#i still like the yellow dress better though XD | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stillness-in-green · 2 years

Text

PLF Spotting (S6/E2)

High concentration of advisor material here, making this a rather long one. Hit the jump! (Warning: The very first thing after the jump is a screenshot of mauled Noumu.)

On the Villains:

A new and rather gory shot of poor mangled John-chan is added, and while I appreciate the lingering over Ujiko’s upset, and especially the cute panel of Ujiko showing off Noumu to AFO,(1) I wish they’d kept the voice-over dialogue from AFO telling Ujiko what a dear friend he is and praising his curiosity. Your Honor, they’re terrible husbands, and we deserve all the content we can get.

It’s hard to say, but I think this new shot of Ujiko might be him kneeling over John-chan’s remains? The angle’s about right, anyway. The moment does leave out Ujiko’s background yelling, though, which the manga shows via sound effect.

Love and always have loved Shigaraki dressing like Sensei for some reason. It’s definitely not right after the merger announcement, so I’ve always wondered when exactly this little flashback happened. Sometime during the few weeks between Deika and Shigaraki reporting in for surgery? Maybe the day of the surgery itself, shortly before they get down to business? No clue, but it’s a nice shot, anyway.

It's technically anime-original, in that it's taking some of Ujiko's internal monologue from the manga and applying it to a flashback instead, one based on a scene in Chapter 276. I imagine we'll be revisiting it when we get to the release of the Near High Ends later. (My main takeaway on this new angle is that it and the jacket coat make Shigaraki’s shoulders look broader than they typically do.)

Point: Giving Mocha-chan a sound effect/protesting whine when they jump Mirko to defend Ujiko: please take some ok-hand emojis because that’s a nice touch.

Likewise, with the High End fighting Crust, having the color to distinguish its brain parts from the flat white of its extra eyes/exposed bone/whatever is going on beneath the metal grating does a lot to heighten the wrongness of it compared to the manga, where it’s all just white regardless. Very effective!

Point: I'm thrilled the anime kept that SD shot of John-chan and Mocha ascending to heaven. XD

New shot of Skeptic, though missing his ever-present transformed helpers, and very low effort on the monitor screens.

I love how deep Galvanize (fan name)’s voice is! And his smirk changing into a savage grin as he lights his cigarette with a spark, which I’d never caught before. I’m amused that they just color-swapped Kaminari’s hair for his. (New nickname: Nega Kaminari.) I definitely imagined his shirt being a yellow-gold shade myself—he certainly has a loud enough aura to support the visual impact!—but the lavender’s not bad. Still a better coloring decision than some of his compatriots will be getting here shortly.

No visual for this, but I appreciated the lines added in which nearby MLAers react to Galvanize’s quirk use and call on others of their number to fall back. It’s exactly the kind of line the My Villain Academia anime deleted constantly—members of the MLA reacting and responding to each other’s movements exactly like you’d expect to see from a trained underground army—so I was pleased that some got added in this time instead.

Adding Spinner to this shot is a weird decision, seeing as he’s supposed to be down in the conference hall—and, indeed, we’ll see him there in the next-episode teaser! I know he didn’t just teleport down there, so what happened? He took the direct route of crawling down walls and left Toga and Compress to catch up with him? But why on earth would the three of them choose to split up in the middle of a hero attack? The fact that Manga!Spinner was already down in the assembly hall with Re-Destro and Trumpet when the attack started was always one of the things I read to suggest that Spinner was the member of the League to have thrown himself most insistently into the duties of his new rank, whereas the others all lollygagging around elsewhere meant they were in no hurry to get down and confer before the meeting began.

Big group shot of the advisors, and H’OKAY, LET’S BREAK THIS DOWN. I’ll start at the top left and spiral my way in broadly clockwise. I’ll go on using fanfic names where I have them, but as always, Sanctum is the only canonical name we’ve got thus far.

“Spikey Cabbie Hat”: Definitely the one that gives me the strongest “MY EYES” response! Plum purple layered over orange stripes is a hell of a choice, by which I mean it is somewhat akin to eternal damnation. But almost everything else is on point, particularly his weird chin prongs. I think my only quibble other than the eye-searing vest color would be that I’m not sure if the animators caught that Spikey Cabbie’s eyes aren’t supposed to be shadowed by the brim of his cap; he’s supposed to be wearing a domino mask. He could still be doing so and they’ve just chosen to make it black—checking back to his introductory shot last episode, it looks even more like a shadow over the eyes there (albeit shaded purple), save that it cuts off precisely at his hairline, as it does in the manga. He’s got one more appearance yet to come, so we’ll see if it looks any different there.

Beacon: His tie should be louder—it’s very obviously got a pattern on it in the manga, and not a plain one, either. But I don’t mind the yellow coat.

Sanctum: They changed the outfit he’s wearing, but only back to the military uniform he’s wearing in his introduction and Twice’s anime-only Imagine Spot about him. You’d think the plain dark suit he’s wearing in the manga version of this scene would be simpler to draw than all those medals, but your guess is as good as mine on how involved the design materials are for background characters like this. That is, maybe it's easier to have one design sheet than to have to cross-reference the manga. One thing the change does obscure is something I noticed for the first time writing this: Sanctum and Band Jacket Guy have the same sleeve cuffs in the manga version of this shot!

“Band Jacket Guy”: As mentioned above, he and Sanctum are supposed to both be wearing dark jackets with the same sleeve cuffs (though, I think, Sanctum’s lacks the elaborate button-up breast layering of Band Jacket Guy’s). Unlike Sanctum, he keeps the jacket—maybe to help visually distinguish them in the shot?—though the front panel seems to be gone in favor of a simple line of buttons. He’s also been given darker hair than I would have gone with; his hair is unshaded in the manga, while the anime has it only slightly paler and redder than Uraraka’s; Uraraka certainly does not have unshaded hair in the manga. But he doesn’t clash too badly, and I like that they gave him gloves. (They probably should have given Sanctum gloves, too.)

“The Question”: Barely visible, and yet the only extant detail is wrong: the question marks on their mask are supposed to be symmetrically mirrored; the anime has them facing the same direction.

Scarecrow: I don’t love the pale yellow of the ruff—looking at just this screenshot, you’d think the staff only had access to one shade of yellow!—but I guessed black on the robe back when I was writing fic about him, so I’m glad to see the anime do the same. His arm is extended here where it isn’t in the manga, making his segmented fingers and wrist visible. They’re somewhat simplified compared to how they look in other shots in the manga, but, eh, it’s just a quick panning shot, so the loss of detail isn’t surprising.

“Aviator Teeth”: He looks great! I wouldn’t have guessed pale purple for his skin color, but it heightens his monstrous anatomy to great effect. I have only the smallest of quibbles: his fingers in the manga bend in ways that suggest double-jointedness, and the patch on his shoulder pretty clearly has a logo/emblem of some kind on it. The anime simplifies both.

Galvanize: Covered above; he also looks great! He does have his arms down for some reason, whereas he’s got his Amplivolt out and readied in the manga.

“Grandma Bindi”: Still missing her bindi—it should be just barely visible at the center of her forehead. She’s got her moxie intact, but she probably has the second-worst colors. More of that same shade of yellow under her orange apron, and that combination would be fine, but it violently clashes with her bubblegum pink hair.

“Big Sis Bindi”: I like the dark blue for her coat and that her hair is clearly glossier than her mother’s(?), but I still think the pink is kind of lazy.(2) I also think her expression is just the slightest bit off, her eyes faintly too large, her brows too arched, taking away from her supremely unimpressed look in the manga. But if I started critiquing the anime’s ability to capture Horikoshi’s exquisitely nuanced facial expressions, I’d never stop, so I’ll move on.

“Hole Punch Face”: I like his coloring at first glance, but I have a lot of quibbles. Firstly, he’s the advisor I would most likely give an unusual skin tone, chiefly because he’s got that dark sclera thing going on that both Mina and Curious do, them being pink- and blue-skinned respectively.(3) …Except that he doesn’t have the black sclera in the anime, which is Highly Lame. Also, the jacket’s colors are fine, but my Pinstripes Favoritism and I have some complaints to register about the change to its pattern.

“Hose Face”: There’s something off about his colors I’m having a bit of trouble pinning down. I don’t like the green on him, I think. He’s such a big, intimidating figure in the manga, a broad, solid frame wearing heavy black—or at least very dark—combat clothes, with the paleness of his mask heightening the impact of its skull-like design. Even in the confines of a monochrome medium, he gives a monochrome impression. The anime going with the same camo green it gave “Red” last episode doesn’t work as well here as it did for Red; the warm grays of the mask and the short shock of brown hair sticking out from behind it detract from its visual resemblance to a skull rather than heightening it. He just looks less menacing in these colors than in all black.

Brand: Mixed feelings. I like that shade of green for him in isolation, but in the broader context, it’s the same skin tone Horikoshi gave the heteromorph giantess Deku saves post-war, which just makes me want to headcanon them as estranged siblings or start brainstorming the fic where she’s a PLF plant or something.

Exceptionally cool if very brief shot of Galvanize blowing out cigarette smoke as lightning snaps and leaps around his face. God, he's so chill; I love him.

Stray Notes:

The hidden door is completely sending me. Is that how bad all the backgrounds look when the anime doesn’t have a manga panel to work from? It’s so bad. And so bonkers, too—like, okay, yes, in the manga, Crust takes note of other passages branching off from the path down to the lab, surmising that there are exits other than the one that goes to the morgue. But he’s just following in Mirko’s trail, and Mirko—as the anime explicitly added dialogue to say—went in via the morgue. Who thought a secret door right in the middle of the main lobby (and/or floating in non-Euclidian space) would be a good idea??

Point: The anime-original material is, as I take to be fairly standard, Kinda Bad.

Why does Erasure freeze the Noumu in their tracks? That’s very demonstrably not what Erasure does to Noumu. Like, we’ve seen it a whole bunch of times!

Endeavor's sidekick quip is either a poor attempt at a joke (and Endeavor is not exactly a noted jokester) or meant in earnest, in which case I must bust out a word I generally avoid: cringe.

Two hundred and fifty chapters'-worth of adaptation in, Bakugou whipping out an ore-sama and complaining about parts of hero work he thinks are menial and beneath him is just awful. I really feel for the Bakugou fans who like him for his character development but keep getting saddled with the anime’s incredibly Flanderized version every time an episode director gets cute and tries to squeeze in a few seconds of new Bakugou material for the fanservice.

Can anyone please explain to me why the anime felt the need to overlay a crappy scale pattern on top of Crust’s already-drawn scales?

Point: The Mirko fight scene’s got its ups and downs. I generally like the choreography of it, and the quick movements around the lab, up and around surfaces in three-dimensional space. But it did rather lose a lot of the emphasis on just how strong Mirko’s legs are that the manga gets across by having her shatter several mad science tubes just by leaping off of them!

The gruesome scene of her arm getting torn off is extremely well done, with the not-small caveat that the manga has a visual suggestion that she has to (and does!) forcibly tear free of the vortex under her own power, severing her arm in so doing, while the anime’s action there is muddled enough that her intentionality and fortitude don’t come across as well. It just sort of looks like the vortex took her arm and that’s all it was ever going to do.

More bizarre slow stroll decisions going on with the cut of Edgeshot and company. They come off like a small group of friends on a slightly sullen hike through the woods rather than members of a sizeable army detachment steadily advancing toward a mission point.

There are just generally a lot of weird stop-and-starts with the forward momentum of this episode. Along with what I’ve already mentioned, we get the ever-tiresome Flashbacks To Stuff You Just Saw, along with new weirdness in the form of the shot above, wherein Midnight and Tokoyami come to a dead stop in the middle of the charge on the villa to stand there proudly intoning Kaminari's name. Perhaps it’s meant to be in line with the MLA types calling for people to give Galvanize room? The heroes are doing the same for Kaminari? I don't know, but it looks awkward as hell.

FOOTNOTES 1: My god, the polka dot background, though. What a choice. XD 2: “They’re girls! Give them pink hair!” But please compare the shade of their hair in the manga to Mina’s and tell me if you think their hair should be that pink.) 3: All Might and, eventually, Deku get the dark sclera treatment, but with them, it’s visual shorthand for eyes sunken with over-exertion, not indicative of them actually having black eye-whites.

#bnha #plf spotting #meta liberation army #paranormal liberation front #plf advisors #noumu #stillness has salt #moderate amounts re: the anime's frequently shoddy visuals #my writing #throwing in an @ for the person who asked about my thoughts on the advisors' coloring #wheredidmydadgo #this one's for you

10 notes · View notes

alsjeblieft-zeg · 2 years

Text

173 of 2022

Bold what applies;

I own polka dotted underwear. I never got what the big deal about snowglobes was. I love yellow roses. I am currently looking for a new car. I love the sound of bagpipes. I drink coffee every morning right after I wake up. I have read one of John Green’s books. I think Demi Lovato is a better singer than Miley Cryus. I still like Miley though! I don’t have a digital clock in my room. I always get excited when I see I have new emails. I hate the sound of the phone ringing. I still write in a diary or journal. I am currently reading a Harry Potter book. I am listening to something by David Cook right now. I used to drink chocolate milk all the time. I don’t like getting dressed up. I have never read the Bible. I am allergic to grass. I love it when guys wear ties. I find mimes kind of creepy. I can honestly say I don’t miss being a kid. I love the word discombobulated. I would love to be on one of those home makeover shows. I never wear sunglasses. I use energy efficient light bulbs. I love the show ‘Colin and Justin’s Home Heist’. I live in the UK. I never go see films in IMAX. I always forget to change my calendar when it’s a new month. I wouldn’t mind being a maid; I like to clean. I prefer light rain to heavy rain. I am currently being spoken to. I haven’t been out of the house in a while. I don’t understand what the big deal is about crown molding. I love exercise balls. I would love to be a nurse in the future. I love looking at graffiti. I don’t mind doing the laundry. I almost never use Caps Lock. I love (or would love) being an older sibling. I dislike going furniture shopping. I have recently walked into a wall. I find accents annoying. I am going to go running today. I am tired of surveys ending with, ‘I’m going to take another survey now!’ I am not feeling too happy right now. I know someone name Carl. I don’t mind it when people mispronounce my name. // it’s very easy to pronounce, but I get you might get lost when you saw the spelling of it XD I hate walking through spider webs. I could go for some sort of dessert right now.

#survey #bolding survey #random survey

0 notes

backtothestart02 · 7 years

Note

candicanesunited(.)tumblr(.)com/post/162110413012/amuzed1-candicekp-summer-solstice-got-me-like We won't make it to S4 if CP keeps this up. Damn, girl!

I think we’ll make it, Anon. Lol. We got to see Barry’s reaction to stunts like this. XD

#candice patton #anon asks #giiiiirl #she is on FIRE #i still like the yellow dress better though XD

7 notes · View notes

existential-angstt · 3 years

Text

I’m here for the cult stuff? // Shane “Dio” Morrissey x Reader

Warnings: SMUT (kinda light smut if I’m honest :/ ), fucking outside / in public, cult stuff? not sure what else I need to say xD

After the church incident, you started hanging around Dio a whole lot more and of course the two of you started dating. He introduced you to his friends, many of whom scoffed a little at you but after a sharp look from their dark overlord softened up and tried to be as welcoming as they could. Once they got to know you a little better of course, you all found things in common and they started treating you like one of their own, some of them even saying hello to you on campus or first bumping you and earning you stares from the normies.

Your friends heard all about it of course and immediately acted disgusted but once it became apparent you weren’t dropping this, they did their best to adjust and try to find things to like about Dio. Of course it wasn’t important to you if they didn’t like him- they didn’t have to. What mattered was you liked him.

He’d escort you to classes with an arm wrapped protectively around your shoulders or waist, acting like he couldn’t function without a hand on you in some way. You liked to hook your hand in his belt loop under his coat, the two of you walking in step and talking about deeper meanings in Edgar Allen Poe’s stories or how you’d get away with murder, those sorts of things. You started dressing in darker colors at his urging, started to look more like the kind of person who would date someone like Dio. But even after all the steps you took to incorporate him into your life, you still had yet to infiltrate his so-called “cult”.

Whenever you came to see him in the basement of Miller, any and all cult talk ceased and everyone acted friendly and light, but you knew as soon as you headed out for your next class the business would resume without you. You hadn’t directly told Dio that you wanted to be involved… you had said, however, that whatever was important to him was important to you, hoping he’d get the message and invite you into the “inner circle”, but alas, there were still a few nights every week he’d kiss you after dinner and disappear until the wee hours of the morning, when he’d come home reeking of incense and other things.

You hoped to- well, you hoped to something he wasn’t sacrificing animals in the woods, but you were pretty sure that was a little off the wall-- after all, you’d seen how he got around kittens. For all his pomp and circumstance, you seriously doubted that man could hurt a small animal of any kind for any reason.

So one night when he climbed into bed around 2 in the morning, as you stirred and snuggled into his chest you brought it up. “D?” you mumbled sleepily.

“Hmm? Didn’t realize you were awake, pet,” he said, pulling you close and sighing deeply. “What is it?”

“Can I come to a cult thingie? A meeting?” you said into his chest, running your hand up his back, tracing the indentions of his spine under his skin. He paused, silent, as though considering.

“I don’t know if you’d like it much,” he said finally, dodging.

“Dio-” you groaned.

“I know, little one, I know, what’s important to me is important to you,” he rumbled, pausing again. “I suppose… if you really wanted to…. The best time to come is tomorrow night. It’s a blood moon, and we’re having a special ritual for it,” he replied, stroking your hair. He let out a short chuckle and added, “You wouldn’t wanna be the sacrifice, would you?” You opened one eye against his chest, watching the faint moonlight slipping into the room and tracing the edges of your boyfriend’s form on the bed beside you.

“What would that entail?” you said, suddenly much more awake, your heartbeat thrumming away. He did that rumble laugh again, the vibration rocking through you as he held you and stroked your hair, tugging on it softly.

“Nothing too serious… just laying on an altar, letting us pray over you.... Some ritualistic blood spilling… nothing you’re not used to already…,” he said, his hand sliding down to grip your hip to trace one of the faint scars from your adventures in knifeplay. You shivered, feeling yourself get turned on despite still being half asleep. You wriggled under his hand, not wanting to wake yourself up too much.

“Yeah, I’ll do it, D. I wanna be part of it. For you…,” you mumbled, trailing soft kisses up his chest.

“Oh, sweet girl. That means a lot,” he murmured, sinking his face into the crook of your neck, breathing deeply and kissing the soft flesh there, licking and softly sucking a hickey into your throat.

“‘Kay, horndog, go to sleep. Need sleep if ‘m gonna be a sacrifice for you,” you said, tugging softly on the hair at the base of his neck. He chuckled again and stopped his games, simply holding you close until you both passed out.

__________________

Dio didn’t elaborate at all on what you’d agreed to, simply telling you to meet him outside Miller at 10 pm. He wasn’t going to be around all evening-- he said he needed to “take care of some things” and “prepare”, whatever that meant. You texted him and asked him what to wear around dinner time and his only reply was “black dress”. There was only one dress he could be referring to of course- a floor length lace and tulle number you’d bought recently that you had absolutely nowhere to wear it to. Fitting, for a sacrifice, you figured.

You slithered into the dress and did your makeup, going bold with lots of dark red eyeshadow that made your eyes pop and black eyeliner. Waiting was the worst part-- sitting on the couch, all dressed up for some fun cult activity, all alone without him…

Finally you could wait no longer and you shrugged on his long leather coat, which he’d left in your apartment (weird, but handy at this moment) and descended the steps down to your car.

The closest place you could park to Miller Hall was still a bit of a walk, and you were dressed for a party, so your heart was racing the entire time you were walking from the car to the building. You gripped his coat around you as though it would protect you as well as he could himself. The campus was empty, haunting-- everything was well lit, of course. After all, it was a college campus-- but that didn’t stop the feeling of foreboding creeping through your veins.

You walked fast, a fistful of your dress in one hand to keep you from tripping and your other hand holding Dio’s jacket closed over your chest. You rounded a corner of the building next to Miller Hall and ran squarely into a stranger.

“Woah- hey there, pretty lady, where you going so late?” said a voice. You looked up, eyes wide as you stumbled backwards. You couldn’t see his face-- he was directly under one of the lamps lighting the walkway so his face was cast in shadow, but he was big and you didn’t like the way he was looking at you. You could see his teeth glinting in the dimness his face was cast in. He took a few steps towards you as you tracked backwards, the urge to run getting stronger. “Hey, wait, don’t go anywhere- you’re dressed for a party,” he said, stalking towards you now. You realized with a start the jacket had fallen open, revealing your dress. You started reaching desperately for the low pocket of Dio’s jacket, where you knew he kept a knife at all times, but you were shaking and still thinking about running.

Just as the stranger got to the edge of the building, a figure slid out of the shadows and stepped between the two of you, squaring up with the stranger. Whoever it was was just as tall as the opposing figure, and the stranger was clearly startled at the person’s appearance.

“You wanna rethink that, asshole?”

That was Dio’s voice- you stared at the two of them, still frozen in place. The stranger’s posture changed immediately. He went from opposing and overshadowing to something similar to what you were doing- pulling back, preparing to bolt. “Y-you’re-”

“Mmmhmm. Now, scurry, rat,” Dio growled, traces of satisfaction in his voice. The stranger needed no further urging; he spun around and continued on his way, grumbling but speedwalking down the lit walkway between buildings. Dio turned around, still cloaked in shadow and ran over to you. “Hey, hey- are you okay? Did he touch you?” he said softly, all trace of aggression gone as he patted you down looking for injuries and wrongdoings.

“D- Dio, I’m fine, I’m okay- I’m good,” you said, waving him off of you but taking his hand in yours tightly.

“Baby, you need to check your phone. I told you to stay at the car until I came to get you,” he said, his eyes flashing concernedly in the dimness.

“Dio, I’m fine, I’m fine. Now let’s go-” you said, picking up the skirt of your dress and still holding his hand.

“Okay, okay,” he said, looking back towards where the stranger had been and then at you. He paused, his eyes lingering on you. You couldn’t read his face in the darkness.

