#fun fact: next chapter involves Pearl a lot

[ajoraverse]

Tales from Beta Kindergarten III: Maturation

Chapters 1 and 2, Confession and Rupture: On FF.net // AO3.

Summary: It's been over four thousand years since the Gem War ended earlier than expected. It is, perhaps, too long a time with the same group of gems for Jasper's peace of mind.

These are Chapters 1 and 2 of 5, and Part 3 of 5 (maybe 6 or more depending on how well the other parts go over). Parts 2-4 focus pretty much exclusively on the Beta gems adapting to Earth over 5000 years, with guest appearances from the Crystal Gems.

#SU: Beta AU #ajora writes stuff #fun fact: next chapter involves Pearl a lot

[osrasaskblog]

Well, guys.

I really hoped that I wasn't going to make this post, but I'm afraid it needs to be done.

I started writing Opal, Sapphire, Ruby, and STEVEN! in 2016, when I was in high school. I loved the characters of Opal and Ruby and Sapphire and I wanted to see more of them than what was in the show. I was curious, what would it be like if they had swapped places with Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl? How would those different personalities work together? How different would things be if they were the characters that we followed? I would have loved to read a fic of it.

And then I figured, well, hey, why don’t I write a fic of it?

So I took to my little writing tablet and started up my new story. And I had so much fun doing it. I loved writing Ruby, who was a spitfire but also had a gentle heart. I loved writing Sapphire, who was cool and composed but always warmed up to her friends, especially Steven. I loved writing Opal, who was just so many things at once—a calm leader, but also a goofball, a wise war hero but also a cool aunt-like figure. Most of all I loved to write Steven, who was just so funny, a goofy and adorable kid who was also shouldering the responsibility of a world on his shoulders.

It was so relaxing to write these little episodic chapters, especially as the quiet kid in class who could never stay too far from her works-in-progress. I knew back then that I was going to be a writer someday, because I had this deep, passionate need to create stories and characters. But without an original idea of my own yet, I loved writing fanfiction. I think why I love to write fanfiction so much is because even though there’s something already there, I’m taking it and reforming it. I guess it’s kind of like those “finish this picture” pages in coloring books. There’s something already there, but you finish it—you decide what it will be. Is this pretentious? Maybe. I’m not always great with words, ironically.

So I wrote all these short chapters with this new set of characters, and I thought, I’m going to change things up. I didn’t just want it to be different characters saying and doing the exact same thing as the original story—I didn’t want to copy-paste the episodes scripts and use the “replace” tool to change the names. I came up with new backstories for the Crystal Gems. I looked at the original episodes and thought of how I could tweak them, mix them up a little bit.

The chapters started to get longer and longer because of this, and my own writing style developing a lot. Instead of just no-beta keyboard smashing between my classes, I actually sat down and wrote things out, put in more descriptions, more dialogue, etc. And for a really long time I thought that the same-but-different format of the story was a good thing. I thought it was fun to write new characters in new situations, while also having that familiarity—many reviewers would comment things like “I can’t wait to see how they’ll react to X!” or “I can’t wait until we get to [insert episode here]!” That was originally the whole point of the story—different situations, same characters.

I enjoy reading through my work sometimes. Though, I’ve said to several people that I avoid the first chapters of OSRAS because I just think my work was so subpar back then. And again, I liked the same-but-different story I had written. It was fun, it was simple.

Then things started to get different. When? Well, I can’t really pinpoint it, but if I had to guess:

I recall, though, as I was writing “The Ocean” (which was posted around the same time as the “Bismuth” episode) that something was off. Even though I enjoyed writing the fic, this chapter was my first curveball—because in the show, “Mirror Gem/Ocean Gem” is a gamechanger. It changes everything that had been established already, introduced a new character, and set a different tone from the series so far. And in writing this arc for OSRAS, I realized that I…didn’t really have much to offer.

The episodes were very Steven-and-Lapis centric. The Crystal Gems weren’t involved very much. So…what was really the point of writing it? Because the readers already know what’s going to happen. Even back then I looked at the chapters I wrote and thought, this doesn’t have that same-but-different appeal. It’s just the same. What about Steven talking to Lapis in the whirlpool was different from him talking to her atop the pillar of water?

Afterwards, the show started getting into its “everything is changing” point in Season 3. Soon after “Bismuth” came “Back to the Moon,” where we find out Rose shattered Pink Diamond. This was a big “oh crap” moment. Finding out that there was a Pink Diamond was a big “oh crap” moment, because this was when the fandom was at its peak of theorizing.

And even though I kept writing the fic, I was trying to figure out how I was going to tackle this. Because there was no way to get that shock into the fic. It would just be Steven reacting to something the readers already knew. No shock. No drama. Just marking stuff off the checklist. It happened in the show, so it would happen in the fic.

The same-but-different appeal didn’t seem like that anymore. It seemed more like a problem than anything. Like I said, reviewers often said stuff like “I can’t wait for this episode!” But one or two did say that they just didn’t feel the same way—that they couldn’t really see a point in writing a fic that was basically just the original series with a few minor tweaks. I don’t like brushing off criticism, in fact I love criticism, but to this I originally just shrugged and said, “Well, that’s what the fic is. Don’t like, don’t read, I guess.”

Now the problem was that I didn’t like it. I found some reprieve when I wrote chapters like “The Common Soldier,” which delved into the entirely-different backstory of Ruby, but then there was “The Test,” “The Invasion,” and “The Jailbreak.” And “The Jailbreak” was like…the point of the whole fic. The big thing that the chapters were leading up to, where Opal would be “revealed” as a fusion and Pearl and Amethyst would make their debut. And again, same-but-different. The readers were seeing what it would be like if they were the fusion instead of Ruby and Sapphire, and it’s fun, right? They’re not expecting to be shocked, they were reading for the “what if”, right? The biggest curveball I threw in that chapter was having Peridot fuse with Lapis instead of Jasper…which I decided to do when I began writing the chapter, so I scurried to figure out where I was going to go with it.

I decided that in the next fic (Twists & Turns) I would decide to amp up the differences. But I stumbled. “The Shock”, ironically, was not a shock. Opal and Steven find the Cluster just like how he and Garnet did. Then “The Mistake”, where even though the reason for Opal and Ruby’s fight was different, there was always going to be a fight. I struggled to find this balance between the familiarity and the need for something different. I figured, yeah, there’s still the desire to see new characters react to the same situations, but what else? That was it.

To try and remedy this problem, I started planning my chapters ahead instead of writing by the seat of my pants like I was. I started getting more and more into making things different. I tried to figure out how to make Chrysocolla different than Malachite, and came up with a “peaceful” resolution as opposed to the action-packed one. I would hit the same story beats, but I thought, the pull will be the different context and motivations.

But…the original series kept going, and we all know how it went. Rose turned out to be Pink Diamond. The Crystal Gems go to Homeworld to confront White Diamond. Steven finally changes her mind. And more than that, all the character arcs are wrapped up. Garnet embraces herself as a fusion, Amethyst finds her self-worth, Pearl decides to fight for herself rather than anyone else, etc, etc. A lot of stuff that just would not carry over to OSRAS. Like, how would I even try to recreate Change Your Mind??? How on earth would I find a way to write the Rose-is-Pink reveal without the readers going yeah, yeah, we know?

So I started to come up with a whole new thing. Or at least, I tried. This is where Star came from. Something completely new, completely original, to set the fic apart from the original series. I knew that I needed to create an ending for the story—and more than that, the characters. Opal, Sapphire, and Ruby all have their own individual stories that would need to be wrapped up.

But all the ideas that I had for the finale of the fic were vague and blurry. Which was really bad, because writing a story when you don’t know how it’s going to end is…very stressful. I realized eventually that I had made a very hellish situation for myself.

I wanted to write a new, original story. But the first ~36 chapters were just an adaptation of the original series.

I feel so awful right now because I feel like I lied to so many of my followers so many times. Some asked if Spinel was going to appear, and I said I think I found a way for her to fit in just fine…and then I dropped that whole idea, and thus lost a place for Spinel. Sometimes I said “I have a plan for how this will work out” when what I meant was “I plan to have a plan for how this will work out.”

So, to summarize:

1.       The original series started to become so lore-heavy that a “same story, different characters” fic was just not going to work.

2.       Even so, that was what the fic had been for a very large time. To write a new and original story, I would still have to work with what I had already done. Like the “finish the picture” page in the coloring book was like 99% done and I had very little space to make something creative.

3.       Because I no longer wanted to do a same-but-different story, I had to let go of the show’s original storyline and come up with my own…while I was already writing the story. Again, I had no ending for the story even though I was posting chapters for it as often as I could.

And I kept doing this for…years. Because I refused to let this fic go. I felt such an attachment to Opal, Ruby, and Sapphire and their stories that I had come up for them. The first fic was 259,004 words long. And Twists & Turns? 305,428. I couldn’t just throw that much work away, I had to salvage it. And more than anything, I still had so many follows, favorites, and bookmarks, readers leaving me reviews, people sending me asks into my inbox. When I went through rough times in my life and was slow on updates, so many readers comforted me, telling me it was okay. And I had people tell me that this fic was…important to them. That it made them happy when they were in rough times.

But the truth was…I just didn’t like this fic anymore.

Sometimes I found myself enjoying it still. Writing Jasper’s redemption arc was truly fun for me, one of my favorite things I’ve ever written. I love writing the comedy style of Steven Universe. I loved writing these characters and their interactions. And yeah, sometimes I would still re-read some of the earlier chapters and enjoy doing so.

But…

Every time I post up a new chapter, I just wish it was something else. Even if I loved Jasper’s redemption arc, Lapis and Peridot’s unique relationship, the fight between Steven and the Crystal Gems, it was like watching good scenes from a bad movie for me. Like yeah, this is nice, and I like it, but when I looked at the bigger picture, I was just disappointed. It felt like the original vision, a very simple and straightforward SU but Opal, Ruby, and Sapphire instead, had just…chained it down. I wanted to be creative, make a story that was original, but each chapter I’ve been posting lately just feels like that 99%-done picture.

And all those ideas for the finale just—never came together. Some became pretty clear. There were things that I came up with that I thought, Oh, that’d be so COOL! But because of what the fic already was, it would have never worked. It would’ve broken the rules of the setting, or it would have come out of nowhere with no buildup. I had a whole lot of puzzle pieces that wouldn’t fit together. The time that I put aside to try and figure this out were just hellish. I have spent hours staring up at the ceiling, trying to figure out how to end this story, and each and every time I’ve walked away with no progress and more stress than I can handle.

I can’t recall what all detail I’ve gone into, but I know I’ve told readers before that life has been stressful for me as of late. Not just with work and school, which are taking huge bites out of my time, but health issues and family issues, too. And it feels so stupid, to say that writing a fic for a children’s TV show was another problem, but the truth was that it was. I already had/have so many things weighing me down and causing me anxiety, and on top of all of them I’ve been putting time aside almost every day to worry about this story.

I’m writing this now after three hours trying to find a way to wrap up this fic and coming up with nothing. The only solution that I can find now, to just stick with the original storyline set up by the show, doesn’t feel like a solution at all. It would still have that huge, glaring problem: I have already seen this, so why should I read it? And probably a large part of that has to do with Steven being the protagonist, and already establishing that he’s going through an arc dealing with trauma and identity issues…just like the show did. Not adding anything new.

On top of the lack of a proper solution, though, the idea of writing three more seasons’ worth of OSRAS fills me with dread. This story, which has no set ending or resolution to its plot (let alone its character arcs), could take me years to finish in that absolutely unsatisfying manner I mentioned. That’s years of writing a story that I only find occasional joy in. Years of dedication to something that I just regret at this point.

So, I guess you figure by now that this is a bit of a farewell. And just writing that makes me feel so shitty. I feel like I’m about to cry now, because even though I’m committing to this decision, and even though I’m feeling relief already, I am wracked with guilt. I feel as though I’m letting so many people down. After months and months of “Sorry for the wait, promise more chapters are coming!” and months and months of “I promise we’re getting to X soon!” now I’m taking that all back. And again, I’ve had people tell me how much this fic means to them. I imagine that some people are going to be reading this, and they’re going to be hurt and angry and betrayed, and I honestly can’t blame them. Not just because I know firsthand how frustrating it is to have a story I really love be discontinued, but because I feel as though I’ve lied to my readers.

Unfortunately, as I said, I’m committing to this. This is just the only solution that I can find to this problem that’s been weighing down on me for years now. OSRAS is always going to mean something to me, because like I said, I did find joy in the characters and the interactions, the dialogue that I came up with. I wrote this story for five years. But the little joys weren’t enough to outweigh the stress. Ideally I want to say something like But maybe one day I’ll figure out a proper ending, but I can’t promise something like that.

WITH ALL THAT BEING SAID...

I’m attempting to work on a revamp at the moment. I still very much like the idea of a swapfic, but I’m going to need to make it from the ground-up. Maybe I’ll make Connie the same character; maybe I’ll put it in a different setting. I still have ideas for Ruby’s story as the last of her kind, and Opal’s unique situation of a fusion by necessity. Like I said, I did have some thoughts for how these could have been resolved, but with the current state of the fic, they wouldn’t be possible.

I’m going to leave the fics up, promise I won’t be deleting them. If anyone wants to ask questions, my inbox is open, but I can’t promise immediate answers. And if anyone wants to message me about plans I did have for the fic, feel free to do so, but I won’t be posting them publicly on the blog. I may revisit them if I ever go for a revamp. And some things I’m going to keep to myself, because they’re ideas that have a stronger chance of being revisited and I’d rather keep them secret.

So this is coming to be about 3,000 words now. And maybe 3,000 words is way too much for a “I’m discontinuing the fic” post, and maybe this is 3,000 words of pure overdramatic whining, but I wanted to give a full explanation here for why I’ve made this decision.

The second-to-last thing I wanted to say is that I’m sincerely sorry to anyone who feels hurt by this. Like I said, maybe one day I’ll try this again after all, but as-is, the state of OSRAS feels like a mess that I can’t fix. Plus I’m going to be a little selfish and do what’s going to relieve me of this stress. All I can say is that I am positive that if I decided to continue this fic, it would have been obvious in the writing that I’d lost my passion for it.

The last thing I wanted to say is a giant THANK YOU to all my readers and followers over the years. Even if OSRAS is over, I want each and every one of you to know that all your reviews, favorites, and bookmarks always made my day a little better. I only hope that if/when I get around to the revamp, it will be so much better than OSRAS was.

So, this is goodbye to OSRAS for now. Again, my sincerest apologies, and my sincerest thanks.

Sincerely, myself, Opal, Sapphire, Ruby, and Steven

[pearlplusau]

Chapter 6 - Part 1, Trip down memory lane

At the crystal gem temple, the sky proceeds its early air breeze and pink hue, the sea proceeds to come and go, the sand proceeds its existence not as grains, but as a land.

The temple door glows, a thin stem but with pointy thorns glow rose from the midst of the door and separated the door left and right. From the pink glow, out comes Coral, stretching and yawning from lying on her neat pile of pink fabric for a few hours. As she walks out of the door, she sees Rose, the leader of the crystal gem, in her glorious white dress and thick fluffy, curly pink hair, standing right at the foot of the warp pad.

“Morning Coral~!” she called out with a tone that makes you think she’s a Disney princess in the woods, “Ready for our new day planned?”

“Of course! What did you have in mind?” Coral questioned, but still standing at the doorway.

“Well, before we actually go, can you recall anything from the, “incident”?” Rose formed her words very carefully, hoping that it won't upset her dear pearl.

“Hmm…” Coral tried to remember, she really does, but all there was between her leaving and coming back on the shore was pitch black, nothing.

It’s been a week since the incident, Coral still couldn’t recall what happened to her, facing some sort of memory loss. “I…I just can’t remember, the only possible reason why I left in the middle of the night is to go for a midnight fabric shopping?”

Rose was worried for her, she even consulted Garnet if there’s anything she saw that involves Coral’s sudden disappearance.

Garnet, the fusion with extraordinary abilities, was unable to see how she couldn’t foresee the incident, nor could she see any upcoming battles or fights in the near future. She’s becoming more frustrated, which decreases her vision clarity day by day. “There wasn’t anything on the night she left, and there isn’t anything dangerous that could be coming our way, or maybe there’s something I’m not factoring in? Hmmm…”

Hearing Coral’s response was not gonna ruin their day planned. For the past week, Coral was invited by Rose to different places, trying to see if there’s any way she can remember anything, but so far, no luck.

“It…it’s okay, don’t worry about that too much.” Rose tried to reassure, to herself more than to Coral. “Let’s start the day, shall we?”

“Ok, where are we going today?” Coral asked, fully awake. They travelled to many places for the past week, and everyday it's somewhere rarely visited, but the experience in travelling with Rose is very, very new.

Rose started to say, “Well, for today, we’ll be-“but she was interrupted before she could finish.

“Pardon the intrusion,” It was Pearl.

Pearl poked her head in from outside, trying her best not to interrupt but failed,  “Rose, can I talk to you for a moment?” Rose turned and saw Pearl, who was trying her best not to throw any daggers at the other pink gem’s direction. “There’s the matter of… corrupted gems. Garnet foresees two giant gem-worms, trolling around the old kindergarten, and she said the best outcome from the capture requires you to be there.”

Pearl however, was initially more concern with Coral and her every step, but after a day or two she got very much over her guilt and tries to forget the incident ever happened, she resumed disregarding her in the more dangerous missions with Garnet, even though she was not keen in breaking her promise to the team leader.

The leader of the crystal gems gently refused the mission, “Apologies my pearl, but I should really focus on Coral’s situation right now, if we don’t find out where or what happened to her, the same thing might happen to the rest of us, and I would not wish for anyone else to suffer whatever Coral went through.”

“But Rose, just look at her, she’s fine, she wasn’t hurt, the warp pad to homeworld is still disabled, there's nothing else for us to worry about.” Pearl tried to reason with the big gem, but her heavy, dark eyes told her there's nothing that she can say that would change her mind.

“I’m sorry Pearl but it looks like you and Garnet are going to take care of the gem monster, I’m sure you two can handle it without me.” Rose threw a quick glance at Coral, urging her to follow her elsewhere.

“Come on Coral, we’ll talk on the way there.” She led the pink gem on the warp pad and they both warped away.

-

The path taken is a lot more... dangerous than the previous adventures they had.

The duo walked until there's a giant mountain of a wall in front of them. Rose gestured to Coral to climb the steep mountain.

“Uhm, Rose, you didn’t have to spend so much time for me, Pearl and Garnet need you more on the gem hunt.” Coral looked nervous, scratching her head, and trying to look away from her leader.

“But, Coral, you're not a waste of time if that’s what you're thinking, your problem is just as important as the gem monster, who’s probably harmless since there's no humans or other earth critters around there.” Rose reassured the pearl and they to climb up the mountain.

It was a long climb, but Coral was upbeat and a lot more energetic after being reassured, and they got to the cave full of Rose’s weapon collection.

“Huh, can’t believe we would need to come back here after the war, '' she watched as her leader walked to the white platform covered in water, a hand size pedestal rose up to the pink gems waist. Rose placed her hand on the top of the pedestal and concentrated, “I’m not looking for weapons, armour, or anything for battle, I just need something that can help me and my situation.”

Behind Coral, a small white box rose up to her ankle.

“Uhh, Rose, is this what you’re looking for?” Coral called out and got her leader’s attention.

Rose turned to where Coral stood, “I…I think so.”

They examined the small, palm sized box, it was the size of Coral’s gem, but somehow heavier, there was a little mark for the box to be opened.

Rose opened the lid, and peeked the inside of the box.

It’s….

“A pebble?” And sure enough, it was a small, oval rock that hasn’t been incubated or dripped with any diamond essence.

“You know,” Coral carefully paused and observed the stone, said, “This pebble looks so familiar, doesn’t it remind you of someone? I know I mentioned that I can't recall recent events, but the great memories we had in our past lives is still something I can never forget.”

She slowly raises the pebble up to her eye level, hoping Rose would marvel the stone along with her. But something was not right…

Coral turned to her leader, hoping for some kind of reaction, but she was surprised to see the shocking darken expression of Rose Quartz.

“Uhm, Rose, are you… alright?” the pearl questioned.

She could see the big gem was holding on to something, holding it back. It was still daylight, but being inside the cave made it felt, dark. There were the sounds of water drops dripping from the ceiling poles, “Drip……. drip…….. drip….” into the clear, shallow pool.

Moments later, Rose’s expression shifted from stiff and dread to….hope?

“Why yes Coral, I think I am…” Her hope slowly transitions into, joy? “You know, one of the pebbles back at homeworld looks just like this one.”

Coral was glad she wasn’t being rude by mentioning their past lives. “Ohhh, the one with the green outfit? What was the name, Pebble 2TJ?”

Rose looked, actually thrilled! “Oh yeah, he’s always doing this neat cartwheel all around the room, it looked so fun, heyhey, what if…”

Rose was rather hyped, she got so excited she decided to do the cartwheel, for the first time.

She extended her arms and legs, forming a star figure, and said to the pink gem on the left, “Hey Coral, look at this!” She tilted her whole body to her right, but her hand didn’t catch the total amount of her body weight and slipped,

THUD! Rose quartz collapsed on the floor.

“Ohno! Rose!” Coral panicked and went to the fallen pink gem, “Rose! Are you alright?”

Rose, who positioned herself on her back to ease the pain, she giggled and said, “Yes, I think I'm fine.”

She proceeds to stay on the floor, Coral wasn’t sure what to do, “Uhm, Rose, do you need help getting up?” Coral asked.

“Oh no need, in fact, you should come down with me, we’ve been standing for a long time, and my legs are a bit tired anyway.” She sat down next to her leader.

“You know, that fall reminded me of another time we had, when we tried to balance the throne on a giant ball to make it bouncy, but it somehow ended up on fire or something, what fun times we had.” Rose chuckled at the amazing memories they made together.

Coral decided to add on to favourite moments and said, “Remember when you got your leg ship? You were so happy you grabbed me by the waist and spun me around, and I didn’t even mind, it was such a fun time.” 

The pearl peeked at the big gem, who was peeking into the box under the pebble.

“Oh look, in the box, there's three sticks in white, yellow and blue respectively.” Each stick has a shape of the respective diamonds, the blue and yellow stick have their diamond placed in the middle, and the white stick has its on the top.

“Huh…” Coral took a closer inspection of the three items and asked, “What are these? And why do you have them?”

Rose was scanning through her memory bank, they do look familiar… “I think these are from the early stages of the earth colonization, I got so bored on the moon I think I asked Pearl if there was anything we could do, she said the game was from an earth citizen back in the day.”

Rose went on about the game. “Pearl announced the game as gem refiguration, we picked them up, and imitated the gems in their tone, actions and their voices. There’s this one time where I made the white stick talk like White, Oh Starlight, there you are! Did you have fun? Did you get it all out of your system? And then Pearl would chuckle at my little fake white voice, saying that I sound just like her. We would play as the other diamonds too, Pearl knew Blue and Yellow’s pearls, she even did their voices! I would hold up a yellow stick, making it command in Yellow’s voice, then pearl would do her little hologram thing and say things their pearls would say, Now how is my wonderlous, amazing, everlasting diamond? Is there anything I can do for you? And we would both chuckle and giggle as we are indirectly making fun of them without them knowing! And- Coral whats wrong?”

Rose slowly noticed the discomfort as the story went on, she went from being interested in listening, to losing the smile, to worrying eyes, to a sudden darkened face.

“Oh! It's…it’s nothing, it’s just…as I was listening, I couldn’t help but wonder where I was while it all happened…”

“Well, you would be there obviously, just…not with us?” Rose scratched her head, hoping to retrieve some form of adequate response. “You were right with me, but you got bored a bit earlier and kinda fell asleep? We didn’t want to bother you so we just... played it on our own…”

Coral had her left hand scratching her right arm, “So…You guys had fun…. without me?”

Rose slowly realizes the pain she’s causing her dear pearl, she wanted to say she misspoke but Coral got to her first.

“Nonono, it's fine, i…I guess, I just, never thought….”

She turned to her side, arms holding her knees to her chin, and laid on the floor, trying to think this through.

Rose tried to reach her hand out, she wanted to assure that game was nothing, but deep down, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead she retracted her reaching hand, and placed it to her side, giving Coral some much needed space.

It was awfully quiet for the both of them, the sticks had scrambled around with the box on its side, only the pebble remained in the box. Rose collected the items and put everything back where it was, and sat by the water alone. 

Coral noticed the shift of her leader, and followed her by sitting next to her by the water.

Rose and Coral looked at their reflections in the water, they stared at the water for a long time, until…

“Remember the first day you came to me?” Rose spoke while looking at Coral’s reflection, hoping she would do the same.

“It was some time after I saw Blue and Yellow’s pearls, I saw how considerate of them with their diamonds, how they were always with their diamonds, standing by their side no matter what. That’s what I wanted, someone who can listen and understand.”

Coral gleamed at the idea, and commented,  “Yeah, Us spending time together was the best, but then, someone else came along…”

Oh dear, Rose thought, is it the reason for the memory loss, trying to forget certain aspects of her life? The pearl continued, “Maybe I wasn’t doing my part right? Maybe you weren’t satisfied with my service back then? And, that’s why she came to….”

Rose didn’t need to hear the end of the sentence, she already knew what she was going to say.

Replace me…

Rose couldn’t take anymore of her sadness, she turned to the pearl, grabbed on her shoulders, and hugged her tight. “Oh Coral, I'm so sorry I made you feel this way, i should’ve been more considerate. But when Pearl came in, I was… told to spend more time with her, to get to know her, so she wont feel like an outsider when she’s with us.”

Coral slowly returned the hug, burying her face into her leader’s hair, wishing she could stay there forever. But it was getting late, and they should really head back.

“Come on, let's go home.” They left the cave, went down the steep mountain, and back on the warp pad.

Back at the temple, the duo was met up with Pearl and Garnet back from their mission. The two gems were covered in sand and dust.

 “Ah, Pearl and Garnet, how did the mission go?” the crystal gem leader turned to her fellow comrades and asked.

Garnet shrugged, dusting off the dust from her shoulder, “Could’ve been better.”

Pearl echoed, “Could have…”

Coral noticed Pearl’s defeated sigh, but Rose didn’t take much notice, “Excellent, If anyone needs me I’ll be in my room.” And marched straight to her cloudy pink room and promptly shut the door within a swift second.

She heavily leans on the door, “Why did it hurt so much?” Rose thought as she leaned against the closed door, her fist on her chest, trying to ease a pain.

Garnet decided to go out and take a walk, leaving the 2 pearls at the temple.

Coral was still in her hyper fun mood as she was humming, twirling and just being happy, something she hasn’t been in a long time. Standing on the side, watching her was Pearl, arms crossed, and generally not looking as happy.

She slowly approached the pink gem, and gained her attention with a slight cough.

“Ahem,” and slowly moves her fist away from her mouth.

Coral, still looking pleased, and not getting the pragmatic signs, lovingly asks, “Oh hey Pearl! What’s up?”

“You know this will pass eventually don’t you?” Pearl spoke, trying her best to not sound rude, but came off as a rather cruel statement.

“Huh?” Coral turned around, and hadn't really noticed Pearl during her time with Rose. “Wha…what are you talking about?” Coral questions in a strain voice, sounding almost hurt, but Pearl didn’t take notice.

“I think you know what I’m talking about, your small, brief attention hogging from Rose. She may be worried sick about your absence and the possible chance your encounter threatens what’s we’re fighting for, but for all we know, you could just be deceiving us, deceiving her just to keep her all to yourself.” Pearl’s accusation of Coral surprised the pink gem.

She tried to defend herself, “Pearl, you’re not making any sense. Why would I want to lie to Rose just to get close to her? We were just hanging out and having fun...”

“No more lies,” Pearl interrupted, “instead of trying to sweet talk your way out of this mess, why don’t we try something, physical?” She reached her hand to her glowing gem and conjured her staff, swifting the point to the tip of Coral’s nose.

“Coral! I challenge you to a duel at the sky arena, pearl vs pearl. If you win, I’ll let you off on your little scheme and you may…continue deceiving our leader without me getting all over your business.”

She did a slight thrust and pointed the tip between Coral’s eyes, forcing her to back off and smack the weapon aside.

Pearl retracted her weapon and twirled it all around her while she proceeded, “But if I win, you’re going to halt your devious act and leave the rebellion for the rest of time, you are to resign as Rose’s left hand soldier and never come back. Your disloyalty has already stripped you of your trust in the Crystal Gems, if you will not accept this challenge, I have no choice but to take you down before you do anything else, do you understand!?”

Coral stood and composed herself, she knows how serious Pearl takes her battles with anyone, so she can’t deny it, but she also knows how skilled of a fighter Pearl truly is. They may have trained together, but Pearl was always the fast learner, she also has a strategy for literally anything, so other than the duel, there’s probably something else she’s not revealing.

