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webuyhouseatlanta · 1 year

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We Buy Houses Atlanta

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not like such a lot of coins home shoppers, we don’t prefer to shop for one sort of home over the other. however, this is as a substitute the opposite. As traders, we are continually on the lookout for houses we can procure, that may then be renovated and flipped for income. that is why we purchase Atlanta homes for coins no matter their condition, size, and region. The only aspect that subjects is market value. We provide cash gives for inherited houses, Multifamily apartment homes, apartment funding houses, vacant homes, and we will purchase even supposing it's far a burdensome condo property.

real property investment is a excessive-threat commercial enterprise; we usually vet the houses we buy. however, that doesn't imply we will not purchase your own home, but our danger evaluation ought to display that your own home is well worth the chance. fortuitously, maximum houses in Atlanta are really worth the danger, particularly family homes.

over the years, we’ve bought several dozen houses across the city. a lot of those houses had seen a good deal higher days, but their present proprietors couldn’t have enough money to spend the money needed to renovate them. That’s why despite their great efforts, the houses languished on the market for months earlier than the owner determined to promote to us.

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We’ve purchased houses in which even the own family automobile was parked within the garage. but, the auto turned into a bucket of bolts as it was burnt all the way down to the ground in conjunction with most of the home. To us, disposing of these objects and cleansing up the home is no hassle due to the fact we've got a crew of experts to deal with it. Plus, we’ll spend lots of bucks on renovating the home in Atlanta promote, anyway, so a few hundred spent on removing all the unwanted gadgets isn’t a massive deal.

Our crew Handles The paperwork – No real property Agent wished you would possibly want to sell the house for a spread of motives. either you are going through a divorce, want money to pay off lenders or perhaps your private home is about to be foreclosed; regardless, you want to promote rapid. regrettably, the paperwork tied to promoting a domestic does not usually go through as quick as we anticipate. There can be unforeseeable stumbling blocks. but all of that is minimized if you have a team of professionals handling the sale.

we have a pro group of experts in an effort to handle all the office work concerned something real estate agents don’t. meaning aside from signing a few files to switch the lease; there's little you'll want to do. In fact, while we promote homes, sellers need to do not anything after they determine to promote the home to us.

now not handiest does this prevent a fantastic deal of time but also due to the fact We buy homes Atlanta will pay ultimate fees for you, also cash. depending on the size or sort of domestic, the money you keep can be pretty good sized, which may be cash you use someplace else.

nothing short of The maximum beneficiant coins gives in contrast to other coins domestic organizations working in the Atlanta vicinity, we don’t want to capitalize on your state of affairs. In truth, our cash offers are not based totally on how desperately you need to sell however on triumphing market costs and conditions. regardless of the circumstance of your property, we’ll make a buy provide on your home and we are able to buy your Atlanta house as is. That stated, the cash offer we make for your own home stands, and you've as much time as had to decide.

As a policy, we don’t push owners to sell. We make a generous no-responsibility cash offer for the home, and because the owner, you could determine while to promote. you could pick out your personal final date, and we can adhere to it. we're unlike another customer that takes their time buying; if anything, we need to sale to transport via quick so that you can get the cash needed to take care of your expenses.

Do you want to promote your own home for coins? want to promote it inside a few days for a great amount of cash? Then get in contact with us for a loose, no-duty provide. You also are welcome to evaluate our offer to different agencies.

you figure with The most depended on team in the industry The actual estate funding industry is competitive. however, it is also overflowing with groups that want to take advantage of house owners that find themselves in an unlucky scenario and need to promote their houses rapid. That’s why many of those agencies will make a lowball offer, hoping that in case you negotiate, they may raise it through a hair and get the house at a good buy.

over time, we’ve earned a recognition for making honest cash gives. We’ve bought dozens of homes over the years, and every one of those house owners felt that they received a fair cash offer and that the system went smoothly as expected. In reality, dozens of 5-superstar reviews by using Atlanta house owners prove that we offer exactly what is advertised.

Our exceedingly skilled experts may also handle everything to make sure the sale is going thru as predicted. They take care of all the legwork and bureaucratic procedures. this protects you from having to head to and fro on doing it. Our team will even propose you and provide you with facts to reply any questions you would possibly have. think about it as a ‘executed for you service’ that does not fee you a dime.

list your property Is Time-ingesting and luxurious except you've got a stunning home and one that others think is lovely, listing a home is a trouble. if you do it your self, you need to recognize the fine details of actual property pictures and write an in depth description that receives humans to click to your listing and inquire about it.

You are also predicted to negotiate the deal on your own home, after which you need to handle the paperwork worried. If all is going nicely, you should pray that the loan organisation will pay you quickly sufficient. but mortgage groups tend to take their time, so it isn’t an instantaneous charge, even though the entirety is completed. Even then, there may be a threat that the buyer might also returned out, which leaves you lower back at rectangular one.

when you have an vintage home and are critical approximately selling it, sell it to us for cash! We don’t waste it slow.

touch We purchase Atlanta properties nowadays Don’t deliver in to the time-ingesting procedure and frustration you may come across while promoting your property in Atlanta. give us a name, then sit lower back and watch your Atlanta domestic sold, requiring no attempt for your component.

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mcdowellbullard4 · 2 years

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Sony Tablet S Vs Ipad: Playstation Comes To Android

The iPad has certainly had some press lately. Apple is a company that is superb at marketing their pills. At microsoft office 2007 crack free download 64 bit there were a number of Android based tablets in which coming out with just so much functionality as the iPad that just haven't had the same press as Apple's newest product. Consider waiting in your buying decision before getting a tablet. Sweeter than sugar for most people Android phone users is that fresh Froyo browser now supports Adobe Magnificent. This new feature provides a blessing to net surfers. Because it is how the flash could be brought wireless when the user wants it with the browser's on demand option. Turning it on allows consumer to use flash by clicking a Flash toy. The Flash rendering is not as impressive as a desktop around the other hand will do for a cell phone. Opera Mini is suggest browser smart enough function for any mobile os in this handset. As a Windows Mobile user, Truly like Opera Hobby. As a reviewer, I recommend it for Android also. Opera Mini 5.1 for Android works in 92 different 'languages'. After the beta testing and updates, akin to improved enormously not only in looks but speed as thoroughly. It shrink pages up to 90% before loading, which increases rapidly of web browsing. You can also set Opera Mini to be a default browser for your ease. Operating system: iPhone OS-Derived from the Mac OS X, shares the Darwin foundation. The OS has four abstraction layers, each video OS layer, the core services layer, the media layer along with the cocoa touch layer. The OS uses less than500 MB with the device's memory. Unable to multi-task. Our lives can get pretty hectic and busy, but if you get applications for your Android phone, for free, from the internet, perhaps it is needed you inside your everyday life style. The Android phone was built for convenience, just like many it is have visited the past, but much like all for this other phones that came out the actual world centuries, the Android betters the survive. The only reason that the Android phone is any different is because of it's numerous applications help you within your everyday abilities. >> User-friendly and uncomplicated. Tracking software is straightforward to have. Once they are set up, probably will never need to touch your spouses hand phone. All you do is chill out and look at the tracking logs on any internet connected PC. The T-Mobile MyTouch ought to with 4gb of microSD memory. microsoft office 2007 cracked version are not as expensive and also are what is likely to be in the old days install more memory into the phone. Simplicity of upgrading the phone is certainly a great asset nonetheless, if compared for the iPhone which will come with 32mb of memory this is just about the area how the MyTouch doesn't compare. This app was developed by the My Tracks Team at Google. Being a Google app, we have certain expectations and this app definitely meets or exceeds all of them with! This Android app records your GPS movements and shows live statistics like speed, time, distance travelled and a lot of. microsoft office 2007 mac crack download 's like having an expensive portable GPS device with you at year 'round for No cost of charge! Pretty awesome app.

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iamthekaijuking · 3 years

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A review of The Eternal Cylinder

To keep this review organized, I’m going to go over certain aspects and talk about them. Also, unlike an out of touch and bribed video game critic, this review will contain my 100% honest opinions.

The eternal cylinder is the latest game to come from ACE team, the same people who have given us other odd and unique games such as the rock of ages series. But this entry is probably their weirdest, however this is a good thing and arguably its largest selling point.

Gameplay:

You play as a herd of Trehbum, a species of alien, on the run from a giant megastructure called the eternal cylinder that is steam rolling your home world. The normal gameplay loop involves running from the cylinder, activating towers to stop it, exploring a safe zone and fulfilling certain tasks, and then making a mad dash for the next set of pillars. There are certain variables such as environmental conditions, wildlife and the cylinder’s servants trying to kill you, or very rarely the cylinder breaking through barriers you just activated in a fit of rage. You also need to plan the path you take to the next set of pillars, as there’s often mountains, canyons, and even lakes between you and the next safe zone. And the longer the cylinder rolls, the faster it gets. So be sure to explore every nook and cranny and plan your escape routes.

As this is a survival game, you do have to manage your resources and inventory. Said resources are a hunger and thirst bar, a stamina wheel, minerals, and your own inventory. Hunger and thirst are maintained with food and water and directly impact your stamina. Minerals are most often used for upgrades, but are occasionally used for other stuff. A lot of your time will be spent managing your inventory, which I will admit gets very tedious and annoying.

The most unique aspect of the gameplay is the mutation system, where you can consume certain items to give you specific mutations and allow you to specialize your herd members. Mutations can range from practical things like extra storage to being a mineral processor, to detrimental temporary power ups like taking away a trehbum’s legs for 3 minutes, to combat and anti-predator defense such as quills and a body that allows you to make bombs. The servants of the cylinder can use a yellow light that can strip you of your mutations, which can be annoying, but later in the game you can get recipes to protect mutations and make them permanent, which means the yellow light can’t affect them and you can activate them any time you want without having to eat something as a catalyst.

It’s worth noting that your trehbum will die. A lot. Luckily you can very rarely (and by rarely I mean there’s so few of these things that they can be counted on a single hand) encounter a revival shrine that allows you to resurrect dead trehbum at the cost of some minerals. A trehbum can be resurrected up to 3 times, each costing more minerals. Trehbum can also be stored in a cloud for safe keeping and freely put back into your party. It’s worth nothing that putting your trehbum in the cloud doesn’t save what it’s carrying in its inventory, so be careful.

This game also has puzzles surprisingly. Mostly in trehbum temples containing elders. Some are pretty easy and straightforward, but there was a few that stumped me so hard that I thought my game glitched and I was stuck. Guides for this game don’t exist yet so unfortunately you will be on your own for these. I personally don’t mind the puzzles in what is otherwise a survival game, but some had no right being as hard or tedious as they were.

Story and setting:

The story and setting is probably one of the main selling points of this game. It takes place on an alien planet, and I do mean ALIEN. Some slight fantasy elements were injected into this game’s blood just to be that extra bit more weird, and this game really does look like something out of a Dark Crystal dream. And it’s GREAT.

The story itself is longer then I thought it would be, and there was a few times when I thought it was near the end only to have the rug pulled out from beneath me. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing, and I like how long the struggles of the trehbum are. It really makes it feel like the cylinder will take everything from them. There’s also many themes in this story and twists and reveals so fascinating and interesting that I, a person who normally loves spoilers, think they’re best experienced in person. The story is definitely one of the reasons you should buy the game.

Music:

Patricio Meneses composed and produced the music for this game, and he really knocked it out of the park. The music is just as weird and epic as the game itself, which compliments its setting and really immerses you.

Creature design:

As an amateur creature designer, this is a really important point for me and was a major factor in my decision to play this game. After having played it, I can confidently say that these are A+ creature designs that help really bring home this bizarre setting. Some of them don’t make a whole lot of biological sense, and there’s a lot of gaps in the evolutionary history of life on this planet, but you can tell that every plant, animal and fungus was designed with care and consideration. It also pays to read item description because, like a soulsborne game, they offer information about the world, the trehbum, and the creatures you encounter.

The drawbacks:

This game is utterly fascinating and amazing, but there’s a few things that knocks down an otherwise 9-9.5 score from me down to 7. With such an atmospheric and amazing game you surely would like to keep playing it after the story is over or play it again right? Well unfortunately your options for this are incredibly limited. There is no post story gameplay. You can go back and reply chapters, but you will not keep your progress. So if you’re like me and want to protect every mutation but require materials from areas you only encounter once or if you’re an achievement hunter, then you’re going to have to replay the game and do it all in one go. Which sucks big time. There’s also only 1 save file. This game would have massively benefited from a new game + or letting you replay chapters with your late game progress, or even multiple save files.

Another annoyance is that if a trehbum dies they lose all the items they were carrying, so if you’re mutation protecting or achievement grinding then you’re out of luck AGAIN.

Something this game would have benefited from would have been a trehbum customization mode where you take a trehbum, customize its colors, equip mutations, and save it as a preset on the cloud so that you can summon it in game from the revival shrine. It’s weird that a game that advertised all the different mutation combos it has doesn’t have something like this.

Conclusion:

In the end, I absolutely love and adore this game and I think everyone should play it and experience it themselves. But it’s nature as a one and done game severely limits its replay-ability and enjoyment.

#the eternal cylinder #eternal cylinder #ace team #game review

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bangtae-sohotddaeng · 3 years

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we’ll be counting stars | k.th. | 3

(^ gif cred: ON THE VOYAGE | pinterest)

pairing: idol!Taehyung x publisher!Reader

rating: nc-17 (for language and themes)

summary: You’d sworn off love and relationships forever. You were here to do your job - work with the biggest boyband of the world. Not forge friendships and...and whatever it was that you and Taehyung were building up with these sneaky glances. It was, to be very fair, your Chief Editor’s fault that you’d landed in this mess. Maybe you should quit your job? Maybe you should quit life -

Oh, he was staring again, and did he freaking lick his lips?

warnings: swearing (reader’s got a potty mouth) + this is set like 5 years in the future + reader has emotional issues, she's a relationship phobe + mentions of weed

genre: so much ANGST ugh + fluff + comedy + some crack

words: 5 k

note: hey, y'all. so last month i went on a new year's trip to my boyfriend's city (yes, covid has forced us into an ldr, fml) and got too occupied in all the celebrations and reunions, and this got delayed. also, you might have noticed how the chapters progressively grow wordier, lmao i'd been confused. but i think i've found the perfectly comfortable number now. expect this length from now on. thank you for reading~💜

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gimme feedback, much much appreciated!

You were, to be very honest, a complete mess at this point.

You hadn’t been quite certain as to what to expect when you’d picked Jungkook’s name out of the bowl in your office, but you could say with certainty that it hadn’t been even close to this.

This boy was brimming with ideas! You hadn’t been able to get a single sentence in the midst of his own enthusiastic chatter, with words and ideas folding and layering all over each other. All you had done was nod, mumble words of agreement and appreciation—that you were pretty sure he didn’t even hear—and type it all. Freaking typing. So much typing.

So basically, the entirety of yesterday spent fussing over the repertoires to ensure that the list of tasks for the first set of three weeks were well-constructed had led to this—not being able to so much as tell him about the questions your team had so meticulously framed! You felt irked, amused, exasperated, exhausted, and at the same time, really fucking lost.

How were you supposed to interrupt him without disrespecting him? You didn’t have a great amount of tact and usually just cut to the chase. Which was generally an appreciated quality in your profession, because no writer wanted to be just lathered with compliments to later find out his work was actually bullshit that no one wanted to read. But this situation was different. You felt pressured, nervous and out of your element. Because you really had no idea how to respectfully stop this guy from making a mess of all your hard work.

He was Jeon freaking Jungkook of BTS, for God’s sake!

How could you shut him up?

You were both in Jungkook’s personal studio in the BTS dorm. The boy was seated on a couch across the coffee table from your own, literally swimming in a trillion size bigger t-shirt and some loose sweatpants. His hair floof-ed all over the place as he spoke, bubbling and bursting with enthusiasm. Which he was doing a lot of. Speaking, that is.

For the better part of two hours now, you’d been listening to him go on and on about what all he wanted to include in the book. Your fingers were nearly cramping with all the typing, but you’d promised the guys no recorders and you didn’t wanna miss anything he said. But it was freaking difficult with the speed he was going at!

And also with the mess and reluctance in your own head. You were used to pulling the reins with writers. This situation was making you feel incompetent.

You hadn’t even touched your list, yet. What would your teammates think of you if their very team leader failed to finish with the assigned data collection and messed up the team’s hard work? Ugh!

Currently, Jungkook was having you make a list of all the people he needed to talk about in the book.

