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xbarrjallenx · 2 years

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Dancing At A Funeral

Pairing: Ben Hargreeves x Gender-Neutral!Reader Summary: (Y/N) reminisced some of their memories with Ben during his funeral. Requested: Yes / No Word count: 2.592 Posted: 23.06.2022 Warning(s): Ben’s death, fluff, grief, mentions of blood, season two spoilers, unedited imagine Song inspiration: Good Grief - Bastille A/N: I wrote this imagine way back in 2020, after finishing Season 2, so it’s been sitting in my drafts for way too long and just posting it to celebrate Season 3. Yay! It’s too long, I know, but I hope you still like it. Also, should I keep this with Vanya or should I change to Viktor now? The happening dates back to Season 1, so I am not sure. Feedbacks are always appreciated, because my writing is very rusty. Help your girl to improve, please! Also, English is not my first language, so mistakes can be found. I’m sorry and thank you! - G. x Take note: (Y/N) and the Hargreeves siblings were twenty-one years old during the funeral.

It was one gloomy afternoon for six loving young adults: five of them were his extraordinary siblings and the remaining one was you, his beloved best friend.

The group was still shaken up for the heartbreaking news, but all of you managed to suppress the overflowing emotions by putting up your best poker face whilst you formed two neat semi-circles on both sides of his snow-covered casket.

“Why don’t you ever talk to your siblings about your feelings? Look at you right now: messy and all over the place.” You questioned while you pulled him in a gentle and comforting embrace.

“Emotions aren’t welcomed nor appreciated in the Hargreeves’ household, (Y/N). We’re all messed up, my siblings are just stronger than me.” He calmly informed you, lingering the warmth and comfort that your body emitted.

Ben Hargreeves - the sweetest and the most caring person that you have ever met in your life. He was loyal and understanding, an extraordinary person, abilities and character-wise.

“(Y/N), is everything all right?” Vanya derailed your train of thoughts, noticing how fixated your eyes were on your best friend’s picture - he seemed so happy and light-hearted.

“Yes. Thank you, Vanya!” You forcefully smiled, glancing at her with your slightly watery eyes. You were glad that she was still concerned about you, even though you barely saw her when Ben was still alive.

The rest of the Hargreeves siblings gave you a solace stare soon after, silently letting you know that they had your back at all times. It was a cold and snowy day, but their kindness and sympathy were enough to warm your body and your miserable heart.

“Kudos to you for staying strong, (Y/N)!” Klaus proudly exclaimed, slightly making you smile for his kind remarks.

Klaus. Klaus was the most supportive Hargreeves ever. He was the contrary of Ben, who was introvert, silent and shy. Klaus was rather extrovert, dorky and talkative. In fact, when the former wasn’t in the mood of talking, he was more of a listener, the latter was your companion on sputtering nonsense.

You were very grateful of them, Ben and Klaus were surely the reason that you have met each other, that you have become friends.

“Hey, dear!” A boy about your age startled you as he approached you whilst you bit on you calorie bomb pastry. “I’m so sorry to scare you, but I want to inform you that you have a stalker over there.” He pointed a booth with six twelve year olds, wearing immaculate and familiar uniforms: The Umbrella Academy.

They were famous. Well, the daily news were always full of them, so it was impossible to not acknowledge them.

“Excuse me?” You confusedly corrugated your forehead as you put your dessert back on its plate. “Aren’t you part of that group?”

He hummed and nodded. “Yes, but do you see that little kid there: shiny jet black hair, cute almond eyes, so handsome?” He moved his hands as he sincerely described the boy. “He’s my brother and he’s been admiring you since we came in.”

“That’s creepy, but he’s cute.” You chuckled as you waved your hands towards the children’s direction and the concerned boy covered his face with his both hands out of embarrassment, watching you and his brother through his fingers.

That moment was the beginning of your friendship with the Hargreeves siblings and, as they snuck out of their house almost every night to meet you at Griddy’s Doughnuts, you slowly learnt everything about them: from how their superpowers functioned to how dysfunctional their family was.

Although you got along very well with all of them, it was needless to say that your relationship with Ben, Klaus and Vanya were stronger. They were the most vulnerable ones in the Academy and they were never afraid to open up to you.

The friendship was amazing and it quickly grew, but, as the years went by, you also started falling apart - less siblings came to your daily meet ups, until Ben and Klaus were the only ones left. It didn’t mean that you hated the other siblings, though, you were still very fond of them, you were just not as close as before.

“Your bed is so soft!” Klaus exhaustedly commented as he messily plopped himself on your bed. The three of you decided to change your location since the pastries at Griddy’s Doughnuts started making you feel nauseous. You surely have tasted everything in that diner!

“Bookworm!” Ben shrieked at the sight of your huge book collection - it was his comfort object, mostly after using his powers during a mission.

Your friendship was not rocket science at all: they found their comfort person and they were grateful to have you. You were their only best friend and they perfectly knew that they could count on you, and vice versa. They were your safe haven, the ones who kept you safe and warm, and you were their pole star, the one who guided them when they were feeling lost or overwhelmed of their powers and Dad’s rules.

The two teenagers enjoyed visiting you almost every night, sometimes both of them would knock on your window, most times it would just be Ben, but never only Klaus, until one day, that very specific day.

“(Y/N)!” A trembling Klaus entered your window, despair and sorrow behind his voice. “(Y/N)!”

He was shaken up and felt uneasy. You were almost sure that something bad has happened in the Academy. “Klaus, breathe. Settle down and we’ll talk about it.”

You gave him your water bottle, letting him catch his breath. “(Y/N).”

“Klaus, take your time.” You gently announced, calming him down as you rubbed his back. What could have possibly happened? Nothing really bad, you hoped.

You both remained in silence for a little while - Klaus defeated his breathlessness and you watched him as he halted his emotions from spilling.

“Are you ready?” You carefully asked, getting the empty water bottle from Klaus’ hand. He just nodded in response. “All right, slowly and calmly.”

He started trembling once again and you continued rubbing his back, letting him know that he was not alone. He hardly swallowed as he gathered his courage to tell you everything.

You started panicking by seeing his actions, but you were the fortress between the two of you, you couldn’t break nor fall. Not right now.

“Something in the mission went wrong,” He sadly started, staring straightly in your eyes. “and Ben is gone.”

A big lump in your throat suddenly formed and it was very hard to swallow. Your shoulders fell down like teardrops, salted water started streaming down your face and your world fell apart.

Your hand and knees started to shake, not knowing how to take the news in. “It’s not a good joke, Klaus. You are lying!” You blurted out, eyes started to sting badly.

Ben meant so much to you and he perfectly knew it. He couldn’t just come over and joke about Ben’s life, it was illegal.

“(Y/N), honey.” Klaus engulfed you in a comforting hug, calming you down as you started to messily sob against the crook of his neck. You were hurt and your chest was so tight, heart breaking in small smithereens - he was now the one who needed to stay strong, for the both of you. “Yes, I know, I know. Just let it out, don’t be afraid.”

Well, so much for being the fortress. You felt that you weren’t strong, not at all - the enemy has attacked you one time and you quickly fell, you quickly broke. Ben and Klaus were the ones who gave you strength, but one of them brought all of it with him, in his grave.

“(Y/N),” A deep voice quickly shooed your thoughts away: Sir Reginald Hargreeves. “would you like to say a few words?”

You were so busy in reminiscing that you didn’t notice Reginald, Grace and Pogo arriving. Those memories with Ben made you happy, but a huge horde of sadness washed you away once the old man brought you back to reality: Ben was still dead.

Reginald Hargreeves never liked you and it was strange that he didn’t throw a fit as soon as he saw you in one of his kids’ funeral - perhaps it was out of respect for Ben. He has always reputed you as a bad influence to his children, mostly to Ben, but the teenagers stood up for you uncountable times, breaking the rules just to see you and Ben happy and smiling.

“No, Sir Hargreeves. Thank you!” Your voice broke in the middle of the short sentence and the siblings hastily gave you a comforting look, nonetheless their distressed faces. They hated seeing you suffer, just as much as you all hated Reginald and that meant a really lot.

The old man nodded in response and, as soon as he started walking back inside his mansion, Grace and Pogo following soon after, the sobbing of the Academy members intensified, pouring their hearts out whilst tears uncontrollably streamed down their faces.

“It’s nobody’s fault!” Vanya strongly pointed out, trying to make her siblings feel better after the eulogy that you have just missed.

“How would you know, Vanya? You weren’t even on the mission.” Diego sputtered and your heart ached at Vanya’s failed attempt of consoling her siblings.

Vanya softly gasped, tightly holding her black umbrella before leaving the courtyard. She must have felt left out, again.

“Nice going, asshole!” Luther fiercely spat, defending Vanya - a thing that Ben usually did.

You faced the remaining siblings and they started arguing between them again, sending you back to remembering your memories of Ben, of how he would run to your house to avoid his siblings’ futile fight.

“Hey, can I stay for a little while with you?” He shyly asked, hoping you wouldn’t turn his request down.

“Are your siblings fighting again?” You empathically questioned him, putting down the book that you were reading on your desk.

“Unfortunately.” His shoulders dropped down, sadly looking in your eyes. It hurt him to see his siblings argue over everything.

You smiled at him and put a vinyl record on your player, Stand By Me, sung by Ben E. King, starting. “I dedicate this song to you, Benerino!”

He quickly smiled and hummed to the song, both of you proudly singing when the chorus would come.

“Thank you.” He quietly murmured in your ear after you pulled him into a heartwarming hug.

You missed him. You missed him so damn much.

“(Y/N),” Klaus softly called you, thread of thoughts cut once again. “shall we dance?”

You raised an eyebrow and the waterworks turned on once again: Vanya was playing Stand By Me with her violin and Klaus remembered how Ben would ask you to dance whenever his favourite song played.

“Gladly!” You grabbed Klaus’ hand, letting go of your umbrella, snow flakes quickly resting on your head and shoulders.

You and Klaus slowly danced around Ben’s coffin. It seemed like you two were celebrating that the Horror was gone, but you were just cherishing the memories you shared with his beloved brother.

“Dad’s not around anymore, you can let your tears fall freely.” Klaus reminded you, knowing how much you were trying to contain your emotions.

“I just miss him, Klaus,” You truthfully admitted. “I miss him so much.”

Klaus’ glance shifted from you to something behind you, but he still listened to your confession. “I am sure that he misses you, too.”

When the song finished, you asked the boy to leave you for a little while, wanting to talk to the unanimated Ben for a few minutes. He gladly respected you decision and he went towards the gazebo, eyes fixated on you, or maybe on the empty spot next to you. Your eyes were blurry because of the tears, so you couldn’t really figure it out.

“Hey, Benerino!” You sweetly chuckled as you caressed the photo on his casket, snow slowly melting because of your hand’s warmth. “You’re gone too soon, but I hope you feel better wherever you are right now, albeit I still think that it’s just unfair. What’s going to be left of the world, if you’re not in it, huh?”

The thought of not growing old with him destroyed you. You were perfect for each other, you had loads of amazing things with him, and you wished you had Klaus’ powers to conjure Ben up. You wanted to see him again.

“You’ll be now missing from the photographs in the mansion. You gave me another reason to stop coming in this hellhole.” You softly laughed.

God, how much you missed hearing his laugh after your horrible jokes and puns.

“I’ve always told you to take care, Hargreeves.” You frowned. “We’d be on my bed right now, laughing and cuddling to battle the cold whilst Klaus intoxicated us with his messily rolled joint.”

You hated it when Klaus was drugged, but it was the anaesthesia to his awful life.

“Ben, I am so sorry if I never had the courage to tell you this, but I love you so much. I love you more than anything in my life and it just hurts because you would never know anything about it and I would never know what you think about it.” You messily wiped your eyes with the back of your hand.

“(Y/N)!” A Ben Hargreeves covered in dried blood approached you as soon as he entered your window. Your eyes nearly popped out of their orbit at the sight of him and you rushed towards his direction, wanting to engulf him in a huge bear-hug. “Don’t!”

You feigned offence and raised an eyebrow. “All right, but, at least, tell me that none of it is yours.”

He quietly chuckled, softly shaking his head. “Don’t you worry about it.”

“Well, thank goodness!” You sighed in relief. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

He refused at first, but he caved in soon after. He came up to the terms that he couldn’t hug you if he was covered in blood and vice versa.

“You know, I’m the one with superpowers here, but you are way more powerful than me.” He confessed as you both plopped yourselves on your bed.

“How could you even say that, dummy?” You wondered, looking at his perfect face.

His face turned serious. “You perfectly know how I feel about myself after a mission, after killing people,” Absolutely! He would be disgusted to the point of despising his powers and existence. “but just with the sight of your gleeful smile, I already feel better and stronger.”

Ben was able to make you smile widely, thinking that he was very sweet to say those words. Little did you know he has just professed the feelings he had for you.

“Thank you so much for these nine years of friendship, Ben.” You shortly nodded. “You have been an awesome best friend.”

As soon as you finished, you called Klaus. He was looking on the spot next to you and you furrowed your eyebrows.

“Are you fine, Klaus?” You gently checked on the Séance, worrying about his sanity. “Are ghosts bothering you again?”

“Please don’t forget him.” He blurted out, ignoring your questions. Was Ben around you? Did he conjure him?

You shook your head to stop yourself from being delusional and answered Klaus. “How can I forget him? Every minute and every hour, I miss him, I miss him more.”

#ben hargreeves x reader #ben hargreeves #The Umbrella Academy #the umbrella academy x reader #klaus hargreeves x reader #klaus hargreeves #netflix #xbarrjallenx #justin min #justin min x reader

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waywardwizzard · 4 months

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River carefully took Simon's hand, ignoring the confused look he gave her. Gently, she traced the faint white lines marring his hand, her mouth twisting when she found a thicker line twisting around his palm.

"You weren't meant to be there," she whispered.

Simon shifted closer, wrapping his fingers around hers.

"River? Where wasn't I meant to be?"

She ignored him, tracing the lines over and over again.

"Mei-mei?"

"You weren't meant to be there. In the Blackout Zone. Hurt you. I'm sorry."

River glanced up at him with tears in her eyes. "I took you away and I'm sorry and-"

"Shh," he cupped her cheek, letting her hold onto his hand, "You didn't River. You didn't take me away. You are all I have and I would happily go where I'm not meant to be if it means you'll be waiting for me."

Brown eyes met blue and it felt like they sat like that for an eternity.

"Really?" River whispered.

"Really." Simon echoed, and she curled up against him, never letting go of his hand.

Later when Mal walked into the common room he saw the two sibling curled up on the couch, fast asleep, River still clinging to her brother's hand. Shaking his head, the Captain gently covered them with one of the faded quilts Inara bought, careful not to disturb them.

Quietly, Mal left, the soft sound of snoring following him out into the cargo bay.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Author's note-

My brain is mush and my last braincell is out of order so I'm sorry if this sucks. I tried. I had the perfect planning but when I tried to write it it flopped worse than one of my aunt's tarts.

Love y'all and it's just 7 more days of seeing me constantly post ew Firefly fics so yay. I sleep now

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hypertonicplague · 3 years

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I’m v bored so time for more!! Obey me!! HCs!!! Yay!!

So this is the first one n if ya don’t read it ya gon be lost

Also sorry if it ends up being a long post!! I’m on mobile so there’s no ‘see more’ option 🥺🙏🏻

Demon body time! Ofc I’d steal the whole “they have more than two forms” hc cuz it’s super cool!! But what’s cooler than a big ol scary form?? :^0 it’s a finale! Finale form!! One in which none of the brothers but Satan has (along w other full fledged demons). Basically it’s just feelin, or smoke! Or like a bend in the air! It goes well past a feral form an is said to be the most condensed form for a demon. Satan’s one is a thin line of green, Dia’s is a small flame, no one has ever lived long enough to see Barbs one. And while they look small and harmless, they’re completely unpredictable and can accidentally unleash a LARGE amount of magic and energy to kill even the strongest of roaches 🪳. In that form they have no consciousness. Just,,,,,emotion-

Gender time BABEY 😩🤙🏼 Mammon was the first to get his breast removed. When they fell (if ya checked the other post ya should know y they have boóbęś) none of the brothers (but Satan) could wrap their heads around why all demons didn’t have breast. They were just like “?????okay???”. Mammon, our lil party demon, actually ASKED at a party one time abt it n a demon said “well,,,,we can choose what we are when we are, y’all can’t?? Lol” (demon got mashed to bits btw) then he found a doc n was like “well if I miss em then I can just get em put bck on loooool” n woke up, looked down, n history my pals 👐🏼 he also didn’t tell his other brothers he was doin this. It felt right for him so he kinda just went home n lived his life normally. When they noticed it they kinda all,,,, ‘secretly’,,,got their breast removed. It was never talked abt n they kinda keep it that way. It’s not a bad thing, n they never felt like it was that big to ever talk abt it. But ig if they ever told MC that’s how it happened MC would probably not take it that way- (also I say they ALL got em done but Asmo still has his n so does Belphie. Asmo’s reason is in the other post Belphie’s is next)

Baby lazy, at the time that was happening Belphie was adjusting to his sin. So him being alseep all the time it actually took him 4000 years to realize what happened. Beel had explained it to him n he was like “:^0!! We can do that?? I wanna do that-“ then Beel told him abt the appointments and healing n he was like- hmmm maybe later. A binder and baggy clothes will do for now- he’ll get em done. Eventually, just not today, tomorrow, the next day, week, month, r year. But it’ll get done at o n e point.

