#//the rest is either information he decided wasn't important

[kingsandbastardz]

Tumblr ate the anon ask I was responding to so I'm gonna paraphrase it here:

what do mean llh gave di feisheng to fang duobing? the letter totally said something else

Yes, it did - but I didn't feel I could comment too deeply on it when it's been retranslated and people who are far more literate than I am have analyzed the contents already. -- The letter itself seems pretty straight forward.

However, what I wanted to focus on was analyzing unspoken social dynamics - so I'm gonna get in depth into my reasoning for my interpretation. And admittedly in previous posts I was playing fast and glib with my responses (they were just insomnia-fueled thoughts I typed real fast) so I wasn't really in depth or anything. Anyway~~~ That means it's time for me to get long winded.

So! First thing - this is the scene: The letter was written from Li Xiangyi and addressed in its entirety to Di Feisheng. However, when it was delivered the fisherman asked for both DFS and FDB. It was then read outloud by either the fisherman or FDB -- I assume read out loud, and loudly, because DFS never left his position by the rocks and emoted his distress at the contents. That means everyone there also was privy to the letter contents.

The letter itself is straight forward. It's addressed from LXY telling DFS that he regretfully can't make the duel and that he respects him both as a martial artist and as a person, and if he wishes, he can go to FDB who has inherited his skills and shows great promise, etc.

The thing IS - I firmly believe that this is not a message meant just for DFS.

Both LLH and DFS code switch between their non-leader selves vs Li-Menzhu and Di-Mengzhu. It's easiest to see based on what they're wearing. Li Xiangyi when he's dressed in the Sigu Sect uniform. Or the Styx flower hand-off scene where he calls him Di-mengzhu (not Lao Di or A-Fei or whatever else) likely as a reaction to his official regalia/red uniform which means DFS was showing up in an official capacity. Both of them know very well the importance of a certain.... how to say.... drama? They're both leaders and they were also very performative in their roles as leaders. They both expected that massive peanut gallery that showed up to witness the fight - the one filled with members of various sects, including Sigu Sect leadership -- because dfs was likely the one announcing it.

Imo - aside from the need to express the full weight of what he felt, part of the reason LLH was so formal in his letter is expectation that there would be other people there - influential people. The very people DFS and FDB would have to deal with in the future alone. FDB would be ok but he's largely unknown to the rest of jianghu and therefore his story is still malleable. DFS is known, but infamous and his narrative is as much of a trap as LXY's was. And now he no longer has the benefit of a sect to act as a buffer.

LLH's last act as LXY was not to save Yun Biqiu but to carve a new path open in the world for DFS and FDB:

Expresses that he bears deep emotion and the greatest and deepest respect for DFS despite a reputation of them being enemies

Informs everyone that DFS is not seeking dominion or 'the throne' but rather, is going the fighter-scholar path of studying and testing martial skill -- aka, this is message from one sect leader to all the others present. Spread the word, this man is NOT gunning for your power. None of you have reason to take him down.

Establishes FDB as his one and only successor - while also stating clearly it's entirely up to FDB to decide whether to continue down this path or not

Creates a pathway for DFS and FDB to maintain their connection with each other - and in fact lets everyone else know that there is a pre-established, legacy relationship between DFS and LLH that FDB will be inheriting.

Gently asks DFS to keep an eye on FDB's development - iterating that if dfs is the one asking, then FDB may make the decision to continue to train - aka help him see his full potential whatever his decision is.

At the same time, he silently wishes FDB to maintain connections with/keep an eye on DFS. In another reply I kinda went on about this: imagine a scenario where your friend's mom pulls both of you in front of her. And the whole time is telling your friend that they need to do, expectations, a list of goals, etc. The entire time she's only focused on your friend - but there is this silent implication that you, as the witness, is expected to act a reminder or even an enforcer if your friend isn't listening. If things go wrong, you're expected to go in there and help them to do the thing they were asked to do. This is the unspoken message I'm getting for FDB. Even though his name wasn't mentioned in the letter, it was explicitly delivered to both him and dfs. He's standing right there while an imaginary LLH talks to DFS. So if after all this, dfs disappears without another word = fdb can feel emboldened to go after him, knocking on doors until he answers. Should he decide to do so.

Entreaty - "These are LXY's (my) last wishes. Please respect my memory after my death."

Conclusion: LLH's last actions were to create a space where both DFS and FDB can make their own decision on their path in the world, without the weight of all those other people in jianghu influencing them.

Note: I also believe that on dfs' side, his clothing choices point toward his plans to publicly step down and leave the martial path with Li Lianhua. But llh sucker-punched him and left him standing on some rocks like a widow waiting for her husband who's lost at sea. They were technically on the same page, but it somehow went wrong because... well. Unfortunately that's DFS' narrative. He never quite reaches his goal without the hero either hindering or helping him. The entire drama was LLH being that karma busting fulcrum for him. But now, should he wish it, it'll be FDB's turn to step up and do the same.

[cyren-myadd]

What do you think Jake and Spider's relationship will be like in A3?

This is such a simple question but I am about to go full tinfoil hat mode with the answer so strap in and get ready for the ride y'all. I put a summary at the very end if you don't feel like reading the whole thing.

okay okay okay so do you guys remember all those news articles that came out before Avatar 2 that described Spider as "Jake and Neytiri's adopted human son" ? And then Avatar 2 actually came out and it clearly wasn't true? I mean, Jake leaves Spider for dead with the RDA and Neytiri threatens to kill him, they're the furthest thing from adoptive parents!

After I saw the movie, I kept wondering how in the world the articles got it so wrong. So at some point I was rereading them and I discovered something...

All of the articles that describe Spider as the Sully's adopted son go back to one source: a quote from Jon Landau. Landau was the producer of the Avatar movies who recently passed away sadly. (May he rest in peace). As the producer, he was regarded as a trustworthy source to give information on Avatar 2. Here's an excerpt from one of the articles:

“Jake took him in but Neytiri always saw him as one of the people who destroyed her home and killed her father,” producer Jon Landau tells Empire of Spider, in The Batman issue. “So you have all these dynamics playing out.”

The late Jon Landau himself said, "Jake took him in." But despite what he said, we can clearly see in Avatar 2 that Spider is not "taken in" by Jake, since Jake had no qualms about leaving Spider behind with the RDA when every time the other children were in danger, he stopped at nothing to rescue them.

So my question is, why would Landau say Jake took Spider in when Jake clearly did not? It wouldn't make any sense for him to lie about this, and it's unlikely that he got such an important detail wrong since he worked so closely with James Cameron on producing the movie. Why did he say that?

No one really knows for sure, but here's what I think:

Landau was inadvertently spoiling Avatar 3 for us.

Avatar 2 and 3 were shot at the same time. When movies are being made, they don't shoot the scenes in chronological order, so one day they might do a scene from the middle of A2, and then one from the end of A3, and then one from the beginning of A2, and so on and so forth. This means that the actual timeline that everything happens in is completely jumbled up, and it's up to the editing team to reorder everything into a coherent plotline later.

I believe the reason Landau's statement doesn't match up with what actually happened in Avatar 2 is because he was mistakenly referring to what will happen in Avatar 3. With how complicated it is to film two movies at once, it's possible Landau got the timeline mixed up. So when he was interviewed and asked about Spider's relation to Jake and Neytiri, he said the first thing he remembered- it was just from the wrong movie.

So to finally answer your question about Jake and Spider's relationship in A3: Jake is going to take Spider in. I don't know if it will be a formal adoption like Kiri or more of a foster child situation, but either way, Jake will be responsible for Spider's wellbeing and care for him (and presumably not leave him for dead if the RDA catches him again 😭).

At the end of the Avatar 2, Jake embraced Spider and said "a son for a son" through narration, which I believe is the moment Jake decided to take in Spider and we will see how Jake moves forward as Spider's new guardian in Avatar 3.

There is also a scene in the leaked script that describes Neytiri hugging Jake and their children after a traumatic event, and though it's hard to read, it looks like it says that Spider was left out of the hug until Jake pulls him into it. There is also another leaked script scene where it appears that Neytiri suggests killing Spider and Jake is horrified. Another thing to note is that both of these scenes take place after Jake knows Quaritch is alive, so presumably Jake knows Spider saved Quaritch and is still treating him well despite it. I expect there will be some hurt and anger over it, but considering that Jake did much much worse to his loved ones in Avatar 1, it makes sense that he would eventually forgive Spider.

The leaked script scenes both sound like they go along with the idea that Jake has "taken in" Spider, and they also line up with the other half of Landau's quote, where he says Neytiri still sees Spider as one of the enemy and this creates interesting dynamics. Even though Jake has decided to take Spider in, it looks like Neytiri isn't on the same page, since she excluded him from the hug and suggested killing him. We all know how much Jake and Neytiri love each other, so it must be very difficult for Jake to take in Spider while knowing that Neytiri still sees him as a "demon." Jake is probably going to struggle a lot with balancing being a good husband to Neytiri and being a good guardian to Spider.

And Spider will also probably struggle with this new relationship to Jake too. Jack Champion, Spider's actor, answered some questions about his character in an interview:

Q: In the end, Jake truly embraced Spider as a son. He even said, “A son for a son.” Is that everything Spider has ever wanted?

A: A hundred percent. But I will say that at that moment, he doesn’t feel like he got everything he wanted. Because now, his kinda-sorta dad, Quaritch, also accepts him. So does he really want the Sully family, or does he want his actual father? So there’s some cool inner turmoil that I don’t even know the answer to yet, and it’s up for debate.

According to Jack Champion, Spider one hundred percent always wanted to be embraced by the Sully family, but after forming a relationship with Quaritch, a part of him also wants to be with his father and he struggles with inner turmoil over it. Since Spider was an orphan for 16 years, it's understandable that he won't adjust into the family just like that.

So to summarize: based on the evidence, Jake is going to take Spider in, probably less like an adopted father and more like a guardian/ward situation. Even though they both want this, it's going to be difficult and create a lot of conflict. Jake will be torn between his care for Spider and his love for Neytiri, who still sees Spider as a demon, and Spider is torn between wanting to be part of the Sully family and wanting to have a relationship with his father, Quaritch, in spite of the evil he's caused.

[doyouknowbtsswag]

Do You Remember? 2 |Chishiya|

Part 1

I am so sorry that this took long and seem rushed

"What happened in borderland?" He asked confused. "Wait no what is borderland?"

"I'm not sure how to explain it myself and honestly I'm still processing everything but you mostly know everybody you've passed for the past couple of days."

I looked at his face his eyes held confusion that burned right through my soul. I thought that if I could tell him crucial information everything would snap like turning on a light switch.

"I'll start by introducing myself since you never caught my name. It's (Y/n) (L/n)" I said looking at him dead in the eye. "We met at a hotel in Tokyo playing tag. That's where we first bumped into each other."

He raised an eyebrow when I said tag. I talked slower than usual so my words were heard carefully but not as if I was talking to a toddler or baby. He nodded so I could know if he was still listening.

"You were wearing a white windbreaker. You told me it was your favorite jacket you owned." I stopped to look at him. It made me cry inside seeing the confidence he had in borderland crumble to the ground. He gently tapped his finger on the table. "During tag, we had to run from a person wearing a horse mask with a gun and find the safety zone."

"A horse mask?"

"Let me finish" I put my hand up. "There were other people. A black-haired boy with a yellow and white shirt along with a light bluish jacket was the one who figured out how to find the safe zone. You helped him in the process along with another girl."

I pleaded hoping something would click. Maybe the beach? The prison? King of Spades? King of Spades? Cards. Cards!

