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wangxianficrecs · 4 years

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Follower Recs

Stories I haven’t read yet, but clearly need to put on my ever-expanding List.

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Welcome back queen [Thank you, it’s so lovely to be back!] if ur still doing follower recs I gotta recommend I would wait for a thousand years by bleuett it’s soooooooo good

[This one was actually recced to me by two different people, the other of whom said, “ Maybe I'm crying a little so I feel like a should recommend ‘I would wait for a thousand years’ by bleuett on ao3.”]... it’s def. on my List!

I would wait for a thousand years

by bleuett (T, 10k, wangxian)

Summary: During the worst of winter, a traveler comes to stay at Lan Wangji's inn. He wears a red ribbon in his hair.

“Do you see the rabbit?” Wei Ying asks and points at the moon. “That’s the moon rabbit, he helps make Chang’e more immortality elixir. He keeps Chang’e company.”

“I do not wish the rabbit for company,” Lan Wangji says tightly. “You are the one I want by my side.”

“And I’m here, Lan Zhan. If you go to the moon, I’ll follow you, I’ll always be here now.”

~*~

I just read a great fic by aisthuu "every love story is a ghost story", didn't see it in your recs so wanted to recommend it! LWJ is a guqin composer and teacher, buys a cheap guqin off eBay which ends up being attached to WWX's spirit from canon era. It's bittersweet, LWJ deals with Lan's homophobia (implicit in a Lan way) and his feelings towards the ghost. This is author's only ao3 fic and honestly I don't remember how I stumbled upon it, but I'm happy I did and hope you will enjoy it too! [I’ve recently read this one, and loved it!]

every love story is a ghost story

by aisthuu (M, 59k, wangxian, my bookmark)

Summary: The man is in Lan Zhan’s bed. Did they—he begins to wonder, eyes trailing to where the man’s body lies under the blanket. Had Lan Zhan—?

Then the sleep-fog clears and Lan Zhan realizes that the young man isn’t quite opaque around the edges.

“You’re a spirit.”

The spirit narrows its eyes. “I’m so much more than that.”

(Lan Zhan buys a guqin off eBay for a suspiciously low price, only to find that it’s haunted. And now there’s a ghost in his bed.)

~*~

Ok so I absolutely have to rec "see you yesterday" by glyphic. It's a wip, but it's currently at 101k so there's a whole lot there, and it's terrible and wonderful and beautiful all at once. The way the backstory of canon events is adapted to the modern-with-cultivation setting is brilliant, and then there's the amnesia, and then there's the time loop. This fic lives permanently rent-free in my brain.

see you yesterday

by glyphic (M, 101k, wangxian, WIP)

Summary:

Wei Ying 21:09 hey lan zhan what’s the weirdest way youve died

Lan Zhan 21:11 Falling encyclopedias.

Wei Ying 21:12 omg no way that’s so rude turning books against you???

Lan Zhan 21:13 A betrayal I will never forget.

On Halloween night, an exiled demonic cultivator and a Lan disciple get stuck in a time-loop, find each other, and try to figure it all out.

~*~

If you are looking for recs for yourself I absolutely love (the complete!) story Just as the Snow Melts by draechali on AO3. It's a canon divergence where everyone lives, even WWX! ~ @airmidcelt

Just as the Snow Melts

by draechaeli (T, 67k, wangxian)

Summary: Like a snowy mountain top in spring the residents of the Burial Mounds trickled down the mountain and joined the flow of society.

“I went to the Burial Mounds,” Lan WangJi said.

“Ah, yeah… I’m sorry Lan Zhan,” replied Wei WuXian, “I hadn’t thought anyone would come to visit. I am still not sure how it happened; I brought A-Yuan to Yiling to play by the river and then ended up somehow teaching a bunch of children swimming and writing along with him.”

~*~

Hello! It's come to my attention that you have not as yet read Grandmaster of Meme-onic Cultivation! Please do! It's the only thing that gave me joy during 2020 😆 like proper belly laughs and disney villain style cackling. It is a wip, and it is long but so so worth it!! The author has reworked the entire canon through these message crystals and still conveys complex characters despite the tricky format. It's just so good!! Highly highly recommend it! ❤ ~ @theladypeartree [Oh! I’ve been subscribed to this one, and know that @swaglexander-the-great is a reliable provider of Hilarity, so I’m excited for it to be finished!]

Grandmaster of Meme-onic Cultivation

by Hades_the_Blingking (T, 49k, wangxian, WIP)

Summary: The Untamed universe is exactly the same, except everybody has magical crystals that have a suspiciously familiar messaging system. The story is pretty much the same as the show, except everyone lives!! (so minor changes).

or in which Wei WuXian tries his darndest to date Lan Zhan, Jiang Cheng possibly has a aneurysm, Jin ZiXuan is still the most awkward human alive, and Xue Yang makes me write some VERY cursed things. Written in chatfic format! :3

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Chomrafy on AO3 deserves love and encouragement; she’s written a body of compact, poetic, and eloquent shortfics each of which can stand alone, but that comprise an intricately cross-referential and mostly internally-consistent universe. They’re grouped as chapters in works according to theme; for example, “in cupped hands” focuses upon Jin Ling and his second-generation baggage; “Departure in Autumn” portrays the last years of WWX’s first life. Follow the tag “Chomrafy’s MDZS shortfics.” [I don’t see this tag?]

in cupped hands

by chomrafy (G, 2k, wangxian)

Summary: Of secrets, of futures, of love. A Jin Ling-centric collection of 200-word fics.

Ch.1: Jin Ling repays a debt (JL, JC, & WWX). Ch.2: Jin Ling and a ghost in the mirror. (JL & JYL) Ch.3: A matter of friends (JL & the other kids) Ch.4: In this house we don't keep dogs (JC & WWX) Ch.5: In the end, he remains silent (JL & uncles) Ch.6: A first night hunt, of sorts (JL & the other kids) Ch.7: Jin Ling, forgiving, forgetting (JL & LXC & JGY) Ch.8: Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling argue (JL, JC, & WWX) Ch.9: Jin Ling and his father (JL & JC) Ch.10: Jin Ling speaks up (JL, JC, & WWX) Ch.11: Jin Ling and a piece of home (JL, JC, & WWX)

Departure in Autumn

by chomrafy (not rated, 6k)

Summary: Four perspectives. A steady march to the end.

Ch.1: Because if anything happens to them, Wen Qing would never be able to heal with these hands again. Ch.2: As long as this is still home, Jiang Yanli will wait as long as she needs to. Ch.3: Five times Jiang Cheng reaches for Wei Wuxian, one time he turns away. Ch.4: Whether the road is broad or narrow, bright or dark, they would have to keep walking. Wei Wuxian digs Wen Qing's grave.

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Hello, hope all is going well. I don't have an ask, by I do have a recommendation. I read this fic a while ago and found it again. I just wanted to recommend this for everyone. Let me know what you think please. Thank you. [Oh! This one’s in my To Read list, but I’d forgotten about it. Mmmm, fox!wwx and dragon!lwj.]

Ten miles of Lotus Flowers

by Yukirin_Snow

M, 274k, wangxian

Summary: He was a mischievous fox spirit, wreaking havoc where he went, about to depart on a journey that would span centuries.

He was a heavenly prince, a proud dragon destined to ascend the throne to become emperor.

Neither expected their paths to collide over the span of three lives.

~*~

I forgot if it was your blog 😥 that recommended “Bestseller” (when Wei Wuxian writes the Xianxia cut-sleeve equivalent of Fifty Shades of Grey, based entirely on his experiences with Lan Wangji, he doesn’t expect it to become the next big hit) (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21528316/chapters/51318766)

But OMG IT WAS HILARIOUS!!! I LOVED IT!! And if it wasn’t your blog, I’m so sorry for how weird this sounds 😭😭😭😭 I just loved this fic so much that I have to tell it to someone 😢 [It’s on my List, but I haven’t read it yet!]

Bestseller

by pupeez4eva

M, 8k, wangxian

Summary: He had written the book to prove a point. It was never supposed to be a big thing, and he certainly never intended for everyone — Jiang Cheng, Zewu-Jun, the Juniors, literally everyone— to be reading about his sex life.

Oh God, he definitely needed to make sure Lan Zhan didn’t find out about this.

(Or, when Wei Wuxian writes the Xianxia cut-sleeve equivalent of Fifty Shades of Grey, based entirely on his experiences with Lan Wangji, he doesn’t expect it to become the next big hit).

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I’d like to rec On Your Marks, Get Set, Bake! by @blackwiresgrowonherhead

It’s one of my absolute favorites and I laughed out loud so many times when reading it

on your marks, get set, bake!

by BlackWiresOnHerHead

G, 41k, wei wuxian & juniors

Summary: Jin Ling resumes thumping on the door to room 721, and the small collection of freshmen starts chanting “Senior Wei! Senior Wei! Senior Wei!” with increasing volume until finally Wei Wuxian opens the door.

“Yes?” he says with his widest, most innocent eyes.

“Senior Wei!” demands Lan Jingyi, shoving himself to the front of the group. “Why didn’t you tell us you’re a contestant on this year’s season of The Great Gusu Bake Off?!?”

Several months ago, college student Wei Wuxian secretly competed in the most popular reality show in the country. The show starts airing in the fall. The freshmen in his dorm collectively lose their minds.

~*~

If you're in the mood for v. short ridiculous fun fic, may I suggest My chain hits my chest/When I'm bangin' on the radio by x_los It's 2k modern cultivators AU, featuring WWX calling LWJ's sword Bitchin' [omg I’m laughing so hard] and I think it's more fun going in blind?

My chain hits my chest/When I'm bangin' on the radio

by x_los

T, 2k, wangxian

Summary: Lan Wangji finds he doesn't even need to call for help for Wei Wuxian to come running.

#follower rec #wangxian fic rec #I HAVEN'T READ THESE YET #wangxian #mdzs

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nctsjiho · 4 years

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Relationships with: WayV

Click here for: NCT 127, NCT U, NCT Dream, WayV

Kun:

MOVE!

I-

These two~~~

Unexpectedly the duo you never knew you wanted needed

For the longest time they weren’t in any groups together and didn’t have many practises in common (besides NCT 2018 stuff)

They usually would just say hi in passing, but never really hang out if it wasn’t for multiple members going out to eat

But one day JiHo approached Kun asking him for a favour

He found out the reason why they didn’t talk a lot was because JiHo felt really shy around him for some reason

“I don’t know, I just felt too nervous around him” (JiHo during a random Vlive)

Near the end of 2020 a video got released on the NCT YouTube channel of JiHo singing with Kun accompanying her on the piano

You could somewhat say it was JiHo’s debut as a vocalist

Kun said that he didn’t see it as a favour, but that it was an honour JiHo chose him to do this with her (///.-) I’m not crying heh-

Ever since then they have been very comfortable around each other

JiHo praises him a lot on his vocals, piano and producing skills

Kun praises her on her vocals as well and has become another of her vocal coaches/supporter

JiHo said that if it weren’t for Kun, she would have never posted a vocal cover. “All the guys are supportive but Kun pushes me to better my skills so I can comfortably show them to NCTzens” ^^ I’m blushing this is cute

People ship them platonically after the cover and want them to put out more, but with both of them singing together

Ten:

Loves teasing JiHo

Dance partners

“JiHo is such a good dancer guys!” (Instagram Live with Yangyang)

Speaks up immediately when someone says something bad about JiHo

Jeno physically protects her, but Ten isn’t afraid to tear someone down with words (the members have to calm him down whenever it happens because he gets really worked up)

Jokes around a lot with JiHo during practise

Another one who brings out the chaos in JiHo

JiHo X WayV is just a bad idea in general, no manager can calm them down once they get started I feel sorry for the WayV managers

The two often butt heads, but they also make up quickly because they’re too close of friends <3

Learns her Thai and she’s pretty good!

Makes fun of her a lot though, but he also tells her how great she’s doing

Is happy that he’s no longer the person who knows the most languages in the group. During variety shows they test JiHo more often and he doesn’t have to rack his brain switching from language to language

Share mutual respect for each other

Winwin:

Has a soft spot for Winwin (like everyone else does) but isn’t overly affectionate and he appreciates that

Was awkward with JiHo for a while, but then she started learning Chinese. He noticed how much effort she put in to become accepted in NCT as the only girl. Now he doesn’t feel awkward anymore

He looks up to her because she’s so hardworking

Share a lot of cute fan favourite moments, usually where they are in the background of videos or vlives laughing together

They spent a lot of time practising dances together and said he’d like to dance together with her for an NCT Dance video

Lucas:

Robbed from being Dreamies together

Was sad he couldn’t join NCT Dream, but was about to sue SM for not letting JiHo be in Dream

Spoils JiHo a lot!

Gives her expensive gifts such as shoes, handbags, jewellery, etc. (she tells him not to but he still does anyway)

Only 1 year older but acts like JiHo is a baby

Lucas said that he wants to model with her for Vogue or Dazed or some fancy fashion magazine like that

Says that JiHo is the only one who matches his visuals

“I thought our members were good looking, but JiHo has set the bar too high and I think I’m the only one who’s up to her standards.”

JiHo will not for the life of her acknowledge the fact that he said that on national television (also disagrees because Renjun, Jaemin, Doyoung and Jungwoo exist)

JiHo calls Lucas Prince a lot, because she thinks he’s very handsome

JiHo sometimes ignores some of the boys’ calls, but answers Lucas every time, no hesitation

Is the one who called her Jihyun for a few months when he first got to know her, even though everyone kept on correcting him, he kept forgetting -_-

Now the members call her Jihyun teasingly

Xiaojun:

JiHo thinks he’s really cool

They always talk in front of the practise room, when one comes out of practise and the other was waiting to go in

Group members have to physically separate them, because they zone everyone else out when talking to each other

Love going out to eat together, or just go to a cafe and talk

JiHo will actually join WayV to visit Xiaojun while he’s filming a drama

(JiHo isn’t allowed to do that anymore, definitely after not telling one of her manager that she was flying to China to see Xiaojun, poor manager almost had a heart attack when he couldn’t find her and she didn’t pick up her phone for 3 hours ;;; )

Instagram pictures together <3

Domestic af, they look like they have been friends since birth

Hendery:

Cutely awkward together

Super giggly for some reason ^^

She’s the least close with Hendery out of all WayV members, but since she likes WayV so much she’s been hanging out a lot more with him and became closer

He’s really good at English so he helps her with her Chinese and whenever she gets tired of speaking Chinese he will switch to English or Korean (whatever works really)

Also one of the people who thinks she’s really cool and kind of intimidating

But off-stage she’s really sweet

Send each other a thumbs up after practise or when the other gets off stage

Ten and Kun said they want them to get closer because they are kind of similar

Yangyang:

Chaos-

Multilingual messes

JiHo completely understands German but before meeting Yangyang she never really tried speaking it before. She’s nervous to mess it up but Yangyang is really excited and helps her a lot with German. Since he also forgot a bit of German they take classes together

75% of her attention is taken up by Yangyang when JiHo hangs out with WayV

Exposes so much about JiHo on Vlive and Instagram (He got a warning by the managers to be careful because he might spill something that’s not supposed to be made public)

Legendary Instagram Live where the two of them were up until 3 am and were so sleep-drunk. JiHo couldn’t form a coherent sentence, mixing up every language she knew. Yangyang dissing his members and both of them laughing hysterically

The fans absolutely adore them and the members are absolutely terrified

Ten said that whenever JiHo’s with him and Yangyang, he can’t be with them for long or he’ll actually go insane

---

Side Note: my posts weren’t showing up in tags for the last 3 days so I contacted Tumblr and apparently it was a bug on their end. Luckily they fixed in in literally 10 minutes! In other words: I’m back to posting again!

If you have any questions/comments please feel free to let me know. I have a few posts ready to go already, so i’m excited!

#jiho.guide #nct 24th member #nct addition #nct female member #nct extra member #nct additional member #wayv fluff #wayv reactions #wayv imagines #nct fluff #nct imagines #nct reactions #kpop!addition #kpop!oc #kpop fluff

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mister-supernova · 4 years

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Memories Lost

Part 1 - Part 2

Pairing: Hope Mikaelson x Reader

Before Malivore

“Y/n L/n, please do not tell me that you forgot to add eggs to the cake mix.”

Your eyes widen like a child who is about to be in some serious trouble by their parents. Now that you thought about it, something did feel off about the batter you’ve been struggling to stir for the past five minutes.

You look up from your batter bowl to see Hope staring at you with daggers in her eyes.

Yep, you were screwed.

After gently placing your wisk on the kitchen table, you give the tribrid the best innocent smile you could, “Okay. I won’t tell you that, but I will tell you that we’re going to have to start over since there may or may not be a key ingredient missing from the mix.”

As much as you wanted the smile to dilute the situation, Hope still pinches the bridge of her nose and runs her fingers through her hair, obviously more stressed out than ever.

Today is Commonwealth Day and some of Hope’s family members from New Orleans are supposed to be coming into town, one of which includes her mother. If anything you felt that you should’ve been the one who was stressed out.

“How do you forget to add eggs to a cake mix, Y/n?” Hope asks, flailing the full carton of eggs around. She looked like she was on the verge of erupting like Pompeii.

You decide to approach with caution, “Okay, okay,” you slowly reach for the carton and carefully take it from her hand, “Let’s not break the only eggs left in the fridge, yeah? We do need those. Let’s also take a steady breather for a second.”

The two of you inhale one large breath of air together and then slowly breathe out.

“There we go, Hope,” she’s still looking at you with a small amount of fire in her eyes, “Hey, I apologize for my idiocy. I honestly don’t know what you expected when you left me alone to make this, but it’s a minor setback.”

“That was the only box of cake mix we bought, Y/n.” Hope states.

You fall silent for a moment to let that information sink in, “Okay, slightly more than minor setback,” Hope lets out a frustrated groan and moves past you, “We don’t have to make a cake, Hope. I saw a box of brownie mix in the pantry.”

“Yeah, that says ‘Lizzie Saltzman’s Brownie Mix: DO NOT TOUCH’ in big black letters. In case you don’t recall, I’m not exactly in her good graces at the moment.”

“Eh, name me one person who is in her good graces,” you shrug as if it’s no big deal and take the box out anyways, giving it a good shake, “Doesn’t feel like she put any jinxes on it. My arm has yet to fall off so therefore I think we should be safe.”

Hope gives you a look telling you that she’s still unsure of this.

“Come on, I of all people know how much crap she makes you go through on the daily basis. What’s a box of brownie mix compared to torment?” You pause and think, ‘that’s probably a little much’, “Maybe not literal torment, but you get the picture. I’ll even take the blame if she starts asking questions.”

“Are you kidding? She’d probably kill you if she found out.”

“That’s what I have you for,” you say matter-of-factly, taking a few steps closer to the tribrid until you were face to face, “What, you thought that I was your friend because I like you?” You ask in a playful tone, making Hope roll her eyes at you even though she was clearly amused, “Keep dreaming, Mikael-” her eyes widen and she covers your mouth with her hand before it’s too late.

You are the only student in the whole school who knows that Hope’s father is Klaus Mikaelson. It took many months of trust-building after your friendship began, but one night at the pier, Hope mustered up enough courage to tell you about her family history.

She half-expected you to go running for the hills and leave her in the dust. Instead, you blew her expectations out of the water by having the calmest reaction she had ever seen. You thanked her for trusting you so much that she felt that she could tell you something not everyone knew at the time.

She made you promise not to tell anyone to which you agreed to with a pinky promise. This moment has been the only time you nearly slipped up. Thankfully no one else was in the kitchen, but who knows who could be walking by.

You raise an eyebrow at Hope, glancing down at her hand that was still covering your mouth.

Hope quickly retracts her hand back, “Sorry. It was just, you know-”

“No, that was my bad. Good save though... Marshall.” You say, followed by a cheeky wink.

A tint of red flushes Hope’s cheeks as she gives you a thankful smile, causing your cheeks to warm up as well.

You clear your throat and break eye contact with the tribrid, “Shall we get started?” You ask, raising the brownie mix up to your face, “Ass beating from Lizzie or not, I still wanna make a good first impression on your family, especially your mom. God knows you’ve probably dragged my name through the dirt every chance you had.”

Hope playfully rolls her eyes, giving you a small shove before giving in and pulling out a clean mixing bowl. “Fine, let’s just get this over with before we get busted.”

“Atta girl!” You grin widely before ripping the box open.

There was no going back now. If you two were going down, at least you were going down together and you were getting a sweet treat out of it, too.

II.

It was a beautiful day to be out at the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted. The weather was your idea of perfect; sunny, breezy, and clear.

Students were reading outside on the grass, the younger kids were playing tag, others playing Wickery, and you were getting your ass beaten by the world’s strongest tribrid.

This was your guys’ third round of sparring for the day and you had yet to win a single one. Just when you thought you had her arm locked behind her back, she whispers the incantation, “Dimiterre.”

Everything went by so fast that you didn’t have any time to think about landing on your feet. Instead, your back slammed against the small wooden pier after being flipped over the tribrid’s shoulder. It wasn’t fair that she could just chant any spell she wanted to throw you off guard.

“Is that really all you got today, Y/n? This is just embarrassing.” She shakes her head at you like a disappointed coach.

“I’ll make you eat those words, Mikaelson,” you grunt, feeling a new surge of energy course through your body as you jump back up to your feet, “We’re just getting started.” You smirk, wiping a drop of sweat off your forehead.

Hope grins back at you, readying her position for another round of sparring. The both of you share the same look of determination, neither one backing out as you throw the first jab.

Several more rounds pass. All of which ended with your ass hitting the pier as if it were some kind of magnet.

“You’re making this too easy.” Hope says triumphantly with a cocky smile.

You huff out an exhausted breath of air, “I’m obviously letting you win, Mikaelson,” you use your arms to help you jump back to your feet, “I could easily take you down if I wanted to.”

“Oh yeah?” Hope wonders, taking a step forward. She was a little less out of breath than you, but you could tell that she was playing it off just as much as you were.

“Oh yeah. Why don’t we do one final round? This time I won’t hold back.” You challenge her.

“You seem pretty worn out for someone who was holding back.” She states and you pretend not to be hurt by her jab at your lack of combat skills.

“Maybe that’s just to fool you into thinking you can beat me again,” you shrug as you watch her readjust her gloves, “Oh, and you can’t use your magic. Too much of an advantage.”

Hope’s mouth falls open and she shakes her head, “Then I’d be at a disadvantage. You’re like a whole foot taller than me.”

“Come on, if it’s so easy you should have no problem pinning me down within two seconds of the round.”

Hope silently thinks it over in her head, then quickly comes to a decision, “Fine. Loser buys milkshakes at the Grill.”

You grin, “Deal. Prepare to pay up, Mikaelson.”

After waiting for one of you to make the first move, Hope decides to sweep kick your legs at an unfathomable speed and knocks your back to the ground.

She straddled your hips and placed her hands on both sides of your head, “Ha! Looks like someone’s- wha-”

As quickly as she knocked you to the pier just now, you pulled her neck down to where her face is inches closer to yours, trapped her arm by wrapping yours around it, lifted your leg to trap hers and then rolled your body over to where you were now on top.

Breathless and cheeks redder than before, Hope stared up at you in shock. If you were completely honest, you had no idea that move was going to work, but you were so glad that it did. For one, now you get a free milkshake and two, you’ve never had Hope Mikaelson’s face this close to yours before.

Her legs were practically wrapped around your waist and your hands were holding her arms down above her head, making her face dangerously close to yours. It would only take one of you leaning forward for something to happen.

Instead, you kept your cool, “Looks like I win.” you smile, also breathless, “I like cookies and cream, by the way.”

III.

“So you do this… for fun?” You ask, sitting as still as possible on a wooden stool in Hope’s bedroom.

It was a stormy weekend in Mystic Falls, so most of the outdoor activities were closed off until the rain cleared up, which didn’t seem to be happening anytime soon according to the weather broadcasts. You weren’t a huge fan of being alone during thunderstorms--you’d never let anyone know that--so you found yourself hanging out with Hope.

