#*plots sewing projects just because she can*

[desceros]

Hello! Hope you're having a good day. Is it OK if I ask you a question?

How is it you manage to maintain really great flow with your readers POV in your long fic? For example, you maintain really good consistency with their thoughts and how the story is meant to be perceived so nothing seems sudden or out of the blue.

Do you reread your previous chapters a lot before posting the next or is it your beta reader who tracks this for you? Thank you for your time!

hello hello!! yes of course; i love getting questions like this. as for beta readers, i’ve never been one to use them. i support the practice fully. i just don’t have the patience to wait for feedback, hahaha!

mostly, this effect is because of my writing style, mechanically speaking. my writing is like knitting. as opposed to quilt-style writers, who can take little pieces of a story and sew them together at the end, i am a knitting-style writer, and i like to start at the bottom and gradually climb to the top. i write from beginning to end, and i like things to flow from a to b to c to d with as few gaps as i can get away with while still keeping things interesting.

i used to have an internal rule that i didnt like time skips because that’s time in the character’s life that could be used to develop them. while i’ve matured out of that, i still prefer to keep skips short, and i refer back to things that happened during those skips to keep that development. (an example in symphony is how i say that leo sends you funny memes all the time. i don’t show it, i tell it; but sometimes, telling is an economical alternative and the showing isn’t necessary for Every Little Detail.)

i can count on one hand the number of times i’ve written a scene out of order. writing out of order is a really good recommendation if you’re feeling stuck on a scene (just skip it and go to the next one you don’t feel stuck on) but i’ve… never been one to take that advice, haha. my writing builds and builds on itself over the course of the story, so if i miss a step, it’s more annoying later to sew it in. i just plow through the current scene like a stubborn mule cutting through clay.

a side effect of this is that my writing has very good flow, as you say. it takes a lot longer to write this way, and i have to trudge through less interesting scenes before i get to what i Really wanna write, which can be demotivating if im not excited enough for the project as a whole, buuuut… for a reader, i personally think it’s a superior experience. and there are times when i Never get stuck on a scene, and things just flow out of my hands like water. what a magical feeling that is when it happens! that’s how you can get absurd feats like me writing euclidean line in three days.

for my longer works, eg symphony, when i sit down to write, i skim the previous chapter to recall events. then i deep-read the last scene of that chapter (eg talking with leo at the end of chap. 22) and then i’ll start writing the next chapter. this makes sure that there’s continuity from the end of the previous chapter to the beginning of the next; and then because of the aforementioned way i write knitting-style, the new chapter is cohesive internally with itself. as a result, there is one long, continuous stream of flow that could be read from beginning to end without being jarring to do so.

besides all this, it really helps to have a strong mental picture of everything. what i mean is… i know who viola-chan is. how she talks. how she thinks. how she reacts to things. i can keep her very consistent from one scene to the next because i understand her. i know the plot of the fic very well. i know where i am and where i’m going in the story. i know the world i’ve built. i can weave all of these things together organically (almost like yarn, one could say, hoho…). a lot of power the author has comes from the establishment of strong characters living in a strong world and interacting with it via a strong plot. when those three things harmonize consistently over time, it creates a solid experience for the reader that Oh. This Is A Real Person In A Real Place Doing Real Things. Yeah. and that right there is the thing i think that all authors strive to improve every day.

anyway! wow! long answer. but thank you for such a thoughtful question!!

#ask tag #writing tag

[thelampisaflashlight]

Some simple headcanons, with a side of angst for your Friday night. Below the cut.

-Dew is really good at sewing, and used to repair the old ghoul uniforms before they got the money to buy new ones/were able to hire a professional to do it, but he still fixes the other ghouls’ clothes now and then if they ask.

He’s currently in the process of making a t-shirt quilt out of some of his old band tees as a little side project.

-Rain is not a great cook, but he does make the best fucking pancakes. They were the first thing he got to cook topside apart from scrambled eggs.

-Swiss likes being the little spoon, both because he loves cuddles, and because then he doesn’t feel like he’s trapping the other person there if they don’t want to be. 

The only exceptions to this rule are when he’s laying face to face with the other person, or when he’s snuggling with Cumulus.

He enjoys holding her.

-Sunshine can do cartwheels, and is generally very good at gymnastics/balance related things, to the point that everyone is convinced she might be part goat.

-Cirrus and Dew have watched every Adam Sandler movie together, and basically have the plots of “Blended” and “Just Go With It” memorized for no reason at all, and parrot lines from “Little Nicky” at each other all the time.

-Aether is 100% ride or die, and has gotten into a LOT of fights despite everyone thinking he’s not a fighter, and he has not regretted a single one.

-Mountain is well versed in sign language, and has given all the other ghouls sign names, some are more creative than others, but Rain is obviously Rain, and Dew is simplified to just “D” or a repeated “Dee-Dee” when Mountain is referring to him in an affectionate way.

-Cumulus is friends with a couple of the sisters from the abbey, and goes out with them pretty regularly, and basically has them as a sort of separate friend group from the other ghouls.

Cirrus doesn’t really get along with them, not because of anything bad, but because she doesn’t want to feel... replaced.

-Dew can smell changes in people’s blood sugar levels well enough that he can tell when someone is experiencing hypoglycemia just by catching a whiff of their breath, and while he has explained, numerous times, what the scent is like to the other ghouls and even the siblings, none of them seem to have as firm of a grasp on it as he does.

-Rain can make sand, or, more accurately, he can channel his water magic to erode rocks and make sand.

Once, Rain and Dew teamed up to see if they could make glass this way, with Rain making sand and Dew heating it, and as it would turn out: Yes, yes they can.

Neither of them, however, are exactly good at sculpting though, so the results were a pathetic little glass snake, which they gave to Imperator on Mother’s Day because, “Sure, why the fuck not?”

...She kept it.

And, lastly;

-Mountain has a secret greenhouse and adjoining cabin in the woods where he grows his “experimental” plants.

He has yet to elaborate on what that means, or where this mystical place might be.

Many have wandered in vain.

Except for Dew and Swiss.

They found that place in under an hour on a summer’s afternoon, and were lowkey disappointed to find out Mountain wasn’t growing monster amounts of weed, and was actually researching rare plants.

Neither of them left though, and now Mountain has guinea pigs lab partners.

#Lamp rambles #shitghosting #nameless ghouls #ghost band #ghost bc #the band ghost #ghost band headcanons #nameless ghoul headcanons

[lemonlightt]

qsmp hcs because i am so normal and not hyperfixated

(consisting of mariana, slimecicle, jaunaflipa, tilin, philza, chayanne, missa but i will add some of other streamers once i catch up on them & if i don't get flamed by the qsmp community. once qsmp expands more i may make another one of these (i will make another one of these in 2 weeks i have no thoughts but qsmphELPME!11!!1!!))

(i also have added some hcs i've seen on tumblr/twitter because they're all i can think about. btw looking for qsmp friends plsplspls i'm so lonely)

qcharlie is a demon and has absolutely no idea of it and progressively gains little demonic traits everytime he makes a deal

meanwhile qmariana is an angel and hold onto your seats guys this one is an absolute shocker! has absolutely no idea of it

everytime something awful happens to charlie (jauna dies, brutally scrambles tilin) his humansona becomes a little more unstable and he gets a little more sloshy - overtime he becomes straight up oobleck and gunks up the smp

qcharlie was raised in an environment that seemed like hell and it's responsible for the fact he doesn't really know how to be dad (his dad treated him like shit) and he's had no examples of healthy romantic relationships

qcharlie and qmariana are absolutely head over heels for eachother they're just losers and find it hard to express it adequately or meaningfully (this does not make them any less dysfunctional and annoying but they are my parental figures your honor)

qcharlie sews and knits and sewed a trans flag into each of their iconic clothing (qmariana's cape thingy, qcharlie's hearts and jauna's bows) he does the same for tilin as soon as he finds out they have the binary of none

qcharlie has been plotting qmariana's murder but qmariana is blind to it and all he cares about is hot steamy gay minecraft sex. they remind me of something but i can't put my finger on exactly what so if you can think of it tell me HJAHA

qcharlie would ADORE radiohead (specifically "nice dream" and "no surprises") (yes i am projecting, yes he is my favourite person and yes he is the only member to me i cant take it anymore)

jauna has golden highlights from her revival (think revivebur but stop thinking about revivebur)

jauna has vitiligo

jaunaflippa is allergic to dandelions but she will not hesitate to give them a blow and makes a little wish (usually about wanting her mom and dad to get along and be happy)

the jauna family get their glasses mixed up so they have to go through trial and error to find which prescription is theres (this takes 30 minutes because qcharlie and qmariana typically fight to the death over it/j)

when tilin died, jauna shared half of their bow with qquackity and keeps it tied neatly around her tail as a sentiment to her best friend but sometimes you'll catch her wearing it on one of her fingers. usually her pinkie (pinkie promise) or index finer

qcharlie and qmariana don't know how to braid in contrast to qwilbur who has spent hours experimenting with talullah to style her hair

qwilbur gives talullah a little walkman(?) thing for talullah to customise and records her cute little songs for her to listen to on the tapes when he's away from home

when qwilbur comes back from his travels, he will never ever fail to comes back with stories to tell, oneofakind gifts for talullah, songs for talullah to sing when she misses him, etc because that is simply how he loves

there is always music coming from talullah and qwilbur's home and it always brings joy to those who pass even if for just a moment

talullah has albinism

tallulah is disabled (canon examples: she has a different model to the rest of the eggs, she's clumsy and a little slow, her wings are underdeveloped) (she's basically just like me fr)

qmissa and qphilza are literally eldritch creatures. they look like the mothman fucker. they are a terrifying duo. here's a perfect example

qmissa is like 9'5 and qphilza is 5'2

qphil tells qmissa about his giant wife who is the god of death and is beautiful and qmissa doesn't believe his platonic husband could pull (spoiler alert he is proven wrong)

chayanne despises qwilbur because qmissa can play guitar better

chayanne dyes his hair pink to match techno and/or wears a little skull. techno is his hero and he is JUST like him frfr

speaking of which, when chayanne first killed a mob, qmissa helped turn it into a skull mask like his own and techno's. chayanne feels more confident wearing it and therefore never takes it off / alternatively qmissa made him a little mask from chayanne's eggshell

chayanne's favourite time of the day is when qphil tells him stories about techno

chayanne is nv like the rest of the eggs but is definitely more vocal than tilin for example (flaps his hands, exclaims excitedly, laughs a lot)

talullah and tilin are twins

tilin is part of the qquackity x qcharlie club upon finding out about the millions of failed attempts of qcharlie trying to flirt with qquackity

i dont think tilin hates qcharlie for what he did but i think they sure make his life a living hell/t

also tilin and jauna are in heaven with techno and they all bully trump. they make a circle around his cowering body and run around in circles while holding hands (this is a joke but not really)

general hcs that apply to all members/eggs:

there's few resources for clothing so the egg parents pass down their clothes to their eggs and the eggs mixnmatch it

the eggs use sign language to communicate as well as signs and doodles or use those little tablets with tts that nv people often use to communicate

extra: techno because he's my favourite character and isn't even in the smp!11!!11!1

techno is a sort of spirit and haunts his family, especially chayanne. he watches over all of the eggs. he hears all the little stories phil tells about him to his eggs. he'll hear chayanne say something he'd say and he goes YOOOOOOOOOOOOO excitedly and goes THATS MY BOY!!! uncle techno takes the eggs in when they get scrambled. when chayanne and talullah died techno gave them their lives back because it broke his heart to see them die just like that.

#qsmp juanaflippa #qsmp tilin #qsmp #qsmp charlie slimecicle #qsmp wilbur #qsmp talullah #quackity smp #qsmp hcs #technoblade #qsmp techno #qsmp tílin #qsmp mariana #qsmp el mariana #qsmp slimecicle #please #this is all i can think about #ever #don't bully me #i am but a humble silly using tumblr for the first time ever/hj #thank you #if you have anything to add #please do #i am autism i am normal #ARHGHGHGHHGHGHGHGHGHG #sorry if these hcs are problematic/j #my brain is static except for minecraft eggs running around and hitting my braincells #sorry if i tagged wrong #charlie's brainrot #que ess em pee

[karin-gespenst]

Butterflies and Tears - Season 12 episode 8 rewatch

during most of my crochet projects I watch so much Call the Midwife that I don't recall which project went with which episodes. Now I'm on a baby blanket for a nibling in the making.

So I'm making the Butterflies pattern and it turns out beautifully. While working on it I rewatched Trixie's wedding episode and had many thoughts about it. Many tears, too.

Calling the Yu baby Lizzie is a choice I would not have made. This baby's entire story starts with "Your mom died the day you were born. In fact, they cut you out of her corpse so you didn't die, too." and giving her the same name as her mother brings up that story time and time again. Of course, with a tragedy like this, the pain will be enormous anyway, but maybe pick a name that is not so completely chained to this horrible accident.

SMJ made me cry with her reading. I also cried because Judy Parfitt reminds me a lot of my grandma in her last years. The snark, the being done with aging, the dismissing of worries that people tell her about because she's seen so much worse - and the profound love of her family and trust in the Lord.

Geoffrey is a delight and please can he come back instead of Matthew? Trixie does not need a husband per se, but having family around does her good. Including Geoffrey with the hen night was wonderful, and I love the relaxing beauty treatments in contrast to the lively party they had for Lucille.

completely relateable: Phyllis exhausted after the prospect of saying goodbye to another young woman she has raised from chick to grown up nurse. Let's count:

Delia left with Patsy, Sister Mary Cynthia is recovering somewhere off screen, Barbara is gone forever, Valerie ran off in the middle of the night, the first batch of pupil midwives has graduated, Doctor McNulty had to leave to get better, Lucille half a globe away, Sisters Winifred and Frances back at the Mother House, Trixie about to get married, and now Nancy maybe leaving? It's very good that Sister Julienne secured a new supply of young pupil midwives. And got rid of that pesky council rent threat.

The scene with Nancy and Trixie sewing the blue fabric bow into the seam of the wedding dress was sweet. They shared a room for a long time and sometimes had a relationship just like sisters.

Burning down the hotel to justify the party in Poplar was a heavy plot hammer. Especially after the dead mother and impromptu C-section scene. That felt like just piling on the problems: suits, flowers, blood, rain, death, fire, missing nuns - I swear, I'll never get married in church, and don't come near me with white dresses or high heels or any other item just begging to malfunction at the worst moment.

Does Timothy just have bad luck or is it usual for medical students to encounter this many deaths in their first year? It would be awesome to see him talk to some of his fellow students about the cases he has seen. Maybe he could bring home a friend some day? A special one? *wink wink*

#call the midwife #knitting with the nuns #crochet

[morimementa]

I know Mirabel doesn't really need a gift, and it's commonly accepted that her real gift is to be the next keeper of the magic...

But I love the idea of her having a sewing based gift. I first saw the idea in this post: https://thesoffgengar.tumblr.com/tagged/gifted%20mirabel%20au

And I want to add my own flair to it. Like, Mirabel can endow each thing she makes with one special ability. This Ruana can keep you dry in a surprise rainstorm, that purse never gets holes in it, etc. She makes a whole legion of baby clothes that never get stained and toys that never get lost. Each item gets only one special attribute and there's a whole town full of people, so Mirabel is kept very busy.

Because she's so attentive to everyone's needs and desires, she's still the first person to discover the cracks in Casita. Her attempts to shove scraps in the cracks or paste fabric over them fail, leaving shredded cloth in its wake. She realizes quickly that this is something her gift can't mend. Cue hero's journey.

I think there'd be some additional character beats in this AU. Mirabel's similar to Luisa in that she spends to much time making things for other people, the things she wants to make for herself or for fun fall to the wayside. Like Julieta, she's a very behind-the-scenes worker that's constantly kept busy. She's finally starting to admit to herself that she feels overworked when the movie starts off and it helps her empathize with Luisa even more.

Her relationship with Abuela is still strained and distant. Abuela tends to overwork her for the sake of helping people and the long hours she spends in her room leave little time for socializing. Brings new meaning to the whole "I can't take another night up in my room" part of Waiting on a Miracle. For this Mirabel, she needs a miracle to meet her deadline.

Ok, that was a joke.

Abuela would also probably have really high standards of quality for what Mirabel makes. She'd want them to be perfect and pristine. Mirabel doesn't realize it at the time, but she and Isabela have this in common. That would be a nice plot point during their scene together.

Speaking of, the sisters' relationship would be similar to canon, but a bit toned down. They're still distant, pulled apart by their respective roles, but hey, they can go a few minutes without snipping at each other. Isabela might envy Mirabel not having to be in the spotlight all the time, but she also appreciates the things Mirabel makes for her. By contrast, Mirabel might still roll her eyes at Senorita Perfecta, but there's less of a divide between them. The tension's still there, there's just a lot less back and forth. Maybe Mirabel picks up on the fact that Abuela seems to have more suggestions for Isabela's dresses than Isabela herself.

