timeconverges

Neal let out a quiet laugh at that, shaking his head slightly as they walked. “Careful what you wish for,” he warned lightly. “This world’s weird.” Which, honestly, felt like an understatement.

Magic existed here, but differently. Hidden beneath traffic lights, electricity, credit cards, and takeout menus. Storybrooke somehow balanced both worlds at once — ordinary and impossible.

At her request, he glanced over at her with faint amusement. “Alright, lesson number one,” he began, slipping his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “Coffee is basically a survival requirement here. People don’t function without it.”

A small grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Lesson number two: everybody carries around tiny glowing rectangles that somehow contain their entire lives.” He paused. “You’ll eventually stop questioning it.”

His expression softened slightly afterward as his eyes drifted toward the town around them.

“I get what you mean, though,” he admitted more quietly. “It’s different than the Enchanted Forest… but there’s still something here. Like magic never fully disappeared. It just learned how to blend in.”

Blend in, yes but also it was a little unsettling; it was like the town existed in both worlds at the same time.

Tinkerbell linked her arm with his and grinned. "Glowing rectangles?" That was the most bizarre-sounding thing; she needed to know everything. "I'm a tinker, Bae. I question everything."

Lorelai stopped just long enough to stare at him, her eyebrows shooting toward her hairline.

"Wait. You have... hobbies?" She pressed a hand dramatically to her chest. "Luke Danes, are you telling me there's a whole secret life happening when you're not making pancakes or fixing things around town?"

A grin spread across her face as they kept walking. She waited for him to elaborate. Then he uttered the words James Bond.

She gasped.

"James Bond? Sean Connery? Pierce Brosnan? Please don't say Roger Moore. Actually, no—say Roger Moore if that's your truth. This is a judgment-free zone..." She paused. "Mostly."

Her smile softened into something fond. "I kind of love that I just learned something new about you." Then, because she was Lorelai, she couldn't resist.

"So..." She bumped his shoulder. "Shaken or stirred?"

Luke nodded. "Yes, a whole secret life. It gets crazy around here." No judgment, but it didn't feel like that. "My dad was really into Sean Connery." It hadn't been his thing at first, but it was something they could share, and it became all the more important after his mother passed.

"I wasn't there for the drinking." James Bond had a lot more aspects to him, and Luke had never been a martini drinker. "I like the casino scenes, the locations..."

Lorelai gasped dramatically, placing a hand over her heart as though personally wounded. “I know vegetables,” she defended immediately. “I can identify at least… four.”

A pause. “Okay, three confidently.”

She grabbed her keys, still shaking her head as she headed for the door. “And for the record, I feel like you’re seriously underestimating my grocery shopping abilities. I am an adult woman. I can absolutely handle vegetables.”

Another pause as she opened the door. “…Provided they are clearly labeled and not weirdly shaped.”

The grin tugging at her lips ruined any attempt at sounding offended. As she stepped outside, she pointed at him warningly.

“And if I come back with squash by accident, we never speak of it again.”

They were going to end up with donuts with a side of more donuts; he was sure of it. He shook his head. Whatever she got, he could make it work.

Luke smirked. "Oh, so you know what a squash is? Probably from those dinners you have at your folks' place. Now, get out of here before I change my mind."

Neal nodded slightly at her words, understanding them better than he probably wanted to. Ghosts had a way of sticking around no matter how far you ran from them.

Still, he wasn’t interested in staying buried in the past all night either. At the mention of food, a small smile finally appeared on his face.

“Now that,” he said, pointing lightly at her, “is the best idea I’ve heard all day.” He pushed himself up a little straighter before glancing over at her again.

“Seriously, I’m starving. I think I’ve survived entirely on coffee and bad decisions today.”

The smile lingered a little afterward, softer now. “C’mon. Food first. Existential conversations later.”

Tinkerbell smiled. Now, this was a good idea. "You've been in this realm for so long, you must have tasted some wonderful food." The options in Neverland were lacking, to say the least; fish was a bore and vegetables? The ground was too harsh to sustain them.

