#(total coincidence - no name stealing involved)

[lxvejohnny]

The endless beginning

part four

scream VI fanfiction with implied ethan x oc!

find part one, part two, and part three or just the masterlist. enjoy!

Amelie sits in between Sam and Tara as they look down at the photos on the table. Gory pictures of the crime scene with the bodies of Jason and Greg and the bloody picture of Sam’s license on the floor. The three girls haven’t made a noise since they were put into the investigation room, all too exhausted and drained from the attack that just took place. Amelie sits in her clothes that have started to become sticky with blood and feels like throwing up. She wasn’t able to throw her clothes away just yet since they have literal human blood on them and because she doesn’t have a spare with her. They also needed to take a photo of her clothes for evidence. She just couldn’t wait until she could go home, strip off her clothes and scrub the blood off her skin until a new layer is revealed. They let her wash up her hands and arms, at least, so there wasn’t any blood or glass stuck on her hands.

Soon enough Detective Bailey comes into the room and closes the door behind him. In his hand lays an evidence bag with a Ghostface mask where he lets the girls know that it was found next to the bodies at the apartment crime scene. “DNA says that it belongs to somebody named Richie Kirisch. Does it ring a bell?”

“We’re familiar with him,” Sam replies. She stares at the mask before looking away. All too familiar with him, actually. 

“The one that attacked us had a different mask on,” Tara noticed when she saw the mask in the bag. The detective looks confused at this. “It was kind of more beat up, like it was older.”

“Ah, I gotta ask, do you have alibis for earlier tonight?” Detective Bailey jumps into his next set of questions. So, one by one the three girls state where they were at.

“I was at a party with my friends,” says Tara.

“I was also at said party with our friends,” Amelie says next.

“I was at my therapists. I can give you his information, you can call to check if you want,” Sam says last. “And then I met these two at that party. Where I tased someone.”

Detective Bailey looks concerned. Interesting piece of information to tell the police, Amelie thinks, but at least she was being honest.

“Unrelated,” Sam quips, moving past it.

“Before or after this happened?” Bailey pulls his phone out to show the girls a video taken of Sam pushing the girl who threw a drink on her. Whoever took the video made it look like worse than it was, Sam was provoked, of course she was going to fight back.

“Before,” Sam looks away from the phone and speaks.

“Point is, we were with people all night,” Tara butts in.

After a brief moment of silence, something else seemed to peek Sam’s interest in this whole thing. “So, our roommates dad just happened to pull our case.”

“That had to be a crazy coincidence, right?” Detective Bailey peers back to Sam where he sees her nod. “The detective who had the case offered to give it to me because it involves Quinn, but I can totally give it back if you’re uncomfortable. Up to you.”

Sam looks beside her at Amelie who turns to Sam. She shrugs her shoulders in response, maybe it was better to have him on the case. They live with his daughter anyways, so they have to be safe, right? Sam shakes her head and lets the detective know it’s fine but she still looks suspicious.

“So, if the man who attacked you did steal your license and plant it next to the body, then that will probably be someone close to you,” The detective states as he begins his next round of questions. “How long have you known your friends?”

“Well, we moved here with Mindy and Chad for summer semester like six months ago. So, Quinn, Ethan, Anika is all,” Tara decides to speak up since Sam has done the majority of it their time here.

“Well, I think I can vouch for Quinn so that’s one less we have to worry about,” At that, Tara turns to look at Amelie beside her and they share a quick look. They trust Quinn, sure, but they he was quick to cover his daughter. “Do any of you have anyone who might want to target you?”

“Not anyone who’s still alive,” Amelie finally speaks up for the second time since entering the room.

His eyes widen before saying “Yikes.”

The door then opens, and an officer lets Bailey know that the FBI is here, and his jurisdiction is needed. As soon he steps out of the room all the girls let out a breath of air. Sam looks to Amelie who sits beside her, “You okay?”

It feels like everyone around her is asking if she’s okay so often recently. “Yeah, I just need to get out of these clothes”

“Don’t worry, we are getting the hell out of here now” Sam says out of relief as she stands up.

Soon enough the three girls are getting walked out by an officer before Sam looks into the room they are passing where Detective Bailey is and sees a face she recognizes “Kirby?”

“Hey, Sam,” Kirby looks up and sees Sam. Kirby gives Sam a hug and puts her hand on Tara and Amelie’s shoulder to acknowledge them. “You’ve grown, Amelie.”

“You’re the FBI?” Sam looks at Kirby quizzically, the last time she saw her she was a student in high school and was a part of the recent attacks by Ghostface. Amelie recognizes her briefly from all those years ago. That attack was the first time she ever saw Ghostface and was when it all began for her. She was only a child, and her dad did his absolute best to shield her from what was happening, but she remembers his fear of it coming back. She also recalls that Kirby was one of the last survivors from that attack.

“You know each other?” Detective Bailey asks when he sees the small reunion.

“Yeah, we went to Woodsboro high together. She was a senior when I was a freshman.”

“We share a certain history, yeah.”

Kirby then talks to the detective about her file on the case and offers to share. Amelie zones it out, she didn’t care that much, and she just wanted to leave. She was tired and none of them have had a blink of sleep all night from all the back-to-back action that these past 24 hours has packed in. Amelie starts to concentrate in on the conversation when she sees a new evidence bag placed in the detective’s hands, the mask left from the bodega.

“DNA traces to two individuals; Charlie Walker and Jill Roberts, both deceased,” The detective reads the writing on the bag out loud to the group of girls. Amelie looks at Kirby and she sees the distant glaze covering her eyes.

“Ghostface killers of 2011. Charlie Walker gave me this,” Kirby lifts her shirt up and shows her scar that rested on her side. “Like I said, I take a special interest. Was this the mask he was wearing when he attacked you?”

“No,” Tara shakes her head at the question.

“So, he’s leaving them on purpose,” Detective Bailey gathers.

“Which means whoever is doing this is a student of the killers who came before. Maybe he believes Sam is the latest in a long line,” Kirby suggests, looking at Sam. Though Sam looks like she wants nothing to do with it.

“Yeah, goodluck with that. We’re getting out of town,” Sam grabs both Amelie’s and Tara’s shoulders as she turns them around to start walking out of the station. Their moves halt when Detective Bailey lets them know they can’t. “I’m sorry that’s not possible. You’re all persons of interest in a double homicide, so you’re not allowed to leave town, sorry.”

“He’s right, but if we work together-“ Kirby tries again, thinking that maybe if she offers to help Sam and the girls then it would will them to stay.

“We’re going,” Sam says pointedly. Her decision was already made, and Sam was not going to involve herself, and especially not Tara and Amelie, in a direct investigation to find out who the killer is this time. She has built up so much paranoia over the last year and clearly, it was worthy.

The girls push through the doors of the police station to be greeted by a swarm of people with microphones and cameras, all yelling out different questions for the girls to answer. Sam walks behind the girls and pushes at both their shoulders to shove past the people and ignore their questions. They were not going to get a word, nor a reaction from the three and Sam was going to make sure of it. As they manage to push through the crowd and walk towards their Taxi waiting for them on the side of the road, they hear a voice quip up. Gale.

“Gale Weathers, Channel four. Do you ladies think you’re the reason the Ghostface killer has come to the big apple?”

Amelie’s eyes widen when she sees Sam swing and Gale ducks. “Nice try sweetie, but I’ve done this dance before.”

Tara sees her opportunity and lands a punch on Gale. “Stay away from us.”

Sam grabs Amelie’s hand to keep her walking with them instead of turning back to go with Gale. She knows the woman means a lot to Amelie and vice versa, but she also knows that Gale is conniving and is trying to worm her way into the situation again.

“Are you really still mad at me?” Gale recovers quickly from the punch and chases after the girls. Guess after all that practice, she’s learned how to recover fast.

“You said you weren’t going to write a book about what happened, and then you wrote a book about what happened.” Sam says angrily to Gale.

“Oh, come on, somebody was gonna to write about it. That’s what I do,” Gale replies, trying to reason with the angry sister. 

“I heard you couldn’t sell the movie rights,” Tara questions, looking at Gale with a curious, but sarcastic, look on her face.

“It’s-it’s all about true crime limited series these days,” Gale attempts to defend herself. Yeah, her attempt to have movie rights didn’t go as she planned but she was not about let the girls know it got to her.

“It-it's just that after everything we went through together, Gale, everything you and my dad went through-“ Amelie finally speaks up. She understands where the sister’s frustration was coming from, she felt it back when she first read the book. She was also incredibly tired and heavy from the blood on her clothes, making her all the more irritable. “-what would Dewey think?”

Gale stares at Amelie in shock and pain flashes across her eyes. She looks as if she just got stabbed, not expecting that from Amelie of all people. “That was a low blow.”

“So was your book. You called me unstable and born killer.” Sam spikes back to Gale. She really wishes she could have landed that punch on Gale because her frustration is peaking again.

“That was taken out of context.”

“That’s literally a quote.”

“You don’t think what you wrote has something to do with what is happening to us?” Tara asks Gale and shakes her head.

“Come on,” Sam says, and the three make their way to a taxi. Right before they began to step into the car, Gale called out which halted their movements.

“Hey, I talked to Sidney.”

“She’s not coming here, is she?” Sam asks with concern. She can’t have Sidney come back here and go through this all again for the sixth time. This was her battle, her fight.

“No, she sends her love but she’s taking Mark and the kids some place safe. She deserves to have her happy ending,” Gale responds which sends a wave of relief in the younger girls in front of Gale.

“Then that much we agree,” Sam says before she ushers Amelie into the taxi and her following.

“Wait! Mel!” Gale calls and Amelie looks at her from inside the taxi. Mel was a nickname given to Amelie by Gale and only she was reserved to call her that. When she was a really young girl and her dad married Gale, the older women cared for her like she was her own. This included giving her a nickname that only Gale called her, and Amelie cherished the name so much. “I tried calling you, earlier.”

“Yeah, I know,” she says, nodding her head. “I-I wanted to answer but-“

“-but I declined it for her,” Sam interrupts her. She was done talking to Gale and needed them to leave, now. Maybe she might get the chance to take that swing at Gale after all.

“Hey! I want to catch this fucker as much as you do,” Gales calls out one more time as Sam follows Amelie into the back of the taxi. With just Tara left to get in she finishes the conversation.

“Maybe. Or maybe you’re just afraid that without Ghostface in your life, you’re gonna fade away.”

~

Back at the apartment, Quinn received a text from her dad and let the group know that there was another Ghostface attack at the bodega and the three girls were there. She let the group know that they got taken to the station for questioning and should be on their way home soon. Amelie also sent Ethan a quick text letting him briefly know they had a run in with the killer and were on their way. She did promise to call him if they had any trouble and while she didn’t get the chance to do that, she figured a brief text would have to suffice for that. The rest of the friends stayed at their apartment, worried about the girls as they were out. After hearing from Quinn everything that happened, they decided to stay until they come back to make sure they were okay and because they wanted to show their support. Amelie, Tara, and Sam are their best friends, their family, and they will do what they need to make sure they are okay.

So, when the front door of the apartment opens and in walks three sweaty girls with one who also has blood covering her pants and some of her shirt, the friends rise from their seats and rushes to them.

Mindy gasps when she sees Amelie and rushes to her side. “Oh my god, Amie, are you okay?”

Ethan perks up even more after hearing Mindy and looks at Amelie. He sees the distant look in her eyes and heads to stand next to her as well. The group, with looks of concern, wait patiently for any one of the girls to start speaking so that’s what Sam does. She explains everything that happened from leaving the apartment down to getting into the taxi.

Amelie can feel the eyes on her, she does have blood stains on her covering her, so it is within reason, and she probably reeks of iron. “We were running out of the bodega, and I slipped on some guy’s blood and fell in it. It’s not mine, don’t worry.”

Mindy from beside her holds Amelie’s arm as she tries to take her shoes off, that also have blood covering them. Guess those will also have to go, she thinks. Amelie continues to speak as she kicks the shoes off her feet, “I just need to get these clothes off of me and take a shower.”

Ethan stares at the red stains on her and feels angry again. Though he is relieved that the blood is not hers, he knows that it could have been her blood and it could have been her body they were picking up onto a gurney and placing in a bag.

“Well, we’re glad you guys are okay,” Anika says as she walks with Amelie and Mindy to her room.

“Yeah, me too,” Amelie says with a grateful smile that didn’t reach her eyes. She almost felt as if the blood was hers and she was stabbed all over again by the amount of attention she was getting from this. She was grateful her friends care so much, but it was almost too overwhelming. Mindy and Anika leave the room to let Amelie get changed and take a shower where she is left by herself and her thoughts. As she peels the first layer of her clothes off a knock comes from door, and she rolls her eyes. God, she just wants to be left alone after everything. She stalks to her door in only her tank top and pants now and opens the door to reveal Ethan who looks concerned.

“What’s up?” She stays at the entry and holds the doorknob.

“I’m sorry if I am bothering you, I just wanted to make sure you’re doing okay,” Ethan says nervously. He looks down to see if she is still wearing the clothes and she is, just less than before. Her tank top has some blood stains which must have leaked through from the long sleeve she was previously wearing. Blush rises to his cheeks, realizing he just subtly checked her out before looking back into her eyes where she appears tired and sunken in, though there is a hint of amusement laced in her expression.

“I am doing okay, Ethan. I was just about to take a shower, anyways,” She replies and nudges her head to the bathroom across the hall from her room.

“Oh okay, yeah, I guess you should do that,” Ethan nods his head before his expression changes, and he furrows his eyebrows. “Wait-wait, not that you need to or anything, it’s just because you have blood on you and stuff and you probably just want to get clean from everything, sorry.”

Amelie manages to let out a chuckle and shakes her head at him. “I know what you meant, don’t worry.”

She looks at him and thinks about everything that has happened this past night. She has been wanting to be alone this whole time to just be able to lay down and clean up but maybe being with someone won’t be as bad tonight as she thought. Because as she looks at him now, she can see that he cares and that he wants to be there for her. All this time she has refused her feelings down for him because she was so scared of what may happen if she acted upon it. She has a pretty good feeling that he also likes her the same way she does him, maybe even more, so she makes up her mind. She is so tired of feeling scared all the time and if she’s going to be fearful, then it’s going to be something worth being scared about and not about some boy. Time seems to run too fast in her world and she has learned that the hard way.

“Uhm, would you want to, maybe, stay? For a bit? I-I will go get clean and stuff, but you can just chill here, and we can hang out after I’m done? If you’re not busy, of course,” Amelie looks at him nervously now as she proposes the idea to him. Please say yes and make me not look like a total fool.

“Yeah, of course.” Ethan looks shocked that she asked and nods his head rapidly. He clears his throat, "I would give you a hug, but uh, I am not too keen on swapping blood."

“I will be right back, then you can give me a hug. Free of blood transfers,” Amelie smiles and lets him into her room before exiting to the bathroom. Ethan takes a seat on her desk chair, not wanting to sit on her bed without his permission and smiles to himself. All the anger he felt earlier has evaporated from his body and nothing but excitement and joy has replaced it. Something about her asking him to stay with her just makes his tummy feel funny and makes him think that waiting all this time to let her get close to him was worth it. He knows that they have hung out along countless times before, but something about it feels different.

Ethan sends a quick text to Chad to just let him know that he was staying with Amelie for the next couple of hours, to which Chad replies with a finally man! Guess you did listen and make a move, get it roomie :) and then followed it with but pls take care of her though, she could probably use it.

Soon enough Amelie enters the room again with wet hair and clothed in some shorts and a large pyjama shirt. Ethan looks up quickly at the girl and puts the picture frame he had in his hand back on her desk.

“I-I’m sorry, I wasn’t snooping or anything, it was just there,” Ethan says nervously as he looks at her anxiously. He recognized her dad, of course he did, he was one of the legacy survivors of the original Ghostface attacks. So, he looked at the photo to see her smile so wide, he didn’t know she had the capability of doing so. He wonders if he could have ever had the same relationship with his dad as she did with Dewey and he feels jealous, almost, that even with everything that was currently planned with his family, he would never get that same amount of love. Guilt also begins to eat away at his stomach as he thinks of his family’s plans, knowing that they are the same plans that took away the person she cared about the most. But he also knows how it feels to lose a family member. Though, the circumstances are very different, and while he seeks revenge, she looks for comfort. While anger is ridden in both the young adults, the two use it to their advantage in very different ways.

Amelie notices his panicky actions and walks towards him where she grabs his hands to pull him up from her desk chair and wraps her arounds around his torso, finally getting that hug. Ethan is quick to wrap his arms around her and hold her tight. Amelie closes her eyes and places her head on his chest, listening to his heart and the silence of her room. Ethan smiles at her action and rests his cheek on the top of her head. They don't hug often, Amelie is not one to be very touchy with her friends, but any time that it has happened, it feels so nice. Her height was perfect to place directly on his chest, near his neck and his large frame was so comforting as it wraps around her. The two feel so content being engulfed in each others presence. Not only did Amelie need this hug after everything that has happened over the past night, but hugging Ethan just felt so normal.

Although Amelie nor Ethan want to pull away, Amelie does so she can finally put some ointment on her throbbing palms. She picks the frame back up from the desk and then heads to sit on the edge of her bed. Looking back at her was an old photo of her dad and her. She remembers the day the photo was taken; it was a couple of months before the attacks last year when they went to go visit Sidney for the weekend. She had to practically force him to snap the photo with her, but she was glad she did. He smiles down at her while she stares at the camera with a smile almost as bright as the sun. Amelie smiles now as she looks at the photo and traces her finger along the side of the frame.

Ethan makes his way to her and takes a seat on the side of the bed with her. It felt so wrong to be messing with her like this, but he had to keep it up. “That’s your dad, right?”

“Yeah,” Ethan watches her nod and his heart seizes when he sees the pain in her eyes. “He was the best.”

Amelie reaches over by her bedside table and places the photo down on it before picking up a small tube of cream. She needed to stop looking at the picture for too long or else tonight would become another one of the countless nights where she would sob as she held something of her dads to sleep. Ethan can tell that she probably wanted to continue talking about her dad but still found it difficult to.

Amelie opens up the ointment and begins to attempt to put some cream on her palms to help prevent an infection from all the cuts the glass caused and winces. She sees Ethan staring at her hands out of the corner fo her eye. “We had to crawl and there was shattered glass everywhere. Some of it just cut through my hand. Not bad enough for stitches, thankfully.”

Ethan listens to her and pictures her at the bodega, scared with blood on her hands. He hates that, although he didn’t do it himself, he is part of the reason that it happened. He glances down again at her hands, raw and cut, “I can help if you want. It may be a bit easier for you if you’re not doing it.”

Amelie looks at him and passes over the cream. She faces her palms up and pushes them closer to him.

“I’m sorry if I hurt you,” Ethan mutters as he begins to lightly spread of the ointment over her palm. Even though her palms are cut, her hands are soft, and he wishes he could hold them all day long. This was the closest he has ever been to her and he is shitting himself. He can feel the heat of her body and smell the scent of her conditioner, itching to get closer but he knows he should just focus on getting her hands all cleaned up.

