#i hear the wlw side has cookies
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gf!ellie headcannons
warnings: smut
controversial but i think gf!ellie only really calls you babe/baby. she calls you other things occasionally, but knowing ellie I think she would find a lot of typical pet names cringe (unless she’s saying it teasingly during sex ie. princess 😫 for her pillow princess) (or doll if she’s feeling cocky)
gf!ellie who’s ALWAYS cold. that girl has terrible circulation and is constantly sticking her feet under your butt or her hands up your shirt/down your pants to warm them up
“ouch els you’re freezing!!! why do you have ice cubes for hands?”
“idk but i dooooo know i have a space heater for a gf so it doesn’t really matter”
gf!ellie lovessss hearing you talk about your interests/hobbies/passions. she could sit there forever just listening to you ramble and watching your eyes gleam with excitement.
gf!ellie who loves taking you shopping and watching you try things on. you’re like her own little doll that she gets to dress up.
“oh my god babeeee i need to see you in this. go put it on.”
“holy shit - fuck you look so good. yeah give me a spin. god you look so fine.”
of course gf!ellie also spoils the shit out of you on these trips whenever you let her.
“no really els - I don’t need it, it’s fine!”
“it’s not about needing anything. you look so fucking hot in that dress and I wanna buy it for you. cmon let me spoil my girl.”
gf!ellie who loves to doodle with you snuggled up next to her. one of her favorite pastimes is cuddling up in bed with you at her side and her sketchbook in hand.
gf!ellie who’s a terrible cook but tried really hard in the beginning for you. she wanted to impress you by preparing a homecooked meal for your third date, but it turned out terrible. she knew you were a keeper when you took a bite and tried to pretend to like it, but then immediately came clean in the gentlest way possible because you didn’t wanna lie to her but also didn’t want her to think you didn’t appreciate the gesture.
“ellie, have you ever made this before”
“damn it’s that bad huh?”
“no, no! okay well. i will say the chicken is a little under done. and the vegetable are a little overdone. but besides that it’s really good!!”
gf!ellie who appreciates when you take over in the kitchen for the rest of the relationship. not only do you whip up the most delicious meals for her on the daily, but also look incredibly adorable doing it in your little apron with your scrunched-up concentrated face. she loves hugging you from behind to see what her cute little housewife is cooking her - squeezing your hips, rocking you back and forth, and kissing on your neck to tease you.
gf!ellie who’s uncharacteristically nervous to meet your parents. you’ve never seen her anxious like that but she just wanted really wanted to make sure that they like her. she brings flowers and some store bought cookies, but little does he know that ellie’s kind heart and love for you will win them over just fine <3
gf!ellie who knows you can handle yourself but is still hella protective of you and will knock out anyone who looks at you wrong. all you have to do is say the word.
protective gf!ellie who has mixed feelings on PDA. she really likes having her hands on you so that everyone knows your her’s, but she‘s also aware how gross and disgusting men are and how they fetishize wlw. so out of protection for you she tries to keep it toned down and unless it’s necessaryyyy (she’s tired of the stares and needs to mark her territory)
protective gf!ellie always making sure you kept your drink in your hand at all times at parties.
*drunk you getting ready to put your drink down in some random spot*
*ellie intercepting it to hold for you instead* “nopeee I got it.”
protective gf! ellie watches how much you’re drinking and cuts you off when you’ve clearly had enough
just recently posted an ellie’s kinks headcannons if y’all wanna go check it out 😏😏😏😏, so i’m not gonna go into hella detail of what gf!ellie likes in bed but let me tell ya’ll this
gf!ellie just loves teasing you. she loves how desperate you get when she drags the tip of the strap from your clit down to your hole, making you think she’s FINALLY gonna fuck you and then bringing it back up to your clit again. watching you squirm and beg her to just put it in never fails to put on smirk on your face.
“what’s the matter baby? can’t be patient? need my cock inside you that bad huh?
“if you want it so bad you’re gonna have to beg. let me hear it baby. tell me exactly what you want or you’re not getting it.” she lives to make you say every little dirty thing you want her to do to you, out loud, several times until she finally gives in. but if you do as she says she’d literally do anything you want. obsessed with you is what that girl is
loves hearing you moan and whine and beg her to fuck you but also loves covering your mouth with her hand or stuffing your panties into your mouth to shut you up. and then trying to make you talk to her when you clearly can’t.
“what’s that? sorry babe i can’t understand you.”
gf!ellie is possessive asf during sex too. whatever she’s calling you, she’s putting my in front of it. like….
“MY good girl”
“MY pussy”
“MY little slut” 😋
gf!ellie is just the bestest ever, always putting her girl first and treating her like a damn queen :)
honestly I could write so many more of these and i didn’t know where to stop so lmk if you want a part 2!!
xoxo,
a ;)
#ellie williams#ellie williams smut#ellie tlou#ellie williams x reader#ellie x reader#ellie williams drabble#ellie williams fanfic#ellie williams headcanons#ellie williams x female reader#ellie x fem reader#ellie x you#ellie rose#ellie x y/n#ellie williams x y/n
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gf!abby hcs xmas edishhh ♥ wlw
hi!!!! im back
sorry if the title is hard to read i was feeling festive: 'gf!abby hcs xmas edish' short for edition hahaha hahahaha haha ha
✧ ˚ · . sfw.... i think
one day after gf!abby came home from patrol, she walked into your shared apartment one day, only to have walked in on you preparing a stocking with her name on it. it made her feel so touched — since she was a girl, she'd always secretly dreamed for a day where she would be shown as much love as she was worth. safe to say this brought her to tears.
you didn't even notice her initially since you were facing the fireplace, stocking in hand, with your back to the door where she entered. you were softly humming some obsolete christmas song as you picked a variety of small and delicately wrapped presents from the mantel, placing them each carefully into the stocking.
she just stood there and stared at you. it was as if she was frozen, shoes glued to the floor. not to mention the shock on her face — soft lips agape, slowly widening eyes and a gentle flush that eventually covered her freckled cheeks. it was the sight of you making time for her that did it. you had thought about her, her happiness, your love, and you made an effort for her, which was something she wasn't so used to; eventually you noticed her tearful presence behind you once you heard a tiny sniffle that made your heart jump in surprise.
"abby, baby," you cooed, immediately hooking the stocking onto the mantel. you rushed over, cupping her slightly dampened cheeks in your hands, wiping her tears away with your thumbs. "are you crying? what's wrong?"
"oh.. i - n-nothing," she chuckled, sniffing once more, "i just - never thought anyone would love me this much to actually make me a stocking."
gf!abby loves to cuddle you by the fireplace — she likes to have you close and in between her legs with your back to her chest, tracing absentminded circles into your skin with her thumb as you read her a book or talk to her about your day. although, she's not really listening; she pays more heed to the glow of your skin by the fire, or the way your voice sounds when you talk. maybe specific ways in which you enunciate each word, or how passionate you sound when you speak. either way, her mind is immersed in the way you are and your person as a whole — she feels so lucky to have you by her side.
gf!abby was never really up for christmas traditions as a whole until she met you. you happened to bring the light and spirit into her eyes, and she now finds herself looking forward to each year where you'd put up the tree together, bake cookies together, kiss under the mistletoe — even to matching ugly christmas sweaters with you. whatever you want to do, she'll do for you, eventually coming to warm up to the annual routine.
gf!abby likes to bake with you in particular — she's a huge sucker for hugging you from behind, using fatuous excuses that she's helping you mix your batter, or that there's something in a top cupboard that happens to be right above you, all in effort just to tease you.
but once those baked goods in the oven, you know she'll be right behind you. once you're bent over to close the oven door, she likes to creep her hands onto each side of your hips, hooking her fingers around the hem of your matching pyjama pants to guide your ass perfectly into her crotch, which earns a low, quiet chuckle from her smartass once she hears you whine. done more or less to tease you, but also because she literally can never keep her hands off you.
once you rise, your back presses directly into her chest and the intimacy radiates profusely between you two as you sway together. her head dips into the crook of your neck and she presses her nose into your skin with a soft sigh of content as she whispers with love into your ear, the sweet nothings only manifesting butterflies along with a familiar warmth in your stomach that grows worse the longer her thick fingers trail along your hipline.
here r some less fluffy hcs :p
gf!abby hates cinnamon. she hates the smell, the taste, maybe even the colour for no reason
one of gf!abby's pet peeves include when people eat their whipped cream separate to their hot chocolate. she gets so unnecessarily stressed about it, her head starts to hurt the longer she thinks ab it LOL
gf!abby likes to get alice different xmas costumes every year. she can't decide her favourite between these three ⤵
HAHAHHAAH
u can imagine the laughs she gets outta seeing her in these
gf!abby isn't a massive spender on gifts. she prefers to spend individual time with each of her loved ones on the build up to xmas, but if she knows the other person would prefer something materialistic, then she'll get them a gift. she accommodates for each person.
gf!abby rolls her eyes at carol singers. she thinks the practice is stupid, unfortunately
gf!abby gives the vibe that during present opening, she'll be ready with a black bag to immediately get rid of the discarded wrapping like those over-prepared dads on xmas morning the second it lands on the floor
gf!abby hates winter :( the needed coats restrict her huge juicy muscles too much and she tends to feel suffocated in comparison to the freedom allowed by the simple wife beater tank or sports bra 😛
gf!abby the type of mf to wear shorts even if it's snowing and -1 degree celsius and once someone asks her if she's cold she'll look at them like ???? no???????
gf!abby draws dicks on the fogged windows of manny's car for fun. doesn't even tell him about it
she might even act like she has no idea what he's talking about when he complains about it. she's a horrible liar tho
gf!abby has a specific christmas song that she refuses to listen to cause it's so overplayed and now annoying to hear
┊┊┊✧ ⁺ ⁺ °
hiii im not a huge xmas person but i enjoyed writing these
if you don't celebrate christmas, i wish you love and support regardless :')
generally speaking ik it can be hard as we approach the colder season — i hope you all are able to stay safe and cozy this winter :)
anyway i wish i had someone to make me a stocking. i'll be cold and miserable yall wlw couples on tiktok baking cookies w each other in the matching checkered pjs...... maybe if you squint you can see me face down on the road outside the window /s
anyway i want more moots :( yous can hmu i dont bite swear down
ok bye!!!! see u guys again at xmas :3
#abby anderson#lesbian#the last of us#abby tlou#abby anderson tlou2#tlou2#fluff#the last of us 2#the last of us part 2#abby the last of us#wlw#lesbian pride#abby anderson x y/n#abby anderson x female reader#abby anderson fluff#tlou abby#abby anderson x reader
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i would like to learn about loona! also i am listening to the songs you sent me! imma have a free period from 12:00-1:00 thats im supposed to be spending doing schoolwork but i dont wanna so yes pls tell me about them and any other kpop girls you wanna (i think i very much like red velvet, itzy, and twice)
okay time for a brief (ish) over view of each group! also one more that i think you might like :) it is a surprise for the end
any links here are to music videos/choreo (mostly music videos but there's a few choreo vids/stage performances). as a result, most of the mentioned b-sides will not have links, sorry in advance.
LOONA: loona, also known as girl of the month, is a 12 member girl group from blockberry creative! their debut process was really unique in the kpop world, as it involved giving each member a song as well as three subunits (loona 1/3, odd eye circle, and yyxy) prior to debuting (most groups don't begin solos until the group is well-established). this process lasted one and a half years and as a result loona has a really extensive pre-debut discography. my favorite solos are vivi's (every day i love you), jinsoul's (singing in the rain), and yves's (new). chuu's (heart attack) is the most well-known for the wlw themes! also odd eye circle's girl front goes viral every so often, so you might've heard some of it.
for their debut/post debut (title) tracks, butterfly and paint the town are my personal favorites! to be honest, if there's only one loona music video that you watch, it should be butterfly. like i'm so serious those four minutes and thirty-four seconds changed my life (permanently). hi high, their debut track, and flip that, their most recent korean release, are their more bubbly/bright titles, whereas so what has more of a powerful feel. and you know why not already!
for the b-sides/albums, my personal favorite is the 12:00 album! my fave b-side is pale blue dot tho like that's my song (i got to see hear them perform it in sf btw) but i also recommend stylish, satellite, playback, ding ding ding, wow, oh (yes i am), where you at, colors, and perfect love. for the pre-debut b-sides, i'm a sucker for love letter (jinsoul and kim lip) and girls' talk (yves and chuu), as well as loonatic (oec), rendez-vous 18.9 (yyxy), valentine girl (1/3), and sonatine (1/3).
star broke into american radio stations and allegedly it was in every walmart for a while (and sometimes it still is) but i've never heard it out in public, which feels like homophobia tbh.
their japanese releases are hula hoop and luminous!
RED VELVET: i already sent you the first ten songs that came to mind when i saw u were getting into them, so i won't spend too much time here. they debuted in 2014 with happiness, but in 2015 yeri was added with the release of ice cream cake (there is speculation that red velvet was supposed to debut in 2015 but sm debuted them early for...damage control, and yeri was added later since she would've been too young in 2014). their most recent comeback was feel my rhythm, which samples Bach's "Air on the G-String". it actually works really well.
i do wanna mention irene and seulgi's monster and seulgi's 28 reasons! just cuz the vibes are a little dark, a little edgy, and also pretty gay. joy and wendy also have solo albums (joy debuted with hello, and wendy debuted with like water).
also check out their japanese discography; it's just as good as their korean discography. not enough people talk about cookie jar and wildside. or sappy tbh.
ITZY: known as fourth gen leaders, itzy debuted in 2019 with dalla dalla, and saw instant success. wannabe really cemented their place in fourth gen, and they've been famous ever since! personally, i really love icy and not shy, and their 2021 releases, mafia in the morning and loco, are both solid tracks as well.
for the b-sides, i'd recommend the whole crazy in love album (keep in mind that jyp included instrumentals of all their title tracks for some reason. you can skip those). as for individual songs, racer, kidding me, shoot, don't give a what, cherry, and want it are really fun in my opinion!
they've also got two japanese tracks so far, voltage and blah blah blah. and they just released their first english track, boys like you! personally i think it's fun and cute. it gives me old taylor swift vibes.
