#wild being an agent of chaos without even trying

[skyward-floored]

Delicious

“Wild, could you please chew more quietly, you’re going to give me a headache,” Legend grumbled, and turned to glare at him when he loudly crunched what was in his mouth again, “what even are you eating that’s making so much noise?!”

“Rocks,” Wild said completely straight-faced, and at Legend’s disbelieving look, he merely shrugged. “They’re delicious.”

[dreamdragonkadia]

I have so many thoughts about a poly relationship with Lucanis, Rook, and Davrin, and I need to share them.

First off, Lucanis and Davrin have that chef’s kiss enemies-to-lovers potential. You can’t tell me their banter wouldn’t be the most cuttingly sharp yet reluctantly tender thing ever. Add in that moment when Rook—Our local agent of chaos—just throws their hands up and goes, “Figure your shit out and fuck or something,” and suddenly Lucanis and Davrin are forced to confront their very obvious unresolved tension. Sparks and punches fly, naturally.

But then Rook, who has this absurd ability to have chemistry with literally everyone. Somehow, without even trying, they end up pulling both men. It’s not even intentional—Rook is just Rook. But the real beauty of it is that it’s Lucanis and Davrin who make the overall decision to want Rook to be apart of both their lives, realizing they both can’t live without this chaotic force.

And oh, the dynamics! Rook being the wild card who keeps things interesting and unpredictable. Lucanis trying (and failing) to be the level-headed one while secretly indulging in all the softness Rook brings out of him. And Davrin? Stuck between rolling his eyes and smirking because of course he’s in love with both of them. And Assan is the one who benefits.

It’s messy, it’s fiery, it’s perfect.

[northhopest]

7x10: Chaos Agent

Alexi used this episode as a promo for Zander’s music, and you know what? I’m not even mad. The major disappointment with Zander was not performing Cop Cuties.

The cold open with him being Celina’s date with a hidden agenda to get closer to Nolan is comical. I also love Bailey and Celina’s mother/daughter relationship even though Jenna’s only 9 years older than Lisseth.

Daddy Cop: Tim’s Version

I’m not surprised that Lucy knows Daddy Cop. In one of my fics, she sings it so much that their 3 year old daughter ends up innocently singing it to Tim.

This Chenford and Nolan scene also speaks to Chenford’s progress. Compared to that godforsaken food truck scene in 7x02 when Lucy made that problematic paying off her “debt of gratitude” to Tim statement, this scene was classic Chenford.

Up until 7x07, I was one of Chenford’s biggest critics and up until 7x05, I was extremely protective of Lucy. They jumped right into the season with flirting (Tim) and bantering (Lucy) without a roadmap of where they’d been during the hiatus. The season became more enjoyable for me once Tim started showing his feelings. Tim is actively trying to fix what he thinks is irreparable. He didn’t even do this with his wife (7x07). Once the damage was done with Isabel, he moved on. But with Lucy, it’s different.

Lucy: I don’t understand why men take everything so seriously Tim: I don’t see how you can generalize something like that Lucy: Experience

There are different ways to interpret “experience.” If this is a Cholan reference, I hope whomever wrote this episode gets skunked. 

I think it’s her being spicy towards Tim in a sarcastic/feisty way and telling him that he takes everything so seriously.

The Lucy that sang Cop Cuties, bantered with Tim, and then had her hand on Tim’s arm in the raccoon scene was different from the Lucy that bantered with Tim in 7x01. She didn’t have the stiffness of 7x01, the morning after avoidance of 7x06, nor the love declaration avoidance of 7x08. I see that as progress. He’s been doing the work to work his way back into a place where she’s comfortable with him. That took time. His hard work is paying off because the Lucy in these two scenes, “experience” jab aside, is seemingly the Lucy in S5 that stole his radio.

Chenford: Miles’ Biological Parents

Smitty sneaks off into Tim’s old office to eat his donuts (and, let’s be honest, take a nap). Smitty almost face plants when Tim shoves him. They did it for comedic purposes, but shoving a coworker is grounds for termination in real life. 

Tim and Lucy give conflicting advice to Miles about what to do with the raccoon. Lucy undermining Tim in front of his rookie is funny yet disrespectful—no one else could get away with that. Tim lets Lucy get away with it. “Small doses” Tim will let Lucy get away with just about anything if it doesn’t harm her. But if the roles were reversed and he undermined Lucy in front of her rookie, fandom would be in hell over it. 

Lucy and a rodent (quick take)

Rodent: You think this guy is really gonna come back for her?Lucy: I think there is no guy Me: I think there is no cancer Rodent: Holy cow, that’s wild. She seems so innocent. Me, since December: Rodent’s evil. If Lucy’s career gets tainted by yet another white male (Nolan, Bradford, Primm, Rodent) I’ll -  Fandom discovering Rodent's true colors: Holy cow, that’s wild. Rodent seems so innocent.

Lucy and Her Stepmother

I love Luna’s sass as she asks Lucy “why?” Why is she asking Luna about a shady oncologist? It seems more reasonable for Wes, Angela or Nyla to prod into Hasanoff.

Also Lucy’s stepmother: I will not tell your father unless I need to.

I love the way Luna reads Lucy like an open book. Lucy counts her losses and spills the beans. They have the insurance talk. Luna tells Lucy “If I needed a doctor to lie for me, Hasanoff is who I would go to.” The Watch Commander’s wife took all of a minute to figure out that Seth is lying. She’s not messing around. I think she knows about Seth’s mishandling of the Wildfire. There’s just no way Grey didn’t go home that evening and vent to Luna. 

Look, Lucy would not go to the Watch Commander’s wife for work help if she didn’t need it. It’s a cry for guidance. She needs to know her instincts about Seth are correct and Luna tells her without telling her that it’s correct. I was in Lucy’s shoes last year, trying to figure out my own five player trade. You get to the line as close as you can without crossing it, and the other party does too. Just enough information is exchanged to make your move. 

He’s Definitely NOT Undermining Her

I don’t think Tim was undermining Lucy in 6x01. I think he gave her what she asked for but I don’t think she used her words correctly to ask him for what she truly needed. Tim would give her anything as long as it doesn’t harm her. He’s perceptive for a guy but he’s still a guy. She knows that about him. She knows HOW to ask him and how he’s going to respond. As she told Isabel, she’s got him all figured out. 

All season long, he’s giving her space and agency to deal with Seth. She asks him for help and he gives her distance to figure it out while still having her back when things go south. 

When she calls him after her conversation with Luna, he doesn’t tell her what to do until she asks for it. When she does, he gives her the tools to make her own decisions. He’s in crisis mode at Mid Wilshire with the inmates but he still picks up her call. Husband material.

Bye, bitch.

There’s a missing scene between Lucy’s phone call to Tim and Seth’s firing. Tim told Lucy to get the hospital to draw Seth’s blood. Lucy never asked Seth on her own. She went back to the station to deal with Zuzu, had a conversation with Tim, Tim gave her a gameplan, they briefed Wade, and arrived at the hospital as a unit. I think Chenford both knew that Seth would retaliate against Lucy if it were just her asking Seth. He’s taken advantage of her all season, he’ll try to do it again if it were just her asking him to submit to a blood draw. 

Seth is a white man. Tim, Nolan, and Wes are too but they’re cut from a different cloth. There’s privilege at play but the latter three wouldn’t knowingly use it to their advantage. Seth would. Seth is always using his status as a young white man to his advantage. Compare what he gets away with to Miles who gets away with nothing. Miles would never try anything with Tim. Miles tried with Lucy until Tim shut him down. Seth tries with Lucy all the time, even after Tim shut him down. It’s difficult for women to train male rookies. It’s even more difficult for women of color to train white male rookies. You’d have to be a Nolan type for it to be effective.

I think this is the main reason why Lucy didn’t ask Seth to submit to a blood draw without backup, and why Tim and Wade are involved. She recognizes what’s happening. Tim can’t get Seth to submit to a blood draw, he’s not Seth’s TO. But Wade can.

Tim is so over it the moment he sees Seth.

Wade lays out the grounds for termination. Only Wade can officially terminate Seth. This mirrors 7x04 when Tim told Lucy they should talk to Wade about Seth. 

A switch goes off in Seth. He has no reason to be nice and clumsy anymore. He turns mean. 

Tim then gives Seth the procedures following dismissal. I think if Tim were Seth’s TO, he’d lay down the rules and escort Seth off the property himself. But I think there’s the unspoken status at play again, Tim recognizes this, and, accompanies Lucy in escorting Seth.

Lucy is Never Alone

One of Tim’s most powerful lines in S1 is when he tells the criminals that he’s never alone and the LAPD shows up in the air, on the ground, etc.

Lucy is never alone, either. She has powerful people in her corner. Luna gave her solid advice. Wade, though there were still messes to be dealt with at the station, went to the hospital just for her and arranged for another officer to stand guard in place of Seth. 

And Tim. Tim won the 7x01 bet with the rookies, and Lucy’s career remains unscathed since she went through the proper channels. It’s a win-win.

Tim Bradford would do anything for Lucy Chen. She may not want to go to him for advice about her personal life, but keep in mind that she shares an apartment with Celina and Rachel. Tim is there where it counts, where it matters, where it’s essential. He’ll protect her with his life.

Grey Needs a Vacation

Grey looks like he needs an all-expenses-paid trip to Palm Republic.

Quick Takes

They wrote a whole episode around Zander and a raccoon. How?

The unique title card was a hint that this wasn't going to be your typical episode.

What are county inmates doing in city jail?

I love how gentle Tim is with Smitty after Smitty gets beaten up

The raccoon saved Tim’s life and singlehandedly made sure that Chenford is NOT bones.

I saw some chatter about Melissa being the only one who cares about Lucy. That’s simply not true. There are probably a hundred people involved in making Lucy Chen, Lucy Chen. From Alexi to Judy to Tamiko who does Lucy’s stunts to Mike who photographs Lucy and the rest of the cast, everyone CARES about Lucy.

I do not care for the slender man story or those kids. There are other ways to get Lucy and Seth (and Wade and Tim) to the hospital to fire Seth.

This episode was PEAK chaos. I can’t wait for the April Fools one to outdo it. 

[wickedadaar]

Nels / Vena (Venalin) Aldwir / Nuvenis Master List

she/they, mage, Spellblade and fire. 22 years old. The reason Strife has high blood pressure. Arguably the most reckless Veil Jumper, the Wild Card. If “poke it, see what happens” were a person. “Strife, I know what I’m doing,” but really did not have a clue and was winging it, hoping for the best. Headstrong, stubborn, impulsive, and determined. Always the first to volunteer for a dangerous mission because “Fuck it, why not?” No one ever knew what her next move was, especially Nels. Improvising their way through life with moderate success. Eyebrows are tattooed on at this point because she had them set on fire or blown off too many times to count. Also, why they keep their hair short, “Less flammable that way.”

Canon romance is Bellara, whose reserved nature balances out their impulsivity.

Name means “To find blood”. From the words Vena (to find) and Lin (blood) [credit to @dalishious]

Photo album here: https://www.tumblr.com/wickedadaar/775530366583914496/my-veil-jumper-rook-nells-aldwir-romance?source=share 

Rooks Roost AU: Venalin "Vena" Nuvenis

She/her. Mage, spellblade and orb (fire magic). 22 years old. 

Background: Pretty much the same as the Canon. Grew up as a Veil Jumper. Her mother died when she was a teen, so the other older elves looked after her, including but not limited to Strife. The reason Strife has high blood pressure. Arguably the most reckless Veil Jumper, the Wild Card. If “poke it, see what happens” were a person. “Strife, I know what I’m doing,” but really did not have a clue and was winging it, hoping for the best. Headstrong, stubborn, impulsive, and determined. Always the first to volunteer for a dangerous mission because “Fuck it, why not?” No one ever knew what her next move was, especially Vena. Improvising their way through life with moderate success. Eyebrows are tattooed on at this point because she had them set on fire or blown off too many times to count. Also, why they keep their hair short, “Less flammable that way.” [Unbeknownst to Vena, she was secretly a spirit of destruction. Due to her magical abilities, she was vulnerable to possession, especially when she was in a state of severe emotional distress. The worst of these instances was after her mother died. During her fragile state, the spirit took root inside of her. It was the reason she could hardly handle artefacts without overloading them. It was the reason her magic was infinitely more powerful when she was angry.]

How she joined the Veilguard: She blew up one too many artefacts for the Veil Jumpers’ liking, so they sent her to help this upstart group, knowing very little about them. They prayed to the creators that this would be beneficial for her, and maybe even teach her some patience and restraint when dealing with the unknown. 

Personality: Brash, impulsive, short-sighted. Always chooses the quickest route, even when it isn’t the smartest or safest. Chaos agent and junkie. Very extroverted and social. Will hold a conversation with herself or a rock if no one is listening. Always been a bit of a strange bird, but that’s part of her charm. She loves talking about magic and will talk to you about it until you tell her to stop. Huge nerd, loves to learn new things. Repository of useless information and not-so-fun facts. She and Bellara are the same person, different fonts.

Romance: She is bisexual. She’s looking for friends, friends with benefits, sparring partners of the *wink* or non-wink* variety, possibly romance if it presents itself. She doesn’t take life very seriously, and the same applies to romance. Usually more of a casual thing unless she finds someone she dubs worthy of being serious for.

Lighthouse Tinder: Venalin “Vena” Nuvenis

Name: Vena Nuvenis

Age: 22

Cis Female (she/her), Bisexual Disaster

Faction: Veil Jumpers

Motto: You won’t know if it’s flammable unless you try

Appearance: 5’3”, short reddish brown hair, Mythal vallaslin

Likes: Learning new things, exploring old elven ruins, finding old artefacts, learning about said artefacts, sharing knowledge with others, setting stuff on fire

Dislikes: People who think they’re the experts on thing they clearly aren’t, people who think they know all there is to know about a subject, stuck up jerks

Looking for: Someone to have fun with

Wardrobe

Beach episode:

Beach Ball/Semi-formal:

Bedroom aesthetic:

Characterization Cheat Sheet - Vena Nuvenus

Credit goes to @seizethemage-main for the idea

This is a rough guide, and you don’t have to follow it to the letter. Also, feel free to use Vena in any fics or art :)

Age: 22

Gender: Cis Female (she/her)

Race: Elf

Faction: Veil Jumper

Skills: Mage, spellblade and flame orb, archenemy of fragile artefacts and the reason for Strife’s high blood pressure. 

Languages: Modern and ancient Elvhen, Common/trade, some Tevene, and some Qunlat, but only basic terms and phrases

Body Language/Physicality

General Behavior:  Exploratory and curious. She wants to learn and see and do. She will absolutely poke something with a stick or bare hand if she doesn’t know what it is. Fire is her favorite plaything outside of ancient elven artefacts. She has blown up or destroyed at least a dozen at this point, some entirely on accident, some not. 

With Friends: Goofy and borderline cringy. Makes terrible jokes and bad puns at every opportunity. Teasing and taunting are a secondary love language to her, especially towards those she considers especially close friends or like family members

Flirting: Not suave or cool in any way. Doesn’t realize she’s flirting or being flirted with about 75% of the time, just because she doesn’t pick up on social cues well. When she’s trying to flirt, it can come across weird and slightly off-putting (e.g., If you were a statue, I’d make sure never to accidentally blow you up). When she realizes she’s being flirted with, her cheeks light up red, and the blush spreads all the way to the tips of her ears.

With an Established Romantic Partner: Lots of light and playful touching of hands, face (cheeks, nose), legs. If she had it her way, she would have some form of physical contact with her partner all day, everyday. Hand holding, arm around them, etc.

In Combat: Very light on her feet and very fast. She can easily maneuver through the battle, setting fires in her wake and sowing chaos. She loves her explosives. She found out she has a penchant for 

Dialogue/Speaking

Voice: Young, sweet. Can drift a little nasally when she gets really excited about something. The best example of her speaking voice I can think of would be something similar to Bellara or Brenda Song circa Suite Life of Zack and Cody or Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior

General: Switches flawlessly between elvhen/Dalish and Trade/common (thing how people use Spanglish). Regularly forgets words in one language or another when speaking to others.

