#No clue if it's with permission of the company that owns the plot and wants to build like 7 houses there

[degenezijde]

Me looking over the fence where the empty farm is to be confronted with more horse

#Our neighbour on the other side has made what is essentially a tunnel to this property #No clue if it's with permission of the company that owns the plot and wants to build like 7 houses there #Casa koniphile

[vynegar]

lost in translation (ch 11, part 1) + some misc observations

a (non-exhaustive) list of differences i noted down for the translation of chapter 11 (part 1) while watching the chn and eng versions side-by-side. previously i did the same thing for chapter 9 and chapter 10. this also includes random comments and observations i had during this chapter.

disclaimer: i am not fluent in chinese, so keep in mind that there will be mistakes. feel free to let me know if you have questions, concerns, or comments. any alternate translations are my own, and are often especially literal (to show the difference between eng/chn).

Overall: Still nothing I’d consider egregious (ruinous to plot or character). Some omission of noncritical phrases in Chinese, like before. One thing I noticed more of is that the phrasing in English sometimes makes a line ambiguous or confusing, while the intention of the sentence in Chinese was much clearer. I have a few examples of these below; usually you can understand it using context clues, but I’m curious to know if other people noticed the issues when just reading in English. There were also some word choices that just felt a little… awkward? (It’s not here, but a few times when the word “grunt” was used…)

11-01

This may be a reference to Jerome's "preoccupation" with his age, like when he wanted to be called an older brother rather than an uncle (see my prev chapter translation comparisons). However, on second thought, this entire thing of his may be another nod to the idea of the pursuit of eternal youth and longevity? But honestly this is just a thought that crossed my mind, I don't really think that's the intention of the writers.

Based on the Chinese, it seems like Reina is older and Matthew is the younger brother.

The English could be interpreted as a hypothetical question, while the Chinese has Matthew directly saying that Vyn is unwanted. (Upon rereading, this is very minor and I would have left this entry out, but I already had the screenshot so I'll just put it here anyway.)

The Underling refers to Matthew using the suffix for people like presidents of companies (as he is a businessman). (Nothing wrong with the translation here, just again pointing out extra info that can be gleaned from the Chinese text.)

11-02

Marius refers to Matthew also with the same suffix.

This section also contains some references to Marius's previous stories:

Vyn was threatened with being locked dark space, which echoes one of Marius's childhood experiences (mentioned in his "In the Darkness" SSR and his blossom personal story, chapter 4)

Marius still can't hold his liquor, which we first saw in "Fabulous Feast" SSR

Ideally, this fear can extend into another thing --

"Of your own accord" gives the feeling of doing something of your own initiative, and voluntarily. The word used in the original text also implies that the thing was done secretly and/or without permission.

11-06

That last sentence felt like a mild warning, in which I could hear several inexplicably complicated emotions.

So the "complicated emotions" are on Vyn's side, not on Rosa's.

11-08

Rosa paints a very specific simile here but I'm honestly not quite sure what it's supposed to imply or if it's referencing something so I'm just going to put this here for reference. The literal translation says it's as if Marius "has hung a ring of keys at his waist and then forcibly drank 5 kg of puer tea".

11-09

[...] Even from the other end of the call, you can feel the embarrassment quietly spreading.

Not necessarily wrong, but the English sentence could almost be interpreted as the embarrassment is spreading throughout the phone, which doesn’t make sense and could cause a moment of confusion.

11-11

Dr. Richter, you haven’t chosen to believe anyone either, have you?

Note that in Chinese it’s not specified that Rosa is referring to “them” (the suspects in the case). It could usually be interpreted that way from context, but using “anyone” preserves ambiguity in Vyn’s response (i.e. it’s possible that Rosa or NXX are included in those that Vyn says he doesn’t trust).

(Sidenote: The beginning of the chapter emphasized the role of surveillance on NXX’s current actions. Therefore, Vyn might not trust anyone, or he might simply be saying what he wants other people to believe. It’s interesting to note that Marius, on the other hand, openly told Vincent in 11-08 that Rosa is the only one he trusts. Which, again, is likely influenced by the possibility of surveillance.)

11-13

After all, there is no way to detect psychological damage. Sometimes the parties involved are themselves not even aware of it.

11-15

By the time your mind has caught up with the situation, you had already placed yourself in his way without a moment’s hesitation.

I probably made more changes than necessary or literal, but it was to convey the feeling more. Then again, this may be one of those lines that seem fine to other people and I'm just stuck on my own knee-jerk impression of the English translation.

I think the English tries to convey "不暇思索地" with the phrase "you find yourself". However, this combined with the opening clause gave the impression that Rosa got caught up in the flurry of confusion, then just happened to find herself standing between Vyn and Darius. In Chinese, "不暇思索地" means something like “without thinking, without hesitation, without a second thought”. It adds a sense of instinctive protectiveness to Rosa’s action, which comes across in later lines of the English translation but I felt was lost in this line. This line was one of the most character-relevant issues I noticed in this chapter.

He looks over at you with rather undisguised astonishment.

11-16

Afterwards, he leaves them with a half-true threat.

Adds a little more playfulness to how he's threatening them with a lawsuit from Rosa.

If she were truly just a perpetrator, they [people online] would have pixelated the photos to prevent anyone from coming after her.

Subject issue, since it wasn’t explicitly stated in the sentence and it’s implied from the previous line.

11-20

Yeah, but I don’t want to answer that directly to your face just yet.

Probably nitpicky and most likely doesn't matter, but I’m going to point out the details since this seems like a foreshadow-y line.

Then he releases his foot and smiles seemingly gently at the young man.

Most of the time the “seemingly” can be (and is) left out in translation, but I think it’s better to keep it here since Vyn probably isn’t actually being gentle.

11-21

Look man, we didn’t do anything. We’re not gonna go asking for trouble.

Contributes to the idea that Luke’s best course of action is just not getting involved this whole incident and continuing with his work.

…No, even names that haven’t been carefully considered can bear meaning.

Thoughtful = “having a lot of thought put into it” would be fine here, but I feel that the more colloquial interpretation of thoughtful (“kind, compassionate”) would be strange since giving Albie a name is itself said to be a kind action. In Chinese, the word used specifically means carefully considering, deliberating, etc.

...you never directed your thoughts toward that direction.

Actually, I don’t think this would be considered an error in translation. I think the metaphorical phrasing is just almost opposite between eng and chn so it stood out to me. In chn it's more like thinking further in that direction; in eng, it’s more like finding a new position to position yourself, then view the situation and do your thinking from that angle.

I also have an analysis post about Albie's name which also involves comparison across eng/chn! Anyway, thanks for reading this far and feel free to let me know your thoughts ^^

#tears of themis #vyn richter #marius von hagen #tot vyn #tot marius #mo yi #lu jinghe #tears of themis analysis #tot translation #thoughts of themis #hmm i was gonna consider scheduling for the morning but fuck it. i'm posting

[pollyssecretlibrary]

“In the Eyes of the Earl”, by Kristin Vayden

I read this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review

Cambridge Brotherhood, Book 3

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It’s not her beauty but her intellect what makes her stand out. That’s what Collin Morgan, Earl Penderdale and hero of the story, thinks on meeting Elizabeth Essex. She is the daughter of his mentor, the celebrated Professor Essex at Cambridge University. The earl is involved in the investigation of a mystery concerning his own name (someone is using it under false pretenses for nefarious affairs) and all the clues he has leads him to the town. On paying a visit to his old professor, he is introduced to Elizabeth, a young woman who helps her father in his researches and papers on the condition that she can’t stand out, since the place was forbidden for women in the Regency era (Women were allowed there in the latest Victorian decade, early 20th century). But her quick wit, her knowledge, her confidence makes her someone unique and that’s why Collin seeks her company. No other woman, save for his own sister, has ever bantered with him like that and he is intrigued by her. But there’s more to our heroine than meets the eye. By day she navigates the libraries and colleges of Cambridge trying to make herself invisible and learning as much as she can, by night she teaches other women who want to expand their intellectual horizons beyond what governesses, nannies and tutors are allowed to go.

This romance is so unlike many others I’ve read before, it’s refreshing. It’s a slow burn in the narration though short in time, but what I found quite interesting about Elizabeth’s and Collin’s dynamics is that their path is a proper one historically speaking. They have moments where they are alone before they ever acknowledge their attractions even to themselves, but those are moments of conversation or rather verbal fights, there’s no bad blood between them, just challenging words and funny comments. However they don’t have any kind of romantic behavior until after Collin properly asks permission to court Elizabeth; in contemporary terms, they meet and become acquaintances and only then they start dating. I haven’t read many books with courtship in them, or at least the courtship only happened after a few kisses or sometimes after the deal is no longer reversible (you know what I mean), so this book is really about two very smart, very intelligent people and their romance. And the romance is in the details, the reason why they slowly, but surely, and of course unexpectedly they fall in love is in the details. And it all starts with a confusion for both of them. This book got me thinking on why I love reading romance and why I love historicals the most. This genre, writers like @vaydenkristin, remind me that there’s still beauty in the stories, in the characters and the plot. That the goal to achieve is the happily ever after, the love. And that’s so much more enjoyable when it is deserved, not when it’s granted. If you know, you know.

#Kristin Vayden #Book review #review #Historical romance #Regency romance #Bluestocking heroine #Battle of wits

[batsandbugs]

The Great IKEA Game

Chapter 11: Playing the Game

AN: I hope y'all enjoy this non-stop flirt-a-thon, chapter count got increased again, so we'll get back to the plot in the next chapter!

At first, Marinette didn’t know how to act. This was the last route she expected Damian to take. The shock of Damian’s lips against hers turned her body rigid; hands splayed out to the sides, unsure of where to touch. After a second of floundering, she gained enough bearing to place her hands firmly on Damian’s arms. Her once still lips hesitantly moving against his. The closed-mouth kiss stayed chaste, but Marinette found herself fluttering her eyes closed, sinking into the warmth.

Damian stood taller than her, bending into the kiss while she craned her neck. Marinette pushed herself upward, arching onto the tips of her toes, and Damian’s hands wrapped tighter around her waist, deepening the kiss. She readjusted her mouth for a second grabbing a quick gasp of air before diving in again with more fervor. Damian responded in kind, pushing her back fully against the wall, one hand migrating from her waist to cup her cheek.

Damn. Damian was a good kisser.

“What the- Hey, customers are not allowed to be in here!”

Oh, right. The employee. That’s why they were kissing.

Why would kissing be helpful in this situation?

Not that Marinette was complaining, but-

Damian pulled away from her, and Marinette held back a pitiful whine when he turned away and faced the employee.

‘Bad thoughts, Marinette,’ she chided herself. ‘Focus on the mission, not Damian, or his lips, or his eyes, or-’

“Oh, sorry ‘bout that,” said Damian with a bashful smile.

Wait…

Blink.

What?

Marinette dragged herself out of the kiss-induced bliss, focusing on her co-conspirator, and had she been less in control of herself her jaw would have dropped.

Damian’s whole demeanor had markedly changed. His normal sharp posture sunk into a causal slouch; the emotions on his face, generally a mix of sharp observation or practiced disdain, now a mix of charming elegance and, yes, bashfulness. He flashed a wide grin at the oncoming employee, a person in their early twenties, who froze when they saw them.

Or rather, Damian.

Rapidly blinking bright blue eyes gazed at them. “Oh, oh you- you’re-”

“Yeah, yeah, we all know who I am,” said Damian, rubbing the back of his neck. Even the way he spoke changed; careful pronunciation and formality thrown out the window for a lax New Jersian drawl. “What’s your name?” He asked with such a genuine smile, had Marinette not been versed in people lying through their teeth, she would have bought it.

Not for the first time, Marinette wondered how famous Damian’s family was – obviously rich enough, and high profile enough - to be recognized on the spot.

The person paused for a moment, fiddling with a strand of curly blond hair. “I’m- I’m ah… Fey, nice to meet you Mr.-”

Damian cut them off with a laugh. “Oh please, any name with a mister makes me think of my father or my older brother. Call me Dami.” He offered a hand to the flustered Fey. They limply shook it.

“Oh… ah- alright Dami.”

Damian encircled a hand around Marinette’s waist dragging her out of the weirdness induced fugue state she’d fallen into. “And this… well,” he lowered his eyes, catching her attention and winked. “This is my girlfriend Marinette.”

Fuck, this is what he meant by play along.

Fey dropped open their mouth before closing it quickly.

“Oh, I hadn’t read-”

Damian cut the flustered employee off again.

“We’ve kept it quiet.” He waved his hand dismissively. “The papers would devour a story like this,” he said, with a sense of vapid annoyance, although a trace of his normal calculated disdain accented his words.

Note to self; Damian didn’t like the media. Good, Marinette didn’t much like the invasive vultures either.

Fey nodded along, twirling a lock of hair on their finger. “Oh yeah, that totally makes sense.” They paused shaking their head to clear away an emotion… awe? Fear? Marinette couldn’t tell. “But uh, why are you here? Like in the stairwell, not in the store. Because of course celebrities would still shop, right? I mean-” Poor Fey was a stuttering mess. Marinette almost felt bad for them.

She felt like an absolute stuttering mess too, but she would be damned if Damian would carry this lie all by himself.

She was fucking Ladybug; savior of Paris, Guardian of the Miraculous.

She could act like a lovestruck fool.

“It iz so sweet,” she said, emphasizing her accent to add a little more pageantry to this entire scheme. “I just arrived back from Paris, and wanted to decorate my new apartment with ze ah-” she waved her hands around, “Oh, how you Americans put it? Fairy lights?”

Fey nodded quickly. “Yeah, we have a couple of good selections, but-” Marinette continued before they could logic their way out of the made-up cover story.

“I planned to go by myself, but Dami-” at this she moved forward to wrap her arms around his, leaning into his side. The warmth of his body bleeding through his clothes. “He insisted on ‘companying me even though he dozen’t like ze crowds.” She leaned forward with a conspiratorial air. “He gets grumpy,” she divulged with a girlish giggle. Why Damian did a 180 on his personality was a complete mystery, but if he dropped the act, this would make Fey less suspicious.

Fey nodded right along like Marinette’s comment made total sense. “Yeah, I don’t read too many magazines, but damn they must pin you all wrong,” they said to Damian. From Marinette’s position at his side, she felt his body tense the slightest amount. “Gotham’s Ice Prince, yeah right.”

Marinette inwardly quirked an eyebrow. ‘Ice Prince, huh?’ The name sounded familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on where she’d heard it before.

Damian nervously chuckled again, sounding more authentic this time. “Oh no, I’m a grump when it comes to the media, I fully admit. My, ah,” he looked at her again, an apology flashing in his green eyes. “Angel here puts me in a better mood.”

A rushing noise filled Marinette’s ears, and her heart quickened. She vaguely registered a squeal of delight coming from Fey, but it sounded far away compared to her blood pounding at a thunderous level. Heat flushed in her cheeks, and the confident smile she plastered on her face almost dropped at the pet name.

Angel.

He called her angel.

What level of utter insanity had she dropped into?

“A few disguises later,” Damian continued, adjusting the glasses on his face, and oblivious of the turmoil he’d created in Marinette’s mind. “I thought we’d be able to stay under the radar, I just wanted a day out with my girlfriend,” he said with a put-upon sigh. The emotional, charming actions stood in complete opposite to Damian’s normal demeanor.

Marinette found herself desperately torn between breaking down laughing hysterically or clapping at Damian’s masterful performance.

“You got noticed?” asked Fey.

“We got noticed.” Damian sighed, rubbing a hand through his hair. Marinette regretted not touching it while she and Damian kissed; was it as fluffy as it looked? “And Marinette, the sweet angel she is, isn’t used to the whole utter insanity of… you know, dating a celebrity.” He glanced at her, teasing her with a fonder smirk than his usual. Marinette wanted to roll her eyes. Damian had no clue she knew very well the consequences of dating a celebrity.

Never mind she’d only dated Adrian a month before they broke up because his dad turned out to be a psychopathic supervillain intent on plunging the whole of France into an apocalyptic hellscape in an attempt to upset the universes’ balance, and was fully okay with killing the both of them to make it happen.

Being friends after that little debacle was the better option. For both their sanities.

‘Focus Marinette.’ She dragged her attention back to the conversation.

“We kinda ducked in here when nobody was paying attention. I want to keep this away from the media as long as possible, for my angel’s privacy.” Marinette wanted to scoff at how Damian leaned into that nickname. He certainly was laying it on thick. Marinette wouldn’t have bought the act, but that was due to her years of lying and deceiving in the name of super-heroics.

Fey, with their eager demeanor and bright blue eyes, didn’t stand a chance.

“Oh, that’s awful people wouldn’t leave you alone. I bet most celebrities would be familiar with the attention, but for you to look out for Marinette too?” They whistled. “Damn girl, he’s a keeper for sure.”

The blush gracing Marinette’s cheeks was 100% real. “Oh, well, ah, zank you. I know.”

“Well, no one will hear a word from me,” Fey promised. They fiddled with their hands and sent a shy smile at Damian. Marinette’s stomach clenched at the sight, and without her permission, her traitorous hands tightened their grip on Damian’s arm. “Without your family’s scholarship, my sister never would have graduated med school. She would kill me if I even thought of ratting you out to the papers.”

“Oh…” said Damian, his outward appearance of shock mirroring Marinette’s own internal emotions.

‘His family is rich enough to fund medical scholarships?’