TWICE: gonna be honest, i know the least about them. but i love their title tracks, and what little i've heard from their b-sides have been pretty solid so far! so here's a quick rundown of twice's highlights :)
they debuted in 2015 with like ooh-ahh, but it wasn't until they released TT in 2016 that they really solidified their place in the kpop world. other hits include likey, yes or yes (one of my personal favorites), fancy, feel special, what is love, and cry for me! their most recent comeback is talk that talk.
their japanese discography is pretty solid too; i personally enjoy breakthrough and bdz.
BILLLIE: this is your get one free group lmfao. personally i love the billlie girls but really i feel like you'd enjoy gingamingayo! they debuted in november of 2021 so they don't have an extensive discography in the way the other four groups mentioned do, but so far every release of theirs has been really solid. i'd also recommend flipp!ng a coin, ring x ring, a sign ~ anonymous, ring ma bell, and b'rave ~ a song for matilda.
#lyz talks#kpop#asks#theirtheretheyre#loona#red velvet#itzy#twice#billlie#i spent like two hours on this post...#nate we definitely missed your break my bad#i actually had to hold myself back so much on loona#like this post could be so much longer if i spent more time on predebut loona LMFAO#anyways. im exhausted this took way longer than i thought AND i could talk about so much more#kpop is a disease etc etc#long post
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inelegantprose replied to your post: me: I’m probably straight. Just because I...
join us embrace the wlw side
Not much room for exploration in a monogamous marriage, but if I were single again, I would probably at least try dating women as well.
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Restless Rewatch: Nirvana in Fire, Episode 02
(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff)
Warning: Spoilers for All 54 Episodes!
A Cunning Plan
Let's start by checking in with the in-progress schemes. Nirvana in Fire features many, many overlapping schemes that stretch across multiple episodes.
Princess Nihuang's Marriage: Princess Nihuang is betrothed to a dead guy, and that's fine with her. If she needs tender emotional care she's got Xia Dong. Xia Dong is married to a dead guy so this works well for both of them.
The Emperor wants to marry Nihuang off, because she's got a loyal heap of troops at the southern border, and he's a paranoid old fuck, who doesn't like anyone to have the power to overthrow him. Marrying her will sort of force her to hand her troops off to her impulsive younger brother, or something.
The Emperor has a soft spot for Nihuang, however, so he's allowed her to set a bunch of impossible conditions on the marriage, including a martial arts contest. NIF is a hybrid palace drama and Wuxia drama, so there are courtesans and backstabbing and sneaky maids and sneaky eunuchs but also, people can fly.
The two main power seekers, Prince Yu and the Crown Prince, have flunkies that they want Nihuang to marry, but their flunkies suck at martial arts, so if they want her to marry one of their dudes, there will have to be cheating.
Note that Nihuang's good friends Jingrui and Yujin are taking part in the contest to marry her, which might be weird, except they both know she can beat their asses so they seem to just be joining in for fun & prestige.
The fact that she doesn't want to marry either of these loveable cuties means that she's pretty serious about staying betrothed to her first love, despite his apparent deadness.
(more after the cut!)
Recruiting Mei Changsu / Killing Mei Changsu: Team Prince Yu wants to recruit Mei Changsu. Team Crown Prince wants to recruit him or kill him, if recruiting him doesn't work.
Mei Changsu acts like this is so tedious; all he wants to do is rest. But they only want to recruit him because he and his pal Lin Chen made them believe he is the answer to their problems. Whenever Mei Changsu acts annoyed at something, it's probably something he actually orchestrated. "Pork chops again?" (secretly buys more pork chops).
The Duke Qing/ Landgrab Case: In Episode 1, the Jiangzuo Alliance protected some witnesses against Duke Qing in an enslavement/land grabbing case. It's difficult for me to find anything about historical land grabbing in China because Google is full of 21st century land grabbing information. Anyway Duke Qing works for Prince Yu, so the witnesses are (whether they mean to be or not) on The Crown Prince's side. The Emperor has an interest in this case, because land grabbing is bad, apparently, even by corrupt-emperor standards. Xia Dong is in charge of investigating.
The Chiyan Army Case: This is the big conspiracy that the entire show is about. 11 years ago, the Emperor received evidence that Prince Qi, Lin Xie (Mei Changsu's father), and the entire Chiyan army were going to rebel. This was supposedly reported by Xia Dong's husband, Nie Feng, before Lin Xie supposedly killed him. The emperor ordered executions for everybody.
Prince Jing thought this was a bunch of bullshit and didn't hesitate to say so, which got him sent off to distant regions to do army things for years at a time, and landed him a place high up on the emperor’s shit list.
The Hazelnut Pastry Scheme: This is a small scale, benevolent scheme, in which Concubine Jing will eventually stop making cookies with hazelnuts in them, because Mei Changsu is allergic to them.
Ok, that’s the scheme roundup for this episode. On with the show!
Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting
After a quick expository chat between the Emperor and Gong Gao, laying out the reasons for the Nihuang Marriage Scheme, we go to Prince Yu’s place to watch superhot Meng Zhi, commander of the emperor's guards, whip some ass. Not, alas, literally. Despite his leather shoulder thingies and his handsome beard, and his commanding ways on a battlefield, when it comes to interpersonal relations he is pretty much a labrador retriever puppy in human form.
Meng Zhi is kicking the asses of Prince Yu’s fighters to determine if they're qualified to compete in the Marriage contest. They are not. He points out to the Prince that they can't put such terrible wimps into the competition because it will make the country’s defenses look weak.
This beatdown is observed by Prince Yu and by Xie Yu, who Prince Yu thinks is on his side. Xie is 100% on the Crown Prince's side, but is carefully hiding that fact; he has his son working for Prince Yu as part of his cover.
In determining how severe an ass kicking is, everyone talks about how many moves it takes to defeat someone, like it's chess. Meng Zhi can beat literally anyone else in the show. He's number two on the Langya List of fighters & we never meet #1.
Fe Liu Was Fast as Lightning
Mei Changsu is hanging out in the garden at Xie manor while Fe Liu jumps around. Fe Liu wants Mei Changsu to play Roblox with him, and pouts when MCS opts for staying in the garden and reading a book.
Fe Liu is utterly devoted to Mei Changsu; I really love their relationship. Fe Liu’s backstory isn't fully explained in the show, but apparently he was raised from an early age to focus on being extremely lethal, and didn't spend much time learning to talk or other skills, making him the epitome of the asynchronous/ gifted teen. Mei Changsu isn’t who raised him to be like this; MCS and Lin Chen rescued him, which is why he is now Mei Changsu’s personal murder pet.
Fe Liu is both a complete fantasy character and also a really believable teen, beautifully acted by Leo Wu, who DMBJ fans know from Tomb of the Sea, and who Xiao Zhan fans know from Battle Through the Heavens.
Fe Lui promptly gets into a fight with Meng Zhi, who's visiting Xie manor. All Fe Liu was doing was leaping about the rooftops like an assassin, but since Xie Yu is the sort of guy that a lot of people would like to kill, Meng Zhi doesn't think this is so good. They have a hilarious, entertaining fight with many, many wire-assisted moves.
They're pretty evenly matched, and Xie Yu watches them with extreme interest until Mei Changsu shows up and tells Fe Liu to stop. Xie Yu is watching because he needs to know how many dudes he should send to assassinate Mei Changsu. Answer: more. Always more.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately since it’s probably all part of MCS’s plan) Fe Liu's extreme skilz make it obvious that his boss is someone important. Mei Changsu discusses this with Jingrui and Yujin in an open-air setting where Jingrui's brother Xie Bi can totally hear them. In no time flat, father and son have reported his identity to their respective princes.
Over at Prince Yu's place, Qin Banruo and her awesome eye makeup join the party. She's Prince Yu’s advisor/manipulator, working for the (fallen) Hua kingdom, led by the (deceased) Princess Xuanji . She has a network of spies who work for her, that she deploys for Prince Yu's schemes. Her ultimate goal is not to help him, however, but just to fuck up the Da Liang Empire, which conquered the Hua.
(Nearly) Everybody Hates Jingyan
Xia Dong heads out on her assignment in the Land Grab Case, and Nihuang goes to see her off. They talk about gender expectations and how annoying it is to have to marry a dude, and briefly hang out being WLW goals with their mutual devotion, excellent fashion sense and deadly fighting abilities. Nihuang, in particular, wears the prettiest things and also stands at attention like she's commanding an army; I adore her.
They're interrupted by the arrival of Prince Jing, who is greeted cheerfully by Nihuang and eye-rollingly by Xia Dong.
He's wearing an awesome brass-and-blue armor that we never see again after this episode. It's too bad - it's a good color for him and it has a cool vampire cloak with a high collar.
Prince Jing takes the opportunity to snark at Xia Dong about her investigation and the Xuanjing Bureau’s penchant for inventing finding conspiracies, and then rides off before she can reply.
This leads Nihuang and Xia Dong to get into their chronic argument about the Chiyan Conspiracy and the Lin family, and then Xia Dong hits the road.
Prince Jing and his subordinates stand around outside the palace waiting to report to the emperor while the emperor ignores him. They get sweatier and sweatier while they wait. which makes me like the Emperor a little bit more.
Prince Yu and CP Xian are busy sucking up to the emperor as they look at a manuscript. They are a bunch of assholes and you can see that Gao Zhan isn't a fan of this bullshit.
Eventually Gao Zhan reminds/persuades the emperor to summon Prince Jing, whose brothers snark at him like a couple of 12 year old girls while he radiates manly vigor and handsomeness.
Consort Jin is bummed that she can't see Prince Jing for another 5 days, and her maid sidekick says random comforting things. This maid, Xiao Xin, is actually a little snake, who works for Qin Banruo's network. We don't learn that until sometime later.
All of the maids have this same hairstyle. If you are a westerner and you think this hairstyle is crazy, have a look at some Roman and Byzantine historic hairstyles. I'm not saying this hairstyle is NOT crazy, mind you; just that crazy hair was a feature of many, many historical empires.
Consort Jing has someone deliver her hazelnut cookies to Prince Jing; she doesn’t know about Mei Changsu yet so hazelnut is still on the menu. Nicest mom. Also smartest, helpful-est mom, as the story develops.
Suck-Up Contest
At Xie manor, Xie Bi tries to get Mei Changsu to go meet the Empress, who has stopped by with Nihuang specifically to meet him, as part of the Recruit Mei Changsu scheme. Jingrui says nope, fuck that, he's not going to be a pawn in your political games, fuck off. We get to see Jingrui being steely and righteous, which is both cool and hot. Nihuang should totally marry him.
The Empress is annoyed that Mei Changsu doesn't show up, and Nihuang is like, it's ok, I don’t actually give a fuck about meeting new men. But I did want to meet his murder puppy Fe Liu.
Grand Princess Liyang says they don’t need to bother meeting pugilists, despite her son being one and her supposed best friends/co-parents also being pugilists.
Grand Princess Liyang will probably be glad Mei Changsu didn’t come to her little party, once she realizes what tends to happen when Mei Changsu comes to a party.
Then we go to the suitor tournament, in which everyone more or less sucks.
The princes really want to go over to Mei Changsu’s balcony to meet him, and they have a hilarious silent interaction where they both try not to be the first one to move. They finally cave, and go together.
Then they compete to see who can be the most cringe and blow the most smoke up Mei Changsu's ass.
They ply him with gifts and flattery, which he mostly manages to resist.
Cookie Time with Granny
Then they get summoned to go meet the grand empress, who is (I think) the mother of the previous emperor, the grandmother of the current emperor, and the great grandmother of basically every highborn character of the current generation, including Nihuang and Yujin, although it’s not clear where they sit in the family tree. Historically, cousin marriage - particularly of maternal cousins - was no big whoop in China, so it's not surprising that a lot of nobles would share a great-grandmother.
The Grand Empress is a sweet lady with dementia. She can’t figure out who the hell anyone is. First-time viewers feel the same way.
Her dementia is pretty well depicted, unlike a lot of TV dementia, or at least it matches up to my experiences with my own elders. She remembers the distant past more vividly than recent times; when she understands who’s in front of her she connects with them emotionally, but she falls off track easily. And she projects the identities of people she misses onto people who are around her.
Like many other grannies, no matter who is visiting, she wants them to 1. get married 2. produce offspring 3. eat something, you’re so skinny
When Mei Changsu meets Granny she immediately calls him Lin Shu, either because she recognizes him or because she really misses Lin Shu, or both. She calls Nihuang over and joins their hands, and Mei Changsu grabs onto Nihuang's hand and holds it for a while.
Everyone thinks it's adorable that Granny has dementia and is confused about that guy who was horribly killed, except Nihuang, who was already checking Mei Changsu out and is somewhat verklempt. She might have to revise her anti-man feelings a little bit.
Everyone leaves, and Nihuang hits up Mei Changsu to take a walk with her, casually mentioning that she could have his hand cut off for touching her, but since she's not in the mood, he's ok.
She prods a bit to find out what he's doing in town and what he's up to. “Do you have a girlfriend? Like a serious girlfriend or just a stalker who works for you?” She asks him which of the two princes he's going to support, but they’re interrupted by a eunuch beating a slave child. That’s the price you pay for trying to have a date in the palace, I guess.
#nirvana in fire#langya bang#nirvana in fire gifs#restless rewatch nirvana in fire#canary3d-original#my gifs
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TALK TO US ABOUT MASS EFFECT I HAVE BEEN AN INSANE MASS EFFECT/SHAKARIAN TRASH PERSON SINCE 20-FUCKING-11 AND LEMME TELL YOU THOSE FEELINGS HAVENOT TARNISHED A SINGLE FRACTION IN THOSE TEN YEARS OH MY GOOOOOOODDDSSSS!!!!!!!