“And there was this boy my age, Ji-Hyun, he was so much better than me at everything! It is him, truly, that I credit my overachieving traits to. I had to work so, so hard—oh! Please also note down Mun-Hee’s name! She was the best dancer in my entire school. So… wait, where was I?” He looked up at you with wide big, round eyes.

You opened your mouth to speak—was this when you asked him to shut up? It had to be, right, because this was the first time he’d actually prompted you to speak.

You meant to take your shot, but then stopped. You blinked. Looked back at your laptop. Blinked again.

You were so confused, right now. “Uh, Ji-Hyun was better than you—”

“Oh yes!” Jungkook exclaimed, launching off into a detailed story about how and in what respects, exactly, this guy was better than Jungkook.

You shut your eyes. This had gone beyond “taking notes” and was quickly turning into Jungkook enthusiastically reminiscing his childhood and freaking telling you tales about it. And he seemed to be enjoying himself so thoroughly, looking so adorable, that it felt very wrong to ask him to stop even when you tried to avoid the added pressure of him being a whole ass idol.

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In hindsight, maybe you shouldn’t have told the boys that this was going to be like “making friends.” Jungkook seemed to have taken it too literally.

Biting down on your lip, you cleared your throat. He didn’t acknowledge it. Sighing, you shut your laptop. “Jungkook?”

This time, he stopped mid-word, looking at you with his lips rounded in a pout, sparkling eyes turning into saucers.

Now, you were in no way attracted to the guy, but you really could not deny how freaking cute he looked in the moment.

“All okay?” he asked, looking at you and then the shut laptop on your lap.

You took a deep breath, winced a little, and then shook your head. “No, Jungkook. We need to pause…” You had to stop speaking when his face crumpled. “Whoa…um?”

Jungkook slumped in his place, shoulders sinking. “I’ve been giving horrible ideas, haven’t I?”

Your eyes widened. “What? No! Absolutely not! That isn’t the case, I was…”

He wiped his face with both his hands before looking at you with really sad eyes, all enthusiasm from some time ago washed away. “Then what? You can tell me, it’s okay.”

Now. You prided yourself to be a practical human being who strived to be as straightforward in her life as possible. But right now, you really could not stop yourself from lying your way out of this one. You decided to blame it on the fear of upsetting a client, and not the impossible-to-control empathy that Jungkook’s doe eyes seemed to naturally draw out of people.

“I just need a coffee. It’s been a while, my hands need a break. And my brain’s kinda overwhelmed, too,” you expertly lied, relaxing when Jungkook’s eyebrows lifted.

“We’ve been sitting here for long, haven’t we?” he said in an almost guilty tone before standing up. “And I didn’t even show you around the dorm!”

You tried to tell him how it was really not necessary, not to mention a bit too personal and…not what you were here for? But he was already moving towards the door and beckoning you along.

“Come on, let’s drop by the kitchen and then we’ll take a walk around the property!” he enthusiastically announced.

You stood up and followed him out of the room, awkwardly trying to ignore the two bodyguards that had stood as still as mannequins while you were in the room and then started to follow Jungkook wordlessly as you left.

The walk to the kitchen was a short one, and the place was, unsurprisingly, not empty.

Your team members along with their partnered BTS members had been assigned one particular space in the dorm, each. According to the email you received last evening, the kitchen was supposed to be used by Simon and—

“Taehyungie-hyung! Are those chicken burgers?” Jungkook excitedly rounded the kitchen island to peek into the paper bag Taehyung was fiddling with. “They smell so good…”

You looked from Jungkook’s face that was awash with childlike excitement to Taehyung’s, and your breath caught when you found his eyes already trained on you. While you struggled to formulate a coherent thought at the intensity his eyes seemed to be emanating, yet again, his lips slipped into an easy smile.

“Hello!” he greeted you cheerily, bowing his head.

You, dazedly, bowed back and dragged your feet up to the island, standing across from the two guys. “Hey,” you mumbled in English.

His smile widened further to show his teeth. “Food?” he asked you in English, nodding at the burger Jungkook was pulling out of the bag.

You shook your head. “No, coffee,” you responded in Korean, earning raised eyebrows from him.

“I hate coffee.”

You smiled, this time. “You’re missing out.”

“Can I call you by your name?” he asked out of the blue, and you did a double take.

“Uh…yes?” you stammered. “Yes, of course Taehyung-ssi.”

“You should call me Tae.”

You swallowed, continually nodding your head like a damn puppet. “Yes. Tae. Sure.”

“I’m bac—boss?”

You twisted on your heels at the familiar squeak. “Simon, hi,” you mumbled, professionalism slipping over you in the blink of an eye at having a member of your team in your vicinity. “Where did you wander off to?”

Simon seemed to be sweating a bit, and you really couldn’t really tell why. You’d just asked a simple question.

Maybe you’d become too scary…

“Just the loo,” Simon responded with a forced giggle.

You nodded, giving him a long look and observing how his smile grew progressively weirder. Then you turned back to the island. And nearly choked.

Taehyung’s fringe hung over his eyes, making his eyes look that much more hooded. His lips were twisted up as he watched you.

Oh, dear God, did this guy have a crush on you or something? But how? Why?

He was a bonafide Greek God, and you were…well. Not.

And needless to say, he was literally not allowed to have a crush on you. Or anybody else, for that matter. It was against BigHit’s policies. According to what you’d read, the boys were to wait out one more year, as of now, before indulging in any sort of romance.

You were, by contract, also bound to not encourage any such advancements. Not that smiling at you could be considered one, to be honest. He could very well be trying to make friends, and you could be reading too much into it.

You decided to stop thinking so much.

“You want to eat something?” Jungkook asked as he handed you a cup of brew.

You smiled and shook your head. “I don’t eat at work. None of us do.” You eyed Simon and he nodded with his gaze wide. “Disturbs the momentum.”

“Hey, you shouldn’t consider this strictly work,” Taehyung spoke up in that deep ass voice of his, startling you. “We’re also making friends, here. This is also not your office, but our home.”

And then he grinned at you with all of his teeth. You felt your cheeks heating up.

This was not going according to plan.

You were panicking.

Flashing Taehyung a close-lipped smile, you stepped away from the counter. “Um, Jungkook?” you mumbled. “D’you guys have a pool in the house?”

Jungkook looked surprised but as enthusiastic as ever. He nodded, his hair bouncing all over. “Come on!”

Throughout your walk around the house, you had tried to slip in ideas from your first three week’s layout to Jungkook that would fascinate him enough to make him at least want to hear them out. And, you’d proudly like to claim, it had worked.

Jungkook had heard your plans and had even asked you to pull the list up on your laptop to have a look at it. And henceforth, you’d made tremendous progress.

And now, at nearly nine o’clock of the night, you and your team were taking your leave for the day.

You had exchanged brief words with all the members to see how they found their partners. Currently, you were conversing with Yoongi.

“ARMYs know a lot about all of that,” the guy said, referring to his life before BTS. “But there’s still a lot that they don’t. I talked to Nathan about all of it, we made notes. I’m really excited about the book.”

You gave him a professional grin. “I couldn’t be happier! Nathan’s got a really innovative mind. I’m sure he’ll make this a good experience for you.”

Nodding, Yoongi wished you a good night and bowed. You bowed back, moving away from the building and towards the vans waiting to drive you back to your hotel.

Jimin flashed you a wide grin as you got into the car. “Have a good night,” he wished you, shutting the door like a gentleman. Then he peeked and waved at Areum, your team member assigned to him. “See you tomorrow, Areum-ssi!”

Namjoon followed suit with a hand forwarded through the window for you to shake. “How did today go for you?” he asked you in English, causing Hoseok to elbow Jungkook, probably asking the younger to eavesdrop. Jungkook’s eyes met yours, though, and the two of you shared a covert giggle. “Did we meet your expectations?”

You smiled, formally. “It was… a good introduction of sorts, I’d say. Highly informative. Moderately productive. And we didn’t have any expectations, per se, but my team really loved you guys. We’re super excited to be working with you.”

You looked around yourself, prompting the three team members seated with you to nod in agreement. “Likewise!” Namjoon nodded at you, his smile turning his eyes to crescent moons.

“Thank you. How was your experience with Sana?” you asked him, nudging the girl sitting next to you.

Namjoon grinned with his teeth. “Amazing! She’s really compassionate and driven. Today’s session was interesting and felt comfortable. I’m eagerly looking forward to more.”

You secretly exhaled in relief. Sana had been the one person on your team that you’d been the most worried about. It was good to learn that she’d managed to impress Namjoon despite her initial nerves.

Next to you, she gave a short, very professional chuckle, and leant by you to nod at Namjoon. “Thank you, Namjoon-ssi.”

“Have a safe journey and a good night,” Namjoon wished you before peeking into the car. “Bye, Sana! See you tomorrow!”

You waved at the boys and their manager as your van started to move. You looked behind to check that the other one, carrying the remaining three members of your team, was following closely behind.

“What a day!” Simon exclaimed from his seat opposite you.

“You can say that again,” you mumbled, massaging your temples. “And what was up with you? You looked really wound up when I saw you in the kitchen.”

Simon took his glasses off and rested his head against the back of the van’s seat. “Let’s just wait it out, boss. I’ll tell you later if I absolutely have to. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

You frowned, but let him be.

Today was just the first day. If you stuck to your schedule, you would have a hundred and twenty five more of these before this project was done.

You could do it.

Right?

You, as it turned out by the end of the first week, could do it. The same couldn’t be said about Simon, though.

On Saturday night, barely an hour after you’d all retired to your rooms after dinner, Simon sent an SOS to the group chat. The six of you were in his room within a minute.

“You look physically okay,” Nathan, the only other guy on the team, mumbled as he squinted at the bespectacled nervous wreck. “What’s up?”

“I can’t do this anymore!” Simon blurted out.

All eyes immediately landed on you.

You did a double take. “Come again? You can’t do what anymore?”

He sighed, shrinking into himself as Riya, another member of your team, sleepily sat on one corner of his bed. “You can’t quit the project, Si,” she mumbled, patting his shoulder. “You signed a contract.”

Simon’s wide eyes met yours. You raised your eyebrows.

“Then—then I need a different partner.”

Sana clicked her tongue. “No can do. We’ve all worked on our homeworks. No one’s gonna sacrifice theirs for you.”

You agreed, so you stayed quiet when Simon looked at you in hopes of a counter.

“I can’t go into another week, please! It’s…” Simon trailed off with a helpless expression on his face.

You sighed. “Everyone, out.”

Your team trickled out of the room, tossing curious glances and hushed whispers your way.

“What is it?” you questioned Simon when it was just the two of you.

“He’s too intense. I have a huge crush on him.”

Your jaw fell open. “Dude… I… what? You have a fiance!”

He exhaled. “Yeah, he cheated on me.”

You drew a sharp breath, shocked. “Oh. Oh, my God, what? What the hell’s been going on with you, I’m so sorry, Simon. Are you…okay? When did you find out?”

“I’d been suspicious for a whole week, hoping it’d turn out to be a lie.” He sighed. “Guess not. But, don’t worry.” He waved a dismissive hand. “I’ll deal with it, no big deal. It’s happened before. I’ve done it before, too, that’s not the issue. The problem is that, right now, this is all making me wanna kiss Taheyung. What the fuck do I do, boss?”

You sympathised with the guy and felt responsible, in a way. After all, you’d been the one that forced him to propose to his boyfriend so that you could bring him with you on this project. If only you knew what kind of a toxic pair these two were! Goddammit.

But, this guy was really telling you he couldn’t focus on work properly because he wanted to kiss Taehyung? For real?

What a guy.

“Get a fucking grip, Simon, what else?” you exclaimed, throwing your arms up.

“No, I can’t. Don’t you think I have tried, already? Please take me off this project before I fuck things up for all of us and the company.” He shut his eyes, rubbing his face with both his palms. “And I’ve also, technically, broken the contract, so… Ask Boss to send someone else in.”

Was this happening for real? You were caught between wanting to smash the glass vase kept next to you over Simon’s head, and hurling yourself over the balcony.

You inhaled deeply, then exhaled. You could, realistically, do neither of the above. So you thought clinically and professionally, and made the sound decision to burden your boss with this mess instead of trying to sweep it under the rug by yourself.

“Fine.” You cleared your throat. “Take a break tomorrow. I’ll have a word with Manager Woo, he’ll talk to Taehyung. Tomorrow’s a Sunday, so I’ll be calling Boss for the first weekly check-in. I’ll ask her if something can be done to replace you on the team.”

Simon nodded with a grimace, which may have been his attempt at trying to smile.

You retired to your room on heavy feet. How could things go south in a week? You had barely begun and a buckload of bullshit was on you already.

Exhaling, you opened your laptop to leave a mail for Manager Woo. Quoting a personal emergency, you drafted an apologetic letter stating Simon’s absence tomorrow and asked the man to forward your apologies to Taehyung as well. At the same time, you were also mentally seasoning yourself for a possible confrontation with Taehyung when you went in tomorrow.

You’d just put your laptop away when your phone rang. Frowning, you lifted it up, only to silent the ring with a groan.

Ever since you landed in Seoul, your best-friend cum roommate back at home had taken to giving you a call every single night. Even when you didn’t pick up. Ever.

Every morning you would text him an apology, and every night he would call again. It’d been a week to this pattern, now.

Why was he doing this? You’d made it abundantly clear that you weren’t going to get roped into any kind of affair with him—emotional or physical. What did he want, now?

For a second, you wondered if he was maybe only just concerned about your well-being in a foreign country? But then you dismissed it, immediately. Why would he? What had you ever done to deserve his—or anyone’s, really—concern? You were a bitch to the majority of people in your life, without trying and even meaning to. Why would anyone give a fuck about you without ulterior motives, right?

Lying back on your pillows, you looked at the ceiling.

You’d been absolutely horrible at treating people with compassion and care for the majority of your life. You were always labelled either too prudish, too selfish, too career-oriented, or plainly, too narcissistic by people around you.

And, strangely enough, it never bothered you.

But that didn’t mean you had not cared about anyone, ever. You had. Too much too, once upon a time. But what had that left you with? Expectations and hurt.

So then, wasn’t it better to not care at all, and not expect at all? You never got hurt, this way.

Sighing, you rolled over to your side, tugging the covers up to your chin. Lifting up your phone from the nightstand, you turned it to silent.

An unread message was displayed on the locked screen:

Looks like you went to bed early again, lol. Hope you’re safe, warm and relaxed. Have a good day at work tomorrow xo

You sighed, yet again. You did not need anyone’s hugs and kisses for your day to be good. Why couldn’t people take a hint?

Shutting your eyes, you tried to get some sleep.

You were absolutely not surprised when, barely an hour into a fierce discussion about his school life, you and Jungkook were disturbed by a knock on the door. But Jungkook was, and jumped at the loud rapping, his wide eyes flashing to the door.

Your back being to the doorway, you looked at the boy expectantly to inform you of the intruder. Not that you didn’t already know.

Jungkook didn’t say anything, though, and simply kept looking behind you with raised eyebrows and rounded eyes. You sat very tightly wound up, contemplating whether to peek around the sofa’s high back or to stand up, when a deep, heavy voice enunciated your name.

You stood up, slowly, pulling on a professional frown of very minute concern on your face. You willed yourself to act surprised when your eyes met a timid looking Taehyung’s. And, you actually slightly were, too. Why did he seem so shifty and nervous?

“Hello, Tae,” you wished, formally bowing to greet him.

He bowed back, licking his lips as he stood back straight up. “May I please borrow you for a few minutes?”

You twisted on your heels to look at Jungkook. It took him a few seconds to focus on your stare and recognise the question. “Oh! Sure! Of course! I’ll be here, I’ll wait.”

Nodding in gratitude, you stepped out of the studio to join Taehyung in the lounge area attached to the kitchen.

“I know what you would ask—”

“Have I not been cooperating well with Simon?” Taehyung cut you off with a question you were not expecting.

You frowned. “What makes you say that? He had a personal emergency today, Tae, that’s all! I’m sure he must be having a great time working with you.”

Taehyung sighed. “You think, or you know?”

How were you supposed to answer that? You bit your lip, trying to read Taehyung’s eyes, but the collar-bones peeking above the wide neckline of his oversized, brown t-shirt kept distracting you. On some level, you could understand what Simon must have been facing. But! You were all supposed to be professional adults and quell any unprofessional thoughts and not foster them!

You turned your face to your feet, not missing the wide-legged, knee-length shorts Taehyung wore. You mentally cursed yourself.

His sigh floated over to you. “I hope it isn’t something I did. I know I can seem a bit overwhelming sometimes and uninterested at other times, but… I am excited for this project and I really want to give it my best, too.” His eyes looked pained when you met them again. You softened. “Please tell me the truth.”

