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asexualzoro · 1 year

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what do you look for in character dynamics? i think you like desert duo a lot but i dont know what their deal is

don’t know what their deal is like you don’t know who they are? desert duo is grian and scar from the mc series third life. it’s a competitive series that turns into improv storytelling which i like to divorce from the game aspect and view entirely as a story, where all the players are actors cast as characters (the actual players do this as well, a lot of them referring to themselves or each other as ‘characters’ or leaning hard into a specific ‘character’ for the game (ren im looking at you))

what draws me to desert duo is the same thing that draws me to a lot of character dynamics i like—deep-seeded loyalty which has been purposely earned or gained, said loyalty based on a promise or formal roles, a leader & right-hand dynamic that is actually mostly equal, fun complementary characteristics, and a compelling test (and, sometimes, break) of that loyalty

anyway you’ve given me an opportunity to talk about desert duo so i’m taking it. gonan examine them against the points i look for in character dynamics. i’ll put it under a read more because i dunno how long it’ll be but i do know it will be long

first session of third life, grian accidentally kills scar with a creeper. everyone in the game only has three total lives (green, yellow, and red), and scar is pretty quick to die even on servers where their lives aren’t limited. losing his first life first before everyone else, in session one, in a game where you want to be the last one standing, puts him at a pretty strong disadvantage. so grian pulls him aside once he respawns and promises his first (green) life to scar. once he’s made things even and gone to yellow, scar’s on his own, but until then grian’s going to do whatever scar says and try his best to keep scar alive

which, check your boxes, ☑️ formalized promise and ☑️ a leader and right-hand!

grian then spends the rest of the next two sessions insisting he’s going to leave as soon as he can. any attempt by scar to talk abt lasting plans is shot down, and any scheme scar starts grian tries to undermine—he has to do what scar says, but that doesn’t mean he can’t warn the people they talk to scar’s trying to scam them (because scar is scamming everyone always in 3L. he spends all of sessions two and three scamming people. it works also. nat 20 charisma on near every role that man made for all of 3L)

all that said, grian’s actively building them a house in the meantime and, by the end of session 3, actively helping with some of the shit scar is pulling (such as encouraging taking a diamond chestplate). he insists when asked he’s going to leave, and often says he doesn’t care what scar is doing because “i have no stake in this,” but he already does

then scar dies. again. falls to his death, complete accident, putting him on red, his final life. red lives operate under different rules—while yellow and green names cannot attack other players or engage in pvp, red lives not only are allowed, but it’s their main goal. scar’s supposed to be attacking other players now. some people in chat float the idea grian should be allowed to leave now that there’s a red name at his base. if grian really wants to leave, he has an out

scar comes back on red and the first thing he does is throw grian flowers and ask “can we still be his friends?” now that he’s ‘scary.’ and grian assures him that yes, he will stay. he has to, right?

(this is a little loyalty test, and a step in building that deep loyalty, but hold off on checking those boxes quite yet) (this also makes me feel fucking insane)

now. grian’s favorite block in the game is tnt. so now that his partner is red, he starts immediately planning traps. grian can’t kill, but he can do it if scar ‘tells’ him to. you can now check off the ☑️ complementary characters box, because we have a fun parallel: a green name player who plays like a red life, and a red name player who plays like a green life. grian immediately gets the largest kill in the series, taking out three people with a bomb left outside the gate of ren, who scar antagonized/threatened when he was on yellow (and it didn’t really mean anything) ((3L ren also makes me insane))

scar talks a lot of game about murder, but he’s not really one for pvp—pretty sure he says outright to grian he’s all bark. grian talks a lot about having no stakes and following scar’s orders, but is the one calling the shots about who and when and how they’re going to get kills (check off the right hand and leader dynamic being ☑️ mostly equal, actually). grian digs his claws in deep with scar by killing a lot of the rest of the server—i think he gets like four kills incl the bomb and contributes to at least one other, from all three other major ‘factions’ on the server—which doesn’t exactly do him any favors when he’s ‘free’ of scar and needs somewhere to go. he still insists hes going to leave, but scar doesn’t acknowledge it. pretty sure the one time he brings it up, scar even says grian won’t actually leave, but i don’t think grian acknowledges that

session 7 rolls around, second to last. players are starting to be eliminated here—of the 14, three of them die permanently in this session. grian and scar get into a big fight against an opposing faction. grian dies. on yellow, he runs right back to scar. neither of them acknowledge it. he stays (you can check two points: ☑️ deep loyalty that is hard-earned. ☑️ compelling loyalty test). when grian finally addresses this alone, to the audience, he explains, “i just can’t let him die”

final session is session 8. it’s basically nonstop battle. the others are whittled down one by one—ren and martyn go on a fuckin killing spree and ren takes out three lives, eliminating two players (ren my beloved), then the survivors get into another large fight ending with four more dead (grian says to scar, right before this, entirely unprompted: “is this where we prove our true allegiance to each other and no one else?”). there’s five left, and this is where the betrayals start.

one person betrays someone who had helped him since day one, someone who had sworn his loyalty (the fun thing about improv stories is the thing that become foreshadowing by accident). now there’s four. scar breaks a promise to another person, having him killed. now there’s three. grian, scar, and a third, bdubs: another red name who just betrayed his day one and killed the fourth place winner for scar.

both bdubs and grian are following scer, so scar essentially just says “whoever gets this piece of paper i won’t kill” and drops it on the ground. bdubs get it. scar and bdubs turn on grian immediately, killing him and sending him to red

and that’s another check, there. ☑️ a compelling loyalty break. at the end of it all, grian follows scar to the end, and scar kills him.

but there’s still like ten godamn minutes left! grian hunts scar down, promising to kill him for being a traitor, and as soon as he gets there, scar kills bdubs. he turns around and tells grian “you can kill me, for everything you did to keep me alive this long” and encourages him to win. grian drops the anger immediately and insists he can’t do it

which is already insane enough as a scene. deeply fucking insane. but the people who have already lost insist there can be no double victory, and someone has to win. scar and grian go back to their mountain in the desert, drop all their gear, and fight bare-handed to the death.

something that interests me about the final fight is it’s impossible to tell if scar is throwing or if he just sucks at pvp. regardless, in the end grian wins. the entire fight is just them apologizing to each other. grian immediately turns around and jumps to his death, ending the series with no winners at all

…which is all the detail i’ll give abt the final fight bc i think about it SO much and this ask is long enough without me going into it. suffice to say the whole finale, from scar and bdubs killing grian to the end, is just… fascinating to look at through the lens of their loyalty. grian spends the whole series insisting he’s going to leave as soon as he can, but in the end, his whole life is dedicated to keeping scar alive. and it blows up on him! scar turns on him! grian fails to keep him alive! he kills scar in the end, and then takes his own life. its tragic and i’m obsessed with it

loyalty-based dynamics have always done it for me. Luffy and Zoro, for example, hit all of those points except the loyalty break: start with a promise, complementary characters, leader and right hand (but rather informal), Luffy earns Zoro’s loyalty over a number of important scenes, ending with Zoro’s sacrifice at 485. there’s even other third life dynamics that hit those points that i also really like (ren and martyn).

i find gradual growth and strengthening and tests of a bond/loyalty to be inherently interesting and i always have. watching two characters face adversity against their bond and choosing each other over and over is always compelling to me. the fact only one person can be left standing in third life adds an especially fun layer of flavor on their dynamic bc that loyalty is earned and developed and inherently doomed, it can’t be forever. it’s really fascinating. esp when it’s entirely unscripted improv, evolving like that on its own. the whole story is just so fuckin fun and i like it a lot

if anyone reads this far shoutout to you for being the bravest motherfucker alive. anon thank you so much for asking. if this wasn’t exactly what you were looking for and you want me to talk abt character dynamics more broadly feel free to send another ask, i’d be happy to keep going on this

#ask lew #anonymous #guy who has watched grian’s third life pov 11 times

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keets-writing-corner · 3 years

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I need to guuuuuuuuuuuuuush

I’m absolutely obsessed with Owari No Seraph/Seraph of the End. It has everything I want in a story

okay this got long so I put a cut

A romance I’m actually invested in: 1) it’s gay, like not even ambiguously gay, like very explicitly gay and it’s remarkable 2) it’s somehow enemies to lovers, best friends to lovers, and childhood friends to lovers ALL AT THE SAME TIME 3) the mutual pining is ridiculous, but manifests in “I MUST PROTECT” 4) omg they’re so devoted to each other???? 5) heavily implied in the anime and manga that they are each other’s reason for living after their trauma

Ambiguous characters: 1) we’ve got not one, not two, BUT THREE HIGH RANKING CHARACTERS within their respective organizations with THEIR OWN AGENDAS, screw whoever gets in their way 2) one of the said lovers from above pairing? Technically, he’s officially on one side, but he makes it very clear he actually doesn’t care about anyone EXCEPT his love interest and actively goes behinds people’s backs all the time to get what he wants. He has exactly 0 trust except for his love interest, which means he’ll literally fight both sides to make sure love interest is safe 3) THE FREAKING QUEEN, at first she’s like in a terrible one sided relationship with one of the characters with like... uh what’s it called? Power imbalance? Like she is 100% in control of this other person because they are wholly dependent on her, and she knows it, and often calls this other person her pet, and like, you think you’re supposed to hate her because she’s one of the contributing factors to the other character’s trauma but then it’s like, wait, actually, maybe she ALSO has ulterior motives and is one of the few people said character can actually trust with their wellbeing and their own interests being the only one who actively helps them with it 4) HMMM THAT SUPER SHADY DEMON/HUMAN ROMANCE YOU KNOW THE ONE IM TALKING ABOUT

Characters that suffer: okay listen, all of the characters have suffered through trauma, but special shout-out to Mika who has gone through my favorite kind of trauma to watch that develops characters. Spoilers for the rest of this paragraph so if you want to check out the show skip over it. okay gone? for real? you okay with getting spoiled if you haven’t seen yet? alright. last chance. Okay so first thing we know about Mika is that he’s an orphan and has a found family with his orphanage group right? even when they’re all being held captive by vampires underground, he at least has his family. Mika goes above and beyond to make sure that despite that they’re essentially just acting as the vampires’ blood-stock that their time there isn’t as bad as it could be. He offers himself up to one of the nobles, saying the noble can suck his blood if he gives him things, so he gets stuff like actual real food for his family to eat. In the manga, you can see that this is really draining on him, but he does it to see his family happy. Mika also knows that his crush absolutely hates it there, so he plans an escape, except oops they all get ambushed by the very noble he stole from and was swindling, and literally everyone gets killed in front of him except his crush, well I guess at the time he was too young for crush, so I’ll just call him Yuu. Anyways. Mika and Yuu manage to knock out the vampire noble working together, but Mika is fatally wounded so only Yuu actually escapes. AND THEN MIKA IS FORCIBLY TURNED INTO A VAMPIRE BY THE QUEEN, like he hates vampires, he considers them monsters, he doesn’t want eternal life or whatever, AND SHE FREAKING TURNS HIM TO KEEP HIM FROM DYING (the way she does it too could be considered traumatizing as well) and then he proceeds to be raised by people he considers monsters and hates that he’s become a vampire, and like does everything in his power to not drink human blood (resorting to drinking the Queen’s blood, and she’s fine with it cuz it keeps him completely dependent on her) like MMMM THAT POWER IMBALANCE IN A WORLD FULL OF THE MONSTERS YOU HATE WHILE BECOMING ONE YOURSELF IS ALREADY DAMAGING ENOUGH, and then he finds out that the very adults he used to trust as a child, were actually just treating him and his found family as guinea pigs and lab rats and that the only people who actually cared about him was his found family, who are all gone except for Yuu who isn’t there, so yeah oops, he hates humans now too. Like mmmm that is some tasty juicy angst right there. It manifests in him never smiling anymore, never speaking, just sitting there stoically. Like this was the little boy who was happy smiles all the time, either when he was genuinely happy with his family or putting on an act to deceive and he’s just so broken after the timeskip that we never see him smile until late in season 2. OH LETS NOT FORGET THE WHOLE VAMPIRE THING RIGHT? Mika doesn’t want to drink blood, but his body compells him to. He refuses to at least drink human blood, which works for a while but by the time the second season rolls around, the queen’s blood just isn’t cutting it anymore and there are so many scenes where his instincts take over and he almost bites someone only to snap out of it last second and start sobbing because he believes he’s becoming a monster. AND THAT’S NOT EVEN ALL OF IT, JUST THE THINGS THAT I LIKED THE MOST TO WATCH

spoilers over

the side characters: While I do think they could use a little bit more development, but that’s probably because they’re not quite rubbing me just the right way like Mika is, so they pale by comparison BUT there are some things I enjoy 1) we’ve got a literal troll on the team. I’ve seen some people call her annoying, but omg I love seeing her troll the others. also she uses a scythe and it’s awesome 2) OMG THERE’S A SWEET BABI BOY ARCHER??? slight spoilers, but my favorite part was when he reveals that his demon decided to give him more powers because he treats his demon like a friend, and talks to it at night before going to bed, sometimes asking it what it’s favorite color is?? 3) okay okay okay, listen, I already like the character by himself, the sniper dude, he’s already great as he’s written. But then add the fact that not only does he look EXACTLY like Victor Nikiverov from Yuri on Ice, BUT HE HAS THE SAME FREAKING VOICE ACTOR TOO that just cracks me up 4) I love the one vampire side character who keeps trying to befriend Mika, and Mika just keeps stonewalling him 5) honestly the queen is really badass, and as much as I hated her at first, I actually enjoy every second she’s on screen 6) There’s a vampire called Crowley and idk what it is with him but he just gives me “Big Fun” vibes even though he’s one of the most ruthless characters in the show

plot and arcs: it doesn’t drag itself on and on and on, it actually completes goals and important benchmarks fairly quickly so we don’t need to keep waiting on things to happen. But at the same time, is so drawn out that you still can’t help but feel like it’s taking forever to get to where you want it to go and it’s great because it means you get so much story to enjoy. Also, the fact that the protagonists always have one clear goal at a time, but us as the viewers see other things happening behind the scenes, without always understanding what they are, and we’re stuck seeing this collision path where everything is gonna intersect and you know it’s going to be terrible and there characters are going to suffer but you love that.

anyways, Seraph of the end is super good, I loved it, the anime isn’t enough so I’m actually chasing after the Manga for once. Mika is officially one of my all-time favorite characters and he deserves to be happy. If you know what I’m talking about cheer with me, if you haven’t seen it yet, omgggggggggggggggggggg GO CHECK IT OUT IF ANY OF THE THINGS I SAID APPEAL TO YOU

#seraph of the end #owari no seraph #Mika #Mikayuu #I'm gushiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing #I'm obsessed #send help #I watched another anime a while ago that a similar sort of gay romance going on #and i really wanted to like it because I loved the premise behind it #I really did #but it was so badly executed that I could only watch it ironically #THEN I FIND THIS #AND ITS SIMILAR PREMISE BUT DONE IN ALL THE WAYS I COULD EVER WANT #also omg the music is amazing #half the joy for me is the music #Do you guys have any idea how hard it is to get me to ship??#anyways this has consumed my life for now

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elderbwrry · 3 years

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Even if he doesn't say so

A little darkgingerpilot Witcher AU I discussed months ago with @cleversturmhond I have no concept of how time passes anymore

Summary: The Witcher meets a bard, the bard meets a mage, and they travel the continent. Kylo knows what he feels, but he can't seem to act. Hux acts without talking about things. And Poe... well, what does Poe feel?