Coral took a deep breath, exhaled as she fixed her eyes at Pearl, and drew her lance.

CLANK, the weapons were intact.

“I accept your challenge, Pearl.” Coral said with as much determination she could muster.

“Excellent,” Pearl returned her staff into her gem, and slowly walked away while stating, “We shall battle at the breaking dawn of tomorrow, sharpen your lance, as well as your mind.” And then ballerina twirled into her room.

Coral watched as the temple door closed off, her lance planted between her feet as she said to herself, “I’ll be ready.”

End of Part 1

(A/N: Heyyo, welcome to the end of part 1 of chapter 6, first off, to clear something up. If you were somehow questioning my ability to draw, then yes Ii did some tracing on certain screenshots of the show, to make everything go faster. If for every part, I drew just 4 images without tracing, it would take at least 2 more months for me to finish it. So please, i'm not making money out of this, and the artwork isn't the main feature, just a visual assistant for the reading process.

Also thank you @marzipanotaku16​ for being my “beta reader” and doing a great job at pointing out certain areas that can do better!

So from the previous post, the next chapter will be uploaded next week from today! Unless, and it's just an idea, unless the first part of chapter 6 got more than 80 notes, then I'll consider posting the next part earlier. But that's just an idea I'm not sure that would be fulfilled. (It might be tho)

Lastly, the reference for the drawn images will be reblogged the next day.

Anyways, see ya next week, or earlier! Peace out! Bye! 

#pearlplsuau #stevenuniverse #writing #rosequartz #pinkpearl #Pearl #Coral

[from-home]

𑁍 MARK LEE┊ 𝒔𝒊𝒙𝒕𝒚 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒔, 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕 / one ˎˊ˗

𑁍 summary : the one where mark lee time travels back and forth throughout the past and future with his crush, (y/n) ˎˊ˗

𑁍 pairing : mark lee x older!reader (by like three years lmao) ˎˊ˗

𑁍 word count : 6.7k ˎˊ˗

𑁍 genre : fluff, comedy (i hope??), minimal angst, time travel!au ˎˊ˗

𑁍 warnings : swearing, unrequited love (i know that shit hurts omg), my humour is ass, mark gives me slight second hand embarrassment in this, bad writing??, i gave up like halfway through this lol, first time writing a fic like this pls have mercy, it’s almost 2:30 am i'm too tired to proof read fuck ˎˊ˗

𑁍 a/n : first chapter of my first ever fic on here hehe - idk when the next chapter might come tbh but hopefully i’ll continue this series for my own enjoyment! in the meantime, uni still kicks my ass >:(( but anyway, enjoy and i hope that at least someone will find joy with this!    ˎˊ˗

[ 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟬 : 𝗗𝗔𝗬 𝟬 ]

when your pastor dad’s best friend was the biggest nerd in high school and became an eccentric scientist

O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,

  What a beautiful Pussy you are,

       You are,

       You are!

What a beautiful Pussy you are!

      If he could write like that, maybe Mark wouldn't need to be here in this boring literature class of his. Don't get him wrong, he liked writing, and he liked the way he could express his emotions through a pen and paper. But for the twenty-one-year-old boy who could barely sit still in one place without his mind wandering off into four different dimensions, it was hard to be interested in whatever the professor was rambling on about. Maybe Professor Jung was telling the story of how she met Dylan Thomas' widow's sister's friend's cousin, and how much of an artistic impact it had on her. She had told the story a good three times in the past two months - Mark kept count.

      Yeah, writing was fun and all, but literature class specifically was boring and dull to him. "Oh but Mark, why take this course then?" one might ask. But one should also know that it was a necessary course if Mark wanted to earn his oh-so-coveted diploma.

      Curse him for majoring in creative writing. His dad always did wonder why writers even bother writing when the bible exists.

      But maybe one day, an hour and a half of John Keats would produce him some ideas for a romantic poem that he could write and gift off to his love of seven years... and counting.

      (Y/N), the shiniest of all pearls and the most beautiful of all Mona Lisa's, the older woman and her beauty often left Mark stunned and helplessly in love. He first met her when he was fourteen, when she had been introduced as his seventeen-year-old tutor. She was so pretty back then, and still was now. In fact, it was as if she didn't age at all!

      Someone who resembled a goddess like (Y/N)  deserved only the most romantic of all romantic poems, and Mark Lee made it a mission to be the one to write it for her. He was so helplessly in love with her that he was able to channel his feelings for her into five different written forms: poems, song lyrics, an 'A for effort?' drawing of her, letters, and anonymous blog posts about how "unrequited love hurts".

      Sure, those blog posts were anonymous, but as good as Mark thought he was at hiding his feelings for her, everybody in town and their ancestors' spirits knew about the big crush Mark had on her. But no one bothered to tell (Y/N) about her not-so-secret admirer and nobody bothered to let Mark know that his mysterious crush wasn’t as well-kept to himself as he thought it was.

      But it was cute. Not the part where Mark slowly died on the inside as each day passed without his feelings being returned (that was pretty sad, everybody acknowledged), but the part where the adoration in his eyes were so clear for (Y/N). Legend went that he held stars in his eyes whenever his gaze rested on the older woman - like, actual stars from the galaxy. Or so the first-hand accounts go.

      Mark Lee was a talented and hardworking boy, that much was a shared sentiment by everybody in town. He excelled at all subjects, mowed the lawn twice just because he thought he missed a spot, gave it his all at church every Sunday by rapping and dancing in the name of Jesus Christ until he was reduced to sweat and threatening to rip his dress shirt off - he was a jack of all trades. There were even rumours that whenever it was time for a 'Make a Wish' patient to... make a wish in heaven, he would dress up as Spiderman and visit them in the hospital to make their final dreams come true. So maybe that's why it was so endearing, his one-sided love for his noona. If there was one person who could jump over that hurdle of "just friends" and out of the friend zone, it had to be Mark, the boy who's always gave it his all in everything ever since he moved here from Canada when he was twelve. It was one thing to have this crush that you desperately wanted to be returned, but it was another to have the whole town cheering for you - it said a lot about Mark's character.

      Which is why! There was no other perfect test subject for Scientist Kim, the local eccentric scientist who was obsessed with creating his "next big invention". He also happened to be the best friend of the town's pastor (weird combination, everybody knows), courtesy of their high school days and a misunderstanding over a carton of milk. The town's pastor also oh-so-coincidentally happened to be Mark's father, who had lived in Korea for all his life until he moved to Canada so his wife could give birth to baby Mark. He ended up moving back to his hometown, however, thus creating a new relationship between his best friend and son.

      Now Scientist Kim - who liked to go by "Cabbage" as a homage to his idol, Charles Babbage - didn’t really care about Mark's painful one-sided love, but he knew the boy could never say no to his father's best friend from high school, so there was no one better to try out his experiments and inventions than Mark. Like, there was literally no one else at all - the whole town swore Cabbage was out of his mind and were still waiting for the day the newspaper would come out with a headline that he's been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Everybody would be disappointed, but not surprised. But such an incident hadn’t happened yet, so for now, Cabbage was still freely working hard everyday to successfully complete and unveil the invention that would propel him to "the front page of every science magazine and a Nobel Prize in Physics".

      And it just so happened to be today, October 30th 2020, when Mark received a phone call from his dad's best friend in the middle of class. He was glad he kept his phone on vibrate, but god, was it distracting. To answer or not to? Why now of all times? Right, he forgot that some people don't have anything else to do with their lives other than... creating things that usually end up on fire by the end of it. You know, now that he thought back on it, the last time Mark willingly participated in Cabbage's experiment which involved some tinfoil, antennas, and laser beam machining, it left Mark's right shoe on fire - thank God he had brought a fire extinguisher over to Cabbage’s house with him.

      Just that memory alone convinced Mark to ignore the call, nearly forgetting about it once it had stopped ringing if not for the fact he received another call just seconds later. "What is this, an infatuation?" Mark grumbled to himself, before glancing up at the front to see if Professor Jung was distracted enough for him to take this call without her noticing. It didn't help that he sat three rows away from the front. But she still seemed to be rambling on about how much she loved Dylan Thomas' works, and that was a sign for him to accept the call. He kept his voice to a hushed whisper, however, "Hello-"

      "Mark! You have to come over!" There was no way Professor Jung did not hear that screech that came from his phone. He glanced up nervously, noticing his classmate's startled gazes on him. But his eyes wandered over to the front, and judging by how Professor Jung was now going on about Dylan Thomas' "attractive appearance", it seemed he was in the safe for now.

      "Cabbage, I'm in class, so could you keep it down?" Mark hissed quietly into the phone.

      "Right, right, sorry!" While he was still loud even after lowering his voice down, it was more than quiet enough for Professor Jung not to notice, thankfully. "Mark, I've just completed my latest invention. But this isn't just any invention, it's the invention of both my - and everybody's dreams!"

      Mark would be mildly curious if not for the fact that Cabbage said that about every invention of his, but he figured that his dad was going to urge him to go anyway, even if Mark didn’t want to. "But he's my best friend, Mark!" Jeez, because how could he possibly say no to the power of friendship?

      "Mark? Boy? You still there?" Cabbage’s voice pulled Mark out of his thoughts, and the boy could do nothing but sigh. This was just going to be like every other time - he’d be introduced to some machine that supposedly did one thing, said machine would catch on fire the next minute, and it would all result in Mark going home an hour later.

      "Fine, I'll be there. After class in like, half an hour." Mark reassured the scientist, and he swore, he could hear something catching on fire in the background.

      "Great!" He then heard rushed footsteps and... a fire extinguisher? "See you then!" And the call ended.

      He just couldn’t wait.

       When visitors would come to the humble town of Uicheon (의천), located just thirty minutes away by car from the bustling capital city, Seoul, the first thing they would notice was how much the town gave off Suburban American vibes, like walking through a town where the main characters of some random Disney high school movie lived. All single detached houses, varying in style from Country French to Cape Cod with recent contemporary and modern upgrades to those houses by residents who wanted to "spice it up".

        Uicheon was a town seen by others where most of the population was upper-middle class. There was nothing wrong with that at all, and actually, the residents of Uicheon were both happy and welcoming of anybody and anyone who stepped foot into town or even took an interest in moving, no matter of their social or economic status.

       If anything, the residents of Uicheon - the ones who've lived in the town for longer than ten years at least - were often worried that those who did show interest of moving in inevitably get... scared off. By one particular daunting house.

       It was a beautiful town. No seriously, Uicheon had been mentioned on multiple "Top 5 beautiful towns just outside of Seoul that you should visit!" lists published on the internet. And in the beautiful small town where all the houses provide comfort and beauty, surrounded by flowers on nearly every available patch of grass like something straight out of a magazine, there stood a modern house - the only completely modern house in the town - its exterior all... black. Even the big windows were tinted black, and it was obvious that the house stuck out like a sore thumb. Sometimes, the local kids told stories of how the house was abandoned, and was home to a ghost with a vengeful spirit inside who wanted to steal your teeth. The residents of Uicheon had gotten used to the house's presence already, but it didn’t stop the mutual sentiment of "...really?" amongst them.

       And currently, Mark stood in front of its black front doors, ringing the black doorbell and covering his ears as trumpets echoed from inside the house, playing to the tune of the guitar solo of Gun N' Roses' 'Sweet Child O' Mine.' Only seconds later, did the door swing open, revealing a robot, half of Mark's height. "SCANNING FACE... HELLO M-A-R-K, MARK." It greeted, well, robotically.

       "Hey, Edison," Mark greeted the robot nonchalantly, walking in and shutting the door behind him, "where's Cabbage?" He asked as he took off his shoes and placed it on the nearby shoe rack.

       "LOCATING THE DOCTOR..." Edison's eyes turned yellow, colour blinking repeatedly until it turned into a green light and stayed like that. "DOCTOR LOCATED - HE IS IN HIS LABORATORY DOWNSTAIRS."

       Because was it really surprising that the house belonged to a guy who invented things for a living and went by the name of a vegetable in a bizarre way to honour his idol?

       "Got it, I'll go meet up with him then." Mark informed, heading down the hall until he reached the black spiral staircase that led both to the third floor and bottom floor. It was really nice up there on the third floor though; Mark had been there before and it even came with a movie room! Too bad Cabbage rarely used it because he "doesn't have time for action sequences". So Mark, being the loyal lab assistant/test subject he was, headed down instead to the bottom floor, where he was greeted by a hallway that was lined up with pictures of old men on the walls. "My inspirations!" Cabbage would say. Among them were the likes of Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison (who he named his robot after, clearly), Nikola Tesla... you got the drift.

       Regardless, Mark never stayed in the hall longer than he needed to - he wasn’t sure if portraits of old men who were dead by now staring at him was exactly his kind of vibe.

       At the very end of the hall, all that awaited him was a grey metallic door that had some vapour seeping through the narrow space at the bottom of it. "Shit, I didn't bring a fire extinguisher today..." Mark cursed, grabbing onto the straps of his backpacks and readjusting it on his shoulders. "It's okay, Mark. He hasn't killed you before, so he can't kill you today...?" He wasn’t sure what the logic behind that thought was but you couldn’t blame him for trying to... reassure himself for whatever was about to come beyond those doors. It was funny to him; he had been the lab rat of many of Cabbage's crazy experiments and inventions, yet he kept coming back and every time he did, the jitters were always there.

       Maybe it wasn’t because he was scared of death. Because he wasn’t - his father always drilled the idea into his head that God would welcome him with open arms when the time came. At the very least, if Mark died - most likely because of one of these experiments and inventions - he'd be bringing Cabbage with him. But hey, that was beyond the point.

       If not the fear of death, then what? Maybe, just maybe... one of these days, one of Cabbage's revolutionary inventions would actually be successful. That for all of the craziness that's going on inside the mad scientist's head, it would finally pay off.

       If only he knew when.

       Mark reached for the handle and twisted it, pulling the door open and nearly coughing when a whole cloud of mist and vapour rushed at him. "Jeez, Cabbage, what are you doing this time?" Mark coughed into his arm as he took a step into the laboratory. He actually couldn't see the scientist at first, waving his hand around in hopes that he'd be able to swat away the mist and vapour. The space around him eventually did clear, though, revealing...

       Nothing?

       Instead of the usual grand machine that looked like it was taped together, Mark was greeted with... a clear space. The scientist was over at his desk just up a set of stairs that led to a second floor within the big room. "Cabbage!" Mark called after him, waving his hands to get his attention.

       Whatever the scientist was busy doing, it was important enough to leave Mark ignored for a good five seconds. It left him pouting, though the scientist eventually did glance over at the boy, his eyes widening behind his circular glasses. "Mark, boy, there you are!" Cabbage sprang out of his seat, quickly rushing down to the boy he had called over. He held some sort of watch in his hands, like it was the most precious thing in the world. Jeez, since when did Cabbage wear Rolex? "Took you long enough! I was bouncing in my seat waiting for you to come over! But in the meantime, I was able to complete another one after confirming my calculations for the twenty-seventh time..."

       One thing that nobody wanted to do was sit through Cabbage's rambling, prompting Mark to speak up. "Whoa, calm down, Cabbage. What's going on? Where's your invention?"

       "Oh Mark, you're looking at it." Cabbage held out the watch and Mark raised an eyebrow.

       "That small thing?" Mark narrowed his eyes at the watch in the scientist's hand. "Are you sure? Last time I came in for one of your creations, it was twice my size and almost killed me." But knowing the kind of person Cabbage was, Mark wouldn't be too surprised if this little watch managed to wreck havoc as well. How ironic it would be, for something so small to cause so much chaos.

       Cabbage shook his head, meeting Mark's gaze with oddly serious eyes. "Mark, the creation I hold in my hand can - and will - change the world. If left in the wrong hands, everything could collapse. Society will crumble, the universe will be left in a never-ending stream of terror, reality will no longer exist, the concept of time will-"

       "Okay, okay," Mark was left, once again, trying to calm down the frantic scientist, "Cabbage, deep breaths. Tell me, what did you create?" It couldn't be that bad that it left the older man going on some admittedly fear-inducing rant.

       "A time travel machine."

       One Mississippi, two Mississippi...

       "Alright, I'll see you next time then, Cabbage." And almost immediately, Mark turned on his heel, prepared to just dip out of there.

       "Wait, no, Mark!" The scientist called after the boy, grabbing a hold of his sleeve, "Please, hear me out!"

       "Time travel, Cabbage!" Mark whirled around, disbelief painted in his features. "Do you even hear yourself right now? That's impossible! This is impossible! Listen, I'm fine with being your test subject but even I have to put my foot down somewhere when things get a bit too crazy!"

       Despite Mark's reasonable concerns, Cabbage really didn't feel like letting his lab assistant slip away from the tip of his fingers, especially now of all times. "Come on, Mark! Twenty-seven times! I checked my calculations twenty-seven times! Don't let my hard work go down the drain!"

       "Then do it yourself! Time travel yourself!" Mark exclaimed.

       "I can't! I need you to go so I can stay behind and collect all the data while making sure you don't get stuck in the future or something!" Cabbage explained.

       Unfortunately, Mark's face still showed utter disbelief. "You know, this really doesn't help your case, Cabbage!"

       "Fine! We'll do this the fair way then!" Cabbage shouted, holding his fist out.

       "Are you serious? Rock, paper, scissors?!" Mark cried out, covering his eyes. If there was one thing he couldn't say no to, it was rock, paper, scissors. Why? Maybe because he boasts a seven-hundred-fifty-two win record, with a mere twenty-one losses in the game. As you could probably assume, Mark was the undisputed rock, paper, scissors king in Uicheon, and only two kinds of people would dare challenge him in the game when it came to bets. Those who were bold and those who were desperate.

       "I mean it, Mark! If you win, you can walk right out that door and never look back. I won't force this onto you. But if I win..." If Cabbage won, "you have to at least give this experiment a thought."

       "Wait, that's it?" Mark uncovered his eyes, surprise in his voice. But hey, it wasn't a bad deal at all - in fact, the opposite. If Mark won - which he was pretty much guaranteed to - he could leave. If he didn't, he could pretend he thought it over and just say no in the end. "Well shit, say no more, Cabbage." And out Mark's fist went. “On shoot?”

       "On shoot." The scientist confirmed, the two men placing their fists behind their backs.

       "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"

       Rock for Mark, and... rock for Cabbage.

       "You got lucky." Mark rolled his shoulders back. "But this is it." And back their fists went behind them.

       "Rock, paper, scissors... shoot!!"

       Scissors for Mark, and... rock for Cabbage.

       "I won..." Cabbage glanced down at his fist, mouth left agape, "I-I won! Against you!"

       Yikes, better make that record seven-hundred-fifty-two wins to twenty-two losses now.

       "I-I..." Mark was still in disbelief, for a totally different reason now, however. "I... I lost?" Under such circumstances too... but seriously! Time travel was a bit too much! "H-Hey, that doesn't mean I'm going to be going through with this! Remember, you said if you won, you'd let me think about it!" Mark reminded.

       "Yeah, but only because I didn't think I'd actually win!" Cabbage snorted, shaking his head as he tucked the watch safely in the pocket of his white lab coat. "But I am a man of my word, so I'll give you some time to think about it. How about until the end of the day?" He suggested.

       "That's a bit too soon, don't you think?" Mark frowned, not really liking the idea of being forced into a decision so quickly.

       "Sorry, is that loser talk?" God, that damn Cabbage always knew how to get under Mark's skin.

       "Fine, by the end of the day. But don't be surprised if my answer doesn't change." Mark warned. "Now if that's it, I'll be going." Mark huffed, turning around and heading to the door once more. This time, the scientist let him go, but not without some parting words.

       "See you soon, Mark."

       (Y/N) doesn't know where her life went wrong.

       Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration and a dramatic one as well, but it didn't change the fact that instead of living out in the city and pursuing her dream as a world renown film director, she was stuck in her small hometown, working full-time at a film-rental store.

       What was even the point of this store anyway? Everything was online nowadays anyway - who did the owner think he was, trying to compete with Netflix?

       "One Mississippi, two Mississippi..." (Y/N) mumbled to herself from behind the counter, staring dully at the analog clock hung just above the front doors. An analog clock - what year was this again?

       "(Y/N)," the voice of the store's owner, Mr. Yoon, was a less than welcoming disruption to her daily "clock-watching" (as she termed it herself), but at least it was a good way to remind her that the day was almost over, "did the kids all go home already?"

       (Y/N) nodded, reaching below into the counter for a piece of paper with names and times. "Yup, Jungwoo and Sungchan just finished their shifts half an hour ago." She pointed to their names on the paper, "Signed out here."

       "Great. You're in charge of closing up for today then, I have business in the city." Mr. Yoon informed, proudly readjusting his grip on the handles of his briefcase.

       "Godspeed, Mr. Yoon." (Y/N) nodded, watching as the man left with a nod. And as the doors closed behind him, the female found herself alone in the store. All alone... which actually wasn't even that uncommon.

       (Y/N); twenty-four years old, graduated from a local college two years ago with a degree in Film Studies with hopes of eventually entering the field of film-making and directing. She had high hopes, especially when she graduated. "To the city and A-list I go!" She could remember cheering that day in her car, diploma in hand and graduation gown still on.

       But somebody must have forgotten to tell her that the university you went to mattered - and just how competitive the job market was for... pretty much every job.

       Now this wasn't to say the college she attended was bad or anything, it just wasn't... one of the SKY universities.  And before she knew it, when it came time for job hunting, the positions were constantly being filled out by "better candidates" and after a certain amount of "we regret to inform you"s, (Y/N) decided to go back home.

       Home, in the beautiful yet small town of Uicheon. All she wanted was to make it big, live in a nice condo in Seoul and shop at luxury brands. Yet now, she found herself wearing what was possibly a ten-year-old uniform from the back storage with a name tag that was always tilted at a forty-five degree angle no matter how many times she tried to fix it.

       But don't get her wrong! She hadn't given up yet - she absolutely would not! Her films might not be playing in theatres or at the Busan International Film Festival, but she still enjoyed writing up ideas and getting some of her co-workers to act out some scenes for her while she filmed eagerly with her trusty camcorder.

       The Sony HDR-CX675; this bad boy cost her a good two months of saving up but God, was it worth it. Jungwoo in a wig and Sungchan throwing pens like they were daggers had never looked so good in HD until (Y/N) had gotten her hands on that beloved camcorder of hers.

       "Should I film the clock or something?" She sighed, eyes wandering back over to the analog clock. At least she only had an hour left before the store closed, and she usually spent most of that time cleaning up anyway.

       And so that hour began, dreadfully long until with only ten minutes to spare, the front door had opened, prompting (Y/N) to rush back to the counter from the storage room, though not without grumbling to herself quietly about what asshole comes into a store ten minutes before they close.

       But it wasn't just anybody who came in - it was Mark, the boy who always complimented her hair no matter how lazy she had been to brush it that day. Still, flattery always earned some brownie points in (Y/N)’s books. So she wasn't hesitant at all when she had greeted Mark. "Hey, it's nice to see you here! Renting a movie?" She asked, resting her arms on the counter top.

       "Yeah, looking for some Christian-friendly Halloween movie. For the kids at church this Sunday, since Halloween is tomorrow." Mark chuckled shaking his head.

       "Let me see what I can find," (Y/N) grinned as she slipped away from the counter and to one of the shelves, "I'll be honest though, you're probably better off showing the kids some cartoon from Netflix or something."

       As if Mark was going to tell her that he insisted to his dad on renting a movie, for he wanted to see and talk to the girl of his dreams who currently had her back turned to him. "Well you know us, terrible with technology." Instead, that was all he could muster up.

       "I'll bet." She snickered jokingly, turning back to him with a movie now in her hand, "Toy Story of Terror sound good to you?"

       "Better than showing them Scream." Mark shrugged before heading back to the counter with her. "I'll pay with debit."

       "Mhm," (Y/N) nodded, taking his card and swiping it for him through the machine, "you know the usual, watch within thirty days and return it after those thirty days." She reminded him with a yawn. God forbid Mr. Yoon ever see that.

       "Busy day?" Mark offered a small sympathetic smile as he took his card back as well as the movie. "I kind of get it. Cabbage called me in for one of his inventions today."

       "Today?" She asked, watching as the boy across from her nodded. "What was it this time?" Everybody in town felt bad for Mark since he was the one always testing out Cabbage's inventions, but at the same time, at least it wasn't them?

       "Gosh, you wouldn't believe me if I said it." He shook his head with a heavy sigh. "A time travel machine - or like, a time travel watch, I guess."

       "Time travel?" The gasp from the female was expected; anybody would be surprised. "I always knew Cabbage was ambitious but definitely not to the extent of time travel!"

       "Yeah, needless to say, I said no. Or like, I told him I would think about it, you know?" Mark frowned. "I just can't believe... time travel of all things."

       "I'll be honest," there was a smile spreading on (Y/N)’s face, to the slight surprise of Mark, "the idea of time travel sounds so cool though. I'd love to try it out." When Mark had brought up what had happened at Cabbage's house, he didn't think (Y/N) would actually be... interested in the scientist's invention. Definitely not when it was so absurd. But she looked so cute, the way she stood up straighter and her attentive eyes as he talked about it. Gosh, he wished he could tell her that it wasn't worth the time. But her interest was clear, that much he couldn't ignore.

       "Then... why don't you try it in my place?" Mark suggested hesitantly. He didn't want (Y/N) and her pretty little self anywhere near those dangerous creations, for concern of her safety. But she really seemed to be interested in this, and this... it was the least he could do.

       "Alone? No thanks." She giggled softly, to the relief of the boy who had suggested it in the first place. "Maybe if someone else was with me though. Like a time travel duo!" Hold up - someone else?

       "This is your chance, Mark!" His inner voice practically screamed at him. Anything for (Y/N), right? "But it's so dangerous!" His other inner voice tried deterring him from going through with what he was about to suggest. But for (Y/N)! "Then," Mark felt his heartbeat quicken, excitement and hope visible in his eyes, "you wouldn't mind if we did it together, would you?"

       If his friends Johnny and Donghyuck were here, they'd definitely be cheering and slapping him on the back. It felt like he was asking her out, something he always dreamed of doing but never really having the guts to do so. Rejection was a scary thought, but as he watched the wide smile that spread onto (Y/N)’s face, he knew he had something to look forward to, even if through... this.

       "Of course! it'll be fun!" Score! "Too bad only one person can go though, I assume." She frowned.

       And for a second, Mark's hopes had shattered once again. But then he remembered something back at Cabbage's house, and maybe, just maybe, it wasn't over yet. "Actually, I think Cabbage mentioned making two watches." After confirming his calculations twenty-seven times. "Why don't we go together?"

       "Seriously? You wouldn't mind?" Oh, what Mark wouldn't given just to see that wide smile on (Y/N)’s face every single second of the day.

       And with a smile of his own, he nodded. "Of course not, noona."

       Love has always been a motivation for man, ever since the beginning of humans. And as time continued on and advanced, a variety of factors had been added to that list of motivation, such as money and power. But one constant above all was always going to be love - something that had always been interpersonal.

       So that was why Cabbage wasn't too particularly surprised to see Mark come back to his house later in the evening, this time, with a female companion. And judging by the look of awe on her face, it didn't take much for the scientist to connect the dots. "Mark, you came back!" Cabbage smiled down at the boy from the second floor of his basement lab. "With a friend this time?"

       "Right," Mark cleared his throat, gesturing to the scientist, "(Y/N), this is Cabbage as you already know, and Cabbage, this is (Y/N), my friend."

       "Hi! It's great to be here! Like, really great." (Y/N) was still enamoured by the many... things going on in the lab, though Mark couldn't blame her.

       "Anyway Mark, have you given my invention a thought?" Cabbage inquired, standing up from his seat by his computer and leaning against the railing. "I assume that's why you're here, after all."

       Mark nodded. "I have." He confirmed, biting down on his lip. "And I'll do it."

       "You will?" The scientist's eyes widened, grin spreading on his face. "That's great!"

       "But," Mark began, gaze falling over onto (Y/N) for a short second before back onto the scientist, "with conditions."

       "Conditions?" Cabbage raised an eyebrow, pleasantly intrigued.

       "Conditions!" (Y/N) suddenly spoke up with a grin, earning a look from the two. "Sorry, it just felt kind of intense so I wanted to ease tensions a bit." She coughed, glancing back and forth between the two. "Please, continue." She urged.

       "A-Anyway yes, conditions." Mark cleared his throat before turning to the scientist once more. "I want (Y/N) to come with me. You have two watches, don't you?"

       "I do." Cabbage nodded, fishing his hand into the pocket of his lab coat and bringing out two identical watches. "So far, they're the only two I have so I need to make sure that your friend will be extra careful with this."

       "She will." Mark reassured without any hesitation. "I know she will, because she's (Y/N)." A man who was claiming everybody's hearts left and right - except for (Y/N)’s though, unfortunately.