You drew in a breath. “It’s just as I told you, Tae. Simon has to sort some issues out in his personal life. And what makes you think you’re too overwhelming or uninterested? Did Simon say something?”

“No, no!” Taehyung immediately shook his head. “I just…speak from previous experiences. I don’t collaborate with people that well. I tire them out. And Simon… I don’t think we like each other’s approach very much. I feel like he doesn’t really agree with my ideas, just goes along out of courtesy.”

Your lips turned downwards. “I’m sure it’s none of that, Tae. Absolutely positive. And if worse comes to worst and the two of you actually aren’t able to work together, we will arrange for a switch-up so that you’re able to work comfortably.”

Taehyung seemed to perk up at that. “Switch-up? Will you work with me?”

You narrowed your eyes. He seemed a bit too keen about wanting to work with you, didn’t he? You could very clearly recall your first meeting and how he’d seemed to wane when you told him you were paired up with Jungkook.

Curious.

“We’ll see how it unfolds. But as of now, I am partnered up with Jungkook and you’re fretting over nothing. Simon will be back tomorrow, and things will get back on track. I promise.”

You hoped.

Taehyung nodded, excusing himself to visit the kitchen and you took your leave and came back to an eagerly waiting Jungkook.

He stood up the moment you entered the room. “Is everything okay? Hyung looked sad.”

You honestly had zero idea as to what to tell Jungkook. Pursing your lips, you slowly nodded in contemplation as you made your way to your seat. “He’s not working well with Simon,” you honestly told him.

“Oh.” Jungkook’s lips rounded, forming an adorable pout. “Taehyung hyung has a very artistic soul,” he said, taking you by surprise. You leant forward to listen in with interest. “He tends to get awkward and insecure about his ideas and conceptualizations. They’re usually off-beat and hard to work with, but they’re amazingly creative if you look at them like an artist. Not everybody has the right vision for those things, though. Maybe that is why Simon is…” Jungkook trailed off with a shrug.

You bit your lip in consideration. Taehyung’s words echoed in your head.

‘I don’t think we like each other’s approach very much.’

Maybe they really were mismatched, outside of Simon’s immature, unprofessional, god-awful behaviour, too.

“Hey, could we add him to our group?” Jungkook suddenly asked, confusing you.

“Huh?” you very eloquently responded.

He gave a small giggle. “Hyung. Could he work with us? We have been pretty efficient, and you certainly seem to have an artistic vision.”

You smiled. “Thank you, Jungkook, that’s really flattering. But also, no, I don’t think we can do that. The contract we’ve all drawn has a couple of strict clauses and one-on-one sessions is one of them.”

Frowning, Jungkook nodded in acceptance.

The two of you resumed your discussions from before, but the vigour and drive was now lessened to a great extent. You, especially, couldn’t stop worrying. You were the leader of the team, after all.

Sunday night brought in the awaited conference call with your boss.

Looking at her excited, smiling face on your computer screen, you couldn’t help but dread the news you were about to break to her.

“So. How is it going?” Your boss rubbed her hands together, wiggling her eyebrows. “How is Sana doing? You were quite wound up about her, if I remember correctly.”

“You do remember correctly. There’s good news and bad news,” you responded with a grimace. “Which one first?”

Your boss pursed her lips. “Don’t wanna immediately spoil my mood, so, the good one please.”

“Sana has been doing fantastic. She’s been nothing short of professional, and according to what I’ve seen and heard, Namjoon is really pleased with her,” you relayed, smiling when your boss sighed in relief.

“Okay, so that’s out of the way. What’s wrong?”

You sighed. Better rip the band-aid straight off. “Simon has a huge crush on Taehyung and feels like he broke the contract. He wants to leave.”

You watched quietly as your boss choked on an inhale, coughed, had some water, and sat back down to blink at you with a blank face. “These words must not leave your room. Or Simon’s. None of the BigHit staff must catch a wind of it.”

You groaned. “Please don’t ask me to work through this, boss, please—”

“Work through it, Y/N!” your boss cruelly cut you off. “This is such a tiny, little, manageable thing! Resolve it.”

You gawked. “You literally just choked—how is this little, boss?”

“Counsel Simon. Ask him to push through. Threaten his employment with us, if necessary.”

It was your turn to blink at her, owlishly. “And? That’s it?”

Your boss shrugged. “And if it doesn’t work out, swap him with someone else on your team.”

You sighed. “This is all such high school, teen flick bullshit. What the hell.”

“I know, hun. Which is why I’m asking you to manage it. And I know you can. You’re my favourite, Y/N.” Your boss nodded at you with a solemn look. “I have believed in your capabilities since day one. It’s time to make them shine.”

You nodded, dumbly. The back of your mind was hinting at an inkling that you were being manipulated by flattery, but the forefront was basking in all the praise and could really not be bothered.

All you had to do was keep the whole thing hush-hush from the BigHit people and keep Simon in line, right? You could manage that.

Bidding your boss goodbye, you rung up Simon.

“Hey, boss.”

“You’re coming with us tomorrow and you’re gonna be a fucking professional like you’re supposed to!” you barked into the phone. “Bottle up your feelings, or eat them—I don’t care. You’ll do the job you were here for, and you’ll do it right.”

There was a long, suspended silence at the other end. And then a sigh escaped Simon. “I don’t think I have a choice. Fine, I’ll try.”

You put your phone to silent and shut your eyes, knowing you’d receive another call tonight and that you won’t pick up tonight, either.

You lay back in the bed, gearing up for tomorrow.

If worse actually did come to worst, and Simon sent everything down the rabbit hole, who would you make him swap places with? All of you had built really amazing rapports with your assigned partners in just a week. No one would be willing to start over.

If it came to it, would you have to? Would you be able to?

You could maintain professionalism a hundred times better than Simon, that much was certain. But you and Jungkook had been working so well! And who was to say Simon wouldn’t cause trouble with Jungkook, too?

You let out a whine, beyond mad at the situation this guy had landed you in.

But you’d have to navigate out of it, somehow. This was the biggest project of your life so far—the first ever you were heading. You would ensure everything worked out at the end.

You would tie all the loose ends and make it all work. You would.

(You literally had no choice.)

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echo-three-one · 3 years

Text

Whatever It Takes

Sequel to A Forgotten Memory

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

With more and more information revealed via Augustus' burner phone, The team now has to make an important decision, one that would change the course of their lives, forever.

Chapter 15 to another story made by Ray (echo-three-one) Comments and Reviews appreciated! I hope you enjoy! Love you all ❤️

Previous Chapter : Meet Me Halfway

Unexpected Alliances

Gary "Roach" Sanderson

Task Force 141

Flying above Russian Airspace

Roach was speechless. Admittedly the dark and messy battle at the Gulag was something worth noting but the thing that kept his head preoccupied at the moment was Soap and France kissing in the middle of warfare.

Guess love knows no boundaries huh. He thought to himself as he looked at France kneeling beside Soap who passed out from exhaustion. Another person laying beside him was an old man named Jack. The 141 records had a match to Jack, he's apparently Alex's mentor who got missing when their safehouse got raided.

Guess the force will be having two reunions tonight. His eyes turned to Price, who sat by the huge window and gazed into the sea of clouds, he's always serious and in thought that Gary found him intimidating, even after that short mission in Germany.

Then there was Ghost. He's surely heartbroken now that she saw what France did. And Gary was slightly to blame, well not necessarily his fault but if he pushed him enough to confess, maybe this won't hurt more than it did to him today.

Gary spent the rest of the trip observing, noting his comrade's actions, discussing with their thoughts, especially after the invasion. He was glad 141 extracted Soap before the deliberation, where none of them are allowed to perform missions. Gary felt scared, he just got here, got the hang of it, and was afraid to cut ties with the 141 on such short notice. But he hoped Shepherd would talk sense to the board, especially now that the burner phone filled with leads was within their possession.

"You're awfully quiet…" Ghost nudged to Gary while fidgeting with his gun.

"Well, I got nothing to talk about." Gary replied, turning to the masked man.

"Well I've got a lot, and it's pretty nasty. Can't say it here though." He replied, his tone was almost relieved, as if he just blurted out something that was bothering him for a long time.

"Is it about them?" Gary whispered, pointing his thumb to the couple back at the med bay.

"That's a different story, and I told you I was right, they already had a thing going on since day 1. Who am I to interfere…" Gary could feel him frown beneath the mask, he got defeated in the war of love.

"That's okay… You'll find someone better." Gary consoled and Ghost automatically shrugged it off.

"Eh. I hope…" he said, turning to the window opposite to Gary's position.

Task Force 141 Base - Infirmary

"The audio from this room's camera is muted so it's best to discuss it here." Ghost sat on the chair as concerned 141 members circled around him, Jack, Alex and Soap occupied the beds as they recovered from injuries.

"What you got for us, lad?" Price crossed his arms as he leaned by the door, his hat tilted perfectly on his head.

"An anonymous number sent Augustus coordinates of the base prior to the attack." He held up the phone and everyone murmured.

"Looks like we have another mole in our hands." Alex grunted, turning to Jack for nostalgia.

"But this time, we have a solid lead to who it is…" Ghost added while everyone braced themselves for the slap of reality they're going to get.

From out of nowhere the infirmary doors opened, Maxine was panting and sobbing at the same time, her hands held her thigh desperately enduring some sort of pain.

"It's Samantha… haaah… Shepherd took her!..." she panted as Gary quickly assisted him while everyone who was capable of fighting dashed to the scene.

"Go, Gary. I'll take care of her." Soap quickly got up with Jack, they were already fine and just required to complete their nutrition so assisting her would be the best option.

Gary nodded and dashed outside, bracing himself for the unbearable news.

"Shit. What's going on! I thought we already agreed not to take Samantha elsewhere!" Gary caught up with Ghost and the rest of the available team.

"I have my wild guess, but you're not going to like it." He replied, adjusting his shades as they exited the building. From there, they saw the General's aircraft already far away from their reach. Behind them Alex, Soap, Jack and Maxine followed, their faces were drawn with extreme sadness.

A few seconds of staring at the sky and Price's comms received an incoming message.

"Captain, I regret to inform you that the 141 is no more… I'm sending the High Value Individual to their care as the threat escalated and is being designated to a different force. I'm sorry. Please tell the rest of the group that in two weeks they will be returned to their prior assignments before 141 was established." his voice was nonchalant, emotionless and straightforward, like he's reading it from a diner table's tissue paper.

"No…" Price muttered. They were this close to Nero. The rest of the team looked down, others started to disperse and did as ordered while the more concerned group stayed.

"Shepherd's working with Nero. He wants the EMP based weaponry to help his marines in Afghanistan." Ghost blurted, raising the heads of everyone around him.

"He's trading the economical side of the world to win a war?" Gary asked, as the information doesn't add up.

"It's a wild guess but the global economic pressure is already influencing the government to allocate more funds to anti terrorism. Cutting off 141 shouldn't be in play but he found a way to do so… He wants us to stop fighting back."

"Then fighting back is what we're going to do." Price muttered, grabbing his phone.

"I'm going to make a few phone calls. Those who want to stay and save the world could stay. Those who are content to return to their past lives, you could leave."

"What about me?" Maxine asked, raising her hand.

"Come with us, We'll take care of you while it's not safe out." Gary said, almost pleading her to say yes.

"I don't have anyone else but France and Samantha. I don't know where to go from here…"

"Then that settles it. Nikolai will take us somewhere safe. If the 141 is no more, we could still salvage weapons and ammo for ourselves. But after this, there's no turning back." Price added, his voice sparked inspiration to everyone.

And that was it, from that moment. They've gone rogue, for a good cause. And they have to defeat Nero, Whatever it takes.

The Next Step

John Price

Task Force 141 - Disbanded

Former Task Force 141 Base - Helipad

A small group of his comrades were willing enough to stop the war, even at the cost of losing a lot of privileges. Price was always one to work under strict jurisdiction, and this rogue act he's going to commit will be backed up soon, it's going to be dependent on how Laswell influences the board.

The idea was easy. Create another task force which had to be approved prior to the 141's disbandment so that the papers for their redeployment would never be processed. Of course a few strings needed to be pulled and an organization must be able to absorb them. Interpol was willing to help along with Jack's influence to the CIA and Price was lucky enough to have them two on their side.

And there they were, with Nikolai's majestic aircraft, they set course to a temporary camp thanks to Jack. Price noted that he'd get along with the CIA, given they're age similarities and stance toward warfare.

He surveyed his trusty crew and took note of their abilities. There's Alex, former CIA and fought alongside him in Verdansk and Urzikstan. He's got a clear objective and will and it doesn't matter to Price whether its love or world peace. He's good at terrible hostile locations and can single-handedly turn the tide of war by local agreements and persuasion. A good weapon.

Then there's Simon Riley, or Ghost. Excellent Sniper, the team's tech guy. He's a keeper, his ability to reject emotions while in combat makes him focused and a keen observer. He also excels in weapon usage. You give him anything with a trigger and he'll be sure to hit enemies no matter what.

Another one is John MacTavish, or Soap, what kind of a name is Soap? Price thought. Price looked at the muppet proudly. He rose among his comrades during recruitment and stood at the top of his batch, showing exemplary combat skills and demolitions expertise. Excellent at handling air support machinery and his keen eye never misses a tango hiding from the field. He's got it tough recently, Price believed luck wasn't on his side that's why he got injured a lot.

There's Gary Sanderson or Roach. Price calls him the team's therapist. He sees the willingness to help from the guy. He's eager to train hard and be better and he was impressed on how he handled the German Infilnitration they did together. He has initiative and a clear goal. Something useful at these times.

There's Francine Winters, France a.k.a. Shepherd's prodigy, the last minute addition. He's still quite skeptic as to why she's placed here, but so far he knew that with her sister mentally disturbed by the enemies she's bound to use her emotions as ammunition. She's great at stealth and close combat especially great for breaking and entering missions. She could be trained of open area battles and she has the drive to do so, making her another good addition to the team.

As for the remaining ones, Jack and Maxine, he has no idea yet but them tagging along and using their resources to the fight would greatly increase their chances of killing Nero and destroying the era of EMP machinery.

"Looks like you got yourself a pretty nice team, pal." Jack patted the Former captain's shoulder.

"Yeah. Small enough to remain secret and powerful enough to defeat Nero." he muttered. Jack held his phone and showed it to Price.

"I got us a place. An old CIA Safehouse."

"Are you sure this is going to be okay?"

"Positive. This one's not used for decades. Classified as dormant and unmaintained. It's situated near a city that once housed a lot of terror activity but after it got neutralized it became very peaceful." Jack convinced. Price no longer hesitated, the team needed the help they can get.

"As long as we're under the radar." He replied and gave Nikolai the coordinates. From there they would begin their revenge toward Nero's attack, plan Samantha's rescue, and discover what Shepherd is really up to...

One step at a time.

Doing everything they can.

To set things right.

Whatever it Takes.

END OF PART 1

Wild ride first half. I hope you stay for the second part right around the corner!

Notification Squad my beloved 💝

@smokeywhalee @samatedeansbroccoli @enderio @ricinbach @beemybee @whimsywispsblog

#horRAYfic #whateverittakes #john price #simon ghost riley #gary roach sanderson #john soap MacTavish #alex echo 3 1 #cod #codmw

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phantomchick · 3 years

Text

List of wips - aka struggles

Call Me A Jason Todd fic I started two years ago and still go back to poke at longingly, will the second and final chapter ever be posted? Who can know for sure.

I tell myself that I don't need Anyone (But the truth is no one needs Me) Another Jason Todd fic I haven't completed, posted two years ago for whumptober, it was the only day of whumptober I participated in, intended to be full of Captain Atom and Jason Todd interacting during the fall out of Bludhaven getting chemo'd but he doesn't show up in the first chapter and have you ever tried to read Infinite Crisis? It's a fucking mess. With this wip I have a close to justifiable excuse in that I refuse to write without knowing the canon, and reading through all the canon that's relevant is A Task.

The Monster in The Man A Merlin fic floating around my drafts, currently at a good bit over 5k wherein Merlin gets POSSESSED by an old enchantment gone mad. Written because a Merlin fic I read ended on a horror style cliffhanger and I couldn't handle it so I charged my way through the first 2k of a sequel and I've been adding to it ever since. Angst with a hopefully happy ending, if I ever frikking finish it.

The Dragon Lord In the aftermath of his father's death after Merlin inherits his father's dragon lord abilities he notices some minor changes to his interactions with his friends, the thing is that Merlin is a dragon lord and unusually what he hoards is people, things might just turn out the better for it.

