#moon twilight flash fiction

[its-to-the-death]

Fictional Weapon War Round 2

Piecemaker (Discworld)

Used by Detritus

Shoots a bundle of arrows at once (which are the size of a lance to a human)

The arrows tend to disintegrate into a cloud of shrapnel from the force and then burst into flame from air friction

Detritus is forbidden from firing it in the city

Sailor Moon's tiara (Sailor Moon)

She chucks it like a frisbee for an attack called Moon Frisbee/Moon Tiara Boomerang

Also, has a manga exclusive attack with it called Moon Twilight Flash where she uses the gem on the tiara to reflect moonlight into a beam of light that's fired at the enemy

#fictional weapon war #fictional weapon war round 2 #piecemaker #discworld #sailor moon #tournament poll

[invitedeath]

so haunting for someone so haunted. while shadow-bound activities were largely dissolved into simply being absent from the hub of activity within the main wards of the city, sephiroth still found themselves clinging to the silence and secrecy of the side lines. revisiting this place was nothing short of a bore, truly. having once attempted to conquer it, now it stood as merely a place to shackle him once more. icarus clipped and in mourning.

but as all good ghost stories go, he still yet lingers. a reflection on the window of a shadowy store, a fleeting thought to those already so exhausted by his prowess. a memory, yet he still lived. sworn to never vanish from the world, he was instead cursed to live on. death incarnate tethered to the earth.

first, he thought that flash of crimson to be his own haunting, but he had never been a ghost to genesis. perhaps he was the moon and stars, so out of reach of that gloved hand that genesis had always hoped to clasp within his fist, but the sky was far too large. far too deep. he didn't care for the poetics of it all, but to spy him sitting alone in the twilight, book betwixt his fingers, why it almost felt fiction-esque.

approaching, sephiroth's steps came accompanied with the fall of a few black feathers, though they never hit the ground. he paused before genesis, part of him apathetic, the other... the other... the other... he spoke almost dream-like, as was so often the case when words parted his lips. for that otherworldly intensity washed over his listeners, either raising hairs upon their arms or prompting them to listen close.

" so much for the hero's tale. "

and so, he began haunting once more.

@epicorigin

#epicorigin #THREAD ; 0001 #omg hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii #a little drama in the AM

[moontwilightflashfic-blog]

The Shapes of Water

Eudial, fire-wielder of the Witches 5, faces an unlikely opponent years after fleeing Tokyo

“How did you find me?” Eudial screamed it now, tearing against the frost that bound her to the metal chair. The pain peaked and she slouched back, flakes of her own freeze-dried skin grating her back and re-freezing to her. She was delirious. Exhausted. The torture had finally coaxed her temper to the surface but she stuffed it back down. She needed her temper within her, warming her, keeping her alive in this cold, concrete room. “How did you find me?” she asked again, a whisper.

There was no answer. Only the twinkling of the ice crystals as they grew over her ravaged skin, knitting lattices of cooled gore. She balled her fist, willing her blood to keep flowing to her hands. She needed her hands.

“Tell me!” Eudial spat the words at her captor’s boots, misting them in blood. Good. Those boots were so stupid. Tragically sensible, Mimete would have called them. “Just fucking tell me.”

Still, Sailor Mercury would not respond.

Eudial didn’t know why she kept asking. The answer of how she was found did not matter. What mattered was that she had been found at all. It felt like something past unfair. It felt absurd.

Eudial had faked her own death three years ago, snuffing herself out in a fireball car crash at the edge of Tokyo, leaving just enough evidence unsinged to frame it as a murder. Finding a body to take her place in the twisted, molten car had been the easiest part. Harder was the flight across the world under a new name, then renting a car, then securing a condo in the outskirts of Tallahassee under an even newer name.

Harder than all that was staying hidden. She could not live as the Eudial of before. The Unburnable Witch, Mistress of dark flames and high society. That Eudial became a sacred fiction hidden behind a built, impenetrable plainness. She took a job as a dental hygienist. She purchased Groupons for massages. She collected coasters. She went on like this, carefully layering the details of this unremarkable existence one twig at a time, weaving a brittle wreath of kindling around her smoldering, true self. She burned low and red and angry, never feeding off any of it. She willed herself to burn lower. Slower. Slower yet, until she was just a dotted ring of neon, smoldering somewhere deep within herself, gnawing at the stumpy hope that one day this would end.

Three years passed.

And then she showed up. A girl in a plastic coat, standing in the rain as Eudial dashed from her office to her car one evening. Eudial hadn’t even recognized her as a Sailor Scout until it was too late, and even then Eudial didn’t recognize the danger of it all. She thought that if they ever came her for, they’d send their strongest water wielder: Neptune. Instead they’d sent their weakest.

It wasn’t just absurd. It was funny. In the cold, concrete room, Eudial smiled. Warm blood carved down her chin. It was time to end this.

“You’ll burn. All of you will burn. Master Pharaoh will return, and when he does there will be nothing but ash and ruin in this world. He will start with the weak, Sailor Mercury. He will start with you.”

And now Eudial willed the violent heat of her heart to spread back through her veins, so hot that the jagged ice binding her went knobby with melt. The temperature of the room began to rise.

Sailor Mercury watched Eudial, new interest in her eyes. Fear would come in a minute, Eudial knew. Mercury, for all her smarts, had been stupid enough to seal the door. There were no windows. Things began to drip. The room became sauna-hot.

“It’s a curious thing,” Mercury said, “The relationship between you and I, between those born of fire and those born of water. We are always seen as in conflict. The comparison never resolves, as though it can’t. As though we are equal.”

Mercury stepped forward, kneeling in the blood at Eudial’s feet. Eudial stiffened, but took courage from the sweat on Mercury’s upper lip. Just a few more minutes and this girl would be a crackling, parched husk.

“It’s a curious thing,” Mercury said. “Your power. You have expert control over the radiation you give out. Perhaps you could bring this whole room up to a sweltering temperature in a blink. But you must not want to, because you haven’t. And you haven’t, probably because you know that heat alone is not enough to kill me. You, Eudial, need fire.”

Eudial blanched.

Mercury leaned forward, her face shining with sweat. “It’s a curious thing, the power of fire. To burn. To brighten. To breach the chemical constitution of even the hardest substances. It is unlike the power of water, which has no innate force. No shape. Just depth. Fire drives back the darkness; water deepens it.”

All around them mist drifted in lazy, unraveling curls. The metal chair was hot against Eudial’s frostbitten back now. Thick and pungent, the stench of blood and sweat buoyed upon swells of humidity as the room went steamy. Eudial had not accounted for the steam.

“But fire requires a spark, doesn’t it? And so do you, Eudial. Am I right?

Eudial’s heart was suddenly beating in the flesh between her eyes, fluttering and black-edged. She had raised the temperature without considering the ice. She could not lower it. She blinked through sweat as is dripped down her brow, her neck, settling into the creases of her elbows and pooling beneath her thighs. She was singularly aware of how vulnerable she had become—a quivering body—beneath a net of pent, tremulous droplets squeezed from her skin. The sweat that covered Eudial, like all water, belonged to Sailor Mercury now.

Mercury picked up Eudial’s white fist, and uncurled it. Inside was a crushed book of matches Eudial had snutck out of her pocket, right before Mercury had disabled her. It was Eudial’s spark, her only hope of summoning her fire magic. Mercury peeled apart the book like petals, soft and useless.

“When people fear me, if they even bother, they tend to fear my power over ice. My treacherous frigidity. But the true treachery of water is not its crystallized form. It is its shapeless neutrality. Its fluidity.” Mercury said this like she recited the formula on a flashcard. Quick, without inflection. “Water is everywhere, is everything. It shapes itself passively, without intention, becoming the blood in your veins and the empty space of your brain. In this way, we all live in the caress of water’s ambivalence. Ours is an existence borne of water’s bored mercy.” Sailor Mercury flicked the soggy matches into the drifting steam. “I don’t bore so easily.”

Mercury drifted over to Eudial, a bruise clarifying upon the thick, lovely steam. She placed her palms upon the tender flesh of Eudial’s knees.

“To answer your question, I’ll ask you my own question.”

Where Mercury touched, Eudial’s shining skin instantly frosted over in beads of pale, barbed frost. This cold was unlike the cold of before, unlike any pain Eudial knew. This cold was bone deep and burning. It was burning Eudial from the inside out.

“Where are the remaining witches?”

#sailor moon fanfiction #moon twilight flash fiction #moon twilight flash #sailor mercury #ami mizuno

[dreamerstreamer]

Love Bite

Pairing: vampire!Dream / Clay x human!gn!reader

Summary: [Vampire!AU] Despite how deadly it may appear at first glance, you love your vampire boyfriend with all your heart, so when Clay goes a bit too long without a drink, you’re more than willing to help him.

Warnings: tw// mentions of blood & general vampire shenanigans

Word Count: 3.9k

A/N: requested by a lovely anon who wanted to see vampire dream! this was lots of fun to explore, and i hope you all enjoy! <3

You scroll mindlessly along your mouse, your laptop screen illuminating your dim room with a pale glow as image after image pops up on your screen. Your assignment lies long forgotten on the side of your desk, the tab still open just a single click away.

“Whatever,” you mumble quietly to yourself as you click on another link. Your gaze briefly flickers to the calendar on your wall before you shake your head. “I still have another week to work on it—it’s fine.”

Letting out a sigh, you slump over onto your desk, pressing your cheek against the cool wood as you sweep your gaze over to your balcony window. Outside, the sky is dark, the vast expanse washed with a deep, navy hue as the stars begin to peek out from the shadows and gaze down at the bustling city below. It’s a little past midnight now, and despite how late it is, the streets are just as busy as ever. You only catch a small glimpse of the crescent moon hanging among them before your gaze drops to your balcony.

Yet again, it’s empty, completely devoid of life.

The sight makes you frown, and you tear your gaze away from the sight and back to your laptop, continuing your scrolling with a sulk.

It had been a little over four days since you had last seen your boyfriend. Not that you’re counting or anything, of course. It’s just that you’ve gotten lonely without him, and you’re starting to miss him more than you’d like to admit.

Having a vampire boyfriend and being a human isn’t always the easiest, but you’re more than willing to put up with it for him. You can still remember the day he had broken the news to you, having been fully prepared to sacrifice his life right then and there for you if you chose to call for a hunter. But you hadn’t—you chose to stay, to love him.

And love him you do.

There may be times where he has to disappear for a little while that leave you cold and wanting, but the time you do spend together more than makes up for it. He’s overwhelmingly kind, honestly stubborn, and always loves to put a smile on your face, no matter how bad of a day you may have had. You can’t possibly count how many times you’ve thrown yourself into his arms with the widest grin on your face, all just to feel him laugh against you with a soft kiss behind your ear. There’s no one else in the world for you, living or undead, and you are willing to wait for him. It’s embarrassing to think about, but you really would walk to the ends of the earth just for him.

Heat creeps up your neck at the thought, and you force it down with a huff, ducking your head back down again and staring at your assignment. You distantly think of your phone sitting next to your bed and the string of messages you had sent him a few hours prior, all of which remain unopened. Kicking your legs, you whine, burying your face into your arms upon your desk.

Tonight is just not your night, it seems.

Just then, you hear it—the unmistakable sound of nails tapping on glass.

Lifting your head, you blink, slowly turning to look over at your window. Squinting for a moment, you can barely make out the shape of a familiar silhouette standing on your balcony and leaning casually against the railing. His golden hair shines beneath the moonlight, and your heart leaps into your throat.

He’s here.

In an instant, you’re scrambling out of your desk chair and across the room. Fumbling with the balcony lock, you slide open the door with a gasp, the cool night breeze brushing against your cheeks with a soft caress. In front of you, the figure shoots you a crooked grin, his eyes flashing with delight.

“Good evening, sweetheart.”

Your heart melts at the sound of his ever-soothing, familiar voice, and you return his smile with one of your own. “Good evening to you too, Clay.” Scanning him up and down once, you gesture for him to come inside as you add jokingly, “You do know you don’t always have to come in through the window, right? I do have a front door.”

His grin only widens at your words, a soft chuckle tumbling from his lips as he ducks his head to step into your room. “I have a reputation to uphold as a vampire, you know?” he hums. The glint in his eye dances with mischief. “Twilight was the one who said that windows are the way to go.”

You raise an eyebrow at him, your lips twitching with amusement. “Are you really sure you want to use Twilight as your vampire role model of all things? Why not use...” You pause for a moment, then lift a finger. “Dracula?”

A grimace skitters across his face as he pulls the balcony door shut behind him. “Dracula may have been scary, but he was also an old man and, like, super creepy. At least modern vampire fiction makes us sound less gross.” His eyes gleam devilishly. “And also hot.”

You gulp, stepping back until your hand is brushing over the soft covers of your bed. “Well,” you ask softly, “do you think they got it right? The way they portray you guys?”

His lips split into a sly grin, his teeth flashing in the starlight. “I dunno, darling,” he murmurs, his voice dropping to a low whisper as he dips his head closer to yours. “You tell me.”

Your breath catches for all but a second before you’re gently pushing him away from you with a giggle. “Nice try,” you say, leaping onto your bed with a teasing grin, “but I’m not feeding your ego any more. You do that enough on your own.”

He feigns a wounded look, climbing into the space next to you with a hurt pout. “Aw, bummer. At least give me a kiss, then.”

For a second, you pretend to think about it, mulling the decision over in your head just to watch something needy spring to life in his eyes. Then, you smile, leaning in close to his face with your mouth hovering over his. “Just one.”

You only manage to see a sliver of his lovestruck smile before he presses his lips to yours, your eyelids falling shut. You can just barely feel his sharp fangs brush against the skin of your lip, and the thought makes you croon into his mouth. A certain fondness blossoms behind your ribcage, and your lungs almost feel as though they’re too tight to breathe. He’s cold against you, and when he lifts his hand to cup your cheek, you shiver at the feeling of his icy skin against yours. Everything he does sends a chill rushing down your spine, but when you part just a moment later, you already feel yourself missing his touch.

Brushing his nose over yours, you feel him inhale sharply against you, and the breath he lets out is positively trembling. “God,” he whispers into the side of your face, his voice rasping ever so slightly, “you smell so good.”

Your heart squeezes in your chest at his words, and you feel warmth blossom across your collarbones. “I’m flattered,” you say gently, reaching a hand up to press against his shoulder. Instantly, he melts into your touch as you subtly shuffle back across your bed away from him. “But you’re the one who told me I’m not allowed to let you drink from me.”

His lips part for a moment, and you catch a gleam of the moonlight flashing across his fangs. Swallowing, he runs a hand through his hair and sighs with longing. “Yeah, yeah, I know.” His eyes dart up to meet yours, his gaze swimming with a deep, drowning sense of sorrow. “You know that I’d never, ever want to hurt you, right?”

A smile tugs on your lips, sincere and true. “Of course I do,” you murmur, “and I promise you that you won’t, even if you did drink from me.”

You pause for a moment, then slowly reach a hand up to your shoulder. You don’t miss the way his eyes widen at the sight, and you almost swear you catch an inkling of crimson swirling within his viridian gaze as you lean your neck to the side. “It’s okay if you want to, alright?” you whisper, swallowing.

His eyes are glued to your neck, and you can almost see the storm that rages just beneath his skin. Your chest aches at the thought, knowing just how conflicted he must feel right now. When he doesn’t move, you drop your hand back down to the bed, your gaze focused intently on his.

“I trust you,” you say, pouring every ounce of honesty you can into your words. “Can you trust yourself?”

For a moment, he simply stares at you, his lips parted as his emerald eyes rake you up and down. They’re wide with hunger, an expression you had seen many times before over the months, but not one you had become fully acquainted with. You fidget a little under his intense gaze, and you’re just about to open your mouth again when suddenly, his hands are reaching for yours on the bed.

You gasp as he intertwines his cool fingers between your warm ones, your heart leaping for joy. You let your eyelids flutter shut as he leans forward to rest his forehead against yours, drinking in your sweet scent as your warm breath tickles his cold skin. You love the quiet moments like this, the enamoured silences that envelop the two of you in your own little bubble as the world seems to slow down. Sucking in a breath, he shudders at your touch, his hand squeezing yours.

“Oh, sweetheart,” he murmurs quietly for you and you alone to hear. “You’re too good to me.”

You smile at his words, your heart fluttering in your chest, but something uneasy sinks into the pit of your stomach at the bittersweet tone of his voice.

