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#a perfectly normal gentlemen’s evening
cavillscurls · 9 months
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the love languages | joel miller (headcanons)
summary: the various ways in which joel miller expresses his love for you.
warnings/tags: implied jackson era. mentions of trauma. suggestive language and scenarios. fluff.
word count: 1.2k
a/n: ngl i was giggling and kicking my feet the entire time writing these so hope u enjoy heh
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words of affirmation
joel is not the most eloquent speaker, avoiding it altogether when he has the choice, but he’ll make every effort to tell you he loves you in his own way
you've gotten use to the way his voice always sounds grumpy, even when he's perfectly content
he is a proper texan gentlemen, never missing a thank you, you’re very welcome, or reminding you that he couldn’t have done it without you
most of his verbal endearment comes from the pet names he gifts you, and only you:
“you’re so beautiful, darlin’”
“need you so bad, babygirl”
“takin’ it for me so well, aren’t ya, sweetheart?”
he checks in on you regularly
"you doin' okay?"
"you let me know if you need anythin'"
he’ll never miss an opportunity to let everyone know that you’re his
“that’s my girl”
“my girl’s waitin’ for me at home”
“i gotta check with my girl first”
and on the occasional nights, when the heavy darkness returns, or nightmares plague his dreams, he’ll whisper to you, desperately hoping you believe his rare but honest words, perhaps even seeking a bit of reassurance himself:
“you know i love you. you know it, right?”
gift giving
he’s never had much, but what he does have, he shares with you
often when he walks home from a long day of patrol, he’ll stop near the garden, plucking the brightest flower he can find to gift you, secretly hoping you’ll wear it behind your ear for the rest of the evening — you always do
once his workshop is set up, he starts working on various projects for you
most of them end up being carved trinkets or new items for your shared home
but when he’s able to, he trades for some metals to wield you a dainty necklace, your name sprawled out on it in beautiful, golden cursive
you wear it everyday after that, and he immediately begins plotting whatever else he can make you to wear
quality time
even if he doesn’t say so, every moment with you is precious to joel
if the task or event at hand is something you can do together, he wants you there
the moment he returns back into town from patrols, no matter how tired, dirty, or famished he is, the first thing he does is find you, wrapping you up in his arms and savoring every lost moment
some of his most cherished evenings are spent with you and ellie inside your shared home
his favorites are family dinners, each of you assigned to a task in the kitchen, where he gets to enjoy both of his girls at his side
normally, he’s listening to the two of you sing horribly off key to whatever tape ellie found for the stereo
and when you’re lucky, you both convince him to join you in an impromptu dance session right there in the kitchen
on lazy days, you'll share the couch, you engrossed in a book while he reviews plans for whatever building they're working on next
you don't share many words during these days, but just basking in each other's presence is enough to comfort him
sometimes, he’s still shy to ask you to come out with him
be it to tommy and maria’s for dinner, or a gathering at the tipsy bison
but you are happy to assure him there’s no one else you’d rather be spending your time with
physical touch
joel is one of the most handsy men you have ever met, and you love it
seldom is there a time he isn’t touching you in one way or another
a ghostly hand at the small of your back, or shamelessly reaching out to interlock his fingers with yours while you’re in public
he’ll lovingly grip you by the biceps whenever you’re walking home from the bar, making sure to guide your drunken footsteps in the right direction
when you’re sat beside one another, his arm often finds it’s way to the back of your chair or rested casually across your shoulders
sometimes it’ll be his hand at the back of your neck, squeezing it tenderly to remind you that he’s there, thinking about you, feeling you
when you come home from a particularly long day, he does not hesitate to pull your legs over his lap, massaging his way over your tired calves and feet
he loves how soft your hair is, how sweet it smells, and never passes an opportunity to tuck a strand behind your ear, or bury his face in your neck to inhale you
during your more intimate moments, joel is ravenous, groping and caressing every inch of you he can find
he loves to feel you tremble below him, the way your slick skin sticks to his own
he’ll cradle your face, your hips, your ass, anything he can hold onto as he takes you for himself
and when you’re both finished, he kisses you in every place he pleases
there is not an inch of your body that hasn’t been touched by joel’s mouth
he’ll cuddle you for hours, all through the night and into the morning, painting shapes across your skin with his soft touch
one of his favorite things in the world is to wake up with you sprawled across his chest, his entire being bearing the weight of you, feeling the most at peace with the world
acts of service
this is joel miller’s primary love language, and you could tell that was so from the moment you met him
what he could not express with words, he expressed with actions
god forbid you ever tried to carry anything heavy, you simply would not get away with it
a shake of his head and a heavy grunt, he would wordlessly pick up wherever you left off in the task
in the same vein, you can’t remember the last time you opened a door for yourself
nothing was ever broken in your home because joel always fixed it
he’d survey the space at least once a month, making certain there was no damage to the infrastructure (the contractor, through and through)
sometimes, when he knew you had errands to run, he would pick up whatever you needed on his way back from patrol without even asking
“i was already out, it ain’t no trouble”
he does the dishes every night
on the rare occasions he isn’t home for dinner, he makes it up to you by cooking breakfast the next morning
there’s always a cup of coffee waiting for you on the counter
when you’re feeling under the weather, he trades for the necessary soup supplies
he’ll check your temperature every hour, run you a bath, make sure you have plenty of pillows to keep cozy
during the summer months, when you insist on planting flowers in your front yard, he’ll keep up with watering them, knowing how forgetful you can be, but too attached to the smile they bring to your face to let them wither
but what really wooed you was the attention to detail that he possessed
he knows your favorite foods, colors, clothes, hobbies
he never forgets parts of your past you’ve shared with him that made you sad or uncomfortable, and actively avoids coming close to something similar
he is an attentive listener
despite saying very little sometimes, he is always engaged with a nod of his head, or a concentrated mmhm
not to mention the eye contact
he uses what he knows about you to organize the sweetest of dates:
picnics in the grassy fields
guitar lessons on the front porch
once, he even rented out the entire barn to set up dinner for you, borrowing some of the string lights from the neighbors to decorate (as best he could)
most importantly, you know joel miller would do just about anything for you
and he would do so happily.
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kkami-writes · 6 months
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waiting for us — chapter twenty nine. girl dinner wc. 673 + 2 SS
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The restaurant is quite nice, not too big and crowded but instead feeling a little more personal with smaller tables. There is plenty of people here but everything is spread out so nicely that you barely even notice. You have no aversions to food so you let Changbin order for the two of you. If he orders much more than normal for two people, you don’t call him out on it.
He’s the perfect gentlemen though, grilling all the meat and putting lots of vegetables and side dishes on your plate. It’s rather cute and you let the boy indulge a little.
“So you’re undecided right now, yeah?” Changbin breaks the silence with a question. It has you furrowing your eyebrows in confusion for a second before realizing what he was asking.
“Yeah. Honestly nothing really appeals to me right now,” You shrug, chopsticks poking at your kimchi before taking a bite.
“That’s perfectly valid. You should have seen innie during his senior year, practically pulling his hair trying to think of a major. Of course we told him he didn’t have to pick but he was pretty adamant on it for some reason,” Changbin laughs as he remembers just how panicked their maknae was before starting college.
“Well to be fair not everyone can be so talented like you. You guys were meant for the stage, that’s very clear to see,” At this he blushes and you find it so endearing how shy he is for a guy who you’d probably pay to put you in a choke hold.
The conversation lulls but it’s not uncomfortable in the slightest with Changbin happily eating and grilling, never forgetting to place food on your plate either.
The two of you talk a bit more, mostly you asking questions about 3RACHA’s producing process to which Changbin happily talks your ear off about. He invites you to come check out their own little recording studio, something you excitedly agree on.
In the end Changbin insists on paying for dinner to which you only agree if you get to pay for ice cream. He reluctantly gives in, only if that meant he got to spend more time with you. Luckily there was a little shop nearby that you two decide to walk to, enjoying the cool air of fall while he eagerly swings your conjoined hands together.
Both of you end up sharing a small cup of something chocolately. To be honest you hadn’t been paying much attention, more focused on how large Changbin’s hands felt compared to yours and hoped he couldn’t feel how clammy your palms were.
He doesn’t let go of your hand a single time, even when he’s driving you home and you don’t even have the time nor brain capacity to unpack the fact that you found it incredibly hot to watch him drive with one hand.
You have Changbin drop you off at the same corner of the street he had picked you up from, having explained that your parents didn’t really allow you to date. (Not entirely true but it was the best excuse you could come up with when the boy had asked why he couldn’t just pick you up at home).
“Bye Bin, thanks for the amazing date,” You give him a shy smile, the boy still clinging to your hand because honestly, he really didn’t want to let you go. But alas, he must. Before you slide your fingers out from his grasp he pulls it to his lips, pressing the softest kiss against your skin before letting you finally slip out of the car.
For your sake, he ignores the way your face flushes a lovely pink.
“Bye pookie!! I’ll text you later,” The nickname falls so easily from his lips and it causes you to double over in laughter. Why was it so endearing for this buff man to call you pookie?
God, you were so screwed. You think to yourself as you make your way towards your house, a dumb smile on your face.
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pillow-anime-talk · 1 year
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from the future to the past.
request: professional hacker!s/o whos very skilled in computers and building them, with terrifying abilities to gather intel,,,, also has a talent in making gadgets then time travels to mtp,,,, works for mi6, best buddies with von herder, close relationship with secretary holmes too,,,, how would the rest of the moriarty gang react? would they use them???  
# tags: headcanon; strangers to friends & strangers to lovers; time travel; hacker!reader; soft romance; a bit of comedy; sfw
includes: gender neutral reader ft. whole mi6 {mtp}
author’s note: hey anonnie, sorry for waiting so long! thank you! hope you like it :)!
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↘ Your latest invention turned out to be the biggest and by far the most shocking success of your twenty-something life.
↘ And at the same time your greatest and most dangerous curse, because the last virtual time exchange program you created, which was made by the initiative of restoring old databases, took you... several hundred years back, to be more precise, to the end of the 19th century and on top of that to London city.
↘ You looked like a recluse among beautifully dressed ladies, children in clothes with long frills and gentlemen with tall hats and gold-trimmed coats.
↘ Your bright jeans, black sweatshirt with a huge hood and hair tied up in a loose bun were a comic image among the dressed-up nobility or even less wealthy townspeople. Your appearance and the fear in your eyes caught the attention of Albert and Louis Moriarty, who extended a helping hand to you without asking for anything else.
↘ At the MI6 hideout William spoke first, not convinced of your presence among them. At first he thought you were the enemy and wanted information about their group, but then when he started asking you about various names and situations that seemed logical to him, your expression didn’t become distrustful or deceitful in the slightest. He realized that this is not your world.
↘ On that day you told everything about yourself and the future that awaits humanity, as well as about their fame in later centuries. You told about the actions of Sherlock Holmes and the Moriarty family, and also that in the 21st century many books, series and films about their lives were created. Of course, Sherlock was thrilled and asked you about everything, and then he got closer to you than anyone in MI6.
↘ For others it was strange that he liked and trusted the other person in this way, and for some it was completely normal – after all, you were a person always smiling and really cute in your actions.
↘ Sherlock quickly fell in love with you and became your partner (not only at work, but also in life).
↘ Over time: days, weeks and months, you forgot about your previous life. You gladly accepted the help of Louis and Miss Moneypenny, who helped you dress up so that you fit perfectly with the other members of MI6, while Sebastian and Fred, with a little help from James Bond, created a new name for you and your new past, so that no one has not developed unfounded suspicions of you.
↘ You also made great contact with Jack, who replaced your father in these difficult times, and with Von Herder, who became your closest friend. You two got along great, and although he did weird things sometimes and had a dangerous passion for firearms, you really had a good time and loved playing cards and reading books in your spare time, and teasing William or Albert who always shook their heads when they saw the two of you.
↘ Zack acted like your second father, although he was definitely shyer than the others, while Henry and Sherlock’s male sibling were like big brothers to you. The latter felt great respect for you, the more that you straightened his real, younger brother a bit, and at the same time made him much more serious and became a good helper of the Moriarty brothers.
↘ Your manual skills have been very useful to MI6; even if at first the middle brother just wanted to use you to help him with his own plans, over time he really liked you and realized that even though you feared for your current life, you worked hard to help them and be their real friend.
↘ You continued to create your inventions as a hobby, and your list of later achievements included the creation of the first light switch and lamp, and even the first screen with the ability to save data on it. For your entire group, you created the first makeshift telephone with the ability to receive short calls, and when you had a little more time than normal, you created more inventions that benefited not only MI6, but all of England, and then the world.
↘ You wrote it all down in a notebook, which after many years found its way to the right people, and they published it, making MI6 famous all over the world, starring you, and your romance with Sherlock Holmes became one of the best-loved romance novels of those years.
↘ Such was your new life, and your relationship with people from the officially nonexistent sixth branch of the British Military Intelligence.
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meshlasolus · 2 years
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House Of Memories (18/?)
Obi-Wan Kenobi x Padawan!reader
Warnings: literally takes place in a strip club... so everything that entails, also jealousy
Summary: You've been given your first assignment as the sole padawan of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and to his surprise, you handle it very well.
A/n: alexa, play jealousy by olivia rodrigo pls....
Words: 2.1k
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"A separatist heist-man and murderer escaped custody of the republic before his interrogation and sentencing this afternoon, and we've traced his location to the planet Scarif," Mace Windu spoke, a group of gathered Jedi stood before him and the council, waiting to take their newest assignments. You and your master were among them. "He seems to be hiding out on one of the beaches many pavilions. I've been requested to send two Jedi and a small portion of a clone battalion to find him and anyone he may be working with. It is preferred that he is brought in alive."
None of the other Jedi had even gotten a chance to raise their hand, speak, or even take another breath before Obi-Wan stepped forward.
"My padawan and I will be much obliged to take this one off your hands," he announced, going forward and accepting the holo-pad graciously. Obi-Wan had been made a member of the council shortly after Anakin became a Knight, and since they saw Obi-Wan as an equal now, your troubles with the council seemed to take a break for the time being.
"I will alert your commander to commandeer a ship, as well as a team. You'll leave first thing in the morning." Master Windu replied, nodding him off so you both could take your leave.
"Master, I thought you wanted to take it easy. A heist-man and murderer doesn't comply with the definition of easy."
You may or may not have gotten into the habit of sassing your master from time to time, but that was only because you lacked Anakin's presence, now. Since he became a knight, and the clone wars were risen across the galaxy, you had very few people to be sarcastic and moody to.
"Yes, but I strictly remember promising you I would take you to a beach, and Scarif has many beaches," he made sure there was no one in the hallway before he snuck a hand to the back of your waist, leading you along until you were back at your apartment.