When Casita's being rebuilt, she gets time to sew for the fun of it and makes herself a new dress, this one with butterflies embroidered on it. Her family even makes her a new project bag with symbols of each of them embroidered on it. It's a way of thanking her for stitching the family back together and for making so many nice things for everyone else all this time.

At the end of the movie her gift has returned, but the workload is definitely cut back. Abuela realizes she's been pushing Mirabel too hard and limits the amount of things people can ask of her. She's able to rediscover the fun of sewing and her creativity grows with the renewal of the magic. Abuela even comes to sit with her while she works and catch up.

Let me know what you think and what ideas you have for this AU!

#Gifted Mirabel AU #sewing #Mirabel Madrigal #Encanto #mirabel sews

[marciabrady]

Hi, I really love your crits ❤ but I'm wondering why you dislike Frozen so much? I'm a huuuge fan of Aurora and Mulan myself, and I hate more and more every 3D/live action film and terribly miss 2D animation, but I must say I really loved Frozen (only the first one!!), I saw it together with my sister, who's also my bff, so maybe that's why it appealed to us, there were also some traits we felt like we had in common with these characters... and maybe it's also the thing we didn't see the film with English dub, which didn't the best (totally agreed with your take on K Bell! I'm not a fan of her personally). And I know this movie has a lot of flaws, but at the same time it was really easy for me to ignore them - until F2 I guess, it brought up all of my problems with this franchise lol Anyway, I just wanted to ask - bc I think it can be the problem with all of the new (3D) princesses - aren't they a bit bland? I was thinking about it the other day, what's characteristic for Anna and Elsa and... well, he's extrovert, and the other introvert I guess? And Anna is romantic? But there's no hobby, no distinct personal trait, nothing. On the other hand Rapunzel was briefly shown to can/like literally ALL! You make candles? Play guitar? Sew? Sing? No problem, she's just like you, you can identify with her. And the bland princesses? You can easily project yourself onto them if you will, it's not same they like to, it's say, paint - but it's not said they hate/can't do it either, right? Sorry for my rambling, it's quite late, and I've just finished my weekend Disney Princess movie marathon. Anyway, love your blog and take care xxx

So I wouldn't necessarily say I hate Frozen, I just strongly dislike certain tonal elements to it but I generally don't really think about it because it didn't resonate to me. Frozen to me doesn't really feel like a film but rather a commentary on other films? With all of the "you can't marry a man you just met" lines and how all of the plots that occur were clearly planted in order to combat criticisms of the Disney Princess line: ie them not being active, or physical, or being too naïve, or lovesick which is why I think Anna is treated as a joke pretty much. So I feel like I'm watching a commentary track where this film is retroactively beating up the previous films on which it was based on and whose success made that endeavor possible? And honestly...I think that's what a lot of people like about it. At the time it came out, I never really heard anyone talk about the value of the characters- rather the emphasis was on "Elsa's the first Princess who didn't need a man! She's independent! Unlike the other princesses, she's a BADASS" or them applauding how Hans killed the Prince Charming trope (which I think is largely reductive, and not even inventive as Gaston had accomplished that previously, but I digress). In general, most of the elements people find revolutionary about this film are anything but- this film essentially just takes elements from other films and infuses it with a lot of meta-textual criticism and added in some sparkly magic to divert toddlers. I even read a book about women in animation and the author said that a woman contributed the idea of Anna being gassy (which I hate btw, it's not charming it's uncouth and I don't think men or women should openly act like that lol) and how it was game changing for how women were depicted when Princess Fiona already did that over a decade earlier?

Apart from the elements I mentioned above, as I touched on in my previous response, Kristen Bell's voice gives nothing to me. I don't like how Anna is treated as a joke, I think it's visually very boring, I don't like the 3d design, and I have no object permanence for the plot because it feels like there's just a lot happening to keep people from being bored without any weight behind it. I'm also not a fan of the universe, with the trolls and just none of it makes sense? Like they go through hoops to try to hit us over the head with how strong Elsa and Anna are as female leads and how men are useless but then Elsa runs away from her own kingdom and Anna leaves it to the attention of Hans while she goes off in search of Elsa??? I don't know, it just all isn't for me lol I know a lot of people like it and they're certainly entitled to, I just think it isn't to my taste.

#ask #anonymous

[charmixpower]

Curious...hcs about the girls and their sleepovers?

You caught me right when I was re-drawing the season 3 pajamas. Good timing 💞💞

Since they all live together sleep overs function a little different than normal sleepovers. Personally I like to imagine they grab a bunch of stuff from their rooms and all camp out in the middle sitting area that's in their dorm, and that's where the sleep over takes place. Or they all pile up into one of their rooms...namely Stella or Aisha who both have the big full rooms to themselves

They have like a little set of rules that if you don't get everything you want out of your room you can't get it after the sleep over actually starts. This was implemented by Bloom to make it more sleepover-y (unless they all decided to do their make up or something, but then you can only grab your make up)

I like to imagine they do this after something perticually stressful, like the season three sleep over when Tecna is back safe and sound, and they all just wanna know that they're all here; or after a big victory

I imagine that there aren't any in s1 because their all getting to know each other, and this is established in s2 when Aisha joins the club because they all decide to stay up one night and catch her up on literally everything that happened last season. It was a cute little thing that Stella and Flora thought up to help Aisha feel more included and it's just a thing they do now

Flora is one of those people who likes doing other people's hair, she just has the energy, so I'm imagining her grabbing a bunch of the Winx's hair products and styling all their hair while they talk. She will also do nails. Flora just kinda finds this stuff fun. Just moving to person to person. She's still tuned into the conversation, but she prefers listening most of the time

Tecna is pretty lost, especially the first time. Tecna has a lot of isolated kid enegry, and a fuck ton of isolated kid tendancys so she has no clue what the fuck is going on but she's happy to be included. Ends up correcting half of what Musa and Stella say and accidentally playing the straight man to Stella's more theatric tendencies. She doesn't care much about gossip, and she has strong preferences to how she looks so most of the chatter and random make up sessions go over her head, but anything like dancing or playing games together is really fun for her. Usually ends up info dumping about her most recent project at least once during the sleep over while everyone listens to her. When she get more comfortable with the set up, shes the one who looks up "sleep over ideas" and convinces Stella to let Bloom to do her make up blind folded because it was a good sleep over challenge. She is sewing chaos and she isn't even a little bit sorry

Aisha is also a very isolated kid, but she's not as confused as Tecna because she's been semi living with the pixies and Anne breaking into her room so like. She knows what's going on, but she sincerely is struggling to keep up with their strong personalitys, especially at first. She actually really appreciates the first one, especially because everyone loved hitting her with plot twists while telling her the story (aka telling her what they learned in order of how they learned it) so Aisha got to be included via her reactions to the wild shit that went down in season 1 ("You attacked Diaspro?!" "Yea—wait you know her?"). After Aisha gets more comfortable she's with Musa and Stella being high energy about hanging out with all of her friends. Aisha's favorite part is doing a bunch of weird things with the Winx. Like trying to bake a cake or playing a chose your own adventure game where they all vote on which option Tecna chooses (bc Tecna is the one playing of course). She'd probably try and teach how to do random things she picked up (like Musa and the rain dance) or talk about magic ingenuity esp with Tecna. Aisha's morphix is a substance she makes all on her own so I'd imagine she's super into magical chem. Oh my god Aisha totally gets them to try random (small and non explosive) convergence spells just to see what would happen and Bloom is an enabler

Bloomy is bringing the classic sleep over energy. She attempts to get everyone to play a board game before realizing between Aisha's competitive nature, Tecna's logical mind, and Stella being a sore loser that it was a horrible idea. Definitely makes everyone friendship bracelets with those little rubber bands in the cool patterns I could never figure out. Flora is probably messing with Bloom hair the most because Bloom has slightly long hair and isn't constantly moving like Musa, Stella and Aisha. She probably convinces everyone to grab all their pillows to make a pillow fort, this is set during the s3 Tecna is safe party, and they all fall asleep in their cuddle pile. Tucked next to eachother and underneath the fort. Usually the one most excited to go along with anyone idea of what they should do! Tho she also is the one that likes movie nights the most and tries to get everyone to sit together in a cuddle pile and talk over a movie fkskdnen because, bless their souls, Tecna Stella and Musa can't watch a movie without talking about what's happening on screen. Bloom picks intentionally bad movies after she learns this so the entertainment is more from everyone's reactions than the movie (well at least to her because she doesn't like bad movies, Musa is having a great time)

Musa is slightly more chill than Stella and Aisha but is very easily caught up in their energy. Usually the one engaging with Stella the most over whatever she wants to do now. Stella tends to tease Musa a lot because then Musa will get into a pillow fight with her. Musa absolutely records at least one music video during one of these sleep overs, with everyone just fucking around having fun. Usually protests the lastest stupid thing Stella, Aisha, or Tecna wants to do and ends up getting super into it. Musa also is the one that ends up trying to prank the other girls, no one is safe

Stella is being Stella, must I go on? She challenges people to pillow fights. Grabs everyone make up kits so she can do looks for them. Starts designing outfits for each girl with feedback right then and there. Does everyone's nails. Gossips about everything, and pries into everyone's business like it's her god given duty (Truth or Dare is used for evil, aka it's intended purpose). Uses everyone like her personal pillow, and is generally the life of the party. Stella gives off a lot of extroverted and hyper active enegry so she's practically bouncing off the walls she's so happy to be hanging out with everyone at once for a full night. She's the main reason no one really gets bored during these because she always manages to drag anyone looking left out back into the conversation with like two sentences. She gets Tecna to go on a rant about something completely niche and inconsequential but funny as fuck. Probably convinces everyone to do an impromptu photoshoot, she's just having fun fksndj

#they all have isolated kid vibes (except Flora) but Tecna and Aisha have it the worst #winx club #winx headcanons #rus chatters #asks #winx musa #winx bloom #winx stella #winx tecna #winx aisha #winx layla #winx flora #long post

[farginen]

i always struggle completing dash games that mention hobbies because for the first few years of adulthood riza legitimately has no hobbies whatsoever. mostly because she's too fucked up from war and overworked so in her free time she would just. come home, get in bed and stare at the ceiling. not even listening to music and reading, she wouldn't have the mental capacity for that.

if she was very anxious and stressed our she may end up cleaning or revising work papers during the night, but even those are limited. and since she didn't develop any harmful copying mechanisms to specifically indulge and past time (she does have harmful copying mechanisms in general, just not recreational ones)

so staring at the ceiling it is.

it does get better when she adopts her dog and starts spending time training him and generally taking care of him. having to walk hayate means she may as well pick up some groceries and since she has bought food she may as well also eat instead of skipping meals so the groceries don't go to waste. it's an improvement.

eventually she gets to a place where she may leave the radio on, and on a very good day she may pick up a book. not with enough frequency to be considered a hobby but hey, it's progress.

at this point she's at a somewhat stable place emotionally / psychologically, although not necessarily happy or positive. but stable enough that she can pick up studying xingese again. i guess this can be considered a hobby, although she sees it as more of an utilitarian thing that can help with work more than sitting down studying languages for pleasure and entertainment like other people would.

it's worth mentioning that at that point she thought doing anything with her life would be pointless since she thought would only be alive for a limited amount of time. she can justify spending time studying a language because it's a skill that has a tangible use at work.

so after the promised day when the original plan to get herself trialed and unalived goes out the window (and i could write a whole rant with ppl insisting they would still get trialed like baby did you not follow the plot question mark. but i'll save that for another day)

that's really the first time she gets to just. have a life.

ofc work is a big part of her plans but it's not a situation so dire where it has to be the *only* thing in her life. her work revolves around legislation, organizing and providing budgeting, logistics and infrastructure. you know. office government work. people in ishval aren't going to receive any more or less help if people working in those projects, like riza, have any semblance of a personal life.

she starts leisurely reading magazines just to get ideas to renovate her childhood home. learning how to sew and tailor her clothes as she spends less time in uniform and needs a personal wardrobe and needs to alter her son's baby clothes when he's born. she starts reading and researching on how to keep certain plants and how to grow a little garden because she now has the space to do so, yadda yadda.

these are still not full on hobbies, but post pd / epilogue is the period when for the first time she experiences working with her hands and putting her dexterity to work with things that aren't fireguns or paperwork.

#tl;dr riza didn't have any hobbies until she was in her 30s rip #probably why my default verse is also post canon. writing the pre promised day timeliness is so depressing and exhausting #also I've been writing riza for so long I have already written so much angst around those years. #now I just wanna write riza healing and being cute with her baby idc idc #headcanons. #long post

[sylvandalism]

Last year my father bought a plot of land, at a great deal of course from a widow who wanted to move away. It’s within the same five miles that we’ve lived in for the past two decades, ever since we moved to my hometown. I was a little surprised by his choice, considering that he has always advocated for living below your means. Because (as I came to know incrementally) the plot is being transformed into a beautiful sprawling new build, a bright suburban New England house with a formal sitting room, a great room, a formal dining room, a master bedroom on the ground floor, and a lovely tiled foyer with vaulted ceilings that will eventually house the ubiquitous chandelier with acrylic beads. My sisters are mildly excited about it, bickering over who gets what room and whether they’ll have to share a bathroom. Now that the potential new house has four and a half bathrooms, they can be possessive, demanding of their privacy. I laughed and reminded them at one point we all shared one bathroom. I think it’s a little ironic because out of all of my sisters and perhaps even my parents, I wanted that house the most growing up. The luxury of having dedicated spaces for everything, separating the lived in clutter and mess from what guests would see. A beautiful mahagony china cabinet with carefully arranged Lenox dishes that would come out for special occasions, a study to work in with built in bookshelves, a den to which I could take my friends and we could prank call our classmates or watch Disney channel- all the idealized visions I picked up from our upper middle class family friends. And I although I knew even then that the trapping of suburbia were precisely that no matter how nicely they glittered, part of me still craved the comforts that my friends and classmates had so easily. What I had in comparison was a too cramped, perpetually cluttered, and sometimes sticky small house that was littered with half finished projects. The cabinets above the stove had foil on them since my mother was always cooking and she got tired of cleaning the grease off the wood. It felt embarrassing to admit: on the first level, that it wasn’t up too par with everyone else’s standard of living and on the second level that I was materialistic enough to be bothered by it. A classmate who used to bike by asked me once idly, “How do you guys all fit?” My face never burned faster. My mother often mentions the old house fondly, saying it served us well. My sisters never really seemed bothered by the house’s condition either and it seemed so vain and ungrateful to complain that I don’t think I ever verbalized it. Because the house did seem to expand for our needs (if not my wants): my parents let us paint our rooms and fill them with wall decals and picture frames and white princess beds. My mother sewed me gauzy purple curtains to match the exact color of my room. And in the basement, they got me two rows of bookshelves to display my books. We live and love openly, my mom often says. We’re  not quiet tidy little people. Having spent most of my life trying to be one of those people, it’s strange to come back and see my family planning for this new stage. I can’t help but be a little wary, knowing the significance of this lifestyle and the impact it can have on our perception of each other. My parents don’t really need to beckon to society considering that they’re closer to retirement age now. Only a few of my sisters live at home and they’re hardly socialites. It’s just a house, everyone says. I wonder how they’ll clean the chandelier. 

#Me

[metal-assistant]

Some thoughts I typed out the other night when I was thinking about the earliest days of my Self Insert being at the factory and a bit more detail of how exactly they (she and Karl) came to be.

It started with My self insert vs my “am I good enough for this person?” issue. Wherein I remembered I have a hard time classifying people as friends because what level of knowing someone and interacting with them makes us friends and do they actually like me or are they just being nice? Which creates a fun little plot bunny to chase for my self insert but developed into the following-

While they’re still coworkers she would TRY to be friends because they only have each other- or, she only has him because he’s not risking her getting discovered so soon- but with his attitude and determination in his projects he’d probably be dismissive to the point she’d get to that “fine I guess I’ll just piss off then.” And at that point she doesn’t talk to him much or try to crack jokes like she used to, she’s very subdued compared to her trying to accept her new situation and open up to this man. At that point she’s probably running errands for him so she’s gone more often then he’s forced to realize how much he’s actually come to rely on/enjoy/got used to her company so it seems too quiet without her. In short- he took her for granted but didn’t realize he was doing it.

Which would melt into him trying to be a bit more friendly towards her. Thought, she’s still distant. She’s been through her fair share of “knowing where she’s not wanted” and been betrayed by people she thought were close friends. Still… he’s got her helping more with projects, they’ve gone from her simply handing him tools and being there for him to mutter ideas to, to her sewing up cuts and doing the tedious work on the soldats so he can do the important parts, back to helping with ideas but this time instead of just being an ear while he rambles she’s someone who offers her own ideas… even if the whole thing is creepy. And that’s when they get a bit closer, working on a prototype they’ve both envisioned, and when it works miraculously they’re both super excited that’s when he kisses her.

Because the thing is that Karl has lived alone for so long he doesn’t know how to interact with people properly. He can be nice and charismatic but it’s a facade, he doesn’t know how to mean it. He’s been alone and no one he knows actually cares about him. Miranda doesn’t, he’s an experiment to her under the lie of “family”. And none of his “siblings” care about him. They’re too busy wanting the attention of their “mother” to care about him.