I started this a month ago n now have time to finish it lmaooo

Man idc what anyone says Belphie eats bugs. His whole animal thingy is a cow/bull n guess what them mfs eat?? Yea. Bugs, Belphie eats maggots n crickets n stuff heheheh tell ur friends

Speaking of bugs ig some ppl forget abt Asmo n how they’re a bug too. N y’all know what bugs do?? Shed. Everyone wants to talk abt Levi shedding but they forget abt fan fav Asmo 🥺😔. They shed too n it’s- less than pleasant to look at and be around- when they shed they have to go into their lil demon mode thingy, they keep themselves in their room n Dia help ya if ya go in there. Mammon once went to bring them food mid shed n got his hand and half his face shredded. N no, no amount of trust or love from MC will EVER break Asmo into letting them into their room during this time. Sorry MC 💔 they adore you but keep that human ass in ya room for now.

An on the topic of Levi, he doesn’t care, he actually gets Mammon or Satan to help him remove his old skin when it’s his shedding time. Sounds gross but when ya got games to play an ya itchy all over, gotta get ya siblings to help.

Vros Satan has a biting thing going on, not a k¡nk r something. They just gotta bite, n when MC shows them chewerly ya could’ve sworn that demon almost started wanting to protect the entire human race. Now they don’t gotta chew on their fingers or hair?? Bitch bet, they bought a whole store of that good good 😩🙌

Lackin Lucifer so I’ma just say, mans sheds feathers all the damn time. You’ll find them EVERYWHERE. In ya book bag, on ya bed, in the dyer, on the sofa, in pots in the kitchen, behind a bookshelf, EVERYWHERE. N fucked part is?? He doesn’t even notice em, if you point it out he’ll just shrug his shoulders. Bastard 💞

That’s really all I can think abt for now sksksk, I needa do a dateables one too

One day when I get more free time again I’ll throw all my lil dummy hcs out for those dummies too 😌

#mydumbstuff #obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me!#obey me leviathan #obey me mammon #obey me asmodeus #obey me belphegor #txt #obey me! shall we date?#obey me beelzebub #obey me lucifer #obey me satan #obey me headcanons #yea my brain can’t think anymore #enjoy em! r don’t #the world is ur oyster

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washidashi · 3 years

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HELLO I AM VERY INTERESTED IN YOUR BASIL BROTHERS PROPAGANDA

this has been sitting for I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG in my asks but to this anon: I see you, I hear you, you are the sole person who has unlocked my infodumping on this propaganda so hERE WE GOOOOOO 🗣️📣💥💥💥

⚠️Disclaimer 1: I don't really know what to call this ..AU?? idea??? bro idk I just love Basil so much and the idea of him having a sibling (or siblings 👀👀 more on that info down the line) makes my heart happy bc god danggit this boy deserves siblings who care for him >:-1 💢💢

⚠️Disclaimer 2 there really isn't much of a formulated story behind all this when really it's just tidbits of me talking about this idea from time to time jskdfds ALTHOUGH! I do have a Twitter mutual who might plan on making an actual AU with this mechanic/idea of sorts, more of that down the line!

((beware of OMORI spoilers and all that jazz btw! with that being said, let's head on to the very beginning of when this all began! apologies in advance that this may be long and if you'll be seeing a lot of twitter screenshots, that's because my propaganda for it started there! 😃🎉))

OK so this all started on the last week of May, which, tmi was also when it was my birthday (yay) and the universe decided to gift me: Rowan 😌💗

For those unaware, Rowan was basically known as the "beta Basil" or the beta design of Basil before he became well, Basil! This art made by Omocat dated back in 2012 features Rowan with rowdy hair (that isn't really as defined as Basil's but, it's there), a sweater vest + shirt combo, and a flower on their head, similar to the present design of Basil

idk where it truly started, but he blew uP on Twitter thanks to user @/znazzysam

It became the talk of the community for a couple days and that of course included mE 💥👄💥 I was just so darn intrigued at the thought of Basil's former design and how people comment on how he looks 'aggressive' or 'emo' and it's just so funny that the identity of Rowan looks and feels so different to that of Basil

And so my brain started to voice out ideas on what or who Rowan could be on twitter and it eventually led to my brainrot over Basil and Rowan 🥴 excuse the barrage of Twitter screenshots below being such examples!

I'm sure there was more but that was most of it. At first I thought of him as a separate entity/character unrelated to Basil and may even be featured as a character in the story (ie he'd gang up with Aubrey and the Hooligans, he's rowdy and mean etc.). Eventually though, I started to see him as someone who is related to Basil and eventually tweeted this:

ever since that tweet I now thought of Basil and Rowan as twins and GAHHH IT JUST ALL WENT DOWNHILL FROM THERE /s and now I started spewing more ideas about them living under the same roof ✌️😚

And because I only found out now that Tumblr limits its number of media to 10 per post I'm gonna have to split this into 2 parts JKSDFNKJSDF ^^; Will be sure to indicate it in the next post for your reference, anon!

#washidashi answers #washidashi rambles #omori #omori spoilers #omori basil #omori rowan #anyways HI ANON sorry this took forever </3 #and apologies for the long post KJDBFKJB IT'S GONNA BE EVEN LONGER WITH THE NEXT 2 POSTS COVERED ON THIS but it's worth it you'll see :-]#gasp there's actually an omori rowan tag 😳 nice.

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everlarkficexchange · 3 years

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Written by: @alliswell21

Title: One of Us

Prompt 145: She moves in with her aunt and uncle when her parents dies in a small town. After suffering through trama, Katniss slowly starts to get better with the help of her family (aunt, uncle, cousin) and the Mellark brothers. But when things starts happening to her and the people around her, it’s revealed that she and almost everyone in the towns are apart of the werewolf pack and that one of the Mellark brothers is her mate. #werewolves [submitted by @animekpopxx]

Rated: G for general audiences.

Tags: Canon Divergent!AU; Modern with a dash of Supernatural; Grief/Mourning; Feeding as a Language of Love.

Note: This is my final submission to this year's EFE challenge! Yay! I really am grateful to @xerxia31 and @javistg for their continued support of this fandom and for hosting once again this event. You are such amazing people, and I’m absolutely honored to be part of a community with people as amazing as you two are! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for keeping EFE alive!

@animekpopxx, thank you too! You feed my muse! And you give me Werewolves!!!!

This story was a bit of rushed job, though, and there’s more of it, I mean... we haven’t seen them turn into wolves yet!!! 🤣 I just didn’t have time to edit the complete fic before the deadline, but if you’d like to read the finished product, keep an eye out for it on AO3. I’m fairly sure the rating will keep, but we will see.

Kpkpkpk

There’s nothing but the sound of crickets and frogs filling the vast darkness of the night.

It’s another moonless night out here in Panem… or is I like to call it ‘the middle of nowhere’. It’s weird, how dark nights feel here, there’s barely a start peeking tonight, but in a strange way, I like it.

Sitting on my aunt and uncle’s porch to watch the infinite dark ahead while listening to the nocturnal critters it’s about my favorite thing to do… it’s what did used to do when we came here for long summer stays, anyway. He used to say he felt at peace and relaxed, connected with nature. Too bad it took him to be gone, for me to appreciate what he meant by that. So every night I come out here and sit in the steps hugging my knees, staring at nothing but the deep, black night surrounding the cabin, whisking my dad was sitting next to me.

Tonight is different than usual, though. It was raining until recently, and the smell of wet earth is so familiar my chest feels tight and my throat is knotted.

“Petrichor, Katniss,” I mumble the words noiselessly, “is the smell of rain, hun. It smells the same everywhere in the world.”

I lean my chin on my knees, wishing I could go back to feeling numb like when my parents just died. But thinking of the word petrichor, while smelling the thing, is bring forth a plethora feelings and memories I don’t know how to handle.

Dad used to love Scrabble, crossword puzzles and trivia challenges. He tried to get me interested in those games, teaching me words and their meanings, every time he had a chance.

I wish I had been more enthusiastic about learning the darned stuff; it would’ve meant an extra moment spent with Dad, and less regret to feel right now.

An involuntary whine leaves my chest. It hurts to think about it, and not for the first time, I dig my nails into my skin to keep myself rooted in place, and not tear running into the void.

I feel like I’m spiraling out of control, I fear this time something will break in my head and I’ll do something crazy, like scratch my skin away and run wild into the woods, like a beast… but the overwhelming thoughts gets halted when I hear soft noises from out in the distance.

It’s like the crunching of footsteps on the gravel at the mouth of my aunt and uncle’s property. It’s too dark and isolated here, deep into the country. I’ve seen big wildlife roaming around: deer, raccoons, coyotes and even a lynx. But the longer I hear the noises, the more certain I am I’m being stalked by something big and fast.

My heart beats erratically in my chest; every hair in my body stands on point, fear is clawing its way up my chest and into my throat, my eyes feel about to pop from my skull, and then I’m disentangling my knees from my arms, standing up as tall as I can— which isn’t saying much—and then I call into the night, “Who’s there?!”

I hear a faint disturbance of air, and then…

“Good evening, Katniss!”

Slowly, from the shadows, a blonde head pops, eerie for a second. Broad shoulders follow, and then a torso. Before the rest of his body comes visible into the light of the porch, two more blonde heads come into view, flank the first person on either side: Shoulders, torsos, Jean covered legs… The three Mellark brothers make their way leisurely towards me.

I nearly faint from relief after the rush of adrenaline pumping in my veins. Going through so many emotions: grief, sorrow, dread and relief, so fast in such a short amount of time has left me winded and unsteady.

I lose my balance, but one of the boys— Peeta, the youngest— breaks ranks, and rushes to hold me upright.

“Are you okay?” He asks softly, helping me sit back down on the porch steps. I lean my head against the main post.

“I’m okay. Just a little lightheaded,” I try not to glare. They gave me a fright, but I doubt they did it on purpose.

It’s something I’ve learn over the years. People in Panem are kind of quirky.

“Sorry we scared you,” Peeta offers, sheepishly. “We wanted to check up on you, and bring you something…” he looks up at his two older brothers and Rye — the middle one— steps forward, holding up a brown, paper bag, with little greasy spots on the sides.

I can guess what’s inside. They’ve been bringing me cheese buns almost daily, since Peeta found out they’re my favorites.

Rey hands the baggie to Peeta, and the latter offers it to me with a soft smile.

“Thanks,” I mumble, gratefully. I can smell the cheesy, yeasty treat through the bag; I can feel the warmth of the buns too! “While I love freshly baked cheese buns, you guys didn’t have to make this trek just to bring me a treat… on a dark, moonless night no less,” I fix them with a glare. “How did you even get here anyway? You couldn’t have walked and I never saw a car coming?”

My aunt and uncle’s cabin is at least 4 miles from town, and surrounded by woods; but then again, most houses in this weird little place are built in similar locations. It seems the townsfolk take their privacy extremely seriously.

“We rode our dirt bikes,” chimes Rye in, cheerily. “Not much light on those bulbs, though, but it’s okay. Our night vision is prime!” He gives me the A-Okay gesture.

“Rye,” the eldest, Bannock, warns lowly. Baring his teeth.

Rye shrugs and slips his hands on his Jean pockets.

I swear Rye hisses something like “it’s true” under his breath, but Peeta has been rubbing my back with the tip of his fingers all this time, and I’m getting drowsy, so I may have imagined the whole exchange.

“You should eat those while they’re still warm,” Peeta murmurs close by my shoulder.

I nod, and open the bag, releasing all the delicious smells of the buns, while Peeta massages my shoulders, encouragingly.

I must be really out if it tonight, because outside of my family, I’ve never been comfortable with people touching me… but, my family is all gone now, and I can’t go through the rest of my life without human touch, can I?

Grief stricken me out of nowhere, and barrels through me. I gasp at the acute pain in my soul at the loss of my parents. But in an instant, I’m enveloped in strong, thick arms, warm and steady. I’m sobbing into a hot, solid chest, covered in the softest cotton I’ve ever felt.

“Shush… I’ve got you, Katniss. I’m here for you,” Peeta whispers soothingly into the crown of my head.

He smells so good; like cinnamon and dill, from the bread he must’ve made this afternoon at his family’s bakery.

It takes a few minutes for me to get a hold of myself, and embarrassedly push out of his embrace, “I’m sorry,” I mumble, mortified.

Bannock presents me with a handkerchief, and I take it gratefully to wipe off my face and nose, before returning the soiled square of fabric to him.

I’m not sure why the Mellark brothers are being so nice to me. I’ve never been around them more than a handful of days over the past few years, when we came to see Dad’s remaining family outside mom and I, his half brother, his wife and their child.

I don’t know the Mellarks all that well, but in the handful of weeks since my parents’ funeral, the three brothers have been incredibly attentive and generous to me. Peeta more than the other two, but I don’t mind… I like him best anyway.

“It’s okay to cry and be devastated, Katniss.” Says Bannock, sagely. “You’re going through the worst time of your life, and we care for you… like family.”

“Oh,” I sit straighter, blowing my nose. I feel a little strange hearing him say that, “thank you? I appreciate your kindness,”

He nods, “Peeta’s right, though. You should eat the cheese buns before they go cold.”

“A full stomach always helps me feel better,” Rye adds, patting his belly, and smiling at me.

My stomach growls, as if to show agreement. I am hungry. I didn’t touch my supper earlier. I pick up the bakery gingerly, and pretty much shove my nose into it. The steam curls out of the baggie, filling my nostrils with the delicious smells. I pluck out a bun and practically inhale it in a second; quickly followed by another one. My third cheese bun, I decide to savor, slowly.

The Mellark siblings just hang around while I devour my treats.

The front door opens just as I’m wiping my hands on my leggings. My aunt’s head peeks out of the door.

“Oh, why hello everyone!” She greets, as bubbly as always. She’s wearing a dark purple wig, to match her dark purple outfit.

“Good evening, Effie,” says Peeta, standing from his squatting position next to me. “We brought Katniss a gift,” he points at the now empty bag in his hand.

“How sweet of you, Peeta!” my aunt gushes, “thank you for checking on our girl, and making sure she’s put something in her tummy before bedtime!”

I roll my eyes. Aunt Effie keeps treating me like a kid. I hate it. I’m 17 and mourning, not a freaking baby!

“It’s no problem at all, Effie! We were just on our way home anyway.”

“Well, it’s always nice having you boys over,” she offers, “but it’s getting late, and Primrose is already in bed, which is why I came out here to begin with, to let Katniss know that her sister was already asleep, so she’d know to tip toe back inside when she was ready to go to bed herself,” my aunt smiles.

I feel a slight pang of guilt; I’ve been wallowing in my own sadness this evening, and missed tucking my sister in to sleep. She’s the only person I’m sure I love, yet tonight I’ve let my own misery drown me.

“Don’t mind us, Effie,” Says Bannock, “We were about to leave…” he pauses and then calls a meaningful, “Peeta?”

“I’m going to wish Katniss a good night, and then we’ll go,” he says.

Not for the first time, I wonder if Peeta has a crush on me? I wouldn’t know he did, even if I wasn’t feeling so rotten inside. I’m not very good at flirting… but with Peeta it is different I think. He’s so nice to me, he’s taken up asking if I’ve eaten that day and if I haven’t, he feeds me something from his family’s bakery without charging me… it’s like he actually cares for me and my well-being, and his brothers care, because he does. It’s mesmerizing at times.

Peeta looks me in the eyes, “Are you ready to go inside?” He asks, offering his two open palms to me. He helps me up from the floor, and then smiles sweetly. He doesn’t let go of my hands while we stand facing each other.

Then something strange happens. Peeta doesn’t blink, as his clear-blue eyes bore into mine, and then his pupils blow out full, until only a ring of deep, glowing azure remains for his irises, “Sleep well, Katniss,” his voice sounds deeper and warmer than usual, “Rest and have a relaxing, dreamless night. Remember what I said: we are all here for you, to help through this hard time… alright?”

I feel groggy, “Yes, Peeta,” I mumble feeling my eyelids getting heavier.

“Oh dear, can you please instruct her to walk herself to bed? She might look lithe, but I promise, her little body is as heavy as any of us,”

Huh? What’s aunt Effie going on about? I don’t understand.

Peeta chuckles, squeezing my hands warmly in his, “You heard Effie… don’t fall asleep until you’ve gone into your bedroom and change into comfy pajamas.”

I nod, “Okay,”

“Good night, Katniss, I’ll be back tomorrow. Try to eat something on your own, I know you’re sad, but you need your strength for when the solstice comes.”

What a weird thing to say! Everything is strange here though… so I nod and march inside the house, mumbling my good nights to everyone and rubbing my very sleepy eyes. Once I’m in my sleep clothes, I lay in bed, and try to ignore the yearning of having Peeta rubbing my back like he was doing while I ate my cheese buns.

I sigh and go to sleep, a weird thought pops into my mind: “I’m so lucky to have such a sweet, caring mate. Peeta Mellark. Can’t wait to be bonded with him,”

#alliswell21 #animekpopxx #prompt 154 #Springtime Edition 2021 #submission

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babypandawrites · 3 years

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Allies, Pt. 9

The Northern Air Temple

Pairing: Sokka x F Reader Warnings: None Word Count: 3,813 Summary: You thought that the chance of there being Airbenders other than Aang was too good to be true, sadly you were right.