"Yes, but this was not what I had in mind."
-
Commander Cody, along with his handpicked team were the first to mount the ship the next morning, and you were very happy to see Cody again, since you hadn't been around him since you got back from Geonosis.
"General," he nodded to Obi-Wan. stepping aside and giving you a hand up onto the ship. Ever the gentlemen. "Padawan, it is a pleasure to have you with us on the mission."
"I'm happy to be here, commander."
The small group that was on board had taken to calling themselves 'ghost company', which as frightening as it sounded, they were all perfectly normal to you. You'd never been around a clone you didn't like. They always showed you the upmost respect, almost to a fault.
Obi-Wan was sometimes skeptical about you going off on your own, and sometimes he was able to convince a member of the 212th to go with you. It gave him peace of mind and let him know you would be safe whenever he wasn't there to protect you himself. Life with clones had been a stark contrast from what it was like before they were here, but you couldn't help but think they should have always been around.
Even now, heading to a planet you'd never been to before, you weren't as nervous as you'd normally be, because you were in the company of Cody's men. They were very witty, and made you laugh, distracting you from the length of the flight to Scarif. It didn't take long before you were stepping out into the sandy grounds, taking a deep breath in to revel in the fresh, salty air by the ocean.
"Is is everything you thought it would be?" Obi-Wan teased, coming up behind you and looking over the vast expanse from your point of view.
"Not yet, but there's time."
After setting up base and connecting with the informants, you and Obi-Wan were shown to a room, one which overlooked the cabana, and all its sketchy evening dwellers.
It was said that the man you were looking for usually frequented several of the establishments before leaving every night. He never booked any rooms in the lovely suites they had to offer, but since he came to visit the area often, Obi-Wan knew he couldn't be staying far.
You flopped back into the mattress upon entry, giggling like a child. This wasn't a vacation, but you were going to treat it like it was, because as far as you knew, this was as close to one as you would ever get.
Obi-Wan's comms started buzzing just before sundown, and he raced across the room, answering it.
"He's been spotted outside the nightclub," Cody informed him, but he wasn't finished. "He hasn't gone in, should we drive him to the entrance?"
"We will be heading down in a moment, keep your position and remain hidden."
You must have dazed off in your thoughts a little, not expecting the tug on your leg when he came to try and get you up. You jumped to your feet, your hyper energy over being on 'vacation' was helping you to stay active. Normally you'd be tired after flying all day, but you were far from tired, or even drowsy for that matter.
"Stay close and follow my lead. This should be an easy grab unless he has managed to find allies here, which, on the off chance that is the case, Cody and his men should be perfectly capable of disarming any threats," he wrapped you in your cloak, pulling the hood over your head and adjusting it just so. He had little OCDs that he would never tell anyone about, but they drove him crazy when they were out of place.
"Yes, master. If you should lag behind, do I have your permission to keep going?"
"Normally, yes, but not tonight. This man is dangerous and would not hesitate to kill you for an escape," he grabbed both sides of your face and made you look up at him when he said his next words. "I know sometimes it's hard to resist the heroic urge, but I beg of you, stay by my side, little one."
It was finished off with a kiss to the top of your head, before you heaved a deep sigh and followed him out the door.
By the time you'd gotten downstairs, your target had gone inside the club, thinking he was in the clear, but really, he only trapped himself.
Obi-Wan ordered the clones to seal off every exit, making it impossible for him to escape either way, of course, you and Obi-Wan were going to try and bring him out without so much brute force. It was preferred that this man was brought in alive for questioning, therefore, blaster shots were not your first case scenario.
You'll never forget the feeling of how flushed you became when you entered the confines of this nightclub. You were surprised they didn't ask for your identification to be let in, but then again, no one ever really asked a Jedi. You weren't sure you were old enough to be walking into the doors, even if you were an adult.
Naked women of many species danced seductively around their male occupants for credits, and though you'd never seen anything like it before, you somehow felt you shouldn't be seeing it at all.
"Avert your eyes, little one. These things are not suitable for your viewing," he said, watching as you dropped your head to the ground and followed in his footsteps up to the bar.
You didn't listen in on what he had asked the bartender, you were too distracted by the loud music and trying to keep your gaze on the floor. The floor, which was also very intriguing, the marbled swirls were a nice pattern to look upon.
You stood for a moment more, trying your best to keep your focus, but you couldn't help your curiosity. You looked up at a new corner of the room, seeing more women, spinning around large poles in the center of raised platforms. They seemed to be very talented, actually, but you hardly figured it was considered as a respected profession. You were about to drop your eyes to the ground again, but a Twi'lek dancer came up to you, looking at you before eyeing Obi-Wan up and down. He was still turned around, conversing with the bartender, but from what she could see, he was exactly what she wanted for her next meal.
"Normally I'm a higher price, but if he's here for some company, I'd drop it to whatever he's willing to pay," she said, looking back to you, as if you were even coherent enough to respond. You knew exactly what she wanted from him, and as twisted as it sounded, you were only jealous because you wanted the same from him.
"We're only here on business, I assure you," you meant to sound more confident than you came across, but she took your answer well, nodding up and down before giving you a once over.
"Well, not that you ever would, but by the looks of you, you could start at a very high price here yourself. In fact, if you'd like me to put in a word for you, we have an opening."
Your cheeks flushed, and you didn't realize that Obi-Wan had been half listening to the conversation the whole time. He could never truly focus when he sensed you were being interacted with. He kept his exchange with the bartender, but also eavesdropped on the Twi'lek woman who had come up beside you. He heard what she said about him, and sensed your jealousy, but couldn't put the pieces together on that one, far too intrigued by the answer you were about to give.
"I'm not sure I understand," you stuttered out. Was she asking you to prostitute yourself? You knew these kinds of occupations existed. Obi-Wan had taught you all about the ways of the galaxy, even the not so innocent ones. He knew it was up to him to give you and Anakin a well-rounded education, and he knew he couldn't leave out such important things. "I'm a Jedi, why would you think I have experience in this arena?"
You weren't rude in asking, just very curious, and it came out with your words and facial expressions.
"You don't know, do you?" She gave you a sideways look, and you raised your brows, shaking your head. You were very innocent, after all, and didn't know how much more desirable that made you. "Your purity would sell to the highest bidder, dearie."
You lost all emotion in your face when you realized the man you were after, the target, had approached you both, having heard the last part of the conversation.
"A pure Jedi? I'd pay a pretty penny for you. Why don't we discuss a price, and I can show you to a room?" he said, reaching out for you as he came closer.
Obi-Wan heard this and turned around immediately, activating his lightsaber, but he was too late. The man was already writhing on the ground beneath you, his hands cut off and lying beside him. You used the force to pick him back up and stand him in front of you. Obi-Wan was very surprised. He didn't even have to do anything or initiate a chase. It was clear the man didn't know he was being hunted, and for that reason, this mission was a success, by your hand.
"I have a room, and it overlooks the cabana. You won't be seeing it though," you quipped, throwing him back to the ground and knocking him out.
"Well done, padawan."
Obi-Wan saw that the Twi from earlier had yet to leave, despite the fact that lightsabers were now involved.
"Handsome frontside, too? Why don't we grab a drink, Master Jedi?" She tried to get nice and cozy by his side but found herself stuck to her spot upon taking another step.
"He will be far too busy accompanying me back to our suite for the evening, but thank you for the offer," you said, blocking her from getting to him, then letting her go. She narrowed her eyes at you, then sauntered off towards the poles.
Obi-Wan smirked, looking at you with surprise. He sensed jealousy in your before, but now it was pure possession, and he didn't know why you were so intense about it. Surely you didn't fancy him in the ways he so lovingly did you, so why did it matter? Perhaps you were just uncomfortable to think about him with anyone at all and wanted to keep her away for that reason.
"What?" you tilted your head quizzically, awaiting his answer.
"Oh nothing, just surprised is all."
You rolled your eyes, lifting a foot of the man on the ground, and dragging him to the front door, not paying anymore mind to the happenings around you until you were outside with the clones.
-
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golden-grapes · 3 months
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The Knee Thing
Pairing: König / AFAB!Reader  
Summary: König overhears you chatting with your friend about how you like making out with people, expressing a specific liking of "the knee thing." On a rare night off, he decides to put the trick to the test.
Warnings: smut, making out, dry humping, the knee thing (iykyk), semi-public sex, accidental voyeurism, some grumpy/sunshine, mention of the duolingo owl
Word Count: 4.9k
A/N: I would like to state for the ladies and gentlemen of the jury that I have never played Call Of Duty in any capacity. But tall man in uniform with mask make brain go brrr. Please let me know if any elements of the characterization or the German translations are off in any way. Enjoy!
Read on AO3 / Minors DNI
König doesn’t mean to eavesdrop on your conversation. He’s not the kind of man that eavesdrops. Given his… conspicuous stature, it’s hard for him to go anywhere unnoticed. He’s seen the way people react when he enters the room, taking in all six feet of him, and then some. Sometimes they inch back from him when he approaches, or just stare like he's some kind of freak of nature. Since that growth spurt all those years ago, he’s been vigilant about his body and where it fits into a space. He learned fast that espionage was not in the cards. But every so often, the shadows and positioning work in his favor. Sharpened by his past desire to pursue the path of covert sniping, and he’s able to blend into the background. 
Of course, it is all by coincidence that König lingers right behind the corner that turns to the water bottle filler near the training area, picking up the hushed exchange between you and your friend. He swears he’s perfectly innocent, just on his way to a sparring match. Nothing to see here. When he hears your voice, sweet and clear as a bell even when hovering just above a whisper, his heart has an uptick in rhythm and he stops in place, waiting with baited breath. 
“When they wrap their arm around your waist,” your friend says. 
“Oh totally,” you reply with a silvery giggle. “And then put their hand in your back pocket to pull you closer. That’s the stuff.”
“Ooh, I’ve never had that happen before. You think a guy would mind if I did that?”
“Probably not,” you continue. “It’s a win win. It brings them closer and you get to touch their ass. But some dudes are finicky about that stuff.”
König feels heat rush to his cheeks. It doesn’t take long for the context clues to snap together. You and your friend are talking about making out with people, and the little things you like to happen when you do so. 
“There was this guy I kissed on New Year’s Eve a few years back,” your friend says. “And we don’t know each other all that well, I’m thinking this is going to be a light peck at most. But no, he dives in tongue first, right down the gullet. Ruined frenching for me for the longest time.”
“They just don’t understand there’s an art to it,” you say. “Steady buildup.”
“Exactly.”
Normally, König would feel awkward about hearing such private things from one of his coworkers. But you and him aren’t just coworkers, you’re… Well, he’s not exactly sure what you are, but whatever that thing is involves making out. Among other things. Awkwardness be damned, the current topic of your conversation is very interesting to him. So despite his hesitations, he continues to listen as closely as possible. 
“Or the knee thing,” you say. 
“Oh my god, the knee thing,” your friend agrees fervently. 
The knee thing . König has never heard of this before. Maybe it’s American slang? He doesn’t believe there’s an equivalent to it in German, and the vagueness of it isn’t helping his case. You’d never mentioned it to him in the past. 
“One time I almost came,” you say. “Just from that.”
“Really?”
“Well, in tandem with everything else. I was really worked up.”
With your words, König’s mind takes him back to the other times he’s seen you worked up. Cheeks flushed, eyelashes fluttering, lips parted as you moaned against his throat. Gasping “more” into his ear as he thrust his fingers into you, grinding down against his hand. Letting out shivering breaths as he kissed along your thighs, spread wide apart with a leg over each of his broad shoulders. Verdammt , now he’s the one that’s really worked up. 
With a flurry of giggles, König is brought back to the moment. 
“I have to split,” your friend says. “See you tonight?”
“Totally,” you reply.
The sound of approaching footsteps sends König out of stealth mode, strolling up just as your friend turns the corner. She sidesteps around him with a nod in the same way so many others do. Friendly, but with a note of intimidation. 
When König  turns the corner, he watches as your eyes light up. There’s a glow to you, a faint sheen of sweat from having finished your workout. Your cheeks are flushed, and he doesn’t know whether to chalk that up to your workout too, or the conversation you were just having.
“ Hallöchen ,” you greet him. “Is that correct? I read online that it's how friends greet each other sometimes.”
You take a step towards him, screwing on the lid to your water bottle. Sonnenschein , König thinks. The nickname he came up for you long ago, only using it in his mind. Such a sunny disposition, and it never falters around him. He’s never gotten the impression that his size puts you on edge like it does for other people. You tilt your chin up to look him right in the eye with the same warm smile you give everyone else. 
“It is right,” König says. 
“I’ve been practicing,” you continue, “though I’m having trouble getting the pronunciations just right. How’s this? Ich bin fünf Kilometer gelaufen .”
A 5k? No wonder you’re thirsty.
“ Sehr gut ,” König replies. 
For someone that’s been learning German for less than a month, you’re picking it up surprisingly fast. And he can’t help but be flattered that you’re putting in the time to learn it at all. 
“ Ich muss duschen ,” you continue, wiping a stray bead of sweat from your forehead. “ Ich bin heiß .”
König can’t help the laughter that rumbles out of him at your words. 
“What?” you ask with a frown. “Is my pronunciation that bad?”
“Not at all,” he says. “But you just told me you need to take a shower because you are…” What’s the word? “Not hot, but in heat. Like a cat.” No really, what is the word? “Horny.”
“Oh.” 
You glance down at your water bottle, clearly abashed.
“It is okay,” König assures. “You are still learning. Say ‘ mir ist warm’ instead.” 
“ Mir ist warm ,” you repeat. “I definitely will.”
The exchange lulls for a moment. König catches the way your gaze skitters down the expanse of his body, then back up again. He’s done away with the mask and the tactical gear, dressed in form fitting athletic clothes well suited for sparring. The fabric stretches a little over his chest, revealing the muscles beneath. You snap back up to look at his face, clearly self conscious about potentially ogling him. But the way you nibble your lower lip slightly, smiling shyly, fills him with a warm, buzzy feeling. He doesn’t mind your ogling when you’re this cute about trying to hide it. 
“A bunch of us are going to go out to get drinks later,” you say, breaking the silence. “You should come.”
“Oh.” König isn’t the most avid of socializers. He feels like he always ends up standing in the corner, tossing out strained polite smiles and tripping over his words. “Sounds fun.”
“Sorry, let me rephrase that,” you say. “I want you to come.”
The gleam in your eye has him reconsidering the “I will have to see,” the polite “no,” sitting on the tip of his tongue.
“Of course,” König replies, so fast the words have already left his mouth by the time he realizes what they actually are. “I will be there.”