With Friends: Speaks with them in whichever language they know better between Elvhen/Dalist and Trade/Common. 

Superiors/Leaders: She is always respectful to their face but mocks them relentlessly behind their back unless she deeply respects them (like Strife, Irelin, Caspian (RRAU), etc.). In which case, she mocks them to their face.

Romance: Cute nicknames all of the time, especially “vhenan.” Will tell them sweet things in Dalish and then realize they need to translate, which will fluster her because she’s so comfortable cooing about someone in Dalish, but is very inexperienced in doing so in Trade/Common

Humor: Very sarcastic sense of humor. Enjoys playing up the dramatics when speaking in an effort to get a laugh from her audience. Was voted Funniest Veil Jumper of Arlathan (self-appointed)

Anger: She is hot-headed and quick to anger (a redhead with fire magic, who would have guessed?) Pulls easily from the fade when angry, her fury fueling her fire. She does her best to keep a lid on it, but sometimes she does slip and accidentally burns a building down.

Cursing: Swears almost exclusively in elvhen/Dalish. Has learned a few curses in common/Trade but only since joining the Veil Jumpers, mostly from non-elves who were horrified by her reputation for blowing up artefacts. 

Combat: Swears in Elvhen when injured or has a close call. Taunts enemies once they’re dead in a very Iron Bull (DAI) style despite her small stature.

Additional lore: Deadbeat dad is Isenril from @wrdn-tabris

Character Inspiration:

Top to bottom, left to right:

Human Torch from Fantastic 4

Rengoku from Demon Slayer

Wanda from Wandavision

Dee Dee from Dexter's Laboratory

Coco from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

Kim Possible from Kim Possible

OC Vibes Game: Vena Nuvenis

Rules: Show a picture of your Rook, then 4 pictures and songs you think match their vibe. If anyone wants context, they can inquire in the comments.

[koco-coko]

OC Info Post: Bonnabel de Saint-Germain

(This is most certainly my most self-indulgent and somehow also my most thought-out OC. Enjoy my unadulterated silliness)

@drewadoodle hi here's the mansion baby (apparently i have one for the castle trio too except that one's fully an adult so if I post her I can tag you in that one too if ya want)

General:

Full name: Bonnabel de Saint-Germain

Nickname: Bonnie, Bon-Bon (Arthur specific), Bell (Theo and Vincent specific)

Birthday: November 8th

Likes: Outdoors, Pastries, Mousette, Reading

Dislikes: Sour Flavors, Math, Rules

Background: A mysterious infant showed up on Le Comte de Saint-Germain’s doorstep one night during a banquet with the residents, and she’s been called his daughter ever since. All she came with was a homemade birth certificate, a stuffed toy of a pastel blue bat, and a wax-sealed letter. The contents of said letter are only known to Comte and Leonardo and he has refused to share it with anyone else, even Bonnie herself. A strange injection Bonnabel took as a newborn has made it so that they are unable to detect what kind of vampire she is, though Comte doesn’t seem too concerned about that fact…

Through the Ages

(aka the main differences between Bonnabel’s different ages without getting into deep spoilers because I’m writing a fic with her hehe.) (Bonnabel is almost always portrayed in the Childhood stage. Sometimes teenage [mostly with castle trio])

Childhood– Bonnabel, wild and carefree. Don’t even try to make her sit still– she’ll bite your hands with dull, stubby fangs until you let her go. The biggest nuisance and agent of chaos the house has seen in a while. Temper tantrums and dramatic outbursts are common, and as a vampire, she’s really yet to understand her strength. Still… There is something endearing about her reckless abandon and pure fascination with life. She’s sweet and kind all the same, she just has her moments.

Teenage years– Outdoor play time has turned into calm walks through the garden and snack time is now tea time. Although Bonnabel’s matured since being in single digits, everyone can tell something about her is just… off. Maybe it’s the way she’s shy about everything, how reclusive she’s become, how utterly captivated she is by space, or perhaps the way she’s withdrawn from everything other than her studies. Her self-image couldn’t be worse (how could she ever compare to the greats of history she lived amongst, really?), and she’s really been pestering Comte about her past as of late.

Adulthood– Bonnabel, after many, many challenges, trial and errors, heartbreaks, and betrayal, has finally grown into her own skin. Well, sort of. She’s gained back some of the excitement she had when she was a little girl, but it’s been distilled into a fine wit and humor. Now, she simply does as she pleases, whether that be studying something to the point of burning into her brain to simply staying in all day and catching up on some novels. She’s a vampire! She’s got all the time in the world to get things right.

Physical:

Eye color: A pale orange, with slight hints of crimson in her pupils. It’s not very noticeable from far away but in the right sunlight it’s a bit more 

Hair color- Sandy blonde, like Vincent’s hair. Just a bit more colorful than that.

Disabilities- Undiagnosed because of the century, but most certainly has ADHD and dyscalculia (unable to some basic math)

Height- Childhood: 4’1, Teenage: 5’0, Adulthood: 5’11

(i dont have any drawings so um yeah i just used to ikevamp doll haha)

Relationships:

I’ll be splitting the characters into archetypes– how Bonnabel sees each of the residents as a family unit, then going a bit more in-depth.

Brothers– Arthur, Vincent, Theo, Isaac, Napoleon, Jean

– Napoleon: The big brother. No matter how Bonnabel’s feeling, whether she wants to play or vent to him, he’ll make time available. Bonnabel likes hiding and cuddling into his cape and constantly pesters him to teach her fencing. Instead, he’ll teach her how to cook pastries (it’s not like Jean or Vincent are going to do it). 

– Arthur: He’s the one Bonnabel goes to if she wants to get away with something or is bored out of her mind. He’s the fun brother and almost lets her get away with anything. Especially when it comes to teasing Isaac. He’ll also sneak her chocolates from time to time. She loves playing detective with him and likes to act out scenes from books with him. Plus, Vic and Bonnie are utterly enamored with each other, so it’s always a good time with Arthur.

– Vincent and Theo: How could they not feel like her big brothers? Vincent is the only person Bonnie is nice to no matter her mood and he’ll let her watch him paint if she’s ever interested. They tried finger-painting when she was little, but she tried to eat the paint and it’s been banned for the time being.

Theo, on the other hand… It’s a bit more tenuous. Bonnabel didn’t understand being called a mutt or pup was a sign of affection at first, but the two clicked once the misunderstanding was cleared up. As a little girl, Bonnabel drew a picture of all three of them holding hands with both Vincent and Theo titled ‘big brothers’ and that might be the closest Theo was to ever crying in front of his brother. He now has it framed in his room.

– Isaac, Mozart, and Jean: All in the same boat- didn’t get along at first, but later on they became close. Mozart’s relationship with loud and wild Bonnabel is… strange, but he does seem to be able to talk sense in her. She only recently got unbanned from the music room. Mozart’s bedroom is still off limits. Isaac was wary of her (especially because she liked Arthur so much), but they get along once she’s older and quieter. Sometimes they stargaze together. Jean has always been kind to her, but never got too close. Well, until Bonnabel insisted they study reading together and now it’s not uncommon to see them reading fairy tales together. Jean has promised to teach Bonnabel fencing one day, too, behind Comte’s back. 

Weird Uncles– Dazai and William

Dazai: Dazai is a nutcase, but in a fun way! He’s always speaking in riddles, but at least he’s not boring, right? She doesn’t interact with him that much, but when she does, she’s surprised by the words of wisdom she receives. She also has joined forces with him to absolutely torment Isaac, except she’s the one who has to apologize and learn a lesson. He’s fun, just weird.

William: Bonnabel doesn’t see him often. When she does, Puck is close behind and the girl and rabbit become inseparable. Bonnabel is utterly infatuated with Puck and gives him all of her attention, booping his cute little nose at every chance. The one bad thing about seeing Will is, well… tiny little Bonnabel can’t understand him at all. Vincent or Comte have to translate for her if they ever visit the villa because she’s too shy to ask him to speak simpler.

Parents– Leonardo and Comte

Comte: Dearest papa! It’s his life mission to make sure Bonnabel never has to know a day of pain or fear. Sure, perhaps the idea of raising her without the same pressures of nobility and vampirism that he did is a selfish wish, but she’s smiling everyday in the mansion. He has to be doing something right, right? Comte was Bonnabel’s whole world as a little girl. Going into her teenage years, their relationship becomes strained, much to Comte’s confusion and sorrow. (And yes, the pun in Bonnabel's name was intentional, even if he tries to deny it).

Leonardo: Babbo! Whenever there’s a Comte level matter but Bonnabel’s worried he’ll be mad at her, she goes to Leonardo. While hugging Comte smells like fine wine and perfumes, Leonardo smells like book pages and cigars. Both scents have become safe places for her. They take naps together a lot. Especially when Bonnabel is upset. Sometimes she’ll find him sleeping on the floor and join him because she’s bored, using his chest as a pillow. A lot of Bonnabel’s toys and even her bed are made by him.

Auntie and ‘Mama–’ MC/Mitsuki and Sebastian

– When Bonnabel was learning how to talk, she called Sebastian ‘Mama’ and it kind of stuck. Nowadays, she just calls him Sebby (he’s not the biggest fan, but nothing he’d really want to complain about), but sometimes they still joke about that name despite Bonnabel having zero recollection of it. Unfortunately, Bonnabel almost never listens to what Sebastian has to say unless he flicks her forehead. 

Mitsuki was called Auntie from the start. Bonnabel respects her a lot and will mostly listen to her authority, so she is definitely more of an aunt than a sister to her. This is also due to Mitsuki having to help Comte in certain aspects of raising her, such as bathtime and the likes. A part of their strong connection simply is the fact they’re the only women in the mansion.

BONUS! Castle Trio (met at Teenage Stage)

Charles-Henri: After a bit of apprehension, they get along pretty well. Whenever Bonnabel starts stressing out, Charles will pop up and distract her with games, food, or something else. He also tends to encourage any of her fixations no matter what, when, how and why.

Faust: Bonnabel is completely creeped out by him, but… He seems to know her somehow. Sort of like an uncle you haven’t seen in years but keep telling you things they remember. Bonnabel thinks he might know about her birth parents, but she's too shy and nervous to ask him. He’s… polite, at least. Doesn’t seem to try and bother her very much, but he still gives odd vibes. She does not want to be alone in a room with him.

Vlad: Oh… him. Yeah. It’s weird. On one hand, they have a shared trauma they can bond over, and on the other, he’s trying to hurt her family. Sure, he saved her from certain death that one time, but his dream has become so twisted she can’t help but distrust him. Still, it’s not as if they don’t get along. Actually, they have a lot more in common than one might think. 

[howlsmovingmind]

I used to love Superheroes when I was a kid. I loved Spiderman, the X-men, the Hulk, Captain America, Superman, and even Iron Man. I loved the cartoons and the movies. I loved what they stood for. I even loved stuff like Transformers (mostly because I had a massive crush on Megan Fox when I was like 5) and Star Wars.

Being such an imaginative child, I loved to dress up and play pretend as these characters. My brother had an Iron Man toy that I played with endlessly. I used to try to climb up walls or swing by ropes so that I could be like Peter Parker. I had Luke’s lightsaber when I was maybe 4 or 5 and I would practice with it all the time.

I believed in these characters. I loved how they chose to do what was right and did their best to help others. They were smart, courageous, and able.

As I got older though, my love of these superheroes dwindled. I thought they were harsh, destructive, and crass. A money grab that reenforced military propaganda and toxic gender roles for both sexes. Men and women in tight suits, inadequate communication, convoluted plots. And for what? Just to be a show of power? Violence? Exercising one’s own skewed view of justice?

I ended up despising the heroes I grew up loving. I hated their hatred. Their stoic personalities and their inability to truly fix anything. I hated the unnecessary destruction and violence. I hated how powerless they truly were. I hated their imperfection and the way they were so human, no matter how much they tried to be more than what they were.

I especially hated heroes like Batman.

Batman is a playboy billionaire who fights those who are victims. Victims of the system, of abuse, or who are severely mentally ill. The Joker is the only one you can really argue is a true villain, through and through. Simply an agent of chaos who wants the world to burn (if Alfred Pennyworth in the Dark Knight is to be believed).

Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed in front of him at 10 years old. And what he decides to do with all his fame and wealth and trauma is go after criminals with fancy gadgets and beat them within inches of their lives? Put them in a crumbling asylum where they are tortured and abused?

WHAT?

And the thing about Alfred is that he is the poster child for the military. I love Alfred as a concept, but as an actual character with his morals, I’ve learned that I don’t actually like him.

The Batman story and comics advocate for the justice system, not choosing who gets to live and die, trusting your police officers, and rehabilitation for villains and criminals. That sounds incredible! But the way it’s executed does none of that.

And if you take into account that the Joker is most likely to be “The Oscar Wilde Sort”, or pretty damn gay, the worse it gets. Because he’s just trying to create chaos! Corrupt your children! Crime will rule the streets if he is allowed to run wild!

Sound familiar?

Superheroes had disappointed me. The stories that used to inspire me now made me lose faith in how we view the world and how we view the disenfranchised or those who are “othered”. How we view the homeless, poor, sick, disabled, mentally ill, queer, non-white people of the world.

These characters and stories were written decades ago, when that was the narrative they were trying to push. It makes sense why these stories look like this. But we can explore these stories in a different way, and they will still resemble the original material. Telltale Batman did a great job of that. I think it was a great way to explore the darker themes that we see within Batman and make a more realistic version of his story.

The villains were victims of the elite, the government, domestic abuse, mental illness, death, and grief. They explore Bruce Wayne’s parentage and how they would have accumulated their enormous wealth without push back. The corruption of the government and branches of the police and special forces. How hard it is to truly balance justice and bias. It’s the best way to write the Batman story, in my opinion.

It’s the best way to write a superhero story, period.

We are only human, at the end of the day. We aren’t perfect, and neither are these heroes. We can only do so much. So, with what we can do, I think we should be kind.

Just an end of post disclaimer: I am aware that The Batman villains are murderers and are genuinely hurting those around them in the story. They are genuinely dangerous villains. Okay, thank you.

Criminally Other,

Howl

[popculturebuffet]

May as well pop this, let's try the Adult Swim cartoons. Favorite character from their initial wave of shows: Space Ghost Coast to Coast (technically started on Cartoon Network first before Adult Swim began in 2001 but it gets lumped in as Adult Swim these days), Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Seelab 2021, The Brak Show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Home Movies (began on UPN but continued production under Adult Swim). Throwing in Baby Blues, Mission Hill, and The Oblongs as bonuses that began on The WB but also finished on Adult Swim when The WB didn't bother finishing airing them.

Thank you. I may gloss over some later stuff, and you don't seem as into adult animation, so I appricate this. (And correct me if i'm wrong on that). Plus I can see you like doing these. But I grew up on the shows in this block's early days and some of it's middle days, so let's cook.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast: Moltar. IT's a hard choice as the main trio as a whole are all uniquely great, but I love his awkwardness and hidden monstrosity. And his attempts at knife fights. Coast to Coast is excellent and well worth checking out if you haven't. It's funny, got only funnier with time, and a handful of it's best stuff lives rent free in my head, something common among a lot of adult swim shows. And while this did predate adult swim, Space Ghost feels like why the block happened at all and it's earliest shows that weren't taken from the WB or UPN all kinda ape the formula of taking a classic cartoon and bending it, and joined it as soon as the block formed. Without it we woudln't have all these other great shows... I mean we might but it's a razor thin margin. It had a perfect comedic trio of the egotistical stupid manchild spaceghost, the cooler but blantatly evil and self destructive zorak and the also evil but awkward as hell moltar. A true classic and I badly miss C Martin Croker who played Zorak and Moltar and wrote this classic.

