#demonizing them and/or misunderstanding whats even Actually 'wrong' with them. making one stupid when neither are that

[fagofgod]

have been putting the frog show on for my sister and. huh. hm. good show

[spnbangbang]

Handfasted

Author: tiamatv

Artist:  anyrei

Primary Ship: Dean/Castiel

Other Ships: N/A

Length:  28,000

Warnings: N/A

Tags: AU- Royalty, Arranged Marriage, Temporary Marriage, Prince Castiel, Prince Dean Winchester, Strangers to Lovers, Internalized Homophobia, Cultural Differences, Misunderstandings, Rope Bondage, Pining

Posting Date: November 9, 2024

Summary Dean Winchester never wanted to wear a crown. He had no idea that he even could. It wasn't until the Campbell royals all got themselves assassinated by demons that he and Sam found out that King Samuel was actually their grandfather, and well, shit.

But Dean was a soldier before he was anything else. So maybe that's why he'll do anything to stop this awful demon war--anything. Even try to make an alliance with the angels.

They think they're gonna scare him off by telling him he's gotta be magically married--okay, okay, handfasted, but call it what it is--to some snooty noble angel for a whole year? They think Dean's gonna back out because the angels want him to be handfasted not to a proper princess, oh no, but to a prince?

Bring it on. Excerpt Gods and goddesses. Dean hasn’t even kissed the guy. Is he supposed to? The thought makes his whole face tingle–the thought of pressing his lips to that rich, pink mouth–but… that’s not what this is about, is it? Right?

“Look, I know you're not… I know this wasn't your choice,” Dean says, low. “Mine either, not really, I just… Lemme do this, okay? Pretty sure I can make it feel good for you.”

Shit, Dean's babbling, but what the fuck else is he supposed to do? He’s been thinking about how to fulfill the handfasting magic without everything going wrong for a while. Too long.

‘Consummation,’ right? Seed going into… somewhere? Yeah.

Castiel doesn't stop him, his hands falling back to hang loose by his side when Dean carefully untangles their fingers and then undoes the buttons of the placket of Castiel’s snowy white, coarse linen breeches, one by one. He does say something in that low gravel of his language, but none of them are the few words of Enochian that Dean understands. Dean just hopes he's not commenting on how Dean's hands are shaking.

His little sigh against the side of Dean's face as Dean starts nudging his breeches downwards with his fingertips, a warm, sweet, shaky puff on Dean’s cheek, sure doesn't sound like he's mad about it, though. His halo is glowing soft and bright, brighter than the lantern lit in the corner of the room, not that angry lightning flash that Dean’s gotten way too used to in the past week.

That does make Dean feel better. A little.

“You doing okay?” Dean says, pulling back and running a hand over the jut and arch of Castiel's hip, under the linen. And then doing it again, ‘cause. Huh. It's weird to feel those hard, firm planes, the jut of bone, rather than softness and curves. Weird, but not bad. He’s not wearing smallclothes under the stupid sacred pants–neither is Dean–but unlike Dean, Castiel hasn’t got any hair on his legs or his belly to catch on the rough woven cloth.

Cas nods and voices a low Enochian affirmative that Dean recognizes. Well, at least there's that.

But the quizzical look on Cas's face, the lilt of his voice, says volumes when Dean carefully pushes him down to sitting on the bed and then gets slowly down on his knees on the rug, shuffling his way forward between those spread thighs–shit, it's gotta be obvious to him by now what Dean's up to, right?

Because sure, Dean was in the Campbell army a long time, he’s heard some things about the kind of activities that men can do with other men… but like hell is Dean going to be sticking his bits into someone who can barely understand what he's saying.

He's not thinking about how hard–no, nope, difficult, difficult–it was to shimmy those breeches down and off Castiel's thighs, because well, fuck, the dude might be a prince of the angels, but he’s juicy like a game chicken, and–

Nope, nope, nope.

So here Dean is, down on his knees, staring face-level at another guy's floppy dick, surrounded by the same thick, dark curls that Castiel has on his head but nowhere else on his body, smelling of incense and linen and… something musky and heavy. Not sweat, something darker than that, sharper, and…

And Dean’s mouth is fucking watering. It's watering. And he can feel the heat on his cheeks. On his neck. Spreading into the line of this stupid, scrubby, itchy linen tunic. Twitching in his breeches.

Gods of sea and stars. Is this the handfasting magic? What if it is?

But what if it isn’t?

[robininthelabyrinth]

3. I have no idea if this time line would work, but MYX and XY get attached to each other, so when the time comes that MYX and XY need to leave Koi Tower, JGY helps them get married in secret and run away to Dongu. Anyways, a few years latter, JGY has a kid that needs to go and people in a removed location that owe him favors! Isn’t that a wonderful combination! A Jin(?) Rusong raised by Uncles Mo and Xue, or whatever they go by these days, would be very chaotic. Bonus: they start a relatively safe demonic cultivation sect, maybe with some guidance from the Nie (has NMJ never been killed by the Jin in this Au?), or more specifically, Huaisang. SL and XXC who got a happy ending decide to check out this no blood line sect (it looks slightly dubious, but surely can’t be to bad! Right?) A-Qing at least is enjoying her new friend -🟪🦋

Should Have Been Listening - ao3

“Let go of me.”

“I won’t,” Mo Xuanyu said, clutching Xue Yang’s arm. “I won’t, I won’t! You’re my only friend here!”

Xue Yang looked down at him in what he thought was mostly exasperation, but might have also been a little fondness – after all, if it’d been anyone else who’d grabbed him, he’d have stabbed them.

He still didn’t know why he didn’t stab Mo Xuanyu, too, but in all honesty, he wasn’t that interested in exploring it. He did what he wanted, and right now, he didn’t want to murder Mo Xuanyu.

Irritating as he sometimes was.

“Little brat,” he said. “I have important business to go do.”

“It’s not something that he ordered, though!”

“So what?” Xue Yang bristled. “I don’t just do what hetells me!”

“But that means he won’t cover for you, and that means you’ll get in trouble!” Mo Xuanyu argued. “How can I let you go all alone to get in trouble? You have to take me with you! What will you do without me? Who’ll keep you entertained and sneak sweets for you if not for me?”

Xue Yang’s lips twitched. Okay, maybe there was a reason he kept the brat around.

“You don’t understand,” he said. “This is something I’ve got to do – something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’m going to kill a lot of people and get into a lot of trouble, more trouble than ever before. I’ll probably lose my life. How can I possibly take you with me?”

Mo Xuanyu scowled up at him. It was a very weak scowl – barely more than a pout. “You think that’s going to make me not want to come with you?”

Xue Yang’s eyebrows went up. “You cry at the sight of blood!”

“I cry at a lot of things!”

Xue Yang wasn’t sure how to respond to that. It was true, Mo Xuanyu cried at a lot of things.

“Maybe if I come with you, it won’t be so bad!”

Yeeeeah, Xue Yang wasn’t going to count on that.

“Or maybe you don’t have to go…?”

“I have to go,” he explained. “If I don’t go, I can’t get revenge, and I have to have revenge.”

Mo Xuanyu blinked up at him.

“I don’t really understand, but okay,” he said, and tugged on his arm. “Let’s go together, then. I promise I won’t cry!”

-

He cried.

He cried a lot.

-

“Stop fucking crying.”

-

“Just – ugh. Listen. You’re ruining the mood.”

-

“If you can’t stop crying, go away. Now. Or I’ll stab you!”

-

“Okay, see, look, I just killed the leaders, see? Just the old men. Everyone else is just locked in their rooms. Once the sect leader comes back, I’ll kill him too, and that’ll be all. Okay? Everyone else lives. I promise. Now stop crying, okay?”

-

“I don’t want to know,” Jin Guangyao said when they got back. “I don’t want to know at all.”

“Good,” Xue Yang grumbled. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Enough people heard about the reason for what you did that opinions are mixed as to whether your actions were the Chang clan’s just rewards for their former misdeeds or if they were actually wrong,” Jin Guangyao said. He looked irritated. “But you still killed high-ranking members of a sect, and you left enough alive that they’re demanding your head on a platter. You’re going to need to run away.”

Mo Xuanyu hesitantly gestured as if he wished to speak.

“Yes, you can go with him. Now that my father is dead, no one cares where you are.”

Mo Xuanyu beamed.

“You’re just going to let us go?” Xue Yang asked suspiciously. “That seems unlike you. What’s in it for you?”

“Oh, I’m not just going to let you go. I’m going to give you money, too,” Jin Guangyao said. “And all you need to do for me is one little tiny favor –”

Pity that that was when Xue Yang stopped listening, too busy staring at Mo Xuanyu’s delighted face and counting all the way he was in for it now.

-

“I’ve always wanted to take care of a baby,” Mo Xuanyu said happily.

“Good for you,” Xue Yang said darkly as he stalked through the streets.

He would rather that Jin Guangyao had needed a body buried and a death covered up or something – and judging by the baby’s perturbed expression, it probably agreed with him. Fuck, maybe Jin Guangyao had meant for them to murder the baby once they got it far enough out of the way. It was just as plausible as Mo Xuanyu's assumption that they were supposed to take care of it.

Damnit, maybe he should have been listening.

“Listen, neither of us are equipped to handle a baby. Go find a woman to help us – someone poor and helpless who doesn’t have any other choice.”

“Okay!”

-

Xue Yang shut his eyes. “What exactly,” he said slowly, “did you think I asked you to get us a woman for, exactly?”

“To…watch the baby?” Mo Xuanyu guessed. “When we’re busy or sleeping? Anyway, what’s wrong with A-Qing, anyway? She’s nice!”

“I’m not nice,” A-Qing said. The damn brat was smirking – and for once it wasn’t his damn brat, but some blind brat with a cocky expression. “I stole your wallet and you burst into tears and it was really embarrassing.”

“He does that,” Xue Yang said wearily. At least he’d noticed the theft this time – all of his lessons in ‘how not to be a sucker and get constantly taken advantage of’ were maybe having something of an impact. Maybe. “For some reason I’m apparently into it.”

He couldn’t explain it any other way.

“…loser.”

“I will stab you,” Xue Yang threatened. “I don’t care if you’re blind.”

“Won’t someone tell me why A-Qing isn’t a perfectly good babysitter?” Mo Xuanyu demanded. He was holding the baby in his arms again – the baby liked him more than it did Xue Yang, which meant that between Mo Xuanyu and the baby, the baby had better self-preservation instincts – and he was trying his best stern scowl which was of course barely more than a pout and a so-called ‘fierce’ expression that made Xue Yang want to laugh.

Not even Mo Xuanyu’s horrific make-up skills could make thatface intimidating. Or maybe it was just that the person behind the face was just so completely unthreatening that there was no help for it?

“Well? Tell me!”

Xue Yan opened his mouth, then shrugged and shut it again.

A-Qing patted Mo Xuanyu on the shoulder. “I’m too young. No milk.”

“…milk?”

“You know. The thing babies eat?”

“…milk,” Mo Xuanyu repeated, only now he looked absolutely heartbroken at having failed the mission that Xue Yang had assigned him almost entirely just to get him out of the way while Xue Yang collected some spare cash and threatened their way onto a ride out of this piece of shit town.

“It’s fine,” Xue Yang said hastily. “We’ll just get a goat or something, I don’t know.”

“Okay, I actually only came here to laugh at you,” A-Qing said. “But now I’m legitimately worried about this baby. Don’t you two know anything? How’d you even get a baby, anyway?”

-

“Stop laughing. It’s not that funny.”

-

“Seriously. Stop laughing, or I stab you.”

“Don’t worry, A-Qing,” Mo Xuanyu said. “He doesn’t mean it! Threats are just how he expresses affection!”

“It most certainly is not.”

“That is absolutely amazing,” A-Qing said, wiping her eyes. “Best thing I’ve ever heard., if by best I mean worse-but-hilarious. I mean. If that’s what he considers affection, what must his flirting be like?”

“No one is flirting with anyone!”

-

“Are you going to leave at some point?”

“Obviously not,” A-Qing said. She’d caught the same ride as them, using Xue Yang’s cash no less – Mo Xuanyu had insisted that it was the least they could do after the whole milk misunderstanding, which was stupid, she ought to be paying them for wasting their time. Xue Yang couldn’t wait to get rid of her, although he had to admit that she’d been pretty useful in terms of putting on the ‘poor sad blind girl and her two brothers all alone in the world’ act to get them a room at the inn at prices even Xue Yang felt comfortable paying. “Are you joking? This is so much funnier than walking by myself. Anyway, I enjoy watching people crash and burn.”

