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tomtenadia · 10 months

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Detours to you - ch 2

Hello and good Sunday :)

For those interested I have e present. This chapter is a bit angsty and I am sorry.

Please do not be mad at either of them. it's a very tricky situation and they are just fighting for what they believe is the right thing to do.

Hope you will like it.

MASTERLIST

The following morning, Aelin arrived at the shop a bit earlier and found that Elide was already there “Morning, Lorcan kicked you out?”

Her friend turned and Aelin froze at the woman’s expression “El, are you okay?”

“Ae, I need to talk to you and I need to do it before we open.”

“You are scaring me,” Aelin dumped her behind the counter “what happened?”

Elide took a deep breath and counted till five “You know, Lorcan and his friends have a bro code and have rules and all,” she blabbered “and you know he is stubborn and I tried…”

Aelin groaned hard “El, please.”

“Rowan is back and Lorcan told him about Maya.” She blurted out in one breath.

Aelin stood eyes wide open, her hands shaking.

“Aelin, please talk to me.”

She just grabbed her bag and ran to her office, slamming the door shut.

In that instant Lysandra walked in carrying hot drinks and sensed the bad energy in the air “what happened here?”

“I told Aelin that Rowan is back and that Lorcan told him about Maya.”

Lysandra cursed loudly “this is bad. Where is she?”

Elide nodded towards the office “I think she needs a bit of space before we open.

Both women stared at the closed door with a heavy heart “Your husband deserves to stay without sex for three months.”

“Hey, that’s a punishment for me too.”

Lysandra wanted to laugh but the situation did not call for it. Slowly they got the shop ready for the day and left Aelin in peace for a bit.

Rowan was excited and nervous at the same time for his first day as chief. Tradition was that the new chief would visit all of the houses on his first two days to introduce themselves to the teams. He had made a plan of the order in which he wanted to go and had started early. Now in his TFD pickup he was driving to the first one. He’d start from the northern part and slowly make his way down to the south and then hit the centre to finish with Station 15. His old firehouse. His old team. He had kept in touch with Lorcan and knew all about what had happened throughout the years. He was proud of them and was looking forward to see them again. But first of all he had to visit all of the other stations.

It was late noon when he decided to take a lunch break from his tour. He had a productive morning and had managed to visit a good number of firehouses and was on track to keep his schedule. He drove towards old Orynth and parked near the Florine, strolling through the pedestrian area. He had always loved the old part of the city. It had personality and charm. Rowan walked down the cobbled street reaching one of the street vendors where he bought some food and then sat down near the river bank on a bench. Terrasen and Orynth had always felt more home than Doranelle. He had set roots there, had spent a good part of his adult life in those lands and leaving had been painful. But now he was back and had unexpectedly found a new reason to never leave again.

He thought about Maya, he only had a small glimpse, but the girl looked like the most adorable child he had ever seen. He wanted to get to know her.

The previous night while laying in the grass he thought about things to teach her, wondered if she liked the stars or hockey or crazy sugary stuff like her mother. He had always wanted kids, that was something he and Aelin had discussed while they were dating. Rowan wanted a big family and now that the possibility was within grasp he would do his best to fight for it until the end.

Lunch finished he resumed his walk and found himself in front of the window of Aelin’s shop. He had missed the inauguration by a week but had seen photos. He had helped her throughout the whole process and saw the shop slowly coming alive. She had done well and, although he was mad at her for lying at him, he was proud of her.

Hesitation hit him hard. A part of him wanted to go inside, but the other was not sure. He had no idea how he would feel at seeing her again. His feelings were far too tangled to be able to predict his reaction and it unnerved him.

Step by step he moved closer and at the front door his hand moved on the handle and pushed the door open.

A bell marked the arrival of a new customer and two heads turned towards him. Both black haired: Elide and Lysandra. He stood, incapable of moving an inch. His eyes scanned the shop and did not find Aelin.

“Rowan,” Elide had walked to him, followed by Lysandra.

“So you are back,” added Lysandra almost in a confrontational tone.

“My mum got tired of me.” He tried to make a joke but his nervousness hitched up a notch. The two women clearly did not like him and he was okay with it. He just wanted to talk to Aelin “Is Aelin around?”

The two women exchanged glances and then indicated the office with their heads. Before he could move, Lysandra’s hand landed on his arm “You hurt her and I swear Whitethorn, you will be running back to Wendlyn within a day.”

Rowan glared at the woman and gently extricated himself from the grip. Why was he the bad guy all of a sudden?

He reached the door of the office and knocked.

Aelin slumped on her chair behind the desk and buried her face in her hands. A sob broke the silence of the room and then another and one more. Aelin let her tears flow. So many questions crowding her mind. Rowan was back. And he knew. How was she going to explain to him the reasons why she had lied? Her fears? Why was he back?

She stood and paced the room, looking outside where the snow was falling hard. She had woken up in a wonderful mood but now…

Aelin almost sat down again when a knock at the door stopped her.

Silence and a second knock came a few seconds later “Aelin?”

That voice. She hadn’t heard it in five years but it still had the power to undo her. His accent. That lilting tone that was so him. Her heart raced and concentrated hard on what awaited her behind the door.

“Come in,” she croaked.

The door opened slightly and Rowan appeared in front of her. He had his uniform on, a white shirt, blue cargo trousers and a blue soft shell jacket that read Chief Whitethorn. She looked up at his face and her breath caught. His hair was slightly longer and his face… the harsh lines that gave him a rugged handsomeness were all still there. She hadn’t seen him in five years and her heart still raced like the first time.

“Rowan,” she breathed harshly “You are back.”

He nodded in silence.

“You look good,” she added, trying to fight the awkwardness of the moment. All of a sudden she had no idea how to talk to him.

“I love the shop. It looks amazing,” his lips bent in a very tight smile.

Aelin leaned against the desk placing her hands behind her “Why are you here?”

A loud snort left Rowan “Really? Do you have to ask me that question?”

“I was not expecting you back.”

“Clearly,” he added trying to clamp down the irritation in his voice “So much that you decided it was okay to keep from me the fact that I have a daughter.”

Aelin briefly looked away “It was the best choice at the time.” She looked back at him and saw fury burn in his pine green eyes. Smouldering hot fury cursing through him.

“She is my daughter too,” he hissed at her “and you lied.”

“You left!” She growled back in response matching his tone.

“Aelin, my father had died, my family was falling apart,” he breathed hard and started pacing “My mother fell into such deep depression that for a while the doctors had thought to place her under suicide watch. I had to go.” The words hit like knives. His mother was doing so much better thanks to therapy and the medication, but he could not forget the months following his father passing. And he was in a dark place too.

“And I let you go, Rowan. I never tried to keep you away from your family so don’t make me pass like a monster.”

Rowan stared at the woman in front of him and all of a sudden he did not recognise her anymore. The woman who had been the love his life had become a stranger. And the deep part of him that still remembered what he felt for her, grieved at the loss.

He took a step closer “Were you pregnant the last time I came back?”

Aelin was silent all of a sudden.

“I did the math after Lorcan told me her birthday.”

“It was pointless anyway.” Her voice sad.

“I could have found a way.”

She looked up at him, her eyes shining with the hint of tears she was trying not to shed “Maya and I were not a weekend past time. You could have never fully committed to us, so I gave you an out.”

She could see that Rowan was pushing down his anger, she knew his reactions so well. His jaw was tight, making the lines of his face harsh, his hands tightened in fists at his side.

“Have you even thought about the fact that knowing that she was a grandma might have helped my mum? That I could have brought her to Terrasen for a while? Do you really think that I was so deep in my sorrow that I would have made a crappy father? I would have found a way to make things work.” He growled trying not to raise his voice.

Her blue eyes met his and saw deep sincerity in them. She knew that Rowan wanted a family and had no doubts that he would make the most caring father a child could have, but a the time she was positive that not telling him was the best way to protect everyone.

“I was just trying to protect her.”

“From her father?”

“From pain, Rowan. From you not being here for her.”

His hand raked roughly through his hair “That worked out well. You robbed me of five years of my daughter’s life. Five years of her growing up, learning to walk, talk, read.”

Aelin was silent and Rowan took that as a clue to keep venting his feelings “I have rights, Aelin. She is my daughter, my blood. I want to see her grow up. I want to teach her things, spend time with her.”

“Until you transfer again.”

He growled again “I bought a house Aelin, I am not leaving Orynth, this is my home.”

“I have to think about it.”

“About what?” He roared a bit too loud “If I am fit to be around her? Are you kidding me?”

“She is five, Rowan. Have you thought about how it would affect her to have a father all of a sudden?”

“Are you ready to answer the question when one day she comes home from school and asks you why she does not have a father like all the other kids?”

Aelin was stunned. Yes, until two days ago she had a lie ready. She would have told Maya that her dad was a firefighter and died bravely in a fire.

“You did!” He added at her silence.

“I was going to tell her you died heroically on the job.”

Pain. She saw the unyielding pain that cursed through Rowan at her admission. He stood silent, staring at her, his eyes set on her “I have rights, I want to see her. I can be a friend of your for now, but I want to see my daughter.”

Aelin was silent. Rowan drew a harsh breath and saw him regains his composure.

“Don’t make me involve lawyers, Aelin,” he said quietly “I don’t want to put our daughter through a custody battle, please.”

With that he left the room.

Aelin slumped on the floor and let the tears come in full force.

taglist

@rowaelinismyotp @swankii-art-teacher @whimsicallyreading @elentiyawhitethorn @aelin-bitch-queen @bruiseonthefaceofhumanity @mis-lil-red @thegreyj @sailorsassley @leiawritesstories @clairec79 @morganofthewildfire @sv0430 @heartless--aromantic @autumnbabylon @rowanaelinn @backtobl4ck @susumaus98 @gracie-rosee @mybloodrunsblue @tanvee1231 @avenrebekah @whoever-you-choose-to-love @theywillnotsingforme @universallytreepost @black-daisy-water @goddess-aelin @whispers-in-the-darkest-heart @lovely-dove-zee @athena127

#rowaelin #rowan whitethorn #rowan x aelin #rowaelin fanfiction #rowaelin fanfic #aelin x rowan #rowanwhitethorn #throne of glass fanfiction #rowaelin angst

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bigtreefest · 2 months

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The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond: pick me up and sling me over your shoulder like those bags of grain pls (edit to title after watching through: Men are stupid)

I’ve never done a complete 180° flip on characters like this in a movie before. Let’s go through it, shall we?

This movie did NOT offer subtitles, and I’d be lying if I said it was easy to understand the southern accents without them. And that’s with my keen ability to understand a Pittsburgh accent, which is arguably worse at times.

Absolutely wild, but when do I not exaggerate and say that? This is somewhat of a play-by-play of what was going through my mind as I watched.

First off, CE was to die for in the movie. I don’t know exactly what it was about it (I know exactly what it was) but I fell in love. Country accent Chris Evans is something else, but Boston accent is much better. But this is a good look, I like it.

Such a simple man with a good heart, and smart enough to get a scholarship to ole miss!? He seemed decent, and the acting was actually pretty good.

The little clueless look of mild discomfort on his face the whole time was so adorable. Any time he was at a party or visiting his mother. I also took note of the way this disappeared as soon as he was home with his dad. As soon as he was in his domain and in control. This is me commending his ability to portray that dichotomy of environments.

But fr, like, how does everyone know who he is and not say anything about him being poor?

I love the way he turned down Caroline at the dance tho. He very obviously does not want to be there, but isn’t that the point? But that statement about him being hired by Fisher struck an alarm for me. Is she almost fetishizing the poor boy?

Fishy is outta left field. It’s unfortunate she’s been forced into this kind of a life, but she’s… a lot.

Also, it’s movies like this that remind me how much the south lags in terms of modernity and stays rooted in tradition sometimes. Like, if you think about it, this takes place at a very similar time as to when Steeb was growing up in Brooklyn in cap, but like, it’s totally worlds away.

Omg, not him hinting at being an escort to make ends meet and get his mom better. He’s ready to sell his soul and body to this girl for his ma and a condition that can’t really heal.

Vinnie definitely saw the diamond in the driveway. I saw her look down when she first saw Jimmy.

Omg not Jimmy having a condom on him during that strip search. Iolllllll

Also also, not the assisted suicide. This lady on her death bed is really spitting facts. It’s a rude awakening for dear Fishy. She knows how much she loves Jimmy and knows that really should be her number one concern.

Poor thing is just peculiar and no one gets her. But to be fair, she does not make it easy.

Fishy, have fun in Europe. You deserve it. You need to get outta this town. It’s not for you. Rip. She doesn’t leave.

