#the second half of hoo is where the writing really lost me and they started to fall off

[bayetea]

🤭 when she has hypothermia 🤭 and he has to warm her with his arms 🤭 and she tries to be nonchalant about it 🤭

[rayssion]

Reading updates, which turned into a quick chat!

Finished reading Rick's books!

So here are the new books I finished lately:

Percy Jackson's greek gods.

Percy Jackson's greek heroes.

Camp half-blood confidential.

Camp Jupiter classified.

9 from the nine worlds.

I have to say that there was a lot of information in greek gods and greek heroes (considering I never read the illiad or the odyssey) that I felt like my brain might explode, BUT the books were so much fun and the writing knows how to keep you hooked that I couldn't put them down!

Pjo greek gods took me a day to finish (because I already had enough base on them) and greek heroes took me two days (because my knowledge here is not even a scratch, only what I learned reading pjo and hoo about Dedalus and Hercules, and I had a general idea of Psyche) also it had a bunch of weird names that I can't pronounce nor remember. The greek heroes one had a lot of crossovers, now, if I had an exam on them I'd pretty much write down these crossovers to remember them later, and I'd do other things like revising the hero's journey from memory after I finish.

But I did none of that. You don't understand, once you finish a hero's story there would be a moment of silence to admire them or to grief for them before launching onto the next. I was devastated when I finished Jason's and I was like, that's it? Did I really read the whole book?

To which a sane person will probably respond "go read Homer's books then!" But not yet, I'm not ready for big books yet ;-;.

Good stuff, good stuff. Highly recommended.

Now, I enjoyed camp Jupiter classified more than camp half-blood confidential (not because of Apollo, I swear). But a consistent story is really more fun than story chops that can also be two paragraphs.

Also camp half-blood confidential was focused on the lands and how to introduce them, their use and other things. On the other hand, camp Jupiter classified was literally "a probatio's journey" it was really fun reading about Claudia, although the plot was meh in my opinion, and I just hated how she didn't confront any authority from the beginning.

I read camp half-blood confidential in the same day I read Percy Jackson's greek gods. And I read camp Jupiter classified after reading Percy Jackson's greek heroes, like in the second day, aka like I finished it three hours ago.

And I read 9 from the nine worlds after and finished it like 15 minutes ago? Idk it was a packed day.

For 9 from the nine worlds, it hurts me to say I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the mcga series. Like the stories where fun but I only felt the same way the pjo fans felt while reading the lost hero, I was like,

WHERE IS MAGNUS??

WHERE IS MY BOY??

YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU GUYS BUT STILL, WHERE IS MAGNUS I WANT TO READ MORE ABOUT HIM!!

Until I reached Alex's part and I was like,

Oh he went to visit Annabeth. THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE CAN'T HAVE A STORY OF HIM TOO, AND WITH ANNABETH??

In conclusion, I felt like I was robbed. I pretty much highlighted every line his name was mentioned because I'm that petty and I just miss him so much ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ.

Anyways, this pretty much concludes my journey with Ricks books, I still have like 10 books left? to read them all, but they seem pretty boring ngl, guides and whatnot (not that I actually read them, I only judged by the title, lol).

And this also leaves the demigods and magicians crossover, which I might read in the future, emphasis on might.

But for now, I'm pretty contented with 30 books by Rick Riordan (ooof 30?? Damn I really got carried away) and just so you know, I started like by the end of July/beginning of August so they took me almost three months (I'm blaming tsats for the two weeks long reading slumber).

But yeah, only the rankings are left now! See you soon, hopefully!!

[gojology]

Strawberry Flavored Pocky.

pairing : teen! gojo x gender neutral reader warnings : the big three: unedited, most likely badly written, and some cursing. also there’s like.. graphic imagery that gojo and reader exchange to eachother. it’s just banter though! wordcount : 2273 a/n : for that one anon that wanted teen gojo. my stroke of genius always occurs when im eating strawberry flavored pocky i swear.. anyways yeah this is unfiltered writing n it’s probably like not the best tbh and maybe i didn’t nail teen gojo’s personality but u know what this was so fun to write

     The sound of the tear of the wrapper containing the Pocky you had just bought was music to your ears, crinkling with every touch. Your fingers are itching to grab for the deliciously coated sticks, but you’re stopped by someone none other than Gojo Satoru himself.       “What’d you get?” he inquired, seemingly unbothered by the face you were making, he hadn’t even greeted you with a simple, “Hello.” he sat down on the bench seat right next to you, uninvited.       In his hand were many bags of various sweet treats, you could only make out some familiar ones- ramune flavored gummies, a bag of chips, vibrantly colored candy. Your lips quirk downwards, exhaling, turning to face the setting sun.       “Just some Pocky.” you flatly respond, beginning to pick the biscuit up. Contrary to Gojo’s wide choice of snacks, you only really had one favorite- Pocky. Specifically, Strawberry flavored Pocky. The sweet, yet somewhat tart aftertaste treat dominated your mind almost day and night. It wasn’t everyday that Yaga would be lenient enough to take the four of you to the local convenience store. You were waiting for Shoko and Geto to finish shopping to finally head home for a night of yummy snacking.       Gojo sighs, lazily dropping the treats right next to his side, they sat idly, limply resting on his thigh as he crossed his right leg over his left knee. His hands warmly nestled into his snowy white hair, his elbows jutting into your personal bubble.        “Not one to chat, are you? What’s the problem? You scared?” his tone is teasing, and you jerk your head to face his. Your head is tilted, like your confused, but in reality you’re just astounded how obnoxious he was.       “Why in the world would I be scared of you? You wouldn’t lay a finger on me. Yaga-Senpai would rip your limbs off one by one and fling you into the horizon! And he’s not even that far away, I could report you to him if you even get on my nerves in the slightest.” you shot back, huffing and taking your first bite on the biscuit. You instantly melt.       He flashes you a toothy smile, and you stiffen, did he ever take anything seriously? “Oh my, so riled up. Only scaredy-cats would talk about how not scared they were. Look, you’re even shaking-” he gestures to your just slightly shaking, tightened grip on your Pocky. “-I win, Y/N! Boo hoo, case closed, gimme your Pocky~”        “No, fuck you and your fat ass trying to take my Pocky, I’m not shaking from fear anyways.” you sternly retort, warmth rushing to your cheeks for whatever reason. “I’m shaking because I’m resisting the urge to duct tape your mouth shut and gouge your eyeballs out.”       He chuckles warmly as if your gruesome detailing was humorous, he probably didn’t know you meant it. He too, ripped open one of his snacks. “Calm down, Y/N. I was joking, I could buy Pocky’s whole stock and probably also buy my position up as CEO if I wanted to. I wouldn’t leech off of you, sugar.” readjusting his crooked, circular shades, he looked down at your now slack grip on the wrapper.      Unanswering, you’re grumbling instead. Under your breath, you’re curious as to how Gojo hasn’t realized how obnoxious he was, and how much longer could he survive without his head exploding from how big it was from his inflated ego?      Gojo grinned. He was all too aware of those things, but who really cared?      “Not unless you let your guard down!-” unable to finish the rest of his sentence, he yanked up the wrapper from your hands, using the extent of his long arm to dangle it high above your head. Your reflexes are far too slow to react, causing you to glare at him in a mixture of shock, hatred, and disbelief.      “Give-” you jump, arm reaching towards your snack, but he backs off, snickering and still dangling it above your head. “It-” now you’ve leapt up on the bench, grabbing at the wrapper to no avail. “Back!-” whimpering and flailing your arms out, every time you came close to retrieving your rightfully owned pack of Pocky, he’d simply throw it to his other hand so carelessly it pissed you off. All the while giggling, juggling it like a clown.      A breath of laughter escapes his lips as he looks at you, prancing around like a circus act on the bench, yelling curses and many death-wishes to his clan. Your eyebrows are knitted together, and he can’t just help but realize how adorable you were when concentrated in getting something- so stubborn.    “Okay, okay!” and as if Gojo had flipped a switch, you simmer down, looking at him with an impatient side-eye. “You want it, doggie?”     “Refer to me as doggie, and I’ll send a pack of strays to ravage you.”       Gojo exhaled out of his nose. “You’re a funny one, doggie.” did he just dismiss the conversation you two were having literally 2 seconds prior? “I’ll ask this again, do you want to get your treats back?” his eyes are glinting with amusement and child-like glee. You were almost sure that he had started calling your beloved Pocky as treats because of just how well it suited the nickname Doggie. It looked like you would be getting no where unless you paid no mind to him calling you such a.. Derogatory name.       Grumbling and studying the concrete you were currently trampling on, you exasperatedly sigh.       “Yes. I do want my Pocky back.” you grunt, averting your gaze to anywhere but Gojo’s shoes.       He perks up in approval, drawing out a long, “Hmmm?” as if he hadn’t expected you to give up so easily. “What are the magic words, Y/N?”       This was so humiliating.       “Please?” you politely say through gritted teeth. If it weren’t for the general public bustling about, you would’ve lunged for his unruly hair and tear it out of his scalp.       “Hah! You think I’m gonna do that sorta bullshit?” he crosses his arms, Pocky tucked safely under his arm. You wince, thinking about how the biscuits may potentially be snapped in half. Did you really want your snack still? It probably smelled like Gojo’s armpit sweat, death, and all the bad things in the world combined. “You’re gonna have to earn it, Y/N, in a game.”       Now convinced that Gojo was the manifestation of all the bad karma that you had avoided, you stare at him with wide eyes and fear, the irritation long gone. Games, no, scratch that, literally anything with Gojo only resulted in a small, or maybe large piece of your sanity torn away from you, lost to the infinite dark abyss. Maybe that’s why Geto seemed to slowly go insane everyday.       “On second thought, I’ll just go-”      He cuts you off, alarm now displayed on full view, his face contorting back to neutral. “Wait, no! It won’t be hard. Pinkie promise.” extending a pinkie towards you, you gently slap it away. The mood change was so instant, you were still shocked, that, and he was almost a legal adult and still believed in pinkie promises.      Still hesitant, you quirk an eyebrow, crossing your arms over your chest. “I’d rather spend another two dollars than play whatever game your planning, unless you tell me about it.”      “That’s a given, besides, it won’t take too long, Y/N. I think you’ll like it.” he replies cheerfully, leaning and whisper-yelling into your ear, fruitfully jolting you up. Seriously, did he have any idea what personal space was?      After just a few seconds of thinking, you roll your eyes in defeat. “Okay, what’s this game?”      His incredibly long fingers inserted themselves inside the crinkling wrapper, pulling out a slender stick. You’re almost sure your salivating, and subconsciously swallow the lump at the back of your throat. “Okay, rules of this game are... Hm, we both place our mouths at both ends of the stick. You get the pretzel part because that part sucks.” mischief flickers in his eyes briefly. “Whoever can get down the Pocky longest without being afraid of kissing and pulling back, loses and doesn’t get the Pocky. Whoever stays in their place wins. I’ll throw in some money, deal or no deal?”       “This doesn’t sound.. Fun.” you were still skeptical, but curiosity was blossoming rapidly inside of you. Could you really resist such an intriguing request? The guy was rich, and he did say he’d throw in some money. Gojo probably hated the thought of you, too. You could probably get up and close, get him to cower away from the thought of locking lips with you, and you’d be on your merry way.       “Um, actually, never mind. Let’s do this.” you chirp, the weariness had depleted completely. Besides, Gojo would pester you into doing it anyways, this would effectively save time. The expression on his face was indecipherable, silently wishing to yourself to see his eyes. You wonder if they’re wide open, in shock of your acceptance.       He gently placed the biscuit between your lips, his thumb brushing against it. Your breath hitches, now he’s up close. The shades adorning his handsome features, concealing those vivid blue eyes of his made your heart pace quicken in just seconds, maybe it was because he could see you- and you couldn’t. Your gaze shifts to the tufts of white hair hanging above his forehead. His bangs look lusciously soft, so soft you wonder what it’d be like to ruffle his unruly hair, what did it smell like? What conditioner did he use?     Your cheeks darken, but you hope he doesn’t notice it. This was what people thought of when they saw pretty people up close, it wasn’t like you had a thing for him, he was just attractive, that’s all.      “You look real stupid holding that stick between your teeth and looking at me.” he comments, charmingly smirking as you give him another death glare, unable to speak in fear of dropping the Pocky stick. You could count each individual hair strand he had on top of his head with the amount of time he was taking.      Chomp.     You take the first bite, and you can’t help but realize how much your heart is fluttering about in your chest. Eyelashes fluttering, nerves getting jittery, the exchange was strangely intimate. No kidding, of course it was- if the two of you were adamant and continued to chomp on the stick, it would only end in a kiss. There was no way around it.      He takes a bite too, his lips look curved in a dopey smile, but there’s not a single word traded between the two of you, just tiny, slight nibbles. It would be eons until someone finished, and you were growing impatient by the minute. Quicken the pace. Quicken the fucking pace.     So you did the unthinkable, you quickened the pace.     Taking a large bite, he pauses for a minute- as if to think, before taking an even larger bite. Now, 2/3′s of the original stick is gone. One more large bite, and a kiss would follow suit. Now, you’re sweating bullets, eyes bouncing from him, back down to the microscopic sized Pocky. His lips are so, so close. Soft, plush pink, so glossy you’re inclined to ask what brand of lip gloss he uses. You can hear his breathing grow heavier, why wasn’t he giving up?      The two of you don’t take a single bite, plainly avoiding the objective, the world around you had evaporated into thin air. It’s you, and Gojo Satoru.      You nibbled a little bit more, and then you make up your mind. You’re going to kiss-       Growing chatter grew closer to closer, and you realize Shoko’s monotone and Geto’s lively voice, alongside a very disgruntled Yaga.       “Yeah, she’s pretty hot. I actually liked the movie- Uh...?” the steady rhythm stopped against the concrete. Immediately, you straighten and clear your throat, spitting out the Pocky stick into the nearby grass. Gojo follows suit, shoving his hands deep into his pockets and twirling around. “Oh hey, Geto!-”       “Are we interrupting something? Something.. Important?” Shoko quizzes, struggling to stifle her giggling. A sheepish smile was displayed widely on your face for the world to see, hands behind your back like you were hiding something. Gojo, on the other hand, is facing the other direction, whistling and staring at the now setting sky.       You stutter, cheeks growing even darker. Yaga looks as disgruntled as ever, facepalming and murmuring to himself. Geto looks ecstatic.        “MY MAN!” he beams. “WERE YOU GOING TO-”       “SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” Shoko shushes him in response, turning her head back to the two of you. You looked like you had just seen a ghost. “We thought you hated Gojo, we’re just...” her head is cocked slightly, an understanding expression on her features. “Just surprised, is all.”       Spluttering, you try to explain yourself- but no sound comes out. Your mouth is opening and closing, struggling to find the words.       “I do hate him... I just... He.. Pocky.. He uh...”       “Sheeeeeeeesh! Poor Y/N over here is going through some shock right now!” Gojo muses aloud, he places an arm around your shoulders, pulling you in under his arm. There’s a small, coy grin on his lips. As if he didn’t try kissing you 1 minute ago. “Just ignore them, anyways, what are we having for dinner tonight? I heard there’s a really good KBBQ place down the street that just opened..”      As much as you hate Gojo, his ability to escape anything did come in handy.    Well, maybe you didn’t hate him as much as you were leading on.     You’d go as far as to say.. Maybe you enjoyed some parts of him.      

[futurewriter2000]

Assertive People

A/N: I just felt like writing this and I really did enjoy writing it. Hope yall like it. 

PAIRING: Sirius Black x reader

XX

“I am in love with you.” a sudden voice spoke next to your right. 

Slowly, carefully even, you turned your head to his face and decided to give him the cold shoulder. You turned your head back to your book and continued to read. 

“Ignoring me. The perfect type.” he bit his lower lip and leaned over the table and into your eyesight. He walked with his index and middle finger to your book and placed his whole palm on top of it. “Woo-hoo.” 

You shot him a deadly glare and pulled your book under his palm. You swung your bag over your shoulder in a flash, you were gone. Frustrated and angry, you stormed to the library instead. 

Hearing his footsteps run along after you, made you sped up and turn your current goal from library to the room of requirements. In a second, he lost you. 

“Bollocks.” he put his hands over his black curs and ran his hands down his face. 

---

He hadn’t seen you in the next few days. He told himself that you must have been avoiding him. The pretty, mysterious Durmstrang girl, who clearly wasn’t joyous from switching schools. He had always found you intriguing, made it his mission to make you his friend... if not more. 

Quiet, never smiling and always with a book tucked under your arm, you swiftly moved down the corridors, in the Great Hall and on to every corner of the castle. you hadn’t talked to anybody, made it clear you do not like making friends in this school. In and out was your plan. 

You never raised your hand but exceeded in every subject except Arithmancy. It was average but the grades started getting better throughout the following months. 

He had seen you in the common room, tucked behind a book. 

Gryffindor. Just the perfect house for you. He was excited to hear you got into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin since you had shown more characteristic of one than the other. 

“Here is why.” he sat down and grin, his eyes lifted up into the ceiling. “I think it was love at first sight. I saw you and you were this stunning woman I had ever laid my eyes on. You clearly did not even look at me, nor anybody really- which I don’t get.” he sat and leaned forward to you, this time his eyes blazing into you and the other way around. “You don’t talk. I don’t think I had ever heard you talk- you voice. It doesn’t matter.” he leaned back again, his eyes on you. “I think no matter the voice, it’s gorgeous.” he winked flirtatiously at you but you haven’t changed your expression. “Why don’t we start properly?” he cleared his throat and reached out his hand. “My name is Sirius Black.” 

You kept looking at him with perplexion in your eyes, then glanced at his hand and slowly reached down on it with your right hand. It was large in your hand, soft and it squeezed your hand firmly and shook it extremely slowly. He kept looking at you with a sparkle in his grey arms that resulted into baby blue colour close to his iris. 

“(y/n).” you said without any hint of emotion in your tone. “But I figure you already knew that.” you finished and pulled your hand away from him, leaning back on the sofa and turning your gaze back to the book. 

He felt his cheeks lift up to his eyes. “That’s something... (y/n).”  he rolled your name gently off his tongue, reaching into his bag and pulling out his own book- not just any book but the same book you read currently. He leaned back on the sofa and turned to first page. 

From curiousity, your eyes couldn’t stay long on the written words when you saw him shuffling on the sofa. You looked up and saw the same title of your book, written over his, the coverage, however, was green instead of orange like yours. He glanced up at you, his grey eyes meeting yours. You saw them lift as if he smiled but you couldn’t see due to the book that hid lower half of his head. 