Tags: Witcher AU, Inspired by The Witcher, Slow Burn, if you count 13k as slow burn i guess, within the story its slow burn, fantasy medieval setting, Self-Indulgent, Mage Hux, witcher kylo, Bard Poe, scenic, They're oblivious, sex references, Yearning, i guess, im slapping a mature on it for sex references and some minor violence but honestly ehhh idk, darkgingerpilot

Chapter 1/2/3/?, wordcount 5012

also on Ao3

Whenever someone asked Kylo, he always said he preferred to keep to himself and the company of Silence, his horse and his best companion for the very fact of her name; she didn't talk, she didn't disturb the meditative quiet of his lonely rides, and, most importantly, he wasn't unsure how to curry her favour. An apple would do it. His current companions, on the other hand...

For some gods-forsaken reason, Poe and Hux were quarrelling about a composer who had been dead for over a century. When the three of them had first started travelling together years ago, and in the short time since they'd reunited, such discussion had been endearing; both of them were opinionated about certain things, and their conversations often turned into little debates over whatever topic arose while they were travelling. This was one of those occasions, Kylo enjoying listening to their thoughts and voices filling up the worn country roads. A throwaway comment had become interesting; Kylo didn't actually know much about this particular composer, whereas Hux and Poe both did, and, though Kylo didn't often contribute to these discussions in any great detail since the other two were both so much better with words, he did like to learn something new occasionally. But now, several hours into their journey and still on the same subject, it was just getting fucking annoying.

“I literally studied her work. You can't just turn around and say she wasn't revolutionary,” Poe objected, trotting along between Silence and Hux's own horse on the wide bridleway, looking up at Hux indignantly.

Poe's lowered position made it seem slightly laughable when Hux looked down at him and countered, “Since I actually met the woman, I think you'll find I can,” before prompting his horse to walk on ahead of them.

Poe picked up his pace a little and continued the argument, making some musical point Kylo didn't understand either. He tried to tune them out a bit as he let Silence drop back a short distance behind the them.

Considering how much time the three of them spent around each other in recent years, Kylo supposed he should be glad disagreements as lengthy as these were relatively few. And, certainly, they were fewer even than when it had only been Kylo and Poe on the path together.

[break]

Kylo had met Poe many years ago – at least a decade, if he thought about it – when he'd been compelled by his work to go through the city he'd been born in. Not only was the place particularly unfriendly to Witchers, but also had relations of his – distant now, yet he wanted to avoid them nonetheless – in positions of authority. Kylo had used a fake name, a low hood to hide his eyes, his scar, and stuck to the dingiest taverns, but a curly-haired, high-born young man had recognised him anyway, sitting himself down confidently at Kylo's corner table, offering his name, and saying, “I know you. You're that famous Witcher.”

Kylo had eyed his unwelcome acquaintance – Poewas what he introduced himself as – guessing that he couldn't yet be twenty summers old. Of course, Kylo was no good with ages – his own longevity had corroded his sense for them until everyone seemed either old or young in confusing measures – but Poe's next request had practically confirmed his suspicion.

“Would you let me come with you?” Poe had asked the second the bar-wench had placed down Kylo's ale.

“Come with me where?” Kylo grunted. He wasn't in the mood to bodyguard some noble, out for the first time in a world without castle walls.

“Well, where are you going?” Poe's eyes had glinted as he offered Kylo a charming smile.

Kylo had appraised him again, taking in his youth, his rich clothes, his courage, and summarily said, “No.”

Poe's smile didn't drop, even though Kylo could see his only half-amused chuckle for the frustration it was. “Come on, I just wanna see a bit of the world. Get away from my guardian's expectations.”

“The Queen?” Kylo had asked, an imprudently displayed gold ring on the youth's finger catching the light.

Poe had shrugged a yes.

It only made Kylo refuse all the more. The Queen was one of the people Kylo was known to by unfortunate fact of his heritage, someone he never wanted to anger, in case of her having some cause to meet with him personally. Poe, while not her blood family, would surely be missed, as her ward, were he to make off with a Witcher, especially with the one so primarily known for the massacre at Crait.

Poe's gaze went steely at Kylo's final dismissal, and he'd left the tavern quickly after that. It couldn't have been two years later when Kylo encountered the young man again, fine doublet swapped for something a little more incognito in orange and brown tones, a lute slung over his back and all the more determination to see everything.

Kylo hadn't refused him a second time, and he wouldn't have been able to, since Poe no longer had any qualms about following him uninvited. Thus, he had a new travelling companion.

Just as he suspected, Poe was a liability in some aspects of the job where monsters were concerned, but Poe had also dragged him, limping, back to camp before, bandaged his wounds, fetched his potions. His life had undeniably turned for the better with the bard around; Poe was a talented musician, it turned out, and the extra income and incentive to stay at inns meant Kylo was now more acquainted with feather pillows than he'd ever hoped to be. The positive company had made Kylo better as well, at talking to people, at putting up with them, at giving life nuance. His path was lighter with Poe on it.

They became comfortable around each other. They began to argue, about the silly things people who know each other well and cared for each other deeply argue about, about which direction to head in, which inn to stop at, about the jacket Kylo had left to get trampled by the last monster he'd fought. Barely a day went by without some kind of silly quibble to that effect, but it never truly changed the form of their relationship.

Then, they'd met Hux.

[break]

Kylo had been around long enough that he'd thought he'd heard of most of the other powerful, non-mortal beings on the continent, so randomly running into an evidently strong mage like Hux, who he'd never heard of, was a bit surprising. Kylo had been employed to go and rid a keep up on the hill of whatever it was that was plaguing it. He was expecting to take a while to figure it out, but when he arrived, the malevolent spirits were revealed easily by the mage already locked in battle with them.

The fight the man was putting up was impressive, given the sheer number of foes. He was spewing fire everywhere, manipulating the elements to his will, his bright hair and swan-white robe whipped around by the wind he was creating, but eventually Kylo could see he was losing, and so joined him in the fight. It was fortuitous that they were both there, as Kylo certainly couldn't have defeated them all on his own either. When the last spirit was destroyed, however, Hux had spun round, announced that he had decidedly notrequired the help of some filthy Witcher, and flounced off. He'd gotten about ten paces when he collapsed from the sheer exertion of having used his magic in such a manner.

So Kylo had carried the mage back to camp and laid him down on his bedroll to recuperate.

Poe was travelling with Kylo at that time, and, though he was surprised to see Hux, he seemed very glad to see Kylo back from the fight, juiced up on potions but otherwise unharmed. His smile had made Kylo's heart do something he didn't really understand, the same thing it did when Poe met his gaze during a performance at whatever tavern they were staying at, the same when Kylo said something complimentary to him. Indeed, it was becoming more and more of a common feeling, and Kylo was finding that he rather liked it.

When Kylo suggested he should probably go find a rabbit or something for dinner, Poe seemed happy enough to watch over the mage until he returned, and Kylo had picked his way into the forest they were camping on the edge of with his head full of thoughts of Poe. His distraction had meant he took longer than usual to catch something, and when he got back, it was to find Poe backed against a tree, Hux threatening him using a dagger Kylo hadn't realised he'd had on him.

“Kylo!” Poe had shouted when he saw him – and again, the weird thing Kylo's heart did around Poe – equal parts relieved and pissed off.

Hux relaxed only slightly at knowing whose camp it was he had been brought to, and, once Kylo had convinced him to lower the weapon, he protested strongly that he didn't want anyone's help or charity, and that he was offended to have been carried around like some damsel. Poe told him he was very welcome to fuck off, but it soon became clear that Hux wasn't in any shape to be going off on his own, so he stayed with them that night.

Kylo was settling in to sleep on the opposite side of the fire to Hux when Poe dumped his bedroll down next to him, closer than usual – cue the weird heart thing again – and lay down. All Kylo had managed to ask was, “What are you doing?”

Huffing, Poe leaned up to peer over Kylo's arm at where Hux was lying, turned away from them on the far side of their little camp. “He tried to kill me today. I don't wanna wake up with my throat cut for some magey shit.”

Kylo considered pointing out that Poe wouldn't wake up at all if his throat had been slit, but he was more struck by the implication that Poe was trusting him to protect him. Usually, people were more likely to fear that Kylo would be the one killing them after whatever monster he'd been hired to dispatch, but Poe was different, and always had been, really. He insisted that Kylo had good in him, that he wasn't all the darkness that Witchers were supposed to be. He wasn't entirely right, of course, but it was nice to have someone hope in him.

So instead of making the bard move away, all Kylo had said was, “You'll get cold, so far from the fire,” and offered Poe an extra side of his own blanket.

One night of Hux staying with them turned into two, into three, into a week's travel to the neighbouring city. In fact, Kylo was almost sad to see the severe mage leave, as it meant he and Poe went back to their usual sleeping arrangements, instead of curling up together with Kylo as his shield.

[break]

Months later, to Kylo's surprise, Hux sought him out. He was after a gem of something something and he needed hired muscle that he could trust would actually get the job done. Hux had found them by the coast, and the first thing he said as he took Poe in was, “You're still travelling with him, are you?” Kylo wasn't sure whether the question was meant for him or Poe, but they'd both answered definitively.

The month and a half of travel it took to reach the mountain cave system in which the gem was kept saw Poe and Hux grow accustomed to each other, if not strictly friendly. Poe didn't resume his habit of sleeping next to Kylo, Hux didn't try to kill Poe again, and eventually they stopped speaking to each other in jibes and barbs.

Hux and Kylo also ended up bonding; they would sit together in taverns while Poe was performing and talk, about things that they remembered from when they were young, things Poe had learned only from his history professors. It was nice to have someone who related, who had experienced similar things to him, who understood what it was to be not-quite human and tied to a duty they didn't quite want. Hux had been raised in magic, it turned out, and, as they talked, Kylo realised it wasn't so different to being raised into killing as he had been. The small, commiserating smiles Hux offered struck Kylo deeply, and one day he realised that Hux, bathed in the yellow, glowing tavern light, was beautiful.

When they reached the cave systems that were their destination, Poe had to stay in the local town while Hux and Kylo went in search of the gem, since the place was too unknown and dangerous to risk him coming. And it did turn out to be dangerous; Hux and Kylo each saved each others' life a few times, had several close calls, and, once all the stress and danger of the adventure had turned into the satisfaction of success, they translated that pent-up tension into a vigorous fuck on the way out.

“I don't know why you keep him around,” Hux commented as they trudged back to the town to meet Poe, gem firmly in his grasp. “He can't help you with your work like I could.”

Kylo supposed that was true. “He helps me be better,” Kylo replied, which was also true.

Hux made a derisive sound. “Does he, now.”

Kylo shook his head at Hux's tone. “Why don't you like him? You have plenty in common.”

“It's not that I don't like him,” Hux said, tossing his head to get a strand of hair which had slipped in front of his eyes out of the way. Considering Kylo was grimy and dishevelled from the fighting, Hux's deep crimson tunic still looked remarkably put together, and it gave him a haughty air as he said, “I know his type. I've served them in courts all over the continent for centuries. They think they're entitled to everything without working for it and without thanking the people who actually make it possible. He's just another ungrateful, mortal noble.”

Kylo thought about what he said for a good minute. “You're wrong,” he said.

[break]

Back at the inn, Poe had the entire town in the palm of his hand thanks to his songs. He looked charming as ever, flashing smiles to all the ladies who were fawning over him, but Kylo was happy to see that, when Poe spotted them enter, his smile softened and a new light entered his eyes. This time, the flip in Kylo's heart felt more natural than ever.

When Kylo emerged from the bathhouse, Poe was already waiting in his room for a full account of the adventure so he could turn it into his latest ballad. Kylo related what happened as he usually did, keeping to the bare facts and trusting Poe to make them into pretty wordplay later, until he got to the end, at which point he decided that Poe didn't strictly need to know that Hux had pushed him up against the wall of the cave and kissed him with a ferocity he wasn't likely to forget any time soon.

But Poe noticed the brief hesitation and looked up from his little book where he'd been scribbling notes. “What?” he asked.

Kylo shrugged. “Nothing. We left to come back here,” he said, pulling the shirt he was wearing off and reaching for a different one.

“Did something bite you?”

Kylo could hear the frown in Poe's voice, and he turned back to see Poe's eyes locked on a slightly bruised, reddish ring low on his neck. A vague recollection surfaced in Kylo's mind of Hux tugging down his collar, once his outer layer of armour was off, and digging his teeth hard into the flesh over that spot. He hummed, reaching up to rub at it and thus hide it from Poe's sight. “Must have.”

Poe stood up and approached, batting Kylo's hand out of the way, which he couldn't find the motivation to resist. When Poe ran his thumb over the bruise, he was so warm Kylo pushed into the touch. If Poe noticed, he didn't comment, his brow was deeply furrowed. “What kind of monster even has teeth like that?”

A knock came on the door. “Kylo,” Hux called from outside, “we need to talk about payment.”

“I'm...” Kylo hesitated, feeling strangely and suddenly like he'd betrayed Poe. “I'm coming.”

Kylo wasn't sure what about him looked guilty, but Poe seemed to realise at that moment where the mark came from. “Oh,” he said, stepping away and back to his book.

Not long after that, Poe announced his intention to head back to his home kingdom. Kylo's mouth went dry. It was Hux who had to ask the platitudes – did he have some business to attend to? How long did he think he would stay? - which Poe replied to blandly, something about responsibility to his mentors. Kylo wanted to ask him to stop, to stay, but all he managed to get out was, “I'll miss you.”

[break]

Time passed.

Poe left for home, taking his light and song with him.

Kylo spent one winter with Hux, back in the keep where they'd first met, which Hux had appropriated for himself, but it was all wrong; there was a grounding influence missing, without which the two of them spent more time treating each other angrily than well. The sex was amazing, but eventually, it felt hollow. The day it became clear that the harshest weather had blown over, Kylo was back on Silence, looking for the next contract out on a monster, something he could hack into pieces without thinking.

The seasons changed, fled and returned until it had been another year. Kylo was firmly back in the blank swing of contract, monster, payment, move along, but the campfire felt lonely after dark, when he had nothing to occupy his mind. He started talking to Silence; she never replied.

Sometimes, Kylo found himself wondering how long it would be until he ran into Hux again, and if he would even want to see him. Maybe he could make the way they left things up to him. They'd had something, after all, and, though it hadn't been perfect, he missed that feeling of love and understanding and protection which Hux provided. Kylo didn't hold out much hope of seeing Poe; he never went near his home city, and why would Poe venture out again? He'd seen his share of the world. He was back in his real life, now.

But eventually, those nights of wondering wore Kylo down, and, quite without intending to, he found himself directing Silence down the path to the kingdoms neighbouring Poe's.

There, Kylo found himself invited to the royal tourney of Queen Phasma, as a guest of honour. She was a renowned warrior, and Kylo reasoned that it would be rude to decline the request of such an esteemed ruler. He reasoned that perhaps she would even have some work for him. He reasoned a lot of things, in his attempt to deny to himself that the real reason was hope that a tourney would be more than enough cause for a neighbouring noble to be in the area, or even just a bard...

The festivities were festivities. It was strange, to watch others fight instead of having to do it himself, and for performance rather than necessity. Though sometimes the rush of people grated on him, Phasma was a gracious host and Kylo enjoyed the good food well enough, always keeping an eye out for some shock of red hair, or those cheerful, dark curls he so hoped for.

His vigilance yielded one of those prizes.

A tall, beautiful, severe looking man entered the great hall one evening for the feast, walking directly up to the main table at which Phasma and Kylo were seated, and didn't even falter when he recognised Kylo's distinctive scar, yellow eyes, dark garb.

“Hux!” Phasma exclaimed standing and marching around the table to pull the man into a hug, which he returned with surprising readiness, “My dear friend, it has been too long!”