“What?”

“You… you look really pretty,” he said softly, still unmoving.

Taken aback, you blinked at him and then a soft smile came across your face.

“You like it?” you said, swishing your skirt around and doing a little twirl for him.

“You look perfect, little dove. Now come on,” he said, nodding up at the red full moon, “we’re gonna miss it.” He led you back down the walkway, his hand still in yours, the two of you hurrying around the corner and into Miller Hall with the covertness of teenagers breaking into a movie theater.

The usually well-lit hall was mostly dark with only some of the hazy yellow lights on, and the basement was even more so. Dio led you back down the stairs to where you’d first met him, back through the double doors and into the huge room that used to be the university pools. Everything was pitch black and it took your eyes a moment to adjust; only then did you realize there was a source of light. Down inside the indention in the floor where the pool used to be were about 20 of Dio’s followers, hooded and cloaked; you could recognize the main six of them in the center, all your friends.

You looked up at your boyfriend as he started gently pulling his own leather jacket from your shoulders. You shrugged out of it and he set it on the edge of the pool, taking you by the hand and leading you over to the stone steps that led into the concrete pit. You followed him down carefully, sure not to step on your skirt as you went down the steps.

Dio led you over to the group of darkly dressed individuals who all watched you expectantly. Once you got over there, you could see they’d set up a makeshift altar on a desk someone had brought down and candles flickered on the tabletop. There were symbols carved into the wood and flower petals were scattered everywhere, incense making the room heavy with aroma.

Dio motioned for you to kneel in front of the altar so you were eye level with it, and as you did, so did everyone else. Dio was the only one who stayed standing, still holding your hand and walking around the altar carefully. He glanced down at you, an unfamiliar glint in his eye, and then he looked around at everyone else. “Let’s begin.”

______________________________

Being a sacrifice was exactly what Dio had described. Basically, he began chanting in Latin and the others repeated what he said back to him, their voices echoing around the large chamber. After fifteen minutes of what was utter gibberish to you, Dio picked up a silvered dagger from the altar and dragged it across your palm, the red of your blood stark against your skin in the candlelight.

You gasped lightly and looked up at him, his deep brown irises glowing amber in orangey glow. He was smirking softly but his eyes were soft-- he was playing it up, keeping on that cult leader facade but still speaking to you silently with his eyes, saying things to you that only you could hear. You knew that even though he was still their god, that he was playing king to his little cult that he was all too human when he was looking at you now, silently searching every micro expression for any sign you wanted to stop.

You looked back at him calmly as he raised your open palm to the altar and turned it over, pressing it to the carved surface of the desk, right in the center of the arcane symbols. You didn’t make a sound when your hand touched the desk, didn’t even wince. His smirk grew slightly and you could feel the profound pride rolling off of him; still, it was perhaps something only you could see, could read in him.

Dio said one more phrase in Latin and the congregation repeated it, the sound echoing harshly in the concrete pit and meaning absolutely nothing to you. The illusion seemed to fall then; the stiffness of everyone’s forms dropped and the grouping of people thinned out as everyone started to leave. Many headed for the stairs at the far end of the pool, but some boosted themselves up on the concrete ledge. Whatever the case, they cleared out quickly, sweeping off in their cloaks to Hell knows where.

In moments it was just you and Dio and he was lifting your wounded hand gently off the altar, clutching it close as though it were his own injured hand. He produced a black silk cloth from one of his pockets and wrapped it around your hand, weaving it in between your fingers, meeting your eyes every so often as he did so. He tied a pretty knot in it, tightening the fabric against the cut and you finally let yourself show a sign of pain, your mouth twitching downwards, just for a second.

“Oh, little dove, you did so well,” he said, drawing you into his arms and holding you tightly, spinning you around. “So, so well…,” he hummed, pulling back to look at you in the dimness.

“Did… did I do all right?” you said, a little shaken by his change in demeanor.

“Of course you did, love, of course. You were-” he shook his head, “-perfect.” You blushed a little and smiled up at him as he stared down at you. At this angle his face was cast in darkness again and you couldn’t see it. “Come on, let’s go,” he said, taking your hands and guiding you towards the stairs quickly.

“W- where are we going, D?” you said, eyes widening. He hadn’t said-

“Gotta finish the ritual, dove,” he said darkly, still pulling you up the stairs and towards the double doors.

“But D, your coat-”

“We’ll come back before we go home, dove, now come on,” he hissed, tugging at you urgently. You shut your mouth finally, trusting him and hiking your skirt up in one hand to try to keep up with his hurried steps. He led you up the steps in the dark, so sure of his motions, so used to finding his way in and out of this building in the absence of light.

He didn’t move fast enough to trip you up-- he slowed when he could sense you having trouble, and he held the door open as the two of you burst out into the cool night air, the crickets singing and your panting breaths the only other sounds.

“What-” you started but he grabbed you and kissed you deeply, surprising you. You leaned into it, grabbing his hips to steady yourself and kissed him softly, basking in him.

“Come on,” he whispered, keeping his face close to yours as though he were fighting himself to keep his mouth off yours. He took your hand in his again and led you around the shadowy side of the building, meaning you had to rely on him to guide you down the stone path.

The two of you hurried through the night, weaving in and out of buildings, using the light of the orangey moon to find your way. It wasn’t long for you to figure out where he was taking you-- there was only one place he could be going. “Dio-”

“Hush, dove.”

You found yourselves in the campus gardens, full of hedges and delicate blooms and sweet scents that could be accessed via stone pathways that circled ponds and a small white gazebo. Once you were in the gardens, Dio seemed to relax a little, to slow down as he looked up at the swollen moon.

“D, what are we doing here?” you said softly, following him over to the entrance of the gazebo. Your boyfriend turned back to look at you, taking both of your hands in his and backing up into the gazebo, pulling you after him.

“Gonna finish the ritual, dove. Gotta… consummate it,” Dio said, his hands sliding down to rest on your hips.

“Dio-” you gasped a little.

“Shh, little dove. You’re safe. Why don’t we… invoke something?” he said and then his mouth was on yours. You moaned into him a little bit and his grip on you tightened, your dress riding up a few inches. Dio slipped his tongue into your mouth, hot and wanting, as he backed you up against the rail of the gazebo, the wood digging into your lower back. You brought a hand up to grab his hair at the base of his neck, tugging, as his mouth trailed away from yours and across your jaw.

“Dio-”

“Shhh”

Dio trailed kisses down your neck, sucking marks into your throat as his hands worked their way upwards to your chest, grabbing and kneeding gently. You felt him draw you into him, his face buried in your collarbone as his hands made their way to the back of your dress, pulling at your zipper.

“D- Dio-” you stammered, tugging at his hair sharply.

He looked up, breathing heavily, his eyes glimmering in the half light. You stared at each other, transfixed, and you felt him slowly pull down the zipper of your dress, the material sliding down your shoulders and hitting the wooden floor of the gazebo. You blinked at him in the half light, now in your under things and his eyes roved over your body slowly, his tongue swiping across his lower lip.

Your breath hitched and his hands settled on your hips again, his face turned down towards yours and his hot breath hitting your face. “Please let me take you, little dove. Right here, under the moon. Do it for me, please,” he murmured, kissing up your neck, his raven black hair glossy under the moonlight. You let a moan escape your lips and rested your hands on his chest, pressing into him.

Dio slid his hands down to your ass and picked you up, turning you both around and setting you down on the floor, laying you out and climbing on top of you. You felt him grind down against your hips as he kissed you, his arms caging you in. It was no time before he was pushing your bra up and nibbling at your nipples, kissing and sucking and squeezing your tits more softly than was usual for him.

“D- Dio, we- we’re outside, anyone c-”

He silenced you with another glance up at your eyes, not saying anything but communicating all he needed to. Wasn’t like you two hadn’t fucked in public before-

His mouth came back up to yours, kissing you again and pulling your bottom lip in between his teeth, biting down hard enough to make you cry out. You reached up to grab at his hips, following the edge of his pants to find his zipper and pull at it, unbuttoning and button and sliding them down his hips. You felt him smirk against you and heard his breathy laugh but he didn’t stop you and seconds later he was as exposed as you were and you had him in your hands. You gave him a few slow pumps, making him tense up and moan noisily-- that was when he reached down to pry your hands away, to take back control.

You gasped as he slid into you, all of the sounds of the night suddenly seeming so much louder, every animal noise just a bystander in danger of finding you two, in the middle of the gardens-

He let out a low groan and you whimpered at the beautiful sound. “F- fuck, Dio- s- so pretty,” you mumbled, gripping his shoulders. He murmured something and you said, “W-what?”

“N-not the p-pretty one, dove.”

Your eyes widened a little at the compliment and you bucked your hips up a little as he started moving so torturously slowly, thrusting in and out of you like he had all the time in the world. “Dio,” you whined, digging your nails into his shoulders.

“Patience, little dove, be patient,” he said, reaching up to trail his thumb across your jaw. Gradually he started moving faster and you thrust your own hips upwards to meet him, grabbing at his hair and pulling him back down to your mouth so you could kiss him again.

It was definitely the most intense time you’d ever had with Dio (since the church, at least). The perfumes of the different flowers were heavy in your nose and the humidity was drenching you both in a sheen of sweat. The moon hung over the two of you, the roof of the gazebo keeping out most of the light but the rest of the orangey glow illuminating the gardens around you.

“Mine… all… mine, little dove,” he mumbled, kissing your chest and circling your clit with a thumb.

“Y-yours, please, Dio-”

He growled and fucked you harder, speeding up his assault on your clit. You moaned loudly, no longer caring who saw you, who caught the two of you doing this-

“F- Dio, I’m g- gonna-” you whimpered.

Dio chanted something in Latin, very quickly and very softly, so soft you could barely here it, as though he were begging for you to cum for him, praying for it, and with a shout you did. He didn’t stop the Latin after you came, only ceasing once he had, still murmuring meaningless phrases as he collapsed on top of you, panting and kissing you softly.

“Little dove…. Thank you, thank you-” he was saying, pressing his lips to your skin over and over. You trembled and pulled him close, wrapping your whole body around his. Once you were both able to stand, Dio helped you back into your dress and the two of you started walking back to your car in the darkness. He stepped off the path for just a moment and made a quick grabbing motion at one of the bushes and when he turned back to you, he held a pure black lily in his hand, offering it to you. You sighed shakily and took it, inhaling deeply.

“Dio?” you said, tracing the petals with your fingers and taking his hand in your other one.

“Hm?”

“I love you.”

“‘Love you too, lil dove.”

#NYPD Blue #Pedro Pascal #shane dio morrissey #dio x reader #dio morrissey x reader #dio morrissey #shane dio morrissey x reader

73 notes · View notes

th3geo · 2 years

Text

✨Addisons✨

Carrd & Commission Info

My take on the Addisons!!!!

Now the question is.... Any sugestions for the size of Spamton there? XD I like the idea of tiny Spamton, but not soooo tiny so I'm still not sure where to put it (?)

ALSO!!!! Here I have some headcanons if any of you want to read it~ Just for clarify, MY HEADCANONS so it's ok if you agree or disagree with them~

Blue

• The more new on the group

• Still with a low experience selling, that's why the only thing he do now is give free samples so he can get the attention of customers that will be attended by the others Addisons [Like in the game where he doesn't sell anything but still give free samples]

• Have calm and passive personality [Since is the only one with cool color pallete]

• Since he's the newbie on the group, he admire his others coworkers and he soon will have more complex chores to introduce him on the general sales

• Still without a specialty but in search of one

• When Spamton was still on the group, Blue was constantly talking with him and Spamton give him advices and also anecdotes like if he was a great salesman [False things, but Blue know it and since he saw Spamton happy about that he let Spamton continue]

• After Spamton's departure, he was one of the most affected because although it wasn't his turn on the sales, the fear to ended up like Spamton started to growing in him

Orange

• The one with the easiest speech on the group

• With the most experience selling, enough to start with risky sales of products that are worth less than they should and still succed selling them [Like the dress of the game]

• Have explosive and cherfull personality

• Since he have more selling skills he tends to help Blue with advices and motivational words; and for Pink he tends to help him trying to convincente Pink to take less work, but without a lot of changes of that at the moment

• His specialty is the fashion

• When Spamton was still on the group, he was the one who put the most pressure on Spamton to be able to sell his products better, not with bad intentions, but the excess of energy ended up exhausting and confusing Spamton even if he was doing his best trying to follow the advices of Orange

• After Spamton's departure, Orange started to advise better his coworkers, he felt that he didn't do his best with Spamton and didn't want to make the same mistake with the others

Pink

• The one with more works of the group

• Since he have neutral sells, he tries to improve his income working with more than one job at the same time [That's why he sells cotton candy, tea, the couple shoes, the freezing ring and more]

• Have a loving and caring personality

• Tends to being overworked to maintain good income, ended up more exhaust in comparison of his coworkers at the end of each working day, but even though his friends advise him to take the work slowly, Pink still takes a lots of works at the same time. Blue's the one who help Pink with his free samples and Orange tries to help Pink taking the most difficult works taking advance of his working skills so Pink doesn't have to

• His specialty is the sale of couple products

• When Spamton was still on the group, he was the one with the closest relationship with Spamton, being the one who interacted the most with Spamton and despite Pink had less breaks from work that his others coworkers [Due to his multyple jobs] the few that Pink had it was with the companion of Spamton

• After Spamton's departure and due to his close relationship with him, Pink was the most affected, but despite that he didn't give up with the idea of continue the interaction with Spamton. He's the only one who didn't say anything if you ask him about Spamton [Like in the games] because remember Spamton makes him so sad and in order to avoild that he started to take more and more works to mantain his mind busy

Yellow

• He's the leader of the Addisons

• He's in charge of the sales analysis, guide his coworkers, establish goals and more things in order to help the others Addisons, everything from the general work office of the Addisons [Thats why he didn't appear on the streets selling but it can be after the Spamton NEO battle]

• Have kind and active personality, and also have a great leadeship

• Since he's in charge of the general analysis for the Addisons, he don't do direct sales but he can find the best sales strategies.He's also the one who organize the work and casual meetings with the Addisons. He give general advices to his coworkers and the one in charge to find the products and sales offers to then give them to the others. He's also the one in charge of the job interviews in case of anyone whants to be part of the Addisons

• His specialty is the marketing and the leadership with his coworkers

• When Spamton was still on the group, Yellow was the one who received in the group and the one who tries to give it the best work according to the type of profile that has Spamton despite in the end his sales didn't improve, a thing that makes Yellow confused trying to think of the "think" that Spamton was missing

• After Spamton's departure, Yellow blame himself to not be able to be a good leader for Spamton, making him working more harder so he can avoild the same with the others, achieving then better sales for the Addisons

General

• The Addisons are only coworkers and don't have any family relationship at all

• They work monday to friday. On the mornings with the sales plans; on the afternoon everyone except Yellow go to do their working day while Yellow to work office; and in the night they return to the office to make the general sales reports

• The saturdays are optional days for work, taking for Pink and Yellow while Blue and Orange takes the day off

• The sundays everyone takes the day off and Yellow organize night meetings on the Color Cafe so all of them can interact and sometimes start planing things for the new week of work

• All the Addisons measure the same [1.70m] and also use custom work uniforms according to the color of each Addison

18 notes · View notes

mammonprotectionsquad · 3 years

Text

This might be one of my all time favorite fics I've written so far... Not only for Vandy and Talia, but in general 🥺

Beware! There's a little implied nsfw. And a shit ton of fluff, with more fluff and fluff on top of that fluff xD

Something new

Vanderwood x Talia (agency oc)

How had Talia gotten into a situation, where she was curled up with a very naked Vanderwood, after a pretty steamy night in a hotel room?

To explain that, it was necessary to go a couple days back. When they had been sent on an undercover mission in Italy, posing as a married couple on their honeymoon.

It would've been a lie to say that it didn't make her heart skip, when he slipped the ring on her finger. And as much as she knew they were only acting, it was near impossible not to wonder, if it would've been like that as well, if they were actually married.

The second they stepped out of the plane and a warm breeze hit her, making the fabric of her yellow sundress sway, her eyes grew big and round.

"I've always wanted to travel Europe", she said, earning herself an amused chuckle from her partner, while he took her hand.

"We aren't even in the city, yet..."

"So what? It's already a different air!", she replied with a laugh, eagerly pulling him along to grab their luggage. The sooner they made it to the hotel, the better.

They took two hours to relax a little from the long flight, still using the time to go over their plans again and work out the safest way to approach things and get it done quickly.

Their first step was scouting out the area anyway. In other words; they had to play the role of a cutesy couple on vacation, admiring the buildings and whatnot around them.

And honestly? It was way too easy. At least for her. Not only because Italy was a beautiful country and she was happy to have gotten a chance to be there. But also because no one knew them at all. Which meant she could just be... Herself. Her real self. With no reason to suppress her feelings for the man next to her anymore. After all, it was helpful for the mission, to make everything more believable.

Talia was able to wear flowery dresses and sunhats. Not having to wear dark clothes to prevent herself from standing out. It was a nice change of pace.

What made everything even better was how relaxed Vanderwood seemed as well. Something that was extremely rare. Though at the same time it made it impossible for her to tell whether the gentle looks and acts of affection he aimed at her were only part of his act, or if he really meant it...

For now, she allowed herself to get her hopes up the smallest bit.

When they passed a jewelery store, a necklace caught her attention and she just had to stop to look at it. Only a few seconds passed until Vanderwood stood right behind her, arms wrapped around her waist as he was easily able to look over her head.

"Mhm... It would look good with your dress", he mumbled, to which she shrugged with a sigh.

"I couldn't really wear it, though. Doesn't match my usual daily outfits."

That's where it was over for her. As pretty as the jewelry was, what was the use in buying something she couldn't wear?

Her partner kept quiet, nothing unusual, as they continued walking.

Though they didn't get too far, when a group of street musicians made them stop again to listen.

"I'll be right back. Don't run off", Vanderwood suddenly said, followed by a kiss to her cheek.

The simple action easily making her face heat up. Still, she did as she was told. Smiling to herself and swaying slightly to the music.

A couple minutes passed until suddenly a delicate gold chain with a small pendant in form of a daisy got draped around her neck, calloused fingers stroking over her skin afterwards.

"Vandy, you-"

"Shush. You like it and it matches you perfectly. See it as... a little honeymoon present."

Even though he was smirking, there was something so soft in his gaze that made her breath hitch, her heart beating wildly in her chest.

Before she knew what she was doing, she'd already gotten on tiptoes to press a brief kiss to his lips.

"Thank you..."

"You're very welcome~"

The next two days didn't really feel like they were on a mission. Partially because they mainly just had to pretend to be a couple, blend in with the crowd. But also because everything worked out so perfectly. Making her nearly worried about whether or not they'd made some sort of mistake.

Though everything worked out just fine. They secured whatever the data was, sent it over to the agency and... That was it. Everything done earlier than expected.

At first Talia's heart sank a little, since a finished mission meant they'd had to go back home. Though things took a small turn for the better in form of them not being able to get a flight back sooner.

"Then why don't we make use of it and allow ourselves to have a two day vacation? I think we really deserve it", she suggested with a shrug, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. When in reality it came from the selfish wish of wanting to spent more time with him alone, with nothing to worry about.

Surprisingly enough, Vanderwood actually agreed.

Even though there was no reason to do so anymore, they still held hands when they went to a restaurant, that evening.

Force of habit they'd both claimed. Still unwilling to let go, if it wasn't absolutely necessary.

Not even when they were seated at a table did they let go. If anything, things got even worse. Fingers intertwined, laughing over silly things they've went through together. Leaning in closely until they were forced to straighten back up when their food arrived.

It all felt... So normal. Like that's how it was supposed to be between them. Light and relaxed. Not with the constant fear of one of them dying during missions.

At some point her gaze drifted towards the couples that were dancing to the gentle music, a small smile on her lips. Oh and how she wished to be able to have a relationship like that... Sadly it had absolutely no room in her life.

Vanderwood giving her hand a light squeeze made her snap back out of her thoughts.

"Wanna dance?"

Now that was the last thing she expected to hear from him. But who was she to say no to that offer? If they already allowed themselves to have something nice, she'd take full advantage of it.

"I'd love to~"

So they both got up and once on the little makeshift dance floor, amongst the other couples, Vanderwood rested his hands on her hips, with her arms winding around his neck.

Being nice and close, they swayed to the music, not registering anything outside of their tiny bubble.

Her fingers occasionally ran through his hair, brushing along his neck. And before she could've really registered what was happening, they'd both leaned in, their lips touching in a slow kiss. Starting out a little uncertain, until it grew a bit more heated, nearly desperate.

Then and there it was quietly decided that as nice as the restaurant was, it was about time to go back to the hotel room.

After Vanderwood payed, he once again grabbed her hand, pulling her along with him.

On their way back they shared more kisses here and there, chuckling when she stumbled slightly in her eagerness to make it back to their room.

Once the door of their room fell shut behind them, it was like someone flicked a switch. Emotions that had been bottled up for months and months finally spilling into the open.

Clothes getting carelessly thrown to the ground, making room for hands to brush over skin, Talia trying to remember as much as possible. Mapping out his body in case this should've been the only time for her to be with him like that. No matter how close they were, it felt like it wasn't enough. And though they were both desperate, desperate to feel skin on skin, it was still gentle.

The rest of the night was spent in bed, limbs entangled, leaving affectionate marks on each other's body...

It was about three in the morning, everything still dark outside and the streets quiet, when Vanderwood lay on his back, simply staring up at the ceiling. Talia's head rested on his chest and she drew idle shapes to his stomach, fingertips occasionally brushing ever so lightly over the scars there.

"We're so screwed...", he eventually spoke up.

"I mean, that's basically what we just-"

"Don't even finish that sentence", he grumbled and pinched her side. Which first made her let out a quiet squeal, before she began to chuckle.

Still, his arms wrapped around her small frame, one hand running repeatedly through her hair, making her melt into him. For a while, they both kept quiet. Lost in their own thoughts.

