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glitternightingale · 2 years

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Weird Questions for Writers (because writers are weird)

Taken from this list

As I said, this is just me comprising the asks so that I remember which ones I've already answered!

Now, onto the mess that is my writing routine:

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

My writing ritual is to obsess over an idea for weeks, thinking I haven't thought it out well enough, and when I do want to write the fic/next chapter I avoid it for the majority of the day. It gets late and I get tired but feel like I haven't been productive. That's when the first word garble appears!

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

"Apprehensive"

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

Hmm, my superstition is (not only when it comes to writing but just about anything I create) that when I'm proud of something I've made it's probably mediocre for everyone else. Surprisingly, my "best" is usually my "Meh...", so I try to avoid feeling overly confident! (But it also helps to sketch everyone's favorite prophet before I start a new project--)

6. What is your darkest fear about writing?

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

I would choose to write a story without dialogue. Because, and here it becomes sneaky, I could say just as much through interior monologue or describing the characters' facial expressions and body language. (Or even write 10k of exposition)

9. Do you believe in ghosts? This isn’t about writing I just wanna know

No, I do not. My opinion changes, however, when it gets dark and something's lurking behind the door, ready to fry me with lasers.

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

WIPs haunt me. They're like incomplete circles and I can't start something new without them being finished. (That's why I don't like writing multi-chapter fics. The needed commitment is just super big.)

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

12. If a genie offered you three writing wishes, what would they be? Btw if you wish for more wishes the genie turns all your current WIPs into Lorem Ipsum, I don’t make the rules

Wish 1: AO3 doesn't destroy my format when I import text from Google Docs.

Wish 2: Writing comments on other people's works comes more easily to me.

Wish 3: Just... everything I write is enjoyable(?)

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you to write about? What is easy?

14. Do you lend your books to people? Are people scared to borrow books from you? Do you know exactly where all your “lost” books are and which specific friend from school you haven’t seen in twelve years still possesses them? Will you ever get them back?

15. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

*cringes at the thought* Nope, I like my books clean and basically unused (so that I can make some profit if I decide to sell them later). It's a different topic if the text is digital, though. The pens that come with most tablets hafta be used!

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

I've made this Harry Potter wand out of wood, hot glue, and sparkly stones once. It served its purpose to weigh down the book pages but then it slid off and broke. Oh, well.

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

"Ah-ha! Here it is!" he exclaimed, holding the mysterious object aloft between his bony fingers.

The young girl squinted at the colorfully-striped cone, only realizing it was a party hat when Tío Bruno managed to attach it to the donkey's forehead.

She squealed in amazement as she saw the picture-perfect mythical animal blinking at her in all its radiant glory. However, this did not erase all the dreadful thoughts she had."

Right, so, I do watch Encanto quite often and there are always new things to discover. Then, while I was standing in front of the mirror, trying to make my eyebrows look symmetrical, I connected the party hats Osvaldo gave to Mirabel (in the "Not-Special Special" Basket) with the scene where Luisa's jumping over pink clouds with her unicorn donkeys. Party hats look like cones and cones look like unicorn horns-- Dumb, I know. But know who else would have these dumb ideas? Bruno.

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

20. If a witch offered you the choice between eternal happiness with your one true love and the ability to finally finish, perfect, and publish your dearest, darlingest, most precious WIP in exactly the way you’ve always imagined it — which would you choose? You can’t have both sorry, life’s a bitch

21. Could you ever quit writing? Do you ever wish you could? Why or why not?

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.

24. How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

26. How do you get into your character’s head? How do you get out? Do you ever regret going in there in the first place?

27. Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written? Why?

Aside from the fact that writing anyone ever is pretty stressful, I'd say it's Félix (Encanto). I couldn't pin down his personality at first without it seeming ooc and picturing his role in the Madrigals' dynamics.

28. Who is the most delightful character you’ve ever written? Why?

29. Where do you draw your inspiration? What do you do when the inspiration well runs dry?

30. Talk to me about the role dreams play in your writing life. Have you ever used material from your dreams in your writing? Have you ever written in a dream? Did you remember it when you woke up?

31. Write a short love letter to your readers.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

33. Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

35. What’s your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?

36. They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice…what do you Know?

37. If you were to be remembered only by the words you’ve put on the page, what would future historians think of you?

38. What is something about your writing process YOU think is Really Weird? If you are comfortable, please share. If you’re not comfortable, what do you think cats say about us?

39. What keeps you writing when you feel like giving up?

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

(Don't judge me for this one lmao.)

The glass is dark, your reflection green

What do you feel when you fall on your spleen?

Is it pain? Is it greed?

Or are you-- freed?

#Keep the questions coming if you want!#my writing #my stuff #ask game #asks #ask game weird writing questions #encanto #encanto fanfic #waach #bruno madrigal #luisa madrigal #mirabel madrigal #félix madrigal

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dancingqueen0019 · 2 years

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Saving Grace Ch. 5

Aaron Hotchner x Female Reader

Themes: Budding Relationship, Fluff, Awkward Love, Slow-Burn ish, Age Gap (roughly 15 years; Aaron 40ish and Reader 25)

Warnings: Mention of murders, natural death of parent (reader’s parent), slight cursing (?), school drama (slight bullying, additional school assistance)

Author’s Note: Chapter 5! Hope you enjoy. According to Google Docs its 8 Pages. This hasn’t been edited so I apologize for grammar/spelling errors

Life definitely pulled a fast one on me. On Sunday, Lucas and I drove out to the ranch to visit with mom and the grandparents. We stayed for lunch and dinner and we helped with some chores around the place. There were a couple of fences that needed fixing and the cows needed to be moved from the upper pasture to the lower one so that they could hire someone to replace the back fence line. We try to do most of the work ourselves, but with Lucas leaving, there isn’t enough manpower or time to do it completely. Mom was excited to hear all about my teaching from this past week and the upcoming events. I made Lucas swear that he wasn’t going to say a word about Aaron, and thankfully he kept his mouth shut.

She did as if there was anyone who caught my eye but I mainly brushed that off. My mother was a strong woman, especially since my father died. For the first couple of years, my grandma moved in with us so that she could help around the house and watch us. If she didn’t, I’m sure the house would have fallen apart. Eventually mom got back on her feet, but something became hard in her. She never dated again or made any indication of having feelings for another person. She thrusted herself into taking care of her children and her parents. She doesn’t know that there were times when I would wake up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water and I could hear her sobs and cries for my father.

Moments will flash before my eyes of mom and dad doing domestic things together. Maybe they were actual memories, or maybe I convinced myself that the cute things that couples do in romance movies were things that my parents did. There is one memory though that I know is 100% real, and it's only because there’s a picture to prove it happened. Lucas was messing with mom’s new camera on the kitchen table and snapped the slightly out of focus moment of dad creeping up behind mom with mud covered hands. He was working outside and I was idly playing in the mud when I convinced him to make mud pies with me. He told me to be quiet and I followed him into the kitchen. Mom was at the sink washing dishes when suddenly dad grabbed her bare arms and made her jump out of surprise. Which was quickly followed by a shriek of horror that her arms were covered by mud.

In response she flung the wet washcloth at dad and soapy water went flying through the air. A mixture of soap and mud created a mess over themselves, the counters, and floors. Bubbles drifted up to the ceiling and some went out of the open window. I loved that memory, it was one that I thought of often. Especially when I was doing the dishes.

On Monday, I got the call from Lucas while my students were at lunch that things changed drastically and he had to be deployed that night. He had already called mom and told her the news, which she didn’t take too well too, but he needed me to drive him to his drop off location. I called my building principal, Dr. Smithfield, and he said he would take care of my class the rest of the afternoon. I packed my bags and left.

I cried when saying goodbye to him and I cried when I walked in the door to an empty house. I had planned on more time with him, but we didn’t get that. Murphy stuck to my side, as if he knew why I was upset, and I even let him sleep in my bed that night.

On Tuesday, I called in sick so I didn’t have to pretend to be super cheery for my students. I texted with my mom and asked if she needed anything, but she wasn't responding. Probably left her phone like she usually does on the table while she’s out working. My next thought was to call Aaron. He did say to call him if I needed anything, but he was probably too busy at work to do anything, plus what could he do. He doesn’t have the authority to bring Lucas back, so besides that I don’t know what he could do.

He could come over and hold you. Make you dinner here. I thought hopefully to myself.

At least I have dinner tonight to look forward to. Unfortunately that means that I have to shower and put makeup on. Maybe brush my teeth too, that would probably be good. My rambling list of basic care that needed to be done was cut very short by my phone ringing.

“Hey, Aaron.” I said with a touch of tiredness in my tone. There was a loud noise of commotion in the background before what I assume was a door shutting closed.

“Y/N, hi. Jack said yesterday that you had left halfway through the day, I tried calling your work phone to reach you and a sub picked up. Is everything okay?” He spoke in a timid tone, waiting for my answer. I started choking up just a tad, “Yeah, well no. I will be soon. Lucas was deployed yesterday afternoon. He told me that things were bad over there which is why he had to leave weeks ahead of schedule. I just needed a personal day, tell Jack I’ll see him tomorrow.”

He paused for a moment before responding, “Y/N I’m so sorry to hear that. I don’t have long to talk so I’m sorry I have to add to the bad news. There’s been a case and our plane leaves in two hours. I have to cancel our dinner plans tonight and reschedule when we get back.”

I sucked in a breath and a small sob came out instead. “Y/N, please don’t cry.”

“N-no, I’m sorry.” I wiped away the tears, “I understand. Your job is really important, that has to come first. Hopefully this case ends quickly. Sorry, I’m just really emotional right now.” I threw myself back down on my bed and the remaining tears rolled down the sides of my face and pieces of hair stuck to the wet skin.

“I’ll keep you updated on when I’m back. I gotta go now.” We said goodbye to each other, but I didn’t notice that before we hung up that he heard the last sob that pushed past my lips. I thought the phone had clicked before that. I placed my phone on my nightstand and rolled over to take a nap.

It didn't last long though. The mixture of the doorbell ringing, Murphy braying, and my headache pounding was just enough to put me on the verge of calling it quits. I slowly pulled myself from my bed and trampled downstairs. I was wearing a long shirt but I forgot to put shorts on in my mental state so I just had underwear on with it. My braided hair probably looked atrocious so I tried flattening it down with my hands before pulling the front door open.

There he stood, looking like a knight in shining armor in his dress pants and white collared shirt. His eyes studied me, gazing over my body, almost checking to make sure that I was physically okay. However I think he just wanted to sneak a peek. He opened the second glass door and let himself in, without talking he pulled me into his arms for a strong hug.

Instantly I put part of my weight onto him so I could sink into the hug. His arms wrapped around my upper and lower back squeezed tighter and I shifted my head so that it was on his shoulder. The cologne he wore broke through my stuffy nose and it brought me comfort. He slowly swayed us from side to side and quietly whispered, “I couldn’t leave town without saying bye. I felt like I had to see you one more time.”

I whimpered at that and he shushed me, rubbing his hand up and down my back. My shirt bunched under his touch so now his lower hand partially laid on top of the band of my underwear. His thumb on that hand smoothed itself over my skin over and over again, tracing the same path. “It means a lot, you stopping by here. Thank you Aaron.” I mumbled against him.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” He softly asked me. I shrugged my shoulders slightly, “I honestly don’t know. Promise to be safe? I can’t spend the next several days, or however long, worrying about two people.” I felt his chest fill with air twice before he answered.

“Of course,” he placed his head on top of mine, “I promise I will be safe, as long as you take care of yourself. Okay?” I nodded in response and he pulled away a little bit. I snuck my arms around his waist and he put his hands on either side of my face. “I should be going now. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, please. You can’t be sorry for your job Aaron.” His brown eyes softened at that and a smile twitched onto his face. Before I could process what was happening, he tilted my head down a fraction and kissed my forehead. It was a firm kiss and I closed my eyes, hoping to commit this moment to memory. “I’ll see you soon, Y/N.” He slowly pulled back from me and opened the door.

I stood at the door watching him pull away from the driveway and for a moment I felt like part of me left. A small fraction drove down the driveway with him in that black car. It was going to be a long week.

Wednesday:

The school day went by so slow, it felt like pulling teeth. Jack was down in the dumps about his dad leaving and I had so much sympathy for him. Luckily I was going out to drink tonight with Sammy and the rest of our teacher friends. Normally we wouldn’t go out on a school night but tomorrow was a work from home day. All students had the day off and teachers got to catch up on their to-do list so I could drown my sorrows. Aaron had texted me late last night that he had landed and once again when he made it to his hotel room. I was thankful that he made it there safely and we texted for a little bit before he had to go to bed.

After getting home and taking care of Murphy I went ahead and got ready to go out. I just put on light wash jeans and a low cut black bodysuit with my white shoes. Sammy came over early to get ready as well and of course then we just started drinking at home. We had a sober friend driving tonight so we continued to drink until they came by. The bar wasn’t really full, since it was a Wednesday, but plenty of us were there to make it more of a party. We sat around drinking for the next three hours and I admit that I had more than I should have had.

I really wanted to drown my problems. The music was throbbing in my ears but it was a welcomed distraction. I was sitting at the table with Sammy, Mr. Mac (Whose real name is Mac), Daniel, Alice, and a couple others from my school that I don’t really talk to. Mac went to the bar to order a round of shots for our table, so I took that time to check my phone. No messages from Lucas or my mom, but there was a message from Aaron. The message came in ten minutes ago and it was already 11:30 so I wasn’t sure if he was still awake or not.

I put all my focus on unlocking my phone in my drunk state and managed to get to the messages.

Aaron: Are you still awake?

Me: Yess. You?

He read the message right away.

Aaron: How are you today?

Me: Drunk, so good. You??

I could feel the alcohol buzzing through my veins mixed with the delight of talking to him.

Me: You need to come home and drink with me, I’m funnn

Aaron: Yeah I can tell you are drunk. I’ll be home soon.

A stupid drunk smile plastered itself onto my lips. Mac came back to the table with shots in hand. We quickly threw them back and headed out onto the dance floor. All of us piled onto one another and continued dancing and taking drinks of our cocktails. Mac stole my phone and snapped a picture of Sammy and I on the dance floor. We were pressed up against one another, she was behind with her hands thrown up to the music and I was smiling over my shoulder to the camera with my drink in my hand. He slid my phone back into my back pocket and continued dancing.

We went home probably an hour later and I stumbled up the stairs into my room. I peeled all the clothes off of my body and flopped down into the bed naked. I was out like a light in a minute.

Light buzzing woke me up at 8:30 and I cursed myself for setting an alarm that early. I had a couple notifications from my mom, just wishing that I had a good day today and that she will see me this weekend, and one from Aaron.

Aaron: Looks like you enjoyed yourself last night. Let me know when you are up for the day

The fog in my brain almost caused me to type back asking what he meant, but then I scrolled back up to see that somehow the picture of me and Sammy was sent to him. I must have had my messages open when Mac took the photo and he must have sent it by accident. I threw my palm onto my forehead, how stupid could I be?

Me: Morning :)

Aaron: Good morning, got any picture proof of that?

My eyes slightly widened at that before a blush crept its way to my neck. I opened my camera and pulled my blankets up higher so my body wouldn’t be on display. My half open eyes and sleepy smile stared back at me before I hit send.

Me: That picture last night was sent by accident, sorry about that.

Aaron: Ah good, you are awake.

Aaron: Thought it was a good picture of you though

That blush was full force now. I sat up slowly in bed and sat cross legged.

Me: Well thanks. How is your case going?

Aaron: Can’t say much, but we should be closing in soon. It’s been rough, that’s for sure.

Me: My offer still stands, come by if you need or want to talk.

Aaron: Thank you Y/N. Have a good day today

Me: You too Aaron.

I pulled on a shirt and headed downstairs to let Murphy out. I locked the door behind me so he could have plenty of time to do his morning business and I went back upstairs to shower. The hot water woke me up and released the tension in my muscles. I stood there for a few minutes just letting the water rush over me until my skin was beet red. I grabbed my scalp scrubber and lathered my hair in shampoo. My poor roots were so sensitive to the scrubbing that it hurt a little bit but it felt good too.

I let the conditioner sit in my hair for a couple of minutes while I washed my body with lavender soap. The ick of the bar washed off and I felt content with that. After I finished rinsing everything out of my hair I stopped the water and wrapped myself in a big towel. I grabbed my hair brush and slicked my hair back before walking downstairs to let Murphy back in. He trotted back in and went straight to his bowl. Looking down at his empty bowl he threw his head back and howled. I laughed at him and picked up his bowl to fill it up. He’s on one of those fancy diets so he gets his normal food with raw fruits and veggies, powdered supplements, and oil to make his fur shiny.

As he gobbled that food up I grabbed the coffee from the fridge and made myself a large thing of iced coffee and started making myself breakfast. Today my plans consisted of grading assignments, going over the notes the sub left, and having a meeting with my grade level at 2pm. I headed upstairs with a plate of food and my drinks so I could get busy with work. I swapped my towel for cropped black leggings and one of my college sweatshirts. I stripped the sheets off of my bed and put those in the wash and went back to the office to enjoy my breakfast.

Murphy switched between laying on my feet and then sunbathing in the glass door that led to the balcony. Before I knew it, it was lunch time and I had all assignments caught up and I went over the sub notes. Thankfully nothing bad happened while I was gone so there wasn’t anything that I needed to discuss on Friday. Murphy stretched out and pawed at my leg. I took him on a quick walk up and down the street to stretch his legs and returned to make lunch. I had plenty of leftovers to heat up so I grabbed the pizza and started the oven up.

I really wanted to text Aaron but I didn’t want to interrupt his work day. Instead I put my phone down and looked over one of my new books. I had roughly an hour until my meeting so I read for a bit and then put my freshly washed sheets back on my bed. I was pretty happy with how my room was turning out. The queen sized bed had dark emerald green colored sheets and a matching cream comforter, and it was adorned with a mixture of cream and green pillows. The rest of my room had my light wooden dresser, bookshelf, and nightstands. For now I was doing my makeup in the bathroom, but I’m having a vanity shipped here so that I can have more room in the bathroom storage. The walls were still pretty bare for now, with the exception of my round black mirror above the dresser and a shelf above my bed filled with vintage sepia photos.

Saturday:

I woke up around 4am to the phone ringing and for a moment I contemplated throwing it against the wall. With my eyes half closed I pulled the phone off of the charger and picked it up. “Hello?” I grumbled out and rubbed my face in hopes of waking myself up.

“Y/N, I’m so sorry I woke you, but I wouldn’t have called unless it was important.” Aaron’s warm voice soothed over the phone. I blinked a couple of times and looked at the alarm clock.

“S’okay, what's up? Are you home now?” I let out a small yawn before he responded in a timid voice.

“Yeah, our plane just landed 20 minutes ago. I-I wanted to take you up on your offer, this case didn’t end well.” He let out a stressed sigh and I felt bad for him. I was more awake now so I forced my eyes open, “Of course. Come on over, just text me when you are here so I can unlock the door.”

He promised he would be there in the next 15 minutes so I grabbed my silk robe and headed downstairs to wait for him. I sat down in the armchair and scrolled through my phone, trying to stay awake but sleep kept pushing itself further into me. I remember nodding off and then being woken to my phone ringing again.

I got up and unlocked the door, unbothered to even check who was calling me. Aaron looked more exhausted than I did. His hair was free of product and his shirt was loosened up. His eyes looked almost wild, like he had just seen the most horrific sight. I pulled my robe tighter around myself and held the door open while he walked in. He kicked off his shoes and neatly placed them next to mine and silently followed me upstairs. In his left hand he had a small black duffle bag, which I assumed had his work clothes in it.

“What can I get you? Food or drink? If you need to shower feel free to use mine.” I talked quietly while we went up the stairs. He mulled over my offers and said that a shower would be nice. I grabbed him an extra fluffy towel from the linen closet and showed him to my bathroom. I discarded my robe and sat back down on the bed waiting for him. I wasn’t sure what he was expecting from this but he said that he needed to talk so that’s the least I can do for him. I went over in my head all the typical, ‘I’m sure that must have been hard’ and ‘I can’t imagine the stress you went through’ responses to things.

Lucas would tell me stories from his previous deployment, but I had no clue what to expect from an FBI agent. I heard the shower turn on and I laid down on the bed and against my will my eyes started drooping lower and lower until they finally closed. The bed dipped down towards my feet and I peeled my eyes open. In front of me was Aaron sitting with his shoulders hunched over. His wet hair left little marks on the white cotton shirt. I sat for a moment laying there, just watching him. The thin white material mixed with the water still on his skin made the shirt cling to him.

I fought the urge to sit behind him and rub the tension out of his back. Thankfully I didn’t have to fight myself for long as he stood up and turned around to find me watching him. He had on black sweatpants and to be honest I think this would be the only time I would ever see him in relaxed clothing. “I-” he started before pausing to collect his thoughts, “Thank you for the shower, I needed that. I’m used to bad cases, but for some reason this one stuck with me.”

I patted the other side of my bed to get him to sit closer while I pushed myself up to sit against the pillows and headboard. I folded my legs under me and twisted my body so that I was facing him, “I think that in your profession, if you stopped letting every case get to you then you wouldn’t be human anymore. When we went through our Master’s program we met with so many teachers that quit their jobs because they lost themselves to it. They burnt out and stopped letting everything get to them and they said that they hated how they felt.”

He hummed in response and took a deep breath, “I haven’t done this,” I gestured between us, “before so whatever it is you need me to do, just tell me.” I said softly. He nodded and said that he just needs me to listen, he needs to get it off his chest.

Before Aaron started talking he readjusted himself on the bed so that he was laying on his back, facing the ceiling. I had to hold back a giggle because he reminded me of a person laying on the bed talking to their shrink. Once he started talking though, he didn’t stop for another three hours. I sat there quietly, nodding along and offering words of encouragement to talk it out. His hands would move around to animate his story, but when his left hand dropped and landed on my upper knee, he kept it there. I’m not sure if it grounded him, or if he just wanted some sort of physical contact, but I didn’t dare move his leg.

When he was done talking about this case, he immediately jumped into another case that was bothering him from a year ago. At this point I had no clue how he kept going without passing out, but another wave of exhaustion hit me. I slid down the bed, Aaron’s hand pulling away from my knee temporarily, and laid on my side to face him. I kept my left arm laying out from my body and he replaced his hand back to now grab mine. Despite the horrible stories that came out of his mouth, the warmth of his speech pattern kept me calm.

“You look like you are going to fall asleep.” He remarked when he finally took a look at me. I smiled and blushed a little, ”Sorry. I’m trying so hard to stay awake for you, I promise.”

“Are you okay if I stay? Just for a couple more hours?” He timidly asked and I opened my eyes enough to see him shyly looking down at me. As if he was a little child, but I could tell that if I said no that he would be hurting. A sleepy smile pulled at my mouth and I mumbled out a yes. He reached over to the lamp and turned in off before settling back in.

I didn’t move from his side but he didn’t seem to mind as he pulled the covers higher around us. The last thing I remember is him saying goodnight and his lips pressing into my hair.

#aaron hotch x reader #aaron hotch hotchner #criminal minds #emily prentiss #jj jareau #derek morgan #spencer reid #david rossi #jack hotchner #fluff #smutt #teacher #slow burn #fbi #bau

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dustofthedailylife · 1 year

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I just realized that my Diluc x Fatui! Reader fic is "only" four chapters long so far but already has 41 (!!!) A4 pages of written text in google docs. Dang!

Might end up with well over 100 pages as soon as I'm done. There is quite a couple of things to come that I need to write still.

#🍁 dust rambles #Doesn't feel like I wrote that much already #I feel like barely anything happened yet sjdksj

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douglysium · 22 days

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Episode 10 TMP Quick Thoughts

Housekeeping and Prologue

Hello, this is Douglysium and you might not know me as that guy who wrote over 100 pages of analysis on the Eye (which can be read on Tumblr here (https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/735599414228484097/the-relationships-between-the-dread-powers-the) or Google Docs here (The Relationships Between the Dread Powers: The Eye- Knowledge is Fear and Ignorance is Bliss)) or as that guy who wrote an article on the Extinction (which can be read on Tumblr here(https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/717929126195003392/what-would-avatars-of-the-extinction-be-like-a) and Google Docs here(What would Avatars of the Extinction be like?: A TMA Speculation)). Suffice to say I might be a bit of a TMA fan. Also, spoilers for TMP up until episode 10. You can read my ramblings on the last episode here (Episode 9 TMP Quick Thoughts).

However, Protocol offers a very unique opportunity and experience for me because I didn’t actually get into TMA until after it was over and I binged all of it. So this is my first time experiencing something even remotely similar to what the original TMA fans probably experienced when waiting for each episode week by week and slowly having to put everything together with the limited information they had. So I decided to throw my hat into the ring since this might be my only chance to do something similar. However, I’m working on some longer form TMA content so I can’t spend as much time on these articles giving a bunch of super detailed thoughts. I will try to keep these short and that inevitably might mean some could have questions about why I think or predict certain things and in those cases I would probably recommend you read at least some of the two articles I mentioned above to get a better idea of where I’m coming from. This also means I won’t be giving you a play-by-play of every single thing that happens in the episode so I encourage you to listen to or read them yourselves and feel free to comment if you feel something is important.

These reviews are probably going to end up focusing mostly on the Entities and their manifestations as they are what I have thought about the most and spent the most time interpreting and there’s been a lot of… interesting theories floating around about how the Entities are manifesting that I want to go over.

Finally, I’m just going to say it right now, spoiler warning for all of The Magnus Archives. I know that Jon and co said one could start with Protocol and be fine, and while that’s probably true, media like this tends to be made in conversation with or take into consideration what came before it in the irl chronology in order to connect them. While I’m sure you could skip The Magnus Archives, I don't really see the point of skipping over it when we are already getting characters from TMA showing up in TMP in Protocol. So to me it’s pretty clear that if we want to understand the full picture of TMP and all the things it is trying to say then we can’t just try to pretend TMA doesn’t exist or scrub it away. Just because you could understand what’s happening without the context in broad strokes doesn’t mean you're getting all the nuances.

