#happy valentines day to my most indulgent ship of all time | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sophistopheles · 3 years

Text

Here’s Why Franmaya Works

As one of my favourite ships, I have to admit that Franziska and Maya as a pairing is a little bit obscure. It has plenty of shippers, but taking the games at face value, nothing jumps out at you to make you think “oh, they might be a potential couple”.

But upon closer examination, there really is some potential there! Here’s why.

1. Maya’s Canonical Admiration for Franziska

In 2-2, Maya is amazed at how Fran’s done so much while being the same age as her; this ties more into her own feelings of uselessness, but sets up a scenario where she genuinely admires Franziska.

This comes out in the anime too, where she expresses sympathy for Franziska “fighting all alone in America”.

Although Franziska does everything she can to look “perfect”, deep down she’s quite insecure about her role as von Karma’s heir. Someone who supports and cheers for her unconditionally would be really good for her!

Additionally, if you present Fran’s profile to Maya in Big Top, she says that if Franziska wasn’t so mean, she thinks they would get along quite well- and given that Fran’s been quietly undergoing that development since JfA, she and Maya could probably grow close given the opportunity.

(More under the cut!)

2. Franziska’s Canonical Soft Spot for Maya

The most obvious example of this is in 3-5, where she stays up all night at the freezing cold Inner Sanctum, trying to break the trick locks with Iris. Ostensibly Franziska shouldn’t have any further investment in the case; she doesn’t owe anything to Phoenix or Maya, and was presumably called away from her other responsibilities to help Edgeworth out, but she still puts herself through the discomfort and hassle of solving the locks for a whole day and night so that she can guarantee Maya’s safety and help put the case to rest.

Another, often overlooked moment is in the case’s denouement, where Franziska is so dismayed by Maya glaring at her that she apologises (to Larry, of all people), and agrees to model for his picture book- and it’s confirmed she went all the way through with it in SoJ!

The anime gets in on this too, with Franziska finding Pearl in Hazakura and taking her back to Maya & the gang in the courthouse. Plus, just look at how fond her expression is:

Not to mention this cute little 4koma showing Franziska getting all flustered over Maya calling her her friend (credit to pastecola on twitter):

3. Their Shared Burdens and their Narrative Parallels

Despite acting so differently, the struggles that Maya and Franziska go through are incredibly similar: both of them are the heirs to a dysfunctional and heavy legacy, Franziska feeling pressured by her father’s crimes and the drive to be perfect and Maya having to be responsible for Kurain Village when she comes of age, struggling to deal with Morgan’s jealousy and impossible expectations, as well as the village’s ruined reputation.

They both undergo great tragedy: Franziska loses the father she deeply admired, and is confronted with the harsh reality that he was never perfect, and (although she never truly believes Miles is dead) loses her brother, in a sense; Maya loses her sister Mia and even gets accused of her murder, as well as losing her mother- twice.

The way they deal with it is very different, but they undeniably have similar life experiences, and can be considered as parallels to each other. They’re the same age; Maya even calls herself Phoenix’s “big sister” a few times in T&T, similarly to how Franziska calls Edgeworth her “little brother”. If they were to become close, they’d easily be able to empathise with and understand each other’s struggles. They’d both benefit: for Maya to be with someone like Franziska who will take her seriously and honestly admire her, helping her out of her insecurity, and for Franziska to be with someone like Maya who will encourage her to be more light-hearted and indulge in her mischievous streak from time to time, as well as being able to assure her that nobody is perfect and she deserves love anyway... It would be an ideal arrangement for the both of them.

4. Their “Opposites Attract” Dynamic

Despite having similar struggles and common life experiences, Franziska and Maya are totally different people. Franziska is serious, hardworking, intimidating and easily frustrated; Maya is light-hearted, more playful, approachable and gets depressed more often than she gets angry. Their flaws and strengths complement each other perfectly- Maya’s endless enthusiasm would encourage Franziska to let her hair down a little more, which in turn would help Maya see that nobody is flawless or untouchable and help ease her insecurities. Their personalities are complementary enough that they could easily rely on and improve each other, but not become dependent on each other.

And besides, the idea of Franziska frantically trying to appease Pearl in any way she can so that she’ll approve of Franziska is objectively hilarious. Plus they’re an excellent complement ship to Narumitsu!

It’s definitely not the most obvious pairing in the franchise, but it’s still a ship that has a lot going for it and could develop into a genuinely compelling romance with a lot more nuance and complexity than it first appears to have- it’s no wonder it’s achieved the recent popularity it has.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

#franmaya #ace attorney #maya fey #franziska von karma #mayomei #...do people call it mayomei any more?#mine #soph's meta

562 notes · View notes

its-deputy-caleb · 3 years

Text

Micah Bell - Partners in Crime and in Love Pt.1

YES i know there’s 58 requests sitting in my inbox for re8 HOWEVER red dead is my comfort game and i needed to write this verbal mess down. I’ve been thinking of writing a micah fic for weeks now and i finally did it bc as much as i love re8 red dead is my fav and always will be. this is so self indulgent i swear.

for anyone that actually reads this the reader is pretty gn but does lean towards fem this time and i’ll be doing a part 2 for sure bc i love the rat man.

part 2 is now here

—————————————————————

Today was finally the day. The day for the big bank job that Dutch insisted was the right move for the gang. This was despite numerous doubts from Hosea and various other camp members that robbing a bank in broad daylight in the state’s largest city was a risk the gang couldn’t afford to make right now.

The whole morning there had been a sour feeling in your gut, a tiny voice shouting in the back of your mind that something wasn’t right. It wasn’t like you to get nervous on a job, in fact you recently robbed the Valentine bank with Bill on his job. Originally you weren’t interested in going, happy to let Karen go on her own with the guys but Bill insisted you go as you were one of the best gunslingers the gang had.

Robbing and killing came naturally to you and being outlawed in six states had never bothered you during your time as an outlaw. That’s why it was almost impossible for you to ignore the sick feeling in your stomach that was slowly building.

Making your way over to Micah, you see him sitting on a wooden crate cleaning his guns for the inevitable shootout that comes with bank jobs. Taking a seat next to him, Micah doesn’t need to ask you how you are; he can practically see how restless and agitated you look.

That’s the thing about your relationship with Micah, you understood each other (especially in public) and didn’t need grand public displays of affection to know exactly what the other needed in that moment.

The camp mostly stayed clear of your relationship, I mean you were probably two of the camp’s biggest troublemakers and risk takers when it came to planning jobs and robbing folk. Both of you had a shot quicker than lightening and could practically shoot your way out of any situation you found yourselves in. But regardless of how ruthless anyone thought you two were, you always had each other’s backs and wouldn’t stop to think about saving the other.

One night after a successful train job Dutch decided to hold a camp celebration. It was a mostly quiet night for you, having not decided to party with your companions despite Sean, Charles and Javier all offering for you to join in. Instead you decided to spend the mostly quiet night with Micah sharing a bottle of whiskey and splitting your share of the earnings. After each job you always had a bet with Micah over who could shoot the highest number of lawman. It was a bet the two of you had with each other just to cause more mischief and it always brought a smile to your face when Micah would lose and sulk about it for the rest of the afternoon

At one point during the night Bill strolled over to you while Micah went to get another bottle of whiskey. He was nice and polite despite the smell of beer coming from his breath, maybe even a little flirtatious and all was well until he asked the question ‘Why is you with a rat like him when you could be with someone as charming as me?’. Bill ended up with a face full of dirt and a broken nose, not to mention a killer hangover.

So yeah, the gang tended to leave you and Micah alone…

Micah’s knee lightly brushing against your own brings your thoughts back to reality. He’s stopped cleaning his guns and is looking at you with soft eyes and a gentle smile, the one that’s only reserved for you.

Despite being a hardened outlaw that has known nothing but chaos and the open road for most of your life. The gang has observed from afar your softer sides, whether it be the time you both fell asleep next to each other by the campfire or getting shit scared when the other has been shot and the rest of the night is spent with soft kisses and bandage wrapping.

Micah holsters his revolver and gently takes your hand in his.

“Sweetheart we’re gonna be fine, ain’t nothing gonna go wrong, now common let’s go get dressed for such a special occasion.”

Everyone is just starting to get into their fancy attire for the job when you and Micah are already packing your saddles and getting ready. You’re wearing matching white suits with a red shirt only yours is tailored to show off your figure a lot more and your plunge top and corset doesn’t leave much to the imagination but hey, if you’re gonna go out it’s gonna be in style.

As Micah finishes tightening up Baylock’s saddle you lean forward and hold his wrist in your hand. Your thumb gently brushes the soft skin there, trying to hide the nerves that have been slowly eating away at you all day.

“I don’t like this Micah, somethings gonna go wrong I can feel it…”

Micah’s never been great with emotions but you’ve known him long enough to know how he comforts you. The arm that’s caught in your grasp turns and brings you forward into a hug, his chin resting on your head as you hold him tightly against you.

“Ain’t nothin gonna happen to us, just think of it as another bank job.”

You nod and hold him closer, a rare event for such a public place where anyone could walk by but neither of you really cared at that moment. You press your face into his shoulder, trying to shake off your uneasiness.

“You better not die on me now Bell, you still owe me that new holster for beating you in five finger fillet.”

Fuck did the bank job go wrong. Horribly wrong. From the moment you got off your horses and stepped foot in that bank it all turned to hell.

Bullets where flying everywhere, there were civilians screaming in terror trying not to get caught in the crossfire, glass was being shattered by dynamite and Dutch was trying to formulate a plan while in shock of losing his dear Hosea.

A bullet whizzed past your head and you took out another Pinkerton. It was chaos. Every time you managed to bring down the line of Pinkertons another carriage full of them would arrive with the Saint Denis Police.

You couldn’t see Micah anywhere, but each time you tried to look for him your attention was dragged back to the action in front of you and the numerous Pinkertons shooting at you.

Arthur had snuck onto the roof at some point and some of the other members where making their way towards the rooftop as well. You were about to make a bolt towards Dutch and Javier on the ladder when Charles stopped you with a hand on your shoulder.

“Go that way, we’re the diversion! Karen and Sadie are a waiting near the alleyway of the tavern, we’ll meet you back at camp in a few hours, GO!”

Charles pushes you down the alley way and climbs up the ladder to catch up to the others. You would’ve protested but your body is running on adrenaline so you didn’t think as you snuck your way out of safety.

Micah was furious that Charles had sent you off on your own to find your way back, if it wasn’t for the fact that the five of them where hiding from the law in a rundown city apartment he probably would have argued with him for hours.

But deep down he knew it was the right thing to do. He knew that you’d be 100 times safer away from this chaos then if you were here with him, even if you could handle yourself.

For hours they sat in that little room, Dutch formulating a plan on how to get out of here while Micah tried not to worry about whether you made it home safe. Now he understood that sick feeling of worry in your stomach, he only ever got it when he worried about you.

By nightfall Dutch had somewhat of a plan to escape via the docks, sneak out onto a ship that would take them somewhere and it hit Micah in that moment that it would be some time before he saw you again…

The guards where everywhere, the entire city on high alert after the bank and Charles ended up running so everyone could make it onto a boat. As Dutch attempted to negotiate with the captain for a cabin, Micah lit a cigarette from his blazer pocket, trying to take his first deep breath of the night.

“We were fools for thinking we could pull off the bank…”

Arthur rests against the crates, fatigue clear in his eyes but willing himself to stay awake. Micah however didn’t want to sit and talk about what could have happened and what actually did, he had a headache already and certainly didn’t need a lecture from Arthur for another reckless decision he helped create.

“Whatever you say Morgan.”

Sighing defeatedly, Micah flicks his cigarette bud over the side and into the water below, making his way to go sit on the other side of the crates where he can think.

Back at camp you pace around the halls of Shady Belle, the floorboards creaking under the weight of your boots.

“Fuck this I’m going to find them-“

Before you make it out the front door however Miss Grimshaw blocks your exits.

“You’re not going anywhere anytime soon. The Pinkertons are everywhere looking for us. Now I know you want your precious Mr. Bell back but you’re just going to have to wait out the next few hours until he returns with the rest.”

You decide to ignore the slight condescending tone of Susan as you see a rider approaching into camp. Your hand is on your holster, everyone who’s left joining you to crowd around the man slowly coming closer. Everyone is relieved to see its Charles, but only slightly. He’s alone and a horrible feeling of fear washes over you.

“Charles… Where is everyone… Where’s Micah?”

#micah bell #micah bell imagine #micah bell x reader #i missed the rat man sm #it’s actually unbelieveable how badly i’ve missed writing for him #soft and angsty rat #soft rat 🥺🥺🥺#red dead redemption 2 #rdr2 headcanons #rdr2 writing #red dead redemption fanfiction #this is rushed and unedited #van der linde gang

62 notes · View notes

juseki-taisen · 3 years

Text

How about how the 12 warriors celebrate V-Day? (Bonus challenge being Doudecuple and Navi)

Thank you for the request @gale-dragon-writer

This was a long one! I hope you guys like!

Inounoshishi

Without S/O

This wouldn’t happen, let’s be real. If it did she planned this by choice, so she’s probably busy kicking ass and taking names...and numbers

Probably prowls bars for lonely men/women/they’s ect to buy her drinks.

Never pays for any food or drink of Valentines. She’s hot af and knows it

It’s 50/50 if she’s going to go home with someone

With S/O

Expects to be spoiled. Please spoil her

Despite her immense wealth, she doesn’t expect you to buy her expensive things. She can do that herself. What she’d really like is for a gift that’s full of thought.

If you make her a gift, she’ll play it off but she secretly loves it. It doesn’t matter how shitty it is. If you make her a cute boar figure out of clay and it’s lopsided, but you tried hard and painted it her favorite color, it’s going on her mantel in the living room.

Spoils you too. You will drown in gifts and kisses. Don’t worry, she uses amazing lipstick and it doesn’t stick to your face.

Dotsuku

Without S/O

Spends the day giving candy to the children.

Secretly gives his daughter a secret admirer letter, her confidence SKY ROCKETS

Decorates his classroom

This man is great at help kids learn about consent. No pulling pigtails, and if a boy likes a girl and she tells him no, he makes sure he knows not to keep bugging her. Same thing with the girls. If a boy doesn’t like them they’re not allowed to keep bugging them either.

Watches cute love movies with his daughter. He’s her prince charming.

With S/O

You better believe he has you help decorate his classroom

You make cute paper hearts and pick out candy

The kids leave you valentines

He takes you to dinner. His daughter comes too. You guys have a lot of fun. He buys you and his daughter a dessert. Somehow she eats here and half of yours

Snuggles on the couch and a cute movie.

Niwatori

Without an S/O

Doesn’t celebrate

She doesn’t understand why it’s a big deal

Indulges the day after on discount candy

With an S/O

Help her

She wants to celebrate but she’s in Ushii level awkward when it comes to doing anything

Picks the most popular movie out, watches it, and THAT is the basis for her whole idea

Gets you candy. Wears a cute dress. Picks a place to eat. Buys you roses, or do you get her roses? She’ll get them for you...just in case

Candy? Candy. Lots of candy.

Any small thing you get her she’s going to love. She never has really gotten gifts, and one out of love is a gift she’ll treasure forever

If you do get her flowers, she’s going to press them or dry them and keep them forever

Sharyu

Without an S/O

She had a fiancé for what seemed like forever, so a day without one is kind of difficult for her

She’s happy she’s alone, because she’s happy with who she is and now doesn’t have anyone to try and fit her into a mold that she didn’t belong

Kind of mopes though. She wants romance and someone who loves her for who she is and everything she does

Drinks hot coco and eats an ungodly amount of chocolate

With an S/O

So. Excited.

