#(aka a tale of feeding off of others - i want to live. one of my favorites gah. IT'S ALSO UP ON YOUTUBE!!)

[hungryslothwrites]

if i had a nickel for every piece o' media that had a deep irreversible impact on my brain chemistry when i was young and whose protagonist refused solid gender titles and asserted themselves by their names i would have two nickels.

[brittle-doughie]

Well since you missed it, I’m gonna tell you my ask again and I hope you actually see it this time. Again, it’s a long one so it might need to be split up into multiple parts. (It also contains cannibalism so CW) Here’s an Idea for a Y/N Cookie Run fic. Y/N is a viscous, cannibalistic cookie with a sadistic, psychotic, and murderous, yet also elegant, (they not like an animal), personality. They are based of the Bloody Mary cocktail (but their name is, like, Tomato Juice Cookie because alcohol isn’t allowed to be mentioned in the word of Cookie run) and their design motif is based of of the Bloody Mary urban legend with a hint of evil spirits and vampirism. They are extremely strong in both physical strength and magic, so powerful that even the ancient cookies and Cookies of Darkness are at least somewhat intimidated by them, and are able to brainwash other cookies with their magic into becoming cannibals just like them (although a bit more brutal and messy because it entertains Y/N) and do their bidding. Y/N often likes to play with (aka torcher) their “food” before preparing and eating it.

Y/N part of the juice bar gang (which they have also hypnotized). They live in a huge, luxurious, yet somewhat decrepit old mansion, which they lure other cookies into before they torcher and consume them. Y/N’s other hobbies include painting and cooking (which is how they “prepare” their victims, they are quite sophisticated).

They used to be a witch (called Mary, of course) who ate children even after said act was considered taboo in the witch community. They were eventually were executed for their crimes via beheading. Before they died, they used their magic to come back as a cookie were they decided that “if I’m only allowed to feed on cookies and not human children, so be it😏”

I know it’s pretty long, you’ll probably have to split it into multiple parts. I hope you actually notice this one this time.

this ask was inspired by multiple Cookie Run cannibalism fanfics.

Tale of the Mansion

There lives a tale of a lonesome cookie, living in the hallways of the abandoned, yet glorious mansion on the hill. They say that on certain nights, you’ll hear the humming of this cookie on one of their nightly strolls, it is advised that you do not listen intently or you might find yourself being drawn to it.

The victim will feel their legs moving on their own before they realized, no hope to stop it now. Their mind will be entranced from this cookie’s elegant humming, a tune that non can resist. Fortunately for this cookie, this is what exactly they wanted to happen. It never hurts to have a companion on your walks, right?

Yet the legend tales that any cookie that follows this humming are not expected to return. Many cookies in the village keep their doors and windows closed for this reason, it wasn’t rare for this mysterious cookie to walk into town as an alternate path in their nightly stroll.

“Y/N Cookie (or Tomato Juice Cookie)…” was all one victim muttered before they followed them one night, this is all the village knew of their mysterious, yet terrifying visitor.

Maybe you do make it. You get to see the mansion in all of its pristine glory, the floors and tables looking freshly cleaned despite being abandoned for a long time. This cookie will ask you to sit and help yourself to the prepared food made for any visitors of their mansion. Do not worry if any of the food has an..odd texture to it, that’s just your mind letting you know that you’re quite hungry!

Do enjoy a refreshment from one of the mansion staff, Sparkling Cookie. He serves you a glass of sparkling refreshment as he leaned close to pour it into the cup, showing something…off with his eyes. They look…empty, don’t you think?

But don’t dwell on that for too long, it’s time for the entertainment as your host snaps their fingers and out comes Mint Choco Cookie playing a tune on their violin, it helps to calm your nerves from any sort of suspicious feeling! Just enough for you to not notice his empty eyes too…

Still anxious? Have no worry. The mansion’s green thumb, Herb Cookie, is here to help with that by smelling his plants! Doesn’t the fresh smell of recently planted greens help to settle you down? Good, because he won’t stop until you are! There’s nothing to worry about, you’re in the care of such a generous and wonderful host! They promise there’s nothing to be afraid of!

You excuse yourself to the restroom, which is directed to you down the hall. You slowly make your way over, getting unnerved by any small sound the mansion made.

A door creaking catches your eye, an ominous red light pouring out of the crack….

You’re tempted to go in, curiosity mixed with fear as you slowly poked your head into the room, it looked like a simple bedroom…curiosity eats at you and you enter the room fully….

You’ll come to regret it seconds later….

The paintings were the first thing you noticed. They painted many different cookies, some with normal expressions like a smile or a resting face. Others…painted more fearful and pained expressions, their heads looked like they were…removed from their bodies….It may have been the room light, but you swore the paintings dripped a little from their frames, as if it was…strawberry jam…

The numerous items like a spellbook, a witch hat, pitchforks, even a sort of..bathtub with a…substance nearly at the top.

The large painting above the painting. It was not a cookie featured in it, but rather…a witch. They oddly bared a resemblance to your host from earlier…

“Looks like another found out, huh? You really should’ve just went to do your business.”

You jump at the shockingly casual voice from behind you. Leaning at the doorway was Vampire Cookie, as he gently tip his glass of juice around and around.

“Y/N Cookie doesn’t like cookies that poke their eyes where they don’t belong. Good for them, just means dinner is server sooner then later…”

Vampire Cookie opens his eyes, revealing the same empty look as the others. You now could see Herb, Sparkling, and Mint Choco at the doorway too, their pinprick white irises creepily glowing in the dark. You step back away from them, asking what Vampire meant by that….

“You’ll see…or rather what you’ll don’t see..

You suddenly felt a sharp jab to your neck. A voice from behind you calls.

“A shame it had to end this way for you. I promise your dough won’t go to waste. Enjoy your rest here, because you won’t be waking up anytime soon…”

Your vision fades to black as you collapse, the many eyes at the doorway looking at you as the world plunged to darkness….

….

….

Another missing cookie reported in the village.

All the residents could do was honor their memory with a burial without a body and warn others with the tale of the mansion on the hill.

Whatever you do, do not listen to the humming to the forest or in the village late at night. For it will be a night that will never dawn for you…

[grayintogreen]

Critical Role Fanfic Masterpost September 1st-September 30th

My goal this month was 80,000 words and I came in at 92,403 according to my wordtracker, so, um, take that as you will. A lot of it did not go into what you’ll find on this list. Baby girl I’ve got WIP for days. 

The flashfic are too short to get proper summaries so they’re listed by their prompts. Also lots of Circus Kids since Circus Kids week sure happened and was GREAT.

SHIPPING FIC 

CALEB/MOLLY

my story is not done. (981 words) for the prompt “dancing with each other.”

they just might heal if i can see the light. (words). Caleb tends to a post-resurrection Molly.

CREE/LUCIEN

and pledged you my life without even a word. (499 words) Cree heals Lucien. That’s it. Everything is sad. (Canon Compliant)

a hymn to all we’re not. (1542 words) Cree is well aware of what sort of tragedy she’s living- she just doesn’t care. (Canon Compliant)

all my blood wants to drink your wicked ways. (3587 words) EXPLICIT. Cree and Lucien work off some tension after a fight. (mind the tags.)

CALEB/LUCIEN

and saw all his secrets revealed. (946 words) Caleb vs Lucien’s mane of luscious hair. (aka more hair braiding) (canon compliant if you pretend the Neintakers roadtrip lasted longer)

follow the white hare like you’re on a tether. (504 words) earthquake weather AU. Now with more trust falls and handholding. And also darkness.

the king lies bleeding on the floor. (676 words) also earthquake weather AU. The one where Caleb bridal-carries a fucked up Lucien.

we’ve had quite enough of that. (707 words) ALSO earthquake weather AU (I LIKE THAT AU OKAY). Lucien grabs Caleb’s hand to get his attention during a PTSD episode. 

do you follow it because it’s true or just because you must. (1924 words) earthquake weather AU (again). Lucien has a bad reaction to Grim Psychometry culminating into Deep Talk.

OTHER SHIPS

maybe it’s crazy (but baby love usually is). (548 words) Fjord/Jester, “picking them up hugs.” (Canon Compliant)

there’s just one choice and that’s been made. (1059 words) Caleb/Veth, cuddling and entwining fingers.

every sailor’s just a searcher. (591 words) Caleb/Kingsley, “happily doing everything with one hand just so they don’t have to stop holding hands” and “kissing each finger.”

GENFIC

i have learned my lessons in my way (591 words) Jester and Essek, holding the others’ hand so they won’t fall. (Canon Compliant)

laughter like a broken heart. (1052 words) Threeleaf AU, tickling each other.

fanning flames and saying this is not the end of days. (723 words) Empire siblings, bandaging the other’s hands and not quite letting go. (Canon Compliant)

the spectre of an innocent who never can explain. (1078 words) Lucien deals with de-aging shenanigans in Aeor. Because bullying him is fun.

few and far are happy endings found where ocean meets the sky. (1060  words) Fjord and Yasha spar and discuss their love lives. (Canon Compliant, background Fjorester and Beauyasha)

when you choose to join the revels. (722 words) Jester and Molly, holding hands and swinging them back and forth like children. (Canon Compliant)

like we’re looking for redemption. (1235 words) Caleb and Yasha, a haircut. (Canon Compliant, background Beauyasha)

i’m not really sure if this tale has a moral. (1053 words) Yasha spends some quiet, soft time with Molly post-resurrection. 

they say on the midway- a penny a toss. (1076 words) Molly ropes Yasha into helping him run a carnival game. (Canon Compliant)

wildflowers in autumn, a bonfire in spring. (1901 words) These are your circus kids on seasonal holidays. (Canon Compliant)

i will go on spinning mischief until the moon is out. (1562 words) Molly gives Yasha a card reading. (Canon Compliant)

ghostlight eyes and crossroad blues. (2616 words) Tombtaker Yasha AU wherein she’s the first person a certain empty tiefling meets outside of the grave.

the fallen star of the midnight roads. (2593 words) Yasha runs away from the circus for the first time. Molly doesn’t take it well. (Canon Compliant)

every aching empty hour has led us home to this. (2381 words) Yasha meets a colorful stranger on the road and he changes her life for the better.

a better man (a better monster) (1865 words) It’s best if you don’t fuck with any member of the Nein if you don’t want the rest coming after you. (Canon Compliant)

we take our turns on the altar. (1338 words) Cree and Caduceus talking about faith during a cave collapse.

every dream i dream is founded in what came before. (2728 words) Lucien has an epiphany during a religious service in the Claret Orders. Aka “care and feeding of your burgeoning god complex.”

love is rarely formal and it’s the thing that sets you free. (4025 words) Lucien gets some unpleasant cold-like symptoms from dragon frost breath. Jester inflicts herself on him.

[potato-an0n]

Part 2 of my really long oddly specific levihan now family fic no one asked for

(part 1 is right here)

Context for this: I'll be using Sophie's (aka drinkyourfuckingmilk) levihan children ocs, but made a few tweaks (here's more info on Samson and Leelu here)

Their personalities are still the same (well, I might tone down their crackhead-ness just a bit) the only difference is their birthdays, and instead of being 1 year apart, they're a few minutes apart, and Samson is the oldest twin by 5 minutes XD.

So...this is going to be REALLY long so be prepared for that.

Ok enjoy!

- Levi came up with the name Sam but Hange thought it sounded basic, so she came up with Samson.

- Levi also came up with Leighla, and then Hange started calling her Leelu as a nickname.

- Samson was a pretty loud baby as Leelu was pretty quiet, however she does get aggressive.

- Leighla once almost slapped Levi in the face when she was hungry.

- Samson makes weird noises whenever Levi is around, and he look at him confused, which made Samson giggle.

- Hange and Levi switch nights to watch over the twins.

- I can imagine Levi singing them to sleep and it actually works.

- Sometimes, Hange would watch from the door.

- Hange would ramble on and on about her experiments to the twins, despite Levi telling her they're not going to get it since they're babies and to at least wait until they can talk.

- When they take the twins outside, Samson would look around the environment they're in, meanwhile Leighla sleeps.

- Hange's parents came to visit to see the twins and offered to babysit them since Levi and Hange looked like they haven't slept, so they let Hange's parents babysit them as they catch up on some sleep.

- Kuchel and Kenny visited at one point to see the twins as well, and Kenny almost dropped Samson bc Samson wanted to be tossed.

- Levi was pissed but held back bc his mom, Hange and the twins are there, however, he didn't let Kenny carry him for awhile.

- The twins took a liking to Erwin, Mike, Nanaba, Moblit, Nifa, Farlan and Isabel.

- Samson and Leighla would sometimes pull on Isabel's pigtails.

- They also pulled Mike's hair and Leighla would lightly slap his face. Levi was amused by this.

- They were surprisingly calm when Erwin and Farlan held them. The twins would just stare at them and then lay on their shoulder.

- Nanaba played peek-a-boo with them and they seem to enjoy it.

- Moblit was a bit hesitant holding the twins, but they took a liking to him bc they started giggling.

- Samson took a huge liking to Nifa.

- Levi didn't feel comfortable with the twins around the 104th squad until they could stand (at least) bc he's afraid either they'll break the twins or the twins will break them.

- Mikasa asked about meeting the twins when she was helping out at the tea shop and went home with Levi to see them.

- Mikasa let out a soft smile as the twins started babbling to her and tried to touch her hair.

- She would try to get them to say her name but failed every time.

- Both Samson and Leighla are pretty active babies. Once they were able to crawl, they would crawl all over the house to the point where Hange would chase after them (she had fun chasing them around though and would praise at how active they are).

- Levi definitely baby proofed the house (and the tea shop)

- Once Hange was able to go back to work, Levi would take the twin to the tea shop to watch over them. They would be in the playpen in his office.

- Petra, Olou, Eld, Gunther, and Eren played with them a lot and gave them a lot of attention.

- As they were nearing their first birthday, the twins learned how to walk (or waddle) .

-Levi would watch them from afar in strict dad mode (aka how he usually is) but later eased up a bit.

- He gave the 104th kids a VERY stern warning to behave (specifically warned Jean, Eren and Connie), be gentle with the twins and made sure that their hands are clean.

- Samson loved the attention he was getting, meanwhile Leighla felt a bit overwhelmed until Armin carried her, she started to feel at ease.

- They occasionally enjoy Connie's silly peek-a-boo face.

- Sasha ate their baby snacks "on accident."

- Jean and Eren would bicker who the twins likes more, but turns out they like Armin, and Mikasa the most.

- Sometimes Ymir and Historia will join the 104th squad and play with the twins.

- Marco sometimes like to watch them crawl around and they'd chill on his lap sometimes.

- One time, Reiner, Bertholdt and Annie came into the tea shop and at first, they were confused on what's going on until they saw everyone was playing with Samson and Leighla.

- Samson and Leighla saw Bertholdt and started making grabby hands towards him.

- Bertholdt was a bit nervous, but held them anyways.

- When Bertholdt tried to give them back, they would NOT let go.

- Leighla did not like Annie. She got pretty aggressive when Annie tried to hold her at one point.

- Samson would poke Leighla repeatedly on her face to get her reaction until one time he accidentally poked her eye. She started to cry out of pain and then punched Samson in the face and he started crying.

- You can imagine how that went for Levi and Hange.

- Leighla and Samson were playing with the 104th squad and Leighla wanted Armin to carry her so her first word was Armin.

- Mikasa totally wasn't salty about that.

- The whole squad was freaking out and Armin felt honored.

- Leighla felt proud of herself.

- Levi was about to tell everyone to keep it down, but when he heard Leighla say her first word, he felt so proud of his little girl. He didn't show it, but when he took her to his office to feed her, he softly smiled at her and basically had a little father-daughter bonding time.

- Hange basically twirled her around screaming how she can now talk and smothered her with affections.

- The family was walking in the park, with Hange carrying Samson and Levi carrying Leighla. Samson spotted a butterfly and pointed at it saying bug.

- Hange started squealing "that's my boy!" and then gave a huge lecture on butterflies.

- Even though Samson has no idea what the heck she's saying, he seemed interested.

- Levi sighed, but gave Samson a soft smile and a pat on the head.

Toddlers- 4 years old

- They would make a mess in the living room bc they like to throw pillows at each other.

- Levi obviously scolded them and taught them how to pick up after themselves and where to put their toys away. Remind you they were toddlers.

- At least they learned where to put their toys and didn't scatter them onto the floor.

- They LOVE listening to Hange ramblings, especially Samson.

- She made bedtime stories more interesting, the twins looks forward to that.

- Levi would cuddle them close and listens to Hange telling them bedtime stories.

- Leighla really likes fairy tale stories, I would say her favorite would be Cinderella.

-Idk why, but I feel like Samson would like Alice in Wonderland, actually, they both like Alice in Wonderland.

- Hange would tell them the Grimms brothers version of the fairy tale classics, and although they were fascinated by it, in the long run.....that wasn't a good idea.

- Levi told Hange she shouldn't do that, but ofc, she didn't listen (spoiler, he gave her the "I told you so" look after an incident later in the future)

- Things started getting really busy at the tea shop, so grandma Kuchel would watch over them and they LOVE her, she's so sweet. She would tell them Levi's childhood stories.

- Isabel once babysat them and it was pretty chaotic. They made a blanket fort with her and they would cuddle up watching a movie together, it was so cute.

- Levi wasn't really happy that he's gonna have to clean that up but it was cute and the twins are in one piece so he let it slide.

- Hange took a picture.

- The twins liked riding on Mike's shoulders bc he's so tall.

- Nanaba would sometimes chase them around (idk I thought it'd be cute)

- One time, Hange brought her kids to her work and they wandered off.

- Luckily, Moblit found them in the lab staring at Hange's guinea pigs, Sawney and Bean.

- Moblit took them out for a bit so they can hold them.

- Hange came barreling into the lab out of breath and panicking to Moblit that she can't find the kids, only to find them playing with Sawney and Bean and Moblit.

- Hange ended up rambling about Sawney and Bean to the kids and went into too much detail.

- Nifa saw them playing with Sawney and Bean and decided to join them.

- When they go to the tea shop, Levi would lecture them on what rules to follow, things like not running around, disturbing the staff, steal pastries and don't exit the tea shop.

- Sometimes staff would make them iced fruit teas and give them a cookie to snack on.

- Connie would teach them how to do pranks. He had them one time sprinkle salt into Jean's tea and uhhh Jean spit it in Eren's face which resulted in a fight.

- Levi broke it up and was furious at Connie and the twins.

- He made Connie and the twins apologize and clean up the spill.

- He gave them a really strict lecture when they got home and uh, lets just say that was the first time they've seen Levi genuinely mad and it scared them a bit.

- Their punishment is to clean that they have to do house chores and help out with the tea cafe, they can't be with the 104th squad for a week.

- Hange bursted out laughing when she heard what they did, but stopped when she saw Levi wasn't happy.

- She could tell Levi had a stressful day, so she snuggled against him to comfort him.

- She saw the twins peaking from behind the entrance of the living room and called out to them to join them.

- They hesitantly went to into the living room and sat on the floor next to Hange.

- "What's wrong kiddos? Come here, don't be shy, it's just us."

- Samson and Leighla both squished each other on the left side of the couch and kinda hiding behind Hange.

- Hange picked up what's happening and brought the kids closer to them and gave them a pep talk.

- "Kids, I know you feel scared and guilty, but you know, even if you guys messed up, your dad and I still love you very much ok? And it's ok to make mistakes, it happens to the best of us, even you're perfectionist of a dad messes up sometimes, especially when we first got together but that's another story for when you kids are older. Anyways, the importance of making mistakes is that we make them so we learn from them and grow as people. And in the lab, we make mistakes or errors, but we don't give up, we learn from those errors and study past errors in order to find a way to thoroughly run an experiment and come to an accurate conclusion, there's this one experiment-"

"Hange, I think they get the point."

"Right, so in short, it's good you feel sorry for what you did, and it shows you genuinely care, but even though there will be times where we're going to have to be tough on you, we'll always love you ok?"

- Samson and Leighla apologized for their earlier actions and Levi apologized for yelling at them, and cue the sweet family bonding time on the couch.

This got way too long so part 3

[chalkrevelations]

OK, Word of Honor, Episode 9, and I know last time I got deep in the weeds about symbolism, but this week, I’m getting back to basics and rambling on (and on) about what this show is really about: Zhou Zishou and Wen Kexing and their relationship.

First, though, the usual warning: SPOILERS. Not just for this episode, but potentially for the entire show, so drive past and circle back around later if you want to watch all 36.5 eps unspoiled.

Bear with me on this one, because this ep spends a LOT of time on ZZS and WKX, and I think a lot of that time is ZZS making some Monumental Life Decisions, including how he’s going to proceed in this relationship and how he’s going to approach his life moving forward. But I’m finding myself needing to work through it chronologically, and it’s. A Lot. Also, let’s face it, ZZS has been my ride-or-die at least since he dropped to his knees and started disrobing in the middle of the throne room in Ep 1, so a chance to wallow in his emotional journey is a chance I’m gonna take.

So, we do have a brief opener when we find out Dead Guy who the Yueyang disciple was shrieking about at the end of the last ep is Fang Buzhi, AKA the Nine Clawed Fox, the guy who lifted WKX’s (Danyang) Glazed Armor (along with some replicas). He got got by mysterious somebodies in the previous episode, and we find out now that he has three tiny needles in his neck, which ZZS recognizes as a Tian Chuang technique. This leads ZZS to 1) assume it must have been Han Ying who did it, so the (Danyang) Glazed Armor is now in the hands of Tian Chuang, and 2) realize that maybe this is not the best place for the former leader of Tian Chuang to be hanging out right now, so he makes their excuses, because he knows that Gao Chong must be VERY BUSY now that he’s got this corpse on his hands, so they’ll just BE GOING, thanks so much. Gao Chong hopes to see them at the Hero’s Conference, and WKX responds in a Significant Tone that of course he’ll be at the Hero’s Conference, and now ZZS has his Thinky Face on again, because WKX is not nearly as subtle as he seems to think he is when he’s making Pronouncements.

The ZZS/WKX Show really starts kicking into gear that night, at the Getting Lucky Good Luck Inn, where we open on ZZS wandering contemplatively around his room, looking beautiful in the soft light of evening (your FACE, Zhang Zhehan) and ruminating on Prince Jin’s motives for wanting the Glazed Armor, like he’s never met this power-hungry asshole before. Also, he thinks to himself, wtf was that, with Gao Chong keeping anybody from seeing Chengling in the last ep? There’s a knock on the door, which momentarily confuses him - understandably, because as we’ll see, WKX doesn’t generally get the concept of announcing yourself and waiting to be invited in by knocking first, preferring to dramatically bust open doors (at least to ZZS’s bedroom) and grace you with his presence, whatever your thoughts on the matter are. He’s accompanied by waiters and dinner, and ZZS realizes his senses are going, presumably because he can’t smell this spread that WKX has procured in an attempt to prove what a good provider he is (what did I say about food and bonding? ZZS fed him in the market, and now it’s his turn to feed ZZS). WKX tells us that life is just three hots and a cot - which gives away more about your life than you would likely be comfortable with us knowing, Lao Wen, given how close to the vest you’re holding your cards – and that everything else can wait if you can have a meal with someone you like. :coff: (Also, remember this, it will come around again.)