Was what they'd done a stupid idea? Maybe. Probably. But she really couldn't bring herself to care. And she sure as hell didn't regret it one bit.

"This is really risky. We shouldn't even have let it come this far."

"Because our lives aren't risky on a daily basis to begin with", she snorted in amusement, shifting a little to be able to look up at him.

Vanderwood shifted as well and leaned in to press a kiss to her forehead.

"Besides, let's be completely honest here... We've basically already been dating for quite some time now. We just never put a label on it. That would've made everything too real, I guess. But I know for myself that I've reached a point where I'm so head over heels for you, that I can't even try to make myself believe there's nothing. So I'll leave it up to you. And whatever you decide, I'll accept it."

It was a little scary to talk about it, all of a sudden. When for the most part she'd been focused on pushing her feelings far far away. But she said what's been on her mind, the rest was up to him.

That didn't mean the silence filling the room wasn't making her nervous. And as much as she told herself that she was prepared for the worst, she knew she'd need some time to fix her broken heart, when he rejected her.

And the longer he didn't speak, the more she was convinved that it was only one sided.

Without really thinking about it, she began to try and disentangle herself from the agent. Get some distance between them again.

"Talia..."

She didn't reply, still trying to escape the situation that made her feel like someone had a tight grip on her heart, making it difficult to breath. Though the arms around her tightened a little, making it impossible for her to slip away.

"Talia, look at me... Kali."

That's what made her stop dead in her tracks, eyes big and round as she turned her head to look at him. The fact that he used her actual name, her real name, caught her completely off guard. Especially considering the fact how he'd scolded her when she first told him her name. Saying how stupid it was to tell anyone.

Vanderwood still didn't say anything after that. Instead he cupped her cheeks in his hands and pulled her in for a kiss. One he tried to pour all his feelings into that she knew he had trouble vocalizing. For her, it was enough. More than enough and even more than she had expected to get from him. Making her smile against his lips as she all too happily returned the kiss.

The painful grip on her heart loosened, making her feel lighter than she'd felt in years.

Maybe, just maybe life finally took some pity on them and decided to let them have something nice.

Whatever it was, Talia was determined to not ever let anyone take that little piece of happiness she'd found with the man right next to her.

Masterlist

If you'd like to get added to the tag list, please let me know 💕

@ayamewhump @the-purpleblushh @ultrasupernini @just-a-key @dis-gorl @otomaticallyobsessed @latte-delf

#mystic messenger #mysme #vanderwood #mystic messenger vanderwood #mysme vanderwood #mary vanderwood 3rd #cmc talia #cmc kali #mystic messenger cmc #mystic messenger oc #mystic messenger oneshot #mystic messenger fanfic #my writing

20 notes · View notes

fishylife · 3 years

Text

Street Dance of China Season 4, Episode 6

- The banners for each of the contestants is cool but also like...for what reason lol. I’m curious about their function or if it’s purely just a gesture to welcome them.

- We finally get to see Yixing’s anime hair. I’m wondering whether the white hair is real or if it’s just an extension though.

- The idea of the contestants who aren’t in teams yet being the judges is very cool to me. The result is to be determined by professional dancers from all sorts of backgrounds, so I trust their judgment about techniques and stuff. But the sample size is also huge, which I think makes the process fair (provided that the show doesn’t somehow rig the votes). I think it will be hard to rig the votes though because all of the dancers are known to the audience. The showrunners can’t just introduce a bunch of faceless voters to pad votes.

- Okay but this looks dope. Yixing looks like a delinquent with his gang. Han Geng's team doesn’t have as strong as a theme, and I think all of the members just dressed in a way that was comfortable for them, in line with the yellow colour theme (since yellow is Han Geng’s team colour). But also Han Geng’s top showing off his vest and arms is like....bruh.

- Han Geng’s team thinks he is very nice and open-minded uwu. Basically they said he was very easygoing. Even if things weren’t working out he would cheer them up being like it’s okay, don’t worry etc.

- Here is Ibuki and AC teaching him to be fabulous.

- AC and Ibuki having sibling fights XD Zyko was supposed to boost Ibuki up so that she could hop over AC’s head and Ibuki was like put your head further down! and AC was like just jump!!

- Huang Xiao said that Yixing had a lot of thoughts and ideas about what the performance could be like. Nothing out of the ordinary, we know Yixing is like that.

- Huang Xiao and George did this flip thingy and then Kenken was like ?!?! and then Poppin’C gave Kenken a slap on the ass being like bro he can do it you have to try it too now lol.

- This happened again where Huang Xiao and Yixing had an idea for a very athletic move and Kenken was not confident. I think Kenken is not as confident about his own athleticism ^^;;

- On the whole, I personally enjoyed Han Geng’s team’s performance more. I think that their team had more creative moves and choreography, whereas Yixing’s team relied more on stage energy and charisma of the individual dancers. Also, Yixing’s team had a lot of different styles whereas Han Geng had more dancers who were all-rounders, so I felt that Han Geng’s team came together a bit better.

- The voting method seems kind of tedious there. Throwing the towels on stage and getting staff to count them? There has to have been a faster way of doing this lol. I think it’s because they can’t make the answer too obvious because there are other battles to come. Still think there was a better of doing this, like marking a ballot or something lol.

- Hugs :3

- Zyko is so nice. I mean, yeah he could’ve just been saying that, but he still took the time to be like I love my teammates! I love my captain!

- Yixing didn’t feel good about his own performance :( The contestants tried to be like no!! you were good!! And then Henry changed his voice to pretend to be someone else and was like “..I think Yixing danced very well~~~”

- Han Geng was stretching and Henry was like don’t hurt yourself, you’re not like you once were and Han Geng’s like oh you brat. Then Henry was like I will literally never let you live this down you old man. Note how Henry is using the prop fan that Han Geng’s team was using. Did Han Geng give it to him, or was it another team member who did?

- Kenken’s always like “I am young but don’t underestimate me! And here he is showing his ass to the whole world so that they can see how baby he is. This man jumped into Huang Xiao’s arms for a hug, okay.

- OK but we know this is gonna be epic, right?

- I liked the concept of this performance. The Huang Xiao influences were definitely much stronger than the Kenken influences. We know Kenken is into the more hip hop hype sort of style so this is probably a bit newer for him. The props were also extremely impressive which definitely helped their performance. There were some times when they were visibly out of sync though, which did kind of bother me.

- I think Kenken didn’t realize it was time to get off the stage so Huang Xiao had to get him lol.

- The fans are a hit.

- Yixing introduced his team’s performance with some wise words, whereas Han Geng introduced his with a pun. He said taichi shouldn’t be too rushed, where too rushed is pronounced the same as taiji/taichi. Old man humour indeed.

- Ma Xiaolong and Zyko had a guqin themed performance.

- WOW!!! Their performance was super impressive. My interpretation of the story is that Ma Xiaolong was the spirit of the guqin, and Zyko was learning about Chinese culture with him. The performance was so evocative. The music had a lot of different sounds which gave them a lot to work with. There were times when Zyko and Ma Xiaolong could mimic drinking tea, or birdwatching etc. Just as Huang Xiao was better suited to a Chinese-style performance, so was Ma Xiaolong, but the advantage was that Zyko’s dance style was very suited for calm songs like this one. In addition, their performance involved Zyko and Ma Xiaolong doing different actions, so whether or not they were in sync didn’t even occur to me because they were dancing their own parts, different but still together. Wow, I would have to vote for them if I had the chance.

- Apparently Ma Xiaolong goes by the Western name of Derek. I only knew when Rochka was talking about him. I realized that Zyko hadn’t called Ma Xiaolong by his Chinese name when he was talking about him on stage earlier but I hadn’t caught what he’d called him.

- Ahh I love them. People always forget that one of the purposes of art is to bring people together v.v

- Yixing was down earlier but I hope he’s been successfully cheered up v.v Anyway this is him going “...I may have underestimated the opponent.” Seriously, Han Geng’s team has been killing it so far. Maybe relaxation really is the key to success.

- This caption says 真香現場. 真香 is kind of a Chinese meme, but it basically refers to when you were like “lol this is gonna suck” and then you later realize that it’s actually super awesome. So 真香現場 means like, a live look at someone being proven wrong.

- The 2 vs. 2 battle between George + Poppin’C and Ibuki + AC was pretty entertaining! I think it’s because they were expected to prepare for it, so they had time to figure out some creative moves, as opposed to the other battles where it’s strictly supposed to be freestyle and on the fly. George and Poppin’C just looked like they were having so much fun?! Poppin’C is really starting to grow on me because he seems like such a nice and fun-loving guy. I did think Qiao Zhi was kind of a serious guy, so maybe it’s Poppin’C’s happy vibes that are getting to him haha. As for ibuki + AC, I liked that they included waacking with some more creative choreography, including and footwork and stuff, which made their routines feel fresh.

- Ibuki imitating AC’s flashiness with the sound effects was SO CUTE.

- I wish we got to hear more comments from the other dancers who were judging! They are shy though lol.

- Han Geng’s team won by a large margin. I think I understand the strategy for this show now though. Most of the dancers who have made it this far are extremely strong individual dancers. So you don’t have to worry so much about the battles. It’s the group dances where you need to strategize a bit because not all dancers can work with other dancers. Han Geng purposely chose dancers that would fit with each other more. And I think the vibe of his team is a little more chill lol.

- Henry’s got the enthusiasm but he doesn’t exactly have the vocabulary to back it up lol. Henry tried to trash talk Yibo a bit before their battle and Yibo brushed it off being like “oh my god I’m so scared what should I do” but in the most low energy Yibo way possible. And then Henry took the opposite approach and went “love you bro” and Yibo was like “okay.” Here’s Henry being scandalized.

- Henry teaching his team to be his hype crew for when he trash talks Yibo lol.

- Henry taking EVERY OPPORTUNITY to flirt what a menace. Rochka accepts >3

- From the behind the scenes clips we got, it looks like Yibo was frustrated with his team because they didn’t have a choreographer and so it was hard to come up with good ideas that incorporated the entire team. So the team opted to go for a very “old school” performance, which I guess means to not be too daring or innovative because they weren’t sure they could pull it off.

- With regards to the group performances, I thought both were extremely fun to watch. Henry’s team just had a lot of fun vibes? Like these five were here to have fun and that’s it. This performance also suited Rochka and Chika very well too. Henry has good stage presence too, so he could handle the spotlight very well. Not gonna lie, I actually thought that Yibo’s team’s performance was good, but I think it’s because the group fell back on a comfortable routine, stuff that they knew they could execute on for sure. I think they had a lot of “five dancers dancing in a line” that made their performance and choreography less creative and appealing. And I guess they relied quite a bit on stage presence (Nelson and Bouboo especially) to prop up the energy of their performance. Henry’s team won by quite a lot this round.

- The producers trying to get Rochka speak Chinese lol. I think he’s a bit shy about it. The first thing he said was 吃飽了 which is “I’m full.” And then he learned how to say the other team 不咋地 which is like, dissing them and then San’er and Han Yu and Henry were like NOOOOOOO XD But he ended his segment by saying Yibo’s team was 帥 (cool).

- Okay but can I just say?? This boy is extremely pretty?? He debuted when he was like 17 or something, so this is definitely one of those situations where a scout for Yuehua realized this boy was going to be super good looking when he grew up and snatched him up at whatever tender young age it was that he started training.

- Kind of felt like Yibo was trying to overcompensate when he was taking the loss and talking about how just the voting system was, but eh, I’ll cut him some slack. He was very disappointed.

- But I agree with what Yibo said about how the scoring system was good. The large sample size helps to separate out the winner. When there is a big gap in votes, it doesn’t necessarily mean that one team is thaaaat much better than another team, it just means that that many people felt that one team was better than another. It’s very helpful in widening a gap, which was something I noticed in the Yixing vs. Han Geng battle.

- Not gonna lie, Ye Yin and Liangliang’s performance felt a bit out of place because they went with a Daft Punk, general hip hop theme, whereas all of the other duos went with a strong cultural theme. I can’t deny that technically they were impressive, but I did feel a bit less hyped for their performance. As for Han Yu and Chika, first of all, love a good co-ed performance. Also, I thought it was fun that Han Yu was wearing a more military style hanfu and Chika was wearing a costume that was kimono inspired. They did use a lot of props so I don’t know if that may bother some people (who may think it’s gimmicky).Technically, their performance was maybe not as wow-worthy from a technical standpoint, but they definitely made their performance very entertaining and fun to watch.

- So I know San’er was involved in that plagiarism scandal earlier. I vaguely recall San’er saying how he came up with the foot-tutting moves, and people were calling him out because there was an Indian dancer who did the foot-tutting moves before him. Now here’s the thing. I think it’s possible for two people to independently originate a move. Like how civilizations all over the world independently made alcoholic beverages. However, there is a lot of copying in the world of art as well. Artists are inspired by others, etc. If San’er saw that move and wanted to try it, I don’t think it necessarily discredits him. He still had the skill to pull it off. Now, I saw posts where the Indian dancer said he had spoken to the producers of SDOC and thought the he would’ve gotten some credit or acknowledgement. He said that he just wanted the credit, and didn’t want San’er to be kicked off the show. I felt like the easiest way to resolve this was for the show to simply just give the Indian dancer the credit. What really makes this even weirder is how San’er doubled down and said that the Indian dancer was his friend, which is a strange statement to make because it can easily be verified, and it was. The Indian dancer said he didn’t know San’er. If San’er had just said he’d been inspired by him, I think he would’ve made it out cleanly. I think that maybe this all started because San’er had implied that he had thought up of foot-tutting himself. That being said, if he truly had thought of it himself and didn’t know of the Indian dancer, it is very difficult to prove that and no one would believe him anyway. The fact that he doubled down and said that the Indian dancer was his friend made me think that he did take the idea from him. I just wondered why the show couldn’t just, iunno, edit a clip being like, by the way, this Indian dancer has done this sick ass move before. San’er’s move looks like that, isn’t it cool?

- I think the sticky thing here is that San’er’s “thing” was that he was creative. A lot of his performances had very interesting visuals and tricks, and that was what he sold. So if he’d taken that idea from another dancer, what else of his was taken from other dancers? I think that’s the question here.

- That being said, I don’t think that it’s bad to be inspired by other artists, as long as credit is given. Not gonna lie, when I started watching this show, I was very impressed by San’er’s ideas and I quite liked them. It would’ve been cool if he had come up with all of them. If not, that’s cool too, because he was still able to present the ideas in a way that was charismatic and fun to watch. Just give credit where credit’s due. He could’ve been like “oh yeah, I watched this video on Youtube and that’s where I got the idea for move xyz.” I don’t know if that’s like, an insult to his pride as a dancer, but if you’re inspired, and you’re on a show that aims to get the general public into dance, it seems reasonable to give that information?

- I realized my thoughts on this topic are very messy so let me summarize. (1) If San’er really did make up the foot-tutting move on his own, it’s very hard to prove. (2) The fact that he said he knew the Indian dancer is very suspicious and makes me think that he did not in fact originate the move on his own. If that was the case, I don’t know why the show didn’t just give the Indian dancer credit, since it seemed like the Indian dancer wasn’t super mad about his moves being used anyway. (3) I don’t think that it’s bad to be inspired by other dancers. But don’t say that you created them. Now, back to the show.

- Looks like San’er and Rochka were dark horses here. Yibo had already suspected San’er of having lots of tricks up his sleeve and advised Bouboo and Nelson to be prepared. Rochka is seriously overlooked. He is such a versatile dancer because he has the skill for the minute details but also the athleticism. Plus, the guy has such a teddy bear attitude.

- I’m starting to see some limitations in Nelson’s dancing. He’s a great popper, but he’s kind of locked into popping, kind of like how I feel about Poppin’C. Bouboo is more versatile and creative than Nelson in my opinion. And like most of the people said, they just didn’t work well as a team compared to San’er and Rochka. I’m not sure if it was simply because they had no choreographer among them, or because both of them are such strong individual freestyle dancers. I didn’t expect this, but they got very few votes in their battle.

- San’er talked about how Rochka was a huge teddy bear. The show gave us so many clips of Rochka just being very charming, and doing cute things.

- I like the idea of the “free” dance that allows the dancers themselves to choose their teams, and to not be restricted by any theme. I got to see some combinations of dancers that I’d been anticipating.

- The locking team was very fun to watch. Part of it is obviously HB and Go Go brothers, but I also think that the Chinese lockers including Xiao Jie and A-wei are rather charismatic. Maybe it’s because they’re back in China and they’re familiar with this audience, but they really do seem really comfortable.

- Han Yu and Ye Yin getting kicked off stage after they performed with the locking team lol.

- The Japanese “izakaya” team was interesting. It took me a while to get in the groove of their performance because the song was not so structured and I was trying to look for an in to get in the groove of it. Also, because the set and costumes were very Japanese style, I was expecting more of a song with traditional elements, so that’s what threw me off. But in the end, I still think what they did was very cute and interesting. Their concept was four workers at an izakaya, and the song is very “welcome to our restaurant!” Also side note, I thought it was interesting that Kelo and Uwa were separated for this event.

- Xiaoji was the choreographer for the third team, the b-boy team. In this behind the scenes part, Bozi was like, hmm I don’t know if holding hands will work for this choreography and Xiaoji was basically I don’t care how it looks, I just wanna hold hands right now so shut up! XD

- The b-boy team wasn’t necessarily the cleanest, because there were times when the performance would lull. The music was also very quiet, which is a problem with the audio editing. That being said, they have their unique charisma. The thing about the b-boy team is that most of the people in this team are very serious except for Xiaoji. So Xiaoji is responsible for planning the hijinks, he just needs the serious guys to go along with his plans, which they did, and it was hilarious partially because the other guys were so serious, especially Lil Kev, Bozi, and C-Lil. I don’t think they’ll score as high because the b-boys aren’t as well-rounded, but I still think they did great in entertaining the audience, and I have to say, Xiaoji was the great mastermind behind this performance.

- The choreographer team performance was pretty fun! I feel like the atmosphere of that team was pretty chill in general which was nice. That part when Boris and Li Chunlin were making fun of each other made me laugh. The “story” behind their performance was that the group is in a desert and they’re kind of fighting for water, and just when one of them dies of thirst, it starts to rain. (Kind of like “all of you are fighting, and for what?” sort of story). Kind of a morbid story, but it really caught my attention. The group also just worked really well together. None of them seemed like they struggled to keep up. Maybe that is the magic of having so many choreographers.

- The popping team was cute!! They weren’t as ambitious with the “concept” of their performance, but they had a lot of fun moves (like the snake charmer one), and most of all, I just felt that they had a ton of fun! Hope this team scores high because I wanna see my boy MT-Pop in the competition lol.

- Okay this round of eliminations hurt though :(

- Henry and Yibo were showing off card tricks to each other (and failing) on the hotpot show but OMG LOOK AT THE FIGURES BEHIND THEM!!! They’re dressed in the clothes that the captains were dressed in for the first teasers!!!!

- Okay apparently the kids went to visit the set and here are Zyko, Rochka, Poppin’C, and Ibuki doing their routine XD

#thinking out loud #cvariety #street dance of china #screencaps

6 notes · View notes

ravkanfashion · 2 years

Note

Luda anon. I don’t mind the nobility clothes either, tbh. I’m sure I can take them for inspo and describe them as being made of much cheaper and commonly used fabrics and styles based n what I already dug up. It would be much appreciated if you could dig something up even from the canon timeline

Hi there!

Sorry for having take this long to answer!

Okay, so... Luda. Since the Fold apparently has been up for 400 years, give or take, we're talking mid to late 1400's. The problem is that we do not really have extant garments, especially for lower class women, but let's see what we do know.

The gown with the tiny bodice, high waist, and full skirt was hardly altered; but the tight sleeves were now so long that they almost covered the hand. Though the high waist was more general, gowns with a low waist were sometimes seen; also for Court wear a low-waisted dress was worn, with a faint suggestion of the sideless surcoat—an echo of the fashion of 1350. A low, rounded neck sometimes replaced the deep V-shape of Figs. 2, 4, and on more simple dresses the round opening was sometimes filled in with a plain, dark material; square necks showing the top of the under-dress were quite common . Noblewomen wore damasks, many rich varieties of velvet, silks, and satin, also taffeta and soft woollen cloths. Coarser woollen cloths, frieze, flannel (of wool), russet, and linens were used by the poorer people.

Long, narrow, richly lined cloaks were worn with Court dress, and large circular cloaks were for general use, of velvet, broadcloth, frieze, and woollen cloths.

Women's Fashions (1460-83) from Nancy Margetts Bradfield: Historical Costumes of England

(All I could find of Russia at the time is that people probably worn European fashions?)

As a working woman, Luda probably wore things with a low waist. Since fabric is expensive (as it's all made by hand), her clothes were probably cut from rectangles to avoid wasting fabric as much as possible (lacing on the side/front of the dress is possible for a better fit).

As for the layers, as always, we start with a shift (most likely long sleeved) that protects the outer layers from body fluids. No underwear is worn under the shift at all (no drawers), only stockings, secured with garters (probably just a thin srtip of cloth). No boned supportive undergarments would have been worn (that's still a couple decades away). Then comes a kirtle, basically a dress--once again, simple in cut to save fabric, with long sleeves and a long skirt. After that comes another dress/kirtle, that we can also call a surcoat. As mentioned above, there was a sideless version of that (Harriet Walter wears a couple of sideless surcoats in the first season of The Spanish Princess as Margaret Beaufort--but please, do not use that show as a costume reference XD)

As for the hair, if we consider her Aleksander's wife/she had pose as his wife, historically speaking she is supposed to cover her hair with a kerchief/cap/veil, but the show showed her with unbound hair, and it's fantasy so...

As for colors, based on her scenes, her pallett seems to be based on greys and red (which then in turn mostly likely inspired the Healer uniforms), but undyed wool, browns and yellows also sound plausible. Her personal style is most likely very simple and unadorned, both out os need and practicality, but some embroidery is not unplausible.

