ok I know it’s monday after 1pm and nobody is online but I wanna talk about meeting Steve Blum 🥺🥺🥺

Me and my friend waited in line for three hours, maybe four? He motioned for me to come forward when it was my turn and I pointed at myself to make sure he actually meant me, and he kind of laughed and said “yes you!! It’s okay, come here” And once I approached him I started shaking just like I knew would happen, I had no words :’) He was so patient though, he said “hi” and I said “hi” and he said “hi” and I said “hi” and he laughed again and said “how are you doing today?” And I was like “I’m!! I’m well!! How are you? Are you tired?” He said “I’m good, but yeah I’m really sleepy. But it’s worth it! we made it to sunday!!! yaaay!!” he seemed so cheerful for someone who barely slept within 4 days, stood and socialized in such an overcrowded setting for 10 hours each day, living on those little 8-hour energy drinks (kind of like retail ig)

I handed him the envelope after he confirmed he accepts gifts, and he said “oh my goodness, look how beautiful this is! look at how much time you spent on this -- this is so lovely, I can’t wait to open it!! this is amazing!! I can’t wait to get home and play with this, thank you!!” and the envelope drawings weren’t even special, they were little star and heart shapes because duh it’s ME and i also put some starscream and heatwave stickers on there hehe/// but he was acting like it was so pretty, it was very sweet of him to do that

And I actually planned to give him just one of the charms separately, just to see his reaction. I chose the Steve charm bc I think it’s the cutest one + I don’t know if he often gets fanart of. like. himself? So I handed it to him, and he didn’t even have to pull it out of the bag to recognize it, he immediately says “oh my god that’s me!! oh my god that’s me!!!” and he’s holding the thing so carefully while studying it. “this is amazing, oh my god. you made this? you MADE this?? that’s... amazing” and he reads my full name I wrote on the back and says “Keri... Keri... I recognize your name... on cameos, right?” He pauses. “My little starflower, is that you??”

I was in SHOCK?? I didn’t think he’d actually?? recognize my name let alone remember the starflower thing?? and I lost my words again so I just nodded a lot, and his eyes WIDEN and he leans forward and says “wait really?! THAT WAS YOU?” and I nodded again, and squeaked “you? remember??” and he insists “yes! I remember! I remember!! my starflower from cameos!!” and he starts laughing in disbelief, shaking his head while saying “I can’t believe I’m meeting you! my little starflower, yes of course I remember you!!” and he slipped into the starscream voice and said SO fondly “my little starflower keri...” (made me GASP) “of course I would remember my starflower, of course I do, my little starflower Keri...” and I melted. I fucking MELTED and he just kept laughing and repeating (in his normal speaking voice) “wow, it’s you!! of course I’d remember that! my starflower! it’s you!!”

and I told him that the gift package was my way of trying to repay him for all the cameos, even though there isn’t hardly enough in there, I wanted to give him *something* because “you saved my life” and I wasn’t going into details abt that part but he looked rly touched and said “awww... alright, hold on, I HAVE to hug you!” AND I’M LIKE. WAIT WHAT REALLY? FOR REAL? I didn’t have any time to even open my mouth after he said that bc NO HESITATION, DUDE DROPS EVERYTHING AND *CLIMBS OUT OF HIS LITTLE BOOTH AREA* and immediately wraps his arms around me and hugged me so tight 🥺🥺 and he leans into my ear and says “you’re amazing. this is the reason why I love my job. you’re so amazing, don’t forget that, okay Keri? you’re wonderful. you’re incredible, okay? I’m honored to meet you, you’re amazing” and he kept repeating a bunch of compliments, I don’t remember half of them because I was like, barely processing what was happening and thinking holy shit I can’t believe this is actually going so well and then when he pulled away he said “okay I’m gonna sign something for you!”

So he pulls out a Starscream print and slips into the stsc voice again “to my Starflower, yes? yes...” and while we watched him write, I was completely mesmerized and gripping onto my friend’s arm for dear life. she doesn’t even know steve or any of his shows but she came all this way with me and stayed in the line with me and made SURE to take photos and record some audio and did everything to make sure we’d get in line today (she’s amazing and i fucking love her) & steve wrote “Keri... thank you for being my little Starflower. love, Starscream (and steve)” which reminded me of the one time he said in a cameo in his stsc voice sooo gently “thank you for loving me” like it just. oogghgh made me melt. and then he said “honestly, with you, Starscream is probably the nicest he’s ever been” and I was just in complete awe this whole time, I couldn’t believe he was actively encouraging my silly selfship shit to this level. I really just expected him to say “oh, cool, sure, ok here’s your print” and for the line to keep moving. all of this was so unexpected. so I said “this evil alien robot killed someone not even 5 minutes into the first episode, and you make him so nice to me, and I appreciate it so much” and he said “aww! hey, absolutely, it’s always my choice! and of course he’d be nice to you, you’re his starflower aren’t you??” GODDDDDD

and I thought we’d be done, but he suddenly calls for his agent (gwen. i love her. love gwen, absolute queen), and shows her the Steve charm and says “gwen look! look at this, oh my god. look how amazing this is!! isn’t this incredible? she DREW this, can you believe that? Keri, you even put my tattoo on there!! that’s my tattoo! the attention to detail!! I’m definitely gonna take this home, I’m keeping this on my desk forever! I love this so much, are you kidding me? I am never letting this go!”

And Gwen says “oh my god, that’s SO CUTE!!! Keri, did you make this? you MADE all of these charms?” (im assuming she opened the envelope to check inside for safety reasons, I think it’s part of her job) then she asks “do you post more artwork anywhere like instagram? you should tag us, we’ll share it!!” and steve turns, drops his markers and chimes loudly “YES WE WILL SHARE IT this is DEFINITELY going online” and she goes on for like a full minute telling me to share my artwork with steve nodding encouragingly adding a little “yes!” “absolutely!” “yes!!” every five seconds while I’m still shaking like a leaf. I looked AND sounded absolutely ridiculous w/ my dumb high pitched voice, barely remembering to nod my head and to breathe, couldn’t believe he’s talked to me this long, couldn’t believe he’s THIS enthusiastic, couldn’t believe he likes my art THIS MUCH when I was so sure he wouldn’t want anything to do with me, couldn’t believe his wholeass agent is compliment my art and saying she’d want to share it??? like literally everything went Best Case Scenario, this was way more than I could have dreamed. insane. AND WE’RE NOT EVEN DONE YET--

he opens the envelope to put the charm inside and says “I’m NOT losing THIS” and then he peaks further into the package and says “oooohh there’s all KINDS of goodies in here!!! thank you so much, I’m going to have so much fun getting to look at all of these!!” and Gwen holds up the blue star bag that I put the Steve charm in, and she says “this is my favorite!! star is my middle name, blue is my favorite color, and I looove sparkly things” and I said “you are literally the coolest human being alive” and she laughs “you are so funny!!” and Steve hugged her and said “I’ll give you the star bag Gwen!” and she said “there’s more in here with all kinds of sparkles!” and he says “ooooh, sounds like something Keri would do” SDLKJFHKLDF

and then we took a pic and then he asked if I wanted a short little video, and if I wanted to be IN the video with him, or if I just wanted it to be him only. I really didn’t want to be in it bc I already hated hearing myself talk but I said “oh whatever you’re comfortable with” and he said “well come here, you can’t have Starlight without his Starflower! I’ll ask you some questions and you answer them with me okay?” 😭💕 so he pulls me into the recording w/ my friend’s phone and he said “Keri, Keri, my little starflower... did you drink your energon today?” and I said why yes Starlight I certainly did and he replies “mm, yes, I can tell, you are looking exceptionally powerful!” and he did such a cute evil laugh and it took all of my guts to keep quiet bc my reaction every time he laughs is “awwwWWWW” but I didn’t wanna mess up the video w/ my dumb voice. and he added “Oh, don’t tell Megatron about this though, he’d be sooo jealous I get to talk to you...” like omfg dude is out here confirming that Megatron is so down bad in the megakeri relationship and he has no idea 😂

and the rest is kind of foggy bc I was barely processing half of this, so nervous abt my own behavior, in absolute shock that he was like, leaning so close and making eye contact the entire interaction to make sure that he knows that I had his full attention. he was so patient and never cut me off, even tho I was talking so fast bc I was sooo anxious but he was so so so kind the entire time... and then out of nowhere he pulls me into ANOTHER HUG 🥺🥺 and thanks me again saying “please take care, starflower. you really are an incredible artist” 😭😭😭

and after all of that, I was just. glowing. walking in a complete daze. i couldn’t even hear the crowd, ppl were bumping into me bc it was like a SEA of people at this convention, but it was just a buzzing sound to me bc all I could think about was the signed print in my hands and all the memories that come with it now... I didn’t expect him to remember me, let alone get so excited and? hug me? give me all these memorable things? say such nice things??? insist that he wanted to keep my artwork? promised he would do everything to make sure it got home safe? god. I also said at the very end “hey if you ever find an alternate to cameo... I will give you all of my money” and he laughed and said “nooo I don’t want your money, I don’t do this for money!” and there wasn’t any further comment abt cameo and I was like ok the line is moving I gotta GO go. so it’s unlikely he will ever find a cameo alternate, but like... I have over a dozen of his cameos already I get to cherish, +1 cameo we did ~together~ + all of those nice compliments. I’m just... still in shock... ok thank u to anyone who took the time to read this ❤

Phantom theif boys x GN! Reader

Dating headcannons!

N: Adding comfort headcannons to knock two asks in one stone, they got changed to just comforting headcannons mostly. Ur not escaping pastel*pallette with this.

He's ready to fully wake up as soon as he hears your voice downstairs or just your footsteps. Morgana is not a fan of suddenly feeling his leg pulled out of bed.

Super ready to tease you. The guys smiling hard before he responds with something stupid. "I dare you" trying to hold off his chucking, he places his hand ontop of yours and spins you, stopping when you face him. "Are you a cheeseburger?" "no"

Let's you brush his hair, in fact you should. Curls are hard, ya know. His wrist can use a break, plus you're the one brushing it he sees it as a win. Ignoring the times you decided to give him pigtails

He can be super romantic at times, especially the most random, "I'm sorry I took so long, your beauty distracted me" he smirked twiddling a bit of his hair, you sigh, after a pause beginning to chuckle "I don't like you" "you love me" kissing your cheek he goes behind the counter "anything you wanna eat?"

He's always gonna be there to comfort you. Holding you close as you cry into his chest over something that had been bothering you, hearing you out while he cooks or staying by your side while you rant. "And then she was like," Oh well you need to go to extra help TO HELL WITH THAT!" You rub your temple "sorry she's just been getting on my nerves" "have you tried dropping or switching classes?" "She would request the request everytime" you'd wonder why she suddenly accepted the following day. Maybe she finally thought you were just bad at chemistry

Will tell you he's a phantom theif trying to rizz you up. "So like we use these things called personas to fight these shadows" "woah, that's cool, Ryuji." You didn't believe him, but you let him cook, he's trying his best

Embodiment of the YIPPE sound. He loves seeing you. Could be walking to class, and he'd stop midway. "Yo!" "Hey Ryuji" great now he's gonna repeat that 3 more times a day, won't even start a conversation, sometimes, just likes hearing you say hi to him

He's super cuddly when sleepy. "Where are you going" "I told you I'm going home" "nooo" he wraps his arms around your waist "you aren't allowed to leave" trying to slip out he tightens his grip. You had to call your parents to tell them you had no choice but to stay longer

He'd get so excited when anything sport related comes along. "I wanna watch the track team compete this weekend. You should come" "do you need me to bring snacks?" "You bring them every time, though! I'll bring them this time" He'd get super hyped up about someone from the school taking the lead he almost fell off the bleachers at times.

He would buy you snacks, and you two would talk about it on a bench. "He's so annoyingggg" "I know, right!" "Like he can't shut up everything's quiet and this mf 'I HAVE A BUISNESS' shut up" "like at the end of the day he's still an incel" "EXACTLY" you two would end up ranting with eatchother so much you end up calming eatchother down, this would also translate into you just being too sad to even make funny comments. "He's just so draining, kinda makes me wish someone just told him to be quiet" "for real I almost cried at his voice" "it's too squeaky right" "totally" laying your head on his lap you look up at him just thinking. "You're staring into my soul here." he strokes your hair with a nervous expression "good" In the end, he still comforts you the same way

"Oh, it's you" turned to "it's you.." REAL quick, as soon as you started dating, he got shy

He's gonna ask you to help him with art. "Y/n do you mind posing?" "With what?" "These live lobsters I found" ".... no thank you" "but!" "I'm gonna buy you those little wooden dolls just for that" "you're better than any piece of wood!" It turns more into a praise sesson he forgets about the lobsters he's basically keeping as pets at this point

You tried to teach him how to cook, or atlesst follow the recipe. "OK so we have the custard" you grab his hand, holding it up. "Don't use that we need it for later." "My Appologies" "it's alright it's your first time making this" He's fine the first time but gets way better with practice. He'd make you jealous with how nice he'd make his food look

Tried pick up lines they were good, but the execution could use work. "Y/n! Do you have a map? " "For what?" He pauses, looking down as if thinking for the next line "because i can't help but get lost in your eyes" you smirk, watching him get more bashful than you from his own line. "Are you a painting?" You cup his face making him look at you "because I can't take my eyes off you"

He isn't very good in this field...but he has spirit! You'd sigh while watching him paint after a few eye rolls, vacant stares,leaning on him. He's gonna sense it even if you don't do all that. "Is there something on your mind?" You look down to his paints before answering "a friend of mine moved away, and I found out recently she used to steal stuff from others" crossing your arms you continue "I kinda get why some of my stuff went missing now but just to think" "that does seem rather unfortunate" "she's lucky the stuff she took was all under 10 bucks or I would have asked the phantom theives to do something" he pauses his brush for a secound before continuing on "via the website?" "Yea! They'll probably handle her if it genuinely gets outta hand" he smiles as he puts down his paint and brush. "How about we go for a walk for you to let out some steam?" "sounds great"

"I'm alone. Would you like to join me?" "Do you realize how that sounds?" "Do you realize how dirty your mind is?"

He'll be resistant to cuddling at first but then slowly realize he likes it. Won't ask for it tho but he will be a little peeved when they aren't given. Subconsciously learn the way he stares at your arms, how he grips his own, and the way he tries to get a bit closer to you, you've learned the secrets to a touch starved akechi

Would be a bit annoyed when you bring up another dude. "And then Ryuji was shaking the vending machine and the guard thought we were trying to steal snacks" "I see" "I ended up getting em though" "mhm" "you're so aggressively disinterested" "yes I am" You pause before letting the smirk take over your face "so then akechi rubbed my face and asked for a kiss" "I should" he stops typing to press his lips softly on your cheek.

He'd take you everywhere with him. Not a choice, it's only when he's at his job that he's away from you, everywhere else? Same class right next to you. Eating lunch with you, would ask you to play darts with him after school. He'd wonder why you'd look so tired when you two finally got home after school, atleast he helps with homework.

"Akechi" you move hair from his face. "What is it?" You continue touching his face as he watches as your hands move around his face. "Is there something on your mind" "is it that obvious" you pull your hand away, but he takes his into yours. There's a short pause before you decide to speak again. "A person close to me stopped coming to school after an argument we had. I'm pretty worried" "you didn't try contacting them?" "I have, but I think they'll just get more annoyed" you sigh "I just don't know what to do" "let them have their momment they'll contact you when they feel like it, in the meantime" he covers you in the blanket he shared with you momments ago "you could stay here until it leaves your mind"

"So what is skibbity toilet?" "Zen no"

He'd always order for you at places, unless you changed your order he'd get you everytime. "You gotta stop doing that" "Why you jealous I know you better than you know yourself?" "Yes"

He tries to ask you for advice on Akane. "She got upset she couldn't play and eat" "did you try making it a tea party" he scoffs, giggling a bit at the suggestion. "I'm serious. Do you have any tiny tea cups?"