I DEMAND A PLAY-BY-PLAY UP TO THE MINUTE OF YOUR REACTIONS TO EVERYTHING!!!!
you are so valid and I totally see why everyone I've ever mentioned it to loves the hell out of it
aksdjlsdfj I meannnn if you want to hear my rambling about it then hell yeah
Okay, gonna put this below the cut to save everyone else XD also- since I'm not leaving this Mass Effect obsession anytime soon, if you're not interested in seeing occasional posts about it, please feel free to block the tag "night plays ME"~
(mild spoilers ahead??)
((also for real I mean it when I say this is rambling as hell lol, apologies and no stress if absolute no one reads all this))
OKAY SO Mass Effect 1-
Stars help me, I was honestly hooked right from the start?? Like even in Legendary Edition (the combined trilogy just re-released in one "can play it on one system + minor improvements", for anyone who doesn't know) where it's smoothed out, of course it's obvious that ME1 is a decade old... but the foundation for these relationships are all there and gods I love them already.
Like - Kaiden right off the top is a delightful good fightin lad, what the hell. I've heard that he's viewed as 'bland' by a good portion of the fan community but I dunno, he's a delight and even more complex by the time 2 rolls around and you encounter him on Horizon, it was honestly Ashley I was way more meh about - mostly because before you can learn about her family history/etc, she comes off as hella xenophobic and I was immediately offended for my growing space family that she didn't like/trust all the aliens around, pfff.
(she gets redeemed a bit through further actions/evolving thoughts, but I thought in retrospect it was a bummer that they didn't flip the order there, give her a chance to be liked before the complicating factor of being so rude about aliens >:c that then she could grow from... ah well. Apparently she has a good arc but uh, let's just say I chose Kaiden at the "key junction" in the latter part of the game so I won't be seeing anymore of Ashley uh... anytime soon, haha.)
Garrus??? Is??????? The ABSOLUTE best???????????
I liked him from the start, I'm always a bit of a sucker for a rogue-detective "the system won't bring this bastard to justice, so I've got to" type and all their moral shadiness XD But he just gets better, honestly, and where I'm at in ME2 (right before the Reaper IFF mission, as of typing this, with everyone's loyalty!) I am only digging myself deeper into this hole-
-*wheezing* okay anyways -
Wrex is AMAZING I love fightin' middle-aged krogan bastard, gods. Liara is great too, I'm a sucker for a wlw relationship (playing fem!Shepard, so) - buuuut I'll admit she's a bit more one-note in ME1. Last week while I was still on ME1 I remember hearing (while trying to dodge spoilers) that her arc is really good, though. I think they leaned a little hard on the 'innocent but sexy' sterteotype on her (so despite the yikes aspect of a few of the things I've learned in ME2, lol, I actually really like the complexity that's been added to her character.)
Saved Liara first, so by the time I got to Noveria and had the standoff with Benezia there was the chance to have emotions over Liara having to face her TwT and of course, I made the questionable but quality decision to free Queen Rachni heheh. no ragrets
More than a blow-by-blow of my choices though I totally wanna take the chance to say that even in the mild jankiness of ME1 (goddammit, the Mako.... please..... please just go up this impossible cliff I just want to resource hunt-) the way that the lore, both obvious/key to main plot and the lesser/filler/background/world-building kinds... I just love it. It incorporates it well, you can go ham in the codex learning more, or just dive into the basics - it's clearly a complex galaxy (and they do an even better job in 2 of fleshing it out further), and it never really felt overwhelming. It was pretty natural figuring it all out-!
Plus the interesting implications of resource hunting amongst the sapient races, and the little side missions you better bet I did every one of- there's so much rich depth in the story if you do 'em!! (And that lead with that Keeper side mission...? Looking back, damn, clever foreshadowing-!!!)
And oh my gods, Ilios??? hell yeah. I loved that mission so much, especially having Garrus & Kaiden with me when talking to the hologram/computer, and more than anything, that last sprint in the Mako trying to get to the jump before it closed-???
yeet the boi-
Also mannn I love a good setpiece, and having to go up the side of the elevator, space-side?? such a cool setup!!
Plus it felt good having been Paragon enough (as simple as the good v bad vibe system is, I don't hate it, lol) to avoid one of the Saren fights, ngl. And the er, "second fight" with Sovereign-Saren.... hell yeah
... I'll admit I had to double check my choice re whether to save the Council. I did in the end, but I swear, sometimes the way they phrase things I'm like ".... okay but Garrus is right, defeating Sovereign is more important than these few leaders??????" woops. Listen, priorities, is all I'm saying..... (￣ヮ￣|||)ゞ
'Course later they emphasize (in ME2) that there were 10,000 people on that same ship and I was like well I wouldn't have second guessed if I'd known that, I mean c'mon-
Also I did indeed romance Liara in this one, so I got that scene ;Dc But,,,, I also knew by the end that I was totally gonna romance Garrus in 2 since he's an option then finally,,,,, lemme tell you the guilt as I waffled over whether to romance Liara bc of it. hahaha.
Aaaaand Mass Effect 2-
So I'm only up to right before the Reaper IFF Mission, so I don't know the ending, etc etc lol. That said, I've just finished every side mission I've found with the exception of the Shadowbroker Quest and the Arrival Quest (I've heard the latter basically leads into ME3, and the former is best either right before the Omega 4 jump or in postgame).
So from the start - fuck yeah fuck yeah what a high adrenaline start Shepard noooooo but also yes save Joker aH-
The motion comic too hot damn nice job
I loved this setup, seriously - especially forcing Shep into this situation, having to work with/for Cerberus, and the compelling reasoning given behind "why" they do what they do (I especially found it a good point that the Salarians have the Task Force, the Asaris the Commandos, the Turians the- etc... like, true, when you put it like that, having a similar group advancing human interests/solving human interstellar problems is pretty reasonable...). That said, I love too that it really isn't shied away from how Cerberus is nonetheless fucked up - or its at least done fucked up stuff.
Listen, I still think some messed up stuff is gonna be revealed in 2's endgame......... after that Horizon mission and the Collector's ship???? TIM I SEE YOU YOU SHADY MF-
aaanyways lol...
I'm so so glad on a gameplay level they nixed the Mako style exploration. A few Hammerhead missions are fine and a lot more focused than the slippery ass navigation in that glorified ATV, pfff. The probes are a neat way of getting after similar resources - and more importantly, having good levels and some good hubs (the Zakera Wards, Omega, Ilium, etc) is way way more fun than having a more 'sprawling' space that is.... a lot of empty nonsense, lol.
Then there's the fact that we get Joker right off the bat and you can interact with him so much - and him and EDI??? Get out gods I love them. Kasumi is so right when she says they sound like a bickering old married couple lol. I have a terrible feeling that some shit is gonna happen with EDI..... but I don't think she's evil as-is, at least.
Side-eying the hell out of those "access forbidden" parts of her that she doesn't even know.... and the fact that her AI core has a locked door access................... something's gonna happen gdi LEAVE OUR ADOPTED AI ALONE.
(Also Joker pls stop fracturing your thumb on the mute button)
Also please save me there are so many hot aliens in this game,,,,, the xeno/monsterfuckers really comin' through strong in the sequels............... doin' the lord's work........................................
In general, I love how many levels ME stepped up in two with complexity and interwoven narratives!! Like, to the point it'd be almost a drag to replay ME1, even though it was fun going through it (if occasionally a bit tedious with the cookie cutter rando planet science/mine facilities, lol). Like, just from how fun and interesting ME2 is, mostly! more of all the pre-introduced races, plus new ones, plus more filling in of intragalactic politics, and more interesting implications of all these space-faring races mixing....
Also gods WREX and his planet holy shit,,,,, fuckin' hell yeah my man get their shit together and also adopt Grunt yes good-
And Mordin??? My singing semi-evil scientist best friend forced to confront his choices more than he thought he ever would have???? With some of the best ongoing general report chatter of all the companions??
(when I tell you I choked on my coffee when I talked to him after confirming romance choice w/ Garrus and that 'pamphlet' and 'anaphalactic shot if ingesting-' kajsldkfjsldfjk)
Like, fuck, the fact that they actually dive into the mixed morality and horrors of the genophage, and you can confront Mordin on it, for good reason, yet he still stands his ground, until finally some bits of his loyalty mission seem to... affect him, and I'm guessing might set up things for 3 with him? Unsure, but either way, damn, the fact that they start to dig into it...
And Taliiiii my beloved forbidden alien wife TwT her loyalty mission was SO GOOD. I love how varied they all are?? Getting to defend her and discover what she'd unwittingly been a part of-!!
Zaeed is a bastard but tbh I love that he is and that he's unapologetic in him - and Kasumi omg, best thief. A heist?? Gods, yes- I love our couch lounge chats XD
Samara is..... illegally.......... she's an illegally powerful and beautiful and eloquent MILF...........................
(.... listen I'm sapphic as hell and I'm kicking my own ass for picking her up last aksjdlfksjdfl - but her loyalty mission, damn. And seeing how there's this interesting cultural subset, and the struggle with the Asari in that they unquestioningly accept/respect justicars, but also know that the impact outside their culture is a diplomacy nightmare waiting to happen-)
,.,,,,,T,,, Thane,,,,,
I am weak for morally implicated murder dads okay?? And that voice??? His mannerisms?????? How you first see him, and that prayer after assassinating her...???????? And his history/his people's history with the hanar, gods I love how messy it is, it feels so much more real!
Also Jack is a mess and I love her (and want to get her some therapy, omg), and her and Miranda nearly duking it out after you've done both their loyalty missions??? so good and makes a lot of sense-! Honestly I would love more interactions between teammates on the ship, but there's already so much the devs had to balance I can't blame 'em for minimizing, heh. But suffice to say I also love Miranda and Jacob, even if I'm softest for my alien crew XD Hell yeah Jacob, we'll get loud and spill drinks on the citadel indeed TwT
.... I could write a whole essay on how much I love Garrus oTL Perhaps because he and Tali are the throughlines from 1 on your 2 crew, I have some of the strongest feelings about them... but genuinely, he was one of my favorite companions in the first game, and how you find him as Archangel in two? Getting to help him fight his way out after he's gone nearly 48 hours straight fighting off three gangs alone, jfc. His vengeance quest and what can happen there.... That line? fuck me, that line -
It's so much easier to see the world in black and white. Grey? I don't know what to do with gray...
How DARE you come for my heart like this, devs holy shit
(also, some other choice faves so far from the series from him include We can disobey suicidal orders?? and This wasn't in my training manual... [in 1, if you have him with you @ th Thorian fight] and his whole.... pop the heat sink - in his romance ;Dc)
asdasdfksadjfkl like I said I can write an essay on him PFFF suffice to say I'm very looking forward to his romance scene and where things go in 3
But yeah gods I'm just gonna keep rambling if I'm not careful lol. Gods I don't even know what to talk about it's all so good and while I can understand people roasting the obviousness of Paragon V Renegade (v neutral) choices/alignments, I think they do a pretty damn good job in 2 of pushing it further - to the point that there were some times that I accidentally got renegade points and I wasn't that mad, haha. There's so much fun in the interactions that I just have a good time anyways~
I have so many thoughts about TIM (The Illusive Man) and Cerberus.... theories evolving galore............... and like, what the hell!! Omega 4 going to the center of the galaxy is such a cool twist, goddamn - though my heart still breaks at losing Kaiden (his line if you haven't romanced him?? about feeling like he lost a limb when he lost you??? holy shit.... but I also can't blame him for not trusting Cerberus to the point of it affecting his ability to trust Shepard... like fuck Shep go after himmmm) I'm really excited to see where that goes since he comes back in 3, and what the fuck happens with Cerberus bc while I love the fact that obviously there are a lot of people in it for the right reasons, doing good work, there are those that are doing the opposite, and I have a very bad feeling about where TIM will end up landing....
All that said though I need to do the Reaper IFF mission (where I'm lightly spoiled as to getting That Boy, but not how/what happens to make it so - just that it's apparently wise to have all your side missions done before getting him...) and the actual Omega 4 jump. So we'll see what happens and what I think about it from there heheh!
.... major kudos and genuine props if you made it here to the end, I am so sorry for not editing on condensing all this, and appreciate you so much ;w;
#night answers#night plays ME#(yes that's a purposeful pun lol)#((i sure have played myself by starting this series its so good aksdjflskjfd))
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with age comes wisdom ( or at the very least, entirely unneccessary celebrations )
Characters / Pairing: Fukawa Touko / Naegi Komaru ( focused ), Syo / Komaru, Warriors of Hope
crossposted on ao3
Notes: happy @tokomaruweek week everyone!! i love these funky wlw so i am going to try and have some stuff up this week, but i probably won’t manage to do the whole week / i'll go back to do the ones i miss afterwards? we’ll see.
for today i decided to combine the birthdays + warriors of hope prompts.
i’m also just ignoring canon’s timeline bc god knows i did not want to figure out that bs sorry dr3 ily but i dont love you that much just know it is somewhere post sdr2 / pre dr3 probably?
i also use they/them for syo ( nonbinary hc ) and while there aren’t any specific trauma mentions, given the group of characters this revolves around, there’s refrences to the fact they have shit lives. and some lighthearted murder jokes and self-deprication?
Summary: nothing says happy birthday quite like babysitting her ( favorite ) group of brats
It’s just her luck that this would happen— a coincidence for sure, but that doesn’t make Touko any happier about the whole thing.
This is the situation: they don’t usually see the ( former ) Warriors of Hope much. The kids stay on their side of Towa, and her and Komaru tend to stick closer to the adults. The adults are the ones that need to be kept under supervision, in her opinion. Not that the kids are blameless, but is there much reasoning with brainwashed kids? No. Of course not. Are the adults also practically brainwashed and hard to reason with. Yes. Would this all be easier if Future Foundation was involved? Yes. Yes it would, but for obvious reasons they are not ( they have all agreed to omit some information from public record for the sake of those involved, and right now Naegi’s stunt with the Remnants have Future Foundation’s attention away from them ).
Sometimes Komaru takes some of the things that they get over to the kids because things are rough enough as it is, and Syo will go with her because they can keep the Monokuma off their tracks better. Or you know, because Syo is generally more helpful to Komaru when it comes to things like that. She’s not jealous.