Maelstrom A Naruto time travel fix it fic that wouldn't leave me alone until I got the first chapter out, ironically it has left me entirely alone since I finished the first chapter and I have no idea if inspiration for it will ever return or when that will be.

You Don't Know Anything Long long ago in a land of asks and a time of legend @paradise-runway sent me a fic request for "one where the other Bat boys find out the circumstances of Jason's death and resurrection and their reaction?" it has been lingering in my drafts haunting me ever since, someday, someday I shall fulfill what has been promised.

Of Curses and Covenants A longfic exploring the magical underbelly of Gotham's history, focuses on the intertwined relationship of the Wayne Family and the Zatara Family brought about by how often Waynes through the generations have ended up being cursed. I have an index of all the curses ready, the problem with this one is the plot and the story.

Vicki Finds a Bat (temporary title) Vicki Vale stumbles upon a still alive young adult Jason Todd at a wafflehouse on the way back from snooping into Cobblepot's latest criminal schemes. Convincing the young man to go back home to his loving father might prove more of a challenge than she thinks however. (will have a happy ending if I ever fucking finish it, for now it looms in my drafts like an unhappy gargoyle)

Hug Deficit A fic about Jason being touch starved and his family fixing it, hurt/comfort all the way, post resurrection.

Stephanie Brown and The Mansion of Man Pain Robin Era Steph, she and Alfred have pumpkin spice lattes together, it's their thing because I say it is. Includes, Alfred raised 5 boys counting Bruce, he's not sure how to handle a little girl and Bruce trying to dad plus Steph trying her best. Would be a lot easier to write if I was any good at comedy.

Another Time, Another Place Some twenty years or so after their death, Martha and Thomas Wayne appear in the middle of Wayne Manor's ground floor parlour room, the major problem with this? Not only are Bruce and Dick away, Alfred's on holiday in England! Which is why Jason as the eldest has been unwillingly nominated by his younger siblings to deal with the situation at hand. Martha and Thomas in this are heavily inspired by @unpretty's amazing portrayals in her fics with them.

- Queen Blackfire and the Lazarus Lord An au with Soulmate identifying marks: Jason Todd was having an okay time as de-facto leader of The Outlaws, a band of misfits and rebels with hearts of gold (or at least silver) saving the world the best they could and filling in the gaps the more straightforward heroes tended to miss while they were at it. Then he found out he was soulmates with the Alien Warrior Queen bent on declaring war on planet Earth if the Justice League didn't find her soulmate for her. Things with his friend, team mate and potential future sister in law Kori just got super awkward and the only good thing he can find about this situation is how angry (and protective? But maybe he's just imagining that) Bruce seems over the whole thing.

Side note: Kommand'r freaked out during the years Jason was 'dead' and accidentally brought peace to a huge chunk of space and intergalactic society via building up her empire after throwing herself into work to escape the grief.

- To Grasp The Hand of a Fox Naruto and Kurama travel back in time to save the world but unfortunately they land in the same moment that Kurama's just been put under a genjutsu by Madara Uchiha, Naruto has to make his way to Konoha and wake Kurama up before the villagers seal him away inside Mito. Can he save his friend in time to save them all?

Those Winter Sundays Mcu fic. Snapshots of Tony working hard for the avengers and no one noticing. Civil War Team Iron Man.

- Salvation Rides a Solar Wind Iron Man fic in a Science fiction / Western style fic where Tony's presence is described through the eyes of the aliens he helps. Au where the war with Thanos goes very differently. The type of fic that needs like 5 multi chapter fics in a single series to truly shine, hence why I will likely never finish it.

And We Break Away Again Jason goes back to Talia after Damian is brought back from the dead by Bruce. It's not that he begrudges his little brother his resurrection, the opposite, but he can't ignore what Bruce did to him by taking him to the magdala valley and he can't ignore what Bruce doing for Damian what he didn't do for him, (do for Dick, do for any of them besides the blood related one) means. So he decides to go back to the only person who ever seemed to understand why he wanted to avenge himself in the first place, the only person who seemed to agree that he had a right to be angry that he'd died at all, the only person he can trust to hold him together while he feels like he's falling apart that won't judge him against the heroic mold while they're at it. Not sure if this will be a oneshot or a series but we're going good Talia with this one regardless, DC's been ruining her lately but through fanfic all things are possible so fuck them.

Fan The Flames In the aftermath of a magical fire taking hold of the Daily Planet in Metropolis, Superman is missing, can Batman and the rest of the Justice League find their friend as well as the identity of the evil arsonist before Lex Luther does it first?

In a Whisper (In a Wish) Ichigo Kurosaki protects people, it's not just who he is, it's what he is, down to the core of his very soul. The only problem is, that a few weeks ago he sacrificed half his soul to protect the world. It aches inside where he knows something important used to be. When everyone he cares for is avoiding him and he's starting to feel more like a shadow than a person, that aches at him too and he can't help but wish, quietly, privately, painfully, to himself if no one else that things were different, that he wasn't so broken or so alone. But if wishes were fishes they'd fill a whole sea (just be careful not to whisper them within the hearing range of the Hōgyoku).

An Honest Conversation (Is A Bitter Thing To Crave) Jason kidnaps Bruce but things don't go as Bruce expects. First of all the reason Jason was able to kidnap him was because Stephanie of all people was his insider, why would she support someone Batman knows she's only met once. And second of all the reason he's been abducted - So that Jason can drug them both with the same substance. And when Bruce asks what he's doing this for Jason only responds, "We don't trust each other enough to have a truthful conversation otherwise" and refuses to say anything more while they wait for it to kick in. What will be revealed by this forced honest encounter on both sides? -

carrying the world on thin shoulders Midoriya Izuku deserves better from literally all the adults in his life so this is part whump part hurt comfort part fix it fic that sprawls out from time to time but it's pretty bad tbh, at some point I'll probably make it neater and give it something resembling a coherent plot. Hopefully. -

Trust Issues HP fic. Harry gets dosed with a potion that's supposed to reinforce your strongest survival instinct, the person who drugged him might've intended to be helpful but said potion happened to be at extra strength and he was given what would be a normal fix for the regular version but for this one is twice the recommended amount. Great.. The biggest problem about all this - beyond his internationally wanted godfather Sirius endangering himself by hiding out in a cave near Hogsmeade against all rational advice, his best friend Ron hating him, everyone in school besides his other best friend Hermione also hating him or avoiding him and the entire Goblet of Fire problem - is that he can't bring himself to trust anyone enough to tell them what's wrong.

Truth is Treason in the Empire of Lies A post marvel avengers story, thor pov probably, made because I like to dive into a pool of thor & loki sibling feels sometimes: Starts off as Thor regales his new human shield brothers with the story of his banishment and return to Asgard ending with Loki falling into the Void and the Avengers have some questions, questions Thor had not thought of, remarks on things that Thor doesn’t know how to explain away. After he goes to Loki’s cell and asks him some things he becomes more and more angry despite having no one he can punch > Gets drunk and criticises Sif and The Warriors Three after they try to calm him down > mention of Loki still being underage by Aesir standards during Thor 1 seeing as Thor was being crowned due to being of age in the movie > heavy inspiration drawn from queen regnant by peaceheather. “For while the Treason I detest, the Traitor I love still.” Currently just an outline.

Separation Split personality disorder Red Hood and Jason Todd, alternatively, Red Hood is a demon/parasite latched on to Jay. A lot of work necessary considering right now it’s currently just an idea inspired by a cool tumblr fanart.

A Trinity of Head Wounds The dcu trinity in the aftermath of a fight against some alien invaders (or something along those lines), whump, hurt/comfort, starts with them arguing, ends with them bleeding on each other in a friendship way, whole thing should take place in a single room on the watchtower and be a oneshot so it's gotta be a short and sweet one-two gut punch with the feelings which is difficuuult.

A Stark in The Stars an mcu fic, a really over complicated mcu fic, mostly because of Steve Roger's timeline fuckery, Tony's alive but he's not supposed to be, but so are a lot of people who were dead but aren't now you might say what with the snap and the blip. The thing is that Steve's timeline fuckery is making it so that everyone keeps getting confused between the two different timelines of events, obviously more confused the more that their characters were connected to the films/the events that were altered, the punchline of this particular fic though is that Tony's still alive and he's unaware of the timeline of events where he died. And as he's currently in space he's also unaware that everyone on Earth thinks he's dead (because why wouldn't they? he died in endgame after all). That makes this fic super tough to write because like ultimate unreliable narrator right here and not sure how to tie in the whole 'oh wait actually everyone on Earth thinks I'm dead because of the canon timelines' thing in or at what point of the story to do that at. The fuckery of it all gives me a headache. Plot is hard. Also all of that's basically background to the actual focus of most of the fic thus far which is Tony travelling around space in an Iron Man suit up until the point where it won't be background.

Magic Chained Merlin au. When you put magic restraining cuffs on Magic himself you don't just bind him you bind all magic the world over. It is therefore, infinitely lucky that Uther Pendragon never became aware of this fact.

A Child in The Cold bnha Midoriya deserves better also Recovery Girl and Aizawa have shit to answer for as far as I'm concerned.

#i have #so many #wiiiiiiiips #there's probably more hidden in various word docs but #blah #personal

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no-gorms · 4 years

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I guess this is a timestamp for Stuck in a...? Last week an anon asked what happens next in that ‘verse and a couple of days later my brain decided to come up with this short thing.

Steve/Tony, established relationship, a/b/o, fade to black (also on ao3)

Left to his own devices, there are few things that can throw Tony out of a workshop groove. Typical hard limits are hunger and exhaustion; softer limits are the occasional frustration at being unable to solve a problem and its opposite, the thrill of finding a solution that he then needs to show off or celebrate.

Then there is the other kind of distraction.

Today, Tony’s working on a pair of experimental rocket boots, which are balanced on a test gantry and awaiting power-up. It’s a straightforward test – a culmination of the morning’s work and is perfectly pedestrian right down to DUM-E’s concerned chirps from nearby with the fire extinguisher. Yet what seemed crystal clear a moment ago seems suddenly hard to pin down, the numbers slipping away from sense every time he looks at them, and forcing Tony to futz with the test parameters on his control screen.

It doesn’t help that his lower back aches. He’s been rubbing his knuckles against it absent-mindedly throughout the morning, though he’d mostly relegated it to a distant ignorable distraction until it travelled upward along his spine and is adding on to the pile of things that are not doing his concentration any favors.

Wait.

“Oh,” Tony says in surprise. “Huh.”

A heat, then. Maybe. He thinks it might be early, not that he’s ever been that good at cycle tracking. That said, Steve is good at cycle tracking and has called his past heats that they’ve shared together right down to a 36-hour margin of error, so the fact that Steve hadn’t blocked Tony’s whole schedule today means that it must be either early or a false alarm.

Tony tips his head back, sets his feet apart and closes his eyes. Rolling warmth immediately blooms out of lower stomach, sending him doubling over.

All right, it’s definitely a heat.

Which means that Tony can surprise Steve for once.

Tony grins. “JARVIS, where’s the good ‘ol Captain?”

“In the conference room, sir.”

“Great. Put a bookmark on everything, would you? Thanks.”

Tony liberally sprays himself with Axe (so his scent won’t give the game away) and leaves the workshop with a spring in his step.

It’s not that he minds having to handle a heat on his own – he’s done that often enough, and gotten suppressants for whenever it’s too inconvenient to bother – but having Steve on his team, as it were, makes the whole thing far more enjoyable. It’s an excuse to drop everything (workshop binge included) and spend time with his favorite person; who, coincidentally, thinks of Tony as his favorite person, and isn’t that just something?

Though Steve would likely protest with something like: do they need an excuse? They can just be together whenever they want to?

To which Tony would respond, but this is the universe purposefully reminding them to take a break from whatever else is going on and just be. Also, the accompanying heat-heightened orgasms are fun.

Tony has more of that make-believe argument with Steve all the way down from the workshop to the conference room floor. It does occur to him that he could go to their room first and set it up – snacks, liquids, change of sheets etc. – but surprising Steve feels far more urgent. Besides, they’ve gotten a pretty good heat/rut routine down by now, which only needs their cycles to settle in sync to be perfect.

But that’s a goal for another time.

Today’s goal has Tony sneaking up to the entrance of the conference room, from which he can hear Steve and other voices in discussion. Tony’s step falters a little as he parses the tones of their voices. Business-like and serious, though it can’t be that serious since they left the door open.

Tony considers his options. He backtracks the way he came and detours to the pantry that’s two rooms over. There’s coffee brewing there already, so he helps himself to a cup and is halfway through it before remembering that caffeine’s not a good idea before a heat. He’d never bothered with such things before Steve, and the fact that that thought has Tony feeling fond instead of annoyed says a lot.

“Fine.” Tony dumps the remainder of the cup, has some water instead, and trudges back towards the conference room.

“—it’s not enough,” Steve’s saying. “I’m sorry, but I’m not comfortable with this.”

“I don’t blame you,” Maria replies. “But we can’t keep the task force there. It’s recall or finish it.”

Tony’s a handful of feet from the doorway. He pauses there, hands on hips, and tries to will the meeting to die by ESP alone.

“I know a guy,” Clint says.

“You know a guy that I don’t?” Natasha says.

“All right,” Steve says. “How do you want to play it?”

Tony rolls his eyes at the ceiling and retreats to the wall just next to the doorway. He leans against it, arms crossed and the ache of earlier starting to creep down his thighs. Excitement of getting to see Steve apparently distracted him enough that he didn’t notice the slow, coiling warmth gathering down below.

Tony takes a deep, chest-rattling breath. His nose always gets more sensitive leading into a heat, and sure enough, he can make out the teasing curl of Steve’s scent in the air – familiar and calm and not close enough. When Tony shuts his eyes he can picture Steve’s form in crystal-clear mental definition: his brow furrowed and his arms crossed, a Captain America in full business mode and not expecting a diversion-in-wait a mere couple of yards away.

“—two-person show,” Clint says. “Any more and we spook them.”

Tony realizes that he’s rubbing his elbows against the wall behind him. He’s marking said wall, but he’s also working off the creeping itch under his skin. At this rate he’s going to start rubbing his face and other sundry body parts against the wallpaper soon. It’s nice wallpaper, and the Tower is technically his so he can mark everything as much as he wants, but the itch won’t be satisfied by that. It’s more likely that the itch will simply grow, and become intolerable, and there’ll be a Tony-shaped scent mark in the wall that’ll take forever to clean.

It occurs to Tony that he’d sped up his heat by coming out here to find Steve, who is right there. In the next room. When he could be in the same room as Tony, and preferably in Tony to boot.

Now that’s a nice thought.

It’s a very nice thought, in fact, and is further buoyed by some very nice memories that he and Steve have made together lately.

Tony realizes he’s panting. His gulps of air dry out his lips, and make him dizzy. He feels compelled, pulled, drawn.

He only realizes he’s started walking when he’s already taken a couple of steps away from the wall, his head tipped up slightly as though tugged through the open space by the invisible lure that is Steve’s presence.

Tony enters the conference room and, finally seeing Steve, makes a bee-line towards him. He also vaguely registers other people in the room but they’re mere shadows, distant and vague, and very unlike the solid, glowing figure of one Steve Rogers.

“Hey Tony,” Steve says. “I thought we were—”

He’s cut off when Tony reaches his target, flinging his arms around Steve’s torso and pressing his face against Steve’s neck. Steve is solid and warm, a wall of muscle that speaks to safety more than strength, and Tony breathes him in deep. There are a few inches of bare skin just above Steve’s collar, and though the skin has Tony’s scent on it, it is muted, which will not do at all. Tony rubs his cheek against Steve’s skin, in firm but small motions back and forth, while Tony’s chest does the same work marking up Steve’s torso.

“Oh, uh.” Steve takes a questioning sniff. “Ah.”

“Well, that’s your day gone,” Maria says. “Just let Barton take an away team—”

“No,” Steve says firmly, “this isn’t an excuse—”

“It is time-sensitive,” Natasha says. “Just saying.”

“I know, but—” Steve makes a surprised sound when Tony moves, sending his arms upward over Steve’s shoulders and wrapping them behind his neck. “Tony—”

Tony pulls. Not very hard, but just enough that Steve hunches over a little, giving Tony the boost he needs to bounce up and wrap both legs around Steve’s waist. Steve is, of course, a very smart man, and immediately has both hands under Tony’s thighs to hold him steady. Tony’s rumbling purr of approval lands at the soft skin of Steve’s neck, just under his ear.

“Yeah, you’re done,” Clint says. “Got a bad case of a limpet.”

