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champagneand-strawberries · 3 years

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How Do I Say I Love You. (D.M)

Draco Malfoy X Slytherin!Reader

Summary: The 5 times you realised Draco loved you. And the one time he told you.

Warnings: Alludes to/mentions of smut. A couple of swear words I think. Like the tiniest bit of angst at the end but its fluffy i promise.

Words: 4.8k

A/N: This idea popped into my head randomly at 12am and honestly the idea of Draco noticing the little things and then actually doing them is so romantic to me. Am I projecting? Probably. Do I care? No? So is this self-indulgent? Yes, but what fanfic isn't. It’s kind of an AU i guess, I wrote it with the idea that Voldemort died the first time around, but you can read it as though he is still alive and kicking. This also gets progressively worse as you read through it, but i don’t know how to make it better im sorry lol. Its also not been proofread so have fun.

Tagging: @snitches-at-dawn @sincerelymalfoy

It was no secret that Draco Malfoy didn't reveal anything. Except maybe his hatred of the 'Saint Harry Potter', he very rarely revealed anything. At least not obviously.

You had chalked his lack of verbal affection up to his rocky relationship with his family. Even though his mother doted on him, kind words did not appear to take a high priority in the list of family affections. Instead, his father used words to belittle and seemingly humiliate him, while his mother preferred to send him sweets and buy his affection with expensive gifts.

So, saying that Draco didn't know how to be affectionate through his use of words was not a completely misguided assumption.

However, he also wasn't completely clear about where his feelings lay in any other form of affection.

The first time you realised what he was saying was during a potions lesson in 6th year. As it turns out, NEWT level potions was hard. Very hard. The amount of money you had spent on parchment and new ink in Hogsmeade for notetaking was astounding, and despite the amount of spare quills and parchment you had tucked safely away in your bag in case you ran out, it never seemed to be where you needed it to be.

All it took was a minute too long spent rummaging around trying to find a new piece of parchment. By the time you had sat back up straight to continue to make notes on Professor Slughorn’s chosen potion of the lesson, both he and the notes on the board at the front of the class had moved on.

You hunched over your desk and let out a huff through your nose. Even though the notes would be in your potions book, it still meant extra time going through the information and picking out what would be useful, and this was time you did not particularly want to be wasting when you could be putting it to use on other homework.

On the other hand, that was also time that you could be spending with your boyfriend, who, despite being much better at managing his time, was also rather busy with his own work. He was also seated right next to you during your potions lessons, which made for a dangerously low level of attention to both the professor and detail during practical lessons. You turned your head slightly, leaning on your hand as you shyly snuck a glance at him as he switched between looking towards the front of the class and down at his paper to make notes.

You felt a sharp kick to your leg, and it pulled you out of your daze as you made eye contact with the blond boy sitting next to you. He gave you a pointed look before looking back at Professor Slughorn who had since moved and was now demonstrating something at the front of the class. Clearly you had not been paying attention for longer than you thought.

“ -and there you go. Now, in the cauldron in front of each of you, I would like you to have a hand at creating your own in pairs please. The ingredients are in the cupboard and should you get stuck then the instructions are on page 79 in your books.” Great. Slughorn now wanted you to make the potion you had been not been paying any attention to for the last however many minutes.

As you went to put your parchment back into your bag a familiar voice muttered next to your head quietly, “don’t tell anyone.” You felt him go to move away before he came back, whispering directly into your ear so nobody else could hear him, “but maybe you should be punished for not paying attention.” Your eyes widened slightly, trying not to give away the nature of what your boyfriend had just said. You immediately felt his hand cover yours and you looked down to see his potions notes as he passed behind you to head to the ingredients cupboard.

You constantly begged Draco for his notes, knowing they were miles better than your own and given his consistently good marks in everything he must have been writing down all the right things. But he refused every time, saying that it was cheating and that just because you were his girlfriend “doesn’t mean you get unrestricted access to the notes written by the best student.”

You had more than once joked about going to Hermione, knowing that she was on par with Draco for top student (if not better, but you would never say that to him), but he always got into a huff about not being the only top student and so you couldn’t leave him alone like that. Besides, even if he wouldn’t give you his notes, he was always more than happy to help you write yours. Most of your dates recently had become overwhelmingly filled with studying and quizzing each other in preparation for the exams, even though they were ages away.

Turning over the pages, you were greeted with paragraphs upon paragraphs of his familiar elegant, loopy writing, coupled with a couple of simple diagrams to better explain certain things. Immediately you started copying the information onto your own parchment, drawing up similar diagrams in the corners of the pages. Halfway through your writing, Draco came back with the ingredients for the potion and you half expected him to take back his notes. Instead, he carried on making the potion for the two of you, every so often looking over at the book you had opened before Draco left you to copy his writings. The pair of you worked in perfect tandem after that, you handed him the ingredients as he needed them, double checking in the book as you went. Going so far as to impress Professor Slughorn, not something easily achievable while Harry was in the same room.

The second time you realised what he was saying was during dinner in the Great Hall. The two of you had built a friendship off of bullying and teasing each other to no end, you called him overdramatic and he called you his eye candy and it went in a circle from there. Eventually, you both accepted your feelings and the relationship started from there, but you began to notice the difference in Draco’s behaviour one dinner time when a random Slytherin girl had managed to snag the seat opposite the two of you. You both knew Draco was a bit of a heartthrob, it was one of the things you teased him mercilessly about, but this girl had a slight reputation for being obsessed with him. Even when your relationship was made public, she still made it her mission to try and get him to like her in any way she could.

This one particular dinner time said Slytherin girl refused to let Draco talk to you. She kept asking him questions to keep his attention directed to her and was constantly asking him if he wanted to try some of the food from her plate. You were getting fed up, and it was clear from Draco’s shoulders sagging every time she opened her mouth that you weren’t the only one. A handful of the teachers had already retired for the night which meant that it must be getting late and you decided that it was time for the pair of you to make your exit.

You reached across the table to refill your pumpkin juice and turned to Draco, holding it between your fingertips before ‘accidentally’ loosening your grip on the goblet. It fell from your hand and straight into Draco’s lap, covering the front of his shirt and trousers with pumpkin juice. He turned to look at you, your hand still held in the air from where you had dropped the goblet as he set his own goblet down.

“Oops.” You could see Draco fighting to keep the grin off of his face as he realised what you had done, as he heard the girl opposite screeching about his clothes being ruined.

He didn’t move his head, eyes still staring into yours as he grabbed your hand. “Guess I’ll have to go and get changed huh.” The two of you jumped up from your seats and almost sprinted out of the Great Hall, heading straight for the Slytherin common room.

“Wait no, this way.” You pulled him through a secret passage that took you away from the Slytherin common room and lead him in the direction of the astronomy tower.

“As much as I love where this is going my love, might I remind you that I am still covered in the pumpkin juice you accidentally spilt all over me.” You could almost hear the smirk in his voice as you reached the bottom of the astronomy tower.

You rolled your eyes as you turned back to face him, “she was almost definitely going to follow you back to the common room and offer to personally undress you. I had to make a detour. Besides-” You cut yourself off as you pulled out your wand and muttered a spell that got rid of all the pumpkin juice from Draco’s clothes. “-now you’re all clean anyway. And she doesn’t have to do anything.”

“You devious little minx. Maybe you’re not just my eye candy after all.” He mumbled, smirking as he ducked his head down to kiss you before you could respond, pulling you up the stairs to the top of the astronomy tower.

The third time you realised what he was saying took much longer to realise. Trips to Hogsmeade had become a rarity since the professors had started to pile on homework in preparation for the NEWT exams next year, and so you were constantly in low supply of sweets from Honeydukes. It didn’t help that whenever Narcissa had sent Draco a bundle of gifts, including a selection of sweet treats, you had a tendency to steal from his own stash. Something he always berated you about, except you could never tell if he was joking.

“Is there any chance you have any of your chocolate frogs left?” You piped up, mid study session. You raised your head to look up at Draco as he turned from doing his charms homework on his desk to look at you over on his bed surrounded by books.

“I’ll buy you one the next time we go to Hogsmeade, I could really do with a pick me up right now.” You pouted as the familiar glint found his way into his eyes, “Whatever you’re about to say don’t-”

“But your favourite pick-me up is right here.”

“I hate you.” You shook your head as he laughed from across the room.

“In the top draw, left hand side.” He replied, turning back to his homework.

“I hate you slightly less.”

Finally, the two had managed to find a time when you were both free to take a trip down to Hogsmeade. You were ready to buy your weight in chocolate frogs and had pulled Draco along so you could compensate all the chocolate you had stolen from him.

As you walked along the path towards Honeydukes something in a shop window caught your eye. There were a couple of shops in Hogsmeade that carried a selection of items that were slightly further out of your budget, amounts that Draco would probably have loose in the pockets of his hand-tailored robes, but that never stopped you from looking every once in a while when something caught your eye.

As far as you were aware Draco had never paid any interest to what had caught your eye, you had learnt to keep it subtle after having mentioned one year that you needed a new scarf and found a box sitting on your bed later that week with a scarf that you were sure cost more than your entire wardrobe combined. The tag on the box only read ‘Keep warm, D.M’ and you knew instantly that anything you happened to mention wanting or needing around him would appear within a few days on your bed.

It was for this very reason that you were rather confused when a smallish red box wrapped in a black ribbon was sitting on the black throw at the end of your bed after the long-awaited trip to Hogsmeade with Draco. Dropping your bags at the foot of your bed you reached down and picked it up, attached to the ribbon, tucked under the box was a tag that was only signed with a very familiar looking heart shaped doodle.

Inside the box was the exact necklace that you had been briefly eyeing up while you walked past the shop. Suddenly Draco’s disappearance while you were in the queue to pay for your sweets in Honeydukes made a lot more sense.

“DRACO MALFOY.” You stormed out of your dorm room, clutching the box tightly in your hand, and straight down the stairs to the common room where you had left your boyfriend talking to Blaise and Theo when you came back. He had since moved from standing behind the sofas to sitting on them, his hands fiddling with a book that you recognised as one that usually sits on the coffee table in the middle.

“What is this?” You thrust the box into his face as he looked over to Blaise and Theo who looked between the two of you before bolting off the sofas and towards the boy’s dormitories.

“You wanted it, so I got it for you. What do you want me to say.” He shrugged his shoulders; it was clear he didn’t quite understand the gravity of what he had just bought you and how much it had really cost.

“Draco… I don’t need you to buy me everything you watch catch my eye. Especially if it’s this expensive.”

