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ask-de-writer · 6 months

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FIENDSHIP IS MAGIC

(Part 65 of ?)

18+ readers only (sex scenes)

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FIENDSHIP IS MAGIC

Making Fiends and Influencing Ponies

An Anthro *Tail* of the Mane Six

Part 65 of ? (Work in Progress)

De Writer

74848 words (story in progress)

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This story is age restricted to 18+

years or older!

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights. They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact. They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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New to the story? Read from the start HERE

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Kin snickered, “You three, boring? No, I rather think not, especially for those who are watching!”

Luna chortled and quietly put away her magic net mirror. “You will never guess what just happened on Ponyville Mainline siding number one! By the way, Celestia, you needn't worry about the casualty train from the Gryphon Empire. They had to pause for a few because some Royal Marines were busy removing passengers from the Charter Train on the siding! We have snared the entire Ducal Council! I really do expect to find that there are one or two who are actually not guilty, maybe more.”

Twilight spoke up wistfully, “I hope that Carton, Duke of the Camarg is not one of the cabal. I really like him and besides, I don't think that any of us would want to upset his mother, the Rom, Dame Megan Blackberry IV, Knight of Justice and heroine of the Great South Bay invasion!”

Celestia joined them and agreed, “I would hope so too, Twilight. That said, Vinyl has chosen our music and Foamy and Clarice have been putting the finishing touches to our routine. Shall we put aside other worries for now and go see what our dance is going to be like?”

Luna brightened up at once! “That sounds like so much more fun than politics!”

They found the Gryphon Ambassador coming with them. “When the Throne of Empire heard of this amazing show, all three have requested permission to fly in with their Guard to watch the show! What shall I reply?”

Luna nearly stumbled, she was laughing so hard! “Of course! That will make a perfect finale when Pinkie decides to call a halt! We can present them with the results of our fund raising!”

Pinkie overheard and put a hand to her forelock! “Oh my, the Twins and little fishies! We need another set, A.S.A.P!”

They saw her digging like a mad terrier at image after image on her Magic Net mirror! Then she was calling, “Smithsons! Pinkie here. No, no problems with your sets! They are working perfectly. It is just that we need another, like yesterday! I am sending you pictures.

“Right! It is a reproduction of the Gryphon Throne of Empire!

“Why? They are coming, the Empress and BOTH of her Strong Wings of the Throne! They will have a Court Guard of eighteen. The set up that I sent you will be perfect if you can do it!

“You will! Cool! I will have the stage door guards notified!”

Pinkie put away her mirror and told them, “Smithson's will have the set ready by tomorrow! Were you TRYING to give me a heart attack!? You almost did!”

Celestia replied gently, “No, Pinkie, we were not! But it was amazing to watch you in action! The Throne of Empire surprised us as well.

“Now, we need to see our whole routine and listen to its music as well.”

Pinkie nodded, “Sounds good, my mares. With your permission, we have one more thing to add. A Glamor spell backdrop beginning with dawn, working through a nice day with puffy clouds, to evening with a neat sunset going to nightfall, with a rising crescent moon going to full and waning as it sets. It will be coordinated with your dance routines, if that's OK.”

Luna nodded, “That sounds perfect, Pinkie. Will it be done by Grumpy or do you want me to cast it?”

They were joined by a piebald black, tan, and brown goat with full curl horns that had an ever burning candle between them. With a slightly bleaty voice, he answered, “That's my department. Pinkie has engaged me for the duration of the show.”

Pinkie wrinkled her snout and grinned as she commented, “He charged me a whole silver bit for it and then donated the bit to our fund!”

The goat nodded, “True. Pinkie, I need to correct your earlier speech. As the chairman of the board for Ponyville Trust and Loan, I did arrange for their matching grant. The other large donation, also a matching grant, is a Wholeheart Grant. I did have to prepare its paperwork.”

Pinkie put hand to snout in contrition as she asked, “Oh dear, it is? How is Mister Wholeheart these days? Have you ever found a way to help him sleep without those awful dreams? At least half of the mares here have had a Wholeheart grant to help them out of tight spots.”

Grumpy shook his head, “No, we have not had any luck at helping him. A day or two at the best. The Litch King says that he will have the dreams for the rest of his life and that it will be a long one. I do know about those grants. He does try to return as much good as the harm that he got.”

Celestia shook her head, “I wish that more ponies reacted to evil happenings in their lives the way that Mister Wholeheart has. It must be difficult for him.”

The goat nodded, “It is indeed. Now, was the Glamor described how you want it or do you want any adjustments?”

Pinkie suggested, “We do have a practice stage that we can use for the first run through. Foamy and Clarice will guide you and we can perfect the lighting too.”

Following Pinkie's lead, the three of them found themselves behind a curtain. Foamy and Clarice went over their dance score with them first and then went to the other side of the curtain.

The music began and the three Princesses slipped through the curtain to the stage proper. The music, Damare's classical and romantic Day of Love and Love of Night, swelled as the three came into view, already beginning the dance. The stage where they were perfoming was dimly lit as they emerged. The morning began to light up the curtain behind them and a spotlight shown down on Celestia as she began to gyrate and undulate to the music that lifted and the spotlight brightened, making Princess Celestia nearly glow! She carried out the first parts of her strip, opening the buttons that let her generous cleavage show, while at the same time, her wings lifted up from her sides, beginning to frame her as she finished freeing her blouse, exposing a lacy blue bra!

Her dance took on a wilder more hip swaying set of steps and her wings, now fully open swept about her in arches and crescents to frame and display her body to the audience! Her hands, almost invisible in the midst of the swirling wings and swaying body, released her skirt to slide down her very active legs, artfully delayed at first, her lifted tail and then hung up on an artfully raised leg! It finally fell away entirely, leaving her a glowing vision of lightly glowing fur and undergarments!

She posed for a second, framed by glorious wings spread in circle of lustrous feathers! She brought her wings in closer as she spun about! They partly hid it as she released her bra, coming about to face the audience, she bared her right breast and then covering it back up, bared her left one and recovered it. The tease over, she slid the shoulder straps down to her elbows! With only a slight move, the whole of her brassiere fell away, down her arms where her right hand caught it and whirled it in a flourish before letting it fly.

She swept about the stage, doing slow turns that alternately hid and showed her magnificent bosom! She ended up stage center, once again framed by her spread wings.

She continued to dance topless for a few more minutes while the spotlight softened and the day went toward evening, her wings folding in to leave her a topless vision of marehood as she stepped back, staying gloriously bared of breasts.

Princess Twilight took over the stage as the day paled. Her blouse already framed her from shoulders to under her boobs and snug to her waist with a pretty, contrasting white underblouse showing off her tits.

She danced and did a cleavage reveal by releasing buttons down the underblouse's front! Coyly pulling her wings free and wrapping herself in them, she spread them wide along with the now fully opened underblouse which was now seen to be only a dicky and it fully spread to show her bright red, low cut bra! She happily posed to show off her pretty bra and the mare inside it! She began some hip lifting and swaying steps while her wings pulled close and spread again, revealing that her whole blouse was unfastened down both sides! Her arms slid under the blouse front and lifted high, flipping the whole garment up, past her horn, to fall away, dicky and all! She danced with twisting poses to show off the red bra on smooth and shiny lavender fur!

Her wings pulled in close once more and with a swirl, spread wide, leaving Twilight bare from the waist down, but for skimpy panties! Her wraparound skirt waved like a flag from right hand to left!

She danced and flaunted herself, framing her body with her wings, then swirling about, pulling them close again! When they spread wide, her bra was in her hand and her full breasts had no place left to hide. Her bra was flourished about from hand to hand in loops and figure eights before being let go! She posed, wings wide spread to both sides and up, displaying her beautifully framed body!

She danced a few more minutes, pulling her wings closer but hiding nothing and made way for Princess Luna to take the stage!

Like the others, Luna took the stage, wings folded, hidden away. Unlike the rest, when she unbuttoned her front to the waist, there was no blouse but full length dress, now spread wide to show off a nearly sheer light blue bra! The cunning spotlight operator set his light with a filter that made her dark blue fur and feathers glow against the night scene behind her!

Her right wing cleverly held in an almost narrow arch, matched the arc of the rising moon behind her, she pulled her left wing close about her and as she spread them both to the now fuller moon behind her, her dress had fallen from her shoulders and was held up only by her wings!

She began a swirling twirl, her wings hiding her from the audience and ending with both arms up and wings spread wide! Her dress was still about her hips, held from falling only by her upraised tail!

In that moment, her tail dropped and so did the whole dress! Princess Luna stood seductively displayed by the cunning lights and her spread wings cupped to catch the lights and show off her body, clad only in panties and bra! She swept into motion again, a vision of highlights and glowing dark fur.

Soon she entered a familiar close winged swirl and when she spread her wings, yes, both of her tits were bare, framed and displayed by the bra that no longer covered them at all! It made a better show than if it were gone entirely!

The spotlight brightened strongly to show her to the best advantage, as she undulated and wriggled seductively! She did another slow turn, the wing facing the audience covering her. When the turn was done, her bra was off and she finished with a wide spread wing pose to let herself show to best advantage!

She danced back to join the rest of the Princesses, all now topless! Joining arms and lifting wings, they made a kick line first and then danced back through the curtains!

A stage hand gathered the scattered garments and took them backstage.

A few moments later, they came out, fully dressed to ask with a grin, “Well, how did it come off?”

TO BE CONTINUED

<==PREVIOUS ~ NEXT==>

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#FIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #Part 65 of ?#age restricted 18+#MLP Fan Fiction #Written by De Writer #WORK IN PROGRESS

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mst3kproject · 3 years

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The Monster of Piedras Blancas

At some point I realized that I'd done an awful lot of fishman movies on this blog, so I decided I needed a tag for them. I chose #it's beginning to look a lot like fishmen, after a rather amusing musical version of The Shadow over Innsmouth that you can find on YouTube. Most of them are less fun than said video, and this one very much so. It qualifies itself for MST3King by featuring Forrest Lewis from The Thing that Couldn't Die, Don Sullivan from The Giant Gila Monster, and Jeanne Carmen from Untamed Youth.

Some lonely people feed the birds or stray cats in their neighbourhood. The lighthouse keeper of Piedras Blancas doesn't have any of those, so he feeds the fish monster that lives below the rocks. As long as he does this, it only occasionally kills people when they wander into its territory, but trouble begins when the grocer fails to save enough meat scraps to satisfy it. Soon the hungry beast is lopping heads off right and left and draining the bodies of blood! The local constable thinks he may have a homicidal maniac on his hands, but marine biologist Fred identifies a shed scale at the scene as belonging to a Diplovertebron, a beast thought to be long-extinct.

Diplovertebron is an actual creature with its own Wikipedia article and everything. According to said article, it was a lizardy sort of a thing that lived in what is now the Czech Republic three hundred million years ago, and was around half a meter long. It's a very obscure and not terribly threatening animal, and I have a hard time imagining why the writers chose it, of all extinct creepy-crawlies, to be their monster's ancestor. It doesn't even have a very interesting name. 'Diplovertebron' is quite technical-sounding and has too many syllables to roll nicely off the tongue. Why not pick something that at least sounds scary?

The Monster of Piedras Blancas is a bloated, sedate movie. It knows that movies need breaks between the actiony bits... but its actiony bits have no real action, and the talky scenes it inserts to space them out are deathly dull and contribute almost nothing. There's a bit where two characters discuss a victim's time of death in great detail, taking into account things like a spilled bottle of ink, that would have reduced Joel to tears. It almost becomes a joke when Fred and the Doctor discuss the minutiae of Diplovertebron scales, while the constable sits there growling impatiently at them. When even your characters think the movie is too slow, you have a problem.

Everything that might possibly be exciting takes place off-screen. This is fine and even expected during the 'building suspense' parts – of course we don't see the deaths of the fishermen or the grocer. The bit where we first see the entire monster, when characters open a walk-in fridge and it lumbers out holding a severed head, is honestly pretty well-done. After that, however, we should finally get to see some monster-eating-people scenes... but since this is yet another stupid rubber fishman suit a la the She-Creature, all it's actually capable of is slapping a few guys and then fleeing. It supposedly kills a couple of gun-toting rednecks, but the fight happens elsewhere while the audience watches Fred and the doctor fart around in a cave. We don't see the monster again until it inevitably kidnaps the lighthouse-keeper's cute daughter at the climax.

The severed head is pretty plasticky and looks nothing like the guy it supposedly came from, but an effort was made and I respect that. There are veins sticking out the bottom of it and a really creepy bit where we find it in the monster's lair with crabs crawling over it.

As the movie draws closer to its climax, the men in the town sit down and have a good think about how they're going to defeat it. They know they can't overpower it, and it seems to be reasonably intelligent, so they've decided they're going to have to outwit it. Their big plan for doing so is... throw a net over it.

I expected this to fail spectacularly, but what actually happened was even dumber. I will not spoil the last thirty seconds of this movie for you, because it's funny as hell, but let's just say that fishmen are like pumas – if you ever meet one in real life, you can just push it the hell over.

As you might have guessed, Lucy is only in this movie so that she can be saved from the monster and can kiss Fred as the words the end appear on the screen. The only interesting thing about her is a brief moment of stunning misogyny. She comes running to the doctor to tell him her father has had an accident and needs help – and before going to do so, the doctor makes Lucy take a sedative. Her behaviour was not in any way hysterical or unreasonable. A little reassurance would have done the job just fine!

This scene suggests that the townspeople don't think very highly of Lucy, and there are other bits that tell us she's probably supposed to be at least ten years younger than twenty-nine-year-old actress Jeanne Carmen. On the other hand, they seem to think she's capable enough to look after her injured father alone and with only a locked door to protect her from the marauding monster. Then again, if they didn't, it couldn't carry her off to be menaced. Yet again, a movie's leading lady is a plot device rather than a character. This seems particularly true of fishman movies. Think of the Creature from the Black Lagoon series.

As I mentioned upfront, I have seen a lot of fishman movies. This is the fifteenth since this blog's inception! I thought there were a lot of bigfoot movies around, but if you check the tags you'll see that fishmen outnumber him two to one! This brings up an interesting question – namely, why?

Why fishmen? Sea Monsters have a long and fascinating history that includes not just the classic serpent and kraken but such things as savage merpeople, scaly pig-fish covered with eyes, and according to one sixteenth-century map, very large Yorkshire terriers. Then along came the 1930s and the popularization of the Loch Ness Monster as plesiosaur, opening up the range to prehistoric sea beasties. Why not one of those?

I'm guessing the answer is 'because they're expensive'. Those would require puppets and stop motion and other special effects. A guy in a costume is much cheaper to build and operate.

Okay, but even if you have to restrict yourself to human-shaped monsters, there are plenty of those, too! There's the aforementioned merpeople, but also vampires, werewolves, zombies, mummies, and their ilk! Dracula and Frankenstein are both in the public domain! And make no mistake, people have made lots of movies about those... but they have also made a whole lot of movies about fishmen! Why fishmen?

The answer, most likely, is that Creature from the Black Lagoon came out in 1954 and it was huge, being one of those movies that requires an entire separate Wikipedia article for its cultural impact! The tidal wave of other fishman movies that followed it are like the glut of monster-on-a-spaceship movies that followed Alien, or the fad for teenage slasher movies in the 1980s, or those cheaply animated direct-to-DVD movies that cluster around every Disney and Dreamworks release. A fishman movie had made money, and now everybody was lining up to milk the scaly, mucus-coated cash cow!

That was a terrible mix of metaphors right there. Yuck.

There's also something uniquely horrifying about one of the genre's major tropes – the fishman's interest in human women. This, too, began with Creature from the Black Lagoon but as we've seen it carried over into other films – Bog and Creatures from the Abyss are notable examples (and then there's The Shape of Water). In The Monster from Piedras Blancas this idea is present in that the monster kidnaps Lucy instead of just killing her like it did every other human it met, but it's not emphasized the way the monster's interest in Kay was in Black Lagoon. Fish are proverbially cold and slimy, and the idea of sexual contact with one is almost reminiscent of necrophilia unless you have some very specific interests (see previous parentheses). The fishman's lack of genitals make it that much more disturbing.

So now that we've sorted that out, my final question about fishman movies is this: could a fishman beat bigfoot in a fight? They're both big, broad-chested creatures that movies like to outfit with claws, teeth, superhuman strength, and bad tempers. I think it would depend on where the battle happened. If they're in the water, then the fishman has a clear advantage – bigfoot can drown. If they're on land, things are a little more even. The fishman's slime would make him difficult to hang onto, but if his gills dry out he'll have a hard time breathing. Bigfoot's fur gives the fishman something to yank, but his large feet make him hard to knock down. It might depend on whether or not the fishman is venomous.