You turned back to your book, hiding your own little simper. 

---

Sense of time isn’t present when you’re reading a book. You have no idea whether it was an hour or 10 minutes but you knew it was long when you heard him gasp in the middle of your reading session. You looked up and found him staring profoundly into the book. 

“No!” he gasped again, getting so close to the book that you thought he might consume it. 

He must be at the part where the little girl drowns. 

He flips back a page, tracing the sentences with his fingers and flipping fiercely the page forth- then back, then forth again, then he just kept doing that until he only moved the page front and back until he stopped and stared at you. “She dies?!” he frowns at you with his lower lip pointing out and his eyes about to tear up. “Bu- but it was supposed to be happy- he was supposed to-” he stopped as he finally saw your facial expression. 

You were smiling at him, your eyes sparkling at his reaction to the book. He felt his heart do a back flip as he found you hiding your lower half of your head behind your book, your chest jumping as you laughed a bit. 

“You think it’s funny?” he quirked an eyebrow. 

“No. I think your reaction is as close to mine when I read the chapter. Wait a few more chapters.” you pressed the whole book on your chest and pulled yourself up to the sofa. 

He watched you with wonder in his eyes. He had never saw a woman so gorgeous with her hair messed up like that. Your lips in a soft smile, your cheeks red from the fire and hands wrapping around the book. 

He can’t ruin this. Stick to the book, Sirius. Stick to the book. 

“Does he end up happy?” he asked, putting the book away just like you did. 

“I don’t know.” you smiled, looking at the fireplace, then back at him. “It’s fiction, not a fairy tale. Knowing a few works of this author, I’d say he will end it in a way that it’s comforting.”

“Comforting?” 

“No- is probably the answer.” you smiled, pulling your legs up to your chin. 

“You were just going to let me down easy, huh?” 

“You’re assertive. You rush into things.”

“That’s a sudden change of subject.” he said. “ Though if I’m the subject it’s a good change then.” he flashed you a smile. 

“I don’t like assertive people, that’s why I read books because it’s a slow process.”

“That I do not like. Being assertive also means confident, which you have.”

“I don’t think being confident is something bad.”

“I never said it was.”

“Then what did you mean by that?” 

“That we are both assertive, both confident and I do maybe rush into things but only because I wanna get it before it disappears.” he smiled at you, mirroring your position and pulling his legs up to his chin. “It’s not a bad thing.”

“I never said it was.” you smirked.

“You implied.”

“I did, didn’t I?” you looked at the fireplace again, then back at him. It was a moment of silence, a nice moment and so you made it count to read his expression, take in his wonderfully structured face. “What really caught your eye with me, Sirius Black?” 

“I thought I told you.” 

“No. You told me what I wanted to hear.” 

“Your ignorance.” 

“Alright.” 

“You walked the halls with pride and ego, your head high, your chin up- too much confidence for a british woman, which you are not since you are from Durmstrang. Students there are cocky, high society-”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Students there are eager to learn because nobody wants to go back to their homes and live the life of their parents.”

“Cold.” 

“It is cold there- what do you expect?” you tilted your head.

“You miss it?”

“Yes. All my friends and family went there.”

“Then why don’t you make friends here?” 

“It’s not my priority.”

“Then what is?” 

“Succeeding. Achieving my goals.”

“How come you’re not in Slytherin?”

“I told the Hat I want to be in Gryffindor.”

Sirius wanted to say something but your answer surprised him. “Wh- I mean, aren’t-”

“You said it yourself, Sirius Black. We are assertive people.” you smiled again, then started to gather your things and prepared to leave. “Plus I prefer red over green.” you looked over your shoulder and sent him a wink.

He chuckled to your answer and shook his head. 

---

He had found you in the same place the next evening. Same sofa, same position, however, this time you brought yourself a blanket to cover your legs. 

He sat himself to his place and opened himself the book. The two of you met with your eyes, smiled and turned back to the book. 

Time passed and this time the reading was interrupted by your sharp intake of breath. Sirius looked up at you, found your eyes confused and tearing the book apart. Your eyebrows were drawn together and tears started to gather in your eyes. You flipped another, the last page and read aggressievely, your finger tracing the sentances until it reached half of the page and your eyes stopped. 

You stared at the page, then your eyes flickered up to his and a tear rolled down your cheek. You smiled through it and wiped the tear away. “Guess it doesn’t end up happily.” you tilted your head and he gave you a comforting simper. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Yeah.” you let out a chuckle. “Just... a really shitty ending.” 

“Do I even want to finish this book?”

“Honestly?”

“Yeah.”

“No, you don’t want to.”

“But I probably will because now you sparked my curiousity.” 

You let out another laugh, leaning on the back of the sofa. “What chapter are you on?”

“Not far behind you. I spent last night reading another half, so I’m-” he put his arm up and checked his watch. “Maybe ten minutes away.” he smiled then looked down at your blanket. “May I?” 

You looked down and nodded. “Yeah, sure.” you threw him the other end of the blanket and soon felt his cold feet touch yours. “Wow. You’re freezing.”

“Yeah, no thanks to your selfish arse.” he joked and you laughed. 

“You could have easily asked.” 

“And you could have easily offered.”

“My mind wasn’t on your cold feet or your needs.”

“Should be.” he continued to joke. “I was born to be served.” he threw his hair back and you laughed again, throwing pillow at , then leaning back and watching him. He looked at you and furrowed his eyebrows. “So you’re just going to stare at me?”

“You saw me cry. It’s only fair, I see you.”

“That’s unfair. My masculinity!” he put his hand over his heart and backed away.

“You’re pretending like you already had one to begin with.”

“You’re pretty mean.” 

“I’m being nice.”

He gasped, mouth open before turning into a grin. “Fine but let me tell you I won’t shed a tear. I never liked this characters anyway. I’m a man.”

---

You observed him as he read the next 10 to 15 minutes, flipping from one page to another, his expressions always changing. Sometimes he would mouth the sentences and furrow his eyebrows, re-reading them again. You could see he wasn’t much of a reader to begin with but he clearly enjoyed the book, living in it as he had completely ignored your gaze. 

He bit his lower lip as he flipped to the last page, leaning back with his mouth open and you could see his eyes changing colour. He wasn’t sad... no, not like you. He was furious, angry even. I guess, everybody has their own reaction to things. 

He slammed the book shut, fury on his face up until his eyes met yours. You were looking it him with affection- comfort maybe?

“How could you cry after this? It’s abominable.”

“It’s a book.” you smiled, leaning back and stretching your arms over your head. 

“Fine. Then it’s an abominable book.” he spoke with frustration and you only chuckled. 

You shrugged. “Wanna go get ice-cream?” 

Sirius’ face went through three different expressions when you asked him that. “What?” 

“You clearly need some comfort after what you just read.” you smiled and uncovered your legs, pulling them away from the warmth. 

It was at that moment, when you placed your feet on the ground that had Sirius realized how close the two of you were. The moment he felt cold again when you removed your legs from his; they were intetwined together all this time since he was reading. He just didn’t realize it because he was completely lost in the book. 

He felt something burn his cheeks and it wasn’t the fireplace that caused it. He stood up and stretched his arms over his head, grinning. When he stretched and cracked some of his joints, his arms fell right on your shoulder and pulled you a bit close. “Is the ice queen asking me on a date?” he teased, whispering to your ear.

You scoffed and rolled your eyes. “No, the ice queen wants some ice CrEaM to drown her sorrows in, now are you in or out?” you said but never removing his arm from your shoulder. 

“Only if we eat from the same bucket.” he wiggled his eyebrows and you laughed. 

“Get lost, Black.” you pushed his arm off and started walking. 

“Oh, I knew you’d warm up to me eventually.” 

“The book was a nice way in.” you shrugged.

“I know. Quite opposite of assertive, wouldn’t you say?”

“Bog off.” 

“I’m going to love what we have.” he wrapped his arm around you and pressed you close as the two of you walked together. “Especially if we share the ice-cream together. Imagine the bond. That won’t ever go away.”

“Are you always this dramatic?” 

“Depends on who you ask.”

“Don’t make me regret this.”

“I won’t for the life of it.”

[makeste]

Alright, so I've been trying to count the limb amputations in BnHA, and this is the loving list I have come with: USJ Nomu(half his body, including a leg and arm), Mr. Compress(arm), Overhaul(arms), Hood(entire body), Tomura Shigaraki(2 fingers), Re-Destro(legs), Miruko(arm), Hawks(wings(still unconfirmed, but almost certain)), and Aizawa(leg). One more limb amputation and you'll be able to make that top 10 limb amputations list!

anon, you forgot Shouji’s arm that got chopped off during the Forest Training Camp arc! and a couple others as well. so we actually can make a top ten! oh my god. the day has finally come.

10. Shouji Mezou (arm)

sorry Shouji but the truth is this one doesn’t really count since you grew it back. anyway but it still probably hurt though I suppose. still a pretty fucked up thing for a villain to just BITE OFF A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD’S ARM with their GIANT ELDRITCH HORROR TEETH. you’re a very brave boy Shouji.

9. Amajiki Tamaki (kracken tentacles)

this is mostly just here to prove that I can in fact remember things from the Basement arc, sometimes.

when will these dumb villains learn to start biting arms off of the kids who DON’T grow them back.

8. Hawks (both wings)

does it still technically count as an amputation if the appendages in question are burned to a crisp rather than actually chopped off. I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason this one is so far down the list tbh. it was still pretty horrific. but the fact that fandom’s not even 100% sure if they really are gone for good (though they totally are) is enough to rank this a bit lower than the others I think.

7. Shigaraki Tomura (two three fingers)

oh boo hoo Tomura. you lost THREE whole fingers? no offense, because I’m sure it sucked, but all the same you can’t realistically expect me to just fall all over you all “HOLY SHIT BEST AMPUTATION EVER 10/10” when the best you can commit to is THREE out of TEN digits. come on now you were already outdone by your own subordinate in the same fucking arc.

6. Giran (FIVE fingers)

YOU HEAR THAT TOMURA. FIVE. YEAH WHAT. and he had to put up with the indignity of having his severed digits grotesquely displayed all around the city on top of that! it was seriously so fucked up. and do you even know how long it takes Giran to write out a text now?? so fucking long!! it’s so annoying.

5. The Sixth OFA User (right arm)

don’t mind him... he’s just lying here, bleeding out in the corner of this little montage of other dying OFA users... but it’s fine, really... he literally just sacrificed his life for the sake of the greater good, and died in obscurity for his trouble... and the story skipped right over him from Nana straight to Banjou, and then to the Fourth... and no one even remembers him to the point where anon omitted him in favor of more memorable characters like USJ Noumu... but it’s fine... he’s fine.

5. Overhaul (both hands)

unlike OFA Seis up there, we actually for reals don’t give a fuck about you, Overhaul. kind of fucked up to imply that someone might actually deserve to lose a hand, let alone two hands. and yet, here I am. implying it. huh.

4. Mr. Compress (left arm)

you know the saying. when life gives you lemons, make a robot arm. here’s a nice picture of Compress with his robot arm holding Overhaul’s severed hand in marble form, just for shits and giggles.

notice how he went as far as to roll up his sleeve just for dramatic effect. that’s good shit. hard to outdo a guy whose amputation led directly to a second, revenge amputation, honestly. but three people still managed it.

3. Mirko (left arm)

and now we get to the badasses. the people who absolutely could not give less of a fuck how many limbs they have or don’t have, WHATEVER. Mirko lost an arm and was literally like, “OUCH” and then she SEVERED A MAN’S HEAD WITH HER THIGHS. AND THEN TOURNIQUETED THE ARM WITH HER OWN HAIR JUST AS AN AFTERTHOUGHT. BECAUSE BLEEDING OUT WOULD HAVE BEEN TROUBLESOME. and they had her at number five. five!! ?!?!?!?!

2. Re-Destro (both legs)

look, this guy is my second least-favorite BnHA character, topped only by Jerkface McNoHands back up there. but even I have to give him props for coolly chopping off BOTH OF HIS OWN FUCKING LEGS WITHOUT SO MUCH AS BREAKING A SWEAT WHAAAAT.

and then he went out and got himself a pair of ROBOT LEGS afterwards like a total badass. god. can you believe this fucking guy. he doesn’t deserve to be this cool. god damn you Re-Destro.

1. Aizawa Shouta (right leg)

hey everyone do you want to see a picture of a lying liar real quick.

huh. you don’t say. only I could have sworn...

huh. I guess, technically speaking, he did say arm. nothing about legs.

anyway. “wait a sec but Aizawa only chopped off one of his own legs,” someone, probably Tomura, interjects. “how can you possibly justify putting him above Re-Destro when the precedent you yourself set earlier in this very list clearly dictates that greater number of severed limbs = higher rank.” and fair enough. but Re-Destro’s amputation was quite honestly his own fucking fault, whereas Aizawa fucking SACRIFICED that leg in the name of duty. and oh yes, there’s one other thing as well:

yeah. sorry Re-Destro, but until you can provide incontrovertible proof that not only did you cut off your own legs, but that you somehow, inconceivably, managed to do so LITERALLY WITHOUT EVER EVEN BLINKING!!, then and only then can you come try and pry the number one spot from Aizawa Shouta’s unfathomably badass knife-wielding hands.

hey guys. so anyway I think this manga might actually be pretty violent lmao.

[let-it-show]

Bless This Happiness We Found

I wanted to write a little something for Anna’s birthday! Simple questions bring about her thoughts and well, just something nice. I didn’t really edit it because I’m very tired, and didn’t want to be much later with it. Title is from the lyrics out the outtake song “Home”! Can easily be read as Snow Sisters or Elsanna :) --- "What do you want for your birthday?" Anna opened her mouth to answer, but as soon  as she did so, she found she had no answer. "I-I don't know." "What? There must be something!" Olaf gave her a concerned look from his place on their red and white checkered picnic blanket. They'd decided to have lunch together on a beautiful summer day while Elsa took a meeting with a couple of farmers in town. Anna would have attended, and she even tried, but with her birthday the following day Elsa had told her she was to take the week off. Anna protested of course, and they almost fought about it. All she wanted to do was spend time with Elsa! Spending time with her sister was her favorite thing in the world! At the same time, it was easy for Elsa to convince her - she hugged Anna and kissed her freckled cheek, telling her just to trust her.

At first Anna had wondered if Elsa was planning some grand event, and she didn't know how she felt about that. She loved Elsa making a big deal of her birthday, she really did, but what would require a week off? If Elsa was planning a huge party, she didn't know that she was ready for whatever was coming.

However as the days went along, she found herself relaxing. She'd been so invested in being the second queen of Arendelle, so invested in leading, that she'd found...well, she lost parts of herself that came back as she relaxed. She felt them as she leaned back on the blanket, clad in the beautiful dress that Elsa had given her years prior during the first birthday in forever. Her hair hung free, resting on her back. "Nothing comes to mind Olaf," she finally answered. "I know I'll get some things, Elsa has given me a different dress every year and-and you know her, she spoils me! I know you and Kristoff have been whispering..." She smiled at him and he chuckled. "...Mattias carved me that duckling last year, and I saw him working at something the other day."

"Oh." Olaf leaned back as well and looked up at the blue sky above them. "I guess if you know you're getting so many gifts, it's greedy to ask for them! Elsa must feel that way since she gives away gifts on her birthday each year."

Anna stared up at the sky as well. When had she last spent lots of time outside the castle with Olaf, just staring at the sky? There were no clouds for them to find shapes in, but she didn't mind that. "Elsa just loves to make everyone around her so happy...so do I! But her birthday is during that time of year, so it makes a little more sense." Elsa had begun to let Anna join with her in planning the gift-giving each winter, and Anna loved it. She loved her sister so much.

"Elsa doesn't have to give gifts to make anyone happy. Neither of you do," Olaf commented. "I'm happy right now! We haven't done this in a while."

A grin broke out over Anna's face, her gaze still on the sky. "I'm happy too."

"Hoo hoo! Queen Anna, you look so happy!"

Anna paused on her walk through town, having spent time with Olaf until he dozed off. Actually, she stayed for a little while, until her foot fell asleep. She kissed the top of the little snowman's head before deciding to go on a very leisurely stroll, something she hadn't done in a while.

She was usually with Elsa, so she missed her, but it was still lovely - especially when a friendly face greeted her. "Oaken! Hi! How are you?" she asked, making her way over to his kiosk. She could never quite pin down how his business worked. Sometimes she wouldn't see him in town for a while and he'd be in his store where she'd met him years ago. Other times, he'd be peddling remedies for stress relief and offering massages to various Arendellians.

"Very well thank you! Tomorrow's your big day!" he said with a smile and a wave from his place behind his counter. On display he had flowers, sunhats, and bottles of...of mysteries. She wasn't sure.

Anna bounced closer though. She hadn't chatted with him in a while, not having proper time. "Yes, it  is," she said with a laugh. "You always remember!"

"How could I forget your birthday?" he asked, and reached for what was a surprisingly huge pile of sunflower bouquets, pulling one wrapped in an orange ribbon. "Let me give you some flowers to start your day with!"

"Oh, thank you!" Anna squealed. She was never able to turn down sunflowers! She took them with a smile as she bounced on her heels, and then buried her face in them. Her love for sunflowers was almost an obsession, and she never put together quite why, other than being bright and sunny. They just made her so happy!

"You're so welcome! But I'm sure you have grander birthday wishes, ya? What have you asked for this year?" He placed his palms together and tapped his fingers against each other, an excited look on his face.

"I haven't asked for anything, I don't really know what I'd want!" Anna replied, her eyes closing as she remained in her flowers for another few seconds.

"Oh no? Nothing at all?"

"Nope!" she answered brightly.

"Oh!"

When Oaken failed to follow up with anything else, Anna opened her eyes. "Is...is that weird?" she asked, somewhat confused.

Oaken chuckled. "No, no. Well...yes. Usually people want something for their birthday! Even if it's not a material gift, they want something! Are you sure there's nothing you're looking for, Anna?"

Anna sighed. She really couldn't think of anything. She had a wonderful life in the castle, and was surrounded by everyone she loved. Most of all, she had Elsa! She couldn't wait to see her again that evening when she knew the meeting would be over. What was she supposed to ask for? "Not really...I know I'll get gifts tomorrow and I'll love whatever I receive, but I don't want anything in particular. As long as nothing bad happens, I'll be happy." That was the truth. She half wanted to say that she hoped for a day where no one wanted to follow mysterious voices and the earth stayed calm, but those would be strange things to say just for the sake of conversation.

Life had been fairly normal. There'd been no disruptions, just days of being a ruler of a kingdom, which could be tiring. Elsa handled it impressively.