“ Amazing ,” you say with a grin. “ Bis dann !”
With a final wave goodbye, you brush past König, likely on the way towards that shower you mentioned. 
“ Bis dann ,” he echoes, though likely too quietly for you to hear. 
König’s heart still skitters in the aftermath of the interaction, his palms might be sweating. You have this effect on him, like he’s a blushing little boy and not a titanic battering ram of a man. He takes a second to refill his own bottle before entering the gym, watching the water level rise up slowly through the well worn plastic. 
Whatever the two of you are, you’ve made it clear you want him around. The thought puts a newfound pep in his step. However, those three words haunt him as he enters the training gym. The knee thing . It sounds so simple, and yet apparently it was so hot it almost made you cum? With a shrug, König files this piece of information away with the note to look it up later, waiting for the right moment to put it to use. 
- - -
This bar is kind of seedy, dark and a little cramped. But the night is young and the drinks are strong, so you don’t mind. You perch atop squeaky barstool pleather, half tuned into the chatter of your colleagues around you. The night started with a round of tequila shots, and the warmth of the liquor has found a home in your sternum. You ordered a hard cider as a follow-up, content to sip it slowly over the course of the night. No need to go too crazy with your colleagues around. Liquor before beer, you’re in the clear, right?
The cider is crisp and light, the refreshment mingling with the lingering heat from the tequila and making your whole body feel glowy and good. You feel as good as you know you look. It’s nice to have a break from your practical training garb and heavy gear. You’ve pulled together an ensemble of tried and true essentials for a night off. You wear your favorite pair of jeans, the dark wash denim softened with time and stretched to accentuate every curve. The neckline of the black top you borrowed from your friend slopes down to expose your collarbones in a manner that walks the line between sophisticated and seductive. 
Also, König’s here. Despite the seemingly enthusiastic confirmation from earlier, part of you thought that maybe he wasn’t going to show up. Over time, you’ve parsed that outings like these aren’t really his cup of tea, but he actually made it. He stands on the other side of the bar, wedged between the other patrons as he waits for his drink to come. He wears a pair of dark jeans, a form fitting charcoal gray t-shirt, and a black canvas jacket. It’s such a simple outfit, but it suits him. There's a flash of collarbone that shows from the collar of his shirt, and his pants hug his thighs perfectly. He's got wonderful thighs, you think to yourself. Big and strong, just the right size to push between your legs and...
Your daydreaming comes to a screeching halt as König’s blue gaze suddenly meets your own from across the room. It takes you by surprise, and the eye contact holds for just a moment too long to be casual anymore. A slight smile tugs at the corner of his mouth, and you feel a flush creeping up at your cheeks. He caught you staring, but he doesn’t seem to mind. He gives you a nod, and you return with a small wave before turning around to keep yourself from ogling. You down the rest of your cider, trying to wash the traces of mortification away. The drink fizzes down into your stomach, only making the antsy, gnawing feeling worse.
So, like the brave soldier that you are, you make a mad dash for the bathroom to collect yourself. 
The shut door provides a temporary reprieve from the ruckus of the bar, all cool tile and flickery lighting. You turn on the sink and hold your hands under the gush of icy water, trying to cool down your racing mind. 
Oh, you’ve got such a crush on König. With his large, skilled hands and pretty eyes. You had admittedly been a little intimidated the first time you met him, the operative transferred from Austria. The man is tall , and built like a tank, and apparently one of the deadliest operatives in the unit. He was also shut up tight as a clam. What, three months had gone by before you finally saw him without his mask? And then another month before you actually heard him speak? You were going to chalk it up to him being one of those terse loners who never got close to anyone, but it didn’t take long to realize that he wasn’t brooding or dismissive, just anxious. Behind the brusque front, he was surprisingly sweet. Süß . You were so enamored you started learning German. 
Is that what this is? A crush? You've literally fucked each other. Several times. Less of a crush, you decide, and more like a hydraulic press. 
Thankfully, König seemed to take a liking to you too, and one thing led to another, and now you were… Well, you’re not exactly sure what you are, but whatever that thing is involves making out. Among other things. And he was good at it. He was more greatly endowed than you had experienced in the past, but always gentle, arguably almost too gentle, like he was worried he was going to split you in half. You wanted to tell him that he didn’t need to be so cautious, but instead you just tried to handle him like any other person you’d taken to bed. It wasn’t about the size of the boat, after all, but the motion of the ocean. 
The cold of the water has done a little to calm you down. You turn off the spigot and gaze at yourself in the mirror. You can still catch a hint of flush in your cheeks, even in the dim lighting. You press your hands against your cheeks, hoping the remaining cold will help soothe it. 
Unsatisfied with the results, you pivot to primping to pass the time. You swipe on a coat of minty lip balm and press your lips together once, twice. The peppermint oil tingles against your skin. God, you really want to make out with someone right now. Want to make out with a very certain someone. You stow your lip balm away.
With a breath, you open the door to the restroom, the music and hubbub of the bar flooding your senses once more. You take a few steps back towards the bar before you hear it. 
“ Hallöchen. ”
A voice, low but familiar. You turn to find a very certain someone tucked away into the shadows further down the hall from the restrooms, cloistered away from the crowds. His dark clothes help him blend into the wall as he leans back against it, arms crossed over his chest. 
“You’re such a lurker, König,” you say. 
You approach him with swaying hips and a smile. He looks up when you stop in front of him, eyebrows scrunching at the accusation.
“Did I scare you?” he asks. 
That Austrian accent lends his voice the most tantalizing lilt. You think you could hear him read the dictionary and it’d be enthralling, just because he was the one saying it.
“Of course not,” you reply. “Are you okay?”
“I needed a second,” he says. “Noisy. Too crowded.”
“Well, you picked a good spot,” you say, siding up next to him to lean against the wall. “It’s much calmer back here. Hier ist es… What’s the word for ‘calm’ in German?”
“ Ruhig .”
“ Ruhig ,” you repeat. God, when he says it it just sounds so natural. All the hours you’ve put in battling against the DuoLingo owl on your phone and every syllable still comes out tripped on your tongue. “ Hier ist es ruhig. See? It's coming along.”
“You do not need to learn for me,” König says. You look up to find him closer than before. Your sides brush, and his shoulder is so much higher than yours, even when he’s slumped over. “I am supposed to practice English here.”
“I’ve always wanted to learn another language,” you tell him with a shrug. “And I dragged my feet too much in high school Spanish so… might as well. The fact that you speak it is a happy coincidence.”
“ Es ist nett von dir, das zu tun, Sonnenschein .”
“Uh…” Your mind scrambles to place the words, but you can’t keep up with the speed of his fluent speech. “ Ja ? What does Sonnenschein mean?”
König laughs.
“It is a secret,” he says. 
“Okay,” you comply. “So long as you’re not secretly calling me a bitch.”
“Of course not. To say ‘bitch’ I would… Well, there are many words. But I would probably say Miststück .”
“Miststück,” you repeat with a laugh. Not that you actually suspected that he would call you a bitch. Well, maybe if you asked him to. “I ’m learning so much. You're a good teacher.”
“Good to hear you think I am good for something.”
“You’re good for more than just practicing German, König.”
The words flow out of you so easily, encouraged by the faint buzz of alcohol in your veins, though you would have said it stone cold sober as well. 
“Oh?”
König stretched out the syllable long, milking every ounce of salacious implication from it that he possibly can. You feel the featherlight pressure of his fingertip against your side, teasingly tracing along the waistband of your jeans. The small brush of his skin on yours sends a shock down your spine, pooling heat in your core. Your heartbeat thumps in your ears in time to the bass from the dancefloor, a blood rush rhythm that has your stomach churning with anticipation. You’re swooning, but not hot. No, definitely not that. More like…
“König,” you say, the wheels in your mind turning. “I have a secret too.”
“Hmm?” he replies. 
He leans in, more like leans down, until your mouth is right up against his ear. His body angled against yours in a way that forces your back against the wall. You can smell the woody musk of his aftershave lingering on his jaw, feel the warmth radiating from his body. You swallow down your hesitations and rise up on your tiptoes.
“ Ich bin heiß ,” you whisper. 
König laughs again. He’s in a more positive mood tonight than you initially expected, and, you hope, a generous one too.  
“Don’t you mean-”
“No,” you cut him off. “ Ich bin heiß .”
You watch recognition click into place on König’s face. He takes in a long, shaky breath, and you can’t help but smile. Now it’s your turn to trace along the waistband of his pants, twining your fingers through the belt loops to tug him closer. 
“Are you gonna do something about it?” you implore. 
Those eyes of his, always so expressive, even when the rest of his face is covered by the shorn t-shirt he wears as a mask. There’s a steely edge to the glinting blue, pupils blown, zeroed in right on you. Dipping down to your lips, moving closer, and though you both know what’s coming next, it doesn’t make it any less thrilling when he pulls you close and crowds you even farther up against the wall. The air is charged with desire, crackling alive in the moment of pause before he’s leaning in, leaning down, and pressing his lips to yours. 
All the times you’ve kissed König, and it never gets any less giddying, each kiss feeling like the first. He starts soft, gentle, all exploratory nuzzles and quick pecks. It’s lovely and sweet, but you crave more. You reach your hands up to hold his jaw and pull him in closer, coaxing his lips apart to slip your tongue inside. Just for a second, tasting him. You taste the warm malty remnants of his beer and the peppermint of your lip balm. Once you retreat, it’s König’s turn, his tongue teasing against your teeth like he’s trying to taste your smile. Because of course you’re smiling.
He pulls back to nose along the length of your throat and you trace your hands down his chest. He presses a flurry of kisses up and down your neck and you touch him in return. Earlier when you ran into him by the gym, with him looking absolutely delicious in that tight t-shirt, you wanted to do just this. Glide your palms along the plane of his pecs, trace your fingertips over the contours of each and every abdominal muscle. When you reach his hips, you slip your hands beneath the fabric of his shirt, ever so slightly scratching your nails up his back. König hums against your neck, and you feel goosebumps break out beneath your touch. He raises his head up, the intensity of his gaze apparent even through the low lighting. 
“I’ve been practicing something too,” he says. 
König presses forward, driving you flush against the wall. His hands circle your waist, hips hips shift, and then…
Oh my god. 
König slyly moves one of his legs between your own, bringing his knee up, shifting the meat of his thigh to apply an even, persistent pressure against your cunt. 
He’s doing the knee thing. 
Your hips stutter forward against his leg, the center seam of your jeans nudging against your clit in a way that has you gasping. 
König brings up his hand to cover your mouth, smothering the sounds against his giant palm. 
“ Pssst ,” König shushes you. “What if the others hear?”
You open your mouth to protest about how loud the music is, how out of sight the two of you are. But it's a fool's errand, because König doesn’t really care about that, because he doesn’t stop. In fact, he has the audacity to start grinding his leg up against you in earnest, intensifying the sensation tenfold. König’s thigh is far more substantial than others you’ve grinded against in the past. It spreads your legs wide, and you feel the thick chords of muscle buckling beneath the fabric of his pants. He finds a consistent pace, a lazy thrust as he gently rubs his thigh back and forth, back and forth against your pussy. There’s something almost soothing about it, luxuriating as he does all the work for you. König uses the hand still on your waist to encourage you to rock against him. 
“ Hübsch ,” he mumbles into your ear. 
His hand slips down from your mouth to cup your jaw, feeling the shivery moans that continue to pour out of you as they work their way up your throat. 
“What does hübsch mean?” you ask.
“Pretty,” König says. “You are so pretty like this. Getting worked up.”
Worked up is one way to put it. Your pussy is so wet right now you feel it soaking into your underwear. For the very first time, your trusty jeans feel too tight for your body. Your nipples are hard against the confines of the fabric of your top. What you’d give to tear every scrap of fabric from your body and König’s and fuck him right here, ass out in the dive bar. But of course you can’t, so you make do with what he gives you, and he’s being almost too generous. The mental checklist of sensations you’re experiencing quickly spirals out of control. His knee against you wet, aching cunt. His hands at your throat and waist. His mouth at your ear, tracing his teeth down along the shell before latching down onto your lobe. He presses into you from all sides, and you feel pinned down and at his mercy in the best kind of way. 
“This time,” König says, “I want you to come.”
The low rasp of his voice cuts through the dreamy clouds of pleasure drifting across your mind, making everything fuzzy. 
“What do you mean?” you ask. 
“I want you to come,” he repeats, “from the knee thing.”
The knee thing. Hearing those words from his mouth has you spiraling back to the conversation you’d had earlier that day by the water bottle filler. What a wonderful, wonderful coincidence that König knows about it, and that he’s so damn good at doing it, unless…
“I overheard your conversation,” König admits. “I’m sorry, I… I got curious. I wanted to know what makes you feel good.”
Maybe you should feel embarrassed that he heard you bearing your soul in a way usually reserved for gal pals and no one else. But any potential embarrassment is cleared away by the pleasure sparkling through your entire body. The feeling of König grinding his thigh into you is downright heavenly. Part of you can’t believe he hadn't heard of the knee thing before, because he’s doing it like a goddamn professional. He massages his leg against your clit firmly but not harshly, and never lets up for a second. 
“This,” you say. “This makes me feel good. Fuck. ”
Desperate for more, you wrap your arm around König’s waist, dipping your hand down to slide it into his back pants pockets. You wrench him forward, feeling the soft flesh of his ass in your hand. König gasps, and you look up to check in.
“Is that okay?” you ask. “Some guys don’t like-”
“I like it,” König assures you. “What did you say? That’s the stuff .”
You can’t help but laugh, a small, sparkling sound that König captures in his mouth as he leans down to kiss you once more. Everything around you falls away, the music, the chatter, the lingering anxiety over what would happen if another person from your group found the two of you like this, desperately groping at each other as you make a mess on König’s thigh. 
Tension ratchets up between your hips, the strings of pleasure being wound tighter and tighter with each passing second. You feel the muscles in König’s thigh flexing beneath you, your clit hits it just right, and then-
“König,” you gasp, clinging to him so tightly you’re afraid you might bruise him. Making a dent on someone so sturdy would be a challenge, but given your frantic state it certainly could be possible. “KönigKönigKönig…”
His name ebbs and flows on your tongue, the only thing you can say as you cum hard against his thigh. 
“ Scheiße ,” König curses under his breath.
He watches with amazement as you melt against him, burying your face in his wide, warm chest as you sob at the force of your orgasm rending white-hot pleasure through your entire body. Streaking bliss from your head to your toes, making your muscles go limp against his sturdy frame. Thank goodness he’s got you so thoroughly pinned with his hands and pelvis, or you’d be slumped over onto the floor. You try to ride through the aftershocks with some semblance of grace, but it’s difficult. All you can do is keep mumbling his name and press yourself down against his leg even more, trying to prolong the high as long as possible. 