“Well, that’s not on me directly, you know,” he commented. “All my father’s doing. I hope- ah… I hope she’s doing well?” Although his face portrayed a bashful and relaxed air, his body language screamed uncomfortableness. Marinette released one hand from his arm and brought it to rest on the small of his back, circling her thumb around. He relaxed, slightly, and Marinette smiled.

“Yeah, actually she is,” said Fey beaming. “She’s working at the new pediatric clinic that opened in Crime Alley.”

“Good for her,” said Damian honestly. “We need more people willing to work to make the city a better place. Money can only do so much.”

“Money definitely helps though,” Fey replied, wryly. Marinette agreed. Long-buried memories of her early years arose. Living above her parents’ shop, where every month they spread their bills across the kitchen table and talked in hushed tones while Marinette sat on the steps to her attic room and worried, even if at five and six she didn’t know what she was worried about.

Those days were long gone. Her parents and their creations internationally famous, with three separate locations across the greater Paris metro alone. But that worry never really went away.

Fey shifted on their feet reading their watch. “Well, you guys stay here if you want until whatever crowd out there loses interest.” They gestured to the door Marinette and Damian entered through. “Or you can come with me if you want?” Pointing to the other locked door. “I’m heading out to the atrium to deal with a problem, but you can continue on with your shopping.”

“Zank you so much,” Marinette replied. “We will go with you if you do not mind?”

“Of course not,” said Fey, walking to the door and pulling out a security key. They opened the door, but Damian held it allowing Marinette and Fey to walk through before he followed. Placing a hand once more around Marinette’s waist.

“What problem in the atrium, if you don’t mind me asking?” he prodded, sharing a look with Marinette.

It could be nothing, but it could also have something to do with his brothers.

Considering their luck today, Marinette would be shocked if it wasn’t the latter option.

“Oh, well it started with the children’s center shutting down. Apparently, the kids got it in their minds to start a dodge ball fight with the workers. Which, you know, totally fair,” confided Fey, as they walked through the back corridors. “Sounded like it was a blast to watch. I was such a shit when I was a kid, I would have joined them in a heartbeat. It wrapped up fairly quickly, but they can’t convince the main instigator to descend from the jungle gym. I think they’re still hunting down her parents.”

Marinette pursed her lips trying to hold back a smile. ‘Oh, Abby,’ she thought, ‘you absolute gem.’

“I only heard about it from Lisa when I got back because I was dealing with a security issue in the back lot.” Fey glanced at them nervously. “Not that there’s anything wrong, we’re perfectly safe.”

Marinette and Damian shared a look.

Jason.

“Of course,” said Marinette.

Followed by a quick, “Absolutely,” from Damian.

Fey relaxed. “So this is, apparently, a whole bunch of workers on strike? They walked out of the back warehouse and congregated in the atrium, spouting on about living wages and corrupt big business, and the effects of verbal abuse in the workplace.” Fey said with a wave of their arms. “And it’s not like I don’t agree, because I do. Jerry, the warehouse general manager, is an asshole.” Marinette and Damian exchange worried glances at the rotund angry man’s name, who they last saw dragging a singed Tim into an office.

“…but it makes my job hard,” whined Fey, oblivious to their compatriot’s inner panic. “And the Starbucks baristas joined them, so their kiosk closed too.” Fey chuckled, “I would avoid the whole area if I were you, especially if you don’t want anyone finding out you’re together.”

“I wonder how zat ended up happening?” Marinette asked hopefully her high-pitched voice conveyed confusion instead of slowly settling in panic.

“They called in saying some guy lead the charge, he’s worked the crowd into a fervor. I’m there to be the HR rep while security tries to remove him. You know, normally my job involves sitting at a desk all day listening to bitchy customers on the phone. I’ve dealt with more in-store problems today since last Black Friday.” Fey chuckled. “What a day, ya’ know?”

Marinette glanced at Damian, his casual mask still firmly in place, although his left eye twitched, and the hand he wrapped around her waist, tightened at Fey’s words.

Fey finally reached another door, pulling out their pass and lead them out into the store’s main section.

“Well, it was nice to meet you Marinette, Dami,” Fey chirped. “Nobody will hear from me about any of this.” They mimed zipping their lips.

Marinette smiled, hoping the strain wasn’t too noticeable. “It waz nice to meet you too Fey.”

“Good luck with whatever is happening in the atrium,” said Damian. They stood at the door and watched them move out of sight. When Fey finally disappeared around a corner, Damian turned to Marinette his casual persona rippling away as if it never existed at all. His hand slipped off her waist.

She did not, absolutely not, want to grab it and put it back thank you very much.

“How much do you wish to wager on Drake’s involvement in whatever is occurring in the atrium?” he asked. Marinette smiled, reassured at the return of his clipped and formal tone. The informal speech felt wrong coming from Damian’s mouth.

“Oh, I don’t know Dami?” she teased. Then again, she couldn’t let this opportunity pass by her. “I don’t think I have enough money for that bet with you.”

Damian closed his eyes with a grimace and sigh. “Do not call me that.” He opened his eyes, an expression just short of pleading radiated from them “Please.”

“I would rather gag, and it sounds so would you.” Marinette covered her grin with her hand, unable to stop a slight giggle at the man’s long-suffering tone. “You pulled off vapid lovesick celebrity well, but why the need to act at all?”

“I have plenty of reference to draw from,” he grumbled, piquing Marinette’s interest; every half aside comment enticing her to dig further at Damian’s life. “I needed whoever descended those steps on our side and my normal... demeanor tends to put people off.” He folded his hands behind his back, a perfect picture of casualness, but the tightness around his eyes and the twitch of his mouth was all Marinette needed to note his self-consciousness.

“Well, I for one find your usual self charming,” Marinette admitted, pleased when Damian relaxed at her words. “You freaked me out acting that weird.”

“It is not an option I use often,” Damian admitted. “My brothers tend to make big productions of themselves. I prefer a far subtler approach, but this required more theatrics to make it believable.” He glanced at her. “I hope…” he paused. She watched his hand flutter and turn into a fist at his side. “I hope I did not overstep your bounds, that is, I mean violate your...” Damian refused to look at her, his gaze firmly planted on a far wall.

Marinette could let the poor man continue but ended up taking pity on him before he dug an even deeper hole. She placed a hand on his arm. “You were fine. If I didn’t want you… kissing me,” she said the words out loud for the first time, reigning in a pleasurable shudder at the memory. “I would have pushed you off, and if I felt violated, which I didn’t, you would have found yourself on the ground in plenty of pain.”

Damian dragged his gaze back to hers, a small smirk twitching at the corner of his lips. “Undoubtedly, yes, you easily could have done so.”

Marinette smirked again, not willing to let the entire debacle slip away quite yet though. “Although I have to ask, where in the world did angel come from? And what on earth made you think it would be a good nickname for our fake relationship?”

Damian lifted his nose haughtily. “It is a perfectly acceptable name of affection for a significant other. What, did you wish for ‘sweetheart’ or ‘doll’?” he asked, drawing out those names with the earlier casual New Jersian accent. Marinette withheld a shiver at his low tone of voice curling those words around his tongue. She may prefer his normal speech, but damn he still sounded unbearably attractive when he dropped that low.

‘Focus, Marinette. FOCUS!’ she inwardly screamed at herself.

“Goodness no,” said Marinette, forcing a pretend shudder. “Something with more class perhaps? Darling, or beloved?”

Damian pursed his lips. “Not beloved. That’s what my mother refers to my father with.” Marinette winced, yeah, that could be awkward. Not that this whole conversation wasn’t a disaster plucked out of a fever dream. Why, why was she debating Damian on the finer points of affectionate nickname giving?

But her mouth continued talking. “Alright, I suppose angel isn’t bad in comparison. Still, it’s a bit cliché. What does that make you? A demon?”

Damian tilted his head with a shrug. “Tt. My brothers do call me that on occasion, yes.” Oh right, Jason called him demon-spawn a few times during their confrontation. With the way Damian rolled his eyes in annoyance, Marinette figured a story lurked behind that particular nickname.

“Regardless, we have strayed dangerously off-topic here. We should head towards the pandemonium in the atrium, yes?” Damian pushed off the wall he’d leaned against, and Marinette followed.

“I thought it was Panic at the Disco?” Marinette teased with a grin.

Damian pointed a finger at her, trying for a stern expression, but the glint in his eyes betrayed his amusement. “You think yourself terribly clever, don’t you?”

“I think I’m adorable,” she shot back. “But I also think you’re right. It sounds like Tim managed to involve himself. If he’s making a scene, I bet he’ll draw the rest of your brothers there too.”

“You think Grayson will escape the clutches of that ravenous she-wolf?”

Marinette scoffed. “Damian, you’ll insult wolves with that comparison. I thought she resembled more of a hyena myself.” The woman certainly shrieked enough for it. “From what I saw, your brother probably ducked out at the first opportunity available to him.”

“True. Which leaves Todd, and nothing attracts his attention more than a spectacle. Especially when Drake stands chance to make a fool of himself.” Turning a corner they found themselves several yards away from the open-aired atrium. A crowd of people lingered around the railing looking into the courtyard below. Clapping and cheers fill the air.

“Shall we?” asked Marinette, excitement brewing in her chest.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” grumbled Damian. “But I suppose we must.”

Tag List (or you can subscribe and read it here on ao3)

@multplelifes @bluesimani @justhugefangirl @nik-nak-3 @redscarlet95 @purplesundaze @incredulous-reader @k-poplunardreams @our-preciousss @blackmagicforever @vgirl-10123 @lozzybowe @wannajointhecrabcult @dast218 @chaotic-mess-of-a-life @fidget-eep @kawaiigiantjudgefish @queenmj10 @tumbling-down-hills-and-stuff @crazylittlemunchkin @fandom-writer642 @nach0ava @ladybug-182 @sam-i-am-0222 @spyofthenightcourt @how-to-fuction-properly @emotionalsupportginger @dreamykitty25 @tomanyfandomsonmy-mind @mystery-5-5 @theatreandcomicfreak @weird-pale-blonde-person @whatthechickenfriedfuck @myazael @pawsitivelymiraculous @urbanpineapplefarmer @karategirl119 @consumeconstantly @hauntedstudent99 @ertyzeta @thornalchemist23 @iloveitwhen @animegirlweeb @byronsacademics @i-wanna-be-a-ninja @moonlitjiminie @iglowinggemma28 @constancetruggle @catgirlkittypryde @waffelyunsure @maskedpainter @lilkymilky @unhappyraspberry @avengerthewarrior @quotesandanime @tbehartoo @clumsy-owl-4178 @g-arya @chocolateherringtacofan @jalaluvsu @crazyrandomrebel @fatimaabbasrizvi @thenillabean @goblinwhoships @bluefyoto94 @nerinalith @loopingtangent @demonicbusiness @hecate-hallow @themcclan @tropestropestropes @paintedhope7 @whitetiger1249 @glitchon @vulpixmina @kitkat81804 @kissa-chan @beautiful-disasters-sunshine @sh31bin0 @ichigorose @strawberry-lemonade @loveswifi​ @theunquiet-dead @dood-space​ @kitkat81804​ @queencommonsense​ @vgirl-10123​ @ihavehomeworkbutistillhere​ @karukofox21

#the great ikea game #daminette #damian x marinette #marinette dupain cheng x damian wayne #maribat #damimari #mlb crossover #ml x dc #damianette #damian wayne x marinette dupain cheng

[becomewings]

BTS Universe Timeline

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INTRODUCTION

The goal of this guide is to chronologically map the major plot points of BTS Universe (BU), a fictional transmedia narrative centered on the lives of seven young men who share names with the members portraying them. The complexity of the timeline is magnified by the time loops that begin and reset on 11 April Year 22, so careful attention will be given to tracing how the loops diverge from one another after that date. The guide will be published over multiple posts.

Most of the information in the timeline is drawn from the official English-version publications of The Notes: The Most Beautiful Moment in Life 1 and The Notes: The Most Beautiful Moment in Life 2 (hereafter shortened to Notes 1 and Notes 2). Other resources are referenced as necessary, including the Notes released with certain physical albums, the Save Me webtoon, the official BU content in the BTS Universe Story mobile game, and BU music videos/short films. Summaries from the album Notes are based on translations by twitter user @/origamifirefly. Character names are abbreviated in parentheses next to the print sources to indicate the perspective from which the original entries are written.

Dates are presented as they appear in the texts. The single or double-digit year number most likely corresponds with SeokJin’s age rather than a calendar year. (In Korea’s age-calculating system, everyone’s age increases by one year on January 1st regardless of when their birthday falls in the calendar.) There are enough clues scattered throughout the text to suggest that the characters’ ages reflect the real-life age differences of the members. For example, JungKook is five years younger than SeokJin; they overlap in high school because SeokJin is held back a grade after returning from the American school system. Ages that are explicitly stated in official sources will be included in the timeline whenever possible.

BTS Universe deals with many difficult and potentially triggering themes, so please read the content warning in the Timeline Guide before proceeding. The Guide section will be included on all future posts for quick reference.

TIMELINE GUIDE

Content warning: contains references to death, suicide, suicidal ideation, child abuse, domestic violence, blood, homicide, depression, trauma, PTSD

This guide contains major spoilers from all BU media

Revisions and additions will be made as necessary, so please visit the original post for the most up-to-date version (update log is included at bottom of post)

All names are provided as fully as known

Bracketed dates are inferred or calculated from references in the text

While the timeline is presented here as objectively as possible, I acknowledge that there is a level of subjectivity in choosing which information is significant enough for inclusion and in certain connections drawn between entries

Please inform me of any suspected errors; I will investigate and correct them

Do not repost, copy, or quote without permission

Shadows of Our Childhoods

     - Beginning through Year 18 -

[Year 9]

Jung HoSeok (age 7) is abandoned by his mother at an amusement park and moves into an orphanage. His age is referenced in his 31 May Year 22 entry from Notes: Her.

The earliest entry of the Notes published so far is HoSeok’s 30 August Year 9 (Notes: 7). Some older boys wake him up at night, and he reluctantly sneaks up to the rooftop with them. Fireworks explode in the sky. HoSeok is shocked at first and then entranced. The older boys tease him for crying, but he can’t stop the tears.

Note: It’s reasonable to assume that this unidentified rooftop location is the orphanage HoSeok grows up in. Therefore, his mother left him sometime before 30 August—possibly that summer, due to his unexplained tears. 

10 October Year 9 Notes 1 (SJ)

Kim SeokJin (age 9) runs away from school with a friend to protect him from men who want to use him as leverage to get money from his father, Mr. Choi, who disappeared after his company shut down. SeokJin tries to hide the friend in his room at home, but his father, Kim ChangJun, arrives with one of the men and allows him to take the boy away. ChangJun tells SeokJin to be a “good kid.” The friend never returns to school.

Note: SeokJin’s age is specified in BTS Universe Story: The Boy on the Threshold, ep.3.

28 February Year 10 Notes: 7 (TH)

Kim TaeHyung encounters an older boy feeding the dog that he frequently plays with outside of the supermarket. He tells the boy that when his father earns a lot of money and moves their family into a big house, he can take the dog and raise him. After TaeHyung presses him a second time, the boy reveals that his name is Kim SeokJin.

23 July Year 10 Notes 1 (HS)

While counting in front of his class, HoSeok recalls the day at the amusement park when his mother handed him a chocolate bar and told him to close his eyes and count to ten. He feels like she will never come looking for him if he finishes counting to ten, and then he collapses.

Note: His mother abandoned him at the amusement park when he was seven (Year 9).

29 December Year 10 Notes 1 (TH)

TaeHyung’s father returns home drunk and disheveled after an absence and abuses him for the first time.

6 April Year 11 Related post: The Arboretum Notes 1 (JM)

Park JiMin (age 8) visits the Grass Flower Arboretum on a school picnic day. While his classmates are all accompanied by their mothers, his own parents are too busy to make it. At the end of the trip, he ignores his teacher’s call to wait and tries to walk home alone. With only his backpack in hand, he is caught in a torrential downpour and seeks shelter in a small warehouse near the back gate. JiMin wakes up in a hospital after he is found unconscious in the arboretum with no memory of what happened. He develops seizures as a result of this unnamed trauma and is frequently hospitalized as he grows up.

Note: This day is also referenced in his entries for 11 May, 19 May, and 4 July of Year 22; the lattermost specifies his age.

Notes 2 (JM)

JiMin reflects on what really transpired at the arboretum in his 12 August Year 22 entry, which also reveals that his memory returned due to a chance encounter on 15 September Year 20. Inside the dark and cluttered warehouse, young JiMin falls asleep and is awoken by an iron door clanging shut and the sound of someone breathing. He discovers an interior room and creeps closer. A small, pale hand appears on the other side, startling him. Someone whistles outside and opens the warehouse door. He hides under a desk and watches a man enter the interior room. Through the man’s legs, JiMin can see a small boy lying on the floor with bruised arms and legs and scars on his wrists from being tied up too long. Their eyes briefly meet. JiMin senses that he is asking for help. The man turns around, and the boy stabs his thigh with a boxcutter before he notices JiMin hiding. The man disarms the boy and slams the door shut. JiMin escapes the warehouse under the cover of the violent noises within. No one is around to help. He runs through the pouring rain and mud, frequently falling and scraping his knees. He collapses at the back gate with an image of the boy’s bleeding hand in his mind. He wakes up at the hospital surrounded by his parents, a doctor, and a nurse. They question him about what happened, but JiMin does not remember.

