascript. it'll end up looking something like this once you've added it all in:

alright, so now that you've got the basics down, we're gonna head to storyinterface and all that fun stuff to make it actually work.

this goes into StoryInterface, and what it does is basically suppress any pop-up errors that show up when your window resizes. it's a known issue of simplebar, but not one i was able to figure out an actual workaround for since the passage length in a twine game does change pretty often. and since the actual scrollbar seems to work fine... i simply ignore it.

this goes into PassageHeader, and this is the part that actually creates the scrollbar, specifically around the "story" element in your html. it also includes a little script to make sure that your passage jumps all the way back up to the top whenever you start a new passage, so you're not like halfway down the page and thinking, "hold on, why are we somewhere new already-"

the formatting is, of course, a little finicky bc of tumblr and if it's causing any trouble and you can't seem to format it right, feel free to dm me off anon and i'll see if i can provide you with an actual file for it. but i do think that pretty much covers what i did to add simplebar to the game.

let me know if you have any further questions!

#cer answers #coding

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lemondaydream · 3 years

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hi!!! i absolutely love your docs, actually buying some soon! i was wondering do you have any tips? especially with the tables, if you use those.

First off, thank you so, so much. I love the support. <3 You guys are the best. Tips for making your own? I definitely recommend either buying or finding free google docs online that you like and just, breaking them. For lack of a better term. My docs are 100% table-based. Nothing I do would be possible without tables. I also love the behind text and in front of text feature for images, make sure you fix position on page. But yeah, when I was learning web design, I would basically find code I liked and splice it with other code. You like that header? You like that table? You like that page format? Shove them all together in one and make it your own. Eventually, you learn how things work enough to make your own and make your vision come to life based on those tools. Now.... that being said, if you buy my design and change it, it doesn't mean you're free to remove credit. Especially if you don't make the look so different that it's still recognizable. I can tell when my stuff is out there but as long as you truly make it your own, usually, I just see it as the greatest form of flattery (cause it's imitation). Honestly, I want to see docs become more impressive. I want the community to be more beautiful and creative than ever. The templates I'd recommend for learning are: Key Lime - for tables & "drawings" Satsuma - a masterclass for tables and image placement Blood Orange - for text layering through line-height, table navigation bar, and learning the "drop cap" trick. Which is the large letter at the start of a paragraph. Best way to "break" my templates is to change the page color. That will reveal a lot of the way it works. Next would be to highlight the page and change the table outline to a color. All of my templates teach different skills so buy the ones that have pieces you'd like to learn to create yourself but buying those three will give you a wide variety of skills and they all offer different things. Hope that helps! <3 Thanks for the question. To be honest, I was kinda thinking about teaching a paid class...

#[ 𝚕𝚍 ] asks

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sunnyrinusstudies · 3 years

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Going FOSS: An Intro to Open-Source software for studyblr (and also some privacy related bits)

Source for Header Image

Intro & attempt at TLDR

Hey everyone! Today I’d like to tell y’all something about Open Source Software, and also Why this should matter to you! This’ll probably be the first post of a series I intend to do, because I believe the Studyblr community, even the non-nerd folks, could really benefit from switching some things out in their digital environment. Since this is a long post, I attempted to summarise it below, please do read on if you have the spoons tho!

TLDR?

FOSS stands for “Free and Open Source Software” the “free” part doesn’t necessarily mean it’s free as in free pizza, but mostly means free as in freedom.

There’s a humongous amount of variants on this concept, but the core of FOSS specifically is the four freedoms:

1. To run the program however you want and for whatever you want

2. To study how the program works and to change it in whatever way you want

3. To be able to share it with whomever you feel like

4. To be able to share your modified version with whomever you want

There’s a whole host of software licenses built around these concepts, you can check those out at the Open Source Initiative website, or at Choose A License. Both have a good summary of what they all stand for.

Open Source software is used for a lot of products, nearly every single webserver is an Apache Linux server, Google chrome is built on top of their open source chromium (google is still the devil, but y’know, it’s an example), and even deep deep down, Apple computers run on top of a Linux Kernel. Many more can be listed, but I won’t do that otherwise this isn’t a TLDR anymore.

Now, Why is this important for you? The Open Source Initiative summed it up real nicely already, but heres a short paraphrase:

Control & Security. If software is open source then you can check if it really works the way it does, and to make sure it’s not spying on you. Even if you don’t have the skills for it, someone else who does will be able to check. Also if you don’t like how something works in a program, then you’ll be able to change it or find someone else’s changed version that you like more.

Training. People who want to learn programming can use the code to see what makes programs tick, as well as use it as a guide for their own projects.

Stability. Because everything’s out in the open, that means someone else can take up maintaining a project or make a successor of it, in case the original developers suddenly quit working on it. This is especially important when it’s software that’s absolutely critical for certain tasks.

Community. It’s not just one program. It’s a lot of people working together to make, test, use, and promote a project they really love. Lots of projects end up with a dedicated fanbase that helps support the developers in continuing to work on the software.

I’d like to add one more tho: Privacy, which ties in a lot with the security part. Nowadays with protests going on and everything being online due to the pandemic, folks have been and will be confronted much more with the impact of privacy, and lack thereof. Open Source software means that if any company or group tries to spy on you, then you and anyone who feels like checking, will be able to know and take action on it. Here’s the EFF page on privacy and why it should matter to you

If that got your attention then read on past the readmore button! Or, if nothing else maybe check out the Free and Open Source Software portal on Wikipedia? Or maybe the resources page of the Open Source Initiative?

Terminology: Let’s get that out of the way first

Open Source: The source code that a program is made up of is freely accessible, anyone can look at it and check whether it works well enough or to make sure it doesn’t spy on you.

FOSS: Free and Open Source Software. This doesn’t mean that you don’t need to pay for it, it’s free as in freedom and free speech, not free pizza.

There are four freedoms associated with FOSS:

The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).

The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).

The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3).

By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

FLOSS: Free and Libre Open Source Software. This time it is “free” as in free pizza. The “libre” is french for “free” as in freedom.

GRATIS: Sometimes people use this word to mean “free” as in free pizza. Usually alongside “FOSS”

Licenses : A license is something that tells others what they can or cannot do with your code. Licenses also apply to art and literature, those are copyright licenses. There are many different software licenses and I’m not going to be able to list them all.

The biggest players however are:

Apache License 2.0

The 3-Clause BSD License

GNU General Public License (also known as GPL)

MIT License

Mozilla Public License 2.0

There’s even more and you can find a list of them Here on the Open Source Initiative site There’s so many licenses that there’s even a Choose A License site, where you can pick a license depending on what you want it to achieve

Who and/or what even uses open source software?

You don’t need to be some nerd to benefit from Open Source software, in fact, you’re using open source software right now! The biggest example is the whole entire internet. Websites are stored on servers, and nearly every single webserver is a Linux server. The second biggest browser Firefox is open source, and even google chrome is built on top of “chromium” an open source base. If you dont use an iPhone, then you’re probably on an Android phone. Guess what? Android is part of the Android Open Source Project, which is then built upon a GNU/Linux base. All Open Source. Chromebooks? Built on top of a Linux kernel (like a non-patented engine you could put into any motor vehicle you’d like). Heck, even Apple computers are, at their core, built on top of a Linux kernel.

Neat apps you may wanna check out!

I’ve made a little list of apps that might be especially useful for studyblr folks, but depending on how well this post does I’ll probably make some more posts for specific apps.

TiddlyWiki, has a bajillion different ways to organise your thoughts, and also a lot of variant builds out there. Check out their table of contents if you feel lost! There’s versions available for most big browsers, as well as windows, linux, mac, android, and iOS.

AnyType, is an app that looks and almost exactly like notion, but is much more decentralised. They’re currently still in development but if you want to support them, sign up for early access and give them some feedback so they know what works and doesn’t! They’re still in closed alpha, but are intending to give beta access to about 100 folks at a time throughout 2021, so please sign up if this looks interesting to you!

Trilium Notes, is slightly more like a “notebook”, however you can arrange your notes in nearly infinitely deep folders. You can use things like Relation Maps & Link Maps to visualise your notes and how they go together. There’s even more they do and I just cant list it all, so go check out their stuff for a more comprehensive overview! Works on windows, linux, and (unsupported) mac

LibreOffice and ONLYOFFICE are two office suites that function just as well as micro$oft office, often Even Better in my experience. I’ve used LibreOffice for years now and honestly? never going back. OnlyOffice is technically free (as in pizza), but it’s a slight hassle to get everything set up, cause you need to set it up on a server. They have a paid and hosted version available with educational discounts, but honestly i’d go with LibreOffice.

OnePile, is an app I haven’t used myself since it only runs on Apple stuff. But I’ve heard a lot of good things about it so that’s why it’s in here. It looks like it works similar to most general “note taking notebook” apps. Looks really pretty too honestly.

EtherPad, is similar to ONLYOFFICE, however this one’s a lot more focused on specifically text documents. Works with real-time collaboration which is really neat.

Anything that FramaSoft has going on. They’re a non-profit organisation, dedicated to promoting digital freedom. A lot of open source cloud related things are not really useful to people who don’t have the time and/or money to set up a whole-ass server. That’s where FramaSoft comes in, they do it for you. Just about everything they offer (here’s a full overview) are free (as in free pizza). They also have a separate site to help you get started!

It’s not free to run it all on their side, so if you find yourself interested in using their services please try to support them any way you monetarily can! (they even have a “minetest” server (not minecraft, deeeefinitely not minecraft))

Joplin!! Which is also what I used to write this post so I wouldn’t have to use The Tumble’s post writing thing. It’s good for taking notes, has a bunch of neat plug-ins, and can also sync with a variety of cloud services!

Nextcloud For if you want to go just that little bit further on the open source and the privacy. Nextcloud has honestly way too many features for me to list, but the important parts are that it’s a nigh perfect replacement for office365, and probably even GSuite. The one caveat is that you either gotta host it yourself, or get someone else to host it for you. Framasoft (mentioned above), has a nextcloud instance. It works on just about every single platform, and can integrate with an absurd amount of services. Here’s a list of providers that work with nextcloud, and what different apps they have installed on their server.

I personally use Disroot, because they’re a local (as in, my country) non-profit that offer about 2gb of free storage, and then for about 15 cents per GB per month you can get more storage if you want. They also have an email service which is hella neat. Their one main rule is Do Not Use For Business Purposes, because they’re here to help the individual folks, not companies.

Neat Links you may also want to look at!

Here are some sources, and also resources that I used for this post. There’s also some stuff here that I think folks may be interested in in general.

General Wikipedia Article on Open Source Software

The Free and Open Source Software portal on Wikipedia

Resources page of the Open Source Initiative

Free Software Foundation definition of “free software”

itsfoss page on what FOSS means

itsfoss page on the history of FOSS

Open Source Software Foundation list of projects and apps they really like

Open Source Initiative on “the open source way”, and how it goes beyond software

Check out literally anything the Electronic Frontier Foundation has going on maybe?