“Aren’t you too young to be such a bitch?” Xue Yang hissed. “And, I don’t know, blind?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I don’t care what you –”

The sound of crying came from the other room.

It was quickly followed by a second set of crying.

Xue Yang felt the onset of a headache.

“…truce?” A-Qing suggested sweetly, as if she knew exactly how much it pissed him off and thought it was the funniest thing ever, which was…probably accurate, actually. “I’ll get the baby to stop crying if you do the same with Mo Xuanyu.”

Yeah, that was definitely a headache. The sort of headache called why do I like that brat.

Mo Xuanyu owed him so much candy for putting up with this shit.

��Fine,” Xue Yang said begrudgingly. “Truce. Temporarily. And then you leave!”

-

“So we live here now, huh?” A-Qing said, looking around the house they’d claimed. “That’s neat.”

“Why do you live with us again?” Xue Yang asked her, though by now he barely even meant it. A-Qing was clearly another one in the same mold as Mo Xuanyu: you just couldn’t say no to her…or, rather, you could, at length and top volume and with threats, only it just didn’t stick. “I definitely did not recall asking you to stay.”

Though it was nice to have someone else around that wasn’t going to get immediately ripped off by literally anyone who came their way. Mo Xuanyu’d started getting conned by the literal infant that they were taking care of – he was completely hopeless.

Also, questionably blind or not, at least A-Qing had no hesitation about beating people with her stick if they struck her the wrong way, which was a life approach Xue Yang agreed with wholeheartedly.

“She’s going to learn to cultivate!” Mo Xuanyu chirped from where he was applying his make-up. “Demonic cultivation, too! We had a whole discussion about it while you were out getting groceries!”

That made a certain amount of sense, Xue Yang supposed. You didn’t need talent to be a demonic cultivator – technically speaking, given his bloodline, Mo Xuanyu was more naturally gifted in cultivation than Xue Yang, which was just wrong on all sorts of levels – and it was certainly more effective a defense mechanism than A-Qing’s stick. If there were two of them, they could protect Mo Xuanyu and the baby more effectively, taking shifts when needed, and Mo Xuanyu, who was also going to learn demonic cultivation no matter how many times Xue Yang had to hammer it into his head, could be the last line of defense, largely since no one would ever expect him to be able to do…anything…and they’d be right, too.

So it wasn’t the craziest idea in the world, only…

“…who is she going to be learning from, exactly!?”

-

“Have you ever considered charging for your skill in teaching cultivation lessons instead of your skill in stabbing people?” A-Qing asked one day. They were lying on the ground and having the corpses they’d raised fan them to try to reduce the temperature – it was that sort of day. Also, Mo Xuanyu, who might’ve objected, wasn’t around. “You’re not actually that bad at this. Might be more profitable, and less work. Just a thought.”

“Shut up. I’m great at stabbing people.”

“Yeah, but then after a while we have to move because people get annoyed at that, and it’s getting a little annoying to have to pack up all the time.”

“We’d have to move anyway. We’re wanted criminals, remember?”

“We could be wanted criminals with a house. Besides, wouldn’t you like to be called Teacher Xue?”

“What? No. Gross.”

-

“So you see, it turns out that they were teaching demonic cultivation in a safe and organized fashion,” Xiao Xingchen explained enthusiastically. “They’d even gathered up their own little sect! And of course everyone heard what the Chang clan did, so there’s no need to worry about them going around and murdering people at random – it was a targeted revenge scheme.”

“We’re working on teaching them regular cultivation,” Song Lan agreed, nodding. “To help mitigate the negative effects of demonic cultivation…well, we started out by just teaching them.”

“It turned out that they’d been secretly teaching all of the local delinquents, too, or at least Mo-gongzi had been teaching a few and Mistress Qing was teaching a few others, and even Sect Leader Xue had a few disciples,” Xiao Xingchen said, politely omitting or possibly having not noticed the fact that Mo Xuanyu had been teaching his ‘friends’ (read: scammers trying to take advantage of him), while A-Qing and Xue Yang had each been trying to form competing gangs and/or obtain lackeys. Xue Yang didn’t mind the oversight, largely on account of the fact that A-Qing had been winning, damn her – he’d kept getting distracted by inventing new things. “And a few of them had real talent – and you know that Zichen and I have always wanted to start a sect of our own, with no bloodline ties –”

“We’re joining their sect,” Song Lan said. “We’ll be leading the orthodox side, while they lead the demonic cultivation aspect – safely, of course.”

“I guess it’s better than them being crazy,” Jiang Cheng said. He sounded dubious. “I don’t like it, but at least all the demonic cultivators can be in one spot, you know?”

He made it sound like they’d be dropping off new ones there in the future.

Like they’d opened up some sort of pet rescue and were taking in unwanted puppies or something.

“Agreed,” Nie Mingjue said. “To the extent that they aren’t causing active harm, containment seems an appropriate remedy here. Who seconds the motion?”

“I do,” Lan Xichen said, and smiled at the newly agreed-upon sect. “Welcome back to the cultivation world, Sect Leader Xue.”

-

“I don’t want to know,” Jin Guangyao said, glaring.

“Don’t worry,” Xue Yang told him. “This comes as much of a shock to me as to you.”

The glare intensified, but that was fine. Jin Guangyao’s facial expressions, however minor and generally overlooked, had been the only thing getting him through that awful, awful meeting just now where people kept trying to salute him and make him salute back and if he didn’t then he was letting down Mo Xuanyu (who would send him a sad look) and A-Qing (who would hear about it from Mo Xuanyu later and then find a way to step on his foot right when he was concentrating on something).

Not to mention their two new resident lovebirds, who looked so righteous and proper from the outside but who also may or may not have accidentally full-on actually resurrected some dead asshole cultivator more or less the first time they’d joined Xue Yang in his demonic cultivation laboratory – which would have been fine, you know, that happened in demonic cultivation though not normally to quite such a wow-is-he-actually-alive extent, except that the guy’s intermittent moments of clarity suggested that his two new sect members might have just brought back the Yiling Patriarch himself, which was going to make all of them wanted criminal again the second anyone found out about it.

Ugh.

Being called sect leader was completely not worth this shit.

Xue Yang comforted himself with the reminder that later today he was planning on publicly introducing Jin Guangyao to the Xue sect’s head junior disciple “Xue Song” and announcing loudly that the brat needed some lessons in manners, that he’d heard that that was Lianfeng-zun’s specialty, and nominating him to take care of the kid while they were visiting.

See how the fucker liked that.

“I always knew Xue-gege could do great things!” Mo Xuanyu said, clapping his hands as A-Qing rolled her (by now, Xue Yang was almost definitely sure not actually blind) eyes behind his back. “As long as I went with him!”

[stardustprompts]

the poppy war - r.f kuang   sentence starters change tenses/pronouns as needed !!  some lines have been edited for clarity / length / ease of roleplaying tw :   drugs , death , murder , nsfw , prostitution mention , language

‘take off your clothes.’

‘why would anyone drug themselves before a test?’

‘you’re about to be a very lucky girl, sweet.’

‘wow that’s great. really great. Terrific.’

‘your folks are assholes.’

‘well fuck the heavenly order of things.’

‘don’t you have actual responsibilities?’

‘I don’t want to get on _____ ‘s bad side.’

‘you would make a terrible prostitute. no charm.’

‘what is so wrong with getting married?’

‘do you want to die?’

‘everything is spilling out of my head as quickly as I put it in.’

‘please do not commit spousal homicide.’

‘give me a way out of this shithole.’

‘hello, I’m praying.’

‘I seduced him with my nubile young body. you caught me.’

‘you can’t scare me into a confession, because I’m telling the truth.’

‘and that means you’re shit at your job.’

‘if you cross them—- if they even think you’ve looked at them funny—- they can and will hurt you.’

‘it’s easy to lose a language when you never speak it.’

‘you’re offending them with your very presence.’

‘they’ll make you an outsider, because you’re not like them.’

‘no matter what they say, you deserve to be here.’

‘I’ll kill you. I will fucking kill you.’

‘I went out in the sun once. you should try it sometime.’

‘oh, you’re the one ____ hates.’

‘you’d be a prick too if your family was both rich and attractive.’

‘honestly? I think he just comes in here to get high.’

‘I think you’re flattering yourself.’

‘unless you’ve got a weapon, don’t aim for the face. the neck’s a better target.’

‘we aren’t here to be sophisticated. we’re here to fuck people up.’

‘this is the only kick you’ll ever need, really. a kick to bring down the most powerful warriors.’

‘power dictates acceptability.’

‘he hasn’t done anything to earn my respect. all he’s done is act high and mighty.’

‘you’re nothing. you shouldn’t even be here.’

‘consider me bullied and intimidated, just let me sleep.’

‘he’s playing with her. he’ll end it soon.’

‘they’re good at fighting, but not much else.’

‘spend a lot of time looking at ____’s eyes do you?’

‘a betrayal of that sort would not have been out of character.’

‘come on, you belong here too.’

‘they’re not going to get rid of me like this. not this easily.’

‘I’m calm! I’m extremely calm!’

‘you’d rather kill your own people than let the opponent’s army walk away?’

‘you don’t let an enemy walk away if they’ll certainly be a threat to you later.’

‘he can’t stop raving about you.’

‘oh, don’t pretend to be bashful. you love it.’

‘you’re a walking disaster.’

‘anyone this obstinate deserves some attention, if only to make sure you don’t become a walking hazard to everyone around you.’

‘I heard he got drunk on rice wine last week and pissed into ____’s window. he sounds awesome.’

‘it’s me, your favorite person in the whole wide world.’

‘I do not have a problem. you are making up this problem for reasons unbeknownst to me.’

‘you’re killing the mood.’

‘they were weak as shit. scrawnier than you, even.’

‘you’re a real asshole. you know that right?’

‘your state of mind is just as important as the state of your body.’

‘sometimes you must loose the string to let the arrow fly.’

‘because I want to break his stupid face.’

‘he’s the most dangerous when he’s desperate.’

‘from this point on you’re just going to be a danger to yourself and everyone around you.’

‘you’re too reckless. you hold grudges, you cultivate your rage and let it explode, and you’re careless about what you’re taught.’

‘I knew I was the only one that could help him.’

‘they honed his rage like a weapon, instead of teaching him to control it.’

‘one urinating statue for my easily entertained friend.’

‘I don’t believe in gods. but I believe in power.’

‘one might say you’ve been obsessed with ____.’

‘don’t look to your left. pretend you’re taking to me.’ / ‘I am talking to you.’

‘we’re studying very weird things.’

‘I don’t actually know what I’m getting into.’

‘here is what happened: you called a god, and the god answered.’

‘you know that if you don’t get answers now, the hunger will consume you and your mind will crack.’

‘you’ve glimpsed the other side and you can’t rest until you fill in the blanks.’

‘supernatural is a word for anything that doesn’t fit your present understanding of the world.’

‘I’m supposed to take it as true that you’re a god?’

‘I’m not a god. I am a mortal who has woken up, and there is power in awareness.’

‘are we getting high? oh, wow. we’re getting high.’

‘ah. the law. so inconvenient. so irrelevant.’

‘we are not madmen. but how can we convince anyone of this, when the rest of the world believes it so?’

‘the price of power is pain.’

‘I understand the truth of things. I know what it means to exist.’

‘prey do not question the motives of the predator. the dead do not question the living. mortals do not challenge the gods.’

‘I killed for you. I would have done anything for you.’

‘I have seen the end of things. the shape of the world has changed.’

‘war doesn’t determine who’s right. war determines who remains.’

‘it’s alright. I know what you are.’

‘I thought I was the only one left.’

‘we have developed the power to rewrite the fabric of this world. if we don’t use it, then what’s the point?’

‘I don’t mess with that shit. it screws you up.’

‘I understand the appeal, I really do, but I like having my mind to myself.’

‘he’s a charmer. like a new puppy. you think he’s adorable until he pisses on the furniture.’

‘there’s no routine. no discipline. nothing you’re used to. am I right?’

‘so you’re the last of your kind. that’s sad.’

‘If you hold the fate of the country in your hands, if you have accepted your obligation to your people, then your life ceases to be your own.’

‘____ feared, and so he held you back.’

‘great danger is always associated with great power. the difference between the great and the mediocre is that the great are willing to take that risk.’

‘don’t ever let go on that anger. rage gives you power. caution does not.’

‘don’t give in... you’ve been so brave... but it takes more bravery to resist the power.’

‘the nature of this god is to destroy. the nature of this god is to be greedy, to never be satisfied with what he has consumed.’