He opened his mouth to speak but you carried on before he could interrupt: “I know its not much to you. I get that. I get that this is basically loose change, but it is a big deal to me, because I won’t be able to pay you back in the same way. I can’t afford to buy you expensive things and I don’t want you to feel obligated to buy me things that you know I can’t afford because you feel bad for me. I don’t have anything I can give you in return.”

You sighed exasperated. It was not the first time you had told him that he didn’t need to spend his money on you, especially that much. You watched as he placed the book in his hands back onto the coffee table in front of him as he stood up to face you. He reached up and took the box from your hand and tossed it on top of the book as he took your hands in his to place them around the back of his neck.

“I don’t need you to get me anything. You as you are is more than enough for me, but you deserve everything my father’s money can ever buy you.” You giggled slightly as he spoke, willing the tears away that threatened to fall.

“Then I guess I had better go and thank him.” You smiled cheekily and went to drop your arms from around Draco’s neck, but he narrowed his eyes and pulled you up, your legs wrapped around his torso as he turned and dropped you onto the sofa as he fell on top of you and pinned you beneath him.

“I’ll send your regards don’t worry. But you’re not going anywhere.”

The fourth time you realised what he was saying was at 2am on a Sunday morning. You had snuck into Draco’s room while everyone else had gone to a party in the room of requirement to celebrate the start of the quidditch season and after much convincing he had finally agreed to read to you.

You weren’t exactly sure what the book was about, nor did you particularly care because all you wanted was to hear the sound of his voice while you rested your head in the crook of his neck, but from what you did pick up on it was some sort of romance novel. You lifted your head, ready to poke fun at the Slytherin Prince for reading a romantic novel but it was almost as if he could sense what you were about to do, and he quickly pushed your head back down to rest on him.

“Shut up. It’s homework for muggle studies.”

Your eyebrows furrowed at this, because as far as you were aware Draco didn’t take muggle studies.

“Draco you don’t even-”

“Shhhh” He pushed your head back down again and you could feel his cheeks move above your head as he smiled. You smiled back at him, knowing he could feel it, and let him believe that he was reading a muggle romance novel for a subject he didn’t even take. He opened the book, letting the bookmark fall into his lap as he started reading quietly to you. You giggled whenever his voice changed for the different characters and every time the love interest used a cute nickname for the lead character you couldn’t help but fight a grin off your face.

It completely evaded your mind that Draco could feel every single reaction you both made and tried to fight off, and he couldn’t help but lean closer to your ear whenever the book said ‘darling’ or ‘love’ just to feel you struggle to fight off the smile that came with those words.

Eventually, you fell asleep in Draco’s arms, his soothing voice lulling you to sleep while his arms wrapped around you kept you warm from the chill in the dungeon’s air. He placed the bookmark back between the pages of the book and placed it into the draw of the nightstand next to his bed ready for whenever he next wanted to pick it up.

He pulled the blanket up further around the two of you and burrowed himself beneath the covers making sure you were still asleep before he let himself relax into the sheets. Muttering a quick spell to extinguish the candles around, him he pulled you closer to his chest and pressed a quick kiss to your head before falling asleep.

Later that night the two of you were awoken by a worryingly loud crash coming from the hallway that led to the boy’s dorms, followed by an incredibly slurred and just as loud whisper of, “shit… sorry”.

You sat up rubbing your eyes as you adjusted to being awake and the darkness of Draco’s room, muttering a ‘what the hell’ through a yawn as you looked at the time on the clock above Draco’s fireplace.

“Thank god prefects get their own rooms.” You heard Draco mutter behind you. “It’s just everyone coming back from the party my love come back to bed.” You felt his hand run up and down your back as you fought the urge to stay in bed, wanting to go and check that whoever had clearly bumped into the knight armour in the corridor was okay.

Draco, ever the observer, continued his gentle touch knowing it would convince you to stay with him in bed where it was warm.

“Darling just stay, they can deal with the embarrassment in the morning.” You could tell from his voice that he was on the verge of falling asleep again, when the sleep fog in your brain cleared almost instantly.

“What did you just say?” You turned to look at him as he sleepily opened his eyes to repeat what he had just said.

“You should call me that more often.” He pulled on the back of your top to try and pull you back into his arms.

“I will if you come back to bed and go to sleep. ‘m getting cold.” You let him pull you back and snuggled into his arms, hoping that he would remember this in the morning despite his borderline delirious state at the moment.

But true to his word, he woke you the next morning with mutters of ‘darling’ and ‘love’ and kisses every time you giggled with joy at the words that spilt from his lips.

The final time you realised what he was saying was another one that took some time to figure out. Originally, you had thought that Draco’s obsession with undressing you and making you wear one of his shirts to cuddle in bed was a sexual thing, which wasn’t a far-off assumption because seeing you in his clothes in his bed did awaken a (not so) slight possessive side of him.

Not to mention that roughly 90% of the time you cuddled together in bed it did result in the two of you acting like you wouldn’t see each other for months. Not that either of you ever complained.

However, Draco always needed to be touching you. It wasn’t in an overly sexual way, he just needed to have some kind of skin-to-skin contact. He was forever, having you rest your head on his bare chest, or stroking the skin on the back of your hand, or playing with your hair.

But his absolute favourite by far, was pushing up the material of whatever shirt you happened to be wearing in order to brush his thumb over your skin. It didn’t matter where he could reach, but he just needed to be touching you. Whether it was your back, ribs or even the curve of your breast as you lay next to him. He just needed to be touching you. In the beginning his light touches would tickle you endlessly, which unfortunately was something he clocked onto far quicker than you would have liked. It resulted in endless tickle fights and on more than one occasion a pillow to the head as you tried to fight him off.

But these touches started to bleed out into public, instead of just the privacy of the four stone walls of his bedroom. People knew you were together; he had made that blatantly clear when a random Gryffindor tried flirting with you one time in the courtyard. Enter the possessiveness he discovered and had no problem using, consequences be damned.

You found him grabbing your hand on the way to lessons, intertwining your fingers as he stroked the back of your hand with his thumb. He would rest his hand on your thigh during lessons, and especially during mealtimes he would see how far up your skirt he could get his hand before you removed it so someone couldn’t see. This had become a favourite game of his once he saw how flustered you would get and he had started doing it in lessons before you told him off on the way to the dorm rooms after Professor McGonagall had nearly caught you with his hand under your skirt, fingers moving your underwear to the side. After that he stuck to just resting his hand there, but still tried it every once in a while in the common room just to get you hot and bothered.

People began to notice how touchy he had become and even when you pointed it out it him he told you he didn’t care. Because you were his girlfriend and he… well he didn’t say anything after that. But the touches continued, in anything they became more frequent the more people pointed it out. Constantly holding your hand, playing with your hair, an arm around your waist or shoulders or resting his hand on your thigh. His comforting touch was always there.

Until one day it wasn’t.

He had been acting shifty all day. He hadn’t been as touchy as usual, only loosely holding your hand and only putting his hand on your leg if you held it there. You had a free period and decided to spend it in the library getting work done, knowing that if you went back to Draco’s room you would only find solace in his bed and take a nap even without him there, which was something he saw no issue with. So you took your charms homework and settled yourself at a table in the unusually quiet library while he was in a lesson, aiming to get it completed before he arrived from his ancient runes lesson.

“Why don’t you care that I don’t say I love you?” His voiced appeared out of nowhere. Loud and clear startling you from your work, you turned in your chair to see him standing in the middle of the library looking rather flustered behind you. His cheeks were red, his eyes wide and you couldn’t quite tell if he had been crying. He took a step closer and asked you again, his voice breaking slightly at the end. That was all it took for you to hastily pack up your work and shove it into your bag before standing up, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the library.

You didn’t let go of his hand until you got to a tree just outside of the castle that was tucked away behind an old stone shed giving you some privacy but still allowed you to look out towards the black lake.

“What are you talking about? Where has this come from Draco?” You dropped your bag down onto the grass and reached for his as he let you pull it from his shoulder to dump it next to your own. He started pacing in front of you and you watched him for a minute, letting him sort though whatever was going on in his head before you murmured his name, just loud enough for him to hear to pull him out of his thoughts. He looked at you, this time his eyes were glassy, slowly filling with tears as he took a step towards you.

“I heard some Gryffindor saying it to his girlfriend. She got all excited about it and I just- I realised..” He paused, looking out over the lake trying to collect his thoughts and put them into words. “I realised I don’t say it to you and you never said anything about it, so I just assumed you don’t care. But then I started thinking what if you think I don’t love you because I do and-” You could see he was starting to spiral; he had broken the floodgates and now everything he was feeling was starting to come flooding out. Draco was known for holding in his feelings and you didn’t know he had been feeling like this, let alone how long he had been holding this in, so there was no telling how much he had to say and how deep he was about to let himself delve. So, you did the one thing you knew without fail would shut him up.

Stepping forward you rested your hands on either side of his face and pressed a kiss to his tear-stained cheeks before landing on his lips. His arms dropped to his sides immediately and you felt the tension leave his jaw as he kissed you back before his hands clutched at your waist, thumbing the material of your shirt up under your skirt so he could rub circles onto your bare skin.

After what felt like hours you parted, you looked at him, wiping away the tears that you doubted he even realised had fallen, and ran your hands up through his hair to push it back from his face. His eyes stayed closed, like the second he did the moment would end and you looked at him, just watching as he stood there in front of you.

“I don’t need to hear you say it Draco. You tell me all the time. All of the gifts, the cute little nicknames, the way you always have to be touching me.” You felt his hands squeeze your sides at that comment. “Hell, you don’t even bully me as much as you used to.” You giggled watching as he tried not to smile, knowing that you were right. “

They’re just words to me now, everything you do shows me that you love me.”

He finally opened his eyes and looked down at you, your eyes fierce as you tried to convince him that you didn’t need to hear him say it. He opened his mouth to speak before stuttering slightly, his eyes screwed closed before he opened them again and looked at you.

“I love you.”

You paused, smiling through watery eyes as he said the words he had been struggling to say out loud for such a long time.

“I love you too.”

#draco malfoy fanfiction #draco malfoy fanfic #draco malfoy #draco malfoy x reader #h writes

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naminethewriter · 3 years

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America’s Favourite Gameshow!!

Day 2 and I’m still on track! It’s way too late though and I hope I get done with the other prompts sometime before 12am 😴 Anyway, have fun with this silly little fluff story 💙💚🥰 @intrulogicalweek2021

Here on Ao3

Masterpost | Intrulogical Week 2021 Masterpost

Characters: Remus, Logan

Relationship: romantic Intrulogical

Rating: G

Words: 1,480

Summary: Logan just wanted to make sure his boyfriend ate something. Remus wants entertainment more.