The two of you stand like that for a long moment. Tucked away in the shadows, buying time as the final moments of your night out wind down. You feel König’s chest rising and falling beneath your cheek as he breathes hard. So he was just as invested in this as you were, and he didn’t even cum. His hand absentmindedly finds its way from your hip to soothingly stroke your head, and the sweetness of the gesture makes your stomach shimmer. Süß, you think. So good to you, making you cum harder with your clothes still on than other people have managed with every part and toy at their disposal. How the hell did you end up here?
“Are you okay?” König asks. 
His voice cleaves through the chaos of your mind with ease, bringing you back down to earth. 
You look up to find him gazing at you intently, a touch of worry clouding the blue in his eyes. The trace of anxiety you see when he pulls back, gets cautious, worried about being too much. No way in hell are you going to let him feel any trace of uncertainty about how amazing he just made you feel. You grab his face and yank him close to kiss him, hard . Trying to pour every ounce of gratitude into his mouth. He kisses you back with just as much wild enthusiasm, a moan rumbling through his chest as he tugs your lower lip between his teeth. Making out until your head is dizzy and your lips are swollen. When you pull away, you’re both smiling.
“How do you say ‘that was fantastic’ in German?” you ask him.
“ Das war umwerfend. ”
“ Das war umwerfend , König. Holy fucking shit.”
You kiss his cheek and burst into giggles. Maybe you’re a little slap happy. The one two punch of a drink and an orgasm is a deadly combination. 
“Good,” König says. “Good.”
“You don’t need to eavesdrop anymore,” you tell him. “I can write a list of all the things I like.”
“Do it in German,” König says. “To practice. We can trade. You teach me every way to make you cum, and I will teach you what ‘ Sonnenschein’ means."
"Okay."
"You will not look it up?”
“I won’t look it up,” you confirm. “Promise.”
At that, König pulls you in for another kiss. You sigh and fling your arms around his neck pulling him closer. You can’t help but smile, and he can’t help but smile, and your teeth skip over each other, but even with that it’s a perfect way to end the night. 
And to think all of this materialized from a silly conversation about the knee thing. You have a long list to write up, and a lot of DuoLingo to catch up on. But if it means König will keep kissing you like this, it’ll be well worth the effort. 
Find me on AO3 @/goldengrapes  
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rorygilmoreclown · 10 months
Text
The Window
A window
Kaz Brekker x Reader 
Prompt: I can’t stop imagining him with a reader or oc that’s just absolutely fucking insane and feeding off this shit. Like during this whole scene she’s going feral or giggly or something. And all the other crows are so used to her being crazy and Jesper is like: “Don’t mind her gentlemen, she’s just missing a few screws… okay maybe all of them.”
Note: A little note for everyone, I don’t mean to disrespect the bond Inej and Kaz have, I myself am a huge worshipper of Kanej. Just for the plot sake of this fic, the contents have some comments which might make you feel like I’m anti Kanej, but I’m not. Thankyou.
Wordcount: 2.1k
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Inej climbed the walls to the topmost window since she knew that you and Kaz would most likely be scheming there. She stood outside the window, undetected to anyone who would be glancing at the window from the inside, a habit of the beloved spy she had become for the crows. Afterall, she was the eyes and the ears for the Dregs, how could she not know every single detail being planned. A part of her also knew that it was due to the curiosity about how the two most insane people in Ketterdam could find a longing devotion towards each other, and also a bet she’d entered against Jesper. 
If anything happens tonight, if every plan goes awry, run away from this mess and . Inej almost thought that the later half of the sentence would be asking you to stay away from Pekka Rollins, but yet again, she had underestimated the bond that Dirtyhands and his beloved assassin, you, shared. And ensure that you torture Pekka Rollins and destroy him. Even if I’m not with you, although I suppose that my absence would inevitably send you down that path. 
You knew Inej was listening through the window, and you wouldn’t really blame her for doing that. You laughed. Brick by Brick will turn into fragment by fragment until it’s all dust Kaz, I can assure you that. You said as you strolled away from the table and towards the window. Your feet make no sound, as if you were swimming under the water. And besides, nothing can go wrong when it’s our planning being turned into a play. 
Inej was baffled. She thought that a sane partner would have probably asked you to escape and lead a different life, but nothing about this was normal. Afterall, this was Kaz Brekker. Our play has the most perfect dolls. Even the ones who try to spy on us. You leaned through the window and smirked a little at Inej, as if you had won some game. Inej knew that it was her cue to enter the room. 
Kaz just ignored the slight irritation he felt by the interruption. I hope that all the preparations have been made. You could hear the need for only an affirmative response. Wylan's brought the compound. Jesper's helping load it in. Yes, it is all in place, boss. Your eyes secretly met her and in an unsaid medium of communication, she conveyed to you that the arrangements asked to be made by you as a backup plan had also been made. Kaz didn’t miss that, but trusted you enough to know that it isn’t something adverse. 
After a rehearsal of the plan, everyone went on their own routes. You went with Inej to the fifth harbour. Both of you fit perfectly hidden within the shadows and the ropes of the ships. You got started with your job instantly, Inej jumping off to cover the lower deck as you breezed through the upper one. Your feet light, using a trick you stole from a previous circumstantial acquaintance with whom you had been trained, Dunyasha. 
Shortly after Inej gave you the signal to leave without her. Knowing and trusting her skills and intentions, you left the harbour. Before you’d go and watch the final act, you made a pit stop at the menagerie as well. Choosing to leave them a little present of freedom by contaminating their work environment. Good, you thought, they won't be able to start the work for weeks now. 
Finally arriving at the club, you notice Nina dragging a willingly being dragged Kaz. It was fun to watch them from a distance. You slipped in without anyone noticing and sat down at the little front bar, waving cheerfully at Nina. You saw that Kaz was still on the ground. As angry as you were with Pekka Rollins, it was adorable of him to even think that he could harm Kaz. You watched as Pekka threw a kick onto Kaz ribs and as he kneeled in pain. I have to say, this isn’t how I had imagined Kaz Brekker to be kneeling but this works too. All heads turned towards you, and the guns of the Dime Lions with them. Leave her, she won't interfere with my artsy process of destroying this bastard. Rollins almost warned the members. 
You knew Kaz was confused as well. The plan was that you would stay on the window sill which was high above and only interfere or indicate your presence if and when needed or signalled. What are you doing here? Kaz’s tone was threatening as well as disappointed at the same time. 
Your heartrender isn't the only one who knows how to double cross you Brekker. Rollins said as he let himself smile, thinking that it was the end for the bastard. You knew Kaz would connect the dots and know that you were on his side. Now where were we? You saw Kaz being beaten up, each strike encouraging the raging urge to reduce Pekka to nothing. But you had to maintain your front. After a while of this, the sweet and loud sound of the siren fell on everyone’s ears, followed by Edyck, a dime lion, who had come to inform the pleasant news of your plan succeeding. 
You went forward without anyone noticing and helped Kaz stand upright. Slowly retreating as Kaz put the final act into place. There will be outbreaks at all of your establishments. And only yours. The path of contagion will be clear. A ship in your harbour spread the disease to your clubs. You saw the colour being drained from Rollins’ face, yet trying to maintain a facade for the sake of any change of revenge or escape from this situation. What did you do, boy?
Oh why give him all the credit Rollins. I know a certain someone who might have helped. You spoke as you took a sip of the cold concoction you had forced the bartender to summon. Now, the guns were turned towards you as well. I’ll have my own revenge on you later, you foolish girl. 
And that was enough for Kaz to put his next pawn into place, now completely knowing that Rollins deserved it. You laughed out loud, startling the bartender as well as the people who had their guns aimed at you. There's nothing an island nation fears more than disease. The Merchant Council's going to want a proper investigation. Kaz explained to Pekka, who was busy loading bullets. You knew one of them would be aimed at you too. 
Hmm. You got my attention. But you're not worth the time it'll take to put a bullet in your head. You saw Jesper enter silently as Pekka spoke. He took a seat next to you. You passed him a glass as he scoffed. You knew that it was aimed at your antics. Fifth Harbor is shut down. You got up from your seat. Kaz interrupted, breaking your chance of giving Pekka a monologue, Your businesses are tainted. 
My businesses will be fine. But you- Pekka said. You gave him a scoff as you spoke up, And you were calling me insane when you’re the one that is living in denial. Ignoring the gun he had shoved in Kaz’s face. I'd reconsider. If you want to see your Kaelish prince again. Pekka knew exactly who Kaz was talking about. Afterall, Rollins was the one who had assigned the job of keeping the little boy safe, to you. Big mistake. Yet, he didn’t want to give anything away. Oh. What are you gonna do? You gonna blow it up again? You need to learn some new tricks. 
Your other Kaelish prince. You continued the next part for Kaz. Fond of sweets. Blond hair.
Alby. You raised the glass you had in your hand and offered it to Kaz. If the devil could smile, that’s where Kaz Brekker learned it from. He gave you a crooked smile, taking the glass from you and gulping it down. I have to say Brekker, blood on your face and smirk on your lips suits you. You winked at him. If this wasn’t enough for Pekka to be furious, you didn’t know what was. I will kill everything you love, Brekker. Pekka moved the gun and aimed it at you now. I will kill your little assassin, and bury her right under the remains of your previous Crow Club. You saw how Kaz clenched his fist, controlling himself to not just put a bullet in Pekka’s head right then and there. Despite the circumstances, you found this little action sweet. 
A loud giggle escaped your lips. Gaining extremely confused glances by all the members. Jesper spoke out from the corner, ignoring the implication of a kid being kidnapped by Kaz and you, trying to laugh his doubt away. Mentally, he was kneeling on his knees and praying to whatever God he could remember Inej prayed to. Don’t mind her gentlemen, she’s just missing a few screws. 
That’s the difference Pekka, between us and you, you know that he is your weakness, we know that we are each other's strength. Go ahead, kill one of us. Go ahead, taint your carpet with the blood of Crows. But remember, that Crows remember who have wronged them and done them right. The minute you harm us, you will never even get to hear the harsh piano your stupid kid plays. Kaz spoke, he had a teasing tone to his entire threat. 
Kaz, the darling love of my life, that’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me. You saw Nina shake her head in disapproval and disbelief. What did you do? You could hear the fear in his voice. I buried him. Six feet deep. Kaz paused after every word. Giving Rollins some time to digest the news. He went into that box so easily. Didn't even cry, until I took this from him. You finished for Kaz. You showed Pekka the little wooden lion which you had stolen way back when you were on the job to protect Alby. 
Where's my son?   
The whole thing ended about an hour ago. You were sitting on the windowsill of Kaz’s office. Kaz opted to settle the rest of the things with Per Haskel at the dregs club, before coming and resting. He entered the room, looking exhausted. 
Didn’t sleep yet? Kaz inquired. Normally, you would have gone to your room and slept. But not today. You finally had found a moment alone with Kaz, the two of you leaning against the window. The adrenaline of the confrontation as well as the proximity coursed through your veins, but there was also a sense of closeness, of unity.
"You were brilliant, Kaz," you murmured, the note of admiration evident in your voice. "I don't know how you keep coming up with these strategies." Kaz's lips curled into a small smile, his gloved hand reaching out to intertwine his fingers with yours. You knew that he was resisting a lot. 
He could sense your hesitance, he knew the reason behind it as well. It had taken him years to be able to just be comfortable being so close to you. But he knew he wanted all of that, to feel your touch, to be so close to you. 
I have good inspiration, he replied softly. A team that I trust implicitly and a maniac who supports all my decisions. All this soft talk was always reserved for you and the room. When I’d first told you about the Alby, had you thought that it was a bluff or an actual plan.
Kaz, don’t be stupid, I know when you are bluffing. It’s a very obvious tell. 
It wasn’t any obvious tell. You just knew Kaz, so you got lucky with this guess. 
Don't worry, you laughed at his bewildered look, you still look hot while lying. The night went on. Despite being so tired, neither of you could sleep. So the night was spent on the window, planning every single heist possible, making plans to take down the rest of the city. This was definitely proving to be the best date like day ever.
—---
A/n: A little bonus for you guys. For being so late. 
Kaz: I have a very important question to ask you guys. 
Jesper: We know. You have never assembled a meeting consisting of all of us if you didn’t have any serious reasons. 
Kaz: Do I have a tell when I lie. 
Inej: As far as I can tell, and I say this on behalf of everyone, we wouldn’t know. 
Kaz: (disappointed) 
Kaz: Okay, that’s okay. Do I ever look hot? Because apparently that's when I express my tell. 
Insert bewildered crows. 
-----
Taglist: @neonlight2
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bonnieisaway · 6 months
Text
Good morning ladies and gentlemen (it's 6:30 pm) guess who's here to overnalayze episode 1 of season 4 of scissor seven that's right ME
Okay okay I think this might actually be my new favorite episode in the series and I love it so much and I was thinking about it last night and talking about it to my friend this morning and I have THINGS!! TO SAY!!! about it
First off: this isn't as important but did anyone else realize that Blackbird was wrong about Seven's ambushes?
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Like when Seven initially jumps for Blackbird he grabs Seven's sword and says this but
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he's instantly taken off guard five fucking seconds later? And like yeah, this was something Seven could do cause of the Thousand Demon Daggers, but by all means the fact Seven kept DIRECT eye contact with him and took him off guard to make him drop Thirteen makes it seem Seven does think and act faster than Blackbird does. In fact Blackbird fights Seven the exact same way he did Thirteen, he drags both of them out of the clearing and into the forest - though he throttled Seven around A LOT harder - but Seven didn't lose track of Blackbird the way Thirteen did.
Side by side look at how much longer it took Thirteen to get out of his grip and recover - I know Blackbird is arguably more in his element when he's fighting Thirteen but just their reaction times alone, Seven's able to keep up with Blackbird running around him and Thirteen is struggling to keep sight of him. Their main difference is Seven's got much better reaction time and is able to keep up, but he's horrible at actually avoiding getting hit most times. He's so much more aggressive in this fight but also takes twice the beating, Thirteen spends the first half of this fight getting her sides clipped by Blackbird's whip and Seven literally almost gets his whole shoulder ripped out. Seven seems to know what to do a lot quicker and thinks fast compared to Thirteen. Especially since Seven had the opportunity to and realized he could use the light against Blackbird.
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And as he does, I mean initially Blackbird can't even react quick enough, given the distance between them it's surprising Seven got this far,
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And he changes direction faster than Blackbird can even react to his initial movement!