I JUST SQUEALED. The way he backed her up against that wall when she’s talking about the way he dresses. I’m gonna throw up. Do that to me. Please. Oop. She struck a nerve talking about his father.

The boys in the yard absolutely suck. All boys in this movie suck.

Why does Jimmy like Vinnie so much? Everyone else very evidently does not.

Dude, tbh the postman game makes me uncomfortable. No need for all this young adult fornication is too much.

I get it’s Halloween, but these costumes and masks are fucking creepy as hell. I didn’t sign up for Fishy’s opium fever dream. She is good at playing the piano tho. Poor thing is in pain.

I FUCKING KNEW IT. Vinnie sucks. And Jimmy just slept with her!!! I’m CRYING. THIS IS SO FUCKED UP. I CANT BELIEVE YOU JUST DID THAT, JIMMY. I BLAME BOTH OF YOU, LITTLE BITCHES. (This was very evidently the moment of the switch-up. Little horny bastardized ruining everything. Keep it in your pants until you have the full story.) (I’m not hating on him for sleeping with Vinnie, I’m hating on him for not seeing Vinnie’s poor character sooner.)

Fisher, you’re a queen, calling Jimmy a scared little boy in the dark. Jimmy, you ARE such a stupid little boy. No way you like these people even though you say you do. Everyone here sucks. This all is making me soupy saddy in the bad way.

Not her saying Jimmy is like god to her. Fishy!!!! You know nothing of what he’s done.

He convinced Vinnie to give back the Diamond. I TOLD YOU knew that she stole it. I really don’t know what he saw in her. Sure, no shame in being poor, but she still kinda sucks

Now that Jimmy is driving Fishy home, he’s still being a little bitch. Check yourself, boy, I swear.

Ohhhhhh. He didn’t want to be with Fisher bc he thinks she can do better than him? I mean, agreed, but that’s still no excuse for your immorality.

They both know she doesn’t belong, but she’s got a lot to stay for. Use your Paris education to fix the world, girl!!!

Despite Jimmy’s amusement of Fisher at the first party and his confession at the end, she still does not get enough credit besides the one lady on her deathbed

Poor Fisher knows no one will ever love her or see her for who she truly is. This is so sad. So I guess he finally kissed her at the levee? What an unsatisfying ending. Fishy deserves the world and Jimmy is such a BOY😭🙄.

#fisher deserved better #Jimmy how could you #he was still hot tho but only physically not emotionally #spoiler alert #spoiler warning #jimmy dobyne #the loss of a teardrop Diamond movie review #Chris Evans #the loss of a teardrop Diamond #Chris Evans movie review #movie review #the loss of a teardrop Diamond review

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lyriumlullaby-ao3 · 3 months

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okayyyy the lovely @ruthvelyan tagged me in a game to gush about an oc?? lmao idk all the rules, i think it can be any oc you like, but i love to talk about my beloved dorterrr so! lmao here we go <3

i'm sorryyyyy i don't have almost any good screen grabs of her bc i'm too busy playinggg lmao

NAME: Miri of Clan Lavellan (all the shems think her clan name is her second name and she is judging them lmao)

NICKNAME: usually it's just Miri, but Varric calls her Snowdrop! (partly bc she reminds him of Merrill :') )

GENDER: cis female

TAROT/ZODIAC: judgement and the wheel of fortune // scorpio sun, capricorn moon, aries rising

HEIGHT: 5'3" // 160 cm

ORIENTATION: straight and polyamorous

NATIONALITY/ETHNICITY: Dalish! her clan roamed the Free Marches and Antiva when she was young.

FAVORITE FRUIT: pears! she loves the flowers too <3

FAVORITE SEASON: summer, definitely! during the summers her clan would travel father south to escape some of the heat, and that often meant they'd spend months camped along the Minanter River. she loved to swim there, and loved all the colorful dragonflies. <3

FAVORITE FLOWER: waterlilies! also courtesy of the Minanter :)

FAVORITE SCENT: wood smoke, the spices used to cure venison in her clan, fresh bread, and the scent of fresh herbs (things like wild mint, elfroot, embrium, vetivert root, and lemongrass!)

COFFEE, TEA, OR HOT CHOCOLATE: teaaaa all the way, and she's especially fond of green tea. she'll drink whatever caffeine is available, though, for sure. i headcanon that Cullen drinks a particular earl grey blend with peppermint for his headaches, and when they get closer i'm sure she drinks it with him and loves it!

AVERAGE HOURS OF SLEEP: 5-7. she tries very hard to get enough sleep, because she knows she's cranky without it and isn't as suited to the work she has to take care of, but she's got a bit of insomnia that makes falling asleep difficult. she's always up with the sun.

DOGS OR CATS: both! her clan kept dogs, but the Circle had a few cats kept around as mousers, and she really enjoys both now.

DREAM TRIP: after being with the Inquisition, Miri's been pretty much everywhere--what she really wants is to go visit her clan, who now live in Wycome on the coast of the Free Marches.

NUMBER OF BLANKETS: 1-3, depending on the season. she doesn't tolerate either hot or cold very well, and adjusts accordingly. she's always liked having soft furs on her bed, too, because it reminds her of home.

RANDOM FACT: Miri's eyes are heterochromatic! she's got one that's green, and the other is blue.

ahhhh this was so fun, jaz, thank you for the tag!!

i have no idea who's been tagged yet, soooo if you've already done this, that's cool, or if you wanna do it again with a different oc, i would love to see it! i'm gonna tag @starstruckkittyface @broodwolf221 @jazzmckay and anybody else who'd like to do this! i love hearing about ppl's ocs so genuinely, if you wanna do this and haven't been tagged, poke me so i'll see it <3

#tag games #long post #my ocs #oc: miri lavellan #antares speaks

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that1nkyone · 2 years

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Untethered.

Roughly three decades ago, I was born in New Jersey.

I was the first kid to a young mother. My sudden existence changed a lot in her life. She had to mobilise for a few things, and mobilise she did.

Her relationship with my biological father didn’t last. She travelled back home to her family with me in tow, not knowing exactly where things were headed in her life - just that she had a kid to care for.

Her Dad was working out of the country. He asked her to stay over and visit, perhaps have a nice little vacation with his daughter and grandkid, respectively.

So, Mom packed up, strapped me to her chest and flew across the ocean, all the way to New South Wales, Australia.

I was six months old.

My Mom would meet the man who’d become my Dad at a Halloween party, one night. It happened very quickly, but he took me on board without question. They were married, and it became clear that Mom and I were in Australia to stay. My grandfather left with his family, back home to the States. My brother came into the picture soon after. I was two years old. I had a home and family.

As I learned to speak, I distinctly sounded Aussie - there’s video evidence on a VHS tape, somewhere. But Mom’s Texan cadence was what I heard the most. Before I knew it, my accent was locked into that of a watered-down American voice - which still persists today.

My American roots weren’t exactly forgotten. We would visit the States, periodically - usually for Christmas. It was easier to travel back then. I had a US passport, but I had permanent residence in Australia thanks to Mom marrying an Australian Citizen. I met my large family, on my Mom’s side. I would tell them how I stole Doritos from the cockpit on the giant Qantas plane we travelled on.

Time passed. I turned 10.

Travelling to the States suddenly became a lot harder.

At home, people asked me if I liked George Bush. People asked me if I was visiting Australia for the holidays, based on my voice. People in the States asked if I rode kangaroos to school. People told me Bush was cool, he was a cool guy.

I didn’t understand much about it. I preferred to play Pokemon Silver.

Time passed. My Mom and I had both lived in Australia for 15 years now. We had visited family over the years, but the visits were growing sparser. All the kids were growing up and separating off into their own lives and plans.

(I would begin noticing raised voices over phone calls that I hadn’t noticed before.)

Mom and I had permanent residence in Australia. But we were given the opportunity to be Actual Citizens. Any application process was certainly going to be a series of hoops to jump through. Being underage, all I had to worry about was a swearing-in ceremony while my parents handled the rest.

I got an Australian Passport, with a photo I was not prepared for and a half-asleep 15-year-old stare that haunted me for several years. I was fortunate enough to have Dual Citizenship. The sky was the limit, in terms of my choice of residency.

I finished school. We visited the US again, this time on our Australian passports.

Our American passports had long expired.

I would enjoy seeing family again. I would describe the trips to my friends back home. Or online. I would talk about my uncles, aunts and cousins as I walked with friends down George St. I would talk about how cute squirrels were and how cool bluejays were, when looking up at the rainbow lorikeets that shot through our suburb.

Time passed. It got harder to travel.

My brother moved to the States. He’d fallen in love with a part of it - mostly its natural beauty. My Mom and I headed over to visit in mid-2016.

I would see a lot of the rock formations and trees and fauna that my brother had loved (and I loved in turn). I would see Black Canyon in Colorado. I would see the red formations that Utah was known for.

I would see many, many dead and dying towns out in the fields and desert next to the asphalt strip that cut through the lands. I would see those still standing with hundreds of Trump flags and banners held aloft and plastered on every side of those buildings as they were steadily reclaimed by the land.

I was 25.

I voiced my concerns to my Australian co-workers in November, once I’d returned. They laughed and said it would be entertaining for there to be a President Trump. And what were the odds of him actually getting in?

My brother headed back home to Australia.

Time passed. It got harder to travel.

Mom and I entertained the possibility of travelling again, once things settled down a bit. Regardless of who was in power, we had friends and family there. People who we wanted to see, places we wanted to go.

Time passed.

The Trump Administration adjusted many things. It was no longer legal for a US citizen to travel to and from the States on any other passport than a US one.

I had not travelled on my US passport since I was a child. Renewing it would place me on the radar of an administration I wanted little to do with.

We could have played the waiting game. Wait for a law to change. Petition for something to adjust. But even then, something had become glaringly obvious.

If I signed up for a US passport, I would sign up with everything else that came with being an adult in the USA. Obligations for a country that I didn’t live in.

For a country that I was born in, but never called home.

I am 31.

I have spent the past week taking in a small part of Western Australia. Enjoying its beauty, seeing its red sand and sparse towns. Thinking deeply on the wonders this country has, and the endless problems it provides for people simply seeking a home.

Tomorrow, I’m going to the only US Consulate that isn’t booked out for the next few years in Australia.

And together with my Mom, who brought me to this country, I am renouncing my US citizenship.

The USA was where I was born. I have family there. Friends, who are fighting for a better future for themselves and others, tomorrow.

People I would like to meet. And people I would like to see again.

In order to do that in a way that allows me more freedom, I have to give up that part of my identity on an official basis.

But America never really was my home to begin with. Maybe once, long ago in that state of New Jersey in my Mom’s apartment with her friends all cooing over me in my crib. But I don’t remember any of that.

My Mom grew up in the USA. It was her home up until I was born. She wants to live in Australia, maybe New Zealand - anywhere but the States.

I know this process will hit her harder than me. She lived there. I have always been a visitor. Any ideas of living in the USA have long faded.

But it will be strange to have a major part of my national identity adjusted, just like that. As well as all of what that entails. What I choose for that to entail. How I will process all that.

When I’m at work, people always hear my voice, and ask where I’m visiting from. I state that I live here. I’ve lived here for 30 years.

I don’t think they ever quite believe me. I don’t blame them. My accent isn’t Australian, even if I tried to mimic it.

“Where are you from?”

I was born in America. I have friends and family there. I visited many times. I have family there who I love. I literally cannot visit, right now. And a small part of me is mourning what could have been.

But I live here in Australia, now. I’ve lived here for 30 years. I went to school here. I grew up here. I have friends and family here, who I love. A partner, who I love. I find more and more things about this place that fascinate me, and problems that need attention.

This is my home.

And I have a lot of feelings about all that, right now.

#th1nks #personal #May end up deleting but this is why I've been very quiet this past week #just need to get thoughts out

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ecoamerica · 2 months

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youtube

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

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neptoons1998 · 1 year

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Rolling dough

Chapter one

Chapter two

A/N: I hope I'm not late tomorrow for work lol. Super sorry it isn't beta, I come back to fix it later, but it wouldn't leave me alone all day today. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Chapter three: Strawberry Frosted

Confectioners sugar, blended fresh strawberries, and a little vanilla extract. It’s important to totally pulverize the strawberries into a near-liquid consistency.

Okoye was many things to different people. But to many she was resilient. She would always come back stronger than ever, or at least that’s what most of her family members thought. Okoye would be lying by saying to buy into that myth about her too. She was is like a rooted tree, unmoving and unchanging. But ever since that “incident” happen, in her pristine wedding dress waiting for a man who was never going to show. Okoye restored back to what she used to when she was little. Avoiding. Was that the best thing to do for a thirty-two-year-old to do, most likely not; but Okoye would rather avoid harmful things in her past rather than face it.