So suddenly here’s this girl who’s worrying if he’s sleeping or eating and asks him about his day and tells him she’s sorry for him when he’s frustrated and convinces him take breaks and literally cares about him? There’s this sort of kindness he’s never experienced before. She isn’t solely looking out for herself, she’s taking time to be concerned about his well being… for no reason at all… besides being… kind hearted.

He doesn’t know how to take it.

He doesn’t know how to give that back to her. He doesn’t know how to express love or kindness because, in his mind, any act of mercy is kindness because thats what Miranda has taught him.

Karl has to learn that he can actually be himself with someone else. He learns WHO that someone is. He didn’t really know he was much outside of wanting revenge on Miranda or being her puppet.

And there’s a lot of him learning what love is in this story. There’s a lot of representation of “you teach people how to love you” in a way that’s actually visible and the other party is reciprocal to it (trust me I’ve seen instances where that phrase is bullshit). They’re relationship is so rocky at the start because he doesn’t know HOW. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. But she gives him the space and patience while he figured that out.

And then in comes the possessiveness…

He treats her like a rare item because in his life she is rare. extremely so. so he gets possessive of her. he doesn't want her far from him for long- not away from him at all if he can help it. he doesn't treat her poorly but he gets paranoid when she is gone, thinking she might leave him for a better life at the castle (as if) or with beneviento (whom she’s befriended) or that miranda might snatch her away.

And I know what you’re thinking- she’s just a trope, that she's some single ray of sunlight 2D “Mary Sue” character or something, a magical creature for the dark character to fall in love with. But there's other people in the village (surely) who would treat him with genuine kindness except he never lets people in for that. he doesn't give them a chance because he thinks that they'll turn on him or they only see him as a god and not a person. His own trust issues are what gets in his way.

They’re only brought together because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, presumed dead, and then treated almost like an object. she was just stubborn enough for company to ignore his orders of “stay put” until he could figure out what to do with this corpse that isn’t a corpse. Spoiler alert (yeah I’m trying to write it as a fanfic), she listens for a whole three days while he ignores her existence so she pushes her way into his business.

I could go on for literally ever. I could lay out my whole story of them for you if I wanted and like yeah one day I will… in pieces… that’s what this blog is for really. Just a mess of ideas because I am down bad for this guy that in my head there’s this huge complex story where we’re together.

Anyway if y’all made it this far thanks for reading and if you happened to enjoy, stay tuned, maybe follow the blog and you’ll see more.

#re8 #karl heisenberg #resident evil #self insert #things that would happen in the si-verse #self insert musings

[514ko]

YNaM Retrospectives — Chap. III.S / 4

          Yet another Retrospective…  Feels like it’s been like a long time since the last one, but it’s only been a week…  Whew.  Maybe it’s because I’ve not been as active on Twitter as of late.  In any case—a warm thank you to those who are interested enough in my thoughts to read these little posts…  I hope you’re all doing well out there!!

          As always, here’s a link to the chapter in question:

          Hmm…  What mildly interesting stuff can I say about such a short chapter?

          Well, it did mark the end of a six-month-long hiatus, I guess.  God, looking back over it, I spent most of 2022 in hiatus…  Not for nothing, that second hiatus was the impetus for the Twitter account, and by extension, this blog—so that while I’m working on chapters, I can interact with people who like my work (which still blows my mind, btw) and let them know I’m still around~

          Chapter III.S was also the beginning of the roman numeral system—marking Koishi-only POV chapters with the roman numeral for ½, or S.  And I’m torn by this; I love the way it looks aesthetically, and how it clearly delineates the more introspective Koishi chapters at a glance, but I wonder if it causes more confusion for readers than it’s worth?  There’s no way to change the chapter numbers on AO3 (that I know of, anyway, maybe there’s a skin that can do it idk), and because of the S chapters it offsets everything so that now Chapter IV is actually Chapter 5 on AO3, and so on…  I’m this close to canning the numerals, and just referring to them by the AO3 numbers.  Kill your darlings and all that; I don’t want to confuse people unnecessarily, even for something I think is cool.

          As far as the content of the chapter—well, it’s the direct result of the first major plot holes I ran into in YNaM.  And it all comes from Flan, the troublemaker she is~

          Basically, as she was, Flandre had zero agency in the story.  She was the MC, and the primary POV character.  I’d originally wanted to tell the whole story from Flandre and Satori’s dual perspectives, but by the time III rolled around I realized it wasn’t possible anymore because Flan just wouldn’t.  Leave.  Her.  Room.  She wouldn’t seek Koishi out of her own accord, and would be content to just sit and stew…

          I couldn’t really have another character bring KoiFlan together, because no one knows they like each other yet (much less support it).  Originally, I was going to solve it by just having Koishi mysteriously show up at Flan’s doorstep and, y’know, force things to happen—but that solution left a bad taste in my mouth.  What’s the point of Flan being the MC if she has no agency in her own story? 

          So I made Koishi a POV character too.  And so, the point of Chap. III.S is to establish that, as well as Koishi’s own sense of agency, so that when she randomly appears in the next chapter it doesn’t feel so out of left field.

          And as it turns out, this idea of Koishi having more agency than Flan fits right in with the themes of YNaM, and even ended up influencing a number of later plot points—for instance, Koishi confessing to Flandre at the end of VI.  It’s funny how band-aid fixes you make early in a serial story end up influencing later events…

          One final note—this chapter is intended to be one of the two primary diverging points between YNaM canon and Touhou canon.  The first was Satori’s appearance at the Scarlet Devil Mansion in Chapter II, the first divergent point that allowed Koishi and Flandre to meet.  The second point was the direct result of that—the entirety of Chapter III.S.  Because if she hadn’t met Flandre in II, Chapter III.S would otherwise have been the night in which Koishi shuts her third eye, sewing it shut with that needle and thread.

          So yeah!  Short post for a short chapter.

          As far as new projects go—expect a little something for Flan day, 4th of July~  Nothing too much, but by golly I ain’t about to let another one of my favorite 2hu’s days go uncelebrated by me, I’ll tell you what—

#ynam #ynam retrospectives

[tehuti88-art]

8/12/22: r/SketchDaily theme, "Mushrooms/Free Draw Friday." (I did Free Draw Friday.)

This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Corporal Anna Julian, with four drawings: Hair down sans garrison cap (first drawing), hair up sans garrison cap (second drawing), hair down with garrison cap (third drawing), hair up with garrison cap (last drawing). She's one of the original "Trench Rats" (American Allies) in the story and gets involved with their original sergeant, Camo. In the earlier version of the story she had a tragic plot; now her plot's tragic as well as quite dark, as she has a particularly nasty secret. There'll be more about her later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se.

I haven't much to say regarding her design but that at the last minute I decided on a hair-up look to complement the hair-down look.

TUMBLR EDIT: Anna Julian is an OLLLLLD character whose history has changed drastically, most of that change being recent (and lots of fog still remaining--she's not being entirely forthcoming just yet). Her original history makes me very uncomfortable to share, but of course I have to, so here I go.

My Trench Rats series has gone through several major iterations since its creation some time in childhood. It was based on a misunderstanding (albeit an intentional one, I guess) I had of a project my mother, then a seamstress, was working on. She was making what I remember as satin capes and caps with Mickey Mouse-style ears, in various colors such as black, gold, red, purple, etc. I asked her what these were and she mentioned something called the "Trench Rats." This was in the Eighties--no Internet, and we had just a set of hopelessly outdated encyclopedias at the time. Somehow, maybe by asking my dad, I learned that "trench rats" was a term for soldiers in WWI. Here's where the "intentional misunderstanding" comes in. I believe I was always aware that trench rats were a WWI thing. But for some reason I can't recall, I decided that MY Trench Rats--literal anthropomorphic rats--would be in WWII. So to anyone who might see my WWII Trench Rats and get peeved by that "mistake," rest assured it was intentional. (The reason for this has since been retconned into the plot, see below for a brief explanation.)

I've since Googled this. Why would my mother be making capes and hats for "Trench Rats"? She often did sewing jobs for individuals and in this case an organization. Turns out there's some sort of fraternal-type organization devoted to the original WWI vets though obviously it's shifted its purpose by now. There are no capes to be seen...but there ARE colored hats. In this case, fezzes. Like Shriners (another group I incorporated into earlier writing of mine). The colors have to do with different ranks and they have things like white and purple, though there are also colors just associated with ranks and tassels and not fezzes, for example I think there's a "Golden Rodent." I specifically remember MOUSE-EAR CAPS in colors like red, black, and gold (incidentally, the colors of the modern German flag), but I'm willing to bet my childhood brain misremembered it all. I couldn't find out much more about these Trench Rats (their site is very basic), but I decided to not look further anyway because I might find a political angle or something that will completely ruin my childhood memory right when I'm FINALLY giving it the attention it deserves. So, that's the only connection my story has to the "real" Trench Rats as they exist today. Mickey Mouse ears were too goofy (no pun intended) even for me, so not long after these were changed into what I misassumed was the typical German headgear, that funky spiked helmet which it turns out is called the Pickelhaube (hahaha, yep, no lie.) Which it turns out was WWI wear, not WWII! So this choice here actually WAS a mistake. I also misassumed the Pickelhaube was merely the ACTUAL WWII German helmet (the Stahlhelm) just with a spike on top; you can see this remaining to this day in my art. Same as above, I retconned an explanation for these outdated helmets--these "Trench Rats" are mimicking German soldiers of the Great War in an attempt to psych out the superstitious Nazis (shortly after, they drop the pretense but keep the uniforms). The solid colors I'd seen on the outfits my mother was sewing turned into color-coded outfits my Rats wore and were named after--Black, Gold, Burgundy, etc. Kind of a clunky retcon but there you go, I tried.

One of the first iterations of the Rats, if not THE first, simply involved a friend and myself pretending to be them on the elementary school playground at recess. I specifically remember old tires that had been half-buried in the ground (we'd run over these), and a bunch that had been stacked atop each other; we'd crawl inside and pretend to be imprisoned. At this point, the Rats were constantly antagonized by the bad guy, who was named Inspector Dobermann. (Initially named after the dog breed, I later gave him the name Louis, from the guy who actually bred the doberman pinscher into existence. Aside from that, he's really not based on the guy, even though an early version of him was meant to be a tax collector, which has since been dropped.) I guess this was when I settled on the story consisting mainly of good guy rodents and bad guy canines. And of course, the bad guys were Nazis. We goosestepped whenever we played them because in our fifth- or sixth-grade minds, that was what Nazis did. At this point Dobermann was a silly character subordinate to Woofwoof Hitler...sigh, I kid you not...who also was silly. There was no mention of camps or the Holocaust and I'd never heard of the SS, this was just idiotic ignorant gradeschool "fun." (For what it's worth, Dobey was constantly being bested.)

(You'll notice that in these early iterations, Sgt. Camo and Cpl. Drake, the original Trench Rats leaders, didn't exist yet. Same for Didrika, Boris, Ratdog, Klemper, Senta, Helmstadt, Holt, Reseda, Wolfstein, Gerhardt, I could go on for quite a while. Indigo, Papillon, and Addy Dobermann came along not long after, though the latter two were named LaFierre and Bambush Dobermann (DON'T ASK!--I have no idea!), and "Bambush" was much more independent and outspoken and annoying. Silver was there, but not too important yet. Dr. Kammler I believe may have existed in a very rudimentary, unnamed version who later got the appellation "Dr. C." D-Day, Burgundy, and Turquoise were already important characters, though. Meanwhile, formerly important characters Red, Purple, Green, and Blue started falling by the wayside, although I've since made Blue, along with Silver, Turquoise, Indigo, Copper, and a few others, one of the very original group of soldiers who were subsumed into the Trench Rats. And a very few characters, such as "Mam Rat" (oh God I won't get into it), were completely scrapped.)

Going into junior high, the story gradually began to darken. It went through a weird phase of shoehorning female equivalents of the male characters into the plot, in the person of the "Trench Mice." Yep. ;_; They simply had the same color names only with "Y" on the end--Sgt. Reddy Mouse and Cpl. Pinky Mouse were the two main characters. Fortunately, the Trench Mice phase didn't last long, and it was long ago completely dropped. Dobermann, however, started undergoing a makeover, becoming much more mysterious and ominous a character, whose exact motivations and even alignment remained unknown to me until literally...*checks notes*...December 2, 2021. Yep, I took a note when his purpose in the story finally revealed itself to me. I was in junior high from 1989-1991--the time period when the Berlin Wall fell!--so look how long it took for Dobey to finally open up to me. THIRTY YEARS! About damn time! (The story series was much more broken up at this point, and there was meant to be an uber-edgy novel called Inspector Dobermann To The Core, but like the Mice, this has since thankfully been scrapped.)

('Nother odd detail. Around this point, since Dobey was becoming more serious, the "comic relief" consisted of a pair of bumbling Nazis codenamed Nightstalker (or just Stalker) and Deserta. Don't ask, I have no memory how they got these names. Stalker, I believe, was a doberman pinscher and Deserta was a German shepherd whose voice and personality were modeled after a favorite science teacher of mine. (Hi, Mr. Scott!) Stalker was the more serious of the two, kind of short tempered and a bit prissy, and for some reason I seem to recall him with glasses; Deserta was the bigger, dumber one, not as ill tempered as Stalker but kind of clumsy. These two, like the Trench Mice and (thank God) Woofwoof Hitler, were phased out...or so I thought. Look at the characters of the current version and you'll find a pair, the smarter one with glasses, and the big dumb one--the first is even still a doberman pinscher, although the second is now a Great Dane. It certainly wasn't intentional, and I didn't even notice it at first, but it really does look like Nightstalker and Deserta were effectively replaced by Lt. Gunter Hesse and Master Sgt. Theodor Schulte.)

Schavich is another character who underwent major changes. He was conflated quite a bit with Woofwoof in the earlier stuff, and was very goofy and unintimidating. (Woofwoof is the one who says something similar in the existing text, but Schavich also was primarily known to yell stuff like, "Zose--dirty--TRENCH RATS!!" Yes, I had to phonetically write out the German accent, which only Woofwoof and Schavich seemed to possess... 🤔 ) He's since replaced "Hitler" as the primary rodent antagonist (though in truth, the primary antagonists in this story are nebulous, I think the main bad guy is actually the SS itself rather than any one individual), become more serious, and is on the verge of a name change ("Schavitz" is much more appropriate than the made-up--and Russian-sounding--Schavich).

But anyway...Anna Julian is a character who I believe came about during this darker intermediary period. Her story is told in the first known written version of The Trench Rats--not the first version, the first WRITTEN version. (It claims to be based on an even earlier version, but that's not extant, plus I don't remember it.) And after digging up the typeout (and grimacing at awful dialogue like "I hate this. I just hate war." "Aw, these Nazis'll give up soon." "Yeah, but it's still stupid. Putting people in concentration camps just because they worship a little differently? That's dumb"--OH GOD MAKE IT STOP), I realize Julian's story was where the original text ended. I remember it was extremely difficult for me to write; and even to share it here, despite all the other stuff I've shared, is really hard, too. Still, here's the original text, with my commentary removed. This was written over a period of time but is dated November(?) 1990. Please keep that in mind--at least when I started this text, I'd just turned 14 years old. And my writing at 14 years old is absolutely dreadful.

"We're here," he said. "Now what's this about, Turquoise?"

His older friend heaved a great breath and let it out. "There's something I've been carrying with me for years Gold, and now I want to get it off my chest before I lose it."

"Why now?" Gold asked.

"It's because of the grenade explosion," Turquoise replied. "When I woke up I thought of how close I came to getting it, and how next time I might not be so lucky so this secret would die with me. So I thought I'd tell it to you. You're tougher than an old bird like me. Sit down and make yourself comfortable if that's at all possible."

Gold did as he was told and Turquoise, with the West Wing entrance looming as his background, began his story.

"Of course it was a very long time ago when all of the original Rats were here, before the Wing was closed," he started. "We had a totally different sergeant, a totally different corporal, different lance-corporals and privates. Even Blue was rather new and he was still a private first-class. You probably wouldn't know this, but back then we had another thing that was totally different; we had a female Trench Rat."

"A lady Rat?" Gold interjected.

Turquoise nodded. "And I don't mean like Mam either. She was just like us--only more like Burgundy. She never did any real fighting but was more into Burgundy's line of work."

"You mean doctoring and bookwork."

A nod. "But nonetheless she was a Trench Rat, like you or me. Now, how do you think the others' feelings would be about that?"

"A lady Rat?... I guess they wouldn't like it too much."

"You're right. Barely anyone liked the idea. Most hated it from the start but the sergeant wasn't for sexual discrimination and let her enter. I suppose you can imagine the jeers and remarks she had to take."

"You bet I can."

"There were only a few of us who took it in stride. I myself was one of them, and Burgundy, and--"

"Let me guess: Blue and Doomsday."