Allegedly— Touko does not know this for a fact herself since she hadn’t been fronting, and only learns this second hand while she is in the middle of typing up a report to send back to the foundation— Kotoko is the one to bring it up, casually handing off some of her share of the cookies Komaru had made for them, to Jataro. An early birthday present, she had said ( pointedly ignoring Nagisa, who’d pointed out she had given Jataro the ones he hated ), before turning to Komaru to ask if they could throw a party. A small one. With no murder, because that would be ‘totally not adorbs’. And no adults, because they stink ( it goes unsaid that Komaru and Touko themselves are the clear exception to this rule, which is some kind of progress, supposedly ).
That seemed like a fairly reasonable request, according to Komaru, who’s only response was to ask when his birthday was. And then accidentally lets it slip that hey, that’s the week that Touko-chan’s birthday is! And that’s how Touko finds out that apparently, she’s having a joint birthday party with the kids because Masaru managed to turn a party into a competition, somehow? Touko has no clue what that actually entails, because Komaru refuses to elaborate.
( Also, at one point before leaving, Komaru had tried asking Jataro if there was anything she could get him; to which he’d remarked, “A new mask?”
...Yeah, Touko can’t blame her for not knowing what to say to that, even if Komaru had spun it as not the most self-deprecating thing he could have said, which was an improvement? She personally disagrees, but whatever )
Here, she should point out the obvious fact that she does not want to really celebrate her birthday, let alone have a party for it. Because those kind of things lean so far into the zone of things Touko doesn’t really know how to handle, that it makes her close to uncomfortable. And if— if she had humored herself in imagining how she would ideally spend her birthday this year; quite frankly, it would be very quiet and boring and only with Komaru. Not with a group of ten year olds. Ten year olds that she might think of rather fondly, but ten year old brats all the same.
( It’s not like she has any alive friends: if Touko acknowledges the other survivors, justifiably they are too busy with more important matters to fuss over a birthday. They aren’t kids anymore. Some of them hadn’t ever really been like normal kids to begin with, but that’s besides the point )
“Look at the bright side,” She starts, and she bites back a snide what bright side and remark about how that’s all Komaru’s good at ( it’s not. She’s more talented than she gives herself credit for ). “None of you probably have really positive memories when it comes to birthdays or parties, so even if it isn’t the greatest, at least the bar to please should be pretty easy to clear!”
Touko thinks she probably gets the point she is trying to make here, but Komaru’s complete and utter lack of tact doesn’t make for the best delivery. “Are you trying to...to make me feel bad? S-So sorry my life was complete sh-shit growing up.”
“No! That’s not what I meant at all!” Komaru pouts at her. “Does that mean you’re not interested in having a party?”
It’s not like she’s so cold-hearted and selfish that she’s going to say no to that. Well, no, that’s not quite true, Touko might be just that; but it doesn’t really matter either way, because Komaru gives her best kicked dog impression, so she says ( a less than enthusiastic ) no, she doesn’t mind, yes you can have a party; even if she thinks she’ll probably regret that choice.
Okay, if you are to be honest with herself, some part of Touko that never got to be a normal child doesn’t entirely mind the thought of a party, even if it’s...not the most ideal scenario, the impractical fantasy situation that lives in her head. But if she says that aloud, Komaru will either take it too seriously, use it as an excuse to celebrate things more often, or something else that probably has consequences that she doesn’t want to think about. And also admittedly because if she says it aloud, she has to acknowledge it, and maybe she doesn't want to get her hopes up over something as stupid as a party.
( There’s also the fact that, deep in her extremely repressed memories of Hope’s Peak before the tragedy, she does remember parties. Birthdays. Celebrating things with her classmates, if somewhat forcibly so. She has no desire to remember those things, so those feelings remain repressed with most of her trauma )
It’s easy to not acknowledge any of that when she has to deal with the sudden onslaught of a headache that is Syo forcing themselves into their shared headspace, hand rubbing at her temples. Not trying to co-front, she can tell they aren’t trying to snatch control from her ( for now ), just forcing her to pay attention to them. It works, even though Touko has told them to not do this specifically because of how irritating it is for her.
I could scare the kids into cooperating? It’ll save us a headache and a half! Syo offers, maybe too eagerly. Their ideas of scare and cooperate are probably different from her own. Still. She also knows Syo is aware of more than they are letting on, given that they had been present when this conversation had occurred, but she doesn’t think she’ll get much out of them in that regard.
No. Touko tells them firmly. It’ll be counterproductive, Komaru won’t let you do that, and they’re all traumatized enough without you adding to that.
Boo, you sure about that? Consider it a birthday gift from me!
No. She repeats herself sternly, and she feels them withdraw a bit after that. Ugh, Syo hasn’t had a chance to front much recently, now that she thinks about it. Since they usually only take over when she’s in danger, and she hasn’t really been in ( as much ) danger now that things are starting to calm down. Well, relatively speaking. Syo is probably just looking for an excuse to be allowed to front, since it’s probably rough going from being very present to rarely getting the chance to be out: akin to going cold turkey on an addiction. That’s not exactly her fault ( or theirs ), but maybe she’ll ask Komaru if she’d be okay with hanging out with Syo more, if only to placate them a little, before they try something more drastic.
“Everything okay? That was Syo, right?” She hears Komaru ask after a few minutes, and Touko rubs her eyes and blinks. “You looked a little frustrated.”
She considers telling her the truth, but no point in getting her concerned over nothing. She’d like to figure out what she wants to negotiate with Syo firstm so she’ll leave that conversation for another time. “Fine. They just...ugh, just wanted to make sure I was okay with it.”
“And you are okay with it, right? You aren’t agreeing just because I asked?” Touko thinks she begged more than she asked, but she’s pretty sure Komaru will only sulk if she brings that up.
“I wouldn’t let you if, if I was really opposed to it.” Probably. She...trusted Komaru, or something like that, so she figures she’d probably be more honest with herself and not mentally torture herself by putting herself through something she has no interest in. “But...what are you even planning on doing to celebrate? I can’t im-imagine we’ve really got much around here that we can use for a party.”
“Ah. Uhm.” Komaru looks a little embarrassed at that. “About that. I was kind of hoping you and Syo might help pitch in. You don’t mind, right?”
You’re hopeless, she wants to mutter, but—
Yeah!!!! Syo wakes right back up upon being mentioned, no sense of self awareness at all, much to your annoyance, but it’s not like you completely disagree with the feeling that is shared between you two.
“You— You really bit off more than you could chew, hm...? Good thing this wasn’t supposed t-t-to be a surprise.” She quips, leaning over to peer at the paper she’d been making her notes on. “We’ll help, just tell us what we...what we need to do.”
“Thank you, Touko-chan! And Syo too!” Komaru sounds somewhere mixed between grateful and relieved, and casually plants a kiss on her cheek as if it’s no big deal—
She said my name last, so the kiss was for me! She knows Syo is intentionally trying to provoke her and get a rise out of her ( yeah, a rising sense of jealousy ), but puts that aside for the time being because Komaru’s blabbering on like nothing happened.
“I know we probably won’t have the whole day to ourselves to do whatever—” Correctomundo, Dekomaru! “— but I’ll make it up to you on your birthday, okay? We’ll do something that you want.”
“You don't...there’s no need for that.” She forces out between gritted teeth, trying to ignore the flustered feeling in the pit of her stomach, chewing around a fingernail ( what an unattractive sight to follow that ). “Because— ugh, don’t repeat th-this, okay? What I want to do is spend time with...with you. That’s all. So don’t go...you don’t need to go out of your way trying to do s-s-something over the top. Stick to being normal.”
“Really? You’re sure?” Komaru sounds a little uncertain, but happy enough to pull her into a hug, despite her grumbled complaint. “Oh, but Syo has their own birthday, don’t they? So I should probably ask them what they want as well, right?”
“Don’t make me repeat m-myself. It’s embarrassing...” Touko huffs, but lets herself be held against her side, just for a moment. It’s nice, though she won’t admit it ( it is better than any real gift that she could receive ). Syo is kind enough to back off long enough to let her have this moment. “You can ask them later— focus on, on what you need to plan.”
By something short of a miracle, they are able to pull together a party that is not a complete disaster, even if Komaru probably has a point when she says the bar to clear is a pretty low standard for all parties involved. The closest she has to an actual concern is the very narrowly avoided fight that almost breaks out when Masaru and Kotoko fight over which one of them should give their present first— which is apparently the competitive aspect of the party? It’s probably meant to be heartwarming, if it were not such a foreign thing to Touko. Which Nagisa is quick to put an end to: because this is how they would treat Monaca, which is not inherently healthy, and she’s glad that at least one of them can recognize that fact now. Jataro spends the entirety of the fight trying to hide behind her long skirt and, relatable kid, and rubs the top of his head while Komaru tries to both scold them for fighting and appease them because they’re, well. Kids. Who still need to learn some things and have time to unlearn things.
So yeah, it’s a good party— for not being on her actual birthday, she’ll consider it one of the better memories Touko has associated with the day. The start of many, she’d like to hope.
#tokomaru week 2021#tokomaru#toukomaru#komaru naegi#toko fukawa#touko fukawa#danganronpa#udg#dr:ae#* zhi writes#glad to have the excuse to finally post something w/ these girls.#i have several long wips w/ them w/ no motivation to finish :/
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Night blooming
Ok so remember when I said I was gonna write another wlw one shot about my OC and Thais Pedroso? Well I finally finished it. This is a sequel to Only Love. I reccomend you read that one first. It's on my Ao3. Also there are two Buffy references in here. If you catch them you get a cookie.
She was beautiful. Utterly stunning. Like a shining becon of angelic radiance and power. But what honestly made Thais so alluring was her kindness and selflessness. She was the kind if girl who held her heart out before her for everyone to see. You could see it in her smile, hear it in her laugh, you could see it reflected in her paintings.
Janessa was the kind of girl who had thought she had given up on the goodness of humanity a very long time ago. She had seen how cruel people could be first hand during her human life and even now as a vampire. Only now she had power to protect her and a dangerous appetite that was never full.
In theory maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe in theory a lot of Nessie's ideas were bad ideas. But after that kiss in her room. After Thais had slept in her bed and asked Janessa to sing to her. Nessie couldn't lie to herself anymore.
"So where are we exactly?" Thais asked, stepping of Janessa's motorcycle, eager to be done riding it. Janessa hadn't had a helmet available since she never road with one. Thais was shocked when she told her.
"Don't you need one?" She had asked her.
"Nope I'm dead remember? Plus vampires are pretty much indestructible unless-"
"Unless you get them in the heart," Thais had chimed in. She sounded as if she was reciting something taken directly from a textbook.
She probably was.
It was a little unsettling.
They had pulled up to what looked to be an abandoned building. It was dark and worn down, with crumbling broken edges.
"It's a surprise," Janessa answered playfully. Thais rolled her eyes good naturedly. Janessa laughed.
"Come on angel, dont you trust me?"
Thais deliberated this for awhile then finally nodded. "Ok fine, lead me to my death." She held out her hand for Janessa to take.
If Nessie was alive, her heart would probably be racing. She smiled in spite if herself and took Thais's hand.
Thais instantly tensed up. "By the angel you're cold!" She complained. Janessa rolled her eyes fondly.
"I am once again, reminding you that I'm a vampire," she pointed out. "Come on."
She led Thais towards the entrance of the building. Thais seemed to notice something of to the side and gasped excitedly.
"Look!" She pulled Nessie towards what appeared to be a patch of flowers. "Jasmines! They're night blooming!" Thais let go of Janessa's hand to pick one and handed it to her.
"Just like you."
A shadowhunter had just given Janessa a flower. A pretty girl had just given her a flower. Janessa needed oxygen. She didnt need to breathe but somehow she felt like she was suffocating.
Janessa felt really strange. She had been for weeks whenever she was around Thais. There were all kinds of new emotions that she wasn't really prepared to deal with. Nor did she want to.
Janessa shook it off. She reached forward and took the flower from Thais. Nessie felt her shiver slightly when their fingers touched. Thais was smiling at her, her expression was open and warm the same way it always was. Janessa wished she could be the same way.
She wished she knew how.
Janessa made an effort to stop gaping and smiled. "Thanks angel. It's beautiful." Thais shrugged.
"I know your probably not a flowers type of person-" she started, ducking her gaze shyly. Nessie shook her head adamantly.
"No shut up, I like my flower!" She protested jokingly. "And I actually am a flowers person, it's just that no one's ever given me them before." Thais smiled at her shyly, lifting her hand to push Janessa's hair back behind her ear.
"Me neither," she admitted. Nessie found herself instinctively leaning into her touch.
She was warm. Janessa grinned unselfconsciously for a moment before realizing she was showing her fangs. "Sorry!" Janessa exclaimed. But Thais appeared to be unfazed.
She shook her head smiling. Thais's eyes were shining like bright beautiful obsidian stones. Her fingertips felt soft against Nessie's skin. She gulped.
"I didn't even notice," Thais whispered.
Janessa held her gaze for a moment then remembered why they were there in the first place. She shook herself out of her stupor.
"Come on let's go inside." She took Thais's hand again and guided her towards the building. Thais groaned reluctantly, but still followed.
"I swear this is how horror movies start Nessie," she grumbled. Janessa laughed.
"Well if there's anything big and bad lurking in the shadows angel I promise to protect you," she teased.
"Oh please I'll be the one protecting you. I'm the one with combat training."
"Yeah but I'm the one with the scary teeth," Janessa countered playfully. Thais rolled her eyes and allowed Nessie to lead her into the building.
It was crumbled and run down with weeds growing out in every direction, but when they finally made it down to the center wall, Thais gasped.
The entire wall was covered in street art. More specifically street art like looked like it belonged in Brazil. At least according to pictures Janessa had seen.
"Oh by the angel, it's beautiful!" Thais exclaimed. "It looks just like the stuff in São Paulo!" She traced her fingers across the bumpy cement. "I used to paint like this sometimes."
Janessa raised an eyebrow. "You mean spray paint?" She asked skeptically. "I have a hard time picturing a shadowhunter doing graffiti art for some reason." Thais laughed and it made Janessa want to laugh as well.