“Hey, when’s your mystery man coming?” Aneka asked her. She was the only one who hasn’t met Attuma. Aneka was feeling left out and based on the group chat the description of him from Shuri and Ayo wasn’t enough to tie her over.

Okoye felt a vein on her left temple pulsing, would it be wrong of me to kick her out today? Okoye thought before pulling up her ladder to the shelf, where they kept all their extra frosting for the donuts at. The shop has a custom order of strawberry frosted donuts. No, not yet..maybe after she does at least half the batch of donuts then kick her out, Okoye’s mind reasoned. She knew she could make two hundred frosted donuts by herself and it wasn’t like Aneka had anything better to do.

“Like I told you, my sister, and Shuri. He isn’t my man,” Okoye replied as she slowly came off the ladder, and placed the container of frosting on top of the worktable.

“Yet,” Aneka leaned over the worktable like a cat, lazed about as if she didn’t have any work. Okoye breathes through her nose, “There’s not yet nothing.”

“Not with that mindset,” Aneka complained, “You know how I got my lovely Ayo to say yes to a date with me?”

“By holding her hostage?” Okoye commented Ayo glowered at her. When I make a joke nobody finds it funny Okoye shook her head.

Ayo rolled her eyes at her, “You’re not funny. No, what I did, I walked straight up to her in and said are you free Saturday?”

“Really?” Okoye being skeptical, “That’s not how Ayo tells the story.”

“What did she say?" Her sister asked.

“She said some girl was following her around the university. And anytime she would try to talk to her the girl would run away,” Okoye responds to her sister-in-law.

Aneka stood up straight looking flustered, “Well… that was at the beginning beginning. I’m talking about when we finally started hanging out.”

Okoye surpassed a laugh, “Whatever you have to say to yourself to sleep better at night.”

Aneka gritted her teeth, “Look I know you think we’re a little overbearing but it’s with a reason.”

“I know,” Okoye said, “And just like everyone else. I’m fine and I always bounce back.”

“Are you bouncing back or is it avoiding?” She asked, “Cause where I am sitting. I see the twenty-seven Okoye in her wedding dress waiting for some shit of a man that too scary to tell her he didn’t want to marry her.”

“What’s your point?” Okoye is irritated by this subject. Can’t they see that she moving on? Okay so she’s not married like her cousins and sister so what? Marriage isn’t for everyone, Okoye just needed some time to understand that. She knew she was a laughingstock in her family, but at least everyone saved face until she left the room. That’s why she hadn’t visited her family in six months too afraid to see the failure in her parents’ eyes. God forbid Auntie Ramonda, which would be way worst. Okoye had never been so grateful that most of their family lived in South Carolina, until recently.

“My point is that. It’s okay that you don’t want to get your feet wet just yet but don’t take forever either,” Aneka voiced out hoping it would reach Okoye. She knew she was still an outsider to her lover’s family but she would be lying if she wasn’t rooting for her sister-in-law’s love life.

“And I have twenty dollars riding that you guys get a move on,” Aneka commented wanting to get away from the heavy subject.

“Just start working on the donuts,” Okoye grumbled. She hoped that Aneka would understand enough to know she apprenticed the kind words.

Attuma made the decision. It took a couple of days but he decided to keep the gym. Based what it needed were some new pieces of equipment and a paint job; and the gym would be up and running.

“Well I’m off,” Namora said placing her suitcase to her side, before giving her little cousin a hug, “If you need any help call me.”

“I will,” Attuma said hugging his cousin back, “Call me when you get home.”

Namora nodded at the statement, “Ugh,” As she ended the hug, “Good thing you’re keeping the gym because you have eaten way too many donuts.”

“I’m just a big boy,” Attuma countered back as he patted his belly. Quite as it kept Namora ate way more of the donuts than Attuma. Attuma liked where his teeth were, so no comment.

“Or you tell the owner you like them and ask on a date?” when Attuma didn’t say anything in her response, Namora rolled her eyes, yeah it’s time for me to go home, “Whatever. Ya later, cousin.”

And with that, his older cousin left him; All of a sudden he was craving deep-fried bread. So he started making his way to Runaway Donuts.

“Oh!” Aneka was sweeping looking busy until Okoye came back when a customer open the door. Aneka let out a surprised gasp almost tripping over her feet as she came closer to the giant of a man, “You must be Attuma.”

“I am,” Attuma said still confused as continued talking to the stranger.

“I’m Aneak, Okoye is my sister,” Aneak walked around him before going back to the register, “They were not kidding in the group chat.”

“Group chat?”

“Nothing nothing,” Aneka waved her hand as if she was shooing a pesty fly, “What can I get you, today?”

That was new, normally Okoye was just giving him a box of donuts, and he would buy them, “I don’t really know.”

“It was true, “Aneka muttered under her breath. Okoye would just make a box and he’ll just take it.

“I can give you some time to think about it?” She said telling the man know he would take his time. Attuma nodded there were a lot of decisions but not the one he wanted.

“Do you know where Okoye is at?”

“Okoye? Yeah she had to go to the bank, she should be back sometime later,” Aneka

Attuma clicked his tongue, “I can wait.”

And with that Attuma sat in one of the too-small booths for him as he waited for Okoye. While Aneka was texting in a separate group chat without Okoye to tell the others what was happening.

#i wrote this instead of sleeping #okoye x attuma fanfiction #attuma x okoye #general okoye #attuma of talokan #attoye #my fanfic writing #writing exercise

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waltwhitmansbeard · 1 year

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my fair lady: drabble #9

i blame you for this, anon. every time you think you're out of the drabble game, an ask pulls you right back in. this takes place before mfl, at the very beginning of things. (not, like, the beginning of time. you know what i mean.) read all this first and then also read @romeoandjulietyouwish's medieval au, which inspired it all!

Keyleth has been avoiding the cherry tree on the edge of the castle grounds for months now. She normally doesn't go so long between visits, but since war was declared with the Kingdom of Draconia, she had been assigned a guard, a specter to haunt her wherever she goes in case of enemy attack on the castle. Having grown up with free reign over the palace and its grounds, she is chafing under the strain of her guards' eyes—at least, she has been.

But a few weeks ago, the strangest thing happened. She had had a nightmare, which is not strange at all, not these days, and when she startled herself awake from it, gasping and terrified, someone was there: her night guard, Vax'ildan, with his dagger drawn and eyes searching for danger. She'd felt so foolish, accidentally convincing this guard that she'd been in actual peril, but he could not have been kinder about the situation. He took her in his arms and held her, let her breathing return to normal as the nightmare slunk away like a fox in the night. It was the safest she could remember feeling, well, ever, really, and since then, she has seen this guard, this once-spy-turned-protector, in a different light, one she cannot quite define for herself.

Vax'ildan has recently been promoted to her day guard, which she knows makes his sister, the Captain of the Royal Guard, happy, and now he follows her around in the daylight, and somehow the shadow feels lighter, less burdensome. She attends meetings about the war and roots around in her garden and studies in the library, and he is there, and the eyes don't chafe quite so much.

And yet she has not returned to the tree. That place is hers, a place for her to talk to her mother, to say aloud the things she cannot say within the walls of the castle. Her mother hears her frustrations, her fears, her hopes, her desires, and she does not pass judgement. Keyleth is the most herself when under the sprawling branches of the cherry tree, and she knows she cannot go much longer without visiting, lest she explode in the middle of the throne room.

Vax'ildan must sense this, because one late autumn day, when Keyleth is bent over some texts in the library, staring out across the south lawn toward the distant cherry tree, she sighs, and he says quietly, "Your Highness?"

Keyleth turns to him in surprise. She's somehow grown so accustomed to his presence that she sometimes forgets that he's there, just a few dozen feet away, with his back against a wall. "Yes, Vax'ildan?"

"I..." He looks around, as if checking for listening ears, and then proceeds. "I notice you often look toward that tree rather wistfully these days. My sister tells me that your late mother is buried there, is that correct?"

Keyleth's brow furrows. He noticed her staring at the tree? She supposes she hasn't been attempting subtlety in her longing, but still, she had not expected the man tasked with saving her life to pick up on such a thing. "That is correct, yes."

"Forgive my impudence, but...if you should like to visit her, I can stay back. Not in the castle, of course, but...I will give you as much space to be with her as I can."

Keyleth searches his face, and she sees many things there she's seen in other faces before: respect, sympathy, an eagerness to please. But there's something else, something rarer: recognition. Vax'ildan sees this desire in her, this need to be with her mother, and Keyleth knows that he understands it implicitly.

"I...thank you, Vax'ildan." She can feel her face warming, which is embarrassing in and of itself. "I have always gone to visit her alone, and...well. I've never felt comfortable bringing others along."

"Of course, Your Highness, and I did not mean to assume."

"No, I—" Oh, why is she blushing so? She is being ridiculous. "I am grateful for the offer." She looks back out the window, suddenly shy. "Perhaps tomorrow? If the weather holds."

"As you wish, Your Highness."

Keyleth turns her eyes back to her text, but she does not read another word until it is time to dress for dinner.

The next day, the princess asks Vax if he would be willing to accompany her across the grounds to the cherry tree beneath which her mother rests. It is, of course, a silly question, because it is his job to follow her wherever she wishes to go, but he ducks his head in an acquiescent bow and says, "It would be an honor, Your Highness."

Something about those words makes the tips of her ears flush pink, but he does not allow himself to read into it. She bundles herself in a fur-lined cloak and the two strike out onto the south lawn. As they walk, him always a few feet behind, he notices her posture change. The closer they get to the tree, the more her shoulders relax, the more her spine loses its standard upright position. When the tree is about fifty yards away, she stops, turns to him, and says, "Would it be alright if you waited here?"

Vax quickly scans their surroundings and, not seeing anywhere in particular from where an enemy could spring an attack, says, "Yes, Your Highness, I will stay here until you are ready."

Relief colors her face. "Thank you. I...I won't take long."

"Take as long as you need, Your Highness. I'm not going anywhere."

She gives him a curious look, one that he does not understand, and then turns and continues the rest of the way toward the tree. Once at its base, she sits, resting her back against the bark. The ground must be cold and hard; winter is just around the corner, and the cherry tree's branches are bare. One could not tell from her demeanor, as she sits back against the tree as one might a plush chaise lounge, more comfortable than Vax thinks he's ever seen her. Though he cannot hear her, he can tell by the slight movement of her hands and head that she is talking, saying something aloud that he knows is not meant for any to hear but the wind.

He watches her, and he thinks of his own mother, buried in Byroden, far from where he and his sister could ever visit. His life is metered by regrets, but that is one of his greatest. There are other ways they pay homage to her—every meal he cooks, every folk song Vex sings as she restrings her bow—but what he wouldn't give to be able to kneel before her resting place and confess each thought he has not been able to speak since coming to Zephrah, since taking up as this wild princess's guard.

Because those thoughts cannot be heard, not by any living soul. His ruminations about the princess, the way he lies awake at night thinking about her, remembering the way she looked tending to her autumn gourds in the garden, wondering if she's just as sleepless as he is, wishing he could be there when those terrible dreams haunt her in the night—none of that can be known. His...fascination with her is his burden to bear, his obstacle to overcome, and he cannot put his or his sister's careers in jeopardy just because he finds himself daydreaming about the way she smells when he should be on alert for the dangers that may come for her.

After a short while, the princess has stopped talking, and Vax thinks that perhaps she will be getting up to leave soon. But then her head bows low, and her shoulders begin to shake, and Vax realizes that she is weeping. Her hands come up to cover her face, and his stomach sinks like a stone. He knows this grief, the acute ache in the bones of missing someone who will never return, and he wishes with all of his heart to be able to take it from her, free her of this pain. To watch her cry alone beneath the bare branches of this tree is torture, but he must stay back, must give her this space to grieve.

And yet. He takes a step forward, though his mind screams for him to stay put. He takes another, and another, and his body, unbidden, uncontrollable, closes the distance to the princess, until he is feet away, where he very much ought not to be. He kneels beside her, and then slowly reaches a hand out to rest on her shoulder. She does not flinch, but rather turns and throws herself into him, burying her face into his chest as her sobs intensify. Against every better judgement, he wraps his arms around her, keeping himself tall while she falls apart against him. He rubs a hand up and down her back, which shakes with the force of her tears, and he prays to the gods that they cannot be seen from the castle right now.