Well, you were mainly watching Hope. She came up with the idea of painting a portrait of you sitting by her window to pass the time. Being that you’ve never had a portrait painted of you before, you thought this would be kind of fun. You didn’t expect it to be such a long and quiet process, but you definitely preferred this over being scared out of your mind listening to the thunder by yourself.

Hope hums a yes to your question as she concentrates on her strokes, “Can you look back out the window?”

You sigh, turning your head to look outside for about thirty seconds before nearly falling off the stool because of the lightning bolt that crashed a couple miles away from the school. As pretty as it looked, being struck by lightning was still one of your irrational fears.

“Are you sure it’s safe for me to be looking outside?” You turn back to look at Hope.

“Y/n, I promise nothing is going to happen to you. Now sit still,” she says in a not-so-reassuring voice.

You let out an annoyed huff, but you do you’re told and turn to face the rain covered window glass.

“How long does it usually take you to do these things? Asking out of curiosity. Totally not because I’m losing feeling in my glutes.” You wonder, shifting in your stool.

“I’m usually quicker when my subject isn’t interrupting every five seconds and moving around like they have worms in their said glutes.”

You face her again with an over exaggerated look of shock on your face, “Is that some sort of degrading werewolf joke? That is extremely offensive.”

She leans away from her canvas to look at you, her eyes squinted, “I’m part werewolf, too, idiot.”

“You’re a tribrid. That’s different. One third of a werewolf doesn’t count, therefore your little worm joke hurts me more.” You stick your tongue out at her.

“Why am I friends with you again?” She’s trying her best to hide it, but you can tell that she’s resisting a smile.

“Because as sad as it is, no one else can make you smile like I do, Mikaelson.” It took a few seconds until she couldn’t help but reveal a very faint yet noticeable grin. She leaned back behind her canvas to conceal it, but there was no use since you already caught sight of it.

“Just shut up and look out the window before I cast a freeze spell on you.”

You wanted to make another snarky remark, but you knew your friend well enough to know that she was serious about casting that spell. To avoid being frozen in an uncomfortable position for God knows how long, you closed your mouth and relaxed your body before looking back out the window.

IV.

“What do you mean you can’t dance? I’ve seen you do it all the time.” Hope asks, watching you from her bed as you pace back and forth in her dorm room.

“That’s me flailing my body around like a fool hoping it looks good! I don’t know what I’m actually doing!”

Josie asked you--as a friend--to be her escort for her and Lizzie’s 15th birthday party. You’d only be dancing with her one time, but the problem was that it was supposed to be a waltz and you had absolutely no idea how to do that.

“It’s embarrassing enough that she asked me to be her escort, I don’t wanna embarrass her even more for not knowing how to do a stupid waltz!” Hope rolls her eyes before having enough of your unnecessary freakout.

She gets up from her bed to stop you from pacing, “Y/n. Just relax, okay? You freaking out is freaking me out,” she says, holding onto your shoulders, “I can teach you how to waltz.”

Your body relaxes and a small wave of relief hits you, “Seriously?”

“What? You think I can’t dance either?” Hope playfully asks, placing her hands on her hips as she tilts her head at you.

“I’ve never seen you do it before,” you argue, getting a small smack to the arm, “Ow! Okay, I’m obviously kidding… sort of,” she smacks you again, making you laugh this time, “Okay, okay. Forreal now, I could really use your help.”

Hope sighs, pretending to have second thoughts because of your teases. You don’t worry too much though because you know she wouldn’t leave you to crash and burn like that... at least you really hope so.

“Give me your hand.” She gives in, fitting one of her hands in yours. You grin as your other hand finds her waist and hers rests on your shoulder, “Make sure you’re relaxed, you wouldn’t want to look stiff as a board while you’re dancing.”

You nod your head, taking in a deep breath as you let your muscles relax.

“Also, always have your eyes on your partner. You’re more likely to be tripping on their feet if you keep looking down.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard.” You say without meaning for it to leave your head. Hope bows her head for a second to hide the redness appearing on her cheeks.

After composing herself, Hope looks back up at you, “First, step forward with your left,” you follow her movements smoothly, “Step sideways to the right,” your right foot steps out, “Close your feet together, then step back with your right,” you glance down at your feet for a second which was your first mistake.

You slightly stumbled, but caught yourself when you put your feet back together.

Hope chuckles, “What did I tell you?”

“Hey, now cut me a little slack. I was doing pretty good for a second there,” you defend yourself before repositioning your feet, “What’s next?”

“Step to the left, bring your feet together, then repeat it all over again but a little faster. You’re going to want to count one-two-three in your head to stay in rhythm,” you raise an inquisitive eyebrow, making her smile, “Okay, I’ll count out loud and you repeat the moves we just finished learning. Does that sound good?”

You nod quickly, then she takes her step back and you follow, remembering what she taught you. Forward, right, together. Back, left, together. Forward, right, together. Back, left, together. The longer you two went on, the quicker you picked up on the moves and the more comfortable you felt.

Eventually, you felt that you didn’t need to keep dancing with Hope, but it was hard not to keep going when you have the most beautiful girl in your arms right now.

“Stop looking so smug.” Hope says, noticing the smile that appeared on your face. Even though she stopped counting, the two of you continued to flow around her room gracefully.

“I’m waltzing with the big and bad tribrid. How can I not be smug?”

It’s Hope’s turn to smile, but she gives you a playful eyeroll to counter the fact that she was enjoying this, “If you tell anyone I did this for you, you’re dead.”

“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t dare let anyone know you’re an actual decent person, Hope Mikaelson. It’ll be our little secret.” You wink at her, making her cheeks even redder. She moves her mouth to one side of her face to keep herself from smiling any wider.

It made your heart flutter, seeing how comfortable she was around you. You got to see the vulnerable side of her that she rarely ever showed to anyone else at the school. It’s the small moments like this that you knew you'd keep in your heart forever.

this one is more of a flashback situation in comparison to parts 1 and 2 and there’s some more happy moments since the first 2 were a little more angsty lol part 4 coming soon!

taglist: @chicken-wang09 @trikruismybitch @sodangtired

#hope mikaelson #hope mikaelson x reader #hope mikaelson imagine #legacies imagine #legacies x reader #legacies cw #legacies

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makeusfreefromthisfandom · 4 years

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just sending some appreciation and good vibes to my people for the new year <3

kisses from me bc you all hold a very special place in my heart 💝

Also veryyy long post ahead I’m sorry I had to include everyone Aakklaksks 😭😭

@ominous-meme 🖤 sabah! You were my very first mutual on here I hope you know that! I can’t even begin on how excited I got when I found out you were a fellow desi girl and I will always appreciate you being there and advising me! <3 I love our street racing au! talks ! I’m glad I have someone to share ideas with <33

@weebsausage 🖤 dude omg!!! 😭😭😭 pls I literally forgot how we became moots I’m so sorry I have a tiny brain 😪 but I think we literally just messaged each other and started talking about free! ANYWAYS TYSM FOR PUTTING ME ON HXH I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU FOR THAT WTF ITS LIKE MY FAV ANIME EVER I HAVE BECOME HXH TRASH AJSJSJBS ❤️❤️ but other than that thank you for being a really great friend to me and I hope this year is nothing but good things for you <33

@dokifluffs 🖤 you were also one of my first moots on here! I honestly could not believe when you followed me back bc ur like my biggest inspo! 😭 you’re so precious omg I always look forward talking to you and get excited when I see a notif from you still! I hope the new year treats you well and brings good things in your life! Lots of love from me bae 🥰❤️

@syrenblubs 🖤 ah my most relatable person LOL. Omg syren ur my little bestie on here and I’m so glad we’re mutuals! I love our natsuya talks and OML THE C****** RAID! ALSJJSJSJSJJS AND DESI PARENTS AKSJJSNS. Just thank you for always interacting with me even tho I SUCK at responding 😭❤️❤️❤️ ilyyysmmmmmm

@linak 🖤 baby omg where do I even begin. Back when I had literally no one to talk to on here, you would be the one NEVER failing to send me a gm/gn message! You always bring a stupid smile to my face 😭 I’m so freaking glad that we are friends I literally cannot put into words!! Ty for always listening to me and letting me open up to you ❤️ love you always.

@croctears 🖤 vixxx ahhh!!! I’m so glad we became mutuals on this shitty app! You’re one of the highlights of my day and I love talking to you sm 😫 especially if it’s about Sou 😏😏 keep being amazing bae! Kisses mwuah mwuah 😽😽

@xakusa 🖤 Marty bby! 🥰 literally the only person I’m going to share my man natsu with 🙄 our conversations are always so RANDOM and out of nowhereeeee lollll but we also just go along with it and I love that! You are an angel and this year better be giving you what you deserve! Lots of love from my end 😽😽😽 kissies from me and natsuya <3

@cafelixie 🖤 I will keep saying this and I will never stop. YOU!!! ARE!!! THE!!! ACTUAL!!! DEFINITION!!! OF!!! PRECIOUS!!!! Need I say more? You’ve made my day countless times and I always look forward to seeing you in my messages/inbox!! Baby I freaking love you I really don’t know what else to say 😭❤️

@skippyskeppy 🖤 I will never forget the first time we interacted my Kisumi enthusiast 😙🤝 I love it sm whenever I see you pop into my inbox with a random hc about semi semi or Kisumi, Albert now too! You are an amazing person. A really amazing person. I hope you know that ❤️

@keeijiakaashi 🖤 I remember seeing your little comments under my posts before we became moots and OMGGGG YOU ARE SO CUTE AISJJSJSJS ALSO RIN ENTHUSIAST??? YES PLEASE!!! Tysm for always interacting with me and making yourself known as the ultimate sweetest person on my blog! Ilyyyyy ❤️❤️❤️

@animatedarchives 🖤 we have your fellow love of the kirishimas to thank for us becoming moots! You’re so cute soph omg 😫 I love how we literally have brainrots of the same characters LIKE MR GOJO LEECH SATORU!!! GET OUT OF MY HEAD OR PAY RENT!!! Ahh you’re irreplaceable soph! Never fail to make me smile like an idiot <33

@natsuya-enthusiast 🖤 how did we not become moots sooner wtf??? Do yk how alone I felt when I had no one to discuss my obsession of natsu with when I first made this blog 😪 AND THEN I REALIZED U WERE ONE OF MY FIRST FOLLOWERS???? ANYWAYS U ARE THE BIG SIS I NEVER HAD ALWAYS PULLING THROUGH W THAT LIFE ADVICE BAHAHAHA ilysm gaby wtf 😭😡😡😡❤️❤️❤️

@moonlitspring 🖤 do you even realize how happy I got when I realized there was another ACTIVE free! blog 😡😡 ajsjjsjs you are such an amazing writer and PERSON sky!!! You’ve been nothing but the sweetest and I hope we get to interact more this year and share our love of free! together <3

@ayumiko 🖤 laís you are such an angel! I absolutely adore both you and your edits/gifs smmm 🥰 you are so kind and I hope 2021 is also <333

@dalggina 🖤 omg??? YGO bae??? 😤😤 I thought literally everyone had forgotten ab it LOL THEN YOU CAME ALONG ❤️❤️ I’m really glad we interacted precious person! And I hope that you have a great year! ALSO YOU BETTER NOT STRESS YOURSELF OUT TOO MUCH FROM WORK OR IM MANIFESTING MR ATEM TO COME GET YOU 😡

@stormikujo 🖤 omg bby! We haven’t talked in awhile! I hope you are doing well! ❤️❤️❤️ ahhh I’m glad I got you into free otherwise we wouldn’t even have interacted 😫 I love talking to you stormi!! And I hope this year brings great things fro you! Lots of love ❤️❤️❤️

@aj-writes-here 🖤 omg hey girl 😼😼 you’re definitely one of the coolest people I’ve talked to on here for sure! Hope you’ve been enjoying hq and free! Your welcome for putting you on that simp train 😼 anyways, ilysm aj!! I really wish the best for you this year! Stay amazing as you always are, ily!! ❤️❤️

@attackonfics 🖤 wtf 😭😭 I don’t deserve you???? You’ve been nothing but the sweetest to me and also responsible for my unhealthy obsession with mr 5’2 angry gremlin >:(( jkjk but seriously, ty for the food 😌. ANYWAYS QUEEN I HOPE YOUVE BEEN TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF AND TREATING YOURSELF AS!!! YOU!!! SHOULD!!! VIRTUAL HUGS 😽😽 💝

@browsing-my-favourite-fandoms 🖤 Shizen! You are too good for this world! 😭 you are such a genuine person, you deserve nothing but happiness ❤️ I really hope that this year does that for you. I’ll keep checking in from time to time! Ilysm! ❤️

@inum4ki 🖤 sera...please...just invest in a personal guide or smth. Asksksknsjs n e wayzzz seeing you in my inbox is always so much fun! Sousuke really deserves more love and you are bringing it to the table hun 😤😤 also you’re a fellow inumaki enthusiast too??? Yes please. You deserve all the happy things in 2021 <3

@sneezefiction 🖤 Gracie!! I love how easy it is to get along with you! You are truly one of the best people I’ve met on this app and I’ll forever be grateful for our friendship <3 you give off such great vibes all the time omg giving you a huge virtual hug and here’s to more interactions this year! 🥰😽😽😽

@velvetfireworks 🖤 bbyyy!! 🥰 everytime we interact even if it’s not a whole lot, you’re always the sweetest what 😭 I love you and you’re writing so much omggg you are so talented!! I get super excited when I see myself get tagged in one of your stuff 😆 I hope we get to interact more in the future! Have a great New Years ❤️❤️❤️

@a8mine 🖤 stop being so mean to me 😡😡 !!!!!! ig ily anyways tho 🙄 you’re energy is honestly unmatched (in a good way!!) and it’s rare to meet people like that! You’re so funny omg and your random hcs and cursed discourses always have me dying 😭😭 you’re so cool hanna ily 😪✌️ <333

@giorvanna 🖤 ahh rena! Your blog and edits are *chefs kiss* I love our random semi brainrot sessions 🥰🥰 I hope we interact more in the future but in the meantime I’m sending you good vibes and lots of virtual hugs bc you deserve them queen ❤️❤️❤️

@seijohlogy 🖤 hey hey jaestar 🤩🤩 you are such a cool person??? Omg I’m so glad that we’re friends and randomly invade each other’s inboxes 😆 you are so kind! This year better be kind to you too or else 😡😡 I hope that after Ms rona decides to move her ass over, you get to go to Disneyland and take!! Me!!! With!! You!! Love you jae bae ❤️❤️

@prettysetterbaby 🖤 hey sexc 🤩🤩 no idea why you followed me but glad you did bc you are such a sweet and chaotic person!! I loveeeeee <333 I hope we get to interact more bc you are just genuinely such a fun person to interact with! Ilyyy

@datecho 🖤 yet another just genuinely sweet person! The world doesn’t deserve you! You’re so fun to interact with and a hottie??? omg shoto and kags better get off their asses rn and come get you or I will 🤩🤩 ly bae! have a great New Years! ❤️❤️

@miyasangel 🖤 we haven’t interacted much yet but ahaha talking about suna and sending my fanart to you is sm fun! Did I tell you that I also have a wip of Atsumu as a street racer? 😏 have a great year Arden bae! Kisses 😽

@aikk00 🖤 hi hi! We don’t interact on a daily or anything but when we do, omg!!! You are the most easy person to get along with 😭 you have such a good heart along with the talent???omg??? You are UNMATCHED babe! I hope this year brings you many more opportunities! Stay amazing love ❤️ ily and your art very much ❤️ I’m also still very embarrassed from fucking up the credits from last time. I’m so sorry bae 😭❤️❤️

@kurooskult 🖤 ma’am you might as well be the definition of bad bitch 😪🤝 ok but besides that, interacting with you is sm fun??? Like we don’t even have to be moots on your blog to feel just as included and loved! You are such a queen for that! Here’s to more mila x kuroo content in 2021 and he better be doing special for you as he should !!

It’s still the 31st here but THANK YOU ALL FOR MAKING MY COUPLE OF MONTHS ON HERE BEARABLE!!! This sounds like a goodbye post Oml-

I love you all very much. I suck at words, but I hope you know that. ❤️

#precious ppl✨<3 #OK NOW GN IVE BEEN UP FOR TOO LONG

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notbigondoors · 4 years

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{out of equations} I am a little afraid that I’m being misunderstood because of how it appears I am running my blogs. The truth is, I am a shy, derpy potato, and I suspect I’m just coming across in a much different way than I wish to. Below is my attempt to clear some of that up, so that hopefully anyone whom I’ve inadvertently made to feel like I am ignoring them or don’t want to write with them can feel better. Thank you for reading, if you do, and otherwise I hope everyone is having a lovely day. =)

I don’t know if this is actually a thing or not, but it occurs to me that I may be giving people the wrong idea about my blogs. It’s been so for a while that I keep getting compliments on my writing/portrayals, but then so many of my mutuals never interact with me and eventually unfollow, or start threads and drop them after a few replies. Now, people are entitled to lurk, change their minds, become disinterested, lose muse for a thread, and/or decide they don’t like writing with me or feel that my writing doesn’t measure up to theirs once they start. That’s perfectly okay! I’m not mad, I’m not calling anybody out, that’s absolutely okay! Right now, I’m talking to any of my mutuals who feel intimidated by me, feel I don’t want to write with them because I haven’t reached out to them first, or feel like I’m basically telling them they’re not good enough to write with me because I haven’t started something with them. I want to take the time to say how wrong all of that is and to give you an idea of how I really run my blogs.

First of all, real life has not been easy for me lately, as I’m sure it hasn’t been for everyone, given various things going on in the world. Between what’s in the news lately, the pandemic, and a chronic illness of mine coming out of remission after 20-ish years, I am definitely not at my best. I am on many medications for my chronic illness that come with a shopping list of side effects that make me feel physically horrible on a daily basis, but also they cause brain fog. I’m legitimately having trouble remembering things, which means that starter I told you I’d write you and then never did? Yeah, I don’t hate you, and it’s not that I don’t want to write with you, I just have honestly forgotten I even said I would do it. Combine that with my Tumblr notifications not working properly and a large influx of new writers and interactions lately due to WandaVision, and I am really honestly forgetting what I’ve said to whom on here. Side effects of my meds also include insomnia (which I already had, so it’s gotten worse... yay?) which means I’m not getting enough sleep and that’s compounding everything else that’s already making it hard for me to keep everything straight.

In addition to that, I have very bad anxiety, of the kind that interferes with my ability to do everyday things. Social anxiety is a huge facet of my generalized anxiety disorder. Simply put, I am introverted, shy, and terrified of talking to new people, even online. Even messaging with people I know can sometimes drain me mentally. It is not that I dislike you, or that I don’t want to talk to you, or that you are bothering me. None of those are true. I just am not good socially. I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what to do, and I feel so intimidated, especially with so much amazing talent on here. I would like to think that I am a nice and approachable person, but I rarely ever reach out to people. Liking a starter call almost gives me a panic attack. Sometimes I sit and stare at one for an hour, really wanting to do it, but then I think... well I’d have to put my url since all my active rp blogs right now are sides. Would they get mad that I’m not just hitting like? Is that already too complicated and they’d just ignore me? Yeah, they probably wouldn’t want to write with me anyway. Aaaaand I close Tumblr and never like the post, heh.

I see talented writers on here all the time, I read their really great, funny, interesting, harrowing, or exciting threads and think... I wish I could write threads like those. But I just lack the social skills to get involved. My anxiety tells me things that aren’t true all the time, like that I’m extraneous, people have their groups and I should leave them to have fun in peace because I’d only be bothering them. It is not my intention to always make others do all of the work by waiting for them to reach out, or hoping they write that first starter instead of me, or waiting for that indisputable starter call that finally makes me feel comfortable enough that yes, they want to rp with someone like me... it’s just unfortunately where I’m at mentally right now.

Time is also an issue. I work full-time online as a teacher for a university, I have about 160 students, and I have students all around the world in all different time zones, so my job is pretty much 24/7. I am constantly answering student emails, grading assignments, dealing with technical site issues, etc. Sometimes I really want to interact with new writers on here, but I don’t bother because I am afraid that my activity level won’t be what they want or expect. That’s a big reason why I haven’t been expanding my roleplaying to Discord or joining large rpg groups. I can’t guarantee activity. Sometimes I will be very active, sometimes I won’t be active at all... and I won’t always know ahead of time.

Anyway, this is a lot of rambling and I’m sorry for that, but I wanted to clear up any notion that I am aloof, that I am super selective and that’s why I’m not rping with you, or that if I seem to be ignoring you, I am. SO. NOT. TRUE. It’s a combination of my being too afraid to reach out, having health issues that make me very forgetful at times, and feeling like I have to hold back because of scheduling issues or a lack of free time. So... yeah. That’s that. If you’ve gotten this far in reading this post, you are sweet and precious and a wonderful human being. Thank you for taking the time to do so. If I said I would write you a starter and never did, please remind me. I am 99.9% sure the reason is that I just plum forgot. If I appear to have dropped a thread you really loved, please remind me about it. I may not have even seen your reply with Tumblr’s crappy notifications not showing up for me. And if you want to rp with me, I don’t bite, I’m not intimidating, yes I want you to reply to that open starter, yes I want you to randomly tag me in a starter or drop something into my ask box, I am honestly just a scared potato who really cannot Social™ well.

Wanda, Vision, and Pietro are most active right now. Please bother them. I have a leafling OC who is very adorable and versatile, I promise you. Please bother him. I also rp Gizmo. Please bother him.

Bother whoever you like, ask me questions about them, answer open starters (literally any of my blogs you can just search for “open starter” and they’ll all come up), and send in memes.

~ Silence, a.k.a. Si, a.k.a. Shy Derpy Potato, out. (^-^)/

#{ out of equations } ᵒᵒᶜ #{because things aren't adding up}#{and it's just occurred to me that i'm creating the wrong look here}#{with how i run things}#{my apologies... i hope we can start over}

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akizumy · 4 years

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Guilt

Sooo- I hadn’t planned to write anything for Halloween, but then I got this idea and I couldn’t get it out of my head. I know I’m a day late (typical me), but since it is done I might as well post it, right ? This One Shot is part of the Varitas AU (basically an evil Varian ahah), and I fear I got inspired by the rp blogs : @royal-engineer-of-corona and @v-a-r-i-t-a-s TW !! Amber, knife, death (there is no graphic description except a mention of blood)- if there is anything else that you think I should tag, don’t hesitate to yell at me in the comments. Takes place between Be very Afraid and Cassandra's revenge !