"Yes I could see why you would think that," Thais admitted, the smile leaving her face. Shadowhunters usually aren't encouraged to pursue the arts. But I love it." Thais turned away from Thais and continued tracing the outline of one of the drawings. Nessie followed her as she walked.
"When I was a kid, everytime I would be super excited and happy and have a ton of energy, I used to run around and destroy the house by drawing all over the walls. At the time the consequences, or the concept of right and wrong, wouldn't faze me," Thais explained. She sounded a little nervous to be telling Janessa this.
Janessa carefully walked up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder, gently spinning Thais around to face her. "Why not?" She asked.
Thais looked haunted. "Because I didn't realize what I was doing at the time. I didn't know and I don't know why. Sometimes I have these moments where I just get really depressed and heavy for no reason and I dont leave my bed for days and other times it's like I'm on top of the world and I feel like I'm floating on clouds until I run out into traffic and nearly get run over," she murmered. She was avoiding Janessa's gaze.
Thais shook her head as if she was clearing dust from it. "Anyways the point is, spraying and painting has always helped me feel better. More human. One of the things I hate about shadowhunters is there's so much focus on death and violence and war," she said bitterly. "We're trained that our emotions are distractions. To feel is to be weak, and stuff like art, music or dancing, they're made from feelings. I think that's why shadowhinters are persuaded not to pursue them."
Thais sighed, glancing back over to the wall of street art. Janessa stayed silent, allowing Thais time to think.
Thais turned back to look at Janessa her eyes were shining again as she smiled slightly. "But I mean, who wants to live in a world without feelings?" She asked, stepping closer to Janessa.
Nessie was suddenly hyper aware of Thais's proximity to her. Her lips were curved and full and soft looking. She could remember their first kiss quite vividly, the way Thais tasted, the feeling of her warm body pressed against Janessa's.
The smell of Thais's blood overwhelming her.
Nessie reached out and cradled the sides of her face, rubbing her thumb against the edge of Thais's cheekbone. "You're right," she whispered in response to Thais's earlier statement. "There's nothing without feelings." Janessa lowered her head so that their lips were almost touching, paused for a moment to see if Thais would back out, and when she didn't, Nessie kissed her slowly.
Janessa heard Thais's heart sped up the same way it did the first time they kissed. She smiled slightly and deepened the kiss, pushing her tounge against Thais's as she felt Thais grip her arms tighter, pulling against the buckles on Nessie's leather jacket. She continued to kiss her feverishly pushing Thais's hair back. It was incredibly thick and curly, so Janessa couldn't really run in fingers through it very well.
Nessie ran her arms down Thais's shoulders to her waist and Thais made a squeaking type noise and jumped back.
"Cold Nessie!" She cried out. Janessa laughed.
"Aw I'm sorry angel. You're just gonna have to get used to it," she cooed. Thais playfully rolled her eyes.
She was silent for a moment then, studying Janessa carefully with her dark eyes. "You know it's interesting," she mused. "I used to believe that vampires couldn't feel things like love and compassion." Janessa narrowed her eyes.
This was a strange thing to be admitting on their first date but sure, why not?
"But then I heard you sing," Thais continued. "I heard you sing and it was so beautiful. Not just because you're good, because you are very good. But because you sing with so much passion and emotion," Thais exclaimed. "And that's when I knew that I was wrong, and that I care about you."
Janessa couldn't help but grin. "God you are so cute," she giggled.
Thais shrugged. "I'm not that cute. Also another thing happened that night when I saw you perform that I thought you should know about," she said innocently.
Nessie was curious. "What?"
Thais smirked in a way that was very not angel like. "I'll tell you once we get back to the institute." Janessa bit her lip to avoid letting out a moan.
"Well fuck then snap some pictures of the wall and let's get out of here," Nessie exclaimed, rushing towards the exit. Thais laughed and raced after her.
"Its fine. We can always come back," she pointed out. "Maybe this could be our special place."
Janessa felt another overwhelming rush of feeling overtake her. She tried not to let it show.
'Yeah," she answered, feeling light and fluffy and on top of the world, just like Thais had described before.
Just be careful, a voice inside her said. Make sure you don't go running out into traffic.
Keep your guard up Nessie.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Just for frame of reference, this is my idea of Janessa.
@eutony-in-whisper @swordwifes @ti-bae-rius @dianasarrow @stxr-thxif @thelandunderthehilll @magnus-the-fabulous-entp-bane @talia-lightwood
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Presenting: Felicity Smoak Should Be Gay
Disclaimer: I am still on season seven of Arrow-->
Slide One:
Felicity Smoak Should Be Gay
An Important Presentation by Sky T Lake
Slide Two:
Who is Felicity Smoak?
Hacker Extraordinaire
Vigilante Known as Overwatch
Computers/Math/Science/Etc person on Team Arrow
W 🤢 wif🤢 i cant even say it 🤢 wife of oliver queen 🤢
step mother of William
beautiful amazing woman
she’s kinda awkward and doesn’t know when to stop talking
big nerd
former CEO of Palmer Tech
She’s so cool
Picture: a photo of Felicity Smoak, a blond woman with glasses
Slide Three:
I Want Her To Be Gay
I like shows with gay characters
there’s not enough lesbian representation in superhero things my dudes
how awesome would it be to have a lead role in a superhero show be gay
but mostly i personally want her to be gay
Slide Four:
It Would Be So Neat
imagine a superhero/vigilante show that started in 2012 having one of the original 3 main team members be openly gay
that would be wild i would love it
it would be so cool to have this nerdy lesbian just like hacking into the FBI and saving the city every week
Slide Five:
She Gets Really Flustered When Women Compliment Her
Sara Lance, known bisexual, flirted with Felicity multiple times
Felicity gets flustered and doesnt know how to respond
but like in the gay way not the uncomfortable way
see next slide
Picture: the words “That’s Gay, Babey!” in light purple cursive font
Slide Six:
Three sets of two gifs from conversations in Arrow
1.
Felicity says “I was happy to hear you’re not dead anymore. I mean, I didn’t know you before you didn’t die the first time. I’m still glad you’re alive.”
Sara Lance responds with a bit of a smirk/smile “You’re cute.”
2.
Felicity says “I have a scar. It’s in my mouth. I had my wisdom teeth removed when I was 16. Three stitches. They were really badly impacted.”
Sara is standing next to Oliver Queen and John Diggle, all three are in exercise clothes. Sara responds “You’re still cute.”
3.
Felicity says “I always wondered, you know, were you flirting with me all those times you said I was cute?”
Sara says “Why? Were you into it?”
Felicity responds “Of course, it’s you.”
Gif source: https://felicitysmoak.tumblr.com/post/184186370181
Slide Seven:
She Should Have Women Friends
WHY DOES SHE NEVER HAVE FRIENDS OUTSIDE OF THE TEAM >:(
and there are barely any women on the team
theres like,,, thea queen,,, whichever canary is around,,, thats about it
most of this show is just men
felicity needs friends who are women whether she’s gay or not
but imagine all the arrowverse wlw hanging out
no wait dont do that i just started crying at the idea of so many beautiful powerful women
Slide Eight:
Felicity And Curtis Could Be Even More Awesome
Imagine This:
Curtis, very gay nerd, and his best friend Felicity, another gay nerd
Hacking government websites and making pop culture references as a team
The dynamic would be wonderful and we already know they interfere in each others’ romantic lives
two gay nerds trying to set each other up on dates thats what i want
also imagine the jokes they could make
WLW MLM Solidarity my dudes
Slide Nine:
Two clips of a YouTube video labeled with titles and time stamps.
Curtis and Felicity chatting: 0:06-0:25
Curtis is Not subtle: 01:25-end
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XlxVsBz56I
Slide Ten:
The Jock/Lesbian BFFs
You know what’s better than Olicity? Oliver and Felicity being Friends without any weird uncomfortable romantic/sexual tension.
As everyone knows, Jock/Lesbian is one of the greatest friendship tropes.
Imagine we’ve got overdramatic jock Oliver with the woman in the chair Felicity like this would just be great
not much else to elaborate on this i just think it would be rad
Slide Eleven:
Cool Gay Aunt
So in Arrowverse canon, Felicity is the stepmother of Oliver’s son, William. William and Felicity originally bonded over math and science and they get along really well. Notable memory is them eating ice cream for dinner because Oliver wasn’t around to object.
Now imagine it’s pretty much the same dynamic but she’s the cool gay aunt. Felicity comes over with her computer and hacks the NSA while William works on his science fair project and they eat cookies.
Perfection.
Slide Twelve:
She Could Join Legends
It is well known that Legends of Tomorrow is the gayest of the Arrowverse shows. Legends is where underappreciated characters go to achieve their full potential and be gay.
If Felicity were canonically gay, she could be the Legends’ science/math/computer person. She’s already friends with Sara so she’s got a way in. So many possibilities with Felicity on Legends it could be cool
Side Note: Wally West is Bisexual and you can’t change my mind
Slide Thirteen:
College Felicity Has The Gay Vibes
LISTEN I know the flashback of College Felicity was her with her boyfriend but she’s just got those Gay Vibes my bro
This really cool hacktivist who does good through crime while looking super cool
Be Gay Do Crime am i right?
Picture: A photo of Felicity Smoak when she was in college. She has black hair with purple streaks and dark makeup.
Slide Fourteen:
Olicity Feels Forced
This isn’t even necessarily related to her sexuality this is just a criticism of the writing.
At first it was kinda cute, but over time it became clear they just don’t fit together well. They got engaged, then broke it off, then started dating again and got married spontaneously after only dating a short time? Blech
Their personalities clash and they argue too much and the writing just isn’t good. If the writing were better it could have been a good relationship but unfortunately that was not the case.
Slide Fifteen:
In Conclusion,
Felicity Smoak, coolest lady on Arrow, should be gay for many reasons but most importantly because I want her to be.
Slide Sixteen:
Thank you for reading my dudes
Hope you enjoyed
#felicity smoak#felicity should be gay#arrowverse#curtis holt#sara lance#arrow cw#arrow#legends of tomorrow#wally west#william clayton#be gay do crime#sky's rambles#sky's arrowverse opinions
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Dare Me: Comparing the Book to the TV Show
Like many, I was super sad to hear that Dare Me, starring Herizen Guardiola and Willa Fitzgerald, was canceled before its’ second season. I loved it for its dark representation of female friendship and early sapphic attraction, so I was sad to lose that - but the show also ends on a cliffhanger!
I decided to read the book to find out what happens. Ultimately, I think the TV show is much better, and I don’t know if they would’ve chosen the same ending as the book.
The following breakdown contains spoilers Dare Me, both the book and the tv show. Proceed with caution!
Characters
In the show, Beth and Coach French look nothing alike. Beth has long, dark, curly hair, and Coach has short, blonde hair.
In the book, they share similar features. Both of them have the same hair - I think it’s long and dark, but I can’t remember off the top of my head. It might be long and blonde, instead. Point being, in a grainy camera phone picture (the book is set in like, 2009, when camera phones still sucked) they might be mistaken for one another.
In the show, one of the biggest sources of drama comes from the relationship between Beth and her estranged father. This is due in large part to the fact that her father had an affair and another child, Tacy, and chose the live across the street from his ex-wife and other daughter.
In the book, Tacy is just another girl on the squad. She is a flier, and does compete with Beth for the Top Girl spot, but she’s otherwise not really part of the story.
In the show, Coach’s daughter, Caitlin, is a baby, still. Probably no more than two years old.
In the book, Caitlin is four years old.
In the show, Addy’s mom is a police officer, and is greatly involved in both Addy’s life and in the eventual investigation of Will’s death.
In the book, Addy’s parents are barely mentioned.
In the show, Beth’s mom is an addict, who continues her affair with Beth’s dad. Beth’s dad makes a marked (albeit flawed) effort to be in her life.
In the book, Beth’s parents are basically non-existent. As a result, the necklace Beth’s dad gave her, which is a big part of her characterization in the show, is also non-existent.
In the book, Addy is the one who kicks the girl in the stomach, to help her throw up, not Beth.
In the show, the signs of eating disorders are there, but they’re less obvious. There is a scene where Beth and Addy are eating cookies, and it shows them spitting them out after they chew, but they don’t mention it or talk about it. Beth talks about being hungry in the books a lot, about living off lollipops and detox green tea, about how common it is for all of them to have eating disorders.
In the book, there are more characters. In the show, it appears that many of the characters were streamlined into one - RiRi. The girl who gets injured in the books never returns to the squad. She’s instead an example of the “in-group” of the squad and how easy it is for them to ostracize people.
The biggest change, however, is in the characterization of Beth.
In the show, Beth is much more sympathetic.
In the show, it’s made abundantly clear that Beth was raped by Kurtz. (I think he has a different name in the books.) We see her injuries, her trauma, and her own confrontation with Kurtz. She trades his freedom for information, citing the selfie she took of her torn tongue and the fact that she has other proof. She decides not to press charges if Kurtz will tell her what he heard on the night that Will dies. (This does not happen in the books. The random kid Addy makes out with in the first episode is the one who places Coach and Matt at the scene of the crime.)
In the book, it’s implied that Beth pushed Kurtz to be rougher with her, so that she could gain sympathy from Addy. She hides her underwear in her purse, never confronts Kurtz, and doesn’t have the same level of injury.
In the show, we spend time with Beth in her house, see her when she’s alone, and come to recognize that, whether intentionally or not, Addy is playing with Beth’s feelings for her. Addy comes across as the manipulative Mean Girl, shifting the audience’s perspective on them as the show goes on.
In the book, the reveal of Addy and Beth’s romantic attraction comes much later, towards the very end. It’s revealed that they did more than kiss, probably fooled around a bit. Beth’s jealousy of Addy’s growing attraction to Coach is what makes Beth...well, do what she does.
In the book, there is no storyline around Coach being the new hero of the town, the one who’s going to revive the economy with her excellent cheer squad. The book follows only Addy’s perspective, so a lot of the explanatory scenes we get in the show, that don’t have her in them, aren’t in the book.