Here's a vid on late 14th/early 15th century clothing:

youtube

This vid might be helpful too:

So... that's it. That's all I could dig up on my limited time XD However, I did start a tag for Luda, so some inspiration is due to start popping up :)

#ask #luda's closet

6 notes · View notes

second-chance-stray · 3 years

Photo

RP Log: (Bucket List) Cravs and Lin go looking for a Pineapple.

Cravendy Hound - Circling steps can be heard upstairs. Thump, thump, thump, pause. Thump, thump thump. Finally, with a bucket full of papers in her arms, Cravs steps down the stairs looking bothered...her mind lost in who knows where. And what happens next is completely out of character for her - she trips! The notes scatter into the air.

Aislinn North ask anyone who knew her and most would tell you that Aislinn was a patient person. But everyone has their limits. She sat in the library pushing her notes around on the wide table. There was nothing for her to do but wait. Wait for Atreus to return from Ishgard with some news. Any news. Her utter lack of doing anything productive was interrupted by Cravendy's tumble down the stairs. She looks up sharply from her notes at the clattering noise and watches the pages waft....

Aislinn North gently down around the Seawolf like oversized confetti. She's quiet as they settle. Then, she's prodded into action, getting to her feet and making her way to the woman. "Are you alright?" she asks as she kneels down and starts collecting the papers.

Cravendy Hound: "Goddamn, 'alf broken buncha wooden...L-LIN?!" Cravs blusters. She forces the next string of swears back down with a pained swallow. Lin was just the person she was looking for, but she wasn't ready. The entirety of her morning had been spent procrastinating, organizing and reorganizing the notes that were now lay dispersed across the floor.

Cravendy Hound hurriedly begins to gather the papers in sloppy handfuls while her mind races to come up with a plan. A set of words to respectfully ask - do you want to work on Wyda's bucket list? Not to take anything away from what you two had, but she's gone, and she wanted to do a lot with you...maybe it'd be a nice thing to do anyway? Without realizing it, Cravs mutters those two questions out loud.

Aislinn North gives Cravendy a sidelong glance, a short huff of amusement issuing from her chest as she continues collecting the papers. "You sound surprised." she said, her quiet voice dry as usual. As she's depositing a handful of pages in Cravendy's bucket and concentrating on -NOT- asking Cravendy why she's carrying about papers in a bucket, the Seawolf's blurted words fill the space between them. Aislinn's hand stills at the pail's rim, pages in hand. She stares at Cravendy, her face carefully blank..

Aislinn North Looking down at the pages, she can now make out Wyda's scrawled handwriting. "These are Wyda's papers?"

(Aislinn North) ((OMG....a literal bucket list XD)) (Cravendy Hound) gotta do it xD ))

Cravendy Hound: "Blood 'ell. Bloody seven 'ells. Did I? I did, didn't I? I bloody did, didn't I?" Cravs stammers, heat rising into her already flushed face. She can't bear to get up and look at Lin's face, instead just sort of...sinks deeper towards the ground, trying and failing to hide how red she is. "A-aye. She left 'em on the floor and walls of our room like a crazy person, shite like 'go sleddin' and 'go sleddin' backwards.' And a lotta them call ye out. Like, erm."

Cravendy Hound feels around and grabs a random paper. "Eat pineapples. With...Lin. So do you maybe want to...find one and...eat one.." Her voice gets very small.

Aislinn North She sits down on the floor next to Cravendy and sifts through a few of the pages. She was right. All of them an unfinished list of things Wyda had wanted to do but never had the opportunity. Several of them remind her of the last conversation she had with Wyda. Where they had talked about what they would do after returning from the Red Argos job. Looking back it struck Aislinn that Wyda had to have some inkling. Some idea that she probably wasn't coming back. ...

Aislinn North Wordlessly, she lets the pages slip through her fingers into the bucket and glances over at Cravendy. The Seawolf is hunched over, as if afraid to even look at her. If she didn't already feel like a timebomb with all this aether business, Cravendy's look would have done it. "Hey." she says quietly, stopping short of nudging the woman's shoulder. "I like this idea. Can't say I've ever eaten a pineapple. Know where we can get one?"

Cravendy Hound blinks. Lin likes the idea? Though it wasn't outside the realm of possibility, Cravs had a habit of overthinking things until it felt like fantasy. She wipes her face with both her hands and tries to 'reset' herself. It works for the most part. She looks normal...if you ignore all the redness.

Cravendy Hound: "They're a rare find in Eastern La Noscea. Even seasoned botanists 'ave trouble locatin' them, so no ones sellin'. But maybe if we go lookin' ourselves, we'll be lucky?" Cravs shrugs.

Aislinn North nods thoughtfully. "Well," she glances over her shoulder back to library where she had been keeping an anxious, fruitless vigil. Pineapple hunting was clearly the better option by far. "No time like the present, aye? We could both use some time away from the house, in any event. We're due some leave time." she decided. "Let's grab some things and head out."

Cravendy Hound panics just slightly. Everything’s happening so fast, she didn’t expect this! And now?! She doesn’t know what to do with herself. Prepare? Right, right. Cravs entrusts the bucket of crumpled notes with the front desk worker and then just stands there, waiting. Oh wait, shoes? Check. She is /golden/.

(Cravendy Hound) what could even be 'pineappling equipment' XD ))

Aislinn North Aislinn, meanwhile, turns and heads back to her study. If she was heading out to hunt pineapples in La Noscea she certainly wasn't going in a casual dress and lacking the usual firearm. She returns a few ticks later, much better prepared for this sort of excursion and seemingly undaunted by Cravendy's sparse preparation. "Right, then. Ready?"

(Aislinn North) ((comfortable shoes? I think Cravs gots it!)) (Cravendy Hound) ehehhe lins coming prepared with GUN )) (Aislinn North) ((She never leaves home without it!)) (Aislinn North) ((THose pineapples could be dangerous!)) (Cravendy Hound) two extremes, I love it >:D )) (Cravendy Hound) *gruff protagonist voice* You can never be too prepared... ))

Cravendy Hound - Thank the twelve for aetheryte travel! Though the moment Cravs appears by the Costa del Sol crystal, she covers her face and quickly hands payment to the crystal's guard. Without letting anyone get a good look at her face, she makes a beeline to the cliffs waits for Lin in the brush.

(Aislinn North) arrives a moment later, a hand to her chest as though bracing for something. After a few beats she relaxes. Gods, that was beyond foolish. Looking around she just catches sight of a flash of red as Cravendy disappears into the brush. Shaken, Aislinn hurries to catch up. "In a real rush about these pineapples." she jests as she falls in step alongside Cravendy.

Cravendy Hound: “Let’s just say the locals ain’t a fan of me.” Cravs takes a look around, exuding the aura of a person who knows what they’re doing. Until she turns around, still just as confident, and says this. “Why do they call ‘em pineapples if they don’t look like pine trees? Or do they grow on somethin’ that looks like a pine tree?”

Cravendy Hound knows these three facts about Pineapples. They’re found in Eastern La Noscea (though she doesn’t know exactly where). They’re fruit. They’re yellow.

(Cravendy Hound) oops I guess she's talking about Pineapples the proper noun )) (Aislinn North) ((Pineapple the pineapple))

Aislinn North Glances back at Costa del Sol, imagining all the things Cravendy could have done to make her less than welcome. With Cravs temper, Aislinn can imagine a few. "Hmm...maybe because they're prickly up top?" she says, turning back to the Seawolf. "Maybe it's a derivation of 'spine apple' and just became 'pineapple' somewhere along the way." she looks out over the land. "But I'm just guessing. And they'd probably need soil. So I'm thinking the more inland, the better." ...

Aislinn North she nods and points up towards the direction of Wineport.

Aislinn North And just like that, the skies above open and a steady rain begins to fall. "Tch." Aislinn stares unimpressed up at the sky and then turns a flat look on Cravendy. "Every. Time." she observes. It seems she and Cravendy could do nothing without the rain following the Seawolf wherever she went.

(Aislinn North) ((Of course it's raining)) (Cravendy Hound) I can't remember the last time it wasn't raining when I came here )) (Aislinn North) ((Me either! I'm telling you! The game -knows-))

Cravendy Hound: "Augh, didn't ye 'ave to say it? Spine apple? Now I'm thinkin' of an apple made of spine meat...though that could be good in soup," Cravs grumbles. She gives it real thought. "Needin' soil doesn't exactly narrow down our search, but I'm always a fan of goin' to Wineport. Come on, this way."

Cravendy Hound heads north, in the direction of the ferry that must be crossed to get to Wineport. She makes idle chit chat as she walks. "Of course it's rainin'...Oi! Whoever's up there, aren't ye gettin' bored usin' the same weather over and over?"

Aislinn North As they walk, Aislinn keeps a steady eye on the ground, kicking aside the brush as they go. On the lookout for this elusive pineapple. "Sledding down a hill backwards." she suddenly says with a low burble of laughter. Clearly, her mind was still on what Cravendy had told her of Wyda's notes. "Because why sled down a hill the normal way when you could do something else. Something more." there's a fondness in her voice as she spoke.

Cravendy Hound: "Sounds dumb and dangerous. She 'ad 'er screws too loose..." Cravs lets out a low sigh. And yet that was one of the reasons why she was interested in doing these bucket list items, wasn't it? To learn how to let go after a lifetime of being on edge. "...but I...and maybe, we, are wound too tight. Need to find a middle ground."

Cravendy Hound observes the plain bush in front of her. Pineapple bush? She lifts its leaves, noses deep into the plant, then suddenly pulls back. BUGS? YUP. BUGS.

Aislinn North "Maybe there's good reason we're wound tight." Aislinn counters, without rancor, as though she's merely making an observation. She watches Cravendy, knowing now to steer clear of that particular kind of plant. She turns away and heads deeper into the brush. "But I'm not saying you're wrong. It's...exhausting sometimes." she admits quietly.

Aislinn North Leans down and pulls at the stout, sword leafed plant before her. The crown breaks from the root and a foul smell permeates the air. Definitely not a pineapple. She backs swiftly away and coughs.

Cravendy Hound 's frown deepens. The two of them were like two yangs without a yin to balance them out, and the fact that she understood the exhaustion Lin was talking about...well, she was tired of it. The sun is shining and danger is malms away - they deserved to relax once in a while. They did! But why was it so hard?

Cravendy Hound: "We'll feel better once we find that spineapple! COME ON." Cravs is determined to fight against her own nature and have a 'good time.'

Cravendy Hound doesn't know the first thing about plants though. She uproots what looks to be a mini-palm tree and holds it up to Lin. "What the 'ell is this? Can we eat it?"

Aislinn North laughs lowly as she doggedly continues her search. "I don't think Wyda considered the work in gathering a pineapple." she kneels down, rooting through the vegetation. "-That's- why we worked. One of us was wound tight, the other looser than a ribbon on the wind. We didn't try to be any other way. And together we balanced out to middle ground." She looks up as Cravs produces a small tree. "I think...well, technically yes. But I don't think it'd taste good."

Cravendy Hound: "Yeah...but it's okay. We can be uptight together. Like two 'ammers without any nails." Cravs smiles. Though she's determined to grow and free herself of her constant anxiety, she understands that no one changes overnight. It'll be a long journey.

Cravendy Hound notices a bug crawling from the uprooted tree onto her hand. Wordlessly, Cravs chucks the tree into the sky, where it disappears into the distance. WHOOSH.

(Cravendy Hound) LOL I wonder how these two will stumble onto one....so far they're hopeless ahah )) (Cravendy Hound) *stabs random tree* hmmm )) (Aislinn North) ((*holds up a rock* )) (Cravendy Hound) LOL pretty much )) (Cravendy Hound) at least they're getting some sun now :D )) (Aislinn North) ((And away from the fish)) (Cravendy Hound) LOL NOoo the fish ))

Aislinn North gaze flicks to the small tree in surprise as it goes sailing off. It's probably a good thing there aren't too many people around. Just to be sure, she pauses, listening for any yell of alarm or indignation. After a moment, she shrugs and goes back to wandering and searching. "What's with this fixation?" she asks as she moves along but then stops and looks at Cravendy over her shoulder with a dawning realization. "Twelve. You're wound up tight about being wound up tight." ...

Aislinn North a smile threading through her words.

Cravendy Hound: "What fixation. What." She claps her hands, brushing them free of dirt and anything else that might remain. "...Pff, I'm not uptight about nothin'. Now less talkin' and let's go find this goddamn fruit."

Cravendy Hound stomps ahead, slightly embarrassed by the exchange. "Is this the way to the docks? Seems like we keep climbin' up."

(Aislinn North) She merely shakes her head, a soft huff of amusement leaving her. But Lin knew when to leave well enough alone. "Docks are back that way." she calls out to Cravendy and jerks a thumb over her shoulder. "Let's see if we have better luck on the other side."

Cravendy Hound: "Ah right, right." She turns heel and dashes back in the direction Lin's pointing in. Stupid-stupid-stupid, how many times had she been here? How could she get lost? Cravs sighs...her mind was truly in the gutter.

Aislinn North Steps out of the ferry into the humid shade of the jungle. Almost immediately she can feel her shirt start to stick to her skin. Nevertheless she doggedly makes her way up the stairs. "Right then...gotta be better on this side. Pineapples like the humidity, right?" She really had no idea.

Aislinn North turns around in a slow circle at the bridge, taking in the three directions they could go. "What do you think?" she asks Cravendy and points out all the ways they could go.

Cravendy Hound always appreciates how fresh and floral the rainforest smells. On the ferry ride over, she dips her hand into the water and splashes some of it over her arms. And she would've tried to splash Lin if she hadn't left so quickly. Cravs releases water between her fingers and hurries up the stairs.

Cravendy Hound: "Uhhh, pineapples like...water. So." A pause. "Yeah."

Cravendy Hound: "But not as much as watermelon. Anyway! I've got a good feelin' about goin' south. Even 'eard that's where a cuttin' of bacchus grape was found, so who knows what else might be over yonder."

(Cravendy Hound) cravs: very few points in INT )) (Aislinn North) ((Aww come on! She knew about the Bacchus grape though! :D)) (Cravendy Hound) some points in WIS! :D )) (Aislinn North) ((hehe!))

Aislinn North Turns about and looks down the path to the south. It seemed as good a place to choose as any. She nods "That's as much of an endorsement as we need, I think." she says and starts off. "You ever wander out this way before? Can't say I've had a reason to see this part of the island. Suppose that's another good thing to come out of this pineapple hunt. Sightseeing."

Cravendy Hound: "Yeah, been 'ere afore. Not often, but sometimes...when we were moored out 'ere for a couple of suns. Mostly we'd go collect coconuts, wood, anythin' else that could come in 'andy for the long 'aul." She pauses a few steps onto the bridge to peer over the planks, holding precariously on the rope supports. "View's nice too."

Cravendy Hound glances over to Lin with a cheeky grin. "Ye scared of 'eights?"

Aislinn North "But not pineapples?" Lin's voice takes on a teasing lilt. She leans out, not quite as far as Cravendy, and looks below them at the lazy river far below. At the Seawolf's question she lets out a small snort. "Not really. Not anymore." she pauses, a flicker of some subdued emotion crossing her expression. There and then gone again. Smiling again, she continues. "Bertram used to climb....every thing when he got upset as a child. Walls. Buildings. Ren could never figure out where he had gone...

Aislinn North "I started to learn to look up. Then I learned to climb after him. Otherwise he'd be gone for suns." she looks up at Cravendy with a wry twist of her lips. "And I take it, from the way you're just hanging over the ropes there, you're not afraid of them either."

Cravendy Hound: "Never a pineapple. Though I was never lookin' for one so..." She shrugs. "Maybe we'll find one. Maybe we won't."

Cravendy Hound: "Where the 'ell would 'e climb to? Rooftops? And just for fun?" Cravs ponders a moment. Windy didn't strike her as the type to take a risk for the hell of it, but then again, he ran faster than a chocobo. A possible sign of madness.

Aislinn North "Well not with that attitude, we won't." she said, light and teasing. But next she nods. "Aye, rooftops. Parapets. Any place high above the noise. Likely still does it." she shakes her head as though trying to shake off a bad memory. She nods the rest of the way across the bridge. "The place they found that special grape over there? Or do you know?"

Cravendy Hound: "Ye don't think 'e loiters on 'eartwood's roof, do ye? I mean, that'll keep the pigeons from roostin' up there but it's a bit...odd." She turns to point down the bridge with a confident nod. "Aye, somewhere on the other side. But actually, I want to show ye somethin'. Stand in the center with me for a second."

Aislinn North Decides Cravendy's question is more rhetorical than anything. Mainly because she simply didn't want to answer. Instead she follows the Seawolf out the center of the bridge but halts suddenly. "Wait." she stares down at the slapdash haphazard collection of worn planks that was supposed to be a patch job of some sort. "Really?" she next throws Cravendy an incredulous look. And yet, as piecemeal as the patch seems to be, it *is* holding the Roegadyn's weight. "Nymeia's breath." ...

Aislinn North she mutters a few other choice words as she wraps a hand around the railing and edges her way out to Cravendy. "I said I wasn't scared of heights. I didn't say I was stupid."

(Aislinn North) ((This is a testament as to how much she trusts Cravendy. I have a feeling that's about to be tested. XD)) (Cravendy Hound) oh no xD ))

Cravendy Hound: "Well, since yer not scared of 'eights and all...HAH!" Without warning, she gives the ropes a violent shake, sending a turbulent vibration throughout the bridge's deck. The motion is magnified at the center, which, coincidentally, is also the most shoddily built part of the bridge. Planks of wood twist at the nail; a few even teeter off and fall into the ravine!

Cravendy Hound: "AAAaAhaHAhAAaaa!" Cravs howls with a yell that's most parts laughter. She hangs on for dear life and glances over to catch Lin's reaction.

Aislinn North Like a cat suddenly faced with the prospect of falling into water, Aislinn all but attaches herself to the shaking ropes as if they were literal lifelines. "Seven burning hells, Cravendy!" she yells over the Seawolf's howls of laughter. Several obscenities follow. The litany goes on but as the bridge sways and creaks, she hears herself and the ridiculousness of it all. A laugh creeps into her voice even as she keeps shouting. ...

Aislinn North "And Nymeia so help me, if I die, I'm haunting you until the end of your days. Forever!" But they both know by now it's an idle threat. The patch job is clearly holding.

Cravendy Hound has to catch her breath in between cackling. As the bridge steadily stabilizes, she puts a hand on Lin's shoulder to help the other woman find her balance. "Bloody 'ells, the...the look on yer face at first, pffhahah! Like ye were gonna bloody murder me, ye were!"

Cravendy Hound: "Hehe, it's. It's somethin' the locals do. Why d'ye think there are so many planks at the center? People've been chasin' stupid fun since the dawn of this bridge." She stomps on the planks for good measure.

Aislinn North Breathless, Aislinn cautiously unwraps her arms from around the ropes and stops hugging the side. "Not gonna lie, the idea may have crossed my mind." she huffed at the Seawolf. But there's a look of exhiliration in the depths of her eye. "And for some poor fools the bridge *did* crack" she waves a hand at the collection of worn planks with one hand as the other rubs absently at her chest. She's silent a moment and then "Gods above, Cravendy!" ...

Aislinn North she yells all over again but this time with the laughter that comes with the relief of being alive.

Cravendy Hound: "Don't worry, if ye fell I'd catch ye. And it wouldn't be the first time it 'appened." She pats Lin twice on the shoulder and then turns to finally (thank god) FINALLY step onto the other side.

Aislinn North pauses at Cravendy's words and peers down to the long drop below. She hurries to catch up, glad to once again be on solid ground. "What do you mean it wouldn't be the *first* time?!"

(Cravendy Hound) kdjfls at some point these two dorks have got to find a pineapple xD )) (Aislinn North) ((The pineapple is a metaphor xD They're destined to never find it.))

Cravendy Hound: "People 'ave fell! And I caught most of 'em. Cept that one time...Hm...Don't worry. There's water at the bottom anyway." Cravs waves off Lin's questioning.

Aislinn North narrows her eyes, almost sure Cravendy was pulling her leg

Cravendy Hound: "They lived! It was fine!" Cravs says with a laugh. "Nothin' a little conjury can't fix."

(Cravendy Hound) kjdflsj dahahah )) (Cravendy Hound) the true treasure was the friends we made on the way )) (Aislinn North) ((*rainbows*)) (Cravendy Hound) but for my own IRL love of pineapples, I do hope they find one....and yet. And yet, why not roll? Why not roll )) (Cravendy Hound) Random! 906 (Cravendy Hound) ohhh that's actually pretty good. sometimes I hope for the low rolls because I'm just like that xD ))

Aislinn North "Hmm" a doubtful noise from the back of her throat. "Just makes me glad to be in one piece." she turns to survey the land again. "This pineapple...almost cost me my life." she says, purposefully melodramatic

(Aislinn North) ((That's a good roll!)) (Aislinn North) Random! 97 (Aislinn North) ((That....is a garbage roll)) (Cravendy Hound) ahhahah the two sides of the spectrum )) (Cravendy Hound) we can take the middle ground - there is pineapple, but not served on a silver platter...? XD )) (Aislinn North) ((Schrodinger's pineapple.))

Cravendy Hound: "Imagine gettin' that written on yer gravestone. Died lookin' for pineapple." Cravs chuckles, but then...looks like she's seriously considering her own question. "Ye know, it's not the worst way to bite the bullet."

Aislinn North now that her breathing has *almost* returned to normal, she begins poking at vegetation again. "Falling to your death?" she asks, just to be sure that's what Cravendy is indeed talking about. "I suppose...I mean, wouldn't be my *choice* but there are definitely worse ways to go."

Cravendy Hound: "If ye could choose, 'ow would ye 'ave it? I think most would answer slippin' away from old age, surrounded by loved ones. But I...I can't see myself fadin' away like that. If I go defendin' something worthwhile, that'll be good enough."

Cravendy Hound - A particularly honey-sweet scent cuts through the general musk of the rainforest. The good news is that the source is a pineapple! And the bad news is that said pineapple is growing out from the side of the cliff, out of reach.