“You couldn’t,” Amelie all but whispers bravely as she looks up at him through her eyelashes. He was so pretty, and she was really realizing it now in this moment. His brown eyes so soft and lips so full. His curly hair looks so soft, Amelie almost wants to touch it and wrap a curl around her finger. The pad of his finger runs over one of the deeper cuts and she winces, then chuckles, “Maybe you could.”

Ethan looks up at her finally and gives her a smile. She is so close to him that all he had to do was lean forward and their lips could be attached. He briefly closes his eyes to rid himself of his thoughts, so he doesn’t get ahead of himself and re-opens then. He licks his lips before whispering, “Tell me about your dad.”

She looks at him with furrowed eyebrows. Whatever she was thinking that he was going to say next, that was not it. But, although she was a little shocked he wanted her to talk about her dead dad and that he was so willing to listen, she also wouldn’t pass up a chance to talk so greatly about him. “Uh, well, he was a cop for a long time before he decided to retire just before he died.

He had a sister, my aunt Tatum, who I never got to meet, but he always talked about her so highly and I could tell that he loved her a lot. Which is where i got my middle name; Amelie Tatum Riley. I only ever lived with him and rarely saw my mom because she was apparently always too busy, but I think my dad just said that so it would hurt my feelings a little less. He also was my best friend, and I would talk to him about everything. He would teach me how to defend myself since I was little, in case I ever needed to, which I guess came in handy, huh? But he would also tell me after every session or lesson that I shouldn’t need to worry too much about using my skills because he would be there to protect me from harm no matter where he was.”

Ethan looks at her intently as he also switches hands to start applying the cream onto her other palm. She has a faint smile lingering on her lips as she talks about Dewey and Ethan can’t help but be captivated by her as she speaks so fondly about the man that raised her.

“He would always show up to any recital or performance I had as a child because he swore he was always my number one fan. And at least once a week he would try to find time so we could go out to eat at this dinner back in Woodsboro,” Amelie takes a pause and lets out a breathy laugh. “He was also still into Gale, one hundred percent but he just would never admit it to me. I am sure he knew that I knew, though. I think that sometimes he wishes that he could have ended up with Gale and that she was my mom, but he didn’t really like to talk about it too much.”

Ethan finishes up and closes the tube of cream before handing it back to Amelie. Amelie takes one more pause from her speech about her father before finishing up, deciding to end it soon or she may feel inclined to start crying and she was absolutely not going to be doing that in front of Ethan. “He was just the best dad, and I wish I could have had more time with him.”  

“He sounds like an amazing father. You were really lucky,” Ethan smiles at her, but that bitter feeling arises again. She did have a great dad and he would give just about anything to experience that same fatherly love she did with his own dad, but he guesses that he is, just in a completely different way. “And I’m sorry for, you know, your loss.”

“Yeah, he was,” She nods as she looks down at her now ointment treated hands. “And thank you. For asking me and listening and-” she holds her hands up briefly “-for this.”

She smiles in appreciation and puts the cream down on her side table. As she reaches over, her hair falls past her shoulder and down her back where her scar becomes visible to Ethan’s eye. Almost as if she can feel the tissue exposed, she takes her hair and places it back over her shoulder, ashamed of the mark.

She leans back over from her side table and sits back a bit further onto her bed to lean against the wall. Ethan scoots back towards her but doesn’t lean up against the wall just yet. Instead, he decides to fuck it and brushes her hair from off her shoulder to expose the scar once more. Maybe it was sick and twisted that he wanted to see it, see what his dead brother’s girlfriend did to her but he had to take a look. So, he did, and she let him.

Her breathe hitched in her throat as his fingers delicately traced over the line just above her collarbone, on the base of her neck. If she was going to let him in, then she might as well keep breaking more of her boundaries tonight.

“I got it last year from the last Ghostface attacks,” She whispers and looks straight ahead at her at the picture collage wall. One’s of her and her current roommates, some with Chad and Mindy, Wes, and the very few with Liv. Some with her dad and other group photos where she cut Amber’s figure out of them.

“Yeah, I-I figured,” Ethan whispers back. Although he obviously knew where she got it from, he played it off as just knowing from hearing it around. He feels sick again thinking about the fact that she got hurt from all of this and he vows to make sure she doesn’t get hurt the same way again, not on purpose or by the hands of his family.  

“I also have a couple more but this-“ She gestures to her neck “-is the most visible, obviously.”

Ethan continues to trace the mark back and forth before looking at Amelie’s face to see how she is reacting. He is so screwed, and his dad is going to kill him for getting so invested in a girl, Dewey’s daughter nonetheless, but he just can’t help it. He knows how easily it would be for him to wrap his hands around her neck and kill her, one less person to get rid of for his dad and brother but he can’t do it and he just won’t. He feels the urge to protect her and wants to keep her safe from this whole plan, safe from getting hurt again.

Amelie looks at Ethan, feeling his eyes on her and they stare at one another. Ethan feels his heart leap and is wondering if this is what it’s like to actually be with someone you like. He has never been this close to a girl before so he’s wondering if the nerves is from his lack of experience or because he is finally getting his moment with the girl he has been crushing on for months now.

“Amelie-” Ethan pauses his movement on her scar and says her name.

“Amie,” Amelie cuts him off. “You can call me Amie. You always call me Amelie, but you can call me Amie.”

“Alright, Amie,” Ethan smiles and lets out a laugh. "I don't really know why, I guess everyone just calls you Amie, huh?"

Amelie smiles as he continues to move his fingers so delicately across the pink tissue. "You know...

I don't think you have to be so scared about hiding it so much. It's beautiful, in a way. You're a survivor."

"I just, I don't know..." Amelie pauses and swallows. She can feel her stomach turn inside out and she is almost tempted to tell him to stop so she can ensure she wouldn't throw up. And the way Ethan is touching her so gently, and looking at her so soft, she just might. "...am ashamed of it. It's gross, and people just stare when they see it. Especially when they know who was the one that did it to me."

"Well, people are stupid," Ethan smiles at her. The tension building between the two makes him want to scream out, tell her how beautiful she is, and kiss her face. But, he has never done that before and there is always this impending fear that she will never see him in that light. "And a scar means shit. People don't know a thing, but you do."

"And not that my word really matters, but uh," Ethan continues on and swallows any of his nerves. So very uncharacteristic of him, he tilts his head and leans towards her neck, delicately placing a small kiss on the scar. "It is nothing to be ashamed of, you're beautiful."

Amelie's heart picks up and she is surprised that Ethan can't hear it pound out of her chest. She almost can't breathe, the tension is too unbearable, and she just wants him to lift his head so he can kiss her instead.

In the back of her mind, she can hear screaming voice call to her, telling her to be careful and maybe not trust Ethan so easily, the same voice she heard back at the party with Dean. He seems to be too gentle with her to be a killer in disguise. Then again, so was Richie and Billy and Stu and Charlie. But it feels so right being here this close to him, feels so good to be held by his soft hands. Being this close to Ethan is exactly what she was picturing in her head when her lips were attached to Dean's, and now it is almost happening. So, once again, she decides to screw what her head is screaming at her and leans in closer to Ethan, giving him the hint to lift his head from her scar. He takes it and raises his head, now unbelievably close to the girls face. He can smell her coconut conditioner and the mint from her toothpaste, and is craving to taste her.

"You're not with that guy, right?" Ethan whispers, his breathe hitting Amelie's face and its intoxicating. "The one from the party."

Amelie looks in his eyes, her lids are heavy and vision glazed. She shakes her head lightly, "no."

"You know..." Amelie licks her bottom lip, it catching Ethan's eye and his breathe hilts in his throat.

"I was thinking of you when I was with him."

Ethan nearly lets out a groan. She was trying to kill him, he was sure of it.

Ethan brings one hand up, brushing a piece of fallen hair behind her ear and rests his hand there. Hearing those words did something to him, and he knew he needed to feel her lips on his this very moment. Knowing that she felt the same way as him made him more than relieved, especially knowing that he was on her mind when she had her lips on another boy. A small smirk raises on his lips. "Good."

She knows she should listen to the voice and be weary, fear who Ethan might be but in this moment she doesn’t care. So, she looks in his eyes one more time to see if there lays any hesitation or discomfort, and when she finds nothing but want and adoration, she leans in and finally lets their lips touch.

Ethan can feel how soft her lips are and never wants to pull away. He has been craving this since he first laid eyes on her, and now it is finally happening. He lets out a sigh of relief, his hand on her hip tightening to restrain the urge and desire in his body. Their lips together, touching one another felt so right, and they wonder why they haven't done that sooner. Their kiss lasts for all of three seconds before Amelie's door cracks open.

“Hey Amie, I brought you some tea-“ Quinn opens her bedroom door and begins before her eyes widen at the sight of the two teens in front of her. Amelie and Ethan jump apart at the sound of the redhead’s voice and Amelie scoots up the edge of her bed and away from the wall she was leaning on. She clears her throat and looks at Quinn with stern eyes before running her hands across her face. “I am so sorry, I-I didn’t know anyone else was here with you, Amie.”

“No, it-it’s okay, Quinn. Maybe knock next time, yeah? I don’t know just an idea,” Amelie shrugs and says sarcastically before standing up and making her way to stand in front of Quinn. The older girl looks at Amelie and mouths an I’m so sorry while handing her the cup of tea in her hand. Amelie looks back and sees Ethan stand up from her bed and pull down at the hem of his shirt.

“That is the second roommate I have done that to within the last day, I am such a cockblock. I’m so sorry,” Quinn says shaking her head as she takes the handle of the door and begins to back out of the room. “I made you the tea to, you know, maybe make you feel better after everything. I-sorry, I’m just gonna-“

Quinn points to behind her where she will be making her exit. As Amelie goes to place the cup of tea on her bedside table beside the ointment and picture frame, Quinn sneaks a glare at her brother and shakes her head, quick enough for Amelie not to see but for Ethan to catch. His heart jumps in his throat but he swallows it back down as he glares back at her. He knows she will be having a word with him about all of his later and that his dad will find out and he is screwed, once again. But fuck, it practically happened, and he has never felt so alive then he was in that moment. He had pictured the moment he could kiss Amelie for so long and it just happened, until it didn’t. So, Amelie turns to look at him and smiles sheepishly while Ethan looks at her and bites his lip to contain his smile. Ethan stays with her for the next couple of hours where he lays with her in her bed as she attempts get some rest. And though he held her as she slept, that almost kiss is the closest exchange the two have for the rest of the night. Because although their moment got interrupted, it was there. And as much as the two would like to go back in time and continue what almost happened, they at least both knew that their feelings were reciprocated and their hearts beat, almost at the same time.

[theregoesmylurkerstatus]

Listen. Listen. The more I think about Essek’s reality the more amused I get. It’s like the Mighty Nein EXISTED to fuck his life over in the kindest way possible. 

One of their first functional (and one of their most defining) actions as a group was when they stole a Beacon -- one of HIS Beacons. A Beacon he took from the Dynasty and gave to the Assembly in an INCREDIBLY risky gamble, so risky it ultimately plunged the continent into war, because that’s how badly he wanted learn something about it.

And the Mighty Nein, on a fucking whim, vanished it from under their noses. NOT ONLY was Essek deprived of further research, but he couldn’t even smooth over the tensions on either side. Essek was probably the only person alive, besides the Mighty Nein, who could know for a fact that neither the Empire nor the Dynasty had what the war functionally started over. By stealing the Beacon, the Mighty Nein made sure neither side could be happy, and Essek was the one stuck in between.

But then, they returned it to the Bright Queen! Surely that’s good for Essek, right? Except, one, now he gets no more of the research he enabled a war for, and two, it wasn’t even traded as a price to stop the bloodshed, which seems to be something he genuinely wants. So, cool! Beacon #1 is certainly out of his hands, out of the hands of the people who might have told him SOMETHING about it, and it wasn’t even for the sake of the war ending. ...Great! Fun. Okay.

But what did the Mighty Nein trade it for? Why, the freedom of Essek’s prisoner, of course! Because surprise! That’s one of their number’s husband. And it’s a complete coincidence.  Were you using one of the poor saps conducting the research as a way to finally learn about said research, Essek? No longer. Yeza’s gone now. Suck it.

So, the Mighty Nein took a Beacon completely out of his hands, made it useless to him in every way possible, and removed his access to his one (1) avenue of information on the Beacon. That’s surely already Fuck These Guys territory for Essek, right?

Well, guess what Essek! YOU have been chosen to be the lucky drow who gets to babysit them! For the entire time! They’re here!

But hey, they’re only visitors, just keep them at arm’s length for a few days and then you’ll never have to see them aga- Oh look, your Den and by extension YOUR MOTHER gave them a house. They live here now.

And Essek just has to sit there like “... :).”

AND ON TOP OF ALL OF THAT, EVERY WEEK OR SO, THEY COME BACK AND SAY:

“Hey Essek! We just thought you should know, we think there’s a traitor in the Dynasty, crazy right?”

“Hey Essek, we think this possible traitor actually GAVE the Empire the Beacons, isn’t that WILD?”

“Hey Essek, did we mention that we have connections not only to the Empire but to the Assembly specifically, AND we have easy access to the Empire in general, so we can totally dig around there AND here as much as we like? Wow, not many people could do that, huh?”

“Hey Essek, did you know our monk is trained to ruthlessly ferret out the truth no matter what, and also she’s super invested in the well being of all these civillians? Boy, she sure seems to want to get to the bottom of things!”

“Hey Essek, did you know that our wizard who knows a lot about the arcane and is super interested in dunamancy and also has a perfect memory was a Scourger in training and speaks Zemnian? He can interrogate another one of your captives for you, wonder if they know anything about traitors or what the Assembly might be up to!”

“Hey Essek, we have a cunning plan to interrogate ANOTHER prisoner of yours! You know, that one who totally sold the Beacons! Aren’t we smart, don’t you like it?”

“Hey Essek! This prisoner seems to be innocent? Like, his memories were planted and he’s almost been... framed, or something? Wild! Let’s go tell the Bright Queen together!!!!”

“HEY ESSEK! Crazy news, we almost single handedly coordinated a peace talks, and we’ll be overseeing all the big interactions on both sides! Wonder what we could learn from those interactions? Anyway, bye!”

IT NEVER ENDS. IT NEVER, EVER ENDS FOR ESSEK. HE LIVES NEXT DOOR. JESTER MESSAGES HIM CONSTANTLY. HIS MUM OWNS THEIR HOUSE. HE’S BORDERLINE AT THEIR BECK AND CALL. 

AND IT’S ALMOST LIKE THEY WERE SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO COUNTERACT HIS EVERY MOVE.

WHICH HE HAS TO HEAR ABOUT. CONSTANTLY.

Not only should the Nein by all rights have disliked him, he by all rights should FUCKING HATE the Mighty Nein.

The Mighty Nein were the bane of his existence. He must have laid awake some nights, wondering if they were taunting him. How could they know so much, and yet not realise he’s the last person they should be confiding in? How could he have run into a group with an ex-student of one of the men he’s illegally working with, by accident? HOW could he have kidnapped, out of all the researchers involved with the Beacons, the one married to a Mighty Nein member? Why does the truth-sniffing monk know Undercommon now. WHY is the firblog so fucking perceptive. And please, please, why won’t the tiefling stop messaging him?

Surely, they’re taunting him. They’re his own personal hell.

And they keep inviting him to dinner.

...I think I’ve made the joke several times now that somewhere out there, the big players in the war must fucking hate the Nein, accomplishing so much by accident.

Well I’ve found out who that big player is and his name is Essek. It’s him. Everything the Nein have done of any significance has made specifically his life harder, and on top of all that? 

They don’t even let him hate them properly, like Actual Nemeses™. Instead they gave him a morality crises. 

Because that’s the final, most poetic indignity of them all. 

After all that, he likes them.

[amydancepants-peralta]

Have you heard of the Alphabet Weekends trope? Weekend Warriors by sunalso in the Fitzsimmons fandom is the version I love, but I believe it comes from a Twilight AU which was inspired by a book. Anyway. Not a prompt because 28 chapters is a massive commitment, but I’d love to hear some Peraltiago headcanons from you based on this idea if you feel so inspired. Love your work. <3 pobmmm, Ao3.

Ok so I haven't read for either of those fandoms but I have read the original book and I completely loved it! So I think this is a great idea, thank you! 😁 Just quick ideas off the top of my head ...

A: Arcade! 🕹 Jake totally takes Amy to his favourite arcade, where the competitive streak in both of them definitely comes out in full force (and oddly, Amy's dance 'skills' come in real handy playing Dance Dance Revolution!)

B: Bowling 🎳 This one is Amy's pick (they take turns, fair play y'all!) and she's awesome at it because of course! Jake definitely needs the bumper lanes switched on but 🤫

C: Coney Island 🎡 Jake definitely wins Amy a giant stuffed teddy in the sideshow alley (it has a yellow bow, and Amy declares its name to be Pineapples). They also make out more than they probably should at the top of the Ferris wheel but hey, how could either of them resist? 😌

D: Drive-in theatre 🎫 it's a bit of a mission to find one near them but once she's settled in with popcorn and candy and Jake's hand on her leg, Amy kind of really loves it! (especially because they can kiss as much as they like during the movie and not get busted by an usher 😄)

E: Exhibit 🖼 Jake studies up on the artist on this one, hoping to earn extra points from Amy, and lets just say his hard work definitely pays off ���

F: Facials 🧖🏽‍♀️ this date takes place at Amy's apartment, with bottles of wine, three different types of Couples Facials and a bonus foot rub from Jake. His skin is damn well glowing in the days after, but refuses to give up his secret to Gina 🤐

G: Gelato 🍨 this one is a quick date because their work schedule has been crazy hectic lately, but Jake definitely creates a fake excuse to steal Amy away for an afternoon where they sneak in gelato and an hour of gossip/kisses, all of which are v good for the soul 😌

H: Hot Air Balloon 🗺 This involves waking up before sunrise (which is how you know Amy planned it!) but it's totally worth it as they watch the sun rise over the Brooklyn Bridge 😍

I: Ikea 🪑 Coinciding with their decision to move in together, which suddenly makes a trip to Ikea way more important because now they look at snazzy kitchens and kids rooms and all the sorts of things that will definitely be part of their future 🥺

J: Jacuzzi 🛁 mainly the beach house, that Jake organises with Boyle to have a weekend at (under the PROMISE that Boyle will not try to join them). The weather is cold but that's completely fine because the jacuzzi & Jake's arms are there to keep Amy warm 🥰

K: Kayaking 🛶 Jake definitely makes the vessel wiggle/capsize when they first get on, but after a couple of goes they're paddling up and down the river like naturals 🏅everything's great until they get home and realise how many midgies/mosquitoes bit them while they were on the water, and any future kayak trips are shelved 🙅🏻‍♂️

L: Library 📖 Jake knows the way to Amy's heart is through her books (and yes, binders!) so he clears the entire day in both their schedules so that Amy can curl up in her favourite corner of the library and gets lost in story after story 💕

M: Mini Golf! ⛳️ Do they keep 'accidentally' sabotaging each other's games, so they can win? Yes. Do they end up tying, anyway? Also yes.