If most people had to describe Varian, they would use the word 'dangerous' because of what the kid could do, and what he had already done. Although the alchemist had saved Corona and been forgiven by the royal family, everyone still saw him as the criminal who kidnapped their queen, who attacked the kingdom with automatons and a mutant raccoon. Everyone still saw him as the threat he used to be and could still be, even Varian himself : if the alchemist couldn't forgive himself, why would others act any differently ? But Eugene saw things differently. Unlike the rest of the Coronans, the former thief spend most of his days with the young alchemist ever since the latter got out of jail; he had of course been wary of him at first, the memory of Varian attacking Rapunzel and the kingdom still painfully fresh in his memory like in everyone else's. But day after day, he had soon come to accept that the kid was very different from this idea that everyone had of him. Everything about him, whether it was his actions or his words, illustrated his regrets about his past actions; and Eugene could see how hard the kid was trying to make amends. That was why the word he associated with Varian was not 'dangerous', but 'guilt'. It was both an observation of the alchemist's behavior, his doubts and culpability, and also a protection against others' judgment. Varian had regrets. Varian had changed. Varian was no longer dangerous. He wanted nothing more than for everyone, the kid included, to see that and to be able to move on; for people to realize all the good Varian could make, and for Varian to see that as well- that it wasn't too late for him to be who he wanted to be. That he could still be happy. Such a shame that he had to be proved wrong. It had all happened really fast : the automatons, attacking the island one morning. They were numerous, and more just kept coming in an endless flow; even though they had no idea what was happening or why, Rapunzel had focused on going and protecting the Coronans first, getting answers after that. That was the plan. Pretty easy, hard to mess up- or, it should have been. Because now as the cold, metal hand of the automaton was firmly holding Eugene prisoner, the latter having no choice but to face the woman he loved encased in amber and surrounded by two other automatons, the former thief was left wondering how could things have possibly gone this wrong. "Well, it looks like Corona no longer has her beloved leader- if she could even be called that in the first place." And of course, how could he possibly forget the one whose satisfied tone was awakening in Eugene a deep hatred, one like he had never felt before. Varian was standing in front of the statue, looking absolutely triumphant, and how could he not be after taking over Corona and defeating their princess, their Sundrop ? The broken wall of the throne room, the latter being only a remnant of what it used to be, only added to his glorious victory, offering an heartbreaking view on the completely destroyed kingdom. His eyes were shining with an eerie joy, and a wide grin appeared on his lips as he admired the consequences of his actions; encased in amber, Rapunzel's painful and horrified expression was a terrible contrast with the alchemist's ominous one. "Don't worry, Eugene," the alchemist said after some time, finally looking away from the amber to the former thief, trapped in an other kind of prison, "She's not dead. She doesn't deserve such a fate." The alchemist confidently walked up to him, leaning against the metal hand. "No, she deserves a sentence far worse than that." The alchemist's voice was dangerously low as he stared at Eugene, watching his every reaction. The former thief didn't look away in return, instead glaring at the kid who had taken so much from him and went as far as to laugh about it too. He just- Eugene simply couldn't believe what he was hearing and seeing. Varian- Varian had made amends. He had apologized, and they'd forgiven him. He had been working ever since to help Corona, to fix his mistakes and stop Cassandra. Varian had changed- he had. Hadn't he ? But then, why would he go back on that ? Why did he all of a sudden attack Corona with these- these automatons, destroying the island, trapping Rapunzel in that same amber that destroyed his life once before ? Why would he do that to his friends, to Team Awesome ? Was it all just a wicked scheme to fool them ? Eugene stared at the kid in front of him. He was exactly like Varian- same outfit, same black hair with this odd blue stripe, same blue eyes. No, not the same. Varian's eyes weren't merciless, mocking and cold, so cold. Varian's eyes were warm, friendly and guilty. "Who..." Eugene hissed, glaring all the more. "Who are you ? What have you done to Varian ?" Varian wouldn't do something like that, Eugene was sure of it. The other half of Team Awesome, the kid who liked ham sandwiches and often forgot to take care of himself when working was not the same as the one who encased Rapunzel in amber. The alchemist who fought his fears in order to save Corona, that kid would never do something like that. Still, he didn't expect... him, to simply smirk, that same threatening smirk he thought -he hoped- he'd never see again on this face. "You know, I never thought you were right when you said that people don't give you enough credit. You are clever, aren't you ?" "What does that mean ?" He was just done talking when the door of the throne room opened with noise. Eugene tried to look behind him to see the source of the noise, in vain : the robot's grip was keeping him from making any movement. However, he had a really good view of Varian raising his head in surprise, before cautiously taking a few steps back, furious eyes staring at... whoever just came in, Eugene guessed. Said person walked closer, as Eugene could tell from the footsteps sounds, before stopping right beside him; turning his head to the side, Eugene saw... Varian. It took his mind a minute to process the information. "Wait wait wait," Eugene narrowed his eyes, "Am I seeing 2 Varians ? Is that- is that some sort of evil twin story, or...?" Varian number 2 didn't react, but Varian number 1's smirk only widened. "I guess you could say that." He did a mocking bow in front of the other two, "I am Varitas, 'the mean one'- because someone has to take the blame, and who's better to replace Varian at it than Varian himself ? You Coronians aren't really creative, you know : get yourself someone else to blame, or even better, an actual justice system." It took all of Eugene's might not to give in and harshly tell him that he was absolutely guilty for what he had done to everyone; he barely restrained himself from doing so, realization hitting him hard. That was what that Varitas guy wanted. He had been provoking him since the beginning, trying to push him to his limits; and although Eugene wasn't really one to give in to anger, what could that kind of behavior do to someone who would, someone whose guilt would make them an easy prey ? For example, someone who definitely would be the target of his own double... Oh no. "I'm so-sorry..." Varian whispered, his voice cracking. His glassy eyes were filled with tears that streamed down his cheeks, highlighting how unusually pale he was, or how dark and big the bags under his eyes were in contrast. "It's all my fault..." "Kid-no. This is not your fault, none of it is." Eugene insisted. Varian clearly seemed exhausted, on the verge of breaking down, and with all of that accumulated guilt ready to burst free, he was basically an emotional time bomb. A really, really unstable emotional time bomb that could possibly become a problem if nothing was done to calm him down before. When did that start ? Why hadn’t he noticed before, why hadn’t he done anything to protect Varian ? Varian didn’t react, clearly not believing him; it broke Eugene’s heart to see him in such a state. Of course, that's the moment Varitas chose to speak up. "You're right, Eugene : it's not his fault nor is it mine, but it is actually yours, it has always been. I know how talented you are all in the field of lies and deceit and breaking promises, but you have to be incredibly good to make him believe that you actually care about him and are his friends without him ever questioning it. Again." Varian shivered, looking down at the ground, and Eugene could only imagine the thoughts going through his head; anger and guilt and feeling of betrayal and self-loathing, all of them feeding a dangerous hatred that was definitely what Varitas was planning to use. Oh, how much Eugene hated that Varitas kid. He hated him for taking Rapunzel away, for torturing Varian; he hated how powerless he felt. "If you know us as well as you say you do, then you should also know these are not lies." Eugene growled, but Varian once again didn’t react. Varitas only rolled his eyes, fully aware that he was in control of the situation. "Oh, you are good- but thank you for proving my point." He then turned to Varian, and Eugene tensed up. Whatever he had planned, Eugene feared the kid wasn't in a good enough state to fight against. "I'm sorry I started without you," Varitas smiled, something almost warm, outstretching his hand towards Varian, "but you can still join me and serve justice, like we wanted to." Unlike his kind words, his tone was very clear : obey, or face the consequences. Varian stared at Varitas' hand for a moment, before his glassy eyes moved to the hole in the wall and the destruction beyond, then to the amber and finally, to Eugene. Eugene's heart ached as he met Varian's eyes. The raging storm of the kid's emotions was frightening, and Varian seemed completely lost. Eugene wanted to reassure him, to tell him that these were all lies, that none of it was true, that they did care about him- but he also wasn’t stupid. “Please, kid... Don’t...” Was all Eugene said, because he saw in these eyes that Varian... Varian would not believe him, or anything else he’d say. That Varitas's poisoned words, playing with Varian's deepest fears and guilt, had already had their effect on the kid. Where was he when Varian needed him ? Why was he stuck, unable to help when the kid needed him the most ? Varitas was right- just like before, he couldn't give Varian the help he so desperately needed. Varian stared at him for a while longer, before looking back at Varitas. Extending his hand, he took the other's in his own. Then, harshly pulling Varitas forward, he threw in the latter's face a green ball that exploded in a flash of blinding light. Varitas immediately shoved Varian away, rubbing his eyes with his hands; his hiss of pain morphed into a low chuckle. "Alright, looks like you've made your choice..." Eugene felt his heart drop as the two other automatons -the ones not currently holding Eugene- walked toward the alchemist, responding to Varitas's order. He knew his friend hardly stood a chance; above all, he knew Varian was fighting a losing battle, because he himself didn’t even know what he was fighting for, or if he wanted to. It was clear as day that Varian was fighting back like a wounded animal, with the energy of despair, and that this would end very badly. Eugene tried once again to free himself, even if he knew there was no way he could get out. Varian acted quickly, trapping the first automaton's feet in goo, effectively stopping him. Varitas threw at him a green ball that Varian barely managed to avoid; not fast enough to recover, the alchemist couldn't dodge a hit from the second automaton that made him fall to the ground. Not wasting any time, Varian sent a pink ball on the second automaton, trapping him the same way; he however didn't see the third ennemy attacking him from behind. "Watch out !!" Eugene stopped struggling a moment to yell in alarm. Varian startled and turned around just in time to catch Varitas's wrists, keeping him from using his knife- because yes, he had a knife, a real one. "Why are you fighting for them ?!" Varitas shouted, furious. "They are responsible for Dad being encased, for all of our woes- you should want to serve justice ! You used to want that, so why would you believe their lies again ?!" Varian didn't answer, simply staring at the knife held right between the two of them. "It was the price to pay to become their friend again, wasn't it ? Ha- you're pathetic. They will betray you just like they already did, and the worst of all is that they'll be right : you'll have no one to blame but yourself, for being stupid enough to trust them again." Varitas's eyes were filled with disgust, sadness. No answer. Varian's grip loosened a bit, his face reflecting some hesitation. “Varian, no- don’t listen to him ! He’s trying to get in your head !!” The alchemist no longer seemed to be able to hear him, his attention entirely focused on Varitas. Eugene’s voice was only a quiet noise, drowned out by Varitas’s own voice and Varian’s thoughts. "I hope you're happy. I hope you'll believe their lies that make you think that this is what's best for you, this is what you have always wanted. You won : enjoy your golden cage, Varian." "Kid !!" Eugene shouted, alarmed, and that finally snapped Varian out of it. Kicking his opponent, the alchemist made Varitas fall backwards; the latter harshly hit the ground, his grip loosening on the knife. Eugene watched with horror as the alchemist quickly took the knife from Varitas and held it at the other's throat. "Don’t do that Varian ! You are angry- we all are kid, but killing him isn't the solution !" "He's right," Varitas added, "You can go ahead and kill me, but that won't change anything. You know that I'm right, and getting rid of me won't change the truth." Varian gritted his teeth, his grip getting just the tiniest bit firmer on the knife, and Varitas let a vicious smile appear on his lips. "You and me, we're just good for destruction, hurting others, taking the blame. I know it, they know it : that's why they let you down, and will let you down again. There's no denying it anymore, Varian. If you don't kill me, I will just keep destroying everything, and you'll be to blame for not stopping me when you had the chance : but if you do stop me, that you dare kill me if you’re even able to, then you will become the villain, the murderer, the mean one, because neither of us are part of the people whose faults are all forgiven. No matter what you choose, you will lose, just like I kept telling you." Varian stared at Varitas as he was talking, unable to stop listening to him. He knew he shouldn't listen or even consider his words, but something in them struck a chord within him, reaching doubts he tried to muffle, thoughts he tried to get rid of and amplifying them to the point that he could no longer ignore them or bury them again; and even though he thought he could hear Eugene's voice, he couldn't actually hear his words. Varitas smirked, knowing that despite the appearances, he had the upper hand. Reaching in his pocket, he got out a purple ball. "It's over, Varian." The alchemist's eyes widened in realization as the ball hit the ground, exploding and covering the whole room in a cloud of purple smoke. Eugene felt his blood froze in his veins as he heard fighting noises, the sound of metal clashing against skin and a cry of pain, then a body hitting the ground; and after that, nothing. In the heavy silence that followed, the cloud slowly escaped the room through the hole in the wall, joining its peers in the sky. Eugene then saw with horror a body lying on the ground in a puddle of blood. Standing next to him, its double was panting, holding without trembling the knife stained with blood. At that single moment, a terrible truth dawned on Eugene who felt his heart come to a stop. Even if it was impossible to distinguish the twins, one thing remained certain : one of them was now dead, killed by the other. And therefore, it didn't matter which one came out a winner in this battle, because the result was the same either way. Varitas had won, and their Varian was gone.

#varian #eugene fitzherbert #varitas #tts #tangled the series #tw :blood #tw : death #happy halloween i guess #some Team Awesome ?#maybe ?#my writing

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tsukikento · 4 years

Text

Too Fast For Your Own Good Part 3 (Finale)

Pairing: Takami Keigo (Hawks x Reader)

Words: 5656

Summary: Soulmate!AU - the first words your soulmate says to you is written on your body in ink.

Genre/Warnings: Some slight swear word usage. A little bit of kissing. Fluff and angst.

This part has some slight manga spoilers. Although I write it very vaguely, I still wanted to warn you guys! It happens basically right after where the anime ends, but I want you to know just in case. Please lmk if you have any questions about it, I would be really happy to answer your questions!

A/N: It is finally over! Only 3 parts, but I spent a lot of time on it so I really hope you guys like it, please let me know! Also, I forgot to tag people in part 2 and decided to just wait till I posted this one. Please select part 1 or 2 based on what you missed. So sorry!!

(part 1) (part 2)

Your trek to the local Korean restaurant was rather eventful. Not only did Keigo lead the conversation by talking about himself, which helped in calming your nerves, but you were both stopped repeatedly for photos. Although Hawks was much more famous than you, you were still asked to join the photos more often than not which was rather endearing in the grand scheme of things.

When you arrived at the restaurant, you were immediately ushered to a table and given water and tea. You politely thanked the waitress who told you she would be back with the complimentary appetizers. You bowed slightly while Hawks casually leaned back in his chair and stretched his wings.

She seemed to be an older lady and probably the owner of the restaurant, making politeness seem more necessary than usual to you.

Luckily, the two of you were sitting in a private area, something Hawks requested when you first entered the restaurant. His want for privacy made your heart thump in an unfamiliar way. On top of that, the area was dimly lit with almost ethereal lights that shined on Takami’s skin in a perfect way.

Your obvious looks to the hero did not go unnoticed and Hawks eventually decided to speak up. “You know, in Korean culture, the younger person should pour the elder the drink,” Keigo smirked while glossing over the menu.

“And what makes you think I’m younger?” You snapped back, your own cheeky smile glossing over your lips while you also busied yourself with reading over the menu to try and look as carefree as your soulmate seemed.

Hawks’ unrestrained laughter caught your attention and you looked back to him. “I know you are younger,” He explained, “It’s not like our birthdays are hidden from the world.”

“Oh?” You perked. You reached forward to grab the kettle of tea, giving Hawks a cue to hold up his small glass. You poured the hot, steeped tea while he presented his cup to you delicately. “So you did research on me?” You questioned once done pouring his glass.

“Why wouldn’t I look up the cute hero I had plans to meet today?” Keigo countered before blowing on the steaming tea and taking a sip.

A faint blush found its way onto your cheeks which Hawks immediately noticed. Before you had a chance to quip back, the waitress made her way to the table with a platter of small appetizers. You recognized a few of them immediately and suddenly became much more aware of your growling stomach. The japchae, kimchi, and seaweed salad stared back at you and you immediately opened your metal chopsticks.

“Thank you,” You commented while looking up to the waitress.

“Of course,” She replied, nodding slightly as a bow. “Are you ready to order?”

You looked at Hawks with a questioning face and nodded slightly to tell him you were ready. He smiled and looked to the waitress, “Yes, we are. Can I please have the chicken hot stone bowl?”

The lady nodded, wrote down his order, and looked at you. “And can I please have the veggie dumpling ramen with medium spice?” You added.

“Of course,” The waitress spoke while grabbing up your menus. “It will be right out.”

“So,” Hawks began once you were once again left alone, “Tell me more about you than can’t be found on a website.”

When you looked to meet Hawks’ eyes you saw a rather fond glint in them. They seemed soft which was difficult to do considering the sharp, black designs that outlined his goldeneyes. If you weren’t mistaken, it seemed the bird boy was genuinely interested in learning about someone else, a feat that not many people could say they’ve conquered. Takami was known for being closed-off in his social life, enjoying the company of few, but being charming enough to attract the company of all.

“Well, there’s not much to tell.” You took a small sip of the glass of water. “I always wanted to be a hero. I mean, who doesn’t when they’re younger, but with a quirk like mine it seemed rude not to become a hero,” You recounted, remembering all the people who told you your time stopping quirk could stop villainy altogether. “So, I went to U.A.” You shrugged your shoulders.

“So, you felt pressured to be a hero?” Hawks inquired.

“I guess?” You replied, “I don’t think about it very much.”

“Well, what about your quirk?” Hawks asked, a small smile graced his lips. “It must have been crazy to lie about your quirk for so long.”

You sighed and ran your hand through your hair. “Yeah, it was. I don’t know why I lied about it for so long.” You looked down at your lap. “In all honesty, it felt like I dug myself into a hole. I kept trying to just forget about it, but every time I went on a mission, I had to be careful to make it seem like I was teleporting.”

While you spoke, Hawks nodded periodically. It seemed like he really was paying attention which was something you really appreciated.

You looked down and bit your lip, it was hard to talk about how miserable you were sometimes. Especially with someone you just met. Even if he is your soulmate, it goes against natural human instincts to share so much of yourself right away.

Hawks noticed your reluctance to share and quickly changed the topic to something else. “What do you do in your free time?” He asked, leading the question in a more positive direction.

“Oh, this and that,” You laughed while pushing your hair away from your face. “Training, reading, hanging out with friends, and relaxing would probably summarize my free time the most. What about you?” You questioned before picking up your tea and taking a sip.

“Ah,” Hawks sighed. He followed you in taking a sip of your tea. “I don’t have much free time.”

Fuck.

You felt like such an idiot for asking. Obviously he doesn’t have free time! He’s the number two hero, he owns his own agency. Even right now, he is probably worried about how he looks and is coming across. No matter how private this area looks, you were sure there were paparazzi lurking around every corner and fangirls just begging for him to slip up and lose his rank in approval.

“Sorry,” You mumbled before grabbing your water and taking a few big gulps to avoid meeting his eyes.

“Don’t be,” Hawks nonchalantly consoled, a sympathetic smile spreading on his face. “I want the world to one day be so free from villainy that everyone, even heroes, are relaxed. I want to just kick back, you know? It’s gonna take hard work to get there and I plan to get there within my lifetime.”

A shy grin spread across your face. You looked at your lap to hide the blush you were currently nursing. It seemed Hawks was a very brave and passionate hero, something that could be considered very admirable and attractive.

Handsome, funny, and a kindhearted personality that made his wings seem like angel wings. This wasn’t like the Hawks you had read about. The confident, almost arrogant, man was covering many tabloids. It seemed everyone was trying to find out if the winged hero was really all that great and strong.

“You don’t have to hide your blush,” Hawks insisted, causing you to look up just in time to see the waitress carrying both your dishes.

You had gotten so caught up in the conversation that you barely ate any of the appetizers so far. You resisted pouting and reaching for the seaweed salad that was almost gone and instead smiled as the waitress placed your ramen in front of you.

Once she left, you snatched up the seaweed salad before Hawks could eat all of it. The blond laughed at your childish action and raised his hands up in surrender.

“Sorry,” You mumbled before using your chopsticks to grab some salad and stuffing your face full.

Hawks’ glorious laugh once again rang through the private area, making you feel much better. “I’m just glad my soulmate loves food as much as me.” He reasoned while picking at his bowl as if to find the perfect bite.

“Yeah,” You grinned, looking into Keigo’s eyes. “Isn’t it crazy?”

“That we both love food?” Takami joked. His smile made his cheeks look like apples and his eyes like crescent moons.

“No, you idiot,” You scolded. If he was close enough, you would have definitely slapped Hawks on his arm.

The winged hero laughed in reply once more. “It is,” He confirmed, “But it’s totally worth it. The craziness now should be worth it in the end.” Hawks sighed loudly and leaned back in his chair. “And trust me, life is crazy.” He ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes.

For the first time, you noticed just how tired Hawks was. His wings were just a tad bit lower than when you were standing together on a stage in front of an audience. With these dim lights and close proximity, you were finally able to see the sunspots on his skin and purple bags under his eyes.

It made you all the more aware that your soulmate was busy and tired. It made you nervous that you might just be another chore for the winged hero. Just another person he has to take care of.

You gulped down the lump in your throat and nodded. “Yeah,” You vaguely replied before turning your attention to your ramen. You picked at the noodles while you continued to debate your relationship with Hawks.

“Hey,” You heard Takami’s soft voice speak up. Your nondominant hand, which had been placed on the table, was suddenly being held by the calloused hands of Hawks. You looked up to the golden boy to see his eyes filled with worry, his eyebrows furrowed, and a frown on his lips. “What’s wrong?” He inquired.

His warm hand encased yours and his thumb rubbed back and forth across the back of your hand.

“I’m okay,” You mumbled, “Nothing’s wrong.” You shook your head and looked back down.

“No,” Hawks countered, holding onto your hand tighter. “I can tell something is wrong. Please tell me, Y/L/N-kun.”

Hearing your name on his lips was something to behold. No Telethon. You aren’t a hero having dinner with another hero. You are having dinner with your soulmate. If you started your relationship based on lies, it would constantly be lies.

“I,” You stumbled, “I’m worried about you. Or more so our relationship.” You motioned in between the two of you and looked up at Hawks to see just how attentively he was watching and listening to you. “You are a busy man and I don’t want to burden you,” You clarified.

A few beats of silence and then the sound of Hawks once again sighing. His free hand came up to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose.

During those seconds, you worried that he was going to tell you that in fact, you were a burden. You weren’t strong enough to protect yourself. You weren’t famous enough to stand next to him. You lied about your quirk and would bring down his approval rating.

“You aren’t going to burden me,” He ensured. His free hand moved to hold your other hand which was now resting on the table. Luckily, the table was small enough so neither of you were awkwardly leaning over your dishes. “You are my soulmate,” He continued, “And that doesn’t mean we are simply stuck together. It means that we are destined to make each other better people. You will never burden me.”

A small smile found its way onto your lips. “Thank you,” You whispered.

Hawks face mirrored yours. Tired eyes and smiles.

“Listen,” Hawks finally spoke up. “I could sit here all day admiring how beautiful you are, but I am so hungry and this chicken smells so good.”

Without realizing, you began laughing at his joke and leaned back, letting go of his hands. “Yes,” You insisted, “Let’s eat. Let’s stop worrying.”

“Agreed,” Hawks murmured before digging into his food.

By now, your ramen had enough time to cool down and you were able to scarf it down fast. For the rest of your dinner, you and Hawks casually chatted while digging into your food.

Eventually, the bill came and Hawks immediately put down his credit card.

By the time you left, you were in a much better mood. You were simply enjoying the company of Takami.

“Ooh,” Hawks gushed. He grabbed your hand and pulled you across the parking lot of the complex you were in. “Ice cream!”

You laughed at the childish antics of your date. And followed him as he practically glided towards the small ice cream store. It was a fairly cold night and definitely not one for ice cream considering the rain from this morning.

Regardless, Hawks was still determined to eat the delicious creamy treat.

A bell rang when you walked through the door. You were greeted by two shocked faces of teenagers. After the workers and few guests inside calmed down, you and Hawks were able to order each of your respective cones of ice cream.

This time, you insisted on paying.

The two of your left shoulder to shoulder, each of you licking at your ice cream cones.

“Where do you live?” Hawks mindlessly mumbled. “Is it far from here?”

“Oh, not too far,” You replied. “Maybe a twenty-five-minute walk from here?”

You were currently sitting at a small table outside of the creamery, debating what to do next.

“I could fly you home,” Keigo suggested. “I’d probably get there in 10.”

“Aw,” You joked, “And lose 15 minutes with you?” You nudged him with your shoulder and caused the winged hero to chuckle.

“Nah,” He replied, “We would just spend that 15 minutes doing something else.” He winked, causing you to blush and choke on the ice cream in your mouth.

Keigo laughed even harder and you shoved him harshly with your empty hand. “Jeez, you are too confident, Takami-kun.”

“Ahh,” The blond sighed, “My name sounds so good coming from you.” A lazy yet confident smile found its way onto his face and he slowly licked his lips, causing you to become aware of the cool wind blowing past your hot skin.

You took another bite out of your ice cream to cool you down, suddenly way too nervous to even think about kissing the hero in front of you.

“Nervous?” Takami asked, leaning forward to force you to look at him in the eyes.

“Maybe,” You mumbled, keeping your attention on your ice cream.

Hawks practically cackled at your response. Once his laughter died down, he looked at your blushing face and confidently asked, “How can you be so cute?”

You bit your lip and took a few breaths before looking at Takami. You scrunched up your face and pointed your finger at him, “Listen here, you better stop saying stuff like that or else.”

“Or else what?” Hawks challenged. A coy smile fell upon his lips and there was a glint in his eyes just begging you to do something.

“Or else I’ll have no choice, but to actually kiss you. In front of all these people.” You smirked at the blond and motioned to the busy complex. “Our relationship will get released in the papers before your managers have any time to prepare. They will hate you,” You hissed, hoping the threat would work.