“No, I want you to get in touch with your guy, find out what he can put together in 24 hours,” Steve says. Tony really likes the way Steve’s chest vibrates when he talks. He shows his contentment by tightening his grip around Steve, who pats his thigh twice in subtle acknowledgement. “The task force stays. You two put your pull-out plan to paper and send it to my email in an hour, before we even think of engaging.”

“An hour,” Natasha echoes.

“You’ll probably need longer than that to call it in,” Steve says, which has Natasha huffing in amusement. “Task force stays. Got it?”

“Got it,” Maria says. “I’ll pull the latest sat images. An hour, you said?”

“Yeah. Well.” Steve adjusts his grip on Tony and starts walking, presumably to a more private and agreeable destination. “Thereabouts.”

“Bye!” Clint calls out as they leave the room. Tony lifts one hand from Steve’s shoulder just long enough to wave.

When Steve next speaks, his voice is different. Softer, like the very bedsheets Tony hopes Steve’s taking them to. “You’re early,” he says.

“Your powers of deduction are astounding.” Tony tilts his chin up to nip at Steve’s ear, and is gratified by Steve’s shudder against him. Steve’s steps speed up to almost a run, jostling Tony as they move along. Tony grins. “Are you seriously going to take breaks to answer emails?”

“I can multitask,” Steve says tetchily. “Or at the very least, get you distracted enough that you won’t complain.”

“A challenge,” Tony says with a hum. “Sorry for interrupting the whatever, though.”

“Don’t be.” Steve stops walking, and removes one hand from under Tony’s thigh. There’s a click of the doorknob, and then Steve’s shifting his weight to toe the door open and bring them both inside. “I’m grateful that you’re comfortable enough to come to me like that. That’s, uh. It’s nice.”

Oh, so Steve likes that. Success.

Tony’s still grinning when Steve tosses him on the bed.

#scaramouche writes superhusbands fic #alpha beta omega #omegaverse #superhusbands #verse: stuck in a dot dot dot

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coccinelle-et-chaton · 3 years

Text

Chapter 6 of The Wall Between Us is up, fam

This is the one where shit hits the fan.

You can read from the start here or go below the cut for the entire chapter. Enjoy the tears >:)

Fic summary: Marinette is left to pick up the pieces after losing her chance with Adrien and having Master Fu give up his memories to protect the Miraculous Box. She struggles to find her ground as the new Guardian, and when it all becomes too much, finds unexpected support in Luka Couffaine. Simultaneously, Adrien is learning how to navigate his emotions and slowly begins to realize important truths about his feelings for Kagami, Marinette, and Ladybug. Will Marinette and Adrien be able to sort through their feelings and do what's best for the Miraculous team?

CHAPTER 6 If it weren’t for his reflexes and his sudden kick into survival mode, he would’ve gotten hit. Adrien tumbled down to the side just in time to evade an attack from Kagami’s Akuma. He ran as fast as he could, desperately looking for a place to hide. Seeing as the neighboring shops and alleyways were flooding with civilians who were witness to the Akuma, he had to settle for the crevice between two large vans to transform.

He swiftly opened the communication device on his baton and typed and S.O.S. message to Ladybug, as well as his plan to direct the Akuma to an empty field by the riverbank. She would know which one he meant. They made a point of leading all erratic Akumas to this spot. It was in an old industrial zone where immediate damage could be minimized.

Having wrote that, he snapped the baton, clicked it back into his belt and jumped back into action.

This one’s gonna give me nightmares, Chat Noir decided as he got a better look of the Akuma. It floated hauntingly slow, crying as it hit its victims. Its fixed crying expression got more accented every time it hit a new victim. It called itself “The Griever,” and its power was to hypnotize people and give them hallucinations of their most painful memories. Chat gulped as he merely missed one of the beam attacks. He felt the energy buzzing closely to his ear.

Don’t get hit, don’t get hit!

“Hey, you, Casper!” he shouted, claiming the Akuma’s attention and effectively preventing it from claiming new victims. “Aren’t you looking for this?” He flashed his ring at the monster.

The Griever growled and charged speedily at Chat, taking him by surprise.

“Ack!” He vaulted out of the way and started leading the Akuma to the riverbank. “Hurry up, Ladybug!” he pleaded to the winds.

-----

Unaware of the show Chat Noir was putting up for the rest of Paris to see, Luka and Marinette happily sat at a riverside park, sittung under a honey locust tree and quietly enjoying the afternoon nonethewiser to the mayhem a couple blocks west of them.

Luka’s head rested on Marinette’s lap. He sighed lazily at Marinette’s fingers, which combed softly through his hair.Marinette closed her eyes, gently placing her attention on the sound of the wind ruffling the feathery leaves of the honey locust and Luka’s steady breath.

The comfortable silence got abruptly interrupted by a sudden, constant string of wailing and crying. Both Luka and Marinette perked up as they witnessed the sight of Chat Noir frantically vaulting from rooftop to rooftop on the other side of the Seine, as a ghastly Akuma shrieked and charged after him.

The pair looked at the superhero with slightly hanging jaws and a moment of stupefaction.

“LADYBUG!” Chat Noir screamed to no one in particular, as he tried his best to outrun the Akuma.

Marinette suddenly jolted. “I, uh… I need to go to the restroom!” she said, quickly springing to her feet and rushing out of view before Luka could stop her. He couldn’t help but notice this was one of those circumstances where if he had just told her that he knew her secret, he could simply have said to not sweat it and that he’d wait for her on the Liberty.

Sadly, he hadn’t gotten around to gathering the necessary courage for that, so he was left to his luck, wondering how long it’d take for Marinette to come back.

“Ladybug, thank god!” Chat Noir exclaimed as Ladybug joined the site of the action. “Mind the beams,” he said. “If you get hit it will give you hallucinations of your worst memories. The Akuma is on the necklace.”

Ladybug made a face. “Yikes. Who hurt them?”

Chat knew the question was rhetorical, but he still felt guilty. He hoped it didn’t show.

“Lucky charm!”

“What in the world are we supposed to do with duct tape?” he complained, evidently frustrated.

For what it’s worth, Ladybug thought it was pretty straightforward.

“You distract it and I’ll charge at it. When it hits me, you destroy the necklace.”

“And the duct tape?”

“Summon your Cataclysm.”

After he did, she ripped a couple pieces and put one over Chat’s mouth and another on hers.

As she calculated, Ladybug got hit. Chat tried to focus on the task at hand instead of how much it pained him to see Ladybug cry. He managed to evade every hit from the Griever and used the fact it was ready to take Ladybug’s earrings to gingerly touch the necklace, suddenly reverting Kagami back to normal and with her, the rest of the grieving Parisians.

Ladybug released the Miraculous Cure, and everything was back to normal.

She was surprised to see Kagami on the sidewalk, still crying. It was rare for an Akuma victim to continue feeling the negative emotion that had landed them in trouble. In these cases, Chat and she stayed as long as they needed to calm down and reassure the victim.

“Hello, Kagami,” Ladybug said gently. “Can I sit with you?”

Kagami sniffed, not providing a particular answer.

“You want to talk about what’s making you so sad? Is there anything we can do to help?”

“M-my boyfriend broke up with me!” she cried. “He broke up with me even though I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Ladybug took a deep breath and gave Chat a look for some back up. She was used to dealing with Parisians in distress, but for once, she felt at a loss for words.

“I– We’re very sorry to hear that,” said Chat, softly.

Ladybug glared at him as if saying, Is that all you got?

“He-he said he doesn’t want to b-be with me because he-he doesn’t love me…”

Ladybug hissed in solidary pain. “It’s tough when people we really care about don’t–can’t feel the same we do.”

The words were as uncomfortable to her as they were for Chat. The topic was too close to the wounds in their own partnership.

“But,” she continued. “Uh… sometimes, these things happen for the best, even though we don’t realize them at first. I know it’s painful right now, but you’re a very strong girl, okay? And also, any boy you date should count himself lucky.”

Kagami sniffed, then nodded.

“Do you need us to take you anywhere?” Chat asked.

Kagami shook her head. “I… I need to be alone for a while. Thank you for rescuing me.”

She got up and left, giving the pair of superheroes no chance to insist on the offer.

“Well, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear back from her again soon,” said Ladybug.

“Yeah…”

“Anyway, I should go. My, uh… boyfriend is waiting for me,” Ladybug said.

“You got a boyfriend? Why hadn’t you told me?” Chat said surprised.

“Not now, Chat,” Ladybug said with a tired tone, sensing the drama that was about to bubble up. “We–.”

“That’s great, Ladybug!” he said, surprisingly genuine. The reaction caught Ladybug off guard. “I’m happy for you.”

Ladybug gave him a quizzical look. “Thanks…”

Their Miraculous beeped simultaneously and both let go a sigh, relieved to have an excuse to end the awkward interaction.

“Well, you can tell me more about him if you want next time we meet, Chat out!”

To say he practically scrambled to get out of the way was an understatement. Ladybug sighed, deciding not to stress about whether or not Chat Noir was actually happy for her or if he had just said that to save some face. It had been a pretty draining Akuma and at this point, she couldn’t find it in herself to care whether he’d make a fuzz out of this.

It was already dark when Marinette managed to go back to the picnic site, half expecting Luka to be gone by then. Imagine her guilty surprise when she found the poor boy still sitting on the same spot she left him.

“Hey!” Luka said happily.

“Luka! I’m so sorry, there was an Akuma and I got hit and–.”

“It’s okay,” he said with a chuckle. “You could’ve just texted me. But we can do that next time we get separated by an attack.”

“Right, hah,” Marinette agreed, then muttered to herself, “Why did I not think of that?”

------

The door groaned as Alya pushed it open, immediately greeted by a cold breeze and the smell of mold, dust, and old books.

The girls lingered at the door, unadmittedly a bit scared to enter. The small townhouse seemed like it hadn’t had inhabitants in a good while. Alya pointed her flashlight into the house; it had been a gloomy day in Paris and the weak, grey light did not do much for the interior other than make it look spookier.

“I thought Master Fu lived above his massage parlor,” Alya said, gathering courage to enter the house.

“He moved here after Hawkmoth found out he was the guardian,” Marinette said, tentatively stepping in. She reached for the light switch, finding that it rewarded her illuminating the small hall and revealing the layout of the house.

They stood at the beginning of a narrow hall which led to the kitchen. To the left, there was a door leading to a living and dining hall. Right of the hall were the wooden stairs that led to the upper floor. It was hardly decorated, but it was evident something had hung on the walls; the shadow of missing frames stained the otherwise creme-colored walls with a lighter shade.

“That’s super odd,” Alya said, also going in, closing the door behind herself. She did a quick sweep of the first floor, finding there was hardly any furniture: the kitchen had a plastic table with two chairs, a stove, and a small fridge which was unplugged. The living room was completely empty except for an old, wooden vitrine which displayed assorted utensils.

She turned on the tap on the kitchen sink, finding running water.

“Didn’t Master Fu leave almost a year ago?” Alya said, rejoining Marinette, who was inspecting the contents of the vitrine.

“Yes, why?”

“How come this house still has utilities, then?”

Marinette made a confused face.

“Somebody ought to be paying for them,” Alya explained.

“He left me a letter saying that I’d find everything I need here. Let’s check the upper floor.”

The stairs creaked as the girls climbed up to find a similar set up as they had found in the floor below: A narrow hall that led to a small bathroom and two rooms to the left of the hall.

They each found what Master Fu had meant: Each room was full to the brim with boxes upon boxes of books, documents, and all sorts of trinkets, no doubt related to his affairs as a Miraculous Guardian. Curious as she was, Alya got to work immediately, aggressively combing through each box and file, reading them thoroughly, and quickly developing a system to string the story together.

“You know, sometimes it amazes me that you never figured me out,” Marinette said with a bit of a smile as she lingered by the door. “I was winging it, at best. I’ll get onto the next room.”

Marinette took a bit longer to go through her boxes. She couldn’t help but be a bit overwhelmed sometimes, learning about Master Fu’s adventures or discovering some new piece of information about the Miraculous. It didn’t help that Alya would storm in excitedly every time she discovered something particularly interesting.

“Marinette!” she exclaimed incredulously from the other room, quickly rushing in holding a set of books. “Tell me you didn’t leave an entire grimoire set literally just chilling in this sketchy neighborhood for the good part of a year.”

Marinette widened her eyes, feeling her stomach drop and swearing under her breath. “Give ‘em to me,” she said. “I’ll take them.”

How was she supposed to know Fu had all this stuff lying around when he never got around actually telling her? Her resentment towards her mentor flared up but tried not to delve too long in it.

Hours passed, the girls making good progress on the boxes, when Alya came into Marinette’s room once again. “I found it,” she declared, holding a stack of papers. “It looks like he suspected he’d stop being the Guardian soon.” Alya placed her papers on a neat row in front of Marinette. “He left an automated billing account for the next five years and it looks like he owned this house. He left this sort of transposing document for you, but it comes into effect when you turn eighteen.”

Marinette felt her throat tangle in a knot. “Oh.”

“Do you need a moment?” Alya asked gently.

Marinette shook her head, swiftly wiping the tears that were pooling in her eyes. “No, please stay.”

The quiet was suddenly disturbed by Marinette’s buzzing phone. She muted it without looking at who had called.

“He meant for me to use this place,” Marinette said.

“It looks like it, yeah.”

Master Fu thought of everything, she thought, and brushed the cover of the book that she had been inspecting before Alya came in. It was a sort of instruction manual written by Fu, for her, that she hadn’t dare open yet. For the longest time she had thought Fu left her to her own devices, that he abandoned her to sort everything alone when in reality, he had left her a trail of hints. Memories and arrangements here and there that made Marinette feel as if he was still there, correcting her when she needed to, but also reminding her she was capable of doing this.

She sniffed, shook her head, and smiled. “Then in that case, we have a lot of work to do. Let’s get this place in order.”

------

Luka did not expect Marinette to be able to hang out with him that day. He didn’t need reminding that Marinette was a very busy person and he understood why. That didn’t mean he could help himself from feeling extremely disappointed when she didn’t even check her messages the entire day.

He had invited her to a picnic with his friends that came up spontaneously, but alas, she answered back around ten p.m., when he was already back.

“I’m so sorry, Luka!” she wrote, adding a sad emoticon.

“My parents hijacked me for the entire day, they have a big order to deliver tomorrow and they needed all hands on deck.”

Except he knew that wasn’t the truth. He had dropped by the bakery that day and her parents had told Luka Marinette left early that morning to help Alya with a project, but he suspected this had only been a cover for her to do something Ladybug-related.

“It’s okay, Mari. It wasn’t important or anything, just a picnic,” he wrote back, adding a smiling emoticon. “How was your day, though?”

Marinette only saw the first message, then responded to the second a good twenty minutes later.

“It was okay. Pretty boring, just making shortcakes the whole day. You?”

“It was okay, too. Just hung out with my friends.”

Marinette saw the message but replied nothing else.

She must be busy, Luka thought, forcing himself not to feel hurt. She’s just busy, she doesn’t mean to push you away.

And yet, he couldn’t help but to text her again. “Are we still on for the date on the weekend?”

He got a reply five minutes later. “Of course!” Marinette wrote with a beaming happy face. “I’m looking forward to it, I’m very excited.”

Luka smiled at the screen, excited to see she was typing again. “I have to go to bed now, though,” she added a yawning emoticon. “I’m completely dead. I’ll text you tomorrow!”

“Okay,” Luka wrote. “Good night!”

She didn’t see the last message. As he joined Juleka to watch T.V. he realized why: there had been an Akuma attack.

He sighed, for the first time ever feeling extremely irritated at the concept of Akumas.

-----

“Are we working on the hang out this weekend?” Alya asked casually as they took notes for one of Madame Bustier’s lessons. “I’m high-key super excited for it. I was thinking of using my allowance to make it look cute, you know?”

Marinette laughed. “You don’t have to do that, Alya.”

“I know,” she complained. “But it’s so cool that we can just chill there, I wanna make it cool.”

Marinette shook her head.

“At least let me buy some fairy lights and nice cushions.”

“If you must,” Marinette said, amused. “But I can’t work on it this weekend. I promised Luka I’d spend some time with him. I haven’t seen him this whole week,” she admitted guiltily as the bell rang marking the beginning of the weekend.

“Alright girl,” she said. “Tell me about how the date goes though!”

Marinette and Alya parted ways with Marinette hurrying to her house to get ready for her date with Luka, who had asked to meet in the ship.

She didn’t expect their date to be one of their regular hangouts at the ship, so she anticipated by wearing slightly nicer clothes than usual. Still, it took her by complete surprise when she arrived and found that Luka had set up a dinner table with a beautiful flower bouquet at the center. Not only that, but he had asked his mom to teach him how to bake a quiche for her.