She cooks all day and makes cake, dinner, and everything else from scratch

You get her gifts and feel like it’s still not enough

Honestly? It doesn’t matter what you get her. She just love shaving you around and knowing how much you care for her for who she is

PLEASE slow dance with her in the kitchen while you’re doing the dishes. She’ll remember it forever

Hitsujii

Without an S/O

Hangs out at home

Waiting for the candy to go on sale

Babysits for his child so they can have a romantic evening

Watches random shows on TV, but avoids romance stuff

With an S/O

Still wants to hang out at home, but will go out if you want

Uses this as an excuse to DESTROY the candy aisle

Gets you flowers, they’re not red roses because that’s pretty expensive, but he gets cute ones...and a bear

Snuggles and falling asleep to bad rom coms on TV

Uuma

Without an S/O

Spends it alone

He wishes he had someone, but he’s alright for the most part

Okay he’s not

He’s a big softie inside and somewhat romanticizes the holiday more than he should

Eats cake...and chocolate

With an S/O

The man goes WILD

Roses everywhere

Candlelight

A romantic dinner he made meticulously after practicing for weeks

Remakes the titanic ship in a bottle, with you two as the figures on the front of the ship

He loves any gift you get him. He cries. He tries not to, but he does.

He writes you a poem he gets to embarrassed to read. You get it in a card.

Takeyasu

Without an S/O

Steals everything with his brother

Necklaces, candy, and even flowers just so he can light them on fire

Doesn’t think much of the holiday, never has. It’s stupid.

With an S/O

He’s awkward. He doesn’t know how to celebrate the holiday

He gets you the basics, candy, a bear, and flowers. That’s it right?

Oh wait, you wanna do something? Uh, can a theme park be romantic?

You have a lot of fun actually, and when inevitably he lights part of it on fire, he has stuff for smores.

You save the picture from the tunnel of love. You managed to snap it before he lit it on fire. The tunnel was the point of origin.

Later on down the road he plans more stuff. He may also use fireworks to do your name in the air or something

Steals you a car.

Nagayuki

Without an S/O

Steals stuff with his brother

Gets entirely to many snacks

Does anything but Holiday stuff

With an S/O

Doesn’t want to do anything, but will because you ask him

Takes you for dinner, and he enjoys spending time with you, but because social convention is making him he’s grumpy about it

If you’re the kind of person who is easily embarrassed, he may send you cheesy emails with stupid valentines cards

Chocolate and all KINDS of snacks

Later on down the line he’ll plan more romantic stuff, and buy you nice things with real money so you know he cares

Usagi

Without an S/O

He likes the Holiday and wants someone to do it with SOOOO BAD

Watches all those cute movies and cheesy rom coms

Has a “Friend” he takes out on a date

It doesn’t go well

With an S/O

Oh boy. He’s SO HAPPY

He gets you everything. Flower, roses (ignore the blood it’s fine), and he lets you know he’s arrived to pick you up by having his friends hold him high while he has a boom box playing your favorite song. Even if it’s metal. Even if he thinks the holiday begins at midnight. Your neighbors wont care, right?

You will go to ALL the cheesy stuff. Cute rides at a theme park, which somehow gets burned down later on thanks to someone (Takeyasu)

A dinner and flowers, chocolate. SO MUCH CANDY. He even likes the terrible heart ones. He made you a box filled with ones that have saying that remind him of you

Cuddles, kisses, and smooches that just...don’t stop. Even in public. You gotta tell him to tone it down.

Tora

Without an S/O

Drinks, and mopes

She doesn’t really want to date, but seeing other people happy kinda rubs it in when you’re single

Partakes in day after candy sales

She actually avoids the bars, to many couples being happy and cute

Angrily eats snacks

With an S/O

She doesn’t expect much, other than maybe being one of those annoying couples who steals Every. Booth. In. The. Restaurant.

Please get her presents. Please. She’ll get really happy and flustered

This girl will actually try and make you chocolate from scratch. Sharyu helps. She even wraps them in a cute wrapping paper she draws herself

It’s pretty casual and after bar hopping you spend it at home. You’re with her so she cuts back so she’s not sloshed. She wants to remember being with you.

So many cute kisses.

Hand holding. It still gets her flustered.

Please get your picture taken at some point. She’ll put it by her bed and fall asleep smiling

Ushii

Without an S/O

There’s a Holiday?

He guess he noticed it was harder than normal to get a table for his favorite restaurant

Doesn’t really like sweets so the holiday just annoys him

So many people confess to him and he’s just like “Okay. Cool. Thanks”

With an S/O

He’s not great with the holiday. He’s smart though, so he tries to research what to do

Googles top ten most romantic gesture, luckily has the sense not to propose

Gets you candy, roses, and all the stereotypical stuff

You have to tell him to relax, because all the stuff he’s saying is regurgitated rom com lines

When he does relax, he’s actually really sweet. Stupidly sweet actually.

“I don’t need a holiday to tell me you’re important, you’re already always on my mind, but the candy is nice I guess”

Will watch whatever you want. Is always confused by romance movies, but oh BOY does he love going out to eat with you. Hell. Yes. The desserts are amazing and now he gets to share them with you

Care you a card. It’s ugly, but he tries

Gets you a really cute necklace. It has a small ox on it, so he can always be with you.

Nezumi

Without an S/O

Eats candy and sleeps. It’s no different than any other day, other than people piss him off more.

He doesn’t like how weird people get

They also made out on his locker...and he needed his textbook. Please....Let him get his books

With an S/O

Uses his paths so much that he passes out and HARD CORE NAPS before you go out

Has the perfect gift.

Plays co op video games with you

He doesn’t like people, so you get take out and stay home

You watch movies, but they’re movies like Princess Bride, Warm Bodies, and love stories that aren’t so normal and are more fun

If you’re LGBT he goes out of his way to find a good movie ahead of time, because he loves and supports you and this day is about you two damn it! (The other’s would try to do this for their S/O, but would have a harder time. since most of them are not great with technology like Nezumi is)

So much candy and snacks

Selfies and filters

You fall asleep together and nap

get him a gift. He’ll know it’s coming but it still makes him happy

BONUS CHALLENGE

Doudecuple

Without an S/O

Doesn’t do a whole lot. Has wine and watches the mortals below

Maybe messes with people just a bit to amuse himself

Does his own thing. He really doesn’t care for the holiday

With an S/O

Wine and a dessert charcuterie board

Gets you an expensive gift, but practical. A coat, a scarf. Something to keep you warm and cozy you can use everyday and think of him.

Makes the impossible possible. A romantic setting with only a few people

Getting the tickets for some play or show the last minute

Please do something cheesy, it’ll amuse him, and he’ll secretly keep it

ON THE FLIP SIDE

He may get a gift from you, then anyone who goes in his office will see it.

“Look what my Love got me. Have you beheld it?”

It doesn’t matter if it’s stupid. He’s keeping it forever

Navi

Without and S/O

Stays home and has snacks and chocolates

Maybe organizes his hat collection

Watches fun game shows or anything without romance

With S/O

Has a special hat he wears for the occasion

Gets you one too

Gets you candy and a single rose, as well as a teddy bear

Uses his tablet to find the best places to go with the best rating. Uses his ability to multiply to hold your place in line so you can actually do other stuff

Ferris wheel. He has to hold his hat on but you guys get an AMAZING picture together. It’s his screensaver. He texts it to Nezumi. Nezumi and him start having a couple picture off. Next year, double date.

#juni taisen #juuni taisen #juni taisen x reader #juuni taisen x reader

66 notes · View notes

lawslessons · 3 years

Text

Zoro x Luffy - Sweetest Gift of All

Happy Valentine’s Day, my dears! I hope this day has been sweet to you all and I hope you have an amazing time. I decided to be a little self indulgent today with this, so do forgive me for that. But without any further wait, I hope you enjoy! Warnings: None

Synopsis: Chocolate? Zoro found himself looking around town for the perfect chocolate for Luffy to express how much he meant to him. But unable to make his decision soon enough, the swordsman found that sometimes a gift from the heart means more than any material gift.

“This island is kinda strange,” Nami mused as she walked through the colorful street. The roads were lined with red bricks, and pink hearts lingered on the side of the buildings that were there. All of the merchants were singing and smiling, everyone had little boxes of hearts in their hands and were trying to get people to purchase their wares.

“Come here, miss! I have the best deals on chocolates!”

“No! Come here! I have a sale on my chocolate strawberries!” Another merchant said as they tried to capture Nami’s attention. She looked over at the merchants who were howling at her and tilted her head.

“Excuse me, what’s this all for? Why is everything so… lovey?” She asked them. The merchants all looked at one another in surprise and looked over at the women and the rest of the group.

“You don’t know what it is?” One of the merchants asked as he put his boxes of chocolate down on the ground.

“Hmm, no,” Luffy said as he rubbed his chin with a small pout on his face. “What is this all for? Can I have the chocolate?” Luffy asked with a big smile on his face. The merchants all looked aghast at what they were saying.

“It’s about love, can’t you see?” The merchant asked, the merchant pointed towards some of the couples that were there. They were holding hands, kissing cheeks and handing one another these heart shaped boxes filled to the brim with sweet chocolates.

“Love?” Sanji asked, he then looked around, and after a brief pause, he gasped. “Single ladies!” He screeched as he went to run after the women he saw standing alone. Zoro scoffed and looked away from him.

“Stupid cook,” Zoro grumbled. He watched as the rest of the crew bought some chocolate for one another and began to hand it out. Chopper got some for Robin and Nami, Usopp got some for ammo and Sanji bought as much as he could to give to the women he could find.

“Are you going to get chocolate for anyone?” Nami asked the swordsman. Zoro glanced over at Luffy who was buying quite a few boxes of chocolate for himself to eat throughout the day.

“No,” Zoro mumbled as he looked away from his captain. Nami noticed how Zoro looked at their captain and sympathetically sighed at him.

“Why not? You obviously want to,” Nami pointed out to him. Zoro tensed and looked away from the money hungry woman.

“No, no I don’t,” Zoro defended as he started to walk in the opposite direction of where they were all supposed to be going.

“You’re walking the wrong way!” Chopper yelped as he went to run after Zoro to get him back on track. “Zoro! I got some chocolate for you!” Chopper chirped as he handed a small box of the sweets to the swordsman. Zoro looked at his tiny friend in surprise and felt his cheeks pink as he accepted the chocolate from him. He wasn’t expecting to receive a token of friendship like this, he looked down at Chopper and saw how he smiled, that was enough to make his heart melt.

“T-Thanks,” Zoro stammered out as he looked at the elegant and cute box he was holding. He then glanced over at Luffy who was sitting by the stand eating as much chocolate as he possibly could. That was when Zoro decided to make it his mission to get Luffy the best possible chocolate he could, the most too. “I’ll be back later,” Zoro suddenly said before he went to venture off to hopefully find something, or someone to help him accomplish his task. The first merchant he stopped at smiled when he saw the swordsman.

“Ah! Are you looking for chocolate for your sweetheart?” He asked Zoro. Zoro sheepishly looked away and blushed, he didn’t think he could call his captain that, after all, nothing was set in stone.

“I guess you could say that,” Zoro mumbled while the merchant smiled.

“Well, you’re in luck! I have the sweetest chocolate here on the island, here! Try!” The merchant insisted as he shoved a piece of the chocolate in Zoro’s mouth. Zoro ate the candy in surprise and felt his mouth beginning to hurt from how absurdly sweet it was. Zoro cringed as he swallowed it, maybe this was too sweet for the captain.

“Thanks, but I think I’m going to have to pass.” Zoro said with a small bow before he went to try and find another stall. That was when the swordsman heard someone singing in the stall that was closest to him. He glanced over at the stall owner and went over to her and saw her trying to sell her chocolate with her beautiful voice.

“A sweet song for a bitter treat?” the woman winked, she held out a small piece of chocolate for the swordsman to try. Zoro took the chocolate and tasted it. Instantly his cheeks caved in and his lips pursed as he tried to process the bitter chocolate flavor that was in his mouth.

“Bleh!” Zoro cringed as he swallowed the chocolate and tried to get the bitter taste out of his mouth. The woman pouted at Zoro’s reaction but didn’t look upset by it.

“Your love is new, isn’t it? Then bitter chocolate isn’t right for you. I suggest you try that stall over there,” the woman said as she pointed to a stall that was a little ways away from her. “But you better hurry, most of the stalls are beginning to close because the day is almost over,” the woman explained before she went back to singing her operatic song. Zoro tensed and quickly looked around and noticed how the stall wonders were slowly beginning to put their things away and he began to panic. He quickly started to run to try and find the stall owner the women told him about. But he got lost, horribly lost, and he wasn’t able to find them and it was becoming dark, he could see the moon shyly looking out from behind the sunset. Zoro felt his heart stop when the lights turned on in the small market square, yet there was almost no one there. When he turned around and saw only one stall open, he felt like his heart was going to snap in his disappointment. The stall was small and crudely made, and when he approached it, he noticed that there was a child standing there with a few small boxes of chocolate shoved into little heart boxes.

“Do you want to buy some of my chocolate? I made it myself!” The young child smiled as they quickly held up one of the misshapen heart boxes. Zoro looked at the pitiful sight and couldn’t help himself, he had to buy it.

“Yes, I would,” Zoro said before he bought one of the boxes and clutched it close. The crushed box reminded him of his own heart and he couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed carrying it around while everyone else had lavish boxes with beautifully crafted chocolates inside of them. He was nervous that this wouldn’t be enough, was it even worth the effort? Zoro slowly made his way over to the ship - not after asking for directions of course - and went aboard and watched as the crew was celebrating the ludicrous holiday and cheering with one another. Zoro saw the heart shaped pieces of paper everywhere and saw how Robin and Nami danced with Chopper and how Franky was making the lights look like hearts with Usopp. Sanji was cooking in the kitchen and Brook was playing romantic music while Luffy sang with him. Zoro looked at Luffy longingly and saw how he had many boxes of chocolate around him, why would he like this one? It was stupid, pathetic. The swordsman frowned and moved to leave the deck and go find someplace to be alone. Zoro was unaware that his odd attitude and uneasy aura had captured the attention of his captain. Zoro mindlessly found his way to the top of the ship and there he stood staring at his pathetic little box of chocolate while the party unfolded under him.

“Zoro?” A soft voice called, Zoro quickly recognized that voice and hid the box of chocolate behind his back and looked over at his captain.

“Luffy?” Zoro asked, why was he up here? He felt his panic beginning to increase the longer he had to look at the gentle eyes of his captain.

“Why are you here? You should come enjoy the party,” His captain pouted, Zoro stared at Luffy’s lips and how they jutted out in his disappointment. Zoro stifled a sigh and looked out at the sky again, he didn’t have a response he wanted to share with his captain. “Did you get a box for someone?” Luffy then asked as he saw the small glimmer of pink paper from behind Zoro’s back. Zoro tensed and quickly tried to hide it again, his cheeks matched the color of the paper as he looked over at his captain.

“I-it’s stupid,” Zoro stammered, “There’s no point -- “ before he could finish, Luffy grabbed the box from behind Zoro’s back and looked at it with inquisitive eyes. The captain’s brown eyes reminded Zoro of the sweet chocolate he tasted earlier, his heart tightened in his chest and he felt like he was going to be sick if he stared at him any longer.

“Who is it for?” Luffy asked with a childish tilt of his head.

“You,” Zoro blurted out as he stared down at his captain like the love sick fool he was. “They’re for you, it’s not the best box but I did my best to find something for you,” Zoro’s words fell on deaf ears. As Zoro spoke, Luffy opened the box and ate the crudely made chocolate and his eyes widened in surprise at what he was tasting.

“This is good!” Luffy praised with a large smile on his face. Zoro was even more surprised when he saw how his captain was enjoying the sweets he had gotten for him.

“Do you really like them?” Zoro asked, the captain nodded his head as he popped another one of the sweet candies in his mouth. Zoro was stunned with himself that his captain enjoyed what he had gotten. He was worried Luffy wouldn’t have liked it because there wasn’t a lot, but he should’ve known better by now. That smile on his face was enough for the swordsman, it always would be.

“Yeah! I’d like anything from you! Oh! I got you something too,” Luffy admitted before he pulled up and equally beat up box of chocolates and smiled at Zoro. “I hope you like it, I couldn’t seem to find anything good either,” Luffy pouted. Zoro took the box and looked down at it as if it was the most precious treasure he had laid his eyes on. He smiled softly at Luffy and leaned in to kiss his rubbery cheek. Luffy continued to pout, but a blush soon blossomed onto his cheeks. The mini spout of courage surprised the both of them, but neither of them questioned it and just continued to savor each other’s company.

“I love it,” Zoro said as he ate one of the homemade chocolates. “Thank you, captain,” Zoro smiled as he stayed close to his captain and ate chocolate with him and talked about nonsensical things. Zoro felt his heart swell, maybe this sort of holiday wasn’t so bad?