Cut to dinner by flickering candlelight, the better for soft lighting to caress ZZH’s exquisite face, but ZZS isn’t into it at all, staring into space instead of eating WKX’s proffered Courtship Delicacies. This earns what’s possibly WKX’s most hypocritical and amusing comment yet, which is to ask ZZS, “What is it that you can’t tell me?” ZZS - apparently - is still feeling soft about WKX’s help against Tian Chuang’s Chengling-kidnapping attempt - or maybe he’s thinking that a little bit of opening up on his part will soften up WKX - because he hardly has to have a spoon dug into his ribs at all to admit that he’s wondering if it was a mistake to bring Chengling to Five Lakes Alliance. My dude, just steal him back, then. WKX laughs at him and tells him he’s got such a handsome face (true) along with a kind and innocent heart (false, he’s a former government spook and assassin, a part-time ill-tempered gremlin, and a whole-ass troll), and therefore girls will clearly go crazy for him (true, just ask me). ANYWAY, A-Xu, (WKX continues) now that the requisite random no-homo boilerplate is out of the way, are you really thinking of taking on Chengling as a disciple, because now is apparently not too soon to have the adoption conversation about Our Son. I almost expect him to pull out the adoption papers then and there. Instead, he pulls out a story - which is awkwardly placed and kind of clunky, actually, despite being thematically important - of a dog he had once, given to him by Someone Very Important, although of course he’s not going to say who that was (:facepalm:), and his mother warning him that he’d have to take care of it for life, and then he betrayed it.

So, there’s a lot going on here. We’ll eventually find out that ZZS gave Zhen Yan a puppy, so will this story of a gift dog jog ZZS’s memory into realizing that WKX is Zhen Yan without WKX actually telling him, so that WKX can tell his Bundle of Neuroses that it’s not reeeaaallly WKX’s fault ZZS figured it out? Also, WKX sees ZZS being like this about Chengling, and in the Chengling = Zhen Yan equation we’ve already established, is it possible this will prime ZZS to remember another disciple/young boy he took responsibility for, at one point? Of course, on ZZS’s side of things, it’s possible that hearing about this dog that WKX failed is likely to remind him of the way he failed his own responsibility to all the other disciples of Siji Manor, so, excellent way to take a stab at his heart, WKX! However, ZZS breaks the miserable tone we’ve become mired in by smacking WKX, chiding him for comparing their son to a dog, and getting them drinking. See, here, Chengling is the dog. Earlier, the two sisters A-Xiang rescued were the dog. Later, A-Xiang will be the dog. Unfortunately, WKX is going to have a blind spot and never quite realize that, in the Ghost Valley schema he’s set up, the Department of the Unfaithful is also the dog, but we’ll get to that in later eps. For now, cut to later that night: After dinner and a washup, ZZS sits on his bed, and we get some special effects to indicate that his hearing is also giving him problems, so he deploys his special Nightly Nails Torment meditation pose, and then we get the second instance of WKX playing the xiao to help him meditate and rest. (Junjun, your hands on that xiao …) ANYWAY, we get a gorgeous little bit of physical acting from ZZH here that could easily have been overplayed but is nicely restrained and subtle, with just the slightest smile when ZZS realizes WKX is playing, and then his whole body visibly relaxing as he allows himself to sink into WKX’s now-familiar musical embrace the meditation. It is :chef’s kiss:

Cut to next AM, when ZZS is now a very cranky boy, and I get this, because I also am exceedingly irritated when people bust into the room where I’m sleeping with an abundance of cheerfulness and try to get me to interact and do things without at least half an hour to creep my way out of bed, two cups of coffee, and an hour of silence before any attempts to converse like a reasonable human being (I’m looking at YOU, mom), and I don’t even have the excuse of seven Nails pinning me. Also, when WKX whips off the blankets, we learn that ZZH dresses to the right. :hands: I’m just making an observation. So, WKX wants to go to Yuefan Tower like some kind of wide-eyed tourist, and despite some smacking and scowling and death threats, we then smash-cut to the Tower, where ZZS has apparently come to the conclusion that the only way to deal with the ADHD gremlin crawling into his bed is to humor him about this daytrip. I think you could have come up with some more creative ideas that didn’t involve leaving bed, but I guess you’re not the fast one in this relationship, Zhou-ge. Srsly, though, I’m sure WKX would have been happy to do all the work, my dude. (I don’t always have strong top-bottom preferences, but you probably aren’t going to have much luck convincing me that ZZS is not a pillow princess who wants to just lay back and be spoiled. “Aren’t you a very capable man?” indeed. WKX has to do ALL THE WORK, god. I don’t know if I’m swimming against the current here – god knows I was in Inception fandom, where I felt the same way about Eames - but here we are.) Also, I can’t believe WKX didn’t just sit in the bedroom and creep on A-Xu’s beautiful sleeping profile for at least the amount of time it would have taken to drink a pot of tea, another viable option if it was me in this scenario. Tch. What kind of stalker are you, Lao Wen?

ANYWAY, at Yuefang Tower, ZZS tells us about the Four Sages of Anji, a senior-citizen polycule of soulmates who are, conveniently, at this very moment, on a boat in the lake beside the tower, playing music and sword-dancing. This is the first time they’ve been seen in 10+ years, after they put down their various swords and ran off together to live like hippies off-the-grid in the woods, probably skipping around naked, drinking “tea,” and having lots of sex. ZZS sighs wistfully while recounting this tale and calls them “a breath of fresh air.” There’s some discussion and poetry quoting and literary references to soulmates, and somewhere in here we get a shot of ZZS and WKX from behind which makes it super-obvious how hard they’re working the costumes to make Gong Jun look as broad as possible. He’s got the power shoulders on this set of robes, compared to Laopo ZZS’s soft, unstructured, flowing robes, and with those shoulders tapering down to the belted waist, they’ve got Junjun seriously working the Chris Evans Dorito silhouette. Meanwhile, focus back on their conversation: ZZS thinks that “the world is not important, finding a soulmate is,” giving some MAJOR FORESHADOWING for the end of the show (which we are accepting as “Ep” 37 because WE ARE), when we get that icy separation from the rest of the world but they have each other. WKX gives him a yearning look. ZZS looks back … there’s really no other way to put this … coyly, not meeting WKX’s gaze directly. This offers WKX and us a chance to admire his profile once again, thank you, Laopo. ZZS waits until WKX looks back out at the lake before looking at him directly, and his face journey, y’all. He’s thinking that it might not be bad to spend his remaining time with this soulmate, I think he’s starting to re-think the slow suicide, and he’s also thisclose to just letting WKX have him. Y’all, he seriously wants WKX so bad, here. It may be the first time we’ve seen this level of interest from him - it may be the first time, in all that we’ve seen of him, that he allows himself to even have that kind of interest. I think this is the next big step from Ep 6, when he allowed himself to enjoy being desired - now he’s allowing himself to desire, to want something again, other than a chance to drink himself to death in the gutter. This, right here, is a crucial point when he makes the decision to spend whatever time he’s got left living rather than just dying, and I’m flailing on the couch. This is the face of a man who’s ready to Make Some Declarations while getting railed within an inch of his life. SOMEONE IS GETTING SOME TONIGHT. Or he would if he wasn’t going to turn out to be such a fuckup. FFS, WKX.

But first, we cut to a scene of them back at the marketplace, wandering through as WKX mocks various sects in town for the conference – including the Mount Hua boys, who apparently look like virgins make their first trip to a brothel – and ZZS supplies background info on them. WKX asks if ZZS can tell what sect WKX is from, and ZZS calls him a messy bitch before asking if WKX can please stop making him play guessing games about everything and just tell him what WKX so clearly wants ZZS to know. (I know, right? But no, because then WKX might get what he wants, and he’s way too terrified for that, so you have to guess. That way, it’s not his fault when you figure out who he is and reject him, as anyone clearly will do because he’s unlovable and unforgiveable and not even really human, A-Xu.) WKX immediately changes the subject to ramble about the Hero’s Conference and how laughable all the sects are for wanting to be seen as heroes, blah blah blah, rinse and repeat. ZZS comments that only inexperienced people want to be heroes, that experienced people know “every character of the word hero is written in blood,” and yes, the character they’re using for hero, “ying,” is still the same character used in Han Ying’s name (which is not, by the way, the “ying” used in Wei Ying’s name, to cross streams for a moment). ZZS says he’s too old to be a hero (I and my knees feel you, my dude), now he’s just a wanderer, and he asks if WKX wants to be a hero or a wanderer, and WKX says that as a wanderer, all he needs is ZZS, and I’m telling you, someone absolutely would be getting some tonight if only he wasn’t such a fuckup, Lao Wen.

I’m’a try to wrap this up soon, because it’s gotten v. long, but we then cut to that night at the Getting Lucky Inn, ZZS drinking in his room, WKX busting in with his usual dramatic flair, with wine, inviting ZZS up to the roof to drink and look at the moon. He clearly has ulterior motives, but unfortunately for everyone, we’re going to discover they’re not the ulterior motives ZZS is expecting. As they lean back on the roof together, hands almost-but-not-quite touching, a romantic tune playing, WKX tells ZZS that he’s like, really happy! Just super happy! So happy! Ask me why I’m so happy, A-Xu! Spoiler alert: It is, unfortunately, not because he’s getting ready to get some from his laopo. This is particularly unfortunate, because ZZS chooses this moment to take another big step in this relationship, telling WKX that he’s not going to ask about things WKX doesn’t want to tell him, that he’ll wait for whatever WKX wants to tell him. On the surface, this comes off a little bit like, I’m done with asking when you’re not going to answer anyway, but in context – particularly on the back of the earlier scene when ZZS watched WKX turn on a dime and immediately change the subject to avoid exposing anything when ZZS asked WKX to stop making him guess everything – this is as good as a declaration of going all-in. ZZS is committing to this relationship on faith, without having all – or even most – of the answers about WKX, and his approach is going to be to wait until WKX is ready to reveal whatever information he feels safe and comfortable revealing. In practice, he’s going to end up being better or worse at this, depending on the day, but what it reminds me of, already, is that moment in the 20s (Ep 21? 22?) when A-Xiang and Cao Weining are arguing about her killing the beggar guy, he approaches her, she yells at him and points to the ground to indicate exactly how close he’s allowed to get to her, and his respect of that boundary she lays down is instantaneous and absolute. That’s what ZZS is saying he’s going to at least try to do, here. It also reminds me of the way he’s going to respect WKX’s decision on whether or not WKX is going to claim his place as a disciple of Siji Manor, without it affecting their relationship, so we really are starting as ZZS means to go on, here.

Unfortunately, we then find out that what WKX is actually so happy about is that his plan to burn down the jianghu is starting its next big step, and their romantic evening is interrupted by a bunch of dudes fighting and killing each other over a bunch of fake Glazed Armor. WKX mentions that he’s so happy the show’s started; he’s alternately amused, satisfied, and smug as they watch various fights; he seems to be expecting ZZS to also be amused; and I feel like the implication is that this was his real motive for inviting ZZS out onto the roof, to be able to watch this show with him. ZZS – who’s spent enough time standing ankle-deep in blood for six lifetimes and was working hard just a few weeks ago at drinking himself to death to try to forget what that feels like - is displeased and horrified, rather than very proud of what WKX has accomplished; he pushes WKX away from him when WKX approaches him to ask if he doesn’t think it’s all so very amusing; and he calls WKX crazy, then turns his back on him and walks away. To make things worse, the next morning, after WKX brings breakfast to ZZS’s room and actually knocks, only to find that ZZS has left in the middle of the night, WKX will witness an angry mob gathered outside the house in the woods where the Four Sages of Anji are staying for the Hero’s Conference, demanding a piece of the Glazed Armor the Sages are supposedly holding for Gao Chong, and eventually leading to the deaths of all four of these peaceful aging hippies whose commune in the woods was ZZS’s ultimate dream, leaving WKX horrified by the fact that his actions have consequences, including some that are going to make his boyfriend even more pissed off at him.

SO. All that happened. There were some other people in the episode, too:

We see A-Xiang and Cao Weining having lunch. She asks him why he’s not eating, calls him fat and cute, then proceeds to tell him about Ghoul, who likes to eat the faces of pretty boys. Her conversation skills could still use some work. Cao Weining vows to kill the ghosts of Ghost Valley who would do such awful things. A-Xiang actually ignores this slander about the evil of the residents of the Ghost Valley in a way that she doesn’t usually – usually she looks kind of unhappy when the Evilness of the Evil Inhabitants of the Evil Ghost Valley comes up, going all the way back to ZZS’s comments in Ep 2. Right now, she’s too busy pumping Pooh Bear for information, asking about why the Ghost Valley would have left a pile of heads on Yueyang’s doorstep if the Five Lakes Alliance is so great, so what is Five Lakes going to maybe, perhaps, do about this? Cao-dage is suspicious … that A-Xiang might be scared, but don’t worry, he’ll protect her. Oh, sweetheart. I could eat you up with a spoon, right along with Ghoul. Also, it finally registers that A-Xiang called him cute, but she has to step away for a quick confab with a henchwoman.

We also have to watch Chengling get bullied some more by a Yueyang shixiong who I think is Gao Shan, who we’ll later see bullying some prisoners in the Yueyang dungeon as he admits that he’s doing it to relieve his own frustrations and make himself feel better -  fantastic disciples you’ve got there, Gao Chong, I’m super-impressed by the morality and ethics you’re instilling as a sect. Once again, I have to consider WKX’s position on the jianghu as a hive of scum and villainy. Anyway, once Bullying Hour is over, Chengling runs into A-Xiang, and he can’t manage to prevent the waterworks as he confesses that he thought he’d never see any of them again and that ZZS didn’t want him. UGH. Zhou Zishu, come and get your child back. He’s at least somewhat mollified by Xiang-jie telling him she’s been sent to take care of him, and god knows she’s managed to keep WKX fed and clothed this long, so she has some experience as a minder, as counterintuitive as that seems.

We get a quick shot of Han Ying (My Beloved) with two identical pieces of Glazed Armor, apparently realizing that there are fakes out there.

Deng Kuan shows up, beaten and stumbling, and nearly gets turned away at the front gates of his own sect as a beggar – have I mentioned how unimpressed I am by the Yueyang disciples? Deng Kuan appears to be the only one of them worth anything – before they realize who he is. He is put to bed and tenderly nursed by Gao Xiaolian, who cries over him as he won’t wake up.

Finally, Gao Chong, Shen Shen and Zhao Jing (uh-huh) are horrified to discover that there’s fake Glazed Armor fk’n everywhere in town, making Five Lakes Alliance look ridiculous, which is just fabulous as the Hero’s Conference is coming up, guys. Shen Shen, because everything is a nail, vows to kill anyone who makes problems. Later, Hei Zi, who plays Gao Chong, has an utterly fantastic moment after the deaths of the Four Sages (wow, I did not remember that we wrapped up their entire storyline within a single ep), when he’s haranguing Beggar Gang Chief and is literally all, “You want the Glazed Armor? :pulls a piece out of his robe: HERE. You want some more? :pulls another piece out of his robe: TAKE IT.” It’s a great acting moment, his delivery is perfection.

[drivingsideways]

k-drama rec list

Prior to 2020 I’d maybe watched 2 k-dramas in my entire life, but this year I got sucked in, thanks to some great recs, and y’know, *gestures * everything.  

I think I’d held off watching kdramas because my impression of them was limited to romances that I didn’t enjoy at all. But this was the year I discovered the equivalent of “gen fic” kdrama- dramas that had wonderful ensemble casts, strong story lines that weren’t entirely romance focused and also a variety in terms of themes and styles. A big plus was that I found so many of these dramas had women leading the writers’ room, and seeing the effect of that in the story telling. (Notable exceptions: a certain “star” writer who should please stop inflicting her badly written, formulaic crap on the world, yes Kim Eun-Sook, I mean you, and whoever wrote that trashfire Flower of Evil)

So here I am with my own rec list! Caveat- these are mostly not the dramas released in 2020, I’m still playing catch up! :)

Under the cut for length

My Mister/ My Ahjussi  (2018, Written by Park Hae-Young, Directed by Kim Won-Seok, starring Lee Sun-kyun and Lee Ji-eun aka IU) 

This was definitely my absolute favourite of the shows I watched this year across western/ asian media. It’s a story about the thread that binds us all and the ineffability of human connection. It’s also a story that deconstructs ideas of masculinity and honour and shame in a non-western context, but with an extremely compassionate touch.  It’s a story that doesn’t shy away from showing the consequences of material and spiritual poverty; and how one can so easily feed into the other. It’s a love story that isn’t a romance, except that it’s a Romance. It’s about finding salvation in one another and in the kindness of strangers.  It’s about choosing life, and picking yourself up off the floor to take that one last step and then the next and then the next. The one quibble I have with the series is that it could have been better paced, it does get extremely slow after the half way mark. But god, do they land the ending. Both Lee Sun-kyun and IU turn in absolutely heartbreaking performances, and fair warning, be prepared to go through an entire box of tissues watching this series. 

Life  (2018,  written by Lee Soo-yeon  and directed by Hong Jong-chan, starring Lee Dong-wook, Cho Seung-woo, Won Jin-ah, Lee Kyu-hyung, Yoo Jae-myung and Moon So-ri.)

Medical dramas are very much not my thing, and I wouldn’t have taken a chance on it except that @michyeosseo said I should, and she was right! It’s a medical drama in the sense that it’s set in a hospital, but rather than a “case-fic” format, this is actually a sharp commentary on the corporatization of health care, and the business of mixing, well, money and what should be a fundamental human right. Writer Lee Soo-yeon was coming off the global success of Stranger/Secret Forest S1 when this aired, so I understand that expectations were probably sky-high, and people were disappointed when this show didn’t give them the adrenaline rush that they wanted. On the other hand, I thought that this outing was really much more nuanced in terms of the politics and also how the ending doesn’t allow you the luxury of easy-fixes. This show has a great ensemble cast, and while it took me a while to get used to Lee Dong-wook’s woodenness (i ended up calling him mr.cadaver after watching this and was surprised to learn that he’s very popular?), in the end I was quite sold on his version of angry angst-bucket elder-sibling Dr.Ye Jin-woo. His best scenes were with Lee Kyu-hyung who turns in a lovely, achy performance as the paraplegic Dr. Ye Seon-woo who just wants to live a normal life. The love story between the two brothers is actually the emotional backbone of the story, and I think they landed that perfectly. 

My one quibble with writer-nim is that she ended up writing in a forgettable and somewhat (for me at least) uncomfortable romance between the characters played by Won Jin-ah and Cho Seung-Woo. I think part of my uncomfortable-feeling was that I got the strong sense that the writer herself didn’t want to write this romance, it was as if she was being made to shoe-horn it in for Studio Reasons, and she basically grit her teeth and did the worst possible job of it.  I do wish we could have absolutely had the OT3 of my dreams: Moon So-ri/Cho Seung-woo/Yoo Jae-myung like, c’mon TV gods MAKE IT HAPPEN, just...look at them!!!! 

Anyway, that apart, I think this was a very engaging series, and by engaging, I also mean thirst-enabling, see below. 

 Stranger (aka Secret Forest  or Forest of Secrets) S1 & 2 : (2017-, Written by Lee Soo-yeon, directed by 

2017′s smash hit aired a much anticipated second season in 2020, and I managed to catch up just in time to watch that live, so that was thrilling :D . Writer Lee Soo-yeon  mixes up thriller/office comedy/political commentary in an ambitious series. I think S1 is more “exciting” than S2 in terms of the mystery and pacing,  but S2 is far more dense and interesting in terms of political commentary because it takes a long hard look at institutional corruption and in true writer-nim fashion doesn’t prescribe any easy solutions. Anyway, please enjoy public prosecutor Cho Seung-woo and police officer Bae Doona as partners/soulmates kicking ass and taking names in pursuit of Truth, Justice and just a goddamn peaceful meal, along with a stunningly competent ensemble cast. Also yes, Han Yeo Jin is a lesbian, sorry, I don’t make the rules. 

Search: WWW  (2019, Written by Kwon Do-Eun, directed by Jung Ji-hyun & Kwon Young-il, starring  Im Soo-jung, Lee Da-hee, Jeon Hye-jin)

GOD. Where do I start? +1000 for writer Kwon Do-Eun saying “fuck the patriarchy” in the most grandiose way possible, i.e. absolutely refusing to acknowledge that it exists. Yes, this is that power fantasy, and it’s also a fun, slice-of-life  tale about three women navigating their way through work, romance, national politics and everything in between. It’s true that I wasn’t entirely sold on the amount of time spent on the romance, and I really wish they’d actually had a textual wlw romance, though the subtext through the entire series is PRACTICALLY TEXT. But still, it maintains that veneer of plausible deniability and I think queer fans who are sick of that kind of treatment in media have a very valid grouse against the show. On the other hand, personally I felt that the queer-platonic vibe of the show is very wonderful and true to real life, and it was only reinforced by the ending. This is a show written by a woman for women (like me), and it shows. 

Hyena  (2020, Written by Kim Roo-Ri, directed by Jang Tae-yoo & Lee Chang Woo, starring  Kim Hye-soo and Ju Ji-hoon )

Those of you who’ve been watching hit zombie epic Kingdom are probably familiar with Ju Ji-hoon’s brand of sexiness already. I had not watched Kingdom and got hit in the face by Mr.Sexy McSexyPants’ turn as a brash, privileged-by-birth, up and coming lawyer who gets completely runover by the smoking hot and incredibly dangerous fellow lawyer/competitor from the other side of the tracks in the person of Kim Hye-Soo. When I say they set the room on fire, I mean it, ok. Every single scene between these two is an actual bonfire of sexual attraction and emotional hand grenades, and they’re both absolutely riveting to watch. “Flower of Evil” wishes they had what this show has- an actual grown up romance as opposed to a thirteen year old twilight fan’s idea of an adult romance. 

The “lawyer” shenanigans and the “cases” are hit or miss, and I think the occasional comedy fell flat for me. But that’s not why I mainlined like 6 episodes of this series overnight like a coke addict, and that’s not why you’re going to do it either. It’s so RARE, even in these enlightened days to find a female character like Jung Geum-ja: hard as nails, unapologetic about it, and not punished by the narrative for it. The best part for me is that she feels like a woman’s woman, not a man’s idea of what a Strong Female Character should be. Anyways, when I grow up I want to have what Kim Hye-soo has ok?

Other dramas that I watched this year, quickly rated:

The King: Eternal Monarch (3/10 and those 3 points are only for the combined goodness of second leads who deserved better- Jung Eun Chae, Woo Do Hwan and Kim Kyung Nam. Please head over to my AO3 and read my attempts to fix this garbage fire and rescue their characters from canon)

Flower of Evil (-10/100, dont @ me)

Tale of the Nine Tailed (5/10, I think it succeeds at what it set out to do, which is a light hearted, sweet fantasy-romance-melodrama, plus “second lead” Kim Beom will make you cry as the hot mess of a half human/ half fox spirit ALL TEARS character. I think if you’re into kdrama romances as a genre, this is probably a good bet?)

Signal  (7/10,  This was the first full kdrama I watched this year and would definitely recommend. It’s a police procedural with time travel shenanigans and has an engaging plot, good pacing, texture and compelling performances. My one disappointment with it was the way they wrote Kim Hye-soo’s character. As literally the only female character to survive in any way, she was given short shrift, and toward the end it really began to grate on me.)

Six Flying Dragons - (7/10, also would recommend if you’re interested in Korean historicals. It definitely already feels a bit dated in terms of styling and production values, and even scripting and acting choices. But it has a good balance of fantasy and history and political commentary. I was not a fan of Yoo In-Ah’s performance in this series, but it’s not anything that would make you want to nope out of the series. It’s GoT , if GoT was thoughtful about politics and characters and not the misogynist, racist trashfire that it became.)