These articles are meant to be quick and short so sorry if there’s typos and if I don’t address every possible question or possibility. I don’t want to repeat myself too much in this series outside of the prologue so be sure to skim some of my other articles.

Episode 10 “Saturday Night”

This starts off with a TV interview hosted by Geraldine Hardy featuring Nigel Dickerson about ““Mr. Bonzo’s On His Way” which topped charts for over 11 weeks.” Well, actually 12 weeks according to Nigel. To which Geraldine adds “12 weeks, smashing the record for TV tie-in music and launching a merchandise empire.” So Mr. Bonzo’s On His Way is a pretty big deal and I can see why Gwen might have been surprised Lena didn’t seem to know anything about Nigel or his work in the last episode.

It’s implied that Nigel hasn’t been on TV recently when we get

NIGEL

“It’s an absolute pleasure to be here Geraldine. Nice to be on TV again.”

GERALDINE

“It has been a while, hasn’t it?”

NIGEL

“I’ve kept busy.”

We are also told that Mr. Bonzo first debuted 25 years ago. Nigel says, with what the transcripts call “odd energy”, “I mean, it started as a joke…” Long story short, Channel Six (which is apparently a part of the BBC’s(British Broadcasting Corporation)) took a gamble and offered Nigel a spot as the host of their Saturday night variety show. Still, ““Nigel Dickerson presents Saturdays on Six” or “Nigel’s SOS” as they started calling it, really took off. I mean, at the end of the day it was still the same sort of variety show that BBC and ITV were running on Saturday primetime: skits, music, interviews, some on-location features. What marked us out though was that we didn’t take ourselves nearly as seriously as them. The whole conceit was that the set was built like an enormous comedy dungeon, and I’d been imprisoned by “Mr. Six.””

Mr. Six was a character that acted as the “fictional head of Channel Six” and the joke around the character was that Nigel would have to do a “good show” in order to be released from the fictional dungeon within the show. One of the show’s beats was that Mr. Six would call Nigel and angrily explain that “he’d gotten a complaint from some busybody writing in with a name like Mrs. Sourpucker or Mr. Smallprick” and then Nigel would be told an outlandish rule he needed to follow to much comedic effect. “I’d be told I had to do the whole show without… I don’t know, using the words “up next” or standing on one leg or something and people loved it. They really loved it.”

Then Geraldine asks about Mr. Bonzo, which implies that this topic is what at least Geraldine seems to be most interested in. It could even be what this interview is supposed to be about. “Yes. Mr. Bonzo. Of course. Well, one of our big things was pranks. We had a whole section called “You Got Berried!” where we’d invite on some serious public figure and make them look a bit silly, like, uh, get a famous footballer to do a bunch of kick-ups but we’d weighted the ball, and at the end I’d come out, say “You Got Berried!” (Not to be confused with The Buried) and give them this big golden raspberry trophy. It was all in fun, of course. No guests were hurt.” So then Rich, Nigel’s producer, came up with the idea of “inviting a famous person on, someone really serious, and we tell them we’re going to have them do a segment with a popular children’s entertainer. Now, obviously these folks won’t have any idea about what kids are actually watching, so we could come up with the most horrendous thing, claim kids loved it and see how long it took for the guest to realize that they were the joke. That they’d been “berried”.” So Nigel designs a character that is “this awful clown character – this big bulbous, splotchy suit, running around, screaming his own name and generally being a nightmare.”

Geraldine asks Nigel who came up with this character’s name and Nigel replies “You know, I honestly don’t remember. I know it wasn’t me or Rich, but at some point someone said it and the name just stuck. I don’t really know what else to say about it. His name is Mr. Bonzo.” This is the part where I do what I always do and try to frame the statements or encounters through the lens of Smirke’s 14 (plus The Extinction) to note if there’s any parallels or evidence that these are / aren’t the same Entities from TMA. The fact that Nigel doesn’t remember who came up with the character's name is most likely just a throwaway line and who actually came up with the name doesn’t really matter. But I’m here to give you my thoughts even if they are a bit of a stretch.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous article The Stranger seems to be the Entity tied the most to forgetting things and memory loss. “In MAG 165 (Revolutions) we see Not-Sasha watch over a Domain that takes the form of a merry-go-round with people fighting over faces. People with no faces must fight over the faces of others to rip them off and regain some sense of identity. When they lose their face it is said “And soon enough they will forget they ever even had one, rest assured; it’s best to step the dance and keep your face secured as much as you are able. Just. Keep. Running.” In case there is any debate about what The Stranger embodies in MAG 200 it is stated “And as they learned to know their friends and kin, so too did they learn to fear the unknown figure, the coming of the stranger” and in MAG 092 (Nothing Beside Remains) Jonah tells Jon “We thrive on ceaseless watching, on knowing too much. What we face is the hidden, the uncanny, and the unknown.” while in MAG 111 (Family Business) Jon says “The Stranger is the unknown. The uncanny.” and Gerard doesn’t correct him. Theoretically the fear of the unknown would probably often include the fear of forgetting something as you would no longer know it. The idea that there’s something you once knew but now you don’t, and so it is unknown. This obviously would overlap with The Spiral a lot with the fear of your senses being wrong but that’s a whole thing for another time, and plenty of Entities overlap with stuff all the time. All I’m saying is that there’s a strong precedent for The Stranger making people forget stuff or making things hard to remember.”

However, that alone isn’t very good evidence but Mr. Bonzo is described as being a clown. Which The Stranger has a precedent for manifesting as, probably due to both the idea of the uncanny valley being achieved with a costume or makeup and the idea of a traveling circus full of strangers you don’t know from out of town. Not to mention that Mr. Bonzo is described as a suit, which could very easily connect to an Entity like The Stranger. Firstly, The Stranger tends to have a big emphasis on wearing things like skins and suits. I think the idea behind this is usually that wearing costumes or disguises can actually obscure who is wearing them and thus their true identity is unknown. There’s also the fact that costumes themselves can easily fall into the uncanny valley. Ever since Five Nights at Freddy’s became popular there’s been an uptick in horror media focusing on how creepy and uncanny things like animatronic suits can be. Not that Mr. Bonzo is an animatronic but it is a suit. Also, as others much more well versed in British culture than me have pointed out, Mr. Bonzo is most likely inspired by Mr. Blobby (a real life fictional character). And yeah I could see how such a costume could be uncanny to some or quickly become creepy if you change around some features.

The wiki also says this about Mr. Blobby: “Mr Blobby first appeared in 1992 in the 'Gotcha' segment of the second series of Noel's House Party, in which celebrities were caught out in a Candid Camera style prank. Mr Blobby was presented to the celebrities as if he were a real and established children's television character, in order to record a feature about the guests' professions - in reality, the setup was completely fictitious, and the character of Mr Blobby portrayed by Noel Edmonds focused on acting childishly and unprofessionally, to irritate the celebrities taking part.” This all sounds way too similar to Mr. Bonzo and the role he played on Mr. Bonzo’s On His Way as a character that pranked or messed with celebrities.

Also, after looking through the ARG I found some pictures of Mr. Bonzo (https://rustyquill.com/2023/10/31/the-magnus-protocol-arg-full-summary/)

(There’s also a more distorted creepypasta style picture of Mr. Bonzo (that I imagine the suit we see later looks like), but you can check the link for that).

“I remember the first show we used him. We’d invited Gotard Rimbaeu – the chef. He was very big at the time. Lots of TV appearances, a cooking column in The Times. But I think he was looking to soften his public image after the Mirror ran a story on him, I don’t quite remember…” Once again, Nigel is having trouble recalling something even if Geraldine reminds him. I fully acknowledge I’ve gone full tinfoil and it’s probable that Nigel just genuinely forgot or is a normal human with an imperfect memory.

“...after that he agreed to do a segment on our show teaching children how to cook. He’s

obviously never seen the show and was completely oblivious to kids’ culture. He was absolutely perfect.” It’s interesting that they are preying on the fact that this chef is oblivious to kids’ culture. Which is another way to say that they were taking advantage of the fact that Gotard didn't know something (which can be very Stranger-esque).

“When Mr Bonzo emerged out of the pantry, the effect was… incredible. Rimbeau’s face went white and he looked like he was about to scream. I’ll be honest, I’d seen the suit already, but I hadn’t seen it moving, and it was even freaking me out a bit. Rimbeau tried to keep it together, as far as he knew all the kids did love Mr. Bonzo, but when that big rubbery clown started knocking over pans and smashing eggs all over the studio kitchen, “the snooty chef” actually tried to hide behind a shelving unit. And finally, when Mr Bonzo went in for a cuddle, Rimbeau genuinely attacked him with a frying pan. He actually broke the arm of the guy wearing him, which I took as my cue to enter with the Golden Berry. This was on live TV don’t forget.” Surprise is something that a lot of Entities like to use but you could argue it potentially relating to The Stranger here in the sense that Gotard didn’t know any of the stuff regarding Mr. Bonzo was going to happen when he joined the show, nor was he familiar with the character. Also Gotard Rimbeau sounds like a Gordan Ramsey reference. Especially with a title like “BRITAIN’S SNOOTIEST CHEF.”

While someone having his arm broken sounds like a disaster it apparently worked out for Nigel and his crew, since the audience ended up loving it and asking for Mr. Bonzo to return. Of course, “...there was a different man in the suit, of course. There were a few of them over the years. It was very physically demanding and that wasn’t the only injury we had with it. It actually became a sort of ritual: the newest member of the production crew wore Mr. Bonzo until someone else joined.” I mentioned last episode how The Desolation can relate to the fear of things like bad luck. So you could maybe argue some parallels with Entities such as The Desolation depending on how people wearing the suit got hurt, but my money is still currently on The Stranger.

Nigel explains, that the joke couldn’t last forever and the bit started losing its punch as more people became aware of Mr. Bonzo and his skits on Nigel’s show. “The problem with a surprise prank is that doing it on Saturday night primetime means pretty soon everyone knows about it, and the guests knew it was coming. A couple even requested it. So the prank part of it sort of died, and he just became an SOS mascot. One of my many tormentors in the dungeon. By the end we’d even retired Mr. Six, and it was all Bonzo.” Once again, a focus on surprise and I think it’s interesting that Bonzo loses his punch the more people know about and understand him. Bonzo is a character that thrived specifically on the guests not knowing who he was and did. So a potential relationship with the unknown again. “The kids certainly liked him. It turned out they really did think he was hilarious. Well, the ones who didn’t wet themselves, anyway.” So Mr. Bonzo could have been creating fear that fed the Entities unintentionally.

I wonder about Geraldine since at this point they seem to laugh at the suffering or fear of people. When Nigel brings up how people wearing Bonzo’s costume often got hurt Geraldine says “Or until they got hit by a pan!” and laughs while Nigel doesn’t. When Nigel mentions kids wetting themselves Geraldine laughs, but you could argue this is just Geraldine reacting to the joke. If Geraldine was an Avatar, monster, or somehow connected to an Entity this behavior would make sense if she is trying to purposefully scare Nigel, or maybe she just has a different sense of humor. Honestly, Geraldine radiates returning character energy to me.

Nigel explains that things were looking up for the Bonzo brand despite this dividing line amongst the reception of kids. “Soon it was Bonzomania: merch sales were through the roof; “underserving number one hit single” actually did become a number one hit single and we even started construction on a small Bonzoland theme park at one point. It was… It was a good time.” And then people stopped liking Bonzo after a serial killer named Terrance Menki was caught wearing a Mr. Bonzo costume after murdering 11 people. Nigel says “You know it was only the last one, right? The one where he was caught? The police said there were eleven bodies in total and his wardrobe was full of all sorts of homemade costumes. Who knows what he wore for the rest? But no, because he was caught dressed as Mr. Bonzo, that’s all people remember, the, uh, the-” “Bonzo Butcher” apparently.

Obviously, Nigel has some strong feelings about this “The Bonzo Butcher! Ridiculous tabloid garbage. It didn’t even look like him! He got the colors backwards! But they still splashed the image all over the front page. Complete overreaction.” Terrance messing up Bonzo’s colors could just be a coincidence but it could relate to The Stranger and the idea of the uncanny. The idea that a character or person who would otherwise be familiar is off in some way. So we get an uncanny Bonzo that doesn’t look quite right.

When Geraldine asks “An overreaction?” Nigel replies with “No, I mean, uh, it was inappropriate. To show to the public I mean.” One could argue that this parallels The Eye thematically with the fear relating to the idea of something being made public or known. Not to mention that Nigel is in front of a live audience right now and is in the middle of an interview. Interviews are something The Eye loves and has a precedent for, the most obvious example of this are the various live statements people like Jon and Gertrude took in TMA as Archivists. After news of the “Bonzo Butcher” went public “Bonzoland halted construction shortly afterwards and the suits decided it was best to “temporarily” halt production on SOS.” and Nigel got death threats even though he felt he had nothing to do with the situation. Public perception of Mr. Bonzo took a turn for the worse but Bonzo did get “some fans. In the, uh, edgier parts of the internet. As a “meme”.”

Geraldine asks about the Bonzo merchandise still available on Nigel's own website and if its presence makes him uneasy. “About what? The fact that a few sales might be from people trying to be edgy? A man’s got to make a living, Geraldine, and it’s not like I can tell if someone’s buying a t-shirt ironically. Besides, people think of Nigel Dickerson and Mr. Bonzo is never far behind so it’s not like its changing my reputation. In a lot of ways I’m more his prisoner now than I ever was on my show.” Then the interview takes a sharp turn when

GERALDINE

“And how do you respond to the more recent rumours?”

NIGEL

“(on guard) Excuse me? “

GERALDINE

“The witness statements from three murders over the last five years”

NIGEL

“(speaking over her) I told your producer this wasn’t going to be discussed.”

GERALDINE

“-that claim a person in a Mr. Bonzo costume was at the scene? Do you think there could be a copycat?’

NIGEL

“(Getting up) This interview is over. Don’t contact us again.”

GERALDINE

“Us? “

NIGEL

“(losing it) It was a joke alright!? Mr. Bonzo was meant to be funny, make people laugh! Is that so wrong? Why am I still trapped dealing with all this- this- Why won’t he let me go?! Why”

First off, considering that Gwen encounters Bonzo in Nigel’s house later, when Nigel says “us” he is probably referring to both himself and Mr. Bonzo. One could also argue that this part of the interview parallels The Eye due to Nigel reacting very negatively to prying questions and he refuses to be interviewed again. However, I think that at least Mr. Bonzo is somehow connected to The Stranger. The comment Geraldine makes about the rumors by saying “The witness statements from three murders over the last five years” and “-that claim a person in a Mr. Bonzo costume was at the scene? Do you think there could be a copycat?” implies that more murders have since occurred after the first 11. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that these three murders might be related to whatever we see Bonzo doing later after Gwen gives him the letter. Is Bonzo going off to kill more people, and why is the OIAR involved?

We cut to OIAR via one of the computers to find out that Celia is filling out the forms for this statement. Colin enters the room and makes it clear that he doesn’t want to interrupt Celia’s Job to which she respons “It’s fine, just stuck the kettle on. You want a cup?” Implying that Colin’s mental health leave might have ended. Colin asks where everyone is, as he seems to be looking for Alice, and Celia explains “Gwen’s on “assignment”, whatever that means. Alice and Sam are, uh, following up something from a case.” Unbeknownst to Celia, Gwen’s assignment is delivering a letter to Nigel, and Sam and Alice went to go investigate the ruins of the Magnus Institute. It’s a bit funny that Celia describes what Sam and Alice are doing as “following up something from a case” because that kind of phrase was used to describe what the assistant and other members of the Institute in TMA often did when investigating statements or checking their validity.

Colin talks about his experience with some therapists he talked to on his mental leave.

COLIN

“(distracted) Right. Shame. Wanted Alice’s thoughts on something. You know anything about computers?”

CELIA

“Not really. Weren’t you on leave?’

COLIN

“For my brain, yeah. Didn’t work. Talked to three therapists. None of them even knew what a logic gate is. What the hell use is that going to be?“

A logic gate is “a device that performs a Boolean function, a logical operation performed on one or more binary inputs that produces a single binary output,” which would imply that Colin was asking his therapists about the computers. Colin also says “None. I was just sat their twiddling my thumbs. Best thing for me is figuring this out.”. Colin asks Celia once again if no one is present and then-

COLIN

“Great. That’ll make things easier. He sits at a desk and starts booting it up.”

COLIN

“(cont.) Maybe don’t tell them I’ve been on their terminals. They’ll only get the wrong idea.”

CELIA

“Uh, sure.”

Colin starts typing on the PC a little breathless.

CELIA

“Cool. Well, I think that was the kettle, so I’ll probably leave you to it.”

COLIN

“Yeah. Oh, and, uh, Celia?”

CELIA

“Mm?”

COLIN

“If Lena asks, I wasn’t here.”

He starts to pull open the active computer, muttering to himself while Celia walks off to the breakroom.

Okay… so maybe Colin’s mental health leave isn’t actually over, and he just wanted to sneak back in to see what was going on with the computers. Once again, I must beat the dead horse of saying that there may be Eye related themes present at the OIAR or the facility. The Eye doesn’t just relate to the fear of being watched but also the fear of knowledge in general, which includes the fear of “seeing too much”, horrible truths, etc.. In MAG 200 The Eye is stated to have been born from the fear of seeing too much, and it also thematically relates to Jonah’s ability to force information into the heads of people like Martin and Melanie. Gertrude at one point even mentions The Eye as relating to the desire to know and understand even if in doing so you get hurt.

I’m not saying Colin is unjustified or unreasonable in his paranoia. But what I am saying is that an Entity like The Eye might purposefully be trying to insight and prey on this behavior (and the OIAR has a lot of parallels with The Eye). Gertude’s comment about hurting yourself in a desire to obtain knowledge could relate to Colin’s increasing levels of stress and degrading mental health as he attempts to unravel the secrets of the computer. Additionally, Colin’s desire to understand what’s happening does technically mirror a character like Rosie, but specifically his desire to understand an outdated system of technology is very similar to an Eye related statement from TMA in MAG 148 (Extended Surveillance) involving a “Security Camera Instruction Manual.” Upon reading the Leitner the victim ends up metaphysically fusing with the camera system the manual is tied to, but that’s not the important part. The important part is what led to Samson Stiller reading the manual in the first place. Specifically, a desire to understand and fix the camera system. In that MAG we get “I remember the smell of dust when Dave went and cracked open the filing cabinet in the back room, before waving his arms in the direction of the drawer and shrugging. I mean, I’d have just left it, obviously, but I think Samson was taking the whole knowing how the system works thing as like – a point of pride? Something he could salvage from the whole situation. Just a way of getting some control over his life, you know?”

Alice has been at the job pretty long, and presumably the longest out of her coworkers with the possible exception of her boss Lena (that’s still up in the air). So I wonder what Colin thinks Alice might know or add. I also wonder if Colin warns Celia not to tell Lena because he just doesn’t want to be caught by his boss at the office during his mental health leave or because he is suspicious of Lena specifically.

We cut to Sam and Alice exploring the ruins of the Institute. The ruins are clearly rotting and decaying and Alice seems to think this situation is dangerous as implied by this later interaction.

ALICE

“(cont.) Careful…”

SAM

“(turning) Oh thank goodness you said that otherwise I would’ve jumped up and down the dangerous”

The floor breaks.

Before all the floor stuff however, Sam rummages through a filing cabinet and manages to find a key.

Alice actually shows herself to be a lot more aware and insightful than I think some fans give her credit for. She correctly identifies that Sam doesn’t actually know what he’s looking for, which he eventually admits outright, and she does try to console him. Although, you could argue it was pretty obvious Sam didn’t know what he was looking for. The fact that Sam doesn’t know what he’s looking for really makes me wonder what caused him to become so interested in the Institute. Why did the Institute test him for their gifted kids program?

I also forgot to mention something very important. When we cut to Sam and Alice the for the second time, even though we were using Sam’s phone the first cut in, the transcripts say this “ EXT. THE MAGNUS INSTITUTE RUINS – NIGHT, THUNDERSTORM (TAPE RECORDER).” So we are hearing what’s happening via a Tape Recorder, just like TMA. It also shows that whatever is listening isn’t just limited to things connected to the internet or anything, but seemingly any form of technology with a microphone. Are the tapes from this Institute or was it one of the tapes that would have been dragged along with the Entities from TMA into this new universe? Also, is it The Web that has been listening this entire time again or is something / someone else also using the tapes? We know that, while rare, artifacts can be tied to one or more Powers (such as the Key of Solomon) so are the tapes still aligned with The Web while something else is using them or is The Web just stepping up its game and using all microphones now because it doesn’t need the tapes specifically for its new plan(s)?

In this scene it’s also clear that Alice really worries about Sam’s safety and you could even argue that she’s mothering him a bit.

ALICE

“(picking something up) Who do you reckon Archie was?”

SAM

“Huh?”

ALICE

“I found one of those old timey name block things.”

SAM

“Uh… Archipelago?’

ALICE

“I’m sorry what?”

SAM

“What?”

ALICE

“You’re just going to skip straight to “Archipelago”? Not, I don’t know, architect? Archive?”

The name Archie doesn’t ring familiar to me but the words “architect” and “archive” do. Specifically in relation to, of course, Smirke’s architecture and the Institute’s Archives. In fact in TMA the tunnels under the Institute are Smirkean architecture. Sam also picks up a book that immediately disintegrates in his hand which makes me wonder if there were leitners in the TMP Institute at some point, and if such artifacts will play a role similar to the one they played in TMA.

ALICE

“Nice chair. I could look real ominous swiveling in that thing.”

SAM

“I wouldn’t risk it. Not unless you want woodworms up your butt.”

ALICE

“Ew. That explains the pattern on the floor.“

SAM

“Oh yeah… What is that?”

ALICE

“Worm tracks. Or y’know symbols of ancient otherworldly power. One or the other.”

The comment about the worms seems like a cheeky nod to Jane Prentiss’ attack on the Institute's in TMA. At the moment I think this is just a reference for the audience as opposed to something alluding to the idea that a similar attack also occurred here. Some floor breaks under Sam and the key he tried to use to open a door falls down into the resulting hole. Alice expresses worry as she manages to catch Sam and says “What was that? Because it sounded a lot like, “I’m sorry Alice you were right. We should head back now before I get myself killed falling into a soggy pit. Gosh you’re sexy, here’s a twenty for your trouble.”” Once again, I would like to point to Gertrude’s whole “The Eye is the desire to search for knowledge even if you get hurt in doing so” thing. I think it’s clear Sam is at least kind of desperate for answers since he acknowledges that he doesn’t even really know what he’s looking for. I’m not saying Sam is secretly an Eye Avatar or anything but, like with Colin, I wonder if something like The Eye or someone similar to Jonah is purposefully trying to stoke Sam’s curiosity or take advantage of it.

As far as the Institute’s gifted kids program goes Sam also says this “No, you’re right. I don’t know what I’m looking for. I have… I have memories of weird stuff I saw here, but no context. I want to know what was happening, why they chose us… why they didn’t choose me. Maybe find the bit where everything started to go wrong. But… it’s too late. And now… I’m the only one left who cares.” Which makes me wonder even more about the program. Why were these kids selected? Was it their personalities, their experiences, some supernatural factor? Were they looking for potential Avatars or something? Wa the TMP Institute working with the government?

“The voices finally disappear, lost to the distance and the rain. There is a long silence as the tape keeps running. The water is gently disturbed below. Then there is a thud on the hidden wooden trapdoor and the rattle of a padlock. There is the distinct sound of a key being dragged across wood then being blindly fumbled in a lock which finally clicks. The trap door opens, the lock falling away and [ERROR] emerges and takes a shuddering breath.. Click.” So something or someone might have just escaped the ruins. Who or what it could be I don’t know. This Institute could have its own set of tunnels like the one in TMA but the Institute in TMA was located in London instead of Manchester after being moved so I can’t really say if this Institute would have a similar system. Was someone / something purposefully trying to get Sam to release whatever / whoever this is from the Institute? Does the being itself somehow have some way of influencing things from a distance?

I actually skipped over a portion of this episode because I felt like it flowed better but let’s rewind to check up on Gwen via a tv apparently. Gwen rings the door and as Nigel unlocks it: “He unbolts the door. There’s a lot of them. Then he opens the heavy wooden doors to find GWEN stood in the porch.”

Nigel is surprised to find someone at this time of night and Gwen explains that she was sent by the OIAR (Office of Incident Assessment and Response). The name of the OIAR is something I haven’t really thought about but the fact that it has “Response” probably means it’s supposed to take a more active role in dealing with the supernatural than the Institute. In TMA the job of the Institute technically wasn’t to perform investigations or help people but just to note supernatural occurrences and verify / research them. The Institute itself isn’t actually supposed to really do anything to help. The Institute’s motto is literally “Audio. Opperior. Vigilo." which means” I listen. I wait. I watch." and in MAG 28 (Skintight) Jon says to Melanie “We are not ‘paranormal investigators’. We are researchers. Scholars.” They aren’t supposed to solve mysteries, stop monsters, etc. for the sake of closure or helping others. They are just supposed to note what happens and use it for their own research(even if characters like Jon and Gertrude obviously don’t abide by that).

Anyway, Nigel seems to realize what’s happening when Gwen mentions the OIAR and tries to give Nigel the envelope. But there’s a twist, Nigel says “It’s not for me.” and invites Gwen inside. Nigel apologizes before “There is a wet, lumbering step on the staircase. Something is dragging itself down the stairs to meet them.” That “something” is none other than Mr. Bonzo (who can only say his own name, or maybe just chooses to say his own name). Gwen obviously doesn’t die in this encounter but I wonder if Nigel was apologizing because he knew seeing Bonzo can be scary or in case Bonzo decided to kill / hurt Gwen.