TED talk on privacy and why it’s important

The Surveillance Self Defense project by the EFF

This EFF page on privacy for students

ExpressVPN article on privacy (not necessarily endorsing this company, just a good article)

What’s next?

I’ll probably make some more posts on specific kinds of software that I think folks may like. Or maybe a general overview on the more privacy forcused reasons and solutions for doing all of this.

Future post ideas, none of these are set in stone:

Open source Note taking apps

Replacements for just about Every Single google service I can think of

My personal setup

Open source / privacy conscious social media that studyblr folks may be into

Chatting, Calling, Videocalling: Discord and whatsapp alternatives etc

??? More studyblr apps that could do with a FOSS alternative??

How to support open source when you’re not a big fudgin nerd

How to be better at digital privacy and security, while still maintaining that studyblr aesthetic

Apps, software, other stuff, for specific areas of study maybe?

Feel free to suggest other ideas! Or leave feedback! This is my first big resource post so I wanna know if/how I can do better when I make another one!

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vivianweasley · 3 years

Text

Pride and Prejudice (Chapter 6)

Summary: Your father is Lucius Malfoy’s cousin, and after the war, it was really difficult for you to find a job because of your last name. So your mother and Mrs. Weasley came up with a crazy idea. A fake marriage between you and Fred Weasley.

Last Chapter! (I combined the last chapter and the epilogue cuz they are not too long.)

Pairing: Fred Weasley X Malfoy!Fem!Reader

Warnings: food mention, mention of divorce, people pretending to choke, proposal.

Word Count: 1.8k

Disclaimer: photos used in the header are from Pinterest. Credit goes to the original owners.

Please do NOT repost or translate my work on any platform! Thank you! Reblogs and comments are always welcome:)

Pride and Prejudice Series Masterlist

Fred walked downstairs, noticing a faint smell of apples in the joke shop. “So are we selling apple juice now, Georgie?” he joked.

But George looked confused, “What apple juice? I could only smell caramel-” And then the answer finally came to George, “Amortentia!”

Fred followed George to the shelf displaying amortentia and immediately realized a firecracker just exploded next to this shelf, causing at least four bottles of amortentia to break and the love potion inside to spill.

George waved his wand and cleaned up the mess, but a satisfied smirk soon appeared on George’s lips, “Strange. Didn’t know you liked apples this much.”

“Shut up and go back to work!” Fred raised his voice, covering for the fact that he’s a complete mess now.

That fainting smell of apple that’s still lingering in the shop also had a dash of the scent of book pages in it. And this combination could only remind Fred of one person.

You.

The person whom he married out of a dare. The person who he fell in love with during the process. The person who just walked out of his life.

George noticed the change in Fred’s expression. How defeat was now written all over his face. “Mate, you need to do something. You can’t just let her walk away like that.”

“What can I do?” Fred sighed, “Maybe she’s been waiting for this all the time.”

George sighed with Fred. This wasn’t like his brother. Soon the lingering smell of amortentia caught his attention, and a brilliant idea popped into George’s mind. “She has feelings for you too, and I can prove it to you!”

You pushed open the door of the joke shop. George just called you claiming that there’s an emergency, so you rushed to the joke shop immediately after work.

George approached you with a small glass vial, “Y/N, this is the new perfume I just made. I need your opinion.”

So this is the emergency??

You looked at George, couldn’t decipher what his smile meant. But you did know one thing. In fact, everyone who went to school with the twins should know the rule: be careful of what they handed to you. So you stepped away from that vial and asked with caution, “When did the joke shop start selling perfume?”

“Oh, we are always trying to expand our business,” George noticed how you became alert, so he added, “I swear to Merlin, this is not a prank!”

Still finding his smile suspicious, but for Merlin’s sake, you still decided to take the vial.

“Does it smell good? What does it smell like?” George asked carefully.

“Hmm...” The perfume did smell very good. You could smell the sweetness of cinnamon, a dash of gunpowder, but it also smelled so familiar. It smelled like...Fred’s cologne? “George, I’m pretty sure someone else has already made a perfume like this.”

“Really? How so?” George felt his heart beating at his throat, so scared that you might say another person’s name.

“Isn’t this just Fred’s cologne?” You were finding this unbelievable. How could George not recognize his own twin’s cologne?

“Oh really!!” Hearing a definitive answer from you has made George so happy that he pulled you into a hug. “Got it! Thank you for your opinion! You’re the best!”

“You’re welcome...?” Watching George being so happy that he could start dancing at any minute, you were beginning to think that the chemicals in the perfume were toxic. How could making a plagiarized perfume make a man so happy?

Two days later, you apparated to the joke shop again. It was raining outside. Maybe the weather was trying to set the tone for what was about to happen next. After taking a deep breath, you knocked on the door of the twins’ apartment, the apartment that you called home for the past year.

Fred opened the door, letting you in without saying a word. You tried not to look at him so you could appear indifferent and won’t be affected by his expressions.

“Here’s the divorce document,” you said as you took out all the paper in your bag. He took the documents and flipped through the papers quickly, still not saying anything at all.

You couldn’t tell if his silence meant he’s also not ready to say goodbye or he just had nothing to say to you. But you tried not to overthink as you continued, “Oh, before you sign it, you still have one wish left. What do you want me to do?”

“What if I said,” he finally looked at you, his eyes capturing yours, “I don’t want you to go?”

His words were like a drum in your ears, rendered you speechless. Before you could fully process what he just said, Fred continued, “It might sound crazy, but for the past few days, I realized I just couldn’t imagine a life without you anymore. I know I’ve lived 20 years without you perfectly fine, but now that I’ve had you in my life, I don’t ever want to live without you again. I know I could be insensitive sometimes, and I probably did something stupid that made you mad in the past year, but I’m willing to change if you tell me to.”

“All I’m trying to say is,” he took a deep breath and continued, “Please allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. And please don’t divorce me.“

You finally let out a soft laugh. That’s Mr. Darcy’s line in Pride and Prejudice. You remembered reading this part to him during Christmas, and you couldn’t believe that he actually memorized this line.

Fred panicked when you weren’t talking, “But of course, if you really want to, I wouldn’t stop you. I-“

“You know, you don’t have to use your last wish on this,” you stopped him, “I was going to say yes anyway. But If you insist, that won’t be a problem with me.”

Fred’s eyes widened as he processed your words, “Wait, does that mean-“

You answered his question by pulling him down and pressing a kiss on his lips. He was shocked by your sudden action but soon kissed you back with his hands finding your waist and pulling you closer to him.

So this is what it feels like to kiss him, and it’s so much better than how you’ve imagined it would be. It started a soft kiss but soon became more passionate, as if you were making up for all the time you two spent on being oblivious.

“Should’ve done this earlier.” A smirk appeared on Fred’s lips when you finally pulled away.

“Idiot,” you rolled your eyes, but your cheeks were still heated.

He chuckled before giving you another soft peck on the lips. His hands were still resting on your waist.

“And you’re still this idiot’s wife.”

～(warning: people pretending to choke, food mention)~

“Y/N, there’s a Mr. Weasley looking for you,” the receptionist raised her eyebrows and smiled at you.

“Thanks! I’ll be done in a minute!” You quickly finished the last sentence and looked at Luna from across the table with your puppy eyes.

She chuckled, “Alright, you can leave early today.”

“Thanks, Luna, you’re the best!” You flicked your wand to pack up your bag before running to the door.

“Tell Fred I said hi!” you heard Luna’s voice behind you.

“I will!”

A month after your fake marriage ended, you quit your job at Whizz Hard Books. You didn’t want to work in a place that wouldn’t accept who you really are.

Ginny introduced you to Luna Lovegood and The Quibbler. You immediately fell in love with the whimsical ideas and style of The Quibbler, and Luna gave you a new job as you two hit it off very quickly. So this is where you work now. No need to hide your background and use a fake last name. This place accepted you for who you are.

Fred was at the door, opening his arms when he saw you running to him. “Happy one-year anniversary, darling!”

You giggled as you ran into his arms, “and this time, it’s real.”

“Yep,” he pressed a kiss on your forehead, “ready?”

You nodded, and the next second you two apparated to your favorite restaurant.

The dinner was delicious, and for dessert, Fred ordered your favorite cake. But when you were enjoying the cake, you suddenly felt something hard inside. This was extremely dangerous, for you could’ve swallowed it if you weren’t paying attention. You were just about to complain when you finally realized what it was.

It’s a ring!

You were surprised. Was Fred trying to propose? But last time you checked, you two were still legally a married couple.

But this also seemed like what he would do on your one-year anniversary. You were sure he was waiting to see your surprised face, and an idea soon came to you.

You pretended that you were trying to pick up your spoon because your elbow “accidentally” swept it down on the floor a few seconds ago. When you were sure Fred couldn’t see you, you slid the ring on your finger. Then you got up and took another bite of the cake like nothing out of the ordinary happened.

A few seconds later, you started coughing. Your brows were furrowed as your hands reached for your neck like you just choked on something.

Fred was freaking out, knowing that he’s the reason behind all this, “Darling, are you alright?”

The only response you could produce was a few glottal sounds and you looked like you were almost crying.

Fred ran to you as fast as possible. He wanted to help, but he had no idea what to do as his brain was in an absolute mess now. The only thing he could manage to do was apologizing again and again, “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have done that. Baby, I’m so sorry…”

The noise you two were making attracted the other customers’ attention, and you saw a waiter approaching you with his wand, trying to help. You knew it’s probably time to stop this prank.

“Are you talking about this?” You finally stopped acting and waved your left hand in front of him.

Fred’s expression froze, still trying to recover from the terror of accidentally hurting you. After a few moments, he finally realized, “Wait, does that mean…”

“YES!” You chuckled.

Fred’s furrowed brows finally unfolded as a bright smile appeared on his lips. He picked you up and spun you around, “She said YES!”

The crowd around you was clapping and cheering while your husband was cheering himself as well.

You giggled, “Freddie, you know we never went through with the divorce, right? So technically, I’m still your wife.”

“I know, darling, but I figured that I owe you a proper proposal,” he said while pressing multiple soft kisses on your face, “Plus, I just want to make this official. I love you, darling.”

“I love you too,” You smiled as your lips found his again, “I love you most ardently.”

A/N: I can’t believe I really finished this series asdfgfgjk Thank you guys so so much for reading, reblogging, commenting, and liking this series. I can’t tell you how much your support means to me❤️

Series Taglist: @ifilosemyselfagain @theweasleytwinsgirl @bookworm06 @unabashedbookscollector @txtdreamss @sagittarius-flowerchild @rsheridan @ovrwd @anywherebuthere @allaroundaddict @jeminila @secretsofageek @magical-spit @freddieweasleyswife @lilypad-55449 @hufflepuffzutara @honey-honey-5644 @kyloren-peterparker @treblebeth @kyloren-peterparker @fred-sux @rodrickmalfoy @liliputbahn @its-yasbxtch @daydreamgirl8 @305weasley @awritingtree @lucymfer @bberree @malfoy-wife15 @weasleyxmalfoyxstyles @justfollowtheroad @nojamsonmytoast @amc723

(If your name is bolded, Tumblr wont let me tag you. And I’m really sorry if I forgot you!)