Harvey BIrdman Attorney at Law: WHOSE THAT CAT WITH THE BEAKKKKKKKKKKK? This theme song is dope as hell and is the reason this got made. Okay so faviorite character is Phil. HA HA obvious choice. But Stephen Colbert owns every scene he's in as Phil and the show rolls with it as it goes, letting Phil just getting into weird fucking hyjinks, the highlight being blackwatch plad where he hallucinates several things that never existed being stolen, somehow reads harvey's thoughts and institutes code rush's seminal album moving pictures. This show was a lot of funa nd introduced me to the bulk of hannah barbera's catalogue, finding fun ways to deconstruct the classic libraries from Fred as Tony Soprano to leaning on the fact Shaggy isn't actually a stoner but really, REALLY comes off as one, while getting better as it went by expanding on it's own weird cast, with Peter Potamus in paticular being pretty great. Add in some great Stephen Colbert performances before he had to leave for his own show, a killer soundtrack and one of Gary Cole's best performances as our bumbling hero just kind of ping ponged around by his clients and zany boss, and you have a show I now really want to rewatch. Adult swim would have better and shows I rewatched more, but the power of attorney is still strong to this day.

The Brak Show: Dad. George Lowe is just allowed to go into incredibly weird places with this man and I support it. The show itself is an underated classic these days, and while I try not to be too old man yelling at those them kids, this is a show the younger set who didn't grow up with it shoudl check out as it's absurd goodness. Brak started on space ghost and cartoon planet, but was too big to contain resulting in this lovely bit of nonsense that defined what an adult swims how not riffing on a cartoon could be. I mean it still did a little as it kept brak and zorak from space ghost but recast them as a loveable teen dummy and an agent of chaos.. the same people but in a new scenario that let them go hog wild. The show even got experimental as it went with batshit weirdness like Braklet Prince of Spaceland that puts the cast in hamlet (And dad as hamle'ts dad sans pants) or all I desire is you where the cast is suddenly in a soap opera). It's good stuff with a psycho musical, an election where Dad claims his opponent is killing pets with pet bombs nad fails the instant he actually has to debate, and of course

Sealab 2021: Accidently put this one out of order but it might be my faviorite of this batch, with one other jockeying for the crown. Captain Murphy is my faviorite and while the show had a few classics after his actor Harry Goz's tragic passing, it never felt quite the same. Sealab 2021 is the first abriged series and a damn good one. While the show skidded at times, at it's peak this was just pure comedic chaos under the sea, and the cast bounced off each other amazingly. The show wasn't afraid to experiment either and out of the shows here, while brak dabbled later, seemed to do it the most and made it stand out: as early as the end of season 1 we got a waking life full episode take, an episode following the cast as actors on the show, my personal faviorite tinfins that takes this concept and applies it to the making of a movie, a backwards episode, and one repeating the same running gag with variations over and over. The show had a great ensemble, mostly anchored by goz and later his son, and cemented Adam Reed as a legend in adult comedy.

Home Movies: Coach McGurik. It was John Benjamins brekout: While Dr Katz had welcomed him tot he world, McGurik made him a star and would eventually lead him to bob and archer, and he's still one of his best roles, a sardonic drunk who bonds with kids, yet also should not be around them and once claimed BRENDON SMALL IS ON DRUGS and tried to get a bunch of children to do an intervention.

I could honestly quote McGuirk moments all day and he frankly stole the show half the time, to the point the bulk of later seasons has him in his own weird b-plot, from gambing on a boat with the host of his seminar, to buying a bunch of swords when drunk, to telling a bunch of kids to go upstairs in a hurricane because being in the same rooms mean they'll all bump into each other. The last one isn't a subplot, it's just comedy gold.

The show had an easy dry improved style: While they did put in scripts after the first season, it was still mostly "get to this point" and let Brendon Small, a voice acting and comedy legend in his own right, and co cook. The result is a funny show with detailed charcters: Narccisitc control freak at only the third grade brendon, entirely out of it jason, only sane woman till she isn't melissa and Brendon's mom Paula who alternates between voice of reason to her child and her life being a hurricane. It's one of the best shows Adult Swims ever made and they hit the jackpot pickign it up

Mission Hill: Gus. While the joke could easily be "GET IT THE GUY IS REALLY MANLY BUT HE'S GAYYYY" they let him go beyond that and while his queerness is integral to who he is, he's also funny> We also get that great subplot of a knife just.. jutting out of his shoulder for a whole episode. The show itself is pretty good and worth a revisit from me, a nice hipster's pardise. The odd couple coulld get boring but Andy and Kevin play off each other well: Andy does need to grow the hell up, and I like the reveal both of his friends, while also cooler than thou slackers.. do actually have stable jobs. not saying a 9 to 5 job is growing up, I don't have one, but more that andy needed to change as a person and the series lets him grow, while Kevin bursts out of his shella nd misconceptions. The show was too good to last and i'm sad the spinoff fell apart. It was fantastic.

Baby Blues: Carl. What could easily be just the more grumbly testorone guy to the goofy darryl is a pretty fun slob. The show itself was solid. Is it anything like the comic strip? Honestly not really, having read the strip both early and not: It does deal with the difficulties of having a baby (Something Zoey was for the early years of the strip), but it's more it's own thing and honestly finding baby blues mid, that's a good thing as the show baby blues is pretty solid. Nothing super standout, but still memorable enough to stick in the brain.

The Oblongs: Down in the Valley where the chemical spill. Pickles. it was, unbenownst to me my first experince with jean smart and it's a good one. This is a show i'll give another shot someday as I wasn't a huge fan as a kid but in hindsight. it's really good. not nearly as mean spirited as I thought.

[fantasy-fields-danger-zone]

Killer(Fell)!Papyrus Skinwalker bitty

Name: Cretbird

Size: (Size shifts! Bitty height depends on each bitty)

Pelt Species: Secretary bird

Personality: Chaotic, unpredictable, energetic, sadistic, clever, sarcastic, bold, expressive, hyper-focused, destructive, impatient,

Likes: Snakes(toying with them), pranks, destroying things for fun, snacks, loud stomping, fast movement, dramatic exits, sunbathing, Fashion, Compliments, Cleaning their pelt, Chaos,

Dislikes: being bored, stillness, being ignored, slow responses, being told what to do, subtlety,

Compatibility: These bitties love their looks! They are prideful and like to be complimented on their looks! And will often times get along better with others that compliment them!

Cretbird bitties are absolute agents of chaos. They thrive in fast-paced environments with stimulation, mess, and unpredictability. If left unstimulated or unengaged, they will begin to create their own fun- often in the form of structural damage, unsettling traps, or emotional manipulation.

Best suited for loud, confrontational, or wild households where hierarchy is flexible, and humor is often dark. They’re extremely intelligent and thrive when allowed to strategize or perform stunts, such as leaping from furniture, launching sneak attacks, or orchestrating group-wide pranks.

They adore companions who match their energy, push their buttons, or give them challenges. However, if you try to micromanage them or suppress their chaos entirely, they will rebel in explosive fashion.

Their pelt is full of sharp quills, plume-feathers, and talon-like extensions. Touching it without permission is grounds for violence.

These bitties will often time bully Lamia bitties for fun! Doesn’t matter if their big or deadly they they love to mess with them, especially to get their attention, from playful kicks to stops right next to their tails, they will find a way to get them to look their way-

These bitties are highly aggressive when they have eggs or when there are any child bitties around, becoming overly protective of them even if they arent their own kid, though having their parents or an adult bitty that cares for them can easily prevent this!

Feeding habits: Cretbird bitties are opportunistic omnivores. They prefer crunchy textures—bones, dried meats, and spiced roots. They adore eating snakes (real or artificial), especially when allowed to “hunt” them first.

They also enjoy small prey, bird kibble, spicy seeds, roasted bugs, and dried fruit. Giving them surprise snack drops is a great way to reinforce good behavior, though they may learn to expect chaos afterward.

Additional info: They are HIGHLY territorial and protective over their pelts! Do NOT Touch them without permission!! Or you just might find yourself at the end of a very angry bitty-

Zone: Savanna,

In Universe: Though often seen as pest than a predator thanks to their antics in the savannas, they are still seen as dangerous bitties in other places and aus,

Difficulty: Expert

[bookwormsbutterfly]

Scp 1730 has got to be one of my favorites. Mostly because it's a whole big story, and it contains appearances of a bunch of familiar SCPs. It's also one of the few SCP files that has legitimately made me feel utterly repulsed, which is the closest i really get to scared when reading these.

The premise of SCP 1730 is "what happened to site 13" that question is easy to answer, site 13 was never built in our dimension. But another dimension had a security measure where should Site 13 experience a mass containment breach it would be sent to another dimension to protect its home one, and we were the unlucky dimension to get site 13 dropped on us. The dimension site 13 came from, followed a different path than ours, the SCP foundation focused on getting use out of anomalous objects, and destroyed anything not helpful. There was no ethics to how they did things as SCPs were considered objects, no matter how sentient or human they were. This means that every empty containment cell, is something powerful on the loose, that likely has formed a strong hate for humanity and the SCP foundation. And there are a lot of empty cells. The way they contained things was beyond what this dimension could dream of, keeping what we call "literal gods" in giant boxes to test on and use.

Several of the best SCP task forces were sent in, some agents found themselves killed by leeches, some wound up as paint on the walls, one lost his legs, but that guy is actually fine, can still use his missing legs as if they're there, but he's trapped with the others, as there's no way to escape without mass death in the group of survivors. Their only hope was mobile task force Samsara. It's uncertain how human Samsara is beneath all their cybernetic enhancements, but they have beyond human intelligence, and the physical capability to stand in lava doing data analysis on radioactive material and be just fine. So if anyone can rescue those trapped in site 13 it's them.

Within site 13 is a large collection of horrors. The original cause of the containment breech seems to be "leech boy" as some called him. A human boy who's anomalous thing was he drank blood like a leech. In an attempt to spare this mere odd child from being ground and incinerated like all the other "useless" SCPs, a researcher had stopped the incinerator, and while trapped in a pile of anomalous corpses, leech boy transformed into a huge leech with the ability to spawn and control millions of smaller leeches, which also had wild abilities and were very quick to take down the site. In this chaos several other things were released or given new power, and the site turned into hell very quickly.

One curious find in this wreck was Bobble the clown. Who begs a curious question: if a good person driven to insanity can become a twisted murderer, can a twisted clown who tricks children into killing their families, when driven to insanity, become helpful and empathetic? Bobble just might. Other curious finds include the immortal Dr. Bright, dead in a containment cell. An angel meant to be guarding the gates of Eden just contained in a room. The site directer attached to a monster, which no drawing has managed to capture the absolute nightmare that appears in my mind at its description, and burned Samsara's ocular implants to destruction just from looking at it. And the thing that took that one guys legs, a rising void that I theorise to be an unwanted side affect of them grinding up Josie the half-cat, theorizing that in killing her her anomaly was released from her and became that. Trying to take more. But this idea is one of the things that repulses me, because Josie is a darling little kitty and the idea of anyone harming her is horrible.

In the end , They get rid of this hell the same way they got it. Sending it off to be some other dimensions problem. And it only killed several people from our dimension while severely traumatizing the rest. Even Samsara will need some time to recover from this, and I'm not just talking about fixing their heavily damaged bodies.

[lillotte17]

For a solavellan prompt? Guilty Solas post defeat when he and Lavellan are trying to build a new life and Lavellan getting a bit fed up with the self-pity, but it ends with mutual comforting.

Solas sits by the fire outside a large aravel, making a brave attempt at a pot of herbal tea with trace amounts of elfroot. The smell of the drink is not a bad one in and of itself, but it cannot help but be reminiscent of the taste, which he still finds abhorrent no matter how it has been prepared. He has been accused on numerous occasions of being incapable of making a decent cup of tea, to which he takes exception, as he would argue that it is fundamentally impossible to make a ‘good’ cup of tea.

Regardless, it seems to be one of the few things he has ever tried to learn which he has failed to excel at, but Aili is resting, and if she wants a soothing beverage, his are the only hands available to put to the task.

He gazes through the steam rising from the kettle, past the little clearing where they have made their camp, and out into the dense line of trees surrounding them. The colors of the sky shift, pale rainbow hues reflecting the reaches of the Fade just beyond. Not Veiled, but held. Dreams and reality seeping into one another gently, without either being overrun or locked away. Eventually, things will return to how they had once been. The world will slowly grow itself back into its magic and its wonders. Spirits and physical beings will have chances to learn how to live in peace and understanding. No more darkspawn hordes and Blights. No more Evanuris. No more Dread Wolves to burn away the past in chaos and destruction.

They live in seclusion, as they must, for now. Not everyone is as merciful as the former Inquisitor, and his crimes are numerous and ancient; the cause of so much suffering across countless ages. The weight of them is still suffocating most days, but he has done all that he can do to make it right. To live is his atonement. To carry the past and everything that was lost within his heart like a beacon, scorching the space between his lungs until he turns to ash. He will remember, and if the ones who come next ask him for the truth, he will give it to them. And if they curse his name, he will carry that, too.

Even if it breaks him.

He is accustomed to solitude, and lean living in the wilds, but with the loss of his agents, and his Heart at his side, it all feels new and bright and strange. Their single land ship is less of a home than he had claimed in the days of the empire -not a single floating crystal spire or an attendant to be found- and it is more of a home in some ways, too. They never stay in one place for more than a few months together, but he has a rhythm and a pattern and a place here. One of his own choosing. His own making. Quiet and peace and a freedom he has not known since long before he took up the mantel of Fen’Harel.

“Are you out here burning water again?” Aili asks in a thin rasp from the entrance to their tent. She looks mussed and haggard. Swathed in blankets and holding more in her one remaining arm.

“You should be resting,” he chastises without much heat. “I will bring your tea when it is ready.”

She snorts.

“As if you’d recognize when tea was ready.”

“Regardless of quality, my attempt is all there is to be had,” he reminds her archly. “Surely you were not so desperate for some boiled leaves that you felt the need to get out of bed to supervise.”

“…You were gone when I woke up.” Her voice is soft. Just shy of shaking. “You know I hate that.”

Solas lets out a huff, surprised and nearly offended.

“You think that I would abandon you now?” he wonders, “Today of all days?”

The beat of silence that follows stretches out long enough to make them both frown.

“…If you left, I do not think it would be your choice.” Aili says at last.

“It would not.” Solas agrees readily.

“But you did not think you had a choice when you sought to tear the Veil down, either.” She reminds him.

He sighs and glances away.

“But whatever the cause…I do not think I could bear to be without you again.” Aili tells him, her voice breaking on the last word.

He looks back at her, his expression wounded and worried, extending his hand in wordless offering. She shuffles towards him slowly, even with healing magic, she is sore and exhausted. She has no free hand available to grasp his fingers with, so she passes him the bundle she had been carrying, and sinks down onto the grass beside him with a long exhale of breath.

Solas freezes, caught off guard at the sudden offering, as he looks down into the blankets at the tiny sleeping face of his daughter.

It is not his first time holding her, of course. His hands were the first to receive her into this world. He had cut her cord, cleaned her gently, and passed her into her mother’s waiting arms. Her little pointed ears are still slightly bent from the manner of her arrival, and her features are a bit flushed and flattened, but there are still obvious traces of both himself and his Heart in every inch of her.

“You would endure without me, Vhenan.” He tells her softly. “You are the strongest most vibrant person I have known. If it came to it, I know you would find the means of keeping yourself and our daughter safe from harm. Even if you had to do it on your own.”

“Do not ask it of me.” Aili says, the tone of her voice is commanding and insistent. She grips his sweater with her one remaining hand, pressing her face into his shoulder, and breathing him in deep. “I have endured enough. We both have. Just because I never found the limit of my reserves doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I deserve a life of peace with the man I love. And our child deserves to know her father.”

Solas smiles, but it makes him ache to the very marrow of his bones.

“And I do not deserve either of you.”

  Aili frowns at him.

“It’s a little late to be talking like that, isn’t it?”

“Do not misunderstand,” he hurries to clarify, “I have regrets beyond counting, but you -either of you- could never be one of them. My desires are unchanged. My love for you has only deepened with time, as I knew it would. And I know it will continue to do so, even as the long years pass us by, and our daughter grows. It is simply that… My actions have stolen the very joy I covet now from so many. It was not my intent, but I do not suppose my intentions mattered very much to those who suffered and died because of the Veil I wrought, or the orb I allowed Corypheus to find. Or all the things that came after.”