“Like I care,” Hawks shrugged.

“Then kiss me,” You demanded, deciding to stand your ground instead of faltering back because of his confidence.

You watched the smirk on Keigo’s face disappear. His mouth formed an ‘O’ shape and his blown eyes stared at you nervously. “I can’t,” He mumbled in defeat.

You laughed at his actions and cheered in excitement. “I knew it!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” He mumbled before digging into the cone part of his ice cream cone.

You laughed lightly before leaning towards Takami to whisper in his ear, “We’ll just kiss back at my apartment,” You tittered.

The comment grabbed Hawks’ attention, who smiled happily and lightly flapped his wings. It was just enough to make the area windy and get him about a foot off his feet before he stopped and plopped back down into the seat.

You laughed at your soulmate before finishing off your ice cream cone. You crumpled up the small wrapper and grabbed Keigo’s which he left on the table and tossed them. “Shall we go?” You asked, holding out your hand for him to take.

“Of course,” He replied, allowing you to help him up.

You two strolled through the streets to your apartment. Keigo offered multiple times to fly, but you insisted on walking. “I like seeing all the citizens I protect,” You reasoned, shrugging your shoulders and looking at Keigo.

The blond smiled and wrapped his arm around your waist.

You invited him up to your apartment and grabbed each of you a glass of water while Hawks curiously wandered around the apartment, looking at all of your belongings.

You spent most of the night chatting until the blond couldn’t help it anymore and kissed you. His soft lips graced your cheek and ear. His hot breath asked if he could kiss you.

With a meek nod, Hawks’ lips were all over you.

A shock ran through your body when his lips first attached to yours. You were sure it was something only soulmates felt when they kissed because you really had never felt this way before.

After what seemed like only seconds, or maybe minutes or hours. You really had no clue. Anyways, after some amount of time, Hawks pulled away and looked at his phone. “I’m so sorry, I have to go.”

You saw the clock read midnight and you really couldn’t blame him although you craved for him to spend the night.

“That’s okay,” You sighed, trying to regain your composure. “I’m sure you have a busy day tomorrow.” You bit your lip and gave yourself a push to ask the question that was on the tip of your tongue. “Do you have any idea when we will see each other again?”

Hawks sighed. “Tomorrow. Come at noon to my agency and we’ll get lunch.”

“Really?” You giddily asked, not expecting to see him so quickly.

“I promise.” Hawks pulled his jacket back on, it had been discarded during the heated makeout session, and a little red book fell out.

“What’s this?” You asked as you picked it up and read the label.

Paranormal Liberation Front.

“Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask you if you’ve read it,” Hawks spoke while snatching the book from your hands. “These guys have really been growing lately, gaining tons of attention. It may be old, but it still has a lot of power for today’s society. I know it’s long, so just read the highlighted parts.” He opened the book to flash you a random page with yellow highlights all over it. “Destro’s ideals are everything we could have asked for! A society where everyone can look out or themselves, it really fits this era!”

You took the book from Takami’s hands, too distracted to respond.

The speech he just gave you did not seem like him. Although it wasn’t like you knew very much about him anyways. “Yeah,” You sighed while tossing the book onto your coffee table.

You saw Takami out the door and he kissed you on the cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow, love.” He whispered in your ear.

You smiled and waved goodbye to your soulmate. Once your door was closed, you let out a large breath you had been holding in. You stretched out your limbs and began your nighttime routine.

It was currently noon the next day and you walked through the double doors into Hawks’ agency. You, unfortunately, had to go straight to work after your lunch meeting so you were sporting your heroes uniform. It didn’t bother you too much considering you would be with Takami who was always in his hero uniform.

You were currently working a grin as you walked up to the front desk and told the receptionist that you had plans with Hawks.

“Ah yes, Telethon, of course,” The receptionist spoke. “Please have a seat right over there and someone will be right down to grab you.”

Although it sparked you as weird that Hawks wouldn’t just come down to greet you, you waved off the worry and happily sat down. Nothing could ruin today.

You had already called your manager and best friend to tell them the news. It was only a matter of time till you and Takami were official and you wanted your manager and best friend to be ready.

Eventually, a man came down to grab you. He was wearing a casual suit and had an earpiece on.

“Yes sir, I’ll bring up Telethon now,” You heard him whisper into the bluetooth device.

You stood up, well aware they were coming for you. “Hello,” You greeted with a small bow.

The person who came to grab you did not bow and instead simply motioned for you to follow. “Please come with me,” He mumbled.

Although concerned with the mystery surrounding your invitation to the company, you followed. You assumed you would mainly be working with Keigo. You did not expect to have to go through multiple people just to see him.

However, maybe this was just what it was like as the number two hero.

The trip up to the 13th floor was quiet and unbearably long. There was an awkward air around you both and it gave you this weird feeling. As if the person you were with knew something you didn’t.

Once the elevator dinged, you followed him through the halls. Eventually, he opened a door for you and mumbled out, “Please go in.”

You smiled and mumbled a small “Thank you.” Once you entered, you noticed multiple people sitting at an oblong table.

Your eyes flashed around the room to look at every one. First and foremost, you noticed your manager. Next, you noticed the manager who was with Hawks at the competition yesterday. Lastly, you noticed another manager sitting right next to him.

Everyone stood up once they saw you and you heard the click of the door closing behind you.

Immediately, you stopped time, unable to think clearly.

You needed time to think.

The unease in your stomach spread to your throat and your heart began to beat all too fast. You felt your sweat drip from the back of your neck to down your spine. You gulped down the lump in your throat and started time again, knowing that stalling the inevitable was worthless.

Your manager was motioning for you to sit next to them. Silently, you moved to take your seat.

About 10 feet away from you were two incredibly average looking people. They each looked so plain and stern. However, most of all, all you could think about was where is Takami?

You knew something was wrong. Tears swelled in your eyes and you looked down to hide them. You saw a single teardrop onto the shaking hands in your lap. You took in a deep breath and croaked out, “Why am I here?”

“Telethon, we are here because of your forming relationship with Hawks,” The female spoke, her voice rather curt.

The use of hero names irked you to no end. Before they could continue to speak, you looked back up to meet their eyes. “I’m Y/L/N Y/N, he is Takami Keigo and we are soulmates. Don’t belittle that if you are here to end it,” You hissed through seething teeth.

“Please, Y/L/N-san,” Your manager spoke, looking at you with pity in their eyes. “Please listen to them.”

Reluctantly, you looked back to the people across the table. “Go ahead,” You mumbled.

“Tele-Y/L/N-san, Takami-san is on a very important mission right now,” The male manager across the table explained. “We cannot give you explicit details, but it is vital to the safety of Musutafu that he remains undercover and does not date you now.”

“It would not only put his life in danger but also yours. We cannot take that risk,” The woman added.

There was a ringing in your ears that wouldn’t go away. In order to help you think clearly, you stopped time.

You felt so helpless. Like the world was coming crashing down on you. Through last night and today, all you thought about was how happy you now were. How happy Takami made you feel.

Without thinking clearly, you exited the room. Although your lungs were already beginning to burn, you pushed through and searched the hallway.

You had to find him.

You had to find Keigo.

Nobody could see you wandering around. You had a sinking suspicion that everyone at this agency knew your secret and you were determined to find him without the help of anyone else.

Knowing Hawks, although you only met him yesterday, he was probably on the top floor. Of course he would want to be high in the sky when he launched himself with his wings. You couldn’t use the elevator with time frozen so you ran up the stairs as fast as you could. If you weren’t right about him being on the top floor, you would have no time, no breath left, to keep searching.

Once you climbed up the 7 additional floors, you paced through the hall in an attempt to find Takami. There were no labels on the doors, so you had to open each and every single one to see if you could find him.

Eventually, finally, you opened a door to see Keigo nervously sitting on his sofa. He was sitting perfectly still and his bright wings were gray because of your quirk. Despite the stillness of his wings, you could see they had been nervously flapping like one would do with their legs when nervous.

You started time, took a deep breath in, and practically leaped at Hawks.

“Takami-kun,” You cried, falling to your knees and grabbing his hands.

Although shocked, Hawks still caught you to the best of his abilities. His wings no longer flapped because he was too shocked by your appearance. He did not expect you to run from the meeting, but here you were, right in front of him.

“Y/L/N-kun,” He whispered. You looked at him and he caressed your cheek and swept his finger across it to wipe away a tear that had fallen from your eyes. “Why are you here?”

“I had to see you,” You reasoned. “I need to hear you say it yourself.”

Takami’s phone rang.

You held him close, worried he would answer it, and direct you back to the meeting.

“Just tell me, please,” You begged.

“Sweetheart,” He mumbled, the endearing words falling from his lips. He never expected to see you like this. Yes, it was hard on him, but he had been trained since his childhood to dissociate. You were never trained to forget people easily, let alone your soulmate. “I know this hurts.” He pulled you up onto his lap and held you tightly. “I don’t want to put you in danger.”

“Please just tell me,” You pleaded. “Tell me what you can tell me and then I’ll go.”

Takami sighed, “Fine.” He ran his hand through his hair and took off his goggles.

You could tell he was worried, not irritated. He didn’t want to put you in harm's way. Before you could stop yourself, you kissed his cheek to try and calm his nerves, something that sent heat up his neck.

“I am working with some bad people,” He explained. “If I date you, then you’ll be a target. I can’t let that happen and I can’t say anything more. Please just read the book I gave you.” His golden eyes bore into yours. “Remember, read the highlights.”

You nodded at him with wide eyes, finally being forced to accept your fate.

The blond knew he should send you back now, he was sure people were on their way up to grab you. But he just couldn’t let go when you looked so weak and soft. He craved to continue to hold you and he knew this somehow related to the soulmate bond. He knew this was the last time he could hold you for a while. And so he held on tight. He held you tighter and kissed the top of your head.

He didn’t know how long it was, but eventually, security came up and you two had to part. The last he saw was you exiting the room with your head hung low. The image of you crying played on repeat in his head and made it all the much harder for him to forget you.

On your end, you were ushered back into the conference room and given a glass of water. After you chugged down the cup, you were handed a contract.

“Please take your time to read it over, we constructed it with your manager before this meeting,” The female manager spoke up. “Overall, it details that we cannot have you see Hawks, I mean Takami-san. This contract is to last six months. We are hoping it may be able to be canceled, but it also might have to be extended. As we said, Takami-san is under-”

“I know,” You interrupted and your eyes glossed over the contract. “I understand. I, um, I just had to hear it from Takami-kun,” You reasoned. You knew you must have looked crazy. Your hair was a mess and your eyes were surely red.

You just wanted to get this over with, fix up your appearance, and go to work.

You looked to your manager who nodded and reassuringly touched your hand. “I’m sorry,” He mouthed.

You nodded and finished reading the contract. You grabbed the pen on the table and signed each page. You said you goodbyes and followed your manager out of the building, not paying much attention to anything that was happening.

“Y/L/N-san,” Your manager sighed. “I’m so sorry.”

You meekly nodded as your manager ushered you into a private cab.

“I arranged for someone to cover your shift today,” Your manager debriefed. “I also arranged for Bubble Girl to come over with takeout and anything else she may deem necessary.” Your manager once again grabbed your hand. “I want you to be as happy as you can during a time like this.”

“Thank you,” You whispered. You wished you could show your happiness better, but it was too difficult to right now. As a result, you simply went through the motions of your day.

You got home and were greeted by your best friend, takeout, a punching bag, and face masks. You got out all your stress by punching your feelings out. You then showered and ate food while doing face masks and watching old movies. You smiled through the pain as you wished her a goodnight. You laid on your bed and cried again while looking up Takami on social media.

Eventually, around midnight, you ran out of tears. You sat up in your bed and chugged more water. You felt helpless, empty, like nothing in the world could make you happy.

It wasn’t very common that you felt this depressed, but a soulmate bond could have some major impacts on people. All day, you had been thinking of a story where two people died because they tried to ignore their bond. No matter how strong-willed Takami could be, and no matter how much you cared about keeping him safe, this could take a major toll on your mind and body.

You felt utterly defeated like there was nothing left to do. You couldn’t fight against the contract because it was only in place to protect you and you couldn’t help Hawks in his mission either.

You literally couldn’t do anything.

All you could do was go about your life and wait.

Or maybe…

You immediately stood up with a new mission on your mind. You beelined it out of your room and through your small hallway. You flicked on the living room light and glanced over the area in search of the small red book.

It was still sitting on the coffee table from when you gingerly placed it there the night before. You grabbed it off the table and walked back to your room while flicking through the pages. As of now, you weren’t paying too much attention to the words. You were much too distressed and tired to actually read.

As you reopened the door to your bedroom, you noticed a flash of red outside your window. Your room was too dark to see what it was, but out of pure surprise, you stopped time. Before starting it once again, you realized that the red blur could very well have been the winged hero you had been crying over.

You rushed to the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of Takami. If you were right that he was watching over you, you would know that Hawks was just as depressed as you were. Although it pained you to know he was sad, it at least proved that he longed for you just like you longed for him.

It proved he cared for you and would continue to look over you regardless.

Your eyes analyzed the sky outside your window. You searched up and down for any sign of your soulmate. Alas, you turned up nothing.

Once again, Hawks was simply too fast for his own good.

Taglist: @hawkso-o @fashinogi @sprinkklz @shirotology

#bnha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #my hero academy #mha #hawks #hawks x reader #takami keigo #takami keigo x reader

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jinmindeulle · 5 years

Text

valtameri | jwy (1)

the zeemeermin and the piraat

word count: 2.4k

pairing: jung wooyoung x reader

genre: pirate au, mermaid au, pirate!wooyoung x mermaid!reader ∣ angst, fluff

warnings: none that i had noticed?

a/n: here i am once more! lately i’ve been obsessed with ateez as pirates and mermaids so i came up with his one at 2:52 in the morning hehe! as always thanks for your support, especially to my beautiful @myghibli for creating these amazing banners ♥

a/n 2: if you wish to be part of my tag list for future updates please do not hesitate and let me know! i’ll happily add you! ♥

i highly recommend you to read the introductions first, as the story will make more sense for you with that information! read here:

ATEEZ crew

the mermaid world

link to valtameri’s masterlist here

happy reading!

A full moon was adorning the night skies, sprinkled with shining stars and no clouds in sight. The sea was calmer than it had been in months. A warm breeze caressed her wet skin, making her sigh in contentment. Those were the nights when she felt truly happy, slightly forgetting about her life deep down the blue ocean.

Leaning on the same rock as every night but still keeping her body inside the water, she fixated her eyes in the direction of the pirate ship she wished to spend the rest of her life in. Daydreaming for a moment, she imagined herself on board of the Destiny, standing on the edge of its forecastle deck, feeling the wind through her dark blue long locks while smelling the ocean breeze.

The small smile that had appeared on her lips suddenly faded away, because the tough reality hit her in the form of a green-lilac mermaid tail. Warm tears welled her eyes and slowly went down her face. However, she tried hard not to let more out when the soft sound of running water reached her ears.

That wooden little boat was making its way towards her.

She used the back of her hands to erase any sign of fallen tears on her cheeks, and the smile that she had previously plastered on her face made its way back.

“Sorry for the delay, zeemeermin. Captain needed me to set the sails properly before going to sleep.”

“It’s okay, piraat. I was just enjoying the calm water. It’s been days since the sea was this nice.”

“I know, right? Your father must be in a good mood tonight.”

His soft laugh never failed to mesmerize her. The mere sound of his voice sent chills down her spine, but his high-pitched laugh made her feel joyful. Made her feel alive. His bright eyes reflected the moonlight and looked like two big lanterns with the ability of guiding her all the way home through the wide deep ocean. However, she knew she would never need those, because his eyes were her home. His perfect plump lips formed the big bright smile that she was so used to seeing every night. That didn’t make her immune, though. By just looking at his lips, she felt the urge to feel them closer and caress them with her own. She was sure that if she dared to just touch them with her fingertips, her heart wasn’t going to be able to take it.

Even if she felt like her world was falling apart right in front of her eyes, meeting him at the same rock every night was keeping her from falling as well. The way he kept eagerly meeting her there, always bringing a new story to tell her and make her feel better — even if he didn’t know that — made her feel good. Worthy. Loved.

“Did I tell you about that time when Yunho hyung replaced me at weighing the anchor because I had back pain and fell into the ocean?” his high-pitched chuckles made a comeback as he abandoned the safety of the boat just to sit down on the huge rock. The new proximity made her take deep breaths to try and slow down her sudden rapid heartbeat, but they didn’t help as he took her hand in his and started giving it soft caresses. He kept going on and on about the hilarious happening, his eyes so scrunched up and teary while recalling that story that she had to laugh at his expression, slightly forgetting about the skin to skin contact.

“Yunho seems like someone who would do that” she laughs, enjoying the precious moment.

“I still don’t get why he insisted in doing it when all of us know that San hyung is the best at replacing me.”

“But just at your job, piraat.”

His deep brown eyes looked at her own with a glimmer that she had never seen before. They seemed to reflect surprise, happiness and a little bit of relief.

“Right” he muttered, a content grin on his lips that reached his beautiful eyes. She felt how he squeezed her hand with his, and her heart felt like it was being crushed with it.

“Do you know when is it that you’re going back to sailing in the open sea?”

She internally cursed. Why did she have to bring that up? Was it necessary to keep reminding them of their inevitable parting every time?

“Probably in two or three nights, according to Captain.”

His demeanor quickly changed, just as it did each and every time she asked him that exact same question. His eyes were now fixated in their interlocked hands, no longer looking at her with that longing expression on his breathtakingly gorgeous face.

“I wish I could go with you.” She let out a sorrowed sigh, feeling the tears welling up in her eyes once again.

“I wish you could too.” At his confession, sadness overcame her soft pretty features, making both of their hearts ache. That’s when the pirate decided that that topic of conversation had to end there. “Are you coming tomorrow with your father?”

She used her free hand to wash away the tears that clung to her eyelashes and took a glance at the pirate ship that slowly swayed far away by their side. “I think so. He told me he needed to meet up with your Captain before you leave for some exchange of gold, or something like that.”

“Yeah, Captain informed Mingi hyung about that over dinner. Is that Arnav coming too?”

That last question was thrown at her face with such distaste, that she had to look up, smiling at his disgusted expression.

“He’s father’s second hand so yeah, he is.” She grinned, pinching his cheek at his cute pouting face.

“I don’t like him. Neither does Captain or any of my crewmembers.”

“I know. I hate him too, Wooyoungie.”

His pouting lips instantly turned into a wide smile, white teeth showing from side to side. The truth is that her calling him Wooyoungie rarely happened. They were so used to referring to each other as those mysterious Dutch terms that he sometimes forgot about the joyful feeling of hearing his nickname leave her lips.

The following hour was filled with stories, laughter and slight skin to skin contact. Neither of them had dared to go further than that, even though they both were fully aware of what was going on between them. The reason behind their nightly escapades was what kept them functioning during the day, wishing deep inside that sleep time arrived soon so that they could go out of their pole opposite worlds and meet up for a couple of hours.

Sadly, the parting hour quickly arrived, and with downhearted expressions on their faces, they said their goodbyes.

“At least we get to see each other two times tomorrow” he breathed out, leaving a soft sloppy kiss on her hand. She thanked the night skies for the darkness that covered her reddened cheeks, and with a content sigh, she nodded.

“Not the same as at night but at least it’s something. Have a good night, piraat.” She muttered, watching him go back to the wooden boat. Once he was positioned, hands over the rowing sticks, he sent her one of those beautiful, heartwarming smiles and whispered “You too, y/n”, only to start rowing his way back to the pirate ship.

She stayed there, leaning in that meaningful rock until all she could see was a little dark dot climbing back to deck. As he disappeared, she decided that it was about time to go back as well.

Looking at the bright stars one last time and wishing to see them again the following night in the presence of her favorite human being, she dove all the way down the wide deep ocean to what her fellow mermaids and mermen called home. At that moment, and just like every time she thought of the term home, she came to the conclusion that her definition of that word was nothing like theirs.

The sun was up once again, reflecting over the ocean and giving it a turquoise glimmer. Far away and deep down, y/n was quietly murmuring her favorite song, sadness visible over her features. Her mother had sung it for her each and every night to lull her to sleep, especially when she was having trouble to find her way towards Morpheus’ arms. She had never felt such grief and misfortune in her entire life — even when she thought of her desire to become a pirate — than when she lost the most important being for her. Her mother got her in a way that no one had; she had held her when she felt like her mermaid body had her real self trapped inside, and had given her advice when her father declared her the next in line for ruler of the seas.

After meeting Wooyoung, y/n felt like a part of her that had long ago died with her mother was reviving, was blossoming in a new way. That pirate was giving her hope through his loving glances, warm caresses, fond smiles and reassuring words. She was sure that she was never going to be happy if she had to live like that for the rest of her life, hiding her encounters with the pirate from everyone and merely being with him for a couple of hours at night. But at least it was something. Something to which she could cling to until the string was cut off.

“Father wants us in the meeting room now.”

Her younger sister, Gali, was fluttering in front of her, a tough look in her features. Her mid-long mahogany hair floated around her head, making her look even more intimidating. When they went to the surface together, she actually seemed like a cute little mermaid, but down the sea, she could pass like a siren merely by her harsh features — which only softened when being around her crush, Arnav. Y/n had always wondered what she had done to her sister for her to hate her so much. Even after their mother’s passing, Gali had never given her a fond look or a hug. If she had doubted her mother’s fidelity to her father, she would surely believe that there was no way they could be sisters.

Gali didn’t wait for y/n’s response and just swam her way out to the meeting room. The older sister fluttered still for a couple of minutes, until she snapped out of her bubble and began swimming to the point of meeting. While she passed by all of the different buildings, she wondered if that was what humans experienced everyday on land. She had a vague idea of how life was there thanks to Wooyoung, who had showed her plenty of books with pictures and illustrations of some of the nearby islands. He had also mentioned that some people believed that deep down the ocean, a lost city called Atlantis existed. The illustrations that she had seen were actually pretty accurate, although her “city” was nowhere near that utopian society that held enough wisdom to bring world peace.

Without realizing, she reached the meeting room. Bowing to the merman guards that fluttered by the main door, she made her way inside.

Her sister was already in front of their father, using her hands to comb through her hair. Right, Arnav was there as well. The big muscular merman was discussing something with the King of the Seas, paying no attention at all to the younger mermaid who had fully blushed by just being near him. Y/n didn’t get why Gali was so deeply in love with that arrogant being. Only his worked-out torso could have made her fall for him, because his face was nothing like Wooyoung’s, and his long tail was an ugly mixture of black and green scales. Disgusting.

“Oh, good. Y/n is here”

Her father looked at her with serious blue eyes that surely took after the ocean he was born into. While staring at them, she realized that her father had never looked at her like her mother used to. Was he only able to love just his wife? Not even his daughters?

“This is going to be quick as we must go up for our meeting and exchange with the ATEEZ crew.” He stated, deep low voice resonating in every wall of the room. “You both know it by now, but you may be realizing that I am getting old and I will not be able to continue my ruling properly. As I told you years ago, y/n is to follow the linage and will be replacing me soon.” He prompted his wrinkled, large hand to Arnav’s direction and kept on talking. “However, I do not wish for her to rule alone.”

Oh, no.

Y/n’s world was already falling apart, but it just never seemed to stop.

“You may marry Arnav in the next few weeks and take my place right after the union is consummated.”

She felt like throwing up. A gasp went out of her mouth, pure disbelief, grief and desperation taking over her. She felt her tail go numb, barely holding up. The mermaid was not able to hear anything around her. Her sight was blurred, a huge lump forming in her throat.

“Ar… are you…?” y/n muttered, trying to recompose. “Are you forcing me to marry him?”

As she recovered her hearing, and although the voices still resonated far away from her, she could hear Gali crying like a baby by her side, making a fuss like she was the one condemned to a life full of lies and misfortune.

“I am not forcing you, y/n. I am looking out for you.”

Y/n felt like her whole existence was a joke, life and destiny laughing at her with joyful tears in their eyes. Tears that she would never feel if she ever married that stupid creature and stayed the rest of her life under the sea.