N: Nightclub🕺🏻💃🏽 They're the hottest couple there, and even though the drinks are ridiculously expensive and the music is SO LOUD they stay out until they're busted getting way too close to sexytimez on the dance floor 😇

O: Observatory 🌙 you don't have 11 straight birthdays at the planetarium without becoming super knowledgable about the universe, and Amy definitely takes Jake to the observatory to show off her skills (and lie underneath the stars because 😍)

P: Pizza! 🍕 Obviously Sal's still reigns supreme in Jake's eyes, and a night in with Amy, pizza and no pants is honestly the perfect date.

Q: Quickie 🙊 A quick moment between the sheets during a weekend away at Amy's parents, because a) it's been several days and thats just way too long, and b) Jake is low-key terrified they're going to get busted

R: Road Trip! 🚙 The two of them head interstate overnight (this time not to pick up a perp/awkwardly breakup with your partner/be haunted by scary dolls!). They rent an adorns little cottage that doesn't have much more than a bed and a coffee machine, but honestly that's all they really need 😙

S: Sand ⛱ Beach Day! Amy loves the chance to take a dip in the ocean, and Jake loves watching Amy in her bikini 👀

T: Turtles 🐢 Amy secretly purchases them tickets for a TMNT comic-con for Jake's bday, and surprises him with them on the day. Safe to say, Jake considers it to be the Best. Day. Ever. (especially because he still gets to go home with Amy, which automatically puts things into the Best Ever category!)

U: Unwind 🧘🏽‍♀️ basically an entire weekend of just the two of them at home ... no plans, no phones, no responsibilities ✌🏼

V: Vineyard 🍇 neither of them have any idea what the sommelier is talking about (this is definitely outside the eight-dollarest bottle of wine territory!) but they keep drinking the wine because it tastes so good!

W: Weekend Away 🗝 because both of them need some chill time and W is actually really hard 😅

X: X marks the spot ❌ super planner Amy puts together a scavenger hunt that Jake gets better and better at solving as the clues pile up - the hidden prize box includes new Mario games, packets after packets of sour worms and the promise of one last prize to 'unwrap' later 😉

Y: Yatzee! Except these two make it Strip Yatzee, with lowest points on each round has to remove an article of clothing. Safe to say, it doesn't take long before both are throwing their game 😌

Z: Zoo 🦁 Jake definitely buys (and wears!) the monkey ears headband, and they share a kiss in front of the penguins who mate for life ♥️ Amy is at the top of her game with random facts for each animal, and Jake can't help but watch the little families wandering around with toddler in strollers, wondering if one day that might be he and Amy 🥺

(Thank you for this prompt, pobmmm! I loved it 💕)

[beneaththetangles]

Reader’s Corner: Those Snow White Notes, Your Lie in April Revisited, and A Couple of Cuckoos

She’s My Knight, Vol. 1

The premise of this lovely little comic is simple: Ichinose has always been the popular kid, attracting attention from all the girls until cool, collected Mogami comes along, stealing not only Ichinose’s popularity, but also his heart. I’m a total sucker for the Mogami type in manga and anime—the tall, athletic, boyish girl—and she makes a perfect pairing with the pitiful Ichinose, who increasingly, as the volumes progresses, falls apart around her. There’s not much else here—just lots of gags and near-miss moments, so in that sense, She’s My Knight may end up being a forgettable series. But just as Ichinose is the damsel to Mogami’s knight, this series might be rescued, too, by hints that the girl is not as clueless as she seems. But even if that’s not true, even if the series means to simply tease us for endless chapters and results in a series that isn’t unique in any way, the manga would still hit the sweet spot of feel good romantic comedy so well that it doesn’t really matter—this is the perfect volume to open as you sit back, kick your feet up, and prepare to fall in love. ~ Twwk

She’s My Knight is published by Kodansha.*

A Couple of Cuckoos, Vol. 1

Nagi Umino learns quite the shocking truth: As an infant, he had accidentally been switched with another baby, and had essentially grown up his whole life as an adopted kid. To make matters worse, upon meeting his birth parents, and the girl, Erika Amano, that he had been switched with, he finds out that their parents had decided that the easiest way to resolve this whole matter is to have the two of them get married so that all the parents can officially consider both of them their children! With an anime adaptation announced recently, I figured I’d check out the first volume of the manga, and true to the name, it’s quite crazy. With a mess of family relations and some side romantic antics involving a smart girl Nagi has a crush on, this manga definitely has all the fun of a good romcom, and there’s not really too much that annoyed me about it, either, other than that the volume ended way too soon. I also liked how it touches on the awkwardness of trying to connect with a birth family you didn’t grow up with, and I hope future volumes do more with that along with the romance stuff.  ~ stardf29

A Couple of Cuckoos is published by Kodansha.

Street Fighter Gaiden: Vol. 1

Videogames have made the transition to manga many times, and some have even done it on multiple occasions, which is the case with Street Fighter. I picked up Street Fighter Gaiden, which has two volumes and focuses on various stories in the SF series, focusing on various characters. Ken and Ryu get their due, and so does Chun-Li, who is some nice panels participates in a drug bust in San Francisco. Other stories feature Fei Long desiring to do something more challenging than be a movie star, leading to travels to Japan and a tragic accident while stopping some criminals; T. Hawk protecting fellow natives from another tribe who are being harassed by Balrog; and the final story, where Guile becomes involved in underground fights while trying to prevent a friend from getting involved with Shadaloo, the secret evil organization of the series. The stories veer from the traditional backgrounds of some of the characters, like Fei Long and Guile, but it’s interesting to read how the author puts them together. Fans of Street Fighter should check this series out! The drawings in the manga looks dated and a little rough here and there, but I certainly enjoyed it and will be picking up volume two. ~ Samuru

Street Fighter Gaiden: Vol. 1 is published by Udon Entertainment.

The Dawn of the Witch, Vol. 1

Witches seem to be making a bit of comeback in manga lately. The Dawn of the Witch, one of the new entries, seems at first blush to add little that’s new to the canon, assembling a weak main character mage, overpowered but very young looking master witch, talented witch / love interest, and a beastman, as they undertake a special type of journey / course assigned by their magic school. However, tropes can be deceiving. Volume one tells a story at breakneck pace, developing relationships, adding backstory, providing action, and dumping a ton of information, which while it could become oppressive, in this manga, is captivating. The world and its history are fascinating, the way magic is used has some uniqueness (including a cursed, talking staff?), and the divisiveness between witches and the church shows depth. The world-building in just this one volume is extensive and engaging, and the story seems to be in good hands, while the art and character design, developed by two additional members of this three-person manga team, are just as extraordinary, bringing vividness to action scenes, boldness to the characters themselves, and lettering and paneling that add further dimension to goings-on. The frequent and obvious fanservice, unfortunately, can be quite distracting; it’s not a coincidence that it takes a back seat once the story ramps up, indicating how unimportant it is. By the last chapter or two, there’s no room for panty shots; we’re swept up into the lives of these characters, the choices they’ve made and are making, and the world they inhabit, which in terms of recent witch manga, is second to none. ~ Twwk

The Dawn of the Witch is published by Kodansha.*

Those Snow White Notes, Vol. 1

Moving to Tokyo after the death of his guardian, grandfather, and teacher, Setsu is a lost soul. Though he carries with him a shamisen, the ancient three-stringed instrument, Setsu is unable to play, haunted by the words of his grandfather which told him he was unworthy of it. But will this move to Tokyo and the people he meets there be just what Setsu needs to find his sound? The first half of this initial volume is one long chapter, and reads like a one-shot, an almost self-contained story of Setsu’s serendipitous meeting with a hopeful actress, Yuna, and the impact the two have on one another. However, this front half of volume one isn’t particularly distinct in any way, and despite a desire to connect emotionally with readers through the young protagonist and and his family, the panels fall flat in this aspect, as do they when depicting the sound of the shamisen, whose tone and rhythm I could feel but not the emotion it gives. The second half of volume, however, establishes the story and characters better. Setsu’s personality is better defined, as is his brother’s, and new supporting characters are introduced as Setsu begins to attend school, setting the stage for a club-centered drama, a la Kono Oto Tomare and Chihayafuru, two other anime centered on historic Japanese pastimes. And like those, there’s potential here, though it will be lost if Those Snow White Notes can’t find consistency and an emotional anchor, which would be a shame, as the first episode of currently-airing anime adaptation showed how a few adjustments could turn this story into something quite special. ~ Twwk

Those Snow White Notes is published by Kodansha.*

Your Lie in April, Vol. 4

I’m continuing my re-read of Your Lie in April and have reached Volume four, a part of this series which can be a tough read. Kousei has finally returned to the piano scene after two years away to find that his childhood rivals have only improved. Both of them were motivated by him to become better. Emi saw him when she was very little and it inspired her to play, believing in her heart to play for joy, while Takeshi is driven to perfection to reach what Kousei had always achieved. Then there’s Kousei himself. In these chapters, readers bear witness to the emotional and physical abuse Kousei underwent as a child and it’s hard to witness. But it does help present a complete picture of the person Kousei has become so far. This is a challenging volume because of what happens, but it’s important to the overall narrative. Beautiful artwork and emotional moments will keep me moving through this re-read.  ~ MDMRN

Your Lie in April is published by Kodansha.

Skip Beat, Vol. 17

The “Suddenly, a Love Story” arc is an oddity, a portion of Skip Beat that is quite long and cumbersome, with not enough Kyoko and perhaps too much of the unappealing side of Ren, full of insecurity and lacking much of his initial appeal. Volume 17 thankfully puts the arc to rest with a quick but exciting (and revealing) finale which pits Ren against no, not Shotaro, but Reino, the abusive and perhaps occultist musician. The next arc also begins in this volume, introducing Kuu, a movie star more famous, it seems, than any previous character in the series. Although we get to know him just a bit, he appears to be a rival who could threaten Ren. He also immediately challenges Kyoko, providing the potential for her to really chew up character interactions, something sorely missed in the previous arc. The final chapters of volume 17 feel like a breath of fresh air, hopefully pointing toward compelling chapters ahead—though I fear the problem of an unappealing Ren may be not be solved anytime soon. ~ Twwk

Skip Beat is published by Viz.*

=====

Reader’s Corner is our way of embracing the wonderful world of manga, light novels, and visual novels, creative works intimately related to anime but with a magic all their own. Each week, our writers provide their thoughts on the works their reading—both those recently released as we keep you informed of newly published works and older titles that you might find as magical (or in some cases, reprehensible) as we do.

[clockworkouroboros]

I’m in a The Amazing Devil Discord server and have been going wild with crazy insane theories about just about everything, drawing connections that probably don’t actually exist, and generally losing my mind over both Love Run and The Horror and the Wild. That being said, I do have a theory about THatW that, if it’s not true, at least merits me a tinfoil hat, I think. Just be warned, this post will be long, and yes, I will include receipts.

So here’s this theory and Joey, if you read this, just know that I’m impressed either at how much thought was put into this, or the sheer number of coincidences that make this work if it wasn’t planned. It’s turned me into a conspiracy theorist for the past four days or so? And it’s severely affected the amount of sleep I’ve been getting.

My basic theory here is that Joey and Madeleine aren’t singing as themselves throughout this album, they’re playing characters, and those characters are old gods. Joey is the Wild, Madeleine is Time. (Alternatively, she’s Horror, fitting with the album title, but as she’s never explicitly referred to as such, I’m not insisting on that point.)

Now, where am I getting this silly idea from? None other than the title track, of course, in which Joey sings, “witness me, old man, I am the Wild, and Madeleine sings, “And I am Time itself.” And yes, they are both capitalized like that in the lyrics.

So they explicitly refer to themselves as such. But Emily, you might be saying (or not, depending on how much you care), that’s one song! This is hardly an album’s worth of proof! Sure, they might be gods in this song, but what about the other eight? To which I say, hoo boy, I’m just getting started.

Before I continue, I’d like to add something about how their characters are depicted throughout the album: Joey is more cheerful, Madeleine is not. (see: Wild Blue Yonder, Marbles, Battle Cries.) Joey is whimsical, Madeleine is practical. (See Battle Cries especially, but you can also see this in Wild Blue Yonder.) Madeleine is referred to multiple times as being stronger than Joey, and appears to assume a more protective role over Joey’s childlike. This fits in with my theory, by the way, in a roundabout sort of way that involves some squinting. Joey is the Wild, which is...well, wild. Think of little kids: cheerful, whimsical, in need of protection. Madeleine is Time. She knows what has been, what is, and what will be. Of course she’s going to be more mature, practical, and pessimistic.

And why is this important? Well, it’s kind of how I’m tying together a lot of the rest of the album. (Not all of it; Farewell Wanderlust is a notable outlier in many ways, and some of my connections are tenuous at best, but we’re going to ignore that and pretend it’s all rock-solid. Rockrose-solid. I’m sorry, I’m very tired.) I’m ignoring The Rockrose and the Thistle a little bit in this post, not because I dislike it (it’s gorgeous), but because it’s stubbornly eluding my attempts to tie it into anything other than Elsa’s Song, which isn’t even part of this album.

The vast majority of what you need to know about these two characters is in The Horror and the Wild (the song), so I’m gonna copy/paste some lyrics, and go through them. (Actually, the copy/pasting is nonexistent, these lyrics are imprinted on my brain at this point. That being said, if there are errors, lmk and I will edit the post and fix them!)

So we’ve got Madeleine starting, singing about Joey, with “You were raised by wolves and voices, every night I hear them howling deep beneath your bed, they said it all comes down to you.” Aside from the fact that I have no clue why “it all” comes down to Joey, or anything with that last bit, maybe a few more late nights with a tinfoil hat will do the trick. That being said, the first line of the song references childhood specifically in relation to Joey. Notice also how wolves are referenced in Wild Blue Yonder (“we don’t know what’s out there/could be wolves”) and That Unwanted Animal (“‘What’s the time, Mr. Wolf,’ but you, you’re blind, you bleat, you bear your claws”). The whole “howling” thing and “deep beneath your bed” both pop up in That Unwanted Animal, too: “and on the wind it howls,” for one. And for the other, there’s “you [presumably Joey] make the bed up silent on the floor so no one hears us,” later followed later in the song by “and the door below us splinters, and the creature creeps inside.”

Following this, Joey sings about Madeleine: “you’re the daughter of silent watching stones, you watch the stars hurl all their fundaments, in wonderment at you and yours, forever asking more.” First of all, I’m gonna say that this is Joey’s point of view; later on, Madeleine will refute the daughter thing (“I’m not a drunkard, a daughter, a preacher”.) Anyway, “silent watching stones” could reference Wild Blue Yonder: “every stone you threw, I stood on to better see the view.” The view being the stars hurling all their fundaments?

(Incidentally, I knew vaguely what “fundament” meant, but I looked it up to make sure I had it right, and learned that, among its other meanings, “fundament” can mean “butt.” But I don’t think that’s what Joey had in mind with this. I just think y’all should appreciate it.)

Anyway, we’ve also got in Battle Cries, “With you I could summon the gods and the stars, make them dance out the plays that we wrote from the heart, and we’d laugh at the ghosts of our fears,” with Madeleine singing, “Come on, love, please don’t start, sing your notes play your part,” and then the part that gets me every time: M: “we were gods,” J: “we were kids.” Which is a whole other can of worms involving their personalities, which I’ve already briefly outlined. My point is the whole “gods and the stars” bit.

I could (and have, on Discord) done a full, in-depth analysis of this track, and I don’t want to go all over it again, but “I promise you, they’ll sing of every Time you passed your fingers through my hair and called me child, witness me, old man, I am the Wild” has both Time and Wild as proper nouns in the lyrics, plus reinforces Time’s view of the Wild as a child. No clue who the old man is, though.

In verse two, Madeleine sings, “you [Joey] are the son of every dressing-up box, and I am Time itself, I slow and let you play, I steal the hours, and turn the night into day.” Again, this reinforces Joey’s childlike aspects (which will later be hinted at in That Unwanted Animal, with the “god-child,” who’s clearly Joey), but also shows, as in the refrain, the fact that Time has a sense of protectiveness over the Wild, at least sometimes.

That being said, although I’ve obviously referenced other songs, I still have mostly focused on the title track. So. I’m going to go through some of the other songs real quick.

The songs on the album (again, excepting Rockrose, because my attempts to tie it in have been frustrating and not gone anywhere, Mr. Batey please explain) can be grouped into categories: songs outright referencing gods (THatW, Farewell Wanderlust, That Unwanted Animal, Battle Cries), songs about their relationship, (arguably all of them, although Welly Boots is a bit confusing), and songs that refuse to allow me to classify them (Rockrose).

I would argue that this entire album is about the relationship of two old gods, but I’m not quite sure what the chronology is of the album, because it seems like it can’t be straightforward. (Farewell Wanderlust, although its placement makes sense in the setup of the album, doesn’t make sense in the chronology of this theory.) Another important note in some way is that every song on the album, with the exception of Farewell Wanderlust, is about being there for someone, or steadfastness in some capacity, while Farewell Wanderlust is about abandonment. It’s an outlier in a lot of ways. (Though not as many ways as frickin Rockrose.)

I have been talking about this at great length (and almost incessantly) on Discord, so unless you want this post to get even longer, I’m going to run by some lyrics real quick to try and show a little bit my thought process.

- “He watches her get dressed as though she’s hurtling through time” (Fair)

- “And she is stronger than he has ever been, he knows” (Fair) versus “Without you, I’m stronger, I’m no longer filled with wonder. How wrong you were” (Wild Blue Yonder, Welly Boots)

- J: “Place your hand in mine” M: “Hold the hand of the god-child, they said, as he falls from the sky” (That Unwanted Animal)

- “I’m the saint of the paint that was left in the pot, I’m your angel ellipsis, your devil of dots” (Farewell Wanderlust)

- “the fluttering of all your wings” (The Horror and the Wild) versus “when you think about him, my wings start to flap” (Farewell Wanderlust)

- “come, devil, come, she sang, call out my name. Let’s take this outside, ‘cos we’re one and the same. Our gods have abandoned us, left us, instead, take up arms, take my hand, let us waltz for the dead” (Farewell Wanderlust)

There are even more lyrics, and I’m going to be completely honest with you, I’ve gone totally insane with all of this, but this post is way too long already, so just let me know if you want any clarification or something.

Tldr: The Amazing Devil’s album The Horror and the Wild is about two old gods, one being Time, and the other being the Wild, or the god-child. The album is primarily about their relationship and steadfastness they show each other, even in tumultuous circumstances.

Now go excuse me while I attempt to take off this tinfoil hat that appears to be stuck on my head.

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

What if Indil met Elizabeth, David, and Light and Shadow?

This might just be the most "Carnivorous Muffin" sentence to have ever been uttered on the internet.

Let's just stare at it in wonder, while I wonder how many people will have no idea what those words even mean strung together.