"Right again. So of course we were about the only ones whom she really became acquainted with. And that was mostly just on a professional level. This is a cold, cold world. I suppose she learned that, also. In a terrible way."

"What do you mean?"

Now Turquoise acted almost guiltily. "Afterwards she told me most of the story, so I'll piece it together. As best as I can remember, several of the Rats were apparently growing bolder in their actions. They disliked how well the lady Rat and the sergeant got along. Maybe they misinterpreted their casual friendship, for that's all it was, and decided to do something about it. Do 'something' they did--one night three of them accosted her in the empty West Wing, first pretending to be friendly, then becoming more threatening, and finally raping her and leaving her behind."

Gold shuddered. "I never thought they'd do something so low!"

"That's not the end of it. I'm not certain how long after it was, but later that night or the next she came to my quarters and cried to be let in. There she told me everything, except who the Rats were; she didn't know their names but could only point them out. She said that if she told anyone they had threatened to get rid of her in some way--I don't know if by actual killing or not--and further stated that during the attack she had seen another Trench Rat, a great distance away at the entrance, notice what was happening and quickly dart away. I had her go to bed, telling her we could look through the files tomorrow after she had settled down a little more. She never got to identify any of the four Rats though because directly after she disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Gold said with great surprise.

Turquoise nodded a third time. "The next day she was gone. There were signs that she never even made it to her quarters. Later in the day while we searched one of the Rats came to me and asked if she had visited and told me anything unusual. I said no, she'd just dropped in to give me something, but hinted that she had been acting oddly, as if she were afraid of something. This seemed to shake him up a little, but he left and it was supposed then that she, finding barracks life too hard, had gone AWOL. Not long after, before I could figure out how to tell my strange story to the sergeant, there was the trench raid, when the poison gas killed off nearly all of the Rats. The Rat who had so oddly questioned me was killed, and the sergeant's body, if he too died, was never found."

"What about the other three?" Gold asked.

"I don't know. The Rat who visited me seemed to have several friends waiting, and I recognized them as killed or missing in action, and I never did find out about the last Rat."

Gold was silent for a moment. "He was the only one...?"

Turquoise closed his eyes and nodded. "The only witness. The only one who could tell who the attackers were. And I don't know if he's dead or alive." He heaved a sigh of helplessness. "He could be almost anybody! He could be Purple, or Blue, or D-Day, or any one of those scores who were killed in the trenches or taken prisoner. I don't even know who he is."

Another silence. "What happened then?"

"There were only about two dozen of us, so we cleared out the rooms of the West Wing--one of which was her original quarters--and had it boarded up. I had only several days to look around and try to find anything, any little clue as to what happened. She couldn't have gone AWOL. I know she wouldn't. I asked D-Day once if he thought she'd deserted, and even he--someone who has no idea of what really happened--said it seemed doubtful. But nothing ever turned up, and the West Wing was closed down, and now here it is." He took a deep breath again. "You can't possibly imagine how it feels to finally let that all out. All these years I've never told anybody. I didn't know just what to tell them."

"You've done more than a good job of telling me," Gold said.

Turquoise managed a weak smile. "I suppose that's because I knew I had to tell someone before I burst. I can't help feeling guilty, like I never did enough."

Gold reached across and patted his shoulder. "Nothing's your fault. Even if you would've told the sergeant probably nothing could be done. I know I would have gone crazy by now holding that in!"

His friend shrugged. "Maybe I have!"

Additionally, here's a note I added when I typed out the above some years back (last modified in 2018, though it likely predates that):

Note--Turquoise's tale of the only female Trench Rat, and the ruined West Wing, remain in the current storyline in modified format. The female Trench Rat, who is unnamed here, goes by the name Anna Julian and in the current storyline she DID disappear mysteriously around the same time as the gas attack...but I decided that the story that Turquoise tells here is too ludicrous, hence, Julian's disappearance must have another meaning behind it. Seeing as Julian plays no part in the current story, I have yet to come up with this backstory. In the current story, there is ANOTHER female Trench Rat--Lyndsey Skye--who serves Burgundy as a nurse.

So as you can see, Julian's story, mostly intact and same as the original version, still existed as of the previous (circa 2000) version of The Trench Rats, but the outcome had yet to be resolved. This has only just started to happen but is still quite foggy, as I'm finding Anna Julian (who at some point acquired the rank of corporal) to be quite secretive. She's not pouring out her story to me like the others so far.

In the new version, there may still be a rape involved, though not at the hands of the Trench Rats, and possibly it's just an attempt. Maybe even it's staged as a ruse for her to first meet another new character, Liam Morgan (no rank yet). But let me back up a bit.

From what little I know so far--and this could still change--Cpl. Julian is at first uninvolved with the newly formed Trench Rats, but is stationed with the British just inside Germany (weird, I know, but my entire version of this war is weird); she often acts as a sort of liaison. Morgan takes notice of her somewhat meek, subdued nature, and gets the idea she might be rather impressionable. He also somehow learns that she harbors vague feelings that, while odious, are not that uncommon considering the time period. Namely, she's not that fond of Jews.

So already the sweet innocent early version of Anna Julian is no more.

Morgan makes a plan to recruit Julian for his own purposes. Why would he need to, you may ask?--he's a member of the British military, and they're already allies, right? Well...not ENTIRELY right. Because Morgan himself has been recruited, by the Waffen-SS. He's one of a handful of British soldiers who work for the Nazis.

(This here is VERY VERY VERY loosely based on a unit that actually existed, the British Free Corps--British POWs who fought for the Waffen-SS. Take note, however, that in my version, this includes not just infantry soldiers but apparently also spies. Morgan isn't wearing German insignia and fighting alongside the Germans in plain sight. He went back to the British but is working for the Nazis, undercover. So...a double agent? Maybe? Double agents confuse the hell out of me, suffice it to say he's British, but is spying for the Nazis, but is pretending to still work for the British.)

This may be where a staged assault attempt takes place, but I'm not sure. If it does, Morgan intervenes to "save" Julian and thus not just introduce himself, but create a favorable impression as a "hero." They slowly get to know each other, as she's not the trusting sort, yet his protective nature wins her over. (Yes, this version of Julian is quite weak willed. There's a reason I don't write many female characters, they used to always end up like this. But this is why Morgan targets her.) She doesn't just fall in love with him, she practically becomes his (mostly) willing slave. He's recruiting her for a purpose, but he thinks nothing of testing her to see just how much she's willing to take, and the answer is just about anything; even when she protests, he manages to convince her. So Anna Julian is basically putty in his hands and he successfully recruits her as a spy for the Waffen-SS, radicalizing her with ever more hateful and extreme thoughts. He convinces her to attempt to join and spy on the fledgling Trench Rats, whom the Nazis have realized are not actually Great War ghosts. The other British troops Morgan serves with have no idea about his actual alignment; they approve Julian's request to act as a liaison to the Americans, as the SS hopes that she'll be allowed to join their battalion and reveal its location to the Nazis.

It's a bit complicated, however. The Trench Rats are very secretive, and have a strict policy regarding revealing the location of their HQ. ONLY Trench Rats are allowed to know--and Julian isn't a Trench Rat. (One notable exception to this rule is French partisan Papillon, who notified his own people about the site--but he found this out on his own, while spying on the newcomers from above. He's the story's lone bat character, and this serves him well.) Doesn't matter even when she's granted permission to work alongside them--whenever she's transported to Trench Rats HQ, she needs to literally be blindfolded, have headphones put on, and placed in the back of a covered truck or a closed compartment on their transport canines. Seems extreme, yes, but considering the sensitive nature of the Rats' work--stealing Nazi documents in an effort to derail their massive medical experimentation project--they can't take chances. Julian finds herself frustrated.

Morgan decides it's time to amp up their effort, and tells Julian to attempt to seduce the corporal, Drake. She's reluctant--she's already involved with Morgan, plus, Drake is Jewish, which she finds odious--she has enough of a time just putting on a kind face around him--but Morgan wheedles her into it. The effort fails miserably--turns out Drake is much more interested in Papillon than in her. o_o; Oops. Julian dejectedly informs her handler. Morgan instructs her to target Camo, then: He's studied the file the Allgemeine-SS put together on Camo (as Capt. Himmel explains in the sequel story, they attempt to keep files on e-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y), and thinks he's a better target anyway, being a widower who lost his wife and young daughter tragically (in an accident which also left him hooked on morphine) and has never remarried since. He's in pain, and grieving, and is likely lonely. Julian makes a move on him. It's a VERY gradual process, but this time around, it works.

Well...only sort of. Camo does fall for the romantic ruse...but he doesn't give up any intel. Julian's good at being subtle but Camo's even better at keeping secrets, and despite them getting close he doesn't tell her the location of headquarters. He does, however, put in a good word for her with the others at the British outpost, and they get in touch with Camo's superiors in the US and start discussing options to have Julian officially join the Trench Rats. Eventually she's approved...and of course, is given her own room at headquarters.

So in the end, no, Camo never cracks and gives up the secret to the enemy...but yes...he helps let the enemy right in the front door.

This whole time, Julian been reporting to the SS on her progress. Although she's working for the Waffen-SS, the intel she gathers goes through the Allgemeine-SS, who as I mentioned keep records on every-freaking-thing. They're also the ones in charge of that big Nazi medical experiment the Trench Rats are attempting to stop. This is Projekt Weltuntergang, or as the Allies know it, Project Doomsday. It's already responsible for the capture of at least two American soldiers: one from the initial group with Indigo, Silver, et al., since codenamed Doomsday or D-Day himself, and Teal Rat. (Though I believe Teal is one of this group, too.) In an immense stroke of bad luck, Teal was captured when D-Day was rescued. It's discovered that success of the serum used in the project depends on the subject having a particular very rare blood type mutation. D-Day has this mutation. Teal does not. Therefore, he won't be useful as a test subject. Therefore, he's more likely to be subjected to torture for information. So by now, the Trench Rats are worried that Teal could be the one to end up revealing the location of headquarters. They're right about the torture--Dr. Kammler, or "C" as the Allies know him, is incredibly pissed off to lose his most successful test subject, so he takes that out on Teal. They're right about the attempts to extract information. They're wrong about Teal being the one to reveal this info; wonder of wonders, he manages to hold out despite everything C throws at him. It's Anna Julian who reveals this information...Teal's just the poor guy who gets the blame.

There's an interesting development when Julian visits with the SS to give them information. She gets the chance to see project headquarters and another test subject named Kolten. Kolten is considered "blöd," or stupid/slow, yet has the right blood type, so is a perfect initial subject, along with a Jewish prisoner named Jakob Wolfstein. They both see Julian talking with members of the SS and saluting. Kolten, who busies himself drawing and building with blocks--he's very skilled at both, possessing a sort of eidetic memory--makes a sketch of Julian, and shows it to his father when he visits. His father soon after discovers that this woman is with the Trench Rats...apparently as a spy. She's close to their sergeant. And now she knows the location of headquarters, information she's already given to the SS, who plan to make use of it.

Kolten's father is SS, so this information really shouldn't be too surprising to him. The thing is, Kolten's father is Capt. Otto Himmel...who's been secretly working to destroy the project from the inside. Dr. Kammler is his brother-in-law, and he attempted to have Himmel murdered so he could gain custody of his disabled son for use in his experiment. Himmel survived with the aid of the Diamond Network, a resistance group; they advised him on how to get back at Kammler, though Himmel's sole motivation all along has been to protect Kolten--he even joined the SS in a twisted effort to keep Kolten safe from them, assuming (incorrectly) that they wouldn't target the family of a member. Himmel nonetheless has been using info the Network gave him to sabotage Kammler's experiment; he hasn't been successful at ruining the original serum, but he's prevented Kammler from being able to further adapt it, causing the project to stall and the SS to mull over cutting funding. (Ironically, Himmel is in charge of overseeing the project, meaning he reports on it to his boss, who reports to the SS bigwigs who determine if the project gets funded.) The loss of Doomsday is a serious blow, as he was the only test subject who could legitimately be considered a full success. Himmel has figured out that he can't do this on his own--the Trench Rats are his best hope for the project to be dismantled. Therefore, learning that one of them is actually a spy for the SS alarms him. He studies her file, and on another visit overhears her saying "useless eaters"--a Nazi term for disabled persons who are viewed as contributing nothing to society, therefore are best "euthanized"--or, more accurately, executed. Himmel knows this term applies to his own son. And hearing Julian say it, he knows exactly what sort of person she really is, and she can't be allowed to remain free and alive if Kolten is to be protected.

He has no way to alert the Trench Rats to what's to come, as he isn't involved in the Waffen-SS plan to attack Trench Rats Headquarters, doesn't know what form the attack will take, when it'll be, anything. All he can do is wait helplessly until news of it comes back to them. The attack is devastating--about a third of the Rats are killed and headquarters is badly damaged--but it's not completely incapacitating, as two of the five companies manage to fight off a ground attack while a third escapes harm completely--only the two companies led by Camo and Drake don't fare well, bearing the brunt of the casualties. The sergeant and corporal are captured, as well...along with Anna Julian, perfectly playing her role as one of them. The Allgemeine-SS wants to send a representative to question the captives; Himmel requests this and is approved. Therefore he's the one Camo, Drake, and Julian are brought before to be interrogated. Himmel isn't interested in interrogation, though. He paces back and forth in front of the three (the other SS members behind him murmuring about Drake's Star of David necklace and theorizing what sort of test subject he might make), aiming his gun at each in turn and offering a few threatening comments before stopping in front of Drake and pointing the gun at him. Drake shuts his eyes. Then Himmel abruptly swings the gun to the side and shoots Julian in the forehead.

Needless to say this isn't at all what anyone, even the other SS officers, expected. Drake jerks aside in surprise while Camo jumps to his feet and charges Himmel, only to be promptly knocked down and restrained by the other officers; Drake is struck in the head and knocked out when he attempts to see to Julian, and the two are carried away. Himmel is left needing to explain his own actions to the Waffen-SS. All he can say is he had reason to believe Julian was funneling information about the SS back to the Trench Rats--she wasn't, but she's a traitor to the Allies so who's to say she wasn't double-crossing the SS as well? He's on the verge of being harshly reprimanded--or worse--when his boss, Maj. Ludolf Jäger, pulls strings to defend him, insisting that he's always been honest and thinks things through and has no reason to lie now. (Jäger has no idea about any of Himmel's subversive activities.) If he suspected Julian was ratting (no pun intended) on the SS, then he must have had good reason, and the Allgemeine-SS backs him up. Liam Morgan and the Waffen-SS are angry but back off, and Himmel narrowly averts personal disaster. (Privately, though, Jäger laments him "losing his head" and meddling in Waffen-SS affairs, saying, "I much prefer you behind a desk, pushing papers like you're paid to do!")

Camo and Drake are transported to Project Doomsday headquarters where Dr. Kammler is all too eager to try out his serum on them although their blood types are wrong; Camo is quickly relegated to prisoner of war status (Sonderhäftling, a special detainee status which often--though sometimes not, as in Teal's case--leads to better treatment), while Drake disappears into the project as a test subject, which pretty much means torture. Anna Julian's death is quickly brushed off to avoid embarrassment or retribution, and the Trench Rats go on believing that Teal was in fact the source of the leak. Himmel, meanwhile, starts suffering nightmares and insomnia over the incident: He doesn't want to be a murderer, he's even managed to avoid being directly involved in the SS's constant mass killing (though given their scope, he can't help but be indirectly involved, through his knowledge of SS activities and his oversight of Project Doomsday); despite his previous service in the military he's become a sort of closet pacifist, and having to do what he did to Julian, no matter how necessary he deemed it (to prevent her contributing information for future killings), wears on his conscience. An additional detail only adds to his distress: He recognizes Camo beyond his position in the Trench Rats--they've met before. Years ago, aiming their guns at each other across no man's land. Both of them fought in the Great War and happened to briefly encounter each other, long enough for Camo to wonder over how young Himmel looked ("He was barely more than a kid," he tells Drake earlier in the story, which is true--Himmel entered the army underaged, at 14, so was around 17 when he and Camo met) before attempting to shoot him, a shell exploding nearby being the only thing to prevent this. Camo was knocked on his back into the trench and briefly incapacitated, giving Himmel the chance to shoot him, yet he again hesitated, and again Camo attempted to take a shot--only for his rifle to jam. Again leaving him wide open to be killed. Yet again, Himmel didn't take the shot, and instead left as Camo tried drawing his pistol; by the time he climbed out of the trench, Himmel was gone. Camo has since recognized Himmel as well, from a brief run-in they had with each other earlier in the story; he recognizes the "barely more than a kid" who refused to kill him not only once, not twice, but three times. ("No idea what his reason was (for not taking the shot)," he tells Drake.) And Himmel recognizes the American soldier he couldn't bring himself to shoot, even while Camo kept trying to shoot him. He read Camo's file as well. Himmel is also a widower who despite constant pressure from the SS has refused to get remarried, and in a way he also "lost" his child, when he was forced to place Kolten in an institution and wasn't allowed to visit him for years, then lost custody of him to Project Doomsday. He feels that he understands Camo a little, and hates having to be the one to wound him all over again. But if this is what it takes to keep Kolten safe, then it's what he had to do.