He's definitely touch starved when he gets home. Barely awake, he'd cling onto you, mumbling into your ear. He's fallen asleep for a few seconds on your shoulder. "Let's get you to bed, Zen." "it's comfortable here though." "it'll be more comfortable in bed." "ugghhhhh"

He's gentle when it comes to you, especially when you get home more upset than usual. "So how was work" in a slightly annoyed tone you respond "draining they tried to give me unpaid overtime again" you sigh "hmm" without much words he lays down with you hugging you "do you want anything?" "Sleep" he smiles fondly "this house will be so quiet it's like it was haunted" The next day, do expect most of your chores to be done already, as well as breakfast. It was made with love, not with skill

i always wonder about the cleaning situation at the loft. do they have a big cleaning day once in a while? do they ask coil to send someone to clean? does alec ever do the washing up? if so, is he an ipad baby who watched gaming channels while doing so?

i ascribe to a headcanon obtained from this gorgeous art:

(eternally thinking about this artists rendition of the loft. sooo incredibly lived-in....captures the Essence of those guys and they're not even in the drawing. i love you blood-spattered fancy shirt alec left on the counter i love you lisa's bra laying around on their massive pile of laundry i love you brian's protein powder on top of the fridge.)

which is to say:

they have a big whiteboard for delineating chores and alec is always doodling all over it and everyone gets affectionately mad at him for this

i'm obsessed w the implication in the last part of the drawing i snipped that tattletale had to do the other undersiders chores every day of the week but on the one day that was supposed to be hers alec did her chores instead. perhaps as some kind of insufferable bit, or perhaps because he felt he should recompense her for having to do his chores after he accidentally laid facedown in bed all monday because "he was tired" (having a bad day in the depression department)

i think brian does a comically disproportionate amount of the cleaning for someone who does not actually fucking live there. he'll see a mess that could Easily have been fixed already sitting there 5 days in a row and get annoyed enough to clean it up while alec is laying on the couch like [thinking 2 himself] Victory....I knew I wouldn't have to do it if I waited long enough... + sometimes lisa walks in on him just scrubbing the stove clean or some other task 15yos would not think to do and she wisely elects not to ask What For bc she knows that will result in brian going on a homeowners tangent

lisa and alec make rachel handle any Notably Gross Or Difficult chores if brian isnt there. lisa hovering over rachels shoulder directing her in how to fix their busted toilet while alec eats a bag of cool ranch doritos in the doorway and provides commentary. theyre holding the ladder steady for her while she changes the lightbulbs. butch of the house

also i think one time a dog threw up on the carpet and alec was like BITCH!!!! BITCH YOUR DOG JUST THREW UP ON THE CARPET IT'S REALLY GROSS and rachel trudges off to get cleaning supplies from the closet and then another dog comes up and starts eating it and alec is like BITCH!!!!! BITCH JUDAS IS EATING IT IT'S REALLY GROSS and rachel is like [furious] SO STOP HIM. and alec is like Ewww...nooo ew his face is covered in doggie upchuck i'm not touching him...and then rachel makes a really ominous growling noise so alec goes and hauls on judas' collar to drag him away but hes not happy about it

they always all throw a buncha clothes on the laundry pile when they come back tired after a mission and then theyre like Ok we will do that tomorrow. and then tomorrow theyre like id rather rest tho....so their laundry pile grows infinitely larger until they all miserably have to spend an afternoon cooperating to get that shit washed. And don't even get me started on the "folding" side of things.

Part 7 of my Rise/bay crossover! Special thanks to @brightlotusmoon for the help with this chapter!! @errorfreak88

It took only a few minutes for Donnie to set the computer to work.

“It… it’s working to isolate any mutagenic pathogens around the globe— if it works right there should be seven down here and two in ADX Florence— that’s Bebop and Rocksteady. Any other strays would hopefully be our other turtles and dear old rat.”

“What about their April?”

“I— I can’t really track her using this, but with any luck she’s with one of them. It’ll take a few minutes since it… searching such a wide range.”

“That’s okay. At least we have a start.” Leo tried to smile but he was sure Donnie could see right through it. “Why don’t you go bring our uh… friend in there some food and water? Sure he’d appreciate it. And try to ask him more about his world if you can. So we know what to expect.”

When Donnie didn't immediately move, Leo gave him an encouraging shove toward the kitchen. Donnie stumbled off, looking back and making a ‘really bro?’ motion toward Leo. He scooped up the other-Donnie’s battle shell on the way over. Entering the kitchen brought him into what was almost like a whole other world— a loud one at that!

“Oh mi gOSH IS THAT A TATTOO?!” It was almost whiplashing hearing a voice so ectatic and yet so sarcastic-sounding at the same time. Donatello’s eyes were like stars as he looked at Mikey’s tattoo. “Ohhhhh! I soooo want one!”

Mikey was all too happy to flex his arm and show off the faded markings, “Oh you’d look so cool with a tattoo! Yeah, like maybe an airplane or like cat or something cool like that.” Mikey said quickly.

“Yeah, but Raph would kill me!” Donatello couldn’t help but poke at the tattoos, tracing his finger gently across the mark to get a better feel of the design. “Ohhhh that’s so cool!”

Donnie cleared his throat finally.

“Oh. Sah Donnie?” Mikey did a peace sign.

Donnie cleared and jiggled the battle shell he held pointedly.

Donatello gasped and shoved Mikey aside to run, arms outstretched, to his counterpart. “MY BABY!” He snatched the battle shell from Donnie’s hands and kissed it repeatedly. “Oh I’ll never let you go again— ack! Ew! Sewer taste!” He started to try and wipe the taste off his tongue, “Ohhhh nooo that just made it worse!”

“Ohhh I totally know how you feel! This one time, when we were going down the pipe, the water like totally went in my mouth.” Mikey waddled over to Donatello and leaned over the shorter turtle's shoulder, standing almost close enough to rest his chin on the softshell’s head.

Donatello didn't seem to notice nor care about the box turtle’s proximity as he flipped open one of the many pouches contained in his armor and pulled out a small device that looked almost like bottle caps, one blue and labeled L and one white and labeled R. Mikey watched curiously as Donatello popped the case open and gasped loudly when the turtle took one of the clear lenses on his finger and started the process of cleaning it. When Donatello pulled apart his eyelids to apply the contacts, however, Mikey recoiled, climbing on the counter to get further away and immediately starting to whine.

“Ewww! Ew ew ew ew, he’s touching his eye—“

“Mikey!” Donnie snapped, but Mikey didn't stop.

“Eww his eye’s gonna pop out dude I’m telling you it’s gonna pop out and fall on the floor and get all dirty and he’s gonna have to pick it up and put it back in!”

Donatello was unperturbed by the complaints and applied his contacts quickly. “Yes, yes. Gasp in your repugnance all you want. Alas, ‘tis all the better to see you with, dear Michael!” Donatello waved a hand as he turned to face Mikey. “Heyyy, you got freckles! Nice.”

Mikey’s disgust was almost immediately forgotten by curiosity as he crawled across the counter to get closer to Donatello, and then fell off. He got back up, shaking off the fall and strutting as if it never happened.

“Do they hurt?” Mikey gasped.

“Where did you get contact lenses anyway?” Donnie was just as in Donatello’s face as Mikey was. “I got glasses, but that was just by dumb luck.”

“Yeah!” Mikey started to poke at Donatello curiously, “And even then they’re always falling off and stuff. Super inconvenient!”

“Mikey, quit poking him!”

“I saw you poking him!” Mikey nudged the bridge of his shell against Donnie.

“Ow— that was just an exam!”

Donatello leaned against the wall and watched the altercation with the slightest grin. He let himself watch a moment longer before starting to put his battle shell back on, and at the click of the buckle Mikey perked up like a dog at a whistle. He shoved Donnie away and hurried to the softshell.

“Wanna hear more about my tattoos?”

Donatello gave the excitable box turtle a genuine smile. “I wanna hear about everything you want to tell me. Just give me a mo~”

Donatello walked confidently over to Donnie, took the mask and glasses off in a single motion and walked away before Donnie could stop him. It took the mutant another second to process the audacity before he ran after.

“Wha— hey— heyheyhey— that’s my stuff!” Donnie tried to take his things back, but Donatello’s spider arm held him back.

Donatello rooted through the drawers for a long moment before coming out with a pair of scissors.

“Hey— what are you doing with those?!” Donnie tried to stop him once more, growling as he tried to overpower the titanium arms.

Mikey twirled over to Donatello, the titanium arms letting him past while still restraining Donnie. Mikey landed with his palms down on the counter flexing his tattoo proudly.

“Okay, so like, that turtle in the middle is our family crest right? And I totally designed it— original Michelangelo art right here, first hand. I know, I’m amazing!”

Donatello continued his work through Mikey’s rant, nodding along to the enthusiasm.

“The inking was done by Donnie there in the purple, you already met him though so eh. And this is supposed to be the Brooklynn bridge— New York pride and everything.”

Though Donatello’s expression didn't change in the slightest, one of his spider arms made a fist and bounced over to Mikey for a fist bump, which the box turtle obliged.

“And this is supposed to be the knots are our masks, connects to the bridge— super cool. And these are just some spaceships cause spaceships are awesome. And this is a bat, cause bats are rad, and it’s on fire cause that’s also rad.”

“Mm. Very nice. Love the thought and detail. Ha! There!” Donatello finished his work and retracted his titanium arms so suddenly that Donnie stumbled and almost fell. Donatello un-creased the mask to the best of his ability and rolled it back onto Donnie’s head, fixing it comfortably for the other mutant before backing up with a smug smirk.

The only difference in the mask that had been taken and the mask that was returned were the glasses now fitted carefully into the eye holes; the handles went in between the cloth of the mask to hold the glasses securely in place.

“Now you won’t have to worry about dropping them.” Donatello said calmly, crossing his arms and nodded. “You’re welcome.”

Donnie touched his hand to the frames a moment in awe before laughing his snorting-laugh. “Oh my god— this is— this is genius!” He hurried over to look at his reflection in the fridge. “How did I never think about this?”

Donatello simply tapped his head in response and turned to return to Mikey before Donnie ran and grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Wait!” Donnie said quickly, “I have so many questions!”

Reflections in Rooms

Summary: Roman and Remus are both aware that their rooms aren't exactly what people expect from them if anyone visits. When Patton visits his reaction to mistaking Remus's room for Roman's was something neither of them could have predicted. 

Authors Note: I wanted to write something last week and began this with no clue where it was going. Today I finished it and still have no clue where it was going for the entire story. Sorry if it’s bewildering at all. I’m just playing.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

If you live in a room for long enough it becomes a reflection of you in a way people very often won’t understand.

Both Roman and Remus realised this as almost every time a friend came over they’d assume the wrong room was theirs.

Janus visiting was the first time they recognised why it happened. Their remark upon being corrected had been “But you’re so chaotic and have no regard for anything being organised. How on earth can this be your room, Remus?”

Roman was not sticking around to hear the lecture over how organised any important movements were nor how the things Remus hated and rebelled against were conformity and that was never synonymous with organisation. He already had the lecture memorised in case there was ever an instant of a their friends calling while they were out.

“This isn’t quite what I’d expect by a Princes bedroom, Roman. Have you seriously been hiding all the interesting things you love for all this time?” Virgil groused, when he first visited. They’d become friends through a creative writing club and had planned to work on a story together that evening. “Seriously we could have been rocking out together to these bands and you cannot say that you didn’t think I’d like them. Just look at me!”

At least Virgil’s confusion was different to the reactions Roman had gotten before. A few of his friends had gotten very worried over how low some of the snippets left on his desk suggested his self esteem was.

The reaction both brothers were stunned to witness was Patton’s when he first followed Roman home. They’d gotten talking near the end of the work day and it just felt right to invite him over to carry on chatting together and perhaps share some of the creations that he hadn’t shared with the team at work.

Roman had gone to make drinks, giving Patton directions to his room upstairs while he did so when he heard the yell. “Roman your friend isn’t letting me go! What on earth do I do?”

“Let him hug you and then direct him to my room, maybe?” He called back, raising an eyebrow at that reaction. Sure, Patton usually liked to hug everyone in greeting but refusing to let go of Remus was the opposite of how people usually reacted given the unfortunate scent that surrounded him.

“Still not going to free him. This is my new best friend now. He likes kittens!” Patton yelled back before one of his apologetic sounds could be heard, presumably as Remus corrected him to the pronouns for the day.

Once the drinks were finished Roman was finally able to find out what his friend meant. His sibling usually focused on oceanic creatures rather than anything on land so something must have changed.

“I'm drawing catfish, not kittens or cats or anything like that. What's your name anyway?” Remus was explaining, although the picture did currently only have a cats face on it. Patton was hanging off her back, only just letting Roman see the lilac choker that clarified her pronouns.

Entering the room Roman snickered a little, already knowing that from how Patton spoke some of Remus's drawings would probably cause concern. “He's Patton. What's it going to look like when you add the body and colour?”

“It's gonna have mangled limbs of twisted together legs and fins, and a scattered red and yellow mottled pattern mixing fur and scales all over its body. I need to make the eyes bigger though... or smaller, fish have small eyes right?” Remus described already turning to search images of fish so she could decide what size the eyes should be, clearly having decided to ignore Patton hanging onto her.

“Nooo.” Patton whined, reaching clearly with the intent to take the sketch and protect it from Remus's plans. “Pretty kitten.”

Remus still nodded, pushing the drawing out of reach and pulling a folder from beside her desk up. “Yep, it'll be a beautiful kitten, just like these ones.” She insisted, show casing her variety of finished artwork to Patton cheerfully ignoring any upset noises.

Roman was only just close enough to see the pages being turned, but had already seen his sisters art after it was completed enough to know the pages. At the start it would be trips into uncanny valley, all the things Remus saw in robotic attempts to recreate humans or poor game and film CGI designs of people sketched out again as she tried to work out what was so off about them. Then the pages would turn to gore, murder scenes they'd heard described in various books and news broadcasts that she wanted to imagine more vividly. Those ones had Patton almost crying and rushing Remus to move past them without giving any sources or descriptions of her thought process.

After the gore Remus had pages of just normal ocean life as she had wanted to perfect how light works under water before allowing herself more creative attempts. It was her latest project and she'd only moved onto creating her own designs of underwater animals in the last few months.

That was where Roman decided to interrupt again, “So have I lost my friend to you for the evening? I can head back to my room now, if so.”

“Don't be jealous cause I'm more interesting than a Disney fan, Prince Pukey.” Remus immediately countered, raising an eyebrow as she turned. “But you're more than welcome to take your friend back anytime if he'll let go of me.”

“Your friend too, Remus. You are my new kiddo and I need to see everything you've been creating. I love the sharks. They look like puppies, not as terrifying as the movies make them.” Patton tightened his grip, still hugging or clinging to Remus as though she'd run if he let go.

The siblings blink for a moment, Roman stunned that this guy from work essentially has declared Remus as a friend after knowing him an hour and Remus because this guy just walked into her room, seems aghast at any pictures of injuries, war or fighting but has basically just adopted her too. “Where on earth did you find this maniac, Ro, and are there any other I need to prepare to be adopted by?” Remus asks after a moment, folder forgotten in her hands.

“Work. Logan is my main other friend there and they aren't really the adopting type. They will probably criticise any creation scientifically though so I'm trying to avoid inviting him home.” Roman muttered, still taking in what had happened. “Padre, you have literally yelled for hours over anyone suggesting something close to the things Remus has been showing you when we're at work, what...?”

“We make shows for Kids, Roman! That's not an appropriate place for this type of stuff, but there's nothing wrong in Remus exploring such dark subjects as long as she let's people walk away if it gets to be too much.” Patton scolded lightly, grinning as soon as Roman shrugged in response, letting the explanation be left at that.

Patton never did get to see Roman's room on his first visit to their home, but he did make a new friend that he might never have met otherwise.

Christmas

(Story Post; ART AT END)

Christmas day, Köbi convinced Sydryn that they should visit Aoife and Reid. Aoife had gifted the dragon a batch of homemade pink cupcakes at work the week before so it was only fair to return the favour. They showed up to the apartment with gifts and wine, and they gathered in the living room for merriment. Syd didn't personally enjoy the idea of Christmas: too many people, too much noise, too much gingerbread. But in Aoife's apartment, it was just the five of them (Aoife, Reid, Samara, Syd and Köbi), they weren't a rowdy bunch, and no one had thought to get gingerbread. “Nathan sent you a gift,” Aoife was saying to Reid, placing a gift bag in his lap. “You should open it.”