Logan walked along the halls of Remus’ castle in search of his boyfriend who had run off after breakfast to continue some project of his. Now, hours later, Logan wanted to ensure that he had eaten since then because while they didn’t require to eat, considering they were just figments of Thomas’ overactive subconscious, it had proven to be beneficial to their wellbeing as well as Thomas’. It had taken Logan almost a year of research to come to that conclusion but it had been well worth the effort.

But both sides of Creativity were prone to forgetting the passage of time while working on one of their passion projects, hence Logan’s decision to check on Remus this afternoon. He had already looked through most of the grounds and was now on his way up into a tower. It was pretty much separated from the rest of the castle and nobody but Logan and the Duke himself had access and Remus spend a lot of time up there doing whatever he wants without disturbance. The only reason that Logan had put off checking there first is because he disliked the long, long staircase leading up. About three fourth of the way up, Logan could hear cluttering sounds, so it seemed reasonable to assume his search would soon be over.

After another five minutes of climbing he finally reached the top, only one door separating him from whatever mess Remus has caused this time. Logan took a few deep breaths before pushing it open.

Pure Chaos laid before him. He couldn’t even begin to describe it. Furniture overturned and broken. Paint or something colourful had gotten everywhere. Glass shards, papers, confetti, everything scattered randomly around the room and Remus in the middle of it.

Logan didn’t even attempt going any further in. Instead he called out to his boyfriend who turned to face so fast, his head rotated more than it should with a sickening crack.

“Lolo!” he grinned, pulling his head back into the right position before climbing over the rubble to the door. As soon as he got into touching distance he wrapped himself around Logan in a tight hug. His boyfriend just patted his arm until he let go. “What brings you here, starshine? You horny?” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, causing Logan to roll his eyes.

“No Remus, I am not horny. I simply came to check on you since I haven’t seen you since breakfast.”

“Ah shit, is it already evening? Damn time flies when you’re busy, huh.”

“What were you doing in the first place? This entire room is a mess.” Logan immediately regretted asking when he saw the smile spreading across his boyfriend’s face. “No, Remus, please-“

Too late.

Remus snapped and suddenly there was a spotlight on the two of them, two more swinging across the room that was now notably darker. Some kind of jingle started playing and an invisible audience started applauding. Remus, now in a suit, brought a microphone to his mouth.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! You have waited patiently and now it is finally time to play America’s favourite gameshow! It’s” – the fake audience yelled along the next words –

“Art or Science!”

“The rules are simple,” Remus continued alone. “Our returning champion, Logan ‘Logic’ Sanders, has five minutes to survey the room and then he has to decide: did I cause this chaos in the name of Art or Science! He is allowed to ask me three things to specify, not one hint more. Our contestant has a success rate of 66% so far and I’m sure we are all curious to see the result of our fourth episode of-!” Remus held the mic away from him and again the imaginary audience shouted:

“Art or Science!”

“Now, Logan. Are you ready to start?” Remus held out the mic to Logan this time who groaned and levelled him with an unimpressed glare.

“Is this really necessary, Cephy?” Remus laughed and threw his arms open.

“Of course not, but it’s fun so we’re doing it!” Logan massaged his temple. Ever since Thomas had taken to binge watching SNL sketches on YouTube, Remus had been practically enthralled with their game show parodies. Especially if Bill Hader (Remus’ favourite cast member) played the host. His top spot shifted between ‘What’s that Name?’ and ‘Who’s on Top’ every five minutes and Logan couldn’t deny that the chaos of those concepts fit Remus very well, so it should be no surprise that he thought of his own little show. It just annoyed Logan that he was the only contestant ever having to deal with it.

Well, at least it was short. He could play along for five minutes.

“Fine, start the clock.” Remus cheered, as did the audience, and the light returned to how it was before, with the entire room evenly lit.

“As always, please don’t hesitate to give us play-by-play commentary on your thought process, Sherlock,” Remus giggled and Logan nodded absentmindedly, already scanning the room for clues. He took the first minute to simply think and his boyfriend let him but Logan knew he would grow impatient eventually.

“Clearly there is both art supplies as well as lab equipment present and I have witnessed you using both for the others intended purpose, so that does not provide any essential hints. The furniture is mostly broken and out of place. Especially that table that seems to be hanging out the window and only hangs on with one leg anchored inside. The glass was most likely smashed by said table. This could point to a possible explosion that resulted after a failed experiment, favouring science as its cause. Though again, I have seen you set off an explosion to create an art piece of yours so it is not concrete proof either.” Remus nodded along to his descriptions and a spotlight also shone on the areas he talked about.

“Now for my first question, I would like you to confirm whether the dark red substance in that corner is blood or not.”

“It’s not, though I tried my best to get it to smell the same.” Logan nodded, again falling silent for a moment to think. The quiet was broken by a croak and something moved though it was hidden enough that Logan couldn’t quite make it out.

“You used live specimen. Not unheard off for your art but more common with experiments. Especially frogs.”

“Toads, not frogs actually.”

“I can tell apart a frog croaking and toad doing the same, Remus. That sound was a frog.”

“Nah, you see, I like how toads look better but frogs sound more appealing, so I made a toad that croaked like a frog.”

“Fascinating. Could you show it to me later?”

“Sure! Also that counts as your second questions.” Logan glared at his boyfriend for a moment but relented.

“Fine.” He continued to point out other details about the room and whether they pointed towards art or science and soon Remus announced that he had only 30 seconds left. Logan contemplated in his head and came to a decision at the same moment Remus called:

“Time! Five minutes are up, Ladies and Gentlemen! Now Logan, give us your answer, please!” The room had darkened once again, with a spotlight on Logan and Remus and two others moving around the room.

“I say it’s art.”

“Is that your final answer?”

“Yes, Remus, please do not drag this out any longer.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He waved his hand around before getting back into character. “His answer is locked in! Now let’s see if he’s right. Is it art?” A drumroll played and then a bang. Even more confetti poured out of the ceiling, along with balloons, the normal, oval ones and those long ones with two of the former tied to one of the latter (I’m sure you can guess what that symbolises, we’re talking about Remus here after all).

“Coooooooorrrreeeeccccctttt!” Applause roared and Remus threw an arm around his boyfriend, pulling him close. “Another win for our returning champion! With this his success rate is now at 75%! How are you feeling, are you proud?” He held out the mic to Logan, who rolled his eyes.

“I am alright, now please wrap this up.” Remus giggled but complied.

“That was it for this episode of-“

“Art or Science!”

“See you next time, folks!” And with another snap, things returned to normal, the lights, the sounds and Remus’ outfit. “Wasn’t that fun, starlight?”

“It was fine, Remus.”

“You just don’t like admitting it~”

“No matter, that is not what I came up here for anyway.”

“Oh yeah, why did you come here?”

“To ask if you have eaten since breakfast.”

“Oh, rotten shit, I forgot.”

“I thought as much. Come on, I secured you some leftovers from lunch and the rest of the hot sauce.”

“You are the best, moonlight.”

#namiswriting #my writing #intrulogicalweek2021 #day 2: art/science #intrulogical #ts logan #logan sanders #ts remus #remus sanders #fluff #gameshow #remus is the king of chaos #logan is a bit done #just a bit though #he can't deny his boyfriend some fun #sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #reblogs and kudos are appreciated!

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pens-swords-stuff · 2 years

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Hey there Undine!!! :D I'm currently in the middle of finals (definitely shouldn't be finishing my anthropology paper right now), but somehow I managed to only have tests on thursday and friday so it's been mostly a waiting game.

How have you been, though? Have you been writing anything at all, or has it been more of a focus on the fun thing that is college? :P

Also you better have been getting that good good sleep between your papers!!! Sleep is important!

Hey Morgane!!

Oof good luck on finals. I believe in you, I know that you can get through this!!! I always hated having the exams on the last few days of finals week. It was always stressful to have to wait (and pack to go home) while also definitely not studying.

I've actually been getting a ton of writing done! The ridiculously long WIP that I've been writing with my writing partner reached 750k words recently (no don't worry its not going to get published ever, we're not that crazy), and we also started a new one!

The new WIP is essentially a sequel to an old favorite that never quite manages to get off the ground. We're writing 10 years post-original concept, and it's been a really nice mix of revisiting an old, cherished setting while doing something completely new!!

You'd think that juggling 2 projects at once would make our word count go down for one project but nope. It actually increased, and we've been averaging 5k a day.

During finals, of course 😜

I'm done with all my papers now and I feel pretty good about them so! Super excited to be able to guilt-freely work on those two projects. And who knows? Maybe I'll even get back to my solo projects to have more to talk about on my blog.

For the first time since I was like... 14, I'm actually having a fantastic sleeping pattern! I go to bed at like 10PM, aim to go to sleep by 11PM. Even if I stay up suuuuper late, I'm still generally asleep by 12AM. On the really late nights by 1AM, which rarely happens at this point And even then it's a huge accomplishment because I uses to stay up till 2 or 3.

Am I a boring adult with a boring sleeping schedule now? Yes. Have I been getting sleep though?? ALSO YES

Can't wait to destroy all of that over winter break, and suffer when it's over 💔

Have you been able to decompress by writing or doing something other than school?

Good luck on your finals, and I hope that you're getting good sleep too!!!

#undine answers stuff #uraniumwriting #writer friends

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byunbaekby · 3 years

Text

title — bloom again (teaser #1) pairing — racer!jaemin x female reader genres — angst, fluff, racer au, slight college au, strangers to lovers, mutual pining, love triangle, hurt and comfort overall warnings (to be updated) — language, cheating, mentions of abuse, depictions of a toxic/abusive relationship (not between jaemin and the reader), optional smut, illegal street racing, mentions of drugs teaser warnings — none teaser word count — 1.7k words summary — the world has never been kind to na jaemin. left alone with a deadbeat mother, he's learned how to survive on his own. now twenty and a college student whose life and vitality (not to mention his rent) relies solely on his success in his career as an illegal street racer, he runs alone. everything he has, he’s fought for with his own hands and grit. he’s never asked for anything, which is what makes the world so cruel: when he finally meets someone who he desires for more than a night, you already belong to someone else. additional — for the racer collab, created by the wonderful @ickjun and managed by the one and only @lucas-wongs !!

projected release — may/june 2021 projected word count — 20k

send an ask to be added to the tag list!

CASIA APARTMENTS [8:12AM]

It’s an early Saturday morning. It’s laundry day, and due to Jaemin’s affinity for avoiding unnecessary social interaction as much as possible, he wanted to be first in the laundry room.