"Wait actually." I looked around. "Stay here"

I got up forgetting about the IV I was connected to. The pole fell over making me stumble back and loud crash as I disconnected from it. I didn't care that it came out or caused some ruckus. I ran across the hall to the playing room for cards. I earned weird looks from other people but paid them no mind. I looked around to see if there were any cards around that wasn't uno. I finally saw a pack and grabbed it. I wasn't expecting to get a massive headache because of it but either way, I ran back to the table hoping he didn't run off.

"You stayed" I sighed in relief sitting down out of breath a little. I need to get back in shape soon.

"Cards? What's so important about cards?" He raised his eyebrow.

I looked through the cards to find the ones I needed specifically. Setting them aside from the rest. I held the King of Spades. One of the pivotal moments in the borderland between us both trying to save the other from the bullets. I placed it on the table in front of him.

"King of Spades. Shot people with an anti-tank rifle. You were the one who knew what type of rifle for some reason" I looked up at him. "You held my hand and we ran behind a car with three other people."

He hummed his tapping becoming faster as he stared at the card and he didn't look like he was gonna stop anytime soon.

"You pushed me in the car not going in because of a bomb. I walked miles to reunite with each other." He stared at the card lost in a trance.

I placed the Queen card down next to the King of Spades card so he could see it. He looked at the card staring intensely. He brushed his hands over the card's shaking at the new information he heard.

"The last time we were together we were both injured badly. We saw fireworks at the end and declined the offer to stay" I looked up a bit to avoid crying "Our final moments looked like a ending of a sad movie that  would leave everyone crying for days."

"Did I protect you?" He whispered looking back at me eyes watering a little "Till the end?"

"Every time" I smiled sadly.

"I feel like I'm going to pass out," He said shaking.

"Wait calm down" I put my hands on his shoulder and one under his head to avoid him slamming it against the hard table.

I called for a nurse and they took him back to his room. I followed and decided to wait till he woke up. The nurse scolded me for making the IV come out and reinserted it in my arm. I leaned back on the chair waiting for Chishiya to wake up. I tucked a piece of hair that was on his face.

"If only you knew the pain of falling back in love in another world." I sighed smiling sadly letting a small tear drop down my face. "I'm jealous that you don't remember so it wouldn't be painful but I'm mad at the same time. I hate crying in front of people but I guess you can't help it." I whispered in a bittersweet tone.

I pulled my hand away seeing his face scrunch up and he kept moving as if he was having a nightmare. I frowned I've only seen this once and that was after a close call in a game. I would love to hold his hand or run my fingers through his hair but he doesn't remember our relationship. All I could do was watch in agony. I went to leaning against the chair convincing the nurse to let me stay. After telling her I would sneak out anyway she agreed hesitantly and annoyed.

"Chishiya we can't stay around here anymore"

"What do we do we are separated from the rest"

"Don't just stand there let's go!"

"No you go ahead," He said pushing you in the car. "I'll meet you soon I promise"

"No no no you can't do this to me! We promised to be with each other!" You cried trying to open the car door to get out. "Let me go!"

"I'll be okay just trust me" He smiles looking at the (H/c) girl as the car drives away. "If I die I hope you forgive me"

—————-

"Chishiya?"

"( Y/n)?"

"I'm so glad you're okay"

"I thought you died"

"You should know I don't give up that easily." He grinned lazily.

"Nasty isn't it," The girl said.

"You gonna bleed out," He said panicking wincing himself as he moved.

"Hey hey" She stopped him from trying to push on my wound to stop the bleeding

"Stop," He said as he fought back.

"You're hurting yourself," The girl said finally getting his hands fully off of her holding them tightly. "You're injured too"

"I don't care you are more important to me," He said "I can't lose you and let you die"

"I'm always going to be by your side "

"I wish we met before all this so we'd have more time together"

"I can't help it"

"We'll get out of this and see each other again"

"Thank you"

——

He woke up in a cold sweat groaning as he held his head. He looked over at the card pack he brought to his room he then looked over and saw me sleeping on the armrest. He smiled lightly. Did his head hurt? Yeah. Did he care? No. He stood up putting a blanket on me from his bed.

"I'm sorry I forgot you" He whispered. "It won't happen again."

He sat on his bed he was supposed to leave today and hoped I would too. He thought about what he remembered. He hated seeing you hurt but enjoyed seeing you next to him. He thought about the random people he indeed see in his sleep. He watched the sunrise which started a new day. I woke up stretching accidentally hitting the pole. I looked at Chishiya expecting an unbothered look asking why I was here instead he smiled. Not his unbothered Cheshire smirk. A true smile that caught me off guard as I've only seen him smile like that twice.

"I remember us. I don't remember everything but I remember you" I teared up and hugged him. "Let's go out. Let's go see our memories"

"It's all destroyed how? No way they would let us through."

"Let's say I have some connections." He gave his sly smirk. "Trust me"

I will" I smiled. "I get released today."

"Me as well," He said standing up and getting into the habit of sticking his hands in his pockets once again.

"Yup, I don't need anymore according to the nurse."I smiled "I'm going to go back to my room wait here"

He nodded and watched me leave. I passed by people with whom I had big memories but never remembered their names. Once I made it to my room I grabbed my clothes and broken phone that couldn't be used again. I sighed annoyed that I needed to get a new one since I just bought this two months ago. I grabbed the other clothes they brought to me in a bag. I pressed the red button and waited for the nurse to clear me.

"Seems like you are eager to leave I heard you stayed in another room." The nurse said as she freed me from the IV.

She told me to sit down and I did she told me to follow her finger and put a light in my eye to make sure it was dilated right. She checked my reflexes which became perfectly fine. She looked in my ears and made me take a hearing test. She told me to walk in a straight line and one on my toes. She checked my heart and smiled.

"Well Ms. (L/N) you are free to go make sure to change your bandages two times a day with this cream," She said giving it to me. "Don't do any extreme movements until you are fully healed."

"Thank you so much," I said eagerly.

"Take these just in case you don't have any gauze"

"Thank you again."

"Have a nice day remember if you feel sick please contact us"

"I will you have a good yourself," I said waving goodbye as I walked to the front desk.

I saw Chishiya talking to the receptionist as he signed the paperwork. He looked over at me putting his hands in his pockets his sly smirk. I walked up to the desk.

"Name?" The receptionist asked.

"(Y/n) (L/n)" I said looking over at Chishiya.

"There's quite a bit of things to sign." Chishiya chuckled as I saw the stack of papers.

"Okay, but all I have to do is sign them right?" I asked nervously. "Nothing else?"

"Take home a statement paper and return within a month." He shrugged. "Oh and health insurance"

"I can't afford that," I said quietly as I finished signing the papers.

"Have a nice day" The receptionist said grabbing the small stack.

"You too," I said my eye twitching.

"Don't worry I'll help you" He casually said. "I'll do my best to lower it considering I could bypass the files since I know how to."

"Isn't that illegal?" I raised my eyebrow.

"Maybe"

"Don't get yourself arrested over me"

"I won't"

"Anyways where should we go first?" I asked.

"You know more than me"

"To the destroyed hotel it is," I said starting to walk there. "How exactly are we getting in?"

"Close colleague," He said again as we started walking to our destination.

We walked side by side our hands brushing each other as we grew closer and closer. We stopped in front of yellow caution tape. He looked around saw the cost is clear and went underneath it.

"What are you doing" I whispered.

"Come on we'll be in and out," He said waiting for me to go under.

"We better not get arrested," I said sternly.

"We won't" He simply shrugged. "Lead the way"

"Fine just make sure no one see's us"

"I will"

I sighed losing track of how many times I have sighed. I looked around looking at the damage that was made.

"It looks unrecognizable," I said looking for the hotel. "There" I pointed.

"This is where we met," I said

"I was upstairs" He recalled the memory.

"Too bad we can't get inside"

"Yeah might be for the best though"

"Maybe," I said looking around. "Wanna move on?"

"Yeah"

"This road will forever haunt me," I said walking in front of the intersection.

"I'm just glad we all ended up living"

"I'm glad you did," said rolling my eyes. "You trying to act like a hero was scary"

"I still survived"

"Luckily," I said staring ahead.

"It's over now"

"I know but I'm still mad at you," I said jokingly.

"Oh well" He shrugged smiling a little.

"When are you heading back to work?" I asked looking around.

"To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if I go back next week" He sighed. "Especially since the hospital is packed"

"Isn't that too soon?" I asked.

"They don't care"

"Guess it just shows how important you are," I said trying to cheer him up.

"Guess so" He chuckles and stops.

"What's wrong?" I asked stopping with him.

"Let's find everyone that was close to us," He said.

"That would be amazing to hang out with them rather than strictly focusing on surviving." I smiled.

"Also" He looked away.

"Also what?" I replied confused.

"Let's give us a try"

"What do you mean?"

"Let's be together here" He grabbed my hands looking at me. "In the real world"

"I like that," I said tearing up. "I thought you'd never ask"

"I'll never break any more promises"

"You better not," I said gently hitting his shoulder.

"I love you" He smiled.

"I love you too," I said back as the sun started to set giving me closure.

He leaned down and kissed me. It felt nice I could feel the sincerity and happiness. The sun felt nice as it slowly started to set the golden hour making Chishiya's face glow showing his perfect face.

[phaticserpent]

Omg! Part 5 was so hot hot hot. I need another one from you, but this one he doesn't like what reader does. Give me angst prime with smut, please!!

Tbh, I'm not sure what you meant by he doesn't like what the reader does? Like nsfw wise? Or something else? I'm going to interpret is as something else

Warning: (tw: car accident) angst, smut, protective and possessive Optimus hehehe

Well, job searching wasn't going well and you assumed Optimus was busy with the current situation with the decepticons. You wanted to call or text him, to see if he was okay but you decided against it.

On the days your parents were home, you borrowed their car to drive yourself to job interview, and on the days they weren't, you walked around. Truth be told, you were used to staying at home, and Optimus had spoiled you too much by driving you everywhere. So, you were a bit skeptical behind the wheel. Still, you were cautious.

Until today. You were driving yourself to one of the job interviews, confused at the GPS and made a short turn. Another car was either too distracted or blind because they didn't see you and crashed into you. The rest of it was a blur. You don't remember bleeding, but you remember exchanging information and as soon as they left, you collapsed.

You had brief moments....technically dreams where you heard Optimus calling to you. Though, reaching out to him and following his voice was near impossible, and you fell into another deep sleep.

Meanwhile, Optimus never left your side, and he started catching the habit of biting his nail or finger whenever he was stressed. As soon as the doctor came in, he stood up.

"She'll be alright when she wakes....she basically recovered during her time unconscious, but make sure you get her something to eat. No junk food." The doctor instructed. "She's free to go after she finishes these paperworks."

"Thank you, doctor." Optimus sighed, taking the paperwork and flipping through them with intense focus. As he was reading the document, you stirred slightly and groaned at the bright light.

"Huh?" You sat up slowly.

Optimus basically threw down the papers before rushing to your side. "(Y/N), are you alright? Any pain?" He moved a hand to your forehead as if he was checking for fevers, unknown to him that he wouldn't be able to check headaches that way.

You moved your hand to take his. "Optimus? What happened?"

"....you were out for four days."

".....I'm sorry? Four days?" You stared at him. "That's not funny."

Optimus just huffed. "It's not. I found you passed out on the side of the road and your head was bleeding. So I rushed you to the hospital and made contact with your parents to let them know."

"....oh." You laid back down, placing a hand over your eyes to shield them from the lights.

"What were you thinking."

Dumbfounded, you moved your hand away to look at him. "What do you mean?"

"Driving yourself....when I could've driven you. I even....." Optimus took this time to breathe. "I even said I would help with your job search. I know you heard me."

"....I didn't want to bother you. I know you were probably busy with something more important–"

"You're important."

You closed your mouth before something else could come out. There was something in his eyes, the way he looked at you; hurt, fear, anger, and love. You couldn't hold it and dropped your gaze to the floor. "Optimus I'm sorry...."