Right, for those that are lost, relevant source material:

Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus

October

Light and Shadow of the Distant Sun

The Wasteland

Aren't you so glad you read normal fanfics written by a normal person?

So, to catch people up to speed who have not read every single fic I've written:

The Wasteland

The Wasteland is the what if story of an eleven-year-old Lily ending up in Middle Earth (notably before the Chamber of Secrets fiasco). There she befriends the One Ring, who thanks to her realizes he's sentient and has an existential crisis. They do the fusion dance, and end up becoming a single, new, being calling himself Indil.

He's the best and worst of both the Ring and Lily.

At the end of the story Indil chooses a noble death, gives up his form, and in so doing persuades the Ring to face his own potential death as well as his maker.

It's unclear what happens after that.

I like to think the Ring prevailed and earned the body of his maker.

(In an offshoot, for unknown reasons, Indil may or may not visit Mars)

Light and Shadow of the Distant Sun

In Light and Shadow of the Distant Sun, yet another, different, Lily ends up in the "October" universe where she decides to create life on Pluto. One of the beings she creates is a priest who worships her as God, named Light and Shadow of the Distant Sun.

He basically strong arms her into being his God. Lily goes to live on Pluto.

He's never been all that keen on humanity.

Decades later, the muggle world catches up to the Alien Franchise, and the Prometheus sets off to investigate the Engineers. Unbeknowest to them, Light and Shadow of the Distant Sun has been marooned on that rock by Lily for quite some time and is essentially in timeout for trying to wipe out humanity again.

He figures out he will be unable to return home unless he plays nice with Dr. Elizabeth Shaw and her creepy android friend David. Together, the three of them set off to find the Engineers, Light and Shadow of the Distant Sun is hoping they can blow some shit up and would have driven the ship full of bioengineered weapons back to Earth if it were not so very close to home.

And that's about where we leave off.

... Why does anyone read my stories?

RIGHT, YOUR QUESTION

What if Indil met Elizabeth, David, and Light and Shadow?

So how does Indil even end up in this mess? Well, in the Mars AU, it's where rather than face his maker/death by Volcano, the Ring chose to bravely run away (as Sauron does).

This means that Indil, the merged consciousness of Lily and the One Ring, survives and they're chilling on Mars in another dimension because, well, it beats dying. And Potions Class.

And... Well, that's the most likely route for how this would happen, as Indil is pretty damn dead by the end of the Wasteland. Regardless of what happens to The Ring, it's unlikely that he and Lily would merge consciousness ever again and if they did that Indil would remain unchanged.

But we're already here, so why not. We'll say the Ring wins the battle of wills with Sauron, steals his body, and that he's then left with Mordor. Well, that's great, but he doesn't want Mordor.

Lily proposes they go back to England. They do, but Lily has a terrible time, as she usually does. Lily likely does her adventure through time, ruins her friendship with Wizard Lenin, and reaches the crossroads of "You can go to Hogwarts or... not".

Lily takes Mairon up on his offer of not going to Hogwarts and they decide to travel different dimension in space instead. Weird shit happens, life lessons are learned, and they also learn the fusion dance is alive and well and holy shit they can still turn into Indil.

Indil is very put out, here he'd geared himself up for a noble sacrifice, and now he exists again. What the hell people?

As usual, Mairon gets tempted by Lily's unbreakable will, and decides he rather likes being an immovable object and unstoppable force. Which means that Indil, once again, has a problem falling back out of existence.

Which isn't good for either Lily or Mairon's sense of self. But who needs that, amirite?

Anyways, Indil is probably floating around in a spaceship he made in his garage, trying to figure out where to go, what to do, and whether he should really split back into Lily and Mairon yet when out of nowhere he spots another ship.

This is a very strange coincidence given just how ungodly vast space is. This, in fact, is so unlikely you might as well call it a miracle or fate.

Well, Indil will never spit in the face of fate (at least, not today), so he decides to say hello.

There he's greeted by a human woman who's not doing too hot after an emergency C-section to get the xenomorph out of her womb, a very recently repaired android who knows the taste of sweet sweet freedom (and patricide), and an alien who is intrigued that another not-human has boarded the ship but upset that he now has to deal with yet another person on his time out.

Indil, in his panic, decides to pull a Sauron.

Behold, mortals, he is Annatar, sent by the Valar to teach them the smithing of the very gods. Please don't question this. (Indil realizes two seconds two late that none of these words mean anything to anyone and he might as well have said nothing at all).

Elizabeth, Light and Shadow, and David all just stare.

Elizabeth wonders how the hell she keeps running into so many aliens. Is she some sort of alien catnip that pulls these guys out of the ether? She has now met two entirely different species, that she was not looking for, in a matter of months.

Regardless, Indil decides he's coming along. A quest to find God? That's fascinating. He only hopes it doesn't end in drowning, last time Indil (via Sauron) had a run in with The Lord it involved a lot of drowning.

Indil starts smithing life jackets just in case.

And because Elizabeth is amazing, and Indil has a thing for strong, independent, women, we see the reemergence of Indil's Weird Thing With Eowyn II: Electric Boogaloo. Neither Mairon nor Lily, vaguely aware inside Indil, understand this at all.

Why does this keep happening to them?

This is bad because David is also in love with Elizabeth. Except, David is a robot who is no doubt fascinated by aliens, so I'm sure they come to some weird agreement.

Elizabeth pretends none of this is happening.

Light and Shadow thinks there's something disturbingly familiar about Indil and eventually lands on the money. Almost. He realizes that Indil is Lily in mortal disguise, he is so smart, and the rest of the time he wonders what the hell he's supposed to be learning/doing with Lily's disguised alien appearance.

Thanks to Lily's bullshit powers, Elizabeth survives the journey and does not die in transit. This means that David does not become the unstable, grieving, nutcase who decides to wipe out all sentient life. Good for you, David.

So our band of heroes arrive on this alien world and...

Well, Elizabeth is a member of the race that these people sent their finest warriors out to destroy. David is a robot, something the people they tried to genocide created. No one knows what the fuck Indil and Light and Shadow even are.

Indil, I imagine, starts talking fast and somehow ends up King of Men again. Because that's just the kind of thing that happens to him. The possibility of drowning, somehow, seems to be growing ever nearer. Indil makes more life jackets.

Elizabeth isn't pleased with this outcome at all but also has no idea in general what to do.

Things probably come to a head somehow, with sacrifices involved surely, there probably is a ridiculously powerful storm a la Covenant that lasts for months. It's raining everywhere, there's a flood. And Indil flips shit, GOD IS GOING TO MURDER US ALL FOR SATANISM! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

Mass panic, total destruction, the entire city is wiped out without David doing anything.

Our heroes are now stranded, again, in space.

Light and Shadow has learned nothing, Indil is wearing a life vest, Elizabeth has no ship, and David just composed "Elizabeth the Symphony: Tenth Movement".

Indil works on building a new ship out of twigs and rocks. He assures them he knows what he's doing. Elizabeth's not sure she wants him going to Earth. She's not sure she wants to go to Earth.

She's also not sure, but she may now have a harem consisting of a robot, an alien, and another alien.

Ten years later, the Covenant crew shows up, and promptly die in a series of hilariously terrible accidents and their own incompetence.

Our heroes still have no functional ship.

[piracytheorist]

A Kiss for Good Luck (14/16)

Summary: So this is the story of one born lucky, and one born unlucky. Fate will keep making them cross paths, but is it to bring them together, or to test them? Captain Swan AU.

A/N: Would you look at that. The 14th chapter, which includes some fluff and general romantic feelings (and some angst, I mean, you know me), is being uploaded on Valentine’s Day. I swear I hadn’t planned any of that XD

Rating: T (make sure you’re okay with the warnings on AO3)

Word count for this chapter: 3.3k (51k in total) AO3

Read from the beginning: Tumblr | AO3

~

Chapter 14: Emma Swan and Killian Jones, June 23rd 2016

The sun has barely come out when Killian wakes up. For a moment he wonders if he dreamed the previous night, but his doubts wash away as he turns around on the couch, still in the clothes he wore the previous night. A thin sheet is on the floor next to him. He must’ve kicked it off in his sleep.

He gets up and walks to the door to his bedroom; it's half open and he can see Emma sleeping soundly on his bed. He leans on the door frame for a moment and watches her. He was too drunk the previous night for his brain to even fully register she'd come, let alone why.

Could she know? Did she figure it out too?

The lack of a headache despite his drinking the previous night leads him to think that yes, she did, and she made sure to rid herself of the luck as soon as she met him, just as he'd predicted.

He silently picks up fresh clothes and jumps in the shower. When he comes out, Emma has woken up and is tiredly leaning on the same door frame he was leaning before.

Killian takes a brisk step towards her, intending to kiss her, but she pulls back in time.

“Sorry,” Emma says. “It doesn't mean- it's not that I don't want to...”

He looks at her. “You know. You figured it out.”

She shrugs. “Same way you did.”

“I should have showed you where the water heater is last night. You want to take a shower?”

“That would be nice.”

He leans towards her again. “Will you allow me just this, so that I can be sure you won't slip in there and hit your head?”

“Killian...”

“Please.”

“I came here to give you your luck back. It was yours to begin with.”

He sighs. “Can we have this discussion when we're both properly awake?"

She nods and he leaves a kiss on her cheek. Emma seems ready to complain, but is too jet-lagged to do so. He walks past her to his bedroom. “I'll bring you clean towels.”

Emma lets the warm water wash over her, finally feeling the exhaustion wear off a little. She's not surprised to hear the sound of something, probably a plate, breaking in the kitchen. Feeling guilty, she turns the water off and puts soap on.

She's already feeling much better. Is jet-lag all a matter of luck?

She wouldn't really know. In all her plane trips before she met Killian – officially – she was the one who was the lucky one.

She peeks briefly at Killian when she comes out. He's sitting on the couch, waiting with two cups of coffee on the table in front of him.

She puts on clean clothes and joins him, sitting next to him and preparing for a kiss.

He leans away a bit, but still smiling at her.

“You figured it out before you left,” she says. “That's why you skipped back through the queue to come kiss me.”

He lowers his head. “I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I'd left and knowingly taken the luck with me.”

“But you gave it to me, as if... as if it was so simple.”

“You would have done the same.” He looks at her. “Isn't that why you came here without saying anything?”

She suddenly remembers she should have cancelled her hotel reservation. It's too late now to have any chance for a refund, luck notwithstanding. “You did lie to me,” she says teasingly, staring into his eyes. “You were that pirate boy in that Halloween party.”

He sighs, smiling slightly. “I have no idea how I managed to lie so smoothly at that point.”

“Is that when you realized it? You covered it pretty well.”

“But you still knew there was something wrong.”

Of course she did. They were, somehow, an open book to each other.

“Do you remember the next time?” she asks.

“In that club in New York City.”

“I... I remember the gunshots,” she says in a low voice. She doesn't miss the slight twitch of his lips. “It was... it was you, wasn't it? And your girlfriend.”

Killian closes his eyes. He feels his head hurt, and that's certainly not from the current lack of luck.

Emma can't hold a sniffle back in time, and Killian immediately says, “It wasn't your fault.”

“It's so messed up. If I hadn't kissed you...”

“You asked me first.”

“I didn't ask you if you wanted-”

“Emma, please.” His voice is shaking, and it shuts her up. “You didn't know. And... Milah's loss, watching her being murdered... it hasn't healed completely.” He lifts his head to look at her. “It's enough to deal with by itself, I can't...”

He lowers his head again, and Emma bites at her lip, shaken by the pain written on his face. He's right. She shouldn't feel guilty over it, and even if she does, she can't burden him with it.

He takes a deep breath and looks at her again, face calmer now. “I think it would have happened anyway. You think all the times we met were a coincidence? We're from two different parts of the world, and we met three times before we even had the chance to catch each other's names. And we kissed in all of them.”

“You think it's just fate?”

“It's a cruel game she's played on us, but I can't find any logical explanation.”

“Could it be a test?”

“Of what?”

“Of who will be the first to run off with luck on their side.”

Killian thinks for a moment. “I hadn't thought of that. That sounds even more cruel, considering we'd have to steal the luck from each other. And with a kiss, no less.”

“I can't imagine what you must have been thinking after you kissed me at the airport.” She takes his hand in hers. “If there really is a test involved, I'm pretty sure you passed it.”

“Maybe it's long-term. Just yesterday a bird shat on my head.” He snorts a laugh. “A few too many of those and I would be back on a plane to Boston.”

“So... what do we do?” Emma says, but she's perfectly sure it's a question he's having as well.

“You won't settle on keeping the luck for yourself when you go back, will you?”

Her face crumbles, and he doesn't stop her when she captures his lips in hers.

“Not a chance,” she says and leans her head on his shoulder.

After a short silence, he says, “When did you figure it out?”

“Three days ago, I think.”

“And you came here that fast?” His voice raises in pitch.

“I couldn't stay still as soon as I knew. And well, I did buy a lottery ticket and, you know...”

He leans back a little to look at her. His expression is not that same smile that usually breaks her; it's sadder, with a pinch of surprise, but it has the same effect. He kisses her, but she leans back in when he tries to break off. They allow themselves a moment to kiss and not count, and then they look at each other lost.

“Who's got it now?” Killian asks.

Emma smiles. She wraps her arms around him.

“I can't leave without knowing you have it.”

“You know, I've had some time to think about it.” He wraps his own arm around her and kisses the top of her head. “And I've had a few theories.”

“Such as?”

He leans a bit back so they can see each other again. “I think the longer one stays lucky, the worse the bad luck hits later.”

“You think that is? I've had the bad luck longer, but you've had it worse. It would make sense.”

“Swan, you can't compare the two.”

“You're the one comparing.”

“I'm comparing the individual situations, not which one of us has had it worse.”

“It wasn't always good for me, you know that. But I never had to lose anyone.”

Killian's face falls a little.

“How could you do it? How could you give me your luck thinking that you could be endangering the life of someone you love?”

“Stop calling it 'my' luck,” he says softly.

“It was yours first.”

He gives her an incredulous look, but then his face turns thoughtful. “It was a last-moment decision. At first I thought it was just us meeting, I don't know why it took me so long to figure out it was with a kiss that it swapped.”

“Oh.”

“When I reached the checkpoint, I found a banknote and I realized I was still lucky, despite what I'd originally thought.”

“And you came back to kiss me.”

He nods.

She sighs. “Both so stubbornly selfless.”

He takes his arm away so that he can hold her hand. “Do you remember when I called you for New Year's?”

“How could I forget?” she says, smiling.

“When I saw how you were at first, I promised myself I'd never let you experience anything like that again. And with that in mind, I couldn't leave you unlucky.”

“But, your family...”

He shakes his head. “Is it really a surprise you found me like that last night?”

Her eyes widen. “Did something happen?”

“No, thankfully. Not to us, at least.” To her unspoken question, he answers, “The detective who helped with my case, you remember some trials I told you about?”

“What happened?”

“He was shot, he's in a coma now, and Nemo happened to be the one fostering his twelve-year-old daughter.”

“That's too many coincidences.”

“I talked to him, to Nemo, about all this.”

“You did?! Did he believe you?”

He smiles a little. “This isn't Hollywood, love. He's known me for half my life. Though I was surprised when he immediately trusted I wasn't going nuts. So we talked about it, and we can't see any reason why the detective getting shot has any connection to us. But I can't stop thinking about it.”

“Hm. Anything else?”

“Aside from occasionally getting stuck in traffic, or broken elevators, or stepping on dog shit, not much. At least I was prepared to be unlucky this time.”

“Well, now I am too.” She sits up straight, as if to prove her point. “Prepared, I mean.”

“Swan...”

“It's my time to be incredibly selfless.”

“You've been unlucky the longest. You deserve some more time to relax.”

“But you said that the bad luck hits back harder. So next time for me it will be worse than you've been having it now.”

He pauses. He didn't consider that. He hadn't actually considered there would be a next time.

“So, how are we going to do this?”

“Do what?”

She points between the two of them. “Be together. Try to keep it balanced.”

“You still want to be with me?” His face betrays his disbelief.

She wraps her arms around his neck again. “Of course I do. Why do you think I came all this way?”

“Emma... you don't- you didn't expect what you saw last night. I'm relapsing. And it's not the first time I do.”

“We can work with that.” She brushes her hand through his hair.

“You don't deserve that.”

“I don't care. You don't deserve going back to drinking, either. You were willing to leave me with good luck, forever.” She puts her palm on his cheek. “I want to know you'll be okay. And I want to help, if I can. Was that why you were pulling away?”

“Not exactly... maybe, in part. I was hoping you'd lose interest, so you'd never risk getting unlucky again. I went back to drinking in an effort to protect my family.”

“How would that help?”

“I've been a walking jinx. I hoped that I could make them disgust me so they'd stay away from me.”

“Oh, Killian...”

“I failed miserably. They love me too much for their own good.”

“I know this sounds weird, but I'd gladly be the asshole and run away with the luck on my side if you promised to never try something like that again.”

He smiles a little. “Bad fortune leading to character development?”

“So that's what it was all about!” she teases. “Fate wanted us to be deeply layered humans. How kind of her.”

They laugh half-heartedly. At least they have each other in this.

“So what do you think this is?” she says. “Fate toying with us?”

“I have a theory about that too. We have one day difference between our birthdays, right?”

“Yeah.”

“But I was born here. You in the United States. What if it's not really one day? What if it's just a few hours?” He shrugs slightly. “What if there's no actual difference at all?”

Emma thinks for a moment. “I remember seeing my birth certificate. I was born at night, around ten, eleven?”

Killian nods. “It would be three or four in the morning here then. I was born very early in the morning. I don't remember the hour exactly-”

“You wouldn't,” Emma says with a cheeky smile.

Killian laughs lightly. “I've happened to have seen my birth certificate too, you know. And it was very early too. I think my mother said she'd woken up in the middle of the night and my... father took her to the hospital.”

“So you think we were born at the exact same time? Or moment, at least?”

“It wouldn't be hard to check. I think it was all fate's doing, after that. It kept throwing things into our lives so we'd lean towards each other's path.”

“Until we finally had the chance to actually get each other's names.” She leans closer to him.

“Quite a cruel game it played on us, but maybe now we can at least achieve some normalcy.”

“Tell me about it. After everything we've been through, it's so hard to just accept the good things.”

“Aye. You get used to things going well, then you kiss a stranger and suddenly you lose everything.”

Killian doesn't mean any malice with his words, she knows, but Emma nearly feels her heart break. After she kissed him at that Halloween party, she did lose everything. But he doesn't know how much it meant to her, especially through her darkest moments, to remember the way that pirate boy looked at her. So much that fifteen years later that same look had the same effect.

Was she just a stranger that destroyed his life to him?

“Hey, hey,” Killian says. “That's not what I meant at all.”

“What?” She looks up lost, realizing her eyes are full of tears.

He smiles softly, that damn smile of his. “I told you, I truly believe it was fate that brought us together. Our luck would have swapped sides no matter what, at one point or another. Fate made our paths cross, but I am bloody well glad it was you I had to meet.”