Note: In the same 12 August Year 22 entry, JiMin explains that he conducted research online into the incident. He learned that the boy’s family name is Choi, he was five at the time, and he was discovered near Hwayong Mountain on April 10 suffering from temporary amnesia caused by shock. JiMin could not find any follow-up articles on the police investigation. Additionally, he reveals the real cause of his seizure at the bus stop on 15 September Year 20: he saw the same boy in the window of the Grass Flower Arboretum shuttle bus. “His empty eyes no longer spoke” to JiMin.

21 July Year 12 Notes 1 (SJ)

After his mother’s death, SeokJin is sent by his father to live with his maternal grandmother in the U.S. (The city is specified as Los Angeles in his 1 February Year 22 entry from Notes: 7.) His father breaks his promise to see him off at the airport.

30 September Year 12 Notes: 7 (JK)

Jeon JungKook (age 7) slips through a crowd of people surrounding a massive sinkhole, wanting to see what’s inside of it. Dirt crumbles beneath his sneaker and he almost loses his balance at the edge. When he steps back, he sees something that is both like a light and another hole inside the hole.

Note: Compare to his Notes 2 Epilogue, XX XX Year XX, when he sees a bottomless hole below and the moon (or “a big hole in the sky”) above where he floats.

[Winter Year 12] Notes 1 (JK)

JungKook (age 7) overhears his father telling his mother that the world “was too heavy for him to bear” and that “there’s nothing he can do for JungKook.” He leaves their family forever.

Note: I calculated this season/year from his 11 September Year 17 entry, in which JungKook has waited ten days to receive a birthday card from his father; he has four cards saved in a drawer. (This also matches his real-life age difference with Jin.) He reflects on his father leaving him during the winter when he was 7 years old. He believes: “I was the world that was too heavy for him to bear—that world that he gave up on. A child who can never be the reason to endure it all. That was me.”

21 May Year 15 Notes: 7 (NJ)

Kim NamJoon returns home late from playing with his friends. The house is unusually dark and empty, giving him a chilling sense of foreboding. The phone rings and he senses that if he answers it, his life will forever change.

Note: It is likely that this is one of the times, if not the first time, his father is hospitalized due to a serious illness. About a year later, in his 21 June Year 16 entry of Notes 1, NamJoon describes how he coaxed his boss to hire a middle school student to post flyers. His family struggles financially with his father’s hospital bills and their overdue utilities.

19 September Year 16 Notes 1 (YG)

Min YoonGi arrives home and finds it devoured by flames. Frozen, he thinks of his mom and watches the house collapse. A neighbor asks him if his mom is inside, and he answers “no” without thinking. YoonGi’s mother dies in the fire.

Note: Some people suspect that YoonGi’s mother set the fire deliberately. In episode 6 of the Save Me webtoon, YoonGi recalls his father warning him against pursuing music unless he wants to “go crazy and kill [himself] like [his] mom did.”

2 May Year 18 Notes: Persona (NJ)

NamJoon and his father return home from the hospital to see the family’s belongings piled outside. They were evicted after his younger brother NamHyeon got in a fight with the landlord’s son who came to collect their overdue rent. The owner of the local supermarket allows them to move into its storage room. Exhausted, NamJoon snaps when his mother frets and asks where his brother is. The supermarket owner gives him a can of beer. In a later Notes 2 entry, he reflects that he was probably 16 at the time.

Note: On 18 June Year 22 in the Notes 2 timeline, NamJoon recounts this story to SeokJin at a street pub as a preface to asking when SeokJin drank alcohol for the first time, testing his memory.

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

Update Log

Posted January 13, 2021

Linked to next part added May 5, 2021

Do not repost.

#armiesnet #networkbangtan #bangtanarmynet #armysource #dailybangtan #bts universe #hyyh #bangtan universe #bts the notes #the notes 2 #ot7 #bu timeline #bts theories #jungkook #taehyung #jimin #hoseok #namjoon #yoongi #seokjin

[valaks]

Also meta ask 20 please!

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Okay so not about writing exactly but I have quite a bit of meta when it comes to how to tag a fic properly. I played around with it for quite a while and then developed a pretty solid formula with some rules to go along with it. THESE ARE NOT THE ONLY WAY TO TAG JUST ONE THAT I’VE SEEN WORK WELL AND HELPED ME Context: I am just a boomer who came back to the fandom a decade after I posted my first fics on FFN. We didn’t have tags on FFN and I didn’t really know how to tag but after publishing more fics than I’ll admit to in polite company over the last year, I found these to be the most helpful:

Rule 1: Don’t include the genre of fic (angst, humor, hurt/comfort) this tends to make people stop reading the tags as they feel like they know what’s going to happen which is not necessarily a good thing. Warn for angst if you must but do not include it as one of the first tags. Let your writing speak on it’s own.

Rule 2: Don’t over tag unless it’s funny tags for a humor fic and even then keep them to no more than 5

Rule 3: Save your second most interesting tag for last. Most people hit the summary first and will glance up to go through the tags, the last tag is the typically the first thing that catches their eye before they sort through the relationships/character sections.

Formula:

Context: Where does it take place? (for example if it’s set in canon between certain books or in Devil) Generally the fandom assumes that it’s an AU within fandom such as YassenLives so there’s no need to specify that up front. Long story short this should only be included if it will help put the reader into the right context for the remainder of the tags/summary

Highlights 1, 3-5: What makes this fic unique? Is it a 5 and 1? Does it feature an interesting plot point, premise or setting that you think will catch reader’s attention? If so include it here.

Humor: humorous tags are a staple of the fandom everything from Ian Rider’s parenting that has been graded from A+ to C (better than Alex’s own grades) to Yassen’s varying states of parenting/mentorship with Alex. Our fandom has some funny tags and it’s okay to let those show even if it isn’t necessarily a humor fic. It allows you to show off more about your positions on where the characters will be at. Genre could matter, if you want a very serious dark fic or angst humor may not be a good idea but gallows humor is a thing too so it’s more of an individual style thing.

Highlight 2: This is the final selling point you have to get your fic picked up. If they’ve made it this far they’re looking for that one final hit that’ll convince them into it or affirm their decision to read. Things like the POV, a particularly funny pun, or even a tag that will set the mood (Example: Assassins Don’t Need a Gun to Kill Your Credibility).

A few good examples that just came out are Cthulhu is Chaotic Something’s Remedial Maths for Homicidally Inclined, BurntWhisper’s One Year, and Jump Pilot’s Far From Perfect.

But to illustrate here are some of mine because I haven’t actually asked any of the above author’s permission yet and I want this answer out today XD:

#alex rider #alex rider fanfiction #for more meta please press 1 #I really do love meta in this fandom #Everything from tags to summaries to titles and most popular characters #It’s an obsession #Help

[secret-engima]

What if the Nox Verse Dissidia nabbed an extra person for each side on accident? I mean, Noctis and Nox being two people but also one, mystically speaking, leaves an opening for a really mind breaking issue. Two-is-one-is-two, brothers-but-not, new-and-old-remade, WTH? Well, if things are going to go sideways ANYWAY, might as well make it Memorable. So it nabs Ardyn. And Regis. See? Another mindbending mix of brother-but-not and new-and-remade should even things out. Maybe. At least it's funny?

Pffft THAT WOULD BE HILARIOUS??? That would be HILARIOUS.

-Noctis and Regis are, of course, called by Materia, they are both equally confused and so very relieved to see each other in this strange place, though Noctis is freaking out a bit because DAD IF YOU’RE HERE WHO’S RULING THE KINGDOM and the Champions are very surprised to see a dad-son pair here that AREN’T on opposite sides like Tidus and his dad.

-Regis totally gives Materia a Dadly dressing down on kidnapping people from their worlds and homes without warning or permission, because some of us have kingdoms to run thank you, and the rest of the Champions just stand their being surprised and impressed that this newcomer is LECTURING Materia like she’s a wayward teenager out past curfew. They still end up agreeing to help, mostly because Materia admits she has no clue how to send them back yet.

-Regis takes control of the situation as best he can and keeps Noctis with him when they all go out searching (and is more than a little exasperated because what is, this a story book plot?) and things are going well-ish when suddenly a large red sword slams down at the feet of Regis's group and Noctis and him look up in shock and dread to see Ardyn leering down from above with Nox lounging nearby. Both of them have identical maniacal expressions on their faces and Regis feels a swoop of dread when he realizes his half-brother and eldest son are on the opposite team. He’s seen their spars with Cor. He knows what’s about to happen.

-“Ardyn....” he warns as he pulls a sword free and Noctis curses softly under his breath (and in any other circumstance he would scold his son for that kind of language but just this once...).

-Ardyn’s grin gets bigger and he sweeps his arms out theatrically, “Well, well, well. Look what we have here, Dearest Nephew! Lost, royal relatives! All alone! Without their bodyguards! On the opposite side of yet another conflict! Whatever shall we do?”

-“Ardyn,” Regis grits through his teeth as Warrior and Cecil look between the four in alarm, “do not even think about it.”

-Nox tilts his head and there is Mischief in his son’s gaze as he drawls, “I don’t know, Uncle, whatever SHALL we do?”

-Ardyn adjusts the hat on his head and hums in thought and Regis feels like groaning in exasperation because CLEARLY his half-brother is hamming it up for the unknown audience. CLEARLY. Ardyn is such a drama queen, honestly. Then Ardyn grins, “You know, Dear Nephew, this is an opportunity don’t you think? The two Scions of the Royal house, unguarded out here where no one else from our world is around to know what happens while the two of us, the forgotten, illegitimate children of our generation are also here with a perfect excuse to do battle?”

-Regis can see Warrior and Cecil putting the pieces together in all the wrong ways and sighs, “Ardyn, Nox, I swear to the Astrals-.”

-Nox just laughs and begins tossing one of his kukri up and down, “You thinking what I’m thinking, Uncle Mine?”

-“That I would look quite fetching on my half-brother’s throne? Yes, yes I am.”

-And before Regis can do more than sigh at them, the fight has started.

-Regis is proud to say he holds his own pretty well against the pure manic energy that is his half-brother and eldest son, and he and Noctis work together remarkably well for having never been in the training grounds at the same time before.

-They still lose, because Ardyn is a whirlwind of pure magic energy and Nox is a striking viper and Regis’s knee hasn’t been up for this kind of idiocy since he was twenty-one. Ardyn spots his knee giving out and calls a stop to the fight with a PAINFULLY melodramatic and cliche excuse. Regis isn’t sure what he’s more appalled at, that Ardyn actually said it with a straight face or that it was clear their new comrades BELIEVED IT hook line and sinker.

-Astrals Regis needs a drink.

-Ardyn and Nox casually saunter off and Regis has no energy to explain that no, his half-brother is not actually after the throne and ... debatably not crazy. Neither does Noctis, because poor Noctis had been targeted by Nox almost exclusively and his eldest always did seem to do things overkill.

-Needless to say, by evening, all of Materia’s Champions have heard that their two newest comrades are dealing with an evil uncle that wants to steal the throne and an embittered illegitimate son that the uncle found and has groomed as his weapon and heir against poor Regis and Noctis. Nothing the two say will convince anyone otherwise.

-When the alliance is made and both sides are tentatively ignoring each other for the sake of peace, Ardyn comes over and happily flops down next to Regis, ignoring the way the younger champions all bristle protectively over their new friend with the bad knee. Regis glares at Ardyn, who pouts, “Oh, come now, it was only a little playful attempted murder.”

-“You tried to set my hair on fire.”

-“I knew you were skilled in ice! Nothing would have happened!”

-Regis pinches the bridge of his nose, “Everyone is convinced you’re trying to stage a coup.” There is conspicuous silence and Regis eyeballs Ardyn angrily. The man gives a sheepish smile, “If it helps, I abandoned that plan after Nox came into my custody?”

-Which meant that Ardyn HAD at one point been planning a coup. Lovely. That is not a thought Regis ever needed in his life, “I’m going to pretend I never heard that. Where is my eldest anyway?”

-Ardyn gestures lazily over his shoulder, “Making friends, I do believe we’ll be having company on the way home.” And Regis looks over in dread to see his eldest happily braiding the hair of the extremely deadly, not entirely sane swordsman with long silver hair that Regis has already seen fight once and never wants to actually fight himself. Regis groans and hides his face in his hands, Ardyn pats him on the back with false sympathy, because unlike Regis, Ardyn is having the time of his life.

-“Look at it this way,” Ardyn consoles half-heartedly, “At least we are all together? And in my experience nothing makes for a better father-son or brother-brother bonding experience than facing down the end of all life and reality as we know it and slaying said end of all life in a dramatic and bloody encounter.”

-Regis ... has nothing to say to that really. All he can do is stare at Ardyn through his fingers in the silent wonder of WHEN, exactly, Ardyn faced down another end of all life for the sake of family bonding. Ardyn just grins and doesn’t answer. Because that’s just his half-brother. The other half is troll.

#SE asks #talisward asks #Nox verse #dissidia! #Secret Engima Rambles

[qhostqizmo]

Big Plans

Inhaling the aroma of her honey lavender tea, Essätha gazed out at the bustling market square with a forlorn smile. Carriages passed the streets filled with merchants and travelers without a care in the world. People haggled and hustled their goods as they did daily, like everything was normal. Any one of these strangers could be living a secret life; members of the Whispered Shadow waiting for their moment to strike. Others were simply living normal lives, having no clue that their friend or neighbor or loved one could be secretly plotting to see their downfall.

The reality of it all was strange and terrifying. She looked down into her drink, with steam drifting up and her scone biscuits nestled in her lap. The sound of the fountain she rested on continued to gurgle and bubble, and the chatter of her friends and the passerbys walking around was incredibly normal, yet her apprehension kept whispering in the back of her head. Wait for it. Something could happen in the blink of an eye; the next civilian trying to stab her heart or drown her; grab her bag or mark her in some way for someone or something else to finish the job.

Nothing ever felt quite safe. The Yuan-Ti woman bitterly wondered if the world ever would again, or if some part of her mind was always going to want to glance over her shoulder one last time to make sure the shadow behind her hadn’t moved.

A foot moved into her lowered vision, and she glanced up to see a man taking a seat beside her. He offered a kind smile, and had a soft gaze for such lovely dark eyes. The gentleman offered her a small transparent bag, and inside she could see two chocolate chip cookies.

Essie grinned, accepting the gift. “I haven’t even finished my blueberry scones yet, m’lord.”

“You could always save the cookies for later,” Amon offered. He gestured to the spot beside her. “May I?”

“Please,” she eagerly replied, adding on jokingly as he took a seat, “It’s not as though I own the fountain. You’re welcome to it as much as I.”

“It is your time and your space, though.”

“I suppose… Very clever, m’lord.”

Amon responded with a shy smile, his thigh brushing hers as he situated himself. She twiddled her fingers against her mug nervously before taking a drink. It wasn’t quite sweet enough, but it was delightfully warm. The mixture of the heat and the relaxing scent calmed her nerves some.

In silence, the nobleman drank from his own mug. The world moved all around them, against them; the gears to a modern day grinding along. The sun moved in the sky, the townsfolk went about mundane routines and tasks, and she took a moment to try finding peace in the chaos of her life.

She peeked over at Amon as he nibbled on his own scone. A smile pulled at her lips. Well, she had plenty to be grateful for, even if her life was far from predictable.

Catching her gaze, the Illiad heir raised an eyebrow.

“Do I have crumbs in my beard?”

Giggling, she reached up to rub her hand against his cheek. “No. I’m sorry for staring, I was just taking a… a moment to appreciate.”

He smiled fondly. “Appreciate what?” His voice was quiet compared to the fountain. She found herself lost in his eyes; in the sculpture of his cheekbone beneath her palm and the texture of his black whiskers beneath her fingertips. There was certainly a lot to appreciate.

Swallowing, the sorceress pulled her hand away. There was a twisting reaction in her gut, watching his expression. He was so nakedly easy to read; the way he leaned in to her touch to try following her fingers, only to look disappointed and wounded when she pulled too far for him to follow without appearing pathetic to throw himself against her. It made her heart feel hollow, and brittle.

“Just… appreciate,” she ventured, drawing her eyes away. She breathed deeply, tearing off a piece of scone. Popping it into her mouth, she muttered in an unlady-like way while chewing: “It’s rare we get moments to sit in public like this without rushing for somewhere to be. I was just enjoying the moment, with you.”

Amon reached up to tug at his collar. He dropped his hand to flex it awkwardly a few times, before reaching to touch her hands as they cradled her cup. She met his deep gaze.

“I enjoy your company too, Essie.”

Her heart somewhere in her throat, the sorceress’ tilted her head towards him and took another drink of tea. “Almost makes us look like ordinary people, hmm?”

He scoffed. “Me, certainly. You? I would not dream of calling you ordinary.”

“And why is that?”

Coughing into his beverage, her nobleman pulled at his collar once more.

“Is it the eyes,” she teased, batting her lashes.

Amon made a strangled noise, his expression flush. “There is a great many marvelous things about you.”

She laughed quietly, and instantly regretted it. He seemed to deflate; and anything else he appeared wishing to utter left him. Courage lost, he went back to hastily drinking his tea, his face still burning a deep red.

Helplessly guilty, she reached out to caress his shoulder. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you.”

A grunt. He took a bite of his scone to keep himself from having to answer.