".....I know I haven't texted or called, truthfully, I was busy setting up a surprise for you. I thought I'd give you a visit. When I saw you...." His voice shook. You finally looked up to see his head hung, gently, you reached out to lift his head to meet his gaze. They were filled with tears. "I thought I'd lose you too."

You chewed the inside of your cheek, unable to say anything. Instead, you brushed your thumb to clear away the tears, a little surprised that it was actually wet. "I'm really sorry."

"You don't have to apologize." Optimus leaned in, embracing you for a hug. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"I mean that much to you, huh."

"Of course. You're my friend, my spark, and my everything." Optimus sighed with content. "Don't hesitate to tell me what you need, I'll always do anything for you. And if you're worried about bothering me, I'll let you know if I'm unavailable."

"Noted." You chuckled. After sharing a literal breathtaking kiss, he brought the paperwork to you and helped you work through it. Soon enough, you were free. Optimus made sure, with every step of the way, you were safe as he kept you close to his side.

"The doctor said no junk food." He reminded and you groaned.

"But I'm craving some."

"Think of somewhere else." He advised sternly. You huffed before going to your favorite Korean restaurant; dragging Optimus so he could try Korean bbq, while you were forced to eat hot soup. He didn't eat the kbbq.

"It's good." You insisted.

"I'll eat it with you."

"Then let's eat it now–"

"(Y/N)...."

"...fine."

After the delicious lunch, he drove you home. Though, when he arrived in front of your house, you stayed.

"Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me."

"....but I want to." You sighed. "Thank you for staying with me at the hospital....for god knows how long, for the lunch, and overall, for being you."

"It's what you would do for me."

"Of course." You smiled. "Still, I really appreciate you. I, uh....we can have that surprise now if you want."

"O-oh." Optimus' face flushed. "Maybe when you're feeling better."

"Then how can I repay you?" You slowly moved towards him, straddling his waist as his eyes bore into you.

"You don't have to repay me." It was short, but his voice hitched just a little. You innocently tilted your head at him.

"But I missed you. I missed you, the feeling of you....." you whined. Optimus gripped the seat, his breathing becoming rapid and heavy. Deciding not to resist, he leaned in close enough to brush his lips against yours, but his gaze never left yours before finally pressing his lips. The kiss made you lean back, and he took this time to hold you steady by the back, while another arm slipped under your thigh. You were too focused on the kiss to hear the door unlock and he lifted you up before walking. Confused, you pulled away to see that you left the truck, while Optimus had a slight smirk on his face. "Wha–"

"You need to rest first."

"I rested for four days."

"That doesn't count."

"Optimus." You whined.

"I'll come over tonight. I promise." He smiled as he unlocked the front door, carrying you all the way to your room.

"Thank you."

"Anytime." He chuckled before pressing a kiss to your forehead. "Get some rest first." You smiled before grabbing his shirt to pull him in for another kiss.

"See you tonight."

Technically, you couldn't sleep, but you laid in bed for the rest of the day. Still, you got ready for the alleged surprise and sheepishly greeted your parents when they got home. They had asked if you were alright, then asked about Optimus. Shyly admitting that he was your boyfriend and didn't want them meeting him to take place in a hospital. You waited until he pulled up, opening the door as he walked up to you with a sheepish smile.

"Hi." You smiled, closing the door to your parents watching in utter awe.

"Hi." He grinned. "How are you feeling?"

"Better now that you're here."

"I said I would."

"I know, but you had me on the edge." You winked. Optimus let out a soft laugh, slipping an arm around your waist to pull you in.

"I hope you or your parents don't mind that I steal you away for a couple of hours. The surprise is a little far and quite a drive."

"Of course, you can steal my anytime and anywhere." You laughed. "You know, I did dream that I would travel with you....or go with you once this war is over. No house, just....you and me."

Optimus paused to look at you. "I'd love that." The two of you got into the vehicle, and Optimus started driving to his destination. You stared out the window, a little nervous that you were overdressed. As if reading your mind, "you look gorgeous."

"Heh, thank you." You smiled. "I just hope it's appropriate for the occasion."

"It wouldn't be appropriate without you, but I love anything you wear." The ride was somewhat silent and peaceful, though you could tell Optimus was nervous. Maybe he thought you wouldn't like it and you smiled to yourself.

Whatever it was, you were glad it was a time spent with him.

"We're here." He announced softly, gently pulling up to an isolated area with a large lake and icy mountains. There was another car parked, which immediately transformed as you stepped out. "(Y/N), this is Ratchet....one of my closest friends and a medic. Ratchet, this is....(Y/N)."

The autobot bent down to gently take your hand. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Likewise." You smiled. "I was worried I wouldn't meet any of his trusted friends."

Ratchet smiled. "I was worried he wouldn't introduce his Sparkmate to us." Optimus let out an awkward cough. "I was surprised he had asked me of this...as I'm not suited for such legal matters."

"Legal matters?" You stared at him quizzically. Ratchet stood up as Optimus took your hand. You looked up at him and he slowly knelt to one knee, trying to maintain eye contact.

"(Y/N) (L/N), words cannot describe how much you mean to me....perhaps more than I can handle alone. I hope, starting tonight and forever, you and I will be together." Optimus smiled. "I love you and I always will. Will you marry me?"

You didn't even realize tears were welling up in your eyes as you hugged his digit. "Yes! A thousand times, yes!"

He returned to his vehicle form and his holoform ran to you, embracing you for a hug as the two of you fell to the ground. You cupped his face to pull him in for a kiss.

"Okay, you two lovebirds. On Cybertron, you're legally married the minute Optimus declared his love for you. But Earth has to get more technical." Ratchet announced. Sheepishly, Optimus helped you up and lightly dusted off remnants of grass on you. Ratchet coughed, "Optimus, the surprise."

Just as he disappeared, Ratchet winked at you. "Miss, if you will, close your eyes." You obliged as you heard the rustling of grass, and you felt Optimus pull in for a kiss, so you took the sign to open your eyes. In his hands was an intricate diadem, the center stone was a bright blue gem that glowed softly.

"It's....it's made from raw energon crystal. You're my spark and my everything. Without you, my spark wouldn't be beating so happily." Optimus smiled. "Thus, a Queen deserves her crown." Gently, he placed it onto your head, where it rested on the top of your hair. Once he was done, you pulled him in for another breathless kiss. While, Ratchet quickly transformed as his holoform stepped out with two small boxes.

"Uh, I think it goes something like....." Ratchet cleared his throat. "Do you, Optimus Prime, take (Y/N) to be your lovely wedded wife?"

"Yes, I do."

"And do you, (Y/N) (L/N), take Optimus to be your wedded husband?"

"I do."

"Congratulations, by the power in me and upon Primus himself, I pronounce you sparkmates and husband and wife." Ratchet smiled. Optimus took your ring and took your hand to place the ring on your finger, as you did the same for him. "Ironhide owes me so much money."

After the wedding ceremony, Ratchet left a large blanket on the ground for you two to sit on before taking his leave. Optimus and Ratchet were exchanging conversations, but you heard the engine fading away momentarily. Still, you were lost in thought until you felt Optimus settle behind you, placing a soft kiss on the back of your neck.

"What's on your mind?"

"Hm? Oh...uh everything."

"Everything."

"Yeah....I'm thoroughly surprised." You smiled. "How long were you thinking of marriage?"

Optimus chuckled. "Well, I would say a good month. I've been talking about you to them for years....Ratchet and Ironhide were the first to push me towards my idea of finally making it official."

"Wow." You smiled. "I better thank them in person then."

"Not before thanking me." Optimus teased. You grinned as you fully turned your body to face him.

"What did you have in mind?" You leaned in, your lips brushing against his cheek. Smiling when you saw the tip of his ears flush.

"How about....continuing where we left off?" He tilted his head, his face still flushed.

"Anything for you." Your voice dropped slightly, to the point where Optimus shuddered. You pressed your lips to his, moving to his neck as you unbuckled his belt and palmed his already hard cock. You then moved down as you removed it from his undergarments, gently kissing the tip. He let out a heavy breath when you took it into your mouth, hollowing your cheeks as your tongue dragged around the shaft.

"A-ah," Optimus threw his head back. "Oh, Primus." His hand moved to your head, gripping onto your hair as you started moving up and down. It took everything to refrain himself from bucking his hips into your mouth. Optimus cried out when you started sucking on the tip, lightly grazing it with your teeth before you took his entire cock into your mouth. He tugged at your hair, breathless moans and whines as you continued to chase his pleasure. He let out a cry as his body shuddered, signaling his release and you pulled away. You didn't have time to recover as Optimus pulled you in for a kiss. He immediately laid you on your back, his hand sliding down to your thigh to hike up your dress.

"O-Optimus–" You moaned as his lips moved to your neck. He moved your undergarment to the side, pressing his cock to your sex. You reached out to hold his free hand, intertwining your hands as he pushed in. You could never get used to his size; it was like he gets bigger every time. Optimus moaned, lifting a leg up as he buried himself inside.

"My spark....." He groaned. "You're so beautiful."

"Hngh ~!" You whimpered, squeezing around him at the genuine statement of love. "I love you, I love you–" Optimus pulled back and snapped his hips, earning a gasp.

"My spark," He moaned. "Mine."

"–yours," you whimpered. "Forever yours." He moaned, his hand moving to hold your hips down as he started picking up the pace. You wailed, squeezing his hand as he mercilessly pistoned into you.

"I love you." He leaned down, his breathing heavy as he moaned it out. "I love you so much."

"I...." you choked on a moan when he pushed into a particular spot, temporarily seeing stars that weren't in the sky. "O-Optimus ~! Ah! I love you ~!"

He muttered curses in Cybertronian, feeling you flutter and squeeze around him as you neared your release. "Come for me....you f-feel so.....a-ah! You feel so good for me." You cried out as your body trembled, contracting around him.

"P-Please, I need you to fill me." Your face flushed from your request. His eyes widened before kissing your forehead, the truck stopping nearby. Just as the holoform disappeared, the vehicle started transforming and you smiled as Optimus gently kneeled to meet you.

"Primus, you really do something to me." He chuckled. You just winked as his digits lightly grazed your sex, slightly arching your back to his touch. As if testing, he pushed his digit inside, just to see how far it would go. You shuddered just as half of his digit went in, causing him to stop and push in and out.

"Please ~!" you wailed. Consistently, he pumped his digit in and out, chasing your second orgasm. Lightly, he curled his digit inside and you held onto his other finger. Still, his fascination and obsession carried him away; watching your legs tremble and your body shudder and the way you cry out. Though he was keeping count; he eventually pulled out and nervously brought out his spike.

"On your hands and knees." He commanded lowly. You hobbled onto your knees and laid down, Optimus moved on top as he lined his spike to your sex. Teasingly, he moved the tip in and out, and you groaned from the pressure. Trying to coat himself with as much of your release, he started to push further in. Your legs started to quiver as he reached the halfway mark. "S-So tight. So good for me."

"Mmm, m-more!"

Optimus was hesitant. "Let me know when to stop." He waited until you nodded before pushing more. You rapidly tapped his digit, gasping breathlessly. He immediately stopped, a little lightheaded from the way you were squeezing him. "Y-You take me so well.....Primus, you were made perfectly for me."

"O-oh gods.....s-so much." You mumbled. Slowly, he started moving and your eyes rolled back, seeing stars as he hit every spot. Meanwhile, Optimus wasn't doing any better; he ripped the ground as every thrust had you contracting around him. It didn't take long for you to squeeze an orgasm out of him, he let out a groan as he filled you. You twitched under him as his transfluid leaked out of you; to which he pushed back inside, snapping his hips as you jerked from the action.