Note: How I completely forgot about this until now I'm not sure but! Another piece of this series I’ve done for the fun of it is outfit designs- If that kind of things in fics isn’t your cup of tea then feel free to act like these don't exist! But for those who are interested or who might just wanna see; here you go. This is just what I personally envisioned while writing, again feel free to ignore it if you want, but I figured I might as well share :) I was also going to wait until tomorrow to post this bc Wednesdays is my upload day for it on Ao3 but I’m also a chapter ahead there and wanted to get my tumblr uploads caught up- so back to back post today and tomorrow :) Yay

-Navigation- | -Atla Masterlist- -Last Part- | -Allies Masterlist- | -Next Part-

Taglist: @boomeraangin | @brokennerdalert

“So, travelers, the next time you think you hear a strange large bird talking, take a closer look, it might not be a giant parrot, but a flying man! A member of a secret group of air walkers who laugh at gravity and laugh at those bound to the earth by it!” Aang smiled. “Aren’t airbender stories the best?” “Was it realistic? Was that how it was back then?” Katara questioned. “I laugh at gravity all the time. Haha! Gravity.” A pair of hands holding a hat suddenly appeared in the space inbetween Sokka and Y/n. The storyteller shook the hat, the jingling of coins being heard. “Jingle, jingle.” The two searched their pockets for any money. Y/n didn’t have anything, and the only thing Sokka pulled from his coat pocket was a small ball of lint and a bug. Y/n offered the storyteller a sheepish smile. “Sorry.” “Aww. Cheapskates!” The man left them, going to ask other audience members for donations. She turned to look at Sokka, a disgusted expression apparent on her face at the bug that wiggled around in his hand. “Why… was there a bug in your coat?” “Hey! Don’t question a man and his bug.” The bug rolled over, and started to crawl up his hand. Sokka yelped and shook it off. Her expression twisted into amusement. “A man and his bug, huh?” “It’s not my fault we can’t afford to keep him fed.”

The next morning, the group found themselves on the way to the Northern Air Temple. Apparently, the airbenders in the story they heard were seen the previous week. It seemed a little too good to be true, that there might be airbenders other than Aang still out there, but Y/n wasn’t going to be the one to crush the kids' hope. That was Sokka’s job, not hers. “Hey, we’re almost at the Northern Air Temple! This is where they had the championships for sky bison polo.” Y/n looked at Aang with a smile. “Sky bison polo? That sounds fun.” “It is fun! So much fun!” Katara moved to sit next to her brother. “Do you think we’ll really find airbenders?” “You want me to be like you, or totally honest?” Sokka asked, focusing on whittling a piece of wood. “Are you saying I’m a liar?” Katara crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m saying you’re an optimist. Same thing basically.” “They’re not the same thing at all.” Y/n commented. The boy just shrugged his shoulders. “Hey guys, look at this!” Appa was starting to approach the Northern Air Temple. It sat up on a sheer peak, several people flew around it, and smoke rose from a few pillars. “Huh! They really are airbenders!” Aang leaned, crossing his arms unhappily. “No, they’re not.” Sokka pointed up at the people flying around. “What do you mean they’re not? Those guys are flying!” “Gliding maybe, but not flying. You can tell by the way they move. They’re not airbending. Those people have no spirit.” Y/n tipped her head to the side, watching the gliders. “I mean, they look like they're flying to me, but you would know best.” As she finished speaking, a glider passed over the group's heads, nearly taking them off. The glider’s pilot laughed, turning to pass by Appa again. Getting a closer look at the kid, it could be noted that his glider was built out of the wheelchair he sat in. Katara pointed in the glider’s direction. “I don’t know, Aang. That kid seems pretty spirited!” The glider made another pass, and soon Aang was standing up glider in hand, before taking off. Another glider flew in front of Appa, startling him and causing Katara and Y/n to fall backwards into Sokka. The three grunted at the impact. “We better find some solid ground before it finds us!” Appa made a landing on one of the temple’s outer terraces, the trio getting off him and watching as Aang and the boy in the wheelchair glided through the sky. Aang eventually came down and landed next to them, the other boy also coming to a landing. A few kids came other and detached the glider from his wheelchair, before he wheeled over to the group. “Hey! You’re a real airbender! You must be the Avatar! That’s amazing! I- I- I’ve heard stories about you.” Aang rubbed at the back of his neck, embarrassed. “Thanks.” “Wow! This glider chair is incredible!” Sokka rushed over to the kids who had the glider setup, inspecting it. “If you think this is good, wait until you see the other stuff my Dad designed.” He began to wheel away, the group following. They were led through the huge main gate of the temple, into the main chamber. The room was dominated by steam-powered machinery with many wheels, gears and pipes. “Wow!” Sokka ran forward, looking around the room excitedly. “Yeah, my dad is the mastermind behind this whole place! Everything’s powered by hot air. It even pumps hot air currents outside to give us a lift when we’re gliding.” Aang took a look around. “This place is unbelievable.” The boy in the wheelchair smiled. “Yeah, it’s great isn’t it?” “No, just unbelievable.” Y/n tried to hold back a laugh, clearing her throat to force down her laughter. “Aang used to come here a long time ago. I think he’s a little shocked it’s so… different.” Katara said, before following after Aang when he walked off. “So better!” Rolling her eyes, Y/n elbowed Sokka in the shoulder. He gave her a look. “Come on, you don’t think this is cool at all?” “Not really.”

Soon they followed the boy, Teo, to another part of the temple. This time it was a courtyard of sorts, it was untouched, and there were statues of airbenders. Aang was much happier about this, than he had been about the other room. “It’s nice to see even one part of the temple that isn’t ruined.” He spoke, as him, Y/n and Katara looked at a huge statue of an airbender monk. “Look out!” A voice shouted out, shortly before a wrecking ball crashed through the statue. The three flew backwards with the debris, and everyone started to cough from the dust. As the dust settled, several people could be seen through the hole that’d been created. One of the people walked forward, a middle aged man with a mostly bald head who wore a monocle, a green tunic and an apron. “What the doodle! Don’t you know enough to stay away from construction sites? We have to make room for the bathhouse!” “Do you know what you just did? You just destroyed something sacred! For a stupid bathhouse!” Aang, clearly upset with the man, took on an airbending stance. The man waved a hand in front of his nose. “Well, people around here are starting to stink.” Aang pointed at him. “This whole place stinks!” He slammed his staff against the ground, sending a strong gust of wind through the hole in the wall, knocking the wrecking ball and it’s rig off the building's foundation. “This is a sacred temple! You can’t treat it this way. I’ve seen it when the monks were here. I know what it’s supposed to be like.” “The monks? But you’re twelve!” Teo wheeled over. “Dad, he’s the Avatar. He used to come here a hundred years ago.” Aang walked closer to the man. “What are you doing? Who said you could be here?” “Hmmm… doing here… A long time ago, but not a hundred years, my people became refugees after a terrible flood.” He gestured his arms for effect, before moving to stand behind his son. “My infant son, Teo, was badly hurt and lost his mother.” Sniffling, he held back tears. “I needed somewhere to rebuild and I stumbled across this place. Couldn’t believe it! Everywhere pictures of flying people. But empty! Nobody home! Then I came across these fan like contraptions!” He held his arms out as if they were wings, making flying motions with them as he walked about the courtyard for a short moment. He stopped in front of Aang, who was clearly still upset. “Our gliders.” “Yes, little light flying machines. They gave me an idea. Build a new life for my son, in the air! Then everyone would be on equal ground, so to speak! We’re just in the process of improving upon what’s already here and after all, isn’t that what nature does?” Aang was still upset, while Sokka and Katara stood behind him, teary eyed from the story. Y/n rolled her eyes at the siblings, before moving to stand next to Aang, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. Sure, the story was sad, but to her the boy’s feelings were more important. The Mechanist turned to look through the hole in the wall he’d created. “I suppose that’s true. Unfortunately, progress has a way of getting away from us.” He looked down in a bout of sadness, before his head snapped up to look at an odd candle device..? A bit aways from them. “Look at the time!” Three candles burned brightly on a stone pedestal, each separated into their own sections. Next to the pedestal, a large mallet rests, sitting head down. The Mechanist turned to one of the scribes behind him. “Come the pulley system must be oiled before dark.” Sokka approached the candles, observing them. “Wait, how can you tell the time from that thing? The notches all look the same.” “The candle will tell us. Watch.” The candle’s flame snapped four times in a row. “You put spark powder in the candle!” “Four flashes, so it’s exactly four hours past midday, or, as I call it, four o’candle!” Sokka let out a laugh, as The Mechanist looked at him, seemingly pleased he was interested. “If you like that, wait till you see my finger safe knife sharpener!” Y/n’s attention moved to the man at the mention of that, watching as he held up his left hand, where three of his fingers were made of wood. He detached them from his hand, before tossing them to Sokka. “Only took me three tries to get it right!” Sokka let out a scream, as he caught the wooden fingers. “Follow me!” The Mechanist turned to leave, the men who were with him and Sokka quickly followed. As the boy passed by Y/n, he grabbed onto her wrist and dragged her along with him. She offered a quick goodbye wave to Aang, Katara and Teo as she was dragged away.

Quiet steps echoed through the narrow hallway, as Y/n, Sokka and The Mechanist descending a narrow staircase. Each of them held a lantern, glowing with sparse blue light. “These lanterns are terrible! I can’t see.” Y/n ran into Sokka’s back, as he abruptly stopped to open the jar to his lantern. She flicked the back of his head, as he continued to speak. “Why would you want to use fireflies for light- Hey!” She snickered, watching the firefly that escaped from his lantern. The Mechanist turned to look at them. “Hey, close that up! They’ll get loose. Fireflies are a non-flammable light source.” “Are you meaning to say that something down here is flammable?” Y/n asked, as they all continued walking. “Well, why else would I need a non-flammable light source?” The Mechanist offered a chuckle, as they approached a door. The edges of it were blocked by some sort of sealant, which he felt around, probably to check for leaks. After checking he turned back to them. “Cover your nose and hold your breath.” Once they’d done so, The Mechanist slid open a panel in the door, which they all looked through. It just showed a dark and empty room. “Okay, so you brought us all the way down here to see an empty room.” Sokka spoke with a somewhat confused tone. “Wrong.” Eyebrows furrowing together, Y/n watched as the panel was slid shut again. “You brought us all the way down here to see a room full of flammable explosive gas?” “Correct! It’s filled to the brim with natural gas. Came across it my first time here. Unfortunately, I was carrying a torch at the time. Nearly blew myself and the whole place even more sky high. Thought my eyebrows would never grow back! Anyway, there’s a vital problem that needs solving. From time to time we have gas leaks and they’re nearly impossible to find.” Y/n took a few steps back, as Sokka helped check the door for leaks. “So this place is an explosion waiting to happen?” “Yes, until I figure out how to locate something I can’t see, hear, smell or touch.” “Right, is it safe for us to be around this gas? Should we be wearing masks or something, in case we come across a leak so we don’t, you know, inhale it?” “Oh don’t worry, we should be fine.” The Mechanist paused for a moment, straightening up after finishing checking for leaks. “Well, as long as you aren’t a firebender or something- hah!” He let out a laugh, which Sokka quickly shared. Sokka nudged her in the arm, as they started walking back. “Oh come on, that was funny. You know that was funny.” “Yeah, hilarious.” He threw an arm over her shoulders. “Come on, loosen up. We’re gonna be fine, even if we do come across a leak.” She put her hands up in defense. “Okay, okay.”

The Mechanist led the pair to his workshop, and very clearly told them not to touch anything, before going to look over some papers on his desk. Sokka, of course, did not listen to that and started poking through things the moment the man's attention wasn’t on them. “Sokka, he said not to touch anything.” Y/n whispered, smacking his hand away from something he was about to mess with. He gently pushed her away a bit, before going right back to poking around. “Calm down, it’s fine. It’s not like I’m going to break an-” Sokka cut himself off, as he knocked some stuff over. Grimacing, he tried to keep it from falling to the ground. “I said don’t touch anything!” When The Mechanist spoke up, Sokka dropped the things to the ground. Y/n crossed her arms over her chest. “Not gonna break anything, huh?” The Mechanist came over, to help Sokka pick the things up. “Oh, don’t worry, that experiment is old and that egg was just part of last week’s lunch.” Y/n kneeled down to help them too, as Sokka sniffed the air. “Ugh! Week old egg smell!” “Quick! Find that egg!” The three started to crawl around, looking for the egg, but none of them were having much luck. “How could something that’s so small you can’t even see it make such a big stink!?” Sokka complained as they looked. The Mechanist perked up at the comment. “That’s the solution to our problem!” “Yeah!” Y/n looked at the two, confused, as they faced each other with excitement. “What?” “If we put a whole mess of rotten eggs in the cellar where the gas seeps up..” Sokka started the thought, which The Mechanist continued. “The gas will mix with the smell of rotten eggs…” “Then, if there’s a leak…” “You smell rotten eggs! Then you just follow your nose to the place where the smell is coming from..” “And plug up the hole where the gas is escaping!” “You’re a genius!” The two spoke in unison. Still, Y/n looked between the two with a confused expression. “ What? ” Suddenly, a large bell started to ring, and The Mechanist was quick to get up and rush from the room. “Something’s wrong I’ve got to go.” “Wonder what that’s about.” Sokka said, getting up himself. He helped Y/n up, grinning. “We should follow him.” “Always a snoop, huh?” Laughing softly, she shook her head. “Alright.” Grasping onto her wrist, he dragged her out of the room to follow after The Mechanist. They’d followed him to another room, one that was filled to the brim with different war machines branded with the Fire Nation’s insignia.

“You make weapons for the Fire Nation!?” Sokka was clearly angry with his words, rightfully so. Y/n was pretty mad about this development as well. She pointed a finger at The Mechanist. “You! You're terrible. Horrible terrible!” The Mechanist looked at the ground in humiliation and shame. Teo looked at his father angrily. “Explain all this! Now!” “It was about a year after we moved here. Fire Nation soldiers found our settlement. You were too young to remember this tale. They were going to destroy everything, burn it to the ground. I pleaded with them, begged them to spare us. They asked what I had to offer. I offered… my services. You must understand, I did this for you!” Teo turned his wheelchair away, clearly upset. The Mechanist turned on his heel, and walked back down the hall, leaving the five kids in the room. Teo shook his head. “I can’t believe this…. This is terrible.” “I know..” Aang looked at the weapons with disdain. “There’s so much here.” Y/n crossed her arms over her chest. “The Fire Nation could be coming for this soon…” Aang breathed out a sigh. “Your right… I’m going to go figure it out.” “I’ll come with.” Teo said, as Aang started to leave the room, before following the boy. With Aang and Teo’s return, they found out that the Fire Nation was coming soon. And they were intending to burn this place to the ground. They were all outside on one of the walkways, trying to figure out a plan. “This is bad! Very bad!” Katara looked over to Aang. “Aang, what are we gonna do? How can we possibly keep them all away?” “I’ll tell you how.” He pointed to the sky. “We have something they don’t. Air power! We control the sky. That’s something the Fire Nation can’t do. We can win!” “I want to help.” The Mechanist approached the group, as he spoke up. Aang offered the man a smile. “Good, we’ll need it.”

“We finally got the war balloon working, thanks to Sokka. This boy’s a genius!” “Thank you. You’re a genius!” “Thank you!” Y/n rolled her eyes at the exchange. “Can we get on with this?” Sokka cleared his throat. “Right. See, the problem with the old war balloon was you could get it airborne, but once you did, it just kept going.” He demonstrated with a model that flew up and hit the ceiling. “You could put a hole in the top, but then all the hot air would escape. So the question became, how do you keep a lid on hot air?” “Ugh, if only we knew.” Katara commented. Y/n, Aang, Teo and Katara herself all laughed at the remark. Ignoring them, Sokka pulled the model down from the ceiling, now showing off the mechanism to open and close a lid on the top. “A lid is actually the answer. If you control the hot air, you control the war balloon.” He demonstrated again, but this time the model didn’t fly up to the ceiling, thanks to the lid that could be pulled open with a string. Katara crossed her arms. “Hmm. That’s actually pretty smart.” “Okay, we’ve got four kinds of bombs. Smoke, smile, fire and-” The Mechanist cut Sokka off. “Stink. Never underestimate the power of stink!”

“We’re going to have to modify this to the new design, and fast.” The Mechanist said, as him, Sokka and Y/n worked on bringing the War Balloon he’d already constructed outside. “With both of you helping we should be able to get it up and running pretty quickly though!” “Yeah! And I’m pretty sure Aang and Katara will be able to hold off the Fire Nation with everyone’s help.” Y/n furrowed her eyebrows. “They’ll be able to hold them off, but we can’t count on them too for too long, even if we have the skies. The Fire Nation’s army is huge, who knows how many soldiers will show up.” They got the balloon set up to do the necessary modifications. “Oh she’s right, time is not something we have on our side right now.” Sokka nodded in understanding. “Right. It’s only one modification though, so it can’t take terribly long, right?” “Let’s hope not.” Getting to work on the War Balloon, they probably could have gotten things done a little faster. But nonetheless, they got it done, and just in time too apparently. While Sokka and The Mechanist got ready to take off in the war balloon, Y/n went to find the others to see how they were holding up. “How are things going out here?” She asked, once she found Katara, Aang and Teo. The three looked at her with slight concern. “Not well.” Katara started. “Please tell us Sokka is coming with that war balloon soon.” Before she could give an answer, the war balloon rose up from behind them all, and started moving towards the battle field. From where they all stood, they could see Sokka and The Mechanist dropping giant slime bombs onto the Fire Nation soldiers. The bombs that they had didn’t stop the soldiers, however, and they were starting to advance closer to the Temple. Katara put a hand on Y/n’s shoulder, to get her attention. “What are they doing..?” She squinted in the direction of the war balloon, trying to see what was going on. “I’m not sur-” She cut herself off, watching as something fell from the basket of the war balloon. Was that the balloons fuel source? “Did they just push out their fuel source..?!” “What?!” A sudden explosion set off, a really really big one. The entire Temple got clouded in a ginormous wall of grey smoke. When the smoke dissipated, it was revealed that the Fire Nation was retreating. Aang pointed to where the army was leaving. “Look! They’re retreating!” Everyone started to cheer at the success, but the joy was cut short, as the war balloon started heading downwards quickly. Thankfully though, Aang was able to get Sokka and The Mechanist before the balloon crashed below. Currently, they all stood outside on the main terrace of the Air Temple. “You know what? I’m really glad you guys all live here now. It’s like the hermit crab.” Aang spoke, as he carefully picked up one of the hermit crabs near them all. “Maybe you weren’t born here, but you found this empty shell and made it your home. And now you protect each other.” Teo offered a smile to the boy. “That means a lot coming from you.” “Aang you were right about air power.” Sokka pointed to the sky. “As long as we’ve got the skies we’ll have the Fire Nation on the run!”