With a sigh, Essätha slumped a bit, taking a bite of her of own sweet biscuit. She chewed on it thoughtfully, enjoying the pop of sugary fruit on her tongue. Her eyes drifted closed. She took a drink of her tea.

“Too bad we can’t have more moments like these.”

“… Why not? There’s a fountain in the courtyard at the manor. Or perhaps you were hoping to have the background noise of the market, too. I could always have a fountain erected in the market-”

Snorting back giggles in her tea, Essie placed a hand on Amon’s arm to keep from falling back into the water. His smile lit up her entire world as he steadied her; wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

“Is that what you’d like to happen next? Cozy afternoons with scones and tea by a fountain on the regular?”

A rather pained look etched over the lines of his face. The nobleman’s brow pulled down, and he grinned through the pain as he whispered, “Does that not sound fulfilling to you?”

Backpedaling, Essätha choked on her scone a little. “It does,” she coughed, grabbing the front of his jerkin in reassurance to haul herself closer. The blush deepened in his face once more as she stared up into his eyes, her face close.

“I just- wouldn’t want it to get dull,” she admitted quietly. “After such an… exciting life of adventure as this.”

Amon chuckled hoarsely, and a bit weary. “Exciting is one way to put it. I would think seeing an end to the violence and terror would be refreshing.”

“That… Would be nice,” Essie agreed softly, setting her mug down. She let go of Amon’s coat, smoothing out the fabric with a delicate hand as she murmured, “There’s always more experiences to be had, anywhere. I’m sure we could find new places to see still, and… Well, things to experience, when you aren’t busy as a Lord.”

Once again, the torn look returned. Amon removed his arm from around her to take hold of her hand. “I would never be too busy for you, Essie.”

She swallowed. A hunger; silent and yearning, set her heart aflame. Her fingers curled, capturing the spaces between his which he so easily surrendered to her. A craving for touch that was more vast than the universe.

“No big grand and heroic plans on your return, then?” she taunted him playfully. “No monuments in your honor? No elaborate parties? No day dedicated just for you? Just a fountain, and the promise of scones and tea with me?”

“Every afternoon,” Amon vowed in a breathless daze, leaning in closer.

Her heart tripped over itself trying to claw itself closer to him. “Is the all? After all this, that’s all you look forward to?”

The scent of leather and fir trees was too close. She could smell the chamomile tea on his breath, too. Essie wondered if his blend had been sweeter than hers, and shamefully, she wanted to find out.

Her brain was soaring; love-drunk, on cloud nine. When had she reached up to card her fingers through his hair? And when had he started to gravitate towards her? She recalled none of these things occurring, yet there they were.

Her next words escaped on an impulse; barely a breath, “What do you want, when this is all through?”

Her nobleman shuddered, and licked his lips nervously. “What if what I want next is you?”

She gasped aloud. It startled Amon; and he suddenly jolted rigidly like he’s been caught doing something sneaky.

Before he could retreat, Essie grabbed his shoulders. She pulled him down as she pulled herself forward, nearly smacking his forehead against hers as he grunted with alarm to reel himself back.

“Do you mean that?” Breathlessly hopeful. He couldn’t mean that, could he-

Swallowing, Amon gave a strangled noise in the back of his throat. He appeared unable to vocalize an answer; his mouth gaping, and he submitted to finally offering her only a mute and terrified brisk nod.

Her cheeks warmed. She let go of his shoulders to caress his face instead. If her heart had been thunderous prior, it was roaring now. Amon practically melted and collapsed into her touch; sighing sweetly as he tenderly nuzzled his face into her hands. He was but the image of a poor and starving man, finally given the touch he craved so desperately. His face was on fire, and her fingertips were kerosene causing him to blush deeper.

The sorceress’ heart lurched in her chest. She shuddered herself, the pads of her thumbs stroking along his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose. His ocean was dragged her in, deeper and deeper. The depth of his eyes were vast and wide; and she could see the twinkling light of the sun dancing along the surface. He was consuming her with his gaze alone, and she was sure where that sea would drag her; deep, deep into the depths where no one else had tread before, was going to be some place vast and wonderful. Atlantis itself would not be able to hold a candle to such paradise.

“Essie,” Amon whined. His hands were shaking as he reached for her; a request for permission.

Her lip trembled. She gasped; pulling in air to the bottom of her lungs, trying to find the words.

They breathed together then; loud and almost violent.

“Tell me you love me,” Essätha rasped; her fingers desperately dragging through his hair. “Tell me you love me; that’s all I need to hear to stay.”

A groan echoed in his throat. “I love you Essie, and I don’t care who hears it,” Amon replied.

“I love you too, m’lord Amon,” she announced in a whispered rush. Her grin was splitting her face, it caused her cheeks to ache.

He was still reaching for her; hands shaking, waiting with baited breath. With his head cradled in one hand, she took hold of one of his hands, and rested it to her cheek.

Taking this as a cue for permission granted, her nobleman took hold of her other cheek as well; softly, carefully, weary of his own hands. Essätha laughed weakly; mesmerized by how beautiful this moment was, how gently his touch was. Her own hands were not as tender. She was greedy. Her palms smothered his features; skimming along his lip and stroking through his hair and over his sideburns and down his throat, over his shoulders, against the back of his neck to link together-

She pulled him in closer as he stared at her, his eyes boggling wide.

She discovered his tea was indeed sweeter; less acidic, more honey. His lips were even more divine than the drink lingering on his tongue, though.

“Essätha,” Amon murmured; his eyes half-mast now. She felt the echo of her own name somewhere deeper; stirring in her chest. It was as though she’d heard it for the very first time.

“I want cookies instead of scones on those afternoon dates by the fountain, m’lord Amon,” she informed him, her lips brushing his.

“Yes,” he mouthed; likely not even knowing what he was agreeing to.

Her arms seized him around the neck as he encouraged her to tilt her head with his hands, and he kissed her with heavenly intent.

She decided she very much liked the idea of living a ‘normal life’, if this is what it was going to entail.

#qhost story #OTP: Essamon #Essatha Meduza #Amon Illiad #softly written

[nmikaelsonimagines]

So Typical: A Klaus Mikaelson Imagine

Request from Anon: Hello, could you do imagine where reader is a witch and friends with hayley, sometimes babysits hope and one day klaus just comes unexpectedly in her house or something like that?

Hope this is okay for you lovely, and enjoy x 

“What in the hell are you doing here?”

It was those words that started it all, that began that typical story of the babysitter falling for the father of her charge. The setting? Your house, said father having helped himself to the whisky cabinet, reclining on your sofa, a misplaced look of expectancy on his face. The mood? A mixture of shock from you and smug satisfaction from him. It was late in the evening, and you hadn’t expected to find him in your house, having used a door that you were certain you had locked before you’d left for your shift at the library that day. It was a scene that would have those who weren’t aware of the supernatural life of New Orleans calling the police, wondering how on earth this man had managed to break into their house without any obvious signs of entry giving them even the slightest clue; it wasn’t normal, surely.

Then again, most babysitters weren’t witches, and most weren’t looking after the daughter of Klaus Mikaelson.

The hybrid seemed to sniff at the air, placing the whisky glass on the coffee table before leaning back in the chair, studying you. Hayley had mentioned him to you, reputation and legend helping her to create an image of the Original hybrid who would most likely want to meet you, the girl who had been trusted with looking after his heir when neither parent was around, the mother working to protect her daughter, and, from what you had pieced together, the father wreaking havoc on the world.

He continued to stare at you, that smirk on his face only irritating you as you realised that the quiet evening you had planned was disappearing under your feet.

“Is there something on my face, Klaus? Or have you officially lost it?”

Silence.

“Well, you could at least tell me why you’re in my house.”

“You know who I am,” he finally spoke, eyes bright with surprise at the tone you had taken with him.

“Doesn’t everyone?”

He laughed then, standing up and pouring himself another drink. You were pretty sure this was how people behaved when they were plotting something, especially something murderous. Well, there was always that risk when it came to babysitting the daughter of Klaus Mikaelson. 

“I guess you’re right on that, Miss...?”

“Y/L/N,” he already infuriated you, acting like he owned the place. 

“That’s right, Y/N, right?”

“Yes,” you crossed your arms, irritated by the ease at which he made himself at home (without your permission) and by the other stirring sensation that began to develop within you, the charm that oozed off him acting as nothing other than a nuisance; you really didn’t have time for this, “Now will you please tell me what you’re doing in my house?”

“I was just checking up on my daughter’s babysitter. You really can’t trust people these days, you know,” he handed you a second glass, yet again acting as if you were the guest in his house. You stared at him blankly, reluctantly taking the drink from him as his eyes displayed an intention of pure coercion, a smile on his face that would have been welcoming had you not known any better.

“And what’s your verdict?”

“Not bad,” his eyes never left yours as he sipped at his whisky. There was a hidden brightness lurking beneath the sapphire darkness that provided the window to his soul, and as he looked at you, speaking as if you two were old friends, you saw it flicker, a portal to the man behind the monster. “You know, for a witch.”

You smiled sarcastically at him, his comment rendering as a barrier between the image of him you had created in that moment, a smug, arrogant bastard proving dominant between the two of you. 

You wouldn’t admit it yet, but you kind of liked that side of him too. 

“Well, Miss Y/L/N. I’ve done what you asked. What would you like me to do now?”

“Leave, preferably.”

There was that laugh again, that chuckle that told you he found you amusing, that he enjoyed your company. That laugh that was reminiscent of a blonde boy just enjoying his childhood as he ran through the woods with his siblings, with his equals. That laugh that was soon extinguished, buried beneath the terrors of paternal abuse, a mother’s will to save her children no matter the cost, the impulses of not one, but two, unimaginable creatures crawling beneath his skin. 

“As you wish. It was a pleasure to meet you, Y/N.”

“Likewise,” your tone didn’t give the impression that you meant it. In fact, in that moment, you didn’t realise you meant it either. 

It certainly wasn’t the last time you had an encounter with Klaus Mikaelson; the first few were quite similar, each one providing you with more of an insight into his being, into the man that he truly was, each one leaving you with more images of him imprinted on your eyelids when you shut your eyes for the night. 

There’s so much more to the story that began with a simple question, that one where the babysitter falls in love with the father, that one which others would call just so typical. 

But that’s for another time. For now, it’s only words unspoken, lost in the imagination of the reader who has yet to live through it. 

Masterlist

#TVD #tvd imagine #tvd imagines #the vampire diaries #the originals #the originals imagines #the originals imagine #to #klaus mikaelson #niklaus mikaelson #klaus mikaelson imagine #niklaus mikaelson imagines #klaus mikaelson imagines #niklaus mikaelson imagine #klaus mikaelson x reader #niklaus mikaelson x reader #Joseph Morgan

[colbybrocksmolder]

Damage Control - Colby Brock x Reader (plus size/curvy)

“Welcome to the show, guys. Settle in.” The interviewer welcomed Sam and Colby.

They had been doing bits the last few weeks. Driving up the coast, they had hit 15 or 16 different creator studios to participate in partnered videos. It was crazy and hectic, but it was so cool to see them get so much media attention.

As the interview continued, the guys relaxed quite a bit. The host and the company were super chill, and they had been laughing for about 40 minutes straight.

“In the next segment, I’m going to read off a word and you have to tell me the first funny story that comes to mind, okay?” The host directed.

“Oh, hell yea.” Colby replied, Sam adding an “Oooo this could get juicy.”

After the first few words, the next word asked was “pets”.

Colby immediately turned to Sam with a huge grin on his face, “Dude, should I talk about the…the doggy door?”

“Oh, my god. YES, that’s way funnier than dyeing Circa pink.” Sam laughed. “Y/n is going to kill you”, he teased, clapping his hands and throwing his head back in a fit of laughter.

“Oh, no” the host chuckled. “Okay, out with it!”

“Okay, okay. Oh, my god I have to stop laughing. So, we all used to live in this big house called the Trap House with some of our friends. THEN we spent the following year all separate in our own apartments. Well this last month Sam, Jake, and I and all three of our girlfriends moved into another pretty large house. Y/n, my amazing girlfriend, technically moved in before the rest of us. She’s good at like decorating and organizing and she had to be there to like tell delivery people and workers where to go.” Colby rambled, trying to explain and give context. “So, Jake had gone over to drop some stuff off. Well while he was there, he didn’t realize that y/n was in the back yard and he accidentally locked her out of the house before he left.” Colby chuckled, burying his face in his hands for a second. “Oh, man. This next part is partially my fault.”

“Colby, it was 100% your fault.” Sam laughed.

“Okay, so all MY fans watching this video” Colby looked right at the camera before continuing, “know that my girlfriend is not a skinny girl.” He said casually. “You guys all know her from my last 6 months of videos on my personal channel. For anyone else watching this who maybe doesn’t know who we are or who y/n is, my girl got curves.” Colby mimed the hourglass waist shape with his hands.

Sam cut in, turning to Colby. “Side note, I found out yesterday that y/n’s number is in Kat’s phone under the name ‘baby mama’.”

Colby laughed, “Dude, Kat’s name in Y/n’s phone is way worse.” He laughed, clearing his throat. “That’s a story for another day.”

“Oh, god.” Sam laughed.

‘Okay, okay. Back to my original story.” Colby continued. “When Y/n got locked out of the house, she couldn’t get ahold of Jake. When she called me to see if I was anywhere close to the house, I reminded her that she had JUST had someone install a doggy door because we wanted to get a house dog. I may or may not have suggested that she try to crawl in through the doggy door.”

“Wait, wait, wait. I was in the car with you. Your exact words were ‘Baby, just shimmy that fat ass through the doggy door. You’ll fit. I PROMISE.” Sam called him out, laughing. “Don’t worry, Y/n. I was there. This is totally Colby’s fault.”

“You’re supposed to be on my side, brother!” Colby laughed. “Okay, fine. I definitely told her it would work and it definitely didn’t. And if anyone remembers Y/n doing an Instagram live saying she was bored and waiting for me to get home…The tile you saw her laying on is directly inside our doggy door. She managed to get the girls through the door no problem.” Colby said, holding his pecs to indicate he was talking about her boobs. “But getting her hips through or getting the girls BACK OUT proved to be impossible without a little help from yours truly.” He grinned, pointing his thumbs at himself.

“We made it to the house like 15 minutes later and she was literally half in/half out of the doggy door.” Sam said.

“We all laughed so much it took us like 15 more minutes to get her out.” Colby laughed, rubbing his cheeks. “My face hurts from laughing.”

“At least it sounds like you guys are going to enjoy sharing a house again.” The host said, chuckling at the story. “I’m sure everyone is looking forward to you guys getting back to prank videos and group shenanigans.”

The interview continued on, the boys finally ending their travels the following week and making it back to the house. When that specific interview came out, Colby had called you into your shared bedroom to watch it.

“Oh, god. This is the doggy door one, isn’t it?” you laughed, the boys having told you the same day as the interview that they had told the story.

“Of course.” Colby chuckled, pulling you down on the bed to cuddle with him. He pulled you against him, making you the little spoon and grabbed the remote to play the video on your bedroom tv. You two laughed your asses off, Colby tweeting out the interview and you two moving on with your day.

No one in your house thought twice about anything in that video causing any drama. You’d always been a big girl and Colby didn’t see a single problem with it. So, when you woke up to all of your friends texting you two links to drama pages criticizing Colby for telling the story, you were completely caught off guard. There were videos made saying that Colby was fatphobic or a bully. There were articles written about how embarrassed you must be that your boyfriend doesn’t think you’re skinny.

You opened up the massive group text you guys and your friends used for updates and important shit instead of trying to text everyone back. “Hey, I’m gonna wake Colby up so I can ask him how he wants to handle this bullshit. The pizza night kickback is still happening tonight. Everyone can head over whenever they want because I have a feeling we won’t be leaving the house today.”

You fucking loved the friends you had made through Colby.

Kevin – Your man is proud as hell to show you off. Anyone trying to twist this into some body shaming bullshit needs to hand over their internet access immediately.

Elton – The idiocy of these articles is actually hurting my brain. So, they think Colby was being a bad boyfriend by calling you “not a skinny girl”, but nowhere in the articles are they concerned that Sam admitted to masturbating while wearing Heelys. Priorities, people.

Corey – Do I have permission to post a photo on Instagram of my juicy ass stuck in Navi’s doggy door? Too soon? #toolate

Brennen – Girl, the drama pages can get fucked. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with havin’ a fat ass.

Mike – Aryia said you and I should start a duo channel called fat ass and flat ass. I have no clue what content he expects us to post.

They continued to message you guys both funny and actually encouraging messages.

“I’m making a video” Colby said after scrolling through all of the articles and videos. “And I told the channel the interview is on to keep it up.”

“Do you want me in the video?” you asked, knowing that it might just be a video where he wants to sit by himself and talk.

“I wouldn’t do it without you.” He smiled, leaning over to pull you into a kiss. “Get your bathing suit on. We’re filming this by the pool.”

“Does it matter which bathing suit?” you asked, walking into your closet and chucking Colby’s swim trunks at him.

“Wear my favorite one. The one with the black strappy things.” Colby answered, pulling on his swim trunks and grabbing his camera.

That afternoon, Colby posted the video to his channel. Your friends had all eventually joined you for pizza night and Colby had told them you’d all watch it together. With everyone gathered in the movie room, you cuddled into his side and he pulled the video up on the big screen.