It takes several minutes for the princess to cry herself out, and when she does, she sits up, wiping at her eyes with an embarrassed flush to her cheeks. "I am sorry, Vax'ildan. I should never have imposed on you like this."

"Your Highness, please." How to make her understand, make her see that there is nowhere else he'd rather be right now than on this hard, cold ground with her? "I...merely did not want you to be alone in your grief, which, now that I say it out loud, was exactly what you had asked for, so it is I who must apologize."

"Please don't." She smiles softly. "I...I have not been sleeping well, these past nights, not since..." She trails off, but he does not need her to complete the thought: since he stopped standing guard outside her door at night. "I find great comfort in your presence, Vax'ildan."

Oh, this traitorous heart. He ignores its leaping into his throat. "I am glad to hear it, Your Highness. It is certainly better than the alternative."

"Would you..." Her skin reddens even further, and she casts her eyes downward. "Never mind. I have burdened you enough already."

In a move that ought to cost him his hand, he reaches a knuckle out to guide her chin back up. "Do not ever hesitate to ask me for anything, Your Highness. Ever."

She blinks in surprise, and then she whispers, "Would you be willing to come to me tonight? Just so that I may sleep? I know you give so much to my family already, and I am loath to ask for more—"

"Of course I will." He agrees without thinking, without sparing a thought for the questions his sister will inevitably ask. He was shown the secret access to her chambers when he was hired on, in case he needs to assist her flight from the castle in an attack. He drops his hand. "I will come once my shift ends. Listen for a knock on the false wall."

Her body sags even further in relief. "This is a great kindness, Vax'ildan, truly. You do not know how much I appreciate it."

"I am always happy to be of service, Your Highness." And gods, he is. "You...if you wish, you may call me Vax. Everyone does."

"Vax." She turns the name over in her mouth, as if savoring a favorite sweet. "Thank you, Vax. In return, though I know it is improper, I would love it if you were to call me Keyleth. At least when we are just us two. I do not love being called Your Highness so much. I am not so high up, I should think. My feet are on the ground as everyone else's are."

The urge to kiss her is so overwhelming it nearly knocks the breath from his lungs. To recover, he stands and reaches a hand down toward her. "Then Keyleth—" Her name tastes like warm wine on a winter's night. "—should we head back to the castle?"

She looks toward the palace and sighs. "I suppose we must." She places her hand in his and lets him help her to her feet, and if their hands linger in each other's for a moment longer than they should, neither of them acknowledge it. "Thank you again, for coming with me here. I...should not go so long between visits again. I've needed to speak with her greatly."

"We can return whenever you wish, Your—Keyleth." He catches himself with a laugh. "That shall take some getting used to."

"Well, let us hope you are here for long enough for it to become habit," she replies, and as they make their way back toward the castle, he no longer trails behind her, instead keeping apace with her in the warm autumn sunshine.

#THIS ISN'T EVEN A DRABBLE #IT'S A FULL ASS CHAPTER FJCFO;SAIHEFOIJ #i never learned how to shut up once in my fucking life #critical role #critical role fic #cr fic #vaxleth #vaxleth fic #vaxleth au #vox machina #vox machina au #tlovm #tlovm fic #my fic #my fair lady

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abyssalzones · 1 year

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🍕🍀🎹 FOR ANYONE (everyone) IN EV YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT!!!!! id love to hear abt them all but do so only if youre in an infodumping mood don't force yerself <:)

Yasha you of all people should know that I am Always in an info-dumping mood. VERY LONG POST UNDER THE READ MORE

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

ROSE CUBBAGE: I'm fairly certain I've answered this before (feel free to dig through my OC tag to find a series of other asks that I went into depth with a little while ago) but I think Rose would love any type of food that is a sweet/savory combination. Foliaverds don't have strong "sweet" flavor receptors, being hyper-carnivorous, but the sugars you'd see in fruit do get across to their palette more or less. See this dialogue from the outline of a chapter:

DOMINO: Domino is extremely picky about her food, something unusual for her species- who are usually content as filter-feeders, snacking on whatever bacteria and small animals (or even bits of dead animals- they aren't picky) make themselves at home in the caverns of Yxin, either colonizing the rocks or floating aimlessly through the densely-chemically-populated air- but she has an odd taste for salts. Odd, because that stuff is considered pretty acidic and foul to most moeboids. Keep an eye on her or else you'll lose track of your table salt.

VENUS: As with most Ikarians, Venus's diet consists mainly of insects. However, he normally has a very subdued appetite due to... multiple things. Their samefoods mostly consist of cold (or just not hot) things that don't have a very strong smell: frozen crickets, protein chips, dried fruit, and (expensively) tenjarian-tempered yogurt that's supposed to be digestible for every species, but most think it tastes... awful. Venus loves it, for some reason.

GILLS KVN: Herbal tea and pain pills. Well- that'd be the answer early on, anyway. He starts eating more regularly with time and feeling a little more comfortable actually getting out of his lab to visit the kitchen, and as per usual for his species, mostly favors raw seafood. He prefers animals with shells, though, since overly-mushy textures bother him immensely. As for his favorite favorite, I think he'd enjoy a bowl of south Kaaleran noodles (thin, dried parasitic eels native to Kaalera's coasts, cleaned and fermented with starch. Add steamed veggies, whatever eggs you have on hand, and plenty of spices), which is notoriously too hot for most species to handle.

SPARKPLUG: I elaborated on this a little before, similar to Rose, but I think Sparks is partial to sweets! Sweet for his species, anyway. He loves the kinds of tangy, metallic preserved pastries native to his home planet, recipes carried down and altered by his family for generations, across planets. I'm lazy so I'm just going to steal what I already wrote:

Pie is a universal concept.

NORA ACTON: Peanut butter + banana + bacon sandwich. Simple, very filling. I like to think she only realized this after moving out and trying to figure out how to feed herself in her academy days.

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

Going to give you a catch-all answer for this to start with: the conceit of the comic, and subsequently most of the crew, was that it was originally a cast of Starbound OCs! That obviously has changed, but it's still in their roots. As for specifics...

-Rose was sort of her own thing, a position of leader and captain that needed to be filled- and she only really came into her own later in terms of development, inspired by characters like Alyx Vance or Ellen Ripley in particular- and my own personal experiences, actually. I think in a lot of ways Rose is closest to me.

-Venus's inspiration is weirdly difficult to pin. Taako from TAZ, maybe? A little bit of the Rito from when I played BOTW? He's kind of his own character, really.

-Gills, however, was definitely strongly inspired by Ford Pines. I feel like it's a little obvious sometimes. Then, a little later, characters like Spock, or Kim Kitsuragi.

-Sparkplug... draw your own conclusions based on the information above, particularly his dynamic with Gills. His arc, however, was also strongly influenced by my own ongoing struggles with chronic fatigue.

-Domino is inspired by a whole host of fictional characters, ranging from Lupin to Max from sam & max to Shiraishi from golden kamuy, but the most important part is that she was originally an OC created by my friend Addy, who I've known since the comic was in its baby stages. That part of who she is is extremely important to her core as a character.

-Nora is kind of like... a fusion of Sam Raimi era Peter Parker and inspector Zenigata from Lupin III. But british. and butch.

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

ROSE CUBBAGE: Worrying. Creating collages, actually, but those mostly consist of future plans and secret obsessive corkboards. She used to enjoy biking, and still has her bike from when she was an older teenager sitting around on the station, despite not using it much.

DOMINO: Stealing things to create "art" in her room. I think she'd love to branch out and create more multi-media type stuff, but she's mostly motivated by boredom.

VENUS: Between you and me, I think they write fanfic. Something he would no doubt label as extremely cringe and keep very close to his chest, but fun to kick back and knock out a couple hundred words on every once in a while. They mostly tinker with robotics, though that's less of a hobby and more the main thing he does around the station, so it can get a little boring. I think they could put effort into making video games if they really felt up to it, but they struggle with seeing the point in it. Creative passion projects are embarrassing, after all- from his perspective.

GILLS KVN: Aside from reading, I'm not so sure Gills has any hobbies to begin with. He spends most of his time working on projects in the lab, which while he might consider it fun, it's still ultimately work. I think he would really benefit from taking up something like terrariums or aquariums, maybe some casual gardening. That, and cooking- which is really another form of chemistry, if you think about it.

SPARKPLUG: Another damn workaholic. However, Sparks enjoys music as a hobby immensely, and is rarely far from a stringed instrument, such as his retractable banjo. When the joints in his hands get tired or locked up, I think he'd enjoy getting outside and doing a little nature-watching. Does that count as a hobby? It does now.

NORA ACTON: Nora is definitely the most visually artistic of the crew, something that she's never considered for a career but definitely enjoys as a hobby. She mostly does environmental art, studying things from nature and her surroundings- a fun practice for someone with such a photographic memory. Similarly, I think she loves using her camera, even if it's mostly something she picked up for work.

#lab notes #oc tag #THANK YOU YASHA

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loopy777 · 2 years

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Do you think Zuko ever talked to Aang about how it appeared that he spent more time with tenzin, compared to his other 2 children? I just feel like Zuko might have noticed because of his upbringing

Well, this gets a little complicated because we don't really know what Aang's parenting was like. We know what Bumi and Kya thought, but I've always wondered how much of their perspective comes from any of Aang's actual bad choices or failings. Did he actually favor Tenzin and/or spend unequal time with him? Or were Bumi and Kya getting their perspectives warped by external forces like the Air Acolytes?

(And, to be fair to Bumi and Kya, the original Air Acolytes were deluded kids with a fetish for the Air Nomad culture. It wouldn't surprise me if they grew into the worst kind of fanatics. Aang should have dismissed those people from the start, rather than embracing them like the comics show. If it was their discrimination at the root of what Bumi and Kya thought they experienced, that's on Aang.)

So it's hard to say what Zuko might have witnessed. We don't even know that Bumi and Kya always felt this way. They might not have had a rosy view of being part of one of the most important families in the entire world, but it might not have fully blossomed into feeling that they were being ignored for not sharing their dad's culture. If it was just a general unhappiness, then I'm not sure Zuko would have had much advice. To him, being unhappy with family legacy is perfectly normal; if Izumi was perfectly content as a child, he might have wondered what's wrong with her. XD

So to answer your question: yes, if Zuko saw Aang favoring one child over the others and causing discord, I think he would have said something. But I have doubts just how much there was to see, and if Zuko would have had the opportunity to witness it.

But what if he rarely saw the family all together?

What if, considering that Tenzin could never remember how much of the family was even present for the trips he went on with his dad, the whole group was rarely together and only formed random inconsistent groupings?

This is why I developed my patented, fan-angering "Kataang Divorce Theory." Based on the super-weird gaps in what we know of the family dynamics, combined with the visible lack of Katara's influence on anything related to Republic City (beyond the general Bloodbending-ban, which I assume was also instituted in some form across most of the world), I posit that Aang and Katara divorced shortly after Tenzin's birth, and their disintegrating marriage likely influenced the family dynamics in the years before that. Upon the divorce, Katara went to live in the South Pole, while Aang stayed in Republic City.

I hate the very idea of Kataang breaking up like that, but it explains so much. Katara stepped back from any kind of leadership role anywhere in the world so as to avoid interacting with Aang, and having her hero tarnished for her like that sapped a lot of her spirit, hence why she still sits back during the invasion of the Northern Water Tribe into the South even after Aang is dead. Bumi joined the military as soon as he could in order to get away from a broken home and create a surrogate family for himself. Kya went to live with her mother in the South Pole in order to embrace her Water Tribe heritage and find a sense of identity amidst a broken household, and despite her resentment at having to stay put and take care of her mother, the idea of giving up what little identity and stability she had was too daunting.

Tenzin has no idea who went on his vacations with Aang because the family was always grouping oddly on trips- sometimes it was just him and Aang, sometimes it was all the kids and Katara, sometimes it was Aang and Katara going to visit Zuko together because they're both needed for something and only taking the older kids because they weren't able to parent a toddler together, sometimes it was the boys and Aang because Kya didn't want to miss some Water Tribe event, sometimes it was Katara and Tenzin and Kya hanging out at the South Pole because Tenzin really wanted to be a Waterbender and never got over it, etc.

It's a horrible, elegant solution for all the weirdness we see in LoK.

And I can absolutely see Zuko not wanting to say anything to anyone about any family weirdness he sees because he doesn't want to take sides in the divorce. He loves both Aang and Katara, and finds it so awkward that they can't interact with each other anymore.

All we know for sure is that I am the worst possible person to ask about this. XD

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darthkvznblogs · 1 year

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I know that you don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving, but hope you have a good one anyway! BTW, what would our Earth-dwelling characters from the last year do for Thanksgiving, anything particularly noteworthy?