Himmel does manage to set a couple of things (somewhat) right. He ensures that Camo is able to escape custody, even though Camo has no idea he's involved. And although he can't do much to prevent their torture, he intervenes several times to make sure both Drake and Teal remain alive long enough to be rescued (although Teal ends up committing suicide afterwards). He and Dr. Kammler are captured at the same time as the rescue, and Teal turns on Kammler and kills him for the horrific abuse he suffered; Himmel shocks the Trench Rats by laughing at the murder. Drake and Teal are taken to the Trench Rats' medical ward, which is where Teal stabs himself in the neck, in full view of Drake, who has to reassure the rattled surgeon, Burgundy, that he won't attempt the same. Cpl. Gold Rat (Drake's successor) and LC Mahogany Rat take Teal's body and go in search of a place to bury him. While searching they meet an unknown party who always wears a gas mask and German-style uniform, though seems to be allied with the resistance; he seems distressed after learning the identity of the body, but signs for them to follow him as he leads them to a suitable burial place. After a long complicated trek the three arrive at a waterfall and dig a grave nearby. When Gold remarks on just how far they had to walk, the gas-masked party says in a muffled voice, "He found this waterfall." The two Rats are puzzled how the unknown party is familiar with Teal until he removes the gas mask. Gold still has no idea who he is, but Mahogany recognizes Camo from his personnel file photo. He was warned by the Diamond Network, after his escape, that returning to Trench Rats' Headquarters could make it even more of a target yet again, and since the Rats had a new sergeant, he might serve a better purpose helping the resistance, which is what he's been up to since then. Learning of the rescue and of how project headquarters was taken over, he decides it's time to drop the act and return to Trench Rats HQ.

The other Rats were stunned by the return of Teal and Drake, both of whom they'd assumed were dead; they're stunned all over again when Camo returns as well. Himmel is still in their custody, and Camo demands to see him; although not in great shape, Drake accompanies him, knowing exactly why he wants to meet him. Camo demands an answer from Himmel regarding why he shot Cpl. Julian; Himmel only responds that he doesn't believe Camo really wants the truth. Infuriated, Camo attempts to shoot him, but is stopped at the last minute by Drake, who knocks his hand aside when Himmel blurts out the phrase, "Eight burning lamps!" Drake explains that a guard at project headquarters had told him this phrase without explaining what it meant or who sent it; Himmel using it shows that he colluded with the guard to help Drake, and it's made clear he was involved in ensuring Camo's escape as well. When Camo again demands an answer--why would he help them, yet kill Julian?--Himmel promises to tell them everything, but only if they take him to meet Kolten, who was rescued by the Trench Rats earlier while being transported by the Nazis. No one understands the request, but Himmel refuses to speak another word, so they decide it can't hurt, and they take him to the farmhouse where Kolten has been staying with an older couple. Upon meeting, Kolten asks Himmel if he'll be returning to stay with Dr. Kammler, or "Doctor-Father," as he was trained to refer to him. Himmel replies no, Kammler is gone for good and the project is over. Kolten then asks if this means he'll be going with Himmel, or "Hauptsturmführer-Father," instead. Not only did the Trench Rats have no idea that Kolten is Himmel's son, but Himmel wasn't aware Kolten knew this, either--he's been institutionalized since he was a toddler, and Himmel was prevented from having contact with him for years; even after he was granted access to him again (by showing up in his new SS uniform and threatening to be let in), he never mentioned being Kolten's father, as the doctor had told him it could confuse Kolten. Despite being slow, however, Kolten really isn't stupid, and he's known exactly who Himmel is all this time: Himmel was the only person to consistently show him love. Himmel replies that Kolten can't come with him as he's not sure what will happen to him now, but he'll return to him if/when he can, and he loves him. They embrace and Himmel then goes with the Trench Rats without protest.

Keeping his word, Himmel tells the Trench Rats everything he knows about Project Doomsday and his role in it, including how he worked to sabotage it following his rescue by the Diamond Network. He tried what he could to keep Kammler's captives alive, and to aid Camo's escape. He's also been aiding Lt. Ratdog and PFC Godfrey Klemper, two members of the Wehrmacht, who have secretly turned against the Nazis themselves. Camo is even more confused--again, why would he do everything he can to help the Allies, at the risk of being considered a traitor, yet then execute Anna Julian? Himmel reluctantly replies that she wasn't who they thought she was, and lays out all the details, including Teal's insistence, to the very end, that although he did some other awful things to try to avoid further torture, he never gave away the location of headquarters. Camo finds all of this nearly impossible to believe, but Himmel sticks to his story even when subjected to a hasty military trial shortly following the war, and several others--including Wolfstein and even Drake--testify that they never saw him harm others, even that he was trying to help them. (Additionally, Wolfstein confirms Julian's visit to project headquarters.) His killing of Anna Julian is problematic--still technically an extrajudicial execution--but they take the extenuating circumstances into consideration, including the likely possibility that she would have contributed further info that would have led to more deaths, such as those of the rest of the Trench Rats, and Kammler's test subjects--Drake, Wolfstein, Teal, Kolten, and others. He's acquitted of committing any war crimes, though found guilty of belonging to a criminal organization (the SS) and is stripped of his military titles and honors. He's allowed to leave, free; he decides to go to Kolten, who's been staying with a civilian couple since being liberated by the Trench Rats previously. On his way out he stops by Camo, who's been watching the proceedings, and murmurs, "I know you cared about her. I'm sorry you had to find out this way," and departs.

Camo and Himmel have a bit more of a story after this, though it takes Camo a while to work through his anger and guilt over the role he inadvertently played in the attack on HQ, and Himmel deals with some ghosts of his own. Anna Julian exits the storyline relatively early--toward the end of the first main story--but casts a long shadow behind her.

[Anna Julian 2022 [‎Friday, ‎August ‎12, ‎2022, ‏‎4:00:09 AM]]

[Anna Julian 2022 2 [‎Friday, ‎August ‎12, ‎2022, ‏‎4:00:19 AM]]

[Anna Julian 2022 3 [‎Friday, ‎August ‎12, ‎2022, ‏‎4:00:29 AM]]

[Anna Julian 2022 4 [‎Friday, ‎August ‎12, ‎2022, ‏‎4:00:38 AM]]

#artists on tumblr #ibisPaint x #SketchDaily #original characters

[muffinlance]

Reading through the Salvage Chapter 13 outline. Came across this scene summary:

BATO NO

Sometimes, that's really all the detail you need.

#Bato YES #was not needed #because it is clearly implied #past!me done a good job on this outline #gonna be REAL fun writing this <3 #hoping to officially start tomorrow #pray to the Mini-Muffin #ALSO #found out an hour ago that AzuLance LIKES the sound of a clattering sewing machine #if I'd had more to do he might have fallen asleep listening #GAME CHANGER #*plots sewing projects just because she can* #maybe an isopuppy plushie...? #anyway back to reading this outline

[riku-writings]

ADMIRATION

Pairing: Mitsuya Takashi x Fem! Reader

Summary: Reader likes to fantasize about The Home Economics Club Leader's Hands.

Warnings: Smut with a smol plot, Fingering.

A/n: I am not really sorry about this ꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡,,, inspired by that one megumi oneshot in wattpad that i read ages ago. . .((edited hundred times since i just realized now that some of the smut parts were messed up even though i checked it multiple times,,, I'm sorry for the confusion i hope i got the order right ಠ,_｣ಠ)

Wc; 2k

It started with just an innocent admiration of him being a charming dude, that's all. The guy's a good student, an overall husband material with his sewing and cooking skills. He was heaven sent with his overall visual ( dyed hair, piercings and his eyebrow slits). Everyone knows he's a delinquent because of that Pehyan dude who would fight with Yasuda-San just to excuse mitsuya out of the club. Despite his delinquent bg, Mitsuya was respectful and patient. Making every girl and boy swoon over him.

A bad boy with a soft hubby side. Best of both worlds they would say.

You were part of it. The Home Economics Club, they were lying if the whole club wasn't a simping club for the one and only Mitsuya Takashi. It was only yasuda and you who took the club for extra credits. The others well, you could say they were there to see him. Eitherway everyone was cooperative and hardworking.

Not only were you with him in that club. You were his classmate. Even better, his seatmate. You always get a view of his charming side profile.

You find yourself just staring at his features, from his long lashes to his pointed nose, down to his lips. Sometimes his tongue would dart out, out of pure concentration. (You noticed this whenever you try and get his attention to check your work in the club)

Your eyes always latching itself down to his hands. Not that you're a complete freak but you appreciate it. Like if someone asked you what body part attract you the most. You would definitely answer, hands.

His hands were the prettiest especially when its enclosed with those rings that has a cross engrave on it. It was veiny, fingers elongated and a bit bony. Nails cleanly cut. His wrist always had a silver bracelet on it. You don't know why was that attractive.

You had an unpopular opinion that it was soft to touch. You wonder if your thoughts were true. You can feel yourself blush at the thought of him just holding your hand.

You can't help it but you just stare at them with pure admiration. Due to this, you noticed how he liked twirling a pen around his middle and index finger. Fascinated, you tried it once, though you failed. You not knowing he was looking at your failed attempts. Grinning.

"y/n are you listening?" A voice called pulling you out of your own embarassing thoughts. You look up at the owner of the hands you've been staring at for a while now.

"U-uhm yes?"

"Tell me how did you end up with this then?" Mitsuya raises his brow, your messed up fabric lifted up by him. The girls around you giggled at your clumsy behaviour. You retrieved it. "Ehm, I'm sorry leader can you explain it again?"

"Alright, listen this time dummy" He says with a teasing grin, ruffling your hair gently. He sat next to you. Using the seam ripper to remove your mistakes. You just stared at his fingers pointing at where you should redo it.

You wondered how he would shove it in your mo—

You mentally slapped yourself. As you crossed your legs together at the sudden image that came over your mind. "You okay? y/n?" Mitsuya stared at you noticing how you pressed your thighs together. "Hmhm" You responded.

"Leader! can you check this?" Another called out for mitsuya. He stood up and pats your shoulder.

"alright, I'll leave it to you then" He smiled.

The next days you tried to scold your mind for having intrusive thoughts of Mitsuya and his hands. Unfortunately, your mind developed a sudden kink with it. Making every imaginary situation more. . . . lewd.

"Hey Y/n! Hold up your hand" Your classmate suddenly called you lifting his hand towards yours. You knew exactly what he was trying to do, since he's been busy tryna do that with the other girls this morning. "Eh? I don't want to." You replied.

"Bet if mitsuya did it, y/n would do it!" Another classmate of yours shouted from the back. You raised your middle finger, continuing on cramming your homework.

"Leader~ Can you do that for us~" The boys teasingly called mitsuya. Who was back from his lunch raising an eyebrow at them. Hands pocketed "Do what?"

"We're just comparing hand sizes" They shrugged lifting up their hands. "Y/n won't let us~~"

"Eh? Stop bothering y/n." Mitsuya say in his deep voice his feet landing a hit on their butts, before proceeding to you. The men in the back groaned.

Bending to meet your gaze. He grinned "Now you owe me, work on your missed templates with me later" The lilac haired boy reminded. You just rolled your eyes on him mocking a tongue out. He chuckled. "And I thought you just saved me, leader."

You stayed with him in the club room. Doing your templates beside him. Him just handstitching a bunny like doll. The room slowly darkening as the sun sets. He turned on a lamp beside his table. Slowly the other girls started to leave the club room, waving their goodbye's to Mitsuya.

"Hmmmm you've been spacing out lately, are you okay?" He coughed softly referring to your messed up works recently. Eyes going to you.

"Me? spacing out?" You acted dumb, you scoffed in a fake manner. Brushing your hair with your fingers to shake off your stiffening state.

Not meeting any of his gaze, you just continued to sketch.

Did he figure it out? Did he catch me staring at his hands? Nah I need to stop overthinking.

"Alright then." Silence invaded the whole club room again. Your eyes roamed around realizing the rest of the girls left already leaving you two alone.

"Hold your hand up." Mitsuya suddenly commanded. Eyes going to him, you raised your brow. "I wanna know— our hand difference." He explained raising his hand infront of you. Placing his doll down the table.

"You know the boys in our class are just a bunch of perverts right?" Speaking like a fucking hypocrite, your actions didn't match up with your words. Almost instinctively, you faced him holding them up. He pressed his against yours.

Your insides melt at this gesture. Your theory confirmed that he has actually, soft hands.

"You have cute small hands" His lips curled up, slowly his fingers intertwined with yours, locking it with his. "Well yours rough" You lied, cheeks burning as you looked at your connected hands. "Is that so?"

Abruptly, mitsuya pulled you close to him. Making your other hand rest on top of his shoulder. His face centimeters away yours. Lips almost brushing.

"So is this what they're trying to do with you?" He asks in a low voice his eyes piercing through you. Craning his neck, curious.

"Yeah. . . " You broke eye contact. "Good thing I stopped them." He chuckled, eyes closing. He leaned back. Patting your head.

Funnily, that interaction with him didn't stop your thoughts. Actually it made your whole dirty secret worse. Just seeing him tapping his fingers on his lips as his chin rested on his palm. Made your mind run thoughts about the things his hands would do to you.

You leaned back looking around the morning peace in the clubroom. You were always the first one to go here. Since it's more quiet that way.

You closed your eyes craning your neck side to side. Loosening up a bit.

What would his fingers feel wrapped around your neck— no. no.

You shifted on your seat, pressing your thighs together. Mentally slapping yourself.

Changing your attention, your sight caught your pen. Picking it up you tried to do that cool trick again. Trying to twirl it around in between your middle and index finger.

"Ohhh you're trying to do it again?" Mitsuya popped out of nowhere. You jolted a bit, making him laugh. You clearly didn't see him coming in.

He hovered behind you, his chest pressed on your back as he rested his hand on your desk right beside yours. He leaned in observing your half-done project. "Again?" You asked head turning towards his face.

"Well I saw you trying to do this"

He pulled his other hand up grabbing your pen, his fingers did it in ease. "no need to brag leader-san" You tell him grabbing your pen back. "Looks like you're gonna stay with me again later" Mitsuya mentioned pointing at your work.

After classes you proceeded to your clubroom already, knowing you're gonna take so long with your project. Though you were greeted by yasuda leaving you with her tasks because apparently she also had friday plans like the others. The others always had friday plans that it would leave you, yasuda and mitsuya with the work.

"It's okay yasuda-san! I promise to clean up and remind leader to lock the door!" You assured her, she then finally nodded. "Fine fine— Also don't let that slimy delinquent distract leader" She added, you nodded giving her a big thumbs up, she then waved her hands leaving you all alone with the mess of excess papers and fabric from this morning.

You tied your hair as you clean up the place before doing your own project. You actually sat on the front desk as you look around feeling satisfied. Finally continuing your hand stitch. (You gave up after breaking 3 needles into half with your machine.)

You stay seated on the front desk, comfortably doing your own project. Humming a few songs here in there. The door then slid open.

"I'm guessing yasuda san has plans?" Mitsuya came in seeing you on his desk. "yup" You nodded eyes focused on your stitch. Sudden fingers gripped your knees.

"You should stop manspreading in that skirt" He scolded you pushing your knees together. You shivered at his touch against your skin. Due to this sudden awareness of his hand still gripping your lower thighs— you accidentally pricked your finger on a needle.

"Ouch." You hissed as you saw your finger starts to ooze out blood. "You're so clumsy" Mitsuya clicked his tongue removing the cloth on your hands bringing it down to the side. He grabbed your hand and started sucking on your finger.

"U-uhm" You widened your eyes as you saw the sight of mitsuya sucking your index finger. You blushed profusely at this. "Eh? I- I — you didn't have to do that" He finally let go of your finger.

"I don't have bandages on me—plus that always does the trick" He says wiping it. You just nodded looking around. "Tsk what is it that got you distracted again hm?" He questions furrowing his brows he leaned closer to you. He layed his hands on the table, locking you in.

"Ugh you really want me to say it huh?" You groaned. He craned his neck to the side. Waiting for you to continue. "Okay— I may have a small admiration towards your hands. . ."

"Admiration?"

"Well it was honestly innocent at first until it got all dirty and as much as I wanted to get it out of my head you suddenly do things to me"

"And what was my hands doing?"

"Mitsuya . . "

"No dove tell me" He said as the choice of endearment shoot straight to your core. Making you shift on your seat.

"hm shoving it in my mou—"

Mitsuya shoved his middle and index finger inside your mouth. Your cheeks burn at the sudden action. His other hand held your waist, holding you closer. "You like this?" He asked with hooded eyes. Your tongue twirled around his finger, he slowly discarded them letting out a popping sound as it came out of your lips. Feeling your chest warmed up down to your lower belly.

"Is this why you're so distracted lately? because you're too busy thinking about my hands?" He then held your chin with his fingers as he hummed. Lips inching closer to yours. You just nodded feeling feverish. "Do you want me to kiss you?"