Hux gave a half-bow. “I'm sorry I'm late, I was caught up with business.”

“Ah, yes, business,” Phasma said knowingly, “and where is Lord Dameron?”

Hux's eyes flitted over to Kylo's for the briefest of seconds. “Altogether too caught up with his teaching to bother with a tournament, I'm afraid.”

“Well you must tell him I want him at the next one.” With that, she made to retake her seat again, gesturing at Kylo. “Kylo, this is Hux, currently an advisor to court in the neighbouring kingdom and the most talented mage in all the continent. Hux, Kylo, the Witcher.”

“Yes, we've met,” Hux understated, settling his gaze on Kylo fully, now, and extending his hand to Kylo over the table. Not sure what he was expected to do, Kylo gave Hux his hand, and Hux took it, raising it to his lips and kissing Kylo's knuckles.

Kylo wasn't entirely certain if he could blush any more, since the mutations which had turned him into a Witcher, but if he could, he was sure he was, what with so many people around to witness a display of affection which Kylo was unused to at the best of times. Along with that, relief, because it made him feel suddenly like all was forgiven without him having to wrangle the words around an apology.

“Hux, stop that and sit down!” Phasma reprimanded, “The players will begin soon.”

It was only as Hux sat down that Kylo realised the empty chair on his right had likely always been for Hux. No sooner had he settled than the players flooded the floor, dancing into their performance of an old, famous play, something about two supernatural kings vying for the affection of a mortal with all sorts of fanciful gifts.

“This version is better than the original,” Hux remarked a short while in, and Kylo hummed out an assent, though he had never seen it when it first was performed. He was probably too busy wading through drowner guts, or something similarly uncouth.

“So, you're in Poe's court, now?” Kylo asked instead. “Is he king?”

“No,” Hux remarked, picking up his goblet of wine and keeping his gaze on the players. “Nor does he want to be. The Queen has plenty of other worthy successors, and Poe would much rather go back to spending his days as a bard.” He tutted. “Even if he doesn't say so.”

“Why are you there?”

He sighed. “I wanted to see what you meant about him not being like the others, so I offered my services to the Queen.” Kylo hummed again, and this time, Hux turned to look at him. “You were quite right. He's different. I find myself rather taken with him.”

Kylo reached for his own wine now, his mouth suddenly dry. “Oh. Have you..?”

“No. Kylo...” Hux placed his cup down and leaned to the side so his shoulder was brushing Kylo's, even as Kylo was resolutely not looking at him. “He misses you. And I know you miss him.”

As if by design, the lutist started to play, and both their eyes went to the young woman performing in the corner. Kylo found himself thinking, perhaps uncharitably, that she wasn't as talented as Poe, her song wasn't as sweet.

Hux didn't fail to notice this. “I think we should travel together again,” he said.

“We?”

“You and I and Poe,” Hux said, as though it were obvious. “Like we did those few months travelling in from the coast. I've found myself thinking about them a lot.”

Kylo shrugged. “It was only a few months. Things have changed since then.”

“Which is why we should give it another try.” Kylo jolted in slight surprise when he felt Hux's cool hand lay over his own on the arm of the chair. He turned to find Hux looking directly into his eyes. “Stay here for a week after the tourney is over, and I'll have convinced him to come. Kylo.” A tacit command from Hux, as usual, instead of a request.

Kylo nodded.

[break]

So Kylo waited by the city gates, where Hux had sent a messenger bird that he should meet them. He was nervous, when he first spotted the black dot on the distant path that he was sure was them, shuffling from one foot to the other and gripping Silence's reins tight, like that would do anything. He was wondering how he should greet Poe; hello, certainly, and he didn't think he'd be able to stop himself from smiling, but he found that he also wanted to give him a hug, press their lips together, feel that he was really thereagain, after the nearly two years they'd spent apart.

It turned out he needn't have worried, since Poe sprang forward and clasped him into a hug without prompting, talking immediately about where they would be going and how good it would be to be back on the road.

Hux had merely given him a look that said I told you so, and followed after the excitable bard.

That had been nearly two weeks ago.

It turned out that Hux was entirely right; things were different than before, and they were better. The things that had changed were these:

Hux had brought a horse with him, this time, and several other magical items, such as a tent which was far larger inside than it appeared. Poe hadn't bothered with a horse, since he hadn't needed one before, and had thus left the money with which to pay for its upkeep back at home, planning instead to sing for his money like he used to. Kylo rather liked this; it reminded him of old times, when he steadfastly refused to let Poe ride Silence, in case it tired her out too much. The tent, on the other hand, felt annoyingly like Hux was living in style while the two of them were stuck outside, since Hux had never invited them in and Kylo, for one, wasn't about to invite himself.

It seemed Hux and Poe had also developed a much closer friendship, in the time Hux had spent at court. It made Kylo feel a little like he had missed out, like he had time to catch up on, like there was something impenetrable he couldn't access. Kylo supposed it must be similar for Hux, since he and Poe had known each other for so long before he met them, and again for Poe, given that winter when it was only him and Hux, but times like these – Poe and Hux discussing something so academic that Kylo knew so little about – could be daunting as much as interesting.

Mostly, Kylo felt like he still had to make something up to Poe, and he wasn't sure how to do it. He should probably just have a conversation with him about it, but the words never came, and bringing it up when nobody was thinking about it would, he was sure, just sour the mood. And if he just left it, the tension would have to break eventually.

[break]

Ahead of him on the road, Hux and Poe's little argument seemed to have reached a peak point. Kylo had been too lost in his thoughts to pay attention to what they were saying, but now Poe had stopped walking, raising open arms in that way of his that was almost defeated, but actually said he still thought he was right. It was very cute, like he was a turtle with a lute for a shell, and Kylo couldn't help but think his annoyed expression was charming as well.

When Silence reached the spot where Poe was standing, watching Hux ride on with his usual haughty confidence, Kylo hummed. “Did he win?”

Poe huffed, moving again to keep up with Silence's ambling pace. “No, but he's acting like he did. He always thinks he's right.”

Kylo thought about it for a beat; Hux did indeed always think that he was right. It was one of the things that had caused friction in their attempt at a relationship that one winter. It wasn't that all three of them couldn't be stubborn, more that Kylo and Poe had much more ability to hold out against each other's pestering than either of them seemed to have against Hux. One narrowing twitch of those steely-grey eyes, and anyone with even half a sense of self-preservation would surrender. So Kylo could sympathise with Poe's little pout.

They came to the edge of the forest, the village where they planned to stop a short way before them across a few fields. Kylo drew Silence to a halt and put out a hand to Poe, who looked at it first with surprise and then joy. He quickly allowed Kylo to help him up, settling just behind the Witcher, his chest pressed to his back, their thighs brushing against each other with every movement. Kylo could feel it all, and he tried not to let his stomach flip too much when Poe's arms snaked around his sides, hands locking at his front. He cursed inwardly that today he'd chosen to forgo some layers in favour of his cooler shirt.

But then Poe was saying to him over his shoulder – though it felt more like murmuring in his ear - “Come on, I wanna see Hux's face.”

Kylo prodded Silence to walk on, closing the distance on Hux. As they passed, Kylo felt Poe remove one hand to wave at the mage. Looking around, it was in almost slow motion that Hux's expression went from one of mild astonishment to annoyance to jealousy.

“See you there, Hugs!” Poe said, and Kylo smiled to himself.

#darkgingerpilot #armitage hux #poe dameron #kylo ren #kylo/hux/poe #kylux #darkpilot #gingerpilot #my writing #fanfiction #witcher au #fantasy medieval au #even if he doesn't say so

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pixigirl · 4 years

Text

Chloe?

Who will Marinette choose? Luka or Adrien and will Chloe save the day?

Context: Luka and Marinette are dating but she still has feeling for Adrien and Luka knows it.

A miraculous ladybug one-shot (which may have a continuation of some kind??). This is a typed version of an amazing role play I was part of in the Tumblr chat called Miraculous Ladybug. Owner: @fleur-de-jasmin-fdj

Participants: @viperionx, @pixigirl, @ravenabby, @purrpewl and @fleur-de-jasmin-fdj

Marinette

Luka

Chloe

A: Adrien

B: Chloe’s butler - Jean

HM: Hawkmoth

(At Andre’s ice-cream stall)

*gets ice cream and gives it to Marinette* Here you go!

*takes ice cream* mmm thanks Luka

Anything for you *smiles and sits down on the bench with Marinette*

*starts eating ice cream beside him* delicious

A: Oh, hey guys

Hey Adrien

H-hey Adrien

A: Enjoying the ice cream?

Y-yeah it’s delicious. You should get some.

*thinks: she still likes him, doesn’t she*

*coo coo (pigeon)*

Hey Chloe. You’re here too. You should also get some ice cream

Chloe? As in the mayor’s daughter?

A:Yeah she is our classmate.

Ugh! Like I have time for that high calorie stuff!

Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!

Your loss not mine

*chuckles*

A: Come on Chloe be nice.

If you want some quality you can get only the classiest gelato at our new hotel restaurant.

Just saying.

*sighs*

What? You said be nice!

I prefer Andre’s ice cream over expensive gelato *laughs*

A: *laughs*

You can join us if you like

A: He has the best love heart ice cream

Y-yeah *looking at Adrien*

*raises eyebrow* heart ice cream?

*looks at Marinette and signs*

Yeah Chloe whoever eats Andre’s ice cream will stay in love forever

Really??? *surprised*

*nods* that’s what he told all of Paris

*looks at Adrien*

You just have to believe

A: believe!

W-well I personally don’t believe in baby fairy tales like that but if Adrikins insists!

Sure

Let’s go get some more ice cream I’ve finished mine

I’ll just wait here

Ok its your treat

Ok *goes to get ice cream*

*smiles and sighs*

*eyes Luka*

*looks at Chloe and Adrien* Soooooo are you two like together?

Like since kindergarten!

Wait what-?

You’ve been dating since kindergarten?!

A: I um – no?

Dating? I thought you were asking how long we have been friends

*shakes head* no I meant dating, sorry

A: Um... no? we are like long time besties

What about you? I’ve seen you around school. Don’t you hang with Juleka?

She’s my sister. I have to pick her up from school every day, I go to College Francoise Dupont.

YOU’RE JULEKA’S BROTHER?! Wait… *squints hard and leans close into Luka* Actually I can kind of see it.

*Adrien leaves to go get ice cream so he can bring some back for Chloe*

You have the same eyebrows! *she says with triumphant*

Huh we do? I never noticed that, thanks for pointing it out miss bourgeois.

Omg you do!

*he notices that Chloe is still very close to his face* are we having a staring contest or do you just like looking at my face?

Hmmm… that’s a pretty unique eye colour you have. Are they contacts?

*shakes head* no they are 100% real

*finally pulls back* Get out! No way!

*laughs* I promise they’re real

*awkward silence*

*Luka looks over to Marinette in distance* So… you and Dupain-Cheng… what is your guys’ deal?

*looks at Chloe* we’ve been dating for three months. Its our uh three month anniversary today…

*blunty* cute

Yeah. I guess *shrugs*

*marinette still getting ice cream*

*takes a seat on the bench crossing one leg over the* sooooo…... Anniversary huh?

*comes back with ice cream* I see you two are getting to know each other better.

Oh yeah… I feel enlightened *blunt sarcasm*

Mmmm

*sighs*

He’s a reaaalll talker isn’t he

Mmhmm *hands them both ice creams* here you go

Thank you ma-ma-Marinette *takes it*

I am glad you are getting along okay

I communicate better with music *scratches behind his neck*

*slaps Luka’s arm* Why are you still teasing me about it

OW! *pretending to be hurt*

Because it’s cute

No its not

Yes it is

*Chloe rollers her eyes as she internally gags*

*glares at him*

Don’t look at me like that or ill keep going.

Not if I have anything to say about it *pretending to be mad*

*laughs* still as cute as when we first met

And you’ve been teasing me about it since we first met

*Chloe thinks: oh now I’m definitely gonna hurl…* Oh, Adrikiiiins!!!!

Oh here we go again

Are you gonna come back anytime soon? *hmm he must be too far away to hear me*

Well I’m gonna keep doing it for as long as we are together

Hahaha (sarcastically)*glares but lets it go because she doesn’t want her icecream to melt*

*chloe abruptly stands* RIIIIIIIIIGHT… im gonna just…. *walks over to Adrien*

*raises an eye brow at chloe’s strange behaviour*

*rolls his eyes playfully and starts to eat his icecream as he leans on marinettes shoulder*

Is Chloe acting weird?

She probably just isn’t used to proper relationships

Yeah I guess *still suspicious*

She’ll get used to it soon

I hope so. She can be great if she wants to

*Chloe hugs Adrien joyfully after he giver her an icecream*

*Marinette is trying not the be jealous but can’t help it*

*she accidentally breaks her cone and notices that her hand is now very wet and groans loudly*

*looks over* Oh no. What happene- *sees why* oh right.

I think I was just holding the cone too tight

Do you need help getting it off

*starts to wipe her hands with a tissue from her purse* No it’s okay I got it. Thanks.

But you could get me another ice cream 😊

Don’t worry you can just have mine, I haven’t eaten much

You sure? What about you?

I’m not hungry anymore…

Oh ok thanks

*fake smile*

Can I ask you something?

Sure *she says as she stares at Adrien*

*looks at her* Do you actually like me? *shes not paying much attention* well then I guess there’s my answer

What?.. What do you mean?

You’re still in love with Adrien, aren’t you?

We are dating that means I like you.

*sighs* when are you going to stop lying to yourself and me?

I am not lying. Adrien is just a nice guy is all.

*rolls eyes* a ‘nice guy’ that’s all he is to you?

He’s also a great friend?

I see the way you look at him Marinette.. you’ve never looked at me that way. If you love him so much then why did you decide to date me?

I look at him the way at look at anyone else.

Oh, come on, Mari! I’m not stupid!

What does he have that I don’t? Money? Fame? Good looks?

I never liked him for those reasons! Is that what you think I want?

I don’t like Adrien that way anyway

I’m sure you don’t

*crushes her cone again because she is mad*

I never stood a chance against him. He is perfect, I’m sorry I couldn’t be

Nonsense. I never said he was perfect he has his flaws, every person does.

*tears fill his eyes* did you ever love me?

*sighs* I don’t think I did

Ok well, did you ever like me at least?

*hesitates* Y-no, no I didn’t.

*tears fall down his face*

I am so sorry Luka. I am such an idiot.

*scoffs* I can’t do this anymore.

Neither can i. *woefully*

You should’ve told me the truth from the start. I’m done. It’s over *gets up and runs away still crying*

I’m sorr- *sighs and sits down*

*Chloe and Adrien have witnessed this event from afar and start to come down*

*Luka is sitting on the waters edge as he cries into his hands*

*Chloe could see Luka and is for some reason compelled to go see if he is okay*

Adrikins I need to go.. do stuff. Talk later *waves as she runs in Lukas direction*

-flash forward to Hawkmoth’s lair as the sky light opens-

HM: Such bitter sorrow of a broken heart who was so utterly betrayed by the one he loved… Fly away my little akuma and evilize that broken heart

-back to the river side-

*Luka is still sitting with his head hanging between his knees. He looks at the bracelet that Marinette gave him for their anniversary*

*footsteps approach from behind him* Hey… can I sit here?

*with tear-soaked eyes he looks at her and nods slowly*

*inahles deeply as she sits down*

*they sit in silence for a few minutes until chloe starts looking around awkwardly*

Soooo…….

I’m not in the mood please *as he puts his hands on his face once more and sniffles*

Uh.. There? There?