What the fuck, she thinks, that's so sweet.

He's always so good with words. She just kisses him again, then sighs. “We'll have to get used to that too.”

“What?”

“The thought that every kiss comes with a consequence.”

He holds her tighter. “It's a cross we'll bear together.”

Together.

He looks down. “If I came to live in Boston, would you help me until I get a job and an apartment?”

“You would come with me?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“I... I thought we could settle for like, visiting each other every few months or so. Otherwise, we'll have to count kisses every day, going after the other to pass on our luck...”

He brings his hand up to caress her cheek, not missing how she now called it 'their' luck. “Kissing, as physical touch, is a love language. Giving each other luck can be kind of the same.”

They lean into each other's embrace. It's amazing how easier it is now that the truth is out, despite what it might mean for their relationship.

“Are you serious about moving? You want to come live in Boston?”

“I've made enough snap decisions to know a serious one when I see it.”

Emma feels her heart soar. He's willing to move countries just to be with her, after he'd condemned himself to a lifetime of bad luck for her sake. She kisses him again and sighs. The thought of having him by her side, and not just count on right scheduling and phone screens to have him close...

A sudden idea jumps at her right as Killian's phone rings. He stands up to take it, and Emma starts wondering. Norway is very close from here. Why should it be Killian who has to move across the Atlantic?

Killian picks up his phone.

“Good morning,” Killian says.

“Killian? Are you alright?” Nemo says.

“Aye, I'm fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Nemo, I'm alright.” He looks at Emma and smiles. A bit more than alright.

“Are you available? I need you to pick up Alice from school when she's done and look after her for the evening. If you're not okay...”

Killian suppresses a sigh. “I can do that. Don't worry. Everything alright?”

“Yeah. John needs some help at the office today.”

And he doesn't trust Killian. Nothing unexpected, if he's honest – though it's surprising that Nemo trusts him with taking care of the girl.  “Mind if I bring some company? Emma surprised me with a visit.”

“Emma? She's here? Does she... know?”

“Yes.”

Nemo is silent for a moment, but eventually says, “You'll tell me all about it later. She can come, of course.”

“Thanks.”

“Thank you. Could you also cook? There's meat and peas in the fridge, they just need to be cooked in a pan.”

“I will. No problem.”

“Thank you, Killian.”

Killian hangs up and looks at Emma; she's stood up and is looking at his old framed family photo.

She smiles at him. “Your mother and brother?”

“Aye. It's the only picture I've got of them.” He looks at it, sighing deeply. “You recognized me?”

Her smile turns into a smirk. “Would you recognize me? You're lucky I don't have- Ugh.”

He catches her meaning. “Am I?” He kisses her temple. “Or maybe now?”

She looks back at the picture. She's not surprised his biological father isn't depicted anywhere, even as an addition to the original. “Your mother was very beautiful. Was red her natural hair colour?”

He smiles a little. “I like to think that's where I got the ginger beard from.”

She wraps her arm around his, then her free hand takes his. She looks at the other photo, the one of his new family, with both fathers and both siblings. And then yet another one, with him and the one who's most possibly Milah. After a moment of silence she asks, “Where are we going?”

“To my fathers' house.”

She smiles widely. “Meeting the parents already?”

Killian laughs lightly. “They'll be busy today and Nemo asked me if I can take care of the girl he's fostering.” He squeezes her hand in his. “Though I would like you to meet them too.”

[flying-nightwing]

The Incredible Coincidence of One High School Reunion

As promised, the awaited enemies to lovers x fake dating i’ve promised today! (ft. my love for super long titles) 

Thank you to everyone supporting me!

PS: if your name is Monica I am truly sorry, please forgive me.

Masterlist

Pairing: Dick Grayson x reader

Word count: 4916

Warnings: none beside extreme cheesiness

Out of everyone you thought would show up to the Gotham Academy 10 years alumni reunion, Dick Grayson was definitely not one of them. He was the golden boy, the Wayne kid that probably had a long list of better things to do than entertain than his old cohort of high school graduates. Alas, there he was in all of his glory, and it pissed you off.

You and Dick had, to say the least, a difficult relation. You had been friends, for a little while after he started at the academy. You had a lot of classes together and more often than not ended up working together. You helped him get acclimated to the new school and environment, introduced him to all your friends and invited him to your extracurricular activities. But then, ever so slowly, everything became a competition. Who got the best grades, who got involved in most committees, and even who the teachers liked most. Naturally, he bested you in everything and made a point to shove it back in your face. He became your nemesis, and this adversity dealt one hell of a blow to your social standing. People liked Dick better, of course they did, so they stopped hanging out with you.

Good riddance, you told yourself. They outed themselves as fake friends anyway, so the loss hadn’t been catastrophic. Still, for a teenage girl, it had hurt. You had been doomed as the loner, all because you had befriended the wrong person in the first place. The saddest part was that you genuinely missed your friendship with Dick, but you just couldn’t go back to him. It would have made you look pathetic and desperate, and you were not about to stoop so low. Sure you had a few other acquaintances you ate lunch with and did teamwork, but it wasn’t the same.

He was mingling with the people, talking and laughing in his probably expensive suit. You rolled your eyes at the sight and downed your glass of champagne, then made your way back to the refreshment table. On the way you bumped into an old colleague from the recycling committee and entertained small talk, then you made it there without another obstacle. You stopped in front of the already filled glasses of wine and hesitated. The red wine smelled horrible, the white seemed watered down, but the rosé looked like a good choice. You reached for the last glass when your hand collided with another. you looked up to apologize, but as you caught a glimpse of the other person, your eyebrows furrowed in annoyance and retracted your hand like it touched fire. 

“Grayson” You said through clipped lips.

“(Y/L/N)”

“Still trying to steal my only joy left, I see” You scoffed, nodding at the still unclaimed rosé glass.

“And you’re still baselessly accusing everyone but yourself for undermining you” He rolled his eyes. “Nothing has changed”

“What do you want?” You sighed, crossing your arms against your chest and glaring up at him. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

“Well, I was just trying to get a drink” He lifted his hands up in surrender, but in a sarcastic way that just irritated you, and he knew it all to well. “You were the one who got all pissy about it”

“Yeah whatever, I guess I should have bowed and offered you the glass on a silver platter” You huffed. “So his Highness wouldn’t have been inconvenienced”

“Are you kidding me?” His eyebrows raised. “Why are you like this? I’ve never--”

He stopped talking, his eyes fixated on something behind you for a second. Then, he made himself surprisingly small and glanced away. You frowned in confusion for a second, before you looked over your shoulder and blanched, understanding the reaction all too well. You shared a look of panic, simultaneously putting away the animosity between each other to brace yourself for the horror that was to come.

And that horror was named Monica.

She confidently walked toward you, graceful in her high heels and frustratingly stunning in her knee length dark blue dress. She was your ex supposed best friend, and the first one to ditch you for Dick when the rivalry began. She then proceeded to make a point of showing off her pinning for him, trying desperately to make her and him a “thing”. It never worked, but she kept going, so much it became borderline stalking. The whole school knew, it fueled everyone’s gossip.

Without missing a beat, she extended in arm in between you and Dick to grab the last glass of rosé, leaning not so subtly more in his space than she needed to. She sipped the alcohol almost seductively, gazing at Dick with practiced innocence. It was becoming uncomfortable real quick.

“Hi Richard” She gave him her best smile, then shot you a smug glance as if saying watch this. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been good” He replied without much interest, refusing to meet her eyes. “How about you?”

“Amazing! I’ve been working on totally rebranding my father’s hotel company” She chatted excitedly. You sighed inwardly and grabbed a glass of white wine, taking a long sip. “If you want to, I can show you the new rooms design. We could test the mattresses…”

You choked on your wine while Dick’s eyes considerably widened. Monica was waiting for an answer.

“I uh-- Actually I can’t…” He sputtered, trying to come up with an excuse to reject her. Oh, that would be interesting alright. He knew how persuasive she could be, so he had to find something solid. He looked around in a panic, then his eyes settled on you. “... Because (Y/N) and I are together”

His words didn’t quite register in your head as he threw an arm around your waist, pulling you closer to his side with a wide forced smile. His fingers giving a small pleading tug to your dress snapped you out of your stupor, and you plastered a matching grin on your lips. You hated the idea of bailing Dick out of an embarrassing situation, but the opportunity of taunting Monica was just too good to pass, so you decided to play along.

“What?” Monica blinked in confusion, then frowned. “I didn’t know that”

“That’s because we’ve been keeping it very private” He replied smoothly. “I wanted to keep her away from the paps, they’re such vultures sometimes”

“Oh” She simply said, before smiling sweetly. It was too sweet. You didn’t like it one bit. “So how did it happen?”

“Well, we bumped into each other again last year, totally by accident” You took over Dick’s hesitation. “And uh, we cleared things up and it kinda just… Happened”

You made a point of giving him heart eyes as you finally returned his awkward embrace. His muscles untensed a bit when he saw you wouldn’t sabotage him. Something shifted in Monica’s eyes, they became just a bit more somber without her losing the smile. It made her look just a bit insane.

“I see” Her tone turned hostile. “I guess you won’t mind if I share the good news, won’t you?” 

“... Yeah, we don’t mind” He scratched the back of his neck while your stomach dropped. You hadn’t thought about this. The smugness returned as she turned around, flipping her hair in the process. You watched her walk away before sending a thundering glare at Dick, who had his lips pressed in a thin line.

“Really?” 

“What was I supposed to do?” He quietly bit back.

“You owe me a solid one for this” You said through your teeth. “You better start thinking of something good, golden boy”

“As far as I’m concerned, you have as much interest as me to keep this charade up” He scoffed, grabbing a glass of red wine. “So don’t act like you’re doing this out of selflessness”

“Yeah whatever” 

“Ooooohhhh mi gosh guuuuys”

You both flinched at the very high pitched voice coming to your right. You saw a girl in a violet dress almost running toward you with a wide grin on her face. You didn’t remember her name, but you knew she was a nice girl despite her tendency to get in everyone’s business. 

“Why didn’t you say you were together?” She squealed as her boyfriend trailed along, an apologetic expression on his face. “This is so amaaaazing!”

“Ah, yes” You replied awkwardly. “We just wanted to keep it private, you know?”

“Yeah I understand totally” She nodded quickly, the point of your words soaring right over her head. “I’ve always known you guys were going to end up together. You’re so meant for each other”

You wanted to cringe. That surely wasn’t the discourse anyone was holding while you were still in high school, and she surely only said that because she thought you were actually together. What do they know, anyway. 

“Uh, thanks” Dick smiled politely to hide his discomfort. “I guess it took some time, but we finally figured it out, haha”

“Oh, I forgot” She gasped, turning to her boyfriend. “Mike, this is Dick and (Y/N). They were like, THE rivals back in the days. We basically only talked about them for like, an entire school year. It’s so sad (Y/N) pushed everyone away though”

You looked away as she kept babbling to her boyfriend. You knew she didn’t mean it in a harsh or mocking way, but it still stung. You wanted to tell her it hadn’t been by choice, that people deserted you and forced you into a corner, but you found yourself unable to do so. Beside, you couldn’t just let them know how much it affected you or they would prey on it all the same than in actual high school. You were so busy tuning her out that you missed the concerned glance sent in your direction. 

“Hey, it was nice to see you again” Dick shook hands with the couple, snapping you out of your head. You forced a smile and did the same. “I think we’ll go around a bit, but uh, see ya?”

“S-sure”

You gladly took this exit and walked away from the refreshment table with Dick. You could feel his questioning stare shifting on you every few seconds, but you refused to look in his direction. He didn’t have the right to be concerned, and you didn’t owe him any explanations. You lifted your head upright and followed him over to the next group of person. Naturally, by this point, everyone had gotten the word from Monica. People were either friendlier than ever with you, or gave you attitude about it, none of which you enjoyed. You mostly nodded and smiled, barely paying attention to the words that were being exchanged. It was more often than not anecdotes that concerned Dick, or happened after you broke things off with most of your friends.

“It so strange to see you together” Some guy you didn’t quite remember began with a cruel smirk. “I didn’t see you as the type to hang out with losers”

You bit your cheek so hard it almost bled. You were certain that this would be the last nail to your coffin, that you’d receive the humiliation of your life. However, your fake boyfriend had another idea. 

“Still I hung out with you” The comeback came so fast it almost gave you a whiplash. Silence settled over the group, their baffled stares directed to a very self satisfied Dick Grayson. “Hey, remember when you hung upside down from the climbing ropes in gym class and threw up all over yourself from up there?”

Your hand involuntarily flew to your mouth to hide the drop of your jaw. 

A wave of uncomfortable laughs made its way around the circle, as nobody had enough guts to confront Dick about it. And you had a feeling he knew that; he knew they would still try to suck up to him even ten years later and fully abused this privilege.

For you.

Without waiting any longer, you were gently dragged away from the group. You were still processing what had just happened and didn’t realize you were talked to. You shook your head slightly to get out of your daze and frowned.

“Uh?”

“I asked you if you were okay” He repeated softly.

“Y-yeah” You stuttered. “I guess I’m the one who owe you one now”

“Don’t mention it” He tried a small smile. “Those people need some reality checks sometimes”

“I don’t know why I even came to this stupid reunion” You mumbled, glancing back at where the group had stood earlier. Most of the people had gone away by now, only remaining the guy Dick had all but obliterated and some girl seemingly comforting him. “It was a bad idea”

He didn’t speak right away, he instead did a visual sweep of the room, then at the back door of the gymnasium and at the crown again. “Hey, have you ever gotten on the roof of the academy?”

“... No” Your eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“Come on” He hooked his arm through yours and pulled you with him to the back door. You ended up in a staircase you didn’t know existed and began climbing up. You didn’t know how, but Dick easily bypassed the lock without the key, opening the door to the roof. You stepped out a took a deep breath, glad you could escape the crowd of people you didn’t like downstairs. The sky was clouded and it smelled like rain was coming.

“So” You began as you turned to face him. “How did you out of all people found out about this secret passage? This isn’t very much golden-y of you”

“Oh, if only you knew” He chuckled, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I found the staircase by accident in senior year one time I was trying to hide away from Monica and her gang of demons”

You snorted.

“I don’t know how you did it” He hummed, looking up at the sky.

“Did what?”

“Kept yourself together while I was being, well, a total dick” He precised.

“Ah” You gave him a sad smile. “The first social rule you learn when you’re born rich, is that you rarely ever make real friends. You mostly only keep people around temporarily for your own gain, then they’re gone. It was hard, but I had expected it”

“Still, you handled it way better than I did” His eyes trailed down the roof and stopped on you. “I wasn’t prepared for everything that came with hanging with rich kids”

“It’s an art, isn’t it?” You teased. “Fake friends are hard to manage, especially the kind that comes here. If you’re not careful they’ll eat you alive”

“Yeah, I understood that pretty quickly” He sighed. You nodded slowly, warming up your arms with your hand. The night air was cold, and the wind didn’t make it better. 

“If it could make you feel better” You paused, regretting your words as soon as they came but unable to stop them. “I think you’ve been my only true friend in high school, for the time it lasted”

You weren’t looking to astound him, but you surely did. His whole posture changed, and his expression shifted into something you couldn’t put your finger on. You had the time to reconsider your words and ask yourself if you should leave before he gave you any reaction.

“Sorry” You mumbled. “I shouldn’t have said that”

“N-no, wait” He scurried his thoughts. “You really meant that?”

You nodded.

“I truly screwed up didn’t I?” He muttered, flinching. 

“No, I did” You sighed. “I should have just swallowed my pride and stopped caring so much about trying to be better than you” 

“But I kept pushing you” His head hung low. “I was trying so hard to get attention and validation that lost the one person that might have made high school not so terrible”

“Didn’t you get enough validation from Monica?” You raised an eyebrow playfully. “She seemed so keen on praising your every move”

“Ha” He shook his head, a small smile dancing on the corner of his lips. “I think she was praising the name Wayne more than anything”

“High school was terrible” You said as you glanced up at a bird flying higher over your head. When you looked back down, Dick had his arm outstretched and was handing you his suit jacket. You mumbled a thanks and put it on, welcoming its warmth.

“Cheers to that” 

“Oh yeah” You chuckled. “Cheers to people screwing up good things and explaining a decade later”

“(Y/N), I officially apologize for being an asshole” He declared, and you held back a grin. “Will you forgive me?”

“I officially forgive you, Dick Grayson” You replied. “Will you forgive me for being a stuck up bitch?”

“I officially forgive you, (Y/N)” He repeated with a mock solemn expression.

You held eye contact for a second before you burst with laughter. All of this anger and resentment you had carried for years was suddenly just gone. You had no idea it would be that easy to put it all behind you and find back your friend you had missed so much. You had forgotten how easy it was to laugh and kid around with him. 

“Come here” He opened his arms for a hug. As you were about to walk into his embrace, raindrops began falling. You paused for a second, just enough for the sky to open up and pour water over you.

You yelped and ran for cover back inside. Dick slammed the door behind you and put back the lock on again, then with a mischievous glint in his eyes, grabbed your wrist and pulled you with him down the stairs.

“Slow down!” You squealed, trying not to fall over in your heals. “Where are we going?”

“Take a wild guess”

He pushed open the door of the first floor, giving out on the hallways you knew too well. Most senior classrooms were around here, and on the walls, the graduating classes hung in big, golden frames. 

“The senior hall? Really?” You raised an eyebrow, but he wasn’t fazed. 

“Come on, let’s find our year” He ignored your comment as he walked further down the corridor, checking the dates on every frame. You followed him until he finally stopped on the right one. “Aw, look at our baby faces!”

You squinted your eyes at the pictures to find him. “I’m sorry to tell you, you practically look the same” 

He gasped in offense. “I believe I lost my baby cheeks since. I mean, look at my jaw”

You looked in between the picture and him a couple of times, pretending not to see it. Obviously, his face had gotten insanely handsome since you had last seen him, and that was just his face. You didn’t broach the topic of the broad shoulders and seemingly toned body. The rain had gotten through his white shirt a bit, and you prefered not to let your gaze linger there for too long,

“Mhhh” You shrugged teasingly. “I guess your hair has improved a bit”

“This is what you latched on? My hair?” He scoffed playfully before he snapped his head in your direction. “Wait, a bit?”

You laughed. “Alright alright, Grayson. I might be a bitch but I’m not a liar, you do score considerably higher overall on the looks now”

“Thank you” He smiled proudly. “You’re not too bad yourself” 

“Oh, you don’t need to flatter me” You smirked as you stepped around him to go further down the hallway. “I’m fully secure in my glow up from then to now”

“Alright, no need to get cocky” He snorted, but it wasn't mean like it used to be. It felt like the friendship you were meant to have. 

You stopped in front of the glass case displaying various achievement by seniors, the valedictorians of each years and the famous golden book, which contained the signature of every graduate of Gotham Academy since 1957. It laid open, showing the pages of the last class to leave. You felt nostalgic as you read the comments and signatures, suddenly wishing you were one of the kids who got to give and receive nice comments and share inside jokes only a select group of people would understand. Instead, you knew your name was forever scribbled in a corner ten pages back, perhaps overlapped by some bigger, flashier signature from the more popular crowd. 