Once again you nodded. You can feel the growing lust underneath your skirt. Pressing your thighs together to relief the heat. Mitsuya following the movement. His eyes went back to pierce through yours.

"Say please" He smugly commanded. You pouted.

He taps your lips. Wetting it with your own spit.

"Please kiss me."

Mitsuya leaned in to claim your lips, you lightly gasped as his lips finally touch yours. Closing your eyes, you melt into his kiss. He smirked at his before his hand on your waist went up to your hair tie, pulling it to let your hair flow against your shoulders.

He then licked your lips, instinctively you opened your mouth allowing him to enter his warm wet muscle inside. You whimpered at this, feeling your feverish state get warmer. Spreading all over your body. He caressed your cheek as he kissed you deeper. His other hand caressing your side, slightly brushing up against your chest. You hummed against his lips.

Biting onto your bottom lip he licked it. Before leaning back, placing a soft kiss on yours before taking in your whole panting visual.

"Do you want me to touch you, dove?" He questions, his thumb now pressing onto your bottom lip. His left hand went down on your thighs, softly pinching them.

"Please touch me, takashi"

With that his fingers indulged inside the band of your damp underwear. "Hm you're so wet, princess" He hummed letting his finger brushed up against your folds. You squirmed under his touch, your pussy clenching around nothing.

"Is this what you're thinking about in class?" He whispered next to your ear, placing a hot kiss on your cheek. You nodded, biting onto your red lips. As his middle finger continued to slide so easily with your wet slick. Up and down teasing both of your sensitive clit and your pleading hole.

You then felt the pad of his fingers teasing circles on your entrance, you looked at him with glossed eyes. He licked his lips seeing you practically begging for it.

His other hand held the back of your knees spreading your legs to gain more access. You leaned back supporting your weight with your hands.

Letting your skirt ride up, He bit his lips as he saw your ruined flimsy panties with his hand in it. You just looked at him with a pout wanting his fingers to penetrate your hole. "Please" You plead him trying to grind into his hand. Without caution he plunged his two fingers in your heat.

You bit back a moan. "Don't hold back now, dove." He said with a smug as he felt your hole clench around his fingers. "I-I can't takashi" You say feeling little under him. He chuckled at your pouting lips before placing a kiss on them. "Acting shy now huh"

Mitsuya curled his fingers inside making you squirm. "Don't move." He warned before pounding his hand into your writhing pussy. His long fingers hitting your soft spot almost immediately. You moaned letting your forehead clash itself against his. "You're taking my fingers so well baby. So noisy" He said referring to the slick slapping sounds of your wet pussy. You blushed at this ashamed on how you were making a mess on his hands.

"Aa you're so lewd— bet you've touched yourself multiple times thinking about this" He said adding another finger in your hole easily. You sobbed at the sudden feeling of fullnes inside "Hmm too much"

"Too much? you're a good girl you can take it" He says kissing your cheek once agaib. He thrusted his three fingers into your hole curling it up to feel your spongey walls clenching into him tighter.

"Mmn t-takashi—k-kiss" You mumbled feeling yourself itching up to your own orgasm.

"You want a kiss baby hm?" He hummed as his thrusts got harder and faster. Knuckles deep, the tip of his fingers hitting your sensitive spot. You purred nodding, He kissed your lips deeply making your moans muffled. You felt hot inside you as you panted trying to comprehend everything that he was doing to you. With that you felt your orgasm continue to build up. Your head leaned back breaking off his kiss, grinding back into his hand. Mitsuya felt yourself tighten continuing to hit on your sweet spot. Your own wetness beginning to drip down.

His thumb finally taking notice of your abandoned nub. He played with it. You squirmed as you feel it burn against his thumb.

"'m close" You squeak biting onto your lips. "Go on baby cum on my fingers" He said littering kisses on your neck, hands pounding into you harshly. With those words and his thumb rubbing your sensitive clit. Your thighs started to fidget. You closing your eyes shut as you panted.

You came onto his fingers. You let out a whiny moan as His fingers slowly ride out your high.

"Good girl" He said pulling his fingers out your panties. Your eyes opened seeing him cleaning his fingers clean with his tongue. He smirked as you lolled your tongue out. He placed his fingers on your tongue, letting you lick and suck them clean.

"You look so pretty like that, dove" He say as you finished pulling his fingers out popping out of your lips. He held your waist with his arms, moving you closer again. Leaning in to kiss you softly this time on your forehead. "How was that?"

"Better than what I imagined actually"

"C'mon it looks like we have friday plans too" Mitsuya said kissing your lips. Bringing you down the table. You smiled.

#mitsuya smut #tokyo revengers #tokyorev x reader #tokyo manji gang #takashi mitsuya #mitsuya x reader #mitsuya takashi #mitsuya x y/n #mitsuya headcanons #tokrev mitsuya

[reidandweep]

Stitching

Spencer Reid x Reader (female)

A/N- Much like Adam Driver, I have been a huge fan of Matthew Gray Gubler and criminal minds for years. With quarantine, I decided to re-watch the show from the beginning and I had some inspiration. My writing tends to take a while but if you have any requests or idea for Spencer Reid, please send them my way.

Word Count- 6286 words

Warning- Angst, mentions of violence and torture, fluff, tears, and the usual criminal minds details.

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge? -William Shakespeare.

QUANTICO, VIRGINIA

“Good morning my lover and friends. As of 8:45 am, yesterday morning, four bodies have been found across the Washington State area. Locations confirmed to be Pomeroy, Baker City, Salem, and Mill Creek. All victims were very similar in physical appearance; Caucasian, red hair, brown eyes, approximately 5ft 4’.”

Garcia swiped her tablet to display family photographs of the victims on the screen. The team watched, in the debriefing room, as they scanned through their own tablets; reading through the details. Spencer’s eyes flittered over the images as his fingers scanned across the words in his paper file; still adamant on not working with technology like the rest of his team.

“What about the cause of death? How were they found?”

Garcia shivered at Rossi’s question.

“It’s not a pretty image. Each victim was dismembered at the elbows, knees, neck, and stomach. Further cuts were made vertically down the stomach and across the face, arms, and legs. Not deep enough to cut through bone, but deep enough to bleed out. Where the unsub cut our victims, he then sewed them back together.”

Emily looked up at Garcia.

“Are you saying the lacerations were made before the victim’s died?”

“Precisely. Each autopsy report came back the same with the cause of death pointing to the direction of blood loss; specifically, from the throat.”

The team looked at the new images before them. Multiple pictures appeared on the screen, showing the bodies of the victims. The pictures showing the women laid out in the same pose, thick thread holding together the pieces of their corpses. All had their eyes closed, except one.

“Garcia, the last victim, zoom into her face.”

Garcia did as Spencer asked.

“Her eyes are closed.”

Spencer nodded, glancing towards JJ as she spoke.

“Meaning that he felt remorse for this murder.”

Derek scrolled through the pictures on his tablet.

“The other three victim’s eyes are open, indicating that he wanted them to look. To watch what he was doing, whatever it may have been.”

Spencer looked across the table at the questioning faces.

“So, what changed between the third and the fourth victim?”

Hotch stood from his seat, indicating the others to grab their belonging.

“We can discuss further on jet. Wheels up in thirty.”

WASHINGTON STATE

Being greeted by the local police department in Clagstone, Spencer and the team began their investigation into the murders. Spencer did not know what it was, but the stitching on the bodies felt familiar. Like he had seen them before.

Looking up from his files, Spencer watched as Derek walked into the room, ending a call with who he could only presume to be Garcia.

“Garcia has just completed background checks on our latest victim. Lily Trent visited local film screenings at the Southview Centre religiously, to watch horror movies in particular. Seems like the girl loved anything horror and Halloween; according to her roommate and her computer history. It seems that are other victims did also.”

Spencer stood from his seat and walked towards the whiteboard at the back of the room. Writing down the details Derek stated, his brain began to filter through the relevant information needed.

“Halloween is ranked the ninth most celebrated holiday in the world. With different interpretations of the holiday occurring according to country and culture. Wearing costumes at Halloween did not even become an occurrence until 1585, with the first instance recorded in Scotland.”

Derek chuckled at Reid’s excitement. He knew the boy loved Halloween.

“Well it all looks like they were pretty huge fans of the holiday and horror films. Maybe our unsub was too.”

Spencer looked down at the photos in his hand, scanning his memory for any correlation.

“Maybe, it’s not just horror, but a particular film. If all the victims were presented in a certain way, maybe the unsub is trying to replicate what happened to a character in a particular film.”

Derek crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’ll call Garcia to search through all the victims search history to see if any particular horror films come up in each one. Do you know of any films that the unsub could have replicated?”

Spencer shook his head.

“I can collate his actions to hundreds of films but, the method of torture and look of the victims, I can’t think of one horror feature that pinpoints all that the unsub has done.”

A thought unexpectedly popped into Spencer’s mind. Derek cocked his head at the sudden halt from the resident genius.

“But I know someone who might.”

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

“The importance of genre in film alters many of the other aspects. The characters and their narrative arcs, the music score, cinematography, the edit, and so much more. Sometimes genre even dictates the director who signs onto the project. Dennis Dugan would not have a directing career if Adam Sandler stopped making comedy movies. Because that is what he directs. He doesn’t direct comedies; he directs Adam Sandler comedies. Which, in my opinion, are a whole genre on their own.”

The class chuckled.

“Genre plays a part in everyday life. Sometimes, your day will be led by romance, or grief, or action. There may be drama, or comedy, or even silence.”

The class looked on in concentration as Y/N walked across the floor. If someone who did not attend the college walked past the classroom, they could’ve presumed that she was a student. She looked young enough.

“It controls the way the characters talk, act, and move. How the plot thickens and pushes forward and…”

The doors at the back of the auditorium opened. Y/N looked up at the sound of the intrusion to see figures that she could not recognise, and one that she did.

Clearing her throat, she continued.

“And how it even ends. We shall leave it at that today. What I want you to do in the meantime is research a genre in particular and come up with examples that counteract the stereotypes that have been enforced upon the genre itself. Hand it in to your professor first thing Monday morning. Thank you.”

Y/N watched as the students collected their things and filtered out of the room. The figures waiting till she was only left before they walked down the steps.

Coming to a stop in front of her desk, Y/N crossed her arms and waited. Spencer stepped forward with a crooked smile on his face.

“Hi Y/N.”

Y/N couldn’t help but giggle.

“Long time no see stranger.”

Spencer’s cheeks burned at Y/N’s words. The team shared looks between them at the unfamiliar display. They had seen Spencer blush at people before, but not for a long time.

Spencer cleared his throat, preparing himself to act professional.

“This is Dr Y/F/N Y/L/N. Y/N travels across the country to guest speak at different universities on her topic at hand. She specialises in film studies, more importantly the focus of characters and genres. If I can’t connect the unsub’s actions to a film, Y/N most definitely can.”

Y/N smiled at Spencer’s praise.

“Nice to meet you all. So, what are you here to talk to me about Doc? Obviously, you’re here on a case and if you are asking for my help, I’m guessing it’s going to be pretty gruesome.”

Spencer blushed at the nickname; caught off guard by the word slipping of her tongue.

Sending a raised look towards Reid, Hotch began to explain why they were there.

“Were looking into a case of connected murders. All victims were found to have been mutilated and tortured in the same way. As well as showing resemblances in their physical appearances. With research, we’ve found that each victim was particularly fond of horror films and Halloween. We would just like for you to take a look and see if you could recognise if the ways in which they were harmed stemmed from a film in particular.”

Y/N nodded her head.

“Of course, anything to help.”

She reached for the files from Spencer’s hands, ignoring the tablet pushed in her direction by JJ.

“Sorry, I prefer to use paper. I only really use technology for my lectures or to watch films if they cannot be purchased in physical form.”

Derek smirked, shooting looks to his team, as his eyes landed on Spencer. He never thought he would meet a technophobe like Reid.

Y/N scanned through the pictures and documents, looking in detail at the lacerations at hand. She identified the similarities between the victims, as her mind swirled through the images and characters from the films, she knew held similarities.

“What were the names of all the victims?”

Emily looked towards the woman.

“That information is classified.”

Y/N did not blink at her abrasiveness.

“Were any of them called Sally?”

The team looked perplexed at her question.

“No. Why that name in particular?”

Y/N continued to scan the pages as Rossi questioned her.

“Because the unsub isn’t replicating anything from a horror movie. The unsub is replicating the physical appearance and staging of a character from an animated movie. A Disney one to be more specific.”

A light bulb flickered in Spencer’s mind as he stared at Y/N in realisation. The hair colours. The stitches. It made sense now.

“The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT

“The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical Halloween-Christmas fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. It became a cult classic during the early 2000s with orchestral concerts occurring every year to celebrate the spectacle of the film.”

Spencer indicated for JJ to change the monitor as he and Y/N stood in front of the team to explain the information.

“Originally, the story began as a poem written by Tim Burton. Both narratives follow the protagonist, Jack Skellington, into his journey to Christmastown, and how he tries to make Christmas his own. The character in question that your unsub is replicating is the love interest of our protagonist. Created by Dr Finkelstein, Sally is a ragdoll-esque character whose body is covered with stitches to keep her together. The form in which all the women were found is identical to this scene in the movie.”

The screen changes to show the scene in question; paused at the precise moment to prover her point.

“All red haired, all Caucasian, all eerily the same. The stitches are exactly the same and the pose in which they are in the pictures are also.”

“We now know which film our unsub is mimicking, but how can we produce a distinguished profile of our unsub? All we can say is that between his third and fourth victim, he suddenly began to feel remorseful of his crimes.”

Y/N looked towards Spencer, waiting for him to speak as he knew more details about the case.

“Garcia checked into the victim’s computer histories and found that all four victims attended a horror convention in the Washington state area over the course of the past month. The convention in particular runs every other weekend, focusing on different horror films to highlight. However, they always make an exception for one film; The Nightmare Before Christmas. Whilst reviewing receipts for the tickets, they were all brought through the convention’s website, which is run by its board of organisation every year. Up until recently, the board has held the same members.”

Derek tapped on his tablet to the convention’s website.

“Last month, the website released details stating that a distinguish member was no longer part of the board due to unforeseen circumstances.”

It suddenly dawned on Y/N who Derek was talking about.

“Dean Faulkner.”

Spencer whipped around towards Y/N.

All eyes laid on her as her breath increased.

“You know him?”

Y/N nodded at Hotch.

“I guest spoke at a panel with him a few years back at a separate university. We were both there, amongst others, to talk about the works of a genre that are expertise were in. I was there to basically provide loose ends for what they could not answer. Dean’s specialised area was horror. The whole time he spoke about what he described as the true villains of horror and of the world.”

Y/N gulped, her mouth going dry.

“Women.”

The wheels began to turn in the team’s heads.

Spencer stepped closer towards Y/N in assurance, seeing that her thoughts were becoming overwhelmed. He quickly stepped back after he realised what he had done.

“He went on a raging tangent about the damsel in distress and the final girl. Going on and on and on about how women are weak and would never be the last one standing if faced against the monsters in real life. How they manipulated the men and made the monsters seem worse than they truly were. The only time he spoke positively about women was when we finally calmed him down and, during a Q&A session, a student asked him who the perfect horror movie character was. He said Sally because she was forgiving and would do anything for Jack; even if that meant falling apart and being sewn back together. I tried to justify that the film does not necessarily fall into the genre of horror. But he rebutted saying that it most definitely did, because of the fact that Jack’s dream did not come true.”

The room was silent for a second, taking in the information.

Suddenly, Y/N grasped the pen from Spencer’s hands. Her finger scribbling across the whiteboard.

“I need to know the names of the victims. Get Penelope on the phone and tell me the names.”

The team shocked at her erratic movements, sat in silence.

“Do you want to capture this guy?”

Spencer licked his lips and repeated the victim’s names.

“Susanna Cole, Alice Dawes, Liberty May, and Lily Trent.”

Y/N swiftly wrote the names on the boards. Each name below the other. Underneath the last name she wrote the letter Y.

“Can you ask Penelope to track any females with the first name beginning with Y who have purchased a ticket to the next convention?”

Derek quickly began to type to her. The rest of the team looking on in disbelief.

“There were twenty-three purchases, but with cross referencing with the similarities in the other victims, one matched. Her name is Yasmine Driver.”

Y/N wrote the name on the board. Circling all the first letters of each name, it became clear there was another connection with the victims.

“Their initials spell Sally.”

Y/N nodded at JJ’s disbelief.

“Reid, when is the next convention being held?”

Spencer diverted his attention to Emily.

“Their schedule every two weeks, so that would make it… tomorrow.”

The team swiftly moved into action.

“JJ bring together the police force for a debrief. Derek and Rossi, go to the convention centre and question the board about Dean. Ask them how often he visited and if they have any knowledge of the victims visits to the convention. Spencer and Emily, contact Penelope for Faulkner’s address. Once you have visited the home, if he is there, bring him in. We’re going to try and catch him before he gets close to his goal. I will locate Yasmine and bring her to the station for safety. We don’t know how far he is going to go and what the end goal of his fantasy is. But we are going to stop him.”