He didn’t answer your question, a voice whispers from the back of your head. Why didn’t he answer?

A moment later, you push the feeling away, nudging it back into the dark crevices of your mind. Instead, you choose to focus on the feeling of his skin pressing against yours, soothing and soft as you relish in the moment. The moon’s crescent frown seems to deepen from her perch in the sky, but she remains ever silent, only watching with her patient, pallid gaze.

You’re probably just imagining things.

After that night, time passes by you at an achingly slow pace. Night after night passes without a single sign of Clay, and before you even know it, a week and a half has flown past you without so much as a call. You text him as often as you can, and more often than not, you do actually get a response. Seeing the notification of his name pop up on your phone screen makes you smile until your cheeks hurt, and you’re always eager to hear back from him, but you can’t help but miss him as the hours drag on.

An empty, hollow feeling sinks into your chest as you curl up in your bed, the blankets strewn around you haphazardly as you blink over at the closed curtains draped over your balcony window. You haven’t bothered to look outside for a few nights, now—you already know that he won’t be there, as much as you want him to be. Even now, you can imagine his grinning face and teasing pokes as clear as day. The loneliness gnaws away at you as you turn onto your side, facing away from the window.

You hope he’s safe no matter what he’s up to, right now. You know better than anyone that sometimes, he can be a little too reckless for his own good.

Letting your eyes close, you sink into your pillow, a galaxy of stars whirling around your head as you slowly feel yourself drift off into a murky dream. Flashes of bright grins and the sound of wheezing laughter trickles through your thoughts, and you sigh at the endearing memories that wrap around your heart. You can almost swear you feel a pair of hands wrap around your own.

All of a sudden, something prods at the back of your ear, restless and sharp. Wincing, you blink a sleepy eye open, your bleary mind sorting through the sounds in your head before landing on one.

Glass—that’s the sound of glass.

Someone is tapping at your window.

Your eyes shoot wide open, and in a whirlwind, you’re ripping the covers off your body and pushing open your bedroom curtains. On the balcony stands a hooded figure, his golden tresses just barely peeking out from beneath the low-hanging cloth. You swallow and grab onto the door lock, slamming it open just a moment later. You shiver at the night breeze nipping at your skin, but in that moment, you couldn’t care less about the cold, your focus entirely devoted to one thing and one thing alone.

“Clay!” you cry, your eyes desperately scanning him up and down. “Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick.”

He doesn’t respond right away, and instead, his hand reaches to the side to desperately grip onto the balcony railing, his knuckles turning white. Your eyebrows furrow with concern, and slowly, you take a step toward him. You haven’t even crossed the doorway separating the inside of your room to your balcony when he suddenly barks, “Stop!”

You freeze in place, your hand halfway reaching for his when he practically crumples against the railing, curling in on himself with a choked plea. “Wait,” he gasps, clutching at his chest with a ragged breath, “please. I’m—”

“Clay?” you breathe again, this time much quieter. You shuffle closer to the window glass, your toe just barely brushing against the doorframe. “Are you okay?”

All of a sudden, a snarl rips out of his throat, guttural and beastly. You flinch at the sound for a split second, the worry in your chest only making your heart shake even more. His grip on your balcony railing grows even tighter, and you don’t doubt that it’s going to leave a mark on the metal.

“Don’t come too close,” he pants, his thighs shaking beneath him. “I—I don’t know what I’ll do.”

You purse your lips at him, frustration and confusion digging at the sides of your stomach. “Then why did you come here?”

All is quiet, and he doesn’t respond. The only sound you can properly hear is his uneven breathing as he claws at the front of his hoodie, the fabric bunching beneath his touch. You flick your gaze over him again, and a cold realization suddenly washes over you.

“Clay,” you whisper, the tiniest hint of fear seeping into your voice, “when was the last time you had a proper drink?”

You are once again met with silence, but the way he suddenly stiffens does not go unnoticed by your watchful gaze. Something curls nervously inside your gut, and your lips curl into a frown as you dig your heel into the ground.

“Clay,” you say again, a little louder this time—a little more firmly. “How long has it been?”

There is a beat of silence. Then, he whispers so softly that it’s almost swept away by the wind, “...too long.”

A pang of sorrow shoots through you, a stone dropping into the pit of your stomach. You were right. He’s thirsty. A sigh escapes your throat as you open up your arms, beckoning him toward you. “Come here,” you murmur with all the softness you can muster. “Look at me.”

He shakes his head, and it’s then that you realize you haven’t seen his face this whole time. “Take off the hood,” you say gently. His shoulders tense at your request, and you quickly add a tender, “Please.”

His throat bobs as he gulps, and ever so slowly, his hands reach up to tug at his hood until suddenly, the moonlight is casting a glowing streak of silver across his face. Your eyes go wide.

His kind, lovely eyes, which are typically viridian green and swimming with adoration for you, are now painted a deep, scarlet red, his pupils dilated beyond belief as they lock onto yours.

In all the time you’ve known he was a vampire, you’ve never seen him like this before.

But strangely enough, you’re not afraid.

Instead, you gently reach for his hand, careful to only just lightly wrap your fingers around his. His gaze drops back to the ground again, and while you know he doesn’t have a pulse, if he did, you imagine that it would be going haywire right about now. “Oh, honey,” you whisper. “It’s okay. Look at me.”

Just as you begin to lead him inside to your room does he raise his chin once more, his jaw clenched tight as he takes in your soft, enamoured expression. As he steps inside, you reach behind him to slide the door shut before tugging him back toward your bed. Settling down on the mattress with a loose breath, you let go of his hand. His arms are still shaking at his side when he sits, and it’s then that you open your mouth again.

“Clay,” you say, your voice as clear as a bell, “you can drink from me.”

His crimson eyes widen, and the look he shoots you is one of pure, unadulterated panic. “I-I can’t,” he stammers.

“Yes,” you shoot back, reaching up for the collar of your shirt, “you can.” His eyes trace down the slope of your jaw before landing on the smooth skin of your neck, exposed and waiting for him. His Adam’s apple bobs, his hands squeezing into fists beside him. “It’ll be alright.”

“H-How do you know that?” he blurts, his nails digging into his palm. “What if—what if I lose control and hurt you?” His face blanches at the sight, and he slumps over onto his lap, hanging his head in his hands. “I can’t let that happen.”

You sigh, and he clams up at the softness of the sound. “And it won’t.”

A moment passes in aching, tense silence. You resist the urge to hug him, knowing that initiating any more contact with him would only make him panic even more. “Last time I was here,” he suddenly whispers, shattering the silence with his head ducked down, “you asked me if I trust myself.”

You blink at him as he slowly raises his head, turning his gaze to look at you head-on. “I don’t, [Y/N],” he whispers. “Not one bit.”

Your eyes flash in the darkness of your room, and before you can stop yourself, your mouth opens. “But I do.”

He goes stock still before you, and suddenly, the words are flowing from your lips in a rush, unstoppable and dripping with honesty. “I know you, Clay, and I know you won’t hurt me, no matter how scared you are that you might. I believe in you, and I believe in us.” You press your hand to your chest, your fingers curling over your beating heart. “I love how much you want to make sure I’m safe, but right now, I want to make sure that you’re safe, too.”

If you were looking a little closer, you would have seen the glossy sheen in Clay’s eyes as you tip your head to the side once more, your shirt collar tugged down your shoulder. You bite on the inside of your cheek, your fingers squeezing the sheets. His crimson eyes almost look soft in the glittering starlight of the night, and you feel your chest flood with heat.

“Please,” you croon, your eyes never leaving his. “Go on.”

He eyes you for a moment longer. Then, he’s crawling across the bed toward you, his shaking hand reaching for your shoulder. Gently, he turns you toward him, his other hand cupping your cheek. Slowly, you feel his nose brush against your jaw, something cold pressing against your skin.

“Thank you, darling,” he whispers.

Then, he sinks his fangs in.

A sting shoots up your neck at the feeling, just barely there and slightly sharp, but it’s most certainly nothing you can’t handle. Heat pools around your collar bones as he drinks and drinks, and you feel your eyelids flutter shut. His lips, which are usually cool and soft when they meet yours, feel oddly warm for once, and you sigh at the sensation of your blood pumping from your skin.

You aren’t quite sure how much time passes with him cradling you against him and his mouth lapping at the side of your neck, but soon enough, you can feel a slight dizziness flit around your skull. A soft whimper escapes your lips and instantly, he breaks away from you, his eyes wide with worry as you lean against him for support. You press your forehead against his shoulder for a brief second before sitting upright once more, blinking away the vignette tinting the edges of your vision. In front of you, Clay’s lips are stained with a faint shade of red, but his eyes have returned to the brilliant shade of green you know and love. He grips onto your shoulders a tad tighter than before, his hands reassuringly rubbing against up and down against your arms.

“Oh, [Y/N],” he breathes, his eyes frantically searching your face for any sign of harm. “I-I’m sorry if I was too rough or anything. I tried to be as gentle as I could, but god, you taste so sweet and I—”

You don’t let him finish his sentence. Before he can even blink, you’re pressing your mouth to his, your tongue swiping at the seam of his lips. The uncanny warmth of his lips against yours makes your head spin more than it was before, and you feel yourself smile against him when you pull back. You can taste the slight metallic tang of your own blood on your mouth as you flash him a grin, his eyes wide with adoration as he drinks in the sight of you sitting before him.

“I’m okay, Clay,” you say with an earnest look. Tilting your head at him, your tongue darts out to swipe at the corners of your mouth. “Are you?”

His eyes never leave yours as he reaches forward to slip your hand into his, his fingers slotting between your own. “Yes,” he murmurs. “Yes, yes, yes.”

His pale skin almost seems to glow in the dim light filtering through your balcony window, and he strokes his thumb over the back of your knuckles. Something inside you suddenly unravels as he tugs you into his chest, holding you close to him as his arms wrap around your backside. You feel him rest his chin atop your shoulder, and you melt into his cool touch. Just as you let yourself let out a loving, hazy sigh against his chest, you feel him whisper into the shell of your ear.

“Would you maybe let me... have another sip?”

#request #mcyt x reader #dream smp x reader #dreamwastaken x reader #dream x reader #dream team x reader #mcyt x you #mcyt x y/n #mcyt imagines #mcyt imagine #mcyt scenario #mcyt fanfic #mcyt fanfiction #mcyt fluff #dream smp x you #dream smp x y/n #dreamwastaken x you #dreamwastaken imagine #dreamwastaken fanfic #dreamwastaken scenario #dreamwastaken fluff #dream x you #dream imagines #dream imagine #dream scenario #dream fluff #dream fanfic #dream team x you #dream team x y/n #dsmp x reader

[neonacity]

HYACINTHE | Chapter 2: Jaemin x Reader

Summary: 

Na Jaemin is far from being your typical 20 year old. Instead of slaving through college, he wastes away his hours cracking safes. Weekends that should be spent partying with friends consist of illegal races on good days and small scale bombings on bad ones. Na Jaemin is far from being average, unless you consider being a member of Seoul’s top organized crime family normal.

There is no such thing as a sense of normality and peace in his trainwreck of a life, so when he met a barista who was brave enough to call out his dangerous taste in coffee, he was like a moth to the flame. Everything about her is normal, which means she is forbidden to him, in all sense of the word. So why, then, does he always find himself at the front steps of her shop, breaking all his personal rules even if he wishes he could stay away?

A/N + Disclaimer: this is a side story to Black Daisies, my main mafia fic feat. 0T23. While the plot is based on the main story, this can also be read as a standalone fic. As usual, this is purely a work of fiction and in no way am I implying any member of NCT to behave the way I write them here. tw: crimes, heists, potential death, mentions of drugs and other illegal activities.

PAIRING: Jaemin x Reader

CHAPTER 1

FIC TRAILER

MASTERLIST

------------------------

"So you want to be a doctor?" Jaemin asked as he took a bite off the crust of his pepperoni and cheese pizza. He could have easily eaten it like any other person, but of course, he refuses to be normal and chooses to do even this his way.

I shrugged and tucked my legs under me with a sigh. We were currently sitting on an expansive field of grass overlooking a cluster of abandoned factories, the first place that Jaemin actually asked me to hangout with other than his regular visits in the cafe. It was a couple of minutes of drive away from the city—and is honestly kinda sketchy looking—but at twilight, the place transforms into a peaceful sea of green with the clear night sky watching over it. 

"I'm trying to be a doctor. A surgeon, to be exact." 

He turned and gazed at me quietly for a few seconds, his slice of pizza halfway into his mouth.

"Trying?"

"Yes. Getting into the medical field… It's tough. And expensive. I can take the endless studying, but the money… that can be so hard to get by sometimes."

"Why? How much is it?" He asked innocently, a small frown etched between his eyebrows. Jaemin wasn't lying when he said he doesn't know how to do friends. In fact, there's a lot of things he doesn't seem to know. Normal ones too, almost as if he lives in a bubble of his own. It has always intrigued me, how someone can be so out of touch with things, but of course I never took it against him. 

"Hmm… really expensive. Usually students like me can get loans but that will have us strapped into long years of paying them off even after finishing our studies. I did get a partial scholarship though so that helps, but the day to day academic expenses are just expensive so you know…"

"Doesn't your job at the cafe cover that?"

"No way," I answered quickly with a short laugh. "Well, barely. But it isn't comfortable. If I want to get a side gig that can pay for everything, I might as well work at a strip club. Or find a sugar daddy," I answered off-handedly as I popped a french fry into my mouth. 

"You don't want to go to strip clubs. They're dangerous."

I choked a little at how seriously he said that. 

"Why do you sound like you know so much about them?" I grinned and teasingly wriggled my brows at him. He didn't answer, taking another bite of his pizza instead. 

"Just… don't even think of doing that, okay?"

"Jaemin, do you really think I can pass off as a stripper? Relax. I know that's one job I'm underqualified for."

"Overqualified. You're too pretty to be one."

He said that so casually I didn't even know what hit me until he had moved on to another topic. 

"You know if you need money, I can help."

I gave him an odd look, still reeling from that compliment he just gave. 

"How?"

"I can give you money." 

I blinked at him.

"In exchange for what?"

"Nothing. I can just give you money."

I stared at him like he had grown another head. 

"Why?"

He looked at me like I was asking such a common sense question. 

"Because you need it."

"Jaemin, you're not my sugar daddy. Is this how you always offer help to your friends? Because I am seriously so concerned for you right now."

"Well, if you want, I can also be your sugar—"

I slapped his arm before he could even finish what he was trying to say. 

"Ow! That is not very sugar baby-like of you."

"I'm going to wring your neck, I swear." 

He flashed me his grin and dropped himself back on the grass, his arms behind his head. It was dark, but the moon threw just enough light on the curves of his face to compliment his features. His eyes twinkled back at the stars looking down on us and I forced myself to look away after realizing how much my heart started beating harder in my chest just by staring at him. 

I don't know when I started feeling this way towards him, but it is for sure not the first time I noticed where my emotions were going. It is odd… how these things happen. One day everything was going well like normal, until all of a sudden there is a skipping of a pulse after a smile, a flushing of the cheeks when he laughs. Everything is normal, until one day, it's all just free fall. 

Of course, I'm not stupid enough to do anything about it though. Jaemin has been nothing but a good friend, but the fact that I still know nothing about him is a big factor, at least for me. Lately, I felt like he was trying to open up more of his world to me—case in point, these quick escapes to this field—but there are still barriers there, walls that seem too steep to be broken down. 

"I wanted to be a surgeon too…" 

His voice was so quiet that I barely caught it when he spoke again. I looked back at him and caught the pensive look on his face, the same one he would always have whenever he thinks nobody is looking his way—that expression of longing that seems to overwhelm him every time he retreats into his own world. 

"You can still be one though… it's not too late yet," I whispered as I leaned back so that I was laying beside him. I rolled to my side to face him better, my eyes scanning his moon-washed features.  

He chuckled and briefly looked at me. 

"I wish it could be that easy, but it's really complicated."

"Why?"

He rolled on his side as well so that we were facing each other. The stare he gave me was so intense, it felt like he was pouring his heart out to me, except he can't do it with words. I tried my hardest to meet his gaze, my own way of telling him that he can if he wanted to... That I am his safe space.

"Didn't we agree on not asking questions?" He asked in a soft whisper. 

"I never agreed to such a thing." 

"But you've been trying your best." 

That made me purse my lips. My gaze moved away from his momentarily as I tried to weigh my words. 