       Cabbage looked as if he was pondering on the thought for a bit before eventually nodding and making his way down the stairs. "Well, if Mark is vouching for you, I guess it should be okay." Cabbage nodded before gesturing for the two to follow him to the back of the lab, where large screen rested on the wall and multiple smaller monitors on both it's sides, resting on a glass desk. Below it were multiple keyboards, a few touch pads here and there with clearly different functions. It was like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. "This is where I'll be monitoring and communicating with you two while you're in whatever time period you land in." He explained, gesturing to his set up.​​​​​​​

       "What about the watches?" (Y/N) asked.

       "I'm just getting to that." Cabbage nodded, reaching for the two watches once again. "Gather around, you two." He motioned for them to come closer. "It looks like a regular analog watch at first, but if you tap the clock face," he did what he had just said, the other two watching in awe as a small digital hologram had appeared in the air, just above the clock face, "it has information such as your battery life on the right hand corner, the date and time you're in, the option to video call me, and the option to switch time periods." He pointed out each detail on the hologram. "Now the problem with the switching time periods is that once you arrive somewhere, you're stuck there for, at a minimum, twenty-four hours before the voltage and particle energies recharge and allow you to travel elsewhere."

       "Wait, so you're staying we might be stuck in a different time for a whole day?" Mark asked, a bit of alarm evident in his voice.

       "Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find out the proper calculations to make the recharging process quicker but for the meantime... yes." The scientist sighed. "But hey, at least it's not twenty-five hours...?"

       "Cabbage!" Mark groaned, running his hand down his face.

       "I mean, twenty-four hours doesn't sound that bad." (Y/N) hummed. "I'd love to explore a different time period, really get to know what it was like!"

       "See, at least someone's optimistic." Cabbage sent a not-so-subtle look over at Mark. "But anyway, I actually have a quest for you two."

       "Ooh, a quest! I feel like I'm in a video game." (Y/N) giggled, and if it weren't for the fact that she was totally digging this right now, Mark would have just straight up left out of fear for his own safety.

       "Exactly!" Cabbage nodded eagerly. "Since you two will be going to different time periods, I want you to bring back a memento of some sort from each time period."

       "Anything specific?" Mark asked, wanting to make sure he was going into this with full details.

       "Yes, for the purpose of analytic purposes due to their high amount of energy." Cabbage turned to the two, a suddenly serious look on his face. "A meaningful item to at least one person you encounter."

​​​​​​​        The two waited for him to say more, but nope, all he did was stare back at them. Mark ended up being the first to speak up. "Hm, I think you're missing the part where you, oh I don't know, tell us what you mean by ‘meaningful item’??"

       "That will vary from person to person, Mark boy." Cabbage sighed, giving an empathetic pat on the boy's shoulder. "One person's 'meaningful item' might be a necklace that their mother gifted them, or maybe a letter from a lover for a soldier - everything in life is a variable anyway."

       "Wait, then how do we know something is a meaningful item?" (Y/N) asked.

​​​​​​​        "That's where this last function of the watches come in," Cabbage turned his attention back to the watches, "this icon," he pointed to one of the icons on the hologram screen that resembled a heart, "will allow you to scan a person once you've talked to them. This only works one person at a time though, and it does drain a lot of energy from the watch battery. It'll allow you to see particles coming from objects, like sparkles. The more vivid, bigger and brighter the particles, chances are that's your person's meaningful item. So be careful with who you choose to use it on - once you scan that person, you'll have to find their meaningful item before you can use it again. Not to mention that the longer it takes for you to find the meaningful item, the more energy it drains." He warned.

​​​​​​​        "Talk about ominous, gosh." Mark sighed, shaking his head. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

       "It'll be exciting though, Mark." (Y/N) glanced over at the boy beside her, a grin spreading on her face. "We're in this together, after all!"

       "Noona..." A shade of red coated Mark's cheeks as he stared down at her, eyes sparkling with adoration.

       "Ahem, and me too." Cabbage interrupted, "Just, I'll be back here handling everything."        

       "Yes, of course, because where would we be without you, Cabbage?" Mark sighed, feeling a bit salty over the scientist's interruption during his and (Y/N)’s "moment".

       "Love you too, Mark." Cabbage blew a kiss his way before handing a watch to Mark and (Y/N) each. "Are you two ready?"

       "Wait, we're doing this so soon?" Mark's eyes widened, staring down at the watch in his hands with a bit of fear.

       "Better sooner than later." Cabbage shrugged, helping attach the watch onto Mark's wrist and then to (Y/N)’s. "You guys will be fine, don't worry. I'm here, after all!"

       "So reassuring, Cabbage." Mark grumbled, about to protest over the quick timing and suddenness of all of this if not for the sudden feeling of warmth in one of his hands. He glanced down at said hand, eyes lingering on the smaller hand that had clasped his own. And as his eyes wandered up to the hand's owner, he swore she was going to be the death of him.

       "It'll be okay, Mark." (Y/N) squeezed his hand softly with a reassuring smile. "We're in this together." She repeated.

       "Right..." Mark trailed off before taking a deep breath and nodding. "Together." He then glanced over at the scientist. "We're ready, Cabbage."

       With an excited smile, the older man nodded before turning to his set up and taking a seat down in the chair. The sounds of his quick tapping against the keyboard keys had Mark worrying with every passing second, but as (Y/N) held his hand, he figured this wouldn't be a terrible way to die. "Adios, you two!" Cabbage called out before hitting one last button. Click!

       And as a bright and large flash of light illuminated within the lab, Mark knew it had begun, especially with the way his limbs practically burned and his consciousness struggling to stay intact.

       The things he'd do for love, huh?

#nct fluff #mark lee fluff #mark lee #nct mark fluff #nct 127 #nct u #nct dream #mark lee x reader #nct #nct 2020 #nct fics #nct x reader #nct angst #mark lee angst

[artificialqueens]

Pretty in Pearls, Chapter 6 (Jankie) - Plastiquedoll

read on ao3 💄| previous chapters

A/N: hi! it took me a while but here's a new update I hope you enjoy it! thank you for reading it! <3

-6-

“I can’t do this anymore,” Jan complained.

Jackie lifted her gaze from the book she was reading.

“This is the third time you say that… algebra can’t possibly be that bad.”

“For your consideration, there aren’t even numbers on these exercises, it’s Math… there should be numbers… where are the numbers?” She whined.

“Don’t look at me, why do you think I chose Art History? After high school, I promised myself my relationship with calculus was over.”

Jan sighed but focused on the assignment once again.

“Okay… I’m done… that was the last exercise of the sheet. I refuse to keep using my brain for what’s left of the day.”

Jackie chuckled.

They were alone in the copy room. It had been one of those quiet days; it was raining outside so Jan’s practice had been canceled but luckily her friend enjoyed her company while she did homework as well. In the past two hours, only a lost student walked in begging for a copy of a study guide for a mid-term for the following day. Jackie had the radio on and she had let the younger chose the station, Jan had picked a bubblegum pop radio that kept playing songs from the ’00s and the 10’s –to which she had found Jackie mumbling the lyrics a couple of times.

As much as she hated to miss her practice, she had to admit it was the first time in two weeks she had a moment to breathe. With her responsibilities and new hobby involved, she barely had time to take a break.

Jackie had her eyes on the book and one hand on the computer’s keyboard. She had been writing notes non-stop since her meeting with the dean. As she had explained it to Jan, her complaint had been discussed, and even when she presented a well-written note and had some witnesses to back it up, the only thing the university was doing was reprimand him and, –since it was the first time someone had said something about the professor’s behavior- let him continue his classes with a warning.

In terms of Jackie’s situation, they had dictated that she’d be able to present a final assignment that would include several –if not all- units of the program, and it would be evaluated by a panel of professors from similar backgrounds, to make it fair. The thing was that her former professor was the one that had formulated the questions and, aside from being a lot, they were pretty gimmicky and for all those reasons, she had started the assignment way earlier than the semester was over, just to be sure.

“Okay, I’m done for the day too.” She closed her notebook. “I feel like there’s smoke coming from my ears or something.”

“Oh, was it you? I thought it was one of the machines.”

Jackie scrunched her nose. “Anyway, it seems like it’s a slow day and I have ten more minutes here so… Do you want to go watch a movie at the cinema?”

“At the cinema? Whoa… I haven’t thought about it but it’s been ages since I went to watch a movie…”

“Is that a yes…?” Jackie did her best to hide her nervousness behind the question.

“Sure. But I have to warn you, I’m not good with horror movies.” Jan shrugged.

“I saw that coming… But there’s this old cinema called Bellamy, we could ride the subway and would be there in no time. They play random movies every day so we could just get there and grab a couple of tickets for the next feature. What do you say?”

“Sounds good to me. Oh! I’ll put it on the group chat in case anyone else wants to tag along.”

Jackie’s lips turned into a thin line. “Okay… you do that and I’ll finish here.”

Jan hadn’t even noticed the shift in the girl’s mood, she was way too excited typing the message on her phone.

“I hope you’re not upset but it seems it’s going to be just me and you,” Jan mentioned while Jackie closed the door of the copy room. “Everyone’s plans or they are studying or… I don’t know.”

“Oh… no… it’s fine by me if it’s fine for you.”

“Of course! It’ll be fun!” She smiled.

It was still raining outside so they shared Jackie’s red umbrella that matched with her rain boots.

“What’s with this downpour?” Jackie wiped some drops from her clothes once they got underground. “Okay, here we go.”

Jan seemed amused. “I have never ridden the subway… well, back when I was like four I’m sure my mom took us me and my brother but I have no memories of it whatsoever.”

“You’ll get used to it quickly. Honestly, it’s one of the easiest ways to travel when it’s not packed.”

Without objecting, Jan followed Jackie’s lead up close. They almost coordinated steps to avoid puddles while running; the comical situation got them laughing at loud all their way to the subway station.

“I’m out of breath.” Jackie leaned against one column before closing the umbrella.

They shook some drops out of their clothes and waited for the subway to arrive. When it arrived not even five minutes later, they rushed to climb onto the wagon before they got pushed by others passengers. At least with the rain, there was place to move and even some seats available.

Jan had decided she liked riding the subway, it was a great place to observe the diversity of the fauna of the city. There were all kinds of people around probably heading to their works or their homes or to meet friends or just somewhere different. It was exciting, to consider the unlimited possibilities.

She looked at Jackie and displayed a giant grin that had the other girl blushing lightly and looking away.

“So how did you find this place?” Jan asked after a couple of minutes.

It caught Jackie out of guard. “Huh? What do you mean?” She frowned lightly.

“I was wondering how did you find this place since it’s not near the campus.”

“Oh that… I actually discovered it a couple of years ago. Things at home with my mom after the divorce weren’t precisely on the best terms so after school I never got straight back there. Instead, I started wandering around and taking the subway or the bus to go anywhere really.” Her voice threatened with breaking but she quickly cleared her throat. “One of those times I ended up in this old building, a theatre with so much history and they played these movies I had never seen before so… I stayed there ever since.”

“Whoa… that’s…” Jan wanted to reach for her hand but the older girl hurried to jump off the seat.

“This is our stop.” She pointed out.

“Alright. We’re here.”

“We are.” Jackie showed her a smile and grabbed the umbrella, ready to face the rain. “Let’s go.”

They had arrived just in time for Carrie but since Jan had stated she didn’t enjoy horror films, they waited ten minutes for the next movie to start. Coincidentally, it was My Fair Lady with Audrey Hepburn so it would also work for research purposes –or that was what Jan said- aside from the fact she had never watched it.

Jackie couldn’t say she was a newbie to Hepburn’s movies, she had watched all of them at least once but having company was new to her. Since getting into college she had stopped needing the cinema as an escape, a way to avoid reality at least for a couple hours; it was after meeting her friends and starting her classes that she eventually had less time to go there or simply, didn’t need it anymore.

Now, it was a whole different scenario. She had Jan next to her and it was a bit magical to see her in the dark with the light of the screen reflecting on her face, something that made her heart race. She would’ve died to hold her hand at that instant but it was true that she’d also die if she touched her as if Jan held the power of burning her with a mere contact.

Then, the screen went black and the credits started rolling, the movie was over.

They waited until most people had left the room and then they walked out.

“So, did you like the movie?”

Jan tilted her head. “Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a period piece from time to time and the costumes were iconic but… Professor Higgins is awful!” She gestured with her hands to emphasize her displeasure. “He spent all this time torturing Eliza… changing her to the point where she couldn’t go back to her life. That’s a psychopath.”

“Oh thank God, we agree.” Jackie sighed with relief.

“No wonder Rosé and her classmates changed part of the plot because…”

“Yeah. I’m dying to see that. How are the rehearsals going by the way?”

“They are great, I have a small part… the equivalent of one of those ladies on the horse races and I appear in two numbers but the rehearsals are so much fun with everyone. It's a nice group of people that are passionate about musicals.”

They got out of the room and saw the people already gathering for the next feature. The smell of popcorn was strong in the air just like the humidity of the rain on the carpet.

Jackie spotted a familiar face and her eyes lighted up. “Oh my God, Sophie!” She waved toward a short old woman with white hair and giant round glasses. “Jan, you have to meet Sophie”

“Jackie, darling.” She shuffled toward them. She pulled Jackie for a tight hug. The woman barely reached her waist.

“Sophie, this is my friend, Jan.” She introduced them.

“Hi-” Before Jan could say something else, Sophie also hugged her.

“Sophie is the owner of the theatre,” Jackie explained once the old lady let the younger breathe.

“Oh! That’s awesome. It’s really nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too. I have waited for ages for Jackie to finally bring a special someone…”

“No!” Jackie shook her head. “It’s- It’s not like that at all… We’re friends.”

“Pardon me, it’s only that when you introduced me to this lovely young lady I just thought… maybe someone had finally melted your cold façade.”

“Oh, Sophie… what are you saying?” She laughed nervously, her face was completely red. “Don’t listen to her… she’s old.”

Jan giggled. “It’s alright. I adore Jackie, she’s one of my best friends.”

“I haven’t seen this one in a while, you’d think she vanished or something.” The woman pointed.

“I’m sorry, Sophie. I should’ve called you at least.”

“For sure.” Sophie nagged.

“It won’t happen again… I’ll come back more often after the midterms, I promise it.”

“Oh darling, you haven’t heard, have you?”

Jackie looked puzzled. “What?”

“The Bellamy is going to be demolished.”

“What?!” The girl’s jaw dropped to the floor.

“How?” Jan asked, in disbelief as well.

“Well, a group of rich people has decided this is the perfect location to build one of those department stores.”

“No, no, no… this can’t be. This place is sacred, part of the cultural heritage of the city, it can’t be destroyed to build a mall.”

The old lady shrugged. “There’s not much I can do about it, it’s already written.” She patted Jackie’s shoulder. “Listen, honey, the important thing is that this place served its purpose for a long, long time and we got to enjoy it.”

Jackie was on the verge of tears. “How can you say that? How can you give up just like that? Without even putting a fight? The Bellamy is not just another cinema.”

The girl stormed out of the theatre before anyone else could say something.

“Wait! Jackie!” Jan shouted but she lost the girl in the crowd. “I’m sorry, I’m sure she didn’t mean any of that.” She softly explained to Sophie.

“You don’t need to tell me, I know. Now go after her, she needs a friend right now.”

“Yeah… I will…” Jan turned around.

“Oh, and Jan, one more thing,” Sophie called. “keep an eye on her, she seems inscrutable sometimes but she’s sensitive underneath.”

Jan displayed a tiny smile. “I know.”

“Jackie! Jackie wait!”

As if it didn’t matter at all, it had stopped raining.

She found the elder laying against the wall, next to a Casablanca poster that had been there since… well… probably since Casablanca first premiered.

Jackie’s cheeks were wet and her eyes reddened but she had wiped all the tears before Jan got closer.

“Hey… I’m so sorry.” Jan looked at her with soft eyes.

Jackie closed her eyes and sighed loudly. “I can’t believe it… this theatre is a home to me.”

“There must be a way to save it, we’ll figure something out.”

“I don’t know… it seems impossible… even Sophie has renounced.”

“Then we’ll convince her as well.” Jan grabbed her wrists. “We’ll find a way, there’s always a way.”

“Okay, Disney Channel Original Movie motivational speech.”

Jan chuckled. “What do you say if –for now- we go home and pick something to eat? I’m starving and... is it me or popcorn buckets are getting smaller?”

She got a smile from Jackie, that was a win.

“Plus, if I want to become a subway expert I’m supposed to ride it again, right?”

“I suppose that’s correct.”

“I’m telling you, I know this vegetarian place that has the best eggplant tacos and veggie sushi…” Jackie was commenting when they returned to the dorms.

“Sounds amazing, just let me pick some money from my room and we’ll be ready to go. You can come with me if you want.”

“Alright.”

They climbed the stairs until Jan stopped in her tracks making Jackie almost bump into her.

“Hey, careful there…”

But the brunette was petrified, watching the scene that happened on the very same floor of her dormitory. It took Jackie a moment to locate the event that had caused such commotion but as soon as she saw it, she just wished her friend hadn’t.

There he was, Nathan, the object of her affections, walking out the room of a girl that lived in the building. A different girl, it wasn’t the girl from the first day or another girl she had seen him with before. This was a gorgeous girl –like the others- but there was something different about him -him with her- the way he put the missing lock behind her ear and got closer to press a chaste kiss on her lips, the way they smiled after their lips touched.

Jan felt sick to her stomach, her face got pale and she barely could hold the tears.

The couple returned to the room and right when the door closed, she ran directly to her room. She desperately searched for the keys.

“Jan? Are you…?” Jackie touched her shoulder.

Jan sobbed. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine… I just… I need to find the keys… it’s like I can’t find them anywhere.” She kept rummaging her backpack without result.

It was too late, she broke into tears, her knees gave in and she ended on the floor.

“I’m sorry, this must look so stupid in comparison to the theatre but… It hurts so badly.” Her voice broke into pieces. “I keep telling myself it’s just another girl but there’s always another girl… It's exhausting.”

“Oh, Jan… no…” Jackie kneeled next to her and embraced her in a hug. “It’s not you.”

“I know that… it will never be me.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

She finally found her keys and got up.

“I’m sorry, Jackie. I’ve lost my appetite.” Her voice sounded weak, distant.

“No, wait… you don’t have to be alone right now.” Jackie hurried to stand up.

“I really… really… want to be alone.” She sobbed harder. “I don’t want you to see me like this.” She closed the door on Jackie’s face as soon as she got in.

“Jan!” Jackie knocked on the door. “Jan… please don’t do this. Jan, please… open the door.”

She tried for another five minutes but finally gave up. Jan wasn’t opening the door and the best Jackie could do was texting Rosé hoping the girl would come home earlier to take care of her.

It broke Jackie’s heart to see her like that, especially for a guy like Nathan, one that wasn’t worth the tears.

The following day, it surprised Jackie to find a text message from Jan early in the morning –earlier than any of her classes.

From Jan 🐻: Meet me at Lucky’s before class. It’s important.

Jackie jumped out of bed and rushed to get ready as soon as she read it, after a night of poor sleep she was waiting for that text message.

She walked straight to the diner and found her friend sitting on a table with her computer open and her pink-haired roommate sitting in front of her.

“Hey...” She approached the table.

“Jackie, you’re here!” Jan greeted with the same energetic tone she had –even that early in the morning. Although she looked hyped, the bags under her eyes told a different story.

“Uh… Are you okay?” Jackie asked before taking a seat next to her. She also eyed Rosé who just shrugged.

“Peachy.” She smiled. “Would you like a cup of coffee maybe? Waffles? Pancakes? French toast?”

“The waffles are really good.” Rosé pointed.

“Thanks… I’ll have some eggs maybe but… what’s going on? Yesterday…”

“Yesterday was yesterday and today is today.” Jan gestured with her hands. “I texted you because I have something super important to show you.” She pointed at her computer's screen.

That was it? They were going to pretend the Nathan incident hadn’t happened at all? Well, at least for Jan, that was the case.

“Alright… tell me.”

“So, I did some research and I believe it is possible to save the theatre if we gather enough evidence to prove it has historic importance for the city.” The page of the culture ministry was opened along with at least fifty different tabs on the subject.

“And how exactly are you going to do that?” Jackie raised an eyebrow.

“I was hoping you’d come with an idea since you know the place better than me. Maybe Sophie could tell us some story or we could do our own research.”

Jackie sighed. “I guess it could work but we’d need to invest hours on this and… are you sure you want to do it? I feel like you have a lot on your plate already.”

“Oh no, she devoured the pancakes the second the plate touched the table, trust me.” Rosé assured.

“I was hungry and I didn’t eat them right away, they drew a face with the blueberries so I took a picture and posted it on Instagram first.” She shook her head. “As I was saying, this is important for you, Jackie and I want to help.” She stared at her, hoping she would convince her with those arguments.

“Jan, I’m worried about you.”

“Don’t even try it.” Rosé mumbled. “I already did and she chose to ignore me categorically so I followed her here to make sure she didn’t jump from a bridge or something.”

“She’s also here to hit on my coworker so it’s really a win-win situation.”

They high-fived.

“That’s lovely… but we should talk about what happened last night…”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Jan stated. “I’m fine.”

“Yeah, I don’t think…”

But Jackie was interrupted by Denali.

“Hi, how’s it going over here? Do you guys want something else?” She had her eyes fixed on her notebook.

“Can I get a cup of Americano and scrambled eggs?” Jackie asked. She needed some coffee to go through it.

“Right away. Do you girls would like something else? More coffee?”

“We’re good.” Jan smiled.

“Oh, Jan, I have your check over there if you want to collect it right now.”

“Thank you, Nali. I’ll be there in a second.”

Rosé cleared her throat. “I’ve been meaning to ask you…”

But it was like the cat had caught the pink-haired girl’s tongue.

“…if you can pour more coffee for me?”

“Sure.” She smiled politely but it was clear that Rosé was melting inside.

Once the waitress left, all the eyes were on Rosé.

“What? I got paralyzed. I can’t do it. I can’t. It is physically impossible for me to ask her out, my body reacts like that.”

“I believe, as science people and Twitter users have once referred to it, that's a case of gay panic. Have you tried in a different way?” Jackie asked before sipping some of Jan’s coffee. “What is this?” She winced.

“Decaffeinated.”

“Ugh…”

“Bitch, I have tried… I even left my number written on a $20 bill when I went to the bathroom earlier, hoping she’d see it but it’s like I’m invisible.”

“That’s not right. Denali loves to flirt and she’s single so I don’t see why she wouldn’t say yes. Oh, I know, you could invite her to the play's opening night.”

Jackie looked at the younger, Jan had dodged the conversation about her but there was no way her friend wasn’t going to dig into it later.

“Maybe I can pave the way for you… find out if she’s having a rough morning or something that affects her response.”

“Would you do that for me?” Rosé didn’t sound so sure about it.

“Of course, I have to pick up my check… my first check here.”

“Congratulations.” Jackie smiled at her.

“Thank you.” She then touched her roommate’s arm. “Leave it to me. I’ll be subtle.”

“Jan…” Before Rosé could say something, she was already heading toward the counter.

“Was it bad?” Jackie asked once the brunette left.

“Girl… You have no idea.” Rosé sighed.

“Thank you, Nali.” Jan held the check proudly in her hands.

“Is your name correct?”

“Yes, it’s perfect.”

“Remember you work tomorrow so have a moderate amount of fun with it and stay away from ice skates and acrylic nails hot sales… Huh… I guess that only applies to me.” Denali turned around.

“Denali… I was wondering…”

The raven-haired girl dropped a pile of napkins.

“Shit. Don’t tell anyone but I forgot to put my contacts on this morning and basically, I can’t see shit without these giant glasses.” She murmured before quickly putting a pair of dark frame glasses on. She grabbed the napkins and after typing something on the computer, took them off immediately.

“Oh… that explains a lot actually…”

“What do you mean?”

Subtle Jan, subtle.

“So my roommate likes you.”

Denali almost tripped. “Wait, what?”

“She’s been trying to ask you out for the past weeks but she feels like you’re ignoring her.”

Denali dragged Jan behind the counter with her and kneeled before putting the glasses back on.

“Which one is your roommate?” She whispered.

“The one with the pink hair that comes here often… is a regular. You can't ignore her she's like one of those anime main characters with the funky hair.”

“Oh my God, Fine Wine is your roommate?”

“What?”

“She’s always singing that Kylie Minogue song and I thought it was a joke since you guys call her Rosé but…”

“That’s her name.”

“Well, she is fine wine.” Denali pushed the glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Are you sure about this?”

“Yeah? She even left a $20 bill with her number as a tip for you?”

“That was her?! I thought it was one of the creepy guys from table six. Oh my God…” She grabbed the jar of tips and started searching for the bill.

“Bitch if I’m missing a single dollar from that jar I swear to God…” Kandy yelled from the other side of the diner.

“Shut up, I’m in the middle of something here…” Finally, she pulled out the bill with pink glitter ink.

“It says XOXO Rosé.”

“What part of «I’m not wearing glasses» you didn't catch?”

"Is that a yes, though?

Denali nodded. She removed the glasses and waved toward their table. “Hey Rosé, if you’re not busy tonight, I’ll call you!”

Rosé blushed instantly but she nodded with a smile on her face.

Jackie, behind her, just shook her head, acknowledging that the shenanigans of her friend had worked out once again.

#rpdr fanfiction #jan sport #jackie cox #jankie #rosnali #college au #lesbian au #slow burn #pretty in pearls #plastiquedoll #concrit welcome

[veronicalodgeoutfitanalysis]

Chapter Nine: La Grande Illusion

This is a very big episode for our girl, lots of storytelling through her clothes and one very iconic dress. 

This dress is absolutely fantastic and a glimpse into the world of embellished Ted Baker collars to come in the later seasons. This rich purple is a peak Ronnie colour, and I have to love the white cuffs and collar. It’s classy yet fun, what’s not to love? At this moment in the episode she’s dressed very classically Veronica, with her collar and her teardrop pearl, keep that in mind for the rest of this episode.

Moment of appresh for Cheryl’s cape moment, impractical for the weather but very glam nontheless. 

For this quiche lunch date Veronica goes for a fairly simple black lace panel dress. It’s very similar to the dress she wore to Polly’s baby shower last ep but we don’t see it for very long. 

Veronica goes for another black dress for a makeover, complete with a lacey white collar and pearl belt. At this moment she’s unaware of her father’s involvement in the Muggs family’s misfortune. Correspondingly she’s wearing double pearls, but not for long...

Loving Ethel’s Lodge approved red hat and pussybow!

Sidenote: I do, in fact, own Betty’s bomber jacket from this scene and I would highly reccomend if you can get your hands on it!

This dress is an absolute moment! The amazing wardrobe team actually handmade this dress - a pity as I would love to get my hands on it - and I am in complete awe of it. The tartan pattern is great and the pinks and burghundys and absolutely fantastic, A++

These stillettos are stunning, and incredibly glossy. This may be a sad moment for Veronica but it’s also one of her most fashionable. Now, moving onto the most important piece in this scene...

THE PEARLS! As we know, pearls represent Veronica’s connection to her family and, more specifically, her father. Here, upon hearing of what his crimes have caused, she physically rips them from her neck, representing her cutting ties and refusing to defend him anymore. What a scene!

Same outfit, this time with a cape. I’m glad to see it back but a little confused as to why. She usually wears this for capers (get it!) but here she’s coming clean.

Also wanted to point out that the wardrobe team also made this dress, what a great episode for frocks huh!

Veronica ends the episode in, yet another, embellished collar and a purple tartan skirt, an outfit she wears sans pearls. She’s really cutting Hiram lose.

Total: Five outfits, six if you count the cape seperately

Cape Count: Reader, the cape is back to fight another day!

Favourite: I want to say the tartan dress, but that purple Ted Baker number truly has my heart.

See you next time!

#veronica lodge #veronica lodge style #riverdale outfits #veronica lodge outfits #riverdale #riverdale style #season one #s1 #1x09

[allicekitty13]

Born To Run: Chapter 1

Mary-Alice Brandon has just returned to her hometown after an incident causing her to relocate just a year ago. Meanwhile, Jasper has become increasingly frustrated with his home life and decides to uncover just what exactly his brother had been hiding. In 1957 two people, with two drastically different personalities meet for the first time. Will their worlds clash or will they realize the only ones they can truly trust with their secrets are each other.

Read On Ao3

Read On FFN

Her eyes fluttered open at the prompting chime of her alarm clock currently ringing on the bedside table to her right. Mustering up as much energy as possible when one was just pulled promptly frum slumber, Alice rolled from the comfortable position on her side to lie flat on her back. Despite the powder blue clock still ringing throughout her bedroom, Alice couldn't help but to reflect on the wonderful dream she'd been having.