Thank you but you don’t have to stay

*sighs* Ok look, I’m trying this new thing where I’m supposed to care about other people’s problems so if you a problem I’m willing to-- *but before she continues she sees a familiar black butterfly out of the corner of her eye coming towards them. She grabs his wrist*RUN!

Wait wha-

Shut up and run pretty boy! *successfully pulls Luka away from the bridge*

*he thinks: what? Pretty boy*

*he sees an alleyway and pulls them both into it*

*breathing heavily* Did it follow us?

*shrugs* wow this alley way is tight *as she shuffles around*

*Chloe puts her hand on his face* You HAVE to think happy thoughts okay. Or it will find you again, quick!

i-i can’t..

Yes! you can! Come on. You like music right? Sing something then

Chloe I- *Akuma enters bracelet undetected*

*Chloe’s eyes widen as he pushes her away out of the alleyway and a familiar purple outline appears on his face*

*Luka is shaking as he tries to resist*

HM: Heart Rocker… The girl you were deeply in love with took your feelings forgranted and crushed them. Not I give you the power to return the favour.

*groans* No… I-I don’t wan-want to hurt a-anyone!

Luka fight it. You have to

*he falls to his knees as he holds his head shaking*

*his groans get louder and tears start streaming down his face*

HM: But she will only hurt you more. I’ll give you the power to play with her heartstrings and destroy the one that stands in your way. All I ask for in return are ladybug’s and Chat noir’s miraculous!

N-no! I can’t i- *cries out in pain* STOP!

*Chloe runs to him*

I’m s-so sorry…

Don’t give up now pretty boy, you can do this! Fight him! You know he is trying to trick you.

It-it hurts too much… I have no choice.

I know it hurts. I know YOU’RE hurt! But you can’t let him win now. You are stronger Luka! *hugs him tightly*

HM: don’t listen to that selfish little brat. I can give you POWER! I can get you revenge!

Get out of his head!!!!

I-i can’t do it-

No! *she starts yanking at his bracelet* GET OUT!

*shouts in pain*

*black bubbles start to form around him so Chloe tries even harder*

I’m t-to tired. I can-t fi-fight any long-er

You are NOT going to get HIM HAWKMOTH! YO HEAR ME! YOU STUPID, OLD, TACKY FART! *she rips the bracelet free*

*the Akuma is forced to leave the bracelet and tries to fly away as the bubbles around Luka fade*

Oh nooooo you don’t! *as she grabs an old broom from the garbage and starts to hit it against a wall, crushing it*

*Luka falls to the ground barely awake*

HM: I will get him next time *screams in anger as the light shade closes*

*once Chloe is sure the akums is dead she drops to the broom, get Luka’s bracelet and realises* OMG Luka!

*she moves his head to her lap and pats his head* Come on pretty boy… wake up *she starts to tear up* come pretty bo.. you’re gonna be okay. You’re gonna be okay….

*everything fades to black*

*Luka’s eyes flutter open* w-where am I?

B: Ah young sir. You’ve woken.

Who are you!? *looks around frantically* is this the Mayor’s hotel?

B:You may call me Jean.

w-wait.. the mayor, so chloe? Where is she? Is she ok? I didn’t hurt her did i? *he tries to get up but falls back down in pain*

B: The young miss is fine. She was quite frantic when she called me to pick you up. She demanded we place you in this suite to recuperate.

Sh-she did? Where is she now?

B: The hotel physician has already given you a look. You should be okay.

I sent Miss Bougeous to her room to calm her nerves. Like I said, she was quite frantic.

I Understand thank you jean. Could you please let Chlode know I say thankyou? For everything

B: I was quite surprised when she called though, I haven’t seen her this upset about someone else since…

Since when…?

B:*shakes head* please pay my words no heed.

*chloe bursts through door* FRANCOIS OR WHATEVER! ANY NEWS?! *spots Luka* You’re OKAY!!!!! *runs and and hungs him*

*he smiles* I owe you all my thanks. *he groans slightly because of the tight hug*

B: I will take my leave.

Yeah, yeah whatever claude

Thank you, jean.

*Butler nods and he leaves and shuts the door*

But really? How are you?

The doctor said you were ok but… It takes a lot to force hawkmoth out of your head.

*sighs* but you did it Chloe you got him to leave. You’re really strong.

*her eyes widen and she tries to hide her blushing with a blasé hair toss* Hmph! Its only natural. I AM the Great and Powerful Queen Bee after all

*chuckles* that it true but trust me, you’re amazing. I can’t thank you enough.

*stands and puffs chest with pride trying to hide her embarrassment* naturally!

Well…It would be utterly ridiculous if you stop!

*smiles and pulls her into another hug*

*her face is red* Ok…Ok.. You can let go now *weakly nudges him away*

But do you want me to?

*she is even redder and pushes away* Sh-Shut up Peasant!

So I’m not pretty boy anymore *pouts*

Oh shut it! *but she remembers something and she takes it out of her pocket* Oh here I picked this up for you.

Oooo a gift?

*she gives him a broken bracelet held together barely by rubber bands and staples*

*he tries not to laugh* I ug love it. Thank you

SHUT UP! Arts and crafts isn’t my strong suit ok! You caught me I’m not perfect!

Anyway. Your welcome to stay here for a couple of days if you want. You can bring your family too! I already had daddy deal with the expenses okay!

So! Just forget about that loser Dupain-Cheng and Adrien for now ok?! They aren’t worth your time.

Good-bye! *storms out completely flustered*

*Luka smiles and chuckles, shaking his head as he looks out the window. His heart still aches at the though of Marineette but at this moent… He thinks he is gonna be ok..*

--the end--

#miraculous #chloe bourgeois #adrienette #adrien agreste #lukanette #luka couffaine #role play #chat #marinette #marinette dupain cheng #marinette dupen chang #miraculous ladybug

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neverlearnedtoread · 3 years

Text

King of Scars

⭐⭐⭐; me at any given moment in the second half of the book: leigh.......*sobbing* please........where are we

Oh?? 👌😉😏

incredible set-up! the first half was SO exciting and fun. every set-up was brimming with piping hot takes. court intrigue, power couple vibes, sneaking around / keeping up appearances interspersed with real feelings - bardugo set out a real feast of a story, that’s for sure

non-powered protagonist / POV in a magical setting. it’s one of my favourite tropes (i can pinpoint the origin of this preference back to one specific book in my childhood favourites)

badass women! need i say more

political intrigue (especially with the backdrop of a magical setting!)

No.. ❌🤢🤮

the author lost the thread SO HARD in the second....it really fell so flat after such a fantastic premise. im so disappointed 😭 i wanted so much and i got barely a crumb....please leigh, just another mouthful of that political intrigue....im begging ya......

im not that mad about the [spoilers] at the end of the story, but i am utterly befuddled by how it happened - and that’s not even taking into account how confused i am about the future direction of the story. bardugo, where? are? you? going?? it’s getting to the point i don’t fully trust she knows where she’ll end up either, and that’s dangerous

Nina’s story should have been a novella that came out before KoS. It would have been much more cohesive, and I could concentrate on Nina’s arc more on its own, and probably would’ve hyped up KoS that much more because of how these two stories are supposed to happen concurrently. Honestly, as interesting as Nina’s story was, I don’t have that much to say about it. It was good. I wish it was its own story. That’s about it.

Summary: Three years after the Ravkan Civil War, King Nikolai finds himself wrestling with an interesting problem. While his shrewd political machinations and barefaced charisma have kept Ravka from devolving into yet another conflict with one of its many enemies, he’s been losing ground in a battle with his own body as some uncontrollable curse repeatedly takes over his consciousness, causing him to wreck havoc across the nearby countryside night after night. After he nearly kills a child on one of his fun little jaunts as a giant bird-creature, he decides to take matters into his own hands and travel to a place of cleansing, which he hopes will be strong enough to purge the darkness. Things can only go downhill from there. (Oh yeah! And Nina is doing cool, sexy, creepy, important stuff somewhere else. That’s a thing too.)

Concept: 💭💭💭

I did not expect to pick up this book. I got into Six of Crows quite late, and I didn’t love the duology (it was good! i love inej. and everyone else is there too ig), so when I read the reviews (tbh I just listened to the KoS liveshow by the Papercut trio, but same thing) and they weren’t...that positive? i chalked it up to a cute cover i could admire from a distance whenever i visited a bookstore and moved on. But! Life moves in mysterious ways...and by mysterious I mean my friend listened to the audiobook and got me into it as well so we could share thoughts

Spoilers under the cut~

Execution: 💥💥💥💥 (first half) / 💥💥 (second half)

...And share thoughts we did! The first half of the book was *chef’s kiss* set-up so beautifully. I’ve never read the Grisha Trilogy, but I can feel that bardugo prefers to play fast and loose with her worldbuilding rules anyway, so there wasn’t much I couldn’t pick up using context clues. The characterization for two POVs I’d never read before, let alone even knew the backstory of beyond the vaguest inclination, was masterful! I immediately liked Nikolai and Zoya. Then we got to the second part, and I have never seen anything go downhill quite so effortlessly. More spectacularly? Yes. More quickly? Absolutely! Somehow, this was more like a slow slide into mediocrity, which was....worse. We just kept getting further and further away from the original intrigue, and setting up yet more moving pieces and unanswered questions, and, and - ! The book ended. I am so afraid that this has become a bigger beast than Bardugo can control, and that’s why she’s announcing a Six of Crows continuation - to pull it all together without admitting she may have lost the thread of this narrative.

Favourite Moment: while I loved where nina ended up at the end of the story (and i WISH we had had her story in a separate novella so i could fully appreciate the BDE), I think my favourite scene is when nikolai says to zoya ‘so what about that amplifier of yours that you were highly emotionally attached to’ and zoya not only tells him, but takes off her shirt to show him the scars without being directly asked. like damn! all he had to do was ask an unrelated question! shit! half the population of ravka would die to be as lucky as their king

Personal Enjoyment: ❤❤❤❤❤ (first half) / ❤❤ (second half)

I love it when a story hinges on two characters playing off of the other. There’s the banter, of course, but the real meat of this premise is always the character reveals and parallels you’re privy to, when you match two characters the audience has yet to learn more about against each other. It’s like...shadows and light! The interplay of similarities and differences! The intrigue of these characters reacting to any character reveals alongside the audience themselves in real-time! ‘Two sides of the same coin’-type narratives are always super fun, with or without shipping. And I think that’s the crux of the reason the second half of the book fell apart - despite being two out of three of the only humans stuck in that Other Place, and literally unable to go anywhere, Nikolai and Zoya simply....stopped talking to each other. And trusted two otherworldly god-like figures. Without question. 👀👀 HUH? HUH?? They’ve both been established to trust very few people - it took them three years to build themselves up to trusting each other, and they worked side-by-side to govern an entire country. But when it came down to the wire, you’re telling me they picked some random mythical dudes they had never believed existed? Make it make sense, Bardugo. They’re not even teenagers in-canon anymore, there’s no excuse for that kind of lapse in character consistency.

Favourite Character: i’m going to cheat and say that nikolai and zoya tie - their personalities were so compelling. if only they could have combined their two braincells to give me the fully realised character arc this book truly deserved :(( they could have had intertwined narrative parallels! the foil potential! cmon bardugo, am i gonna have to rewrite this book in my mind myself, or what?

#king of scars #leigh bardugo #KoS #nikolai duology #books #book review #booklover #bookblr #reading

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lavishedinjimin · 5 years

Text

coffee break -> jhs

↳ pairing: hoseok x reader ↳ genre: mover!hoseok, fluff ↳ word count: 2.1k ↳ warnings: none — synopsis: Just a simple coffee break with the cute mover boy wouldn’t hurt at all -- right?

a/n: This is a little short oneshot idea that I had for Hobi! I hope you guys like it x

You didn’t know why you would think that moving to a new home was easy.

It wasn’t.

There were huge boxes and loads omnipresent as the moving company that you hired scurried everywhere to get everything done quickly. You had your hair up in a bun so that your hair wouldn’t disturb you as you were double-checking every detail.

“Excuse me miss—” a man carrying two medium-sized boxes say as he tried to move through the hallway.

“O-Oh, sorry,” you quickly move away, letting him pass.

Looking around you, it seems like everything was going smoothly. The house was getting emptier as each hour passes by. At this exact moment, you notice how large the area of your living room was without the huge unnecessary coffee table in the middle. That darn table – which did nothing as it only murdered your poor little toe every once in a while.

You walked out of the house and observed how they were transferring loads inside a large truck. People were constantly going in and out to get all the remaining items, and you tried to calm yourself down with the number of people around your house. Everything was happening so quickly for you to completely wrap your head around it.

On top of that, it was five in the morning, and you were yawning every three minutes.

“Wait, wait!” you stopped a man carrying a purple box that you intended to put your expensive china tea sets in. He pauses immediately and looks at you with a little smile.

“Don’t worry, miss Y/n, I know.” He gestures to the bold red letters that you wrote on top of the box – ‘PLEASE BE CAREFUL! THIS IS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN ANY OF OUR LIVES COMBINED’.

You laughed at yourself, slightly embarrassed as you crossed your arms in front of your chest. “Okay, I trust you—” your eyes fly to the name tag attached on his blue shirt, reading his name, “Hoseok.”

The man smiles wide, witnessing how his eyes turn into little crescents. He seemed to be the same age as you, his black hair parted in the middle, dimples appearing on his cheeks as he grins.

You didn’t know what it was, but there was something about his appearance that wanted you to know him better. He just looked like a person that anyone can get along with. You watch him place the box carefully inside the truck, placing it specifically against a corner, other boxes compelling against it so that it wouldn’t move along the ride. He smiles brightly at you once he was done, raising a thumbs up.

“How long have you lived here?” He suddenly asks, joining you as you walked back inside the almost-empty house. You cross your arms in front of your chest as you think. “About four years. I decided to move because this area is so far from my workplace, and I have to drive for a long time."

“Yeah, I understand. And especially with all the traffic and all that,” He speaks and you nod your head. “Mhmm, and I really hate it when I arrive late. But with the new house, the ride is only thirty minutes.”

Hoseok attentively listens. He has now ditched all of his responsibilities and was latched onto you like a fly over a lightbulb. Maybe it was how you looked with your hair up in a messy bun, or how the morning light shone over your face – illuminating it, he just thought that you looked so beautiful. He finds it cute whenever you’d get hassled, or how you’d still feel so sleepy when he catches you yawn every now and then. He was utterly attracted to you the first time he laid his very own eyes on yours.

You and Hoseok didn’t think of anything much about the situation – a little conversation between loads can do no harm, right?

“Oh, do you want some coffee?” You asked him. You had previously prepared your coffee maker earlier this morning for the workers. And by the looks of his reaction, he apparently didn’t know. Hoseok quirks an eyebrow up, “There’s coffee?”

You giggled at his response, grabbing his wrist as you quickly brought him to the kitchen. Hoseok, on the other hand, felt sparks ignite his body when he felt your touch. Sure, other employees were staring at the two of you, but he was too in his feelings to care. He hasn’t felt this way in a long time, and it felt almost new to him. A smile crept up his lips when you led him to the wooden island where a coffee maker stands in the middle.

“I asked almost everyone if they wanted some coffee – but only one person agreed.” Hoseok smirks as he watches you get a new clean mug and prepare his drink.

“Am I that one?” he grins, and something about that smug look on his face made you blush the slightest bit.

You look down, chuckling as you poured the hot liquid. “Nope,” you said, popping the ‘p’. His laugh fills the room, and you could’ve sworn that you’ve never heard such a wonderful laugh like his.