"Take all of it." He moaned. And you would. He rutted into you as he spilled his fill, pushing more transfluid inside. Your legs trembled, unable to hold yourself as he continued to bury himself.

"Please, please, please–" you cried out. For the umpteenth time, he stilled and you felt the familiar warmth filling you. Optimus groaned as he hung his head, gently pressing his forehead on your back; he pulled out and the transfluids also spilled out.

"Primus, you're so beautiful." Optimus groaned. "Give me a moment." He quickly transformed and his holoform ran out with towels and more blankets, gently wiping away at the excess fluid; he then wrapped the blanket around you.

"Thank you." You smiled at him.

"Anytime.....I'd do anything for you. You only need to ask."

"C'mere." You opened your arms and he reluctantly moved in for the embrace. You gently rubbed his back and ruffled his hair, lying on the blanket. "You're my everything too."

wOW THIS IS LONG OMG, EAT UP YALL (I didn't plan to end with them marrying 🧍‍♀️ I didn't know what else to make the surprise about fbjdhdhfhf you're welcome ?)

[queenofthequillandink]

Sexualities of the original Ocean's crew, as decided by me and my partner while watching Ocean's 13:

Danny: Straight, but has fucked Rusty. Liked it well enough, but decided that he wasn't into men. Would still do it again.

Rusty: Bisexual, but in denial. Liked fucking Danny way more than Danny liked fucking him and doesn't know what to do with that information.

Basher: Pansexual. Has never once cared what was in someone's pants, unless it was explosives. And then he was even more excited.

Livingston: Too anxious to have a sexuality. Would pass out if put in a situation where he was expected to have sex. Homoromantic.

Linus: Genuinely does not know. Is trying to have whatever the coolest sexuality is, mostly by copying Danny and Rusty, but is getting signals that he doesn't understand due to the "will fuck men platonically" and "deep repression," respectively.

Frank: Straight. I'm sorry, my guy just has very straight energy. Highly vocal ally though. Dated a lot of girls that turned out to be lesbians and loves hanging out with them.

Yen: Slut. The rest of his sexuality doesn't matter. The most important thing is that this man fucks, and he fucks often.

Turk: Straight, but has somehow only managed to ever date trans women. It's not a fetish and he's genuinely not doing it on purpose.

Virgil: Queer. If it happens, it happens. Will only date people who annoy his brother.

Saul: Straight, but only has gay friends. Lived through the hippie 60s and the AIDS crisis. Threw a Molotov cocktail on Reagan's White House lawn.

Reuben: Are you fucking kidding me? Gay.

Bonuses:

Tess: Demisexual. Will become attracted to both men and women, but she has to know them well first. Does not know this about herself.

Roman: Gay and isn't hiding it, but isn't flaunting it either. He'll tell you if you ask, but you do have to ask. Greco is his ex and the guys at boarding school made a LOT of GrecoRoman jokes.

Benedict: Considers having a sexuality a waste of time and energy. Only gets off as a bodily function like any other and doesn't understand why no one else treats sex this way. Has not considered that not everyone feels this way about sex.

[fantastic-nonsense]

hey i saw your answer to the ask about alfred making damian robin in battle for the cowl. while i 100% agree that is not what happened in bftc, outside of that comic i think alfred has a lot more involvement. im not sure if this is a post-crisis exclusive blog, but in secret origins (2014) #4 we see alfred's feelings on damian and his conclusion that damian would listen to no one else except his father. so alfred forges a letter from bruce that asks damian to be robin. the end of the comic shows that dick knows alfred forged that letter but imo leaves it pretty open-ended as far as dick's decision. if you ask me, i think dick talked to alfred about damian being his robin or alfred picked up that things were going to way and decided to pull this to make that transition easier for everyone. sorry is this is weirdly nitpicky or contrarian im just really a sucker for alfred and damian's relationship.

[referencing this response on how the transition from Tim to Damian as Robin was handled]

Preface: I am not a post-Crisis universe exclusive blog (far from it), but since 1) the New 52 era's attempts at dealing with the Batfamily are a mess and a pain to deal with for a variety of reasons, and 2) the post-Crisis universe was and remains the definitive interpretation for most of the Batfamily's history and the basis for their interactions with each other, it's what I tend to default to when writing meta...especially in cases where the events under discussion originally happened in post-Crisis continuity. The exceptions to that tend to be characters introduced post-Flashpoint (ex: Duke), who have no previous continuity bogging them down, and characters who have had the majority of their stories and development take place post-Flashpoint (ex: Damian).

That being said, while I am aware that Secret Origins (2014) and particularly that story exists and have read it, I tend to default to ignoring it for a few reasons:

One, it's a story whose events make little sense within either post-Crisis continuity or post-Flashpoint continuity as they otherwise exist; minimally, the timeline doesn't match up in either case.

More specifically for the purposes of writing a meta about the transfer of the Robin mantle from Tim to Damian, it rewrites Damian into the pre-Reborn era Batfamily very awkwardly by pretending he was always there. It shows a League clothes-clad Damian taking on Victor Zsasz and Professor Pyg (which he did not do until he was already Dick's Robin) while pretending that Bruce had time to try and connect with him before he "died" (which, he didn't; Damian appears in two stories prior to Battle for the Cowl—Batman & Son and Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul—and his interactions with Bruce are fairly minimal in Resurrection).

It is a clumsy attempt to integrate Damian into the pre-Batman R.I.P timeline that ignores all of the ways in which Damian's early relationships with his father and the rest of the Batfam (particularly Dick and Tim) are directly informed by the fact that he wasn't there during that time period:

[Alfred, Dick, and Tim watch The Magnificent Seven in Wayne Manor in the immediate aftermath of Bruce's death. Damian is not present, as he was still living with Talia. An empty chair between Dick and Tim marks Bruce's usual 'movie night' seat] -Nightwing #151 (2009)

I thus find it very unhelpful to use in any capacity when discussing and analyzing interactions between those characters in the aftermath of Bruce's death.

Two, while I have no love for Battle for the Cowl, Tomasi effectively ignoring it completely beyond "Gotham was in chaos following Bruce's death" doesn't sit right with me either, especially since it was referenced (even obliquely) in several other New 52-era books.

Three, I love Alfred and Damian's relationship. I think it's one of Damian's most important relationships and we should talk more about it. But I also love Alfred and Dick's relationship, so I'm not particularly enamored with a reimagining where Alfred is the one who orchestrates Damian's takeover of the Robin mantle largely unilaterally. That's not his call to make beyond a suggestion to Dick that it might be good for him. I also think it takes a lot of agency away from Dick in the one transfer of his mantle that he canonically actually has control over and undermines a big aspect of Dick and Damian's relationship development to take those decisions out of Dick's hands and give them to "Bruce."

Four, and probably most importantly: that story is never referenced before or after that issue. That origin for Damian is long gone. Its portrayal of his childhood was revamped in Robin: Son of Batman. Its reconceptualization of Damian's entrance into the Batfamily has not been acknowledged since. DC's larger refusal to acknowledge Dick and Damian's time as Batman and Robin beyond subtle references ended during the Rebirth era. New 52!Tim quite literally wasn't Tim Drake and was only restored to being himself again post-Rebirth, so 99% of the interactions between Tim and Damian from 2011-2016 have been effectively discarded as non-canon. And whenever Damian becoming Robin is referenced after Secret Origins #4, it is nearly always referenced as Dick choosing him as Robin rather than him becoming Robin "at his father's request." So there's little incentive for me to acknowledge it given that it generally appears to not be canon beyond the scope of the New 52 era of post-Flashpoint continuity.

I'm sorry that this probably isn't the answer you wanted to read, but I hope this gives you a better idea of why I specifically choose to stick to post-Crisis and post-Rebirth continuities when discussing the transfer of the Robin mantle from Tim to Damian.

[phonkscribes]

Working under Wesker

You've been assigned to work with the infamous Albert Wesker on behalf of the virologist taking on more work than even he can handle. He won't hesitate to replace or to get rid of you if he doesn't think you're up to the tasks he gives you. It is an uphill battle to try and please him, and keep your job, but this seems to please him plenty enough.

He thinks its rather pointless to entrust another person with the important work that he does, especially one who he is not formally acquainted with. From the beginning, he's plotting on getting rid of you the first chance he gets unless you can prove your worth. The pressure is on, and it's only your first day.

The first task he has set out for you is to file reports with the information that has been made accessible for you, due in less than six hours. This is his first test, because he's already finished the report in case you make something that does not meet his expectations. Miraculously if you manage to finish the work that meets his standards, he will be surprised, but won't let it show on his face. If you fail, he will be there to insult you.

"It's really quite simple, if you can't manage this, I'm going to have to dismiss you. Is that something you want?", he taunts you yes, but he also means to push and challenge you. He only naturally comes off as an ass when doing so.

Wesker might not even trust you enough to allow you to handle reports, sending you off to do trivial tasks like to fetch him coffee or deliver paperwork from point A to point B. This is an incredible waste of your talents and capabilities, but that's because he doesn't have the time to carefully monitor you working on his things. When you show up with the cup in hand, practiced smile on your face, he drinks in the anguish written in your eyes. It might even steal a chuckle from him as he watches you walk back to your desk or designated area.

And watch you he does.

Even if he wasn't wearing shades, he'd drag his eyes carefully across your physique, thinking about the possibilities that might arise if he ever had the reason to turn you into an experiment. However, he does enjoy the shape of your body and how your clothes hug your form around certain curves. When you feel the weight of his gaze, he's already getting back to work, not letting his enjoyment of messing with you distract him for too long.

When he leaves for break or for the evening, you decide to stay behind, to take some of his work load in hopes of finally getting his approval. The sun has risen high above your head by the time you're through with it all, feeling a bit of sympathy for the other right before you decide to fall asleep at your space. When he arrives, he spots that all of his papers have been moved to your area. Albert's first instinct is to be mad with you, because you might've made errors and mistakes in his name, and he can't have you ruining his perfections.

Upon reading things over, with sharp and refreshed eyes, he can see now just how hard you've worked. Damn near to the bone, which he supposed was admirable. A hand reaches out to pet your head, smiling some to himself at how adorable you are resting. For now, you've earned some sleep, so he won't bother you until you either wake up yourself or six hours have passed(which he will write you up for). Wesker even leaves to go bring you a spot of coffee for when you do arise from your deserved slumber.

"Here you are, you've been asleep for long enough, wouldn't you agree dear?", you aren't sure what startles you more, him actually caring for you and being nice or the fact that you really have been asleep at your desk.

However you may react, he finds it to be adorable, and even holds a smile for a moment until he urges you to go and freshen up. They didn't hire you to dilly dally, they hired you to work. When you return, he pats the side of his table where there's free space, calling for you to join him.

You've proven yourself... for now.

"Don't let me down, rookie", he says with tease in his tone, but all the more stern. Some time after this, he lectures you about taking his work while he's away.

[unknown-lifeform]

Also more on the asgzc dragon au, two main more plotty scenarios I do have for it:

The Aerith Disaster:

Genesis and Cloud one day went to attack some rich traveling humans in order to take their riches all for themselves. Among them they found Aerith, a human princess. Aerith was being sent off to marry someone, which she really didn't want, and asked Genesis and Cloud if they were perhaps interested in kidnapping her for a while. They asked her why the fuck would they do. Aerith said well, I'm a princess, I am one of the most important people around, I'm sure I can be a valuable addition for any dragon's hoard :) Genesis and Cloud were like do we look stupid to you

Angeal: why is there a human in the cave.

