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serendertothesquad · 3 months

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"Wordsville" and the Problem with Cash-Cow Copies

[note original day of creation was February 15, 2024. just...just for reference. trust me bro.]

Hello.

Tonight I am in a silly mood fueled by sleep deprivation.

That means you all get an introspective blog that I will complete within a week and then ask "why'd I write that?"

So here's what's on Seren's lovely table of discussion tonight...

Put...put away the glasses. You don't need your glasses. This is the highest-quality thing I can get.

But et voila. A little project in the works called Wordsville.

Now, at this point you might be asking why I'm referencing "cash-cow copies" in the title. And whoo-hoo...oooooh...well, I don't want to make this some kind of clickbait blog, so I might as well perfect the atomic bomb in five minutes and land it on you folks.

What if I were to tell you that this is a blatant, shameless, slap-a-digital-coat-on-it-and-call-it-a-day copy of Odd Squad?

Ahhh, see, now I have you intrigued. Hopefully. If you are, then peep down below and let me discuss things a little more in-depth for you non-believing hacks asking me if I'm borderline insane.

So to put things in perspective, allow me to explain what Wordsville is, starting with my own personal summary.

Wordsville is an up-and-coming episodic (not to be confused with serialized, that's a whole 'nother ballgame) TV series that is produced (and will later be distributed) by Sinking Ship Entertainment and is made with assistance from WNET, a PBS station located in New Jersey, and TVO Kids, PBS Kids's girlfriend from Canada that's definitely real.

It was announced back in October of last year with a press release from Kidscreen, which didn't give much info aside from the following blurb:

Wordsville stars two child detectives on the hunt for missing words that are causing chaos in their town.

Sounds a little familiar, don'tcha think? Two kid detectives, finding something missing...and that "something missing" is causing chaos where they live?

Oh, but if you think the similarities end there, then no. No the absolute fuck they do not. I've got my bathing suit on and God damn it if I'm not gonna jump all the way in the pool instead of dippin' my little toes in there.

Doing a little bit of digging reveals more tidbits from a casting call for the series. It's rather wordy (ayyyyyy I did a funy), so let's take it piece by piece and discuss accordingly.

Wordsville is a town populated entirely by kids

A town that is populated entirely by children? Now c'mon, surely that doesn't ring a be-

...Ah. Whaddya know. Yes it does.

And with the adults as useless and idiotic as they are, it might as well be a town full of solely children. Next question.

and it’s a place where words matter. A lot. Every kid citizen has a special connection to words. And that means that if something happens to a word, there are far-reaching consequences.

A special connection to words? Like how there are children who have a special connection to normalcy? Stopping, oh, I dunno, hypothetically speaking...

...oddness?

Okay okay, I'm reaching just a wee bit here, but you can't read this and not tell me it echoes the funny kids math show to some degree or another. If an odd thing happens to a person, the whole town suffers. You've seen it. I've seen it. It's been the basis for many an A and B-plot. Must I elaborate? Good, because I don't plan on it. Continuing.

If the Main Street Baker bakes delicious donuts and they all mysteriously disappear, nothing else in Wordsville can taste good until they are returned.

Town Baker walked so Main Street Baker can sprint while blowing their lungs out.

If the Town Doctor’s soothing medication gets swiped, the whole town gets uncontrollably itchy until the medicine-napper is uncovered.

Ignoring the incredibly dark implications of this as well as the implications of this shoddy knockoff town having only one single doctor...

Dr. O walked so the Town Doctor can sprint while blowing their lungs out...over their massive paycheck.

(I technically could have also put New Dr. O too, but I'd like to spring for iconic OG's here. New Dr. O is neither iconic nor an OG.)

And let me remind you that "Torontonians get uncontrollably itchy due to something odd" would, by technicality, classify as an odd problem. Because...I mean, y'know...the cause is something odd happening. Doing shit with words is odd. This needs absolutely no explaining.

If the Local Scientist does an experiment with electricity and all the lights in town go out, they won’t come back on until the experiment wrecker is revealed.

Yep, I've taken shots of every IPA I can. We nearly hit the main character quadfecta, if you discount Dr. "bro thinks she's part of the team" O. All they needed was a bit about a high governing body and we'd round out the quad squad in proper with Oprah!

There's also a sneaky lil' crumb in the form of that blurb relating to Oona, who did, indeed, experiment with electricity in one episode and wound up proving why she can never take up Crossfit.

Hmmmnnnnext!

In each crime, the episodic word disappears and can’t return until the mystery is solved. The impact of the missing word is felt all over town.

This is another one of those things that I gotta wrench a hammy for in terms of comparisons, because about the only thing I can reasonably compare Odd Squad to is the second sentence.

See, here's the thing. You get oddness that happens to a person. Oftentimes, that oddness spreads to other people, whether directly (in the form of diseases and disorders) or indirectly (like the Town Baker's cakes being split in half, which wouldn't please Torontonians poppin' in for a whole cake and eyeing the display to get a feel for one). In a sense, normalcy disappears and, well, it can't return until [insert partner pair here] solve the case. It's kinda the entire schtick of Odd Squad as a franchise. It's formulaic, just like how Wordsville's "words disappear and nothing can be normal until the word returns" schtick is formulaic.

Is it a stretch? Perhaps. Mileage may vary. I think it's a bit of a stretch, personally. But hey, I'm a grown adult critiquing a ripoff of a kids STEM show. I shouldn't be talking. But I didn't start this fandom nearly 10 years ago just to let Sinking Ship's piss-poor attempt at really capitalizing on one of their biggest franchises sliiiiiide right by me on a floor smooth enough where I'm falling on my ass every 10 seconds.

Luckily, best friends and partners Sage and Chase are on the case and run the only detective agency in town. These tech-savvy sleuths solve mysteries entirely virtually because their reading, listening and digital literacy skills are their greatest strengths. Sage and Chase always catch their culprit and make sure everything is right with the word.

Now where in the McFuck do I start with this one? The PAW Patrol catchphrase thrown in complete with shared name? The fact that there is only one detective agency in the entire town? The fact that Sage and Chase are best friends as well as work partners? Or the pun that made me actively cringe in a way I haven't felt since Whitney told James she wanted to go on the lake?

I mean...this is about Odd Squad, so...I guess the second one sounds most plausible.

But that doesn't need explaining either. There is only one detective agency in town. There is one Odd Squad precinct per city or per state.

No, neither does the third bit. I already referenced Olive and Otto above. You should know what's up.

(I've also read that blurb five times now and...well...we'll get to the digital stuff in a bit. That just needs a whole side-set of word vomit.)

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In my digging of this series -- which, well, wasn't all that much -- I managed to find a few blurbs on our two main characters. The casting call for them, funny enough, called for, and I will quote this exactly, "talent to look 9."

As in, they want the actors to physically look 9 years old.

Which puts that qualifier in the same ballpark as Odd Squad UK's "talent must be Canadian but live in the UK". But at least that prerequisite actually had a legitimate earnest reason behind it, which is that the production needed to be Canadian in a lot more than just the "Canadian prodco works on a British series" sense. Hiring kids who have to physically look 9 years old and will probably be yoted onto the street the second puberty hits them like a truck is a practice not even the most egregious bosses of family-owned-and-operated businesses could pull off.

But enough about the qualifiers. Let's get started on our character comparisons and civil cidiscussion! (Oh the irony...)

And remember this: the casting call was handled by Larissa Mair Casting, who previously did casting for Odd Squad. So that means there will be tinny lil' crumbs of bonus material for me to dissect and discuss! Huzzah! Aw God why can't this happen for Odd Squad UK...man, I'm gonna have to go into my sobbing corner...

First up, we have Sly Sleuth, originally referred to as "Sage" here. I'll also be referring to him as "Sage" in this blog.

Sage is a great detective; thoughtful, extremely logical, and talented at getting information out of people.

Thoughtful of others. Logical. And can wrench information out of suspects like a badass.

Yep, we got an Olive that got hit with an Olando-fied beam. (And because half of you don't know who Olando is: Sage is meant to be a male Olive. I hope that clears things up for you.)

What else?

Nothing related to vocabulary or literacy gets by this investigator. Suspects can underestimate Sage but that is always a mistake. Sage doesn’t scare easily and won’t take no for an answer, traits that make an excellent detective.

You could tell me this was how Olive was meant to be written in "My Better Half", word for word, and I would honestly believe you. Right down to asking, "Her name was Sage in pre-production?"

About the only place I can draw the line here is at Olive not scaring easily. We don't know Sage's backstory -- and once again, this is an episodic series, so don't expect much in the way of plot, backstory included -- but Olive, at least, has a legitimate reason for all the times she covers her ears at loud noises or sharply reacts to something startling.

The former is because of The Censor-Friendly Bullet Massacre of '15.

The latter is because Dalila Bela marched straight out of a viewing of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and never looked back.

I...can't really say either applies to Sage. At least not yet. We'll have to see if Sinking Ship decides to bring Wordsville into its lil' multiverse that Odd Squad and Dino Dana and Endlings and Playdate already share.

Sage is also wise, which is why the name “Sage” is completely appropriate.

Sooooo does that mean his name is Sly because he's cunning like a fox?

Well then in other news, Olive is named such because she was inspired by the famous Law and Order character Olivia Benson. I have fifteen folders that back me right the hell up. Also I contacted Sinking Ship the other day, they explicitly told me.

No, no, but in all seriousness. Olive, too, is very wise. Historian buff, knows her shit about Odd Squad, doo-dah, doo-dah.

Anyway, next up we have Chase, who was renamed to "Gabby Gumshoe". (I'll be referring to her as Chase in this blog, as well.) Let's see what's on the chopping block for her in terms of our favorite food-loving, hella tall, crazy silly blorbo.

Chase is a fantastic detective, but is also goofy[,] funny, visually oriented, and, like the name suggests, loves the “chase”.

Now there's a man who got hit with a yassified beam, right there.

I'll leave it up to you folks whether you consider Otto to be "visually oriented". But in terms of "loving the chase"...yeah, I'd say that fits.

To lay it down: Otto is a rookie agent. Common sense would lead anyone to assume that he has an absolute blast solving odd cases and absorbing every bit of knowledge about Odd Squad that he possibly can. He finds out a villain's on the loose? He's right there, by Olive's side, workin' to catch 'em. He finds out oddness has run rampant throughout the town? He's right on that shit.

Chase, on the other hand, is someone I wouldn't call a rookie. It's made quite evident that she is, for all intents and purposes, seasoned. Seasoned enough that she manages to keep the detective agency she works for afloat and get approval from the others in Wordsville, Sage included. This, perhaps, is because she's not really meant to be an audience surrogate in the same way Otto is. Otto, at least for the first few episodes, serves as a way to ease the audience into Odd Squad and show them what the organization is and what they do without yoting them into it and leaving them asking "Where am I?" more times than a drunkard. Chase doesn't fill that role, because it could be argued that such a show like Wordsville doesn't really need an audience surrogate. Whether that's true, though, remains to be seen.

People tend to underestimate this investigator, but Chase often notices things like a chocolate stain when someone said they didn’t like chocolate or a squiggle of icing that turns out to be the antonym of the word they’re tracking.

Y' take Otto's...Otto's love of food...and y' put it in a gorl...and BAM you got a character.

...

That isn't a joke. It's dead-on serious. Even the casting call script pins Chase as a kid with a sweet tooth! It's just Otto but with a less diverse palate! Otto eats everything! This kid eats sweets! God sakes, give her some juice, make her Oprah, I don't give a shit, fucking hell I'm driving 50 minutes to Burger Ki-

Chase is also great with computers and incredibly artistic. A graphic note taker[,] Chase loves to draw, has a great eye for details, is a big fan of the “zoom in” function, and really enjoys creating animated re-enactments of Word Mysteries.

All right, we finally have somewhere we can draw the line.

No, not at being tech-literate. With being artistic.

Otto's artistic talent kind of varies throughout the franchise. In drawing on paper, he's pretty solid for an I-just-recently-turned-10-please-praise-me-year-old. In making paper airplanes, he's solid enough to take down a grown-ass man and rock his sunglasses when he's done for.

In computer drawing...well...if you can believe it, concepts like Ibispaint and Photoshop don't exist in the world of Odd Squad. (Okay, maaaaybe Photoshop does. I don't think it does. But it could be a good in-universe justification for it.)

We don't know Otto's digital artist merit because we never see him make any digital art. All of his art is solely non-digital. On Chase's side of things, she lives in an era where digital drawing is, like in real life, the norm. It's a contrast that might be one of the more glaring ones when it comes to comparing these two shows.

Now, as for the "creating animated re-enactments" schtick...if that isn't an excuse for Sinking Ship to work their animation magic after the Sandy Cheeks movie, then I honestly don't know what is. If you wanted to make the show animated, you could have made it animated. Would've been cheaper, too!

(And "Word Mysteries"...it's not as grating as Wild Kratts's "Wow Fact", but it's edging pretty close. I blame WNET. That's solely a PBS thing right there. TVO Kids would never.)

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So we've gotten the discussion about the two main characters out of the way. Now we can dive into the heartier meat. The kind where's it's purple on the inside but you still digest it anyway.

I'm talking, of course, about the sample scripts- script. Singular. There is one script. Uno.

Now, lemme give you a bit of a rundown: casting calls for Odd Squad -- really, most shows, but this is a blog about Odd Squad -- often come with sample scripts. This is so talents can read their parts aloud for the camera and have the tape submitted to the casting agency for consideration. Odd Squad in particular has had quite an interesting ride with sample scripts, from entire episode plots being adapted into final products (with a bit of tweaking) to characters having names different than what they're named in the final product (which is the case with both Sly and Gabby). They're nothing on the scale of ABC Me dropping episodes earlier than PBS or shorts getting dropped as an alleged April Fools prank, but they're pretty damn good crumbs to chew on.

The sample script starts out with Sage and Chase on, of course, a video call. (Sinking Ship made a Zoom reference once. Pray they do not make another by the name of a friendly drug called "Speed" or that term for peeing known as a "Whiz".) Chase explains that she just gave her office chair's wheels a tune-up, which, of course, makes her hungry. Hungry enough that she declares a "cookie break" and immediately takes out a ginormous cookie from hammerspace that just made the European bakery down the street from me start sobbing. (Look, they make good cookies. Giant cookies. Cookies I need two hands just to hold properly. Trust me, it's- it's massive.)