“Oh my gosh, Luka!” she said, unable to fight off the blush that crept on her cheeks. “It’s so beautiful! You didn’t have to!”

He shrugged, blushing himself. “I thought to do something nice since we hadn’t seen each other in a while. Do you like it?”

“Yes!” she beamed as she took a seat.

It had not been ten minutes since Marinette arrived when some sort of commotion in the distance interrupted the quiet evening, no doubt because of an Akuma. Luka sighed, doing his best to hide his reaction. As he expected, Marinette excused herself to the bathroom, leaving him to eat dinner alone.

“Please let’s make this quick, Chat,” Ladybug said as she rushed into the scene to battle the Akuma that currently destroyed the eleventh Arrondisement.

“Caught you in a bad time, LB?” Chat Noir said with a bit of a smirk as he evaded the Akuma’s attacks.

“You have no idea,” Ladybug said with dread.

It was luckily one of the faster Akumas, and even though Ladybug’s train of thought was focused on rushing back to the Couffaine ship as fast as possible, Chat Noir’s unusual meek demeanor did not escape her attention. Suddenly, it dawned on her that they had been postponing their Guardian training sessions for almost a month now–with everything going on Marinette’s life, and also Chat Noir’s, she realized the last time she had seen him was for Kagami Tsurugi’s Akuma.

“Hey, you doing okay?” Ladybug said.

“Huh?”

“You seem a bit out of it.”

Chat Noir gave him a pressed smile and shrugged. “Nah, I’m fine… It’s okay, we’re about to detransform.”

“Chat…” Ladybug reached for his shoulder. “What is it?”

“It’s nothing important. I, uh, I broke up with my girlfriend last week.”

“Oh…” she said with a sad gasp. “Oh no, Chat. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he admitted with a pained smile. “I’m the one that broke it off, actually. But I still feel bad about it.”

Ladybug sighed and squeezed his shoulder. “Let’s recharge and we can talk about it.”

A macaron and a slice of cheese later, they reconvened in an indistinct rooftop, looking as the sun set, lighting up the Parisian landscape.

“So, what happened?”

“I just… I realized I don’t love her. I love someone else,” he said, looking down. “I couldn’t do that to her, lie to her like that.”

The silence that settled suddenly made him look up with panic. “It’s not you,” he hurried to say. “It wasn’t because of you. It’s this girl… This girl in my class. It just sucks in general,” he continued. “I– her… She’s with someone, this other girl. And apparently she had this huge crush on me before, but it went over my head because I’m an idiot and also because… well, because I was… Because I thought I was in love with you.”

She knew what he meant, and yet Ladybug couldn’t help but feel wounded by the way Chat Noir phrased it. She played it down, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

“Oh…” she finally mumbled, then cleared her throat. “Well, if it’s any use to you, I think you did the right thing, even if you can’t be with the other girl.”

“I know,” Chat admitted sadly. “It just sucks that I couldn’t see it before.”

Ladybug swallowed the knot in her throat. “It gets better,” she said. “Trust me, I speak from experience.”

Chat looked up at her with an intrigued expression.

“I, uh, I had something similar happen to me,” she confessed, a light blush creeping under the mask. “Except I was the one crushing on the guy and he started going out with this girl before I ever gathered the courage to tell him how I felt. I never did anything about it because I was too scared he would turn me down. It’s hard to be honest sometimes, but you did the right thing, Chat.”

“Thanks, Bug.”

The bells of a nearby church roared, announcing the passing of the hour, suddenly bringing Ladybug back into context.

“Shoot! I need to run, Chat.”

“It’s okay,” he said, reassuring her with a smile. “We can meet for Guardian training after the Wednesday patrol, if you’re not busy.”

“Okay,” she said.

“Ladybug,” said Chat, preventing from taking off. “For what it’s worth, I think you should still tell the guy how you feel. Like you say, it’s better to just be honest.”

She gave him half a smile. “Thanks, Chat,” she said, then quickly swinging out of the picture.

Back at the ship, Marinette’s nerves were in a wreck as she came out of the bathroom to rejoin Luka, desperately trying to figure out what could she possibly use an excuse.

“Everything alright?” Luka said as she rejoined the table.

“Yeah…” It was evident she was trying to come up with an excuse. “I, uh… Alya called me. She had a fight with Nino. Sorry I took so long.”

“No problem,” Luka said, with a sunny disposition. “Well, the food’s cold now, but I can reheat it if you give me a second.”

“Oh, it’s okay, you don’t have to do that.”

“It’s no problem, Mari.”

Luka went into the ship and resurfaced a few minutes later with the food. He took a second serving so that Marinette wouldn’t be eating alone.

“Are you okay, Mari?” Luka said, noticing how fidgety she was, shifting uncomfortably in her seat and looking away into the rooftop along the Seine.

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine,” she said smiling. “The quiche’s delicious, by the way.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

A silence of the uncomfortable kind settled between them, Luka noticed, making him uncomfortable as well. “And, uh, what have you been up to this week?”

“Oh, you know, the usual,” Marinette replied. “Just school, the bakery, and uh…”

“The macaron mafia,” Luka said with a bit of a smirk.

“Yeah,” she piped.

“How is that going?”

“It’s okay,” Marinette replied, giving no further explanation.

Luka felt desperation and frustration at both of them slowly starting to creep inside him. He wanted to tell her more than anything that he knew, and that she didn’t have to keep lying to him, that he understood. But then, on the other hand, he was scared that she might leave. What if she just didn’t want him to know? He didn’t want to throw their relationship away just because he couldn’t get used to her double life.

The air between them got fortunately lighter when Juleka and Rose came back from their date in the city and joined them at the table. Judging by the way Marinette’s disposition changed when the girls arrived, he couldn’t help but be a little uneasy.

That night after Marinette left, Luka found it hard to sleep. He stared at the roof of his room in complete contemplation. He knew that the only way out of this situation was to be honest with her and to tell her what he knew.

In his defense, he tried. He did try. But as he quickly came to realize shortly after they started dating, Marinette had very little free time. Actually, the times that they had hung out before they got together, which were also not too many when one really counted, were as much time as she could ever spend with him. This resulted in him coming with date after date where his end goal would be to confess to her, to only be interrupted by Akumas.

And so, he found himself in the most recent of his failed attempts, taking cover yet again in an alley next to a trash container after an Akuma interrupted one of their dates. This time he made a point of keeping track of the time so that he could come out when Marinette was ready.

As luck would have it, he heard someone land somewhere along the alley after the battle seemed to be over. His heart raced, feeling opportunity beckon him to come out. This was as good a moment as any. It was better this way, to hell with a meticulously planned conversation.

Luka poked his head ready to call Ladybug’s attention, when he found Chat Noir with his back facing him, transforming into none other than Adrien Agreste.

He had the sense to crouch back into his hiding place before shock seized him.

After what felt like minutes, his phone went off with notification after notification. He picked it up, noticing it had been an hour since the Akuma ended. It was Marinette. She was worried.

His hands trembled as he replied to her messages. “Hey Mari. I got hit by the Akuma and I ended up on the other side of the city. My phone died and I had to go into a store to charge it, sorry.”

“That’s okay, are you okay? Where are you? I can meet you in a bit.”

“Don’t worry. It’s way too far, I’m in the first Arrondisement. I’m sorry to ditch you, but can we raincheck? I feel a bit woozy after the Akuma.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to meet you? I can take a cab and take you home.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m okay. I just need some fresh air and a nap.” He added a smiley face for good measure.

“Alright,” Marinette replied. “Take care. I’ll text you tomorrow.”

He waited to see if she’d keep writing before he turned his phone off. He hugged his knees and let out the sob he had been holding in for the past hour.

He had so many questions, all rushing and battling for his attention. Did either of them know? No, it didn’t make sense. Adrien would have never dated Kagami if he knew, and though he wanted to think Marinette would still be with him if she knew Adrien’s secret, Luka knew that was wishful thinking. It just didn’t make sense. Unless… Unless they knew and them dating other people was just a facade to protect their identities. But Marinette wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t–she was a good person. Right? Marinette wouldn’t lie to him. And yet, as of late, that’s all she did.

------

Ladybug had to admit, she was very impressed with Chat Noir. She didn’t know what came over him, but in the last few months it felt as if he had gone through some sort of metamorphosis. It was not to say that Chat Noir had lost that, well, that Chat Noir flare but there was something different about him. He was always punctual to their meetings, was level-headed in Akuma battles, and took his training seriously. He showed Ladybug the notebook he kept with all his notes from his Guardian lessons with her, and to her surprised, were neatly organized and jotted down with a clean handwriting she could swear she had seen somewhere. Not only he had been quick to pick up everything Ladybug had to teach him, but he went above and beyond to expand on her knowledge, and this also applied to their hunt for Hawkmoth.

“I have something for you,” he confessed one of such nights where he had been showing her his progress on his studies, much to Ladybug’s satisfaction.

“Oh?” she said, with an intrigued smile.

Chat Noir reached into the rucksack he usually brought to Guardian training and produced a pair of cellphones. “Burner phones,” he explained. “They don’t have cellular data; we can only send messages and call each other. I thought it would be useful if we can communicate whenever we need to.”

“Oh, Chat…” she said gingerly picking the unassuming little brick.

“Is it too much? I thought since you’re okay with the whole identity thing you might be okay with the phones, but if it’s too much you can just say the word and I–”

“Chaton, not so fast,” she said giggling. “It’s okay. I think it’s a great idea. I, uh… was just going to say I can’t really pay \a phone plan. I don’t have that big of an allowance.”

“That’s not a problem,” he said brightly. “I already took care of that. All you need to do is keep it charged. They run with prepaid cards, for more anonymity. I’ll get new ones when we run out of the credit they already have.”

“Chat, no. I really wouldn’t feel–”

“I insist. It’s really not a problem.”

Ladybug arched a teasing eyebrow. “Are you rich or something?”

Chat Noir smirked at her. “Maybe.”

“Is that a hint? Are you really rich? One of those obnoxiously posh kids? Oh no. This makes so much sense. You must be one of those insufferable private school guys. Are you like a real-life Bruce Wayne?”

“No,” he said, laughing. “Besides Bruce Wayne has no powers. I happen to have two.”

“Two?”

“The ring and my devilishly good looks.”

“Ugh,” Ladybug groaned, nonetheless laughing.

“Wait, that’s not all I wanted to tell you,” said Chat. “I, uh… was thinking.”

Ladybug’s stomach dropped with anxious anticipation. “About what.”

“I think… I mean, I’m not ready. But, uh, I just concluded that I thought you should know. I… I think I’m okay with us knowing each other’s identity. Eventually. Just… not now. Also, I–I think I’m ready to see this place you told me Master Fu left for us.”

Ladybug beamed with happiness, unable to help herself from pulling Chat Noir into a hug. “Chat that’s great!”

She hugged him, effectively causing him to blush and lose a bit of his focus. He gently pried her off him after he returned the hug.

“It’s not an identity reveal but–”

“You don’t have to justify yourself, Chat. It’s okay. I understand. When do you want to go to the hide-out?”

“I mean, if you have time right now…”

“Of course!”

Ladybug led Chat Noir to the neighborhood where the hide out was. In the dead of the night, there weren’t people out in the street.

“This is the neighborhood?” Chat said.

“Yes, why?” Ladybug said producing the key to the house from her yoyo.

“No reason. It’s just this is one of the sketchier neighborhoods. You know this map I’m working on that I told you about” he explained. “You get more regular crime here than Akuma-related.”

“My ”support group“ said the same,” Ladybug said as she opened the door. She picked up a flashlight Alya and her usually left by the door.

“There’s no light?”

“I don’t want to call attention with us wearing the transformations. You never know who might be watching.”

“Good point.” He walked around the house using his night vision to make out where everything was. “Maybe I can get a few furniture pieces for this place,” he commented. “Like a proper table and some chairs, and some kitchen utensils in case we ever need the kitchen.”

Ladybug was glad for the darkness because it made it easier to hide away her flustering. As much as she tried to deny it to herself, Chat always caught her attention when he took the lead. She shook her head and expertly pushed away the feeling, aided by the thought of her boyfriend. Don't you even dare, you thankless heathen, she thought to herself and focused back on Chat's ranting.

“Maybe we can also get a safe in case you keep anything valuable here. And we have to change this lock. I don’t trust the locks in old buildings, we need a smart one and security cameras and–”

“Minou,” she said chuckling. “You’re literally just like my friend. I appreciate you’re exited to contribute, but where in the hell are we going to get the money for a freaking security system?”

“Leave it to me,” he said. Ladybug didn’t need to properly see to know he had his shit-eating grin on.

“I– Of course, I forgot you’re a rich kid.”

Chat laughed. “Sorry, I got carried away. But still, don’t you worry, LB. If you need anything for this place, just let me know.”

They went to the upper floor, the main attraction at least as far as Ladybug was concerned. She was pretty proud of the progress that Alya and her had made so far. They had managed to buy a few second-hand shelves for all the documents Master Fu had left and had a library of sorts.

Chat Noir went through some of the volumes until something caught his attention. It was a scanned copy with some notes on it, perhaps something Master Fu had been working on, but it was decidedly something he had seen before and had never connected the dots for. Not at least until then.

It was a page describing the powers of the Peacock Miraculous, and as any good encyclopedia, it had a picture of a brooch. The same brooch he had found in his father’s safe with the book–the grimoire, Chat would later learn that’s what it was.

A cold shiver ran through his spine.

Mayura was Hawkmoth’s sidekick. Natalie was his father’s assistant.

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thebibliomancer · 3 years

Text

Tides of the Dark Crystal liveblog pt 12

Tides of the Dark Crystal by J.M. Lee because one day to stop the Sifa evacuation lets gooooooo!

Last times on book: Amri and co are on a quest to unite all the Gelfling clans against the Skeksis and have hit an immediate snag. Maudra Ethri of the Sifa has decided instead that the Sifa will ditch Skeksis lands and sail to a new world guided by Captain skekSa, multi-talented voluntary exile from the Castle. Amri tries to stab skekSa which doesn’t go as planned and now he feels like a dumb idiot fool. The Sifa are planning to leave by the next sunset so Team Naia only has one day to change Maudra Ethri’s mind.

Chapter 12

Team Naia attempts to change Maudra Ethri’s mind

While the day outside awakened, soon the cabin was quiet with the gentle sounds of sleep. When he heard snoring, Amri quietly pushed the quilt away, sighing. His body was exhausted but his mind refused to rest. So while the others slept, he silently crept out onto the deck.

Dang Amri, you didn’t sleep at all?

He looks out at the ships bobbing in the bay and thinking about how this is a sight he never could have hoped to see and that back in the Caves of Grot he’d have given anything for these experiences. And now he’s just feeling an intense homesickness.

He ponders how he could just hop off the boat and be home in, like, two days.

Naia comes out and asks if he wants to talk about what happened.

“I don’t know what there is to say.”

Naia nudged him with her elbow. “Just start talking. Words will come... If you want to, that is.”

He had plenty of feelings but he balked at saying them out loud. He tried to come up with something lighthearted to say, but instead of the usually endless-seeming well of quips, all he found was an empty pit of embarrassment and weariness.

It was a kind of characteristic of him to play things off with a joke earlier in the book. Class clown Amri, sad clown Amri.

Naia tells Amri that nobody got hurt so maybe don’t beat himself up too much. And that she was terrified the first time she faced a Skeksis so she admires Amri’s guts to just try to shank one.

Amri says its lucky he attacked the one Skeksis who was willing to forgive.

“She could have...”

“But she didn’t.”

Which I think is the important thing here.

Amri confesses to Naia that he just feels useless. He can’t do anything that the rest of the group takes for granted like... seeing! And walking in shoes! Everything, basically, that he hadn’t wanted Naia to know. How much he was struggling and how lost he feels.

“I just want to be good at something, you know? You’re so strong. Fierce Naia. And Kylan, the song teller with the magic firca. Tavra, soldier daughter of the All-Maudra.”

Maybe Amri’s thing is being a hype-man? Because those are good descriptions of his friends.

“The things I’m good at don’t matter up here... I’m probably going to end up being Amri the Forgotten. Like the rest of my clan.”

Naia caught her breath in her throat. “Oh, Amri...”

She didn’t try to untangle his fists, didn’t tell him not to be sad. Didn’t scold him or tell him he was wrong for feeling the way he felt. She just rested her hand on this, and at the moment it was all he needed. She was with him. Straightforward and truthful, and still sitting beside him despite what he’d told her and what they were up against.