Once you were done, he held the mug and carefully bringing it up to his lips, blowing on the hot steaming liquid a little bit. “Thank you, angel.”

Angel? Did he really just called you that?

You watched him as he sipped on his drink casually, as if nothing has happened. Maybe that was a normal thing for him? Nevertheless, your cheeks were painted in a shade of red, getting a bit shy. You immediately looked away in embarrassment once he locked eyes with yours. “Uhh, anyway –”

“Jung Hoseok!” a male voice suddenly calls from the doorway and you both whip your head to his direction. You notice how the man looks at Hoseok, then at the coffee on his hands, then at you and he smirks. “When you’re finished with your coffee can you please lend a hand with Jaeho to carry the last few boxes?”

Hoseok nods once, “Sure, I’ll get to it as soon as possible.”

You watch as the man exits as he carries a large yellow box on his hands. You snort when you remember that those were your books that you still ought to read.

“Umm, Y/n?” Hoseok says to grab your attention and you swiftly look at his eyes. “Yes?”

“If you don’t mind me asking…” he drags his sentence out and you quirk an eyebrow up, “do you have a boyfriend? O-or someone you’re currently into?”

Your eyes widen in surprise, not expecting him to ask you that question. You felt your cheeks redden, a smile forming your lips involuntarily. “Um,” you look down on the floor, trying to hide your blush. “I don’t.”

Hoseok chuckles at your cuteness, taking a sip on his hot drink. He felt relieved on the inside, the question that he was dying to know earlier this morning finally out of his chest. His heart jumped when you looked back up at him, eyes locked together.

“T-that’s great,” he stammered a little bit as he couldn’t hide his smile.

“Great?” You smirked, crossing your arms in front of your chest.

“Yeah.” He stated simply. He had a playful look on his face, and you knew what those eyes mean. But you didn’t want to jump into any more conclusions, though. You didn’t think about it too much.

Soon enough, Hoseok finishes his mug and places it on the sink, turning the faucet on but you were faster to move him away. “Hey, hey,” you giggled, “I’ll do it.”

Hoseok chuckles as he observes you washing the mug. You feel his eyes at the back of your head and you quickly spin around, “Aren’t you supposed to help someone?” you smile up at him.

“Oh, right,” he claps his hand once, making you laugh quietly, “I’ll go ahead.”

You sigh once he’s disappeared from your vision and you continue to wash the mug. Hoseok seemed like a pretty cool guy, and he was nice to be around. The two of you somehow clicked instantly, and it feels like you have known him for a very long time whenever you talk to him. He always has this certain grin whenever he talks, and just thinking about his smile makes you smile.

You were a very sentimental person, that’s for sure. You couldn't help but reminisce the past memories that were created in your old house. It was one of the big purchases that you had, and it will always have a place in your heart.

However, you mentally prepare yourself for the number of boxes and items you have to work with. You only wished that everything can just magically organize themselves in a single snap of your fingers – but that’s not real life, sadly.

You sigh once you parked at the front of your new house, climbing up the white steps and you jiggled the key in the lock. Opening the door, you snort at the sight. The image that you had in your head was clearly the same as it is in front of you. Boxes were piled up – neatly – in the living room, all shapes and colors.

“This will be a long night,” you muttered to yourself.

In an instant, your eyes caught an unfamiliar bright blue box settled in the middle of the kitchen island as you were taking a look around the house. Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion as you didn’t remember packing anything in a blue box like this. Should you ignore it and just place it somewhere else? Or should you look inside?

Your instincts went with option two and carefully opened the box with nimble fingers. Your mind went to the moving company, thinking that someone might’ve left this here because they were the previous ones to enter the house. Could it be a housewarming gift from them? You find yourself chuckling at your own thoughts, shaking your head.

Once you opened the lid, you gasp when you saw the coffee maker that you used yesterday. Memories of you and Hoseok came into mind, and your hand immediately flies to cover your mouth in shock. You spot a piece of paper beside it, and you quickly pick it up and read it.

‘Y/n, I think that you forgot to pack this up, so I did it for you. No worries though, think of this as a reverse housewarming gift! Also, I think we should hang out sometime.

Here’s my number, __, hit me up whenever you see this ;)

Hoseok.’

You could’ve sworn that you’ve never smiled any brighter than this moment. You grab your phone from your back pocket in excitement, immediately dialing the written numbers. Your hands were sweaty as you waited for him to pick up, your foot tapping on the marble floor in anticipation. You truly felt like a giddy little high school girl at this time.

“Hello?” his voice spoke through the line, and you felt your heart jump. Your other hand flies up to play with your bottom lip involuntarily.

“Hey, it’s me, Y/n.”

Hoseok can hear the smile in your voice, making him chuckle. He runs a hand through his hair, leaning his back on the chair he was sitting on. “You read the note?”

“Mhmm, I did. Thanks for packing up my coffee maker by the way.” You spoke as you turn your body around to lean against the island. You can hear him laugh over the phone which was music to your ears. “It’s not a problem angel, don’t worry. Have you start unpacking yet?”

“Absolutely not,” you laughed, shaking your head. “I haven’t even started.”

“Do you want me to come over and help you if you want? You know you can’t do all of that on your own.”

“Is that your form of ‘hanging out’?” You playfully said, but you had no problem with it at all. You just wanted to be with him, whatever circumstance it might be.

“...Well kind of, yeah.” he giggled, “You’re talking to a mover boy, Y/n.”

“Okay, okay,” you said in defeat, “You can come over, Hoseok.”

“Great, I’ll be there in twenty. See you.” You said your goodbye and he was the first to leave the call. You sighed, clutching your phone to your chest. “Who knew you’d like a mover boy, Y/n,” you spoke to yourself, “all started from those darn teacups.” Speaking of which, your eyes widened as you immediately scurried back to the living room to find the purple box, wanting to see if something happened to your precious China tea set.

a/n: I didn’t know how to end this, but oop oh well. Give it a note if you liked it, it will really inspire me to do more <3

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atomicwedgienerd · 5 years

Text

Boyfriend Twins No Longer

Derek was furious. Last night had been his 21st birthday and what should have been a blast had been ruined by all the jerks at that gay bar. “Boyfriend twins!” The taunt rung through his mind. Nobody had ever made fun of him and Arjun before! They didn’t even look that similar. After all, Derek might be tan but he could never be compared to Arjun. Sure they had both been wearing Abercrombie shirts and khakis in nearly the same hue, but lots of people dressed like that! And besides, Derek though their matching sneakers were cute. And yet, when they walked into that one queer bar in town, the hipsters all turned to them and immediately started laughing. The door guy asked if they were clones and the bartender asked if there was a 2-for-1 special at the Abercrombie shop. Like they were so cool just because they had piercings and tattoos! That didn’t make them unique! There were plenty of hipster “boyfriend twins” in that bar and nobody gave them any guff! Regardless, Derek couldn’t stop fixating on it. He hated being criticized by other gays after a lifetime of being mocked by straight people for being different. He glanced over at Arjun as he snoozed, admiring his butt in the matching pair of Andrew Christian briefs that they had actually bought in a 2-for-1 sale. Well damn, thought Derek, maybe we are a little similar. “Are you ok, hun?” Arjun asked, stirring from his sleep. Derek sighed and turned away. “You can’t be upset about the boyfriend twins thing, can you?” Derek harumphed and turned to his lover, unaware that the mystical forces that grant birthday wishes had decided to pay attention to Derek this year. “I just wish we weren’t so similar!” Derek said angrily. A lighting bolt cracked across the sky, scaring both of the boyfriends. “You’re being dramatic,” Arjun sighed as he got up from the bed. “Let me make you some coffee and we can do something fun for your birthday. Arjun headed out to the kitchen, his ass looking great in the jockstrap he was wearing. Wait, that wasn’t right, thought Derek. They had the same pair of underpants! “Arjun!” Derek cried. “What’s up with that jockstrap!?” “Uh duh, it’s what I always wear, bro,” Arjun yelled back from the kitchen. That didn’t seem right to Derek. He looked down at his own lap and noticed that he was now wearing a pair of plain Hanes tighty-whiteys. That definitely wasn’t right. He sat up and leaned over the edge of the bed but something else was wrong. His feet didn’t reach the floor anymore. Derek panicked and stood up. He looked in the mirror and something was off. Where they had both been a solid 5’11” before, Derek couldn’t be more than 5’8” now and he was looking leaner than usual. There was something weird going on with his hair but Derek couldn’t really discern it in the mirror. He grabbed his pair of thick black framed glasses from the end table and threw them on. His hair was paler, more red, than before and seemed to be stuck in a weird center part. This was not the haircut he had gotten a week ago. And wait a minute! Derek didn’t need glasses! He threw them off and the world turned into a total blur. Derek started to panic, breathing heavily and starting to hyperventilate. Arjun reentered the room, or at least Derek thought the blurry shape was Arjun—it seemed taller—and handed Derek a glass of skim milk. “What’s this?” Derek whined, his voice noticeably higher pitched. “Where is my coffee?” “You can’t drink coffee, bro,” Arjun laughed, his voice noticeably deeper. “You’re spastic enough as it is.” Arjun took a deep sip of his coffee. “Give me a sip of your coffee then!” Derek whined. Arjun laughed. “You need to put on your glasses dude.” Derek did as he was told and was shocked as the world came into focus. The Arjun in front of him was different. He was taller for one, at least 6’2” now, and substantially more muscular than he had been before. Whereas Arjun had always been clean shaven, he was now sporting a decent five o’clock shadow. Derek rubbed his face; it was now smooth where before he had been sporting the beginnings of a beard. And then Derek noticed Arjun wasn’t drinking coffee at all. He had a protein shake. “Something isn’t right!” Derek wheezed. Arjun rolled his eyes and handed him an inhaler. “You need to calm down bro. And use your inhaler. You know you’re not supposed to get excited. It’s time for us to get dressed and head to campus anyways.” “But it’s my birthday!” Derek complained, taking three short puffs of the inhaler. “So who cares!?” Arjun laughed. “Get out of my room and go get dressed!” Arjun’s room!? But they had shared a room for six months. Regardless, Derek felt too timid to argue and he shuffled meekly out of the room. Derek headed down the hallway and then noticed his backpack peeking out from their study. He opened the door and was shocked at what he saw. It wasn’t a study any more. It had turned into a bedroom. In the center was a twin sized bed with Pokemon sheets. The walls were decorated with anime posters and cardboard cut outs of Lord of the Rings figures. There was an entire shelf of trophies from Math League, Chess Club, the 24-Hour Coding Challenge, Klingon Karaoke. Whoever had this room was a total dork! And that’s when Derek saw it. A framed picture on the wall of a total dork with Patrick Stewart at a comic convention. The guy looked familiar even though he was wearing thick glasses and the nerdiest clothes Derek had ever seen. He looked closer and gasped. It was HIM. But this wasn’t right! This room belonged to a total dork and Derek wasn’t a geek! He barely even used his computer. And yet this room had a massive desk with multiple computers on them, running World of Warcraft! Derek looked at the picture again and shook his head. This couldn’t be right. He would never dress like this! And yet when Derek opened the closet. all the clothes matched those in the pictures. Plaid button downs, cheap pleated dress slacks, shiny leather shoes. None of it seemed right. “Hurry the fuck up and get dressed!” Arjun yelled from out in the hall. Derek had never heard him yell like that before. That wasn’t the Arjun he knew but something made Derek quiver. He did not want to make Arjun mad! He sighed and started getting dressed. He buttoned up the button down all the way to the top and felt compelled to add a too short black tie. He put on a pair of clashing brown slacks that stopped a couple of inches above his ankle and couldn’t stop himself from attaching a pair of red suspenders that yanked the waist of the pants up above his belly button. All of Derek’s socks were white crew socks now and they clashed with his black patent leather shoes but he could hear Arjun getting impatient so he threw them on in resignation. He was scared to make Arjun mad; something he had never felt before. He looked at himself in the mirror and sighed. He looked like a total dork! He had definitely shrunk too! There was no way he was over 5’2” now. “HURRY UP DWEEB!” Arjun boomed from the living room. Derek grabbed his backpack and meekly shuffled out, his confidence totally eradicated. He gasped when he saw his boyfriend. Arjun towered over him now, standing at a solid 6’6”. Where he had been slightly muscled before, he was now a total meathead, weighing in at 300 lbs of pure muscle. The five o’clock shadow he had moments before was now a beard of epic proportion that came down to mid chest and his hair was up in an unruly and super masculine bun. Arjun’s muscles were massive… unlike anything Derek had ever seen and they were on full display as Arjun was now wearing a muscle tank that said “Give Me Deadlifts or Give Me Death” on it. On his legs, he wore tight black sweats that showed off every bit of muscle in his thighs and his massive calved. His arms were now dotted with tattoos and an 8 gauge septum piercing adorned his nose while double zero gauges rested comfortably in his ears. “S-s-s-since when do you l-l-l-lift weights?” Derek said, now aware that he stuttered. “S-s-s-s-since fucking forever, braceface,” Arjun laughed. Braceface? Why would Arjun call him that? But Derek reached up and touched his mouth and knew the answer. Huge clunky orthodontics were now glued to his teeth and when he caught his reflection in the mirror, he sighed. “You sh-sh-shouldn’t talk to your own boyfriend like that,” Derek implored. This sent Arjun into a series of hearty chortles. “Boyfriend!?” he laughed. “I would never date a dweeb like you, fuckwad. The only reason we live together is that the college said I needed to get my grades up if I wanted to stay on the weightlifting team and well, you’re too much of a fucking pussy to stand up to me when I ask you to do my homework.” Derek tried to argue but found himself getting too nervous. I guess I am too much of a pussy, he thought. “You’re right, Arjun,” Derek complied. Arjun rolled his eyes. “How many times have I told you? It’s AJ, not Arjun. Only my mom calls me Arjun. Now let’s get going.” Arjun grabbed Derek by the waist of his tighty whiteys, effortlessly lifting him up in a painful wedgie and carried him out the door. As they walked to campus, Derek felt all eyes on them. People were swooning over Arjun—er—AJ and pointing and laughing at Derek the whole way. He couldn’t stand it! AJ and Derek couldn’t be more different. That’s when it hit Derek. The wish. HE HAD WISHED FOR THIS. “Th-th-this isn’t what I wanted,” Derek said meekly as they arrived on campus. “Well I didn’t want to have to spend time with the university’s least attractive virgin but here we are,” AJ said as he dumped a bunch of books in Derek’s hands. “I’m going to need all these papers written by Monday so I can stay on the team.” “B-b-b-but-“ “No buts, dork!” AJ yelled as he shoved him towards the library. Derek looked at AJ with tears in his eyes. They had been so close, so in love, and now this was their life. More muscular hunks walked up to AJ as they started heading off to the gym. Derek turned meekly and started shuffling towards the library, his spindly legs giving him an awkward gait. “Hey nerd!” AJ yelled after Derek. “You forgot your student ID!” He flung it at Derek and it hit him right in the forehead, causing a chorus of laughs from AJ’s weightlifting bros. Derek struggled to pick it up from the ground without dropping all his books and gasped at his ID. For a brief moment, it listed the correct information: “Derek Parker, English Comp” before shimmering for a moment and changing. Derek blinked his eyes and looked at it again through this thick coke-bottle glasses. “Derwin Pimpleberg, Computer Science,” he sighed. Derek—make that Derwin—had totally changed, and all because of this stupid birthday wish. He headed into the library wanting to cry. Luckily, Derwin found academic achievement easy, which was great because soon AJ was making him do not only his homework, but also all of AJ’s weightlifting bros’ homework. AJ and his boys would come around on Saturdays and get wasted before heading out leaving Derwin alone to play World of Warcraft all weekend. While AJ would bring home a different stud every night to fuck, Derwin was alone reading fantasy novels and writing World of Warcraft fanfiction. And the noise from AJ’s heavy fucking made Derwin sad. Before the change, Derek and Arjun had had plenty of sex, but Derwin—well that was a different story. He was a virgin and try as he might over the next few decades, no one ever wanted to have sex with him and he remained a virgin forever. Eventually, the now roommates graduated but AJ didn’t want to let Derwin go. Why would he? Derwin was too meek to fight with AJ and would clean up after him, make his protein shakes, and wash his dirty gym clothes for him. Besides, whereas AJ’s degree was useless, Derwin’s computer science degree was a cash cow and Derwin was making tons of money consulting. Of course, AJ had made Derwin sign over all of his bank accounts to him so AJ could focus on professional body building instead of working, meaning that Derwin still had to wear cheap dorky clothes and couldn’t really afford to go out, not that he had any friends he needed to see. A few year later, Derwin had to go to his high school reunion and AJ decided to tag along. All of Derek’s friends were shocked to see that their old buddy was now a total nerd stereotype that went by Derwin but they were all enamored with AJ and joined in on mocking, ridiculing, and beating up Derwin. As his former friends hoisted him up the flagpole so he had to just dangle there in an atomic wedgie, Derwin sighed. He had wished that he and AJ were different and well, it couldn't have come any more true.