However, when she bites into the cookie, she finds that it tastes absolutely gross -- "not sweet, not even sour". While she ponders if her body has forcefully rejected one of the best sweet treats known to humankind, Sage begins to grow suspicious and asks if it's a Word Mystery they need to solve.

Which is, coincidentally enough, when the Main Street Baker calls in a fit of hysteria, explaining that their "delicious donuts" are gone. And because we can't take enough from Odd Squad, we get a bit of "literal humor" in the form of the donuts both being delicious (probably) and them spelling the word "delicious" prior to their disappearance. After Sage explains what "delicious" means as well as what synonyms are, it's shown that the culprit also struck other pastries, up to and including gingerbread people, which Sage absolutely takes personally because he's a kid of pure culture who gives a big "fuck you" to holiday-specific treats being enjoyed only during said holidays.

Chase, in true Otto fashion, decides to take more bites of her cookie and instantly regrets it. Sage, in true...well...Clint Eastwood fashion (I shit you not, that's literally what it says in the script), declares that they need to find the word "delicious" and fix the pastries.

And...yeah, that's about it. Like I said, there's really not much to go on with casting call sample scripts. Especially not ones from Larissa Mair.

My conclusive thoughts on it, you ask? Well...they can try to hide it, but all it's doing is enforcing my point. From the Main Street Baker having donuts missing similar to how the Town Baker had bagels missing in "Soundcheck", to Chase being an idiot who is obsessed with food the same way Otto is (right down to his willingness to drink Odd Todd's pickle juice when it tasted gross in "Bad Lemonade"!), even down to the "literal metaphor" kind of humor as it applies to singular words. Am I stretching? Perhaps. But these supposedly insignificant pieces are just part of the bigger picture, the larger issue at hand in this long-winded piece.

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The digital aspect of Wordsville is one of the ways they decided to put a twist on the precedent that Odd Squad set. And it's so blatant and in-your-face that it's on par with shoving a red flag in someone's eyes to blind them.

But here's the thing. The digital aspect been done. Amusingly enough, by the same company.

Lockdown is a show that fits right in with the others at the Shows-Made-During-the-COVID-Pandemic-About-the-COVID-Pandemic club. It was a way to capitalize on something in society that probably will never be relevant again until around 2050. Maybe even earlier than that, at the rate we're going.

I haven't seen it, so I can't speak much about it, but from my side of things it looks a lot like Unfriended if it took place during the pandemic and wasn't a horror movie and involved teens and not young adults/adults/I haven't seen the movie in many years bite me.

But the main difference between Lockdown and Wordsville, relevant to this editorial, is that Lockdown has a legitimate reason to be shot entirely on electronic devices. It's part of the plot. It works, I'm sure. For Wordsville, it makes no sense for the outline and isn't just limiting, but is downright insulting for something "rooted in the 21st century". It's good to be unique when making a show, but there's such a thing as trying too hard to be unique to the point where it's detrimental to your show's quality. Making the show be a digital-only angle isn't a smart move, especially for a detective procedural.

And if it's trying to differentiate itself from Odd Squad...well, do I got some bad news for you.

The show already did an entire Zoom parody in the span of an 11-minute episode.

And I still hate it with all the vitriol of an old woman who hates kids playing with beach balls in the yard pool. It sucks ass. It's entirely unneeded when you have three children sitting around the same table. I could vomit on you all day about it. But at least it's far more justified than Wordsville having its entire formula based on it. You can rip off a show without being limiting.

(don't. seriously. don't.)

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Before we get to the conclusion, I need to dive deep into Odd Squad's own popularity and explain it a little more beyond just little "trust me bro" tidbits.

If you've been following it for as long as I have, then it's no secret that Odd Squad is one of Sinking Ship's cash-cow franchises. You've got the main series, six different spinoffs, a live show, a book...and I didn't even provide a whole damn list! Point being, it's huge. It doesn't have many roots in pop culture, but from a certain angle, it is an absolutely massive franchise that continues to grow, even in spite of its controversies.

Unlike works such as SpongeBob or Bluey, Odd Squad isn't popular enough to get bonafide ripoffs. The formula is relatively easy to copy, and if anything there are shows that have a similar premise but aren't even close to ripoff territory (K.C. Undercover, for example). It's just that, for all the ripoffs people have done of shows and movies over the years, the motivation for industry bigwigs in taking Odd Squad and running with it just...isn't there. I can connect it to Disney or Dreamworks or Viacom all I want, but at best they have a vague awareness of it that only goes as far as "oh, that's a thing, I guess". At worst, they see it as a pile of shit that would never turn a decent profit.

It could be argued that Sinking Ship wasn't all too well-known in the entertainment sphere up until Odd Squad came around. Looking at their resume doesn't show all too much in the way of what's popular. This is Daniel Cook, Roll Play, Playdate...they don't stick in your head, right? Yeah, none of them stick in my head either. Odd Squad was their first big hit for them, something that really helped them gain ground as a company. It's the one that's pretty much linked with Sinking Ship in news articles. Like husband and wife, but for the TV industry.

But to Hollywood bigwigs, that means about as much as finding a stick on the ground. I guaran-goddamn-tee Bob Iger is not going to put his grubby little hands on the funny kids math franchise and twist the hell out of it. The only way that's happening is if you run "Odd Squad, but make it Disney" through an AI generator. (Which, for the record, I have not done. You can't really replicate Odd Squad characters in animation without making them look like they walked out of yet another Law and Order spinoff that's far more kid-friendly.)

However, even with Odd Squad's varying popularity, there are shows that go just a little beyond having a similar premise to it but don't dive into ripoff territory. Sort of like a next step up.

A long time ago, a few friends and I in an Odd Squad Discord server were discussing the show Numberjacks. You know, that show that Jacknjellify may or may not have used as inspiration for Four's design? Yeah, that's the bitch.

The show has a few similarities to Odd Squad. You've got the focus on math, a system for exiting the couch headquarters that's similar to the tube system, and even the existence of kid agents and incredibly odd villains, one of which, need I remind you, Twitter tried to make into a sexyman for all of two days to varying degrees of success.

I will admit, I haven't seen Numberjacks in several years. In fact, the last time I saw it was when it was brought up as an Odd Squad ripoff. If I recall correctly, the episode that I picked to watch on a whim was "Seaside Adventure", wherein a few numbers take a vacation and trouble occurs. Or something like that. I really can't remember many details.

One thing I do remember, though, is distinctly thinking that I could see the Odd Squad similarities, but...it's not a ripoff. The series premiered in 2006. By that point, Tim McKeon and Adam Peltzman were off on their own ventures as they wrote for cartoons and other things. Thus, Odd Squad hadn't been birthed yet. If anything, Odd Squad took cues from Numberjacks, not the other way around -- but even with the existence of Odd Squad UK, we don't know that for sure. I don't even know how popular Numberjacks was in the UK. I'm a dumb lil' American, not a Daphne-Moon-esque English woman.

Since then, I haven't found anything that has come close to what Wordsville aims to accomplish. Granted, though, I have not looked very hard. I'm moreso keeping an eye on PBS to see if they're going to try and rip off Odd Squad rather than keeping an eye on any random B-lister studio. (And no, I'm not talking about WNET. They are a PBS station, but I'm referring to PBS as a whole entire network, not a sole affiliate.)

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So the question remains: is Wordsville an Odd Squad ripoff?

Yes. On multiple counts. Right down to the name inspo. Guilty as charged. Right to jail.

From it being for the 4-7 demo not unlike Odd Squad's own 4-8 demo, to Sage and Chase being referred to as "Word Detectives" in lieu of "agents", to it being a detective procedural not unlike Odd Squad and its spinoffs, to the synopsis of the show being described as having "a case rooted in a vocabulary lesson" similar to Odd Squad having episodes rooted in STEM lessons, to it actively encouraging the audience to solve mysteries along with Sage and Chase...to Sage and Chase having alliterative theme naming...

Yeah, safe to say, we've got ourselves a ripoff.

There's no denying that Odd Squad is a fantastic franchise. Even through all of its issues, including financial controversies, heavy criticism, and mistreatment from PBS, it has remained strong for nearly 10 years, and will stay strong for many more. Maybe one of these days, it will plant roots deeper into pop culture and become one hell of a phenomenon. We'll have to see.

But the fact that Sinking Ship Entertainment has to resort to borrowing a concept that is unique in its nature, a concept that has already been done, a concept that has been given life and creativity by the people who birthed it, and then try to pass it off as its own original IP is not a good look on them. It's been done similarly before with their other big franchise, Dino Dan -- key word being "similarly" because it's one show and three spinoffs focusing on different characters. That isn't the case with Wordsville, though.

Put it this way: it's a company ripping off not someone else's IP, like many other companies have done and continue to do. It's a company ripping off their own IP.

And really, it doesn't matter how it's done. Stealing is stealing. At the end of the day, all it shows is a complete lack of creativity and a complete craving for the almighty dollar. More so if it's a company stealing from themselves and passing it along as okay.

In spite of this, however, I am perfectly willing to give Wordsville a shot when it comes out. Not so much to see if it's good (though my curiosity is piqued), and definitely not to hate-watch (which has the opposite intended effect on a show or movie), but to see just how far Sinking Ship is willing to push the envelope in affirming viewers and industry buddies alike that this is not, by any and all accounts, a copy of Odd Squad. I want to spot similarities. I want to take whiskey shots until I can do a zoom-zoom to a hospital and then ask if they've got a bottle on board the rig. I want to give a full, I-watched-this-show-now-here-are-my-overall-final-thoughts addendum on the entire issue.

As of now, Wordsville has no narrow timeframe. All I know is that it's releasing this year, likely on TVO Kids in Canada. Whether PBS as a whole will adopt it into its roster -- and if anything, it'll be WNET-exclusive, otherwise we would've heard something about it at the TCA Winter Press Tour a few days back -- for American audiences remains yet to be seen. Rest assured, though, that I'll be keeping an eye on it and rushing to it as soon as the first episode drops. After that, I'll give a proper addendum so I can finally put this issue to bed. Along with myself. Revenge bedtime procrastination is a bitch.

Thanks for reading. This honestly started out as something silly, but then I became analytical. So you got a mix of both in this one. This may or may not be the norm. Day-by-day, y'know?

Seren out.

#seren speaks #odd squad pbs kids #odd squad #wordsville #sinking ship entertainment

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honeybadgercomeback · 1 year

Text

No Goodbyes

Goodbyes happen. But sometimes when they do they can become something so much better. You didn’t think that hiding from Daniel would cause this, but with his hand in yours and people trusting and believing in both of you, this is going to become something more than a final race week. Part two of Not Yet Goodbye.

AN: I still can’t fully believe the reaction to Not Yet Goodbye, I’m in absolute shock at how wonderful you all are. Thank you for the support and kindness.

Warnings: McLaren folks, Christian Horner (but being nice?). This is mainly fluff tbh.

—

As soon as the fact that Daniel Ricciardo was holding your hand got through to the garage, things got awkward to put it mildly. There was joking around, but as soon as they could get Daniel away for his final debriefing you were pulled into a meeting. That first meeting with Andreas was almost painful. The team principal had rushed you into his office, Zak following close behind. The two men looked at you in surprise as you held their gazes evenly.

“How long as this been going on?” The CEO asked you. You checked your watch and did some mental maths.

“Around twenty two hours, officially. I didn’t hide anything from anyone and after tonight Daniel no longer works for McLaren Racing. I didn’t need to report anything. You stayed calm despite the heartbeat thundering in your ears.

“If there was anything going on, anything you didn’t want…” the words hung in the air as the implication hit you like a ton of bricks. You shook your head fervently in denial.

“Daniel and I made a mutual decision. I wasn’t forced into anything. I spent last night having dinner with his family.” A deep breath centred you before you continued speaking. “While I appreciate that you’re looking out for me because of a potential power imbalance, it couldn’t be further from the truth. There was no coercion or anything inappropriate. Nothing happened between us until last night because we’re both aware of our jobs and what we do, but thank you. Now it’s the end of the season and my boyfriend is waiting for me so we can go for dinner with his family to celebrate that he was in the points today. Do we still have two weeks off before planning for next year starts?”

Your final question was directed to Zak who nodded in response. “It’s Thanksgiving at home next week, I won’t be in the UK until the first full week of December.”

“Perfect. I’ll be working remotely until then. I need to clear my head from the season, you can reach me by email.”

You held yourself together as you left the room, trying not to shake with frustration as you made your way back to the table you’d nabbed for yourself in hospitality. Normally you’d have never spoken like that to either of them. But this was different. You’d been in the room and watched the awkward moments as Danny had lost some of his sparkle because of everything that had happened. You’d been at the MTC when he made that speech. There was a large group of you who didn’t agree with how things had happened and you’d always been in that group. Yes this relationship was new but your loyalty was always going to be to your boyfriend. Jobs came and went but men like Danny didn’t.

It took all of two minutes to pack your tablet and laptop into the grey and papaya bag when your phone buzzed with a text. Holding your breath you opened it.

That was inappropriate. Once the cargo is gone take the time off, you deserve it.

Thank you.

You couldn’t reply with anything more than that, your frustration was still too high and you didn’t want to snap at him.

“Are you leaving?” You looked over at Danny’s sister, Michelle, standing there with her kids. You smiled at the slightly shy children who waved nervously and nodded your head.

“Finishing packing. I don’t need to be here for the tear down so I like to leave pretty soon after.”

“You’re coming for dinner, right? We’re getting pizzas delivered to his suite. None of us want to go out, it’ll be all family.”

“That sounds really good.”

It was quiet between you while you zipped up your branded bag. Your routine stayed the same, triple checking the pass around your neck was firmly in place and you had everything. Michelle walked out with you, the kids holding her hands before grabbing one of yours too.

“He really likes you, y’know. I was telling him for months to man up and ask you out. But then the break happened and…” she trailed off and it was clear what she thought of everything that had happened with her brother’s career.

“I wouldn’t let him say goodbye.” Michelle looked at you as you spoke, but you kept walking and looking straight ahead. “Yesterday. He was saying goodbye to everyone except Lando and the mechanics, but I kept hiding because I didn’t want to say goodbye. So I get it. And I’ve no intention of hurting him.”