Why hasn't anybody made that movie? Picture it – dozens of fishmen swimming upstream to spawn, and bigfoot dragging them out of the water to eat like bears with salmon! I'd absolutely pay for exorbitantly expensive theatre popcorn if it meant I got to see that on screen!

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #the monster of piedras blancas #50s #it's beginning to look a lot like fishmen

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askmalal · 4 years

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AT THIS WEEK’s ZOOM MEETING

Nurgle: ...which is why I think we should take our jobs more seriously. The problem is that our... our brand is doing very poorly. Idiots claiming to be agents of chaos

Khorne: *interrupts* RIDICULOUS PLASTIC PLAGUE MARINES...

Nurgle: -Ahem- at least mine wear helmets.

Tzeentch: And thank the Maker for that.

Gary: Seriously, have you -seen- Typhus? He looks like the guy from “This Old House” had a love child with a radiation mutated member of ZZ Top.

Me: Or Zangief and “Hacksaw” Jim Dugan made a primarch.

Nurgle: That’s unnecessary. I’m simply saying that we need to take our jobs seriously, or we’ll lose the fight.

Me: Yes, you’ll lose your fight.

Tzeentch: It’s your fight too, Malal. Don’t be an ass.

Hashut: Wasn’t his fight too when you tried to destroy him last time. Wasn’t my fight when you tried to feed the Dawi Zarr to Khorne:

Khorne: I DON’T EAT MEAT.

Nurgle: Whaaa?

Me: I will concede that it is my fight in the sense that we all serve the same purpose. I take my job very seriously in that regard. If the rest of you did, I might be able to work with you. However, until such time as you are purged of your inherent corruption...

Tzeentch: Seriously, eh? You take your job seriously? *summons an image of Malal snuggling a pair of Boston Terriers* I wonder.

Me: Leave Konrad Furs and Furturabo out of this!

#askmalal #chaos gods #horus heresy #warhammer40k #warhammer30k #malice #malal #age of sigmar #warhammer fantasy #ask me questions #the warp #gaming humor

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the-golden-ghost · 4 years

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For the Top 5/Top 10:

Top 5 plants? Or Top 5 marine animals?

I will do marine animals since I’m not a botanist

1. Giant Siphonophore

(Large boi. Longest creature in the world, longer than a blue whale. They also consist of many, many tiny organisms that all live and function together to make one Big Boi)

2. Goblin Shark

(Spoopy boi. People will say these things are “terrifying” and “look like they come from the depths of hell” but idk I just think they’re kinda goofy looking? Look at his big dumb nose and googly eyes and weird mouth. They’re also pink, which you can’t tell from this lighting. (Actually their mouths aren’t even like that most of the time; they can extend their jaws to feed. And have to, because otherwise their big dumb ol’ noses get in the way!)

3. Ocean Sunfish (its Latin name is Mola mola and it’s beautiful and majestic)

Such majesty. These things are MASSIVE, they’re the heaviest fish in the world (apparently heavier than a whale shark!) and they barely swim. They just sort of float around and do jack shit. They also have permanently open mouths due to their mouth bones being fused, but this causes them no suffering. They just take it in stride. Apparently their name comes not from the fact that they are round like the sun, but because they sometimes come up to the surface and lie on their sides, sunning. Or perhaps impersonating roadkill. Their mysteries are boundless.

4. Narwhal

Narwhals are sea unicorns. Their Latin name means one tooth, one horn, and their tusk is indeed a tooth! They’re in the same family as beluga whales. Also their tusks are not for fighting as was once assumed. It’s actually more like a whisker and allows them to sense movement under the sea!

5. I’m torn between giant isopods and manatees

Giant isopods are just big ol’ sea buggos. I don’t have a cool fact about them, I just think they’re neat.

Manatees have been ranked among the world’s most friend-shaped creatures.

(+1 runner-up only because it doesn’t exist and was in fact probably a seal or an otter, misidentified, but the concept is funny as fuck:)

Steller’s Sea Ape

Basically Georg Steller (of Steller’s sea lion and sea cow fame) went out and saw this weird looking thing far off and was like “holy shit dudes I saw an APE in the SEA” and now there’s a lot of dumb-looking pictures of it?

Such as:

Flipperless seal with excellent moustache and Tail Fangs

Aquatic Yorkshire Terrier

And my personal favorite:

This thing

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the-writing-dump-bin · 4 years

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I’d Rather Be With You

Jotaro x Female reader

Not really NSFW but things are implied | VERY cheesy story, so if you like those things, this may be the fic for you!

Four years ago- Cairo Airport

"So you're really going to go back home?" Polnareff whined. "Wouldn't you like to see the countrysides of France?"

"My family needs me." You smiled, but you were feeling sad about leaving your new found friends. Especially after aiding them in the defeat of the Joestar foe, Dio Brando. "I have to go back." Joseph and Avdol understood your choice, wishing you the best of luck and that your paths cross again. Giving them each a hug, you moved to the next two to say goodbye, which was breaking your heart.

Other than Iggy, who you formed a special bond with and was coming home with you, you had grown close to Kakyoin and the group's hero, Jotaro. These were the hardest goodbyes, even if Jotaro was an asshole to you the entire trip. But there was something about him that told you he was a kind person on the inside. Going to Kakyoin first, you hugged him tight. "I wish you the best, Kakyoin. Stay safe."

Kakyoin noticed you trying to hide your emotions and gave you a smile. "I will miss you, Y/N. Are you sure you don't want to come back to Japan with us?"

"I am sure." There was something in your heart that wanted to stay with them. Something? No, not something. Someone. Looking to the tall, brooding, dark-haired man, you felt your chest tighten with emotion. He wasn't looking at you. In fact, he wasn't even facing the group, just looking off into the airport with his back turned to everyone else. "Goodbye, Jotaro..." He didn't move. Swallowing the lump in your throat, you nodded and bent down to pick up Iggy, saying goodbye once more to the others and boarded your plane.

Joseph made a scowl to his grandson. "Jotaro, that was really rude. She helped us throughout this trip and all you do is give her the cold shoulder?"

"Drop it, old man."

"She said goodbye to you and you ingored her. There is a chance you may never see her again!"

Jotaro remained still, hands stuffed in his pockets. He wasn't ignoring you on purpose. He just didn't want you, or the others, to see the pain he was feeling of not being by your side anymore. He had grown feelings for you during this whole thing and he desperately wanted you to stay with him. But he was horrible at expressing emotion and had come off as cold to you, which wasn't his intention. Taking a deep inhale through his nose, he stepped forward to the gate where they were to catch their plane. "Good."

Present day

The sun shone brightly on this busy morning as new students arrived for orientation for college. There were tables set up outside for different after class groups, members trying to get more to join them.

"It sure is bigger than the photos led on..." Kakyoin observed, looking around the campus at all the different people and buildings. "I think I'm going to like it here. What do you think, Jotaro?"

Jotaro walked next to his best friend, scanning the area as well. He had chose this place for their marine department, it was said that it was the best right now and Jotaro wanted to take advantage of the program. Kakyoin decided to come too. Not only for secondary schooling, but to travel to a new part of the world. "Looks all right."

The day was so nice that administration held the sign in booth outside.

The two males made their way to the designated area. Kakyoin spoke his thoughts out loud as they walked with Jotaro listening to him. "What do you think the dorms are like? Luckily we didn't bring a lot of stuff so I'm guessing it might be okay for us-" He cut himself off and stared at the sign in table. "J-Jotaro... Do you see what I see?"

Jotaro blinked confused at his friend and followed his gaze. At first, he saw a familiar mutt at the feet of a girl who was sitting at the administration table, smiling and handing forms to the new students. The air in his lungs seemed to have drain when he saw you, stopping dead in his tracks.

"Did you know she went to this school?" Kakyoin questioned, but the look on Jotaro's face told him that he didn't. "We hadn't heard from her in four years... I guess this is where she ended up. Jotaro? Are you okay?"

It was like everything around Jotaro came to a halt, like he had used Star Platinum to stop time. The wind stopped blowing, people froze in place, birds quiet; just you remained in his vision. "Y/N..." He breathed. When he heard his name be called from Kakyoin, the world started moving again. "Huh? Uh? Oh, yeah. Whatever."

Kakyoin smiled. Jotaro clearly wasn't paying attention to anything else around him. "C'mon. Let's go say 'hi'." He walked to the table.

Jotaro's eyes widened. "Wait, what?" He took a couple strides to catch up with his friend. "Kakyoin, wait! Stop!"

"Come now, Jojo. There is no way to avoid her. She is working the administration table, we have to sign in."

Heart racing, palms sweaty and breathing rushed, Jotaro panicked. What does he say to you? He had been cold and rude to you four years ago and hadn't talked to you since. In honesty, in these four years, there wasn't one day he never thought of you. When he had gotten home from Egypt, he placed the photo they took in the desert by his bedside. That way, when he went to sleep and woke up, you would be the last thing he saw when he closed his eyes and the first thing he seen when he opened them. Taking a deep breath, he followed Kakyoin to your location.

Arwo? Iggy perked up his ears and brought his head up, waking from his nap at your feet.

"Hm?" You looked down at the dog after you handed off a students school package. "What is it, Iggy?" Looking in the mutt's direction, you noticed a familiar face. "K-Kakyoin?!" Standing up, you rushed around the table and embraced the red-haired man. "Oh my god! That really you? What are you doing here?"

Kakyoin smiled brightly, your hug tight around his body. "Yes. You look good, Y/N. Well, we were looking at schools not too long ago and we decided to come here."

"We?" You repeated, head tilting to the side.

"Yeah, me and Jotaro." He moved to the side, revealing the same tall, handsome man you met years ago. "Oh, hey, Iggy." He greeted the mutt, letting the two of you reunite.

Jotaro stood with his hands in his pockets, eyes flicking from the ground to you. He tried his best to keep calm, to stop his nerves from shaking. "Uh, hey."

Your heart felt like it was beating in your throat. Other than his clothes, Jotaro never really changed much. Dark curls, sharp features, well fit frame, it was all the same. "Hey..." The word came out breathy. "You look...good, Jotaro..."

This is stupid! Jotaro thought to himself. I shouldn't be like this flustered. She's just a woman. Switching to his usual stoic attitude, he stood taller and looked down at you. "Thanks."

You blinked, taken back from the change in his attitude but then smiled. Hmpf. Same old Jojo. "So you and Kakyoin are enrolling here? It's a great school, you chose well." You beckoned them to follow you back to the table. "I have been here for a year now. This year I am helping the main office with getting the new students get their schedules and give them their dorms."

"They let you have Iggy with you?" Kakyoin asked.

"Well, yes and no." You chuckled. "Pets aren't allowed on campus or in dorms... But you know how persistent he is. I registered him as my emotional support animal, therefore he's allowed to be with me." Petting the Boston Terrier, you gave him a 'what am I going to do with you' look. Your attention went to the folders neatly stacked on the table and you searched for their names. Once you found them, you handed them their packages. "You must have bribed the school somehow, Jotaro."

Jotaro squinted his eyes. "How so?"

"Because roommates are selected randomly at this school and you and Kakyoin are roommates." You put your hand on your hip and continued with a snarky attitude. "So you're either lucky enough to be randomly paired with your best friend or you paid a great amount of money to the school for you two to be roommates. Since I know how loaded you are, I'm guessing it's the latter."

Kakyoin couldn't help but snicker at Jotaro's shocked expression. In return, Jotaro gave him a warning look, so he turned back to you. "Smart. Since when did you get so snarky?"

Crossing your arms, you looked at Jotaro. "I learned from the best."

That fluttery feeling came back to Jotaro. He balled his fist and growled. "Just give us our dorm keys so we can get on with our day."

Handing them the things they needed, you also gave them your cell phone number. "I don't give my number out to anyone, but you guys are my friends. So if you guys need anything, get lost around campus or want to hang out..." Your fingers brushed Jotaro's large hand as you handed him the paper. "Just give me a call."

Saying goodbye, they left to get settled in. You watched them walk away, your heart full of emotion from seeing your friends again. Especially Jotaro. You had thought about him a lot over the years, how you wanted to stay with him after the battle in Egypt. But he seemed like he clearly didn't care if you did, that's why you had made up the story about going back home. In a sense, you did end up going home, but you stayed with another family member.

Iggy padded to your side, sitting at your feet and whimpered to you. Being with you all this time, he knew how you were feeling. He had listen to you talk about Jotaro many times and knew you were in love with him. Iggy was no ordinary dog, he was your best friend.

"He's back, Iggy." You took a deep, stuttery breath. "He's really back."

----

The next few months flew by. Having Jotaro and Kakyoin with you sure made college more fun. From study sessions, going to a few parties and just hanging out watching movies, you felt a lot happier. Tonight, you were going over to Jotaro's and Kakyoin's dorm for some group studying. Jotaro walked around the room, picking up and tidying anything that looked out of place. Kakyoin sat on his bed and watched him, smiling with his arms crossed. Jotaro was always this frantic when you were coming over.

After he was done cleaning, Jotaro went to the bathroom and sprayed on some cologne, checking himself in the mirror. When he came back, he scanned the room one more time before his eyes went to Kakyoin, who was smirking. "What's your issue?" He grunted.

"Why don't you just ask her out already."

"What?"

Sighing, Kakyoin stood up and grabbed his books. "You know damn well what I mean. Y/N. You love her, Jotaro, you always have. You could have saved yourself four and a half lonely years if you had just told her before she left at the airport."

Jotaro didn't say anything. He knew Kakyoin was right, but he didn't know how to tell you how he felt, and that resulted in you leaving and him being alone all these years. He couldn't bring himself to start a relationship with just anyone...he wanted you.

Knock knock. Opening the door, Jotaro greeted you. The scent coming from him hit your nose, making you feel a flutter in your stomach. Why did he have this affect on you? "Hey, guys." You said, walking in quickly past the large man and pulling out your books; you needed to distract yourself. "What are you guys working on tonight? I don't really have homework so I brought over some files from the office to order."

The night was going on just like any other. Laughing, helping each other the best you could since each of you were taking different subjects. Getting up, you excused yourself to the washroom, leaving the two males in the room. Kakyoin got up from his spot on his bed, grabbing his coat and putting on his shoes.

"Where are you going?" Jotaro asked.

"I'm leaving for the night." He stared at him. "Make your move with Y/N."

"Wait, Kakyoin!" Jotaro shot up and ran to him at the door, hissing at him in a hushed tone. "What do you think you are doing? You can't just leave me alone with her!"

Kakyoin put his hand Jotaro's shoulder. "Jotaro... I've been watching you two all night. Maybe you two didn't see it, but I did. Both of you have been stealing glances at each other when you weren't looking, her flirtatious smile and laugh when she talks to you. It's been going on all night. Just go for it."

The sound of the water running from the tap in the bathroom told them that you were almost done and ready to come back to the main room. Jotaro panicked. Kakyoin couldn't leave, he had never been alone with you before.

"You'll be fine. Just jump in the water and show her how you feel. I know you very well, I know you don't know how to express yourself, but this is something you need to do." Opening the door, he gave him one last look. "There are condoms in the drawer of my side table if you need them."

"KAKYOIN!" Jotaro hissed with wide eyes. His face was flushed red as Kakyoin smiled and left, shutting the door behind him. Putting his forehead on the wood of the door, he cursed. "Yare yare daze."

"Jotaro?" Your voice rang from behind him. "Are you okay? Where is Kakyoin?"

Gritting his teeth, he composed himself and turned around. "He said he was going out for a while. And I'm fine." What a lie. He walked past you and sat back down on his bed, picking up the paper he was working on before this situation happened. He tried to focus his attention back to it, but was surprised when he felt you sit next to him on his right. "Wh-What are you doing?"

"The floor was getting hard, I thought I could sit here..." You explained. "Is that not okay? I could sit on Kakyoin's bed if you don't want me on yours."

So many thoughts and feelings were racing through the poor boy. Jotaro thought that he might just break down from everything. "N-No... You're fine there." Nodding, you went back to taking notes on which files would go where when you brought them back to the main office.

An uncomfortable silence took over the room. Jotaro just stared at the sheet in front of him, using his pen to absentmindedly doodle on the side of the paper. He couldn't concentrate on anything except what Kakyoin said. Show her how you feel. You two have been stealing glances. Just jump in the water. Oh, how he wanted to be bold enough to do something. Huh? Jotaro's thoughts were halted when he felt a little pressure on his right shoulder. Turning his head slightly, he saw that you were leaning your head against him, eyes closed and smiling. "Y-Y/N?"