‘so. screaming at rocks. is that, like, normal behavior here?’

‘fix this. prove your worth. do your fucking job or get out.’

‘I saved your life. doesn’t that make us at least a little square?!’

‘I was scared of you. and I lashed out.’

‘I thought I was better than you, and I’m not. I’m sorry.’

‘when I killed it, it felt like murder.’

‘look, I’m happy to discuss this, really, but I’m currently leaking life out three different wounds and I think I may pass out. would you give me a moment?’

‘well maybe ____ should get his head out of his ass.’

‘ ____ is more fragile than you think.’

‘look, asshole, I don’t need you to tell me what to do.’

‘they say he can read the future. shatter minds.’

‘you misunderstand the nature of our relationship. I am not your friend.’

‘he’s not human. he—- I don’t know what he is.’

‘but ___ was never allowed to be human.’

‘do you trust me?’ / ‘no. but that’s irrelevant.’

‘you don’t know what true suffering is.’

‘I have seen more than my fair share of suffering.’

‘that boy is beyond redemption. that boy is broken like the rest.’

‘I don’t want to be saved! I want power!’

‘that power will destroy everything you’ve ever loved. you will defeat your enemy, and the victory will turn to ashes in your mouth.’

‘we’ve missed something. something’s been laid out for us, but we can’t see it.’

‘fretting won’t make the dead come back to life.’

‘there was nothing human in those eyes.’

‘It was a nightmare, and I couldn’t wake up.’

‘I don’t need your pity. I need you to kill them for me.’

‘whatever it takes. swear it on your life. swear it for me.’

‘I won’t judge him. I don’t dare, because I don’t have the right. and neither do you.’

‘you asked me why I wouldn’t stop him. now you understand. you can’t stop an avenger. you can’t reason with a madman.’

‘I am afraid of what he might do in his quest for vengeance. and I am afraid that he is right.’

‘I am about to do something terrible. and you will have a choice.’

‘they give nothing to the universe, and the universe owes them nothing in return.’

‘you cannot survive my death.’

‘you’re trying to deceive me. you don’t get to deceive me.’

‘this is not the way. this path leads only to darkness.’

‘when are you going to stop being such a damn coward? what are you running from?’

‘you will turn the world to ash, and only demons will live in the rubble.’

‘you dress up your crusade with moral arguments, when in truth you would let millions die if it means you get your so-called justice.’

‘you have not cared about anything for a very long time. you are broken.’

‘I am terrified. but only because I’m starting to remember who I once was. don’t go down that path.’

‘your country is ash. you can’t bring it back with blood.’

‘I’m so sorry. I tried to warn you.’

‘you know the worst part? we’re so close to home.’

‘did you miss me? did you miss this?’

‘I just gave him some of his favorite medicine.’

‘resistance here means suffering. there is no escape. no future.’

‘you have nothing to fight for anymore’

‘what are you defending? you owe ____ nothing.’

‘we were disposable. we were tools. tell me that doesn’t make you furious.’

‘I am sick with fury.’

‘I will die on my feet. I will not die a coward. and neither will you.’

‘we could stay here. we could stay here forever. we wouldn’t have to go back.’

‘you’ll have to live with the consequences. but you’re brave ... you’re the bravest person I’ve ever met.’

‘I have lost everything I care about. I don’t want peace, I want revenge.’

‘I don’t need to sleep. I need to feel nothing.’

‘do you want forgiveness? I can’t give you that.’

‘we avenged him. he’s gone, but avenged.’

‘you have to believe that it was necessary. that it stopped something worse. and even if it wasn’t, it’s the lie we’ll tell ourselves, starting today and every day afterward.’

‘aren’t you supposed to be a seer? do you ever see anything useful?’

‘we have an enemy whom we love.’

‘I’m going to find and kill everyone responsible. you cannot stop me.’

‘oh I’m not going to stop you.’

[jess-the-vampire]

Sky And The Forces Of The Multiverse, Chapter 40

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Landon was frantic, more then before.

Apparently he'd been trying to get in contact with Bernard for awhile, no answer. He'd tried to rationalize it as maybe he was busy or didn't get his calls or texts, but that excuse was getting less and less real as time passed. Something seemed very wrong and landon had already started to panic. Even Sky was unsure how to react, she didn't want to panic just yet becuase it could all be fine in the end.

But Landon looked so...WORRIED.

Melaine would've said something to her wouldn't she? If Bernard was missing or something?

They were now in the boy's room, all of them, the old king leaning against the wall. Landon had apparently tried sky's compact first, but she had silenced it to avoid it going off and getting them in trouble during sneaky times. He also tried his parents but neither had seen sky that day and neither were available to try and contact his parents for more information right now.

Getting Sky at all must've been a huge relief.

"Sorry, i should've said something before...but...I didn't want to do it...too soon.", he was pacing, he clearly wasn't too thrilled about being so desperate right now. He felt silly, ever though he needed to do this, he couldn't help it he was just...worried. If he had done something too soon and nothing was wrong, he could've freaked bernard out and landon would've felt humiliated.

Imagine panicking so much you end your friends after your crush and they're just fine the whole time. It was a situation landon wanted to avoid if possible, there's caring about your friends and going too far, and if the guards just showed up at bernard's house while he was doing homework and having a fairly normal day, bernard would probably not wanna speak to landon again.

Landon didn't want to feel like he was clingy or obsessed or...weird.

But he just felt worried, and his desperation showed on his face.

He just wanted to make sure, that's it, nothing more.

And his distress definitely seemed to make everyone else just as worried, no one seemed to shame him of the group, his grandfather clearly wanted to comfort him and so did mason. But the boy clearly needed to calm down a little more as fire started appearing from his boots, Sky was trying to get in contact with melaine but it seemed melaine must've been busy for the time being.

She wished judas was were, she tried texting him but he hadn't responded yet.

And neither had celeste.

Darn.

Despite how much mason and Mr Lucitor wanted to approach but resisted to give the boy some space, Sunny was the first to step in in the middle of landon's panic. Walking over to take his arm, something about her actions left sky with the impression sunny was a little more then used to dealing with angry and stressful people. Sky never asked about her life back home but if she had to guess Sunny was very comfortable doing this to help people.

And though her comforting touch maybe seemed to trigger something in the demon, it didn't fully make him feel better.

But as his flames dwindled, that was enough to signal his two family members to approach, coming in to hug him.

Landon wasn't usually a hugger but he didn't protest this time around, in fact he probably appreciated it that he wasn't alone right now.

Angel was sitting between galexia and sky, curiously looking at sky's compact as she sent her pen pal some messages, asking her to call her back as soon as possible. Knowing mel, she'd call the second she got that text and give sky anything she needed. Sky didn't want to panic, but she didn't want to dismiss any of the obvious anxiety landon was going through at the moment either.

This was important to him, she couldn't call that silly.

It was just her luck that now of all time she couldn't get in contact with melaine to help her out on this,

Angel wasn't an expert on compacts, his curiosity must've been peaking at seeing sky get stressed over the tiny little compact mirror. Angel actually didn't know much about bernard but he could tell from the distress on landon's face he meant a lot to the guy. It reminded him of how panicked he had gotten when he was about to betray Her and how worried he was she'd hurt sky or judas because of him.

Except he'd been alone in his pain when it happened to him, he couldn't confine in anyone to deal with it or risk getting in more trouble.

For this boy's sake he just hoped this was a misunderstanding, though he had a bad feeling.

Sky put her compact in her jacket for now, they were just going to have to wait, they didn't have much of a choice, hopefully in the meantime they could get judas to speak to them and everything. Maybe he and celeste were on silent so judas can get more sleep but not even a respond from texts? At the very least she wanted to let them know how bad they messed up by getting caught again.

Well, at least no one sold them out this time, this time it was just plain stupidity.

If Jude had known they were breaking into his grandpa's office, he would've definitely have warned them his grandpa was much too familiar with having ears and eyes where he could to keep an eye on the things he cared about, his office included. Though sky had to admit, having a guy with those abilities actually might come more in handy then they had been expecting.

But for now they had other things to worry about.

Bernard was a human after all, if he was in trouble he was more fragile then most of them.

And he didn't have the power of mewni magic on his side to help him, earth magic wasn't made to defend and protect oneself all that much.

Maybe bernard simply lost or broke his human phone?

"I-I...", landon was blushing through tears, "I wanted to...confess to him...I tried to...before he vanished...what if...he...he knew what i wanted to say and-". He was mumbling those words, they were barely audible, but the addition of them only made the pain he was going through way worse to everyone's ears. His family done hugging him and quick to question him.

Bernard didn't seem THAT cruel.

Besides, was landon's crush THAT obvious even he noticed?

Well...actually...it probably was.

But that didn't somehow mean Bernard would just cut all contact away from him either, they seemed too close and he seemed too nice to pull that without telling landon or anything. But just to be safe she could hear his family telling him it was going to be ok regardless, reassuring them they'd find his friend and sort thins whole thing out as soon as possible.

"Are you sure there's no other way to contact your human friend?", the spider prince asked out of curiosity, only to be met with a shake of the head. "Not unless we go in person, and we're not allowed, even so though stepping on someone's front door like that was bound to come off as awkward.". Unless they were given permission, they were stuck here.

Far away from the place their person was most likely at.

They were forced to sit here and be patient until further notice, and who knew how long that would take.

"Where's judas...?", landon asked suddenly, turning to sky and focusing on her in particular. "Maybe he can help out or something...he's good at...helping people.". Man, if he really wanted help from his older brother he really was desperate. Even if their relationship was making strides, inserting judas into his personal business like this was still something new for him to do.

"Judas is uh...busy, i can't get in contact with him either...", he had to admit him the truth, if she could get judas here she would, but if mel got back to her she didn't wanna risk heading back to her castle and not being able to bring landon the news right away. Landon didn't seem too pleased with her answer and his attention then got turned to his grandfather, who patted his shoulder.

"How about I take care of it, i have your other grandparent's number, so i'll have them check...I know you probably wanted to avoid that as much as possible but I think it's worth trying". Indeed landon was trying to avoid that because last thing he needed was his grandparents to embarrass him in front of his crush right before he could confess to him.

But desperate times called for desperate measures.

"I'll be right outside...call me if you need me.".

He sent his grandkids a reassuring smile before heading out of landon's room to make a call on his compact. Landon quick to flop onto his bed, sunny up and behind him to pat him on the back, "Is it ok if we ask what you said to bernard before you noticed he wasn't responding?". Landon rolled over on his side, his eyes now staring at his violin case nearby among his other stuff.

"I just told him i had a song for him, because there was something I wanted to share...", he pressed his face deeper into his mattress, still rather red faced for how embarrassing this whole thing was next to stressful. "Maybe he did figure it out and now our friendship is over, I screwed up our friendship by liking him more then a friend...I knew this would happen.".

"You don't know that...".

"Maybe, but it's probably true...I screwed everything up."

"Landon...c'mon um...what would bernard say if he heard you say something like that?", granted, he could not speak for the human at all, he didn't know him as much as landon had, but at the same time, he never got the impression bernard would be cruel to landon in his time of need and his worry. Well, he could only hope that were the case, otherwise his attempts to make his brother feel better were just making it worse.

It only took landon a moment before he sat up, his hair a mess and his face still red, "He'd tell me i'm assuming things and hurting myself over stuff that might have nothing to do with me.". He held himself and rubbed the neck of his neck, "I know...i'm assuming too much, i'm just...worried, I really like him...ok? I'm worried everything is falling apart...and...that i screwed up...or something happened.".

Angel seemed to sink at those words, yeah, he knew well as much how THAT felt too.

"Well, do you think Bernard would say anything mean to you about this?"

"Well...no...he's...he wouldn't do that...I know he wouldn't, I just...I can't help thinking he would...", his self loathing was catching up to him again, and the absence of his crush and best friend was only making it worse. He felt like curling up into a little ball and mason and sunny were trying their best to clam their brother down, honestly this was probably the most vulnerable anyone had seen landon for some time.

His makeup even smearing down his eyes for a bit.

Sky looked back to him and back to her compact, before standing up, "I'm gonna go get judas...angel? You wanna come with me?". She didn't wanna separate landon from the people comforting him and she didn't wanna separate galexia who was drawing to herself something nice for the boy from him either, leaving angel as the best candidate for now.

"Sure...", his tone seemed more sad, and maybe getting out of this room was the best thing for him, though sky quickly handed the compact to landon himself, "I'll be right back, just have it in case mel calls...or texts or something". She tried to reassure him, nodding to her friends before heading out the door with angel tagging along behind her, the former kind on the phone nearby.