Nigel also says “Try not to stare. He doesn’t like it when people stare.” Which could relate to The Stranger. While all the Entities are connected, overlap, and need each other for a ritual bringing them into the world to work, with even seemingly opposing Entities bleeding into each other or having overlapping fears, The Stranger can often have an antagonistic relationship with The Eye and forms of being known. The Stranger tends to thrive off the fear of being unknown so staring at something aligned with The Stranger might make it react negatively. In MAG 092 (Nothing Beside Remains) Jonah tells Jon “We thrive on ceaseless watching, on knowing too much. What we face is the hidden, the uncanny, and the unknown.” In MAG 165 (Revolutions) Not-Sasha says this in regards to The Eye’s Post-Change world “Do you know how it feels? To be – anonymous? And yet known! To have all the sweetest dread I can create tainted by the relentless gaze of that damned Eye. I’ve suffered enough.” So if my theory that Bonzo is tied to something like The Stranger is correct that would explain a potentially negative reaction to being looked at for too long since aspects of The Stranger often don’t like it when people try to figure out what they are.

Nigel introduces Gwen and Bonzo by saying “Mr Bonzo meet… I didn’t actually get your name. Probably for the best.” Which makes me wonder why it’s a good thing he didn’t get her name. Is one of the factors that determine who Bonzo attacks are whether it and / or Nigel knows their name or something? The transcripts go on to say-

NIGEL

“(urgently) I said don’t stare!”

Gwen does not reply. It is clear she is trying not to hyperventilate.

So Gwen is definitely in shock. Mr. Bonzo begins to become agitated and Nigel says “The name, the address – tell him where to go.” Nigel begins to panic and after telling Gwen to give Bonzo the envelope again “Gwen holds out the envelope and Mr Bonzo snatches it into his

mouth, audibly chewing it. His teeth are not soft.” and then “Mr. Bonzo excitedly lumbers away, violently throwing open the door and lumbering off into the night.” Nigel notes that this situation almost went very badly and says “Tell the people who sent you “you’re welcome. Again.””

Okay, so what is Mr, Bonzo? I know that sometimes Entities like The Stranger just do weird uncanny stuff but I wonder if the “suit” actually is Mr. Bonzo’s body or if there is something wearing the suit? Or is Mr. Bonzo literally a living suit that is wearing some poor sap and Bonzo needs to find a new wearer / host periodically to wear him or shove inside of him? That could explain why the murders Geraldine mentioned are 3 murders that occured over the course of 5 years. It’s possible that these murders were just the ones that were caught but I wonder if Bonzo is collecting body parts for the inside of his suit or something. Part of the reason I’m thinking about this is because it’s funny that Bonzo eats the letter in order to read it. Maybe Bonzo is just trying to be scary but you have to remember that he is a suit. So by consuming the letter who / whatever is wearing it might be able to then see the letter. Then again presumably Bonzo would have had eye holes in the original costume so this might just be Bonzo or The Stranger being weird again.

Nigel acts like whatever is being done is a favor for the OIAR. Did the government stick Nigel with Mr. Bonzo in an attempt to appease it as much as possible while also offering the occasional sacrifice to calm Mr. Bonzo or is whatever’s on the letter some sort of enemy or threat? Maybe, Mr. Bonzo is being sent to go deal with more problematic or harder to control Monsters / Avatars / threats? I don’t know much other than the fact that it’s probably a favor for the OIAR. Meaning that someone wants this to happen. I don’t know if it’s Lena or her mysterious higher ups. This all also sounds like it might be related to the three Bonzo murders Geraldine mentioned. Is Bonzo being used as a weapon or is he just a threat that the government doesn’t know how to kill? Maybe killing Bonzo would somehow release something worse?

The interaction between Gwen, Nigel and Bonzo in regards to her job leads me to suspect that the OIAR is working with various supernatural factions. I don’t know if they are doing so out of convenience or some other reason but it looks like Gwen’s job involves sending messages and contracts to various supernatural beings at least. I wonder if all the letters are being sent to Mr. Bonzo, a variety of monsters, or just a pool of “agents” connected to the supernatural. Gwen’s new job was stated to have something to do with contracts so did Nigel or even Bonzo himself sign some sort of contract? If we assume the OIAR is connected to some Entity like The Eye we know such beings have a precedent for magically binding contracts (like the one Jonah used). So is something similar happening here but on a larger scale?

It’s kind of funny that when Nigel tells Gwen to leave he says “Now get out of his house.” It’s pretty obvious that The Stranger has a connection to the loss of identity or being unable to identify either yourself or other people. So I wonder if this is supposed to be some weird metaphor for an artist having their identity overtaken by that of their creations? Like people not really knowing who Nigel is outside of “the guy who made Mr. Bonzo.” Nigel even said “Besides, people think of Nigel Dickerson and Mr. Bonzo is never far behind so it’s not like its changing my reputation. In a lot of ways I’m more his prisoner now than I ever was on my show.” Nigel views Bonzo as a core part of his identity which could mirror how sometimes artists stake to much of their value or identity on their own art and creations. The interview we just saw seemed to revolve entirely around Bonzo and it seems to be Nigel’s most famous creation. Bonzo has become the main character and quite literally taken on a life of its own while Nigel is stuck in the side-car as he sits in Bonzo’s shadow.

Conclusion

I’m only becoming more and more curious about the OIAR. Also, what was the thing escaping the Institute’s ruins. Is it somehow related to the gifted program kids?

#tma #tmagp #magnus archives #magnus protocol #theory

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devintrinidad · 1 month

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7, 14, 66, 73 for the 100 question ask game!

Hey, Devin here! Thanks for all the questions! :D

7. tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote

Ohhhh, that's a good one! I'm not sure if anyone knows this, but the first fanfic I ever published was on ffnet!

HOWEVER, the first fanfic I ever wrote (which was on an old legal yellow pad written in sharpie) was for Sharkboy and Lavagirl.

Yes, not even joking.

If I remember correctly, I think I wrote about Sharkboy and Lavagirl having a child (forgot the gender???) and how their child was going to save the world. It's basically a next gen au that was badly written and never saw the light of day hahaha!

14. what’s your worst writing habit?

Oohhhhh! I already wrote an answer to that exact question! (That is to say, I don't do rewrites even thought that is pretty beneficial and pretty much necessary for people who aspire to be publishing original fiction). However, I'll give another worst writing habit!

Since I mostly focus on writing fanfic... Sometimes, I write fanfic for fandoms that I haven't touched in years. Like, I'll write something for Hetalia or Death Note and I just go off the memories and the feelings that I get from when I used to be obsessed with them. Of course, there are times when I need to rewatch certain scenes or look up quotes, but most of the time, I don't go and rewatch animes, reread books, or rewatch playthroughts of the fandoms I write fanfic for.

(I have yet to be called out for mischaracterization, so I must either have a good memory or my writing is just that good!)

66. when have you felt the most confident in your writing?

Never???

I mean, I don't feel trepidation when writing or uploading my fanfic, but at the same time, I don't feel overly proud or confident in my work? It's not that I'm proud of myself, but I feel like... I've reached a plateau?

Like, I know I write well. I know that I have the skill to fully convey what I have in my mind's eye and transcribe it into written form. I know what my writing is worth and I'm satisfied with it.

If you mean an aspect of my writing and not the publishing-for-the-entire-world-to-see aspect... I think I write dialogue, setting, and background lore well? All of them took years to hone, but I think I'm correct in saying that I have improved over the decade or so I've been writing my work.

73. how do you visualize scenes? do you see it like a movie in your head, or do the words just flow?

Another good question! It's a combination of both! S

ometimes, I'll get.. not visions, per se, but I'll see characters blocked a certain way, saying certain things that I need to write them down. Other times, my internal monologue will be overtaken by what seems to be an ever evolving script that I can hear and will only go away once I put that monologue into actual, tangible writing.

It's one or the other at times, but it's pretty fun, especially when my hands finally join in the fun and get to pick out what stays in my head and what actually gets transcribed onto the page.

100. open question to the writer.

Ooohhhh! I think you're allowed to ask me anything that hasn't been asked already in the original game! If you ever feel like asking me something else, feel free to do so! For now, though... I'll choose...

28. handwritten notes or typed notes?

Oohhhhh! I'm not sure if this is common knowledge or not??? I feel like I've told people this, but I write my stories on paper first! And then I transcribe them into Microsoft Word/Google Doc once the majority of the story has already been written!

Handwritten notes seem more personal? And I'm not distracted by the bright lights and the open ended nature of a laptop.

That said, there are times when my hadnwriting is a trial in and of itself when I have to reread them lol.

Thanks for the questions and I hope that you have a wonderful day! (Don't be a stranger, I hope to hear from you again soon! It's been so long :D)

#lotusdumpling #lotusdumpling ask #answered #ask game #writer ask game #devintrinidad #dearestones

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wrightworthmakesmylifeworthwhile · 6 years

Text

fantasy au shit

ok so to celebrate 1000 followers im posting more of this fantasy au shit i posted the first part at like 400 followers so if you haven’t read it part one here

Consciousness dawned sluggishly, resting on Phoenix like a thin blanket. As he peacefully grew more and more aware, he could hear a faint voice quietly chanting over him. Another few seconds, and he could understand the words.

“Revera, revera…” A woman’s voice intoned, using a spell Phoenix recognized to slowly revive him.

Unfortunately, the world was not so patient. “Hey! Spikey-guy! Wake up!” Another voice screamed into his ear.

Phoenix jerked awake. He nearly bumped heads with the person who had screamed. She was a teenager, no more than seventeen, with black hair bundled into a little topknot.

“Maya, stop that.” Mia chided from nearby. The baker looked to pinpoint where the woman was, in the process recognizing the inside of his own house.

How did I get here? How did they get here?

The leader, the one who had been chanting, leaned down to look over him. “How are you, Phoenix?”

“I… I'm not alright!” The baker could still feel a burn in his chest, ruling out the possibility of the events before being a dream. He didn't dare to look at the heart shaped mark the pendant left. It would surely scar.

“Dollie hurt me! Why would she do that?” Phoenix searched for answers in the leader’s face. “ Wh-Why would she hurt me?”

He could feel treacherous tears welling up, and turned away before the others could see them fall.

The leader sighed heavily. “...It isn't your fault. If anything, it's ours. Dahlia Hawthorne is an estranged member of the Fey clan. Throughout the years, there have been many of us who have used their powers for nefarious purposes. Dahlia was one of those, and after much deliberation the clan agreed to take her powers away. Her magic was stored in the bottle of that necklace,” she gestured at Phoenix’s burn.

“Dahlia would only ever be able to have her powers return if the necklace was given to her voluntarily by someone not in the family.” The woman met Phoenix’s eyes. “...I guess she talked you into doing that?”

The baker nodded miserably. That does make this my fault.

“Um, Mystic Misty?” A quiet voice piped up “I brought the object that you wanted…” The speaker was a tiny, seven year old girl with mousy brown hair twisted into strange loops. She held a candlestick.

“Thank you, Pearly.” The leader, Misty, took the candle from her, and little girl retreated. “Phoenix, do you mind giving us some light?”

“What?” Phoenix pushed away his tears. “Oh. R-Right.” He touched the candle and closed his eyes. He frowned.

The flicker of fire on his fingertips that had come to him so easily throughout his life was nowhere to be found. No matter how hard he strained, he couldn’t produce any fire. “I can't!”

“I was afraid of this.” This time, it was Mia who spoke. “You're cursed.”

“C-Cursed?”

“Dahlia couldn't take revenge on those who took her powers away from her, so she did the next best thing she could; she stole away your magic powers. Do you remember her casting any spells like that?”

I can't use magic, I can't use magic… The loud, destabilizing mantra rang around in Phoenix’s head, making it hard to think.

“Of course not.” The baker chuckled in disbelief. “There has to be some mistake! She can't take away my powers! That's dark magic!”

“Dahlia’s not the person that you thought she was, I'm afraid,” Misty said grimly.

Everything slowed. He could feel the blood rushing through his ears, the thoughts swirling in his head. What am I supposed to do without magic? It's all I've had. It's everything I've worked for! What about my family line? What about my business? I’ve never had to bake without magic! If I can't bake… if I'm not a mage, what am I?

“I have to have magic! I’ve just got to!”

Mia’s surprisingly sympathetic voice cut through his panicky haze. “Phoenix. Think back. Try to remember what she said to you. Did she say there a way to reverse this?”

The ex-mage took a deep breath. He tried to focus. “Uh. She did say something… b-but I don't remember what! Oh Dollieeee!” This time, the tears did spill over, flooding down his cheeks.

Mia’s sigh sounded suspiciously close to “of course.”

“We’ll have to figure it out together. You're our responsibility now,” Misty said.

“What?” Maya squawked. She fell off the foot of Phoenix’s bed with a loud thud, startling Phoenix. He'd forgotten the girl was there.

Pearl directed an inquisitive look at Misty, gnawing on her thumbnail.

Phoenix sniffled pathetically. “Really?”

“Really?” Mia said flatly.

Misty nodded. “I'm sorry, Phoenix. Dahlia has already been on our radar for years. If we had been more careful, this could have all been prevented. This is a Fey matter. You never should have gotten caught up in it at all.”

The ex-mage gaped, wiping his runny nose on the hem of his sleeve.

“We’re honor bound to help you get your powers back.” Misty bowed.

Mia groaned quietly.

“This is going to take forever!” Maya hopped up from the floor. “No offense,” she added, glancing at Phoenix.

Just because you say that, doesn't mean that the hurt goes away...

Pearl didn't say anything at all. She stared at Phoenix as if his soul was laid bare before her. It was kind of unnerving, really.

The leader huffed. “It won't take that long. We keep the most of our powerful magical artifacts stored in the castle. Odds are one of them will have a solution to your little dilemma.”

“In the…” Phoenix blinked and wiped away the last of his tears. “Wait, does that mean…”

Misty grinned cheekily at him, “Ever been inside the King’s castle?”

The Kingdom did not have the most fanciful of castles. Quite the opposite. Very much like the King himself, the castle was square, robust, and practical. That was where the similarities ended. The castle was otherwise unremarkable. Gregory Edgeworth, by contrast, was remarkable among rulers: known throughout the realm as a just leader who cared about his subjects.

Despite Phoenix living only half a day’s travel away from the castle and having seen the King on public occasions, it had never been in an individual setting. It was fair to say that Phoenix was a tiny bit nervous.

Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods…! What do I say to him? What do I do? I've got to bow, right? But how low? What are the Feys going to do? Maybe I can do what they do?

“Hold,” Misty called, putting her hand up. The Feys stopped. Phoenix bumped into Pearl.

In front of the leader was a stony lamp post. It held no light and seemed to serve no purpose. The only out-of-the-ordinary thing about it was a swirling mark with a star on it etched in the stone at about chest height. A rune.

Misty traced the spiraled rune with a finger. Sparks flew up in the wake of her fingertip. There was a grinding sound and all of a sudden, the drawbridge of the castle was down.

Misty turned and met eyes with Phoenix, grinning. “I always love that part.”

The Feys turned and started to cross the drawbridge as if nothing unusual had happened at all. Mouth hanging open, Phoenix looked at the castle with new respect. Clearly there was more than met the eye.

Briefly, he tried to run his finger over the rune in a vain hope, but nothing happened. Phoenix hurried to catch up with the others on the bridge.

By the time he had drawn even with the Feys, the King had already arrived. Gregory’s countenance brightened upon seeing the company. He strode over to them, stopping just short of the eldest Fey.

“Misty,” he greeted with a genuine smile, unlike any Phoenix had ever seen. “It's been far too long.”

“I agree,” Misty hummed, eyes alight with amusement.

The two stood looking at one another for another moment before Misty broke and launched herself at the King in a hug, laughing.

“I missed you, you cretin.” Misty pecked Gregory’s cheek quickly.

Phoenix's jaw dropped. Did she just call the King a cretin? And kissed him? Does she want to get herself killed?

To his endless astonishment, King Gregory didn't even slightly mad. If anything, the man was flustered.

“...I’m glad to see you too.” The King managed at last. “You didn’t write. How long do you think you'll be staying?”

“Probably not very long, unfortunately. We’re here because we have a little situation to fix.” Misty glanced over at Phoenix.

One of Phoenix’s hands entangled itself in the hair on the nape of his neck as the King’s full attention turned to him. Gregory seemed just as uncomfortable as he did at having been seen in a moment of unprofessionalism.

“Ah. Of course,” the King cleared his throat. “I wish you luck with your… situation.”

“Thanks, Your Majesty,” Phoenix grinned sheepishly. I can’t believe I’m talking to the King of the whole realm! “I really appreciat-”

“That reminds me,” Clearly Mia didn’t realize what a big moment this was for him. “We should get started. The sooner we fix this mess, the sooner we can catch Dahlia.”

“Dahlia?” King Gregory’s tone was one of worried surprise.

“I’ll explain it all later,” Misty promised.

“Sis’ got a good point! Let’s go use Nick as a spell-dummy!” Maya grabbed Phoenix by the arm and started to tug him across the courtyard.

Spell-dummy? “Wait, no!”

“We’re not going to do it like that, Maya.”

“You’re no fun.”

“Nice to see you again, Sir King Gregory!” Pearl chirped.

The King smiled gently, kneeling down to her height. “It’s very nice to see you as well, Pearly. I’ll dispatch a messenger to tell you three when dinner is ready.”

“Thank you!” The little girl turned and skipped after the playfully quibbling sisters and the protesting Phoenix.

The afternoon went by quicker than Phoenix could imagine. At first, he couldn’t help but be stunned by the castle’s immense collection of magical objects. But eventually, even the most legendary of artifacts seemed to blur together as Mia, Maya, and Pearl all took turns harnessing the power of ancient potions, rings, goblets, hourglasses, statuettes, scepters, mirrors, and tomes in an attempt to cure him. More than once Mia had to reverse a carelessly cast spell (usually one of Maya’s) to ensure that something didn’t go horribly wrong.

”Hey, this one says it can turn anything into ash!” Maya held up a crystal skull with far too much eagerness. Phoenix’s stomach turned.

Pearls bit her thumb, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” She already had her hands full healing a welt on Phoenix’s arm from another one of Maya’s “good ideas.”

“He’s called Phoenix,” Maya shrugged. “I dunno, maybe he has to be turned into ash for the rebirth of his magic powers or whatever.”

“No.” Mia vetoed, not bothering to look up from her tome.

Thank you.

Grumbling, Maya turned away, making as if to put the skull away. But at the last minute she whirled around and cast a nasty-looking spell straight at Phoenix. The baker shoved Pearls out of the way, then jumped hard right to dodge it. Behind him, where the spell hit, a shelf of important looking magical texts started turning to ash before their eyes.

“Look. Are you sure there even is a cure?” Phoenix said, panting and doubled over his knees.

“Of course. Any magic that’s done...” Mia strode forward and, with the wave of her hand, returned the texts to their original form. She gave Maya a meaningful glance. “Must also be able to be undone.”

But after another few hours upon hours of spell upon spell with no results, all four of them were beginning to get tired and discouraged.

“I knew Dahlia was a feared mage, but I had no idea how powerful her dark magic was,” Mia muttered to herself.

Evening fell outside the castle windows and the group had to abandon their task halfway through for dinner. As they made their way down a winding staircase, Phoenix felt a tiny hand touch his back.

“Don’t worry, Sir Nick,” Pearl said. Although Maya’s nickname for him had taken off, the girl felt a need to add a level of respect to it. “I’m sure we’ll find out how to fix you!”

“Thanks, Pearls,” Phoenix muttered, feeling vaguely humiliated that he had to be reassured by a seven-year-old.

The four emerged into the large arched dining hall. There was one very long banquet table with only a few seats. On the table Phoenix was shocked to see that there wasn't much food.

Really, he wasn't sure what he was expecting. Probably plates filled with more mouth-watering meats than a butcher’s shop, delicate little sugary cakes and pies, and exotic spices that cost more than his entire home. For a castle, this banquet was shockingly ordinary.

Maya noticed his confusion. “The King said something about not wanting to live a life of plenty while some peasants live out there with so little. Y’know.”

“It's about class in-ee-qual-itty,” Pearls bit her thumbnail.

King Gregory himself was at the head of the table, an empty chair on his right and Misty on his left. The others Feys started to file into their seats. Phoenix followed suit, and found himself sandwiched between Maya and Pearl, sitting across from a strange man that he didn’t know.

“Oh, there you are! Any results?” Misty called out to them.

“Nothing’s working yet,” Mia said, sounding as dismayed as Phoenix looked.

Gregory frowned in sympathy, “I’m sure there’s a cure somewhere in there.”

“We’ve collected hundreds of magical artifacts over the years,” Misty chimed in.

“Yeah, and we’ve blown through half of them in one afternoon!” Maya said, sneaking a bite before she was supposed to.

“That still means there’s half of them to go!” Pearl chirped, far more optimistically.

I hope you’re right, Pearls.

Silence fell over the table as they waited for the last member to join them, and fill in the empty seat so they could begin the meal. Maya smuggled a few more furtive bites before Mia nudged her.

“He’s late,” the strange man across from Phoenix barked, breaking the silence.

“I’m sure the Prince is busy attending to his duties.” King Gregory said.

Before the man had a chance to respond with something nasty, the King continued. “Phoenix, I suppose you haven’t met. This is Manfred von Karma, the my advisor and second-in-command.”

Phoenix studied the Royal Advisor. He was an older man in a jeweled robe with long white hair. His face was etched in a permanent scowl.

“...Nice to meet you,” Phoenix lied.

Manfred’s eyes narrowed at him. “Who are you? Why are you here?”

“Uh, I—”

“I’m sorry I’m late.” A younger man swept into the room, closing the door behind him with a loud thud. He wore a red tunic with interwoven with an elaborate gold design. He bore an air of regality, and his prematurely gray hair just added to his distinguished aura. Phoenix knew immediately that this must be the Crown Prince.

“I was reading,” Prince Miles said. He took his place on his father’s right. He met Phoenix’s eyes and smiled at him.

“Reading what?” King Gregory sounded excited. Everyone at the table started to eat.

“Hmph! You let this boy get away with far too much, Your Majesty.”

Prince Miles’ attention swiveled. “Sir Manfred,” he greeted diplomatically. “If you're dining with us tonight, that must mean you have some news.”

“Fantastic. Just what I want to talk about at the dinner table. Politics,” Misty groused.

The King squeezed her hand and smiled apologetically. “It won't take long, dear.”

Manfred cleared his throat, rather self-importantly, Phoenix thought. “Yes. I come bearing news from the south-east.” He leaned forward, as if he was sharing a secret. “Your Majesty, there was another attack. They suspect the cause was rooted in magical extremism.”

Mia snorted with derision.

“Those damned mages have been at it for weeks! I recommend military action, Your Majesty. They must be stopped before they wipe the rest of us out!” Phoenix jumped as Manfred slammed his fist on the table to illustrate his point.

King Gregory looked uncomfortable. “My guards are stretched too thin right now to even consider military action. And, please, Manfred, I ask that you keep present company in mind when you talk about issues of magic.”

The mood at the table had shifted. Pearls and Maya picked at her food, keeping their heads ducked down. Mia was openly disgusted, and though Misty seemed more composed, her eyes were blazing.

“Of course. I apologize for my insensitivity.” He seemed more satisfied than sorry. “I am merely saying that there are some dangerous people out there. We need to take action soon so we don't find ourselves regretting inaction later.”

“Have you possibly considered,” Mia cut in, voice dripping with irritation, “that vilifying an entire group for the actions of a few is not only baseless fear-mongering, but also completely counterproductive and stupid.”

“...I have a headstrong daughter as well,” Manfred said in a deceitfully calm voice. He turned to look at Misty. “The difference is that I taught her respect.”

“Learn some yourself,” Mia snapped. “Excuse me.” She stood from the table and stormed off.

Wow.

Misty took a sip of her wine, but Phoenix swore he saw her grinning behind her goblet.

Not to be outdone, Manfred stood up and strode out of the room.

Those that remained at the table were silent for an unbearably lengthy moment.

Maya sprang up and hastily began stuffing rolls into her hood. “Well, looks like dinner’s over! Let’s go, Pearly!” She grabbed her cousin’s hand and practically sprinted from the room.

King Gregory blinked. The poor man had been caught in the middle of cutting his steak and been stuck that way for some time. “I suppose she's right. It does appear that dinner is over.” He set down his utensils, suddenly looking very old and tired. “I'm inclined to agree with her. Magic has been a huge asset to this kingdom, and making broad generalizations rarely does anyone any good. ...But that’s a discussion for another time. I’m going to retire for the evening. Good night, everyone.”

Misty followed him out, leaving Phoenix all alone with Prince Miles.

I wonder what he thinks of all this.

Phoenix studied the Prince’s face, but it was unreadable.

“...You must be Phoenix Wright.”

“That’s Wright,” Phoenix said immediately. He mentally kicked himself right after the words left his mouth. Stars, Phoenix! He’s a prince! You can’t just say stupid things like that to a prince!

Prince Miles frowned, “That was bad.”

Phoenix laughed and rubbed the back of his neck, desperately trying to alleviate his own idiocy. “Good thing I’m not a court jester, huh?”

“I don’t think you’d last very long in the profession.” He smiled and gave Phoenix a short bow. “My name is Miles Edgeworth. I’m prince of the realm.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Your Highness!” Phoenix stumbled over himself to bow in return. Prince Miles steadied him.

“There’s no need for that. Call me Miles. You’re our guest here. Ah, speaking of that...” The Prince trailed off, looking awkward. “You’ve come at a bit of a bad time. The Feys already occupy most of our guest rooms, and our last remaining one is under renovation. You’re to room with me. I’m hoping that’s not an issue...”

“Y-You would just let me—”

Prince Miles looked away, “It’s not ideal, but it isn’t completely unheard of. Mystic Misty and my father frequently share a chamber in order to leave other rooms free.”

Phoenix nodded quickly. “It’s not an issue for me.”

Silence lingered for a beat. The Prince’s gaze lingered on Phoenix’s face, expression still inscrutable. Finally, he seemed to realize that it was his turn to say something.

“Ah! But I’m being a poor host.“ Prince Miles coughed into his fist. “Would you like to see the royal gardens?“

Me, in the royal gardens?