Oaken watched her for a second, and then a light chuckle escaped him. "Well, then I'm very happy for you Queen Anna," he said simply, and Anna knew he meant it.

The time to see her sister was drawing closer and the sun was beginning to leave its place high in the blue sky. Anna had made some small talk as she walked, and eventually she found herself in front of the statue she'd had dedicated to their parents. She shifted her sunflowers in her arms as she looked up at them, chewing her lip. She couldn't really remember a truly happy birthday with them, which was somewhat sad. Sure, they celebrated it with her and gave her presents and dinner and there was a very minor celebration in the castle.

And every year, Elsa's door stayed closed without Anna understanding why.

"Good afternoon, Your Majesty! Or perhaps it's good evening by now."

Anna was taken from her thoughts by a familiar, smooth, calming voice. It was a voice she was always happy to hear, and she turned slowly to face Mattias as he approached. "Evening, I suppose. Hello Mattias!" she replied, not bothering to correct him - he knew it was more than okay for him to just call her by her name. He preferred to use her title though, and she respected that.

"How are you doing? Enjoying your week off?" he asked her, continuing forward and stopping beside her to look at the statue.

"Oh, yes, very much. It's been wonderful. It's strange not doing all my meetings and not being in the study but...well, it's also so good to...um..." She felt a little strange telling the hard-working man that it was nice to have less on her shoulders. Even if it was the truth, it seemed a bit awkward to say that to Mattias, dressed in his guard uniform, patrolling like he always did. Anna could tell it brought him a sort of peace.

He glanced at her, a hint of amusement in his face. "It's fine to say you're enjoying not working. From all I've learned about you, it seems being a Queen of Arendelle was never exactly in your plans."

"Oh!" she placed her hand lightly on her chest, laughing nervously. "Well no, it wasn't - I don't, I don't hate it! I don't even dislike it. I just miss some of my life before."

"Understandable," Mattias said with a little nod.

Anna took that as encouragement to continue. "I had responsibilities before! I helped around town and when Elsa would stop being so stubborn I would do what I could with her work. Then we had time to be with each other. That's kind of how it is now, except, I have to be a little more involved because of my title...we still have fun though! And I see her every day since she returned from the forest!"

Mattias glanced at her again, before turning to face her completely. "So despite the change, you're happy? Really happy?"

"I...yes, I am," Anna answered in a small voice. "Why do you ask?"

"Your birthday is tomorrow, correct?"

"...Yes?"

Mattias smiled, letting out the air of almost quiet laughter as he regarded her. "I know birthdays can be a time of reflection, of thinking about what we've accomplished in life. At least, I did that every year in the forest. Anyway, finding you out here looking at the statue of your parents drove me to ask."

Anna felt her shoulders relax - she hadn't even known she'd been tense. Mattias had such a way with his words, so able to calm her when she needed and providing a sense of comfort she hadn't felt from an older male figure in her life in years. Someday she'd have to show him just how much she appreciated him. "I see. Yes, I was thinking a little, mostly about my birthday and how happy I am to have everyone here. My birthdays used to be very lonely, but now..."

"Now?"

Anna shrugged a little. "Well now, things are better than I could have ever thought. I have Elsa, I have my family - that includes you - and I get to do good for my kingdom. I don't have to do it alone. It's a lot of work sometimes but...but then I have days like these, where I can walk around the town and everyone says hi to me. Everyone knows me and no doors are closed. I do what I can to help them, and they support me." She was very, very happy.

Mattias didn't answer right away. He kept smiling, and looked back to the statue. "So...what do you want for your birthday, Your Majesty?"

"Oh..." Anna laughed, she should have expected it. "I can't think of anything. I've tried several times today and just couldn't. There's nothing I could ask for."

"Nothing at all?" he asked, but he didn't sound disbelieving.

"Nothing at all," she responded quietly, looking up at the statue. She didn't follow it up with anything else, just regarding her honored past, though in a way it felt like she was looking at two strangers. In that moment it didn't bother her. She wasn't feeling alone.

When she finally approached the castle a little while later, Elsa was crossing the bridge to meet her. She was in her green dress that she'd made years ago - she had been wearing it all week. Magic dresses rarely had to be laundered, it appeared.

"Anna!" Elsa threw out her arms as she greeted Anna with a huge smile. It was like they hadn't seen each other in months when it had been just hours. Elsa hugged her with such intensity too and she always did that.

It was a hug that let Anna know she'd never be pushed away again, and she melted into it as her bouquet dropped the short distance to the ground. She returned the embrace eagerly. "Oh Elsa! I missed you!"

"I missed you too. The meeting lasted forever...have you had a nice day?" Elsa asked, still squeezing.

"It's been a lovely day. But you know, I wish you'd been at my side," Anna told her quietly.

Elsa finally released her, only to run her palms down Anna's arms to take her hands, holding them down between them. "I would have liked that too. Tomorrow I will be, my schedule is cleared just for you. We can do anything you want. What would you like to do for your birthday?"

It was that question again, though framed differently. Her answer was still the same. "I don't know. Nothing in particular."

"Nothing...? Surely there's something that would make you happy?" Elsa asked, tilting her head a little, the tiny snow diamonds in her hair sparkling despite the setting of the sun.

Anna almost laughed because of how-how dear Elsa looked in the moment, so ready for an answer, so ready to please. How could she ask for more than that? Standing on the bridge, hands joined, while Elsa's gaze met her own - after a day of seeing friends and knowing she was somewhere that so thoroughly loved her.

She squeezed Elsa's hands and leaned forward until their foreheads touched, her sister face so close to her own. "I am happy, Elsa." She watched the beautiful smile that spread across Elsa's features, something she always loved to see. Yes, she was sure of what she was saying. "I am very, very happy."

[fishfingersandjellybabies]

No Matter Where You Go, No Matter What Happens - fic

Characters: Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson Summary: Damian had given up on the family, given up on the Bats. But there was one who he thought he’d lost, who’d never give up on him. A/N: Apparently my new thing is to ignore all the ideas I’ve been building in my head or long fics I’ve started to write garbage in two hours and post it. Cool. Could be seen as kind of? a sequel to Missing The Obvious, but also not really. But the same idea of that fic/what happened in that one is what I carry into this one, if that makes sense. But you don’t have to read that one! Just have to kind of know about Damian’s current turmoil in canon. I dunno. more trash from me woo-hoo~

~~

It was without warning, that his phone started blowing up.

It was Tim. Jason. Cassandra. Stephanie. Even a few from Barbara Gordon. And that proved its seriousness – Barbara never texted him, even in emergencies.

But he didn’t read them. Didn’t care to. He’d separated himself from the family months ago. Took his own path, one unobstructed by his father or mother. One entirely his own. He knew he didn’t have their blessing, not from anyone he considered family, but he also didn’t ask for it. Didn’t want it.

No one had contacted him since he left, which was good. Even when it stung, when he thought he might miss them, it was good, because that meant for once in his life – they listened to him.

But now, all of the sudden, it was like his attention was all they wanted. He scoffed as his phone buzzed again, and he whooshed the notification away without even glancing at its content.

Too little too late.

It’d been a week of this. A week of buzzing, of ringtones, of voicemails and texts. But it was fine, he’d already trained his brain to ignore it as white noise.

He almost laughed the day it became more than that. When he was sitting on the balcony, completing some research, when he heard his phone come to life inside the apartment. When he heard it start speaking.

“I…” It crackled. Damian smirked. About time they thought about remotely accessing the device. “I think I got it, Jay…”

Tim, of course. But still, Damian didn’t rush to answer it. Barely even turned his head towards the sound.

“Damian, if you can hear me, please just listen.” Tim begged. There was static on the line. “…bered, okay? He remembered and he wants to find you. Talk…you. We told him about your…gone the next morning. So, just…just so you know?”

“And don’t fucking attack him either, got it?” Jason chimed in angrily. “We told him your request…never fucking listened in the first place.”

“…mian, if you’re there, plea…ust let us know you got this, okay?” Tim continued, like Jason hadn’t interrupted. “That’s all we’re ask…you’re doing well, kid.”

The static took over his voice for a second, and then the phone went silent once more. Damian just snorted and went back to his research.

~~

The attempts to contact him stopped immediately after the message, and Damian didn’t care enough to remember anything Tim’s half-delivered message entailed. Whatever it was, he could handle it, surely.

So he wasn’t thinking about it, when he went into town a few days later and mulled around a farmers’ market. Didn’t think about it when he bought a bushel of fresh apples, and went to the nearby park to snack while he sketched the simple scene in front of him.

Didn’t think about it because for once, he was at peace. Calm. Settled.

But he should have known better. Because peace never lasts very long.

Somewhere nearby, in his periphery, he saw someone stop in the middle of the crowd, and stand there longer than normal. Frozen, clearly not looking at one of the nearby stalls. Damian took note of the person’s presence, but otherwise did nothing. Unless they attacked someone or pulled out a weapon, a person being strange was no reason to be alarmed.

“…Damian?”

Oh, well maybe that was.

He tightened the grip on his pencil as he looked up, but almost dropped the utensil instantly. Because the person who had stopped in the crowd, the person acting strangely, was none other than Dick Grayson.

“He remembered and he wants to find you.”

…Oh.

“Damian?” He asked again, taking a step forward. Damian just stared at him dumbly. Because with one word, with just one name, Damian knew it wasn’t Ric. It wasn’t the cabbie his older brother had become in the amnesia. With just the sound of his name he knew it was his brother. It was the Richard Grayson he knew and adored.

“…Grayson?” Damian whispered back. A grin instantly broke out on Dick’s face, but there was instantly something wrong with it, like it was being weighed down. Like it wasn’t allowed to exist.

“I found you.” Dick breathed, and instantly his eyes began to well up with tears. “I…I found you. I was starting to think I wouldn’t, was just thinking I should go home, but I didn’t…I didn’t want to give up on you. I didn’t…”

Suddenly, Dick inhaled a shaky breath and began wiping at his eyes with his fists, like a child might.

Damian’s eyes widened when he saw the first tear drop onto Dick’s collar. “Grayson…?”

“I…I remembered and I came home.” He sobbed. “But…but you weren’t there, and no one would tell me where you’d gone. It took…it took them a fucking week to tell me you’d left, and why, and what happened and I just…”

Dick curled in on himself, and without warning, dropped to his knees, right in the middle of the farmers’ market. Damian instantly jumped up, letting his sketchbook and pencils fall to the ground, and ran to his brother’s side. His own knees had barely touched the ground when Dick lashed out, dragging Damian into his arms, and hiding his wet face against his neck.

People were starting to stare. Damian ignored them.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured. “If I’d have been there, I’d have never let Bruce treat you that way. Or the Titans. Or the family.” He squeezed Damian’s shoulders. “I’d have stayed with you, or…or you could have stayed with me. We could have figured this out together. I’d have helped you. I’d have listened. I wouldn’t have let you be alone.”

Despite his shock at the moment, at the complete breakdown, at the situation, Damian felt himself smile. “I know, Grayson. It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

But Dick was shaking his head. “When I remembered everything, I remembered you first. And I came straight to Gotham because I knew…” A pause, to blubber a little. “Because I thought you’d be there.” A watery exhale. “I just wanted to see you so bad, Damian. After…after everything, I just wanted to see you.”

Damian closed his eyes, wrapped his arms around Dick’s back. “Well. I’m here now. I hope that’s alright.”

Dick tried to laugh, but it came out wrong.

“And I won’t…I’m not here to force you back to Gotham. I won’t do that to you.” Another squeeze, and Damian almost had to grunt in pain. “I just wanted…I just needed to see you. After everything.”

Damian merely rubbed at his brother’s back. “…Thank you, Grayson.” He hummed. “Thank you for coming after me.”

“As if I ever wouldn’t.” Dick promised, voice almost angry. “And trust me, I gave Bruce a piece of my mind for not doing the same. For pushing you away in the first place.”

Reluctantly, Damian pushed Dick back, holding his arms as he stared up at his red, tear-stained face. “You look ridiculous.”

“Yeah, well.” Dick pouted, sniffing and running his sleeve across his eyes. “You go spend two weeks looking for your brother, afraid the whole time that you’re never going to find him or see him again.”

“I should not be on that high of a pedestal in your life, Grayson.” Damian laughed.

“God, kid, I’d hope you’d believe me by now.” Dick scolded, cupping Damian’s face in his hands. “You mean the whole damn world to me. Always have and always will. No matter what the rest of our family and friends do or say. Bruce included.” A thoughtful pause. “Bruce especially.”

Damian felt his face heat up, the sentiment almost too much to bear. He’d…forgotten, what it was like to be cared about. Quite frankly, the lack of Grayson reminding him so every second of every day is how he ended up on this shattered, lonely path in the first place.  “…How long will you be in town?”

“For however long you’ll have me.” Dick swore, wiping at his eyes one last time. “I haven’t seen you in almost two years, Damian. A few days might not be long enough.”

“Stay as long as you want, then. Forever is fine.” Damian grinned. “We’ll have to get more food from the market, though.”

“Whatever you want to do, I’m with you every step of the way. Honestly, you’re stuck with me, for now.” He gently stroked his thumbs across Damian’s cheeks. “…I love you, kiddo.”

“I love you too, Grayson.” Damian said confidently. He pulled out of Dick’s hands and stood, offering a hand to Dick to help him up. Dick took it, stood, and immediately enveloped Damian back in his arms, pressing a long kiss to Damian’s forehead.

“I missed you so much.” Dick whispered into his hair. “So, so, so much.”

Damian leaned up into the embrace. “I missed you too, Grayson.” Then childishly: “Please don’t leave me again, even if it’s just through amnesia.”

“I’ll do everything in my power.” Dick promised. He held Damian for a moment, and they let the sounds of the market wash over them. Finally, hesitantly, Dick let go, stepping over to pick up Damian’s abandoned art supplies and remaining apples. “So. Where to first?”

“Back to the fruit stand.” Damian smirked. “I’m sure you didn’t eat much in the way of healthy foods in your life as a Bludhaven cabbie.”

Dick grinned at the barb. “Brat.” He laughed, wrapping his arm around Damian’s shoulders as they disappeared back into the crowd.

[queen-of-deans-booty]

The Devil You Know: Part One

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Word Count: 2,466

Warnings: typical supernatural violence, language, angst, blood, you know the usual

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Supernatural. All credit goes to their respective owners. Any and all comments on these are appreciated. I really want to hear what you guys think about this one!

Feedback is the glue that holds my writing together.

Tags at the bottom

Before, you could understand Dean’s hurt at your betrayal of your family. Before, seeing him so upset actually made sense. Before, you were okay with him distancing himself from you. He just found out pretty upsetting news about how you killed your child without even asking him about how he felt. His feelings are validated, and you’re not trying to tell him they aren’t…

But enough is enough.

He’s taking this too far, and he’s crossing the line into dickhead territory. A part of you thinks he’s doing this just to get back at you like revenge of some sort, and the other half of you thinks this is how he truly feels still. The latter is winning, which is why you’re not taking drastic matters to try and force this upon him. If only he would just sit down and talk to you, then maybe you can start the healing process.

“Dean just listen to me!” you yell in the empty motel room.

If there are neighbors, they will surely hear this.

“I am done listening to you! I don’t want to hear another word out of you!”

“You’re being a fucking dick! Boo hoo, your feelings got hurt. Yeah, well, so are mine! You don’t see me throwing a fit whenever you walk into the room because that’s exactly what you’re doing. Forget us having a kid, you’re the fucking child right now! Do me a favor and grow the fuck up!”

Dean’s chest puffs out in anger at being called out on his bullshit. Yes, he does realize he’s being a bit dramatic, but how can he let something like this go so easily? He gives you a death glare and stalks over to you. It’s only when he gets an inch from you that he stops. His fists flex at his side, and he clenches his jaw in anger.

“Do it,” you say without hesitation.

“Do what?” he says in a low voice.

“Hit me. Punch me. Kick me to the ground. Do whatever you have to do. Whatever will help you sleep at night, right? Take your anger out on me because I know you want to. I can see it in your eyes.”

He stares deep into your soul, and behind the layer of anger and frustration, you can see the hurt and betrayal that’s left behind. He knows you can read him better than anyone else in the world which is why this hurts so much more. You know stuff about him that no one else does which is why this hurts so much more. He scoffs and turns away from you. He heads out of the motel room, letting the door slam behind him.

This relationship isn’t going to continue if things are like this. It’s up to you if you want to try and salvage it.

Following Pestilence’s trail is a lot easier said than done. He’s hitting town after town, and whenever you do get to it, you’re eating his dust. He’s infecting a lot of people along the way, but what you don’t understand is why he’s infecting people with things such as swine flu, colds, and other meaningless things. He has the power to unleash the Croatoan virus, so why isn’t he?

You can ponder on the unknown, or you can deal with what’s happening right here and now. Since Dean obviously wants to act like a child, then the only thing left to do is focus on the case. You’re at the hospital with the brothers talking with the head doctor who’s overlooking every case. In order not to contract the swine flu, you four are wearing doctor’s masks to block the infection from spreading to you even though your magic will protect you from it.

“Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the CDC is here, but what we really need is vaccine,” the female lead doctor says when she enters the main room where dozens of sick people are coughing and sneezing.

“You got that right,” Dean scoffs.

“Then, tell me, have you noticed anything unusual about the strain? Any signs of behavioral change, like aggression, maybe?” you ask her.

“Excuse me?”

“Have the flu victims shown any signs of, uh, homicidal tendencies?” you went in another direction.

“Uh, symptomatically speaking, we're looking at a relatively mild case of swine flu here. Probably add up to a miserable week off of work, and that's about it,” she chuckles nervously.

A male nurse approaches her with a clipboard, and she takes it to sign whatever paperwork is on there.

“So, nothing unusual?” Dean asks.

“A day and a half ago, we didn't have a single case. Now we're looking at over seventy—the infectious equivalent of a briefcase bomb. So, yeah, I might call that a little unusual.”

“Day and a half?” Sam whispers to you and Dean while she consoles with the male nurse.

“That's the same time those statues started crying,” Dean confirms.

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

“What was what?” you chuckle nervously.

“Did you just say a bunch of statues started crying?”

“What?” Sam laughs nervously. “No. W-who would--”

“Who would say that, huh? Crazy people,” Dean cuts off his brother.

“Exactly.”

“Which we’re not,” you add.

“Just get us some vaccine,” she says and walks away.

Dean lets out a relieved sigh, and he’s the first one to leave the area. You look at Sam and follow him out to the car. You take off your doctor’s mask as Dean pulls away from the curb, and you slide to the middle. Your dad did want to be updated on what was happening, so you pull out your phone and dial his number. He answers on the third ring.