The loneliness clenching his heart loosened.

Aww, frens.

Sometimes you just need permission to feel what you’re feeling out in the open.

And this is honestly a good group to feel overwhelmed and useless in. Every single other POV character has felt the same. And we have to read into Tavra’s feelings because she’s super buttoned up but she’s a spider who can’t do a lot of what she used to do. I think everybody here gets what Amri’s feeling, to one extent or another.

With those feelings out in the opening, Amri pivots over to being frustrated about the Sifa situation. The Sifauation. Although that sounds more like Sifa infatuation. Hmm.

Naia says that she’s disappointed too but its not up to one person to figure this out. The whole point is for Gelfling to come together; to trust and rely on each other.

And then she tells him that they’ll DEFINITELY get through these interesting times because she promised to take him to the Sog to see the Great Smerth and introduce him to Gurjin and the rest of her family. If the real world thinks it can make a liar out of her, it has another thing coming.

Amri wonders if Gurjin got home to the Sog safely but Naia is sure he did because of a sort of twin-bond where right as she’s waking up, when she’s between conscious and unconscious, she feels as if she’s at home in the Sog and knows thats Gurjin.

Twins is special.

Annnnnnd thennnnnn Ethri’s ship the Omerya sets sail.

Followed by the rest of the Sifa ships.

Its not even sunset yet! There’s three suns and they’re rising, not setting! Ethri!

Naia and Amri run to wake everyone up and Onica also sets sail, hoping to catch up to the Omerya before it hits open ocean where its many more sails will make it impossible for Onica’s small ship to catch up.

Hey, does Onica’s boat have a name? It just keeps getting called Onica’s boat.

Onica’s ship the Onica’s Boat pulls alongside the Omerya where Naia’s shouty voice outlouds the waves to reach Ethri.

“If you’re here to try and convince me again, save yourself the effort!” she shouted. “But if you’re here to apologize and come with us, you best hurry up. That little ship won’t make it across the Silver Sea, even with skekSa’s help!”

Apparently a bunch of Sifa had to abandon their smaller boats to consolidate on board the bigger ones.

Even with that I don’t know if all the Sifa will make it. There’s a big difference between ships that hug the coasts and ships designed to cross the ocean.

Onica jumps from Onica’s Boat to the Omerya in a pretty sweet jump and throws a line from the bigger ship to Kylan.

The entirety of Team Naia crosses over to the Omerya to give Ethri a talking at.

“Ethri!” Onica cried. “You must stop this. You must heed the signs. If you have any faith left in me, as a Far-Dreamer -- as your friend!”

“Faith has nothing to do with this, Onica,” Ethri said. “A storm brews in the Skarith Land. That is the sign I’m heeding. The pink petals with their song. The rumors of the Skeksis at the castle, feeding off the Gelfling. I can’t be reckless anymore, not with the lives of my clan at stake. I will do what must be done, winds and tides be damned.”

That would be a heroic determination speech in many other contexts. And if the action were less ‘abandon the other clans.’

And even though Ethri is saying this with determination, Amri and Onica see the doubt in her. Onica begs her to be the Ethri who Onica knows Ethri to be.

“You and Tae trusted me once,” Ethri said. “And you alone paid a terrible price.”

“In exchange for a wonderful gift, worth the price I paid. One I am greatful for every day.”

The Far-Dreamer’s soft reply was like the ocean, passionate and eternal. Even Amri felt swept up in it, and he was but a silent witness to her truth. Onica took Ethri’s shoulders in her hands, and this time the maudra did not protest.

Frens?

So. Hey. There’s some Tragic Backstory between these three Sifa and I know, in the middle of a heart-felt confrontation, is not the time to explain it in detail to anyone not in the loop, but hey, I wanna know.

Onica tells Ethri that they can’t know the future, only heed the signs that Thra gives them. And asks when the last time Ethri looked into the prophecy fires of the Omerya’s hearth.

Its been mentioned a few times that it looks like there hasn’t been a fire lit there in a while.

Tae jumps in and also suggests that Ethri light the hearth of Omerya to read the signs.

All the Sifa on the deck, recognizing a moment for crowd action if they’ve ever seen one, all step forward and join hands.

“And if the flames say we flee?” [Ethri] whispered.

Onica approached the fire and held out her hand, beckoning.

“Then we will heed the sign,” she said. And we will heed it together.”

Wow, what a short book. Well, time to start Flames of the Dark- oh, different flames I guess.

The Sifa parted around Maudra Ethri as she walked to the hearth fire. Onica waited for her, hands open and palms filling with sunlight. Ethri took the Far-Dreamer’s hands and sighed, as if she’d come home after a long journey.

“Then join with me, my beloved Sifa,” Ethri said. “And you, who carry out Aughra’s task. Let us see what the future brings.”

#dark crystal #the dark crystal #Tides of the Dark Crystal #liveblog #Amri #Kylan #Naia #Onica #Maudra Ethri

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tsunflowers · 5 years

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anime featuring adult women

there are a lot of great female characters in anime, but sometimes it feels like they’re all supporting characters in shows about men or they haven’t graduated high school yet. I wanted to compile a list of some anime with adult women front and center

kidou keisatsu patlabor on tv:

in the sci-fi future as imagined in 1988, human-piloted robots called labors are used regularly by all kinds of people, including criminals. to combat labor crime, the police develop a special unit of patrol labors—patlabor. instead of following the prestigious division one, we follow a cast of quirky characters in second-string division two, as they solve cases ranging from mundane to dangerous to paranormal

izumi noa, and why I love her:

she’s incredibly strong-willed and stubborn. she’ll stand up to anyone. she’s obsessed with labors, not just piloting them herself but repairing them and learning about new developments in the field. even though division two is primarily men and there is the “men at work” vibe of so much military and police fiction, noa fits in easily with the guys and no one excludes her. the few times people do question her skills bc of her gender, they’re immediately shut down

other women in the cast:

nagumo shinobu, the captain of division one. we never actually see her or her unit at work, but they have a great reputation. I just love her bc she’s very funny always shutting down the captain of division two and I like that in-universe there are women in leadership roles like this

kanuka clancy, a visiting cop from new york. her relationship with noa is very strong, definitely shippable. she’s adept with a gun, a sword, and a giant robot. she’s the serious member of the team who yells at the others for being dumb but there are still times where she goes completely off the rails and ignores the law to do what she knows is right

wotakoi: love is hard for otaku:

momose narumi is an office worker and a fujoshi. she wants to keep the fujoshi part a secret this time around because things went south for her at her last job once people found out she was an otaku, but it turns out several of her new coworkers are fellow nerds. most importantly, her game-loving childhood friend hirotaka works at the same company, and the two of them reconnect as friends… and soon more than friends. it’s a romance drama involving only nerds

momose narumi, and why I love her:

she’s a lot like your standard high school girl protagonist who runs out of the house because she’s late for school, but this time she’s late for work. she’s really funny and straightforward, except she thinks she has to hide that side of her at her job. she and hirotaka have a great childhood friends to lovers relationship. she’s kind of rude to him but he adores her (though he’s kind of bad at showing it). I love a cheerful girl/serious guy romance that’s done well and I think this one really is

other women in the cast:

koyanagi hanako, narumi’s new coworker who’s a fellow fujoshi. she’s also a cosplayer, specifically a crossplayer who specializes in cosplaying as handsome guys. she and narumi only met each other under their fandom nicknames before, but they were big fans of each other and hit it off instantly when they meet at work. they’re cute friends even if they always argue about who tops in their ships

psycho-pass:

in a futuristic society, people’s mental health is constantly measured by “psycho-pass” readings which track their emotional state and judge the likelihood that they will commit a crime. naive rookie cop tsunemori akane leads a team of enforcers, people who are considered “latent criminals” too dangerous to live in normal society but who are still useful to the police. akane develops a close relationship with enforcer kougami shinya in particular, but kougami has his own intense relationship with the elusive criminal makishima shogo. as the team of detectives investigate him, they uncover secrets about the system they never wanted to learn and their fates become entwined with makishima’s

psycho-pass is written by urobuchi gen (madoka magica, fate/zero) and if you’re familiar with him you know what to expect. the show is pretty grim and gory. content warnings for rape, violence, gore, body horror, police violence, the predatory lesbian trope, forced institutionalization, and probably a lot of other things I can’t remember. not a light watch, is what I’m saying

tsunemori akane, and why I love her:

she’s incredibly principled. she sticks to what she believes is right despite immense pressure. it’s precisely because she’s naive and doesn’t understand the system that she is able to fight against it. she grows a huge amount over the course of the series but she never loses her compassion or her sense of right and wrong. she’s pretty badass too

other women in the cast:

karanomori shion, a lab analyst at the public safety bureau. she’s your typical sexy and flirtatious anime character but I think her position within the setting is interesting. although she’s categorized as a “latent criminal” unfit for society, she seems to be valued more than the enforcers. she’s also bisexual and dating a woman, though she plays into the “bisexuals can’t settle down” trope a little. she is not actually the best character or peak representation but I’m pretty attached to her and a certain type of woman will be too

kunizuka yayoi, a lesbian former musician and the only female enforcer. she’s shion’s girlfriend. there is a predatory lesbian character in this series, but it’s not kunizuka. I think her being a lesbian is handled pretty well. she has romantic and sexual relationships with women that are important to her, but she doesn’t hate men or flirt with every woman she meets (traits I hate to see in lesbian characters written by men). she’s really serious and calm but still cute and I love to see her growing respect for akane over the course of the show

death parade:

two people wake up in a strange bar with no memory of how they got there. a mysterious man with white hair named decim and his assistant, a woman known only as “the black haired woman,” ask them to play a game. the games are both absurd and dangerous, and as the contestants play them dark sides of themselves are revealed. decim’s job is to judge them based on their behavior while playing the games, but the black haired woman’s influence causes him to wonder if he’s doing the right thing

like it says in the title, the anime deals with the topic of death, and death by suicide comes up as well. I don’t remember everyone’s backstories but I think violence and abuse come up several times. there are also mannequins that move around on marionette strings which is kind of freaky

the black haired woman, and why I love her:

it might be wrong to say that she’s the main character when she isn’t introduced until the end of the first episode and her name isn’t revealed for half the show but listen. she’s the emotional core of the show and the person who sets the events in motion. she’s a very emotional person and that’s her strength. her relationship with decim is the classic “woman teaches cold-hearted man to feel” trope but I think it’s an outstanding example bc it centers her emotional experience and the two of them are not explicitly in a romantic relationship. I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers but for her it’s almost unavoidable. I love the way that her story is slowly revealed over the course of the show culminating in an incredible sequence in episode 11. I think her depression is handled so well too. it’s heartbreaking

other women in the cast:

nona, the boss of the arbiters. she’s a schemer who knows a whole lot of things she’s keeping from everyone else. I really like her outfit above all else. baggy pants with suspenders… a great look

mayu, a high school girl who is a contestant in one of the games. she tries to be cutesy but is prone to anger and makes incredible faces. I like that she’s an obsessive fangirl character who’s played for humor but is also shown as being noble and sympathetic

sakura quest:

koharu yoshino is a woman who moved to tokyo to find a job but has no luck. when she finally gets a job offer, it’s to become “queen for a day” of rural manoyama village. upon arriving in manoyama, she learns that she was only hired because they thought she was someone else but they still want her to work there for an entire year. now she lives in a small town and is tasked with both revitalizing the citizens and drawing tourists in, along with the help of four friends. it may not sound funny and heartwarming but it really is. it’s a good story about connecting and reconnecting and also the head of the tourism board wears a chupacabra mask sometimes

the main characters, and why I love them:

koharu yoshino, queen of manoyama. her struggle in the job market is unfortunately relatable to many people today and I love that she wishes she could have a job as a queen. she’s great and she really comes to love the town despite everything

shiori shinomiya, a very sweet manoyama native. she’s almost too nice but it makes it all the funnier when she gets intense

maki midorikawa, an aspiring actor who is famous among manoyama citizens for a small role she played in the past. she’s serious about acting but her family wishes she would get a more stable job. she can be kind of rude but she does love her friends and her town

sanae kouzuki, a web developer who moved to manoyama to escape the intensity of city life and the negative effects it had on her mental health. the problem is she hates rural life and is afraid of bugs but is too proud to admit it on her blog. the only true city girl among the five

ririko oribe, my favorite of the five. she’s shy but loves cryptids and the occult. it’s very easy to read her as autistic and the other characters affirm her interests and behavior. her love of cryptids even helps the town out when Spanish tourists come in search of a local legend. her relationship with her grandma is really good as well, with the two coming to understand and love each other over the course of the show

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atopearth · 4 years

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Shall we Date? Wizardess Heart Part 32 - Ted Route

It's been a while since the Buddy System was talked about, so I guess it might be interesting to see Ted and the heroine become buddies. I mean, she's not a dunce anymore so there should be nothing to complain about like with Elias loll. Hmm the new twins don't look very appealing for now, so let's see how this goes~ Ted is probably the most interesting one out of these new students lol. Anddd he's very prickly, but I guess it's understandable since he's a beastman and he probably wants to hide that from the heroine just in case she doesn't take to his race kindly. It was so cute how his ears and tail came out when he got drunk and fell asleep though lmao. Hahahaha I love how blunt the heroine was when she told him that she thought he was pretty handsome when his mouth was shut, and he said the same thing back to her lol.

WHAT? Lars (the older twin that looks like a little boy) publishes science articles?! I honestly thought he was just gonna be another silly guy lmaoo. Way to go against the stereotypical look I guess. It's sweet to know that Ted wanted to back out of being a part of the investigation team with the heroine and them because he didn't want them to be seen negatively as well (since everyone found out he was a beastman when he used magic and undid his transformation magic). It's nice that the others are seeing more of his considerate side since he's so harsh and cold most of the time lol. Aww I love how they manned the fruit shop at Hisoka's market together! I think it was really sweet of him to encourage her to keep at it a bit longer when she was really tired, he even praised her for being so good at customer service! Like, how rare is that?! Hahaha. Ooh, so Ted actually came to the academy because he needed to go to the forest to check up on the seal on the Nidhogg (monster with deadly venom that kills everything around it) that his people made a hundred years ago. Although it's kinda crazy that they sent him to check on the seal but don't have the means to actually seal it back up again if it were to break the seal; which it is slowly doing right now. It was really nice of Ted to tell her it doesn't matter that she was incapable in the past, because her past self is what made her today, and he even said she's a great Prefect now! Glad to see that Ted is acting more mature and kind towards the heroine now, he's warming up to her haha. HAHAHA, I loved how Ted hid behind the heroine when he saw Seth (wolf with Yukiya), it's so cute how he's scared of dogs and wolves🤣

Ted doesn't like to show his emotions much, but I found it really heartwarming when he told the heroine that he didn't want to see her get hurt on his watch haha. It's actually really cute how honest Ted is being with the heroine by asking to walk with her to class and even holding her hand!! Soo cuteee🥰 The confession really wasn't romantic at all, but I loved how straightforward Ted was about it, since I'm sure he knew her feelings as well. It's cute how they're going on their first date already though~ Lmao when everyone sacrificed Zeus to try and get Ted's Tiger Roar to work on the Nidhogg possessed Clive loll. Poor Zeus. It was obvious that the heroine needed to be the one in real danger for Ted to be able to use it properly. Aww, so the reason why Ted has been hesitating all this time about staying in the academy is because if he succeeds in this mission, he will be named clan chief and he's been aiming for that to prove himself his whole life since everyone used to view him as a weakling🥺 It was nice to see everyone combining their powers with a concrete plan on sealing the Nidhogg. It actually felt like they delegated their tasks properly this time instead of just the usual kinda fighting in the other routes imo haha.

Ted passing the trial was evident, and although considering how meaningful becoming the chief of his clan was supposed to be, he sure took losing the opportunity quite well lol, but I guess I can understand that staying with the heroine, becoming more mature and knowing more about the outside world would be better for him instead and I'm happy that he's kinda broken out of the idea that he needs to "succeed" their expectations and instead is living a bit more for himself. I don't know why they bothered making the heroine his buddy in this route though, because it changed nothing about the story, I'm sure she would have helped him regardless of whether he was her buddy or not. Otherwise, I liked this route. Mainly because it felt much better in terms of story compared to the other recent ones. Like, it's not as good as the first few seasons obviously, but at least I relatively enjoyed Ted and the heroine because of how cute he was, and also how capable he was. Clive and Lars don't appeal to me at all though so I'm hoping they'll surprise me in a good way but who knows. On another note, now that Wizardess Heart and my favourite Ninja Shadow are being dumped/discontinued by NTT Solmare, there won't be any more updates on these once I'm done with all the routes. I'm honestly so sad because I love Ninja Shadow, but it was pretty much expected once they ditched Wizardess Heart. I tried to play Obey Me but it's not my thing, and Story Jar is just annoying in terms of how money grubbing it is and just the way the whole app is done. So yeah, guess I can focus on my Switch and PC otome after I'm done with the last 5 routes! Well, I guess I still have the Ikemen games and Ayakashi Romance Reborn though hahaha!