As he pushes open the door to the laundry room, basket of clothes in hand, Jaemin catches sight of a lone figure, wrapped within the confines of a fluffy white blanket. His first thought is that this person, whoever they are, resembles a marshmallow. Choosing not to comment, he walks over to an available washer and begins piling his clothes inside.

“Oh?” He hears, uttered in a muffled yelp. “Blue.”

Though he initially places his focus on his clothes, his attention is piqued by the sudden calling of a nickname. He finds himself face to face with you once again, your visage hidden between two fluffy white sheets. Your lips are lifted into an inevitable smile, stripping yourself of the blanket to stuff it in a washer.

“I might have to think you’re following me around now,” you joke.

Seeing who you are now behind the blanket, a comfortable smile makes its way across his lips, smooth as butter as his gaze falls upon your familiar face. “It might seem that way.” It seems his usual antisocial disposition has faded away in the presence of this marshmallow-like girl. “I actually have reason to think it’s you following me.”

“Is that it? Well, enlighten me, Blue, because I can assure you it’s the other way around,” you say dramatically, reverting back to your goofy demeanor. The two of you press the buttons upon the machines, beginning your washers at a similar start before you make your way to a vacant bench on the sidelines.

“Hm.” A playful look of deliberation makes home across the male’s visage, and he tilts his head slightly for good measure, as though he were in thought. “Well for one, I didn’t trip on anything last time, but you happened to be there when I did. Maybe…” He trails. “You tripped me just so you could hang out with me.”

You gasp, shaking your head profusely before placing an entirely harmless smack on his shoulder. “I believe you’re framing me. For you tripping, I think you’re underestimating just how clumsy you are.”

He rolls his eyes. “Whatever you say, marshmallow.”

“Marshmallow? Is that your nickname for me now?”

It wasn’t that he had been trying to find a fitting nickname for you recently, but it had crossed his mind. “Yeah, you’re a marshmallow. It just came to me. Now we both have nicknames for each other.”

“That’s cute, I like it.” You nod. You could get used to him calling you that, much like he could with your choice of nickname. “Marshmallow and Blue, us against the world. Laundry buddies.”

“We sound like a lame superhero team,” he comments.

Your hands raise out of defense, teeth now sinking in the plushness of your lower lip in a feeble attempt to hide your ever-growing grin. “No one was supposed to see me in my marshmallow form. Superheroes gotta hide their identity, y’know? I’d like to say you aren’t very slick with yours,” you say, gesturing up to his full head of blue tresses. Your palms slightly rub at your face, and as a yawn slips through your tiers, you fail to confine it.

“Tired?” asks Jaemin.

“Mm, a bit,” you tell him. “I was up late last night studying.” Suddenly he stands, and your gaze follows him. He makes his way over to his basket, and with curiosity brewing you ask, “Any plans for tonight?”

“No, not beside studying and maybe Netflix,” he responds as he pulls out a blanket from the bottom of his basket (which he had planned to wash in a second load). He pulls to him one of the laundry carts and meticulously lays his blanket over it, creating a cushioned nest.

You didn’t need to know that he had a race sometime tonight, and would likely nap in a couple hours after completing his laundry to prepare for the long night he had ahead of him. His typical Friday night race had been cancelled due to tip-offs from the police, but he had caught word of an unfamiliar race a little bit out of town. Instead, he gestures to the makeshift bed he’s made, a playful smile tugging at his lips. It’s an attempt to help the fatigue that drapes over your eyes.

“Get in.”

First confusion adorns your features before realization sinks in, and you stand with an enthused smile. Climbing in with a laugh, you ease in, frame fitting inside.

“Here, push me. Like a speed racer!” One step further, you place your hands onto each side of the laundry cart, exuding sheer eagerness and no longer that exhaustion that had shown moments before.

“I thought you were tired and wanted to sleep,” he comments at your willingness to be pushed around, as though he were some kind of amusement park ride.

“I thought I was too, but this is better.”

“I’ll tire you out so you can sleep well later,” he says, preparing to push you around in circles through the laundry room. Nonetheless, he starts to move you, pushing you alone. First, he starts out slow, trying his best to maneuver your large conjoined figure about the small room.

Deliberate chuckles leave your lips, subconsciously leaning against his chest without meaning to. As he relishes in the sweet euphoria of your giggles, all he wants to do is keep hearing this sound.

So to pleasure his own desires, he runs a bit faster, picking up the speed whilst also trying to avoid crashing into the large machines. He was a racer, after all. Though this was surely a much smaller scale race than he was accustomed to. Smoothly, he drifts into a circle, spinning the two of you whilst an unfamiliar laugh pours from his lips. This earns him a mellifluous guffaw from you. It’s unlike him; you bring out a new side of him.

You attempt to muffle your chortles into his chest. The blue-haired boy is caught off guard by the sudden action; this shock, instigated by the pressing of your flesh against his, causes him to nearly pummel into the machine before you.

Luckily, Jaemin’s fast instincts from collective years of high speed racing causes him to turn before the collision, narrowly avoiding a disaster. He comes to a slow stop, breath accelerated.

“Sorry,” you laugh, pulling your face out to laugh once more. “I’m giving you a workout.”

Your face is contorted into a bright expression, sparkles lighting up your eyes as you gaze up at him mid-laugh. Jaemin gulps.

Even if he’s never been subject to a committed relationship, Jaemin is no fool to attraction. And that is where he feels wrong: there is someone else in your life, someone who deserves you much more than he.

This is wrong. Not because it feels wrong, but because Jaemin knows it is.

There’s a moment, a prolonged period where the two of you stare at each other. Having been caught in a joyous laugh, your eyes still sparkle as you gaze at him from where you sit in the laundry cart. You’re looking at him so fondly, and without thinking, Jaemin’s hand reaches up to guide a few stray strands of your hair behind the shell of your ear.

You’re blinking, seemingly dumbfounded at his gesture. Your head angles slightly, barely leaning into his touch.

For a moment, likely the shortest sliver of time to ever exist in the universe, time is stilled. All that lives in the moment is the two of you, alone in this laundry room. Fingers lingering so softly against the gentle fabric of your skin, Jaemin can do little but stare. It’s comfortable, fleeting.

Until the two of you realize just what you’re doing. It hits the both of you at a hundred miles per hour.

Red flag.

You straighten suddenly, and Jaemin immediately retracts his hand. As if on cue, the noises from your washing machines come to a stop. For a moment, you don’t speak. “Come on, let’s… put our stuff in the dryer.”

A cough sounds from Jaemin’s throat. “Yeah… let’s.”

Without his help, you prop yourself out of the cushioned cart and flutter over to your machine, unloading your clothes with your back to him. It’s clear what is going on in both your minds: Replaying the scene. Reminiscing the other’s laughter.

No, this is wrong—on a multitude, absolutely endless stream of levels. You have a boyfriend, someone for you back home.

The best thing you both can do is… ignore it. Yeah, that’s the better option.

Jaemin finishes stuffing his load into the dryer first, and because he cannot look at you, he turns away to place his focus upon the laundry cart which was once your object of amusement. Now, he grabs the blanket he had placed inside and folds it meticulously. He cannot suppress these feelings.

But he has to, and the only way he knows how to is to eject himself.

“I’ve actually uh… got a lot of assignments to do.” Looking around the virtually empty laundry room, he looks to you, offering an apologetic smile. “I’ll probably leave this here and come back when the hour is done.”

You don’t respond for a moment.

“Oh,” you say after a prolonged pause, and even Jaemin can hear just how evident the disappointment is in your tone. “Alright. Well… Have a good rest of your day, Blue. Thanks for spending some time with me.”

He resents that. That you’re still so kind to him, despite him running away. But he knows himself, and the only way to ignore whatever these… feelings are, he needs to avoid them. The feeling of guilt that rushes over him upon seeing the deflated change in your demeanor, like a bucket of ice cold water poured upon him, is almost enough to make him stay.

Almost.

“You too, Marshmallow,” he responds before exiting the room with his folded blanket, leaving you with the sickening feeling that he no longer wanted to be in your presence.

#neowritingsnet #nct-writers #dreamwritersnet #jaemin angst #jaemin fluff #jaemin scenarios #jaemin imagines #nct fluff #nct angst #nct dream fluff

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sleepii-moth · 2 years

Text

more outer wilds stuff sorryyy i just have to get this shit out of my head

spoilers under cut

all of this is just theories and shit btw i havent finished the game all the questions i ask are rhetorical please dont spoiler meeee

so at the point im at in the game ive explored a lot of planets and have done a bunch of stuff regarding the memory statues on giants deep and other places (not the hourglass twins tho)

and one of the things i noticed that stood out to me is in the projection for the place with all of the masks three of the masks are lit up, not 2, not 2 meaning just me and gabbro. theres another one. like someone else knows about the loop. and when i found this out i was really like blown away i was just floored thinking "who could it be?? ive found almost all the travelers in space?? and i dont think the last one has any dialog about that like gabbro because wayne met them on his stream?? could a nomai be alive???????"

and so i kept that info in my mind then went on to check out some of ember twin and chert didnt say anything about being in a loop so i was like "huh thata weird maybe ive not met this 3rd person yet"

and then i decided to check out the probe cannon

and i found the projection for where the probe information module is supposed to be and the first thought i had when i saw it was "oh i recognize this place! its the core of giants deep!! feldspar knows how to get here! which means i also do!"

and then i turn around. and you know what i fucking see? a memory statue.. with its eyes open.. the 3rd memory statue with eyes open that ive seen. the 3rd mask in the projection. in the place where feldspar outright says "oh yeah i was the first person to explore the core of giants deep heres how you get there"

and i loose my fucking mind like holy shit does feldspar know??? is feldspar like me and gabbro?? why would they not mention it?? and so i immediately and speed over to dark bramble, causing several damages to my poor ship, and go talk to felspar like "BRO ARE YOU IN A LOOP???"

and they dont have anything new to say.. but part of me is still convinced that maybe they know and maybe i have to actually get to giants deeps core for new dialog to pop up but.. and if my theory is correct then I'll loose my mind and if its not i will also loose my mind because i have no idea who else it could be and im working off the assumption that the memory statues wouldnt keep memories of nomai that died right? because wouldnt it make more sense for all the masks in that projection to be lit up and for there to be more statues with open eyes?

but for now im take a break it is 12am ive been playingbfor like 4 hours i gotta rest dndbdn

(again this is all just me theorizing please dont actually tell me)

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tiramisiyu · 3 years

Text

Tears of Themis: Main Story 4-3 Translation

Translated parts:

Chapter 4 – Heart’s Fire: 4-1 / 4-3 / 4-5 / 4-6 / 4-8 / 4-9 / 4-11 / 4-12 / 4-13 / 4-15 / 4-17 / 4-18

Translation Masterlist: here

Video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1s5411b7Yu?p=2

Zuo Ran’s Office

Cui Yuan, the suspect of Huang Haochu’s murder, is right now in custody at the police station. Lu Jinghe had reserved to meet him at 9:00 AM tomorrow.