My Country: The New Age - (3.5/10, and that’s 3 points to Jang Hyuk’s fan and 0.5.points to Woo Do Hwan’s heaving bosom. If you like your historical drama/fantasy with very pretty men, very gay subtext -seriously RIP to show makers who thought they could hetero it but didn’t account for Woo Do Hwan’s Tragic Face- lots of blood and tears and very nonsense plot, this is right up your alley. I probably would have enjoyed it more in other circumstances, I think? But this one just annoyed me too much at the time! 

I have a couple of more dramas to watch on my list, that’ll probably carry me over into 2021, so see ya on the other side! :D

[skeeter-110]

A Twist in the Tale (That is as Old as Time)

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining castle. As punishment for his actions, the young prince is transformed into a monstrous beast by a mysterious enchantress. Only condition is if he can learn to love someone and earn their love in return, the curse will be lifted. The prince - now turned Beast - felt doomed for eternity; until he met a little boy with a heart of gold.

AKA: a Beauty and the Beast Irondad AU

Read on AO3

|| Chapter One || || Chapter Two || || Chapter Three || || Chapter Four || 

Chapter Five: There’s Something There (That Wasn’t There Before)

Ms. Potts couldn't rid the worry from her expression as Peter used her to pour boiling water into a dish.

The lounging room was quiet sans the crackling of the fire, no one there knowing what to really say. They were worried about their Master, but also about Peter leaving. He really was their only hope, and the way it was looking, he was slipping through their fingers.

Peter grabbed the rag that was sitting in the dish, wringing it out so the water wasn't dripping off of it and onto the floor. He looked up when he heard a soft groan, seeing that the Beast was licking the claw marks on his arm to clean it.

"Here, now. Don't do that." Peter tries to stop him, knowing better than anyone about how bad infections are when you get a cut. All the Beast did was snarl at him and pulled his arm away, making it difficult for Peter to help him.

"Just hold still." Peter grits out, practically chasing the Beast's arm around before grabbing hold of it and slamming the hot rag down onto the claw marks. As soon as he did that, the Beast roared, making everyone in the room cower.

"That hurts!" The Beast screams in Peter's face, making Peter angry all over again.

"If you'd hold still, it wouldn't hurt as much!" Peter scolds, almost as if he was turned into the adult in this situation.

"Well, if you hadn't have run away, this wouldn't have happened." The Beast continues to argue.

"If you hadn't frightened me, I wouldn't have run away."

"Well, you shouldn't have been in the west wing!"

"Well, you should learn to control your temper." Peter shouts at the Beast, winning the argument and making him pout at the familiar phrase.

"Now, hold still. This might sting a little." Peter warns again, this time gently placing the rag on his cuts.

The Beast still groaned when the hot water touched his raw skin, Peter pulling back and fully expecting to get screamed at again. Surprisingly, the Beast just grits his teeth and held his tongue. Peter took that as permission to keep cleaning the wound.

"By the way, thank you for saving my life." Peter quietly says, the Beast's face softening as he looks down at the small boy.

"You're welcome."

*   *   *

A few days later, the Beast gathered Peter and brought him to a pair of doors in a hall Peter had yet to explore.

"Peter? There's something I want to show you." The Beast says, a smile forming on Peter's face as his intrigue built.

"But first, you have to close your eyes." Beast says before opening the door. "It's a surprise." He adds when he saw Peter's skeptical look.

Shrugging and giving in, Peter complied and closed his eyes. Beast waved his hand in front of Peter's face to check and see if his eyes were truly closed before going and opening the doors.

Beast gently took Peter's hands into his - being extra careful when he felt how tiny Peter's hands truly were - and slowly led the little boy into the room.

"Can I open them?" Peter impatiently asks when he's felt them walk a few feet forward.

"No, no. Not yet." Beast says, leading Peter even further into the room. "Wait here." The Beast instructs as he lets go of Peter's hands, running around and opening up all of the curtains in the room.

"Now can I open them?" Peter asks, no longer able to control his excitement once he felt the sunlight on his skin.

"Alright. Now." Beast permits.

Peter gasped as soon as he opened his eyes, turning in a circle in an attempt to look at the whole room all at once.

On every single wall, there were ceiling to floor bookshelves, every single shelf filled to the brim with books. Peter couldn't even believe what he was seeing. The most books the bookseller had at one time was three, maybe four if they were lucky. There had to be thousands of books here.

"I can't believe it. I've never seen so many books in all my life." Peter breathlessly says, having to actually remind himself to breathe.

"You... You like it?" Beast hesitantly questions, a small smile forming on his lips when he realized that for the first time since Peter came to the castle that he was doing something right.

"It's wonderful." Peter earnestly tells him, still walking around in circles in order to look at it all.

"Then it's yours." Beast says, Peter's mouth dropping at the idea of all these books being his.

"Thank you so much." Peter says, forgetting himself for a moment and taking Beast's hands into his own, giving them a light squeeze.

Ever since that night, Peter and the Beast found it a lot easier to be with each other. Over the next couple of months, they often found themselves doing little things together like eating breakfast.

The first time they ate together went well if not a slight disaster.

Ms. Potts had porridge made and was having sugar scooped into Peter's dish. The boy thanked her and looked up at the Beast before taking his first bite.

His eyes widened slightly at the sight in front of him. Rather than use his spoon, the Beast decided to eat his porridge straight from the bowl like a dog.

Feeling eyes on him, the Beast looked up just as soon as Peter looked away; the small boy not wanting to make the Beast feel embarrassed.

The Beast just gave a small smile before picking up his spoon and trying to figure out how to use it once again. Peter just giggled without meaning to at how ridiculous the scene in front of him was.

That gained the Beast's attention once again, but this time Peter used it to his advantage. He gave a small and hesitant smile before lifting his bowl up in a silent cheer.

Realizing what Peter was doing, the Beast grabbed his bowl and lifted it also in a silent cheer, both of them smiling at each other before slurping their porridge together.

The Beast would be lying if he said the sound of Peter's giggles ringing throughout the room didn't melt his heart.

They also spent a lot of time together outside. Peter always loved the snow, although they didn't get much in the town he used to live in, so he wanted to spend as much time outside as he possibly could.

There was one time when they went outside where Peter decided to feed the birds.

He sprinkled some birdseed onto the ground, chuckling at all the birds that began gathering around them. Wanting the Beast to also get in on the fun, Peter sprinkled some seed into the Beast's paws.

The Beast crouched down to reach the birds better, thrusting his paws out towards the bird and ultimately scaring all of them away. The Beast frowned and walked a few steps forward, trying once again to feed the birds, only to scare them away again.

Peter just shook his head at the Beast's struggle, walking over and crouching down by the beast. He sprinkled a bit more seed into the Beast's paws before gently guiding them down to the ground.

When one of the birds began to hop on over to them, Peter took some of the seeds out of the Beast's paws and sprinkled some of the seed in front of the bird to get its attention.

The bird began to peck at the seeds in front of it before hopping right into the Beast's paws. The Beast looked over towards Peter with a big smile on his face, happy to see the small boy smiling right back at him.

Slowly more birds began to crowd around them and land in Beast's paw, one even landing on Peter's hand. Peter slowly stood up and carried the bird that was perched on his hand over to a tree, guiding it to one of the branches.

When he turned around, Peter couldn't hold in his laughter at the sight of the Beast completely covered from his head to his hands in birds.

While the Beast was fully distracted with all the birds on him, Peter quickly gathered up snow into his hands, giggling at the evil idea he had.

As soon as Peter saw the birds fly off of the Beast, he took that as his chance and tossed the snowball at the Beast; hitting him square in the face.

The Beast quickly brushed all of the snow off of his face, staring at the laughing child in shock. An evil smile replaced the shocked look on the Beast's face as he began gathering as much snow as he possibly could in his arms.

The Beast geared up to throw the gigantic snowball at Peter, the small boy taking that as his chance to throw another snowball in the Beast's face, making him drop the huge snowball on his head.

Peter practically fell to the ground laughing at how hilarious it was that the Beast got hit three times, squealing and running around to the other side of the three when the Beast began to playfully chase him.

Peter quickly swiped some snow into his hands again, forming another snowball as he ran back behind the tree to avoid getting found by the Beast.

He waited until the Beast peered back around the tree to throw the last snowball - once again - in his face.

That was when the Beast determined they were done with playing outside and it was time for them to go in.

Once they were inside, Beast helped Peter out of his coat, hanging it up while the boy sat in front of the fireplace with his book.

After everything was hung up to dry, the Beast sat down right next to Peter, who offered one side of the book. Beast took it with a smile, settling down as Peter and he began to take turns reading.

But they spent the most time together talking in the library.

"So, how did you become a Beast?" Peter asked one night when he was looking for a specific book, completely oblivious to the sad look that formed on the Beast's face.

"I was not a good man. I was rude and selfish and I learned the truth too late." The Beast answers.

"Isn't there a way to reverse it?" Peter continues to question as he begins climbing another ladder.

"There is, but it is not simple. It very complicated and I have yet to accomplish what is needed to be done." The Beast admits, watching as Peter practically fell reaching out for a book. "What are you searching for?" Beast asks, having to stop himself from jumping out of his seat to catch Peter.

"The Expedition of Humphry Clinker. Aunt May told me a while ago that it was my Dad's favorite book so I wanted to read it." Peter replies, tucking the book under his arm so he can begin climbing back down.

"You have yet to tell me about your life before you came to live here." The Beast points out, cringing a bit to himself at the fact that he made it sound like Peter chose to be there.

"Well, there really isn't much to tell. I've lived with my Aunt since I could remember. I guess my parents and my Uncle all died from the plague - or at least that's what I was told - so I don't really remember them much." Peter starts to tell, jumping off the last step and walking over to where the Beast was sitting, plopping right down next to him.

"It was a bit difficult when I was younger since my Aunt is so old and can't do much work, but once I was able to start inventing things for money everything was okay." Peter finishes explaining, trying to subtly yawn and rub his eyes; he didn't want to have to admit that he was tired yet.

"You like inventing things?" The Beast quietly asks, smiling a bit when the small boy eagerly nodded.

"Oh, I love it!" Peter confirms, forming an idea in the Beast's head.

"Before I had to worry about the kingdom, and had free time to do whatever I wanted, I used to try and invent things also. Maybe sometime you would like to come with me down to my old workshop and we could work on something together." Beast offers, the anxiety he felt when he offered dissipating when Peter's face lit up.

"I would love that! Can we go tomorrow after dinner?"  

"Of course." The Beast promises as he takes the book from Peter's hands and began reading it out loud.

The soothing sound of the Beast's voice as he began reading the story was enough to settle Peter in for the night, the smaller boy falling asleep before Beast could even get to the second chapter.

The Beast just sat there for a moment, taking in the feeling of Peter laying against his side. Warmth quickly pooled in his chest as he took in the sleeping boy's face. Beast wasn't used to anyone being this close; not since he was cursed.

Sighing, he scooped Peter up into his arms - carefully so he didn't wake him - and began carrying him to his room.

As he was walking, Beast - and not for the first time that day - thought about how Peter could be the one to break the curse.  He tried not to think about it too much because he wanted the love he felt to be real, not just because he wanted to break the curse, but now that the rose was on its last couple of petals, he couldn't help it.

He couldn't help but wonder if Peter could even actually break the curse. If Peter could even feel something remotely close to love for someone as beastly as him.

As he laid the boy down in his bed, a slight smile formed on his face. The Beast could no longer deny that he loved and cared for Peter and that he was willing to take on the father-figure role since Peter was going to be there forever with him.

He could only hope that Peter wanted the same thing.

Tag List: @joyful-soul-collector @lost-lunar-wolf @spideyspeaches @hatakehikari @thatcrackheadsadbitchtm

[jadekitty777]

The Miraculous Tales of Luckybug and Qrow Noir

Anyone ready for an onslaught of fics from me for the next week? Because that’s what’s happening my friends.

(I apologize that my blog will also be running on super speed for the next week as I reblog stuff. I also apologize in advance that I won’t have time to read many, if any, fics. My own still need to be edited and finalized. Aaah lil’ stressed honestly).

Day 1: Flirting

Rating: K+

Pairing: Qrow/Clover

Word Count: 5600

Ao3 Link: The Miraculous Tales of Luckybug and Qrow Noir

Summary:  In the daytime, he was Clover Ebi. Just a normal college student, with a normal life. But there's something about him no one knows yet. Because he has a secret. A miraculous secret.

(AKA: The Miraculous Ladybug AU no one asked for)

~

“Voici, À Bientôt!”

“Merci beaucoup. Bonne journée!” Clover replied, taking the box from the smiling cashier.

As he stepped out of the bakery into the busy streets of Paris, he gave a sigh of relief. Though he’d been living in France for the past two months now for his Spring Abroad program, he couldn’t help but feel a little anxious every time he had to converse with the locale. His accent wasn’t the best and some words he just couldn’t remember the right inflection for.

Then again, as he got to Green Belt Park and took a seat on one of the empty benches, leaning back to enjoy the stunning view of the Eiffel Tower in the distance, he figured being in such a beautiful city was a good excuse to remain speechless.

He set his bookbag down beside him, opening the flap, and then the top of the box, revealing two small slices of cake. “Okay Ruby, you can come out. It’s safe.”

In a flash quicker than lightning, a red streak zipped from his bag and into the box. A moment later, the kwami looked up at him with starry silver eyes and asked, “You got me two?”

He tapped her on the head, right between her antennae. “The strawberry is for you. The other is…”

“For Qrow, right?” As she looked up at him, he decided that the paragon of heroism should not have such a shit-eating grin.

“It’s not-!” He knew his face was getting hot. “We have to work on the sociology project this evening so I thought he’d appreciate it.”

Not fooled for a second, Ruby said between bites of cake, “You should just tell him.”

“I don’t think I should be taking love advice from an immortal being that transcends time.” He craned his head back, watching the thin clouds above drift along the sky. “Besides, it’s not that easy. Qrow is, he’s just so-” He pictured the other man, all dark hair, captivating red eyes, and shy, personal smiles wrapped around a gruff voice that belayed layers of emotion. Clover sighed longingly, “Wonderful.”

Even without eyebrows, Ruby rose one. “Ah-huh. I can see how you’re having trouble.”

He cracked up. It was nice to have her sensible perspective around. He had to wonder how different his life would have been if he never picked up that little black box with the note ‘You’ve been chosen’ left underneath it.

Having come into his life around the same time Qrow had, she’d been privy to a behind-the-scenes look to how his relationship with the other man shifted from strangers to close friends. She was the only one who heard his secret thoughts as that bond grew into intense feelings.

“I really mean it though. It’s always best to be honest with your heart.” The kwami told him.

“I know you’re right. But is it what’s right for Qrow?” At her head tilt, he explained, “He’s got a crush of his own, remember? The one he’s so vague about?”

“Maybe he’s so vague because it’s you?”

He snorted. “Only if he knows I’m Luckybug. He’s got blue eyes, remember?” That was one of the only things he’d been able to pull out of him, besides the gender. Which, after a simple process of elimination, meant it was either Qrow’s best friend Taiyang or James, the leading RA in their dorms back home. Well, or rich and prissy Jacques, but he knew Qrow had better standards than that.

“He could be colorblind to green?” Ruby offered hopefully.

He gave her another pat on the head. “I don’t think it works that way, but thanks for trying to make me feel better.”

She made a soft noise, before floating up from her bed of crumbs to sit on his shoulder instead. “He hasn’t mentioned this person the entire trip though, right?”

Clover started in surprise. She was right, he hadn’t – which was a huge change from the near weekly aside he’d give about whatever his ‘prince charming’ was up to. “You think it’s fading away?”

“I’m not sure.” She said, looking towards the city’s prized monument. “But I think it might mean this trip could be an opportunity to tell him how you feel. What better place to do that then the city of love?”

He mulled that over. When he found out his university offered abroad studies during junior year, he had been so excited. He’d always wanted to travel, but the prospect of going alone was also nerve-wracking. Qrow, facing much the same enthusiasm and inhibitions, had struck a deal that they would go together. That also meant they had been spending an exorbitant amount of time together, living together in the shared home with a few other students. Shared a room, even.

How many nights had they spent together, just talking about nothing and everything? Mapping out plans over train and bus schedules to fit in as many big sights as they could on their free weekends of tourism? Walked along the Seine at night, the city lights reflecting off the water, where Clover would inadvertently get lost staring at how gorgeous Qrow looked in the casting glow?

Maybe… he could…

“Clover, the sky!”

The sudden alarm in Ruby’s voice had his head jerking upwards. To his horror, the space above the tower was turning black with red lightning streaking across. The telltale sign of Omen at work. But she couldn’t be here!

But sure enough, from the depths of the portal, a large, winged Grimm appeared. It looked like a giant raven, with terribly sharp claws and razor-tipped feathers.

His kwami looked to him, determined. “We need to transform.”

He nodded and grabbed his phone, sending a quick message to Qrow, before stuffing it and the bakery box in his bag. After a cursory glance around, he ducked into the shadow of a tree trunk. “Alright Ruby, charm on!”

The clover-shaped brooch on his chest glowed and Ruby collided with it, and in an instant, he felt his civilian clothes disappear, replaced by a skin-tight, red and polka-dot suit and a mask that covered his eyes. His hair lengthened, his normal, spiked quiff falling into a messier comb over, some of the bangs tickling against his forehead. As the magic of the transition faded, he plucked the yo-yo off his belt and went racing across the park, throwing it at a rooftop, feeling the end latch onto a chimney. With a pull, it retracted and he went flying through the air, landing at the top in one smooth motion. He paused only long enough to leave his bag behind before he went racing along the rooftops towards the emergency.

“I don’t understand. How is Omen here?” Clover asked to no one, feeling panic begin to rise. Did something happen to the team back home? The thought made him sick.

Maria had been very strict about how many miraculous he could put on the field in his absence, not wanting to have another fall into the wrong hands like the Pegasus miraculous had. So, he – or more specifically Luckybug – left Yang the Dragon with Tai and Sun the Monkey with Elm, giving both specific instructions to protect San Francisco in his absence. He’d only called for their assistance a few times before when things got really hectic, so he was hoping Noir would be able to balance the less experienced miraculous users out.

But to think Omen may have defeated all three? That was too awful to imagine.

He looked up at where the bird was circling the tower, dread settling into a hard knot in his gut.

How was he going to do this alone?

~

“Your stinky fish, madame.” Qrow presented the sardines with a flourish.

Blake lit up immediately, diving for the can and fishing one out for herself.

He left the rest of the can on the desk in easy reaching distance, before setting back into his chair where a very blank word document was staring back at him. He gave an agitated huff. He’d been hoping to at least come up with a few research topics for their paper before Clover got back from his lecture in International Affairs. Which was, Qrow mentally reminded with a fond eyeroll, not a required course for the program they were a part of. But Clover just couldn’t help himself, saying it might come in handy for his GPA score as he signed himself up for the class.

Tch, overachiever.

The distinct feeling of being watched sent a shudder down his spine, and he gave the spirit beside him a look.

The cat kwami stared back, unblinking.

“Blake you’re freaking me out again.”

Her ears twitched and she went to fetch another sardine. “I was just waiting for you to get that dreamy look on your face again.”

He flushed. “D-Dreamy?”

“Mmhmm. It kind of looks like,” She gave an exaggerated sigh, placing a paw against her cheek and fluttering her non-existent lashes.

“I never look like that.” He deadpanned.

“Whatever you say.”

“I don’t! And, anyways, what’s it to you?”

She didn’t reply, taking the time to munch into her fish instead.

He sighed, focusing back on his laptop, switching over to the internet to check on the feed from back home. No new reports of any attacks on any of the news blogs. It was like their enemy had decided to take a vacation at the same time he had.

When Qrow had first became Noir, Maria had told him to be very careful with what information he gave, even to other miraculous holders. He intended to vaguely tell Luckybug he would be out. So, it had really been a stroke of luck when Luckybug announced first on their last mission together that a family emergency was going to keep him out of commission for a while – but that he’d left Tatsu and Timber in the wings in case he needed help. So, he never shared his own intentions. Instead, he placed Kali in charge of Weiss the Bee until he returned, knowing that the power team Lucky had left behind would need a more versatile and calculating fighter in their midst.  

(The role he normally filled, he thought with a sense of pride).

He’d been checking on things back at the home front regularly, knowing it only took minutes before social media was trending any new crisis, but it had been unusually quiet. He was sure Lucky was doing the same, wherever he was.

His heart clenched up, thinking about him. They’d been fighting the good fight together for over a year now, and it hadn’t taken much for Qrow to become smitten with the mysterious, masked hero. He’d thought he was everything he ever wanted; strong, daring, ambitious, with a dazzling smile and a baritone voice that was to die for. He was certain their time apart would be torturous.

Yet, it hadn’t been.

They said distance made the heart grow fonder, but it was more like his heart had forgotten. He couldn’t pinpoint when it was exactly that he’d become so preoccupied by Clover. How he’d grown to appreciate his gentle gestures and thoughtful words, his hearty chuckles and sincere expressions. It was as if stepping out of the war woke him from a stupor and gave him a chance to see things he’d missed, even when they were right in front of him.

Qrow sighed, placing his chin in his hand.

“This is my favorite part.”

“Huh?” He looked down at Blake, recognizing that mischievous gleam in her yellow eyes.

“The best story I get to witness is when one of my hosts falls in love.”

“I-I’m not falling in love!” He said immediately. “I have a crush.”

“Really.” It was her turn to deadpan.

He shoved himself away from his desk, offense all over his tone as he echoed, “Yes, really. You know how I feel about Lucky.”

He paced the length of the room, coming to stand by the window, staring down at the busy streets below. A moment later, he felt her weight on his shoulder, almost nonexistent, but there.

Her whisker tickled his neck as she turned her head towards him. “What do you know about Luckybug, really?”

Qrow leaned his arm along the glass, meeting his own reflection’s eyes. “I know he’s smart and funny and he’s always willing to put everything on the line to do what’s right.”

“But what do you know of him specifically? What’s his favorite color? What’s his family like? Does he like anchovies on his pizza?”

He snorted at the last one. “He’s my romantic interest, not yours.” His smile slipped away. “I know what you’re getting at. Unless we reveal who we are to each other, this can’t go any further.” He sighed, shoulders slumping. “I know that. But it still feels wrong, somehow. Are… my feelings that fickle?”

“Not fickle.” She levitated, hovering by his face. “They just had no room to grow. These things have to be nurtured, but if there’s nothing there to care for it, they’re only bound to wither away.”

That had been way too scripted. He gave a laugh. “That’s it, I’m not downloading anymore trashy romance novels on my phone for you to read.”

Her ears flattened. “If you make me sit through your boring lectures, I’ll break the sprinkler above your head.”

“Alright, I fold.” He held up his hands in surrender. Though he was almost positive it was an empty threat, he didn’t want to tempt fate with the kwami of destruction.

She softened. “Anyways, I think with-” She abruptly cut herself off, suddenly darting against the window. “What’s that?!”

He jerked around, spotting where the sky was darkening on the horizon, turning a deep, inky black. He’d seen it so many times before, the magic was unmistakable.

“You don’t think…” Blake trailed off.

“Omen.” Qrow finished, features smoothing into one of rigid resolve. He turned to the kwami, her expression matching his own.

He lifted his hand, the jeweled ring glinting back at her. “Blake, luck off.”