#avatar the last airbender #atla #avatar the last airbender x reader #atla x reader #reader insert #sokka x reader #sokka x y/n #sokka x you #team avatar #slowburn #book one allies

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atopearth · 3 years

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Brothers Conflict (Passion Pink) Part 4 - Asahina Tsubaki Route

Time for Tsubaki, yay! Aww, it's kinda cute how passionate Subaru and Yusuke are rooting for their respective basketball teams lol. I love how Azusa and Tsubaki invited Ema to their event, and I loved how Ema gave a lot of thought into her answers when they asked her how the event was. It was really cute how she felt proud that they were her brothers when people really liked the event and praised them hahaha. On the other hand, lmao at Tsubaki wanting to jump into her arms every time she said something cute, and lolll at Juli getting annoyed at Tsubaki getting so close to Ema. It was hilarious when Tsubaki told Ema to leave the squirrel behind next time there's an event since it's so noisy😂😂 Aww I love the aquarium date where Tsubaki touches her cheek saying she's cold, and Ema touches his hand to say he's cold too, that's pretty adorable, they even seemed to hold hands for a bit?!🥲 I also really liked how he guided her like a prince/butler to the horse riding part of the zoo haha, it's never boring with Tsubaki and his antics.

Loll at Rui getting heatstroke after building a sandcastle🤣 Wow, Azusa and Tsubaki can drive a boat? Dangg. Aww, I love how they both reassured Ema that they'll definitely protect her (when it started raining and the boat engine "broke down") and held her hand to show their conviction and give her warmth since it was cold. I knewww Tsubaki was lying about the engine! Poor Ema. She was so worried. I'm kinda sad that Tsubaki doesn't get an individual moment on the holiday with Ema though! Tsubaki picking clothes for Ema during a shopping date is the best~ I love how encouraging he is and how he earnestly loves dressing her up and wanting to match with her, it's so cute haha. It's so adorable how happy Tsubaki was to eat Ema's handmade bento, lmao when he kept telling her to feed him loll. Okay, lmao at if Ema stays to watch Tsubaki and Azusa and see them "confess their love" to each other with the roses CG hahahaha. They were pretty into it (for their acting)😂 At least Tsubaki was pretty upfront with her that a guy and a girl in the same room sleeping together would make him think about things hahaha, it's cute how he gave her a kiss on the forehead~ and I guess he gave her one on the lips too when she was "asleep". Wow, he even kissed her in the morning lol! I guess he's really going to try his best to make her realise she likes him too lol. Ohh woww, he kissed her in the bed and then asked to kiss her in other places loll, too bad Ema still wants to just treat him as an older brother even though as Tsubaki said, they've done things that have crossed the line ages ago lol. Anyway, lmao how when Ema can't fall asleep, instead of counting sheep, Tsubaki counts Azusas😂😂😂

I wonder why Tsubaki seems to be worried or sad over Azusa? Anyway, as I said before (in Hikaru's post), I really liked how Tsubaki convinced Ema to go back and talk to her dad (when she found out she was adopted) and told her that she's become someone important to him and not just a "moe" little sister to him, and that these thoughts didn't need actual ties of blood, so her dad should treasure her too regardless of their blood ties. LMAO at Ema shooing Juli out into the hallway because she wanted to concentrate on the game she was playing with Tsubaki and not hear Juli nagging and telling her to study lolol. I see...so Tsubaki feels like he's inferior to Azusa in terms of acting and everything, and it doesn't help that Azusa actually started voice acting stuff later than him and mainly did it because Tsubaki felt like something was missing when he went to classes without Azusa. I guess it's kinda like that with siblings who are "better" than you. You'll always feel a bit jealous, but having them beside you makes you happy so it's a pretty conflicting feeling. Awww, I loved how Ema was really good at the game and the strategies etc, and Tsubaki told her to make him "fall for her" with her strategies hahaha.

I honestly didn't think a depressed Tsubaki would make my heart break so much. It was so sad that Tsubaki was dropped from the audition for the lead of the anime series he always wanted to be in, it was basically his dream...and it wasn't because he lacked anything, it's just that the producers (I think?) decided on Azusa already. I'm glad Ema told him what she thought and how Azusa was really worried too but didn't want to hurt his feelings. Omgg when he asked her to stay overnight because he didn't want to be alone and wanted to be with her🥺 Lmaoo at Ema the pro gamer ordering Natsume, Tsubaki and Azusa around, she's such a leader when it comes to games. I find it hilarious that Natsume even said not many people in his company have played as many hours as her😂 It's so funny how they're all so shocked that her personality changes when she's playing games😂 Lmao at Azusa asking Ema to go with Tsubaki to the shops because he doesn't trust him and basically calls him a kid with an income so he probably can't control himself during Christmas time😂😂 I really liked how Tsubaki thanked her for her encouragement and made him think it's okay to be him, and move forward as his energetic self because everyone loves that part of him I guess? Okay, I did not expect Tsubaki to hold Ema's hands and blow on them to keep them warm because that was super cuteee! Awww and he put her hand in his pocket so she wouldn't be cold!

Honestly, seeing Tsubaki break down over the collapsed Azusa was really heartbreaking. Suzumura Kenichi (Tsubaki's VA) was so good here, because I could really feel Tsubaki's desperation and pain, and how much guilt he felt afterwards (at the hospital when he refused to leave until he saw Azusa) for being "selfish" at being absorbed by his feelings and forgetting that everyone else is worried and scared too. I really loved Ema at the hospital, she convinced and really helped Tsubaki realise that his worried and dejected face would not be what Azusa would like to see, and that he needs to go to the company and tell them about Azusa's condition so they can rearrange his jobs etc. I knew Azusa's condition would lead to Tsubaki being able to finally take on the lead of that robot anime role he always wanted, but yeah I think Tsubaki's complicated feelings about it are understandable. This role is his dream, but he doesn't feel like he earned it, and is merely Azusa's replacement and I think that's a saddening way to achieve your dream. But at the same time, I'm sure Ema and his fans will be able to show him that this isn't pity and underserved, that he's not a replacement and is his own person. And I really liked how Ema did it! She told him she liked Tsubaki's voice, so there was no point copying Azusa, and that even though they may be twins, they are their own person, and that both their voices are different and are wonderful in their own ways and have their respective charms. I think I really liked it when Ema said she wanted to hear HIS voice. I liked how he ended up asking her what else she liked about him aside from his voice hahaha. Awww he gave her a kiss! Omggg he totally went for it and kept giving her kisses! Woww, hahaha, Ema wasn't the most comfortable because she still wants to think of him as a brother and this was in the living room, but she was definitely just embarrassed.

I'm soo happy Tsubaki finally told Azusa about how he always had a inferiority complex towards him but now he’s decided to face himself and understand he has his own qualities. I'm sure that's a relief to Azusa as well since Azusa was also worried and didn't know what he should do. I can't believe Azusa had to stay in the hospital for a whole month though! And he's going to work again the day after?? He's so hard-working. Aww nooo, Azusa actually told Ema he likes her but knows that her heart is with Tsubaki😭 I'm sad that Tsubaki had to say that he found someone more important to him than Azusa because I loveee Azusa and Tsubaki, however I can understand that they are probably way too attached to each other and it's inevitable that they'll find other people they will love. Anyway, I loved how Tsubaki told Ema how much he appreciates her, loves her and wanted her to be his girlfriend~ And I'm glad Ema could finallyyyy accept his feelings hahaha. They're honestly soo cute as a couple and I love how she practises his lines with him but I hope he still practises with Azusa every now and then because I think those are very precious moments they should continue to cherish~ Omggg at him telling her the room was soundproof hahaha. The CG was niceeee. Omgggg at the twins ending? Harem ending? Hahahah. I mean, I definitely wouldn't mind Azusa and Tsubaki...because I love them both too lolll. Ema is so lucky🥺

Overall, I loved Tsubaki's route. Definitely my favourite route right now. It has great romance development with Ema AND I loved his personal struggles with work and his love for Azusa, but also his inferiority complex towards him. I think these were portrayed really well, and I honestly really felt for Tsubaki's emotions and his ups and downs. I really liked seeing the "other side" to Tsubaki where he gets down about stuff, but at the same time acknowledging that the energetic and cheerful Tsubaki is who he is and what everyone loves. I think Ema supported Tsubaki really well in this route and also showed how strong of a person she was too. I thought I would have to resist from loving Azusa too much, but as Tsubaki realised in the end, Tsubaki definitely has his own charms and I totally fell for them. He's loving, sweet and unafraid to show his emotions and his love to Ema and I think there's a great balance of him showing his physical affection towards her as well as the emotional connection he feels for her. I definitely enjoyed every moment of it, every time I think about Tsubaki and everything that happened in this route, my heart just feels so warm and happy haha🥲🥲

#brothers conflict

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wrenhyperfixates · 3 years

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Of All the Places

Epilogue

Pairing: Loki x reader Series Summary: Washing up in a small town in Oklahoma was definitely not part of Loki’s plan when he came to conquer Midgard. There is one good thing about it, though: No one recognizes him as the one who just wreaked havoc in New York. So, Loki plans to recover from the battle and move on with his life. The only problem? He’s not sure he can leave you. Chapter Summary: Loki reflects on his new life with you. Chapter Warnings: straight fluff peeps A/N: Here it is, the very end of the story! The last chapter posted a few moments ago, so make sure to check that out before this. To everyone who’s taken the time to read, comment, like, reblog, theorize, or talk to me about this story at all, I’m honestly honored. It’s been a wild ride and, seriously, y’all are the best! Well, I hope you enjoy! Happy reading friends :)

Tag List: @lucywrites02 @frostedgiant @lunarmoon8 @twhiddlestonsstuff @marvelousdaydreams @andromedasstarship @lokistan @thelokiimaginechroniclesficrecs @sourpatchspinster @gaitwae @whatafuckingdumbass

✥ Start at Beginning ✥ | ← Previous Chapter

Disclaimer: Gif not mine

“Loki? When is mommy coming home?” Matt asked the god whose lap he was currently sitting on.

“Any second now, little one. Do not fret,” he replied with a smile.

Months after the Battle of Oklahoma City, Loki was happily living with you and your family once again. It took a considerable amount of convincing to get Director Fury to agree, but eventually he did. Even worse was having to talk Odin into the arrangement. Did it hurt to be exiled from his childhood home? Of course, but Frigga came down to Midgard to visit when she could. And being banished to go live with his beloved wasn’t so bad, either. Still, Odin had thought that it was a fitting punishment for him to have to spend his days among the mortals he once intended to conquer.

Thor was his brother’s biggest advocate, somewhat surprisingly, and Loki would be forever grateful. While Loki hadn’t actually been there for the negotiations, supposedly Thor fought every charge brought against him with impressive intelligence and eloquence. Loki was pretty sure he was exaggerating as he was so wont to do, but who knows? The world is full of surprises, after all.

Speaking of surprises, your family just had a huge one. Ana had given birth to twins! She and John had been prepared for that, but they hadn’t told the rest of you. Loki would forever remember the way your face lit up when you heard the news. Your smile was, well, there was no other way to describe it than angelic. And the look you’d given him when he held one of the newborns completely melted his heart. Now you were all waiting for John to drive his wife and two new kids home from the hospital. As far as Loki was concerned, life was perfect. Well, almost.

Thanos was still out there, which did cause some concern for the trickster god. But Thor was looking for him right at the very moment, so Loki would have to put his trust in his brother. Once he found that evil Titan, though, Loki would be first in line to join the troops in the battle against him. Even help lead them, perhaps. Thanos’s very existence was a threat to you and your family, which Loki held so dear. He’d stop at nothing to thwart the villain.

Ah yes, villainy. A concept Loki had struggled with for so long. Was he one or just the victim of bad circumstances? According to you, who Loki was inclined to believe, he was a hero. Once he’d told you the whole truth, you were quick to reassure him it was not his fault. Did he plot against his brother and father to take the throne of Asgard? Well, yes, that he was guilty of, but even then his motives were understandable. It did help ease his guilt, but that feeling would gnaw at his heart every now and again. Whenever it did, though, you made sure to pepper his face with kisses, hug him close, and tell him he’d saved Midgard. That he saved you. That he was a hero.

“Hey, handsome,” you greeted sitting down next to him. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, my darling. Just thinking, is all.”

“Penny for your thoughts?”

“Oh, I am just thinking about life. It is a beautiful thing, I realize now,” he said, taking your hand to place a kiss to it. “And thanking the Norns that I am luckiest man alive.”

You’d made it very clear to Denzel that you did not want to be with him anymore. Once you and Loki were officially together, he did back off. It was somewhat reluctant, but he did it nonetheless. And he even managed to be pleasant and friendly when you and Loki ran into him in town. But the bottom line is, there was no one trying to come between you and your prince anymore.

“And why is that?” you asked, resting your head on his shoulder.

“Because I somehow won your heart.”

“Loki,” you gushed. “You have to stop taking all of these cliches or there will be none left for me! But still, thanks, my knight in shining armor.”

“See, there are plenty for you! But as you wish, my love,” he laughed. “I will just have to write you poems and serenades instead.”

You got very flustered at that. He had sung for you once, as promised, and his voice was even more beautiful than you had imagined. The thought of him singing something of his own creation made you swoon, especially if it was written for you. You poked him for laughing at your embarrassment, but before you could tease him back, the front door opened.

“Mommy!” Matt cheered, pulling himself away from the TV show he was immersed in. “Daddy! Did you bring the babies?”

“Yes, small fry,” John laughed. “We brought your new brother and sister.”

“Yay! I wanna see! I wanna see!”

Ana went to sit on the couch with her daughter, and John followed with their two sons. Matt’s new younger siblings laughed as he waved to them. It made the four-year-old smile.

“This is your little sister, Scarlett,” Ana told Matt. “And your little brother. James.”

You teared up a little hearing that. You’d already been told, of course, that they named him after your brother, but it still made you emotional. Loki pulled you into a hug, kissing the top of your head. He looked at the happy family and let himself imagine having a family with you for a second. He’d been thinking about it a lot recently, and he realized he wanted to adopt. It was ironic, sure, given his own history. Then again, maybe it made perfect sense. He wanted to be able to give some kid what he hadn’t. Maybe he couldn’t change what happened to him, but he could stop it from happening again. Either way, he would wait until Thanos has been dealt with. After all, he didn’t want the child to be in any danger.

Mama and Papa came out of the kitchen carrying a cake, which Loki was very happy to say he had helped baked. Helped Mama bake it, as a matter of fact. Things were still tense, to say the very least, when he’d first come back to the farm. They were still working on it a little even now, but it was better overall. She was certainly more accepting and picked fewer fights. Mama was happier now, too, something that seemed to take a weight off your shoulders.

Ana made a joke about how she should be trying to get her figure back, but still happily accepted a slice. Your family stayed there until that evening, talking, laughing. The babies were surprisingly quiet, and Loki slowly rocked Scarlett back and forth as she slept, his ability to be nurturing still somewhat shocking him. James was in your arms, and you looked at your nephew with hope in your eyes. After such a dark time, the future was looking bright indeed.

“My darling,” Loki said later that night as you were sitting together on the porch, enjoying each other’s company. “I want to thank you.”

“Oh? What for?” you asked, snuggling close to him.

“For showing me another way. For helping me move on. For accepting me. For everything you’ve ever done. For loving me. All of it. You, my little mortal, are my angel, my savior, my whole heart. And for saving me from myself, I thank you.”

“Oh, Loki. You don’t have to thank me for that. Believe me, it is my pleasure. You’ve saved me so much, too. But you’re right, I do love you, and I always will.”

He whispered your name against your lips in the seconds before he kissed you. Just like every one before and every one after, it was perfect. A promise of love and loyalty. Of trust. It was everything he had ever wanted. You were everything he needed.

Of all the places in the universe the Tesseract could have taken him, it made sense that it chose here. With you, Loki knew he was safe. He knew he was home.

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restingdomface · 4 years

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Lan Wangji makes extremely deadpan videos of his daily life with Wei Wuxian and their kids and nephews (and nieces if JC and JYL had more). This would include:

*shows a video of LWJ staring out the window for a solid thirty seconds, face entirely unchanged and somewhat disappointed, turns camera around to show Wei Wuxian and the kiddos putting mentos in soda bottles and trying to chuck them at each other, camera pans back to his face, still entirely devoid of emotion*

That one time Jin Ling got stuck up a tree and Wei Wuxian tried to get him down and also got stuck up there and now the other kids are looking for a ladder while LWJ just watches them from the patio, drinking tea. The kids finally give up and shamefully come to LWJ and ask him for help, he gets his husband and nephew down without a word.

The one where he buried 5yo A-Yuan in a pile of bunnies and got scolded by Lan Xichen for it because they might bite him if they get annoyed with him.

There is an entire compilation of rabbits that won’t leave him alone. Climb into his lap. Follow him with every step. Get excited when he comes outside. Hear a guqin and start looking for him. Just. He’s the rabbit whisperer. One of the black ones is just about always with him.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian interacting in any capacity is going to involve a lot of hitting each other and pushing each other over. Only-child kids think they hate each other, but people with siblings are all ‘no no, siblings are just Like That’. People think Yanli is all innocent till they realize she def only tells them to stop when she thinks they might actually get on each other’s nerves. She’s in the ‘boys will rough house and probably only have one collective braincell’ category.