Reid blinked and then focused on Aoife before looking down at the present in his lap. “Oh. Aye.” He straightened up in the chair and took the tissue paper out, rooting around. “Card first, right? Did he send one... Here we are.” Aoife sighed and sat back in her chair. Samara came around from the kitchen and handed her girlfriend a mug of hot chocolate with a kiss on the crown of her head. “Oh, look at that...” Reid said holding up the card. “It's got the twins on it in little red and green onesies. Um... Their names...” “Probably inside the card if you can't remember,” Samara suggested. “Right...” He opened the card. “‘Wishing you a relaxing holiday and a quick recovery. It's the season of miracles and I couldn't have had mine without you. Merry Christmas, Dr. Gardi, and a Happy New Year! Love Nathan, Dax, Grace and Gabriel’.” “There you go. That's really sweet of him,” Aoife said. “It is...” Reid said, placing the car back in its envelope and leaving it on the coffee table. “I still feel bad that I missed the birth.” “Wish I had,” Sydryn admitted. “You've never had to calm and sedate a labouring werewolf...” “I guess so...” Reid sighed. “Syd. Did you get my gift?” “Yes.” “And?” “I put it in my hoard.” “On display?” “Yes. It's with the other dragon statuettes I own.” “Nice. Is it the biggest one?” “No. Eat a cookie Reid.” Reid leaned forward and took one from the plate. “Samara, these are amazing.” “I already told you, Aoife made them,” Samara groaned. “Oh. Sorry...” Reid looked down and started nibbling at his cookie. “You can't just get mad at him for not remembering...” Köbi interjected. “It's part of the dissociation.” “It's okay, Köbi,” Reid said. “Samara has every right to be upset.” Samara frowned. “No. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be condescending...” “Reid's getting better,” Sydryn said. “You should only have to put up with it for a short while longer, hopefully. And you don't even live here, so technically the one who should be complaining is Aoife.” “I'm a nurse. I'm just doing my job,” Aoife said. “You say that like we're not even roommates,” Reid complained. “We hardly are. You haven't been home in months,” Aoife said. “I paid my share though.” “You did.” “Well, you say it like we're not even friends.” “We are, but now I have to see you 24/7. If I don't treat you as a patient, I might go mad too, and end up like you.” “I didn't go mad, I had a breakthrough,” Reid countered. “Well, you can't even tell us what the breakthrough is, so...” “I can! I um...” Reid tried to think hard. “...That's not really a nice way to talk to your patient. Learn some bedside manner.” Aoife sighed. “Do we want to watch a movie or something?” “I should head out...” Sydryn said, getting up from the couch. “Reid's doing well. I came to drop off gifts and check on him.” “You don't want to stay for dinner?” Köbi asked. “Not really, no.” “What if I want to stay for dinner?” “You can find your own way home.” Aoife crossed her arms. “Syd, you gotta stay for dinner. It's Christmas.” “You act like that means something to me.” “You brought gifts, didn't you? It must mean something to you.” “I brought gifts because I knew I'd be receiving gifts and I didn't want the guilt.” The dragon put their hands on their hips. “Köbi, you can stay. I have other places to visit so I'll pick you up after...” “Oh, okay. Thanks, Syd.” Köbi smiled. “Where are you off to?” “I have to go visit Camilo and Rheni. I have news for them.” “Not bad news. You can't deliver bad news on Christmas.” “It's just news. How they receive the information is up to them.” “Okay...” Köbi got up to see them out. “Drive safe. Yeah?” “Oh, Syd. Hold on.” Aoife grabbed some cookies and went to the kitchen for a baggie before heading back. “Give these to Camilo and Rheni. And, um, before he says anything, yes, I did tell Camilo you'd sit in on his pregnancy group.” “Are you mad?” Sydryn said, lowering their voice as Samara wasn't supposed to be privy to the knowledge of their pregnancy. “I'm not going to a pregnancy group. My condition is private.” “I only told him you could be beneficial as a doctor,” Aoife said. “You know how worried pregnant people can be. They'll spread home remedies and false information.” “Thank you for letting me know so I can tell Camilo myself that you were mistaken and I will not be attending.” “Syd. You should go.” “In what way would that benefit me?” Sydryn asked. “You’ll be able to learn to care,” Aoife said. “And I’ll stop nagging you about it.” Sydryn clenched their jaw. “I don’t want to.” “If you don’t, I’ll make you take Reid. He can live with you. His hair’s basically pink now. He’ll fit in. Köbi can be his nurse.” “Absolutely not.” “Then go to the group. Think about it. Sleep on it.” Sydryn groaned and just pulled on their coat. “You're a bully.” “If I have to be. Happy Christmas.” Sydryn rolled their eyes and just left.

A quick text to Camilo placed him at Fay's house as the dragon expected. He hadn't yet arranged for Rheni to move back in with him and while they were getting along, Camilo still didn't feel like he could forgive so easily. Sydryn supported Camilo's decision so long as he had the necessary support at home to help him navigate the world as a pregnant man. With Marcita around, it helped a lot. Pulling up, Sydryn immediately noticed a big bundled coat sitting out on the porch. When they approached, it became clear that the figure was Fay and he didn’t look too comfortable. Frowning, Sydryn feeling safe enough in this rural forested area, blew a flame into their palm and wrapped it into a ball, offering it to Fay. The merman took the ball of flame hesitantly, but it floated an inch off his fingers and only warmed, not burned. “Thanks…” “What are you doing out here?” the dragon asked. “Escaping Christmas…” “Ah.” “I don’t do Christmas. I don’t like Christmas. I’m not Christian. My religion is the sea and I’m barely practicing that…” “I’m not fond of it either. Christmas that is,” Sydryn stated. “Yeah. I assume it’s the people?” “Precisely.” “Dari’s not even a practicing Christian.” “It’s these North Americans… They’ve made it part of their culture, whether everyone likes it or not.” “I wish I’d banned TV as soon as Arianne was old enough to understand. Right now, it’s the only way any of them would’ve learned about Christmas, other than from Dari.” “Mm… Yes, perhaps that would’ve worked.” “I assume you’re here on business?” Fay suggested. “I came to speak to Camilo, yes.” “Well, good luck in there.” “Fay, you can’t stay out here. You’re not a cold-water fish.” “I know. Give me a bit more time.” “Alright.” Sydryn headed inside. Immediately commercial Christmas music blared throughout the house and there were lights and decorations everywhere. Siv was the first to appear and weaved between the dragon’s legs to hide behind them, but at the same time Arianne jumped into the hall and pointed right at him. “I see you!” she yelled. “You can’t hide!” “No!” Siv yelled. “Can’t see me!” “I can! You have to help me find Otter!” she yelled back. “Nooo!” Siv yelled again. Sydryn just moved on, removing their coat and boots and walking into the living room. The living room had a live white fir in the corner and stockings hanging over the fireplace as well as snacks on the table. A big garbage bag full of used wrapping paper and opened toy packaging was beside the tree and various toys, clothes and candy were strewn across the floor. Among it, Milo was sitting playing with Katia who looked to have received a new stuffed dolphin for Christmas. Not seeing who he was looking for, Sydryn moved into the kitchen. Dari was in the kitchen mashing potatoes with Zoe strapped to his back. He heard Sydryn come in. “Fay, I need your help with the—Oh, Jesus Christ! Syd!” Dari nearly jumped when he looked back. “Don't scare me... When did you get here?” “Just now,” Sydryn said. “I'm looking for Camilo.” “Upstairs with Rheni I think,” Dari reported. “You haven't seen my husband, have you? I can’t do this without him.” “Porch.” “Of course...” Dari sighed. “I don't know why he has to be such a scrooge. We agreed we'd do Christmas a long time ago.” “I bet that was before your numbers tripled.” “Still. He can't just mope about. I need help.” “I'm sure he'll be back in shortly,” Sydryn stated. “I only gave him a two minute flame.” “A what?” “Don't worry about it.” Syd headed towards the stairs. “Merry Christmas.” “Merry Christmas!” Upstairs, Sydryn found the light on in a room down the hall and figured it was their destination. As they drew near, they could hear chuckling and wet noises from the room with its door slightly ajar. They shivered in disgust and just reached out to knock without looking. “Hello?” “Ah, dios mio!” Camilo was heard startled. “Rheni, stop! Come in.” “I don’t think I want to,” the dragon hypothesised. “Syd?” Camilo came to the door, pulling a shirt down over his stomach which had purple kiss marks all over it. “Hey! You came over fast.” “You seem light spirited,” Sydryn observed. “Well, uh... Es Navidad,” he said blushing. Rheni appeared behind him, passing a hand over Camilo's back. “Hey, Syd! What's up dude?” I'm sorry this took so long, but I've had a lot of work to do in Gardi's wake, and your issue wasn't of high urgency. Anyway, I have your results for you,” they stated. Camilo blinked then looked at Rheni. “Wait... So is the baby Rheni's?” “I never doubted that he was the one to impregnate you,” Sydryn said. “It's the process that I find more interesting. But technically, no the child isn't Rheni's.” “What?” Rheni said, his arms dropping to his sides. “I'm not the father?” “You two don't seem to be listening. Go sit down,” Sydryn said. Camilo went back into the room and sat down on the bed. Rheni sat next to him but didn't touch him. “Good. Now...” Sydryn pulled out their rose-coloured work tablet. “I analysed the sample that you collected from Arrhenius. As I suspected, when performing sexual acts, Rheni's body is capable of producing human DNA completely different from the DNA in the cells that make up Rheni's body. Instead of simple slime gametes like your first pregnancy which were incompatible with Camilo's egg, human male gametes are produced with human DNA which successfully impregnated you with a human child.” “So, I am the father?” Rheni asked. “Well, the thing is, your body had to get the human DNA from somewhere,” Sydryn stated. “Your body is learning from it's environment. It wouldn't just create human DNA from nowhere. It would need to replicate DNA it has access too. But it has access to every human around you: Camilo, Marcita, Dari, etc. But we have record of their DNA and—” “You do?” Camilo interrupted. “Yes, of course,” Sydryn said. “Have to make sure the humans really are human. Also if you were wondering, you're very much human, Camilo.” “I mean, I figured.” “Anyway, the gametes provided to me did not match any of those records of those around you. But...” Sydryn turned over the tablet and showed them a picture. “It does match his.” The pair blinked and stared at the picture. It was an ID portrait of a young man with black hair, a soft face with a defined jaw. “Who's that?” Camilo asked. “That's missing person Michael Zhao,” Sydryn said. “He was attending post secondary school in BC when he was reported missing seven years ago.” They continued to stare at the picture then Rheni moved a hand up to his own face and touched his cheek. “...Is that...Is that me?” “It would be very difficult to conclude otherwise,” Sydryn said. “He is the father of Camilo's baby.” Camilo covered his mouth and tears started rolling down his face. “Oh god, Camilo...” Rheni started rubbing his back. “Are you okay?” “Am I okay?” Camilo sobbed. He pointed to the picture. “It's you!” He sniffled and wiped his eyes. “We found you!” Rheni started nodding quickly, tears coming to his eyes as well. “It is... I know it is...”

A Perfect Proposal

Fandom: The Witcher Punk!AU Pairing: Valdo Marx x oc (Aevryn Swift) Word Count: 2810 Rating: T Taglist: @ficsandcatsandficsandcats​ @nevadawolfe​ @magic-multicolored-miracle​

a/n: here it is, the Valdryn proposal (ofc i would write the proposal scene after writing the wedding, ah well)

“Are you ready for the trip tomorrow?” Valdo asked as he walked into the bedroom, toweling off his damp curls, pausing to let his gaze sweep over his girlfriend on the bed.  Aevryn looked up from her phone as he entered; lounging against her pillows, bare legs tucked up under her and head propped up in her hand as their little french bulldog, Romeo curled up against her side.

“What?” she gasped sarcastically, “we’re going on a trip?  But I haven’t even packed yet!”

“Oh, very funny Swift,” Valdo replied, balling up the sodden towel before tossing it at her and missing -- the towel landing instead on Romeo.  The puppy gave an affronted yip before jumping off the bed and padding away, probably to his own doggy bed, where there was less danger of projectiles.

“Hey!” Aev whined, chucking the towel back at Valdo.  “Look what you did, you made him leave me!”  Reaching out in the direction their dog had ran off in, she called after him dramatically.  “Romeo!  Romeo!  Wherefore art thou, Romeo?”

Flopping down on the bed next to her, Valdo pulled her into his arms, pressing a kiss to her laughing lips.

“Your Romeo’s right here, Juliet” he purred; the water from his hair dripping down her cheek.

“Mmm, so you are” she murmured, the words muffled as she kissed him back, snaking her arms around his bare shoulders and tangling her legs with his; relishing the feel of his silken pyjama pants on her smooth legs.

“Of course I’m ready for our trip tomorrow,” she said after they’d settled, resting her forehead against his.  “It’s not like you didn’t remind me about twenty times already today.”

As he pulled back to look at her Valdo grinned sheepishly before his gaze dropped and he frowned slightly.

“Is that my shirt?” he asked, suddenly recognizing it.

“Nooo…?” Aev replied slowly, shrinking back in his arms while fighting to keep from grinning, and failing spectacularly.

Valdo snorted in amusement, his green eyes crinkling.  “You have a terrible poker face, love.”

“I know,” she replied simply, still grinning.

“I wondered where that shirt went, y’know,” he grumped for a moment before his eyes traveled downward pointedly.  “Though, I suppose it looks better on you anyway,” he mused with a smirk.

“Y’sure?” Aevryn asked innocently.  “Because I could be persuaded to give it back to you right now… if you wanted,” she purred with a small shrug, the look she gave him more than suggestive.

“What would that leave you to wear then?” he asked, his brows raising in faux concern.

Hooking a finger at the edge of the collar and tugging it out, Aevryn glanced down.  “Looks like nothing,” she replied cheekily, leaving Valdo to wet his lips as he deliberated.

“Alright then, give it here,” he said expectantly.

“Oh no, that’s not how this works, you have to take it from m--”

Before Aevryn could finish, her words turning into a surprised squeal, Valdo had rolled her astride him and was pushing the shirt up over her head, her arms raised to help him; his hands traveling up her body til cold air prickled her bare skin.

“There, now what?” he asked smugly, gazing up at his naked girlfriend.

“As if you have to ask,” she murmured leaning down to kiss him, her hands cupping his face before sliding up to tangle in his unruly curls.

—

Morning came much too early for Aev’s liking and she threw her arm over her eyes as Valdo tried gently to wake her.  

“Nooo, you can’t make me,” she cried plaintively, the words muffled against the back of her arm.

“Just remember, I tried to be nice,” Valdo said before tugging the blankets away completely, baring Aevryn to the chill morning air.

“Oh you bastard,” she groaned, curling up around herself in an attempt to contain some of her body heat, finally giving up and opening her eyes to sit up, directing her fiercest glower at him.

Valdo merely grinned down at her, fully dressed already.  “I did warn you,” he replied matter-of-factly, helping her into her robe as she stood, stumbling slightly.

“No you didn’t,” she grumbled, but didn’t protest when he kissed her cheek and patted her wild hair.

“Once you take a shower I’ll have coffee ready,” he sang, gently steering her toward the bathroom.  

The promise of caffeine helped Aevryn finish getting ready and soon they were in the car on their way to Jaskier and [Y/N]’s to drop off Romeo, and then to the airport.

“So, are you gunna tell me where we’re going on this mystery trip yet?” she asked, sipping her coffee and glancing over at Valdo behind the wheel.

“Nope,” he answered, his eyes flicking over long enough for him to grin before returning to the road.

“You know I’m gunna find out once we get to the airport anyway, right?”

“Not if I blindfold you and cover your ears with noise cancelling headphones,” he quipped back and Aev threw him a flat stare.

“Oh yeah, because that won’t look suspicious,” she teased.

When Valdo didn’t respond, just smiled to himself as he continued to drive, Aevryn sighed, settling back into the seat and closing her eyes.  “Alright, alright, keep your secrets then.”

—

Luckily the TSA line wasn’t very busy and they got through security fairly smoothly.  And what was more, by some miracle, Valdo was able to throw his hands over Aev’s ears playfully as the flight attendants announced the destination before boarding, and like a good sport Aevryn played along, letting Valdo keep his secret until they boarded their connecting flight in London.  

At the pilot’s announcement before take off Aev turned to Valdo, her face lighting up as she finally learned their final destination.

“We’re going to Cork?” she exclaimed, her surprise evident in her reaction and Valdo grinned back proudly.  “Gods, I haven’t been back there in ages.  I think maybe once since we were children?” she mused, her eyes glassing over as if lost in memory.  “That’s where we first met,” she murmured more to herself than him, her hand finding his.

“Mhmm,” he hummed, giving her hand a squeeze in return.

“What’s the occasion?” she asked suddenly, fixing Valdo with a sharp look, her keen eyes studying him as if she could figure out his secrets by reading them on his face.

“No occasion,” he replied smoothly, though his hand itched to reach for the velvet box in his pocket.  “I just thought it would be nice to take a little break.  We’ve both been so busy lately and I just… wanted to keep you all to myself for a bit,” Valdo admitted, his expression softening.

Aevryn smiled softly as she rested her cheek against his shoulder, still holding his hand; twining their fingers together.

“That sounds perfect,” she sighed.

—

Well it would have been perfect, but upon landing Valdo was informed that there’d been a bit of a mix up and their luggage had been left in London. 

“You have got to be kidding me,” Valdo exclaimed, running his hands through his hair.  “This is ridiculous!”

“I’m incredibly sorry for the inconvenience, sir.  We will be retrieving your luggage as soon as possible and we’ll issue you a credit --”

“A credit?  How is that supposed to help me right now?”

The man behind the counter flinched at Valdo’s icy glare and Aevryn quickly jumped in to smooth the situation over.

“V, we’ve still got our carry-on luggage, so all the essentials are there and we’re both tired, so let’s go back to the hotel and rest until tomorrow and then hopefully our bags will be here, right?” she asked, turning to the airline worker for confirmation.

“Y-yes, ma’am,” he replied quickly, nudging his glasses up while trying to avoid glancing at Valdo for too long.

“See,” Aev said, turning back to Valdo and leaning in close, resting her hand on his chest as she whispered in his ear.  “You said yourself you wanted me all to yourself and while we’re in our room at the hotel, we won’t need clothes anyway.”

Valdo swallowed, opened and closed his mouth... and found nothing he could disagree with -- her argument was compelling and the image she’d placed in his mind was more than enough incentive to calm down.

“Alright, fine,” he gave in, letting Aevryn give the man their info so they could be contacted when their bags arrived.

—

After a long night and most of the next day spent luxuriating in their hotel room, their luggage had finally arrived, and while Valdo was still slightly annoyed that so much time had been lost, he couldn’t really complain either.  However, now his plans could proceed, unhindered.  