“Right” she let out a sarcastic laugh and waiting no response, swam away and out of her disgrace.

With full speed, one that surely was propelled by her anger, y/n made her way towards the only place she knew somebody was going to actually listen to her and help her out. That dark cave was her only way out.

next ↬ chapter ii — union

tag list ♥ @peterparkerismybae

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creative-frequency · 5 years

Text

Cal Kestis x Reader: DEAR STAR SYSTEM Ch. 04

Word count: 3849 Pairing: Cal Kestis x Female Reader Summary/Contains: There is a time and place for pining but first you need to save the Wookiees. Partial canon-rewrite. Pining, probably. Notes: This is a long chapter but I hope it makes up for the wait! Also lmk if you’d like to be tagged or not. Also sorry if I forgot to tag someone.

Previous Chapter

My Writing Masterlist

DEAR STAR SYSTEM // 04

Your heart wrenches in the most distressing way.

Listening to Saw Gerrera explain what is going on; the Wookiees enslaved, the planet being harvested and destroyed by the Empire… There has to be a way you can help.

On Zeffo Cal found out that the next step of Cordova’s path lies on Kashyyyk, so that’s where you headed next. After a brash jump from the flying Mantis, hijacking a walker and helping the rebels and Gerrera’s Partisans to clear the area, anyone could settle for enough adventure. But Cal still wants to help.

And so do you.

“Wooaaah, wait a minute, hold on, wait a minute.” Greez motions everyone to stop speaking. He is not too convinced it’s a good idea to participate in some freedom fighting. “The Mantis works wonders, I mean it’s a great ship, excellent pilot, but…”

You raise an eyebrow at him.

“It is not built for close support,” he ends decisively.

“We’ll stay here and monitor Imperial transmissions,” Cere calms him, “With a bit of luck we’ll intercept any distress calls.”

“’Preciate it,” Saw nods and turns to Cal: “My lieutenants and I will scout ahead to prepare the attack. Join us when you’re ready.”

As Saw leaves with most of his troops, Cal turns to look at the rest of your crew. His expression is filled with determination, defiance even. Nothing is going to stop him and he is daring you to try.

“You hair is still wet,” you quip. You notice the curve of your lips is a tad too relieved and Cal is absurdly good at pulling off the wet poncho look.

The mood has been slightly… careful between you since the necklace episode. You regret ever letting it happen since now you’re hyperaware of Cal’s presence at all times and weigh the meaning behind every look. It’s an unexpected but not unwelcome pastime, and you shouldn’t consider him in that way but you just do. Cal, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be effect by those same troubles at all. It’s frustrating because you feel like you’re losing in your own game, which is not supposed to be a game but somehow it still is.

Urgh.

“It’s good to see you too,” Cal says and chuckles. “Glad you’re alright.”

“This place is a dump,” Greez mutters and glowers at the overgrown nature around the landing zone. It must be horrible for him.

“Your plan worked. And now you want to follow Saw?” Cere asks cautiously and folds her arms on her chest, not entirely approving of her young mentee’s intentions.

“What do you think of his plan?” Cal returns.

“He might win this fight with our help, but in the long run… I don’t know,” you say in thought. You sigh and look around the destroyed forest. The smell of smoke and burning metal prickles in your nostrils. You’re starting to get desperate for fresh or even filtered air.

“I doubt the freedom for the Wookiees is his only goal,” Cere adds in a hushed tone.

“He seems trustworthy,” Cal shrugs.

“He might prove to be, but there’s more going on here than we know,” Cere reminds him. Cal nods.

“And don’t forget the Empire fights dirty. Watch your tail in that refinery, kid,” Greez says. Is that a hint of worry you detect?

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Wait. I’m coming with you,” you say on the spur of the moment before Cal can turn to leave. There’s no way you’re sitting on your hands inside the Mantis while Cal tumbles head on into danger to save the Wookiees.

The crew pauses to stare at you.

“They’ll need all the help they can get,” you explain, “I’ll go grab my gear, hold on a minute.”

Cal doesn’t know what to say. Cere holds a sigh and Greez shakes his head. “I knew this was gonna happen one day,” he mumbles.

“Does she…” Cal starts but finds it difficult to finish the question. The last thing he wants is to doubt your competence, but he would blame himself if anything were to happen to you out there.

“She can take care of herself, I’ll admit that. You need to focus on your part, Cal,” Cere assures.

“Right.” The young Jedi still looks bemused but swallows the rest of the questions.

The two electroswords, both miraculously fixed by Cal, are waiting to get back to what they were created for. Such flashy weapons haven’t been your strong suit before but it’ll be interesting to try them. As you grab and attach them to you belt along with a blaster and its holster, an ambiguous feeling grows inside you. The decision to go with Cal wasn’t made as impulsively as you even yourself initially thought. Spending time with Cere and Cal must be affecting your sense of justice and will to act. Goddamn Jedi.

Who could’ve guessed someone with your messy past would become a freedom fighter? Definitely not you.

You silence the nagging voice whispering that you’re only doing this to impress a certain person who makes your heart race. Is this really something you’d normally do just to get back to the top of things aka your feelings? You refuse to believe that. But anyone who knew you before you met Cere, would disagree and tell you this is exactly how you always respond. They would tell you this is what you do best. You’re always the one in control and won’t lose without a fight to the death.

You inhale and puff out the air in a long sigh. The door of the Mantis swings open and the smoke-filled air hits your face again. It makes your eyes water.

You tap the blaster holster on your side. “Let’s not keep Saw waiting.”

Cere gives your posture a cursory look but settles for nodding. Greez’s eyes are wide and you realize he hasn’t seen you carrying a weapon before. Just because it wasn’t in plain sight, it doesn’t mean you’d enter shady cantinas unarmed. Greez’s expression is filled with doubt and fearful respect.

“Alright.” Cal sounds wary but decides to trust Cere’s judgment.

“Be careful out there. Both of you. Coming back in one piece is still part of the plan, right?” Cere throws dryly and fights a smile.

“Yeah, I’ll bump it up on the priority list!” Cal grimaces as if he had already forgotten and you roll your eyes. “C’mon, BD!”

Greez hmphs and paces up the Mantis’ ramp, shaking his head and muttering to himself. Cere follows him as you and Cal leave the landing zone. With hasty steps, you head to the direction of the sap refinery.

“So what do you know about the Partisans?” Cal asks in a low voice as you pass a few.

“Just rumors. They’ve got bounties on their heads. Preeetty pile of credits is resting between those shoulders.” Your eyes dart around the freedom fighters in the area and, honestly, they don’t look like much. Just normal people, but apparently they do know which end of the blaster goes where.

Cal looks at you dubiously, pondering whether to ask why you would know such a detail.

“That way, right?” You nod forward.

“Saw is up ahead,” one of the Partisans kindly offers directions towards a narrow clearing that leads to the refinery.

The path is anything but straight; filled with cut-down jungle to make way for elevator tracks from the landing zone to the sap refinery. The comfort of an elevator is nowhere to be seen so you’ll have to get your boots dirty. The swarm of flame beetles buzzing near the tree line is likely the least of what you’ll encounter further in. The short electroswords feel reassuring against your thighs. You grip the blaster handle and draw in a long breath, inconspicuously. It’s been some time since you had to fight anyone.

“Are you okay?” Cal asks and visibly fights himself to not urge you to return. Of course he would notice you psyching yourself up.

“Yeah. Let’s go!” you say. You jump down a ledge before he can say another word and Cal follows you after a beat.

The thought of trudging the jungle floor dirt turns out to be more intolerable than actually treading it with Cal. He is helpful and considerate even in the stressful and pressing situation. The list of things you wouldn’t have fun doing with him is likely as short as a rancor’s patience. And that’s another train of thought you need to crash before it reaches a finish line.

You’re jumping over endless pits, balancing over fallen tree trunks (Cal holds your hand, just in case) and finally climbing up a ramp to reach Saw Gerrera. You’re a tad out of breath when Cal reaches a hand out and pulls you up. He can certainly keep up the pace and you realize you’re dangerously starting to fall out of shape. Greez’s cooking is to blame.

“Still okay?” Cal smiles and holds you for a moment too long. His free hand falls onto your shoulder.

“Thanks. All good,” you huff and try to reach a responsive smile. Cal squeezes your shoulder in his frustratingly casual manner and you remember his touch on your neck while you should be focusing on the life or death mission ahead.

Saw Gerrera and his lieutenants are in position and you crouch to talk with them. Saw gives you an examining look before turning his attention to Cal. “Imperial sap refinery lies dead ahead.”

“What does the Empire want with tree sap?” Cal wonders and looks at the target building through the binoculars.

“Nothing good,” Saw replies.

As he starts explaining the situation and the plan, BD-1 makes a holoprojection of the area. Saw’s troops will create a distraction while Cal uses his lightsaber to rescue the enslaved Wookiees. He makes it sound so simple.

“Creating a distraction, huh? Sounds like you could use every blaster you can get,” you mark to Saw and he nods gravely.

Cal quickly turns to look at you, about to say something.

“I’m going with them,” you hurry to interrupt him.

His mouth closes, an abrupt frown flashes before it’s replaced with badly concealed worry. He knows it’s the best call in the situation.

“Beep?” BD-1 tilts his head.

“Alright. Be careful out there,” Cal says, nodding.

“You too.” You hold eye contact for a moment, but at the same time wonder what that look on his face means.

Cal and BD get on their way down when you follow the Partisans to the main entrance. Saw was right about the Imperial troopers having spread themselves too thin. The amount of resistance you face is almost ridiculous in the face of the battle-hardened Partisans. Saw Gerrera fits out to be the fiercest of them, making you wonder how far he is capable of going. The precision and rage he fights with is unmatched and sparks inspiration in his troops. You no longer wonder why they’re considered radicals by the Empire.

After the first battle, Saw asks you to play it safe in a passing comment. You don’t want to overthink his request or what he believes is between you and Cal, so you continue shooting at the Stormtroopers. The Partisans are counting their marks and the notion makes you feel uneasy. You try not to listen to their banter.

After the third earth-shaking explosion, Cal can no longer resist the urge to ask how you’re doing. Your wrist comm buzzes.

“Doing okay there?” The transmission catches a lot of background noise and it sounds like someone isn’t playing it safe.

You roll to take cover behind a ledge just when a blaster bolt flies over your head. One of the Partisans fighting next to you gets the Stormtrooper.

“A little busy… Don’t you have a job to do?” you huff into the comm device.

Cal chuckles. “I’m almost to the prison now. Just wanted to make sure you’re still safe.”

Safe is a very relative term in the situation you’re in but your stomach makes a jolt and you bite your lip. Can he not do this when you need to stay focused to avoid getting shot? Also, you’re fairly certain Cere can hear you exchange.

“You’re sweet to worry about me, but there’s really no need, Cal.”

A pause.

“Right. Sorry, I–”

“At least you both are still alive in there,” Cere joins up the conversation. “Imperial distress calls are going out across the planet. If you don’t get the prisoners soon…”

“We can do this. I promise,” Cal says decisively.

“See you when you’ve released the Wookiees, Cal,” you say and wait for the comm to snap but it stays silent.

A few moments later a small batch of Wookiees joins the fight, but your distraction group finds itself trapped behind a jammed door in a passageway filled with deadly blaster bolts. The rest of the prisons ahead are still closed and the Stormtroopers are gathering reinforcements. The situation is quickly going from dire to desperate.

“Hold on, we’re gonna get you out of there!” Cal’s voice cracks through your wrist comm.

He is on the other side of the wall, getting closer to the control room. You can just barely see flashes of his blue lightsaber through the fire and smoke. He is fighting and you can’t help the bloat of worry that suddenly rises up your throat. No matter that you’re in a life or death situation yourself.

The Wookiee cell doors suddenly blast open and roars fill the air.

“You’ve done it!” Saw yells. “The Wookiees are free! Get to the roof!”

Cal is on the other side of the glass of the control room, seemingly unharmed. He makes a small wave at you and BD stretches up to look over his head. You form them a thank you on your lips and dart after the Partisans.

By the time Cal gets to the roof, all hell is on the loose. Stormtroopers carrying flamethrowers get up close and personal with the freedom fighters. They get support fire from the upper roof, so you have to stay behind a cover but not moving means the flames will reach you any moment. Unless you deal with the blaster bolts first, you won’t have a chance. Something about the fire and the frying pan crosses your mind.

You yell at the couple nearest Partisans to focus on the enemies firing from up and take out your electroswords. They whirr to life and electric blue cracks around both rods. The handles feel familiar but weird in your hands. It’s been a while. You suppress the disabling feeling of the adrenaline and look for an opening.

When the Flame trooper retreats to reload, you close in.

Cal is running towards the same enemy, but it’s clear that you’ll reach the target first. He barely breaths and time slows as he watches you narrowly slide underneath the angry blaze and make a slicing motion at the trooper’s knees. The shower of flames turns towards the sky when the trooper starts falling and ends abruptly when the electrosword in your right hand slashes again across his chest. It’s over so fast that your brain catches up to speed when the trooper is already lying on the ground.

Cal changes his direction and leaps onto the next Flame trooper, mind void of anything but the ongoing fight and the simple thought that he was a fool to be worried about you. You’re clearly no stranger to a melee weapon.

The area is almost cleared when Imperial support arrives.

“Cal, look!” you scream and point into the air.

Cal is just finishing the last Flame trooper. He brutally kicks the enemy down and drives his lightsaber through the armor’s chest piece. He looks up, mouth hanging open in surprise.

An AT-ST walker lands with a loud thump.

“Jedi! We don’t have the firepower to breach its hull!” Saw yells. He is fighting on the upper roof which is almost cleared out of enemy troopers. The handful of the Partisans left standing, and the freed Wookiees, look for cover. Normal blaster bolts won’t make even a dent on the walker.

“We’re on it!” Cal shouts.

“Be-beep!” BD-1 confirms and tightens his grip of Cal’s back.

Cal searches and catches your gaze but doesn’t need to tell you to stay back. Your feet are already pointed at the poor shelter the nearby doorway offers. You’re going to sit this one out and focus on the rest of the troopers on rooftops so the Jedi can handle the walker.

The AT-ST sows grenades to where Cal stood just seconds ago. His lightsaber cuts red, molten streaks on the robotic legs, breaching closer to the inevitable moment when the walker will topple down. He manages to land an attack after another – all the while parrying incoming blaster fire and dodging disabling electric fields and grenade drops.

With the weapon in hand, Cal is like another person. Brutal, efficient. You’ve seen enough to fully appreciate his legwork and fluid movements in close combat. He is both raw and calculated in his attacks and you wish the troopers were gone already so you could just fully commit to staring.

You’ve never seen a Jedi fight before. Actually, you’ve never even met a Jedi before. The stories that are whispered around the galaxy do no justice to seeing the real deal hand out blows. It makes you wonder.

Cal doesn’t waste time in getting rid of the walker and the fight is over before the Partisans have the chance to watch.

Loud cheers erupt in the air. Everyone crowds around the Jedi and suddenly you feel abashed at approaching him – the new hero of the cause. Your steps heading towards Cal slow down. Saw Gerrera gets up on a platform to hold an inspirational speech:

“Everyone! These have been hard years. We’ve lost comrades, friends, family… to the Empire.” He pauses. “Dark times. And yet the fire… still burns. Hope… still burns. The Jedi are not yet lost.”

All eyes turn to Cal. Saw knows how tight the situation was. If it wasn’t for Cal, none of you would be there alive.

“We are not yet lost. Kashyyyk is not yet lost! For the cause!”

Everyone cheers. Cal looks confused but pleased from the attention. They pat his back and smile, most relieved, some awe-inspired. Words of thanks are said loud and clear. Two of the Partisans who fought beside you come to thank you for the help. You mumble that you didn’t do it to gather gratefulness.

You want to go to Cal but Saw reaches him first. They talk for a while next to the Partisans’ transport ship. Cal can feel your gaze on him and wants to wrap up the conversation quickly. Saw’s offer to join the fight is appreciated but Cal still has his own mission to finish. The mission of the Mantis crew. The mission you’re a part of.

He still hasn’t had the chance to check on you after the fight. If Saw notices how Cal’s attention keeps drawing to your presence, he says nothing. Cal is still too high on the adrenaline to care. He would take up another walker in an instant if it meant he could go and ask are you hurt. He feels an urgent need that pulls him towards you. He knows you’re alright but he needs to make sure with his own eyes, undisturbed.

While waiting for Cal to finish his conversation, you approach Mari Kosan and one of the freed Wookiees, Commander Choyyssyk.

The Wookiee Commander promises you something but you understand only a few things in Shyriiwook, which he kindly uses for clarity, so you have to look to Mari for translation. The things you would understand in Wookieespeak are very… rude in Galactic Basic: A lot of things concerning one’s ancestors and their defining traits.

“Choyyssyk says he’ll do whatever he can to find Tarfful and vouch for you,” Mari translates.

You nod gratefully. “Thank you. I’ll let Cal know.” You glance at the Jedi still exchanging words with Saw.

“Could take some time because they’re always on the move. We’ll be in touch with your ship,” Mari continues.

Choyyssyk agrees and that much you can understand. He apologizes and leaves to be with his comrades who were also imprisoned. Your heart goes out to the Wookiees. They’ve been through something you don’t think you could survive.

You’re just about to ask Mari what the Partisans will do now, when Cal calls your name and runs over to join you.

“You, you’re–” He struggles to find the words, looking rattled but happy.

“A rebel? I guess I am,” you crack to finish the sentence in case Cal is about to comment your fighting style. The less attention your backstabbing methods gain the better.

A rebel is not what Cal meant but the bloat of worry erupts into a fit of light laughter. He takes your hand from mid-air and squeezes it gently.

Your mouth forms an o. It’s hard to conceal your surprise and delight. Your hands lower down and for a moment you feel like you’re about to burst. From holding a guy’s hand. You.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Cal murmurs solemnly. He has that same look in his eyes as when you parted at the refinery entrance.

“You too, Cal. I’m glad you’re in one piece,” you reply in a hushed tone.

Mari clears her throat and awkwardly moves her weight from one foot to another. You pay her no mind but a hint of pink flushes right across Cal’s freckles.

“We should head back to the Mantis. Greez is probably freaking out,” he says and chuckles again. He lets go of you, leaving your fingers tingling pleasantly.

You huff, amused at the thought of Greez stuck in the middle of wild nature and agree: “Yes. Let’s.”

Cal turns to Mari and a look passes his face which hints that he didn’t realize she was standing with you and maybe he should’ve exercised more caution and self-control – though he doesn’t want to think about the reason why. So what if he is happy to see you survived unharmed? The uneasy feeling in his chest doesn’t agree.

“Thank you, both of you,” Mari says.

“You guys stay safe. Good luck out here,” Cal wishes.

“Will do. For the cause.” Mari raises her fist across her heart just like Saw Gerrera earlier.

Part of you hopes the elevator was still out of order since the journey back to the Mantis is way too short. Going out there to help the Wookiees with Cal was a good decision and you’re happy, but also feel an inkling; a stirring inside your chest that makes you nervous to be alone with him in the large elevator. You don’t talk. Only smile whenever your gazes cross and each time your heart makes a leap.

When the elevator stops, you’re fully aware of how much in trouble you are.

Next Chapter

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margridarnauds · 4 years

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Your "Grace O'Malley" tag is extremely gratifying--it's so nice to see actual scholarship. So with that in mind: Have you read Morgan Llwelyn's novel, and if so, what do you have to say on it?

Hi! Thank you so much! I’m glad you like it; it can feel a little bit like I’m shouting into the wind, given that Gráinne is one of my more niche focuses. I still kind of want to do something that actually looks at the EVIDENCE, but I digress.

Morgan Llewelyn….I have mixed feelings about. I last really looked into this book when I was toying with doing my undergrad Capstone Thesis on Donal O’Flaherty, about….4 years ago, now. Time really does fly. So, I forced myself into a refresher, just to remind myself what I missed.

[warning for references to rape, incest, and some of the most Cursed™ lines I’ve ever been forced to read in my life, and that’s including the zombie blowjob scene.]

Final Verdict: 2.5/5 - DEFINITELY not the worst retelling of Gráinne’s life (I’ve seen....Things), but also not the best, either, and with some very, very glaring flaws that make it impossible for me to really enjoy.

My main take away from it is that…as far as its depiction of Gráinne, it did about as well as its source material. I can tell, looking at it and reading it, that she really looked hard at Anne Chambers’ book. Which is unfortunate because, as I’ve made……………relatively clear over the years, I think that it’s very, deeply flawed. And, unfortunately, Llewlyn stuck rather close to the book, leaving in things like Donal’s “murder" of Walter Fada Burke (if the patronymic don’t fit, you’ve got to acquit), Sexist™ Incompetent™ Donal™, and…..Hugh de Lacy, which, in my personal opinion, owe more to Chambers lack of critical reading of her own sources than they do to the historical record. ESPECIALLY Hugh de Lacy because…the name. Very odd that one of the major Anglo-Norman officials should share a name with Gráinne Ní Mháille’s boytoy. Very odd. Especially given that the pattern of “Love interest of Gráinne’s killed off/Gráinne seeks revenge” is VERY similar to what we hear of the Defense of Hen’s Castle. Almost as if they come from the same story.

This also leads us to the scene where Donal tries to rape Gráinne in her sleep which, honestly, I loathe with every fibre of my being. Nope, nope. Hate it. Hate. It. Oh, God, I forgot about the references to Donal!Incest. Why is this a mini-genre of Gráinne Ní Mháille historical fiction. Why. I can think of at least…..2-3 books that do this. Why God. Why.

Lest anyone think that this is the Donal fangirl in me jumping out, in general, I feel like Llewelyn’s treatment of most of the characters is ultimately paper-thin. Richard Burke is also given this treatment and, while I wouldn’t REALLY expect a sympathetic Richard Bingham (nor would I particularly want one - I’ve spent a lot of quality time reading his complaints and cackling), even HE’S done a disservice.

On a technical level, I don’t REALLY like how she handles the timeline, it jumps around a little too much for my taste. We’re treated to constant flashbacks with little warning, including ones that could have been just as easily folded into the timeline proper. And, while Llewelyn has a rich, descriptive style, she also writes an, honestly, impressive number of lines that will haunt me for all the wrong reasons. I’ve detailed a lot of them under the readmore, but some highlights:

She had gazed in wonder at the child—his perfect ears and fingers, the miniature penis that would eventually become a mighty rod for transmitting further life.” This is, I’m sure, what every mother thinks when she sees her newborn son’s penis for the first time. Why. Why God. Why. Why. Why.

Okay, another candidate for Cursed Lines: "Richard noted the high color in her cheeks, and saw how her nipples stood out strongly under the soft fabric of her gown.” If this were a male author, I would be-Nah, it’s still bad. It’s just bad writing, I’m sorry. In general, I found that she massively sexed up Gráinne’s life, for no real reason that I can tell except for that it felt almost like she felt like it was necessary to prove that Gráinne was a Real Woman™? There’s a very....odd way that her sex life is treated, and it grates on me. We have to deal with Donal, Richard, Huw(uwu), Philip Sydney, and Tigernan, all in the course of one book and, honestly, I don’t really CARE about Gráinne’s sexcapades, and they’re generally written with so little development or feeling, even and especially in the case of her GREAT LOVE HUW, that I found myself actively groaning. My take on Gráinne, at least the Gráinne that I know in the sources, is almost asexual. I don’t deny that she had sex. She obviously did. (FOUR CHILDREN.) And I think that she might very well have enjoyed it. (Not that there’s enough evidence to KNOW.) But I also think that she was a profoundly pragmatic woman who didn’t fixate on it that much. Again, I could be wrong! When we have as little as we have to go on as we do with her, it’s impossible to know! But I just do not see her as jumping into bed with guys that often, especially not in cases where there was no clear benefit. There’s this...trend, where Gráinne HAS to have a love interest, in every major adaptation of her life, because it’s almost like people are afraid to have her without the anchor of sex and romance. (For what it’s worth - I do think, simply because of the amount of time that they spent together + the fact that they did have at least three children with one another, that Donal was probably her favorite of her two spouses. I don’t KNOW this, because I can’t. The evidence isn’t there. I don’t know whether they loved one another, whether it was a great romance, whether the sex was good, or even if it was just a mild affection, but I do lean towards him, even if I can’t say that he was the Great Love of Her Life™. I think they complimented one another’s lifestyles quite nicely, and that’s all that I can really give.)