He was quick to notice them, giving them a look before sky mouthed she was going to find judas and bring him back.

He didn't fight her, handing her his own scissors before going back to his call as she and the prince left through the portal quickly. Hopefully judas wasn't still asleep by the time they arrived, they really didn't want to wake him up when he desperately needed more rest, though he'd probably argue his brother and this issue was more important for the time being.

However, why he nor celeste answered their compact was worth asking too.

Though upon entering her room, sky paused, her room as messy as before, but with not a soul in sight.

"Uhhhhh...where are they?".

Angel peeked in from behind her, "Did uh...did they leave?". She went inside fully and looked around, "Ugh...how did my sheets get wet and burned? We weren't gone THAT long were we? Yeesh, you leave anyone from this group anywhere and they have a full fledged adventure without you..." She looked around her room for any clues before her bedroom door opened again.

Her pointing her want at it quickly as a reaction as judas, celeste, and nora stepped in, her wand falling and her face full of relief.

Well relief and also annoyance.

"Judas?!".

He had looked sad when he entered but he then smiled, also in relief but probably also in extreme embarrassment as he saw his friend's expression. Knowing he probably just completely worried the heck out of her, though celeste stepped forward and grumbled, "For the record, it wasn't his fault we left...it was actually mostly nora's...things got out of control".

"Hey!", nora said, entering herself, clutching a book in hand, "It worked in the end i guess...".

"What...worked?"

They all exchanged looks, "Sky i'm super duper sorry about everything, i didn't mean to worry the heck out of you, we just...look we went to eclipsa to maybe find some help for my nightmares and we couldn't find her and it was a big mess but...sky you won't believe this...we um...we...". He seemed to tug at his hair, in completely disbelief and with so many mixed emotions on his face.

"Uh...jude? Nothing bad happened...did it?".

He shuffled in his spot, "We uh...we saw luna.".

Angel and Sky both suddenly looked spooked, like judas had said something super unusual and unnerving.

"Luna?"

"Luna...we saw her...in the flesh."

Sky's face seemed to drop, she half expected luna to come into the room next but obviously based on their expressions luna was still out there somewhere and hadn't wanted to rejoin. A lot of questions were quick to arrive in sky's mind, was luna ok? Was she hurt? Did she make any progress at all in the slightest on her mission? Did she even really want to come back?

But judas didn't hold back from answering some of her lingering questions for long, clearly expecting her to have just as much as he did when he saw luna again. Sitting her down to talk, after apologizing for the sheets on her bed. Angel's attention being driven to the girls, nora nervously waving and celeste mostly looking just as annoyed as ever it seemed.

They didn't seem injured, so no fight broke out.

That was good at least?

"Um...you ran into...luna?", he felt awkward even asking considering he barely knew luna, but his curiosity had very much been peaked. Though nora seemed more open to explaining then celeste did, celeste seemed very upset at whatever happened in fact. "We um...we found her hiding in eclipsa's secret snack stash, taking food...she wasn't too happy to see us.".

"I uh...from what i know i didn't think she would...", he looked back to the demon boy sitting on the bed, "Is judas alright? Um he didn't look too good when uh...he walked in the room". Nora and him seemed to be on a very similar page, being concerned for judas and she tried to keep eye contact as she explained, "Well...seeing luna again, he was hurt and upset and luna was kinda nice to him but left and...i think he's in a mix of emotions...'.

"Well, it um...well i guess everyone seems to be these days...".

"Are...you ok? Angelus?".

Angel's ears flickered, eyes lingering to the two on the bed, "I um...maybe...i'm sorry I may be still dealing with a lot of...guilt. Well...more like everything i did is coming back and...I'm upset when I shouldn't be...". The princess looked on him sadly, "Well...i'm sure it doesn't feel good...i um...sometimes I think about what i was like...before...before all this and i get sad".

"How do you deal with it?"

"Well...I don't think it ever goes away...it comes back sometimes, but it helps to look around you and spot all the differences from before...i'm not home right now, and i'm not always in my room, and i get to have friends i see everyday now, and i'm not constantly studying fungus and leaves anymore...try something...like that. Every time you worry about your past, list stuff that's different from then.".

"Well, judas and sky like me...i call them by their first names now, i...don't dress the way i used to anymore, my dad isn't here, i'm...not alone anymore, i'm not...trying to make the queens help anymore, i'm not injured anymore, i'm not working under someone that never cared about me, i'm friends with the princess i was fighting,...the princess...likes spending time with me." There seemed to be a range of emotions on his face processing all of those things, sadness, joy, anger, but he was seeming to calm down a little bit.

Not all of those changes were positive, but they weren't all negative either, in fact most of them felt more positive then before.

What happened was bad, but that wasn't what was happening now either.

Things were fully different now.

"You...feel any better?".

He nodded, he wasn't "Cured" or anything like that but being reminded did seem to help him deal with it just a little, "It's in the past...I can't take any of it back...it's happened and it's behind me...and it hurts...but...I...I just need to focus on moving forward right? It hurts...but all I can do...is try my best to do better and not make those mistakes again...never again, I just...it's going to take time to really forgive myself...I think.".

This was info angel had already known, but saying it aloud, it seemed to help in his current state.

"Thank you...nora."

"No it's ok,we need to y'know...look out for each other...and not be like well...our ancestors...I...I feel bad for judging you because of everything and...I hope we can well...work together like they never did before, if that's ok with you.", something about that last bit really seemed to strike something in angel, even if he had already known nora wanted to help despite their families and their past. Honestly nora was too kinda to him despite how much he used to scare her and make her nervous in the past.

Having the other's backs right now only made him feel more assured.

"You think your parents will ever fully feel the same way?", her parents were helping of course, but that didn't exactly meant their feelings had changed much on the Arachman kingdom in itself. However nora didn't seem to knock him down entirely either, "I'm not sure, but well...maybe if they got to know you and your family...maybe things can change for both of our kingdoms fully.".

"You...never had to help me...you were scared of me...y'know?".

"I know, but i also knew it was right thing to do as well...", I never want to see anyone deal with losing someone they love like that, "it's a pain i want to prevent if i can...I took a chance...and...I'm glad i did it, I don't regret trying to talk to you and help". She looked at him right in the eyes with that one and he carefully and awkwardly took one of her hands to thank her with a princely kiss to her knuckles.

"Thanks...Princess Spiderbite.".

"Your welcome, Prince Arachford."

"Guys!?"

The two's attention were quickly drawn to sky and judas, sky still processing everything judas explained and tugged at her dark blue locks, "I can't believe it, she just handed you her little charm, and booked it? This is the same girl who was not afraid to intimidate us but she's scared of her own mom?! Ugh...like she didn't even give us any good information either because of course she wouldn't!".

"Well...she might've just helped me with my nightmares...that's a good thing", judas tried to relax sky but she just seemed more annoyed, "Sure sure, fine, that was nice but still.".

Judas couldn't even argue with her considering his emotions were just as mixed and muddled.

Though the raven haired girl then suddenly leaped off her bed, taking judas's arm, "Oh god, i almost forgot, landon! C'mon we need to get back to him right now!". She was so caught up on luna she completely forget when she was even here in the first place! Everyone followed her out, judas confused and worried as they were soon through a portal and back into the castle of the underworld.

Judas's grandfather was still waiting for them, but he was no longer on the phone either.

That wasn't a good sign.

"Grandpa?", oh right, sky hadn't really prepped judas properly on everything happening right now, so seeing his grandpa right here was bound to make him nervous. "Well, i got in contact with the diazes, and they headed over to the Bonderios, They're uh...yet to really contact me back but they haven't seen bernard for awhile so...that's not a good sign.".

"Bernard? What's going on...?", judas quickly turned back to sky before some realization dawned on his face, "Landon...he was acting weird the last few days, always on his phone and checking it...oh no," He quickly headed inside the room behind him, not even waiting for anyone else and the door closed behind him. Nora and Celeste both still processing whatever just happened.

Then celeste entered, slamming the door as well, she did it with such ferocity it was best she was probably given space for the time being.

Leaving sky with the king, nora and angel.

"Maybe you should give them a moment", Dave Lucitor leaned on the wall again, "Honestly i haven't seen landon want his big brother this much since he was very little, it might be better to give them some privacy.". He placed a hand on sky's shoulder, "Thanks for getting him over here, as soon as i can hopefully marco and thomas can talk with him too.".

"It's not a big deal...", she shrugged, "He wanted judas, i got him over here.".

"Well, it's a big deal for him, and for me...so thanks.".

"Your welcome sir...", she leaned against the wall next to him, "Um...thanks for uh...not getting us in trouble for uh...what happened earlier.". Angel and Nora took a seat nearby, talking among themselves as sky flipped and played with her wand against the wall. "We've been caught so many times at this point i'm just expecting something bad to happen when we do,,,,we're not much of a sneaky team it seems".

"Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of, your mom wasn't much better either, she, thomas, marco, janna, jackie, and a few others also worked together a few times, they were not much better then you at keeping stuff hidden. For the first few months of their relationship thomas didn't say a word about him and marco going out to me and wrath, but we weren't stupid, and we actually ended up walking in on them kissing , they're still embarrassed about that one.".

"Yeah but, this is a lot different then like...teen relationship junk.".

"Maybe so, but don't be ashamed, you're all still kids, you're not super geniuses that can handle everything without fail, you'll make mistakes even years later. You got caught because you're not perfect, but that doesn't always make it a bad thing either. I've had a few mistakes made in my own youth, stuff i regret sometimes...though those mistakes led me to my family and i don't ever regret that happening to me.".

"You think going through all this will lead to something...good?".

"I want to personally think we'll come out of this better, landon and judas getting a long a little more is a good start, and of course seeing you and judas and even young princess spiderbite over there getting along with the prince of the arachfords, now that's something special. I'm not going to be some jerk who outs you all on this, even at his most struggling i encouraged the best for judas...i'm not going to end all that for him".

"Your son might disapprove".

"Maybe, but we're all family. With what's happening, we all should stick together".

He seemed to intensely stare at his palm, before clutching it in a fist. "Tom has grown to not want my help much these days but it's because he wants to show how much of an adult he is now, he doesn't want to seem like a failure when he's felt like that for so long when he was younger. I don't mean to upset him, I want to encourage my family and protect them and help them...i don't want to see this family break apart".

"Oh yeah...judas told me about the stuff that happened with your own parents...i'm sorry about that.".

"It's...not a big deal, i felt much more at home with the Lucitors then back home anyway with those...horrible people, i don't regret it. I just don't want to lose my new family, or see them break apart or...see them hurt. Judas is going through a lot of pain, and i don't want him to feel hopeless or as if he'll be miserable and hated the rest of his life...i want him to work on new ways to help himself and succeed.".

"Not every miracle cure is gonna do something y'know.".

"I know, but there's not much else i can do other then get him help where i can and not put him down for his situation either. Judas gets beaten up enough about his problems, he should be encouraged for not giving up and taking risks, not beaten down for them. I'm more then impressed how much you've done together, your parents might hate that because they're worried for you but they were no different at the time.".

"Well i don't think you'd willingly put tom in danger...not complaining you're helping us but that's probably how my mom feels sometimes".

"Tom's an all powerful half demon who could crush me with his fingers if he wanted to, you can imagine the stress I was under taking care of him", the man went on, laughing, "That boy has been in danger before, when he was little, but he's proven to me if anything were to happen, he'd take care of it. You blasted a criminal and saved your friends while also organizing and running your own spy team, that's pretty impressive for your age.".

"Yeah, guess so...".

"Hey, it was impressive for your mom, so it's impressive for you as well, if anything, more impressive since you fooled and snuck into several kingdoms, now that was something your mom didn't do, pretty smart, and don't complain about having help, having help doesn't make it any less cool.".

He was kinda right about that, her mom did impressive things, but the stuff they both did was very different from each other.

"Well, anyways, thanks...means a lot.".

"Anytime, just take good care of judas, keep being his friend, you're lucky to have each other and he especially is lucky to have a supportive friend looking out for him throughout all this, I'd hate to have seen him go through this without you around, you don't just mean a lot to him, but to us". Sky felt warm hearing all that, at least there were some adults around here they could feel super comfortable trusting to help them and keep their secrets, even if not the ones they were expecting.

"You think we should head inside now?".

"A few more minutes...i don't want to barge in and i might get another call back soon.".

Fair point.

Nora and Angel were still talking among themselves nearby, and angel looked a lot better then he did before, a lot more comfortable despite the situation going on around them. At least things were a little ok for the time being, though then again this could easily be just another clam before the storm hit and there was no telling what was going on from inside landon's room for the time being.