Aislinn North like some sort of morbid vertigo, Aislinn can't help picturing it. "It'd be quick, at least. Smack. Done." she claps her hands for emphasis. She considers Cravendy's question. "Suppose if it's not going to be quiet like, in my bed, defending someone I cared about wouldn't be half bad. Quick would still be nice." she frowns a bit as she eyes the pineapple high above them. ...

Aislinn North "Seriously? They grow out of the cliffsides?" With a sigh she gauges the height and then eyes Cravendy, then herself. "Well...think if you lifted me, we could get that?

Cravendy Hound is just as morbid. "I agree. Quick and clean, if possible." She then peers up at the pineapple with a sigh. She was learning that when it came to death and pineapples, beggars can't be choosers.

Cravendy Hound: "Ye really think? Maybe ye got on me, and then I jumped and ye jumped at the same time for a bit of extra 'eight...ehh. That's a long shot too."

Aislinn North laughs low, shaking her head. "That's a bit too much coordination." she starts to look for a foothold in the cliffside. "Right. Well, then climbing is probably the best bet. See? All that scurrying up buildings is coming in handy." she finds a grip in the rock and begins to climb upwards.

Cravendy Hound is taken aback by how quick Lin is to hit the rocks and begin her ascent. She shakes her shock away and nods, equally determined to climb for the pineapple...and get to it, first. She doesn't say anything, doesn't make a bet. Just silently starts to climb without a word.

(Cravendy Hound) shall we have one final roll? xD )) (Aislinn North) ((Most definitely!)) (Aislinn North) Random! 490 (Cravendy Hound) Random! 943 (Aislinn North) ((NIce!)) (Cravendy Hound) my rolls are strangely??? on fire )) (Cravendy Hound) quit flexing cravs! )) (Aislinn North) ((But that just means we'll finally get that pineapple!))

Aislinn North Climbing rugged rockface wasn't quite the same as climbing brick and mortar. Aislinn's progress is steady but slow. She's perhaps a bit too cautious, the talk before of falling down the gully may or may not have had an effect on her.

Cravendy Hound puts in extra effort and, through some miracle, none of the rockholds crumble away as she -powers- her way to the top. She makes it a few seconds before Lin and, with a triumphant yell, grabs the pineapple with her hand and tears it from its stalk. "Ach! This shite's spiny as all 'ell!"

Aislinn North glances up and laughs as Cravendy takes hold of the pineapple and immediately curses it out. "One pineapple. Obtained!" she starts to work her way back down. "Just be careful on the way down, aye?"

Cravendy Hound now has to climb down while holding a pineapple. She hadn't thought this far. ".......Maybe when ye get down, ye can catch it?"

Aislinn North nods and then realizes Cravendy wouldn't have seen her gesture of agreement. "Aye." she calls up. A few moments later she drops to the jungle floor and lets go a sigh. Brushing her hands off on her pants, she turns her head up to Cravendy. "Alright, drop it down!" she yells, holding her hands out at the ready.

Cravendy Hound: "Or I can drop down. Probably safe from this 'eight, right?" Cravs looks down. It felt like a 50/50 chance of going terribly, the worst case scenario being a sprained ankle and the near fatal blow to her pride if/when people asked how she got it.

Cravendy Hound won't risk it. She hucks the pineapple down to Lin.

Aislinn North "No!" she calls out with urgency but it seems Cravendy also thought better of that plan. Aislinn hurries to get beneath the pineapple and catches the spiny fruit with a grunt. "Guh. You were serious about the spines." she shakes one hand out and then the other, glad for her gloves. "I really hope this tastes good."

Cravendy Hound climbs down, huffing and puffing. So much work for a pineapple. "Feels like the backside of a cactaur...but 'opefully it tastes as sweet as it smells."

Aislinn North nods and hands the pineapple back to Cravendy as she hits solid ground. It's only right, seeing as how the Seawolf managed to reach it first. "Right! Now, let's head out of here and get to eating this. Let's head to the Mists. We've earned a bit of relaxation, I think." she smiles a broad, unhooked smile up at Cravendy.

Cravendy Hound: "Ye think it could regrow like 'ow a carrot can grow from a carrot top? Since we put in all this effort, it feels like a waste to -just- eat it." Cravs says with a tired sigh. "But aye, let's 'ead back. Can ask Haila about that later."

Aislinn North nods in agreement as she turns back the way the came. She pauses. "No shaking the bridge." she says turning to point accusingly at Cravendy.

Cravendy Hound: "I won't." And then, once Lin's back is turned, she mutters something under her breath through a grin. "Maybe."

#ff14 rp logs #aislinn north #Cravendy Hound #Two pineapple parts mashed into one #literal hours spent writing about them searching #they found one in the end though!#Bucket List

6 notes · View notes

plush-anon · 3 years

Note

You worked at joanns? 😍 dream job

In all fairness, a large part (and I do mean a LARGE part) of why I enjoyed working at Joanns were the managers.

The store manager was a guy named Richard, one of maybe two or three men who worked there total, and this man was practically a saint as far as retail goes.

This was a man who would, with no hesitation, get on the floor to help customers, or hop on the registers to check customers' purchases out, or pop on to the cutting counter to cut fabric. He remembered the names of regulars, would chat and smile while getting shit done, and was the type of guy to speak slowly and softly when we had shitstains explode at us measly peons for not giving them the full cost of an item back in a return (ex $200) when they used a coupon to purchase an item to begin with and only paid a portion of the cost (ex. $150). No joke, this actually happened to me on Black Friday with a man who stood at about 6 foot with a crewcut and a snarl (the military Karen, if you would)

Richard, of course, stood at about 6 foot 5 inches, and reminded me of a ginger grizzly bear in some ways. Very few customers continued to be assholes when they asked to speak to the manager and Richard came over, smiling wide. He encouraged us to chat with the customers while we worked the cutting counter - it was a good way to learn about what they were making, encouraged general conversation and lent itself to a better environment for everyone, worker and customer alike, so we weren't just awkwardly standing in silence the whole time.

The assistant store manager (aka his second in command - we had two other assistant managers, but she wielded more power than both of them) was Farrah, and she was basically Cool Wine Aunt, but with weed. She was open about smoking it (but not in a pressure-the-underlings kind of way, but more of a 'yeah, it calms me down' kind of way) but never on the clock, and was just really chill in general. She was also a 'jump on the registers' type of manager, and on occasion would take the closing staff out to get a drink from the texmex place next to us in the shopping center, and cover one for each of us - particularly during the Holiday Clusterfuck of October, November, and December (their Frozen Kahlua Mudlslide was my alcoholic drink of choice - they also had these spicy chicken strips that were amazing with it, but I digress).

Both of them were amazing people who would support and back us up without hesitation (if they weren't dealing with corporate or stock trucks coming in), and both routinely worked 15 to 20 hours UNPAID overtime during the Holiday Clusterfuck so that we the underlings could get more hours without Corporate jumping up our ass about going over budget.

They were also refreshingly upfront in our monthly meetings about profits and meeting them, as well as why company policy was the way it was, and how to work within the boundaries so we got more hours. One of my favorite moments was when they said the fabric sales essentially covered their own cost (production and delivery); the rest of the cheap crap in the store was what covered our paycheck and electricity, so hawk it as much as you can if you want extra in the bank (paraphrasing here, but that's not that far off what they actually said tbh).

With some Karen-y exceptions, the customers were honestly pretty chill. There were two women from a nearby church who bought well over 200 yards of cut fleece to make no-sew fleece blankets for children and the poor in December (it took forever to do, but they were so cheerful about it and told some funny anecdotes in between, kept the counter clear as soon as they were cut, etc. Took them three carts to haul everything to the register XD).

There was the slew of quilters making everything from baby blankets to anniversary gifts to quilts for their grandkids attending the local university that they could wear to football games in the colder weather, while still showing team pride. They always bought quarters and eighths and the end of the bolt for half price, digging thru our remnants bin for something they might have missed they could get for half price. They always talked about what they were working on, and spoke in great detail on their kids or cousins or niblings or grandkids. I saw so many pictures on phones, in wallets, and they loved them to absolute pieces.

There were cosplayers making their first costume to comicon, halloween goers trying their hand at making their own outfits, and a few furries making custom suits for order or just updating their own personal outfit. There were the usual school and church Christmas plays that needed costumes, and folks making custom table runners and place settings for family holiday meals.

One notable young man bought out 30+ yards of our 65" inch wide bolt felt for JEWELRY projects he was making as a part of his business and as a part of his art program (you can major in art with a concentration in jewelry making, and he was using it for that). He didn't leave a card, but the pictures he showed us were STUNNING.

We had a few elderly mothers come in with their daughters, to pick out fabrics so they could make their own wedding dresses, or quinceanera outfits, or veils; they showed us the patterns they had, or the pictures they were basing the designs off of, and all of them were STUNNING. (One came back in with the finished dress in the bag, this intricately beaded poofy dress that had to have taken days, hot pink and shiny).

We had local restaurant owners pop in for re-upholstery projects and curtains and vinyl; same with teachers and deck dads and furniture restoration workers that would gush about the design, what they had planned. Some would bicker with their spouses on the pattern, but it felt good-natured on the whole.

We had some elderly men come in to peer over our sewing machines - "How much it run for? My wife's birthday is coming up and her old machine's about done, and I want to surprise her. She had a Singer, but she hates the electronic screens on some of these newer ones, they hurt her eyes." - and moms coming in to sew some custom bed sheets for their kids - "My son really likes the new My Little Pony show, but he's a little shy about it. Do you think the blue's okay? Only he like yellow more, but they don't have any back there and he doesn't MIND blue really but - Actually scratch that, how wide is the fabric? My pattern says it needs to be at LEAST 22 inches wide, does it say on the box?" - and people coming up with some WILD craft ideas that were always a delight to hear them gush about - "So this MAY seem crazy, but I can turn these plastic pumpkin trick-or-treat pails into SNOWMEN heads with felt like this. We fill them with treats for the kids since we don't have a fireplace and they like it fine, but someone said I should sell these on Etsy and people really like them! But I've run out of pumpkins, and you have NO idea how happy I am that you guys still have some left."

The group we had to work with was also pretty crafty; a few were chronic call-outs, some a bit lazy, some perpetually done-with-this-nonsense, but we were mostly on the same page on shift, and all of us were crafty as heck. The employee discount was a blessing AND a curse, lemme tell you.

Stock was the best part, for me. Hours before the store opened at 9 AM, we would rip open the boxes and stuff everything onto the shelves, organizing anything the closing shift missed the night before along the way, updating new stickers or shuffling pegs over for new product arrangement, etc. We could listen to music or podcasts as we worked, and I ended up impressing some of them bc of how fast I tore through everything some mornings (the music definitely helped out there).

I was actually about to be promoted to assistant manager after 6 months, but then I got my job with the university, and they had federal health benefits AND dental, so... yeah, no contest there. Richard actually laughed when I told him I'd been hired at the university and was giving my two week notice, since it meant he didn't have to do the slew of paperwork that accompanied new assistant manager hires. He congratulated me on the job, especially the health benefits - he said that was a perk worth leaving any job here for. I nearly cried with relief that he wasn't mad.

He and Farrah chipped in and got me a small music box that plays Man of La Mancha's Dream the Impossible Dream on my last day. It still sits on my desk at work.

It was honestly my favorite retail job out of the bunch I've suffered through. Surprising at first, since I initially received a rejection email bare HOURS after my interview with Farrah, but about a month later (as I trawled endlessly through interview after interview, desperate for anything those first few months ), I got a call back from them asking if I was still interested (which I was, bc hey a job!). They remembered me specifically bc I had missed my bus to the interview, called ahead to let them know I would be late, then walked the whole way there in the rain to get there. (It was only about a mile and a half away, so not a terrible journey, but flooding is an issue in our flat-ass city; I looked like a drenched afghan hound holding a useless umbrella, so enjoy that imagery).

They were particularly impressed by the calling-ahead part.

Unfortunately, both of them ended up moving on to different paths over the year after I left - apparently they had been friends with benefits (? I say hesitantly, since I ran into one of my coworkers at an art show later on and she spilled the beans there - she was a bit flighty in nature though, and got caught up in gossip a LOT, so who knows. Lovely brocade custom projects though), and his ex girlfriend had called corporate on them and got both fired.

I think Farrah came back some time later, but the damage was done after that - the new manager came in and operated SOLELY to corporate policy. A LOT went to pieces in terms of store cleanliness, order, and general camaraderie after that - the new fabric counter folks look and sound dead inside, and barely interact with customers (not even a 'whatcha making' in passing, which is kind of sad - the stories I got helped to pass the time, and kept me from using up all of my Set Conversation Phrases for customers that actually WOULD leave us standing in silence). Corporate also stopped some of the smaller store policies that made our job easier and gave the customers a little something extra (the 'end-of-the-bolt' discount - if, after the customer orders say, 2 yards of fabric on the bolt, and there's say, a half yard "remnant" left on the bolt, we can sell them the remnant for half-price. A LOT of quilters LOVED this, and we did too, since it saved us from filling out the remnant tag and printing a sticker later on).

Just goes to show how important good management is in a business; especially when it can kick a store previously part of the top 50 stores in the NATION (while being a medium store at that - smaller place, NOT Hobby Lobby size like the Large stores) to something much less pleasant. I could be rose-goggling the situation thought - retail is still retail, no matter how nice some aspects are - but it still sticks with me as to how good he experience was even taking into account that it WAS minimum wage retail.

Food for thought, lads, food for thought.

#plush gets personal #joanns #joann fabrics #employment #retail hell #or well #not so much hell for this one #retail... purgatory? yeah that'll work

6 notes · View notes

twistedtummies2 · 3 years

Text

Mia Corazón (Commission)

Another commission I got via my FA page. This is from the same person who commissioned “Tick Tock” and “A Grim Dinner.” It features his OC based on Tick Tock the Crocodile, Tock Crockwork...BUT, more importantly, it also acts as an introduction to his newest OC, Caelyum De Macabre - a character based on Davy Jones (with hints of Tia Dalma) from “Pirates of the Caribbean.” And it’s NOT A KINK STORY. HERESY, I KNOW. I had a LOT of fun with this one; my only major regret is that I couldn’t make it longer than it already is. XD Also, just for the sake of making sure people know, I did not make up the lyrics to the song featured here. They’re actually fan-made lyrics for Davy Jones’ theme from the movies, originally created by a YouTube artist called Fiajela. I highly recommend looking up the song - it’s been covered by her and Man on the Internet, and they even made a duet version with the two stitched together. Anyway...hopefully you all enjoy. :)

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

Valentine’s Day had come to Night Raven College. As you and Grim walked through the halls of the dark castle, you couldn’t help but chuckle at the decorations: pink paper hearts and streamers of white and crimson were everywhere, making it feel almost as if Heartslabyul had somehow managed to take over the entire palatial academy. Grim frowned up at you, trotting at your side, trident tail swishing as he went. “Nya? What’s so funny, Minion?” he demanded to know. “Nothing, nothing,” you responded with a shake of your head. “It’s just…everything looks so different.” Grim sniffed snootily, crinkling his nose at a poster of two young lovers embracing. “I don’t like it,” he remarked. “It’s all…mushy. It just doesn’t feel right for a School of Villains to be so…nya, what’s a good word…?” “Sentimental? Sappy? Saccharine?” “Gross,” was the word Grim chose, sticking out his tongue and shuddering like a small boy afraid of getting the dreaded cooties. You snorted with laughter. “Well, bring it up to the Headmaster,” you smirked, stuffing your hands in your pockets as you went. “I’d rather not,” Grim grumped. “Besides, we all know Crowley would just ramble on about it, or say he’ll get things done and never do…how come he’s Headmaster, anyway? He doesn’t do anything!” “Your guess is as good as mine,” you shrugged. “All I know is the only home I have is thanks to him, as is the only job. I’d like to keep both, thank you.” Grim shrugged back with an accepting sort of rumble as the two of you ascended the spiral staircase that led up to the Headmaster’s Office. Crowley had sent a call that morning; classes were dismissed for the day, so the university was a little quieter than usual: many of the students were off visiting family or loved ones, and those that were hanging around the campus still were largely engaged in…ahem…PRIVATE affairs. You, of course, could not leave; at least for now, Night Raven was your home, and as you were currently not in a relationship, Valentine’s Day wasn’t much different than any other day. Not that you minded much; it was still nice, in your mind, to see others happy and relaxed, and a holiday was a holiday, at any rate…though it seemed even St. Valentine’s holiday would not be saving you from helping clean up whatever mess Crowley needed dealt with this time. As you passed an image of two small, fluffy kittens holding a heart, a random thought came to your head: “Grim?” “Nya?” “Have you ever wanted to be in love?” “Not really,” the cat-like monster said. “Love is all…icky.” You frowned. “Icky?” you repeated. “All the kissing and hugging and…bleh!” Grim shuddered again, then went on: “Besides, it seems awfully difficult; makes you humans and even beast-men all crazy. I’ve got too much to deal with as it is, thank you very much! Nope. The World’s Greatest Mage won’t ever let love make him all soppy.” Grim stuck out his fluffy chest proudly at this, sticking his nose in the air. You smirked, and paused, reaching down to scratch behind his ears. He froze up…then purred and nuzzled into your touch. “Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…o-okay…maybe I love some things,” he admitted.

“Good kitty,” you teased, and snickered as Grim growled at you and half-heartedly swiped at your hand with a paw. You retracted it and the two of you kept moving. “Come on. The sooner we deal with Crowley, the faster we can get to our own stuff.” Grim nodded, as the pair of you drew nearer to Crowley’s office. You knocked on the door and waited for the sing-song call of “Come in!” before entering. Inside the office, things looked the same as ever, floating portraits of the Great Seven and all…aside from a vase of roses, plus a couple of heart-shaped ornaments on the desk, as well as the fact the purple-and-green curtains had been exchanged for solid red velvet drapes. Dire Crowley himself was seated behind his desk, sorting through paperwork, dressed in his usual attire. His feathery cloak rustled as he lifted his top-hatted head, and smiled at both yourself and Grim as you shut the door to the office behind you, his yellow eyes sparkling behind his Plague-Doctor-esque Venetian mask. “Ahhh! Prefect of Ramshackle Dorm! And the Little Monster!” he greeted warmly, rising and waving his hands, bidding you closer as he stepped around his desk. “Come, come, you’re right on time!” “On time for what, dare we ask?” Grim meowed. “Aren’t you celebrating Valentine’s Day, too, Headmaster?” you asked, politely. “Later,” Crowley smirked, winking and tapping the side of his mask’s long nose. “I’ll be entertaining a cute little fairy sorceress from the Land of Oz later tonight.” He let out a dreamy sigh, placing a hand to his heart. “Ahhh, Miss Upland…one day, you will be mine…” You and Grim gave each other a look, shrugged, then turned back to Crowley. “What’s the problem, then?” you asked, knowing better than to think this was a social call. By now, Crowley had firmly established yourself and Grim as the chief problem solvers of the Academy, so it stood to reason he had a mission for your both. “Oh! Yes, well,” Crowley muttered, and cleared his throat, adjusting and straightening his stance before going on in a business-like way: “As I’m sure you’ll both know, tonight there’s a special performance, directed by our own Vil Schoenheit, for the holiday.” “Nya? Isn’t it that play about the Sea Witch?” Grim checked, tilting his head. “Correct,” nodded the Headmaster. “And the Little Mermaid she assisted. We have a special guest coming to see the show tonight…” He reached into the folds of his cloak and pulled out a small photograph, handing it over to you. You knelt down to get closer to Grim’s level, and showed him the photo as you both looked it over: the picture was a portrait of a dark-skinned mermaid, with hair black as ebony and scales of red and gold. Her eyes were brown and soft and warm as milk chocolate, and a silver locket in the shape of a heart was clasped about her throat. “Oooh…she’s pretty!” Grim smiled. “Very,” you agreed with a smile of your own. “She,” the Headmaster spoke up, “Is Young Lady Mia Corazón. Her family is one of the richest in the Coral Sea.” “Which is why you invited her,” you guessed, trying not to sound as bored as you were. To your surprise, Crowley answered, “I didn’t invite her! She wanted to see the show on her own…but there is one difficulty: her family insists that she be accompanied by at least two bodyguards at all times. Much like the Al-Asims, they’ve had…ISSUES in the past, and if their daughter is going to be on land for a spell, her parents want to make sure she’s adequately protected.” “That’s fair enough,” you supposed. “Let me guess,” sighed Grim, crossing his arms, “You want us to be the bodyguards then?” “Well, I suppose I COULD hire professionals,” Crowley murmured, scratching his chin in thought. “But they can cost a lot…I’d probably end up having to cut your pay just to-” “Forget it,” you grumbled, while Grim growled and slapped a paw to his forehead. “We’ll do it. But something is worrying me, if you don’t mind my bringing it up.” “What’s that?” “Are you sure WE’RE the right ones for this job?” you pressed, then before Crowley could speak up, you went on quickly: “We’ll do it, like I said, but…are you certain we should?” “How do you mean?” the Headmaster questioned, tilting his head. “Well, we’re not from the Coral Sea,” you explained. “Wouldn’t someone from that area be a better choice? Perhaps Azul could loan out the Leech Twins for a day!” Both Grim and Crowley looked at you as if you had grown a second skull. “…Right,” you sighed, quickly catching on. “Azul. ‘Loan’ us the Leech Twins. And us NOT expect things to go HORRIBLY wrong, one way or another. Yeah, that was a dumb suggestion, sorry.” Crowley chuckled and shook his head. “I have every confidence in you,” he said, with a wide smile. “You’ve solved so many problems in the past! And it’s only for tonight! What could possibly go wrong?” “Well, great, now something will DEFINITELY become a problem,” Grim grumbled. “Look, it’s not that I’m ungrateful,” you pressed on, “Or even that I’ve got a whole lot else to do, just…I’m worried because I don’t have magic. And Grim is…well…Grim.” “Hey!” Grim yapped indignantly. “I could roast any bad guy’s butt if they tried to get to Miss Coronation!” “Corazón,” corrected the Headmaster. “Whatever,” shrugged Grim. Crowley rolled his eyes, then turned his head upward. “You do raise a good point though, Prefect,” he conceded. “I didn’t think of that…at the very least, you two will need some help.” You were just about to agree…when suddenly, you heard Grim shiver. Both you and Crowley looked down as the cat-like demon quivered and hugged himself, the fire in his ears flickering. “Are you okay?” you asked, worriedly. “Y-Yeah,” Grim answered with a slight chattering of his teeth. “But…does anybody else feel like it suddenly got colder in here?” Now that Grim mentioned it, you DID suddenly feel a light chill crawl up and down your back…and it wasn’t too long afterward that the source of the cold made its presence known. With an authoritative BANG, the Headmaster’s office door burst open, causing both yourselves and Crowley to yelp and jump in alarm. You turned around fast, and gulped nervously as you perceived the imposing figure of Chief Jehan – the school’s head of security, garbed as ever in his military style cap and long, black trenchcoat. “Headmaster,” the darkly dressed security chief intoned, bowing his head respectfully to Dire Crowley, “Forgive this intrusion.” “Oh, it’s alright, Claude,” Crowley sighed out, then frowned. “Whatever is the matter?” “I apprehended this rule-breaking scallywag in the school cafeteria,” Jehan stated, indicating a second figure. “Ow! OW! H-Hey, let go of me, you old…! I’ll bite your legs off, you hear me?!” You and Grim were surprised to see the short, thick-hipped, green haired figure struggling in the icy grip of Claude Jehan, trying to pull away as his ear was all but being yanked from the side of his cranium. “Tock?” the two of you chorused. Tock Crockwork just snarled as Jehan glared at him. He tried to return the glower, but it came off more akin to a wounded animal trying to look tough than…well…looking tough. Crowley’s frown deepened, and he stepped past you and Grim – uttering a quiet, “One moment please” – before approaching the chief and the unruly Octavinelle student. “What is the meaning of this?” the Headmaster boomed. The Security Chief pushed Tock forward, releasing his ear. Tock stumbled a bit and caught himself, massaing his sore lobe. “This young ruffian,” Jehan explained, “Started a brawl with Mr. Bucchi over the last Deluxe Menchi Katsu Sandwich. As the latter student was merely defending himself, I felt his punishment should be more lenient; both have been banned from the cafeteria for the rest of the week…but as the one who started the whole affair…” He trailed off as Tock growled rather pathetically, looking down at the floor sullenly. Crowley scowled and hummed thoughtfully, clearly trying to determine a fitting punishment. Your eyes, as well as Grim’s, widened, and you looked to each other. “Grim,” you whispered, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” “I think so, Minion, but a show about a math teacher who’s also a criminal mastermind? Who’d want to watch that?” You facepalmed. “What are you two whispering about?” Jehan asked, suspiciously, as Tock and Crowley both looked to you as well. “I think I know a way to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak,” you suggested. “You mean, a way to deal with Mr. Crockwork while also dealing with your dilemna?” Crowley guessed. “Exactly.” “Dilemna? What dilemna?” Tock asked. You grinned.