#wizardess heart

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cinnalock · 4 years

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TWST Mond Twin Headcanons

((A masterlist of all the random facts and trivia bits for the Mond twins. I may create separate posts of new things in the future, but those new bits will always be added/archived in this post! As with some of my other character lists/profiles, a “last edited” date will be posted to inform when the last addition was.

Diamond Crown Academy, Katherine’s school, is created by @phoenix-manga.

Last Edited: 5-15-2020, added DCA Festival headcanons, corrected an old headcanon, newly added headcanons are in bold font.))

GENERAL HEADCANONS: headcanons that don't necessarily fit into a specific category, mainly little general snippets about the twins.

The Mond twins are a...peculiar set of siblings. They're friendly enough at their own schools, but get them together and you'll likely never see one without the other. They're very attached and seem to only trust each other. Despite how nice they seem, there always seems to be the aura that you talking to them feels like you're intruding in their space and better play by their rules because of it.

There's a rumor that the twins aren't entirely human, if they're human at all. Some believe they're fae or fairy. The twins have never addressed these rumors themselves and, if confronted with them, tend to give vague answers that neither confirm nor deny. Some believe that in of itself confirms the rumors, but the Monds have been known to be mischievous and may simply get entertainment out of confusing their classmates.

Despite their cunning, secretive behavior, the twins aren't bad or evil. They're mainly mischievous and distrustful of others. They're neutral at their worst, just wanting to protect each other above all else. They might relish in the chaos of something like a prank, but destruction and devastation doesn't sit well with them. They're not above schmoozing and sweet-talking to get something like an extension on homework or the last tart in the lunch line, but they wouldn't betray a friend to serve themselves. Ultimately, it's better to be on their good side, but being on their bad side isn't much of an inconvenience, unless the situation is very, VERY bad.

In regards to the above headcanon, the twins mostly represent characters that appear to be on the villain’s side before ultimately abandoning or straight-up betraying them, or characters that you’re absolutely sure are the main villains before the actual villain’s plot comes to light and you realize they were working against the evil.

"Canonically" for TWST Katherine might not be part of NRC due to the "all-boys school" angle, but at the very least she'd visit a lot; if she was part of a NRC dorm, it would be Ignihyde like her brother despite everyone and their grandmother expecting her to be sorted into Pomefiore. In Ignihyde, she'd specialize in web design, but she'd also have a knack for engineering; seeing various pieces like a giant puzzle to put together to make things work. Many classmates would come to her for help with building their own PCs.

Thomas and Katherine share a bank account, but have their own cards attached to it. Both earn relatively the same amount of money in their side jobs. Thomas' payments might be more substantial in the moment, but Katherine is commissioned much more frequently, either through bulk orders of products made by her own hand or companies paying substantial amounts for the rights to various recipes they pay her to concoct.

As proud as Thomas is of his sister's accomplishments, Katherine sends him a hysterical amount of perfumed goods of her own creation, asking for critiques. He does what he can, but to reduce them overwhelming his dorm room, he usually does his initial "testing" with them once before leaving them in a box on Pomefiore's doorstep.

Katherine's animal companion at DCA is an orchid mantis named Lamarie; while normally only the companion's owners can hear them speak, Thomas can hear Lamarie talk as well.

Lamarie is a very conceited, boastful little bug to the point where Vil would describe her as "full of herself" if he could hear her speak. Despite her selfish attitude, she cares about Katherine dearly and will go to great lengths to protect her, even if the effort isn't always necessary.

The Monds use a similar fragrance mainly comprising of cloves and fresh rosemary. Thomas' cologne also contains hints spearmint and bergamot. Katherine's perfume also contains hints of lavender and patchouli. Their respective scents are present in various products made by Katherine, and they regularly bathe with the pure oil mixtures stirred into their bath water. This leaves their smells being particularly persistent (almost overwhelming) and while Katherine says there's no magic additives, non- or weak-magicked beings tend to find themselves being slowly entranced or even "hypnotized" by the smell after a certain period, weakening their resolve and rationality.

While their favorite food is chestnuts, both of the twins' favorite dish is chicken curry, though Katherine likes Indian-style curry while Thomas likes Japanese-style curry. While both enjoy a certain level of spiciness, they tend to exaggerate their ability to tolerate it, leading to some...interesting scenarios when the host/cook takes their word on such.

While curry is their favorite food, Katherine enjoys caviar tasting, though Thomas finds caviar gross. However, Thomas enjoys artisan cheeses while Katherine loathes it.

Both twins love boba drinks, particularly ones with lots of fancy toppings. Thomas eats the toppings out of the whip cream with a spoon before drinking, Katherine likes to drink the toppings through her straw as they sink into the drink.

The twins are relatively neutral when it comes to sweets, though once in a blue moon they get plagued by a ravenous sweet tooth. They prefer baked goods over candy when it comes to satisfying their sugar cravings. Thomas is a straightforward cake-lover, especially chocolate (god tier: chocolate lava cake); Katherine will say her favorite dessert is French macarons because of the aesthetic, but she'll sneak out at the crack of dawn to get donuts for the aforementioned sugar craving above.

Thomas is naturally gifted in herbology and plant-based magic. Katherine grew into it in her teens with lots of training and practice, but she had the terrible luck of frequently killing plants when she was a child. When Thomas discovered his affinity, he'd often revive the plants to keep Katherine from crying. Katherine's prized possession is a lamb's tail succulent Thomas gave her when they were kids that he guided her into keeping alive. Thomas doesn't have a passion for herbology, but he keeps a small potted lilac tree in his dorm, as Katherine gave it to him as the first plant she was able to successfully grow during her first year at DCA.

On the flip side, Thomas could burn cereal as a child. Like how he helped Katherine with gardening, Katherine has tried to help his cooking skills. He learned well enough, but without a dedicated cooking class at NRC (chemistry being the closest thing, which HAS surprisingly helped), his learning process has been slow. He's an okay cook now, and what he does make is at least edible if not enjoyable, but it's definitely not pretty. (Thomas: *standing casually in front of a collapsed cake* "Started making it. Had a breakdown. Bon appetite.")

While Thomas is in the board game club, if the club is cancelled or on the days it doesn't meet, he sometimes sits in on magical shift or track and field clubs to help get regular exercise in; he also helps in tutoring/instructing junior students in the clubs.

If the gardening research club doesn't meet, Katherine might show up to the greenhouse/club room to watch and fuss over the plants, even if she doesn't actually interfere with them because she wants to be a good gardener. Sometimes other clubs, usually the volleyball club, will drag her to their meetings to keep her from worrying.

Thomas is usually on the magical shift team for Ignihyde during the tournament, but he's willing to yield his position on the team if there's 7 players stronger than he is.

BACKSTORY HEADCANONS: headcanons relating to their backstory or explanations of how their origins affect other aspects of their life.

The twins were taught how to read, write, and most basic skills by Mim, including how to use magic. This was to her advantage so they could be independent enough to follow her orders (and not bother her when she had no tasks for them).

However, King Arthur adapted magic into his being over his long life, both by being tutored by Merlin for so long and then over the course of his main journeys and triumphs. Spending so much time with the twins as kits, he imbued them with a little of this magic and is the main reason they remember him so well despite how young they were.

In short, the twins had an adaptation to both good and black magic when they were young.

The twins can change between being human and being squirrels. They themselves have wondered if they could transform midway into a hybrid form, but they’re worried about getting “stuck” and haven’t tried. They also don’t want to try because being born as squirrels is a secret they’ve kept from their classmates (they believe it’s a secret to the teachers and staff as well, but both Crowley and Citrouille are well aware of this, despite not knowing full details of the twins’ origins).

Since Mim is an incredibly powerful sorcerer, the twins adapted a human lifespan once they were transformed by her. They were only a few months old as young squirrels when she transformed them and they had become children as humans, but they also started to age as humans as time went on.

The twins adore mainstream human cuisine, but they still have the tendency to snack on nuts and berries they pluck straight off the plant. They have to be careful of this habit because while they can digest certain things like fresh acorns, they have to be mindful that someone might notice them eating raw foods that would normally be poisonous to humans, such as uncooked acorns.

Naturally, the twins excel at Animal Linguistics. They have to be particularly careful about this because animals on campus risk revealing the twins’ secret to other students proficient in Animal Linguistics if they’re spotted transforming. They have to feign natural excellency at the subject as humans, but also not be found out when transforming into squirrels to use their natural forms to their advantage.

The twins don’t remember Merlin very well from the short time he was looking after them. While he seemed kind enough in wanting to save them from Mim, they’re not interested in reuniting with him because they don’t know his true intentions.

What they don’t know is that Merlin had managed to locate them when they started school, but has decided to leave them alone for the most part. His original agreement with Arthur’s son was to make sure they were released safely into the wild and he sees their current situation as a way to interpret it. He’s normally away, but sometimes he checks in, guiding them as a disembodied voice or animating objects to lead them in the right direction. The twins write this off as normal absurdity in their magic-filled schools and don’t realize it’s him.

The twins weren't sorted into Savanaclaw or Sagamore despite being animal-humans partially because they're not clear hybrids. Another, bigger reason is that their memories from being in nature are not pleasant ones (first being orphaned as kits and then living under Mim's hand) and they want to distance themselves from nature and their "origins" as much as possible.

They put a lot of effort into learning as much as they could about the modern world in such a short amount of time. Their knowledge is certainly passable, but they still slip up here and there. They prioritized learning alchemy for potions that could help them stay awake to study longer or help retain information a bit better. The same came with learning how to use computers as they noticed it was important in the current society. It was difficult for them when they were in hiding before they enrolled, but their fear possibly being enslaved by another witch encourage them to study hard and get stronger in both knowledge and resolve.

Lamarie knows they’re origins and the twins know she knows, but she keeps their secret to respect their wishes and protect Katherine, worried that the witch from their past might be trying to find them.

Lilia and Malleus are also highly aware that the twins aren't human, but they keep it to themselves.

One reason the twins use such strong fragrances in their products is because when they were still hiding at NRC, one persistent Savannaclaw student could pick up on their scent in rooms they were previously in during the night. Even if they were in human form in that room, the student specifically mentioned picking up on the scent of "squirrel" so it lead the twins to believe that even as humans their natural scent/musk smells animalistic. They threw the student off their literal scent before he could find them out by slipping a potion into his drinks and food to give him horrible allergies for the rest of his time at NRC, making him unable to smell clearly until he graduated.

IN-GAME HEADCANONS: headcanons regarding how the twins would work as canon characters in the actual game.

Thomas' unique magic is called "Found Your Weak Spot". He zeroes in on an opponent's weakness, whether it's physical, emotional, or magical and identifies how to exploit it; his attacks become critical.

Katherine's unique magic is called "Take a Deep Breath". A pleasant, but abundant fragrance overtakes her opponents, confusing their minds and slowing their movements, making their attacks much easier to dodge.

If they were in the game, they'd have an overblot boss battle as a special event. During the event, a side story would unfold where the player finds out about their past. The event would reward the player for participating by giving them rare cards where the twins unlock a human-squirrel hybrid form (similar to Savanaclaw students). The cards would depict stories of the twins trying to come to terms with being more open about their origins with their classmates, as well as trying to adjust to their hybrid forms.

CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP HEADCANONS: headcanons explaining how the twins, either separately or together, interact with canon or other OC characters.

During holidays where students can visit home, the twins stay at NRC, normally spending it having huge gaming marathons with Idia. While it took years of getting to know Thomas for Idia to open up to the idea, he enjoys how they're much more willing to venture out to restock on snacks and other supplies in his place. Ortho, unsurprisingly, has to be the voice of reason and makes sure the trio doesn't die from their diet of pizza and chocolate pretzels during this time.

Going back to how the twins have relatively normal diets, they will eat the most decadent, indulgent food concoctions (think burgers with jelly donuts as buns or hotdogs with s’more toppings) in front of Vil just to horrify him. Vil’s motions to have them banned from Pomefiore dorm and a restraining order from him personally have gone unapproved.

While not particularly kid-oriented, the twins are very good at interacting with Ortho. Thomas tries to look after him when Idia isn't around, particularly performing small maintenance on Ortho's suit (such as replacing worn wires or tightening bolts) when it wears a little from extensive use in the middle of the school day. Katherine has had less interaction with Ortho, but gives him little trinkets and souvenirs from DCA when she visits Thomas.

Cheka doesn't know the twins all that well, but he likes their long hair worn in braids (or, as he calls them, their "head-tails").

HOLIDAY HEADCANONS: headcanons specifically centered around how the twins celebrate the holidays.

During their first Christmas at NRC when they were hiding, they'd sneak into dorms and watch holiday movies any students were watching. They were enamored by gingerbread houses and managed to get a boxed kit each year to decorate, but now that they're older, they decide on a design and Katherine will bake the pieces herself when she visits NRC during the holiday break. Ortho typically joins them and has fun helping decorate the structure; he tries to get Idia to join, but the older Shroud tends to hyper fixate on one area to decorate and over-obsesses on how to make it "perfect" to not ruin the overall look of the gingerbread house. They're all glad Idia joins them, but they worry about whether or not he's actually having fun with it.

DCA FESTIVAL HEADCANONS: headcanons regarding the festival held by Diamond Crown Academy.

Katherine gives her bath products to be sold at the perfume booths by the alchemy students. She checks in occasionally to see if they need more of her products (and sometimes to man a stall for awhile so someone else can take a break), but she's normally involved in the more physically active attractions.

Katherine's duties for the festival rotates throughout the course of it. Since one of her strongest subjects is Obstacle Run (see: squirrel), she spends a good amount of time at the obstacle course being a potential challenger for the visiting students to race against.

Katherine is part of an idol group, but with rotating performances from different groups, she doesn't have to spend a lot of time on stage.

Despite not being a dorm leader, a lot of DCA students recognize Thomas as Katherine's brother (either as a formal acquaintance or just "hey, he looks exactly like the girl from Chateau Beastiale") so the native students are more open to approaching him out of familiarity. Some students even "drag" him to a certain booth or attraction to get his opinion on their hard work.

The first few years, Thomas was content to just wander around on his own. He tried hanging out with Rook during the festival for a bit, but the attention Rook tends to get got a little boring for Thomas to put up with. Now he just trades off who he hangs out with, if he hangs out with anyone at all while Katherine's busy.

Thomas doesn't realize it, but he has a bit of a "prince charming" reputation himself. This is because of his long hair and charming demeanor, but DCA students fawned over him at a distance one time while he was helping Katherine fix her hair before one of her performances, people swooning over his caring "older brother" instinct.

Aside from watching Katherine's group, Thomas tries to distance himself from the idol performances. Whether it comes from wanting to tease their colleague's brother or just wanting Thomas' attention, some groups will drag him on stage after their initial performance and encourage him to try and dance along to one of their songs. He goes along despite being embarrassed because he'd find it more embarrassing to "run away" or cause some sort of scene at Katherine's school by protesting.

Thomas usually spends his time trying out different foods, but he'll also find himself in the art gallery, trying to see if there's any pieces inspired by King Arthur or the twins' original home world. If there is, he purchases it immediately if he artist lets him, but given the unlimited points of inspiration in the world, he almost never sees any pieces.

He also spends a surprising amount of time at the Futterwacken dorm because the sentient tea sets stir a strange feeling of nostalgia in him. While he doesn't interact with Riddle too often, them both enjoying the tea parties at the festival allows them to catch up and have fun in familiar company, even if they don't usually hang out at NRC.

It's through the above that Thomas came into a possession of a very strange sugar bowl. The dish's enthusiasm humored him a great deal and when he asked about it, it brought attention to how nobody at DCA actually knew where that particular sugar bowl had come from and, with the staff's permission, they allowed Thomas to buy it and take it back to his dorm. The little bowl's antics still continue to amuse him, but he can't seem to make it understand that he doesn't want sugar in anything other than coffee or tea. He doesn't drink energy drinks or do his alchemy homework in his room anymore...

SPICY HEADCANONS: a link to general headcanons regarding NSFW headcanons about the twins. This set of headcanons will always linked at the bottom of the post. These headcanons will typically contain explict, sexual details so please do not read if you are not comfortable with such. (no link exists at this time)

#mond twins

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