“Let me guess, another steaming hot pile of swine flu.”

“Yeah.”

“It doesn't make any sense, Bobby. Pestilence touched down here. I'm sure of it,” Sam sighs.

“My question is,” you voice your thoughts, “why is he infecting people with stuff like the flu when he has the power to deliver the Croatoan virus? I don’t get it.”

“It doesn't matter what the sick son of a bitch is doing. What matters is this is the fourth town he's hit—that we know of—and we're still eating his dust. Did you get anything? Maybe about where he’s headed?”

“No pattern we can see,” Sam answers.

“Okay, well, as far as I can tell, he’s headed east so head east.”

“East?” you, Sam, and Dean say at the exact same time.

“Bobby, we're in West Nevada. East is practically all there is,” Dean sighs.

“Yeah, well, you better get to driving,” he says and hangs up.

You put your phone away and slide back to your side of the seat. It’s better for you to be directly behind Dean so he can’t look at you while he’s driving. Sam’s got a better view of you than his brother. It’s weird to say, but ever since the secret came out, Sam has been very caring towards you. He knows how hard this is for you and Dean, and he’s trying his best to make sure he doesn’t make it any harder. Right now, you consider him your only friend since it’s clear Dean doesn’t want to be yours.

“Say,” Crowley’s rough voice comes from next to you, “I’ve got an idea.”

Dean slams on the brakes and swerves the car to a screeching halt. When the car finally stops moving, you and Sam go after the demon together. He uses Ruby’s knife, and you use your magic. However, Sam stabs the leather seats because Crowley is gone.

“Did you get him?” Dean pants.

“He’s gone.”

“Fancy a chat?” Crowley knocks on the back window with a smile. All three of you exit the car immediately, and Crowley backs away in fear Sam might actually kill him. “You’re upset. We should discuss it.”

“You want to talk? After what you did to us?” Sam yells.

He’s more pissed about Crowley than you are even though Ellen and Jo are just as dear to you as they are to him.

“After what I—what I did to you?! I gave you the colt!” Crowley shouts.

“Yeah, and you knew it wouldn't work against the devil!” you yell.

“I never!”

“You set us up. We lost people on that suicide run—good people!”

“Who you take on the ride is your own business! Look, everything is still the same. W-we're all still in this together,” the demon chuckles nervously.

“Sure we are,” Sam nods.

He attempts to stab Crowley again, but he teleports behind him. Sam looks around for the demon, and when he spots him, he starts to head over to him.

“Call off your dog, please,” Crowley begs.

Dean puts his arm out to stop Sam, but you can tell he’s close to snapping.

“Give me one good reason.”

“I can give you pestilence.”

“What do you know about pestilence?” you ask.

“I know how to get him. That's got your interest, doesn't it?”

“Are you actually listening to this?” Sam gasps when he gets a good look at his brother’s facial expressions.

It’s not ideal, but the sooner you get the keys, the sooner Lucifer gets put back in the cage.

“Sam—”

“Are you fucking nuts?”

“Shut up for a second, Sam!”

“Shut up, the both of you!” Crowley butts in. “Look… I swear... I thought the colt would work. It's an honest mistake. It's all part of the learning process. But nothing's changed. I still want the devil dead. Well… onething's changed. Now, the devil knows that I want him dead. Which, by the way, makes me the most buggered son in all of creation.”

“Holy shit,” you gasp as if you suddenly came to a realization. “We don’t care.”

“They burnt down my house! They ate my tailor! Two months under a rock, like a bloody salamander! Every demon on hell and Earth's got his eyes out for me! And yet... Here I am… Last place I should be, in the road, talking to Sam and Dean Winchester and Y/N Singer, under a fucking spotlight!” he gestures to the streetlight above, and it explodes. “So, come with me. Please. Do you want the horsemen rings or not? Yes, I know all about that. Shall we?”

“Lead the way,” you sigh in defeat.

First Dean and now Crowley. You can’t catch a break.

Apparently, Crowley lives in an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. It’s a step down from the mansion that you and Jo broke into a few months ago. If he’s on the run, then he’ll want low profile places like this one. You’ve been in his shoes, actually, so you know what it feels like to go from something so “luxurious” to this.

“Here we are, my life on the lam. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Single-pane glass, used contraception in the fireplace,” he flicks his hand at the fireplace and the logs go up in flames. “The water damage alone—”

“My heart's bleeding for you. Now, how do you know about the rings?” Dean interrupts.

“Well, now… I've been keeping a close eye on you lot.”

“We got hex bags. We're hidden from demons,” Sam points out.

“All but one,” he motions to himself. “That night you broke into my house, our first date, my valet hid a tracking device in your car. It’s a magical coin that easily trumps your little bags o' bones. It allows me to hear things, too—and, my, the things I've heard. So, you want to cram the devil back in the box? Cunning scheme. I want in.”

“You said you could get us pestilence,” you keep him on track of why you’re really here.

“Now, I don't know where pestilence is per se. But I do know the demon who does. He's what you might call the horsemen's stable boy. He handles their itineraries and their personal needs. He's who you want, believe me. He'll tell us where Sneezy's at.”

“Well, how do we get him to spill? Rip out his toenails?” Dean questions.

“No. Nuts at his pay grade don't crack. We bring him here, then I sell him.”

“Sell him?” you scoff.

“Please. I've sold sin to saints for centuries. Think I can't close one little demon?”

“Fine, where is this demon of yours?”

“I’ll lock in his location, you get ready. It’s going to be one hell of a fight,” he chuckles.

He leaves the room, and you and Dean get the duffel bags ready. You two still aren’t talking, and Sam can see how this is going to be played. It’s either he talks to either one of you or he becomes a middle ground for your fighting. He doesn’t want to deal with the fighting, so he opts for the former.

“Why are we even listening to him, Dean? This is totally insane.”

“I don’t disagree,” he shrugs.

“What other choice do we have, Sam? We’ve gotten nowhere on our own, so I think it’s time to bring in some outside help. We have no clue where Death and Pestilence are. Crowley does,” you whisper the last part.

“She’s right,” the demon says when he enters the room. “One big happy family, are we, then? Fantastic.”

“You ready to go?” Dean asks him.

“Yes. Sam, keep the home fires burning.”

“Excuse me?” you stop him.

“Sam's not coming.”

“And why the hell not?” Sam gasps.

“Because I don't like you, I don't trust you, and oh, yes, you keep trying to kill me!”

“There's no damn way. This isn't gonna happen!”

“I’m not asking you, am I? Because you’re not invited. I’m asking you two,” Crowley points at you and Dean. “What’s it going to be?”

Since this is in regards to the case and the fate of the world, you and Dean make eye contact as if you’re considering this. He doesn’t hold it long, and he passes it to Sam who keeps it a lot longer than you did. Crowley takes the silence as his answer, and he backs away slowly to give you three more time to change your minds before he’s gone for good.

“Gentlemen, lady, enjoy your last few sunsets.”

“Wait,” Dean stops him. Sam looks at him like he’s crazy, but it’s the only choice we have right now. “We’ll go.”

“Sam, we have no other choice,” you say as you follow him.

“She’s right. What can I say? I believe the guy,” Dean shrugs.

“Just stay warm, okay?” you offer and leave with the two men.

Being with Crowley is a lot better than being alone with Dean because who knows what might happen if you two are unsupervised.

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[sonofsallyjackson]

Heroes of Olympus should have been in first-person.

@jo-march-is-a-lesbian​ wrote a really wonderful post about how “Percy Jackson and the Olympians is better than Heroes of Olympus…because it understood simplicity and character development.”  It highlights some reasons I also found HoO less rewarding namely that it was an overcomplicated story with limited character growth, lacked a common thesis, and was super jarring when it switched perspectives.  

And with that my little brain went: I can fix this.  Which frankly is ridiculous.  I can’t come up with a compelling thesis like “The idea that we should place our hope in our loved ones, our friends and our family, and if we do that, we won’t be tempted to give up hope again.”   But I can imagine a simple change that would have solved some of the issues and also played to Rick’s strengths as a writer:  Each book should have been written in first person and narrated by a different character.

With so many people on the quest, I often felt like I was watching a bunch of one-dimensional characters fight for their right to be the main character.  I didn’t know who to focus on but I was also dissatisfied.  There were all these new wonderful characters in front of me who I wanted to love, but I didn’t feel like I actually knew them.  I mean I don’t feel like I know the Stoll Brothers either, but I’m not concerned about that fact because they are side characters.  When everyone is painted as the main character,  I have certain expectations for growth, personality, and voice.  The story would have been better served if the characters took turns narrating the action, allowing us to settle into their perspective, see their growth, and better understand their personality.

Plus Rick kills first-person.  While I’m not particularly a fan of Trials of Apollo, it’s not because I don’t know the characters.  Apollo is so very different than Percy. Their voices, even though they can both be jokesters at times, reflect their different life-experiences, thought processes and provide massive insight into their characters.   If the Seven (and Nico and Reyna) got the same treatment, I would be absolutely giddy.  

I recognize that rewriting the HoO series in first-person is something a talented fanfiction writer with a lot of time on their hands could actually do.  But I am not talented like that and I certainly don’t have the discipline to actually write that much fic, especially if I was trying to keep the events vaguely the same just with different narration and pacing.  So instead I’ve included who I think should have narrated each book below the cut.  I’d love to hear any opinions people have regarding this idea, especially who they would have wanted to see to narrate each book.

In addition to picking the narrator, I’ve highlighted what should be the “quest” so to speak of each story.  Personally, MoA, HoH and BoO are kind of a blur to me despite reading them all recently.  It’s hard to distinguish what happens in each book because it’s all one massive quest with a whole bunch of mini-quests.    While the different narrators would obviously make the books more distinctive, splitting the series into seven books would also help simplify each book’s individual goal.  Eight books would have allowed for better integration of the plot to find the physician’s cure, but with the prophecy of seven, it seemed like seven books was the best option, if I was going to be doing something as blasphemous as splitting books.   

As a note, I ran out of steam as I went so not all opinions are fully fleshed out. 

Book 1:  The Lost Hero The Quest: Rescue Hera/Juno Narrator:  Jason 

Why this would be cool: 

He is literally Juno’s chosen sent on a quest to rescue her.  It’s poetic enough to give him the book.

Jason’s journey is just as much about rediscovering himself as it is about saving Juno.   Of the new characters, I feel like I understand Jason the least. Mainly because I felt like I was missing the entire first half of his story.  Jason, like Percy and Annabeth, is a hero of the Titan War. I know some of his accomplishments, but I don’t have any bearing on what his life was like or how he felt about it.   He doesn’t seem like the type to relish Praetor-ship since he doesn’t have the same intense need to get back to his camp as Percy.  Was he just hoisted on his comrades’ shields after killing the Titan without any real choice in the matter? Give me Jason’s memories coming back slowly over the course of the quest (with potentially a fractured memory of a mistake he made in the Roman’s final Titan battle that makes him doubt their ability to both rescue Piper’s dad and save Hero but he makes the decision to anyway because he can’t just hurt his friend like that.   Let me understand how Jason is the person he is today.  Give me glances of the Roman Camp with emphasis on the heavy expectations that have always followed him as the son of Jupiter and foreshadow why he eventually chooses to design all the shrines for the minor gods so he can have his own place in the world as a figure between the two camps.

Let’s dive into those feelings of anger/guilt/resentment when people at camp are disappointed with him for not being Percy or in Chiron’s case are nervous about what his presence means. 

I want to dig deeper regarding Jason’s feelings about reconnecting with Thalia.  He knows that if the gods hadn’t been determined to keep the two camps completely separate, he could have grown up with his sister. 

What does telling the narrative like this sacrifice:  

We miss some of the internal turmoil regarding the fact that Piper’s Dad has been captured and she must betray her friends. 

We also don’t feel the tensions of Piper’s relationship with Aphrodite. I don’t see Piper bringing up the conversation with her mom saying that her mist memories were so strong because she automatically sensed the potential of a romantic relationship with Jason.  

We don’t have any of Leo’s conflicted feelings regarding rescuing Hera or his fear of being made an outcast for his fire abilities.  Jason has to go with Leo to discover Bunker 9 and Festus.  

Leo doesn’t actively save the day with the Cyclops. 

We don’t know how Piper feels about her charm-speak or see her defeat Madea (as the boys are in their weird trance thing). 

Knowledge about Gaea’s involvement in wrecking Leo’s life will come later.  

Book 2: The Son of Neptune The Quest: Free Thantos Narrator:  Hazel

Why this would be cool: 

The stakes are so incredibly high. Hazel is literally risking her second chance at life by agreeing to go on this chance.  She’s going to the place she died to fight the monster she created. She also has to deal with the trauma of knowing she may have bought the world time with her first sacrifice but it now means nothing if she can’t succeed again.  

We get to see Camp Jupiter from the view of someone who loves it but doesn’t really fit in.  Hazel joined Camp Jupiter just after the final battle.  She enters a community that has learned to fight as a well-oiled machine but that has lost people.  Dakota or the others may remark to her about how things were before or the people who are missing.  Hazel sees a community that she’s not quite a part of both because she didn’t fight in the war and because she’s in the fifth cohort with a feared godly parent.

It would explore her relationship with Nico more (because I love their dynamic and I want more).   She knows she can’t replace his real sister, but she feels comfortable and happy at the opportunity to have a brother, especially one who is out of time like she is.   

What does telling the narrative like this sacrifice:  

Frankly, the largest pushback would be from the fans who expected this to be Percy’s book since we just watched Jason rediscover who he is.

Percy’s phone call to his mom doesn’t have the same intensity.  

Frank’s relationship with Mars and how desperate he was to be claimed but now he doesn’t think he can live up to his father’s expectations.  

Frank and his grandmother.  We aren’t in Frank’s head as he changes shape till later.  

Book 3: Mark of Athena The Quest: Close the Divide Between The Two Camps by finding Athena’s statue and Rescue Nico Narrator(s):  Annabeth and Leo

Why Annabeth: 

So I can have all the emotions at the reunion with Percy.  

Annabeth’s relationship with her Mom has never been great, but imagine beginning the book with Annabeth being given the Mark of Athena. They haven’t left for New Rome yet and her nerves are already all over the place.  Then Athena/Minerva comes, gives her an impossible quest, and breaks her hat.   Annabeth wants to prove to her mother that she’s worthy because despite everything she still values her mother’s opinions.  Also her fatal flaw of hubris makes her believe she will succeed where everyone else failed.

Much of the book already follows her in third person limited so we just get things with a little extra emotion.  

Why Leo:  

Leo has to grapple with the fact he started this war by being the one to fire the cannon even if he didn’t have any control.  He is motivated to fix it

If we’re going to include the Sammy plot, we need to do it now.   Leo doesn’t like being the odd one out on the ship but he certainly doesn’t like the feeling of being notable because of his grandfather.  

We still need to get into those feelings of abandonment and anger at Gaea for killing his mom.  

Nemesis 

Leo comes into his own with the discovery of the Archimedes sphere and the decision to value people over objects.  

What does telling the narrative like this sacrifice:

The aquarium shenanigans 

The fight between Jason and Percy in Kansas needs to happen differently so that the others are present and try to stop it.  

Neither of them went ashore to meet Hercules.  

I think we might need to move up the Calypso meeting to this book, but that also kills some of the suspense since Frank will have the fireproof coating prior to his adventures in Venice when he gains faith in his abilities.  It also might mean Leo opens the fortune cookie from Nemesis unless for some odd reason he doesn’t have it.  There’s a lot more narrative weight for it coming later, but in order to get in as many book events as we can in, it might need to come earlier. 

Book 4:  House of Hades Pt. 1

The Quest: Survive Tartarus Narrator(s): Annabeth and Percy

The first time I read House of Hades, I read it out of order (reading all the Percy and Annabeth chapters until they were on the elevator out of Tartarus before going back and reading the others), because I couldn’t handle the back and forth.  I felt like the tension would build, I’d be invested in this plot and then we’d switch to the other plot. Plus I was very concerned for my children.  So I feel fully justified in saying that there is more than enough material to give the two of them their own book.

I just feel like all the feelings would be magnified.  

Percy’s commentary slowly losing its humor because he can’t anymore.

Annabeth’s guilt at having pulled him in being extra loud.  

Downsides beyond adding an entire book: Just imagine all the outrage at two cliffhangers in a row, because you know the book would end with them in the elevator remembering Bob’s words about the stars.   

Book 5:  House of Hades Pt. 2

The Quest:  Close the Doors of Death Narrator(s): Frank and Hazel

Frank and Hazel experience the most growth on the quest to close the doors so this book is all theirs.  Hazel learns to control the mist.  Frank experiments with his transformations.  I want nothing but them growing into themselves and their abilities.  

The good thing about turning the two warring storylines from House of Hades into separate books is that we lose very little plot.  

Book 6:  House of Hades Pt. 3/Blood of Olympus Pt 1 (Personally I would call this one Ambassador of Pluto)

The Quest:  Unite the Gods’ Personalities. Narrator: Nico

To clarify what I mean by HoH 3, I just mean anything done with the intention of trying to cross paths with Reyna, including the adventure with Cupid, in addition to the existing Nico&Reyna plotline in BoO.  

Nico dealing with all the emotions and his most recent near-death experience.

He kept the secret of the camps so the world wouldn’t end in chaos, but now that the world is in chaos he will be the one to fix it.  

In the short time he’s on the Argo 2, Nico realizes that even though this wasn’t his quest; this is his family and he needs to protect them.  

The reader has a pretty good idea Nico is gay, even if the word isn’t explicitly said from the descriptions (his guilty Percy thoughts - he let down the man he loves even if he won’t admit it.) This means that Cupid’s forceful outing is potentially less surprising so the reader can be properly outraged at Cupid.  

Downside: Reyna definitely has adventures when Nico is passed out, especially the whole waking up with the Hunters, but I think it’s excusable for a whole book from Nico’s perspective.  

Also, the battle between the camps and gifting of the statue needs to happen in this book, but we shouldn’t find out if the gods have regained control of their forms yet.  We alleviate some tensions because Camp Half-blood is likely to be overrun with Octavian’s monsters instead of the Roman armies and Gaea could awaken any second, but there’s an odd moment of calm and an uneasy truce.  (Octavian is potentially taken under custody to be held for trial only to escape in the next book.) 

Book 7:  Blood of Olympus Pt 2 (and the aftermath)

The Quest:  Like The Last Olympian, the final book’s focus is entirely on defeating the series’ big bad, in this case, Gaea.  Leo’s quest for the Physician’s cure parallels Percy’s River Styx visit.  