FINAL SPOILER WARNING. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
Here’s how the story ends. I do not know if this is what they were planning for the show, since Beth was a much more sympathetic character.
Literally everything comes down to Beth. Everything is her fault.
Beth seduces Will. She takes a picture of their encounter on her grainy 2000s camera phone. She gets Tacy to send this picture to Matt. Because the picture is grainy, and because Coach and Beth look so much alike, Matt assume it’s a picture of Coach fucking Will.
Matt then goes and confronts Will, while Coach is at Will’s apartment, and Matt shoots him with Will’s own gun.
Beth further fucks the situation up by lying to Addy about the hamsa bracelet. She convinces Addy (in the show and in the books) that the cops found the hamsa bracelet at the scene of the crime.
The last we see in the show, Addy is outside of Coach’s house, angry and in tears, asking about the bracelet, and getting no response. We then see Coach confronting Matt about it, and “the night we were there.”
It turns out, however, that the bracelet wasn’t at the crime scene at all - it was in Beth’s locker. She finds the bracelet at Coach’s house, the night after the hotel party, and she steals it back. As in the show, the bracelet was something Beth gave to Addy.
When Addy finds the bracelet in Beth’s locker, she is understandably pissed. She confronts Beth in the locker room, and Beth is her usual sassy, obfuscating self. They go to do the competition. This is probably what the “she’s not you” scene was based on, although it happens much earlier in the show.
At this point, Beth is Top Girl again, through a series of accidents on the mat. There’s a very difficult flyer move that they’ve been working on, throughout the book. It involves the Top Girl being lifted 16 feet into the air by her squad, held up a bit like a Jesus figure.
During a huge competition, the one with the scout, in the book, they do this stunt. Addy is one of Beth’s spotters. Beth intentionally twists and falls, so that she lands on her head on the mat. She ends up in the hospital.
The book ends with August tryouts, for the next year. Coach is gone, having been accused of taking part in Will’s murder. Addy is more of a top dog than she’s ever been, because Beth does not return. The book ends with the concept that this toxic, manipulative, abusive cycle, which is all laid on Beth instead of Coach, will continue to spiral on, no matter who is on the squad.
My Take
Tbh, I enjoyed the show a lot more. While I appreciate being able to find out what happened next, I really don’t know if the show would’ve taken the same route. There were a lot of plotlines that were brought in specifically for the show - Tacy and Beth being half-sisters, Addy’s mom being a cop, Beth’s dad living across the street with Tacy, etc. And because of the way Beth was made more sympathetic in the show, I wonder if they would’ve chosen the same ending.
I think that, rather than putting it all on Beth, the show was angling to place the blame on Coach. She was much less sympathetic on the show. In the book, she doesn’t use Addy as a babysitter to see Will. Addy is much less involved in their affair in general, although she is aware of it - that day by the river in the woods does still happen. She’s depicted much more as a Cool Adult who is Far Above all the shit going on in the squad, and that her reliance on Addy only comes out when she’s her most scared, vulnerable, and manic. It makes the line where she tells Addy that Addy is her best friend much more jarring and strange. You realize how lonely Coach is.
Coach also most obviously stands as an example of where characters like Beth and Addy might end up, in ten or so years. Her “perfect life” is under a lot of scrutiny, in both the book and the show, to underline how these cheer girls have big dreams, but will probably end up married, with a kid, living in a house they hate with a partner they don’t care for. It’s to contrast the bombastic, glittery, haughty writing style of the book, of Addy’s narration of it, to show that these are mostly just teenage girls with a whole lot of issues. As beautiful and bright and bold and invincible as they feel, the only thing really waiting for them on the other side is an adulthood with a lot less glory.
I liked the show a lot more. I think it did a better job of showing all of the different characters as well-rounded people, not just stereotypes. Fleshing out Beth’s backstory makes her a lot more sympathetic, and I hate that the book uses a false rape allegation to make Beth a bad person. Coach is the adult in all of this, which I think the show recognized, and sought to correct.
TL;DR - Dare Me made a better show than a book, and it’s a damn shame it got cancelled so soon, because it was better wlw representation, more fleshed out as a story, and less problematic in its stances about the issues teenage girls face.
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Let Us Lay In The Sun
Written by: @knittingbutch
Prompt 87: Katniss and Gale are about to get married and while Katniss isn’t entirely sure if she really wants to marry Gale, she does nothing to stop the preparations. While Peeta, realizing (s)he can’t just let Katniss go, does everything to stop the wedding and tell Katniss his her feelings for her. Peeta thought (s)he’s a hopeless case the day before the wedding until… (it’s up to you how it will end, but hopefully it’s hea) [submitted by anonymous]
Author’s Note: I took this and gender flipped Peeta in this story, so it’s WLW everlark
Content Warning: actually pretty light on homophobia but the d slur is used in a mostly positive way, written by someone who personally reclaims the slur.
Wordcount: 3067
OTHER NOTE: part one of ???
Part One:
“Katniss! What in the world are you doing out here in this?” asks the baker, as though it wasn’t entirely obvious when she threw the door open that she knew who was knocking. Katniss honestly isn’t entirely sure how many people besides her come to the back door to trade. It’s hard to imagine any of the merchants approaching the back door like this, at least.
Gale joked, when they used to trade with Peeta’s father, that it was because the baker wanted to hide his association with Seam Folk. That doesn’t seem to be the case with his daughter. Still, the hunters tend to sneak around.
“Come inside! Come inside!” fusses Peeta.
“It’s fine,” mumbles Katniss, and the baker just barely manages to stamp back down the urge to pull her into the warmth of the bakery herself. “Just a little rain,” she continues, though she’s hunched against herself and holding her shoulders up so rigidly that Peeta can tell it’s just to try to keep herself from shaking too visibly.
Peeta’s lips pull together skeptically. If anything, the just a little rain has kicked up even more since she opened the door. Katniss fumbles when she goes to move her game bag off of her shoulder – her fingers must be going numb. The baker tries to swallow back her panic.
“Are – are you trading or not?” asks Katniss.
“Yes,” says Peeta. “Come inside. Please, before you catch your death.”
Katniss’s lips curl down into a scowl, though they quiver. “I’m fine,” she protests again. “No squirrels today. But I have so– s- s-” she snaps her mouth shut so hard that Peeta can hear her teeth click. Peeta’s hands twitch uselessly at her sides.
“Come inside,” she says a third time, measured. As though she isn’t fussing over Katniss Everdeen at her door with blue lips. And then, though the words burn on their way out, she tries to sound unconcerned when she adds, “You’re letting all the heat out.”
It’s more like her mother than she ever likes to sound. But, as Peeta suspected, it removes the idea that it’s some kind of favor, not standing by and letting her catch some awful illness from staying out there in the rain.
Katniss blinks, but as Peeta suspected she might, she takes a step into the kitchen and Peeta closes the door soundly behind her, too relieved and too close to Katniss. Once the wind and rain is locked out, she crosses the kitchen to turn on the burner just under the kettle on the stove.
“I’m going to be right back,” she says, not bothering to qualify where she’s going. Katniss will just try to convince her that she’s fine. It isn’t hard to find something that might fit Katniss – because she’s so small. She picks a yellow sweater she’s always been fond of and a pair of thick pants, though she knows it’s pushing her luck to hope that Katniss will change at all.
Katniss has inched much closer to the oven by the time Peeta returns, though she’s still scowling, as if she thinks maybe the baker won’t notice.
“You’ve got to get out of your wet clothes,” says Peeta, still aiming to sound decisive as she unceremoniously shoves the stack at Katniss. “Go on. I won’t let you catch your death on my watch.”
The hunter rolls her eyes, moving her soaked braid from her back to the front of her sodden sweater, and makes no move to take the clothes. “I’m fine,” she snaps, though her voice is tight. Her teeth are still chattering, Peeta thinks.
“You’re not,” Peeta says. “You need dry clothes. I’ll hang your things over the radiator.”
“I told you I’m fine,” Katniss says, though she does finally snatch the clothes from Peeta’s hands.
“And I told you I won’t let you catch pneumonia,” Peeta reminds her brightly. “We can talk price once you’re dry. Not before.”
Before Katniss stomps off into the attached bathroom, Peeta passes her a hand towel and focuses on readying the tea. The two of them have been trading for the better part of a year, now, since she took over the bakery. But she hasn’t had Katniss inside the bakery before, let alone by herself.
“Have you been out all day?” asks Peeta, pretending like her hands aren’t shaking as she goes back to rolling out the dough for the sugar cookies. It’s been pouring since she woke up. “I just mean … I didn’t think I’d see you.”
“Well, here I am,” Katniss returns drily.
“And without your shadow,” Peeta jokes.
“My shadow?” repeats Katniss, sounding more than a little bit irritated.
“You know,” says Peeta, swiping the kettle off the stove when it howls and pouring it into the mug. “Tall and scowly – usually hangs around over your shoulder,” she says, already regretting committing to the bit of not remembering Katniss’s fiance’s name.
Katniss scowls, though she does accept the tea. “Gale?” she asks. “Yeah. He’s busy. Do you want the rabbits or not?”
“I do,” Peeta says. “What are you looking for?”
The trade itself is fairly quick, which isn’t surprising. Despite the baker’s best efforts, she and Katniss aren’t exactly friends. Which is made all the more obvious when the next knock comes at the back door. The shadow himself.
“Gale, hi,” Peeta says, noticing how much less drenched the older man looks. “I was just finishing up with Katniss. Would you like–?”
“Prim said you never came home,” he says, addressing Katniss right over Peeta’s shoulder. “What the fuck are you doing out in this?”
“I’m trading,” says Katniss. “I thought you were–”
“Doesn’t look like you’re trading,” Gale mutters, and Peeta stiffens.
“I wanted her to have a chance to warm up,” Peeta interjects. “And I knew the Undersees wouldn’t be crazy about her looking like she’d just swum up from the lake.”
That part is a lie, but one that she thinks might help them save face with Katniss’s fiance.
Gale laughs drily, and Peeta doesn’t hear Katniss approach until she’s right behind her.
“Gale,” she says. “It’s fine. Let’s not do this here.”
He goes to protest, and she sighs heavily enough for him to shut up.
“Thank you, Peeta,” she says, though she sounds annoyed again.
“I’ll see you next week,” Peeta says, stupidly, and waits at the door while they leave, hearing them begin to bicker almost immediately.
…
“So when’s the wedding?” Peeta asks a couple of weeks later, trying to sound casual while Katniss counts her squirrels.
She doesn’t respond for a long while, and Peeta’s heart races furiously in her chest. Stupid. That was a stupid thing to ask. Gale Hawthorne – and half the district, probably – already has his suspicions about her. She really did just mean to be friendly, but now, Katniss probably thinks –
“Because if you need a cake,” Peeta continues, though she knows she’s digging her own grave. “I’m your girl.”
Katniss looks up, at this. “I don’t think Gale wants a cake.”
“I tend to think everyone wants a cake, always,” Peeta tries to joke. “But you know him better than I do.”
Katniss’s lips purse at this, and Peeta regrets it desperately.
“You two have been together a long time,” she mentions, like it’s casual. This is common knowledge, right? “It must be nice. Being in love with someone like that.”
Katniss’s lack of response feels almost pointed. Peeta washes her hands even though they aren’t dirty.
“After my birthday,” Katniss says, sounding as if she’s talking about the date of a surgery she’s dreading rather than her wedding. “That next Sunday.”
…
Katniss and Gale come together the next week and the week after. Peeta doesn’t even bother trying to make small talk.
…
It’s decided.
Gale Hawthorne absolutely hates Peeta Mellark. Peeta spends weeks trying to work out why that is – and why it seems to be seeping into all of her interactions with Katniss. Sure, they were never friends, but everything seems to be so strained now.
Peeta isn’t sure she’s really that transparent. Yes, she’s been infatuated with Katniss for longer than she’s known to use that word to describe it, but she’s also hardly managed to learn something about her in the twelve years they’ve known each other. Or, more accurately, known of each other. Peeta isn’t sure Katniss even realizes they went to school together.
“Are you going to make your bread tonight?” Peeta asks the friday before the toasting, just to torture herself. “For the Toasting. Not that I don’t like the extra business, but I always think that’s such a nice tradition, when–”
“No.” Katniss’s voice is blunt.
Peeta swallows, trying to busy her hands with the dishes while Katniss finishes unpacking her game. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I didn’t mean to overstep.”
It’s quiet for a beat. Two.
“I just – am friends with other people I trade with,” Peeta continues on the third. “If it makes you uncomfortable, we don’t have to be.”
“Gale won’t be coming with me anymore.”
Her voice is flat.
“Yeah?” asks Peeta. Is he really intimidated by some Merchant Dyke? She wants to ask, but doesn’t.
Katniss looks unsure. “Just –” she says. “You know mine are better than his. If he comes by, he’s gonna try to pass off some scrawny shit because he thinks you won’t know better. Just wait and buy from me if he does.”
Oh. “I always sort of had the impression you two were partners,” Peeta says carefully, and Katniss laughs, dry and bitter.
“Things change.”
ii
Gale Hawthorne arrives three sundays later with a leather band on his left ring finger and a game bag over his shoulder. Peeta has to try to school her features, since she had been smiling already when she opened the door, expecting a different hunter, but it seems rude to let it fall completely.
“Hello,” she tries evenly, wondering how on earth he wouldn’t already know about her loyalty to Katniss. Has he ever said more than a word to her before? “Good afternoon.” The band on his finger makes her heart kick up, nearly panicked. Did they go through with it after all? She had heard gossip about their breakup, and Katniss hasn’t mentioned him at all, but she also knows the rumor mill isn’t to be trusted. After all, there are about four boys she would be dating right now if the Cartwright matriarch said anything remotely true.
He nods. “You like squirrels, right?” he asks, leaning against the doorframe. “Had a good haul today.”
“Where’s Katniss?” she asks, and something she can’t name flashes across his face.
“Katniss … isn’t out with me,” he says.
“That’s strange,” Peeta continues, wiping her hands off on her apron. “She told me she’d be back by, after we traded last week.” It’s a lie, but one that she figures will end up being true either way. “Is she feeling all right?”