~

Clover landed in the courtyard, shouting as he ran. “Everyone, clear out!” He desperately tried to remember whatever French he could. “Fuir! S’il vous plaît!”

“Chanceux!” One of the locals cried, desperately trying to find their phone.

“Non, fuir!” He repeated.

A screech from above made him cover his ears, looking up to see the giant bird climbing down the Eiffel Tower, the vertical walk down unnerving somehow. He backed up as the bird landed on concrete, its impressive height daunting him. His fingers clenched around his weapon, backing up as the bird lowered its head. Its beak was big enough to swallow him whole if it wanted.

It seemed that, at least, was enough to make the people around him finally start to flee.

“Well, well, well. What have we here?”

The voice had him looking higher, spotting the speaker mounted on the beast’s back like a queen in her bed of feathers. Omen walked forward until she stood on the bird’s crown, lowering her sunglasses just enough to reveal crimson red eyes as she stared over the tops of the rims at him.

“What are you doing here?” Clover asked, pulling the yo-yo’s line out as a warning.

She only smiled patronizingly, as if he were no more a threat than a child. “That’s none of your concern.” She pushed her glasses back up, flipping her raven-haired braid over her shoulder. It fell like a horse’s tail along her back, between the wings the Pegasus miraculous granted her.

He felt bad for the imprisoned kwami being forced to do her bidding.

“Tell me, where’s your cohort?” Omen asked, giving a cursory glance around as if Noir would just pop into existence.

“I think I’m more than enough for you.” He instantly realized that had been the wrong thing to say as she laughed.

“You’re alone.” Fuck. “Well, that makes this even easier.” She gestured to the bird she stood on. “But as I’m a fair opponent, I’ll give you a choice. You can hand over your miraculous now, or you can resist and my little Nevermore can have a bit of fun first before I take it.”

As answer, he only started to rotate the yo-yo at his side, the device whooshing audibly as it swung in fast, heavy arcs.

Omen’s dark wings stretched open. “The fun way it is.”

She shot up into the air – but he didn’t have time to worry about her as the Nevermore immediately struck forward, beak opening to snap him in half. He jumped backwards, throwing his weapon out with a yell. It nailed the bird right in its head, the creature giving a sharp cry before it shook it off and straightened up. It opened its wings, the span of them covering a third of the courtyard, and gave a few hard flaps.

It was like being blasted by hurricane winds. Clover yelped as he was thrown off his feet and went tumbling across the concrete. The Nevermore, able to make up the distance in one bound, was on him in an instant. The wind whooshed right out of his lungs as a taloned foot came down on top of him, pinning him to the ground. He grunted, bracing his right arm between him and the appendage trying to crush him while sticking his left arm between its toes.

The bird jerked its head down for another strike, the razor-pointed beak filling his vision like a guillotine.

He swung his left hand upward, the yo-yo flying high and it was by pure luck he got it right in the eye.

The Nevermore gave a pained cry, hopping back. Suddenly, Clover could breathe properly again. He jumped to his feet, slightly lightheaded, throwing his line out again in hopes of tying the creature up and bringing it down.

Instead, with exact precision, the bird caught the end of the yo-yo in its beak, pulling it taut, and then threw its body around, bringing what was on the end of the line with it. Before Clover could process it, his body was yanked forward and he went flying through the air. Everything around him blurred into a mesh of greens, blues, browns and whites, blending together into a sickening cacophony.

He braced himself for the impact.

It was softer, and warmer, then he expected.

“Not having a great day are you, lucky charm?”

He gathered his bearings, realizing who had caught him and jerked his head up in surprise. “Noir?!”

Noir grinned back roguishly, winking one green eye at him. “You know, if you wanted to fall into my arms, you just had to ask.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Clover pushed a hand against his face, rolling out of his grasp to stand on his own. He retracted his yo-yo and studied his surroundings, taking note that he’d been tossed so far, they were underneath the Eiffel Tower. “What are you doing here?”

His teammate didn’t get a chance to answer, the bird giving another of those deafening screeches as it tried to shove itself between the legs of the tower. They both jerked away, before twisting around and running the other way.

“Could ask you the same thing!” Noir shouted over the noise. “Where’s Omen?”

“Lost track of her.” Which meant she was playing her normal A-game: Exhaust them by making them fight her pet so that it would be child’s play to steal their miraculous. Their goal was to defeat it – because if he could purify the contaminated feather within the creature, it would act like a direct attack against Omen, usually enough to weaken her into fleeing.

“Alright let’s – Watch it!”

Both of them jumped back when the corvid was suddenly in the path of their escape route, its gigantic foot missing them by inches when it was thrust under the tower, claws raking over the ground.

That was no good. Clover looked around, before pointing towards the ceiling of beams above them. “Up.”

Noir gave a nod, reaching out to grasp him around his waist and taking out his quarterstaff. He tapped it to the ground, and within seconds it shot them upwards as it extended. When it was high enough, they leapt onto the first section of metalwork, protected in the shell of crisscrossing steel. Noir compacted the weapon back into baton length, turning to him, “Alright, now what?”

“Now we just-” He started to say, raising his yo-yo, when the whole tower rattled as the Nevermore clamped onto the side they were hiding in. It gave a few wild cries, slamming its beak between the spaces as it tried to get to them.

Noir watched it warily before he called, “We’re safe for now, do it!”

Not wasting a moment, Clover threw his weapon up in the air with a cry, “Lucky charm!” The end of the yo-yo began to glow with the magic of creation, until it held the brilliance of a star. Then, with a pop, an item materialized, falling back down into his waiting hands.

It was a fishing rod.

Noir gave it, and then him, a dull look.

Clover was grinning. “Well, looks like-”

“Don’t-!”

“I’m giving fly fishing a whole new meaning.”

His partner groaned audibly. “You are worse than Tatsu.”

“No one is worse than Tatsu.” He joked. Tai’s never-ending set of puns really did fit the bill for cartoon-y superhero though.

Another slam from their enemy had dirt raining down on them from above.

Getting serious again, Clover rose both the rod and the yo-yo, saying, “You knock it off, I tie it up, and we end this.”

“Got it.” Noir nodded, pointing his staff towards the bird. “On your signal.”

He threw both lines upwards, yanking himself to a higher vantage point, running along the metalwork. They were so high up, it was like he was running towards the sky. Just as he got to the end, he yelled, “Now!”

At the same moment he jumped, the pole extended, slamming into the Nevermore’s chest. It was thrown off with a cry and both of them flew parallel to one another. He wound both weapons back then swung forward, the hook of the fishing rod and the ball of the yo-yo twisting around either wing of the bird. Flightless, it plummeted with another screech to the concrete, slamming down hard enough to shake the earth.

Clover’s landing was much softer, falling onto its chest and using the momentum to leap off of it like a trampoline, landing again several meters past its head. He held both the lines fast, ensuring it couldn’t get free.

“Cataclysm!” Noir came soaring out of the tower next, the power of his own destructive magic having taken shape at the end of his baton, glimmering black like an obsidian gem and curved like a scythe. As he came down, he swung it around, impaling the sharp end in the center of the monster bird’s chest.

It gave one last croaking cry, the ends of its wings curling up before falling flat as its body turned to dust, leaving nothing behind but a single, black feather. Clover threw out his yo-yo for it, the ball end splitting open like the shell of a ladybug’s wings, before snapping it up. He pulled it back in, hand open to catch it.

An arrow struck the end, knocking it off course.

In quick succession, another two arrows were shot off as Omen bared down for them, swooping in like a Nevermore herself. Clover swung the fishing rod, deflecting the one coming his way. Noir did the same for the one aimed at him with a quick spin of his staff, before using one end of it to vault himself upwards and meet their enemy half way.

As they grappled in the air, Clover took the chance to yank on his weapon in. With a flit of his fingers along the yo-yo’s surface, it glowed white, purifying the feather.

Omen gave a pained cry, before slamming the limb of her bow against Noir’s head. Clover’s chest tightened in panic, rushing forward as his partner fell like a stone from the sky. He just barely made up the distance in time to catch him in his arms, relieved to find him still conscious. They both looked up as they heard a scoff.

“Tch. Eventually your luck is going to run out. Nothing will stop me from creating a new world.” Omen sneered. “Until next time, boys.”

She shot an arrow above her, another red and black portal opening up. With a flap of her wings, she flew into it, gone as quickly as she had come.

Clover sighed, looking down at his partner. “You alright?”

“Ugh, gonna be feeling that one tomorrow.” Noir grunted, pressing a hand to his head, one of his leather cat ears being pushed down. His injury didn’t seem to hinder his ability to realize their position, because that telltale smirk overtook his face. “Though, guess I’m the one falling for you now.”

“I’m not above dropping you.”

“Are you always this mean to invalids?”

He loosened his hold just a smidge.

Noir clung to him. “Okay, message received.”

Clover set him on his feet, seeing the people starting to trickle back in to investigate the scene.

Time to go.

~

Once they were safely hidden on the rooftops, hidden in the shadows of a chimney, Luckybug turned to him with that million-watt smile. “Thanks for the assist. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Qrow lent back against the brick. As he spoke, his normally rough voice came out even rougher around the edges; the way it always did when he was Noir. “I’m sure you woulda figured it out lucky charm.”

“I’m glad I didn’t have to.” He replied, averting his gaze down. He spun the white feather between his fingers, frowning in consternation. “I still don’t understand how she got here though. Her portals shouldn’t be able to reach this far.”

Any other time, he would have been eager to ponder over the details of this latest attack with him, but he knew his time was running short and something more important was on his mind. “Could say the same about you. You got family out here?”

The frown became more defined. “Noir, you know I can’t-”

“Tell me, I know.” He waved off the excuse. “But that could change, if you told me who you really are.”

Lucky sighed, placing a hand on his hip. “Okay, what brought this all on again?”

Qrow met that blue-eyed gaze he’d once fallen in love with, feeling like everything between them was as thin as the wire of the other’s yo-yo. Uncertain and easy to break. If he wanted to make it stronger, he needed something more.

Now or never.

“Look, all that flirting I do? It’s not for show.” He pushed off the wall, clearing the few steps of distance between them. His heart raced in his ears. “I like you. A lot. I want to get to know you, the real you. But, I need to know if I even got a shot.”

“Noir…” He knew the answer before the other even spoke. It was all over his face, etched in his sad smile and downturned brows. “I’m sorry, but my heart’s already with someone else.”

“Oh.” He turned away.

Funny, he thought it’d hurt more.

A tentative hand rested on his shoulder. “You gonna be okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I am.” Qrow replied, surprised that he meant it.

Before more could be said, both their miraculous started to beep in warning.

The hand slipped away. “Guess time’s up. I’ll… see you around?”

Qrow nodded, hearing Lucky retreat along the roof. Before he could leap away, he called, “Hey, that person of yours. Do they know?”

“I, uh.” Gravel crunched underfoot as his teammate shifted his weight anxiously. “Not yet.”

“You should tell ‘em.” He looked over his shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile. “Anyone would be lucky to have you.”

Lucky’s eyes widened, and then he was smiling back. “Thanks. Someone’s going to be really lucky to have you too, one day.”

Qrow reached for his staff, heading his own way. “Well, duh. I’m incredible.”

The other cast his line, flying away with a laugh. Qrow watched him go, before dropping down into the alleyway. He ducked down behind some boxes just in time, the leather bodysuit falling back into his normal wear.

Blake collapsed into his hair with a sigh. “I’m going to need about fifteen more sardines.”

“Glutton.” He got to his feet, knowing his nest of black hair would hide her just fine as he headed for the sidewalk.

“Qrow? Are you okay?”

Answering it the second time around wasn’t any harder then the first. “Yeah. I just needed to know for sure. Now I know it’s okay to let him go.”

She didn’t respond verbally, but he felt the way she nuzzled his head, though whether it was meant to be for comfort or encouragement was hard to say. Maybe both.

It took about fifteen minutes to get back to the share house he and a half-dozen other students were living in for the duration of the program. When he stepped inside, he found it oddly quiet, the only noise a slight shuffling in the kitchen. A glance revealed his twin sister was there, hunched over the counter, nursing a cup of tea in one hand as she pressed her forehead into the other.

Heh, maybe she felt him get clonked in the head earlier. “You alright?”

“Yeah.” She mumbled. “Just a migraine.”

He lowered his voice, “You the only one here?”

Not up for talking more, Raven merely nodded.

Strange, Clover should have been back by now. “Okay, I’ll make sure to tell everyone to be quiet when they get in. Feel better, sis.”

She offered him a weak smile. He ducked out of the kitchen, heading back for his room. As Blake floated down to her still open can of tiny fish for a much-needed recharge, Qrow snatched up his phone to send out the group message, only to find two missed messages from Clover.

The first one was from nearly an hour ago. Sorry, running late!

On my way now. You won’t believe what happened at the Eiffel Tower. That one was from just a few minutes ago.

Qrow quirked a smile. If Clover only knew…

He tapped back a reply. I know. I went out to try and get a view of it. Forgot my phone.

He could see the other was replying, but he switched to the group text in the meantime, sending out a warning to be quiet for his twin. He’d just hit send, when another string of texts came through, one right after the other:

How do you forget your phone? You’re supposed to get photographic evidence!

Anyways I’ll be there in a few.

Also, noted.

Qrow headed for his bed, flopping across the sheets with a groan. The aches of the day were starting to set in, and he felt ready for a shower and a nap. He buried his pounding head into his pillow, shutting his eyes.

He didn’t open them again until he heard the bedroom door click shut. He rose up on his elbows, scanning the room quickly. The sardine can was gone, as was Blake.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” Clover asked as he crossed the room, dropping his bag on his bed.

“Wasn’t asleep.” He ran a hand over his face, adding, “Much as I wanted to be.”

“You doing alright? You look pretty beat.”

Beat up was more like it.

“Been a long day.” He offered as explanation. It did little to wipe the concern from the other’s face. “I’m fine Cloves. We got that paper to work on.”

Clover ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Sure we do but we can take it easy for tonight. Can’t say I wouldn’t mind to turn in early myself.”

“You? Mr. Extra Credit?”

“Haha, very funny. I mean it. I have this terrible crick in my neck. Oh!” He dropped his hand so he could go digging into his bag. “But hey, I did bring you something that just might cheer you up.”

That got Qrow to finally sit up, trying not to seem too eager as the other procured a small, white box and held it out towards him. He reached across the space between their beds to take the gift. Once it was safely on his side, he pulled open the top.

“It probably got a little smooshed, but it’ll taste the same.” Clover was right about that – the cake had fallen on its side, and smears of icing clung to the top and sides of the box.

Qrow swiped a finger across one of them, gathering just enough to take a taste, and his eyes lit up. “Double German chocolate? You’re too good to me.”

“Nah, I can be better. Because I have… a fork!” Clover waved the plastic utensil around, winking his way. “What would you do without me?”

“Probably have less dorky interactions to deal with.” He replied, reaching out again.

Instead of grabbing the tines, he curled his fingers over where the other’s held onto the handle.

Qrow deliberately met his gaze, smiling as suavely as he could. “Thank you, Clover.”

Though his cheeks turned a little pink, Clover met him match for match with his own charming smile. “Anytime.”

As they both pulled back, they couldn’t help but think this was the start of something good.

Underneath their beds, unbeknownst to them both, Ruby and Blake shared knowing smiles.

[thanatasia]

Cha'l!- [1, 5, 7, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 20, 32, 37, 38, 48, 58, 59, 61, 63, 65, 66, 70, 72, 74, 81, 85, 93, 95, 98]

Fleur!- [1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 20, 29, 32, 37, 48, 58, 59, 61, 63, 65, 66, 70, 72, 74, 81, 84, 85, 93, 95, 98]

Azra!-  [2, 7, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 47, 65, 66, 67, 69, 70, 84, 94, 95, 99]

Kiel!- [7, 14, 47, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 84, 94, 95, 99]

Sorry not sorry!

Behold! The master list of questions lol. I’m sorry this took so long to answer! I kept rewriting it a lot lol

Thank you @jack-toons these were very insightful questions about them and I had so much fun answering them all!

I meant to share the names of Cha’l and Fleur’s special someone’s in a shipping post but I can’t help it lol

For everyone who doesn’t know Cha’l’s girlfriend is named Shiyoon and Fleur’s boyfriend is named Razer. Both belong to @jack-toons / @myfanartblogplusshippingtrash and you can see what they look like!

1. What do they smell like?

Cha’l smells like fresh pines and sometimes like a bakery lol

Fleur smells like freesia flowers!

2. What is their voice like?

Azra’s speaks with an Irish accent and her tone and mannerisms are similar to Konata Izumi from “Lucky Star”

3. What is their biggest motivator?

Fleur’s biggest motivator is her desire to see things she has never seen before so she can tell exciting stories to her friends and family.

4. What is their most embarrassing memory?

Fleur’s most embarrassing memory was when Cha’l caught her learning to read and write. She spent a lot of her child and early teenling years avoiding it and when Cha’l snuck up behind her practicing, she threw a pillow at him on embarrassed reflexes.

5. How do they deal/react to pain?

Cha’l reacts to physical pain in two ways; for a injury received in battle no matter how deep, he would brush it off. For anything dislocated or broken he would scream.

Cha’l reacts to emotional pain by sulking for a while, not eating and staying quiet. If it was something truly horrible, he would hold it in his mind for a while until he is able to truly get over it.

9. Describe the way they sleep?

When Cha’l is sleeping alone he tends to sleep like a log and on his side a lot. He also sleeps shirtless. When he’s sleeping with his girlfriend Shiyoon, he likes to cuddle in his sleep.

11. What do they feel the most insecure about?

Cha’l: his singing ability, he’s the only one with a meh voice. What others think of him. If he’s being to paranoid.

Fleur: when she was a childling she was insecure about her skin since it drew so much attention to her (she’s outgrown it though) Failure. Asking for large quantities of food

12. How do they like to dress?

Fleur likes to dress up a lot in pants and shorts. If she can run in it she will wear it. She wears dresses and skirts on days where she wants to relax and on special occasions like going on special dates and visiting family. Most of her voice tops are form fitting with a modest v-neck.

13. How do they react to feelings of guilt?

When Fleur feels guilty about making someone close to her sad/upset she becomes slightly anxious and overthinks if she should have done something differently. If they’re nearby she would quietly sit beside them and apologize in a very gentle tone. If she had wronged someone, she might feel too ashamed to look at them for a while.

14. How do they react/deal with betrayal?

Cha’l gets angry and will raise his voice, not screaming just projecting his voice, and ask them why they thought it was better to betray him.

Fleur get very angry and will slap the Gelfling who betrayed her trust, then walk away before she really hurts someone. The last time she had been betrayed she gave the Gelf responsible a piece of her mind. She may not be a sailor, but she sure does have a sailor’s mouth when she’s angry.

Azra will start plotting her next curse. NO ONE BETRAYS HER and gets away with it.

Kiel will smile in their face as his mind starts to think of how he can exact his revenge. He’ll make whoever betrayed him feel like they’re off the hook before he counterattacks.

15. What is their greatest achievement?

Cha’l’s greatest achievement is surprising his girlfriend with the biggest most well planned out surprise. He’s really proud for having kept the secret for so long and not looking for advice from anyone who would spill the beans!

Azra’s greatest achievement was when she successfully cursed a Gelfling with uncontrollable vomiting for 3 days because they disrespected her Grandparents

16. What are they like when they’ve had too little sleep?

Cha’l is a zombie as he aimlessly does his tasks and reacting very slowly to jokes.

Fleur gets grouchy and light headed. Feed her if you want to live!

17. What are they like when they get drunk?

Azra rarely drinks but when she does she becomes a “philosophical” drunk lol

18. What kind of music do they enjoy?

Azra enjoys listening to the sounds of terrified screams of terror because of her doing. Her actual favorite music is anything with a flute with crashing waves in the background.

20. Fears?

Cha’l fears losing those he loves without saying goodbye. He’s also afraid of Rakkida and tales of the Hunter. He also has a thing about black beady eyes, they creep him out. The beady black eyes of the Moog and Swoothu look into his soul and he can’t get past it fully.

Fleur’s biggest fear is dying alone; dying on a solo adventure or bounty. She’s also terrified of water that goes above her waist; something grabbed at her in the Black River and it scared her of deep water ever since.

Azra’s biggest fear is crowded places. It’s one of the reasons she prefers to not travel on big Sifan ships. She begins to hyperventilate because if something terrible were to happen and a stampede occurred, she would easily get crushed to death. She’s also afraid of Pluff’M, her grandmother had one when she was little and it nipped her finger; Pluff’M don’t have sharp teeth but getting bit by it really turned her off from them. Only one Gelfling knows that fear and it’s her best friend, Shiyoon.

29. Are they a morning person?

Fleur is definitely a morning person! Most of her bounty hunts require her to wake up early, especially when she’s sleeping in the wild. The only time she isn’t a morning person is if she’s partied it up too much and has a hangover lol.

32. Pet peeves?

Cha’l- loud chewing, not getting a word in during a conversation, and open mouth chewing

Fleur- Not saying thank you, burping, getting cut off in telling a story and needing to repeat herself more than twice.

37. When was the last time they cried?

Cha’l’s last cry was when he was watching the fireworks with Shiyoon. (I headcanon fireworks or some form of fireworks exist in Thra lol)

Fleur’s last cry was when she came back from a mission to find a missing Gelfling. Sadly, on the way back they were surrounded by a pack of Rakkida and Fleur wasn’t able to protect them. It was something she beat herself up about, especially when she had tell the news to the family.

38. Were they with anyone when they cried?

Cha’l was with Shiyoon and he was telling her that he loves her for the first time. The moment was beautiful and he couldn’t contain his tears.

Fleur was with Viara and Razer when she opened up about it. It was one of the few times she allowed anyone to see her ugly cry.

47. Are they romantically interested in someone?

Azra will be adamant on her heart being too black for romance...for now

Kiel is not romantically interested in anyone at the moment but I picture someone catching his eye soon.

48. Are they dating/married to anyone?

YES! Cha’l is dating his soulmate, Shiyoon. They are OTP!

YES! Fleur is also dating her Sifa sailor, Razer. They are also OTP!

I LOVE BOTH OF THESE SHIPS! They are adorable and the way they interact with each other is just too cute!!! They will be posted on my page and it will be glorious!

61. When bored what do they do?

Cha’l- dancing, plotting his next prank/surprise, swimming, playing card games with his girlfriend, and making wood carvings.

Fleur- climbing trees, singing, if she’s with her boyfriend she enjoys teasing him, dancing, drinking and doing her and anyone she’s close to hair.

63. Do they have an accent?

Both Cha’l and Fleur have an English accent with a very faint Italian or Spanish accent. There are certain words they’ll say that makes that Italian or Spanish accent stronger because they’ve heard their father, Bhihaar, pronounce it that way.

65. If they knew they were going to die what would they do/say? (aka how sad can I make this?)

Cha’l- If it was life and death and the only way to secure the safety of others was to sacrifice himself, he would. This would be an emotional scene and right before he charges to face death (with his girlfriend of course) his final words to his companions would be something like; “See you around.” As he and Shiyoon take their lasts breathes, his final words would be of how happy and loved, Shiyoon made him feel. If it was more of a slow natural death, Cha’l would go to his favorite spot with everyone he is close to and reminisce. Afterwards he would spend alone time with Shiyoon.