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Blackbird genuinely loses sight of Seven here! And it's not like he couldn't seen Seven, he was perfectly visible and neither of them were facing the sunlight here, but Seven is just faster than Blackbird can react here
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And Seven had time to wait here! Of course Blackbird doesn't realize what Seven is doing and turns around, but if Seven had been going to hit Blackbird from behind he would've! Seven spends a solid second or so longer here before Blackbird actually turns around, and Seven is able to move fast enough to blind Blackbird!
SECONDLY and I've actually seen nobody talk about this but Blackbird has his own art style. Not just like, for his flashbacks. Blackbird has his own fucking art style for when he's in control of the fight. And it makes me so mentally ill
I think I've mentioned before early on Scissor Seven is a little inconsistent art style wise, but definitely by the end of season 3 you can really tell they've gotten comfortable with and have settled on a style they like and work well with. And it's absolutely beautiful, which is why I was really confused when this scene was in the trailer:
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because this is so clearly not their normal art style. To be specific- the line art is really intentionally sketchy and messy, you can evne tell they used a different brush than they normally do for coloring and line art, and the coloring and shading really has a 'colored sketch' look about it. And it's not bad, I love it! But it's so obviously different from the normal style and in the trailers I was wondering if the style was going to change again, but this is the only time it happens. And I realized why: this is an art style specifically for when Blackbird is in control. Let's go through this fight from this frame:
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the moment Thirteen is dropped. So I'm going to go through this by the most important moves or actions they take:
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So obviously Blackbird has a real solid grip on Seven here, but also noticeably I feel like Seven doesn't try to do anything with his sword as he's dragged,
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But notice despite how far or close they are, every frame is noticeably clear and really just true to the art style this show takes:
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but also this sketchy texture and style is a consistent motif in Blackbrid, even if the rest of the style is still how it normally looks,
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Now look at the coloring on Blackbird-
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and THEN we switch to this sketchy style, which is NOTICEABLY the same as Blackbird's flashbacks but just colored with clearer line art.
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This background is still clear but notice even their smear frames are drawn like this, and if you've seen some of my other post this isn't how they normally draw smears, let alone switching brushes and adjusting the entire color palette for it, and this is where the worst part of the fight for Seven starts! This is where he gets hurt!
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Which , these genuinely look like the deepest cuts Seven has gotten in a while- and now watch these frames:
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NOTICEABLE. FUCKING. DIFFERENCE. The second, the second Seven realizes that he has an opprotunity here and that he can use the light against Blackbird, the art style turns back to normal!
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I mean as this fight ends and Blackbird DIES we don't see this again outside of his flashback! The usual sketchy parts of his body change to another texture!
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And I just, it makes me so happy that not only have they found an art style they like, and are comfortable with, but are so good with it to a point that they can play with the art style now for story telling elements! And I mean even as Blackbird screams and tries to kill Seven the art style stays, because even if Blackbird can't feel it and we don't know yet, he has definitively lost this battle and this will drain the rest of his energy and kill him before it will kill Seven!
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This bird flying away- and Blackbird's last flashback- is the last we see of this art style.
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and I just. RAAAAAAH I love this episode. I feel like I could go on more and I might later - I still really wanna know if there's a reason why they put so much emphasis into Seven switching hands when he's using the sword, given he's ambidextrous and it's never been focused on before, I think it might be because he's not using his scissors even though they're near but I'm not really sure. I can't tell if using his scissors over his sword would be more draining given his last attempt at them in season 3 knocked him out cold. GOD this show makes me so fuckin mentally ill
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Text
Do you want to hear me talk about The Animatic? No? Well that sucks because I'm talking about it anyway.
I don't know what made me suddenly want to make a full length animatic, but the urge descended upon me and I did anyway, despite my horrible horrible track record.
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I'd actually had a couple voice clips cut out since July (because that's when I started Jealousy), but the bulk of it was done 15/16 August. And! This song (Pentatonix's God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen) is actually the second one I tried piecing together.
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The first song was AURORA's Runaway! I swapped songs pretty early on because
Runaway was 4 minutes long and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen was 2.5 minutes long
3 minutes in, I ran out of voice clips.
I used a lot more voice clips for Runaway than God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, not just because it's longer but also because the song is significantly slower and thus easier to fit voice clips in it. Not just more voice clips, but the voice clips were longer too.
(God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen had 9 source clips. Runaway had 15.)
Hindsight is 20/20 though, because due to the slow-paced nature of Runaway in comparison to God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen would have resulted in far less frames needing to be drawn, or precise cuts or-
Well, you get the point.
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I have two files for this project! Yes, it was pure Medibang. The reason for the two files is that there were so many layers that the first file was lagging to hell and back and I couldn't even draw a straight line because of how bad it was.
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This was the actual first frame I ever drew for this! If it looks familiar, it's because I was mirroring this. It's my first ever fanart for QSMP.
At the time of starting this, I had maybe 3 pieces of QSMP fanart and was super uncertain of what I was doing, so it definitely happened again - mirroring a piece of fanart into an animatic frame.
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This was the first time I ever drew Cucurucho. I had an idea and it was simple to execute but over time I forgot about the voice box.
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This, on the other hand, was the last frame I ever drew. The Cucurucho designs are largely the same, with some minor differences (bigger eyes, more stitches, no voice box, thinner tube).
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This was the first time I successfully drew Cellbit. Emphasis on successfully because even this one bit took me forever. I never really had to redraw any frame once I drafted it, but this. This took me 5 redraws. It was my greatest nightmare.
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I've said it before but these two frames side by side?
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It was my favourite part of the animatic for the longest time. Hands down, no debate, I adored it.
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You may notice that most frames had the subjects coloured in a lighter colour, but a couple didn't. Some were intentional, to better show off lighting and backgrounds and depth and stuff.
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Some.... were not.
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(Oops.)
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Some of my other favourite frames include:
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Which would have been better if I hadn't messed up the shading.
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Because this was so many characters. And Cellbit.
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And the Bagheras, which I really had a ton of fun drawing near the end. Because these two were drawn at the end. The same day, actually. The first one did have a draft already, though.
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Some little details:
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Between these two frames, BBH and Cellbit pop up in the background. There's a flash of white immediately after, which is supposed to be the camera flash when BBH takes a photo.
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Jaiden (and Roier) in the early scenes have perfectly normal eyes.
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This changes immediately after Bobby's death, albeit rather subtly.
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By the time the beginning of the Cucurucho tasks rolls around, the shadows under their eyes have had time to develop and become more prominent.
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Roier does a little rooftop espionage.
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Similar/Similarly located scenes have similarly coloured backgrounds!
It's most prominent with Bobby Fields' Rose/Lavender palette, with a few (not all) examples.
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(The words associated with this last image are actually from when Jaiden got stuck on a ladder on her way down from the sunset tree while trying to chase Cucurucho. I just found that funny.)
But the colour thing is also key with Baghera and Jaiden's conversation with Pomme's non-canon death.
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The colours used for 1) the gradient background 2) the lineart and 3) the subject base colour are identical in both images, even if they're a third of the video apart.
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Anyway, this was made with Medibang and iMovie, even if I do have Krita and DaVinci Resolve and FlipaClip and-
.........Yeah.
Tried and true basics, I guess.
(Krita and DaVinci both cause my laptop to overheat. I struggle with Krita so incredibly badly, even though I have friends who swear by it.)
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Also I maxed out the image count on this post.
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nyaniikat · 1 year
Note
Hello cat I just read your hawk x male reader one and it was so cute ahahahah🤍🤍🤍😭
For my request today, maybe a genshin boys x male reader Head canons of m!reader being shy and more smaller then them. If you don’t want to wright this it’s perfectly fine this was just an idea lol! Have a great day 🤍🤍🤍🤍🪴
Thank youuu!!!!! I'm glad you guys enjoyed it~ my brain was itching me to write something cute when I was trying to sleep.
I didn't finish making the other genshin guys headers so I hope the lil story at the end will make up for it
Please enjoy!
•---------•
Male reader
Fem aligned DNI
Masterlist
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
You're my Shy little Shorty
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・❥・There's no doubt this man will tease the living shit out of you. Who knew there would be a guy like you that would be short and adorable? anemo guys
・❥・You being short and small made it perfect for Kaeya to hold you. Kaeya enjoys hugging you from behind and resting his chin on the top of your head. Something about it just makes him feel relaxed knowing you are there for him when he needs to get some weight off his shoulders.
・❥・He didn't mind you being shy. Though he sometimes does find himself in a bit of trouble trying to understand what you're saying as your voice is so quiet but he does try his best!! he would ask you to repeat what you said slower and a bit louder which makes you panic, but he makes sure that you take nice slow deep breaths so your anxiety and panic won't affect you as much.
・❥・Despite your shy nature, you were quite a fighter and your confidence shoots up when you see a person needing help. Even though you were just someone who works at a bakery, that hydro vision of yours wasn't for nothing.
˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ Kaeya sometimes wonders if there would be a time when he had to choose between his home or you. The thought of it made him feel uneasy as a sour face begins to set on his face, he didn't even realize he was battling himself in his head until you shook his shoulder snapping him out of his head.
"Are you alright dear? that was quite a face you made."
You looked at him with a worried look
'Oh how I wish I was born normal. Maybe I wouldn't be in a position like this.'
"Don't worry sweetheart, I'm just thinking of work stuff is all. It was quite a lot I had to handle today."
"Well if you ever need to let something out you can always come to me about it. Whether I understand it or not I'll listen to you any time."
Your soft smile and your kind eyes were something he could never get enough of. He didn't want this to go away ever so he pulled you close to him hugging you, feeling the tension on his shoulders fall off.
"Sweetheart you're so perfect for hugging you know that? you're so cute and small like a mouse~"
A visible blush appeared on your face, you lightly hit his chest in protest
"Can't we just have a moment where you don't point out how small I am??"
"Sorry sweetheart but you're my shy little shorty~"
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・❥・You were but a simple pottery artist trying to make a living, but somehow you managed to land a big one by grabbing the attention of an older tall gentlemen who is now your boyfriend.
・❥・Zhongli never saw your small size or your shy personality as a hinderance instead he found it quite cute. He was a man with a lot of patience and respected your craft...well.. you just hope he was wise with his spending's sometimes. You always wondered how this man grew up to not carry mora constantly on hand
'He must've been suuuuppeerr rich before' you thought yeah man I wonder too
・❥・He would always wait to hear you out first due to your quiet voice, thankfully he had a good ear so no matter how quiet your voice gets he always seems to get what you're saying.
・❥・Zhongli enjoys being with and listening to you, even though you're quite shy and get scared to talk to people you sure did love to ramble about the little things in life. You could be talking about how you saw Beidous ship come by or how you pet a mother cat and gave her food and he would listen and listen. Smiling and giving his fullest attention to you and only you.
˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ A sneeze echoed through the room. You weren't in your best condition at the current moment due to you coming back home drenched in rain water lately, the rain always had something against you. Every time you were on your way back home, the rain always poured down on you. Talk about bad luck, thankfully before you got jailed into bed by the cold, a young man with dark green hair and a polearm in hand helped you get home before it got worse outside.
He talked about how he's helping because he got tired of seeing you run and struggle through the rain despite there being clear signs of rain there were not any clear signs. You got home tired and cold, almost passing out from your body being unable to handle what you've been putting it through. Zhongli was there by the table when he saw you come through the door whilst sensing his yaksha linger nearby, knowing that someone he trusted brought you home before it got worse eased his mind however this did not stop him from feeling concerned that you were willing to run in the rain instead of waiting it out.
So now you were stuck in bed, trying your best to keep your eyes awake as you wait for Zhongli to finish with the herbal soup that's meant to make you feel better. A few more minutes has passed and your eyes got heavier, you decided to shut your eyes just so you wouldn't struggle to keep them open and without realizing you were fast asleep.
Zhongli walked in the room wanting to see if you were up to eat or not but saw you asleep. He silently walks to the bed sitting at the edge of it next to you. Brushing your hair to side of you face he decides to admire you. Even though he was angry with how you came back home he kept in mind that you always came back with a smile and a hug for him with some gifts in hand. He would have to ask Xiao to keep an eye on you when it starts to rain and escort you back home when he gets the chance. But this doesn't mean you weren't having a stern talk once you start feeling better.
"It seems I really can't get you out of my head y/n, you worry me sometimes"
Cupping his hand on your cheek and rubs his thumb against your face. You nuzzle into his hand finding comfort with it.
"You're my shy little shorty, I don't think I can ever get fully mad at you."
•---------•
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rphelperblog · 1 year
Text
Infernal Devices Quote Rp Meme
Part One
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inspired by @bcbliophile​ @multistoty​ @wcrriorhearts​ - feel free to edit quotes or change pronouns for rp purposes
“Life is a book and there are a thousand pages I have not yet read.” 
“There's plenty of sense in nonsense sometimes, if you wish to look for it.” 
“cleverness that comes too late is hardly cleverness at all?” 
“Would you like a thesaurus? You seem to be running out of words.” 
“God knows we’re all drawn to what’s beautiful and broken.” 
“I shall charm him with such force that when I am done, he will be left lying limply on the ground, trying to remember his own name.” 
In all the world, you are what I love the most.” 
"But I am not that good a man. And I am--I am catastrophically in love with you.” 
“Dreams can be dangerous things.” 
“It is not the same thing to be good and to be kind.”
"What kind of monster could possibly hate chocolate?” 
"No, I mean enterprising.When I mean morally deficient, I say, 'Now, that's something I would have done.”
“It is as great a thing to love as it is to be loved. Love is not something that can be wasted.” 
“You've always been what you are. That's not new. What you'll get used to is knowing it.” 
“I know you feel inhuman, and as if you are set apart, away from life and love, but... I promise you, the right man won't care.” 
“Let me give you a piece of advice. The handsome young fellow who's trying to rescue you from a hideous fate is never wrong. Not even if he says the sky is purple and made of hedgehogs.” 
“Whatever you are physically...male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy--all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside.” 
"Such harsh truths so early in the morning cannot be good for the digestion.” 
“Do you normally turn up in gentlemen's bedrooms in the middle of the night? If I'd known that, I would have campaigned harder to make sure mother let you stay.” 
“Beauty fades, but cooking is eternal.” 
"How is this different from him being totally ridiculous in the library or the weapons room or any of the other places he's usually ridiculous?” 
"You behave as if everything is funny to you, but you never laugh. Sometimes you smile when you think no one is paying attention."
"You make me laugh. From the moment you hit me with that bottle."
“It isn't against the Law to be an idiot.” 
“Do reasons matter when there's nothing that can be done to change things.” 
“Black hair and blue eyes are my favorite combination.” 
“Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.” 