She lifts her hand to touch his face. The touch is gentle, but the emotion in her violet eyes is intense and solemn. Her thumb traces the sharp angle of his cheek as she considers how to respond.

“I think…you are right,” Aili tells him with a sigh. “Your intentions will mean little to those who have been lost or injured in the chaos that followed the creation of the Veil. But…I do not think any amount of self-flagellation would appease them, either. Killing you will not give them back their lives, or heal the other wounds that may have been inflicted. The revenge of it may taste sweet for a moment, but it would not fix the things that were broken.”

A tear slides down his face, but she brushes it away. He takes a deep shuddering breath, accepting her words without rebuttal. His arms tighten around his sleeping daughter and she squirms slightly, making a vague noise of protest.  

“You always give yourself too much credit, Ma sa’lath.” Aili chastises him quietly while checking that the baby is not about to wake. “I suppose with a name that means ‘pride,’ you cannot help it much. You are not innocent in the tragedies that befell the world, but that does not make you guilty for all of them either. You made mistakes, and some of them were terrible. Some may not even be forgivable. But you helped people, too. You healed those who were hurting. You freed thousands from slavery. You saved my life more times than I can count. When you saw that you were wrong, you changed. You stopped. You tried to fix the things that had gone awry. I do not think that it is necessary or wise for you to forget the errors that you made in the past, but… I would ask that you try to remember the good you have done as well. I know I do.”

“The misjudgments far outweigh the acts of altruism, I’m afraid,” He sighs.

“Well…you could change that,” Aili points out, smiling faintly. “What’s the use of living forever if you can’t spend that time growing into the person that you want to be? Once things settle down, there’s nothing stopping us from wandering Thedas helping people where we can.”

“You do not wish to rejoin your clan?” Solas wonders.

“I…accepted the fact that I could never go back to them a long time ago,” Aili says with a shake of her head. “I miss them all, but even if your infamy were not an issue, the former Inquisitor is still a target for plenty of idiots trying to make a name for themselves. I’m their First, and I have to protect them, even if it means staying away.”

“And I am sorry for that, too.” He bows his head.

“Don’t be.” She shrugs. “It is…not the life I thought I would have, but it is not a bad one. You are my clan now. Both of you. It is enough. More than enough. It’s everything.”

Solas leans forward and kisses her cheek tenderly.

The baby wriggles, waking in earnest this time. She squints up at the brightness of the sky with the same violet eyes as her mother. Solas pulls the blanket up higher to give her some shade, rocking her slightly as Aili hums to her and offers her fingers as a distraction. The baby does not seem overly distressed for now, merely observing the world around her as best she can, and wondering at it all.

“I…hope I can teach her well enough to avoid the sorts of mistakes that I made,” Solas says after a few quiet moments of watching her.

“You are an excellent teacher,” Aili grins, “But I also think it would be almost impossible for anyone else to repeat your mistakes, Ma sa’lath. You’re a tough act to follow.”

“Suppose I…” he frowns, a deep line of worry furrowing his brow, “What if I continue to make mistakes? What if something else goes wrong, and I try to fix it, only to watch the world shatter and she-”

“Shh,” Aili soothes, “She will teach you, too. Our daughter will grow and change along with this world as it comes back into its magic. You will learn to love and care for it through her eyes. She will not lead you astray. Ma ghilana, Da’vhenan.”

“Ma ghilana, Da’vhenan,” Solas echoes, smiling down at his daughter’s face.

She offers him a pleased sounding burble in reply.

“…Ghilani.” He suggests softly.

Aili smiles, warm and bright.

“Ghilani,” she agrees.   

[faelapis]

"the owl house" thoughts - s2 finale

i'm just gonna bulletpoint here. starting with things i liked:

obviously, i like that the collector ended up being someone with their own motivations rather than just like a xD quirky ex machina

i like that hunter wasn't able to fight belos, even when it counted. so often you see the """satisfying""" thing where an abuse victim just snaps and decks their abuser in the face without fear. i'm sure hunter is mad deep down... but i like that it's something he's not able to channel, due to other emotions like fear being paramount here. perhaps even lingering love.

in fact, IF hunter stays this way... i, resident hunter disliker, may even grow to like him. i just assumed, TOH being somewhat predictable, he was gonna have the classic arc of realizing he's been lied to and then Beating Up His Abuser. i want him to stay more conflicted. more gentle.

i like that they played into belos as someone who wants to save humanity with more sincerity. that felt very fake and cheap before, it was more substantial here. it was like he almost had a real motivation!! rather than being just an Evil Liar who Lies!!!

as much as i didn't like how refusing to free the collector was another instance of belos being, well, an Evil Liar who Lies, in hindsight, it does make sense. this kids a powerful lil fucker.

i also like that this means we have a "villain" who is not an authoritarian, but an anarchist agent of chaos. wild magic, even. sure, i don't think the collector will really be a villain, more an unpredictable force of nature who may actually just be having a tea party with king right now. but still. duality! nuance! yay!

I LIKE BELOS WEARING HIS HUMAN DRIP FUCK YOU LUZ

also huge fan that the belos goo attached to hunter and came with to the human realm :D i'm sure this means only good things :D ok but unironically i would like a redemption arc ("we need your help to save humanity") that only i will enjoy, while every egg on twitter complains about it being unearned or rushed.

WE GOT A TITLE DROP!!!!! THE COLLECTOR IS CREATING AN OWL HOUSE (TM) THAT MATTERS TO THE STORY?

things i disliked:

the aforementioned "you lied to me!" betrayal between belos and the collector. i feel like every poorly-written villain has to do because they're the villain. they're an asshole to people around them not because it furthers their goals, but just to make sure the audience knows they're an asshole.

same thing with kikimora.

in the collectors case, like i said, not entirely unwarranted... but it does seem like an instance where belos is just big mad that he cant control them. its not like he's doing it for the boiling isles' sake. its just him him him.

wow they really just had belos try to kill everyone (even his followers, some of which he's known for decades, if not centuries!) just to once again show that he's the bad guy.

okay. so. this is a big one - in a show for kids, you know the protagonists will survive. that's not a bad thing! but it does mean you NEED emotional stakes that aren't rooted in whether people will live. and almost everything "emotional" this episode is a fakeout about someone dying.

strongly trying to resist urge to contrast it to SU "change your mind", where steven's entire identity as himself, as someone separate from his mother, hangs in the balance.

raeda suffers the most from this. like 50% of their relationship is already someone lying or tricking the other To Protect Them (tm), which i already don't love... but to ALSO have their main emotional thread in the s2 finale be a fakeout sacrifice is not great. we know raine isn't gonna die, we know eda isn't gonna die. this is a real relationship with emotional complexity, but they can't steer it in any other direction than angsty fake sacrifices.

oh eda got out of the coven system REAL easy. just remove the arm, i guess. that's dumb. i wish she had stuck with it. could've prompted some soul-searching now that the new threat (the collector) is the embodiment of wild, unhinged magic.

other general thoughts:

look. i know belos tentative truce with the heroes is extremely unlikely, but i feel like even people who want him to just be a villain have to be somewhat charmed with the idea of grumpy ghost goo following the gang around, commenting on how stupid their plans are, how he should be the leader, etc.

on that note, luz actually keeping her promise and getting belos some modern human clothes would be sick. girls night shopping trip WHEN????? i wanna see him in yeezys.

i'm all on board with king molting theory. make him big.

bring luz' mama to the demon realm somehow. she seems somewhat disillusioned with her own life, yknow?

while i agree that this was a somewhat messy / overstuffed episode, idk, i think that lends it an advantage in that it can't just wrap everything up with a neat little bow. i think that lack of time might even benefit the show in s3 somewhat, because they might have to keep some things open-ended. which i like :)

aaaand that's all! see you in season 3.

[3laxx]

Maternal Feelings

There she was.

Her tiny granddaughter.

She had a bit lighter skin than Luz and just about Amity’s hair color. And she was so damn tiny.

Eda found herself getting scared, suddenly. This was a really small kid. This was like, a stupidly small child. She would not hold that baby for any number of snails.

---

Eda meets her newborn grandddaughter for the first time.

I don't know man I'm just chucking out words rn like I'm running from something.

But I had this thought of Eda meeting a very small child and my stupid brain was like "We can do that instead of sleeping" xD

So yeah, have this incredibly fluffy oneshot about Eda coming to terms with her Momma feelings and adjusting to being a grandma.

I just really wanted Eda to get emotional over a baby

Don't even ask Idk

Have fun reading! <3

Ao3 / FF.net

---

Eda had never been the most maternal.

Not in her youth, not when she had found King, and not when she had sort of adopted and sheltered Luz until she had graduated and been able to stand on her own two feet.

Not when King had taken her name and not when Amity had asked her for Luz’s hand, which had in truth just been a mockery of her parents’ traditions and had given Eda nothing more than an excuse to drink some apple blood with her future daughter-in-law.

Of course, she had seen Luz as a daughter at some point, had called herself her mother, had cared for her.

She had made their meals, had helped Luz with the homework – even if that had disgusted her – she had taught Luz and King everything she knew, she had tucked King in, cared for Luz when she had gotten sick or sad. She had of course done everything in her power to make sure her kids were content and happy.

That didn’t mean she had felt as though she was a mother. She had liked pretending to be the sort of crazy aunt, in charge of all the bad decisions.

But she had never seen herself as maternal.

Well, she supposed that came from not really setting any rules. When she had been younger, she had always been under the impression that mothers had to set rules, educate their children, and raise them. She had never really raised King or Luz.

She had just sort of made them laugh, given them food, and then they hadn’t left anymore. Like the free-loaders they were. Kind of like pests, actually.

It had always made them laugh if she had called them that. It had made her laugh.

Because she loved them, of course. She didn’t know love alone could turn her, the irresponsible, free-spirited wild witch a mother.

She supposed she had been a mother for King and Luz. Without setting rules, without all the raising stuff. She supposed her kids had turned her the littlest bit maternal.

Was it normal for friends to stay up at night and change the cold applications on Luz’s forehead in the hopes of bringing her fever down? Was it called caring and loving when she went out of her way to get King’s favorite toy, to get Luz the food she could actually digest, to make sure King was free of fleas and bathed and tucked in at night?

Did it make her a mother if she risked her own life to ensure they could lead a happy life?

Eda never knew the line between loving, as friends, and maternal.

Raine had started calling her out on her maternal feelings once she got the littlest bit protective of Luz.

Well, it wasn’t her fault that everything made her jump after Belos had almost – had, in fact – killed Luz on the day of unity. It wasn’t her fault that she woke up at night in a cold sweat, rushing to check on her daughter in the room next to hers sleeping peacefully, only to return to a sleepy Raine dazedly grinning at her with a smug, shit-eating expression of “Told you so”.

Every time, they would roll over their mattress in her nest and wrap an arm around her waist and tell her she was such a sweet mother.

Well, she was. She was the Momma of the Owl House.

But maternal?

Eda supposed she was.

After all, even if friends would do the same as her, a mother would make sure everything stayed safe and protected in her house. Making sure there was food on the table that Luz could eat. Making sure King was feeling loved, despite having discovered his past.

Making sure Luz had all her school materials, spending money on icky, stupid books. Giving her an allowance. Keeping her and King safe.

Well, Eda had never really tried finding a definition for maternal. All the love she had gained for King and Luz had just been that to her – love. And it had been enough.

She had loved calling herself Momma and had loved treating Luz like her daughter and King like her son, and she had loved calling them her kids. She just supposed the word itself – maternal – didn’t exactly describe what she was. She, herself, as Eda the Owl Lady, the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, an agent of chaos and the most daring criminal history had ever seen.

She had just assumed a mother wouldn’t call herself these titles.

Seemed like her view of a mother had been wrong.

Any person could be a mother, a parent, a father, or anything remotely close to this. And she supposed, caring for Luz and King, taking them in, giving them food, kind of did make her a maternal person, while never losing her pride as a criminal and generally irresponsible person.

A mother.

Well, whatever a mother was, or whatever maternal feelings were, or whatever she defined herself at and whatever she did for Luz and King.

Here she found herself, fidgeting next to her spouse, her excited teenage son in tow who was already towering over her height, in front of the healer’s coven building.

Whatever a mother was, she would probably feel that way. Well, Camila – Luz’s other mother – next to her other side was buzzing in excitement just as much as she was. The two women exchanged a glance before Camila gave her a small smile and she felt Raine taking her hand.

King gave a groan when he finally placed his claws on Eda’s and Camila’s shoulders and pushed them up the three steps into the main entrance, rolling his eyes.

After Belos had been taken down – after he had actually very much killed Luz, Eda had just brought her back to life – Luz and her friends had taken on graduation while the Boiling Isles had experienced a change in the government. Covens were no longer used to steal or limit magic. Instead, they had been used as a way to form a working parliament, with an elected group of government heads. After the gang had graduated, Luz had worked towards getting a way back home while helping establish a stable government form from the makeshift temporary one they had managed to create after Belos’ defeat. Luz had actually helped them quite a bit by telling of experiences made in the human realm, where politics were apparently a lot more twisted than here on the Isles.

Eda and Lilith had been elected as part of the group forming the government, even if Eda had dropped out after one or two periods, while her sister had taken charge like it had been the most natural thing for her.

Discovering that politics hadn’t really been up to her alley – she was way more interested in rebellions than anything else – she had begun building a legal business since she didn’t have to fear being captured anymore. It had gone pretty well.

Raine had started working in the government as well as Amity, while Luz had started working to mastering all forms of glyphs she could find, admitting her studies to the academics, and shortly after, had been offered to become a teacher at Hexside by Bump to teach magicless witches and demons glyph magic.

After traveling the Isles and working on her studies, Luz had accepted and finally settled down with Amity. It really hadn’t been a surprise to Eda when Amity had come to her and Raine with a ring and asked them to marry Eda’s daughter.

After already asking Camila that is.

Eda faintly felt King pushing her into the cool building that smelled like disinfectant – a nifty cleaning drug from the human realm that Luz had introduced them to – before hearing herself asking the receptionist where the room of the Noceda-Blights was.

A kind of bored-looking demon sighed and looked the room number up in the list, before pointing them in the direction. Again, Eda’s feet felt like they had been planted into the tiles below her.

Only after Raine gave her a light push, she moved again.

So, the world now had some sort of order. Nobody was forced into covens anymore, and the coven seals had been removed, setting the magic free again.

Raine and she had married shortly after her daughter had accepted Amity’s proposal, and now, ten years after Luz had first set foot on the Boiling Isles chasing after her book, Eda found herself feeling more maternal than ever. Whatever that meant.

Her hands were fidgety, and not even Raine’s steadying grip could calm her. Camila tried not to look around too much, even after so many years of knowing the Boiling Isles and having visited her daughter regularly, she still wasn’t used to all of it.

Stopping in front of their room, Eda tried breathing through. King sighed again, but Raine shot him a glare and he shut up. At least her spouse understood that this was a big step for her. Looking to her side, Camila tried another smile and Eda nodded at her.

“If you want to, you and King can go ahead. I’ll-… I still need a minute.”

More than willing, Camila accepted. She knocked, and upon hearing Luz’s call, she stepped in. Eda shuffled to the side to let King through, so he could duck through the doorframe and maneuver his broad shoulders in without hitting anything. The door closed and Eda breathed through once more, feeling Raine’s grip tightening.

“How do you feel?”

Shooting them a grin, Eda turned, shrugging and trying to play it cool, “Old, honestly.”

Laughing, Raine pulled her aside to the row of chairs and made her sit down.

“No, I mean, how do you feel about Luz and Amity?”, they tried again and Eda sighed, staring at the blank wooden door with the small eighteen next to it.

“… Proud. I’m proud of them for making this commitment.”, looking back to Raine, she added, “And kind of scared. I haven’t really been the most-… Well, involved.”

Unimpressed, Raine lifted an eyebrow.

“… You’re kidding, right?”

Groaning, Eda shrugged again and leaned back, before closing her eyes, resting her head against the wall.