“I’d love to!“

“Fantastic. I’ll show you the way then.” Prince Miles pushed open a door that lead outside, leaving Phoenix to follow.

Outside, evening had fallen and the stars shone bright overhead. Everything was quiet as the two walked through the castle's’ garden. Waist-high, neatly-trimmed hedges lined the path, interspersed with brightly colored flowerbeds. Magnificent trees with purple leaves looked on in the background.

Prince Miles kept walking, but Phoenix lagged behind, trying to take it all in.

“These gardens are gorgeous!”

“Thank you.”

“...Is dinner always that crazy?”

“Not typically. When Manfred is over, though...” The Prince paused, waiting for him to catch up.

Phoenix snorted. “He seems like a real piece of work.”

“He can be harsh, but he’s a brilliant man. That’s why Father keeps him around,” Prince Miles crossed his arms defensively. “He’s taught me a lot.”

“Sorry.” Phoenix wasn’t, really, but he didn’t need to go out of his way to insult the Prince’s tutor. Maybe there was more to the old coot than he knew.

Prince Miles unfolded his arms and looked curiously at Phoenix for a long moment. “Not that it’s any of my business, but what exactly is it that you do for a living?”

I can’t say I’m a mage. Not anymore.

“Oh, um, I’m just a baker.”

“I have to wonder,” The Prince said, glancing sidelong at Phoenix. They walked by a golden statue of a hooded woman bearing a seven pronged sword. “We’re not hiring at the moment. What’s a baker doing here at the castle?”

That’s really not something I want to get into.

“Sorry, but that’s on a knead-to-dough basis.”

Prince Miles groaned. There was a long pause, then, tentatively, the prince ventured, “That was a… crumby joke.”

Coming from the always-serious Prince, the pun surprised Phoenix. He burst into laughter. Prince Miles laughed too, albeit much quieter. He quickly coughed to try and cover it up. Phoenix wished he wouldn’t. His laugh was probably the best thing Phoenix had ever heard.

They fell silent as they reached the end of small garden, basking in the glow of the other’s presence. Phoenix followed as the Prince started to climb a grand, double-sided staircase.

“Miles, what were you reading earlier?” Phoenix asked.

“I’m sorry?”

“The book that made you late to dinner. Must’ve been interesting. What was it?” Phoenix rambled, “Y’know, maybe I’ve read it or something.”

“You’re literate?”

“Hey, you don’t need to sound so surprised!”

Prince Miles huffed, flustered. “Well, it’s not as if most people are.”

“Yeah, well, I need to be. How else would I know how to...” learn new spells and read tomes. “read recipes,” Phoenix finished rather lamely.

“Of course.” The Prince sighed, “If you must know, it was about government. The delicacies of running a country.”

“It must be a lot of pressure.” Phoenix frowned sympathetically. Just thinking about all those people relying on you... And he’s my age!

He shook his head in wonderment. “Candidly, I don’t know how my father handles it.”

“Sounds like you really admire him.”

“My father is a great leader. I have a lot to learn from him.” A light had sparked in the Prince’s already stunning gray eyes.

Phoenix smiled warmly at him. “For what it’s worth, I think you’ll do a great job.”

You seem like a good man. Just like your father.

Prince Miles’ cheeks turned pink. He muttered a “thank you” before hastily turning back towards the castle doors.

“W-We should head back inside. It’s getting late.”

Before following him, the baker turned to look back at the other wing of the castle. In the moonlight Phoenix could see Misty and King Gregory standing close together up on the balcony of the castle’s main tower. They looked happy.

#ace attorney #wrightworth #My writing #fantasy au #i'd like to say that this was primarily written when i was 16 i only added a little tiny bit here and there but not edited it #i've just been trying to power through getting a first draft #it's already well over 100 pages on my google doc #i want to finish entirely before i post it #and i hope to finish the first draft at least in this summer #please guys i've been writing in a void for 3 years im starving for feedback

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halloweenhoneylover · 3 years

Text

serendipity

summary: spencer cannot wait to propose, but you accidentally beat him to it (spencer reid x fem!reader)

word count: 5k

warnings: some language! some minor angst!

author’s note: this is 100% based on one of my favorite episodes of new girl (google doc name is winston bishop type shit), also this is mega self-indulgent so if u don’t like dinosaurs and/or ferns i’m sorry :/

You let out a satisfied hum. Everything was quite nearly perfect. Presently, you were sitting on a bench next to the little duck pond in the park by your apartment, and you watched as tendrils of the weeping willow grazed the surface, sending gentle ripples across the water. It seemed to glow in the dappled sunlight. An adorable duck family was nestled into some of the reeds, and your heart was happy as you watched the mother tending to her ducklings. This was your favorite spot in the entire city.

“Hey, Spence?” Your head rested on his shoulder as he read one of the Ray Bradbury novels that he loved dearly. You weren’t sure which one he was on now; he’d been determined to read his entire collection this weekend and had been flying through.

“Yes, dear?” His eyes didn’t leave the pages, but you didn’t mind.

“What do you call a group of ducks?”

“There’s a couple names actually. It can be called a raft, team, or paddling; it’s a matter of preference.” Finally, he shifted his gaze toward you, and he couldn’t help the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. The flush of your cheeks and the wisps of your hair, he was so incredibly enamored, he loved you so much. And he was so excited to let you know so soon, but not quite yet.

“I think I like paddling.”

“Yeah, me too.” Shutting his eyes to revel in this moment, he pressed a kiss to the crown of your head.

“Hey, Spence?”

“Yes, dear?”

“Do you wanna get married?”

What.

Spencer floundered in the absolute contradiction of feelings that he found himself submerged in in that moment. Ice flooded his veins, and his face heated. His blood pressure skyrocketed, and oh God, it’s not supposed to happen like this. Yes, he loves her terribly, and yes, he absolutely wants to marry her, but he had a plan! An incredibly intricate and thoughtful twenty-two step plan that was going to take place over the course of the next month. It was all laid out in an entire binder in his desk. All he could muster in response was an extremely eloquent, “Uh—well, uh—”

Oblivious to his inner turmoil, you finally lifted your head to look at him with the biggest heart eyes he’s ever seen, and he can’t help but feel so, so guilty. “I just thought, why not, you know? Spencer, I love you a whole lot, and I’m pretty sure you love me a whole lot too. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I want the rest of my life to start right now.”

“No.”

Judging by the look on your face, that was clearly not the answer you were expecting. “No?”

“Uh, yeah, no.” God, stupid dumb idiot, telling the girl you want to marry that you don’t want to marry her. What’s the point of having 187 IQ points if you use exactly none of them when it actually matters?

“No, you don’t want to marry me?” Your heart dropped into your stomach and was falling further and further every passing second.

“Wait no, hold on—”

“No, I get it,” you choked out, hastily standing up from the bench. “Actually, I don’t get it, but that doesn’t really matter, I guess.” You jammed your arms into the sleeves of your jacket, so you could get out of this moment as soon as humanly possible. Holy shit, had you been blind-sided. “Um, I think I’m gonna go hang out with Penelope, might spend the night, I’m not sure. Enjoy your book.” And with that, you were speeding down the path out of the park.

“Wait, (Y/N/N)!” Spencer tried to gather his belongings to run after you, but you had a head start, and he couldn’t gather all of the books in his arms fast enough. Leave the books!!! Go after her!!! But you had already turned the corner and were out of sight.

With his books finally secure, Spencer sprinted in the direction of your shared apartment. He needed to fix this. And fast.

———

Morgan sat at his desk peacefully looking over the plans for a house he was renovating when the phone rang, and he couldn't help but internally groan at the sound. If Hotch is calling on his weekend off, so help him God, he would hang up and chuck the phone out the window.

Instead, he was met with Garcia’s voice, which was so loud he had to pull the phone away from his ear. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, mama. Let’s take it down a few notches.”

“Alright, fine, babycakes,” she hissed, and Derek was shocked at the unfamiliar venom in her tone. “Would you please be so kind as to explain to me why your dear friend Reid is the most evil, most reprehensible, most despicable—”

“Garcia, what are you talking about?”

“You mean that little rat boy hasn’t come crawling to you explaining his crimes?”

Despite his infinite patience for her antics, he sighed quietly. “I’m in the dark, baby girl, but I’m sure whatever Reid did, it can’t be that bad.”

“Oh, it can be that bad! He told (Y/N) that he didn’t want to marry her.”

“He did what?” Derek’s eyes were practically popping out of his head at the news. There’s no way that happened.

“He said that he didn’t want to marry our precious lily flower (Y/N)! I love that boy, but now, (Y/N) is here bawling her eyes out on my couch, and I don’t know what to do!”

His heart broke a little at the thought of his friend being so devastated, but he couldn’t help the roaring confusion that plagued him. Derek knew that Spencer was planning to propose to you; he’d seen the binder. He’d even been recruited to help with Steps 4, 9, 10, and 18!

Oh.

And that’s when Derek had a sneaking suspicion as to what had occurred. “Penelope, were his exact words ‘I don’t want to marry—” But his attention was drawn away from the phone by a knock on the door.

Speak of the devil….

“Garcia, I gotta go, but tell (Y/N) everything’s gonna be okay. I’m gonna have a word with our boy.”

“Oh my God, is he there with you?! That little bastard—” He hung up before her words could become any sharper, and the knocking became frantic.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming!” He jogged to go unlock the door. “You’re gonna knock the door down, kid.”

The door swung open to reveal Spencer, huffing and puffing with a red face and a binder in arm. “Morgan, I am the stupidest man to ever walk the Earth.”

“Did you run here?”

Ignoring the question, he pushed past him with an agitated step. “I am a complete idiot, a dumbass, if you will.”

Morgan shut the door and crossed his arms, walking to stand opposite Reid who had sat on the couch with his head in his hands. “Yeah, I might agree with you on that one. Garcia called me, told me (Y/N) is crying on her couch ‘cause you told her you didn’t want to marry her, which I know is not true.”

“I didn’t say that!” he cried, gesticulating wildly. “Not exactly. She asked me if I wanted to get married—”

“And what did you say?”

His hesitation was palpable. “...No.”

“Yeah, I’d say that constitutes dumbass behavior, especially because I know you only said that because you have your proposal all planned out, and you want it to be perfect.”

“Morgan, you don’t get it,” he implored, the desperation evident in his eyes, and Derek finally started feeling a little bad for the kid, an inkling of sympathy squirming in his gut. “No one deserves the most perfect proposal more than (Y/N). No one. You know how she’s always felt unwanted, and she’s told me that she felt like she always has to ask for love, and I couldn’t let her feel like that with me. I had to make sure that she had a special proposal because she’s special. And I want her to know without having to ask that I want her more than anything else in this world.”

Reid looked down at the toes of his scuffed Converse, hoping that he hadn’t permanently fucked up his best chance at happiness, and Morgan’s expression softened. “I know, kid. And I’m not trying to rub salt in the wound, but you do know that this was not the best way of letting her know that she’s wanted and loved?”

“Yes, I know, Morgan,” he muttered, voice breaking around the slug in his throat. “I wasn’t thinking.”

A sigh. “No, you weren’t. But I’m gonna help you fix it.”

Reid looked up with wide eyes. “Really?”

“You both deserve to be happy...even if you make some pretty stupid choices sometimes.”

Reid didn’t think he’d ever felt so grateful for his friend, and he offered a smile in gratitude. “Thanks. But I don’t even know where to start.”

Quirking an eyebrow and returning with a grin, Morgan picked up the binder from the table where it had been set. “I’ve got a couple ideas.”

———

“How is she doing?”

“Erm, it’s not looking great,” Garcia responded.

She was openly hostile when Reid had called her (he’d never been on the receiving end of Garcia’s wrath (so few people had been), and he was sure that was something he never wanted to experience again), but she’d finally restrained herself and offered a little empathy (not a lot though, she was too loyal to (Y/N) for that) when he had explained himself. However, when she’d been informed of the plan to apologize, regain your love and trust and to maybe, just maybe, ask for your hand in marriage, she had wholeheartedly avowed her support and pledged her help despite still being a little miffed at boy genius’ idiocy.

“She’s been sitting on the floor of the bathroom for an hour listening to Landslide on repeat and crying, so I would say she’s, um…not well.”

Spencer winced at that, and he felt physically sick at the thought that you were hurting because of him. His heart clenched unbearably, and he wished so badly that he could take back his words and just say yes, but unfortunately for him, time is linear, and he was just going to have to do his best to fix things.

“I just need a couple more hours to get everything ready.”

“Well, hurry up, pretty boy! I love our girl immensely, but if I have to hear Stevie Nicks mourn the passage of time and love one more time, I will lose my mind.”

“Garcia, please, just be patient.”

She groaned. “You’re lucky I love you.” And with that, she hung up.

———

You huffed a sigh, clutching to your chest a shiny pink pillow covered in sequins and giving Garcia the biggest puppy eyes you could muster. “Please, Penny, let’s not go out to dinner. Let’s just stay in and order Cheesecake Factory; you love Cheesecake Factory!”

“You’re right I do, but I love you more, and right now, you need to get up and get some fresh air!” The almost excessive amount of peppiness in her voice and her refusal of Cheesecake Factory was slightly suspicious, but you didn’t really have time to consider it as she dragged you up off the couch and to the door.

“Okay, counterpoint: what if you went out for dinner, and I stayed in and wallowed in self-pity?”

By the look on her face, you knew your evading tactics were not going to fly. She tutted slightly and said, “You’ve got to know I can’t let you do that. I’m legally obligated to stay with you until you feel better, that’s the deal when you’re friends with me.” She grabbed your coat, holding it open for you.

Reluctantly, you sighed and slid your arms in, grumbling, “You’re too nice for your own good.”

“Well, that’s very sweet of you, but let’s get a move on!” And with that, she herded you out the door.

———

It was a nice dinner, the two of you out on the town, and for a while, you were granted the solace of distraction. Garcia took you into the city, and somehow it felt a little easier to breathe there under the streetlights amidst a bustling Saturday night crowd. You nestled together in some street corner diner, ordering an absurd amount of food and jabbering on about anything and everything. If she noticed the moments when you fell silent, eyes distant and glassy, (and she definitely did), she never said anything; she just offered a new topic and redirected you from the very sad place that was thoughts of Spencer. And you would latch on eagerly, seizing the opportunity to forget.

So, you spent the evening with late night waffles and french fries and milkshakes and the unending source of cheer that was Penelope Garcia, and by the end of it, your mind didn’t immediately redirect to that morning’s tragedy, which Garcia would define as a success. Together, you found your way back to her car, and you tumbled into the passenger seat, your eyelids immediately fluttering shut. Penelope grinned and drove off.

When you woke again, you were engulfed in bewilderment and not just the regular post-nap disorientation. “Penny, why are we at the National Mall? This is the opposite direction of your house.”

She tapped her acrylics on the steering wheel and nervously surveyed the street in front of her, trying to escape your prying gaze. “Uh—no reason!”

Too exhausted from your day of grief and distraction to be suspicious of her terrible lying, you leaned your head back against the seat, watching the glow of the streetlamps as they roved over the interior of the car.

Garcia seized this movement to set the next part of Reid’s plan in motion. “Hey! You know, what’d be fun is if we went to the Natural History museum! There’s nothing better to cheer you up than dusty old dinosaur bones.” (She didn’t necessarily understand the appeal, but she was trying her best.)

A small chuckle escaped you. “As much as I’d love that, it closed at nine, so we wouldn’t even be able to get in anyway.”

Garcia’s mind thundered furiously as she tried to come up with some way to get you in that freaking building. “Let’s just walk past! Take a peek through the windows, see what we can see!”

Something in you sensed that she wasn’t going to let this go, so you relented as she finagled some sort of street parking that was definitely illegal. You could barely get your seatbelt off before she was dragging you the stone steps, the massive corinthian columns looming. You squeaked a quick Penelope! and tried to keep up. Entirely ready to give up and head back to the car when she tried the door, your mouth fell open in shock when it gave way with ease.

“Oh, look! It’s open! Let’s go inside.”

She didn’t wait for you to respond before she was ducking in the building, and you followed, completely and utterly baffled. Stumbling into the atrium, you were met by a receptionist at the desk. She smiled warmly, “Miss (Y/L/N), I presume?”

You nodded slowly before turning to Garcia whose devious smirk was undeniable. “Penny, what is going on?”

She grabbed your hands and looked at you with tears in her eyes. (Where the hell did those come from?) “Just remember that you’re a very forgiving person, and that sometimes the smartest of us can also be the most stupid.”

Furrowing your brows at that slightly cryptic message, you went to respond when the receptionist stood and said, “If you would, miss, please follow me.”

And so you walked with this stranger through the empty halls, the click of her heels echoing. It was odd to see a space that was normally flushed with people completely empty, and you studied the walls as you walked. “Um, may I ask what’s going on?”

The receptionist grinned, “I’m sorry, but I’m under strict instructions from Dr. Reid to not reveal anything.”

Strict instructions from Dr. Reid. You gasped a little at that, and your thoughts raged with possibilities of what Spencer could possibly have planned. If this was an elaborate attempt at an apology, you were a little overwhelmed; the little dispute this morning absolutely did not necessitate a response of this degree. Sure, you were disappointed, and you needed time to deal with it away from him, but you weren’t mad at him, not really. You had talked about marriage and knew that it was something you both wanted, but you had never discussed when. If he wasn’t ready to marry you quite yet, that was fine; you’d adjust. You were pretty sure you’d wait a whole lifetime for him. Besides, you had sprung it on him quite abruptly, and you knew Spencer and that he was not always well-equipped to deal with monumental change, and how could you blame him for that? You’d wait as long as he needed.

“Here we are!”

Her words broke you from your thoughts, and you looked up to realize you were at the Hall of Fossils. (You had always been fond of the dinosaurs.) Glancing at the girl, you asked, “What do I do now?”

She laughed a little at that. “Just go inside. Take a look around.” And with that, she turned around, leaving you to wander the exhibit.

So you ambled easily through the prehistoric relics and fossilized memories of a past Earth. It was rather haunting, the eerie silence and the illuminated dinosaur skeletons. You peered down at one of the explanatory plaques and instead found a blue post-it note. COLD. A grin wormed its way onto your face, and you jogged a little to the next plaque. GREENHOUSE GASES—WARMER. Spencer was always one for a game. So you zig-zagged through, collecting post-its. GLACIAL PERIOD—COLDER. CRETACEOUS WARMING. EOCENE KIND OF HOT!

With the last note, you looked up and gasped yet again. Spencer was standing in a sea of different plants and flowers placed throughout the central clearing, and donning his signature tight-lipped smile and your favorite of his cardigans, he gave you a small wave. “Hi.”

“Hello.” Your response was breathless, and now that you had met his eyes, you couldn’t tear yours away. A weight lifted from your lungs, it was such a relief to see him, and you hadn’t realized how much you had missed him in the hours you spent apart until you could breathe properly again. “Fancy seeing you here.”

He chuckled at that, but the tension in his shoulders never released; he was clearly anxious, but for what reason, it was hard to say.

An amusing gleam in his eye, he replied, “Same to you.”

“How did you get into the museum after hours?”

He took the moment to examine the toes of his shoes, replying delicately, “I have friends in high places.”

“Ah, Dr. Reid, I always forget that you ruled the world of academia before your time fighting crime.”

He paused for a moment before continuing. “Do you remember our first date?”

You gave him a tender smile, and his racing heartbeat eased ever so slightly, you just had that kind of effect on him. “Well,” you began, “I remember you were wearing that cardigan, the one that I love, and I was so nervous I thought I was going to pass out—”

“I was definitely more nervous. I was so anxious I forgot who Carl Sagan was at one point.”

“I’d forgotten about that!” You giggled at the memory. “But I remember being in this room, and we were making stupid dinosaur puns, and I believe I told you that you are dino-mite….”

He nodded meekly with a subdued grin. “I think that was the moment I fell in love with you.” Meeting his eyes once again, you felt the wind knocked out of you. The utter honesty you found radiating from his soft golden irises hurt your heart, and it was impossible to not believe him. He fell in love on the first date, how sweet and lovely and perfectly Spencer is that?

You took a breath and began to walk closer, skimming a hand over the lush greenery around you. “You know, the last time I was here, I didn’t remember there being so much flora.”

As if he had forgotten the miniature forest that surrounded him, he surveyed the plants surrounding him. There was a sea of succulents and ferns and honeysuckle and peonies and almost every other plant under the sun. “Yes, they’re a new addition. And if I recall correctly, it seems that lots of your favorites have made an appearance.”

“It does appear that way.”

He reached out to gently lift one strand of a nearby fern. “I believe you’ve mentioned before that you would ‘take a fern over a flower any day of the week.’”

“That would explain why they seem to be taking over the windowsills of our apartment.”

“True. Did you know that in the Victorian floriography, the fern represented sincerity and humility? So maybe if somebody had made a stupid mistake and they were trying to let someone know that they were really sorry, they might give a fern to say that they know they were being an idiot and they felt really bad for what they did.”

You laughed airily, “No, I was not aware of that fact.”

He closed the gap between you, reaching to tuck an errant lock of hair behind your ear. He simultaneously managed to pull a small bouquet of purple-ish flowers from thin air, causing more laughter to bubble from you. The laughing is a good sign, he thought, grinning. Keep going! “To really drive the point home, they might also give some columbine which represents foolishness.”

You looked up at him, your expression bright. “Oh man, this guy feels really bad.”

“Yeah,” he agreed before his words took a more somber cadence. “Yeah, he does.”

Your face softened. “Spence—”

“Um, before you say anything else, (Y/N), I just need to let you know how sorry I am for this morning. I love you so, so much, and I never want you to doubt that, and—”

“Spencer, slow down. Really, it’s okay! I’m not mad.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re not angry with me, but it’s not okay because you still deserve an apology. A good apology. So,” he took a deep breath, “I am so very sorry for my actions and for letting you think for even a second that you’re not the most important thing in my life, and I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you that I want to marry you when you asked because I do. I really, really do.”

Something warm and elated simmered in your stomach, and you beamed at him. “I’m glad because I wanna marry you too.” But before you could get too caught up in the moment, you remembered your earlier thoughts. “I don’t want to push you in any way, though, or make you commit to anything before you’re ready because marriage is kind of a big deal, and I’m happy to wait. Spencer Reid, I’d wait for you forever.”

“I don’t want to wait.” He shook his head and began digging in his pocket.

Your eyes widened in shock and spluttered, “Spence, seriously, if you’re not ready—”

“I am ready.” Finally, he found it and pulled out a small velvet box, looking you dead in the eye. “(Y/N/N), I have been planning this for so long because I wanted it to be perfect for you. You deserve nothing less than the absolute best, and I wanted to give that to you.”

His admission gave you pause. “Wait, you’ve had this planned?”

“I’ve been planning this for months! This isn’t me trying to fumble around and fix my mistake. I have a binder and everything, you can ask Derek. That’s the only reason I said no!”

“You said no because you had a binder for your proposal plan?” you teased.

You both broke out into laughter at that.

Recovering his breath and trying to suppress his ever-growing grin, he said, “No, that’s not why. The only reason I said no earlier is because I needed to show you how much I wanted to say yes. You deserve the best, you deserve every star in the sky and every beautiful thing on this earth, and I wanted to make sure I gave that to you when we decided to spend the rest of our lives together because I want to be enough for you.” Trying to swallow around the slug in his throat, he continued, voice breaking slightly. “This is me giving you all the love I have to offer. You’re it for me, (Y/N). And frankly, I don’t want to spend another second without you.”

He settled on one knee and opened the box, looking up at you with the gentlest gaze and a pounding heart. The wetness of your eyes matched his, and you gave him a watery smile. “I’m saying yes now. I would really, really like to marry you, (Y/N/N), if you’ll still have me.”

“Of course, you absolute dork.” Yanking him up from the ground and grinning like a madman, you grabbed his face and pulled him in for the messiest kiss. He clutched your waist and held you as close as he could possibly manage. (His desire to never be parted seemed to be coming to fruition in the sort of melding of bodies that was occurring.) Clashing teeth and knocking noses, it was hard to settle things when neither of you could stop beaming. Overwhelmed by the complete and utter joy bubbling up in his chest, Spencer hugged you tightly before spinning you in a circle, both of you devolving into boisterous giggles.

“Wait,” he murmured. “I forgot to give you the ring, I still need to seal the deal!” To which, you responded with another peal of laughter (something he thought he would never tire of hearing), as his trembling fingers floundered for the ring.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works, but I’ll take it either way.”

He finally secured, and taking your hand in his ever so gently tenderly, he slid a glimmering emerald on your finger.

“Oh, Spencer, it’s beautiful.” He let out a sigh of relief. With light confusion, you asked, “What’s the sigh for, handsome?”

“I know you wanted a special ring, but when I went ring shopping with Derek, there was nothing I thought you’d like, so I special-ordered one from this shop that was going to be your size and everything, but that ring wasn’t going to be ready for a couple weeks. So today, when I knew I had to propose tonight, I ran to that vintage store you love and came across this one, and I thought you’d like it, but I wasn’t sure it was gonna fit, and—”

“I love it,” you looked at him, trying to will him to understand the depth of your sincerity. “And it fits perfectly!”

“How serendipitous.” He thought his face was going to split in half, he was smiling so wide. He couldn’t stop looking at the ring on your finger. How could one silly little rock make tears well in his eyes? Nonetheless, the sight of it made his heart race and his stomach churn with unrepentant butterflies because looking at it, he knew the girl he loved more than anything else on the planet, his favorite person had chosen to spend the rest of her life listening to his rambles and laughing at his jokes and sitting next to him by the pond in the park. The listless dream that had seemed so hopeless and romantic finally came to fruition in that shiny green stone, so no, he would not stop staring.

“Indeed,” you mused, subtle and irresistible risibility fizzing in the silence that followed. You contemplated for a moment before asking, “What do we do now?”

A thoughtful frown graced his lips, and then he shrugged. “We have the museum until midnight. We could just wander for a bit.”

Your eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and you tugged on his sleeve, your excitement palpable. “I’ve always wanted to be in a museum when no one’s around at night! Oh my god, Spencer, it’s just like Night at the Museum!”