"Until when can I not ask questions…?"

"Until when can I ask you to do it without you leaving me…?"

Our eyes met again. In that exact moment, I knew we were both on the same page despite the unsaid words and the secrets. 

"Until I can, Jaemin."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

------------------

"Hi, hi! What's your specialty here?" 

It took me about three seconds to register the boy currently beaming at me by the counter. I was going through some inventory so I had my back turned to the door for a little bit but I sure was expecting to hear the small bell by the entrance ding to alert me of new customers. I was about to open my mouth to answer when another boy strolled towards us, coming from the area where we have our pastries on display. There were… two of them I didn't notice? 

"Yah, Chenle. They have cheese bread. Buy me some." 

I softly cleared my throat and tried to plaster on my well-practiced service smile.

"Um… hi. Welcome to Brick and Beans. Would you like to have a cold or hot drink? I can recommend our best-sellers for each." 

"What does Jaemin-hyung usually order?"

My smile dropped and I stared at the duo in front of me. Who are these kids? 

"I'm Jisung and this is Chenle. We're Jaemin-hyung's friends."

The taller of the two answered as he seemed to have picked up my confused expression. I nodded slowly, my eyes scanning the visitors. They look just a little bit younger than Jaemin, maybe about two to three years tops, as noticeable from their more careless, youthful air.

"Did… Jaemin recommend our place?" 

The pair exchanged glances before they both broke into giggles.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"What the hell are you two doing here?”

The three of us whipped our heads towards the source of the voice by the door. Standing there was Jaemin, his face tensed as he stared at the two boys in front of me. It’s obvious from the looks of his reaction that he did not, at all, recommend this place to his friends. 

I was about to call out to him when the door pushed open behind him again to reveal two other boys.

“Yah… I told you to distract him, Jeno-hyung!” Chenle whined while Jisung pointed at his friend as if silently telling everyone that it was all his idea in the first place. The one I assume is called Jeno shrugged and dug his hands deeper into his pockets. He looked almost the same age as Jaemin but with a more muscular build that reminded me of some of the athletes at my uni. 

“I tried. Haechan slipped. Go blame him.” 

My gaze moved to the other one standing on Jaemin’s right at that moment. He is a little shorter than the other two boys crowding the door but there is something about him that seems wilder than the two. His eyes sparkled as they met mine and his lips twisted up into a slight smirk as he knocked back the lollipop he had into the other side of his mouth. He crossed the space between the entrance and the counter quickly with long quick strides and leaned his hand into Chenle’s shoulder to peer down on me. 

“Ah, so that’s why this is your favorite place, Jaem. How selfish of you to keep it all to yourself~” 

“Um…” 

Jaemin finally moved to approach us quickly, his eyes moving between me and the three boys in front of my counter. The boy called Jeno wandered into the cafe, looking at the bags of beans and tea packs we have on display at the far side. 

“I’m sorry, I had no idea they were coming,” he told me apologetically, his face strained. I couldn’t really understand why he was so worried but I gave him a smile to assure him that everything is fine. 

“Hey, it’s okay. I have no customers anyway so I’m glad your friends came over.”

I have a feeling there is more to his anxiousness than I could understand. 

“She’s right. We’re just here to have some coffee,” the boy, Haechan, said as he winked at me. “So what do you recommend, miss? I won’t have anything Jaemin loves to get, if it means having his death concoction.

That made me laugh a bit. Jaemin’s frown deepened.

“Well, we have really good Chia tea and some hot chocolate. Our cocoa is sourced from the Philippines so—”

“According to online reviews, their blueberry cheesecake is bomb,” said a new voice that followed the opening of the cafe door for the third time in the past ten minutes. All of us looked around to see a new visitor with black and blonde hair falling over his eyes. His thin frame was covered by a light jacket and he glanced up from his phone to talk to us as if he was right there with us from the beginning.

“Do you have it right now?” 

“Uh… yes.”

“Seriously, who else did you crackheads invite?” 

Jaemin turned to Haechan and the rest of the guys with an expression I couldn’t quite paint.

His answer came with the cafe door dinging open again. 

“Yo, man. Am I late?”

Jaemin gave one look at the boy with blue hair, groaned, and cursed silently to himself. 

-----------

“Go back there and hangout with your friends,” I nudged Jaemin slightly by the shoulders as he continued to fume silently beside me. I was finishing the orders of the group and he seemed to still be adamant in keeping his distance from them for as long as he can. 

“I don’t hangout with assholes.” 

I chuckled. He looked like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

“Hey, language. Why are you so pressed, anyway? They just came by to visit. I’m glad I have customers.” 

For a moment, I thought he was not going to give me any answers again. Jaemin simply stared  at me, his arms crossed over his chest for a few full heartbeats. 

“I don’t think I should get you any deeper into my life as it is,” he finally said quietly, voice just loud enough for me to hear over the humming of the espresso machine. I looked up at him, surprised by his words and the fact that he actually replied to my question. 

“I suppose I cannot ask what that means…?” 

He gave me a small tight smile. Just then, the microwave beeped to tell me that the food I was heating was ready. We both looked at it and Jaemin took the chance to push himself off the counter he was leaning on to grab a tray. 

“I’ll take care of it. We’re making your job harder today, at least let me help serve those dorks.”

I nodded and wordlessly let him put some of the drinks on his tray. I did the finishing touches on the blueberry cheesecake the guy called Renjun ordered before loading it on mine. 

When we both walked to the table that the rest of his friends chose, the boys had already busted the jenga game that we usually offer to our customers. Jisung, Chenle, and Haechan were in the middle of sabotaging each other with their pulls while Renjun and Mark—the last newcomer—were peering over Jeno’s shoulder who I assume was playing a game on his phone.

“Here are your orders. I added extra powdered sugar on your chiffon cake, Jisung,” I said with a smile as I arranged everything on their table. The youngest boy looked up at me with sparkling eyes as if I’ve given him the world. The others took their orders after giving their own variations of thank you. 

“Thank you, noona,” Jisung said before turning to Haechan to “whisper” in his ear.

“I like her.” 

“She can hear you as clear as day, Jisungie.”

“Well, if you need anything, just call out to me alright?” I said with a polite smile, already feeling a little bit more relaxed around the group. I’m sure Jaemin has his own reasons to feel anxious about his friends being here, but they all seem like your regular boys to me. I’ve always wondered what kinds of acquaintances he has and I’m glad to know these are the ones he has around. 

“Wait, can’t you hang out for a while?” Haechan asked as I took the trays with me. Jaemin was quick to answer, throwing dagger glances at the other. 

“She has work.” 

“There are no customers.” 

“You can go back if someone comes. You’re only serving us right now, anyway,” Renjun quipped as he took a bite of his cake. My eyes moved to Jaemin just in time to see his jaw tighten a little bit. He did look a little bit resigned though so I decided to compromise.

“I guess I can stay for a few minutes. I haven’t had my break yet,” I said with a slight smile. Mark patted Jeno’s thigh to give way for me to sit on the space where he had his leg up.

“So, are you and Jaemin-hyung dating? For how long now?” My ass haven’t even touched the seat yet when Chenle shot the question. I looked at him, completely taken aback. 

“Chenle, you don’t just ask people that out of the blue,” Mark said, despite the small playful smirk that he tried so hard to hide. He turned to me apologetically then, “I’m sorry, he doesn’t go out often.”

I was too taken aback that I failed to notice how Jaemin didn’t even try to deny Chenle’s assumption. I glossed over it and chose to take another route instead. 

“Do you guys all live together?” I asked with genuine interest. Jaemin did say that he doesn’t get a lot of chance to socialize but it seems like it applies to all his friends, too.

“We all live in the...same apartment, yes,” Jeno said carefully. 

“Oh… roommates.” 

“We grew up together, actually,” Renjun pointed at Jisung who had his upper lip covered with powdered sugar as he shoveled cake into his mouth. “Jaemin birthed him.” 

“That’s right,” Jaemin said so seriously with a straight face beside me. 

“So you’re also childhood friends.”

“I guess you could say that. Chenle and I both came from China but we grew up here.”

I nodded, already invested in knowing more.

“Are you studying? Or are you always here?” Haechan asked me as he deftly removed a block from the Jenga tower he had reassembled. 

“Mm, yes. I’m on pre-med right now.” 

Jeno gave a low whistle and lowered his phone a bit to look at me.

“You’re going to be a doctor?”

I smiled. “Hopefully a surgeon, yes.”

“So does that mean you’ll be stitching up wounds and getting bullets off flesh and things like that?” Chenle asked. I laughed at how specific the situations he gave were. 

“I can actually do them right now, but yes. My father used to be a doctor too and I helped him around his clinic before he died so I know the basics.” 

“I didn’t know about that…” Jaemin spoke up beside me in a quiet voice, breaking his silence.

“About what?”

“About your parents.”

I laughed. “You never asked.” 

“So are you living alone?” Mark followed through. 

“Right now, yes. I lost my parents a couple of years ago but I do have an auntie living right in the next city.” 

“Man, so you’re working and studying at the same time. You’re tough.” 

“Thank you, but it’s not really anything new to college students like me. How about you guys? Are you in college?” 

The boys exchanged quick looks with each other. 

“We’re all, uh, home schooled,” Renjun finally answered. 

“Oh… I see. That makes a lot of sense.” Just then, my eyes drifted to the clock on the wall. I started slightly after realizing that my fifteen minutes of break is up.

“I have to go though, sorry. I’m alone right now so I have to work on multiple things,” I said apologetically as I picked myself up from my seat. I gave everyone a quick smile before retreating behind the counter. 

I didn’t look back to see how Jaemin stared at me as I left and how he finally caught Mark who was staring at him in return. 

The two boys didn’t have to speak to understand each other, but the younger one easily got what his captain clearly told him with his gentle gaze. 

Be careful. 

----

Chapter 3

#na jaemin #jaemin #jaemin nct #jaemin x reader #nct dream fic #nct dream mafia #nct mafia au #nct dream mafia au #nct angst #mark lee #huang renjun #lee jeno #lee haechan #zhong chenle #park jisung #nct dream imagines #mafia!jaemin #jaemin imagines #nct-writers #nct imagines

[maxwell-grant]

The Shadow and Superman

They debuted in the same decade and are currently over 80 years old. They are two of the most iconic characters in fiction, at separate points the undisputed top selling crimefighters and figureheads of their respective medium, one directly following the other. To borrow terms from Alan Moore's Supreme, where once the dark detective “Gibson” was the most popular and imitated crimefighter, the sci-fi superman “Wylie” arrived to occupy that spot. 

But despite that, despite all the weird crossovers Superman's been a part of, and DC having access to the Shadow's license on multiple occasions over the decades, these two have never officially met. Superman has never crossed over with any pulp hero, despite the influence they've had on his creation.

What could a crossover between these two be like? What common ground and interesting contrasts can we find between Superman and The Shadow, uniquely?

(Addendum: For this post I'm not going to try and define specific versions of the characters to cross over, like 1930s Superman meeting the pulp Shadow, this is meant to be a general overview based on my impressions of the two and some ideas that I think should factor into a proper Superman x Shadow crossover)

Certainly we’ve had a lot of stories already that have dwelled into potential ideas. Superman spends a lot of time with Batman, and a lot of Shadow crossovers with Doc Savage copypaste that dynamic and force it onto the two. We've had meetings between them via analogues, like in Planetary, where the invasion of Justice League analogues kills off the pulp hero analogues of the world, Al Ewing's Gods of Manhattan, a story where the Superman/Doc Savage character fights an an extremely villified spin on The Shadow/Spider alongside a Zorro/Shadow analogue, and Stormwatch's Change or Die arc, where an analogue of The Shadow is working under a Superman analogue in order to impose worldwide change, both belonging to an older, more optimistic generation of heroes contrasting with the cynical, modern Authority. 

We've had instances where the two were only in the same room via cameo, such as The Shadow's cameo in Kingdom Come or Clark attending The Lone Ranger's funeral along with Lamont Cranston in Lone Ranger / Green Hornet.

At present, the figures of Superman and The Shadow only exist in each other's worlds in fragmented fashion. The realms of pulp have many characters who influenced or factored into the creation of Superman (Doc Savage, Hugo Danner, Tarzan, John Carter, Flash Gordon), and many characters inspired by or outright imitating or referencing The Shadow exist in superhero universes (The Shroud, Night-Stalker, Moon Knight, Night Raven, etc), and even when a story depicts or confirms that they exist in the same world, like the above cameo or the several times The Shadow’s interacted with DC, they never truly meet.

The one time we almost had a story where these two were substantially a part of the same narrative was in Alan Moore's Twilight of the Superheroes pitch, a story where the DCU goes sour, superheroes gradually become the tyrannical dictators of the world with Superman as their king, before he ultimately dies in an alien invasion and a coalition led by Batman and The Shadow ultimately rises to defeat them as well as liberate Earth from the oppresive superheroes.

In fact, it seems like most of these crossovers between Superman and The Shadow, whether intended as commentary on the two or conflicts via analogues, have been almost entirely framed as conflicts, the two being unable to co-exist for long. When the narrative sides with the superhero, the pulp hero is presented as an ancient, ineffective or outright cruel and vicious murderer who exists only to be proven wrong and dispatched, or at least humbled by the inspirational superhero. When they side with the pulp hero, the superhero becomes either a fraudulent, corporate puppet or an overwhelming negative force of excessive power that blots out everything in it's way, a toxic abomination behind an unconvincing veneer that must be overcome by humanity pulling it's weight.

I certainly have my complaints as is with modern stories that misrepresent or villify The Shadow, and more and more people seem fatigued with Evil Supermen. But then, it may not be that surprising that so many writers make the choice of depicting them as evil, even when they don't intend to put one over the other or make any sort of commentary on them and the larger archetypes they represent.

Take a look at Superman and The Shadow in a vacuum.

On one side, we have a weird, lurking creature of the night who looks and acts every bit like the horrible villains and ghouls whose realm he inhabits. Whose look might be the single most common universal symbol of a scary and untrustworthy stranger, the most common universal shorthand for evil after devil horns. Who began life as a radio host unlike any other. Sinister, sardonic, cruel, even insulting, the enemy of all who dared listen to him, cackling sadistically as horrible fates befell those whose lives he narrated. When turned into a crimefighter, he kept the exact same personality, except now he looked and acted every bit the part of a classic villain, dressed in a vampire cape and the black hat and mask of saboteurs, anarchists and western bandits, no longer a passive observer but now the active mastermind behind the destruction of others. A character that practically screams "evil" from every pore. The twist being, he's not evil.

He took everything that made villains darkly appealing and alluring, and applied it to a character who was selfless and noble in his quest to bring justice to the downtrodden. The very first time we see him, he's rescuing a broke young man at his lowest point from suicide, giving him a new home, and a newfound purpose. Said young man went on to become his most capable agent, a noble and reliable hero who helps others alongside the dozens of others who were also rescued or uplifted by a character that, by all appearences, none of them should trust.

A character who abandons careful plans to jump into furnaces and gun fights the minute an innocent is endangered, lets his agents know their work is appreciated, dedicates entire stories to deeds like helping find a missing heir, or protect a friend of someone he knows, or help a criminal find redemption, even odd little routines like helping beavers finish constructing a damn or teaching morse to an ally. Who stops to catch his breath and rest his arms amid grueling climbs over pits of death, gets foiled by odd strokes of luck, plays pranks, gets jealous or embarassed or proud, gets wounded and relies on help from others, and none of this diminishes his appeal as a mysterious avenger. Quite the contrary, audiences ADORED him for it (I really can't stress enough how badly modern adaptations of the Shadow miss out on what made the character inspire such a fierce following in his prime).

Now take a look at the broad strokes of Superman, conceptually.

The "sci-fi" superman, as Peter Coogan defines it in his book about superheroes, is an archetype that dates all the way back to Frankenstein's Monster, and was the tradition of nearly all supermen in fiction from that point onwards.

“Whether savior or destroyer, the superman cannot be permitted to exist. All stories of Homo superior end in tragedy and futility because of the threat the superman poses to humanity. Whether he becomes an outcast, a pathetically lonely creature who is ostracized, or a tyrannical monster so dangerous that he threatens to enslave the world, convention dictates that he either die or be robbed of his power. These themes of the Homo superior figure are all present in Frankenstein, and the novel planted a crop of conventions that would be harvested in nearly every SF superman novel ever to see print.