*Video start*

Colby was sitting on the ground by the pool, close to the camera. He was in his swim trunks, shirtless, and his wet hair was pushed to the side, slightly stuck to his forehead. “Hi. My name is Colby Brock and my girlfriend has a fat ass.” He ducked to the side to reveal you standing a few feet behind him. You were stood there with your hips swayed to one side and your arms posed like a Greek goddess. Your voluptuous figure silhouetted against the sun behind you.

Laughs and cat calls alike could be heard throughout the movie room.

Not 3 seconds into the Instagram worthy camera shot, Colby then ran and tackled you into the pool. Both of your laughter could be heard as you fell in and swam to the surface of the water. Colby pulling you into a quick kiss before the camera cut to the next clip.

You two were sat in the grass next to each other on a beach towel. The camera a few feet in front of you. Colby spoke, “As most of you probably know by now, I shared a funny story about y/n in an interview Sam and I did about a week ago. This story has since then been taken and twisted somehow into me body shaming my own girlfriend.” Colby turned his head and connected his gaze with yours, adoration clear on his face. His hand moved to rest draped over your thigh. He continued talking, his eyes still staring back into yours. “The people trying to make it seem like I was in any way disrespecting this beautiful woman have truly lost the plot.”

In the movie room you could hear a few “awwwws” until Mike cut in. “Why are you two always so goddamn cute” He was fake crying, his hand over his heart.

On the screen, Colby turned back to face the camera, his hand staying on your thigh. “The people writing that I embarrassed Y/n by saying she wasn’t a skinny girl are really just embarrassing themselves. Y/n isn’t skinny.” Colby’s fingers dug into your thigh a bit. “This isn’t an insult or a jab or said to be mean in any way…and most importantly it’s not a reason for her or anyone watching this video to be embarrassed. And I think that’s what pisses me off about this whole thing the most.”

The video cut to a new clip, the camera on the side of the pool. The two of you were in the water, Colby behind you with his arms around you. It was your turn to speak. “The problem with the criticism that Colby has gotten over this story is that it implies I should be ashamed of my body. If he had shared a story about one of his thin friends getting stuck somewhere no one would have batted a single eye. This furthers the bullshit idea that it’s okay to be clumsy or quirky or to do stupid shit if you’re thin, but oh buddy, us fat kids have to make sure we don’t embarrass ourselves. To everyone that posted negative things about what Colby said…Instead of pretending to be body positive by acting like you were somehow coming to my rescue, why don’t you actually do something to spread self-love and body confidence. Some of you have MILLIONS of teenage girls and boys watching your videos and reading your articles.”

Colby pulled you against him, momentarily upset you even had to make this video. He let you finish and added on to what you said. “To any young people watching this video…Actually, maybe some of the older people need to hear this too…don’t let anyone tell you how much space you’re allowed to take up. Don’t let anyone tell you how loud you’re allowed to be or bright you’re allowed to shine. You don’t have to fit in some cookie cutter mold.”

Before Colby could continue you slipped in “Or in a doggy door”, laying your head back against his shoulder and busting out laughing.

Colby laughed, leaning down to kiss you. Looking back at the camera, he continued. “Watching my chubby girlfriend laugh her ass off while stuck in our doggy door will always be one of my favorite memories.” He moved the two of you towards the camera, resting his chin on your shoulder. “And how shitty would it have been if this wonderful human here in my arms wasn’t able to laugh at it because she was too self-conscious or worried that she was somehow embarrassing me.”

Colby kissed your cheek. You smiled and started talking. “Don’t let some fake, unattainable, BS beauty or body standard steal the joy out of your moments. If you spend your whole life worried about what other people are thinking about you, you’re going to miss out on so much.”

“People can say whatever they want about my relationship.” Colby said, smiling. “I don’t really care, at this point. I’m happy.”

*Video end*

Claps, cheers, and awws could be heard from everyone sprawled out in the movie room.

“I am seriously impressed with how you guys handled that.” Elton said, reaching over to pat Colby on the back.

“I like that you guys kept it funny, too. It’s very you.” Kat said.

“I’m not gonna lie. I heard everything you said, but I really just stared at y/n’s boobs the whole video.” Tara laughed.

“I wondered why your mouth was hanging open the whole time.” Jake teased her.

“I was definitely distracted while editing it.” Colby chuckled.

“Do you think it will get good feedback?” Sam asked.

“Yes and no.” you answered.

“Why no?” Colby asked.

“Well, it’ll get praise for being ballsy and honest, and it’ll get talked about because it’s about body image. Plus, we’re cute as fuck” You laughed. “But you’ll always get those people who feel like they have to tell you who you should be dating. I’ll get comments about how I really should have been wearing a one piece or that I’d be so pretty if I dropped a few pounds.”

“Miserable people hate seeing other people happy.” Mike said.

“Exactly.” You agreed.

“Well those fuckers can unsubscribe then.” Colby said, holding you a bit tighter. “I’ve got my happy right here and I’m not letting her go.”

#colby brock #colby brock x reader #colby brock imagine #colby brock plus size #colby brock oneshot

[psychopersonified]

Quartermaster Origin - Series 2 (Ep 3 finale)

An imaginary Q-centric Netflix series

Series 2 Episode 1 & 2 here. Might want to read the first 2 episode first for everything to make more sense.

Series 1 Pilot here. 

In this second series, we see Q’s double life and how he juggles them. One as a civilian and the other in service with MI6 -  his growth his setbacks; the dramas that follow and which of the two will have to give way. 

To make Q’s backstory come to life and the events that happen to and around him seem more realistic, I’ve tried to include as much relevant details including the bureaucracy, politics and technology in MI6 (with a lot of artistic licence). The details all play a role in growing plot and telling of the narrative, I promise. 

This is meant to be a plot summary, not a full blown fic. Feel free to furnish with your own details. 

------

Episode 3

Clock is ticking! ⏳

Q enlists his unofficial minions - interrupting cyberwar night. Together they form a plan to gather evidence. They confirm the findings when they retest some of the components in storage that were marked as released and find that an unusually high percentage do not meet specification. They trace the manufacturers but they have nothing in common on the surface other than being long time component suppliers to MI6. Q wants to dig further by hacking the company databases but is stopped by R who warns him that he doesn’t have M’s approval. The board only approved an internal investigation, hacking a private company without authorisation would put his career at further risk than it already is. 

By morning of the third day the team have what they need regarding the inventory system hack and the extent of it. Evidence suggests someone familiar with their procedures and systems. The hack itself not incredibly sophisticated by anyone’s standards - it didn’t need to be, the low level system was virtually unprotected. It’s effectiveness lay in how and where it was used tactically, break the weakest link and the whole system is undermined. 

They manage to determine the extent of the breach. About FOUR months. The good news is that it means limited recall of field equipment. Bad news is, the hacker has had four months of skipping around in their system unchallenged. It’s like having an intruder come and go from your house rummaging through your drawers and cupboards for months without you knowing. God knows what they might have left behind - it makes Q feel nauseous and violated. However an idea begins to form in his head....

Timeline check: Note the timeline is now somewhere at the end of Casino Royale, 007 has just infamously resigned with a one sentence email to M.

Q presents all their findings to M and the board. M sends teams to the manufacturers under the guise of a routine audit so as to not tip them off. In one of them, they find a shipment of components intended for MI6. Documents indicate that they passed inspection, but when they are tested, it’s found that they are mostly duds. The CEO denies any wrong doing and cooperates with the investigation, handing over data and recordings. Q runs the employee list through MI6 database and facial recognition, the results come back that the COO has been seen in the company of a certain Mr White (Quantum). With M’s permission, he traces the COO’s financial activities and hacks his secure accounts. He’s been receiving large sums over the course of a few months coinciding with the shipments to MI6. 

That’s one piece of the puzzle slotting into place; M now has more evidence on Mr White than a phone number Vesper left for 007 - and that allows her to sanction 007 to retrieve him for questioning. 

Meanwhile, Q acts on the idea he had and plans a trap for the hacker. The Q-Minions scramble to move all remaining systems regardless of security level behind secure firewalls; the process isn’t neat or clean and it breaks more than a few WIFI enabled printers and IOT devices, including the fancy video conferencing setup M has in her home; but its a small price to pay to remove easy entry points. Hayden can chew him out for causing the Great Print-pocalyspe later. Now for the trap - a mirror system is left in place, fed with filtered data from the master system now behind the firewall, this is so that it appears that they are still in use. Then they wait…..

Meantime, it’s been over a week since Q had last seen Adam. A quiet moment lets Q slip away to deal with his civilian life that he’s put on hold. He calls Adam who is relieved that Q is OK. Adam is in tears when he tells Q that he realises that he doesn’t even know where Q’s flat is and has gone to the extent of calling hospitals in the city to check if something has happened to him - he was close to reporting Q as a missing person to the Met. Q assures Adam the best he can and they agree to talk in a few days when whatever emergency he’s dealing with is over. 

They end the call with Q feeling like a right piece of work. He hadn’t meant to make Adam worry so much, he had meant to check in earlier, text even. So why hadn’t he? Q has a uncomfortable realisation - as wonderfully stable and predictable as Adam is, he lacks the excitement and intellectual stimulation that MI6 provides. His life in MI6 draws him like a moth to a flame, even if it might burn him one day. 

Geeky action time! after the break below. 

At Q-Branch, the shipment arrives and is put through the normal procedures of logging in new inventory and testing. Not 24 hours later the hacker strikes. This time Q and his minions are ready. As the hacker’s code rips through the mirror system, it changes data and pings its trojans within the system for updates. Q’s team record all the activity but leave the hacker unchallenged. 

Instead they chase hacker on two fronts even as the signal is bounced all over the world - the source of the hack as well as the destination of the data packets its downloaded from the mirror system to see if they overlap, hoping to find a point of origin. Both trails end up somewhere between IndoChina-Hong Kong. The source of the hack is harder to pinpoint but the data packets are ending up somewhere in Laos. It’s a poorly secured telecommunications server belonging to Lao Telecom. It’s likely the owners don’t even know they are being used as a data cache to be retrieved later by the hacker. 

Time to pull the plug. But before that Q acts on a hunch, he takes over the system locking everyone else out and executes a data grab first - pulling data off the server in Laos and dumping it into a proxy of his own in Philippines. That’s when he realises that it’s not a passive hack using automated code. There is someone on the other end actively watching... 

Now alerted to Q’s presence, the hacker fights back. Simultaneously trying to regain control of the server and chasing Q’s data grab. After several failed attempts by the hacker to regain control and protect the data - whoever they were decides to cut their losses. The hacker sends a DDOS attack to the server, overwhelming it and taking with it telecom service in the surrounding region - Q looses connection. Not the most elegant counter by the hacker, but effective. No matter, Q had already managed to grab a sizeable chunk which he’ll examine later. The other trail also ends abruptly.

Q isn’t innocent either, he’s had to initiate lockout protocols to protect the data he’s dumped in the Philippines, so even the owners of the server in the Department of Transportation can’t get in temporarily. If the traffic lights in Pasig city goes on the blink for half a day and causes mayhem…. well Q better hide their tracks.

It’s OVER. There is dead silence in Q-Branch, jarring after close to an hour of frantic activity. It’s as if no one dares to breathe. Q wills himself to calm, his fingers coming up to cover his eyes under his glasses, he finally lets out a long breath he had not realised he was holding. With that, it’s as if a tightly wound string had been cut. His minions take their cue and break into their own sighs and groans of relief. A minion (future R) is retching into the nearest bin, that was how much anxiety and stress was in the room. 

All the adrenaline and tension of the last few weeks bleeds out of him and Q feels like he can’t hold himself upright any longer. He braces himself on his work station and slowly slips onto the floor back against the workstation desk. The reality of the situation hits him then - today, halfway around the world, two servers in two unsuspecting nations just became the latest cyberwar battleground and victims of collateral mayhem. Q is treading on eggshells - an attack like this even if indirect could be construed as an act of war on sovereign nations if they ever found out (yes, Q kinda, technically, maybe caused England to declare war on two nations today).

He doesn’t know it yet, but this was their first of a series of live encounters with Raoul Silva. Q hadn’t planned on Silva being on the other end, so the timing of their counter offensive is a huge clue to Silva as to who they were. 

*A throat clearing* M and Tanner make themselves known. They were alerted when the hack started but M chose to stand back and let Q and his team handle it while she watched. Q stiffly picks himself off the floor to face M and Tanner. His minions are also rousing from their various states of collapse - future R is still clutching the bin. 

Q confirms they got what they needed. Q and his minions can now use the records of the hacker’s activity in the mirror system and compare it with the unaltered data in the master system and locate the areas that were tampered with as well as where the trojans were located. Like comparing two photographs to see what was changed. This will help them weed out the trojans and patch the system quickly, while also allowing them to study the hackers patterns and choice of tools - both as a ‘fingerprint’ identification as well as adapting MI6’s own cybersecurity response.

As for the data Q stole from the server in Laos, by the time the dust settles in Quantum of Solace, they will find that it was not just MI6s’ inventory system that was targeted. Mr White working for Quantum had been paying off employees in a number of defence companies to ship dud components and equipment to law enforcement and military around the world, while Silva uses the same hack to launder the records of faulty equipment. Once the reputation and faith in these companies have been shaken, Quantum would sweep in with their own and monopolise the industry; controlling the supply of a multi-billion dollar market and aligning it to their own agenda. 

Weeks later, 007 has removed Dominic Greene and exposed his plans in Bolivia, but its Q’s investigation and stolen data that allows MI6 to get ahead of Quantum’s plan globally. Unknown to him, Q has already thwarted SPECTRE twice before he’s even in full-time service of MI6 (once in the pilot and now). We can imagine the interest that generates within the organisation to find out who is behind it. 

(This is also my take on the personalised “Not such a clever boy” message in Skyfall. Silva knew who Q was long before 007 brought him in. And if Silva knew who Q was, so will SPECTRE. Delicious future setup! *rubs hands*)

Q meets Adam for their ‘talk’ in a local animal shelter Adam is volunteering at. Adam is much calmer, resigned even. As they feed and play with the animals, he tells Q that he’s given a lot of thought to their relationship and realises that he barely knows Q. Q has never invited him over to his place, or introduced him to his family or friends, doesn’t know what he does outside of university other than the excuses he gives. Who is he?? Q listens without saying anything. 

Q leans against against a wall of cages and watches Adam thoughtfully as he goes about his work around the shelter. Adam who is kind, thoughtful, who likes long walks and conversations, who picks up strays and nurses them back to health. Adam with his strong nurturing instinct and perfect abs, who gives everything to help those in need. Q commits possible acts of war on behalf of a nation, heedless to the damage it causes. The end justify the means and all that... a life that demands secrecy and subterfuge. Adam could never understand that. It is no one’s fault. They don’t deserve one another. They break-up amicably. 

Q helps Adam finish his shift at the shelter. As he tries to put the big adult orange tabby he’s been petting all afternoon back in its cage, the moggie refuses to let go. It meows grumpily and clings to his jumper like velcro. He’s a heavy one, rounded head with impressive jowls, ears notched in a few places and some superficial facial scarring. A street brawler before he was brought in for sure, but now a needy cuddle monster shredding Q’s jumper. Perhaps he’s feeling a little melancholy and a bit lonely now that the breakup is formal, he finds the low pitched yowling  heartbreaking. 

He finally gets the cat to let go by sacrificing his jumper, leaving the clothing inside the cage for it to snuggle in. Q goes to leave, the cat’s continued piteous calls tugs at his heartstrings. He makes it as far as the door before turning back and grabbing the cat’s papers hanging by the cage. Guess he’s not going home alone after all. 

The last scene of the finale is M in her office. She’s reviewing all the gathered intel and drawing connections. She recognises that she’s being herded into a corner. Unknown entity (Silva) trying to pull the rug out from under her by undermining MI6 through Q-Branch, while Quantum attacks directly from the inside with an assassination attempt by her bodyguard. This is only the start. 

------

Notes: I like the idea that Q is more than just a future quartermaster doling out equipment and supplies. He’s also an ‘agent’ in his own right - it makes the conversation when he meets 007 in Skyfall hold more weight. It’s not just hubris, he’s proven himself.

Next on Q... let me know what you’d like to see. 

#00q #quartermaster #Q #james bond #00q fanfiction #Q spin-off #would you watch this?

[specialagentsnark]

Marriage of Choice - Chapter 2

I promise I meant to get this up Tuesday. It’s been a rough week. Things are settling down now. I will post chapter 3 on this coming Tuesday on here and then on AO3 on Friday. Maybe. Probably. We’ll see. Geez, I’m tired. Let’s just get on with the fic, yeah? Chapter summary: Kili's doomed. Fili's busy. Tea is weird.

Chapter 2

The moment Oin gave him permission, Kili went to the forges and created a set of plain beads for Tauriel. He couldn’t officially propose, but no one ever said that a lesser prince couldn’t give beads of promise. If anything, it made his life easier. Tauriel was his One. Acknowledging her as such publicly kept him from having to go through the entire courtship mess Fili would have to.

With the beads finished, he just had to ask her.

He agonized. He planned. He plotted. He threw out the plans and plots and started again. He thought and thought and thought but nothing seemed worthy of Tauriel. What could he possibly do to properly express his devotion to his One? Did others have this problem?

Sitting in a council meeting, watching his uncle cast glances at the Company’s burglar, Kili realized that yes, others did. Uncle Thorin had pined, mooned, and dithered over Bilbo for the entire journey to Erebor. Kili had thought things would change on the Carrock when Uncle had embraced Bilbo, but, much to almost everyone’s irritation, nothing did.