(General taglist in reblogged post cuz it can’t fit in one post)

#fred weasley #weasley twins #fred weasley x reader #fred weasley imagine #fred weasley fanfic #fred weasley fanfiction #fred weasley series #fred weasley x malfoy!reader #harry potter fanfic #harry potter fanfiction

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1d-discourseoftheday · 3 years

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Thurs 14 Jan ‘21

Nobody Is Listening, officially out tomorrow, has already arrived in some parts of the world! As of press time it's #1 on itunes in 24 countries and racking up more by the minute, we should have some exciting stats by tomorrow, plus we'll have heard the whole thing! And not only that, the official listening parties begin very soon, and will hopefully have their tech issues sorted by then, cause yes, I bet you can guess what already happened.... YEP WEBSITE CRASH! Yeah baby, that's what we do! But maybe people are right to be excited the chat does include... maybe Zayn? Someone official (“Zayn admin”) anyway! And just because the event hasn't started is no reason not to gather and start screaming about the album, whether it's out in your area, you're listening to a leak (Niall voice: No Judgement... except he would actually be mad about that lol), or you only are looking at the lyrics which tbh is about more than I can handle all by itself. You guys there is a LOT there, I was going to pull a few things but it's SO MUCH. We'll be unpacking (and soaking in) all this for a while to come, wow.

Niall popped on twitter to promo the new JC Stewart song he co-wrote, and he picked a question about whether he was interested in doing more writing for other people to answer; he said “always writing something, this one just felt right for JC and he put his twist on it.” He followed Olivia Rodrigo and posted about how much he likes her new song, Driver's License (“this song is the real deal... beautifully written”), defended his comment (a series of laugh cry emoji) on a meme post using a pic from the WMYB video, said not drinking this month has been “easy!” and he did a “can't sleep talk to me” AMA-- he recommends MGMT, Kacey Musgraves, Artic Monkeys, and, for crossover excitement, Lucius (who feature on TPWK) and DMA'S (who feature as Louis' fave band)! He also agressively rejected some fan fashion suggestions (“no no no no” “I will not”) of outifts that, uh, look AN AWFUL LOT like ones he has worn to me? If he's serious (and not quietly seething about how we don't get his humor) I have to respect that kind of passion about nearly invisible detail tbh. And speaking of attention to detail! An article about the RAH livestream came out in a crew trade publication so there's just reams of very specific tech detail; but there's also plenty of people saying nice things about Niall! “Niall was very involved in every step of the process. He really gained a full grasp of the situation and during the promotion of the show, he really wanted to educate the public, and his fanbase, about what was going on in the sector,” for example. Tonight Niall told us he would want to do another virtual concert but he'd “need a good reason... a music launch or something.”

Liam has a new video for Hugo Man (that's a perfume in case you were wondering); he says about 2020, “I think we've all learned to rest a little bit more this year, I hope we all keep a little a bit of time for ourselves.” HAVE YA learned to do that though Liam, HAVE YA? Where is this sabbatical you said you were taking right now that you definitely were in great need of? Honey please-- just take a break! We worry! Sigh. Anyway also he changed his social headers and bio in honor of the new projects (SIGH) he's doing right now- it says “here's to the future...” (was previously ticket lnks) which would be a great bio to have up indefinitely while taking a break... or something... maybe he should do that...

Hey remember that YA novel about closeted boybanders in love that we were like, well, at least we won't have to deal with that until next year? WELL GUESS WHAT YEAR IT IS NOW-- the release date isn't until Dec 7 which is VERY FAR AWAY but I guess the hype is beginning now; the title and cover art for If This Gets Out, by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich, have been revealed. Becky Albertalli (who once wrote a book [Love Simon] about a gay football player with Louis in his name whose secret code name was “bluegreen”) posted to hype up the book, but then followed up with a long post to tell people that in fact you-know-who were NOT the source of those details in Love Simon, and that she is now a new Harry Styles fan but knows nothing about any of that. Sophie Gonzales, who drew the cover art for her new book- a picture of a light haired guy with a long fringe and a curly haired brunet locked in eye contact and a silhouette of the fictional band they're in that looks just like the famous Steal My Girl video shot (or Louis' Walls video reference of same)- says “this book is fictional, and while we're aware of what Larry is, this book was not written about that.”

And in today's Holivia corner, not much action! A mere trickle! Cosmo published a timeline of events that reads just like a tumblr masterpost, complete with 'what is the truth' gifs at the blatant contradictions, but that's about it. “You live in my imagination**,” indeed; much like the rumor started by a single galaxy brained anon claiming that Harry definitely fucked... wait for it... LIAM'S DAD (like, his actual father, Geoff Payne, not some kind of euphemism.) Someone tell Page Six! I have no comment until I get some good analysis of astrological compatibility from their expert...

(**Harry Styles, Olivia, 2015)

#zayn #niall horan #Liam payne #harry styles #I'm totally here for Maya posting a steady stream of cute dog content but... it certainly feels a little uh fami fami fami familiar #I think the reason Louis and Liam are in near constant contact right now is not work related #but I can definitely see some of Louis' stuff bleeding into the things Liam is doing and I can't help but feel it's related #maya henry #if this gets out

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ofstarsandvibranium · 4 years

Text

Traditions of the Court

Fandom: Criminal Minds (Royalty AU)

Pairing: Spencer Reid x F!Reader

Summary: You grew up around Spencer, since his mom was your teacher growing up. You two grow up together and he ends up taking his mother’s place, while you become ready to become Queen. But what’s to happen when you and he realize that you have feelings for each other?

A/N: this is like 3.5k words because I didn’t feel like breaking it up into chapters. Anyway, sit back, relax, and enjoy!

“But mother-”

“No, Y/N. You need to attend your classes like everyone else. Just because you’re the princess, doesn’t mean you can’t get an education like the other children in the court.”

You groan as you drag yourself into the library where several other children of royal court members are. Mrs. Reid’s face lightens up when she sees you, “Y/N, dear! Wonderful! We’re just about to start! Take any available seat and we’ll get started.”

You sigh as you trudge over to an empty seat near the back next to a boy who doesn’t look like a he’d be a child of the court, “Who’re you?” the young boy is startled when you address him and pushes his glasses up his nose, “I’m, um, Spencer. Spencer Reid. My mom’s the teacher.”

“Are you even allowed to be here?”

He nodded, “Yes, uh, the Queen, your mother, said it was alright. Do-Do you want me to move, Princess Y/N?”

You sigh and shake your head, “No, it’s okay. And you can just call me, Y/N.”

“Oh, okay, Y/N.” Spencer mumbles and goes to pay attention to his mother’s instructions. Throughout class, he sees you looking sad, dejected. So while his mother is helping another student, he leans over, “Are you okay?”

You shrug, “Not really fond of going to class.”

“How come?”

“I don’t think it’s very interesting. I’d rather be learning how to defend myself with my father and the Royal Guards.”

“Well, if you’re going to be queen someday, it’s important for you to know this stuff. The geography of our kingdoms and surrounding kingdoms, the history of our country and your family, how to speak publically, appear proper, all of that stuff.”

You look at him a little confused, “You’re not even a court member’s child. Why are you here? It’s not important for you.”

He shrugged, “I like to learn new things, plus, I’ll be taking over teaching when my mom gets too old. So it’s better to learn stuff now rather than later. I remember all kinds of stuff.”

You hummed, looking down at the books in front of you, “Think you can help me then? Since all of this isn’t my kind of thing?”

“S-Sure.”

It was during class and the extra tutoring on the side that you and Spencer ended up getting close. From when you were seven year olds up to when you were eighteen, he’d been by your side. He’d read while you attended your fencing and archery lessons. He’d wait for you while you shadowed your parents during court meetings. He was there when your father died due to an unknowing heart attack. He was there for it all until...

“You’re leaving me?” you looked at him with saddened eyes.

“It’ll only be for a few years. I want to travel around and learn as much as I can before I come back and take my mother’s place as the court’s educator.” his hands rest on your shoulders and you look down in solemn, “It’s not forever, Y/N.”

“But we’re always together, Spence. You’ve been there for everything and-and-”

“Do you want me to stay?” he asks softly. You look up at him and he asks again, “Y/N, do you want me to stay? If you do, then I’ll stay.” you search his eyes and see that he’s completely serious. But you also see the yearning in his eyes, the need to explore and learn more.

“I do, but I won’t ask you to say. I can’t be selfish with you, Spencer.” you sigh and choke back a sob, “You’ll write to me, right?”

“Every chance I get,” he says with a smile and he pulls you into a hug, “I’ll miss you, Y/N.”

You hug him back with a sigh, “I’ll miss you too, Spencer.”

3 Years Later

Spencer leans against the carriage watching landscape and farmlands pass by. It’s been seen he’s left his home. In the three years he’s earned higher levels of education, learned so many new things, met so many new people. And then when his three years was up, he was going back home.

He was so anxious to be home again. In a good way and a bad way. Good because he gets to see his mother again, bad because, well, he’ll be seeing you again.

Within his first year abroad, you and Spencer exchanged letters. When the second year rolled around, the letters lessened. Eventually, the third year, he received no word from you. He didn’t know if something happened or if you just no longer wanted to keep contact. Either way, he didn’t send a letter back to you, not wanting to be a nuisance.

Growing up by your side, a love blossomed within Spencer. A love for you. Yes, you struggled with your lessons, but the more Spencer helped, the more you were able to get it. Eventually, you didn’t need him to tutor you anymore, but you still wanted him around. You two played with each other, read in the library. You tried to teach him fencing, but that didn’t go well. Despite your differences, you found friendship within one another. And for Spencer, he found love.

He was fourteen when he realized he loved you. You and he were in the gardens. He sat under a tree reading while you went around collecting flowers. He didn’t look up until he heard you giggling.

He saw the mischievous look in your eyes, “What are you up to?”

“Nothing. I have a gift for you.”

“What is it?” from behind your back, you pulled out a flower crown you’ve woven together of branches and flowers, “That’s for me?”

“Yup!” you bend down to rest it on his head, “There. You’re the king of the gardens now!” you giggled, sitting beside him and resting along the trunk of the tree.

Spencer looks to you and he feels his breath hitch when he sees that soft smile on your lips. You looked so pretty, so happy. He imagined leaning in and kissing you, but that wasn’t right. You’re the princess and he’s just the son of your teacher. You could never be.

From then on, despite his ever growing love for you, he kept his feelings hidden. And it broke his heart when he told you that he was leaving. It broke his heart even more when you stopped exchanging letters with him.

But all of that must be pushed aside. He has a job to do now.

__________

“This is so unnecessary,” you groan at the big poofy dress you were currently trying on. Your friends, Emily and Jennifer, or as she liked to be referred to as JJ, both snicker at you, “Tradition is tradition,” Emily jests and you roll your eyes.

“Once I’m queen, to Hell with tradition,” you grumble, causing your friends to snicker more, “No more poofy dressed or corsets forced upon me or any lady of the court!” Your bedroom doors swing open and you dive behind the changing screen with a yelp. You peek from behind and see Penelope rushing in.