Llewelyn also has a very, very obvious bias against Catholicism that ultimately makes me wonder whether she ever meant to engage with 16th century Ireland on its own terms. As an atheist in Celtic Studies....look, I can GET having many, many mixed feelings about Catholicism, but it WAS the religion of the land at the time. If you want to have ANY understanding of the people and what was going through their minds, you have to try to engage with them on their own terms. I’m not in any hurry to convert to Catholicism, but I do try to consider life through the eyes of medieval and early modern Catholics when I’m analyzing sources made in that time. And trying to separate it off from the Good Pagan Times, to the point of creating a 16th century druid woman to voice your opinions on free love/organized religion/etc. is just going to get you into disaster. (Though Evleen did give us one female character who is a friend to Gráinne, so...victory?) Bonus, by the way, for the Evil Priest who schemes against Gráinne and is fucking boys on the side. (It seems like they’re of age, at least?) We’re told that he has reasons for what he does, but it comes as a bit of a last minute attempt at creating the illusion of a three dimensional character. I feel like Llewelyn, ultimately, should have stuck to Pre-Patristic times. I shudder at what she would do with, say, the Mythological Cycle, I don’t particularly want her touching my baby (if she touched Bres in particular, I would probably cry) because, at this point, I don’t trust her with ANY medieval materials (mainly because they’ve all been CONTAMINATED by CATHOLIC HANDS, oh NO), but I feel like it’s where her heart truly is.

IF she’d stuck with pre-Patristic sources, we wouldn’t have to deal with 16th century characters thinking things like: " He would go in the style of his warrior ancestors, fearless in the face of death; the ancient, pagan Gaels had known death was only a brief incident in the ongoing flow of life, a transitory happening of little importance.” Admittedly, Llewelyn herself SEEMS to realize this, as she has him cross himself afterwards, but I really, really don’t think it would be the sort of thing to cross a man’s mind in the Early Modern Period. There was very little evidence for reincarnation that was that explicit (One of the papers that I did was on the existence of reincarnation in Pre-Christian Ireland, so I actually CAN speak on this one with some degree of confidence - My ultimate findings were that it probably did exist in some form, but the evidence makes it hard at times to draw definite conclusions), and I’m not sold that they would…understand it as reincarnation, as SUCH. We can look at what, say, Julius Caesar wrote about the druids’ beliefs and apply them to medieval Irish texts, but a man living in 16th century Ireland wouldn’t necessarily have the same luxury, especially since relatively few figures are given reincarnation narratives. It’s like…she’s applying the Mythological Cycle, but she momentarily forgets that these characters wouldn’t have VIEWED the Mythological Cycle like we would have, and it’s rather jarring. No one else might pick up on that, because this is my field. This is the ONE THING I can be pedantic on.

Now! There are some things I actually do like! Outside of Chambers’ questionable grasp of historical interpretation and the resulting taint, I can tell that Llewlyn did have a solid grasp of the FEEL of Early Modern Ireland. As I noted above, she’s a very fine author, the kind I honestly ENVY as a historical fiction writer, the type that is so confident and descriptive that, even when she’s wrong, which is often, I find myself reaching for the sources just to make sure. Her descriptions are vivid and visceral, pulling me immediately into the FEEL of Ireland in the 16th century, a way of life on the verge of collapse.

When she isn’t being descriptive in all the wrong ways as detailed above. I do feel, for whatever it’s worth, that as someone with the background in this material that I have, I was kind of doomed from the get-go. I THINK that for someone who isn’t a Celticist (in training), it would be much, much more enjoyable, BECAUSE she is so confident in her style and her way of evoking the mood that it wouldn’t really stick out. I happen to be both blessed and cursed in that regard.

It’s clear, as well, that she has a grasp on the literature of the time - References to the things like the first Gaels coming from Spain make my heart SING with joy because it’s a very clear allusion to Lebor Gabála Érenn and the Mythological Cycle, which is my specialty, and there are plenty of times that I can tell you EXACTLY what sources she had to hand while she was typing on a section. It’s just a pity to me that she seems to try so hard to toss it all away in order to bifurcate Early Modern Irish society into Pagan VS Catholic, since she fundamentally did betray her own sources there. And, unfortunately, the way she tends to show her research is about as subtle as a blunt nail, in a very “As you know” manner: See: “I have heard the brehons chanting the laws governing fosterage, describing every article of clothing that must be furnished a child and every detail of the training the child is to be given.” Like, yes, the law texts record this, but I can’t really see someone from the 16th century SAYING it that bluntly, you know? Also, I’m not really sold that they would be chanting it out loud as a ritual thing, rather that a lot of the law tracts are in a simple Question/Answer format because it would have, presumably, made it simpler for the Brehons THEMSELVES to remember that way.

I do like that Llewlyn’s Gráinne…she’s attractive, yes, but she’s not conventionally attractive, and she’s explicitly said to be big and tall as a man. I feel like a lot of pop cultural depictions of Gráinne want to make her dainty and beautiful, despite living in an incredibly harsh, stressful environment. I think that her outfit’s a little too much “Modern pirate”-y for my taste, but I’ll allow it because, tbh, it looks really, really badass and, whatever clothing Gráinne would have worn, we probably wouldn’t have really recognized it as “Pirate-like”, since our vision of pirates in the modern day is mainly an early 18th century one. I do appreciate that Gráinne has that hard, pragmatic edge that I respect in the Gráinne that we read about in the State Papers and in Bingham’s recollections - a very matter of fact, no nonsense woman who would do whatever it took to survive. Though I do think that she probably didn’t really spend that much time thinking about Elizabeth. It seems slightly unrealistic to me that, knowing how pragmatic Gráinne was, that she would really, really concern herself that much with Elizabeth, especially when she would have had powerful women like Iníon Dubh closer to home. There are some really nice, poignant moments as well that the hard edge masks, like the moment where she asks after a piece of hair that sent on to her son Owen. When Gráinne is in her natural element, having fun on the open sea, taking vengeance, and getting to be angry and proud and fierce, as well as the moments where she shows a softer side....those are the moments that make it for me. But then we’re back to the sex and romance, to the point where the book is literally divided by which man she’s screwing at the time.

Also, despite wanting to LOATHE Tigernan, as an OC love interest of Gráinne’s, I did find myself warming to him, as he has a nice, laid-back dynamic with Gráinne built on trust and filled with plenty of banter. Next to her, he is probably the single best developed character in the book, though, unfortunately, he does get it through a ton of space devoted to his thoughts, his pining for Gráinne, and his intense jealousy for the many times she chooses someone else over him (mainly because he never tells her he loves her and then he feels like she owes him for what he does for her - yes, there are some Nice Guy tendencies here, but, honestly, after about the second or third time this happened, I was very pro-Tigernan running away and finding a better gig for himself.) No, besides being Catholic and lower class, we don’t really have that MUCH on him outside of being Gráinne’s first mate, but, honestly....that’s still more characterization than the others get, and, at least as of Chapter 24, he hasn’t done anything TOO atrocious.

My PETTIEST of bitching/impromptu liveblog beneath the cut:

A VERY pedantic thing: Llewelyn says, multiple times, that the English would anglicize her name “Grace”. In reality, no one in Early Modern England did that, it came much, much later. In all the Letters of State, she’s referred to as “Grany” or a variation of that name - An English attempt at “Gráinne.” That’s also why you’ll notice that I tend to refer to her as Gráinne here - It was the name she was known by in her own time, it was the name her contemporaries called her, and so it’s the name I call her.

"He wore a full and drooping mustache in the old Gaelic style, though otherwise he was cleanshaven.” Again. MINOR nitpicking. The Gauls were the ones who, traditionally, we associate with the droopy mustaches. In the sagas, beards are given a TON of prominence, to the point of being the marker of being a man. So. Odd choice on Tigernan’s part there. I know that Llewelyn didn’t intend to write him as a 16th century Irish coxcomb, but…well.

"He realized he had made a bad mistake in referring to her peculiar relationship with her husband. He had been in the castle at Bunowen himself; he had seen with his own eyes that Grania’s belongings were taken to one bedchamber, and Donal O Flaherty’s were put in another. Many might speculate in private about the arrangement, but only a fool would have mentioned it to her face.” As I’ve mentioned before, I really, really don’t think this relationship was as loveless as it’s generally portrayed as. I don’t know whether they were PASSIONATELY in love (and unlike a certain biographer, I won’t try to fill in what I don’t know with what I WANT her to have had), maybe they simply got on, but they did have three LIVING children. And I underline “living” because there were likely more. “Likely more” means that they probably did regularly share a bed, at least as much so as their respective schedules allowed.

“Aye, and didn’t she put her children out to fostering before they could stand? A woman’s not usually that anxious to get away from her children that she takes to the sea to avoid them.” Given that fosterage could begin VERY early, I really, really don’t think anyone would have questioned this at all. Gaelic Ireland, simply put, often didn’t have our own conception of the nuclear family, and this was generously provided for in the law codes. Fosterage was useful as a way of maintaining ties between both neighboring families and, most especially, between kings and their vassals, with vassals often fostering kings’ sons. (That way, if the king should die with multiple possible heirs, it means that the kids have people backing them for the kingship.)

"I think that husband of hers had been crying poverty so loud and long he made her deaf to everything else” - Not to be #TeamDonal on main, but the facts as they’re recorded tend to have a strong pro-Donal bias. Take the words of his 17th century relative, Ruari O’Flaherty: "Of all the western O'Flaherties, Donel an chogaidh , although not the chieftain, was the most powerful and opulent.” Most. Powerful. And. Opulent. Yeah, Donal wasn’t crying poverty to anyone. Could he have been lying through his teeth? Maybe. Who knows? But this is ONE thing we have on Donal’s personality, recorded not too long after he died, by a historian who would have had close access to O’Flaherty sources. I believe him. And, I’d even be willing to commit the ultimate heresy and say that Donal’s success was not due entirely to his wife.

She does use the proper terms in a few places! Such as “rechtaire” for “steward”. (Io stem, masculine.)

“You are a noble Irishwoman, you go to no man’s bed unless you want to.” COMPLICATED. Arranged marriages were definitely the norm, and, in the legends, we get to see the unfortunate downsides of what happens when a woman is coerced into a marriage she doesn’t want, generally by an older man, while she is generally pining over a younger one. I wouldn’t say it was something that people LIKED, the fact that this entire genre exists is a pretty good example of people being like “DON’T DO THIS SHIT”, but I can’t say it didn’t happen. Examples of this include Fingal Rónáin, Tóraigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne, Longes mac n-Uislenn, Aided Con Roí, etc. I would not say that it was considered to be an IDEAL, it was something that was definitely warned against, but it could, in theory, happen. It wasn’t necessarily a legal form of marriage, but it was a form of marriage.

"Shorter than Cuchullain or Brian Boru,” PETTIEST of pettiest bitch complaints, but Cú Chulainn is generally described as short. I know, I know, not what she’s going for. But still. Let me be a petty bitch on this one thing.

“Times have changed,” he said impatiently. “Those are archaic luxuries, and luxury has worn thin here. Perhaps in Umhall there is still leisure for sitting around listening to bards, but it takes every resource I can command just to maintain my territory against those who constantly nibble at my borders.” MOST. OPULENT. AND. POWERFUL. Okay, but one thing that she does get right, and is right to emphasize, is the importance of the bard - chieftain relationship. This was really, really one of the key relationships in a chieftain’s life, to the extent where one of the privileges of the chief ollaimh was the right to sleep with the king in his bed. And yes, it was EXACTLY as homoerotic as it sounds. For a chieftain to not keep a bard - It’s actually a really, really stupid move on Donal’s part, not just for the sake of tradition, but because…who’s going to be there to remember him and keep his memory alive? Who’s going to write praise poems for him (and for Gráinne! The chieftain’s wife was often celebrated in verse.)

"Grania had brought a handsome marriage portion with her, her own property under the Brehon law, for a woman of her rank must be able to stand on equal footing with her husband.” Accurate - Gráinne would have, most likely, been a cétmuinter, or chief wife, under the law, and her union to Donal would have been a union of equal contribution. (Donal also might or might not have owed her a “Thank you for your virginity!” Present on their wedding night.)

“The priests are right in giving husbands authority over their wives,�� he had shouted at her then, while she pleaded to be allowed to keep her babies with her longer. “The old Gaelic way gave women too much freedom altogether, and you are a fine example of the folly of that custom.” Kill me now, kill me now, kill me now, kill me now. This is just….GAR. GAR. Or, as Llewlyn likes to say every five seconds…*Dar Dia*. Suffice it to say, the question of how much freedom post-Christianity Ireland had for women VS Pre-Christian Ireland is an endlessly long topic that has to begin with how we define “freedom” and, specifically, which women get it. (Sucks to be a slave girl no matter what.) But also, while women definitely DID have power (EVEN POST-CHRISTIANITY, THANK YOU VERY MUCH)…that doesn’t mean that it was that COMMON, or that post-Christianity radically changed how (un)common it was. This is just…too blunt, too much of a caricature, and also happens to be insanely, insanely anachronistic. (Also: What would a 16th century chieftain really KNOW of the Old Gaelic Way? He would know about women like Medb, yeah, and he would probably see her as evil and uppity, depending on which stories he’d read - Though as a Connachtman, he would probably be inclined towards being on her side. But that doesn’t mean he would have really thought “Oh, yeah, pre-Christianity, women had SO MUCH power.” Lawlessness and chaos tend to be features of pre-Christian Ireland in the medieval writings, but I wouldn’t really say that liberated women….were? Especially because in those same writings you have women like Emer who, while distinct in their characterization, are still very much proper and chaste women who keep to the house.)

“I warn you, Grania—you will accede to me in this or I will send you back to Clew bay and denounce you throughout Connaught for a lack of womanly graces. Is that what you want, to be sent home rejected with your shortcomings shouted from the hills?”

“Who would believe such charges?” she had demanded to know, outraged at his unfairness.”

I’m just going to say it now: She could sue him SO MUCH in a proper Brehon court if she could get some witnesses to say that they heard him talking shit without cause. So. So much. So. Much. Donal would be losing a solid chunk of his goods. Though I will point out that, technically, since Gráinne isn’t sleeping with him, she isn’t doing her proper duties as a wife, laid out by the Brehon laws, and so, yeah, he could probably have a case against her. (For what it’s worth: If he was refusing to sleep with her, she could ALSO divorce him, with him explicitly being at fault and having to pay up. It was equal opportunity, in that sense.)

The Brehon law keeps being called “pagan” and…no. No non noon no. It had its origins in pre-Christian Ireland, likely, and that’s why a ton of legal scholars, with a few noted exceptions, tend to be strongly Nativist, but that doesn’t mean that, by Gráinne’s time, it hadn’t been more or less adapted into Christian marriage in Ireland, albeit sometimes semi-awkwardly. (For example: Polygamy was allowed, but the law very much privileged the rights of chief wives, including their right to toss their husbands out on their ear for taking in a woman over their head.) There’s this odd obsession in the book with Brehon Law =/= Christian Law, and that’s definitely not the case. You wouldn’t have had two marriage ceremonies, one under the church and one under the Brehon Law, because the Brehon Law would apply no matter WHAT. It’d be like forcing a couple to undergo a ceremony after their official wedding where a bunch of lawyers read out of a law book to them. It just wouldn’t happen.

“The Augustinian monks of Umhall, who taught me history in my childhood, explained that when the Romans left England and that land sank into barbarism, it was missionaries from Ireland who took God’s words to the British tribes and taught them to read and write.

“Perhaps they hate us, Donal, for being a more ancient and educated race. Perhaps they mean to drag us down by treating us as savages until we do not remember ever having been anything else. And along the way they can take our land from us with a clear conscience because we are only savages and deserve no better.”

On one hand, it DOES capture that note of PRIDE that tends to be there, loud and clear, in the texts, especially, say, Auraicept na n-Éces, which claims that Irish is a perfectly formed language, made from all the best bits of the Tower of Babel’s languages. (And….well….”The land of saints and scholars”. Ireland WAS a hotspot of monastic activity.) And, honestly, I support showing off the literary side of Ireland, since it doesn’t get discussed enough. That being said, no monk in his right mind would have said that it Irish missionaries civilized Britain. Why? Because Patrick came from Britain. Or, rather, Britannia, more accurately. He wasn’t an Englishman, not in the modern sense, he would probably be Welsh today, but he was from a monastic, educated family (despite claiming his Latin was poor in his Confessio, it’s actually quite good - Patrick was a MASTER at using humility as a rhetorical device).

"Grania slept naked. She liked her skin to breathe as she slept, not encumbered with a gown that would twist and bind.” “And then Gráinne froze her ass off because the nights in Ireland, even in the warm heat of summer, are cold and bitter as a Norseman’s frozen tit, if there were, in fact, any Norsemen in Ireland in the 16th century, and frequently require multiple blankets + a solid duvet. Gráinne then died of pneumonia several weeks later, making for a very short book.” Also. Again. If this were a male author. I would have committed a murder at this point.

Reference to saffron dye - NICE. This was really a staple of the clothing, for both men and women, to the extent that it features a LOT in accounts of Ireland at this time.

“By the paps of Danu!” No one. In 16th century Ireland. Would have shouted out “By the paps of Danu!” “By the Washington Monument!” “By the Lincoln Memorial!” “By the stunning cliffs of Oregon!” Sounds rather silly, doesn’t it? (Though if you WANTED to start shouting “BY THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL!” Well. I’m not here to stop you.)

"She was small for a Gaelic woman, and pale, a tiny wraithlike creature who exuded a contradictory air of resilient strength.” I’m not going to say that Chambers is WRONG, because, of course, Irish women come in a variety of shapes and sizes. You know, like people everywhere. But I WILL say that, during my time here, it’s the only time in my life that I’ve felt at home, because, for the first time in my life, I’m not short. Also, I want it on the record that now, whenever I see her, I’m picturing the little old woman who sits in on research seminars and who has the entire department scared shitless. Tiny, but MIGHTY.

"Her only ornament was a triskele of silver in an ancient pattern, suspended upon her flat bosom by a leather thong.” The Triskele is a Neolithic symbol used through the Iron Age, DEFINITELY not in use, in Ireland, by the Early Modern Period.

"“Evleen Ni Brien-“ That would be “Ní Bhriain” in modern Irish. Normally, I wouldn’t be THIS nitpicky, but hey, if you’re patting yourself on the back for the research you did and then can’t be bothered to put in a fada + the proper possessive form of “Brian”. I also don’t THINK that the “Ní” form had been adopted yet, I’m fairly certain that’s modern, so it would, more properly, be Evleen iníon Bhriain. Though, since it emphasizes that she’s from the Dál Cais and the O’Briens are predominately associated with them, I’m going to GUESS the proper form would involve her father’s name. It would be “Evleen iníon *possessive form of father’s first name* Uí Briain”.

"He had only heard whispers of such people, but enough tales still abounded concerning them to make them readily identifiable—even if this one did claim the noble name O Brien.” You know, in Reign, when you have a bunch of druids dancing in the forest and everyone was like “That’s fucking ridiculous!” Yeah. Yeah. That’s exactly how I feel right now. Druids DID last for some time in Ireland after Christianity, but not INTO THE 16TH CENTURY.

"“Of course not. But neither can I forget that it was the strictures of that faith which kept me bound in marriage to a man I learned to despise.” Divorce was still a thing. There was no problem, in theory, with getting married at a fully Catholic altar and then dumping them for getting jiggy with the serving girls a few years down the line. Llewelyn’s misunderstanding of the relationship that the Church and the Brehon laws BOTH played in the lives of people (SHOCKINGLY ENOUGH, the Catholic Church was NOT seen as pure evil by every day people at the time, who had to flee into the arms of the Brehons for comfort from Mother Church. Note that I’m saying this as a confirmed and strong atheist.)

Can I just say that the scene where Gráinne’s feeling up Hugh (the OC) in his sleep would be MUCH creepier if the genders were reversed?

"But he was not the man he had always been. He was some different person here.” Wow, the sex must be REALLY good!

"set in violet shadows that spoke of wonderfully sleepless nights.” Why is it that when I stay up doing an all-nighter, I end up looking like a raccoon going through its emo phase, but when Gráinne tumbles some random dude for a little while, she gets “violet shadows?” It’s not right, I tell you.

"“Was your marriage so bad, Grania, that you have turned your back on your own womanhood forever?” GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Well. Now I know where The Pirate Queen gets its “Your ultimate worth as a woman and happiness in life is decided by whether or not you have a dick in you” philosophy. I wish I hadn’t known. But now I do.

“That’s the way it is with men,” he said. “They touch us. For the feel of strong arms around her and a solid chest to lean her head upon, a woman will put up with a lot of misery. It’s the curse of our skin to be hungry for the feel of a man’s skin.” GAAAAAAAAH. GAH.

"God the benevolent patriarch promises us rewards in the next world if we’re willing to sacrifice in this one. But maybe I don’t believe in patriarchs anymore.” Totally a thing that the real Gráinne Ní Mháille would have thought. Because women, in general, in the 16th century had the terminology to make these critiques in this exact way.

" If one satisfaction was snatched from her she would find another; if she lost love she would embrace hate, and glory in it.” Oh, god, not THIS motivation for a female character, please. Gráinne Ní Mháille was a hell raiser from birth, there’s no reason to think that, because she lost her boytoy, that really radically altered her life path.

“I wonder if Tigernan thinks you and I are damned,” she asked her husband. “We were wed in no chapel.” Given that there were nine degrees of marriage under the law, of varying types of legality, I doubt it.

Yay, exactly what this book needed: More sex!

I’ll be real: Richard Bingham playing Weddingcrashers at Margaret’s wedding only to nearly get his ass handed to him by two members of Gráinne’s family is truly an #Iconic moment. 10/10, if the rest of the book was like this I could die a happy woman.

"It was not an Irish face, but the eyes were unforgettable.” ….what is an “Irish face?” Especially post-Norman invasion? What does an Irish face look like?

“There are rumors he gained his inheritance by murder, and it is said outright that he and his mother between them drove his first wife into her grave.” Yay, the return of the Oedipus complex! My favorite thing in this book!

"Grania herself slept alone in a tiny walled guest chamber above, but she was aware of Richard sleeping in the same house. A strong man, sleeping naked in a bed … .

How people change, she thought to herself with amusement. This is definitely not the same Grania whom Donal an Chogaidh knew.”

Yay, MORE sex! MY FAVORITE THING. IN THE WORLD. BECAUSE YOU KNOW WHAT MY FIRST THOUGHT WAS WHEN I READ THE LIFE OF GRÁINNE NÍ MHÁILLE?"**MORE SEX**.”

" If Richard took her at all, he must take her under the old Gaelic concept of “marriage for one year certain” to see if they suited one another.” Ah, yes, the old Gaelic concept of marriage that mysteriously shows up in no legal texts, legends, or genealogical tracts. A very authentic Gaelic tradition, very old, much wow. (For what it’s worth….the Telltown marriages are as close as this comes, but the thing that makes them stand out is that everyone KNEW they were the oddballs.)

"According to pagan custom—which still lived in uneasy truce with Christianity in many parts of Ireland—there were ten degrees of marriage, all the way from a union between propertied partners of equal rank to union by abduction or the mating of the mad. From any of the ten a child could result, and the brehons therefore had allowed for every child’s rights to be recognized by the social order. No human containing an immortal spirit could be illegitimate.” The astonishing thing is that it’s very, very obvious that she read Cáin Lanamna for this…and then proceeded to not apply it to any other time except for when it was necessary.

"How can I be Grania if there is no Tigernan at my shoulder?” Yes, because we all know that the thing that really defined Gráinne Ní Mháille was, in fact, the men in her life.

"Evleen smiled. “At least it isn’t fettered with Christian chains,” she said. “You were wise.”” Oh, God help me. There’s no way to have a marriage in Early Modern Ireland not “fettered with Christian chains” because Christianity IS the religion of the people.