People won’t stop asking him if he speaks so he vaguely makes mentions of having extremely low verbility. They ask if he does sign and he’s not really sure how (lol cause words hard) to explain to them that sign doesn’t really help when the issue is more of him not having much to say tbh. This is apparently the wrong thing to say because then people start being all ‘yeah I get you, I’m pretty dumb too, at least you’re pretty’ and he’s just sorta sitting there with this smacked fish look on his face while WWX can’t stop laughing next to him at the very idea of someone calling his husband slow. Wow. LWJ just sorta finally gets out that he has like two degrees and teaches giqun lessons and it’s amazing. The kids find out about it and can’t stop laughing for hours.

“Hey, why did you name your son ‘sorrow and longing’?” *commense 10 minute video of that time Wei Wuxian got arrested for something to do with a satanic ritual and that’s when LWJ ended up with custody of his adopted son for the next three years and he was in a really angsty mood tbh so it just kinda happened* not a single commenter expected that, even less so when he mentions that they weren’t even together at that point

Films what the viewers think is a prank at first, where he pours a dangerous amount of chili powder into a mug of hot chocolate (with a completely straight face) and then brings it to WWX who takes a drink and makes a dreamy little sigh and goes ‘you always know how to make it just like I want it’ and no one is sure how to react to this video. It’s like watching someone peel and eat a lemon.

You know that video of the girl with the deadpan voice saying she went downstairs to take a shower and there was something brown in the bottom of the tub but it turned out to be potatoes and she’s all ‘not a problem I was expecting, but a problem I can handle’? Okay so that’s how he talks in every video. WWX hands him a baby and he talks to them exactly like that. People ask if he’s good with kids and WWX is all ‘yeah, he’s not just a rabbit whisperer, he’s a baby whisperer too, he’s super great with kids’ *shows LWJ talking to a baby in That Voice while the baby looks at him in utter adoration*

“What’s it like growing up gay? Do you ever get shit for it?” LWJ.exe has stopped working, he has only met one straight couple the same age as him and they’re his sister in law. His brother has three boyfriends, one of which is his brother-in-law. He doesn’t know what a het-er-o-sexual is and he doesn’t want to. Pretty sure his uncle is acearo and hasn’t seen his parents in like 20 years.

LWJ: ‘I apologize for being so emotional in my last video.’ *viewers scrambled to find what video he meant because they ain’t ever seen that man emotional before but end up finding a video where Sizhui told him he loved him and called him papa and gave him a hug while WWX filmed, you can barely see LWJ’s left eye twitching and he pets Sizhui’s head for a moment* viewers are very confused on how this constitutes emotionalism.

Viewers ask to see his brother ‘you know, the one who apparently has three boyfriends’ and LWJ posts a video of LXC passed out on a couch with like three fully grown men all in various states of sliding off onto the floor while the teens play a game of ‘who can stack the most random objects on uncle’s bodies without them waking’ because apparently LWJ and WWX were gone for a weekend and the uncles were supposed to watch the kids (like, all ten of them probably, there’s probably a lot of kids) and it’s Sizhui filming the whole thing cause he’s the ‘good one’ and never does bad things. But he’s also like Auntie Yanli and is totally gonna egg them on from the sidelines.

WWX hands LWJ literally any food and LWJ will eat it all with a completely straight face but as soon as WWX is turned around LWJ is chugging a glass of milk with a look of death on his face. The kiddos straight up can’t stomach his cooking.

😭 someone asks why their hair is all so long and LWJ puts up a video of chatty adorable Sizhui braiding WWX’s hair while he tells him about his day at school. It’s. Too. Cute.

The never ending debate on if LWJ’s deadpan personality/speech is acting or not. No matter how much everyone assures them he’s really just Like That people just aren’t convinced.

Someone points out several times that in their house they have a room with a satanic symbol on the door. That’s just WWX’s home office it’s all good. This is treated as ‘lol WWX is so dramatic’ for like four whole weeks before LWJ posts a video of Sizhui standing outside the office looking nervous. ‘What’s wrong?’ He says. ‘Dad called me into his office.’ Sizhui replies. ‘WWX must be a very strict father,’ the viewers think. That’s not it. That’s not it at all tbh. That video got flagged on like four different platforms and kept getting removed for graphic images and half their viewers don’t. Want. To know. What happened. In that office. (WWX doesn’t even see what the big deal was, that goat was dead when he bought it shut up.)

The others do videos sometimes too lol. Videos include

Jin Ling’s compilation of ‘Mom, what’s for dinner’ and the answer is Always Lotus root and pork rib soup. Someone asks ‘lol she must make that often’ and JL is all ‘lol often, fairly sure she got same-food syndrome, it’s always soup’.

Lan Sizhui at like 17 years old: The one true secret I’ve never told my dads? My most shameful lie? Rabbits aren’t my favorite. My favorite is butterflies. *proceeds to cuddle a bun* I’m sorry Mister Bun, but you just aren’t nearly as pretty as butterflies.

Shaky video of someone sitting on the couch, pointed at NMJ: Brother, while you’re away on vacation with your boyfriends, I don’t plan on leaving this spot for even a minute. NMJ: Oh yeah? What’ll you do when you have to use the bathroom? NHS: Listen, I found a guy on Craig’s List who’s exact fetish is lazy young men who refuse to move and also diapers exist and he’ll be my slave for the week if I let him change me. NMJ: ...I’m taking you with me on vacation. NHS: Yay! NMJ: I’m also taking your phone away. NHS: -wait, no- NMJ: Too late.

Jin Ling: JiuJiu, I spilt soda on your Valentino white belt. Jiang Cheng: *incomprehensible sputtering* -soda on my Valentino white belt-!

Sizhui: *brings Jingyi a bowl of food* Here. Jingyi: Thank you! *takes a bite, face falls in terror, gives Sizhui a betrayed look* Sizhui: Dad’s worried I’m getting sick, he said this would clear my chest cold up. He didn’t consider what horrible things it would do to my bowels instead. Please eat it, he gets sad when I don’t finish what he makes. Jingyi: *glaring* Just dump it down the garbage disposal! Sizhui: *def has a fever if he didn’t think of that* Oh. Good idea.

LWJ: *swaying in place* WWX: This bitch drunk as hell. LWJ: I’m. Gonna comit. A crime. WWX: *crying a little* I love drunk hubby times. A full shot of vodka and he’s not gonna remember any of this. Hey kids, I’m taking Papa on a walk! Sizhui’s in charge!

Zizhen: *sitting quietly on the couch while LSZ, LJY and JL all argue behind him somewhere, covering his mouth with a slightly horrified look* Jingyi: I mean, that’s not fair at all! Who HASNT made out with their cousin at one point or another? Ling: ... Sizhui: You said you’d never bring that up again please shut up. Ling: ...!!!!!! Zizhen: Amazing.

That one time the kiddos hypnotized Jin Ling into thinking he was a kitten. The adults all thought it was really weird that he was finally going through the whole ‘pretending to be an animal’ phase at like ten, but then the kiddos fessed up to learning how to hypnotize and they aren’t sure how to fix it. WWX instigated a rule that no brainwashing is allowed outside his office from now on.

People ask how WWX and LWJ met and it’s told from the POV of Lan Qiren who progressively getting drunker as he tells the story of the terrible high school romance that he had to watch between bad boy WWX and his precious baby angel nephew that made him consider quitting and how no one believed them when they insisted they didn’t get together till after WWX got out of jail for the cow incident.

#the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #the untamed #mdzs #incorrect untamed quotes #incorrect mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #jiang cheng #lan sizhui #juniors #lan jingyi #lan juniors #jin ling #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #nie brothers #ouyang zizhen #lan qiren

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starberry-cupcake · 4 years

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The Chinapuri finale and its montage aka censorship who?

I decided to do all of this in one post and read more, so that the 95% of my followers who are uninterested on this particular drama/source material can easily skip it. Here are 7 relationships showcased in the montage ranked and 2 bonus (a family relationship and an extra).

Note: I’ll speak about the relationships as they were portrayed, whichever the form of relationship chosen to display in this version. Also, I’m glad that everyone was aged up in this version, kinda wild but very much appreciated that some of these actors are my age or somewhere around there lol

#7 Lu Xia (Echizen Ryoma) and Qi Ying (Ryuuzaki Sakuno)

This drama was a bit more romantically-inclined in terms of these two than the anime/manga was, but some of that may be also influenced by them giving their version of Sakuno more room (which yay!) and having them be older.

For this to stand alone as a drama, it was a needed step, I believe. I found Lu Xia to be more vulnerable than Ryoma, he doesn’t feel quite as ~cool~ and it doesn’t take away from the character that he has moments showing internal struggle (in tennis as well as at home). These two were sweet and adorable, which gave the drama probably more of an expected appeal for a wider audience, to make it stand on its own as a drama and not only an anime adaptation.

#6 Yan ZhiMing (Inui Sadaharu) & Liu Lian (Yanagi Renji)

Kinda mad they didn’t do this for Fuji (Zhuo Zhi) and Saeki (Zuo Xiaohu) but they did good with these two. I didn’t know at first why they started to build up their relationship so early, but it ended up being a good emotional plot point during their match, which is, as we all know, a determining factor in Seigaku’s (Yu Qing) win against Rikkai (Hai Guang).

I don’t remember being as invested in their match in the anime as I was here, maybe I was just too focused on the Fuji match at that time, but what they did to build that game as a decisive point in the season finale was so well developed, I was impressed.

#5 He XingLong (Kawamura Takeshi) & Ya JiuXin (Akutsu Jin)

This is a relationship that can get complicated and even problematic if handled incorrectly. Akutsu’s journey through the anime is pretty long and takes a while for him to be on a healthier place, but the added element of aging the characters could have gone really wrong here if they had done him exactly as in the anime or manga. I think they did pretty well with the time they were given, showing his turmoil and learning curve.

XingLong was allowed to have a more in-depth journey being older and about to graduate, it made more sense for him here to think about his career at this stage and added the gravity of this being THE moment to decide whether to keep pursuing the sport or take over his dad’s restaurant (they even adapted the type of food they cook to match the cultural impact of the family-owned business, which was great).

I think the two complemented each other really well and worked interestingly together, in a way I didn’t think the drama was gonna give them time to do, so I’m really pleased.

#4 Qiao Chen (Momoshiro Takeshi) & Zhang BaiYang (Kaidoh Kaoru)

My younger self is thriving with this one being included tbh. These two were so much fun in the anime, two rivals and opposites that represented the future of the team upon their elders leaving.

I was surprised to see them so focused here, because it’s not a relationship most adaptations put emphasis on (their loss), but it paid off immensely by the time their game against Bunta and Jackal (Jin WenTai & Ke Jie) came around.

Kaidoh is a tough one to adapt most times, and they did him so well in this one, I think this is my favorite live action Kaidoh in any adaptation, and I’ve watched a whole bunch of tenimyu in my day. They really captured the ambiguity of his character, how he balances a tough exterior with a sensitive core. Qiao Chen maintained his feelings for Xu Xingzi (Tachibana Ann) but that didn’t stop them from showing these two every time they could.

#3 Mu Siyang (Tezuka Kunimitsu) & Ji Jingwu (Atobe Keigo)

Oh, these two. Hyotei (Xing Yao) wasn’t featured as much as one would probably expect (I’m a Fudomine fan and with Yu Feng I got more than I even was expecting, but I admit Hyotei is a riot and I always live my best life when they show up). Still, they did the Tezuka/Atobe match justice and then some.

Mu Siyang was incredibly compelling as Tezuka, and had a vulnerability to him that made me worry for his health more than I probably did for his anime counterpart. Maybe also the fact that he was older than his anime version yet looked younger than him made it sink more that his injury was something to worry about. I wish we had time to include anime!Tezuka’s issues with yips with Siyang, because I know the drama would have pulled it off, but that was further down the line in the story. Maybe for a season 2.

Anyway, the Atobe/Tezuka game is one of the best games in tenipuri history and the drama knew it. The game felt like it earned its gravity with the development of both Siyang’s injury and Ji Jingwu’s determination to play against him. Then they sprinkled the camp on top, as the anime does, with Ji Jingwu paying for his every expense and calling him to get updates, which is 100% canon compliant imo.

I feel like Ji Jingwu didn’t have enough room to be as much of Atobe as he could be, but then again, that’s not easy for anyone to pull off. Not even Kato Kazuki can do Junichi Suwabe as well as Junichi Suwabe.

#2 Bai ShiYan (Yukimura Seiichi) & Tian ZiLong (Sanada Genichirou)

So, it’s tough to feel for Rikkai (Hai Guang) at this point of the story. You learn about Yukimura’s health and it’s difficult, but you just met them and the first impressions haven’t been great.

However, the relationship between Sanada and Yukimura has always been something pivotal for the way the team is constructed (they were named that way for a reason, two parts of a same hero and all that) and they sustain the team in a way other teams don’t have to. They are the mom and dad of the team, the coaches, the leaders and the pillars. They have a balance of severity and permissiveness, of strictness and instinct. They are like a couple who has been married for 25 years.

How on Earth, I asked myself, will they achieve that with censorship on the way? I don’t know, but they did it, the mad bastards.

It really does come through 100% the importance of their relationship and the way in which the captain’s health affects the team and, more than anything, their vice captain. It reaches a crescendo during the final match, before ShiYan’s operation, and they manage to pull it off with the time they have.

Also, their scenes are like shot for a contemporary romance drama and I appreciate that vibe.

#1 Tang JiaLe (Kikumaru Eiji) & Chi DaYong (Oishi Shuichiro)

Oh boy. Look. I still own Golden Pair merchandise from my Days, ok? These two hold a special place in my heart. I saw actors who portrayed them grow up, succeed and pass away, sadly. I still sing Depend On Me sometimes. There is a cheerful vibe with these two, a sense of overcoming obstacles and finding balance, I don’t know. Fuji is my favorite character but these two are special in their way.

This freakin’ drama just went full on Golden Pair. The level of content was off the charts. The moment they came on the screen, the second they talked about their doubles, it was already setting the tone of how deep their relationship was going to go. I am a bit amazed that they avoided to get closed down for this ngl. And I appreciate the risk because it paid off.

They have a body language communication that is captured in every shot. Even when they’re not the focus of the scene, they’re close, touching or holding each other, arms around each other, hands on each other’s shoulders, grabbing each other’s clothes. When they fight, that language changes drastically, and the distance they take feels intense and cold. You go through it with them and the team shows it as well. There’s an entire episode I had screencaps of and never posted when the team falls apart because they do.

My favorite part, though, ironically, isn’t what they did with them together but what they did with them apart. They took time to develop them as individual characters with their own issues, their fears, their worries and weaknesses. They were allowed to be flawed and wrong and have to mend their ways.

What really got me and impacted me deeply was the fact that they chose DaYong to talk about mental health. They gave room to speaking about the physical implications of anxiety disorders and about how self esteem issues can give more magnitude to ongoing issues with your mental health. Again, the age of the characters being changed helped add a depth to some issues that get developed with more intensity in a drama of this kind, and the way in which it takes TIME to get resolved, it isn’t a one episode thing, it’s an underlying issue that spans the season...*chef’s kiss*

Even though there’s a specific tenimyu incarnation of these two that I hold dear and will always remember fondly, I think that Xu Ke and Zhu ZhiLing are the most successful and best portrayed live action Golden Pair I’ve ever seen.

Bonus that was in the montage but it’s specifically about a family relationship: The Zhuo Bros

I have said Fuji has always been my favorite and his relationship with Yuta as an older brother (albeit he’s not the eldest sibling like me) is one I always felt close to.

In the anime, the two have a rocky relationship that gets developed throughout, but the drama is very good at establishing not only Zhuo Yu’s (Fuji Yuta) self esteem issues, the subsequent use of that Guan Yue (Mizuki Hajime) does and Zhuo Zhi’s (Fuji Syusuke) attempts to breach the gap between the siblings, they also use it to develop Zhuo Zhi’s character and his reticence to show weakness.

It’s tough to get Fuji towards a place of vulnerability without breaking character, but they used family and the care he provides to his brother as a point to further his story, and I appreciate that a lot. They managed to build Zhuo Zhi up with this sibling bond as one of his core elements, and that gave a lot of dimension to his games and his character.

Bonus that wasn’t in the montage but I’m including in some capacity: Mu Siyang (Tezuka Kunimitsu) & Zhuo Zhi (Fuji Syusuke)

I thought these two deserved a place in the list, even if they weren’t grouped much in the montage, because the drama did make them share moments together that I feel gave more depth to their characters.

There was a very interesting moment in which they showed Mu Siyang and Zhuo Zhi establishing their differences when approaching tennis, and how serious Mu Siyang is about taking the team to victory. I think that strengthened the character as a captain to me, in a way that shows it rather than tells it, and allowed for his guidance to still be present when he wasn’t physically there. His determination ultimately influenced Zhuo Zhi to take things more seriously, and that was a pretty interesting development to see.

All in all, I should, at some point, go and do a serious review for MyDramaList but I wanted to leave in my blog how much I appreciated this adaptation. I wasn’t expecting much and I was delivered everything.

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pearlsongfromstuff · 3 years

Note

Hi its the oc ask anon from before! The New God OCs look intriguing and im always a sucker for dnd!

I watch Kyo's stuff too so all of that is really interesting as well, but the New God thing is drawing me in. If you want to talk about other ocs that's okay, but thats the one that has my interest atm

Have a good day pearl!