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

“Thanks for sticking up for me, snack meat,” Tock groused, petulantly pouting as he walked by your side. “You’re the one who decided to pick a fight with the hyena,” you shrugged. “Honestly, I think I did you a favor.” “Nya…my Minion has a point,” Grim nodded. “Do you really think things would have been better if Crowley had decided to punish you himself?” “Or worse,” you put in, grimly, “Leave you to Chief Jehan?” All three of you shuddered, and Grim even crossed himself at the mention of the security chief. “Fine, I guess that’s fair,” Tock grumbled. “But I don’t like having to protect a fish filet from harm. I eat fish!” “Well, you won’t be eating Mia Corazón,” you sniffed. “Alright…guess I’ll just have to eat YOU instead,” smirked Tock, and licked his sharp teeth. Grim mewed and hid behind your leg. You blushed. “…We’ll worry about that later,” you grumbled, making Crockwork snicker with a wicked smile. “For now, let’s focus on getting you some actual lunch.” “You ARE an actual lunch,” snorted Tock. “I am not on the menu!” you snapped, flushed with embarrassment as Tock gave you a knowing grin. “Well…not till your work is done,” he teased, winking deviously, then smirking down at Grim. “Maybe I’ll have the little hairball for an appetizer, too…” Grim hissed at being referred to as a “hairball,” but said nothing. “Do you always have to be so antagonistic?” you sighed. “It’s what keeps getting you into trouble, you know.” Tock just shrugged carelessly, hips swaying as he walked side by side with you. “So, where are we heading?” he asked. “Can’t go to the cafeteria, and the Mostro Lounge is way too expensive…” “The Mystery Shop,” you answered. “I’m sure Sam’s got something in stock for us all to snack on before we head to the beach to pick up our special guest.” “Nya! Between my fiery awesomeness, my Minion’s brains, and lizard-breath’s strength, we’ll be the best bodyguards ever!” declared Grim. “Call me ‘lizard breath’ again,” Tock warned, “And we’ll be back down to two people, fuzz-face.” “Fuzz-face?!” Grim snapped. “How’d you like to BURN off a few of those calories you’re so proud of, hah?!” “Girls, girls, you’re both pretty,” you droned. The pair glared at you, then each other…then growled in unison as they stopped. “Thank you,” you sighed with relief. “Now, let’s be on our best behavior: I don’t want Sam’s Friends to give us a hard time…” As you spoke, your little trio reached the entrance to Mr. S’s Mystery Shop, and the three of you walked inside. Aside from a simple banner reading “Happy Valentine’s Day!” over the door, the shop was completely as it usually was…at least on the outside. To be fair, once you all entered the building, the store within seemed its usual self, too; no heart-shaped décor here, only the usual assortment of voodoo accessories. The strange part came when you not only realized Sam was nowhere to be seen…but you all also noticed who was tending to the store. Or rather, what. “Crabs?” all three of you gasped in surprise. Sure enough, crawling all over the Mystery Shop was an assortment of strange white sand crabs. Their shells seemed to have been made from smooth, ivory-colored stone…and as if the presence of the pale decapods wasn’t bizarre enough, their activities certainly would have gotten some unusual reactions. A few of the crabs were straightening out and sorting through items on the shelves, making sure everything was in top-notch condition. One crab was holding a miniature broom, while the other held a dustpan, the pair of them sweeping the floor. Still another crab was changing a lightbulb, while two more – clicking their claws encouragingly – were supervising. A bunch of crabs carrying a spray bottle and a wash cloth scuttled past you all, near your feet. Yourself and Croc stepped back, but Grim – with typical feline curiosity – leaned down and actually sniffed at one of the crustaceans… “ME-YOWCH!” he yelped, and jumped back, mewling and covering his muzzle after one of the crabs pinched his nose with their pincer. The crab seemed to strut away importantly afterward. “Heh…guess the crab cake bit back, huh?” teased Tock. Grim just growled and massaged his stinging snout. “This is new,” you muttered. “Where’d all these little guys come from?” “Cruel and cold, like winds on the sea. Will you ever return to me? Hear my voice sing with the tide: My Love Will Never Die…” The melodious voice soon sang into your ears, and you and your companions looked towards the source. In a corner of the shop, a lone figure was quietly mopping, and singing the lonely, haunting sea shanty you had heard. The figure was a young and slender man, dressed in a tan-colored jacket with ruffle-ended sleeves, and a brown hip-skirt. His legs were covered by dark beige trousers, while plain brown boots were on his feet. A fishnet scarf was loosely slung about his shoulders, almost like a shawl, and an orange muscle shirt festooned his abdomen. His hair was a curious pink hue, and done up in dreadlocks. “Ahem!” you coughed, catching the young man’s attention. He froze and looked up to you, blinking his brown eyes. For a moment, you noticed there was a look of pain and something…hollow in his face, as if something inside of him was missing and he longed to get it back. An overwhelming feeling of loneliness and sorrow seemed to wash over you…but it disappeared in an instant when the youth smiled. “Oh! Ahoy there! Didn’t hear you come in,” he greeted, bowing his head respectfully as he put the mop in its bucket and then walked towards you and your group. “Can I help you?” “Well, you can start by telling us who you are, and what happened to Sam,” Grim frowned. The young man chuckled, flipping his fishnet scarf over one shoulder. “Sam is taking the day off for the holiday,” he explained, then slowly added, “I don’t…make merry on Valentine’s Day, so I volunteered to keep the shop open and do some cleaning.” “Well, that answers one question,” Tock snorted, crossing his arms over his chest and lookin the taller youth up and down. “Mind answering the other?” “Oh! Right, right,” the young fellow chuckled, and cleared his throat before giving a mock-salute and answering: “Name’s Caelyum. Caelyum De Macabre. I’m Sam’s new assistant.” “Pleased to meet you,” you smiled, and shook Caelyum’s hand, and tilted your head. “Say…can I call you Cael for short?” The young man’s smile flickered, and he paused before quietly beseeching, “I’d…rather you didn’t, thank you.” “No problem, I’m sorry,” you apologized quickly. “Not at all, not at all,” the young man chuckled, and straightened his stance, recovering quickly. “So! What can I do for you, me hearties? Supplies, clothes?” “Food,” growled Tock. “I’m STARVING.” Caelyum chuckled and jabbed a thumb to one part of the shop. “You’ll find everything you need in that direction.” Tock nodded, and sashayed in the direction De Macabre had indicated. Caelyum smiled back at you and Grim in the meantime. “You’re the Prefect of Ramshackle Dorm, right?” he guessed. “That’s right,” you nodded. “It’s nice to meet you, then,” Caelyum smiled. “Sam’s told me all about you: he says you’re his favorite customer.” “He says that about everyone,” Grim snorted. Caelyum chuckled and knelt down. He extended a hand carefully. Grim sniffed it carefully…then smiled and allowed the shopkeeper’s assistant to pet him softly. “You have a beautiful singing voice,” you couldn’t help but comment. Caelyum looked up in surprise…then blushed a bit. “Oh, uh…you heard a little of that, did you?” he chuckled with embarrassment. “Nya! It sounded really sad, but…it was also really nice,” Grim mewed. “Thanks,” Caelyum said as he stood back up to his full height. “What song was that?” you asked, curiously. “I’ve never heard it before. Is it from your homeland?” Caelyum’s smile fell, and he looked askance. “Not exactly,” he murmured, then informed you aloud, in a matter-of-fact way: “It’s a song from the Coral Sea. I come from the Jubilee Port, near the Swamplands: same place as Sam. A…friend taught the song to me.” Catching the hitch in his voice, you smiled sympathetically. “It sounds like you two were close.” “We were,” Caelyum said softly. “Very.” “Nya…what happened?” Grim asked. Caelyum paused…then shrugged. “They left,” was all he said. Sensing the sensitive subject, you decided to drop the matter; Grim caught on and did the same. “How long have you been working for Sam? I haven’t seen you around before.” “Not long,” shrugged Caelyum, seemingly grateful the subject had changed. “He and I have some similar interests, and when I joined Night Raven, I applied for work.” “Oh, so you’re a first year?” “Yep.” “What house? Octavinelle?” you guessed, wondering why Tock wouldn’t have recognized the youth if so. “Scarabia, actually and weirdly enough,” laughed Caelyum, as if the placement struck him as some sort of very funny joke…he paused then leaned in and whispered: “Um…is it just me, or is the dorm head of that house a little…you know…how would you say it…?” “Too pure and innocent for this cruel, unholy world?” “…Yeah, that.” “Yes. Yes, he very much is.” The two of you were interrupted by the sound of Tock snarling in the food aisles. You all turned to see him trying to pry a bag of chips out of the pincers of one of the crabs, who looked very insulted to be interrupted in his work. “Hey! Can somebody make this crab cake let go?!” he snapped. “Oh, sorry!” Caelyum called out, and then snapped his fingers. Suddenly, every single crab inside the building froze…and then their claws and extremities retracted into their shells, leaving only a series of what looked like smooth, white stones scattered around the shop. With a second snap of his fingers, the stone crabs disappeared; there was no puff of smoke or flash of light. One second they were there…the next, they were not. Grim whistled, impressed. “Nice trick,” he murmured. “Is that your Unique Magic?” you asked. “Yep,” Caelyum nodded. “They’re called Locker Crabs, and you’d be surprised the kinds of things I can do with them…” “Cool!” Grim commented. “Hey, Tock!” you called out, hearing the rustling of snack food bags. “Leave some stuff for the rest of us, and hurry up! We need to get to the beach quickly!” “I’m hurrying, snack meat, I’m hurrying!” Tock called back dismissively. “The beach?” Caelyum spoke up, looking interested. “Why are you three heading there? What’s so important?” “We’re on a mission!” Grim cheered, puffing out his chest once more. “Oh, really?” smirked Caelyum, looking amused, and scoffed as he moved behind the front desk. “What for? Some sort of Valentine’s Day meeting, or something?” You frowned, sensing a bitterness to two particular words. “You mentioned you don’t make merry on Valentine’s Day,” you said slowly, approaching the desk and leaning on it. “What do you…y’know…have against it?” “Hm?” Caelyum murmured, then shrugged as he leaned back against the shelves behind the front desk. “Oh, well, it’s…not the day itself. More what it represents.” “Nya? What do you mean?” Grim asked, tilting his head. A shadow seemed to fall over Caelyum’s face, and he looked askance. Something icy and stormy flickered across his features. “Love,” he said, as if the word were some repellent toxin. You and Grim shared a look, then looked back to Caelyum. “Love is a lie,” Caelyum went on, seemingly talking more to himself than to either of you. “It’s like a parasite that burrows into your chest…and even once the sickness it spreads is cured, something in there remains, keeping you from ever knowing real peace. It pulls you along a blind alley, and just when you feel safe, it stabs you in every place it hurts most, and then leaves you to either heal on your own or die. It weakens your defenses, and confuses your resolve. And yet every year, every time this day comes around…I just see people acting like it’s the best thing in the universe.” He shuddered violently, looking positively ill. Grim meowed almost sadly. “I think love is mushy and gross, but…I don’t think it’s THAT bad,” he mewed. His words seemed to snap Caelyum out of it. The witch doctor’s assistant glanced up at you both…and, with a light chuckle, his helpful, friendly smile returned, the shadows departing in an instant. “Well…being mushy and gross doesn’t help,” he joked. Grim sniggered. Your own expression didn’t change, even as the employee leaned forward again. “Seriously, though, what IS your mission?” “We’re gonna be bodyguards!” Grim announced joyously. “Bodyguards?” “There’s a special guest coming to the show on campus tonight,” you explained. “The Headmaster assigned the three of us to look after her, since she’s a VIP.” “A really RICH VIP,” Grim added. “That’s our Headmaster,” Caelyum scoffed with a roll of his eyes. “So, who is this special guest?” “Mia Corazón.” Caelyum’s smile vanished, as if it had been smacked off his face. “Mia…Corazón?” he repeated. “Nya? Do you know her?” Grim asked. Caelyum didn’t answer, looking away; that hollow, haunted stare came to his face as he seemed lost in another world. “Mia Corazón,” he repeated again, then let out a soft, slightly hysterical laugh. “Of all the cursed days of the year…she chooses now…” Before you could ask what was wrong, Tock came lumbering over, arms loaded with various snacks and drinks. “There! That should be enough for all of us…or at least, for me,” he grinned, flashing you a wink that would have made you blush in an instant if your mind weren’t on other matters. He looked towards the assistant…then frowned, eyes narrowing. “Hey…who are you upset with?” The words once again snapped the brooding Caelyum out of it. He looked at Tock with surprise…then shook his head fast and brushed some of his pink hair away from his face. “No one. Nothing,” he insisted, and forced his smile back onto his face. “Now! Let’s, uh…let’s ring this up, aye?” In casual, business-like fashion, Caelyum charged Tock; you were grateful for the recent raise Crowley had given you as you paid for it all. The three of you then left the shop. Just before you exited, you turned to bid Caelyum one last farewell. He smiled and waved back… …But the moment you left, the darkness flooded his face once more, and he looked away, eyes smoldering like hot coals as he reached into his shirt… …Revealing the silver locket that was around his neck. The same sort in the photo Crowley had given you. The young man’s face became cold as an iceberg once more as he opened the locket…and sang to the tune the music box inside played. “Wild and strong, you can’t be contained. Never bound, nor ever chained. Wounds you caused will never mend, and you will never end…”

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

“Why did you ask him that question?” Tock Crockwork belched and grunted as he finished up his lunch, licking and sucking on his fingers before looking to you, cheeks bulging as he still chewed his food. “Whuh queshun?” he mumbled out through a full mouth. “About why he was upset?” Grim spoke up, tilting his head. “I mean, he certainly looked upset, so…” “That wasn’t the question he asked though,” you clarified to Grim, then looked to Tock. “You specifically asked, ‘WHO are you upset WITH?’” Tock swallowed and let out a hiccupping burp before speaking. “Mph…yeah, and?” he grunted, patting his stomach and licking his lips free of any crumbs from the sandwich he had devoured. “Well…why did you assume he was upset with someone?” “I didn’t assume, I knew,” snorted Tock, and slung his arms behind his head as the three of you neared the beach of Sage Island. “That was the same look I saw in the mirror every day when I thought of Leona, or those boys back home.” Knowing what had happened in his conflict with Leona, you gulped at Tock Crockwork’s words. “Well, I hope he wasn’t mad at us,” murmured Grim. You smiled thinly; you had a very good idea you knew who Caelyum was mad at, given the context of things…and you were very much hoping you were wrong. You had the sinking feeling those hopes would be dashed as the three of you drew closer to the beach…and a familiar-sounding song, accompanied by the tinkling notes of a music box, drifted through the greenery and into your ears… “Over waves and deep in the blue; I will give up my heart for you. Ten long years I’ll wait to go by: My Love Will Never Die.” The source of the singing soon became clear as you pushed past the last few bushes of the wilderness and stepped onto the open, sunny beach. There was a single white bench nearby; standing beside the bench was a man in what looked like an almost Spartan uniform…and seated upon it was a young woman, with dark skin and long, black hair, dressed in a red and gold dress. In one of her hands, she lifted the pendant of a locket; the source of the music box tune. The lady snapped the locket shut, and she and her chaperone turned fast when they heard yourself and your companions approaching. She smiled, chocolate-toned eyes lighting up with interest. “Oh, hello!” she chuckled, seemingly a bit embarrassed at being caught in her reverie, and stood up as her suspicious compatriot narrowed his eyes at you. “Are you…my bodyguards?” “Yes, ma’am!” chirruped Grim, proudly. “Mia Corazón, I presume?” you smiled, respectfully. “That is right,” the young woman greeted, bowing her head in matching respect and lowering her locket. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” “Wait a minute…why do you need us to guard you?” Tock spoke up, and pointed to the Spartan-looking fellow. “Wouldn’t he be enough?” “Oh, that’s Firme. He actually has a date with his wife,” Mia answered, giving the man a teasing smile.

The guard blushed. “Miss Corazón, not in front of civlians!” he pleaded. Mia chuckled. “Sorry, Firme,” she apologized. “Now go on; I know she’s waiting for you.” Firme nodded gratefully, then glared at the three of you more seriously. “Protect her at any cost; we’re depending on you,” he ordered. “Aww, don’t worry, we’ll keep the little fishstick safe!” Tock smirked, cracking his knuckles and neck. “You can start by NOT calling her ‘fishstick,’” you droned, noting the nervous look on Mia’s face and the anger on Firme’s. You gave both an apologetic smile. “Sorry. He’s half-crocodile. Trust me, though, he’s a softy when you get to know him.” “HEY! I AM NOT!” snapped Tock, angrily. Grim just giggled. The interaction and your promise seemed to relax both denizens of the Coral Sea. Firme bowed to Mia, and then walked towards the beach…and kept walking, straight into the sea, until his head disappeared under the waves. “Well!” Mia smiled, and cheerily hurried towards your group. “Can we go see the show now? I don’t wanna be late!” “Of course…um…Your Excellency?” “Oh, don’t bother with titles like that,” the girl giggled. “Just call me Mia! Everybody does!” “Okay, Mia,” you chuckled, quite liking her warmth and energy. “Follow us, and stay close.” “I will,” Mia promised as the three of you set off along the beach. “Thank you, by the way; I hope this doesn’t cause you too much trouble.” “Quite the opposite,” grumbled Grim, remembering what Crowley had said earlier. “Why do you wanna see some silly show anyway?” sneered Tock. “Oh, it’s not silly!” exclaimed Mia. “The story of the Sea Witch and the Little Mermaid is important among my people…and besides, I think theater is exciting! I always enjoy seeing it!” “Hopefully our show won’t disappoint,” you smiled. Tock just rolled his eyes and scoffed. “I still think it’s for wimps,” he mumbled…then abruptly froze. The rest of you stopped, too, looking to the croc boy as he sniffed the air and growled. “What is it?” Mia asked. “Something wrong?” “Very,” Tock nodded. “We are being watched.” “How do you know?” you asked. “Instinct? Intuition?” Tock growled and narrowed his eyes, looking at you determinedly. “No, meat. We. Are. Being. Watched.” “By who?” whispered Mia, nervously. “I have an idea,” you murmured with some dread. Before Mia could comment on your remark, all three of you heard a sharp yelp, and turned to see that Grim had inexplicably toppled over. The feline-like creature sat up and massaged his bumped noggin. “Owwww,” he moaned. “What happened?” Mia asked, sounding concerned. “I dunno!” Grim whined out. “Just…s-something seemed to come up from under me and…” “GAHR!” You jumped as, right on cue, Tock toppled over as well. Then it was your turn, as you felt something shift under the sand where you stood, and you dropped to the ground. The wind was knocked out of you for a moment, but you managed to sit up just in time to see three large, round humps in the sand…which seemed to move of their own accord. The three humps began to trace a path, circling Mia, who froze up and squeaked like a mouse, clearly confused and frightened. It only got worse when, suddenly, more and more humps seemed to appear out nowhere: at least a dozen or more, which shot through the sand, burrowing through it with a barely-audible scraping sound… …Then, dust flew up as the shapes burst from the ground. As the dust cleared, you and your friends watched wide-eyed as a consortium of familiar white crabs toppled Mia Corazón, and – working together to lift her, carried her off across the beachside. “HEY! PUT ME DOWN! STOP!” Mia cried out, but the crabs wouldn’t listen, and soon vanished from sight. “Nya…we’re off to a good start with this job,” sighed Grim dismally. “After them!” you barked, and leapt to your feet as you dashed after Mia and her arthropoid captors, Grim hot on your heels. Tock grumbled sourly as he dusted himself off then jogged after you. “Taking orders from my lunch…I’m gonna eat that stupid, mask-wearing, feather-loving…!”