Superman is an invincible, invulnerable alien with the power to crack the world with a footstep, whose first living experience was his entire planet being destroyed and with him as the sole survivor, who lost everything the minute he was born and lives with an intense amount of pressure over the scope of his powers. Who heaves cars above his head before terrified onlookers as the cover to his very first story, even his very name is taken from an early story by his creators where the "Superman" was a man who used his newfound abilities to terrorize others for personal gain. 

Conceptually, Superman is Siegel & Shuster taking the archetype of the sci-fi superman, with their usual dark backgrounds and inhuman abilities and calamitous tragedies surrounding their every step, making him an alien from a doomed planet on top of all that, and then deciding that, actually, he's going to look very handsome, he's going to dress like a friendly circus strongman, he's going to fight for us as a champion of the opressed, and he's going to use all of his powers to help us wholeheartedly, because the man who can be anything chooses to be kind.

The chief representatives of superheroes and pulp heroes both began life as creatures of horror, inspired by traditions of horror and villainy, subverted for the sake of good. Genuinely good, noble people in their worlds, even if outside of them they can often be twisted into villains.

The initial distrust is part-and-parcel of a lot of superhero meetups, and the last thing we want is to just retread those (or make this into another tired old "hero who doesn't kill vs hero who kills" debate, like we haven't had enough of those). But here, that initial distrust would have a quite substantial backing to it. On Superman's end, regardless of how, or when, the two meet, he's dealing with a sinister, manipulative genius who's got more than enough distressing similarities to some of his and Bruce's worst villains, who likely already knows far too much about Clark before they've even met and has likely kept tabs on all his closest associates, whose background is unknown, whose methods are inscrutable, and depending on the narrative, may also have access to abilities beyond even Clark's understanding.

And on The Shadow's end, he's dealing with something that vastly outclasses his own powers, an alien he holds no power over (and he has not had anything resembling good experiences with aliens), cannot lie to or manipulate to suit his ends, could utterly destroy him and all of mankind at any moment, and has far too much in common with many other prior examples of supermen whose excessive power and delusioned mindsets made them destructive or dangerous. At a first glance, Superman might see The Shadow as like the other dark avenger he's familiar with, but inhuman and untrustworthy and creepy, and The Shadow might see Superman as an alien apocalypse in a freak suit waiting to happen.

Past that mistrust and into the point where they start working together? They might learn quite a bit from each other. Despite the scope of Superman's powers, he is tremendously kind and approachable and optimistic and saves people in ways The Shadow never could. Superman can stop a flooding dam single-handedly and then show up to break up conflict just by showing up and talking and letting his presence do much of the talking. But The Shadow has more life experience, being the senior crimefighter of the two, and the nature of his work would inevitably force Superman to confront aspects of crimefighting that live outside of what he normally deals with, and how prepared he has to be for them. He deals with systematic destruction of criminal enterprise in scales often too subtle for Superman's tactics and too big for Clark Kent to address. 

In their teamup, Superman would not be in a position where he is the senior crimefighter, the figure everyone looks up to and the default leader, and the certainty that he knows who he's dealing with, and The Shadow would not be in a position where he holds the cards and the power of the dynamic, and the certainty that he knows what he's dealing with. And thus, their differences would emerge.

Superman's who you call for when alien dictators point laser beams at Earth or corrupt businessmen trample the downtrodden with machines beyond their ability to fight back. The Shadow's who you call for when you need to take out 3 criminal syndicates simultaneously trafficking slaves to billionaires through morse-code messages written in triple-layered chalk outlines in clubs at 3AM, or when a mayor or dictator needs to be taken down without innocents being caught in the fallout. When dealing with corrupt politicians, Superman bulldozes their projects and intimidates them into leaving people alone. The Shadow gets them to confess their worst crimes in public view and then either face the wrath of an angry mob or kill themselves. 

When groups of criminals try to injure Superman, they either fail miserably and get hurt themselves before being sent to jail, or they walk into jail already aware it's a hopeless fight. When groups of criminals try to injure The Shadow, they slaughter themselves as The Shadow cackles at their fire returned against them. Superman breaks the chains of oblivion machines as he gets galactic fascists to turn tail. The Shadow gets Nazis to skewer themselves as they hallucinate their worst nightmares coming to life.

Superman goes around in bright colors and a smile to let everyone know that he's here to help. The Shadow drifts through the darkness unseen, until it's time for that laugh to emerge, like a shark's fin to the surface, to spell doom for evil and reassurance for those under his protection. Superman deals with suicidal people by showing up, offering words of encouragement, and showing them genuine appreciation in incredibly moving scenes. The Shadow deals with suicidal people by pulling them out of the jaws of death, bringing them to their senses, and offering them a chance to become his agents, where they can join a support network of people just like them and not only attain what they need, whether it’s friendship or money or honor or the means to achieve their dreams, but also get to help others by working with him directly. Superman takes terminally ill kids on trips to space, The Shadow funds the dreams of his allies who wish to improve society through social reform, scientific advance and community work.

 The two of them have friends and allies everywhere in all walks of life. They may occasionally work alongside governments, but their ultimate allegiance is to the common folk, and they will not hesitate to protect them from systems that fail to do so. 

The Man Of Tomorrow who can do anything, and The Master of Darkness who knows everything.

It's two extremes of characters that ultimately are all about the same primal human belief: the idea that someone or something out there, no matter how distant or powerful or strange, is looking out for us. On one end it may be an alien in a circus costume with his underwear out who juggles cars, and on another it may be a friend of yours taking off it's face and turning out to be a long-nosed weirdo in Dracula garb who laughs a lot. 

Either way I definitely think there’s great story potential in somehow getting these two to star in something together, even if just a conversation through the boundaries that separate them (the crossing of said boundaries, in itself, could be a good start for that story)

If nothing else, the strong-willed, incorrigibly stubborn and danger-prone Lane ladies that they associate with would definitely have a lot to catch up on. 

#the shadow #the shadow essays #pulp heroes #pulp fiction #superman #comic rambles #crossover

[ladyfloriographist]

Prompt: 13. “Can we just make a decision? Please?”

Pairing: Adam (Only Lovers Left Alive) x femme!voluptuous!Reader

Warnings: night drives to a video store, fluff-ish stuff, flirting, cursing (because it’s Adam), and would vamps love the idea of temperature play? I think they would

XXXX

“Oh, my God. Adam, stop. Pull over.”

Adam glances out your window for the briefest moment. “What is it?” his vaguely interested baritone drones.

“Look!” It’s an old video store, a movie rental place, a relic from a time gone by. “Please please—oh! We’re past it.” You sigh and slump back in your seat, staring out the window as the next-to-deserted moon-lit city rolls by.

Slowing to a stop before a red light, Adam looks to you. “Really?” he says, with the faintest smile—like he could humour you, if you were sweet about it.

You put your hand on his where it rests on the gearshift. The chill of his flesh is comforting, somehow, and he feels the same about your warmth. You run your thumb over the exposed back of his hand. “I haven’t seen one of them in so long. I didn’t even know they still existed. Will you take me, baby? Can we go?”

Ever so subtly, the corners of his mouth tug upward, like he’s trying to hold back a smile.

“Five minutes,” you attempt to persuade him further, “that’s all. And we could have a movie night!”

His brows raise, and you shuffle a little closer to him in your seat.

You adjust yourself, pushing your chest out and pressing your arms together to exaggerate your ample cleavage. Then, you drop your voice and murmur huskily, “You could watch me eat a choc-top—”

The traffic lights turn green.

“—feel my mouth get all cold.”

Adam tears his gaze from yours and throws a u-turn, spinning his old Jaguar around and following the road back the way you’d come.

He smiles slyly at you out of the corner of his eye as the engine rumbles down the desolate street, and you grin at him. No more words need be said.

Adam pulls into the carpark, and an old neon ‘open late’ sign flickers and flashes in the large window.

“Wow,” you whisper, ripping off your seat belt and stepping out of the car. “I can’t believe this place is still here. I thought they all closed a few years ago.”

Adam huffs a shallow laugh as he shuts and locks his door. “Time in a lost place is a funny old thing.”

You whip around to face him, and find him glaring at the old building with thinly veiled disgust. The large windows are a little grimy, and two nearby rubbish bins overflow with garbage. Inside, one of the fluorescent lights in the ceiling flickers, and another one is cracked and broken, illuminating nothing beneath it.

“Fuck’s sake…” Adam murmurs quietly.

You stretch your arm out to him. “Come on, grumpy.”

Slowly his gaze lands on yours, looking every bit the part of a sullen teenager.

“For me,” you beckon him closer, offering your hand. “We won’t be here long.”

Begrudgingly, Adam stalks towards you and slips his gloved palm into yours. “They’d better sell that fucking ice cream here,” he growls, slipping on his Oakley shades.

“I’m sure they will, baby,” you croon, smiling back at him as you push open the large glass door.

It’s stale inside, the damp and dust only just kept at bay by whirring air conditioning that churns out crisp, cold, recycled air.

You shiver a little, and Adam finds it delightful.

The young clerk behind the counter looks up, slightly surprised but mostly disinterested. “We close in ten,” they grumble.

“Midnight?” Adam questions, and the clerk nods, going back to their phone. He squeezes your hand and says, “Make it quick,” – but your attention is already elsewhere.

“How much for a slurpee?” you call to the sales clerk eagerly.

They look at you with a blank stare.

“Sorry,” you gesture at the machine, rotating crushed, watery ice artificially coloured a deep pinkish-red. “For a slushie?”

“Two-fifty for a small, four bucks for a large.”

You glance at Adam, smiling sweetly. “It’ll make my tongue red,” you murmur breathily.

Adam regards you with an intense, lingering stare.

“I’ll taste a little sweeter,” you whisper.

He looks deep into your eyes, and when he glimpses your lips his nostrils flare very, very subtly—but enough for you to know, your whispered words are affecting him.

After pleading and paying you and Adam find yourselves strolling into the paranormal and supernatural section.

You break from his palm to grab at one of the selection, and hold it up to his face.

“This,” you say emphatically, “this was so popular, babe.”

Adam tilts his head to the side as he scrutinises the cover. “’True… Blood’?” he says slowly, turning over the concept in his mind.

You nod. “It’s what the vamps drink. This manufactured kind of…” you search for the word, “synthetic blood.”

“Hm.”

“Based on books.” You hand the Blue-Ray to him and he peruses it further. “And HBO made it, so,” you wrap your lips around the clear plastic straw and suck more of the icy treat into your mouth.

You keep your eyes locked with his as you do, and Adam watches from behind his black sunglasses, rapt. You swallow and finish your sentence. “So, it’s very sexy.”

Adam looks set to lunge for you and tackle you to the musty, un-vacuumed carpet.

You think quickly, having bitten off more than you can chew and needing to pump the brakes on your teasing. “Here,” you grab the first thing you see and hand it to him, “another option.”

Adam takes the DVD case and his features soften. Gently, he trails the tips of two fingers over the cover art. “Vlad,” he murmurs, and his mouth breaks into a small, wistful smile.

Your gaze flicks back and forth from Adam to ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ in quick succession. “You know Gary Oldman?” you squeak, incredulity lacing your voice and your features.

Adam smiles. He places the DVD back on the shelf. “By another name.”

You stare, gobsmacked, as Adam picks up another movie—continuing on as if no revelations have been divulged. His smooth forehead creases as he inspects the DVD and he flips the case over in his hand.

“Handsome,” he says softly. “Was this popular too?”

“’Twilight’?” you raise your brows. “Very.”

The furrow creasing Adam’s brow deepens, and he slides the movie back into its place on the shelf.

After a few more minutes of browsing, the clerk calls out from behind the counter, announcing to the pair of you that the store is closing.

You spin on your heel to face Adam. He’d been getting lost in small moments of nostalgia, disdain, and melancholy. Perhaps bringing him here was a bad idea.

“Come on, baby,” you take his hand in yours, “they’re closing. Pick one and let’s go.”

Adam grumbles an inaudible growl of a word and looks up from the DVD he’d been holding. He stares at the shelves, and clenches his jaw.

This isn’t good. “Can we just make a decision? Please?”

“Is this what you thought of me and my kind before we met?” Adam says in the dull, drole tone of someone particularly unimpressed. “That I could, fucking, sparkle and glimmer in the sunlight?” Unceremoniously he drops the movie back onto the shelf, and his lip subtly curls in distaste. “How terrible for you to realise the truth. Fuck, you must be bitterly disappointed.”

You cock your head to the side. Though you couldn’t possibly have foreseen Adam confronting his own undead immortality at a Blockbuster in the middle of the night, this was definitely a bad idea. Adam was dipping his toes in the cold, dark, rippling pool of vampiric existentialism and no, you will not try this again, lest he fall in.

The clerk calls out to you again, impatient and tired.

You switch tacts, trying on something that all men fall prey to, living or undead. “Well, the truth is stranger than fiction, my love.” You step closer to Adam, and place your palm on his chest. You step up on your tip toes, and let your hot breath fan over his neck. “And far more… seductive.”

Like dropping a cube of ice into warm water, the press of your hand thaws his surly mood.

Adam gazes at your face. “Look at you,” he purrs, eyeing how the crushed, syrup-laden ice has changed the colour of your tongue. “You look like…” he licks at his bottom lip, “you’re just like… my little strawberry.”

You smile. “A strawberry, hm?”

“Yes,” he murmurs darkly, backing you against the shelves.

“Hey! Hey—excuse me. Look, I’m locking up and I really need y’all to leave,” says a voice off in the distance.

“Well, come on then, baby,” you murmur with a soft, breathy voice, “take me home and eat me.”

Adam’s almost never moved faster.

XXXX

Come and let me know if you have a prompt you’d like me to write! There are some lists on my blog, and at this stage I’m happy to write for the Enola Holmes versions of Sherlock and Mycroft, and any Tom Hiddleston character b/c I’m in love xx

#adam (only lovers left alive) #only lovers left alive #adam x you #adam x reader #tom hiddleston #g writes prompts #it is SO hard to tag this #adam (olla) x you #adam (olla) x reader #voluptuous!Reader

[talkfastromance4]

The Click-- Calum Hood (soulmate!au)

It’s here! I’ve never written soulmate stuff before so this is probably really different from what you’ve normally read, and it’s different from what I normally write but this really has a part of my heart in it.  Inspired by Lang Leav’s wonderful works (the poems up above) and some weird instances I’ve been having.

Word count: 5.6k

Warnings: none, no smut whatsoever (I know who am I?)

Son inspiration: Then I saw You by Tatiana Manois and Surrender by Natalie Taylor

donate to my ko-fi here :)

Masterlist

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. *copyright is listed at bottom*

• • • •

Two strangers both alike in mind have a book propped open with words inked in of love and heartbreak and other musings. They are alike because they mark their favorite poems by dog ears and highlights with little scrawls of their own thoughts scratched into the margins.

Late night for her, early morning for him as they’re on two different sides of the country, it’s not just miles that separate them, but the day and night. The moon comforts her and is her light as she reads of a love shared between two poets. The sun is his friend and a warm embrace as he delves deeper and deeper into the pages of the same love but tinged with an air of sophisticated provocativeness.

While on their Spotify playlists, the same artists and songs are shared between the two. Music and lyrics, words, and prose, two hearts longing for the same thing. 

A love to be written about, a love to be shared, an adventurous love that is unique because it is their own. In both their minds, that kind of love doesn’t seem tangible. To be added to their likeness, they’re both the only single ones amongst their friends and have been for a while. 

Calum showered his friends in love, giving his friends small gifts and helping in any way that he could. He was always down for a good time, sharing laughs and making memories. Rose was the same, she enjoyed being with her friends and family. 

In the daylight they appeared fine and well put together but going home to an empty house in a lonely bed is where they felt the weight of their ache. Sometimes it kept them both up, reading their poetry books or writing their own. His were songs while hers were just words but the premise was the same, dreaming of love. 

She received an opportunity of a lifetime to go to school for her writing. A quiet dream she’d held safe in the privacy of her own mind. It was thrilling yet terrifying moving to a whole new city, the city of angels. Her best friend stayed with her for a week helping her adjust in her new albeit small studio apartment.

It was a steal that was right above a coffee bookshop, a place where she’d also received a job. When she wouldn’t be in school, she’d be working to help pay for rent. While she unpacked and decorated her place, she kept pinching herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. 

When her classes started, she was up by 4 a.m. because of her nerves and her excitement, it bundled up inside her. She ran through her schedule three times, checked her bag that she had the right textbooks and her small laptop.