Fleur- If it was a fatal wound she was dealt she would want to have her final moments to be with her loved ones underneath a tree full of flowers and give an emotional speech to everyone present. If her boyfriend, Razer, is there she would give him a final tender kiss and say how much she loves him as apologize for all the things they couldn’t do, she’d definitely call him by one of the nicknames she gave him. Before her body goes limp, Fleur would give Razer one of her hair accessories and say he can return it when Thra reunites them. If it was a slow death by infection, she would try to do everything she had wanted to do and can still do. She’d be even more affectionate than she already is because knowing she’ll be passing soon would make the hugs and kisses all the more bittersweet.

Azra- If it was an untimely death during the Garthim Wars, Azra would make a snarky comment about the Garthim and the Skeksis, probably trying to recite a curse on them as well. She’d be sure to say her piece with her friends, especially her best friend, Shiyoon. Although she knows she’s dying, she would have a smile on her face because she knows she’s be reunited with her parents. If it was an ongoing internal issue, she would spend the day prior spending time with those she loves, she wouldn’t tell anyone about her death because she doesn’t want their last memory of her to be her still face. She would send a Swoothu to send them a message about her passing.

Kiel- If it was a death in the result of the Garthim War, Kiel would probably try playing the hero to help protect everyone, as a way of presenting himself as not just the silly prankster but as someone who stood up for what was right. He would be the most serious he’s ever been, talking about a lot of sentimental things about those around him. Right before he takes his last breath, he tells one last joke, his best joke. If it was a death caused by an ongoing health problem, Kiel would admit to all the wrong doings he’d done in the past to all of his crewmates and close friends. He would try to keep his energetic nature up and perhaps do one last prank on his rival.

66. How do they feel about sex?

Cha’l enjoys sex and only engages in it with his serious relationships. Promiscuous sex want never his cup of tea but he doesn’t go around condemning anyone who does have promiscuous sex. He views sex as a sacred activity that strengthens the physical and spiritual bond because he loves the deep connection. He and his girlfriend, Shiyoon want to have childlings one day (not too soon though) and he’s excited for trial and error.

Fleur shares a similar view as Cha’l. To many Gelfling she seems like someone who’s had lots of sex but, she has been saving herself for Mr. Right or someone she wouldn’t mind saying; “I’m glad my first was with him”, whichever came first at the time. She frequents a lot of Taverns and many guys she meets just want a fun night. When she does start having sex, she really enjoys it for the pleasure, the closeness and vulnerability she and her boyfriend, Razer share.

Azra has had sex but she doesn’t go around looking to bed someone. She doesn’t see the big deal about it but only takes part in it if her partner is a sexual Gelfling and they’ve been going steady for a while.

Kiel enjoys having sex and in the beginning it was a way for him to feel grown up, as many Gelfling in his teenling years saw him as too childlike; mostly because of his actions. When he became an adult his view and reasoning changed, it’s an activity he indulges in from time to time. When he finds a partner he enjoys everything about it.

67. What is their sexuality?

Azra is panromantic asexual.

Kiel is bisexual.

68. Do they become squeamish at the sight of blood?

Yes! Kiel gets terrified because as a childling he had gotten into an accident that ended up cutting his leg pretty bad. The blood spilling out along with his panicking really scared him. It didn’t help that his father made a joke about all the blood lol

69. Is there anything they find really gross?

Azra- jokingly public displays of affection or anything super sweet.

Kiel- Eyeballs!

70. Which Tv Trope(s) best describe them?

Cha’l- supreme chef, moderately masculine, big brother instinct

Fleur- action girl, tsundere, hard drinking party girl

Azra- goth girls know magic, creepy loner girl, preppy goth

Kiel- the trickster, troll, bishōnen

72. Are they allergic to anything?

Cha’l- honey and dust.

Fleur- really bad pickup lines.

Azra- pollen.

74. Are they quick to anger? What are they like when they’re angry?

Cha’l is quick to anger if someone is messing around with his loved ones. His voice is harsher and he wouldn’t be afraid to take part in a fight.

Fleur has a bit of a temper and it’s usually related to Gelfling being prejudice. She’ll be sure to have them repeat something offensive they said to her face and if she’s fired up she’ll yell or out of reflexes punch them. Aside from that she’s pretty mellow.

81. Do they try to hide their emotions? Are they good at it?

Cha’l is not good at hiding his emotions. Whatever he’s feeling can be read on his face easily. He gets teased a lot by Kiel and Shiyoon about it. He doesn’t try hiding his emotions unless he’s in public and feels like he’ll turn beet red.

Fleur- after her previous heartbreaks Fleur chose to hide and push down any romantic feelings she could get to protect her heart. She was pretty good at it but when she was alone she would cry at times. When she does start to feel warm and fuzzy, it comes off VERY tsundere (without the excessive hitting) in the beginning. If something is bothering her, Fleur will keep it to herself, she’s gotten good at hiding certain things unless someone persists her long enough.

84. What are some physical features that they find attractive on people?

Fleur- tattoos, a charming smile, striking eyes (it’s not eye color but more of a look; if they pierce through her soul the better), abs, and defined arms (they don’t need to be gigantic, just toned enough to see some muscle. It’s *chef’s kiss* perfect lol)

Azra- Dreadlocks/locs, freckles, tough hands, green eyes and scars (especially on the face)

Kiel- dark hair paired with light eyes, muscles, tall, facial hair, long silky hair, and doe eyes.

85. What personalities do they find attractive?

Cha’l- fearless, adventurous, optimistic, carefree, and imaginative

Fleur- confident, persistent, adventurous, mysterious, charming and *cough cough* bad boy/rebellious *cough cough*

93. What things anger them?

Cha’l- selfishness, disrespectful Gelfling, Gelfling who talk bad/dirty/ill of his siblings or girlfriend (he’s a very overprotective brother and if anyone talks bad about his girlfriend, Shiyoon...hold him back!)

Fleur- liars, cheats, rude/prejudice Gelfling , selfishness, (not particularly angers her but, when her loved ones doubt themselves too much)

95. What makes them sad/depressed?

Cha’l: untimely death, feeling of not being good enough, and not belonging

Fleur: heartbreak, getting into arguments, feeling like she will never leave her mark and being forgotten.

Azra: illness (she lost her parents and the thought of losing her grandparents depresses her) and winter (that’s the season she lost her parents)

Kiel: death, being seen as a burden, and being misunderstood

98. Something they regret?

Cha’l: never having a conversation with the family of his first love on why mixed-clan Gelfling were a bad thing. This is just something he wanted to get closure on but never did.

Fleur: giving her first kiss to a Castle Guard who viewed her as a side piece. The sentiment of sharing her very first kiss is gone. She regrets the whole thing because her brother warned her but she was too stubborn to listen. Although she regrets it she does see the silver lining; she became a much better kisser after it.

99. Biggest accomplishment?

Azra: being able to get two gigantic centipede-esque insects to love her like furry pets!

Kiel: being able to successfully cheat at a game of cards against his Captain. The reward he won was worth the anxiety of not getting caught.

[mwolf0epsilon]

Story about Joey being a vampire hunter and Sammy being a vampire. You can bring in Norman ((human or vampire))to to safe him

Summary: In which Sammy is sometimes a very ugly bat, and his boss might want to kill him. Normal workplace issues.

---

[[MORE]]

     Hypsignathus monstrosus. Commonly known as the hammer-headed bat (or big-lipped bat if you preferred a more unusual denominator), is a frugivorous species of megabat widely distributed in West and Central Africa. It's the only member of its genus, Hypsignathus, which in itself is part of the Epomophorimi tribe alongside other four unique genera.

The largest bat in continental Africa, with wingspans approaching 1 m (or about 3 ft), and the males being almost twice as heavy as the females. It's a sexually dimorphic bat species, with differences including several adaptations that help males produce and amplify vocalizations. Mainly the differing size of the males' larynges, which are about three times as large as those of females, and the large resonating chambers on their faces that give them such a distinct look. 

The females in turn, appear more fox-like as is the norm of most megabat species.

All in all, information that really didn't help Sammy in the slightest, as he tried to make sense of three different books that, in theory, should give him a vague idea of what the hell was going on with his body this time...

     To put it in simpler terms, he'd turned into a bat, as per say of those ye olde queer tales of vampires that were capable of shifting into those little chittering flying rats that flew out of caves and dreary old castles at night… 

But then what he'd seen reflected (because most modern mirrors were not backed by silver or other such pure metals) had most definitely not looked like a squashed-nosed winged rat. It had looked truly like a freakish monster. 

But that was getting a little ahead of himself really...

There were things one had to note beforehand to really comprehend what Sammy Lawrence was currently going through: Starting with the attack.

Two years ago he'd been assaulted by what he'd once assumed to be a creature of mere legend, although at the time he'd thought it was a random dog attack because what had taken a chunk off of him looked inhuman (more like a very warped looking pug-snoutted thing now that he really thought about it). 

On awakening the next morning at the hospital, he'd been informed that he'd henceforth be barred from entering such facilities because he now suffered from vampirism, and that his name and records had been archived by some secret governmental agency that then directed him to a sub-civilization of non-humans. 

Shocked and confused, he'd been quickly integrated into a coven that took no time to teach him the basics. 

He was to live life as if nothing had changed, hidden among mere humans, yet he'd be judged as a pest by those that recognized specific documentation he now had to carry for "security reasons" (aka clearance for services to deny him due to his ailment).

Oh and he had to cope with the harrowing realization that food did nothing for him other than eliciting a form of pleasure (through stimulating his taste buds) and that he needed to instead find nourishment in human blood, otherwise he'd either die or go into an uncontrollable frenzied state (in which case he might end up dead anyway because if he so much as killed a person he'd be put down like a rabid dog).

No pressure right?

Funnily enough, Sammy had actually adapted to this drastic change. The poor man had to, otherwise he was screwed.

And then again it hadn't been all that difficult since the coven was less of what you'd assume from the olden tales of groups or communities of vampires living in the same roost, and more of a civil service in of itself. 

It was like having a parole officer really. One that gave you some pointers in the right direction, and that reminded you of feeding schedules.

Feeding itself wasn't as bad either, twice every month in specially assigned locations where cattle would be provided to them by a few sponsored ranches.

What really bothered Sammy about all this was the maturing of his vampirical traits. Specifically the part when one night he found himself ripping out of his clothes and seeing his body grotesquely transform into a quadrupedal flying thing that he couldn't quite put a name to. Hence why he'd come to the library in search of answers.

Still the best description he got was for some African fruit bat that had a face that not even a mother could love.

How could a vampire seemingly become a herbivorous bat, when he knew for certain he'd slaughtered two horses the previous night?

  "Found anything yet deary?"

     Sammy startled slightly as Mrs. Harrison, bless her for being the supportive sweet old grandma figure that she was in his time of need (and one of the few humans who knew of his predicament and didn't judge him for it), joined him with a couple of books.

She'd taken them both, plus Abigail, to the library to help him figure out about his strange transformations. 

She was also the one who took Abby on the nights he needed to feed because he couldn't trust himself not to attack her. 

He was too akin to a wild animal on a frenzy when he felt the hunger calling, which Mrs. Harrison had stated was normal for fledgeling vampires like himself.

  "Honestly, just this ugly looking thing… it's the closest I've found to what I saw in the mirror."

  "Ah, the hammer-headed bat! They're quite unique I'd say… My dear husband, god rest his soul, used to stuff them back when he hunted in Africa. He thought they might bring him luck, the nutter." The old linguistics teacher smiled, the gaps where she was missing teeth making it look slightly crooked but no less endearing. "It isn't unusual for vampires to instinctively take on forms that don't quite match their dietary needs. Most who change become similar to a species that best suits their needs. This one I'd say has qualities befitting of you deary."

  "That's… not very comforting." His nose had always been a sore spot. Turning into an animal whose face was 90% nose was just insulting to him.

  "Don't take it so badly deary." Mrs. Harrison chuckled. "What I mean to say is these bats, specifically the males, are known to be quite vocal. You, my dear, are quite vocal, are you not?"

Well, when she put it like that…

  "That's a yes in those pretty eyes of yours deary. And besides, not many new vampires can say they naturally became megabats. You're very well endowed in that aspect."

She took great joy in getting him to blush at such a comment. He could see the devilish glee in her kind old eyes, accentuated by crows feet and wrinkles.

They picked up a few books on the "specialized" area, Sammy vehemently ignoring Abby's questions of why his face was so red, and soon enough the trio was on their way back to the apartment.

Sick leave (which he took twice a month as mandated by the coven) would be over tomorrow, so Sammy needed to prepare.

Because working in an enclosed cartoon studio run by Joey Drew would definitely spell trouble for a vampire that had just earned their shifting ability.

-

     There are a set of very specific rules for new vampires. Don't expose yourself, don't expose the community, don't expose the sponsors or patrons.

Sammy had gotten pretty lucky, Mrs. Harrison was a patron and one of the best at her job.

She provided rehoming possibilities to fledgeling vampires, and ensured their safety within the communities they'd been integrated in.

She also kept an eye on hunters.

So of course Sammy was quite aware that Joey Drew was a person he needed to watch out for.

Joey Drew, who was notorious for having at least 36 confirmed kills under his belt. Here's where things got tough: Joey knew Sammy was a vampire, so he tended to keep a pretty good eye on the music director as well.

It was a perpetual game of cat and mouse.

A very dangerous one that had just reached a new level.

Because Sammy's overall safety lay within what his coworkers thought of him vs what they thought of their boss's eccentricities.

No one was crazy enough to believe that their coworker was secretly a vampire, or that their boss was essentially the equivalent of a vampire poacher.

And that is what Sammy wanted to maintain. A veil of normalcy to keep himself safe. One that would be much harder to maintain now that he had matured out of the first two years of being a fledgeling and developed such a large and rather monstrous looking shift.

     Hazel eyes locked with icy blue ones as the music director locked eyes with the founder of Joey Drew Studios. They drank coffee in the break room, surrounded by oblivious employees, and maintained this tense stare-down until Henry came by to drag Joey away.

Then Sammy would let out a quiet sigh of relief and go back to work ironing out the flaws in his current composition.

Jack would pass by his office to drop off a few new lyrics, he'd point out which needed a bit of tweaking, and then he'd be alone with his thoughts and his sheets up until he had to help Susie with recording.

Then he'd spend a good hour or two conducting the band, catching the brief glimpses of his ever watching boss in the corners of his eyes.

The staring contest would restart on every break, and Sammy would have to seek safety by mingling with coworkers (some of which he could not stand).

Norman was often his go to, as Joey never risked these sorts of behaviours with the larger southern man around.

The projectionist was a very bright man after all, and could dig up dirt on anyone that so much as rubbed him the wrong way.

It was a miracle he hadn't figured out Sammy's little secret thus far.

  "Runnin' from the boss again?"

  "That man is insane… I swear he's obsessed with me, Polk. It's creepy!" He'd replied after sneaking away to practically glue himself to Norman's side during another much needed coffee break. He desperately needed a smoke, his skin felt tight and uncomfortable.

  "Drew don't know no boundaries. Yous should consider takin' it up to Henry." Norman suggested. "Only man ta boss will listen to."

  "I wouldn't want to bother Henry because of Joey." Sammy huffed. "The poor man isn't his keeper."

  "Sure coulda fooled me." Only three more hours of this. Three more hours and he could go home.

  "Mr. Lawrence, a word." Speak of the devil… Joey Drew himself feeling bolder than ever as he moved over to address Sammy in Norman's company. "About the most recent composition."

  "Devil's Swing. What of it?" He'd worked hard on it to act as a counterpart to Angel's Tango. One of his finer masterpieces if he did say so himself.

  "I find it's going in the right direction… But it just lacks this… shine to it." Joey gestured vaguely "Like it's missing something that'd make it just right."

  "Shine… you think it's missing some shine?" Sammy suppressed the need to growl. What was the man on about? Just this morning he'd been happy with it!

Lord forbid Mr. Drew could ever make up his mind.

Norman watched the exchange quietly, keeping a close eye on both of them as Joey gave one of his signature grins. The kind that'd make the little devil darling himself quite jealous with just how much tooth it showed.

  "As we're on a tight schedule, I have to ask you to fix it by midnight tonight. Since you were on sick-leave recently, I'm sure you can compensate for setting us back with overtime." Oh, oh dear.

Sammy could now see what he was up to.

By midnight the studio would be virtually empty. Just him, the ever oblivious Wally Franks, and Joey Drew himself.

Oh he was in trouble… Unless he could do the alterations well before, but then if Joey wanted to trap him in the studio where he couldn't get help, who's to say he'd accept any of his corrections?

  "I…"

  "Well, on with it then! No time to waste!" Joey gave him an overly friendly pat on the shoulder, those icy blues glinting with manic glee as he walked off.

Norman wrinkled his nose.

  "That man ain't right in the head… Yous just came back from the doc."

  "You know how it is. Only thing Drew cares about is money." And Henry, to an obsessive degree actually. More so than following Sammy around now that he thought about it.

Either way, he had to get to work now, or he'd be screwed. "I'm going back into my office. There's no way I'm sticking around until midnight."

  "Best o'luck. I'll be in my booth if ya need anythin' from me."

Sammy needed an escape from their boss, but he couldn't exactly tell Norman that. He was the last person that needed to find out one of his coworkers was a damn bat-shaped leech. The blackmail would be horrid!

-

     The clock read 23:47 by the time Sammy had finished, and honestly the blond was ready to break.

One by one everyone in his department had packed up for the night and gone home. Susie had come by to give him a quick peck on the cheek before she'd saunters off humming a chipper tune.

Jack had come by to remind him not to stay too late and then been on his way as well. Wally himself was nowhere to be seen, probably cleaning that spill he'd heard about in Heavenly Toys, so the music director was completely and utterly alone.

And he was running out of time. 

Joey was going to get him.

  "Damn it… I've been good with this. I haven't even tasted human blood, and I'm still going to get put down by some crazy asshole…" he put his face in his hands and groaned. The tightness if his skin had only worsened as his stress piled up.

Stress-shifting was very much a thing and he really didn't want to chance transforming in the studio to release some of the tension.

With his luck Wally might walk in on him.

  "What do I do…?" He could try scaring his boss into letting it go. That bat form of his was pretty ugly, it'd scare the devil right out of Drew himself.

Or it'd just make him step up to the challenge.

A knock startled him out of his thoughts.

  "Y-yes?" He chastised himself for sounding so shaky, especially when it wasn't that grinning bastard who opened the door.  "Norman?"

  "Hey Sammy, I need a favour." The Louisianian greeted him. "I messed up my arm pretty bad while fixin' one o' them projectors. Yous wouldn't mind drivin' me to the hospital right?"

  "I… No of course." He was surprised, noticing the makeshift dressings on Norman's arm. They were messy but he couldn't see or smell his injury so it was likely a burn of some kind. Those projectors tended to overheat and catch fire at times.

  "Good, I'd ask Henry but he wents home early tonight… Strange really, Mr. Drew let a lot of folk go home early tonight..." Norman shrugged "And even if he could drive, I wouldn't bother ta boss t'do this for me."

  "I'll drive, I was done anyway." He left the sheets out so that Joey would find them as they were with ease. "Nearly midnight too, so Drew can't get on my case for leaving a little earlier."

This was the escape he needed.

He owed Norman his life, even if the other man didn't realize it.

     The two made their way outside at a leisurely pace before Norman motioned for Sammy to follow, much to the blond's confusion.

They ended up in an alleyway (not dodgy at all, nope) where Normal pulled off the bandages and revealed his arm was just fine. Sammy stared, eyebrows raised.

  "I lied, I don't need to go to the doc, but I don't think that butcher needs to know that… Have a good night Sammy, and stay safe." The much taller man grinned cheekily before transforming before Sammy's very eyes, into a truly massive Mauritian flying fox.

  "Oh you're kidding…" The larger vampire chittered, clearly amused by his reaction, before flying off into the night. "So much for having something over Polk…"

The music director huffed and began walking towards his car, stopping when it dawned on him. Norman would likely cash in this favour when he least expected it…

  "Son of a bitch, that man better not ask for something impossible…"

You win some, you lose some.

As much as he hated to lose to Norman so often, Sammy was at least glad to win this despute with Joey.

For the time being at least.

[epicstuckyficrecs]

2019 New Writers Fic Rec

After seeing some Discourse on Twitter, I decided to make a fic rec with some of my favorite new writers! All of these writers only started posting Stucky fanfic in 2018 or 2019. So here are some “new” writers and some of my favorite fics from them! (in no particular order)

PS: sorry for not putting the trope, word count and rating as I usually do, I wanted to try and make this fic rec quickly! 

PS2: also sorry if I chopped all your summaries, but some of them are hella long and this post is already... pretty long.

PS3: this went way past “favorite new writers” and just became “great new writers” because I wanted to prove a point, oops. 

verzacefatale 

You be yours and I'll be mine : “Oh, god. We got married, didn’t we?” 

14-Inch Cock and a Few Hundred Bimbos : There are some things in life, Steve muses as he stares down at his crotch, that nothing can prepare you for. His dick suddenly growing six inches in length and another two in girth, just because he opened a box in a Hydra dug out that maybe he should have read the instructions on before he did? How was he to know it was literally magic that would make his cock grow huge?

~

2bestfriends 

Collar Full of Chemistry : AKA a fantasy BDSM romance featuring heavy mutual pining, feelings denial, and enough kink to blackout a bingo card. 

Like Real People Do : AKA the "Lumberjack Steve/Twink Bucky" fic of our hearts.

~

deadonarrival

100,000 Miles And Feeling Very Still : Steve Rogers took a job at NASA and his life is pretty okay. Maybe not great but he has some good friends and things seem to be mostly stable. Except one day their new astronaut recruit walks in and everything in Steve's life goes upside down.

Latte Art and Slow Dancing in the Dark (WIP): Bucky is a somewhat well-adjusted former army sniper that got his shoulder blown out. He took his discharge and went home to finish school and is working on his international relations masters. His best friends and roommates (Nat & Clint) are CIA agents and tip him off that their local Sbux is hiring. He gets a job there and meets none other than the hottest guy on earth.

~

voxofthevoid

(series) couldn't get the boy to kill me (ongoing): Captain America and the Winter Soldier are a terrifying duo on the field, working together with a well-oiled precision that tears through their enemies. Captain Rogers and Agent Barnes are distant coworkers, all polite nods and mission briefings. Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes are fire and gasoline; the sparks between them have no choice but to roar into raging infernos.

happily ever after has bite marks in it : In which Bucky is aggressively okay with his self-imposed exile from society, and Steve is a werewolf who’s nothing like the Brooklyn boy Bucky still dreams of.

darling heart, i loved you from the start (but that's no excuse for the state i'm in) : Or, the one where Steve saves the mind stone for last and decides to fuck the timeline beyond all recognition, which regrettably involves crawling delicately up Hydra's asshole and less regrettably involves showering a very confused Bucky Barnes with affection.

(series): i'm guilty of treason (i've abandoned control) : S.H.I.E.L.D Agent Bucky Barnes is captured on a mission and meets Commander Steve Rogers, the erstwhile Captain America.It escalates quickly.

four dreams in a row where you were burned : When Steve uses the last of his Pym Particles to travel to 1944 and save his best friend, he doesn’t have a plan beyond leaving behind the battlefield and living his life alongside the people he loves. But the life that finds him is not the one he expects.

~

deisderium

much tattoo about nothing : Steve Rogers gets a lot of email requests, but never one like this: James Barnes wants to use his healing factor to practice tattoos.

(series) tits out, lads : On the walk back from Azzano, Bucky keeps touching Steve's chest. Then he touches it some more. And more.