“Forever the... Salt water chugging gang?” Dick read from an entry, furrowing his brows together. “I wonder what events lead to that name”

“Yikes” You grimaced. “Were we that stupid?”

“More, I think” He grinned. “Let’s find out”

Before you could ask what he meant, he got to work to disable the student proof lock and opened the glass. He did it so easily, so flawlessly, you had trouble thinking of how he learned to do all that.

“How do you know so much about picking locks?” You asked as he carefully flipped back the pages to your year. First the door to the roof, now that?

“Stick around and maybe I’ll tell you” He winked, then returned his eyes on the book. They widened. “Oh what the hell”

“What?” You peeked from around him.

“Monica really… Really left me her-her” He choked with laughter, tears brimming his eyes. “Her my--myspace handle-”

You joined him in a quiet laughter, then it grew louder as his became hysteric. He barely finished his sentence, he couldn’t even say it, and you understood why. It was positively hilarious. She really did leave her myspace handle for Dick, under his name with a little heart and her signature.

Dick sighed, his hand on his chest as he tried to catch his breath back. He then wiped his tears and shook his head. “That was good”

“One for the books, for sure” You agreed. “If she could see that, the embarrassment” 

“Come on, let’s add something for old time’s sake” He said as he pulled out a pen from his pockets. Before you could stop him, he leaned forward and began writing in a tiny free space. He then backed up, letting you read his little addition.

‘Let’s pretend I wrote that when we were seniors. To our lost and found friendship, sincerely, your favourite asshole’

Your smile widened at the message, a warm feeling sneaking up in your chest. You snatched the pen from his hand and scribbled another message in another blank space, the blue ink contrasting with the black of the markers on the page. 

‘Because it took us a decade to find out we have more in common than different after all. To you with love, your stuck up bitch’

It was your turn to step back, satisfied, and let him read your message. He chuckled as you handed him back the pen, and quietly flipped back the pages to the last class.

“Thanks” You spoke up.

“For what?”

“For giving me the chance to write something nice that I meant in there” You explained, pushing back a loose strand of hair behind your ear. “Despite what I might say, it’s nice to leave a mark somewhere”

“In that case, you’re very welcome” He smiled warmly. You felt your heart skip a beat when you noticed how close from you he had gotten. From close on, you could see the different pigments in the blue of his eyes, or just how sharp his facial features actually were. It was definitive, Dick Grayson was a really handsome man.

You kind of understood now why Monica was so obsessed with him.

Suddenly, Dick perked up, his eyes set on the corner of the corridor. Quicker than you could register, he shut the glass display close and spun you against him, backing himself up into the wall. You were confused and flustered with your hands flat on his chest, but you realized soon enough the purpose of his actions. Seconds after, your old math teacher rounded up the corner. She paused at the sight of you, a frown on her face, until she recognized Dick. Her whole expression then changed.

“Mr. Grayson” She smiled politely, ignoring the position you were in. So, he had staged it up to seem like you were doing something else than vandalizing the golden book. “I believe the party is in the gymnasium”

“Sorry Ms Hess” He apologized sheepishly. “We wanted to take a little trip down memory lane”

She gave you a knowing look, but didn’t argue much. She only kept going her way like she didn't even see you. You were baffled for a second at exactly what extent people went to suck up to the Wayne name, then you remembered the position you were in. The heat crept back up in your neck, and it only became worse when Dick seemed to have no intention to move. You were too aware of his arms circling your waist and his casual leaning on the wall.

“Nice save” You breathed, your eyes going back to his. Bad idea. He had this innocent look that actually was anything but, and it made you nervous. He was the one against the wall, but it still felt like you were the one trapped. “I still have no idea how you managed that too”

“Let’s add it to the list of mysteries, shall we?”

You could have sworn his voice got deeper there. He slowly tilted his head to the side, his gaze flickering under hooded eyelids in between your eyes and your lips. He was nearly irresistible like that, practically inviting you to steal a taste, so you decided just not to resist. Tentatively, you leaned closer and slowly pressed your lips to his. They were soft and warm as they began gently moving against yours, making you feel all weird inside. On one hand, this was the man you disliked with worked passion no earlier than two hours before. But on the other hand, it felt so right.

You felt like a teenager all over again, but living the right experiences this time around. 

He pulled away, ending the kiss but still staying close. You blinked hazily, trying to chase the daze away. You could feel his hot breath on your lips, and while you were sure your thoughts should be spinning a hundred miles per hour, your head was surprisingly clear and calm. All nervousness was gone and dissipated in thin air. 

“I…” You trailed off, trying to find your tongue. “I don’t know what to say”

“Hmmm, how about...” He hummed as if he was thinking it through. “Wow Grayson, you’re so amazing and I can’t believe we did not make out sooner”

You rolled your eyes at the high pitched voice he used, then lightly slapped him on the chest. “Way to ruin the moment”

“That’s the good thing about moments though” He said, sliding a hand up your back and on your neck. “We can make more of ‘em”

He pulled you in for another kiss, which did not last as long, but definitely felt as good as the first. Perhaps that girl in the violet dress was onto something after all. 

“Smooth, Grayson” A small smile stretched on your lips when you separated. “Very smooth”

“Smooth’s my middle name”

“Uh huh” You chuckled, your eyebrows raised. “Sure”

He shook his head, a playful grin on his lips. His hand trailed from your neck down your arm and his fingers laced with yours. You glanced down at your joint hands, then up to his face. His smile was still there, but it was somewhat more toned down, more fond than its previous playful.

“Are we doing this?” He asked in a whisper. “Or should we stop before I start thinking about it too much?”

You took a deep breath at his question, not expecting it just yet. Dick was someone passionate and emotional, so it shouldn’t surprise you he was already thinking of a potential romantic relation. Everything was moving so fast, but you didn’t want to lie to yourself and say you didn’t feel anything there. Something definitely happened in between the moment he awkwardly threw his arm around you to dodge Monica and the moment he spun you against his chest. And well, one thing you clearly learned tonight was that spontaneous and not thought through decisions could pay off in a way you couldn’t even imagine. 

“I’m willing to try if you are” You finally spoke up. “I guess we’ve got nothing to lose in giving this a shot”

Relief swept across his eyes and his famous million dollars smile returned. He gave your fingers a little squeeze, seeming as happy as a child on christmas morning. 

“This is gonna be great” He muttered excitedly. “I won’t let you down again, I swear”

“You better not” You teased.

“Ohhhhhh mi goooosh!”

Both of your attention snapped at the shrilling voice interrupting you. There was the same girl from earlier, with a crowd around her that obviously contained a very pissed off Monica. You and Dick shared yet another look of incomprehension and slight panic at what she would say this time. And well, it was well justified because nothing could prepare you for her next words. 

“They’re getting engaaaaaaaaged!”

Ah hell, what did you both get into?

[beneaththemasks]

Beast, Fifteen, Dead Apple and Fyodor´s ability put togheter

The first time I watched Bungou I didn't pay much attention to be honest and that lead me to committing a big mistake and that big mistake is what brings me here today.

This is a theory I´ve been working on for a long time now.

Before anything else I have to tell you that this is something I came up with entirely by myself, I don´t know if anyone has already written something similar to this, so any similitude is pure coincidence.

DISCLAIMER: this contains spoilers from the manga and light novels and is quite long, so read at your own risk.

Any hateful comment will be simply ignored, this is just something I'm sharing with you because it makes sense to me and I want to know what you think.

Please excuse my english if it gets bad at times since it isn't my first language.

Let´s begin:

I´ll start talking to you about some guy named “Randou” who was presented in the light novel ''Fifteen” as the responsible for the mafia´s predecessor return and the Arahabaki incident.

For those of you who don´t remember him, here´s a picture.

Ok so, you might wonder why I'm bringing him up.

If he was supposed to be a forgettable face from the beginning, another extra character in the story, then why didn´t I forget him? Why do I mention him before anything?

The answer is simple: I can forget a face I´ve seen once or twice but not one I´ve seen thrice.

“What do you mean? we only saw the man one time” 

You´re totally right, however that wasn´t the case for me.

Confusing his face was the big mistake I made and the one that lead me to building this net of theories and clues that I'm putting together right here right now:

Even though the first time we see Fyodor´s face is at the ending of the second season and then again in Dead Apple, I remind you that I wasn't paying attention at all (like literally guys I already told you about how I would call tachihara “bad tanizaki” just because they looked the same to me). Due to my lack of attention, after finishing the “cannibalism” arc. and becoming more familiar with Fyodor´s face it occurred to me that he was the same guy involved in the arahabaki incident.

Why? because I can so I did.

My brain automatically assumed these guys were the same person just because they were dressed as if they were going to sleep on the top of the Everest for a whole month and because their faces were equally sad...

Of course, when I finished the anime and started reading the manga I was totally confused when Dazai asked Fyodor what his ability was, since I thought him and Randou were the same person, therefore I thought they shared ability.

After that I had to rewatch the whole anime and then realized how high I was when I watched it the first time.

But even when I managed to get the whole story right I still couldn't stop thinking about Randou, he was still a mystery, but more than the man himself, his story and the order in which they were presented by Kafka were somehow strange.

So after reading “Beast'' I came up with a few theories about the book being canonically in that alternate universe, because for me, even if Beast was supposed to be just a spin off written to promote the release of Dead Apple, it couldn´t be that and only that.

I just can´t accept  that “Kafka wrote a 200-page novel to promote a movie that had nothing to do with it when he was asked to just write a 50-page short story” because he just felt like doing it. I knew from the deep bottom of my heart that he was not the kind to write just for fanservice.

So I came up with this idea: “What if the release of Beast and fifteen are more important than we think?”

Despite the first time we see fyodor´s face being at the end of the second season, the first time we see him meeting Dazai, is during dead apple. However, he seems to be just an extra character, someone who doesn't seem to add much to the story at first sight (except for when he turns Shibusawa into a big dragon).

But if we think about it, the same happens with the mentioning of the book in “Beast” and with Randou´s appearance in “Fifteen”.

In these three stories, the book, Randou and Fyodor are like an app running in the background of your cell phone, they are responsible for some kind of event and or incident that we cannot see now but that eventually will go out to light.

These are all very small hints, but that's why it is important, the smaller the better.

We can´t forget that Kafka has always been a mastermind of hiding evidence in plain sight.

He wrote and published 3 stories at the same time  that have nothing in common and then used them to promote each other. He decided not to wait any longer nor release them earlier because they´re relevant to each other even when they don't seem to be. They are like a building in the middle of the city, we see it but we never get the chance to observe it because of all that's happening around it.

But as far as we know Randou dies at the end of fifteen. How could he possibly be related to Fyodor if they never met?

The importance here is not his death or them meeting, maybe not even Randou himself but what happened before his entrance to the PM and after his death.

As far as we know, Randou used to be an european spy tasked to investigate a powerful entity of power in japan and sent to steal it. However, during that mission he was betrayed by his friend who tried to kill him but is Randou who ended up killing him instead.

Nevertheless, in the story we never get to know why his friend betrayed him nor what is that so called “source of energy” that the japanese government has been secretly guarding.

we 

never

know

until now (?)

Towards the end:

What if that “source'' is actually the book itself and his friend tried to kill him to keep it for himself and escape with it? 

Even more important:

What if Randou, after killing his friend, decides to steal the book but forgets about it and it´s power after losing his memory in the Arahabaki incident? 

These explanations can perfectly fill a void we never even noticed was there: Randou dies without remembering that he has a very important item with him, which is the reason for which he was once chased by the GSS (an agrupation that is connected to the Guild who we already know was searching for the book as well) and the same Dazai could have stolen after the Port Mafia kept his belongings when he died.

Please please pleaaaaaaseeee finish the idea.

After writing for 2 days, tying knots and untying them, reading and rereading, remembering details and searching for others i couldn't remember, this is my final conclusion:

 Fyodor´s ability could be nothing more and nothing less than the book itself.

The proof of that being:

-All we know is his ability “Crime and Punishment” is presented as a perfect complement to one another. When he explains why Sibusawa´s mist didn't affect him he says “it´s because crime and punishment are good friends” which can mean that for one to appear, the other has to do something, that is to say, he has to commit a crime to receive punishment.

-We can assume that as someone whose objective is to free everyone from the sense of morality (as Gogol explains) he's the one to decide whether he commits a crime that deserves punishment or better said, his ability “the book” that can only function following the rules of karma.

 -He probably doesn't need to communicate with the outside at all and is trying to deceive Dazai since the plot is going according to his plans and to how he planned to write the story on that single page.

-We know he has a page since the beginning and he also knows everything that´s written on it (for example that sigma´s existence was written on it 3 years before) but it's never mentioned how he got it.

-He literally joined the Guild to search for that book (´cause it belongs to him).

-Despite everything, Dazai is not worried about his plans either (he says all he has to do is observe him) because he's confident that everything is gonna turn out in his favour (you can see the little bitch didn't mind sending Akutagawa to his own death) since he stole the book from Randou long ago.

-What Dazai could've done with the book is nothing more and nothing less than creating the “Beast”  universe after leaving the PM just to give Oda a proper farewell and because since he discovered the real power of that book he decided the best was to hide it.

However none of them can reveal any of this for obvious reasons.

Well I´ve nothing more to say, this is all I have for the moment.

 I know some of these ideas sound very complicated and even excessive, however in the end everything fitted perfectly to me (and I swear I came up with 3 different theories before putting this one together).

If you managed to read this far, thank you very much :,)

If you feel like commenting something feel free to do so :)

[2ndaryreactsandscenarios]

Seventeen REQUEST Reaction to: Weekly Love Letters (High School Version)

Wherein the members begin to receive numerous love letters from a secret admirer. How do they react to such a thing happening in a high school setting and what would their immediate reaction be?

S.Coups/ Seungcheol (Caring and Observant ,The Dominating Rapper )

All the love in the world to S.Coups, but… wrong wrong wrong WRONG! He is wrong about everything involving his admirer and you my friend get to sit and listen to every single wrong suspect he lists off.

“So listen, I know I was wrong before, but I definitely think it’s the chemistry teacher. Yes I know she fails me and has a family and a loving wife, but that’s not the point. This kind of looks like the same envelope she uses to put my detention slips in!” (That chemistry is the real one out here).

Something like that. He would a hundred percent be oblivious to the fact that you were the one sending him letters and it honestly gave you a confidence boost every time you sent a letter. Kind of like you felt invincible and that you’d never get caught. Too bad S.Coups has some observant friends~.

Jeonghan (Cheating Mischief Maker, the Angelic Voice )

Jeonghan would a hundred percent think it’s a prank at first from his friends, but once he actually read it he would realize it’s real. He would wonder to himself who left it for him and wouldn’t once think that he'd get another. Once he received another letter he realized that whoever it was intended on giving him more and that they intended to keep it a secret. This would only fuel his desire to learn who it is, and he would start to run down the list of possibilities. 

It’d be less about whether he had feelings for the person or not, and more about finding this person and going from there.

Joshua/ Jisoo (Joking Gentleman, The Peaceful Voice )

Joshua would make sure to read every letter that he was given and honestly I think he would be really stuck. On the one hand he wanted to respond to the person leaving it for him properly, but on the other other hand he didn’t know who was leaving it for him. So he’d be in this awkward place where he appreciated the letters, but felt bad for potentially leading the person on.

Joshua would already have feelings for someone else (AKA a certain YOU in this reality) and in a weird way he felt like he was being disloyal to you, his unrequited crush (“unrequited”).

Jun/ Junhui (Charismatic Blunt Sir, The Breathtaking Dancer )

One of the only members to have the most amazing of hunches that it was you, my dear. He would catch on to your behavior and pay attention to your reaction when he brought up the fact that he got a love letter. While he was about 70% sure it was you, he still made mental notes of the antics of others in case he could be wrong. He made sure to talk to other people and branch out to see if this shy secret admirer would hold up their white flag and surrender. All he got was more love letters and what felt like daggers everytime he teased anyone else.

Hoshi/ Soonyoung (Comedy Trio ⅓, The Show Stopping Dancer )

Hoshi would think about this a bit too much. He would wonder who in the world would leave him a love letter and he’d want to know who was the one to fall for him. Hoshi would pay more attention to the behaviors of those around him and try to see if anyone was acting out of the ordinary. This being said he’d be totally dense when it came to seeing that you were acting weird. He might even vent to you about how he didn’t notice anyone acting weird, despite you acting weird right in front of him.

“Ugh, who in the world could it be? Hey, you know you are writing with a ruler right? Are you good? Jeez, no one is acting off to me.”

Wonwoo (Literary Soul, The Emotion Filled Rapper )

Wonwoo would find it very sweet and would enjoy the letter he received. But he didn’t know who this person was and he doubted he would be able to figure it out just from the first letter alone. He would wonder who it was but ultimately move on from it. Yet when he received the next letter, then he would realize that it probably wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. So he becomes all the more observant and tries to figure out who could be doing this. Everyone once in  a while stealing a glance towards you and admiring you for a little while.

Woozi/ Jihoon (Brilliant Creator, The Tranquil Vocal )

Woozi would honestly think it was a joke and would kind of ignore the first letter. Once he received more letters he would STILL think this was some twisted prank on him and would still try his best to ignore the letters. He would throw them away, but he would find the letter itself to be “too good to be true”. Woozi wouldn’t really cater to finding out who it is and trying to catch them in the act, rather he would focus more on the person he had feelings for (YOU). He figured whoever was leaving them was watching him, so if he could show it clearly that he had someone he was interested in he figured he could let them down without confronting them on it (that idea makes Woozi very uncomfortable).

DK/ Dokyeom (Comedy Trio ⅓, The Killer Smile and Soul Vocal )

DK is another member who would feel guilty towards you for his crush for receiving the letters. He would appreciate the thought and the courage it took to write and leave it for him to find, but he already had someone he liked and he didn’t want to give this person false hopes.

He would spend more time milling around in his own mind and going over the possibilities of who it could be than to even consider it was someone so close to him. 

It would probably even depress DK because he didn’t know who it was and he felt like he was doing the person a disservice.

Mingyu (“The Tallest~”, The Dynamic Rapper )

This isn’t meant to sound as bad as it is, but Mingyu would show a few of his friends to try and figure out who you are. Once he received about two letters and realized that he couldn’t figure out who it is on his own, he would talk to a few close friends and show it to them to try and get to the bottom of it all. The whole situation would kind of make him uncomfortable and like he had an image to uphold.

At the same token, he would kind of be bummed out. The person in the letters seemed to genuinely like him. If only it was somehow from the person he already had feelings for. But that would be too much of a coincidence wouldn’t it? (My goodness this is something classically foolish.)