Narrator(s):  Leo and Piper

Leo has his death hanging over his head.  He has decided that he will be the one to die not any of his friends.  He got the cloth from Calypso so the “fire” portion of the prophecy applies to him and not Frank.  (Yes I know you can’t control prophecies, but do you think that’s going to stop Leo.)  

It’s the ultimate revenge for killing his mom.  We can have memories of both the happy times with Esperanza and the fear he felt for thinking he caused the fire. 

Piper’s perspective is necessary as we need to be with her during the fight with the giants.   

This series began with Piper, Leo, and Jason.  It ends that way too with the three of them killing Gaea and the two of them narrating.  

Downsides: 

The Percabeth I love you-the feud is over scene remains in Piper’s perspective.  

Since we’re not following Reyna’s delivery of the statue concurrently we don’t know when to anticipate the healed gods appearing in the battle with the giants.  

The book can still get away with not showing us Percy’s reunion with Sally or forcing Leo to tell the others he’s alive so they’re all grieving. 

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Last Exile, Episodes 14-16

In which good backstory gives way to... complete garbage, basically. Hoo boy, things just took a turn for the stupid.

The Past Unfurls

Rejoice, folks; we’ve got backstory! After teasing out small details for the first half of the show, Last Exile is finally putting the pieces together to give us a clear picture of how these characters got to where they are. We finally get to see Lavie and Claus when their families were still alive, and can I just say, baby Lavie and her long hair are too adorable for this world. Christ, my heart. But we already know that such happiness wasn’t going to last; their fathers tried to cross the Grand Stream to deliver a message of peace to Disith, and they died in the process (Side note, is the only way for these nations to contact each other by going through the Grand Stream? Because if so, harsh.) Left with nothing but their father’s vanship, the kids had to take control of their lives from the start, learning how to fly the vanship and turn it into their livelihoods all on their own. And I love how we get to see that process of learning and growing, each failure spurring them to greater heights. We even get to see them training for that weird accept-jobs-by-flyby-ring-catch thing from the first episode. Heck, they even had to build their own house after they lost their first one! It really drives home the connection between them, and I fully understand why their dream is to follow their fathers’ footsteps into the Grand Stream. They want to succeed where their fathers failed, to fly in their dad’s blue sky together. And that’s pretty damn sweet.

On the more plot-focused side of things, we find out something very interesting: Alex was actually one of the people who flew with Claus and Lavie’s fathers into the Grand Stream! In fact, he was the sole survivor; when shit hit the fan, he bailed like a coward, leaving everyone else- including his fiance- to die. The culprit? A massive Guild ship led by Delphine. The vanship Claus and Lavie thought was their father’s was actually Alex’s all along. It’s a shocking truth to take in, even if Lavie quickly comes around on the idea that it doesn’t matter who the vanship belonged to as long as they’re the ones making memories with it now. Meanwhile, driven by equal desires for vengeance and redemption, Alex now seeks to obtain the power of Exile that everyone’s been looking for... and destroy it before anyone can use it for ill purposes, thus changing the world. And it’s up to Lavie and Claus to decide if they want to take the risk of joining his war and fighting with their lives on the line for a greater cause... or flee before they get caught up in something too big for either of them to comprehend. It’s an excellent stakes-setting backstory, and it primes Last Exile to head into its final stretch with all guns blazing.

And then it walks face-first into absolute dogshit.

Why, Why, WHY?

Some of my more recent readers may not know this, as I haven’t really gotten a chance to talk about it in a while, but as a general rule, there are few things I loathe more in storytelling than poorly handled love triangles. You know how it is, you’re watching a perfectly nice story with a perfectly solid plot, and then suddenly everything grinds in place so a bunch of losers with zero chemistry can angst over shallow, trite relationship drama. I’m a sucker for a good romance, but when it’s done poorly, this shit is murder. It pretty much sunk the first two seasons of Korra all on its own. It was by far the worst part of the otherwise incredible Kimi ni Todoke. Hell, I’m actually currently in the process of writing an original anime script that was inspired by me despising the central love triangle in Shakugan no Shana and thinking, “How could I do this in a way that doesn’t suck?” This stuff is a huge issue for me, is the point. So you can imagine the terror that filled my veins the second Lavie looked upset at Claus and Tatiana spending time together. No, no, no, we’re not doing this. We’re not ruining their endearing relationship with stupid love triangle drama. Absolutely not.

But oh my god, it was so much worse than I even realized. Not only is there stupid love triangle drama between Tatiana, Lavie and Claus, it suddenly has Alex’s co-captain Sophia kiss Claus out of fucking nowhere and then make that a source of drama?!?! Like, fucking- WHAT?! Where did that come from? Those characters barely spent a second of screen time together before now and suddenly a nineteen-year-old military officer is macking on some dumbass kid? How? Why? What even? Where the fuck did that come from? Even putting aside the questionable age and power gap, there was never any chemistry there! There was no foundation to build that moment on, but now it’s suddenly happened and everyone has to act like it’s this big dramatic Thing they have to deal with and what the fuck! Like, if it was Tatiana, I still would’ve hated it, because the whole “stuck-up girl softens up for the nice guy protagonist” is the most overplayed, condescending romantic subplot in existence, but at least it would have made some degree of sense. But what the everloving fuckstick made the writers think Sophia made sense to do this with? I think my jaw literally dropped when this happened, it’s so fucking stupid. It’s contrived, garbage drama for no other reason but to be contrived, garbage drama. It’s like Last Exile just sucker-punched me and made me cough up so much of the good will it built up with me in just a single unfathomably awful plot turn.

Crashing and Burning

And unfortunately, once the stupid starts rolling, it doesn’t stop. It turns out, Sophia’s actually the princes of Anatory, who I guess was on this ship to keep an eye on Alex, but it’s also implied there’s romantic tension between her and Alex because of fucking course she looks like his dead fiance with her hair down. So she decides to head back to her dad the king and try to make him stop being such a warmongering dick, at which point she’s promptly damseled and turned into a literal weeping princess in a tower who needs someone else to rescue her. Never mind the fact this girl was barking orders on a goddamn military vessel just last episode, now she can’t even save herself from a single guard who shows up to execute her. Which is doubly stupid, because now she’s essentially noped out of the Silvana side of this story for good, so her kissing Claus is even more meaningless than it was already, and the change of scenery only makes her into an infinitely less interesting character than she was initially.

Hell, even the increasing scope of the war is handled really weirdly. Apparently those rocketships we saw falling to the ground in episode 13 were Disith migration capsules or something, and them falling means that the entire Disith empire has fallen. But we’ve never actually seen the Disith empire, so are we supposed to assume that literally all of it was contained in those capsules? Where is Disith home base here? Why are we supposed to take at face value that they’re all screwed when we were only given confusing flashes of what was even going on? It’s like the show just forgot to actually show us what Claus and Tatiana saw down on the surface, so we have no context for why any of it matters. And the political scheming between Anatory’s rulers is over just as quickly as it begins, with the king and priest shouting exposition at each other to explain their relationship with each other and Sophia before promptly skewering each other and dying in fire. So this whole plot point about Sophia coming back home was a complete narrative cul-de-sac that could’ve been skipped entirely without losing anything of value. The whole thing’s just so... stupid. It’s stupid and badly handled and a slap in the face to everything that made this show good initially. And now I’m really scared for how the second half is gonna go, because I don’t want to end up disliking Last Exile. You’ve been doing so well for so long, please don’t fall apart now!

Odds and Ends

-Ooh, nice detail how they’re propping Lavie’s slanted bed up on books to make it straight so she can sleep better.

-Damn, forced to transmit his own firing orders. That’s harsh.

-”I’m sorry. I jumped the gun, didn’t I?” skdjfhskhdf just a little

-”However, there is only enough water for one in the jug you would have us hand over.” I dunno, have you tried splitting it ever?

Christ, that was frustrating. See you next time!

[haec-est-fides]

Octavian in The Tyrant’s Tomb

Or rather, the lack thereof. You all know I’m salty about this, so here’s the official rant. 

First, let’s look at where he was mentioned. Exactly twice. 

“The legion had no high priest, no pontifex maximus. Their former augur, my descendant Octavian, had died in the battle against Gaia. (Which I had a hard time feeling sad about, but that’s another story.)” 

This one really hit me because it’s primarily just another instance of Apollo’s unnecessary sass. In The Hidden Oracle, he seemed to at least recognize his own fault in the matter for a split second: “A voice whispered in the back of my mind. This time I thought it might be my conscience: Who was the stupid boy? It wasn’t Octavian.” What happened to that? I get it, Rick knows that most fans hate Octavian. Ha ha. What’s important is that Apollo also thinks this way about Gaius Caligula and Nero, who are also his descendants. For all his character development, and for all the similarities between himself and these people he despises, Apollo can’t seem to wrap his head around the fact that yeah, they all got this from him. It’s one of the last bastions of Apollo’s ego and hypocrisy, and I don’t think it’s ever going to be addressed. 

It’s half-heartedly joked that there are no “adults in the room” in New Rome anymore. Reyna notices a difference in the dynamic of the Senate. Apollo is expected to do all the ceremonial duties regarding Jason’s funeral. Beyond this, the book never once directly admits that Octavian’s absence has otherwise impacted New Rome. Or how his family reacted to his death. Sure the chaotic state of the community may play a role in this, but more on it later.

Apollo has mentioned in ToA that, of all his godly memories, he specifically remembers his talks with Octavian. I for one am very interested in this “other story” that Rick refuses to explore. 

““Praetors often partner up. In power. But also romantically, I mean. I thought Jason. Then for a hot minute, Percy Jackson. Gods help me, I even considered Octavian.” [Reyna] shuddered.”

This mention is purely throwaway; it’s meant to show how truly desperate Reyna was feeling. For the record, I respect Reyna’s subplot, for all I care about it at all. I think it’s hilarious how clearly repulsed she sounds at herself for even considering dating Octavian. Let’s be clear: this isn’t her admitting she ever liked him, or - gods forbid - had a crush. This is Reyna commenting on how oppressive the expectations of society are on single women. What’s funnier to me is that Octavian would have 100% turned her down, and her self esteem would have been toast. Good for her for sticking to her heart and not letting the world tell her what to do. 

Moving on, what’s more important is how Octavian wasn’t mentioned. I've said before that Riordan’s decision to flat out ignore Octavian has led to some minor but annoying continuity issues.

On a purely practical note, Octavian was a prominent, active member of a religion, a government, and a military. New Rome doesn’t have an augur. As Jason’s funeral shows, Apollo had to take up the associated religious duties. But how did New Rome handle honoring those who died in the war with Gaia? Or those who were more recently lost, in the fighting with Tarquin? How has the operation of the legion and senate shifted? Who replaced him as centurion of the first? What is it like to not be able to seek the gods’ approval via augury? Who approves new recruits, checks their credentials and assigns them to cohorts, and eventually gives them their tattoos? Who awards mural crowns and other military distinctions? New Rome has been without an augur before, as it’s a rare gift, but these questions still need to be answered for the community to operate. 

Back to Octavian’s family! His family is said to have been the oldest, richest, and most influential family in New Rome. Octavian is at least a 3rd generation camper, his family going back a hundred years or more. This is stressed in HoO because it’s used to show just how “entitled” and stuck up he is, but now? It’s not mentioned at all. No mourning, no help in Rome’s time of crisis, nothing. Unless by Octavian’s “family” Riordan was solely referring to the Triumvirate and Octavian was a member of an Imperial Household the whole time, this is ridiculous. I need to write a whole post about this, because Octavian’s life is fascinating when you consider what implications this has. 

As Gaius and Commodus are attacking New Rome with their fleet of yachts, New Rome’s navy gets brought up. I know Apollo isn’t the best narrator on this point, but all that’s mentioned is the sad boat Percy used for the Alaska quest. That small fleet of very nice speedboats that Octavian funded for the attack on Camp Half-Blood? Nope. Is this just Apollo being out of the loop? What happened to New Rome’s fleet?

With New Rome in chaos, this last point is really more of a nit pick, but can we please remember that Octavian led a very willing camp to war? Even before the Argo II disaster, even before Octavian spoke out at the Senate, the lares and legionnaires in the streets showed anti-Greek sentiment. The 5th cohort was “Greeks and geeks.” When Octavian proposed war, he had the legion on his side. As soon as Reyna left to go help with the Athena Parthenos, the centurions were ready to disobey her and follow Octavian. Even in the final battle of HoO, only the 4th and 5th cohorts really start to turn against him. All of this backs a very important, but largely ignored, point: you can lead a horse to the Senate, but you can’t make it vote. We see none of that tension in New Rome now. I get that most of the legion is dead, and that’s a huge part of it, but no one spoke out at all. We don’t see anyone with the opinion that Octavian did save Rome and defeat Gaia. We don’t see him get any funerary honors (which makes the book’s message concerning death all the more hypocritical). When Gaius confronts Frank - “Praetor Zhang, you are duty-bound to recognize Roman authority, and we are it! Together, we can rebuild this camp and raise your legion to glory!” - he’s right. But we don’t see a single legionnaire hesitate. 

I get that New Rome isn’t Riordan’s favorite, and that to develop the Romans would require a whole series of its own, but the sheer shallowness of New Rome just felt lazy. Even mentioning Octavian’s legacy would have done so much to show us more about Camp Jupiter. How is he remembered? A hero? A tyrant? A martyr? A fraud?

[bave-de-crapaud]

The Darkness Within...

CHAPTER THREE

Request by: lovely @belladonnarey  A/N: very much enjoyed writing this. enjoy my loves, and as always, comments most welcome xx

Sirius x reader Older Sirius Sirius lives/ Post Azkaban Slow burn and eventual smut

Word count: +2800 Disclaimer:  all characters are assumed 18+ Warnings: light smut, NSFW, 18+,

———

Sirius POV

Sirius stood frozen as the door of Grimmauld Place closed in front of him and Remus had turned to the kitchen.

What the fuck just happened? In the space of seven hours, he had gone from excited, to tortured, to fearful, to confused and then what? A quiet admiration? All towards one person.

Sirius was a reckless man yes, but he did not let people or a person get under his skin so much. He had learnt the hard way to push down his feelings to survive, first in his family and second in Azkaban.

Yet he was at a loss for the multiple emotions swirling around his head. He tried to focus on the strongest feelings, process those and move on but the foremost emotions battling around his brain were amazement and shock, followed by a warm light tingling sensation he hadn’t had in a long time and did not want to deal with right now.

Sirius sighed and looked up at his mother’s portrait. A crooked smile played on his features as the curtains, still smoking from Y/N’s fire, fluttered almost angrily at him.

Scratching his jaw and exhaling softly, Sirius headed down the hall, calling out to Remus to pour him a drink as well. They had many things to discuss.

———

Over at your place, things weren’t as calm. You had managed to apparate onto your doorstep, landing slightly unceremoniously on a pot of ivy. The pain was increasing. It wasn’t as bad as you had anticipated, certainly not the same level as the cruciatus curse. This meant the worst was still to come. You shuddered at the thought.

Fumbling with the lock on your front door you stumbled into your apartment, legs refusing to cooperate.

“Quill, quill, parchment…” You mumbled to yourself, eyesight blurred as you struggled to glance around your living room.

On the windowsill was a strip of parchment; on top of it a quill. “Accio parchment!” It soared through the air, hitting you on the head as your reflexes failed you, falling to the floor at your feet.

Holding your temple, you gasped as your legs gave way and you dropped to the floor. You felt an out of body experience as the curse blew through you. Still you were expecting far worse than this. Reaching for your quill you tried in vain to scribble a coherent sentence your bones aching and muscles pinching you holding your movements back.

A thud behind your eyes was growing, beating a constant tattoo behind your eyelids. It made seeing what you were doing impossible.

You couldn’t move your arms to hold your head which was still smarting from the knock caused by Remus earlier. You closed your eyes and curled up in a ball, and as the tears started rolling down your cheeks the pain reached a crescendo, everything went black, and you remembered no more.

————

“We are going to want more than tea, Moony.” Sirius reentered the kitchen of Grimmauld Place addressing Remus who stood with two mugs of tea, pouring hot water from the kettle.

He looked up at Sirius and frowned before comprehension dawned on his face.

“You split Y/N’s curse didn’t you?” Sirius nodded.

“Bloody heck Sirius, you could have warned me!”

“I’m warning you now, mate. Firewhiskey’s on the top shelf over there.” Sirius pointed to a cabinet above the stove.

Remus sighed and looked at his friend, half exasperated and half proud. “So instead of doing what Y/N suggested you half cursed her, siphoning off the rest of the side effects to you and I?” “Not half.” Sirius corrected. “It still needs to be enough pain to knock her out and convince the Death Eaters she really was cursed but she won’t be out for days, more likely 10 hours as we’ll get some of the pain, minimising hers.” “Where did you learn to do that? I have read about it but heard it takes um… practice” Remus asked carefully. “My mother used to make me practise curses on animals, I didn’t want to but if I didn’t she would curse them and it would be much worse. I found the charm to measure and siphon off part or all of the curse and used to do that, pretending to curse things but really feeling it myself.”

Remus, looked down and nodded at this. Every now and then Sirius would surprise him by highlighting he wasn’t just an arrogant prankster but a kind and noble man. Deep down.

“Well I’m impressed Padfoot.” Said Remus handing Sirius a bottle of Firewhiskey and two tumblers. “Not to sound like an arsehole, but why did you drag me into this - couldn’t you have taken it by yourself?”

Knowing he was joking Sirius laughed before adding, “You sort of owe her, Moony.” “Remus stared at him. “What for?”

“She lost her dog protecting you mate! Her dog!”

“Oh I knew you would bring that up, always sensitive about the dog.” Remus smiled before a somber look took over his features. “I do feel terrible about that so fair enough.” He accepted the now full glass proffered by Sirius, but paused before taking a sip.

“So tell me, what are we in for?”

Sirius gave Remus a side smile, pointing at the glass in his hand. “Let’s just say we need to get drunk…”

————

“Ow, fuck Moony! That was a bad one!” Sirius clutched his stomach as a piercing cramp rolled through his abdomen.

Beer bottles and firewhisky littered the kitchen table where the two men had sat for the past three hours getting steadily and steadily more pissed as they waited for the phantom pains to pass.

“Sssseriously, Siriusssslllly aha Moony.” Grinned Sirius. “Thiss has gotta be worse than con-contractions!”

“Don’t say that in front of Wolly Measley!” Remus and Sirius both giggled, and then very quickly groaned aloud holding various parts of their bodies as the curse delivered more pain.