She read her favorite poems until it was time for her first class. The owner of the shop already had her coffee made to her liking with a cranberry orange muffin already in a bag. 

“Thanks Teresa,” she smiles, taking the goodies.

“Have a great first day! Do you want a picture with your bag?” Teresa is a kind, thirty-something year old woman. She’s living her dream owning a coffee bookshop and has the kindest smile. 

“I’m okay, don’t need a reminder I’m starting with kids fresh outta high school.”

“You’re not that much older, twenty-five is still young, Rose,” Teresa smiles. “Enjoy it.”

“Thank you,” she smiles then waves with her pinky. 

Her first day of classes is just how she thought they’d be, the awkward introductions that she rehearsed in her head before speaking, going through the itinerary for the semester and then reading a few chapters and taking some notes. Rose loved every minute of it. 

During lunch and her breaks, she reread through each itinerary again and bookmarks the pages in her textbook she’ll be needing. In between that, she reads her poetry book and jots down a few of her own thoughts. 

Then, the day is done and she starts her four hour shift at the bookshop that would last until closing time at 9:30. Rose quickly discovered that this would be a very easy job because it didn’t get a rush of people for dinner. 

Some other students she passed on campus would stop in with a friend and share a cup of coffee or tea. By 7:30 there were only a couple of people scattered about the shop, books, or tablets in front of them as the soft indie music played throughout. 

Rose gathers her books into her bag behind the counter before she moves to the bookshelf wall to restock the books left on the small wooden tables. She finds herself humming along to a song she knows when there’s a commotion outside.

The other guests inside turn to look as well through the windows framed in the purple and blue twilight shade to see a couple. They’re the source of the noise as both their voices rise over the other and when he throws his arms in the air that’s when Rose turns back to her task.

Clearly whatever was happening outside was a private moment and Rose couldn’t help but smile at the irony of the saying ‘outside looking in’ while she’s inside but was just looking into their outside debacle. Her mind always thinks of outlandish things like that, she calls it her circle thinking because she can run with the same thought over and over. 

It doesn’t make sense to others, but it does to her.

After a few moments, she glanced outside, and the couple was gone. The streetlights had flickered on and she could see stars poking through the darkened sky. She hopes she’ll see the moon upstairs. 

After the last guest leaves, she locks the door and sweeps up the shop, wipes down tables and locks the cash drawer in the small vault in the back. She checks that the back door is locked after tossing the garbage out quickly and runs upstairs to her studio apartment. She makes a cup of hot cocoa before bed and reads and writes into her favorite poetry book, her journal next to her. 

The hot cocoa made her sleepy and she fell fast asleep with her book atop her chest. She dreamed of someone that held a powerful connection with her, he understood her and made her smile. By morning, the dream slipped away with the stars and she started her new routine over again. 

***

Calum’s fingers tap impatiently on the laminate surface of the table as he sat through this meeting. It was mundane but necessary that he be here because the band had decided to take a year off. The world is still in recovery from the pandemic and they agreed collectively to hold off on anything until there was some decent footing again. 

He’s been in a bit of a mood since he and Zoe fought a few weeks ago after having dinner. They weren’t exclusive, only seeing each other on occasion and that night she brought up soulmates. She was almost nagging at him that he wasn’t hers and that they were wasting their time when he reminded her, she was the one to call him. 

He hasn’t heard from her since. 

His mind wandered throughout, thinking of ways he can occupy the next 365 days when he wasn’t writing music. Music is his life; it’s always been a constant and has pulled him through some tough situations and has uplifted him in joyous ones. On the TV stuck to the wall there was a news report scanning at the bottom that the university not too far from his home has the highest enrollment rate.

That piques his interest. He reads the closed caption below the broadcaster as it says open enrollment has become the new norm, welcoming students from all ages to attend. This information strikes a chord within Calum and he’s found what he wants to do with his year off. 

When the meeting had finally finished, Calum decided to head over to the university and see if he could still enroll. The semester started only a few weeks ago but with this new window of free time, he’s sure he could catch up. 

Enrolling turned out to be easy. He had a meeting with a counselor to discuss what his intentions were and if there was any specific study he wanted to get into. He selected creative writing and psychology, bought his books, got his schedule and he was officially a college student. 

The night before his first class, Calum is restless. He tosses. He turns. He stares out the window of his room, the moon winking at him through the small opening of the curtain. Duke is snoring softly to his left and Calum’s mind is racing. 

Thoughts tumble over one another, scenarios flash across his mind and then he hears a random melody in his head that sounds too familiar and it helps him drift off to sleep. 

***

Calum is racing to get to his first class, he didn’t wake up to his alarm until thirty minutes after the intended time and he blamed it all on a dream. A dream that felt so real he thought the woman in his subconscious was still speaking to him in his ear. 

He threw on the first article of clothing his fingers touched, gargled with mouthwash, and shoved a beanie on his head. Regrettably, he didn’t have time to stop for coffee and he hoped there would be some sold on campus somewhere. 

Calum just got settled into his seat at the back of the lecture when the Professor stood at the front and began to speak. Thankfully, Calum retrieved notes from the three weeks he missed and read them all weekend, so he picked up easily with what the Professor is talking about. 

He smiles to himself, maybe he is cut out for school. 

Calum is surprised how drained he feels after his first day. His head is swimming with new knowledge and he’s anxious to get home and get to work. On his walk back to the parking structure where his car is parked, he sees the coffee bookshop he and Zoe fought in front of almost a month ago. 

The sign above the bay window reads ‘CBS’ and in smaller print below that it reads ‘coffee bookshop’ and he smiles at the simple cleverness. He remembers Ashton has gone in there a few times and said the coffee is great. Calum makes a promise to himself that he’ll stop there tomorrow morning before class to grab a cup.

His night is spent reading over the homework and answering a few of the discussion questions while Duke sat in his lap. Calum tried writing down the lyrics of the song he heard this morning, but he couldn’t distinguish what they were. To wind down, he had his favorite Michael Faudet book propped on his stomach as he read through each page.

He reads through his own writing; his words transport him to that point in time when the words flowed out of him effortlessly. One poem resonates in his mind as he reads about love being compared to that of a rose and the lilting melody from this morning trickled into his ears again and he instantly relaxed. His mind quieted and his eyelids felt heavy as he replayed the same simple notes over and over. 

A beautiful melody without any words.

The loud vibration of his phone woke him up before the actual song did, but he leapt out of bed immediately. The promise of a hot cup of coffee egged him on to take a shower and dress in something nicer than a wrinkled band shirt he had on yesterday. 

Traffic wasn’t that bad, and he parked his car on the first level of the structure and he still had forty-five minutes until his first class. Today is shaping up to be the start of a good one and just as he locks his phone so he can open the door of the CBS, he collides with a body. 

Books go flying. His phone clutters to the ground and he panics at the fatality that could be evident in the million cracks of his screen. Rushed ‘sorry’s’ are exchanged between him and the stranger as they scramble to gather their things. Their bodies twist away from each other as he shoves his books and pens back into his bag. 

When he stands to apologize again, she’s already bustling away, her red scarf blowing behind her in the morning breeze. He sighs then heads inside to examine his phone, but he looks back again to try and get a glimpse of her face. She’s already gone. While they were scrambling to get their belongings, he noted how the smell of coconuts, vanilla, and something else he couldn’t put his finger on, invaded his nostrils. It made him think of the ocean.

He examines his phone to find there isn’t a scratch on it and when he unlocks it there’s a picture of the poem he read last night. Roses. The girl he bumped into smelled of roses. 

***

Rose is having an off day. Her alarm didn’t even go off and she put in a generous amount of dry shampoo in her hair but resulted in putting on a hat. She didn’t even have time to get her coffee and muffin from Teresa for she rushed out the front door and collided with some guy. 

Without her coffee it was hard for her to focus and when she got called on in class, she had to ask the professor to repeat the question because she didn’t hear it. Then her laptop crashed, and she couldn’t work on an assignment that’s due by Friday. 

By the time she made it to CBS, she didn’t want to work her shift. Customers were being needy and rude and all she wanted to do was take a hot shower and read. After eating a quick microwave dinner, Rose took a hot shower then turned on her favorite playlist titled ‘Blue’ for moments like this. 

She opens her bag to grab her poetry book, ‘The Universe of Us’ but finds its exact counterpart of Lang Leav; Michael Faudet’s book ‘Cult of Two’ lays on her table. 

Did she put that in her bag by mistake? 

It was a rough morning so it is possible, but she could have sworn she grabbed the book from her bedside table. Sighing, Rose takes the book to place it back on her shelf then becomes more confused when she sees the same book in her hands, perched snugly on the shelf with her other poetry books. 

Rose knows she only has one copy, so where did this one come from and where is her book? She tosses the white paperback onto her bed and empties her whole bag, checking each book twice. How could she have lost it? It’s always buried safely in the bottom of her bag and she didn’t take it out all day except--

Rose gasps. This morning when she was leaving the shop she bumped into a guy and all their belongings went flying. She must have grabbed his book by mistake, and he grabbed hers. Panic sets in, she’s written down some of her innermost thoughts in that book, personal things.

Now this random stranger has her soul in his hands, and she might never see him again. With angry tears in her eyes she crawls into bed while Lewis Capaldi’s voice thrums around her walls. Needing comfort, she opens the strangers’ book then snaps it shut just as fast because there’s handwriting on the pages. 

Just like hers.

***

Calum is reading about the red string of fate. After that run in with the girl outside CBS a month ago, he read through her book and became transfixed with those words she wrote down. He knows he shouldn’t have read her thoughts, but once he started, he couldn’t stop. Clearly the poetry captivated her, but her words captivated him.

The red string of fate is a Japanese legend meant to tie soulmates together by their pinkies. No matter the circumstance, the time or place, the two will always find each other. It may stretch and it may tangle but it will never break. He’s never heard of it before now, but he’s become obsessed with the idea of it. 

Every morning he’s stopped by CBS to see if he’ll run into her again so he can return her book, but he’s never seen her. His classes are going well and he’s learning so much, his creativity is overflowing. Much of that is because of this girl’s book. 

Its spine is overly creased from endless love of reading, some words are highlighted and circled. Pages are dog eared on what he assumes are her favorite poems. Calum smiled the first time he paged through it all because he’s written in his book as well. He wonders if she’s read any of his musings yet. 

“Bro, I haven’t seen you without that book. Where’s yours?” Ashton asks while they’re out for lunch. 

“Um, I lost it actually. I bumped into this girl outside the CBS and our things scattered everywhere. We switched books,” Calum explains flipping the pages. “She writes it in like I do.”

“You read it? Mate,” Ashton sighs exasperatedly, “that’s an invasion of privacy.”

“I know, I know! But I can’t get enough of it. She’s smart and passionate in what she writes. I wish I got a better look at her when I bumped into her so I could return it.”

“There’s no name inside?”

“Nope. She could be in one of my classes for all I know,” Calum sighs then picks away at the corner of the cover. “What was it like when you and Ruby found each other?”

Ruby is Ashton’s soulmate and they’ve been together for almost two years now. Calum remembers the change in Ashton when she came into his life, he was lighter. 

“I heard her voice in my head.”

“What did she say?”

Ashton smiles, “My name.”

“Then how did you find her?”

“I don’t know, it’s hard to explain,” Ashton’s brows crease. “It was only a few days after I heard her voice that I knew her name. It came to me out of the blue. Do you remember anything about her?”

“She had on this red scarf and smelled like a rose.” Calum suddenly felt a wave of dizziness swim in his head and he held onto his temples.

“You okay?” Ashton reaches over as if to help but he’s not sure what’s happening to his friend. 

“Woah, that was weird, I got super dizzy,” Calum says blinking a few times until he can see straight again. He removes his fingers from his temples and Ashton is giving him a funny look. “What?”

“What did she smell like again?” he leans forward.

“A rose, why--fuck!” the wave of dizziness crashes into him again and it’s like his brain is spinning in his head. When his vision returns Ashton is smiling gleefully. “Glad to see you enjoy my pain.”

“Don’t you see?! You got vertigo as soon as you said rose. That must be her name.”

“Really? Is that what happened when you said Ruby’s name?”

“Yeah basically, but it wasn’t this strong. She must be close,” Ashton looks around him as if she’ll appear out of thin air. “I suggest going to CBS morning and night, she’s gotta be there at some point.”

***

Rose is flicking through the pages of the new poetry book she acquired. Curiosity killed the cat and she just had to dig her claws between the pages because she’s sure he’s already done the same or will soon enough. 

Some of his thoughts left her breathless and with an odd familiar feeling at the way it’s structured. Some of his sentences seem more like lyrics that she’s heard before but can never find the tune that goes with it.

She hadn’t been feeling well this morning, nausea and dizziness made her skip her classes and she laid in bed all day. It would come and go throughout the day and right before bed she drew herself a bubble bath with some candles. The flickering light created the perfect ambience while she read Faudet’s words and the mysterious stranger. 

Where her notes are written in paragraphs or stanzas, his are scattered about the page. Sometimes she has to turn the book to read it upside down. The curse words make her laugh and sometimes there’s a fun little drawing. 

It isn’t until she reaches the last few pages and she’s reading about a blue angel and knocking back a shot when she stumbles on a name that is not the author. It’s a name she’s heard before, a name she’s known of and has seen floating around her social media.

“Calum Hood,” she mumbles, and she instantly becomes dizzy again. It happens so fast it startles her, and she nearly drops the book into the bubbles. Somehow in her bewilderment she managed to let it flop onto the bathroom floor. 

The bathwater and bubbles slosh over the sides as she reaches for the book again. Did she read that right? Her fingers leave dark, pudgy circles on the pages as she goes to that page again. 

“Calum,” she breathes, and the room spins again causing her to drop the book once more. “Okay, okay, okay, okay. . .”

Rose gets out of the bath quickly, letting the water drain noisily as she dries off and puts on her pajamas. The spinning has stopped, and she sits cross legged in the middle of her bed, the poetry book open to the poem and her phone opened to Instagram and Twitter.

She’s been an avid fan for quite a few years now and to think if he was the one, she bumped into? With her thumbs hovering over the keyboard she closes her eyes trying to remember anything about him from that morning. 

All she can remember is the rush to gather her things and his soft husky voice as he said sorry. She didn’t look at him once and it’s very possible she bumped into Calum Hood. Her mind racing, she texts every one of her friends that have already found their soulmates asking what and how it happened. 

She needs answers because how odd is it that she’s felt dizzy and nauseous all day then sees his name, says it, and gets dizzy all over again? Is that what’s supposed to happen? Does this mean he’s been saying her name all this time as well? 

Her friends' responses were pretty much the same. In each instance they heard his or her voice in their head say their name. Why hadn’t she heard his voice? Could he hear hers? Rose unlocks her phone and searches his name, turns out he’s gone back to school. The same school she’s attending but it doesn’t say what he’s studying, which is good because it must be annoying having everyone know what’s going on in your life. 

Rose falls back onto her pillows burrowing under the covers and shuts off the light. 

“Please let me go to school tomorrow, Calum,” she huffs then turns over to hug her pillow. 

She swears she hears a ghostly laugh in her ear before sleep consumes her. 

***

“I bite back.”

Calum still hears the soft voice from his dream, he can still feel the soft brush of her lips against his ear as she said those words. He’s staring up at the ceiling replaying the dream of sitting next to a girl. In his subconscious it felt like he already knew her, and they carried a conversation well. He doesn’t remember exactly what he was saying but he can hear those three words as if she were laying right next to him. 

He greets Duke with quick kisses before letting him outside and Calum washes his face, brushes his teeth, and gets dressed. After he brings Duke in, Calum gathers his bags making sure The Universe of Us is right at the top. 

He’s been going to CBS early each morning so he can sit and try to watch for the girl he bumped into. He has one cup of coffee and reads through her pages until it’s time to go for class. A few times he thought he recognized her, but the girl in question always turned out to be just a fan and wanted a quick chat and photo. 

They never smelled like roses, so he knew it wasn’t her.

After his final sip of coffee, he flips to a page with the title ‘The One’ and he immediately goes to the girl’s handwritten words. 

‘And I want you to be the one for me. The one who brings out my storm but also calms the waves. I want you to be my perfect counterpart. Is my red string frayed?’

Calum smiles at the last sentence. He wishes he could tell her that no, it isn’t frayed and he’s trying his damndest to find her. He gathers his things and heads out the door because his first class is starting in fifteen minutes.