I returned to the law firm, planning to check the archives for this case’s file. Plus, I also had to discuss adjusting my work hours with Zuo Ran.

I told Zuo Ran about the situation regarding how I was going to meet with Lu Jinghe. After listening, Zuo Ran had a hard-to-describe expression…

Zuo Ran: …

MC: Lawyer Zuo, does this case… have problems?

Zuo Ran: Lu Jinghe’s reasoning was that having the Lu family’s lawyers appear would cause trouble?

MC: That’s right.

MC: He actually did seem to be very embarrassed. On the surface, the lives of wealthy people seem to have no bounds, but the difficulties and sadnesses they face are hard to be experienced by outsiders.

Zuo Ran: …

Zuo Ran looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he just sighed.

MC: …?

Zuo Ran: You can try taking over for this case. Huang Haochu’s murder case is one of the cases in X-Note.

Zuo Ran: Its number is NXX-1036. Its priority ranking is not that high. It’s considered a mental disorder case.

MC: Mental disorder?! Does this refer to… Huang Haochu’s depression?

Zuo Ran: That’s right. Because of the pressure of public opinion, Huang Haochu suffered from depression.

Zuo Ran: After receiving treatment, though it can’t be said that he got better, but he also shouldn’t have had a tendency to want to commit suicide.

Zuo Ran: But the police maintain that Cui Yuan assisted Huang Haochu in his suicide. In this explanation, there should be something hidden.

As Zuo Ran said this, he opened the file for Case 1036 and projected it on the workbench.

MC: The murder weapon of Huang Haochu’s murder is Cui Yuan’s tie.

MC: Plus, based on the monitor at his house’s main door, the only one who came in and out was also only Cui Yuan.

MC: When Huang Haochu was discovered, the sofa cushion beside his hand was scratched until it was worn out. This shows that it was caused by suffocation.

MC: The police inferred from this that Huang Haochu was willing to die, so they arrived at the conclusion that Cui Yuan assisted in Huang Haochu’s suicide.

Zuo Ran: This is just one of the bases. The forensic report has even more detailed evidence.

Zuo Ran: Additionally, police found cyanide in Huang Haochu’s book table drawer. It confirms that Huang Haochu did consider suicide.

MC: Cyanide?

MC: Such a highly poisonous drug can’t be obtained by normal methods.

I continued to flip through the NXX-1036 records. In the timeline for Huang Haochu’s depression, I noticed a new name - Yuan Ting.

MC: This Yuan Ting was… Huang Haochu’s care worker?

Zuo Ran: In treatment of depression, a family member or friend is needed to accompany them. But Huang Haochu did not marry - he was always single.

Zuo Ran: So after his sickness, Cui Yuan found a professional care worker for him to accompany him by having conversations and relieving boredom.

MC: Cui Yuan so meticulously cared for Huang Haochu’s life. He definitely would not do as the media stated as truth (?) and let Huang Haochu be the scapegoat.

MC: The way he treated Huang Haochu is also full of contradictions.

Zuo Ran: Huang Haochu had the identity of being a partner of the auction house. No matter if it’s him or Cui Yuan, neither could confess to swapping the auctioned items.

Zuo Ran: Otherwise, the loss caused to Leinster would be unbearable.

Zuo Ran: But at that time, Huang Haochu was already being watched by the media. Having all fingers pointed to one person is at least better than both people being condemned to eternal damnation.

MC: Cui Yuan just wanted to save whatever was possible, but who would’ve thought that in the end, it would even result in one’s death…

MC: Right, this Yuan Ting - where did he go when the crime happened?

Zuo Ran: Taking a day off. He went on vacation to the neighbouring province.

Zuo Ran: Forensics concluded, Huang Haochu’s murder was at last year, November 12th, between 6PM to 12AM.

Zuo Ran: Huang Haochu’s death was discovered on November 13th early morning, around 7AM.

Zuo Ran: The worker who has long been dispatched to deliver fresh produce deliveries for the Huang house knew that Huang Haochu had depression.

Zuo Ran: He noticed no one was at home, and he couldn’t get through to Huang Haochu’s phone, so he called police out of vigilance.

Zuo Ran: Yuan Ting returned in advance after receiving the police’s contact.

X-Note’s records were consistent with the archives in the police’s big data centre.

Thus, under this situation where no new evidence came out, Cui Yuan really could not avoid suspicion. The murder weapon, the murder timing, all of it pointed to him.

As for the motive of committing the crime, whether it was from a quarrel as the media said, or as the police concluded - assisted suicide, either explanation made sense.

Lu Jinghe wanting to overturn the police’s conclusion in such a short time, is way too hard…

MC: Right, Lu Jinghe, he…

Could he be a member of the NXX investigation group?

I wanted to ask Zuo Ran, but after seeing his probing eyes, I hesitated.

I haven’t yet agreed to be added by Zuo Ran into the investigation group yet. Asking this kind of thing… probably wasn’t quite right?

Zuo Ran: You wanted to ask, is Lu Jinghe a member of the investigation team?

At the end, I still got seen through by Zuo Ran. I embarrassedly nodded.

MC: I know this isn’t something I should ask. Lawyer Zuo, you don’t have to tell me.

Zuo Ran: Why guess at Lu Jinghe's identity? Just because he’s the executive CEO of Pax?

MC: At the beginning I thought - Pax funding the establishment of NXX was something that Lu Jinghe could not have been unaware of.

MC: But when he reached out about this case 1036, if Lu Jinghe was a member of the investigation team, then his behaviour would make even more sense.

MC: He was eager to investigate, which was likely due to being afraid that clues would be lost after a sentence was announced for the case.

MC: Not using the power of the Lu family was because NXX’s investigations are a secret.

Zuo Ran: Just now, I was even worried that your occasional simpleness would make it easy for you to suffer losses. Now I see that it wasn’t necessary.

MC: Eh? Lawyer Zuo, earlier you didn’t look so good - was it because you were worried about me?

Zuo Ran very unnaturally turned away his line of sight…

Zuo Ran:...

MC: (Lawyer Zuo really is a very considerate senior, he’s just not very good at showing it.)

MC: Don’t worry. Basically because I haven’t yet been added into NXX, Lu Jinghe hasn’t said clearly that we’re investigating 1036. He wasn’t hiding it on purpose.

MC: Besides, his sad expression… no matter how you look at it, it doesn’t look like he’s acting.

Though I had a certain answer in my heart, Lu Jinghe’s identity still made me feel that it wasn’t quite true.

He could be a relaxed artist, an unrestrainable rich family’s young master - not a single bit was like that of a member of a secret investigation group.

MC: Lawyer Zuo, have some confidence in me. If i were really stupid, always getting tricked and suffering losses, how could I have been your partner?

Zuo Ran: Sheesh, you…

Zuo Ran: Have you finished considering that thing? Will or won’t you join NXX?

MC: If I can prove that X03A wasn’t just one case with Gong Cheng, but it was instead it was with Heirson, as well as more businesses related to the production of illegal drugs.

MC: Even if it’s dangerous, I hope that Lawyer Zuo can allow me to enter NXX.

MC: I want to help more people like Qiao Qiao. I want to prevent Qiao Qiao’s tragedy from repeating.

Zuo Ran: Very good. I didn’t find the wrong person.

Zuo Ran: X03A has already been sent to Pax for a chemical assay. We’ll be able to get a detailed report after a bit of time.

Zuo Ran: Before that happens, if you want to look through more information, I can give you authorization to access internal data for NXX.

Zuo Ran: Find a time for me to bring you to the base, to input your identification info.

MC: That’s great.

MC: Right, Lawyer Zuo, does Stellis City really have so many case files? The case numbers have already reached four digits.

I’d wanted to ask this question ever since I saw the identification number 1036.

Stellis City’s law and order system was one of the best in the country. Not even considering murder cases, just public security cases were significantly lower in number compared to other cities.

Zuo Ran: Not necessarily. I mostly organize missing persons cases; their identification numbers are all three digits.

Zuo Ran: Cases relating to mental disorders are for another person to organize. He uses four digits for their identification numbers.

MC: So it’s like this...that’s good.

MC: Though I’m a lawyer, I still hope that this world will have no strife in it.

MC: Though I would be unemployed, this would be a happy thing.

Zuo Ran: Sheesh, you - your head is full of naive thoughts.

MC: Though it can’t be done, can’t I still think about it - Lawyer Zuo, you’re too strict.

Zuo Ran: Of course you can think about it. Plus… I quite like this way of thinking that you have.

Zuo Ran: “The direction that we lawyers drive towards every day, is towards the day where we will one day be unemployed.”

Zuo Ran: He also said these kinds of words before…

Zuo Ran’s faintly smiling expression showed significant feelings and memories.

A name suddenly flashed in my mind - Nie Qiu.

Could Professor Nie, Zuo Ran’s teacher, be the “he” that Zuo Ran just mentioned?

#tot translation #tears of themis #未定事件簿 #weiding shijian bu

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nate-gibson · 3 years

Text

Week 4

22/03/2021 Monday

Controller Camera

Today I got the PlayStation and Xbox controllers to work with the players. My group has decided that we'd like to have somewhat of a working prototype by Wednesday's class so that we have more feedback to show for assignment 1. Because of this, we'd like to have working controllers for both PlayStation and Xbox.

Ashton and Matt were having issues when trying to use the PlayStation controller, so Matt has lent me one of his spare PlayStation controllers. I spent today fixing some issues where the right joystick on the controller would not accurately rotate around the player. I fixed the camera issue by creating a new input axis that was relative to the Xbox and PlayStation controllers. The Xbox and PlayStation controllers use different axis for some weird reason, so I had to create a separate axis for each controller. After this, I just had to set each axis to their respective controllers.

This is a very broken way of getting the controllers working but it’ll do for Wednesday's class.

Gif of working Playstation controller camera movement:

23/03/2021

Tuesday

New player prefabs

Today I made four new player prefabs, two for keyboard (WASD and Arrow keys) and two controller (Xbox and PlayStation), I also set up a spawning system for these prefabs.