"He's going to kill someone. Or get us killed."
“For that was love, wasnt it--to burn bright in someone else's eyes?” 
“It's all right to love someone who doesn't love you back, as long as they're worth you loving them. As long as they deserve it.”  “One finds nobility in the oddest places.” 
“I am not the one of us who has no heart.” 
“You had to know a person well to make them laugh like that.” 
"I have wanted to do this every moment of every hour of every day that I have been with you since the day I met you.” 
“Our hearts, they need a mirror. We see our better selves in the eyes of those who love us.” 
“I am catastrophically in love with you.” 
“They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite” 
“One does no question miracles, or complain that they are no constructed perfectly to one's liking.” 
“you really didn’t have to throw that man through the window.” 
“It has been the privilege and the honor of my life to know you.” 
“Sometimes one must choose whether to be kind or honorable. Sometimes one cannot be both.” 
“You can’t have wasted a life you’ve barely lived.” 
“She’s annexed my plan!” 
“Do you care more about the plan being enacted or about getting credit for it?”
She had never imagined she had the power to make someone else so happy. And not a magical power, either--a purely human one.”
"She is my priority!"
“Do not seek revenge and call it justice.” 
“No one can say that death found in me a willing comrade, or that I went easily.” 
“Men may be stronger, but it is women who endure.” 
“It was books that made me feel that perhaps I was not completely alone. They could be honest with me, and I with them.” 
“There is more to living than not dying.” 
“Sometimes, when I have to do something I don't want to do, I pretend I'm a character from a book. It's easier to know what they would do.”  “Are you implying that shreds of my reputation remain intact? Clearly I have been doing something wrong. Or not something wrong, as the case may be." 
“For this I would be damned forever. For this I would have given up everything.” 
"I have that effect on women,"
“He’s very broken, like a lovely vase that someone has smashed. Only luck and skill can put it back together the way it was before.” 
"Wherever we are, we are as one.” 
That for my father, there was only ever one woman he loved, and it was her for him, or nothing. You are that for me. I love you, and I will only ever love you until I die —” 
We are bound, you and I, over the divide of death, down through whatever generations may come. Forever.”
“Has no one respect for the classics these days?” 
“having your annual ‘everyone thinks [muse’s name] is a lunatic’ meeting, are you? “
“Some secrets were better told; some were better left the burden of the carrier, that they might not cause pain to others.” 
“There are so many worse things than death. Not to be loved or not to be able to love: that is worse.” 
“If no one cares for you at all, do you even really exist?” 
“You endure what is unbearable, and you bear it. That is all.”
You are not the last dream of my soul.You are the first dream, the only dream I ever was unable to stop myself from dreaming. You are the first dream of my soul, and from that dream I hope will come all other dreams, a lifetime’s worth.”
“I'm afraid to answer that. I've heard that when I speak, it makes American women wish to strike me with umbrellas.” 
“since you say there will be another life for me, let us both pray I do not make as colossal a mess of it as I have this one.” 
“Our souls are knit. We are one person,”
“Those of you who are mortal, you burn so fiercely. And you fiercer than most. I will not ever forget you.” 
“I've never minded it,Being lost, that is. I had always thought one could not truly be lost if one knew one's own heart. But I fear I may be lost without knowing yours.” 
“What he needs now is to love and have that love returned.” 
"I can offer you my life, but it is a short life; I can offer you my heart, though I have no idea how many more beats it shall sustain. But I love you enough to hope that you wil not care that I am being selfish in trying to make the rest of my life - whatever length - happy, by spending it with you. I want to be married to you. I want it more than I have ever wanted anything else in my life."
“that heroes all come to bad ends, and he could not imagine why anyone would want to be one, anyway.”
“Dear God, woman.Are there any questions you don't want to know the answer to?” 
“Whoever loves you now—and you must also love yourself—will love the truth of you.” 
“There was something peculiarly gratifying about shouting in a blind rage until your words ran out.” 
“I could not tell you if I loved you the first moment I saw you, or if it was the second or third or fourth. But I remember the first moment I looked at you walking toward me and realized that somehow the rest of the world seemed to vanish when I was with you.” 
“Every meeting led to a parting, and so it would, as long as life was mortal. In every meeting there was some of the sorrow of parting, but in everything parting there was some of the joy of meeting as well.” 
“And now I need you to do for me what I cannot do for myself. For you to be my eyes when I do not have them. For you to be my hands when I cannot use my own. For you to be my heart when mine is done beating.”
“Never trust a duck.”
"How rude. Many who have gazed upon me have compared the experience to gazing at the radiance of the sun."
“Must you go? I was rather hoping you'd stay and be a ministering angel, but if you must go, you must."
“Lies and secrets, they are like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind.” 
"Can you make things that don't have potatoes in them? We had an Irish cook once when I was a boy. Potato pie, potato custard, potatoes with potato sauce...” 
T’aint my way to turn down payment, but any man who looks like you has got no need of love potions, and that’s a fact.” 
“Look at him. The face of a bad angel and eyes like the night sky in Hell. He's very pretty, and vampires like that. I can't say I mind either.” 
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littleperilstories · 10 months
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The Prince of Thieves: Finale I - The Inn
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Mood Boards | Chapter Titles | Also on A03! | Playlist | Story Intro
Warnings: uhhh...baby spit-up?, vague mention of someone dying?
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✨ Did you come here from Chapter 49? There are two bonus chapters that come between 49 and 50:
💚 Box in Your Heart (Colette and Will)
🍂 Are You Nobody, Too? (Bree and Henry)
Word count: 1590 || Approx reading time: 7 mins
If you normally read on Ao3, the whole dang Chapter 50 (in all its obscene-word-count glory) will go up on Thursday like usual. If you wanna read it in its three parts, keep an eye on Tumblr.
If you normally read on Tumblr but would rather read the whole freakin thing in one fell swoop, Thursday is your day. :)
Part 1: The Inn
Teaser: The innkeepers called her Lucy, and they certainly had no reason to suspect that it might not be her name at all.
The well-travelled road that connected the harbour towns to the inland ones was dotted with villages, and in these villages, one could always find a place to spend the night. Even in the throes of winter, when the winds howled most violently and the snows sometimes blocked the road entirely, inns and taverns were chock-full, brimming with customers, spilling from the seams with road-worn travellers and familiar locals seeking food, wine, and the company of others.
In one such inn, nestled in a cozy town that had been built up perfectly midway between the city and the great lake to which so many tourists flocked in the summer, as a deep snow fell beyond the steamy glass windows, a girl was working. She was bone-weary most days, and just a bit shabbier than the other inn girl, but she smiled at her patrons nonetheless. It was a winning smile, coy when it needed to be, shy sometimes, wide and beaming at others. The innkeeper, a widow who split her managerial duties with a dear friend who shared her lodgings on the top floor, had never seen any reason to suspect that there was anything strange about the girl. They didn’t mind that she was often quiet; in fact, they rather preferred it. They’d noticed her slap away a few too-bold gentlemen a few times in the months since she’d come to them looking for a job, but that hadn’t caused any trouble so far, and as they figured, many a young woman would do the same if a handsy customer forgot himself when he was a bit too deep in his cups.
The innkeepers called her Lucy, and they certainly had no reason to suspect that it might not be her name at all.
On this night, as the dinner rush roared to life, raucous and frenzied, keeping the girls running without a moment’s rest, as the innkeeper and her dear friend barked orders and roasted chicken and boiled potatoes and kept watchful eyes over the dining room, and as the snow that had been falling steadily throughout the day finally began to wane in its onslaught against the frozen earth, the girl whose name was not Lucy was run ragged. The table in the corner demanded more beer; the family by the window had an infant who had just spit up onto the floor, and while she thought the child to be a charming little thing, he had just increased her workload significantly, for she did not know where there was even a clean towel to be found; and a little boy had just darted gleefully in front of her as he raced around the room, very nearly causing her to spill a glass of wine down the front of her dress.
The girl, whose name was not Lucy but Breanna, and who preferred to be called Bree when she wasn’t telling people to call her Lucy, gave herself a single moment to feel proud that she had managed not to soak herself in blood-red wine before she hurried to the customer who awaited the drink, an old man who appeared to her eyes to be well on his way to one hundred.
The old man thanked her quietly as he accepted the wine, slipping an extra coin into her palm before she scurried away to help the family by the window. The girl whose name he did not remember most days reminded him of his daughter who had died many years ago. He liked to see her smile. Sometimes, however, he thought that she looked sad, when she was behind the bar, facing away from the innkeeper and the woman who was not her wife, when the room was quieter and less hectic, when she seemed to believe no one was looking. The old man never asked the girl if she held anguish in her heart. He merely hoped it was his failing eyes and the poor light from the fire and the lamps that made her look so sorrowful.
So intent was the girl no one called Bree on finding a clean towel—desperate to avoid using her own apron to assist the harried-looking mother with her child—that she did not notice a shadow pass by the window, heralding the arrival of yet another group of guests.
“I’ll find you something,” she promised the mother, who nodded gratefully while the child flung his arms into the air and caught his father on the chin with his fist.
“Check the crate below the stairs!” Calling a suggestion of where she might find a towel, the other inn girl gave Bree’s hand a squeeze as they passed each other, the other arm wholly occupied as she carried a steaming bowl of soup to the boy who had nearly spilled the old man’s wine mere minutes before. It was his second bowl of soup; he had knocked the first one to the floor in a fit of excitement over a story his older sister was telling, and while the innkeeper had initially insisted that the family must pay full price for the second bowl, she’d capitulated when the boy had fixed her with a wide green gaze and given her a gap-toothed grin, and she and the sister had agreed that half-price would do instead.
Bree unlatched the stair-cupboard door, found the crate in question, and rummaged around until she found a stack of ratty but mostly clean cloth. Murmuring a few words of exhausted gratitude coloured with near-silent expletives, she scrambled back to her feet. She took only a moment to appreciate the delightful solitude and relative quiet of the cupboard before she hurried back out into the chaos. The mother accepted the towel gratefully, just in time, as her young son repeated his unsavoury activity from earlier, this time across her shoulder.
Ducking her head to hide an expression that was equal parts amusement and disgust, Bree wiped away the offending substance with her shoe, pinching the soiled towel with two fingers as she hurried to the back to dispose of it.
The other girl, who asked others to call her Victoria and who had no reason to do otherwise as she was indeed named Victoria, smiled broadly and welcomed the group who stumbled in from outside. She bit back a sigh—a group of five, they were, and she was already anticipating the headache it would be to squeeze them in somewhere—but she consoled herself that they were young and pleasant-looking and four of the five were rather handsome fellows who might leave a few extra coins upon the table if she beamed and winked and giggled just so. How striking, she thought, was the melting snow against the coppery-brown hair of two who might have been brothers and the dark beards of the pale, fidgety man and the astoundingly tall one behind him.
Victoria let her gaze rove around the room, searching for a place to seat them but also for her colleague, intending to whisper conspiratorially the next time they brushed elbows, “Have you seen those fine gentlemen who just came in?”
Bree was, in fact, right then returning from the back room, her hands now clean, still dripping water onto the floor. As she noticed the group that had just entered, her footsteps faltered and came to an abrupt stop. Her eyes grew wide; her cheeks grew wan. The old man drinking wine heard her cry out softly in surprise.
Victoria did not hear it, but she gaped in confusion as her friend staggered backwards, face now ghostly white, and then vanished back through the door through which she’d just entered.
“What is wrong with that girl?” the innkeeper demanded. Nothing escaped her eyes or ears. “Where does she think she’s going?”
“I—I think she must be quite ill,” stammered Victoria, unsure of how to answer. “Shall I check on her?”
“No. If she’s ill, we don’t want her anywhere near the guests. You’ll just have to move a little quicker till it calms down in here. Now chop-chop. I’ll come help you when I can.”
Sighing loudly and this time not even attempting to hide it, Victoria hurried across the room to bring the new group to their table.
The young man who had just entered, whose hair did not know if it was red or brown, whose face was sprinkled with freckles and whose body was sprinkled with scars, whose hands were busy brushing the last dregs of snow from his coat, felt a shiver run down his spine. Suddenly, though he did not know from where this feeling struck him, he was quite certain something had happened that he should have seen but had been too distracted to notice. When he looked around the room, however, he saw nothing but merry travellers and piping hot plates of food and frothy pints of beer and the smile of the bargirl who approached to direct them to their table.
At the back of the inn, clothed in nothing but her dress and apron, the girl whose secret was suddenly in great peril clung to the wooden doorway, gasping in the frigid night air, tears freezing to crystals of ice upon her lashes. For she knew that group who had just come in for a meal, knew their faces and their names and their past. This was not what frightened her.
Breanna Cooper knew that group, and worst of all, she knew they knew her, too.
Previous | Masterlist | Next
✨ Did you come here from Chapter 49? There are two bonus chapters that come between 49 and 50:
💚 Box in Your Heart (Colette and Will)
🍂 Are You Nobody, Too? (Bree and Henry)
Next time on The Prince of Thieves:
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Tagging: @starlit-hopes-and-dreams, @gala1981, @kixngiggles, @whither-wander-whump 💕
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meimi-haneoka · 1 year
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Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Chapter 68: Comments + JP-ENG translation differences
Hello hello everyone!! Here we are again, one month later, for the third chapter of the future volume 14, chapter 68!! Maaaan I gotta say I got pretty excited with this chapter, at some point I’ve started screaming while I was reading it (thank god I was alone) and I believe it’s been quite some time since that last happened 😂 This chapter is heavily focused on my four favorite characters, which I had predicted they’d be the focus of the “final confrontation”, so I guess that’s only normal. God, I love them all so much and I notice that even more with chapters like these. I also found myself to wish even more desperately for season 2 of the anime, because maaan, the scenery of this chapter is particularly breathtaking. I dunno, it might be because I imagined all of that animated, and my breath caught in my throat, but it would really be so wonderful to see all of that moving with pretty lights and sounds someday. I can definitely, definitely feel we came to the crunch of this story with this chapter.