Just as he walked out the door, if he would have waited one more minute, Rose came by his table and cleaned up his dishes to help Teresa out before she went on her way to class. 

“How are you feeling today Rose?” Teresa asks, taking the dirty dishes from her. 

“A little better,” Rose shrugs, “I can’t miss two days. Are you sure it’s alright I can switch my shift from tonight to tomorrow?”

“Of course. You need to catch up on what you missed, Colbie will cover for you. Take it easy, you still look a little pale,” Teresa frowns. 

“I’ll be fine, but thank you,” Rose smiles then waves. “I’ll see you later.”

***

The day runs as normal for them both. Calum has felt this growing energy within him as if something is about to happen, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. He’s been looking at every woman he passes waiting to see if there’s a connection or a siren that will go off as if to say “that’s her! That’s her!” but he comes up short. 

Rose still feels a little queasy throughout the day and she’s distracted because all she wants to do is read Calum’s poetry book to try and find another connection. 

When the school day is over, she sets up her workspace at her favorite table by the bookshelf in a large, plush chair. Her own latte sits next to her while she quickly does her homework and opens the book. From the corner of her eye a tall figure sits in the chair on the other side of the table. She pays it no mind until there’s a loud crash.

The stranger knocked her cup to the floor, and it shattered, white foam and coffee filling up the grooves in the tile. 

“Shit, I’m sorry--”

“It’s okay,” she says automatically. 

They both reach for the largest fragment of broken cup; their pinkies touch and Rose feels something click inside her. Her skin is hot where he touches her, and with her heart pounding like a thousand horses running, she looks up. 

He knew who she was before he looked into her eyes, when they came in such proximity, he smelled the roses and the coconut and the vanilla. When their pinkies touched, he felt a spark shoot up his veins, that’s the siren he’s been waiting for and when he looked into her eyes? Everything clicked into place.

“Rose?”

“Calum?”

They both laugh nervously, their pinkies still touching. Rose feels her cheeks warm and Calum can’t stop smiling at her. After their small moment, they clean up the mess of the broken cup and sit back in their respective chairs. 

“I think this is yours,” she holds out his book that she was currently reading. 

“And I believe--” he pulls out her book from his bag holding it up “--this is yours.”

Having it in her possession again makes it feel like a lost limb has been returned home. Calum flips through his own book noticing the wrinkled pages. He knows she read it and he’s so glad she’s the one who did. He watches her rifle through the pages, soft fingers tracing over words that have been printed and words she’s inked in herself. 

“You’re a wonderful writer,” he comments, and her eyes flash up to him.

“You are too, but you’re a musician so that’s no surprise,” she giggles, and Calum loves the sound. 

Talking comes easily between Calum and Rose, but how could it not when they’re soulmates? As the night gets longer and the shop is about to close, Rose invites him up for some tea and he gladly accepts. 

While she’s setting up the kettle, he examines her bookshelf, some books he’s read, and others grab his attention that he wants to ask her about. Soft music fills the room and he smiles because this is on one of his playlists as well.

“How do you like your tea?” she asks, and Calum moves back to the kitchen area. 

“Little bit of milk and honey and some sugar,” he smiles, watching her add the ingredients.

Their fingers brush again when he accepts the cup from her, another spark ignites but it starts a different type of warmth. Calum becomes very aware of both their actions. He’s aware of how close she sits next to him on the couch, he’s aware of the way she licks her lips and how badly he wants to kiss them. 

“So, this is . . . a little crazy, right?” she laughs awkwardly, her finger circling the rim of the mug. “How did you find me? Did you hear my voice? Because I didn’t hear yours.”

“What did you experience then?” he asks, setting his mug on the small table in front of them. 

“I was home for a whole day because I just felt really dizzy and nauseous, then when I was taking a bath and reading your book, I saw your name, said it out loud and had another dizzy spell. I think I dreamed of you, too. . .” her brows furrowed in confusion.

Calum tries not to let her small tidbit of information that she was in the bath when she said his name get to him, but he knows exactly what she’s talking about. He was at home playing with Duke when he felt another wave of dizziness hit, it came upon him so fast that he practically fell onto the couch. It felt different then when he said her name, it was stronger. 

“I’m sorry, when I discovered your name, I kept saying it,” he admits fiddling with one of his rings. 

“How’d you find out my name?” 

“I was talking with my friend, Ashton and I told him about the day we collided and how you smelled like a rose. You know what’s funny? When we said each other’s name downstairs I didn’t feel dizzy, did you?”

“No, I didn’t,” she shakes her head then looks at him, “what does that mean?”

“I--” he stops short when the song shifts, and he gasps. “I’ve had this melody stuck in my head for weeks, is this you singing?”

“Absolutely not,” Rose laughs and rises from the couch to turn it up on her phone. “It calms me down, so I play it a lot. What was--oh!”

She spun around and Calum was standing right in front of her. She didn’t realize how tall he is until right now and the scent of his cologne and laundry detergent reminds her of a home she’s come back to. 

“I have an idea as to why we didn’t hear each other’s voices,” he says, stepping even closer. 

“What’s that?” Rose licks her lips.

“We feel things, and instead of vocalizing them, we write them down or listen to it in music,” he tucks her hair behind her ear. “Even the books we read the authors are in love.”

Rose chuckles at that. “Yeah, what are the odds they’re our favorites?”

“Pretty high, since we were made for each other,” he smiles. His fingers tickle her cheek as he tilts her head up, her eyes are shining, and the smell of roses invades his senses. He inches his mouth closer to hers, “I’m ready to surrender to this, Rose.”

She nods and closes the small space between their lips and it’s as if everything stops. The only thing she can feel are his soft, warm lips on hers, the calluses of his fingers on her cheek and the way his other hand wraps around her waist. He pulls her close and she grabs hold of his shirt, kissing him is like a breath of fresh air. 

He pulls her even closer, chest against chest and she gasps at the movement but welcomes his tongue excitedly. They kiss feverishly, as if this is the only time they have. But they have many more days and many more moments to make memories of. 

They’re breathing heavily when they break the kiss, she feels him smile against her lips and gives her two soft pecks. 

“Calum?”

“Hmm?” his thumb strokes her cheek affectionately.

“You made my world stop spinning.”

• • • •

Copyright talkfastromance4 © All works is intellectual property of the author. All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction or any part or all contents in any form is prohibited. You may not, without written expression and consent from the author, distribute works amongst other social media platforms

Taglist: @galcalirwin​ @cashtonasff5sos​ @wokeupinjapanisabop​ @myloverboyash​  @rotten-kandy​ @tea4sykes​ @jannimoeller3​ @loveroflrh​ @iovehemmings​ @cxddlyash​ @princesslrh​ @here-for-the-uproars​ @katiaw2​ @g-l-pierce​ @fairyintheglass​ @gosh-im-short​ @banditocth​ @dezzym17 @loverofmineabi​ @lukeisbaby​ @spicycal​ @mysticalhood​ @thesubtweeter​ @wastedheartcth​ @atlcalm​ @itjustkindahappenedreally​ @calumance​ @babylon-corgis​ @thew0rldneedsmcreycghurt​ @lanternlover2​ @istaywithmyjonas​ @calteahood​ @sarcastically-defensive17​ @allier59​ @calumhoodaf​ @frontmanash​ @philthepegacorn​ @mantlereid​ @lukedorkyhemmings​ @addietagglikesbands​ @kikixfandoms​ @sanrioluke​ @mayve-hems​ @morguelth @galactic-golden​

#calum hood writing #calum hood oneshot #calum hood angst #soulmate!calum #soulmate!au #calum angst #calum fluff #calum hood fanfiction #calum hood fic #5sos writing #5sos au #calum hood au

[kpopprincess416]

My Favorite K-Pop Songs (Incomplete)

A.C.E: Undercover, Savage

aespa: Black Mamba

Agust D: Agust D, Daechwita

APink: NoNoNo

ASTRO: Blue Flame, Baby

ATEEZ: HALA HALA, Say My Name, Pirate King, Treasure, Illusion, Wave, Aurora, Wonderland, Answer, THANXX, Inception, Fireworks (I’m The One)

Baekhyun: UN Village, Stay Up (feat. Beenzino), Diamond, Candy, All I Got, Cry For Love

Beast: Fiction

BIGBANG: Fantastic Baby, Bang Bang Bang, Last Dance

Blackpink: How You Like That, Lovesick Girls, Kill This Love, Whistle, Boombayah, DDU-DU DDU-DU

BoA: Better, No. 1

Boys Republic: Get Down

THE BOYZ: No Air, The Stealer

BTS: We Are Bulletproof (Pt. 2), Run, Dope, Fire, Save Me, Blood Sweat & Tears, Begin, Lie, Spring Day, Not Today, Boy In Luv, Tomorrow, Cypher Pt. 2 (Triptych), N.O, I Need U, Moving On, House of Cards, Black Swan, Louder Than Bombs, Mic Drop, On, Dionysus, Boy With Luv (Feat. Halsey), Home, DNA, Dimple, FAKE LOVE, The Truth Untold, Magic Shop, So What, Idol, Euphoria, Serendipity, Epiphany, Airplane Pt. 2, Danger, Heartbeat, Stay Gold, War of Hormone, Life Goes On

Chanyeol: SSFW

Chen: Beautiful Goodbye, Watch Out

Chung Ha: Snapping, Stay Tonight, Bicycle

CIX: Cinema, Jungle

CL: Hello Bitches

CLC: Hobgoblin, Helicopter, Black Dress, No

D.O & Yoo Youngjin: Tell Me (What Is Love)

DALsooobin: Katchup

DKB: Sorry Mama, Rose

DREAMCATCHER: BOCA, Break The Wall, Odd Eye, Chase Me, Good Night, You & I, Endless Night, Deja Vu, Scream

EVERGLOW: Bon Bon Chocolat, Dun Dun, La Di Da, Adios

EXO: Lightsaber, Love Me Right, Drop That, Tempo, Sign, Gravity, Bad Dream, Lucky One, Monster, Artificial Love, White Noise, Cloud 9, Growl, Mama, History, What Is Love, Overdose, For Life, Lotto, Love Shot, Obsession, Power, Universe, Call Me Baby, Eldorado, Playboy, Thunder, The Eve, Ko Ko Bop, What U Do, Forever, Going Crazy, Chill, Lucky

EXO-CBX: Hey Mama!

f(x): Electric Shock, Red Light, 4 Walls

(G)I-DLE: DUMDi DUMDi, LATATA, Oh my god, 

GAIN: Paradise Lost

GD & TAEYANG: GOOD BOY

GHOST9: SEOUL

Girls Day: Something

Girls Generation: I Got A Boy, Hoot, The Boys, Catch Me If You Can, Party

GOT7: Breath, You Calling My Name, Not By The Moon, Never Ever, Hard Carry, If You Do, Lullaby, Just Right

History: Might Just Die, Queen

Hwasa: Maria

HyunA: Bubble Pop, I’m Not Cool, Good Girl, Red

iKON, Bling Bling, Love Scenario, RHYTHM TA

INFINITE: The Eye

ITZY: DALLA DALLA, ICY, WANNABE, Not Shy

IZ: Memento

IZ*ONE: FIESTA, Panorama

IU: Palette (Feat. G-Dragon), Eight (Feat. Suga)

Jackson Wang: Pretty Please

Jennie (of Blackpink): Solo

Jessi: Nunu Nana

Kai: Mmmh

KARD: Bomb Bomb, Dumb Litty, Gunshot

Lay: Lit, Namanana

MAMAMOO: AYA, Egotistic, Hip

MCND: Ice Age, Spring

MOMOLAND: Baam, Bboom BBoom

MONSTA X: Who Do U Love?, Stuck, Shoot Out, Fighter, Beautiful, Oi, FANTASIA, Beautiful Night, ZONE, Love Killa, Follow, DRAMARAMA, Newton, Hero,  Alligator, Shine Forever

NCT: BOSS,Baby Don’t Stop, TOUCH, Black On Black,  

NCT 127: Wakey Wakey, Chain, Gimme Gimme, Fire Truck, Cherry Bomb, Baby Don’t Like It, Limitless, Kick It, Regular, SIMON SAYS, Highway To Heaven, Superhuman, Punch

NCT Dream: Chewing Gum, My First and Last, Ridin’, Boom, We Go Up 

NCT U: From Home, Make A Wish (Birthday Song), Coming Home, Boss, The 7th Sense

NU’EST: Bet Bet

Oh My Girl: Twilight

PENTAGON: Sha La La, Shine, Humph, Basquiat, Dr, Bebe, Daisy

PinkFantasy: Lemon Candy

PRISTIN: Black Widow

Rain: Rainism

Red Velvet: Bad Boy, RBB(Really Bad Boy), Peek-A-Boo, Psycho, Red Flavor, Dumb Dumb, Zimzalabim, Russian Roulette, 

Red Velvet- Irene & Selugi: Monster

REDSQUARE: ColorFull

Rose: On The Ground

SEVENTEEN:  Mansae, Left & Right, Hit, Fear, HOME;RUN, Clap, Don’t Wanna Cry, Shining Diamond, Highlight, Very Nice

SF9: Good Guy, Now Or Never

SHINee: Don’t Call Me, Lucifer, Married To The Music, Replay, Sherlock (Clue + Note), Dream Girl, Everybody, Ring Ding Dong

SISTAR: Touch My Body

Solar: Spit It Out

SOMI: Birthday

STRAY KIDS: Miroh, Double Knot, God’s Menu, Hellevator, District 9, My Pace, I am YOU, Back Door 

Sunmi: Gashina

SUPER JUNIOR: Devil, Sorry Sorry, Mr. Simple, Bonamana, Magic, Mamacita

SuperM: Jopping, One (Monster & Infinity), 100, Tiger Inside

T-ARA: Sugar Free

Taemin: Move, Criminal

TAEYANG: RingaLinga, Eyes Nose Lips

TXT: Can’t You See Me, 9 and Three Quarters (Run Away), Cat & Dog, Crown, Blue Hour

Treasure: Boy, I Love You

TVXQ: Catch Me, Mirotic

TWICE: I Can’t Stop Me, Fancy, Feel Special, More & More, Cheer Up, Dance The Night Away, Knock Knock, Likey, Yes Or Yes, TT

UP10TION: So Dangerous

VIXX: Chained Up, Scentist, Shangri-La

VICTON: What I Said

Wanna One: Boomerang

WayV: Turn Back Time, Bad Alive (English Version), Kick Back, Moon Walk, Love Talk, Take Off

WINNER: Really Really

Wonho: Open Mind, Lose

Woo!Ah!: I Don’t Miss U

X1: Flash

2NE1: Come Back Home, I Am The One, I Love You, Falling In Love

2PM: A.D.T.O.Y., Take Off, Hands Up

4MINUTE: Crazy, Hate

Park Hyoshin: Wild Flower

Day6: Congratulations, Days Gone By, Time Of Our Lives, Shoot Me, I Wait

T.O.P: Doom Dada

ONEUS: Vlakyrie, Lit

AB6IX & Lee Dae Hwi: Rose Scent Kiss

B1A4: A Lie

EXID: Me & You,Ah Yeah

Taeyeon: I (Feat. Verbal Jint)

I.O.I:  Whatta Man (Good Man), Dream Girls

CLC: Me

3YE: Stalker

Wendy: Like Water

[skeptycats]

Vicky Archives #5

FIRESTAR’S QUEST - storyline vs manuscript 

Vicky Holmes, the former editor of the Warriors series, has been doing short extract readings on Facebook since the start of the UK lockdown back in March. There’s some really cool anecdotes hidden within some of these videos, so I decided to begin penning them down for posterity and easy reference.

I won’t be transcribing filler, hedging and false starts but I’m including some amount of preamble just to be comprehensive.

#1 Into the Wild | #2 Forest of Secrets | #3 The Darkest Hour | #4 Code of the Clans | #5 Firestars’ Quest | #6 Twilight | #7 Long Shadows | #8 Leafpool’s Wish

---

Good morning! Welcome back to my kitchen!

Today I’m in a slightly more positive mood and I hope you are too. It’s a very weird time. Today I’m going to talk about the difference between the storyline and the manuscript, because it is still very unclear what actually I do, what contribution I make to the books that I’ve worked on with Kate and Cherith. 

Basically, in saying that I come up with the stories and the characters, what I actually do is create a very detailed storyline that Kate or Cherith then turn into the manuscript, and then I work on that manuscript and edit it and change little bits just to make sure that it sounds like Erin. It tells the story I had in mind. 