“I-… I never made the commitment they made. King has his father and Luz has her mother. I was more a friend to them than a mom. Sure, I liked seeing myself that way, and they liked seeing themselves as my kids, but-… It was fun having them. King had always been mostly independent and Luz was already a teenager when I met her. I’ve never-… Well, been around-…”

Raine softly placed their hand on Eda’s hands that she had folded in her lap and when she opened her eyes again, the gaze of her spouse was humored.

“Come on, Eda. How hard can it be to be a not-grandmother?”, at the joke, Eda groaned, “It’s not much different to being a not-mom to your kids.”

Grumbling, she got up again before straightening her back and nodding.

“You know what, you’re right. That kid is family now and whoever the hell cares what a mother or a grandmother is.”

A little confused, Raine got up after her and pumped a fist, albeit half-heartedly.

“That’s the spirit?”, they laughed and Eda huffed, before knocking and getting her own call to be let in.

The room was warm and humid. Eda let in Raine and quickly closed the door after them, not to let too much of the warmth escape, before turning back to her daughter.

Luz looked tired when she approached them.

Well, that wasn’t a surprise, given that she and Amity had arrived in the hospital two days ago before their little daughter had been born just this morning in the earliest hours. She had probably been awake all this time to be there for Amity.

Giving Eda a big hug, she nuzzled her face into the crook of her mother’s neck, before deeply breathing out. Eda could tell that Luz had just overcome a big step for herself.

“… I’m glad you’re here…”, she breathed and Eda wrapped her arms around the now-grown woman, tilting her own head into the embrace. The younger witch snuggled close while Raine squeezed past them to join Camila and King around the crib next to Amity’s bed.

Eda tried so hard not to cry.

This was a happy occasion and she would sure as hell not shed a tear about this. Just when she pressed a little kiss to Luz’s head, a tear rolled into her dark curls as well. Well, there went this promise.

“I’m proud of you, kid.”, she whispered and Luz held her tighter, smiling against her neck, “I’m so, so proud of you. If you ever need some help, I’ll do my damn best to provide.”

Sniffling, Luz nodded, before parting from her.

The exhaustion was evident on her face. She wiped her cheek before Eda placed a hand on her shoulder and caught her gaze. They exchanged a silent smile, then she looked up and around her daughter to her future daughter-in-law on the bed, obviously exhausted as well.

Amity gave a small wave, but it was obvious to see she was under the influence of some strong sedatives. That was the logical thing to do, Eda supposed, to keep her from acting protective over her child while all her family and friends wanted to meet the newest family member.

Witches only carried six months until giving birth, before incubating their pup for another three months. Which was why this room was so damn hot.

But upon giving birth, new mothers would also become a lot more protective of their pups than humans would. Luz had been new to all of this and Eda had had to educate her on the reproduction of witches, because Amity had been too busy laughing. Well, Eda had laughed as well, but not as hard as Luz’s fiancé.

Looking back to her daughter, she finally noticed the bandage she was wearing around one hand. Smirking, she gestured to that.

“Don’t tell me your weak nerd arms gave in.”, she joked and Luz huffed, rubbing the bandage with the healing sticker.

“Amity just had to transform her hand into a damn abomination while in labor. Seriously, who even does that? She sliced my hand right in half.”, grumbling, she looked back to her fiancé and gave her a small smile before looking back to Eda, “I almost missed the birth because the healers had to patch me up first. But there won’t even be a scar because they had my hand reattached just a second after it happened.”

Still grinning, Eda punched her shoulder, then Luz leaned closer to her, lowering her voice.

“Just don’t tell Mami. She’d lose her cool.”

Shaking her head and laughing, Eda walked past her.

“I won’t, don’t worry.”, after making her way around the bed, she sat down on the edge and caught Amity’s dazed gaze, taking her hand after permission, “Hey Minty. How’re you feeling?”

“… ’M good.”, the young witch slurred, trying a small smile, before breathing through and looking to the side where she kept her pup in view, “… Tired.”

Eda nodded, cupping her hand with both of hers, before softly patting the back of her hand.

“Lily will be here this afternoon to look after you two. Your siblings are still in Latissa on Government business, they asked me to tell you because they couldn’t get a hold of you. But they’ll be back tomorrow.”

She could tell that was a lot of information for Amity to process so she made a note to tell Luz as well. Leaving the witch to try and observe the room again – probably to make sure it stayed safe for her pup – she turned to the crib now finally.

There she was.

Her tiny granddaughter.

She had a bit lighter skin than Luz and just about Amity’s hair color. And she was so damn tiny.

Eda found herself getting scared, suddenly. This was a really small kid. This was like, a stupidly small child. She would not hold that baby for any number of snails.

Camila seemed a lot more comfortable around the baby, though. She had respected Luz’s wish to leave her in her crib for the time being, so Amity could get used to so many people around her pup so suddenly, but she was already reaching in and brushing the tiny thing over her cheek.

Well, okay, that seemed easy enough. Eda could do that, someday, when the kid was like twelve or something.

King and Luz were talking about something while Raine looked just about as amazed by the small creature as Camila was.

Sensing their amazement and figuring that Raine didn’t exactly have that much experience with children, either, Camila took the hand of Eda’s spouse and guided them down into the crib, brushing their knuckles against the incredibly soft skin of the baby’s cheek.

Amity didn’t even flinch at that. Either the sedatives were really strong or she felt incredibly comfortable with the people in the room. Looking back to the young witch, Eda confirmed the latter. Through half-lidded eyes, Amity was leaning back against the pillow, her other hand that was not held by Eda draped across her belly, while she was calmly watching Camila guiding Raine’s hand against the infant’s cheek.

She wondered how much Amity had actually adopted Luz’s family as her own once her parents had been imprisoned for their crimes against the public.

Judging by her calm reaction, she didn’t mind them being around her and her loved ones in the slightest, even in the now starting incubation period. Finally, Luz leaned around King and reached into the crib to lift her little daughter up and cradling her close to her chest. The baby didn’t even wake up, which made Eda chuckle.

“She’s got your sleeping habits, kid.”

Amity’s hand in hers shook when she started laughing alongside the older witch and Luz flushed in deep red when her mother confirmed.

“Sometimes, not even me shaking her would wake her up to school.”, Camila added and Luz huffed, bopping the infant in her arms.

“You guys are being mean to me in front of my daughter.”, she tried pouting, but King deadpanned.

“In front of your sleeping daughter. She won’t hear any of this.”

They started laughing again while Luz couldn’t suppress a little smile herself while looking down at the infant. When they had all quieted down a little, Luz pressed a soft kiss to her daughter’s forehead, before approaching Camila. Shooting a gaze towards Amity first to ask her permission, she then placed the baby in her mother’s arms and kept her hand cupped on the baby’s head, smiling.

“That’s your abuelita, mija.”, Luz mumbled softly and Eda almost felt her own heart breaking with the light sniffle Camila gave. After all these years of calling Luz her mija, Luz starting to use that label for her own daughter now made the human tear up.

While Camila greeted the little pup, Eda turned back to Amity whose head was softly nicking every time her eyelids fell. She had to be exhausted.

Tugging on her hand, Eda got her attention, then she lightly pushed the crib away to get up and adjust Amity’s pillow for her.

“C’mon, let’s get you lying down. We’ll take care of your pup.”

A sleepy gaze crossed with Eda’s but before Amity could object, the older witch was already adjusting the settings of the mattress to be flat again, before helping Amity lie down on her side.

“You can stay awake for as long as you want, but you should be comfortable with it at least.”, shooting her a grateful gaze, the younger witch yawned, then she adjusted the blanket around her future daughter-in-law and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, “Don’t worry about your pup, okay? Luz is taking care of her.”

That seemed to soothe Amity. She mumbled a soft “thank you” towards Eda and curled up a little, before continuing to watch the scene before her, the blinking of her eyelids already getting slower.

When Eda turned back to Camila, she discovered that Luz had taken her daughter back already and was safely cradling her before going around the crib and catching Eda’s gaze.

She knew that Luz wanted her to say hi, too.

“Luz, I’m not so sure about holding-”

Chuckling, her daughter adjusted the baby, before taking Eda’s hand.

“You can greet them like this first if you don’t wanna hold her. Or you can sit down if you like.”

Huffing, Eda fidgeted shortly, before rubbing her hands together and breathing through.

“Just, uh-… Sitting would be nice. I’m-… Holding the bat kids was an entirely different thing, you know? They could fly. Your kid can’t fly.”

Luz had to laugh at Eda’s rambling, pulling on her hand, she ushered King out of the chair by the window, before letting her adoptive mother sit down in it. Camila helped out by placing a pillow on Eda’s lap, then she was all set. Luz studied her face again.

“If you’re too nervous, you don’t have to hold her. I can hold her over your lap if you want to.”

Trying to wave her off, Eda forced a laugh.

“Pfft, you can just say you don’t trust me holding a baby, kid.”, she tried to joke around, but Luz just gave her a smile.

“If you feel uncomfortable, you don’t have to. That’s all I’m saying.”

But Eda wanted to. She definitely did kind of want to hold the tiny fragile baby that Luz had made together with her fiancé. Even if she was nervous and a little bit scared and so amazed by how small such a tiny thing could actually be, she did kind of want to hold that baby. Patting the pillow, she finally breathed through, then she opened her arms.

“Okay, I’m ready. Bring it, kid.”

Smirking at her antics, Luz leaned in and kneeled, then she slowly placed the baby in Eda’s arms. It was so tiny. It was so stupidly tiny, it wasn’t even as long as Eda’s forearm. Hiccupping, the older witch instinctively cradled the tiny, tiny infant in her arms and a warm feeling overcame her.

A really warm feeling.

If that was maternal feelings, then Eda swore she was going to be the best dang grandmother she could be for that child.

She brushed over her temple and the baby squirmed slightly. Apparently, she had woken up sometime during Camila holding her and was now kind of fighting against the snug swaddle blanket she was trapped in. Eda didn’t even notice she had tears in her eyes when she already felt the first tear rolling down her cheek.

“Wow… You’re my granddaughter now, hm?”, she asked and that tiny thing yawned, her arms struggling in the swaddle, before softly smacking her incredibly small lips. Eda found herself smiling immediately, “Titan, that’s new.”

Luz’s hands undid the blanket that was wrapped around the baby, then Eda laughed tearily when the infant stretched, her absolutely tiny fists stretching up to her face and rubbing her cheeks. She was apparently waking up and while she knew that incubating infants didn’t open their eyes yet, she found herself wondering what eye color the child would have. Adjusting the baby, she cradled them closer, then she smuggled a finger into the fist and giggled in delight when the baby grabbed it, despite not wanting to open the fist at first.

Looking up to Luz, who was still kneeling in front of her, she managed a smile, her teary expression probably matching the one on her daughter’s face.

“She’s perfect, Luz. But, let’s be honest, you two made a stupidly small baby.”

Laughing under tears, Luz nodded then she brushed over her daughter’s head and pressed a small kiss to her forehead to which the baby responded with a huff.

“Yeah, when I first held her, I was so scared she’d just slip right through my arms. But I think Amity would have killed me if I had so much as stumbled so I concentrated really hard not to let that happen.”

Eda’s gaze shot up from her granddaughter to her future daughter-in-law who was calling from the bed, her words slurred from the sedatives and sleepiness, but still very much poised if needed.

“… You better not drop our child, Luz.”

Raine had to laugh at that and went to soothe the new mother, while Eda turned back to the baby in her arms with a smile.

“Titan she’s small…”

The following few minutes were pretty much filled with tearful giggles and a very excited King who almost knocked the crib over when Luz called him to say hi as well. When Eda and King had calmed down a little, Camila had taken Luz outside for a little mother-daughter walk in the nearby park and King had gone with them for snacks. The older witch got up and carried the baby back to the crib, smiling when she lifted them up to her face. Resting her forehead against theirs, she kept like this for a moment, before stopping in front of the crib.

Amity had fallen asleep by now, even if she was flinching with every littlest sound her daughter made, so Eda looked over to Raine.

“Wanna hold the baby, too?”, she asked and Raine blushed.

“I’d-… I’d rather wait until she’s a little bit older.”, she admitted and Eda nodded before still gesturing her spouse over. Raine got up from the edge of Amity’s bed and joined Eda, putting an arm around her waist while Eda still cradled the baby close, taking care not to jostle her too much.

She yawned again and from the corner of her eyes, Eda saw Amity’s eyes opening, unfocused and probably very much still asleep but still attentive to her daughter. Chuckling, she turned back to Raine.

“Boy, I’m sure glad I only had two adoptive children.”

Shrugging, Raine caught the baby’s fist with their free hand and tickled their tiny fingers, but she wouldn’t open her hand this time.

“I’m sure you would’ve made a great biological mother as well. As you’re already a great adoptive mother, too.”

Shrugging, Eda brushed over her temple again, leaning into Raine.

“Nah, I’m glad I never had a baby. I don’t think I would’ve wanted to go through that.”

“Fair enough.”, Raine whispered, but their tone indicated that they had stopped listening to Eda, engrossed by the child in her arms. She softly kicked, which caused them to chuckle, before she settled back against Eda’s chest, curling in slightly and breathing through, apparently getting ready for her next nap. Raine sighed softly.

“Honestly, I’m glad I never had a baby, too. But having a grandchild is amazing.”

Grinning, Eda kissed their forehead, before carefully maneuvering the baby back into the crib and swaddling them the best she could, watching her breaths deepening and calming as she fell asleep again. Then, Eda pushed the crib next to Amity’s bed, to which the young witch immediately responded by reaching into the crib from the side and resting her hand on her daughter’s belly. Smiling, Eda took Raine into her arms and watched as both her future daughter-in-law and her granddaughter slept peacefully, leaning her head against Raine’s.

“… You’re right this is amazing.”

She already knew that this child would have the two best mothers she could ask for. And she knew that her entire family, including her furry uncle, three grandmothers, and one grandparent, and their twin uncle and aunt would do their damn best to make sure this child had everything she needed.

Smiling, Eda reached down to brush over the baby’s cheek and pulled Raine closer.

Maternal feelings or not, this was amazing.

---

Let me know if you liked it!

[heliads]

Daughter of the Storm (Part One)

Based on this request: “The reader is Wanda daughter but separated from Wanda because of hydra. reader gets called by sword to rescue Monica because she has similar power to Wanda. in the hex she is Agnes daughter and Wanda realizes that is her daughter and tries to get her back but Agatha does want to leave reader because the reader reminds Agatha of her dead daughter who her mother killed.”

masterlist / part two

It is quiet before they break down the door. In fact, were it not for the slight clamor of footsteps against the rickety wooden stairs, you would have no idea anyone was there at all. You are too young to recognize the sudden look of fear crossing your mother’s face, too small to know to run and hide. It is not your fault when they come, yet they come anyway for you. Such is the will of the world- if there is a weapon, it is best to remove all possible failsafes so she will self destruct when you wish her to.

The weapon, in this case, is your mother. Wanda Maximoff. Technically, she had been the one to sign up for HYDRA’s testing, but it wasn’t her choice to have you ripped from her like a limb, heart still smarting from the wound. HYDRA knew that if they wanted to have any sway over Wanda, any reason for her to commit herself utterly to the cause, they would have to take you away. They already had her brother, her only remaining blood, but if they had you they would have everything. There would be no other reason for her to go on, no reason except HYDRA’s whims. It was perfect for them, yet so utterly wrong for you.

The door caves in with a shower of splinters. Wanda stands up, voice beginning to raise in a shout. You are small, barely up to her knee. There is no place for you to go, no place to run and hide. It is too late for that, and Wanda knows it. She raises her hands, about to use her powers, but then a certain Baron von Strucker steps through the shell of the door. He speaks casually, as if sharing a chat with a friend. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. The second you hurt us, we hurt her. An eye for an eye, if you will.”

Wanda backs down, but her eyes still smolder with a scarlet rage she’s unable to control. She moves instead to you, holding you close in her arms even as the soldiers press forward. You’re too young to know exactly what is going on, but you can sense the terror emanating from your mother in waves. You tug at her sleeve, squirming at her tight hold on you. She just shakes her head as the captain of the soldiers extends his arms to take you. “You can’t have her.” Strucker makes a clicking sound with his tongue, and Wanda’s eyes dart to him. Her threats are as empty as eggshells, she knows that, but to give you up without a word would be a betrayal of the highest degree.