"Let's go on a culinary adventure! Should we go to Granny's or try to make something ourselves?"

Lois had a reputation for being a tough no nonsense kind of woman. And she was. Headstrong, independent, bossy. But, she was also human. And despite her best efforts, she wasn't always able to maintain her stoic, unfeeling facade. Especially when Clark was so sweet.

"Smallville, I swear you're gonna turn me into a sap." She teased lightly. Her expression softened and she reached a hand up to gently caress his face. "I love you, Clark." Her voice was soft and emotional.

"I love you too, Lois." He gave her a light but meaningful kiss. "Come on, we should eat, that is what all this food is for." And while he hoped they wouldn't get interrupted, the threat of that always lingered in the background. "Do you want me to feed you or is that laying it on too thick?"

Lois laughed softly against his lips, shaking her head as she pulled back just enough to look at him. “Oh, Smallville, you are absolutely laying it on too thick,” she informed him affectionately. “Which, unfortunately for me, is apparently one of your more endearing qualities.”

Her fingers lingered against his chest for a moment before she glanced toward the table spread out in front of them. “I mean honestly, this looks less like dinner and more like you’re trying to seduce me through carbohydrates.”

Not that it wasn’t working. Because it absolutely was. Still smiling, Lois finally moved toward the table, though not before stealing one more quick kiss from him.

“And no, you do not have to feed me,” she added, pointing a warning finger at him. “We are not crossing into rom-com montage territory tonight. Unless there’s dessert involved. Then I’m willing to renegotiate.”

#c: clark #ofinkandalibis

Clark chuckled at her assessment of the situation; If that was what it took, she would be an easy mark. "Romantic comedy? I pegged you as the action/adventure type." When Lois mentioned dessert, he shrugged, "Of course there is dessert." After his own attempts of making his mother's famous lemon meringue pie went south, Clark picked up a tray of fine delicacies from the bakery near the Planet.

Lorelai looked at him with immediate suspicion narrowing her eyes playfully. “Wait a second,” she said slowly, pointing at him. “Are you telling me there’s a secret cinephile hiding underneath all the flannel and grumpy diner owner energy?”

Because honestly, that felt like information she absolutely should have known sooner. At his admission that he watched movies more often than she thought, her eyebrows lifted dramatically.

“Oh my Gosh. You do have hobbies.” She pressed a hand lightly against her chest. “This is huge. This changes everything I thought I knew about you.”

There was something very… Luke about it. Quiet. Comfortable. A little lonely, maybe.

“So what are we talking here?” she asked, leaning forward slightly with genuine curiosity now. “Westerns? Action movies? Weird documentaries about fish migration?” A pause followed. “Please say not movies entirely about Civil War reenactments because I don’t know if our relationship could survive that.”

Oh geez, he was going to regret saying that, wasn't he? And now it was out there, and Lorelai was not the type of person who just let things go.

"Yes, I have hobbies." Was that really so outrageous? They weren't together 24/7; like carpentry and woodwork, fishing, a lot of stuff.

"Action movies, mostly I like James Bond." He was sure she would have something to say about that.

memesfortheroleplayerssoul

⊱send me a fandom and i’ll tell you...⊰

am i familiar with it?

do i like the fandom itself?

who’s my favorite character?

if i had to choose, who would i roleplay?

#memes #ask me stuff while i reorganise my muses

Doing a muse page restructure, currently under construction.

#outoftime #ooc

quicksilverbells

Star Trek: Picard - Season 3 - Captain Shaw Edition.

#c: liam #pictures

#c: clark #ofinkandalibis

Nora leaned against him as she pondered his words. They had endless possibilities before them. She looked up at him, a curious smile playing on her lips. "You choose."

She wanted to know where and when he would take them when they have the choice of anywhere and any time.