She relaxed as you both swiped out and you helped the kids to do it.

“I’m glad. Want a ride to the hotel?”

You ended up in the back of the rented SUV, jammed between two child seats as the kids settled down. There was casual conversation between you, Michelle, and her husband as he drove back and you felt calm. The season was over. You could relax for a little while. Tonight was about dinner and chatting and later on working out when you and Dan could spend time together that wasn’t just filled with work related things. And getting the details on what he’d be doing next year. Milton Keynes wasn’t as far away from Woking as it could have been. Plus he’d be at races so that made things easier to plan. But this was oh so right and you wanted it.

After a shower to wash away the desert heat and sweat and changing into comfy clothes there was a knock on your bedroom door. Dan stood there with a bouquet of flowers in his hand and a wide smile on his face.

“Long time no see,” you murmured as you reached up to kiss him in hello. Once you separated he came into the room and put the arrangement on the desk before pulling you in for a proper hug.

“Missed you.”

“It’s been two hours.”

“I still missed you.” He pouted at his words and you kissed it away before filling him in on Zak and Andreas’ words. Anger started to fill his face but he took a breath and squeezed your hand.

“Do people really think that I’m forcing you? Seriously?”

“No. And we both know that this is completely consensual. Anyone with eyes knows that. But we also know that until after the last race there was that power imbalance. They were right to check in, just not the way they did it.” He calmed at your words, pulling you close and kissing the top of your forehead.

“I’m going to Red Bull tomorrow to sign my contract and flying back to Monaco the day after. Will you come with me? I know you can’t be in any of the photos or anything but I want you to be there. Mum and Dad will be.”

You took a deep breath. It’d be more than just your secret or even your colleagues in McLaren knowing then. It’d be known immediately around the paddock and as soon as you arrived in Bahrain for the first race next year everyone would know you were Danny’s girlfriend. But you wanted it. You wanted to be there to support him in whatever way you could.

“Is signing this the best thing for you to do?” It was a simple question and he sat on the edge of the bed, pulling you into his lap.

“I’m not ok right now. I…I’m burnt out. I’m miserable. Driving these cars isn’t fun anymore, I’m half afraid when I do it. It’s become something I’ve started to dread and if I don’t have full confidence I can’t do it. They’re giving me sim time to help with racing lines, a chance to help develop the car for next year and beyond, and I can be at whatever races I want. Plus it’s Christian. Even when I was leaving and he didn’t want me to go he supported me. He always has. It’s nowhere near a guaranteed seat but it’s a chance to try love the sport again with people who believe in me and want me to succeed.” He looked like he was about to say more but you cut in.

“Then I would be honoured to be there to watch my boyfriend sign his contract. You deserve the world, Danny. You deserve everyone to know that you’re a good driver, that you’re successful and easily able to battle anyone on the track. I want to see that happen.”

The kiss you shared with him was filled with meaning and hope. Even after your lips separated you stayed with your arms wrapped around each other.

“I should have kissed you last year. I nearly did at Monza. Remember the after party?”

You never could have forgotten it, delaying your flight to stay and celebrate the 1-2 finish. You’d been standing at the bar ordering a drink when Daniel appeared beside you and handed over his card to pay for your drink instead. When you’d thanked him he just grinned and pulled you in for a hug to cement the friendship you already had. It made you think that anything romantic could never happen.

“I’d have kissed you back.”

“We were fools.”

Dinner that night was bright and happy, the knowledge that the contract was being signed tomorrow and Daniel was happy helping everyone. He’d been invited to Seb’s goodbye party and had stuck around for a few minutes before leaving. It was Seb’s night, he didn’t want to bring the mood down and instead said he wanted to spend the night with his family. The walk from your room to his suite was about a minute, everyone standing there and greeting you both with hugs and kisses on your cheek. Michael shook his head at the way Danny wouldn’t keep his hands off you, making you smile shyly at the knowledge.

Once the pizzas arrived they were opened and spread over the table, people handing slices through as wine was poured. The kids had juice and were clinking glasses with everyone between each sip. When they chose you to clink with you couldn’t help the grin spreading over your face. Dan’s arm was around your shoulder as you all sat at the table. It was a nearly perfect night.

People started slipping away as the night went on. Hugs goodbye were given and you were surprised to be included in them. Finally it was just you and Dan left in the room and he pulled you to them, arms holding you close.

“Stay the night?” You smiled up at him and reached for a kiss, sealing exactly where you were staying.

When you woke up in his arms you were pleasantly sore with a warm hand rubbing a circle into your hip.

“Good morning,” you murmured as you turned over to see him there.

“Morning.”

Getting ready would have been a lot quicker if he hadn’t dragged you into the shower with him, heated kisses between the two of you making it take much longer in the warm water than you truly needed. Once Dan was dressed he went down to your room for clean clothes, returning with a navy shirt and jeans. You raised an eyebrow.

“Look, there’s no logos. But you can’t wear orange today.” Your laughter pealed through the room before grabby fingers ticked you. You made him stop so the two of you could meet his parents and get there on time.

The Red Bull motorhome had always been somewhere you’d wanted to visit and learn from. Their set up was effortless and when you had a few minutes you enjoyed watching how they worked together, wanting to see if you could steal some of their efficiency for McLaren. Today though there was no paddock passes and turnstiles, just you and Danny arriving hand in hand with Grace and Joe behind the two of you. His fingers fit perfectly between yours as you walked beside him. There were looks from your team breaking down the McLaren motorhome but you just smiled and continued on to the far end of the paddock. Once you reached Red Bull Daniel looked down at you.

“Ready?” He asked and you squeezed his fingers.

“As long as you’re ready.”

It was mostly boring while you watched him sign away what felt like his life with multiple signatures. You stood at the back of the conference room with Grace and Joe while mostly Daniel and Christian spoke and you felt completely out of place. Finally it was done, the two men standing up and shaking hands before pulling each other into a hug. Christian greeted Grace and Joe but Daniel reached over to take your hand and pull you forward.

“Christian, you know my girlfriend from the paddock, right? She does the McLaren setup and travel planning. Meet Christian Horner. He’s nicer than he seems to most people, I swear.” You smiled and held your hand out, Dan holding onto your waist.

“It’s nice to meet you.” You introduced yourself and Christian shook your hand.

“I’m well aware of who you are. You turned down Ferrari last year, didn’t you?” Your cheeks heated at his words. The job offer they’d given you had been kept hush hush, but it would have been highly paid. You didn’t want to leave McLaren at the time so you turned it down. You didn’t think that anyone except you and Binotto even know that there was a firm offer on the table.

“I did. I wanted to stick where I was.”

“And if I offered you a job here?”

You took a beat but shook your head. “I’d appreciate it, but my answer is still no. I want my reputation to stand on its own. I don’t want people thinking I’m just following my boyfriend around the paddock to his new team. Ask me in another year and I might consider it.”

Horner laughed, clapping your shoulder. “I should have guessed that would be your answer. Binotto still wants you there, so I’d prepare for that job offer if things settle down in Maranello. Now we’ve got photos to do outside. Not that I want to face the sun after last night, Sebastian got the Jaegermeister out and it was a mistake.”

There were photographers snapping as the two went outside, Grace and Joe slightly behind and you following at a distance. Danny slid the navy polo shirt on and you had to admit it really did suit him. They sat at a table and signed the last page before taking questions and filming content. It was so clear to you just how happy this made your boyfriend. He was relaxed and grinning, smiling and joking even when Christian grabbed his chest. You laughed at the scene, taking your own photos of them. Once it was done Daniel came back to you with his fingers grabbing yours and holding tightly.

“Do you want lunch?” Christian asked, Daniel shaking his head.

“I can’t be here when afternoon practice starts. I need to get a clean break, and I’m back in Monaco tomorrow. I’m in Milton Keynes in two weeks?”

“We want you at the parade. Will you both be there?” The second part was aimed at you.

“I won’t be,” you replied. “I still have my own job to do, so I’ll be supporting at a distance and outside of work.”

“We’ll see you around.”

The drivers were starting to come in for the practices, Lando hugging the two of you briefly and Oscar looking nervous to see you there. Daniel squeezed your hand before going to speak to him for a moment, the two separating looking brighter. It was nods to everyone else you saw before getting in the car and Dan leaning his head back.

“I’m going to Monaco in the morning, do you want to come with me? I want to spend time with you away from the tracks. Eat food, spend time together, get our shit together. What do you think?”

You grinned at him, leaning over to nuzzle your head to his chest.

“That sounds like one of the best ideas you’ve ever had. I want to spend time with you and get to know you properly, Daniel Ricciardo. Plus, I think I’ve made friends with your family.”

“I think they’d pick you over me.”

It was a lie, but a sweet one. You smiled and agreed, pulling up your travel app and cancelling the flight to London. You could book the Nice flight later on that evening. The afternoon ahead beckoned with laying out at the pool to enjoy the October sun, jumping in and splashing the family that had quickly welcomed you as a member. Dinner that night was another family dinner in the restaurant but out in the main area rather than a private room. Anyone could see all of you together but you weren’t worried. The almost out of clean clothes situation did worry you slightly, but it was manageable as you pulled an outfit together. Dan had done some magic to move your belongings to his hotel room, your toiletries mingling with his in the bathroom. The way they just fit together didn’t go unnoticed.

“How come you didn’t take the Ferrari job?”

Dan had just finished clasping your necklace when he asked, pressing a kiss to where the chain hit your neck.

“I didn’t want it.” You turned around and looked up at him, a small smile on your lips. “Carlos put my name in for it when it came up. He told Binotto that I’d be perfect for it and Binotto agreed. I didn’t even need to interview. But I told you, I’m awful at goodbyes.”

“You stayed because of me?” You’d have been lying if you said he wasn’t part of your decision, the friendship you’d shared meant so much.

“Not just you. But I was loyal to McLaren. Now though I’m loyal to you.”

Photos from the dinner ended up online, shared on instagram and TikTok. You really liked one of them that had you and Dan with a child on each of your laps. It was taken from far enough away that nobody’s face was truly visible so you took that opportunity to lock down your instagram account before anybody could work out it was definitely you. Even though you’d appeared on his photography account in a work context you wanted to keep what little privacy you could for a while.

It lasted all the way on the hour or so drive to Dubai International for the direct flight to Nice. While not as busy as Abu Dhabi would have been the airport was still filled with people who’d been in the UAE for the race. Thanks to your lack of non work clothes Dan had given you one of his tees to wear - laughing at how it was essentially a dress - and you were clearly together as he checked you both in and whisked you into the lounge after saying goodbye to his family. People stopped and stared at him but only a few asked for photos which let you relax a little. It was a little bit scary and definitely unusual, and you didn’t know quite what this relationship would involve but you were determined. This wasn’t going to end in a goodbye, even with the what could be of next season.

Just before you boarded both of your phones dinged, Lando creating a group chat with you. You opened it up to a link to an instagram post putting the dinner photos together with the times you’d been caught on camera and the one and only time Ted Kravitz had spoken to you, naming you as Dan’s girlfriend.

Just saw this, thought you should know. For the record you look adorable.

Dan squeezed your hand before the two of you handed over your passports to the gate agent, holding on as you walked down the jet bridge. Once you were settled into the plush first class seat - and you’d have a conversation with him about paying for it later - you looked at him, catching his gaze. He seemed slightly worried but you smiled.

“Fuck ‘em all?” You asked, his eyes lighting up at the familiar words.

“Fuck ‘em all. We know what we’ve got.”

Dan took your hand as you listened to the pre flight information. You took a photo of the hands linked, Dan’s rose tattoo showing clearly. You sent it to him, watching as he smiled and picked up exactly what you were thinking. Less than a minute later he nudged you to open instagram. When you opened the app his latest post was the first on your feed. The caption made you grin.

Honey Badger’s being tamed. FEA, babe.

You kept the smile on your face as you sat back and put your feet up, waiting for the six hour flight to begin. Whatever the media wanted to throw at the two of you could suck it. This was the best non goodbye you could ever receive.

Tagging: @vroomvroommbtch

#daniel ricciardo x reader #daniel ricciardo fluff #daniel ricciardo x y/n #daniel ricciardo x you #f1 x reader #f1 x you #f1 fanfic #daniel ricciardo one shot #daniel ricciardo fanfic #daniel ricciardo imagine

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traffic-light-eyes · 1 year

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More quotes from my friends said by Ninjago characters

----

Kai: Hey (with rizz)

Skylor: Gross.

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Morro: Selling my cat. Food purposes only. If you're not gonna cook him, then don't even book him

Lloyd: Mmmmm kitty stew.

Morro: That was a violation.

Lloyd: I'm having a catty patty tonight. :)

Morro: Why are you like this.

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Cole: Kai, I hope your lips dry out.

Kai: <3

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Harumi: Wanna see my pussy?

Lloyd: Kitty

Lloyd: Is it a kitty?

Lloyd: It's a kitty, right?

Lloyd: Harumi?

-it was, in fact, a kitty-

----

Nya: Boobies are the answer to all the world's problems.

Kai: Seconded.

Nya: Shut up, no one asked PERVERT

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Morro: Drown. Just do it.

Lloyd: Not nice :(

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Pixal: Here. Your 30 misogyny credits. You've earned them.

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Cole: A couple nights ago, I swear I could hear a phone buzzing in my walls but couldn't tell where it was coming from, and then it just suddenly stopped and haven't heard it since

Lloyd: Ghosts.

Cole: Ghosts who don't know how to answer a phone, apparently.

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Lloyd: You have responsibilities? So uncool :(

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Zane: I think I'm dying. Do not worry, this is my normal.

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Jay: HOW DO YOU DO THE MATH????

Zane: I sent you my notes.

Jay: I KNOW BUT HOW???

Zane: I don't know where you're confused.

Jay: AHHHHH FUCK YOU

----

That's all for today, folks

#ninjago #queue #lloyd garmadon #kai smith #kai jiang #nya jiang #nya smith #jay walker #cole brookstone #zane julien #ninjago harumi #ninjago morro #ninjago pixal #skylor chen #ninjago incorrect quotes #incorrect ninjago quotes

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fandomwritingbit · 1 year

Note

yo but I imagine William would just start dating his s/o and he’s so shocked to find out that their super intelligent and witty😭 like mf will ask a rlly hard question out of the blue and his s/o would answer is .2 seconds and he would be so shocked ong😭

I feel like it's one of the qualities that would boost your standing with him. Honestly that's why I always write 'sassy's/os for him cos the man gets off easy a lot and having the competition would be hot for him imo.