47 notes · View notes

eirist · 3 years

Text

Little Bits and Pieces of Heaven

THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS

One-shot #: 23

Disclaimer: One Piece (and its characters) belongs to Eiichiro Oda-sensei.

Reminder: I have no beta-reader. Any grammatical and spelling errors are solely mine.

Warning: OOC possible. One shot.

Rating: M (Suggestive)

Note: Happy Valentine’s Day people! This was originally for the Whimsical Kisses collection but it turned out differently than I had planned. And I liked it better. So enjoy!

Summary: He was a greedy man when it comes to his alcohol. Just like she was a greedy woman when it comes to her money. But he was all too willing to share it with her beneath her beloved trees.

It was a rather tiring day.

If Zoro may say so himself.

Just when he thought that idiot love cook couldn’t get any worse, someone had to go and invent a day for couples, celebrating romance and all that mawkish stuff guaranteed to make a normal, unromantic person barf.

Ero-cook’s adoring gestures went into overdrive because of that and stayed in it the whole damn day. He shifted from shouting one moment into noodle-dancing the next, then to swooning and crooning at their two female crewmates.

He put the rest of the crew (the boys, specifically) to work to give the two women the most romantic evening of their lives, with threats of blood and gore and a dinner straight from a vegetarian’s menu if they did not lend a hand into making the day extra special for the girls by helping turn the Sunny’s lawn deck into a romantic makeshift restaurant for a dinner date with him.

Zoro snorted at that, muttering ‘aho cook’ under his breath before promptly turning his back and leaving the rest to deal with the blond’s insanity.

He holed himself up in the crow’s nest, far away from the man as possible and busied himself with his training. Every now and then he rolled his eye whenever Sanji yelled bloody murder at one of the boys for ruining or messing something in his carefully laid out dinner date plans.

He couldn’t understand why the other idiots put up with the idiot prince’s buffoonery. The threat of the vegetable menu isn’t that bad. Food is food after all.

But not everyone has the same thought as him. Nor can they withstand fasting or a measly meal of greens just like him.

He grumbled out his complaints when Nami popped up in the nest to check on him. She just laughed at his grievances and with a cheeky smile, told him that this is the one time she and Robin are all too willing to indulge the chef’s wish, making the swordsman frown.

Unless Zoro has something planned for the two of them. Then she will be no show at the dinner date and leave Robin at the Sanji’s mercy all night.

Which he absolutely doesn’t have. And Nami knows that of course. She already knew what she was getting into after all when she involved herself with him.

With a wink she left him to his own devices. But not before blowing him a kiss and promising that she would see his unromantic, delectable ass much, much later… if he is still awake and waiting.

He just huffed in response and watched her disappear down the hatch to prepare for their evening with that damned swirly brows.

Yet the weird thing is… he wasn’t even mad that she’s gonna spend the evening on a dinner date with that twirling dumbass cook. Nor even jealous.

For he was already way past those emotions. He had long ago came to deal with them.

Instead he was… amused.

Because he definitely likes to see how it would turn out.

In the end… it definitely wasn’t aho cook who Nami would spend the rest of the night with.

But that doesn’t mean he can go slack today of all days—even if Nami already expected that he had nothing special for her (because he is broke and unromantic, her words).

In all honesty, it would really be hard to compete with that ero kappa when he has been showering the girls with flowers, chocolates and a carefully made Valentine’s lunch and perfectly planned dinner date.

There’s no way the other male crewmembers can top that even if they wanted to.

Still, Zoro did stay awake and waited for her. Waited until that shitty dinner date with that shitty cook was done. Waited under her mikan trees, hidden beneath its shadows, with a bottle of a rather pricey alcohol that he was able to buy when he snuck into town earlier with his measly savings before they (the ones who doesn’t have any role in the dinner date) were confined inside the galley with a rather scrumptious dinner guaranteed to keep them in place so as not to disturb Sanji’s ‘date’ with the lovely ladies.

It’s the thought that counts after all. He was a greedy man when it comes to his alcohol. Just like she was a greedy woman when it comes to her money.

But he was all too willing to share it with her beneath her beloved trees, surrounded with the citrusy fragrance he had come to know and love while underneath the brilliant stars shining up in the sky that she absolutely can put to shame.

It counts as something. Especially from a man like him who doesn’t have a single, romantic bone in his body.

And Nami understood that. Because she was there after the dinner date was done and tidied up and everyone had retired to their respective rooms (the love cook still griping about how the night went by so fast)—all smiles as she made her way to him; still in that wine red, gown that showed of the bare skin of her back, the light tap of her bare feet against the wooden floor in time with his heartbeat.

Amidst lowered voice, hushed tones and muffled laughter at all the craziness (mainly from shit cook) that happened that day, they shared that special drink.

“Are you trying to get me drunk Zoro?” Nami joshed as he handed the bottle back to her so she can drink her share of the beverage again.

He grinned. “Why? Is it working?”

“Hmmm yes,” she whispered jestingly as she moved to settle on his lap, arms locking behind his neck as she kissed him.

The skirt of her gown had ridden up, exposing her long, creamy legs and he took the liberty of trailing his hand against the smooth skin of her thigh, moving upwards, higher and higher until…

He suddenly pulled away from her lips to stare at her questioningly.

Did she actually went and had dinner with that perverted cook without anything underneath her dress?!

Nami smiled mischievously at his expression, her fingers playing with the ends of his hair, tickling the back of his neck…

She brought her lips closer to his ear.

“I took it off before coming here to you,” she whispered, her tone seductive, winking saucily when she felt his chest rumble against her as a growl escaped him.

“Happy Valentine’s Zoro,” she teased before her grin turned naughty. “Now, why don’t you take my dress off so you can enjoy your valentine’s day present?”

-------------------------

A soft snore tore him from his thoughts and Zoro glanced down towards his slumbering companion.

He was sitting on the floor of the crow’s nest, with his back resting against the wooden bench surrounding it. Nami was sleeping beside him, lying down her stomach on their makeshift bed of layered blankets, making him wonder how in the world can she sleep comfortably in that position given how generous her breasts are.

Surprisingly, it didn’t bother her that she didn’t have any pillow. Normally she would complain about the lack of support for her head and neck and would eventually force him to let her use his arm.

Her cheek was resting contentedly against the soft sheets; her arm was resting limply across his thigh, the blanket they were using for cover was strewn carelessly above her desirable and naked ass, barely covering it.

She was so deep in her sleep and oblivious to the world around her.

Another snore broke the silence and Zoro smirked. Nami rarely snores (yet she claims that she doesn’t) but he knew well enough.

His navigator must be really tired.

He reached down to drag the blanket up and cover her properly. She was mumbling in her sleep… something about steering the ship away from an incoming storm.

Zoro promptly sneaked a glance out of the nest’s windows. After all, Nami’s weather predictions are never wrong.

But the sky is clear. Not a single cloud was hovering across the vast, still dark horizon sprinkled with countless of brightly shining stars.

He finds it adorable that she was still manning the Sunny and getting them out of danger even in her dreams.

He carefully lifted her hand from his thigh, his calloused fingers caressing her soft ones.

Zoro leaned down so he could bring them closer to his lips for a kiss.

That pulled her out her slumber.

“Mmmm…Zoro?” She blearily blinked up at him. “Why are you awake?” Her voice still hoarse from sleep or from their earlier activity, he was not sure.

She lazily stretched her body as Zoro watched her. “Is it time to go?” She asked again as she sleepily sat up, running a hand through her tousled orange tresses. The blanket covering her fell down and bundled on her hips, exposing her delicious breasts still marred with his kisses and bites.

He smirked, hands reaching out for her waist. He tugged her closer to him, kissing her forehead. She welcomed his affection with a warm, sleepy smile, wrapping an arm around his torso as she hummed in content.

“Nope,” he finally answered as he kissed her lips softly before planting a peck on one bare shoulder. She shivered slightly at the sensation. “I told Usopp I’d cover his shift tonight.”

He grinned when her eyes sparkled at the thought of spending some more time with him.

“We have the nest to ourselves ‘til daybreak. Happy Valentine’s Nami.”

#zoro x nami #ZoNa #zonami #zonalove #zona one-shots #zoro nami fanfiction #roronoa zoro #nami

38 notes · View notes

percyinpanties · 3 years

Text

whee happy valentines fellas ♥

my health has been all over the place, so my secret plan of writing a few tiny valentines fics sadly wasn’t doable, but i finished this one at least. i didn’t edit, so there’s most likely typos. it’s... not the best thing i’ve ever written but it’s soft and fluffy and I hope you enjoy ♥

ship: percy/ nico

rating: teen + words: 2.6k

____________

Nico still isn't sure how he feels about going for a first day on Valentine's Day of all things, but when Percy had asked him, he hadn't found it in himself to turn Percy down. If it meant getting a shot with the one guy Nico has been pining after for an embarrassingly long time, Nico was perfectly happy enduring the kitsch and romantic expectations that came with a holiday as silly as this. If he is perfectly honest, Nico isn't entirely sure what his own expectations are going into this - or what Percy’s might be - maybe because Nico still struggles actually believing that Percy sees him as more than a friend, or at least wants to get to that point. The point stands though that Percy asked Nico for a date on Valentine’s Day, and even Nico doesn't manage to convince himself that Percy didn’t mean it that way given the romantic nature of going out tonight of all nights.

Percy hadn't actually said all that much about what he planned to do, beyond promising Nico he wouldn't take him to a stuffy, fancy restaurant for boring small talk and overpriced food neither of them cared to eat. It's a small mercy and while Nico is glad they won't be stuck awkwardly sitting across from each other with very little to distract from the uncharted territory between them, only knowing what they won't be doing gives him very little to work with. Of course, Nico could just ask, but he's almost afraid Percy might change his mind about the whole thing after all if Nico pushes it too much. It doesn’t make sense, and Nico is very aware of that, but it doesn’t stop him from staying quiet just in case.

In a stroke of luck, Nico has to work the day of the date - which doesn't only guarantee his evening will actually be free, but also distracts him enough to stop from agonizing over every little detail. He just knows he'd have spent most of the day pacing his room if he'd stayed in his dorm, and even busy at work he still finds enough time to do just that until his shift is done. There's a hundred worries buzzing around his head, most of them entirely nonsensical - from silly questions like whether to put his hair up or down later to the truly worrying implications this date going badly could have for Percy's and his friendship - and thinking it all over for the hundredth time doesn’t serve to calm Nico down at all. If anything, it only increases his anxieties. Nico tries to convince himself that it's just Percy and they'll be fine either way, but given that Percy has never been just Percy for Nico, that line of thinking doesn't get him particularly far either.

In the end, all Nico can do is fully throw himself into work in an effort to distract himself enough before he does something stupid like cancel their date last minute because his anxiety got the upper hand. It’s a mediocre solution, but it gets the job done more or less and by the time Nico leaves work, he’s more stressed about making it on time than he is about all the ways the date could go wrong.

Nico has just enough time to change out of his work clothes and freshen up before Percy texts him, already waiting downstairs and ready to go. Despite the nervousness now permanently settled in the pit of his stomach, Nico finds himself smiling. He is looking forward to this, has been for days, even if right now it feels like there is a tangible chance that he’ll either spontaneously combust or go into cardiac arrest before the night is done. Nico only allows himself to stall for a moment longer, check his pockets, take a deep breath and tell himself it’s going to be fine before he is out the door and down the stairs.

When Nico steps out of his dorm building, Percy is leaning against a streetlight right across from the entrance. It's already getting fairly dark outside and Percy, only sparsely illuminated by the cheap yellow bulb above, looks absolutely stunning in the low light. Granted, Nico would think Percy looked good in a ragged trashbag and crocs with tennis socks, but this is different: It’s clear Percy made an effort tonight, all dressed up and put together in a way Nico isn’t at all used to seeing Percy.

Percy looks up when the door opens, a smile, soft and shy, settling on his face. Nico's heart gives a painful squeeze and if he hadn’t been completely whipped already, this might be the last straw.

"I would've brought flowers, but..." Percy says in lieu of a greeting and pushes himself away from the streetlight as he trails off, shrugging.

"Good call." Nico says and steps up to Percy, indulging in the briefest of hugs before he can chicken out. His heart is already beating hard enough that he can feel every thud against his ribcage and as much as Nico tries to get a handle on it, he doubts he stands a chance. "Wouldn't have wanted to carry them around all night. Where are we going, anyway?"

"It's a surprise." Percy says and the wink that follows turns Nico's cheeks a bright red. As grateful as Nico is for it not being awkward, he also wouldn’t mind Percy being a little less smooth because at this rate, Nico might not make it through the night.

"My car’s parked just down the street, it's not a long drive." Percy adds after a moment and tips his head to the side to indicate where he’s talking about.

They drive for maybe twenty minutes, talking quietly over the radio, Percy watching the street while Nico mostly watches Percy. There is certainly something in the air, but even so, it’s not nearly as awkward as Nico had feared it might be. Percy makes him feel just as at ease as he always has, and there being more on the horizon that just friends hanging out doesn’t change that.

The surprise turns out to be an honest to god drive through cinema just on the outside of town. Nico didn't even know those were still a thing, but evidently he was wrong. It's nothing he ever would've come up with, and much better than any of the places he'd thought Percy might take them too. It's cheesy, sure, but not really in a bad way. Unlike going to the movies, they’ll still be in their own little bubble here, just the two of them in Percy's car. It’s more intimate, even though that thought alone is enough to make Nico blush while Percy shows the tickets to the guy at the entrance before they’re allowed to pick a spot. They're lucky to be there early, parking in one of the front rows without any big cars ahead obstructing their view. It’s dark all around them and Nico can barely see into the cars next to them - which means they won’t be able to see much of them either. Somehow that’s a comfort too. Nico doesn’t necessarily want to have strangers bear witness to their date, even if nothing happens at all.

"So…" Percy starts as he turns off the ignition and shifts in his seat. "I hope this is a good surprise?"

Nico grins - he's already feeling much more at ease than before Percy picked him up.

"Depends entirely on the movie you picked." He says jokingly and pulls his legs up to the seat, shifting until he manages to get them crossed under himself. He’s leaning more against the door than he’s leaning against the seat, mostly so he can look at Percy as much as he can look at the (so far unlit) screen up front.

Percy is quiet for a moment, his lips pursed, and Nico can’t tell if Percy’s actually worried about his movie choice or only trying to hold back a grin. "My bloody Valentine?"

Nico laughs. For Percy he’d have suffered through one of the mediocre “romantic classics” theatres screen on Valentine’s Day but this - this is so much better than that.

"I love horror movies." Nico says, not even trying to hide his grin. It’s maybe not the obvious choice for a first date, but it certainly feels like the obvious choice for Percy and him.

Percy smiles softly. The expression does something to Nico’s insides, especially when the same fondness shows in Percy’s voice when he replies: "I know."

Nico has to avert his eyes, because if Percy keeps looking at him like this, Nico might just do something stupid like lean over the console and plant a kiss on Percy’s lips. It’s not the first time tonight that he realises how much thought Percy actually put into this and while it shouldn’t be a surprise that Percy wants this to go well, too, it still catches Nico off guard to be reminded.

Before Nico can say anything else, the screen up front comes to life and breaks the spell. The pre-movie ads start rolling, audio coming directly from Percy’s car radio. Nico settles more comfortably into his seat and Percy grabs them some snacks and sodas from the backseat, and whatever line they were toeing a moment ago is forgotten again.

Nico has seen the movie before, and he’s fairly sure that Percy has too, not that he’s going to mention it. Given that the car affords them some measure of privacy, too, there’s nothing stopping them from quietly talking - and honestly, mostly poking fun at whatever happens on screen. Nico wears an almost constant smile on his face, and Percy seems to be enjoying this just as much, eyes moving between Nico and the screen up front every now and again.

Horror movies don’t scare Nico much, especially the 80s Slasher flicks like the one on screen now - but even he isn’t immune to jumpscares and well, if he grabs at Percy because of a particularly surprising spook and Percy takes that as an invitation to hold Nico’s hand, Nico certainly won’t be the one to take his hand away again even if it makes his heart rate double for a few beats.