In the night vision, she'd been back in Paris shopping with her step-sister Kate. Being in France the past year had been like a dream come true, a much-needed break from the reality she'd been forced to return to. Kate was newly engaged and thus had decided to return home to Nevada with Alice and her fiance, Garrett, in tow. 

Alice's stomach grumbled loudly and painfully, pulling her from the reminiscing session. She snapped her eyes shut tightly, attempting to ignore the alarm's offending bell and the painful ache in her stomach.  Of course, it was no use; her vacation was over. It was time to come down from the clouds and return to reality. Needing to focus on one issue at a time and the alarm still prompting to her side currently being the most prominent, Alice took a deep breath accepting her fate. Summing the energy to flick the little tab on top of the clock to the off position effectively silenced the alarm blanketing the room in silence. 

Willing herself to sit up fully, Alice removed the pale pink sleeping mask covering her eyes, finally greeting the day. She pulled the plush comforter away from her small body and swung her left over the mattress, placing her feet in the house slippers kept neatly next to the bed. She pulled the think pink satin robe that hung from her bedpost over her thin shoulders as she crossed the room to the window overlooking the back garden. Pulling open the lace curtains, Alice gazed down at the flowers.

It was just before dawn, her favorite time of the day. Alice reveled in the way the dim twilight touched down on the beautiful flowers and the small white iron bench she had coerced her father into placing in the middle of the lovely space. The scene was peaceful; day had started, although night hadn't quite ended. Nature reflecting how nothing was black and white; there were gray areas in everything, in everyone. Nothing like the reality she would be walking into in only a few hours. 

Turning her attention back to the clock, the small teen accepted that she had been staring out the window, lost in thought for far too long. Something her step-father, whom she was meant to meet for breakfast shortly, was regularly scolding her for.

She didn't remember her biological father, and her mother rarely spoke of the man. The facts she had were that her parents had been wed young in an arranged marriage in 1938, Edgar Brandon had been drafted to join the war just two years after Alice was born. The man had gone missing in action, presumed dead. 

Shortly after Alice's fourth birthday, Lilian had met a charming man by the name of Eleazar Burke. Before the year was out, the happy couple were married. Eleazar was the only father Alice had ever known. The now seventeen-year-old adored her unusual family; Kate was more than she could have ever asked for in an older sibling they, of course, fought at times but very close. While they may not be biologically related, Alice couldn't imagine a kinder, more understanding father in Eleazar. He loved all three of his daughters, including Alice, equally never playing favorites. He didn't play favorites, distributing the wealth and opportunity attached to his name evenly between the three girls.

Once she'd gotten moving, preparing for the day came like second nature. She now stood in front of the mirror with her hair and makeup done. She was fully dressed in her favorite skirt and sweater set, complete with the new petticoat she had picked up shopping with Kate over the summer. She'd been saving it specifically for her first day at school back in her hometown since the incident. The way it flared out the red skirt was both fashionable and made her hips look just a bit thicker. The matching cardigan hung somewhat loose, also in line with the current trends while slightly masking the frailness of her frame. She smoothed down the skirt and straightened out her pan collar perfectly before pinning both sides down with the lucky pearl collar pins inherited from her maternal grandmother. Alice took one final look in the mirror with a deep breath and silent prayer. She plastered a smile on her face, ready to face the day.

Meanwhile, across town, Jasper Whitlock was in for a quite literal rude awakening. "Wake up, sleepyhead. We're gonna' be late for school." With a groan of annoyance, Jasper opened his eyes to the familiar face of his cousin Rosalie. The sassy blonde was simultaneously one of his favorite people yet also the curse of his existence. Jasper frequently shifted between feelings of gratefulness for having such a fun-loving relative living next door and wishing her family had never moved across the country to help out after his mother's passing.

With her presently standing next to his bed, hands on her hips, very likely fully prepared to throw something at him if he didn't get moving. He was currently feeling the latter. "Since when do you care about school?" He groaned, sitting up on the thin mattress lying on the floor. "More importantly, why are you here, and how did you get in my room?"

"The door, your dads passed out again and it was unlocked." Rosalie shrugged, crossing the room to take a seat at the only chair not covered in clothing, sheet music, or records as she examined her nails. "Anyway, I don't care about school, but I don't want to miss the fireworks, so we're at least going to morning classes. Now, get up and get dressed."

"What are you yammering on about?" Jasper responded as he threw the worn, tattered blankets to the side and grabbed a white t-shirt from its place, lazily shoved into an already open dresser drawer directly to the side of his mattress.

"Mary-Alice Brandon is coming back today."

"Yeah," The other teen rolled his eyes. "Well fuck Mary-Alice Brandon."

"Oh, come on, tell me you don't care about the inherent entertainment of watching everyone flock back to following her lead and leaving poor Charlotte in the dust."

"You're demented."

"You know how petty high school politics amuse me so." The tall blonde woman shrugged before she stood straightening out her leather jacket as she crossed the room. "At least come to support your best friend? Charlotte is either going to be elated or upset. If it's the latter, it's going to make Pete upset. Relationships are kind of like dominos that way. Now hurry up, Riley's waiting outside, and we need a ride, oh favorite cousin of mine."

With that, Rosalie confidently strutted out of her cousin's room, down that hallway. In the Whitlock's living room, her mother and uncle were engaged in the same decade-old argument they'd been having from the moment Ruth and Joseph Hale had packed up their family moving from New York to Nevada. Rosalie had only been one at the time, having no memory of what actually happened. The backlash, however, had caused a ripple effect through the lives of everyone in the family. Because of this, it was no secret that Irene Whitlock had passed away shortly after Jasper's birth. That uncle Thomas had fallen into deep despair losing his job and drinking the days away. 

It was concern for the boys, James and Jasper, that had prompted the move. Her mother so worried for her nephew's well being that they'd relocated their entire lives to be there and help take care of them. It was meant to be temporary until Thomas got back on his feet. Seventeen years later, the siblings were still arguing over it. Her mother pleading for the man to think of his children. 

Unwilling to witness the same fight yet again, Rosalie left the house and headed to the street where her twin brother stood leaning against Jasper's car. "Is he coming?" Riley asked, disinterestedly kicking absently at the pavement, scuffing up his shoes in the process. 

"Yeah, I had to guilt-trip him, but he's coming."

Just as the words had left Rosalie's mouth, the seventeen-year-old in question came shuffling out of the house. Once the door was carefully and quietly shut behind him, Jasper's demeanor shifted, and he confidently stalked down the sidewalk, climbing into his car without uttering a single word. No sooner had the twins piled into the vehicle behind him than Jasper had peeled out of the driveway headed in the direction of the local high school, barely giving Riley enough time to pull the door shut.

Outside the school, Peter, Jasper's best friend, a tall boy with dark hair, was standing in the parking lot talking to Charlotte. The pair had begun dating over the summer, much to Jasper's annoyance. Their relationship had started in the fall when the girl had entered the antique shop owned by Jasper's uncle that Peter worked in part-time. The two had hit it off as instant friends. Despite a plethora of drama involving Charlotte's now ex-boyfriend Demetri and her friend Jane, the pair had entered into a romantic relationship.

While Jasper didn't particularly care for the girl or her crowd, Peter was gone for her. So the teen put up with Charlotte, and more often than he'd like the teenage queens who followed her around like puppies. Over time, though he would die before admitting it to anyone, he'd even begun to almost like her.

So, when he exited his car, Jasper nodded in greeting to the new couple from across the parking lot before turning to his own social circle in the parking space next to his own. The teens were gathered around admiring Benjamin's new car that he'd won in a race just a few weeks prior. Maria, one of his oldest friends having grown up in the same neighborhood, was already stretched out across the hood leaning back against the windshield. A cigarette burned from its place tucked loosely between her fingers as she chatted with Lucy and Nettie about their plans for the afternoon once they'd ditched.

Jasper was well aware that most if any of the assembled teenagers would be ducking out before the end of the school day. Personally, he intended to be long gone as soon as Rosalie's attention was elsewhere. Which, judging by how engaged she seemed to be in her conversation with Benjamin and Randall on the mechanical details of the new car, wouldn't be long. However, he was already here, and it wouldn't hurt to at least stay for first period. So he elected to join in on Riley, Makenna, and Charles's conversation about the new Buddy Holly single.

Jasper had just made plans with the latter two to head to the local diner later and play the song on the jukebox when Peter, followed closely by Charlotte, headed over to collect his best friend for homeroom. Bidding his friends goodbye, Jasper followed the other boy, his girlfriends, and the group of students she associated with into the building where their lockers were located. As always, because lockers were assigned alphabetically by surname, Peter and Jasper's lockers were right next to each other. 

Not planning on being an active student, let alone showing up at school more often than necessary, Jasper hadn't brought alone anything to warrant keeping in a locker. So, he took a seat on a bench located under a window next to the set of lockers letting the other teens chat as they placed their belonging in the metal storage structures. 

"Is that Mary-Alice?" Eric Yorke, a rather talkative and, in Jasper's opinion, annoying boy gasped out capturing his and Charlotte's attention. The latter turned away from her conversation with Bella and Jane to look at the boy in confusion. 

Charlotte had known her best friend was back in town, but when they'd spoken earlier Alice, as she'd decided to begin going by dropping the first half of her name, had stated her parents would allow the tiny teen to skip the first week of classes. Being an exceptional student well on the way to becoming valedictorian, and taking the incident into consideration, the school had happily accommodated.

"I thought you said she wasn't coming back until next week Char?" Bella spoke quietly, her eyes now following the same trajectory of Eric's

"Looks like the reign of Charlotte is over." Mike snickered, also staring at the top of the stairwell. Following her friends' gaze, Charlotte's expression quickly morphed from one of confusion to that of utter delight. 

Jasper didn't care much for the particulars of high school politics. Prior to Peter's entanglement with Charlotte, the name Mary-Alice had been nothing more than a blip on his radar. The two ran in vastly different circles, he being a proud greaser surrounding himself with like-minded truants who cared more about races and the newest records than anything else. She, a spoiled overachiever. The goody-two-shoes type who headed every committee whose word the majority of student's hung on. Still, even he'd noticed when the girl had disappeared a year ago. So, he turned his attention to the sight that had captured everyone's attention, curious as to what the commotion was about.

 He was met with the sight of a girl who's smile was so pure she almost seemed to glow. Short despite her blatant attempt to make up the difference with the kitten heels she wore. Her slightly curly hair was a chocolate-colored brown rested just short of her chin. Based on the perfect angles of her collar and the way she kept nervously smoothing out her skirt, it was apparent that she'd taken great care to ensure every aspect of her appearance was perfect. His dislike for the teen was instant; he hardly tried to hide the scowl from his face as he watched her scan the hallway. Once her blue eyes landed upon the small group, she burst into a bright smile and a somehow graceful run down the stairwell.

"Charlotte!" Alice exclaimed in a melodic chirp as she reached the gathering. 

"Alice!" The taller girl responded with equal enthusiasm throwing her arms around her friend. "What are you doing at school?" She questioned the smile never leaving her face as she released her friend.

"Papa thought it might be best to just jump right in if I was up for it since I'm home already." Her smile faltered at the statement but returned quickly. "Who are our new friends?" She asked catching sight of Jasper and Peter eyeing the two with curiosity. The former of whom rolled his eyes at the assumption, he was not nor would her ever be her friend.

Jasper opened his mouth to inform this 'Mary-Alice' of as much, but Charlotte responded before he could get the words out. "Alice," She stated grabbing Peter's hand. "This is Peter, my boyfriend. And that's his best friend Jasper."

"Wow," Alice's eyes widened. "I have missed a lot. It's lovely to meet you both." She smiled once again as she took a seat on the bench next to Jasper, expertly tucking her skirt underneath her slim legs as she descended. "The four of us should go bowling after school; I'd love to get to know the both of you better."

Jasper's annoyance grew at the suggestion, unable to put up with anymore he stood in a haste. "That's never going to happen." He shot the small girl a glare and stormed down the hall out of the building. Forget Rosalie, he thought approaching his vehicle in the parking lot. Forget school, and most of all forget Mary-Alice Brandon.

#Jalice #jasper hale #alice cullen #twilight fic #Twilight

[solavillain]

Pas de Deux Ch. 1: A New Visitor

+pairing: Spinel x fem!Reader +genre: Drama, romance, angst +warnings: None (for now) +word count: 3.1K +Chapter 1 / ? next chapter

Read on AO3!

Summary: You love spending your summers in Beach City. You’ve come here since you were young, and have since befriended Steven and the Crystal Gems. You thought all Gem conflict had ended, and could finally spend a summer relaxing with your friends. However, your world flips upside down when a new Gem enters into the mix.

“Shit, I’m so fired!“

This is the only thought racing through your head as you bold down the boardwalk on the way to your café job. It’s not glamorous, or particularly well-paying, but you’d been coming to Beach City every summer since you were a child, and you weren’t about to stop that tradition now that you were in you final year of college. You figured out a way to stay in town and earn some pocket money, so you were good to go.

“Not if I get fired for being late again...” you groan internally and pick up the pace. Finally, you round a corner and bolt through the door, and behind the counter of the café, glancing at the time on the register.  

“20 minutes late, y/n...” your manager warns, giving you a side look as you head to the back of the store to get yourself collected. “How do you manage to be late when you live, like, 5 minutes away?” “It’s a talent?” You say, chuckling nervously before ducking to the back. At least it doesn’t seem like firing is on the table for today.

Once you’re up front and working, the day passes by like any other. You’d had an early shift, so when you break for lunch it’s right around 1 o’clock, a perfect time to sit outside and admire the beachfront view while sipping on your drink of choice. You glance down the boardwalk, past The Big Donut, to where Steven and the Crystal Gems live. You hadn’t really interacted with them much when you’d visited with your family as a child, but once you started coming over the summers by yourself, you’d slowly gotten to know them all.  

Steven had started off like a typical kid, but very quickly came to be a mature and thoughtful young adult, someone whom you looked up to. You didn’t know the full details of what had been happening out in space the past few years, but from what the Gems told you, he was doing amazing work. He was always so candid with his thoughts and feelings, and you found yourself wanting to spend time with him every summer you were working in Beach City.  

Garnet had intimidated you quite a bit at first; since you had mostly seen her around when the Gems were fighting something in town. But she seemed to come out of her shell as Steven got more involved in Gem goings-on, and every so often she stopped in the café with Steven and you found yourself at ease around her, content to talk about everything or nothing. She was a true leader.

Amethyst was your go-to for nights out, especially since Little Homeworld had popped up and more and more gems had begun moving in- Amethyst seemed to get along with all of them. You were a bit shy the first time she’d brought you over, especially since she already seemed pretty close with some of them. You had met Lapis, Bismuth and Peridot a couple times, but they hadn’t really left the countryside until Little Homeworld, and they’d been so busy building the past two summers you’d been in Beach City that you hadn’t gotten the chance to know them as well as you’d liked.  But Amethyst had promised to change that soon, since construction was almost done and she’d have time for hanging out again. You were really looking forward to that.

Pearl was, arguably, the gem you were closest to. You had a lot in common- a love of music and the arts, a very strong need to be clean and organized, and you were both rather emotionally open with each other, which was nice and refreshing. Even if there was a bit of a disconnect, with her being less familiar with human affairs, she was still your favorite person to see whenever you went over to the Temple. She had even agreed to start training you in self-defense this summer, just for fun- she knew you probably wouldn’t need it against any gem threats, but you thought it might be useful for human matters, at least.  

You smiled warmly down the boardwalk, as a peculiar sight pulled you from your reminiscing- Steven emerging from a newly pink Lars’ head. You sat up straight and leaned forward, trying to get a better look. You hadn’t seen Steven in a very long time, as he’d been traveling the universe with the diamonds, as Pearl had told you when you arrived this summer and found him gone.   Garnet had arrived at the shop a few minutes earlier, and she pulled out a chair for Steven at the table of gems. You smiled warmly at the group, wishing you could go over and join them. But just as you thought that, the 2-minute warning you’d set on your phone went off, signaling that it was almost the end of your break time.

You sighed and stood up slowly, taking one last glance at the group by the Big Donut, where Steven was heading to the newly installed warp that connected Beach City to Little Homeworld. You hoped you could meet up with him later and catch up on all that had been going on the past couple years.  

The rest of your shift passed by without much happening. You saw a couple new gems walk by outside the shop, but they didn’t come in, reminding you that not all gems ate everything in sight like Amethyst. You smiled to yourself at the thought, and glanced at the clock, eager to get off work and go visit everyone.  

Finally, it was time to go, clocking out once your replacement mid-day shift arrived. You said a quick goodbye to your coworkers and gathered your things, walking out the door into the hot sun. You took a deep breath of the salty sea air, and smiled to yourself. Finally it was time to go catch up with everyone. You had seen them all rush down the boardwalk towards the temple a little while ago, from your position in the café, so you turned left and began to head over.

As you approached the beach, you glanced up towards the lighthouse, and a smile broke out on your face. Laying on the hill were your four favorite people- Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven, and they all looked totally contented and relaxed. You started the trek up the rather large hill, but suddenly the sky darkened.  

All four of the Gems suddenly sat up, and from what little you could see of their facial expressions from this far away, they did not look relaxed any longer. In fact, they were all looking towards the sky...

Glancing up, your stomach dropped and you scrambled back towards the base of Lighthouse Park, trying to put some distance between you and the very, very large object that was currently descending from the clouds. You knew that, at the very least, it couldn’t be any of the Diamonds Pearl had told you about- Steven had been helping them, teaching them to be good...there was no way they would attack the Earth now, especially after all he’s done. So who...?

As the giant object neared the ground, a drill head emerged from the bottom of it, and with a thunderous boom, it inserted into the hill, right in front of your eyes. You stood in shock for a moment, until you realized you couldn’t see where Steven and the Gems were anymore.

“Oh my god. What if...?”

You shook your head, willing away the burning sensation beginning in your eyes. “No,” you thought, “they’re fine. I’ll just...”

You glanced anxiously back towards Beach City, torn between wanting to get somewhere safe, and wanting to make sure your friends were okay. You turned back towards the hill and the giant injector, and started making your way up the hill, mentally preparing yourself to help in any way possible.

“This damn hill is a lot steeper than I remember it being,” you think, as you push even faster, racing to try to get to them in time. Not that you even know what’s going on- you can’t hear or see anything, which worries you more than if you had heard fighting sounds.

Finally, you reach the injector, and you make your way around it. Just in time to see a menacing, stretchy pink Gem poof Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl.

You gasp quietly, still unsure if you should get involved. You know Steven is just as strong, if not stronger, than a lot of the Gems you’ve met. And you’re full human, you can’t poof and come back...you decide to wait until you’re sure Steven needs your help.

“That’s enough!” You hear him cry as he pulls his shield from his gem.  

“Aw, miss your friends already, Steven?” A sickly sweet voice asks, prompting you to come out from behind cover to glance once again at the pink Gem.

“Well, don’t worry- you're right behind ‘em!”

She leaps forward, spinning towards Steven in an acrobatic display, the scythe-like weapon in her hand glowing menacingly. The weapon breaks through Steven’s shield and passes through him- he shudders and trembles, but you can see that he’s ultimately fine.  

“Hah! That was nothing!” He says triumphantly. You relax a little- he's half human, gem weapons don’t really effect him. He could handle this on his own.

The other Gem chuckles menacingly, “Then I guess you won’t mind if I do it again!” She slices through him, laughing a high pitched maniacal laugh all the while. Though you know Steven is usually safe from...what was it they had called them? Gem destabilizers? You knew he was safe from those, but still...it couldn’t feel pleasant.   “Cut it out!” Steven cried out, finally seeing a break in the attacks, and grabbed the scythe.  

The pink Gem narrowed her eyes, “You don’t poof, do you? Hmm. Figured as much. Just wait! Your human half won’t stand a chance against my injector...not after what I just did to your gem!”

With that, your eyes widened. Was she going to do something to him right now? What happened to Steven’s gem? You couldn’t just stand by and watch her hurt Steven.

“Hey!” You called out, trying to mask the wariness in your voice. “Get away from him!”  

You stepped out from behind the injector, tried to remember every bit of training Pearl had given you thus far, and began to make your way over to them.

“Y/n, don’t!” Steven cried out, still struggling with his hold on the other gems’ weapon. “Well now, who is this, Steven? You didn’t introduce me to your little...ah, a human friend!” She grinned at you, her eyes going wide and bright pink. “Sadly, you’ll have to wait a little while to reap the benefits of my lovely new toys. This ol’ thing here won’t do much to ya...but that will.”   She gazed up at the giant pink injector that you had just walked out from. You had no idea what it did, but you really didn’t like what she was insinuating.  

With her focus momentarily elsewhere, Steven saw an opening and wrenched the scythe away from the invading gem.   “Just...stop!” He yelled, and passed the weapon through her. She cackled manically, one half her body sliding down the other almost grotesquely- even though you knew she was only projected light, the sight still made your stomach turn. Finally, she poofed, and with a soft thud, fell to the ground.

“Ugh...” Steven groaned, falling to his knees. “Guess I should bubble her...” He tried to form his pink bubble, and failed. You furrowed your brows- you had never seen his powers do that in recent years, he’d had very good control over them for a while now. He tried once more and couldn’t even get anything to form this time.   “What...?” he whispered softly, staring at his hands, and then looked over to the scythe. “Y/n, whatever that is...I think it did something to my gem. That’s not a gem destabilizer, it’s...something else.”  

You put a comforting hand on his back, and held out the other to help him stand.   “No use worrying about it now... let’s just get everyone back to a safe area, and we can figure everything out when they all...come back. Maybe we could call Greg?” “Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. Let’s go back to my house,” he said softly, standing up and heading back down the hill.  

You threw a passing glance at the injector, tilting your head back to see the very top of it. It was full with bright pink...stuff. Whatever that was, it wasn’t gonna be good.

Back at Steven’s house, you stood in the kitchen, watching Steven silently fret over his friends poofed gems. You could tell he was extremely worried, and wanted to give him some space. He was looking more and more anxious by the minute. Maybe you should say something... “Steven, I-” “Steven!”   Just then, Greg burst through the door, and both you and Steven visibly relaxed. You may be older than Steven, but this Gem stuff is still fairly new to you, and Greg has been dealing with it for years. He would at least be able to comfort Steven more than you could.  

“I came as fast as I could. Are you guys ok?” He asked, glancing between you and Steven. If he was surprised to see you there, his expression didn’t show it.

Greg notices the Gems lying on the table, and his eyes widen. “Holy sh...she really got everybody! Is that her?”   His gaze landed on the pink heart-shaped gem. You walked over to get a better look, now that the atmosphere was a bit less tense. The gem itself really was quite striking- multi faceted, very shiny, and very pink.  

“Yeah,” Steven answered his father.

“Who-?”

“No idea.”

“Why?!”

“No idea!” Steven sighed and sunk into the couch. You moved to sit next to him silently, wanting to offer your support, but not wanting to interject too much. “How?” Greg asked, seemingly too restricted by shock to ask more than one-worded questions.

“She hit all of us with this,” Steven answered, pulling the retracted scythe from his pocket.  

“Hey, I mean...at least it only poofed them, right?” You chimed in, giving them both a halfhearted smile.

Steven shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s all it did to them... It did something extra weird to me, my powers aren’t working right. Look at this!” He tries to summon his shield, and it blinks in and out a few times, before vanishing completely.

You furrow your brow, the pit of your stomach dropping. That’s definitely different. If it did that to Steven, what could it have done to the Gems...? Steven puts the weapon away, and puts his head in his hands. “I just have no idea what’s going on!”  

“Well son...now you know how I feel almost all the time.” You stifle a giggle- you can totally relate, and while it was an amusing comment...it makes you wonder if you might be truly in over your head here.

“Hey, guys...” You start to say, and clasp your hands in your lap, avoiding their gaze. “I’m sorry if I’m making things harder or weirder by being here. I know there’s not a whole lot I can do with what limited training I have, especially not if she reforms and tries to attack us again...” You trail off, chancing a look at Steven and Greg.  

“No, I want you here!” Steven exclaims, startling both you and Greg. “Honestly, without you I don’t know if I would have been able to get the scythe away from her. Even if it was on accident, you arrived at just the right time and distracted her for me. And you’re better at fighting than you give yourself credit for!”

“Hah...thanks, Steven,” you say, letting out a sigh. As long as he wanted you here and you weren’t getting in the way, you would stay to support your friends.  

The relaxed atmosphere didn’t last long. Surprisingly, Pearl- who, you had been told in the past, was often the last one to reform after being poofed- was the first Gem to begin glowing and floating in the air.

“Ah, good ol’ Pearl! She’ll know what to do!” Greg exclaimed, looking relieved. You were relieved as well; Pearl was your rock when things got tough in your personal life, and she always kept a level head during a crisis, for the most part. Once the other Crystal Gems reformed, they would be able to fight off the invading Gem easily. You smiled up at Pearl’s glowing Gem, waiting for her to reemerge.  

Instead, the sight that greeted you was rather...different. Instead of a glowing outline of Pearl, taking form to her normal self, a holographic oyster shone around the gem and began to speak.

“Please, identify yourself.”

“Um...Greg Universe?”

You glanced warily between Pearl and the Universes. As far as you knew, this had never happened before.   “What’s going on?” You whispered to Steven, gazing back up at Pearl’s gem.

“I’m not sure,” he murmurs, “this...isn’t normal at all.”   You gave him a sympathetic look, as Pearl continued speaking. “Greetings, Um-Greg Universe! Please state preferred customization options.”

Greg blanches, and looks to you and Steven for help. “Uh, what am I supposed to say here?”

“I don’t know,” Steven exclaims.   “This is so weird,” you mutter, still staring at the floating holo-oyster.

“Default settings selected,” the gem says, “please stand by.”  

All three of you go wide-eyed as the gem flies to the middle of the room, and finally, Pearl emerges. Except...she looks different. Well, you knew they often changed their forms after being poofed, so maybe she just wanted to try something new. Though, you had never really known her to be the puffy sleeves and skirt type...

“Pearl!” Steven exclaims, ecstatic to have his friend back. “Pearl, thank goodness you’re back!”

But Pearl says nothing to Steven, seemingly not even noticing him, or you for that matter. She only has eyes for...

“How do you do? My Um-Greg Universe? Thank you for bringing me into the world.” Pearl takes Greg’s hand, and gazes up at him with what could only be described as devotion. She kneels in front of him and continues, “I am at your eternal service! Welcome to your new Pearl.”

You look over at Steven, who is staring at Pearl and his father in shock.  

“Well,” you think, “this is certainly going to be interesting.”  

#spinel #spinel x reader #spinel x reader fic #spinel fanfic #spinel steven universe #meriberry #spinel fanfiction #steven universe #steven universe fanfiction

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

Witches, Chapter 19: yeah there’s actually still one last little bit of investigation left in this case. I’m sorry too. Now who wants backstory for side characters in a DLC case!

[Seelie of Kurain Chapter Masterlist] [ao3]

[Witches Chapter Masterlist] [ao3]

----

For all her bluff and bluster about getting back to investigating in the face of Blackquill’s disdain, Athena doesn’t seem to have a clue what they should do next. She tromps in stocking feet back into the aquarium, Phoenix and Pearl trailing behind her, and stares at a poster on the wall with life cycle facts about penguins for five minutes before she suggests that they go visit Sasha, because if Blackquill was here, then he had to be done interrogating her, right?

Pearl remains behind at the aquarium to get settled in, and Athena complains the whole drive to the detention center because Phoenix made her put her wet shoes back on instead of driving barefoot. “I’m wearing tights!” she insists. “It’s not barefoot!”

“Shoes, kiddo.”

“They’re wet! It’s gross!”

“Should’ve thought of that before you threw a bucket of water at a witch.” Or whatever he is. Fae-adjacent, the same vague broad classification to encompass Phoenix and Trucy and Klavier and Thalassa. Apollo’s not quite there yet.

“Wicked witch of the bench afraid he’d melt if it hit him, you think?” She steps out onto the parking lot asphalt and winces at the tiny rocks digging into her feet. “Okay,” she sighs. “Shoes.”

As they wait at the detention center for Sasha to be brought out, Athena turns, very seriously, to Phoenix. “Alright, Boss, we’ve gotta cheer Sasha up! If you’re feeling bad about the investigation, don’t you dare show it!”

The door on the other side of the glass opens and an officer escorts Sasha in. She wears a grin on her face but has a wild look in her eyes. “Ahoy, me buckos! Worry ye not about me! My spirits be good and ol’ Prosecutor Nostache won’t keep me down!”

“Uh.” Athena blinks and turns to Phoenix. He shrugs. 

Sasha’s entire posture collapses. “Well that was an anchor,” she says. “Straight to the bottom. I wanted to make you feel better for all the trouble I’m causing…”

“We were hoping to cheer you up,” Athena says. 