You don't know how you ended nestled against Jotaro's broad shoulder. One moment you were working on your project, the next, you caught the scent of his cologne you smelt when you walked in and closed your eyes, intoxicated by it and leaned against him, trying to get more of the scent. When he said your name, he pulled you out of your trance. "O-Oh!" You sat up straighter, blushing with embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry. I just- I mean- you just smell really nice tonight."

Ba dum. Jotaro's heart felt like it was being overworked and he couldn't control it. He also felt a sensation in his waist, specifically between his legs. Oh, god, not now! He shifted his body, bringing his leg up enough to hide his growing erection from you; his face red as if he had been out in the sun too long. When he moved his leg, you moved as well, shuffling away from him a little. Not feeling your warmth on his side anymore, he looked back to his paper. "Well, you don't have to move..." He found himself muttering. "I-If you want to lean on my shoulder... That's okay, I guess."

You held your breath, shifting your eyes to the large brute beside you. He wasn't looking at you, but you could see that he was visually flustered. It was cute to see him this way. Jotaro was always reserved and looked like he didn't care, but there was that tiny gleam you had always seem to notice about him. Picking up the smell again, you closed your eyes and returned to his side, nuzzling into him.

Smiling himself, Jotaro tilted his head so that it rested on yours. It felt right, having you here next to him. He played moments like this in his mind for years, quiet nights with just the two of you cuddling. During his time without you felt dark and cold, but with the last few months, you brought colour and warmth to him. He always wanted you, and he was hoping that you felt the same way. Which was confirmed when you laced your fingers with his and held his hand, his pen rolling off his notebook. He leaned forward a bit to look at your face, which was looking back at him, eyes half lidded and roaming his features. His nerves shook again and he licked his lips. "A-Are you going to... I mean, do you want to...?"

Nothing was said when you leaned up and gave him a slow kiss. Your stomach did flips and Jotaro froze; this was something you both had long for. Pulling away, you felt bashful and adverted your eyes. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that-" Jotaro placed his hand on the side of your head and kissed you deeply, tongue gliding across your bottom lip, looking for permission to dance with your own; you accepted.

A few more kisses as you shifted to push Jotaro onto his back on the mattress. He held you gently while you laid on top of his body, his hands softly roaming your backside. You took off his hat, letting it fall to the floor while you carded your fingers through his curls. Your other hand slid up his shirt, feeling his muscles contract and relax. Jotaro copied your move, his fingers pressing into your skin like he was trying to control himself. Your kisses traveled from his mouth, across his jawline, down his neck and finally to his collar bone.

Jotaro squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on your movements. Wrapping his arms around you, he hugged you tightly and close to his body. This is what he wanted. It was what you wanted too. Taking a bold move, he whispered to you. "Y/N... Are we going to do this?"

With a grin, you moved back up to his lips, kissing him a few times before answering him with a breathless tone. "Seems so."

An aroused growl rumbled in Jotaro's throat and in a fluid motion, he spun you around so that you were now laying on your back, his frame over you. Grabbing the hem of your shirt, Jotaro cautiously pulled it up, looking for any hints of you telling him to stop, but there wasn't anything. Just you grabbing at his own shirt and pulling it over his head. He remembered the last thing Kakyoin said, about the condoms in his nightstand. At the time, Jotaro cursed him for implying that the two of you do this, but now he was thankful. Not wanting to get up from your make-out session, Jotaro used Star Platinum to retrieve them. When Star didn't come back with them, he looked over to his Stand, who had a disappointed look on his face and showed him the box. Seeing what his Stand was pointing out, his face fell too.

"What's the matter?" You asked, noticing Jotaro slowing his advances.

He looked very embarrassed as he sat up on his knees, holding the box in his hands. "I, um, don't think we can do this now..."

"There are none left?"

Jotaro's face got more red. "No, there are some in here, it's just... I don't think they're going to fit..."

"Too big?"

"Too small..."

You shuddered. You kind of guessed he would be big, considering his size. But you had his problem covered. Getting up, you grabbed your bag and looked inside.

"What are you doing?" Jotaro looked over your shoulder and watched you pull out a handful of condoms you had hidden in away inside. His eyes went wide with how many you had.

"Will any of these work? There are a bunch of sizes."

Going through them, he checked. A couple of them would fit him. "You know, I am now very concerned on why you have this many in your bag."

"Calm down, Jotaro." You put the ones he didn't take back into your bag. "It's college, in a sense, it's good for a woman to be prepared. Besides..." Your voice lowered. "I've never had to use them."

Hearing that, Jotaro realized that you had never been with anyone before. What you and him where about to do, was your first time ever. You had waited for him all these years and he waited for you. Neither of you wanting to be with anyone else. Pulling you back to him, he laid you down, his body pressed against yours. "It's my first, too." Kissing you again, he undid the button on your pants. "Let's make up for the times we could have had."

Song I used for inspiration: I’d Rather Be With You by Joshua Radin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAJfhZamFmo

#hahaha I just realized I gave Kak a small dick #sorry Kak fans!#original story #my writing #my fic #jojo #jojos bizarre adventure #Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken #JoJo no Kimyō na Bōken #Jotaro Kujo #Jotaro #jotaro x reader

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opalgelance · 4 years

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Isn’t it kinda weird that a lot of these new Pokemon designs feel like they should belong in a more industrialized region, like Unova, the region James Turner started designing Pokemon for, and now he’s the lead designer for Galar?

EDIT: Added further evidence for Indeedee and Hatterene line being strange copies/counterparts to Audino and the Gothielle line respectively in the leaked Dex entries. They aren’t copies of each other, but the Dex entries have some strange similarities. Don’t get me wrong, I love all 4 lines, and I’m 100% catching myself an Indeedee and Hatterene, it’s just weird how similar they are considering they probably had the same designer approve them.

Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense for Galarian Corsola, a Pokemon based on bleached coral, to belong in a region where the desert is disappearing in favor of cityscape, possibly with an indication that the oceans are slowly disappearing too? Like the Marine Tube? Or, wouldn’t Galarian Corsola make sense near the Abyssal Ruins?

And Toxtricity, who has the ability of PUNK ROCK, isn’t one of Roxie’s, the punk rocker Poison type leader’s, Pokemon?

Duraludon, who’s Dynamax form is basically a skyscraper.

Indeedee, who very much looks like a counterpart to Audino.

EDIT: Indeedee’s Dex entry

It uses the horns on its head to sense the emotions of others. Males will act as valets for those they serve, looking after their every need.

Through its horns, it can pick up on the emotions of creatures around it. Positive emotions are the source of its strength.

Audino’s Dex entry

1. Using the feelers on its ears, it can tell how someone is feeling or when an egg might hatch. 2. It touches others with the feelers on its ears, using the sound of their heartbeats to tell how they are feeling.

The Sizzlipede line, which also looks like a counterpart to the Scolipede line.

The Hatterene line, which is very reminiscent of the Gothitelle line.

EDIT: Hatterene line Dex entries:

Hattena:

Via the protrusion on its head, it senses other creatures’ emotions. If you don’t have a calm disposition, it will never warm up to you.

If this Pokémon senses a strong emotion, it will run away as fast as it can. It prefers areas without people.

Hattrem:

No matter who you are, if you bring strong emotions near this Pokémon, it will silence you violently.

Using the braids on its head, it pummels foes to get them to quiet down. One blow from those braids would knock out a professional boxer.

Hatterene:

It emits psychic power strong enough to cause headaches as a deterrent to the approach of others.

If you’re too loud around it, you risk being torn apart by the claws on its tentacle. This Pokémon is also known as the Forest Witch.

Gothita:

1. (From previous games) Their ribbonlike feelers increase their psychic power. They are always staring at something.

Gothorita:

It’s said that when stars shine in the night sky, this Pokémon will spirit away sleeping children. Some call it the Witch of Punishment.

The Silicobra line, which could easily fit in Unova’s desert region.

The Dreepy line, which is inspired by drones and fighter jets, is in the Pokemon version of England, and not the Pokemon version of the US?

Eiscue, a Pokemon based on the melting ice caps, a phenomenon caused by global warming, wouldn’t be close to a city spewing out pollution and carbon emissions?

Then we have the fossils, which are obviously a play on fossils IRL that were put together wrong. IDK, that just feels like it would fit in a more modern setting? Maybe a city focused on fossils, where scientists are experimenting with fossils constantly, in a region where there already is a prehistoric Pokemon that has been tampered with by modern technology?

And of course there is a surprising amount of Galarian Unova Pokemon, but there’s also a surprising amount of Unova Pokemon in the National Dex leak (although it’s weird that the Pokemon based on a Scottish Terrier isn’t in the England/Scotland region)

TD;LR I think a lot of these Pokemon might have been Unova rejects that James Turner shoved into Galar. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s very strange. Honestly I feel like they should’ve waited for Unova remakes and introduced some of these Pokemon, which seem to fit better in Unova than Galar, although as of writing this SwSh isn’t out so I could be proven wrong. Plus he is showing his obvious favoritism to Unova, which wouldn’t be bad if he didn’t push to include Pokemon like Basculin (yes, I’m very salty about Basculin being in SwSh)

#swsh leaks #swsh #pokemon #pokemon leaks #sword shield leaks #sword shield

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ilovepauljack · 3 years

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Funny animals staring at the camera trend

Animals staring at the camera memes can be found all over the internet from the past to the present. Have you ever wondered where this trend originated? I you have, keep reading the following article to find out more about animals staring meme.

What is animals staring memes?

Staring Animals, also known as The Council, refers to a series of reaction picture macros of animals and people facing the camera taking a photograph of the animals. The perceived effect of these images is that the subjects are staring straightly at the person viewing the meme as if they are purposely breaking that fourth wall. These characters such as Nelson the Bull Terrier (Walter), Hamster Staring, Staring Cat, Staring Fish and Leonard the Lizard have grown in popularity in various platforms, particularly okbuddyretard subreddit, iFunny and Instagram from 2018 through 2020’’’.

Animals staring

The first animals staring meme – Nelson the Bull Terrier

The earliest known example of staring animals is Nelson the Bull Terrier, as known as Walter.

Nelson the Bull Terrier animals staring meme

The original image of Nelson was posted to the dog’s Social page, @PupperNelson, on September 30th, 2018 The tweet, captioned “when u open a front-facing camera on accident,” gained over 26,000 likes and 6,400 retweets in under two years.

After the tweet was posted, it began spreading on mainly Reddit’s okbuddyretard. On November 28th, 2018 Redditor donkeyfromshrek5 posted a version that took more than 3,800 points (99% upvoted) in less than two years. In November 30th, Redditor flabbagitch posted a variation that received more 12,000 points.

Also, The origin of the famous pun dog meme & All about Cheems meme: What is it? are some of the most popular dog memes that you should check out.

The supper cute staring Hamster

Staring Hamster is a reaction image macro of a hamster looking directly at that camera.

Hamster staring

The earliest known use of the hamster reaction was used in January 13th, 2019 by TikTok user @beanboy22. In the video, the user lipsyncs the scene from the web series The Real Bros of Simi Valley. That post received more than 124,000 reactions and 13,000 shares in one week.

Watch this adorable Video hamster staring at camera meme and you will understand why it became viral.

Swag Cat the adorable meme

Staring Cat, also known as Gusic and Swag Cat, refers to a ginger kitty known for his photographs in which it stares directly at the camera. Beginning at early 2018, the photographs have been used in memes on iFunny, Instagram, and Reddit, often paired together with Walter, Staring Hamster and other Animals Staring. ]

Cat staring at the camera

The funny fish facing camera meme

Staring Fish, also known by the original caption Do You Fart, refers to the image of a lagoon triggerfish looking directly at the camera, usually coupled with ironic, surreal or offensive captions. The format gained significant spread on iFunny, Instagram, and certain subreddits in early 2020.

Staring fish

On December 15th, 2019, marine naturalist Jacinta Shackleton posted a video of a lagoon triggerfish, also known as Picasso plectognathfish, repeatedly attacking the camera to her Instagram account. The video received beyond 34,300 views and 5,100 likes in three weeks.

Staring fish meme

Following the post, shortly after that post, on December 31st, others shared images of the fish with various title asking “Do You Fart?” The meme grew in popularity online, particularly in Instagram, iFunny .

The lovely lizard looking at the camera

On October 18th, 2019, Redditor ElectricSheep7 posted “I just got this legendary image of Walter, my Peter’s Banded Skink,” and they included a photograph of the lizard staring directly at the camera. The post received more than 1,000 results (99% upvoted) and 60 comments in less than one year.

Lizard staring

Months later in January 4th, Redditor Good-boi-gang shared the image in the okbuddyretard subreddit. The post noticed more than 8,600 points (99% upvoted) and 295 comments in less than 1 month.

The following day, Redditor SwedzCubed shared an image of the lizard and the caption “Hi my name is leonard.” The post received in excess of 270 points (98% upvoted) in less than four months.

Lizard staring meme

On January 6th, Redditor Emoji shared the image with the caption “Hi my name is Leonard. Hello Leonard, nice to meet you.” The post received more than 2,600 points (98% upvoted) and 60 comments in less than two weeks.

That day, Redditor fizzyboli give out an image of four staring animals, including Leonard, with the caption “guys Lizard has joined the council. I’m honestly very proud of him.” The post took more than 9,200 points (99% upvoted) and 115 comments in less than 2 weeks.

In conclusion, the article has just provide you with detailed information about animals staring memes including dog, cat, lizard, hamster and fish.We hope that you find this article helpful. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment in the box below.

If you want to discover more about famous animal memes on the internet, check out Pet memes in our website ilovepauljack.com

The post Funny animals staring at the camera trend appeared first on Happiness is handmade with Paul's Memes.

source https://ilovepauljack.com/pet-memes/animals-staring

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Disney+ UK Star Launch: Complete List of New TV Shows and Films

https://ift.tt/2P7STsN

We came for The Mandalorian, stuck around for WandaVision, and, as we wait for The Falcon and Winter Soldier and Loki to arrive, there’s now a huge pile of new catalogue additions to work through, courtesy of Disney Plus’ Star brand.

Star launched on the Disney Plus streaming service in territories outside of the US (where Disney already has a home for adult drama in Hulu) on the 23rd of February. It’s added over 75 TV shows and 280 feature films here in the UK, including the entirety of Lost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Glee, Prison Break, Sons of Anarchy and Scrubs as well as cult favourites Firefly, Flashforward, Terriers and more. There are also some UK debuts in the form of the Star Originals listed below.

Film-wise, there’s ample reason to go back to the 90s in the form of Arachnophobia, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Con Air and a host of others, plus…well, it’s almost 300 films. Chances are you’ll find something to tickle your fancy. Households with kids should know there are new parental controls to set too, ensuring that nobody gets any unwelcome surprises.

Here’s the complete list of titles so far:

Star Originals

Big Sky

From Mr TV himself, David E. Kelley (Doogie Howser, Chicago Hope, Ally Mcbeal, Big Little Lies) comes a nine-part crime thriller starring Ryan Philippe and Vikings‘ Katheryn Winnick. Based on the 2013 novel The Highway by C.J. Box, Big Sky is the story of a series of missing girls and a private detective/cop trio with a messy personal history who team up to find them. It aired on ABC in the US last winter.

Helstrom

There’s very little fanfare for this comic book show‘s UK debut, which met with mostly negative reviews on release and was cancelled after 10 episodes, but Marvel completists will want to take a look. Tom Austen and Sidney Lemmon play the Helstrom siblings Daimon and Satana, the children of serial killers who hunt down the worst of humanity.

Love, Victor

Another Hulu original making its UK debut, this teen drama spins off from celebrated gay teen 2018 film Love, Simon. It’s narrated by Nick Robinson, who played Simon in the original film, and follows the story of a Puerto-Rican/Colombian-American teen living in Atalanta. Reviews for the 10-part first season were strong and it’s been renewed for a second.

Solar Opposites

Rick and Morty‘s Justin Roiland and Star Trek: Lower Decks‘s Mike McMahan are the creators of this adult animated comedy series about a family of aliens (pictured above) forced to seek refuge in middle America. Season one was enthusiastically received, and a second run is due to air in the US in March. Read plenty more about it here.