He really had wanted her to choose. Nora had lived a life doing what her father wanted and never really got to experience things for herself. He had thought maybe she might want to go back and see her mother while she was still alive, but maybe she wasn't ready for that yet.

"Okay, we'll go somewhere I want to go, but next time you're giving me an answer." He went over and typed it in a destination; usually, he would ask Gideon to do it, but he wanted it to be a surprise.

#c: ray #ofinkandalibis

A slight huff of defeat followed as she took the list from him, her lips curving into a frown as she read it. "You're so bossy." She quipped, though there was no heat in her words.

"Fiiine. But I am buying pie and ice cream for dessert. And you're gonna eat some."

"That's a fair compromise." Luke agreed. "Now go, it'll take you a while to figure out which vegetable is which." If he wasn't present, Lorelai wouldn't eat vegetables at all if she could get away with it, she probably even picked out the ones that came in her Chinese food.

"Luke, you are not a movie guy." She reminded him, thinking of all of the movie references that she had made over the years that he had been totally clueless about.

"When was the last time you even watched an actual movie? You know one that had sound." The last part was teasing obviously.

#c: luke #ofinkandalibis #timed queue

Luke smirked. "Well, that's not entirely true." He liked some movies, but he also knew he had very different tastes from Lorelai's; she seemed like the kind of person who would lose interest easily or spend the movie making fun of the actors.

"More often than you'd think." Sometimes he would bring the TV downstairs and leave it on in the background while he cleaned the diner.

Neal smirked faintly, completely unapologetic. “What can I say? It’s one of my many talents.”

He glanced around briefly before his attention settled back on her. The teasing expression softened slightly at her next words.

For a moment, he was quiet.

“Yeah,” he said softly. “Me too.”

A small smile tugged at his lips, though there was something more thoughtful behind it now.

“You deserve more than surviving, Tink,” Neal continued quietly. “You deserve an actual life. Friends, freedom, experiences… all of it.”

His gaze held hers for a brief moment.

“And I’m really glad you got out too.”

"Well then, I'll have you be my guide; teach me all the things about this world, how it relates to our own and how it does not." She smiled.

Neverland had been a trial when she first got there, but Tinkerbell had learned to adapt. Storybrooke seemed very different; there was something wondrous about it; It wasn't quite the Enchanted Forest, but there was a deep connection. Maybe there was a way that her own magic could return here.

Something in Neal’s expression softened immediately at her words.

Family.

That still meant something to him. More than he probably knew how to explain.

A small smile crossed his face, quieter this time. “Thanks, Tink,” he said sincerely. “That means a lot.”

But at the mention of Emma, his expression shifted again. More complicated now.

Neal exhaled softly, glancing away for a moment before leaning back slightly.

“I don’t know,” he admitted honestly. “Part of me will probably always love her.”

That much had never really changed.

“But loving someone and being right for them aren’t always the same thing,” he added quietly.

His gaze drifted downward briefly before returning to her.

“There’s been too much history. Too much hurt.” A faint, rueful smile tugged at his lips. “And somehow we always manage to find new ways to complicate things.”

A small pause followed.

“I think… right now, I’m just trying to figure out who I am when my entire life isn’t centered around running or surviving or fixing everybody else’s messes.”

Tinkerbell nodded. "Our ghosts haunt us; they never truly stop." Both of them had their fair share, Emma, his mum, the good man he used to think his father was and for her? The Lost Boys were terrors, but they didn't start out that way.

"But you're right, we need to move forward. Maybe with food? I'm starving."

Neal looked at her with something akin to both sympathy and envy. "Families are...complicated. I think that's why I prefer to choose mine. You're my family. Because you're someone who has always been there."

"Tink, I think that aside from Henry, you're the most important person in my life."

"And I'll continue to be your family Bae, always." She nodded. "And what of Emma? is there. I mean, is there hope for you two?"

If anyone deserved a happy ending, Tinkerbell would do anything to accomplish that, but she also knew that might not be in his future, and maybe that was a good thing.