Curious to know why? Follow me under the cut, but not before taking a look at the gif of the month! 😂
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The Color page
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Ladies & gentlemen, the third SyaoSaku color page in the span of 6 chapters 😂Is somebody trying to make up for something? 😂 Aww, I have to admit that when I saw this color page for the first time some hours before the chapter release, it made my heart all warm and fuzzy 🥰it’s really nice CLAMP decided to revive that beautiful scene of chapter 23 in a color page, it’s such a sweet and important memory for these two. It was a very happy moment, and here CLAMP decided to bring this one step forward by allowing Sakura and Syaoran to hold hands in a lover’s hold, with their fingers intertwined. 🥰 But this was also the scene where we’ve heard for the first time how unwavering Syaoran was in his resolution to not let Sakura feel any sorrow. Yes, sorrow, 不幸. A word that would become so crucial and important later on, and which is recalled even in this chapter through Momo’s words. This color page is also connected to what happened in last chapter, when Mirror was explaining why Flight decided to help them, and recalled precisely this scene. Lastly, I think this color page illustrates perfectly the strong bond that connects Sakura and Syaoran together, which gets once more reiterated in this chapter. It’s interesting to note how the color palette of the outfits they are wearing here is different from the one used in the anime! I find both versions charming, to be honest! Pink is my favorite color but I appreciate the anime’s attempt at making Sakura wear something that’s not pink 😁 The JP text here says “Sakura-chan and Syaoran-kun’s date in the sky….with Mirror and Flight!”.
What is happiness to you?
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The chapter starts with Sakura, seemingly asleep in the void, hearing a voice asking her what is happiness to her and why she’s always been able to say that “everything will surely be alright”.
By now, we already know whose voice it is. Reminds you of something? Of course it does! Not only it is the "mirror" of how Chapter 65 started, kicking off this “story” inside Clockland (that time it asked about sorrow, this time about happiness), but it is also a recall to how Momo introduced Sakura to her “hint” back in chapter 50. Everything keeps reconnecting and going full circle, folks.
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Turns out, Alice briefly fell asleep and wakes up, finding herself on a gondola, together with the Red Queen. As she opens her eyes, we’re made partakers of the beautiful scenery that unfolds before her: on both banks of the river they’re navigating, there are huge shelves full of books, and the wood of the shelves morphs into tall trees. Little black & white roses, seemingly the Queen’s crest, are nestled into small lamps, illuminating the way. Alice wonders about the voice she believes she just heard, and although she’s sure to have heard it before, she can’t quite recall who it is.
First translation difference here:
ENG: “I don’t know. But...I can’t shake the feeling I’ve heard it before” JP: “I don’t know. But...I have the feeling I’ve been asked the same thing before”
The difference here is given by the word 聞かれた. It is true that the verb 聞く means both “to listen” or “to ask”, but when used in this way, it definitely means “been asked”. After all, Momo was indeed asking her something. I found this part a bit confusing because all Alice was talking about in the ENG was “hearing a voice”, not that it spoke to her. So the Queen asking her if it was important felt a bit weird. What’s important, the voice? No, she’s indeed asking about what the voice asked to her.
And here I ask you to pay particular attention to the font of the Japanese version, as I predicted in my last post. Because here, for a moment, we see a “magic effect” around Sakura, and then she replies “Yes. Something very important.” WITH A REGULAR FONT. This means Sakura is talking as her real self here!! Again, triggered by important matters, she regained conscience of her true self. But unfortunately that lasts shortly, as she looks up to the Cat, standing on a bridge between shelves, looking down on her in a very…..pissed off way.
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I mean, look at his clenched fists here! 😂 That unfortunately sends Sakura back to her Alice role. As the two girls continue navigating the river, Kaito talks to Momo, who keeps appearing only as a voice and not physically. I want to point out that not only here, but throughout the chapter, the ENG translation put a lot of “filler words” that skew the perception of the tone of certain characters. Of course, if you’ve been following this blog for a while, I don’t even need to point out who these changes affect the most.
ENG: “Perhaps I can convince you not to give Alice here any hints? Here I thought the guardian of the book wasn’t to assist the players”
JP: “I would like you to refrain from giving any hint to Alice. I thought the guardian of the Book couldn’t help any of the characters?”
In the ENG version, with that “I can convince you”, Kaito sounds vaguely threatening. Like “if you don’t do as I say, I’ll convince you by force”. In the JP version, there’s none of that. Kaito still speaks with his usual polite tone to Momo, while still being clearly annoyed at her. Annoyed doesn’t mean he has to suddenly become an as*hole to her. And even when Momo replies, explaining that her line was said merely as a “facilitator” (this very same English word is included in the furigana of the 進行役 word) of the Book, she doesn’t use neither “boy” nor the overly salty tone she’s got in the ENG version. Yes, sure, I was highly amused by the way these two bickered in the ENG translation, but I have to be impartial and say when things aren’t really as they are presented. STILL, the scene is so hilarious because Kaito is beyond pissed 😂(for his standards) and he replies “I beg to differ” but decides to prioritize following the girls, as he can’t lose sight of them.
Books are "Our Story"
Alice looks at the immense library that stretches along the banks of the river, and notices how many books are there. The Queen says that books are very important in this country, and Alice asks her if she likes books too. I would like to think Alice was instinctively brought to pose this question because Sakura’s subconscious knows this is Akiho. Of course the Queen answers she does, because books were always by her side. Just like the real Akiho. Meanwhile, the gondola enters a part of the river where the trees above are interwoven more and more, until it looks as if the girls are entering some kind of “tunnel” or “cavern”. I found that eerily beautiful too (I need to see this animated!!!!!). While the two girls get off the gondola and reach a shelf, the Queen explains that books are people’s “memories”. And they serve as a “record” too. Seeing as “record” (記録) is indicated between brackets, I can’t help but think about the relative Record Card. But what these books “record” in them? The Queen says: “Somebody’s feelings. Their hopes. And the magic they’ve weaved. Many [stories] are recorded in them”. Alice utters the word “record”, probably as if it reminded her of something…. Then she asks the Queen if the book she’s holding is her favorite one. Try to zoom in and pay attention to the magic circle depicted on the cover of this book. Looks familiar? Yes, because you have seen it before.
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The version on the cover of this book seems slightly more elaborated, but there’s no doubt it’s the magic circle belonging to the members of the most ancient magical clan of Europe, collectively called by me as the “Squid Clan”. It is kinda surprising the Queen grabbed specifically this book, and with some friends I was musing on which underlying meaning this library could have. Does it store the records, the stories of all the people who tried to use Momo’s book? After all, we’ve been told that her book records the life of the owner. If that’s true, then maybe we could infer someone from Akiho’s clan tried to use it, at some point? Regardless, the Queen replies that this is not her favorite book. Her favorite book is Alice in Clockland. And here pay attention, dear readers, because as she utters the name of the book, the font in the Queen’s speech bubble is back to normal!!
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This is not the Queen anymore, AKIHO is regaining control of her consciousness! With nonchalance she lets go of the book she was holding, which goes back to its place in the shelf. Alice points out:
ENG: “That’s my name…” “Perhaps. But it is the title of your story” JP: “That’s my name...and yet, it’s the title of a book you have”
As you can see, the ENG translation completely misunderstood who was talking in the second bubble of this panel. It is not Akiho, despite the bubble being close to her (there’s no tail pointing at her, indeed), but actually still Alice. Alice is confused because a book belonging to the Queen is titled with her name. So this brings Alice to question her own identity. And the true identity of the Red Queen in front of her. Akiho replies that she doesn’t know, because she’s forgotten her previous name when she entered Clockland. But there’s one thing she remembers. It’s the one thing no magic could ever make her forget. Before entering Clockland, she had a [special person]. Here it is again. That 特別なひと I fussed so much about during last chapter. It seemed such a trivial thing and yet I knew it wasn’t, because this is a specific term with which the story is indicating the person someone loves. That’s why it was important to me, I think this is going to be very important to understand the story, and fortunately this time around they translated it correctly. Akiho, talking with a regular font and all, seems to regain a hold of herself more and more. Thanks to a mutual on Twitter I even realized that her pronoun changes from 私 (watashi, in kanji) to わたし (watashi, in hiragana), which is the usual way her pronoun is written when she speaks as Akiho. THERE IS a difference there!! She remembers about the girl she’s got in front of her, too. She tells her that she had a name more befitting of who she is, actually, Akiho says that she’s just the embodiment of the thing she was named after. (This part was translated in ENG as merely “it was your name” and I don’t think they really got the beautiful praise she was giving to Sakura). “Just like a flower that blooms in spring”
Catfight part 2?
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A shriek echoes in the library, it’s our Syaoran, the REAL Syaoran, yelling Sakura’s name!!!
He cut through the fake environment created by the book with his own sword, but Kaito wastes no time in appearing in front of him, out of nowhere, praising him for managing to stay inside the book, but affirming that having two Cats is really inconvenient for him (taken literally from the JP text, as opposed to the more arrogant way the ENG decided to translate it with). Kaito tries to grab Syaoran, but as he does so, we find out it was the Mirror Card who had taken Syaoran’s appearance, and it’s now back in the hands of the real one!! Sakura FINALLY recognizes her Syaoran, regaining her own identity once and for all, thanks to her beloved one. As some of my japanese mutuals have pointed out in their own reviews of the chapter, it’s really beautiful that the trigger for both girls waking up from the role they were playing is the person they’re in love with. Syaoran apologizes for being late, and Sakura can’t contain the tears, realizing she couldn’t remember who she was, but she was able to free herself of the spell when he called her name! Syaoran says something really important and poignant, and Mokona sensei gives the entire page to Syaoran to indicate how fundamental this is:
JP: “The only Sakura there'll ever be for me is [Kinomoto Sakura]”
Kinomoto Sakura, with her full name in kanji and all (he usually calls her in hiragana, but here the moment is solemn, you know!). He might have been put under stress and been tested with the whole Mirror thing, but Syaoran will always find his way back to his Sakura. No matter what. Sakura is so very comforted by that. But someone else is just not as comforted…. Syaoran regained control of the Mirror Sakura Card (again with that “Mirror Clow Card” in the ENG translation!! THE CLOW CARDS DON’T EXIST ANYMORE, FFFFF--!!) and even dispelled the Mirror new card, effectively undoing Kaito’s disguise, who goes back to his real self. At this point, we should have all four protagonists of this story with their true selves, no one is playing a role anymore. But Akiho is suspiciously quiet and unresponsive to all of this mess, and Mokona sensei avoided drawing any expression on her, covered by the veil. What is going on with her? I hope everything is fine, but I have the feeling something….might be going on with her….something related to the Squid Clan. Kaito notices that Syaoran managed to bring a sword in this place, storing it inside of his body, and it is likely a skill he acquired during his time back in Hong Kong (not, as the ENG translated, “You’ve grown during your time back in Hong Kong”, that could refer to his physical growth but this is not what Kaito is talking about here). He wonders if it was thanks to his mother’s gift, the divination, or if it was just his own good fortune. Of course Syaoran has to wonder how Kaito knows about all of that. He replies that Syaoran is...quite famous in the circles he runs in (that “young man” was merely added to fill in that bubble, Kaito isn’t being arrogant with Syaoran here. None of the condescending “boy” or “young man” you ever see in this chapter in English is truly said by the characters in Japanese). He says that “the most ancient European magicians” are particularly interested in the Li Clan’s movements. After all, the Li Clan’s got family lineage in common with that of Clow Reed, and indeed that European Clan is particularly spiteful towards them. So, if we ever needed it, we got confirmation that the Squid clan is particularly spiteful towards the Li Clan due to their connections to Clow Reed. When I’ve read this confirmation spelled out like this, I couldn’t avoid going back to think about my theory that the Squid Clan is actually the Reed family (noticed how they never reveal the Clan’s name?), the other branch of Clow’s family on his father’s side. It would kinda make sense if you consider the natural competition there might be between the two families, which have such a famous magician in common in their lineage. It’s still a theory at this stage, but I admit I did let out a shriek or two 😂.
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Kaito’s watch suddenly cracks some more, and as he witnesses that, he says he really needs to make Syaoran leave, because he’s got no more time. Again, the ENG translation made Kaito sound condescending and arrogant with his “I have no time for this, you see”, when actually he was merely hinting that his life span is almost over. This is also why you see Syaoran startled by his affirmation, cause it seems he might be having a hunch about it. Syaoran realizes that Kaito is about to start something, so he summons Mirror and uses it on Flight (which was there with them on its own) to prepare “doubles” of it to give to both Sakura and Akiho. Apparently the interaction of Mirror with Flight gave also Syaoran a pair of beautiful crystal wings that just looks like the ones on Mirror’s back.
Syaoran sternly affirms that “I will take them back with me” (again, the ENG unnecessarily specified that he would bring Sakura with him, but the truth is that there’s no subject in the JP text and Syaoran gave a copy of Flight to Akiho too, so he’s very intent on bringing her outside along with Sakura. Therefore, why infering that he’s only focused on his girlfriend and doesn’t care about what happens to Akiho? Excuse me, but that’s not our Syaoran. He would never discard an innocent girl like that, and it makes sense because he doesn’t know about Kaito’s real intentions yet). Kaito confidently replies “I won’t allow it” (the ENG here made him say the more arrogant “No, boy. I’m afraid you aren’t”).
And with this huuuuuuge cliffhanger, chapter 68 ends here, in anticipation for the confrontation we were all expecting! I don’t think it will last for long, if they ever manage to start it, that is, cause Akiho’s behavior is kinda sketchy and I’m afraid a certain clan will soon “enter the chat” in their own way.
This chapter was really exciting for me, I enjoyed it from the first to the last page, and I feel it really reiterated how “identity” is a HUGE thematic in Clear Card. It’s very important to not lose sight of who you truly are, and our loved ones can help us remembering that at all times. In fact, both Akiho and Sakura “wake up” from their roles thanks to the memories of their loved ones. I applaude both girls for escaping the influence of this powerful spell, it must have not been easy. Particularly, I commend Sakura because despite being under the influence of it, she never stopped making questions. THAT was the indication that her real essence, her soul, was fighting tooth and nails to regain control of her own reality. She wasn't merely accepting and taking in everything that was in front of her. And I congratulate Akiho too, because she got herself freed from the spell without having any magical powers, only with the strength of her feelings and memories. The physical and metaphorical lifting of the veil was a super powerful image to me. I found it absolutely beautiful and it spoke to me more than a million words. Bravo Mokona sensei. Under that veil that kept her "in her role", there wasn't the somber Queen anymore, but the sweet and warm Akiho we always knew.
Syaoran was super cool and I think CLAMP delivered what they promised in their Space of some months ago. I’m sure his role isn’t over yet and we’ll see more of him. Please remember that, under his fired up appearance, Syaoran is a very loving and caring child too. He knows what compassion is and I’m sure he’ll give an evidence of it in the last chapters of this arc. While being of course annoyed at Kaito’s behavior, I reaaaally can’t bring myself to be mad at him, seeing how tired and desperate he looks (and sounds) in this chapter. The pocket watch, at this point a symbol of what he’s got left to live, breaks even further and that must have cornered him even more. I once said “Kaito looks like a wounded animal to me”, and wounded animals tend to become really aggressive when they feel under threat. This is what scares me a little bit about him. It’s evident that “failure” is not an option for him, so he has to complete his mission before he dies.