“WHEN WILL IT END?!” “You bloody made the curse Footpad. Hoo-You tell me?” Remus scoffed at his friend. “It is easing off now though, I’d hizzzard a gas mmmmm two hours left!”

“You are tobably, protally right as usssual Mooooons.”

Remus waved his hands in front of him like an orchestra conductor and took a bow. Unfortunately forgetting he was sitting and hitting his forehead on the table as he bent forward far too low.

Sirius roared with laughter, as Remus rubbed his sore furrowed brow, chuckling alongside Sirius.

They were still giggling as the flames in Sirius kitchen fireplace gleamed green and Madeye Moody stepped out.

Eying both men and the table full of booze, Moody shook his head.

“We’re fit-shaced!” Sirius exclaimed happily. “I can see that.” Moody replied as Remus tried and failed to make an inconspicuous ‘shussing’ gesture at Sirius behind his hand.

“They’ve found her.” Moody continued.

“Oh YYYY-YAY!” Remus hiccuped.

“The ‘Death Eaters’ found her.” Moody emphasised.

“Oh, so not yay.” Remus corrected himself.

“Isssshe good all? I mean all good?” Slurred Sirius

“She managed to get in her front door and look like she was trying to send a message before she passed out. I watched her house myself and saw the aftermath.”

He paused, waiting to see if Sirius and Remus were keeping up in their drunk states.

“They believe she was cursed at any rate and are on the hunt for Macnair as it became clear he hadn’t delivered her Voldemort’s parcel. Dumbledore is going to keep an eye out. She is recovering at her house now. So, congratulations on performing a convincing cover story.”

“Sold you I could to it…do it!” Cheered Sirius while Remus placed one hand over his chest, the other still rubbing his forehead.

“Huurumph.” Moody turned and stalked back to the fire place calling over his shoulder.

“The next time, don’t siphon off the curse, Sirius. I have had a headache for four hours.”

Remus, who had been attempting to take a sip of beer, choked at Moody’s words. Mouth agape and beer dripping down his chin, he pointed at Sirius who giggled sending them both into crackling laughter as Moody whooshed away into the floo.

———-

Several hours later Sirius lifted his head from the kitchen table. From the look of the light outside it was mid-morning. He groaned and pushed himself up blinking heavily.

Remus was nowhere to be seen, likely he put himself to bed after Sirius had passed out. Funny, Sirius could have sworn they moved into the living room after Moody’s visit.

He stepped over to one of his kitchen cabinets, pulled the door open and fumbled inside until his hands grasped the bottle he had been searching for; the Hangover Draught.

He quickly gulped it down and lent against the bench, head hanging low while he waited for the potion to take affect.

It had been a strange night as he and Remus had grappled with the offset of his curse.

Remus had probed into Sirius’ motivations for sharing Y/N’s pain in the first place.

Not being able to give Remus a satisfactory answer, Sirius was subject to what he used to call ‘The Moony Prefect Stare’ - an annoying smug look Remus would save for him and James at school when Remus knew they were hiding something and had a good idea of what that something was.

In all honesty Sirius didn’t know why he had decided to help Y/N. Perhaps it was somewhere in between the 5th question of her veritiserum trial and the look on her face when he read her runes.

She seemed familiar somehow and he couldn’t help but feel for her situation.

“You believe her but you still don’t trust Snape.” Remus had questioned him.

“Snape started out wanting to be a Death Eater, and I noticed no-one has asked him to take a truth potion.” Sirius snapped back.

“Fair enough.” Remus nodded in reply. “He’s a Potion Master though isn’t he - he’d see it coming anyway so regardless, we’d never know if it worked. We’ll just have to take Dumbledore’s word for it.” Sirius had snorted in a dissatisfied manner.

Did he trust Y/N though?

~Yes~ a voice in the back of his head answered.

Shaking his head he had taken a shot of fire whisky and changed the subject.

That’s how the rest of the evening passed for Remus and Sirius, pleasant laughs of nostalgia and light anecdotes punctuated by bouts of phantom pain from the curse and varying degrees of sobriety.

Something had stayed in the back of Sirius’ mind all night though, and he wasn’t sure if it was welcome.

Pushing himself off the kitchen bench, feeling marginally better, Sirius made his way down the hallway and up the staircase to bed. On his way he noticed that someone had changed the colour of his carpet to gold. Must have been Remus on his way to bed. Sirius shrugged his shoulders to no-one muttering to himself that it made a nice change from the dull blue his mother had chosen.

He reached his room but couldn’t find the doorknob to open the bedroom door. Frowning to himself and thinking perhaps he was still drunk he looked down to see the handle sitting on the opposite side of the door than it should have been.

As he reached for it, it moved up to the top of the door frame. Several moments of Sirius getting increasingly more impatient chasing his door knob all over the door he finally managed to grab it and force it to turn.

“Very funny Moony.” Sirius barked out to the door opposite his room.

He pushed the door roughly and entered his room.

Sirius had never put his shirt back on from last night so he only had to kick off his trousers but they were tight and he was having difficulty.

“Need a hand?” A voice purred from over by his bed.

Sirius started, one foot in the air trying to pull his pants off his ankles.

“What the?!”

“I’d love to help but I’m a little tied up…”

Speechless Sirius looked at his bed. There, sprawled naked, was Y/N, hands tied to his head board by his Gryffindor tie.

Sirius toppled over in surprise. Quickly recovering himself, removing the last inch of his trouser leg he stepped towards his bed.

“Y/N! What are you doing here?”

She was gorgeous. Laid out in front of him like some debaucherous smorgasbord of desire.

Beads of sweat dripping down her smooth skin. Her breasts were plump and supple, her hair strewn across his pillow added to her wanton air as she looked up at him bitting her lip and squeezing her legs together.

Sirius had mentally clocked her figure as she left headquarters last night, he had helped her up of course from her fall and felt the curves of her waist beneath his hand. Not noticing at the time he watched her until she disapparated…hang on? Something clicked.

“Y/N aren’t you suppose to be recovering still? I know I didn’t use the strongest curse on you but how did you get here?”

“You tell me Sirius.” She bit her lip again and looked at him longingly.

Sirius was sweating, barely aware he was only in his underwear.

“I don’t think this is a good idea, Y/N.” He licked his lips anxiously. Oh mother of Morgana he was turned on.

“Really? Your body language doesn’t seem to agree with you.” Y/N looked down indicating to a growing bulge in his briefs.

Sirius, never one to be shy about sex, simply placed one hand over himself and ran the other through his hair smiling slightly as he tried to control his thoughts into some semblance of order.

Was this a bad idea?

“Y/N we barely know each other.”

“That’s never stopped you before.” She winked.

“True” He smiled at her, pausing before speaking what was in his head. “A few hours ago we were cursing each other. This is rather fast don’t you think?”

“I know but I really, really want you Sirius.” She sounded pained.

Y/N tilted her head back and closed her eyes. “Please Sirius, just touch me. I need you to touch me.”

Sirius’ cock twitched under his hand. He hadn’t felt this desired in a long time. Bursts of excitement were sparking up and down his body.

“Y/N…” he growled.

“Sirius.”

He walked forward until he was right next to the bed.

“Sirius.” She was getting louder in her pleas rubbing her thighs together, squirming where she was feeling the heat the most.

“Y/N” Sirius growled again. He reached out to run the tips of his fingers down her side, brushing across her nipples. She strained against the ties and arched up into him.

“Oh my Godric.” He was aching now.

He gently placed his hands either side of her head and lay on top of her, leaning closer to her swollen lips, they were brushing against his. He ground his hips down into hers and she moaned.

Sirius closed his eyes ecstasy and tried to calm his breathing. It had been a while but he still wanted to control himself and ensure she had just as good a time.

“SIRIUS!” She was chanting his name over and over.

As his lips descended on hers he felt a sudden sharp blow to his temple.

Surprised he looked down at Y/N but she was gone. He could hear her calling to him but he couldn’t see where she was. He blinked several times, the room began swirling before him.

“Wha-whats happening Y/N?”

“SIRIUS!”

“Y/N?”

“SIRIUS MATE, WAKE UP!”

Sirius’ vision stopped swimming in front of him, he opened his eyes to see Remus spread over the living room floor, holding various objects ready to lob them at him were he lay, face flat on the living room couch.

“What the fuck Moony, I was asleep!” Sirius muffled into the couch cushions.

“I know and moaning Y/N’s name over and over, it was a bit off putting mate.”

So it was merely a dream. Of course. That explained the different coloured carpet, his changing door handle and Y/N on his…he shuddered, a thrill pulsed through him.

“Anything you want to talk about Padfoot?” Remus could barely contain his laughter.

Sirius threw the book Remus had tossed at him and gave him a wry smile.

“i’m going to make some coffee, want some?”

Remus yawned and nodded.

“Got any hangover potion? I feel rotten.” Sirius smirked, stood up and heading back to the kitchen.

It was full of bottles, cigarette butts, and a half cooked pizza.

He searched through the kitchen cabinets for the Hangover Draught feeling a vague sense of déjà vu. Was he stuck in a dream loop? He would be up for that especially if waiting for him in his bedroom was Y/N.

Alas, Sirius shook his head. He wasn’t dreaming anymore he was sure of it. For one thing, there was no hangover potion left which was typical and the carpet, he had noticed, was back to it’s normal shade of dreary blue.

--

Tag list: @belladonnarey @sirius-lysad @riddikuluslypotter @emmamass24 @evyiione @mylovelykelsifer @sly-vixen-up2nogood @ashkuuuu @virgilwrites-archive @songforhema @wangmangagavroche @borbole-teias @legalyred @qwertyokok

[bbrandy2002]

The Breakfast Club

Chapter 9:

Don't You Forget About Me.

Summary: The group has an epiphany. Who really put them together and why? Constantine ensures one member of the group won't be a problem anymore.

One more chapter!!!

The Royal Romance AU

Warning: These characters have potty mouths, read at your own peril. They also belong to Pixelberry.

Henry David Thoreux is quoted as saying, 'Not until we are lost do we find ourselves'. How can five people with differing life experiences, walk into a room as wounded, forgotten souls, and together, discover who they are. If ever the fates aligned, it happened on that particular Saturday. _

Life sometimes gives us what we need... Through hardships we find growth

Saturday 4:00 PM Old Palace Library

Sitting on the floor of the old library, an 18 year old with a cold heart and distaste for the crown. His father gunned down years ago by an assasin's bullet and a mother who left he and his sister, to return to the States. A war was waged in him years ago and bitterness won. All he knew now was trouble, booze and anger. He is the commoner.

Sitting to his left is the stunning Duchess of Lythikos. Nearly 18 herself, she has been raised by the King since she was a child. Her parents, traitors to the crown, died atempting to overthrow the monarchy. Contantine has always treated her like an enemy and took every opportunity to degrade her. The only constant in her life was a prince, whom she loves, but, he has never returned her affections in a manner she wants. She has built an impermiable wall of defense around herself for protection, that includes degrading others for self-preservation. She is known as the bitch to many.

Next to her, a young 17 year old from Ramsford with a heart of gold and the life of any party. On the outside, he is funny, outgoing and, perhaps, too kind for his own good. On the inside, he grieves the losses in his life, both in body and spirit. His inabilty to live up to the Beaumont expectations, weighs on him heavily. He sees himself as a failure.

Also, the new Crown Prince of Cordonia. He will be 18 tomorrow and at that time will become bethrothed to his brother's former fiancee, though, his heart now belongs to another. He has wished death would find him so many times recently that he tried and failed to make it a reality. The burdens that he was left with when his brother abdicated, is too much to bear. His father has caused irreparable hurt, physically and emotionally, that fear, now courses through his veins like wildfire. There are no disappointments allowed when you're The Heir.

Next to him, a perky, 17 year old girl, saved from the streets. She has big dreams of moving to New York and making it big. She is held back by a dangerous, family life that included more abuse than many should withstand. Is a girl with her background, naive enough to believe she can save her new dream from being robbed of his? After all, its said that trash breeds trash.

"Why is everyone sitting on the floor?", a seemingly gleeful and renewed Liam asked as he joined them.

A weary eyed Drake rubbed his hand across the back of his neck, "Trust me...its a long story".

Riley leaned over and playfully tugged at Drake's foot, "You seem somewhat calmer than you did earlier, what happened?".

Maxwell couldn't help himself as he grinned, "Let's just say....well....we got totally fucked up."

Liam and Riley looked between the three, all appearing quite relaxed, still eating on the last remnants of sandwiches and fruit the maid brought them an hour ago.

Olivia, now recovered from her earlier high, couldn't help but notice a change in Liam. Knowing he was with Riley the past four hours left a sour taste in her mouth.

"So Riley", Olivia began, "Maxwell tells us he found you on the streets...will you be returning to your park bench tonight or do you think fucking Liam once is enough for another free night at the palace".

"Olivia!", Liam, quickly shot up, dumbfounded by her callousness.

Olivia looked at him with shock, "What? Hmm, Liam...she's obviously looking for a meal ticket and you are falling right into her grubby little hands".

"You're such a bitch!" A furious Riley yelled back, both fists gripped tightly together.

"Damn straight", she sniped.

Drake laid back on the floor with his hands cupped behind his head, "You just can't stop yourself can you Olivia?"

She raised an eyebrow and straightened her posture, "Who asked you...like your opinion matters anyway".

The air became thick with tension and poisonous words. Olivia was hurting and holding on for dear life. The only person who ever seemed to give a damn about her was slipping away fast.

A normally flippant Maxwell, tried to find a balance, an understanding of what was taking place. "Olivia, why do you berate everyone? Riley's never done anything to you".

Her beady, green eyes readily placed a target directly on him, "Like I care what some moron like you thinks. When you have to deal with the bullshit I go through everyday, then by all means judge away, until then, fucking mind your own business".

Maxwell jumped up and stood with a demeanor that suggested Olivia found his breaking point. With a raised voice and a face painted as red as her hair, "The bullshit you deal with? Your bullshit?...What about my bullshit? What about Drake and Liam and Riley's bullshit? Are you so fucking closed off and hardened, that you don't see we're all dealing with nothing but bullshit?...I have two dead parents, just like you,  and a brother who has a stick so far up his ass...", his voice started to break as he rubbed a stinging tear from his eye, "...just...quit acting like its only you".

Riley stood up and gave Maxwell a comforting embrace, while Drake continued to lay back, eyes closed, struggling with his own thoughts.

Liam noted Olivia's composure, she was tense and hollow, but, her eyes spoke volumes. She was fighting herself, the walls were crumbling and she was trying with all of her might to keep them standing. If there was ever a time to get into her heart, it was now.

Liam raised his knees and wrapped his arms around them, resting his chin down.  "We're supposed to write an essay about who we think we are....well, who are we? I sure as hell don't know who I am anymore...looking around at each of you and hearing Maxwell's words, tells me no one else does either".

Riley and Maxwell sat back down with the group, everyone except Drake pondering Liam's words in their minds, but, no one speaking.

Liam raised his head again and lowered his legs, crossing them in front of him. "Okay, I'll go first then....I'm suffocating, I'm losing my mind, at the end of a short rope. I hate my father, my life...who I have to be", he stopped for a second to prepare himself for what followed, "I wanted to die last night, even tried swallowing pills".

He grabs everyone's attention, including Olivia who saw him this morning, at the mention of the prince trying to commit suicide. "Yeah... I wanted it all to end...I just needed, peace".

Drake sits up, claps his hands mockingly and glares at Liam, "Boo..fucking.. hoo..must be real hard to have the entire damn country bowing at your ever present whim...so spare me the sob stories your majesty".

Olivia raises her hand back and slaps Drake across the face, screaming, "You weren't there this morning....you don't know what happens to him, to me... every day is a nightmare where the King dictates who we are or else."

Drake rubs the stinging on his reddened cheeks, seething, "Yeah, you’re right, I wasn't there, I was stuck in a damn basement apartment alone because my father died protecting your sorry, rich ass's and my mother lost her mind because of it"

Dead air filled the room.

"Sounds like your dad was a hero Drake...my real dad bailed before I was even born", Riley mused.

"Yeah Drake, at least your dad didn't die on a friggin boat with a cocaine stained nose, partying his ass off, while your mother was at home dying....it sucks I know, but, of the five of us, your dad was... pretty awesome", Maxwell said with a sympathetic smile.

A hero_? _That word caused a flood of emotions that ran straight to his yielded heart. He was breaking down too, especially when he caught a glimpse of Liam, a member of the royal family, nodding in agreement, showing genuine appreciation for Jackson Walker.

He ran a hand through his hair and held onto it with a tight grip. He tried to hold the moisture that formed like pools in his flustered, brown eyes, but, they poured out anyway. Even Olivia looked at him, envious of the legacy Jackson left for Drake and his sister to be proud of. No one else in the room could say the same of their fathers.

Drake covered his eyes and sniffled loudly, his lips quivering uncontrollably, "I miss my dad", he wailed out.

Maxwell and Riley quickly went to him, rubbing and patting him on the back. Liam crawled over to Drake, holding his head to his chest.

Liam looked at him while Drake tried to stifle his sobs. "Drake, I'd like to personally thank, on behalf of myself and the crown, the son of the man who saved me and my families life".

Drake had held his feelings in for so long, it felt surprisingly gratifying to finally release them. He thought to himself-_Fucking Bastien was right. _He lifted himself up, with everyone except Olivia following his lead. He wiped his wet face on the inside of shirt, "It's all I ever wanted, just someone to appreciate him...to care about what he did". Liam then pulled him into a hug, "I do Drake, I really do", as he clapped his back.

Drake returned a half smile, looking away for moment before turning to face Liam again, "You're already ten times the King your father is.".

Drake inhaled deeply and asked for a minute alone. He walked down the stairs and sat on the bottom step attempting to make sense of everything that just happened.

Olivia, remained still, then grabbed her purse and followed him. She sat down next to him, but, he didn't acknowledge her presence. She reached inside her purse and took  Drake's hand. He watched as she slowly dropped his fathers pocket watch into his palm.

Stunned, he stared at her in disbelief, "how did you...?"

She looked off in the distance, sighing, before meeting his bewildered look, "A courier dropped it off yesterday. It was found in an alley and had the Royal crest on it. Constantine didn't know who it belonged to and tossed it aside, but, I did....I took it and was going to use it against you".

He looked at the watch, clutching it with both hands as if his life depended on, "That's a real fucked up thing to do, even for you".

She swallowed hard, "Yeah...it is...I'm sorry".

Drake quirked his brows, "Did I really just get the Duchess of Lythikos to apologize to a poor commoner like me?".