Zack immediately made very good friends with Aerith. So did Cloud. Genesis started liking her because of the sheer drama keeping her caused. Angeal was extremely dubious at first, but then humans started coming to try and free her, and well that was free treasure for his hoard wasn't it

Sephiroth did not like Aerith. He was neutral on her at first because whatever, it's just a human. But then he saw his hoard starting to get attached and he was very much not happy about it. How dare she monopolize so much of their time. He can and will be jealous of this little soft pink thing. And angry that she keeps sassing him despite the fact he can literally swallow her whole

There were a couple interventions staged to make Sephiroth calm down about it. Reminding him he is a dragon and she isn't, he is the strongest and most good looking, lots of either exasperated reassurances or rolling around and showing belly. Sephiroth learnt to sort of tolerate her

In the meanwhile, there was a regular stream of knights coming around to fight the dragons and promptly getting eaten or chased off. Aerith found it all very entertaining. Sitting around on Zack's tail watching Genesis chase people off a mountain and all

Among all the various knights was Tifa, who is a traveling knight without any particular allegiance, and had decided to come save Aerith. She was very determined about it. Kept managing to escape being burnt to a crisp and then coming back. Aerith liked her, honestly. Determined. Strong. Hot

Cloud, being landbound, usually saw the knights coming long before the others did. After a while, he started kind of just hanging around in his burrows watching this happen. His own personal show. He also saw a whole lot of Tifa showing up and then running down the mountain very fast with new scorch marks on her armor

Cloud, laying outside of his hole to bask in some sun: you again? Give it a rest buddy

Eventually Aerith started saying she kind of liked Tifa. Wouldn't mind going off with her. The dragons all thought well, in that case, Tifa should court her properly. Show off she could be a proper mate. Except they're dragons so obviously they have no idea what humans want

Cloud, relaying the information to Tifa: you should... Alright, no scales to shine, obviously, but whatever, make yourself look good for a human. And you can't roar to show off either. Do you have a hoard? Something to impress her? Anything at all? Can you at least catch a deer or something?

Tifa: is like a couple pheasants ok? Because I don't think Aerith can eat a whole deer

Honestly killing the dragons might have been easier than trying to prove to them that Tifa was a good prospect mate

Aerith and Tifa eventually rode off into the sunset to marry and everyone was kind of sad they wouldn't have to bully knights around to protect her. Except Sephiroth Sephiroth is still a jealous ass. Everyone get here they're having an orgy to celebrate the human being gone

The other scenario is the Baby Denzel scenario:

So wyrm packs sometimes overlap in territory with dragons. Cloud is grumpy around other wyrms, but he could accept some being in the general area so long at they didn't come bother him. The combined territories of three dragons + a wyvern are massive, after all, and Cloud originally showed up in Zack's territory so that's where most of his burrows are. When Angeal told him one day a couple wyrms had settled in his territory, Cloud didn't think much of it

But then one day there were some large landslides in Angeal's territory, and he didn't see the wyrms around after, so he got Cloud to come and see if they were alright. Turned out the landslide had hit their burrow, and they had ended up dying in the cave in. But digging about, Cloud did find one intact egg, and he couldn't in his right mind abandon it there

Of course everyone was dubious about it because if the egg hatched then they would all be responsible for a baby, but Cloud just couldn't abandon it to die

He took it to his own burrow and made a nice nest and got to trying to care for it. In a wyrm pack the parents (and eventually older children) would take turns caring for eggs, but Cloud's mates were all too big to fit in his burrows - well, they could in human form, but it was less than ideal and also dragons and wyverns can be a bit claustrophobic in a dirt tunnel - so Cloud was mostly doing the caring while the others hunted for him

Egg eventually hatched. Baby wyrms are extremely tiny. They mostly stay in the burrow for the first weeks, and when they start coming out they are small enough to be vulnerable to a lot of predators. Cue baby Denzel taking his first steps in the grass with five extremely apprehensive parents around him ready to roast anything that gets a little too confident

Denzel learns very fast the joys of sunbathing while lying on top of a very warm parent. Especially those with darker scales, they absorb the eat better. True bliss. Meanwhile Angeal is lying with his son on his flank and never moving from here ever again

First winter was a bit of a problem, because Cloud generally spends it in Sephiroth's gave, but Denzel was still too squirmy to safely transport and too young to understand what exactly was happening. So they had to hibernate in Cloud's burrow. Cue other four apprehensive parents periodically showing up outside the burrow to check if everything was alright

Cloud, getting woken up for the tenth time this winter, barely warm enough to form words: let me fucking sleep

After that they started bringing Denzel and Cloud over to Sephiroth's cave for the winter. Much better that way

Now once wyrm children around grown they either go their own way or stay with the pack. Denzel probably did go off on his own at some point to start his own pack, he was a very independent young wyrm, but he still comes back from time to time to see the good old parents. Which is way more than Zack, Angeal, Sephiroth, or Genesis expected, dragon and wyvern kids leave the cave and never come back as grown ups

[c-m-li]

3 popular tropes that I hate that Six of Crows utilized beautifully:

Enemies to lovers

Matthias and Nina. Seriously.

I normally hate this bc one or the other commits an unforgivable sin near the beginning that the other must forgive bc the first just "changed."

But here, Matthias genuinely repented of his actions and it shows both why he originally thought the way he did and why he began to change his mind. He wasn't an actual bad person, just taught a bad doctrine.

He didn't change just bc he wanted to sleep with Nina. He realized that if Nina was so good and brave and righteous then therefore his preconceived notions that he had been taught had to be wrong. And he decided to dedicate the rest of his life atoning for his past actions.

Honestly, their pairing is one of the most pure relationships I've found in original fiction.

Miscommunication

Normally it serves no purpose except to make the characters mad at each other, but this actually drives the character arcs forward.

In particular, I'm talking about Kaz and Inej.

When he calls her an investment early in the book and it's just bc he's panicking, but that's what her mind always goes back to even almost midway through Crooked Kingdom.

It drives both of their character developments forward, but Kaz specifically as he has to consciously work on himself to actually say what Inej means to him. And Inej also has to push herself to take a closer look at Kaz's interactions with her, to see what he isn't saying.

Flashbacks

I hate these. I hate these so much.

Either they're so inconsequential that they're just window dressing delaying the plot or it's so much it might as well be a whole book before the one I'm actually reading.

(I distinctly remember trying to read a book years ago but giving up 1/3 of the way through bc it had so many flashbacks, every other paragraph, that I couldn't even tell what was happening in the present or in the past)

But these flashbacks were so important and they drove the plot forward, dropping at points to explain certain character quirks that we had noted but didn't know the reasons for, but also informing on their decisions in the present.

[asterjennifer]

Asmodean Crystal

The surprise had been quite big once the Prince received the unexpected package, right from Ozzie's factory directly into his mailbox...

Pt. 1 (Pt.2)

The Imp that held it up, alongside a few other letters of less importance, was confused by the wide eyes of his master. Yet he didn't say anything in hopes that not another misery would happen by the hand of his job. He's had enough of getting thrown out windows or being used as a squish toy for the royal Ars Goetia.

“Prince Stolas,” he muttered as loud as his fear allowed. “I was told... this is a special delivery for you to open with care.”

The Prince blinked out of trance, shaking his head slightly before nodding. “Yes..! Thank you.” With that, he placed the post onto the table.

Without another exchange, the Imp quickly made his way through the door. Leaving the Prince all by himself, who continued to stare down the gift from Asmodeus. It's to his right considering the King at first refused doing him a favor, and if it's what he thought it would be, then something must've happened to change his mind.

He figured that speculation wasn't going to contribute. Therefore he decided to rip off the duck tape carefully. The package wasn't big either – probably the size of a school lunchbox he'd seen on the Internet before.

After he brushed some of the dirt away to clean the top, he flipped the cardboard open, and it's indeed what he assumed would lay inside. The Asmodean Crystal shone and glittered in all purple and pink colors, the one item he was asking for at his visit last week.

Of course it surprised him. How could it not? The fact that Asmodeus couldn't help out due to unknown history between his Partner Fizzarolli and Blitz made it impossible. Since, unlike Stolas, Asmodeus followed his moral compass with determination. Now that he thought about it, he felt his cheeks heat up in shame.

The owl ran his hand trough the soft feathers on his head. For a moment he felt a sting of pain roaming in his chest, even down into his lower stomach while staring at the Crystal. Now that he owned it, all he had to do was giving it to Blitz and their relationship would turn fundamentally different from here out on.

From the moment Blitz possessed the Crystal he wouldn't need Stolas anymore. And therefore the will to stay in contact would be entirely his choice, the freedom he deserved since the beginning. Yet the Prince's hesitant.

The love dwelling inside his chest wasn't that easy to overpower. After all — if it would've been, he would have contacted Asmodeus a lot earlier.

Once he took a deep breath and grounded himself inside the dinning room, listening to the silence that surrounded his whole palace, he took the Crystal out of the box. It felt expensive and underneath rested a card placed with the name "Blitz" printed on it. The color caught his attention immediately.

Usually it would be in Ozzie's colors. Blue, purple or pink. However — this one was in a color of red that could be declared as neon already. He turned the card around, finding the official information on the back that's needed for him to legally use the Crystal at all times, whenever he desired to use it. Good thing Asmodeus remembered to put that in there.

Stolas' eyes shifted from the gift to the window in the further distance on the other side of the enormous room. Outside, the world wasn't visible thanks to the frosted glass, only mingling colors. He liked the pink when growing up. But he couldn't deny that red became his new favorite color after meeting with Blitz again. Ah, there, another sting in his chest.

There's no use, he told himself defeated. He would arrive at Blitz's office tomorrow morning as priority. He'd talk to him privately and give him the Crystal, take the book back and probably then leave the place for the last time. No matter how much he prayed in his heart that Blitz would offer him to meet regardless, that's such a low chance. Even he had to acknowledge that truth by now.

No matter how much it'll hurt, it's the best for the little Imp. He's able to carry out his business completely independently without a soul needed. Depsite the heartache that that fact caused the Prince, he was still somewhat happy.

It would make Blitz happier. There's no reason for whinging now — he still got his daughter to focus on when she's over. And although it's not as often anymore, sadly, it always continued to be his biggest joy in life.

“Now then…” He spoke when pressing the Crystal against his chest, right above his heart. “Seems the next Full Moon is going to become your favorite, Blitz.”

[tododeku-or-bust]

i know the poll is presumably gone (i just checked tumblr 30min ago) but to the people who use their black friends/relatives/etc. as accessories to deflect from being called racist: fuck you. this is exactly why you're not safe to be around.

i am white. i have mixed (black/white) relatives. the rest of my family, aside from them, are white. and preach about reverse racism bullshit to the point where my mixed aunt does not bother discussing it (racism and other heavy topics) anymore with them. one of her daughters expressed a racist remark while i was staying with them over the summer a couple years ago, saying that her older brother wasn't black because he wasn't as dark as she (the daughter) was. then she proceeded to say, quietly, that yeah. white people scare her. she also said i scare her just because i'm white. that broke my fucking heart.

like... those relatives are soooo important to me in a whole bunch of ways. i trust them so much, when i was with them and whenever i came to visit afterwards they were all so excited to be around me because i don't make this shit about them. or downplaying their shit. i try to help them through it. there's been a few times when a few other white kids picked on them and i was just like uhhh. nuh uh! (tells them to fuck off. [in a more PG way.]) it's so bare minimum but we all treat each other like human beings unlike our other relatives.

this isn't me trying to toot my own horn. i'm white. i have privilege. i acknowledge it. i am not immune to being misinterpreted or racist even while saying this shit. it can come off as underhanded. i know this. i am mostly just saying something more along the lines of, white people won't fucking get it until it reaches a whole different level of personal to them, because no they won't understand the racism and shit like black people experience. until they decide to open their stupid eyes and just observe their interactions and the shit going on around them too.

this is long as hell, sorry about that. i really like your posts, i love seeing Phi art on my dash. your creative sideblog is very informative to me and i have started reading the resources you've offered and looking for more on my own after encountering all this. whether you stop trying to educate others or not, i hope you still have as much fun as you can with your posting and i wish all the racist fucks bothering you a very "read the fucking white fragility books and get over yourselves." tldr i'm with you 1000000% because why the fuck wouldn't i be, basically. thanks for your epic content and the time you make to share resources. have a good day/night. :-)

I hate that that little girl has internalized that racism and colorism like that. Because it means the people around her are saying things like that. She's not the only one either. I remember years ago that "you're beautiful" video, where one of the Black women in the video was genuinely angry and hurt at being told she was beautiful, likely bc she was used to being mistreated. She thought she was being mocked, and people were "oh why's she such a bitch" well you don't realize how much Black women are treated like we really aren't worth shit (unless we sacrifice ourselves and "be strong") from a young age.