Sky could only hope it was good.

-

The sight of landon's older brother entering the room seemed to wash some relief over him, quick to hug judas like mad. Judas himself was caught off guard, his brother rarely going in for hugs like this in general, especially with him. Landon just looked distressed and like he just needed some serious comfort and reassurance wherever he could for now.

Celeste entered the room quickly after, but didn't go in for the hug, letting the brothers have their moment.

"Landon...tell me...what happened?".

The boy was still sniffling, clutching onto his brother and sobbing still, "I-I texted him days ago, I wanted to...anyway he didn't respond back, then not to my calls, and i'm just so worried and-". When he said it aloud it did almost seem like an exaggeration to get this upset someone didn't text or call him back, but judas didn't say anything mocking or dismissive.

He simply let landon cry it out, whatever he needed to do to make himself feel better.

Judas would probably do the same in this position, he really couldn't judge or tease landon much about this.

Sky certainly knew how upset he got about nora and luna for days on end, and the poor boy still had some lingering conflict from luna, he knew landon's pain.

"Hey it's ok, we'll sort this whole mess out, we got this...always.", he patted landon's back, his eyes now looking to the others in the room, noticing mason and sunny there, watching him. They must've been curious why it took sky so long to bring him back when he had been sleeping in her room as far as they were aware. Though that didn't matter now, they looked happy to see him.

Judas just had a comforting presence despite everything, he was a gentle person when stuff like this happened. Besides, bernard was landon's only real best friend who wasn't related to him, he needed some family support from people he had some closeness too.

"I'm just...i'm sorry...this entire thing has been bothering me and i didn't want to keep bothering everyone but i just...broke down today, I just...I feel so alone and worried and I just...need someone", landon was so vulnerable right now and all he wanted was his brother and to have company, judas rubbed and patted his back, trying to calm him down futher.

"Hey, we're here...it's ok.".

'What if he's hurt? What if it's my fault?".

"Landon...".

"Bernard always texts me, he's always trying to call me every day, this is...i can't help it...but he'll probably think i'm a creep for wanting to make sure he's ok and panicking over this.", judas removed him from their hug and placed both his hands on his shoulders, looking him dead in his eyes, "Hey, it's ok to care about someone and worry, as long as it's not overboard, it's ok if you're worried since something seems off...".

"You sure?".

"Yeah, of course, he won't think you're a creep".

Landon's tears seemed to finally dry, though his makeup was still a mess all over.

"Yeah...I just...I just want to know if he's ok or not...", he wiped at his face, "I'm sorry i dragged all of you here and freaked all of you out...I didn't mean to...I just...I panicked and I just...I just want help". He hugged his body, looking among the crowd around him, "I know you're busy with all the other stuff happening but this would mean the world to me, he's my first real friend".

"And that's enough to want to help landon...it's ok".

Landon seemed to have felt a little better, though for a moment he seemed to blink, staring at judas's neck and then looking at him straight in the eyes. "Hang on, what's under your shirt?", landon must've felt the charm during their hug. Judas of course had little reason to really lie about it, revealing it to the group, if only for a split second, "Well, we ran into luna-".

"Luna?!", Sunny perked up, "When? Why? Where? How?". She jumped to her feet to confront judas, careful around landon who was already sensitive as is for the time being and probably didn't want to hear about luna of all people. She directed judas to the corner to talk privately, Celeste taking her time to approach landon instead now. Her frustration with him there but not outweighing her care for him either.

"You found luna!?", sunny's eyes were excited and full of wonder, she actually seemed rather excited to know about luna rather then mad or frustrated like the others. Hearing news on her must've been a delight in a mess of constant worry and problems, knowing luna was ok and everything was honestly a bright spot for the young demon girl. At least that meant nothing bad happened to her and she hadn't turned or something.

Which honestly mean a lot right now since they couldn't see her to confirm her fate.

"Well, we weren't trying to find luna", he didn't mean to sound so frustrated, he was just still rather emotional about that encounter right now. He looked to landon who was now sitting with celeste and mason and back to sunny, "We ran into her and she handed me her charm to help with my dreams, but she didn't want to rejoin us...she knows she's being spied on...and she knows jackie is after her.".

"Oh...OH...", sunny's excitement dropped, "She gave you her charm? That was for protection! What is she going to do without it!?".

"Well, I guess protect herself.".

"Well, she's strong...but...what if they're stronger?".

Judas took a look at his charm, he could honestly just hand this charm over to Lucy, and track luna down using her through her scent, if luna had no found a way to mask this from happening they could go get her right now. But would it even be the same to force luna back instead of her coming back willingly? She wouldn't approve and she would never forgive them for it either, much less fight her way out of it.

Was it worth it?

"Judas? Everything ok?"

"Sunny? I think we're just going to have to trust luna on this one, as much as I want her back...better she came back willingly then us make her come back...so...we're just going to have to worry about ourselves for now...if we need to find luna, well, i guess we have something to help us with that now.". He patted his shirt where the charm now hid, "One problems at a time.".

"Maybe you should go get some rest now judas?", she offered, "We'll watch landon...".

"No, after we figure out this, then I'll rest, my brother needs some help right now...".

"Judas...", she sounded stern, her cheeks puffed, "You're supposed to rest so you can better help everyone remember? You promised that...and you're dropping it like that? We'll find bernard if we have to, you stay with your brother, you need to take care of yourself...and by taking care of yourself you're helping landon. We'll handle all this, it might not even be so bad".

"But-".

"Judas...".

He was being scolded by a 14 year old girl, being told to rest and take care of his brother.

When did sunny become his mom and not his sister?

"Fine fine, i'm sorry...I'm not used to doing this...I'm just used to helping out, i'm not used to holding back even though I want to and should...I'm sorry sunny". Sunny placed a hand on his arm and her eras flickered, "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be mean...I just want everyone to be ok and happy and everyone's worried and upset and...please stay...".

"Well I guess sky can-".

"Maybe sky should stay too, to keep an eye on you...no offense...we'll take grandpa along instead. If only because if we're seen with him we're less likely to get in trouble in comparison to being caught with either you or sky.". She did have a point on that one, judas and sky were basically considered in hot water as is and would be the first to be approached if they were caught.

But if his grandfather took the lead...he could cover for him.

But how would they-

Then he paused, processing exactly why his grandfather was even here in the first place and why sunny would ask his grandfather to help her on a mission like this that could expose them, and honestly his reaction wasn't too surprised at all, raising a bushy eyebrow.

"Wait...does grandpa...?".

Sunny looked suddenly sheepish, "The plan to find your brother took an unexpected turn, we really screwed up, but he wants to help, he's not going to rat us out to your parents...like dad. Not right now anyways, look i get it if you're mad but we'll handle this thing, besides...landon really wants you around right now and you should stay with him..ok?".

She was giving him those eyes and he couldn't help it, sighing and nodding, "You're right, i'll stay with landon, I'm sure sky could use a break too...but if something happens...just tell me, and be careful. I don't want to see anything happen to any of you, and...just if you have to use your wands for any reason, then I trust you to handle yourself well out there.".

"Just rest...ok? And when you see us later, we'll have already taken care of the problem.", she was trying to flex, but despite how strong she was physically, she had very little muscle on her small body. But the gesture was enough to make judas laugh for a small bit, sunny was pretty touch and strong, he just hoped he was making a good choice in letting her go and him stay.

But then again, his grandpa was there, which did reassure him.

"Alright, i'm trusting you on this...".

"Then you're in good hands".

A knock could be heard at the door, Dave himself peeking through, "Alright, i'm heading over to bernard's home myself, anyone who wants to follow me, just come aboard and we'll head out...i'm going to check in on the diazes and maybe bernard might be there, hopefully we won't be long. ". They could spot sky, angel and nora peeking out from the hallway, and sunny was quick to volunteer, "I'll go! If that's ok?". And galexia stood up to join her, as per expected of her to do.

Nora seemed to be looking at judas, assuming he would volunteer to help, but he didn't, staying with his brother, who seemed to want to go but knew his grandfather would insist he don't in his current state. Sky also seemed to want to go, but one look from sunny seemed to be enough to indicate maybe she should stay here with judas, if only to talk to him more about what happened with luna.

Nora and Angel stayed with judas and sky, as expected.

Celeste stayed for landon.

Everyone else seemed to be staying, until the old king looked to mason, and ushered him to join. "Mason maybe you should come, someone should go considering your other grandparents should be there and it'd be strange if i walked up there with two kids that the diazes have never seen before, so i'd appreciate it if you helped me out. Then we can talk more on your um...robbery methods".

Mason's ears pressed against his face in embarrassment, getting up and following his grandpa out in shame.

With a reassuring nod to landon, the team left, closing the door behind them.

The room now mostly silent and awkward, all the teens stuck together, unsure of what to say and what to do for the time being while they waited. Though with the sound of stomachs growling, nora was the first to step forward, anxious with all the eyes on her but trying to keep herself together. "Me and Angel cnd go grab something for us all to eat if you want...maybe that will make everyone feel a little better, with food.".

The sound of landon's stomach was enough of an answer for nora.

Food sounded really good right now, they seemed to barely have time to eat these days.

She tapped angel on the shoulder, "C'mon, we'll be right back guys, just hang out...", angel awkwardly looked to sky and judas before he followed nora out of the room, the room now more quiet then before. Landon's eyes wandering to sky's wand, she was flipping and tossing it in her hands, trying to keep herself from getting bored. Though her face was enough to tell anyone she was thinking about so much and wasn't sure what to talk about.

Judas laying down against a wall, tired, falling asleep and hopefully this time he wouldn't be waking up to nightmares.

Though instead he might be waking up to ones about luna instead.

Landon was still on the bed.

Celeste was pacing around the room to herself, probably still thinking about luna and what she was up to.

And sky seemed like right now she wasn't interested in silence, trying to awkwardly break the tension with the only one in the room who seemed available to speak to.

Landon.

"Your granpda's cool...", sky mumbled to landon, who simply glanced at her. "Sure, i guess he is..."., he was still rather moody, but at least he wasn't crying and panicking like he had been earlier. Though he was watching sky's wand still with wandering eyes, "Y'know...that thing kinda sorta might not be something you should toss...i've seen it do real damage...".

"Maybe...yeah...i'm just fiddling, I dunno...i've tried to avoid using it mostly...so no more weird bugs happen or green magic or anything. But i'm worried, sometimes I'm holding it and it just seems to get green...just not enough to shoot anything, maybe i just haven't been as...mad or something while holding it as the times it was set off before...".

"Maybe...reminds me of us...we get mad, fire starts spewing out of our bodies...you can't always control it either, you don't even noticed it happening, it just happens and you have to deal with it so people don't get hurt and stuff...". He bit at his lip, his eyes wandering to the wall and away from sky, "Y'know, I get how you feel...with the whole magic thing, being moody, feeling like people will forget you in comparison to the rest of your family...wanting to prove yourself despite not being powerful...".

Sky's eyes widened, had she ever considered how much she and landon had in common before this point? It didn't feel like she really had.

"I'm sorry if i ever got suspicious of you throughout all this...I kinda thought maybe you were well...lying or something to judas." His feet kicked off the side of the bed and she had to admit, it would seem that way to an outsider considering the convenient evidence against her. "But a part of me also knew you'd never do anything malicious to my brother either...".

"It's fine...we've both kinda screwed up a lot with all this happening...".

"He means as much to you as bernard does to me, I got so obsessed figuring stuff out i didn't consider that as much as i should have. You're so weirdly loyal to each other...I might've made judas question your friendship for awhile there and I know that probably messed him up for some time...i'm sorry about that". Landon was apologizing to her?

Not that landon was cruel but, this was so...mature of him.

"It's fine...lucky for you judas and I are stubborn and loyal as hell to each other", she twiddled the wand in her hand some more and landon looked between it and judas, not to mention celeste. "Hey um...if bernard is in danger...you have a spying spell...right? I saw luna perform it and everything, maybe we could use it to find bernard...maybe...if that's ok".

"Spying leads to crying' is what my mom always tells me with that spell".

"Well...it's not to spy...it's for something important...please?".

Sky stared down at her wand, she did use that spell for the sake of finding angel after all, he might've been dead if she hadn't used it to find him. If this was related in any way maybe it was best to try it and save the trouble, there was just one problem though with the whole deal. Eclipsa helped her before to strengthen it, sky might not be strong enough to do it alone.

Unless...

Landon was looking at celeste and it didn't take long for them to put two and two together,

"I'm not sure she's willing to uh...yeah...".