Strucker taps his watch. “Any day now. You don’t want to keep us waiting.” When Wanda still hesitates, the baron nods to his guards. “Take her.” The soldiers lunge forward, snatching you from Wanda’s arms. You cry out at the sudden violence, reaching out your arms to Wanda once more. Time seems to hang silent in this moment, as if everybody is fixed on strings. There you are, being dragged away by the silent soldiers. Your hands are still outstretched, inches away from Wanda’s. 

In the later years, this one image will be burned into your head, reminiscent of that one painting of Michelangelo’s that everyone seems to adore. The Creation of Adam, maybe. Yet the wistful calm of that painting is nothing like the wild chaos of this moment. And then the instant fractures, and you are dragged away from Wanda and pulled through the door. This is the last memory you have of her, with her eyes wild with fear and your own terror beating through you like a second heart.

Your view of her is broken by the twists of the hall, and you realize that you are being taken outside to a truck. You’re shoved in the backseat, the soldiers taking their places in the driver’s side and passenger seats. The vehicle begins to move, tires spinning for a second in the mud before they gain traction once more and lurch forward. The night is old, darkness inked over the landscape. You can’t tell where you’re going, only that it is away from anything and everything that you have ever known.

You sit in the back in a state of shock. You can count your age on one hand, you have no idea what is going on. After a while, you begin to catch snippets of the driver’s conversation with the other soldiers. “We’ll take her back to the base...yes, they’ll be separate….No, she’ll never see Wanda again. What’s the point? At this point, she’s just a bargaining chip.” Your fear returns in full force, but now it is joined by a foreign anger. Who are they to take you away from your mother?

Your fury reaches a boiling point, and suddenly, a wave of crimson energy bounds away from you. It rushes towards the driver, who is smashed against the windshield from the impact. The truck is forced off of the road, and you slam against the walls of the truck for a few seconds before the vehicle finally comes to a shuddering stop. Dizzy and utterly confused, you manage to pull yourself together long enough to unlatch the truck door and step out. No one ever tied you down, assuming that no kid would be able to stop the vehicle, so you’re able to run out into the surrounding countryside. 

You end up getting lost deep within the trees, and spend hours alone in the dark until another organization comes for you. This time, it is not HYDRA, but their rival, S.H.I.E.L.D. Apparently they’d been keeping tabs on HYDRA activity for a while and jumped at the chance to rescue whatever prisoner had managed to escape from their armored truck. They weren’t anticipating a terrified child, but they still welcomed you into their jet. You fell asleep almost immediately, leaving the agents with the pressing task of how to deal with a child who had enough power to level a building.

It’s too dangerous for you to return to Wanda, and HYDRA would hunt you down if you stayed in Sokovia, so you end up being brought to the United States. The loss of your mother and uncle presses in on you like a blade, but there’s nothing you can do. S.H.I.E.L.D. provides you with a home and an education, and there’s a gun in your hands as soon as you’re old enough to learn. This isn’t entirely S.H.I.E.L.D. 's fault- you’re tired of being parceled about and intend to feel useful for at least once in your life.

Now, you are a decorated S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. There’s almost nobody with as much experience as you, except for maybe Romanoff, Barton, Hill, and Fury, although to be fair nobody else was able to join as a teenager. Your skills as an agent aren’t the only things that set you aside from the others- you’ve been able to develop your own abilities, abilities that make you just as dangerous as your mother. You’re made from the same stormcloud, cut from the same cloth that lets you manipulate a scarlet magic whenever you desire. Some days, you resent this reminder that she will always be away from you, but on others, you’re grateful for it- your powers are the last thing tying you to her.

You know that Wanda Maximoff is now with the Avengers, that she is in the U.S. just like you. However, whenever she’s in town you’re always coincidentally off on some mission across the seas, or just out of reach. Wanda doesn’t even know you’re with S.H.I.E.L.D. at all, something you’ve decided is for the best. It wasn’t just your decision, you’re fairly sure Fury had a hand in it as well. It seems that no matter which side you’re fighting on, agencies always want their magical weapons to have as few weaknesses as possible. Besides, you’ve spent so long without her that you’re not sure she’d want to have you back at all. It’s best for everyone if you just keep your distance, and so you continue booking your flights whenever you receive word that she’ll be around.

Your heels click on the tiled floor as you pass through the halls of the New York headquarters. You don’t know why you’ve been called to Director Fury’s office, but you have a feeling that it’ll end up being dangerous, deadly, and utterly out of anyone else’s pay range. Good- things are getting a little slow around here. You could use some near-death experiences to get your blood pumping again. 

When you knock on the director’s door, he calls for you to enter almost immediately. So he’s been waiting for you- yet another twist in the mystery. Surely this is going to be another assignment- your books have been clear for the last week, which is a new record. If it’s important enough for the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. to make room in his busy schedule for you, you can tell this is going to be good. You can feel a satisfied smirk making its way onto your face, one you try to discourage. You can feel your fingers already itching to call up your power and burn your way through another rank of enemy agents.

Fury, however, isn’t asking you here to call up the cavalry once more. You won’t be taking down scores of HYDRA thugs, or dismantling enemy spy technology. Instead, you’ll be going to Westview, New Jersey, a nowhere in the middle of nowhere. Normally, you’d be bristling at the low intensity of this mission, but the reason you’ll be sent there is so shocking that you can hardly control yourself.

Your mother, Wanda Maximoff, has taken the entire town hostage. She’s flung up an energy barrier around the streets, trapping the residents inside and forcing them to play along to her sitcom dreams. It’s like she’s playing with suburban paper dolls, except each one of her toys is a living, breathing person who is terrified and desperate to go back to their old lives. The phrase bubbles up on your tongue, but you keep it to yourself. She’s mad, it seems. And if she’s mad, what does that say about you?

The most pressing issue is that one of S.W.O.R.D.’s finest, Monica Rambeau, has been pulled into Wanda’s false reality. There’s no way to get her back, and, according to intel gathered by agents already on the scene, Wanda’s brainwashing her into thinking she’s a typical Westview resident. There’s no way Monica could make it back alive, and so they have asked S.H.I.E.L.D. for help. S.H.I.E.L.D. is now turning to the one person who has experience in this field, who knows everything there is about Wanda’s powers because she has them herself. This is why you’ll be sent to Westview, to rescue Monica and be forced to confront your mother after all of these years of separation.

Somehow, this mission doesn’t come as a surprise. From the second you heard of Wanda’s appointment to the Avengers, you knew your paths would cross at some point. You cannot keep two like objects from themselves forever, just like you can’t hold back the tide or keep the clouds at bay. She is your blood, your magic, your mother. You were bound to meet her at some point, you just find yourself wishing it would have happened under better circumstances. A walk through the park, maybe. A brunch at a restaurant. Something other than your delivery into her mind control mayhem, where you know you’ll set something off to take the whole thing down. 

Director Fury’s eyes are still fixed on you. Maybe you’re supposed to be the mind reader, but in this moment you can tell he’s gleaning every possible fact from you, delving into every crease in your brow and tense of your knuckles. You force your face to smooth over, letting your expression shift back to the impassive. “I understand the assignment. Am I only there to rescue Monica, or is this more than a retrieval mission?” Fury folds his hands together. 

“I want you to evaluate Maximoff, both for her powers and her stability. Will this be an issue?” You shake your head. “I’ll remain unbiased.” Fury’s glower becomes less severe, the closest you’ll get to a smile. “I know you will.” He stands up and shakes your hand, escorting you to the door. You maintain your unemotional agent facade, but your legs feel leaden as you walk back through the halls. Even if you find the strength to face your mother, even if she doesn’t recognize you at all, will you be able to do this? 

Like most missions at S.H.I.E.L.D., you know you don’t have a choice. It’s like running with a pack of wolves- any sign of weakness, no matter how brief, will be extinguished. So, you pack your bags and move out like it’s just another assignment, instead of a possible reunion with the mother you haven’t seen in years. The truck comes, you step in. The truck arrives at Westview, you step out. Even though the trip itself takes hours, it seems to pass before you in a blur of seconds. Your head is a churning mess, repeating the same phrases over and over again. You’re going to see her. Will she know you? You’re going to see her. Will she hate you?

You march briskly to the head of operations in the Westview encampment, where you’re greeted by S.W.O.R.D. Director Hayward along with agent Jimmy Woo and doctor Darcy Lewis. They’re both friends of Monica, or at least admirers of her work, and urge you to find her as quickly as possible. Monica is a key part of the Westview proceedings, it seems, and you would do well to save her from your mother’s grasp without too much difficulty.

Hayward runs you through a list of protocols and warnings, most of which blur together. Before long, you’re standing outside the barrier to Westview, taking in the marbled scarlet sparks of Wanda’s magic. It feels familiar, like an embrace you’ve cherished before. It seems so similar to your own magic that you half expect to be able to pull it down without a second thought, yet it still stands there, resolutely not your own. You take a deep breath and step forward.

Hayward calls out one last thing to you. “Agent L/N? Be careful.” You smile faintly at his words of caution, trying to hide your wince at the name he used. You started going by a false last name when you first joined S.H.I.E.L.D., as there were few Maximoffs in the system and you didn’t want to be recognized. How fitting that at the moment you’re about to see your mother, Hayward yanks you back in place, reminding you of who you’re supposed to be. Not a Maximoff, not the daughter of Wanda, but an agent. That’s it.

You take a deep breath and reach out a hand, feeling the threads of Wanda’s magic leap out to you like a magnet. There’s a prickling sensation as the energy calls to you, and then you walk forward through the barrier. A rushing sound echoes around your ears, but you feel strangely at peace. So this is where it all begins, you think. You have finally entered your mother’s domain.

wanda maximoff tag list: @mycosmicparadise​, @mionemymind​, @xxxtwilightaxelxxx​

[xwing-baby]

Impulse: Part 1 (Javier Pena x Reader)

Summary: Top of your class, the DEA have sent you to Colombia to be the poster child for their new ‘placement program’. You’re thrown in at the deep end into the drug war. With Agent Pena as your mentor, what could possibly go wrong?

Warnings: ANGST! Explicit drug and alcohol abuse from the beginning, depressive thinking/intrusive thoughts, swearing

Word Count: 4.8k

A/n: My first ever Javi fic, of course I had to make it the angstiest thing I’ve written in a long time!!  This is part one of the first part of the story which is also the end of the story... just had to make it confusing for you. 

Disclaimer: I do not have any experience with cocaine or addiction, all writing is based on my own research and is not a good representation of how it really is! Don’t do coke kids, it’s never good.

Part 2

---

Four in the morning, the sun was just above the horizon and you were stumbling home from yet another party. Enough tequila swam through your system that you didn’t really think about the wellbeing of your neighbor when you tapped on his door. You wanted to keep going. Javier, you decided, would make the perfect company. And maybe you could continue that kiss you had not stopped thinking about since it happened four months ago! You grinned devilishly at the thought and knocked harder on the door.

“Javi! Javier!” You rapped on the door. “Javier Peña, abra la puerta!” You sang, leaning all your weight on the door as your world span fast around you, “Javi,”

“What?” Javier opened the door suddenly, causing you to fall into him. You laughed as you caught yourself on his arm. You had woken him up, he was dressed in a wrinkled t-shirt and sweatpants with his hair bushy and wild. 

“Hola!” You grinned up at him, not hiding the way you checked him out. You were obviously drunk and high, eyes red and shining brightly even in the dim light of the apartment block hallway. Javi wrinkled his nose as the smell of you hitting him, tequila and cigar smoke clung to you.

“Again?” Javi sighed heavily. This was the third time this week you had woken him up, accidentally or on purpose, coming home drunk. He was starting to worry about you. 

“Si,” You grinned from ear to ear, You were in more of a state than last time. For one you were still speaking Spanish, something Javi had rarely ever heard you speak. You must have been with your local friends, he surmised. “No lo siento Javi. ¡Es divertido!”

“It’s not fun, you’re a mess. Get in here,” He pulled you by the arm into his apartment, shutting the door behind him.

“Eres enojado?” You asked, still grinning. You walked backwards into his apartment, tripping down the step and landing with a thud on his leather couch. You cackled with laughter.Javier frowned and put his hands on his hips, of course he was annoyed at you! It was four in the morning and you both had work the next morning. You dramatically flopped back on his couch and huffed at his grumpy attitude, “It’s only polite, Javi! They gave it to me!”

“It’s poison!! He exclaimed, “Why would you do that to yourself?” 

“It’s helping,” You proclaimed. 

“It’s not helping anyone, you’re gunna fuck up sooner or later.” Javi warned, as he had done many times before. 

“I got that list,” You protested, “That was helpful!”

“And what will you do when they work out that you stole it?” 

“No lo sé,” You shrugged. You reached into your pocket and grabbed the last of the coke you had been given. You wanted a little more. You pulled the tin out of your pocket and placed it on the coffee table at your feet.

“You-,” Javi started before he noticed what you were doing, instantly he was on you, “Para!” He exclaimed as he snatched the coke from your hand before you had time to open it. 

“Necesito!” You whined, pouting at him. You were lying, you didn’t need it. You wanted it, a lot. 

“No,” Javi snapped.

“Lo siento, Javi,” You pleaded with him, eyes locked onto the packet in his hand.

“You’re not though, are you? Fucking look at me!” He yelled. You startled and looked up at him as tears pricked your eyes. “Quit it. Now. You know what this shit does, stop it. Whatever you think you’re doing is not worth it, okay?”

“Pero-“

“No. Me vale!” He cut you off. “You’re better than this, Y/n,”

You sustained eye contact for a moment. The room was deathly quiet, he glared at you with fierce intensity. You had never seen him so angry, if you weren’t so drunk you would have instantly buckled under the pressure. The only thing your drunk brain could think of was how hot he looked, you wondered how rough he would be with you if he was this angry. You couldn’t help the snigger that crept up in your throat at that thought. You clamped your hand over your mouth to stop the laugh, Javi rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry!” You laughed, “It’s just you can’t look at me like that and not fuck me!” 

“Jesus christ,” Javier pinched the bridge of his nose. What little patience he had for you was running out fast. You continued to laugh. 

“Can I stay here?” You asked.

“Take the couch,” Javi waved you off, his back turned heading back to his bedroom. 

“I can’t sleep with you?” Your voice was laced with innuendo, he knew what you wanted. A part of him was tempted, your dress left very little to the imagination, but he knew he couldn’t do it.

“You’re drunk and high,” Javier said plainly, “and we’ve spoken about this before. No,” He was firm with you. He hated having to reject you for a second time but he wasn’t a complete monster. He wouldn’t sleep with you in this state. 

“Worth a try,” You laughed, thankfully giving up quickly. Javi shook his head and walked away again, “Muchos gracias, Javi,” You called after him. He shut the door. 

--

You woke up as the early morning sunlight pushed through the windows. You groaned and turned over, finding you were not in your bed but on a couch. Startled, you sat up and nearly screamed when you recognised the apartment as Javier’s. Luckily you were still fully dressed with your shoes still on, nothing had happened. Memories of how you got there were blurry, you remembered knocking on his door but had blacked out after that.

The clock on the wall said it was six am. You could go upstairs to your own bed clean up and hope that maybe Javi wouldn’t hear you and confront you about it. 

You stood up from the couch, trying not to think about all the things the man had done on it, and grabbed your jacket from the ground. As you stood up the strength of your hangover kicked in, you grumbled. That was when you noticed the discarded coke packet on the counter. You stopped. You knew you shouldn’t pick it up, you didn’t need it. But the taste caught at the back of your throat and you found yourself wanting it. It was undeniably addictive, you had promised yourself you wouldn’t take it this far but the foul substance had made its bed.

“Go home,” Javi’s voice broke you out of the trance. He was only wearing sweatpants, hair mussed up from sleep that you had most definitely disturbed more than once. He pulled the cocaine off the table and threw it into the trash before you could reach it. You gulped, shame rising like hot steam through your lungs. You grabbed your things and left, running straight upstairs to your own apartment.