“Maybe you both can just act natural,” Phoenix says. Not that telling anyone to “act natural” ever leads to any normal or natural behaviors. Certainly not if he ever told Maya that, though after the first time he learned to add the qualifier “act what might be natural for a human”. 

“Anyway.” Athena inhales deeply and the large, forced smile that she had put on calms down into something still friendly, still smiling, but closer to neutral, and much more natural. “What we’re here for, Sasha, is to tell you that we’d like to represent you in court tomorrow!”

“What!” Sasha shoves herself backward from the sill, her chair screeching horribly across the floor until it gets stuck, and she still pushing tips herself and the chair over backwards, thudding out of sight to the ground.

“Sasha?” Phoenix asks. “Is - is something wrong?”

She doesn’t stand back up. Athena pushes herself up on the sill and presses her forehead against the glass, trying to peer down to see if she’s okay. “Pros - Prosecutor Blackquil s-said--” Sasha’s shaking, shuddering breathing interrupts her words. “Said that you w-wouldn’t show up. You’d abandon me.” She’s definitely crying now, loudly and messily. “And you’re here! You - you’re - you’re h-here. To rescue me.” She rights the chair, rubbing tears off of her cheeks and out of her bloodshot eyes. 

“No, Sasha!” Athena still has her face up close to the glass and she presses her palms up against it, too. “We would never! Even Prosecutor Blackquill should know that! I would never! Don’t cry!” The next loud sniffling comes from Athena.

Oh boy. 

“These are happy tears.” And Sasha is smiling, beaming really, even blinking furiously to stop further tears from falling. “I’m so so glad I met you both! For Orla and me a-and—” Another shaky breath stops her for a moment. “Okay. I’m okay. I’m okay! You’ve probably got questions, right? Fire away!”

What she tells them of cleaning the orca pool that early morning is a review of what they’ve already heard, up to the point that she readily tells them she was arguing with the captain. She talks more about Orla’s tricks, says that the calendar with the seven am meeting with the captain is definitely not hers, and when they tell her that they dropped off her medications - it was Fulbright who tasked them with this, but it still had to be cleared with the prison so that they know no one is trying to smuggle in something illegal like white powder (Apollo is way too straight-laced for an Anything Agency and it’s hilarious every time he smacks inconsequentially up against that wall) - she starts getting weird. Like she’s trying to distract them from the fact that she’s on medication at all, which isn’t really working. “Are you sick?” Athena asks. “Is everything okay?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s all just peachy!” Sasha says with false, feigned cheer; the fact that she couldn’t drum up a fish pun to use really seals it. (Wait, isn’t a drum a kind of fish? Why’s he know more about fish than flowers? And seals - god damn it.)

Athena stares doubtfully at her. Her shoulders slump. “I guess I could just tell you, huh,” Sasha says. “It’s for a heart condition but—”

“A heart condition?” Athena cries, her voice high and shrill. 

“—but it’s not that serious—”

“Not that serious!” Athena’s second echo isn’t quite as much of a piercing shriek, but it’s even louder, an angry yell. “It’s your heart! Don’t tell me not to worry!”

Sasha heaves a sigh. “This is why I don’t tell people,” she says. “Because you freak, and then I’m trying to reassure you that you don’t need to treat me like I’m fragile, and I’ve got to explain that I’m not dying, so on, so on.”

“Oh,” Athena says. “I’m sorry.”

“Nah, it’s okay.” Sasha shrugs. “I’m sorry for snapping at you like that. It’s not you. It just gets a little tiring going through the same song-and-dance every time I tell someone. Much less fun than putting on the same song and dance with Orla every show!” Athena laughs and Sasha sticks her tongue out at her. “And I’d just had that argument with the captain the other night, too. The one that came up in the trial this morning. He knew about my condition, and I’d told him that I’d scheduled the surgery that would fix it, and he was worried and he told me that’d been thinking, and he was taking me out of the show. You saw the new flier, right? That I’m not in it?”

Phoenix nods. 

“And it was supposed to debut yesterday. But I needed to go out there and perform yesterday. It was the anniversary of Azura’s death, and I had this crazy idea that I would go in front of the audience and tell them all that her death was just an accident, that Orla didn’t kill her, and now the captain wasn’t going to let me out there. So what I did” - her smile is somewhere between devious and sad - “was move the skull rock from the show stage. Put it back in the orca pool, figured the captain probably wouldn’t look there, and if he couldn’t find the major prop for the new show, we’d have to do the old one again, right? Marlon gave me a hand with it, while he was watching Orla at the stage pool.”

It was a bold plan, is about all Phoenix can say to that. “Azura is the orca trainer before you?” he asks.

“Yeah. Azura Summers. She taught me everything I know - she was a year older than me and we were like - anemone and clownfish. Remora and shark!” Phoenix doesn’t speak marine biology but Athena is nodding in solemn understanding. “She was a year older than me. She was the best - you ever meet someone and just, hit it off immediately, you just know that they’re someone who’s gonna be so important in your life?” Sasha stares down at her hands, fiddling with something. “And then she was gone.”

“That must’ve been awful,” Athena says. “Losing someone you loved, and then having everyone else say that your friend was the one that killed her, and no one believes you when you know otherwise.” She sniffs again. Poor girl and her sensitive hearing and hyperempathy. 

Sasha nods. “Azura was like family, since my own family was never exactly supportive of my career path.” And not that Phoenix wants to downplay the severity of family disapproval, how much of a mess of hurt their influence can make, but he can’t exactly say he’s surprised to hear that a selkie’s family might think that her getting a career with an orca was bad news. “I can only imagine what they’re saying now after the captain’s death now too.”

He doesn’t want to pick at a reopening wound, but he never knows what strange little pieces of information will help, and so he asks, “Were you and Ms Summers - involved?”

“Huh?” Sasha blinks at him. A moment later the meaning clicks. “Oh! No, she was straight. She had a boyfriend that I never got to meet, but I’d help her send him videos of some of our orca-training sessions, because I mean, getting to see your cute girlfriend hanging with a cute orca, what could be better?”

“Toss a cute penguin in there too!” Athena suggests. “And then you’re golden!”

“Athena, I love the way you think!”

Phoenix clears his throat. Something more for his “legal etiquette Athena needs to learn” list: the detention center is not a place for hitting on people. Or maybe it’s more Sasha hitting on her. Or maybe they’re just like this. 

Sasha’s face falls and her eyes turn downcast. “She had this matching charm with her boyfriend that I’d wanted to return to him after she died, but I didn’t know enough about him to find him, so I just hung onto it myself. Swore on it that I’d become the best orca trainer ever, for her.” She holds up the charm; it hangs from a cord with a bead strung on it, and looks like a little talisman or envelope one would find at a shrine. “Just like the captain always used her walkie-talkie after that. It had teeth marks from Orla in it, when she brought Azura back up from the water…”

Jack Shipley’s death must be like reliving a nightmare for her.

(But also, remembering the photo of the body, Phoenix did not see a walkie-talkie in the victim’s holder for it.)

“Wait, you didn’t even see her boyfriend at her funeral?” Athena asks.

Sasha shakes her head sadly. “She didn’t even have a funeral. We held our own memorial for her at the aquarium, but her family just sort of - showed up and took her away. I’d suggested that we get an autopsy or something done, to know how she actually died and that it wasn’t Orla, but we needed her family’s permission for that and they wouldn’t give it.” 

Her face is turned toward them, and her eyes are, or should be, but she has the spaced-out look of someone not seeing what’s right in front of her. “They had this huge row with Dr Crab about something, too. I wonder if that’s part of what changed him. He and Azura were pretty close, and he started acting so different after she died - talking about how he was going to euthanize Orla, when before he said he’d never do such a thing. He thought she did it! He still always keeps poison on hand, ready to put her down at any moment! If she’d been found guilty today he would’ve just done it, right then!”

Phoenix has a very good idea of who they need to talk to again, next.

-

Back at the aquarium, they find Dr Crab in his laboratory, with Pearl, who is holding a furiously a squawking Rifle in her arms. “—correct, she does hate me. Since this little annoyance” - Dr Crab gestures at Sniper, who is for once free of the nest of his hair and waddling about the lab - “imprinted on me right out of the egg, she thinks I stole her baby. I didn’t want to steal her baby! But I guess she feels like the human parents of a changeling would.”

“That’s very sad for both of you,” Pearl says seriously. Rifle’s wings flap against her hands. “Your job involves inducing animals to vomit a lot, doesn’t it?”

The doctor snorts. “Today’s just been a hell of a day.” He squints down at the strange machine in his hand, something too boxy to be a regular tablet, with a small screen that flips back on a hinge. “Now let me see if I can find out when she ingested that foreign object.”

“Hi Mr Nick!” Pearls releases Rifle to the ground and the penguin makes an immediate beeline for Dr Crab’s shins. Absorbed in whatever he’s looking at on his machine, he doesn’t seem to notice. “Watch the penguin vomit! It’s for Sniper to eat!” She directs his attention to a pile of, yes, penguin vomit, that he doesn’t want to consider any further, but that Sniper is pecking at. “Mr Doctor told me that mama penguins partially digest and regurgitate fish for their babies to eat, because it’s easier for them to eat that mush!”

“You two seem to be getting along well,” Phoenix says. “You and Dr Crab, I mean.” They already knew that Pearl hit it off with Rifle, somehow. 

“Rifle ate something she shouldn’t so I was helping him get that out of her.” Pearl gestures now at the corner of one of the lab tables, where an object, familiar though it’s partially covered in mushed-up fish, lies. Phoenix takes a few more steps forward. The mess doesn’t smell as fishy as he expected, or perhaps he’s lost all sense of smell, and yes, whatever it is that Rifle ate looks a whole hell of a lot like the little talisman Sasha had, that once belonged to Azura. And there was supposed to be a second one, that Azura’s boyfriend had, wasn’t there?

“Excuse me, Dr Crab?” Phoenix says. He grunts. “Can we take a look at that charm that Rifle swallowed?”

He grunts again. Phoenix decides that’s a “yes”. Investigations don’t get anywhere fast, otherwise. He gingerly picks up the cord on the charm and lets it dangle. Yeah, that’s definitely the same thing as—

“Hey! What are you doing with that?” Dr Crab snaps out of his reverie, with all the anger of a man who’s only just realized something is happening that he would’ve liked to have stopped sooner. “Put that down! That’s Azura’s!”

Phoenix drops it back on the table. Dr Crab, with no regard for penguin barf, snatches it away. “What the hell was it doing in Rifle’s stomach?” He drops it back into the pocket of his lab coat.

“Would this one happen to have belonged to Azura’s boyfriend?” Phoenix asks. 

“I don’t make it a habit to discuss the affairs of the deceased! Especially not with you people!”

Bit of a fraught subject, there. Sasha did say that they were close. “Yesterday was the anniversary of her death, right?”

Dr Crab’s sigh sounds more like a growl. How close is Phoenix to being kicked out of the lab? “That’s right,” Crab says. “A year since the orca killed her.”

“You really think Orla did?” Athena asks. “I don’t believe it!”

“And I was there, Ms Lawyer. I saw Orla bite her. Maybe she didn’t mean to kill her, who’s to say - but what I do know is that Azura is dead.” The point he puts on his last several words closes down the topic even more firmly than his outraged yelling did. Satisfied that he’s shut Phoenix up - for the moment, because Phoenix refuses to be done until he’s run out of questions and he’s still got plenty - he returns to studying the data on his machine.

Who knows what might be important information for a trial? “So what’s that there?” Phoenix asks.

“Monitoring system. Collection of medical records for all the creatures. Between it and the cameras I can monitor them all constantly, twenty-four/seven. Company secret, that’s all I’ll tell you.”

“Really?” Phoenix asks. “Aren’t medical records just like - past exams and stuff? How can you get present, constant data from that?”

“Good point,” Crab says, after a slight pause. A sneered, thin smile stretches out across his face. “I can see there’s no fooling you.”

“Are you trying to fool me?” Phoenix asks.

The two Psyche-Locks that clang into place answer that question for him.

“You tell me,” Dr Crab says.

“Clearly,” Phoenix says.

“Excuse me, Mr Doctor?” Pearl asks. She scoops Rifle up into her arms to stop the penguin from resuming an attack on Dr Crab’s shins. “Mr Nick is a very good lawyer who always finds the truth but he needs to know everything he can to do so. Even if you don’t think your monitorings have anything to do with the case, it might be the information that Mr Nick needs to bluff himself into a better position to win!”

Dr Crab stares at Phoenix, his eyebrows raised. Phoenix wishes Pearl had found any other way to phrase that. “And it would be very kind and helpful of you to do,” Pearl adds.

The lab is far from silent - the hum and murmur of computers, Rifle’s struggles to break free and attack, Sniper eating, Athena cooing at Sniper. But it still feels quiet and empty as Pearl waits for any response and reaction at all from Dr Crab. He says nothing. She narrows her eyes, glancing from Rifle to the floor, like her next step in convincing him will be to sic a penguin on him.

Instead she simply readjusts her hold on Rifle, pulling the penguin up further in her arms, and says, much more seriously, no longer with any sort of pleading edge, “You asked for my help to examine Rifle and I gave it to you, remember? It was just a few minutes ago, right before Mr Nick came back, but I didn’t just offer that on my own.”

“Son of a bitch,” Dr Crab hisses. “That’s exactly what happened, isn’t it? I asked her if you could grab her for me and - damn, now I owe you, don’t I?”

He and Athena both glance over at Phoenix’s sharp intake of breath. Pearl doesn’t do this; she cares about human standards of fairness and tends to cancel debts made out of careless words of people who don’t know better and don’t know what she is. This situation, this case, she thinks is desperate. And Dr Crab saw what she is. It’s fair. 

Pearl, unblinking, hollow-eyed, nods. “And I think you should answer Mr Nick’s questions about your monitoring,” she says.

Dr Crab shakes his head. “Well,” he says. “Shit. I got careless and that’s on me - to the victor go the spoils. So if I answer whatever questions our Mr Lawyer here has about my monitoring equipment here, then we’re settled, yes? No debts after that.”

“No debts after that,” Pearl agrees.

They both wait for Phoenix to say something; it’s a bit tricky, he thinks, to follow up a top-tier negotiation such as Pearl’s. “So. Twenty-four/seven monitoring. How’s that work?”

“It’s an ecological data organization system developed in Europe. Teleobservation Realtime Pertinent Data Organizer, TORPEDO for short.”

Phoenix decides not to try and suss out how well that acronym actually fits it, and not just because the whole name has already been ejected from his brain and he couldn’t repeat it back if he tried. Tele-pertinent real-time data what? 

“It records information on its subjects constantly - heartbeat, vocalization, movements, temperature, and so on - through sensors placed on or near the subject. All that gets sent to me and my equipment here. Rifle has her sensor attached to her flipper ID tag.” Pearl takes Rifle’s wing in her hand and holds it out to examine the tag in question. “For Orla and the fish, it’s attached to the side of the tank. Now here we go, what’s it say about Rifle’s feeding?” Dr Crab glares down at the terminal in his hand. “Four am on the nineteenth is when she swallowed that. What a weird time. And - shit, Orla didn’t eat at all that night until the next afternoon.” He shakes his head. “What is going on here?”

“Maybe that’s why Rifle wouldn’t eat my fish but Orla would.” Athena sounds slightly cheered at the prospect that it wasn’t her causing personal offense to Rifle - Rifle just wasn’t hungry. 

Phoenix clears his throat. “Why keep it a secret?” he asks. “This monitoring system - it’s clearly helpful and it’s not like we’re competitors trying to come in and steal your secrets.”

“Let me preface this by saying” - nothing good ever starts that way - “that this system has been tested rigorously and approved as safe and legal in many countries. Just not this one.”

Ah, that would do it. “You’re breaking the law?” Athena asks, startled. 

Dr Crab grimaces but it ends as something more like a grin. “That’s why I keep this terminal with me at all times. Lucky, else the police might’ve been poking their noses into it yesterday. None of the rest of the crew knows - keeps them safe from the legal repercussions, but I had Jack’s permission for this. He felt, and I agreed, that giving the best care possible to our animals was more important than legality.”

“But - but you’re breaking the law! And that’s—” Athena sputters, searching for a solid objection. “That’s breaking the law!”

Yeah, she’s a smart kid but hopefully she’s not going into a trial without a co-counsel any time soon.

“And if breaking the law betters the lives of our animals? Are we supposed to just sit and wait for the law to change, when in the meantime we can have more information and act quicker to help them - to save their lives?”

“But…” Athena glances to Phoenix for backup she won’t find. Not that he’s not a hypocrite, but he’s not going to step into this debate just to be one. It’s disconcerting, again, every time he realizes that part of Athena’s admiration of him comes only from the fact that she doesn’t know him as well as Apollo does. She’s arguing against the logic that bore him his ace in the hole. And he can’t blame her; it took him a long, bad time to get there. “You’re just - twisting it around, now.” But she looks rattled, not sure how to square this away with the foundation of her career. 

“Dr Crab,” Phoenix says. “I might need to use this information in court tomorrow. But that would obviously cause serious problems for you and the aquarium.” He isn’t asking permission, but this isn’t quite an apology, either. It’s just a statement of what it is, regrettable, inevitable.

“You’ve gotta do your job, Mr Lawyer, and I do mine.” Dr Crab shrugs, more resigned than bothered. This must be a prescient concern, for however long it’s been since they installed this system at the aquarium. Maybe it’s even a relief by now, to no longer be hiding. “I stand by my convictions and don’t have regrets, and I hope you won’t, either. I can’t blame you, or her, for that.” He nods at Pearl. 

“I appreciate it.” Nice to not have a witness biting his head off, even if in this case it would be - not deserved, he’d like to think, but understandable. 

“Hmph. Any last questions on that or can I—”

A loud peeping begins, like the chirps Sniper made but louder and constant. Dr Crab frowns and slips a phone out of his pocket. “Hello? Crab here.”

 “That’s a ringtone?” Pearl asks. “That’s adorable!”

“I don’t think Maya’s gonna let you change mine,” Phoenix says to her. 

“I didn’t think that Dr Crab liked the penguins that much,” Athena whispers. “But I guess he’s just a big softie, really!”

Were he actually listening to them Phoenix has no doubt the doctor would consider those fighting words. As it is, his fighting words are for whoever is on the other end of the line. “Son of a bitch, you people again! What more do you—”

He storms from the lab and slams the door behind him. Athena looks at Phoenix. He nods. She creeps closer to the door to listen, crouched with her ear by the crack where it closes, though Phoenix isn’t sure she needs to be that close to actually hear. “He’s saying that Orla was found not guilty,” she says, “and that should be enough - stop harassing him, he knows that - if it comes to it he - Mr Wright!” She tried to spring back up but smacks her head against the bottom of the doorknob on her way up, and wincing and grumbling to herself, stands tall again. “He said - that if he has to he’d euthanize Orla!”

“No!” Pearl gasps. Rifle wriggles around in her arms and Pearl sets her on the table. “She’s not guilty! In a court of law! She can’t be punished!”

Knowing that the whole orca pool can function as a faery ring makes Phoenix even more nervous that she’s going to commit larceny as soon as anything starts seeming tense. Grand Theft Orca. This is not something he ever thought he would have to consider. 

The door swings violently inward, banging hard into Athena’s shoulder. She stumbles away, cursing under her breath again. Phoenix picks out pieces of several languages. (He really should ask her how to say “fuck you” in German. It would be funny.)

“Where’s my goddamn calendar?” Dr Crab storms back in, sweeping a dozen takeout containers from the desk in front of the largest screen into the trash can strategically positioned right next to it. A few fliers for the orca show drift to the floor. “Son of a bitch, where did I leave it this time?”

“Calendar?” Athena perks up. “It wouldn’t happen to be one of those cute penguin ones, is it? Mr Rimes found one in the nap room and—”

Dr Crab snatches it away from her and scans the mess of his desktop for a pen and scribbles something on it. “Yes, that’s mine. It was a gift, all right?” He sighs. “From Azura. She designed the calendars for this year and this was the prototype.”

“Oh.” Athena’s smile vanishes. And then, seeming to take a cue from Phoenix’s line of questioning of Sasha back at the detention center, she asks, “Did you and Ms Summers happen to be, erm, romantically involved?”

“Of course not!” He bristles at the suggestion, almost weirdly defensive, so while he sees no Psyche-Locks, Phoenix still won’t take it as the end-all-be-all. Maybe he’s defensive about the calendar for what’s written on it, that meeting with the victim at seven am. Could he, at that time, have committed murder? “Were I even so inclined to partake of ‘romantic feelings’” - he doesn’t make them with his hands but Phoenix can hear the air quotes - “I certainly would not involve myself with—” He stops. He glares at Athena and Phoenix in turn. “What business of yours is it, anyway?”

“I just heard a lot of sadness in your voice when you mentioned her, and the calendar,” Athena says. “And I wondered—”

“She was a good friend and now she’s dead, of course I’m sad!” Though he’s probably not sad now, just mad at them and their prying questions. “How can you possibly think that’s related to your defense of Sasha, or do you like using the excuse of being lawyers to pry into people’s personal lives?”

Seems like it’s time to redirect; this thread when pulled on isn’t going anywhere good. “Your phone call just now - what was that about?”

“Heard all that, did you now?” Dr Crab sighs. Phoenix skips the part where he clarifies that Athena did, because she has better hearing than the human and fae also in the room. “That’s the Center for Dangerous Animal Control, insisting that if Orla ever attacks anyone again, we’d better not bother with this rigamarole and just put her down immediately.”

“But that’s not fair!” Athena has her fists raised, ready to fight the shadowy specter of this vague organization. “Did you agree to that?”

Dr Crab is quiet for a very long time. “Sometimes,” he says finally, “unfortunately, things happen. As a veterinarian, I am prepared to do whatever needs to be done.”

“Sasha says you keep poison on hand to always be prepared to put Orla down!” Athena levels the accusation with fury that Sasha would be proud of. 

Dr Crab reaches into one of the pockets of his lab coat and pulls out a tiny plastic bag that contains within it a red and yellow capsule. 

One that looks exactly like that they found mixed in with the contents of Orla’s stomach.

Phoenix is very, very glad they didn’t show it to him. 

“That’s awful!” Athena says. “How dare you!” She’s livid enough that Phoenix isn’t sure she realizes this pill is like the other one, and while that’s something they’re going to have to work on - making sure she’s clear-minded enough to make all the connections that matter, for now she’ll have him or Apollo with her, and Phoenix is just glad she won’t blurt it out to Dr Crab. He wants to keep this one close to his chest until he sees the best opening to play it. 

“Sasha thought the same thing.” Dr Crab drops the pill back in his pocket. “When security around Orla was tightened last year, she insisted that I not be given a key card to access the orca pool room. Thinking, I imagine, that the chances of Orla having a medical emergency when either she nor Jack were here to let me in were lower than the chances of me doing something to her.” He huffs derisively, Athena still seething.

“Dr Crab, I have a last question for you,” Phoenix says. “This - Center for Dangerous Animal Control.” Or however the words were ordered. “Ms DePlume told me something interesting earlier today.” That the Center had made this same demand a year ago, and for some reason relented, but the aquarium has been making large monthly payouts to someone or somewhere ever since. Phoenix repeats this fact to Dr Crab’s expressionless face, and adds, “It’s clear that there’s something going on behind the scenes here, and I suspect that it has something to do with this murder.”

“Do you.” He’s good at responding by saying nothing, but any words at all are sometimes enough to trip the trap, let Phoenix know exactly how much a witness is hiding.

Five Psyche-Locks this time, the appearance punctuated a moment later with loud footsteps and a louder yell. “Dr Herman Crab! Sorry to interrupt, but Prosecutor Blackquill wants to speak with you!”

“Son of a—” Dr Crab punctuates his speech by smacking his calendar down hard on the the table. “What the hell else could you possibly have to ask me?”

“We were hoping to have Mr Rimes testify at tomorrow’s trial, but we’ve been having some trouble getting him to cooperate. As such, Prosecutor Blackquill would like to call you instead!”

“Hmph.” Crab takes a moment in which he clearly is sizing up and assessing Fulbright, deciding whether he can get out of this and if he wants to tangle with Blackquill in that way. Surprising that he didn’t manage to coerce (or threaten) Rimes into talking and has to go for a backup. “Fine. But I’m not giving my opinion on what happened. I’ll tell you what I know, but I’m not taking sides.” He turns to Phoenix. “Until tomorrow, Mr Lawyer.”

-

Neither Trucy nor Apollo notices when the office door opens. Trucy has her laptop in her lap and is furiously scrolling, glancing between the screen and the notebook Apollo is still trying to write it. It’s a silent and periodic scuffle between the two of them as Trucy grabs it and yanks it toward her to check something, and Apollo pulls it back to continue writing. Phoenix shudders to think how unreadable his handwriting is from this. “Commonly for a number of heart conditions,” Trucy mutters. “Is this relevant, Apollo?”

“Of course it is!” He reaches across her keyboard and turns her screen toward himself. “Go back to the book - the picture. If she had a heart condition and a physically intensive job—” He taps his pen against the screen. “There’s no visible injury, look, wouldn’t you think a killer whale could cause some damage—”

“Oh! You think that—”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, guys,” Phoenix says. “What are we working on?”

They shriek in tandem, Apollo flinging the pen and Trucy knocking the notebook to the floor and almost dropping her laptop. Athena claps her hands over her ears, belatedly, and braces herself against the doorframe. “Yes, we’re back now,” Phoenix adds. “What’ve you got?”

“First: the capsule!” Apollo moves his hand like he means to gesture with the pen to the capsule in a bag on the coffee table, except the pen is no longer in his hand, so he’s just sort of waving, and his voice still as enthusiastically loud as ever. “It’s a sleeping drug! That’s the brand name on it, ‘3 Zs’. The Shipshape Aquarium vet recently bought a bunch of it from Hickfield Clinic - it’s meant for people, but apparently would work on other mammals.”

“A sleeping drug?” Phoenix repeats. 

Apollo nods. 

That had been Phoenix’s first thought, when he first saw that capsule, but Dr Crab called it poison - sure, enough of it could certainly kill, but he’s a veterinarian. He’d be legally able to get some kind of actual euthanization drug instead of trying to overdose an orca on sleeping pills - if that was actually what he intended with it, and not something else. Why pretend it’s poison?

“And the other thing - Shipshape Aquarium had the woman who died last year, Azura Summers, right?” He doesn’t wait for Phoenix to confirm he knows and barrels on, “She was getting medication prescribed by Hickfield Clinic to help her manage a heart condition.”

“I found an illegal download of that writer lady’s book!” Trucy pipes up. Bless that girl. 

“A heart condition?” Phoenix can’t do much but echo right now, but his mind is racing. What was Apollo saying when they walked in? Jack Shipley removed Sasha from the show for fear that she would come to harm because of her condition - theoretically, that could’ve already happened. “Do you know what the medication she was on was called?”

“Uh…” Apollo glances down at his notebook. “I wrote it down? It’s like—”

Phoenix takes the notebook from him. The writing is exactly as messy as he imagined, jagged pen lines trailing off across half the page when Trucy grabbed it. “That’s the same medication that Sasha is taking,” he says to Athena. 

“So what’s that mean?” she asks. 

“I have no idea.” That’s a hell of a coincidence, but he doesn’t really see how it could be anything but an unfortunate coincidence, even as a man whose policy is to not believe in coincidences. Orla isn’t on trial now, and wasn’t on trial for Azura’s death, either, yesterday. But maybe this information could offer some reassurance, and closure, to Sasha and the rest of the aquarium crew. “But that capsule, now that’s something. Nice work, Apollo.”

Apollo gives Phoenix a wide-eyed, startled look. Has Phoenix really complimented him so rarely?

“Where’s Pearly?” Trucy asks. Her face falls. “Did she go back home already?”

“She’s staying at the aquarium to help out with Orla, with so many of the staff dragged out to testify and everything.” There she goes again, slotting herself perfectly, naturally, in somewhere, like she’s meant to be there, so that no one even questions letting a strange little faery girl in so far behind the scenes. 

The only thing to put him slightly at ease is that she said she would be ready to call in, from the aquarium, through video phone during the trial tomorrow, which holds the implication that she’s not going to spirit Orla off to the Twilight Realm in the middle of the night to keep her safe.

Though she didn’t promise for sure that she wouldn’t, so he should probably call her and extract that promise from her, before he ends up defending in a case of orca larceny. 

#roddy fanfics #fic: the witches of los angeles

[lokilickedme]

(Okay, I’m going to do this in probably 3 parts because it’s long)

So The Department sorta happened because I wanted to get back into a regular weekly-updating online fic because, frankly, two reasons:

1) I’m worn out/exhausted/a bit burned out from working on novels and very little of anything else for the last year and a half, and

2) I crave/need the instant validation of the comment section at AO3, which you don’t get when you write a book :/

So I called a break, put away my manuscripts for a couple months, and am just indulging in some fun writing for a little while.  And since I wanted something new (sorry WIPs, your time will come again) this is what we ended up with.