TV Series

According To Jim, Seasons 1 – 8 Alias, Seasons 1-5 American Dad, Seasons 1-16 Animal Fight Night, Seasons 1-6 Apocalypse World War I, Season 1 Apocalypse: The Second World War, Season 1 Atlanta, Seasons 1-2 Blackish, Seasons 1-5 Bloody Tales Of Europe, Season 1 Bloody Tales Of The Tower, Season 1 Bones, Seasons 1-12 Brothers & Sisters, Seasons 1-5 Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Seasons 1-7 Buried Secrets Of WWII, Season 1 Burn Notice, Seasons 1-7 Castle, Seasons 1-8 Code Black, Seasons 1-3 Cougar Town, Seasons 1-6 Desperate Housewives, Seasons 1-8 Devious Maids, Seasons 1-4 Drugs, Inc. Seasons 2-7 Family Guy, Seasons 1-18 Feud: Bette And Joan, Season 1 Firefly, Season 1 Flashforward, Season 1 The Fosters, Seasons 1- 5 The Gifted, Seasons 1-2 Glee, Seasons 1-6 Grey’s Anatomy, Seasons 1-15 The Hot Zone, Season 1 How I Met Your Mother, Seasons 1-9 Inside North Korea’s Dynasty, Season 1 The Killing, Seasons 1-4 LA 92 Lance, Season 1 Lie To Me, Seasons 1-3 Lost, Seasons 1-6 Mafia Confidential Maradona Confidential Mars, Seasons 1-2 Modern Family, Seasons 1-8 O.J.: Made In America Perception, Seasons 1-3 Prison Break, Seasons 1-5 Raising Hope, Seasons 1-4 Resurrection, Seasons 1-2 Revenge, Seasons 1-4 Rosewood, Seasons 1-2 Scandal, Seasons 1-7 Scream Queens, Seasons 1-2 Scrubs, Seasons 1-9 Sleepy Hollow, Seasons 1-4 Snowfall, Seasons 1-3 Sons Of Anarchy, Seasons 1-7 The Strain, Seasons 1-4 Terra Nova, Season 1 Terriers, Season 1 Trust, Season 1 Ugly Betty, Season 1-4 Ultimate Survival WWII, Season 1 Valley Of The Boom, Season 1 Witness To Disaster, Season 1 WWII Bomb Hunters The X-Files, Season 1-9 The 2000s: The Decade We Saw It All, Season 1 24, Season 1-9 24: Legacy, Season 1 The 80s: The Decade That Made Us, Season 1 9/11 Firehouse The 90s: The Last Great Decade? Season 1 9-1-1, Season 1-2

WandaVision Episode 7 Theories Explained

By Kirsten Howard

Gina Carano Was Fired from The Mandalorian, But Should Cara Dune Live On?

By John Saavedra

Films

The 13th Warrior 42 to 1 9 to 5 Adam (2009) The Air Up There The Alamo (2004) Anna And The King Annapolis Another Earth Another Stakeout Anywhere But Here Arachnophobia Australia Bachelor Party Bad Ass Bad Company (2002) Bad Company (Aka: Tool Shed) Bad Girls (1994) Bad Times At The El Royale Baggage Claim The Banger Sisters Be Water Beaches Before And After (1996) Belle Beloved (1998) The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Best Laid Plans Big Trouble Billy Bathgate Black Nativity Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation … Boys Don’t Cry Braveheart Breaking And Entering Bringing Out The Dead Broadcast News Brokedown Palace Broken Lizard’s Club Dread Brothers In Exile Brown Sugar Bubble Boy Bulworth Bushwhacked Can’t Buy Me Love Casanova (2005) Catch That Kid Cedar Rapids Chain Reaction Chasing Papi Chasing Tyson Choke The Clearing Cleopatra (1963) Cocktail Cocoon: The Return Cold Creek Manor The Color Of Money Come See The Paradise The Comebacks Commando (1985) Con Air Conan The Barbarian Confetti Consenting Adults A Cool Dry Place Cousin Bette Crazy/Beautiful Crimson Tide The Crucible Cyrus Damien – Omen Ii The Darjeeling Limited Dark Water Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008) The Day The Series Stopped Day Watch Deadpool 2 Dead Presidents Deceived (1991) The Deep End Deep Rising Deion’s Double Play The Devil Wears Prada Devil’s Due Die Hard 2 Die Hard With A Vengeance Double Take Down And Out In Beverly Hills Down Periscope Dragonball: Evolution Dreaming Of Joseph Lees Drive Me Crazy The Drop Duets The East Ed Wood The Edge Encino Man Enemy Of The State Enough Said Evita Exodus: Gods And Kings The Fab Five (2011) Far From The Madding Crowd (2015) The Fault In Our Stars The Favourite The Final Conflict Firestorm (1998) The Fly (1986) For The Boys Four Falls Of Buffalo French Connection II The French Connection From Hell Gentlemen Broncos A Good Day To Die Hard Good Morning, Vietnam The Good Son (1993) A Good Year The Grand Budapest Hotel The Great White Hype Grosse Pointe Blank Guilty As Sin Gun Shy The Happening Here On Earth High Fidelity High Heels And Low Lifes Hitchcock Hoffa Holy Man Hope Springs (2003) I Heart Huckabees I Love You, Beth Cooper I Origins I Think I Love My Wife Idiocracy In America In Her Shoes Independence Day Independence Day: Resurgence Inventing The Abbotts Jennifer’s Body The Jewel Of The Nile John Tucker Must Die Johnson Family Vacation Jordan Rides The Bus Joshua Just Married Just Wright Kingdom Come Kissing Jessica Stein Kung Pow: Enter The Fist Ladyhawke The Ladykillers (2004) Last Dance (1996) Le Divorce The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou Live Free Or Die Hard Looking For Richard Mad Love (1995) The Man From Snowy River Margaret The Marine Marked For Death The Marrying Man Martha Marcy May Marlene MASH Max Payne The Maze Runner Medicine Man Melinda And Melinda Metro Miami Rhapsody Miller’s Crossing Moulin Rouge (2001) My Father The Hero Mystery, Alaska The Namesake Nature Boy Never Die Alone The Newton Boys Night Watch (2006) No Mas Nothing To Lose Notorious Office Space One Hour Photo Oscar And Lucinda The Other Woman (2014) Our Family Wedding Out To Sea Pathfinder (2007) Phat Girlz Phone Booth Planet Of The Apes (1968) Planet Of The Apes (2001) Pony Excess The Poseidon Adventure (1972) Post Grad Powder The Preacher’s Wife Pretty Woman Primeval The Puppet Masters The Pyramid Quills Quiz Show Ravenous Rebound Renaissance Man Revenge Of The Nerds Ii: Nerds In Paradise The Ringer Robin Hood (1991) The Rocker Romancing The Stone Ruby Sparks Runaway Bride Rushmore Ruthless People The Savages Say It Isn’t So The Scarlet Letter Sea Of Shadows The Secret Life Of Bees Separate Lies The Sessions Shadow Conspiracy Shallow Hal Shining Through The Siege Signs Simon Birch A Simple Twist Of Fate The Sitter (2011) Six Days, Seven Nights Sleeping With The Enemy Solaris Someone Like You Soul Food Spy Hard Stakeout Starship Troopers Stoker Summer Of Sam Super Troopers (2002) Surrogates Swing Kids Taxi (2004) Terminal Velocity Thank You For Smoking There’s Something About Mary The Thin Red Line (1999) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Three Fugitives The Three Stooges (2012) Titan A.E. Tombstone Toys Trapped In Paradise Tristan & Isolde Up Close & Personal V.I. Warshawski Veronica Guerin The Village (2004) Von Ryan’s Express Waiting To Exhale Waitress Waking Life The War Of The Roses The Watch (2012) The Waterboy The Way Way Back What’s Love Got To Do With It When A Man Loves A Woman White Men Can’t Jump William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet Win Win Woman On Top Working Girl (1988) The X-Files

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The X-Files: I Want To Believe

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unsettlingshortstories · 3 years

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Three Skeleton Key

Georges-Gustave Toudouze (1937)

My most terrifying experience? Well, one does have a few in thirty-five years of service in the Lights, although it's mostly monotonous routine work - keeping the light in order, making out the reports.

When I was a young man, not very long in the service, there was an opening in a lighthouse newly built off the coast of Guiana, on a small rock twenty miles or so from the main land. The pay was high, so in order to reach the sum I had set out to save before I was married, I volunteered for service in the new light.

Three Skeleton Key, the small rock on which the light stood, bore a bad reputation. It earned its name from the story of the three convicts who, escaping from Cayenne in a stolen dugout canoe, were wrecked on the rock during the night, managed to escape the sea but eventually died of hunger and thirst. When they were discovered, nothing remained but three heaps of bones, picked clean by birds. The story was that the three skeletons, gleaming with phosphorescent light, danced over the small rock, screaming…

But there are many such stories and I did not give the warnings of the old-timers at the Isle de Sein a second thought. I signed up, boarded ship and in a month I was installed at the light.

Picture a gray, tapering cylinder welded to the solid black rock by iron rods and concrete rising from a small island twenty-odd miles from land. It lay in the midst of the sea, this island, a small, bare piece of stone, about one hundred fifty feet long, perhaps forty wide. Small, barely large enough for a man to walk about and stretch his legs at low tide.

This is an advantage one doesn't find in all lights, however, for some of them rise sheer from the waves, with no room for one to move save within the light itself. Still, on our island, one must be careful, for the rocks were treacherously smooth. One misstep and down you would fall into the sea - not that the risk of drowning was so great, but the waters around our island swarmed with huge sharks that kept an eternal patrol around the base of the light.

Still, it was a nice life there. We had enough provisions to last for months, in the event that the sea should become too rough for the supply ship to reach us on schedule. During the day we would work about the light, cleaning the rooms, polishing the metalwork and the lens and the reflector of the light itself, and at night we would sit on the gallery and watch our light, a twenty-thousand-candle power lantern, swing its strong, white bar of light over the sea from the top of its hundred-twenty-foot tower.

Some days, when the air would be very clear, we could see the land, a threadlike line to the west. To the east, north and south stretched the ocean. Landsmen, perhaps, would soon have tired of that kind of life, perched on a small island off the coast of South America for eighteen weeks, until one's turn for leave ashore came around. But, we liked it there, my two fellow tenders and myself - so much so that, for twenty-two months on end with the exception of shore leaves, I was greatly satisfied with the life on Three Skeleton Key.

I had just returned from my leave at the end of June, that is to say mid-winter in that latitude, and had settled down to the routine with my two fellow-keepers, a Breton by the name of Le Gleo and the head keeper Itchoua, a Basque some dozen years or so older than either of us.

Eight days went by as usual; then on the ninth night after my return, Itchoua, who was on night duty, called Le Gleo and me, sleeping in our rooms in the middle of the tower, at two in the morning. We rose immediately and, climbing the thirty or so steps that led to the gallery, stood beside our chief.

Now, ships were a rare sight in our waters, for our light was a warning of treacherous reefs, barely hidden under the surface and running far out to sea. Consequently, we were always given s wide berth, especially by sailing vessels, which cannot maneuver readily as steamers.

No wonder that we were surprised at seeing this three-master heading dead for us in the gloom of early morning. I had immediately recognized her lines, for she stood out plainly, even at the distance of a mile, when our light shone on her.

She was a beautiful ship of some four thousand tons, a fast sailer that had carried cargoes to every part of the world, plowing the seas unceasingly. By her line she was identified as Dutch-built, which was understandable, as Paramaribo and Dutch Guiana are very close to Cayenne.

Watching her sailing dead for us, a white wave boiling her bows, Le Gleo cried out. “What's wrong with her crew? Are they all drunk or insane? Can't they see us?”

Itchoua nodded soberly, looked at us sharply as he remarked: “See us? No doubt-if there is a crew aboard!”

“What do you mean, Chief?” Le Gleo had started, turned to the Basque. “Are you saying that she's the Flying Dutchman?”

His sudden fright had been so evident that the older man laughed: “No, old man, that's not what I meant. If I say there's no one aboard, I mean she's derelict.”

Then we understood her queer behavior. Itchoua was right. For some reason, believing she was doomed, her crew had abandoned her. Then she had righted herself and sailed on, wandering with the wind.

The three of us grew tense as the ship seemed about to crash on one of our numerous reefs, but she suddenly lurched with some change of the wind, the yards swung around and the derelict came clumsily about and sailed dead away from us.

In the light of our lantern she seemed so sound, so strong, that Itchoua exclaimed impatiently: “But why the devil was she abandoned? Nothing is smashed, no sign of fire---and she doesn't sail as if she were taking water.”

Le Gleo waved to the departing ship: “Bon voyage!” he smiled at Itchoua and went on. “She's leaving us, chief, and now we'll never know what ---“

“No, she's not!” cried the Basque. “Look! She's turning!”

As if obeying his words, the derelict three-master stopped, came about and headed for us once more. And for the next four hours the vessel played around us - zigzagging, coming about, stopping, then suddenly lurching forward. No doubt some freak of current and wind, of which our island was the center, kept her near us.

Then suddenly, the tropic dawn broke, the sun rose and it was day and the ship was plainly visible as she sailed past us. Our light extinguished, we returned to the gallery with our glasses and inspected her.

The three of us focused our glasses on her poop, saw standing out sharply, black letters on the white background of a life-ring, the stenciled name: Cornelius de Witt, Rotterdam.

We had read her lines correctly, she was Dutch. Just then the wind rose and the Cornelius de Witt changed course, leaned to port and headed straight for us once more. But this time she was so close that we knew she would not turn in time.

“Thunder!” cried Le Gleo, his Breton soul aching to see a fine ship doomed to smash upon a reef. “She's going to pile up! She's gone!” I shook my head: “Yes, and a shame to see that beautiful ship wreck herself. And we're helpless.”

There was nothing we could do but watch. A ship sailing with all sail spread, creaming the sea with her forefoot as she runs before the wind, is one of the most beautiful sights in the world - but this time I could feel the tears stinging in my eyes as I saw this fine ship headed for her doom.

All this time our glasses were riveted on her and we suddenly cried out together: “The rats!”

Now we knew why this ship, in perfect condition, was sailing without her crew aboard. They had been driven out by the rats. Not those poor specimens of rats you see ashore, barely reaching the length of one foot from their trembling noses to the tip of their skinny tails, wretched creatures that dodge and hide at the mere sound of a footfall.

No, these were ships' rats, huge, wise creatures, born on the sea, sailing all over the world on ships, transferring to other, larger ships as they multiply. There is as much difference between the rats of the land and these maritime rats as between a fishing smack and an armored cruiser.

The rats of the sea were fierce, bold animals. Large, strong and intelligent, clannish and sea-wise, able to put the best of mariners of shame with their knowledge of the sea, their uncanny ability to foretell the weather.

And they are brave, the rats, and vengeful. If you so much as harm one, his sharp cry will bring hordes of his fellows to swarm over you, tear you, and not cease until your flesh has been stripped from your bones.

The ones on this ship, the rats of Holland, are the worst, superior to other rats of the sea as their brethren are to the land rats. There is a well-known tale about these animals.

A Dutch captain, thinking to protect his cargo, brought aboard his ship - not cats - but two terriers, dogs trained in the hunting, fighting and killing of vicious rats. By the time the ship, sailing from Rotterdam, had passed the Ostend light, the dogs were gone and never seen again. In twenty-four hours they had been overwhelmed, killed and eaten by the rats.

At times, when the cargo does not suffice, the rats attack the crew, either driving them from the ship, or eating them alive. And studying the Cornelius de Witt, I turned sick, for her small boats were all in place. She had not been abandoned.

Over her bridge, on her deck, in the rigging, on every visible spot, the ship was a writhing mass - a starving army coming toward us on a vessel gone mad!

Our island was a small spot in that immense stretch of sea. The ship could have grazed us, passed to port or starboard with its ravening cargo - but no, she came for us at full speed, as if she were leading the regatta at a race, and impaled herself on a sharp point of rock.

There was a dull shock as her bottom stove in, then a horrible crackling as the three masts went overboard at once, as if cut down with one blow of some gigantic sickle. A sighing groan came as the water rushed into the ship; then she split in two and sank like a stone.

But the rats did not drown. Not these fellows! As much at home in the sea as any fish, they formed ranks in the water, heads lifted, tails stretched out, paws paddling. And half of them, those from the forepart of the ship, sprang along the masts and onto the rocks in the instant before she sank. Before we had time even to move, nothing remained of the three-master save some pieces of wreckage floating on the surface and an army of rats covering the rocks left bare by the receding tide.

Thousands of heads rose, felt the wind and we were scented, seen! To them, we were fresh meat, after possible weeks of starving. There came a scream, composed of innumerable screams, sharper than the howl of a saw attacking a bar of iron, and in the one motion, every rat leaped to attack the tower!

We barely had time to leap back, close the door leading to the gallery, descend the stairs and shut every window tightly. Luckily the door at the base of the light, which we never could have reached in time, was of bronze set in granite and was tightly closed.