Thank you! We definitely don't celebrate - some here on the US-Mexico border do, on account of having family over on the other side of the river, but our closest family lives hundreds of miles away. We did get gifted a whole dang turkey though. My mom was not happy - it's way too much food for us - but I ain't complaining, I love turkey.

Anyway, the only ones to talk about are the BH6 crew here, I'm afraid. This'll give you all some details on their backgrounds, though, so I hope that'll tide you over!

-I think Cass is absolutely the type to go all out, even if it's just for their small family. The Hamadas do have extended family (and you might get a crossover among them), but half of it is back in Japan and the other half lives on the East Coast, so it's usually just the three of them - Cass closes the Lucky Cat early and the boys (mostly Tadashi) help her put the feast together. Since they always make too much food, Cass offers some leftovers to her regulars the next day!

-GoGo is estranged from her family in South Korea, (except for her dad, who travels pretty much all the time, and whom she moved with to the US when he separated from his wife) so she's been practically on her own since she was a tween. She's never really cared about thanksgiving, but Honey Lemon has invited her over ever since they became friends. She doesn't always go - she gets fed up with being around too many people easily, and HL's family is enormous.

-Speaking of Honey Lemon, she's the eldest of eight siblings, and most of her extended family lives in the city; there's a veritable potpurri of traditions celebrated in her household - HL and her siblings are third-generation immigrants, so there's at bare minimum Japanese, Mexican, and American roots in there. It's a big event! Also, a very loud event, with lots of kids and pets running around, hence GoGo passing on the invite sometimes.

-Wasabi also lives on his own, but he does visit his family upstate for Thanksgiving. He's an only child, and his parents are very easy-going and laidback - hippies who stuck with the lifestyle - so they don't see eye to eye on a lot of things, but they do love each other and spend a nice afternoon catching up. Wasabi handles the baked goods! His obsession with perfect measurements makes him rather good at it, hahaha.

-Fred and his mom attend fancy Thanksgiving dinners with the upper crusts of San Francisco. He gets bored easily, and usually bounces as soon as his mom gives the okay, hanging out with the other bored rich kids till he gets bored of them, too. Heathcliff usually takes him home, then, and if he's lucky, his dad will join him for a quick bite before he goes off and does whatever it is he does for a living (Fred has no clue lol).

#ask box #kryptonverse

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thearchivistsjournal · 1 year

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Day 240,

Just spent the morning digging up Iole’s box with Cass and then reburrying it. As I’d suspected, although the dimensions were different, it was the same sort of metal box that Priscilla had been preserving documents in. Shiny brushed metal utterly untouched by rust. Even the dirt seemed to fall right off with nary a smudge once we unearthed it.

That said, as exciting as it was to find that suspicion confirmed and another link made between these ruins, the cathedral (same/similar metal lining the insides of the sarcophagi), and Cloud Tower (same/similar metal for the woodshop machines that came from there), we didn’t actually open the box. We planned to, of course. Deliberated over it for several minutes after we dug it up. But when it came to it, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to go rooting through Iole’s personal belongings like that, even if she’d distanced herself from them. Afterall, she did preserve them rather than discard them altogether.

Maybe we’ll come back five or ten years from now and open it once she’s passed returned to the Catacombs.

Going to be leaving in a little bit to go see what Lin and Maiko have been occupying themselves with on the other end of the island for the past few days.

*******

Lin and Maiko were eager to show us what they’d found once we caught up with them. Well, Maiko was eager. Lin was… something similar, but less positive. Anxious perhaps?

Once we found them they told us that with the walk taking half the day like it does, they figured that they’d just stay out there until Cass and I inevitably showed up and then give us a tour of the highlights over a couple hours. I’m not sure how I feel about my course of action just being assumed like that, but once we got going I appreciated not having to do the investigating myself this time. The whole area just south along the coast of the Overlook was even more overgrown than the “library,” but there were signs of former construction buried beneath.

Many signs once you knew what to look for and how. Knee-high corners of mortared stone sticking out from between tree roots. More scattered blocks beneath the undergrowth in a rough line going out from that corner and tracing what might have once been a building’s foundation. A space of slightly denser growth and then the pattern repeated again. A shard of glass dug up from the soil. A thick branch high above that, constricted by a dark metal band that may have once been a window frame. Noticeable lanes where the overgrowth was thinner and the trees younger.

Lin and Maiko didn’t say it until I did, but they’d come to the same conclusion a day ago that I found myself at now.

There was another Village here once.

Once I got over my own shock, excitement and babbling over possibilities and implications and raised questions, the reason for Maiko and Lin’s differing reactions became clear.

In Maiko’s case, this was the most excited I’d ever seen her. As she was guiding us along, pointing out the past few day’s observations she was actually grinning, smirking even at times with the anticipation of revealing a great surprise. And as I put the pieces together she even joined me in a rapid back and forth of what all this could mean.

She took it as proof that there really had been other people living here once besides the Village we all knew. Possibly her people. She was finally, finally on the right track. Now she just needed to figure out where they went from here.

She really might not be alone.

It was the look on Lin’s and Cass’s faces behind her that made me trail off mid-sentence from talk of planning future return visits and further searching for former inhabitants or, more likely, their descendants.

None of us voiced it, but once I stopped and took a few seconds to think about it, it was obvious. The unspoken question that cast a shadow over our walk back to Iole’s hut and the evening’s dinner. The implication that Maiko seemed oblivious to in her renewed hope.

The Village has been around forever and seems to be eternal. But there was once another Village, and now there isn’t.

Could the same thing, whatever it was, happen again, this time to ours?

<==Previous Next==>

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bbugyu · 3 years

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of all the views you had seen, there was little that could compare to him.

6.2k | cavalry captain!jeonghan x gn pyro!reader, genshin impact au, fluff, adventure, drinking, so much flirting, mentions of trauma, honestly this is the sweetest i'm ever gonna write jeonghan

happy inazuma release day!!! it's your local kaeya trash, because i predictably fall for gay bastards that lie straight to my face (example: jeonghan), and i'm here to give you a fic i wrote AGES ago and just polished up a bit to celebrate the release of what is likely going to be my FAVORITE region in genshin impact. i'm japanese so 😅 i have a soft spot. if there's any other gaymer carats out there, enjoy this one. if not, sorry! you can actually probably still read this and understand it for the most part, though you might miss a bit of context of the landscape and the lore.

ps. go tell @babiemingoo that wonwoo xinqiu 🤭

your work with the adventurer's guild was always efficient. you received your commissions, you carried them out, then returned for your reward, usually before the sun had even peaked. the rest of your day was generally spent either basking in the eternal sun of mondstadt, feeding cats in inazuma, or enjoying a hard earned meal in liyue, depending on where you decided to stay that week, finding board and paying for it with the commission you had earned that day. your tendency to wander came less from choice and more from nature - you could call yourself a nomad, but generally, you just got bored, and preferred seeing everything teyvat had to offer rather than settling in one place. adventuring was simply what you were meant to do, your mother had told you at a young age.

she, too, had wandered for most of her youth, and didn't stop just because you had come into her life. you remembered getting scooped up because you had wandered off a bit too close to the railing at wangshu inn as a toddler, playing with dogs at the docks of liyue harbor. you remembered the ludi harpastum and the first time you had ever had a sweet honey roast, and the way it made your eyes grow ten times in size before you dug in for more.

when your vision was bestowed upon you, you already knew how to use a sword. it was important, your mother told you, that you knew how to protect yourself. she had a vision as well, younger even than you had, and you had come to recognize the static in the air as a sign that she was angry - whether it was because of an altercation with someone on your journey or because you had secretly eaten the last hashbrown without consulting her first.

she used her vision and a sturdy blade she had owned since before you were born to protect the two of you on the road, but when she felt you were old enough, she taught you how to weild. a two handed weapon that was far too big for you when you were only fourteen, but when your reckless abandon got paired with a spark, you suddenly became far more dangerous than even your own mother. she scolded you for nearly starting a forest fire when you tried to pair the two skills for the first time after receiving your vision, and you both agreed that training was a beach activity from then on.

your mother settled eventually, after you were old and skilled enough to take on the road alone, pulling the many favors she had gathered in her travels to build a home in a small neighborhood south of liyue harbor, nestled in the foothills of mount tianheng, where you visited as often as your wandering allowed.

you had become much better with your vision. more careful but just as hot. quick to scan situations and strategize in the moment, hardly taking a second before jumping into action, slaying hilichurls like you were getting paid. well, you were, you supposed, but you had been doing this long before you had discovered the benefit of joining the guild. you were good at it. you were built for adventure, but revelled in leisure. there was good reason you were able to take afternoons off, and you milked every last second of it.

"you're back in town?"

you grinned, leaning your sword against the wall and dropping your bag off your shoulders before settling at the bar. "for now."

rubin often served you alcohol - when you were in mondstadt, at least, however often that may be - but never questioned you deeply. he would ask how your travels were, and listen to your stories from regions beyond his knowledge, of the cultures that he had only heard of from people like you. he enjoyed them just about as much as any, if not a little more, purely because your tenacious personality brought something more to the table. he wondered, though, how long you intended to keep living day by day, sleeping in different beds every week.

"what's wrong with sleeping in different beds?" you teased, laughing into your wine glass. "if i didn't know any better, i'd think you were shaming me, rube."

rubin simply laughed, knowing your tone by now. "i just wonder if you ever intend on digging in your roots, or if you'll continue travelling forever."

"if i dig roots, you may never see me again. is that what you want?"

"what," he said. "you don't like mondstadt?"

"i love monstadt," you assured him. "but i also love inazuma. and my mother is in liyue, though she might be upset with me if i try to settle too close to her. perhaps natlan would suit me more?" you shrugged finally, the door behind you opening as you finished with "i suppose i'll settle when i've found a reason to love one place more than the rest."

rubin shook his head, a chuckle falling from his lips. "a wanderer through and through." his attention was quickly drawn to the man entering the bar. "ah, captain! the usual?"

"please," the decorated man said, quickly taking a seat beside you despite the rest of the bar being available. "would you like another, wanderer?"

you eyed him cautiously, studying what you could see if his face around the black eyepatch, gaze skimming down his elaborate clothing before looking down at your emptied drink. "sure."

"another for your wandering friend, rubin, on my tab, please." your brain swirled, considering the brief information you had been given and wondered how you had never managed to meet this regular during your past visits. "are you just drinking dandelion wine, or something more fun?"

"more fun?" you asked. "what are you drinking, then?"

"well, a death after noon, of course," he stated. "don't tell me you haven't had one."

you blinked at him. "i haven't."

you turned towards rubin when he laughed at the back and forth. "shall i make two, then?"

"definitely," your new drinking buddy said, then gestured to you. "you trust my taste, right?"

you said nothing, but he accepted your silent smile as an agreeance. "captain," you said finally, thinking of how rubin had addressed him. "of?"

the man turned towards you, his elbow planted on the bar and his cheek on a fist. despite his get up, he had a playful smirk across his lips. "you mean, my reputation doesn't precede me? you really are a wanderer. everyone in mondstadt knows my name."

"everyone but me," you corrected. "as i'm currently in mondstadt."

his teeth shone behind his smirking lips before he sat up straight. "well, allow me to introduce myself." he saluted, his arm extending from his side at an angle - a salute you recognized from the guards around the city. "i am jeonghan, the cavalry captain of the knights of favonius."

"ah, the knights," you smiled briefly, before letting your eyes wander as you thought, crossing your arms over the bar. "i don't see much of a cavalry in the city, though."

he let out an amused exhale. "so i have a bit more free time these days."

"i'm sure the acting grand master is jealous of all your free time," you teased. "poor guy, looks like he's staving off a panic attack every time i see him. you should probably help him more."

"so," he sighed, leaning against the bar again. "you know of the acting grand master but not me?"

"jihoon?" you asked. "of course i know of him. he's all anyone ever talks about around here."

jeonghan nodded once, thanking rubin when he placed two drinks before you. "people talk about me, also, you know."

your lips stuck out in a pout. "jeonghan, you said? doesn't ring a bell."

he rolled his eyes and picked up his drink, holding it out for you to cheers against. you giggled, clinking your glass against his before taking a sip. the golden liquid was sweet, but not like the dandelion wine you had grown to love in this region. it had more depth, a subtle bitterness to it, and a refreshing bubble. you stared after the glass when it left your lips, then looked over to find jeonghan grinning at you.

"i see why it's your usual," you said, taking another sip before placing the glass on the bar. "i could drink too many."