Thank you so much, Anon! I'ma nickname you Anny, Anny. So anyways, with just New God OCs (The name New God actually is name of my biggest AU that houses most of my main stories and my OCs. The name was inspired by the name Bad God but instead of a "Bad" God, there are "New" God's running the world. Fun little fact)

So with just these OCs alone we have 33 OCs, so I'ma give brief explanations for them

(Note: All the OCs with (*) are made by @chaoscorners-blog since we share these OCs but they were his original concepts)

(Also some other vocabulary you might need to know for this AU:

Minnrig- A fake Micronation near Ukraine and Romania where most of the stories take place. This place holds all the power in this universe

Red Eye Curse: Also called the 2p Disease or Madness Curse, the Red Eye Curse was a magical curse that plagued most of the 2p Universe. It drove people to madness by making them selfish, power-hungry and manipulative. It's also why the 2p Universe was known as the "Evil Side" while the 1p Universe was known as the "Good Side". It eventually disappeared 10 years as fast as it appeared)

Pearl and *Angel (He/they / He/They): The "New Gods". They run the universe and live in a castle near Minnrig. Though they may seem kind and thoughtful on the surface, they're actually not that good of people. I recommend not coming close to them.

Darling (She/Her): Adopted daughter of Pearl and Angel, she is known to have any magical powers. Not much is known about her since she rather hide in the Ancient Records within the castle

Star and Rose (He/Him, She/Her): Star and Rose are also adopted children of Pearl and Angel but unlike their older sister, they have magic. Star and Rose are probably more powerful than Pearl and Angel combined. Star is more adventurous and wants to learn about the magic in the world while Rose tries to live a more normal life, away from her godly heritage.

*Viktor and Sal (He/Him, They/Them) : Two 2ps that escaped to the 1p World, they live with Pearl and Angel as caretakers for Star and Rose. Star is the most attached to them, calling Sal "Mama" and Viktor "Dad".

Lewton (He/Him): The personification of Minnrig, Lewton is also the Detective of the town. He's also the husband of Bazarov (who we'll talk about if anyone asks about 2ps) and he's also responsible for the end of the Red Eye Curse.

*Zargon and Diablo (He/Him, She/Her): The Adopted children of Bazarov, sadly they were found around the time Bazarov had the Curse, they were taught since adoption to become soldier, and they're mainly representative of Heart (Zargon) and Mind (Diablo). Bazarov actually stole Diablo's heart for years, making her very heartless and making her a war criminal like her father while her brother always seemed to get the blame. After many years and while Lewton was working on saving the world, Zargon found Diablo's heart and they got the fuck out of there.

Deera (She/Her): The eldest sister of Zargon and Diablo, Deera kinda left her siblings for dead after the death of their birth parents. She instead headed to the Fantasy universe and kinda became a fucking villain in the stories, mainly manipulating anyone for whatever she wants.

Riley (She/Her): Another adopted child of Bazarov (He has a lot), She was raised while Zargon and Diablo were but sperate. She later on took over her father's place as General.

Abble (She/her): An (say it with me now) adopted child of Bazarov but with a twist: She's also Lewton's daughter. She actually has a nice upbringing unlike her other siblings because Bazarov was free of the curse when she was being raised. Her siblings are highly jealous of this.

Bean and Loki (He/Him, He/Him): Bean is a cat who radiated too much magic and can now turn human. Loki is a Mochi America but somehow, during hatching, gained more of a conscience than his other Mochi brethren. They're also married after many weird circumstances.

*Azreal (She/Her): To put it shortly, she's a bootleg Dr. Frankenstein. She has a never ending thirst for knowledge and uses such knowledge of other universes to bring people to life and to create life. And in one story, she kills Nevo......sooooooo-

*Mono (He/Him): During life, he was a simple manga artist with a wife and child but after horrible circumstances, he ends up dead at the hands of a gang. Azreal takes him and brings him back to life. Sadly, during the "bringing back to life" process, his soul is merged with a more evil soul, so now two personalities are contained in one body. Mono being the more awkward side and Parasite having absolutely no chill.

Pearl Song (Any Pronouns): Originally my very first cringy Marysue OC, we revamped her into being another of Azreal's projects. She has the power of the everything due to her past life and now uses that power in her current life to cause chaos with her favorite brother, Mono.

*Foalina and *Matthias (She/Her, He/Him): Another project by Azreal, they are two bunny twins that travel the world as performers. On stage, Foalina is seen as meak and weak while Matthias is more flirtatious and cunning. Off stage, they hate each other with a burning passion

*Caddy (She/They): Another project by Azreal, she is a mute traveler of the many universes. She is very excited soul that likes any good story.

*Shyane (She/Her): Azreal's first project, at first, Azreal saw her as a daughter and she saw Azreal as a mother but after time, their relationship became more strained and she became more of a servant than a daughter. She is very nurturing and caring.

*Demonic and *Ivan (She/Her, He/Him): Demonic is another project by Azreal which Azreal didn't just take a dead body and reanimate it, she actually created her. She was mainly used for experiments until she finally left. After many unfortunate events in her life, she gives birth to Ivan, her son. Ivan is the light of her life and just is an absolute sweetheart. We see more of them during Ages AU.

*Lilla (She/Her): A girl from the 1500's that left her home to become a Teutonic Knight so she didn't become a maid, after her entire crew is supposedly murdered and the enemy is after her, she starts working for a witch in the woods who eventually send her to the future to escape death sentence.

Amelia (Amy) (She/Her): Basically Amy Rose (from Sonic series) but she is an old interpretation I had of her in 2016 that she basically became my OC. Anyways, she also comes to our present and meets Lilla and after she helps her understand the world around her (which Amy sees as old technology), they actually fall in love and get married, yay!

Cosmo (She/Her): Daughter of Amy and Lilla

Amore (She/Her): Amy's past lover that basically gets in fights with Lilla a lot

Kaarlo (He/Him): Lilla's past lover that dies of hypothermia after looking for her in the snow. F in the chat

Berry, *Duke, Nicholas, and *Cole (Any Pronouns, He/Him, He/Him and He/They): Basically two femboys (Berry and Cole) and two hunks (Nicholas and Duke) in a Dream Scape

AND THERE ARE ALL MY ORIGINAL CHARCTERSSSSS. Damn that's a lot of typing for one phone. Anyways, I hope this entertained you guys! I will take any asks you have. I will also post some art of all of them later

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creativeskullcreations · 3 years

Text

HTaHHQ episode 4: Unarmed part 1

Whoops, sorry, no new Outside chapter this week, or the next. Wanted to get this posted too so I could start getting more episodes written. Don't worry though, it will return next month! :D

"I don't see why we have to come here today. Can't you just do this at home?" Stacy complained as Mary led them into the Studio. It was a dark, stormy Saturday, perfect for staying inside. Instead, her and Danny had to go to "work" with Mary.

"Stacy, honey, I would love to just stay home but Nick's stupid edits to my script mean I have to come in. All of us writers have to." She sighed irritably.

"Yeah, but why can't Danny and I just stay home? I can watch him." She tried desperately.

"Because... it's illegal." Mary swept her unbrushed hair back. "Besides, I thought you liked Scout. You told me you wanted to spend the weekend with her."

"Yeah. At home. Not here." The thirteen year old deadpanned as Mary moved towards the offices. The woman sighed in response, reaching the end of her patience.

"Look, why don't you take your brother and go find her? It'll be a lot more interesting than what I'm doing."

"You mean tearing Nick a new one?" She asked, sounding interested. "Cause I want to watch that."

"You don't get to watch that. Go find Scout." Were the last words Mary said before towards the offices.

"Fine." Stacy groaned as her stepmother went into her office. She grabbed Danny's arm with her left and led him in the direction of the Sound Stage. He followed her eagerly, just excited to be there at a time he normally wasn't.

Her intent was to find Daisy and have her let them into the elevator to go upstairs. If they couldn't find her, she was planning on using the vents to get into the playroom instead. She remembered the way, mostly, and it'd be easier than trying to work up the courage to ask someone else.

Unfortunately, Daisy was nowhere to be found. They looked all over the Sound Stage, checked her House Set, and then looked in the cafeteria. But, sadly, no Daisy. Which meant Stacy had to pick the lock on one of the prop closets to reach the vents.

"Hmm, two children where they're not supposed to be." Stacy froze mid break in as Danny ran over to the Puppet, who sighed and leaned down to ruffle his hair. "Yes yes, it's nice to see you too, Danny."

Stacy struggled to keep her voice even. "Uh, w-where's Daisy?" She stowed the picks back under her glove as she stood up and turned to face the scientist.

She wasn't the scariest looking Puppet(poor Nick held that title, even among the other staff). But, Stacy had always held a fear of doctors, dentists, anyone who wore scrubs and a lab coat basically. Which Riley did, unfortunately, and it made the girl more nervous than the others did.

Well, that, and the forums talking about how she must be doing unethical experiments to get a dog as big as the Rosco puppet. But Stacy was pretty sure that was for in the show, not real life. Probably.

Riley let out a huff of annoyance. "In the writer's room with our annoying brat of a brother. His edits to the script have caused her scenes to be quite a bother." She sighed. "What do you need her for, anyway? And why are you two here on this day?"

"... Mary's the head writer." Stacy told her, clenching her sleeves in her fists. "And it's, like, illegal to leave us home alone or something. I don't know."

"Ah, I see, but you only answered question number two." She pointed out in a matter-of-fact sort of way. "What for you, could Daisy do?"

Stacy thought that rhyme was a little bit of a stretch, with the wording and all. But, before she could respond Danny clapped his hands, and pointed towards the ceiling. "Scout!" He told her excitedly. "We're here to see Scout!"

"Ah, I understand now." She did not look happy about it either. Stacy wondered why. "Fine then, I'll call the elevator down."

She led the two kids to the elevator doors and inserted her own key-card, unlocking them. Stacy waited uncomfortably as it slowly descended, trying to keep between her brother and Riley. It was difficult, as he kept leaning around her to talk at the Puppet, who listened politely.

When the elevator arrived, Stacy pulled Danny into it with a quickly muttered "Thanks". It took everything in her to not button mash the floor number she wanted. She did her best not to stare at the Puppet as the doors closed, but it was difficult when she could feel her weird wooden eyes piercing into her soul.

When they reached the upper floor, Stacy practically dragged her brother out of the elevator. It started to go back down almost immediately, so she hurried to the playroom, rushing through Daisy's sewing room to get to it. She didn't knock, but did ease the door open slowly so as not to startle them. When she got it fully opened, Scout flung herself and landed on her face.

"Stacy!" She screamed, and the girl almost had to peel her off her face. She lifted the small Puppet up to let her rest on top of her head.

"Hi, Scout. Mom's here to deal with some... script issues, I guess, and she brought me and Danny." Danny waved, and Scout waved back. "So I brought some movies for us all to watch."

"Yay, movies!" Bonzai latched onto her backpack, working the zipper open so he could climb inside. Stacy put the bag on the floor and he burst out a second later, with a video in his hands. "Terminatooooor!" He yelled, and Canon facepalmed.

"Yeah, we can watch that one first." Stacy told them and grabbed the tape, going over to put it in the player. She put it in and turned on the TV, hitting play once it had booted up. They sat back to watch, most of the Puppets migrating to sit on the human children.

Surprisingly, they managed to watch in silence, though Stacy and Danny did have their own commentary in sign language. Only Scout really understood it, but she didn't understand much. She had only just started to learn, after all, and was looking at the signs backwards.

The movie ended, and Bonzai immediately dove back into the backpack with Bit. Together they searched for another action movie while Stacy rewound the Terminator.

"Hey, how come there are only baby movies in here?" Bit asked angrily, popping out of the bag with a tape in her arms.

"I'd hardly call Shrek or Spirited Away 'baby' movies." Stacy frowned, picking up the anime movie. "Mom wouldn't even let me watch this one until just last year."

"But they're cartoons, and cartoons are so boring!" Bonzai complained.

"What kind of cartoons are you watching?" She muttered as she took the film out of it's box and crouched by the player. Louder, she said "I promise, Spirited Away isn't boring. Anime is awesome."

"Mom never lets us watch anime. She says it's inappropriate for kids." Canon told her, and Stacy sighed.

"Well, she's wrong. Sailor Moon and Digimon and Pokemon are all for kids." She told the Puppets, with Danny nodding along beside her. "And there's a lot more than just that. I'll record some episodes to bring next time."

"Okay but we can't tell Mom." A pause as Canon raised her voice so her siblings could hear. "Nobody tell Mom Stacy's showing us anime."

"Okay!"

"Sure!"

"Whatever."

Were the three answers she got, which she called good enough for now. At least she knew nobody would tell Mom, if only for the promise of Forbidden Goods.

While they watched the movie, Stacy sat with her arms full of Handpuppets. It was like holding a litter of puppies, as they never stopped moving and sometimes crawled away to do other stuff. At one point, Bonzai pulled out a couple of magnets to play with. As he pulled them apart to let them fly back together, he was startled when they instead attached themselves to Stacy's right arm.

"Stacy's a terminator!" He shrieked, and immediately teleported away.

"What?! No I-!" She jolted when a small, stuffed bear hit her on the head. "Dude!"

"Bonzai, what the heck?!" Canon followed him onto the bookcase he'd hidden on top of.

"She's an evil robot! The magnets are sticking to her arm!" He cried, and when Stacy looked there were two small magnets caught on her. She pulled them off and tossed them aside while Canon tried to calm her brother down.

"Hey! Stacy's not a robot!" Scout angrily shouted up at her siblings.

"Then what is she?" Bit asked, having picked up a small stick. Scout opened her mouth, then snapped it shut.

"I... can't tell you that." She finally said. "But I swear she's not a robot."

A long pause of silence, and then Canon figured it out and smacked Bonzai off the bookshelf. "It's a prosthetic, you idiot!"

"Oh." Was all the fallen Puppet said as he laid limply where he'd landed. Canon face-palmed, followed by Bit, while Stitch went to check on their brother.

"Can we see it?" Bit asked excitedly, already trying to pull back her sleeve. Stacy yanked her arm up and away from the Puppet.

"No! You can't see it!" She snapped.

"Yeah, it's not that interesting anyways." Scout tried to help, very unhelpfully.

"You've seen it?! That's not fair!" Bit complained, and Bonzai Jumped over too.

"Yeah! You can't just show Scout! She's lame!" He insisted, to the human teen's unamused look.

"Scout's my favorite." Stacy told them bluntly, to two offended gasps while Scout cheered and then mocked them.

"Yeah, I'm her favorite! Who's lame now? Losers. Ow!" Canon smacked her head, turning on her eye lights.

"Don't be smug about it!" She scolded her younger sister, who grumbled and retreated to the top of Stacy's head.

"Hey, no hitting." Stacy tried to scold, then just gave a tired sigh. "Look. let's just go back to the movie, it's fine."

"No! I wanna see the robot arm!" Bonzai lunged for her, but Stacy yanked her arm away again and he landed on the carpet instead. "Come on! You showed it to Scout!"

"Yeah, and I'm not showing it to anybody else!" She retorted, while Danny picked up Bonzai. The puppet struggled against the five year old's hold, but ultimately failed to escape.

"I'm helping!" Danny pipped up happily as he sat back down to finish the movie.

"Yep. You are." His sister muttered. They managed about five more minutes of movie before Bonzai managed to escape Danny's grasp. He instantly went back over to her, draping himself over her arm.

"I still wanna see the arm." He said, and Stacy groaned as she fell back against the carpet, hands pressed against her face.

"Noooooo." She moaned out. "I. Don't. Wanna. Show you."

"Please! We all wanna see!" Bit piped up. Stacy uncovered her face and looked over at Stitch, who nodded. Her gaze turned to Canon, who looked away sheepishly.

"I mean, it's not like I don't want to see it..." She admitted quietly, and Stacy gave an irritated sigh.

"Fine! Fine. But you only get one look! And none of you get to ask me again!" She waited until they all nodded, before starting to roll up her sleeve, revealing just how long her glove really was. Carefully, she pulled it off, revealing gleaming silver metal that ended just above her elbow. The flesh that met the metal was scarred, rough and pale against the smooth brown that was the rest of her skin.

"Oooooh, so shiny..." Bonzai muttered. The four Puppets that hadn't seen it yet stared, transfixed, at the limb. Scout, who had also reacted that same way, just rolled her eyes.

"Weirdos." She muttered, though she also couldn't help but watch as Stacy flexed her hand and showed off the arm.

"It's really advanced, and really expensive." She told them. "And I'm supposed to go in for upgrades in a few months due to growth spurts."

"Why are you even hiding this? It makes you so much cooler than anyone else." Bit told her, and she shrugged, pulling the glove back on.

"Because I don't want them to know about it." Stacy said bluntly, letting her sleeve drop back down. "Now can we please go back to the movie? It's one of my favorites."

"Yeah, we can do that." Canon said, and then forced her siblings to turn back to the screen, which had been playing the movie the whole time. Giving a relieved sigh, Stacy did the same, settling in as she made sure her glove was on straight.

They watched the movie silently, the small Puppets getting way too into it in Stacy's opinion. But, at least they liked it, and that was all she really cared about. By the end of it, however, most of them were still riled up, including Danny, so Stacy put in Barbie Swan Lake instead.

"But that's a girls movie!" Bonzai complained, to which Stitch shushed him.

"You should give the movie a chance. The story is about a rather interesting dance." She told him, to which he groaned louder.

"Stacy can dance!" Danny piped up, to which Stacy internally sighed.

'Great word association there. Does everything have to come back to me?' She shook her head slightly, trying to keep from sounding resentful.

"You can?!" That was Scout, now staring up at her with wide eyes. "You never told me that!"

"That's because I can't do it anymore. The weight distribution is off with my arm." She told her.

"Can you still show us some moves? Please?" Five Puppets, and one younger brother, stared up at her, begging with surprisingly good puppy-dog-eyes. She could feel her resolve wavering,even as she focused on the TV.

"Ugh..." She hated being the oldest. Why did all the younger kids think she was cool? "Fine. I'll do a dance. But don't ask me for anything else today."