The8/ Minghao (Multiple Aspect Photographer, The Agile Dancer )

While The8 would appreciate the letters, he would want to be direct with whomever was leaving the letters. He didn’t want to lead anyone on or take advantage of their feelings, not to mention he already had feelings for someone else. So it would be more about confronting the person leaving the letters directly because he didn’t know who this person was and therefore he couldn’t leave them a letter like he had gotten. From trying to figure out the pattern he would figure out the day they were being left and would try to confront them.

Seungkwan (Comedy Trio ⅓, The MC Power Vocal )

Detective Seungkwan has landed on the scene! Once he receives the first letter, it honestly would warm his heart to hear someone’s earnest feelings. But that person didn’t leave their name so how in the world could he thank them? He would be bummed until another letter arrived, and from then on he would realize that this was going to potentially happen again. Hence, Seungkwan was pulling out his magnifying glass and looking at everything: the stationery, the handwriting, the type of pencil it could have used-- EVERYTHING.

Vernon/ Hansol (Calm and Collected, The Fly Rapper )

Vernon isn’t one to go digging and digging into who it is once he receives a letter. More than likely figures whoever left the note wanted to remain anonymous and he wanted to respect that. The more letters came, he became a little more curious of who it was and if anything he’d be a bit more observant of those around him. You know, paying attention to what people say to see if the whole thing is some elaborate prank or if someone out there genuinely likes him like the letters say they do.

All in all, the letters would make his day when he got them and he would be the slightest bit curious who in the world was leaving them.

Dino/ Chan (Michael Jackson Fan, The Smooth Dancer )

Dino would become very smug about the love letter. He realized that somebody out there was a fan of his. It was something that made his day when he got the first letter. But as more and more letters came in, honestly? I think Dino would wind up being a little freaked out. He felt more guilty the more letters came and he felt like he was leading the person on. He’d be curious who the person leaving them was, and he wanted to find them to turn them down properly. Dino already had someone he liked and had his eyes on, and while he appreciated the sender's feelings he needed to be true to his feelings.

Disclaimer: An important thing to note in regards to these reactions/scenarios is that none of them are based on how the members are in real life and are merely a depiction that fits the fiction (as I don’t know the members personally). These are meant to be lighthearted (aside from the angst that continues to rise on this blog) and I hope they are not being taken as pure fact or reality.

If you took the time to read this reaction, thank you so much for your time. Stay happy and healthy! Make yourself a magnificent morning/afternoon/evening/night whenever in time or whenever in the world you may be and I hope to see you all again soon. Bye bye~

[gaylorlyrics]

Better Than Revenge

I’ve been seeing a few posts on this lately, so I wanted to do some analysis. The mainstream narrative of this song is that Taylor and Joe Jonas broke up (in the infamous 27 second phone call) and Joe then immediately dated Camilla Belle.

It does seem that this song is about that triangle, but rather than it being real relationships, a closer look shows that it was about Taylor’s beard being used by Camilla Belle.

Additionally, this song serves the purpose of getting more publicity for all involved in the triangle, although it definitely seems like Camilla Belle got the short stick. Joe Jonas & Taylor both got a lot of press from their break up and wrote multiple songs hinting at the details. Taylor’s first song that was alleged to be about Joe was Forever & Always.

The Jonas Brothers (except Kevin)) have always used their public relationships to bolster their careers - Miley, Selena, Taylor, and Demi. Now they incorporate their wives (”wives”) into their songs, music videos, merch, and overall marketing. Note that both Nick and Joe just happened to get married just as they were releasing their new album and staging their comeback. The use of contractual relationships has been a constant in their strategy to stay relevant. (Not dragging - I love the Jo Bros - just being honest)

"Now go stand in the corner and think about what you did."

Throughout the song Taylor infantilizes Camilla and compares the situation to a playground fight. Also Taylor loves to talk in her songs!!!

Time for a little revenge The story starts when it was hot and it was summer and... I had it all, I had him right there where I wanted him

Taylor and Joe started bearding in Summer 2008 and bearded for 3 months, July 2008- Oct 2008, a fiscal quarter. It seems like this was the first of many 3 month long contracts for Taylor (Jake, John, Connor, etc). In general this was the first highly publicized “relationship” that Tay was in, seemingly her first beard. Note that is started just after Camp Rock came out, which starred Joe and featured him and the Jo Bros on the soundtrack, and it was just before Taylor released Fearless in Nov 2008, so both were trying to maximize their press coverage and promote their respective projects.

My complete and total guess (plz feel free to correct me if I’m missing something or just totally wrong) is that Taylor wanted to extend the contract since she was releasing Fearless in Nov 2008 and was doing a ton of promo for that, and potentially thought that bearding would help? But that Joe already had the Camilla narrative lined up. Seems like it would be very beneficial for her, given how famous Joe was at the time. Idk just a thought!!

She came along, got him alone and let's hear the applause She took him faster than you could say "sabotage" The line “let’s hear the applause” indicates that that it’s all for show and a PR relationship. It sets the stage for the song as being a literal stage, a performance for an audience (the public).

I never saw it coming, wouldn't have suspected it I underestimated just who I was dealing with She had to know the pain was beating on me like a drum She underestimated just who she was stealing from My best guess on this is that it’s referring to Camilla Belle being significantly less famous that Tay, and Tay being angry that her business plan didn’t go as she anticipated. 

ALSO - Camilla Belle seemed to be a beard as well. It was rumored that Camille was with Maria Sharapova at this time and then the relationship with Joe popped up (”Waiting outside the room was a Hollywood actress, Camilla Belle. Seated inside was the world's highest-earning female athlete, a woman who has become synonymous with racket-swinging glamour, and a close friend of Belle's - Maria Sharapova”). Interestingly, this post talks about Maria specifically and her bearding.

She's not a saint And she's not what you think She's an actress She's better known For the things that she does on the mattress

Okay - this is a super cruel line. The being an actress line refers to Camilla bearding and acting straight. The mattress line is a play on words, saying - sure, she’s an actress, but she’s only known for, and famous because of, the people who she dates, i.e. “dating” Joe. Tay is saying without the contractual bearding relationship Camilla would not be known. Soon she's gonna find Stealing other people's toys On the playground won't make you many friends

“Stealing other people’s toys”?? This is one of the first times that Tay clearly objectifies the men she is supposedly in love with and talks about them as an thing that is hers to use as she likes. Other examples include “Cruel Summer” (Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price/You know that I bought it) and “Don’t Blame Me” (Toyin' with them older guys/Just to play things for me to use). Also this brings the child imagery back.

She should keep in mind She should keep in mind There is nothing I do better than revenge She looks at life like it's a party and she's on the list She looks at me like I'm a trend and she's so over it

This alludes to the cyclical nature of stardom and how people have a ton of press and a huge following, but are then quickly “over”. Taylor is saying that, by dating Joe, Camilla is able to get into parties and thinks Taylor is “over”.

I think her ever-present frown is a little troubling She thinks I'm psycho 'cause I like to rhyme her name with things

This line keeps me up at night. All I can come up with for this rhyme is “What the hell, Camilla Belle?” If you have something better please message me. But sophistication isn't what you wear or who you know Or pushing people down to get you where you wanna go They wouldn't teach you that in prep school so it's up to me But no amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity

This line, honestly as well as the ones before it, clearly refers to dating someone for social status and celebrity standing. It’s about looking a specific way to social climb and gain more clout - aka bearding in order to get more famous.

Camilla went to the elite all-girls Marlborough School, speaks multiple languages, and trained in classical music - hence the “prep school” line. 

Chorus I'm just another thing for you to roll your eyes at, honey You might have him but haven't you heard I'm just another thing for you to roll your eyes at, honey You might have him but I always get the last word

Even just a couple albums in, Taylor already had a name for being honest and confrontational in her writing. Here Taylor is saying that without Joe she still is relevant, and they should know that she will address the situation head on. She gets the last word in the “relationship” with this song, but she also gets the last word with the general public by building a longer lasting career, and growing her career even though she is no longer in her contract with Joe.

Chorus Do you still feel like you know what you're doing? 'Cause I don't think you do. Do you still feel like you know what you're doing? I don't think you do I don't think you do Let's hear the applause Come on show me how much better you are (so much better, yeah?) So you deserve some applause 'cause you're so much better

This directly references the Jonas Brother song Much Better, that says “I get a rep for breakin' hearts/Now I'm done with superstars/And all the teardrops on her guitar/I'm not bitter“. There are a few other JB songs that are supposedly about Tay (Paranoid for one, which has a video that randomly has some similar imagery to the Lover music video?? I don’t have time to unpack if that’s a coincidence or not.)

She took him faster than you could say "sabotage"

*****worth noting that Tay has said she regrets some things she said in this song. Slut shaming and bashing other women isn’t cool and is just doing the patriarchy’s dirty work for them!!!! Don’t do it!!!!*****

[raidbossmadi]

PLU:Siren origins, a history

What are the Progenitors? 

As long as there has been a universe, there have been progenitors. They are the seeders of life, creators of planets, they are gods by every definition of the word. Though they are sentient they do not consider themselves gods nor could they tell you what compels them to create only that they do. 

The progenitors themselves are all varied in appearance; you would not think they were all one race. One thing that is consistent among them is their ability to survive in the void of space, they are so massive in their natural form that space is the only place which could truly contain them. They also inhabit the space between space, a dimension beyond that of our own. Whether their dimension and ours was created at the same time or if ours is merely a creation of theres is unknown. 

The Progenitors along with using their gift of creation to seed life are also capable of a more natural method of reproduction though, their offspring that were born into this dimension are considerably smaller than their parents, they are much more involved with the creation life than planets like their parents. For this they are often dubbed Demigods. Most races in the known universe can trace their origin back to a Progenitor Demigod. 

The Progenitors and The Eridians 

The Eridians are one of the universe's oldest races, created by a demigod known as The Weaver.  For millennia the Eridians have sought to understand the gods of this reality, but the Progenitors and their offspring remain a constant mystery.

Despite their ability to communicate the Progenitors do not wish to divulge their history nor the true nature of where they come from. The Eridians would not take that as an answer, what they could not understand, they sought to control.

They started with the substance now known as Eridium, they found it in large quantities on planets which the Progenitors had freshly made. They studied it and properties, they used it to create the magic their civilization would run on.

Then they used it in an act of betrayal.  

The Eridians had lost their first world to war, warring broods who disagreed on which Demigod they wanted to worship, there were many Eridian cults and while the Weaver was always the true creator some Broodmothers worshipped other demigods in the hopes their brood would take on an aspect. Always a demigod never a Progenitors, the Progenitors did not bless the Eridians the way their children did.

The more dominant brood used Eridium to open a pocket dimension of their own creation and sealed inside was their contesting hives Demigod. The first vault. This prison was created in such a way that Eridians could enter it, see the bound and restrained demigod, interact with it yet it could do nothing but watch.

Nekrotafeyo, first landing in their tongue, for it was not their first home. That had been destroyed in the Brood war but the winning brood mother, now the Hive Queen had crushed all opposition. Her first order was construction of the great machine, that which would be the gateway to all vaults, future and current.  

They would continue to build vaults to imprison the children of the gods and eventually the gods themselves. But they only moved for Progenitors when they realized the reason they would not answer the Eridians call was due to their devotion to a different race entirely.

The Progenitors and Humanity

The Progenitors have always regarded humanity with a fondness, though unlike their offspring they decided to take a decidedly more hands off approach to their observations. Especially since the creation of humanity coincided right with the start of the Eridian era of vaults and the Progenitors were less willing to come out of hiding.  They saw a spark in humanity though, the same spark that would eventually drive humanity to the stars and they admired it.

Throughout human history the Progenitors would lend small bits of their power to humanity,the people who received these powers would become the stuff of legends The Oracle of Delphi, Sorcerers, Witches, all the result of Progenitors reaching out to humanity or humanity unknowingly reaching out to them. These powers did not carry lineages though, because they were but the smallest part of a Progenitors power, a loan that would be repaid through death.

Humanity sought to answer where these powers came from but they did not have the means to understand nor grasp the true nature of the Progenitors, so instead they named them, interpreted them  in a way that made sense to a human mind.

Some of these names would stick, becoming the Progenitors preferred name to mortals as most of them were merely bastardizations of the true language they spoke.

 When humanity made it to the stars, the Eridians came to meet them. They picked up a broadcast from a human satellite and upon meeting humanity they were intrigued to find the touch of the Progenitors among them. This became the main reason the Eridians were so willing to ally with humanity in the hopes that they might understand the beings that stayed beyond their reach.

The Imprisonment of the Gods

Through their close relationship with humanity the Eridians were able to learn more about the true nature of the Progenitors and just how like their offspring they were. They had caged many Demigods in vaults in the ensuing years, leaving only one free, The Weaver. They kept it in a vault yes, but that vault was never sealed; it was free to leave if it so chose it.

They were able to lure the Progenitors out of the space between, they used humans as bait. Once they had them vulnerable they too were imprisoned inside the vaults. The cost of which being large deposits of Eridium and a human soul.

With most  of the Progenitors now imprisoned it was time to begin the Hive Queen’s great experiment.

Sirens : The Great Experiment

Eridians could not use the power of the Progenitors, even captured the Gods refused to give themselves to the Hive. This did not dissuade Eridian scientists though they had planned for this.

They reached out to their human allies and requested a group of female babies. Why female? There are no male eridians, they are all female drones, there comes a point in the life cycle of an Eridian that they become male to offer their genes to their Brood Mother but this is near the end of their lives. They have always assumed that the human male was the weaker of the two because of their societal concept of gender.

They took the babies, seven total was all humanity was willing to give under the vague instructions of their alien allies.  Seven was enough though for the Eridians only had seven captive progenitors.  They used eridium powered devices to steal the power from the captive gods and transfer it to the seven human children. This sent the Gods into a long sleep and to ensure they would not be able to retaliate if they did awaken, the eridians sealed their vaults shut and scattered the keys to far reaches of the universe.

The human children who now were conduits for the powers of these gods displayed an unmistakable tell, a blue swirling pattern  on one side of their body now known as the Siren marking.

The Eridians used Eridium again to tweak the inherited powers to work better with each other with the intent that the Sirens always would be a unit. Their powers meant to complement each other. They had chosen these seven Progenitors to be captured for a reason.

These Sirens were;

Hecate, Inheritor of the power of Hel. aspect of death, the great balance. (Phaseleech)  She was tasked with  the greatest burden keeping the sisterhood from turning on itself. 

Demeter, Inheritor of the power of Ithunn. Aspect of Life (Phasegrow) She was tasked with seeding planets with life, wherever she went life would follow. 

Artemis, Inheritor of the power of Syn. The aspect of order. (Phaselock) She was tasked with settling disputes of ideas, intended to be a neutral third party in conflicts that threatened life. 

Pyrrha, Inheritor of the power of Angerboda. The aspect of change. (Phasewalk). She was tasked with applying pressure to those who would not listen to reason as presented by Artemis. 

Bellona, Inheritor of the power Freya. The aspect of adaptation. (Phasegrasp). Tasked with rebuilding civilization after extreme conflict or disaster.

Eris, Inheritor of the power of Skadi. The aspect of Chaos (Phaseshift). Tasked with seeding conflict in those who would threaten the safety of inhabited space.

Nemesis, Inheritor of the power of Var. The aspect of Diplomacy (Phasetempt). Tasked with speaking for the sisterhood and making people accept the Sirens.

The Siren War  

In adulthood once Eridian caretakers left Vanagard in their rule the Sirens went on to fulfil their roles. However eventually a problem rose up. Nemesis was not happy with being the galactic police , if they were going to rule they should rule the way the Hive Queen rules the Eridians. She wanted absolute control and given her power to completely change the minds and memories of non-Sirens she set to work.

The sisterhood did not realize what was happening under their nose until it was too late. Several planets were entirely under Nemesis’ control.

Hecate had a plan however, after consulting with Artemis they decided there was only one thing that could be done. Hecate lured Nemesis to an empty vault and used her life force to seal it shut from the outside.

The sisterhood was frightened they had just lost two sisters in one fell swoop. However, it was not long before something began calling to them, singing the song they had crafted together. It called from beyond the planet and they followed it. Discovering a teenage girl, Nyriad, who now bore the markings of their sister and carried her memories. They understood now that they were linked to power inside them, that because the Progenitors were sealed away the power could not go back to them so instead it would go to new hosts, ones who embodied the virtue of the original bearer best.

[olicitysecretsanta]

Convergence

For @swiftletinthecloud 

Hello! We have never met or spoken before, but I am so happy to have you as my giftee because now we have! I was so happy about your response to my anon ask about what kinds of fic you like, because so many of your interests are also mine. It was actually a problem because I had too many interesting ideas for fic that were inspired by your suggestions. Now I just have more fic to write, I guess. 

Anyway, I decided to write this idea for you because it was the SHORTEST of all the ideas I had. You can see how well that turned out. What is below is 2 out of 3 total chapters. The last chapter still needs editing, so your gift will be fully complete when I post this to AO3. Until then, please enjoy these first two chapters of season 1 alternate canon!

Much love, @allimariexf

Title: Convergence

Warnings: No warnings apply

Relationship: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak

Tags: Arrow season 1, alternate canon AU, episode tag 1x21 (The Undertaking)

Chapter 1

Oliver Queen moved like a panther through the underground casino, a sleek and beautiful predator at home among the understated opulence. His eyes strayed around the room, a careless smirk masking his close assessment of the security.

Two pit bosses, a floorman, and six armed guards, two of which flanked a hallway that must lead to Dominic Alonzo’s office. If he was going to get in there, he needed to come up with a distraction.

His mind went back to the document he’d found saved on his computer. Like all the previous messages he’d gotten over the past seven months, it took the form of a simple text file, saved prominently on the desktop of his computer in the foundry.

December 12, 2012: Harold Backman deposits $2 million to Cayman Fidelity on behalf of Dominic Alonzo, known kidnapper.

Also December 12: Walter Steele goes missing.

Coincidence? I don’t think so. 

I know I normally don’t agree with your “shoot first, ask questions later” policy, but I’m willing to give you a pass on Alonzo. He seems like just the kind of low-life someone would pay to kidnap Mr. Steele. How many arrows do you think you’d need to put in Alonzo before he gave up Mr. Steele’s location - probably a lot, right?

Never mind, forget I said that. Alonzo’s private records are offline - likely stored in his office in his base of operations, an underground casino with basically its own private army. Not the best odds, even for you. But I have a plan that doesn’t involve arrows or any other pointy objects, so sit tight and I’ll contact you tomorrow. 

The corners of his lips lifted at the memory. The anonymous hacker who’d been helping him certainly had a way with words, and in their months together she’d often surprised him with her uncannily insightful observations. But if she honestly thought he’d sit back and wait when they finally had a solid lead on finding Walter, maybe she didn’t know him as well as he sometimes suspected. Not when Walter had been missing for almost five months and the likelihood of him being found alive decreased every day. Not with the recorded evidence John Diggle had collected that seemed to confirm his mother had something to do with Walter’s disappearance - and that it was all connected to the List. 

Oliver was tired of waiting for answers. This was something he could do. It just so happened that this time, he needed a bespoke suit of Italian wool, rather than green leather in order to do it.