By the time the credits roll, Nico feels a little less like a silly highschooler getting nervous over his first crush and more like a completely smitten idiot hovering a foot above ground and he’s not sure if it’s really an improvement. Nico only reluctantly lets go of Percy’s hand when they have to pull out of the parking spot, taking their place in queue of cars getting out of the cinema.

“This was really nice.” Nico says quietly as silence starts to stretch between them. It’s not an uncomfortable quiet, but it’s late and Nico isn’t sure how much more time Percy’s planned to spend together tonight and he wants to say this before he loses his chance.

“You really put a lot of thought into it, didn’t you?” Nico adds and he’s careful to keep his tone curious rather than disbelieving.

Percy hums, eyes darting from the rearview mirror to Nico and back again. He’s smiling and for the first time tonight, Nico catches sight of a blush spreading on Percy’s face, too.

“Well, yeah.” Percy admits and this time, he’s not looking at Nico but rather keeping his eyes on the traffic slowly weaving together. “I… wanted it to go well, because I… I mean…” Percy huffs, then takes a shaky breath. Maybe he was more nervous than Nico realised until now. “I really like you, Nico.” Percy finally says, and now is face is flaming red. “I didn’t wanna screw up my chance.”

Nico gapes at Percy for a moment, then drops his gaze to his lap, feeling his own cheeks burn, too. Technically, Nico knows that Percy likes him, given that it was heavily implied by Percy asking him on a date on Valentine’s. Hearing it is something entirely different, though.

“You didn’t. Screw it up, I mean.” Nico says before making himself look up again. Percy’s eyes are still on the road, as they should be - and it’s probably for the better too, because Nico isn’t sure he’d be able to hold back from crossing the distance if Percy looked at him with that soft gaze again now. “I had a really good time - I mean, I still do, I guess.”

They’re finally at the exit, and Percy pulls out onto the main street, glancing over for a moment once they’re going straight on the road.

“Good.” Percy says quietly, softly, and takes his hand off the gear shift to offer it to Nico again. Nico’s heart skips like it’s preparing to leap out of Nico’s chest, but that doesn’t stop Nico from reaching out and lacing their fingers together.

They drive in silence for a few minutes, only interrupted by Nico’s yawns becoming increasingly frequent. Percy smiles at him, looking over every other moment before his eyes are back on the road, and Nico in return doesn’t bother pretending that he isn’t watching Percy just as much.

“I was going to suggest getting a milkshake from the drive through before I drop you off.” Percy says and, almost absentmindedly, strokes his thumb along the length of Nico’s hand. “But it looks like you’re gonna fall asleep before we get there.”

Nico groans before he can stop himself, the thought of ice cream sounds almost entirely too good right now.

“I’d kill for a McFlurry.” He admits, making Percy laugh. Nico squeezes his hand, mostly because he can.

“McFlurry it is then.” Percy says and there is that fond tone again that Nico doubts he’ll ever get over.

It’s well after midnight by the time Percy parks the car outside of Nico’s dorm building. They walk with fingers laced between them and Nico can’t deny being tempted to invite Percy up with him. There’s no need to rush though, Nico knows that, and he’s dead tired too, so chances are nothing much would be happening tonight either way.

Even so, Nico stalls at the door, not quite ready to let go of Percy just yet.

“Thank you.” Nico mumbles, feeling himself blush again as he looks up at Percy. They’re standing close together, and after a second of hesitation, Nico grabs Percy’s second hand in his free one too, both hands held between them now. “I… I’d really like to do this again. Soon.”

Percy is looking down at their joined hands, stroking a thumb across Nico’s knuckles again before he raises his eyes to meet Nico’s gaze. “Yes, please.”

Nico feels like his insides are putty, like he could just melt and disappear through the cracks in the pavement. Percy is looking at him, fond and smiling and warm, and Nico can’t take it. This time, there is nothing holding him back, and no reason to try either.

He doesn’t let go of Percy’s hands as he steps closer, bringing them practically chest to chest. Percy’s face is turning pink, like he knows what might be coming but still wants to leave the choice to Nico.

Nico doesn’t quite have to rise up to his tiptoes, but it’s a close thing. At first, it’s only a chaste peck pressed to Percy’s cheek, but even that is enough to send a jolt of electricity through him. Nico’s eyes are lidded, they are so close, and when Percy turns his head, Nico doesn’t make himself stay away any longer. He lets his eyes fall shut and presses their lips together.

Nico has kissed people before, but this feels like the first time all over again. He thinks his heart stops entirely for a moment, before resuming it’s beating with vigor. A shiver runs through him, skin tingling and hair standing up. Nico doesn’t back away when they part, and it’s hardly a second before Percy is kissing him again.

#percico #fluff #teen+#percy jackson #nico di angelo #my fic #pernico

38 notes · View notes

holyguardian · 3 years

Note

♡ + I know we're not even writing them anymore but I miss our original otp so indulge me with Vincent/Genesis if this applies to non-Aerith ships? -eyeemoji-

MEME → Ship meme.

Who is the most affectionate? Genesis, without a doubt. He is the Most in a lot of regards and Vincent is more subtle than that. Doesn't mean his love is any less but we know whose going to be flaunting it more than the other. It makes any public displays of affection from Vincent so much more meaningful because he rarely initiates.

Who initiates the handholding? Eheh. Genesis. He will grab Vincent by his gauntleted hand and FORCE him to hold hands if he has to, because on more than one occasion Vincent has made to pull away and Genesis is having none of it.

Who worries more for the other? I'm not certain if it's well-known, but my Genesis IS a worrier, it's quite deeply rooted in his nature. However, Vincent can't help but to worry for Genesis and his may be 'more' than the general worries of his love. Genesis was degrading from the inside out and barely scraped through surviving it (after leading a rebellion against Shinra) so he owes the Goddess and manifestation of the planet his life, he has a loooooot of enemies from his past and he does not keep a low profile.

Who is more likely to ask for help? Either of them asking for help is like pulling teeth. Genesis is more likely to demand something and Vincent is going to sit there and marinate in all of his troubles. I guess that means it's Genesis 'asking', he can be incredibly soft but for a love like Vincent he's still a bossy sass mouth a lot of the time (and Vincent loves it).

Who is the one always losing the keys? Hah. Look at Genesis. Impeccable. Not a thing out of place on his person. Now look at Vincent and his tattered swooshy cape and tell me he hasn't lost keys before because he put them in one of his pockets and realised later on that he had a hole in them.

Who leaves little love notes for the other? Genesis is a sucker like that. Don't get your expectations too high for flowery poetry either, sometimes Vincents happens across a post-it note that reads 'thought about your ass, dropped my mug, watch out for shards xoxo'.

Who can’t sleep unless the other is there? Genesis. He can sleep because he knows that Vincent can handle himself, but the quality of sleep is much better having Vincent's warmth to hold onto and/or cuddle in with.

Who is more likely to propose to the other? Genesis would drop the hints hard. So hard that it gets to a point of 'I will take your pistol and shoot you if that's what it takes to get you down on one knee, Valentine', until one day Vincent finally does propose to him.

Who introduced the other to their family first? Neither. They don't have families left, and even if Genesis could have introduced Vincent to his adoptive family he absolutely would have refused and Vincent wouldn't want to meet them after learning what life was like under their roof. His family deserves not one more drop of his happiness.

Who is more likely to play with the other’s hair? Genesis. Vincent will suffer it. He may refuse to walk out in public with his hair styled and braided, but having fallen asleep on the odd occasion like that he has woken up with extremely wavy hair that was too difficult to hide.

Who makes sure the other has meals/stays hydrated? Also Genesis. He can cook, quite well actually, though his can also be an angry cook when things aren't going to plan so while he does provide and keep Vincent well fed he's also shaving years off his own life screaming at the burnt bits of food that couldn't behave for a minute.

Who is more likely to stand up to anyone for the other? This is a case of both, though they are savage in different respects. Genesis will dismantle a person's confidence and rip into them and Vincent will cock his gun and aim.

Who is the most likely to prepare a surprise for the other? Uh. Vincent. Genesis is a dumb romantic type, sure, but I honestly see Vincent being the one who prepares the really special surprises because he knows how much of a romantic his dumbass is and he wants to keep that spark in their relationship.

Who makes the other pinky promise not to do certain things? Genesis made a joking remark asking whether Vincent was going to make him pinky swear on something. Vincent proceeded to do just that. Genesis, while amused at the memory, hasn't repeated that question since.

Who puts a blanket over the other when they fall asleep on the couch? Vincent does~ Genesis is prone to curling up at awkward hours of the day, he is very much a person who naps, so when he actually drifts off (and is looking so peaceful and serene and he's not bossing him around) Vincent will absolutely cover him with a blanket even though he's not being told to. 8)

#stingslikeabee #answered #That was a nice walk down memory lane #also totally leapt over some of these to get at this one bc YES #I so wanted to write this out for them #they are iconic

3 notes · View notes

falloutglow · 3 years

Text

Writer Tag

Tagged by @glitchvault74 & @valkyriejack thanks yo!

Tagging: @roachvalentine, @its-sixxers, @memailikesnukacola, @bigwinged, @deacons-wig, @saintdeanthomas AND ANYONE ELSE WHO WANTS TO DO THIS!!! If you see this I TAG THEE

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Just recently 74 total!

For just Fallout its 26

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Total: 163,825

For Fallout: about 55k

...I wrote so goddamn much for Pnat years ago its unreal XD

3. What are you top 5 fics by kudos?

I’m ignoring the overall fics and just going by Fallout only HAHA

1- Wrong (Its Hancock/Nick Valentine so I’m not surprised)

2- Waking Up (for whumptober 2020; Deacon/Nick Valentine)

3- Sensors and Sensations (Mysterious Stranger/Nick Valentine....are yall seeing a pattern here?)

4- Take Me Out With the Crowds (Nick Valentine & Echo (oc) ;w; hell yea 1st fic where they interact haha!!)

5- On Top of Sanctuary Hills and Far Away (my chapter fic that introduces my psyker gal Echo!)

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Sometimes, so long as I can remember! If I’m on mobile...usually harder to respond haha but if I’m on my computer its much easier. I’ll do it mostly cause I wanna let the commenter know I appreciate the kind words and having them take the time out of their day to tell me how they feel about my fics! Plus, its a way to build a bit of a community on ao3

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

In my personal opinion....either Lee’s Library (Walking Dead Telltale video game) oooor one of the many bad endings in Counterbalance (Paranatural) because ya gurl wrote a Choose Your Own Adventure fic and boy howdy. it depends on which end you get XD

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Hmmmm, honestly not sure? Hella subjective honestly.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

*SIIIIIGH* I used to. I’m not as obsessed with crossovers like I was as a kid. Technically, the craziest one I wrote when I was like 12 (damn preteen me had such a drive) was some wild and hella ambitious Camp au of sorts with a bunch of cartoon shows mixed with some ocs. There were...soooooo many characters to keep track of, easily like 30. Possibly more, maybe less.

I never published it cause it was for me to be super self indulgent and back then I also had to share a computer/laptop with my sisters and mom. I did not have access to flashdrive/usb yet, but damn did I fill like a notebook and half up with that goddamn wild au.

I wonder if its in one of the totes in the basement....hmmmm....

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes. It was a long time ago and I don’t remember it nor do I care to remember that shit. Anyone who leaves hate on fics? Keep it to your damn self. Don’t hate read. That’s such a childish thing to do and you don’t like it? Why waste time on something you hate? It makes 0 sense! Go find something self indulgent and learn how to be nice.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I...have... No I will not elaborate...

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No idea.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Bold of you to think I’m that popular lol

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

...Yes? I think so???? But it was a long while ago. I’m mostly a solo act lol

13. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

PTH I’m a multishipper I cannot!!! Okay fine Nick Valentine x HAPPINESS LET HIM BE HAPPY I say while putting him through shit HAHA

(u_u I like to also ship him with my psyker oc Echo... why write fic if yaint being self indulgent?)

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

That’s like all my WIPs tbh. The fact that I finish a wip is a goddamn miracle.

Though I’d LOVE to do my fallout haunted house fic with the END squad I’ve called “Follow You Down”. However, dunno if or when I’ll ever actually make it more than some massive chapter fic idea involving haunted mannequins, literature references, ghosts, and eldritch horrors.

15. What are your writing strengths?

My brain is a goddamn corkboard. I can slap down ideas like crazy and somehow create an elaborate way to make it work.

16. What are you writing weaknesses?

... *leans against a closet door that won’t close* Haha funny thing. You know how I just said I have a fuck ton of ideas? >_>;

I’m also a slow writer, but mostly cause I think my words through.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Nah. I don’t think I’m qualified. Now if its a bilingual joke? I’m aaaaall over that shit haha My personal fav: “Why do French people prefer to have small breakfasts? Because one egg is un oeuf!”

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Danny Phantom. It is also the first fandom I looked up fics for LOL

19. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

OOF that’s a hard one... It’d have to be between On Top of Sanctuary Hills and Far Away (fo4) aaaand my most recently posted fic The Crooked Tooth (fo4)

The former cause istg it felt like I unlocked something while writing that fic. Pre-Sanctuary Hills fic I STRUGGLED at getting a higher word count. 1-2k was my maximum. 3k was an achievement! Both of these fics I’ve hit over 5k for!!! I’m still flabbergasted by this development! And... the latter is sooooo self indulgent hahahaha got that cute cute comfort, mutual pining (while both being idiots about it), while also slapping in that good good spooky shit >:3c

#as told by glow #tag meme #long post #read my shit pls thanks <3

4 notes · View notes

ashkazora · 3 years

Text

2020 Fic Roundup

Stats:

Fics Posted (Total): 13

In chronological order: Cold Floors and Warm Hearts - a fluffy shance fic about the three times Shiro accidentally wakes up in Lance’s room. Exchange fic. 3,441 words.

These Boots Are Gonna Walk All Over You - a small klance fillet based on the US tv show, The Blacklist. 639 words.

the water was dark (and it went down forever) - a Lance-centric gen fic exploring his relationship with the Blue Lion, and her control over him. 15,618 words.

Coffee Grinds and Morse Code - a post-s8, Shance fic written for the valentines shance exchange! 3,593 words.

Nectar and Ambrosia - my first Bad Things Happen Bingo prompt fill for the square ‘denied food as punishment.’ Lance whump. 2,641 words.

there ain't no rest for the wicked - another Bad Things Happen Bingo prompt fill for ‘big brother instincts,’ but this time with Plance and Lance whump. 3,508 words.

Of Claws and Steel - a science-fiction, super sentai cat armour AU entered around the Lions as futuristic mecha armour. Most underrated fic here. 14,344 words.

Hairline Fractures - another Bad Things Happen Bingo prompt fill, ‘bleeding through bandages.’ Lance whump (again). 5,059 words.

Leverage - last Bad Things Happen Bingo fill for the year, for the prompt ‘on a leash.’ Featuring Shance, and Lance and Shiro whump. 7,743 words.

Lay It Down To Save It - Leakira Klance AU written for Leakira week. Made in collaboration with @crapoftheworldblr! 18,102 words.

to the stars and back - The Dragon Prince Plance AU with Prince!Lance and Elf!Pidge. In collaboration with @rosieclark! 36,574 words.

Sweeter Than Honey - written for the Blue Moon Lance zine! Features BAMF!Lance as the honeypot on a mission. 4,098 words.

In The Closet - Klance fic for the winner of my fic giveaway. Fluffy, and definitely a bit saucy. 2,363 words.

Fics Posted (Gen): 5

the water was dark (and it went down forever) Nectar and Ambrosia Of Claws and Steel Hairline Fractures Sweeter Than Honey

Plance: 2

there ain't no rest for the wicked to the stars and back

Shance: 3

Cold Floors and Warm Hearts Coffee Grinds and Morse Code Leverage

Klance: 3

These Boots Are Gonna Walk All Over You Lay It Down To Save It In The Closet

Collaborations: 2

Lay It Down To Save It to the stars and back

Ship/Character breakdown:

Ship breakdown:

This year, the biggest ship I wrote for was Shance (3 fics), with Plance (2) and Klance (2.5) coming in from behind. The k/l ficlet doesn’t count as a full fic.