Nowt bad in this one, just swearing and bad easy maths lol.

But anyway, the bit you came for...

"How're we looking tonight, Afton?" You say, taking a seat on the edge of his overcrowded desk, surrounded by piles of problems to be dealt with at a later date.

A long day of entertaining kids was behind you, and you want to know what the score is income wise. After such a shitty and busy one, it'd better be decent or you swear to God you may just cry.

It wasn't just you in the room with a man you barely got on with during the day but got on with very nicely at night; his co-owner Henry was there and the day manager too. You’d worked up from waitress, now playing the part of the hostess with the most-ess, welcoming, serving and being downright charming to every tight-fisted fuck that graced the doorstep.

"Yeah, what's the score? Know we sold a lot of pizzas today." The manager chipped in, her exasperated tone summing up the lot of you.

Afton grunted his annoyance at being harassed while he tried to run the numbers in his head.

"Fucking £1,350. Give me a second to do the tax-"

"...£1,093.50, folks." You say, almost immediately, cutting everyone's wait times significantly. The groan of irritation followed suit near-immediately.

Murmurs of 'well that's shite' and ‘I wouldn’t have got out of bed for that’ were heard as the two others left the room, leaving you and your boss, who was looking at you peculiarly, staring at the accounts.

"How did you do that then?" He asks, standing and making his way over to you on the desk.

Your brows narrow under the scrutiny of his gaze, "The maths? It’s not hard..." You start, a smile forming.

"Isn't it?" He smirked looking you up and down, how quick your brain worked, how business minded. “You fancy yourself some kind of accountant?”

“Someone has to be, since you won’t hire one.” You leave the room with a glance over your shoulder, honestly, you must know better not to push your luck with this one by now.

#fnaf #fnaf william afton #william afton x reader #william afton x you #sfw

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aintmyjewelry · 2 years

Text

people keep thinking taylor is gonna perform the first single for midnights tonight and honestly the math is mathing but also we must manage expectations here this honor is for her entire songwriting career not everything is about big surprises or announcements. some folks just keep wanting and wanting and wanting will never be satisfied with taylor

#twitter swifties are driving me a little crazy #but based off the tiktok announcement #it is NOT a radical theory i’ll give them that

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ezra-iolite · 1 year

Text

One Last Wish (A Pirateformers Fanfic)

Chapter 2: War and Fears

The Immortal Sun finally arrives on the sea border of Joka Ardhi, the homeland of their Dragonkin crewmate, Asya Mutheru. There, all is revealed about her past and why she has returned to the land that exiled her. Gathering a small army, including her polyamorous spouses Captain Elbent and Verglaust, they march across the desert to the capital to face the tyrant emperor of the kingdom, Dragon Lord Jhamal, and stop his crusade to invade the northern kingdoms before it begins… And fulfil the prophecy of the Throne of Crimson Sands.

Elbent, Verglaust, Ferrous, Indicolite/Indi and the world of Pirateformers belong to @tigracespace

Starhawk, Nova and Starstrike belong to @dimorphodon-x (I really hope I did them well XD)

Drillburst and Divot belong to @cuppajj

Blue Heron belongs to @hyraxas

Asya, Conduit, Sira, Bori and the kingdom of Joka Ardhi belong to me (But Jokani the language is actually Swahili.... you're welcome to use Google Translate for the few lines of it~)

Enjoy the long read, folks~

......................................................................................

“So… Is this everyone?”

Looking around the dining hall that was now remade into a momentary war planning room, Asya met the gazes of at least a quarter of the crew. Elbent stood beside her three husbands at the other side of the table, along with her father Solclave, who nearly towered over Brynjolf and Verglaust as the candlelit shadows hid his face. Around the right side of the long table, Starhawk and Starstrike stood next to Rodimus, his and Hawk's son Nova, Asya’s eldest children Conduit and Sira, the senior medic Nicole and her husband Hypnos, with Ferrous right beside Asya as he shared an anxious look with Nicole.

To her left, Blue Heron stood beside Indi as she looked equally as nervous as her brother Ferrous, with Flora easing Indi's visible worry with a webbed hand on her shoulder, as Indi and Ferrous's cousin Divot looked up to their father Drillburst with an expressionless but curious glance, as if to ask the bard “You got any idea on what’s going on here, Dad?”

Finally breaking the silence, Elbent replied to her wife from beside Drill at the far end of the table, “This is it. I wish we could have convinced more of the crew to join us, but I know we can ask Max later tonight if he wants to help us, once the curse lets him move again from his gargoyle state.”

“It’s ok. This is more than enough. I… I think I know of a way to help Max be involved without relying so much on the time of day. I’ll tell you about it later, Drill,” Asya nodded to the minstrel, the husband of the gargoyle in question. “For now… let’s get started on the plan, shall we? First, allow me to explain what we’re up against.”

Taking a scroll from the large pile of them next to her, Asya held onto the end and with a strong flap, the paper unfurled and covered the centre of the table, revealing a map of Joka Ardhi in full.

“Whoa… I’ve never seen your homeland like this before.” Rodimus confessed in awe.

“That’s because Primus has never been given permission to see my homeland fully, beyond the northern shoreline that takes up the entire bottom half on any Primus-made map, which show the port cities big enough to dock a ship our size. That’s mainly because all ships and natives of your country, Rodimus, are forbidden from touching Jokani soil. Blame it on your great grandfather, darling. He did act stupidly racist towards my grandfather, the past Dragon Lord. He-”

“Wait, what do you mean your grandfather and my great grandfather? Shouldn’t yours be… I dunno, just as old?” Rodimus asked, leaning forward with both hands on the table to face Asya.

“Uh, Roddie? Dragonkin can live much longer than humans, remember?," Elbent answered. "When your great grandfather would be in his thirties, Asya's grandfather would roughly be in the same equivalent of maturity. Physically, if my math is correct, he would have actually been nearing his nineties, by human lifespan standards.”

“And… how long can your kind live for?” Rodimus inquired curiously towards Asya.

“Five to six hundred years, sometimes a thousand if we’re powerful magic users. The oldest of my kind is the Elder Seer or the oracle of my father’s court, Kamaria. She was born just after Alunnui took the throne and became the first Dragon Lord, and then began her service as a court Seer when his son, Bakari, came of age to inherit the throne. That was nearly three thousand years ago now.”

“Th-Three?! THREE THOUSAND YEARS?! Primus almighty... How is she still alive?!” Rodimus held onto his husband blindly to stop himself from staggering back.

“Magic, a playful bit of spite, and wisdom on what wine suit the season... Well, that was what she always told me, whenever I asked her the same thing,” Asya chuckled with a nostalgic smile. “In truth, I have no idea why she hasn't deteriorated with age yet, and I stopped questioning it a long time ago. After all… she is our eyes on the front lines as well as our double agent. She sent me the letter telling me to return home and informing me of my father’s plans, long before he began to plot them.”

“How did she- Oh right, you said she’s an oracle or seer. Sorry, I forgot,” Rodimus shook off his surprise with a sigh. “Like that’s in any way normal… So wait, if the average lifespan is five hundred years for your kind… how old are you, exactly, Asya?”

“Well… I’m in my mid-thirties, by comparison to human levels of maturity.”

“And in mortal years?” Hawk pressed on, revealing himself to be just as curious as his husband.

“Ugh, just don’t react too… Yeah, you’re gonna react either way, aren’t you?,” Asya sighed heavily into her palm as it slid down her face, before she finally replied with a grumble. “… I turn seventy this month.”

“S-Se… S-Seventy," Rodimus sputtered in shock. "You… You’re only now turning seventy… Seventy. Years. Old… When you look... what did you say? Thirty? But now, you're... Nearly a full century old?”

“Yes, Rodimus, nearly a full hundred years. It'll be a quarter of my lifespan, by that point.”

“I…. but… HOW?!” Rodimus exclaimed, earning him a chuckle from a few around the table.

“The same way a siren keeps looking so divine, of course~,” Asya teased with a wink towards her wife. “For my kind, we age at a normal humanoid pace when we're born, since we are technically half human as a species, just until we reach our twenties. Normally it happens between the ages twenty-one to twenty-five, but around that point we stop developing and aging as a whole. After that, we only start to show signs of greying when we reach four hundred and turn fully grey by our fifth century of life.”

“Huh… You’re nearly as old as I am. Nice.” Verglaust nodded to himself with a soft smile.

“Now, any more questions on my kind, or can we go back to what’s at stake here?”

“Can I just ask one more?”

“Rod, we really need to-”

“Just one more question, Asya! Please?”

“… Only one, Rodimus, and no more. Ok?”

“Ok, so like… What beef did my great gramps have with your grandfather? And why did it cause the complete ban on all things Primus-related touching Jokani land?”

“…. You really want to know? Like... here? Right now? Eh, I have to warn you, darling... It might alarm you. Or rather upset you, really.”

“No no, I can take it, Asya! Please, what did my ancestors do?”

“Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you… When my grandfather, Alhaadi, ruled as Dragon Lord of Joka Ardhi, long before my father’s older brother took the throne, my grandfather sailed to Primus to arrange a trade union with your great grandfather. However… from what Kamaria told me when she witnessed the meeting while serving my grandfather as his Seer… Your great grandfather’s court of Primus noblemen began to mock my grandfather’s own court. Calling them savages and… Sand Monkeys, and other such names to their faces,”

Hawk suddenly coughed when Rodimus elbowed him harshly, stopping his snort mid-way from becoming a chuckle, allowing Asya to continue.

“So… When the treaty was signed, it caused an uproar for two main reasons. One… None of the Primus nobles had bothered to ask prior to this meeting for an ambassador of Joka Ardhi, in order to train them to speak fluidly in Common and become their translator. And because of their prejudice against wanting a Jokani Ambassador in their court or even to send one of their own here, they instead played a horrendously awkward guessing game in order to form the wording of the treaty. And as such, they caused the second reason for the uproar…

"The scribes of Primus’s court had given my people a new name instead of simply calling us or the country what they're already known by in their own tongue. And the reason I know all this is... well, other than me being his grandchild... Alhaadhi had learned a bit of Common. Even after revealing his minor bilingual skill to show that the Primus court really were being racist and proven thus, they still refused to change their bill or the wording on it. So… my grandfather left and immediately issued a law written in both Jokani and in broken Common, saying that no ship or person made on Primus shall ever dare to go past the ports of Joka Ardhi, unless they wish to die by Jokani hand. And to this day, your people still call us what that bill names my people and country in Common…”

“Savannians… How the hell did they get The Savannah Kingdom from Joka Ardhi?! UGH!! "The Pride of Primus honors all", my ass!!,” Rodimus grunted in frustration as he suddenly kicked the table leg. “Grampa could have changed something during his reign!! Or even Dad!! But no!! They chose to ignore the obvious, and we’re still viewed as your enemy! It’s no wonder trade between our lands was stopped so suddenly as it began! Stupid, bloody, useless-”

“Roddie! RODS!! Hey, hey!! Easy! Easy, Roddie… Easy now. It’s not your fault. You had nothing to do with what your ancestors did. It’s not your fault. There’s nothing you could have done. You didn’t know anything about this, Rodi. You're ok.” Hawk assured, holding Rodimus’s arms to keep him from kicking the table more.

“Ok, ok. I’m ok… I’m good now. I’m sorry Asya. Please, continue with your strategy plan.”

“Thank you, Rodimus. And it’s ok. We’ll fix things in our parents’ place. I’ll make sure of it…. Now then, if you’ll allow me, I’d like to discuss the magic of this land, and why it will affect our battle ahead,”

With a snap of her fingers, orange flames began to spread over her hand, but the moment she touched the scroll and spread its flames over the paper, it did not burn. Instead, the fire rose above the map and thinned out to appear like the surface of a body of water, shimmering with glittery orange light as it slowly bobbed and swirled in the air hovering over the map.

“The magic of this planet can be used like power sources in multiple ways, but magic as a whole cannot be found through just one source. There is no “mother” or any form of a first source of all magic, so to speak… Magic is all around us, and the best way to find a source is to look for what is the most plentiful where you are or where you come from… the elements. Air, water, earth, fire and the spirit. That was what I was taught as a child, and many of you I’m sure got the same lesson but told different ways to find your individual source. Prayer or faith to harness the spirit, the flora of your homeland harnessed through witchcraft, or through your birth element, to harness water or earth.

"For my kind, our element is the sun, and that's what makes the magic of my homeland so potent. Because of the sun's strength here, it grants us the elements of sand instead of regular earth, and crystals then act as a conduit for the other elements since they absorb everything through the ground. Moonstone holds the power of lunar light absorbed by the cold sands at night, while sunstone harnesses the magic of the sand from daylight, and so on and so forth. But the sand of Joka Ardi… it’s special and potent with magic for a reason,”

Gathering the orange dust like light into her hand, Asya tapped the map of the red desert kingdom.

“This entire desert used to be gold, like common desert sand. And some of it is, towards the islands that are nearest to the equator. But those within the Jokani Sea Boarder… Are as red as blood. Can you guess why?”

“Dragon blood… From the Founder’s War.” Flora pointed out.

“Exactly. More so from the Blackfire Siege. Life and death also affect the sources of magic, when too much of one side affects the ecosystem. Therefore, when the dragons fell while fleeing the Blackfire Siege, they fell as their bodies were melting… Leaving their blood and bones to be absorbed by the sands, giving the sands an unmeasurable boost of magic from their magically potent bodies to this day. As time went on, the Jokani began to draw their magic from the sands, but the dragons have always gained their power from it too, long before they fell. And that is because the sun is still an elemental source, just as strong as it was when dragons ruled the sands,”

Opening her hand, Asya allowed the dust to pour like sand from her palm and covered the entire table with it, creating a blanket of illusionary glitter over the entire surface of the table and map.