“Oh, it’s you, Penelope,” you step out from behind the changing screen.

Penelope practically stumbles over to you, slightly out of breath, “I-I-You-You need to-” she stops, clutching her sides, “Hold on,” you, Emily, and JJ smirk at each other in amusement and Penelope straightens up, “You will not believe who I saw!”

“Do tell, my analyst friend.”

“Spencer Reid!” she exclaimed with a squeal.

Emily and JJ sat up, “Spencer Reid? As in our teacher’s son?” JJ asked.

“The Spencer who attended lessons with us and the one that Y/N was sooo in love with when we were children?”

You scowled at your friends, marching over to your bed and whacking them with your pillow, “I wasn’t in love with him!”

“Yes, you were!” the three women, proceeding to giggle at your frown.

“Whatever! We haven’t exchanged letters within a year and a half. I don’t owe him my presence and I don’t expect him wanting to see me.”

Your door begins to open again and, with another yelp, you dive back behind the changing screen.

You hear your mother’s voice as she greets the three ladies in your room and then she addresses you, “How does the gown fit, Y/N?”

You frown when you come out from behind the screen once more, “I hate it.”

“As did I when I was your age.”

“So why do I have to wear it?!”

Your mother sighs and shakes her head, “Y/N, this dress has been passed down for decades. Many women from the royal family wore this dress on their twenty-first birthday. It has a special significance in this family. And since you’re part of this family, you’re wearing it.”

You mumble out a, “Fine,” and your mother nods, “Perfect. Now change out of that and hang it. Also, someone would like to see you in the gardens. Don’t keep them waiting.”

Your mother leaves and once she’s gone, Emily, JJ, and Penelope help you out of your gown and corset.

_____________

Spencer has never felt so unsure about himself. Despite your lack of contact, he never once stopped thinking about you, never stopped caring about you. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe he shouldn’t have requested your presence at all. He slips your birthday present back into his satchel and he’s ready to leave, but he hears your voice and it makes him freeze.

“You requested to see me, sir?”

He turns around and he’s taken back. In the three years he’s been away, you’ve grown into a beautiful young woman. The day that your day gown hangs around your body, the way that the sunlight hits your skin, it creates this glow about you that makes you seem...ethereal.

“S-Spencer,” you practically whisper.

He approaches you but still keeps some distance away, “Hi, um, Y/N-Princess-Princess Y/N?”

You can’t help the giggle that escapes you, “Y/N is still fine, Spencer.”

“Oh. Okay, um,” he opens his satchel and digs out your present, “Happy birthday.” he holds it out and you see that it’s a book with a ribbon of your favorite color wrapped around it.

You take it, undoing the ribbon and flipping open the book. You see Spencer handwriting and your name written out - Dear Y/N...

You flip through other pages, seeing your name at the header and he proceeds to tell you what he’s done throughout his day, what he’s learned. You see little doodles, pressed leaves and flowers within the pages.

You close the book and look back at Spencer, “What is this?”

“After our letters stopped, I-I don’t know-I felt the need to continue to write to you so I started a journal. Telling you everything about my time away from home.”

“Why?”

“...Because I missed you.”

“If you missed me, you shouldn’t have stopped writing me back.”

Spencer looks at you with confusion, “I didn’t stop writing you back. You stopped writing me back!”

“No, I didn’t!”

“Yes, you did! I sent two or three letters within weeks of each other and I never heard a word back! You just stopped replying!”

“Princess Y/N,” you look back to see Lady Strauss looking at you with a stern gaze, “You’re needed at court.”

You clench your jaw and look back to Spencer, “I need to go,” you push the book back to Spencer and pick up your gown, walking away from him. You pass Lady Strauss with a nod and she watches you head to the court room.

Lady Strauss then turns to Spencer, “Know your place, boy. She’s a princess. You’re a teacher. You’re from two different worlds. It’s not meant to be.” with that, the older woman leaves, leaving Spencer to feel confused and dejected.

____________

“The audacity of him!” you gasp when your handmaidens pull at the strings of your corset, “He really thinks that I stopped replying to his letters? Why would I? How could I? And erase our years of friendship together? I can’t believe him!” you gasp again and your maidens apologize, “It’s alright. These things are just....horrendous,” you grumble.

It took hours to get you ready for your birthday ball, but you were ready. You waited for everyone to enter the ballroom, standing by your mother’s side. This was supposed to be a happy event, but you just felt so sad and angry.

“Smile, darling. It’s a joyous occasion,” your mother mumbles before the doors swing open for you two to enter the ballroom. You put on a fake smile and entered the room, everyone bowing as you passed them.

“Everyone, please enjoy yourselves!” your mother announced. The band started up again and you immediately went for some wine.

“Already?” you hear as you gulp down an entire glass. You turn to see JJ and Emily smirking at you.

You roll your eyes, “I’ve had a long day.”

“So...how was seeing Spencer again?” JJ asked with a smirk and you narrowed your eyes at her, “What? Word travels fast!”

You took another glass of wine, gulping that down, “I swear, Jennifer, you’ll turn out to be likes these gossiping hags,” you muttered, causing Emily to burst into laughter.

“If it wasn’t your birthday, Y/N, I would pour wine over that hideous dress.”

“Please, do.”

You smile at your best friends as you hook your arms around theirs, “Now let’s go mingle, ladies.”

______________

After dinner, your mother stood up, wine glass in hand, “Everyone. I’d like to thank you again for coming tonight to celebrate my Y/N’s twenty-first birthday. Not only does this year signify you finally becoming a woman, Y/N, it also means that this will be the year that you will find a husband.” you nervously gulp as your mother raises her glass up, everyone, including you, doing the same.

“To Princess Y/N!”

Like earlier before, you gulped down your wine, excusing yourself for some air. You move to a balcony that overlooks the kingdom. The cool air refreshes your face. The music and festivities continue inside while you’re trying to calm yourself outside.

“Are you okay?” you jump, hearing a sudden voice.

You look over your shoulder to see Spencer. He’s in a white button-up with black slacks. It’s not as luxurious as what the other men are wearing inside, but you had admit he still looks good.

You look back out to the kingdom when you ask, “What are you doing here? I don’t recall you being invited.”

“My mom was invited and I’m her plus one,” he states as he joins you at the stone railing of the balcony. He lets out a deep breath and rests his drink onto the platform, “What happened to us, Y/N?”

“You stopped-”

“I didn’t. But apparently neither did you, so it begs the question: who stopped our letters from reaching each other?”

“Princess Y/N,” you both turn around to see Lady Strauss, “You should really be mingling with your guests inside instead of this peasant boy.”

Spencer’s jaw clenches and nose flares in anger. For the second time today, Lady Strauss has interrupted you both and has insulted Spencer. Again, you excuse yourself from Spencer’s presence.

“What did I say-”

“She looked upset. I was just checking on her, that’s it,” he sneers and moves to leave, but Lady Strauss grabs him tightly by the wrist, “Stay away from her, boy. You can never be together. What do you have to offer her? A sickly mother and an annoying array of knowledge? You have nothing to provide for a princess. So whatever silly feelings you had for her growing up, get rid of them,” she sneers and let’s go of his wrist.

Spencer rubs his wrist as he goes back to his mother. How does Lady Strauss know so much about him?

________________

Spencer allowed his mother to continue teaching until the end of the month. In the meantime, he’d be refreshing up on information in another part of the library, while also doing a secret project on the side. The librarian and historical analyst, Penelope, aided him whenever he needed. Penelope had a certain set of skills that were very helpful on finding certain information.

“So what Sir Derek from the Royal Guards told me that he heard from Lady Emily that she heard from Lady JJ that she-”

“Penelope-”

“Right! So, Strauss assigned some men to interfere with your letters. According to whoever our sources may be, she didn’t like how you two got very close, thus ruining her plans of getting our dearest princess wedded to her son.”

“It was her behind this all along. That-That-That hag! Because of her, I’ve lost my friendship with Y/N and now I may never get to tell her how I really feel!”

“Well, my knowledgeable friend, our dear princess will be coming in soon to read to some of the court’s children. You can tell her then!”

Spencer liked the idea but he shook his head, “I can’t. Despite my anger towards Lady Strauss, she’s right. Y/N and I are from two different worlds. If she did return my affections and we did end up together, I’m to be king alongside her. I’m not king material, Penelope.”

The analyst shrugged, “You’re kind, loyal, caring, logical, strategic. Sounds like a king to me.”

“But I can’t protect the kingdom if need be. I never found interest in swordfighting or archery.”

“Y/N does, so that means you don’t need to worry about that.”

“But still Y/N. I’m...I’m not enough.”

“Let me decide on that,” Spencer heard your voice and looked up to see you standing there some distance away.

“Y/N!” he stood up abruptly, “I-uh-”

“Uuuuhhh coming!” Penelope cried out and scrambled away from the two of you.

You slowly approached him and he gulped, “H-How much of that did you hear?”

“Which part? The part about Lady Strauss being a scheming hag? Or the part about you having affections for me and being afraid that I won’t return the sentiment?”

“Y/N-”

“I was so heartbroken when your letters stopped coming in. I thought-I thought you no longer wanted to speak to me, that you found comfort in someone else. I loved you and I felt my heart shatter when I didn’t hear a peep from you. And now it turns out that one of my mother’s advisors was behind my heartbreak and not you. It’s...overwhelming.”

“You loved me?” Spencer asked in disbelief and you nodded, “I thought it was obvious, honestly. How I always wanted to spend time you, how I barely entertained being the presence of other boys.”

“I thought it was because we were best.”

“No, it was because I loved you. And seeing you again on my birthday, despite me being upset with you, everything came rushing back. I don’t think I ever really stopped loving you, Spencer.”

“Neither did I,” he breathed out, hands coming up to cup your face, “May I-May I kiss you?”

“Please,” you whispered, leaning in for your lips to meet his. The kiss was soft and gentle and everything you always imagined a first kiss to be.

When you both pull away for air, you’re both smiling and chuckling, relishing the feeling of being in each other’s arms.

“Marry me,” he murmurs.

“What?”

“We’ve loved each other since we were children. And I can’t promise that I will be a good king, but I’m willing to learn to be, as long as you’re by my side.”

“Do you mean it?” you ask with such elatedness.

He nods, “Yes. So, will you?”

“Yes! Oh god, yes, I will marry you!” you kiss him again, but pull back with a gasp, “What will my mother say?”

“She will say that you have her blessing,” you see your mother standing there beside a nervous Penelope.

“I’m-I’m sorry, Y/N. She was looking for you and she’s the queen and I didn’t think you two would be-well-”

You chuckle out, “It’s okay, Penelope.”

Your mother walks towards the both of you, hands clasped in front of her, “I always knew you two were meant for each other, ever since you were children. It doesn’t surprise me that you love each other and want to be with one another.” she has a fond smile on her face as she glances down at your intertwined hands.

“You really give us your blessing, mother? Even if Spencer isn’t part of the court?”

“Well, you always said that some traditions need to die out. Might as well start now,” she smiles widely and you throw your arms around her, whispering, “Thank you.”