Character breakdown:

Of the 13 fics, Lance is in the most with 13 (insert surprised pikachu face here), then it goes Shiro (12), Keith (10), Pidge (8), Hunk (7), Allura (6) and Matt Holt (2). Other characters appear only once, such as Coran, Haggar and Kolivan. Technically, the Blue Lion clocks in at 2 mentions.

Characters that had the main focus:

Lance had the sole POV for 7 of those fics, and shared POVs (in a collaboration) iin 2 additional fics. Shiro had the second most POVs at a total of 3, while Keith had 1 sole POV and 1 shared POV, and Pidge with one shared POV.

Specifics:

Best/worst title?

Best title: the water was dark (and it went down forever), but honestly so many other fics has titles I liked. This title was based off of the Tim Winton short story by the name name, The Water Was Dark And It Went Down Forever, where the main character swims and debatably drowns. So it’s fairly fitting.

Runners up titles include Sweeter Than Honey, to the stars and back, and Lay It Down To Save It.

Worst title: Hairline Fractures. It’s dumb and it makes no sense. It was the first thing that came to mind.

An honourable mention includes Leverage, which would be first if not for the fact that the title inspired the ending, so it’s not too bad.

Best/worst last line?

Best: From the water was dark (and it went down forever):

Blue’s grasp on him was like an endless expanse; an opulent and brilliant ocean. Her waters were dark, and it went down forever.

This was definitely my favourite, even though it’s pretty cringe. The way it was formatted in ao3 and the way it related to the title plus the reoccurring symbolism of water made it pretty neat!

Worst: From there ain't no rest for the wicked:

Pidge laughed, and turned her back from the darkness.

I’m sorry. This ending was so cringey. I hate it. There’s nothing else to say except I have no idea how to fix it. Oof.

General questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

tbh, I wrote a lot more, considering I had my final exams this year. Breaching 100k was crazy.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

Honestly? Klance. I’m not the biggest fan of the ship but writing it is very interesting, and I enjoyed it.

What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

Of Claws and Steel hands down! It’s the first fic idea I ever had for VLD, and the one I really love the most. One day I’d love to write a continuation of it, but the reception of the fic wasn’t great so idk.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

the water was dark (and it went down forever) even though it was started in 2019, was finished this year and is my most popular fic of all time! It’s got 4k+ hits and 450+ kudos. Crazy, since it was only supposed to be a dumb little warm up fic to get me back into writing in preparation for Of Claws and Steel. Alas, turns out people really liked it!

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

Of Claws and Steel. It was the fic I worked the hardest on this year but got the least amount of attention :)

Story that could have been better?

Easily there ain't no rest for the wicked. There was so much plot and so many things I wanted to include but didn't. There’s a lot of things missing and bad plot flow. One day if I got more time, I’d love to write more on it.

Sexiest story?

In The Closet, hands down. It gets a bit steamy with a k/l makeout session. Originally it was going to be a lot saucier but I wasn’t too comfortable in my ability to write it well ahaha.

Saddest story?

None of my stories were sad, per se. Most of the sad ones were more scary/foreboding rather than actually being sad. I guess to the stars and back right now, because it’s dealing with Lance’s insecurities and Pidge’s desperation to find her brother (and a lot of other things, which will be revealed in the future!)

Most fun?

Sweeter Than Honey! It was fun to write and is my most fun fic. BAMF!Lance and his witty commentary is always a great laugh.

Story with single sweetest moment?

I can’t choose :,). It’s a three-way tie between Cold Floors and Warm Hearts’s last scene where Shiro realises Lance bought him the necklace, Lay It Down To Save It’s scene that I can’t say because it’s technically unpublished ;), and to the stars and back’s scene where Lance and Pidge talk about what they would like to be in life (ch3).

Hardest story to write?

Probably Of Claws and Steel, as I completely stagnated on the story for a long time. It took me 8 months to write it. Without Rue’s help, I probably would have taken so much longer. Runners up is Leverage, as it took me like a solid week to write 90% of it, and 3 more months to write the remaining 10%. For some reason, parts of that fic were such a pain to write.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

The easiest was definitely to the stars and back. I could relate to a lot of Lance’s actions and thoughts in the fic, so writing his POV was super easy and rather cathartic ngl. However the most fun was probably Sweeter Than Honey, as it was super self indulgent ahaha.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

Lay It Down To Save It changed my perception of Keith. I don’t particularly like Keith in canon, but I’ve warmed up to his fanon self and general character after writing from his POV.

Most overdue story?

Of Claws and Steel easily! It was the first VLD fic idea I had but took 8 months to write. Oops?

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

For the first time I incorporated HTML coding into my fics, which taught me a lot about coding and different ways to convey certain messages and detail things. These codings altered fonts and colours, which you can see in

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

Write my tua/vld au fic, which will be my first solo multi chapter fic, and hopefully finish it by the end of next year. Also, sticking to a consistent writing schedule and try to write at least 100 words a day, plus finishing TSSAB. I’d also like to finish some more BTHB prompts!

That’s all, folks! Thank you all for sticking with my writing! Hopefully 2021 brings even more writing, fun times, and great fics. Happy New Years (in 24 hours), everyone!

#ashka writes #fic roundup #2020 fic roundup #MASSIVE shoutout to rue for giving me these questions #if you've read ocas ur officially my favourite person #ao3

13 notes · View notes

miomediator · 4 years

Text

Homestuck - Heart and Mind

Inner self and outer self

Content/trigger warnings: Heart: blood, decapitated heads, flashing colors, eye strain

Mind: flashing lights, repetitive looped gif

Very veeeery long thread!

Heart

I’m going to be honest, this is the more head-scratching (ha!) symbol of the 12, in my opinion. While the others immediately (or take a moment to) make sense, this one confuse me. Sure, it’s a cartoonish representation of a pink human heart.

The problem isn’t the main shape, but the right side of it. Beside the fact that it’s more original and eye-catching than a filled heart, why this gap, this wiggling line? But let’s proceed in order and take a more general approach first.

It’s a pink heart on a darker purple/pink background. The left side is filled, while the right side looks like a tail that coming in or out the shape. We’ll get into it a bit down below.

In pop and universal culture, people has always been show this embodiment of the heart. While many theorise about when and where it came from, a stable origin was registered during the Middle Age, as a pear.

Here’s an exempt of the theory:

“Historically speaking, the first known depiction of a heart shape, which can be vaguely considered as a symbol of love, was made in the 1250s. It appeared in a decoration of a capital letter “S” in a manuscript of a French romance called “Roman de la Poire” (Romance of the Pear).

This miniature depicts a kneeling lover who offers his heart to a lady. This heart shape is similar to a pine cone, and it is held upside down (not in the usual position of the heart shape that we know today). Researchers only assume that the pine cone-shaped object is a heart because its part held by the lover is hidden. The name of this novel is “Romance of the Pear,” so the object may also be a pear.”

The earliest depiction of a heart symbol as a symbol of love in a manuscript of the “Roman de la Poire.”

[Mio’s note: Roman actually means novel in french, and isn’t necessarily romantic. Though I guess it is in this context.]

It is interesting, in this paragraph the heart is both referred as pine cone-shaped and pear-shaped. The latter is extremely funny, has it reminds me of a famous fanon HS meme “Well this has gone completely fucking pear-shaped”, attributed to Dirk and the decapitation joke. He, in fact, never really said it in Canon.

If we indulge this banter, the pear-shaped heart would symbolise things that took a disastrous turn, and so negative and stressful elements such as anxiety, adrenaline (negative in this case, positive in others), heart pounding, leaving a weird and unpleasant sandy taste on your tongue.

But I digress.

What we actually need to focus on is that:

A fruit, the pear, has been associated to a love gesture, like a gift to express romantic affection to someone.

The pear is upside-down, as the text point out. Which is curious and worth mentioning.

“the pine cone-shaped object is a heart because its part held by the lover is hidden”. So what is important it’s what is inside it, and so inside your heart. Which perfectly echoes with my subhead: Inner self.

The article continues, with Guido whom also depicted his version of a heart:

“Guido da Vigevano, a 14th-century Italian physicist, made some anatomical drawings of a heart that are very similar to the descriptions made by Aristotle. These depictions, along with the presumption that the human heart is connected with emotion and pleasure, transformed the heart shape into a symbol of medieval love.”

After this, a picture shows Charity incarnated as a woman, giving her heart to Jesus. While I won’t dwell on the religious implications, it is a metaphor of showing care and compassion to someone. Giving them a bit of your time, patience, and heart. In an extreme case, being completely devoted to someone in a strong way.

Heart-bound fellows, despite the fact that they are concerned about themselves, are very people-oriented. They deeply want others to feel well and happy. Hence the expression being ‘kind-hearted/big-hearted’, and ‘work you heart out’. They put a lot of themselves into their hobbies, which they are passionate about.

After this, the article introduce the playing cards, implying that Guido had an influence on the decision to show a heart among the symbols:

The playing cards are even more relevant to this analysis, as their modern symbol are present in Troll romance. Here, the ‘clover’ is an acorn, the ‘spade’ a leaf, perhaps ivy, the heart is even more like the one we know nowadays, and the ‘diamond’ surprisingly is a small metallic bell. This set is dated from ~1540.

[Sources: this site about the origins of the red heart]

That was a (very) quick look at the evolution of the heart symbol.

I could go on and talk about Valentine’s Day, but it would be paraphrasing the site, and we have much more content to focus on. I invite you to take a look at said site and do some research of your own if you are interested about this peculiar bit.

Let’s go into more direct Homestuck content.

During the adventure, we are introduced to three Heart-players. Nepeta Leijon, Dirk Strider, and Meulin Leijon, in appearance order.

They all have interests related to feelings and love.

Nepeta has a shipping grid of her own friends on her cave’s walls and seems to be proficient in moirallegiance, a quadrant that require to be invested and devoted to their partner feelings. She had a crush on Karkat that she never confessed. Karkat knew but never worked the nerve to do something about it.

Dirk is engrossed by romance and smut, unashamedly draw his friends getting frisky (in a borderline-obscene way), is passionate about the projects he works on (work his heart out, sometimes literally). He was (and still is) madly in love with Jake. But by being overbearing and socially inept their relationship crumbled (while not being the only reason it didn’t work out).

[I love talking about Dirk, but I’ll do my best in this analysis to properly and equally split the content between Nepeta, Meulin and him]

Meulin not only love shipping, she also gives directly advises to her friends, and acted as a matchmaker. She shipped several of the alpha trolls but according to Aranea, she focused on how cute a couple would be, instead on how and if their dynamic would work out. Her matespritship with Kurloz was cut short when he yelled in his sleep, deafening Meulin in the process.

Meulin talking about shipping the human teens, transcript from the Openbound game, part 2

The most obvious element they share is that they are zealous and unlucky in love. One would say it depends on the class, personality or aspect. They seem all correct assumptions to me.

Nepeta was the first to be presented as a Heart-bound character, the Rogue of Heart. So, logically, the design of the Heart symbol could be inspired by her.

How, you ask. Let’s take a look to Nepeta’s sign.

The ‘Leo’ sign, in human culture represents the constellation of the lion, with the circle as their head, and the loop as the body and tail.

Now looking back and forth to Leo and Heart: Heeeey! It’s quite similar. Can you see it?

Alright, that’s a good start. So the right side is like a tail. Let’s dig and look around Heart/heart. Heart is synonym of soul. Its symbol is a pink blood pusher. For humans it represent romantic love, our only ‘official’ quadrant. A red lover for trolls is called a matesprit. Sprit comes from esprit, which is the french word for spirit. So matesprit is a soul mate. But this term is used for another concept in Homestuck. A spiritual guide during the player journey: a sprite.

The link between the Leo and Heart sign is getting stronger. The circle as the head, the wiggling line as the body and tail. The sprite is a living spirit, a floating soul present in the physical plane. So the right side, the tail, is bound to the left side, the head. Meaning the soul is bound to the body. Oh. But what if it was detached from it? Yeeep, you know, I know, they know. This is why and how decapitation come into the picture.

Beheaded Dirk and Roxy hit in the stomach, from the [S] Dirk: synchronize

Jasperosesprite^2 prototyping Nepeta’s decapitated head in Jake’s kernelsprite

A kiss on the lips, which is seen often as a romantic gesture, is one of the resurrecting mechanism within SBURB/SGRUB. It transfers the soul from the ‘original’ body to the dream self, turning the latter into the main body. Separating the head from the rest of the body amounts to take away the soul, while throwing the head back (or any part of the corpse) into a kernelsprite recreate the link between the two.

A kernel is:

“ a computer program at the core of a computer's operation system with complete control over everything in the system. It is an integral part of any operating system. It is the "portion of the operating system code that is always resident in memory". It facilitates interactions between hardware and software components.””

Source: Wikipedia

It’s a brain that bound the soul to the body, and is the core of the system, controlling it. So basically, the digital mind made in SBURB. One display among the several ones of the Heart/Mind duality.

So wait, if the head in this case is the soul, and looking back at medieval picture at the beginning (dude kneeling in front of a lady offering a heart) then Dirk sendificating his head in [S] Dirk Synchronize/Unite is really a romantic overture toward Jake (sacrificing a part of his self then Hal prompting him to kiss Dirk’s lips). Same for Jasperose resurrecting Nepeta by using her head. Damn. You two are smooth operators in the most disturbing way.

Another personal theory in my mind, is that pink ‘tail’ could represent how a person use and interact with their aspect.

Nepeta, as a Rogue, remove or give personality, passion and feelings to someone.

For example she could appease a friend by removing their frustration. In contrary she could also give passionate feelings to someone who needs them. Such as in Ni no Kuni! In which the protagonist Oliver takes a piece of somebody’s soul (what is called emotion or virtue) to give it to someone who needs it. Those people are referred to “brokenhearted”.

So the wiggling tail would be something introduced or take away from the soul.

Dirk, as a Prince, has shown having the power to completely remove someone’s soul from their body.

And for that, he doesn’t like his abilities, exhibiting him as a ‘cartoonish villain’ like Voldemort (splintering his soul into horcruxes) or Xehanort (putting part of himself in the Organization members). Though he could remove and grab one of his friend’s soul to save them from a close death. See the fan comic Double Death of the Author by The Lifetime Channel on MSPFA, and the fan fiction Defragmentation by Katreal on Ao3.

In this case, the tail would represent the soul being slowly removed.

Meulin, as a Mage, have an understanding of people’s strong feelings, especially romantic ones.

Her ability is to read, feel and use her knowledge to help her friends figure out who is better suited for them. Meulin’s powers are similar to a diviner, allowing to form or break a couple. Perhaps with practice and reaching the God Tiers, she could even perceive red threads of fate which bound two lovers regardless of the location and time. The manga Bound Beauty (sorry, no english Wikipedia page) features a young lady with the ability to see those strings, usually invisible to the eye. She uses it at her advantage to coach her classmates, in exchange of money.

In this case, the tail would represent the red/pink thread of fate, coming not from the pinkie, but directly from the soul.

Heart-bound recommended Lyricstuck: What do you want from me by Pink Floyd

Mind

Watch as I make as much Mind puns as possible :p

This one is easier to read, which is also why it will be difficult for me to write a substantial section about it. Let’s start with the obvious.

It’s a vivid teal on a bit darker green background. Same as the Heart aspect, it’s more likely that the palette has been inspired by the first revealed character related to Mind: Terezi Pyrope, from the Teal caste. The shape is composed of an orb surrounded by three hook-like tails connected to the center. What effortlessly come to mind (ha!) is an organic cell, from the brain.

Picture source: https://www.pinterest.fr/pin/784048616363923971/

Neurons allow and facilitate informations to navigate in the brain.

It’s:

an electrically excitable cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses.

Source: Wikipedia

Information goes from a neuron, through a synapse to another neuron. An idea leads to another, connecting bits that turns into the big picture. The Mind aspect seems to share the concept of data with the Light aspect. The differences are that Light focuses on the most fructuous parts, ones that lead them to victory, while the Mind-bound works with choices and a mindset, in a more wide range, then narrowing the paths.

Terezi using her vision to s33 what action leads to which outcome, searching for the most fitting one.

Rose insisting that Kanaya come along the 3 years ride, while explaining and guiding Kanaya to make her narrowing her vision of “victory”.

So both Seer treat information, just not in the same way.