“Magic in the desert takes another form… a physical one, but also something that affects the people from the moment they’re born. It's also been recorded to affect visitors too, if they live here long enough to absorb magic like how one takes in sunlight or air into their body. But for the Jokani, they merely have to be born on the land to use this source of magic… For the sands are constantly absorbing sunlight, especially during our summers when the Midnight Sun is in effect, for as the sand absorbs the magic, it then takes the form of what you learned as mirages. For the Jokani, however… it is no mere illusion. It is, in fact, pure and raw magic that covers the surface of the sand and fills my people's veins the moment we develop into babies within our mother’s wombs… And in my tongue, we call this Jua’chawi. In yours… Sun Dust,”

To prove her point, Asya quickly sliced open her palm with a flick of her taloned finger, the crimson pooling in her hand to show the team her own blood… with flecks of glittering orange within it being revealed in the dim light.

“If one is born with extra amounts of it in their veins… They develop a gift or condition that alters their appearance and grants them an even higher amount of magic to use. Those with too much Sun Dust in their veins are known as Watoto wa Jua… Children of the Sun, or merely Sun Blessed for short. They are stronger, bigger, faster and much more powerful than any other magic users in Joka Ardhi, be they Dragonkin, human or animal. They will be born with hair, feathers or scales the colour of fire… Red, orange or yellow specifically… And no matter what they're born as, they will be the only sub-species of their kind capable of controlling fire in its most natural state,”

The moment her blood began to seep over the edge of her palm, it suddenly shimmered with light and burst into white flames, the blood immediately vanishing as it shrank towards the cut and the flames reversed the damage of the wound, healing it in seconds, before it vanished with a flicker.

“But amongst my species… Only the royal family can be Sun Blessed. And luckily it is within our favour, as my species are split into two sub-species. The Opal Dragonkin, who can wield fire that instead of burning can instead create things… Such as green fire for flowers and flora, white to heal, blue for ice, and many more along the entire rainbow spectrum of colour. All except the colours of natural fire… They belong to the Ruby Dragonkin, a pedigree carefully bred to always be born Sun Blessed only within the royal bloodline.”

“… Ok, I have to ask… Clearly an Opal can be born Sun Blessed, right? Like… is there some inhibitor that prevents the Opal Dragonkin from becoming one, or…” Blue Heron asked.

“Well, that’s actually something I’m sure has happened, but they don’t seem to show it in the way my family's pedigree do. Amongst the animals born with the Sun Blessed gene, they simply gain an incredibly strong boost in their birth element, such as the Griffons being able to control water and air, while their increased size allows them to become alphas with their distinctive features fitting their role. I think a Sun Blessed Opal Dragonkin is simply one with slightly altered features, but still bears the size and magical boost to their fire type that's increased by the Sun Blessed gene.

"Beyond that, only my family’s lineage shows the extreme lengths the gene can do to one’s whole appearance and magical capabilities, to the point that a Dragon Lord or Dragon Queen can bear multiple children that can all be Sun Blessed, but that’s a very rare thing, I can assure you. Only one out of five children born in a single generation of my family’s bloodline can become Sun Blessed. My father wasn’t, hence why he only became Dragon Lord by proxy, due to his older brother’s death.”

“So I take it only the Sun Blessed of your family are seen as worthy heirs to the throne?” Blue added.

“Exactly that. And it usually always gets passed on to the first born of every generation within my family-”

“So why isn’t Sira?” Conduit suddenly asked, gesturing to his mute Dragonkin sister, who now was her early twenties and was showing the signs of horns and a tail growing from her petite body.

Her words immediately caught in her throat, as Asya struggled to find the right answer. But to her surprise, Sira raised her hand to stop her mother and used both hands to sign her own conclusion, revealing the black tips of her slightly curved fingernails upon her calloused fingers.

“I am not a Jokani Dragonkin. Only those born on the sand of Joka Ardhi can become Sun Blessed. I was born here, on this ship, and far north. Which most likely explains my blue scales and fire. I have only a piece of the magic my mother has in her veins, since I bear her blood. And because of my birth not making me Sun Blessed, but rather a Ruby Dragonkin wielding cold but burning blue fire, I’ll never be an heir to Mama’s throne. Don’t really want to be one, anyways.”

“You can be, if you wanted to, darling.” Asya assured her mute daughter, as Sira’s father, Kevin, nodded in eager agreement.

“Nah, I plan on staying here on the ship and seeing the world you’ll create, once you become queen, Mama. I’m good, thanks.”

“… You are seriously nothing like your father, you know that, Sira?”

“HEY!!”

The blue Dragonkin chuckled at her father’s playfully offended reaction, as she tucked her bob-length braids behind her long, pointed ear and the arm of her rectangular glasses. “I’d beg to differ, Mama, but please, continue. What are the armies like, if some might be Sun Blessed?”

Letting out a long sigh, Asya gathered the fire illusion of the Sun Dust off the map and crafted more fiery illusions to take the form of three figurine sized warriors: Two identical warriors dressed like Asya in red togas and half-plate armour, but this time wielding spears and shields with a dragon shaped helmet under their hoods, and one warrior in black with a shadowing hood and long trousers instead of a toga, alongside a cape with a red handprint on it.

“There are two main lines of defence in my country… Both are two versions of the military army that protect the people and the crown. The army that protects the people and the country are known as the Morani-”

“Heh heh, moron.”

“No, Starstrike. Not moron… More-raw-nee,” Asya explained, her real Jokani accent kicking in as her tongue clicked at the “raw” sound. “They’re the most well trained warriors of my people, or more like knights if you compare them to what Primus and Unicron have. Every eldest son is sent to the camp in the east outskirts of Wajiri, the port city we’re facing right now, the moment they turn fourteen. In my culture, a boy can only be considered a man when they become a Moran first.

"If he cannot fight to defend his family, let alone his people, or is as disrespectable as a child, he is seen as unfit to be mature enough to be a man. It is also law, even more so for the male heir of the throne, to send every son before they reach their teen years to train as a Moran for two years, before they’re allowed home and be seen as an adult, let alone a man… And usually it’s followed by marriage, but thank the stars it’s not an arranged type anymore.”

“And how many are there in Wajiri?” Elbent inquired, leaning on the table to fully take in the sight of the two Moran warriors.

“In Wajiri… Anywhere between ten to thirty thousand, counting the ones in training. But that’s just the public branch… There’s also the royal guard branch, the Kifalme Morani. As an heir apparent, I trained under them to prepare for the mantle of Dragon Lord. And from my experience… they are the least of your worries. For a select few among them are more loyal to my father than any of the Kifalme Morani. Your biggest threat are the Mkono wa Bwana… The Lord’s Hand.”

The two Morani vanished with a puff of flame, allowing the last caped warrior to grow bigger and be joined by others of his guild that knelt down or stood on one leg in martial artistic ways beside him, wielding scimitars instead of spears, and all of them hiding creepy grins under their black hoods.

“The Lord’s Hand are an assassin guild that are the eyes and ears of the Dragon Lord. Anything he whispers of his desire for his kingdom, they enact it immediately. A person causing him minor strife or worry… They will immediately vanish before dawn. Taxes will immediately be paid the day they’re about to be overdue from a poor or struggling family, a bandit group all dead with their heads and bodies on display along the main roads… No one is safe from their wrath. And they only came to be when my father took the throne, the moment both my uncles were found dead, leaving my father as the only child of Alhaadi remaining.”

“The bastard clearly set it up using that guild, didn’t he?” Verglaust snarled.

“I wish I knew, my love… I never got to know him, my uncle Amani. I was born after all that went down, during my father’s… “golden age”, you could say. In truth, it was the only period of his life where things were happy under his reign. But the moment I… I started showing signs that I was not a boy, he lost everything that made him my father and a fitting ruler of the Crimson Sands. But other than his wrath… Our only concern is with the Lord’s Hand.”

“But what about the Morani? Won’t they try to stop us from reaching Oasis, since you've been exiled and are basically a... well... criminal by their laws?” Elbent inquired.

“They will… unless they’re convinced to fight with us, alongside the people. And I know how I can do just that.”

Reaching to her belt, Asya pulled out her short sword and placed it between her teeth, reaching behind her with her free hand to tie her dreadlocks back into a low ponytail before using another length of string to tie the tip of her ponytail with a bow. Holding her sword in hand once more, Asya looked down at it in both hands as her word came out wobbly and gruff, her emotions held back with her lowered tone.

“In my culture… A good leader who has ruled the land for a long time will usually grow their hair extremely long. Be they the Dragon Lord or a chieftain that governs a village or city… Those who have ruled for a long time, and created a peaceful era in his reign, will always have long braids, dreadlocks or long hair in general that is decorated to show how unwilling he is to cut it. It’s why my people will commonly have braids or dreadlocks, to keep their own hair out of their face while they let it grow undisturbed as way to respect their ruler's peaceful reign. Amani had long hair in his time, and it was always decorated with flowers and gems... fitting for a ruler named "peace",”

As Asya tightened her grip on the hilt, she let out a long, shaky sigh that caused the blade to shiver with her, her gaze refusing to rise beyond her sight on the blade before her.

“So… when war is called between two chieftains or a chieftain against the Dragon Lord… The chieftain can demand a one-on-one battle to start and end the war right there and then between only the two of them, to spare their people. In turn, the people can join him to demand the same rite by copying their chieftain to say the same thing..."We demand to see the cruel ruler off his throne". And they do that… b-by… By doing….”

The words dared not leave her throat, as tears suddenly fell onto the steel blade and down its straight, sharp length. Before Elbent or Hawk could react, their hand both reached out towards the crying Dragonkin, her blade suddenly rose and reached behind her. With quick, shallow gasps through her bared fangs to contain her sobs, Asya gritted her teeth and-

“I… I… NGH- NADAI AMANI!!!”

With a dramatic roar of an old rite and a blur of silver, the sword sliced through her ponytail of dreadlocks, the string that held it in place sliding off and allowing her uneven bob to sway freely over her face, even more so as she slammed her sword and chopped length of hair onto the table.

“Oh Primus… What did she say, exactly?” Elbent whispered to Kevin.

“The hair… Primus above, not the hair… Hm? Oh uh… Well… she said, if her Jokani lessons serve me well… I demand peace.”

“It’s what must be said, as part of the rite of my people… Before any kind of war begins,” Asya finally spoke, her face still hidden and lowered under her chopped hair. “When… When a battle is demanded by someone wishing to remove a ruler from his throne… Be they chieftain or Dragon Lord… They cut their hair to show their willingness to sacrifice everything for the right to bring peace. And when one does it before a crowd or… or presents their sacrifice before the people… the people can then become their allies by doing the same thing. If… If I can present a box of hair… to my father… No one else will need to die fighting him.”

Not a word was dared to be said, as Asya leaned heavily onto the table to stop herself from falling to her knees, her soft sobs the only sound breaking the silence.

“… Does it need to be the whole head?” Hawk suddenly asked.

“Wh… what? N-No. Just… as much as you’re willing to sacrifice. Hence why the piece hair that’s been cut off… The piece itself is called the Dhabihu, the sacrifice. What are you-”

"Hopefully I say it correctly... I TOO DEMAND PEACE!!"

With a shout from Starhawk, a hand of black hair was suddenly slammed down onto the table following another blur of silver. Looking up with teary eyes, Asya watched as Hawk, Rodimus, Nova, Verglaust, and everyone with a weapon at their belt used them to cut a piece of their hair, or as much as they could from the top of the shorter few, before Flora took out a handkerchief from her pocket and gathered all the “Dhabihu” pieces into the square cloth before tying it and handing it to Asya across the table.

“You’re not fighting this battle alone, Asya. No matter what the rite demands of you, we’ll all be demanding the right for peace alongside you. Your crazy dad is threatening our home and our lives. And that makes this our battle too… So you’d best not forget that.” Rodimus assured with a smile.

“Uh, babe?” Hawk whispered, using his string to tie back his now roughly cut long bob behind his head into a spiny ponytail.

“I know, I’ll help give it a proper trim tonight, Hawk.”

“No, uh… You kinda… Took a bit too much in the back there.”

“I said I’ll… Wait WHAT?!”

“Yeah, you’re uh… Kinda balding there, hun. I’m seeing more skin than ginger.”

Quickly taking a silver plate from nearby, Rodimus used the side of his sword to see his reflection on the plate, gasping dramatically at the sight of the bald patch on the back of his head.

“OH MY GOD!!” Rodimus exclaimed, as he covered his head with both hands and hid his face when he roughly bumped his head onto the table.

"Oh honey, it's ok!" Hawk giggled, rubbing his husband's back as Nova covered his mouth to muffle his laugh.

“Here, Rods. You can use my hat until it grows back.” Drill chuckled, handing him his beloved feather tipped hat.

The moment it reached his side of the table, Rodimus rapidly smacked his hand across to reach it blindly, attempting to feel for it with a hand that waved over the table again and again, until he finally caught the hat and slowly put it on, letting out a sound that could only be compared to the groan of a dying goat as he slid down onto the floor to hide his blush. The tension immediately lifted like a popped balloon as everyone laughed, even Asya as Elbent came over to hug her and dry the Dragonkin's eyes.

“You ok, fire lily?” She asked over the roar of laughter all around them.

“Heh… I will be. After all… I’ve a revolution to lead.”

~*~

“Is that enough water to last us the three days, do you think?”

“Elbent, we’ll be walking along a freshwater river the whole way up. It’s going to be fine.”

“But for all three days? I dunno, Asya… it sounds rather unnatural for a river to have clean drinking water.”

“Trust me, darling. Whether it’s the magic of the Sun Dust aiding in filtering it or something else entirely, something keeps the water clean and I’ve survived off it for three years after my exile began. No sickness from it either! It’s going to be ok. Now get your tiny rear in the boat already.”

“Alright! Alright, I’m moving!,” Elbent laughed as she hopped onto the large rowboat alongside Verglaust, Kevin, Brynjolf, Starhawk, Conduit and Blue Heron. “But Asya, hun… Are you ready?”

Looking over towards the horizon, to where the city of Wajiri awaited them, Asya could only sigh as she clutched her bag strap tightly. “Honestly? …. No. I’m not. But what choice do I have? Someone has to step up and be there for my people. I… I know I have to stop him, I know him best… I know what it will take to put an end to his cruelty. I just need to get the support of my people to make it happen more smoothly… No one else needs to die for my fear of facing him. No matter what happens… It ends now.”

“And we’ll be with you every step of the way.” Elbent assured, taking Asya’s hand and helping her onto the boat.