The horrible band, in no measurable time, had swarmed up and over the tower as if it had been a tree, piled on the embrasures of the windows, scraped at the glass with thousands of claws, covered the lighthouse with a furry mantle, and reached the top of the tower, filling the gallery and piling atop the lantern.

Their teeth grated as they pressed against the glass of the lantern room, where they could plainly see us, though they could not reach us. A few millimeters of glass, luckily very strong, separated our faces from their gleaming, beady eyes, their sharp claws and teeth. Their odor filled the tower, poisoned our lungs, and rasped our nostrils with a pestilential, nauseating smell. And there we were, sealed alive in our own light, prisoners of a horde of starving rats.

That first night, the tension was so great that we could not sleep. Every moment, we felt that some opening had been made, some window given away, and that our horrible besiegers were pouring through the breach. The rising tide, chasing those of the rats which had stayed on the bare rocks, increased the numbers clinging to the walls, piled on the balcony - so much so that clusters of rats clinging to one another hung from the lantern and the gallery.

With the coming of darkness we lit the light and the turning beam completely maddened the beasts. As the light turned, it successively blinded thousands of rats crowded against the glass, while the darkside of the lantern room gleamed with thousands of points of light, burning like the eyes of jungle beasts in the night.

All the while we could hear the enraged scraping of claws against the stone and glass, while the chorus of cries was so loud that we had to shout to hear one another. From time to time, some of the rats fought among themselves and a cluster would detach itself, falling into the sea like a ripe fruit from a tree. Then we would see phosphorescent streaks as triangular fins slashed the water - sharks, permanent guardians of our rock, feasting on our jailers.

The next day we were calmer, and amused ourselves teasing the rats, placing our faces against the glass which separated us. They could not fathom the invisible barrier which separated them from us, and we laughed as we watched them leaping against the heavy glass.

But the day after that, we realized how serious our position was. The air was foul; even the heavy smell of oil within our stronghold could not dominate the fetid odor of the beasts massed around us. And there was no way of admitting fresh air without also admitting the rats.

In the morning of the fourth day, at early dawn, I saw the wooden framework of my window, eaten away from the outside, sagging inward. I called my comrades and the three of us fastened a sheet of tin in the opening, sealing it tightly. When we had completed the task, Itchoua turned to us and said dully:

“Well - the supply boat came thirteen days ago, and she won't be back for twenty-nine.” He pointed at the white metal plate sealing the opening through the granite. “If that gives way” - he shrugged - “they can change the name of this place to Six Skeleton Key.”

The next six days and seven nights, our only distraction was watching the rats whose holds were insecure fall a hundred and twenty feet into the maws of the sharks - but they were so many that we could not see any diminution in their numbers.

Thinking to calm ourselves and pass the time, we attempted to count them, but we soon gave up. They moved incessantly, never still. Then we tried identifying them, naming them.

One of them, larger than the others, who seemed to lead them in their rushes against the glass separating us, we named “Nero”; and there were several others whom we had learned to distinguish through various peculiarities.

But the thought of our bones joining those of the convicts was always in the back of our minds. And the gloom of our prison fed these thoughts, for the interior of the light was almost completely dark, as we had to seal every window in the same fashion as mine, and the only space that still admitted daylight was the glassed-in lantern room at the very top of the tower.

Then Le Gleo became morose and had nightmares in which he would see the three skeletons dancing around him, gleaming coldly, seeking to grasp him. His maniacal, raving descriptions were so vivid that Itchoua and I began seeing them also.

It was a living nightmare, the raging cries of the rats as they swarmed over the light, mad with hunger; the sickening, strangling odor of their bodies -

True, there is a way of signaling from lighthouses. But to reach the mast on which to hang the signal we would have to go out on the gallery where the rats were.

There was only one thing left to do. After debating all of the ninth day, we decided not to light the lantern that night. This is the greatest breach of our service, never committed as long as the tenders of the light are alive; for the light is something sacred, warning ships of danger in the night. Either the light gleams, a quarter hour after the sun goes down, or no one is left alive to light it.

Well, that night, Three Skeleton Light was dark, and all the men were alive. At the risk of causing ships to crash on our reefs, we left it unlit, for we were worn out - going mad!

At two in the morning, while Itchoua was dozing in his room, the sheet metal sealing his window gave way. The chief had just time enough to leap to his feet and cry for help, the rats swarming over him.

But Le Gleo and I, who had been watching from the lantern room, got to him immediately, and the three of us battled with the horde of maddened rats which flowed through the gaping window. They bit, we struck them down with our knives - and retreated.

We locked the door of the room on them, but before we had time to bind our wounds, the door was eaten through, and gave way and we retreated up the stairs, fighting off the rats that leaped on us from the knee-deep swarm.

I do not remember to this day, how we managed to escape. All I can remember is wading through them up the stairs, striking them off as they swarmed over us; and then we found ourselves, bleeding from innumerable bites, our clothes shredded, sprawled across the trapdoor in the floor of the lantern room - without food or drink.

Luckily, the trapdoor was metal set into the granite with iron bolts.

The rats occupied the entire light beneath us, and on the floor of our retreat lay some twenty of their fellows, who had gotten in with us before the trapdoor closed, and whom we had killed with our knives. Below us, in the tower, we could hear the screams of the rats as they devoured everything edible that they found. Those on the outside squealed in reply, and writhed in a horrible curtain as they stared at us through the glass of the lantern room.

Itchoua sat up, stared silently at his blood trickling from the wounds on his limbs and body, and running in thin streams on the floor around him. Le Gleo, who was in as bad a state (and so was I, for that matter), stared at the chief and me vacantly, started as his gaze swung to the multitude of rats against the glass, then, suddenly began laughing horribly:

“Hee! Hee! The Three Skeletons! Hee! Hee! The Three Skeletons are now six skeletons! Six skeletons!”

He threw his head back and howled, his eyes glazed, a trickle of saliva running from the corners of his mouth and thinning the blood flowing over his chest. I shouted to him to shut up, but he did not hear me, so I did the only thing I could do to quiet him - I swung the back of my hand across his face.

The howling stopped suddenly, his eyes swung around the room, then he bowed his head and began weeping softly, like a child.

Our darkened light had been noticed from the mainland, and as dawn was breaking the patrol was there, to investigate the failure of our light. Looking through my binoculars, I could see the horrified expression on the faces of the officers and crew when, the daylight strengthening, they saw the light completely covered by a seething mass of rats. They thought, as I afterward found out, that we had been eaten alive.

But the rats had also seen the ship, or had scented the crew. As the ship drew nearer, a solid phalanx left the light, plunged into the water and, swimming out, attempted to board her. They would have succeeded, as the ship was hove to, but the engineer connected his steam to a hose on the deck and scalded the head of the attacking column, which slowed them up long enough for the ship to get underway and leave the rats behind.

Then the sharks took part. Belly up, mouths gaping, they arrived in swarms and scooped up the rats, sweeping through them like a sickle through wheat. That was one day that sharks really served a useful purpose.

The remaining rats turned tail, swam to the shore and emerged dripping. As they neared the light, their comrades greeted them with shrill cries, with what sounded like a derisive note predominating. They answered angrily and mingled with their fellows. From the several tussles that broke out, it seemed as if they resented being ridiculed for their failure to capture the ship.

But all this did nothing to get us out of our jail. The small ship could not approach, but steamed around the light at a safe distance, and the tower must have seemed fantastic, some weird, many-mouthed beast hurling defiance at them.

Finally, seeing the rats running in and out of the tower through the door and the windows, those on the ship decided that we had perished and were about to leave when Itchoua, regaining his senses, thought of using the light as a signal. He lit it and, using a plank placed and withdrawn before the beam to form the dots and dashes, quickly sent out our story to those on the vessel.

Our reply came quickly. When they understood our position, how we could not get rid of the rats, Le Gleo's mind going fast, Itchoua and myself covered with bites, cornered in the lantern room without food or water, they had a signalman send us their reply.

His arms swinging like those of a windmill, he quickly spelled out: “Don't give up, hang on a little longer! We'll get you out of this!” Then she turned and steamed at top speed for the coast, leaving us little reassured.

She was back at noon, accompanied by the supply ship, two small coast guard boats, and the fireboat - a small squadron. At twelve-thirty the battle was on.

After a short reconnaissance, the fireboat picked her way slowly through the reefs until she was close to us, then turned her powerful jet of water on the rats. The heavy stream tore the rats from their places, hurled them screaming into the water where the sharks gulped them down. But for every ten that were dislodged, seven swam ashore, and the stream could do nothing to the rats within the tower. Furthermore, some of them, instead of returning to the rocks, boarded the fireboat and the men were forced to battle them hand-to-hand. They were true rats of Holland, fearing no man, fighting for the right to live!

Nightfall came, and it was as if nothing had been done, the rats were still in possession. One of the patrol boats stayed by the island; the rest of the flotilla departed for the coast. We had to spend another night in our prison. Le Gleo was sitting on the floor, babbling about skeletons; and as I turned to Itchoua, he fell unconscious from his wounds. I was in no better shape and could feel my blood flaming with fever.

Somehow the night dragged by, and the next afternoon I saw the tug, accompanied by the fireboat, come from the mainland with a huge barge in tow. Through my glasses, I saw the barge was filled with meat.

Risking the treacherous reefs, the tug dragged the barge as close to the island as possible. To the last rat, our besiegers deserted the rock, swam out and boarded the barge reeking with the scent of freshly cut meat. The tug dragged the barge about a mile from shore, where the fireboat drenched the barge with gasoline. A well placed incendiary shell from the patrol boat bombarded them with shrapnel from a safe distance, and the sharks finished off the survivors.

A whaleboat from the patrol boat took us off the island and left three men to replace us. By nightfall we were in the hospital in Cayenne. What became of my friends?

Well, Le Gleo's mind had cracked and he was raving mad. They sent him back to France and locked him up in an asylum, the poor devil. Itchoua died within a week; a rat's bite is dangerous in that hot humid climate, and infection sets in rapidly.

As for me - when they fumigated the light and repaired the damage done by the rats, I resumed my service there. Why not? No reason why such an incident should keep me from finishing out my service there, is there?

Besides - I told you I liked the place - to be truthful, I've never had a post as pleasant as that one, and when my time came to leave it forever, I tell you that I almost wept as Three Skeleton Key disappeared below the horizon

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daily-dose-of-imagines · 4 years

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(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Matchup ♥

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Hi!~ you can just call me Alex, please!~ I would like to be anon if that is ok lol the fandoms I want are A3!, Haikyuu!!, and Naruto! 🥰 SFW and NSFW is alright with me! 😉 whatever is comfortable lol

Alright so, intro info! I’m a Capricorn sun, Sagittarius moon and Virgo Ascendant. My modality is Cardinal 53%, Fixed 37%, Mutable 11%. My elements are Earth 51%, Water 36%, Fire 10% and Air 3%. My MBTI is INFJ. I’m also a HuffleClaw with a bit of Slytherin. I have was born with Turner Syndrome. I have ADHD, Autism, Anxiety and Depression. I am agender and I use they/them pronouns though she/her are alright since I’m used to those pronouns lol I am still exploring my sexuality, I am very open dating anyone of any gender so I would say I’m bi/panromantic, however I do strongly connect with the asexual spectrum since trust is a big deal for me lol

I had a coarctation or narrowing of the arota at 6 days old and was pronounced dead on the way to Children’s Hospital. I had open heart surgery soon afterwards. My grandmother was told that with all the mental health issues I could have due to TS, I could be super smart or I wouldn’t even be able to remember my own name. The doctor’s said I would be bad at math. My parents divorced when I was 10 and my little brother was 6. Both of them remarried, my dad once and our mol several times. Though, I won’t go more into that lol just to save you the details, our grandparents raised us and life was -is- really messy ahah

I’m currently going to college. I was supposed to graduate last semester, but I changed my major several times in the last 2 years lol 😂😂 I was a biology major and wanted to work in marine bio/ wildlife conservation and start my own rehab places for marine/terrestrial mammals. I am now a Middle School Education major with areas of concentration in science and language arts with a minor in TESL ( Teaching English as a Second Language). I want to teach English in Japan! 😊 As far as grade school, I always made As/Bs witout even trying and I loved to read, so much so that I got an award for it in 5th grade! I was quiet yet loud and super awkward as a kid 🤣🤣 I actually loved science a lot and even took AP courses until highschool because the teacher I would have taken in highschool was a really bad teacher who if he had family members and didn’t like them, he wouldn’t like you. He taught my father and his sister and didn’t like them, so least to say young and impressionable me noped out of that fast 😂😂

For a while, I wanted to be a Forensic Antropologist like Temeperance from Bones! 😊 however, we didn’t have a anthro major at my college, only chem lol so, when I started taking upper level courses, I quickly found I much prefer bio to chem 🤣🤣 I still dislike math as I have my whole life, but since I got to college, I’ve only made below a B in one math related course! 🥰

Ok sorry for a lot of random info 🤣🤣 onto other things! So, I’m very shy and quiet at first, but when I get comfortable around someone, that’s when the wierd comes out 🤣 I’m very passionate about education and science! I am a Christian and am very passionate about equality. I also firmly believe in redistributing millionare/billionares’ wealth.

I grew up watching anime and still love it to this day. I have strong connection with Japanese culture because anime was the gateway into learning about it and anime will always have a special place in my heart because of it! Japanese culture and really most if not all Asian cultures resonate with me because of the morals anime had taught me. I firmly believe in balance and hamrony with nature! I was introduced to kpop in middle school and have been a fan ever since lol 🤣 I also like pop/alternative music lol I like P!NK, Linkin Park, Adele and a few others lol

As I mention with wanting to be a marine biologist, I really love animals!~ 💕💜 my favs are otters, foxes, cats of all kinds, dogs, wolves, dolphins, and honey badgers! I currently have a Korat named Lila (li-lah like lilac) she is a very unique cat 🤣 she’s super curious and sorta a crackhead lol I did have a yorkie terrier named Sarah and a miniature schnauzer named Star, but since last June, we had to put both of them down 🥺 Sarah got cancer suddenly late last year and a few months ago Star had congestive heart failure. They were 13 and 14 respectively. They were amazing dogs! Sarah loved to swim and hunt little creatures and was the energetic one while Star was the grouchy old lady 🤣🤣

I also love anything fantasy/superhero! I love HP, LOTR, and Marvel! My fav genre of anime is shounen obvi lol 🤣Lol I also love learning other languages! I took French in highschool and two semester of Mandarin in college lol ( I need to brush up on both 🤣🤣) I am currently trying to learn Japanese! I wanna also learn Korean, Welsh, and Irish! I hope to go teach English in Japan via the JET program at my college! 🥰 I will more than likely stay in Japan after I stay the 5 max years through the JET program!

I also really love video games! I wanna play Persona 5 soo bad 🤣🤣 Horzon: Zero Dawn, the Legend of Zelda series, the Pokemon series and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are some of my favorites lol

Hmmm… what else to say? 🤣 I am typically the mom friend of the group ahaha oh! I am 4’9” and weigh 140 so I’m kinda chubby 😅 I am very self concious about my body. I have green eyes and I wear small, black rectangular glasses. I have moles and freckles all over my body. I have a dyed blonde bob with a brunnette undercut. I don’t have any piercings yet but I do have one tattoo on my inner left ankle!

I am stubborn, passionate, caring, empathetic, understanding, loving, loud, quiet, awkward, hyper, enthusiastic, curious, and I can procrastinate at times due to my ADHD lol I also love to have plans lol I like things to be organized and clean, but I don’t mind ‘organized chaos’ sometimes lol I am also very loyal to my friends. I prefer having a few super close friends than having tons of aquaintances.