"Yay!" Everyone, including Danny, cheered, as Stacy moved to get ready. Lucky her, they were dancing on the movie, so she could just do what they were doing. It wasn't terribly complicated, as she'd been in a production of Swan Lake before, though not as Odette. The moves that were a little too complex, were easy to fake with a bit of effort.

It was easy to lose herself in it, just like she used to. Easy enough that she stopped looking at the screen, and simply did the dance from memory.

And thus, it was easy enough to misstep and slide on a piece of paper during a spin. A yell, and a loud, sharp thud as she landed, and things went black.

#hello puppets #happy times at handeemen hq #htahhq #episode 4 #stacy stein #danny stein #mary stein #riley ruckus #scout #canon #bit #bonzai #stitch #fanfiction

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all-the-love-harold · 4 years

Text

Epilogue

Master Post

November 15th 2021 - 6 weeks

The bitter Autumn air seeped through the glass of the bedroom window as Poppy and Harry caught some very much needed sleep in the early hours of this Tuesday morning. Today would have been Florence’s due date, but instead she was six weeks old, and so was her brother Oscar. They were the twins that weren’t really twins and they filled their parents' hearts with so much love that they found it difficult to sleep even when they had the chance.

Harry awoke abruptly to the sounds of Flori’s coos and let out a sign of relief when he realised she was still sleeping, but then sat up to check that the two of them were still breathing. That was the thing about being a parent, he couldn’t stop worrying about them, he even still checked in on Oli to make sure he was ok from time to time.

“You kids give me heart palpitations,” he sighed, laying back down on his pillow.

“Is everything ok?” Poppy mumbled, still half asleep .

“Yeah,” Harry said, wrapping his arm around her “Go back to sleep, Lovie.”

Poppy nestled in closer to Harry’s chest and felt her body drift back off into sleep. She didn’t know how long it had been but she guessed only about 10 minutes because Harry was asleep but not yet snoring, and Poppy found herself waking up to the sounds of Oli’s feet entering their room.

“Mummy,” he whispered “I miss my brother Ossie!”

“He’s sleeping honey” Poppy mumbled “why don’t you hop into bed with Mummy and Daddy until he wakes up.”

“He’s always sleeping!” Oli sighed but crawled in next to Poppy anyway, snuggling and tangling his legs with her own

“He’s a baby Buddy, but I promise he won’t be this boring forever...”

“Flori’s more boring, she sleeps even more” He sighed

“She’s got more growing to do, but you know she loves you, she’s alway smiling when she sees you”

Oli sighed “She doesn’t talk though,”

“She won’t until she’s a bit older, but once she does, she’ll be a total chatterbox. For now she’s all smiles.”

“And cries,” he added, the second that Flori started crying.

Harry sat upright, eyes still closed “It’s my turn,” he hummed, voice raspy with sleep.

Poppy giggled, patting him on the chest “It’s alright H, I’ve got this one”

“OK,” he laid back down and Poppy swung her legs out of the bed and walked over to the bassinet in the corner where both babies were starting to cry.

“Good Morning my little ones,” she cooed. “It’s nice to see you both awake”. She made the move to pick up Oscar first and take him over to the bed where Oli could say good morning. Juggling two babies was hard enough on its own, but because Flori was so much smaller and more fragile than Ossie, Poppy decided it was best to take them one at a time.

“Oli, give Ossie a cuddle for me while I get Flori,” she rested the baby on the bed, right next to Oli. He was still too young to hold him without supervision but he knew to be gentle when he cuddled either of the babies.

“Hi Flori Girl,” Poppy said as she picked up the second baby, “Are you going to eat for me today? Or is that too much to ask?”

Flori had had trouble feeding since she was born, which was something not uncommon to babies born six weeks early, but it made it harder to feed them both at the same time.

“H,” Poppy whispered “H I need your help with feeding them, please.”

“Hmmm,” he hummed and sat up “I’ll take Ossie”

“Can I hold the bottle for him daddy?” Oli said enthusiastically

Harry swung his legs over the edge of the bed and rubbed his eyes “Of course you can, why don’t you help me make the bottles first though?”

Oli leant over and kissed Oscar on the cheek and jumped out of bed next to Harry,“Mum his nappy smells...”

Poppy couldn’t help but giggle at her little boy, “I’ll fix that while you make his bottle.”

Oli toddled out after his father and Poppy stared at the babies as he left,“You two have the best big brother, you know that?”

***

April 5th, 2022 - 6 Months

Oli stood at the bathroom sink in front of the mirror, brushing his teeth and staring at his own reflection, opening and closing his eyes trying to see what colour they were.

“Daddy,” he said as he looked in the mirror

“Hmm,” Harry said

“Why don’t my eyes look like yours or mummy’s?”

Harry drew in a deep breath, he knew the day would come when Ollie would have questions about his real dad and where he came from, but he didn’t think it would come this soon, he’d only just turned four and he hadn’t even started school yet. He thought he’d have more time…

“Why do you ask mate?”

“Well, everyone always says how much Flori and Ossie look like mummy, but no one ever says that I look like you,” he spat the toothpaste out of his mouth and wiped his face with his sleeve.

“Hey, use the towel please,” Harry said sternly “come on, get yourself tucked up in bed and I’ll tell you a story.”

“You didn’t answer my question dad!” Oli moaned putting the towel back on its rack and looking at Harry curiously.

“That’s what I’m going to tell you a story about, silly,”’ Harry smiled at his son.

“Yay!” He ran from the bathroom and down the hallway towards his bedroom

“Walking feet Oliver Styles”, Harry called sternly and shook his head when Oliver turned around and slowed down to a power walk as he reached his room. Just a few steps behind, Harry quietly ducked into the main bedroom where Poppy was feeding the twins, and sat on the bed, running his hand through his hair.

“What’s up buttercup?” she said, looking at him with concern.

“Oli wants to know why he doesn’t look like me...”

Her body stiffened, “He knows H, we’ve told him before.”

“I know,” Harry nodded “But I think he’s feeling left out”

Poppy thought for a second, looking down at the two babies next to her, who were, biologically Harry’s, and her heart sank at the realisation that Oli might be starting to feel different to his siblings and the idea that he might be feeling a little less loved for that danced around in her head.

“We’ll talk to him H, bring him in here and we’ll tell him together, OK? We’re a team,” she said, shifting the twins into their bassinet, carefully so that they didn’t wake up. Harry nodded, and stood up, walking down the hallway and into his son’s room.

“Come and get in bed with Mum, mate, she wants to tell the story too.” “But mummy’s got the babies,” Oli said looking at Harry sadly

“They’re asleep, come on bud, come in and have a snuggle” Harry held out his hand out and Oli took it, pulling himself up and out of the bed and following Harry down the hall, stopping outside the bedroom door and looking up at his dad

“In ya go bud”

“Mummy!” he whispered loudly while he climbed into bed with Poppy “Daddy said he’s going to tell me a story about why my eyes don’t look like yours!”

She smiled at him and squeezed him in closer, “Mummy’s going to help Daddy tell you the story”

He rested his head on her chest “Good, I miss you mummy, you always put the babies to bed now..”

Her heart sank even lower and she placed a kiss on his forehead “I know buddy, how about we make a deal? I still have to put Flori and Ossie to bed, but some nights you can come in here after your bath and we’ll have a cuddle and a story, like now?”

A smile stretched across his face, “I like that, Mummy”

Harry watched as Poppy had a moment with their son and slowly pulled back the covers once they and Oli were comfortable.

“Daddy!” Oli said, “you can’t get in bed in your clothes, you have to put your jammies on.”

Harry giggled at his son and put the covers back to where they belong, walking over to the chair where he kept his long pyjama pants

“I guess you’re right buddy,” he said, glad to be given an excuse to avoid the conversation at hand. He unbuttoned his shirt and threw it into the laundry hamper before sliding his jeans off and replacing them with his pyjama pants.

“Better?” he asked

“Better..” Oli smiled and Harry walked back over to the bed, pulling the covers away and hopping in next to Oli, who was now sandwiched between the two of them. Neither Harry or Poppy made an attempt to start the story, remaining silent but looking at each other, calmly working out what to say to the curious little boy sitting between them.

“Well...” he said out ot the quiet looking up at Harry who noticed his voice was soft in the kind of way that your voice goes if you’re nervous after a bad dream.

“Alright you little bugger,” Harry smiled and ruffled his hair taking a deep breath before opening his mouth again. “You remember when Emily and Mummy were having the babies?”Oli nodded against his chest

“And you asked how they got there?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled “you said you put them there but they needed time to grow and then you said that mummy’s tummy didn’t work properly, that’s why Flori didn’t grow as much.”

“That’s right”, Harry smiled and looked at Poppy for reassurance. She smiled and nodded and he continued. “Well,then you remember that we told you that when you were in mummy’s tummy a different daddy put you in there?”

Oli didn’t say anything for a moment and Poppy and Harry left him to think about it.

“But why are you my Daddy then?” he asked looking up at Harry, confused

Poppy smiled, “The other daddy wasn’t a very nice man, so Mummy found the nicest man she knew and made him your daddy instead.”

Harry smiled at her and waited for Oli to say something again. “Is that why you didn’t get married until I was in Mummy’s belly?”

“That’s why,” Poppy said “if it wasn’t for you little man, mummy and daddy would never have fallen in love.”

He nodded and smiled to himself and quickly looked up at Harry “Thanks for not letting the bad man be my daddy”, he moved his head from Poppy’s chest to Harry’s “I like you better!”

Harry placed a kiss on Oli’s head, “I love you little man, this doesn’t change anything, OK?”

“I know,” he nodded and all three of them smiled and remained silent for quite sometime after that, snuggling up and slowly dozing off. After about half an hour, Oli stirred and sat up

“Daddy,” he cleared his throat

“Yeah buddy,” Harry said to him sleepily.

“How do you put a baby in someone’s belly?”

He sat up and looked at Poppy as she giggled at him trying to work his way out of it.

“That, my friend is a story for another day” He picked Oli up and put him on the ground next to the bed, pulling the covers off himself and getting up. “It’s way past your bedtime and you’ve got nursery tomorrow”

His face lit up at the sound of nursery “Will Thomas be there?”

“He sure will”, Harry smiled “Now bed, come on, I’ll tuck you in”

***

October 3rd 2022, 1 Year

The house was crowded, the kids were running wild and the adults were being less than helpful. In the entire year that had passed since Flori and Ossie were born, Addie had made up with her mum and forced Poppy to do the same. And that meant that Linda was there too. Fussing over the babies and turning the Cold Shoulder to everyone else.

“Ossie,” she smiled at the baby boy. “I wonder if your mum named you after where she’s from?”

“It was actually me that named Oscar.” Emily smiled and held out her hand to introduce herself “I’m Emily,”

Linda smiled, “I’m Linda,” and she turned back to the baby. “You are just the cutest little boy!”

Emily found it a little strange that Linda didn’t indulge in that conversation but decided not to worry about it since she barely knew the woman, maybe she was just shy.

Ossie smiled and rested his head on Linda’s shoulder, a habit that he’d developed recently that melted just about everyone’s heart.

“Isn’t he the sweetest?” Anne said, walking over to Linda with Flori in her arms.

“They both are,” Linda said, still staring at Ossie, who was now poking her nose .

“This one is a little more sassy than him,” Anne laughed. “Do you want some Flori time? I’ll swap you!”

“I’ll have them both,” Linda said, allowing Anne to hand Flori over but refusing to let go of Ossie. Flori let out a high pitch happy squeal when she saw her brother and gave him a big smile

“Os,” she cooed “And Flori” she smiled at the two babies in her arms “I don’t know why your parents gave you such strange names!”

“Why is she even here? She doesn’t want to talk to anyone and all she’s doing is saying passive aggressive things to our children!” Poppy huffed as she shoved a plate of half eaten spring rolls into Harry’s hand

“You invited her,” Harry said, matter-of-factly taking the plate and emptying it into the bin.

“I didn’t think she’d actually show up!” Poppy sighed, leaning most of her weight on the kitchen bench.

Harry put the plate down and wrapped his arms around her, “Why don’t we do the cake now? People leave after that right? Maybe she’ll go back to her hotel?”

“Dad won’t let her go until we ask them to.”

“Maybe we’ll get loud mouth out there to do it,” Harry nodded towards Oli, who was busy telling Emily’s nephew, Jack, that there’s a chocolate Peppa Pig Cake in the secret kitchen fridge and he knows because he’s “seen it with his own eyes!”

A huge smile spread across Poppy’s face, “How did we get this lucky H? We’ve got two beautiful babies and Oli is just the sweetest little boy. And I have you and we have this wonderful house and when I moved to London 10 years ago I never even dreamed that this would be my life.”

Harry wrapped his arms around her, “This is your life Pop, and it’s better than either of us ever thought it would be. Now let's go sing Happy Birthday to our Miracle babies”

Poppy pulled away from the hug, “You get the cake, I’ll get the kids off my mum,” she paused….”Unless you want to do that?”

“Nope,” Harry shook his head drawing his lips into a sharp line. “That job is all yours!”

Poppy rolled her eyes and plastered a huge fake smile onto her face before she walked out of the kitchen and straight over to her mother.

“Ok Mum,” she said. “It’s cake time, they need to go in high chairs.”

“You really shouldn’t give them cake you know,” Linda said trying the balance the babies without dropping them but Flori was slowly slipping down her side.

Poppy reached out and grabbed her, “Ok well when you don’t almost drop my child you can tell me what I should and shouldn’t feed them. But until then, come over to the table and sing happy birthday to them and at least pretend to be proud of the life that I’ve made for myself.”

Linda huffed “You didn’t make any of this,” she laughed, almost manically. “You had this handed to you!”

Poppy took a deep breath to try and calm herself down. This didn’t need to be a repeat of the last time her mother was here. No one was going to storm out today. No one was going to stop talking to anyone.

“Just put Ossie in his high chair, Mum,” she sighed.“Or give him to me and I’ll do it.”

Linda walked away with Oscar still nestled in her arms “She didn’t even make you Ossie,” she said in a fake baby voice that just about sent Poppy over the edge. Harry stepped in at just the right moment, placing the cake on the table in front of the highchairs and switched the lights off, getting everyone's attention, while Poppy secured Florence into her chair and made sure that Oscar’s buckle was done up.

“....Haaaappppy Birthday!” Harry started singing and everybody joined in, except Linda, who stood in the corner and sulked until the song was over. Florence and Oscar were staring at the cake, looking confused, but smiling at all the singing.

“Ok before we cut the cake,” Harry said “I’d like to thank everyone for coming and for being so supportive over the last 12 months. We didn’t think we’d be here again after Violet was born two years ago, but thanks to Emily and some incredible luck on Poppy’s behalf, were blessed with two of the most beautiful babies ever.” Tears started welling in his eyes “So thank you for being here to celebrate with us!”

****

March 2024 - 3 Years

Florence always had trouble sleeping at night. There was a monster under her bed, she was sure of it. It had pink furry arms and eyes that looked like the Gruffalo’s. Her Mum and dad’s bed was much safer, but she couldn’t leave Oscar in the room alone.

“Ossie” she said loudly to wake him up “Ossie the monster’s coming we need to tell Mum and Dad”

Oscar jumped out of his bed “I don’t like monsters Flori”

“Dad will scare it, come on” Florence flicked her matted hair behind her shoulders with all the sass in the world and left the room

“Mummy” Ossie said, almost crying, “There’s a monster in my room”

Poppy and Harry froze in their tracks. He was deep inside her and she was only seconds away from an orgasm. They were thankful that the lights were out, and that the twins couldn’t see that Harry was on top of her or that his hands were massaging her breasts. At the sound of Ossie’s voice both of them sighed, they hadn’t had a moment to themselves for weeks now, between all three of their children, there was always one of them in your bed.

“A monster?” Harry said once he had rolled off Poppy, giving her a moment to catch her breath “What’s going on buddy?”

“There was noise and the monster was coming to get me” the tears were streaming down his face.

“Dad you need to get it” Flori said “It’s got pink furry arms”

“Are you sure they’re pink?” Harry said, pulling the covers tighter over himself

“Yes” Flori nodded “Bright pink”

“Come here buddy” Poppy cooed holding her arms out for a hug, but Ossie seemed to think that was an invitation to get under the covers and Flori soon followed, snuggling in next to her brother. Ossie didn’t notice anything for a while, but once he stopped crying he lifted his head from Poppy’s shoulder

“Mummy, why are you naked?”

She turned her head to look at Harry and he just smirked at her and shrugged, offering no help

“I must have forgotten my clothes”

“Your bra’s on the floor over there” Flori pointed to where her bra laid haphazardly over the floor after Harry had thrown it off.

At that Harry let out a loud cackle “Yeah, Pop, what’s your bra doing on the floor”

She playfully hit Harry across his torso “I don’t know Harry, why is your underwear hanging on the side of the bed”

“Daddy, are you naked too?” Ossie asked

“Daddy doesn’t like clothes buddy” Harry laughed

“Daddy’s going to go and find his clothes now, isn’t he?” Poppy said passive aggressively

“Not sure that’s a good idea love” he furrowed his brow and she knew exactly what he meant, but she thought she’d tease him little and hovered her hand over his dick, which was still hard.

“You better go fix that then” she whispered pointing to the bathroom

“You want to help?” he winked

“There’s monsters Harry” she sighed and he got the hint, pulling the covers back and throwing you his t-shirt before he walked into the bathroom. You were thankful that the twins remained oblivious to most of this conversation. She attempted to get the shirt on without disturbing them too much, but he was still a little on edge so any movement worried him.

“Sorry buddy” you said, pulling him in closer now that you had something to cover yourself.

“Where’s Daddy gone?” Ossie was almost crying again

“He just went to the toilet” She kissed his head trying to comfort him

“The monster will get him Mummy”

“There’s no monsters Oli, our house is safe”

“Mum, there’s definitely monsters” Flori said, unwilling to let the conversation die

Harry walked back into the room, wearing a pair of pyjama pants, and climbed into the bed again.