“And we’ll wait here for your signal, Mama.” Ferrous assured, hugging his toddler aged, Dragonkin brother, Bori, close to his side, as the infant nuzzled his cheeks of white scales against Ferrous's hip while whimpering nervously

“You and your Grandfather are in charge while we’re away, alright darling? And no matter what happens, do not bring the ship past that rock until I fire the flare to signal you to begin the evacuation of Wajiri. And the moment every Jokani is on board, keep away from the port and keep everyone safe. The Oasis city folk will come to Wajiri in six days, so all you need to do is to keep an eye on them from the ship, until our return… Hopefully. Got it?” Asya ordered, as the boat was slowly lowered onto the water and began to be rowed away from the ship.

“Got it, Mama! You can count on me.” Ferrous assured, smiling smugly with determination…

A smile that quickly vanished the moment Bori slipped from his grip and peered over the side of the ship, wailing at the top of his lungs as he called out to his Mama Asya and Baba Verglaust. Blue and Hawk paused their rowing to look up at the toddler’s cries, at Divot quickly picked him up to carry him away from the side of the deck for his own safety, a lesson they learned long ago judging by their hurried pace. Asya’s shuddered breathing drew their attention from the ship and the echoing cries of the toddler, as the orange Dragonkin placed her bag down and gripped the boat tightly, her talons immediately piercing holes through the wood from her sheer strength alone.

“Asya… It’s ok. Go to him. We’ll go on ahead and let you catch up… It’ll give you a chance to find your well-deserved dramatic entrance after forty years of being away.” Verglaust assured, hugging his wife from behind.

“A-Are you sure? I don’t exactly want you guys to enter Wajiri alone. I mean you don’t even speak Jokani, except Kevin.”

“Asya, it’s fine! We all brushed up on it thanks to you and Kevin, so we know enough to get by,” Brynjolf smiled as he suddenly picked Asya up. “Now, stop dawdling… Na nenda kwa WATOTO WAKO!!!”

“Bryn? When did you learn Jokan-AAH!! BRYN!! BRYN WAIT!! WAITWAITWA-AAAHHHHH!!!”

Asya could only squeal as she was thrown from the boat, across the water and onto the ship, crashing loudly into something wooden. Verglaust, Kevin and Elbent immediately snapped around to glare at their husband, who shrugged innocently.

“WHAT?! Someone should comfort the kids, right?”

“Did you have to throw her so hard?! She could have just asked Apo or Conduit to fly her over!!” Elbent snapped.

“Oh it's fine! Besides, Apo can be her big entrance!” Brynjolf smiled smugly with a flick of his mop of silver hair.

“Ugh, fine. But next time, warn her and us about your idea of throwing her like a rock.” Elbent huffed as she sat down and crossed her arms, Verglaust sitting beside her and rubbing her back to soothe her nervous leg tapping.

“I promise, love… Just thought it would be handy using my half-giant strength for once.”

“Uuugghh, I swear you and Asya are worse braggers than Kevin, sometimes.” Elbent groaned with a sigh.

“Bu- I am RIGHT HERE!!” Kevin gestured to himself with both hands on his chest, before he too sat down beside Brynjolf with a sigh, his gaze returning to the ship.

....

............

“… You think she’ll be ok?” Ferrous asked Flora beside him, watching the boat slowly row away from the ship, as Bori wailed and slammed his tiny fists against Divot’s back whilst over their shoulder.

“If I know your mom well enough after all this time, I’d say as long as your birth mom and your parents all stick together, she’ll be ok.” Flora assured, resting her head on Ferrous’s shoulder.

“I hope-,”

“…aaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!,” A scream and a blur of orange suddenly flew overhead, causing Rodimus nearby to scream while frantically running in zig-zags trying to figure out where to go, before he finally jumped out of the way, just as it landed with a loud crash in a pile of boxes behind them. “…. Ow.”

“… so? Uh... was that... Mama Asya?”

Rushing over towards the pile of broken wood, Ferrous, Flora, Rodimus, Starstrike, Divot and the now quiet Bori all crept closer to the crash site… to see a dizzy and grumbling Asya emerge from the rubble. “Ugh, that cheeky, giant fu- Uuuhhh… Hi, darlings.”

“Mama Asya? What are you doing here?! Why aren’t you going with Mom and the others?” Ferrous queried.

“And how the hell are you still alive?!” Rodimus exclaimed, brushing off some wood chips from the crushed crates.

“I… Ugh, ow… I came to say a proper goodbye to Bori and the rest of the kids, to make sure you were all ok before I left.” Asya groaned as she stretched out her back, letting a few more pieces of wood fall from her shoulders and horns as she did so.

“By… flying with Apo’s borrowed wings? Or…”

“Brynjolf threw me.”

“Ah, that makes more sense.”

Laughing at the absurdity of it all, with Starstrike rolling his eyes as he walked away with Flora to give the two space, Asya and Ferrous were soon interrupted by another wail, as Divot finally placed Bori down and allowed him to toddle over to Asya as he ran to her. With a smile instantly blooming on her face, she knelt down to scoop him up into her arms.

“Shhh, it’s ok. It’s alright, darling. Mama’s here,” Asya softly whispered to her hybrid child, rocking him gently despite his size becoming far too encumbered for her to more easily hold. “Ngh, you’re starting to grow as big as your Baba, aren’t you, sweetpea?”

“Um… Mom?” Ferrous timidly interrupted, fiddling with his hat he held on his lap as he stepped towards Asya.

“Shh shh, it’ll be ok, darling. Hm? Oh, is everything ok, little flame?”

“I… Ok, forgive me, but I have to ask … Mom, are you leaving the ship? Like… for good?”

“… Ferrous, I…,” Struggling to find the right words, she gently placed Bori down and kept him close with her tail, allowing him to hug it as she stepped forward to gently cup Ferrous’s cheek and wipe away a stray tear with her thumb, being extremely cautious with her talon fingernail. “Honey… I’ll be honest too… I don’t know when I’ll be back. But whatever happens once I reach Oasis… I’ll have to stay here in Joka Ardhi, to fix what’s been broken, both by the battle ahead and what my father did to my home. I… I’ve been avoiding this day for most of my life, and I’m terrified of what awaits for me at the end of this journey. It’s been a journey that I… I’ve been too scared to start, and I’m honestly still scared now, when I know I need to be brave. Not just for my sake, but for the people that are relying on me to do the right thing. Both the Jokani… and the people that have come to depend on me here on this ship.

"And the right thing, Ferrous… it might cost me my life, even if I succeed. And I’m so scared of never being able to see you or my babies ever again. I wish I could act brave for you, Ferrous… But I just can’t. I don’t have the strength to pretend that everything will work out. I have no idea what will happen... and I'm so scared.”

“Oh Mom, hey, hey, it’s ok! It’s gonna be ok. I know it will,” Ferrous pulled Asya in for a tight hug, burying his face into her shoulder as the ebony Dragonkin continued to cry. “You got Ma and the Dads supporting you, Uncle Blue who literally cannot die, Uncle Hawk will help protect you, and you got us. I know you don’t want to involve us in your battle in fear of us… you know… losing… But we can help, Mom! We can fight alongside you.”

“NO!!! Stars above, Ferrous, I can’t let you do that! I’d never forgive myself if I saw you on the battlefield. No… Ferrous, listen to me,” Standing back, Asya held Ferrous by both his shoulders as she stared him down with a serious glare and tone of voice. “Ferrous O’Murchadha-Mutheru… You are going to inherit the mantle of captain, not just because we want you to… but because you consented to accept it, and because you are worthy of such a title and responsibility. And should we succeed in this mission… you will be a prince by proxy. Too much is already on your shoulders, on this day alone…

"So I only ask that you be our last line of defence against my father. If we cannot stop him, and you receive the signal from Conduit… You must stand ready to kill him, no matter what. He cannot leave this country, let alone enter these seas… And you must stop him if we cannot. That… is all I will ask of you to help me with. That will be your battle. But I pray to the Evenstar that it never comes to that… But I know I must tell you to prepare either way.”

“Don’t worry, Asya… You can count on us.” Rodimus assured, placing a hand on her shoulder to share a reassuring smile with her and Ferrous.

Letting out a long sigh, Asya soon fell to her knees to pull Bori close, allowing him and Ferrous to hug her as she once more broke down into a fit of tears. Slowly but surely, Sira, Indi, even Conduit as he flew on board from the boat with his silent leathery wings, the five children of Asya, Elbent, Kevin, Brynjolf and Verglaust all approached and surrounded the maternal Dragonkin in a massive hug, allowing her to cry until she could cry no more… and sigh happily as she melted into the embrace of her children.

“Thank you, darlings… Thank you all.” Asya sniffled, holding the young adult children close as Bori purred while nuzzling his mother’s cheek.

The sirens Ferrous and Indi finally stepped back, allowing the curse-born crystal gargoyle Conduit and blue Dragonkin Sira to pick up Bori, in order to completely free Asya from the dog pile of her brood. The moment she was back on her feet, or rather paws, she immediately pulled them back in for one last squeeze.

“I’m so proud of you, my beautiful babies!”

“Ugh, Mama!” Conduit groaned, but immediately chuckled as he wrapped his wings around his family.

Finally, Asya stepped away to place a kiss onto each child, before she handed Bori to Indi and made her way to the edge of the deck, pausing to turn around and face the crew once more.

“Everyone of the Immortal Sun… Thank you. Thank you for accepting me, and for being my home for so many decades. Now… I ask only that you become the home for my children and their next generation to come. I… I’ll miss this ship with all my heart, but I’ll never regret the memories I made here. Thank you, everyone… For everything.”

With a smile and a stray tear trickling down her cheek again, Asya watched as Conduit flew ahead back to the boat with Elbent and the others of their team. And, with Ferrous and the others waving from the ship, with Solclave holding his shoulder beside him, they watched as the ship rowed further and further away, towards Joka Ardhi before Asya stepped back and made a running jump, leaping from the ship and becoming a fiery comet to soar over the sea, towards the city of Wajiri...

Towards the pier that Asya fled from over forty years ago.

#pirateformers au #ezra iolite og work #long read #One Last Wish series

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lgwifey · 2 years

Text

PARTIES & PYJAMAS

noel gallagher x fem!reader

90s!damon albarn x fem!reader

summary : Y/n's life was nothing short of ordinary. She left her friends and family behind for her dad's job but soon made new ones.

warning : n/a

MASTERLIST

1988

She was nineteen when she left Manchester. It wasn't even like she only moved to Blackpool or something, no her dad just had to get a job in Whitechappel !

Y/n waved goodbye from the brand new Ford's passenger seat, the boxes and bags of luggage taking up both the boot and the back seats. Her friends all waved back, the rotten group of council estate kids she been sibling tight with since as far back as she could remember, the rotten kids she'd been apart of her whole life. There was only one person missing.

"Ready to go ?"

The voice hid the pain. Three months ago you wouldn't think that this would be happening, nothing out of the ordinary would seem to be happening.

"Yeah,"

Her voice was pulled out to be more steady after her start of words,

"Yeah let's get goin' ."

Her bitten hands pulled the grey seatbelt over her torso and clicked it into the red buttoned slot.

He wasn't there when she needed him. The past few years that had been happening way to often.

So she got driven away. She left with her eyes locked on the pair of matching ice blue eyes as his younger brother waved her off.

1992

The room echoed, a thud filling y/n's head. She rushed her way through the clusters of sweaty and drunk adolesence.

If it wasn't for it being Jess' party there would be no way in hell that she'd be here right now. She had been struggling to keep down stomach acid all week and the slightest bit of noise freaked her brain into acting as if someone was playing the drums in her head. Yet here she was, dolled up to the nines in the tightest and shortest dress she owned with a full face of makeup and her hair done. Her shoes where casual blue and white adidas.

Well, casual blue and white, vomit splattered adidas now.

Thats how Jessica found her, bent over next to the front garden gate throwing up onto Hazel's bloomed petunias.

"Oh y/n/n ! My mum's gonna kill me."

When the brunette twenty year old finally pulled her friend out of the flowers she scouldered her, only then did more yellow stomach acid poor itself on the other set of golden flower's Hazel had just finished planting the other week.

"I'm dead !"

By the time everyone had been kicked out of the house by the youngest Albarn it was just passed two am.

She threw herself on her single bed, y/n following after.

"Hey, if you wanna look on the brightside, you can always just blame it on Damon ?"

Jess pushed herself up to balance on her elbows, so she was able to glare at her friend.

"I'm next to positive that he's in London, why d'you think I held it tonight."

Y/n gave a groan, straightening her head to stare up at the popcorn ceiling again.

The entire of downstairs was covered in post-teen chaos residue. The girls had had the genius idea to put one of y/n's little brother's baby gates on the stairs which had somehow kept all the drunk idiots they called friends away.

"When d'your folks get in ?"

"Eight twenty."

Her brain wasn't ready to do maths yet but she was near positive that her body wouldn't be up by then if she felt asleep now.

So, y/n reluctantly pushed herself off of the duvet and back down the stairs, muttering to Jess that she can stay in bed and that she'll sort out the mess.

It took about two more hours to fully tidy the house and y/n was sure that the Albarn's neighbours where going to kill the twenty three year old for turning the hoover on at 4:30 am.

As she was about to lock the front door, the handle slid down and the white plastic cracked open. She felt her body jump out of it's skin but took a breath smothered in relief when a blonde haired twenty four year old peaked through.

He fully emerged when he found the lights to be on.

"What time d'ya call this young man ?"

The y/h/c girl gave a mocking tut after Damon had shut the door and was slipping his coat of.

He mustn't of noticed she was there because his body stumbled backwards and nearly onto the floor upon finding her standing in the open door's frame.

"Oh, right. Just you."

Damon picked himself up, scowling at the grinning woman.

"Don't you have your own house to get to ?"

"Aren't you a fully grown man sneaking into his parent's house at half four ? By the way, your mum and dad aren't back intill eight."

He gave a hum in reply, moving to the livingroom to sit down. His bag was thrown on the couch and he soon followed. It took Damon a minute before he looked around the room in confusion.

"It's tidy."

He gave y/n a bizzare look.

She followed his actions and flopped onto the same couch, falling into his side whilst he threw an arm over her shoulders.

"Pity, s'always fun to see Jess in a panic."