"will you?" he asked.

"not tonight," you replied coolly. "i haven't asked sana to put me up at the guild yet, and if i get there too late, i'll get a cot instead of a bed. unless rubin finally wants to come clean about something?"

the bartender laughed. "how many times do i have to tell you? we don't even have rooms to board."

you squinted at him. "i know there's something upstairs. i'll learn your secrets one day, rube."

"i wouldn't be a very good bartender if i didn't know how to keep them."

"so you're in the guild?" jeonghan asked as rubin attended to another patron. "an adventuring wanderer."

you smiled vaguely at him. "i am. i have to pay for my travels somehow."

he shrugged. "there's other ways to make money. probably more profitable, too."

you eyed his teasing smirk. "i'm not sure i know what you're implying."

"as a captain of the knights of favonius, i assure you, i'm implying nothing at all," he said, exhaling sharply and adjusting on his stool. he leaned over towards you before speaking in a quieter tone. "but as jeonghan, i think you know exactly what i'm implying."

you only laughed, recognizing the thinly veiled attempt to worm a secret out of you. "i outgrew those means a long time ago. besides, when mora gets tight, i can always board up with my mother. i like liyue enough."

jeonghan studied you as you drank again. "liyue's home, is it?'

"for her, yes," you said, looking over to him, but you found yourself looking away again when his steely blue gaze met yours. you thought carefully about how much of yourself you were willing to reveal to this stranger, especially considering how important he was in the rule of the city. "she was a wanderer, too, and ended up falling in love with liyue harbor."

jeonghan made note of the way your face softened as you spoke about your mother. "and what about you?"

you met his intent look again, thinking about how his covered eye somehow made him even more intimidating. perhaps that was its purpose. "what about me?"

"what have you fallen in love with?"

a smile crept onto your lips as you processed his question. "oh, archons, what have i not fallen in love with? the smell of the open ocean in inazuma, the breathtaking temples in sumeru - have you ever been to waterfall city?"

jeonghan merely shook his head at you, the corners of his mouth turning upwards as he put his cheek on a fist again, leaning against the bar. "beautiful?"

you exhaled, eyes wide as you thought of the towering falls and the light mist that covered the city, trying to come up with an apt description. "humbling. there's nothing like it."

he watched your expression, head tilting further. "what a wonderful way to describe a place. tell me more."

your gaze went to him, then away briefly, feeling suddenly shy as you noticed his look. "about waterfall city?"

he shrugged a fur covered shoulder, shaking his head lightly. "about anywhere. describe your world, wanderer. i'd like to hear whatever you have to say."

you wondered if the heat that ran through you was because of the alcohol or the man, but you just took another drink and cleared your throat lightly, thinking of more places you had discovered in your travels. you thought of qingce village, one of your favorite places to visit, because the people are kind and welcoming and the fields are so beautiful. you told him about a tea shop owned by an old man - he insisted you call him pops so fiercely that you weren't even sure you had caught his given name - and it was probably the most relaxing cup of tea you ever had.

"it's been a while since i've gone," you sighed. "i think i'm overdue for a chat with pops and his tea."

jeonghan was smiling when you looked at him again. "the tea in liyue is unmatched," he said, reaching for his drink. before taking another sip, he gestured for you to continue.

so you did. you told him about sakura pond, about celestia city, about the volcanic black beaches. you told him liyue had your favorite people, but inazuma had your favorite food. he clicked his tongue at you.

"what about mondstadt? do we have one of your favorites?"

you smiled, genuinely. "sunsets. the night sky is different here than it is anywhere else. i think mondstadt is the closest we can get to the stars without joining the archons."

jeonghan studied you briefly, his blue eye flicking over your face as you finished your drink. "i think that's an apt observation. it seems your eyes are always wide."

"i travel for the views," you exhaled. "i don't plan on missing any."

he thought a second. "have you been to starsnatch cliff?"

your eyes lit up. "not in years," you said, in complete shock that you could have forgotten such a place. you pushed from the bar slightly, turning towards him, and he noticed the flash of a red gem strapped to your right thigh for the first time. "my mother took me there when i was a kid, but i haven't gone since."

"it never gets old," he said, sipping at the end of his drink. "i've yet to see that view and not be in awe."

"i'll go before i leave mondstadt again," you decided.

he looked to you. "when will that be?"

you sighed. "not sure, yet."

he just chuckled. "would you like another drink?"

"oh, no," you said, standing and stretching your spine. "i should make my leave. i don't like sleeping on cots. i just came by to let my ol' pal rube know i was in town again."

jeonghan watched you pull your pack onto your back, grabbing the handle of your sheathed claymore from where it was leaning against the wall next to the bar. "perhaps i'll see you again tomorrow?"

you looked at him, a vague smile on your lips as you strapped your sword back on. "perhaps you will, captain."

"jeonghan," he corrected. "but i don't believe you ever shared your name?"

"that was by design, captain," you said, and he swore he caught a glint in your eye as you bid rubin a farewell and stepped out of the angel's share.

jeonghan spun back around on his stool, immediately looking to rubin. "do you know their name?"

"no, sir," he said, looking at the closed door. "they've never said."

jeonghan's gaze went to the empty glass you had left behind, thinking about your stories, your sword, and the signifier of your vision on your thigh. "fascinating."

you got lucky - sana had a private room for you, and said you were welcome to rent it for your stay. she said not many people were travelling to mondstadt these days, and that more often than not, the adventurer's barracks in headquarters went unused. ever since the fatui had holed up in the grand goth hotel, it had been harder for you to make extended stays in mondstadt, but it seemed that something was telling you to stick around longer than usual. you laid on the hard mattress - a feeling that was more comforting than most, thanks to your continuous travels - and thought of the charming captain that had made a night of questioning you. you wondered if he really had any interest in anything you had to say, or if he had been hoping for details about something pertinent to an investigation.

you packed a lighter bag in the morning, only bringing along the essentials as you set out for your commissions for the day. that afternoon, you wandered around mondstadt and asked questions. questions about the simultaneously well-discussed and mysterious cavalry captain that had listened to your tales of travel, and answers came easier than expected, though they didn't contain all the details you were looking for. that night, you waited up at the angel's share to brag about your newfound knowledge to the captain that never showed, and you did your best to not let that hurt your ego.

the next day, you made a detour on your way back to the city after completing your commissions, stopping by springvale to enjoy a well deserved lunch and catch up with some locals. you sat in the grass with a skewer of grilled meat, watching the windmills of mondstadt steadily spin in the distance as time passed, thinking about how rubin had asked you if you didn't like it here.

you did, you decided. mondstadt felt different than anywhere else you had been. untouched, almost. wilder. freer. despite being born in inazuma, your first memories being in celestia, or your mother being in liyue, mondstadt felt comfortable. felt like a home. you wondered to yourself what that might mean.

sana greeted you happily when you returned much later than you normally did. she told you to go ahead to the guild and come back, filing away your reports and retrieving your rewards. you dropped off your things in your rented room, quickly, practically galloping back down the steps towards the entrance of the city to continue your conversation with the adventurer guilds' mighty receptionist without your sword weighing you down. you crossed your arms on the counter, comfortably lounging as you chatted with her, having always enjoyed her conversations more than most. like rubin, she was a reason mondstadt always felt comfortable.

"fancy meeting you here," an all too familiar voice said, and you pulled your eyes from sana to find jeonghan leaning his side against the counter next to you.

"good evening, cavalry captain!" sana chirped, placing your reward - your room free already removed - on the counter and bowing politely. "can i help you with anything today?"

his icy gaze flickered from your lightly curved lips towards sana. "oh, no, my dear. i'm just coming back from an investigation near springvale"

"interesting," you said, eyeing him. "i was just there and didn't see you."

"i wouldn't be very good at my job if you did, wanderer," he grinned. "knight business, you wouldn't understand. got the assignment yesterday."

"ah," you shifted to your side to face him, making him eye the vision on your thigh. "is that why you never showed? rubin was worried."

he looked you up and down. "rubin was, huh?"

you rolled your eyes and adjusted your posture to face away from his smirk. sana looked between the two of you twice before clearing her throat as quietly as possible, making jeonghan let out a chuckle before he directed his attention to the guild's receptionist.

"how goes holding the post, sana?"

she looked almost frightened when the attention was directed back to her. "good, captain! in fact, one of our most capable adventurers-" she gestured to you, "-just returned from taking care of some of our more difficult commissions - no one else would take them."

jeonghan looked at you. "why did sana have to tell your secret?"

your eyebrows quirked upwards. "what secret?"

"that you're good at this. shouldn't you be bragging?"

a chuckle spilled from your lips, and jeonghan watched you as you looked away. "i'm not the bragging type."

he studied you a moment. "what type are you, then?"

you considered the question, wondering exactly how to answer. what type were you? if not a teller, than surely you must be a shower, but that didn't seem right either. you exhaled. "the quiet type. see you later, sana."

he laughed, pushing off the counter as you tucked your mora into your waist bag, wishing sana a good evening and following you towards the fountain. "you sure talk a lot for being the quiet type."

a smirk landed itself on your lips as he fell into step beside you. "maybe private is a better description."

"that one i can see," jeonghan said, looking over to you. he thought of how you had spent nearly an hour telling him about the best views in teyvat, yet he still didn't know the most basic information about you. "do you share your name with anyone?"

you thought. "my mother."

he scoffed. "anyone else?"

you looked to the sky. "rubin."

"wrong," he retorted. "he doesn't know your name, either."

you laughed, looking over to him as you came up to the fountain, spinning and sitting back on the ledge. "you asked?"

"of course i asked," he said, planting one foot on the ledge beside you and placing his arms on his knee. "i asked other people, too. almost everyone knows you, but they don't know anything about you. bits and pieces, but never the full picture."

you just smiled up at him from your relaxed posture on the concrete. "what's wrong with a little intrigue?"

he just smiled back at you. "nothing. i tend to keep a bit myself. did you know there's a large number of people in this city that were shocked when i said you wield a claymore?"

you hummed, dipping the tips of your fingers into the fountain. "did you know there's a large number of people in this city that consider you the most eligible bachelor in not only mondstadt, but in all of teyvat?"

his lips parted slightly as you spoke. "so you snooped, too."

"i was bored yesterday. it wasn't hard," you exhaled. you flicked a drop of water towards his foot. "jeonghan yoon, the cavalry captain of the knights of favonius since he was only nineteen. who loves wine and whose adopted brother runs the biggest winery in teyvat, yet they're hardly ever seen speaking. who comes from a far off land on a different continent, but has come to love mondstadt like it was his home. who wears an eyepatch but has never told anyone why."

he chuckled at the assessment and pulled his foot off the ledge to sit beside you. "so when do i get to learn about you?"

"i told you about me yesterday," you said.

"you told me about teyvat," he corrected. "and while i was able to infer some things about your character, i still know close to nothing about you."

you thought for a moment, realizing no one had ever noticed how little you truly shared despite always being willing to tell stories. "sometimes it feels like i am teyvat. it's hard to think of things that are just about me."

"you could start with that vision," he said, nodding at the strap across your thigh. you looked down at it, exhaling.

"what's there to tell? you know what it means, and that's more teyvat than me, too."

he leaned back on a hand, looking you up and down in curiosity. "how old were you."

you chewed your cheek. "fourteen. you?"

his lip quirked upwards. "sixteen."

you bumped his shoulder with yours playfully. "beat you."

he laughed. "how'd it happen?"

you paused. "you go first."

he just chuckled and looked away, watching a dog wander past the general store. "another day, then."

"no fun," you sighed, brushing your hands together as you leaned forward. "what about the eyepatch?"

he met your eyes, mouth slanted in a smirk. "another day."

you clicked your tongue. "if you wanna learn about me, you have to be willing to give up some details, too. i value a fair trade."

"then stop asking questions that you know i won't share the answer to." jeonghan noticed the color of the sky, then suddenly pulled a pocket watch out, checking it quickly to confirm that there was enough time and stood. "come with me?"

you stared up at him. "where?"

he grinned, extending a hand to help you to your feet. "you said mondstadt's sunsets were your favorite, correct?"

you generally weren't prone to following mysterious men into back corridors, but jeonghan easily convinced you with no words at all that sneaking around the sight line of the acting grand master was completely normal behavior, sushing you with a grin as you giggled, taking refuge around a corner after the two of you made it up to the second floor of the favonius headquarters. he tugged your hand with his, pulling you into a steep maintenance staircase behind a door.

"this feels like it's against some rules," you said, climbing the stairs behind him.