“Can I cuddle daddy too?” Ossie asked

“course you can little man” Harry said, moving over so that Ossie could lay between them both. He calmed down after that, and only a few moments later he was snoring and so was Flori. But there was no rest for the wicked, because just as Harry and Poppy were about to drift off, Oliver walked in.

“I can’t sleep” He said

Harry rolled over and looked towards the door where Oli was standing “What’s wrong buddy?”

Oli shrugged “Just can’t sleep” he said, rubbing his eyes

Harry sighed and pulled the covers back, thankful that this time he was wearing pants “hop in”

Oli snuggled in beside Harry and made himself comfortable.

“We’re turning into one of those sexless couples” Poppy sighed once they were all sleeping

“Tomorrow’s a day-care day” Harry whispered

“And I’m going to work” Poppy said, leaning over the child in-between them to place a kiss on Harry’s cheek

“Take a sick day” he winked

***

September 1st 2025 - 5 Years

“Flori” Poppy called from the kitchen “come here at let me do your hair, please”

Flori didn’t hurry down stairs, infact, she took them one at a time, making sure she could practice her ballet kicks as she went. The timing of today couldn’t have been worse, not only were the twins starting school, but Harry was leaving for a world tour that started in Paris. This was the first one of this scale since they were born, it was a 12 month long tour, with regular breaks, at Poppy’s demand.

“Oliver, I need you to start getting dressed buddy” Poppy said sternly as her almost 10 year old son sat on the couch watching cartoons.

“I don’t want to go back to school” he sighed “I want to go around the world with Dad”

“School is more important Oliver” Harry said from the kitchen bench where he was attempting to pack the twins bags “You’ll get to visit me on tour in your half term remember?”

Oli rolled his eyes “I know” he said and got up, turning the TV off on his way to his bedroom.

“Thank you Oli,” Poppy smiled “Tell your sister to hurry up too please”

“I’m right here Mum” Flori said innocently, swishing her hair off her shoulder.

A tear came to Poppy’s eyes as she saw her daughter dressed in her school uniform for the first time. When she looked at her feet in her school shoes she couldn’t help but think about how tiny those same feet had been when she was born. Or how Chubby her cheeks got when she was six months old and not yet walking. Or how grown up she looked now.

“Mum, why are you crying?” Flori asked

“Because” Poppy wiped the tears from her eyes with a slight giggle “My baby girl is all grown up”

“I’m not an adult” she said “just a big girl”

“You’re right” Poppy laughed “Now! How does a big school girl want her hair done today?”

“Piggy tails!” Flori exclaimed, jumping a little with the excitement of it all.

“Okay,” Harry said, “Bags are packed. Where’s Ossie?”

“He doesn’t know how to do his neck thing up” Flori said while Poppy pulled her hair through the bobble.

Harry nodded and made his way up stairs to where Oscar was standing at his mirror, like he’d seen his dad do so many times before, struggling to tie his tie.

“Need some help there little dude?” Harry said, leaning against the door frame.

“This is hard dad” he sighed

“Here, let me show you” Harry walked in the room and knelt down on Oscar’s level, taking the tie off him. “You start by putting your collar up, then you put the tie around your neck, and make sure the two tails match up, then you loop this big one around and pull it through”

“I don’t think I’ll remember that” Oscar said, smiling at his dad

“That’s ok” Harry smiled back, “Mummy can help, she helps me with me with mine all the time”

“Who’s going to help you when mummy is here with me and you’re busy singing and making other people happy?”

“I’ll be ok buddy, I’ll have lots of people to help me, you need your mummy here”

“She’s the best mummy” Oscar said

“Sure is” Harry grinned “Now should we go to school?”

“Yes!” Oscar exclaimed! “Ready for big school!”

“Let’s go then!”

They ran down the stairs to find Oli, Flori and Poppy waiting at the door

“Are we ready for big school?!” Poppy exclaimed

“Yes yes yes” Flori and Ossie said together, still jumping with excitement.

The school was only a short walk away from their house, so instead of the hassle of getting everyone secured into car seats, they walked to school as a family, Oli rode his scooter and Flori and Ossie held hands the entire way there.

“How did we get here?” Poppy said, holding onto Harry’s hand as they walked “It took us so long to get them, and here they are, about to start school”

“Just look at them Pop,” Harry smiled “We’re so lucky to have them”

“Oli will be in high school next time we blink” Poppy said “And dating”

“Oh god” Harry sighed and laughed at the same time.

They walked into the school through the front gate and Oli took his helmet off, grabbing his bag off Harry and running off towards his friends. But just as he started to gain speed he turned around and came back.

“Bye Dad,” he said wrapping his arms around Harry’s waist “I’ll miss you dad”

“I’ll call you everyday buddy and it’s only two weeks before I’m back here” then Harry knelt down so that he could whisper something to Oli. “If you keep practicing on your guitar you’ll be able to replace mitch when he gets too old”

That left Oli smiling from ear to ear and he started to run towards his friends again

“Bye mum and dad, I love you” he called as he ran.

“Alright you two, lets go find your new teacher and put your bags away”

They walked towards the twins classroom and introduced themselves to the teacher who encouraged them to stay and play with them while they got settled in. Poppy was reminded of Oli’s first day and how clingy he had been and she thanked her lucky stars that Flori and Ossie had each other. When it was time for parents to leave, Harry and Poppy simply kissed their children goodbye and left and neither of them cried. They left the school feeling a little empty, like they’d left something behind and Poppy kept checking her watch to see how long until she could turn around and pick them up again.

“We did it H, we got three kids to school”

He took her hand and kissed her gently “it’s a Sign of the times Pop”

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faintingheroine · 4 years

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Chinese Wuthering Heights (Episode 1)

A few weeks ago I’ve stumbled upon a Chinese soap opera based on Wuthering Heights. I’ve immediately decided to watch and do a review of it, but the fact that it is 30 episodes long and still doesn’t do the second half kind of made me hesitate (really they had no excuse to not do the second half). But my curiosity got the better of me and I’ve decided to watch and review it anyway.

Since I’ve found this series completely by chance and it might be difficult to find it on the internet, I will reblog this post and give a link to the playlist of the episodes.

Since I’ve went into watching this series with no idea what to expect and since the people who are reading this are unlikely to be familiar with it, this ended up being an opinionated and detailed recap of the first episode rather than a review.

I’ll call the characters by the names of their book counterparts for clarity’s sake.

I am unfamiliar with Chinese history and culture, so please feel free to correct me if I say anything widely off the mark or offensive.

So let’s get started with the first episode.

Intro is super dramatic with scenes of people slapping each other, and the scenes that are chosen seem to summarize the plot of the whole show.

According to the only English post about this show that I’ve found on the internet, the show takes place in Late Qing Dynasty/Early Republican Era China. So, it is set in early 20th century China. Based solely on the scenes in the intro, the clothing of the characters seems to get more Westernized as the story goes on.

The story is narrated by Nelly as in the book. The episode starts with Nelly (who is actually the age she is supposed to be in the book, yay) bringing food to Cathy. But Cathy is not in her room and is being naughty by attempting to free a bird (*metaphors*). Joseph scolds Nelly for Cathy’s naughtiness but Cathy defends Nelly.

Mrs. Earnshaw arrives at the scene and Cathy’s naughtiness is once again blamed on Nelly. But Cathy bravely tells that Nelly needn’t be blamed, it was all her. (This is honestly nicer than anything Cathy in the book has ever done). Apparently in her dream her father had told Cathy that she has to pick him up from the town (I don’t know how this relates to the bird to be honest). Mr. Earnshaw seems to be away at the equivalent of Liverpool.

Earnshaws of this version aren’t upper middle class owners of a farm but a noble family with lots of servants.

On the way to the town Mr. Earnshaw relives the trauma of losing his son. Apparently he arrived at the place where his grave is. There is a surprising amount of focus on the dead Earnshaw son in this adaptation.

Back at the Linton home, Mrs. Linton is scolding Mr. Linton because he doesn’t get Mr. Earnshaw from the town. Mr. Earnshaw is Mr. Linton’s older brother in this adaptation! (There wasn’t enough near-incestous relationships in the source material apparently). And Lintons are the poorer family and rely on the Earnshaws to support them! And Mrs. Linton is clearly envious of Earnshaws’ wealth and status. This is quite the change from the source material!

Isabella tries to get Edgar to come to breakfast but Edgar playfully hides from her and then scares her.

We see Heathcliff picking up fruits in the forest where the Earnshaw son’s grave is. I don’t want to be stereotypical and compare the two East Asian adaptations, but his hair looks a lot like that of the Japanese Heathcliff in the 1988 Japanese adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

I couldn’t find a photo of the child Heathcliff in the Japanese adaptation unfortunately.

Mr. Earnshaw immediately associates this child he met at the graveyard with his dead son and thus we get a neat explanation of Heathcliff’s adoption.

Nelly talks about how sadly Mr. Linton played his violin.

It is getting dark and Mr. Earnshaw still hasn’t arrived at his home despite Mrs. Earnshaw expecting him by supper time (which is a detail that is taken from the book). Edgar wants Nelly to play chess with him but Isabella wants Nelly to play with herself. Here all the children know each other from the start.

Cathy gets dressed up as her father and makes everyone laugh. They got her tomboyish and playful personality right. Hindley is still nowhere to be seen? I guess he isn’t in this. A Wuthering Heights adaptation without Hindley? That’s a first.

Mr. Earnshaw finally arrives at home.

Cathy and the Lintons have a very sibling-like relationship here. They call each other “brother” and “sister”. This makes the eventual Cathy-Edgar marriage even weirder.

Edgar talks about his studies to Mr. Earnshaw.

I get the feeling that in this adaptation the characters of Edgar and Hindley are blended and Edgar will be wary of Heathcliff since he is the next-in-line as the sonless Mr. Earnshaw’s nephew. Maybe the writers didn’t find Mr. Earnshaw preferring Heathcliff to his biological son appropriate?

Heathcliff is brought into the sight of the Earnshaw/Linton family. Edgar immediately calls him a “little devil”. Mr. Earnshaw scolds him. Mr. Earnshaw calls Heathcliff to the table and gives him food. Children are disgusted by his lack of manners while eating. Edgar calls him a “little beggar”. (I think it is clear at this point that this is a composite character of Edgar and Hindley, but I will call him “Edgar” for clarity’s sake). Edgar apparently tries to give Heathcliff some food but it turns out that he put some weird shellfish thing in it (which is certainly more of a Hindley move than an Edgar one). Heathcliff angrily throws something at him. (Is this the applesauce incident? It is too early in the story to be the applesauce incident).

Joseph blames the whole incident on Heathcliff since Edgar is above him in status. Classic Joseph. Heathcliff gets a haircut.

Mr. Earnshaw tells his wife that he believes that he was led by something to his son’s graveyard. This lends credence to the idea that there is something supernatural going on with Heathcliff. Mr. Earnshaw likened Heathcliff’s silence to his dead son’s (who apparently couldn’t talk at three years old - interesting). Mrs. Earnshaw is moved by her husband’s story (very unlike her book counterpart).

Next day, Joseph makes Heathcliff into a servant. Heathcliff starts to work at the kitchen and Cathy accuses him of stealing food. This is their first actual interaction. Slightly more promising than her spitting at him. Heathcliff gives Cathy the silent treatment.

Mr. Earnshaw sold some of his properties in his last business trip and Mrs. Linton clearly doesn’t like that. I guess Mrs. Linton is the resident Scheming Bitch that is mandatory in every soap opera. Mr. Linton is characterized as very shy and is not interested in worldly matters. (Maybe the dead Earnshaw son took after his uncle?)

Earnshaws are very forgiving of Heathcliff’s lack of manners and adaptability issues. They are characterized as a very nice couple that only aim to do charity work. All the evil here comes from the Scheming Lintons.

Heathcliff can’t talk at all instead of speaking “gibberish” like in the novel.

Mrs. Earnshaw likes Heathcliff nearly as much as her husband. Mrs. Linton offers to give Heathcliff Edgar’s old clothes to test the Earnshaws and is super offended when they accept it.

Mrs. Linton tells her husband when they are alone that she feels bad for the Earnshaws because their son died and that she can give them Edgar. Mrs. Linton is offended that a nobody Mr. Earnshaw brought home can throw things at Edgar and Mr. Earnshaw can be ok with that. To be fair, she is not completely wrong.

Edgar, Cathy and Isabella are studying while Heathcliff is doing housework. Cathy sees that Heathcliff is wearing Edgar’s clothes and tells Edgar. Edgar beats Heathcliff up, girls separate them. Nelly informs Edgar that Mrs. Linton was the one who gave Heathcliff his clothes.

Mrs. Earnshaw asks Nelly why Heathcliff looks beaten up. Nelly attempts to lie and say that he stumbled while fetching water. Classic Nelly. Then she tells the truth.

Mrs. Linton tells Edgar that he is the young lord of the family and Heathcliff is just a beggar. (Really I’m calling this character “Edgar” but he is 80 percent Hindley and 20 percent Edgar so far). Mrs. Linton warns his son that he shouldn’t offend his uncle, and that he is the only heir of the house and should act like it.

Mr. Earnshaw is talking about his businesses to his wife. Mrs. Earnshaw says to him that they need to buy new clothes for Heathcliff from the town, and that it is not actually appropriate for a servant to wear Edgar’s clothes. Her husband thinks that Edgar is too spoilt and arrogant because he is the only boy of the family.

Next day Mr. Earnshaw brings Heathcliff to the town to buy new clothes for him. The tailor mistakes Heathcliff for Mr. Earnshaw’s son and Mr. Earnshaw doesn’t correct him. Mr. Earnshaw buys some sweets for Heathcliff at the town and Mr. Linton witnesses it.

Mr. Earnshaw tells his wife of the mistake the tailor made. Mrs. Earnshaw thinks that he should have sent Heathcliff to the town with a servant. She worries that Edgar’s feelings might be hurt because Heathcliff attacked him. Mr. Earnshaw rightly tells her that Edgar was the first to bully Heathcliff by calling him a “devil” and a “beggar”. Mrs. Earnshaw tells her husband that Edgar had fought with Heathcliff over the clothes.

Nelly finds Heathcliff outside and Heathcliff gives her Edgar’s clothes. Nelly tells him that Edgar doesn’t get mad as long as the servants don’t upset him and that servants should be humble in front of the young lords and ladies. Heathcliff should be a diligent worker so that Joseph doesn’t scold him and he can ask for her help if he doesn’t know something. This girl really is Nelly.

And the first episode ends here.

Quite a bit is different from the source material. I feel like they wanted to change one thing, and they had to change a bunch of other things to make that change work. They simply didn’t want Hindley to exist in this adaptation and Edgar’s counterpart had to take his role. So they had to make him Mr. Earnshaw’s nephew and they had to make Lintons poorer than Earnshaws for Edgar to feel threatened by Heathcliff’s presence. And the whole logic of the story changed because of this.

I don’t know why they wanted to write out such a crucial character as Hindley. My guess is that it wasn’t appropriate for Mr. Earnshaw to bring Heathcliff home when he already has a son? I’ve considered it being for budget reasons but this is not a cheap production. It is a period drama with nice costumes and settings. Surely they could pay one more actor playing a main role? If this change has something to do with Chinese culture and values please let me know. Of course it is always possible that writers just felt like it.

A good portion of this episode is taken up by the interactions of Earnshaw and Linton parents and to be honest I didn’t really like their whole dynamic. I don’t know if it is even right to call them Earnshaws and Lintons since they are the same family. I guess they should be collectively called the House of Tian (the name of the family). I didn’t like the binary between the good, noble, patriarchal Earnshaws and the evil scheming Mrs. Linton and her doormat of a husband. I guess the character of Ambitious Scheming Sister-in-law is universal in soap operas regardless of their country of origin. And of course Lintons being poorer than Earnshaws is completely against the book. (Though I guess Cathy will be of lower status than Edgar when her father dies because Edgar will be the lord of the house).

But, despite the massive changes in plot, character motivations and setting, this still felt like Wuthering Heights. More than some of the more “legitimate” adaptations. I think there are two main reasons for this. Firstly, I can’t know how true the subtitles are, but the language that is used seems to echo the book’s language, especially in regards to the insults that are thrown at Heathcliff. And many of the scenes echoed the similar scenes in the novel, though they were placed differently.

Secondly, and much more importantly, Heathcliff and Cathy, the main characters, are mostly true to their book counterparts. Heathcliff is mostly Heathcliff and Cathy is mostly Cathy. We didn’t really see them bonding in this episode, and I’m curious as to how the show will present their relationship.

All the child characters are very well done. Even the Edgar/Hindley hybrid child is well-done if you can accept that he mostly plays the role of Hindley at this part of the story. Despite him being an arrogant bully, you can sympathize with his panic at the possibility of being replaced by Heathcliff in his uncle’s affections. In some ways his panic feels more valid than book Hindley’s, because he is Mr. Earnshaw’s nephew, not his son. Nelly is awesome. She is Nelly. From the little glimpses we saw of her, Isabella also seems true to her book counterpart.

As a show, I’ve had fun watching this. It was the first Chinese Drama I’ve ever watched and I’ve enjoyed it. It isn’t Art, it is very much a melodramatic soap opera, but it was fun for what it is.

If you have made it this far in reading this recap/review, please tell me if you are interested in reading more on this show. I think it is an interesting adaptation. I can’t promise that I will watch all 30 episodes, but I will try to make it to the “I am Heathcliff” part.

I will post a link to the playlist of the episodes in reblogs if anyone is interested in watching it.

See you next time!

#wuthering heights #chinese drama #asian drama #china #WH Chinese soap opera watch 2020

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