But yeah, I mean... White people are scary 😅 unfortunately, she right 🤣 I'm a grown ass adult, and witnessing just how cruel many white people are willing to be to maintain their own comfort, beliefs, and the status quo... It's terrifying fr. Look at the state of American politics rn.

I appreciate you reaching out and trying to make me feel better ☺️ I also appreciate that you like my Phi content! She's my darling girl, that I want to give all the love that every Black girl deserves to have ❤️

[bettsfic]

betts i am reading the kennedy book now. the amount of admiration and devotion this man has for her is off the charts. normally you only find this dedication on ao3

and it's REAL LIFE.

you know, in looking through all my notes and annotations, what fascinates me more than what's said is what's *not* said. and while at first i read it gritting my teeth against these kind of writing moves that remind me so much of the writing students submit in intro cw (which is to say, creative writing from people who have spent far too much time writing reports, and who are maybe a little rusty in their creativity), i admire the precision of it.

i first noticed this kind of textual scalpel at the very end, with the way he describes the autopsy, somehow giving a graphic description of what he saw while denying both the lone gunman theory and any potential conspiracy, simply in the phrasing itself. but then when i looked back over it, i started seeing those same moves in other places: when the president chastises him for pulling the film out of a photographer's camera, and he has to decide if his drive to protect Mrs. Kennedy is more important than his drive to do what he's told; when he confronts Onassis and seems to take pride in the fact she went to bed alone that night, which could be interpreted as either "just doing what the president told me to" OR possessiveness/jealousy; when he mentions missing his wife and kids during the first Christmas away, and missing the birth of his second son, and then stops mentioning them at all until the very end; the bizarre tension between his wife and Mrs. Kennedy when they finally meet; when he picks up the train of Mrs. Kennedy's dress so she doesn't trip on it (why that detail? why?).

and then there's this lack of information at the very end that is just killing me. i read somewhere that if a first lady is widowed while her husband is in office, she receives Secret Service protection for the rest of her life, unless she remarries. then she went on to marry Onassis and lost her security detail. but in the book, they part ways much earlier than that, even though she chose him to follow her afterward. and that makes me think there's something big that wasn't mentioned in the book and that i'll have to find elsewhere.

in fiction, all these little threads and hints would lead up to something. but this isn't fiction and so all we can deduce i think is that this story is simply what he remembers, and that memory is distorted by time and how much he loved her, like she takes up this huge part of him. and i think if Jackie would've written a book about those years in the White House, i wonder how often her Secret Service agents would even come up.

anyway, i'm so glad you're reading it and you're seeing what i'm seeing, which makes me feel a little less Pepe Silvia wall about the whole thing. i know it's a rough read and it's repetitive and the pacing is a mess and if i'd edited it, the thing would be dripping red. but it's just so achingly vulnerable i can't believe it exists. right now i'm reading a book that won the National Book Award, some of the most beautiful writing i've read in a long time, like a kind of skill i can't even dream of, and i'm still here emotionally gobsmacked by this extremely commercial, poorly edited memoir.

[lewis-winters]

Hello!

I am hoping you'll be willing to listen to answer a question i have about Lewis Nixon's supposed demotion.

I've never been in the military, so I'm very interested in your perspective since you mentioned military service in your VERY thorough post about how the 'military culture' is constantly in the background of BoB but never really explored or discussed.

Ok So Nixon is Regimental S-3 between Bastogne sometime & Operation Varsity. He's a Captain. To me, a non-military person, S-3 is his job and Captain is his rank. When Sink/Dick decide he should bump back to S-3 at 2nd Battalion with Dick, that's NOT a demotion. That's a transfer. He's doing the same job, at the same rank, at the same pay, just in a different place. In a large org, maybe there is some loss of PRESTIGE, but you have not lost anything. Maybe you even WANT the lateral transfer, maybe all of your friends are over in that other office/unit/store whatever. A demotion would be getting bumped back to 2nd Lieutenant or something, losing pay, losing rank.... in my head anyway.

So, tl;dr, IS the Nixon situation actually a 'demotion' or more like a transfer from an Army culture perspective?

Also thank you for your thoughts on how the show ignored some important aspects of Army systems & Army culture....in favor of THE DRAMA! (which yeah ok...it's a show...drama! psychology!...) I thought it was really interesting and an excellent critique!

I wanna start this off with a little oops! sorry! my bad! I've been calling Nix Regimental S2 this whole time only ahdshaddsfj you are right he WAS Regimental S3 and then he got demoted to Battalion S2. Lmao!! Yeah!! Ok!! He's still a good intelligence officer, though! Can you fucking imagine your Regimental S3 walking the line with you? that's like if you were a desk worker writing your report with the COO of your company sitting right next to you, lol.

EDIT: Ok, wait. Sorry. I got a little confused, because I was so sure Nix was an intelligence officer, therefore he couldn't have been S3 because S3 is planning and operations. So I went and searched it up and slight correction!! Lewis Nixon was not Regimental S3, he was Regimental S2 and then he was demoted to Battalion S3. At least, in show. I still need to cross reference with the books, but... yeah! The rest of this post has also been edited to reflect this.

Anyway. No, it's not a lateral transfer, that's still a demotion. It would have been a lateral transfer if Nix was moved from Regiment S2 to Regiment S3. But he wasn't. He was moved to Battalion.

While you are correct in the observation that Staff Section Designations (i.e. S1-S8 and others) are equal (they are literally just different jobs descriptions; S2 handles the processing of intelligence and tactical information for the commander while S3 handles plans, operations, and training), Regiment S2 is still higher in rank than Battalion S3 because Regiment, Battalion, Brigade, Company, etc. etc. are ranks/follow the hierarchy of rank. Mostly due to the sheer sizes that are being handled.

A Regiment is divided into several companies, squadrons, or batteries and often into two battalions, and is run by a colonel. A Battalion is typically consisting of 300 to 1,000 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). The rule of thumb is this: the bigger the amount of men you handle, the more senior your staff officers, supposedly. Bigger numbers mean bigger operations and logistics, and senior officers (allegedly, heh) have more experience and more schooling to handle those!

Now! However!! a colonel of a regiment can have anybody in his staff regardless of rank (but with certain caveats i.e. chain of command isn't broken). Either through necessity (soldiers die, the positions have to be filled), meritocracy (unlikely, but not impossible), or because he plays favorites (yeah, this is more realistic). Nix being just a Captain who happens to be Regiment S3 is not uncommon. It's fine. Happens a lot, especially in dire constraints like in the middle of an actual War. And Nix is very intelligent and, though I guess some people would call him lazy, Dick (and several others, too) thought he did his job very well, AND was probably there the longest, as compared to other candidates. On top of that, he comes from a family that is rich and might have had some significant pull in the military. Nix being in regiment as a mere captain is not weird. BUT it gets fucking weird (read: the chain of command is broken) when the Regimental S3 is just a Captain, while the Battalion S1 or S2, S3, S4, etc.-- who is EXPECTED to answer to and take orders from all officers in Regiment-- is a Major. Or a Lt. Col. Or anybody ranked higher than a Captain.

It's just not done! For a Major or a Lt. Col. or higher to answer to and take orders from the likes of a mere Captain! That breaks Chain of Command! Usually, to remedy this there is some reshuffling! So, either Regimental S3 is moved elsewhere laterally (i.e. Regimental S1, S3, S4, S5, etc), or if it is seen fit (i.e. said Regimental S3 is someone the upper brass have a vendetta against or cannot manipulate 👀👀👀👀👀), they will be demoted to Battalion. Or maybe even lower.

That's what I meant by the military is so so precious about chain of command. If a regimental officer is good! and has saved your regiment many times with his skill! it's only logical that you keep him where he is, right? Lmao. No. Wrong. If someone with less skill but higher rank were to come along, you have to defer to them. That's the rules of the chain of command!

Anyway. Even if Nix's demotion was just a reshuffling of manpower, it's still a public snub! It would look really bad on your career profile.

[random-meme-bot]

Ok so there are some ideas about Epithet erased that have been bouncing in my head after reading Prison of Plastic and I just need to get them out

(Spoilers so beware)

Ama just be clear on this, I think Marty (Molly's & Lori's Dad) was the reason for the fire on the old "Blyndeff Toy Emporium", or at the very least the reason the fire alarm didn't activate.

So first of, let's start with what im more confident:

The Fire alarm

Marty's main job on the store is supplying it with toys to sell, the way he does this is by building them himself.

I believe the guy either was missing some pieces for some project he was working on and just took them from the fire alarm thinking "Eh, I'm sure it's not that important"

Or decided to do a little "peek-in" to inspire himself, either breaking it on the process or jut not being able to put it back together afterwards.

I mean, if he broke the thing he would just thought nothing of it and then forgotten about it

None of the other members of the family would have done something as careless as break the fire alarm and don't say anything, especially Molly or Calliope since they are the most responsible members of the family, and Lori has no idea why the fire alarm didn't went off

And, I know what you're thinking.

"The fire alarm could just be defective, or the battery could've just runned off, not everything has to be because of someone"

And while yes, it's true that things like that coud happen, I don't think Jello would take something as important to the plot as "They couldn't escape from the fire in time because the fire alarm didn't activate" and just brush it off as "It didn't activate because it just so happened to be broken, bad luck" (My source's are his streams playing Ace Attorney Investigations, so take it at your own risk)

But this is just a small part of the biggest picture, let's discuss the Phoenix in the room:

The cause of the Fire

Ok so first of all, I don't believe Lori was the "Firestarter", while her Epithet activating during the night without her knowing makes sense, there are two things that shows that, that wasn't the case

First of all, that night she was sleeping on a dream bubble.

Which means the fire couldn't have come from her, when shes on the bubble everything she creates appears on the bubble, on top of that everything created on the bubble disappears outside of the bubble (as apparent by Trixie, Feenie & Rick going back to normal form outside of the bubble)

Even if that wasn't the case, I doub the fire could have gotten out of the bubble on its own since the bubbles are indestructible for anybody except Lori, Molly (and sometimes Rick)

As for who started the fire, I'll admit I don't have that much in terms of concrete evidence, and the few I have point to (unsurprisingly) to Marty.

Let's analyze the few things we know, at some point in the night a fire started somewhere on the "Blyndeff Toy Emporium", the fire alarm was not working that day so we can assume that someone gott awakened by the fire and alerted the rest, after being alerted, Molly got into Lori's room & tried woke her up from her bubble, event that caused her to discover her epithet

after Lori was woken up they both got out of the house, after some time Marty came out with Calliope on his arms.

There's a lot of information missing since we only know Lorelai's version of the story, but It doesn't add up doesn't it?

How coud Molly have gotten into Lori's room, awoken her epithet & gotten out before Marty & Calliope?

This is especially weird if we assume that like most family's both parents were sleeping on the same bed or at least the same room, meaning they would've been alerted at the same time.

Ok let's put all the pieces together and finally unveil my theory.

WHAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED THAT DAY

Marty Blyndeff had gotten himself the bestest of toy's ideas, "A Robot toy" he had been working night & day on it and it was finally finished! He just needed a battery to test it, he got out of his workshop and started looking for something that really didn't need the battery, he's eyes stopped on the Fire Alarm,

"Of course" he tough "That thing is just there for aesthetic, I mean if it is sooooooo important, why would there be only one on the whole store", he took the battery out of the Alarm and then used it to Power his creation.

The little robot made some weird noises and moved a bit before releasing some sparks which led to it catching fire, maybe going from simple wood toy's to complicated robots was not as good as an idea as he initially thought, this was bad since most of the things in the workshop ware also made out of wood, thinking quickly [For maybe the first time in his life] Marty grabbed a nearby bottle of acetone to try and put off the fire, after all, all liquids are strong against fire right?

Acetone as the flammable liquids that it is only made things worse, it made it so the flames started to spread faster, the fire had gotten to the rest of acetone bottles and other flammable chemicals causing a huge explosion that knocked Marty unconscious, the entire workshop and part of the store was now covered in flames that were quickly expanding.

Molly Blyndeff was sleeping on her room as usual when a noise woke her up, she had always been really susceptible to sounds due to her great hearing, she opened her eyes and found her room getting filled with thick black smoke, "FIRE!" She shouted, she came out of her room yelling "MOM, DAD, LORI!" she heard some noises coming from her parents room so they were awake, but she was more worried about her sister's room, no sound was coming from it, "WHAT IF SHE WAS HURT OR WORSE?!" Molly entered her sisters room, and found one of her sister's dream bubble surrounded by fire, "WOULD THE BUBBLE PROTECT HER?!" Molly didn't know, she started punching the sphere with all her force as she screamed "LORI WAKE UP, PLEASE!" a green aura started to emanate from her hands and the walls of the bubble started to disappear revealing Lori's bed with her on top still sleeping, without thinking it twice Molly grabbed her sister and started shaking her, "LORI PLEASE! WAKE UP!" Lorelai woke up just to find her sister crying, shaking, screaming, and glowing, that last part would had caught her attention a lot more if it wasn't for the flaming inferno that was surrounding them, they both got out of the room, got down the stairs and escaped the store.

While this was happening Marty woke up, he was on his workshop, his head hurt and he couldn't remember much, he was finishing his Robot toy and something happened...? It didn't matter, what mattered now was getting away from all the fiery situation he had found himself into, he got up and started to make his way out of the workshop and up into the middle floor of the store, he made his way to the stairs and started to go up into the bedrooms, he had important things in his room that he didn't want getting burned, when he opened the door he found his wife laying unconscious om the floor, the building was collapsing, there wasn't enough time to save both his wife & his stuff, so he picked up his wife and escaped the building reuniting finally with the rest of his family.

Conclusion

Here's my (more or less plausible) theory of what happened that day, It's very rough as the only version of the events we have is Lorelai's which is not much, we also don't know how their old toy store was in terms of architecture so I kinda just had to assume it was similar to the one they have now and use the layout of that one.

I'm sure this is how it happened?

No, not in a million years the amount of information I had to fill up to make that Fanfic Theory makes the story as a whole pretty unreliable.

I'm sure Marty is the responsable of the fire and the fire alarm not working? Yes, absolutely, maybe not the fire though as again, not much prof, but the fire alarm was definitely Marty's thing.

So anyway, here are my ramblings about Epithet Erased Prision of Plastic, please give me your opinions on this theories and the book as a whole I'm really interested on what other people think.

[thethreeeyed-raven]

Yayyy~

Then I would like to request something fluffy with Lucienne. The reader his head over heels for Lucienne. She loves any praise she can get from the librarian and always is staring longingly at them. And also blushes when they make any physical contact.

Lucienne isn't an idiot nor is she blind. They feeling is mutual and she finds the reader quite adorable and just loves to tease her. But that changes when the reader decides she wants to write a book about how much she loves Lucienne forgetting that merely imagining a book is enough for it to appear in the library. Lucienne being Lucienne obviously reads it and when they finish they find reader to give her the most passionate and toe curling kiss they can.

Turn it smutty or keep it fluffy if you'd like. I would be happy either way.

And if this makes you uncomfy in anyway you don't have to write it.

Thank you for reading all of that and I'm sorry that was so long. 😅😅

made of love for her

navigation | warnings : cringe i apologise | a/n : it’s finally here! i’m sorry you’ve been waiting for ages for this | tags : @knight-of-flowerss

You couldn't remember when these feelings for the librarian began or why they did in the first place, Lucienne was just infatuating to you.

She was knowledgeable, she knew practically everything, you loved learning of the dreams people had every day, and Lucienne enjoyed telling you abut them.

Currently, Lucienne was organising a few of the new books that had arrived when she heard you tumbling into the library, laughing to yourself.

"And what's got you into a fit of giggles this fine morning?" Lucienne teasingly asked you.

You stopped dead in your tracks, cheeks heating up secretly hoping only you and Lucienne were the ones in the library. "Oh you know, just something Mervyn told me earlier. Nothing that...important."

In fact, it was very important. He had told you that Lucienne harboured some feelings for you. You took the information as a joke, after all, how could someone as important as Lucienne have feelings for a measly dream like you?

Lucienne wasn't an idiot, she knew exactly what Mervyn had told you, because she was the one that told him to tell you in the first place.

"Hmm, you wouldn't mind helping me put these away would you? They just arrived this morning." She said as she handed you a leather bound book.

"Of course!"

She gave you a smile and you both began to organise the rest of the books.

A few hours had past before your lord Dream had come to ask for Lucienne's assistance.

She looked between you and Morpheus, contemplating whether to tell him you're busy or just go with him.

Lucienne gave up, gave you an apology and walked off behind Dream.

You didn't notice Dream looking between you and Lucienne.

As you waited, you had come to the decision that you wanted to write a book about your feelings towards Lucienne, like a diary almost.

You had begun to think of all the things you could say, but there was so much you wouldn't know where to start.

You failed to notice the golden glow that came from one of the bookshelves. It seems the dreaming was generating a new book, one with a violet cover and golden writing.

When Lucienne came back to the library, you were nowhere to be found.

Odd, Lucienne thought.

As she inspected the library further, she noticed a new book had arrived. Must be a new dream.

Lucienne plucked the book from the shelf, the first thing that intrigued her was the colour, purple, her favorite colour, then she read the title.

Made of love for her.

Of course you always have to know the author's name before reading any book.

Y/N Y/L/N.

Huh?

Lucienne read the first line of the first page, and couldn't bring herself to look away.

Lucienne didn't need to finish the book to have her answer.

She had a slight suspicion that you might've been interested in her a little bit, in fact she knew, but she never got proper confirmation.

Lucienne planned to find you later on, but for now, she must finish in the library.

She put the book somewhere safe to retrieve once she had finished.

The next day, Lucienne set on a quest to find you. She couldn't find you the day before, you were probably doing your 'dreaming duties' as you liked to call it.

She rounded a corner and saw you in a little garden both you and her had to beg Morpheus to create for you.

You were sat picking the flowers and inspecting them.

"Y/n, there you are." Lucienne gripped the book tightly in her hands.

"Hey, what's that you've got? Is it a new dream? Could you read it to me?" You pestered eagerly, patting an empty spot next to you so Lucienne could sit.

She chuckled lightly. "It's actually not a dream, to be honest, I'm not quite sure what it is."

"That makes it sound more appealing."

She read you the title, and instantly you were hooked.

As she read you soon realised what the story was about.

You kept looking between the pages and Lucienne, wondering if she knew.

"Lucienne, I've just remembered-"

"Why didn't you just tell me Y/n?"

Lucienne knew you weren't going to answer her, so she threw the book down, grabbed the back of your neck, and brought your lips together.

The kiss became very heated very quickly, your hands wrapping around her waist and her hands getting tangled in your hair.

A week later, you were both seen holding hands around the castle and sometimes even sharing cheeky kisses in the library.

Everyone was relieved at the fact you and both finally confessed, but now annoyed that you were both apparently being 'over affectionate'.

Dream, the ruler himself also being very relieved as your longing looks got in the way of his brooding.

[a-crimson-dawn]

I'm sorry if i'm borbarding you with asks😭😭

But your so talented💗

Can you do one with the captains at the beach?

Ty💗💗💗

Captains At The Beach

(Headcanons)

Lately, there have been surprisingly few conflicts and things were looking peaceful for once. So, to take advantage of that, Julius decided to hold a "meeting" in Raquey. Naturally, Marx was opposed, and suggested that Julius was shirking off his duties - and let's be honest, he was - but Yami shut him up by calling him a spoil sport.

Attire

Obviously, this must be followed by an obligatory change in the captains' clothing. How else could we subject them to fanservice- I mean, how else could they comfortably enough to partake in their meeting?

Fuegoleon dressed in regular shorts and a shorter-sleeved hawaiian-esque shirt (only the leaves were in yellows, oranges and reds and the rest of the shirt was white) and sandals, figuring that it would be more practical than his usual wear. His fans were rather pleased by his decision, because well... man's got a nice physique, what can I say. (Those who recognised him weren't too subtle in their admiration of him either.)

Mereoleona had taken a beach dress initially which relieved Fuegoleon because he'd honestly expected something less... um... appropriate. But then she proved him right when she was about to go skinny dipping in the ocean, much to the protests of Fuegoleon, Nozel, Marx, and William, and the cheers of Yami, Rill and Jack.

Nozel is still more or less wearing what he usually does sans the fluffy squad robe and cape because those would be impractical. (No capes!) This is partly down to him wanting to hide just how skinny his arms are compared to Fuegoleon or Yami. He and Fuegoleon are also wearing sunglasses. (Those expensive cool looking ones...)

Julius is wearing a shirt and shorts as well a bucket hat, just to look more the part of a kid and not raise suspicions since he planned on masking this meeting as just a casual day out. And of course no one can know that he's the Wizard King. Being in the body of a child and not being recognised as the Wizard King, it was quite frequently assumed that he was related to at least one of them, since why else would he be hanging around the magic knights. (If anyone asked, he was William's cousin, ingenious, really. Or that was until they realised no one had told William this rather important "information".)

Yami was tempted to go for the same thing Mereoleona had with the skinny dipping but then settled for his typical beach wear, which was still enough to get Charlotte all flustered and extra awkward around him.

Marx, when he's finally onboard with the idea also wears something a little less stuffy, though he's still clothed from head to toe, just in lighter clothing. He's there mostly making sure that a meeting does actually happen and the day isn't just spent messing around, because I mean, someone has to. Yami teases him for his choices and Julius tries to convince him to relax in vain.

Rill's extra colourful with his rainbow coloured beach wear and ditches the shirt within the first five minutes of arriving. (He ends up regretting that decision though because in the evening his shoulder's start hurting like a bitch, which, I mean, no shit, he didn't even bother using sun-screen on them.)

Marx had to practically beg Jack not to go skinny dipping in a public area, because he looked fairly determined to do so. In the end, he wound up wearing what Yami wore, which wasn't much better, but still.

Kaiser dressed in shorts and a shirt that matched the colours of his uniform, which had been chosen by his wife because she thought he looked rather handsome in it. Naturally, Kaiser was on his best behaviour throughout, his eyes never straying because that man only has eyes for his woman.

Charlotte was persuaded by her fellow squad members to wear something a little more bolder, and so reluctantly wore a blue bikini under her beach dress.

Dorothy wore a cutesy one-piece swimsuit that looked a little like a dress.

Being that William's pale ass burns fairly easily he likes to keep in the shade, and was more or less dressed from head to toe - a bit like how Licht was dressed in the reincarnation arc (but hey, at least we get to see his neck finally) -, trying to pretend he wasn't William Vangeance of the Golden Dawn because he'd been talked into not wearing his mask which meant that his scar was publicly on show and he didn't want that associate with his captain persona because he's insecure as hell. Also, he's wearing a massive sunhat, that Yami won't stop messing with him for.