The team swiftly did as they were told, leaving the room with only Spencer and Y/N behind. Just before the door shot, Hotch leaned back in.

“Thank you, Dr Y/L/N, for all your help. If possible, could you stay here with JJ and look through the documents? You know this guy more than we do, so any more information that comes to mind, please let us know.”

Y/N and Spencer watched as Hotch left the room, the door shutting behind him.

As the silence engulfed them, Y/N and Spencer were hyper aware that they were now alone and had been for the first time in weeks.

Spencer swiftly walked towards Y/N and embraced her in a tight hold. Wrapping her arms around the slender man, Y/N breathed in his scent.

“I’ve missed you.”

Y/N chuckled at Spencer’s muffled words, as his head rested on top of her own. Pulling back, Y/N slowly released Spencer, letting her hands drop to her sides.

“I’ve missed you too Doc. We can catch up later, I will be waiting right here. Now, go and save the girl.”

Spencer chuckled at her words but did as Y/N said. Throwing her a smile, Spencer quickly walked out the room, leaving Y/N behind.

Y/N sat in the room, looking over the files as the time passed, waiting to see Spencer return with the rest of the team. A knock on the door startled her from her search.

Looking up at the door, Y/N saw JJ walk into the room with two cups of coffee in her hands. JJ outstretched the one hand, placing the cup in front of Y/N, as she took a seat and began to sip at her own.

“I didn’t know how many sugars you took so I estimated.”

Y/N smiled at the woman’s kindness.

“Thank you. Have you heard anything from the others?”

JJ sat up in her seat as she watched Y/N look over the documents. Her fingers moving across the pages ever so quickly. Her hand that wasn’t tapped continuously on the table in a rhythm.

“Spencer and Emily located Faulkner’s home, but it was vacant. They’re looking around the premises for clues for where he may be; as we speak. Hotch and Derek just called saying they are on their way down with Yasmine now.”

Y/N nodded at her words. Glad to hear that the girl was safe, but the main priority now would be to locate Faulkner. She wanted to truly help them, before anyone else could get hurt.

JJ grabbed her tablet and began to search through the files for any missed out information. Silence befell across the pair, until JJ could not help but ask what they had all been dying to know.

“How did you and Spencer meet?”

Y/N had been waiting for the question. She had seen the looks the team had shared throughout the day. The questioning gazes towards the pair.

“Spencer and I were both guests speaking at the University of California a few months ago. He must have finished his lecture early as he was wondering the halls when he came across the class I was teaching. I was stood on the desk, encouraging the students to do the same. Spencer thought I was a student causing trouble whilst the professor had left the room. He ran in sprouting facts about the percentage of people who fall and severely hurt themselves whilst standing on tables. Telling me that I should get down before he reports me to my professor.”

JJ chuckled at Y/N’s story.

“Sounds like Spence alright.”

Y/N giggled in agreement. As she spoke, Y/N couldn’t help but smile at the memory of their first encounter. JJ noticed the smile on the woman’s face. She knew what that smile meant.

“So, I told him that he better stay there to catch me, just in case I fell, as I was trying to teach my students about the importance of character actions, and how doing something as simple as standing on a desk can amplify the tone of the scene. Like in the film Dead Poet’s Society. Spencer finally realised that I was also a guest speaker and he actually stood there for the next 40 minutes of my lecture. I didn’t need to stand on the desk that long, but I wanted to see if he would stay. Once the lecture had finished, he apologised for jumping to conclusions. I apologised for making him wait for 40 minutes in case I fell. He told me I didn’t make him wait; he chose to. We’ve been in contact ever since.”

Just as Y/N finished her story, the door to the conference room opened once more. Looking towards the door, Y/N watched as Hotch entered, followed by Yasmine. The young woman looked scared, but unharmed.

Y/N stood from her seat, unsure of what to do as Hotch insisted for Yasmine to take a seat.

“Do you want me to leave?”

Hotch nodded his head.

“We shouldn’t be long. The rest of the team are outside in the bullpen. You can go ahead and join them. JJ and I will take it from here.”

Y/N nodded her head, leaving the room. She watched as Hotch and JJ questioned spoke to Yasmine through the glass, before she turned and walked down the corridor to find Spencer and his friends.

Turning the corner, Y/N failed to stop herself before bumping into a tall figure. Looking up to apologise, her eyes suddenly widened at the familiar face. Before a sound could leave her lips, a blunt force knocked her out cold.

Spencer and the team discussed where Faulkner could be when Hotch strode into the bull pen.

“How did it go?”

Hotch walked towards his team, ready to answer Derek’s question.

“It seems that Faulkner had been stalking the victims for some time. Yasmine detailed seeing him turn up at the conventions, even though he was no longer allowed. She had previously complained about his behaviour to the board before his dismissal. Stating that Faulkner had sexually harassed her. Rossi, did anyone at the convention mention anything about Faulkner that we don’t know?”

“It seems that Yasmine wasn’t the only one. The other board members went into detail about why he was fired. It turned out that all of our victims, including Yasmine, had filed lawsuits against Faulkner for sexual harassment. The charges were ultimately dropped and never recorded to keep the convention’s reputation clear. But they fired Faulkner and banned him from being able to attend any further conventions. Taking away the Nightmare Before Christmas dedicated stand was just a coincidence. They felt that the convention needed something new as they had been celebrating the film for over eight years.”

Just as Hotch was about to declare what the next step would be in finding Faulkner, JJ burst through the ball pen.

“Guys, you have to come quick.”

The team, in shock, watched as JJ ran back towards the conference room. All quickly on her heels. Entering the room, she took control of the laptop, streaming the image to the projector.

Spencer could no longer breathe as he looked at the image on the screen.

“Y/N.”

The screen showed Y/N tied to a chair and bent forward; clearly in pain. Her surroundings empty and dark.

Suddenly a voice was heard.

“I sense there's something in the wind. That seems like tragedy's at hand isn’t there Dr Y/F/N Y/L/N.”

The team watched in horror as Dean Faulkner yanked Y/N’s head back, her body letting out a strangled cry at the pain caused by his actions.

Spencer felt sick, he felt like he was watching himself when Tobias Hankel had held him captive.

“Emily, call Garcia to track his location. We don’t have much time.”

Emily did as Hotch told her to. Talking as quickly as she could on the phone.

“She can’t track it; he’s re-routing the IP address every thirty seconds.”

“She needs to track it. She needs to find her now!”

They all jumped at Spencer’s outburst, watching as tears filled his vision and his hands began to shake.

“Spencer, you need to calm down, we are going to find her. He can’t have taken her far.”

Spencer took in Derek’s words. Taking a breath, he looked back at the screen as he tried to distinguish any recognisable features of where she may be.

Faulkner moved his face to rest against Y/N’s hair, smelling the tresses. She tried to pull away only for him to yank her back again.

“Why did you kill them Dean?”

Faulkner let go of Y/N’s hair. Walking to her side, he grabbed her face in a vicious grip. Yanking her to look at him.

“Why? They ruined my life, everything I ever worked hard for. You all did.”

Y/N looked at him in confusion.

“I did nothing to you.”

Y/N’s breath increased at the vicious look he sent her way. Her eyes flickered to the camera, knowing that Faulkner was streaming what was happening to Spencer and his team. She had to find a way to tell them where she was.

“You made them question my authority. My position. My integrity as a member of the board. You ruined my reputation by belittling me in California.”.

“That’s because you know nothing about horror Dean. You think you know everything about it, but you don’t.”

Spencer couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Why was Y/N taunting him?

“Garcia’s looking to see if there’s any abandoned properties around the area that he could have taken her to.”

Spencer didn’t even acknowledge Emily’s words.

Faulkner reeled back at Y/N’s taunt.

“I know everything there is to know about horror. I’ve seen it all. I’ve lived it. I’ve created it. Ask me anything about it, I know the right answers.”

“But you don’t. You have an idea of horror, your own idea, that is wrong. You believe that women are the reason you lost your job and became the monster that you are. But they’re not. The reason you’re a monster is because of your sick and twisted fantasies. You made those girls feel small and weak, didn’t you?”

“Shut the fuck up.”

The team watched in apprehension.

“Garcia, the location, we need it now.”

Rossi looked between the screen and the phone in Derek’s hand.

“I can get the area he’s holding her, but not the specific building. The whole town is basically abandoned. She could be anywhere from a shop to a house.”

“Keep looking.”

Spencer chewed on his lips. He had to think rationally. If the unsub was upset about the changes and losing his job, what could have been the last straw?

“Derek what was the film they replaced Nightmare Before Christmas with at the convention.”

Derek and Spencer shared a look.

“Cabin in the Woods.”

Spencer ran across the rooms to the files at hand.

“In the location that Garcia has tracked her too, there are three cabins, all within a walking distance of the other.”

The team began to rush out the room, transferring the livestream to a tablet so they could monitor Faulkner and Y/N.

“You’re weak Dean. You’re just like all the horror movie villains. Ghostface, pinhead, jigsaw, all of them. You feed of fear and feeling in control. But the only thing you have in common with them is that you’re not going to win.”

Faulkner scream in rage. Pulling Y/N’s head back, he punched her in the jaw. Striding to the camera, he pushed his face to the lens.

“The party’s over!”

Spencer watched in horror as the feed went off.

“Hotch we have to hurry!”

Hotch sped up the car. Quickly arriving to the location, the team split up into pairs, taking a cabin each to inspect. Hotch and Derek, Rossi and JJ, and Spencer and Emily veered off to their targeted locations. Spencer followed Emily, trying to stay calm, as he slowly walked into the cabin to find it empty, when suddenly a gun shot was heard. Looking in the direction, the pair ran to the cabin that Derek and Hotch had been assigned. The rest of the team already there, looking into the cabin in shock.

“No, no, no, no. Y/N.”

Spencer pushed in front of them, tears pooling in his eyes as he a waited to see the horror before him. He looked in disbelief as Y/N stood from her position on the floor, the gun dropping from her hand as they shook. Faulkner laid a few feet away, in a pool of blood, no longer breathing.

Y/N looked towards the team. Raising her shaking hands towards Spencer.

“I didn’t want to kill him but he was going to shoot whoever walked through the door.”

Spencer rushed forward, grabbing her in a bone crushing hug. His hands stroking her hair as he soother her cries. Leading her out of the cabin, he allowed his team to sort out the rest as he continued to calm Y/N down.

The movement of the team were a blur as ambulances and police cars came. Taking them to the hospital as they sat in the waiting room as Y/N was checked over.

Spencer sat in the waiting room, his leg bouncing up and down with nerves.

Derek excused himself from the groups conversation as he went and sat next to Spencer. Clapping him on the back, Derek squeezed Spencer’s shoulder in re-assurance.

“She’s going to be fine pretty boy.”

“Physically, she has a concussion, bruising along her jawline, and needs stitches on her forehead. Mentally, I don’t know how she is going to handle this. When I suggested asking for her help in the case, I didn’t presume the risk of her being hurt. I should have.”

“Spencer, listen to me. We would have done everything to make sure she lived okay. She not only saved herself but she also helped save Yasmine and this team. Any one of us could have been shot if she had not thought fast and got the gun out of his hands. You know, better than anyone, how to help her deal with this.”

Spencer took in Derek’s words, nodding his head in appreciation, as he leaned against his friend in a comforting hug.

“Probably wasn’t the ideal way to introduce your girlfriend to the team though.”

Spencer stuttered at Derek’s teasing.

“We’re profilers Spencer. We’ve all noticed how you’ve been happier these past few months and seeing how persistent you were for us to consult Y/N, it gave us all an idea why. Seeing you together only confirmed our suspicions. So, how long has pretty boy had his pretty girl?”

Spencer chuckled at Derek’s words. Ringing his hands together as he spoke to Derek.

“Tomorrow is actually our six-month anniversary. She was going to be flying back today so we could celebrate; unless I got called on a case.”

“We can still celebrate.”

Spencer looked up as Y/N walked through the waiting room, fresh stitches on her forehead and an ice pack resting in her hands.

“The nurse said that there was no internal damage. That my body will just be sore for a few weeks. My concussion is light, so I am alright to travel home.”

The team gathered around to check on her. But her eyes could not leave Spencer’s as he rose from his seat. Spencer walked forward slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. Carefully he cupped her face in his hands, and to the surprise of Y/N and his team, Spencer bowed his head and placed a careful kiss on Y/N’s lips. Slow, protective, and full of love.

Pulling back, Spencer wrapped his arms around her as he looked at the beaming smiles of his teammates. Y/N couldn’t help the blush across her cheeks or the giggle that followed. Soon, everyone was chuckling at the pair.

“I would like to thank you Y/N. From the entire team. Your actions saved a young woman’s life, and what could have been one of our own.”

Y/N smiled in appreciation at Rossi’s words.

“You’re Spencer’s family. I would do it all again if I had to.”

“Statistically speaking, around 2,000 people a day are reported missing in the US. Approximately, 600 of those would be reported or considered kidnappings. It is highly unlikely for you to be put in a situation like that again.”

Y/N looked up at her boyfriend.

“I never thought I would say this, but your talk about me being kidnapped again is really attractive.”

The team laughed at the girl’s statement, seeing Spencer become physically embarrassed.

“Just to inform everyone, the jet will be ready to depart in forty-five minutes. As I was informed that today you would have been heading home, Y/N we have sent for your belongings to be collected; you can fly back with us.”

Spencer smiled at Hotch in gratitude, the older man knowing he would have only worried if she had flown home alone.

“Thank you, Mr Hotchner.”

Hotch let out a brief smile.

“Call me Hotch. Your part of Spencer’s life, that means your part of this family.”

BAU JET

It had been an exhausting few days for the team, and it showed, as they all were sporadically asleep throughout the jet. Silence encompassed the steel capsule, with only the sound of sleep filled breaths being heard.

Y/N laid fast asleep, with her head on Spencer’s shoulder, as the boy genius sat up wide awake. Looking down at the woman next to him, all Spencer could imagine was what could have happened if they weren’t quick enough. How many days he would have lost with her. All the things he wanted to tell her.

As though she could sense his deep thoughts, Y/N slowly awoke, rubbing her eyes as a yawn escaped her mouth. Blinking her eyes rapidly, she waited till she was fully conscious before she spoke.

“What time is it Doc?”

Spencer jostled out of his thoughts to check the watch on his wrist.

“It’s 2:36 am. You’ve been asleep for approximately 3 hours and 22 minutes.”

Y/N quickly sat up in her seat, wide awake.

Spencer turned towards her in worry, wondering what had made her so alert.

“What wrong? Are you feeling nauseous? Do you need some painkillers, as your due to have…”

Y/N grabbed Spencer’s face and placed her lips flush against his own. Their mouths moved in unison, as Spencer’s own hands moved to circle around her waist, bringing their bodies as close as they could be in the small space they had. They hadn’t kissed since the hospital, and before then it had been weeks. Spencer never realised until then, how much he truly missed her touch, her taste, her as a whole.

Coming to a point where they both lacked breathe, the pair pulled apart. Their eyes fluttering open as Y/N’s hands caressed Spencer’s face. Her one hand travelled to his hair, feeling the tresses that had grown since she had last seen him. She looked at him in a way no one had before. Spencer shared the same expression.

“Happy six-month anniversary Spencer. I love you.”

Spencer looked at Y/N in disbelief.

“Before you start spouting of facts about transference and how I am probably only saying this because you saved my life, you’re wrong. Because then I would be telling Hotch and Morgan the same thing.”

Spencer couldn’t help the watery smile that graced his face. For the second time in the past day, his eyes filled with tears. But this time, they were good.

“I’ve known I have loved you for a long time. For five months actually. I knew I loved you when we made pizza in your apartment and we ended up burning it, so we ordered one instead.”

Spencer laughed at the memory. It was the first time Spencer had initiated their make out. He had watched her cooking, in his apartment, and he had never found her more attractive than he did seeing her in his home.

“I knew that whilst you were spouting of facts about the invention of the pizza that I loved you and that I could listen to you forever. I love you Spencer.”

Spencer pulled Y/N closer to him as he rested his forehead against her own. The pair basked in each other’s presence.

“Past surveys show that men wait just 88 days to say those three little words to their partner for the first time, and 39 percent say them within the first month. Women, on the other hand, take an average 134 days. You knew after 31 days that you loved me. I knew after our first date that the way I felt when I was with you is a feeling that I could not even describe with my vast vocabulary. I knew after 8 days that the way I felt was stronger than liking you and that was a frightening thought. But its scarier to think what could have happened to you yesterday. That I could have lost you without you ever knowing. I made that mistake before. I will never make it again. I love you too.”

Y/N couldn’t help the smile and giggle that overtook her. Spencer, feeling high of the serotonin that was coursing through his body, couldn’t help his laugh either. Soon the pair were a giggling mess, unaware of the team who had all begun to awaken whilst the pair were talking.

The team congregated to the back of the jet, allowing the couple to stay in their own bubble.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen him truly happy.”