Gale sighs through his nose, clearly trying to come up with something to say.
Peeta blinks. “I think I’ll just wait until Katniss comes by.”
This earns her a scoff. “Yeah. Of course you will.”
“I’m sorry?” she asks.
He shakes his head. “Nothing,” he says, pushing himself up from the doorjamb. “Just isn’t surprising, is all. Everyone’s seen the way you stare at her.”
“I’m not sure I understand what you mean,” Peeta says carefully.
“You know you won’t have any luck, right?” asks Gale. “I tried for years. There’s something wrong with her.”
“Hey. Don’t–” Peeta starts.
“Actually, maybe you will,” he says. “Maybe that’s the problem all along, and she doesn’t even like dudes. That’d be my luck, huh?”
“Stop,” Peeta says. “You need-”
“Look, it’s not like it fuckin’ matters,” he says. “Have fun with the ice queen.”
And then he turns on his heel and almost directly collides with Katniss, who has been watching silently all along. She looks closer to wounded than Peeta has seen on her, though that seems to shift into something angrier when she sees the band around his finger.
He stills for a moment. Pauses, as if he’s about to say something to her, and then stomps away. Peeta turns, leaving the door open but trying to busy herself with her baguettes. Katniss doesn’t come in.
…
“Why were you defending me?”
It’s Katniss in the doorway, three days later. Looking wounded, still, but mostly baffled.
“Because he’s a dick,” Peeta says, and then bites her bottom lip. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Katniss rolls her eyes. “What do I care?” she asks. “I’m an ice queen, right?”
“You’re not,” Peeta says instinctively. “Come inside.”
She glances off to the side. “You know about some big rainstorm I don’t?”
Peeta smiles. “Come inside,” she says again. “Did you bring me anything?”
“Depends,” Katniss says tersely. “What did you buy from him?”
“Nothing,” Peeta says. “Though I think now is as good a time as any to tell you that the squirrels aren’t actually my favorite.”
Katniss pauses for a moment. “Oh,” she says. “Right. I know your father liked them–”
“I’ll eat them, obviously,” Peeta continues. “But you may have spoiled me on the rabbits that one week.”
“I can bring more rabbits,” says Katniss.
Peeta manages to convince her to take a pastry from the stales basket before they start their trade and thinks of what Gale was saying, about the way she looks at Katniss, and forces herself not to watch as she tries the danish.
“Seems like Gale moved on awfully fast,” Peeta observes, though she regrets it immediately. Thankfully, Katniss is wrapped up in the sweet pastry and hardly even pulls a face.
“It wasn’t like that,” she admits. “We were just – doing each other a favor.”
“He didn’t look at you like you were doing him a favor,” Peeta says.
Katniss rolls her eyes. “He said we were doing each other a favor,” she amends.
“What was the favor?” Peeta asks. “The housing benefit once you get married?”
Katniss pauses, licking the crumbs from her lips before she admits, quietly, “Custody of my sister.”
Oh. “She’s in the Community Home, right?” Peeta asks, and Katniss narrows her eyes.
“How did you know that?”
“It’s not that big a District,” Peeta says softly.
“They don’t let you get custody until you’re married,” Katniss says. “And Gale was – hoping I would change my mind, I suppose.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Obviously,” Katniss says, eyes landing on the pastry basket again. Peeta nudges it towards her and she frowns. “I wondered if I could bring one for my sister.”
“Take as many as you want,” Peeta says. “Really. They can’t be sold.”
Katniss’s hand darts out for a slightly burnt blueberry muffin.
“I usually pass ‘em around to the kids playing out in the square after close,” Peeta admits. “It’d make my mother furious.”
“Not like she’s here to care,” Katniss says distractedly, picking off part of the top of the muffin. “She can go be a witch in Two.”
She doesn’t realize what she’s said until a moment later, and her hand flies to her mouth.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“What do I care?” Peeta echoes. “Who knows, maybe the change of scenery made her nicer.”
Katniss gapes. “Do you really believe that?”
“No,” Peeta admits. “But it doesn’t hurt to pretend sometimes.” She makes for a white paper bag and dumps the contents of the reject basket into it. “Take it. For Prim.”
The look on Katniss’s face is all the evidence Peeta needs that the answer would have been no without the second half of the request.
iii
It takes three months for Peeta to work up the nerve. Katniss mentioned weeks ago that her parents used to make bread pudding – that she hadn’t had it in years – and Peeta spent ages working out her plan. The entire dish was for the hunter, of course, but Peeta made sure to cut out a couple of servings first, just so that Katniss wouldn’t suspect that it was made for her.
The plan worked. Katniss refused the food at first – she always did, though less and less every time Peeta managed to convince her that it was a favor, helping her get through the food.
“You know,” Peeta says, aiming for casual and missing it when it comes out all hoarse. “Gale isn’t your only option, if you need to get married to get Prim out of the Community Home.”
Katniss coughs. “What?” she asks.
“I just mean –” Peeta continues, but cuts herself off, turning to focus on the dishes in the sink instead. “I just mean that I could help. I have an extra room upstairs and I could–”
“What?” asks Katniss, the stool Peeta keeps back here for her scraping against the floor as she stands. “You could, what? Take care of me?”
It’s clear in the edge in her voice what she means. That she’s heard this before, that she isn’t impressed.
“No,” Peeta croaks. “No, that’s not what I’m saying.”
“What are you saying?” challenges Katniss, and Peeta feels all of three inches tall.
“I just – I –” she stammers, fingers tightening around her sponge. “No. That’s not what I mean,” she says. It’s quiet for a beat, though she can tell Katniss is seconds from leaving. “I just – I could use a hand around the bakery,” she says. “And – I know it’s killing you, having Prim there. So I – I just thought–”
“And what about when you find someone you actually do want to marry?” Katniss interrupts again.
“I won’t.”
A bitter laugh. “I’ve heard that one before.”
“No, Katniss–” Peeta continues.
“I learned my lesson already. I just–”
“I won’t find anyone else!” bursts from Peeta without her consent. It’s quiet for a moment and then she speaks again, much more measured. “How long until the little one turns eighteen?”
“Four years,” Katniss spits, still sounding angry, and then corrects herself. “Three and a half, more like.”
“Four years,” repeats Peeta. “Fine.”
“I don’t–”
“I won’t even look,” says Peeta. “No dates. No–”
“Some merchant boy will come sniffing around and–”
“No boys ever,” Peeta says, a little more firmly than she means to. “And no girls, either. Not until after Primrose is safe.”
When she turns to look over her shoulder, Katniss is gone.
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Everybody Wants to Spook The World.
Pairing: Winn Schott x Platonic!Female!Reader
Words: 1, 451
Request: Heyo, I was wondering if you would do a Winn x reader where’s Halloween time. Where reader and Winn are such close friends that he has a key to her apartment so he walks in one day to see it all decked out for Halloween. He couldn’t find reader till he walks into the kitchen and sees reader dancing to Halloween music and baking cookies. Then they do fluffy stuff and Winn admits his feels. Gaaahh. I love this idea. I hope you can write it and I can’t wait to read it.
Warnings: Spooky Fluff!
A/N: This is super late, it’s not even October anymore. I know, and I’m so sorry for it. I just have been going through some things so my brain has been drawing a blank every time I go to write. And I know I’m a wlw blog but this request was just too good to pass up! I did it as a platonic reader, but the concept and fluffiness of the story are still very much intact. Sorry! I hope you like it!
It was safe to say that Halloween was definitely Winn's favorite time of the year. Not the part about the demons and the ghouls and the ghosts, (that terrified him), but the because it was the start of the time of the year where all of his friends got together.
All of his friends led busy lives, whether it was fighting aliens, protecting the city, reinventing technology or running a social media mecca. There wasn't much time to have game nights or to just sit down and talk. But on October 1st, everything about that changed.
Game nights became a staple in their schedules, and everyone was starting to talk about Halloween costumes and Christmas gatherings. It was like there was a sudden shift for the better in their circle.
Halloween is all about the parties, whose tricks warrants the best blood-curdling scream, and who's got all the right connections to give everyone a heart attack.
Which is where you came in.
You threw the best parties, that was common knowledge. Every single year, friends and family would gather in your apartment, ready to have the times of their lives. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, you were the one to go to.
The music rang out as you danced around the kitchen, singing along to all the lyrics while tossing around the cookie dough.
Your hips swayed and your head bobbed, you were more excited than you were willing to admit. Halloween wasn’t your favorite holidays, but it was enough to make you restless.
You were so immersed in the task at hand that you didn’t hear your apartment door apartment, Winn coming in with bags of chips. He wasn’t sure if he had stepped into the right house at first. Your house was decked out in the most amazing decorations Winn had ever seen before. Fake cobwebs and skeletons galore. You wouldn’t be able to tell that a normal person lived here. You were that good.
It didn’t help that terrifying music was being blasted. As soon as Thriller turned off, a song that was exclusively screams and groans came on. Chills ran down Winn’s spine, making it quickly speed walk to the kitchen.
As soon as he laid his eyes on you, a smile spread across his face. You were standing by a counter, headphones in your ears, body swaying to whatever music was playing. The movements your were making definitely were not human, Winn laughed at the irony.
He placed the bags on the counter, astonished that you still hadn’t noticed he was there. Creeping up slowly, he crouched down walking stealthily around the island before popping up and grabbing you from behind.
You inhaled a deep breath, obviously startled, before yelling your loudest and elbowing Winn behind you. You stepped on his foot, making him yelp and pull away from you. You ripped the headphones out of your ears and turned around. Your eyes widened and a hand came up to your mouth when you realized it was Winn.
“Winn? What the fuck, dude?” You went over to him, helping him off of the ground. “What were you doing?”
He groaned, taking your hand while holding his side. “Well, I was trying to get into the Halloween spirit, seems like I chose the wrong person.”
You nodded your head in agreement, heart still racing. “Obviously! It’s Halloween, you don’t think my senses are heightened.”
“Didn’t realize you were Supergirl for Halloween.” He retorted. You hit him on the head. “Ow! It’s the day before Halloween, not ‘Beat Up on Winn’ Day.”
You shrugged before going back over to the counter, beginning on a cake next. “Tomato, tomato. What are you doing here, anyway? Party’s not for another 6 hours.”
“I came to help. I brought stuff for the party, I texted so that you wouldn’t be alarmed, but-” he waved at his middle.
You laughed lightly, getting the batter under your mixer. “Yeah. Well if you still want to help, I have a few more decorations upstairs that need to be set up. Could you do that?”
“Yeah, sure.” He started to walk upstairs before you called out his name. “What?”
“Um, be careful if up there, I set a few things up already and I don’t need you peeing your pants.” You smiled smugly at him, before returning to your station.
Winn scoffed like he usually does, going upstairs. “Oh please! You won’t have to worry about that. I can a few- AH!” A few tumbles were heard and you nodded your head, knowing that you were right.
“What the fuck was that!? A demon!?” Winn stomped his way into the kitchen, out of breath and eyes bulging. You turned towards him, smirking with a spoon in your hand.
“Thought you could handle it?”
.
Two hours had passed and you were still in the kitchen, taking the last few cakes and cookies out to chill. They had to be iced and decorated still. You bounced up and down a few times, ecstatic at the fact that this party would be like no other.
Winn was upstairs still. He was managing pretty well, a few screams of terror here and there. But what would Halloween be without terrors?
Your playlist had gotten to the upbeat music, Women Like Me blasting throughout your speakers. Winn descended the steps only to find you bouncing around, hair going any which way. It brought a smile upon his face. He leaned against the railing, just staring at you and chuckling.
He let his mind wander through all the memories of you and him. You were his longest friend, and him, yours. You had been through almost everything together: alien invasions, broken homes, multiple threats of extinction, but here you were, still best friends.
You were the one that sat with him night and night when he was terrified of becoming his father. It was you who convinced him that he was a much better person than his father and that he was smart, amazing and would be the one to save the world. (After the whole encounter with Brainy, you weren’t wrong about that last one.)
“Are you going to help me or are you going to stand there staring at me like an idiot?” You chuckled as you kept your focus on the cake batter in front of you. Winn shook his head to get himself out of his daze.
“Shut up.” He mumbled before walking to the sink and washing his hands.
“What were you daydreaming about?” You asked while mixed icing colors together. “You can’t go mute on me now.”
Winn shook his head dismissively. “Nothing, really. I was just thinking about us. Everything that’s happened, and how yet after all these years, I couldn’t think of having another person as my best friend.”
You smiled fondly, before hitting him on the arm. “That was so sappy, Schott. Never do it again.” You both laughed, you handing him an icing spatula. “But you’re right. Remember the time your dad tried to move you away in the 11th grade? I was truly a hero at that time.”
“If by hero you mean, committed a felony then, yeah. You were basically Wonder Woman.” You pointed your spoon at him.
“Hey! I slashed his tires and called the police. He was taken to jail and you got to live with me and my family. Don’t complain, man.” You began decorating the cooking again while he focused on the cake.
“Could you imagine what would life would be like if he actually got away with it?” Winn spoke after a solid 5 minutes of silence. You squeezed your eyes and sighed heavily.
“I can’t. And I really don’t want to. You’ve always been there for me when I needed you the most. You’ve stuck by side through every job, profession, and failed relationship. You’re my toughest critic but my number one supporter. You’re the only family I’ve ever had, Y/N.” Tears sprang to Winn’s eyes. “I love you, man. I don’t know what I would ever do if I lost my best friend.” His voice cracked and you immediately ran to action. You wrapped your arms around him and hugged him tightly.
“I love you too, Winn. But don’t ever think like that. You’ll never lose me. I’m here for the long run. Nobody who we end up marrying in the future, or how far away we may end up living, you will always be my top priority and favorite person in the world.” You hugged him tighter, smiling when you felt him ruffle your hair like the used to when you were kids.
“Thank you, Y/N. Really.”
“What are friends for?”