It was still early but you knew you weren’t going to be able to sleep again. Shame was swirling up in your throat. How ironic that a DEA agent was addicted to the thing she was meant to be stopping? But you weren’t addicted, you reasoned with yourself, you were fine. This was no different to when you lived off Redbull for a month during finals, it was a matter of changing some coping mechanisms. It was a reaction to the stress of being so close to Escobar yet so still so far. You could change it, you had control. 

You made a coffee, instant and black. It was bitter and disgusting but it would keep you awake. You collapsed onto your tired old couch and flicked on the tv to a telenovela rerun. You barely understood what was going on but the hilarious overplayed drama was light enough to stop you swimming into the depressing pool of thoughts currently threatening to drown you. 

Eight o’clock came and you were ready to go to work. You were used to this routine now, hungover and tired, you knew you weren’t at your best but until this morning nobody knew about your slow descent into chaos. You weren’t surprised to find Javi’s truck gone without you. All you could remember from last night as how mad he was, and his face this morning only proved it. You dreaded seeing him. 

Luckily, you were spared the hassle of public transport by Steve who trundled down the stairs after you and offered you a ride. The conversation was light and everything seemed normal for a moment. You got to work, Steve ran off after a call from Javier leaving you with a mountain of paperwork to hunt through. For once you didn’t care, paperwork didn’t judge you.

A few hours passed and the boys returned. You did your best to ignore them while they bickered, hoping that you could melt into the background, until someone tapped on your desk. 

“Hey, I’m talking to you Rookie,” Javi’s voice made you look up. “Come on, we’re going,” 

Before you could say anything he threw your jacket at you and you had no choice but to follow him outside. You tried to rack your brain for why Javi would be taking you anywhere today, especially after this morning. You had expected him to ground you, to be impossibly angry at you, not take you out. You climbed into the passenger seat of the truck and Javi didn’t say a word. He didn’t look particularly angry, he looked stressed but he had looked like that since the day you got down here. He was silent, letting the radio play between you, when all of a sudden he reached over and turned it off. 

You looked over at him, expecting him to start his lecture but he didn’t. He let the silence sit between you for the rest of the journey. Somehow it was worse, you’d rather he got mad at you and shouted. It was just unsettling.

Finally you pulled into the embassy, you flashed your badges at the gate and parked. Fear was starting to grow now. Was he going to get you fired? He wouldn’t bring you down here for that surely? He would have called and said what he wanted, he hated coming down here unless he had to. You stayed quiet, too scared to ask, and followed him inside. 

Javi greeted the assistant at the door, as smooth as ever somehow managing to melt her in her chair in five seconds. You smiled and waved to her, she scowled at you as soon as Javi had turned his back. 

“He’ll be in a minute,” The girl called after you as you entered the Ambassador’s office. You took one chair, Javier took the other, in front of the large mahogany desk.

Unlike Steve and Javi you didn’t see the ambassador often, often left in the office while they had meetings about things higher than your post. Your heart was beating so hard in your chest you thought it might burst. You rubbed your hands on your jeans and fidgeted in your seat. Why in hell were you here? 

Before you could bring up the courage to finally ask Javi the Ambassador walking into the room. You stood up immediately to shake his hand, Javi stayed seated.

“Y/n, nice to see you again,” The ambassador smiled kindly as he shook your hand. “Agent Peña,” He greeted the agent next to you, who nodded casually.

“You too, Sir,” You tried your best to sound confident. The Ambassador sighed heavily as he sat in the leather chair, took a sip of the water at his side and began the meeting.

“So, I got the call from your coordinators this morning, they’re coming down on Monday for the review. I thought we should have this meeting together to discuss things before they come down,” 

Your six month review! That was what you had forgotten. Half relieved that your mentor hadn’t brought you down here to completely humiliate you, you smiled and nodded. With everything going on you hadn’t noticed the months fly past so fast, you barely remembered what day it was anymore. 

The Ambassador carried on with the meeting, unaware of your panicking. You nodded along, answering his questions in short yes or no answers, he then moved to Javier. As your mentor he was the one in charge of delivering your progress onto your coordinators. You watched him speak, sound not registering anymore. You hoped to god that he wouldn’t throw you under the bus and tell the entire truth, he knew how much this meant to you surely he wouldn’t. 

Nervous, you stuffed your hands into the pockets of your jacket. You almost had a heart attack when you felt something inside. A small metal tin, rounded and rusted. You immediately knew what it was and froze. There was coke in your pocket. Javi gave you a sideways glance, as he noticed you stiffen up suddenly. 

You wracked your mind for where the hell the tin had come from, until you remembered. This wasn’t your jacket, Maria had given it to you a few months ago and never asked for it back. You hadn’t worn it before today and had no idea that your friend’s stash lay inside the pockets. You tried to stay rational, tried to listen to the important conversation happening around you but your hand stayed clamped around the drug in your pocket. It would help you concentrate, it could calm you down. You could take it and nobody would notice. 

“I- I’m sorry can you excuse me for a moment?” You blurted out, interrupting the ambassador.  He frowned at you, surprised by your interruption. You had gone white with panic, obviously clutching at something in your pocket but he didn’t think anything of it. He nodded and you ran out the room before he could verbally release you. 

You tried to remain calm as you ran through the halls of the embassy, it seemed like everyone was watching you. They knew exactly what you were doing, they were judging you. You ran into the first women’s bathroom you could find, quickly checked nobody was in any stalls, and locked the door behind you.

Throwing the package on the sink like it was burning through your hand, you stood over it, watching it intensely like it could jump away at any moment. The voice in your head kept tempting you, calling you weak and useless, to do it to get rid of it. Nobody would know if you took it. You’ve given in this far why not do it. It will help you calm down. Take it. 

As if you were possessed, you unwillingly opened the tin and poured the powder onto the surface. There wasn’t much there, barely a pinch full, hardly anything at all. You couldn’t just leave it there now, someone would definitely know it was yours. They all knew why even bother hiding it anyway. You should take it. You were too weak to resist it. Take it.

And you did. The chemical shot straight to your brain giving you the brilliant feeling you had been missing. You sighed in a relief as you felt every anxiety fade from your body. It wasn’t that bad, you feel better with it, the voice in your head said. You weren’t wrong. You did feel better. You looked it too, your cheeks had colour again, you smiled and laughed to yourself as it took hold.

You brushed away the excess powder and unlocked the door. You nearly jumped out of your skin when you saw Javi leaning against the opposite wall. His arms were crossed over his chest, judging you with a cocked eyebrow. He had been waiting for you. You sighed and rolled your eyes immediately walking away from him.

“Don’t stand outside the women's bathroom’s Javi. It's creepy,” You snapped as you passed him. 

“You missed a bit,” Javi commented, following closely behind you. 

“Fuck off,” You grumbled. Despite yourself you wiped your sleeve over your nose. He was right. 

“Shooting up in a bathroom is real low, Rookie, even for you,” He snarled. You continued walking down the hall, ignoring him. You were as angry at your actions as he was but you didn’t have control anymore. You couldn’t stop yourself, “Hey! I’m fucking talking to you,” Javi grabbed your arm and sharply pulled you backwards, pressing your back into the wall and trapping your body between his.

“You’re hurting me!” You complained, shoving him off you with as much force as you could give. It didn’t get you far as he pushed you to the wall again with as much force. Your back slammed against the cold stone hard, no doubt bruising it. 

“Then listen. What the fuck is the matter with you?” He snarled, “Doing that shit here? Or anywhere in fact! You are completely out of control,” You ground your teeth, seething with anger, “Do you have no respect for yourself?” You struggled against him, trying to get away again to avoid the question, Javi held you in place. “Not going to say anything?” You looked away, purposely turning your cheek to him, “Get a fucking grip or I’m sending you home,” He growled. 

You didn’t answer, staring at the patterned tile floor. Finally he gave up. With a grunt he let you go and stalked away down the corridor. 

As he disappeared around the corner, a tidal wave of anger and frustration flooded your system. You kicked the line of chairs next to you, crying out curses as you sent them flying across the corridor. The metal clattered against the stone drawing people out of their offices, they all stood from their doorways and watched you, judging you. You heart hammered in your chest, chest heaving for air and you glared back at them all. You let out a deep breath and turned on your heel, leaving the mess behind you, and walked outside.

Despite himself, Javi had waited for you in the parking lot. You jumped into the passenger seat without a word, slamming the door hard to get your point across. You couldn’t tell if you were sweating from anger or the drugs coursing through you. Neither of you said a word for the journey. Javi had said he needed to, and you weren’t able to string together a coherent sentence for everything you wanted to scream at him yet. 

You were too focussed on the music playing from the stereo to really notice where you were going. The rhythms and lyrics seemed to float around you and soak into your skin. You didn’t see Javi’s furious scowl when you unknowingly started to dance in your seat, something you couldn’t help but do when listening to Columbian radio no matter your mental state. You were having a good time until the car stopped and the music was cut abruptly. Snapping out of your trance you looked around and realised you were at your apartment. 

“Get out. You’re done for today,” Javi said, his voice was eerily calm and you knew to be terrified. Quiet Javi was always the angriest.

“What?” You asked dumbly. 

“Get out!” He leant over you and pushed the door open. You frowned, but slipped out the truck and did as you were told. Javi pulled the door shut behind you and rolled away, leaving you standing on the sidewalk opposite the apartment building completely dumbfounded. 

You were stuck to the sidewalk, staring at the building. The sun beat down on you, scorching your skin yet you couldn’t feel it. You were numb to everything.

Your first thought was to find Maria and get more coke to hide further into yourself and avoid the awful shame creeping up your neck. The speed the thought entered your head petrified you. Your control was slipping through your fingers like sand and your body was screaming to move. Everything inside you told you to give up, that this was the tipping point and you might as well jump because what was the point in pretending anymore. If Javi knew what was the point in trying to cover up how much that narcotic had taken over your life. There was no point at all, you might as well enjoy the feeling whilst you could. 

You turned to leave, letting go of all self control. Your legs knew where to take you, you didn’t even need to look where you were going. But you did, when three steps from your original position you crashed into a woman carrying a bag of groceries. She yelped, the sudden sound snapping you back to reality. 

“What are you doing standing out here? Shouldn’t you be at work?” Connie startled you when she touched you, you had barely noticed her approaching. She frowned, concerned, when she took in your glazed appearance, “Sweetheart?”

“I’m okay,” Your voice cracked as tears filled your eyes. 

“Oh darling, come inside. Come on,” Connie walked across the road, expecting you to follow but you didn’t. You couldn’t bring yourself to move, you wanted to run in the opposite direction. You knew if you went inside you would have to tell her what was happening, you didn’t want to make her as mad as Javi was already. “Y/n? Sweetheart you’re scaring me, what’s wrong?” 

“I fucked it all up,” You whimpered as you began to cry.

“Come with me, I’ll get you some water,” Connie bartered, still you didn’t move. Too scared to admit to her what was going on, “Just come inside, please,” 

Finally, you nodded and followed Connie into the building. She walked you into the apartment, sat you on the couch and left to get a glass of water. You hadn’t stopped crying, everything in you was telling you to go and get more to calm yourself down again. You knew not to believe the thoughts but they scared you tremendously. You have really gone too far now. 

Connie passed you the water, and you drank it gladly. She crouched down in front of you, pressed a hand to your forehead and checked your pulse trying to work out what was wrong with you. 

“Did you take something?” She asked. You tried to shake your head and deny it but the way she’s looking at you, sternly but with so much care in her eyes, you couldn’t lie to her. Your no turns into a yes and you instantly recoil from her each touch, hiding in your hands. “What was it?” 

“It was only meant to help,” You cried into your hands.

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what happened,” She pressed. 

“Maria gave me some coke, and it was fine and fun and it helped me get that list from them,” You started to babble, all your words tumbling from your mouth before you could get them into any sensible order, “and everyone was so excited and then I went out kept doing it and then yesterday I ended up at Javi’s and I was tired and-,” 

“Slow down,” 

“It’s my six month review,  and I got so worried then I found it in my pocket! I didn’t know it was there and I just did it! Then Javi caught me again and he kicked me out here!” 

“Do you know how much you took?” 

“Like a tiny bit but I’ll be fine in an hour but-,” Tears slipped from your eyes once again, “What am I going to do?”

Connie didn’t know what to say. She knew you had been going out more with some new friends, Steve had complained because he was always woken up by you when you came back drunk from a party. That's all she thought was going on, you were partying, drinking, like you should at your age. But as she had come to learn, a lot of things in Columbia were not what they seemed. It seemed the darker side of life here had managed to get it’s claws well and truly into you. It broke her heart to see you like this, so broken up. 

You stayed with Connie for the rest of the afternoon, sat on the couch riding out the end of you high. TV kept you company and Connie chewed her nails trying to work out what to do. She thought should call Steve, but if Javier was the one to drop you off here, he probably already knew. She wondered how long it had been going on for, she didn’t get to see you as much as her husband and his partner, whenever she’d seen you you seemed fine, if a little hungover at times. When she thought about, all three of you had taken on destructive habits to cope with the hell you saw every day. Steve was becoming more aggressive by the week, while she knew she was safe she didn’t like what she saw when he flipped out. Everyone in the building knew about Javier’s escapades and now you. It was upsetting to watch from the outside, she couldn’t imagine what it was really like to go through. 

You woke up half an hour later, muddled and more tired than when you’d fallen asleep. 

“Feeling better?” Connie asked with a sympathetic smile.

“Feel like shit,” You muttered. Your head pounded and the heaviness still sat in your chest. That was the kicker, the coke could mask feelings very well but every time you sobered up they were still there waiting. You sighed heavily, pushing yourself to sit up where you’d slumped over, and rubbed your face with your sweaty palms. “What am I going to do?”

“I don’t know sweetie, but I’ll be here to help you,” Connie said kindly, as she sat on the couch next to you. You felt awful for dragging her into all this, yet another person you had let down, ”I think you should tell your boss? Or you’re coordinators, maybe they’ll help,” 

“I’ll be sent home!” You protested, tears filling your eyes once again, “I don’t want to go home, not now!” 

“You can’t keep it to yourself, it will only get worse,” She said, you nodded sadly and cried on her shoulder as she pulled you in for a hug. “I suggest a hot bath, watch some cheesy movie- I managed to find that Indiana Jones movie on tape. I know you love Harrison Ford,” 

“That sounds nice,” You smiled weakly. Connie let you go and grabbed the movie along with a bottle of wine for you. You gathered yourself together, enough to get yourself from Connie’s couch to your own at least. 

“I’m sure Steve won’t notice it’s gone. Go and chill out and watch the movie, have a bit of normality for a change. You’ll feel better I promise,” 

“Thank you Connie, you’re a really good friend,” 

“It’s no problem sweetie, like I said I’m always here for you,” 

Connie gave you another tight squeeze before you left. Iin the hallway you heard the clatter of Javi’s keys in his door below. You wanted to apologise to him, you wanted him to help you! You wanted things to go back to how they were before all this but you knew Javi wouldn’t talk to you. He’d displayed his distaste for the people that fell under the powder’s spell before, he wasn’t going to help. He had trusted you to sort it out yourself but now it was abundantly clear you couldn’t. 

Once again your brain reminded you how easy it would be to get some more coke to cheer yourself up. You could go downstairs and walk down the street, find one of your friends and be happy again so quickly. You didn’t have to feel this pain. 

This time, you ignored it and locked yourself in your apartment. You took yourself to bed immediately, not even bothering to turn on any lights along the journey through the tiny space. You fell on the bed face first. As soon as your body hit the soft material you curled up as tight as you could and began to cry. 

You had failed. You had let your team down, let your coordinators down, let your classmates down and let your family down. You didn’t even want to think about the conversation you would have to have with your mom as to why you were coming home six months early from a placement you fought so hard to get. You thought you could handle it, but you couldn’t. You failed.

--

Part 2

Translations (disclaimer I'm sorry if these are wrong I've been learning Spanish for all of 3 months hence the limited use)

Abra la puerta - open the door

No lo siento Javi. ¡Es divertido! - I’m not sorry Javi, it’s fun!

Eres enojado - are you angry?