I think the best way to illustrate this is I’m going to read a section of storyline, and then actually the finished book. I’m going to use Firestar’s Quest for this. The reason for that, is there’s a line in Firestar’s Quest which several of you have picked out as one of your favourite lines, and that is when Firestar is told by Bluestar about SkyClan, and the fact that there used to be five Clans in the forest and now there’s only four. Bluestar says ‘oh, look at Fourtrees, there’s only four trees, not five’. And Firestar says ‘are you telling me that SkyClan had to leave because there weren’t enough trees?’

That is one of my favourite lines, and I came up with it in the storyline. I don’t want to detract at all from Cherith’s brilliant writing, but it might be interesting for you to compare the detail I’ve put into the storyline with what actually emerges in the first draft. 

I’m going to read the storyline from that scene, and then I will read the final draft you got to read. The scene is Chapter 5 in Firestar’s Quest, when Firestar has been having these strange dreams about another Clan, this idea that they’re pleading to him for help but he doesn’t seem to be receiving any guidance from StarClan. He dreams of Bluestar at this time because Firestar’s Quest is set between series one and two, so Bluestar is dead by now and Firestar is the leader of ThunderClan. He dreams of her and says ‘what’s going on? What do I have to do?’ and Bluestar says ‘well, actually yes there was a fifth Clan, a long time ago, and maybe they’re asking for your help, but there’s nothing in the warrior code that says you have to help them’. She’s kind of evasive. 

This is the storyline. I’m reading it from my laptop. It’s all tech all the time here. Now one curiosity of storylines across the whole publishing world is storylines are written in the present tense, and actual novels rarely are in children’s fiction, so I’m going to be reading in the present tense. This is the storyline. 

“Why has StarClan asked for my help?” Firestar asks. Bluestar admits she can’t answer that but she has always known Firestar would leave resonant pawprints behind him. Maybe his influence extends beyond ThunderClan, and across many, many generations of cats. But she warns Firestar that his own Clan needs him too, and there is nothing in the warrior code that says he has to go and help these cats. 

Firestar knows he’s right, but he is torn. Has StarClan been lying to him all this time? The only way he found the courage to win against BloodClan is because he believed his warrior ancestors when they told him there would always be four Clans in the forest, protected forever by the fifth Clan - StarClan. What does this mean for the warrior code? Is that based on a lie too? 

Bluestar can tell Firestar is feeling angry and confused, and she tries to calm him by reminding him that his warrior ancestors have always watched over him. His duty is to his own Clan now. SkyClan left long ago. No living cat remembers them, and life in the forest is balanced perfectly between the four remaining Clans. There is no gap where there used to be, no surplus of prey or territory.

She mentions the theory about the four giant oaks, and Firestar stares at her with contempt. “SkyClan was driven out because there weren’t enough trees?”

Bluestar looks shocked and dismayed, but Firestar whips around and races to the edge of the hollow. He plunges up the slope, feeling brambles tear at his fur, but he doesn’t care. He has been betrayed by his own Clan’s warrior ancestors, and everything he’s fought for seems to have turned to dust. 

Panting, he awakes at the Moonstone. His fur is standing on end and his paws are bleeding as if he has run a long way over stony ground. The moon has gone behind a cloud and the cavern is pitch dark. He makes his way blindly to the surface and sits on a rock. Stars shine overhead but Firestar cannot see the kindly eyes of his warrior ancestors in their light now. 

Poor, tortured, homeless SkyClan. Where are they now? And why has he started seeing them? Is he meant to help them? But how? They were driven out of the forest so long ago. No cat remembers them. 

That was my storyline. And my storyline - to put in context - for Firestar’s Quest was thirty five thousand words long. Firestar’s Quest was about one hundred and sixteen thousand words long, so I’m writing nearly a quarter of the final manuscript. 

Now I’m going to read to you what Cherith did with that piece of storyline. 

“Firestar, are there bees in your brain?” Bluestar’s tail lashed. “You are ThunderClan’s leader, and your Clan needs you. There’s nothing in the warrior code that says you have to help a Clan that has been missing for so long, no living cat remembers them.”

Firestar narrowed his eyes. Bluestar was right about his responsibility toward ThunderClan, but he couldn’t forget the wailing of the cats on the moor. How could he ignore them, if there was anything he could do to help? It wasn’t Bluestar’s dreams that were filled with the shrieks of terrified, fleeing cats; she didn’t see a pleading, haunted face in every pool of water.

And yet the only reason he had found the courage to lead the forest Clans into battle against BloodClan was because he had believed his warrior ancestors when they told him there had always been four Clans in the forest. The fifth Clan was StarClan, forever protecting the four below. Had StarClan lied? 

Bluestar rested her tail tip on his shoulder and spoke more calmly. “Your warrior ancestors are watching over you now, just as they have always done. Nothing has changed. Yourduty is to your own Clan now.” 

“But SkyClan—”

“Has gone. There is no gap where they used to be, no prey or territory waiting for them to return. The forest is perfectly divided between the four Clans who remain.” 

“Then it’s the will of StarClan that I just ignore these cats?” Firestar challenged her. “Don’t you care that they are suffering?”

Bluestar blinked. “There are cats who would argue that there should never have been a fifth Clan in the forest at all. Why are there four oaks at Fourtrees, if not to stand for the four Clans?”

Firestar gazed up at the massive oak trees, then back at Bluestar. Fury pure as a lightning flash rushed through his body. “Are you mouse-brained?” he snarled. “Are you telling me SkyClan had to leave because there weren’t enough trees?” 

A look of shock and dismay filled Bluestar’s eyes. Not waiting for her reply, Firestar whipped around and raced to the edge of the hollow. Brambles tore at his fur as he plunged through the bushes, but the pain meant nothing. Ever since he came to the forest he had trusted his warrior ancestors. But they had been lying to him all along. He felt as if he had taken a step on ground he thought was solid, only to fall into deep and bitter water.

He fought his way through the last of the bushes, but instead of reaching the rim of the hollow, he found himself blinking awake in the cavern of the Moonstone. His breath was coming in harsh rasps. His fur felt torn and rumpled. His paws stung, and when he licked them he tasted the salty tang of blood, as if he had been running a long way over stony ground.

Far above, through the hole in the roof, clouds covered the moon and stars. The cave was utterly dark. Firestar rose to his paws and limped across the cave floor, close to panic until he stumbled into the entrance to the tunnel. When he emerged onto the side of the hill a stiff breeze was shredding the clouds like wet cobweb. Firestar caught only fitful glimpses of the moon, but stars were shining overhead once more.

He crawled onto the flat rock where he had waited earlier and collapsed there, gazing upward. He could not see the kindly eyes of his warrior ancestors in the starlight any longer. The desperate cries of the lost and tortured SkyClan echoed through his mind. How am I meant to help them?

All those cats must be dead by now. They had fled so long ago that no cat remembered them. But where were their descendants, the living SkyClan?

That will give you a little glimpse at what Cherith and Kate bring to my storyline. They bring the location, the details, the metaphor, and flesh out the bones that I’ve created. I just think those two sections give a very clear demonstration of the way I work, and the way we work together as a team, and what I bring. 

I just hope that’s been an interesting glimpse into the writing process. Stay strong, my lovelies. We’re getting through this together. Bye!

#vicky archives #warrior cats #warriors #firestar #bluestar #firestar's quest #not designs

[sunny-cucumber]

My Top 150 Kpop Songs

I am putting together a list of my top 150 kpop songs, this list only reflect songs and groups I personally really enjoy and have stuck in my mind after all these years, this list will lean heavily towards boy groups as I dont have many girl groups I enjoy, I will be counting sub-units and solo work separate from group work, I also acknowledge this list might be missing great songs by certain groups, not because I dont think they deserve to be here but because I forgot the songs or groups existed. I am to the best of my ability going as far back in my memory to songs from 2006, as thats roughly when I got into kpop (actually think I started really listening in 2008 but I back tracked to learn certain groups early work once I found groups I liked). (for some groups I have limited myself to 2 picks, they are songs I enjoy but also songs that show different sides to the groups I really like). And now I present to you MY top 150 kpop songs (in alphabetical order by group) 

1. 2PM-Again and Again 2. 2PM-Heartbeat 3. 2ne1-It Hurts 4. 2ne1-Hate You 5. Astro-Knock 6. Apink-Dumhdurum 7. AB6IX-Breath 8. Ateez-HALA HALA 9. AOA-Bing Bing 10. AOA-Bingle Bangle 11. B.A.P-1004(angel) 12. B.A.P-Rain Sound 13. Block B-Toy 14. Boys Republic-The Real One 15. Bada-MAD 16. Big Bang-Sunset Glow 17. Big Bang-LIE 18. BTS-Blood Sweat and Tears 19. BTS-Save Me 20. The BOYZ-No Air 21. The BOYZ-Reveal 22. Baekhyun-UN Village 23. BEAST-Fiction 24. BEAST-Breath 25. Brown eyed girls-Abracadabra 26. Brown eyed girls-Sign 27. Clazziquai-Romeo n Juliet 28. Clazziquai-Tell Yourself 29. Co-Ed School-Bbiribbom BBaeribbom 30. Day6-You Were Beautiful 31. Day6-Letting Go 32. Dean-D(Half Moon) 33. Dean-Instagram 34. DBSK-Wrong Number 35. DBSK-Mirotic 36. EXO-Lucky One 37. EXO-Overdose 38. EXO CBX-Blooming Days 39. Fromis_9-Love Bomb 40. F(x)-Red Light 41. F(x)-Nu ABO 42. FT Island-Love Love Love 43. FT Island-Hello Hello 44. GFriend-Fingertip 45. GWSN-Puzzle Moon 46. GWSN-BAZOOKA! 47. Golden Child-Wannabe 48. Golden Child-Without You 49. GOT7-Lullaby 50. GOT7- Stop Stop It 51. Girl's Generation-Genie 52. Girl's Generation-Hoot 53. G Dragon-Heartbreaker 54. G Dragon-She's Gone 55. Heize-Jenga 56. Hotshot-Jelly 57. History-Psycho 58. History-What am I to You 59. Ikon-Killing Me 60. Infinite-The Chaser 61. Infinite-The Eye 62. Infinite H-Pretty 63. Jonghyun-She Is 64. Jonghyun-Hallelujah 65. Jimin-Serendipity 66. Jimin-Lie 67. Jus2-Focus 68. Jay Park-Metronome 69. JJ Project-Bounce 70. KNK-Sunset 71. Kara-Lupin 72. Kara-Pandora 73. Kim Hyung Joon-Oh! Ah! 74. Lee Hi-Breathe 75. LOONA-Odd Eye Circle 76. Ladies Code-Pretty Pretty 77. Ladies Code- The Rain 78. Luna-Save Somebody 79. Monsta X-Play it Cool 80. Monsta X-Dramarama 81. Miss A-Breathe 82. Miss A-Touch 83. Mamamoo-Peppermint Chocolate 84. MBLAQ-Y 85. MBLAQ-Smoky Girl 86. NCT U-Baby Don't Stop 87. NCT127-Superhuman 88. NCT127-Simon Says 89. NCT Dream-BOOM 90. NCT Dream-Ridin 91. Nu'est-Overcome 92. Nu'est-Bet Bet 93. ONF(on and off)-We Must Love 94. ONF(on and off)-Complete 95. Oh! My Girl-Liar Liar 96. Oh! My Girl-Closer 97. Oneus-Twilight 98. Ong Seong Wu-Gravity 99. Orange Caramel-Catallena 100. Pentagon-Sha la la 101. Red Velvet-Peekaboo 102. The Rose-Baby 103. Rainbow-Mach 104. Seventeen-Oh My! 105. Seventeen-Home 106. SF9-Easy Love 107. SF9-Now or Never 108. SHINee-Sherlock (Clue + Note) 109. SHINee-Symptoms 110. Super Junior-It's You 111. Super Junior-Don't Don 112. Super Junior T-Rokkugo 113. SuperM-With You 114. SuperM-Dangerous Woman 115. Shinhwa-This Love 116. Shinhwa-Sniper 117. Sunny Hill-Midnight Circus 118. Sunny Hill-Pray 119. Speed-Zombie Party 120. Secret-Poison 121. Sistar-Alone 122. Stellar-Sting 123. Stellar-Vibrato 124. Sunmi-Heroine 125. Sunmi-Gashina 126. Taemin-Move 127. Taemin-Drip Drop 128. Taeyong-Long Flight 129. Ten-New Heroes 130. Teen Top-Supa Luv 131. TWICE-Feel Special 132. TWICE-Likey 133. Toheart-Delicious 134. Taeyang-I'll Be There 135. Taeyang-Where U AT 136. TARA-Sexy Love 137. TARA-Bo Peep Bo Peep 138. Tiffany Young-Magnetic Moon 139. UKiss-Neverland 140. Up10ton-Your gravity 141. Uhm Jung Hwa-Ending Credit 142. VIXX-On and On 143. VIXX-Dynamite 144. VIXX LR-Beautiful Liar 145. Wanna One-Spring breeze 146. X1-Flash 147. Yezi-Home 148. Zico-Any Song 149. Zin Tae Hwa-Fallen Angel 150. ZE:A-Pheonix

#kpop

[adamsdoyle]

My girlfriend asked me to make her a list of works of fantasy and science fiction so should could feel keyed into references when they come up in conversation. She wanted to feel more grounded in these genres, which she likes, but hasnt made the effort to be on top of everything.

I was happy to compile the most important names, but told her it couldn’t be a short list because recognizing the works of today means honoring their origins, which goes way back into our past. 

What’s below is my best effort to include what I assess to be the most culturally relevant becoming, tempering my favorites, and trying to keep it from being totally overwhelming. I’ve left off works from the past five to ten years because it can take a span of time before we're aware the effects new ideas may have. Felt like sharing here in case you or your friends want a crash course on the bedrock of our imagined landscape. I do try to be globally aware, however this list will reflect my bias as a white, straight, male who grew up in the States. And as this is an ongoing conversation between her and myself, I wanted to be able to vouch for the contents.