That's when celeste's eyes shot to the two of them, "What are you two talking about over there? You keep whispering and staring at me and judas...what's wrong with the two of you?". They looked at each other before landon had to spit it out, "Hey I um...we were thinking about using the all seeing eye to find bernard and I was wondering if you would-?".

She seemed to clutch onto her wand bracelet a little more tightly, "Oh no, you remember when we tried doing that to find that masked being right? That thing could've broken through...I'm already annoyed and freaked out when that stupid pony almost grabbed me back in the woods awhile back. We could do it and send her right back to us...to your brother...i'm not getting involved no way".

She motioned to judas.

That's when landon stood up, a determined look in his eyes and celeste seemed more then surprised as a tension built within the room. What landon said next came a sa surprised, and even sky couldn't believe his next request as the words left his lips.

"Fine...then...let me borrow your wand...I'll try and do the spell myself, and if I find out she had something to do with this, she's going to regret it real fast".

-

God earth, how often had sunny even stepped foot on earth? She couldn't remember the last time she did. Her parents weren't from earth so she only really went whenever they did or she was seeing friends. Seeing it now again felt so strange, she felt she hadn't been here in so long, so much of the action on mewni and far away from the simple life earth provided.

Well, mostly simple.

Honestly most people would worry about her and mason walking around with wings and tails and horns and multiple eyes and all that, but from her experience on earth, either the humans didn't care, or they just brushed it off as something else. In fact she was probably safer here then dealing with a lot of mewmans on mewni, which was saying something.

If marco , jackie, and janna were anything to go be, humans could be scary.

They had taken the carriage this time, sky still had dave's scissors and he was willing to let her have them for a bit longer just in case anything happened and judas was unavailable. Besides, the carriage was the best way to signal their arrival, though the man did seem to wish his wife could've come. But time was of the essence and she might not keep this secret for as long as he could.

She had plenty of tells, and tom would very much question lava raining down on the castle and put two and two together she knew something.

Another time, when they could.

He headed right over to bernard's home, knocking on the door to the house with mason and the girls behind him. The door was opened quickly and that's when what he assumed to be bernard's mother stepped out. Landon had seen her before, and so had tom and marco and the diazes and well...actually everyone in the family expect for him and wrath.

Bernard was a little self conscious about being adopted for reasons like this, he had one too many neighbors or kids laugh at him for being adopted and not living with his birth parents. Landon only mentioned it a few times at some dinners if only because marco had asked a few times about how his adoption had went, which was fair since marco wanted to adopt originally before the boys were made.

But other then that the only time the two were mentioned was when landon talked about how health conscious they were and how often they moved from place to place. So dave himself was going in blind and hoping they would be rather helpful and not make things any weirder then they already were. Hopefully with the diazes there he wouldn't come off strange.

But this was coming from a man who wore skulls and a cape, so maybe not.

"Hello m'am I um...I-"., he was trying to be polite but the woman seemed maybe a little intimidated to see him, as expected considering who she was speaking to.

"DAVE!?", the sight of Rafeal diaz, in all his happy and hairy glory, actually seemed to scare the man as he walked into frame.

The former king couldn't lie, he was pretty happy to see him. He spent so much timje on mewni he didn't really get to see his child-in law's family much, or viceversa, he maybe just wished it had been under better circumtances.

He was almost instantly crushed by a hug from the man, and angie was quick to come into frame, marco's mother and another delightfully happy figure. Followed by what he assumed to be bernard's father. The kids behind them had to not draw too much attention to themselves, after all, they didn't want anyone getting suspect or getting involved where they shouldn't.

But considering the circumstances, they probably felt a little awkward.

Bernard's dad was tall and lanky with curly hair, a pointed nose and dark eyes, and the skin color of tea, and his mother was short and squat and dark eyes and short dark hair with fair skin. The two seemed to be in an utter mix of emotions by the looks of it, in contrast to the two happy elders hanging out with them. What they could tell was that they knew this man and that was enough for them.

Dave pushed himself out of the hug, looking to Rafael nicely, but clearly he didn't have time to goof around right now when his grandson was flipping out in the underworld.

"It's good to see you but um...sorry for the sudden arrival but you weren't answering your phones...I felt I had to come in person myself and well...make sure you didn't uh...well...get yourselves into trouble.", Dave ushered in the kids behind him and the Diazes squeed at the sight of mason, seeing their grandkids was extremely exciting for them.

And it meant they might be here awhile.

"I um...deeply sorry, who are you?", Ms Bonderio seemed sweet but a little startled, the crew who arrived to her door didn't exactly scream "normal". The former king quickly tried to recover the already odd situation before the couple kicked them out, "I'm sorry, me and the diaz's are related by marriage, our kids are married, sorry to interrupt like this...hope you don't mind".

"Well...come in i suppose...", and the group was let inside the couple's home despite how much they clearly seemed a little off about it, it was full of plants and blue and white walls, a bowl of fruit in the nearby kitchen and overall it looked like the most cheery house they had ever been inside. Bernard's adoption certificate hung up over the fireplace and pictures of the family down the hallway, through the glass doors in the back they could spot a large garden. The place looked so bright and cheerful, extremely funny in comparison to the multiple piercing, dyed hair teenager landon hung out with who seemed out of place in a home like this.

"Care for some freeze dried banana chips?".

Bernard's dad handed him a bowl of some obvious healthy snacks, though his smile seemed rather fake, and dave turned it down, though the kids took a few for themselves to not seem rude.

Honestly the older man didn't even know how to approach the subject of bernard without making it super awkward. He himself dealt with tom almost being kidnapped several times and there was never a right way to ask someone about their child when they seemed absent and lost. Would he be better off ripping the bandage or going slowly with these people?

But lucky for him, he didn't need to think much further into it, Mason quickly took his chance before it was lost, his innocent expression was honestly probably way better then coming from an older man who barely knew their son.

"Where's bernard?", mason said, curiously.

The man almost dropped the bowl he was holding, and the diazes went quiet, clearly they had completely forgotten about bernard in general, wanting to be here to hang with their neighbors.

And dave quickly tried to recover before things got worse, "Oh um sorry, mason is my grandson, his brother landon is friends with your son bernard...I think he was expecting to see him here.". The couple exchanged more uncomfortable looks between them but didn't say a single word. Something felt really off, they were almost making it out like they didn't want to even talk about their child.

And so were the diazes.

This wasn't a good sign.

"Oh um...i'll put these away...", Bernard's dad headed back into the kitchen with the treats, and everyone resumed their awkward silence with each other. Only increasing everyone's worry, after all the king himself had dealt with his fair share of situations like this and dodging the question was a tell tale sign something was wrong and maybe the reason why was watching.

He suddenly was a lot more on alert.

"I um...my name's Lydia, this is Samuel...", Lydia, ushered everyone to take a seat on the couches within the living room. "We weren't expecting so much company today, please make yourselves at home and um...if you need anything just let us know.". The kids and the man were ushered to take a seat on the sofa but all of them did not seem comfortable at all.

Not even galexia.

Sunny seemed as high alert as dave was, clearly also sensing something was terribly off about this situation.

These parents being off about their son? Their obvious tension? It left a rather uneasy feeling for all of them, so much so dave felt tempted to check the place for any kind of bugs, to see if anyone was listening in. But there was no way to do that without that looking suspicious, and even so they may be jumping to conclusions. They needed more evidence on what was happening.

And Sunny nodded to him, quickly asking to use the bathroom ad being directed upstairs awkwardly by Samuel, who was avoiding eye contact as angie tried to strike up a conversation with him. She didn't know bernard freakishly well, but this didn't seem normal for his parents, and if they weren't acting right there had to be a reason for it.

She took advantage of the upstairs to check inside the rooms, she was no detective, as that honor went to one of her friends back home, but she learned enough that it was time for some investigation herself. The hallway was super neat, balls walls and more white doors, she couldn't be here long or they may get suspicious of her so she had to make it quick with these rooms, or just hope for the others to give her time.

So far mostly normal.

One was the parents room, a closet, the bathroom of course.

And naturally bernard's room, which happened to be the most obvious from the outside judging by the band posters and magician stickers on the outside of the door. Bernard's room was the opposite of the light blue and white home, as sunny peeked inside she spotted a room with dark blue walls, full of posters of celebrities and music. His room was decently messy in comparison to the clean home.

Dark sheets, magic tricks all over his shelves, and just a lot of sweaters.

Like a LOT of sweaters.

But there was no teenage boy inside, and that was the most important part, bernard clearly wasn't home.

Looking to make sure no one else was around, sunny summoned her wand, she honestly missed getting to use this thing. She had to be careful, but hopefully she'd be just fine, her ears twitching for any sounds, she whispered a spell under her breath. Suddenly a few stuffed animals rose from the floor, though they seemed more creepy then your average stuffed animal, stuffing sticking out and missing pieces from each.

She hadn't used this spell in so long, ah she missed magic.

"Silent and unseen...", she whispered, and the teddies and her both vanished from eye and not a peep was made from any of them

But the toys knew why they were summoned.

They quickly started spreading out around the house to find anything strange, bugs, evidence, anything they might need, some even went downstairs to check there and sunny just hoped they didn't run into anyone down there. She was like a little commander, and her team of soldiers were helping her scope everything out carefully so they could plan a new strategy.

Sunny was a very alert and cautious person, she learned that a lot back home.

This was right up her ally.

Just as long as everyone stayed downstairs and distracted.

And indeed they were, as galexia had started sketching rapidly in her seat, her loud scribbling making quite the noise and Lydia Bonderio herself clearly worried about the girl marking their nice couch. Mason's wings on the other hand, were in danger of hitting anything in the house and smashing it to the floor, which was the main focus of Samuel Bonderio.

He was watching them like a hawk.

Honestly it was a wonder why they didn't just ask them to leave if they were so uncomfortable with all of them being here, even the Diazes seemed to be making them uneasy for the time being as they tried to cheer them up with light conversation. Mason saw his grandfather stare down the couple and all things considered, his grandpa did go easy on fae for being younger.

Now he looked like he seemed almost rather scary and intimidating.

He wasn't going to assume the worst about the parents, but he wasn't holding back on them either.

He became the king of the underworld for a reason after all.

You don't earn a role like that without making yourself a top dog and someone to fear among many.

With how quickly he and sunny got on the same page, the fact they were related became a lot more easy to accept. Even with knowing it was real it was hard to fully process that fact, it was moments like this that helped make that sink in. Mason was wondering what he should do to help while sunny was off doing what she wanted, left thinking about his strengths.

His plants, sure, but...what else?

He looked over to bernard's mother, upon closer inspection, he noticed her gloves and was quick to point out something that got him excited. "You garden?! I love to garden too! Do you grow anything neat?". She was a bit startled and clearly set off guard, but with angie nearby to follow them getting excited she pulled the boy aside to show him her garden. "Um well...alright then...if you want to see...I suppose we can show you.".

Angie stepped in, an arm around her grandson, "Oh yes! Mason here is an amazing gardener, he knows everything and anything about plants at his young age! He has his own garden and everything! I think he'd love to go out and see your garden, maybe you both can give each other tips and everything!". Mason felt himself blush, sheepish about her compliments towards him.

But Mrs Lydia Bonderio didn't seem to mind much.

She honestly looked just happy to have any excuse to get out of the room for the time being, mason acknowledging his grandfather as he left to the backyard with his grandmother and Mrs Lydia. Grandma angie seemed super happy to see her grandson again, she was going off about how talented he was with plants to the poor other woman who honestly looked more then relieved to be out of her own home.

Their garden out back was full of vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers, cauliflowers, it was clear they grew a heck ton of their own food whenever possible just from looking at it.

Mason was used to mewni's plants, so to him, this was more wondrous then it'd have been to most humans.

But he didn't even get much time to enjoy it when the woman pulled he and his grandmother to the side, "I know i sounded strange back there, but thank you so much for giving me a reason to go outside, I think this is the only place they might not be able to hear us...". Her tone was more panicked, her eyes wandering around the backyard as if expecting someone to jump out at them and attack.

Her change seemed to take mason completely off guard, the boy a little startled as her expression became more panicked and anxious and she didn't wait at all to start explaining as much as possible. "You have to help us...you clearly have to have some link to this...please we need help and we're afraid to go anywhere and say anything and we tried so hard to stop the diazes from even mentioning anything all day.".

That explains why his grandparents were so weird about it, they must've been so confused.