_______________

Months later into the year, you’re standing beside Spencer wearing a beautiful red and gold dress while he stands before you wearing the most regal uniform you’ve ever seen. Your wedding, a month previous to this, was a beautiful one filled with love, tears, and kisses.

The officiant holds out the crown above you, “I now pronounce you Queen Y/N and King Spencer. Long live the king and queen!”

With crowns donning your hands, you and Spencer stand, hand in hand, while everyone proclaims, “Long live the king and queen!”

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid imagine #criminal minds #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds au #royalty au

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averykedavra · 3 years

Text

Will You Be There To Follow

I’m back! And I bring fluff! I have a million other things I should be doing, but @qprdukeceitweek has an adorable list of prompts for this week, so I figured I’d write something for a few of them! It was a good excuse for completely plotless, rambling fluff. Plus my own QPP @becca-becky likes Dukeceit, so I couldn’t not.

(Title from Anywhere I Go by Vicetone. You can find this story on Ao3 here.)

Prompt: Day 1. Snakes and rats.

Pairing: QPR Dukeceit

Words: 3388

Warnings: death and murder mentions, kidnapping mention, fire mention (but all joking), food, sympathetic Janus and Remus with one mention of Patton, mentions of many animals including spiders and rats

Remus and Janus weren’t exactly a typical couple.

They’d met in college. At three in the morning, when Remus was frantically looking for the fire extinguisher and barged into Janus’ room by mistake. After successfully putting out the flaming Hot Pockets and thwarting the teachers, Remus had offered Janus an ashy hand and an invitation to hang out. Janus agreed.

Now they were partners, lodged in the sketchiest apartment in town, and they’d only gotten in trouble with the law twice! Janus worked at the local tattoo parlor while Remus scraped his way to a bachelor’s degree. They lived off a diet of ramen and cola. Remus had suggested marriage to make taxes easier, and Janus argued that they’d be succumbing to the system.

Remus proposed anyway. Janus said yes.

So they weren’t typical, but they had followed the usual milestones--graduate, move out, get married. Janus looked viscerally horrified when Remus reminded him of this. He suggested they escape to the mountains, in order to escape the pressure of the status quo. Remus said he didn’t mind doing all the normal stuff if Jan was there, and anyway, quietly subverting expectations was the best. Janus rolled his eyes.

Graduate. Move out. Get married. Obviously, the next step was making a family--and Remus didn’t really want or need a family, but it was a good thing to tease Janus about. And a good way to make sure they were still on the same page.

That entire thought process made since to Remus.

So he wasn’t really sure why Janus almost shrieked when Remus asked “Do you want to get a baby?”

“What?” Janus managed after a few seconds. “A baby?”

“Mhm!” Remus continued chopping the carrots. “You wanna get one?”

“Get one?” Janus repeated. “What do you want a baby for?”

“I don’t, I’m just seeing if you do!” Remus shrugged. “And ‘cause of the usual baby things, right? Keep us company.”

“A sniveling infant will definitely be wonderful company.” Janus turned around to look at Remus, with his classic I’m-not-sure-whether-to-laugh face. “Where’d you get this idea?”

“It’s, like, the usual order, right?” Remus spread out his hands, and Janus ducked to avoid the carrot knife. “Move into apartment. Get married. Have baby. Have another baby. Go to soccer practice. Mortgage the house. Have an affair. Read a lot of newspapers. Slowly grow to loathe each other.”

Janus snickered. “I’m not keen on any of that.”

“Well, we could just grab a baby and see if we like it?” Remus asked. “We could always put it back later.”

“We could--” Janus blinked at him and snickered again. “Whose baby would this be?”

“Ours!”

“How would we get it, then?”

“Adoption!” Remus suggested. “Or kidnapping.”

“I knew it!” Janus declared. “I knew this was another attempt at getting permission for kidnapping.”

“Aw, but it’s just a baby! It won’t mind!” Remus stuck out his bottom lip. “We can steal it from rich people. Please?”

“I’m not sure if my usual ‘steal only from the rich’ rule applies to newborn children.”

“We could train it up!” Remus continued, grinning. “Teach it the ways of the world. And then it can carry on our legacy.”

Janus dried his hands. “What legacy?”

“Subterfuge, sappiness, and systematically undermining the government.”

“Right, right, that legacy.” Janus laughed. “Be that as it may, I’m not exactly eager to change diapers. Get me a baby that doesn’t poop, cry, or need any sort of food, and we’re golden.”

“Hmm,” Remus said, scrunching up his face. “So you just want a talking baby doll.”

“No!” Janus folded his arms. “Those always murder you.”

“It’d be a wild way to go, though.” Remus rocked back and forth on the kitchen floor. Janus carefully took the knife from his hand and put it in the sink. “What’s something couples do instead of babies--”

“We’re not exactly a traditional couple,” Janus pointed out. “Most couples kiss each other, and don’t have a warrant for their arrest in Oklahoma.”

“That was completely not my fault.” Remus thought for a few more seconds. “Oh! Oh, Jan! We could get a pet!”

Janus tilted his head. “That would solve some of the problems.”

“We could get a pet,” Remus said, warming to the idea, “and we could hang out with it! And if it was a big one, it could guard the door from thieves.”

“A pet,” Janus repeated, and Remus squealed when he saw Janus start to nod. “That’s not a terrible idea, actually. Even if it is upholding outdated marital traditions.”

“Nah, animals are way beyond all that!” Remus spread his hands. “It’s a cool living organism! All blood and bones and sinew! Don’t classify pets with, like, amatonormativity.”

“Hmm,” Janus said. “How much would a pet cost?”

“Depends on the pet, right?”

“Hmm,” Janus said again. “And what pet would you suggest--”

Remus beamed. “Spider monkey.”

“What?”

“It’s a monkey! But it’s really long.” Remus wiggled his fingers to convey the length. “I wonder if it eats spiders or just looks like one.”

“We are not getting a pet monkey,” Janus said. “They poop.”

“Every animal poops, Jan, you’re not getting out of that one.”

“Ugh,” Janus complained. “Plus I’m pretty sure that’s an illegal pet--”

“So?”

“So illegal pets wouldn’t be happy in the apartment,” Janus said. “Either that, or they’re endangered and poached. We’re going to aim for a legal pet here.”

“Well, there go half my ideas!” Remus pouted. “What pet do you wanna get, buzzkill?”

“I don’t know,” Janus said, leaning against the counter. “We decided on this three seconds ago, I haven’t searched the whole catalog.”

“Are there pet catalogs?”

“There are probably lists online.” Janus’ hand drifted towards his pocket before he glanced at the half-chopped carrots and various kitchen implements. “We need to make lunch first, though--”

“Nope!” Remus threw open the cupboard and grabbed a bag of chips. “Makeshift lunch. Let’s go.”

Janus watched him with a small smile. “You’re really excited about this, aren’t you?”

“Idea!” Remus said by way of explanation. “Animal!”

“Animal,” Janus agreed, giving the carrots a regretful look before leading the way into the living room. “Pass the chips.”

Remus tossed him the chip bag and flopped onto the couch. The couch gave its usual pitiful squeak, and Remus kicked his feet up onto the armrest just to spite it. Janus curled into the other corner of the couch and pulled out his phone.

“Okay, here’s a list of possible pets,” he said. “We could--”

“Hold on!” Remus raised a finger before rolling off the couch. He yanked at the mass of papers under the couch before pulling out a sheaf of poster paper and pulling it over the TV. “Meeting time?”

“Alright,” Janus shrugged and grabbed a nearby marker. “I can write.”

“Cool!” Remus yanked away the remnants of the last meeting’s notes, which involved a parking lot vandalism and choices of flannels. “This meeting shall come to order. The subject is possible pets.”

“I’ll write a list and we can work through the possibilities.” Janus uncapped the marker and scribbled a header for the list. “Let’s see…cat, dog, fish…”

“Hamster,” Remus suggested, collapsing back onto the couch. “Gerbil? What’s the difference?”

“Guinea pigs too,” Janus added. “Birds--”

“Birds is a category.”

“So?”

“If birds are all one entry, blend together the hamsters and guinea pigs.”

“I already wrote them--” Janus sighed and wrote birds, etc. on the paper. “Happy?”

“Weasels,” Remus said. “Ferrets. Monkeys.”

Janus wrote down weasels and ferrets, but not monkeys. “Snakes. Snails.”

“Snails?” Remus repeated.

“Hermit crabs.”

“People have pet crabs?”

“Geckos,” Janus continued, seemingly unfazed. “Spiders--”

“Spiders?” Remus almost yelled. “Where are you getting this stuff?”

“Old roommate in college was a total animal lover,” Janus said. “Hmm...ants.”

“We’re not getting ants,” Remus said.

“Shh, voting comes later.” Janus stepped back and tapped the marker on his chin. “Is that all?”

“Frogs?” Remus suggested. He wasn’t sure if they could be pets, but maybe if he spitballed animals, he’d land on a correct one. “Zebras? Rats? Dragons? Hedgehogs?”

“Two or three of those are real, I think,” Janus said. He wrote down most of them, disappointingly leaving out dragons. “Aren’t there more kinds of lizards?”

“Write lizards, etc, like the coward you are.” Remus wriggled back and forth on the couch. “Rabbits?”

“Rabbits,” Janus agreed. “Mice. Turtles?”

“Don’t ask me, you’re the expert-by-proxy.”

“There’s got to be a few more.” Janus read through the list. “Are goats pets?”

“Are horses?”

“We can’t fit a horse in our apartment.”

“You said it wasn’t the veto stage yet,” Remus pointed out.

Janus groaned and wrote horse on the list. “Anything else, before I can quickly cross out horse?”

Remus kicked his feet in the air as he thought. “Tiger?”

“Not a pet.”

“Only if you’re a coward.”

“Let’s just say that’s all the pets,” Janus said. “Can I cross out horse now?”

Remus sighed. “Fine.”

Janus crossed out horse gleefully and with vigor.

“Now cross out ants,” Remus said. “They’re only good for eating.”

“I sincerely hope you’re referring to their eating.”

Remus grinned.

Janus crossed out ants and skimmed the list. “I’m not too keen on snails, are you?”

“I still think you’re making them up.”

“Snails exist.”

“Not as pets!” Remus waved a hand. “Toss ‘em.”

“Alright.” Janus edited the list. “No fish.”

“What?” Remus frowned. “Why?”

“They’re absolute nonentities! Why get a fish when you can just be lonely?” Janus shrugged. “Besides, I am ninety percent sure you’d eat the fish.”

Remus crossed his arms. “That rules out all the pets, then!”

“Ew.” Janus sighed. “I’ll just cross off the smallest ones, to be safe. No mice, no frogs--okay, one of the gerbil-hamster-guinea-pigs are smaller than the others, but I have no idea which one--”

“Cross ‘em all off,” Remus said. “We’re not seven, we can do better.”

“If you say so.” Janus crossed off the several similar rodents. “Thoughts on hermit crabs?”

“Crunchy!”

“They don’t exactly possess personality.” Janus paused before scribbling through the hermit crabs, then the hedgehogs.