I don’t remember exactly what made me go with the police department premise.  The potential for assholery and rampant egomania, most likely?  Well, you know I love that shit when it hides something slightly more noble underneath...and I think I wanted a big ensemble cast because I just adore the dynamics that can occur in groups of disparate personalities who have known each other for a long time.  That way they interact when they know each others’ secrets and there’s that one person new to the group who isn’t in on any of the jokes?  Good stuff right there.

I do remember that the first ideas for this story came to me during the Professor Jeff’s Super Science Show at the library (yeah your guess is as good as mine on that but it happens literally every time).  But if I’m being honest, I’d say it probably had more to do with Benny Hill than anything.  I have this bad habit of sitting on the couch with my laptop on my knees, headphones on, head back, inventing scenes in my head that go along with whatever music I’m listening to.  I’ve got this one insane playlist full of goofy tunes my 7-year old has requested for staging Thomas The Tank Engine crash scenes (don’t ask) and on this particular night that’s what I was listening to because why not.  On that playlist is a 30-minute loop of the Benny Hill Theme.  And all I could see in my head was a foot chase on ice and snow between a female officer, an out of shape Chief of police, a giraffe-legged office assistant, and a probably methed-up wannabe criminal who didn’t actually do anything major but was running anyway because he was bored.  It struck me funny and I toyed with the idea of sticking it into something I already had started, because I do love me some chaotic slapstick.

So the next day I’m driving the boys home from the Super Science Show and I’ve been playing around with it in my head again, and it’s taking shape into something that I know I’m going to have to work with.  We pass the Pupuseria Virolena Salvadoran restaurant downtown, and I start laughing because I’m suddenly hearing David Tennant trying to say that in his Scottish accent.

On the spot I named him Hawk and made him Captain.  And now we have one of our characters, and by the time we pull up in our driveway ten minutes later I’ve got stuff needing to be written down right now.

(the rest is under the cut for length)

Chapter 1 - Prologue - Your Boatload of Bad Decisions Has Left The Harbor

I was so anxious to get into the story but it needed an introduction, or else Greta being in this podunk town wouldn’t have any weight.  So we’re introduced to our heroine, who isn’t so much a heroine as just a decent if slightly too self confident special division officer who had some bad luck.  It’s not elaborated on yet in the story, though it’s heavily referenced multiple times that she disobeyed an order and made the decision to continue a high speed pursuit that had been called off by her superior officer, the above-mentioned Captain Hawkins, whom Greta has something of a relationship with (yeah they’re screwing, what of it).  And in the wake of that decision, Greta’s partner is killed and she’s brought up on charges, suspended, ordered to counseling, and finally shipped off to a small town in Minnesota so she can keep working while her final fate is decided by an investigative committee back in LA.

The opening chase scene was written from things I learned when I was a kid and my dad did vehicle tweaks for the Fort Worth police department from his auto shop.  The officers used to hang out drinking Cokes and telling stories while dad made (possibly illegal) modifications to their cars.  I was there a lot, sitting under his work bench with my books and pencils, listening to everything and remembering it all.  And I thought it was so damn cool.  So here we are.  What else was I gonna do with that information?  Might as well put it to use if it’s gonna be taking up real estate in my head for all these years.

For the record, I really liked Greta’s partner Joe and hated to kill him - but we needed a catalyst, and the cheerful best friend who sings Italian arias during chases while joyfully blasting out windshields is always gonna be the loser in the goner lottery.  For once the male hero dies to further the female lead’s storyline.

Heh, take that Marvel.

Anyway, sorry Joe.  There will be more about you in later chapters, so...gone but not forgotten.

Chapter 2 - Minnewhatever

This part starts out with the last bit of backstory we need to proceed.  Hawk sending Greta off to Minnesota, a place whose name she never does remember or say correctly.  She doesn’t figure she’s actually going to be there long enough to bother learning it, but Hawk informs her that her exile is likely to last at least a year, and he gives her very little reassurance that she won’t be serving every minute of her sentence.

Greta’s feeling a little betrayed here.  She and Hawk have been sort of a thing for a while, friends and colleagues and lovers, but he’s washing his hands of the entire situation and she’s left angry and a bit bereft.  But she still figures he’ll do something to get her out of it, if she’s patient and behaves herself in the new place.

Fast forward to day one in Weemeetwa.  While drowning her aggravation in a bottle of the good stuff, Greta meets her first new acquaintance and decides to just go with the cranky fuck-it attitude that she’s been harboring since the incident, gets shitfaced, and goes home with the guy.  This might have been a dual-purpose shag; Greta’s still feeling betrayed and abandoned by Hawk, so it’s a screw-you that he’ll never find out about - but that doesn’t stop it from feeling good in a vengeful sort of way.  Plus it’s cold and she’s alone and the guy - Andy, a tall sweet longhaired cutiepie with an Irish accent - is all too willing to buy her a drink and take her home for some cuddles.

In the morning Greta wakes up in a strange place full of groaning regret and ends up giving Andy a ride to the station.  She doesn’t count on seeing him again, so there’s no breath wasted on goodbyes.

Chapter 3 -  A Logging Truck, A Mountain, and A Blonde Walk Into A Bar

Now we meet most of the department.  Creeley, a gruff roughhouser with a rude streak forty miles wide, Sarah, the only other female in the department and possibly the only person alive who can keep the boys under control, Kevin, the quiet dispatch agent with an impressive mountain impersonation skill, and finally (for the moment) Chief, the slightly too good-looking and highly put-upon boss of them all.

I knew I wanted Tom Hiddleston to play Chief Tommy Davis.  This is Kong Skull Island-era Hiddleston crossed with The Night Manager, with a handful of extra pounds around the middle and a frustrated sigh that goes on forever.  He’s meant to be an ex hockey player who was waylaid on his way to the major leagues, so he’s strong and sturdy, but an injury benched him years ago and a career in small-town law enforcement has put him a bit to pasture.  Middle aged, somewhere between 40 and 45.  He’s got some stuff in his past but he’s happy now, for the most part, just living his life watching over the town.

Jason Momoa is Bobby Creeley, for obvious reasons.  I knew I wanted a rowdy, rude, loudmouthed team member that’s always crossing everyone, but who everyone knows will be there no matter what if anything goes down.  He’s instantly Greta’s nemesis from the moment she walks in the door.  Gigantic and shaggy with a permanently amused nature and a fear of literally nothing, he’s simultaneously everyone’s best friend and worst enemy.

Sarah Lancashire has been finding her way into a lot of my fics lately as side characters, so it’s no surprise she ended up here as Sarah Pearl.  Steely, tough, and highly immune to the idiocy around her, Sarah is the worn out voice of common sense that the department is running perilously short on.  She’s also my first and foremost girl crush, and I’ll admit right now that I wrote an AU ending almost immediately that involved Sarah and Greta ending up together.  It would be natural to assume Sarah would fall into the default role of mom to the group, but there’s a whole lot of oh hell nope wrapped around that trope.  She would set them all on fire if anyone would let her have some matches, but Chief made a rule against that a long damn time ago.

Dave Bautista has been hanging around the back door of my muse stable for the longest, just minding his own business and waiting his turn, but I never really had any place to stick him.  Well Drax, your time has come baby.  I chose him to play Kevin Saylor based on his GoTG scene in which he tries to convince the crew he’s invisible.  And that’s Kevin, in a nutshell.  Huge and intimidating but quiet and intensely matter-of-fact in manner, he’s in charge of dispatch and immediately inspires Greta’s hatred of using the radio.

My first (and really only) faceclaim for Greta Morley was Zoe Saldana, but I waffled briefly for a couple of weeks, trying to cater to a few readers who told me they wanted to imagine themselves in the role.  I planned to stick with that, and I tried, I promise I did.  But every time Greta opened her mouth I heard Zoe, and by the time she went on her less than fleet-footed pursuit of Wilson with the longsuffering Andy by her side, she was locked in.  Greta’s harboring some serious regret and raw emotional wounds from her not too distant past, and some time out in the American Midwest should be a much needed recovery sabbatical.  Should be.  But isn’t gonna.

Speaking of Andy...Andrew Hozier-Byrne was and is the only person I ever considered for the role of Andy Burns.  Too tall, too clumsy, too cute, too sweet, just a whole bunch of too everything - he was perfect for the role and I may or may not have written it exclusively for him.  Okay yeah, I wrote it exclusively for him.  Andy’s the local cryptid, nobody really knows a lot about him.  He may or may not be a drug dealer.  He may or may not be officially employed by the police department.  He may or may not be Irish or hypoglycemic or a blackout drunk or as goofy as he seems.  Nobody really knows, and to be honest nobody really cares, because if you need it done Andy can do it...if he can remember you asked him to do it.

So Greta has arrived, for better or for worse.  Cree immediately starts in with the sexist remarks and butchering her name, a favor she returns by embarking on what will become a neverending trail of obliterated mis-renderings of the town’s name.  Creeley and Kevin kick off another of many running gags by arguing over whether or not anyone knew she was coming, and before things can get too stupid, Chief makes his first appearance.

And now things start to get interesting.

To be continued at chapter 4, Randy Andy and The Chief of Weemeetwa

@whatevervivie

#The Department #director's commentary #Hiddleston #Hozier #Momoa #Bautista #Saldana #Lancashire

[crossinginstyle]

First Time Here? Chapter 3

Summary:  A young Jamie meets a Sassenach, and Claire's friends wonder why she hadn't texted them after her date.

Ao3 Link

Chapter 3: Verra Good Morning

He couldn’t have known until he was older that he’d had a pretty unconventional childhood.

Where most kids’ lives revolved around school, after-school cartoons, and playgrounds, Jamie Fraser’s life had been quite different.

His school had been learning to muck stalls, drive tractors, shoe horses, and birth foals, all by the age of six. (And in between, of course, had been strict reading, math, history, and language lessons sat between his brother, sister, and neighbors, as opposed to the hour-long trip to the nearest schoolhouse.)

Lallybroch hadn’t gotten the gift of cable until his adult years, so little Jamie sought entertainment from playful foals, goats, dogs, and also from generally being a wee shite and pestering his siblings.

And his playground…his playground has been a pub.

Perhaps that was the most unusual of all. How many children spent half their lives in a smoky pub, mastering darts and pool and earning a whole college fund in tips just by delivering food to tipsy ladies and giving them his most charming, cheeky grin?

But he wouldn’t have traded his upbringing for the world. He was brought up in a fun, safe, secure world, sure in the knowledge that we was ever beloved by his parents, siblings, and family.

But much of that sureness and security was destroyed when Jamie was ten, when his mother and big brother were killed in a car accident on their way to the hospital to deliver Jamie’s new baby brother.

Jamie and his sister, Jenny had both been at the pub with their da and their godfather, Murtagh. Jamie’s mam had allowed Willie to drive only the distance to the pub to get da…something thirteen-year-old Willie had done a hundred times…because she was in labor.

It hadn’t been Willie’s fault. No, it was the fault of the tourist who thought he could navigate the mountains just fine after a six-pack of beer. The tourist had lived, but at least Jamie knew that the bastard would have to live his life knowing his choices had taken the life of a woman and two children.

For a while after that, Jamie was lost. Everything he’d known to be so had been altered.

The one thing Jamie had always been most certain about had been that William could do anything. He could ride half-wild horses, dive off cliffs into the loch, charm any girl with naught but a wink. And yet he would never leave Jamie behind.

Where many older brothers treated their little brother like the nuisances they were, Willie made sure Jamie was always included, and always protected. Willie had been Jamie’s role-model, confidant, and best friend. And Jamie had had visions of himself being the same for his new wee brother. And the pub. The pub was meant to be Willie’s, and half the farm would be Jamie’s, the other half Jenny’s. Jamie didn’t mind inheriting the pub, but he would have traded it for his brother in a heartbeat.

In the blink of an eye all of that assurance was gone, along with his beautiful mother and her warm embrace, all-knowing gaze, endless kisses, and musical laugh.

And his father…his father had just never been quite the same. But how could he be? He’d lost his first born child, and Ellen McKenzie had been the love of Brian’s life. Jamie had spent his young childhood seeing firsthand what true love looked like, and he knew that he would never be able to settle for anything less.

He couldn’t have possibly known how true that was until much later. It all began the night he met her.

He’d been all of seventeen, and had yet to hit his final growth spurt, so he was still gangly of limb, narrow of chest, a voice that still cracked on occasion, and worst of all a baby-smooth face that just refused to grow more than a fuzzy mustache.

Da called him a late-bloomer, and assured him that he would wake up one morning and it would be like the boy he’d been had simply vanished. Murtagh suggested that maybe he just took after his sister is all…and if Jamie could have gotten away would pommeling his godfather, he would have.

Every day after school Jamie would head straight for the pub, where he would hurry to do his homework before work. He still mostly bussed tables, cleaned floors, and served food and drink, same as he had since he was wee, but at least now Da and Murtagh had taken to teaching him how to make the drinks, and of course the ins and outs of business itself.

It was a slow night, as most Thursday nights were, but since the town did boast a small University, it wasn’t at all uncommon to find tired college students loitering about after the restaurants and cafes were closed.

It was one of such groups that Jamie had been ordered to keep an eye on. Bored college students were known to cause trouble once alcohol was involved, and of course they were all wary of anyone leaving the establishment three sheets to the wind with car keys in their hands.

But this group of five appeared fairly innocuous. In fact none of them had had more than one beer, mostly focused on steadily devouring their burgers and fries.

“Can I get ye anythin’ else?” he asked as he passed their table.

“Can you draw a diagram of the aortic valve?”

Jamie arched a brow down at the lass to his right, the one with all the hair who’d been sitting with her back to the bar all night.

But when Jamie saw her properly for the first time, he could have sworn his heart stopped.

To say she was bonny would have been a terrible understatement. He may have been only seventeen, but she was easily the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Pearl-like skin, bonny wee freckles, full lips, and the most remarkable eyes…the very color of a fine whiskey.

Those eyes were staring at him, sparkling and full of mischief.

“Ignore her,” the lad sitting beside her said, laughing. “She’s just had it with test prep.”

“If I have to look at one more word tonight, I will explode,” the lass said. “Boom, aortic valve everywhere. And then my friends would have to double your tip for the mess it would make.”

“Leave him alone, Claire,” another lass said. “You’re embarrassing the kid!”

“Claire,” Jamie croaked, not having meant to…not aloud at least.

“That’s me,” she said, still grinning teasingly, but not in a way that Jamie felt made-fun of. “And what’s your name, good sir?”

Jamie gulped, willing his bloody brain to work damn it! He’d never been a fool around girls before, why the hell did he have to start now?!

“J…James,” he said at last, his voice blessedly unwavering. “James Alexander Malcolm McKenzie Fraser.”

The rest at the table laughed, except for her.

“That’s quite a distinguished name, James,” she said.

“Jamie, please,” he told her, mentally kicking himself for pretentiously offering his full name like that.

“Jamie,” she amended.

“Jamie,” Murtagh barked from behind the bar. “Ye gonna stand over there blathering or are ye gonna get to work?”

She still didn’t laugh as the others continued to, just grinned at him some more before turning back to his friends.

He didn’t think he’d ever see her again. Didn’t think he was that lucky. But the next Friday she was there, with the same friends as before. Only instead of jeans and a t-shirt; the standard wear for tired college student, she was dressed in a blue skirt and white blouse and it was all Jamie could do to keep his eyes in his head where they belonged.

Unlike Thursdays, Fridays were very busy, so Jamie could only glimpse her from time to time as she laughed with her friends, drank an impressive amount of whiskey, and slaughtered the lads at darts.

He knew she wouldn’t talk to him. And he wasn’t about to go say hi only for her not to remember him at all. But to his surprised, he looked up from wiping a glass to find her leaning on the other side of the bar, that same wee grin on her face.

“Hello, Jamie!” she chirped.

“H…hello,” he stammered. “Ye remember me?” Idiot!

“School hasn’t fried my brain that much,” she laughed. “I swear though I desperately wanted to come over here and recite your full name but I chickened out. Afraid I’d butcher it.”

Jamie laughed. “Ah, dinna fash. I would have let ye think you’d gotten it right either way.” Oh. Not bad. Much better, at least.

Her nose wrinkled adorably, giving him the ridiculous urge to kiss it. “Dinna fash? I have to say that’s not one I’ve heard before.”

Jamie blushed. “Oh, aye. It’s a bit old fashioned, but my godfather says it all the time. It only means don’t worry.”

“Ah,” she nodded solemnly. “Hakuna Matata.”

He laughed and rolled his eyes. “Aye, more or less. Ye’re clearly no’ from here.”

“No,” she admitted. “I’m from Oxford originally, but my uncle went to school here. He moves around for work a lot, but I liked the idea of carrying on his legacy by attending here.”

“You live wi’ your uncle then?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” she looked away and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “My parents died when I was small. He raised me.”

Jamie winced in sympathy. “My mam died when I was young. It doesn’a leave ye.”

“No,” she agreed, smiling again. “What about you? Are you in university here?”

Jamie inwardly groaned, face surely flushed as red as his damned hair. “Uhh…no, I’m um…S6. Final year of secondary.”

She nodded. “Are you going to go to university here?”

Every fiber of his being wanted to tell her yes. He had sudden, vivid images of them in university together, her showing him the ropes, he her willing pupil…

“No,” he admitted at last. “I’ve already been accepted tae Oxford.”

Her eyes widened. “Impressive! Congratulations! It’s like we’ll be switching places!”

He grimaced. Why was the universe so cruel? “Aye, now I’ll be th’ Sassenach.”

Claire paused and narrowed her eyes. She didn’t look that serious, but it still gave Jamie a bit of a chill, and he hoped never to be on the other end of her true anger.

“Are you calling me a Sassenach?” she said. “Because I have been called that and I am aware that it isn’t complimentary.”

“It only means that’s you’re English!” Jamie protested. “Or at worst, an Outlander. And ye are.”

“Does it now?” she said suspiciously. “Well, I suppose I am at that.”

“Claire!” one of her friends called. “What are you doing? It’s your turn at the board!”

“Better go,” she said. “See you around…” she narrowed her eyes again. “James Alexander Malcolm McKenzie Fraser.”

He couldn’t help but laugh, just impressed that she really had remembered.

“See ye around,” he said as she turned to walk away. “Sassenach.”

She spun back around on her heels, shooting him a playful middle finger, then disappeared in the crowd.

“Get that tongue back into your head, boy,” his Da said, sidling up beside him and slapping him on the back. “Ye look like a mongrel.”

Jamie smiled sheepishly. “Do I have tae go to Oxford?” he said, only half joking.

Brian rolled his eyes, and slapped Jamie on the back again. “You’re going to Oxford. There’ll be plenty of bonny lasses for you tae chase once you’re there.”

Jamie figured his father was right. But would any lass be like her?

I rolled over with a moan, shoving impatiently at my quilt. It was hot! Why was it so…oh…

When my hand came into contact with someone else’s skin, my eyes flew open.

At first all I could see was a tangled mixture of curling hair; dark brown and red. And then I moved my own mess of hair out of the way and could finally see Jamie’s face, relaxed in sleep.

For a long moment I just stared at him. He looked unbearably sweet and young, and when I slowly reached over to brush the hair out of his face, his lips quirked up in a smile.

I rolled back over onto my back and sighed, trying to stretch my limbs without disturbing him. I was aching in the best possible way, but otherwise felt boneless and deliciously debauched.

I’d slept with Jamie Fraser. No, more than that, I’d taken the virginity of Jamie Fraser. It had been impulsive in the extreme, totally unlike myself, and yet I didn’t regret it in the least. On the contrary, I couldn’t wait to do it again.

I looked back over at him, at his chest as it rose and fell, at the sheet that draped over his lower half, but doing nothing to conceal the little…well, not so little…morning issue.

My brain ran through several different scenarios. I could wake him with a kiss…slowly coax him to wakefulness and hopefully draw his attention. Or…

Smirking to myself I grabbed hold of the sheet and slowly pushed it down, careful not to wake him. He shifted at the sudden feeling of cold air on his lower extremities and I paused until he settled back into sleep.

Once he had, another dreamy smile on his face, I inched down the bed, letting myself admire the part of him that was most definitely awake already, standing proud in the early morning sunlight.

I lightly ran my fingers up the length of him, watching him twitch in mindless interest. I’d never much cared for this particular act with Frank. It had always been uncomfortable and awkward. He’d loved it of course, but he disliked reciprocating, so oral sex was just something we didn’t do.

So it baffled me that I so desperately wanted to do it for Jamie. He’d probably received it before, he wasn’t a monk after all, but I doubted he’d ever been awoken that way.

Jamie’s breathing was starting to become less even, so I knew he would be waking soon. Leaning up, I first pressed a kiss to the tip before opening my mouth and sinking down over him, hollowing my cheeks.

He woke with a gasp, his entire body going rigid before relaxing just as suddenly, a sleepy hand landing heavily on my head.

“Sassenach,” he whispered. “What…”

I pulled away just long enough to shush him, then got back to work, stroking the parts of him my mouth couldn’t cover with my hand.

“Christ,” he hissed, followed by a string of Gaelic that impressed me. I hadn’t known that many people spoke it fluently anymore.

His fingers wound themselves into my hair, but he didn’t try to control the motion of my head, only clung to me like a lifeline, and I loved the slight sting where he pulled accidentally.

“Claire,” he breathed. “I’m goin’ tae…”

It was at this point I would have normally moved away, finishing him with my hand. But with a mental shrug and a fuck it, I sucked harder instead, shocked by the way the feeling and taste of him finishing in my mouth sent shockwaves of pleasure right to my core.

I released him was a satisfying pop and crawled back up to lie beside him, grinning smugly.

“Good morning,” I said, playfully circling one of his nipples with the tip of my finger.

“Verra good,” he gasped, struggling to catch his breath. “That was…I…um…is it right tae thank ye?”

I laughed and cuddled into his side. “Well, it doesn’t hurt.”

He grinned and rolled over, pinning me beneath him. “Thank ye. And I suppose now it’s your turn, aye?” he started to kiss his way down my chest, and the idea wasn’t an unfavorable one, but I thought about the way Frank recoiled with a grimace, or the boy I’d dated in high school who had tried but had given up when it took too long for me to relax enough to let it feel good.

I knew Jamie would be much sweeter than that, but I just didn’t think I was quite ready to open myself up that much.

“Hmm, maybe later,” I said, making sure to smile so he wouldn’t think I was just being nice. I grabbed his face between my hands and dragged him back up to my face for a kiss, and I must have had it bad since even his morning breath didn’t bother me.

“But…” he muttered against my mouth, and I grabbed his hand before he could argue and brought it between my legs.

This was something Jamie knew how to do, and do well, so he did it with abandon. His large, callused fingers sank inside me while his thumb pressed against the side of my clit, making me buck and write against him. All the while he was no doubt leaving marks up and down the column of my neck, until his lips fastened around my nipple, and I’d never even realized just how sensitive I could be there.

I latched onto Jamie shoulder with my teeth, hoping to leave a mark of my own, and whimpered as my orgasm washed over me long and hard.

He stroked me gently through the aftershocks, then pulled me tightly into his embrace before we both dozed off into very satisfied sleep.

When I awoke again it was mid-morning, and there was an annoying tapping sound that just didn’t seem to want to stop.

I opened my eyes, face-to-face with Jamie’s chest. He was still sound asleep, and I couldn’t fight a smile at the knowledge of just how cuddly he was in sleep.

The tapping sound started again and I sighed when I realized finally that it the door, and it also didn’t sound like they were giving up any time soon.

“It’s my day off,” I whispered in annoyance, gently detangling myself from Jamie’s grasp so I could roll out of bed. Whoever it was, they were still knocking, so I hurriedly patted around for something to put on, unearthing Jamie’s wrinkled button down shirt from among the tangle of blankets. I smirked as I put it on, checking to make sure it covered everything before tip-toing out of the bedroom, shutting the door behind me.

I snatched up my phone first, which had been left on my coffee table, and rolled my eyes with a groan. Seven missed calls, and eighteen text messages from both Joe and Louise, which at a glance seemed to contain the same general sentiment of YOU NEVER CALLED AFTER YOUR DATE, ARE YOU ALIVE?!

It was absolutely no surprise at all to glance out the peephole to see Joe on the other side of the door, so I rolled my eyes again and opened it.

“Damn it, Lady Jane!” Joe exclaimed as soon as the door opened. “Louise and I have been trying to get ahold of you since last night! You know the rules; you go on a date with a new guy, you check in afterwards! I’ve been worried sick!”

My shoulders slumped. “God, Joe, you’re right, I’m so sorry. I left my phone on silent and I just didn’t think about it.”

Joe looked me up and down, seeming to finally register my apparel, and he chuckled in amusement. “Well, you clearly look well. More than well…I daresay you look well laid. Good, job, Lady! I take it the date went well!” he glanced over my shoulder into the apartment. “Shit, is he still here?”

“Actually, the date was a bust,” I said, leaning against the doorjamb.

Joe frowned in confusion. “Really? What, was it a wham, bam, thank you ma’am?”

I laughed, grimacing even as I did so. “God, Joe! Who says that?! I didn’t bring Garrett home. He was a prick.”

“Then what…”

“Sassenach, are ye…”

Jamie trailed off, and I turned around to find him standing like a deer in the headlights outside my bedroom door, thankfully wearing boxers. “Oh…hey Joe,” he said nervously.

“HEY JAMIE!” Joe exclaimed loudly, his mouth open in a goofy grin and his eyes wide and sparkling before they flicked back to me, so alight it looked like he’d just seen a fairy.

I smiled wryly at him. “Yeah. Anyway, thanks for checking on me Joe, and I’m sorry I didn’t call.”

“No problem!” Joe said, backing out of the doorway. “NONE at all! You two just…carry on, and I’ll talk to you later, Lady Jane. Bye Jamie, see you later!”

“Bye Joe,” Jamie said bemusedly as I closed the door. “Sorry, lass,” he said, wincing.

I chuckled. “Don’t be, I’d have told him later either way. Wasn’t quite expecting him to react like that though.”

“He looked…well he didn’a look mad, at least.”

I laughed. “No. And just wait.”

“Wait for what?”

I leaned back against the door and held up my phone so he could see the screen, and ticked my fingers off with my other hand, three, two, one…

My phone buzzed repeatedly as text after text lit up the screen in rapid succession.

Jamie came closer so he could see the screen.

“From Louise,” he read aloud. “Omg Claire, Joe just fucking told me that you fucked Jamie Fraser from the bar is this true…” he chuckled and read the next one. “Erm, that’s just a bunch of random letters, and bitch you better text me back before you go back to screwing Mr. Hot Highlander. How could you do this and not tell me? What the fuck took so long…”

I laughed and turned the phone off before tossing it onto the couch. “I’ll text her back later.”

#outlander #outlander fanfiction #first time here? #Jamie x Claire #moodboard credit to #sassy-sassenach

[theashemarie]

Demo Brew Ch. 3 | Pearlina

☆ Reblogs appreciated! ☆

↪Chapter 1: [The Bet]

↪Chapter 2: [The Squid Sisters]

Read one chapter ahead on AO3!

Chapter 3: The Song

By all rights, things should be different after this revelation, but nothing changes. Callie and Marie are still just Callie and Marie after all, though they do sing more when the shop is empty. Three seems to relax a little too, as if she was holding all the tension of the secret in her body, and Pearl easily feeds off the energy. She feels like she’s coming back into herself, back into the Pearl that’s all confidence and swagger. The past six months have been a little rough, all things considered. Adjusting to the job (the job she didn’t need but kept coming back to), adjusting to Callie and Marie, adjusting to Three, adjusting to Marina...

And, now she’s trying to decide if punk music really is her thing after all.

It’s been a creeping thought, ever since she saw Callie, Marie, and Three’s reaction to her scar. But, she doesn’t want to just drop her band, but they’re also not the most cohesive unit anyway. It’s almost a self-fulfilling prophecy in a way—the punk group that’s dysfunctional and awful to each other. Their lead guitarist is known for showing up late and drunk, and while Pearl isn’t exactly the most reliable person in the world, she likes to think that she’s dedicated to the cause. She doesn’t want to be arrested one day because her bandmates are caught drunk and belligerent after a gig either, but that’s a whole other issue.

But, most of all, she wonders what it would be like, to start a group with Marina. Their voices would probably go well together, and they’re just different enough that their stage presence would be interesting and fun. She wants to change her image anyway. She’s getting a little sick of wearing black all the time.

“I can’t believe you didn’t figure it out,” Three says when she spies Pearl staring pensively at her notebook. She’s doodled a few hearts beside the scribbled song lyrics from yesterday. She quickly draws a few skulls beside the hearts, just for balance.

“What? Callie and Marie? I totally knew,” she lies.