Let Them Eat Cake : Bucky wanted to know why their new pastry chef had gun calluses on his right hand.

deep dive : In which single dad Bucky Barnes has a crush on his daughter's dive team coach and thirsts awkwardly. 

thot through the heart (and you're to blame) : In which Bucky is a baby vampire, a disaster, out to have a good time, and hopelessly in love with his roomate; and in which Steve has a few secrets of his own.

Political Animals (WIP) : or—Steve’s best friend is the U.S. Constitution and he can’t seem to stop fucking a hot Republican. They shouldn’t fall in love, but somehow they do.

~

thedoubteriswise

time on my hands (could be time spent with you) : "You doing okay, kid?” Steve releases a breath, deciding how honest he wants to be. No point in lying. No point in telling the truth, either. "Glad to see you.""That’s not what I asked, but same to you, punk."

honey don't feed it, it will come back : He’s stroking the cat’s fur, which is soft and fine now that it’s clean. He looks so open and inviting. Steve doesn’t close his eyes, watching Bucky’s gentle fingers and trying to come up with a plausible excuse to go touch him.

Ill With Want : Bucky pretends to be asleep when Steve crawls into bed, too tired to feel guilty over the quivery pleasure that settles in his belly when Steve’s arm brushes his. He drifts to sleep in a comfortable haze and tries not to wonder where this feeling was two hours ago when he had Marie in his lap.

~

steebadore

Controlled Release : Bucky's just having a little trouble...finishing. Completing the mission. He can squeeze the trigger but he can't make the shot is what he's saying. Which is why he's here, loitering outside a nice brownstone in Park Slope, trying to find the courage to knock on Captain Come Control dot com's door for his three o'clock appointment.

it takes a lot to know a man : Bucky flips to the next page, and the world around him grinds to a halt as his brain struggles to process what he's seeing. The noise of the train fades and static fills the inside of his head as he looks down at the sketches of the metal-armed guy without the mask. It's—that's him. It's Bucky's own goddamn face staring back at him from this stranger's sketchbook.

~

AidaRonan

Quench : Or the one where archeology intern Bucky Barnes meets actual archeologist Steve Rogers and reaches levels of thirst scientists once believed to be theoretically impossible.

Carnal Synchronicity : AKA A Tale of Two Stevies

Fraternizing With the Enemy : Steve and Bucky are both the presidents of their respective fraternities. Steve thinks Bucky's frat is filled with selfish party animals who care about little else. Bucky thinks Steve is a giant pretentious douchebag who owns too many Lacoste polos. They hate each other. Passionately.

~

lockedlocke

I just need you to show me : A quick google search tells him that the app he needs to get for something quick and easy, with no strings attached is Grindr. He downloads the app while he watches a bit of a Simpsons episode. It doesn’t take long, and when the app is downloaded, he looks at black icon with the yellow mask.

Pride : So here he was, at Pride despite the fact that he’d rather be at home. It’s hot, boiling and his feet hurt a bit from standing all day. Converse might be nice shoes, but Jesus they were terrible for his knees.

~

mcwho

it never hurt nobody : “I thought we agreed that that was creepy.” “No,” Bucky says slowly. “I asked you what you thought about people calling their boyfriends daddy, and you said you thought it was creepy, and then I asked you what the hell you’d done with my grey sweater after you did laundry, and we never talked about it again.”

(series) the serum amplifies : Little PWPs about Steve and Bucky’s sex life and the serums effect on it.

~

missandrogyny

don't know where i'm going (but i'll get back to you and me) : AU where Bucky is an assassin who just can’t seem to kill Steve

~

LeeHan

The Right Partner : Steve meets a beautiful man with a bright laugh on a sunny day in Italy. Captain America meets the elusive Winter Soldier moments later.

The Best Way to Wake : James Buchanan Barnes lay in a glass pod in the middle of the table, frozen since he fell. Steve’s hands were on the glass before he realized he’d moved. “Get him out,” Steve whispered, his hands searching for a clasp, a keypad, something.

~

amethystkrystal

Taking This One Step At A Time : In the weeks that follow, Bucky's omega urges start going haywire, and he realizes that night with Steve may have left him with more than just a fond memory.

Realignment : After assembling their own Infinity Gauntlet, the Avengers defeated Thanos and brought back everyone who disappeared. But their victory came at a great cost: in order to take the Soul Stone, Steve had to sacrifice the Captain America mantle and all the super-soldier strength that came with it.

~

cydonic

Home Is Wherever I'm With You : This is what happens when you buy a house to flip having only seen the online images: you get more than you bargained for. Bucky Barnes brings all the tools to handle a dilapidated home, but he's hardly prepared for a smart-mouthed child (with poor aim), a crying baby, and the hottest dad he's ever seen in his life living right next door.

~

deadto27

The Sweetest Spark : Steve Rogers runs a successful business. He has great friends and a great life. It seems like he has it all. So why is he sitting in a diner on a Friday night alone? Maybe he's just a little lonely. Maybe Bucky Barnes can help with that.

Maybe This Christmas : Bucky’s not going home for Christmas. But it’s fine. He’s spending Christmas alone in his apartment, but it’s cool. He’s not feeling up to seeing his family after his accident anyway, plus he has to work. He’s totally fine with it. But then he runs into Steve, literally, and suddenly his Christmas isn’t looking so empty after all.

~

NachoDiablo

Reconcilable Differences : AKA, "What To Do When Your Zany Fake-Relationship Scheme Actually Works."

~

odetteandodile

If Only In My Dreams : Bucky is a highly successful cooking and lifestyle blogger. He writes all about life in his Connecticut home with his D.H. (darling husband). Only problem? It’s all complete fiction.

So I Took a Faithful Leap : Bucky doesn’t fall and Steve doesn’t crash. The Howling Commados take out the remaining Hydra bases…and then they go home, just like all the other allied soldiers. Steve buys a farm in Washington state, and tries to relearn how to be at peace.

Art Thief, Heart Thief : Agent Steve Rogers is facing a series of art thefts that has him stumped, and looking for a break in the case. Convicted art thief and general high end criminal Bucky Barnes wants to make parole and happens to know all of the right people who could make Steve's job easier.

Under the Hawthorn Tree : A young man wanders into the woods one night, and wanders until he isn't a young man anymore—but something else. Seventy years later, another man follows him. Inside of a magic ring, they meet.

~

canistakahari

don't threaten me with a good time : Steve's taken him on vacation to a cabin in Canada in the middle of winter, so it's obviously the perfect time for his body to go haywire. Bucky is determined to stick it out, though, partly because he's a stubborn bastard, but mostly because he feels some kinda way about Steve.

Heckin' Chunker for Love : On the inside of the big floor to ceiling window of the office across the street, someone has used Post-it Notes to spell out a message: W H A T I S Y O U R C A T ’ S N A M E ?

(TBR) All of Your Love is Sunlight : Sometimes the path to happiness involves bad timing turned good, a butt plant, and a little everyday magic. For Steve and Bucky, it's all that and more.

~

birdjay

(TBR) STAR PLAN : He’s the most gorgeous thing Bucky’s ever laid eyes on.He’s his new tentative boss. Maybe. If this interview goes well enough, anyway. “So, Mr. Barnes?” Steve asks, blinking at him from across a particle board table. “You ever work security before?”

stay : The platform buzzes, and suddenly goes quiet. The cycle has finished. Bucky doesn’t bother to look. There’s no way Steve’s coming back when he has the chance to stay. He moves to walk away, to move on with his life, somehow. “Buck -- ?”

(TBR) The Conservation of a 17th Century Painting : Steve can’t even remember the last time he’s spoken to someone actually interested in art, who coincidentally is also someone he’d like to bang. Actually, no. He’s never had that happen.

~

dragongirlG

Searching Every Lonely Place : After the Battle of New York in 2012, Steve searches for Bucky with the help of the Avengers as he bumbles through a series of comedic misunderstandings with undercover HYDRA agents.

Reclamation : The Winter Soldier’s mask never falls off when he fights Captain America on the overpass and the helicarrier. That doesn’t stop the Soldier from recognizing Captain America and wondering why the man’s face is haunting his scattered memories.

~

megs_bee

Nothing Good Ever Happens On A Tuesday : Recently discharged soldier James Barnes is back in Brooklyn, down an arm and missing five years of memories, but he’s got his PTSD mostly under control, a fancy metal prosthetic, and what’s starting to feel like it could be a half-decent life. What he doesn’t have is any memory of the kid looking at James and asking him, “Are you my daddy?” -- or the gorgeous blond guy standing next to her.

A Ghost Before You Were a Ghost Story : “I’m sorry to wake you, Sir, but there appears to be an intruder on the roof. ”Tony finds the camera showing a figure standing alone on the roof, black tactical gear blending into the black night sky. Barely a shadow among shadows, save for the glint of silver along the figure’s left side. The Winter Soldier.

~

VenusMonstrosa

Extant : After a sudden and violent storm forces the crew of Insight III to perform an emergency evacuation, astronaut James Barnes was believed to have died and was left behind on Mars. Two years later, Commander Steve Rogers still refuses to let go. Fortunately, so does Bucky.

Through The Woods : There’s a legend in Mansewood, nearly as old as the town itself, about a pack of werewolves that once lived in the forest. They say only one survives; a monstrous and snarling beast with fur like a blizzard and fangs the size of daggers. Steve doesn’t care about any of that. He only wants to know if it prefers T-Bone or ribeye, and would it please stop tracking dirt through his house? He just mopped the floor.

~

BlueSimplicity

(series) You Are Responsible For What You Tame : After the events in DC and on the helicarriers, and the realization that his friend Bucky Barnes is still alive, Captain Steve Rogers swears that he will do anything he can to find him. It is easier said than done, as Steve searches desperately for any hint or clue that will lead him to his friend. Steve searches, but Bucky does not want to be found. And so begins their game of cat and mouse, as Steve does everything in his power to convince Bucky to come home.

~

GoldBlooded

A Midsummer Knight's Dream : Sir Steven, knight, alpha, and baron of a small countryside estate, receives an invitation to a Royal Tournament: It’s a winner-take-all competition, and the prize? The hand of Prince James, the kingdom’s most eligible omega, in marriage.

Feast On This : Steve, Sarah, and Bucky are headed down to Florida to visit the Barnes family for Thanksgiving. Bucky's tired of the interrogation about his love life from his Ma, and Sarah suggests the simplest solution would be for he and Steve to fake it for a few days. How hard can it be, right? After all, they've shared a bed before. After all, it's only pretend... Right?

Luck of the Irish Stroll : Every year Steve and Sam go on the Irish Stroll Bar Crawl, and ever since their first time on the Stroll four years ago, Steve and Sam cross paths with Bucky and Natasha. Every year Steve’s world is rocked by the gorgeous, blue-eyed man that has captivated him since they first locked eyes fighting over a couple of pints of Guinness from the bartender. But Steve's starting to want and need more of Bucky... will this be the year he can make it last for more than one night?

~

girlbookwrm

(TBR) (series) The Hundred Year Playlist : Steve and Bucky, start to finish. "Come on, pal, it's me. Take another hundred years if you want, I'll still be here."

sidereal : Captain Rogers never did a self-portrait; we can only speculate who his soulmate — or soulmates — might have been.

~

ClaraxBarton

Holding On : “Your poll numbers are way down, and we need to get them back up.”

~

stfustucky

Salt & Sugar (collab with GoldBlooded) : Steve Rogers is a bigshot celebrity chef in New York City, and Bucky Barnes is a classically trained pastry chef in Moscow. When billionaire and mutual friend Natasha Romanoff calls on them to collaborate for her Memorial Day Benefit Gala, they both brace themselves to spend the week working with some jerk they're bound to hate. 

Honestly, Fuck Brooklyn : Or, the one where it takes yet another apocalypse for the somewhat oblivious Bucky Barnes to figure out that his dorky artist boyfriend Steve is actually Captain Goddamned America.

~

writeonclara

How to Woo the Winter Soldier : Or: Steve courts the Winter Soldier.

[malachi-walker]

What character(s) from other fandoms that you're a part of remind you the most of Catra? Personally, I don't think I've seen too many, aside from maybe Vegeta from DBZ and maybe Jason Todd from DC comics but that's about it for me

Ok, anon, thanks for your patience. Let's go.

Firstly, I have two ladies that do give me a similar vibe to Catra (though they aren't 100% matches as you'll see.) And I want you to take particular note of that: it's very telling that the characters you mentioned are both dudes. This is something I have been thinking about for literally decades because it is a deeply entrenched stereotype in our culture: male abuse victims are angry, frustrated loners who lash out until they find that one (girl) person that gets through their facade, female abuse victims are portrayed as either anxious messes (more common in recent years) or as just... These smiling caricatures who continue to pretend to be happy because that's what our societies expect women to be. And this is something I took note of at a very early age, because as someone growing up with an abusive birth father I looked to the MALE characters as a guide book on how to act, because getting angry and lashing out was what made sense to me at the time and I resented the hell out of that unspoken implication that I was supposed to just suck it up and plaster on a smile when I wanted to rage against the injustice of what I was dealing with. In hindsight it wasn't great behavior, but it was what I needed to keep myself sane at the time. I'm not even exaggerating when I say I have waited my whole life for a character like Catra: someone who is reflective of my experiences as an ex-abuse victim, someone who is angry and wrathful and still allowed to be sympathetic. Now on to our two ladies.

First up: Vriska Serket from Homestuck. (I know, Homestuck is a huge fandom with a lot of assholes, but I do still enjoy the original comic. I just don't interact with the fandom.) Vriska and Catra both have similar vibes in the way they project their outward personas of being the badass bitch who takes no shit and is on top of things, but we all know that's a lie. And they both come from abusive backgrounds: Vriska was forced to become a killer at a very young age because her parental guardian (a literal giant spider) would eat her if Vriska didn't feed her other kids. Doesn't excuse her jerkass tendencies or her terrible actions, but that was how she started out. And Catra's deal with SW needs no explanation.

They both have developed very similar gadfly tendencies in order to maintain a sense of control around other people (though Vriska is a lot more mean spirited about it) and both have moments when the facade cracks and they show actual sincerity and frustration at themselves and other people. The main difference between them is that Vriska's actions are driven by a sense of grandiose self-importance that she has cultivated and fed into as a way to avoid looking at her own actions (because she's the best, so everything she does is awesome, right?) whereas Catra's primary driving motivation is pain: either making sure she doesn't have to hurt anymore or hurting those who hurt her. Plus Catra grapples with her sense of guilt a lot throughout Spop and maintains those sympathetic undertones while Vriska's moments of clarity are so rare that you basically have to keep a chart to locate them. But you could totally picture them both teaming up to make fun of their respective frenemies, assuming they didn't kill each other first for reminding themselves of their deep underlying self-loathing.

Second candidate: Anthy Himemiya from Revolutionary Girl Utena. And boy howdy, if anyone is interested in this show and wants to avoid spoilers, skip to the end now, because we're going on a deep and dark journey here.

At first glance, she and Catra don't have much in common. In fact, she seems to fit the stereotype I described above: the placid smiling doll who takes the abuse and keeps going. Key word: seems to. Anyone who actually watches the show knows exactly where I'm going here.

We're introduced to Anthy as the "Rose Bride": the prize in a series of sword fights between students at a very strange school, with the ultimate promise being that whoever owns the Rose Bride at the end of the duels will gain some nebulous ultimate power. And yeah, I said "own" for a reason: whoever possesses the Rose Bride effectively owns her and some of the most uncomfortable scenes in the show reinforce the fact that Anthy tailors her thoughts and actions to whoever currently controls her. And as you can expect, this leads to BUCKETS of abuse. Literally everyone in this show is culpable in some manner for this, no matter how well intentioned.

But remember that "seems to?" Because that's only one side of Anthy; the outward persona if you will. On the other side of the coin you have Anthy the Witch, and that's where the parallels with Catra come into play and why Anthy was my go-to abuse representation before Spop rocked my world. Because the big twist we find out at the end of the series is that Anthy and her older brother Akio (formerly Dios) are the former literal personifications of the fairytale damsel in distress princess and the noble prince on a white horse, respectively.

But the balance was upset: having to constantly go around saving people was literally killing Dios, because one of the major points of RGU is that you can assist people in saving themselves but doing it yourself strips them of agency and traps them in a cycle of needing to be saved again and again. The more people the noble prince saved, the more people needed saving. When it became clear that he couldn't keep going, Anthy took a stand and prevented the people coming for Dios (angry that he wasn't saving them anymore) from getting to him, and thus incurred the wrath of everyone and got skewered alive by an angry mob in the process. This isn't hyperbole: the role of the Rose Bride is to instinctively bring out the disdain and hatred of everyone on the planet. It's a punishment for stepping out of line, for not being the placid princess who needs to be rescued anymore.

Because we're operating on fairy tale logic, no longer being a princess means that Anthy became a witch, and no longer being the prince made Dios into satanic archetype Akio. So behind the scenes of the entire show, Anthy is the witch assisting her brother in orchestrating the duels, and their ultimate goal is to find someone pure of heart enough to embody those princely virtues Dios once possessed and to steal that power so Akio can return to being who he once was. All of the psychological torments and head games are designed to weed out the potential candidates to find that special someone... Except it's an impossible goal because no human being can live up to that standard. And with each atrocity they commit it becomes even more impossible to return to being that person.

Ok, tangent done, here's where it gets interesting: Anthy is a character with two sides to her, the suffering Rose Bride fated to endure the hatred of the entire world and the Wicked Witch who manipulates and orchestrates the torment of those around her. But here's the deal: she's a victim too. She's a victim of a system that won't let her be anything other than these two binaries; she's a victim of her brother who has all the power over her and has trapped her in a codependent incestuous relationship, and I don't care how awful the things she's done are: nobody deserves to go through the shit she does. So with all of that in mind, the actions that she goes through as the witch make perfect sense. Why shouldn't she torment these people who do nothing but abuse her and deny her of agency? Even the best hearted of the duellists (aka the ones who don't hit her or abuse her sexually) nonetheless fall into the trap of projecting their own biases and expectations onto her, biases that her role dictates she carry out. Her actions as the witch aren't right, but nothing about this situation is. That's the entire point.

And that's where she ties into being like Catra. Catra does some truly fucked up things, but it doesn't cancel out the fact that she's an abuse victim that has been literally tortured for most of her life for no good reason and has received zero acknowledgement of that abuse in universe. And much like Anthy, she can't begin to heal until the situation is acknowledged, because that's literally step one of breaking the cycle: confirming that this is not okay and that no one deserves the shit she's been through. Just knowing that herself isn't enough: it's acknowledgement from others that enables that process to begin, because no one can recover from abuse in a vacuum. You need outside people to be touchstones, because so much of recovering from abuse is confronting the way it warps your perception and thought processes. You need at the minimum one normal perspective to give you that, preferably more, but one minimum.

Hurting the people who care about her is definitely not okay and I'm not excusing her actions in that category, but it doesn't change the fact that she is justified in wanting to rage and lash out, because she is still trapped in that cycle. She can't heal or let go because the process hasn't even been started. She's not off the hook for the things she's done, but neither should she be automatically condemned without taking those factors into account (which is the entire reason why the distinction between an excuse and a justification exists.)

And if I can be a little pithy... The other similarity between Catra and Anthy is I can guarantee that in twenty years people will STILL be arguing over whether or not Catra "deserved" to be freed from her abusive situation.

Good God this turned into an essay. Hope this makes up for how long it took, anon. And anyone else who makes it this far, treat yourself. You earned it.

[jonarchivistcansing]

So I have a magnus archives playlist

I’ve been making a long chronological Magnus Archives playlist for my own amusement (So This Is Basically The Magnus Archives) , but since season 5 is close and my college kicked everyone out i decided to Do Something Unnecessary. 

I have taken painstaking effort to not only properly organize this stupid thing with specific tma episodes, but also have documented the episodes as well as why I included the songs (under the cut). This is my Magnum Opus. I have officially pulled an all nighter to work on this. AND i’m making another playlist with songs that I wanted to keep tabs on in case I end up needing to use them as s5 comes out (here) Spoiler warning obviously

Please send me some songs if you follow the playlist and think they should be on there! 

TLDR - Grace for sale = season 1 finale; Bad Bad Things = season 2 finale; Greatest Show Unearthed = season 3 finale; Just Did a Bad Thing = Season 4 finale.

I bold the songs I added most recently. Honestly I recommend listening to the playlist first because its way fun and like referencing this if you really care about it. Please give me song suggestions or alterations! 

Song Name - MAG00 - PoV/Sung at/etc; Event. NA = Not Applicable

The Office Theme - NA

memes

Turn The Lights Off - MAG 01

The whole “Dont go in there” theme is applicable to the danger of the Angler fish, which also parallels that first statement acting as a lure for Jon

Don’t Worry We’ll Be Watching You - NA

I didn’t want to comb through to find an episode where Jon says hes being watched. I might move this somewhere else because it’s really slow for the begining of the playlist. Maybe  where he went to America

Somebody’s Watching Me - NA

Same as above + memes

Bloody Nose - MAG 17 - PoV Jared Hopworth

the boneturner’s tale statement

Grace For Sale - MAG 39 - PoV Jane Prentiss; S1 Finale

I didn’t know this was part of a whole carnival themed album when I added it, but I felt that the themes of shedding your skin and worms were relevant enough. Still looking for a good song for the s1 finale tho :/

I Don’t Trust You Anymore - MAG 40/41 - PoV Jon

Immediately after the Worm Attack, Jon realizes he can’t trust anyone in the archives.

Losing My Mind - NA - PoV Jon

Jon makes a lot of mentions of his paranoia thruout this season and I feel it just fits best here

Little Pistols - NA - PoV Jon

Same as above, but its like Really Sad because this one paints the paranoia as much more self-destructive. 

Afraid - MAG 77 - Multi PoV/Sasha

Jon just realized the NotSasha replaced Sashsa. Could be from Sasha or NotSasha or even Jon realizing the implications a shapeshifting creature, just fkcn love the chorus for the whole NotSasha fiasco

Mr Capgras - MAG 78/79 - Sung by the NotThem

Jon’s a huge idiot and the NotThem is Out For Blood 

Bad Bad Things - MAG 80 - PoV Elias; S2 Finale

Bitch boy Murkd Leitner and Gertrude and he’s an asshole for it

Its not overly literal but i think some characters in the song could be interpreted as Leitner and Gertrude, with the POV Elias speaking to Jon. 

I’m Not Ok - MAG 81 - PoV Jon

Georgie pls....help this nasty man

The Cult of Dionysus - NA

Honestly this isn’t very specific at all there’s just a lot more cult activity in this season and this song lines up well with the next few

Rejoice - MAG 89 - PoV Jude Perry/Lightless Flame

this ep is jude’s statement and this is a Good cult song

Bust Your Kneecaps - MAG 67 - PoV Agnes Montague

Keeps with the theme better here than in order with s2. Statement of cafe boy who tried to romance Agnes that one time

Are Things Still Burning - MAG 67/89 - PoV Agnes Montague

You’ll get it.

I’m Gonna Win - MAG 101 - PoV Gertrude or Michael

Really connect this song with gertrude’s Bad Bitch energy and MAG 101 is the episode where we really get a scope of how morally gray she is

But the overall cocky tone of the song is real good for Michael

The Distortionist - MAG 101 - PoV Michael

this ep is Michael’s statement. 