Y/n smacked his chest, a contrast from her other action where she nudged her head into the partition between his shoulder and neck.

"Don't be mean Albarn."

" 'm not being mean."

There was a wave of comfortable silence, the pair relaxing into each other as y/n's smudged eyelinered eyes fluttered shut. The moment ceased when she felt a callus finger drift over her cheek, waking her up a bit.

She was still half asleep and had completely forgotten she needed to change out of her clinging dress.

"You okay ? You're looking a bit peaky."

"Just tired."

Damon gave a laugh, he always loved when she was tired, her accent always came out thick.

One of the things he loved about her, her peculiar accent. Before she moved a few doors down four years ago, he'd never noticed how cute a manchester accent can be. She'd quickly faided it after living in Whitechappel for a year so he barely got to hear it, but when she was tired it always reappeared.

Y/n gave a disgruntled groan when she felt the body beside her move and ended up falling into the arm of the couch.

"Come on, bed."

She refused to move, throwing her legs up onto the rear of the seat and curling up into a ball, drifting off. Before she knew it, she was in Damon's arms and being carried up the stairs, having been dropped onto the floor for a moment as the man wrestled with the baby gate.

1994

They sat together again, y/n crushed against Damon's side as she finished tidying up from another of Jessica Albarn's house parties.

"Coping 's my favourate still."

Their indepth, no out of limit chats at three in the morning. They happened for often than they used to, even though Damon was away more often and y/n was struggling with the life of an ordinary adult in England.

"Really ?"

She gave a hum at his question, turning so she was able to look in his eyes whilst they spoke. Damon dropped his hands so they relaxed around her hips and she opened her mouth to reply.

"It's lyrics are real, they're not a stor-"

The conversation was cut off by the front door opening.

Hazel appeared in the livingroom soon after and immediatly caught sight of the two mid-twenty year olds looking like deers caught in headlights.

Y/n pulled up her pyjama top which was dropping down and Damon slowly retracted his hand from it's resting spot of y/n's hip.

"Oh."

Before she could further her shock, Keith appeared in the doorframe, soon growing an equally as shocked expression.

His son with his daughter's best friend.

His son with the northen girl from down the road. Not that he had anything against y/n being from the North, but he wouldn't be overly-estatic if she were to date Damon.

"Oh."

"Hi."

"Urm, hello darling,"

Hazel tryed to disguise the shock she was dealing with at the moment,

"Where's Jess ?"

"Oh, she's upstairs. She got tired after the third movie."

"Oh, okay."

"Shouldn't you two be sleeping ?"

At Keith's question, Damon gave a scoff. Sometimes they forgot he was twenty six. Plus, he only got to visit home every few weeks, why would he spend the time sleeping.

"Yeah whatever. Come on tweedle dumb."

Damon found himself dragging the half asleep y/n up the stairs, her polka dot pyjama bottoms straping against the carpet as she stumbled behind him.

The next morning, well afternoon, y/n found herself doing a walk of shame down the road to her house. Three doors to pass and a handfull of parenys giving her dirty looks as they walked their children home from school and crossed paths with the pyjama clad twenty five year old who was walking barefoot.

As she clicked open the ocean blue painted front door, she found two pairs of unfamiliar shoes on the white carpet, next to her little brother's baby sized reeboks.

"Dad ! Sarah! I'm home."

Her shouts dragged out in a questioing tone and face was the perfect picture of utter confusion but her question was answered immediatly once she entered the living room.

Upon stepping past the silver line which sat awkwardly on the floor of the doorframe, y/n found two faces sat on the double couch. Two face which she hadn't seen in five or six years.

She let out a scream before running over to them, falling over the brothers as she tryed to hug them both. Y/n let go and Noel shifted over so she could sit between them.

"You didn't tell me they where coming !"

The woman scowled at her dad who was sat in the armchair across the room with a grin plastered on his face.

"If i'd of known, I could've delayed Jess' party last night so you can meet all me mates."

"Nice pyjamas by the way."

Y/n elbowed Liam after his comment causing the younger man to break out into laughter and Noel to grow a smile.

"Well they already-"

Y/n shot a discrete glare to her dad as he began to speak. Everyone knew you didn't bring Oasis and Blur up to the other band's members. You especially don't let on to the Gallagher brothers that the lead singer of Blur lives a few houses down from where they're sat.

"They're already familiar with what you look like in pyjamas, could barely ever get you home when we lived in Burnage."

He turned to look at Sarah after his juttery cover up,

"The boys lived on the same street and I think the sleepovers where endless."

"You cut me off me sleepover extravaganzers when I was fourteen."

Y/n rolled her eyes, complaining.

After about an hour of random conversation, catching up on each others lives since y/n left the estate and on the Burnage gossip, Sarah had to leave to go and do her shift at the local hospital and y/n's dad had to leave to go and visit her step-grandparents. Mikey, y/n's little brother, was sat on Liam's lap whilst the toddler attacked a small tub of playdoh. They had to look after him seeing how he couldn't go to work with his mum and his had a fear of his grandparent's boxer dog, understandable seeing how it bit him when he was one.

The kid had attatched himself to Liam after loosing his awkward shyness aroud the stangers who had suddenly appeared at his house. Y/n had her suspicions of it being because the twenty two year old was wearing a similar top to him.

When the parents left, y/n put a Billy Joel cd on as background music, much to Liam's distates.

"Y'know, down south's drove you soft y/n/n."

She rolled her eyes at him, Noel relaxing and throwing an arm over the girl's shoulder.

"Why, cause I ain't nickin' bikes from corner shops with yeh."

"Y'know what I mean."

"Drop it Liam."

Noel sent a glare over y/n's shoulder from his position relaxed against the couch back.

"Just saying."

Liam threw his hands up in defence, Mikey joining the conversation with a pouting lip.

"Y/n. I'm hungry !"

Her eyes flickered over to a clock which was dustily sat on the fireplace's white mantlepiece.

It made sence, it was three in the afternoon and he hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast seeing how the brothers turned up just before lunch, so she'd been told.

"Y' want beans an' toast ?"

A grin littered the three year old's face as he nodded enthusiastically at the suggestion, jumping off Liam's knee and dragging the man to follow his sister, who was heading in the direction of the kitchen. Noel followed after his brother, feeling awkward staying by himself.

The y/l/n's kitchen and dining room where connected so whilst y/n dashed in and out of kitchen cupboards to get the things needed for Mikey, Liam was dragged to sit at the six-seater table. Noel sauntered in behind his brother and leant against the counter, watching his friend quickly cook up the fine british cuisine for her little brother.

Mikey had started on his interigation question to Liam. He had finally come out of his shell and y/n was cringing at every mouth he spoke, begging the toaster to hurry up so she could find something to shut him up.

"So, how do you know y/n ?"

"Well, we grew up together in Manchester."

"Manchester."

Mikey mimicked Liam's accent before laughing.

"I've been to Manchester before."

"Have you ?"

"Yeah. My daddy took me to go and watch City against Liverpool."

The Gallagher boys gave grins at the mention on their football team, but before either could strike up conversation, Mikey was onto his next question.

"Are you dating my sister ?"

Y/n nearly choked on Mikey's question, which was directed at Noel. Said manucunian had a uncomfortable expression on his face when Liam shifted to look at their reactions.

Y/n pratically threw the plate down infront of the toddler, handing him a set of green plastic cultery.

"Why don't you eat your food before it goes cold."

Mikey gave a nod and started eating the heinz beans in the center of his plate. The silence unfortunatly didn't last long.

"Because you where hugging before, and you had your arm over her."

"We're just friends."

Liam let out a snort, quickly apologising insencerly with laughter taking over him.

Soon y/n had re-distracted her brother with food and playdoh, giving her time to converse with her friends.

"Just friends ?!"

That was the first scoff off of Liam when Mikey had ran out of the room to go and grab one of his colouring books and felt tips.

"Couldn't prize youse two off of each other."

"Aight, well that where when we were kids Liam."

The conversation was immediatly ended when a scream was heard front near the front door.

In a panic, y/n ran towards where it sounded like Mikey was, she heard two sets of feet behind her as she dashed through the doorways.

He heart faltered in it's heavy pounding when she found the blonde vocalist who lived down the road in the doorway of the front door. Mikey was up in his arms, dramatically gesturing about something or the other.

Y/n assumed that the Gallagher brothers hadn't appeared behind her yet seeing how an outrage had occured.

"Dames ? Urm, what are you doing here ?"

The older man gave her a smile before pointing to the pair of bright white reeboks.

"Got them cleaned for you after last night."

She returned the smile, pulling him in for a quick hug and giving him a quick kiss whilst taking Mikey out of his arms and discretely opening the door. Her current task was to get rid of Damon before Liam and Noel saw or heard him, which she was surprised hadn't happen yet.

"Well i'll see yeh later Dames."

Before Damon could reply, the confused twenty six year old was push out onto the other side of the now closed, dark blue door.

Mikey had disappeared back into the livingroom when y/n turned back around. Noel was slouched against the doorframe, she looked to him, giving a soft smile to him.

Before she knew it, y/n was hugging Noel in a fashion which would suggest that they'd never lost contact.

"I'm realy sorry that I miss you leaving. Y'know that right ?"

The woman pulled herself against him more, resting her head on his shoulder whilst her arms where hidden by his black jacket he kept on at all times

Her responce was a hum before he let her go, turning her to face him.

"Look, the whole reason I came, other than feeling band 'cause i'm an arse who left y'. Look, we're goin' to the Brits next month and I know it's short notice, but I also know that you've always wanted t' go. So wanna go with us ?"

#90s #oasis #blur #fem!reader #damon albarn #damon albarn x fem!reader #damon albarn x reader #blur x reader #noel gallagher x fem!reader #noel gallagher x reader #noel gallagher #platonic!liam gallagher x fem!reader #oasis x reader #oasis x fem!reader #blur x fem!reader

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ask-uts-earthspark-au · 1 year

Note

Nightshade, if you want to talk about something, go as deep as you want. You have amazing knowledge and observational skills, I bet Thrash is just jealous.

Nightshade: Ah, thank you, altho-

Thrash: I’M NOT JEALOUS, I’M JUST PRETTY DAMN SURE SOCRATES IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUCKIN DEAD!

Nightshade: *snort*

Thrash: I MEAN, LET’S BE REAL HERE.

Thrash: WE ALREADY GET THAT SHIT FROM MEGS AND TARANTULAS, WE DON’T NEED IT OUR OWN PERSONAL LOCAL BCE PHILOS-

Thrash: wait- did ‘nonbinary’ as a concept even exist before Christ?

Thrash: WELL NOW I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS THAT I NEED SOME GOOD GODDAMN ANSWERS FOR, AND I’M NOT TAKING MY ASS TO BED TONIGHT UNTIL I GET THEM, FUCK IT.

Nightshade: *giggling and snorting*

“Thrash Malto.”

Thrash:

Thrash: shit.

Thrash: I said all of that out loud didn’t I.

Nightshade: mhm. *restrained giggles and a nod*

Thrash: well before I get my ass raked on the coals by mom, they’re right - about whole going in depth thing, n’ shit. Just maybe remember the rest of are dumbass numbskulls, unlike you, brainiac. Dumb it down for us.

Nightshade: I know, I just get carried away. Now go, before you get in more trouble than you already are. You probably owe like, 50$ to the swear jar.

Thrash: I take back the brainiac remark. You’re supposed to be smart, and good at math, Nightshade.

Nightshade: *cackling*

“Thrash, get over here. We’re having a talk.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Just reminding our locally sourced failed mathematician they’re too big brain for us smooth brained folk, and losing a wrinkle or two now and then would do them some good.”

*Smile*

Thrash isn’t jealous, he’s just kind of rough around the edges, and prefers to keep his affection in an almost tough love kind of way. Like classic siblings calling each other morons from across the house, but they’ll go to bat and ball the moment anyone else gets involved.

He loves Nightshade to death, truly he does, but it’s not hard to get a little more than a touch exhausted/exasperated from the melodramatic way they talk, especially when they get enough of that from Tara and Megs.

Nightshade however is used to it, and likes that he’s always certain to use smart people when he does that. He acknowledges they’re smart, he’s just tired of their theatrics. They’ve started to take it as both a reminder and a compliment in one.

It’s an odd dynamic but it’s theirs, and they work with it. If ever the need they’ll change it up so there’s no hard feelings. :).

#thank you for the ask!#witchybluedeity #ask box #answered asks #terran answers #transformers #earthspark #transformers earthspark #nightshade malto #thrash malto

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usagis-tsukinos · 1 year

Text

Brutal Love - 19

Read, Comment, or Kudo on Ao3!

Chapter 18

Invisible

Pairing: Lucifer x F!Reader

Rating: E for Everyone

Warnings: Angst

Words: 1,063

Ages: 14/16

A/N: A Sam fic, including his perspective during this time.

ask to tag: @just-a-sleepy-idiot

“Would you, maybe, wanna go to the movies on Saturday with me?” Sam awkwardly stood over her in the library as she sat with Gabriel in study hall, chatting about their plans for the night before Sam Winchester had made his way over. He’d watched her in class the past few months since he transferred over and his brother Dean was in one of her friend Gabriel’s sibling’s class. Sam was immediately introduced to the fact that while she was single, she was absolutely infatuated with Gabriel’s older brother Lucifer. He was just hoping that eventually she’d get over him and try to actually date someone her own age.

“The movies?” Her face lit up and Sam blushed just at the sight. Okay, you can do this. “Yeah,” he cleared his throat and shuffled the weight of his book bag on his shoulder. “Is there, uh, anything you wanted to see lately?”

She thought about it, looking at her blank notebook page before turning to Gabriel, who attempted to keep his face in check. He knew this wasn’t going to end well, but he figured he’d at least let the kid try. “Did you wanna go see anything this weekend? We’d have to ask Michael if you can go, too.” Gabe bit his lip, trying so hard not to tell her that Sam is asking for a date with just her and nobody else. Before he could answer, she chimed, “Oh! Michael should think it’s okay, cause you aced that math test, and cause then you can ask Kali to come and we can all go!” Making eye contact with Sam, Gabe gave him the best I’m Sorry, She Doesn’t Get It face he could without her noticing.