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

Mia cried out as the crabs carried her along the sand, her “volunteer” bodyguards soon out of sight. She tried to fight free, but the crabs pinched and held her fast, keeping her in place. She wasn’t sure how far or for how long they carried her…but suddenly they stopped, and she let out an “eep!” as they moved into a pillar, and pushed her up, allowing her to stand. The mermaid-in-disguise turned around, panting for breath as she watched the crabs swarm about each other…then, they seemed to coalesce and mesh together; their pale shells took on more colors; hints of pink, brown, and orange… …Until, finally, standing before her was a familiar young man with dreadlocks and a fishnet scarf. In his hand, he held a heart-shaped silver locket. “Come my love, be one with the sea. Rule with me for eternity. Drown all dreams so mercilessly, and leave their souls to me.” He snapped the locket shut at the end of the verse, and paused before uttering, in a mechanical, robotic tone, two words: “Ahoy, Mia.” Mia blinked slowly, absolutely stunned. “…C-Cael?” Caelyum blinked back and said nothing, his face emotionless and blank. Mia slowly smiled, her eyes lighting up…then squealed with joy and rushed forward, throwing her arms around the young man…who stood stiff and rigid, not even looking at her, as she hugged him close. “CAEL! I…oh, Gods, what do I even say?! It’s…it’s been so long…I’ve missed you so much! Where have you been?! Cael…Cael, I-I’m so happy…!” “Let. Go. Of. Me. You. BITCH.” Mia gasped as Caelyum harshly pushed her back, nearly knocking her over. Her heart sank as she stared at the young man, who glared at her, grinding his teeth and clenching his fists. She looked deeply hurt…and not because of the push. “Cael?” she whispered. “Cael…wh-what’s wrong? Why…why are you upset with me?” Cael’s eyes flashed with anger. “What’s wrong?! Why am I upset?!” he repeated. “What in Hades do you THINK is wrong?!” Mia flinched as the boy from the swamplands’ voice rose to a perfect scream. Cautiously, steadily, she approached. “Cael…please…I-I don’t understand. I…I’ve wanted to see you again for such a long time, and now-” “How DARE you?!” shouted Caelyum, silencing the aristocratic mermaid. “How dare you say something like that to me?! After what you did to me, do you expect to believe you’ve ever cared?!” “I…what…I do care!” Mia pleaded, and tears began to twinkle in her eyes. “Cael, what are you talking about?” Cael laughed; a dangerously unhinged, malicious sound. “Oh-ho-ho, you know EXACTLY what I’m talking about! You should!” he spat…then, the bitterness was replaced by pain as he went on. “Two years, Mia. Two years I waited, and you never returned. You…y-you broke your promise to me…and did you ever think of me in those two years? Did you think of me even once in all the time since, until now?” Cael’s eyes began to brim with tears of his own; he was shaking. Mia felt her heart sinking further in her chest. “Of course I did,” she said, softly. “You’re…you’re my best friend.” One could almost hear Caelyum’s last heartstring break. “Best friend,” he repeated, in a dead, soulless voice…then hung his head. “You still don’t get it, do you, Mia? You broke my heart, Corazón…” Head still hung low, dreadlocks casting shadow over his eyes, Caelyum De Macabre lifted one arm, and snapped his fingers…and Mia nervously stepped back as a swarm of crabs appeared to trail across his arm and mesh together…forming a silver cutlass. “…And now, I’m going to break yours. Literally.” Ominously, Caelyum began to approach. Mia felt panic rise in her, and started to back away…then yiped, almost comically, as she tripped on her own dress and tumbled back. “C-Cael…Cael, PLEASE!” she cried out, as the boy loomed over her, his face twisted in anger as he began to lift the sword above his head… “HEY! BACK OFF!” FWOOSH! A jet of blue flame shot between Mia Corazón and Cael De Macabre; the lad from the swamplands jumped back, then growled angrily, turning to face the source. You had finally arrive, with Grim at your side, both of you glaring at the bokor’s assistant. “That’s enough, Caelyum,” you warned. Cael sneered. “It’s not enough,” he hissed, “Until she endures the same amount of PAIN and AGONY I HAVE!” With a roar, he rounded about to try and strike Mia down…then froze in place when he found she had seemingly disappeared. Startled and caught greatly off guard, he was unable to avoid the green scaled fist that grabbed hold of the back of his jacket, and cried out as, with a roar, the owner of the fist hurled about seven feet away, sending him rolling through the send. His sword spun through the air before stabbing into the ground right at the edge of the shore. Caelyum coughed and snarled and spat as he got onto his hands and knees…then glared as he found Tock Crockwork – now in his full “true form” – glaring at him, fangs and claws bared. “Keep away from the fishstick, swamp meat,” he spat. “Thank you,” Mia whispered. Tock just smirked at her – somewhat cockily but not cruelly – then glarde back at Caelyum as yourself and Grim moved to stand beside him, all of you making sure to create a barrier before poor Mia. Cael rose to his feet shakily. “Leave her alone, Caelyum,” you said. “This is not your fight!” he snapped back. “Uh…yeah, it kinda is,” Grim snorted. “We told you, this is our job today!” “You don’t know who you’re protecting,” Cael viciously sneered, his shoulders trembling with fury, his fingers clenched so tight that his knuckles turned white as the bones under his skin. “She cursed me!” “Cursed you?!” Mia exclaimed. “Caelyum, I never did ANYTHING to you!” “Yes, you did!” Cael answered…and gulped back a sob before explaining: “You made me love you.” All eyes widened; you and your friends looked to Mia, then back at Caelyum. “Ohhhh…now the pieces are coming together,” Grim murmured. “I know the look in your eyes, meat, and it’s not love,” Tock said, darkly. “Not love as it should be, anyway.” “Cael…I-I’m so sorry,” Mia quavered. “Of course you’re sorry,” Cael scoffed. “Everyone’s sorry when it’s too late.” So saying, he lifted his hand…and the sword that had stabbed into the ground “dissolved” into a group of crabs. They scurried across the beach, crawled up his side…and reformed into a cutlass in his grasp once more. “Put the weapon away, Caelyum!” you beseeched. “It doesn’t have to be like this!” “Yes it does!” Cael yelled. “Don’t you get it?! I can’t be free! I’ll always remember! I’ll always feel that pain! Love is a curse; a curse that hurts me, every day of my existence…but after today, I’m going to change that.” He closed his eyes. You had a bad feeling you knew what you’d see when he opened them again…and you were correct. One of his eyes was suddenly surrounded by a fiery aura. “Today, I break the curse.” KA-ZAM! The familiar black cloud of Overblot surrounded the shopkeeper’s boy. Blue and orange light flashed in the gaps between the vapor as it swirled around the fellow from the swamplands…until finally, the mist parted. When it did, you all found that Caelyum De Macabre had gone through an alarming transformation. His brown-tinted clothes had vanished, replaced with a blue-gray uniform like a navy seaman. One of his arms was stuck into the sleeve of a long, tattered cerulean coat with gold lining, which hung about his shoulders almost like a cape. A blood red sash was lashed about his middle. While his left eye was surrounded by orange aura, a tattoo had appeared over his right, in the image of a pirate medallion. His dreadlocks had transformed into a head of writhing, wriggling, pinkish-purple tentacles, like those of a squid; each tendril’s tip was smeared with ink. His left arm had become a white crab claw, ink oozing from its joins; his right leg had become a crab’s leg, too, and was also oozing with Blot. A single black boot covered his one human foot…and he still held his cutlass in his one human hand. Cael grinned viciously, pupils pinpricks as he pointed his sword at you. “Yo-Ho, me hearties!” he bellowed. “Shiver ‘em from stem to stern!” At these words, the ground before his feet seemed to ripple…and then, a swarm of Locker Crabs came scrambling from the ground, racing towards your group. “I’ll take care of this!” Grim pronounced, and summoned a wall of flame. As the fire struck the crabs, they vanished in a cloud of silver smoke…but more just kept coming! Caelyum laughed and began to move towards your group, swaggering as the point of his crab-leg stabbed into the ground repeatedly. Seeing the approaching dark mage, Grim paused to hurl a fireball in his direction…only for Cael to split in half, crab legs showing in the “seam” of his being, as the fireball hurtled past without causing any harm. He stitched himself back together and kept moving forward, as if nothing had happened. Tock Crockwork roared and charged at Cael, swinging a punch at him…but De Macabre simply swept up his crab claw and, in a fluid, wrenching motion, whirled Tock about and flung him to the beach floor. He grinned with deranged excitement as he moved closer to yourself and Mia, leaving Tock to choke in the dust. “Hold them off, Grim!” you called out as he continued to scorch the crabs. “I’ll try!” Grim called back. “Run for it, Minion! RUN NOW!” And you did, holding onto Mia’s arm as you dragged her after yourself. With a wild laugh, Caelyum lifted his sword up…and then “melted” into a swarm of crabs, which scurried after the two of you as you raced along the beach. Behind you, Tock snarled, clutching his banged skull as he watched the horde of crabs vanish. He angrily kicked away a few that Grim didn’t manage to stop, and then charged forward. Grim panted; he was already growing weary. “I…I can’t hold them off!” he meowed. “There’s…there’s too many-EEP!” “Stop whining and shut up,” snarled Tock, whisking Grim up in one arm and sprinting on, the pair pursued by the remaining Locker Crabs. “We’ve got more important things to worry about, come on!” Unaware that your friends were on the chase, you hurried along with Mia Corazón. The crabs that made up Cael’s being clicked and scraped behind you with a deeply unsettling sound, urging you to go faster and faster. “Wait!” Mia gasped. “If…I…can…talk…to him…!” “I don’t think he’s in a mood to talk!” you replied. “Right now, all we can do is…!” You trailed off and stopped short as the crabs suddenly caught up with you…and then moved around you, reforming in front of you into a column. Thinking fast you looked around… …And were just in time to grab hold of sturdy tree branch, as a sword reshaped and then stabbed at you. You barely had a moment to parry the strike, the blade cutting a notch into the wooden limb you held. “Stay behind me!” you hissed to Mia, as Cael reformed fully. “So, it’s a duel then?” Cael cackled. “Alright! EN GARDE!” You yelped, instinctively blocking as the sword slashed at you once more. The slash was followed by a lunge; you jumped back quickly and parried that strike, too. CLING-CLANG-CLING-CLANG! The cutlass and the branch clattered against each other, the sound of the steel against wood that was tougher than it looked ringing out. Each time Cael tried to get around you to lunge at Mia, you blocked his path. You laughed softly, amazed you were holding out; guess one didn’t know how good they’d be at something like a swordfight till they tried! You ducked another slash, and responded by swinging your stick around. WHACK! Caelyum reeled as you managed to smack him across the face…then slowly turned back. He looked…annoyed. “Ow,” was all he said, almost sarcastically, before swinging his blade around again. You quickly lifted your branch… SWACK! And gulped nervously as the cutlass sliced it clean in half. “Oh, boy.” “HA HA!” laughed Cael, and lifted his crab leg, kicking you hard in the stomach. You coughed, dazed and winded as you crumpled to the ground. Now, nothing was standing between the enraged Caelyum and his prey: Mia. The mermaid with legs began to back away in fright…then cried out sharply as Cael thrust out his crab claw and grabbed her by the throat with it. A grin of evil triumph spread across his face as he lifted his weapon above his head. “And here we are at last,” he crooned with twisted delight, and squeezed, making Mia gasp for air. “Any last words, my dear?” Mia gulped…and looked pleadingly into the Swamplander’s eyes as she uttered five simple words. “Cael…please…I love you!” Just before the last three words were uttered, Cael had prepared to attack…but then he froze. The grip of his pincer loosened as she said those three golden words, and the demented smile vanished from his face. He hesitated, as if those words had caused something in his brain to just shut down… Which was all the opportunity you needed. CRACK! “GAH!” exclaimed Caelyum, and dropped Mia, who coughed as she hit the ground. His tentacle hairdo wriggled like a horde of angry snakes as he glared at you in rage: the stone you had thrown at his shoulder had hurt! With a furious roar, he swung his sword around his head three times, trying to cut you into pieces. You ducked and dodged each strike as fast as you could…only to fall back as Cael summoned a horde of sand crabs. You squirmed and grimaced as the crabs pinned you to the ground, acting like organic shackles. You winced as each time you moved, they pinched you hard, making you stay still. Caelyum smirked victoriously, and pointed the tip of his cutlass at your heart. “Tell me, Prefect,” he taunted. “Do you fear death?” “Do you?” CHOMP! Caelyum began to turn around towards the voice, his face etched with surprise…and stayed perfectly still, as if he’d become a statue, paralyzed in shock. The red marking of Tock Crockwork’s unique power – One Minute to Die – was evident on his left arm. “NOW!” the crocodile shouted, as Grim hurried over. The feline-like creature wasted no time: he focused his power, a bright blue aura surrounding him…before, with a spiteful hiss, sending a huge jet of flame towards Caelyum. Caelyum was sent flying through the air, clothing scorched, and rolled across the dirt, still in the position he had been stuck in. Only a few seconds later, he convulsed, and groaned, trying to stand up… …Only to find Tock looming over him. “This,” the crocodile hissed, “Is why I’M top of the food chain, snack meat!” WHAM! He spun around, slapping his tail across Cael’s face…and the Overblotting mage fell still and silent, rendered swiftly unconscious. The sword disappeared without warning from his hand, as if it had never been there. The crabs he had summoned all vanished in the blink of an eye: just like at the shop, one moment they were there, and the next they were not. All four of you – yourself, Mia, and your friends – sighed with relief. “Thanks,” you nodded to Tock as he helped you to your feet. “Hey, I’ve gotta protect my territory; that includes you,” Crockwork shrugged. You decided not to comment on that. “Are you okay, Miss Corazón?” meowed Grim, nuzzling up against the mermaid’s side. She smiled weakly and patted his head before standing. “Physically, yes,” she said. The teenaged girl’s eyes then lit up with concern as she hurried over to Cael’s side. “Cael…Cael, are you okay? S-Speak to me!” she pleaded. “He just tried to kill you!” Grim snapped out. “He wasn’t thinking straight,” Mia defended him. “Just…h-he didn’t understand…” She sniffled and bowed her head. “…C-Caelyum…I’m so sorry…” You and Grim shared a sad sort of look. Tock just looked confused, above all else. “What happened between you two?” the croc grimaced, crossing his scaly arms. “I think we’re about to find out,” you said, and pointed as silver mist began to wisp off of Caelyum De Macabre’s form. A moment later, a blinding white light surrounded the young man…and the mist formed a cloud, inside of which – as always seemed to happen – pictures from the past began to appear… “Tag! You’re it!” “I’ll get you! Ha Ha Ha!” In the swamplands of the Jubilee Port, a small boy with pink dreadlocks giggled and hid behind a tree by the riverbank. For several seconds, he sat anxiously…then yelped when, out of the river burst a familiar, dark face with flowing raven hair. “GOTCHA!” sang out the girl with the gold and ruby tail, and reached out a hand to playfully tap his shoulder. “No fair!” huffed the boy. “I always have to stay near the water; you never let me have an advantage!” The girl giggled and smirked teasingly. “Not my fault you’re a lousy swimmer,” she cooed. The boy grumbled and pouted. She smiled gently. “I’m sorry, Cael; I didn’t mean it,” she said, placing a hand on his leg… “AHA!” the boy laughed, and tapped her hand before jumping away. “You’re it again!” “HEY! THAT’S CHEATING!” The two laughed as the girl swam through the river, chasing the bayou boy up and down the banks…before finally leaping out of the river with a victorious cry. “RAAAAH!” “EEK!” Young Caelyum yelped as he was thrown to the ground. The girl with the fish tail grinned, flippers wagging happily as she kept him pinned. “Gotcha again!” she sang out. Young Cael giggled and wiggled under her. “Hey, lemme go!” he demanded with a slight laugh. “Hmmmm…if I do, will you just tag me again?” “…Maybe?” The mermaid glared…and tickled her friend with her tail. Cael squealed with laughter before flashing an evil smile. “Ohhhhh, you wanna play that way, huh?” He tickled her back and the two rolled across the bank…before yelping and splashing into the river. A moment later, both rose from the depths Caelyum coughing and floundering. “Help! Mia, help! I’m drowning!” “I’ve got you, hold on!” Mia said, and helped Cael back to shore. The boy sighed with relief and began to wring out his clothes. “Thank you,” he gasped out. “No problem,” Mia smiled. “I’m sorry you got all wet…” “It’s okay; I’ve got other clothes,” Cael smiled. Mia nodded, then smiled a bit more sadly. “I still should have been more careful: there may be more clothes, but there’s only one Caelyum.” Cael blushed. “Hush, you’re just teasing me now…” “No. I’m not,” Mia said seriously. “You’re my best friend, Cael.” Cael blinked, pausing in his activities. “…But…don’t you have other mermaid friends?” “I may have OTHER friends, but you’re my BEST friend,” smiled Mia. “And there’s only one of you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Cael blinked again…then smiled sentimentally. “Heh…well, um…you’re my best friend, too, Mia. And, uh…a-and I feel the same.” “I’m glad,” Mia smiled. A pause. “You should really suck less at swimming though.” “Oh, hush. Say! Maybe you can teach me?” “Sure!” That word seemed to be a cue, for the scene changed to a few years later; the same river on the bayou, the same boy and girl, just a little older. “MARCO!” “POLO!” The Mermaid floated with her upper half above the water, eyes closed, flapping her tail as she blindly searched for her friend. Cael would pop up now and again with a gleaming, gloating grin as he watched her try to find him: he’d learned to swim VERY well in the years since that time playing tag. “MARCO!” Mia called out again. “POLO!” laughed Cael. “Oh, this is impossible, you’re too fast!” “Suck less at swimming,” teased Caelyum. “I’m a MERMAID, all we DO is swim!” “You can walk!” “I need a potion or a spell for that,” huffed Mia, and turned around, trying to feel about for her friend. Cael smirked and dove under again, swimming cautiously around her in the wide river… …But as he popped up again, he was due for a terrible sight. He gasped as he saw Mia blindly reaching closer to the shore…where a venomous serpent glared at her oncoming form almost hungrily… “MARCO!” “MIA, WATCH OUT!” Confused, Mia opened her eyes…then gasped as she saw the snake rearing back to bite her! She pulled away just in time, and at the same moment, Cael glared and snapped his fingers. The snake heard a clicking noise, and turned its head to find a white crab snapping its pincers. The pincers swung towards its throat… SNICKER-SNACK! And that was the end of the snake. Mia swam back to Caelyum’s side as she snapped his fingers again and the crab disappeared. He hugged her close. “Are you okay?” he whispered, worriedly. “Yeah…i-it didn’t get me,” she panted with relief, and squeezed him tightly. “Thank…th-thank you…” Caelyum smiled warmly and returned the hug…then froze up as Mia leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you,” she said again, and nuzzled against his bare chest. Cael blinked…then blushed red as a tomato and grumbled. “…Hey, what are friends for…? More time passed, and the swamp disappeared. The scene now became a lonely pier. On it sat Caelyum and Mia, who was now in full human form. “Do you really have to go?” he whispered. Mia nodded sadly, hanging her head. Cael bit his lip, and looked away, tragedy in his eyes. “…When…w-when will you be back?” he asked, timidly. “I don’t know,” Mia admitted sadly, then smiled gently up at her friend. “My mother said I need to start learning more about the family business; spending less time on land and…well…with you.” Cael frowned and clenched his fists. “I see.” Mia’s smile fell…and she gave Caelyum a hug. He relaxed. “She’s set in her ways,” she said softly. “But I will never forget you. And I WILL come back.” “Do you promise?” “Of course. You’re my best friend,” smiled Mia…then reached into a bag she had with her, stationed between the two. “Here…I have proof…” Cael tilted his head as out of the bag she pulled two silver necklaces with heart shaped lockets. She gave him one, and clasped the other around her neck. “What is this?” Cael asked, crinkling his nose in confusion. ��A sign that we both share the same heart,” Mia said, and giggled. “That’s the really sappy way of saying it, anyway. Put it on and open it!” Cael did, and at the same time he opened the locket, Mia did too…and soft, beautiful melody chimed from the music box contained. Caelyum’s eyes widened. “That’s the song you taught me,” he recognized, and looke dup to Mia. “The one about the pirate and the goddess of the sea?” Mia nodded. “It’s your favorite…my favorite…OUR favorite,” she said gently, and took Cael’s hands in hers, looking into his eyes with deep-rooted affection. “And as long as we share these lockets, share these songs…we’ll never truly be away from each other.” Caelyum smiled weakly. “I don’t know about that,” he chuckled, wryly. “But…thank you, Mia.” He paused. “You…you know I love you…right?” Mia blushed. “Yes. And I love you too.” Cael gaped. “You do?” “Of course, silly! You’re my best friend!” Cael blinked…then smiled and shook his head wearily. “Yeah…I know,” he said softly. “I…I know.” A pause…and the pair began to sing together to the mingled tune on their music boxes as they watched the sun sink on the horizon beyond the sea. “Warm and welcoming as the sea, someday I will return to thee. Hear my voice, sing with the tide: Our Love Will Never Die.” Time passed once more, but the music box still played. The next scene played in silence, as Cael lay on his bed silently one night. He hummed to the tune on the locket, and glanced sorrowfully towards a calendar on his wall. Every date was crossed out with a red X. He sighed…then snapped the locket shut…before a lightbulb seemed to go off over his head, and he reached towards his book case, grabbing a specific spell book… This short tableaux was followed by another as Caelyum was now found…underwater. His lower half had become a white-scaled fish’s tail as he swam through the water, using a spell that would turn him into a merman for a few short hours. He’d taken a boat out to the coordinates where he knew Mia lived. Now, he swam quickly and quietly through the city, looking for Mia. His eyes darted this way and that, seeking some sign of his long lost friend; two years without any sort of contact – never a call, never anything written – and he was now so close to seeing her again! He smiled wider as he moved into one of the higher rent neighborhoods of the underwater area, carefully brushing past other, natural merfolk going about their business. His heart was beating fast in his chest; when he found her, he’d tell her everything. How he felt, how much it hurt to be without her, how much he never wanted to be separated again! Then he found her, as he turned an alley…and that fast beating heart seemed to skip a beat… …As his face filled with sorrow. Only yards away – never noticing he was there, he saw a strong, burly-looking merman with blonde hair…hugging his Mia and kissing her full on the lips. He clamped his eyes shut…and swam away, out of the city and back towards the surface. His tears were lost with the tides. Thus ended the vision, as the blinding light faded, leaving an unconscious Caelyum De Macabre lying on the ground, back to his usual self. “…Prefect?” “Yeah, Grim?” “Is it, like…a requirement that we stand here for several seconds in total silence after we see those?” “No, I think it just happens.” “Ah. Okay then.” Tock Crockwork said nothing. A few moments later, Cael groaned and began to stir. He blinked his eyes and clutched his pink-haired head as he started to sit up. “Ugh…what…wh-what happened?” he slurred out. “You tried to turn my food into shish-kabob,” droned Tock, thumbing towards you. “Shut up,” you grumbled. Confused, Cael turned towards your voices, and looked about to say something…until he heard sniffling and whimpering. He turned…and found the teary-eyed face of Mia staring back at him. “C-Cael,” she whimpered…then let out a squealing cry that caught him off guard as she threw herself upon him and began to cry. “CAEL, I’M SO SORRY! I’m so, so sorry…please…please, I’m sorry, PLEASE…!” Caelyum, as you might imagine, looked beyond uncomfortable…and with a growl, he managed to push Mia off of him. She whimpered like a kicked puppy as, without a word, he got to his feet and turned away from her, one hand on his chest, clutching his silver locket. “Sorry isn’t enough,” he answered, coldly. Mia gulped…and stood up. “Cael…please don’t walk away,” she begged. “Why not?” Caelyum snarled back over his shoulder, and began to stumble away. “Because I love you!” Cael stopped. He didn’t turn around…but he stopped. Mia paused…and took a deep breath. “I love you,” she said, firmly now, not desperately. “I…I always loved you, but…but I was…I don’t know, I…I was worried…” She hung her head and paused before going on. Cael turned his head slightly to show he was listening. “When I returned to the sea, my mother didn’t want me to ever go back to the land. She forbid it. She told me I had to stay under the water, and…and find a proper husband. She told me to forget about you, and…that merman you saw? He was…my betrothed.” Cael growled. “WAS,” Mia pointed out, and then went on quickly: “Cael, I could NEVER forget you, and I could NEVER stop loving you. Those two years…they were agony for me. That time in the alley…I asked him to kiss me because I wanted to show him we WEREN’T right for each other. He agreed; there just…wasn’t a spark. We liked each other, but…we both knew it would be wrong.” She swallowed, and lifted her head. “So…we both spoke to my mother. And…she realized what she’d been doing was wrong. The very next day, I went back to the swamplands; I looked everywhere for you…you weren’t there.” Silence. “I’m so sorry, Caelyum,” she sniffled. “I’m…I’m so-” Cael stopped her with a raised hand…and slowly turned towards her. All of you were surprised to see tears in his eyes. “…I just tried to kill you.” “Yes.” “I ran off over this whole misunderstanding.” “Yes.” “All this pain, all this time…and you really loved me?” “Yes.” “And…you…still love me? After all that?” Mia smiled. “Yes.” Cael blinked…then let out a wet laugh. “Wow,” he chuckled. “I…I guess swimming isn’t the only thing we both suck at. I mean…we’re n-not very good at this whole ‘relationship’ thing, either, are we?” Mia shared a sniffling laugh…and the pair promptly ran into each other’s arms. “I’m so happy I found you,” Mia sobbed with joy. “I’ve missed you so much…” “Not half as much as I’ve missed you,” Cael choked. The pair squeezed each other…then backed up, holding each other’s hands and staring lovingly into each other’s eyes. “Play the song you sang long ago,” Cael began. “And wherever the storm may blow,” Mia continued. “You will find the key to my heart,” both finished. “We’ll never be apart.” “Aaaaand…kiss,” you murmured to yourself with a smile, as the pair did exactly that. Tock snorted, rolling his eyes as Grim stuck out his tongue and grumbled something about “soppy mush.” The two lovebirds parted after a few seconds…then seemed to remember you were all standing nearby, and blushed before backing away from each other like scalded cats. “Um…s-sorry,” Caelyum mumbled. “About trying to destroy us, or for that sappy display?” droned Tock. “Because I can forgive one of those…” “It’s the destroying us part, isn’t it?” you guessed. “Yyyyep.” Cael hung his head and shuffled his feet guiltily. “…I’ve…had a lot of pain bottled up for years,” he said silently. “And…when I heard she was coming here…I…well…” “It’s alright,” you soothed, moving closer. “I can understand. And for the record, we won’t tell the Headmaster.” “Nya…or Chief Jehan,” Grim added. “Claude Jehan?” Mia spoke up, and tilted her head. “Is he really as scary as they say back home? The Ashengrottos and Leeches have a LOT of stories to tell.” “I’d imagine,” you snickered. “And no. He’s not that scary.” “Right. He’s WORSE,” Tock responded. “Amen,” you and Grim chorused. Mia gulped nervously; Cael chuckled softly, smiling at her with puppy-eyed affection. “I…hope he’s not going to be at the play tonight,” she said slowly. “Trust me, you’ll be fine,” you soothed. “Well, we won’t be if we don’t get there on time!” Grim reminded you. “We’re already behind schedule, thanks to all this!” “The hairball has a point,” nodded Tock, stiffly, then grumbled under his breath: “I still say it’s all for pansies, though…” All of you chuckled…except Mia, who took Cael by the hand. “Can…can he come, too?” she asked, shyly. Cael looked shocked, as did Grim and Tock. You just smiled wider. “If he wants to,” you answered. Cael blinked…then grinned so wide his face nearly seemed to split in two. “Please!” he nodded eagerly. “Then come on!” you called, and gestured for the reunited lovers to follow. “Let’s get moving before my pay gets docked! I have a pet to feed, you know!” “I AM NOT YOUR PET!” snapped Grim, while Tock cackled with amusement, snapping his fingers and resuming his humanoid form. Caelyum De Macabre and Mia Corazón just smiled and squeezed each other’s hands, following at a steady pace. It took longer than it should have to reach the theater, in the end, but you still made it in the nick of time. When asked why it took so long, you had an honest answer: Cael and Mia were so busy staring into one another’s eyes with everlasting love, it made getting there quickly difficult. In your mind, and theirs, it was more than worth it.