"nonsense," he said, looking back at you and grinning. "are you suggesting that a knight of favonius would break rules just to impress a mysterious traveler?"

you laughed quietly, wondering if he really meant that he wanted to impress you. "not most, but maybe this one."

he only thought for a split second. "if anyone asks, we're on official knight business."

he opened the door and you found the sky again, beginning to glow orange as the edge of the sun began to hide behind the cliffs. you stared in awe at the way the few fluffy clouds reflected pink and gold, then readjusted your focus when jeonghan spoke again.

"i hope you aren't afraid of heights," he said, walking over to the parapets that surrounded you. "the best view requires a bit of a climb."

you looked up at the tower, and while it wasn't much higher than where you stood, you also recognized that you were well above most of mondstadt already. "you climb up there?"

he paused, studying you. "we don't have to, we can just sit on a merlon-"

"no, we can climb," you said, walking over to where he was and eyeing the small gap between the parapet and the adjacent roof. "hop over?"

he laughed, stepping over the gap and holding a hand out for you. "watch your step."

and though you didn't need it, you accepted the hand anyways, and it stayed on yours as you walked over the roof to the tower, as if making sure you didn't misstep several stories in the air.

"would you like to go first?" he asked. "i'll catch you if you fall."

you rolled your eyes at him, dropping your hand from his grip. "you go first. i want to see where the handholds are."

he just grinned at you. "very well," he said, tugging on the wrists of his fingerless gloves to make sure they were taught against his skin before taking hold of a brick. you watched him as he took foothold after foothold, and he resisted the urge to show off by speedily scaling the wall in favor of making sure you had the chance to see where he gripped. when he reached the opening in the tower, he pulled himself up and spun around, exhaling with a grin as he seated himself at the ledge with his legs dangling above you.

"your turn."

you adjusted your waist bag as you sighed in amused annoyance, spinning it to be behind you and out of your hips' way to climb the wall. it wasn't much - a couple meters, maybe - and you had definitely climbed further, but jeonghan's presence made you slightly nervous. that nervousness, however, just fueled you to prove yourself.

you scaled the wall easily, making jeonghan whistle and jokingly call you some kind of adventurer, and your only hesitation came when his hand was in your face. despite your initial inclination to ignore it, you put your left hand in his, allowing him to help you pull yourself up on the ledge and sit beside him.

"impressive," he commented.

you laughed, brushing off your hands. "you, too."

"c'mon," he said, gesturing his head over his shoulder before making moves to stand. "the view's on the other side."

you sighed, looking over the view of mondstadt shrouded in golden light as he stood and walked to the other ledge. "never a moment of rest with you."

"if you want to miss the sunset, be my guest."

you leaned back on your hands and laughed, pulling your gaze away from the city to look at where jeonghan had seated himself on the other end of the tower, and subsequently the view of the rolling hills beyond him that were glowing golden in the evening sun. you blinked for a second, realizing you hadn't seen the sunset the night before, and quickly got to your feet to join him before you missed this one, too.

he gave you a soft smile when you sat beside him, and you briefly wondered how many he had in his repertoire. the wind was stronger higher, whipping gently through his hair and alleviating any uncomfortable warmth you may have had from exerting yourself on the way up. you watched the dregs of sunlight skip across the grassy hills and the sky turn deep orange and bright pink, feet swinging lightly over the edge of the tower.

"i was fighting with my brother," he said suddenly, causing you to look at him with a start before you realized he was telling you about his vision. there was a slight smile on his face as he looked out on the fields. "hyungwon. it was bad. he already had his - he's a pyro, like you - and we were both young and stupid and just lost our dad. we were sword fighting and it came to me when i needed it. it probably saved my life, honestly."

you blinked at him. "you think he would have killed you?'

he exhaled, leaning back on his hands. "i think if the roles had been reversed, i would have tried to kill him, too. i'm grateful it didn't go that way, though." he coughed abruptly, clearing his throat. "we're on speaking terms, and i do love him as a brother, but i generally avoid him."

you let that thought ruminate as you watched the sun sink, halfway beyond the horizon. "my father was in a gang in inazuma, but my mom ran away when she found out she was pregnant. didn't want to raise a kid in that world, i guess? we ran into him when i got older and he wasn't very understanding." you paused, remembering the detail too well. "they were going to take her vision. that's what they did to traitors. probably take me, too. they weren't expecting me to start setting fires."

jeonghan's gaze was on you as yours was on the horizon. "just a couple of survivors."

you looked over at him, a smirk on your lips. "a couple?"

he laughed waving at your implication, thinking he would have said the same thing in an attempt to fluster you just as you were to him. "like, more than one and less than four."

you only laughed back. "fortune favors the weak, i suppose. the archons saw we needed help and extended a fig branch."

"is that what it was?" he asked, a laugh on his lips. "we were both fighting people. that's hardly an offer of peace."

"look for the deeper meaning, jeonghan. we were fighting for our lives," you pointed out, and he realized it was the first time you had addressed him by his name rather than his title. "i was fighting for family. for freedom. is that not the greatest pursuit of peace?"

he watched you as you pulled your knees to your chest, putting your feet on the edge of the stonework surface you sat on. he studied the way the golden rays lit your skin and made your eyes sparkle. "i suppose so."

you paused in that moment for a long while, and jeonghan allowed the comfortable silence as the two of you watched the sun disappear beyond the cliffs of mondstadt. the sky was turning a deep shade of purple when you told him your name, and jeonghan thought that it was quite possibly the best news he had ever received, but he kept that joy to himself as he confirmed your name, and you rolled your eyes.

"are you gonna answer my other question now?"

he scoffed. "about the eyepatch? is it really that interesting?"

"not any more interesting than my name," you retorted.

"completely untrue," jeonghan insisted. "i've never been so excited to be told a secret, and i get told a lot of secrets."

you eyed his smile warily. "my name may be unknown, but it's no secret."

he sighed and shook his head lightly. "you really wanna know the reason i wear it? it's probably not as dramatic as you're hoping."

"yet you hide it?"

he laughed. "what's wrong with a little intrigue?"

you looked away, recognizing the parrot of your own words. "whatever you say, captain."

"no!" he whined and grabbed your arm, making you start and look at him with big eyes. "you just started calling me jeonghan, don't go back to captain."

you stared at him, only breaking to laugh, dropping your legs over the edge again. "you won't show me what's under the eyepatch, so i thought we weren't on first name basis."

his hand on your bicep was warm and gentle, but his gaze was piercing as he thought it over for a bit longer. you did your best to hold it, but you felt yourself shrinking when he quietly muttered, "go on, then."

it took you a second to register what he meant, and you reached out slowly, fingers hesitating before they brushed upon his cheekbone. jeonghan closed his eyes, resigning to your touch as you gently lifted the eyepatch. his eyes opened again, slowly, and you thought your heart might have skipped a beat.

"like chocolate," you commented, and a smile spread across his lips.

"that's the kindest reaction i've gotten."

your fingers fell upon his temple, brushing down gently as you inspected his singular brown eye. "since birth?"

he nodded, his eyes flicking down to your lips briefly before he spoke. "heterochromia. it's a characteristic of my family."

you studied his face. "not the one here?"

he sighed. "not the one here."

the icy blue of jeonghan's eye had always struck something in you. it made him mysterious. commanding. it felt like he saw more than you despite having one eye covered. but now, you felt warm. you felt his gentleness. there was comfort hidden away behind that black patch, and you told him that you understood why the cavalry captain had chosen to hide the eye he did.

but to you, he was willing to show anything that would keep you around longer, he said.

"why me?" you asked, studying his expression when he looked away. the sun had retreated behind the hills, leaving the sky a deep blue.

jeonghan didn't respond right away, and you wondered if he himself even knew the answer. "we're birds of a feather, you and i."

you looked out to the view again, watching the subtle movements of the wild hills. "did you travel much before you came here?"

"it was all i knew," he told you. "i was thirteen when my father left me here."

your neck snapped, your eyes on his profile when he leaned back on his hands. "left you?"

he almost laughed, a smile on his lips when his eyes met yours. "i was slowing him down, i suppose. hyungwon's father found me and took me in."

"so you stayed?"

"i didn't always want to," he assured you. "i had the itch to leave for years. as soon as i was able, i always told myself." he paused, eyes dropping. "then father died. then hyungwon turned down his position with the knights. and i was their second choice."

you pursed your lips. "you stayed for a job."

he laughed. "it's not that simple."

you smiled at him, enjoying the warmth of his eyes on yours as the sky cooled. "are you sure we're birds of a feather?"

"listen," he said, getting off his hands and brushing them off on his thighs. "i accepted the job so that i could set the story straight. i didn't want to run from the people that believed that hyungwon tried to kill me to avenge our father."

you studied him. "i'm sorry."

"don't be," he said, nudging your shoulder. "i was still planning on leaving, but then i fell in love."

you looked away, trying to sort out the way your stomach flipped. "are they still around?"

"not with a person," he laughed, then nodded towards the now dark hills. "with the views. besides, i get free reign whenever i leave for missions. i have fun adventuring, and come home to the best sunsets in teyvat. there are worse places to call home."

your eyes scanned the horizon, remembering the brilliant rays of sun you had just seen skip across it. "that is tempting."

"how tempting?" he asked.

you thought on that for a moment. "almost as much as a death after noon right now."

jeonghan laughed, slightly proud that he had hooked you on his favorite drink. "shall we go see rubin, then?"

you hummed, smiling at the captain. "as long as i don't have to sit alone again."

"that's a promise," he told you as he stood, holding out a hand that you took without hesitation, though he withheld his intention to make sure you were never alone again.

#hehe i came up with a whole thing #this was basically me wanting to write kaeya fanfic but knowing i would wanna post it so writing it about jeonghan instead #caratwritersclub #jeonghan scenarios #jeonghan imagines #jeonghan fluff #seventeen fluff #seventeen scenarios #seventeen imagines #hannie #genshin impact au #jeonghan is kaeya and im just right #i wrote dis

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random-tinies · 3 years

Text

Crowza - 1

I’ve had this AU idea sitting in my brain for a while and I’m going to turn it into a full-on fanfiction series. I’ll be tagging it as Crowza AU Here is Chapter 1 💙 No trigger warnings for this one. ^^ just good fluff. ft. Mumza as Lady Death, 1.6k words

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. .

There truly is no proper comparison to flying. Sure you can describe the feeling, you can say it's like swimming in freedom, but it will never compare to actually flying.

Philza thinks about this as he soars through the air, wind blowing through his primary feathers. Occasionally he flaps, defying the gravity that tries to pull him back down to earth. He takes a breath of fresh air, relishing the way it chills his lungs. If it weren't for his cloak and his feathers, he would be quite cold this high above the ground. Especially in early spring.

Although it's early April, occasional drifts of snow still dot the landscape below him as the birdman flies north for the summer. Twice a year, he makes this migration, and although it may be warmer in the southern areas, Phil enjoys the northern pine forest he calls his summer home. It's special to him for three reasons.

Kristin, his home, and his boys.

First things first, however. He needs to stop by his cache and see if it had been raided by squirrels while he was gone. Or if anything fresh is caught in his traps. Nasty buggers, always giving him grief. Troublesome creatures. Phil banks left and dives down towards a thick old oak tree with winding and twisted branches. He lands on one, bird feet gripping with sharp claws, and hops down to where his stash should be.

Near the center of the tree, the branches arch and wind themselves together in such a way that it forms the perfect shelter for someone his size. It had taken him a good century to help the young tree grow in such a way, but it gives him the perfect shelter year after year so every painstaking day of tying young branches was worth it.

Phil looks around to make sure he's not being watched before hopping inside. One can never be too careful when your cache is involved. His wings fold behind him as he walks forward, ducks under a large branch, and enters his storage room. A quick scan confirms that nothing found his home this winter and he relaxes, breathing a sigh of relief and grabbing some squirrel jerky to munch on.

It had been a long flight and he wants nothing more than to just flop on his bed and take a short nap, but he has two homes to visit first. His wings seem to ache in protest but he steps back outside and takes off into the sky once more.

A few strong flaps put him in the air and he soars the short distance it takes to get to his boys' cabin. He can see it from the top of his tree, it is an easy flight. He notices the youngest of the three outside chopping firewood and decides to land on the roof some ways above him. The sky is overcast enough that his silhouette looks just like a rather large crow.

The movement catches the boy's eye and he looks up, putting a gloved hand up to his face to try and shield his eyes from the bright white cloudshine. He squints and yells up at what he assumes is the same bird he's been seeing for years now, "Oi! Good to see you! Took your sweet time this year!"