The group nodded at Emily’s words.

JJ smiled as she watched her best friend rattle of the possible movies that he and his girlfriend could spend their anniversary watching as she recovered. Her smile growing even wider at Y/N’s enthusiasm to watch the film’s in their original language. None of them could miss the look of adoration beaming between the pair.

“Yeah, it really has.”

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. -Lao Tzu

A/N- It isn’t the best but I really enjoyed writing this one.

#spencer reid imagine #spencer reid #criminal minds #spencer reid x reader #criminal minds imagine #matthew gray gubler #matthew gray gubler imagine #matthew gray gubler x reader #criminal minds x reader #spencer reid imagines

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 212

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! 14 - “Milky Rose’s Secret!” Date watched: 28 May 2021 Original air date: 4 May 2008 Screenshots Precure Metamorphose Gallery | Sky Rose Translate Gallery Project info and master list of posts

Hey everyone, welcome to Milky Rose’s Top Ten Sick Vape Tricks, and- *COUGH COUGH WHEEZE*

Nuts is acting weird, Kurumi is acting weird, Bunbee is acting weird, and hey, has anyone heard from Milk lately? Everything comes together in the conclusion to the Blue Rose arc. Let’s dive in!

The Plot

Kurumi is at a crosswalk and notices that Nuts is on the other side of the road, dressed strangely: he’s wearing a burgundy shirt with triangles on the collar, a gray poncho, and a very large red, orange, and yellow necklace. The two simply stare at each other silently. After the opening theme plays, we find Nuts back at the store, reading books about European colonizers and warfare. Meanwhile, the five girls and Coco are sitting at the table as Kurumi brings over a tray of mame daifuku and cream puffs. Nozomi gets upset when Kurumi rudely tells her there isn’t any for her and a squabble ensues, with Coco and Nuts both staring and Rin remarking that this behavior seems familiar.

Every little trait, however small makes my very flesh begin to crawl

Meanwhile in Eternal, Bunbee gets a visit from Anacondy, who orders him to resubmit his most recent report on Milky Rose. It’s credited to Scorp, since he did most of the research, but Anacondy menacingly informs Bunbee that nobody by that name works at Eternal. After some back and forth he gets the hint. As she leaves the office, she states loudly that she can’t allow Shibiretta to get the Rose Pact first.

Back at Natts House, Kurumi brings up what she saw earlier regarding Nuts’s unusual attire. Urara and Nozomi suggest he may have been trying to get into the spirit of a role, or attending a costume party, though Rin denies both suggestions. Kurumi seems worried that he’s stretching himself too thin as-is, but Coco tells them he trusts Nuts. As if on cue, the man himself appears, startling everyone, and he asks Coco to mind the store while he steps out, though Kurumi volunteers in his stead. Meanwhile, Komachi and the other girls decide to follow Nuts to see what he’s up to. They tail him to a grocery store, where he buys all kinds of ground pepper from the spice aisle, and then to a craft store where he grabs some fabric in the colors of the six heroines. Nozomi thinks she knows what's going on, and rushes back to the store.

if soneone you know is acting strange, just ask them what’s going on, don’t stalk them

While this is happening, the scene returns to Natts House where Kurumi is cleaning the store. Coco tries to help but she tells him to relax, and she’ll get Syrup to help her instead, since he's otherwise unoccupied .Syrup objects that he’s slacking because there haven’t been any letters from Milk recently. Kurumi suddenly tenses up at this remark, and quickly chirps that no news is good news, but from what she’s heard Milk is a lovely and intelligent character. Syrup points out that they’ve never talked about Milk while she’s been around, and Coco grows suspicious. Just then, Nozomi bursts back in and declares that Nuts is going to turn the store into a ramen shop. Rin quickly points out the holes in this idea, and Karen says she can’t figure out what he’s doing. They hear Nuts return and agree to keep it to themselves for now.

Rin is a mood

Later that night, Nuts is burning the midnight oil on his craft project, sewing together the strips of fabric he purchased, when King Donuts comes to deliver some exposition disguised as sage advice. First he informs Nuts that the others are worried about his unusual behavior, and reminds him that he has a support network of friends who can help him with troubles. He transitions to the subject of the Blue Rose, suggesting that Nuts should work with her, and also reveal her true identity to everyone. The elder king reminds him that to fulfill the prophecy of uniting the roses, there needs to be understanding and teamwork from all parties.

The next day, Nuts intercepts Kurumi on her way to the store and asks to speak with her. They sit together by the lake behind Natts House and he asks about where she lives. She dodges the question, and Nuts tells her that Coco and he would welcome her living with them. He infers that she has nowhere to go, like the last time, and reveals that he recognized her from her personality.

dropping hints left, right, and center

However, he continues by saying it’s up to her whether she tells everyone else, he’s only concerned about her accommodations. She turns this around on Nuts and says she’s worried about his unusual behavior of late, showing concern for his health. He informs Kurumi that he’s studying the history of this world, believing that it will help him overcome the tragedy that destroyed the Palmier Kingdom. Nuts asks her point-blank to cooperate with the Precures and go to the Cure Rose Garden, but before she can respond, Bunbee appears to stop them. Kurumi transforms into Milky Rose to defend Nuts, while over at the school Coco detects the enemy presence and informs the other girls.

Bunbee gloats that he’s studied Milky Rose thoroughly and determined from Scorp’s data that she lacks experience. He focuses his attacks on Nuts so she has to protect him, leaving her unable to counterattack. Nuts (in Fairy form) tries to intervene by jumping on Bunbee’s face but gets thrown to the side while Bunbee continues to gloat over Rose. At that moment the other girls show up and transform, so Bunbee turns a boat into a Hoshiina to keep them occupied.

Really driving the theme home, aren’t they?

The Precure 5 attack it, but even after rocking the boat it unleashes a volley of cannonballs which they’re unable to dodge. Rose looks on in horror when they can’t stand up, and Bunbee shoots a missile at her. The fairies are all behind her, so she takes the hit full-on instead of dodging in order to protect them. Unfortunately that was her limit, and she collapses. Bunbee mocks her some more and tries to grab the Rose Pact. Nuts grips it for dear life, though, and declares that taking things from other people only results in tragedy. He then recounts a time in world history where a powerful nation invaded and conquered other countries for resources like pepper, destroying beautiful cultures in the process.

yes this is really Precure talking about the horrors of colonialism

Bunbee retorts that it’s natural for the strong to take what they want, and tries to shake off Nuts, but King Donuts emerges from the Rose Pact and uses his blue light attack to distract him long enough for Milky Rose to jump in. She declares that she will go to the Cure Rose Garden, so she can’t lose here. The fight turns around as she kicks Bunbee into the air while the Precure team stop the Hoshiina from going after her. She then leaps up and throws Bunbee down into the Hoshiina before performing Milky Rose Blizzard. Bunbee beats a hasty retreat. Rose tries to leave as well, but Dream grabs her arm to tell her how grateful they are for her help. Rose grows increasingly flustered as she tries to break out but she can’t contain herself any longer and she disappears in a puff of smoke and a familiar popping sound. The girls look down at their feet, and who should they see but Milk!

Does this look like the face of mercy-miru?

As everyone starts to put together what this means, Dream excitedly tells Milk that she just missed seeing Milky Rose. Rouge, exasperated, explains that Milk is Milky Rose, and both Dream and Lemonade are shocked. (Urara hadn’t figured it out either.)

and Rin is still the best

Milk explains how she acquired the power: a blue seed was left behind after the team visited the Palmier Kingdom (in episode 7) and she took care of it until it bloomed into a blue rose, which in turn bestowed her with the power of Milky Rose. However, it takes a lot of energy out of her, so she can’t transform for long. When pressed about why she didn’t tell them, she smugly says that it’s traditional for the new heroine’s identity to be a secret. Dream can’t hide her disappointment that their ally is just Milk, and Milk doesn’t take this well, so they begin bickering anew.

business as usual, really

Meanwhile King Donuts reveals that he no longer needs the protection of the Rose Pact, and will be returning to the Donut Kingdom. He asks Syrup to take him home in return for letting him eat as many donuts as he can, but he leaves a card behind that will let the girls contact him if they need to. With that, Syrup takes off into the sky and the episode ends- wait, no, not yet.

In the final scene, everyone is working in the shop. Nozomi and Kurumi are trying to mop the floor but keep bumping into each other. Kurumi insists that either Nozomi move out of her way or find something else to do, and while they squabble, Rin snarks that she really is Milk. Nuts turns to Coco and explains that he tried to learn about Earth culture and history through experience, hence the traditional clothes and the spice. Komachi asks about the colored cloth and he looks down the hallway to the extra bedroom, which now has a sign on it in rainbow cloth with blue roses framing it that says “Milk”

The episode closes out over a still image of everyone cleaning while Nuts says “Welcome to Natts House, Milk.”

same as it ever was, same as it always will be

Finally, the credits update again, and Milky Rose is properly credited at last:

She is played by Sendai Eri, who also voices Milk, and they kept her a mystery to prevent ruining the surprise.

The Analysis

Kurumi is being extra mean to Nozomi in this episode, and I think it’s because they’re finally ready to reveal her identity. They want the audience to say “that behavior is familiar” or at least “why is she being so mean?” so that when the truth comes out, viewers have the same reaction: “Oh, that explains it.” So yes, in perhaps the least surprising turn of events, Milky Rose turns out to be none other than Milk. Nuts and King Donuts were the only ones who had definitively figured it out beforehand, but everyone else acknowledges that it explains a lot about her, and are like “oh, I should have known.” At this point, fourteen years after the fact, it is certainly up there with Darth Vader’s identity in the realm of worst kept secrets, but I wanted to limit my reviews to in-show knowledge mostly. That being said, there were ample hints along the way. Kurumi’s bow is similar to Milk’s. They act similarly. She clearly knew who the girls were already. We literally saw Milk growing the Blue Rose right up until Milky Rose’s debut. Her name is MILKY ROSE. Her civilian name, Kurumi, is “Milk” written backwards, and her full name backwards is “Milk’s ears”. I recognize that the target audience is young but it barely feels like a secret, to the point that I’m not sure how secret it was really intended to be. There’s all these obvious hints, but then there’s the mystery voice actress and the opening displaying both Milk and Milky Rose together, hiding that they’re the same person. But, it’s all out there now, whether or not you figured it out by yourself.

so how is Milk in two places at once?

This episode is kinda... not great. The plot is all over the place and the moral lesson is really forced in there. Bunbee’s plan made some sense but was not well realized, and all the gags about what Nuts is really up to lead to an underwhelming conclusion. The concern over his unusual behavior and the effect it may have on him seems unwarranted given what we see. Everyone is afraid he’s stretching himself too thin between his duties to Natts House and the strange habits he’s suddenly picked up, but there is absolutely nothing to suggest this. He doesn’t act tired, he isn’t gone from the store for unreasonable amounts of time, and he delegates responsibility when he is gone. He still acts quite sensible when he’s around, which is why Coco trusts him. So for both Kurumi and King Donuts to express doubt in him is an excuse for them to tell us how strange he’s acting without showing it very well. As my friend joked, “He’s doing THREE things! You’re only allowed to do TWO things before it becomes a problem!”

On that note, this episode has the most hamfisted lesson on colonialism I’ve ever seen. Nuts dressing up in native attire and buying pepper to “understand” people is so..... weird, out of character for him, and doesn’t even do a good job of making a point. It’s 99% “Why is Nuts acting so weird” as a way to get him to talk to King Donuts, and then at the end he’s like “yeah it’s because I read about colonialism and wanted to try being oppressed.” I’d like to take the moment to remind you that until relatively recently, Nuts thought all his people other than Coco and Milk were killed in a genocide, so he already knows what that’s like. Also, buying lots of pepper shakers because people were killed in the spice trade is nonsensical. You’re not experiencing what they went through at all, you’re not gaining an appreciation for the sacrifices that were made for this substance, you’re just buying lots of pepper. As far as we see he never even does anything with all that pepper, and I don’t believe any of his quirks in this episode are spoken of again after this episode, so it’s altogether very strange. 

This episode also marks Bunbee’s first appearance since the death of Scorp. It’s surpisingly nice of him to try commemorating his accomplice via the report, since Bunbee recognizes that it was mostly Scorp’s handiwork and he’s just signing off on it. He then tries to use that research to fight Milky Rose, but he underestimates the helping hand of King Donuts...which is fair since nobody would have expected him to put up a defense. He’s only used his party trick once before, in the Palmier Kingdom against Nebatakos, who is not known for his note-taking, so Bunbee wouldn’t have known about it. The partnership that Bunbee and Scorp had was oddly charming, and I don’t believe we see their closeness mentioned ever again. so this episode tries to be a send-off to that comraderie. It doesn’t pay off, but villain plots seldom do. On the flip-side, Anacondy is going into denial mode, reminding Bunbee that there is not nor has there ever been anyone at Eternal named Scorp, that Oceiania has always been at war with Eastasia, and there is no war in Ba Sing Se. Unlike in Splash Star with everyone forgetting the Kiryus, this reads to me less like he’s literally been forgotten and more that Anacondy is intentionally burying him for his failures. I don’t remember who’s next to fall, but it will be interesting to see if Anacondy treats them the same. She also mentions again that she can’t allow Shibiretta to beat her, furthering their rivalry.

It does seem that the plot has just been treading water since the death of Scorp, while they focus on establishing Kurumi. The villains are somewhat regrouping but not accomplishing anything. Nebatakos is nowhere to be seen in this episode, Shibiretta is basically only seen when she’s the focus, there’s no sign of the Director. On the hero side the girls are just kinda vibing, learning to get along with Kurumi. It was only in this episode that they begin to lightly push the idea of the Precures and Milky Rose combining their powers again. That takes all season, but with this arc over it’s pretty much more status quo until the mid-season. Enjoy the ride for now.

And our last character note is a quick ode to King Donuts. From what I remember of them, he is my favorite of the four monarchs, and it’s a little sad to see him go. Our next one in particular is quite annoying. King Donuts, by contrast, starts out a bit gruff but he warms up to the team fairly quickly, especially in episodes 6 and 7. He becomes a good background mentor figure, especially to Coco and Nuts, he doesn’t get in the way (looking at you, Queen Bavarois), and he has an ace in the hole light attack that has been useful on at least two (2) occasions. His heart-to-heart with Nuts in this episode was pure exposition but still charming, and he will be missed.

The art here is not great. It’s passable, generally, with some notable bad moments of blank expressions or noodle legs.

As I noted above, there’s some reused animation bits during the scenes where the girls stalk Nuts, from several angles. It may be an intentional gag or it may just be convenient. I’m not here to judge.

Then there’s this standout bit of animation where Milky Rose tosses Bunbee into the ship.

as the kids say, YEET!

(bigger version on imgur)

This is the best scene in the episode. That leap, that midair flip, and the way she throws him with such force, it’s perfect. I also like most of the fight with the ship hoshiina, there’s just not very much of it to talk about since they rush the fight. Rin gets some great expressions throughout. I’ve probably said I’m a sucker for her sassy and exasperated faces.

As far as gags go, Nozomi also gets some fun ones with her wildly misplaced guesses about what Nuts is up to and they made me chuckle.

Nozomi and Urara both have a good reaction to Milk’s big reveal, which I showcased above.

This episode was written by Murayama Isao, a prolific writer for the Precure series who has contributed scripts to most shows since Splash Star, including the All Stars DX trilogy of movies, and he was head writer for Maho Girls and Star Twinkle Precure. Upon reviewing the episodes and shows he worked on, my friend and I came to the conclusion that he’s generally a good individual episode writer, but not so great at running the show. This episode falls a bit flat by his standards, which is unusual for a landmark episode like the reveal of Kurumi’s identity. There’s no teeth to the script. The ideas are decent, but they aren’t fleshed out enough and it feels like three episode ideas all cobbled together. The villain plot is rushed to get to Kurumi’s reveal, the subplot with Nuts acting strange makes no sense and goes nowhere, it’s only Nuts’s conversation with Kurumi that has any weight to it. The colonialism lesson is really shoved in there. I’m not opposed to Precure getting a bit real and talking about the real horrors of history (remember that Honoka’s grandma from the first series was implied to be a survivor of the atomic bomb) but this is not the way to do it.

During their conversation, Nuts asks Kurumi where she’s living, and that is a damn good question which never gets answered. We know Milk can fend for herself from her intiial introduction in the previous season, but how did she enroll in school, how did she get different sets of clothes, what does she eat, where does she sleep? I know Precure will never answer most of these deeper logistical issues, but I’m glad they at least brought it up, and I wish she’d answered.

This episode is a lot, and a little. It’s a rather anticlimactic ending to a pretty fun arc. I wanted to like it more but it tries to do too much in its runtime and falls flat. Milk is back, and now she can turn human. Now that the secret is out, the possibilities for her interactions with the girls are more versatile and that will be fun to explore.

Next time, we let sleeping giants lie.

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 kettei!

PS: reminder again that this is my last long review, except for movies. They’re too much. Look forward to a new format soon.

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! #YPC5GG14 #PCD212