He quirked a brow, and a sly smirk turned up the corners of his mouth. “Does that mean I have to protect you when the dinosaur skeletons come to life?”

You scoffed, “Please, we both know that I’d be the one protecting you.”

Another devolution into giggling. It seemed to be your thing tonight.

“Fair enough.”

“Also, do we get to keep all of these plants?” His eyes remained glued to your flushed face as you peered around the room. He wasn’t ashamed to admit just how besotted he was, shamelessly beaming at his fiancée.

“I bought them for you, so yeah.”

“Sick! Our apartment’s gonna turn into a little greenhouse!”

He extended a crooked arm to you, to which you looped yours in his and proceeded to set off on your museum adventure. You learned your head on his shoulder as you walked, completely and perfectly and incandescently happy.

“Hey, Spence?”

“Yes, dear?”

“I love you very much.”

“I love you too, dear.”

#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid angst #spencer reid #anyone else obsessed with winston bishop?#i'd die for him #also can anyone tell that my fav literary device is polysyndeton #bc i feel like i use it way too often :/#actually i don't care!#bc i love it #also i counted three allusions in this bad boy if u find them all u get extra credit :)#jkjkjkjk #i hope all of the three people awake rn enjoy this

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sharkface-daydreams · 2 years

Note

(if you still feel like doing stuff for the character ask) Go ahead; unleash your thoughts of the Sharky man~

Aaaaah ty for asking about him :3333 like i think about him all the time so it’s nice to get my brain around some other characters for a bit but like. This is home base. I live here. I love to be here thinking about my shark man -^^- this got so SO long like google docs says this is 5 pages lmfao x_x I’m sorry but also :D <333333

Why I like them: Have you seen him? Have you seen him? This motherfucker’s got the loudest swag in the entire series. Bitch walks in through a cloud of settling smoke decked out with shark teeth and bitching theme music starting up and just unleashes LITERAL FIRE on Wash and Lina. HELLO???? HELLO???!? Like fuck ok maybe I love fire a lot but u can’t tell me he isn’t 100% aesthetic. The swagger. The presentation. The sheer drama of it. Yeah, sure, ok, at the end of it he still gets the shit beat out of him (and I’m very curious if the facial scarring is entirely due to burns or if the banshee + grav hammer combo to the fucking head busted his eye) but also we already knew no one but Tex can get one over on Carolina, so it was expected, right? But my god what an entrance. I can only think of a few other entrances that had that sort of impact. Epsi-Tex punching out the door and cracking her knuckles and asking “Who’s first” is a good contender but it’s still not on the same level.

(small tangent: It’s curious that Demo (who York passes the transmitter to on the roof and takes the MAC round almost literally to the face) is the one we see up and moving around at Longshore not long after the Sarcophagus heist. I always assumed that would, you know, severely injure someone, but all he does is lose an arm?? Ok king u dropped this 👑)

And then, when we meet him again, he’s cute, he’s jacked, he’s got some incredible art inked into him, he’s got an excerpt from mf’ing Sun Tzu’s the art of war. That’s an ancient Chinese treatise on military strategy. Yes, I had to look all of that up and I haven’t read the thing myself, but that tells me a few things about him: he’s smart, or at least determined to learn and study. It’s been confirmed that the characters and the excerpt are also correctly written as well. So he might be fluent enough to have read it in Chinese. He was either reading this for himself prior to the Freelancer assault, or started studying tactics and combat rhetoric afterwards to prepare for maybe someday going after them. (oh my god help i just thought about how cute he'd look in glasses aaa)

They loaded him up with so much potential and then just. … seriously. Not even fifteen minutes, look at this shit. I’m not counting the part where you can see him dead on the pavement behind Wash and Kimball because he’s fucking dead. Whatever makes him ‘Sharkface’ isn’t in that meat and steel plate homunculus anymore.

He makes a good rival for Carolina, he’s got a very solid motive for going after her and Wash. The fights are good. He’s a quick study and very adaptable, thinks on his feet, isn’t afraid to do risky shit that pays off in a big way and also looks cool as fuck. His favorite game is probably either in the Just Cause series or GTA. And I’m not gonna lie I love love love his ridiculously dramatic one-liners. I love it so much. I’m a dramatic bitch myself so I’m here for it. You know he spent his time in solitary rehearsing and refining his lines. YOU KNOW he did.

I just. He’s so cool, and he has so much potential, and honestly? I vibe with the grief. I vibe with the boiling anger barely kept under the lid. I vibe with craving revenge so deep in my bones that I’m sick with it. Like I get it, man. Not 100%, not 1:1. But I’ve been stepped on and broken without recompense or remorse by forces that don’t remember my existence. That shit will smoulder and cook you from the inside. Melts your hinges a little bit. Makes you crave the feedback of retribution jarring your bones when you land the hit.

I guess I see a lot of myself in him. And also his aesthetic fucks hard. He’s an extremely interesting, complex and underutilized character and my brain has not let go of him from day 1. He will be in my heart forever.

Why I don’t: I don’t??? Dislike??? Anything???? About him????? Stfu he’s perfect!! >:( except the being dead part, I don’t like that one bit. Dude has fucking “Redemption” tattooed across his collarbones. And you killed him instead of letting that come thru? C’mon, now.

Favorite episode (scene if movie): Considering he has just under fifteen minutes of total combined screen time INCLUDING the episode the wiki DOESNT count because you only see half of his helmet for seven seconds while Demo’s giving him orders to go knock out the Freelancers in the vault …. I feel like I’m allowed to say all of them lmao minor character stan privileges activate!

The flamethrower entrance though was just… *chefs kiss* combined with the theme music and appearing through the cloud of dust as the bassline starts up just. Ugh godddddddd its so fucking cool he’s so fucking cool I want to kiss him AND i want to be him like yknow? But most of all I’d just. Love to see an actual fucking redemption arc for him. You literally tattooed it on his chest. No I won’t shut up about this actually lmao eat my whole entire ass RT

Favorite season/movie: 13! But also I hate it because. Well. :( But also I love it because!! Sharkface character development!! Connects backstory to his appearance in the Freelancer saga and also I unironically love the Assassins Creed style flamethrowers. We get to see so much more of what he’s capable of than just wielding a standard issue flamethrower. He’s obviously extremely well versed in martial arts like Carolina is although I’m not anywhere near knowledgeable about them to distinguish styles or skill level. But they both seem very advanced to this layman here. And! I love the spray-painting scene like. It definitely establishes that he’s used to customizing his armor and weaponry like we saw with the Other Innies (Chain twins especially with their fun little guns) - perhaps they used to paint their equipment together as buddies? Then I get to wondering if it’s just something he used to do with his found family or if he’s got more artistic inclinations as well. And I have to wonder if maybe them all dying at the hands of Freelancers kind of put him off of creating for a long while if he associated equipment decor with his fambly :( Ah, and now I’ve made myself good and sad

Favorite line: 13:10, Temple of the Key. “Seems we’re looking for the same man. Bet you I find him first.” This is my favorite because of how perfectly it’s tailored to bait Carolina into following him alone; it activates her competitive mode and she takes off without the rest of them which will ultimately become her downfall. It’s likely the Counselor encouraged him to take advantage of that in her but he also seems like the sort of guy to be naturally inclined to taunting people so he’s all for it. In another world I could see them being sort of intense rivals at something like idk kickboxing or MMA but like. Goodnaturedly u know. Huge missed opportunity for Sharkface redemption + Sharklina slowburn rivalry friendship :(

OH!! I did remember another good one though. Runner-up I guess. 13:11, “Dish Best Served”: He yanks his arms out of the ice and drops to the floor, holds up a grenade in each hand. “No… this is where I get you.” The grenades explode the wall of ice and cause an avalanche, he uses his fucking flamethrowers to propel himself across the snow. Jesus. Jesus fuck dude. It’s so fucking extra. It’s so cinematic. This is your life, dude. You’re incredible. And he’s even goaded Carolina into overextending her resources against better judgement to her own detriment. That’s Sharkface one, Carolina zero. Style bonus. Enormous dick energy. God I’m so fucking in love with him.

Favorite outfit: I do like the old fashioned Season 9 shark teeth helmet. It’s a classic, it’s iconic, it’s very aesthetic, very visually aggressive, very HIM u know. Plus that red visor is very eye-catching especially with the contrast of the teeth and the bulk of the armor. But uh. I’m not gonna knock the ‘No shirt and prison jumpsuit tied around the waist’ outfit either iykwim. 👀💦💕💕💕💕

OTP: 👉👈 Shark+Locus OTP :3333 but I like the potential dynamics with a lot of other characters too. I like the snippy banter between him and Felix. Very crunchy, I like to dig into that. They make excellent frenemies with benefits. I like the notion of mortal enemies to reaching an understanding and commonality type relationship with Carolina. Maybe even Wash. I think if anyone would understand losing their family in arms to forces with no consideration for them, it would be the Freelancers. Things that are also cute: Donut + Shark. Potential for sweetness and entirely too much mischief. They’re both aesthetic-heavy although on different areas of the spectrum. Also Temple+Shark. I think if they’d ended up hunting Freelancers together that could have been something incredible. Plus, dude’s named after a Shark, he’s all shark-tatted up. I would assume he’d be happy as a halibut living in what is basically an underwater aquarium.

Brotp: In a redemption arc where he’s forcibly adopted into the Reds n Blues (Red Team Shark superiority!!), I like to think about him and Sarge bonding over ridiculous fire-creating machinery. I like to think about him and Caboose bonding over losing friends but learning how to make new ones. I like to think about him and the Freelancers realising they’ve got way more in common than they have differences and working through the whole ‘we killed yall but we thought you were the bad guys’ thing. I have a Chorus-loses AU (that is very underdeveloped) where Sharkface remains sort of friends with Felix and Locus and they still work together here and there afterwards. I like the dynamic. Much 2 think about

Head Canon: I headcanon him as trans because I am too and I like him. That’s really all there is to it. I know some people are like ‘he has no nips bc top surgery’ but fun fact/spoiler alert he does actually have nipples. It was confirmed by the creators and also through my own zoom + pixel color picking. The one on the side with the burn scars might be a bit damaged though. But they are there.

Also that one of the other Innies was listed as his next of kin. They both didn’t have any other family so they named each other as beneficiaries on shit like life insurance and whatever. That meant when they died, the dog tag came back to him. So he has that, and little charms or things hanging on a chain to remember them by. I’m still ironing details out slowly but I may post that at some point.

Also. I like to think his ‘glass’ eye is cybernetic. Just because it’s cool. I can see him being the sort to be able to overcome the issues with depth perception that having only one point of ocular input would cause because he’s extremely determined, but at the same time….. Robot eye cool u know. Very aesthetic. And I’m like 99% sure Charon’s work comp is like. Top of the line. Especially if it’s for the illegally hired UNSC security force he has protecting private property like that. If it was me I’d pay top dollar to make sure he was well taken care of so he didn’t cause a mess for the company afterwards.

One more: due to being trans, and me not especially liking the ‘joke/semi-canon’ name he was given (Terrence Ephemera Sharkface) I headcanon that ‘Sharkface’ is his current chosen name and ‘Terrence’ is a previous chosen name. (also despite ‘Ephemera’ being kind of a cruel joke - it means ”things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time” like how fucking rude is that lmao - I like to think maybe it was his dead-dead-name, something held onto because it was the only thing he still has from his Mom who gave him the name, but eventually sheds it as it’s not him, it’s just a gift that he doesn’t have a use for anymore. So like he starts going by ‘Terrence’ using ‘Ephemera’ as a middle name until some point where he’s like ‘nah. That’s not vibing anymore.’ and goes by Sharkface, maybe something his squad gave him as a nickname? A new name from his new family and he just embraces it with his entire being.)

Unpopular opinion: I’ve seen some people write him as like being sexually predatory and I don’t really think that vibes with the rest of his character. I don’t like to see predation from anybody, of course, but like. This is a dude who was basically crushed into powder and burned to a crisp and likely had to completely relearn to walk and build his body back up to the strength we see him displaying while fighting Carolina and also probably learn how to compensate for a lack of depth perception if the black eye is a glass one instead of a cybernetic prosthetic. So from the get-go, he’s unconscious, or more likely sedated while they fix his bones and put in staples and plates, completely at the mercy of medical professionals who often suffer from power trips and god complexes.

He likely spent a long time in physical therapy. I’ve been in and out of that shit several times for my back. There are a wide variety of kinds of therapists. Not all of them are kind or respectful to your body, your boundaries, your limits or needs. I had one a few months ago who was a fill-in who was so brusque and dismissive with me and my pain that I went home so anxious and overwhelmed I had a nonverbal episode for most of the night along with back spasms returning. I cancelled my other appointment that week until my regular therapist would be back.

It might just be me but I can’t see someone who’s had to deal with so much of that, way more medical shit and likely medical trauma than I can even imagine, would be the sort of person to disregard other peoples’ boundaries like that. /shrug I mean he doesn’t even really get in the Counselor’s face when he’s getting pissy with him. Like he stands close and looks the dude in the eyes, but he never crosses over into touching or even trying to like, crowd him to make him take a step back. He just stands close enough to make his point with a glare and challenging eye contact, and then returns to his own area.

A wish: I am writing a calligraphy-laden letter to the writers that says “You literally tattooed “REDEMPTION” across his collarbones, and then you killed him in an extremely stilted and unsatisfying manner. I expect remuneration for emotional and psychological damages.” and having it notarized. :) /j but also 😡

I wish Wash had heard the exchange between him and Carolina about his friends, and heard the grief wavering his voice when he tells her “Sorry doesn’t bring them back!” I wish Wash and Kimball hadn’t opened fire. I wish they’d dragged him along, maybe knocked him out for everybody’s safety. I think they could have come to some sort of understanding.

I wish Sarge had seen the red armor and claimed dibs for red team. I wish he could have woken up to having been adopted unanimously onto Red Team and being told ‘condolences dude but you have a new family of idiots to deal with’. Sometimes I wish he’d won against the Freelancers. I wonder what he would have done when they were gone, when that last target of grief and anguish was extinguished. I wish he’d gotten closure. I wish he’d gotten some sort of relief for the sucking chest wound of emotional hurt he carried around with him 24/7.

Also if you’ve ever expressed wishes for Sharkface redemption arc, Red Team Shark headcanons, fic, art, or ramblings. Please know I love you and I have a little picture of you hanging inside my heart.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: It already happened :’) I hate I hate I hate I hate I HAAAATE

5 words to best describe them: mad aesthetic, nerd, resilient, determined, passionate. Dude loved his family with his entire fucking being and having that ripped away from him so violently just absolutely gutted him. don’t touch me im face down in my upsetti spaghetti and im not coming up for air

My nickname for them: Shark/Sharky, Shark man, and sometimes if I’m feeling the sorta-canon name the writers gave him, Terry or Ter is cute.

I do keep a list of the things I can see Felix calling him though. Just for giggles. Here you go:

Sharkbait

Sharkfuck

Shartface

Fishsticks

Fishdicks

Fishbreath

Filet o’ Fish

Jabberjaw

Bruce

Chumface

Captain Hook

Scarface

Freddy Krueger

Freddy Fish

ty for asking and letting me spill all this onto the tumblog :’) if you read all the way down this far thank you and also i’m sorry lmao

im feeling a little sad and wistful now but i spent the remainder of my birthday thinking and writing about Sharkface so I’m in a very content good place rn -^^-

#rvb sharkface #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #ok im good. im ok. im good.#i have So Many Thoughts.#thank u for asking and also i'm sorry lmao #we just got a letter #ask memes #rvb meta but not The Meta #sir that's my emotional support shark #u know he kinda helped keep pushing me to work hard at pt as well #kept thinking he had it so much worse than me but he didnt give up #so i gotta do this and keep on doin it and get my back straightened out and core strengthened to support it #it did help that i had a really good therapist tho #partner: you really gotta stop falling in love with minor side characters who die #me: yeah like that'll happen lmfao ANYWAY

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iruka-week · 3 years

Text

Iruka Week 2021 Masterpost

Here’s the final list of works posted to Iruka Week 2021. Thank you to everyone who participated, and to those of you who have supported the creators by liking, sharing, and commenting!

✨ Stats ✨

In total, you all created:

Art: 67 Poems: 2 Videos: 2 Drabbles (100): 46 Ficlets (100-1000): 42 Fics (1k+): 39 Total works: 194 Word Count: 196,533

That’s so much amazing, new Iruka-centric content, and we’re absolutely thrilled by your enthusiasm!

Below you’ll find the works split into days, and then further separated by media type. We hope you enjoy browsing all of the fantastic fanworks!

In case viewing everything on Tumblr isn’t your thing, we put together a 61 page Google doc with everything in, which you can view here.

Day 1: Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Scars

Artwork and Physical Crafts

sweetysamaa Overworked & Sleep Deprived

Iruka-Simp Scars

animetrashmuffin Scars

katedoesart Scars

ultramarinetwix Scars

Iruka-Simp Overworked & Sleep Deprived

anniemaar Scars

dayonnight Overworked & Sleep Deprived

yamivdum Scars

microrockets Scars

radkoko Scars

rocketpunchhh Scars

Fics and Meta

Exam Week by FreakyPseudWriter Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Umino Iruka/Reader General Audiences | 1/1 | 1342 Summary: There are some weeks Iruka absolutely dreaded, as they were stressful, hard for the mind and body, and mostly filled with lots of tears from his students. Exam Week. Not to talk about the sleep deprivation and the many, many tests he had to correct. No miracle he lived off of coffee, but that his state would lead to a happy ending... He would've never guessed.

Sensibile al tocco by RainbowLSparrow Scars | Mizuki/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 636 Summary: " Aveva sempre avuto un rapporto conflittuale con la sua cicatrice. Non ne faceva un problema estetico, quello per lui non era mai stato così importante. In fondo a Konoha non era di certo l'unico ad avere cicatrici, era probabilmente molto più comune di quanto facesse piacere ammettere. Il suo problema era quello che quella cicatrice significavano per lui. "

Sensitive to touch by RainbowLSparrow Scars | Mizuki/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 643 Summary: " He had always had a conflicted relationship with his scar. He didn't make it an aesthetic problem, that had never been so important to him. After all, in Konoha he was certainly not the only one with scars, it was probably much more common than he was pleased to admit. His problem was what that scar meant to him. "

Solo un'altra correzione e poi vado a letto! by RainbowLSparrow Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka/Yamato | Tenzou General Audiences | 1/1 | 679 Summary: ""Ruka... Per favore, vieni a dormire!"" Era già la seconda volta che veniva a chiamarlo, ormai era notte inoltrata e sapeva che Kakashi questa volta non avrebbe accettato un no come risposta. ""Correggo solo un altro compito e poi ti giuro che vengo!"""

Just one more correction and then I'm off to bed! by RainbowLSparrow Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka/Yamato | Tenzou General Audiences | 1/1 | 718 Summary: "Ruka ... Please, come to sleep!" It was already the second time he had come to call him, it was now late at night and he knew that this time Kakashi would not take "no" for an answer. "I'll just correct one more paper and then I swear I'll come!"

Even When Overworked by tmo Scars, Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Mature | 1/1 | 500 Summary: The Mood can hit at any time, even when you're tired and overworked. But who could refuse Iruka, really?

Incense and Bubble Baths by lazy___mastermind Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Umino Iruka/Reader Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 2912 Summary: You were having a rough few weeks and just needed to wind down. Iruka knew this. So, when you got home to turn in for the end of the work week, your boyfriend of two years already had the perfect you-tailored evening planned.

Tracing stories. by JustAnotherFool Scars | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 1422 Summary: Scars are stories embedded on skin. On a too hot night, Kakashi finds himself tracing Iruka's stories.

Hatake to the Rescue... and Dinner? by Jubokko Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 1530 Summary: Years worth of training kept Iruka from faceplanting. Fatigue, however, caused one hand to shoot out and grab hold of something to keep himself from losing balance. Unfortunately, as full awareness returned to him, he realized that the “something” that he’d taken hold of was none other than the collar of Kakashi’s flak jacket. The stupid jounin was blushing again. “What—the hell are—you doing?” Iruka wheezed. "You ask me on a date, then try to run away before you can hear my answer? How rude!” Kakashi seemed to squirm under Iruka’s scrutinizing glare. “Well, I—uh—” [Or—Iruka has a long day and waltzes out of a restaurant without his dinner and flak jacket. Kakashi seizes the opportunity to ask an important question... and completely loses his cool]

wounds heal, but scars remain by MagnusTesla Scars | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Sometimes at night, the pain is too much.

got me sleep deprived by jessicamiriamdrew Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 270 Summary: “You work too hard,” Kakashi says, and settles down next to Iruka on the kotatsu. “It’s the weekend; you should come to bed early.”

the perfect cure by stupidbadgers Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 211 Summary: iruka is overworked and sleep-deprived, but the perfect cure for that is being wrapped in his lover's arms

I'mperfect by JKirin Scars | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Do our scars make us imperfect?

Early Morning Reminiscing by irukapng Scars | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 952 Summary: Some scars are easier to heal than others.

In Need of Rest by vulcanhighblood Scars, Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 3989 Summary: Iruka is spending too much time taking care of other people and not enough time caring for himself. Kakashi decides to do something about it.

Introspection by kaoruhana Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Hatake Kakashi/ Maito Gai (Implied) General Audiences | 1/1 | 3362 Summary: Iruka muses on the fact that the kids he once knew as pre-genin at the academy are all grown up, getting married, and starting their own families. He tells himself that he’ll find someone to settle down with too. Except, that’s easier said than done with his already packed schedule which becomes even busier when the Rokudaime gives him one more task to do. But Iruka doesn’t care. Not when it’s all for the kids anyway.

Role reversal by R_4_L Overworked & Sleep Deprived General Audiences | 1/1 | 1143 Summary: Iruka finds himself hospitalized and Kakashi is by his friends side. This time Kakashi is giving the lecture, he just needs to make sure Iruka hears it.

scars by roymustaangs Scars General Audiences | 1/1 | 213 Summary: He had them all over his body; on his chest, his legs, his nose. He was a ninja. This was bound to happen.

internal inferno by NianaiBell Scars General Audiences | 1/1 | 494 Summary: not all scars are visible

you drew stars around my scars by MelanatedRavenclaw Scars | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Mature | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Iruka didn't know where he would be if he hadn't met Kakashi. He had been in a dark place, but Kakashi had patiently shown him there was still good in the world.

Come to Bed by llsilvertail Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Iruka needs sleep.

It Never Goes Away by llsilvertail Scars Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Even after it's over, it's not gone.

Will Release Ever Come? by mandapandabug Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Explicit | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Iruka comes home from work to find a randy lover who wants to worship his body all night long. It sounds romantic, but how much can one man take!?

easy on my mind, this time by NianaiBell Overworked & Sleep Deprived | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 1726 Summary: Self-care keeps Iruka prepared to deal with the multitude of roles he takes on in his village. Sometimes he just needs a push in the right direction.

Day 2: Bonds | Folklore & Mythology

Artwork and Physical Crafts

sweetysamaa Folklore & Mythology

anniemaar Folklore & Mythology

microrockets Bonds

rocketpunch Bonds | NSFW

cosrune Folklore & Mythology

yamivdum Folklore & Mythology

dayonnight Folklore & Mythology

happymonger Folklore & Mythology

helenasugar Folklore & Mythology

animetrashmuffin Folklore & Mythology

radkoko Folklore & Mythology

Iruka-Simp Bonds

Iruka-Simp Folklore & Mythology | CW: Blood

Fics and Meta

Best Man Duty FreakyPseudWriter Bonds | Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto, Umino Iruka/Reader, Umino Iruka/Original Character(s), Minor or Background Relationship(s), Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto General Audiences | 1/1 | 1127 Summary: In the moments before his wedding, Iruka has a heart-to-heart-talk with Naruto.

Il calore di un abbraccio by RainbowLSparrow Bonds | Umino Iruka & his students, Sarutobi Hiruzen & Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 665 Summary: " Per Iruka il sentire caldo o freddo, non era solo una questione di temperatura, Iruka ricavava calore dalla vicinanza con gli altri, dalla felicità che gli procurava il condividere del tempo con gli altri. "

The warmth of a hug by RainbowLSparrow Bonds | Sarutobi Hiruzen & Umino Iruka, Umino Iruka & his students General Audiences | 1/1 | 687 Summary: " For Iruka, feeling hot or cold was not just a matter of temperature, Iruka drew warmth from being close to others, from the happiness that sharing time with others gave him. "

Queen of the Nile by tmo Bonds | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Explicit | 1/1 | 500 Summary: They were women legendary in their own rights. Most thought of them as rivals, others as friends, but their bond remained a mystery to all but them.

Oji-san by kaoruhana Bonds General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Boruto calls Iruka Ojii-san for the first time.

the ties that bind us by MagnusTesla Bonds | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: A slight tug at the bond that wraps itself around Iruka's soul is all it takes to know his mate is safe and sound.

bonds by roymustaangs Bonds | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 1379 Summary: Destiny could work in interesting ways sometimes.

Dolphin of the sea by RainbowLSparrow Folklore & Mythology General Audiences | 1/1 | 496 Summary: " He loved his position as a spirit of the Naka River. He had once been a dolphin, he was part of the great Ryujin's court. "

Delfino del mare by RainbowLSparrow Folklore & Mythology General Audiences | 1/1 | 485 Summary: " Amava la sua posizione di spirito del fiume Naka. Un tempo era stato un delfino, faceva parte della corte del grande Ryujin. "

Friends to Family by JKirin Bonds | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: They are more than friends – they are family.

Time by Jubokko Bonds | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 614 Summary: Closing his eyes, Iruka dug into the pocket of his bathrobe and withdrew a small, velvet box. He didn’t need to see the inside in order to know the familiar pattern inscribed on the ring. It had been burned into his flesh for decades, just as it had been on Kakashi’s, binding them together—two unwitting souls divided by pain and conflict for so long. Too long. Iruka breathed, fingers tightening around the box. Today could have—would have—been the happiest day of his life. When the tears began to fall, silently tracing down his cheeks, he did nothing to fight them."

you are the one i was meant to find by MelanatedRavenclaw Bonds | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Soulmate AU where one feels intense pain when they are near their soulmate for the first time.