At this point, the only one who can truly stop him is Akiho, and I’m praying that she eventually can gain control of the situation before it’s too late. Sakura can help, of course, but I’m sure the only one who can weaken Kaito is Akiho. The one he’s doing all of this for.
Of course, there’s Momo too. Although she’s clearly got her hands tied, she’s resorting to any kind of tricks to steer this in the direction that will avoid a tragedy from happening. At this point she’s doing it in Kaito’s face too (and he’s not stupid, he notices that but doesn’t want to argue about it right now) and I find that so hilarious, among the seriousness of the situation. She really seemed to me like a mother who was trying to hide spinach in her son’s meatballs, denying that she’s put any of it in them. 😂 All of these characters are so lovable and they’re doing their best for someone else, just like CLAMP said in their latest Spaces.
Another small thing I want to point out is that we still have no “last chapter in 2 issues!” or anything like that announced on the color page. Maybe they want to wait for the very second-to-last chapter before announcing it? We’ll see.
Well, this post is already quite late by my standards so I will leave you here for now, and as usual I await your asks in my inbox to talk about this or that aspect in particular! As usual, a quick reminder of the dates for the next chapter, chapter 69: December 25th, on Bookwalker and Azuki(digital, ENG) December 26th, on Clamp-fans (digital, JP and other languages) December 28th, on Nakayoshi (paper and digital, JP) January 1st 2023, on Comic Days (digital, JP) <- if they don't modify this I'll probably be late again with my chapter post 😭
Let’s hope we’ll get an extraordinary chapter as a Christmas present!! See you on Christmas day!! 🌸
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viilpstick · 6 months
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NEXT REVEAL (i am lazy, sorry) Ladies, gentlemen and noble non binary folks, our SHAFTLANDS’ GIRLS!
STUDENTS
Total: 22
All from Shaftlands (4 in total)
Christell Auclair (Cinderella’s crystal slipper)
Age: 16 · Freshman Birthday: 5/Dec Dominant hand: Right Height: 1.55cm Christell means “Crystal” Auclair means “Clear” The distant nephew of Freya Matrina A funny silly city girl (honestly Taylor’s 1989) A big fan of Neige, coffee, the mall, make up, normal stuff like that Christell may be pretty basic, the type of white girl we see down any street But her big heart is something that shines on her Sensible and fragile? Maybe, but a strong mind that goes and follows logical thinking (even if she cries during night by her choices) Also, a great friend of a certain country boy Of course, Christell is friend with Barbara specially with her certain difficult timing to classes always 12 minutes late
Jolie Rosenberg (Belle)
Age: 18 · Junior Birthday: 7/Sept Dominant hand: Right Height: 1.60cm Signature Spell: “Tale old as time”, Jolie can manipulate people’s choices, opinions and emotions with her magic, but only if she bends for a person and the person retributes it.  Jolie means “beauty” We may say that this girl is a bright mind We may also say about her love for exploring the great wide somewhere And how enchanted she was to meet Yuu, I mean: How is it possible?! A person from another world?! Simply amazing! We can’t forget a certain hatred for a certain lazy Lion Yet, Jolie is a bright young woman Who reads to escape reality, but that’s perfectly fine… Right?
Maryam Corey (Giselle)
Age: 17 · Sophomore Birthday: 12/Jun Dominant hand: Right Height: 1.62cm Maryam means “grace or beloved” At a certain age, people don’t dream any longer about a happy ever after, that’s not Maryam’s case Her fairytale needs to come true, she wishes for all stars after all! Maryam is a hopeless romantic with a princess complex Whatsoever, she is kind! Just don’t understand why her magic wand is fake…
Helena Kust (Rapunzel)
Age: 17 · Sophomore Birthday:  7/Jan Dominant hand: Right Height: 1.66cm Signature Spell: “Flower gleaming glow”, by singing a song, Helena is able to heal someone’s wounds. Helena means “bright” Kust means “art” Helena is forbidden to sleep in school, so every day school ends she has to come back to her grandmother’s house, no one understands why though Helena is a ray of sunshine, who constantly talks about her love for art and painting Oh! Can’t forget the fact that her hair is the longest between everyone in any possible land, her grandma won’t let het cut it Although, Helena is extroverted she seems pretty much stuck in the walls of school and her home, pretty weird
DO NOT COPY, TRANSLATE OR REPOST IN OTHER MEDIA MY WORK viilpstick © copyright 2023 Taglist: @midnightmah07 If you want ask to be tagged in the tag list under this post, so you will be aware of any new reveals, if you want help with the work, writing or fanarts, please contact me in here or tiktok (same @)
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Vimes refuses to attend the Great Heist Plan so adamantly that Sybil goes “Welp, a Vimes has to show up, so I’m going”
“Sybil, love, no.”
“You had your chance, now I’m taking mine. Gentlemen, where is my burglar mask?”
(“We don’t wear those”
“Shut up Dog-Botherer, here you can have mine ma’am.”)
Vetinari is like, "You're not allowed to call me dog-botherer, even if we are doing a crazy heist a la the days of old."
Downey doesn't care. He's so chuffed that for once Vetinari listened to his crazy plan instead of just going "thank you for your feedback/input Downey" then ignoring him. (Vetinari's general life philosophy of: If Downey suggested it, do the opposite. Hasn't steered him wrong so far.)
Sybil and Downey are all about making this as epic as they possibly can. Vetinari tempers some of their wilder ideas. Vimes is just floored that this is actually going ahead.
"There's a perfectly good law enforcement in Quirm. Let them handle this."
"And do you trust cops?" Downey asks.
Vimes stares. "Fair."
Vetinari, "I would normally not be directly involved in this, but tell me Commander, how is this different from some of your shenanigans?"
Vimes:
Vimes: Distinctly not the point.
Downey is ready to Yippee-Ki-Yay-motherfucker through the night. Just yee-hawing himself through life.
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"Don't wake the farmers up early in the morning....."
Heeey, more stories! Today's story is about Farmers Miranda (@amishasp) and Shiro (@shirokumav3)
"And do you have any idea what time he showed up at my house? 6:00 in the morning. 6:00. In the fucking. Morning! What kind of nerve does it take to barge into my house that early!" Miranda finished her rant, and, trying to calm herself, took another sip of green tea from the china cup, "If I had known that after our meeting at the top of the volcano he would be standing on my front porch with that fucking "schedule" of his, I would have hit him in the nose with the door then".
Shiro and Julian nodded understandingly to their friend, remembering that the man Miranda had mentioned had come to them in the same way after their meeting on the same volcano of Ginger Island (Shiro even thought it was a hallucination after the fatigue and blood loss from the battle with the monsters). They have to admit: for such a well-mannered and noble adventurer who appreciates the rules of etiquette, coming in the early morning without a good reason is a rather tactless act. Farmers are different, and not all of them get out of bed at the first rooster.
The late summer evening was, to their delight, a bit chill. They were sitting in the gazebo at Shiro's farm, drinking delicious green tea and munching on various sweets, fruits and berries. The fireflies flying around them and the light tinkling of bells in the gazebo created a truly peaceful, even fairy-tale atmosphere. After a hard day's work, the farmers were entitled to a well-deserved rest.
"With all due respect to Lance, I also think he could have come later. Seeing him at my door, I thought something was up", Julian agreed with Miranda, chewing slowly on a berry tartlet, "It's delicious by the way, Shiro, thanks for the tea and the invitation".
"You're always welcome", Shiro smiled back, and noticing that the guests' cups were almost empty, she took a small porcelain teapot and refilled their cups with more hot beverage.
"Good evening, ladies. And gentlemen. I hope I'm not disturbing you", Lance's velvety, melodic voice caught Shiro and Julian off guard. Miranda's face showed nothing but annoyance and anger, and Julian could have sworn he heard the cup crunch in Miranda's hands (luckily, it was a dry branch Lance had stepped on).
"Oh, what luck! And we were just talking about you!", Miranda got up from the gazebo table and stepped toward Lance.
"Why don't you tell me exactly where they taught you that it's perfectly normal to wake people up this early!?" Miranda grabbed the white collar of Lance's shirt with her hands, while the confused adventurer stood there in shock and could only raise his arms in peace.
Julian sighed tiredly, and Shiro, realizing that this was not going to be a quick conversation, went to her house to get another cup for Lance. "More sweets?", she asked.
"Yes, please", Julian and Miranda said at the same time. Lance decided tactically to remain silent.
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thessalian · 7 months
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Astrid vs Protections
Still at the inn, talking to Isobel
Isobel: Well, you sound like you can infiltrate those cultists for the Absolute perfectly well, and you don't seem to be their level of deranged, so ... here's some protection against the shadows. We're going to need something bigger for those darker shadows, but--
Marcus: OHAI.
Isobel: ...Marcus. What. The fuck.
Astrid: So ... large winged gentlemen don't normally appear on your balcony? I mean, a serenade from under the balcony is more traditional if you're going around sweeping ladies off their feet ... which is not what you have planned but mine sounds better.
Marcus: No, look, it's all good! Ketherick can explain everything! I mean, you're coming with me no matter what so how about we don't make it a fight, hmm?
Gale: Excuse me ... Marcus, was it? Let me explain a little something to you. See, over here we have the Blade of the Frontiers, and he's very much about the heroism and the rescuing of ladies fair. And then over here we have Astrid, our bard who ... takes rather unkindly to rudeness and abduction. And then there's us.
Shadowheart: You so much as touch my friend and I will turn you into a radiant smear on the carpet.
Gale: I'm honestly more likely to just set you on fire. So since you are outnumbered and outclassed, I'd suggest--
Demon-Things: *crash in through the roof*
Gale: ...Well, that's just cheating.
Stabnation: *ensues*
A little while later, at an ambush point
Gale: I would have really liked to have a proper rest before we did this.
Astrid: We go by the patrol routes, Gale, and when the Harpers are available to help us. And honestly, it'll be fine. I figure, bunch of goblins, maybe a human or two, and--
Drider: Oh, hey, someone's trying to sneak up on us! Come out of there, you!
Shadowheart: ...shit. NOW we find driders?!?
Astrid: ...Hi! All hail the Absolute!
Drider: Ah, you're on a mission for the Absolute! Wonderful! ...But where's your lantern?
Astrid: Don't need one. I just sing and the darkness leaves me alone.
Drider: ...Such power! Truly?
Astrid: Yep! Allow me to demonstrate. *pulls lute*
Drider: *leans forward expectantly*
Astrid: *dive-bomb Thunderwave right to the face*
A couple of goblins: *go flying*
Gale: Oh, I've been hoping for a set-up like this. *casts Fireball*
Most of the backup: *is immolated*
Drider and a couple of humans: *still standing*
Harpers: *getting over the being-gobsmacked; join in the fighting*
Astrid: *who has segued into song; to the tune of Holding Out For A Hero* I've got great companions / In these Shadow-Cursed Lands / One who brings the healing / With her words and with her hands / And for those who'd harm us / There's her adamantine mace / You won't think it's quite so grand / When it breaks your fucking faaaaaaaaaaaaaace! I need a cleric! / She'll help us kick all your asses / You just wait and see / And I'm telling you / There's so much she can do / When she invokes some duplicity / I need a cleric! / The radiant light from her guardians / Is only just the start / We bask in the sight / Of her radiant light / Through the Shadow she weaves 'round her heart / Weaves 'round her heart...
Shadowheart: .........I got a theme song! *Inspired; wrecks some people's shit up*
Wyll: Do ... do I get a theme song?
Astrid: Working on it!
Stabnation: *ensues*
Several dead patrollers later
Pixie: ...I guess cute rhyming won't make me sound any more innocent?
Astrid: Well, it would, generally, but I kind of know that trick really, really well. Look, we don't really want to keep you locked up in there because that looks really uncomfortable. Just we kind of need to not get shadow-cursed. Is there a solution that works for all of us?
Pixie: Oh, is that all? Well, those assholes just stuffed me in here and didn't even give me a chance to make a deal for it! So I wasn't going to tell them that I can just kind of ... make you immune to that, but I'll tell you so we can strike a deal; you let me out of here and I'll make you all immune to the yick, okay?
Astrid: Hmmmm...
Gale: You're not thinking of keeping her locked up in there--?!?
Astrid: No, I was trying to find a good way of working in giving her one of my sweet rolls and making it seem like she'd be doing us a favour by taking it. Because I don't know how long she's been locked up in there but I figure it's long enough to get hungry and food is a thing!
Pixie: ...Wow, you really know how to get a pixie amenable to not conning you. Yes, please to the sweet roll. Or some of the sweet roll; it's kind of big but yes, I'm hungry, and here, you can even keep the bell. So it's like a trade?
Astrid: Works for me! *trades chunk of sweet roll for little bell* Oh! That sounds so pretty! Thank you!
Pixie: ...Are ... are you just a pixie that was too nice for con-artistry and got turned really big?
Gale: Oh, be reasonable. You saw her con that drider into a prime attack position. I've also seen her con everything from ogres and giant spiders to high-ranking Harpers and a literal devil. She's just ... Like That.
Pixie: ................I have decided that that bell there? That makes you an honorary pixie. Okaybye! *nyoom*
Wyll: Is she always like this?
Shadowheart; Gale: *fond* Yes.
Shadowheart: Honestly, I'm glad she stopped dragging Astarion out with us. When she did this sort of thing with him around, he rolled his eyes so hard I thought he'd sprain something.
Wyll: So ... how ... attached ... is she ... to--
Gale: Not. Another. Word.
Wyll: I have dance steps.
Gale: I took her through the Weave with me!
Shadowheart: You both are ridiculous. She's incredibly loyal and her being very close friends with Wyll doesn't mean she's going to go giving her more romantic affections to anyone but Gale, who she's already--
Astrid: Hey, Shadowheart! This is a night orchid, right?
Shadowheart: .........Yes. Yes, it is. I ... don't have anything to give you in return; I--
Astrid: I just saw it growing and thought you'd like it; I don't need anything back. Call it a thank you for being a good friend and saving my life all the time. So ... quick bit of exploration and then onward to the mission!
Gale; Wyll: *staaaaaaaare at Shadowheart*
Shadowheart: *blushing a bit* It's like I was saying. She's just like that. Now let's go before she wanders into--
Oliver: Come play with me!
Shadowheart: Oh balls. Astrid, leave the creepy child alone--
Astrid: Maybe ... you should go find someplace that isn't here? Because this is not a good place to play and we kind of have stuff to do, so--
Oliver: DO WHAT I SAY.
Shadow-Things: *attack*
Shadowheart: The one time she doesn't just humour the kid...
Stabnation: *ensues*
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