I created four spawn-able players from the player character that I had most up to date with my changes, the first one had WASD controls on a keyboard, the second Arrow controls on the keyboard, the third Xbox controller controls and the fourth PlayStation controller controls. I had to make separate players for the Xbox and PlayStation controls as a temporary fix so that I can differentiate the axis that I created yesterday. There is supposedly code that can determine which controller needs which axis, this was not working for me when testing it so for now I’ll be using this system.

Adjustments to the spawning system

I then had to do some tweaking to my player spawning system. This required tweaking as I had it so that either A or X on the Xbox or

I then found the issue that Ashton and Matt had told me about when trying to test out the player on a PlayStation controller. It was because of some code that I had introduced in the spawning system I had created. I had basically made it so that if A is pressed on controller one an Xbox prefabbed player would spawn and if controller 2 presses X a PlayStation prefabbed player would spawn. this was proven to be an issue for my group mates as they only had one controller being a PlayStation controller and with the code that I had set up, that meant that the Xbox prefabbed player would spawn. To fix this I just made it so that controller one would spawn a PlayStation controller and controller two would spawn an Xbox controller. For now, I have to use this system for spawning as I don't have time to set up one that can determine whether or not it is a PlayStation or Xbox controller.

Bug fixing

Lastly while testing I found a bug where if one player is on top of the other players head and they both jump at the same time they can get stuck inside of each other. To fix this, I added a boolean that when a player is jumping would be on and when the player is touching the ground would be off. I then added this Boolean as a requirement to be false when a player is on top of another player’s head.

24/03/2021

Wednesday

Camera Tweak

Today was the day of the crits, they were scheduled in the afternoon, so my team and I did some small tweaks to the player's camera while waiting. We were trying to find the perfect values to give to the camera movement to allow it to be smooth and comfortable. we loaded up Risk of rain 2 on my laptop to see how that game's camera functioned, upon doing some testing with it we went back to the camera movement and did some additional tweaking using that risk of rain 2’s camera as inspiration.

Disappearing Jump Pads

After doing this we still had time to spare so I decided to mess around in the unity project and came up with the idea for a disappearing jump pad. This was easy to make as it was just my jump pad and disappearing platform combined, it worked by thrusting the player upwards when they collide with the platform and then upon the player leaving the platform the platform is disabled. I then duplicated the new disappearing jump pad a bunch so it could be tested later.

Crits

It was now time for crits, we got the people in our crit group to come over and test out our game. hey gave us the following feedback:

Improve the lighting/aesthetics.

The camera is too close to the characters, feels claustrophobic.

More game modes/party games (Obstacle course, spleef, infected).

Further jump distance if the player is sprinting.

Improved Skybox.

Focus heavily on the multiplayer aspect (more teamwork puzzles).

Power-ups/Upgrades/Crystal life source that contains different abilities.

Mini Bot that carries your upgrades and parts.

Enemies to fight.

Adding extra horizontal movement when on jump pads.

Image of Crit testing:

Feedback from Game Jam

This would also be a good time to discuss our game jams feedback and rating. As I have stated we created an earlier version of the project for a week-long Game Jam, after the submission ended on the 22nd of Feb at 12am it then started a two-week-long voting period. During this, the contestants were to play other games vote on them and give feedback.

We received the following placement out of almost 2000 total entries:

We received the following feedback grouped together by Ashton:

Positive Feedback:

The feedback below is purely positive talking about how much they enjoyed BroBots. It was great to see as it not only removed any concerns we had of our game but also lead to us deciding to continue with this as our project for studio.

Critical Feedback:

The feedback below this is constructive criticism talking about what they felt the game needed. Such as a checkpoint system as they found it annoying to start from the beginning after every failure. They also talked about how this could work better as a coop game which we have now switched to. The need for some sort of explanation on the game's controls. How they found the timer system to be annoying, this was something the group decided to remove as we want the game to be challenging without the need for a count down. Lastly some smaller critics about improving the audio and menu screen. All of this was much-needed criticism that has helped us to create a much more enjoyable prototype.

These images were cut together by Ashton

Extra speed when on jump pad

The feedback from the crit session that I found most important for me was that they recommended adding extra horizontal speed when on a jump pad. This isn't something that I thought of before and made a lot of sense for our game.

I liked the idea of this so much that when I got home, I immediately added it to the player. So now once you've bounced on a jump pad you will get an extra movement boost which lasts until you touch the ground again.

New Directional Jump pads

Lastly, when looking over the new Disappearing jump pad code I thought of a potential way to make jump pads that affected the player's movement on the X and Z axis. This is something I'd wanted to do for a long time but had no idea how to approach it and had more pressing issues to fix. But since we had just finished the required elements needed for the crit session, I now had time to implement this new obstacle.

The way the jump pad works is by increasing the player's height in a burst upwards while having a downwards gravitational force on the object to push it back down to the ground level. I couldn't use the same gravitational force to cancel the player's momentum on the X and Z axis as there is not a gravitational force applied on the player's horizontal axis. To get around this I made it so that once the player has been pushed if they exceed a certain speed on the X or Z axis in the positive or negative it will decrease by 1 every frame until it reaches 0. This allows the player to be thrust in a horizontal direction and then to have that thrust decrease over time until it reaches 0 giving a nice and clean pushing movement.

Gif of disappearing jump pads and extra player speed when jumping on pads:

Gif of new directional jump pads:

26/03/2021

Friday

Ragdolls working with jump pads.

Today I decided to look into getting the rag-dolls working with the jump pads. the reason it doesn't work is that when the player is in his normal state he is controlled by a character controller this controller is what is used to calculate thrust away from a lift platform. when the player is in the rag-dolling state its character controller is disabled this makes it unable to move and also interact with jump pads.

Because of this, I had to create a new system for adding thrust to a player. I use the character controller to add thrust because that is what controls the player's gravity. But since this is turned off and the ragdoll has a rigidbody components on it I'll be using something called rigidbody add force. I set up a new system with the jump pads so that when the player is in the ragdoll state and if a part of its body collides with the jump pad it will add a thrusting force to it determined by what type of pad direction it is (y, x, or z).

Gif of ragdolls working with jump pads:

#ctec708

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yeahyeahbaby · 4 years

Text

Finished my first game and game jam!

Link to my game Ahh, Crabs! I realized that I haven’t posted in a while, so I thought I would write about finishing my first game and game jam, and what my next plans are. Get ready for a fucking novel lol.

I entered the I Can't Draw But Want To Make A Game (Again) game jam because I wanted to make a game. Before starting the jam, I’d thought about game development and 3D modeling on and off for about a year, but hadn’t started any projects. Last summer, I’d watched BlenderGuru’s series and made a render of a doughnut which was cool and did a few tutorials on the Unity learn site, but I didn’t do anything with those newly developed skills and eventually forgot most of what I’d learned. I’m currently 24, going to be 25 in August, and I think a lot about how I spend my time, am I on the right path, what do I want out of life, etc. All of the big existential anxiety inducing questions. I work as a front-end web developer, its a great job, but I know that I don’t want to do web development forever. Anyway, I’d recently started thinking about game development, and wanted to try committing myself again. Game development presents the opportunity for me to create something that combines all of my interests. Art, music, technology, story telling, world building, animation, etc. It’s also appealing to me because being an indie developer means being an entrepreneur. I know that I want a life where I’m my own boss. I want to decide what projects I work on and what takes priority. I want to build a creative life where I can support myself financially from my work. I thought about how this time could be different from a year ago where I tried to get into game development, but never committed. I started off slow by creating small assets with MagicaVoxel while I tried to come up with ideas. This is when I remembered that game jams were a thing. I found the game jam (not going to keep typing the name cuz its long as hell lol) on itch.io and was hesitant to enter. I was afraid of starting and committing to something only to let myself down when I didn’t finish. I’d recently started journaling and was writing about this fear that I had. I realized as I was writing that I was stopping myself from trying something because of fear. That’s when I decided to commit to entering. The great thing about game jams is that they take place over a set period of time and you’re usually given some kind of parameters. This was EXTREMELY helpful to me because I was able to quickly come up with an idea for the game. I knew that I only had two weeks to finish. Not two full weeks because of course I work full time and have other home chores to do. Plus ya girl likes to relax and watch anime ( I think at the time I was actually reading Hana Yori Dango aka Boys Over Flowers uwu). So being given a set time period helped me to plan a semi-realistic scope for the game. So I started to work on the game! I had a lot of fun making silly art and music. Because the mechanics of my game were also SUPER simple, I could easily find tutorials for everything that I wanted to implement. Even with the tutorials, I still had small hiccups as I worked my way around Unity and C#, but I was never stuck for more than a few hours. Things were going great! And then.... I stopped working on the game. I think I didn’t work on the game for like 4-5 days?? I got off track because of some personal stuff that I had to deal with. Once it was handled, I didn’t immediately get back to work. I wasn’t really motivated anymore and I was running out of time. I felt like I had wasted time already, I wasn’t going to make the deadline so why FUCKING TRY *sobs*. BUT! Once again, journaling saved the day again lol. I was writing about these feelings and saw how stupid I sounded. Why TF am I giving up before the jam ends???? BITCH!!! So I got back to work. I think at this point I had like 3-4 days left?? Something like that. I worked my butt off , literally until the deadline. I was rushing like crazy, super determined to finish. I was keeping up with a Trello board of things I wanted to add to the game, but a lot of things had to get cut. For example, the help button, a pause game function, cleaning up the mechanics, also wanted to add some pre-game comics, etc. BUT thankfully I was able to prioritize the absolute must haves to make the game playable and shippable lol. So, the deadline was 12am CST Friday. 11:59pm CST rolled around. And I’m still waiting for my build so I can upload it. 12am came and it was too late. I didn’t make it. I was literally sobbing. I don’t remember the last time I cried so much. I was just feeling super emotional. I had a long day at work, just spent the last 8 hours crunching to finish my game to submit to the game jam, and even though it was finished, in the moment I felt like a failure because I couldn’t submit it to the jam. I know it may sound silly, like BITCH you did the thing! You made a game! You reached your goal! Buuuut I was still feeling like shit lol. The build finished and I uploaded it it itch.io. I was sniffling around the discussion board on the jam’s page, feeling sorry for myself, and decided to post a link to my game and let everyone know that Hey! I finished this game but couldn’t submit it in time. pls check it out *sobs* WELL! Many blessings came my way, the creator of the jam was sending unique submission links to people who missed the deadline a little! They saw my post and sent me a submission link. Of course I submitted that hoe so fucking quick lmaooo A wave of relief washed over my exhausted shriveled body. It was time for celebration and sleep because a bitch had to go to work the next day. I’m so thankful for this experience. I saw something that I wanted to do, I committed, almost QUIT, BUT PUSHED THROUGH AND REACHED MY GOAL! I feel so much confidence in myself and my ability to pursue and finish my creative projects, whatever they may be. SO WHAT’S NEXT BITCH???? Well, thank you for asking uwu I’m going to make another game! This time, not part of a jam so I have to keep myself super accountable. I want to make a game where I can learn and experiment with dialogue, camera movement, art, and sound design. I think I’ve settled on an idea but need to give it some more thought before I commit and reveal the idea. I’m hoping for about 30-45 minutes of game play?? And I want to work on this project for 6 months, so pretty much the rest of 2020. Might as well keep myself busy while the world burns :/ If anyone is reading this and made it this far, wow, i’m impressed. I wouldn’t have read this much lol I think I’m going to make a youtube video on this topic?? I mean, if I can write a novel about it might as well talk about it on youtube. It can be my first dev-log-ish type video for the yeahyeahbaby channel (that has yet to be created lol) Okay. Bye-bye now.