אמת by jessicamiriamdrew Folklore & Mythology | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: The letters are scarred into Iruka's forehead, hidden under jutsu.

bonds that hold you by stupidbadgers Bonds | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: a quiet moment of happiness

sea shanty for shinobi by NianaiBell Folklore & Mythology General Audiences | 1/1 | 2570 Summary: Kakashi didn't think this mission would involve vengeful sea spirits today. Thankfully, there's Iruka.

The Transformative Power of Love by mandapandabug Folklore & Mythology | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: There's a fable of an aquatic mammal that becomes a beautiful human. So what if Kakashi embellishes this tale to fit his own love life better?

A Pocket Full of Pixies by llsilvertail Folklore & Mythology | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Pixies are capricious creatures. One quickly learns to not piss them off.

The Tying of New Bonds by llsilvertail Bonds | Mizuki & Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Old knots are untangled and new bonds are forged.

wreck me like you mean it by kageillusionz, mytsukkishine Bonds | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Explicit | 1/1 | 5331 Summary: Iruka gets wrecked by the Hokage.🥺

Day 3: Edo Tensei | Fake Dating

Artwork and Physical Crafts

animetrashmuffin Edo Tensei | CW: Blood

dayonnight Fake Dating

sweetysamaa Edo Tensei

nki-stories Edo Tensei

radkoko Fake Dating

animetrashmuffin Fake Dating

Iruka-Simp Edo Tensei

Iruka-Simp Fake Dating

microrockets Edo Tensei

Fics and Meta

Hold Back the River by mandapandabug Fake Dating | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto Teen And Up Audiences | 8/8 | 41390 Summary: Naruto has been annoying his two favorite sensei about their (non-existent) love lives ever since he found love with Hinata. They decide to indulge Naruto and pretend to date because Iruka wasn't ready to date anyone for real. Turns out, Kakashi's enemies were just waiting for the opportunity to get revenge. Too bad they weren't really dating... or really in love... were they? It takes a long time to get there, but Iruka finally sorts out his feelings and maybe he's ready for something real. Luckily Kakashi is patient and a smitten-kitten.

Fake it 'til you... by FreakyPseudWriter Fake Dating | Umino Iruka/Reader, Umino Iruka/Original Female Character(s), Umino Iruka/Original Character(s) General Audiences | 1/1 | 5964 Summary: Flying doesn't bother you. Most of the time, you tend to your job, writing emails, planning appointments for your boss, or simply sleep the flight away. Though, on this flight, your seat neighbor is obviously scared to death by the prospect of leaving the ground, to the point you have to intervene. Everything to save your most comfortable flats from halfway digested food.

love's a curse by MagnusTesla Edo Tensei | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Iruka's not mad, no. They're all wrong. Can't they see that his love knows no bounds?

Just Go With It by tmo Fake Dating | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/2 | 500 Summary: Their best-friend vacation accidentally turned into a boyfriend vacation

Goodbye by NKI_Stories Edo Tensei | Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Tears ran down his face as he refused to let go.

kiss me like you mean it by roymustaangs Fake Dating | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: For Iruka Week 2021, prompt three: fake dating!

Make No Promises You're Unprepared To Keep by vulcanhighblood Fake Dating General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: He'd always known it would end. He just didn't expect it to hurt this much.

on one condition by stupidbadgers Fake Dating | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 241 Summary: iruka is tired of his friends butting into his dating life, so he does something about it

Doing The Research Early by mandapandabug Edo Tensei General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Kabuto heard Iruka was an expert in seals. While he was in town, he may as well try to pick his brain for information on... future ventures.

Il padre che non sono potuto essere by RainbowLSparrow Edo Tensei | Namikaze Minato & Umino Iruka, Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto General Audiences | 1/1 | 662 Summary: "Grazie per essere stato per Naruto il padre che non sono potuto essere!"

The father I couldn't be by RainbowLSparrow Edo Tensei | Namikaze Minato & Umino Iruka, Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto General Audiences | 1/1 | 676 Summary: "Thank you for being to Naruto the father I couldn't be!"

Why aren't you? by JKirin Fake Dating | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Iruka asked an upperclassman for help but is now regretting his decision, or is he?

seeing home once again by mytsukkishine Edo Tensei | Umino Iruka & Umino Kohari Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 479 Summary: Iruka meets someone dear to him during the war.

forever, maybe by MelanatedRavenclaw Fake Dating | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Iruka expected bringing a date to this wedding would get his friends off his back. What he did not expect was to fall for his date.

half empty/half full by NianaiBell Fake Dating | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 996 Summary: Kakashi has a plan. Iruka has a headache. Naruto can't dance.

contracts by jessicamiriamdrew Edo Tensei | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: “What’s a little Edo Tensei among friends?”

They were fine with it by RainbowLSparrow Fake Dating General Audiences | 1/1 | 861 Summary: " Iruka had been to many parties in his life, but it had never happened to him to find himself in a situation like this, of course, there is a first time for everything, but he really hoped to be able to spare this one. "

A loro andava bene così by RainbowLSparrow Fake Dating General Audiences | 1/1 | 806 Summary: " Iruka era stato a molte feste nella sua vita, ma mai gli era successo di ritrovarsi in una situazione di questo tipo, certo c'è una prima volta per tutto, ma sperava proprio di potersela risparmiare questa. "

I Love You Both by llsilvertail Edo Tensei | Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi & Umino Iruka, Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: The hardest part is the final stand.

Everyone Will Know By Lunchtime by llsilvertail Fake Dating | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Iruka doesn't get paid enough for this.

Dead Drops and Sake by Jubokko Fake Dating Mature | 1/? | 1922 Summary: Iruka and Kakashi are sent on a mission to retrieve information from a spy stationed in the Hidden Sound. Much to Iruka’s dismay, said mission has rather… unfortunate requirements.

Day 4: Fūinjutsu | Any AU

Artwork and Physical Crafts

microrockets Any AU

radkoko Any AU

katedoesart Any AU

animetrashmuffin Fūinjutsu

Iruka-Simp Fūinjutsu

Iruka-Simp Any AU

microrockets Any AU

rocketpunch Any AU

dayonnight Any AU

Fics and Meta

Project Work by FreakyPseudWriter Any AU | Umino Iruka/Reader General Audiences | 1/1 | 1846 Summary: Working on a project for a course you're barely interested in is already bad enough, but knowing you have to work on a project with the absolute gorgeous, kind, gentle Iruka... Needless to say, you can't really concentrate on the matter at hand.

To Be Trapped With You Forever by mandapandabug Fūinjutsu | Shiranui Genma/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Iruka and Genma have been training together for months now. Somehow today is different. Today Genma didn't feel bad being trapped by Iruka's fuinjutsu at all. In fact he felt elated.

Sur un nuage by sweetysamaa Any AU | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 284 Summary: Iruka souffre. son chirurgien est en retard.

On a cloud by sweetysamaa Any AU | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 268 Summary: Iruka is in pain. His surgeon is late.

lurking beneath my skin by MagnusTesla Fūinjutsu | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Doesn't Kakashi realise that this is one beast he cannot tame?

home run by roymustaangs Any AU | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: For Iruka Week 2021 prompt 4: any au! I chose a baseball au because I love baseball and I think it'd be interesting to see them playing baseball!

Yamato-san by kaoruhana Any AU | Umino Iruka/Yamato | Tenzou, implied General Audiences | 1/1 | 1100 Summary: One of Iruka's kindergarten students is the mayor's son. This student has a stalker. So Yamato-san, is assigned to become Iruka's undercover TA to catch him. Told in Eleven Drabbles of 100 words each.

like any good shinobi by stupidbadgers Fūinjutsu | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 250 Summary: a nice soak is all iruka wants

JŌ'real Photoshoot by JKirin Any AU General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Behind the scenes of the photoshoot for JŌ'real Shinobi Hair Care ad as featured in Jō-gue!

who can stop me if i decide that you're my destiny? by MelanatedRavenclaw Any AU | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: The day has come and Iruka has to choose from the array of eligible suitors to rule beside him. It wouldn't be a problem if he wasn't already in love with someone else.

Restart by RainbowLSparrow Any AU | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, Hatake Kakashi & Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto General Audiences | 1/1 | 312 Summary: " He had done it for love, Iruka. He wouldn't do it for any other reason than that. He would have never leave home, with his boyfriend and his little brother. "

Ricominciare by RainbowLSparrow Any AU | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, Hatake Kakashi & Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto General Audiences | 1/1 | 310 Summary: " Lo aveva fatto per amore, Iruka. Non lo avrebbe fatto per altri motivi se non quello. Non sarebbe mai andato via di casa, col suo ragazzo e il suo fratellino altrimenti. "

the fine art of ink spots by NianaiBell Any AU General Audiences | 1/1 | 2496 Summary: Iruka runs a perfectly respectable tattoo parlor. His clients didn't seem to get that message.

Lace and Paperwork by Jubokko Fūinjutsu | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Mature | 1/1 | 3068 Summary: Iruka's fingers brushed against the Hokage robe, skin, and then a very… silky something. He froze on the spot and gently set down the pen he’d been holding. “Kakashi... are you wearing anything?” A grin split Kakashi’s face, clearly visible from beneath the mask. “Maa—course I am, Sensei.” “Lace doesn’t count.” Kakashi raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” “Kakashi.” “The robe counts.” “Kakashi!” Iruka spluttered, feeling heat rise in his face. “Good god—we’re in my office!” [Iruka has to do some last-minute paperwork over vacation. Unwilling to let their evening be completely ruined, Kakashi brings his surprise to the Academy office]

Is This the End? by llsilvertail Fūinjutsu | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: We give up many things for our countries, our lives are one of them.

Disengage, Parry Riposte by llsilvertail Any AU | Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Iruka teaches and Naruto learns.

Stuck In The Middle With You by tmo Any AU Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 500 Summary: As an apprentice blacksmith, Kakashi hadn't ever expected to find himself deserted on an island with a filthy pirate.

Day 5: Missing Nin | Pranks

Artwork and Physical Crafts

Iruka-Simp Pranks | AMV

animetrashmuffin Pranks

Iruka-Simp Missing Nin

nki-stories Missing Nin

microrockets Pranks

radkoko Missing Nin

happymonger Missing Nin

dayonnight Missing Nin

Fics and Meta

Don’t come near! by jinxkirin Missing Nin General Audiences | Poem

Tough But Fair by SpellCasterLight Pranks General Audiences | 1/1 | 1078 Summary: "I am Naruto's teacher, and while he is on The Academy grounds, all my pupils are entrusted to me by the village to look after them and well," Iruka shamelessly took the empty parental seat beside Naruto then. "We are on The Academy grounds so I am technically his guardian."

Everybody Loves a Good Prank by FreakyPseudWriter Pranks | Umino Iruka/Reader, Umino Iruka/Original Female Character(s), Umino Iruka/Original Character(s) General Audiences | 1/1 | 1305 Summary: Iruka has no idea why someone is playing pranks on him. Though, he can't help but to feel intrigued, as the pranks are pretty elaborate and seem to have his delight in mind...

Iruka, a nukenin ? by sweetysamaa Missing Nin | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 1586 Summary: Irukas has suddenly dissapear. Why ? For sure Kakashi had something to do with it.

Iruka, un nukenin ? by sweetysamaa Missing Nin | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 1603 Summary: Iruka a disparue. Pour sur que Kakashi a quelque chose à avoir avec ça.

always looking over my shoulder by MagnusTesla Missing Nin | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Iruka and Kakashi tried to make things work in Konoha, to love their village in spite of all her flaws.

#couplepranks by tmo Pranks | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 500 Summary: Iruka is the best boyfriend, according to his TikTok

All That Glitters Is Sometimes Gold by mandapandabug Pranks | Maito Gai | Might Guy/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Gai is just trying to see Iruka when he gets caught in a trap made for someone else. He's hoping to make the best of it and Iruka is happy to comply!

twinkle twinkle big star by roymustaangs Pranks | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: It was a harmless prank, really.

Kidnapped, missing, or...? by hkandi Missing Nin | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruko, Hatake Kakashi & Uzumaki Naruko General Audiences | 1/1 | 2456 Summary: Naruto swears that Iruka has become a missing nin, and drags Kakashi into looking for him. Kakashi has some other plans in mind, and it looks like now they include helping Naruto learn how to actually gather intelligence and information...

i laugh like me again by stupidbadgers Pranks | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 247 Summary: iruka rarely had time to plan out a good prank, but when he did, no one was safe. not even kakashi.

erased by jessicamiriamdrew Missing Nin | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Iruka won’t be used by Konoha again.

Trying not to see the sea while standing on a raft by RainbowLSparrow Missing Nin | Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto General Audiences | 1/1 | 472 Summary: " For years Iruka had kept his eyes closed. He had been faithful to Konoha with all of himself, he had only seen its greatness and never its mistakes. He couldn't understand how he could have done it, it's like trying not to see the sea while standing on a raft. Impossible! "

Cercare di non vedere il mare stando su una zattera by RainbowLSparrow Missing Nin | Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto General Audiences | 1/1 | 459 Summary: " Per anni Iruka aveva tenuto gli occhi chiusi. Era stato fedele a Konoha con tutto se stesso, aveva visto solo la sua grandezza e mai i suoi errori. Non si capacitava di come avesse potuto farlo. è come cercare di non vedere il mare stando su una zattera. Impossibile! "

and the world will wait while you're here by NianaiBell Pranks | Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto General Audiences | 1/1 | 584 Summary: Iruka hasn't stopped being a trickster. His pranks just look a little different now.

Pranks by RainbowLSparrow Pranks General Audiences | 1/? | 350 Summary: " How many jokes they had played on him over the years... They were very creative in that, they were up to all sort of things. "

Scherzi by RainbowLSparrow Pranks General Audiences | 1/? | 323 Summary: " Quanti scherzi che gli avevano fatto lungo il corso degli anni... Erano molto creativi in quello, ne combinavano di tutti i colori. "

Day 6: Family | Jutsu Gone Wrong

Artwork and Physical Crafts

Iruka-Simp Family

sweetysamaa Family

animetrashmuffin Family

katedoesart Family

microrockets Jutsu Gone Wrong

radkoko Family

animetrashmuffin Jutsu Gone Wrong

dayonnight Jutsu Gone Wrong

Fics and Meta

What Makes Iruka So Special? by mandapandabug Family | Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto General Audiences | 1/1 | 2421 Summary: It is their weekly Ramen dinner and Naruto has had something on his mind for a while: how come Iruka had such a similar story to many of the "villains" of his story, and yet he was so good? Iruka had faced the death of his parents, his only family, and been alone most of his life, but he didn't turn to evil means. Even when it was revealed that his "best friend" had betrayed him and used him his whole life, Iruka was still open and kind. What set him apart? Naruto wanted to get to the bottom of it, but he isn't so great with words and expressing himself. Iruka on the other hand is just grateful to still get to be in Naruto's life at all, even though he's an annoying little brat still, Hokage title or no.

Good Jutsu Gone Wild by mandapandabug Jutsu Gone Wrong General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Had it been a good idea to work with Naruto on a new combo move? No. No it had not. Since when had the boy gotten so strong?!? Now their Swirling-Burning-Inferno-no-Jutsu (trade mark: Naruto) is on a crash course for their village and they are helpless to stop it. Luckily a certain lazy pervert was in the area.

The Photographs Under the Hutch by kaoruhana Family General Audiences | 1/1 | 6560 Summary: It strikes Iruka then that in depriving Naruto of the knowledge of his parents' identities, the village did Naruto a grave injustice. And did the Yondaime and Kushina-san a great disservice. Iruka has never thought twice about what it must be like for Naruto who doesn’t know anything about the identity of his parents save for the last name he carries. But now, in his apartment, when Naruto shyly asks if there is something he can do to honor them, the way Iruka does his, it really hits him that Naruto is a lonely child who has been... left behind by the village. No, not left behind, but...neglected by them. Iruka can never imagine going a day without lighting the incense in front of his parents’ photo and bowing to their photo in the morning. He can’t imagine how Naruto must feel to be deprived of such a thing. “I think you don’t have to worry about your parents Naruto.” He whispers. “But, if you want, we can see if we can make a little memorial for them so that you can honor them too.” And as he says it, Iruka realizes that he means it. He will somehow find a way to give Naruto this small thing when so much has been taken from him.

i only have eyes for you by stupidbadgers Jutsu Gone Wrong | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 247 Summary: there are many reasons to be wary of small children

Failure and Success by FreakyPseudWriter Jutsu Gone Wrong | Umino Iruka/Reader, Umino Iruka/Original Character(s), Umino Iruka/Original Female Character(s) General Audiences | 1/1 | 2063 Summary: Iruka had never been this embarrassed. Hell, usually he would've been able to do this jutsu in his sleep! But no, today he had to fail and of course, today you were on shift in the hospital...

Family is a two-way street. by JKirin Family | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: Iruka is supposed to be the one supporting Kakashi, not the other way around. Right?

family means no one gets left behind or forgotten by roymustaangs Family | Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: They'd both wanted this for a long time and it was finally time to make it official.

I Will Be Here, Don't You Cry by MelanatedRavenclaw Family | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 903 Summary: Naruto has a bad day at school and Iruka and Kakashi try to figure out what to do next.

unintentional catboy by MagnusTesla Jutsu Gone Wrong | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: In Konoha, Iruka is known as a master at seals, but even a master sometimes makes major fuck-ups.

A Place To Rest by vulcanhighblood Family | Uchiha Itachi & Umino Iruka, Uchiha Shisui & Umino Iruka, Uchiha Itachi & Uchiha Shisui & Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 10052 Summary: Umino Iruka finally gets out of the hospital after his first C-rank mission ended... badly. Unfortunately, the healing wound in his abdomen turns out to be the least of his worries when he finds out he's no longer welcome at the orphanage. Fortunately, he has a Genin teammate who knows just the place for him to rest and recuperate.

Konoha's Sublime Green Tree of Prey by JKirin Jutsu Gone Wrong General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: How do I even write a summary for this? 🤣 🤣 🤣 Read the title – make a guess LOL

Iruka: The Free Diving Mouse by kaoruhana Jutsu Gone Wrong General Audiences | 1/1 | 3109 Summary: Iruka’s eye ticked. At this current moment in time, he very much wanted to yell at Kakashi, scold him even. And he really wanted to drag Kakashi in by the ear to one of his lectures, particularly the upcoming one he is supposed to give on the use of proper hand seals tomorrow, and remind him why one should always be careful of what hand seals are used when trying new jutsus. Which is what he will classify this as. Because the jutsu to substitute someone with a log should not turn someone into a mouse.

Wearing Your Scars by mandapandabug Scars, Kekki Genkai | Hatake Kakashi & Umino Iruka Teen And Up Audiences | 9/9 | 23850 Summary: Iruka had a secret. His parents always told him he was lucky; he could grow out his hair and hide the rough scar. He was of Konoha and shouldn’t have to bear any burden of their sins. What were their sins? He wished he had asked, but he was a rambunctious 10-year-old and was happy to just run freely about the village. He made some friends, but his parents were loners. They didn’t like Iruka to be out late or with people he had not introduced to them specifically. Now he understands their trepidation. Now he wishes he had more information. Now it is too late.

Sunshine by tmo Family | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Mature | 1/1 | 500 Summary: He was supposed to be their sunshine through the clouds after trying to get pregnant for over a year.

Iruka-sensei's Post Academy Lesson Plan by NianaiBell Jutsu Gone Wrong | A slight moment of KakaIru at the end, Team Seven - Relationship General Audiences | 1/1 | 2856 Summary: Even if they aren't technically his students anymore...Iruka's willing to help them out. Just this once.

Snuggling with an Uncle-Grandpa (or Two) by kaoruhana Family | Umino Iruka & Yamato | Tenzou General Audiences | 1/1 | 1434 Summary: Iruka smiled as he realized that their bed would be invaded soon. He loved Metal and Sarada both, but there was a special place in his heart for the little girl. Yamato teased him and said it was likely because she was a cuddler. A small part of Iruka agreed. There was something special about being one of the few that Sarada always sought out to cuddle with. Knowing that she, as a tiny child who needed protection, sought out him when it was naptime or she was sleepy, made love swell in Iruka’s heart. Sarada wasn’t yet a Shinobi, she didn’t understand how important it was to be able to trust someone to relax in their presence and sleep when they were around. But when she’d first toddled up to him two years ago, arms outstretched, and had fallen asleep on his shoulder, Iruka knew it was special. And that Sarada was precious. And that he would do everything in his power to show her that. And if that included cuddling up with her and having her small body wriggling its way under the covers of the futon he shared with Yamato, snuggling up against his side, he would welcome it.

And in return I ask for nothing, just a smile by RainbowLSparrow Jutsu Gone Wrong Teen And Up Audiences | 1/2 | 6825 Summary: "It took them a long time that evening to put Iruka to sleep. He refused to listen to anything they tried to say to him, he collapsed in a corner of the room and ignored them. They tried to feed him, but he refused the food. They had to. wait until he was too tired to resist to be able to take him to bed. Kakashi and Naruto had stayed close to him, had tried to console him, but apparently, the wound for that Iruka was still too fresh to think of anything but everything he had lived through. In the end he cried himself to sleep."

E in cambio non chiedo niente, soltanto un sorriso by RainbowLSparrow Jutsu Gone Wrong Teen And Up Audiences | 1/2 | 6595 Summary: "Ci misero molto tempo quella sera a mettere Iruka a dormire. Si rifiutava di ascoltare qualsiasi cosa provassero a dirgli, si era accasciato in un angolino della stanza e li aveva ignorati. Avevano provato a farlo mangiare, ma aveva rifiutato il cibo. Avevano dovuto aspettare che fosse troppo stanco per opporsi per poterlo portare a letto. Kakashi e Naruto erano rimasti vicini a lui, avevano provato a consolarlo, ma a quanto pare, la ferita per quell'Iruka era ancora troppo fresca per poter pensare ad altro se non a tutto quello che aveva vissuto. Alla fine aveva pianto fino a quando non era crollato."

Day 7: Kekkei Genkai | Free Prompt

Artwork and Physical Crafts

bargeld Free Prompt | AMV

animetrashmuffin Free Prompt

katedoesart Free Prompt

blepsoo Free Prompt

Iruka-Simp Free Prompt

radkoko Free Prompt

microrockets Free Prompt

dayonnight Kekkei Genkai

Fics and Meta

Golden Rays by JKirin Free Prompt | Poem

Making Lemonade From Lemons by mandapandabug Free Prompt | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 100 Summary: When Iruka pranked Kakashi with a very public proposal on their mission, he didn't expect the man to agree! Even more, he didn't expect him to immediately drag him to the court house. If it weren't for the mission and the citizens present, Iruka wasn't sure what he would have done. But maybe it isn't so bad after all.

The Simple Things in Life by FreakyPseudWriter Free Prompt | Umino Iruka/Reader, Umino Iruka/Original Character(s), Umino Iruka/Original Female Character(s) General Audiences | 1/1 | 657 Summary: It's the first day of vacation for Iruka, and he couldn't spend it in a better way.

Iruka's boyfriend by sweetysamaa Free Prompt | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka Mature | 1/1 | 1021 Summary: Iruka has a boyfriend. He feels terribly lonely though. Why ?

A Rose A Day Keeps The ANBU Away by coolgirl3890, mandapandabug Kekkei Genkai | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, Original Female Character/Original Female Character Teen And Up Audiences | 1/1 | 3345 Summary: Tiger is tired. The headmaster was mad at the Hokage for some stupid reason or another (what else is new) and the Hokage was taking it as well as usual. He decides to make his elite fighting force operative deliver apology flowers. Is this really the best use of resources? Luckily for Kakashi, the number one rule of ANBU is don’t disobey your Hokage.

nothing is ever lost by stupidbadgers Free Prompt | Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka General Audiences | 1/1 | 245 Summary: as the sun crested the sky though, life seemed to come back to the two men

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dykefoosh · 3 years

Text

My New Purpose Transcript: 8/4/21

It's the entire thing! Heres it on a google doc if thats easier!

T: Hello, Big Q! Hello?

Q: Ah! OH, oh, sorry sorry sorry sorry, I was just just making sure that they went- they left hehh

T: Are you alright?

Q: That was ha-heh

T: That was, that was pretty

Q: No no no yeah that was interesting huh

T: Yeah I didn’t expect that- but they seem to be a lot more you know like… agitated then I thought. I didn't think this was gonna be too much of a big deal hehe

Q: Ha ha well yeah it's just what happens when people start you know.. when people start competing against you…

T: Yeah yeah

Q: And Tubbo here’s the thing, the saying I’ve always heard… is people will root for you until you are doing better then them alright?

T: Really?

Q: When you start doing better than them, that's when everyone turns on you and starts getting jealous and all that… you know um so I think this is a situation where maybe I don’t know Wilbur was rooting for us until

T: Until

Q: We started doing better than them?

T: Heh yeah I mean we know, you know we haven’t really made any burgers yet and we’re not quite doing better yet but we should- we gotta work on that

Q: Oh Tubbo, Tubbo you shouldn’t even worry about that, I have so much trust in you to run this place, you know, I- this, this place ah has had the possibility of having many employees and I thought you were the best, and you, you were telling me telling me this whole thing about how you needed to find purpose, how you needed to do something

T: Yeah

Q: And um, you know this, this I think this is a good place to start!

T: I just want to say thank you so much for letting me work here man I feel like I’ve not had much to do ever now since I’ve had this job like its nice to finally have a purpose, something to do, a reason to do stuff

Q: Yeah Tubbo listen, it doesn’t have to end here, a lot of things are happening in the country you know there’s a lot of people in here um

T: Yeah yeah

Q: Things move forward in a really really good way and Tubbo I- I trust you I mean we were comrades in Lmanburg and all of that so this is, this is great this is really good

T: Thank you I appreciate that

Q: But

T: Especially after that little blip we had

Q: Yeah, thats what I was gonna say- but

T: Yeah

Q: I don’t want to ruin, I don’t want to ruin the moment but there is something we have to discuss

T: Yeah yeah maybe we should head over there, yeah okay

Q: I, listen I’m putting a lot of trust in you

T: I appreciate that as well

Q: But we ah

T: This is a really nice- this is really exciting

Q: I do want to talk about that one thing um and we never really discussed it

T: Yeah we kind of yeah we left it, I kind of didn’t want to jeopardize my chances of getting the job you know?