That didn’t matter now. They were married. Thorin was king. Bilbo was his consort. And Kili still couldn’t figure out how to ask his One if he could court her.

He was doomed.

Would it be a bad thing if he suddenly started beating his head on the council room table? Looking at it, he wondered if someone had done just that at some point. The dents in front of him seemed to indicate such a thing.

Finally, the meeting adjourned and Kili slunk out of the room before anyone could stop him. He needed to think .

He couldn’t find Tauriel anywhere inside the mountain. After asking around, he learned that she’d headed out with a bow and quiver. The dwarf on guard at the gates couldn’t tell him which way she’d gone. He hadn’t cared to pay attention to the elf.

Annoyed, Kili went in search of Balin. After ascertaining he didn’t have anything he had to do for his uncle or the good of the kingdom, he bundled up, grabbed his own bow and quiver, and left the mountain, ignoring the guard’s protest that no one was to leave the mountain unescorted.

“Then why did you allow Tauriel to leave?” Kili snapped. The guard blinked in surprise, taken aback by his outburst. “Tauriel has saved lives of Durin’s line multiple times-” two was considered multiple, right? Three if he counted the incident with the giant spiders “-and our people owe her much for her aid in The Battle. Now back to your post. I’ll be reporting you to Captain Dwalin when I return.”

The dwarf blanched beneath his beard but stood to attention, not offering further protest.

Grumbling under his breath, Kili took in his surroundings, trying to decide if he were Tauriel, which way would he go? With no clues to go on, he started his way along the base of the mountain, heading toward Mirkwood. Game would come from that direction just as well as any other. Either that or game would be heading that way, in search of food as well as shelter from the oncoming snow and ice.

He walked, slogging through the muddy remains of the first snows . His efforts and clothing kept him warm as he searched the area for any sign that Tauriel might have passed that way.

Elves and their unfair advantages in the snow and muck. She probably danced across the top without getting a drop of grime on her clothing .

Then again, her advantages could well help them through the winter, bringing in fresh meat instead of all the dried and cured supplies Dain’s troops had brought with them.

The silence pressed in on him, broken only by his own breathing and the susurrations of his clothing and the squelching of mud under his boots. Some of his unease from earlier in the day quieted and he concentrated on his task, scanning the horizon in front of him.

A green and brown dot not too far away caught his attention after a couple hour’s trudging through the muck .

“There you are,” he muttered and changed course so he headed straight toward it.

It took another half an hour, but he finally reached Tauriel. She sat on top of a boulder. As he expected, there wasn’t so much as a smear of mud on her. She didn’t move as he approached, just sat, staring out at the distance .

“Do you mind that I came to find you?” Kili asked as he stopped beside her.

“Not at all,” she said, finally pulling her eyes away from the desolation. “Join me?”

He looked pointedly at where she sat on top of the boulder. He could climb it, if he really wanted, but there didn’t seem to be much room for him to sit.

Tauriel laughed, the sound rolling across the plain before them and Kili felt a grin tug at his lips. He loved hearing her laugh. Tauriel jumped from her boulder and landed next to him without even the slightest sound of a splash in the mud.

“ Elves and their unfair advantages in nasty conditions .” Kili grumbled good-naturedly . “What are you doing out here anyway?” he asked.

“Enjoying the peace,” Tauriel said. “I’m afraid I’ve been feeling a little cooped up within Erebor.”

Kili could have cursed himself. She was an elf. A creature of nature and woods and open expanse beneath the stars. Being continuously within the mountain must grate against her very being.

“You don’t have to stay in Erebor,” Kili told her, aiming for reassuring instead of pathetically begging.

Tauriel smiled at him. She reached out and took his hand. “I think I do,” she said. “I’d hate to be parted from my heart.”

Kili breathed a sigh of relief. “We’ll find ways to get you outside,” he promised. “Join all the hunting parties and scouting parties.”

“Will you be able to?” Tauriel asked. “You are a Prince of Erebor, after all.”

“I’m the younger prince,” he reminded her with a shrug. “I have some duties, sure, but Fili’s the one people really want around, him being the heir and all.”

Tauriel didn’t react to the self-deprecation in his tone. “Then we will hunt orcs and game in your spare time,” she agreed. “For now, we should probably return to the Mountain before someone sends a search party out for their missing prince.”

~*~*~

By the time they returned to the mountain, they’d managed to bag a few hares. There wasn’t much meat on them, but any food was always welcome in Bombur’s kitchens. The humans taking refuge in Erebor from the supposed on-coming storms (and Kili silently agreed with those predicting them. There was something in the air and the clouds looked the right color, slightly green, for snow) walked toward the kitchens and the adjoining room where everyone would eat just ahead of them. He recognized Bard’s three children immediately, the eldest daughter leading the small group.

“I’ll meet you in just a minute,” he promised Tauriel. “I’ll just take these to Bombur first.” He lifted the hares before crossing the room, heading for the kitchen beyond it. It took him a little while to find the robust dwarf and when he finally did and left, he stopped by the table where the Bardlings had sat down with bowls of stew.

“Who let you three into the Mountain?” he asked as he plopped onto the bench next to Tilda.

“Kili!” she cried and threw her arms around him. “I’d heard you were better but I’m so glad to see it too!”

“Nothing could keep me down for long,” he said with a grin. “How are you?”

“We’re fine, Prince Kili,” Sigrid said.

“And your father?”

“Back in Dale,” Bain said and bit into the thick slice of bread that accompanied his steaming bowl of stew.

“He’s fine,” Sigrid added. “He’s helping the rest of our people gather what they can before they come to take refuge here.”

Kili nodded. “He’s a good man, your father,” he said. “He’ll make a wonderful Lord of Dale.”

“Don’t let Da hear you say that,” Tilda said. “He doesn’t want to lead anyone.”

“But he’ll rise to the occasion,” Kili said confidently. “A man like your father won’t risk your people to another man that might turn out to be like Laketown’s former Master.”

“I’m afraid you’re right,” Sigrid said with a sigh. “Which means we’ll all be expected to live differently as well.”

‘Not too differently, I expect,” Kili said with a smile he hoped was comforting. “You all seem to have level heads on your shoulders. I doubt you’ll let something like nobility change you.”

“But it does change expectations put on us,” Sigrid said and she poked a bit at her stew.

“It’s nothing you should be worrying about now,” Kili told her. “We all need to survive this winter first. I expect we’ll all be working just as hard as the common man and dwarf to make this place liveable.  Might even do you some good on that front. If you’re seen working alongside your people, they’ll respect you more and expect you to act less like a snooty noble.”

“Do you really think so?” Tilda asked. “I don’t want my friends to treat me differently.”

“It’s worked so far for my family,” Kili told her and ruffled her hair. “Just take it a day at a time. You’ll see.”

“Thank you, Prince Kili,” Sigrid said.

“You’re welcome. And none of this ‘Prince’ nonsense. I’m Kili, especially to those that have put me on a table with a bowl of walnuts for a pillow while I was delirious with fever.”

Tilda and Bain both snickered at that. He winked at Sigrid before standing and going over to where Tauriel stood with Bilbo. The hobbit stepped away with a kind smile at Tauriel as Kili approached.

“He’s in his element,” Kili remarked as he watched Bilbo head toward Bard’s family. A few moments later, Fili worked his way up to Bilbo’s side, maneuvering amongst the tables of seated dwarrow easily on his crutches.

“He’ll make a wonderful consort,” Tauriel said. “Don’t you think?”

Kili nodded. “He knows how to charm anyone, even my grumpy, uncharmable uncle.” He watched as Bilbo said something to Sigrid and Fili… Wait.

“Did you see that?” Kili asked, excitement starting to rise. “Did I really just see that?”

“See what?” Tauriel asked, looking over at Fili and Bilbo as well. As they watched, Fili seemed to shake himself free of something and retort to Bilbo and Sigrid.

“That look!” Kili said, starting to bounce on his toes a little. “I don’t believe it!”

“Believe what?” Tauriel asked. “I have a feeling I’ve missed something distinctly dwarfish.”

“Did you see Fili’s expression?” Kili asked, turning to her.

“Yes?” she hedged. “He seemed surprised by something.”

“When’s the last time you saw that look on a dwarf’s face?”

“I don’t see many dwarrow,” she reminded him.

“You’ve seen it though. Think.”

She paused and she looked up to watch Fili say something to Bilbo and hasten away on his crutches. “Perhaps when the spiders were attacking. If I recall, you had a similar expression on your face.”

“Yes!” Kili cried and pumped a fist into the air. “It’s too perfect!”

“What is Kili?” Tauriel asked, starting to sound impatient.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room. He didn’t stop moving until they reached somewhere without passersby. “ Sigrid ,” Kili finally said. “She’s Fili’s One.”

“What makes you think that?” Tauriel asked.

“The only time I ever see that kind of expression on anyone is when they find their One. Nothing surprises Fili. Nothing . For just looking at someone to catch Fili that off guard, it can only be because Sigrid’s his One!”

Tauriel straightened and looked back the way they’d come. Kili could see the facts falling into place and building the picture he’d already seen. “It could be,” she finally said.

“It has to be,” Kili said. “We’ve got to help them along. Fili’s hopeless with this sort of thing.”

“Are you sure we should?” Tauriel asked as she followed him back to the eating hall. “I’d hate to push them away by trying to push them together. Besides, I think Sigrid isn’t of age according to human standards.”

Kili stopped in his tracks. “She’s not? How old is she?”

“Sixteen or so, I believe,” Tauriel said. “I’m not entirely sure though. Human ages are so foreign to me.” She looked down at him. “Frankly, so are dwarrow and hobbits. How old are you?”

“Seventy-seven,” he told her. “Have I not told you that before?”

“No,” she said and linked her arm with his as they walked back to the halls. “Does it really matter though, now that I think about it?”

Kili shook his head. “No. It doesn’t. What does, is getting Fili and Sigrid together once Sigrid is old enough in a few years. In the meantime, we need to find Nori.”

“Nori? Whatever for?”

“If I know him, he’ll want to start a betting pool on the matter. We have first-hand knowledge. That’s valuable to him.”

~*~*~

Kili paced through the halls, staying in the areas declared safe by Bofur and the other engineers. He took the long way to the gates where he knew Tauriel stood, enjoying some of the last of the sunshine filtering through the overcast skies for the day. She stood on one end, scanning the ground stretching into the distance for any sign of trouble. As he approached, he heard her humming. He stopped next to her and listened, leaning on the wall as he looked down at the snowy landscape. All that pristine snow and no one had gone romping in it yet. Perhaps he could get Dale’s children together and take them out to play in it, if enough warm clothing could be found. A little fun would help their spirits.

“What has you so quiet?” Tauriel asked once she’d finished her song. She didn’t shift her stance.

“Thinking of taking any children in the mountain outside the gates to play in the snow. What do you think?”

Tauriel smiled and leaned over. She brushed a kiss onto the top of his head. “It’s a wonderful idea. Cheering up the children will cheer their parents in turn, I should think.”

“Let’s go round them all up and also see if Fili is feeling up to coming outside. He likes snow,” Kili said and pushed away from the wall. She followed beside him, her hand brushing along his arm briefly as they headed toward the repaired stairs. “What was that song you were humming?” he asked as they went.

“Nothing really,” she said. “Just something I grew up hearing in the winter months. A reminder that the sun and stars won’t always hide behind the clouds.”

Kili nodded absently, an idea starting to come free of the stone around it in his mind. He’d need to talk to Bilbo.

They searched for Fili and finally found him near the council room. He had his nose buried in a sheaf of papers.

“Fili!” Kili greeted. Fili lifted a finger, asking for his brother to wait while he finished whatever paragraph he was scanning. After a few more seconds, he looked up at Kili and Tauriel.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m going to the next meeting.”

Kili’s shoulders drooped. “Right,” he said. “Learning to be all crown princey and all that.”

Fili smiled a bit sheepishly. “Now that we’ve regained the mountain, I should probably learn how to run a kingdom a little more. I’m sorry. Did you want to do something? I can see if this meeting isn’t that important and step away for a bit.”

“No, don’t worry about it,” Kili said. “It’s not important. Go. Learn to fill Uncle’s boots.”

Grimacing, Fili shook his head. “You know I’ll never be able to do that.”

“Of course you will,” Kili protested. “And you have tons of time to learn how. Go. I’ll see you later.”

Fili nodded and patted Kili on the shoulder. He cast a quick smile at Tauriel before limping heavily into the conference room, his eyes already going back to the stack of papers in his hands.

Kili shook off the odd feeling of loneliness. Fili had never not had time to spend with him before. Oh well. It was just this once, right? And he had Tauriel after all. He grinned up at her and reached a hand out to her. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go take a bunch of little humans outside for some cold, wet fun.”

Tauriel returned his grin with a smile and they rushed off to find as many children as possible to take outside.

They found the Bardlings first. After explaining his idea, Bain and Tilda exclaimed their enthusiastic approval. Sigrid shook her head at her siblings’ antics but agreed to play in the snow as well. Soon, they’d rounded up every human under the age of sixteen and quite a few that were older as well. Bofur heard about their scheme and demanded he be included. Bifur tagged along with him. By the time they’d made it out of the gates, a few other off-duty dwarrow had joined in the group. Even Nori had somehow appeared in their midst.

They made snowmen and other sculptures, dug out snowdrifts to make little caves, and flopped over in the snow, enjoying it all to the utmost. When the smallest children decided they’d had enough and went back inside, those that remained started organizing themselves into two teams for a snowball fight.

“You can’t be on your One’s team, Lad,” Bofur said, pulling Kili away from Tauriel.

“You can’t expect me to hit her, can you?” Kili demanded. “She’s my One.”

“Better figure it out quickly,” Nori said as he brushed fresh snow out of his three peaks of hair. “She’s not going to have the same misgivings.”

“Of course she-” Snow burst against his shoulder, sending chunks of it spraying all over his side and up into his hair and on his cheek. He whipped his head to the side to see Tauriel standing a short way off with Sigrid and Bain at her sides.

“Are we going to have a snowball fight or are we going to stand around gabbing like a bunch of gossiping old biddies?” Tauriel demanded and leveled a confident smirk at Kili.

His jaw dropped momentarily and snow dripped off his cheek onto his coat. Tauriel flung her second snowball and he barely had the time to lift his arm to guard his face. He grinned widely and scooped up his own snow. “Damn, I’m a lucky dwarf,” he said and threw his own snowball.

It was later agreed that the three-hour battle that ensued was the most intense warfare anyone had experienced where blood wasn’t shed. Before long, the teams dissolved into a free-for-all, dwarf against dwarf, human against human, elf against everyone. No one landed a single hit on Tauriel except for Nori who managed to sneak up behind her and whack her solidly between the shoulder blades while she held Bain in a headlock and shoved a handful of snow down the back of his coat as he shrieked in laughter and protest.

He paid for his treachery dearly when Tauriel released Bain.

Kili laughed until tears ran down his freezing cheeks as they all trooped back inside for some warm dinner. Nori strutted in front of him, wearing his entirely decimated hairstyle and mussed beard like a badge of honor.

“Playing in the snow was a wonderful idea,” Tauriel told Kili as they took their places at a table, warm bowls of a hearty chicken and dumpling soup in hand.

Looking around at all the ruddy cheeks, large grins, and laughing people in the room, he had to agree.

~*~*~

Tea was weird.

Kili really didn’t understand the appeal. Never had. Probably never would, but having afternoon tea (whatever that was) with Bilbo did give him the opportunity to ask for help.

“You can’t tell Uncle Thorin what I’m about to ask.” Kili hedged after asking Bilbo for a favor and getting an uncertain response. “He’ll be unhappy with me if you do.” That was an understatement.

Bilbo gave him a look of interest. “Well now,” he said, “you can’t start a conversation that way and expect me not to wonder at what I’m agreeing to. What is it?”

Kili set his teacup down and rubbed his hands together, trying to gather his courage. He’d never heard of any dwarf asking for this. Could he be thrown out of Erebor for wanting it? He was already considered strange with his stubbly, barely-there beard (but it was there, by Mahal!), his lean and tall stature, and his affinity for the bow (but everyone needed to stop picking at that. Even Uncle used a bow for hunting). This, this was just about as undwarflike as he could get. Still, he wanted to do something nice. “Would you teach me to speak Sindarin?” Kili finally asked and held still, waiting for Dwalin to come into the room and haul him out to throw him out of the mountain. It never happened.

“I see.” Bilbo’s smile was a little too knowing for Kili’s taste and he tried not to scowl in response. “I assume you want to be able to talk to Tauriel in her native tongue. Why not ask her to teach you?”

Kili had thought of that. He really wanted to learn from her. It would mean more time with her. But this wasn’t the time for that. “I’d like to surprise her. Will you help me?” His hand went to his pocket where a cluster of plain beads sat, waiting to be gifted to his One.

Bilbo patted the hand Kili had left on the table next to his teacup. “Of course I will.” Kili released a breath he’d been holding. “Get a slate and chalk from the desk and we’ll get started. You can help me with my khuzdul at the same time.”

A bitter taste filled Kili’s mouth as he stood to do as Bilbo asked. Bilbo was learning khuzdul. No doubt Uncle had allowed it. No non-dwarf had been allowed to learn it in an Age as far as Kili knew. And here was Bilbo, learning it. He tried to push the resentment down. Bilbo really did need to learn it. He was Thorin���s Consort after all. He’d need to be able to understand all the official ceremonies and read any official documents to understand words spoken in a way that outsiders wouldn’t be able to.