-Key-

(Wiki)  Read up for cultural significance *         Personal Favorite +        Hugely influential ^        Non-Essential but worth listing

-Literature-

8,000 BC Aboriginal mythology (pre written language)

2,300 BC Egyptian & Chinese myths+

1,000 BC The Old Testament+

900 BC Greek myths, fables, and all the rest

300 BC - 1800 AD Folk and fairy tales+

1000 AD Beowulf (Wiki)

1100s Legend of King Arthur+ 1200s Norse mythology+

1300s The Inferno - Dante Alighieri+

1500s A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Shakespeare

1600s Paradise Lost*

1700s Gulliver’s Travels The Arabian Nights (Wiki)

1800s Faust Frankenstein* - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly+ Grimm’s fairy tales+ (Wiki brothers, who collected folktales) The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde* Dracula - Bram Stoker+ Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll+ Flatland The Time Machine & War of the Worlds - HG Wells+ (godfather of SF) Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne+ The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe+

1900s Peter Pan - JM Barry The Comet - WEB Dubois Little Nemo in Slumberland - Winsor McCay The Book of Wonder - Lord Dunsany (less known now, he was highly influential in his time for fantasy & mythos) The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka+ (Einstein’s Theory of Relativity) The Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum+ John Carter of Mars - (Wiki) Call of Cthulhu or The Outsider - HP Lovecraft+ Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (Teacher of Orwell https://bit.ly/2xayA23) 1984 - George Orwell+ Amazing Stories magazine - John Campbell+ (writer & editor)

After 1950 Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien+ Chronicles of Narnia* - CS Lewis I Am Legend - Richard Matheson (The first real zombie story. Also wrote for Twilight Zone) Childhood’s End - Arthur C Clarke+ I, Robot - Isaac Asimov+ Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury Funes the Memorious or The Garden of Forking Paths - Borges+ Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut Wizard of Earthsea or The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula LeGuin Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein Dune Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak The Neverending Story* ^The Man in the High Castle Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - (inspired Bladerunner) Philip K Dick+ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy A Wrinkle in Time The Stand - Stephen King+

After 1980 Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino Xanth series* Communion - (True account of alien abduction) Neuromancer - William Gibson+ Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton+ Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson Ender’s Game* - Orson Scott Card Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler A Song of Ice & Fire - George RR Martin ^Hunger Games Harry Potter - JK Rowling+ Who Fears Death

-Comics/Superheroes-

-DC Comics- Superman (Wiki how he came to be) Wonder Woman (Wiki how she came to be or watch Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. Very interesting) Batman (and Joker) The Sandman - Neil Gaiman Watchmen* - Alan Moore+

-Marvel Comics- Spiderman* (Wiki how he came to be) X Men* Avengers (the hugely popular films all started with decades of comics) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* Hellboy*

-Games- Dungeons & Dragons+ Magic the Gathering Netrunner

-Artists & Illustrators-

1100-1200 Anonymous monk’s illuminated manuscript creatures - https://bit.ly/2Ynytf7

1400s Hieronomous Bosch+ Leonardo DaVinci Michelangelo+ 1500s Arcimboldo

1800s Gustav Doré+ Howard Pyle JW Waterhouse

1900s Maxfield Parish NC Wyeth+ Sir John Tenniel Windsor McCay+ Arthur Rackham - fairy tales Jack Kirby - superhero comics Margaret Brundage - Weird Tales covers Picasso - Cubism Chesley Bonestell - space travel, integral to NASA Frank Frazetta MC Escher Heinrich Kley Sun Ra - Afrofuturist musician

After 1980 Jeff Easley - D&D Jim Lee - X Men Michael Whelan  H.R. Giger - Alien films Brian Froud  Syd Mead - design of Bladerunner & other films Roger Dean - album covers Jean Giraud aka Moebius Bill Waterson - Calvin & Hobbes Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon James Gurney - Dinotopia Alan Lee - Lord of the Rings Alex Ross - superheroes Chris Van Allsburg Mike Mignola - Hellboy Mary GrandPré - Harry Potter

-Radio-

1930s -1950s Flash Gordon War of the Worlds (Wiki Orson Welles’ radio hoax) Buck Rogers The Shadow and much more in the ensuing years, including adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide

-TV Shows-

After 1950s Twilight Zone - Rod Serling Lost in Space Star Trek - (Wiki) Gene Roddenberry Dr Who (Wiki) The Jetsons (Wiki) Cosmos - Carl Sagan+ (Science fact)

After 1980s Transformers Quantum Leap Twin Peaks - David Lynch (not really either genre but impact has been undeniable) Buffy the Vampire Slayer* - Joss Whedon X Files* Neon Genesis Evangelion

After 2000 Firefly - Joss Whedon Lost* - JJ Abrams Battlestar Galactica Black Mirror* Game of Thrones Westworld* - reboot of Michael Crichton 1970s film

-Films-

1900s King Kong (Wiki) The Wizard of Oz+ Fantasia- Disney+ Monster movies- Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein (Wiki)

After 1950 Godzilla+ (Wiki) Seven Samurai or Hidden Fortress - Akira Kurosawa+ (Not SF or fantasy but influential) The 7th Voyage of Sinbad - Special effects by Ray Harryhausen (Wiki) Invasion of the Body Snatchers 2001 A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick+ (Wiki) Planet of the Apes Night of the Living Dead+ (Wiki) Superman #Star Wars Trilogy - George Lucas (owing to Joseph Campbell’s monomyth)+

After 1980 Bladerunner* - Ridley Scott ^Legend Mad Max series Alien or sequel Aliens Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind - Steven Spielberg+ ET Star Trek series Back to the Future Brazil - Terry Gilliam+ Tron+ Ghostbusters* Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure* The Princess Bride* Labyrinth* The Terminator & Terminator 2* - James Cameron+ Akira The Fifth Element Robocop Beetlejuice ^Nightmare Before Xmas* Jurassic Park - Steven Spielberg+ The City of Lost Children* The Iron Giant* 12 Monkeys Groundhog Day* The Sixth Sense Ghost in the Shell (1995 anime) Gattaca* Donnie Darko* Starship Troopers (tongue in cheek adaptation of Heinlein’s classic) The Matrix*

After 2000 Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon My Neighbor Totoro or Spirited Away - Hayao Miyazaki ^Underworld Minority Report Lord of the Rings Primer ^The Incredibles Shaun of the Dead*  Pan’s Labyrinth - Guillermo del Toro Moon* Marvel Cinematic Universe ^Idiocracy Inception* &/or Interseller - Christopher Nolan+

#scifi #fantasy #essential #list #stories #collection #visionary #narratives #homework #crashcourse #genre #bestof

[adamburt1984]

(All) My Favorite Fictional Characters (Updated)

Comic Books: Superman, Batman, Captain Britain, Union Jack,The Punisher, Deadpool, The Flash, Spawn, Spider man, Hulk, Judge Dredd, Rorschach, X-23, Psylock

Animes/Mangas: Chi (Chi’s Sweet Home/New Address), Akame (Akame ga Kill), Chelsea (Akame Ga Kill), Suzuha Amane (Steins gate), Black Rock Shooter, Saitama (One Punch man), Karen Araragi, Ouka Yuuouji, Kyouko Krigiri (Danganronpa), Karuta Roromiya (Inu x Boku SS), Tatsumaki (One Punch Man), Genos (One Punch Man), Arthur Kirkland/England/Britain (Hetalia), Kurumi Ebisuzawa (School Live), Sailor Saturn (Sailor Moon), Sailor Pluto (Sailor Moon), Sailor Mars (Sailor Moon), Haru & her siblings (My Roommate is a cat), Raphtalia (The Rising of the Shield Hero), Naofumi Iwatani (The Rising of The Shield Hero), Filo (The Rising of The Shield Hero), Melty Q Melromarc (The Rising of The Shield Hero)

Cartoons: Ty Lee,  Groundskeeper Willy, Kitty (TMNT 2012), Unikitty, Puppycorn

My Little Pony/Equestria Girls: Derpy, Sunset Shimmer, Lemon Zest, Snowdrop, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Maud Pie, Vinyl Scartch, Minuette, Lyra, Bon Bon, Octivia, Princess Luna, Princess Celestria, Stralight Glimour, Sonata Dusk, Aria Blaze, Starlight (Purple pig-tail hair girl) Britainna, The Clarion Call, Cheese Sandwhich

Video games: Spyro the dragon, Sparx the dragonfly, Obera Dia Vanille, Cammy White, Solid Snake, Cole McGrath, Marie Rose (Dead or Alive series), Honona (Dead or Alive series), Kasmui (Dead or Alive series), Hitomi (Dead or Alive), Lara Croft, Red Dress/Checkpoint fairy (Spyro Reignited Trilogy), Zoe (Spyro Reignited Trilogy), SuperFlame/Kiss Fairy (Spyro Reignited Trilogy), Fauns from Fracture Hills (Spyro Reignited Trilogy), Bianca (Spyro Reignited Trilogy), Sheila (Spyro Reignited Trilogy), Sgt Byrd (Spyro Reignited Trilogy), Elora (Spyro Reignited Trilogy)

Movie: BB8, Thunder (the House of Magic), Minons, Porgs, Boba Fretts, Stormtroopers, Unikitty

TV: Daleks, Cyberman, Tardis, Harry the Lizard (Death in Paradise), The Doctor (Doctor Who)

Story: Sherlock Homles

Other: Hatsune Miku, Rin Kagamine, Kaai Yuki, Kasane Teto, Wendys, IA, One (Cevio)

#fictional characters #anime characters #manga characters #cartoon characters #video game characters #movie characters #anime #manga #cartoons #movies #tv #tv characters #comic book #comic book charcters #story #my litle pony friendship is magic #mlp characters #video games #vocaloids

[phoenixrising23]

Moonlight Sonata

“

So this is a twilight fan fiction, with my own characters but all rights go to Stephanie Myers 

Chapter 1 - Remembrance under the moon 

I don’t remember when I went to sleep outside, as a matter of fact I don’t even remember getting outside in the first place . . . It’s been years since I last step foot on these grounds, what has brought me back here? More importantly why has it brought me back here. 

Last night I arrived for the first time since I was younger . Forks Washington I swear this town has gotten smaller since the last time I was here, I was taken away from this place by my father a few days after my mom died. And it wasn’t until a few months ago that I decided to return here I remember when I decided to tell my father that I was leaving he was so damn happy  for me to final  be out of his hair. See when I was younger after the death of my mother I found out I had uh hell how do I put this special abilities, after my father found out he shipped me away to a private school for young children that had special abilities. Around the time I was in my Special school  I kept having these dreams, these dreams of moonlight, as well as Golden eyes also believe me or not the smell of the moon and lavender. It wasn’t until last night that I remembered the letter I got from my childhood friend Bella Swan about a group of people that she had met, the Cullen's I believe that was their name.   “ Jax hey are you awake?” “Yeah Bells I am awake” “Good because we need to get ready” “Oh yeah shit I forgot that we have to go to school” “Hey uh Bella did you happen to see just how did I end up outside last night?” “ No I didn’t even hear you leave the house, anyways come on breakfast is ready and there are a few people I want you to meet before we leave”  “Wait who am I meeting?” The Cullen’s ... “Oh great”. 

Downstairs -  “What is he thinking?” “Alice I don’t know damn it he is just like Bella I can’t read his mind”. “But you sense it don’t you the mysterious power around him?” “Yes I do its quite strange really it seems like he is covered by moonlight and Ash from a fire,” “His heart beats a different beat almost as if he doesn’t one but yet he does it’s so faint that it’s going to be hard to tell if he is alive or not”. “Alice can you see his future?” “No there is nothing, not even a flash but I have a feeling he is going to be important”. As the two siblings stop there banter back and forth they here the two humans well at least they think two humans make their way down to them and the rest of their family. But neither Alice nor Edward notice their sister Rosalie holding a breath she doesn’t really need to hold.  

#Twilight #Fanfiction #rosalie hale

[clarekaysen]

Daddys little nightmare

The rain outside pelted down. As I snuggled under the covers, an ambiance of shadows and eeriness crept across my room. A room where I already had a foreboding feeling of ghosts looming behind the attic door. The only light was the intruding street lamps. On this October night, my dad wanted me to hear something. Now, I can't remember if he forewarned me that this was just fiction, a play over the radio, like what he had as entertainment when he was my age. But in my mind this was real, it was happening. A crackly urgent voice started to speak an alarmist tale of an invasion. A foreign invasion of the space kind. Aliens, monstrous creatures had landed and were by no means coming in peace. They turned the earth into a moon, pressing craters and walking diligently, a path of destruction. One giant step back for mankind. My eyes adjusted to the mood and a terrified excitement arose. Is this real life? Why aren’t they in Woodbury yet? And I waited for them eagerly, patiently. That night Orson Welles cracked open my imagination like a can of beer and gulped it back.

The soundtrack to trips to my grandfathers were more creepy tales. Laying my ears upon the Tale of Sleepy Hollow had me staring out at the mountains just hoping to catch a flash of the headless horsemans cape. Since then I’ve welcomed the dark, the sinister, the spooky. On our treks to the library I would go immediately to the Goosebumps section, devouring every creepy little detail I could get my spindly hands on. Babysitters getting phone calls from within the house, abominable yetis, possessed dummies, witches; all these nightmares lit up my dreams. 

I had a pretty safe childhood, safe as you can be in the unattended-ness of the 90s. I had caring parents, my own bedroom, Sunday school and Friday nights just me and TGIF on the tv. Maybe this is why I craved the morbid, an obscene break from my polished life. I was also no stranger to death though. My parents had me at a later stage in life and I was always in attendance at grandparents, this and that great relatives funerals. I felt I was constantly surrounded, at an early age, by the musk of lilies and a hushed silence only brought about by the dead. Not to mention having a cemetery as a playground with the neighborhood kids. 

My escape were these macabre tales. One that I will never let go of, is a tale of the girl with the green ribbon. Jenny mysteriously always wore an emerald ribbon around her neck. Happily married and had lived a full life she was now on her deathbed. She allows her husband to release the ribbon that he had always harped on her about. Her head abruptly falls off. The suspense, the questioning, the intrigue, I loved being frightened. I loved that teetering on the edge of something so steep and suspicious. The falling feeling of adrenaline and the crashing of the climax of these stories left me always seeking out more. I’d turn to Mary Higgins Clark, Lois Duncan, Alvin Schwartz, Edgar Allen Poe and consume their symphonies that lulled my haunted mind.  

My dad allowed me to graduate to movies, shows, and anything that would have my mom fleeing the room. It was just me and dad staying up to watch X Files, Twilight Zone, Hitchcock movies (I always lock the bathroom door) and Jaws (I am terrified of the ocean). But that's okay, it's okay to have a little fear of the unknown. Without fear what good is excitement? They go hand in hand. Fearing the unknown is a lot like fearing death. You don't know what it's like on the other side and it's a tempestuous thing to flirt with. It's there, ever looming in the darkest corners of our minds. What's around the corner, what's in outer space, what’s after death, fear can keep you alive. If you can push through the unsettling plot points and grotesqueness that life can slap you with, you can come out more alive than ever. 

#horror memoir bookmemoir scarystories

[aiweirdness]

New My Little Ponies, designed by neural network

The Kingdom of Equestria is inhabited by thousands of colorful, magical ponies, whose life cycle, socioeconomics, and biomechanics are best not investigated too closely. Their names are usually something like “Rainbow Dash” or “Diamond Tiara” or (my favorite because she’s totally a grad student pony): ‘Twilight Sparkle”.

Often the plot calls for crowd scenes (usually involving ponies in great peril), and I worry that some day the creators of My Little Pony will run out of names. In the spirit of being helpful, I decided to put a computer to the task of generating lots of new ponies.

I used a program called a character-level recurrent neural network (char-rnn), which looks at examples of text (Pokemon, or Harry Potter fan fiction, or even guinea pig names) and learns to imitate them. I gave the neural network more than 1,500 names from My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Wiki, and let it start learning.

Result: partial success.

It did come up with some pretty plausible-sounding ponies, certainly not as weird as some of the ponies that have already appeared on the show (such as Groucho Mark and Button Mash and Buzzard Hooffield).

Star Blueberry Sprinkle Cherry Bolt Berry Spy Sweet Glints Cheer Belle Sunferry Sunshine Star Sweet Bolt Cherry Curls Mint Flower Bright Seas Flight Star Plum Flower Sweet Suns Brash Clouds Cheery Breath Cloudy Daze Big Blue Brass Flare Blue Chile Coco Mane Neon Brush Strawberry Sun Sugar Top Cinnamon Mark Glowberry Amethyst Mist

The neural network also came up with some seriously tough-sounding ponies, ones that you would definitely want on your side when fighting giant killer cupcakes, or whatever the peril is this week.

Cold Sting Scarline Shoot Bolt Sunder Bright Dark Role Sob Dancer Sunsrot Masked Rock Roar Starlich Command Pony Deader Pony Flint Sting Steel Roller Dark Candy Scarphore Creep Well Prince Still Stare Rust Crack Colder Sanderlash Bitter Star

But the neural network’s results weren’t all successful. It also came up with some ponies that probably wouldn’t be on the A-team.

Dunder Dort Tardy Pony Flunderlane Flueberry Sherry Marina Doof Want Cone Starf Dad Star Star Flurtershy Starly Star Mr. Atple Pony Pony Packy Pack Pinky Swoll Apple Apple Dim McColt Free Sing Fail Poney Hoof Tasting Spar Dirky Flithers Arple Robbler Chest Star Barp Moon Mr. Wander

It also invented some ponies that are just plain weird.

Lilie Lice Billy Boon Wootson Mice Full Fish Crest Suns Sun Ramen Breek Smarky Hondsarors Blither Bon Persy Belly Pony String Heart Swinkleshine Flint Cream Star Sandlime Rocky Scooppony Piemonk String Punch Apple Stork Bunny Maze Lilac Ruster Winker-Moon Charmy Vine Swan Break Wags Pine Pearlicket Nandy Quark Firey Up Tracklewock Packin Flustershovel Aoetel Pakeecuand Tapshine Sugar Cloudsdalou Sandy Apple Mitten Splash Silvermice Butter Flash Agar Swirl Cheese Breeze

And a list of ponies you might want to avoid:

Clotter Raspberry Turd Blueberry Pants Benny Sweat Parpy Stink Blue Cuss Groan Rear Pony Lace Crunk Rade Slime Derdy Star Swill Brick Colona Pocky Mire Hoofed Snarch Apple Ronch Trowel Pony Smanky Hank Princess Sweat

Pony pictures created using General Zoi’s Pony Creator

#neural networks #char-rnn #my little pony #my little pony friendship is magic #mlp #ponies #flustershovel