#gamedev #indiegamedev #retrospective #GameJam #womeningames

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incorrect-marauders · 5 years

Photo

THE OWLS ARE IN! IT’S TIME FOR THE SURVEY RESULTS!

So, as many of our followers are probably aware, we recently did a survey to get a feel of what people thought of our blog. We got a total of 57 results and we are grateful to each and every one of you for taking the time to let us know your thoughts. Now, we’re here to share the general consensus of what people thought and how we will accommodate these opinions.

We’ll definitely have some changes to the blog, so read on to see what those changes are!

Before we begin, we have a few things to briefly mention.

The results are pretty scattered. We didn’t want to restrict anyone, so most were free response or included “Other”. In hindsight, there were a few questions that could have easily been multiple choice without really restricting anyone. (Side eyes the first question.) Therefore, most of these will just summarize the results we got. Occasionally drop the graph for the multiple choice questions.

Because of the large amount of responses we got, not every answer will be listed here. We highlighted the things that were either most commonly mentioned or had us thinking the most.

If anyone would like to see the full results for some reason (par the names, to keep anonymity), feel free to email us at [email protected] and we’ll send it over!

And yes, we are making changes to accommodate these results! That’s what this survey was all about!

We’ll be opening applications for new mods within the next couple days as well.

We’ll have a tiny hiatus as all of this is going on.

Now, we begin...

How long have you been following incorrect-marauders?

The most popular answer seemed to be around 2 months or 10 months. A lot of people filling out this survey seemed to either be relatively new or here since the beginning. Kudos to you incorrect-marauders veterans, and welcome newer followers!

How did you find incorrect-marauders?

Somewhat as we expected. Keep reblogging us, lovely people!

What do you love MOST about incorrect-marauders?

"It's funny.” (x50)

No really, we got 50 variations of “It’s funny,” “It’s hilarious,” “The humour,” “The funny text posts.”

Thanks, we appreciate it!

“How weirdly in character the quotes always are.”

(Similar variations include, “How actually accurate your post are,” “That not every post is as funny, imho, but that they do keep true to the characters,” “How much they fit the characters.”)

“They offer new content to the Marauders 'franchise' as it were because some stuff within the fandom is constantly being reused.”

“How correct it actually is if Joanne made it canon.”

“McGonagall with the marauders and that the sources are listed.”

“Accurate representation, variety of ships and relationships, isnt toxic.”

“Very funny and can be great art/writing prompts.”

“The taste.”

“EVERYTHING.”

These are all very nice, thank you all. Glad we hit where we were aiming.

What do you love LEAST about incorrect-marauders?

The most common response was, “Nothing,” or a variation thereof, but that’s no fun for this question, so here are some of the legitimate criticisms we received!

“Quote sources, I think, occasionally aren't there.”

Our original quotes often don’t have sources. But if there’s one where a mod forgot to credit a source, please just message us and one of the admins will fix that!

“There isn't a particularly nice aesthetic to the blog, e.g. a matching layout and profile picture or quote.”

Yeah, we’re working to fix that. I like pretty blogs too.

“Could be updated a little more.”

(”Not much posting in my opinion,” “Long time between posts.”)

Strangely enough, we got this a few times but our later poll about how often to post were contradicting this. So, unfortunately, we will not be adjusting this.

“I mean I would say that Peter is on it, but can’t really get rid of him...”

(Got a few of these, like, ”Peter being seen as a good person.”)

Sorry!

“Some are a bit too small.”

“I don’t like the long quotes.”

Well, then.

“Seeing my #notp but that isnt rly a minus?? Its called diversity so im not gonna hate or anything.”

Thank you for appreciating the diversity. We get occasional hate over it, but we also get hate over not posting some of the other ships. I suppose that’s what happens when you have lots of different followers of different opinions.

“If I send you a text post you credit the source in # but i'd like you to include a link to my tumblr in the post itself so people would actually find my tumblr. I doent send you text posts anymore, cause it doesn't really profit me and it feels like you get credit for my work.”

We’re sorry you feel that way. We always put it in the tags, just in front of the source. We are more of a mod-based blog rather than a submission-based blog. Anyone is welcome to submit, but about 98% of our posts are created by our mods.

“Sometimes I feel like the wrong characters were chosen or not well thought out.”

We can assure you our mods put a lot of thought into what characters to use, but you are welcome to message us with your own suggestion! (But please note that we are a Marauders blog; we got a few comments about how we don’t post enough Hinny or Romione, but that’s not what our blog is about.)

What makes incorrect-marauders stand out?

Once again, we got a lot about how funny we are, so we’ll skip over those and highlight the more unique answers!

"They don't use things from other people without credit.”

“The love and attention put in to everything.”

“Don't think there are any other blogs about marauders in this style.”

(We got this a few times. ”Like the type of blog and incorrect-marauders was the first one Harry potter themed I found,” also, “Its really funny and pretty much the only blog that just does this kind of post and i LOVE it.” But alternatively... “There are a lot of textpost blogs like it, but it is one of the only ones that I have found that consistently keeps characters in character in the posts and appeals to my sense of humor.”)

“I feel the quotes are in character and from multiple sources which Is cool.“

“How open it is.”

“The continuous content.”

“The posts arent so often that my dash is spammed like other blogs of the same nature.”

“Not sure but I like you.”

Not much to comment on these except we’re happy to see people think this about us!

How satisfied are you with the blog and the posts, in all?

So, you’re telling me, we opened a public, anonymous survey and not a single hater filled it out? Am I impressed or disappointed?

Please explain your response to the previous question.

“I just love the whole blog.”

“It's not my favourite blog ever ever which is why it's not a 10 but i still love it.”

“You guys are just so awesome! But it'd also be cool to have a little, meet the creator(s).”

“Its good but I don't have or want notifications on.”

“It’s the #qualitycontent i signed up for.”

"Always room for improvement, and also there's no 9 3/4 option.”

Awesome! We definitely agree that we can always improve, which is what this survey is for!

How often should we post?

We got a lot of variety here. Some say once a day (which is how often we currently post) was ideal. Others put stuff like...

“I wouldnt mind my entire blog just being filled with your posts.”

While Once A Day is the most voted for, the rest of the options put together, which we’ll name Two or More Times a Day, do win overall. Since we have one new post followed by a reblog, we’ll compromise by posting two times a day, but with one new post a day (the second being a reblog).

In UTC, what times do you prefer us posting?

As expected, not many people cared. But two people felt very strongly and voted for 12am, 1am, and 6pm UTC. So, we’ll consider that.

What characters, relationships, universes, etc. would you like to see more represented in our posts?

We got a lot of responses here, primarily being more Wolfstar, Jily, and BFFs James and Sirius. We also got a lot saying we should post about Hinny, Romione, next gen, FBAWTFT, etc. in which I remind you that this is a Marauders blog.

We also got the hilarious response that said we should maybe post about the “merauders”. Well, we can certainly promise you that.

We also got a lot of people saying more McGonagall. That’s something we can definitely do.

Would you like to see more original quotes from us?

For the longest time, the option 50/50 was at exactly 50%. Kind of disappointed that is no longer, but the 25% option is at 25%, so that’s something. Anyway, we’ll aim for 50/50.

What else would you like to see us post?

This was one of the results that will make the biggest change to the blog. People seem to really love these ideas. So expect...

Marauder Mondays! Every Monday we’ll have Marauder Monday, where we’ll answer asks, reblog posts, and have a party! Probably when we’ll post the “extra” posts, like our GIFs, graphics, aesthetics, videos, etc.

How would you feel if we did sponsored posts?

Combined, it seems like ~75% of those who took the survey are good with sponsored posts.

These results honestly surprised us. We’ve gotten a lot of offers of sponsorships in the past but have always denied them because we didn’t know how our followers would feel. We probably won’t do this in the near future, but it’s an option.

What kind of projects would you like to see us host?

We got so many people suggesting merch. Shirts, stickers, pins, other merch... So we’ll keep that in mind! We’d love some Marauders shirts ourselves.

“Projects that other blogs can get involved with to help other accounts grow.”

Noted!

“An art challenge maybe? like, 30 day challenge where you have to draw them as characters from movies/tv shows? like, friends, clueless, avengers, dc characters etc.“

Definitely interesting. Art challenges would be a lot of fun. Hopefully there’s an interest for this!

Which of our other accounts do you follow/would like to follow?

We’ll look into bringing on people to regularly post on other sites.

What device do you use to browse our blog most often (whether through Tumblr or our site)?

Why are we bothering with a redesign again? Oh, right. Personal vain.

How often do you visit the blogsite?

Those numbers are higher than expected...

What kind of things would you like to find on our blogsite?

“Character aesthetics.”

“Fanfiction links.”

“Marauders fan art would be cool.“

We’ll be working on this! Thank you for the suggestions!

More meet the creator(s) (if not comfortable with should, maybe just telling a funny story)

We got a lot of people saying they’d like to know more about us. We are anonymous, but this particular comment had us thinking. We’ll be implementing something in the near future. We will still remain anonymous, but we will have “blog identifies”, I suppose you could say. More info to come!

Other than show, character, and ship lists, what would you like to see in our navigation?

We didn’t get many new suggestions for this, except for fanart, aesthetics, etc. which we will add as more people join the blog!

Do you have any additional suggestions for us?

"Maybe find a blog that could do fan art, but only if you’re comfortable with it. Also, you’re blog is already so amazing, and any redesign would just make it more awesome!!! Don’t let anyone get you down espically if some one puts something negative on the survey because it is so so great already.”

We got no negative feedback (just constructive criticism), but thank you for your concern!

“um. keep doing this. i like it. it helps fill the gaping void in my soul“

Mood.