The End

#disney #twisted wonderland #fanfic #grim #dire crowley #lots of ocs #caelyum de macabre #davy jones #mia corazon #tia dalma #tock crockwork #tick tock #the crocodile #claude jehan #frollo #non-kink

14 notes · View notes

hitsuackerman · 4 years

Text

Soom Meetings (Hawks x Reader) nsfw

Prompt: Its quarantine time. You were preparing for a video conference with a few other heroes. Hawks, being the cheeky bird that he is, has other plans for both of you

Warnings: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), cursing

a/n: this entered my mind since we have to do online meetings w/c are a pain in the ass huhuhu i just thought, what would Hawks do if he were added into the mix? Enjoy my self indulgence xD

Masterlist to my other fics :) here

Taking a sip of your coffee, you couldn’t help but stare blindly into space. It was quite early, at least for you. On a normal day, you would wake up at 10am. Gotta get that full 5 hour sleep heroes dream of. Today would mark the 80th day of quarantine and things were not going well.

The bitter goodness your coffee had to offer now began to circulate your system. The stinging sensation your eyes felt with each blink slowly went away. Yawning somewhat made things a little more tolerable. Staring at the view of your glass windows, you savored the clear blue skies and silence your unit had to offer.

At least for now.

With the steaming cup of coffee in your hand, you tiptoed to your room. A ghost of a smile on your face.

Slowly opening the door, you creeped closer to your bed. Careful not to step on any of the feathers scattered on the floor. Eyes darting to the messed up sheets, crimson wings spread out flat as his back rose and fell in a steady rhythm. His arm hanging limply on the edge of the bed.

Gently, you lifted one of his larger feathers and made space for you to sit down. His hair as messy as always. The tufts of hair splayed all over the pillow. Not a sign of stress on his sleeping face. Unconsciously, your finger began to trace his jaw.

His wings began to crest and his feathers began to fluff up. His hanging hand now blindly searched for you. When he felt the soft skin your thigh had to offer, you quickly placed the cup on the bedside table and waited for him to make his move.

A small squeak left your mouth when he easily maneuvered you back into bed. Bare arms snaking your waist as his head nuzzled into the crook of your neck. Legs beginning to tangle with each other. One wing now protectively resting above you. There was no doubt in your mind. You adored mornings like this.

“Well, good morning to you.” You ran your fingers through his hair. The feeling of him tightening his hold on you felt lovely.

“I have to admit,” His voice was still raspy. Deep. “This quarantine makes me thankful. I get to spend more time with my favorite hero.”

“Oh… I’m your favorite hero?”

“Fishing for comments?”

“Perhaps.” You giggled. “You are ranked higher than me, though.”

“That doesn’t matter, Lovebird.” He chirped. “You're a rank below me yet you're underground. That’s literally an impossible feat.”

“I honestly don’t know how that happened.” Drawing circles on his back, he let out a satisfied hum. His eyelashes tickled your skin. Hawks was fully awake now.

“Well, we don’t have any patrols scheduled for today.” He shifted his position. Placing himself between your legs you willingly opened. His hands slowly grabbed your wrist and pinned them just above your head. Bringing himself closer to you, he began to trace the tip of his nose on your neck. “How about we continue where we left off last night, eh?”

The sudden grinding of his hip along your accumulating heat was enough to make you wrap your legs around his waist. Tilting your head, Hawks growled a tiny bit before sucking on your tender skin. As he sucked on your skin, he interlaced his fingers with yours.

His morning wood rather evident. He pushed himself on your clothed entrance. Lazy morning sex was something you would want. Hell. Just feeling Hawks inside you was something you would definitely want. BUT, you couldn’t.

“As much as I’d like you to fuck me lazily in the morning,” You managed to free your hand and pushed him away. Your foot resting on his chest, keeping his lust filled eyes at bay. He was pouting and this only made things worse. “I have a meeting in 20 minutes.”

Holding your ankles, he placed your leg on his shoulder and went back to his previous position. His chest now touching yours. His trademark smirk resting on his lip.

“I’m sure you can just turn your video off, baby~” He nibbled on your lower lip and grinded his hips once more. “Or we can just give them a show.”

Hawks felt a tugging sensation on his chest. He knew you were using your quirk on him. The next thing he knew, he was floating away from the bed. Your fingertips emitting a mahogany glow. Placing him on the chair, you sat on your knees and smiled. Acting all innocent.

“We can do that later.” You stood up and went to the closet. Feeling his eyes following your every movement. You took out your hero costume’s leather jacket and white shirt dress. Used to his stare, you changed in front of him.

“You’ll regret teasing me, chickadee.” He threatened. He stood up and walked towards you. Buttoning your shirt when he was inches away from you. His hot breath brushing your face. When he finished, his hands began to wander your curves as you put on your jacket. “Better watch out, Number 3.”

This man would be the death of you. The way he smoothly held on to your chin while giving you a deep kiss was enough to make you weak. Screw the meeting, that’s what you thought, but this was an ‘important’ one based on the email.

“I’ll be in my office, Number 2.” You booped his nose and went your way. He did, however, smack your bare ass when you turned around. For a second, you played with the thought of grabbing a pair of his boxers but, nah. It would be a lie if you weren’t curious what his antics would be later.

Opening the doors (and leaving them ajar), you immediately went to your PC and prepared everything. When your wallpaper finally appeared, you blushed at the sight. It was one of your first photos with Hawks. Taken approximately 4 years ago.

Opening the Soom app, you let out a silent groan. Everyone was now online and currently waiting for the host to start the meeting. There were 8 green dots. A bunch of heroes that you were in charge of. Edgeshot being one of them.

The meeting was a simple one. A briefing for an upcoming mission to come in 3 months. As to why they chose this online platform still baffles your mind. Your eyes darted to the door when a stray feather began to float it and wander around your office. Right when you were about to call for Hawks, the call for the meeting began.

Straightening yourself, you put on your game face and observed each of the participants. The feeling of weight being slowly added onto your shoulders crept in. Somehow, you had managed to let the spotlight land on you. Because of that, you were given more missions despite not being tied to any agencies.

Teamwork was never your forte. But safety was. You always managed to coax yourself into being a team player by making sure each of them were far from harm.

As the minutes dragged by, the familiar pop of yellow peeked inside your office. Raising a brow, he took that as an invitation and led himself in. A plate of chicken nuggets on his hand. Looking at his wings, you saw how there were barely any feathers. Just the small soft ones.

Your eyes widened when he was just about to walk into your camera’s view.

“Is something wrong, (hero name)?” Fatgum asked. His voice cutting the meeting. All eyes were on your video now. The corner of your eye twitched when Hawks moved your notebooks aside and sat down. One knee resting on top of the other.

“Nothing.” You faked a smile and your professional tone back. People were still clueless that you and Hawks were dating. The two of you had to thank you being an underground hero for that. “Please proceed.”

The meeting continued and this time you made sure you were on mute before opening your mouth.

“Whatever it is… do NOT.” You scolded him. Eyes not wavering from the call. But, your arm was extended just enough for you to pinch his thigh. The little wince of pain was enough to make you content.

“Shouldn’t have done that, love nugget.” He took the wandering feather and made it hover around his finger. Instructing the small feather to creep behind your back, the small red thing did its job.

Your breath hitched when the feather brushed your exposed nape. Your body shivered as the feather did small back and forth movements. Yet, in the video, the feather was small enough to be deemed as non-existent. Clenching your fists, you tried not to be bothered by the sensually soft touches Hawks gave indirectly.

Hawks was now walking away from you. The feather still doing its job. Your eyes were focused but he knew your peripheral vision was on him. Perfect, he thought. Now he was situated across from you. The same playful smirk on his lip. Lifting his hand, he motioned that he would keep his mouth shut.

You knew too well he was playful, cocky, and a tease. So when he began to take his shirt off, your eyes darted to his little strip show. It was not helping one bit that he was flexing his toned muscles. Your throat was definitely dry.

“So what are your thoughts about the plan, (hero name)?” Edgeshot asked. There was no response and all they could see was you and your eyes focusing somewhere else. “(hero name)?”

“YES!” You snapped back. Clearing your throat. “I think the plan looks alright. The division among heroes is compatible. But I am con-”

You jumped from your seat a tiny bit. Your hands held on to the edge of your desk. The feeling of his hands running up and down your thigh was making your core heat up. Having caught you off guard, Hawks managed to pry open your legs. His golden eyes clearly teasing you from under the table.

“I’m, uh, concerned about the entry?” Your hand now held on to his messy hair. Hoping that he wouldn’t go any further than that. The regret of not getting his boxers now flooded your system. Only being in your panties made things much easier for him. You were now biting your tongue and tried to even your breathing.

Hawks was now kissing your inner thighs. Poking his tongue out, he trailed it all the way to the hem of your panties. His teeth tugging the hem and releasing it with a snap. Seeing your jaw tighten and your chest heaving, it only encouraged him.

His finger now began to slide up and down on your panties. A wet spot indicating that you were turned on with his advancement. Spreading your legs further apart, another feather came swooping in and landed straight into his hand. Using the tip, he began to brush it on your skin. The grip you had on his head shattered.

Using the feather, he sliced the corners of your panties. Looking down at him, you gave him a small pout. One not noticeable to those on the video. You liked those panties and now he just had to slice em. It was still hot though, no denying that.

“Holy shit~ Keigo~” Thank quirks your mic was on mute. Feeling his tongue lick your entrance made you push your back to the chair. Blinking away the urge to end the meeting and have him take you on your office table. Which, come to think of it, has never happened.

It was pretty evident that your cheeks were now pink and your eyes hazy. When he sucked on your swelling clit, you fisted some of his hair. Only pushing him and telling him to continue.

“Now that we’ve got that cleared. (hero name). We suggest that you hold another meeting to run through the details.” The chairperson said.

“Fuck, yeah.” It was more breathy than you intended. You mentally slapped yourself.

Both Hawks and your eyes widened. This was getting too interesting for the winged hero. Wanting to push it more, he inserted his middle finger and began to pump slowly. His teeth began nibbling on your lower lips and clit alternatively.

“What I meant to say was, yeah.” Your face was a blushing mess but stoic in their eyes. “Forgive the language. I was rather excited and pumped up.”

“Pumped…” Hawks whispered with a small chuckle. Sucking on your clit one more time, he inserted two fingers. His pace a little faster. Using his free hand, he trailed under your shirt and squeezed on your breast, tugging your hardened nipple.

Releasing the grip your right hand had on his head, you slammed the mute button once more.

“Fuck!” You covered your mouth and hoped they saw it as a cough. “Holyshitholyshitholyshit!”

Your back was now glued to the back of the chair. Lowering your body a bit, you gave him easier access and he happily licked and sucked your engorged clit some more. Knowing the mute button was doing its magic, he too let out a moan. He was starting to become frustrated. The throbbing sensation in his caged cock was getting out of control.

“When will that meeting be over, baby?” He asked. His fingers doing the work for him as he palmed his cock. His eyes blew up with lust.

“Shh…” You reassured him. Meeting his gaze, you gave a soft smile. “It’s almost over.”

With hints of frustration, he fully exited his fingers away from your wet pussy. Licking the juices off his fingers, he crawled out from under your desk. All he wanted to do now was to show himself in the video and put an end to his suffering. Taking his boxers off, he stuck his tongue out and tossed it over your head.

No one noticed it except for one.

Your chat box pinged and you opened it.

MT. LADY: GIRL! WTF WERE THOSE BOXERS?!

(h/n): Are you seeing things, Yu? :p

MY. LADY: Dont think I didnt see yer face. Im not as blind as the others. Who? Do i know him? You dating someone? How did i not see this coming?!

(h/n): Hmm… ;)

That’s all you replied and you closed the chat. Your eyes traveled to Hawks, who was now hovering behind your monitor. Palming his throbbing member. Winking at your flustered face.

“C’mon baby bird…” He mouthed. He wiped a fake tear away from his eye.

Finally, the chairperson spoke and wrapped things up. When he finally dismissed the meeting you practically left the room without saying farewell. Pushing your chair back, you opened your arms and immediately felt his warm body against yours.

Both your lips crashed into each other. It was the perfect definition of a hot, steamy, and messy make out session. Lifting you up, he placed you on your desk. Your hands pushing any obstacles that lay in your path. Quickly taking your jacket off, you tilted your head as Hawks began to leave a trail of kisses and hickeys.

Impatience won and the winged hero practically ripped apart your shirt. Pushing both your bodies, you felt the cold surface touch your back.

A loud moan escaped your mouth as he began to suck and nibble on your hardened bud. His other hand entering your wet hole. 2 fingers in while his thumb rubbed circles on your clit.

“I want you now, Keigo…” You whimpered as he began moving downwards. Leaving behind sloppy kisses till he reached your abdomen. Taking his fingers out, he used the juice and began spreading it on his cock.

Teasing you with the tip, he brushed it against your clit. Your legs instinctevely wrapped around his waist in an attempt to pull him closer. Before he would put himself in you, he glanced at the door and red blurs came swarming in. Attaching them to the base of his wings. Once all of them were in place, he stretched them to their full span. He knew you were always turned on when his plumage was full while he made love to you.

Resting his elbow beside your head, he gave you a deep kiss. His tongue asking for entrance as he slowly slid himself in. Your back arched with pleasure as he nibbled on your lower lip. Your wet hungry pussy feeling full from his shaft.

Roaming hands found their way to the base of his wings. Giving them a bit of massage before digging your nails into his skin. He let out a growl mid-kiss. Thrusting harder, he earned a loud moan from you. The kind of moan that immediately pushed him to the edges.

His hands found their way to your hips. His grip firm, keeping you in place as he began thrusting into you faster and deeper. The carnal look in his golden eyes slowly ate the coil in your stomach away.

Beads of sweat began to form on his forehead. The hickeys now fully visible. The only sound inside your office were the sounds of skin slapping against each other, moans, pants, and loud cursing from sheer pleasure.

“Kei…” You were close and you were not sure how long you could last. “Fuck~ Harder, baby~”

Placing the bend of your knee on his shoulders, he leaned closer towards you and kissed you once more. His thrust much more deeper and he felt his cock twitching. His sinful mouth found its way to your earlobe. Tugging it ever so slightly and nibbling on it.

“Cum for me, Pro-Hero #3.” He whispered. “Show me just how much I can break your walls.”

The last thrust he gave you snapped. You nails dug into his skin while your legs pushed him in even deeper. A wave of heat began to flood your body. Each thrust Hawks did as he rode out your orgasm made your body shudder. Not soon after, Hawks grunted and bit down your neck as he let his twitching cock release inside you. Feeling your pussy milking his cum was overwhelmingly delicious.

Collapsing on top of you, he chuckled.

“You need to have more online conferences, nugget.” He lifted his head and peppered your face with light, feathery kisses. The afterglow evident on your blushing smiling face. “I love you, (Y/N).”

“I love you too, Keigo.” Your leg began brushing his. “Shall we prepare lunch?”

The two of you shared a giggle as his feathers flew out of the room to get some towels and clothes. In your mind, you were already plotting your revenge. Two could definitely play this game.

#hawks #wing hero hawks #hawks x reader #hawks x y/n #mha hawks #bnha hawks

228 notes · View notes