But still.

He had no doubt Tauriel would never be granted permission to learn khuzdul.

He paused briefly at the desk, hand hovering over a piece of chalk as a thought occurred to him. Would she even want to learn?

It didn’t matter. What did, was that a hobbit was allowed to learn their secret language and an elf was not, no matter that they were both part of the royal family. Or would be, once Kili and Tauriel were finally allowed to marry.

Speaking of which, he needed to help Fili find his One and fast, or he and Tauriel would have the world’s longest courtship.

He picked up the chalk and slate and went to sit back down with Bilbo, ready for his first lesson.

He soon surmised that Sindarin wasn’t going to be nearly as easy to learn as he thought it would be. He hunkered down, ready to learn as much as he could, as fast as he could. Tauriel deserved his efforts, he reminded himself as Bilbo explained conjugation. He would do anything for her.

It also helped him keep his mind off Fili and the very small amount he’d seen his brother lately. Even with council meetings currently suspended, Fili was still busy, working harder than ever on his recovery with Oin and helping with keeping the peace amongst the dwarrow and Laketown’s refugees.

Fili’s work was important. But it still left Kili feeling a bit left out when he took the time to reflect on how much time he’d spent with Fili.

Things would settle down though, he told himself as he copied Bilbo, trying to properly shape the words in his mouth. Once the caravans from Ered Luid arrived, there would be more help and Fili would have more time for him.

#my writing #kiliel #hobbit #the hobbit #kili ktuesday #it was supposed to be #cross-posted #also on ao3 #please leave comments

[ohjohnno]

Outrageous Fortune Reviewcap: S1E03 (”A Little More Than Kin”)

So, remember what I said about how Jethro’s lie about being part-Maori gets dropped pretty quickly? Well, it does, but not before we have to sigh and sit through an episode about it. It’s a silly idea from two directions - firstly, Jethro is very clearly white as snow, and secondly there’s no way the law firm at which he clerks would have been that lazy with their background checks - but it does, at least, provide us with a plot that gives the writers a chance to more firmly establish Jethro’s personality, and give us a few more clues into what makes him tick.

Cheryl loves Jethro because he’s a shining example to the rest of the family, proof that it’s possible for a West to go straight and live a life not defined by crime and dysfunction. And he is, accordingly, first seen in this episode working on some sort of legal problem, apparently on behalf of a Maori group who are in a dispute with a corporation (the details are left vague, probably for the better). But he soon falls into a dispute with cocky, intensely irritating fellow law clerk Hugh, who is somehow the only one who’s figured out that Jethro isn’t really Maori and figures he can use it to blackmail him. Jethro’s reaction to this is interesting, and troubling.

Hugh steals a piece of evidence Jethro found, hoping to claim credit for it himself and trusting that he has enough material on Jethro to prevent him from doing anything about it. I don’t think he ever had anything to worry about on that front, though - Jethro seems serious in his moral opposition to snitching (”family thing”, he says) and immediately opts to resolve the issue through dirty means. He gets Hugh drunk while Van and Munter raid his home, taking both the evidence he stole and a good deal more besides; Hugh ends up drunkenly revealing that he’s gay, which Jethro then immediately proceeds to use to turn the tables and blackmail him, trusting that the legal profession is still institutionally homophobic enough that it’ll be enough to keep him off his back.

Now, one might say that fair’s fair, and that Hugh was only reaping what he sowed here. I’m not gonna dispute that, exactly - it’s certainly difficult to feel any sympathy for the asshole, and the fact that he’s just performing heterosexuality doesn’t excuse the creepy way he behaves around women. But one can’t help but imagine that there were probably a whole bunch of ways Jethro could have handled this situation without resorting immediately to the traditional West route, and that depriving Hugh of so much expensive property for the simple crime of trying to take credit for some of Jethro’s work might actually be a teensy bit of an over-escalation. And then there’s the important matter of the qualitative difference between the two blackmails: Hugh is blackmailing Jethro over a lie he’s telling to cynically advance his own career at the expense of members of a disadvantaged minority, while Jethro is blackmailing Hugh over actually being a disadvantaged minority. 

So I don’t buy that this is a justified response. It is, rather, the first real set of evidence we have that Jethro’s apple really didn’t fall very far from the tree after all. He recruits Van into his scheme with full knowledge that Cheryl wouldn’t approve if she knew, fully understanding her mission and choosing to ignore it; he tries to convince his female PA to take Hugh home with her as part of the distraction, not yet knowing that he isn’t heterosexual and not at all caring that he gives her the creeps; and not once does he ever display any guilt for pretending to be Maori in order to receive what Hugh calls “brownie points”, not even when he’s clumsily speaking te reo to their faces. “You are one of them Wests, aren’t you?” says a shocked Hugh at the end; indeed he is, even if Cheryl is blind to it.

Speaking of Cheryl, she is once again the focus of the other main plot here, and it concerns similar themes. She leaves her supermarket job - voluntarily this time - and takes up work with a man called Allen, the husband of her cancer-stricken friend and himself an old friend of Wolf’s. But his motives turn out to be mighty impure, and the result is another mess.

It’s not the most interesting plot the show ever did - it’s a little predictable, honestly - but it does give us more insight into Cheryl’s own personality, and gives us more of a handle on one of her most important flaws. Early in the episode, at a party for the aforementioned friend, a drunk Eric doesn’t take no for an answer and has to be forced off Cheryl by Allen; an attempted sexual assault like that should be an instant friendship-ender, but the moment Eric’s gone Cheryl brushes it off, blaming it on the drink and absolving the man himself. Later, when Allen himself finally gets too horny and starts getting incredibly - and aggressively - inappropriate at work, Cheryl treats it probably far more frivolously than she should, and even after the police (unrelatedly) show up, she continues to insist that he’s a decent man. It’s a permissiveness she must have learned in the course of her marriage with Wolf, and it serves her ill.

It’s ironic, considering how hyper-sensitive she is to the danger of anything similar happening to Pascalle. She finds out that she works as a waitress in a strip club - a truth she presses out of Loretta, who seems remarkably uninterested in exerting any particular effort to maintain the lie - and warns her of the likely ulterior motives of her new boss; Pascalle rejects the counsel (loudly), citing Cheryl’s decision to work for “creepy uncle Allen”, and she does turn out to have something of a point. On the one hand, one totally feels for Cheryl’s concern for Pascalle, considering the latter’s naivete and vulnerability; on the other hand, one totally understands Pascalle, who knows that her mother doesn’t really like or properly respect the direction in which she’s taking her life anyway and is most probably correct to see some moralistic hypocrisy in her motives. Eventually Cheryl does accept Pascalle’s decisions, if only reluctantly, and the two mend the bridge; this is well-timed, because shortly thereafter Cheryl finds several of her other bridges afire.

This, see, is where Wolf comes into it. His part in this episode doesn’t tell us much we couldn’t already at least guess about him, but it is, at least, good to see it properly laid out that he is one of those men who gets incredibly paranoid in his possessiveness about his wife, and that, in turn, suggests things about him that haven’t yet been revealed. 

He’s a real bastard this episode, truly in unapologetic antagonist mode. He correctly guesses what, exactly, it is that Allen wants, even as Cheryl denies it, but he can’t bring himself to trust her to actually deal with it herself; instead, he immediately starts to undermine her, first by contradicting her about Pascalle (expressing approval of her new job, which Cheryl correctly notes would be unthinkable if he’d heard about it first) and then by breaking his own no-snitching code and getting Allen busted for various illegal side-activities, shutting down his entire business and depriving Cheryl of her income. After all his bleating about their children’s futures last episode, it’s instructive to see his priorities laid out: he might, indeed, value those futures, but he values his own possession of his wife’s purity more, and he’s willing to do anything necessary to protect it, no matter how much harm it causes. Of course, the fact that a man who assumes his woman would cheat on him at first opportunity is most probably projecting his own personal history goes unmentioned by any of the characters in the episode, but it’s hanging in the background nonetheless, especially considering what he knows about his friend Allen. ”Can’t keep his dick in his pants”, indeed - judge a man by the company he keeps.

This finally wears Cheryl down to breaking point, and her usual tolerance for Wolf’s malfeasance dries up. Her confrontation with him at the end, dressed expensively, is brilliant; Wolf’s first thought is not of her, but of him, and you can tell by the way his first reaction upon seeing her is to immediately and dangerously look round at all his fellow inmates to make sure they aren’t checking her out before accusatorily asking her why she’s dressed to invite their potential stares. Cheryl says she doesn’t wanna see him for a while; Wolf does his best to look like he’s just accepting it, but you can tell it gets to him. And yet for all his sadness, he still doesn’t seem particularly introspective; his self-confidence is too great to be truly pierced by any one thing, even this. 

For the most part, that’s it for the episode. Loretta appears just long enough to get perved at by an inmate, drop her sister in the shit and drop a couple of her usual zingers, including one satisfyingly aimed at Eric; Ted remains a mince-joke machine and nothing else. Wayne Judd appears briefly, being less confrontational with Cheryl than he was before (take note of this). The school headmistress reminds us all that she’s Jethro’s girlfriend, a fact I forgot to mention until now because it hasn’t been important yet. The next episode will feature every important character (save Ted, who has a few episodes to go yet) in important roles, and it happens to be one of my favorite episodes in the entire show. Onward!

#antonia prebble #siobhan marshall #antony starr #robyn malcolm #grant bowler #television #outrageous fortune #frank whitten #rachel lang #gutter black #nz

[kurtty-drabbles]

Life is wonderful au

N/A: To be clear here, this idea is thanks to a horror video I saw and to make the timeline easier Zaorva knows she is Zaorva, in this world, she will born again as human just to have fun, there´s no squidboy here. This won´t have a plot, per se, is just Zaorva having fun.

@djinmer4 @sailorstar9 @dannybagpipesarecalling @discordsworld @look-ma-no-hands336

If Terry could have even imagined that this is how her romantic getaway would be she would have stayed at home. Cameron book a nice room in a hotel that...has no one, only creepy sounds and that leads Terry to where she is.

Turning back the pendulum a bit, Terry recalls her lack of better judgment that leads into this mess.

"This is a big hotel, where is everyone?" Terry did ask and Cameron assured her this is fine, they arrive late and he knows the people in this hotel.

In the room, Terry did listen to odd noises, and Cameron would often belittle her, until, black hooded figures appear and they gentle take Terry as she weights nothing. Cameron did nothing and only nod at them saying his debt is paid.

She is now sitting in a chair in the middle of all the hooded figures and is very unsettling. The leader, or so it seems, spoken with a firm voice without falter, in her opinion, his speech seems rehearsed.

"Teresa Pryde, you are hereby chosen to be the mother of mothers" Terry now knows they´re perverts is this one of those freaky sex clubs? Terry is not a MILF. Someone seems to be getting what´s she getting an elbow the leader hard. "I mean, you´re chosen to be the mother of life itself, Miss Pryde, you´re far worthy than all of us"

"I´ll call the police you freaks," she said and to her luck, they didn´t tie her up, but, there´s nothing she can use as a weapon. They didn´t move an inch.

"We don´t want to hurt you, Miss Pryde" someone mutters the leader could start with this line. "We just want to fulfil the wishes of our god"

As the woman is looking for a way out, the leader tries a new approach, and this time Miss Pryde is listening. "Psiu, miss, you´re ruining our scene" he whispers and Terry is confused. "This is a new TV Show called Bust it, we take couples into a scary situation and if the boyfriend comes to save the girlfriend they win, if not they lose"

Terry frowns. "One, I didn´t give permission for filming and I had no clue this could happen and second, Cameron ditch me..is clear he won´t save me"

This makes the leader take the hood out and shout cut pretty loud as cameras can be seen and the others follow suit. "Wait, Cameron told us you are up for a love test...you didn´t know anything?"

"NO!"

Terry is calling to her family and explaining the situation, channel 43 is behind this show and she´s not pleased with all, but, is much better than be captured by a cult.

The leader offer water to Terry to drink. A cab is called and the woman is sent home safely as the crew members watch the woman go. Now, the leader is making some calls. "Mission complete, she did drink the potion, now, you must do a new tv show called busted...yes, I had to use that card. As for Cameron...yes, let´s use plan B"

A few weeks later, Terry finds out she´s pregnant and Cameron is out of town and her life, so, Terry Pryde will be a single mother, and, will have to take a job to support herself and the baby.

"Oh, but, if before getting a job was hard, imagine now?"  Terry laments with her own mother as the job marketing is not easy for anyone.

But to her total, surprise, several companies are hiring and they want Terry to work with them, Terry does recall sending her cv to them, but, in this modern world, maybe they saw her social media and got interested.

The "Inflex" is a pharmaceutic company that has ties in India and Germany, well, it was a successful collaborative and is going strong, so, when they offer a job Terry was a bit sceptical as she clearly has no skills to join this company...yet, this happens.

"Miss Pryde?" the man asked and then he makes some calls. Terry watches as the man only says yes to the phone, then, hangs up and looks at Miss Pryde. "You´re hired"

Terry blinks and nods as the man calls to his secretary to send all the other candidates away. Terry is grateful and suspicious at the same time. There are stories of powerful men that hire a woman to harass her.

Her belly is getting big and each time she arrives in the company people look at her funny. One time, she overheard some co-workers talking about paychecks and Terry realizes that as a secretary she ears more, in fact, she is getting more money then a regular executive and she´s doing almost to nothing.

"I quit," Terry said once is getting clear this company is using her for something. Her paychecks are too high, she has too many privileges and they all talk about her with such reverence ...it is almost as if she´s the Virgin Mary.

"Fraulein Pryde wants to leave us?" a man asked with turtle glass as being the most definitive trait on his face. Terry can´t help by feeling there´s something fake on this man...as if he wears a mask.

"Yes, I´d and you can´t stop me"

The man offers a cruel smile, but, to her surprise, he nods. "No, I cannot, then Miss Pryde, I wish you good luck" and that smile...is not right on Terry´s book.

Terry leaves quickly and more jobs opportunities open to her. Opportunities to work on the sea seem tempting, but, Terry ended up working as a journalist in a newspaper.

Kitty Pryde is born and Terry can´t be any happier as right now. The doctors are making calls in pleasure. "Active part 3 of the plan, she´s here" Terry is oblivious of all that as she´s holding little Kitty, she could swear the new baby is understanding Terry...

Years late, Kitty Pryde is a healthy and lovely little girl that is going to school. She´s a bit of hippie girl and the teachers can´t say anything bad at the little girl, well, teacher Alfonso can. Alfonso teaches math.

The man comes from Brazil and seems to have a burning hatred for children, often belittling them and their intelligence and Kitty? Is an odd fish that he wants to fry.

The man gives a big F on her test and even make commentaries about her intelligence and feels a sense of superiority, after all, he´s the teacher if he says she´s dumb...she´s dumb.

Alfonso is walking on the school halls, you see, he wants to grade his newest school´s grade to his students and want to make this a grand event. Kitty is his favourite target, oh Alfonso will have fun in showing everyone her failures.

"They can´t do anything. I´m a god in this class" Alfonso thought to himself in the safety of his mind.

"Really?" A reply echoes in his mind amused. "You´re god, why? Because you gave me an F?!"

Alfonso stops on his track as now he realizes the school hall is different. The hall´s wall has a liver, in fact, the walls have eyes and mouth and Alfonso let the paper drop on the floor. A tongue takes the paper and eats it fastly.

The floor has a mouth.

"Gods do much more than give F, that´s actually really funny, you think you can hit me" the voice echoes again and the hall morphed into something worse, a Japanese city, well, he can guess it is a Japanese city by the look of traditional houses.

Ballons float nearby and they speak in a high speech voice for Alfonso to hold the ballon. To hold and die. Alfonso notices the dead bodies that still hold the string of the balloon.

"Little human, math means nothing here" Kitty´s voice can be tracked but her face is full of cracks and her smile is far away from being remotely human.

"What is this?" Alfonso asked noticing his hands start to mutated into something akin to a snail, snails have no arms, so, his arms are big snails now.

"You didn´t figure it out? Well, that´s a big F for you!"

______________________________________

Kitty Pryde waves at her mother. Is time to go home. As Kitty approaches her mother the gossip that the other mothers are spreading with ardour. "And Terry that is shocking news, professor Alfonso just run away to be with his lover just like that"

Terry is not one for gossips but she has to admit, this story is interesting. "Leave all behind to be with your lover? Sounds romantic on paper, but, in reality...he was a fool, and his girlfriend or boyfriend is too"

"Yeah," Kitty suggests "he´s a fool that thought to be a god"

"Such silly man" Terry nods and soon the two went home, no one notices the snail that is on the school hall.