“Thanks for making the survey, caring about our feedback, and being awesome overall :)”

Of course! This is not just our blog, this is the Marauders fandom blog. Your feedback means everything to us and we hope you will like the changes we’ll make in response to it.

And that covers all of it! Cookies to anyone who read all of that! Keep an eye out for those new mod applications if you’re interested in joining our team!

We’ll be taking a tiny little hiatus as we’re figuring some stuff out.

#admin #survey #survey results #updates

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seaweed-dot-exe · 4 years

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Ardaluin House, Co. Down, NI

Ardaluin House is currently a residential house for outdoor pursuits groups such as Scouts, church groups and B.A.C., the local activity centre

Originally built in 1859, the house was renovated in 2012-13. At first glance it appears a normal residential location, however once you step inside, the atmosphere changes drastically.

As this is a place I personally have stayed overnight in, I'm telling my personal story from here, then another story told to me.

I was with my youth club, aged 12 at the time, when I first visited Ardaluin. It was June, 2017 and during Northern Ireland's annual heatwave. When I stepped out of the minibus, I shivered and felt a stab, literally what felt like a stab, of anxiety, (at 12 years old, my anxiety was at its lowest however I believe this area has caused it to rise) however I brushed it off and followed my fellows inside.

When I crossed the threshold, I knew I wouldn't enjoy my weekend there. Not because of the people I was with, but rather the people my group were completely unaware of.

Ardaluin resonates with negative energy and trapped spirits. Only I, it seemed, was aware of this to the extent that I was. A total of 3 malevolent spirits pace the house's boundaries, holding the spirit of a girl in place. The girl, Katie, sits cross-legged on the highest window ledge, in a calf-length scarlet dress from the 1920s. She is faceless, and stares out of the window. Appearing at around sundown, she sits there crying all night. If you listen in the silence, you'll hear her.

I first met Katie when evening fell on the first day. It was almost dark in the surrounding area, however being in the shadow of some particularly dense cloud and surrounded by forest made almost semi-darkness fall on us. I was walking from the dorm room I was staying in to the kitchen for a glass of water. While I walked down the stairs, I saw her out of the corner of my eye on the highest window ledge. When I looked directly at her, she was gone. When I walked back up the stairs, the first Shadow Man was watching my progress back to my room.

That first night, I lay on an upper bunk facing out of the window. I could not sleep. I was homesick, anxious, and extremely paranoid. I lay awake, terrified and crying silently. At 3am (cliché I know, but I checked the time), I heard someone else crying. I covered my mouth to see if it was me. The sound continued. I looked out of the window and was petrified to see the second Shadow Man staring in. Why did this scare me so badly?

A) the man was faceless and completely black. Not skin tone, physically made of shadow.

B) he was also faceless, however there were 2 red tinged areas for eyes.

C) the dorm was on the second floor. There are no balconies.

I ran down the ladder, and woke my friend who was asleep on the lower bunk. She let me sleep there with her. However, I still could not sleep. 2 hours later, at 5:12am, Katie's crying stopped. Finally, I fell asleep, to wake up at exactly 8am. The second night was easier, I put my pillow at the opposite end on the bed, now facing the wall. I also drew the cross on each of my wrists to keep the Shadow Men at bay. Do not make eye contact with the Shadow Men.

I have been back once more, however I took precaution. A cross on each wrist, some gemstone bracelets and a pentagram necklace ensured I slept without interference. No one heard Katie's cries for her mother, the Shadow Men were still there, but I didn't see them.

My story ends here. The report, however, does not.

Over a year after my last visit to Ardaluin, I was on another residential with the same youth club, with other groups for a cross-community project. While in the common area in the evening, our conversation turned to Ardaluin House. I brought up Katie (not by name) and the Shadow Men. It just so happened that one of the other group leaders' mother was a caretaker at Ardaluin.

She confirmed my report of the haunting before telling a story of an electrician.

Note: this story takes place many years before mine does.

(Cast: Caretaker, Electrician, Boss)

Some boys had gotten into Ardaluin and had thrown rocks at the lights, breaking a good lot of them. So the Caretaker called an electrician to get them fixed. She arrived at the house to let the electrician in, and to show him where the issues were. The electrician set his tools out on a table that had been set up for him and explained roughly what he would be doing. After that, she left him to it.

Two days passed. The Caretaker had not heard anything from the electrician so returned to Ardaluin House to check on him. She found the door unlocked, entered cautiously and called out to him. Nothing. Then, the Caretaker noticed all of his tools still lying on the table.

Growing worried, she called the company to inquire.

"Hi, it's (Caretaker), the Caretaker at Ardaluin, I was just calling to see if (electritian) has called into work or if something has happened? I went back to Ardaluin, and all his tools were there but he wasn't. I just wanted to check he was ok!"

"No, he hasn't. He says he isn't going back there. I need to ask, were you telling him ghost stories or something?"

"What? No?"

"Oh. See, he said he was standing on the table fixing the light when a girl in a red dress walked down the stairs past him. He says he dropped everything and left right then."

You can choose if you think this was Katie, or if the electrician and I both just saw the same thing coincidentally.

#paranormal #ghosts #haunted house #haunted #spooky #shadows

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pastelpastryblog · 5 years

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It was an accident chapter.4 (M)

Prev - Next

Genre: Angst, romance, drama

Rated Mature: Strong language, suggestive content, violence

Main characters: Melissa (reader), One/Jae (Jaewon) & Dean

(Reader’s POV/Melissa)

*Alarms goes off for 9am, Tuesday*

I roll around my bed for a while, with a headache because CHRISTINE AND MASASHI did it again but this time it was at around 12am and I woke up at 2am when I heard him attempt to jump out the window. They are both lowkey getting on my nerves now. Anyway, I check my phone and I realise what day it is. It’s the day where I will study my favourite subject in the universe, fashion & textiles!

I have to really look good today so that I live up to my subject. I finish showering, doing my hair and makeup and its time for my outfit. I am wearing a black and white fur coat, white t-shirt, black formal jogger pants, black patent heeled boots, my bigger bag and a fuchsia coloured beret with straight hair.

I leave my house 20 minutes early so that I get to my first fashion marketing lecture on time. I get to my workshop and I realise that I am the first one to there, again. I do what I normally do when I wait for the class to fill up, I read my magazines and I see the door open. I see no other than this fashionable Masashi guy. Why do we have to be classmates? Why? He was looking so good though. He wore a half-buttoned silk grey shirt, black distressed skinny jeans, a long black overcoat, big buckles belt, a black leather backpack and some Chelsea boots.

“Oh shit me and Christine won’t make love in here so don’t cry”

He’s annoying, so I’m going to ignore what he said and be nice to him.

“I didn’t know you studied here”

“I transferred from Manchester university”

“Wow, that’s far”

“Yep but you clean up well”

“Erm…….thanks?”

“Can you take complements? I’m not hitting on you, I have a girlfriend remember? Your roommate?”

“Yes I am aware”

“Plus I love fashion and we are in fashion class, so of course I will notice your outfit”

“True say.”

“Anyways since we are classmates lets get along, shall we?” He gives me his hand so that I can shake it

“Yes we shall” I stretch my hand to shake his hand

The class was filled up with students. Me and Masashi ended up sitting next to each other because we were the only ones that knew each other, everyone else was stuck up and were all flaunting their designer clothes. We were all sitting waiting for our lecturer to come.

10 mins later we hear this loud ass man come in our lecture hall.

It was my lecturer.

He was fashionably late. He introduces himself to us. His name is ……. And he is so good looking. He really looked like an idol. He wore a white shirt, long overcoat, some pants, black socks and brogues with a fedora and sunglasses. But has his own fashion brand called AOORA. He is also a singer so he used his song “slay” as background music while he was lecturing. He kept forgetting what he was saying because he kept hip thrusting to his song.

*55 mins into the lecture*

“right my lovely students, I want everybody to get into pairs for your first ever fashion project. Right everyone get into groups of two please!” AOORA said as his eyes was glued to the 20 students he lectures.

It was only 55 minutes into our first ever lecture for this subject, let alone the first subject with this man and this class. How are we just going to get up and find partners? It makes no sense, like I barely know everybody’s names.

With a pen in his mouth and his fist on his chin, AOORA gets irritated at the fact that his students were acting like they didn’t hear him by just sitting in their original seats in silence.

“RIGHT!” he gets up. He starts walking around the class, scanning his students. “since you guys don’t want to get up and pair up, I will be doing the pairing up for you guys myself then”

I honestly hope whoever I get paired with will be a great partner and I also hope that they become my actual real best friend, aside from the people I live with.

“OKAY, right, so Melissa and Masashi, you guys are a pair. I’m looking forward for your team work and how your project will turn out. I have high expectations from both of you” he says, while winking at Melissa and Masashi.

“I don’t know if I should feel glad tat you are my partner or not. I guess we will be seeing each other quite a lot” Masashi says, unenthusiastically.

“hey, I’m not that bad, man. Plus, we kind of know each other so I guess it will be fine. Let’s just hope that we don’t annoy each other and that this project is a walk in the park” Melissa says with an optimistic smile.

Masashi smiles back in agreement and that is how the first lecture ended for them.

(Jaewon’s POV)

Since I am quite known on this campus, I’ve been asking around for that girl because I want to apologise for busting her lip but I had no luck because all I did was describe how she looked like and dressed yesterday during our Marketing communications lecture. I even went out of my way to ask Dumbfounded about her but he said that he doesn’t know who I a talking about because he teaches a lot of girls. There was something about her that made me curious about her, like I just wanted to get to know her, really badly. I even did an Instagram search, but I had no luck because I didn’t know her name or username.

*knock, knock*

“yo Jaewon, open the damn door. You’ve been locked in your room for 3 hours doing nothing but looking for a random girl. Get out!” says his best friend and flat mate, Hwimin.

“oh my gosh bro, that’s such a good idea. Since she doesn’t live in United, she might be living in Trinity. I’ll go there and look for her”

“Do you know how insane you sound right now? The security in the Trinity block is crazy strict, you know that men are not allowed there right? Also, How do you know that she doesn’t live in this block? “

“……..”

“Nah, don’t tell me. Did you go around the whole building looking for her? Are you mad bro?”

“You don’t understand, her lip got busted because of me. Her beautiful lip…..”

“Look, just wait till you have Marketing communications again, I’m sure that she will still be in your class”

“But what if she doesn’t come back because I ruined her face?”

“That’s not a good enough excuse for her or anyone to drop out of a subject, you’re overreacting. You have Marketing communications on Friday, we will see then” Hwimin reassures Jaewon.

To be continued……

What happens next?

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