The outcome still remains ”I want to advance toward a certain reality and I help others to reach it as long as they follow my instructions”. The inconvenient blind spot (sorry for the involuntary pun) is that they hardly can use those abilities for themselves. Either we don’t witness it on-screen, or they barely do it in the first place (a good example is the retroactive continuity during the GO timeline).

But let’s end the Seer detour here. Back to the Mind aspect itself.

We have a whole system going on in our own head. When I try to look for something, if I don’t find it directly, then I turn to something related to said information. Like an indirect research on the internet. If we don’t pay attention and don’t try to understanding our mind, as well as others’, we just end up being frustrated and lost.

The thing is you make your own world, with every action, decision, it creates a new path full of possibilities. The words you say or keep to yourself, acting or staying put, it all matter. Grasping and managing to own it, and you’ll have a better grip on your reality. It’s not my Aspect, I do have trouble making decisions and take responsibilities, however everybody needs to go through it.

The within interacts with the without, the mind to the outside word. We are always worried about how others perceive us, what kind of depiction of the self we convey. So we desperately put filters to the point of exhibiting falsehood of a personality. While introspection is observing ourselves, extraspection is perceiving things that are outside our mind. Hence the outer self, complementary to the inner self.

Terezi perfectly get how people work, and can manipulate them with ease, in contrary to Vriska whom doesn’t want to and go for mind-controlling them. Joke’s on her, her ‘mind’-control is proof that she fails in this peculiar category, since Terezi doesn’t need any psychic powers to convince someone to do and give the info she desires.

The big contrast contrast between Vriska and her, is that Terezi looks and determine what matters or not, while Vriska force the odds to be in her favor, shamelessly stealing fortune from others. She doesn’t even want to understand or try, she is a cheater and proud of it.

That was the link and differences between Mind and Light.

Let’s take a look at the Heart/Mind duality again. Both seem to share a connection with electricity.

Terezi gazing at the sky of her planet, the Land of Thought and Flow

It’s no secret that the connection between neurons are often compared to electronic chips. Cables canalize and facilitate electricity’s flow, to power devices, to link ideas and data. Or just used as raw energy.

Brain-not-so-ghost-anymore Dirk trying to rip Aranea’s soul

Lightning seen from a building roof on Dirk’s land

While the electricity for the Mind symbol refer to synapses, for the Heart/heart, also called blood pusher, would allude to cardiac nerves.

Bec Noir preparing the Red Miles to be thrown at the Genesis Frog

Instead of thoughts, it’s blood that navigates in the ‘roads’.

For the Heart-bound, the lightning represents the chaos that are emotions and sensitive intuition. While for the Mind-bound the lightning is order, reasoning and cold logic that strikes to bring justice, whether said justice is deem fair or not.

Let’s talk about a famous movies series in which among the core themes resolve around the Mind/Heart duality: The Matrix

Each building, tree, person are made with an inimaginable amount of lines of code

The Matrix spoilers ahead!!

If you’re not familiar with this trilogy (or haven’t watch it in a while), here’s the plot:

//Thomas A. Anderson is a programmer for a big software company, and in parallel is Neo, a hacker that illegally provides contraband programming. Agents in black suits caught up with his activities, but in truth approached Neo because a renowned hacker, Morpheus, enemy number one according to Agent Smith, contacted the programmer. After offering to clean his criminal record in exchange of helping catching Morpheus, which Neo refuses, the agents violently implant a snitch in our protagonist.

Neo wake up in his bed, believing it was all but an awful nightmare. Appearances are deceiving, as ‘dream sequences’ are layers on layers on reality. The resistance group calls him again, setting a rendez-vous under a bridge to help him and answer his questions, if he is willing to cooperate.

After a lot of hesitation, snitch removal, and the insistence of one of the member, Trinity, he finally accept and follow the group to go meet Morpheus.

There, Neo is given a choice, The Choice if we’re going with Homestuck comparisons:

"This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes."

Morpheus, Matrix (1st movie)

By choosing the take the red pill, Neo accepts to unplug himself (literally) from his ‘reality’ and see the truth: the world he lives in is all but an illusion, a huge program that is the Matrix, blinding humans to a make-believe 1999 year, used as living batteries, harvested and enslaved by the machines. Humanity is in ruins, and a war between people and machines has gone for a whole century.

Morpheus tells him that they believe he’s ‘The One’ and he has the power to stop the war. From the real world, Neo will train to reinforce his mind, going back into the Matrix and fight different enemy programs. While constantly being undergo introspection, looking for what to believe, who he is, questioning his values and acts.\\

From there I’ll go back and worth to Homestuck and the movies to point out the similarities and support my choice.

I’ll begin with the Mind aspect first:

Millions of human beings are plugged, treated as programs that have a function, along with providing a great amount of energy to the machines. Stuck and having their body atrophied, their brain is connected to the Matrix. The program control everything of their life and vision, from their status in society, to their physical sensations.

"What is real? How do you define real?" asks Morpheus to Neo. “If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain." As I quote farther above, reality is something that isn’t there, but rather something you make. With Morpheus’ quote, my interpretation of the Mind symbol being neutrons and synapses is consolidated.

After being blinded by Vriska, Terezi way of ‘seeing’ shifted. Slowly, her perception of things changed and she grasped on a new light her reality.

She didn’t need eyes, but expanding her mind and freeing herself from the vision that clouded her. Navigating inward and outward, understanding what she felt, her inner self and outer self, back and forth. But it wasn’t perfect, no, she had and still is working on it, as she can be blinded by either cold logic or passionate feelings. Neo and her have the same weakness, they both are in love and it obstructs their mission. The dilemma is exhibited in [S]: Flip, where she has to choose between letting Vriska go, exposing the whole team to Jack, or killing her to protect her friends.

Terezi, on the path she let Vriska go

Vriska in her ancestor outfit, fitting Jack in one reality

A painful sacrifice is needed to be able to go forward, a reality in which most of them survive and has a chance of winning the game. A necessarily path that she regretted.

Neo with the Architect in the secret room, the screens displaying the different paths his reactions could take (Matrix: Reloaded, second movie)

In Matrix, Neo has to reach the source of all the program to reinstall the previous version of the code. The first time, he has a small range of opportunity, only a few minutes gap to access a secret room that would allow him to reach the source, among the city of machines. There, he encounters the Architect, a program whom function and personality is based on the creator of the Matrix, and have a chat with him.

Six others chosen ones preceded him, and all failed to accomplished this mission.

Why? “Choice. The problem is choice” answers Neo. Because unlike the Architect, Neo is a flawed human being. He can’t just brush off his feelings, he’s in love with Trinity. The latter despite asked not to join him plugged herself back into the Matrix allowing him to get safely into the secret room. With that, she exposed herself to an inevitable death. And so Neo took the door that lead to his lover, enabling within him a miracle that resurrected Trinity.

Here was a couple of paragraphs about the dance between duty and love, cold logic and passion.

I’ll continue with the Heart aspect:

I talked about love and romance until now, but let’s take a look at another side of the Heart. The identity.

After taking the red pill- Neo turns his head and gaze at a mirror.

It’s shattered. The symbolism here shows that he’s lacking a part of himself, something that scratch him without being able to put his finger on it. Soon, right before his eyes, the mirror mends itself. Because he chosen the truth, the path that would lead him to understand and find himself.

The mirror is of course, a reference and call back to Alice, mentioned shortly before by Morpheus. No no, please forget about any cartoon, especially Disney’s version of the story. And focus about the sequel book: “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There”. It’s a curious, deep and tricky book. I would know, I read it twice and I’m still confused.

But I’m sure of one thing, the adventures of Alice has always been about introspection. First in chapter 1, Alice imagines for fun that the mirror in the living room lead to a parallel world. Like Neo, she touches the mirror and engages into a journey. In chapter 3, in order to cross a giant life-sized chess board (UH HMMMM UNCANNY!) she takes a train.

“There she forgets all nouns, including her own name. With the help of a fawn who has also forgotten his identity, she makes it to the other side, where they both remember everything. Realizing that he is a fawn, she is a human, and that fawns are afraid of humans, it runs off (to Alice's frustration).”

Source: Through the Looking-glass (wikipedia)

[going through the book itself would have been too long]

The train might symbolize the course of life, or a part of it, in which an identity crisis occurs for Alice and question what is and what does it means. I’ll even say that this temporary memory loss put aside all differences and precedences, perhaps reflecting a class hierarchy, between Alice the human and the fawn, or the rich lady and the poor.

Back to Matrix.

Later in the movie, our programmer encounters a woman called the Oracle. She can see some events according to her grasp on human psychology, but never beyond a choice that she cannot understand, not even hers. The Oracle isn’t here to predict the future (even if she can), but to assist and guide those who picked the red pill. She does sound like a Seer of Mind :]

Upon meeting her, she asks him “do you think you are the one?” to what he respond “honestly I don’t know”. She then point behind him, toward a mantra hanged above the threshold: Temet nosce, which means “know thyself”.

The introspection will continue through all three movies, a wild tango between certitude and doubts, self that leads to a choice, from a choice which leads to who he is, the two are intertwined and indivisible.

In Matrix: Revolution (third movie), the final battle between our protagonist and his alter ego take place. Rain is pouring, thousand and thousand of copies looking down at him, the sky is dark, and Agent Smith step away from the crowd, so the fight begins.

Remember the paragraph about the lightning? The sky in this scene is quite reminiscent to Terezi Land’s electric atmosphere, and even more Dirk’s, has his planet is covered be countless empty green buildings in ruins.

The scene portraits perfectly the confrontation between order and chaos, good and evil, selfless and selfish. I could go on and on but I think y’all got the concept, and I nicely fill an even bigger word quota, with the two aspects balanced.

Source for the screenshots: Fancaps.net, here and here

Mind-bound recommended Lyricstuck: Dog days are over by Florence and the Machine

#Homestuck Universe #HS theory #SBURB aspects #heart aspect #mind aspect #analysis #nepeta leijon #dirk strider #meulin leijon #matrix series #movies #through the looking glass #and what alice found there #book #neo #morpheus #trinity #the oracle

8 notes · View notes

mystrade-reading-club · 4 years

Text

Vote for your favourite St Valentine fic

There is so much love for - and between - our Minor Gov’t Official and his Detective Inspector, you lovelies will probably have a difficult time choosing. Give it your best and vote on Discord.

A matter of perspective by @7-percent, NR, 1k Mrs Hudson ships Mystrade. She’s made a plan to bring them together on Valentine’s Day and roped in Sherlock and John to help. It seems like the perfect romantic moment, but is there something more to it? A short fluffy Mystrade with a tiny hint of Johnlock.

I Love You In A Song by @sherlock-nanowrimo, T, 30k It’s Greg’s first year at uni, and he’s eager to make friends. Meanwhile his little sister misses him, so he records youtube videos of him singing and playing guitar for her. Mycroft is in his second year, still having trouble connecting with people. He discovers Greg’s videos, and is drawn to him despite his vow to put his work first. Then one day they meet, and their subsequent friendship sparks months of pining and misunderstandings, while also helping them understand themselves better.

Bonfire Heart by @jessieblackwood, M, 45k Greg Lestrade is the Senior consultant cardiothoracic surgeon in charge of heart transplant patient, Sherlock Holmes’, care. Mycroft is Sherlock’s mysterious older brother and a prominent member of the governing board for the private hospital Greg works in. Detective Inspector John Watson is Sherlock Holmes’ partner but Mycroft seems determined to keep John and his brother apart. Greg must juggle his own problems with those of his patient in order to make sure Sherlock’s anxieties are settled but what is it about Mycroft that rings alarm bells in Greg’s head? Can he thaw the Iceman’s heart and help his brother to recover, and even save Mycroft from himself?

Bah, Humbug...A Mystrade Valentine by @Tammany, G, 2k

It's mushy. It's fluffy. It's probably going to do bad things to your insulin resistance. But it could be worse. After all, Mycroft and Lestrade don't do Valentine's Day.Really. XD

Mycroft's Special Day by @merindab R, 1k It's not always easy having a birthday on Valentine's Day

Diamond In The Rough by @bigblueboxat221b, T, 4k Of the pile of secret Valentines on his desk, two stand out to Greg for very different reasons. One is more straightforward than the other, but neither is exactly what it seems.

Valentine Ambush by @justusmice, M, 3k There's a dinner and some romance. Neither of them had quite expected it. Anthea, as always, is to blame.

Wednesday by @anarfea, E, 7,5k Greg and Mycroft have been seeing each other (neither of them calls it dating) for several months when Greg asks Mycroft on a date on Wednesday. Not ‘Valentine’s Day,’ even though it is, because Greg doesn’t want to spook Mycroft by appearing overly sentimental or romantic. Mycroft spooks anyway.

On the Market by @nattylineinumbrellas, T, 8k Or five times Greg failed at dating and one time he really, really didn't. With another lonely Valentine's Day looming, Greg Lestrade decides it’s time to get back in the dating game. He’s out of practice, though, and even with Sally acting as wingman things are not going smoothly. But is it just bad luck, or does someone perhaps have a vested interest in keeping the detective single...

Together Forever by @sanguisugaao3, E, 12k Greg takes Mycroft to the pub, and the evening takes a not quite unexpected turn...

The Mystrade Valentine Calendar

Draw me like one of your French Girls by @theuniverseisrarelysolazyemmy, T, 7.5k After Sherrinford, Mycroft can't cope. At all. When he finally emerges from his shell again, he encounters Greg in the last place he would expect...

I Don't Normally Bother by Topicabo, E, 5k Mycroft doesn't really do Valentine's Day. But he'll make the exception for Greg.

The Dating Habits of a Minor Government Official by MagicaDraconia16 , G, 2.5k A government official, even a minor one, always knows exactly what he wants. And what he wants . . . does not include them trying to date somebody else.

Without Reservations by @crushedrose Black_Dawn, G, 10k Instead of a happy Valentine's day, Greg and Mycroft broke up, now a year later they need to face their mistakes...face each other, find Sherlock and deal with their feelings.

Where or When by shadowed_sunsets, T, 25k His entire life Greg Lestrade has had the ability to help people find their perfect matches, whether they will be platonic or romantic partners. It's a gift that has been passed down in his family for generations. The one thing his gift isn't useful for is helping Greg find his own perfect match. He thought he was happy, and that his life was going as well as he could hope for. That he should be satisfied with what he had. Then he met the Holmes brothers, and well... everything changed.

One Little Word by lmirandas , G, 7k Love. Amor. Amore. Lieb. Amour. 恋. One little word, with so much meaning in many languages. In a world in which you can only utter or use the word to refer to your soulmate, Mycroft Holmes hopes one day he will hear that word from someone else. A Mystrade Soulmate AU.

The Scrapbook by brooklyn09, NR, 1k Now in their 80's, Greg and Mycroft look back on Valentine's Days from their past. Years later, after their natural deaths, their niece Rosamund finds a scrapbook, a testament of their love for one another.

Greg Gets His Man by Anglofile , E, 3k It's Valentines Day. Can Greg Lestrade become his best friend's valentine?

"Happy Valenversary, Gregory" by Saratonin, E, 3k When you're married to the British Government holidays and anniversaries may get rescheduled. Crabbiness will probably ensue.

Valentine's Delay by @bryntwedge, 8.5k Greg is upset he's alone for Valentine's day, and decides to get drunk to drown out the sorrow. Lucky for him, Mycroft is indulging in his secret attraction by watching Greg through the CCTV and comes out to help. Drunk confessions and a confusing morning after ensue.

The Uncommon Case of the Missing Page by BlueFruit, T, 2k Greg is solving a big case without any help from Sherlock, but he needs time. Mycroft is reading the news and he doesn’t like them. What can bother the most powerful man in England?

Don’t say something stupid (like: "I love you") by @ylc1, T, 2k Mycroft is not upset. There’s nothing to be upset about, really. So what if Inspector Lestrade has an actual date on Valentine’s Day? It’s not like he has any real claim on the man. And yet-

7 Days to Valentine's Day by @holysnowflake, NR, 10k On 7th February the 17-years-old Mycroft Holmes opens his locker and finds a mysterious note.

Written In The Stars by @siriusblue T, 1k Greg Lestrade always thought he was the romantic one but after twenty-five years of marriage, Mycroft can still surprise him.