The next few days spent in Cork were lovely and the couple ambled the streets, visiting several places they used to love as children; Aevryn’s excitement fueling Valdo and he kept reaching into his coat pocket to feel for the ring, impatience nearly spoiling all his plans several times.  He just had to wait one more night.

Their dinner reservation was at eight, and as Valdo held the door for Aev, little did he know that his plans were about to be dashed once again.

“What do you mean you can’t find my name?” he hissed, attempting to keep from snapping at the hostess.  “I made this reservation weeks ago,” he insisted, his usual nerves of steels beginning to fray.

“I’m sorry, sir, I just don’t see your name here.  I’m not sure how this happened.”

“Do you have any idea who I am?”  Valdo exclaimed before Aevryn could stop him.

As the hostess shook her head, gaping at him as if she might be able to recognize him, Aevryn grabbed his hand and pulled him off to the side.

“Valdo, what are you doing?” 

“I’m attempting to get us a table,” he replied, clearly agitated.

“You were really gunna play that card?” Aev asked, placing her hands on her hips.  “The ‘I’m famous, so I should get whatever I want’ card -- really, V?”

Valdo sighed, knowing she was right and that he looked like an ass.

“Why is it so important we eat here?” she wondered, fixing him with a curious look.

Again, Valdo floundered, pushing his hair from his face.  “I just -- I thought it would be nice, and I wanted it to be… romantic,” he admitted sheepishly.

A smile stole across Aev’s lips and she reached up to take Valdo’s face between her hands.  “That is incredibly sweet, V, but it’s not necessary.  No matter where we go it’ll be romantic, because we’re together.  Besides, this place is a little stuffy for us -- this ain’t our scene,” she pointed out and Valdo glanced around at the classy, yet conservative decor and winced, knowing she had a point.

Why didn’t he think of that?

“What d’you say we get outta here and find someplace more our speed, hm?’

“You’re right, of course you’re right,” Valdo murmured smiling.  He’d just have to alter his plans slightly, but this could still work.  He could be flexible.  Spontaneous.

They found a little dive bar down by the docks that featured local underground acts and the band that was headlining for the night was only a couple songs into their set as the couple took a seat.  

Instantly Valdo felt more comfortable and it was obvious Aev did as well.

“Look at this place,” Aevryn said, gesturing to the bar around them, an awed grin on her face.  “This reminds me of the joints we used to frequent in uni.  We saw so many great shows in places like this, do you remember, V?”

“How could I forget?” he mused, sitting back, his long fingers tracing the edge of his glass.

“Feather Fall would have fit in perfectly here,” he joked and Aev nodded, remembering the band’s first gig, opening for another local band -- Aevryn the only one on the floor, screaming her head off for them as they took the stage.

“Definitely,” Valdo mused, remembering the same show.

Drink in hand and food on the way, Aev settled in to watch the band, but Valdo only had eyes for her.

By the time the band was playing their final song for the night, Valdo had finally worked up the courage to ask her, attempting to veer their conversation toward the little speech he had planned when suddenly a handful of twenty-somethings were gathered around their table, breathlessly clamouring for photos or autographs.

Valdo sighed while Aevryn threw him a bemused grin, cutting off their conversation to shake their fans’ hands.  Throughout the entire ordeal Valdo grinned and bore it, wanting to be done so he could whisk Aevryn away; unreasonably jealous any time another fan threw their arm around her or hugged her.

Finally the bartender announced last call and they were able to slip away.  

Standing on the sidewalk, Aevryn stretched, taking a deep breath of night air.  “Smells like rain,” she mused, and sure enough thunder rumbled ominously somewhere in the distance.  

“Wanna go for a walk before we call a cab?” Valdo asked, wrapping his arm around her waist.

“What about the impending rain?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow at him and holding out her hand, palm up, certain she’d just felt a sprinkle.

Valdo merely shrugged.  “At this point I’m past caring if we get rained on or not.”

Aevryn laughed and fell into step with him, taking his arm.  They shared one of Valdo’s cigarettes as they walked, the sound of the surf lapping against the docks soothing, despite the gathering thunder that was slowly growing closer and louder.

“Hey V, I think --” Without warning the clouds seemed to open, dumping a sudden downpour over them, effectively cutting off Aevryn’s words, which turned into a surprised shriek.  Grasping hands the two took off running, searching for someplace dry to shelter, their laughter echoing into the still night. 

By the time Valdo pulled them under the overhang of a nearby awning, they were both already completely soaked through.  Breathing heavily, they leaned against each other to catch their breath, until Aev’s broad grin chased all of Valdo’s doubts away.  Taking her wet face between his hands he leaned in, kissing her as if it were the only thing he ever wanted to do.

“What was that for?” she asked, breathless and somewhat dazed, her fingertips resting against his jaw.

“Nothing has gone smoothly since we got here, especially tonight, and I just wanted something to go right,” he explained.  “I wanted this week to be perfect.  I’d planned it out in minute detail for months now and when it came down to it the universe saw fit to throw a wrench in all those carefully laid plans. Well, y’know what — fuck it,” he announced, getting down on one knee in the middle of the wet pavement.

“What, Valdo…?” Aevryn gasped, her eyes growing wide as he took her hands in his and she gaped down at him kneeling before her, his dark curls sopping and plastered to his face; the most beautiful sight in the world.

“Aevryn Swift, I have been in love with you since the first day I met you and that has never changed, not for even a moment -- even when we were apart and I fucked everything up; thinking I’d never get a second chance.  And yet you came back to me, and I don’t deserve you, I want to.  Gods, I want to.  I’ve never wanted anything so badly.  You make me want to be better, do better.” 

He paused, his emerald eyes searching hers hopefully and he took a shaky breath.

“So what d’you say?  You and me babe, how about it?”

Reaching into his pocket he produced the ring, holding it out to her as if it were his own beating heart offered up to her to do with what she would.

“Yes,” she whispered, voice hoarse, yet with no shred of hesitation.  “Yes, fuck yes,” she repeated louder, her voice strengthening; the dampness on her cheeks not all from the rain alone and Valdo could have sworn his heart stopped for a moment.

“You’re sure?” he asked, unable to keep the question from springing to his lips.

“Of course I’m sure!” Aevryn exclaimed and an incredulous grin tugged at Valdo’s lips as he took Aev’s hand and slipped the ring onto her finger, drawing her knuckles to his lips before she pulled him to his feet and launched herself into his wet arms, kissing him without reserve as the rain continued to fall.

Despite all the setbacks and the rain and his impulsive proposal, in that moment Valdo couldn’t care if it had gone exactly according to his original plan or not, because this, this was perfect.

A Belated 10/10 Story

The Girl from Out of Town.

((Eloni gets hit on/hits on someone.))

October 10th, 9 pm. Officially 1010’s 6th birthday.

It was between a few big events; but honestly from looking at Eloni, the green Android, one could not tell. October 10th was a big night for 1010, but it was one of Eloni’s favorite nights in general (apart from maybe new-years)... Even now he wandered to-and-fro speaking with guests, introducing himself, even pairing people off with other dancers.

A robot’s job was never truly done, but Eloni lived for this! 1010 loved to party, but Eloni in particular loved THIS party. He loved the formal wear, the excuse to get gussied up, the copious amounts of booze and alcohol, the exorbitant amount of food (though he couldn’t enjoy it). Right now he was waiting primarily for the game of croquembouche jenda- but as he did so he scanned the room for any negative or alarming emotions.

… And that is exactly what he found.

Bar.

Eloni slowly maneuvered his way in between throngs of party-goers toward the bar; his vision of the emotions causing the disturbance to his radar began to ping more completely. Anger was brewing loudly at the bar, though the cause remained a mystery. There was no fight, no arguing that he could detect; it seemed like the barely contained rage was simply stewing there on it’s own…

And then it’s source came into view.

At the bar sat a woman with vibrant yellow skin, brownish hair with streaks of medium blond curled into a loose, low, and messy bun at her neck. Her jewelry was simple and ornate, but hung close to her body aside from her sequined headband and row of pearls that hung in a knot all the way down to her navel, and her dress was an old-fashioned tabard-style dress of white and sequined gold and copper. She looked less like a party-goer, and more like a run-away or jilted bride.

She was stunning, even if you didn’t have a thing for the art-deco look… Or her pretty, pissy face as she slowly sipped whatever drink she had in that martini glass. This mystery woman also did not look like she was a typical party-guest for the 1010 crowd.

Eloni needed to intervene.

And that’s just what he was going to do.

Eloni slid up to the bar-stool right beside her. “You know;” he began with an earnest grin. “I thought the Captain turned off the time-machine before the party.”

The mystery woman stopped, looked up at him and gave him a dubious scowl. For a moment they stared at each other in mutual silence as the heartbeat of the EDM around them did some of the talking for them.

She locked eyes with her as she took a pointed sip from her glass as he started to continue.

“Hey. Name’s Elo-” but the Android stopped his sentence half-way through as he realized something much more interesting to talk about. “Oh wow. Your eyes are pretty.”

The woman continued to sip her drink, this time her brows knit in confusion. Beneath fluttering, heavily eye-lined lashes and golden eye-shadowed lids lay a set of perfectly vibrant emerald eyes- with a ring of ultra-light purple around her pupils.

Finally, she spoke. “That’s it?” she asked. “... I thought y’were some sorta robo-casanova. You pick up most skirts like this?”

Eloni was flabbergasted.

“I mean- I…” he blinked as he tried to unpack what all the heck she just said. “Oh. OH, no. I’m not- I’m not a lady-killer. That’s uh- that’d be my brother. He’s… Uh…” Eloni felt his shoulders ride up in awkward embarrassment as he gestured elsewhere. “I just… Uh. I didn’t greet you as you came in and you seemed really mad, and I thought I’d come over to… You know?”

“Shoot the shit?”

“... Help?” Eloni offered, smiling. “What are you drinking? Where are you from? You don’t sound like you’re from around here.”

From where he sat the woman’s ire retreated noticeably. She was still angry, but now she was more… Uncomfortable than angry. Well… No. Mostly angry… She just wasn’t the rage-filled time-bomb waiting to go off.

She looked back to Eloni, who by now was leaning halfway over the bar, trying his best to be suave. He thought for a moment that her anger retreated entirely-- and then the rage was back.

She let out an audible noise, crossed her legs the opposite direction from him and returned to her drink. “One; if this is your attempt to get me to say by boozin’ me up; don’t bother. It’s lemonade, sugar. Two; you just insulted my dress. Why the heck’d I’d tell ya where I’m from?”

Eloni sat up. “What? Nooo. I didn’t- I didn’t mean to insult your-” he gave her a once-over again. 1010 wasn’t really programmed to oggle fans, at least not discriminate, but Eloni still found her sense of style utterly different and definitely worth looking at. The dress, be it old-fashioned definitely fit her pretty well, and upon closer inspection it wasn’t white; but a very pale yellow. She looked and talked like a gangsters wife from some of those old mob movies.

“My eyes are up here, birthday boy.”

“Sorry!” he said on instinct.

The mystery woman turned around in her seat and finally looked at him again. “Don’t’cha have some fan to flirt with?” she asked. “Doubtless this is comfortable for you.”

Eloni smiled a little more. “Try me! My prime directive is to make sure all our fans have a good time at our birthday party!... Annnnd you seem dead-set on being pissed.”

The woman gave him a disbelieving look and crossed her arms, letting her drink sit on the counter empty. “Butter my scotch n’ call me in the mornin’, you ain’t gunna give up on this, are ya?”

“I’m programmed to make people smile!” Eloni insisted, sitting up straight and giving a little, informal salute. “Noooo frowns on my birthday!”

“Uh-huh…”

Eloni relaxed and leaned a little closer to her. “So, seriously baby. If I’m bothering you; I can always get one of my brothers. I’m not the popular one, but you say the word! All I want is a smile from you, and it’d be the best birthday gift.”

“Ppft,” the woman dismissed, but then she got a little quiet. “... No offense…” she said quietly. “... I’m flattered, but, seriously. You should go try to flirt with one of your fans, okay?” she asked. “It’s sweet you’re trying to make me feel better, but it’s not going to do much for me.”

“SiiiiSTER!” came a bombastic voice from right behind them. “Sister, I have procured the caviar and blinnies! You are correct! They are-” Eloni turned around to see a man with long, straight blond hair with stripes of green, but the strangest thing about this man was not his hair- but the goggles worn on his face.

The moment that Eloni saw the man seemed to be the moment the man saw him in return. There he stood, knees slightly bent with two plates filled with the aforementioned hors d'oeuvres on little plastic plates.

“OH. A 1010!... I will- uhh… I’ll just.”

“Zeebs, it’s fine…” the woman said, turning around and sliding off. “We were just going anyway.”

Eloni spun to follow her with his eyes. He should have just dropped it- everything in his code should have told him to stop his pursuit of this faraway, foul-mouthed, foreigner… But it was his birthday, dang it.

“You know; it’s rude to come to the party and ignore the birthday-boy!”

The pair stopped. The man with the goggles; (Zeebs wasn’t it?) turned around and let out a low and singular laugh. “It’s rude to harass a troubled woman! You don’t see her complaining!”

The woman held up her hand to her companion, then glared back at Eloni. “Well, kill me softly with his song- for an NSR goon ya don’t give up, do ya?”

Oh! That was a musical reference… Actually it was two. The comment on being an NSR goon was a bit befuddling for a moment, but figured it had been because she plainly was not from Vinyl city.

Eloni saw her irritation flare, but all he could do was smile. By now their interaction had proven to become interesting to the people around them. “1010 never surrenders,” he recited.

The two unknown party guests stopped and seemed to survey the situation. Zeebs glanced around a little more frantically than his sister whose interesting gaze settled back onto the green android after a moment. “Oh my goood… What. Do. You. WANT from me? A smile?” she asked, not at all afraid to show she was still mad. “‘Cause I’ll have y’know:  I have a reason why I’m absolutely livid!”

“Sister… Ix-nay on the Ad-may…”

“Fuggit. We’re already here,” the woman said back at him. “Go on, birthday boy. What’ll it take for you to let me skip town in peace?”

Eloni stood up, stretching out to his ten foot height. “If you weren’t here for my birthday; you should have made an appointment!” he chided, watching the face of this mystery-woman’s flinch with embarrassment. “Tonight’s my night! A night to pAaRrTty~” he hummed musically. “What sort of party would it be without dancing?”

The woman paused, her face still scrunched in disbelief before she turned to her brother. “... Hold my purse,” she instructed softly, turning back to Eloni with a little stomp. “Alright, soldier-boy,” she said lifting a finger up at his face… From allllll the way down there. At least five feet down. “You get ONE. Dance. After that, and I’m gone. No ifs, ands, or buts.”

Eloni studied her emotions for a moment. She was still… Mad, but she was almost acting comically pissy. To liken it to something easier to explain- if red was anger and yellow was happiness, then her emotions teetered on a pale orange. She was just as happy to be pursued as she was angry it was him.

Eloni leaned down. “Sure, baby. I can make one dance count.”

There came a tart snort from the woman below him. “Oh,” she laughed… Then slowly her anger receded a little more. “Oh. I’m gunna fucking run you into the ground, you sentient lamp-post.”

It was a threat. It was playful. It was a challenge… It tickled him.

Eloni let out an equally incredulous laugh. “Can you even… Dance in that thing?” he asked, taking in the nearly floor-length gown.

But surprisingly the woman forced a smile, grabbed Eloni by his suit jacket and started dragging him off to the dance floor. “Quit talkin’. Move ya gams.”

Eloni let out another chuckle as he watched the woman drag him out to the dance floor. The anger was practically no longer there. Only tracings remained; but emotions didn’t necessarily just stop because you had moved on: they lingered. This stranger had some fight back in her, but it seemed she was enjoying this more than not.

“So aggressive, baby~”

The woman looked back up at him. “Don’t call me ‘baby’, sugar.”

“Don’t call me ‘sugar’, doll.”

“Don’t call me ‘doll’, either.” By the time Eloni was dragged back into the dancing fray the woman had turned around and snapped to, heels he hadn’t had the chance to see snapping to as she readied herself. “You swing, darling?”

Oh. Oh he didn’t entirely know how to respond to that.

“... I’ll take that as a-”

“I’ll match whatever you put out, ma’am,” he finally pushed out.

The woman finally seemed to regard him for a second, before shrugging, not looking at him straight in the face. “Mm. We’ll work on it,” she said, stepping close. “Ever dance with a partner?.... And I don’t suppose you can use your super robot powers to play a good swing number?”

Eloni…Wasn’t entirely sure what happened after that. All he did was look up towards the DJ booth where Subatomic was playing his fair share of music and sent in a request, message hurried and likely missing a few vowels. He didn’t care.

“... So, uh,” Eloni started. “Uh, I’m sorry. I’m not normally this brave…” he said. “Or. Uh this pushy…”

The woman cocked her hips and shimmied a bit closer. “It’s your birthday,” she excused. “... And it was kinda rude of me to stop and not say hi, at least, so. Two-fer-two, darling.”

Eloni blinked again as DJ came through- birthday boy requests were high on the chain of command. Soon the sound of electric-pumped ragtimey-toons pounded through the air… That’s when it was all a blur.