“Hey, c’mon, we vote first!” Remus leaned over and grabbed at the marker. “What’s wrong with hedgehogs?”

Janus looked contemptuous. “Pointy.”

“Yeah, we can use them as projectiles!”

“Oh, good point.” Janus readied his marker. “Eliminate all animals that you could possibly use as a weapon.”

“Aw, come on, Jan!” Remus snatched at the marker again. “At least lemme keep the ones that would survive it!”

“No.” Janus laughed. “Okay, but seriously, we aren’t getting a bird. I have enough birds in my life already.”

“The pigeons wanna be your friend,” Remus said. “Let them.”

“The pigeons have declared war after you fed them hot cheetos.” Janus glanced suspiciously at the window. “I shall not let them near me.”

“Fine, fine, no birds.” Remus blew a raspberry at Janus, who stuck out his tongue. “At this rate, we won’t have a single possibility left.”

“There’s still a good amount.” Janus read off the list. “Geckos, lizards etc, dogs, cats, rats, snakes, spiders, weasels and ferrets.”

“Geckos or lizards?” Remus thought about it. “They’re not very cuddly.”

“So?” Janus gestured at him. “I already cuddle with you, I don’t need another cuddly animal.”

“It’d be nice to, like, hold it though. Pet it.” Remus petted the air as an example. “Hairy!”

“Hairy means shedding,” Janus argued. “I’m not getting fur all over my shirt.”

“Spiders don’t shed!” Remus suggested. “And some of them are real hairy.”

“I hate spiders.”

“Why?”

“Just do.”

“Well, I hate geckos,” Remus decided. “‘Cause I said so.”

Janus let out a long breath. “Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way. What animal, out of these, do you want to have?”

Remus hummed and looked at the list. Dog, cat, rabbit--all too mainstream. A gecko was slimy. A snake had no arms, and that was sad. Ferrets were cool, but not really what Remus would choose--

“What do you want?” Remus asked.

Janus made a non-committal noise that signified he’d already made his choice and was just trying to be nice. “You?”

“On three,” Remus said. “Three--two--one--”

“Snake.”

“Rat.”

They both stared at each other for a moment.

“Rat?” Janus finally said. “You can’t just grab something out of the sewer and call it a pet. We talked about this.”

“No, no, a nice rat!” Remus bounced up from the sofa. “A pet one! People have those, right? We could get a rat. It’s furry but I don’t think it sheds, it doesn’t take up much space--please?”

“Huh,” Janus said. He looked back to the paper and circled rat. “Alright, that can be our first possibility.”

“And you said snake?”

“Snake,” Janus said, his eyes lighting up. “Perhaps a corn snake? Any sort of snake would work.”

“Alright,” Remus said. “Snake.”

Janus happily circled snake on the list before sitting on the couch and grabbing the unopened bag of chips. Remus made grabby hands and Janus passed him a few chips. Remus munched on the chips and Janus looked like he was thinking.

“Rat or snake?” Janus finally asked.

“Both?”

“Sure, put a rat and a snake together, they’ll get along great.”

“Separate terrariums?”

“Defeats the purpose of cuddling.” Janus popped a chip into his mouth. “Besides, I don’t think we can spring for two pets. We’ll barely be able to afford one.”

“We don’t have to pay for the electric bill,” Remus suggested. “We can light a fire, like cavemen.”

“Arson isn’t the answer to everything.”

“You just lack imagination.”

“We’ll have to choose one,” Janus said. “And since any vote we have is a tie--”

“Nose goes!” Remus smacked himself in the face. “Ow!”

Janus hadn’t even budged. “No.”

“I won the nose goes!”

“We’re going to do this like civilized partners.” Janus leaned forward. “We’re going to discuss this, listen to each other, and come to a reasonable conclusion.”

Remus groaned. “Come on. Can’t we draw straws?”

“This is a pet we’re talking about, not who does the dishes!” Janus waved his hand. “A living, breathing animal. We need to take this seriously! It’s a big decision!”

“If you wanted to take it seriously, you shouldn’t have agreed right away and skipped lunch over it,” Remus pointed out. “You jumped into this just like I did.”

“Well, you were being all--” Janus twisted his face. “Excited. I got swept up in the moment.”

“Aw, really?” Remus’ eyes widened. “Aww, Jan, you’re such a softie--”

“Shut up,” Janus complained, swatting at Remus’ face. “Shut up.”

“You love me.”

“Yes, we’re engaged, that’s been established, shut up.” Janus huffed, his face dark with blush. “The point is, we rushed into this.”

“Yeah, duh.”

“This is probably a terrible idea.”

“Like usual, yeah.”

“We shouldn’t even get a pet, there’s no reason to--”

“Oh, see, that’s where you’re wrong.” Remus spread his hands. “There isn’t a reason not to.”

Janus stared at him for a second. “That’s all you’ve got?”

“Yep!”

“Okay.” Janus nodded. “Okay, fine. Rat or snake?”

“Hmm.” Remus thought about it. “Rats have cool tails!”

“So do snakes,” Janus said. “Snakes have fangs.”

“Rats have cool little feet.”

“Snakes have scales.”

“Rats can spread rabies, I think.”

“That’s not a good thing!” Janus paused. “Also, can’t snakes spread salmonella?”

“I’d much rather have rabies.” Remus blew out a long breath. “You really want a snake, don’t you?”

“I don’t want any pet, this was your idea.” Janus waited a few seconds, and Remus let him wait. “I--I would prefer a snake, though. Patton had one back in college, it sat on my shoulders while I studied. I liked it.”

“Then--” Remus swallowed. “Then sure. Snake.”

“What?” Janus’ eyebrows came together. “Remus, are you sure--”

“Snakes are cool! Very sneaky and cool, and some of them are poisonous.” Remus leaned forward and bumped Janus’ shoulder. Janus instinctively leaned into him, and Remus pulled Janus closer and into his lap. “I don’t mind, Jan.”

“It was your idea to get a pet,” Janus said weakly. “Besides, rats are also cool! You could have an army, like the Pied Piper.”

“Snakes can swallow mice whole!”

“Rats can jump more than three feet in the air!”

“Snakes don’t have arms!”

Janus opened his mouth to fire back, and Remus screwed up his face in preparation to retaliate.

Janus giggled.

Remus snickered.

And they both burst out laughing.

“You could be the rat king,” Janus forced out between laughs. “You could rule the--the city.”

“You could use your snake to hypnotize people,” Remus countered.

“You could--” Janus dissolved into giggles and leaned into Remus’ chest. Remus tucked his chin on top of Janus’ head and enjoyed the way Janus melted into his arms.

“We don’t have to decide now,” Remus said after he managed to control his laughter. “Like, not even close to now. It’s been twenty minutes.”

“Fair, we should have an actual lunch.” Janus kicked aside the chip bag and glanced at the paper. “We did go a bit overboard--I don’t even know where we could get a pet.”

Remus watched Janus stand up and start to clean up the mess. They definitely didn’t need to figure it out, but Remus kinda did want to pursue this--at least because of the excitement in Janus’ eyes every time Remus pulled him into something stupid and ill-advised.

Deciding on a pet--one pet--was definitely the normal thing to do.

Since when had they ever been normal?

“Hey,” Remus said, “it’s not too cold outside, right?”

“I don’t think so?” Janus glanced out the window. “Why?”

Remus grinned and jumped off the couch. “I’m pretty sure there’s an animal shelter a few blocks away.”

“You’re kidding.” Janus’ mouth twitched. “We can’t just walk into there without a plan--”

“Why not?” Remus shrugged. “Society is a lie, right?”

Janus’ mouth twitched again, and he bit his lip to hide his smile. “We have lunch.”

“We’ll grab some on the way there!” Remus tilted his head and gave Janus puppy dog eyes. “Please? We can just take a peek at the animals they have. See what we bond with. Steal one. And ask if a rat and a snake could possibly get along.”

“They can’t,” Janus said. “They’d kill each other.”

“You said that about us, too! Our second date!” Remus grabbed Janus’ hand. “And look at us, still alive and un-murdered.”

“Don’t count on it,” Janus said, but his eyes had softened. “You’re serious about this?”

“Serious as ever!” Remus shrugged. “Look, it’s this or I go back to Plan A and steal a rich person’s baby.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“Kiss my beautiful patootie.”

“Ugh.” Janus ducked around Remus and grabbed his phone. “This will be a quick trip, right? Should I bring a carrier for whatever we decide on?”

“They’ll have those, right?” Remus darted over to the kitchen and pulled out a garbage bag. “Will this work?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s animal cruelty.”

“Aw.”

Janus pulled back his hair and grabbed his keys. Remus shrugged on a jacket. Janus gave the apartment one cursory check and, apparently finding no dead bodies, turned away.

“We’re really doing this?” Remus asked. “You’re okay with it?”

Janus paused and nodded. “Wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t. I promise I’m along for the ride.”

Remus pressed a kiss to Janus’ cheek and enjoyed the way Janus stammered. “Great.”

“Don’t do that,” Janus complained. Remus knew it wasn’t a complaint. They knew each other like that. It had been such a long time since they met at three in the morning and thwarted campus security, and Remus had learned so much about Jan, and Jan had done the same. And they’d both figured out there was stuff they didn’t need to know.

Like a game plan. Or a way to fit a new pet into the apartment. Or a way to sneak it past their landlord, who Remus suddenly realized might not like pets.

But it was way more of an adventure not knowing.

Remus loved to leap into every idea.

And Remus loved that Janus always took the leap, too.

“You promise this is fine?” Remus asked.

“Yes,” Janus said. “And you promise not to make a nuisance of yourself in the shelter?”

“Nope!” Remus grinned. “You’re stuck with me.”

“Good.” Janus pulled the door open and smiled. “It wouldn’t be any fun otherwise.”

General taglist (ask to be included or removed!):

@the17thmeatball

@most-likely-fandom

@csi-baker-street-babes

@caffeinated-cryptid

@thefivecalls

@ollyollyoxinfree

@the-gay-is-back

@dramaticsnakes

@stoicpanther

@chaospersonified

@thatoneloudowl

@jungle321jungle

@mistythegenderqueermess

@k1ngtok1

@joylessnightsky

@elizabutgayer

@ohheavenlylord

@enby-ralsei

@glassferns

@remy-the-lemon-berry

@larrymalecsolangelo

@riptide-123

#janus sanders #remus sanders #dukeceit #demus #qprdukeceitweek2020 #sympathetic janus sanders #sympathetic remus sanders #qpr dukeceit #tw murder mention #tw death mention #tw spiders #this is the floofiest thing ever but i don't care #anyway back to my hidey-hole as i attempt to actually finish my wips #averywrites

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kimageddon · 2 years

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So after some gentle nudges I went with it and made a playlist with songs that I feel suit my fic. I really should have done this long ago but here we are. It's not fully finished and I will regularly add songs to it.

THIS IS VERY LONG! There are currently 89 songs and I have covered most of them so this is a heck of a read! Fair warning, SPOILERS FOR A PRINCE OF DATHOMIR AHEAD!

So here is the playlist breakdown for those who are interested:

Playlist Breakdown

The first track needs no introduction, as it is of course the opening to all good Star Wars things - taken from PTM because that really was my beginning to the franchise.