She smiled and playfully swiped at his arm, "Yes, but, don't expect any more". She then leaned over, speaking in a low voice, "Can I tell you something?".

Drake squinted his eyes, skeptical, "What?"

Olivia looked around, "I actually had a lot of fun with you today, even when you were an asshole....banter aside, I can't say I've ever been on a drug run, climbed in an air duct, fallen through the ceiling and then got very....very stoned", she chortled.

He chuckled back, "Yeah, I never expected to do any of those things, especially with you".

"Walker?", she asked, "am I anything besides a bitch...I mean, who do I say I am?".

He thought for a moment before cracking a smile at her, "You're still a bitch....but, like a bad ass, take no prisoners kind, but, you're also one tough girl...you have to deal with a lot of Constantine's shit...that take's guts.".

She stood up, absorbing his words, "I was told as little girl...If you can breathe, you can stand and if you can stand, you can fight....So, I will just keep on fighting", she smiled, ruffled his hair and walked back upstairs.

Drake shook his head in disbelief, "unbelieveable", he said to himself as his enemy just became a friend. He followed her back up.

Liam came up behind Olivia and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her cheek. He knew what she had just done for Drake and was proud of her. He asked her to apologize to Riley, in which she hesitated. "She's the one Livvie", he told her. The words stung, but, she was also glad to see him happy for once..

Olivia apologized and she and Riley sat together talking about make up and different hairstyles Riley could try. She told her she was returning to Lythikos soon and if she ever needed anything to let her know.

Drake and Maxwell caught Liam up on why there was a hole in the ceiling. They each would reminisce about their childhood adventures together. Every now and then, Liam would peak over at Riley, just to see her.

The group made their way down the steps and gathered around Liam, sitting at a table, preparing to write the letter. He looked up at them, "So, who do we say we are?".

Maxwell slumped over on the table, "It's been a long day, I just wanna be Maxwell."

They each looked at one another and knew what they wanted.

"I'm just Riley".

"I guess, I'm just Olivia".

"Drake"

Liam penned it down to the letter, "and I just want to be Liam".

Olivia watched as Riley and Liam sat together, canoodling, as she described it. Drake came up behind her and placed both hands on her shoulders, tugging them. She looked at him with a sad face. "Come on, you can sit with me and Maxwell", he said as he pulled her over to another table.

Some time had passed when the door opened and Bastien walked in. They were all surprised to learn that this whole thing was not actually Constantine's doing, but, he and Regina's. The kids were falling apart and they thought they could use time together, helping one another, in a way an adult couldn't.  Apparently, their plan worked.

"Real fucking sneaky Bas", Drake said as he pulled him into hug, "does this mean I don't have seven weekends of guard duty with the ass clown you sent in here to watch us?"

"We'll see", he chuckled.

Everyone made their way out of the library, with Liam stopping Riley in the hallway. "Hey you".

"Hey you", she replied while pulling him to her.

"I have to go speak with my father, but, I'll meet you at the garden maze in twenty minutes, okay?"

She stood on her tipped toes and kissed him, "Don't you forget about me", she teased.

They parted ways and she made it to the palace entrance. She was met by two officers and a guard, looking specifically for her.

The officer approached her, "Riley Brooks?"

She wanted to lie, but, they obviously knew it was her. She let a shaky response, "yes".

The officer grabbed her and placed her under arrest, "we received word from His Majesty that you are a runaway who snuck into the palace".

Riley tried to explain to them that she was invited by Maxwell and that the Prince knows her, however, it fell on deaf ears.

Constantine met them at the door, with a scour look. He walked up to her, glared at her for what seemed to be hours for Riley, then smacked her in the face. "Don't you ever think about coming back here again.... or you will be sorry."

He motioned for the officers to take her away.

She cried out, "please dont send me back, he'll kill me....please....Liam!!!".

***Let me know if you want removed from the tag list.

@timothygorgeous @lovemychoices @gnatbrain @burnsoslow @choiceslife @stopforamoment @thisperfectmemory @kingliam2019 @moneyfordiamonds @pedudley @emceesynonymroll @romanticatheart-posts @carabeth @dcbbw @ao719 @ladyakwardness

[starlight-matrix]

Nabari no Ou 15th Anniversary!

@nabaridays wrote up some prompts to celebrate the 15th anniversary of NnO and as it’s my favorite manga series of all time, I had to join the fun!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of the prompts’ existence until we were about four or five days in, so instead of starting in the middle of the prompt list, I wrote all mine up in a Google Doc and decided to do a big masterpost in the day of the anniversary. And here it is! Beware for a lot of reading, this shit’s at 4.1k words.

- Catherine Lynne / catielynnelove.tumblr.com Fan of NnO since 2012 -

DAY 01 (Jun. 3rd) - Favorites

My favorite character has always been Miharu, though I do struggle to choose between him and Yoite. I have always been fascinated by his apathetic nature, the way he uses is as a shield while loving the people in his life so incredibly fiercely. He appears neutral and uncaring, but the moment you look beneath the surface, you recognize that he would give his life for those he loves in a heartbeat - and has shown this on multiple occasions.

I also love his development over the series. His apathetic facade slowly falls out of use after he meets Yoite, and he learns that feeling your emotions is important, that letting the people you love know when you’re happy or sad or pissed the fuck off is important.

In the first few chapters we as readers honestly can’t tell a whole heck of a lot from what we’re shown of Miharu. He’s plain, uninteresting, even to us (unless you’re the kind of person who automatically reads between the lines, but let’s face it, not a lot of people are). But by the end of the series, he’s such a vibrant and expressive character that I marvel at Kamatani’s ability to drastically a character’s personality in a way that feels so gradual and natural.

Another reason Miharu is my favorite character is because I tend to see parts of myself in him, as many people do with the characters they like most. I can understand and relate to his apathy in the beginning of the story. His memory of his parents deaths is so deeply traumatic and that the very fibre of his being (objectively, Shinra) locked the memory, and most of his childhood, away for years to come. Because at that time in his life, the pain of it all would’ve broken him.

(E/N: I now remember that Asahi actually erased Miharu’s memories of that event, but I think a good chunk of this will still make sense, and I’m lazy, so I’m not gonna edit it out. Enjoy.)

Emotions, especially ones he didn’t understand - or couldn’t understand, like his feelings toward his childhood that didn’t quite make sense because of his augmented memories - were simply so overwhelming that Miharu pretty much just went “lol don’t wanna deal with those so yEET now they’re gone” and locked them up in a box to be dealt with at a much, much later date. That speaks to me, as a person who has struggled with depression, and the fact that he finds a way to recover from this is very reassuring.

Overall, Miharu is a very complex and realistic character that undergoes more vivid character development than I’ve seen in almost any western media. I love him very much.

DAY 02 (Jun. 4th) - What got you into Nabari no Ou?

This is actually quite a funny story, so buckle up for a wild ride y’all!

When I was 12 years old (God, this sounds like the setup for an angsty villain backstory), my family had a housemate who liked anime. One day I came to beg for him to let me use his video game console to play Little Big Planet and he happened to be watching the second half of the anime - I distinctly remember the second Alya Academy episode being the first one I ever saw. It was my first anime experience outside of a Studio Ghibli film, and to this day remains close to my heart, even though the anime adaptation itself really… just… well, it sucked.

After I finished watching it with him, I went and found the first half of the series on Netflix (back when Netflix did the whole send-a-DVD-to-your-house thing) and watched the whole thing from episode one. And then very quickly became obsessed. I probably watched the anime four times in two months. I had every single one of the English VAs names memorized. I was dedicated.

Eventually I looked up the manga online, and HOO BOI, this is the point where my Nabari no Ou origin story becomes ridiculously hilarious (and stupid).

When I read the manga, I was disturbed by the idea of Kouichi being a villain-type character, as he had been one of my favorites when I watched the anime. And, at the time I was first reading the manga, the apparent “ending” from my perspective was the scene where Kouichi takes the newly-made hijutsu scroll from a bleeding, dying Thobari.

Looking back, I figure the website I was reading it on just didn’t have all the chapters, or perhaps I had happened to start reading while the manga was on hiatus, but at that age I didn’t know of or understand either of those concepts and accepted that sad scene as the end of the manga.

And as such, I wrote the manga off as terrible and ignored it for years.

Flash forward to about 2014, two or three years after writing the manga off as a Fat Mistake, I finally decided to give it another shot. And BY GOD did I cry reading it a second time. Whether it was the two years of maturity, my experiences during those two years, or simply the fact that I read the whole thing that time - I was sobbing in my desk chair over NnO.

It was the most beautiful story I’d ever read. Even now, after five more years of reading beautiful manga, Nabari no Ou remains my absolute favorite, and likely always will.

DAY 03 - What are your favorite scenes?

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Alya Academy arc, even back when all I’d shunned the manga and all I had to go off of was the inaccurate anime adaptation, simply because of how well the character relationships are shown during those sequences (this is one thing the anime did really well in my opinion, actually - Shijima’s verbal reflection on how humans connect to each other and how important those connections are is stunning). Not to mention the displays of how the characters care for one another regardless of what side of the war they’re technically on.

I’ve always loved Subaru as a character, too. I find her motivations to be very realistic and really quite understandable, and I love the little easter eggs in later chapters that imply the Kouga ninja are helping Miharu’s side of the fight even though they’re not visibly involved. The scores from the Alya Academy arc are especially chilling and memorable as well.

Another of my favorites are the chapters following Miharu and Yoite’s escape from the Kairoshuu and their travels afterward. They feel mundane and peaceful, yet blanketed with this layer of grief, like we’re all aware that at any moment their calm could be destroyed and lost forever.  

The scenes about Yoite’s gender were very special to me as a teen still learning about the LGBT spectrum and how different people could be, and the scene of Yoite bandaging Miharu’s aching feet? My heart literally swells every single time I think about it! It was so sweet and loving, my fragile fangirl heart does flips when I read over it.

DAY 04 (Jun. 6th) - Photos & Fashion

I like to think that Miharu keeps every photograph he’s taken and has them stored safely away in a box or chest or drawer. In my experience, people who have lost loved ones tend to treasure photographs, more than someone who hasn’t experienced loss might. A lot of times a photo is all someone has of someone they loved outside of a memory, and contrary to popular belief, if you don’t look at someone - physically or in a photo - for a long time, you do forget how they look.

Miharu has lost many people: his parents, Yoite, Kouichi and Shijima, even Shinra, in a way - so I imagine this observation would be doubly true of him. Especially if he has Yukimi as an example to go by - pretty sure that guy has kept every photograph he’s ever taken in his life!

(As far as fashion goes, I honestly think everyone’s fashion in NnO is horrendous, so...)

DAY 05 (Jun. 7th) - Favorite character design in the series?

Gosh, it’s hard to choose, I love so many of them! Gau is fascinating to me because I figure his hair must be difficult to draw, with all those little curls and cowlicks. Shijima’s too, with the way it frames her face and leaves just a tiny little opening for her eyes to peer out at you through.

But, as with most of these character-specific prompts, my answer will have to be Miharu. The idea that Asahi reshaped his face to look more like her own when she used Shinra to save him is very interesting, and the fact that Kamatani manages to draw Miharu in a way that both clearly shows their resemblance to one another and establishes Miharu as his own character with his own unique features and gestures and ways of carrying himself is incredible.

Miharu’s stance are also very telling to me as a reader: he often stands loosely, almost lazily, as if he really couldn’t care less about where he is and what they’re doing, which rings true for a good chunk of the story. It matches well with his (mostly) fake apathy and kind of makes him seem bland and boring as a character. But as the story progresses, he becomes more open, shows affection more easily. He’s quicker to stand up for his beliefs and the people he loves. All of this shows in the way he carries himself throughout later chapters.

DAY 06 (Jun. 8th) - Favorite location in the series?

The Shimizu estate, without a doubt.

The secluded area, the forest in every direction, the house itself - it’s all so beautiful to me. Ot gives me the feeling of rural Japan and more traditional Japanese living. Even after the house has burned away and all that’s left is a field full of Spider Lilies, there’s a kind of sober beauty lying over the place, made even more intense when Shirogamon stands watch over it.

DAY 07 (Jun. 9th) - Positive Influences

The thing that I preach about the most when I talk about NnO to others is the fact that the series has no absolutes. There is no true right or wrong, no clear villains nothing that actually puts our heroes above anyone else. Which, in a way, means that are really are no heroes in the story at all, which is a very rare and interesting way to tell a story.

The entire series deal with a greyscale in morality. There’s no bad vs. good or moral vs. immoral, just your own goals and people whose goals don’t match yours. Opinions and ambitions differ vastly even between people on the same side of the fight - Thobari and Raimei want to seal the Shinrabanshou, Kouichi wants to use it to defeat his immortality, Miharu even changes side on a few occasions - yet they all work together together to achieve their own very different ends.

Even those who can be coded as villain on the surface have something motivating them to do what they do, and more often than not, those motivations are understandable to the reader and actually have you sympathizing with the character. Hattori wanted to rid the world of the need for war. Subaru wanted to save the person she loved most in the world. Yamase wanted to win his family back (I think? It’s been a while).

Even Katarou and Kannuki, two characters who have practically nothing to redeem them, at least have motivations that are pretty damn realistic. Kannuki wanted to capitalize on Kouga’s Forbidden Art and use it to grow Alya Academy’s profit and power through the surface world. A Lot of people are like this in real life, and while you may not sympathize with him over it, it is a motivation that is true of our own world as well as the one in this story.

An Katarou, as far as I understand, is obsessed with Shinra herself, rather than the hijutsu and the power it holds. He manipulated hundreds of people and hundreds of situations to suit his own needs, then literally got himself killed - just to see her one last time. And… yeah, I don’t think anyone really sympathized with him, but hey, I can see what pushed him to do what he did.

To me, Katarou is symbolic of someone with an addiction - their mind is so clouded by a need for some specific thing that all other human aspects of that person just fall away, and they’ll do whatever it takes to get what they want.

I also appreciate how the characters handle their differences throughout the story. Their honesty with each other, the way they support each other even when they’re all heading in opposite direction. The Alya Academy arc (I really love this arc okay) especially shows this, in how the ninja from Banten and Kairoshuu - two very opposing factions - fight together against the Kouga without hesitation, despite the fact that in most other situations, they’d be fighting each other.

It’s a wonderful thing to promote: that even though people might have different opinions or goals, it doesn’t mean they have to hate each other.

DAY 08 (Jun. 10th) - Favorite Extra?

I am IN LOVE with the little between-chapter 4koma pieces, especially the ones from the Alya Academy arc (God, I’ve talked so much about this arc). Subaru fantasizing about Miharu being her little brother and making her birthday cake? Adorable. Miharu and Yoite getting stuck behind a bookshelf and terrifying an opponent by asking for help out? Hilarious.

I love that Kamatani put those in, both as a peek into happier aspects of the world he created, and as a way to add a bit of sun in between the much darker, much sadder chapters.

DAY 09 (Jun. 11th) - Headcanons

I’m not much of a headcanon person, to be honest, and especially not with this series. It feels off to me, to try and add to something that’s already so perfect. However, I do agree with a couple of headcanons I’ve seen - particularly the ones theorizing that Yukimi is aro-ace. It makes a lot of sense to me in how his character is portrayed when nearly every other character in the series has a romantic match, and as an ace person myself, more representation is always welcome.

DAY 10 (Jun. 12th) - Alternate Universe

I once started (and quickly abandoned out of shame) a very cringey, very out-of-character fanfic, in which the Nabari world didn’t exist and all the characters meet through natural means in the surface world. Other than that, however, I’ve not put much thought into Nabari no Ou AUs.

But something I would LOVE to see is a crossover between NnO and Shimanami Tasogare, as the two stores canonically take place in the same location - NnO being in Banten, a fictional town  based on the real town of Onomichi, and Shimanami Tasogare being confirmed to take place in plain old Onomichi itself. It’s been a while since I’ve read Shimanami Tasogare, but I remember the leader/owner of the little house the cast gathers in as giving me a distinctly Nabari-world vibe, and I think it would be interesting to see the NnO characters react to a community like the one presented in Shimanami Tasogare.

(And also perhaps have some romantic relationships and sexualities proven canon. Perhaps.)

DAY 11 (Jun. 13th) - Favorite song from the OST?

It’s a firm tie between the opening theme and the second ending theme. I have every song in the OST memorized after years of hearing them day in and day out, but those two themes always give me this tingling nostalgic feeling, like rereading a book from your childhood or finding a toy as an adult that you’d thought was lost forever. The animation and symbolism in those themes are also very telling of the series and the character’s connections to each other (a bit obviously, at times), and the lyrics are special to me in a way I can’t describe. They’re precious to me, and  to me experience of NnO as a whole, considering I started with the anime first (a bad idea).

DAY 12 (Jun. 14th) - Are there any songs that make you think of NnO?

“Neopolitan Dreams” by Lisa Mitchell ( X ) ( X )

I once watched a cute Raimei/Kouichi AMV set to this song listened to the lyrics, I understood how the author had put them together. I very much feel like the lyrics echo Raimei’s thoughts on how Kouichi starts to act in later chapters, becoming more and more distant until he almost appears to be an antagonist rather than one of the perceived heroes. The song also makes me think of Raimei’s stubbornness and pride, her unwillingness to accept option besides her own conclusions until she’s had the full story and nothing less.

I can never get their faces out of my head while listening to this song, which I guess means the song reminds me more of Raimei and Kouichi than NnO in general, but it still counts, right?

DAY 13 (Jun. 15th) - Food

I’ve never really thought too hard on it, but now that I am, it’s actually very interesting to note how different characters use food - the Rokujo Okonomiyaki shop, in particular - to their advantage.

Thobari uses his (implied, before the start of the overall plot) regular visits to try and get Miharu to believe him about the Shinrabanshou and the Nabari world. Thobari uses the close proximity to explain his motives to Miharu, who physically cannot leave the situation, lest the food burn to a damn crisp (and I figure Naoko wouldn’t be pleased if that happened every time Thobari came in). He also very clearly uses this to keep tabs on Miharu when outside of a school setting where Miharu has no choice to be in Thobari’s sight, and later, as a way to either catch up on what’s going on in the Nabari world or - as in several cases - simply demand answers from Miharu.

Raimei uses the shop as a way to get closer to Miharu. She charms her way into getting free food (and sometimes, free lodging as well) and I assume her thinking is probably something on the lines of “Free Food + Spend Time With Miharu = Information on Where Raikou Might Be.” Of course, this likely isn’t her motive in later chapters, because, well, character development.