1010 was designed to dance, yeah, but new dances took a lot of concentration and coding on the part of the Droids AI. Eloni and his brothers were great with their dance routines, but sometimes their personal dancing skills were hit-or-miss… Even then Eloni liked to think his long legs would hit those swing-high kicks; but he was nothing on this woman. Sheer fabric and  high-heels were competing with him faster than he had ever seen…It wasn’t a quarter into the dance that his lead was entirely taken over by her.

It was a situation he had no idea was coming; a woman half his size beating him at dancing. A HUMAN woman practically running him into the ground… It was a lot, it was an endless barrage of legs and shimmies…

It was pretty great.

Just as soon as the song had started; it had ended, Eloni was practically bent over and the mystery woman was done. Off she trotted in her high-heels to re-join her worried looking brother with a completely enraptured Eloni to follow her.

“W-wait. What’s your-” but before Eloni could finish the question or even grab her attention- he felt his hydraulic knee buckle- and land him square onto a nearby table.

Plasticware and plates flew to the floor and Eloni struggled to keep his holographic head above a pool of spilled rose and champagne. When people rushed him to see what was wrong he gazed around.

The Mystery Woman and her brother were gone.... Well. At least he made her smile!

Yugioh S4 Ep10 pt2: Yugi’s Never Ceasing Commute Continues

Last we left off, it was time to eat. Thank you. Thank you, Yugioh. You get me.

Not one of their better spreads, TBH.

No cheese wheels, too. They are truly living in hard times.

(read more under the cut)

Rex and Weevil decided to look for rare cards in the rubble of Arthur Hawkin’s house.

I don’t know why they bothered with this, everything was very clearly exploded and on fire, but youknow, these two just seem to be very hellbent on being bad at life. Just two jokes that are here just to be jokes, wearing these duel disks that they’re not going to use until it’s finally time for them to betray us. Checkov’s jokes.

And I hate to say this but they really are this season’s Bakura.

I know I just said that.

But this show really likes having at least one character that might turn at any moment and stab our protagonist in the back. They like to have at least one at all times there, hovering over Yugi’s oblivious shoulders, with that figurative knife (or literal, in the case of that time when Bakura stabbed himself without nearly any provocation).

In the past, when Bakura was out to lunch, we would have betraying friends like Kaiba, who would go solo in the middle of his own card game and end up throwing everyone in danger, and also Tristan who got full on possessed by the Big 5 and tried to murder everyone, but I guess after 4 seasons they were like “Youknow...I think Kaiba got over it.” and like...you can’t have Rebecca stab us in the back so lets bring Rex and Weevil.

At least their showtime is minimal, because unlike Bakura, who is pretty likeable even when he’s being an asshole, Rex and Weevil never turn off the asshole and are mostly just visual gags stumbling over eachother. Bakura was quite clever and had a bit of depth and mystery, while I don’t think Rex and Weevil are smart enough to even know how to spell mystery.

And if Rex and Weevil end up being good guys and the saviors of the whole show then my sincere apologies, but they are still kind of grating.

Now Rebecca gets a duel monster’s card that has a death threat on it, which is probably the normal way to sign your duel monsters cards in this universe. I imagine every card in Yugi’s deck has a couple death threats on each of them by now. Probably makes them more lucky.

Ya so...

I can forgive this. The people who made this looked at a map of California, forgot that California is roughly the same size as Japan, and were like “I mean, there’s like 50 states, it can’t be that big.”

But here’s the thing about Death Valley. I am a Californian, but I have never been there. This is why.

Death Valley is ASS to get to. Barely anyone lives there. Nothing goes there. You can’t just take a train, you have to drive there by going south past it and then turning around. It’s real round about and just in the middle of nowhere. May as well get there by flying into Las Vegas, and if you are flying into Las Vegas, chances are slim that you will leave that Vacation Town USA to vacation in a literal desert.

Clearly they saw the name “Death Valley” and got super excited but y’all...there’s a reason why we call it that, and everyone who knows about geography or is a Californian is kind of like “um...is Yugi...going to Death Valley???? That city slicker?”

Cuz this is not a normal desert. Normally, a human can survive 3 days without water, in Death Valley you apparently can only survive for 14 hours. It is the lowest point in the US and also the hottest point in the US and the place where the highest temperature was ever recorded on the Earth. And while that heat is only for 5 months of the year...it’s not winter in the show, is it? It’s fairly warm. San Fransisco wasn’t even foggy?

Like even the Death Valley website is like “please don’t leave the main roads and hike during the hot months” because y’all, this park is damn serious. Like this is one of the only National Parks that has not just one, but multiple ghost towns in it.

Don’t get me wrong, Death Valley’s very pretty and very fun I’ve heard, and it has like a very fancy dayspa in it, and if you like geography and like to rough it, then you will absolutely love how freakin weird Death Valley is. So, if you’re safe and know how to pack your gear, you’ll have no problem, but...Y’all, Yugi Muto, who barely survived Pegasus’ island (and only because Mai fed him) is going to just casually go into Death Valley.

In that outfit.

Then, in some barn somewhere (I have NO IDEA where this exchange takes place) Rafael is grilling Arthur only to realize that this is a very pointless conversation.

And in case you forgot Darts exist, he’s still out there, murdering people off for kicks. we’ll just add 20 more to the death count, the internet told me that’s the average amount of people on a fish boat of average size (although sometimes this boat seemed like the size of a shipping container barge but youknow...)

And in case you missed it, I have been doing the death counter wrong so I was 2 people behind--it’s correct now. With the rate this show goes I feel like we might see death 666 eventually. But, yes we did pass 269 so we’ll have to wait another 100, I guess, because it went to some rando on this boat. Nice.

(The highest surface temperature of Death Valley ((not the air, but the ground)) ever recorded, was 201° F.)

(That’s 94° C for those in the back.)

I mean Yugi is part Pharaoh so I guess he just has a strong attraction to really terrible deserts. He’s also half a dead guy so maybe he also just has a strong attraction to being dead.

But I dunno, maybe this is the months of the year where Death Valley is manageable? Maybe? Possibly? We’ll just assume that it is.

Now you can go horseback riding in Death Valley, as you can in any National Park, but it isn’t real normal to ride your horse all the way from San Fransisco. And like you can’t even let your dog off a leash in Death Valley. This is such a bad park for pets!

Also, I found out some fun facts about horse travel, for anyone interested in writing fantasy and wants to know the average speed of a horse.

So a horse can go about 100 miles in a day, but only for one day. If you do 250 miles, the time has to be more spread out since you must recharge your horse. According to some horse-specialist on the internet who does horse marathons from coast to coast, if you have to do 500 miles, then you average about 24 miles a day, accounting for horse-recovery time and assuming it’s a horse that wasn’t bred for super long distances. (this is about a 500 mi horse ride, ps)

The pony express of old, the iconic Wells Fargo, would actually have horse stations along the prairie, where you would trade in your tired horse for a new horse, so that way you would never have to stop going 100 miles in a day. Since Yugi never changed his horse, this ride would have been absolutely ridiculous, and Copernicus the horse, would have stopped somewhere in Gilroy.

But this is a kid’s show so wtv, we’re gonna ignore that.

(reminder that Yugi decided not to unhitch the perfectly serviceable truck and drive away with air conditioning.)

And Yugi really did make Rebecca promise not to tell these much older teens that he took off (something about how he doesn’t want to put more people in danger yada yada, normal Yugi stuff), but the show kind of blames this on Rebecca...but like...she’s 12. This one is on Yugi.

But, if Rebecca were older, maybe she would have done the same thing. Rebecca seems like maybe the type that realizes that when you like an idiot boy, you gotta let them do idiot things, and make idiot mistakes. You can’t just control what your friends do all the time, unlike this crew, which is controlling because that is the only way they keep eachother alive.

So Joey decides to ignore both of the cars right next to him, and just book it to save his stupid ass friend. On foot. To Death Valley. From what the show insisted was just outside San Fransisco.

And I guess that Rafael decided to just let Hawkins go?

Probably because Yugi got on a horse and Rafael was like “of course I know Yugi is chasing me on horseback off the main roads. Of course I know that.” and then he just...let Hawkins walk all the way back...

Hawkins should be dead, but not yet.

So lets check out Death Valley.

So like...again I just think they probably boarded everything and had a rough idea of “America has a bunch of natural canyons, right?” and didn’t realize that the Grand Canyon was soooo far from California.

There are actually canyons in Death Valley but like...I dunno if the art matches that so much? They aren’t nearly as massive as the canyon situation farther East.

Again this was their art choice that they made and it’s...a choice. And they committed to it.

And this bike thing happened?

This tandem bicycle for children lost among the wreckage of Rebecca Hawkin’s home is like a whole “baby shoes, never worn” short story in itself. Rebecca has nooo siblings or parents, right? She has a really old grandpa who is like 80 and doesn’t bike? Just uh...bringing that up...was this tandem bike for her to hang out with Yugi? Does Rebecca even have friends her own age? She already graduated college.

So much inferred by the bike that I know is just here because it’s a funny joke to see Rex and Weevil on a stupid tandem bike.

So I’ve heard about the bike/car/horse paradox before in regards to this season, (it’s one of the few things I knew about this season before going in) so I’m happy to see I’ve recapped enough Yugioh to see it play out.

The paradox being, if Yugi is on horseback, and Rex and Weevil are on a bike, and the rest are in a car, who arrives first?

Apparently the show itself isn’t even sure because Rex and Weevil can keep up with a horse???

Anyway, the correct answer to the paradox is that everyone not in a car is dead for not bringing any water.

Everyone except for Raphael, who probably put a camel pack into each of his shoulder pads.

OH NOW IT’S AN ANIME.

I don’t get why this is happening. But it’s a thing now. Rafael has either literal or metaphoric wings. Bear in mind I thought Pharaoh was Metaphoric for like 14 episodes. These Icarus wings might just be real. Rafael might have been a card this entire time, and I wouldn’t even blink.

Anyway, if this is your first post of mine you’ve seen of this, my apologies, we’re in S4 and this is very confusing. You can read from S1 ep 1 in chrono order by clicking this very handy link here!

hey liz i've been thinking a lot about story structure lately and i wanted your take on how you decide what structure your stories will have? i know there's that "you have to do what your story needs and tells you to do" thing but these bitches dont ever tell me anything they just multiply so. thoughts? - bma

(as an aside, i don't know whether involving medium would change many things but it may be worth considering. mainly i think medium is just a matter of arrangement and that the story would be for most intents and purposes the same no matter how you choose to tell it. i guess you could argue that structure is arrangement in itself and intrinsically tied to medium but i sort of feel like it is secondary arrangement, if at all? like if you consider time as an element to outline -- the time IN the story (how things happen to your characters) is not necessarily the time you’re telling the story IN (how you are telling your reader that things are happening) aka internal chronology doesnt equal your work’s pacing? or should it??? does this make sense? i dont think so. i am sorry.) - bma :|

NOOO dont be sorry ur making total sense

i think there’s 3 thots to unpack here (medium, structure, & chronology) & i’m gonna start with medium bc it’s easier. im also putting it behind a cut bc it’s gonna get just stupidly long and rambly. i’m sorry in advance if it’s not helpful to you, i have a lot to say for someone who has never taken even one single class on writing and as a result doesn’t know jack shit (there’s a tl;dr at the end dont worry)

about MEDIUM: 

so like ok i’m just some goof-off with a HS degree who writes fanfiction but In My Very Super Qualified Personal Opinion, i don’t think that most of the time medium is intrinsically tied to STRUCTURE of the main storytelling arc...i think the art of storytelling itself is distinct from the medium you choose to tell the story IN. this post puts it better than i ever could but basically for me, i feel like the story itself is sort of the raw, malleable concept, and the medium you choose to tell it in is how you convey the information??

like in a book, you can say “she forgot her keys” and in a film you have to show her smacking her forehead, heading back into the house, and swiping her keeps off the counter. you can’t TELL in film, you have to show. similarly i regret every day i cannot perfectly describe a facial expression with words when i see it so clearly in my head. for audio-only podcasts that are dialogue heavy out of necessity you have different limitations than you would for, say, animated music videos with no dialogue at all. games allow for more interactivity and exploration while sacrificing accessibility, tv shows allow for more length while sacrificing, uh, a big hollywood budget...medium affects the kind of story you can reasonably tell which is why some stories are better suited to one medium than another. i think trying things in other mediums is a good way to stretch your storytelling muscles but with enough skill nearly any story could be told in any medium. i think when trying to decide on a medium you just gotta weigh the pros & cons and what you feel comfortable with/what you think would be most effective/what would evoke the strongest reaction

re: structure:

firstly “do what the story tells u to do” is a little silly like...the story isn’t sentient. come on. that’s like “i can only write when the writing gods inspire me” there are no writing gods! inspire yourself! it’s all in our weird messed up brains! ok anyway.

this is, again, just how i do things, and i am 700% self-taught so take it with a grain of salt, but when i sit down and start blocking out a story from scratch i don’t...actually consider the big structure at all! sorry if that’s not helpful to you. i like to make a list of everything i want to happen, and then put it together in a few different orders to see what looks best. and when i’m finished, whatever i have just like...IS the structure i go with, with perhaps minor tinkering to make it flow more smoothly. (i think this might be in the same spirit as “do what the story tells you” with less bullshit and more Agency Of The Writer.)

for long and more complex projects, i actually usually have several lists - one list of stuff that is, for example, the Action Plot (the kingdom has been cursed, i’m tracking down my serial killer sister to bring her to justice, i’m running from djinn who wanna kill my dad, i’m trying to bring my dead not-boyfriend back to life). then i have another list for Character A & Character B’s romance or whatever. and maybe a even another one for solo character development (magicphobic prince learns to love magic, former werewolf hunter figures out his family is a cult, half-demon learns to embrace his own nature). and as many lists as we need for however many Main Characters and or Plots/Sideplots

how i order the lists: individually first. don’t mix them together to start with. when deciding the order of an individual list i like to, for example in a romance arc, use escalating intimacy. “A and B have dinner together” is naturally gonna go way sooner than “A and B kiss” or “A and B talk about A’s angsty backstory” because that’s more satisfying. draw it out, good/important stuff last, dangle that carrot so we have a reason to keep reading! for singular character development, it’s basically a straightforward point A to point B...if i want my guy to start hating magic with everything he is and end up being very comfortable with it, i have to put “reluctantly uses magic to save his own life” WAYYY before “casually using magic to light torches and reheat his cold stew.” 

the tricky part for me is when i’m done with these lists and then i need to mix them together To Pace My Whole Story. (this is usually why i wind up with a rainbow colored spreadsheet.) i don’t like to put too many things too close together because then the pace feels uneven. even if my Action Plot is only a thinly veiled excuse for romance and character development, i still don’t want to focus on a romance for 30,000 words and then go “and oh yeah in case you forgot Serial Killing Sister is still coming for your asses.” the more sideplots and major character arcs you’re juggling the harder it is to get an even distribution, which is my main concern always

and like, generally, whatever i have when i’m finished...is my structure. (sorry.) 

i don’t know much about the classic 3-act or anything like that, but i usually can divide them up into 3-5 big arcs based on story turning points. sometimes i take a scene out of one arc and put it in another because it fits better and i like for my shit to be organized, but usually by the time i’m finished with all that, that’s what the final story is mostly gonna look like. (there have been a few exceptions when i realized i needed extra scenes/changes while i was MID-DRAFT and let me tell you that murders me EVERY time. it happened on the merlin fic i’m currently posting and that was like my own personal hell.)

this is also where thots about chronology come in:

i think time CAN be an element of this if you WANT it to be, but it doesn’t HAVE to be. if you want it to be, i would consider it just another “list” like character development or the romance arc. 

i usually plot without considering Time very much...to me, it’s all down to the events you want to show, and however much time it takes is the byproduct. if you want to show something from a character’s chilhood but then tell the bulk of it when they’re adults, that’s one thing. if you want to show a scene from their childhood, teenhood, young adulthood, etc, that’s a different kind of pacing?? i usually do it this way so i can regard time like wordcount: it takes as long as it takes. 3 days or 3 years, a 1.5k drabble or a 100k epic...overall, my LARGEST CONCERN is that even distribution. in the same way that i don’t want one chapter to be 30,000 words when the rest are 10,000 words, i personally am not a fan of huge timeskips offscreen

(because this where i think someone’s own internal chronology DOES matter...this is just a personal preference, as a reader i have a hard time really comprehending, say, a year timeskip or a 10yr timeskip when all i did was turn one page. like, a year is such a long time. i can’t even begin to describe how different i am now to how i was a year ago. it’s the same for character development. time IS development and as a writer i’m not really comfortable having that take place offscreen - for main characters, at least. it’s just too jarring. a little prologue with something happening 10 or 20 years ago is usually fine, but for the most part, i’m not a fan. ...i can do one chapter per year a lot easier than i can do two chapters in childhood and the other 8 in adulthood. of course you can play with this a LOT with nonlinear storytelling, which is a whole other very cool thing, and someone skilled in their work can keep me sucked in no matter what, but imo if you don’t want to risk throwing your reader out of your work it’s better to keep things steady)

HOWEVER sometimes time IS an element u wanna consider outside of just making sure your shit is evenly distributed...if your heart is moved to tell a story in a specific timeframe, over a year, or from solstice to solstice (this was almost the timeline for my merlin fic and then i changed it), for the first six months of a friendship, or even a huge journey in the span of a single day (toby fox had a lot of success with this one lol).

i think it can help to choose a start and end point for your chronology the same way you do for character development (prince goes from hating magic to being ok with it, story takes place from ages 8 to 25, or from new year’s eve 2038 to 2039, whatever) - that way you can keep your distribution even, if that’s a thing you want to do...even if you have a lot of skips you can still note what happens offscreen to make it work better in your head? like, if you just make it another List, another column on your spreadsheet, when you’re in the early stages of organizing you can be conscious of it and make sure it’s playing into the story the way you want it to

anyway these r my thots im SOOOO SORRY this is so long lmao. brain machine broke today which is why i had to ramble more to explain myself. the tl;dr in case ur brain is melting out of ur ears & u didn’t sign up for an essay:

imo medium is totally distinct from storytelling tho ofc some stories are better suited to some mediums

structure? i don’t know her. i plot w/o regard to structure and then if it looks funny i mush it into a more structurally sound shape

my main concern when structuring anything, including time, is an even distribution of Events and a steady rate of escalation

structure to me is just what i have when i’m finished plotting. i’m sorry one day i’m gonna take a writing class

internal chronology matters to me personally because i have a little bit of time blindness but maybe not to everyone, i know many very successful stories where they disregarded that entirely to no ill effect

writer’s block isn’t real! everyone just needs more rainbow spreadsheets

thank u for asking I HOPE i didn’t make you regret it too badly lmao and that at least a little of it was helpful!! 