Memory

The chapter depicts a young Zaiya and Maul, they are not in a perfect environment, but it's as innocent as they get.

Take my hand and show me forever As never will I ever let you go

Let's write our story And let's sing our songs Let's hang our pictures on the wall All these precious moments That we carved in stone Are only memories after all

I feel reflects the budding friendship between the two young zabraks, the way Zaiya especially just assumes they will be together forever. It's her best friend, so of course?

The second track is especially true of this time period.

'Cause you're a sky, 'cause you're a sky full of stars I'm gonna give you my heart 'Cause you're a sky, 'cause you're a sky full of stars 'Cause you light up the path

Can corrolate with this passage from Memory:

"I heard the other Nightbrothers talking, they said outsiders sometimes come here, and that there are more planets and stars than anyone can count. That there are cities and other creatures and some made of metal." His grey eyes couldn’t help but light up as he spoke about it. The female looked up again, seeming to scan the sky more thoroughly.

"There's really all that out there? It seems so… empty." There was a strange tone to her voice.

"You--!" He started, getting frustrated, was she calling him a fool?! Or a liar?! But then he stopped, the look on her face did not have any judgement on it, if anything, her expression was lit up with awe. Her blue eyes sparkling in the low light, she looked like there was a gaze of awe and amazement on her face. Did she… feel it too? "...that's what they said…" he muttered, feeling his face flush with heat.

Maul sees the stars as the most beautiful thing, and this is the moment where he looks at Zaiya, stars reflected in her eyes and he decides the stars are the second most beautiful thing in the galaxy.

Dreams

This one has a few specific lyrics that I thought were poignant, specifically:

Now there you go again, you say you want your freedom Well, who am I to keep you down? It's only right that you should play the way you feel it But listen carefully to the sound of your loneliness

Like a heartbeat, drives you mad In the stillness of remembering what you had And what you lost

and

Now here I go again, I see the crystal vision I keep my visions to myself It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams

Zaiya doesn't fully understand the desire for freedom as a child, it's not until much later that she understands the desires of the Nightbrothers, later of course she also has many visions through the story.

The past is gone

And it went by, like dusk to dawn Isn't that the way? Everybody's got their dues in life to pay

Yeah, I know nobody knows Where it comes and where it goes I know it's everybody's sin You got to lose to know how to win

Apart from the title correlating, time changes for the zabraks, and the innocent memories quickly give way to the pain that will strengthen the two of them, they are about to lose everything to learn how to fight back. And of course;

Dream on Dream until your dreams come true

Intent

Everything is changed, Zaiya's world is different.

The days did not get easier after that one, every crimson dawn on Dathomir seemed more empty without Maul. Zaiya’s outlook changed after that day, where she had been more relaxed with training her magick, now she threw herself into it, trying to build her power higher and greater.

and of course the lyrics say:

Love I get so lost, sometimes Days pass and this emptiness fills my heart

and

Love, I don't like to see so much pain So much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away I get so tired of working so hard for our survival I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive

She is struggling, she is fighting, the lyric 'I reach out from the inside' in the chorus also reflects her feelings of reaching out in dreams. The mention of eyes of course reflects her admiration for his eyes and how they change.

I think 'We'll Meet Again' is rather self-explanatory, don't you?

Conviction

This is about the time that Maul loses his memories of Zaiya, her fears coming true and they see each other in a dream. Yes they made promises, they swore to each other... but he has forgotten.

And maybe, just maybe, I'll come home

Who am I, darling to you? Who am I? Going to tell you stories of mine Who am I?

Indeed, who is he to this girl? This song is also relevant to later chapters when they meet each other once more. In the opening dream sequence:

“I hope you remembered your promise.” she spoke softly. The figure turned, and suddenly she was in a room, looking out at a city sunset through a wide window. She could make out familiar red and black markings on the face only barely visible under the hood.

“I swore revenge.” He spoke, his voice smoother and deeper than she had last heard it.

“As did I. I swore I would always be by your side, and I intend to keep my word.” She reached into her robes and held out her half of the sparkling golden amulet. She could feel his eyes on it.

“I… I know this symbol.” He murmured, confused. Did he really not remember?

“You and I made a promise, and I swore I would find you. I will not forget this oath. I am coming. I will bring you home.”

“Home?” He looked up now, but his eyes… were different. Golden, not grey.

Contracted

This is about her new companions, Bane, Adaji and Hondo, she is introduced to a new life.

And the Warriors blood Through your veins is coursing Killer for hire Soldier of fortune

The whole worlds watching Every move Take your shot don't act a fool Cause all you´ve got and all you´ll ever need

One bullet in the chamber Breathe easy take your aim (boy) yeah Ain't nobody gonna save you So what you gonna do

This is where she begins to learn to abopt Bane's attitude of relying only on one self. Of learning a new path than that of a Nightsister.

I've tried forever getting out on my own But every time I do this my way

I get caught in the lies of the enemy I lay my troubles down I'm ready for you now

I need a hope I can't deny In the end I'm realizing I was never meant to fight on my own

Every little thing that I've known is every thing I need to let go You're so much bigger than the world I've made So I surrender my soul I'm reaching out for your hope

This is more from Maul's perspective, he wants out but he can't escape, Sidious has him in his clutches, he is trapped, he is subconsciously reaching out for Zaiya, he was never meant to be alone, she was always meant to be by his side.

First

So this details the first time Zaiya takes a life, and it affects her more than she wants to admit. The obvious lyrics corrolate with taking a life obviously, but also the opening lyrics hold significance:

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landside, No escape from reality Open your eyes, Look up to the skies and see, I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy,

She is in disguise, pretending to be someone she isn't. The life she wanted is gone and she has become a hired killer at only 13/14 or so. But she doesn't want sympathy, this is life and she refuses to be pitied. She is not going to prison but she is being pulled into this life of crime and darkness.

Reputation

This one is both fun and sad. As years pass - I think it is incorrectly written as 2 years with them but it's meant to be more like 6 or 7 (I might need to rewrite part of the early chapters) - she grows closer to Bane and Adaji and Hondo, she might not call them 'dad' but let's face it, they totally are.

Oh, my daddy taught me well There's some devils in heaven and some angels in hell So promise me child, when they pull your card You'll know, you'll know which one you are Ooh, oh ooh Yeah, my daddy taught me well (Hey) Ooh, oh ooh If you can't do good, better do bad well

And oh does she do bad well under the guise of the three Bounty Hunters (3 men and a baby over here).

To Dathomir, perfect ambience but also she does indeed return to Dathomir in the second half of Reputation.

Concordia

Sweet Child of Mine is absolutely Adaji just gushing over this kid he has adopted.

She's got eyes of the bluest skies As if they thought of rain I'd hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain

She reminds him of his dream, of his past, of his sister, and he boasts about her here. This is his way of showing the other Mando's 'this is my little girl'

Mandalore War song - she sings a Mando ballad to gain the trust of Death Watch. Nuff said.

Reunion

A Star Wars song the same name as the chapter? Why yes of course!

This one is a new addition and it was introduced to me literally five minutes before I was writing this but it feels very on point as well.

You were the better part Of every bit of beating heart that I had Whatever I had I finally sat alone Pitch black flesh and bone Couldn't believe that you were gone

Well you look like yourself But you're somebody else Only it ain't on the surface Well you talk like yourself No, I hear someone else though Now you're making me nervous

I would definitely say this is Zaiya's perspective of these next few chapters very well.

Fate

While the song 'Bottom of my Heart' is a bit too country for my tastes but the lyrics seem to speak for themselves. It speaks to Maul's perspective of this woman that has appeared out of nowhere.

Do I know you have we ever met You've got a smile I could never forget Perhaps you've mistaken me for someone you know What's that you say am I losin' my mind That's just one of the things girl that I left behind You must be talking about something that happend a long time ago

I think it captures the opening dream rather well in its sentiment.

Training

Then we have another which was suggested to me at the time I wrote the chapter, of Zaiya and Maul on the rooftop at sunset. That correlates to this passage specifcally:

Part of him wanted to stay. Ask her question after question, eat more of that spicy meat she brought with her. Let the burn coat his tongue as he listened to her sing. So… domestic . Was that what normal people did? Enjoy meals and songs with no ambition for more? He was not some pathetic fool that would be satisfied with that.

And the lyrics:

I will not ask you where you came from I will not ask you, neither should you

Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips We should just kiss like real people do

Counting Stars references the scene in the latter part of the chapter where he sees the stars in her eyes, but it also somewhat mirrors their situation a little.

And I feel something so wrong Doing the right thing I couldn't lie, couldn't lie, couldn't lie Everything that drowns me makes me wanna fly

Lately, I've been, I've been losing sleep Dreaming about the things that we could be But baby, I've been, I've been praying hard Said, "No more counting dollars, we'll be counting stars"

Not only is it 'wrong' to be with her according to the teachings of his master, but when he is with her things just seem to make sense. These lyrics also feel fitting to later in Tested when they kiss.

Binary sunset is a perfect choice I thought, it feels very sweet and a tiny bit foreboding considering the canon.

Apprentice

I directly used the Islander as the song that she sings and so of course it had to be included.

Tested

And Warriors, while they fight the Rathtars, bond together again.

As a child, you would wait and watch from far away But you always knew that you'd be the one That work while they all play In youth, you'd lay awake at night and scheme Of all the things that you would change But it was just a dream

Other children couls relax and play, but Zaiya and Maul, though separate, both trained and worked hard to become living weapons. They dreamed of escaping, but of course could not.

Disobedience

This one also kind of related to Tested as well, but;

Here we are Riding the sky Painting the night with sun You and I, mirrors of light Twin flames of fire Lit in another time and place

I knew your name I knew your face Your love and grace Past and present now embrace Worlds collide in inner space Unstoppable, the songs we play

Both in the moment they kiss(makeout) but it also relates a little bit to this passage:

“I knew him once, and he always shone brighter than the sun of Dathomir.”

[How does an organic being… shine, in such a manner? Was he… luminescent?] The droid queried. Zaiya just laughed.

“No, it was more of a metaphor. I mean that he was vibrant, bright, had a fire that could not be extinguished. I admired his power even then. I never understood why the sisters treated him lesser, he was stronger than all of us. He is a true Prince of Dathomir.” She beamed, proudly. “I knew then that I wanted to stay by his side, that through me he had a chance to leave the planet. To be more, to do more. To take the opportunities he deserved.” She smiled, a sense of nostalgia overcame her.

It also relates to the yearning of wanting to give in yet, he is a Sith, he can return any affections she might have. He mustn't... and yet...

Disobedience, Padawan and Kaitis

The next two songs are intrumental and and more about a feel of hunting prey, poor Eldra Kaitis is just jerked around by different people. The song Nemo was taken as inspiration for the song Zaiya sings in Kaitis to her and Maul as they travel the barren moon from the bounty hunters. Battle For All Time of course for the battle between Eldra and Maul.