Its kind of hard to tell because of the vocaloid, but the song's character seems to have been pushed and  manipulated into something like Michael. I can see the song shifting from Michael singing about how Gertrude created him into accepting it and them singing at Jon

Has wayyyyy too much Spiral imagery to not include

Seven Devils - MAG111 - PoV Gerard Kaey

this is the ep where Gerard properly explains the fears to Jon

Dirty Night Clowns - MAG 104 - PoV Tim Stoker?

sort of Tim about his brother

Blood End Credits - no MAG/MAG 119 - PoV Tim Stoker

god i miss tim. I don’t think it translates exactly to 119, but it’s more of the climax of his character arch. He’s literally given everything to the Institute and to Elias and now he has to fucking die? FUck.  

Greatest Show Unearthed - MAG 139 - PoV Nikola/The Circus

This one is literal lol. u can figure it out

My Time - MAG 120/121 - Sung about Jon

*Mable pines picture* “He’s resting”

Who Are You, Really? - MAG 121 - Sung at/for Jon

Jon has to decide whether to let himself die human or risk becoming a monster to protect the people he loves*

*Martin

Cold Cold Man - MAG 124 - PoV Jon

This is the first time Jon and Martin have seen each other since he woke, and I think really the first time Jon has sought out Martin because he just...wanted to see him

Ruler of Everything - MAG 124 - PoV Martin

This is Martin’s side of the exchange he and Jon had. This is where he started pushing Jon away (Shot as wily one/only friend), and Peter is making him into the “ruler of everything” aka running the Institute, and just doing his best to go one day at a time until whatever Peter has planned gets done

Catabolic Seed - MAG 125 - PoV Melanie

Honestly, I just really wanted this song for melanie. The Magnus Institute is taking too much out of her, making her into a hollow, and she’s just trying to keep herself together with emotional duct tape

Body - MAG 131 Build Up - PoV Jon

I see this as the culmination of Jon’s survival guilt and desperation to make himself worthy of humanity again. Since he has a healing factor now, he has no sense of self-preservation and is willing to sacrifice his entire body to make himself worthy of humaity.

Skeleton Appreciation Day - MAG 131 - PoV Jared Hopworth

THE MEATBONE MANNNN

What Am I Becoming? - MAG 146/147 - PoV Jon

It hurts

in 146 Jon admited to Basira, Daisy, and Melanie confronted him about his live feedings. 147 Jon realises that he doesn’t want to stop feeding

Human - Mag 147/152 - For Jon

Couldn’t decide where this goes chronologically, but these in these two eps jon is seriously debating his humanity and disturbed that he even needs to do that 

Isle Unto Thyself - NA 

 this fits....somewhere in this season. I believe i see this as Jon singing about Martin’s isolation, but really its just applicable to their whole situation

Train Remastered - MAG 154 - PoV Jon

a fukn EASY one FINALLY. 

THis bitch is Jon asking Martin to blind himself with Jon so they can run away together. Their romantic arcs got me feeling all sorts of ways

No Eyed Girl - MAG 157

this is so literal lmao its just Melanie and Georgie

Not Human - MAG 158 - About Daisy

She’s spent so long serving the Hunt and trying to undo its power over her, and she really just Did That(tm) for her friends. We stan a werewolf queen

Monster - Many MAGs

honestly can fit Martin, Jon, Melanie and Daisy at different points, but i think its a good end to Daisy’s character arc currently

Ship In A Bottle - MAG 159 - About Martin and Peter

I like to see this as the climax of Martin’s Loneliness and his relationship with Peter as well as like the culmination of Peter’s deal with Elias and Martin’s Deal with Peter

It’s Alright - MAG 159 - To Jon and Martin

Jon Rescued Martin from the Lonely and is finally able to have a purpose and they are allowed to Be Okay

Honeybee - MAG 160 - PoV Jon

WE STAN TRUE LOVE AND SATISFYING ROMANCE IN THIS HOUSEEEEEEE

Great Vacation - Thematic transition

If Honeybee was the first 2 minutes of 160, then we know what’s coming next. The Scottish Cottage isn’t a vacation

Just Did A Bad Thing - MAG 160

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Its the end of the world as we know it - Season 5 trailer

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

[ask-bloodmaw]

Being Adopted

this is the start of this blog. For the most part it’s just gonna be questions and asks but this short story is to get the ball rolling. for a tldr: Edge aka underfell papyrus was visiting Blue aka underswap sans when a underfelly, demony looking bitty slapped into his face. he was dared to raise it for at least 2 days and after taking it home and feeding it, he gave it a tumblr ask blog to occupy itself with.

edit: there was an issue with some of the text from the bottom ending up on top, so i fixed that

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It’s because you just can’t stay away from me!” Blue said cheerfully as he placed a plate of tacos on the table.

“I came because I was forced to take a day off for your information! Your invitation just happened to be for the same date.” Edge crossed his arms. He wasn’t going to admit to Blue he was glad he was allowed a day off. Working in the guard in Underfell was perfectly fine, but ever since his brother Sans, now Red, had fixed that machine in the basement and they knew of other universes… well it was nice for a change of pace.

Speaking of his brother… “Yeah sure Boss, as if you weren’t hoping for a day off.” 

“But Undyne was none too happy. If it weren’t in the job contract that I be given one day off each month, I would not be here right now.”

“Well,” Blue spoke to cut the tension that was starting to form. “No matter what the reason, I’m glad you’re here!”

“How long until Sci shows up?” Red piped up. To the side Edge rolled his eyes. Of course his brother would be asking after his scientifically inclined counterpart. There were times where the idea of his brother getting together with another version of himself did not agree well in his mind, but Edge supposed it with the fact that they were from different universes the other Sans was more or less a different person.

Sighing, Edge picked up a taco. They were normally too mild for his tastes, so he added a little bit of salsa from a nearby bowl. He let a small smile appear on his face for just a moment. This wasn’t his first time in Blue’s house. The first time there had been no salsa, but it ‘just so happened’ the next time the innocent counterpart of his brother had some ‘leftover’ salsa when Edge next visited. The same with the following visit. Reports from Sans showed that the salsa was only there on the days he managed to visit an-

SMACK

Edge whirled around, summoning two sharp bones. Whoever hit him was going to pay. Just because he was in a more relaxed environment didn’t mean he wouldn’t fight. “SHOW YOURSELF!”

Everyone was focused on Edge now, surprised by his sudden actions. Well except for Classic. The Tale version of his brother was lying on a nearby couch and was instead looking near Edge’s boots. “Just some weird toy. Maybe Honey was screwing around again.”

Edge reluctantly made his attacks disappear. Honey, Blue’s brother, has always been rather scientifically inclined himself due to his friendship with his world’s Undyne. Edge supposed he should return this thing to his lazy counterpart, so picking it up he… dropped it as it bit him.

“What the f-”   “Swear jar!”   “I didn’t even get to say it Blue!” Edge yelled, still looking at the thing. The small and breathing thing. This wasn’t a toy or machine. It was alive. He tried picking it up again now more prepared. The thing bit him once more, but since he expected the pain, he didn’t drop it. Looking closely, Edge could see it was a skeletal being. It was just… the size of a small bird. But there were horns on its skull and it had a tail which didn’t quite look skeletal. It was more magical based. It also seemed to be dressed in a rag of sorts.

The guard winced as the thing bit in a more sensitive place on his hand. He did his best not to fling whatever this was across the room. That was when Blue came over and managed to pry it off of him. “Aww! It’s so cute! Ow! Though it really likes biting and hissing.” 

Indeed, when Blue had taken the creature, it had kept biting but was now also hissing at him. “Maybe it just don’t like ya.” Red suggested. “It wasn’t hissing at th’ boss.”

“But it was still biting me.” Edge added on to his brother’s comment. He did not want this creature to become fond of him. He didn’t even live here. And this thing was so small, it would be killed within a week. Within the day if his cat got to it.

“But it wasn’t hissing too!” Blue repeated Red’s statement. “So it must like you most! Look! It’s even got red eyelights! Just like from a fell universe! Or maybe it’s a bitty! Or maybe both!”

Edge didn’t bother following along. He knew Blue knew the multiverse that they lived in much better than most. “Either way. What are you suggesting? That I keep it? You know I can’t do that with my universe.”

“Ya saying you can’t keep it alive?” The Sans on the couch questioned.

Again, Edge rolled his eyes. “I likely could, but it would only be a matter of time before-”

“Twenty G.”

Everyone was silent for a few seconds before Edge spoke up. “Do you mean twenty gold? Why?”

“That’s how much I’m betting you can’t keep it alive for two days.”

Red and Blue looked between Edge and Classic. Edge only took bets he knew he would win, but the way Classic had posed it… If Edge took the bet, he had to win. If he didn’t, it was just as bad as losing it.

“Look, if it’s a bitty, Blue can figure out what he needs for it, but it would take up his time. Since it seems to like you better, it stays with you for a day or two while he sets up. After that, you hand it off ta Blue and only have to see it again those rare times you visit.”

Edge supposed Classic was right. And while he wouldn’t admit it, he did have a soft spot for weaker beings with a certain edge, like a cat, or whatever this thing, likely apparently a bitty, was.

“Fine. I will keep them alive for two days. It surely is not hard. The only thing necessary is to separate it and Doomfanger.”

With that, Edge got up to leave, knowing he would need to use some of his free time to set up the house. That, and the sooner he started taking care of this thing, the sooner he would be done. Red didn’t follow behind, which was perfectly fine. It was better his brother wasn’t in the way.

The bitty kept biting at his hand, though not as hard as before. If it was from a fell universe similar to Edge, then likely this was just the only way it could attack. And seeing as how Edge had yet to kill it, it was giving the slightest sliver of trust to him. That, or it was just getting tired.

The tall skeleton swore when the bitty bit him harder when it was jostled a bit from Edge getting the portal machine he had to get home. It was the newest design which currently only he, his brother and Blue had been given, seeing as how Blue needed it most, Edge was Red’s brother and Red was dating the one who made it.

Edge closed the portal the moment he had stepped through into his house. Even if being inside his home was safe from the underground outside the door, he could never be too cautious. Edge looked around, making sure he really was alone and checking all the curtains were drawn before calling for his cat. The gray animal raced out from wherever she had been hiding and ended up at Edge’s feet, rubbing against his ankles and looking for a treat.

Edge bent down, earning another bite from the bitty as he used his other hand to pet his cat. The skeleton then walked to the kitchen and placed the bitty on the counter, freeing his hands to open the cupboard and pull out a bag of cat treats, which he opened and pulled out two to give to Doomfanger. 

The skeleton also pulled out a third and placed it in front of the bitty. Admittedly Edge realized he should have asked Blue what these things eat, but if it didn’t like the treat, other food would be easy enough to give the thing. Even if they couldn’t get as much food as their non fellverse counterparts, Edge had a well paying job to afford plenty, and it wasn’t as if this tiny thing could eat them out of house and home.

The bitty looked down at Doomfanger eating the treats and seemed surprised when one was placed in front of it. It picked the treat up which was a decent size when held in it’s tiny hands. It took a big bite out of the treat, and while it wasn’t the best tasting thing in the world, it was still food. The bitty then stuffed the rest in its mouth before chewing, being careful not to choke. Once it had swallowed, it looked up to the skeleton looking down on it and fluttered its little bone wings under the rag it wore. It held up its hands briefly, hoping for something more before putting them back down. Likely that was all it would be given.

Edge was glad to see that the bitty was okay with the cat treat, especially when it seemed to want more. He wasn’t going to only feed it with those, so he instead decided to let it try some pieces of cat food kibble. It seemed the bitty was also pleased with those and was surprised by the new type of food.

Edge let it eat as he picked up Doomfanger and carried her up to his room. He set her on his bed before quickly leaving the room and closing the door behind her. He could hear Doomfanger mewling to be let back out when he started down the stairs, but Edge didn’t want to deal with watching both the bitty and his cat at the same time when he was still learning how to care for the former of the two. 

When Edge returned to the kitchen, he found the bitty crawling around the counter. Or maybe not crawling as it seemed to be actually walking on all four limbs. He stood in the doorway, watching it for a few moments before it noticed him and sat back down. 

“Well, it seems you found the food edible at the very least since you seem to have eaten it all save for a few crumbs.” Edge spoke to the bitty. He wasn’t sure if it understood him since it seemed to droop slightly at his words. He wasn’t sure if it was just because of his inflection or if it could only understand his tone of voice. Edge sighed and picked the bitty up and went over to the living room, setting it on the couch. He quickly picked it back up when it decided to claw at the fabric. “Don’t! The only part I allow to be torn up is the legs and that is because I can’t convince my cat to use the scratching post.”

The bitty seemed to understand and just sat on the couch this time, watching Edge. He looked away for a moment to pull out his phone and when he looked back, the bitty was gone. He jumped up trying to figure out where it could have gone when there was a scratching noise. Edge looked down towards the noise and saw the bitty clawing at the feet of the couch. “It seems that you can understand me.”

The bitty looked up at Edge again before going back to clawing the already clawed up piece of wood. Then it looked back up, eyes focused on Edge’s phone. The skeleton took a moment to figure out what the bitty was so focused on, but when he did, he rolled his eyes. “As long as you don’t destroy this, I will allow you to mess with this and occupy yourself.” 

Edge set the phone on the ground before quickly grabbing the old sock Red left lying around and rolling it up to place behind the phone, propping it up for the bitty.

It walked over to the phone before sitting in front of it. It tested out the screen with one of it’s tiny hands, surprised when the screen reacted once its palm was touching. It managed to open up the camera, confused by the image of the wall behind it which was being captured. 

Edge sighed and picked up the phone again and unlocked it. “It’s probably easier if I set things up for you. Hmm… Are you able to type?” He asked before setting the phone back down on the notes app with the keyboard up. Quickly, the bitty pressed three keys: ‘yes’. “Well I guess there’s one think. I know Blue set something up for me when I first learned of the other universes, so it may be useful for you.”

After a few minutes, the phone was placed back down in front of the bitty. It looked at the mostly white screen with an orange pattern taking up the top third and a circle between the two parts with a diamond shaped icon. “A dumbed down version should be enough for you to understand. I’ve set up a place where people are able to message you and you will be able to respond. I don’t care what you do with that otherwise. If you ever need help just come to me. For now, I will be making some food for myself.”

As Edge walked away, the bitty looked towards him, and though it was too quiet to be heard, it still said “thanks.”

[zwiezraczek]

The Princess and the Pauper Voltron AU (Klance&Shallura)

I blame @genelpan for this AU because in her Insta story she reminded me that this movie exists. So making a shoutout to all my fellow Polish people who are still listening to the songs because “beeeedeee Twooooj gdy pooowiesz” you know what you know ;)

On the same day, in the same kingdom two little souls are born, both of them looking so alike they could be taken for twins. But each one of them is born in a different world...

Allura is the princess of Altean Kingdom, her father and her mother, Alfor and Eleanor are proud parents of a sublime little princess

Allura is given a cat when she becomes a teenager, a little puffy cat she named Elly after her mother's surname

At the same time, she is given a tutor Takashi Shirogane aka Shiro, a boy from the little town, who's five years older than she is

Both become friends pretty quickly thanks to their interest in science, they can spend whole days in the library reading about science.

Sometimes Shiro reads Allura some fairy tales, both of them are fond of these

They grow closer, and slowly, but surely, their feelings toward each other go from friendship to a soft love

But both of them know that they can't be together, so they repress their feelings

Allura because, when her mother passes away when she's thirteen, she has to marry a king/prince in order to guarantee a future to her kingdom and Shiro because he knows he has nothing to offer to Allura, who deserves the world and even more

Lance is born in the little town around their palace, in a poor family, but a loving one. He's an only child, his parents borrow money to raise him and to give him the best perspectives in life and Lance is genuinely interested in music and sewing so his mother teaches him songs and how to sew

His father is very proud of his son, he knows that the boy isn't a casual boy in town but he encourages him to be what he chooses to be

One day, Lance rescues a cat that he names Blue, and he loves Blue with all his heart

Lance's parents die because of a disease which causes a mortality rise in the little town, he is now an eleven years old boy who has debts to pay

Guess who takes advantage of this? Lotor's Dress Emporium from which Lance's parents borrowed money. He begins to work there, sewing dresses for the Court and the royal family, such as the Princess herself

When both turn eighteen...

The kingdom faces a crisis, and the only solution that King Alfro can come up with – because his advisor Honerva left on a trip – is to marry his daughter to the Blade's kingdom Prince

Allura isn't fond of this, at all, but she knows that she has to do it for her people so she accepts it, abandoning her love for Shiro thinking that her love isn't reciprocated

Shiro tries to cheer her up when he hears the news, telling that Prince Keith is a nice person who has a passion for art, music and knives

Which is kinda weird, Shiro said and made Allura laugh

But both regret that the will never be together...

“All my life I've always wanted to have one day just for me” -  Allura breaking into a musical number while trying her dress on because she will marry Prince Keith in a few days

She just wishes for some time on her own, just a moment among her books with Shiro, reading books, listening to Shiro's voice when he reads for her while sitting in a chair and looking how his expression changes everytime he imitates another character

She wants to marry him so badly, but it's her duty to save the kingdom, and her father is sorry about it...

“All my life I've always wanted to have one day for myself” - Lance while taking one pile of fabric to another place in Lotor's Dress Emporium

Well, even if his friend, Romelle enjoys the show, Lotor seems not so fond of it

And Lance learns that he has to work there for another 37 years, because “interests” and Lance protests

“They did it to feed me!” “Their mistake”

And Lance just loses it all, and goes fuck it all I'm going to sing in the streets tomorrow early in the morning because I deserve it and because it's his only escape

Romelle doesn't encourage him, but she offers to cover him for sure and Lance thanks her with a kiss on her cheek

And both Lance and Allura swear to themselves that they will once be free to do whatever they want to

Guess who's missing in this beautiful picture? Honerva, Alfor's advisor. And well, even if she seems to be a good little lady she's the devil in disguise wanting to own the kingdom: she is behind the kingdom's crisis and she wants to become the Empress of the Kingdom, by marrying Alfor and then killing him. But to do so, she has to kidnap his daughter, Allura, so she won't be able to marry this king of the Blades and she'll be the only option for Alfor. Her plan was perfect

On the next day, Prince Keith in disguise – because he loves disguising himself okay, it's what's called FUN – with the Blade's kingdom Ambassador, Kolivan, arrive to the palace

And Kolivan isn't sure about Keith in disguise because it's absolutely ridiculous but Keith insists and Kolivan can only sigh

“What a stubborn child, just like his mother the Queen...” - Kolivan, dealing with royal shit since birth

When the ambassador arrives, Shiro comes into Allura's room and greets her with a “Her Majesty” and Allura is surprised because they are friends “Shiro... We are friends, I am Allura to you” “Her Majesty's father sends me to tell you that the ambassador from the Blade's kingdom just arrived” “Oh Shiro...” “Her Majesty can follow me?”

And it breaks Allura's heart because when Shiro's that formal, it means nothing good

The last time he used that voice was when her mother died

And Shiro knew that this voice never brought joy, but it always pained him to lie to Allura, to pain her with lies

“Shiro... Can we... Stay here? Tell my father that I am not feeling well, that I am terribly sorry to not be able to greet the ambassador but... I just can't Shiro, it pains so much...” “I will Allura, don't worry...”

And he resists the urge to hug her

Meanwhile, a clueless Keith hands his gift to King Alfor telling it's for his daughter from Pirnce Keith

Honerva is here, and already having a plan to kidnap the Princess...

Allura stays at the balcony, looking at the little girls playing in the royal garden, at least they are free...

Shiro has suddenly a marvellous idea: to take Allura in the little town around the city to entertain her for a moment, to entertain himself, to have one of his lasts moments with her

And once she wears a cape, nobody notices she's the princess anymore: she feels like a civilian

She also feels the pain of the crisis looking at the houses, as Shiro shows her his old little apartment when he used to study: she is now sure that she can't allow herself to have feelings for somebody because her people are suffering

Shiro offers her a juniper, her favourite flower ever and she smiles and Shiro can't forget that genuine smile

Then, she hears a clear and beautiful voice; Shiro is away seeking for something to eat so she approaches the singer

Lance is singing one of the songs his mother taught him, gathering some money for himself when Lotor bursts into the crowd, stops his performance and gather the coins before telling him to come back to work

Lance is dying inside, he is trapped in this reality that gives him a headache but when he is about to take the empty cup that Lotor left behind him, Allura's hand puts in a coin

“That was really beautiful” “Thanks, my mom used to sing me this so...”

And they both of them realise, they look absolutely alike, just like twins

“Oh my... What's your name?” “My name is Allura” “No jokes just like the Princess?!” “Yes, it is right...” “Oh! The name's Lance her royal Highness. What... What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to marry?” “I am taking my first and last breath of freedom before becoming a wife... A wife of an unknown man...” “Yeah, at least you're not an indentured servant” “A what?”

Lance breaks into a musical number explaining how he's living inside his dreams because well, it's way easier to live in his dreams than in this crappy reality

Allura assumes he's a singer – and  she always wanted to meet one! – but it turns out that he's working at Lotor's Dress Emporium and that he made the dress she's wearing right now

He's absolutely proud about the fact that it's the Princess' favourite dress ever, he thanks his mom for that

Allura speaks about her marriage, and how she doesn't want to marry but she has to to save her people, people like Lance from the crisis

“I'm just like you! You're just like me! There's somewhere else we'd rather be!” Lance, jumping into the occasion to sing another time about what he feels

And both Allura and Lance come to the conclusion that they are a lot more alike than they thought in the first place

Then Shiro arrives, in shock, we must admit, because he drops the food he has in his hands – this boy is a disaster I swear – because okay, he knows Princess Allura but THIS GUY definitely looks like her!

Allura promises to Lance that she will send somebody to make him sing at her wedding, and Lance is over the moon when he hears that

Lance comes back and tells everything to Romelle, who is just smiling at Lance's imagination but still listening religiously

During the night, Honerva and her servants kidnap the Princess in order to cancel the wedding and they pretty much arrive to take the Princess into an isolated cabin in the woods

On the next day, Honverva announces to the King that Allura ran off, Kolivan is furious, Keith is somehow sad about it, and Kolivan tells that if the Princess isn't found until tonight the marriage proposal is over, finito

When Shiro hears the news he's sure about one thing: Allura couldn't do such a thing, she didn't ran off and the letter she left wasn't perfumed with junipers but some kind of roses and that wasn't Allura at all

He offered to help to find her, but Honerva laughed him off telling that he could hurt himself or catch a sun stroke while being outside

Shiro wasn't that stupid, and knew that something was going on with Honerva

So, he searches for Lance at Lotor's Dress Emporium

And Lance is just so excited about singing at the wedding, but when he learns the true reason behind Shiro's visit he decides to help Allura because they're alike

There is only one, tiny, little, problem: even with a wig, Lance can't act properly like a Princess and this is where tenor Shiro begins his own musical number

“To be a Princess is to know which spoon to use” - Shiro, while Lance is having a panic attack in front of the five spoons next to the plate

He finally wears one of Allura's dresses, the one Romelle made for her, the blue one, and he begins to feel it with the wig and all

And somehow, Shiro confesses through riddles that he's in love with Allura and Lance now knows that both of them are in love

When Honerva is almost touching her dream of becoming Empress, Shiro steps in the room introducing “Princess Allura”

Lance enters, trips, falls down in front of Keith in disguise and goes to see King Alfor who's absolutely happy to see his daughter safe and sound

Lance hugs the King, apologizing at telling that he, or rather she will never do this again

Kolivan is still pissed and tells that Prince Keith shouldn't marry the Princess and Keith is all “HUM HUM HUM!” “Finally, I think that the Prince will till be fine with marrying Princess Allura”

And Lance freaks out because he has to meet the Prince on the next day

Meanwhile, Elly finds Allura and the cat helps her to escape while she scares the guards with the cat using it as a distraction before kicking some asses before running off to the palace

Just after that, Shiro finds out that Honerva is talking about a cabin in the woods to one of the guards and he follows her

Honerva is FU-RI-OUS when she sees the guards that let the Princess escape, but more importantly she is asking herself why she never told nobody that she was kidnapped in the first place

She sees Shiro through a mirror, she knows that he heard her little speech

Oh boy, Shiro is losing his mind when he faces Honerva “You want to become an Empress?”