Ok so dating lol um I’ve never actually dates anyone before 🙈 I’m also a virgin lol trust is a big issue for me, like aforementioned my parents divorce affected me a lot and I have a strained relationship with each of them due to the divorce and the events over the years afterwards. Plus, as a Capricorn, school/career is my main focus. I’m so busy with college and trying to figure myself out, I haven’t got time for dating ahaha so my irl soulmate will need to be a hell of a person and have the patience of a saint to deal with me 🤣

Even though I have never been in a relationship, out of curiousity and wanting to be knowledgeable, I have researched BDSM lol 😂 I am definitely not into slave/master, whipping, or anything super hardcore at all lol though, mild stuff like toys, handcuffs, spanking, biting, dirty talk, brat/tamer or daddy (mommy)/ little girl and blindfolds would be stuff I’m willing to try out lol basically, some light pain, toys and anything where I can be submissive and cast my cares away while still being able to be sassy/defiant suits me 🤣

Oh! For the purposes of this matchup, just male characters is fine lol like I said, I’m still trying to figure myself out so, for simplicities sake, assuming heteronorms is alright lol

Hmm as far as a type of guy I like, I can give you some anime examples 😂 Portgas D. Ace from One Piece, Itachi/Kakashi/Shikamaru from Naruto, Roy Mustang (also shoutout to Solf J. Kimblee as a guilty mention 🤣) from FMA!B, Kisuke Urahara from Bleach, Zuko/Sokka fron ATLA, Gintoki/Kamui/Takasugi/Shinpachi/Hijikata/Katsura from Gintama, Daisuke Kanbe from The Millionare Detective- Balance:Unlimited, Shinso Hitoshi/Shindo Yo from BNHA/MHA, Levi/Beel from Obey Me!, Itaru/Omi/Sakyo/Misuki/Tsuzuru/Kazunari/Banri from A3! And many more 🤣🤣 sorry for the long list lol basically to sum it up my type is kinda laid back, a lil perverted, confident, dominant, funny, teasing/flirty, caring, intellgent, mysterious, passionate and stubborn lol

Well, I hope that was enough info to get a good in depth matchup 🤣🤣 I feel like I gave too much but I wanna try to make it as detailed for y’all as possible so you can have an easier time with the matchup ahah thanks a lot, I love your blog and keep doing the good work you are doing! 🥰❤️💜💕 be sure to take care of yourselves and I hope y’all have a great weekend!! 🥰

( I apologize for sending it a second time, but there was some stuff I wanted to add that I forgot to mention until I after I sent in the first one 😭 again, I sincerely apologize!)

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Hello Alex and thank you for submitting with us! And thank you for supporting us! I hope you enjoy the boys I paired you with!

>Admin 𝕋

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𝐼 𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽...

I choose Kiba to be your Naruto boyfriend! when he first sees you, and how quiet and shy you are, Kiba will definitely want to bring your inner playfulness out! And when he sees that you do have some playfulness in you, he will see that you became comfortable enough around him that your inner weird came out! And that would really pull at Kiba’s heartstrings! Kiba will also find it fascinating that you like different types of culture, and how the world works via science and education! He isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he will definitely appreciate how you think, since he wants harmony in the world too! He will love the fact that you love animals and he will love the fact that you want to be a marine biologist! Being an animal lover himself, he will marry you right on the spot, just for that!

Since you are the mom friend of the group, you can totally take care of Kiba! It might not be the best, but Kiba would really love and appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do stuff for him, even if he didn’t ask for it! He will love your buddy, it being curvy and easy to hold onto, if you know what I mean wink wink. He will find your little beauty marks to be charming and I see him poking your moles and freckles every so often when he is bored! And when you tell him that you want to get tattoos, hell yeah! He will want to be there for when you get your first one!

Kiba will love the fact that you are passionate about your studies, and you main focus is school and your career! He will love the fact that you are don’t want anyone to mess up your future, and where you want to go in life! He may be a bit on the impatient side, but when he is with you, he will understand the need for patience and why it is important! He will also love the fact that you are so loyal to your friends! He doesn’t want to date anybody who isn’t loyal or isn’t compassionate to the people around them, so that will definitely be a plus in your book!

For the spicy stuff, Kiba at first would not know what he is doing but once he figures it out, ho boy, you are in a for a treat! Biting, lots of biting, and him being just very dominant, wanting to please you and make you feel like you are on cloud nine! He will let you do what you want, if it means that you are going to like what you guys do in the bedroom! From the biting to the dirty talk, he is up for anything!

I choose Sakyo to be your A3! boyfriend! Sakyo will see your shy and quiet persona and think nothing much of it, but once you get comfortable around him, enough so that your inner weirdness comes out to play, he will be surprised that you were hiding such a fun and cheerful person away from him! He will also like the fact that you are passionate about science and education, since Sakyo himself is definitely one to go to science for something that can’t be explained, and he is one to like education too, since it gives you wisdom on subjects you didn’t know about before! He will love the fact that you love his culture so much, from the anime to the actual history of Japan. He will feel that you super educated on the subject, and will be appreciative of how much you love where he is from!

Sakyo will find it adorable that you love animals, and he find it admirable that you want to become a marine biologist! It is a hard job, learning about all kinds of animals, and then discovering new ones! Yeah he will find it very impressive! And if you were to ever tell him that you want a dog or some kind of really cute animal, he will never able to say no to you! So you should use that to your advantage! As for video games, he isn’t one for the, but if you ever try to get him to play with you, he will have a hard time saying no! It will frustrate him though, that you’d keep beating him at all of them!

As for appearances, I feel Sakyo wouldn’t care about what you like, it’’s all about what is on the inside, and when he sees that you are a passionate, loving, caring, a mother figure to your friends, loyal to them, and empathetic to the people around you, he will just know that you are the person for him! Seriously, yeah he might like your curvy body, but what will really give make him like you is the fact that you are just a really nice person for people to be around! He will definitely understand the sentiment of having just a few close friends, than having like twenty acquaintances.

Sakyo will love the fact that you’d rather focus on your studies than have a boyfriend that could distract you from your future career! He would be glad to wait for you to accept him, until you are stable in your career and would be able to start dating you like he wants! And for a little spicy time, he would be a dominant as all hell. Like he would be so into dirty talk and taking you to heaven with his mouth. You might tell him you want to some like spanking and biting, and he might be into the biting, but the spanking makes him feel a little weird, so he might do it as often. But! If you ask, him he will have no reason to say no! So you better have fun with him!

I choose Iwaizumi as your Haikyuu boyfriend! Much like Sakyo, Iwaizumi will see you shy and timid demeanor and think nothing of it, and if anything, he will think it is kind of cute, but would have an inkling that you are more than you put out. And once Iwaizumi sees that, yes, you are more than shy, that you have your weird quirks and can be quite loud, he will find you even more cute, what with the way you act around him and not the others! He will find it so cute that you only act like that with him and nobody else! And much like Sakyo, he will find it awesome that you like his culture so much! From the anime to the language, and everything else! He would even offer to help you learn the language and such, to help you better understand his culture! Iwaizumi love the fact that you like superheroes and practically anything fantasy! I suspect that Iwaizumi also love Marvel and such! I also feel like Iwaizumi is extremely good at video games, so when he plays with you, make sure you try your best to win against him!

Iwaizumi will feel a bond with you being like the mom friend, since he has to constantly watch over Oikawa like he is his child! And for appearances, much like Kiba, I feel as though Iwaizumi will see your blemishes and your curvy body and think it is just uniquely you! Something that he associates with you alone! And the uniqueness will definitely get him to really like you! But I feel like he will really like girls in glasses so that is a definite plus for you!

Iwaizumi will love the fact, like the others, that you are a loving and caring person. Someone that is passionate and driven! And the fact that you have all your plans thought out and organized in your own way? Oh yeah, he would definitely like that! And the fact that you are so passionate about your future that you’d much rather focus on that instead of being in a relationship! He’d understand, would he hate that fact that he has to wait for you to be stable in your career? Yes, he wouldn’t like it one bit, but he wouldn’t leave you because of it! Will he wait for you? Most definitely!

For the spicy stuff, ahahahaha Iwaizumi. He is like. A dominant bottom, he’s okay with essentially whatever you want to do, as long you both are having a good time, and you guys are feeling good! As for the biting and the spanking and all the kinky things you want to try out, he’d be into it, he’d just wouldn’t know how to go about it, so it would be a learning experience for the both of you! In the end, Iwaizumi would be into a lot of things you guys tried! So beware what he has in store for you in the future!

#submission #submissions #matchup #anime matchups #haikyuu matchup #naruto matchup #A3! matchup #A3! x you #A3!#haikyuu!!#Haikyuu!! x you #naruto #naruto x you

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askmalal · 4 years

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Nurgle: Do any of you have a favorite faction in the Old World?

Me: Which one?

Nurgle: Sigmar’s homeworld. The one that is absolutely not Middle Earth redrawn.

Me: Ahh! I see.

Khorne: I ALWAYS LIKED THE NORSCANS.

Me: Shocking.

Khorne: WAR MAMMOTHS.

Me: Okay, yes. Those absolutely are awesome.

Nuffle: I like Stormcast!

Nurgle: Those aren’t an Old World Faction.

Tzeentch: On balance, I must say that the eternal infighting within The Empire of Man truly did the heavy lifting for me. Making the most competent candidate for the throne a vampire? That was inspired.

Khorne: I DO NOT THINK YOU DID THAT, TZEE..

Tzeentch: *interrupts* I HAVE SPOKEN!

Nuffle: I mean, the Ossiarchs are interesting. Too bad about the link to Meany Pants.

Me: Do you mean Nagash?

Nuffle: Yeah. Tall guy. Big head.

Nurgle: Ossiarchs: also not a thing in the Old World.

Slaanesh: Bretonnia. Loved Bretonnia. So many gorgeous women cavorting in ponds. So many handsome men in tight pants.

Me: The codpiece was your idea, wasn’t it?

Slaanesh: Oooh yes.

Hashut: I really liked the Lizardmen of old.

Tzeentch: WHAT?!

Hashut: Honestly just kidding. What did you THINK I was going to say?

Neocho: I don’t believe in fantasy worlds.

Me: And yet here you are. A god. With access to any reality you wish.

Neocho: No. I don’t believe in that.

Me: You quite literally are astral projecting at this very moment.

Neocho: Nonsense. Impossible. Also? I rode over with Nuffle in his cat detector van.

Me: Good grief.

Nuffle: Ultramarines. Love their colors. The Roman theme is cool, too.

Me: Not even in the same time period, let alone the Old World.

Nurgle: I mean, there -are-links...

Me: We don’t talk about the links.

Hashut: And you, Nurgle?

Nurgle: I must say I admired the Pygmies. It’s a real shame the humans have only seen the racist stereotypes made for that miniatures game.

Me: Generslly speaking, in terms of utility, I would have to align myself with Vlad Von Carstein.

Nurgle: Yes, utility. Always utility. Isn’t there someone you genuinely liked?

Me: Malice? Liking something beyond his own followers?

Khorne: WE KNOW YOU GOT ON WITH CURZE AND HORUS. AND BOSTON TERRIERS. AND BOUDICCA.

Me: Yes, yes. But entire civilizations? Fine? Honestly, despite the fact I hate both excessive facial hair and slavery, I had some sympathy for the Chaos Dwarves. Dwarves, in general, are awful, awful people.

Hashut: True that.

Nuffle: Silver Skulls?

Nurgle: Also Space Marines. Also a different setting.

Me: *continues* And it’s true I have a fondness for Halflings. The only people in all of the Old World never to oppress or enslave anyone.

Khorne: NOT EXACTLY WORLD BURNERS.

Me: This time they weren’t, no.

Gary: I sort of admired the people of Khemri. I mean, they beat the ever living hell out of my people, -but-.

Me: Settra was, is, a man to be admired. Never cowed, never broken. Too bad about Nagash.

Khorne: NAGASH IS AN ARSE.

Nurgle: Agreed. Can we work out a way to completely screw him over, this time round?

Tzeentch: I’m in.

Khorne: RIGHTO!

Me: Absolutely.

Gary: Sure. Why not?

Slaanesh: He’s a total party pooper. Agreed. Though I am a bit... restrained in that reality. And not in a good way.

Neocho: I don’t believe in revenge.

Nuffle: Yay! I’ll get the art supplies!

#askmalal #horus heresy #chaos gods #warhammer30k #age of sigmar #ask me questions #warhammer40k #malal #malice #gaming humor #warhammer fantasy #khorne #slaanesh #nuffle #nagash #hashut #tzeentch #nurgle #neocho

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luxuryt-shirt · 4 years

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tshirttrend · 4 years

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Bull Terrier Metallica Master Of Puppies T-Shirt

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newshirtonlines-blog · 4 years

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Bull Terrier Metallica Master Of Puppies T-Shirt

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stydiasecretsanta · 6 years

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Summer Last

He ran out the next morning, and Lydia thought her summer fling would be just that - a summer fling. Then the boy tried to contact her by going on the Ellen show to tell the world about their tryst.

For Jenn (@stilinskikissme) - Happy holidays Jenn! You keep my feed full with stydia gifs so I never starve. Hope this fic satisfies you the same way.

“Not your cup of tea?”

Lydia turned her head and quickly found the owner of the voice. She raised her eyebrows, mildly surprised to find someone who looked her age at this event. He was tall, lanky, eating with his hand. His plate was piled with all the snacks the buffet table had to offer - cookies, fruit tarts, spring rolls, you name it. She figured he must have had some sushi too; fat grains of rice clung to his noticeably long fingers.

She gave him a noncommittal shrug. “I’m more into the molecular side of biology, but it’s fairly interesting, I guess. I just haven’t had the best day, and someone was supposed to be here with me, but well…”

She waved her arm at the space next to her. The boy nodded, his whole head rocking back on forth on his head.

“Yeah, I get it. I was dragged here by my best friend, who is now networking with one of the presenters.” He shook his head and chuckled. “I think he’s way too excited to start college. He’s in pre-vet. He loves animals.”

He picked up a mini tart after he spoke and shoved it into his mouth, sucking his fingers off as he did so. Lydia’s eyes were inexplicably drawn to the action, his moving pink lips, his long, slender fingers.

Was it just the tungsten lighting? She had never seen lips so naturally pink in her life.

She swallowed, half-mortified by her sudden train of thought, and chose to pick at her own plate of buffet food. Namely, softshell crab handrolls. (Kind of ironic that they were serving seafood at a symposium about marine wildlife conservation.)

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the boy watching her. She turned to face him, questioning brow raised, but he simply grinned casually and bit off half a spring roll. The movement brought Lydia’s attention to his mouth again.

“So, you two just finished high school, I assume?” she asked, forcing herself to think about something else. School was a safe topic. She loved school. She could go on and on about academics.

The boy nodded his head vigorously. “Yep. You too?”

Lydia puffed out her chest. “Yes. Well, I could have graduated early, but I stayed on to be with my best friend.”

The boy raised his eyebrows in appreciation. “I get that. I could never leave Scott - my friend - not that I was smart enough to graduate early, though. That’s amazing. So, you took college credits throughout last semester?”

“Last year,” Lydia corrected, revelling at the way the boy’s eyes bulged out of their sockets, the way his jaw dropped in awe. “Enough to matriculate as a junior.”

She preened as he gaped at her. No one had really reacted to her intelligence this way before. Lydia decided she quite enjoyed it.

“Wow,” he finally managed. “Which school?”

Lydia smirked. “MIT”

“Holy sh- how do you even do that?” he asked, waving his arms and surprisingly not sending any food flying all over the place. “Oh my god. I’m standing in front of an actual genius. So, are you gonna win the Nobel prize someday?”

“Fields medal,” she told him. “I’m studying mathematics. But I might pick up bioengineering too.”

“Wow,” the boy repeated, running a hand through his short hair to express his disbelief. “And here I am, a lowly criminology major.”

Now it was Lydia’s turn to raise her brows.

“That’s nothing to snuff about,” she told him. “It’s important to society. Personally, I find the forensics aspects very interesting.”

“Thanks. And yeah, ‘cause you’re a genius,” he replied through a mouthful. Lydia watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.

“Forensics is cool,” he babbled, “but I think I’d lose my mind sitting in a lab everyday. I’ve had a string of terrible experiences in science labs. Spilled some hazmat once. Left the gas valves on. Eroded the edge of a bench because I was reacting random chemicals off it. My chemistry teacher hated me, although he later turned out to be complicit in arson so he could have always just been evil…am I talking too much? I’m talking too much. I’ll shut up now.”

He rubbed the back of his neck, sheepishly watching for her reaction. Then his whole body twitched, as if a thought literally jolted him, and he offered his hand.

“I’m Stiles, by the way.”

“Stiles?”

Lydia hadn’t meant to sound rude. Fortunately, the boy merely chuckled, unfazed by her reaction.

“Yeah, I get that a lot. It’s a nickname, and trust me, it is a lot easier to say than my real name,” he explained.

Lydia shook his hand.

“Well, Stiles, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Lydia.”

“Lydia,” he breathed. “That’s a nice name.”

“Thanks.” Her voice came out as a whisper.

No one knows how long they stood there, hands clasped between them, eyes locked on each other’s, but it was only when Stiles’ body twitched again, breaking the moment, did Lydia realise what they had just shared.

“Hey, um, do you wanna go for a walk?” Stiles jerked his thumb over his shoulder, towards the waning light outside.

Lydia looked over her shoulder, eyes sweeping the longhouse one last time. None of the posters fascinated her more than the boy next to her, so she shrugged her shoulders and raised her plate to him.

“Sure, just let me finish this.”

Stiles looked down at his own plate, as if just remembering all the food he had piled on it. “Oh, right.”