#nerdification #nerdtf #gaytf #m2mtf

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roxannepolice · 5 years

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But yah rey as a character is just so frustrating you know? Cause like, yeah sure she could be complex with a powerful arc where shes forced to come to terms with the fact she wasted years of her life on self-imposed delusions in a cathartic way, or she could be a flat piece of marketing cardboard which Disney is banking on vagina+superpowers=profit without having to go through that persnicty character flaw overcoming or the like. Because like you said, hearing shes a nobody (which ngl, her assuming she was a somebody wasn’t really ever supported in tfa, just that her family was coming back and she desperately wanted them to) is apparently the worst thing but it changes absolutely nothing, not her approach, not her demeanor , if vaguely sad is the absolute worse a character is gonna experience in a goddamn space opera then yeah, full offense ill take the l on Mary sue discourse but her character will definitely be a boring ass wash. We all make fun of whiny new hope Luke but him being a kinda nuisance to both the audience and those around him is what made is transformation into full blown Jedi knight so powerful. With Rey so far what weve got is badass perfect cinnamon roll finally get her due as such, which is clearly working for some people, but I fail to see how that isn’t spectacularly tone deaf to make a protag in this genre such. Operas about drama, not patting you on the back. Rey (assuming she remains as is) would’ve been fine as a protag s the only piece of Star Wars media we ever got was a new hope. But rn she a chosen one architype (and I know that bunch of ppl are gonna go but the series ‘but shes not the chosen one, Anakin still is, the new series isn’t trying to make her one!’ but lets not beat around the burning bush, if u got a character that walks on water and the reason why is because god said so, ur dealing with a chosen one trope and if a character is star wars is made ultrapowerful in lore breaking ways because force said so? Yeah were dealing with a chosen one.) when we had both the deconstruction and the reconstruction done. Shes a straight hero when the success of the ot rest on hitting the formula near perfect the first time. What exactly is Rey, the individual character, bringing to the table? What makes her story supposedly so important the a perfectly good ending had to be made invalid to tell it? A bunch of ppl will say heroines’ journey! But if that’s the case I gotta say, wheres all the feminine shit? Im serious, if the heroines journey is reintegrating the feminine and realizing ‘oh shit mom had a point’ there where is both the feminine skills/coping mechanism and the mom? I mean I saw some ppl arguing for leia in a ‘reys Persephone!’ meta (she isn’t, you can make a much better case for ben himself as Persephone to be quite frank, yall are focusing so much on the trees ((girl gets abducted by guy)) that u forgot the forest existed, the actually story ((girl winds up queen on the underworld, well gee whiz which character just took control of that after leaving the world of living and a grieving divine mother behind, it’s a mystery apparently) behind, it’s a mystery apparently) ((but seriously though even if we hope for dark rey does anyone assume its gonna be taking control of a dark/dead coded org at least partially at this point, do you, do you really??). but given the fact she had what, one line of screen dialogue that’s breaking ur arm with that stretch. As far as skills go I guess you could make an argument for scavenging, but if that’s the case dlf did a shit job of conveying that as female-coded. Everything about rey in tfa seems deliberately androgynous, and yeah, she had her hair let down/mascara moment, but that’s tied to her ‘failure’ on the supremacy thus something nw.SPEAKIGN OF FAILURES ON THE SUPERAMCY AND LACK THERE OF. I find it kind funny that bunch of reylo bnfs (you know who they are) are all ‘hur dur fanboys/antis are dumb and don’t get story structure.’ And then going, ‘why are yall asking how/assuming rey fucked up in throne room/climax of her story in the second portion/darkest point of her character arc? Why do you hate women/ur own ovaries so much?’ because it like walking into a prefurnished house and being told by the relator ‘HERES THE LIVING ROOM’ and having no damn couch. It’s a living room, I expect a couch here. And in a movie where it’s the low point of a character arc and they drag puppet yoda out to tell me the movie is about failure, I expect a damn failure in whats clearly the climax of the characters arc for this movie. As it stands now there are three possibilities imo. 1st, rey had no failure, she is the pure badass maid o light ppl want and every inch the boring cardboard she is accused of by fanbros, remains static, and is relegated to an also ran to benlo taking the most compelling character trophy this trilogy in 10 yrs2nd possibility and the one im hoping for, failure speech wasn’t just thematic explanation but also foreshadowing, rey fucks up big and dramatic in a way that makes her manage to stand out as unique with both her contemporaries and her predecessors(last part, if its ever to much lemme know pls im sorry i just gotta get it out) 3rd and most likely possibility, rey isn’t the main character, benlo is and that’s why his failure both moral in the throne room and logistic on criat take center stage for the last third or so of the movie. Rey is merely a pov character to tell the dramatic villain protag story they wanted and have their very marketable unproblematic Disney heroine cake too.

Ok, so this discourse kinda died down by now, but thanks to that it’s possible to maybe have a calmer look at it I’m totally not trying to justify my late response.

Anyway, the good result is that quite recently my brother, who’s not overly taken with Rey - or the sequels in general, for that matter - said something which really stuck with me as a possible crux of the problem:

She’s neither comical nor tragical. Just bland.

This neither comical nor tragical really struck me. And the more I though about it, the more it was appearing to me that this qualm really applies to the sequels as a whole. The thing is that DLF are essentially telling a straightforward story that they’re trying to make captivatingly convoluted. And not just make, but keep this appearance over four years. And this is... a narrative teeth crasher. Like, when you’re honest about the endgame (in the context of the most structural meanings of comedy and tragedy), you can maintain a decorum, though you can also play with it, of course, whereas when you don’t want to be honest about the endgame, you end up mixing the styles somewhat messily. You can’t break or discuss with the rules without acknowledging them, so to speak. Because the originals were honest about the happy/hopeful endgame (the first episode is title A New Hope ffs), they could allow themselves deeply tragic moments like Larses’ deaths, Han getting frozen, destruction of Alderaan, etc. Because the prequels were open about being a tragedy, they could allow themselves lighthearted comic relief for the sake of lighthearted comic relief.

The sequels... badly want us to consider the possibility of FO winning and Ben dying unredeemed while simultaneously insisting we root for those things not happening, while appearing conscious we’re definitely not buying the former and the latter only somewhat. And it’s tiresome. Dishonest. And indeed, bland. If the story is a tragedy it will be a bloodcurdlingly real one, if it’s a comedy it will be a borderline grotesque one.

But yeah, returning to Rey, I guess as the main character she’s a lens which focuses the above problems. A very bitter tragedy of what her parents did t her prevents her from being comfortably comical whereas whoohooos I like thats and prancing like a husky on red bull over idols and visions because it’s for children so it must be hopeful prevents her from being intriguingly tragical. So I guess the intentioned effect was tragicomism but, from pov of an engaged casual fan that is my bro, it’s neither.

As far as Rey’s heroine’s journey lacking some of the usual elements, I blame it on Disney being... a bit too ambitious, maybe. I think they tried to make a heroine’s journey that isn’t ostentaciously seeped in traditional feminine/masculine traits, maintains the structure without what could be called accidentals. On the one hand, I would point out that hero’s journey has pretty much desexualised itself over time, we are rather accustomed to “shero’s” journeys, but on the other... maybe Disney set out on a too novel a territory and may crack their teeth on it, alongside trying to out-Vader Vader at redemption. To elucidate, “toxic femininity” in which a heroine is supposed to find herself in the beginning of her journey, in Rey’s case is uprooted from any of our usual concepts of feminine-masculine social roles (it’s space, duh). My interpretation is that Rey’s version of toxic femininity kind of exists in contrast with Kylo Ben’s version of toxic masculinity - and since the apparent focus of the story is the attitude towards the past/parent figures, toxic femininity would mean her clutching onto the past. Which is why I predict that some act of IX will find Rey inebriated with apparent success in masculine world, meaning she’ll be the one rejecting the old gods this time - and I would point out that panel in Poe comic where she shows herself more sceptical towards idolisation of past don’t mind me, I’m just expressingmy trash dreams for a proper sith lady Rey.

Then again, Rian Johnson said she already found perfect balance between Luke’s clinginess and Kylo’s rejection of the past, so... idk, maybe I’m giving DLF too much credit again.

As for the Persephone thing, I guess the rub is that this reylo reading focuses less on the traditional reading of the myth (where Demeter is the actual main character and Kore is a Princess Peach MacGuffin) and more of an interpretation of it as one of the eldest (at least in Europe) versions of story depicting a transition of a girl into a woman, making Persephone more of a protagonist.

Like, y’know, this Persephone (D. G. Rosetti, source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proserpine_(Rossetti_painting))

I’m no expert, but myths can lose their original meanings because of power relations (anyone still remember about Dionysus, the god associated with excessive drinking, going through a very Christ-like death and resurrection?) and I think it’s possible that this is the case with the story of Persephone becoming a pre-scientific explanation of seasons changing over the year. So teah, that’s how I always understood the Persephone theme regarding Rey.

But yes, I must agree that I’m confused about Disney’s handling of the mother figure, which... Look, SW became a legend of a modern myth because of how epically Lucas handled the hero dealing with his very explicit father. So yes, I don’t understand what exactly is their game with Rey Nobody from Nowhere in this regard. It’s one thing that they had a cool idea with giving her no lineage, another that parent figures are an essential element of archetypal journeys and from symbolic viewpoint the case of a female character the biological relationship is even more crucial than in male’s. And I swear to all the ewoks and porgs in the galaxy, I do hope Disney’s idea of Rey healing the mother/daughter divide isn’t through her healing the divide between Leia and Ben. Again, this isn’t the idealistic sphere. Just... no.

Anyway, I still maintain hope (this whole meta blog is built on hope) that Rey will indeed turn out to have a proper personal mistake which will make her stand out in the saga. I do have to admit, though, that I find your last theory very likely. I mean, even when I read all the reylo metas going oh, Rey is going to have such an exciting arc in IX, she has so much to deal with though of course it’s not going to compromise her morally, it will be sooo exciting, I just... f*ck’s sake, what you’re describing isn’t a dramatic character only a dramatised role model. It’s great if that’s your thing, but don’t claim it is space opera-worthy, in operas people drown themselves because of cursed sailors, kill over a break up, decapitate over a bad dream and get dragged to hell over a dinner, not persuade their fallen lovers to change their ways, let alone patienly wait for them the understand the error of their ways (and if they do it’s doomed to end in someone dying).

#asks #sw negativity #just because i love doesn't mean i can't be critical #heroine's journey #long asks anon

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yestermen · 5 years

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New Year, Same Guys

I want to start this post off by saying, yes I know its been a while, but you get busy and you think luck is turning around and that maybe you’ll have a different topic to write about, but then new developments occur and we are back to where we were. Confused, Sad and Single.

This story starts about a year ago when I met this guy who we will call William, or Will. Will and I quickly became friends as we were in a few of the same classes and shared some similar friends, I was always a little interested in him, and I assumed he was also interested in me (we matched on tinder but this could’ve been a friendly match). Nonetheless he got into a long term relationship last year with a girl who kind of looked like me and we stayed friends and got closer.

This school year I got back and swore off men for the most part, it was never official but I was just generally uninterested in everyone and that makes everyone interested in you. By October I had about 4 guys talking to me, two that I was actually somewhat intrigued with; one being Will and one being (for sake of the story) Daniel. I continued talking to both of them but more often than not it was Daniel as he simply responded faster at the same times I was free to talk.

Sure, I thought talking to multiple guys was messy but hey, isn't that what your twenties are for, being messy and dating around?

November comes around and Daniel comes to town and keeps insisting to meet up (I know him in person but he graduated and moved and so I was safe to just talk with no strings attached) I kept making excuses, some valid, such as my parents being in town, others were me saying I had a ton of work (when I was watching netflix and eating hummus) but either way, I never felt compelled to meet up with him which made me think- Did I actually like him or was I just talking to him for attention?

After a lot of contemplation I decided on the latter. Sure, I felt bad about leading him on and such when I truly had no interest, so I tried to distance myself, but then I came to the conclusion that I liked our conversations even as just friends (I never said I liked him nor did I ever say that we were just friends so woops). So being selfish, I kept talking to him, not as much as before, but just enough to get my satisfaction. After all, it is lovely to feel wanted. A couple weeks later, Daniel is back in town again, and pulling the same shenanigans but I say that I am just feeling being alone, which was complete honesty. That is when my friend texts me saying they are with my other friend and they need “sad gal hours”, aka when people come over, we put on music, drink, cry, talk and dance. So being a good friend, I invite them over.

One of my friends stays for 15 minutes when I text Will inviting him over, after all he’s friends with everyone and can bring more wine. He says sure and that’s when Bad Idea from Waitress would start playing if it were a film.

The three of us (My friend, Will and I) sit in my living room filling up glass after glass of wine just laughing and talking for hours- especially about hookups and relationships. The whole time, we have broken the touch boundary and so we are leaning on each other laughing, touching legs, etc. and my friend is sitting there with pure chaos surrounding them until they finally leave to go meet another hookup- by this point it is around 3am on a Sunday night (monday morning?).

The rest is history from that night, just picture how any rom com scenario would happen. Some highlights were that he helped me clean up the wine, in the morning he made my bed while I was showering and then we scrolled through the instagram the-hidden-biscuit (follow it, its good).

After that I kind of ghosted Daniel, as I felt as if I had made a choice. He was nothing but nice to me, but I was a bitch and he didn't deserve that, I still kind of regret it but hey, what am I gonna do?

The next few weeks Will and I continued to hookup (one night in specific I got the worst hickeys of my life, Jesus, my neck was BLACK). So I was happy and saw it going somewhere and so, being a Libra, my mind took that as “YOU ARE IN LOVE WITH HIM AND GOING TO BE WITH HIM FOREVER!! YOU HAVE SO MUCH IN COMMON, THIS IS GREAT!” maybe not to that extent but in theory, I had caught feelings. Which wouldn't be mad if he too wasn't moving away and also if winter break wasn't starting immediately following this. Now, by this point I know it had gotten out that we were doin this thing, because one of his gal friends (we’ll call her Janice) came up to me during a party to express how she thought it was cute (more on this later).

That was what I needed to like set that my feelings were there, he had told his friends about me, so I couldn’t be “just a girl hes hooking up with” anymore, right?