Mortal Kombat: Return To Of Kombat Shrines

     Johnny Cage wiped sweat and angrily licked his upper lip, “So now is time of glory fighting, do you enjoy pain sandwiches?” Reptile looked down then up, then right, then at Johnny, then thought for a moment, then slightly bent his right knee. “If it is delicious swipings you like, then pain it is to your personal area parts!” Reptile slightly moved his foot and a small plume of dust was swept up. “See?”, said Reptile looking down at the ground. “See what?”, said Johnny. “Sorry, I was checking my massages.” Reptile now furious yelling: “Did you no like my dance moves?! If you were not so busy with your stupid, silly, awful, annoying, amusing, time consuming, absurd, benign, delightful and awful yammering you would have witnessed a thing that would have made you aware of it existing. Johnny, once more involved in a text with his agent looks up and raises his right eyebrow so it is higher than his other eyebrow, the other eyebrow is located on the opposite side of his cranium. The main idea is that there are two eyebrows and the one he is moving is the current one described now. “Well I...” Reptile interrupts while Johnny is speaking just now a moment ago: “Shut up you stupid pud!” Johnny stops moving, puts his hands at his sides and Reptile does the same, neither of them continues to move and stares silently at one another...day turns to night.......

MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!!

Sonya slowly roused from sleep in her room which the sun was coloring a golden shade of yellow, her hair lay about her carefree and flat, like pancakes left on a stove. The pancakes were delicious but there were more made than needed, so some were saved with Tupperware. With a majestic stretch, she raised up from her bed and arched her well toned body showcasing her physique and at the apex letting out a horrendous fart: “PLBBBBBBBBBBBIP!!!!!! It violently shook the adjoining wall. “Really Mom? What the fuck you smelly fucking bitch?! I swear to God after the first 3 games you just let your shit go and do you know how embarrassing it was having to go to school explaining that you were on medication while shouting: “ERUAGHHHUHEEEHHUHHH!” While ripping off men's heads and pissing on their ashes?” Cassie was a typical asshole teenager who was spoiled and smelled like gum and hairspray, even after raising her to be a man she still insisted on being a bitch. Cassie is painfully aware of how stupid it was for her mother to have bred with her father, although to be fair he was the only normal person with a normal penis in the tournament (Kano had a metal cock and Jax was...look Sonya is a racist okay? She wouldn't date Liu Kang, she wouldn't even date Quan Chi due to his Jewish heritage.) “You had your pick Mom, you stupid fucking cunt bag, you could have banged a thunder guy, or even sold your soul to a sorcerer with erectile disfunction and I would be able to kill fuckers with my magic queefs with green magic clouds or some shit. Noooo, instead I have some stupid ass drone and shoot people in a martial arts tournament.” Sonya had been silent up till this point, she had been busy breathing in her flatulence as she found it absolutely fantastic, she loved breathing her own fart gas, especially early in the morning after a night of drinking and eating peanuts. “Cassie, you are a whore, a fucking mistake, we actually were using condoms AND I was on birth control AND had a diaphragm inside me yet we still somehow got fucking cursed with you.” Sonya picked a small booger from her nose, smelled it and flicked it with fury at her daughter where it hit the wall with a shower of gross sparks. “You were a mistake and so was I, we all were because I recently found out Kano is my actual father so yeah, our family is a shit show even by Outworld's standards.” Cassie and Sonya both shake hands and salute, the entire room is suddenly engulfed with flames.

Outside...”Thank God we got out of that”, said Cassie. “You can say that again.”, said Sonya. ”Thank God we got out of that”, said Cassie. “You can say that again.”, said Sonya.”Thank God we got out of that”, said Cassie. “You can say that again.”, said Sonya. “So Mom, are you finally ready to admit you are a stupid whore?”, Cassie looked at her Mom for a response. “Yeah totally am slut.”, Sonya smiled and revealed she was missing 3 teeth, making her smile resemble a hobos. Sonya then let out a battle cry: “Lalalalalalala!!!” Cassie looks up, then down, turns around once, then back at her Mother. “Why did I just do that?” Sonya glares seriously into the distance at a nearby tree. “It's because you are a warrior, because you understood what that thing was to know. When instructions were handed out and mailed, they were hard to understand due to being comprised of small pictures with no words. We all still were able to assemble the furniture ourselves but I will never forget it, that is when I knew you were the un-chosen one, the one who was supposed to know the thing. Then all this other stuff happened, and I am also hungry now.” Cassie looks like a cat who was wet but then became dry and hoarsely replies: “Then, we dine in Hell tonight! My little kettle corn Mommy Mom!!!” Now different things happen to other characters too.

Scorpion grabbed at the brown tube which had become the ultimate opponent with a scrap of white barely hanging onto the edge of the roll. “Damn!”, Scorpion reached out and snatched the tube off the holder with a soft loving gesture. “By the fires of unholy eternal Heck, this is less than what I desire!” He then goes through a painstaking task of peeling back enough cardboard to cover his hand and reluctantly lowers his palm to relieve his stinky shameful horrible waste he was naughty enough to expel because he is bad and a devil person. “Whew it sure is smelly in here now!”, waving his hand in a circular, counter-clock wise and sideways motion he sang a sad, uplifting ditty: “Iiiiiiii juuuuuussst tooook a craaaaapp, iiiiiitt waaaas reallllly baaaaaddd, it buuuuuuuurrned my deeeeemonic aaaaaassss and nooooowww I am saaaaad.” He exited with a mighty flush as his enemy faced him down right outside the door. “I need to shit too once in a while dickhead.”, Sub Zero was not pleased, ever since this uneasy peace it seemed there was never a free moment to use the bathroom. “What are you doing in there anyway? It is not like you are jerking off, your dick was burned off years ago.” Scorpion erupted in a bout of flame and was now a skeleton. “Nooo, I can't, should we talk about what happened to your appendages? Or is it too soon to mention the ice tray incident?” Sub Zero became sad and cried tears which froze before being able to escape his stupid cold face. “You do not know what it is like, shrinkage was a real issue and you know how it makes me feel. Can we not do this right now please?” “Oh all right, I supposed you have been helping me with my baths and daily feedings, ever since we moved into this apartment I have begun feeling like you do not hate me anymore, you never rip off my head, you are always criticizing me and it makes me hot...not in a good way either. Sub Zero set down his knitting and looked at his friend, “Look, I really still need to use the bathroom okay?” “Then use it.”, said Scorpion. “I will.”, replied Sub Zero with a pep in his step as he pranced to the bathroom angrily. Sub Zero then uses the bathroom. Having finished using the restroom, Sub Zero returns to the couch and resuming knitting while humming: “Dun dun da dun da dun da dun da dah. Duh da du da duh da, (murmering) mortal kombat” Scorpion now in human form once more slaps his right knee past his thigh, but not quite the very tip of his knee, about 4 inches away from the front of his leg where the human knee joint is usually located. “See? No hate, just some odd couple bullshit...you used to be cool man.” Both beginning humming together as we slip out quietly...I mean really who wants to watch that? They are like a married couple.

II

Lament of Badgers

Liu Kang looked out over Edenia, a sprawling and beautiful land, with its sparkling waters and happy squirrels. He then put down the magazine and observed his dreary surroundings. The apartment was in his Mother Sui Kang's name not his own so he could not help but try to follow the rules, no loud chewing, no spiked arm bands on the couch and the worst rule of all, no fighting. There was water running, in fact it had been running for too long now... “Kitana! Are you almost done washing our produce yet?” “Almost my little Egg Foo Hung!” God he hated that nickname, yes he had a huge dong, but it was not the most mighty of the Wangs, Goro held that title. “Did you check the mail K? I was too busy rehearsing for my graduation speech.” Kitana laughed crazily and did a back flip, “I am so glad to be who I am! And yes I checked the mail and no you did not get anything, hehhhahahahahahaaaa!” Liu Kang stood up with speedy and fresh air while flossing shouting: “You disrespect the fish you get the whole thing, you wanted to see, you dreamed so hard like a fighting fish of glory. So now what say the opponents?” Kitana rose in the air on one leg while posing with her hands clasped and began to sing “Shake shake shake senora shake your body line.” and while gyrating was also firing a Desert Eagle at her husbands feet. “For fuck's sake what is wrong with you? You crazy ass bitch, we are gonna get evicted now cut it out!” Kitana descended to the ground and scratched at the wood, she scratched until her fingers were bleeding. Liu Kang watched for a few moments and then bowed, back flipping out of the room while letting out small “Wudap!” and “Wah!”.

Keys were heard jingling the doorknob. “Waiyaiyaiyaiyaiiiiiiii!!!” It was the landlord, must have gotten off early. She flung herself into the room, then backwards down the stairs and out into the road. A passing car honked its horn loudly, Sui stood up and lifted the vehicle over end like it was made of paper. People scattered in fear as she walked up to the window of the car where a man was stammering and shaking. She pointed her bony dirty green finger in his dumb stupid face, then turned and ran back up the stairs, then fell back down the stairs, then went to the local corner store for a candy bar, then returned to the stairs, she then carefully went up them and hopped over the last one, she was not going to fall for that shit again. Entering the room to find filthy empty food containers and dirty diapers stacked in the corner. “ I am home you lazy no good doo doo Kang!” Her screams filled the room and Liu Kang smiled warmly, “Hey Mom, did you check the mail? I am waiting for a collectors edition mug with a map of how to get to the new island for the chess tournament I told you about. His mother punched a hole in the wall, lit a cigarette while bouncing a basketball with her arm still in the wall, she took a drag and no smoke ever came out. “I know how deep this goes, there is no chess tournament, you must have gotten drunk with rent again right?” Liu Kang looked into a nearby mirror, winked, wiped his face, noticed his left eyebrow was getting long again and plucked a hair, then procured a shaver and removed the entire thing. “Oh no now I look not like a furious fighting man of burning muscle punches anymore. “Oh you look so handsome, like a suitable rental car with extra seat room!” His mother was now juggling firey blades and a cat. “Mom why do you always know just what words are said?” She swung a samurai sword at a watermelon in mid-air. “From here on out I will never talk like a boondalungaloo again. I am sorry that you are such a little baby bitty beep beep blop ploopy bloopy blee. It is the only way to center your Chihuahua.”

Liu Kang nodded and quietly painted his finger nails hot pink, he stopped to apply a small sticker of a baby chick to his index nail. “Kitana, thank you so much for this color it is striking, get it?” Kitana burst into the room wearing an overcoat and a bullet proof vest. “I am happy you like it, to make others happy is the motto of the badger!” Liu Kang fought to prevent vomiting as he drank a glass of rotten milk. He looked at a picture of himself on the wall, “Badger? What are you talking about?” Kitana set her puppy down and it ran backwards to its kennel. “You know silly, the Lament of Badgers Festival. It is what precedes Mortal Kombat in the hood bitch.” Liu kang took a long drink of chunky sour milk, “By the Gods why am I drinking this? Yeah I forgot, oh well, guess it is time for DVR watching. Liu Kangs ugly stupid fingernails tapped the remote lightly. He list-fully opened the viewing guide and selected his library, then navigated to settings, system and updates and then moved down 3 places to select update check, the screen flickered and he was back at the previous menu. Liu watched as his TV levitated off the ground and fell, shattering like a pillow dropped on bags. “Liu Kang you silly sad Sally! Get the fuck up and train now!” Raiden was standing in front of him smoking a blunt and wearing a pimp coat, his hat replaced with a bandanna. “And yo stupid asses better have my rent by the first...bitch.” He was instantly gone in a puff of green smoke, a small fire had been started by his lightning feet of fury. Liu Kang had to act fast, he threw Kitana's cat at the fire and it took out a cat sized fire extinguisher out of its suitcase and sprayed coolant, putting out the fire. While flying through the air it had also pissed for the length of the throw, not of fear but vengeance. “Now I leave you with my mighty piss stain to remind you of the day you crossed me, Sudakai Hiroki!” The cat struggled his paw to flip the bird to the human and left, making sure to slam the door. “But your name was Fluffles.” Liu Kangs eyes welled up with tears as he chopped an onion furiously with care. The door burst open, and Sudakai looked like a fire dragon as he said “That was never my name, you are so stupid man really, no one likes you. You are cheap, you are always yelling some unintelligible shit and spamming, sorry bro but fuck you. I forgot my nip.” The cat had snatched his satchel of kitty cat mowie wowie and fled slamming the door. Liu Kang cried this time out of sadness as the cat had also made off with the rent...oh well...it wasn't the first time.

Something Familiar - Chp 7

Also on AO3 Chp 1   Chp 2   Chp 3   Chp 4   Chp 5   Chp 6   Chp 7   Chp 8   Chp 9 Chp 10   Chp 11   Chp 12   Chp 13   Chp 14 Now with art by Zelphaba

Chat Noir settled himself on Marinette's shoulder when she sat down for lunch.  She could literally feeling the pride and contentment radiating off him.  There was no doubt in her mind now that he'd been angling to become her familiar from their first meeting, and he was pleased with the witch he'd chosen.  She wasn't sure why he'd chosen her, but it was a blessing.

"Marinette were you still going to go shopping this afternoon?" her mother asked as she added finishing touches to the three plates on the counter before her.  She'd offered to take her daughter's usual weekend tasks so she could spend time with her new kitty.

Marinette glanced at the black cat  and he leaned against her gently.  I go where you go, his mind whispered to hers.

"Yeah," she was relieved he was willing to go out with their bond still so new.  "I need a few things if I'm going to finish that project.  Is there anything you need me to pick up?"

"Yes, if you…"  Her mother's words cut off as she turned and noticed Chat Noir and his new collar.  "Oh," she gasped.  "You did do it.  I thought I felt you summoning a ward, but you seemed determined to be sure."  Her voice was soft and reverent.  "Oh sweetie, he's perfect for you, I can see it."  A couple of tears leaked unnoticed down her cheeks.  "And you, sir," she addressed Chat Noir, "are most welcome to the family.  I can't guarantee Tom and I will understand you, but you can always tell Callie if there's anything you need, and she'll tell us."

"Thank you Maman," Marinette said, reaching up to run a hand down Chat Noir's back.  "You've made him happy."

"You can feel his emotions?"  Her mother looked surprised.  "You're a fast learner," she told the cat.

"I think I could kind of feel them before the ceremony," Marinette admitted.  "And last night Nino said he could already see a familiar bond between us."

Her mother chuckled.  "That kitty boy chose you, Mari.  He wasn't letting you get away."

For much of the walk and train ride to the fabric store, Chat Noir was nestled snugly in a little sling Marinette wore across her chest.  She was able to feel his contented purr, and she couldn't quite help resting one hand on his soft fur.

At the store, he returned to her shoulder, watching as her fingers poked and stroked various materials before adding the bolts to her cart.

"Good day, Miss Marinette," the shopkeeper called.  "Working on another project, are you?"

"Hello Mr. Gavel."  She turned and waved across the store.  Even when she was very young, accompanied by her mother to pick out fabric for her learning experiments, he'd always been kind.  He seemed to know, even then, that she would be a loyal long-term customer if he treated her well.  "I've actually got two in the works."

The squat little man navigated around the racks toward her.  "Is there anything I can help you... oh bless me, you've found your familiar!"  He beamed at her.

Marinette couldn't prevent the gigantic return smile.  She'd hoped he'd notice.