"Is that big-ass hat of yours supposed to be compensating for something, Vangeance?"

"Is that katana of yours compensating for something, Sukehiro?" Mereoleona ends up remarking when William won't say anything.

Food & Drink

Naturally there would be plenty of food and drink around... after all, this is a vaca- I mean, Raquey work meeting. Ahem.

Marx at least tries to get them to remain sober and has to constantly take Julius' drinks from him whenever Yami hands him some, still seeing him as "old man Julius" even though he's now a thirteen year old who definitely can't handle their drinks as well as he did in his prime.

Mereoleona, being the very antithesis of Marx tries to talk everyone into drinking alcohol, which then gets her into an argument with William.

Dorothy grabs a non-alcoholic cocktail from her dream world and sips on that while watching the two argue, thinking it's a lovers spat even though they're not even officially dating. I mean, who needs a telenovela or a soap opera when you've got the magic knight captains with their unlimited potential for drama and chaos?

William's either going to be sipping on fruit juice or water. And there's no way Yami won't tease the heck out of him for it.

Jack and Yami just go for the cheapest available beer... and may or may not end up adding some alcohol to other people's beverages just to see what happens. What do you expect from two men whose middle names might as well have been Reckless and Even More Reckless?

Rill goes for an alcoholic cocktail because he desperately wants to fit in with the adultier adults but can't quite stand the taste of adultier adult drinks. Also, he likes how much more colourful they are than plain old beer.

Mereoleona, who might as well be something of an obligate carnivore herself insists on eating the meats and leaving the salads - William is naturally of the opposite view.

Rill's diet for the day mostly consists of cocktails, hotdogs, ice-cream and watermelon.

There is no way that Yami and Jack won't be having squid.

Marx is only really concerned whether they had the budget and time for this kind of thing... eventually he's talked into grabbing some lemonade and a veggie burger.

Dorothy also has ice cream and successfully uses her cutesy charm - along with her high-energy persistence - to talk Nozel into treating himself to some too. They end up having the same flavour as each other - bubblegum blue. When he acts apathetic about it, Dorothy contemplates whether she should have suggested a safer choice of chocolate, pistachio, chocolate chip or vanilla, as even she is unable to see past this response - secretly Nozel had always liked ice-cream as a child (Acier's doing). He just doesn't want anyone to know that some of that child still survives.

On his wife's suggestion, Kaiser sticks to drinking water (smart man, he even keeps it by his side so that Yami can't spike it). She also made him some sandwiches. Yami uses this to tease Charlotte by asking her if she made him any sandwiches. "You should have made your own sandwiches, you lazy man."

Sea-side Shenanigans...

Jack immediately challenges Yami and soon everyone is forced to somehow break them apart before they destroy all of Raquey, which is no easy feat, because those two stubborn determined idiots seem to be extra eager to destroy things today. William, who now is free from his argument, on account of Mereoleona going to grab Jack with her fire paws, tries to reason with Yami, who simply has to bring up his treachery during the conversation. It fails to discourage William though and eventually Yami gives in.

"Fine, you damn nag..."

Mereoleona wastes no time talking and just flat out threatens Jack into letting go of the fight. Being that he's no fool - "unlike William" - he makes no attempt to argue or fight her. William disagrees with her assessment of him being a fool just because he won't give in during their arguments. (Secretly, she's actually relieved if surprised that he's not just going to let everyone walk over him. Just most people, annoyingly enough. And secretly William likes that he somehow doesn't feel the urge to fawn his way through arguments with her out of fear of one thing or another. In a way, it makes them oddly more comfortable around each other.) That too is one of the causes of their arguments throughout the day though.

Rill spends much of his day painting the beach scene, taking the opportunity to paint some cute women, but also Yami and Jack while they are messing around and Mereoleona and William while they are arguing. Naturally, neither pair is keen on the painting featuring them and both try to persuade RIll into getting rid of the paintings, not that it works. He also eats way too much ice-cream and then is surprised when he gets an upset stomach, somehow.

Kaiser and Fuegoleon talk in a civilised and calm manner about things, being probably the least chaotic people in Raquey at the moment.

Nozel tries to get through this day in a civilised manner but then Yami happens, his clothes get soaked through, his pride is ruined, and he ends up threatening to execute the foreigner. William unfortunately meets that same end, despite never having planned to go swimming in the first place and having no change of clothes.

Dorothy does happen to have something to dry Nozel's clothes and hair with in her dream world and Mereoleona surprisingly offers William to dry him off with her fire magic. Nozel's hair ends up sticking up in all sorts of angles in comical fashion and William feels awkward throughout his experience as it involves standing close to a really attractive woman who could potentially be plotting to kill him as revenge for the attack on the capital. (She isn't, but he doesn't know that.) Fuegoleon could've done much the same thing - and it might have been less awkward -, but he was too busy talking to Kaiser to even notice... hence, no FuegoWill bromance scene, sadly.

When Julius wanders off to look for new magic, everyone ends up going looking for him, before hearing "did someone lose their child?" echoing across Raquey because a mage - thankfully not an evil one - who happened to have a communication spell on him had found Julius. Now they have to find some excuse to get Julius back though without getting questioned about it on account of them being well known public figures and what they settle on is that Julius is William's cousin without waiting for William to agree on it. (Especially since no one recognises William without his mask and out of his uniform.)

Obligatory Raquey Romance Headcanons (feel free to skip)

Yami's attempts at spiking (some) drinks does lead to more confessions than intended. Just... not from the woman he most hoped for a confession for. Underneath all that tough guy attitude lies a fragile soul that fears rejection hence he masks all his feelings behind his attempts at teasing Charlotte - or maybe he's just a "typical man", we'll never really know. He ends up getting chastised by Fuegoleon who then basically tells him that honesty is the best policy.

So um... Nozel drunkenly semi-confesses to Dorothy... kind of... I mean, he is a tsundere, so any regular person would be confused by the confession, but Dorothy knows Nozel well enough that she'd figured it all out beforehand. Also he passive aggressively congratulates Yami on his improvement over the last couple years.

He might have also secretly approved of Dorothy's cute costume choices. He may or may not have gotten a nosebleed at one point he tried to hide.

The issue with Mereoleona's clothes - or lack there of, soon enough - was one of the things that started an argument between her and William. (William might as well have been that: "Will someone please think of the children!" meme. But also, what he's more reluctant to admit is that - being that Tabata stated that all men are pervs (even the asexuals? Really?) - he doesn't actually mind the idea of seeing Mereoleona naked (although he does get flustered by the thought) it's the issue of people knowing he doesn't mind it. Also because he - along with Nozel, Marx and Fuegoleon - is otherwise against the concept of nudist public beaches. Yami's all for it, as is Mereoleona though.)

Mereoleona wants a hook up. I mean, there are no volcanoes, no hotsprings around, there isn't even technically sake and the meat's not raw or roasted enough, so besides swimming and getting a tan (and she's feeling too energetic for lying back and letting the sun do its work), it just seems like the most obvious thing to do at a beach. But since conveniently her options have been limited there's only really Jack and William... and she's not that much of a masochist.

William's brain cannot compute Mereoleona's very straightforward, and aggressive flirting methods, so whenever he's interacting with her, he's just left very confused throughout the whole beach session.

In the end, he takes the whole thing as her trying to get back at him for Fuego's arm and so apologises for the betrayal and admits that even if they've had their disagreements in their past, if it ever came down to him stepping down from being a captain, he wouldn't mind entrusting the squad to her while the current vice captain gains more experience. That in turn just really confuses the heck out of Mereoleona. "You know I specifically avoided becoming a captain because I hate politics, Vangeance?" "I know, but from what Yuno has told me, you probably would make quite a good captain, politics or not." 'I'm not after your job, I want to hook up with you, you moron.'

Safe to say very little actually comes from a single trip to the beach - anyone surprised?

Yami keeps saying Mereoleona has a neck fetish; a claim which she is violently opposed to. Whereas he jokes it explains why she's suddenly interacting with Vangeance so much, she finds no humour in it and ends up threatening him with a death match. And so the jokes stop.

Charlotte tries to work up the courage to finally confess to Yami, but it fails at every turn. He does end up telling her that he's impressed with how far she's come as a captain, though, so it's not a complete loss and she does manage to sincerely return the sentiment without be callous at any point... so that's progress, for her.

The plan was to eventually take off the dress and show off her bikini-clad form off in front of Yami and hopefully catch his eye, but either something constantly kept dragging attention away from her, or she would lose the confidence to do so whenever Yami's attention was on her, so yeah, that failed. Another idea was that she would ask Yami to rub the sun cream across her back where she couldn't reach, but again she chickened out and instead made the mistake of going to Mereoleona who spontaneously smacked a large amount of freezing cold sun cream on her back, which resulting in Charlotte letting out an extra high pitched yelp and shooting up from her seat... crying "cold!"

Yami did make a joke about getting to see some women-on-women action when he heard Mereoleona offer Charlotte assistance, and when the assistance failed, he pretended to be disappointed. Dorothy thought it a confirmation of Yami and Charlotte's relationship, while also teasing Yami and claiming he was jealous. "Tch. I'm not jealous, Sleeping Midget..." 'Or am I...?'

Charlotte regrets not realising that even with her piss poor culinary skills she could have tried winning Yami over with an affectionately made sandwich.

Dorothy brings a rigged pack of "never have I ever" cards, the first one of which says "never have I ever had a crush on a colleague". Only Kaiser (who married outside of the magic knights) and Julius are safe from this question, but no one's surprised by anyone more than they are by Fuegoleon (including Fuegoleon himself), who apparently also had a crush on a colleague at some point during his time as a magic knight - and possibly still has.

Kaiser is looking at all of this, thinking 'ah, to be young and in love', while wishing his wife was here.

Obligatory Beach-Side Friendship/Family Headcanons (feel free to skip)

Dorothy and Mereoleona try to help Charlotte go after her man, but, er... well, they end up doing more harm than good.

Yami and William try to talk about serious William-betrayed-Clover-where-do-they-go-from-there type stuff but it keeps getting disrupted by Rill. And also, very awkward.

Fuegoleon is surprisingly chill around William despite the betrayal, although he still doesn't plan on letting William anywhere near the side of his fire arm.

Nozel reluctantly thanks Fuegoleon (and even more reluctantly Mereoleona and Yami) for helping Noelle in the most tsundere way possible. This is while he's drunk, mind you.

Julius insists on all the captains (and him, Marx and Mereoleona) playing a game of beach volleyball together, but Marx is having none of it and Mereoleona manages to obliterate the ball within the first five seconds of the game anyway... And, let's face it, if it wasn't her it would have been Jack.

Technically, Jack confesses to caring about Yami while talking about how stupidly reckless he always is, but it's a bit hard to tell under all that competitive snark.

Whether William wanted it or not, he did get a hug from Julius out of the whole pretending-to-be-cousins thing. It was nice. If awkward. For a moment, it almost felt like he was part of a normal, happy, loving family.

Don't worry, Yami gets a hug too, though he puts up quite a fight. They all get a hug. Mereoleona's reaction to it was priceless - as if you'd suddenly picked up a cat, and now it's conflicted between wanting to scratch your face of and wanting to be scratched behind the ear. That's what William compared it to, sufficed to say she was fairly close to digging her claws into him instead. (She grudgingly put up with the hugs though.)

Yami has this very sober - not - advice to give to William: "women are like the [ Black Clover equivalent of the Mariana Trench ]. The deeper you go the weirder it gets." Safe to say William has no idea what exactly he means by it.

In the end... nothing gets done. Surprise! Not