Q: no and at the end of the day its not even about the job Tubbo it's more that our friendship and the history we had together

T: Yeah

Q: I think that's the most important part to me because you know what? Um jobs come and go, you you are meant for so many bigger things, this is where we’re starting Tubbo but you know um

T: Yeah you know, first this, tomorrow the world I guess

Q: Yeah absolutely - waha I’m just, I’m gonna be straight up with you wh-a

T: Why the fuck is there a duck on it? Haha

Q: What what's this tubbo?

T: I’m gonna be honest thats not me- I didn’t I didn’t do that one

Q: So the cookie outpost, we had a discussion, you and me we were fighting

T: Yeah it was getting pretty heated

Q: And so what is this really for tubbo?

T: It was to mainly sell cookies if i'm honest, I - I just I- I wasn’t myself that day

Q: Tubbo… Tubbo….. Tubbo….

T: Yeah?

Q: What was it actually for?

T: I- uh just wanted to keep an eye on you I wanted to see what everyone was up to, it wasn’t a sign of aggression or anything I kind of wanted to see what everyone was up to and me being nosy, I wasn’t acting like myself, I’m sorry

Q: I- I it just felt super uh out of nowhere and build this whole entire thing

T: Yeah this complex

Q: In Front of my country so um, you know what uh, it still feels a little weird, it it feels like a needle poking, I have no problems with you but there is something there that keeps me uneasy

T: Yeah, I 100% understand that

Q: Tubbo, I don’t think , this is a really nice structure, this is a really nice structure.

T: Aw I appreciate that

Q: You have full ownership of this place right?

T: More or less yeah, Started it all out under my name, definitely, I mean I’d like to leave the past in the past you know and just work on building from there

Q: I- I can’t figure out any other way to do that than probably to take- no no you know what Tubbo? You know what?

T: What?

Q: Clean slate clean slate. I don’t think we should take it down because at the end of the day, you, you built it and I think its uh

T: I think it also helps show my initiative on what I can bring to the burger shop as well.

Q: Of course, of course but I have an idea, how about we integrate this land, this structure into Las Nevadas?

T: Wait, you want it to become part of Las Nevadas?

Q: Yeah yeah!

T: That could be cool

Q: Yeah you know what we can- forget about everything in the past forget about everything in the past, we can integrate this beautiful place into las Nevadas its built close its built in proximities,

T: It makes sense it's on the outskirts and maybe-

Q: Yeah, yeah yeah yeah so we can integrate it into the las Nevadas outskirts and we can do you like that idea? Are you down with that? We can just make it part of las Nevadas

T: Well yeah yeah I mean

Q: It’s your structure, your property

T: Yeah i'm a little apprehensive but I mean as long as I get ownership, it's just that you own the land

Q: Yeah yeah yeah! I own the land, its like rent but you’re not going to be paying rent obviously

T: Yeah yeah yeah

Q: I just can't make sure this can be part of Las Nevadas and so there’s no confusion and stuff. Is this cool with you?

T: Yeah its cool with me just like keep it as it is, keep the pond keep the farms

Q: Yeah it's your ownership but yeah it does have to be a part of Las Nevadas land and everything. How about we make it official?

T: You want to make it official?

Q: Yeah yeah yeah I have a book and quill

T: Oh, okay I wasn’t expecting you to move this quickly already. Could we sign it up to the top of the needle so we can have a look at it while we do it, you recon?

Q: That is a wonderful idea, let's go there right now.

T: Yeah I mean it makes sense, its where we first had our first discussion about this, it only makes sense to you know cross the t’s dot the eyes, put the past in the past

Q: Yes yes especially since its part of las Nevadas

T: Yeah It makes sense to sign it in one of the most significantly important buildings in las Nevadas here I'd say

Q: Absolutely Absolutely tubbo, hey I think it's great you’re taking steps to move your life forward um wow- how you know, I haven't really spoke to you properly after everything that happened in Lmanburg

T: Yeah everything with Technoblade… Damm

Q: Yeah we talked about this whole project and you and me but um you know what I want to know a little bit about your insight of what happened in lmanburg and all of that

T: What happened with Lmanburg? Oh yeah I didn't see you after Technoblade left, to be honest I haven't seen much of Technoblade either, I barely have seen anything or anyone, like yeah I kind of have been isolated on my own just hanging out, like I said no kind of purpose, just walking around, drifting kind of you know living in the past mainly and im trying to move that behind me, uh well what happened with- uh after um well you went Awol in lmanburg well its all kind of a blur, all the values just changed away um like we lost our core values and the country fell after that. Which is really, yeah that's more or less it.

Q: Yes, yes sorry I feel like I’m not paying enough attention, im writing the thing im sorry my bad

T: No its fine

Q: We will insert the coordinations later but yeah, just yeah really fast just sign that

T: So “Tubbo cookie outpost proper is now part of las nevadas land and is under its rules and constitution.” Yeah this um

Q: yeah we’ll well insert the coordinates later

T: I- I sign on the second page right?

Q: Yeah yeah yeah go ahead and sign it on yeah the second page there

T: Okay done and I still feel like I own the property there, everything still belongs to me it's just part of las Nevadas which is cool

Q: Right which, right it's just part of las Nevadas, its territory,, its rules constitution and all that, but you inergreating into the country is that first big step and Tubbo,

T: Yeah?

Q: I just want to say thank you for your disposition to just to just you know help out with las Nevadas and everything it- it means a lot you wanting to manage the place and again I felt like it was the right thing for you

T: Aw thank you man.

Q:I mean briefly you told me about how much you miss Lmanburg, how much you miss those times….

T: Yeah it's been, it's been I’m gonna be honest it's been a little bit upsetting as of late especially, I’ve just been missing it as it was a year ago yesterday… it all started and I've been there since the beginning of it and to see where its all come now has been a bit upsetting

Q: I- yeah…

T: but it's really admirable with what you’ve done here,

Q: Thank you tubbo, thank you tubbo

T: It’s got a solid foundation, you're really inspiring I feel very inspired just looking around

Q: Thank you, thank you tubbo. You know, I uh, thank you, that means a lot man

T: It’s alright man

Q: It's been uh, things can, things can get difficult, but I appreciate that Tubbo, but at the end of the day, you know whatever you need from me, whatever you need or require anything at all from me tubbo, just let me know. That restaurant you managing it now, you have a project to go off on

T: Yeah

Q: And there’s a lot of opportunities so if there’s anything you need, anything else you need you can cem talk to me

T: Will do,

Q: And we’ll figure stuff out

T: Will do yeah, I think it's about time for me to get back to work, I wanna scope out - they apparently they said they had a burger shop they said so yeah

Q: Yeah

T: I wanna make sure we are taking strides in the right direction for the competition, i'm gonna make burgers that will be remembered.

Q: Right, would you want me to go with you? Would you want to-

T: I- I think I’ll go alone I think I can see it just actually, is it that little thing behind the pool area, by the penthouse thing?

Q: Yeah yeah I like to call it a market study

T: Yeah yeah

Q: Yeah I usually do that alone, so Tubbo, Tubbo, I’ll. Be up here

T: Yeah when I’m done with my market study we can come up with some groundbreaking material for the burger shop!

Q: Oh yeah absolutely, actually you know what, just meet me at the burger shop, I’ll be there working on it, making some changes doing some redecorating and stuff

T: Alright, sounds amazing! Again, thank you so much for the job!

Q: Of course Tubbo!

T: Thank you!

Q: Oh Tubbo you shouldn’t be thanking me, I should be the one thanking you- you you are a great, you are like a gear in the machine and you are one of †he most important gears in the machine, you know when the machine loses a gear and it- Tubbo you’re a pillar you’re like a pillar to our structure is what I’m saying

T: Aw thank you man I do appreciate it

Q: Alright

T: Catch you later mate

Q: Alright cya

T: Ohh I thought he was gonna be more upset about the cookie outpost, I thought he would be a bit more upset, Alright let's check out the burger shop, I think it's gonna be nice, I think it's gonna be really really nice because the way Wilbur described it it was a really nice place.. oh oh! Ranboos here!

Hello!

R: Oh! Oh uh - hel- hell- hello

T: Hi Uh

R: Uh ho- how are you doing?

T: Um im I’m doing alright

R: W- what were you up to?

T: Well I- I was just talking with Quackity over the burger business and stuff you know

R: Well is everything okay with that?

T: Yeah, Yeah I'm pretty sure it's fantastic!

R: You- you sure?

T: Yeah 100% I think it's going really well. Can I come inside? I kinda want to have a look at your place!

R: Sure- I mean its it's not all done we are still uh me and Wilbur are still working on it and stuff

T: Why do you trust Wilbur so much?

R: Hmm?

T: Why do you trust Wilbur?

R: Well, here here’s the thing, basically I I don’t trust trust Wilbur yet but I do have more trust in him then you do

T: Yeah

R: But I mean 13 years I mean a guy is gotta change throughout all of that right?

T: I mean I suppose so I don’t not think he has changed, I just think he has to have the opportunity to prove it because- trust

R: Yeah thats why, why I am here so when he does something that does redeem himself, then someone can be there that will be able to see it and everything and honestly I rather it be me the person, rather it be me than someone else. So um

T: I guess I guess that makes a lot of sense I guess, I I don’t know I guess I don’t think I feel I can put my life in his hands again if you know what I mean.. heheh..

R: Well this isn’t this isn't putting my life in his hands this is just making a little little burger shop and everything… Are you okay with all of this right?

T: Oh yeah I yeah its fine its fine

R: okay that's that

T: Yeah it's enjoyable, yeah I understand it all it makes a lot of sense

R: You sure you understand? Because like- if if you need me to stop, then i'll stop

T: Yeah yeah, I noticed, is there a reason that you haven't told Wilbur about the tax reasons.. marriage hehe

R: Yeah yeah thats just because from what I’ve heard from Tommy and everything the Wilbur that thirteen years ago at least used stuff against Tommy and everything so you know just incase I mean I still trust Wilbur not super fully just at least a little bit

T: Ahh, I can fully completely understand that honestly

R: I like working with him as well its nice it's just nice to do something

T: Yeah, fair enough, I think the competition will be good yeah I mean i'm very excited I haven't felt this happy in quite awhile, I feel like I finally got something under my belt, something I can you know really sync my teeth into and be apart of, it feels like I am part of a bigger cause now, like-

R: So, so you’re sure now that this is the - you’re all okay with what’s going on?

T: Yeah yeah it's just friendly competition man, it's gonna be awesome, if anything it will just be better for consumers which means its gonna be better for everyone

R: Yeah yeah that makes sense at least

T: I mean are you alright?

R: How did you bury the hatchet with Quackity though? That's what I don’t get…

T: Bury the hatchet, what do you mean by that?

R: I mean, how how did you make peace with him because the last time we spoke with him you were talking about how he had a roll in your… unfortunate uh removal of life

T: Yeah he did, but to be honest, this, it's a lot… Well no I’m not even sure it is as much Quackity’s fault as Wilburs, I don’t like- I was gonna die no matter what that day, it just happened. I mean, I I dont have much quarrel with him, he seems to uh I mean look at what he's built, he seems good

R: yeah

T: I mean I managed to also clean up all the ruckus over the cookie outpost and stuff as well so that's in the past now.

R: Wait, he's all okay with that now?

T: Yeah he promised me a good life,

R: What do you mean? Was your life not good before?

T: No- no no no no it was, he talked a lot about Lmanburg and he

R: That wasn’t really much of a good life for you though was it?

T: Oh no you- you’ve only heard the bad bits of Lmanburg, lmanburg was amazing

R: So he promised you the good bits?

T: Yeah yeah basically yeah which is awesome

R: Thats good thats good

T: Yeah so I- I figured out how to get rid of the tension regarding the cookie outpost, I signed a contract, dotted the t’s and the i’s put the past in the past I’m excited to uh keep moving forward its exciting

R: Okay… a-a awesome. So he's Okay with the cookie shop now?

T: Yeah hes 100% okay, we basically came the agreement,

R: Awesome

T: I wasn’t being myself like before when I was working on the cookie shop, I- I was

R: MHm

T: upset and sad and I - I was like I just wanted to have something to feel part of something bigger again but then I realized that instead of fighting the thing that would of given me that feeling I tried to make my own, I dug my heels in, it wasn’t really the right thing to do I-

R: mhm

T: So we signed a contract, so the cookie shop is owned by me. It just exists in las nevadas now and.. yeah, it follows its laws and regulations.

R: Okay So is, is everything everything, um everythings everythings… w- wait so how exactly sorry did you make Quackity okay with it all?

T: We went up to the needle, we just talked it out, we wrote up a contract, we talked it out, basically agreed to have the cookie shop become part of Las Nevadas. Because I mean-

R: Wait, you gave away the cookie shop??

T: I didn’t give away the cookie shop away, I still own it, its just now part of las nevadas,

R: part of las nevadas which is owned by quackity,

T: Well yeah, but not entirely

R: Y-yeah entirely,

T: no.. that's not how it works at all it it's still owned by me just exists in his territory

R: Which is property of las nevadas which is owned by quackery…….

T: Noooo it's not like that at all

R: Okay…. It seems like you just….

T: No there’s a lot more than that, it's not black and white like I just “gave it to him” I still own it I still have full control over it, it follows his laws which is fine

R: And his rules- ……..

awesome cool um that's great oh which would you look at that the bread is stale, it was nice um it was nice uh talking you to, I’m gonna go throw this bread in the river

T: Okay

R: Alright thanks for stopping on by, ill ill talk to you later alright?

T: uh okay, buh bye

R: bye

T: That was….. that was um uh I wasn’t expecting that to go uh quite like that, I didn’t think it mattered that much. wuhhh… uh that was I was not expecting to- he seemed, oh god that felt a little awkward, I I didn't, I mean it's mine to give away I built the entire place, I built all of it, that's so weird…. Okay I’m gonna come up with some burger recipes I didn't actually manage,

I probably should've done some research that would of been nice- OHFUCK

Q: oh god holy shit

T: Sorry honestly

Q: You fucking scared me

T: I didn’t notice you just then

Q: Tubbo tubbo you were supposed to be here uh work has already started your a little late

T: Oh sorry

Q: you’re a little late tubbo

T: sorry sorry, I’m sorry

Q: Remember we can’t build a kingdom here of fast-food burger- sorry sorry I got like 10 things in my mind right now uh tubbo

T: Yeah

Q: You can’t keep arriving late okay

T: Okay?

Q: We gotta make sure you- this place runs very well, listen I have an idea help me take this thing down

T: Oh, okay…

Q: You’re gonna love this tubbo, when Wilbur sees this because I know hes gonna be fucking spying around hes gonna freak out, hes gonna finally realize what an idiot- Wilbur is for whatever he decides to do

T: Why do you care so much about what Wilburs is doing?

Q: Check this out check this out

T: I’m excited for it

Q: That guy really thinks he can go in and blow up the godam restaurant, who does he think he is? Who does he godam think he is?!

T: I thought you weren’t that bothered?

Q: It’s so fucking annoying that he does this shit its annoying man. Check this out Tubbo, you ready?

T: What's this what’s this? Oh my gosh,

Q: What do you think?

T: That's awesome dude what the hell??

Q: I cant wait to see the look on- what his stupid fucking face is gonna look like- im gonna absolutely, Wilbur’s gonna see this and realize he messed with the wrong fucking person Tubbo and that I am no one you want to mess around with and his little buddy Ranboo is oh- oh sorry I don’t know if you, guys are friends-

T: Yeah yeah we are

Q: but for fucks sake they FUCKED up Tubbo

T: Did they?

Q: They fucked with the wrong person, he is going to regret what they did to me

T: What did they do?

Q: And to my fucking country

T: What did I feel kinda left out?

Q: What what?

T:What happened?

Q: I’m sorry, I'm sorry , ignore me, I'm just rambling, I'm just rambling, you know what we gotta do, besides selling burgers we gotta sell more shit, we gotta do this NFT, did you hear about these NFTs?

T: Yeah yeah, the turburgers NFTs?

Q: The tuburgers NFT system they have a system, we are gonna make a system too

T: Not just one, but TWO

Q: Yeah yeah, I need you to try this out, its Wilburs burger

T: Oh okay,

Q: It’s smelly— Tubbo, do you see this fish tank?

T: Yeah?

Q: It looks normal to you and it looks normal to them, but to them, they left a huge crater in my goddam restaurant and they could think they could fucking get away with that but this fishtanks means much more then that

T: Does it?

Q: IT means much more than that, this fishtanks is not who he thinks he is right? He used to be slick and all this powerful guy in lmanburg, he's not the same guy.

T: Do you think he's changed? Hes- old age I guess?

Q: Changedd? Haha Tubbo you think Wilburs changed? Comeon, Wilbur hasn’t changed one bit and Im excited, I’m excited once he realizes everything we are doing and everything we are up to its not gonna be the fucking same, I am going to destroy him, we’re gonna destroy him

T: woahhh

Q: WE”RE gonna destroy him in

T: friendly competition of course?

Q: yes yes of course

T: We aren’t gonna hurt them right?

Q: No no no no I’m sorry I get. Little startled

T: Financially maybe

Q: I’m sorry I’m sorry I just like completion

T: Competition is good for everyone, friendly, the only people that win here are the consumers and that's what matters. That could be our motto, “the customer is all that matters''

Q: I love it I love it, let's do that, lets do that Tubbo uh I apart from this, sorry I got a little startled I think it is important to recognise we need competition at the end of the day

T: Oh of course we can’t exist without them

Q: This is your place this is your place now its set in stone

T: That is such a cool sign

Q: You’re the manager, what's the next boss?

T: Do you want to hear my three step program? I have a three step program for this

Q: Oh sure sure!

T: Well be in the kitchen woohoo I thought of a couple of ways to make burgers quick and not sacrifice the flavor so from what I can see in their place they don’t have smokers and you still get the quality, we can smell smoked steak burgers

Q: Oh really??

T: We can sell the wagyu burgers if you know what I mean?

Q: Wait actually???

T: I think we are doing wagyu burgers,

Q: I love that I love that, Tubbo, based on what you’ve told me this means a lot to you.

T: Thank you

Q: Resources, items, what farms, what do you need, you say it's an important project, what do you need to make this thrive?

T: We need grain we need a lot of grain, we need a way to make fresh dough, our supplies are a little dire

Q: Just, just close that chest

T: This is like my first actual day

Q: We will get you the best of the best products

T: When will you get the grain farm down?

Q: Is grain different to wheat?

T: nonono its the same just we take the grain from the wheat and grind it to make the dough

Q: Tubbo, come with me… look at this!

T: WOAHHH

Q: I thought you had seen this

T: I must have completely overlooked this!

Q: Yeah!! And we also have a spot for meat. They are grass-fed tubbo. Look at this Tubbo listen, I want to emphasize that this is all you man, this is your project. The sign out there says tub burger so as far as i'm aware you are incharge of the restaurant. I know there’s also food regulations that are put down and stuff

T: Oh yeah yeah

Q: If you need any way around the constitution let me know

T: I noticed the kitchen is a little worse for wear, I noticed the kitchens a little, we are gonna have to get that cleaned up because it's probably a health violation

Q: Yeah yeah we will get that cleaned up for you

T: Yeah its really gunky its genuinely, it's really strange

Q: Ah I had a friend who lived there for a little while

T: In the kitchen……?

Q: Yeah he kinda was like yeah.. he left the place a little slimy, I’ll get it cleaned up

T: How… what?

Q: He he actually uh -

T: When was the last time he showered?

Q: You know what, you know what man? You should meet him one day

T: Does he still live there or does he have a place now?

Q: He-he's around I think, I haven't seen him in a bit but he can…. I haven't seen him in a bit of tubbo…. Besides before

T: You haven't seen him?

Q: He should come back soon

T: Well if you ever need anyone to lead a search if it gets to that point, I can do that

Q: No no no don’t worry

T: It’s not like a big deal- no?

Q: focus on your project instead of worrying about these other issues others may have…

T: Let's get started on naming the burgers shall we? Do you have any signs or. anything?

Q: Well for original or classic tubbo? The tubburger right?

T: Oh defiantly, we should number them so it's easier to order them and on this side we do like… gold, I’ve seen your city

Q: Ohhh so you’re thinking more than fast food

T: No i'm thinking we can account of the masses like the people who want that find dining and the people who want the quick bite

Q: That's genius

T: Do you want to know the second step in my three step program?

Q: Yes, yes tubbo of course

T: We need a drive through on this place, we need drive through wagyu beef

(Goes to break a wall down)

T: Wait- uh people live there

Q: uh I try to act impulsively its-

T: No no it's okay

Q: I really really

T: It makes sense

Q: I think it would be really badass

T: Yeah yeah, do you think we could get like a road going through here for the drive through, do you think that could work?

Q: Oh yeah yeah

T: They got a burger van, they are on the roads, we are in the roads if you know what I mean

Q: 100% tubbo, 100%, Tubbo you’re coming up with all of these great ideas I- I couldn’t of chose a better person to run this place then you tubbo

T: Aw thank you man

Q: I think that's one of your more underrated features

T: I’m gonna be honest I’m just enjoying a place to feel like I’m doing stuff again

Q: I don’t know if anyone has told you this Tubbo but one of your most underrated features is your creativity and drive to do good things, I dont think I’ve ever seen you tubbo and thought on this is a bad person

T: Oh… oh the fish may have just offered itself….

( A couple of beats of silence, then quackity goes and eats the dead salmon

Q: One of the most underrated features Tubbo and I don’t think anyone has told you this

T: Yeah?

Q: That your drive to do good things

T: AW

Q: I dont think I’ve ever seen you and thought oh this is a bad person, I think you are inherently good

T: Aw thank you so much mate

Q: Yes tubbo build up the menu

T: I will I will get on it

Q: I’ll make sure everything works well, the wheat farms…

T: Oh what the hell have you seen this book? “YO SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH YOUR DOOR YOU SHOULD PROBABLY CHECK THAT OUT I THINK YOU GOT THEM HALF OFF AND I DON'T MEAN PRICE WISE” Sorry I mean

Q: That- Wilbur, fucker that guy… that guy thinks hes so fucking funny “Yeah big q don’t you think there’s something wrong with your doors you should probablyy check that out I think” shut the fuck up, fuck you fuck you how the hell do I get rid this this I will spit on it and throw it in the fucking garbage can

T: Woahh woahh

Q: What the hell is wrong with that guy

T: Who wrote that, how do you know who wrote that?

Q: WHO DO YOU THINK “WROTE IT”

T: What Wilbur?

Q: Of course it was fucking Wilbur wanna know what he did to this place he fucking came and blew ahhh oh my god

T: Yeah I heard about the explosion, I never got to see it though,

Q: It doesn't matter it doesn't matter, you know what Tubbo, don’t ever even like bring it up in front of him don’t talk about it it never happened

T: Okay so we,- we just are better than that. We just

Q: We’re better than that, bigger and better and everything good

T: We don’t need to resort to staboutouge

Q: 100% 100% I - ahh whatever man, listen tubbo, I’m gonna go back to my office and count how much money I have and then I’m gonna come down here for a quick lunch break and then, I’m gonna tell everyone to start helping with your wheat farm, your grain farm, your bread farm

T: uh huh

Q: And we’re gonna up the production with cow meat

T: And I’m gonna get more recipes down thank you so much, thank you so much im gonna get on and start working on that

Q: This is all you tubbo, this is all you

(Sam logs on, maybe to ellude quackity is going to torture dream in the vault who knows)

T: This is unbelievable , I can’t thank you enough honestly

Q: I can’t thank you enough tubbo, I’ll go back to my office and get some work done, and how much money we have

T: I’ll get to the kitchen. Goodbye mate cya later!

Q: Not gonna lie tubbo, that fish was some bad shit

T: hah ahha, ohhh

Q: my stomach I really have to go I really have to go

T: Oh god i'm so sorry I’ll get the fish water treated, bye mate

Q: Yeah… yeah- bye mate!

T: Yeah okay, time to get off and work. I'm gonna start working on some new recipes, let's be excited, it feels so good to have this new job finally.

#dsmp transcript #transcript #tubbo #quackity #c!tubbo #c!quackity #las nevadas #tubburger #wilburgur #ranboo #c!ranboo

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stingslikeabee · 3 years

Text

Melissa’s AU verses (including other Final Fantasy franchise entries)

Hi guys! So I thought I would make this post in light of a few recent blogs from other fandoms I’ve followed and in the hopes of giving my mutuals a quick reference guide for these AU verses I’ve established over the last months. The complete list can be found at my verse page - the most used ones are also in my google docs for mobile users.

At any rate, I’ve compiled below the more useful ones. :) Please click on their titles for more detailed information (if necessary!).

FFXV AU: this is mainly an AU for XV muses where Melissa (instead going by her original name of ‘Lilian’) is a Galahd refugee who relocated to Lestallum when the Wall was reduced to protect the Crown City only. When she got older, she eventually became the owner of a local restaurant, and acts as a tipster, too. She has no love for the Lucian royal family given her origins, but by no means support Niflheim’s claims either.

FFXII AU: in this FF entry, ‘Melissa’ is the alias she adopts to pose as a famous Bhujerban dancer, hoping to earn a place among the Archadian elite as an ‘exotic’ attraction - but in truth, she is working as a spy for the Marquis of Ondore and the Resistance after having her family killed by the Empire and feeding them intelligence obtained directly from the imperial capital’s heart. Any similarities with Mata Hari are 100% on purpose.