"Hello, sir," Mr. Gavel said, speaking directly to Chat Noir.  "You are a very handsome fellow."  He met Marinette's eyes.  "And a black cat, at that.  You lucky girl."  His own familiar was an orange tabby with impeccable taste in ribbons.  "Congratulations to you both."

"Thank you."  Marinette giggled as Chat Noir's tail slipped around her neck, the tip lazily swishing to tickle her chin.  "He's very special."

"I can see that," Mr. Gavel agreed.  "Have you found everything?  Ready for me to start cutting?"

Marinette nodded.  "I need six of the black.  I'm using it for two different projects.  And three of the red."  She held up a finger.  "Oops.  Still need some trim.  I'll just bring that up when I find it."

"Sounds good," the shopkeeper agreed.  "I'll get these going while you're at it."

They were blocks from home, Marinette's backpack heavy with her purchases when the yelling started.   Her head shot up, and she felt Chat Noir shift in his sling, a low growl in his throat.

Down at the next street corner, surrounded by a sickly yellow glow, and levitating several inches off the ground, was her long time school bully Chloe.  She was the spoiled only child of the Mayor, and she'd been tormenting Marinette years.  Not to be outdone by anyone, she'd gotten her familiar shortly after Nino showed up at school with Trixx.  Like most Parisan witches, she'd gone with a cat, but it was a purebred Siamese.  He spent his time in class glaring at the other familiars and students, clearly judging them.  Since then, the mocking had gotten worse, periodically crossing over into assault.  But Chloe's father held too much sway over their school principal, and somehow Marinette was the one who got the blame when she reported problems.

"Marinette Dupain Cheng!" Chloe yelled, her magically enhanced voice harsh on the ears.

Without looking, Marinette reached to stroke Chat Noir, knowing his ears were pinned back.  "What do you want, Chloe?" she tried to keep her voice as calm as possible.  Surely there was someone around strong enough to defuse the arcane temper tantrum.  Witches were not exactly rare.  But she also didn't want to make things worse in the meantime.

"I heard you've finally found yourself a cat to bind to you."  Chloe slowly floated closer, her blond hair spreading out and twisting in a breeze confined to the magical aura.

"I have found my familiar, yes," Marinette agreed.  Chat Noir crawled out of his sling, using its fabric as claw-holds to climb back to his preferred perch.

"So it's true.  You managed to trick a poor black cat into your service."  Chloe sneered.

Marinette felt Chat Noir's hair raising against her cheek as he arched his back and growled at the other girl.  "He chose me, actually," she corrected.  "And he's not fond of you.  So we'd both appreciate it if you could leave us alone."

"You should have known not to try to outshine me," Chloe snarled, raising her hands.

"Crap."  Marinette pulled a paper sachet out of her pocket and cradled it in her palm, prepared to ignite it when necessary.  The shield could be summoned instantly, but it was a stop-gap, used in the heat of the moment.

Chloe's hand shot out.  The sachet burst into painless flames, and the shield absorbed the magic before dissipating.

"Chloe, get a grip!" Marinette snapped.  "It's one thing to pick on me all day at school, but this is assault, and your father's protection won't help you here, not with so many witnesses."

Chloe screamed and swung her other hand out.  Marinette braced herself for whatever mess her bully had to throw at her.  The only saving grace was that she knew Chloe was more about showy appearances than substantive spells.

Mine.  Chat Noir thought, launching himself off Marinette's shoulder to block the spell with his body.

"Nooo!" Marinette shrieked, lunging to catch the black cat before he could hit the ground.  Dropping to her knees, she cradled him to her chest, her fingers caressing his face.  His bright green eyes were cloudy now, and his muzzle shot with gray.  Instead of turning Marinette into a hag, Chloe had aged Chat Noir.  He nuzzled her fingers, his purr loud and uneven.  Usually familiars aged along with their witches, but he was frail with old age.  "No, no, no," Marinette whispered.  "Why did you do that?" she wailed, her vision going blurry.

Mine.  His thought whispered.  Keep safe.  He was so pleased with himself, even though he knew it could kill him.   He expected to die, and if had kept her safe, he was content with it

"I will not allow it," Marinette said firmly, extending one hand, her fingers spread wide, toward Chloe.  Though she vaguely registered that the other girl seemed to have realized how badly she'd fucked up, she didn't care.  Regret didn't save her familiar.  She felt the tendrils of Chloe's retreating magic, like strands of yarn.  With a twist of her wrist, she wrapped the other girl's magic around her wrist, grasped it, and gave a yank.

Marinette closed her eyes and wove her own magic around the strands she'd stolen.  "We reject that which was given in thoughtless anger," she whispered, not caring that she'd catch hell for using improvised magic without a ward.  There wasn't time.  "And we take back that which was taken by loving sacrifice."  The magic flowed through her and into Chat Noir.  His purr grew more steady.  

Before letting go of Chloe's magic, Marinette knotted it.  It wasn't a long term fix, but it would prevent Chloe from using it until a professional could clip it.

Marinette gasped and opened her eyes.  Her dear sweet Chat Noir had been restored to his gangly state, his coat rich black and his eyes clear.  "Oh Kitty.  Don't scare me like that.  I almost lost you."  He pressed his face into her neck, purring for her now.

Worth it.

When she finally looked up, she was shocked by the crowd that had gathered.  Chloe was being handcuffed, while another officer talked with some of the bystanders.

"Are you okay, Marinette?"  A hand rested gently on her shoulder and she looked up.  The young woman was a waitress at the cafe one door up.  She was also a regular at the bakery.  "Is your familiar going to be okay?"

Marinette nodded and struggled to her feet.

"Jake," the waitress called, her hand coming up under Marinette's elbow.  "I'm taking Marinette home.  I'll be back in a few minutes, and I'd be happy to talk to the police, then."

"Sounds good," a man replied.

"Come on, Marinette," the waitress said gently.  "Let's get you two home where your parents can take care of you."  She wrapped her arm around Marinette's shoulders.  "You can talk to the police later, when you're not so upset."

Marinette let herself be led away, still clutching the nuzzly purring Chat Noir to her chest.

Marichat May, Day 14, Aged Up Chat Noir 30 minute speed write

I wrote this one before breakfast and today’s over lunch, so I’ll get that one up tonight yet.

3.

Opening my locker in a huff, closing my eyes as I sighed out while hearing a thud on the floor “not now!” I spat, opening my eyes looking down at my phone. This happens on a daily basis with me, every time I open my locker my phone falls out. Looking up at my locker, this locker is a mess so it is on me “let me” hearing his husky voice once again “why thank you Daniel” stepping back “it’s cool, hard day? Bailey not got away yet?” taking my phone from him “she is still with the changeover crew, I slipped away. I am just too damn tired for this shit half of the time” seeing the text from my brother which I will ignore because he stole my car again, I don’t want to hear it “always someone getting shot here” Daniel joked “I can’t wait to actually become more than an Emergency room nurse, I know I need to work my way up there. I am just blessed to be here, ignore me” I am so fed up “you know what Rylee, I know you said you don’t want to know but come on. It’s Friday, let’s go out for some drinks, just as friends” he says friends and then creates rumours that we are more “right, last time you said that we kissed” Daniel rubbed his head looking a shamed “oh come on, I understand now. Maybe one day you will like me” I will never like him, just because I found out he fucks with every nurse in this place “you know that bitch Carly, she about to catch these hands!” Bailey shouted, she is screaming in a locker room that could have important people here “what is wrong?” I said, Bailey came around the corner “telling me my motherfucking job! You know what. I am just so happy to see the weekend” Bailey will slap Carly one day, to be honest I want to slap her myself that is why I walked away “I was telling Rylee, let’s go out. Friends?” rolling my eyes as I turned my head away, we can never shake this guy away from us. Bailey giggled at me “you know what, Rylee let’s do something” I can’t believe she is agreeing to this.

Holding the white dress up to the mirror while J. Cole played in the background “the hell do I wear” I said to myself, I can’t wear white because it gets dirty too quickly “not that then” turning around as I threw the dress on my bed, I don’t think I want to go out now. Seeing my bed full of dresses that are ok to wear but I don’t feel right in. Grabbing my phone, let me find out what my bitch is wearing. Pressing the loud speaker as my phone rang out, I look awful “are you ready?” Bailey asked, eyeballing my screen confused “hell no bitch, I am still deciding. What we doing exactly? I don’t know what to wear? Shall we match?” Bailey and I have matching dresses, I have become so close to her since moving here “I am ready, hurry up. Daniel is literally outside my home, and guess who else coming? Tally the whore that never comes out and her man but also Joanna, we ain’t seen her for ages but there is a few of us and we are coming to pick you up now! Just wear black, you can’t go wrong and we are going to the club so you better wear the comfy heels, hurry up” she disconnected the call, I like the way they make plans and I never know what the hell is happening.

I ended up wearing black because I am taking Bailey’ advice, she knows better than me. Placing my shoulder bag over my shoulder, looking in the mirror one good time before I leave. Pressing down my skin tight dress, the dress fits snug on my hips and my ass is popping too. Anyways let me actually get the hell out of here, my heels clicking against the hard wood flooring of my room. Making my way down the lobby and seeing the top of Nathan’ head “Ry” Nathan jumped up off the couch “Rylee, please talk to me come on” placing my hand up making my way to the kitchen, the apartment is open planned so I can’t run far “I needed the car, I am sorry. You got to work on time right?” grabbing the water bottle “yes! Daniel picked me up, do you like guys picking me up?” he frowned at me in anger “the fuck I do, I will bust his knee caps. I won’t do it again, I am getting my own car. Sorry ok?” shaking my head lightly seeing Bailey calling “don’t wait up, I am going out” I didn’t even get to drink my water but whatever, taking the bottle with me “looking like that!? Seriously, these LA niggas out there ain’t good. Watch yourself, least hide your legs” is he really giving me advice “bye!” I shouted “wait till Blake comes out!” I stopped in my tracks when he mentioned his name “who?” turning around “he coming out, he will kill any nigga and you know it” I have not seen my eldest brother Blake in eight years, he never wanted me to visit him in prison. He went to prison and well I guess he is coming out “well he ain’t here so bye” I can only imagine how he is now.

I am still thinking about my brother coming out, I have had good memories with him but he was really bad. He was the first to move to LA and that turned bad so fast because Blake barely lived here for a year, then Nathan came and now me. My dad only let me come because he knows Nathan got me, I am all nervous to see Blake because I am not his little sister anymore, I am going to be twenty five soon. Stepping outside seeing Daniel’ car and also Tally’ car behind, I feel all nervous how everyone is staring at me. Daniel stared at me all wide eyed, walking around the car. Seeing Bailey’ face pressed against the window at the back, they would make me sit in front. She knows I didn’t want this, pulling the car door open. Hearing a wolf whistle as I got inside the car “my, my, my, my Rylee. You look so beautiful” pulling my dress down as I closed the door “thank you Daniel” this is just great.

It’s just crazy how I have Blake on my mind, he is just my half-brother but we are so close and to be honest if he saw me dressed like this he would be pick me up and bring me back in. Eight years and he has missed so much, on the phone he always tells me to stay away from boys “earth calling whore!” Bailey snapped her fingers in my face, frowning at her “what?” how annoying, I am in deep thought here “you haven’t touched your food and you’re daydreaming, what is wrong?” shrugging “just thinking” I mumbled “about? I am still thinking about Chris Brown trying to dick you down” not this shit again “can you please not do that?” I pleaded “what!??” Tally screamed from down the table “she is lying” waving Bailey off “yeah sure, I am lying” I wish she would shut up.

Watching Royalty as she painted my wall, even though my art is getting ruined she can do what she like. If she thinks my art is bad and needs painting over then so be it “aww sweetie, you got it on the floor” my mom said, my white marble flooring “it should just wipe off ma” getting up from the chair “oooohhh look” Royalty said, jogging over to the kitchen counter, grabbing the paper towels “ooohhh what is that? Is it you painting over my walls” she held her hand up with paint on “yes baby, you can finger paint if you like” crouching down wiping the flooring “come here Royalty, stay here and do it” my mom said, spending time with my daughter is a blessing but she can sure turn my world upside down when she is here “do I get a kiss baby?” Royalty looked at me and then looked away “I guess that means no, no woman rejects me but you” getting up from my positon “you the only girl to do such a thing” walking back to the kitchen counter.

My baby moms is a hoe, she always tryna make me out to be a bad dad or get more money out of me. Shit is just wack to me, I am a good guy but people only like to speak on the bad “what y’all speaking about?” slowly making my way out side “Lo, he been fucking on some chick. Now this chick is blasting him on Instagram” Fresh said laughing, Lo does not look happy “what she saying huh? Which chick was it?” Lo shook his head “you saw her yesterday” pulling a face “that chick that I told you about, the one that kept trying to be near me? You know she wanted me nigga” Lo kissed his teeth “every chick don’t want you nigga!” he spat “oh really though?” I snorted “I will let you think that” I pointed as I walked away.

Jogging up the steps and making my way to Royalty’ room “you hear that baby, daddy is coming now” hearing my mom say “I heard that little stinker is not going sleep” poking my head around the door “nooo!!” Royalty yelped in bed “why you not sleeping? You have to go to sleep” walking slowly over to the bed “no sleep” she shook her head, I nodded my head “yes sleep baby” crouching down at the side of the bed “if you don’t go sleep then I can’t go out, you know that makes daddy sad” she reached over and touched my nose giggling “touch my nose again I’ll bite your finger” she pulled her hand away “you want me to read story to you?” I need Royalty to sleep because my mom will not let me go out, she says it is my responsibility which she is not wrong but my mom should help me too “I don’t think she is tired” my mom said, staring at Royalty being hype as ever “uhhh I don’t think she is but I really need to go” slowly looking over to my mom “oh you do? But I thought you had nothing on?” getting up from my positon “I don’t but the boys want to go out, I will be back in the morning” my mom shook her head at me “thank you?” looking over at Royalty “I love you baby, see you in the morning princess” leaning down pressing kisses to her face.

“Is little Royal asleep?” Hood asked, I shrugged walking down the steps ever so slowly “she is playing up, I don’t have time for that” hearing little footsteps behind me “dad!” Royalty screamed at the top of her lungs, I stopped midway turning around to see her little face “roro not sleep” she said, tilting my head a little “you not tired baby?” she pointed at me “you want me?” pointing at myself, Royalty nodded “I think little Royal wants her dad, we wait Chris go and put her to sleep” I feel a little bad now, I just walked off and she actually wants me. I do feel like I am just there and Royalty prefers her mom and my mom, but no, she is asking for me. Jogging back up the steps, picking Royalty up as I got to the top “daddy is bad, I will stay with roro” she actually wants me.

An hour later and Royalty actually fell asleep, I think she gets this off me. I never like to sleep and I am the same now “see Chris, she loves you. You just got to be there for her, give her a chance. She knows you are her father, she loves you and she loves her mom. I know you feel like she loves her mom more but which child doesn’t, all you can do is be the guy you are because she loves it” my mom stroked my cheek “I try” smiling lightly “good and do not bring any girls home, your daughter is here so I expect more from you. Do it somewhere else” my mom waved me off “don’t worry, I will get a hotel room” let me try and actually leave to go out again now that my daughter is asleep.

Driving to Playhouse Nightclub in my Lamborghini “you know what is annoying Lo” I said as I looked in my rear-view mirror “what is on your mind now?” he seems annoyed with me “niggas that think they can use my name, they think I am stupid when I know everything that be going off in my home” I am sick of these niggas “who we speaking about here? Name the names homie” looking over at Lo before looking ahead “Nathan” stopping at the red light “not this shit again, he is my nigga. He didn’t do nothing to disrespect you, I know you nigga! You upset that his sister don’t want to bother with your ass? Come on, don’t take it out on her brother” rubbing my chin “I ain’t doing shit, I don’t like the homie” Lo snorted laughing “you’re funny, honestly. You putting him at fault when he done nothing, I done told you that it has nothing to do with him. It’s what random niggas you have in the home” of course he will say it’s not Nathan, I don’t even know that guy.

I am not even going to worry anymore, I am just going to be me and do my usual thing. I am back with the girls in VIP, that’s if they do come but the homies usually help a nigga out with the females “it’s busy today” Lo looked at the entrance “well as long as I get inside fuck everybody else” pulling my door up, my bodyguard stood at the side of my car already as I got out of my car. Passing my key to the valet and making my way around the car “oh my god, it’s Chris” waking by the group of females, biting my bottom lip smiling “welcome” the security at the door opened the door for me as I walked by the people stood waiting to get in still, I only want to be here for a while because I need to go to the studio and get some music done.

Pointing and laughing at Hood near falling “you overweight bear, about to squash these poor females” passing the blunt to Fresh “he only has one job, he can’t do that shit right” turning around, it’s getting a little packed here “my nigga!” feeling someone place their hands on my shoulders, turning back around and seeing Tyga “family” dapping him “didn’t know you was coming” I said in his ear “ you should have told me I would have picked you up” turning back around and climbing up the step so I can stand higher, I ain’t about that life standing with all them fat niggas. I feel better now, I can see people. My bodyguard moved my friends out of the way so he could stand in front of me, Tyga made his way up “I wanted to come early but I got little man with me” letting out an oh “you know how it is with kids now” he said, rolling my eyes “trust me, baby moms is still trying to take me to court. She don’t’ want joint custody but she can suck my dick, she ain’t getting anything like that” I hate the bitch so much, sipping my drink.