“Yeah, and I can fly.” Three grabs a scone out of the pastry display and nibbles on it. “You grew up rich, right?”

It’s so out of nowhere that Pearl has to look up from her doodles. “Yeah? Why?”

Three shrugs. “Just curious why you’re here is all.”

“Callie didn’t tell you about the bet?”

Three shakes her head and takes a large bite of the scone. “Callie’s big on privacy. She says that ‘everyone deserves their secrets!’” The last of that is said in a peppy imitation of Callie’s upbeat voice, and Pearl can’t help but chuckle. “I was just wondering, since it seemed like your whole punk thing was taking off too. You’re not like me. Stuck here until the next big thing.”

It's so painfully true, and Three says it so easily. Three isn’t like Pearl—she has to scrape to make it to her next paycheck without going hungry. Most of the time, that involves eating all she can of the leftover pastries or sandwiches at the end of the day, and sometimes Pearl thinks she sees Callie or Marie give her money. Pearl has considered offering her some cash, but she doesn’t want to offend her. If there’s one thing she understands, its pride, and people always have a lot of it when it comes to money.

Pearl sighs and leans back. She’s not wearing her usual black today—decided to go with an oversized sweater, a pop of pink that goes well with her dark jeans—and she thinks that that’s what’s got her in this weird mood. She doesn’t really want to be the punchy punk princess anymore.

“I don’t know about that,” Pearl says. “I love music but I’m not sure if that’s the scene for me.”

“Oh yeah?” Three leans against the back counter, between the espresso machine and the blender. “You gonna sell out? Go mainstream?”

Pearl bristles a little. “Maybe I am! The mainstream could use a little something like me! I’d refresh the hell out of it! The Squid Sisters are the biggest thing right now, but behind those masks they’re still just another poppy idol group.”

Three smiles and crosses her arms. “Don’t let Callie and Marie hear you say that. They think they’re changing the world. Their music saves people.” She shakes her head and laughs, as if she just told some kind of joke. “I think that’d be fresh as hell. You trying to shake things up, I mean. You’ve got the voice. I say go for it.”

Pearl glances back at her notebook, at its scribbled lyrics to a song that’s already written. “It’d be pretty bad if I ditched my band. They’d hate me.”

Three shrugs. “So? You know they’re definitely using you for your money, right? You’re the lead but you also have all the cash. They wouldn’t have made it this far without you.”

She’s right and Pearl knows it. Her whole life, people have pushed their way closer to her in order to get closer to her money. It’s a fact of life—people will kiss up to you if they think it’ll get them somewhere. That’s probably one reason why she likes it here so much with Callie, Marie, and Three. They don’t want her money. They want her.

And Marina. Marina doesn’t know either, and she actually trusted Pearl with her demo. Ebb & Flow sounds like it had been recorded on a tape recorder—an act so intimate and personal that every time Pearl listens to it she can almost imagine Marina holding the microphone in her hand as she pressed the record button. Marina trusted her with that—

“You’re right,” Pearl mutters, feeling a lot like the floor has just been ripped out from under her. Suddenly, everything with Marina crystalizes.

Because Pearl likes Marina, and she’s pretty sure that Marina likes her.

+++

At least, Pearl thinks she does.

It’s Saturday when Marina comes back in, and Pearl is jittery. So, so jittery, but she’s playing it off. She’s got her swagger back, finally, and she’s determined to use it.

“Hey Rena, what can I get you?” She leans deep into the counter, chin on her fist, and she smirks her best smirk.

“Hm, I think I’ve finally tried everything...” Marina mutters, staying at a respectable distance from the counter. She’s so cute that Pearl almost turns into a squid right there, like she used to back when she was fifteen and overwhelmed. Nothing made the world slow down like turning back into your childhood form.

 “You’ve tried everything twice. I think you’re just looking for an excuse to keep coming back to see me.” Pearl’s smirk changes into a small, sly grin, and she sees Marina blush, just there on her cheeks. She swallows hard to keep herself from smiling even bigger.

“Maybe I just really like coffee,” Marina shoots back. Then, when Three pushes through the door with a tray of small sandwiches, she adds, “Or maybe I just really like to see Three!”

Three puts the tray down with a great clatter and makes a show of looking flattered. “Oh you tease.” She waves her hand in Marina’s direction. “I’m afraid that I’m taken though. I’m married to the job.”

Marina laughs, a small thing that’s barely audible, and Pearl’s knees turn to jelly. “I took too long!” Marina laments. “I guess I’ll have to settle for watching you from afar.”

“You need to move on!” Three cries. She pulls the back of the pastry case open and starts arranging the sandwiches on their small plates, like ducks in a row.

“I’m right here,” Pearl butts in, stomping her foot for emphasis.

“Sorry Pearl.” Marina giggles again.

“Yeah, Pearl. Sorry you had to witness the sauciest love story of our generation,” Three adds.

“I was trying to be smooth,” Pearl whines under her breath in Three’s direction. Then when she realizes what she just said, she turns to Marina with large eyes.

If Marina heard, she makes no indication. Instead, she steps closer to the counter and pokes at the small menu that they have posted there. “I’ll take a black tea. No sweetener, please.”

Pearl recovers quickly. “What, you can get addicted to caffeine but not sugar?”

Marina shrugs. “I get my sugar elsewhere.”

Pearl swears that she sees her wink. The world goes super quiet for a moment, and suddenly all she can see is the floor, and the ceiling, and since when did everything get so big?

“Pearl?” And there’s Marina, leaning over the counter to look at her. And Three is there, like a tower.

“Oh, you little squid,” Three says, exasperated.

Pearl picks herself up quickly. Forms her limbs back into place and grows a neck and stomach. Accidental squid form at twenty because a cute girl flirted back at her. She really is a gay disaster.

She has to rescue herself, and fast, before Marina writes her off as an out of control, lovestruck fool. She dusts her clothes off, picks a piece of white fuzz off of her t-shirt, and points a strong finger at Marina. “I have something for you.”

“Oh...?” Marina is pinned in place by Pearl’s point so she can only stand there while Pearl marches toward the back, where her bag and notebook are waiting. She cleanly rips the page with the edited song out and walks back, stiff-kneed.

“Here. Don’t read it now. I’ll get your tea.”

Marina takes it and follows her instructions. The slip of paper disappears into the bag, and Pearl quickly stirs together Marina’s drink. Three stands there, like a mother, like a principal, like Pearl is liable to make an even bigger fool of herself, and Pearl can’t blame her.

As she hands Marina her drink, Marina accepts it quickly, too quickly. Pearl can’t put it down on the counter and slide it to her like she usually does. Marina intercepts her, wraps both her hands around Pearl’s. “Thank you,” she says as they hold eye contact.

It’s the hottest thing Pearl’s ever experienced, and it’s just their hands wrapped around a to-go cup.

+++

Marina comes back an hour later. Pearl isn’t in the front because it’s her turn to bake (burn) the pastries. Everything’s homemade and they need more bread, so at least she can enjoy herself with the kneading, the punching, the forming of the dough, and she does, but she also can’t help but feel like there’s a creeping panic coming on. She just handed that shit to Marina like it was no big deal! She was so cool about it! She just handed it to her!

Like, ‘hey Marina, I loved your song! Do you take constructive criticism?’ What is wrong with her? She didn’t even warn Marina! Just handed her a note like it was some ‘will you date me? check yes or no’ situation. Oh, she’s so fucked. She’s fucked sideways. She’s fucked into next week. She’s fucked. She’s fucked, she’s fucked, she’s fucked, she’s fucked—

“Hey Marina!” Three yells, loudly, from the front, at a much higher volume than she usually does. She’s basically hollering. “You’re back!”

Pearl is up to her elbows in dough, so she can’t exactly go out there. But Three is screaming. But also Pearl can’t go out there. But also she can’t not go out there. She stands there, panicked, stricken, trying to melt into the floor. Her knees almost give out and she’s about two degrees away from squid form again when Three yells again.

“Yeah! Pearl’s here! Do you want me to get her?!” Three’s voice is louder, and Pearl can imagine it—Marina, with her arms crossed, angry at Pearl, while Three, who knows exactly what Pearl handed Marina earlier, tries to hold everything together. Oh, this is bad.

“Okay, I’ll get her!” Three darts through the door and sees Pearl, hands and counter dusted with flour “What are you doing! Marina’s here! Get out there!”

“I can’t!” Pearl searches for an excuse. She waves her hands at the football of dough on the counter. “The gluten is gonna set!”

“I’ll do it!” Three reaches into the flour canister and claps her hands together, sending up a puff of white. “Go out there! She wants to talk to you!”

Pearl begrudgingly shakes as much dough off of her hands as she can before running them under the sink. “Did she look upset?”

Three grins at her. “She looked excited. Now go!”

Pearl death marches through the door and hopes that her face doesn’t look as grim as she feels. Marina is there, looking disheveled. Her headphones are gone, replaced with another hat, which she keeps tugging down.

“There you are! Come with me.” Marina turns to leave, just like that, as if Pearl can just ditch her job at a moment’s notice just for her.

Well, she can, but the point is that Marina shouldn’t be assuming things. Even if she is right.

“I’m going on break!” Pearl cries as she rips her apron off. Three sticks her head out of the back and grins at her.

Pearl follows Marina out onto the street. It’s cold and she considers running back in for her jacket, but Marina looks spooked. Pearl doesn’t want to give her a chance to get away, so she just crosses her arms and ducks her head against the stinging wind.

“This way,” Marina leads her away from the main thoroughfare, where all the foot traffic is—Inkopolis Plaza is the busiest area of the city, where tourists rub arms with professional turf war kids, where fashion models and music groups come on their time off, and Marina stands apart, even in her shapeless sweater dress and tights. Her hair is longer than it was when Pearl first met her, and she seems to have finally found her footing. Pearl’s mountain girl finally at home in the city.

She’s mooning again, like she’s fifteen years old and getting ready for a first date, but she can’t help it. Now that she’s out here, in the cold, in the real world, she sees just how beautiful Marina is, just how different her mannerisms and presence are. She wants nothing more than to sit in this moment and let it percolate. She wants to stand as close as she can to Marina and let their hands brush, wants their fingers to lace, wants to pull Marina along behind her and explore the city.

She wants to be with Marina. That’s it. She just wants to spend time with her. That’s... That’s a new type of desperate want that she’s never ever experienced.

And it’s... It’s really nice.

“C’mon Pearl!” Marina is waiting for her next to a nondescript door, about two blocks from Fresh Start. She easily unlocks the door with quick fingers, keying in the code to the lock with practiced ease. Pearl jogs to catch up, and Marina pulls her inside by the end of her sleeve. Their fingers brush and Pearl can feel her face heat up.

The room is dark, and Marina easily flips a switch. It’s a landing, with a long hallway in front of them and stairs to the right. Marina quickly takes the steps, jumping up two at a time with her long legs. Pearl follows suit, trying to seem cool, using all of her energy and her strong knees to leap up after her. They stop in front of another door with another lock, this time with an actual key, which Marina quickly slots into place. Her keyring jangles with all kinds of bits and bobs, and Pearl just catches glimpse of a Squid Sisters keychain.

This door leads into a small apartment, about half the size of Pearl’s bedroom at home. There’s a tiny kitchenette to the right, a door to a wet bathroom on the left, and ahead of her the bedroom and living area are all one room. The bed is made, and the comforter is a bright green; the walls are covered with music posters, some recent, some old, some antique, some human—

Pearl barely has a chance to take more than that in, because Marina tows her into a tiny, itty bitty closet just to the left of the main door. It’s so small that Pearl feels huge. She’s immediately accosted by coats and jackets, all of which smell just like Marina, and she has to struggle to find a spot where she can breathe without getting fabric in her mouth. And then Marina piles in right after her, carrying something dark and bulky in her hands.

It is at this precise moment that Pearl realizes that she just followed this girl, who she barely knows outside of their small interactions at Pearl’s place of employment, down an alley, into a sparsely populated area of the city, through a locked door, up some stairs, through another locked door, and then let her drag her into a closet. She’s heard that people who think they’re in love do stupid shit, but this is next level.

Silently, she hopes that if Marina kills her, that her father never ever finds out. He’d spend millions of dollars to bring her back only to kill her again.

Marina reaches up and pulls the cord for the light. A bare bulb illuminates and Pearl realizes that the coats and jackets are all old, patchy, and a couple seasons out of style. Marina beams at her and hands Pearl a microphone. The bulky thing is an old-fashioned tape recorder, with a cassette in it and everything.

“This is the only place I can record,” Marina explains. There’s a long cord between the mic in Pearl’s hand and the recorder, and Marina presses a button to rewind the tape.

“I see.” Pearl swallows thickly and thinks back to her recording studio at home, with its large soundproof sound booth and sound boards, professional microphones and digital storage. This closet with all of its fabric is close to soundproof, but Pearl imagines that it can’t be great, acoustically. “It’s nice,” she croaks. Her throat is very dry.

“Thanks!” Marina beams. “I bought all the coats to help dampen as much of the sound as I could.” She looks down as the recorder makes a click. “Okay, so the tape is in the right place. Just sing your part and hopefully I can mix them together without too much trouble.”

“Wait, wait.” Pearl waves her hands and smacks into a large leather jacket that has to be two sizes too big for Marina. “What are we doing?”

“This.” Marina reaches into the pocket of her dress and shoves a sheet of paper into Pearl’s confused hands. “You wrote that right? I want you to record what you wrote.”

Pearl unfolds it and yep, that’s the sheet she ripped out of her notebook, with the lyrics that she wrote on a whim, and her scribbled music staffs. Oh jeeze, what has she gotten herself into?

She’s flattered, and panicked, and excited—because clearly Marina loved what she wrote. She loved it so much that she had to hear it for herself. But suddenly Pearl can’t feel her own voice. Her throat is dry, and she’s hasn’t actually sung in months because what she does with her band is scream. Melodic screaming, skilled screaming, but screaming all the same. She reaches up and touches her throat, as if that’ll make a difference, and tries to swallow again.

“I can’t...” she says, feeling like a cad, like a fraud. Marina makes a soft, confused sound and Pearl feels like she owes her an excuse. “I’m not warmed up...” She doesn’t want to tell Marina that she hasn’t sung for real in so long that her range has shifted, has shortened, that even the rhythmic chanting that she wrote might be too much, especially here with Marina so close, making Pearl’s hearts beat out of sync, creating a drum solo out of her chest.

She can’t imagine trying to harmonize with Marina’s strong, melodic voice. She can’t imagine letting Marina hear her sing, especially here in this closet.

“That’s okay!” Marina says. She’s still fiddling with the tape recorder and hasn’t looked up to see Pearl’s pale, pale face. “This is just a demo. It doesn’t have to sound perfect.”

“Reena...” Pearl sighs and that gets Marina to look up. Pearl is holding the microphone so tight in her fist and her fingers are bleached of all color. “I can’t.”

Marina stares at her for a long time, her eyes swimming with some unsayable emotion. Pearl can’t tell if she’s disappointed, angry, sad, or a combination of all three. She wants to squirm under the attention, under her own shame, and she reaches for the door, just so she can escape back into the air and the light and get away from this terrible, frustrating moment.

“No.” Marina grabs Pearl’s hand, the one still wrapped around the microphone, and her palm is cool. It jolts something inside Pearl, and she turns back. “No, Pearl. I know you can do this. I’ve heard your voice.”

“What? No you haven’t.” Pearl’s in disbelief, but she can’t pull away, not with Marina’s hand wrapped around hers. Her hand is decently bigger than Pearl’s, and it’s so nice. “That demo I gave you doesn’t count.”

“Not that.” Marina smiles then, and pulls Pearl back, away from the door. She pulls her into her chest, into a hug, and Pearl allows herself to be embraced even though she doesn’t know what she did to deserve it.

“I heard you singing in the shop,” Marina continues. She rubs her hand on Pearl’s back. “You’re really good.”

“If you say so...” Pearl sighs, because she can’t really say no when she’s being hugged like this. “Why are you hugging me?”

Marina pulls back slightly so that Pearl can see her bright, cheery face. “You seemed like you needed it!”

Pearl smiles too, because she did need it. She needed it so badly. She hasn’t been hugged in so long.

And it is then that she realizes exactly who she’s hugging. Her face blooms red and she feels her hearts donkey kick, jumping into a high-speed race against the clock. She swears Marina must be able to feel it.

“Will you sing for me now? Please Pearlie?” Marina pouts out her lip, like she knows just which of Pearl’s buttons to push. Pearl feels like she’s going to pass out right there, just from that nickname alone, and then Marina goes and pouts—

She has no choice, really.

#splatoon #splatoon 2 #pearlina #splatoon fic #ashe writes #ashe talks #demo brew #seems like no one's reading this here but i'm gonna keep posting it so i can have an archive

[from-home]

𑁍 MARK LEE┊ 𝒔𝒊𝒙𝒕𝒚 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒔, 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕 / preview ˎˊ˗

𑁍 summary : the one where mark lee time travels back and forth throughout the past and future  with his crush, (y/n) ˎˊ˗

𑁍 pairing : mark lee x older!reader (by like three years lmao) ˎˊ˗

𑁍 genre : fluff, comedy (i hope??), minimal angst, time travel!au ˎˊ˗

𑁍 warnings : swearing, unrequited love (i know that shit hurts omg), my humour is ass, mark gives me slight second hand embarrassment in this, (y/n) does not show up physically in this preview but is mentioned here and there ˎˊ˗

𑁍 a/n : ahh i don’t usually write on here (i use another site for that!) but i figured i might as well try dsfjg - i'm still getting used to this site though!! although this is a preview, i'm not even halfway done with the first chapter of this series yet - assuming i even finish the first chapter without burning out :(( uni sucks >:( but yeah, i guess i'm just posting to see how it goes? i intend on at least trying to continue this no matter the response it gets (or even the lack thereof sdfhg), but if people really like it, then even better!!   ˎˊ˗

[ 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟬 : 𝗗𝗔𝗬 𝟬 ]

when your pastor dad’s best friend was the biggest nerd in high school and became an eccentric scientist

O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,

   What a beautiful Pussy you are,

        You are,

        You are!

What a beautiful Pussy you are!

O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,

 What a beautiful Pussy you are,

      You are,

      You are!

What a beautiful Pussy you are!

     If he could write like that, maybe Mark wouldn't need to be here in this boring literature class of his. Don't get him wrong, he liked writing, and he liked the way he could express his emotions through a pen and paper. But for the twenty-one-year-old boy who could barely sit still in one place without his mind wandering off into four different dimensions, it was hard to be interested in whatever the professor was rambling on about. Maybe Professor Jung was telling the story of how she met Dylan Thomas' widow's sister's friend's cousin, and how much of an artistic impact it had on her. She had told the story a good three times in the past two months - Mark kept count.

     Yeah, writing was fun and all, but literature class specifically was boring and dull to him. "Oh but Mark, why take this course then?" one might ask. But one should also know that it was a necessary course if Mark wanted to earn his oh-so-coveted diploma.

     Curse him for majoring in creative writing. His dad always did wonder why writers even bother writing when the bible exists.

     But maybe one day, an hour and a half of John Keats would produce him some ideas for a romantic poem that he could write and gift off to his love of seven years... and counting.

     (Y/N), the shiniest of all pearls and the most beautiful of all Mona Lisa's, the older woman and her beauty often left Mark stunned and helplessly in love. He first met her when he was fourteen, when she had been introduced as his seventeen-year-old tutor. She was so pretty back then, and still was now. In fact, it was as if she didn't age at all!

     Someone who resembled a goddess like (Y/N)  deserved only the most romantic of all romantic poems, and Mark Lee made it a mission to be the one to write it for her. He was so helplessly in love with her that he was able to channel his feelings for her into five different written forms: poems, song lyrics, an 'A for effort?' drawing of her, letters, and anonymous blog posts about how "unrequited love hurts".

     Sure, those blog posts were anonymous, but as good as Mark thought he was at hiding his feelings for her, everybody in town and their ancestors' spirits knew about the big crush Mark had on her. But no one bothered to tell (Y/N) about her not-so-secret admirer and nobody bothered to let Mark know that his mysterious crush wasn’t as well-kept to himself as he thought it was.

     But it was cute. Not the part where Mark slowly died on the inside as each day passed without his feelings being returned (that was pretty sad, everybody acknowledged), but the part where the adoration in his eyes were so clear for (Y/N). Legend went that he held stars in his eyes whenever his gaze rested on the older woman - like, actual stars from the galaxy. Or so the first-hand accounts go.

     Mark Lee was a talented and hardworking boy, that much was a shared sentiment by everybody in town. He excelled at all subjects, mowed the lawn twice just because he thought he missed a spot, gave it his all at church every Sunday by rapping and dancing in the name of Jesus Christ until he was reduced to sweat and threatening to rip his dress shirt off - he was a jack of all trades. There were even rumours that whenever it was time for a 'Make a Wish' patient to... make a wish in heaven, he would dress up as Spiderman and visit them in the hospital to make their final dreams come true. So maybe that's why it was so endearing, his one-sided love for his noona. If there was one person who could jump over that hurdle of "just friends" and out of the friend zone, it had to be Mark, the boy who's always gave it his all in everything ever since he moved here from Canada when he was twelve. It was one thing to have this crush that you desperately wanted to be returned, but it was another to have the whole town cheering for you - it said a lot about Mark's character.

     Which is why! There was no other perfect test subject for Scientist Kim, the local eccentric scientist who was obsessed with creating his "next big invention". He also happened to be the best friend of the town's pastor (weird combination, everybody knows), courtesy of their high school days and a misunderstanding over a carton of milk. The town's pastor also oh-so-coincidentally happened to be Mark's father, who had lived in Korea for all his life until he moved to Canada so his wife could give birth to baby Mark. He ended up moving back to his hometown, however, thus creating a new relationship between his best friend and son.

     Now Scientist Kim - who liked to go by "Cabbage" as a homage to his idol, Charles Babbage - didn’t really care about Mark's painful one-sided love, but he knew the boy could never say no to his father's best friend from high school, so there was no one better to try out his experiments and inventions than Mark. Like, there was literally no one else at all - the whole town swore Cabbage was out of his mind and were still waiting for the day the newspaper would come out with a headline that he's been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Everybody would be disappointed, but not surprised. But such an incident hadn’t happened yet, so for now, Cabbage was still freely working hard everyday to successfully complete and unveil the invention that would propel him to "the front page of every science magazine and a Nobel Prize in Physics".

     And it just so happened to be today, October 30th 2020, when Mark received a phone call from his dad's best friend in the middle of class. He was glad he kept his phone on vibrate, but god, was it distracting. To answer or not to? Why now of all times? Right, he forgot that some people don't have anything else to do with their lives other than... creating things that usually end up on fire by the end of it. You know, now that he thought back on it, the last time Mark willingly participated in Cabbage's experiment which involved some tinfoil, antennas, and laser beam machining, it left Mark's right shoe on fire - thank God he had brought a fire extinguisher over to Cabbage’s house with him.

     Just that memory alone convinced Mark to ignore the call, nearly forgetting about it once it had stopped ringing if not for the fact he received another call just seconds later. "What is this, an infatuation?" Mark grumbled to himself, before glancing up at the front to see if Professor Jung was distracted enough for him to take this call without her noticing. It didn't help that he sat three rows away from the front. But she still seemed to be rambling on about how much she loved Dylan Thomas' works, and that was a sign for him to accept the call. He kept his voice to a hushed whisper, however, "Hello-"

     "Mark! You have to come over!" There was no way Professor Jung did not hear that screech that came from his phone. He glanced up nervously, noticing his classmate's startled gazes on him. But his eyes wandered over to the front, and judging by how Professor Jung was now going on about Dylan Thomas' "attractive appearance", it seemed he was in the safe for now.

     "Cabbage, I'm in class, so could you keep it down?" Mark hissed quietly into the phone.

     "Right, right, sorry!" While he was still loud even after lowering his voice down, it was more than quiet enough for Professor Jung not to notice, thankfully. "Mark, I've just completed my latest invention. But this isn't just any invention, it's the invention of both my - and everybody's dreams!"

     Mark would be mildly curious if not for the fact that Cabbage said that about every invention of his, but he figured that his dad was going to urge him to go anyway, even if Mark didn’t want to. "But he's my best friend, Mark!" Jeez, because how could he possibly say no to the power of friendship?

     "Mark? Boy? You still there?" Cabbage’s voice pulled Mark out of his thoughts, and the boy could do nothing but sigh. This was just going to be like every other time - he’d be introduced to some machine that supposedly did one thing, said machine would catch on fire the next minute, and it would all result in Mark going home an hour later.

     "Fine, I'll be there. After class in like, half an hour." Mark reassured the scientist, and he swore, he could hear something catching on fire in the background.

     "Great!" He then heard rushed footsteps and... a fire extinguisher? "See you then!" And the call ended.

     He just couldn’t wait.

#nct fluff #mark lee #mark lee fluff #nct mark fluff #nct 127 #nct u #nct dream #mark lee x reader #nct #nct fics

[jeronicaismyotp]

Welcome to the Dark side - chapter 2

 The next day as Veronica was getting dressed for the day, she couldn't stop thinking of the boy with the haunting blue eyes from last night. 'Gosh, what is wrong with you Veronica! You can not be thinking of another boy after Archie just ripped your heart apart.' She couldn't believe that already she was dreaming of another boy. It was just one encounter, it wasn't like she is going to see him at school or anything. Did he even go to school? Not that she wanted to see him again, after the way he was to her when he found out she is a Lodge, like it meant nothing but at the same time the worst thing to be.

A knock broke Veronica out of her thoughts, "Mija! Are you up yet? It's 7:45, you're going to be late!" Hermoine shouted from the other side of the door.

"I am almost done Mom, I'll be out in a sec!" she replied while hooking her pearl necklace around her neck. She decided not to waste another second thinking of the Serpent leader. He didn't care who she is and she for sure in hell doesn't care about him.

As Veronica went to sit down at the breakfast table she seen that her Father wasn't there. He would always make time for family and he never missed family breakfast with them. "Where is Daddy?" she asked her Mother who was sipping on a mimosa. "He had to meet his business partners early, apparently there is a set back on his new project for Riverdale. So it's just you and me, Ronnie."

Veronica knew that the new project was buying out the South side but who could stop her Father from taking it over? Only one person came to her mind in that moment, Jughead Jones. It seems like he isn't just going to let Hiram take over. A man in charge also loves to be challenged, she learnt that from years of watching her Father deal with all the other men that went up against him. They all lost that battle and for a split second she felt bad for Jughead, his home was going to be taken away and destroyed.

****

First period went by quicker than Veronica would have liked. She did not in anyway want to show up for the second hour, Archie AND Betty are in that class. Veronica knew that even the sight of them would make her upset and she didn't want a repeat of last nights tears. So she did what any Lodge would do, she walked into that English class with no care, she was tired of feeling this heart break for two people who she thought were her friends. She took the seat near the window next to Josie McCoy and the Pussycats, she was placing her notebooks and a copy of the book the class was currently reading on her desk when she heard the last voice she wanted to hear, well two voices.

"Archie, stop it! We're in class now," Betty giggled while Archie was kissing her cheek and tickling her side. "Oh c'mon Betty, you know you like it," Archie winked at her. They both were entering the class with no shame to what they did to Veronica. How dare they?! Who did they think they were? This isn't what life was suppose to be like here in Riverdale, she changed and she was better than her old self.

Betty noticed Veronica as she took the seat beside her," Archie. Stop!" he looked at her with a confused face but then that is when he noticed Veronica. A simple "Oh" escaped his mouth. Archie went to the back of the class with the other footballs players. Veronica wasn't even in love with him, not even close but the fact that they lied to her over and over again is why she is upset. She had even asked Betty if it was alright to date Archie because she knew that Betty had a crush on the red head.

"Hey V, can we talk after class?" Betty asked. How dare she even try to speak to her! Especially after walking in all over Archie like that. The audacity this bubblegum girl had. "No, Betty we can't talk after class. We can't talk ever. Why don't you stick to talking to my ex-boyfriend instead of wanting to talk to me! You think talking is going to help me forgive you? Yeah nice try but no Betty. So just leave me alone." Veronica snapped back. She did not want to hear the excuses that they were going to say to try to make this situation right. It isn't, not one bit so whatever fake apologizes they have, they can save it. Thank god the teacher finally walked into the class right when Betty was about to open her mouth.

"Sorry students, I had an early meeting that went on a little late."

Later on that day while Veronica was getting her lunch, it just hit her that she had no one to sit with. 'Ugh this is why you should have made more friends Veronica!' Well it didn't matter, she was not going to let this situation take over her life. She is determined to get through this even if she was hurting and going through this alone. Some small town boy was not going to stop Veronica...from well being Veronica. She grabbed her tray and walked over to an empty table in the back of the cafeteria. Right when she opened the clear container that held her salad Cheryl Blossom walked up to her. Veronica really had no time for the extra drama, the HBIC brings.