Food is also an important bonding thing for Yoite and Yukimi. In a lot of the scenes where we see Yoite and Yukimi in their home, they’re eating together, and I always took it as a display of their familial relationship - cooking dinner for Yoite the way a dutiful older sibling would for their younger sibling - thoughI doubt either of them would admit they’re like brothers. The significance of lemonade should also be noted for this topic - I could go on for ages about it.

(But I won’t unless people ask me to, because this piece is long enough already!)

I don’t have much memory of this scene being as big a deal in the manga as it was in the anime - but I also haven’t seen either in a while, so I could be wrong - but the birthday cake scene from the latter half of the anime left an impact on me even back when I’d only seen the anime, and it was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the prompt was “food.” Gau’s pride in the cake he made and his determination to get any kind of praise out of Yoite is very touching, especially when you take into account that Yoite literally saved Gau’s life, and that Gau knows this, as well.

The Kairoshuu - particularly Yukimi, Raikou, Gau, and Kazuho - are all shown bonding on more than one occasion at Kazuho and her husband’s sushi shop, and there is significance to those occasions in the rather heavy conversations they have during those visits. And there’s also the time Miharu cooked okonomiyaki for all the main Kairoshuu member after he’d first joined their clan - similar to how a recently hired employee would bring cookies for their new boss.

Food has a lot of significance in Nabari no Ou, no matter where you look.

DAY 14 (Jun. 16th) - Favorite village, and thoughts on the Forbidden Arts?

As far as morals and motivations go, I would have to choose Banten, as their (or at least Thobari’s) main opinion is that the Shinrabanshou shouldn’t be used because it throws off the balance of the universe. I definitely understand this opinion, because a lot of things can go wrong if the wrong kind of person is making wishes to Shinra and having them granted.

Although, I think that if anyone were to use the ability in a way that leaves the balance of the world intact, it would be Miharu, and this is even shown in the series itself. He doesn’t have the kind of greed or anger that would taint a person’s motivations when making their wishes, he just wants to do what is best for others- especially Yoite. Yoite is important to him, and therefore Yoite’s wish is also important to Miharu. And, as we see in later chapters, Miharu puts granting Yoite’s wish above even his own happiness. I feel I would make a similar decision were I in his shoes.

(For aesthetic, though, I’d choose Fuuma. Their village is hidden and surrounded by forest and in that lovely traditional Japanese style, and their uniforms are great. If Saraba were Chief I’d join.)

DAY 15 (Jun. 17th) - Favorite minor/supporting character

Gau! Definitely Gau! Gosh I love him so much. He’s optimistic and tries his best to look for the best in situations and in people, and his smile is so freaking sunshiney, I bet he lights up rooms with it. He’s awkward and quirky and I can relate so hard. But he’s also strong? He stands up to other ninja even though he really doesn’t have the physical ability to defend himself or others. He puts his life in danger to tell Raimei the truth about her family immediately after swearing silence to Raikou, his boss, who could 100% kill him if he found out Gau had broken his promise. And I bet you Gau would’ve told Raikou about him telling Raimei as soon as he’d gone home, if the bullshit at the Shimizu property hadn’t gone down the way it did.

And speaking of that scene- he throws himself in front of Raikou’s katana to save the life of a girl he hadn’t known for more than a day, who had threatened to kill him, who was seeking to kill the person he treasured most in the world. Who does that?! Gau apparently. He literally gives his life for just the possibility that Raikou and Raimei can make up and be happy siblings again. He gives his life so that the person he loves can maybe reconcile with someone else they loved.

He makes a conscious effort to include Yoite in conversations in which he would otherwise be largely ignored, and while I doubt Yoite would care either way, it’s the thought that counts, right? And, at least in the anime (it’s been a while since I read the manga) he puts his life on the line to help Yoite and Miharu even though, as I said before, he can’t really defend himself all that well.

Basically, I’m in love with Gau and want him to be happy. Sweet baby!

DAY 16 (Jun. 18th) - Free Day

I don’t really have anything else to say but I’m posting all of these today (I was late for the original posting by like four days so I figured I’d write them all out and post them together) so I’ll count this as my day 16 entry! Thank you so much if you’ve read this far, I know it was probably daunting to look at this long as fucking post but I’m glad you took the time to read my personal reflection on NnO! This manga means a lot to me and it’s nice to discover other people who love it as much as I do (I’ve literally met two people in my entire life who’ve read it without me suggesting it).

Keep the love going y’all, I hope to see you again! And feel free to hit me up if you’d like to talk about NnO, I’d love to connect with other fans! Seeya owo

[shynmighty]

The New ACOR Chapter.

So... Like many of you I’ve been waiting anxiously for the return of A Courtesan of Rome for the past millenia few months, and it made it’s return today.

And I liked it. I did. But after digesting it a bit it left me with a few opinions. So I’m going to go ahead and launch them into the ether...

(AHOY! THAR BE SPOILERS BELOW!)

This chapter is a LOT to unpack. Because it’s long. But it’s also DENSE. 

It starts out with some familiar pacing, picking up right where we leave off with Dad and Syphax. MC makes a choice who she want’s saved. I’m on board. I love making decisions like this and it’s part of what makes ACOR such a thrilling story. I hope this choice in particular has a huge impact later on. For anyone curious, I saved Victus (I’m a dedicated Antonymancer, so I didn’t have the same emotions regarding the choice. Saving MC’s father instead of her friend made more sense for my character.) and I bought the diamond scene with him afterwards where he and MC did the Rite in the water and she told him she was in love with Antony. He was, predictably, horrified and I LOVED that.

After that diamond scene, though... The rest of the chapter put the pedal to the metal, so to speak. The deliberate pacing from before is chucked right out the window. The story lights a cigarette and tells us to hang on to something because there are no seatbelts in this car. Distantly, we hear the sound of sirens.

That metaphor got away from me. 

So, yeah... The pacing isn’t great. This chapter should have been the first three chapters of ACOR book 2. We see glimpses of character development, but despite competent writing it’s simply too little to feel satisfying. Because of the breakneck speed of the plot now, we are given three potentially fascinating brand new characters. Up to this point, Caesar and Cleopatra have been exclusively used for foreshadowing purposes, and this is the first time we really get to see them interact with the plot in any meaningful way, so I’m filing them under “New and Shiny”. And Brutus! The guy who historically teams up with Cassius to stab Caesar! He’s finally here! ... Aaaand there he goes after about five lines of dialogue across two scenes. Caesar and Cleopatra get a little more attention, but it feels... superficial? You get a sense of what they’re like, but a lot of their dialogue felt like “WE ARE SAYING THIS SO THAT YOU, THE READER, KNOW THIS IMPORTANT THING ABOUT US AND/OR THE STORY.” There was a moment or two when Caesar would say something about his motives and his vision for Rome (Good, things! Juicy things!) and I’d just think “UGH I want to talk about THAT more!” But you can’t. But you can bang them. So there’s that. Bottom line: I hope we get more meaningful interactions with them next week and a chance to really explore the characters. I want to be fascinated by them the way they deserve.

Luckily, the returning cast is mostly consistent. Syphax, Sabina, Antony... Seeing them again just as I remembered them felt like seeing old friends again. There were two individuals, however, whose returns were woefully inadequate.

I’m looking at you, Cassius and Delphinia.

I don’t want you to think that I hate Cassius and Delphinia. Because I don’t. They are two of my favorite characters in the story. I know. I like Cassius. I’m controversial. Moving on.

Delphinia’s problem stems from a lot of the same issues and Caesar, Cleopatra and Brutus. There simply was not enough time for her. Which is damn tragic. Her arc is one I’ve been following with great interest. She literally talks to a goddess and has leveraged that ability to rise out of slavery and start her own cult. She is a certified, grade A, total badass. Also, she’s MC’s mom. That reunion needed to be five hundred times more emotional. I understand why it wasn’t, they needed to cram as much information into this chapter as possible, but it still felt rushed and unsatisfying, and does not do justice to the journey we’ve been following so far.

And Cassius. Hoo, boy. This really stuck in my craw.

I feel like his whole arc has been leading to that moment where he looks at MC and says something along the lines of “Caesar must die”. I have been waiting for that moment since chapter freakin’ one when they introduced him as a gentle, somewhat naive idealist who believed in the power of law and rhetoric over brute force. Whatever your opinion of him, his journey was carried out magnificently from a writing standpoint. His faith in the establishment he dedicated his life to is shaken, leading him into doubt and paranoia. We see the writing on the wall, we know the end of the road leads him to orchestrating the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar, but it seems so unlikely because he’s so NICE. The classic story of a good man falling into darkness. Juicy character development. I love this stuff.

So I felt super let down when they made that HUGE revelation into a throwaway moment that gets lost in the shuffle of the chapter. That was an important moment for an important character. This moment had no right to fall flat like that. This moment deserved better.

And while we’re on the topic of plots to assassinate Caesar...

What the actual $%&# is UP with MC going off half cocked with her poison? I’m having flashbacks to Chapter FIVE, where I seem to recall we did this exact same song and dance with TERRIBLE results. What happened to all the awesome development that took place in her struggle with Aquila??? This isn’t poetic or things coming full circle. It’s just a plan that SUCKS. And... and... CASSIUS is literally RIGHT THERE feeling MURDEROUS (as we’ve established, grr.) and MC can’t be bothered to... I dunno... plot WITH him??

Oh and we finally found out what happened to Cingerix. I really hope he gets more than ten seconds to explain himself next week. Like everything else, he was kind of treated as an afterthought. 

Still reading? Wow. I’m impressed! Thanks for indulging me in my wacky word vomit! 😁

TL;DR Some good, some not so good. I’m happy ACOR is back, but this chapter should have been spaced out better to give all the important stuff in it the attention it deserved.

[himboholhorse-moving]

1 2 4 7 8 9 13 18 20 26 27 29 30 32 39 40 41 43/44 45 46 49 51 53 55 56 57 59 63 65 that is. so many dghsdghsdgv I'm sorry I just see an ask meme and go crazy aaaa go stupid aaaa. You can just answer whichever u like from those!! also 69(nice): you seem rly nice and funny from your 🅱️osts and I appreciate u... I hope you can find better irl friends who aren't trash

HDSKFJKS I completely understand but lucky for u I LOVE to talk !!

1) How are you?

Pretty good, actually!! Which is a nice change of pace. I went to Walmart with some friends yesterday and got a few things, baked a family recipe that my friends LOVE, and finally did my laundry (it’s been a couple weeks we love depression and executive dysfunction dfhkjsfd). I went to Cracker Barrel with some friends and earlier and played a 4-way game of Tetris after. :3c

2) Post a picture of yourself.

Here you go !!

4) What is your entire name?

Sierra Alexis and my last name is something constantly misspelled so I’ll give you the name of a historical figure whose name is a letter off from mine: George B. McClellan, to whom I may or may not be related because last name variations are fuckin’ WEIRD.

7) Your zodiac/horoscope and if you think it fits your personality.

I’m a Capricorn sun and moon, and Libra rising !! And from what I’ve read on Twitter from various astrologers, like Milkstrology, I LOVE her, I’d say it’s pretty accurate with my personality!! I like to say Capricorn’s aren’t cold bitches but, I Have A Tendency To Be One !!

8) What did you do on your last birthday?

God what DID I do on my last birthday… it was in January, so like, I SHOULD remember… OH I went to IHOP with my friends !! I share a birthday with another friend and I got a JoJo notebook and something called a Fuggler! They’re stuffed animals more or less but designed to be “ugly.” I got one that looks like Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty because I LOVE Gritty… he’s so fun and funky.

9) What is one thing you’d like to accomplish before your next birthday?

Get all my requests in my inbox over on my writing blog done KJHFDJKSF it’s been a few months and life has been. Hectic to say the least.

13) If you could change your eye color, would you?

There’s so much weird as hell brown-eye-phobia so like… I think blue eyes would be pretty neat. OR PURPLE… give me some unnatural eye colors pls...

18) Do you have any tattoos?

Not yet!! I’m going to get one the next time I go back home for break. :3c And I have a few ideas for other ones!! I wanna get a big-ass “Dragon Age: Origins” tattoo that’s the dragon on the cover on my thigh. I also wanna get a DA2 and “Inquisition” tattoo… and the Joestar birthmark… too many ideas… 

20) Left or right handed?

Right-handed !! I could have been left-handed or ambidextrous if I broke my arm AFTER I started kindergarten, but alas that was before.

26) Something you are working on right now:

This !! But also the script for my next podcast episode that I record on uhhh Monday I think. Should probably figure that one out dsjfjhsf

27) Do you have any “rules” about food?

I answered that in the last ask !!

29) What would you say is your best quality?

I also answered this in the last ask !!

30) What do you think you’re really good at?

Writing, I’d say! And memorizing trivia about the stuff I’m super into. If it’s stuff pertaining to “M*A*S*H” or old movies or TV shows or actors or specific historical events, I will know that shit FOR LIFE. Don’t ask me to do math pls thank u

32) What talent do you wish you’d been born with?

I wish I was able to do stuff with music. That was never really in my blood, despite all the music classes they make you take in elementary school. I just never learned how to memorize or read sheet music. :/ I would have loved to play violin, tho… my friend plays and she says I would have been a good cellist.

39) Do you sleep with a stuffed toy?

YES… have for years. I still have my Care Bear from when I was 5, Gritty as mentioned above, a plush of my school’s mascot, and a little Fugo !! He’s so tiny.

40) What do you think about the most?

Everything and constantly and all at once. But the past really because I can never let stuff go and even the small things I mess up on haunt me forever… Wish that wasn’t the case but it is !!

41) Share two habits:

Biting my nails and having a very specific routine in which I get ready when I wake up. Like, I’ve gotta go brush my hair before I put my important cards in my left pocket, then put on my silver bracelet, then my beaded bracelet, then my earbuds in my right pocket, then put my earrings in. I HAVE to do it in that order…

And other oddities that include, like, if I need to go around something I HAVE to follow the urge to go one way and not the other, lest I feel the need to go back and fix it. And then which foot goes first before I reach a crack in the sidewalk, or up or down a curb, etc.

43) What are your career goals?

If I can just make people happy or get some kind of joy out of the things I do, I’d call that enough. :)

44) What is your ideal career?

Mmm, either a film historian or a film professor !! Preferably at the college I’m at right now but wherever the wind takes me, I’ll go! Or a Twitch streamer or YouTuber, it really depends on my mood jdhfjskf

45) Is your life anything like it was two years ago?

It was pretty much the same !! Freshman year was pretty lively, I didn’t have a job on campus yet though, or my podcast. Everything else is basically the same!

46) Do you replay things that have happened in your head?

CONSTANTLY… good or bad it’ll play back over and over and over again.

49) Do you have any phobias?

HOO BOY, DO I… fear of heights; fear of insects/bugs/arachnids/bees/wasps; I have a strong dislike of the number 13 but I don’t know if it’s a phobia, I just. REALLY hate it; the unknown, more or less what lurks somewhere beyond where I can see. Not so much a fear of the dark with that one, just what could BE in it.

51) Are you allergic to anything? If so, what?

I answered this in my last ask, as well!

53) Ever come close to death?

Two or three times, maybe? Two of them involved what’s called a laryngospasm, typically it can happen when your sick, which is what happened to me both times. Basically your throat just closes up on your for a hot minute and you can’t breathe. The first time I genuinely thought I was going to die (and my dad still sent me to school that day… HOE), the second time I was also sick and was losing/had lost my voice DURING A JOB RETREAT and it happened in the middle of the night so that was funny sitting there gasping for breath in the pitch dark.

At the FIRST retreat I went on for that job, you had to take pictures as part of a scavenger hunt, and the place used to be an old military fort, so there were still the old bunkers there. We had to take one on top of it and I was taking the picture, and it’s a wide shot so I go to take a step back but before I do I look behind me. If I hadn’t I would have fallen a good 10-15 feet down onto solid Civil War-era bunker concrete. I’d consider that being a “close to death” moment because I really could have died!

55) A random fact about yourself:

I have a half-brother !! My sis and I finally found him after her 23andMe results came back (which she decided to do despite us being like THE GOVERNMENT WILL COLLECT OUR DATA) and we didn’t think our mom would be happy she found him but she was !! My sis might reach out and contact him, she just wanted our mom’s permission first to do it.

56) What are three things most people don’t know about you?

Well, that I have a half-brother. I don’t mention it a lot. Aside from y’all on here and my sister, most everyone else doesn’t know I’m nonbinary! Everyone else knows I’m bi though lmao. And that there were times I’d stretch or bend the truth or lie about something just to impress someone else. It’s a… Bad Habit. Another thing is that most people don’t know I like coffee? Like I need to put a shit ton of creamer in with it because I’m a Bitch, but yeah.

57) An unknown fact about your life:

I wouldn’t call this an “unknown” fact but I’d used to go to work with my dad every now and again when he worked at the Home Depot and he was assistant manager. I’d either chill in the back room which was an office he shared with two other guys, or walk around the store with him. I had my own apron, too, which was my name with “Mini Mac” next to it, “Mac” being my dad’s nickname and something easier to say than my last name. I actually helped a few customers out so I wonder if I should have gotten paid for that despite being like, ages 9-13 when I’d go jshfkjd

And I guess I technically tested video games as a kid? Basically, when my dad was stationed at Fort Knox, they’d get demos of video games that hadn’t come out yet to test I suppose? and I still have a few somewhere. He’d hand them off to me and I’d play them so there’s that.

59) Five weird things that you like:

Eating globs of wasabi for no reason.

Scaring my friends also for no reason.

I wouldn’t say using cotton swabs to get wax out of your ears because it feels good is weird, just more medically inadvisable if anything.

When I was younger I’d like to floss really hard because the slight pain from it felt good. Young me was a #Freaque KJHDFJJDHF

I don’t know if being fond of alphabetizing and reorganizing things is considered weird but I LOVE doing that.

63) A quote you try to live by:

“It matters not how strait the gate, / How charged with punishments the scroll; / I am the master of my fate: / I am the captain of my soul.” It’s from the poem “Invictus” and the last two lines are what I’m getting tattooed !!

65) Weird things you do when you’re alone:

Practice the “Lucky Star” dance. I GOT THE LYRICS DOWN… JUST NEED TO DO THE DANCE NOW…

69) Leave me a compliment:

“you seem rly nice and funny from your 🅱️osts and I appreciate u... I hope you can find better irl friends who aren't trash”

Anon pls 🥺 I do my best to be nice but my friend really do test me sometimes... my feelings bounce back n forth like if they do something my feelings can switch to angry or like, hate, and then if they do something nice I’ll like them again. It sucks but ! I just take it one day at a time. Anon I care for u 💜💜💜