Can’t go wrong with some Biggie, bopping my head “Biggie Biggie Biggie can't you see, sometimes your words just hypnotize me. And I just love your flashy ways, guess that's why they broke and you're so paid” I sang aloud, I just find it funny how the club is just always all eyes on me and then there is always females trying to get close. Seeing someone wave in the crowd and I just waved back, I don’t know who it was but who cares, a single wave or smile makes a fan happy. Looking down at Lo and then looking over at the crowd, what the hell he staring at. Seeing a tall nigga stood with a shirt on laughing, he must know him or something which is weird. The club lights got brighter on him as he moved to the side smiling, I am confused on why Lo is staring mad hard at him. Squinting my eyes hard and the reason why Lo is staring became apparent to me, licking my lips seeing Rylee smiling and giggling with him. She blew me off for that nigga but god she looks so beautiful.

I swear to god, Daniel keeps trying it with me. Daniel flashed me a smile moving back again “oh come on you two” Bailey placed her arm around me, Bailey is so high right now “just get some dick, fuck everything else” is she being real “I am just joking with you” Daniel said in my ear, smiling at him “you keep trying it though, and stop making me smile too” hitting Daniel’ chest, he placed his arm around me, stood between both Daniel and Bailey as they both two stepped and I had to join them “I love this song!” I spat, I am about to twerk my ass “ass so fat I need a lap dance” I sang out stepping away from them “Woah! Lo!” my eyes widened hitting into him, he smiled at him. Bringing his face to my ear “come to VIP, Chris has asked for you” dragging my eyes up seeing Chris Brown stood, he is looking to the side of him like he wasn’t just looking over here. How did I not notice him in this club, moving my head back pulling a face “Lo, I am not about that life. I am not some hoe he mentions and I come running, nah. Fuck that” shaking my head, walking away from Lo.

Who does he think he is, I don’t fuck with that LA life. I do not want to get involved with that and get some name, no “what was that all about” Bailey asked, waving her off “nothing, ignore that shit” placing my arms around Bailey “not about them LA niggas Bailey” I said in her ear “I feel you but they just too fine to say no” rolling my eyes, moving my arms away from her as I turned around and started twerking on Bailey “Bands make her dance!” sticking my tongue out “ayyeeee!!” Bailey shouted, I giggled moving away from Bailey. She stared at me all wide eyed. Furrowing my eyebrows “what bitch?” walking back over to her laughing “what?” I said again, she stared ahead so I turned around to see what she is staring at “oh shit, that’s Chris Brown yo” Daniel said, my face dropped. Looking at Lo he just shrugged “you ain’t come to VIP, why?” Chris said, he is creating a scene and I don’t like it, Lo eyeballed me “do it” he mouthed “you wanted a special invite, well I am asking you” I swear the music just got lower, looking around me and I feel like the most hated female here.

Stood next to Lo, I am not moving away from him “you’re a bad brother” I said to him “trust me, I have been trying to keep away, believe me. Just talk to him, he really likes you for some reason. I have been trying” looking behind me as Lo was speaking, Chris waved me over but I don’t want this “you know what, fuck it” placing my hand on Lo’ shoulder and climbed up on the step, I hate this shit. Staring at Chris face to face he didn’t even look at me, it is like he is annoyed with me when I barely know him, he doesn’t even know me either. Turning around to face the crowd, ok this shit looks scary and I hate it “remember that bet?” Chris said, his breath against my ear, I swallowed hard. I shrugged not saying a word “you do remember, you’re not stupid. You blew me off for some dumbass” he pointed straight at Daniel, staring at Chris dumbfounded “what?” why is he acting like we was dating, is he feeling ok “I don’t need to be explaining anything to you, just keep your hoes. You have some beautiful girls here but me, I am going. Goodbye” I am not here for this.

I am shocked and very confused, Bailey held my hand as we walked out of the club. I don’t know what just happened, did Chris Brown just act butt hurt and act like we are dating, why. I sighed out feeling so happy to be out of that place “Ry! Why did Chris Brown point at me? I love that guy!” Daniel said smiling so wide “that is a little gay coming from you and he just said to bring your friends to VIP but I wanted to go home” I lied “I am tired, can we just go” I really need to get out of here “you don’t seem happy though? Do you not like him” eyeballing Daniel “drop it!” I spat, he won’t just shut up about it. Daniel held his hands up walking backwards.

Finally reaching the car in the car park “you know Rylee, you may want to look behind you” Daniel said stood at the side of his car “what is it now? Don’t tell me Blake is out already” turning around and seeing a whole entourage walking behind Chris Brown, what is life. Is this what rejection does to a famous man, he seems way too hurt “Rylee, let me apologise for what happened in the club. Let me speak to you in private real quick” he is not going to leave it “I don’t think she wants to speak to you” Daniel spoke up, the look on Chris’ face he was about to say something “and! I will come” I said cutting Chris off, I just rather tell Chris like a normal person that I am not interested and thank him for the compliment, but I am not about this life.

Closing the car door in the back of the Range, Chris climbed in also. Looking around the interior “this is a beautiful car” I can’t lie, it looks so nice “thank you” Chris said “uhm, I just want to say sorry if I came at you wrong, I didn’t mean it” I nodded my head not saying a word “are you with ole dude? Is that why you are blowing me off?” taking in a deep breath shaking my head “he wishes” I said in a whisper “what?” Chris said, shaking my head “nothing, I said no. He is nothing to me, a friend I work with” Chris looked ahead at Daniel “he looks a little too concerned for you, I think he likes you” Chris looks like he wants to fight Daniel “he’s not, he just cares. He saw how upset I was” Chris looked back at me “you blew me off, all week I didn’t go to a club or with any females. Lo said you ignored him, I gave the message to him” squinting my eyes confused “what message?” what is he talking about “I told Lo to tell you about giving your number, I was good and that I wanted to meet you” pulling my dress down a little, Chris’ eyes dragged down to my body and his tongue licking his top lip “your nipple pierced?” he blurted out, my cheeks became ever so warm “no! I am sorry” he closed his eyes “ignore that” placing my hand over my mouth smiling, that is so embarrassing.

“Wow, you smile. You always look so angry with me” Chris said, moving my hand away from my mouth “I never got any message from Lo, I haven’t seen him in a while actually. So any message you told him I didn’t get. Honestly Chris, it’s hard to not judge you when seeing that” pointing ahead of us, the group of his friends and hoes they are all about to share “you as a person can be a very good guy but I don’t want that life, thank you for thinking that I am beautiful but no” I said, Chris cleared his throat smiling “I came out here because I really like you, I know there is a lot of females out there, I know I have a child. I have a lot of baggage. I have never ran for a female but I like you, I really do. Give a nigga a chance, you said I can be good then give me a chance. I really like you, I can’t even get you off my mind and I will hate to know that I never tried so please just give me a try. Get to know me, leave the name out of it. You can call me Maurice, a new guy” am I crazy, what is this.

Looking away in shock “why me? I am just a regular girl” I don’t get it “you really not, you ain’t notice that all the females look fake as hell. All of them looking like Kim K, you all natural. I just like you so much, I am so attracted to you and it is making me look stupid, I don’t know anymore but I have fallen for you” I feel so ugly but yet he is staring at me like I am the most beautiful girl he has seen “I am honestly scared, I don’t know what to say” he rubbed the back of his neck “I get you, I will get Lo for not telling you. I thought you blew me off but clearly I am in the wrong, let’s start by you giving me your number? I feel like an idiot right now, look at me I am grown as shit just yeah, let’s start off with that” he is honestly giggling to himself, who is this man that switched so quickly from the club to here in this car.

Closing the door to the Range and pulled my dress down. Lo stared at me but I side eyed him, he is an idiot and I hope to god he doesn’t speak to me after this, he could have warned me. I hate that everyone is just staring at me, looking at every friend of Chris’ and every girl they have just picked up from the club. I feel so hated and I have done nothing to these girls, looking to the side of me even more and seeing Chris’ face. He flashed me a smile and I couldn’t help but smile back at him, let me just get out of here. Daniel held the car door open for to get in “are you ok?” Daniel asked, I nodded silently sitting in the car and then all I see is Chris staring mad hard at Daniel which is creepy “what the fuck just happened?” Bailey asked in the backseat “nothing at all, just asking about my brother” I rather keep things like this to myself, for now.

Food fights are so fun! But they can be oddly romantic ;D (Going AU here) Sonic and Amy have a good fight with cake batter, some lands on Sonic's lips and Amy kisses it off >\\\

Ehhh… I’m afraid my creative abilities are telling me this may be more AU than in character… (Yeah, way AU XD) It’s a fun idea! I’ll give it a try… but… the kiss is gonna be really uncomfortably AU XD (For those who like me keeping characters in character) So I’ll do my best! 6D: (the ‘I can do it’ hand swish mingled with self-doubt face cause I’m scared of my potential inability lol gonna give it my all tho! >x )

Also, I can’t cook 0-0; I have no idea how to do cakes but I’ll do my best to make it look like Amy does XD

So… So like… in Japan… -looks away, discreetly- This would be a kiss xD (Going for In character but still AU, hope this works, Anon!!!!)

Prompt:

“Why do I have to help?” Sonic, having a hand up to hold his gloomy and bored looking face, flicked down a strawberry into place on Amy’s cake, sighing.

He clearly didn’t seem to want to be here… Amy was busy cooking for Cream’s birthday, and with Vanilla out buying gifts, Amy took it upon herself to lighten the burden on her and do the cake herself.

“Oh, stop complaining!” she huffed as she let the bag of flour fall onto the counter, and wiped her forehead, turning with a pleasant and determined smile to Sonic, raising a hand up and putting her other arm to it like Rosie the Riveter photos. “Besides! You’ve already licked the spoon! We gotta get the the rest of the batter spun and ready for the second cake!”

“Two cakes?” Sonic turned from the one he was previously instructed to ‘decorate’ but with his tastes, he just recreated a zone level with the frosting and other delectable food items around him.

“That ones too small for everyone!” Amy put her hands to her hips, leaning forward as if he should know that, making him lean back and look away, annoyed by her accusation. (Notice how I put ‘too’, instead of ‘to’, for that one Anon, I remember~ ;Db)

“Here.” she picked the little cake up, moving it away and onto her little table to let it sit a moment.

“Hey! I wasn’t done with green hill zone!” Sonic picked up the green frosting with the chocolate as Amy looked at his art, and noticed it didn’t look that girly at all.

She shook her head lovingly, “I should of known.” she smiled, as if truly looking at it through Sonic’s eyes. “I’m sure Cream will love it, regardless of all the blobs of green.” she teased, turning around and patting his hand with the green frosting, before getting the mixer and putting it into the bowl.

“Think you can handle this? It packs a whopper!”

“What’s that suppose to mean?” he put down the frosting and walked over, puffing his chest up and putting his hands where hers once were, as she removed them and stared as if all-knowing up at him.

She was clearly amused by his actions.

“Heh, you’re talking to Sonic The Hedgehog here! I can handle anything that moves fasts and spins!” he gripped the bowl, but Amy could tell at once it wasn’t tight enough.

“Uhh.. Sonic?” She tugged on a small bit of his back quills, trying to warn him.

“Amy, it’s fine. I’ve got this!” He cocked a look up in the air, showing his irrational haughtiness at how confident he felt his cooking skills were.

“You haven’t even made a brownie before.” Amy twitched an eyebrow, knowing what was to come.

“And… Where’s that on button? Ah-ha! Let’s go fast!” Sonic clicked it on but rotated it all the way up. “The faster the quicker!”

“Sonic, NOOO!!!”

Amy covered her face as the batter went flying, and Sonic fell down at the force of the mixer he wasn’t expecting to be so powerful at all.

The thing went on the fritz as Amy quickly leaned down and shut it off, before frowning as she bent her knees to look at Sonic.

She pouted, as he tried to smile while the batter dripped down his face.

“Eh…heh-heh…” he bounced his head down with each chuckle, knowing he was in trouble.

Seeing he knew his folly, she didn’t bother punishing him. Instead, she decided to make this fun and scoop up some batter, letting it drip from her hand as she eyed it, then him.

“Uhhh…A-Amy? Let’s be rational here…” he outstretched his hand, seeing no hammer… but something that could potentially be worse.

“Think of your house!” he flinched, as she splatted him with the cake batter.

“You already made a mess! I’ll have to make a new batch!”

“So… I don’t have to help you clean up?” He peeked through a gap he made with his two arms.

She growled and started throwing more at him, as he laughed and jumped on the counter, grabbing the frosting by creating a bridge almost with his body and then pouring it down on her.

“AHH!! Hey!” Amy gasped, looking at her hands and feeling the cool icing fall onto her head.

“Ah ha… there!” he squirted the rest out and then jerked it down for good measure. “Wallah! I made Palmtree Panic!”

She glared in a humorous way up at him, before grabbing the strawberries.

“Oh no…” his eyes widened, “Cherry bombs!!” he slid across the table, ducking as he started calling out commands, “All units, prepare for ambush!”

He grabbed some sprinkles and started flinging them at her. “Go for the eyes! Go for the eyes!”

“Ahh! Haha, hey!” Amy laughed, spitting out the sprinkles from her mouth as he started racing towards her.

“Charge!”

“Ahh!!”

She laughed as they slid on the batter and fell down, the tackle clearly not as effective as he made it sound to be.

“Ah! Oh no! They’ve got a counter-attack!”

Sonic slightly flailed on the ground as she took the rest of the bowl and poured it over him while having rolled on top of his belly.

“Oh… oh man.. I haven’t showered in months!” Sonic kid, rubbing the stuff on him and then opening his mouth to eat some.

“Eww! Sonic!” Amy laughed, before looking to see him licking the spots around his face, and laughing.

“Haha!”

The two cleaned up after a hardy laugh before the second cake finally got into the oven.

“There.” Amy took her mittens off and giggled, turning to see Sonic going at the spoon again.

“You’re still hungry?” she looked as if she wasn’t amazed, but more so amused by his appetite.

“Ye-yah-huh.” he nodded, before she noticed some batter still on the corner of his lips…

She giggled a moment, before biting her thumb, wanting to try something…

Her and Sonic had grown closer over the past few years… maybe…

She leaned up and took her thumb, gently rubbing the batter off, before sticking it in her own mouth and sucking it up.

This made Sonic freeze, his smile suddenly dropping a moment.

The indirect kiss was easily dismissed by Amy’s next reaction, as she carried on with the instructions, taking her thumb out and over-exaggerated her actions as she stated,

“Emmm~ Even better than the last batch.”

She smiled to him before going on to clean more of the crevices they had missed in her titles.

As she bent down to do so, she suddenly became aware of a shadow over her that bent down…

Then the sensation of arms around her as he pulled her back down in the ‘playful tackle’ that had occurred a few hours before, and him smiling to her.

“And what… was that?” He cocked an eyebrow up, having her stuck in his arms as he laid down over where she was working, like a cat getting in the way of whatever you were doing for attention.

“I don’t like to be ignored, Amy.”

“Wh..wha?” Amy was startled by how suddenly direct he was, and blushed, lifting her arms back as if not truly embracing this as reality, but maybe a dream that was becoming too real.

“Oh… you know… can’t let anymore batter go to waste… haha.” she giggled, though an awkward sweat dropped dripped down the side of her face.

She clearly wasn’t sure if he understood what she had done or not.

He narrowed his eyes, suspiciously. Her ‘fan-girl’ craze had all but left her after she matured… but sometimes… he still swore she had it in her.

“I think that was rather intimate what you just did there… for mother earth and what not.” he was still trying to disguise his questioning with recycling, as that was her first excuse.

“O-oh, well, umm…” she looked away, her blush becoming so apparent that now he knew from the red on her muzzle that she clearly did still like him that way.

For once, he actually found that… amusing.

“Heh.” he smirked, before facing suspicion as if he hadn’t figured it out yet and leaned up, sitting up with her and staring as if looking for fault in her eyes.

Her eyes, fearful of how he would react if he had known that she was going for an indirect, almost sexy cooking-mama kiss, had her eyes jump to each of his in slight panic.

Her mouth hang open as if not believing he was really that close…

“…Well, anyway.” he let her go a little, but it was a false sense of security, as if he wanted to catch her off guard…

“This is gonna be one heck of a party!”

She took that as she was off the hook, and sighed in relief, her body untensing.

Once he saw her arms falter in staying up in the air and pulled away from him, he saw the perfect opportunity.

“Hang on, is that customary for cooks to get batter off like that?”

“H-huh?”

“Cause you missed a spot.” he winked, having already eyed some flour on her own muzzle, and leaned up to gently kiss it off her cheek.

“Eeeee!!!” she covered her face after he pulled away, her face bright red now, as he pulled away and snickered, eyes closed.

He had never wanted to before get a reaction out of Amy like this, but now that he’s older, and especially because she resisted it more often, he definitely liked pulling her former years out of her like this.

It was just too fun!

(How’s that? :DDDD)