"Well if it isn't the other woman? Oh, wait that would be Betty. You are just the girl that Archibald used and then dumped. Must suck to be nothing than a side piece." Cheryl sat down next to her. She really had to come over and say unnecessary insults. "Cheryl, I don't know what's up your ass today but just leave me out of it. I don't got time to dwell in the past. If Archie wants Betty, good for them. She can have my sloppy seconds if that's what she likes, I don't care what they do.  Now leave Cheryl." Veronica rolled her eyes, why did Cheryl even care?!  "Wow, the Ice Queen losing to Betty Cooper? Who would have thought?" Cheryl said, clearly trying to get a rise out of Veronica. Unfortunately right when the words left her mouth, Betty and Archie walked by.

"Cheryl why are you trying to start stuff?" Archie asked, fustrated.

"Archie.." Betty whispered, "Don't get involved."

Veronica could not believe Betty right now. "Don't get involved?! Really Betty? He is the whole reason why Cheryl is over here! Why didn't you tell him that when you started going behind my back! I always knew something was fishy about you two. I just didn't want to think the two people I trusted the most would do such a horrible thing! How fucked up is that? Did you guys just think you would keep hiding it forever? Don't tell me that you are that stupid!" Veronica was done. She had enough of this pretending to be someone she isn't.

"V, we didn't mean for it to happen. It just sorta did. I'm sorry Ronnie. I really am and I hope that one day we can go back to be friends." Betty stepped forward.

"Be friends again? Yeah no Betty our friendship went out the window when you started screwing my boyfriend! Why in the hell would I want to be your friend? After all the drama and lies that come with being your friend. I don't want or need a back-stabbing best friend. You are the worst Betty Cooper. Karma's a bitch and I can't wait to see you get what's coming for you."

"Ronnie! Don't talk to her like that."Archie shouted as he seen the tears well up in Betty's eyes.

"Archie you have no say on what I can and can't do. You don't think I am pissed at you too?! You could have been just honest with me in the beginning and none of this would have happened! But no Archie had to be the little man whore he is and sneak around. Does Betty even know you were with Valerie in the summer?! Or was it Cheryl? Anyone else you hooked up with that she doesn't know about! I am done with shit!" Veronica grabbed her bag and tray, "Are you happy Cheryl? You got what you wanted!"

+++++

Jughead didn't expect to run into the raven-haired princess again so fast. He knew there was a chance in seeing her here because he is at Riverdale High doing a drop off for some kid. Although he was suppose to head straight back to his school he opted not to when he spotted the girl he met last night. He noticed that she was sitting down alone at the bench that was near the tree, he would have thought she would be popular considering she is a Lodge. He walked over to here trying to sneak up but she turned around right when he was a few feet away.

Upon seeing Jughead in the parking lot of Riverdale High, Veronica thought her day couldn't get any more worse. She came out to the side of the school to get away from the drama and the last thing she wants is a run in with the Serpent member. What was he even doing here? Clearly nothing good considering he is a gang member. He was walking towards her now and she had no idea what to say, as much as she hates to admit he is a little scary but handsome as hell.

"What are you doing here Jones? Couldn't stay away from me?" she asked as Jughead sat next her on the bench.

"You wish Princess, I had to do some business." Jughead thought it wasn't a complete lie. His presence was to drop off some stuff to some football player but he didn't have a reason to stay longer after that.

"Yeah okay, if that what's let's you sleep at night." Veronica replied. Jughead could not believe she was talking to him this way. "Well not everything's about daddy's little girl. Some people have to actually work for money, something you never have to do." Jughead snapped back.

"You don't know what I do Jughead. At least I don't stoop to criminals ways to earn my money."

"Oh sweetie, you may not but that doesn't mean your Daddy doesn't."

Veronica was taken a back from what he just said there is no way her father is a criminal. He is a business man and does deals with other business men, at least that what she thought he did. Jughead noticed that hearing this shocked Veronica. "Maybe you aren't daddy's girl after all." He winked at her. "As much as fun I had I best get going Princess. See ya." Jughead tighten the strap on his leather gloves and walked away.

She could not believe the boy in front of her, trying to convince her that her father is a bad guy. There is no way he would being doing illegal stuff and her not knowing. Veronica wasn't too invested in the family business but she knew enough that she didn't doubt her father's choices. She couldn't let some Serpent tell her who her father his, she grew up with him, she knows him more than Jughead.

The final bell went off and Veronica started walking towards the cafeteria doors but turned around to Jughead speeding away on his bike. She didn't know why but the boy was intriguing to her and she doesn't want to feel anything for him but just after two encounters something in her wants to know more, needs to know more.

By she got home from school Veronica was done with people and the whispers about her. She did not lose Archie to Betty, no they lost her! and dam anyone who thinks else. Veronica Lodge was one not to lose something, especially a boy. If she was at her old school no one would dare to say such things about her. She had control there, she had respect there, most importantly she had power at that school in New York. She didn't have to do homework, team projects, or deal with two face best friends. Maybe that's the problem, that she had turned into this "nice kind hard working" Veronica, someone she isn't. Veronica knew that Riverdale was a chance for a new start but what if she didn't want one. What if being herself, aka "the old Veronica" is what she was suppose to be. No one treat her like the way they have been treating her, that's for sure. What was so wrong with being yourself? Shouldn't you always stick to your true self, trust in your gut, don't change for no one or whatever other cliche you can think of.

She might be in a different town and surrounded by different people but Veronica is going to be Veronica Lodge. No more pretending to be nice, no more playing nice either.

++++++

Jughead and Sweet Pea were playing a game a pool when Toni came in with her girlfriend, talking about some school drama. Jughead didn't really like Cheryl because her family use to sell Jingle Jangle for the Ghoulies but the Serpents but a stop to that. After Clifford Blossom was exposed by his son Jason, the police came to the South trying to search for the gang who was dealing out the drug and the Ghoulies aren't the most cleverest. They bought into the set-up the police made to capture them. Cheryl and Jason didn't even live at home with their mother in Thornhill, they stayed at the garden home the Blossoms also own. It's still pretty big just for two teenagers. Toni met Cheryl one time when she was dropping off weed to a guy named Reggie at a Prep Rally, at first they butt heads but then Toni ran into Cheryl again at the movies. Apparently they made out during the whole movie so they made a date to go see the actual movie the next weekend and ever since then they have been stuck to each others side. Where you seen one the other one was right behind.

"Yeah so I walked over to Veronica and asked if she liked being the other woman and the side piece but dumb Archibald and Miss Goody two shoes Betty had to walk in at the same time so not much happened. It was getting good until Betty said some stuff about Archie to stay out of it. Then that's when Veronica went off on them both for going behind her back and she walked outside afterwards." Cheryl sat down on Toni's lap while telling the pink haired serpent what went down at Riverdale High during lunch. Jughead started listening more when she mentioned Veronica and he guessed that is why she was outside when he got there. He was so  distracted he missed his shot, which meant Sweet Pea beat him.

"YES! Finally I beat your ass Jones! Take that!" Sweet Pea cheered and high five Fangs, his best friend.

"Wow Cher, you really do know how to start shit at your school," Jughead said as he passed by the two girls then took a seat across from them.

"Oh I didn't know you were ease dropping Jug-head." Cheryl said, flipping her hair to the side.

"Jones why do you care what Cheryl does? It's not like we or anyone you like go to Riverdale High." Toni said before taking a sip of her pink lemonade.

"I don't care but it just seems a little fucked up to talk trash to someone who got used like that. Doesn't seem right that's all, I could give a less of a shit about any northsider."

"Jughead dear you don't mean that. I know you care about me whether you admit it or not. But anyways, Veronica is the new girl and deserves to be messed with. Especially after trying to take my vixens away from me with that stupid dance off last week!" Cheryl complained, thank god her minions are useful in some ways. If it wasn't for them she wouldn't be the captain still.

Jughead started to think of Veronica, in a cheer uniform dancing. Those hips swinging back and forth, those good looking legs moving all over the place and that ass-. Jughead stopped himself from thinking any further, he wondered if she would ever dance for him, just the two of them. He did not think it was possible to lose a dance battle with a body like hers, no way. She is way too hot to lose to anybody.

"No one can beat you Babe," Toni kissed the girl in her arms.

"Yeah I doubt that Topaz." Jughead said then noticed the glare both girls sent him. He put his hands up and just walked away.

++++++

Jughead hadn't really thought of plan to find ways to run into Veronica and it wasn't that easy. It's not like they are going to run into each other in the halls or at grocery stores, he's pretty she has never been in a store that doesn't involve clothes or jewelry. The only place that would make sense is Pop's but he doesn't want to seem like a stalker now. Maybe if he had stayed at Riverdale High they would have met and got along. He doesn't even know why he cares about seeing her again but he does. She just is so god dam stunning and fierce, he likes that she doesn't back down from him, she is truly one of a kind. He doesn't know what do do but he better think of something fast.

The next day at school Jughead thinks the universe might be warming up to him because he just got the greatest news ever. South side High and Riverdale High are merging together, while it does suck that his own school is closing he can't stop thinking of the girl who is going to make this merge good. Now this is his chance to get to know her without seeming stalker-ish, he prays to the gods that they share classes. The other serpents are coming with him to Riverdale, Toni is already on the phone with Cheryl and Sweet Pea & Fangs are excited to have new faces to punch. As they get on their bikes to go to their new school Jughead can't stop the smirk that appears on his face because he can't wait to see the look on Veronica's face when they show up.

All the Serpents walk in together, they don't expect to find a table that has their schedule and a sign that says "WELCOME NEW STUDENTS!" but what catches him off guard is the girl that is handing out the papers, Veronica Lodge. Why is she doing this? She doesn't even like the Serpents or the South side, Jughead thought.

"Aw babe, you didn't have to do all of this for me." Jughead said as he approached the table with his friends.

Veronica scoffs. "Yeah right. I did not do this for you Jughead. I had to, as the leader of the 'Welcoming Committee' it had to be done and I didn't want our first impression of the South side High students o be anything other than perfect so keep dreaming Jones."

He rolled his eyes of course she wanted to please people. He thinks anything that Veronica would have done would be perfect.

"You are always in my dreams Ronnie," he winked and snatched the paper that had his name on it

Veronica blushed a little, he dreamt about her? 'Veronica don't get side-tracked he still is a Serpent' she thought.

"Just get to class Jones." she said before moving on to help the next student.

Jughead was happy with himself as he walked away, he made her blush. That is something he took pride in, she hopefully didn't completely hate him. After reading his schedule he seen that his first class is History, he walked in and took a seat in the back. None of the other Serpents are in this class and he noticed a group of guys in varsity jackets sitting in the front surrounded by a group of girls. He noticed a certain red head, his arm wrapped around one of the girls, she had blonde hair and was wearing a light blue sweater and a pair of jeans. "Ugh could she be any more plain" Jughead whispered.

"What? She doesn't do it for you?" he heard her voice and it made him smile. Jughead looked to his side to find Veronica sitting down to the seat next to him. She is truly memorizing and he still couldn't believe anyone would cheat on her! "No I like my girls with a little twist, not so plain Jane." he replied as he seen her blush again. 'Thank god he doesn't find Betty attracted, not that it means anything but it's nice to know that not all the boy she likes gets distracted by pastel sweaters and ponytails, she thought the herself. She smiled at him and opened her textbook. "Good to know," she said.  

When class was over Veronica was so fed up Archie and Betty, they spent the whole class giggling and whispering to each other, couldn't they just cool it foe one god dam minute. It wasn't easy trying to focus when she was upset that they got to be the happy ones. As she exited the class Jughead stopped her, "Hey, you okay Princess? I could something was off in class," he asked Veronica. She was annoyed at the nickname he used but was shocked at his concern for her, didn't they hate each other?

"I'm fine Jones, it's just not very easy getting through a class when your ex boyfriend and his new girlfriend who was my best friend be all lovey dovey." Veronica told him as they both walked out of the classroom. She didn't really want to talk about it but for some reason she trusted Jughead, the mysterious Serpent leader.

"Waot, what the douche bag was in that class? Who was he?" Jughead asked and turned around to see who was coming out of their History class.

"It was the guy with the red hair, his name is Archie and the girl with the baby blue sweater and her arm around him is Betty. Betty and Archie they were sitting the front."

"He left you, a smokin hot goddess for a pastel princess? I don't get it. Is he blind or stupid? He must be both if he left you or even thought of another girl." he replied. Veronica couldn't stop the smile spreading on her face. Jughead knew what to say to make her feel a little better. "Yeah Archie must be," she said. Veronica is shocked that she is actually feeling things for the boy in-front of her. They had just met and it didn't go really well but now here he is making her smile like an idiot before second period. Maybe this merge wouldn't be as bad as she thought.

"Well I got to get to Chemistry, bye Jughead." she said as she parted her way. "Wait! I got chem too with Mr. Flutesnoot right?"

"Yeah"

"Well let me walk you to class." Jughead offered. Veronica was clearly not expecting that but it would be pretty silly to decline his offer considering they were walking the same way. "Okay" she responded. Then the two walked side by side, talking to one another. Everyone else was confused as to why the Serpent Prince and the Northside Queen were walking together as it was totally normal. They were from opposite sides there was no way to could be getting along or could they? One certain jock with flaming hair was not pleased by this and he was planning to put a stop to this, no south side scum was going to walk around like he owned the place.

#jeronica #jughead x veronica #jeronica fanfiction #jeronica fic #welcome to the dark side fic #riverdale fanfiction #update! #i hope you guys enjoy!! #let me know what you think!!

[blue-pearl-lamentation]

Mystery’s Pearl Chapter 13

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16122479/chapters/38043746

Garnet, Amethyst, Steven, and Sheena ran after Pearl, but she was faster than all of them. They called out to her, but her pacing did not change. By the time they had caught up to her, Pearl was inside the temple, in her room. They stopped in front of the door and looked at each other with unsure faces.

“Maybe I can help,” Steven said. He began to walk forward, but Garnet shook her head.

“No,” Garnet said. “There's only one of us who should talk to her right now.”

“Oh.” Steven stopped and turned to Sheena. “I think Garnet means you.”

“Me? I can but, I could use some help I think.”

“Sheena,” Garnet began, “I think you'll know the right words. We may have known Pearl longer than you, but the bond you've grown together is a special one. I think you're the one in the best position to aid her.”

“Oh cool,” Amethyst said. “I can't wait to see this. I wonder what she'll say.”

“We won't be watching, they need their space. Let's go.” Steven walked away but Amethyst didn't move.

“Aw, come on. Just let me see the start of it.”

Garnet plucked Amethyst up and put her under her arm. “Good luck, Sheena. I have faith in you.” Garnet walked away as Amethyst protested. Sheena stood at the entrance before taking a few steps forward. Before her were fountains surrounding a large body of water. Dark blue tiles with intricate designs went around it, and above the ceiling seemed to be some sort of sky with shiny stars of different colors.

Sheena knelt next to Pearl, who was crying. “Hey, Pearl. I'm here.”

Pearl kept sobbing. “I'm sorry,” she said between cries.

“Sorry for what?”

“I wasn't there... I wasn't there to protect you. And you got hurt. I never wanted you to have to see these monsters that we fight. That's my business, not yours.”

“You're worried about this?” Sheena patted her shoulder. “I'm fine, really. There's no need to worry.”

“It's not about that Sheena!” Pearl looked at her, for a moment she was angry, but then she frowned. “This is dangerous work and, and I don't want to see you hurt. I don't want to lose someone again.” Pearl laid down. “I just can't do it.”

Sheena laid down next to Pearl. Sheena looked at her while Pearl stared ahead at the fountain. “If you're worried about me getting hurt, well, look. I know there's going to be a risk involved. You didn't give me a whole lot of details, but I figured there would be a danger to being with you. And hey, I worry about you too. You're out there fighting these gem monsters, and getting up close with your swords and weapons. I'm scared of you getting hurt too.”

“It's not the same, though. If my body gets hurt badly, it'll simply poof and I'll regenerate later. Your body is human. If you get hurt enough...”

“I'm an adult. I know you worry about me, and that's fine. But you also need to understand that I accept the fact that being close to you puts me at risk. I know it's because you're not just some human woman, you're something else entirely. And I love you. I'm honestly inspired and in awe knowing that my girlfriend is this grand savior and protector of the planet.”

“I need to protect you. And Steven. And the others. And everyone. What if next time it's worse? What if you had broken an arm? What if I were there but I was powerless to help you?”

“Pearl, I love you. And that's why I'll be honest with you. You can't worry about the future so much. Maybe I could have been hurt worse. Maybe I'll be attacked by a gem monster on my way back home tonight. Maybe I'll never be attacked again and live to be a hundred, or maybe I'll get hurt by something not related to your gem business at all. The point is, you gotta learn to accept that you don't have control over everything. Anything can happen at any time. I know how much you want to be there for me all the time, and you want to be able to protect your friends from harm. But you need to think of yourself too, and your happiness, and you can't be consumed by these thoughts that you need to be perfect in every way. You can be flawed too, and be just as much of a beautiful person.”

Pearl turned her head, looking Sheena in the eyes. “I just don't...”

“If you worry all the time about the bad things that could happen in the future, you'll never be able to live in the present. You'll just keep thinking the worse thing possible will come true and then you can't ever be happy. Everything will stress you out, you'll be looking for reasons why things will turn sour. It's not a healthy way to live, Pearl. You'll only hurt yourself in the long run.”

“I think what you're saying makes...sense. Maybe I overreacted.”

Sheena scooted closer to Pearl and put an arm around her. “This is new to you, it's okay. I'm sure if I were in your shoes that I'd be worried too. I mean, being a sort of immortal alien dating a human, you have things to think about that I maybe don't totally get. And my perspective is maybe foreign to you too since I'm a human. I just want you to know that I accept who you are, what dating you means for my well being, and that I've reconciled with it. It's a decision I made and I'm satisfied with it. It's okay that you worry about me, I think that's only natural. My... mortality is something we can recognize and work with. We don't need to ignore that fact.”

“I just feel guilty. You wouldn't be hurt if you never met me or came to Beach City.”

Sheena leaned in, kissing Pearl on her gem. “Listen, dear, we're just gonna go in circles here.” Sheena picked herself up and sat down. “Sorry, but I'm too stubborn. I'm here to stay, and that's that. And I refuse to let you feel like crud because of me.”

Pearl smiled. “Your stubbornness is kind of cute.” She moved next to Sheena, putting her head on her shoulder. “I should be better about talking to you about what's troubling me. It's been on my mind since the start, actually... I'm sorry I just ran off.”

“It's fine,” Sheena said. “I'm just glad to be here with you. And I'm glad you're telling me this.”

They sat there in silence, listening to the water flow and swish around the pool.

“So this is your room, huh?”

“Yeah, it is. I was hoping the first time I showed you my room that it would be under more... pleasant circumstances.”

“Well, you got to see my room while we were both in a good mood. One out of two ain't that bad.”

“If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs.”

“What...?”

“It's a thing Greg says. Steven's father. It's about how bad things can sometimes make something good.”

“Ah,” Sheena put an arm around Pearl. “At least we can enjoy it now. Your room is uh, it has a lot more space than mine.”

“I like to practice my sword fighting while standing on the fountains. And I dance a bit too.”

“On them? Like, on the water.”

“Yes, us gems can stand on the water here. Humans could too, actually, so long as they hold on to us.”

“Oh? I see. Sounds like fun.”

Pearl stood up. “Shall we go?”  

Sheena grinned. “I thought you'd never ask.”

The two of them got up and Pearl led them up the fountain. Sheena hesitated, but Pearl assured her. They climbed up to the tallest fountain. As before, Pearl took the lead, arms wrapped around her. This time they danced slowly to the rhythm of the water, their eyes locked and lost in the soul swaying before them.

#mystery's pearl #mystery girl #pearl #steven universe #fanfic

[callmetippytumbles]

Thoughts on THOTS, Chapter 15: BUH BYE DEMON!

So long bitch! Ain’t nobody gonna miss you and your dusty ass green dress! 

So before I start two things.  One, this chapter review is brought to you by the magic of generic Dayquil/Nyquil.  I took one orange gelcap and one green gelcap and they are warring in my insides for dominance.  This is a great idea. Don't do this, this is a terrible idea. I have been sick with a cold throat thing since Thursday but its been really bad today and it doesn't help that I am rarely sick so I have no idea how to be sick. (Read: I am being a big ass baby about being sick.)

Two, over the last week I made it to 103 followers. Jesu Christi Oluwa-WHAT?!?! I never thought I would convince more than ten people to want to see my posts let alone 103. Seriously, my mind is blown.  My body is breaking down having to process that thought. So many words to say about that, but the simplest and most important is thanks! From the bottom of my petty, bird-ass heart, thank you for liking my posts, reblogging and stuff.

Now on to the mess.

I have no idea what the fuck is happening now.  When I first started reading The Royal Romance Book 2, I thought that finding Tariq would be at the earliest chapter 17.  PB was like:

I also thought that this chapter was going to be Halle, Maxwell, and Bertand looking for Tariq in boutiques and sand. But no, Drake and Hana are coming for this trip and Betrand is going to stay at the hotel and sext Savannah and pull his hair out or whatever.

Well Hana is back, missed her lots I will get back to this but first I need to address something:

THESE MAGIC EYE SUNGLASSES PB AND MAXWELL ARE CALLING A DISGUISE.

Sure, those sunglasses are as effective as a disguise as two toddlers in a trench coast passing as an adult. Halle may as well be like:

I can't look into Halle's eyes with those sunglasses, I can see them but I can't "see" them.  It’s like trying to look into a magic eye and trying to see the real picture. I can't.  

The rest of the outfit is cute.

Halle has to get a whole disguise (read: sunglasses) but everyone else is not even going to try to put on a hat or a scarf or a Steve Harvey mustache? Okay. Sure. Whatevs.

Am I surprised that Maxwell asked a man who could be harboring Tariq if he is harboring Tariq? No.  I am just happy that this did not play out like I thought: Maxwell: Maybe Tariq is at the beach. He did say that he likes beaches and he seemed to like it when Halle took us to the beach in NY. *PB gives us the Venice Beach background* Halle: So where is Tariq? Maxwell: I dunno. Oooh! Hot dog! *Maxwell gets a hot dog* Halle and Bertrand: Maxwell! Maxwell: Sowwy. *swallows bite of hotdog* Maxwell: I didn't want to go to LA and not see the beach. You guys could still get a hot dog.

Could have been worse is all I am saying.

@lizzybeth1986​ I told you that that beach background was coming to play and here we are.  We are both right.

We actually found Tariq pretty quickly.  He is chilling in Mark and Cole's apartment in LoveHacks. Tariq likes to spend his money on designer clothes not designer housing.

I like that you get the option to slap Tariq.  You know I took it.  He deserves and he acknowledges that he deserves.  I like that he does not try to make himself some kind of victim.  I am pissed that he ran away and stayed silent while Halle's name was being dragged through the mud tried to frame it like he was doing her a solid by doing that.  Also, if he was so concerned about doing the right thing why did he have to be "convinced" to make a statement. FOH!

We fly back in record time, get Tariq to make a statement, and then we have to fight with Justin on when the message goes public.  My petty ass wanted to have the it go out like Justin advised because that demon can spin shit and turn everything into an alternative fact. Justin had legitimate worries about that. However, I tried to play nice and give Liam and IT prior notice and take the high road and it goes out anyway.  PB straight up was like:

This is why I like to be trash and go low.  Especially when it involves the demon. Speaking of which:

First of all you of all people should not be doubting my, I mean Halle's, I mean my integrity with your fake ass chocolate allergy bitch!  You have suspect intentions ALL THE FUCKING TIME.  Just this time Halle did it to you.  It hurts doesn't it Demon?  Just burns your grits.  Good. Second of all, I still tried to warn your wicked ass when I wanted you to get embarrassed because FUCK YOU FOR THE REST.

Also: Fuck you mean "enjoy this satisfaction while it lasts"? Doesn't matter.

I hate having to be suspect of Justin.  He is probably the most informed and reliable character of the series.  I mean his insights literally saved Halle from her worst enemy, Halle. The exchange in the hotel room and this exchange says I should not trust him as much I do:

I know your ass ain’t sorry I should have known not to trust Justin when he kept saying nice things about the Demon.  He could be working with the Demon.  I do not want this guy to be my enemy.  It will ruin my future fics. However if Justin did had some ulterior motives, this better not play out like the Hyde thing in 50 Shades of Grey.

Hana is so freakin cute in this chapter I just can't even.  The hair is everything and I want a textured version for Halle.  Hana is straight up looking like a Flushing girl who just spent her Forever21 gift card.  I am not mad at it. Live your life Hana! 

Then Hana does this at McDermot’s and I died:

There is nothing that is more pure than Hana doing a happy dance in her seat while eating a french fry dipped in a milkshake.

Also McDermot’s? This is worse than the McDonald’s of Nigeria Mr. Biggs...in terms of names.  Mr Biggs has jollof rice and meat pie so it wins on food.

Liam wears the casual outfit from last week again and I am like:

You have money Liam.  While I don't want you to go clothes shopping for yourself but that doesn't mean that I don't ever want you to shop for clothes again period.  I just meant hire someone who is paid to have taste do it for you. Then again...

Liam can just wear his swim panties (for public decency) and I would be fine.  SHOW MEH DEM THIGH MEATS!

So those fortunes.  Can we talk about my whack ass fortune?

I know Halle! Why can't we just have our happy ending with our fine ass king who breaks our back every night because his fucking is just that good and have a bunch of cute babies with curly hair in our palace? Why can't we have this? Don't we deserve?

Anyway the chapter ends with my king, Liam, coming to my room in full kingly garb.  

All of the medals and sashes. Looking like a carefully wrapped present. Just goodness.  We all know what is coming.  He tells me that he breaks off his engagement to the Demon.

***This Thoughts on THOTS has been interrupted by the Demon is Defeated Dance Party***

TAKE THAT DEMON!

WHO HAS TWO THUMBS AND CURLY HAIR THAT IS NOW GOING TO NESTLE A CROWN? HMM? HALLE, THAT'S WHO BITCH!!!

TASTE THE DEFEAT SATAN!

GONNA FUCK YOUR MY MAN, GET HI-FIVES FROM YOUR MOM WHILE I DO IT, AND BE A MOTHERFUCKING QUEEN BITCH! 

YOU! COULD! NEVER!

***We will now return to your scheduled programming***

I don't know how Liam broke off this engagement, but in the moment I don't fucking care.  I know what my man is here to do and I have been ready since the end of book 1, logistics be damned. I am ready. Then PB has to pull this bullshit:

Fuck you mean that I have to wait one whole entire motherfucking week to hear my beloved give me the most romantic speech of my entire life that ends with him asking for my hand in holy matrimony? Why do I have to wait for that, especially when I know that more bullshit is around the corner and that happiness will not last long? Why are you like this? Ugh.

With that said I don't understand how Liam could just break his engagement when the Demon while totally evil and shit did not actually have anything directly to do with the scandal as far as we know.  The whole reason he didn’t break their engagement as soon as my ass came back to court was RULES. Now that Tariq came out and made a statement that did not implicate the Demon, Liam is all like FUCK RULES? Huh? I can see how that could make the Demon angry. However...I do not give a shit. So there’s that.

Good news: So in the next chapter I know that Liam is going to propose with a ring that has the pearl from the grotto.  I know that I am going to have to pay all of the diamonds to fuck him from dawn to dusk to dawn again especially if this is at the beginning of a chapter.  This will take place in my hotel room because we like to keep it spicy and go inside for a change. If Liam is not your LI you can finally crush his heart and start courting the person you want for real, starting with sex.  So really everyone may be fucking in the next chapter. YAY! My Tumblr timeline will be lit if that happens. Can't wait. I want all of you to fuck your beloveds. The Demon would be doubly pissed if you wrecked her queenship and did not even want Liam! Win! Making her mad is fun.

Bad News: The Demon knows something. IT just will not die easy.  Will not be surprised if IT literally shows up at the last chapter like:

Then murders Liam for dumping her demonic ass.

Also Justin may be up to something.  This hurts. I just don't understand what his motives behind behind sabotaging me could be.  Would not be surprised if it's as simple as "the check didn't clear". It would not be the first time Bertrand wrote a check and it bounced. Just saying.

I am really worried about the calm that PB is trying to lull me into.  I remember this from when I played the first book.  I was like I got this shit in the bag, I am going to be queen and win everything, then PB was like no bitch! PB might pull some shit like that again.

I am going to cure my throat/cold thingy so that I can do all the screaming next week when I get my proposal. Still want a panda at my royal wedding @playchoices.

#thoughts on thots #created by nyquil #the royal romance #choices the royal romance #king liam the sexy #king liam #trr hana #hana lee #trr maxwell #maxwell beaumont #playchoices