Phil shuffles his wings and scoffs quietly. He's right on time. He always shows up to his Lady's forest on the same day every year. He watches his boy fondly as he continues to talk to himself, quieter now as he hefts the axe to chop another log in half. "Y'know, Wilbur thinks you're a crow but I think you're too big to be a crow. Plus I don't think crows can live as long as you have."

Phil sits down on the peak of the roof, legs still under him in case he needs a speedy escape. He listens to the peaceful sounds of a quiet life. A cold chill on the breeze, shadows crossing the ground as clouds moved through the sky, the occasional birdsong reaching their ears, the thunk of the axe as it chops through the wood.

The door to the cabin opens and Phil tenses, ready to fly off if attention is directed to him. He’s a little close to it and it could be a risk if whoever steps out decides to look up at him. While he loves these boys, if they find out he isn’t a crow then he’d never be able to return and watch them again.

A tall brunette steps out and calls to the blonde, “Hey, Tommy, when you’re done out here, could you come inside? Techno got a letter and we need to discuss it together, as a family.”

Tommy nods and sets down the axe. He nods towards the roof. “Hey, Wilbur, your crow friend is back. Silent as always.”

Whelp! Time to get out of there! Phil immediately takes off, flapping hard and flying over the boys’ heads. His silhouette is even harder to recognize as anything other than a crow as he soared away. Wilbur says, “Oh yeah, there it is, just like every year. You reckon he likes us?”

Whatever Tommy replies, Phil doesn’t hear it. He’s too far away, heading towards where Kristin lives in the forest. The landscape below him becomes denser and darker, the pines twisting and behaving oddly. Branches bend lower and often twist together. Crow caws are more frequent and a few join him as he flies towards his destination.

“Dadza!”

“Philza! It’s been so long!”

“Return of Dadza! Dadza! We missed you!”

Phil chuckles, striking up casual conversation with them, telling them stories of his travels. He does this every year when he returns from migration. Some of the murder follow him south during the winter but let him visit his boys alone. They prefer to stay with their lady, and Phil doesn’t blame them. He’d stay with her all the time if he was allowed.

At last they reach Kristin’s home. The murder descends and a few part ways to fly in through the open window. Phil smiles as he lands on a doormat that reads “On Death’s Door” and chuckles at the inside joke as he uses the tiny knocker built at the bottom just for him. The door opens and the most beautiful woman in all of history looks down at him with a fond smile. “And who would this be, knocking at my door?”

She wears a long black dress that graces her curves breathtakingly. Dark brown hair flows off her shoulders like a waterfall of shadows. Her voice is like the sound of windchimes in a gentle breeze, enveloping Phil in its peace. Even if his feet are rooted to the ground, his heart soars with joy. She is his everything and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Phil takes his hat off and bows to her, wings spread. When he looks up, she leans down and extends a hand towards him to step up onto. “You know I’d never miss an opportunity to have a brush with Death.”

His grin widens as she gives him a withering look. “You’ve said the same joke for the last five decades.”

“And you’ve said the same response for the last four decades.”

He laughs and balances himself as she lifts her hand. He bows his head as she presses a kiss to the top of his head, blush dusting his cheeks. The kiss of Death, if you will. Even if they’ve been together for forever, he’ll never get over these little moments. Coming back from his winter migration is his favorite part of the year.

Phil’s feathers ruffle and he places his hat back on his head. Nobody can make him feel as light as she can. She strokes his feathers and asks him about his flight, letting him perch on her hand. He tells her about the herd of deer he passed who had two fawns among them and the pack of wolves he heard while roosting one night.

She listens attentively to his words and pours him a small cup of tea. Phil could never express his love for her in the right way but he knows she understands. Their mob settles around them and drinks in every word, occasionally adding their own and squabbling amongst themselves. This is his family as much as his boys in their cabin are. He feels peace, drinking the bittersweet tea in his tiny cup.

A younger crow hops up and leans against Phil and preens his wings.

“Mumza! Mumza and Dadza!”

“Puppies! We love to see it!”

“Can we go visit them? I want to hear them!”

“Shiny ring… Phil, what about your boys?”

Phil hums and Kristin snaps her fingers. “I almost forgot! I meant to warn you, but the air is different this year. I’m not quite sure what’s going on, but I’ve felt more death in these areas than before. A few of my crows have gone missing.” She pets down his back, smoothing his feathers. “Be careful. I don’t want you to be among them, okay?”

He gives her his best reassuring smile and says, “You know me, Kristin. I never let anything happen to me. How many years have I managed to escape death?”

She chuckles. “Many times, though there have been some close calls. Just watch out. There are fates worse than death, my love.”

He bows his head. “Of course, my lady. I’ll keep an eye out.”

The rest of the night goes smoothly. New crows that followed Phil there introduce themselves to Lady Death and join their flock. By the time the fire in the fireplace dies down, the two are fast asleep in her bed, snuggled together and dreaming of a happy future.

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lena-in-a-red-dress · 3 years

Text

Notting Hill AU Snippet #10

Kara doesn't call.

Lena doesn't know if she wants her to, of if she just aches for a new kind of hurt, after the sting fades to a throb fades to a bonedeep sense of loss. When her therapist asks, she tells the truth: she doesn't know what she expected by inviting Kara Danvers into her home a second time. It had simply felt... right.

Weeks bleed together, time losing its meaning as Lena trudges through attempts from her friends to distract her. She sees Lex more than ever. He and Nia set her up on more than one date, but not one scratches Lena's surface.

"I could kill her for what she's done," Lena overhears Andrea telling Lex one night. "Look at her: it's as bad as Veronica."

"Worse, even." Lex's voice is low and concerned. He's always good for a laugh, but is at a loss when every single joke lands like a sack of bricks. Lena doesn't hear anymore. She slips out and texts an apology the next morning.

One day, Nia visits the bookshop with Querl in tow. She's radiant with excitement, enough so that even Lena nearly catches it.

"You are going to love me forever," Nia says, offering Lena a slip of paper. On it is written a phone number.

"What is this?" Lena asks.

"The number of Kara's agent in America."

The news hits Lena like a kick to the stomach. Her chest locks, and suddenly it feels like she can't breathe.

"I thought," Nia continues, suddenly nervous when Lena doesn't respond, "now you can finally call her. Now that things have calmed down. Get some closure, if nothing else..."

Lena still can't respond. Finally, Nia curls her hand around the slip of paper for her.

"Just, promise me you'll think about it, okay?"

It lives in Lena's pocket for a week, heavy and foreboding. Twice, she almost reaches for the phone. In the end, she throws it in the waste paper bin outside the shop and walks away.

---

One night, Lena finds herself sitting on her brother's couch. With Lex sitting next to her reading the paper and Andrea working on her laptop in the nearby armchair, the room is quiet. Normally, Lena prefers the silence, but tonight it weighs on her like a lead blanket.

"I should have known better, shouldn't I?"

The question slips from her without thought, marking the first time she's spoken of the great Kara Danvers debacle since it happened. Both Lex and Andrea look at her, and suddenly Lena's eyes fill with tears.

"Maybe-- maybe I'm just not meant for you two have. I should have taken the hint when my first crush fell in love with my brother instead. Spare myself the trouble."

"No," Andrea says, snapping her laptop shut and setting it aside to focus her entire attention on Lena. "No, just because I didn't love you the same way doesn't mean you aren't meant for happiness."

"Yeah," Lex chimes in. "And it's not been all sunshine and roses for us either. But the not so great moments are the entry fee you pay to get to the good stuff."

Lena wipes her eyes. She wonders if this was how the american colonies felt-- taxation without representation. Well, consider this her declaration. She's done.

"No," Andrea says again, recognizing the look on Lena's face. "You don't get to give up, Lena. We won't let you."

"Mmhmm," Lex agrees with his wife. "No one deserves to be happy more than you do. You'll get there... and maybe sooner rather than later."

"What does that mean?"

"It means," Lex says, folding his newspaper and handing it over, "that someone's back in London."

"Lex..." Andrea warns.

"What?"

Their conversation fades out as Lena stares at the headline. Kara Danvers Returns. It features a picture of Kara in a ballgown, grasping her academy award with a beaming smile, and a second image of a filming location filled with actors in period costume. The caption identifies the location as Hampstead Heath.

Though the image of Kara brings fresh tears to her eyes, Lena feels a strange sense of calm. Kara is okay. In that moment, she realizes that so much of her anguish was the not knowing whether Kara had recovered from the media blitz that had ended their tryst so spectacularly.

Now she does, and Lena feels... okay.

She coughs a laugh, wiping her eyes again as she stands. "I should go."

"Oh, Lena..."

"No, Drea, I'm okay. Thank you." Lena sniffles. "For caring."

Andrea rises, enveloping Lena in a hug. "I do love you, you know. That's never not been true."

Lena nods. "I believe you."

---

For a few days, Lena thinks the peace of knowing Kara is okay will be enough. But three days after Lex hands her the newspaper, Lena finds herself in Hampstead Heath, walking past horse drawn carriages and crewhands working diligently, eyes peeled for a flash of blonde hair.

She runs into a production assistant first. "Can I help you?" he asks, subtly shifting to stand in her path and keep her from going any further.

"Um, yes, hopefully. I'm here to see Kara Danvers, if she's not busy. I'm a friend."

"A friend," the guy says, clearly unconvinced.

"Yes, as far-fetched as that seems. I--"

She stops abruptly when the sound of a familiar laugh drifts through the air. In an instant, Lena zeroes in on the source, and sees Kara stepping out of her trailer with her agent in tow, her face alight with mirth.

Her agent grins back, clearly pleased with herself as she peels off to head in a different direction. Kara joins up with a trio of other actors heading towards the south lawn of the hampstead manor. They pause briefly, and in that moment Kara turns, and their eyes meet.

Electricity fills Lena from head to toe, rooting her to the spot even as her hand lifts in a hesitant wave.

Kara stares for a moment more, until Lena carefully retracts her hand. Only then does she say a word to her costars and take her leave, closing the distance to where Lena stands with her new friend.

Said friend notices Kara's reaction and stands aside, allowing Lena to approach the picket line marking the boundary of the set. They meet on either side, neither speaking for a long moment.

"What're you doing here?"

Kara's question cuts like a knife, and Lena has to swallow against the sudden lump that rises to her throat.

"I heard you were in town," she says softly, "and I..."

Again, she doesn't know why she's here. She doesn't know what she wants to say or how she hopes this conversation will end. She's just... here.

For now, even with all things unsaid between them, it feels like enough.

"Excuse me, Kara?"

Another production assistant calls for Kara, and the moment shatters. Kara holds up one finger, earning them a few more seconds.

"Um, things aren't going very well, and it's our last day, so..."

"Right, you're clearly very busy, I shouldn't have--"

"But if you could wait?" Kara asks, cutting Lena off before she can bolt. Lena looks at her, and in Kara's gaze she sees nothing but a wary earnestness. "There are... things to say."

Lena feels herself nod. "Of course."

"Okay," Kara breathes. "Great. I'll come find you when I can?"

Lena nods again. Kara leaves, taking all the air in Lena's lungs with her. Lena flexes her trembling hands, then hides them in her pockets when someone approaches and offers to take her behind the cameras.

The walk through the cultivated garden filled with costumed actors is thrilling in its own way, allowing Lena a glimpse into Kara's life as an actor rather than just a celebrity.

"Here," her guide says, passing Lena off to the sound technician. "Bill here can hook you up with some headphones to listen in. The actors are already mic'd."

Lena offers Bill a smile of thanks when he hands her a headset. There's also a small monitor, allowing Lena to see what the cameras currently see-- Kara Danvers running lines with another woman.

"So I ask you when you're telling everyone, and you say..."

"Tomorrow will be soon enough."

"Right, and then I..." On the monitor, Kara nods under her lace parasol. "Got it. Thanks, Siobhan."

Her costar, Siobhan, nods, then leans back against the fence behind her. "So. Who was the hottie you were talking to on the way to set?"

With a jolt, Lena realizes that she's suddenly the topic of conversation. She shifts uncomfortably in her seat, fidgeting with her headset-- but not removing it. Not yet.

"Oh. No one."

Lena swallows, her cheeks heating with a mortified flush. She was so stupid for coming here-- but Kara's not done.

"Just a friend from the past. It's actually kind of an awkward situation-- I don't know what she's doing here, actually."

The ground falls out from under Lena's feet, making her stomach swoop sickeningly. She tears the headset from her head, and shoves it back into Bill's hands.

"Sorry, I've got to--"

She doesn't bother finding an excuse. She simply bolts, and doesn't look back.

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#supercorp #notting hill au

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