WRONG.

So for the next few weeks we kept in contact (me thinking this could lead to something good) and I continued texting Janice to like see if he actually likes me (this seems normal and healthy right?). Anyway, she finally tells me that she respects us both too much to get in the middle of it, which kind of put me off but it wasn’t really her business anyway, I just like talking to people.

So, time goes by and it feels like hes distancing himself, texts are getting less responsive, as are snapchats and everything in between.

So on the fateful night of New Years Eve, I have been depressed all day, I drink a little too much champagne and I start talking to one of my best friends Leah. I keep saying I should send a text admitting how I feel and blah blah blah, she roots me on and all of a sudden its 1am and I send the text, immediately freak out and go to bed.

In the morning, no response yet, then I get one in the afternoon. I had a bad feeling about it and so I decide not to read it (I still haven't opened it so don’t ask me what it said, I don’t know). Rightfully so, we don’t snap each other or text for a while after that (we still haven’t texted) and so I decide to send a mass snap and include him in it. I GET A RESPONSE! that’s a good thing right? it means he doesn’t think i’m weird right?

We continue to snap, not as much as before but I still refuse to look at the text so nothing else can progress.

I get back up to school and plan to see Janice, as we are now friends and I want to hang out with her, she comes over and we watch A Cinderella Story, the one with Hillary Duff, and do face masks. The movie ends and I suggest we go eat hummus (my favorite snack) and she agrees but says that we need to talk first.

I immediately know what about and my stomach becomes a knot and sinks at the same time. “So, over break Will and I started talking as more than friends... I just want to let you know, I know that you guys talked and I wanted to go to you and make sure you’re okay with it.” WELL NO OF COURSE I AM NOT OKAY WITH IT, NO WE DIDN'T TALK, WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY THOUGH?

So I swallow my sadness and tell Janice that “of course im okay with it” and then she continues about how much she respects and loves me and how im a “goddess” and “so hot” and “perfect” and etc. As fake people do, especially when they hurt you.

So after that I got a snap from him that I have refused to open, and she stayed at my apartment for the rest of the day because she obviously didn't get the cue that you leave someone alone after saying something like that.

But just like that, again a man has been taken from my life. I knew that it probably wouldnt last, and I always felt threatened by her. But as a person I was raised to not feel threatened by other women and to not date your friends crushes, no matter how much you want to. But obviously she didn’t learn that.

Now i’m back to square one, learning to love myself and others again.

To do this, Ive surrounded myself constantly with people I love (mostly friends), Ive been doing a lot of face masks, ive been baking a lot of sweets, watching a lot of movies, and taking on way more work than one person has time to do. Keeping myself busy is the best way to grow, and self growth leads to self love.

But yeah, its going to be a while until I go back to men I think, I have to rebuild myself after being torn down, and im going to try this time, to separate toxic people. Maybe i’ll do some traveling too.

Here’s to 2019- the year im dating myself.

#yestermen #men #2019 #dating myself #mr steal yo girl

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curly-q-reviews · 5 years

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FLIX FROM THE NET

Bird Box, 2018 (dir. Susanne Bier)

SPOILER WARNING THERE WILL BE SPOILERS DONT READ IF U HAVENT SEEN IT YET AND WANT TO

[TW: SUICIDE, MURDER, VIOLENCE, BLOOD, GORE]

well fuck its been a while!! happy new year y’all hope u had a Fun and Safe time!!! i for one was at a party where we started playing Shrek at exactly 10:39 PM to see if Smash Mouth’s hit song I’m a Believer started playing right at midnight and to my utter disbelief and elation it did!!! move over times square ball drop a new arbitrary way of celebrating the start of a new calendar year is here and it involves a large green monster with a scottish accent who really loves his onions (#me am i right ladies)

WELL ANYWAY heres a fun new series ive been thinking of starting cause ya girl watches a lot of netflix movies and has many opinions about them. i think i’ll do a separate post about the whole Netflix Original Film trend in general and how its changed the film industry at a later date but since i just watched the above movie not too long ago i wanted to get all my thoughts out there right fuckin now!!

netflix is without a doubt the OG king of streaming services, they were really the first to get the ball rolling and then dozens of other companies scrambled to latch onto this money train while it was rolling on the tracks full steam (or should i say.... stream EL;KGHS;EKFSH; please end me) ahead. it started out as a rental subscription service where u could pick out three movies at a time to rent and then they were sent to u in the mail (like blockbuster but now you never have to leave your house ever again to get that sweet sweet rental content). and then the decision was made to actually start online streaming, no physical DVD’s required! ISNT TECHNOLOGY GREAT

well whoooo boy this shit swept the nation, people couldnt get enough of such a convenient and relatively affordable service and netflix started really raking in the dough. and at some point they got rich enough to say “hey fuck it!!! lets make our own movies baby!!!!” and here we are now with Netflix Original Movies and TV Shows, which means a new player has entered the movie game in a very novel and innovative way. why pay money for a movie ticket and leave your house to go to a theater when cool new movies are being released on a subscription service u already own to watch movies you already know and enjoy? and then u can sit butt-ass naked in ur bedroom alone stuffing ur face with cheese puffs like an insatiable cheddar beast and see something new and fun and interesting

ok so. Bird Box. here we have a movie based off of a book (so i guess this also counts as a Book Movies review but I DIGRESS) starring hollywood powerhouse sandra bullock, featuring Supreme Lesbian Overlord Sarah Paulson and Resident Crazy Old Man John Malkovich, directed by a relatively unknown but competent female filmmaker Susanne Bier (who also directed Things We Lost in the Fire in 2007, a moving drama starring Halle Berry). this one definitely has a lot of proimse compared to what netflix has offered so far in terms of their original movies (im gonna get into Dumplin’ at a later date cause jesus christ what a mess) and i went in with pretty high expectations

did it deliver??? well uuhhhh yeah sort of i guess!! we got some pretty strong performances from our leading lady bullock who really does deliver it every time, a few strong supporting roles like newcomer Trevante Rhodes of Moonlight fame (his energy on screen is just so compelling and soothing), not overly obnoxious child actors which is really all u can ask for, and overall a solid story.

now heres where i gotta say that i couldnt help comparing this film to another movie of its kind, directed by the notorious M. Night Shyamalan. y’all remember The Happening? cause i remember The Happening. i remember that it was total shit and that the twist was that it was the fucking plants making everyone kill themselves. the PLANTS. and i also remember mark wahlbergs dumb-ass confused face that he used in every single shot no matter the context, im AMAZED i remember zoe deschanel in this movie cause she may as well have been one of the killer plants with how little she emoted, and i remember mark wahlberg yelling at a fake office ficus and apparently i was supposed to be scared while watching this clusterfuck.

the way that this movie was described to me by friends who had seen it before me was basically that Bird Box is a slightly better The Happening, and no truer words have ever been spoken. we basically have the same premise going on here: unknown force is causing people to off themselves, our lead(s) have to try and find a way to escape this unknown force without even knowing what it really is, and theres some sort of “sanctuary” they gotta try and get to (which is a common plot point in really all apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic films). now whereas The Happening’s rules for this scenario make entirely no fucking sense (how in the fuck are u supposed to be able to out-run WIND???), Bird Box has some rules for dealing with this Unknown Thing that make slightly more sense. when u open ur eyes while outside, the chance of the Thing making u kill urself in some horrific way is extremely high, so wear a blindfold when ur outside and keep all windows covered when ur inside. makes sense! thats something i can believe and get behind which makes me more immersed in the story!

unfortunately like The Happening there are still some little things that kinda dont make much sense and take u out of it. apparently some people when they see this unknown entity dont wanna die, but instead find it absolutely beautiful, which makes them want to make everyone else look at it to see how beautiful it is. and its insinuated that these people are mentally ill or have some sort of psychiatric issue. i get that this adds more stakes to the situation and ups the ante, but it doesnt really sit well with me that once again, mentally ill people are the villains in a horror-type story. and i also dont really understand why theyd then wanna go around and make other people see the thing?? unless the thing has them in a mind-control state or something and is making them do its bidding but that seems kind of a weird thing for an all-powerful evil formless entity to do.

and that leads me to the next issue i have with Bird Box. if ur gonna have an apocalyptic scenario where people do something as serious as kill themselves due to an unknown cause, it almost seems a little cliche and cheesy to have it be some sort of mythical celestial god-like or demon-like entity thats doing the damage. i actually really liked where The Happening was going with its source of all the chaos being something naturally made, like the Earth deploying some sort of self-preservation mechanism or something. the idea of that to me is actually loads more frightening than some invisible boogeyman that u cant look at. and then Shamalamadingdong had to go and make it stupid by saying that it was fucking plants trying to kill people by releasing pheromones or some shit. like why cant we have the best of both of these?? something naturally-occuring that maybe has even happened before in the planets history (maybe it wasnt a meteor that killed off the dinosaurs after all??), that isnt FUCKING PLANTS, and that doesnt do cheesy shit like make ur eyes turn grey and bloodshot and like whisper to u telling u to take ur blindfold off (i swear that happens multiple times it was pretty silly)

thats another thing, this movie’s tone is all over the place. there are some moments where a more light-hearted tone is needed to break up the tension, for sure, but it almost as if the writing and dialogue werent really taking this serious of a story as seriously as they should have. weirdly placed jokes are all over the place, there were some moments where the dialogue made me cringe cause it was so awkward. bullock’s character gets to have some good breakdown moments which help bring the tone to the level of somberness and despair it should be at, but all the other supporting characters dont really get the same space to process whats happening to them, so it kinda comes off like they arent really affected by, say, their wife throwing herself into a burning car right in front of their very eyes.

overall i’d still say this is a worthwhile watch, especially considering its a netflix movie. if you’ve ever wanted to see a not-as-horrible version of The Happening that has some deeper metaphorical stuff going on about motherhood and family and shit than this is for you. the production value is overall pretty solid (though when it comes to cinematography i actually prefer The Happening from an artistic standpoint) and sandra bullock knocks it out of the park. go check it out if this seems like something thats up ur alley!!

ok bye for now hopefully it doesnt take me six months to write another review but we’ll see!! my brain is a mystery and time is an illusion HAPPY 20-BI-TEEN Y’ALL

#curly q reviews #bird box #netflix #book movies #flix from the net #the happening #m night shyamalan #sandra bullock #sarah paulson #john malkovich #trevante rhodes #horror #thriller #movies #films #netflix original movies

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loftyexecutor · 6 years

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besotted

pairing; addels [ISDE] rating; k category; fluff wc; 1610 notes; ive been working on this for a while and im excited to have it finally done!!!! features @dezimaton‘s aaaaaaamazing art, i cried seeing it!!!! enjoy this soft date setting!!

ao3 mirror

Who would’ve thought cover-all-body-parts, shy and stay-at-home-even-at-all-times Esper would willingly go outside in sweltering heat, clad in a dress that left his shoulders and arms completely bare. Not that Infi is complaining, mind you, quite the opposite, actually.

Though it feels a little switched to have Esper lead him around the Velder square this time, hand gripping Infi’s in an almost possessive hold as he shows Infi shop after shop, always stopping in front of the windows to peer inside.

It’s no surprise that whenever Esper spots anything cat-themed, he has to go in and get it. It’s not like he can’t afford it. Not even an hour into their outing and Esper has a bag chock-full; he couldn’t pass up the cute cat-face hairbands when his hair had been getting long enough to put in a tiny ponytail; neither could he say no to the hand-painted shirts; and Infi couldn’t not buy him that big-ass cat plushie that doubled as a pillow, not when Esper’s eyes quite literally lit up when he saw it.

A few thousand ED to see Esper glowing, the widest smile adorning his face? That’s a deal Infi would agree to even at three in the morning, sleep-deprived and on the verge of passing out.

He’s still stuck in his little reverie when Esper grasps his hand, fingers squeezing as he drags Infi through the cobblestoned square. “I’ve never shown you my favorite cafe,” Esper says, a little giddy and a little breathless, and Infi doesn’t have it in him to remind Esper that out of the two of them, only one likes anything related to coffee, and his name sure as hell doesn’t start with an ‘E’. He’s losing a battle with a smile occupying his face, anyway.

He cafe turns out to be tucked away in one of the many alleys branching from the main square, and it’d be easy missable, if not for the — admittedly — cute banner protruding from the wall, a cheery yellow against the wooden structure.

There’s a bell that chimes overhead as they enter and as soon as the door closes after them, they’re engulfed in the tranquil atmosphere of the place. Dark wooden tables are set up with floral tablecloths, far enough apart that the three people scattered in the corners wouldn’t even eavesdrop on them. Probably.

Infi can see why it’s Esper’s favorite; with the light walls and pastel curtains letting in the natural sunlight, it seems to be the perfect place to sit down and think for a while.

Esper chooses a table for them while Infi is busy admiring the colorful decor. He chooses the one directly by the large window, overlooking the other side of the street.

“Do you sit here?” Infi asks, reclining on the chair, “When you come here by yourself, I mean.”

Esper nods, peering out the window. “I like this spot, it’s pretty.”

Infi bites back a remark — ‘not as pretty as you, hah!’ — and follows Esper’s line of sight to the outside. For some reason he’s not surprised to see a garden; a field of grass beneath a tall tree, no road in sight. The breeze is toying with the leaves, casting moving shadows and glittering spots of light onto the luck greenery. Daffodils sprout in the endless grass, thousands and thousands yellow spots scattered all over. They look soft and almost beckon to be laid in while swaying to and fro to the whims of the wind.

Infi doesn’t usually pay attention to such things — and how could he, when it usually doesn’t matter what’s around them as long as it’s not toxic or actively trying to eat them whole.

“Hey,” he says, tearing his eyes away from the spring display to find Esper’s gaze trained on him and him alone. Infi swallows, choking up a little as he looks at Esper, really looks at him for a second, frozen in the swaying sunlight that makes his eyes positively shine. He doesn’t look like a fierce warrior capable of tearing time and space itself at that moment; he looks like everything bright in Infi’s life at that one single point, pink cheeks and sharp teeth and all.

He feels compelled to lean over and kiss those plush lips, so he does, catching Esper off guard, if the little squeak he gasps out is anything to go by. Esper’s face colors an adorable shade of pink and Infi grins like a madman when he pulls away.

“Thanks you for showing me this place,” he says, leaning on his forearms. His face is set in a really sappy expression, probably. Esper squirms in his seat, averting his face; Infi can see the whites of his eyes turning dark. It’s so endearing to see Esper losing his composure over something so small.

The time traveler is saved further embarrassment when the server comes over to their table, fidgeting with her hands as she side eyes Infi, obviously favoring Esper’s side of the table.

“Hello, what can I get you?” she asks, tapping the tip of her pen against a notepad. She’s wearing a dark parron over a pastel green dress, a combination that both fits into and stands out in the cafe at the same time.

“Uh, I don’t know, I don’t really like uh—” Infi starts, but Esper pipes up to shut him up, chuckling.

“I’ll order for you,” he offers, and who is Infi to argue when the menu has five entire pages of coffee specialty bullshit he doesn’t understand a word of. Esper motions the server to lean down and she does so he can whisper something to her and she nods, scribbling onto her notepad so she doesn’t forget the order. Esper flashes her a jagged grin that makes her recoil, but she goes to the back room to get their… whatever Esper ordered them.

“She seemed nervous,” Infi remarks, staring at the door that she disappeared behind.

“You’re well-known, dont’ you know?”

“But why would she be so nervous? Of me?”

“Rumors fly between people. I bet people heard you took in the dark El, and those who don’t know you don’t know you’re… yeah,” Esper trails off.

“I’m?...”