#winn schott#winn schott x reader#supergirl imagine#supergirl#superman#winn schott imagine#supergirl x reader#supergirl au#iconicwlw#dc#dc imagines
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The Omnipotence Theorem: Chapter Two
words: 2k
genre: cold war, sci-fi, wlw original
summary: a group of scientists tries to unlock the secrets of telepathy as cold war pressures mount and a fever rises in the belly of the Pentagon
Chapter One X
Ao3 – Wordpress
Chapter Two
“Red,” she blinks, “blue.” She takes a breath, “green.” The lights flash behind her eyes, “red, again.”
A doctor was frowning at her through his mask and it’s all Cindy can do to keep her eyes straight ahead. A crown of wires whizzed around her head and she feels more like a rat running through an electro-shock maze than a team player.
She blinks her eyes and feels a pulse in her temple, the wires sent a little spark of electricity through her. She doesn’t flinch, Cindy holds herself still.
Two steady blue eyes stare back at her. “Green.” She says softly and the scientist next to her keeps scribbling things down.
Cindy imagines the notes on his pad absently: ‘candidate 5- sleep deprived?’ ‘Has not guessed a single color right,’ ‘forgot to brush my teeth this morning,’ ‘look at the cans on candidate 4.’
‘Still haven’t brushed my teeth.’
Perhaps she should be more charitable with him, she barely remembered his name after all. But he was breathing on her and he, nor anyone else, had asked her if she needed to pee in the last four hours.
And for the record, to hopefully be documented, preserved and studied with the rest of the paperwork. Cindy really really needed to pee.
“Blue.” The woman across from her forms the words with a soft curve to her mouth, like she was kissing a cloud with her palette. Cindy looks down at her lap.
The doctor on the other side of the room clears his throat, Cindy forces herself to look back up and look at candidate five in the face. Louise gives her a curious look but pronounces the word ‘yellow’ like she was going to take it out to lunch.
Cindy takes a deep breath and tries to be more charitable again, Louise was from Minnesota, things were different there.
She thinks about the wonders of what must be Minnesota as she looks the other woman in the eye and little buzzes go through her forehead. Connecting the left and right brain synapses, stimulating the cerebellum.
Activating neurotransmitters between two totally different individuals.
“Red.”
She hears a deep sigh behind her and Cindy feels the buzz of the machine, a wall of wires and transmitters and entire processing system, power down. The fritzing, whirring sounds slowly tapers off as Cindy exhales.
The little electric pulse in between her ears stops and she takes that as a sign to pull out the pads on her temples.
“Let’s break for lunch ladies,” the doctor says behind her and Cindy takes the opportunity to not look any one in the eye again. It was the little pleasures.
She stretches and flattens out her skirt as she plans to go dart to the restroom as fast she can.
“Be back by half past one.” The doctors weren’t looking at her, but stood in her way as they reminded her of their Very Important Work.
“I know sir,” she nods at the man she wished at least try out a toothpick or flossing one of these days.
She passes the next military scientist and hopes Doug was bumbling about somewhere, Doug always let her pour over the numbers once she was free and walking around again.
Cindy darts over the woman’s restroom (newly installed) as she hears a pair of footsteps trailing her, she looks over her shoulder to nod at Louise.
“Be right back,” she says with a wave.
“I’ll save you spot in the cafeteria.”
The woman must have an iron bladder, Cindy shakes her head as she watches the other participant retreat. Cindy ducks into the small sterile gray restroom, there were still urinals in the corner from before the room had been ‘repurposed.’
She sighs heavily in relief and tries not to touch the bruised areas around her forehead before she’s done.
“Red, yellow, blue, green,” she snorts and picks at her nails, looking at the walls as she finishes.
The underground military facility felt and tasted like a knock-off brand of seltzer water, sparkling and vaguely unpleasant. The ruling design theory was functional and grey, grey like the inside of a dying man’s mouth, grey like storm clouds that make your chest rumble. Grey.
It was being sucked into an entirely different world, and needing to pee most of the time you were there.
Cindy washed her hands and was pleasantly surprised by the pinkness of the soap, it was the little thing.
She takes a deep breath and spends some time fixing her hair, she wasn’t sure she was going to miss the sun or personal space. But it turns out some part of her was attached to both those things.
She relishes her time alone in the restroom before one of the cleaners steps in and they nod at each other before Cindy heads out.
“Red,” her heels click on the cool floors like a bad joke, “green.”
She passes several brass with papers and whispers between them, there were other experiments going on in this same facility. They were just the only ones trying to unlock the powers of bad hotline psychics.
Cindy was so close to rolling her eyes into a coma as she thinks about it. She concentrates on the smell of stew and white bread as she enters a bustling cafeteria, a small Asian woman waves at her from the corner.
She waves at the table of women and waits patiently to be walked, fed, and walked again to a little rectangle surface. Everything was made of boxes and squares and more rectangles, it was like a geometry sex dungeon.
She crosses off the last part in her mind and lets the thick stew pour onto her plate, she inhales deeply. The food at the very least wasn’t bad.
“Cindy,” one of the girl’s was grinning as she waved her over.
She shuffles over through the other long school tables to where the four other woman sat. There were roughly eight of them living down there in total, not counting the cleaning staff that came down regularly.
Cindy wasn’t sure if they bunched them all together to increase ‘telepathic potential’ or just out of convenience, either way, she kept telling them they needed a bigger sample size anyway. They told her they had been doing these same things on men for 3 years now.
At least it was equal opportunity brain rot.
Cindy sits down delicately as her skirt sweeps under her, “Martha,” she grins with a nod, “Tric.”
Martha was a friendly girl from South Florida with a psychology degree, as most of them did. Tric was a secretary that got stuck down there with them.
“See,” the women slicked her beehive black hair back, “it’s unrealistic, no one wants to shave that much muff.” She shoves a magazine under her nose and Cindy politely pushes it back.
She was currently browsing a playboy she found in one of the restrooms like it was a Sears catalog. “It looks like a terrible tiny mustache.” Tric was squinting her eyes, “The things they do to these women, jeez.”
Cindy doesn’t look down at the naked woman on the magazine, “Stew is nice and warm today.”
“Is it a Tuesday?” The frazzled Mrs. Catherine at the end had her notepad out and was calculating something. The days of the week next to the months next to an astrology chart.
She had a degree in communications and math.
“God, someone tell me it’s a tuesday,” she chewed on her bottom lip, “it’s been two hundred fifty two days, Venus is in retrograde…”
She was mumbling to herself, she was also candidate number one and the first one they dragged into The Depths (as Cindy was calling it) to see if their tickers could talk to each other.
“Did you see Dr. Stevens today,” Martha beamed at her, “he sure was handsome with those new glasses.”
Cindy wrinkled her nose as she tried to remember which one that was, “I’m sure he was.” She reassures as she organized her plastic spoons and forks on her trey.
“Don’t bother Cindy with that sort of thing,” And there she was Louise.
Louise was seated two spots away from her, wearing her regular fleece pink sweater with a baby blue skirt. She always had the look of someone who rather be knitting or talking about the different shades of sycamore trees.
A sweet girl with bright eyes and soft round everything from her personality to everything else.
Though, of course, Cindy always had the temptation to give her a Catholic Speech on numerous things, and Cindy wasn’t even Catholic.
“She’s a woman of science,” her lips turned up, “She’s already married.”
They tittered around her and Cindy’s not sure if she should be relieved or offended, it felt like the time for a Catholic Speech about teasing. And smokey eyes and long lashes and whatever else the Minnesota girl was doing.
“No wonder my son has hang-ups, none of these women got any marks on ‘em,” Tric took another long drag of her cigarette and Cindy sighs.
Louise delicately continues her meal and Cindy couldn’t guess what she was thinking if she tried. And she’d been paid to try.
It had been one week in The Depths of the Pentagon with several hundred scientists, but Cindy had barely got to touch a spreadsheet. The fairer sex was meant to be tied into whirring machinery and watch the own gears in her head wear thin.
She keeps these complaints all to herself as Martha talks about getting cookie dough here for the winter season and Tric compared the January and February centerfolds. Miss Catherine went into the depths of her paperwork, submerging into the relative position of Uranus.
Cindy wondered at what point she might start to gradually grind herself down into a distilled crazy paste, but she had a vision that it wasn’t going to be as interesting any of these women.
Louise quietly talks about her new knickers with Catherine until the other woman gets her tarot cards and takes out the hanged man.
“I’m not sure if I really need another one of these Miss Cathy,” she laughs hallowly and Catherine gives her spooked fish look.
“It’ll increase your chances.” She whispers in the way that would make Edgar Allan Poe write poetry.
“Right right, of cracking the case.” Louise grinned, “Don’t worry miss Cathy, we are on it!” More tittering.
Catherine slips her another card, “hide this under your pillow.”
Louise was smiling but her face was slightly paler, she had been dealing with these women a lot longer than Cindy. She just mildly turns her face away and gets re-engaged with the very rosy Martha talking about the letter her sister sent.
Cindy watches this all go by like a film of someone else’s life, not for the first time she wondered if she made the right decision. Or if there was one.
She moves the rest of her stew around the plate moodily before throwing the rest of it away and following the other woman back to the test rooms. The giant wall of machine was already getting warmed up again and Cindy could see someone waving.
“Oh thank God,” Cindy murmurs and jogs up to a portly middle-aged man. “Doug,” she greets, “Good to see you.”
“What? Yes.” Dr. Doug Johnson had slight hearing problems from his time in the war, but was an overall agreeable figure.
Cindy almost bounces, “I was hoping to get a peek at any data before the next session starts.”
He nods back, “yes, yes, I did appreciate your last observations on some of the wavelength fluctuations.”
Probably just anomaly, but Cindy doesn’t say that out loud. She nods as they let her into the backroom, she can feel Louise looking at her curiously again from behind her. She doesn’t quite look over her shoulder.
“Progress is slow, but we think if we keep up the transcranial stimulation with the right locations, we’ll be getting you all to be reading morse code to each other in record time.” He was beaming with his gapped front teeth and round cheeks.
Cindy is more grateful than the time she got her period during her ‘fear of immaculate conception’ phase of teenagehood.
The cool military fans blow against her face, keeping the test samples and piles of paper dry and clean. Cindy turns toward the analysis, gingerly picking up the spreadsheets as her mind swims, the points read off their electric current stats.
“Would that mean we should start shaving our heads?” Cindy asks hoarsely before frowning, “it might open up more vectors of magnetic connection with the machine.”
She blinks, it made more sense to have multiple stimuli around the cranium. She glances at him to see if he was listening.
Doug Johnson laughs slightly, “we did that with the boys, but got similar results.” He winks, “plus, I’m not sure if all the ladies would be as willing as you to let go of those pretty locks.”
Cindy blew air out of her nose but just nods stiffly, she surveys the data points quickly as she considers the different existing communication pathways they could be using. They seemed to be hooked into the right sectors, but perhaps the wrong surgical connectors.
She opens her mouth briefly, “could I take these to my room tonight?”
Doug flattens his mustache out, “I think I’d get in a little more trouble if I let these out of the room.” He hums and adjusts his glasses, “besides, they're not too different from the last ones.”
She frowns again and puts them down, the clock was almost at exactly one thirty. Doug pats her on the back, “you’re a great asset Ms. Jabiyev.”
“Thank you,” she feels her stomach bottom out and she follows him out of the back room, Louise waves at them warmly as they come back.
“See anything worthwhile?” She grins, “any changes?”
Cindy just shakes her head, “nothing to report on.”
“That’s a shame,” Louise clicks her teeth, “but I have a good feeling about today.”
“That’s our Louise.” Dr. Johnson laughs and pats Louise also on the back before disappearing into another one of the rooms where one of the other pairs was.
Cindy eyes him before she feels a slight nudge on her ribcage, she turns around to see Louise’s bright blue eyes staring widely down at her. She was a good head taller than Cindy.
“Did you sweet talk him into that back room?” Her full lips were in that same elegant curve.
She shrugs, “I listened to him talk about his kids for two hours and he seemed to warm up to me.”
Louise chuckles, “they musta hired you for your listening skills.” Her eyes twinkle and Cindy finds her somehow mildly more round and tolerable.
“That, and my exceptional ability to sit in chairs.” Cindy says dryly because no one else was around.
Louise lets out another laugh, “you don’t say, is it in any way connected to your above average ability to say colors out loud?”
Cindy covers her mouth to laugh slightly, “I was color naming champion at my college.”
Louise slaps her knee, “you are a delight miss Cindy!” She snorts before grabbing Cindy’s shoulder, “no wonder you could sweet talk Mr. Doug.”
Cindy glances down at Louise’s dove-white hands before looking back up, “I wouldn’t call it sweet talk,” she catches her breath, “More like… psychology. Nice things.”
Louise nods and Cindy looks down at her shoes, she jumps when she feels a warm hand on her shoulder. “Tell you what.” Louise says, “I was a psychology major myself,” she says with her chest puff out, “if we put our heads together we’re bound to make that data sing.”
Cindy cocks her head to the side, “you want to see it too?”
Louise bites her bottom lip and turns back to the room as it opens, “better than sitting on our bums and having ‘em shock us day in and out.”
Cindy exhales, “I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking that…”
Louise squeezes her shoulder and they hear the machine ding as it finishes warming up. “Some time then.”
She enters the dim whirring room again and sees the next new doctor preparing the electro-helmet that attached at her temples. She stares wearily ahead, vision blurring together as she watched Louise be plugged into the exact same machine across from her.
Sometimes they did the experiment with a sheet obscuring each other, sometimes they thought eye contact helped. Cindy personally thought it was better double-blind, but no difference had been recorded yet.
The heat of the computer electroencephalogram (EEG) bathed the left side of her face, preparing to translate and stored their thoughts. A piece of paper is put in front of Cindy.
“Now, you know the drill miss Jabiyev, concentrate.”
Cindy looks up and makes steady eye contact with Louise, she turns her thoughts into a pointed dagger trying to stab out into the darkness. A little prickle goes through her skull again and she can feel the electric currents working through her. Toward her.
She takes a deep breath and the light blinks for them to start.
“Yellow.” She says dryly as Louise's mouth stays a shapeless flat line. She concentrates, “Blue.”
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