Gabriel, taking her hand gently, still tried his best, “Why don’t you and Sam here,” he nodded his head in the boy’s direction, “Go and hang out? Besides, you’re sleeping at my place tonight anyway, right? You can tell your folks you made a new friend and you’re gonna go see a movie on Saturday!” She stared at him, having barely looked at Sam this whole time before actually moving her entire body in his direction and looking him over with a blank expression. All she could think was, What if Gabe gets bored and wants to hang out? What if Lucifer needs something? Quietly, she nodded, almost reluctantly, before smiling a little at Sam, “Sure, we can go out that day. My parents just have to talk to your parents.”

Sam almost punched the air before registering completely what she said. “My parents?” “Well, yeah.” She shrugged, not understanding the problem, clearly. “They just have to meet up with either your mom or your dad before we hang out or talk on the phone if they’re too busy to meet. Just so I don’t, like, get kidnapped.” She laughed and Sam gave a weak laugh in response. “S-Sure.” He cleared his throat again. “I can do that.”

Once he got home, he immediately went to Dean’s room, knocking frantically to where Dean thought someone was getting murdered. “Hey! What happened!” “I need your help!” Sam stuttered, almost hating that he had to even ask Dean for help with girls. “I asked a girl out and- well, her parents have to talk to Dad before we can go to the movies.”

Dean stared for a moment, processing what was happening. Sammy, little nerdy, weird Sammy, asked a girl out? He couldn’t be more proud! “Well, good for you, Sammy! So here’s what you do–” “Dean! Are you listening to me? Dad’s not even in town!”

“Oh. Right. So. Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll just tell her parents Dad’s out of town, and then they can talk to me and I’ll drive you guys to the movies, what do you say?” “You’d do that?” “Of course. You think I wouldn’t miss my baby brother’s first date?”

That being said, on Saturday after speaking to her parents and meeting up just for extra safety precautions, Sam and her were finally on their way to the mall to see the movie they’d agreed on. Dean offered to chaperone, but was quickly shooed away by Sam as they got to the mall entrance. For once, it finally felt like something good was happening in Sam’s life. He was in a good school, he was making some form of friends, he was on a date with a pretty girl–

Standing at the movie theater entrance with his crush, Gabriel ran up to Sam’s date to give her a hug and Sam Winchester thought he was gonna die on the spot. It wasn’t just that it was Gabriel and his date Kali, it was the fact that somehow, of all the people, Lucifer Shurley also stood a few feet away as Sam watched his date rush over to Lucifer to give him a hug, only to reject her because she was being too loud and clingy. It felt like his heart fell into his stomach. The whole time it was, “Lucifer, share popcorn with me!” or, “Lucifer, hold my hand, I don’t wanna lose you!” As Sam dejectedly followed the four of them around the movie theater for snacks and looking at posters before the movie started.

This absolutely sucked, and as miserable as he was, Sam couldn’t help notice the way she looked at Lucifer, or platonically held Gabriel’s hand as Kali lightly glared at her for even touching him. It wasn’t just third wheeling, it was like fifth wheeling. He almost wished Dean would’ve chaperoned despite his insistence that they were fine to be by themselves. The rumors were true, she was obsessed with the blond haired Shurley and Sam felt absolutely crushed by this realization. He couldn’t tell what was worse, her complete naivete that this was a romantic date and not a group social gathering, or the fact Lucifer was so.. Dismissive of her affections. As the movie went on, and as they went to get food afterwards, it felt like Sam couldn’t have felt lonelier; and yet Gabriel was there inviting him to the Shurley house to hang out more, and she was there holding Sam’s hand to encourage him to not let the fun end just yet.

This was going to be a very long school year for Sam Winchester, but hopefully a better one.

#brutal love #uhhhhhhh hi guys lol #it's been a while have something new #lucifer x reader #Lucifer spn #lucifer supernatural

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rainysaturdayafternoon · 1 year

Text

*tries to write her science paper*

*fails to write her science paper*

*tries to do math*

*fails to do math*

*tries to do art for art*

*the art ain’t artin’*

Feeling really productive tonight, folks.

#leah’s lost thoughts

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toskinawolf · 1 year

Text

[[ I don't miss the drama of the 2015 DARP fandom but damn do I miss the dash activity.

...shit I just did the math and that was eight years ago. Creators above and below, I could wax nostalgic about it for a lifetime but bitterness spoils the brew. anyways gonna be here tonight & on discord & probs try to send in memes n stuff to folks if there's one's that fit Li's voice. ]]

#ooc #tbd

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blazedrawsstuff · 1 year

Text

Caspian Lochlyn, son of The Water Demons from "Are You Afraid of The Dark?" Sidenote, that green stuff is not slime, it's green seawater.

Caspian Lochlyn

Son of The Water Demons

Parent

The Water Demons

Age

Killer Style

Nautical style, I mean come on, were you expecting anything different from a WATER demon?

Freaky Flaw

Flaws are a bit subjective don't cha think? Some folks would say I'm "greedy" and "a swindler", I'd say I'm doing what I can to give myself the best treatment.

Pet

June, my pet clam, my precious pearl-making princess!

Favorite Activity

Aside from pursuing financial efforts, I'm into boating and decorating my room.

Pet Peeve

Don't ever steal my stuff without asking, especially if you value being able to sleep tonight.

Favorite Subject

Economics, if you wanna get the most bang for your buck, you gotta nail the basics.

Least Favorite Subject

Advanced Maths. Because I'm bad it? Quite the opposite, actually. It's just such a snorefest.

Favorite Color

Navy Blue, Gold, and Red

Favorite Food

Tempura shrimp, I like all kinds of seafood really, but Tempura's got that crispy texture that just can't be beat.

Friends

Richard Blackview (OC)

Abilities

Underwater Breathing

Caspian is able to breathe underwater as if he was on land.

Immortality

Due to being undead, he is immortal

Skillset

Deception

Caspian has been known to use several tactics to swindle others of their money or valuables

Navigation

Naturally comes with his boating hobby, he is good with directions.

Personality

Caspian is a swindler. A selfish, overly ambitious, arrogant swindler. He has no problem cheating others out of their money and valuables when it suits him. He is does not have much sense of fear of punishment, confident in the idea that he won't get caught, and if he does, he'll find a way out of it.

That being said, there is a sweet side to him, since he loves his pet, has some profound views on police abuses of power (though part of it is because he's a scammer), and his friendship with Richard is surprisingly healthy.

Trivia/Additional Information

Caspian's first name comes from the Caspian sea while his last name comes from the term "loch" meaning "lake".

His birthday is October 15th, which comes from the day "The Tale of The Water Demons" episode of Are You Afraid of The Dark debuted on TV. This makes him a Libra.

His headcanon VA is Matt Hill, who voiced Ed in Ed Edd and Eddy (specifically when Ed does his impression of Eddy). It would have been Tony Sampson, but he has since retired from voice acting.

His personality and VA came from the fact that the above mentioned Tony Sampson, who voiced Eddy was Shawn Mackenzie, one of the protagonists of the episode "The Tale of The Water Demons"

His hairstyle was based on Lorenzo from the Total Drama series.

#monster high #monster high oc #caspian lochlyn

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nielution · 1 year

Note

for spotify wrapped- 12, 53, and 80?

Thanks for the ask, dear!

12. Clueless by Cheem

53. Tonight You Belong to Me by The Lennon Sisters

80. Caroline by The Glorious Sons

I love this mix of genres lmao. Intentionally genre-defying punk/rap with a dash of math rock, a vocal quartet from the 50s-60s, and Canadian folk-rock

#Spotify #raphaellalacognizi

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 2 years

Text

“Not everybody is as nuts as I am about writing and stuff, I understand that, I’m not prescribing what anyone should do. I just can’t relate to it when people will Tweet, going, ‘Well I’m in Hull for my show tonight, and it’s lunch time, how am I going to kill these five hours?’ And people will Tweet going, ‘Why not see a film?’ And not that you shouldn’t see a film, not that you shouldn’t do anything. It just astonishes me that someone would every have five hours, and their thought would be, ‘How can I make this time expire? How can I bring myself one day closer to the end?’ It amazes me. I’ve never understood boredom as a phenomenon, unless you’re in a job where you’re forced to do something shit and you have to concentrate on it. Of course I understand that. But I’ll see people going – social media’s bad for it, because people often express these sort of sentiments, I’ll often see people going, ‘I don’t know what to do today.’ I just don’t understand it, because quite apart from anything else, you used a computer or a smartphone to put that on, so there’s a hell of a lot of things, like I don’t know, just Google Bolivia, and find out some stuff about it. Christ, just go onto Wikipedia and use its random pages generator. When I’ve had no ability to write or to work, I’ve had plenty of happy times just acquiring three or four pieces of random knowledge. It’s not some sort of lust for knowledge, even, you don’t have to retain any of it. The world is just so complicated and interesting. And I understand that if you’re depressed, or… sometime you don’t feel like it. I do understand feeling sluggish or washed out about life, everyone has that. But if you’ve got plenty of energy and you’re feeling fine, but you just don’t know what to do with yourself, I just don’t understand that.” - Mark Watson, Made of Human/Who Hurt You podcast, 2017

Holy hell, he just summarized so much of what I think. Something that has set me apart from so many people I know for pretty much all my life. I remember first articulating it when I was about ten years old, and explained to my mother that “bored” doesn’t happen to me when I have nothing to do, only when I have something to do. Like I hated math class so if I had to focus on math homework, which I found boring, I’d be bored. But sometimes I heard other kids complain about being bored even when nothing was happening, and I didn’t get that. Because if nothing’s happening, you’re free in your own head. You can daydream, making stuff up, brainstorm for stuff you’re writing (yeah I wrote poetry when I was ten, this fact will not surprise anyone who’s ever met me).

And that was before I had constant access to the internet - I used the internet on the family computer for a limited amount of time per day, but I didn’t have access to the internet in my bedroom. What I did have was a non-internet-connected computer on which I could type things, a collection of books, and my CDs and boom box. And that was more than enough! I could read and write and listen to music or just sit down and think of things. But now that I have the internet, there’s even less reason to be bored. There’s so much in the world. Sometimes I think of how even within my niches, I’ll never really scratch the surface. I’ve spent my whole life being into Canadian folk music, and there’s so much Canadian folk music I’ve never heard. I'm a Canadian political news junkie, I listen to way more CBC news than is good for my health and I don't know have more than a surface-level understanding of the majority of issues in the country. I’ve spent 2.5 years on this British comedy thing, and I joke about having watched/heard/read all the comedy in Britain, but I haven’t come close. And obviously I haven’t done that with all the comedy in Britain, but that’s true even when you break it down into smaller niches. All the panel shows on one channel or all the political satire from a specific decade or all the work that’s available online by stand-ups from something called the Chocolate Milk Gang who performed at Edinburgh in 2004. I’ll never find it all. And sometimes that thought seems overwhelming, but it means I’m definitely not in danger of boredom, as long as I have access to a phone and a podcast app.

But even without it, I still don’t get bored. After the bit I transcribed there, the podcast host Sofie Hagan asked Mark what he’d do if he were on a plane for 8 hours with nothing to read or listen to and no pen or paper and no phone. Mark replied that he’d be mad at himself for getting into that situation, which is also relatable - obviously the actual answer is to prepare better than that. But his answer for what he’d do in the hypothetical situation was the same as mine would be - think about stuff. He even specified that he didn’t mean in some meditative “let the thoughts come” way, which could get boring, he’d be systematic and write stuff in his head and try to figure things out. Which, yes, exactly! I’m quite confident that if I had to I could keep myself entertained with nothing but my brain for eight hours. Not because I could be relaxed, but because I wouldn’t be.

I like that he said it’s not specifically a lust for knowledge either. I think I am an intellectually curious person, but I also feel weird claiming that label because I don’t think I’m the same as people who are truly intelligent and want to be experts on the world. I just like to know stuff. In the last couple of years, I played geography games until I can label a blank map with all the countries and most major cities in the world, and all the regional areas of England and Ireland and Scotland and Wales. Because my brain just likes to know stuff, and it’s bothered by the massive quantities of things it doesn’t know. But that’s not the same as being a real intellectual. That’s just gathering information.

This has so often led to disconnect when I talk to people I know, and realize most of them fundamentally see things differently than I do. My mother’s like that, she gets bored so quickly and I don’t understand it. Or my friends who said there was nothing to do in lockdown. I definitely understand struggling mentally in lockdown - I did, we all did - but I struggled from missing things and people that matter to me. A lot of my friends struggled with just not knowing what to do with themselves, and I wanted to tell them... there’s an internet. You know there’s an internet, right? All the information in the world is out there and you’ll never know a tiny fraction of it but why not try? Pick a niche that interests you, and see if you can find a sub-section of it that’s small enough so you can scratch its surface.

Most of my friends and I had one big thing that occupied all our mental energy before COVID, running a team together and thinking every second about how to do its next steps. The difference is that when that shut down, I was able to jump onto something else to find interesting, because the world is infinite. While so many people I knew just didn’t know what to do if we don’t have this one thing that requires physical interaction and a whole system to keep it in place. And still other people I know, the few who were outside the bubble of that sport, never had a thing like that to begin with. They just always spent their time working and then figuring out how to kill time (note that none of my friends have kids, I suppose it changes things when that happens). I don’t understand how that happens.

Anyway, while I’m quoting from this podcast that I’m listening to, here’s another thing Mark Watson said in it, which I found hilarious because it’s an amusing thing to get competitive about. Listening to lots of the Comedian’s Comedian podcast lately, briefly getting into Britcom Twitter, and other things where comedians talk about their own careers, I’ve often seen comedians complain (usually half jokingly, or in the guise of a joke but clearly actually annoyed about it) about how they’re more [something] than other comics who get more credit than they do for being [that same thing]. It’s very on brand for Mark Watson’s version of this to be bragging that he’s more physically incompetent than other comedians:

“I lack confidence with physical tasks, I can’t really do, like, DIY or anything. I’m doing this charity rowing thing and I have to do extra classes because I’m so shit at rowing, and I hate being that clumsy. There’s a certain kind of lovable schtick that goes with it, a lot of comedians talk on stage about being sort of cheerfully incompetent and a bit dysfunctional. And that is all fine, but I think I’m the real deal. I’m a lot more dysfunctional than, you know, Seann Walsh or whoever else is claiming to be a dysfunctional white male.”

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