“Y’know… nice and sweet,” Esper mumbles, looking anywhere but at Infi.

Infi grins. “Aw, you just called me sweet!” her taunts, without any malice.

Esper’s face turns about ten shades more red. It’s really endearing, if Infi does say so himself.

“Shut up,” the time traveler grumbles. He’s positively pouting.

Infi can't get enough of his cute face, especially not now, but alas, his attention is pulled by the server that returns with a tray, carefully setting their order in front of them.

Infi gawks at the cute slice of cake she places before him, alongside a small tea kettle and a porcelain cup. The cake is pink, with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles on top, and what appears to be vanilla cream in the middle. Esper had ordered himself a big black coffee, though Infi knows so little about coffee that it must have a four-word title that would give him a headache to even try and pronounce.

There’s also a cone of pistachio ice cream — that he can name, thank you very much! — complete with a small metallic holder to keep it up.

“Thanks,” he mumbles to the server and at least this time she doesn��t recoil from him.

Esper takes a sip of the coffee, ignoring that its still piping hot. Infi watches him do it with a mi of bewilderment and aversion, pouring himself the tea to cool down like a normal person. It smells amazing, but the only thing he can discern among it is apples.

“What’d you even order us?” he asks, lifting a fork to the cake to try it, “What is it?”

“She calls it a ‘piece of heaven’,” Esper laughs, “but I think it’s just a strawberry cake.”

Esper takes his cone from its little holder and licks a stripe of the green thing, licking his lips at the taste. Infi is dazzled by the bit at the corner of his mouth that he doesn’t get, eyes glued to the smile on those eact lips.

“Want some?” Esper asks, holding the cone out for him.

“Sure!” Infi says, excitement creeping into his voice. Instead of going for the cone, however he leans over and licks the spot off Esper’s lip with no hesitation.

Esper squeaks again, almost dropping the ice cream. His face is on fire when Infi pulls back, flashing a toothy grin. “Tastes great!” he exclaims, “But that might’ve just been you, so…”

Esper punches him in the upper arm with his free hand, hardly enough to hurt. “You’re an idiot.”

“Aww, but you liked it! Don’t even deny it, your cheeks look the same as my hair right now!”

Esper grumbles something under his breath, but he doesn’t actually deny it.

“I don’t mind cleaning you up when you get it on your face again,” Infi promises.

Esper steals the fork from his fingers with a swift move, grabbing a bit of the whipped cream from the cake. Before Infi can even realize it, he’s smearing it all over Infi’s lips and chin. There’s a shit-eating grin on his lips when sets the fork back down.

“Then I guess it’s only fair if I do the same, hm?”

Infi bursts into a laugh, taken aback by Esper’s quick wit once more. His heart kind of wants to get out of his chest and into Esper’s hands. But it’s already there, he supposes.

“Nothing’s fair in love and food!”

#elsword #addels #isde #.elsword #.fluff #.1k #.addels #.isde #i had so much fun writing this one hhhhhhhhhhhh

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kristie-rp · 5 years

Text

[2018] Garrett: Turning

It is a truth universally acknowledged that anyone acting particularly weird in the hospital must be in want of Doctor Vincent Constantine.

Okay, no, that’s not true, exactly. It’s more a truth acknowledged only within the hospital itself, and weirdness is relative, and they don’t always know they need Constantine’s expertise. That’s just how it gets explained to Garrett when he starts his placement during med school, by a curly haired woman speaking behind her hand in a stage whisper. Doctor Constantine himself snorts and shoots her an unimpressed look, and does a double take when he sees Garrett. There’s something vaguely familiar in it, and the intern smiles politely. “Hi, Doctor Constantine.”

“Call me Vincent,” comes the reply. “She’s right, in a manner of speaking. If something seems particularly... peculiar, then I am the resident expert. Feel free to come to me.”

Garrett doesn’t think much about it, afterwards. The thing is, he doesn’t work in Vincent’s department, at least not at first. The older man operates largely out of the basement, where a morgue would be in any other hospital: it has been turned into a ward, and the windows of half the rooms are blacked out with heavy tarps. It’s eerie. When Garrett brings his toddler daughter April to work some days, when she is too young to be home alone and not able to be at daycare, she tends to spend time with the old man. He doesn’t get it, but he allows it.

He’s been a fully qualified medical practitioner employed by the hospital for eight months before he thinks about the description of Vincent’s specialisation. A couple have brought in their terrified daughter, who is incredibly pretty for a human child and also very quick-witted and persuasive. She has talked the nurse out of at least three lollipops before Garrett arrives in the room to introduce himself and shoo the nurse away.

“Do you really need so many,” her mother is asking a little helplessly, taking the third one from her daughter. The little girl shrugs, and asks her dad to get her some water, please, from the vending machine. Because her mother is the one with money, she goes, too. The little girl is alone with Garrett.

“They think I’m sick,” she informs him flatly, pouting slightly. “I don’t think they’re wrong. I mean. I know I’m not like the other girls. And there are these.” She tugs at her beanie and it lifts away to reveal small horns on her forehead. She is very careful not to rip the wool. “My mom’s worried.”

“Cutaneous horns aren’t unheard of,” Garrett tries. He doubts it’s that simple; the very sentence sits wrong on his tongue. Plus, every instance of cutaneous horns he’s heard of presented in the elderly.

The little girl, apparently, is aware of this. “I know how to Google,” she says dismissively, “and I know only old people have that happen. So why is this happening to me now?”

Garrett hesitates. He can order tests – of course he can. But something gives him pause. The mother and father return, and Garrett makes up his mind: he leans out of the door to catch a nurse as she passes by. “Hi, sorry – can you run down to the basement and find Doctor Constantine, please? I need a consult.”

The nurse looks at him curiously, but returns in fifteen minutes with Vincent himself. He looks between the couple. “Are you her father?”

The man shakes his head. “We adopted her a few years ago,” he explains. The little girl doesn’t seem bothered by this, and her mother has rested a hand on her little girls shoulder. “We have the record of her biological parents medical information –”

The mother starts to search in her bag for the papers. Vincent stops her with a wave of her hand. “No matter, they won’t be accurate.”

The parents make outraged sounds, and the little girl blinks at him. “You know what’s wrong with me?” she asks. Her voice is much smaller than it was earlier, alone with Garrett. He can’t blame her, really; Vincent has that effect on people.

“Have any of you heard of a Cambion?” is what Vincent asks, completely without preamble. Garrett starts, because he’s heard of those, in fascinated Wikipedia spirals that almost always end with him looking up different takes on mythological beings – and this doctor, whom he respects, is talking as though the creature is real. “It is the result of a sexual union between an Incubus and a human woman. I’d bet the mother listed her boyfriends information before giving her up, knowing exactly what she was getting into.” He pauses, addressing the girl directly. “The horns may be surgically removed once they are fully grown, but that won’t happen until you’ve completed puberty. You likely had almost no pulse until you were seven, and you’ve likely noticed you barely need to breathe. You’re clever and beautiful, more than human girls, and you’re persuasive. Many would call you manipulative. Does this sound right?” The little girl is staring at him, somewhere between dumbfounded and fascinated. Garrett can see in her face that this explains everything. “You have the potential to be evil, but with good parents – nurture over nature, all that – it can be subverted or at least limited. Any questions?”

If there are, Garrett doesn’t hear them, watching the girls face instead. He can’t see Vincent’s, but that girl is looking at him like he told her the meaning of life, and has no longer left her confused and wanting, unsure what she is.

Garrett doesn’t know if he entirely believes the story, but he’s half-way there. It helps that the little girl pauses to give him a hug and to thank him on the way out, beanie back in place.

Garrett’s co-workers think that his fascination with Vincent’s so-called department – which exists primarily due to the Constantine’s donating more money to the hospital than the accounting department is willing to disclose – is ridiculous and confusing. They think Vincent is insane, or delusional, or at least eccentric, for all they respect him as their fellow doctor. But every single one of them is willing to call the older man for a consult when the situation calls for it, which is really all Garrett can hope for, so he mostly ignores the opportunities to mock them.

(Mostly, because sometimes he cannot bite his tongue fast enough to ensure he is less sarcastic in the workplace than he is at home, with April, who by now is a teenager who really ought to have a more sincere parental figure to turn to.)

Anyway: it is not uncommon for Garrett to visit Vincent’s basement, either to ask pointed questions or chat with patients kept so separate from the others. He does this more predictably on the nights when April is not supposed to be coming home, and tonight she is staying at a friends place while they work on a project for class. He does not have to be home in time for dinner, so he meanders down to where he can visit at his own pace.

There is a woman with albinism in one room. She greets him warmly, as she had the last time he’d been here, by putting on a terrible Transylvanian accent and calling herself a vampire. Garrett quirks a brow at her, thinking something along the lines of you wouldn’t be quite that pale if you dined on blood, Zoe. She laughs aloud. “Alright, fair enough, I’ll let you have that one. Stop by on your way out, Doc,” she insists, and he can almost feel the idea settling in his mind, ensuring he will do as asked later.

“Is your tail ever going to heal?” Garrett asks the man in the next room, curious.

The merman with his blue-tinted skin snorts, his teeth growing in jagged rows; according to what he’s told them, he is a hybrid of some sharks that wouldn’t ever frequent the bay around Port Lyndon. “I’m not the doctor,” he says, splashing impatiently. He is caught halfway between human and mer form, and the pain shows in how pale around the gills he is. “Ask Vince.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll get right on that. Straight after my stopover at H.L. to let them know what I am,” Garrett retorts, earning a laugh from the mer as he splashes contentedly.

He stops at the door of the selkie to smile and let her know that he’s passing through, because he knows she’s mostly here because of the debilitating anxiety that came from losing her pelt – only she hasn’t felt compelled to actually go to anyone, so it isn’t stolen, just legitimately lost. There’d be more chance of finding it if it was stolen, from what Garrett understands – it is hard to get her to talk, because Vincent is the expert, and he’s not exactly personable.

The next room was home to a slightly burned dryad the last time he was here, but his bark was basically finished moulting, which means he should be gone, and the room should be empty. Garrett opens the door to check, eyes widening when he instead gets an eyeful of a wolf-like being – it’s a fully transformed werewolf, he knows that – and yet his immediate panicked reaction is to step closer and slam the door closed.

Yeah, his self-preservation instincts have always been terrible, he is aware. He does things like drink hot sauce on a dare (college) and break into his parents liquor cabinet (high school) and grab the arms of angry looking people on crutches to prevent them from walking into traffic (summer between high school and college, and actually he’s proud of that one). He has a feeling he’d step in front of a gunman to save someone, even a stranger.

That might explain locking himself in with an angry looking werewolf. One that’s currently edging closer.

“Crap,” he croaks, panic making his voice crack, and presses himself against the door.

He blacks out.

It’s probably for the best.

“I have to hand it to you, Garrett,” a familiar voice is saying when he comes to, blinking at a white tile ceiling, “if you were going to be infected by a supernatural condition, this is probably the best possible place you could’ve done it.”

“That’s nice,” Garrett says. He thinks he sounds about as sarcastic as usual, but he might be a little dazed. It’s something to do with the fact that he can make out the little specks across the surface of the tiles, which is weird, because he should be wearing glasses, and he can’t feel them on his face. “I think my veins are on fire.”

“That’d be the wolfsbane,” the voice answers, apparently unbothered. It’s Vincent. Garrett is not surprised.

Garrett closes his eyes. “You’re suppressing a transformation, aren’t you. Isn’t that a bad idea?”

“Which one of us is the expert?”

Garrett scoffs. “Which one of us is a werewolf?”

There’s a long silence that makes Garrett want to open his eyes, but it’s bad enough that he can hear a heartbeat that he’s pretty sure isn’t close enough to be Vincent. Which means his co-worker doesn’t have a heartbeat. Which – he had to pass a medical to get this job; how did Vincent get the job with no heartbeat, without causing some sort of crisis? He keeps his eyes firmly shut, thanks ever so much. “Touché,” Vincent says at last, and Garrett can hear the amusement in his voice.

“How long was I out?”

“A couple of hours. Your phone rang; it was your daughter. She’ll be here soon.”

“Sure, that’s a brilliant idea,” he mutters, sarcasm heavy in his voice. Garrett’s eyes fly open and he sits up a little quicker than he would like, blinking against the abrupt change of scenery and the headrush. “By which I mean, you just said I’m a newly turned werewolf, Vincent, what the fuck?”

“At least you already know werewolves exist,” he says.

It’s not helpful. Garrett gives him the glare he thinks he deserves, and then lays back down, pressing his palms into his closed eyes. Maybe if he thinks hard enough, this will go away. “I can’t be a werewolf,” he says, as if it will change anything. “I have a teenage daughter. I’m a medical doctor. I work night shift half the time, I can’t take every full moon off!”

“That’s what the wolfsbane is for.”

“Oh, right. How could I forget? My veins feel like they’re actually on fire and this is the only way to not turn into a wolf that will bite anyone around.”

“You’re a very negative person, aren’t you?”

Garrett grimaces. He’s just realized what the heartbeat he can hear actually is, and attempts to peer at the other occupant of the room, the one he missed. “Sorry, Dave. I didn’t mean any offence. Much.”

Dave, the werewolf responsible for this entire thing, snorts, but it sounds half-hearted and exhausted. He is trembling. “I should be the one apologizing. I ruined your life, man. I owe you.”

“Should I be worried about the shaking?”

“Doc didn’t give me any ‘bane until I’d already transformed, is all. Remember to take it like you’re s’posed to and it works out better.”

“Great.” Garrett takes medication for anxiety on the daily. He now has to add injections of liquidated wolfsbane to his schedule at least once a month, twice in a blue moon, and he really doesn’t want to wish harm on Dave – so he doesn’t. He closes his eyes again, takes a deep, supposedly steadying breath. “This is just what I needed.”

“Dad?”

Garrett opens his eyes and looks up. April is standing over him with a look of concern, the door open behind where his head has been resting this entire time. “Hey, sweetie,” he says, trying for a sincere smile. He doesn’t know how close he gets as she dumps her bag and kneels down beside him. “I hear your sleepover wasn’t that great.”

“Muriel is being mean, so I called to come home. Vincent said you were – hurt?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just – um.” Garrett pauses. He cannot lie to his daughter, she needs to know what is going on. It isn’t fair to keep her in the dark.

He has to tell her about supernaturals, if she hasn’t guessed already.

Garrett groans aloud, pressing his palms back into his eye sockets. “Remind me to kill you later,” he mutters. “It’s the least you deserve.”

Vincent snorts, and Dave’s noise is more like a whimper. There’s something decidedly lupine in it, and that’s exactly the sort of thing Garrett needs to hear right now.

“So,” he starts, pulling his eyes away, “you know how there are humans in the world, and they have different races? African, Asian, Caucasian, Mongoloid.”

“Yes...?”

“Well, those differences are just aesthetic. The differences that actually matter a little bit are the ones that make human beings into something – supernatural.”

There’s quiet for a long moment. “Are you trying to make a joke about that TV show?” April asks, wary.

Garrett sighs. He wishes he was. “I wish I was,” he says, “but what I’m actually saying is that vampires and werewolves and dryads and all that – it’s real. That’s what’s special about Vincent’s patients. That’s why they are in the basements, that’s why pretty much everyone avoids him and thinks he’s insane.”

“Hey,” Vincent says. It’s mild enough that Garrett doesn’t believe he actually cares.

“Also, that’s Dave. Say hi to Dave.” He waits for April to wave awkwardly at the patient. “He’s a werewolf. And he bit me.”

#kristie's writing #kristie writes #kwrites #kwriting #ft. garrett #ft. dave #ft. vincent #ft. april

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