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Stiles was good to talk to. That is, when he didn’t go off long, unrelated tangents. Like when Lydia explained that Allison wanted to go for a run and so didn’t accompany her to the symposium, he launched into an account of all his Most Tragic Accidents playing lacrosse.

“Scott was always the athletic one, even with his asthma,” he told her. “He because co-captain in sophomore year. Then the other captain moved to London - not that he was missed, he was a total dick - and Scott reigned under graduation. I remember summer the summer before he became co-captain, he trained super hard for it. He blew me off so many times to practice. I kept trying to make him watch Star Wars.”

“You know he hasn’t watched Star Wars? Like at all?” Stiles was saying now. “He doesn’t even know who Darth Vader is. So many jokes have been wasted on him. I had to watch The Force Awakens alone…”

He launched into a theory about Rey’s parentage.

He had already told her all about werewolf folklore as well as human sacrifices throughout history.

Lydia had to admit, he actually was smart. Before long, he had moved on from Rey and engaged Lydia in a discussion about how gravity worked on the Death Star. And there was actual physics involved.

“You’re so freaking smart, you know?” he told her, when they sat down on a rock outcrop. Lydia couldn’t believe she actually spent energy talking about Star Wars.

She cocked her head. “I thought that was established.”

Stiles gestured a hand at her. “Yeah, but you’re like, IQ 174 and beautiful.”

He remembered the exact number. He called her beautiful. Lydia felt her cheeks heat up. The sun was only just starting to set due to the season. She wondered she was as red as the sky. She wondered if Stiles could see her blush.

“Really?” She asked, keeping her eyes on his face.

In the golden light, Stiles’ eyes were like pools of honey with a mysterious light glowing within, and they were trained on her when he answered.

“Really.”

The hand that had gestured up and down her body reached out again, and for a moment Lydia anticipated the feel of his palm against her cheek. But then he dropped his arm, drummed his fingers on the rock next to his lap instead.

Before she knew it, Lydia was covering his hand with hers, stilling his fidgety movement.

“You’re not too bad yourself,” she told him.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Maybe it was the way the long rays of sunlight cast on the sand. Maybe it was the connection they felt as two smart individuals drawn to each other’s intelligence. Maybe it was the way Stiles treated her. He’d held her hand and called her beautiful.

Whatever it was, Lydia suddenly felt the need to kiss him, so she leaned in. She saw Stiles mirroring her actions right before her eyes fluttered shut. His nose brushing against hers was her only warning before their lips collided.

Warm. Stiles’ mouth was so warm. His lips were soft, just like the rest of him. One of her hands had found purchase on his upper arm, his curling behind her neck carefully as his lips moved oh so slowly over hers, giving her time to adjust. In return, Lydia tilted her head and pursed her lips further, free hand moving into his hair to pull him closer to her, deepening the kiss.

They broke apart when they heard a dog barking. Not five seconds later, a man and his terrier ran past. Lydia cleared her throat. Stiles was looking at his lap, rubbing the back of his neck.

Lydia had dated before, but she had never taken to someone so fast. She always played hard to get, made the boys come after her for a week at least, teasing them, before she’d give in and let the fun begin. Yet here she was, with a boy she made out with within a day of meeting him, and she wanted more.

“Do you want to go somewhere more private?” she asked, heart pounding.

Stiles’s head snapped up to look at her. “I, uh, um, I don’t really know…”

Her heart faltered.

“I mean, I’d like to, if you want, but I don’t know any places since me and my friend are sharing a room, and a bed, because they ran out of rooms with two singles so…”

Lydia nearly laughed in relief.

“My friend and I are in my family’s beach house, where I have my own room,” she told him, grabbing his hand. “Come on.”

They managed to walk side by side, all the way back to the beach house that Lydia’s family owned. The moment she shut the front door, Stiles’ hands were all over her.

“A-Allison could be h-here,” Lydia stuttered as he smothered her face with kisses.

“She’s not,” Stiles replied. “You said you two haven’t unpacked, and I don’t see any extra pair of running shoes anywhere.”

His open mouth painted a hot line down her neck.

“What are you, a detective?” Lydia panted. She arched as one of Stiles’ large hands pressed into her small back, pressed her chest against his as he started sucking on her collarbone, his other hand supporting the back of her neck. He was clever, handsome, and pulling her into him. She loved it.

Stiles hummed into her skin. “Mmhmm, aspiring cop, actually.”

“Criminology,” Lydia recalled. “That is so hot.”

She felt rather than heard his chuckle, reverberating through his body.

“Not as hot as you, Miss MIT.”

She slammed her lips into his. The momentum sent both of them towards the staircase, just what she wanted.

“Take me upstairs,” she ordered.

Stiles moaned in acknowledgement.

Lydia wasn’t sure what she was expecting. She had not specifically thought about Stiles sweeping her off her feet and carrying her up the stairs, but she hadn’t really thought that they would stumble their way up together, Stiles a step ahead of her. When they approached the top, Stiles bounded to the top of the landing. He somehow managed to keep holding her hand, long arm outstretched, giving Lydia a good view of his sinewy forearms, lightly dusted with hair. He pulled her up the last few steps and laughed when she tumbled into him, sending them crashing into the wall. Lydia used her lips to shut him up.

His mouth was better at other things anyway.

By the time they made it into her room, Lydia’s hands were running up and down Stiles’ arms, while Stiles’ had crept under her shirt. He tried to take it off as they fell onto the bed, but it got caught as she tried to loop her arms around his neck. This time, they both laughed.

Lydia removed the piece of clothing and gave Stiles a coy smile. “Your turn.”

It took him a while to comply, his eyes slowly taking in her body, her bare skin. His mouth was gaping like it had right before he called her a genius. But then he was pulling his shirt over his head, and Lydia found herself reacting similarly.

She’d seen model-worthy bodies before, chiseled abs and bulging muscles. Stiles looked nothing like that, but Lydia had never been so in awe. He was lean but toned, with nice broad shoulders and the slightest definition of muscle. Moles, scattered all over, stood out against his pale skin, as did the dark trail leading into his pants. It was there Lydia placed her hand, spreading her fingers out against his skin, and smiled when she heard Stiles’ intake of breath.

She slowly slid her hand up, up, over his stomach and chest, until finally she found her way behind his neck to pull him to her. When their lips met this time it was slower, sweeter. They kissed as if they had all the time in the world to explore each other’s mouths. Lydia untucked her legs from underneath her and leaned back. Stiles caught on and braced one arm against the bed, the other wrapping around her slim waist.

Lydia sighed as her back softly settled onto the mattress. Stiles moved away from her lips and started kissing a trail down her body. Lydia’s back arched as he went. She felt his lips linger right above the waistband of her skirt, felt his hands start to caress her thighs just above the knee. She sighed in anticipation, eyelids fluttering shut. But then she didn’t sense any more movement from Stiles.

Pushing herself up, Lydia found his eyes on her, watching, waiting.

“Can I - ”

“Yes.”

“I haven’t even said - ”

“Yes, Stiles, you can take my panties off. Preferably now.”

He smiled softly and muttered, “Just making sure.” Then his hands found the side of her hips and started pulling her skirt and panties down together.

She saw his head duck between her legs, and then his lips were on her core. Lydia’s head fell back, and she let out a long, breathy moan as Stiles’ tongue worked its wonders.

Her ragged breaths filled the room as she held Stiles’ head to her, her fingers tangling with the tips of his short but soft hair. It was both a way of anchoring herself and telling him don’t stop, keep going, don’t -

Her pleasure rolled over her like the tides on the beach outside. When it subsided, Lydia blinker her eyes open to find Stiles hovering over her, silently asking for her evaluation. She answered by sitting up and kissing him.

She kept Stiles busy with her lips while she undid his fly and shoved his pants down to his knees. He only caught on when she started pulling at his boxers as well, and adjusted his position so that she could push them down all the way, using her feet to finish the job.

When he was properly naked, Stiles snagged her around the waist and rolled over so that she was on top of him. Lydia stilled, her hand finding purchase on the sheets right above his shoulders. No one had conceded to her like that before. No one had so willingly given her control, ever.

“You okay?” Stiles asked. He must have taken her stillness for hesitation.

Lydia gave him her most convincing smile.

“Yeah. Yes, everything is fine, I was just trying to recall where I kept the condoms,” she told him.

She reached for the bedside drawer, but Stiles’ hand came up to stop her.

“We don’t have to, if you don’t want to.”

His was looking at her so earnestly, Lydia couldn’t resist kissing him again.

“I want to,” she assured him. “If you want it too.”

He nodded and kissed her, releasing her arm. Lydia leaned over to reach the drawer again, and Stiles took the opportunity to unclip her bra. She shrugged it off as she straightened again, before waving the foil packet she’s retrieved.

Soon, she had rolled the condom onto Stiles and was lowering herself onto him. Stiles skated his hands up her thighs as she found a steady rhythm. They finally settled on her waist, just resting there, not gripping.

Even with her on top of him, Stiles was so active with his mouth. Appraisals of her beauty fell from his lips for every move she made.

“You’re gorgeous,” he mumbled. “Oh god - you’re so beautiful. Oh my god.”

It didn’t take long before Lydia started to feel herself lose control again. Her movements became jerky. She fell forward, fingers curling around Stiles’ shoulder, head burying under his chin as she cried his name.

Stiles carefully rolled them over, pausing only to adjust himself between her legs, before finding the rhythm she had set.

“It’s okay,” he mumbled. “It’s okay, I got you, I got you…”

“Stiles,” Lydia moaned as she lost control, and she felt Stiles release too, whispering her name into her skin.

For a while they lay together, bodies pressed together but for Stiles breaching himself on one forearm so he wouldn’t crush Lydia. Their deep breaths were in sync.

Finally, Lydia loosened her grip on Stiles’ torso, letting him slip out to get towels. When they’d cleaned themselves up, Lydia tossed both towels into a corner and pat the bed next to her. She tugged on the covers when he crawled in, silently asking him to stay. Stiles didn’t comment as she pulled the covers over their bare bodies, but obliged and grabbed a pillow. Lydia instinctively rolled onto her side as Stiles shifted closer to her. She leaned back against his chest. One of his arms found her waist again.

She twisted her neck to look at him. “I didn’t give you one back.”

“You don’t have to.”

“What if I want to?”

He pecked the corner of her lips. “You can do it tomorrow, if you still want to.”

“I will,” she said firmly. Then she couldn’t help but yawn.

Stiles chuckled softly and nuzzled the back of her neck, causing her to relax and turn back.

“Goodnight, Lydia.”

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

She woke up to the feeling of lips on her neck.

Stiles mumbled in his sleep, lips puckering and unknowingly leaving wet kisses on her skin. Lydia smiled when he hummed softly and tightened his arms around her waist, pulling her closer and pressing his face to her shoulder. One leg curled further up into his body, knee pressing into the back of hers, pushing her leg up with his, tangling their limbs further.

Lydia found herself leaning back into his embrace. Stiles’ body radiated heat. A good kind, warm and comforting, not the sweltering kind that bared down on the beach outside. His hold was firm but gentle. No one had cuddled with her like that before. It was nice.

She was just slipping into sleep again when a strange rock song started blaring throughout the room. Stiles jerked in the bed. He fumbled to retract his limbs from around her body as he sat up, and Lydia mourned the loss of skin contact.

Stiles’ arms flailed as he pushed himself up and over his haunches until he was crawling to the edge of the bed, leaning over to reach their clothes. The position gave Lydia a fine view of his ass. She couldn’t help sitting up to get a better look. However, Stiles soon pulled himself back up, pants in hand. He shook his ringing phone out of the pockets and swore when he saw the screen.

“Shit,” he mumbled, swiping his thumb across. “Hey Scotty, yes, I know, I’m - I just - I’ll be right there, okay?”

He’d retrieved his boxers and started pulling them on one-handedly, struggling to get his long legs in the right places without kicking her. He dropped his phone when the call ended and pulled on his pants with greater ease.

He turned to her while his deft fingers worked at the fly, eyes wide and wild for someone who had just woken up.

“I’m so sorry,” he breathed. “This looks really bad, but my friends and I are doing a west coast trip, and our train - I forgot - and, uh - ”

He trailed off, head whipping around. He spotted something on her side of the bed and literally launched himself over her before tumbling to the floor.

Lydia held the covers up to her chest as she scooted to the side of the bed, peering at Stiles as he pulled his T-shirt out from where he had landed on it. He looked up, as if sensing her eyes on him, and reached up to squeeze her covered knee.

“I like you. A lot,” he told her, his voice suddenly soft. He quickly pulled his last piece of clothing over his head and stumbled to his feet, reaching over her legs for his phone. The object had been buzzing with incoming messages since he discarded it at the foot of the bed.

“I wish I could stay. But my best friend will murder me if I don’t - oh fuck,” Stiles rambled as he checked his phone again. He waved his arms exasperatedly, as if the action would somehow calm his frantic state. Then his head turned back to Lydia again, meeting her confused gaze.

He leaned over and cupped her face with one large hand.

“I’m really sorry about this,” he whispered, his lips hovering a bare two inches away from hers.

He gently connected his forehead with hers. Their noses brushed, and Lydia gasped in anticipation of one last kiss from his soft, soft lips.

But he pulled away, straightened, checked the small bedside clock, and then he was fumbling his way to the door again.

He paused in the doorway, turned around and shot her an apologetic look.

“Call me!” he yelled.

And then he was gone.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

She never called. He didn’t leave his number.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The rest of summer came and went. Lydia spent her days flipping through her MIT course catalog, tagging all the interesting classes with colourful post-it flags. She completed two online courses, and by the time she flew to Massachusetts, was already a third of her way through junior year.

Stiles’ face would flash behind her closed eyes at night. His warm eyes, his messy hair, his soft smile. Sometimes she would wake up with the ghost of his touches brushing her skin. Whenever that happened, Lydia would clam down on her thoughts with logic. Realistically speaking, she would never meet Stiles again.

(Shame, he made her feel good. Really good.)

It happened a month into the semester. It was a Wednesday morning, the time Lydia paid the campus gym its weekly visit. She was warming up on the elliptical and her gaze was drifting across the room when she saw the television screen airing the Ellen show. Sitting on the couch opposite the host, was Stiles.

Curious, Lydia stopped the music on her phone and connected her earphones to the elliptical’s audio port instead. Stiles’ voice filled her ears the moment she’d adjusted for the correct channel, bright and jovial.

Stiles was dressed in a royal blue three-quarter sleeved crewneck that hugged his torso and arms in all the right places. His pants were tan, like the khakis he’d worn at the beach. His hair was neatly tucked under a blue and orange baseball cap that matched his shirt nicely.

He looked as good as she remembered, all twinkling eyes and animated hands.

And he was talking about their tryst on national television.

“She kept saying my name,” he said. “And I was saying hers. It just felt…amazing, like, I don’t know how to describe it without saying too much.”

Ellen Degeneres chuckled. “So the short version is that you had one hell of a night.”

“Oh, yeah,” Stiles answered, nodding vigorously. “Best night of my life. Except for the part where I had to catch a train in the morning and forgot to leave my number.”

“What’s her name?” the host prompted.

“I’m not sure I should say,” Stiles replied, and Lydia exhaled in relief. If he was going to make a fool of himself sharing their hookup on TV, at least he wasn’t dragging her down with him.

And yet, aghast as she was, Lydia could not help admiring him.

His shirt was just the right shade of blue that you could see the shadows defining his biceps when the light hit it right - such as when he went to rub his neck. Whenever they switched to a close-up camera angle, she could see the golden flecks in his irises, watch his long lashes flutter as he blinked incessantly, count the moles on his face.

His hair was curling at the back of his neck. Lydia remembered how it felt between her fingers during their first kiss. At one point he took his cap off, and if she noticed that it had grown longer, well, he was the one drawing attention to his hair by running a hand through it. She imagined his mane free from the confines of the offending headwear, a nest of unruly curls.

She was panting now, and it was not because she had been on the elliptical for fifteen minutes.

“But it’s not just the sex, you know?” Stiles was saying. “She was beautiful, great to talk to, and really smart…I just felt like we had this kind of connection, you know? Unspoken, of course.”

The audience ooohed. Stiles ducked his head, clearly not expecting such a reaction.

Ellen leaned over and placed a hand on Stiles’ shoulder.

“Alright, I want you to look at the camera there,” she told him, pointing with her other hand. “Imagine that girl is somewhere out there, watching. What do you want to say to her?”

Stiles looked straight into the camera, and Lydia felt as if he was addressing her directly through the screen.

“Hey, um, you know who you are. Assuming you remember me, that is,” Stiles started.