Boum, Shiro is hit by a guard with a stick and lays unconscious on the ground

Honerva has to hide him in the mines nearby

Allura however, with Elly, is going to the palace but nobody wants to let her in because “You're faking that you're the Princess girl! Listen, I don't know how you heard about the Princess disappearance but go away!”

So, the only place Allura knows is the  Lotor's Dress Emporium and Lance, so there she heads

But Lotor catches her mid-way, laughing at her

“What do you find so funny Lotor?” “For you, it's Sir Lotor! Your parents never taught you manners? You'll follow me you ingrate!”

And he grabs Allura by her hand and she's shocked because wow, it's harsh coming from a boss

When inside the shop, she reveals that she's the Princess but Lotor laughs even loudly, and Romelle is curious about what is happening so she goes out

“You? Princess Allura? Don't try to fool me with your wig Lance!” “Lance...?” “You were gone for the whole day, you should be happy that Romelle managed to do some of your work! Now, go to work and don't sleep until you finish this!” “If you treat your employees like that all the Court's orders will be given to someone else!” “You are threatening me? You? Who do you think you are?!”

And he locks Allura and Romelle in

Allura is absolutely shocked, and Romelle curious about Lance wearing a wig...

“Lance, what are you doing with a wig...?” “I truly am Princess Allura, and what is your name my dear?” “You really are... This is the dress that Lance did for you oh my... My name is Romelle your Highness”

And Allura softly smiles at her, asking her how she can help her in the atelier because Romelle won't do all the job by herself

Elly watches both of them sewing, and then Romelle tells Allura that Elly could sneak out because Blue does it every time and she could deliver the message to her father about her being here

Allura puts a tag form Lotor's shop into her ring and puts it around Elly's neck

Elly is on a mission now, mission home

The next morning, when Lance wakes up he's struck by the fact that somebody brings him his breakfast to bed and A HUGE BREAKFAST OMG

He wants to share with the maid, because he will never eat all of that plus it could feed a huge amount of people

Beginning with Blue who catches some ham on the plate

And then, the servant prepares a bath for the Princess, aka Lance

When Lance sees all these bubbles he just wants to cry because holly shit it's so perfect and Blue is running all around the bathtub

Lance dives into it, having a foam of bubbles all over his head, he made himself a moustache and a beard

Blue began to act strangely, being all petty and strange and Lance noticed it: Blue wanted to seem royal and that made Lance softly laugh

“I can see it when you're feeling low you can't hide that from me” - Lance beginning to sing while Blue walks on the edge of the bathtub

Lance sings for Blue, because Blue is all family that is left to him and he loves this cat so much that he could die for his girl

He reassures her telling her that she's the best cat ever and that she shouldn't try to be someone else – unlike him – because Blue is the best cat

Let's expose Keith who is listening at the door because he's searching for the Princess and he hears Lance's sublime voice and he falls in love totally head over heels

Keith is explaining the whole situation in the throne room to king Alfor, he tells him that he used this particular method to get to know the Princess in a less official way

This is Honerva that brings Lance to the throne room, and Lance is panicked because Shiro disappeared last night and he was clueless about everything and anything

But he planned to do his best until the Princess came back

When Lance meets the Prince right after he recognizes the guy standing next to the ambassador and is absolutely flustering because HOLLY SHIT THE PRINCE IS HOT

“I feel honoured, Princess” “Uh... Euh... I am honoured to meet you, my Prince” says Lance while curtsying in front of the Prince “Please, call me Keith” “And call me La... Allura, Princess Allura, of course it's my name...”

“I am deeply sorry that I came to meet you in disguise Princess, I hope that I did not offend your feelings. I just wanted to meet the real you” - Keith, soft, bowing in front of the Princess again, with a soft look that makes Lance melt in an instant

Alfor just stops this awkward moment – and Lance thanks him so much – by asking if the Prince wants to play the piano, because yes the Prince is fond of every sort of arts

Lance is in awe, the guy is hot, seems funny – who in the world would disguise himself to see his future wife? Only him – and above all he plays an instrument: if he wasn't Allura he would absolutely be melting

Keith agrees only if Allura, aka Lance, sings with him

And this breaks into another musical number with Keith playing the piano and Lance singing

“You say your love is true and I hope that it will be” - Lance, secretly hoping that this cute Prince won't reject him if he learns that Lance is Lance, and not Allura

“I'd be sure, if I knew that you loved me for me” - Keith, playing softly on the piano while looking at Lance's beautiful blue eyes

The are walking into the gardens, Keith softly trying to catch Lance's hand while Lance is a whole blushing mess because the Prince is trying to hold his hand and his hand is so soft and Keith smells actually very good and his eyes are purple and beautiful and Lance can't handle all of this

While they're walking, Keith notices a bunch of forget-me-nots in the garden, and gives a bunch of them to Lance who scents them and softly blushes

“So, you like singing I guess” “ Yes, I always loved to sing, this is something that keeps me somehow alive in my cage in fact...” “You feel trapped?” “Yes I always did, this is so hard to be paying... To pay the price of being a Princess by being kept in a palace” “I absolutely understand you, I always wanted to see other countries but my Mother always forbid me to do so because she was afraid that I would get injured or even dead” “I can't believe that you would someone kill you Keith!” “I could only let you kill me with your beautiful eyes, Allura”

And Lance loses it all actually

When they part ways in the evening, Keith kisses Lance's hand telling him that they will see each other in the evening, just before their tomorrow's wedding

And Lance feels his heart beating faster and faster, but at the same time a pain catches him: he is lying to the Prince, and he's taking Allura's place but the problem is that he is slowly falling for this adorable Prince who has a passion for knives and makes the best compliments ever

Honerva isn't amused at all by all of this because she doesn't understand what happens at all in here

But she's absolutely thrilled when she finds Elly in the gardens at night, with Allura's ring around her neck and so she understands: the Allura in the palace isn't the real Allura

She goes to Lotor's Dress Emporium and finds the real Princess and kidnaps her again, leaving the poor Romelle searching for the Princess in the shop

Honerva takes Allura to the mines, and throws her into the same cell that Shiro is telling her how she will marry her father and become the Empress after killing him

Her guards close the mines, dynamiting the entrances, and leave Allura with Shiro

Shiro is tied up to a wooden stick in the cell and he hugs Allura when he sees her because she seems to be alright, even if they are in a delicate situation

He explains to her his whole plan, with Lance being the Princess right now

They both know that they can't find a way out, but Shiro tries to break the rocks with a pickaxe in order to get out

Allura finds a rare gem hidden inside a basic rock and calls Shiro to sit next to her

“I am unable to get us out of here, I am sorry Allura...” “Shiro, do you know why I wanted to refuse the marriage with Prince Keith?” “You do not feel ready to marry a man” No, not because of that. Because I am already in love with someone else, with my friend, with the one who was always by my side when I needed him, the one that I trust the most, the one that taught me everything” “But... Allura... I am nothing like a King, I can not offer you dresses, jewels and...” “To me, you are like this rock Shiro” “Ugly and basic?” “Shiro... On the outside, this rock looks like a basic rock, but in fact there is a treasure inside. By your rank, you are like this rock Shiro, and I will do anything to be by your side now” “But, the people...” “I know what to do Shiro, just trust me”

And he hugs her, because this was the purest act of love, the most beautiful confession in the world: even better than the ones that he planned for her, the ones that he read to her

Meanwhile, Keith is proposing to Lance in front of the King, and Lance can't really handle this because it's too pure for him, because he genuinely fell in love with Keith

Keith, on the other hand, is really fond of Lance's personality and his beautiful eyes

Honevra is back in the palace and uncovers Lance's disguise by taking off his wig in front of the King and Keith in the throne room

She explains that it was Shiro's plan, that he wanted to kill the Princess and gain power and that they made the mines nearby explode and they only could find Allura's ring

Lance is actually taken by her guards, yelling that he wanted to protect Allura from Honerva and that he did nothing, he yelled with his whole heart that what he told Keith was true and that he really loved him

Anyway, he was thrown into the palace's prison

Lance cries his eyes out during the night, trying to sing but failing miserably to

Kolivan wants to KILL EVERYBODY IN THIS KINGDOM because they wanted to marry the Prince with a poor guy, not even a real Princess and that is unacceptable!

Keith is however really intrigued by what just happened: the boy, Lance, didn't seem to be lying to him, he couldn't fake all these blushes and... This Honerva who was watching them during this walk...

He decided to stay in the kingdom, just for another night

King Alfor is dead inside, he is losing his kingdom and now he lost his daughter, as his wife, forever, he wanted to die but at the same time knew that the kingdom needed him

Honerva, on the other hand, proposes to king Alfor to marry her because thanks to her travel she learned that her activities were making a huge profit, a profit of a Prince Keith, and that she could solve the crisis by marrying him

Bonus, there is already a marriage planned so

Alfor is unable to refuse this offer, Eleanor would've wanted this for her people

On the next day, after a rough night, Allura and Shiro managed to find a way out: there is a huge hole in the ground above them and that there is some water flowing here and actually they could get out of here by entering one of these wooden boxes and go to stop Honerva from marrying Allura's father

Lance is determined to not die in this prison, absolutely not so he steals the keys from one of the sleeping guards and sneaks out, before being caught by another guard taking him out of the prison, King's orders

Lance is pissed, absolutely pissed, and wants to escape so he hits the guard in the balls and then, he hears a familiar voice

“I agree, I deserved this...” “... Keith?! I will explain you everything, I swear I am not...” “I do not believe this Honerva at all, I know that you could not lie to me, A... Lance” “Yes... You do like to be in disguise, do you Keith?” “That's not the real problem here, Lance. We have no time, follow me please”

The two couples are running to the wedding, while Alfor almost married Honerva

But Allura arrives in time, with Shiro, telling her father that Honerva tries to trick him

Honerva swears that it's the boy, but Elly appears next to Allura, Elly that wasn't seen around for a long time and Allura approaches her father telling him that her mother gave her once a ring, a pink worthless ring and that she wears it around her neck and showed it to him

And Alfor knew that it was Allura

Allura tells them that Honerva tried to kill her and Shiro in order to become the Empress of this kingdom

Honerva is RUNNING away, but Shiro and Keith catch her together before handing her to the guards

Lance is in the back, smiling because it's what that awful witch deserved

Once every guest came back home, Allura had a moment to talk with her father, Lance, Shiro and Keith were taken care of by some servants

“Father, nothing happened to me thanks to my friend Lance and to the one I love, Takashi” “I deeply want you to be happy, it is my dearest wish, but Allura, you know, for the kingdom...” “Do not worry Father, in the mines where I was, I made a discovery, a gem worth more than the gold we lack, our kingdom is not in crisis anymore”

And this solves somehow the crisis problem

On the next day, when Allura paid all of Lance's debts, Lance is ready to go and discover the world, to sing, to be himself and what he always wanted to be: free

Keith stands next to Lance's horse, with a small box in his hand

“Are you sure that you want to go, Lance?” Yes, I am. This is what I was talking about, to be free from my misery, to be able to go wherever I want to... To not be trapped anymore” “Will you come back?” “I can't promise Keith...” “So please, take this with you”

Keith hands Lance the little box with the engagement ring, telling him it was meant to be for him, because, whoever he is, he loves him and deeply wishes to marry him one day

Lance is touched, so touched and accepts the gift, telling him that he is happy to know that he has a place to come back to

Lotor's Dress Emporium is ruined, Allura makes everything to sink this sick man's business and allows Romelle to open her own little shop from where she will buy her dresses

A few years later, Lance comes back to Altea but before he goes to see Keith in the Blade's kingdom

Keith is absolutely astonished, seeing Lance coming back and when Lance notices him he runs towards him before hugging him

“I missed you so much Keith, the world is beautiful but nothing is as beautiful as you Keith!” “I love you too Lance”

And they kiss, Lance in Keith's arms deeply in love

Lance meets Keith's parents, the King and the Queen who find the boy lovely and, well, now they know that it's acceptable to let their son marry whoever he wants to because they spoke with Alfor for a long moment

Shiro and Allura, being the perfect royal couple offer to the two lovers to make a double marriage

Lance is thrilled because he is marrying with a Prince, during the same ceremony that Allura, the Princess of his kingdom and his friend now

Romelle gives everything she has in doing Lance's outfit, because her best friend will marry a Prince and if this isn't a fairy tale she doesn't know what it is

And this is the purest marriage that the two kingdoms have ever seen, Shiro and Allura are the cutest couple on Earth and Lance and Keith are the perfect lovebirds

They had a happy ever after after all...

          Bonus:

Shiro and Allura had a daughter that they called Marina Eleanor, with white hair and beautiful cat shaped blue eyes: a pure candy, a girl with a beautiful smile and a great personality

She often could be found in the library, with books around her little dress while looking at the images as somebody was reading a story to her

Or hiding in the garden, between junipers and forget-me-nots

Lance and Keith adopted a boy named Julian, an orphan from the Blade's kingdom that Lance found once on one of his escapes from the palace and the little boy followed him during the whole day, and Lance having a big heart and being undercover bought him some food, took care of him and asked him where his parents were, and when he learnt that his parents were dead he adopted him, instantaneously: law

Keith loved the little boy so much, he was so lively and so funny and loved to play the violin so Lance made this tradition that every Friday the three of them were having a music session, with Keith playing the piano, Julian playing the violin and Lance singing

[cultho]

Dororo Epilogue/Post-ending Standalone episode

*WARNING: SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD!!*

So I watched the ending and I had a lot of feelings about it, and I came up with a few ideas for a standalone post-episode to explore some concepts I would like to see from the show. Fyi, the pronouns I use for Dororo vary by situation, with a preference for he/him (my headcanon is Dororo is pretty genderfluid!).

About a year after Hyakkimaru went to find himself, aka end of the series (but before the timeskip where Dororo’s hair is long), the episode opens with opens with Hyakkimaru, feeling more at peace with himself, returning to the village Dororo was developing via dad's Harry Potter level of inheritance.

Dororo, who now basically rules this village despite being a literal 9 year old, hears word from his fellow villagers that a wandering stranger with a sword was spotted helping one of the rice farmers because their horse got caught in a ditch (or anything else of that nature). Of course, Dororo immediately comes running, and barrels straight into Hyakkimaru for the sibling reunion hug we deserve.

Then Dororo punches Hyakki on the arm and gives him a hard time for leaving for a whole year without even a ‘goodbye,’ asks 'So what made you decide to come back after a whole year, huh, punk?’

In response, Hyakki pulls out a small, worn, pouch and Dororo says 'woah - Mio’s rice seeds? I thought you would’ve planted them by now already.’

With a little smile, Hyakki goes 'I thought about doing that, but then I remembered you were close with her too, so you have as much of a right to these seeds… so I decided to wait until we could plant them together.’ 

The rest follows as one expects it to -  Dororo teases him for becoming an even bigger softie, and they set off back to the village to grab some farm tools who Hyakki the place, as the camera pans up until the brilliant blue sky fills the frame. That chapter of their lives ends the same way it began, with Hyakkimaru and Dororo - the latter chatting up a storm while the former quietly appreciates - side by side, wandering where they must. 

Then the camera pans back down, and where before there was bare paddy, the field is now golden and thriving (same as it was in the show's ending). After a half decade timeskip, Dororo is 15-16 to Hyakki’s 21-22, and the rest of the episode follows them dealing with a demon terrorizing their village, who turns out to be Daigo’s butthurt evil spirit. I don’t have a specific plot, but here are concepts that I’d love to see explored.

First, Grown up badass Dororo running her town, being like her own Alexander Hamilton, except not only does this Alexander Hamilton know finances, how to run a sovereign state, how to outsmart any opponent, rouse even the most downtrodden souls to action with just a few words, she also kicks major butt from training with her big bro. Shoutout to that one post that inspired the idea that her dad's Big Boy genes kicked in during puberty so she’s actually like... as tall as Hyakki. Maybe even an inch taller. She says to anyone who asks that her bro can 'die mad about it’ but they both know that he’s just happy she grew up big and strong. 

She totally runs the town and everyone adores/massively respects her; her city takes in the refugees, the poor, the women and children, the diseased, etc, because, in her words, screw samurai and screw their wars. They absorbed Daigo’a old land after offering food, shelter, and jobs to the survivors, thus their town became a pretty respectably sized settlement.

Now, the key to all this - since they don't want to rely on samurai for their power - is the money, right? So Dororo’s power is her knowledge of the treasures secret location (and all the other badass things about her, but I digress). Imagine at some point a small gang of newer villaghers got the bright idea to try and stalk her during one of her mysterious night trips out (she calls them a way to satisfy her wanderlust, but they’re a cover for her sailing to the treasure's location to grab some cash), and they only get as far as spying her enter the docks before their plan goes to heck when they get accosted by Dororo's more loyal villagers who saw them sneaking. ‘Oh sh*t,’ they’re thinking, Dororo sauntering over to them, ‘Oh sh*t, shes got a big sword, oh man oh sh*t this is the end for me - '

But Dororo’s been there before, at the end of her rope and desperate for any edge to survive, she understands how these guys think, and if there’s one thing she’s stubborn to death about it’s that she does NOT run her town like the samurai. Instead, she talks them out of their misdoing and helps them find an honest living, Tales of Ba Sing Se Uncle Iroh style, (except with more volume and verbal threats).

Another concept with Dororo is when Dororo dresses to look like a guy when he and Hyakki take a couple horses and venture into a nearby city (for whatever plot reason), similar to how he did when he was a lot younger.

It’s not fully a secret, but only the older residents of her city know about Dororo’s 'crossdressing' habit, and are accepting of it.

Dororo mentions that while he’s in no way ashamed of presenting female, it often feels more freeing to present male, especially when they're out adventuring - less questions and stares from strangers, etc. Dororo also just likes presenting as male! This way, he identifies with both genders at different times. (It goes without saying Hyakki does his best to use the right pronouns, he never had a strict concept of gender - re: Jukai is the best mom, so it never struck him as odd.)

As for the actual villain of the episode, when she first hears of the Jerk Dad Demon attacking the farms on the outskirts of the village, she only thinks ‘it's just another demon, time to gather the crew and kill this thing-’

It doesn’t go so easily, as the demon’s exceptional strength proves to draw out the confrontation, and it even ends up escaping the first time.

The first to figure it out was Hyakki - he’s most familiar with Daigo’s wrath and the foul creature reeks of the old man. However, everything happened so fast and he sort of… neglected to inform Dororo. When she does find out, they have a short confrontation about it in classic Bickering Siblings Style. It’s understandable that she’s slightly miffed the demonic incarnation of his own awful dad, yes that one, is who they’re fighting and he didn’t bother letting her know.

Hyakki, who, even after a decade of having his voice back, isn't that great at communication/vocalizing his more complex thoughts and working through conflicts with words and thus often comes off as awkward or silently stoic: 'You were busy... and I thought you figured by yourself already?’

Things escalate when the other villagers overhear, and they almost start a riot; angry shouts accusing him of being the reason the demon attacks their settlement from the all the tired men and women, haggard from fending off attacks of not only the demon but also rival bandits and clans who want to take advantage of the city’s time of hardship. Of course, Dororo gets everyone back in lineright before the crowd got to deciding to sacrifice Hyakkimaru, reminding them to focus on the real enemy instead of turning on eachother - but the situation was incredibly bleak. With everyone on edge partially, it was easy to use Hyakki as a scapegoat due to his pacifist tendencies and his stoic nature coming across as almost cowardice.

He taught Dororo how to fight and that's pretty much all the fighting he's done since he came back to plant Mio’s rice, he’s reluctant to pick up the blade again. But the moment a demon shows up he runs off on his own, risking life and limb to confront it head on. Combined with his character’s less than stellar communication skills, it frustrates Dororo in the 'he leaves for a year and doesnt even text me when he's going’ kinda way’ - she's frustrated when he continually refuses to understand that they're family, and at the end of they day theyre kind of all the other has left. So he needs to get it together better and tell her when he’s about to go off and do reckless nonsense. His behavior also presents an interesting dichotomy as Hyakki also struggles with trying to be emotionally detached (lose worldly desires, etc.) and pacifist in the face of attacks from both demon and humans, so he needs to reconcile fighting with the others against attacking clans and risking a redescent into the demon like madness of his teenage years or standing by non violent means of supporting his comrades while facing expectations that he should do more. He wants to atone for his past sins badly and help those who are still living best he can - but how? 

(And also make friends other than literally just Dororo.)

Dororo's arc is about her struggles to do the right thing as a leader - it is a lot, to run a whole city. Recent events have caused more deaths amidst her city than ever before, and moral questions about what to do with captured enemy survivors feed doubt into her mind if one day she’ll turn out as bad as the samurai, and how to continue on after having led people in battles that resulted in their deaths.

P.s. I also entertained the idea of Hyakki’s journey to find himself taking much longer, and so the first time Dororo sees him again ever since he got his eyes back is when she's 20, there's rain pouring from the dark sky as her men are carrying lamps around, accounting for the dead and defeated in a latest skirmish with a small rival band that was trying to access her city the non-peaceful way.

At first her men bring her hyakkimaru, thinking he was with the enemy (he happened to be in the wrong place, wrong time. He simply heard of a group heading to a big place that sounded an awful lot like somewhere he would find Dororo - and followed them).

And from the business end of her sword he's on his knees looking up when she goes 'nah. I know him. This bastard's got hell to answer for, but he's not our enemy.’

Events are more or less the same from there, but filled with way more tension and drama here since Hyakki basically dropped off the face of the earth for 10 ish years and Do’s mad about that because, again, he didn't even say 'bye'. So much has changed, but what hasn't changed is Dororo’s anikki's inability to grasp that if one day he went off without telling her and then died, she would have literally no idea where/when/how that was, she would never know if he was alive or dead, and the idea of living in that limbo would terrify anyone. The story being about them learning to come together again, only at the end do they plant Mio’s rice field together.

I ended up trying to flesh the first idea out more because Do & Hyakki’s relationship is all about the things that don't need to be said; that these two will always be there for the other without needing to be asked. The backbone of their relationship was built up as one that didn’t need explicit affirmation because it was already so ingrained to their characters it would be a disservice to them and a waste of time to contrive an entire plot trying to create unnecessary drama between them.

But then again... drama = satisfying character growth, so perhaps it could go either way! Let me know what you think! 

Thank you for reading all this way :) I also posted second part to this of other thoughts I had while pondering why I felt the need to write a standalone epilogue.

Bonus: these gems I had in the rough draft that unfortunately had to get cut:

“But it’s harder to kill bc jerk dad demon is a jerk”

“Dororo's like 'u mean to tell me ur punk bitch biological male progenitor's demonized soul is attacking our fields??? “

“they take down the big bad dad dude daigo”

“Dororo: - pshffyeahh, ur pissy pissfaced pissbaby dad”