"I uh...w-what...what's happening?", the small demon was still startled

"Your brother landon...someone came asking about him, well they originally came to see the diazes but they weren't home so they went to our house and they insisted on coming in and they took our boy...they snatched him...they told us if we said anything they'd come for us next and...please tell me you can find him...we don't know where he is and-".

Angie Diaz, who had no idea about the stuff going on back home, was both confused and overwhelmed, but mason, who did know about all this was also quite overwhelmed, "What...why did they-?".

"A wand...something about a wand...they want a wand...".

"A wand?!".

"I don't know where bernard is and we've been terrified to do anything since it happened, just...he's being held for random, I don't know why they took bernard or chose him but apparently it's related to you people and...", she was crying, and mason wanted to run back and tell his grandfather everything. But they might be seen or watched from inside, he'd had to get his grandpa out here to tell him.

"Can you find him-".

"I think so...", mason couldn't make too many promises for now, bernard was missing for a few days, who really knew where he was at this point. But he probably wasn't dead considering the ransom wouldn't mean much if he was. The fact the masked one knew about bernard however...now THAT was strange, maybe she knew him from the sleepover...but where he lived?

Did someone tell her?

Did she read someone's mind?

"i... better get grandpa...uh...just invite him out here and-".

"No no, you're less suspicious for me to tell because you're young but if i bring him out here...I...you need to tell him after you leave, we'll be fine just...bring bernard home.".

"No need".

The woman turned to spot sunny, accompanied but her grandpa, galeixa, mr diaz, and Bernard's father, her arms crossed and way too pleased with herself, "Your home is officially de-bugged! So...tell us, from the beginning".

-

"I beg your pardon?".

"Well, you don't want to do it, so...let me try...i've seen luna do it so...".

He held out his hand and celeste looked at him like he was crazy, tempted to wake judas up and stop this whole thing before landon could do another stupid stupid thing once again. But this time landon wasn't forcing her or had interest in just taking it off her, he was asking permission to help look for his friend, no strings attached. "Look, I get it, you're worried and stuff...but we have to take that risk...bernard could be...".

"It could be a trap...".

"I know...that's why i'm asking to use it, not you, if I screw up i'll take the blame for it and deal with the consequences, you won't...this is something for me, you don't have to get involved.".

Sky wasn't sure what exactly to say on her end, they both kinda had a fair argument, they didn't wanna risk putting themselves sin more danger but at the same time they saved angel's life practically through this spell, and who knows if they'd find bernard without it. The sooner they better right? Though landon was no expert on using that kinda magic and who knew if he could even do a spell like this.

Then again, sky was no expert either, and she doubted celeste was, if celeste wasn't comfortable using her wand for that, then giving it to someone temporarily who was wasn't a terrible idea.

"Look, celeste, i'll never go off and do anything stupid ever again, but please...let me try to save him...I won't break your wand or anything.".

"Dude, it's my wand...I shouldn't give it up to anyone, if i go home and have lost this thing i'll be in serious trouble...", but the look on his face seemed to hit a soft spot with her, clutching the wand in her hand as she summoned the rainmaker wand. "Alright, look, if you want it for a few seconds...i guess that can't hurt, but for the record, if something goes wrong you hand it right back to me...got it?".

"Yeah, of course..."

The wand being presented to landon seemed to make him anxious, this was different then the magic he tried to do, it was different and dangerous in it's own right. It was magic that was ancient and powerful and only few could really master, he never held a royal wand before, in fact he was felt worried it'd blown him up the second he touched it.

Which, wasn't unrealistic considering what it did when sky held it.

Sky was nervous, he was nervous, and celeste was nervous as she reached out for it, grasping it in his hand.

What came next did surprise him.

Landon had probably expected nothing much to happen and he'd just use the wand as normal, but instead he was met with a rather nasty surprise.

A burst of light came from the wand, landon's arm being shot up and the boy being spun around before falling to the ground. He was in completely shock the whole time, and looked utterly terrified.

Judas woke up finally from the action, the light scaring him half to death as everyone backed up away from the pink demon boy.

In his hand was no longer celeste's red rainmaker wand, instead replaced by a golden violin and bow.

They stunning, and beautiful, unlike any wand any if them had ever seen.

And on landon's face, were markings, white glowing crosses, landon reaching to touch his face in utter disbelief and confusion.

"Landon?", judas said, gawking at his brother in surprise.

The other demon turned to his bewildered brother in shock.

"Judas...what's happening to me!?".

[moonlitgleek]

I really enjoyed your post on the Sansa/Daenerys feud. Something I hated about the Starks in Season 8 is Sansa/Arya's kneejerk dislike of Daenerys (at least, before episode 5). They actually had Sansa say "She's not one of us!" And that recalls nothing so much as Cersei telling Joffrey "Anyone who isn't us is the enemy." When Season 8 validates Cersei and repudiates Ned Stark, things gone done got crazy.

It was actually Arya that said that but it’s not like the scene didn’t frame this as a shared sentiment among the Starks. That was basically “we don’t like your girlfriend who we don’t know and don’t care to get to know. She is not one of us and that makes our hostility and pettiness totally justified”. My god, do I hate that scene.

It pains me that they did this to Sansa and Arya. It infuriates me that their supposed victorious ending not only rewarded and validated a rather prejudiced attitude but also leaned heavily into making their abusers define who they are. To be clear, this is not because I expect them to be “good victims” who can only rise above their trauma or behave in the most moral of ways, neither am I saying that experiencing a change due to a trauma is necessarily a bad thing, but the show fundemntally changed who Sansa and Arya are to become some distorted version of their abusers. Sansa was turned into a cross between Cersei and Littlefinger, a person willing to betray and manipulate even her own brother to her advantage and who honest to god smirked over the death of an innocent woman and used it to goad Jaime. Arya became someone whose first instinct is to kill and who absorbed an exclusionary xenophobic view that came out of nowhere. I’ve mostly put the stupidity of last season’s conflict between Sansa and Arya out of my mind because it was so illogical and forced, but the writers genuinely tried to affirm that this is who these two women became (and pls don’t @ me about how they were totally plotting together from the start to bring down Littlefinger. No, they were not and the show’s attempt to make it look like that post-fact was painfully transparent)

The show changed the core of who the Starks are in service to the plot then inexplicably framed this change as a good thing we should side with, which hits at the heart of this series. I am admittedly very attached to the book!Starks but this goes beyond my preference for my favorites to be about changing the very meaning of ASOIAF. This series was never about rejecting ideals or branding those who believe in them idiots. It was never about validating the worldview of the Cerseis and Tywins and Petyrs of the world. It’s about the struggle to hold onto your idealism in a cold and corrupt world that tarnishes it and hollows it out, a world that tries to convince you that idealism is a chain that brings you down and that ruthless pragmatism is intelligence. It’s about our heroes looking into an abyss that tries to convince them that letting the cold in is the smart thing to do, fighting against a world that tries to strip them of their beliefs and saying “no, you move”. The theme of this series lies in characters like the Starks, Davos and Brienne trying to do the right thing even when it looks hopeless. Especially when it looks hopeless. It lies in “he could have tried, he could have died”, in “is there no true knights among you?”, in “he was no true knight”, in “the North remembers”. The message is that honor lives on and trying to do the right thing always matters even if you lose your life. And so yes, it absolutely does go back to Ned Stark, not only as the person whose teachings and ideals the Starks espouse but as the first casualty of the show’s misunderstanding of the main thesis of ASOIAF.

Game of Thrones took the surface victory of nihilistic players and made it its core message. It genuinely embraced Cersei’s sentiment that you either win or die in the game of thrones, and affirmed the worldview that honor is futile and stupid and gets you killed. Oh and also that you cannot escape your past, your trauma or your paternity. Screw idealism and trying to do the right thing. That’s pointless and hopeless. Except that it is not pointless in the books, it never was. Ned died but his legacy, his benevolent ruling ideology, and his honor won by inspiring not only his children to hold onto their ideals but the entire North to rise up in his name. Ned stands as clear proof that Cersei and the entire Lannister ideology is wrong. ADWD openly goes to bat for Ned’s legacy and what he stood for. It proves that the argument that honor is stupid and manipulative pragmatism is better is bullshit.

But the show did the exact opposite and actually went to great lengths to frame honor as this hollow thing that only forestalls and impedes. It scoffed at idealism and made it this naive thing that brings the characters down, which is exactly how Littlefinger described it to Ned in the first book. The show made the North abandon the Starks despite setting up the Northern plot from the books and having Sansa deliver an impassioned speech about loyalty, only to prove her painfully wrong. Jon failed when he bargained on how Ramsay’s apathetic view of his men’s lives would make them abandon him, even when these men watched Ramsay coldly fire at his own forces, but Sansa succeeded when she withheld the information about the Knights of the Vale. It was only natural for Sansa to then brand Ned and Robb as naive men who made stupid mistakes. Why wouldn’t she when the show turned Robb’s story into a simplistic tale of a guy who was led astray by love and who was blamed for the horrendous treachery of the Freys and Boltons, when Ned’s honor was scoffed at and undercut by the show itself at every turn? See also that lovely detour in the Dragon pit scene last season where Jon’s refusal to lie to Cersei was designed to have everyone roll their eyes at the stupid idiot who put his precious honor above a needed cease fire.

It sure fits the story then to have Jon bending the knee to Dany stripped from its foundational motive of her earning his loyalty by answering the call for help to become about his feelings for her. It fits to have Sansa try and push Jon’s claim without caring about his wants or the precarious position this puts him in or even his emotional state because she knows he loves Dany. It fits to have a stunning mix of manipulation, xenophobia, hostility and ungratefulness framed as not only smart but something to be validated. It fits to have the Starks’ triumph be so soured and so meaningless in its willingness to sacrifice people for their advantage. By all means do have them pursue a plan that would necessitate a conflict between Jon and Dany all for Northern independence, or hint that Bran might have known what was going to happen and kept silent.

And when you pair that with them trying to evoke sympathy for Cersei but make Dany into a fascist (don’t think I missed the Nuremberg callbacks) and demonize her visually, with them validating Cersei’s racism by focusing on the Unsullied and the Dothraki brutalizing the King’s Landing population, just what message are they trying to send. Whose worldview are they trying to validate and why?

I missed the Starks this season, especially the girls. I missed the Arya who makes friends with everyone despite rigid Westerosi attitudes towards class and race, who is extremely sensitive to injustice and who would be the first to cheer a Breaker of Chains. I missed the Sansa whose compassion extended to even enemies and whose entire conception of rulership was about protecting people. I missed the Bran who is so connected to Winterfell that he compares its survival and its perseverance to his own. I missed the kids who held onto their compassion, their loyalty and their ideals in the face of a corrupt world trying to convince them such sentiments are futile. I missed the Starks.

[pirate-queen-randomness]

Prompt List of  Solangelo One Shots:

This list of 32 prompts can be used by anyone wanting to create work on A03, send me a link if you are going to use it so I can see them as well if you want!

- Where one person is famous and sets up a dating account with their real picture and the other sees it and is like, oh dude you are not fooling anyone with that picture and when they actually meet the other is pissed because DUDE YOU’RE THAT FAMOUS PERSON and the other is like, yeah, I mean, I thought you knew…

- I’m egging a random person’s house to relieve stress and you join me and as it is your ex’s and now they are chasing us as well as the police and now we’re both in jail waiting to be bailed so um you want to talk about it?

- Supernatural High School AU Vampire!Nico/Witch!Will. We meet because I need a vile of vampire venom for a potion and my demon best friend said you’re the person to talk to.

- We’re both in the brass section of the marching band and you never stop making ‘horny’ puns.

- You think I always forget pencils in this class, but I just want to talk to you and now have a little over 200 pencils at home.

- I’m a single parent bringing my kid to school and you run the overpriced ice cream cart and keep guilt tripping me into buying your expensive shit for my kid but I swear I didn’t see you walking beside us and I just wanted to make my daughter happy by driving through the biggest puddle in the road later on.

- Solangelo as thieves who accidentally try to rob a bank at the same time and team up. Nico complimenting how sexy Will looks while weaving their way through an intricate network of deadly lasers. Nico then as soon as Will makes it across, turns off the lasers and just walks through.

- I was walking by the roller coasters and SOMEONE’S SHOE FLEW OFF AND HIT ME IN THE HEAD.

- We are panicked yelling in unison because of lost baggage in between connecting flights and now we’re stuck-in-an-airport-because-the-flights-were-SO-VERY-delayed-and-it’s-like-two-am. When the plane does come; we’re sitting next to each other on this plane and I was eating gummies, but I left all the red ones cause they’re absolute shit and now you’re asking if you can have them.