Reconnect

While Remember Me is intrumental, I thought it fitting as he recalls memories. Then of course... Palpatine. Sidious ruining yet another moment, then we get the very angry song Blinded

Have you ever been blinded by the pain? Blinded, blinded by the pain

Unwilling to see, senseless So blinded by selfishness Only focusing on myself And ignoring anyone else

Becoming driven by despair Feeling trapped into a corner Losing more and more of reality Perceiving all the hurt only one-sidedly

Losing yourself Feeling too powerless to change Stuck and unable to escape Incapable to see another way I need someone to shake me, to wake me I don't even need full clarity Just to start the shift from blind to blurry

It related to more than the obvious here, she feels at fault for what happened. In fact Maul will blame himself for this moment later, and falls deeper into the Dark Side, unable to escape. Zaiya likewise feels that she was so blinded by desire to make Maul remember, to make him come away that she ignored the danger and caused both of them to suffer.

Enslaved

Duel of the Fates signifies the visions and of course canon events. The other song is a bit of a duality - it is a slow and kind of creepy cover that highlight's D'Sarr's possessiveness:

Every single day And every word you say

I'll be watching you

Oh, can't you see You belong to me?

Wheras Zaiya is thinking of her friend and what she has lost:

Since you've gone, I've been lost without a trace I dream at night, I can only see your face I look around, but it's you I can't replace I feel so cold, and I long for your embrace

Broken

Then of course a series of songs that reflect how she feels in regard to what D'Sarr turns her into.

So stay away from me, the beast is ugly I feel the rage and I just can't hold it

I feel it deep within, it's just beneath the skin I must confess that I feel like a monster I hate what I've become, the nightmare's just begun I must confess that I feel like a monster

The next song:

A monster, a monster I've turned into a monster A monster, a monster And it keeps getting stronger

Can I clear my conscience If I'm different from the rest? Do I have to run and hide? I never said that I want this

And of course Popular Monster which is one about PTSD

Is this post-traumatic stressing or am I suppressing rage?

And what if I were to lie? Tell you everything is fine Every single fucking day I get closer to the grave, I am terrified

'Cause I'm about to break down, I'm searching for a way out I'm a liar, I'm a cheater, I'm a non-believer I'm a popular, popular monster

And sadly these feelings stay with her and she accepts it as fact. This is when she starts wearing the gloves, covering her hands to hide her own guilt from herself. Her voice was literally and metaphorically taken from her during this time and she feels to blame for not being strong enough to stop it.

There are quite a few songs here that really hone in because while it's only a few chapters, it's a massive change in her character. From Broken we get:

Can you break my bones? Will you tear my skin? Can you taste my lust? Can you feel my sin? See, I'm a waste of life I should just kill myself Yeah, I could slit my wrists But it really wouldn't help

All the abuse and pain and literal torture... yet she will not accept it as that gives them something, and as she promised, she will give them nothing. These songs are angry, she is full of rage and pain and yet she has to hide it.

An aside: for those who don't know, these chapters are based on real trauma in my life and while I tried to be vague and not super descript of the abuse for the sake of my readers... these chapters were hard and these songs are some of the ones that have helped a great deal to me.

Emancipation

There is hope once more, and Zaiya has a chance, not much of a chance, but it something. A lifeline.

You were all I wanted And all my dreams are fallen down Crawlin' around

Somebody save me Let your warm hands break right through Somebody save me I don't care how you do it, just stay, stay C'mon, I've been waiting for you

She thinks she failed, she thinks Maul is dead, but the moment she has a chance, silently she begs for salvation.

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From this point, the songs are a bit more disjointed and not in much of an order to the chapters as I have some songs missing or I haven't got ones for certain chapters etc. So I will talk about the songs specifically rather than the chapters themselves.

You'll be in my heart fit so well for Zaiya to the Nightbrothers and so it was put in as one she sings directly, I included a female cover as she sings it herself.

Madness is of course reflective of Maul's state on Lotho Minor:

I, I can't get these memories out of my mind And some kind of madness has started to evolve I, I tried so hard to let you go But some kind of madness is swallowing me whole, yeah

I have finally seen the light And I have finally realized What you mean

Come to me Trust in a dream Come on and rescue me Yes I know, I can be wrong And maybe I'm too headstrong Our love is Madness

He finally understands the memories, what Zaiya wanted, but all too late. He is lost and broken, she said she would find him so part of him is still waiting.

Nightsister is self-explanatory, and Witch's Spell is for Talzin - of course.

Hey Brother is for the bond between Zaiya and the Nightbrothers I felt was significant for the feelings between them:

What if I'm far from home? Oh brother, I will hear you call What if I lose it all? Oh sister, I will help you out Oh, if the sky comes falling down For you There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do

Valhalla Calling is the track I used to write the song Zaiya sings about the Dragon of Dathomir, I used that music but made my own lyrics.

When you feel my heat Look into my eyes It's where my demons hide It's where my demons hide Don't get too close It's dark inside It's where my demons hide It's where my demons hide

Comes from Demons and I feel it suits both Zaiya and Maul, but it could also suit Tailli's feeling as she is also hiding things and is trying to keep Zaiya at bay, even though it hurts her.

Jango and the Clones are of course for when Zaiya goes to Kamino.

There goes my heart beating 'Cause you are the reason I'm losing my sleep Please come back now

And there goes my mind racing And you are the reason That I'm still breathing I'm hopeless now

The duet version for You Are The Reason is of course for Maul and Zaiya because they are indeed hopeless. Even if they pretend otherwise.

She speaks to me just like a song Her words are melodies I can sing along Her symphony sings so sweet I can't believe her sound

Suits Zaiya I feel, and from Maul's perspective, even though in this part of the story he isn't fully aware of it.

His crown lit up the way as we moved slowly Past the wondering eyes of the ones that were left behind Though far away, though far away, though far away We're still the same, we're still the same, we're still the same

Howling ghosts they reappear In mountains that are stacked with fear But you're a king and I'm a lionheart

Of course Zaiya puts Maul above herself, seeing herself as his guard and not his equal, he is her King and she his Lionhearted Knight.

The Ghost is there not so much for lyrics but for the sound, it's one of the tracks I listened to when writing the duel with Sheena.

Then we come to Kamino - and I am still writing much of the chapters there, there's much more focus given to this saga of her story than her enslavement though there are far more interesting things happening on Kamino than elsewhere.

There's quite a few songs I use to help me get into the feeling for the clones, some of the lyrics that speak to me:

We are the warriors, who learned to love the pain We come from different places but have the same name 'Cause we were born for this We are the broken ones, who chose to spark a flame Watch as our fire rages, our hearts are never tame 'Cause we were, 'cause we were, 'Cause we were, 'cause we were born for this

For the clones, and a song of the same title for Zaiya:

I'm a monster, ima haunt ya Let me demons show Hold on tight I, run the night I hit the gas and go Now or never, live forever Imma take what's mine Heart is pumping, keep it coming Better run and hide

More clones-specific lyrics:

Deep in the forest, under the fog Armies surround us, waiting for dark Wearing their iron masks like a shield I know they’re coming, I know they’re here

For the clones fighting the droids, and this one, while not having many lyrics, I hear the clones everytime:

Can you hear War is coming Beckoning our fate

This is the day that we stand up This is the day we fight We'll take our place, we won't give in Our victory's in sight Only a sword in our hand but We enter the lion's den We're not waiting for a war We bring the war to them We bring the war to them

I love the sound of this song it really pumps me up when writing the battle scenes. Speaking of battle scenes, these next few songs are for chapters that as of writing, are not yet published. These accompany a battle that happens in the chapter Proven. No Glory in particular gave me the most inspiration for the battle in the begining of that chapter. There is a point where she draws her blades across each other, and I can almost hear it happening at 0:29 seconds in when the beat kicks up.

I'm Dangerous is particularly about feeling like she has found a place where she should be, among the clones and this new family of hers:

I've finally found my place I put the war paint on my face And I'm ready to give (Hey!) Whatever it takes Standing at the edge of the fire Fighting for the will to survive I feel it burning under my skin And I'm back on my feet again

My Demons could affect both Maul and Zaiya, as with their amulet, they are two halves of one being almost, mirrored.

Take me over the walls below Fly forever, don't let me go I need a savior to heal my pain When I become my worst enemy The enemy Take me high and I'll sing You make everything okay We are one and the same You take all of the pain away

Zaiya is both healing Maul but also he is healing her as well.

War of Hearts was suggested to me and I think it could fit either of them, but Maul on Lotho Minor I feel could easily embody these lyrics:

Come to me In the night hours I will wait for you And I can't sleep 'Cause thoughts devour Thoughts of you consume

I can't help but love you Even though I try not to I can't help but want you I know that I'd die without you

Stay with me A little longer I will wait for you Shadows creep And want grows stronger Deeper than the truth

Snuff I think is a good one for later in the story, Maul, beginning to realise the depths of his affection and wants to push Zaiya away.

So if you love me let me go And run away before I know My heart is just too dark to care I can't destroy what isn? t there

Deliver me into my fate If I'm alone I cannot hate I don't deserve to have you Ooh, my smile was taken long ago If I can change I hope I never know

Some of the instrumental ones are for later in the story and when I write about events further along the timeline. Disobey I feel would be a good one for clones rebelling against order 66:

Obey to the system They wanna hold on your mind Your mind is the land to invade Your mind is the land to detain Selling the truth is their business that we buy

Some songs specifically for Zaiya and her 'feeling' especially later on when the Shadow Collective becomes a thing. From Lion:

You're like an imprint You've got fire up and down your cheeks You burn everything you see Gold are your fingers Leaving traces everywhere you go

The fire of her eye, tattooed fingers, though ink not gold, you get the gist! From The Wolf:

You were sharp as a knife to get me You were a wolf in the night to fetch me, back The wishes I've made are too vicious to tell Everyone knows I am going to hell

And if it's true, I'll go there with you

Her dark side, her anger, her villainous side, and of course it matches Maul. Also the reference of sire, her favoured term to refer to him. Jolly Sailor Bold is delightful, and I do want her to teach the clones sea shanties! But this version of the song I think is a perfect sound of her 'Siren' voice. Castle is one that while there's not a specific lyric that pertains to a particular event, the feeling I think of her later attitude is captured in this song.

This last one (for now) was sent to me today, and I think it speaks for itself:

And these fingertips Will never run through your skin And those bright blue eyes Can only meet mine across a room Filled with people that are less important than you

I think in the Crimson Dawn era will be particularly fitting, but I can see Maul thinking this of her, especially if he has pushed her away. Who knows what will happen by then?

Well! What a long list! I know I didn't incluse all the tracks in my analysis, but if you have questions about a particular song, send me an ask! Also! If you have a reccomendation for any songs you think suit of that you think reflect the story, send them to me! I love recommendations!

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Taglist!

@two-black-leviathans @fallenrepublick @eyecandyeoz @ashotofspotchka @sitherin-mxschief @littlepossss @octupus-on-the-moon @by-the-primes @justalittletomato @nxctuaryninetythree @mach-opress @mustluvecho @nahoney22 @leotatombs @eloquentmoon

#fic playlist #a prince of dathomir #star wars #music #Spotify

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