No lo sé - I don’t know

Para!- stop!

Lo siento- I’m sorry

Pero- but

Me vale - I don’t care

The next part will be out next Friday! Want to get tagged? Let me know! 

Tag list: @beskar-tano @buckysbeloved @beskarbabs @all-hallows-evie @harrys-stan @browneyes-djarin @themidnightsun-12​

gunna be cheeky and tag some mutuals i think may be interested? @ithinkwehitametaphor​ @wille-zarr​ 

[avenging-criminal-bones]

After All This Time || Chapter Three

Aaron Hotchner x Reader

Word Count: 1659

Summary: You being a new recruit pissed SSA Aaron Hotchner off. You being smart enough to give Spencer Reid a run for his money pissed him off even more. Really, he just despised your presence. Hated your every move.

Until one day, he just… didn’t.

Warnings: panic attack, mean hotch, cocky reader at the end, this is kind of filler-like to keep the story going

TAGLIST

@kingofthetwats @wanniiieeee @uwu-sebastianstan @piggyinthesea @yoshigguk @scootankle @thatisthemagic @errorcosplay67 @ivebeenthinkingboutu @big-galaxy-chaos @rynfoxsleeps @phoenixsnape1 @mojofun @pachiibatt @enjoymyloves @thenewnormalforensicator

* * * * * Chapter Three As soon as the team went in the next morning, there was a call into the precinct reporting another body.

The police chief walked into the office that the BAU team was set up in and said, "Alyssa Wilde, age six, no connection to the other victims."

Remembering the note that had been appearing, you asked, "Was there any sort of note or sign left with her body?"

"Yes, actually," he shuffles through his pockets and hands it to Derek, who is standing the closest to him.

"Thanks man. That's all for now. We'll let you know if we need anything else." The chief walks away then, shutting the door behind himself.

"Derek, what did the note say?" JJ asked with a grim expression, hating that they were up against a child murderer. Everyone hated these cases. Everyone.

He reads from the note softly, trying not to be perceived as blunt or uncaring, "As we know, the unsub left the previous notes about God being with him, cleansing the Earth, and the children being impure. This note says, "You demons can try to stop me, but Alyssa was impure. God will not let you stop me, for I am doing his work." This could mean a few things since he is so heavily religious."

"Does anyone-"

"Reid. What school did the kids go to?" Hotch interrupts you, effectively ending your attempt at the same question.

Spencer looks at you slightly before sliding quickly into his 'remembering-detail' face.

"You know, Hotchner. I was about to ask the same question when you interrupted me."

Rossi and Derek both raise their eyebrows at hearing you speak up against Hotch.

"Well, Agent L/N, maybe I would't have to interrupt you if you would just learn your place on this team. Stop trying to pitch in where you're not needed. The briefing and the deliberations call for experienced agents." He looks up from his papers then and stares right into your eyes. "The only reason you're on this team is because you are admittedly a better shot than everyone else here besides me."

You look down, feeling the tips of your ears heating up with your anger. Emily tenses beside you when Hotch takes a step closer to you.

"Look up, Agent." Reluctantly, you obey his command and meet his eyes. "We don't need you on this team. I decided to be nice and gave you a spot because you're a good shot, but that doesn't mean I want you here."

You feel tears well in your eyes and glare at the taller man in front of you. Something flashes in his eyes when he notices that he made you so upset. It's not malicious though, he almost looks... remorseful.

Whatever.

It doesn't matter. He was a dick.

"I'm going to do some research on my own. If someone needs me just call me."

"Y/N, wait," you spin around to see JJ walking towards you, but you hold your hand up to her.

Shaking your head you sigh, "It's fine. I'm just gonna go. Call me later."

You don't give them enough time to try and convince you to stay before you're walking out of the room. As you pass the police chief, you murmur that you'll be back later.

The station is a short walk from the hotel that the team is staying at, so you use the opportunity for fresh air and kindly refuse the car that was offered for you on your way out of the precinct.

Once you get into the hotel room that you shared with Emily, you sat on the bed and fell back. The anger that had been building up inside of you finally broke out and you cried. You cried hot, angry tears, constantly willing yourself to 'toughen up' like your dad would always say to you.

Rubbing harshly at your eyes to try and stop the tears, you thought about the case and pulled out your individual case file.

Four kids now. All found in the same area. Three with notes. This unsub clearly thinks that he's doing God's work.

It reminds you briefly of a case from your hometown. It ripped through your city in a month-

Breathing was hard right now. The air wasn't coming in like it should. It wasn't. There was no air. Nothing. Your brother. Images of your brother flashed through your head as you sank down to the floor.

Your fists grip in the rug beneath the bed. You're hyperventilating. The door opens, but you don't look up, eyes squeezed shut tightly.

"Agent- Y/N? Are you okay?"

There are hands on your arms, gripping just a little too tight.

"No- I just. The case, my bro- It's just- I can't breath... I can't. I can't- I can't- I-"

"Hey, shh. You're okay. You- Okay. Just try and breath with me." The voice, which you distinctly pick out as a man's, floats around you and then you feel your hand being grabbed and moved to rest against something hard.

"L/N, can you open your eyes? Look up, Y/N."

"Look up, Agent."

Your eyes flash open and you jerk your head up to look at Hotchner. All traces of your panic were gone now, and you scrambled to slide away from him, yanking your hand off of his chest.

"I, uh. I'm sorry... for that. I didn't-"

"It's fine. Are you- you're okay?" His voice is softer than it usually is around you, but his gaze is still hard and uncaring.

Nodding you push yourself up off of the floor. "Why are you here?" Your moment of weakness was over and you're reminded of how he's been treating you lately.

"The team had been trying to call you for fifteen minutes. On both your persona and work phones. They were worried." You don't miss how he says 'the team' and 'they' rather than including himself in the worry. Momentarily, you catch yourself wondering why he was the one to come check on you.

He rises from his kneeling stance in front of your bed and reverts back to SSA Aaron Hotchner.

"The team has dispersed to their fieldwork for the day, you and I were assigned to work together," you hear the bitterness in the statement, followed by another quick jab at you, "I was really trying to avoid it, but I guess it's our lucky day."

Without another word, he spins around on his heel and starts walking out the door, leaving you to catch up to him if you wanted to actually be a part of the case.

"Asshole," you murmur before taking off in a half jog-half walk to try and catch up and look like an equal.

As you start to catch up to him, you call out, "I'm driving."

"No, you are not, Agent." Hotchner's words sounded final, but you ignored him and sat in the driver's seat of the SUV when the two of you approached.

You shut the door and held your hand out for the keys when he sat, albeit reluctantly, in the passenger seat.

"Thanks, Hotch," you wait for him to correct the nickname, and when he doesn't the smirk that's been hiding for a few minutes started to peek out in the corners of your mouth.

"This is going to be fun."

"Drive, L/N."

[theravennest]

Hot Loki Take: Sylvie was Right

*Spoilers for all of Loki the series up to and including ep 6.

Sylvie was right to kill He Who Remains and free the timeline.

I’m deadass.

He Who Remains forced reality into an endless cycle between a time of Order (he rules as dictator) & a time of simulated and controlled "Chaos" (his Conqueror variants wage war). I say this “chaos” is simulated because when you think about it, it’s chaos that He Who Remains arranges himself by manipulating Lokis.

He Who Remains is so fucking sus but for some reason people are just tripping over their own feet to believe everything he says and vilify Sylvie for killing him. 

He literally tells them (and us) that his methods are deceptive and we know for a fact that he’s willing to murder trillions upon trillions of people, planets, and realities to get the outcome he wants. Yet some are still believing everything he says cuz he said maybe 4 things that were truthful, I guess, and cuz he’s cute. Some of us are so blinded by the fear/anticipation of Kang the Conqueror’s arrival, we are letting him bamboozle us.

He Who Remains perfectly and personally tailored the Ordered period of the timeline to produce this exact Sylvie and this exact Loki, had them meet/influence each other, and then had them travel to the end of time...to him.

Now Lokis by nature are agents of chaos and could suddenly swerve left, so to speak, for no reason. So let’s assume I believe that He Who Remains didn’t 100% know what they would choose once they crossed the Threshold (if the Threshold he described is even real, tbh). He also so carefully molded both of their entire lives for that moment in the Citadel. He may not have known 100% but he knew at least 90% of how they would react to everything he said and did when they were both pushed to this place/mindset.

Notice how he teed them up for the fight that ended in his death:

Manufacturing a scenario where they would meet via the TVA’s variant pursuit.

Manufacturing a scenario where they would travel to the Void and meet Alioth.

Kid Loki being in just the right place to give his sword to Loki.

Miss Minutes appearing to menacingly offer an obvious devil’s bargain.

Him slyly telling Sylvie that she can’t trust Loki, putting it into her head just before he gives them his ultimatum.

All of these thing practically gift wrapped that ending to the Loki on Sylvie fight.

Let’s elaborate.

What was even the point of Miss Minutes offering to re-insert them into the same Sacred Timeline with both getting their hearts’ desires there? 

Not more than ten minutes later He Who Remains told Loki and Sylvie to their faces that he manipulated all this for the sole purpose of making them choose between taking over as rulers of the TVA or killing him and ushering in a Multiversal War. Neither of those choices would result in re-inserting Loki and Sylvie back into the timeline.

So what is the truth? Why waste precious moments with a creepy Miss Minutes menacing them in that vestibule scene?

Notice how Miss Minutes’ words pushed Loki further onto his path of no longer wanting power or a throne but desiring to change his attitude about himself and the universe. Notice how her words conversely pushed Sylvie into balking at the idea of accepting another “fictional” life after a lifetime of being manipulated and made her double down on her mission to free the timeline and get revenge.

Sylvie has the ability to see memories but interesting how he kept her distracted by condescending to her and provoking her, just stoking the fire to make her react negatively. (Interesting how he was far more focused on Sylvie’s reactions than Loki’s, most likely because he needed her to kill him for his plans to work.)

Now I don’t want to completely shift responsibility for her choices away from Sylvie. In truth, if she had held in her vengeance for let’s say an hour and trusted Loki a bit more, they could’ve sat down to talk about things and maybe found a third solution other than starting a Multiversal War or ruling the TVA that still could’ve even allowed her to get revenge. (More on the ultimatum later.)

But I can’t blame her for losing her cool, either. He Who Remains made damn sure she would burn as hot as possible because he tailor made her life to give her the personality he wanted. And any other version of her out there who might have made a different choice would’ve already been pruned.

He Who Remains tells Loki and Sylvie straight up that he set them on their particular life paths because he needed them to be “changed by the journey” to ensure everyone in that room was in exactly the right mindset to do what was needed to “finish the quest” and presumably “slay the dragon,” aka Him. (Notice the parallels to the speaker narration just before episode 2′s fight at the Ren Fair.)

We don’t know! Sylvie never enchanted him to read his memories because she was so filled with rage and Loki was too busy trying to stop her, he didn’t think to do it either. And we’ve already established that He Who Remains trained them that way. Nothing that happened in that office was without He Who Remains�� influence and meddling.

Another nail in the coffin that convinces me that He Who Remains is a no good dirty liar is Renslayer.

If He Who Remains’ end goal was to either have the Lokis choose to rule the TVA or destroy it and thus end up with no memory of her previous TVA judge role/life, why did he send Miss Minutes to Ravonna with files that caused her to pack her bags and search for what she calls “free will,” AKA the one in charge?

I’d bet dollars to donuts that when the next season rolls around the only people who will know what’s going on and still have their memories will be Loki, Miss Minutes, Sylvie, and Ravonna. (Maybe Kang the Conqueror will know as well but I could see it going the other way too. I’m 50-50.)

He Who Remains was planning something by pushing Ravonna the way he did. Does he want her out of the TVA so she doesn’t lose her memories when everything resets? Does he want her to go find the Conqueror version of himself? I mean, at this point, practically everyone knows who she is to Kang in the comics, so let’s not pretend that’s not an option.

Another thing to think about...it’s super suspicious that he was so eager to make them believe he’s one of the “good versions” of Kang and all these others are much worse while giving absolutely no evidence of that outside of an interactive blob powerpoint, a quirky attitude, and a couple of sad, weary faces????

Who’s to say He Who Remains isn’t playing the long game and always manipulates his variants to eventually give him the chance to seize control of the multiverse?

Who’s to say he’s not one of the Kangs that wanted to conquer too? Funny how the “pure of heart” Kang is the one who still wrested control of all reality, killed off every other timeline with a weapon of mass destruction, installed a fascist time bureaucracy, and set himself up as the dictator. Sounds an awful lot like some conqueror shit to me, just saying.

Even wilder theory: what if this really is the same Kang the Conqueror but at the end of his life? We only have hhis word that he’s a variant. He Who Remains tells Loki that this fight is for the “young and hungry.” Maybe the “young and hungry” he’s referring to is not Loki and Sylvie at all but his literal younger self. Perhaps he set up this entire cycle of chaos and order so that he can perpetually live, conqueror, rule, die, and start all over again? Reincarnation, as he says...

But let’s set that wild theory aside for a moment. Let’s circle back to the Multiversal War debate and say it really is is caused by an infinite amount of his variants.

I think it’s hella sus that He Who Remains was so insistent that Loki and Sylvie only had two choices to resolve this riddle: Multiversal War or running the TVA almost exactly the way he did while maintaining only a single timeline. Those are definitely not the only two options they had. In fact, I could probably name 1-3 other options off the top of my head right now:

Keep He Who Remains alive while learning how he manipulated time and using those skills to slowly unleash the multiverse while killing every version of Kang to prevent him from existing as either conqueror or dictator.

Kill He Who Remains, take over the TVA, and slowly change it to something not horrific or even build a brand new system for governing time.

Kill or keep He Who Remains, still take over the TVA, slow rollout the Multiverse and kill or prevent every Kang along the way.

(I’m not saying these aren’t also morally questionable options, I’m just saying they are different from the two choices He Who Remains presented.)

But let’s say these options I suggested are not feasible. I just randomly came up with them ten minutes ago so it would be fair if they were picked apart logically. 

So let’s contemplate this, instead:

Why should we assume/believe that a Multiversal War is actually a bad thing again??? Why are we assuming that He Who Remains’ Sacred Timeline really saved reality from total collapse? 

Assuming he told the truth about his motives, maybe he was just...wrong about the end of reality. Maybe he saw what he thought was the conclusion to the Multiversal War coming and erroneously believed it to be the end of everything but actually it was the multiverse sorting itself out and everything would’ve been fine after.

We (and He Who Remains too) will never know because not only did he not show any evidence to back up his claim that reality was on the brink of collapse, but he himself never allowed things to play out naturally. Whenever the end of the war comes to the brink of something, he always panics, weaponizes Alioth, and traps the universe in his cage of Order with the TVA.

Even more controversial take...maybe the collapse of timelines and the end of everything should be allowed to happen. Maybe the natural cycle of reality is to build and build, splinter and splinter timelines, until it collapses and starts all over again from the void.

Nothing is created and nothing is destroyed, all things exist in a cycle so why should the multiverse be any different?

After all in all, in all three possibilities an infinite number of timelines is destined to suffer and die. Whether it be during the Kang-controlled Order period, Kang-controlled fake Chaos period, or the unrestrained natural Chaos that collapses in on itself...an untold amount of people are dying anyway. There’s only one of those scenarios that has actual unrestrained free will where those people get to exist how they want, make choices they want (even bad ones) for as long as they can.

(Personally, I’ll take that over what the Kangs have wrestled the multiverse into.)

I’ll just take this moment to re-iterate: trust nothing He Who Remains says. He’s a known liar and manipulator, and unlike Loki he has done absolutely nothing to actionably show he’s not still lying or to show that he’s trying to change outside of some sad looks. It’s all pantomime, bruh. Like, the pageantry of it all astounds me. 

Is he maybe telling some truths? Sure. But that doesn’t mean he’s not using the truth to manipulate everything. It’s an illusion, I’m telling y’all! He was up to no fucking good.

Sylvie was far more right to kill him than to not. Loki, Sylvie, & team (prolly also the latest Avengers lineup too) now just need to find a way to break this Kang cycle.