- It’s the middle of the night and I’m walking home alone in the dark and there’s this guy following me and he’s starting to gain on me and I found this phone booth with a lock on the door and I tried to call my best friend, but my hands were shaking so badly I accidentally dialled the wrong number and I don’t even know you but help me.

- I was super pissed, so I went to the gym even though it’s late at night, so I was the only one there and I was at the punching bag listening to music and you surprised me by tapping me on the shoulder, holy shit I didn’t mean to punch you, I’m so sorry, but seriously why the hell would you surprise SOMEONE WHO IS ANGRY AND PUNCHING THINGS. It turns out you always come to this gym to work out because holy god you can’t stop watching me training because it’s so hot.

- The mailman constantly mixes up your home address and mine together and keeps on sending me your letters and packages and I’m sorry I look through them, but I read some letters from your ex and oh my god do you want me to go with you to police or something?

- What do you mean I didn’t try to pick-pocket you your butt is just amazing?

- We’re neighbours who don’t really talk but your cat might have gotten my cat pregnant, so we must raise this little kitty family together.

- I decided to take a shortcut home that involves crawling through a tight hole in a fence and I end up getting stuck and you just happen to past by and after poking fun at me for a million years you finally decide to try and help me.

- It’s 2am and I was just trying to get home, but I left my sunroof open all day and now there’s a squirrel in my car and it scared me and I drove into a pole – would you please stop laughing you’re a cop. you’re supposed to be helping.

- I went out to throw the garbage in the most unflattering clothes and there was a flash from a camera and for a good five minutes I was trying to fight you because I thought you were going to make fun of me/perving, but it turns out you found a pretty butterfly near where I was.

- I’m in the library researching for this giant assignment that’s 90% of my grade I haven’t slept or gotten anything besides coffee in two days I am going to explode in rage if you don’t shut the fuck up this SECOND. Turns out you and your friends have been playing the penis game in the library for the last five minutes and none of you have gotten above a quiet yell and I’m really just trying to study over here so I’m going to put an end to this by winning the game

- You’re so attractive but every time you open your mouth I want to strangle you how did you end up in my apartment exactly how many tequila shots did I have last night. Also, why are you sitting in my living room with a goat in a poncho, and how did you get the goat in here since I live on the 12th floor?

- Its 4 am and I’m drunk as fuck in a McDonalds and you have been watching my trying to eat this burger for 30 minutes; want to help me?

- Were at a club and although you’re a shitty dancer your also really fucking adorable so I decide to say hi and you end up accidentally hitting me in the face and fucking hell I think you broke my nose.

- A toddler broke your nose and I may or may not have snapped my thumb during a very intense game of Mario Kart and now we’re both sitting next to each other in the hospital waiting room watching my best friend try to fight your best friend for the next appointment.

- I’m scared of the dentist, so I brought my best friend along for support, but they’ve been flirting with the dentist for the past fifteen minutes and now I’m third wheeling at my own dentist appointment and hallucinating on the drugs.

- Army man & nurse/therapist I’m supposed to see but man fuck off. shit you’re cute

- It’s exam week and I run a coffee shop near the campus and you walked right into my glass door I’m laughing so hard oh my god. You start coming in regular and a friend says the only reason the cafe is popular now is because people enjoy eating while watching our relentless flirting with each other, but I swear to God we’re not flirting because you never talk much, but now these two assholes are harassing me and you step in and defend me. I really like you and I thought you liked me back until you walked in here with a date later on and whoops would you look at that I keep spilling stuff on them.

- Black Friday/black coffee: you’re sitting in front of the only plug in this entire coffee shop and not using it. I don’t care how attractive you are, I’m sitting at your table because I need that plug au.

- I work at a public market and some viral advertising campaign is filming videos across from my stall. And therefore, blocking my stall. Listen, buddy, I know you’re just doing your job, but this is getting ridiculous- oh shit you’re cute and its turns out you actually only work in the new stall next to mine and neither of us can get any work done because of the film crew so…hey?

- We both work at the same company and I kind of had a crush on you until I found out that you were the thieving asshole that kept stealing my lunch from the office refrigerator so now we’re in a meeting where there’s a semi-formal dress code and I’m slaying in my outfit, but you showed up in jeans and a sweatshirt and I’m really trying not to go over and get on to you for it and your actions. So, I just vent a little to my friend and you heard us I’m so sorry I didn’t want to be rude or anything- but seriously dude? / I forgot about the dress code at this meeting and can tell you’re bothered by it and now I’m torn between feeling bad about my clothes and being amused at your indignant reaction and I’m the sarcastic techie who got dragged into running your stupid presentation before suddenly we’ve been taken hostage Die Hard style.

- We take the same elevator every day and due to a misunderstanding, I assumed you didn’t speak English and I’ve been talking to my friend about how hot you are for three weeks and apparently my friend has known from the start, but you agreed not to tell me because you both think it’s hilarious what the fuck.

- Guest/Talk show host who flirt, do you do this with everyone? it’s been a week and oh my god, our fans are shipping us

- I understand that you’re my bodyguard but that was a freaking FRISBEE not a nuclear bomb Jesus Christ - Hey why are you still on top of me and why have I not noticed how beautiful you are?

- We somehow got stuck overnight in an ikea and I just want to go to sleep in one of the display beds but you’re slowly convincing me that it’d be fun to see how much shit we can get into before the morning staff come to open up the store.

[dicecast]

Blast from the Past: Dragon Age II, Why the Mage Templar Conflict Fails

So Dragon Age II is the best game in the series (I will fight you) and has the best writing in the entire narrative thus far...but dear god the Mage Templar Conflict is handled terrible.  This is also true of inquisition, but it is the main focus of II and I think that is a major reason why people have so many problems with DA:II, because for all of its greatness, so much of the narrative is based on this aspect which just...doesn’t work. 

So why is that?  I mean the Mage/Templar dynamic was one of the few things in DA;O which is better than DA:II, and there are some really powerful moments involving the conflict in DA:II so why does the overall effort just fall flat?  Wait, I know the answer because I am awesome

Basically there were 5 different ways you could have handled this conflict and any one of those could have been a workable story in their own right.  But Bioware in their infinite wisdom tried to do all of them and...it was a mess.  So I am going to break down the various narratives that could have been and how that should have been told, and why DA:II just doesn’t work 

1) A conflict between two equal forces

So the obvious narrative (and the most typical) is present this as a conflict between two roughly equal powers each with valid points, each side has bad elements and each side has some good elements, a very Grey vs. Grey type deal.   The player is encouraged to choose which group they/their character personally feels is more valid, but the game is making it clear that the other side is understandable.  There is no true good or evil option in terms of which faction you choose.   The themes would likely be something like “oh no, look how extremism tears people apart, isn’t it terrible when people won’t listen to the other side” or the same golden mean pablum RPGs do with these sort of narrative 

  Why this doesn’t work

Well right away, there is the problem where both sides aren’t in fact equal in terms of power. Like at all.  The Templar are organized, have the support of the entire society including the church, most of the populace hates mages, and the mages literally are trapped inside a prison tower.  The mages are not organized, they don’t have any resources outside their own magic, and of course the Templars can basically mistreat them with impunity (which literally contradicts lore from the first game I might add). You really can’t view this as “Both sides have a point” when the Templars under Maredith are regularly raping, tranquilizing, and just generally abusing the mages. 

    And what really just kills this “both sides have a point” style conflict is the final choice because...the mages didn’t blow up the CHantry.  Anders did it, who is a renegade who explicitly says he is independent.  We literally see the head mage both trying to appeal to the Grand Cleric right before and go “WTF man” right after, hawk knows full well that the mages did not do this.  So Meredith’s choice to massacre all of the mages (including children) is just loony, like we know full well that she is killing innocent people for a crime they didn’t commit.  Even when I play a pro templar hawk I can never really bring myself to side with Meredith because not only is she an obviously crazy evil lunatic with no redeeming qualities, but I can’t imagine any way my character would murder thousands of innocent people for no reason without seeming out of character.  I couldn’t even imagine Fenris doing that.  

   This conflict just can’t be “Both sides have a point” because Meredith is just too fucking psychotic for anybody to really side with her.  Unlike Ser Gregor from the first game, Meredith constantly breaks the rules of the chantry itself because she is a paranoid sadist.  She uses the rite of tranquility for things that we know in universe the templars shouldn’t use it for, like people speaking out.  There is rampant sexual abuse, torture, and...look my point is that the Templars are way too evil and cruel for this to be an equal conflict.

Like if this was Tevinter vs. the Templars, that would be one thing, but this isn’t an equal conflict, when one side is literally locked in their prison, 

If Dragon Age wanted this to be a moral situation where neither side was necessarily right or wrong, than they needed to make the conflict more nuanced, the templars should be more like they were in one, and the mages should have actually been doing evil shit, rather than a rogue terrorist.  And the final conflict shouldn’t have been “massacre everybody for crime they didn’t commit.”

2) Mages are Right, but lets Understand the Templars

DA:II is obviously trying to tell a story about bigotry and oppression, and at parts sets out to do so in a mature and serious way, and try to explain why the Templars behave as they do.  After all, just because a work disagrees with a character doesn’t mean it can’t depict them in a human and understandable way.  Dragon Age II could have been trying to explain exactly wy pepole believe things that the game views as wrong, to say “ok yeah, the Templars are wrong, but lets understand their perspective, after all they aren’t cartoonish monsters but people”.  And parts of the game seem to do that, for example Fenris is like an anti mage bigot (Magist ?) in a really unacceptable way but he is very understandable. He came from a really bad background and is lashing out his own feelings against the vague group that hurt him, and he is utterly terrified of Tevinter coming to southern Thedas.  He is wrong, but the game doesn’t wish to demonize him and wants us to understand how these prejudices grow.  We see a similar treatment with Cullen, whose experience in the Origins Circle tower has made him see everything in an extremely black and white perspective, and we pity him even as he commits evil. 

Where it went wrong

Well...Meredith is just too fucking awful....again.  Unlike many of her minions, she is just kind of an asshole all the way through, from her first appearance she is haughty, callous, paranoid, indifferent and ambitious.  We never really see her reasoning or psychology, yeah I know we are told about tragedy  in her back story but it never really comes up in scene. She just kinda does awful things because she is an awful person, nothing more complicated than that.  For example, punishing people speaking out against her with Tranquility (which again is suppose to be illegal) just makes her out to be a despot, we don’t really see any reason to support her or sympathize with her.  And anybody who stays loyal to her comes off as an idiot.

   This also makes Grand Cleric Elthina just come off as a complete tool btw, if the Templars are acting out of bounds then the Chanty needs to pull the lease.  Again and again Meredith is violating Chantry rules, and Elthina just doesn’t do anything about it, the chantry is strangely passive in all this.  

3) Templars bad, Mages response isn’t appropriate 

Another approach the game could have done what the Witcher I did, the system perpetuated by the templars is evil and wrong, and really not acceptable, but the mages response to said system isn’t good.  The game kinda does this with Anders, who has a very valid point but his extremism makes the whole situation worse and also makes him really unacceptable as a person.  Basically ‘Man the Templars are awful and we need to fix this.....why did you blow up the Chantry Anders?”

This version doesn’t actually contradict version 2 btw.  Personally I think 2 and 3 combined would be the best way to handle this game

Where it Went Wrong 

Well....Anders is the only real anti Templar mage who gets a lot of narrative focus...and he is  renegade.  I know we run into evil mages who do evil mage things over the course of the game but they are just kinda cartoonishly awful rather than you know...interesting.   This narrative would require a lot more focus on the mage resistance and mage responses to the templars in a more human light.

And no, the massive amount of evil Blood Mages don’t count, they are just kind randomly evil douchbags who don’t relate to anything else in the story.  

4) Both sides need to come together and unite

In this narrative the conflict is the result of am misunderstanding, and if the two sides just saw thigns from the other’s perspective, a compromise could be reached, and the true evil could be destroyed.  Honestly this is the narrative where Meredith makes the most sense, a force of evil that the mages and the templars could unify to fight against because she is so utterly awful.  THe ending kinda implies this ending with the templars all going “screw you” to Meredith  and her going all Red Lyrium, 

Where it went wrong

but then we have a stupid binary moral choice.  Enough Said

5) The Templars are totally wrong, VIVA LA REVOLUTION

Finally the game could have just been very black and white, the templars are bad, the Circles are an evil, the mages should rise to fight against their oppressors. 

Where it went wrong 

This is the only other narrative where Meredith makes sense, and this story would be very clear cut.  But again...the presence of Fenris, Cullen and Aveline really implies that this is suppose to be a more complicated conflict than that.