“I hope you remember me. I’d really like to meet you again. So, uh, if you don’t already think I’m pathetic for resorting to going to live TV, you can find me by uh…”

He trailed off and turned to the host.

“I gotcha,” Ellen told him, then she turned back to the camera. “If you are the one that Stiles is looking for, go to Ellen-dot-com-slash-You’re-the-One to tell us your name, school, and…”

“The last thing I said to you,” Stiles finished.

Lydia spent the rest of her day pondering whether or not to reach out to Stiles. Allison egged her on to. Lydia thought it was ridiculous. The link was probably already flooded with false submissions.

She kept putting her decision off to the next day, and eventually the link was closed altogether.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

It was a Saturday night when she got the call.

“I found your soulmate.”

Lydia did a double take. With midterms around the corner and a research project lined-up, she had not given much thought to Stiles and his little TV stunt. Allison’s words had caught her off guard.

“He’s not my soulmate.”

“Unspoken connection.”

“If I didn’t actually enjoy talking to him, that would sound totally creepy.”

“But you do like talking to him.”

Lydia could practically hear Allison grinning over the phone. She refrained from actually rolling her eyes. Allison would picture her doing it anyway.

“Come on, Lydia,” Allison whined. “Don’t you wanna know how I found your Summer Nights Danny Zuko?”

Lydia cringed at the thought of her and Stiles with those 70’s hairdos. Allison launched into her story anyway, recounting excitedly how she almost ran over a dog, and panicked until some guy named Scott directed her to the nearest animal clinic.

“…and when he smiled, oh my gosh, Lydia, he had the cutest dimples.”

“I thought this was about my ‘soulmate’.”

“It is,” Allison insisted, making a shh-ing noise. “Just listen. So, I went for lunch with him and asked each other the standard stuff, you know, what’s your planned major - he wants to go to medical school and become a vet, isn’t that cute?”

“Allison.”

“Right, so we were telling each other about ourselves, and when I told him I last lived in San Francisco, he told me about how he passed through in summer, and one of his friends hooked up with a girl and is now so determined to find her again that he went on Ellen for it.”

“So technically, you didn’t find Stiles himself,” Lydia deadpanned.

Allison hummed non-committedly. “Are you disappointed? I did find out a lot about him. He’s a California native - grew up in Beacon Hills, drives an old blue jeep, and right now, is studying in LA.”

“And that information is important because…?”

“You can track him down!” Allison basically yelled.

Lydia scoffed. “He’s the one who wants to be in law enforcement, he can track me down. Although I’m seriously questioning his common sense, since he decided that going on a talk show is a legitimate way to find someone.”

Despite Lydia’s repeated dismissals, Allison continued to bring Stiles in conversations. Especially after Allison and Scott started dating. Lydia was very happy for her best friend, but she wished she didn’t always have to hear about the total dumbass that was her summer fling.

As the semester drews to a close, Scott invited Allison to visit his home during winter break. Allison, naturally, wanted Lydia to come along. It was the perfect opportunity to meet Stiles again.

“Come on,” the girl begged one night when they were face-timing. “Stiles sounds really into you. Scott said he insists that your hair is strawberry blonde and gets offended when their friends call you a redhead.”

Lydia opened her mouth to retort. “But I am - ”

She stopped short. Stiles, as much as she loathed to admit, was right. Her hair was not a deep nor bright shade of red. Rather, it was a mix of gold and reddish hues, depending on how the light hit it.

Strawberry blonde.

“This doesn’t mean anything.”

Allison smirked, and Lydia briefly considered slapping her laptop shut. Then her friend’s lips turned into a pout.

“Please, Lydia, for me? I don’t want to be there alone. What if it gets awkward?”

Lydia took one look at Allison’s expression and prayed for Scott’s resistivity.

“Fine,” she sighed. “When do our breaks overlap? We’ll need to know Scott’s too…”

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The semester was over in the blink of an eye. Allison and Lydia spent Christmas back in San Francisco. Since Allison’s mother and aunt passed and Lydia’s father left for good, the two families had Christmas dinner together. It was a small, easy-going affair, and the girls would have a sleepover after. This year, the Argents hosted the event, so Lydia slept at Allison’s. The next day, Allison drove them to Beacon Hills.

It was almost dinnertime when they pulled up in front of Scott’s house. Scott himself was waiting on the porch, making his way down the steps before Allison killed the engine. He offered to help with their luggages, and Lydia could see the heart eyes Allison was making at him, so she announced that she would bring the food and gifts they’d brought in.

Scott ran back to open the door for her. “The kitchen’s just straight through the living room. You can see the entryway. My friends are in there, they can show you where to put everything.”

Lydia nodded, giving Scott her sweetest smile before making her way into the house.

My friends are in there, Scott had said. Stiles was in there, just one room away from her.

She heard him before she saw him, making an animated case for the Loch Ness monster’s existence. Stepping into the kitchen, her eyes immediately spotted him in the far corner, leaning against the counter. He had a Coke can in one hand, the other waving around as he rambled to the guy standing with him.

He started speaking more intensely, his voice lowered, his gestures more precise. He turned to put his rink on the counter and when he turned back, that was when it happened.

Lydia could pinpoint the exact moment he saw her. First his eyes met hers, and eve across the room, she could see how bright and gold they were. His mouth dropped open, and Lydia watched, almost in slow motion, as he blinked once, twice, three times in disbelief. Then the corners of his mouth pulled up into a wide smile.

“Lydia.”

God, she missed hearing his voice say her name as much as she missed watching his lips form it.

The back of her mind was screaming for her to say something as she took a step towards him, but Stiles, being Stiles, beat her to it.

“I - wow - what are you doing here? I mean, not in a bad way - I just didn’t expect it. You’re here,” he said, in a single breath.

“I’m here,” Lydia breathed. Then, because she felt the need to explain. “I came with Allison.”

There he was, blinking again, rapidly. Did he have to do that? His long eyelashes looked absolutely luscious.

“So you’re Lydia!” a new voice butted in. “Stiles mentions you a lot.”

She’d been so enraptured by Stiles that she hadn’t noticed his companion coming to stand next to him.

“You don’t talk,” Stiles muttered, half-heartedly shoving the other boy aside.

The boy had gave them and impish grin and walked out of the kitchen laughing.

“Don’t mind Liam,” Stiles said. “He is always annoying. So, uh, how are you doing?”

Lydia responded by smacking his chest.

“You!” she exclaimed, as Stiles flailed backwards, giving him no time to react. She jabbed a finger at him, revelling in his shocked expression. “You are the most ridiculous, insane, annoying person I have ever encountered!”

Stiles stuttered. “Lydia - what - Lydia?!” But Lydia pressed on.

“Why the hell did you tell everyone?” she continued. “So we slept together and it was great. But then you announced it on national television!”

“I was just desperate to find you!” Stiles explained. His hands were held at shoulder height, in surrender. “I admit, it wasn’t my best idea…”

“You told everyone! It was supposed to be private! We had something, now everyone knows and it’s just - just - ”

“We had something?” His voice was a low whisper.

Lydia backtracked mentally. Did I say that?

She opened her mouth, but no words came out, and she ended up simply staring at Stiles, folding her lips.

She was saved by Scott, who entered with an older couple. Allison was trailing behind them, and the brunette raised her brows when she saw Lydia standing there with Stiles.

“Hi Lydia!” Scott called brightly, oblivious to what he had walked into. “This is my mom. Mom, this is Lydia, Allison’s friend.”

“Please call me Melissa,” Scott’s mother said as Lydia shook her hand.

Scott brought the older man forward. “And this is Sheriff - well - ah…”

“Noah Stilinski,” the man introduced himself. Lydia choked on her greeting. Stilinski? As in -

“I see you’ve met my son,” Noah said, waving at Stiles. Lydia looked over her shoulder to see Stiles wave back and shoot his father a wink. “I hope he hasn’t said anything too weird to you.”

“Oh!” Scott exclaimed, a shit-eating grin forming on his face. “Did Allison tell you about the Ellen thing?”

She heard Stiles groan, and Lydia decided to make him explain himself.

“Hmm, yeah I think she mentioned it,” she said, turning to face Stiles with arms crossed and challenging eyebrow raised. “I wanna know what that was about.”

Stiles’ red face was worth it.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

“Hey, do you want to go for a walk?”

Lydia studied the boy before her. He was leaning against the kitchen island, fingers fiddling in his lap. The sight had greeted her when she stepped out of the bathroom.

She glanced at the entryway, where she could see Allison and Melissa laughing, presumably at Scott and the Sheriff, who were on the other side of the coffee table, out of view.

She turned back to Stiles.

“Did you wait here for me?”

“Yeah,” he answered immediately.

His eyes were big and sincere. He had really waited just for the chance to talk to her.

“Okay,” Lydia decided.

“Okay?”

“We can go for a walk,” she clarified.

“Oh, right,” Stiles said. “Or I mean, like, we could just stand outside, because it’s late, and dark, and - ”

He caught her raised eyebrows.

“Right,” he repeated. Then he held his hand out for her to take.

So here they were, standing just outside the McCall’s backdoor.

“I didn’t want to give that many details,” Stiles started as soon as the door shut. “The producers made me because it would gain more attention.”

“What made you think going on national TV was a good idea in the first place?”

Stiles rubbed the back of his neck, which, as usual, inadvertently showed off his arm, even in the red hoodie he was wearing. Lydia swallowed and tried not to be distracted.

“Yeah, not my best of plans,” he admitted sheepishly. “You don’t even look like you watch talk shows, now that I think about it.”

“I don’t, it was playing in the gym,” Lydia told him. “So, did anyone respond to the link?”

Stiles chuckled. “Yeah, there were a couple of people who asked me out. Most of it was just my classmates making fun the whole thing, though.”

He paused, then, “Just out of curiosity, do you remember the last thing I said to you?”

I like you. A lot. I wish I could stay. I’m really sorry about this.

She could hear his words in her head, clear as day.

“You said you were sorry,” she answered. “And you asked me to call you.”

“Would you have?” he asked. “If I had actually given you my number. Would you have called me?”

His was fiddling with his fingers again, eyes darting between his shoes and her face.

Would she have? Moving on after that night had been easy because calling had not been a legitimate option, but what if it had been?

Lydia thought about how she had put off the link until it had closed.

She settled on an answer.

“I don’t know,” she began. “But, if you give it to me now, I will call you tomorrow.”

Stiles blinked at her, mouth hanging open. Then he fixed his face in a smile and pulled his phone out. Lydia did the same.

“Actually,” he started, once their numbers had been entered into each other’s phones. “Do you want to go on a date tomorrow? With me?”

Lydia didn’t have to think. She knew Allison wanted to spend time with Scott anyway.

“Yes, I’d like that.”

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Stiles slept in (Lydia shouldn’t have been surprised), so they met up after lunch, with Stiles picking her up from Scott’s in his jeep, which was indeed blue and very old. He drove her around for a “pre-date”, as he called it, pointing out different places in town.

When they finally pulled into the carpark behind an ice-skating rink, Lydia decided Stiles must have consulted Allison.

“I talked to Allison,” Stiles said, confirming her thoughts. “And she told me you used to skate but had to stop when your local skating rink shut down, so I thought, we could come here and you can show me all the skills you remember.”

Prepare to have your mind blown, Lydia thought. I remember a lot.

A signboard outside the rink said it was closed for the day. When Lydia rapped her fingers against the posterboard, Stiles simply shot her a wicked grin.

“I might have pulled a few strings.”

They sat side-by-side on a bench, lacing up their skates. Stiles offered her a bright orange jacket when she commented on the cold temperature, but Lydia turned it down.

“I’m wearing blue,” she said, primly. “Orange and blue? Not a good combination.”

“But it’s the colors of the Mets!” Stiles insisted.

Lydia recalled the baseball cap he had worn on TV. Now that she thought about it, the underside of the bill had been the same bright orange as his jacket.

She guessed Star Wars was not the only thing Stiles was passionate about.

Lydia shook her head and stood. “Are we skating or what?”

They did a few warm-up laps around the rink together. Stiles flailed a lot at the beginning, but surprisingly stayed on his feet throughout. By the third lap, he was perfectly balanced.

Lydia pulled ahead of him as they began the fifth round and whizzed past Stiles twice before she decided it was time to try some of her old tricks. She skated into the middle of the rink and wide arcs. Then she made her circles smaller and smaller until finally she was doing spins.

She had to admit, she missed this. She missed the feeling of gliding across the ice, arms outstretched like a dancer. She missed the way the cold air would whip around her face. She missed the stretch in her muscles as she performed various tricks.

She giggled happily as she completed a fast set of pirouettes, exiting the spin perfectly. When she looked up, she spotted Stiles standing across the rink, jaw dropped.

She skated up to him and took his hand. Stiles continued gaping at her, awe written all over his face. Lydia’s smile grew wider.

“Well?” she said, when he continued gaping at her. “Come on.”

She moved to skate a few more laps, pulling Stiles after her.

It must have been hours before they headed back into the bleachers and removed their skates. Stiles offered her a two-pack of Reese cups when they clambered back into the jeep. Lydia was going back to Scott’s for dinner with him and Allison, while Stiles was bringing his father dinner at work.

He walked her to the porch when they arrived at Scott’s. Lydia noticed he had been looking at the ground as they made their way up, and figured he was nervous again.

She placed a hand on his shoulder. “What is it?”

Stiles lifted his eyes to meet hers.

“This is my last night back before I leave,” he explained sadly. “I have an attachment at LAPD for winter intersession.”

“Oh,” Lydia said. But also - “That’s great though, isn’t it?”

“I just don’t want you to think I’m leaving again,” he confessed.

There was a fuzzy feeling in her chest. Perhaps it was her heart melting.

Lydia took his head in her hands.

“Stiles,” she assured him. “I like you. A lot. You’re funny, and sweet, and pretty smart.”

Stiles laughed through his nose. “Thanks. That means a lot, coming from you, Miss Future Fields Medal.”

Lydia shook her head, flustered by the casual compliment. “What I mean is, we’re both smart, so I think, between us, we can figure something out.”

Stiles’ face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Really?”

Lydia nodded, a small smile playing on her lips. “As long as you don’t do anything ridiculous like going on TV.”

Stiles stepped back and ran a hand through his hair. “I am never living that down, am I?”

Lydia was full on grinning now. Her grin grew wider and wider as Stiles playfully asked her to “stop, Stop it! Stop looking at me like that!” until it was almost splitting her face.

“Also,” Lydia added. “Allison’s spring term starts earlier than mine, so, if you wanted, I could go to LA for a while…”

“Really? You’d do that for me?”

Lydia took his hands in hers. “I still owe you one, remember?”

Stiles adjusted his hands, tangling their fingers together. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

Lydia began to answer, of course, but then the buzzing of a phone distracted them.

Stiles pulled one of his hands away to retrieve the offending device from his back pocket.

“I can’t believe this is happening again,” he muttered, and shot Lydia an apologetic glance before bringing the phone to his ear.

“Hey dad! Yes, I know. I’m on my way. No, the jeep did not break down once today. Yes, I’m still with - no! Dad, no, oh my god - well, that was…yeah, I don’t really have anything to say about that…”

He looked up at Lydia as his voice trailed off, and Lydia had a feeling the sheriff had figured out she was ‘the one’.

“…mhm, yes, yes, and yes, you know it’s for your own good. I’ll see you soon, dad. Love you.”

Stiles ended the call with his father and turned back to Lydia.

“I should go,” he sighed. Lydia only nodded in understanding.

“Scott’s coming to send me off tomorrow,” Stiles continued. “You could come along - if you and Allison don’t have any plans. I mean, I can’t guarantee you’ll get to spend a lot of time with me because Scott and I will be hugging each other a lot, so…”

Lydia chuckled. She had seen the previous night how Scott and Stiles could not keep their hands off each other when they talked. They were always patting each other on the shoulder or the back. It wasn’t a stretch to imagine the two locked in an endless bear hug.

“I’ll be there,” she told him, reaching for his hand again. Stiles obliged.

He squeezed her hand once. “Well, goodnight, Lydia.”

He had taken two steps towards his jeep when he suddenly spun around. Lydia just managed to catch the mischievous glint in his eye before Stiles had lunged forward and planted a quick kiss at the corner of her lips, a soft mwah! escaping from his.

He was grinning when he pulled back.

“Goodnight!” he repeated as he backed away from the porch.

Lydia was too stunned to answer. She let out a little gasp of breath. Her fingers came to rest lightly on her lips.

When she came to her senses, Stiles was climbing into his jeep.

He waved when he saw that she was still looking at him, then made a phone sign with his hand, bringing it to his ear.

He winked. Call me.

This time, she knew she would.

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