#28 Doing something ridiculous by 221_french_bee , G, 3k Greg has been helping the gardener at the Holmes house, and Mycroft hadn’t been able to tamper his attraction for the teen as he ogled from his windows. On Valentine’s Day, when Gregory arrives on this motorcycle and asks to speak to Mycroft, he is hopeful their romantic relationship is finally taking its first steps. But will Sherlock’s shenanigans keep them away from each other? John is amazed, Sherlock is a little brat, and both Greg and Mycroft are pining idiots!

It's Not That Important by @theartstudentyouhate, M, 2.5k They've finally gotten together... on the evening of the 13th but can they spend Valentine's day together and is it really that important?

A Devil of A DI by @wingedwhale, E, 3.5k Mycroft discovers what Greg Lestrade truly is.

A Bundle of Love by RayBen, E, 8.6k Greg realises there is something missing in Mycroft's life and he wants more than anything to see him receive it.

Next Year by @lavenderandvanilla T, 2k “I’m telling you, we’re jinxed.” “Gregory, don’t be ridiculous.” “Well, what would you call it? We’ve not had a good Valentine’s Day yet.” “It’s merely coincidental that we’ve not had a Valentine’s Day that would be considered perfect.” “I’m sorry, what is it you say about ‘coincidence’?” “You have me there. Fine, the fates are against us. We should simply give up.” “No way. We’re going to show Cupid and have a perfect Valentine’s Day.”

Never Call It 'VD' by HumsHappily, G, 3k Venereal disease (Noun): a contagious disease (such as gonorrhea or syphilis) that is typically acquired in sexual intercourse — compare std. Abbreviated as ‘VD’ Relationship (Noun):the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected, or the state of being connected. Valentine’s Day (Noun): The damn thing that started all this, dammit. Also see: Gregory Lestrade struggles to figure out a gift for the man who has it all.

A Valentine's Comedy of Errors by @antheas-blackberry, NR, 1k It's Valentine's day, a day for lovers to indulge one another. Sometimes it doesn't always go to plan.

The Suit by @ohsocyanide , E, 5k Greg only ever wore the suit for one reason.

Secret by @sumeragisakura, E, 7k It’s Valentine’s Day and Greg’s got an extra case on his hands.

Not To My Knowledge by @bigblueboxat221b, G, 4k Greg discovers nobody has ever courted (wooed? chased? pursued? had designs on?) Mycroft. He sets out to do so - with Mycroft's permission, of course.

Sometimes, The Direct Approach Is Best by MsLadySmith, T, 1k Mycroft Holmes may be an expert at the subtleties of diplomacy, but when it comes to romance, he’s woefully ill-prepared. Enter DI Greg Lestrade.

The Magic of the Night by @chriscalledmesweetie, M, 525 Greg knew there would be consequences for the trick he pulled on Valentine’s Day; he only hoped he was correct in his prediction of what form Mycroft’s “revenge” would take.

The Best Part by @emimagine, G, 1k Greg makes this Valentine's Day one Mycroft won't forget.

Move by @justonemore11 , M, 8.5k In which Greg and Mycroft enter the London property market and narrowly manage to avoid being crushed by centuries of urban decay and renewal, and decades of family baggage.

By the Sea by brooklyn09, M, 1,5k Greg is missing Mycroft on Valentine's Day. Mycroft has some surprises in store.

Fixture by @Spooky831, G, 1k It's the first Valentine's Day after Sherrinford.

This Year's Love by @notjustamumj, G, 301

Flowers for Mycroft by @arlenejp, G, 2.5k The giving of flowers and their meanings. Mycroft is unaware of who is doing the giving and how the meaning of the flowers applies to him.

Valentine's Magic by @chriscalledmesweetie, G, 578 Greg has a trick up his sleeve this Valentine's Day.

#mystrade #mystrade reading club #vote #voting #st valentines day #st valentine

31 notes · View notes

simonxriley · 4 years

Note

The "Send me a ღ and I’ll fill this out about a ship." Liz x Ghost or Tachanka x Skylar. You choose, because I really can't. They are both my faves and ahsbegwhbs you have the best oc's in my opinion. I normally find it hard to read about oc's but yours opened a whole new multiverse for me!

asdfghjkl really? That makes me so happy! So I’m gonna do it for both of the ships, because honestly I can’t choose either.

Liz x Ghost

Who’s the first to wake up in the morning: That would be Ghost. Liz isn’t a morning person.

Who’s the one to make breakfast: For the most part Ghost, though Liz will help.

Who’s the one to serve the other breakfast in bed: Ghost, especially on anniversaries and Valentines day.

Who would suggest a quickie in the morning before work: That would be Liz.

Who suggests they both ditch work to lay around all day: Definitely Liz, but then they get yelled at by price because they’re not at work.

Who chooses the movies: They both do.

Who initiates kissing during the moving, thus distracting the other from the movie all together: Liz does, though sometimes Ghost will as well.

Who orders lunch: All depends on the day, and who doesn’t want to cook.

Who steals food from the other’s plate without asking: Liz, definitely Liz.

Who curls up next to the other and falls asleep due to a full tummy: Ghost. Sometimes Liz will if she really over indulged herself.

Who distracts the other from trying to work at home: Neither, since it’s kind of hard for them to work at home.

Who asks to go get ice cream like a five year old: Liz. Ghost has to tell her every time that they have ice cream at home. But soft serve is a lot better.

Who takes pictures of their partner eating ice cream: They both do.

Who makes a sexual joke about the dripping ice cream on their partner’s face: Probably Liz.

Who cooks dinner: They both do, they like to cook dinner together.

Who cleans up the kitchen afterwards: Liz for the most part. She doesn’t mind.

Who stays up until 2 reading: Ghost, definitely Ghost

Who stares at their partner while their sleeping: Ghost and sometimes Liz if she can’t sleep.

Who kisses their partner while they sleep: Ghost.

Tachanka x Skylar

Who’s the first to wake up in the morning: Tachanka, he likes to let Skylar sleep in.

Who’s the one to make breakfast: Tachanka mostly, sometimes Sky will make it as well.

Who’s the one to serve the other breakfast in bed: Tachanka, though Sky will serve him breakfast in bed if it’s his birthday.

Who would suggest a quickie in the morning before work: Tachanka.

Who suggests they both ditch work to lay around all day: Skylar, sometimes you just need to lay in bed all day.

Who chooses the movies: They both do

Who initiates kissing during the moving, thus distracting the other from the movie all together: Neither surprisingly.

Who orders lunch: Skylar.

Who steals food from the other’s plate without asking: Skylar.

Who curls up next to the other and falls asleep due to a full tummy: Neither, they don’t over stuff themselves.

Who distracts the other from trying to work at home: Skylar. It’s funny to see her trying to distract Tachanka from working on his LMG.

Who asks to go get ice cream like a five year old: Skylar.

Who takes pictures of their partner eating ice cream: Tachanka. The amount of pictures he has of her, is a lot.

Who makes a sexual joke about the dripping ice cream on their partner’s face: Probably Tachanka ngl.

Who cooks dinner: They both do. Every other day one of them will cook.

Who cleans up the kitchen afterwards: Whoever didn’t cook that night.

Who stays up until 2 reading: Both.

Who stares at their partner while their sleeping: Tachanka.

Who kisses their partner while they sleep: Tachanka

#anonymous #otp: the tachanka and his kotyonok #liz x ghost

4 notes · View notes

hellas-himself · 4 years

Text

Crack Ship Holidays

Christmas Pt. 1 (i guess lol)

Okay. So I know we’ve had at least 3 holidays since the last time I posted this but whatever. have some hella late christmas nonsense. It’ll be feyre’s bday, christmas and then new years. Reyes, Valentine’s day and then Cassian’s birthday which I will always write to be in the summer will go together in one until Sarah gives us his actual birthday.

This ship is so stupid and I live for it. shout out to @bookloveaffair @crackedship for indulging me

I smile when I see Cassian step into the gym with Az and Elain. Iliana comes running over to me and I welcome her with open arms.

“I saw your painting out front,” Lia says with a smile. “I know your signature. It’s very pretty.”

“Thank you,” I say and let her go. I greet Elain and Az with hugs and kisses. “Thank you guys for being here… I haven’t done anything like this in a long time.”

Elain playfully hits my arm.

“As if I would miss your first art show in school?”

Cassian comes to stand beside me and slides and arm around my shoulder. He presses a kiss to my temple.

“Hey, handsome.”

“You did good, bunny,” he says as he looks around the gym. With the help of my students, we set the display tables in a way to allow everyone to walk freely as well as make room for Aelin’s stage. It’s nothing more than a raised platform in the center of the room that Evangeline and I helped to decorate. She’s already there, getting her students ready. The home ec teacher has a cookie and hot chocolate station in one corner and there are arts and crafts and other things some of the parents have organized together to keep the kids busy as the parents walked around.

“There is a little contest between each grade. It wasn’t my idea but the parents apparently do this every year. Each kid who entered the art show get something regardless but the winner of each grade gets some kind of prize.”

“I wish I had known,” Cassian says playfully. I pinch his side.

After encouraging the others to look around, I make the rounds, greeting my students and their families. I refuse to vote for the contest- it isn’t hard to sing praises of these kids and their work. Aelin has her kids playing Christmas carols with their instruments while the small chorus group sings.

Evangeline stands blushing beside her oil painting of snow-capped mountains. Rowan and Elide are taking pictures of her while Lysandra and Aedion look on proudly. I catch Lorcan casting his vote for her and when he sees me, he just shrugs.

I get asked about an after-school program, if I tutor, if I take commissions. It’s slightly overwhelming but I still accept the phone numbers and business cards from the parents. I don’t need him to turn around to know that Tamlin is standing with Briar at the snack table. She’s chatting with one of the aids, wearing a matching ugly sweater with him. I’m surprised that he would be here, that he would even leave his house like that. Maybe he is capable of giving a shit, but it doesn’t matter. I see Cassian talking to one of my kindergarteners, praising their artwork with the same enthusiasm that he praises mine.

“Hi, Miss A,” Tessa says and Cassian looks up from where he’s kneeling. He smiles at me in such a way that I wish I could just kiss him in front of everyone here. But Tessa’s mom brings me from my thoughts as she thanks me and now Cassian for encouraging Tessa who was ‘not herself’ after her father left. Cassian graciously distracts Tessa while her mother and I talk quietly.

The principal calls everyone to dance and I am surprised to see Aelin at the piano. Only her older kids are playing instruments now and when she starts to sing, I want to cry. I knew she played the piano and the guitar, I’ve watched a few videos of her with a cello but she had never told me that she could sing. Cassian and I dance, Azriel and Rowan taking turns dancing with me. Elain and I dance while Cassian brings Iliana to get hot chocolate and cookies.

“I can’t believe he’s here,” she mumbles. I shrug.

“As long as he doesn’t talk to me, I really don’t care what he’s doing.”

“If he even speaks one word…”

I kiss my sister on the cheek and she sighs.

“You’ve done so good,” she says and gives me a smile. “I’m really proud of you Feyre.”

I don’t know what to say and blush, making her laugh.

The principal announces the winners of the art show while Aelin plays songs from A Charlie Brown Christmas. Goodie bags are passed around by volunteers dressed like elves and until I see his eyes, I had no idea that Aedion had disappeared to change into a santa suit to hand out presents to the kids- definitely Aelin’s work.

As the families and children leave, the school staff stay behind to clean up and talk. The principal hands out the bonuses and I’m surprised to receive one. Aelin insists we all take pictures by the tree and I try not to laugh at the sight of my sister standing between Cassian and Tamlin who are waiting for Briar and I to finish with the staff picture. Rowan throws an arm around Cassian’s shoulder and the two whisper to one another. Az has Iliana on his back and once we’re done, I make my way to them. I kiss my sleepy niece goodbye before saying my goodbyes to the others.

“Are you okay, bunny?”

I look up from my laptop to find Cassian walking into the bedroom.

“Mhm.”

“Work?” He looks at my laptop and I shake my head.

“No, just saving the pictures Aelin sent me. They’re cute.”

He joins me in bed and I turn the screen so he can see.

“I love you in the dress.”

I blush as I roll my eyes.

“Thank you,” I say and close the laptop. “And thank you for being there.”

“I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”

I set the laptop on the night table and he pulls me into his arms.

“I love you,” I say to him and he smiles. I know he worries about what seeing Tamlin might do to me, he doesn’t have to say it. “If someone would have told me last Christmas that I’d be here with you like this… I wouldn’t have believed it.”

“No?”

“I wasn’t exactly the picture of hope.”

Cassian chuckles and kisses me.

“No… You weren’t.”

“But you were. You were and I made it through all of that because of you.”

“Bunny… You made it through all of that because of you and the work you put in.”

“Which I wouldn’t have done if you didn’t make me feel alive…”

“So it wasn’t just the mind blowing sex that did that?” he says playfully but I can tell he’s surprised.

“No… You did that way before I looked at you and wanted to rock your world.”

He smiles and I kiss him.

“And when did that happen?” he asks.

“Way before New Year’s Eve.”

“Really?”

“We went dancing for my birthday, remember?”

“Yeah, you wore that little red dress-”

“You remember?” I ask suddenly.

He scoffs as if the answer was obvious.

“We danced all night and even before we got shit faced you were being way more flirtatious than usual.” I could vividly remember the slow and steady way he grew more comfortable letting his hands roam while we danced. Almost everything he said that night had a double meaning, and I had been all too happy to indulge his flirting and flirt right back. I had finally felt something other than emptiness.

“It couldn’t be helped,” he says and kisses me. “You were so happy and that dress was just… Do you still have it?”

I snort. “Maybe… Why? Want me to put it on?”

I love the way he blushes at my tone. I kiss him and run my fingers through his hair.

“I love you, Cassian.”

“I love you, too, bunny.”

My phone is ringing and I can’t find it as I search for it blindly. I have to open my eyes and sit up. I find it at the foot of the bed, under my pajamas. With a groan, I go to answer it. I am surprised to see Nesta’s name on the screen but then I remember what day it is. I put her on speaker as I get dressed.

“Feyre?”

“Nesta.”

“Happy birthday,” she says and I sigh.

“Thanks.”

“Did I wake you up?”

I almost say yes, but Cassian had woken up me before he went to work and left the house late thanks to his idea of ‘wishing me a happy birthday’. I snort and pretend to cough.

“No.”

Silence. I go to the bathroom to wash up and I can hear her walking around.

“Elain said she’s taking you to breakfast.”

“Yeah, she is.”

“Did she tell you I was coming?”

“She mentioned something like that.”

Nesta sighs. “Do you think I can pick you up?”

I want to tell her that I was driving myself to meet Elain and Iliana but I recognize the hesitance in her voice.

“I have to let Val out first though.”

“Great! That gives me time to finish up.”

An hour later, I am locking the front door of the house. Nesta is parked outside, nervously tapping her fingers against the steering wheel. When I make it halfway down the driveway, Nesta gets out of the car and opens the passenger side door. She’s dressed casually for once- blue jeans and boots instead of a dress suit and heels. Her hair is down, too, straight where mine is wavy.

“Happy birthday,” she says again and gives me a tentative hug.

“Thanks, Nes.”

“Coffee?” she asks and I nod.

She drives us to the nearest Starbucks and insists I find us a seat while she orders. I answer texts while I wait, most of them from Rhysand and Elain. Aelin and Rowan sent me a ridiculous snapchat video and Lucien wrote me a long, heart felt message on an Instagram post with a bunch of pictures of us throughout the last year- except of course, one of them is of us as kids. I always hated my birthday, my parents had never really given it much importance. It was so close to Christmas and I had to wait the extra week or so to get a present. Never a party. Never anything more than a forced ‘happy birthday’. But Adela and Vinny… Those two threw me a birthday party every year until we were old enough to host our own. I remember the first year when we all met, I had not mentioned my birthday out of habit but Rhysand had told his mother and on Christmas Eve, they picked me up and took me to their house to celebrate. I still had the doll they’d bought me, tucked safely in a box in the attic.

“I don’t know you to drink anything else but this,” Nesta says and I look away from the Adela’s text to find my sister setting an iced caramel coffee before me.

“Perfect.”