Remember when Gráinne was described as “More than master’s mate” to Richard Burke, implying a union that was mutually respectful? Yeah, me neither. I’m so glad he’s a one dimensional sexist with mommy issues. That’s such a new, innovative take on their relationship. I LOVE to see it. (Note: I’m saying this as someone who HATED Chambers’ blatant shipping in her biography, but hey. I can’t deny what the first hand evidence says. Unlike Chambers.)

" I’ll get the O Lee—he’s our ship’s physician, and at least he can-“ Unless the chieftain of the O’Lee family moonlights as a ship’s doctor, you wouldn’t call him The O’Lee. Just say “I’ll get Aidan O’Lee.” Or, even, “I’ll get the ship’s leech!”

“TAKE THIS FROM UNCONSECRATED HANDS.” I won’t say that all’s forgiven because, I’ll be honest, I really, really hate this novel at this point, but you know what? This forgives at least some of this novel’s sins. One of my favorite tales about her being brought to life on page by a very talented author does make for a high point, between this and Gráinne avenging the boytoy.

Okay, I’ll be real: The O’Donnell and Gráinne boasting about their respective kids is really, really cute, and I accept it because my very first exposure to Early Modern Ireland was “The Fighting Prince of Donegal.”

The O’Donnell talking shit about English poetry is…..very accurate to the time and the mood. My personal favorite genre of Early Modern Irish poetry is probably “The English aren’t shit.”

"Black Hugh nodded. Grania stood up, and Philip Sidney rose with her, as smoothly as if they were joined at the hip. Tigernan uttered a strangled curse. The sasanach was taking hold of Grania’s arm as if she were an old woman and he were a blackthorn stick for her to lean upon! Was that some English custom, insulting the strength of women? Or did he mean to grab her and make off with her?” Honestly, for once, Tigernan is a #Mood.

"But when Philip’s hands moved over her body, Grania discovered that all human landscapes have a certain similarity. She knew his touch as male, and hungry, and when she returned it in kind she felt a familiar rising response that flattered her and made her eager for more. Within the bed they did not seem to be foreigner and Gael. They were just man and woman, enjoying each other.” I ENDURED THE SEX SCENE WITH PHILIP FUCKING SYDNEY. SO THAT NO ONE ELSE HAS TO.

And, just like with Richard, no one can match up to Wonderful Boytoy Huw.

"She prances along the seaways as if she had a man’s balls, John, and by the bright blue eyes of God, it should be my hand that grabs those balls of hers and crushes them.”” Oh, GOD, I THOUGHT THAT THE PIRATE QUEEN’S MOST INFAMOUS LINE WAS JUST BAD LYRIC WRITING. I DIDN’T KNOW THEY TOOK IT *FROM THE NOVEL*. WHY, MORGAN LLEWELYN. WHY.

Look, I’ve made it to Chapter 24. There are 32 in total. I COULD read the rest of the way, since I want to see how poorly the treatment of Elizabeth is going to be (I’d be very shocked if there isn’t some variation of Not Like Other Girls involved), but also: I do not care at this point. I might pick it up again, but also: A bitch is tired. And illiterate. Perhaps, if I’m ever feeling brave, I’ll take on the last eight chapters, but for now: I’m calling it.

#long post #grace o'malley #gráinne ní mháille #chaos-yet-harmony

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crimefightingspiderguy · 4 years

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left hand free

Part II to the series, i want you to want me.

Summary: (Y/N) is checking in on Peter in Germany.

Warnings: I guess swearing? Maybe spoilers for Captain America: Civil War, but like who hasn’t seen that bad boy lol?

Pairings: Peter Parker x best friend!reader

Word count: 1,632

A/N: I’ve decided that I’m going to attempt to get this series done before I start my summer semester, so on the 15th of May, if I can’t then updates will be slow during that time, at least for a month until I finish school. Updates will ideally be 1-2 times a week since that’s about how many days I have off from work. Thanks for the support on the last part!

You anxiously pace back and forth on your kitchen floor. Lost in your thoughts, only brought to reality by the familiar ding of your phone. You let go of the breath you didn’t know you were holding. You pick up your phone and look at the text from Peter,

P: “Just landed in Germany”

Y: “Well now that the hard part is over, have a great trip! 🙄🥴”

P: “All will be fine lol. Make sure to send me a picture of us “hanging” so I can check-in with May.”

“Hey, dad!” You called to him, hoping he could hear you from his room.

“What’s up?” He popped his head out from behind the door frame.

“I have a strange favor to ask. Can you take a picture of me working on my Spanish project? Since Peter and I couldn’t work on it together, they want us to take pictures of each of us doing our halves so they know we didn’t just have one person do all the work.”

“What happened with Peter coming over this weekend?”

“Oh, it turns out he had a college recruitment thing. He didn’t think he’d qualify when he applied, so he thought he’d be able to make it. He’s gonna do his half in his hotel.”

“Oh, alright.” Your dad takes your phone from you and snaps a picture of you leaning over the poster board, pretending to write the title for the project. He hands you back your phone. “That’s an odd request from a teacher.”

“Well, that’s what they tell us, but we all really know that they’re just lacking in volunteers for the yearbook so they want to get some extra pictures of kids working on projects if they can.” You chuckled nervously, and took the phone back, immediately sending it to Peter. He went back to his room, telling you goodnight and to not stay up too late. “love you!” you shout as he shuts his bedroom door.

“Back at ya kid!”

You phone bings and brings your attention back to Peter.

P: “Oh look how cute you look when you pretend to do homework 🥺”

Y: “Shut up. I hope Captain America knocks you on your ass with his shield.”

P: “Well that’s not very nice. Maybe I should ask one of the Avengers if they’re in the market for a new best friend.”

Y: “Go ahead and do that for me because if you die then at least I’ll have someone to comfort me. Does Thor happen to be on your team? If so, I’ll gladly mourn my loss in his big strong arms 😢”

P: “As a matter of fact, he is not. Guess you’re s.o.l. Nighty night.”

Y: “Night, try not to get yourself killed dumbass.”

You continued working on the Spanish project throughout the night. After all, you were planning on having two people doing this, and now you have to make up for that. Well, that’s what you told yourself, you knew that you wouldn’t be able to sleep well all weekend with the thought that Peter might be in danger. But, if he really has been Spider-Man this whole time, then he’s been in danger for some time. But this seems like a different kind of danger. You’ve always know Spider-Man to be the friendly neighborhood crime fighter, but now that he’s working with the Avengers, you worried what that kind of exposure to a bigger enemy might mean for him. Maybe this is why Peter never told you, he didn’t want you to hold him back or worry constantly about him. You’d understand him not telling May because of that, but you thought that your friendship was something beyond just caring about each other. You thought it was the two of you encouraging each other and helping them to be the best version of themselves, so why didn’t he trust you with something that was so important to him? Maybe he thought you’d rat him out? But if he gave you the chance he would know that you would never go behind his back like that. Maybe this was your chance to prove that to him. Well, whatever his reasoning, you hoped he would be more honest from here on out.

The next day you hadn’t heard anything from Peter all day. You assumed he was probably just busy, plus being in a different time zone probably didn’t help, but you still had a gnawing feeling. That was until you got a text of a picture of Peter with some locals, and you realized he was probably sightseeing until it was time to “suit up”. You smiled at the picture and saved it. He looked so genuinely happy, and you didn’t get to see that often in pictures. You realized that this was something that he was excited about. His nerves and tension you sensed when he asked you to cover for him were gone, and he was fully enjoying himself and his chance to fight with Iron Man. You sighed contently and shut off your phone, figuring it’s probably best to not have it taunting you throughout the day.

When you finally turned your phone back on, about right before you got into bed for the night, you had a video from Peter waiting for you. It was him running around a town square and showing you all the different food carts. You chuckled, not really sure why he felt the need to share all the food carts with you of everything, but you didn’t mind. Accompanying the video is a text that says,

P: “Mr. Stark says we’re gathering at the airport in the morning because that’s where Captain America is heading, trying to escape.”

Y: “Loving the video and picture, looks like fun! Hope everything goes well tomorrow, kick some ass Pete ❤️ (oh and don’t die please)”

P: “Oh now you want me to come back. Now that you know Thor’s not here to dry your tears?”

Y: “I’ve always wanted you to come back, I’m just saying if you don’t… I might not be so torn up if Thor was sent to break the news to me 😉”

P: “I’ll put that in my will really quick “P.S. Send Thor to break the news to (Y/N)”.”

Y: “I appreciate your support on this bud! Oh by the way, here’s a picture of the project finished for May, tomorrow I’m baking Mantecados so when you get back you can be my taste tester and then everything should be ready to present on Monday!”

You’d gotten up and snapped a picture of the finished poster board. Then propped your camera on your desk so it looked about Peter's height, and set a timer. You hopped in front of the board and held your arms out in a way that someone would show off a car on a game show, and out on a big grin. You sent both to Peter so he had some options for what to send to May as proof. He responded to you after he saved them and forwarded them to May.

P: “Thank you! May is really appreciating the fun shots of you acting like poster board making is your calling. Also, I’m really looking forward to knowing absolutely nothing about our project when we present lol.”

Y: “Hey, that’s on you lol. Read the points I have on the board on your plane ride back.”

You set your phone down and closed your eyes, a smile on your face that you couldn’t shake. You were able to sleep peacefully knowing that for now, Peter was okay. You could worry about him tomorrow, but for now, he’s okay.

You decided to sleep in as much as you could, since today all you had to do was go out and get some baking ingredients, then bake. You woke up around noon, which is definitely longer than you thought you’d stay in, but you weren’t mad. You were facing your alarm clock on your bedside table then turned on your back to stretch. You looked up at your ceiling and fell out of bed.

“What the actual fuck!” You yell as you fall, scared to death.

You heard the most familiar laugh echo through your room as Peter fell from your ceiling to your bed. You stood up, grabbed your pillow and smacked him across the head.

“Hey! It’s not my fault you’re easy to scare!”

“No, but it is your fault that you’re a total ass.” You laugh at him, but then pause as he takes off his mask and reveals his black eye. You quickly take his face into your hands and gently rub your thumb over it.

“Who did this? I’ll kick their ass.” You said, completely forgetting that he was just fighting the oldest living Avenger.

“I’ll let Mr. Stark know to warn Cap that you’re coming for his head.”

“Right, sorry. I did just wake up, I totally forgot you were off fighting big bad guys. So what was it like? Are you an Avenger now?”

“It was interesting and kind of cool to be doing more than just stopping random thugs from stealing old ladies’ purses, ya know? And no, well… I’m basically an Avenger, but I think I have to wait for another assignment or something for me to prove I’m ready.”

“Well, hopefully, they’re not needing you too much.”

“Why not? I could really do this! I could be an Avenger!”

“What about school?”

“Well I could obviously do both, I would just have to only do Avenger things when I can, but I’ll manage, I’ve been managing for a while now.”

“Well, as long as your happy, and not dead, I’ll support you.” You chuckled, hoping that Peter would continue to trust you with his Spider-Man secrets.

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femaleboysblog · 5 years

Text

♥ super(hero) love ♥

| hwang hyunjin x superhero!reader | sorry for any mistakes! english is not my first language!

part i | part ii (final)

word count: 3.4k

warnings: tumblr!au, fanfic writer!reader x fan!hyunjin, enemies to lovers, fluff!!!, minor violence cause u know superhero stuff yadda yadda, some cursing here and there, (1) alcohol mention,

A/N: just rewriting some old stuff :) | gender neutral reader (if you consider dude a gender neutral term lol)

“ Hi y/n! I’m sorry if i’m bothering you, but i just came by to say that i’ve read your last chapter last night and i can’t help but fall in love with your writing, you never disappoint! You’re always so creative when it comes to making stories and putting them into words, it’s almost like you’ve lived them! haha. So i just wanted to ask, where do you get your ideas? What are your inspirations? With love, Genie ;)”

Damn it. I stared at the ask i just received for a few long and tortuous minutes, definitely more than it was actually necessary. But hey, don't blame me for that, i mean, how in the hell i'm supposed to answer that? I can’t just go and say "Hi again Genie! Thank you for all the love, i really appreciate it! I get all my inspiration on my day-to-day life as a superhero. You probably have heard about me, i'm that one person with white clothes that shows all the time - if not every single day, in the morning news for saving and helping the city and their beloved citizens. Most people just call me 'the light hero' even though they know the right name for the supervillains, in special, Scarlet Devil - my arch enemy. In case you don't know my superhero name either, i go by Starlight. Kinda lame, i know. But it fits with the backstory of how i got my powers. Since it's a situation i went through, of course i'm going to know all the details in full experience and in first person, even that one where the protagonist rips his pants in the middle of a fight in the street and in front of everyone, only to reveal his red underwear constrasting the rest of the outfit, that is something i will never be able to forget, sadly. Hope i didn't disappoint you!" Let's be real, i could. Kinda. But i won't be doing that for obvious reasons, i don't want even more people after my back because of this, the police is more than enough.

I sighed, pushing my chair closer to the desk and cracking my fingers so i could write something in return that didn't sound suspicious at all. "Hi Genie," i started, already struggling a little,"I really appreciate asks like this and i'm also happy to know that at least one person likes the lame things i write! :) I get all my inspiration from.." No, stop, stop. I can just go all in like that, i have to be subtle. Normal writers usually get their inspirations in a lot of differents things and ideas, if i say something like that there is a chance that it would come out weird. I think. "I get most of my inspiration in, well, superheros, of course. I read a lot of comics, books and i really like watching movies and animations with any types of heros. :)" Sent. That actually went a little better than expected. "Genie" whoever it was, sent another ask only a seconds after, i clicked on it already starting to feel anxious again. "That's so cool! I suppose you are into superheros in real life too. If so, are you fan of any of them?" Why did they had to send questions that are so hard and complicated to answer like that? The only superhero i know well enough to pretend that i am a fan of is Jeongin, you probably know him by Spark. But he also reads my blog and wouldn't let me live if i ever said i'm his fan, another thing i'm not really found of. Another superhero i'm really close with would be, well me, of course.

"Actually, i do. I'm a big fan of Starlight for some time, what about you?" I answered, my choice of words trying to be as lowkey and casual as possible, putting the right amount of weight in them. This person, whoever they were, seemed to be nosy sometimes like a shy high-schooler wanting to keep the conversation going with someone with that they liked and in a way, that was most likely the situation. They’re the only person who follows my blog for some time that i remember constantly sending me messages and checking up on me but the one thing that was different this time was that the person, my fellow readers, forgot to put the ‘anon’ option on this time, their blog url shined brightly and effortlessly on my computer screen.

This time, Genie took a while to answer, so i took that as a chance to take a look at their blog. Clicking on their url, i started scrolling down their posts. I couldn't help but cringe really hard when i started noticing that most of their posts was reblogs from fyeahscarletdevil and others fansites with cheesy compliments in the tags, they seemed to be a really big fan of the supervillain, my supervillain. The one who puts kittens in really high places where they can't come down anymore, the one who sets fire in close neighbourhoods backyards and gardens to ruin their grass and flowers they worked so hard on, the one who sets dogs out of their leashes suddenly creating an army of dogs or anything that would cause disturbance in the peace of those around him in the world. I want to say i am starting to see red out of anger but in all honesty, that would make me even more pissed. Red is his color, just like white is mine. Unclenching and relaxing my jaw, - bad habit, i know - i hadn’t even noticed Genie had answered. “Oh really? I’m a major fan of Scarlet Devil!” No shit, Sherlock. Duh. “I think he’s a great dude who fits perfectly in the whole ‘model’ supervillain concept! Especially when it comes to Starlight too! They both are made for each other and have a perfect chemistry, they would be nothing without one another like soulmates. I probably sound like a total nerd now, but thats what i think lol wbu? - Genie” They signed in the end, even though it was obvious it was them. Not only did this person ship me with my arch enemy, they were also a big giant nerd and a huge fanboy of the red devil. Rubbing my forehead, i prepared myself to write back a long and sharp reply arguing against everything they said, ready to win and probably lose one of my readers in the process. Or more than one, you never know how many creeps who are his fans are lurking on this website.

Turns out Genie, was a very cute boy called Hwang Hyunjin who lived close by the neighbourhood i lived at, he was tall and acted very shy when he wasn’t talking about things that he liked very much, such as supervillains, dancing and comics. After our argument that day about which one was better - Starlight and the one who shall not be named, we got extremely close to the point i couldn’t go one day without texting him and in some nights we’re one of us couldn’t sleep, we would call the other and talk for hours. Since today, we both had the day free, he suggested that we met in person for the first time and the weather being intensely hot and stuffy right now, we settled in the shopping, going for a walk and eating ice scream while getting to know each other more and maybe even watching a movie together. But if that’s not obvious enough already, i have a major, gigantic, mega, blast, huge, enormous crush on him. From the way he softly laughed when he talked about this new move he learned with his group of friends who danced too, from the way he asked me how my day went and actually listened to me talking about it carefully showing he actually did care, the way he blushed at every compliment i gave him. I could feel my heart beat faster with the thought of seeing his cute moles in person and of even having an opportunity to hold his hands. But, was this a date? Does he even like me back? Would he stop talking to me if he found out i am Starlight? Would he start liking me only because he found out i am Starlight? No, i should worry about all of this later. I took a deep breath in hope to calm myself down, looking at my phone. I’m not going to bring it with me this time, what if Jeongin calls me for an emergency or him being a trickster and ruining the moment? I shook my head. Y/N, you can’t think like that. As much as Nini can be a little shit sometimes, he’s still your baby brother and you need to be there for him when he gets into trouble with your uniform, fists and powers ready to help him. Grabbing my phone, i ran by the door hoping i would be able to get there in time.

I checked my phone. And then, checked again. No calls or texts from spark boy and most importantly, Hyunjin. I sighed in frustration, am i about to be stood up by my crush in our first time meeting in person? Is it bad that i’m getting ice scream before he shows up? Too many questions, calm down, ok? You’re the city’s biggest hero, you got this. - Hyunjin, Jin, Jinn-i said out loud to myself to distract from my anxiousness as i paid the lady for the ice scream but my line of thoughts were interrupted by well, another voice. A soothing voice. - Genie. Did you call me? You have three wishes. - he replied jokingly with a sweet smile in his lips and holding three fingers up. I just stared at him, amazed, not sure of what to do. It was like an angel had just spoke to me. - W-What? - he asked softly, his cheeks getting red out of embarassment. - Nothing, i just...I can’t believe you’re really here... - I trailed off while hugging him tightly. The way he hunched a bit to put his chin on my shoulder making my heart beat faster inside my chest. Get it together, Y/N. - Wait, - he stood back a little, to look at my face properly - You didn’t think i would leave you hanging, did you? - Well, it wouldn’t be the first time that happened. Nothing personal. - i said, trying to laugh it off. - Then you’ve been going out to dates with the wrong guys. If i couldn’t come, i would’ve called you or still had came here to let you know we can’t spend the day togethe- - D-Date? - i gasped quietly but he was still able to hear, his face getting a tad more redder. - Ye-yeah, i mean, if yo-you want to, i’m okay with that with thi-this being a date. Yeah.- he shrugged, looking down while visibly embarassed. - Yeah, i want that. It’s a date then! - i added confidently after he nodded, acting like it was no big deal for me. - Is it okay that i got ice scream without you? Sorry, it’s just that it’s so hot today, i couldn’t help myself. We can go back to the line if you want to! - No, it’s okay. Shall we? - he offered his arm which i accepted, his boyish eye smile making it even harder for me to control the butterflies in my stomach. I was falling for his charms, indeed. After a few minutes walking side by side and commenting on the things we saw on the windows of the stores, i decided i should finally take initiative. - So, what did you do today? Besides coming here, of course. - i asked with an interested smile before turning to my ice scream, the cold on my tongue seeming to help me deal with the hot weather better. God, why is it so hot today? What’s going on with the weather? - I slept really late before waking up and coming here, i almost lost track of the time. - he laughed lightly. - Oh, same. - i replied in a flat tone. Right, cause i totally didn’t take two hours to get ready for Miss ‘I woke up like this’ right here. - Unless for the time part. Did you stay up praticing your moves? - Something physical like that, yeah. - he said, serious. - Did you stay up last night too? - Yeah, actually. - i agreed, regretting instantly. I stayed up all night because Jeongin had trouble sleeping, nightmares which made him cause a blackout in the whole neighbourhood by accident. Me, being the good older sibling, brought him to the energy station of the city and helped him bring all the power back before tucking him into bed and waiting for him to sleep again. If only had it been that easy., tsk tsk. On my way to dragging my sleepy little brother back home, i was met face to face with my arch-enemy straying through the city’s street during the night, his shameless bad-boy persona flirting with me while showing off his dark jacket and threatning to set my shoes on fire making my blood boil again. The reminder that i shot his hand for touching me, leaving a lightburn mark. My brand. - Are you okay? - My date’s voice cut me off. I shook my thoughts away, i already spend too much time thinking about that damned boy who liked setting my life on fire. Sometimes too literally. - Yeah, i just have too much on my mind, i guess. I stayed up most part of the night because my brother couldn’t sleep..I had to hold him until he fell back sleep so he wouldn’t have nightmares. - Oh, i didn’t knew you had a brother! - he looked surprised, rolling his sleeves up while guiding us to sit somewhere more reserved. - He’s not really my brother, he’s like a....consideration brother, if that makes sense. It’s complicated. - In fact, it really isn’t. I really do consider Jeongin my brother, i take care of him at any and all times especially at matters that his parents couldn’t understand, his powers. But i can’t just explain that to any normal person. - I see. I have a brother too, actually. Older. His name is Chan. - he replied brightly. Frostkiller. No. Not every Chan you know is the frosty meanie who happens to be partner with the Scarlet Devil, i’m sure there’s a lot of Chan’s all there, in the world. Far away from here. I smiled back, making him laugh lightly, his eye smile showing up again and making my heart skip beats. He had his chin propped on the palm of his hand, his eyes looking down shyly, his pink lips pressed together in a small smile. - Aren’t you hot? I mean, i feel like i’m melting here even though there’s AC here. I don’t know what’s going on today with the weather. - Oh really? I don’t feel anything, i even thought today was a bit chilly, actually. - What? - i gasped loudly, stretching to touch his forehead with the back of my hand - Are you okay? You aren’t sick, are you? - Don’t. - he stated coldly, closing his hands around my wrist to stop me, his warm fingers digging on my skin. But it was a bit too late, my fingertips touching his forehead already, i flinched taking my hand back, fearing it would burn my skin. - Hyunjin, oh my god! You’re on fire! Aren’t you with fever, shouldn’t we head to a hospita- - No. I’m okay, really. Don’t worry about me, okay? I guess i’m just that hot, pun intended. - he opened a sweet smile, winking - I’m going to buy us something to eat, sit still. - i stared at him, mouth open, still on shock. What does he even mean with ‘i’m okay’? I felt like i just had touched a heated oven or fire. Pure fire. I stared at his back, confused. I have enough experience to know something was definitely up, something not common. My area of expertise. I opened my lips, about to argue back but something caught my eye as i analised his back. Red. I got up from the table, charging at his direction with my fists closed and ready to feed him his own teeth. - What do you want- Oh! - he turned around, his face flushing and his eyes getting a bit bigger because of our proximity. - Give me your hand. - i demanded in a stern manner while stretching out my own hand. - W-What? - he gasped innocently, not affecting me now that i know he’s not so innocent anymore. I pulled on his wrist, turning and examining his forearm and instantly finding exactly what i was looking for. - What’s this? - i questioned, trying to hold back the poison on my tone. He looked down, biting his lips nervously. - Ok, you got me. I stayed up last night cause i was partying with my team colleagues and one of them was so drunk he started playing with fire and i tried helping him before things got worse but he ended setting my sleeve on fire and burning me. I didn’t tell you cause i was scared of what you would think about me, i don’t want you to have the wrong impression. - I bit the inside of cheek, thoughtful. - It doesn’t look like a fire burn though? - he gasped like a fish out of water, i didn’t care about our surroundings and if we looked like a couple arguing, i let his arm go ready to throw my second accusation at him. - What’s this the- Before i could finish and stick my hand behind his back snatch the evidence from his pocket, i was interrupted. Dance the night away, let’s dance the night away! Ooh! I sighed loudly, taking my phone out of my pocket. and turning my back to him. - This is not over yet. - Hey, Y/N. Could you- the voice in the other side of the line said quickly but i cut him off. - No. I’m in the middle of a date as we are speaking, ok? I told you that earlier! I really like this guy and something sketchy came up, i can’t do my light thing right now. - i whispered the last part. -Bu-But, Y/N! - Here we go, the whining - I’m about to have my ass frostbitten! You need to help me! I’m your brother! Are you really just gonna leave your little brother freezing here? - Jeongin whined loudly, hissing noises echoing in the background. I flinched, already picturing the mess on the street with tall buildings half-frozen and snow covering the sidewalks and cars. - Is the grumpy old dude there? - Yes! And very much gladly, Scarlet Devil isn’t here yet. Lucky you. - Can’t you just tell him to calm down? I’m sure he won’t hurt you if you do that, he loves you just as much as he loves his penguins on North Pole. - Very funny, ha. Just come here, you firefly. - Fine! Let me make up an excuse then. - Thank you, Y/N! - he replied in a singing voice. - You own me a pizza. - i said flatly before hanging up. Turning around, my date boy scratched his neck, his cheeks visibly red and hyperventilating. He looked like he would melt away at any moment out of embarassment. - I gotta go. - Yeah, me too. My room mate texted me and he needs help with the, hm, - he coughed before continuing - Caking a bake,i-i mea-an, Baking a cake, yeah.. - Sure. - i nodded at him briefly and in an awkward way before leaving. - Bye. - Wait! - He reached for my arm - I can still text you, right? - he questioned shyly. - Not if you’re gonna keep lying like this to me, Hyunjin. - i see. - he nodded back after giving me a hurt puppy look and letting of of my arm. I felt my heart clench at the sight, i just wanted to hug him and give him a chance to explain himself but i needed to talk with someone first. I gave him a weak smile before going my way, knowing i had broken his heart. Maybe Changbin was right, i had a bad taste on guys.