#life is wonderful au #alfonso is based on my real math teacher and he really did all of that #kitty pryde #zaorva´s cult is smart #where is Cameron? #the guy saying fraulein is LK in disguise #lovecraft kurt #zaorva just want to have fun

[wikshots-blog]

     ( lisa teige, 22, female ) by chance have you met NOVA WIKSTRÖM yet? i hear SHE has lived in PIONEER SQUARE for THREE WEEKS and works as a SPORTS & FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER. i’m surprised you haven’t met them yet but for when you do, i hear they can be quite SCATTERBRAINED but also OBSERVANT. for whatever reason they remind me of CEASELESS MOVEMENT OF HAIR & FEET & HANDS, SILVER RINGS ON DELICATE FINGERS, DOING ANYTHING TO GET THE PERFECT SHOT. ( lias, 20, they/them, est )

THE STORY

--- nova and her older brother aksel ( 24 ) are both swedish ( technically a mix but a too complicated mix of norwegian and swedish to really pick out the percentages -- not that it really matters ). she was born in trondheim, NOR and her brother in örnsköldsvik, SWE, but they were both raised in the north america : minnesota in their earliest years, then london ON, and washington dc as their father jumped from coaching gig to coaching gig for various different teams. they spent and still spend their summers/long breaks in a lakehouse in sweden just outside of örnsköldsvik ( that was always nova’s favorite time of year ).

--- the money in their family comes from the men playing hockey. their father rasmus wikström had a lengthy 15 year career in the nhl as a third/fourth line winger ; not one of the superstars, no, but respectable as a player, wore an A more often than not, and made a few million every season in the process, as you do. but the true superstar in the family is aksel, drafted 9th overall in the 2013 draft by the canucks, who then had an unpredicated breakout season in the first half of the season in the ahl, got called up to the nhl and never went back. teams are still kicking themselves for passing him up. he’s three years into a six year, seven million dollar contract — and he’s proving that he should have asked for even more.

— nova was nothing like her brother. her brother was one-track, laser focused on one dream his entire life… meanwhile nova had no clue what she’s doing. she’s good at plenty of things ( drawing, writing, lacrosse, math, yes– even hockey ) but she never pursued any of them hard enough to become EXCELLENT at any of them. jack of all trades, master of none, right?? she’s never been able to focus on one thing in her entire life, probably because she gets bored easily.

— this in particular led to her outcast in her own family. their mom especially started pushing nova to find “her passion” freshman year of high school, because she believed that everyone should have a life plan. but nova had no interest in trying to figure it out and it only led to more arguments and tension in the household, which turned to long silences with curt comments undermining nova’s character. her father was mostly absent, too busy coaching or something else, too busy to really care about his non-hockey playing child. aksel was the only one in the family she really got along with because he never pushed her, put up with her sometimes meaningless rambles, and seemed to be the only one who understood her and with her brother now gone to the other side of the country, nova felt like she had no one to talk or turn to.

--- nova graduated high school quietly and still had no idea what she wanted to do with her life ( save for get out of her parents’ house ) ; no college plan, no nothing. luckily, aksel provided an easy out for her : allowing her to stay with him at his apartment in vancouver. it was in that first year after graduating that she bought her first camera.

--- she had taken a couple photography classes in high school and had enjoyed it well enough, but had never felt the need to pursue it. however now, with her camera in hand and aksel cheekily telling her to get some good shots of him on the ice, nova accidentally fell in deep love with the art. she excelled at it --- sports photography, hockey in particular since she knew the sport so well. so much of it is predicting and HOPING for the perfect shot.

--- nova had no want for connections, the path for her to get a media passes and access for behind the scenes business was easily afforded to her given her relation to her brother. and the season after that, she found herself part of the canucks photography team and only getting better. in the off-seasons, she honed her talent on other things --- freelance work and other things, though nothing thrilled her as much as sports photography and the unpredictability of it all. it kept her on her toes like nothing else and for that she enjoyed it.

--- she was quite content with her position ; she and aksel continued to share an apartment --- her practically rent free, since aksel needed rather little help to pay for it ( though of course, it left her vulnerable to dumb favors he asked of her, that she did begrudgingly with a roll of her eyes ). summers were spent back home in sweden by the lake -- the whole family together somewhat peacefully, their differences seemingly less severe with so much time spent apart...

--- until this summer. she hadn’t been planning on taking a position with the seahawks ; but the opportunity arose and when she made the final cut, she accepted. it was better maybe than her typical freelance summer work, and she was starting to desire a bit of CHANGE. she put a security deposit down on an apartment not far from the stadium and drove down in the car aksel at bought her for her 21st birthday. she doesn’t know where this will take her ( and it’ll be a little odd living alone again ) but she’s ready to see where it does.

MISC

— nova and her brother are fluent in swedish and conversational in norwegian. she has a slight accent when she returns in the fall from sweden ( mostly from speaking swedish all summer ), but it fades out pretty quickly.

— she drives an orange subaru crosstrek like the sporty legend she is ( jk not a legend, but she does drive a crosstrek ). the car was a birthday present from aksel last summer. she’ll drive up to vancouver occasionally still to check on aksel’s apartment and bc she misses the city a little.

--- nova runs a blog where she’s been documenting her time living with aksel ( with his permission ). it’s typically more candid photos with funny memoir-type short pieces she writes when inspired. she’s not sure what will come of the blog now.

--- her freelance ‘company’ is called WIKshots.

--- she almost always carries around a small unlined notebook with her that she writes or draws in. she’s forgetful even at the best of times and find if she thinks of something genius, she better jot it down quickly.

--- she’s almost always moving : tapping feet, jittery fingers, shifty eyes --- the only time she’s truly still is when she’s taking photos, but even that’s it’s only for the briefest moment. nova will also do anything to get the perfect shot, no matter how crazy she might look ( climbing onto things, laying on the ground in a busy street, truly anything ).

--- she almost always wearing four ( technically five ) rings, all silver :                       left middle: 2 delicate blue topaz w/ a thin band                       left thumb: braided spinner ring                       right index: thin chevron                       right ring: TBA but her brother gave it to her on her 18th bday

WANTED CONNECTIONS

--- i’m not sure how it turns out, but their first impression of nova is her doing something ridiculous to get That Shot.

--- gimme all the people in pioneer square that she keeps running into

--- someone who kinda grounds her : she’s so flighty and hard to keep track of sometimes -- with her brother out of the picture in seattle, it’s only going to be worse. give me someone who understands that but also works to keep her grounded when times. someone to be that rock...

--- long shot, but i’d love for her to interact with ppl who know who her brother is ( like... the aksel wikström, one of the young stars of the vancouver canucks ).

--- i love slow burn romo plots but i also have to gauge chem between our muses first

--- anything at all !!

#206.intro

[buttersbots]

Energy Vampires Timeline

This is a masterpost of my stories about the lives of Nos-4-a2 and Eve Two in chronological order. It’s a whopper! Check out the dA version here for the most comprehensive version (all the ficlets are placed separately instead of being lumped together in to “Energy Vampire Shorts (AO3) (FF.net)”).

Also, you’ll notice there are very few tumblr links. That’s because most of the tumblr posts are only outgoing links themselves. Not really here for notes, just want to get as much exposure as possible because I have an undying thirst for validation nothing makes me happier than talking about my stories!

2778    -Nos-4-a2 is created. (The chronological order of his episodes from Buzz Lightyear of Star Command would make the most sense in the order of “Nos-4-a2,” “The Slayer,” “Dirty Work,” “Wirewolf,” and “Revenge of the Monsters,” the events of which would span over several years.) He is rebuilt by one of Zurg’s Brain Pods, who wanted to escape Planet Z. Things did not go as planned, and Nos-4-a2 left on his own. 2805    -The Axiom lands on Earth after the events of Wall•E. Robots and Humans work together to remove the decay and rebuild a stable society.    -More Buy n’ Large space liners begin returning to Earth and colonies grow all over the planet.    -The study of robotics explodes as Humans come to realize that the automatons have evolved to be their co-dominant species, and many new advances are made in establishments such as the Axiom Robotics Laboratory (ARL). 2807    -“Humanity” (dA) (AO3) 2825    -Several Bn’L space cruisers refuse to return to Earth because they agree with Shelby Forthright’s ruling that the planet is beyond hope, and life in space is much easier. They ally with the Larreb, an aggressive race of space-dwelling creatures with advanced weaponry, to conquer the colonies and leave Earth to decay.    -Casualties are immediate and abundant for the unprepared Earth. Out of the five EVE Probes from the Axiom, only Two and Four remain. Sturdy systems of underground complexes left behind from the 22nd century are reinforced and used as safe houses for the beings who cannot fight. Four, in the interest of keeping her last remaining sister safe, accompanies Two and lives in one of the safe houses with her. 2828    -After 3 long years of hiding, Four sneaks away with intentions of escaping the war-torn Earth. Two is heartbroken at the loss of her last sister, fearing the worst. 2829    -The First War ends with the assistance of the Galactic Alliance through Star Command, who were searching for the Larreb. Earth is submitted to the Galactic Alliance for protection and trade.    -To the shock of all who knew of Wall.E and Probe One’s story, One is found to be alive on one of the captured rebel ships as a slave, and though she is damaged after 4 years of neglect, she is functional and alive. Two is elated to see one of her sisters again, and Wall.E, who had become depressed and distant after the loss of his one true love, is indescribably happy to be with her once more. 2830    -Two leaves Earth to search for Four despite One’s return, feeling partially responsible for not being able to convince Four that escaping was a bad idea. Two knows that Four’s chances of survival were nearly nonexistent after so many years, but she refuses to give up hope. 2832    -Two’s search becomes more of an escape from Earth and all of the painful memories of her lost sisters with no trace of Four to be found. Her wandering leads her to the planet Trade World, where she meets Nos-4-a2. The Energy Vampire, who has never encountered any Earthling technology before Two, attempts to capture her. When he finds that he can’t wirelessly control her will like he can with other robots, he uses force to imprison her on his ship and study what makes her immune to his power.    -Meanwhile on Earth, re-reconstruction is progressing and scientific study is resumed, with robotics still the most popular field. Wall.E and One are the first robots to successfully use an artificial reproduction program that had been in development before the war started to have a daughter. They name her Willow after One’s favorite garden. 2833    -In the time Nos spends finding out why his powers don’t work on Two, he realizes that she is just as sentient as he is, making him rethink his purpose. The relationship between him and Two turns from villain-and-victim to mutual wariness, though neither robot despises the other.    -“Pick Your Poison” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -Even though he has loosened his grip on her, Two decides not to run from Nos-4-a2 because he orbits Trade World, the biggest information center she could hope for that might give her some clue as to where Four might be. Nos-4-a2 decides not to consume Two’s energy because she’s different than any other robot he’s met (in that she’s the only one he’s taken time to know) and he doesn’t mind her company, though they both get on each others’ nerves. 2834    -Nos and Two are no longer on bad terms, but pretend to be when other villains are around so Nos-4-a2 can retain his reputation. Two convinces Nos to stop eating robots.  They have become friendly enough to trust each other. 2835    -“When You Taught Me How to Dance” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -Nos and Two, spending most of their time alone in Nos-4-a2’s ship since Two convinced him not to eat robots, begin falling in love.    -Nos struggles to find a way to safely quit being a villain and take Two somewhere she’ll be safe.    -“Paradox” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) 2836    -“Acts of Love” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -Nos resolves to go to Earth and settle down with Two, but Star Command captures them under the impression that he’s still evil. After a series of tests and trials, Nos is proven to be a changed man.    -Nos-4-a2 is processed through a standard relocation program for converted villains put into place after Shiv Katall’s demise. He buys a large plot of land in the capitol of the Axiom Colony so Two can be close to her remaining family, and before they depart, he proposes to her. She accepts and they’re married before they reach Earth.    -“Alloy” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -“Marriage: Day 2” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -“Honeymoon” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) 2837    -Because they have no source of income after the funds from the relocation run out, Nos-4-a2 decides to go into the business of what he knows best: energy. He starts to convert their extra storage space into a laboratory of sorts and formulates power cells, the design of which he sells to electronics companies (his alien knowledge of power is unknown and valuable on the newly emerging Earth). Two goes to work at a nursery.    -“Ficlet: New” (tumblr) (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -“Good Morning” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) 2839    -“Communication” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -“In the Library” (dA) 2841    -“Long Nights” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) 2842    -“Nightmare” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) 2843    -“Charming” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) 2845    -“Vampirism” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -While the couple is visiting Borton Colony (located in the eastern part of modern-day Canada), Two sustains life-threatening damage to her fuel cell in a sudden snowstorm.  Nos-4-a2 knows that she won’t make it to the ARL Repair Ward in time, so he turns her into an Energy Vampire to make her more independent of her fuel cell. Two becomes the second true Energy Vampire.    -“Ficlet: Fathers’ Day” (tumblr) (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -“Stretch” (dA)    -“The Announcement” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -Two becomes pregnant due to an unforeseen adjustment in her system settings after turning. 2846    -“Time Off” (dA)    -“Fat” (dA)     -“Dark Matters” (dA) (FF.net) 2847    -“Soft” (dA) (FF.net)    -“Speaking Silences” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -“Welcome to Earth” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -After a 14 month pregnancy, Fletcher is born to the infinitely happy Nos-4-a2 and Two.    -Mysterious minor malfunctions have begun to affect Two: sudden episodes of hallucinations that play from her memory banks. Her engineer, Dr. Darickson, doesn’t understand the source, but attempts to find a way to solve the problem. Vivid nightmares occasionally ensue but life carries on for the new parents.    -“Fledgling” (dA) (AO3)    -“Hand in Hand” (dA) 2851    -“Sweet Dreams” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) 2852    -“5,000 Lights” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)

2853    -“The Vampires Down the Street” (tumblr) (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -“Lost Cause” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) (tumblr)

2855    -“Fletcher’s First Experiment” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)

2857    -Fletcher shows great interest in science, especially botany, which he inherited from Two’s original programming. Nos-4-a2 and Two are proud of their son’s emerging talents, but worry about his lack of success at school and the fact that he only has one close friend.    -Two still suffers from malfunctions, though she’s learning how to keep them under control. 2858    -“Jessie” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) 2860    -“Lost Cause” (tumblr) (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) 2863    -After struggling in school for as long as he was enrolled, Fletcher barely graduates and helps his father engineer power cells, though he specializes in biofuel. 2866    -“The Solution” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) 2868    -Fletcher decides that he’s more attracted to humans than robots. He travels to another colony on a trip and, without his parents knowledge (or permission), alters his frame and has legs along with other human anatomy installed. Two is shocked, Nos-4-a2 is furious. Fletcher makes it known that he is not changing back and a mutual begrudging agreement is reached amongst them.    -Two still struggles with occasional malfunctions. 2876    -Many years have passed since Two gave up on her search for Four, but she is shocked to the point of crashing when Four suddenly returns, having unknowingly escaped Earth and survived through the kindness of a family of aliens (which will be described in more detail later). One, Two and Four celebrate their reunion with much rejoicing.    -Fletcher is making great use of his new hardware, though he can’t keep a relationship. He continues to experiment at home with things such as engineering a super acidic species of apple. 2883    -Fletcher leaves the family business to work at the ARL, where he joins a team Dr. Darickson had put together to study Energy Vampires. 2889    -Dr. Darickson conducts a study to discover more about how an Energy Vampires’ systems work, but one of the members of his team realizes that there’s a serious problem with Two’s operating system. More research shows that it’s the cause of her malfunctions, and Fletcher has to help find a resolution before the problem gets out of hand. All of the sharpest minds of the ARL work together to create Unify, a program that rids Two of her malfunctions forever and provides more insight to the alien technology of Energy Vampires. 2890    -Nos-4-a2 and Two renew their vows after the recent scare with her operating system. 2936    -“Meet Asteri” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) 2954    -After a long friendship, Fletcher and Asteri start dating. 2971    -Fletcher and Asteri get married. 2983    -Fletcher and Asteri leave Earth to travel the surrounding star systems, using a pool of money that Fletcher had been saving to fund their trip.    -Nos-4-a2 and Two feel lost with their son out of the house, but continue their work.  Two has secured a high position in her job at the nursery while Nos-4-a2 has become a highly reputable contact to many energy companies.

2994    -“Ficlet: Wear and Tear” (tumblr) (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)

3050    -Fletcher and Asteri return to Earth when Asteri becomes pregnant.    -“I’ll be Home for Christmas” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) 3051    -Nos-4-a2 and Two’s first grandchild, Toby, is born.    -Fletcher and Asteri move into the mansion to raise their family, and Fletcher goes back to work at the ARL to reestablish a team to study Energy Vampires in the hopes of making turning a less painful process. 3053    -“Fall” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) 3076    -Fletcher and Asteri have their second child, a girl named Mel.

3077    -“Ficlet: Grandbabysitting” (tumblr) (dA) (AO3) (FF.net) Over the 42nd to 45th centuries    -“Like We Used To” (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)    -“Like Snowflakes” (dA)    -“Golden Season” (dA)    -Earth has reached a golden age of education and exploration, establishing itself in the galaxy as a center of trade and culture. It’s an important member of the Galactic Alliance.    -The system of land changes from colonies (with Axiom as the capitol) to countries, each divided into provinces. The governments differ between each country. Axiom keeps its system as a democracy with councils in each province.    -The Energy Vampires have expanded to be a large family with the oldest members still living in the original mansion, many estates branching out around it as their population increases. The entire race becomes known for their exceptional skills with electrical engineering.    -Nos-4-a2 and Two are invited onto the council of their province (the capitol province of Axiom), along with others who have lived on Earth since the inception of the colonies. 5970    -Two passes away. 6084    -Nos-4-a2 passes away.

Stories that don’t take place at any particular time    -“Ficlet: Escapist” (tumblr) (dA) (AO3) (FF.net)

#timeline #Nos-4-a2 x Eve Two #i am still not quite satisfied with the organization but iT'S BETTER THAN NOTHING #this is a living document but i usually only have the energy to update it every couple months #robot rights propaganda