Yakuza AU: the Yakuza AU heavily borrows from Yuki’s storyline from Yakuza 0 to Kiwami 2 - Melissa (her real name this time around) is a foreign woman who remained in Japan after her family left and found employment as a hostess, being successful enough to eventually take the next step and retiring to become a manager herself. The ‘Honey Bee Inn’ is her club, and although she frequently worked and still receives Yakuza patriarchs in her establishment, the degree of involvement with the local mafia will depend on the actual thread/other muse. Can be used for other franchises which are merely set in Japan.

Alice in Borderland AU: a spin-off from the Yakuza verse, where Melissa is unlucky enough to land in the alternate version of Tokyo filled with deadly games. Still a hostess at the time this happened, she originally struggled with the first few games until she found the Beach - and some support in the figure of the Hatter, once a famous figure of the same hostessing/nightlife business. Melissa ended up taking a semi-official role at the resort under the scenes, providing customer service to the ‘guests’ - as well as making alliances with the people who can offset her weaknesses.

Killer Queen - modern AU: this AU was made to accommodate mostly modern day-based franchises - rather than a brothel owner, Melissa (and this is her real name) is the owner of the Killer Queen bar, where she’s an informant of sorts to the highest bidder. Her morals are much looser and although she’s fundamentally good at her core, she doesn’t lose any sleep over the fact she might be helping criminals and outlaws with her business. She can handle her own in a fight and is more of a badass than in most of her verses.

House of Flowers - modern AU: another modern-based AU for other franchises - but this retains some of the plot elements of her original role as a former prostitute turned brothel owner - but rather than managing a physical place, Melissa (once more her alias) has set up a network of elite call girls, with loyal and wealthy clients who are very fond of the privacy and high quality services she provides as the manager/agent of her ‘flower’ girls. If you think this verse is borrowing elements from ‘The Secret Diary of a Call Girl’ - you are correct!

Feel free to hit me up and plot anything - it doesn’t matter whether or not we are already writing or the verse we’re currently using - I love expanding to new medias, so don’t be shy to say hello if anything sounds interesting to you!

Muah! :* Mari.

#ooc!#psa #I know the information is lowkey easy to find #but I just wanted to make it easier #particularly for the non-FFVII crowd :)

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i-can-even-burn-salad · 2 years

Note

10 and 21 for the Meta Asks <3

Thank you for the ask <3 It’s from this list.

10. How would you describe your writing process?

A drugged squirrel is trying to shape a sand castle out of swiss cheese and scrabble pieces.

Ooon a more serious note... I never really got into the whole outline/plan thing. I start with a general vibe, put the characters in a very, very bad situation, and watch them do their thing.

For years I tried to nail down worldbuilding and never got anywhere, and then I just stopped and rolled with it and tried to answer questions as they came up. Which means I sometimes have to go back and edit 100s of pages because I decided on another little detail that needs to be put in consistently.

On a novel scale, I try to write chronologically, exactly because I have no outline. I might skip a chapter [add something cool here to kill some time], [explore the library], but I don’t write the end first or anything.

On a chapter scale, it’s the swiss cheese. I write, get stuck on a sentence, think of another sentence further down, do a few line breaks and write that, and then I end up with a bunch of little baby paragraphs that come together slowly, and the moment the last letter slips in is just the best.

On a personal note... why the fuck do I always write at 2am, I have work in the morning.

On a technical note, I write solely in .txt files until the first draft + revision is done, then I put it into InDesign, exporting it as print-ready pdf, and read it on my phone, marking any needed edits in discord with a page number. I haven’t touched word in over a decade, and I only use google docs for sharing, not writing. And then I cry, because half my formatting gets lost on the way.

Is it effective? No. Is it needlessly complicated? Yes. Why do I do it that way anyway? Ok, listen.

21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?)

I’m considering the main storyline here, not the whump posts I made, because I don’t really think they’d fit anything else.

Webcomic, sure, I’ve heard those are great for making people cry :p

Film, not so sure, it already feels rushed on 350 pages, and it would be even worse with trying to cram it into 90 minutes. There’s a lot of little calm moments I love that wouldn’t make it. Same with a series, action isn’t constant enough for that.

Perhaps a lil video game. Have Cal murder some lost ones x)

#salad-ask #villainsvictim

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skvaderarts · 2 years

Text

Hiraeth Chapter 81: Jumpstart

Masterlist can be found Here!

Chapter Eighty-One: Jumpstart

Note: I don't know about you but I think 5k is a good way to start our first chapter of the year! I hope you had a good holiday! Don't worry, I'll get to your comments soon! I didn't get a chance over the break, but I did read them and they certainly put a smile on my face. Thank you for that. I needed it.

PS (a few hours after the first paragraph) Google Docs decided to duplicate what I wrote like 100 times so the chapter ended up being 111 pages instead of the 10 or so it had been before, so I had to sit here and copy and paste each individual chapter into a new document because the backup override the current version, and undo wasn't working. It also got rid of all my bold and italics! And it changed my font and my page layout and font size! And it undid all of my spellchecking! And I just realized that it undid any edits I made so many words I had added today are gone, too! FFS!!!! How is that even possible?! I’m so PISSED. I just spent another HOUR fixing FORMATTING on a chapter that was already done! I can’t find the words for how irrationally angry I am. I’m honestly not even happy with this chapter anymore because I know it’s probably a giant mess.

Honestly, I’m so pissed that I might need a few days to fix all of this bullshit. I’ll let you know on Friday. What an awful start to the year… I hope you find some way to enjoy it because I just can’t now. Fuck.

(-~-)

In retrospect, the docks might not have been the best place to schedule a meeting.

By the time that Patty had arrived at her destination, she had come to the sudden realization that everything had taken a turn for the worst during the last few hours, and it wasn't just in her neighborhood, either. Around every corner was another mob of people moving up and away from the water, dropping their bags and screaming as they quite literally ran for the hills. She couldn't catch most of it over the cacophonous sounds of fleeing, screaming townsfolk, but from what she was able to gather, something was after them and the military was only barely keeping things under control.

She should be driving in the opposite direction, but she had to make it to the harbor.

If something that bad was on the loose, then the last thing that she should be doing was going towards it. But unfortunately, she had very little choice. Well, at least choices that she was willing to live with or even consider. She wasn't going to leave them there alone and at the mercy of whatever demon was going on, even if they were in the van and could probably get out of there themselves. No, she had come this far. She wouldn't leave them when they needed her most. All she had to do was meet up with the others and get out of here.

Rounding the corner and coming to a momentary stop at a side exit to the harbor, Patty looked around in a hurry for the van. She could see that the ferry had arrived already, and several of the other vehicles that had been on board had either been abandoned in favor of just making a run for it, or were caught in traffic trying to vacate the area. But much to her dismay, she didn't see the one vehicle that she was actually looking for. How typical. Wasn't that always how these sorts of things worked?

Making the split-second decision to drive down the path and see if she could locate the van, the young blond was careful not to hit anyone. There was so much going on, and the unpredictable movement of frightened pedestrians made this entire situation so difficult to navigate. But just as she was starting to lose hope that she would be able to make any headway, she caught sight of a familiar young woman with long, reddish hair waving at her as she tried to grab her attention. They had parked by what looked like some sort of utility shed. She'd actually managed to find them. Patty almost couldn't believe it. For a second she had been worried that she wouldn't actually be able to find them.

"But we're not out of the woods just yet. Keep it together and get out of here as fast as we can." Patty thought to herself as she squeezed past several of the cars, trying her best not to get in their way as she nearly had to pull up onto the sidewalk to make her way into the narrow space that the van occupied. Well, narrow in comparison to the rest of the area. It looked like the sort of spot they would park utility vehicles in if they still had any. The one upside of the situation was that there was a gap between the buildings that led to the outside of the area. Admittedly there was a metal mesh fence in the way, but something told her that Nico probably didn't care about that sort of thing. She had heard about the way that the plucky young mechanist drove around Redgrave City. This was probably just an average day for where driving was considered.

"Patty! By golly you made it! I was startin' to think that something bad had happened to ya on the way over here! Everythin' alright?" Nico called over her shoulder as she seemed to frantically examine something in the van's engine, the hood up and clearly visible from where Patty stood. Kyrie headed over towards her as she exited the car, seemingly eager to assess for herself whether or not the young blond was okay. Anyone with the capacity to so much as take a passing glance in her general direction could tell that she was worried and visibly shaken by the events unfolding around her, but she was holding it together admirably nonetheless. She probably didn't want to make the children worry about her. Patty had to admit that she felt bad for the situation that Kyrie was in right now. She could never just worry about herself. Poor thing.

"Just some traffic I ran into on the way over. Didn't realize everyone was literally running for their lives until I hit the road." She hugged Kyrie, the young brunette woman clearly happy to see her and relieved that she had managed to arrive here safely. It had been a stressful morning for all of them. From behind her, she caught sight of the children sitting inside of the van. They seemed to be able to tell that something serious was going on, opting to just remain quiet and wait where they were. Well, except for the littlest one. He seemed to be toddling about, probably giving Kyrie something to personally worry over. "What's the hold-up?"

"You're not gonna believe this but I think the battery died," Nico said as she shook her head in disbelief, hurrying back around to the side of the car to open the door. She jumped inside and ran to the back before the sound of metal crashing could be heard from what Patty assumed to be the spot where Nico was searching. She seemed to be just tossing things to the side in her rush to find what she was looking for, landing spot be damned. And she couldn't say that she blamed her for it, either. They needed to get out of here. Whatever was going on wasn't good. "Looks like we're gonna need a jump. It's a good thing that ya didn't walk here."

Realizing that they could probably get out of there sooner if she helped look for the jumper cables before she went to pull the car a bit closer, Patty made the executive decision to climb on board and look for them. Four eyes might just be better than two in this case, even if she only had the vaguest idea of what she was looking for. She'd seen jumper cables before. That wasn't the issue. The problem was the sheer amount of cables and wires in this part of the van. "Do you remember where you saw them last?"

Nico glanced up at Patty from behind her workbench, pausing for a moment and crunching her brow in a manner that made it clear that she was trying to recall something that she hadn't had to think about in a very long time. After a minute or so she started to slowly shake her head before suddenly pausing, pulling a box off of the shelf in front of her, checking it, and then quickly turning her attention back towards Patty. She seemed to have recalled something. "Nero had em! We were working on the van the day he got his arm ripped off! But he knows better than to come back here because he doesn't know how some of this stuff works. Check the front!"

Glancing around, the young woman with the blond hair took a second to orient herself. Her mind was running a thousand miles a minute, and despite the fact that the layout of the van was very straightforward, it took her a second to find the front. But as soon as she did she raced over to it and started searching for the jumper cables. Now that she thought about it, Patty remembered Morrison telling her that something bad had happened to Nero a few months back, but she couldn't remember if he had told her that his arm had been cut off. Maybe she had simply forgotten. Either way, she was curious as to how in the world it had seemingly grown back. No one had a prosthetic arm that was that realistic!

"Okay Patty, think. Nero isn't even as close to as messy as Dante is. He probably just put them somewhere that would make sense. Somewhere straightforward… " Patty looked around in front of her, taking a second to stop and consider the likely areas. They couldn't be under the seat or on the sides of the doors. She hadn't seen anything hanging out of the backs of the chairs when she'd been heading over. A cursory inspection of the storage area hanging from the ceiling above her in the form of a mesh roof compartment revealed nothing. But there was one place that she hadn't looked, and now she felt a little silly for not thinking of it sooner. "Like the glove compartment! Bingo!"

"I found them!" Patty yelled excitedly as she nearly tripped in her hurry to get out of the seat and get them to Nico. She tossed them to her companion who caught them, untangling them from the slight knot that they had been tied in as she headed towards the van's side door. These would do her little good inside of the van. They had been fortunate indeed. Nico had half expected them to spend the next hour just searching the van for the cables. That was normally how these things worked when you least needed them to.

"Thanks, Patty! I'll get these hooked up in a jiffy! Your car might be a little bit too far away, though." Nico said, running for the side door. She hopped out with Patty just a few steps behind her, the eager young blond more than happy to do what she could to help. As soon as they got this van working they could get out of here and head out of town. They had been fortunate that the van had broken down right here and not in the middle of the road or something.

"Don't mention it! I'll pull the car closer!" Patty called over her shoulder as she ran towards her car, practically leaping into it as she took the car out of park and pulled a few yards closer to the van. She got as close as she could manage given the position of the van. Hopefully, that would be enough. She couldn't say that she'd ever seen jumper cables used at an angle like this before, but then again, she hadn't really seen them used more than once, so she was hoping that this was pretty commonplace. "That's as close as I can get. We're kinda at a bad angle."

Nico brushed off the comment, unconcerned with the placement of the vehicles. She had done more with less. Much less. At least this time around she actually had the right kind of cables in the first place. At least she didn’t have to jerry-rig it. That was honestly sort of a first for her, if she was being entirely honest. As bad as everything was right now, certain aspects of their predicament were actually looking up. They were no longer stuck in Fortuna for one thing, so that was a good start.

"It'll do. I just hope that cute lil car of yours has enough voltage to actually-" Nico was cut off mid statement by a loud, reverberating boom that caused the ground beneath them to shudder and shake. Small cracks began to form in the concrete around them as all of them froze in place momentarily. Another rumbling boom could be heard just a few short seconds after the second, only this time it was more akin to a vocalization than the last one had been.

And then there was a roar. One so hard that they could feel it in their chests and the brick buildings around them rattled as the glass in them cracked and broke depending on its proximity to the source of the sound. Several groups of people suddenly jumped out of their cars and started running for their lives, screaming at the top of their lungs as about two feet of briney seawater came washing across the ground towards them, soaking their feet and making the ground beneath them wet. It receded after a moment, but Nico was still hesitant to clamp the jumper cables onto their respective mounting points. She definitely didn't want to be touching this when Patty threw the switch.

Something big was coming. Nico could feel it. They all could.

Just then, almost out of nowhere, a trio of almost amphibian-like demons leaped out of the water and landed on the tops of the nearby cars, immediately sending everyone into a bigger panic than they already had been moments before. Two of the demons scattered and went in towards opposite ends of the pier, but one made a b-line for the van's open door, much to the panic of Kyrie who was standing just a few feet away.

Before either Nico or Patty could say or do anything, the horrified brunette rushed towards the van door, shouting for the oldest child to close the door. He attempted to do as she asked, but he simply couldn't get to the door quickly enough, instead opting to grab his two little brothers and attempt to shield them from the demon instead. Kyrie reached the door just in time, jumping into the van and slamming the door on the demon's arm just as it attempted to grab the two children.

Kyrie attempted to hold the door shut, but realized quickly that she wasn't going to be able to hold the demon at bay for long. She searched around, desperate to find something, anything that she could use to defend herself and the children. "Run to the bathroom and lock the door! Hurry!"

Carlo looked confused, being far too young to understand what Kyrie was telling him. Kyle and Julio on the other hand had a much better understanding of what was going on and they immediately grabbed their little brother, carting him off to the relative safety of the bathroom. They were too scared to say anything, and being as they were, they weren't really sure what they could say in a situation like this to start with. The best that they could hope for was that once the bathroom door opened again that they would all be alright. If they stopped to try and think or thank Kyrie it might be too late for all of them.

With one last sad, frightened look Julio closed the bathroom door, clearly scared for his adoptive mother's life. He wasn't sure how high he would rate her chances without Nero here, especially with Nico outside. He just didn't think she could win a fight with a demon like that. She didn't even have anything to defend herself with!

Kyrie glanced around the room frantically for something that she could use to fight the demon, or at least keep it at bay. It took every ounce of energy in her entire body to hold the door closed, and she was rapidly losing her grip on the door. If she could at least hit it with something, maybe it would give her the chance to close the door the rest of the way. Frantically searching the interior of the van, she realized that there was nothing around that was easily within reach that she could use to fight the demon. She was going to have to let the door go.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled the door as hard as she could towards the closed position before diving towards the front seat and grabbing the only thing that she had available to her. She just hoped with every fiber of her being that the few times she'd seen Nero use one of these things had taught her enough to be able to do the same.

Moments later the door to the van slid open and in stepped the demon, its huge claws extended and eager to sink themselves into their target. It looked around and didn't immediately see her, the brunette having pressed herself as close to the seat as humanly possible. She then took in a silent gulp of air before spinning around and pointing the gun in the direction of the demon.

Patty and Nico rushed over to the side door, unsure as to what else they could possibly do to save her. Neither of them was armed, but perhaps they could drive the demon off? At this point, it was as good of a plan as any. But just as they reached the door they heard a loud, blood-curdling scream and then a loud bang before the demon suddenly dropped motionless to the ground, not making a single sound. Both of them were wary of approaching it, but after that, they needed to be sure that Kyrie was alright. But as they stepped near the demon and noticed the gaping hole in its skull for the first time, they were both collectively shocked to find Kyrie holding one of the guns that Nico had been working on for Lady in the van, and she was still holding it out towards the demon, ready to fire again if necessary with her eyes closed. She had probably been too afraid to even look at it when she’d fired the gun.

Both Nico and Patty just stared at the young songstress in utter disbelief as she opened her eyes and dropped the gun and let out a sound somewhere between a huff and a disbelieving laugh, but too short to truly be either. She looked down at her hands in shock before looking up at both of them again, seemingly searching for something, anything to confirm that what she thought had just happened truly had occurred and that she wasn't imagining things. Had she actually just shot a gun? Had she really just killed that demon?

The wiley mechanic started, unsure as to what else she could even say. She couldn't imagine what Kyrie was probably thinking right now. One thing she was sure of was that the cheerful songstress had probably never envisioned herself killing anything, let alone a demon. But she had done it. And she had done it to save herself and her children. She'd managed to save all of them without even trying to, and as far as Nico was concerned, she had so much to be proud of. But she was sure that either way this was a lot for her to try and process right now.

"Kyrie… are you alr-" Nico started but she didn’t get to finish.

None of them had even a second to say anything further before a loud, rumbling screech could be heard from the direction of the harbor. Patty and Nico jumped up and hopped back out of the door, coming face to face with the sight of a massive demon rising out of the harbor, one of its massive clawed hands crushing the side of a nearby car. The girls each took one look at one another before running back towards the van, Patty making a sharp right towards her car. They needed to get this van working. NOW.

"Okay try starting the engine!" Patty called over, her own car running. Nico waved back in conformation before attempting to start the van. It jolted for the second before, making a noise that signified that it was attempting to start before cutting off again. And when she tried to start it again, to her dismay, nothing happened. Nico felt anxious, unsure as to what more they could do. She couldn't imagine why this hadn’t worked.

"The clamps are on the right terminals! Your battery must not be strong enough!" Nico called back, obviously unsure as to what to do. Maybe they could all squeeze into Patty's little sports car? It wasn't the safest idea, but right now, nothing was. Even still, she didn't want to just leave the van here to be flattened by a giant demon. And they were certainly safer inside of a larger vehicle. Kyrie had just proved that. But she was also pretty certain that Patty's car and the van didn't use the same battery, so there was no way that she could swap them. They were going to have to figure out something and fast. This wasn't good.

While Nico was rapidly considering every option available to her (not that there were very many), a loud boom suddenly rang out and something exploded near the huge demon's head. It revealed back in obvious pain, clearly displeased with whatever had just occurred. And not long after she caught sight of something unexpected but entirely welcome.

It was Lady. And she had Trish in tow.

The blond demon seemed to notice their presence as the devil hunter with the short black hair rained a volley of bullets down onto the other two demons that had accompanied the bigger one, shielding the fleeing townsfolk from their unhindered attack. Trish then jumped across the roof and landed in front of them gracefully, easily clearing what had to be at least a fifty-foot gap without any difficulty.

"What's the hold-up?" Trish asked, surveying the area around them. Clearly, they were in the middle of something. She could tell just by how worried everyone looked. And was that a dead demon turning to ash in the van? Clearly, they had missed something. She had just come here because of the noise, but from what she could tell, she and Lady had been right on time. "Is something wrong?"

"Um, the… the van needed a jump, and the car couldn't do it." Nico just stared at her, really processing for the first time that Trish wasn't human. She'd known that for a long time now, but there was just something so strange about seeing her jump the distance of several school buses and land without so much as bending her knees. It was strange, to say the least.

Trish made a face that signified her relief that car trouble was all that was going on here before putting her twin handguns away and unclamping the jumper cables. She then placed her hands together and rubbed them, seemingly concentrating for a moment as she did so. Small golden sparks seemed to jolt outward and away from their source, the blond demoness seemingly charging up her lightning with ease. Before Nico could ask what Trish was doing, she placed both of her hands on either side of the engine and the entire car jolted momentarily before shuddering to a stop again. Kyrie yelped in surprise from within the vehicle, but there was little risk to her actual safety with Trish working on the van. She knew what she was doing and was in total control.

Looking over at the young brunette as she approached the front window of the van, Trish then glanced over at Nico. The mechanic seemed to still be in mild shock as to what she'd just seen the blond devil do, but not so much shock that she couldn't tell that she was being silently addressed. She liked to think that no matter what the one thing she could count on about herself was her ability to at least focus on the task at hand, especially when it involved demons.

"Are the keys in the ignition?" Trish asked, peering over at the side of the van. At least the door to the van was still intact. From what she could tell the demon had tried to pry it open. She was surprised that it was still attached to the van at all. Demons didn't exactly have a reputation for being gentle with vehicles, after all. Quite the opposite, actually. In fact, was the van magic or something? How had it managed to survive that encounter unscathed? Had they just been lucky? It seemed that the van's reputation for being indestructible was once again proven correct.

"Y-yea, they are," Nico said, staring up at the blond demon as she attempted to finish processing the fact that she had just seen Trish do that. Part of her wasn't sure she'd actually seen what she thought she'd just seen, but she was also aware that she knew someone who had literally come back from the dead, someone who had basically come back from the dead, and someone else who had grown back their arm after having it ripped off, and Dante, so she wasn't sure why this concept seemed so strange to her. "So… you can shoot lightning out of your hands, too?!"

"Dante didn't tell you about that? I'm surprised." Trish closed the hood of the van before turning her attention back towards the huge demon that was trying its best to make its way out of the harbor. It had clambered its way onto part of the ferry now, and the water it was sloshing haphazardly onto the docks was going to become a problem very quickly. They needed to get as many people clear as possible. Lightning was conductive, and she didn't need any of these people standing in something that would make it easier for her to accidentally kill them. She just hoped that Patty, Nico, and Kyrie would be safe inside of the van. She'd give them a little time to get away while she did what she could to get as many people out of here as she could. "You know what, it doesn't matter right now. We can talk about that once this is all over. You have to get out of here. Kyrie, start the van. We need to know if it worked."

Trish looked away from Nico and over at Kyrie, the nervous brunette seemingly hesitant to start the ignition after that much electricity had just been shot through the van. But after taking a deep breath to help steady her thoroughly frayed nerves she did and the van thankfully roared to life. After much trial, error, and struggle they could finally get out of there! It almost didn’t feel real given everything that had just happened.

Lady came running over a second later, yelling what few people remained to get clear. She didn't really need to at that point though. Most of them had decided to do that when a demon the size of a small building had suddenly opted to climb out of the harbor. She caught sight of the others and waved them down, having overheard some of what was being said but not enough to consider herself fully in the know.

"We're gonna borrow your car, Patty. Sorry in advance if it doesn't come back in one piece." Lady said as she ran past Patty, waving at her in the process. Hopefully, this would be fast enough to get the job done. They had somewhere to be after they finished up here.

Patty couldn't say that she cared honestly. All she cared about was getting the door to the van closed before any more unwanted passengers hitched a ride. The last thing they needed was for poor Kyrie to have to try and shoot something again. She still seemed pretty shaken up about it the first time around. But hey, at least she had managed to actually hit it. Patty wasn't sure that she would actually be able to hit anything. "Not my car anyway! I think my mom has insurance on it! You stay safe! We're gonna see you again sometime soon!"

With that, Nico jumped into the driver's seat and floored the gas, hoping to send them rocketing forward through the gap between the two buildings and out of the path of the rising water. And not a second too soon. They were quickly losing traction, and this would probably be their last chance to try and get out of here. The tires spun uselessly for a few seconds before the van finally managed to get a grip on the pavement and pull them forward and towards the gate at the end of the alleyway. None of them had any qualms about driving through a mesh fence. It would be silly not to at a time like this.

Lady and Trish watched the van go before turning to look at one another. Patty had just nabbed a car from a garage that wasn't hers and drove it down here in the middle of a demonic attack with reckless abandon? Now that was the girl Dante had helped raise. They were so proud of her. The little girl they had known when they had first met her would have probably been the first to warn against something like that but now? Now it seemed that she was truly ready to throw caution to the wind and go for it. Consequences and financial ruin be damned.

They grew up so fast…

"Alright, let's finish this thing off and get the hell out of here!" Lady said as she readied her rocket launcher, ready and willing to send it back to whatever pit in hell it had crawled out of. She watched as Trish pulled out her own twin pistols and charged them full of her golden lightning, taking aim at the demon's head. If aquatic demons worked the way that she thought they did then that wasn't going to feel very good.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Trish said, ready to finish this fight once and for all. They needed to finish this thing off as quickly as they could and group back up with Lucia. She and some of the Ludwig girls were holding things down on the opposite side of town, and they were both willing to bet that they could use an assist. But still, it was exciting to get to fight something this size. They didn’t get to do that very often anymore. Dante normally beat them to the really fun fights. They were going to do their best to enjoy this! "We've got work to do. Let's send this guy back where he came from and get out of here. We have a whole city to save."

(-~-)

I had an entirely different end not here originally, but now it just feels disingenuous because of what just happened. Fuck google docs, and thank you for reading 80+ chapters of this fic. I’m genuinely shocked that so many people like it and have been reading it for so long! Thanks for the support. I will (hopefully) see you on Friday. Sorry for such a shitty start to the year.

#Hiraeth #Lady #Trish #Patty #Nico #Kyrie #Kyle #Carlo #Julio #DMC #DMC5 #DMCV #Devil May Cry 5 #Devil May Cry #Devil May Cry V #My Post Devil May Cry 5 Fics #My Post Devil May Cry 5 AU #My post Devil May Cry V AU #My Post Devil May Cry V Fics

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