Even better, she brought me cake pops. Nesta doesn’t touch her latte and instead is watching me tear into the cake pops as if I hadn’t eaten breakfast.

“Elain told me that Tamlin was at your work event,” she begins. “Are you okay? Did he say anything to you?”

With food in my mouth, I just shake my head. She waits for me to finish, to drink from my coffee.

“He kept his distance.”

She sighs.

“I feel… I should have been there.”

“His girlfriend works there, Nesta. I can’t exactly tell him to leave without reason.”

“He hurt you, that’s reason enough.”

“It’s fine. Elain was with me and you know Az and Cassian would never let him near me.”

“I know but… If I hadn’t upset you, I would have been there and I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry. I had no right to speak to you that way. I didn’t give you a reason to feel comfortable telling me about Cassian or your job or anything.”

I feel my face getting warm and I take a long sip of my coffee.

“I know your birthday is terrible timing for this but I didn’t know when else you’d be okay with talking to me… I haven’t been the greatest sister. I’ve been… awful.”

“You don’t have to wait for birthdays or anything to talk to me,” I say, finding it really hard to meet her eyes. I’m used to angry, irritated Nesta. Not… this. “You know I can’t be mad at you forever.”

“And that’s the thing… You’re too forgiving Feyre.”

I laugh and roll my eyes.

“Only you would complain about that.”

“I’m not complaining… I just mean that I don’t want anyone taking advantage of that.”

“Cassian isn’t going to do that.”

“I know he isn’t.”

When I raise a brow, she sighs.

“Just because you’re another year older doesn’t mean you stop being my baby sister.”

“Even if I wanted you to kill him, you can’t go to prison, Nesta.”

She laughs. “Shut up, Feyre.”

“I think I understand,” I say which seems to surprise her. I push the other cake pop to her. “I know you have one in your bag, but have this one.”

“A peace offering?” she asks.

“More or less. But if you really want to make it up to me, buy me drinks at the club tonight.”

Nesta grimaces at this and I laugh.

“I’m kidding.”

“No, it’s not that. I can’t say anything,” she says and looks at her watch. “We should go. Elain is almost there.”

“We’re going where?” I ask, looking at my stupidly handsome boyfriend who I want to strangle. “I look like you just picked me up off the corner!”

Cassian laughs at this and when I smack his arm he laughs even more.

“You look beautiful. Though I have to admit, this is going to be torture for me.”

“Torture? You’re not the one who has to worry about their ass hanging out of their dress in front of their boyfriend’s parents!”

I’d found the dress I wore for my birthday last year. I put it on thinking we were going dancing, not having dinner with his family at some fancy ass restaurant.

“Bunny, it’ll be fine. I swear.”

I groan and Cas puts his hand over my thigh.

“We can turn around.”

“No… Just. I’ll survive.”

Everyone is dolled up when we arrive, even Nesta is there.

“Now I know why she wouldn’t buy me drinks,” I mutter and Cassian laughs.

He kisses my cheek before letting my hand go as our friends and family come to greet us. I don’t feel too bad about my dress once I see the way Elain and Mor are dressed- even Aelin in her gold romper covered in sequins. Adela and Vinny are just as affectionate as always and I have to laugh when she hands me my present before I even sit down. I sit between Cassian and Rhys- both men encouraging me to open the small box as if it were for them. Children, really.

The waiter takes our drink orders and only then do I open the present- It’s a necklace, much like the one Elain has, but instead of a blue stone, it’s red. Cassian happily puts it on me before I go and thank his parents.

Conversation is easy going and I’m surprised that Nesta has lasted this long around us. She seems… content. I eat just as much as Cassian does, and by the time my cake is carried to the table, I don’t know how the hell I’m going to eat that, too. It’s a gorgeous cake, designed to look like a mash up of Van Gogh, Dali and Degas. And the inside- it’s the mojadito cake that Adela always made for us.

I get more presents; books from Aelin and Rowan, a sketchbook with my favorite pencils from Elain and Az, a pair of heels from Mor. Iliana made me a birthday card and got me a mug that says ‘not paint water’. Then there is the set of crazy expensive markers from Rhys and Lucien and a black pajama set from Amren that I did not show everyone because once I saw the label, I knew just what kind of set it was. She gave me a devil’s smile. Cassian gets up from his chair and walks over to Adela who hands him a very large box from somewhere under the table.

“Happy birthday, bunny,” he says as he sits down with it. The table is cleared to make room for the damn thing and I stand up to unwrap it. And it’s a fucking tablet. For digital art.

“Cas…”

He shrugs as if this is no big deal. I throw my arms around him and cover his face in kisses which leaves him laughing. I smack his arm.

“I can’t believe you!”

“Do you like it?”

“Are you kidding! I’m already thinking of all the things I’m going to make with it.”

Cassian smiles and kisses me properly.

When I turn away from the newly lit candles, Cassian is standing at the entry way of the living room, rolling up the sleeves to his shirt. He has a knowing smirk on his face and I can’t help but smile.

“Music… candles… that dress. If I didn’t know any better, I would say it’s my birthday,” he says to me and I laugh.

“Well, this is my birthday and I want what I didn’t get last year.”

“And what is that?”

I walk towards him, having to look up now that I am without heels. I place my hands on his chest and undo some of the buttons of his shirt.

“I want to dance with my best friend,” I begin and run my hands down his chest and stomach before reaching for his hands. I place them on my waist.

“That’s all?” he whispers and I find myself blushing.

“No,” I reply and he raises a brow. “I don’t have to pretend I don’t feel anything for you. I get to show you just how much I want you.” I kiss him. “How much I love you.” I kiss him again.

#crack ship holidays #christmas pt 1 #the art show and feyre's bday #cassian x feyre #pure self indulgence #cuz literally no one asked for this #but i kinda want to finish it ?

16 notes · View notes

typinggently · 4 years

Text

Valentine’s Day Special

On Tuesday I had the idea to write a few drabbles for Valentine’s Day, since I’ve been in an awful creative slum lately and I love indulging myself on Valentine’s Day. I’m super happy that I managed to do it, even though they’re only ~1k drabbles each!!! They were super fun and put me in a really romantic mood :)

I hope you’re all having a lovely day and if you’d like to read the stories, I put them on AO3!! (Which is a first for drabbles ahhh)

💌Napoleon/Illya💌 - two telling presents and a soft morning spent in Berlin

🏹 Frank/Billy 🏹 - Billy not remembering that a) it’s Valentine’s Day and b) his boyfriend’s a sappy romantic

🍷Alfie/Tommy🍷 - two lovefools who didn’t talk about their Valentine’s Day plans beforehand and some homemade cake

currently still in the works and will most likely be published tomorrow: Hannibal/Will, Clark/Bruce

I’m usually very self-conscious about the length of these drabbles and my punctuality (or lack thereof) when it comes to time-sensitive posting. However, I’ve really been in a slump these last few weeks and haven’t been feeling inspired at all (as mentioned in another post), which made me very unhappy. So the fact that writing these drabbles filled me with such glee and joy is enough for me this time, and I decided to post them directly on AO3 anyways! :)

(p.s.: due to the limited time frame, I didn’t have time to expand any add other ships important to me, which I might do later on if I feel like it :) this is all very self-indulgent and fun :) )

#talks #fic update #napollya #frankenbilly #brank #superbat #hannigram #sholomons #ao3 link

27 notes · View notes

q-card · 4 years

Text

With or Without You

I wrote this major self-indulgent fic back in February for Valentine’s day. You can read it on AO3 (x) but I thought I’d share it here as well. Hope yall enjoy! Note: listen to this while reading, it makes everything more intense hehe

The suns were setting over Makus III, and Jean-Luc Picard was watching them sink under the horizon. A light breeze ruffled the grass around him. Tapping his combadge, the captain of the USS Enterprise sighed, “Ready to beam up.”

Setting suns on Makus III – almost midnight by ship-time.

He kept his eyes on the orange sky as his vision blurred and a light tingling feeling numbed his body. As he was transported back up to his ship, he thought of the twin suns setting over the peaceful planet, and of the little house on the hill he had left behind – how the couple living there had thanked him, how happy they had seemed despite their differences, despite the slight impression of unevenness in the way they stood next to each other, like mismatched puzzle pieces.

He closed his eyes then, cursing himself. The tingling was fading, but the transporter’s chime still lingered in his ears. He’d been having such thoughts – such dangerous thoughts – for too long. And for too long, the person he’d been thinking of with such recklessness had refused to show himself.

After their last encounter, Jean-Luc thought things would change. The quivering of excitement in Q’s voice had seemed almost like a confession – the words had been a gentle warning, but the tone had told a different tale. For weeks afterwards it had echoed in Jean-Luc’s ears, that simple sentence that Q had spoken with such human passion; “See you… out there.” And then he’d disappeared, and he hadn’t come back.

Jean-Luc was left alone with the gut-wrenching words, not knowing if he’d ever see Q again. Not knowing if it had all been a lie, a ruse, a trick of his imagination – or if it truly meant something.

And then Q had begun invading his every thought. Everything was a painful reminder of him: every person, every situation, every forbidding dream. He’d started pondering things Q had said in the past, giving them different meanings, analysing everything. And sometimes… well, sometimes it ached and sometimes it soothed, but no matter what interpretation Jean-Luc pinned upon Q’s words, they always sent him reeling.

“You're not alone, you know. What you were, and what you are to become, will always be with you.”

“In any case, I'll be watching.”

“The Continuum didn't think you had it in you, Jean-Luc. But I knew you did.”

“Goodbye, Jean-Luc. I'm gonna miss you. You had such potential. But then again, all good things must come to an end.”

The transporter chime faded entirely, and Jean-Luc opened his eyes. He wasn’t in the transporter room, but in his own quarters. And standing in the very center of the room was Q, wearing a captain’s uniform – the twin to the one Jean-Luc wore.

It felt like being punched in the stomach.

“How cruel must you be?” Jean-Luc breathed. He dared not move – dared not speak above a whisper.

Q said nothing. He stood there with unnatural stillness; his eyes alight with an entirely alien gleam. A shiver snaked down Jean-Luc’s spine, but he straightened his back and swallowed hard. “Why are you here? You haven’t deigned a visit in ten months.”

A small, vicious smile slowly spread onto Q’s lips. “You’ve been counting,” he said. His first words in ten months – yes, dammit, he had been counting.

Jean-Luc could feel his hands tremble with rage. All this time and now he chose to appear, just when Jean-Luc was thinking of him. “Have you been mucking about in my head, Q? Planting thoughts into my mind?” he spat, his rage a white-hot wall of flame in his chest.

Q’s smile widened into a lazy grin. “Oh no, Jean-Luc,” he tilted his head back with inhuman grace, “I’ve made it a personal rule of sorts to never interfere with your tiny human brain. It ruins the fun. Whatever thoughts are bothering you, mon capitaine, are entirely your own.”

Jean-Luc’s cheeks burned with shame and anger and hurt, and although he tried, he couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice as he said, “Fun – this is all a game to you then, isn’t it? You know perfectly well what I mean. For once, Q, let me know the truth.”

And then those alien eyes darkened, and it felt as if a cold wind had swiped the room when the smile faded from Q’s face. “What truth are you looking for, Jean-Luc? The one that pleases you or the one that is hard to hear?”

A wave of panic gripped Jean-Luc so unexpectedly that he staggered. He reached out a trembling hand and held onto his desk. “I don’t understand,” he whispered.

Q closed his eyes and sighed in frustration. Such a human expression. “You never understood…” Q’s voice was strained.

The anger seeped back into Jean-Luc veins, making his blood boil. “Yes,” he nodded resentfully, “how could I possibly understand? What with my ‘tiny human brain’…”

Silence fell upon them, thick with anger and hurt and words left unsaid, unspoken. And then a sharp intake of breath, and Jean-Luc was calm again. So very calm as he asked, “What do you want from me? Why are you here?”

Q’s eyes flew open. “I don’t know. I told myself I had nothing more to do on this ship, but I keep coming back, and I thought that you would’ve understood by now…”

“Why must you make me crawl for an answer every damn time?” Jean-Luc shouted, his calmness and control snapping like a twig, “Just tell me, Q – you’ve made me beg before, I won’t do it again – tell me what you’re here for!”

Q’s eyebrows tilted upwards. “I can’t,” the entity breathed.

There was something desperate about the words – something desperate and pleading and so unlike Q… but, no, he would not relent.

“Then leave,” Jean-Luc said, seething with an anger he wasn’t sure he still felt.

Q straightened his back. His eyes were veiled, cold and barren. Unearthly, unknown: he was one of the Q, and the power of billions of years of existence coiled in his very being.

“I will,” he spoke with his human voice, nodded with his human body, but Jean-Luc had never been so utterly aware of how otherworldly the entity truly was. “A human lifetime is but a nanosecond to me, Picard. I will not be coming back.”

A flash of blinding white light – and he was gone.

Gone. Forever.

Jean-Luc, still gripping his desk, let out a gasp of disbelief. He pushed himself into the sleeping area of his chambers, a heavy weight on his chest, his entire body a brutal reminder of his own mortal misery. This, all this – it was but a nanosecond for Q.

But, damn it all to hell, it was everything for Jean-Luc Picard. The past ten months – the past seven years – he’d somehow known that this would mean everything to him. Something had pulled him towards that entity from the very start. The most annoying being in creation – devious and amoral and unreliable and irresponsible and definitely not to be trusted…

And now he was gone forever and Jean-Luc’s world was collapsing. He let himself fall onto his bed and buried his head into his open palms. The world was collapsing.

Q hovered above the Enterprise, invisible in his non-corporeal form. He could see right through the bulkhead of Starfleet’s flagship, right through walls and walls of primitive Federation technology. He could see Jean-Luc Picard, sitting on his bed with his face in his hands.

And Q ached. Not in the physical way he’d experienced when punished by the Continuum, when he’d been a hapless mortal on this very ship. No – this was an entirely different pain. Something was wrenching at his very being, triggered by the sight of the captain’s misery.

And Q longed. He knew the longing by now, it was familiar. He hated it, but it had been there for quite some time. How they had mocked him, in the Continuum. How they had sneered.

But Jean-Luc’s words had been haunting Q’s thoughts.

‘Thank you’, he’d said, with such unashamed gratitude, with such Human warmth. Jean-Luc Picard had thanked Q, after all that was done and said. Noble – he was noble and decent and honourable and everything that Q wasn’t.

Everything that Q was supposed to abhor.

Everything that Q loved.

Q loved this Human. Q loved this puny little Earthman who was mourning him on his puny little bed. Oh, but for his noble Human heart, for the grace in his unwavering goodness, Q could not fool himself into believing that Jean-Luc was puny. He may not have the all-powerful supremacy of the Q, but he had something stronger. Something brighter, and better – something Q cherished.

So, without warning, without light or sound or artifice, Q materialized back in Jean-Luc’s quarters in his human form. He stood there for a while in silence, watching Jean-Luc who simply sat on his bed, lost and broken. It hurt – oh how it hurt, to see the man he loved in such a state.

Just then, Jean-Luc turned.

Their eyes met. The silence was a living thing, spiralling around them and through them and suddenly Jean-Luc was on his feet, eyes wide, mouth open. “Q,” he whispered.

Q blinked. “Jean-Luc,” he answered.

And then they were running towards each other, desperately, like every second could tear them apart, like every moment was their last. They fell into each other’s arms. They looked into each other’s eyes. Jean-Luc’s hand was on Q’s neck, pulling him downwards.

“Your eyes… they look so human,” Jean-Luc said softly.

Q raised his eyebrows. He was about to give a sarcastic retort, but Jean-Luc silenced him with a kiss.

Jean-Luc Picard kissed Q.

Stars exploded and galaxies shattered. Q rattled the very core of creation as Jean-Luc kissed him harder, deeper; desperate and passionate and angry.

He pulled away to breathe with such charming mortal vulnerability. “Don’t ever make me wait again,” he panted frantically, “every day without you, I could’ve died. Q, I could’ve died without you.”

And it shook Q so much that he let his human body lean into Jean-Luc, let their foreheads touch. “Can you live with me, though?”

Jean-Luc smiled. “I think it’s worth a try.”

And he kissed him again.

#qcard #q/picard #ff #fanfic #fanfiction #my writing

18 notes · View notes