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mashafootball · 6 years

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Lone Ranger (Julian Brandt Imagine)

Julian Brandt Imagine (FLUFF)

Please keep in mind: English is not my first language. Feel free to point out mistakes etc tho :) + It’s somehow quiet long.

If someone would have asked you how you felt in that exact moment, as you sat in front of your laptop in a very crowded coffee shop in Cologne’s city center doing your latest assignment for university, your honest answer would have been: lonely. Obviously, you would never say that out loud, but the truth was, that you had been feeling that way for some time already. You have never been in a situation like this before, because usually it was quite easy for you to meet new people, make new friends, to get out of your comfort zone. In fact, you had already been living in Cologne for almost three months, and still you haven’t met anyone in the city that you could consider a friend now. Of course, you had met some people through uni lectures, but none of them seemed very keen on you. And it sucked. It really did and it made you feel bad, unwanted and anxious. Sometimes you even thought about returning back home to your comforting friends and family, but you would always tell yourself that these challenges would make you grow as a person and make you even more independent than you already were.

Your head slowly bobbed along the rhythm of the song you were currently listening to while your fingers flew across the keyboard in order to fill in the blank pages on your laptop. Nonetheless you were well aware of the fact that the sounds surrounding you got louder and louder as the coffee shop got even more crowded than it already was. At first you didn’t even notice the young blond man standing in front of you until he gingerly tapped you on your shoulder, making you flinch under the unexpected touch. You shot him a confused smile as you pulled the headphones out of your ears. “Sorry.”, he laughed awkwardly “I wanted to ask you if it was ok if I could join you, the place is kinda crowded.”, his voice sounded mature and he also seemed very confident, but still he had that helpless smile plastered on his face which made him somehow look insanely awkward. It took a few moments for you understand what he wanted, but you began nodding frantically while moving your stuff across the table, making room for him to place his belongings on the table too. “Sure, no problem.”, you mumbled and shot him a shy smile as he placed his coffee on the table and got a laptop out of his backpack, almost mirroring you while sitting across from you.

So, you both started working, occasionally shooting each other a soft smile while tapping on your laptops. An hour later you were both still in the exact same position and you noticed the blond boy eyeing the university papers that were placed next to your laptop. “It’s fun, isn’t it?”, he joked as you removed the headphones from your ears once again. “I hope you are having as much fun as me.”, you laughed closing your laptop and taking a sip form your already cold coffee, pulling a disgusted face. “I’m Jannis, by the way and you are?”, he held out his hand and you obeyed by laying yours in his. “Y/N. Nice to meet you Jannis.”, you suddenly felt some sort of hope inside of you, even if it also made you feel very silly. You were somehow sure that you just met your first friend in Germany. “What are you studying?”, it surprised you a little that this Jannis actually showed some interest in you and soon you both were engaged in a very nice conversation.

“I could introduce you to my friends you know?”, he laughed a bit “I’m sure they would like you, you could join us next weekend. We want to go clubbing.”, Jannis offered making you smile at him. “No..I would feel like an uninvited guest, but thank you for offering.”, at first you thought about saying yes, but you didn’t want to spoil the fun for his friends by showing up without even knowing them. “What are you talking about Y/N?”, he laughed again “You should tag along, or do you want to be a lone ranger for the entire time of you being here?”, he surely had a point, but still you didn’t feel comfortable nor confident enough to accept his offer. It only took a few more minutes until you both said goodbye with each other and Jannis cheekily adding “I’m gonna text you the details Y/N.”

He had actually managed convincing you to join him and his friends the following weekend in one of Cologne’s most popular clubs. You were kinda looking forward to going out on Friday for the rest of the week. Finally, you had something motivating you to push through the next few days.

On Friday the day had (finally) come. After spending way too much time choosing your makeup, outfit and accessories. Back at home going out usually meant wearing jeans and maybe a shirt that showed some cleavage, nothing more. But after googling the club Jannis told you that you would attend you realized that jeans and converse wouldn’t be enough for tonight. Instead of that you chose a short strapless skintight black dress, black pointy heels (which made you insanely nervous because you were scared of falling) and a full-face makeup (normally not your thing at all). Nervously you paced around your living room, trying to walk as gracefully as possible in your uncomfortable heels. The beeping of your phone interrupted your runway imitation making you jump a little at the sound.

“Standing in front of your door. Jannis :-)”, you shot a look at the clock hanging in the living room and you realized that your own version of ‘America’s next top model’ had lasted longer than expected and still you didn’t feel one hundred percent sure in walking in those killer heels. Dancing definitely wasn’t an option tonight. After grabbing your coat, you headed out the door, almost forgetting how nervous you actually were. You were pretty sure that Jannis’ friends would be just as nice as the blonde boy himself, but the thoughts of disturbing them during their night out made you feel slightly uneasy.

As soon as you left the apartment complex’s door, Jannis got out of a black car smiling widely. “Hi Y/N!”, he greeted you with a comforting hug, making you feel ten times better already. “Thanks again!”, you said smiling at him “Is that your car?”, furrowing your eyebrows you eyed the black car behind the two of you. Was Jannis rich? “That’s my brothers, actually he doesn’t know I borrowed it, but as I’m only borrowing it, he will be fine. We will go back to my place, ok? Some of my friends are already there for pre-drinking.”. he explained softly, somehow aware of the fact that you still didn’t feel one hundred percent comfortable with tagging along. “Sounds cool! How old is your brother, because that car is...quite nice I guess?”, you asked Jannis as you both got into the car. “22”, he laughed starting the engine and driving off. You nodded as you gave him an impressed look, must be pretty successful at the age of 22.

The drive to Jannis’ flat only took about 15 minutes and soon after that you were standing behind him in front of his own home’s door. “Why is no one opening the door?”, he mumbled to himself as he typed something on his phone, probably texting his friends to open the door. “You were the one who forgot the keys. Maybe your flat is already burning down.”, you said cheekily. Suddenly the door opened, a young tall blonde man shooting Jannis an annoyed look. “I know you took my car.”, he raised his eyebrows impatiently waiting for Jannis’ explanation. Ohh, that’s the brother.You felt a little awkward as you followed Jannis through the door as he continued bickering with his brother. “Yeah and nothing happened so chill out bro.”, Jannis said confirming your assumptions about the unknown boy. After taking another look at him you even realized that he kinda looked like Jannis, too. “Stop being a bitc* now Julian. That’s Y/N by the way.”, what a way to be introduced to someone. You shot the taller blonde a small smile as you reached your hand out. He on the other hand didn’t seem as enthusiastic as Jannis did when you first met. You tried to ignore his annoyed, almost arrogant glance. “Julian.”, he shook your hand firmly, making you feel ten times smaller and more insecure than you have ever felt before. Jannis only shook his head at his brother, nudging your arm and guiding you into the living room where a few more boys were already sitting on the couch. So far, no female support. “Don’t worry, some of my friend’s girlfriends will join us so you are not completely alone.”, Jannis said out of the blue, making it seem like he had read your mind. “Nice.”, you muttered, a little bit overwhelmed with everything that was unfolding in front of you but after a few minutes you came to the conclusion that Jannis’ friends were just as nice as him.

As you went into the kitchen to grab yourself another glass of wine and for some of the boys a new beer you lightly bumped into Jannis’ brother Julian. “Oh sorry.”, you rushed out worriedly as you were still a little intimated by him because of his way of introducing himself. “Don’t worry about it.”, he laughed lightly, taking you back by surprise as you didn’t expect him to react like that. “Sorry by the way for being so rude earlier. I’m kinda having a rough day.”, he tried explaining yourself as you shot him an honest smile, making him grin in return. “Don’t worry about it.”, you said imitating him. “I’m not really a resentful person so you are lucky.”, you added winking at him. “Maybe today isn’t too bad after all.”, he said nodding at you. “Are you tagging along later?”, you asked hoping he would say yes. “No, I can’t. I have to work tomorrow.”, you tried hiding your disappointed reaction, but couldn’t help letting out a very quiet sigh. You weren’t even sure why you felt gutted about the fact that Jannis’ brother, whom you had known for like ten minutes, wouldn’t join you on your first night out in Cologne. There was just something about his smile and appearance overall that made you interested in him.

“Working on a Saturday, sorry for that.”, you said laughing lightly as you hoped he didn’t notice your slight disappointment. “It’s fine to be honest. I love my job.”, he smiled softly as he got himself a glass of water, indicating for you to sit down on one of the bar stools. You followed his movement as you sat down next to each other on the small table in the kitchen, your wine and the requested beer already forgotten.

“What do you do? Except for not having to work on a Saturday?”, he asked sassily leaving you no time to actually ask what his profession was. “I’m a student and maybe I would be a little richer if I worked on Saturdays too.”, you answered as you shrugged your shoulder. “What are you majoring in?”. Just like with Jannis a week and a half prior that was the starting signal for a very passionate conversation. At first your dialogue reminded you a lot of your first encounter with Julian’s (you found that out) younger brother. But instead of (voluntarily) landing in each other’s friendzone like it happened with Jannis, your conversation with Julian actually felt like a first date and you were hoping that you weren’t the only one thinking about it that way.

You felt a little startled as you felt your phone vibrating in your pocket, making you look at the display for the first time on that evening. A glance at the digital clock left you a little speechless as you realized the conversation with Julian had been going on for a very long time now. “Has it always been that quiet or am I dreaming?”, you asked aimlessly as you scrolled through your messages, one from Jannis catching your eye.

“Wouldn’t have thought there wold be someodne able to talk to Julian today as he…succcss. We are on our way to the club, but ofc you can stay “””talking””” a litte more with my brother ;-)” you had to reread the message in order to understand what Jannis was talking about, that boy was way too drunk before even reaching the club. “Did he text you too?”, Julian asked as he also went through his messages. “He did.”, laughing quietly you waited for Julian’s response. “Little fuck*er.”, he muttered, stuffing his phone away again in order to give his full attention at you again.

“We should make use of the fact that they left the flat. Couch?”, Julian asked as he already got up from the stool. You followed behind him, taking the glass of wine with you, because you simply felt like you needed it. The living room looked like a mess, but both of you didn’t even acknowledge it too much, feeling too busy with each other. You tried to convince yourself that it was a “spur of moment thing” as Julian got a little closer to you. “I’m glad you are here right now.”, he said quietly making your heart flutter a little bit. “I’m glad I’m not in some club right now.”, you answered honestly leaning back on the couch “Plus you aren’t such a bad Friday night activity.”

“Geez Y/N. Thanks for that.”, he said making you laugh. “I didn’t mean it that way.”, you rolled your eyes, “I’m glad I’m here with you instead of sitting in a club right now, that’s what I wanted to say.”, you started out surely of yourself but got a little quieter at the end. All of a sudden you felt a little dumb and insecure. You had known Julian for about five hours now and you were smitten.

“Glad you chose the better Brandt.”, he whispered winking at you, making you smile once again. You rolled your eyes playfully at him as u began playing nervously with your hair. Out of nowhere there was suddenly such a weird silence between the two of you and instead of starting the conversation again you waited for Julian to do the first step.

“Can I kiss you?” It was an out-of-the blue question and his pale cheeks flamed right after he rushed the words out, making it seem like he didn’t actually want to say what he said. You laughed a little, fisting the hem of your dress as you turned your body a little towards his, a smile covering your lips. “Do you seduce all your women like that?”, you joked hoping it would ease the tension a bit. “Only some.”, he said, sounding more certain. “Well, in that case..”, you started as he broke of your sentence by placing his lips on yours. You have known that young man for five hours now and you were sure that you have never ever felt that many butterflies in your tummy before. The kiss deepened a bit as he cupped your face with his hands holding you in place. He broke the kiss for a moment, letting his hands linger on your face as he grinned at you. “Another women seduced.”, he said making a fist bump into the air. “Idiot.”, was all you said before you pulled him into another kiss, smiling slightly.

{ tagged: @julianbrandtrelated }

#Julian Brandt #Julian Brandt imagine #Julian Brandt one shot #julian brand fluff #Julian Brandt drabble #bayer leverkusen #football imagine #footballer imagine #football one shot #soccer #bundesliga #diemannschaft #imagine

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kg2hub · 5 years

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Rules for mobile users

[[here’s a google doc for the updated list of rules, applicable for all my blogs]]

anything under this cut is from my outdated rules.

[rules updated: 08/15/2019]

–STUFF YOU SHOULD DO–

• No godmodding. No sending (implied or explicit) homophobic/transphobic/bigoted messages to me or my character either.

• Please don’t over-pester me for replies. I promise I’ll get to them. Feel free to drop me a reminder after at least a week of no replies, though. In return, I usually give you a week too, unless otherwise specified in your own rules, until I remind you if it’s your turn to reply (or more often, I chicken out and trust that you’ll eventually respond/want to drop it and end up never bringing up that particular thread ever again). You’re always free to start multiple threads with me, that is greatly encouraged because I love having lots of threads with people.

• If you start getting bored with the roleplay, feel free to drop it and/or end it. We can always start up another thread in the future.

• However, please let me know if you want to drop a roleplay thread! It can give me major anxiety when I’m waiting for a response that’s never going to come, and I wonder if I did something wrong and assume that’s why you’re not replying anymore :’) I’m not forcing you to let me know if you want to drop a thread, you can drop it without saying anything too. But I personally really appreciate being told about that sort of thing.

• Don’t reblog a thread you’re not part of. This should go without being said, of course. Personals will be hardblocked immediately, rp blogs will receive a warning.

• If you can trim your threads, please do! It’s fine if you can’t, though, because I will most likely trim the thread for you. If you don’t trim threads with other people, however, I’ll be less likely to follow you since I don’t like scrolling through long posts.

• Please don’t claim any of my art as your own. If you post it somewhere, the least you can do is credit me by at least including a link to my blog or something. Bonus points if you ask me first before reposting my art, but I understand if you’re anxious because so am I :’)

• If any of your art is featured on my blog, as an icon or something and you don’t want me to use your art, please tell me!!! Message me privately or contact me in some way and please let me know that you want your art taken down. As a fellow artist, I understand wanting other people to not use your art (although I am personally fine with it as long as proper credit is given,) but if you’re more strict about it than I am, that’s totally okay too! Just let me know, and I’ll stop using your art immediately, will delete all icons I have of your art, as well as delete every single instance of your art being used on this blog.

• That being said, if you’re following me, please let me know if I’m doing something that’s making you uncomfortable or is breaking one of your rules!! I do read the rules pages of everyone, but I’m human and forget things, and I’m not a mind reader either ;~; I care, so please tell me if I’m ever doing anything bad

• You can reply to any of my open starters at any time! Even if they’re a year old! Even if other people have already replied to it! My open starters are open for a reason, and we don’t have to be mutuals for you to reply to them either :’)

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–STUFF YOU SHOULD KEEP IN MIND–

• I am of age to do smut, but Ted is literally in kindergarten so that is a no for this blog! There might be occasional references to adult stuff, given the mature nature of the canon game, but that’s about it. No explicit smut in this house.

• This blog is not a spoiler-free one. I will not tag roleplays with spoilers, but anything else will be tagged with Kindergarten Spoilers

• I’m alright with roleplaying nsfw in general, minus smut. Gore, violence, and generally dark roleplays are cool with me. It should be, considering the game this character is from. I love angsty things just as much as I love fluff ;w; Speaking of gore, you’re more than welcome to fight/harm/injure my muse to any extent! You don’t even have to ask! If you want to do a rp where he dies, however, please dm me first.

• I prefer not to roleplay with personals, unless you are someone I know from school or something like that. Personals in general are allowed to follow me too! However! Personals are not allowed to reblog roleplays, in character posts, or ooc posts especially if I say in the tags that I’m going to delete the post later. Only things that are tagged with my “musings” or “art tag” tags are okay to reblog. Headcanon posts are not okay to reblog unless I say otherwise.

• Like spamming is okay! I very occasionally lose roleplays, and getting lots of notes from likes are never a factor for that, for me personally. If I lose a roleplay, it’s mostly just because I forgot, so that’s really a “me” thing. I’m usually very good at keeping track of who I’m roleplaying with and how many ongoing threads I have, and I reply pretty consistently, so just remind me if I haven’t responded after a week or more days (as stated in one of the above rules)! And I like it when people like my posts! It lets me know that you like my blog and the stuff I post, and it makes me happy :’)

• If you are an OC, I will assume our muses have never met unless you plan ahead with me what their relationship is like.

• That being said, characters who have already interacted in canon will know each other. Unless the roleplay takes place in a different point of time and we are staging their first meeting, of course.

• Doubles are welcome to interact too! Although currently I don’t know of much other Ted roleplay blogs lmao. I’m also cool with interacting with and following duplicates of different characters than my own muse!

• This blog will not have mains. Ted will not have any specific version of a muse that he’ll talk about in threads, unless the thread is specifically about that one muse for some reason. For Kindergarten blogs, he will typically be the Ted in your muse’s timeline in serious roleplays, unless your muse is part of an AU/UA/canon-divergent universe, or there are things about your muse’s backstory that would contradict Ted being in your timeline naturally, or you talk about it with me beforehand.

• I’m pretty lenient with short replies. Don’t feel pressured to match the length if my reply gets long! Multi-para (usually 2-5 paragraphs) is my go-to for roleplays, so I usually do long replies by default.

• Adding onto that, I honestly don’t mind one-liners. Of course, in crack/online roleplays it’s fine but I’m okay with it in serious roleplays too. I prefer it if you don’t give me one-liners, but hey, as long as I’m still having fun with the roleplay anyway, it’s cool with me! I understand not being able to think of anything to write, so just as long as you don’t give me one or two words as your reply like ‘He smiled.’ or ’*laughs*’, I’ll be cool with it. Put at least some effort even if you’re only gonna give me one sentence, otherwise I’ll drop the rp once it becomes a repeat offense.

• I will not change the formatting of my roleplays to fit yours. I’m comfortable with sticking to only paragraph style roleplays, thank you very much. Feel free to keep formatting your own posts though, because I think formatting looks really cool! I just don’t want to format my posts, however. I will not go all out with formatting my own posts with all that cool ‘small text’, and indents, and bolding and all that. The most I ever do with my formatting is italics for emphasis on certain words, and using icons.

• I tend to move roleplays from asks onto its own post. If I send you an ask meme and you answer it, I’ll respond by making a new post, tagging you, and linking to your reply.

• I accept any sort of asks! If they aren’t answered after a while, either I don’t know how to answer it or I might be drawing it out and I am a very slow artist- Sorry-

• Feel free to tag me in any of those tagging memes! I don’t mind and I think they’re pretty fun to do! ^^

• Adding onto the above rule, you’re more than welcome to send me those chain asks like “send this to 10 roleplayers you think are really great!” because it’s super duper nice that you would think to send one to me! But don’t expect me to send them to other people, because I won’t :’) my anxiety won’t let me, so I’m sorry-

• If I follow you, that means I’ve already read all of your rules. I might not send the codephrase, though, because most of the time I get very anxious over having to send things like that. I’m very sorry–! But if I follow you then chances are that I have definitely read them before following- If you choose not to trust me on this, I understand.

• I generally follow every rp blog that follows me, but I might not follow some people back for a few reasons. Some might be for the type of content you post on your blog, but I am still non-selective! I will roleplay with anyone who asks (unless you wanna rp gross things or you’re a mean person,,,, like your muse can be as much of a dick as you want, that’s no problem but don’t be gross to other people as yourself) and if I do roleplay with you, I will be more likely to follow you as well.

• Adding onto the above rule, however, please respect that it’s nothing personal if I ever unfollow you either! It’s not that I hate you or anything, but if you haven’t followed me back and you’re a private rp blog, or if we’re mutuals but never really roleplay, our muses just don’t click, you spam stuff that I don’t want to see on my dash, or you’ve become inactive for years and/or don’t interact with me anymore, there’s nothing wrong with that! We can still be friends but I prefer to have all the people I follow be potential rp partners. Feel free to follow me on my personal, Briightskies, if you still wanna keep in touch but not rp :’)

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–ABOUT THIS BLOG–

• This blog is OC, multiverse, and crossover friendly! I love OCs and have many of my own tbh, you’re all more than welcome to come rp with me!!

• I’ll also rp with fandoms I’m not into either, as long as you have a good about section for your character, which also indicates how you portray them (any headcanons or AUs you have that aren’t canon, or whether you portray them as canonly as possible, unless they’re OCs of course since a regular about page is a given) and I’ll probably look up other things about that fandom in its wiki if I don’t know what something is anyway.

• This blog is multiship and will only ship with other child muses! Kid crushes are adorable! I used to have many crushes as a child, and the game does depict children crushing on each other or outright ‘dating’. So any relationships my muse is involved in, are in different timelines unless specified. Poly relationships aren’t bad though, just saying. I ship pretty much anything unless it’s incest or if they’re children paired with someone a lot older. Because Ted is a child, he won’t really get intimate with his partners, but romantic stuff is okay.

• I also only ship with chemistry. My muses need to get to know yours first, so don’t get disappointed if he only sees you as a friend/acquaintance at first and has no intention of pursuing a romantic relationship with your muse. Give my muse reasons to care about your muse and let the feelings develop naturally, and don’t ever force your muse on mine. Unless it’s to mess with him, or whatever other reason. Unrequited stuff is absolutely okay with me too!

• I will tag common triggers and such, but don’t be afraid to tell me if you have something you want me to tag! I promise I’ll remember to tag it from then on. I do not have any known triggers myself. Any trigger warning tags will be written as “tw; ____” with a semi-colon, not a colon. If I feel like something should be tagged as a trigger but I’m not sure what to tag it exactly, I’ll just tag it as “tw” as a sort of catch-all tag.

Requested tagged triggers:

none right now

• I will only talk through the IM system ooc. If you send me a message through there, I will not respond with ooc brackets ((these things)) because I will automatically assume you know that you’re talking to the mun. I do not do roleplays on there.

Thank you for reading this really long list of rules! It means a lot if you did!

There’s no password, because I’m also anxious with those for other people’s blogs as I said above. But if you would like to interact with me, you can shoot me an ask directed to my muse, or like one of my starter call posts at any time (also feel free to re-like those posts so I can make another starter for you at any time!) for me to write you a starter!

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