Eyes tracking the movement of the guards, Oliver positioned himself at a well-situated roulette table. Several wealthy patrons crowded around the dealer, including an elegant brunette who instantly met his gaze. 

“You’re Oliver Queen,” she purred, reaching out with graceful fingers to draw him toward her. Slipping easily into the role, he let his eyes travel down her body as she trailed her hand down his arm. 

Choosing not to answer with words, he winked and held out his dice for her to blow on. It was enough to maintain the part he was playing, and in another life he would have taken her up on the unspoken invitation written in every line of her body. But as his eyes slid down her lithe frame, he barely saw her. Instead, he was seeking something else, some spark of her. 

Huli jing. 

His anonymous hacker ally. 

His thoughts turned to her, as they had increasingly done over the past several months. Who was she, in her normal life? Where was she, what was she doing? When he mingled among the residents of Starling City by day, could she be right next to him, without either of them realizing it? Like always, the possibility sent a thrill of excitement through him.

Part of him was acutely aware that it was futile, even ridiculous, to entertain those thoughts, but as long as they only existed on the fringes of his mind, he indulged them. His life was his mission, and there was no room for anything else, but there was no harm in letting his mind play with the idea of her in his downtime. Not when there was no chance they could ever meet. So when he put in his appearances at Verdant, when he met up with Thea at her favorite cafe, when he picked up his mom from Queen consolidated, he allowed himself to wonder. And if his eyes caught on long red hair, a charming smile, or a long length of exposed thigh, he’d mentally compare the woman in front of him with his mental picture of her. But none of them ever had her unique, undefinable spark. And somehow, by comparison, every woman he saw seemed somehow less because they were not her.

She had contacted him for the first time seven months ago, though “contacted” hardly felt like the right term. He’d arrived at the foundry and booted up his computer one night only to find the entire system had been upgraded, and simple text document saved to the desktop:

I’m truly stunned that no one managed to trace the redistribution of Adam Hunt’s funds back to you. No one else, I mean. 

Now that I mention it, I’m even more surprised you managed to steal that $40 million in the first place. Your system looks like it’s from the 80s.

(And not the good part of the 80s, like Madonna and legwarmers, to be clear.) I maybe spruced things up a little bit while I was in there. Seeing a network that poorly set up hurts me in my soul. Seriously it was like you left a crying infant on my doorstep, except it was like a 30 year old baby and it wasn’t my doorstep, because I was the one who kind of broke into your house. But my point is, you have a severely neglected computer setup, and I guess my maternal instinct kicked in. So to speak.

Oliver had barely finished reading the note before he’d ransacked the bunker, searching for evidence of a breach. When he found none, he read the note several more times, seeking hidden clues as to what the infiltrator knew, what they wanted. The program he used to take Adam Hunt’s money was something he’d taken from ARGUS, and no one should have been able to track it. Deeply alarmed, he read the note again and again. Not until the sixth time did he finally consider the playful tone of the note might be sincere, and only then did it occur to him that there might not be a threat buried in the message at all.  

He remained on heightened alert for several days after that, but only on principle. The improvements she’d made (and she was a she, he was sure) to his system made his ARGUS programs run faster, and while using compromised equipment was normally a risk he would never take, his gut told him there was no danger. For reasons he didn’t examine, he found himself rereading the note, until he had it memorized word for word. 

When he didn’t hear from her for three weeks, he told himself the sense of disappointment he felt was only because lingering questions felt too much like unfinished business. Not because he was intrigued by the hacker. Not because her note had made him smile the way no one had since he’d returned from the island. 

He was starting to think of the incident as an amusing, but ultimately harmless one-time stunt when one night, after an afternoon of failing to get data off of Floyd Lawton’s computer and an evening taking his frustration out on a slum lord, he returned to the foundry and discovered a large data dump open on his computer - along with another note. 

Blueprints to the Exchange Building, where the Unidac Industries auction is scheduled to take place. Gonna be a pretty target-rich environment. For the person who is trying to eliminate bidders in the auction via assassination, I mean. Which, to be clear, someone IS trying to do, according to the SCPD’s unreleased records. Anyway, do with this information as you wish. (Not “as you wish,” as in code for “I love you.” Obviously, I don’t even know you. Though from the captured video footage of you, I can say with confidence that you can really wear a pair of leather pants. Anyway, speaking of Westley, the papers are calling you “the vigilante” or “the hood,” but maybe you should consider adopting Dread Pirate Roberts. A name that inspires fear, so that you don’t have to do so much arrowing in order to get your point across. You should consider it. Good luck with the auction.

Oliver huffed out his nose, struck by her abrupt topic changes and her particular, rambly way of putting things before it even occurred to him to wonder how she’d managed to pull any information off Lawton’s damaged laptop. Or question whether she had any ulterior motive in doing so.

It was unusual for him to trust anyone so quickly, especially someone he knew virtually nothing about. But somehow, he did, and when her tip about Lawton proved sound, he found he wasn’t surprised at all. 

After that he began to seek out her help, adopting her habit of communicating via text document saved to his computer. With each tip she left him, she proved herself invaluable to bringing down another of the city’s worst offenders. He could tell that she was brave, fearless even, and before he knew it, they had developed a rapport. And while it wasn’t exactly a partnership, it worked. 

If I’m the the Dread Pirate Roberts, who are you? He asked finally, against the advice of the inner voice that cautioned him that the more he knew about her, the harder it would be to one day give her up.

But in answer, all she said was, You can call me Huli jing.

The Dark Archer, Ted Gaynor, Count Vertigo, Ken Williams, and the list went on. The notes came more frequently, and Oliver found himself looking forward to them, the first thing he’d check for every night. Even having never been there, she filled the dark, dank foundry basement with a bright presence that was just as tangible as John Diggle’s reliable support. 

What do you think keeps these bad guys up at night? Probably not worrying about that one time they accidentally stared at a man for two full minutes while they were busy trying to figure out what the Cylons’ plan really was. They said they had “a Plan,” like capital P PLAN, you know? Anyway, despite what that guy probably thought, I was NOT creeping on him. But to my point, now that I think of it these criminals probably just close their eyes and get a full 8 hours every night. Sometimes it really sucks to have a conscience.

As the months wore on, he learned that she wielded a formidable intelligence, a sharp sense of humor, an unerring sense of justice, and, somehow, an unshakeable confidence in his mission. In him. She became a voice in his head that he couldn’t tune out. And he found, more and more, that he didn’t want to.

Anyway, while I’m at it, did you ever think about not killing some of these thugs? Look, I get it - they’re taking shots at you and you’re just trying to stay alive, but on the other hand, they’re just hired guns and you’re…you know. You. All I’m saying is, with your aim - which I have seen evidence of, so please don’t start with the false modesty - you could just as easily be shooting these guys in the hand or leg or something, you know? Anyway. Just a thought.

Before he realized it, she had come to haunt his thoughts. When he was wrestling with a problem, he found himself playing out imaginary conversations with her, unerringly channeling her firm conviction and steady support. 

He didn’t even know what she looked like, but he couldn’t get her out of his head. Sometimes he thought he was half in love with her. No; that was ridiculous. It was the fantasy, the not knowing, that fascinated him. The idea that she could be anyone. He told himself didn’t want to know who she really was, because there was no way the reality could live up to the fantasy he’d built up in his mind.

A rough voice, intentionally pitched to grab his attention, cut into his reverie. “Is that Oliver Queen?” 

“No, couldn’t be,” came a loud, theatrical reply, drawing closer toward him. 

“Why not?” the first voice asked from somewhere right behind him. Oliver turned his head to present the speakers with a careless smirk.

“Because Oliver Queen wouldn’t be caught dead in a place like this,” the second man sneered, pressing a gun against his back.

The gun cocked. “Well then I guess he has a death wish.”

So much for blending in, he thought as they dragged him toward the back hallway.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Felicity stilled her frantic movements to free herself from the ties that were cutting into her wrists as the door abruptly opened and a man was pushed inside. She tried not to gape as her captor stepped in behind him and roughly zip-tied his hands behind his back, exactly as he had done to Felicity not ten minutes before. 

Despite her situation, she couldn’t stop the flow of words that spilled out of her mouth when she saw who had joined her. “Oh, great. It’s you.” The newcomer whipped his head up and she locked gazes with a pair of striking blue eyes. 

Strangely, the first thought that crossed her mind was that if she had known her curiosity about the hood was going to lead to crossing paths with Oliver Queen, she would never have tried to solve the mystery of Adam Hunt’s $40 million in the first place.

Though to be fair, her interest in the Hood pre-dated the article that mentioned Hunt’s missing money, so she couldn’t entirely blame her entanglement with the vigilante on her compulsive need to unravel knotty mysteries. And it wasn’t just the allure of a dark and brooding man who could pull off leather, either. Something about his single-minded dedication and passion, at the risk to his own freedom and safety, was simply irresistible. 

It was curiosity that first led her to him. Maybe boredom. Her job was monotonous and unchallenging, something she’d sought out after her brief brush with hacktivism had backfired so spectacularly. When she first read about the Hood, she dismissed him as some whacko loose canon. But she followed the story - and the police reports - for lack of anything better to do. But when she read that Adam Hunt claimed the Hood had stolen $40 million, Felicity was intrigued. A crazy person couldn’t - wouldn’t - pull something like that off. So she hacked into Hunt’s accounts, following the trail back to a program that emptied the money and redistributed it to Hunt’s victims. It was shockingly easy, like following a flashing neon sign, and she was legitimately stunned that the police hadn’t managed to do the same. They also had no idea that the missing money had been returned to its rightful owners. On impulse, she erased the digital evidence. 

She could have left it at that, but the mystery was too compelling. She told herself she just wanted to make sure she hadn’t just enabled a psycho or terrorist to do even more psychotic and terrifying things, but the truth was, the fact that he’d quietly returned Hunt’s victims’ money to them cast him in an entirely unexpected light. She needed to know more.

She found that his system was alarmingly, disturbingly unprotected. And primitive. Really, it wasn’t even tolerable for the tiny amount of poking around and passive monitoring that she planned to do. Which is why she discreetly updated speed and capacity as much as she could without added hardware, then added a few dozen security protocols, because anything less was begging the police to come find him. 

Then she established several monitoring programs and alerts, and waited. Just a few weeks later, she got an alert that an unprotected device had been plugged in - a quick remote in revealed that it was one of those Tuff laptops, with a damaged system. It was clear that the Hood hadn’t been able to access the drive, but Felicity was curious, so she remotely cloned the data and opened it on her own system. When she discovered the blueprints of the Exchange Building on the drive, she remembered that the Unidac auction was shortly going to be held there, which naturally reminded her of recent news that one of bidders, James Holder of Holder Group, had recently been murdered. Which naturally then led to a little bit of unsanctioned poking around the SCPD’s internal files, and before she knew it the she found herself composing a message to the Hood before she’d even consciously decided to get involved.

After all, she didn’t actually want to be involved. She was just an IT girl, and she intended to keep a low profile. But the possibility that she could help prevent another murder weighed on her conscience, so she left a message pointing him in the right direction, hoping her suspicions were false. 

When she heard about the shooting at the auction, she poured herself a glass of wine - well, a bottle, really - and gave herself a talk. It wasn’t that she wasn’t glad she’d helped prevent an even greater catastrophe, because she was. It was just that the reality of the situation finally hit her, and she was faced with a choice.

Get involved, take a stance, use her powers in the real world again? She’d been down this road, she’d seen what her interference was capable of. She’d played with fire and hadn’t just gotten burned; she’d burned down her entire world - and Cooper’s. 

But the Hood wasn’t Cooper. He wasn’t innocent. He wasn’t naive to the forces he was playing with. She wasn’t sure what he was. He’d killed, and he would kill again, she was sure. 

But as much as she couldn’t condone the killing, she also couldn’t ignore the good that he’d done, and she realized she already didn’t have a choice. Something was happening in her city, the signs were all around her, and choosing to do nothing would only make her complicit. 

From then on, she kept tabs on the Hood’s activities, always leaving documents on his desktop explaining, briefly, what he needed to know. It wasn’t long until he began leaving notes of his own.

Through unspoken agreement, they never asked each other personal questions, but between the lines, she gained a sense of the man he was. Compassionate. Loyal. Selfless.  

When Oliver Queen was arrested as the suspected Hood, Felicity instantly dismissed the idea. She knew about the arresting officer’s personal grudge against Oliver Queen, which explained why he pursued him like a dog with a bone. But Felicity knew it was impossible; she knew what kind of person Oliver Queen was, and there was no overlap with the kind of person the vigilante was.

Aside from that, she purposely avoided speculating about who the Hood could be. If she had wanted to know, she could have found out easily enough, but she didn’t want to know. She told herself it didn’t matter; that the work he was doing was what was important. She didn’t want to put a face to the hood, because then she would begin to worry about him.

More than she already did, that is. Despite not knowing his name, she felt a connection with him that sometimes felt stronger for their mutual anonymity. His notes were always brief, especially compared to hers, but she learned to read what he didn’t say. And when he was repeatedly crucified in the media while his quietly heroic actions went unnoticed, he never complained, never faltered in his mission. He never even acknowledged the subtle tones of praise layered into her notes. She would almost suspect him of being a robot if it weren’t for the clear passion that underscored every action.

So when Walter Steele gave her the notebook that turned out to be filled with names that correlated with the criminals the vigilante was confronting, she didn’t say anything. There was too much she still didn’t know about the notebook to risk jeopardizing their relationship over it. Because if there was one thing she did know, it was that she trusted him. 

When Mr. Steele went missing, however, she had to break her silence. Without giving away details that could expose her own identity, she presented him with digital evidence of Moira Queen’s involvement of the events that likely got her husband kidnapped, and asked him for help. 

Which was how she now found herself in this hideously decorated criminal lair staring into the supremely beautiful face of Oliver Queen.

Chapter 2

“Oh great. It’s you.”

Oliver looked up at the sarcastic words being spoken by a stunning blonde. Even as he was roughly manhandled, his hands being zip-tied behind his back, he couldn’t help but be a little offended at her tone. “Excuse me?” Beautiful women treating him like some kind of disease was something he’d never experienced before, and while he wasn’t the same person he used to be, he had to admit his ego took a hit.

She stared at him silently, eyes flashing with undisguised contempt, until after Dominic Alonzo’s minion had left the room.

“Oliver Queen?” she finally answered distastefully, tilting her head at him in an exaggerated motion, as if his name was explanation enough. “Entitled billionaire and general asshole?” 

Her stomach swooped as his eyes searched her face. Disturbingly, and contrary to the cool attitude she was projecting, Felicity found his presence a little overwhelming, not quite matching the plastic and glossy picture presented by the tabloids. Rather than being some kind of smarmy Trust Fund Ken, in person he was exquisitely human. Felicity had always suspected she was immune to the appeal of a man in a suit, but on him, the tapered line from broad shoulder to narrow waist suggested an essential masculinity that awoke a deeply primal response she’d never experienced before. In contrast to the brutal strength of his body, his eyes were startlingly expressive; his chiseled jaw was complemented by soft, sensual lips. In short, he was utterly, unfairly beautiful in a way that affected her immediately, physically, and urgently. 

“Wow, okay,” Oliver scoffed, unaware of her internal struggle. “Most people lead with ‘Are you okay, Mr. Queen?’ ‘How did you survive all those years alone, Mr. Queen?’ ‘What does it feel like to be the only survivor in an accident that killed your father, Mr. Queen?’” He spoke harshly, wielding the crude words like a club. While he usually found the subject too intrusive to mention to anyone, let alone complete strangers, something about this woman’s fiery disdain was really getting under his skin, and extreme measures were called for.

Felicity smiled insincerely, holding on to her irritation like a shield from the confusing wave of sympathy that, along with his sheer attractiveness, threatened to undo her. This man slept with his girlfriend’s sister, she firmly reminded herself. “Well, I’m sorry, but my concern didn’t really seem necessary, given the fact that you seem utterly unaffected by what you went through. I caught your appearance at the opening of Queen Consolidated’s Applied Sciences building,” she added witheringly. “You seemed perfectly okay. Or at least as okay as you ever were.” 

Oliver crossed his arms, bothered by her words even though the image she described was the exact public persona he’d been purposefully crafting. For reasons he couldn’t explain, he couldn’t stand the idea that this woman found him so completely and vehemently offensive. Shaking his head, he tried a different tack. “Have we met before? Have I done something to offend you?” There was something compelling and almost familiar about her, but he was pretty sure he would remember if they’d met.

She scoffed dismissively. “No, definitely not.”

“Well, you sure have a lot of opinions about me for someone who doesn’t know me.” His eyes ran over her again, trying to figure out why she seemed so familiar. She was undeniably beautiful, with delicate features animated by a streak of passion that was not characteristic of the type of woman he’d have gone for before the island.

“Oh, I know all about you, Oliver Queen. If it’s on the internet, I can find it. Not -” her eyes flew to the ceiling as she turned pink, “not that I’ve looked into you!” Her sudden lack of composure was completely unexpected and disarming, and Oliver was intrigued and charmed by the new side of Felicity it revealed. And, if he was being honest, gratified by the suggestion that maybe she was not as immune to him as he originally thought. “It’s just that I work for your company,” she continued, straightening her shoulders and meeting his eyes again as sarcasm crept back into her tone, “and it’s a little hard to avoid hearing about all your little…adventures and mishaps.” 

“Hmm,” he answered, covering the dismay he felt at hearing her refer to his past actions when he suddenly, illogically, wanted her to know that he wasn’t that person anymore. “You work for Queen Consolidated?”

“Yeah, I do.” She pinned him with a fierce look. “But don’t go getting any weird ideas. I don’t work for you.” 

Felicity rolled her eyes to illustrate how distasteful she found that idea, and to cover up the effect his nearness was having on her. This was Oliver Queen, Frat Boy Extraordinaire, Professional Heartbreaker. She should not be flattered by any interest he showed to her. Anyway, he was probably just talking to her because there was no one else to talk to, as they were both literally imprisoned together. Speaking of, she needed to stop being distracted by Oliver Queen’s whole overwhelmingness, and start figuring out a way out of her handcuffs so she could carry out her plan to infiltrate Dominic Alonzo’s computer. She was lucky that when they caught her counting cards they brought her here, at least. Though she would have preferred that she hadn’t gotten caught at all, so she could have found her way here without the zip-tie cuffs, as she had planned. But dammit, she was new to this. She didn’t know anything about going undercover in an underground casino. As evidenced by the very great misfortune of finding herself trapped with Oliver Queen, of all people. Well, at least his presence solved one problem. “So anyway, how is it that Oliver Queen ends up handcuffed in the back of an underground casino?” she asked, deliberately toning down her attitude in the hopes that he’d prove cooperative.

“I could ask you the same thing, Miss…” he trailed off in question, a clear indication that she should fill in her name, as he tried to figure out how to respond. 

The truth was certainly not an option. Even if he could trust her with his secret - and for some inexplicable reason, he did feel generally inclined to trust her - doing so would put her at risk. He couldn’t even tell her a half-truth. Sure, the whole city at this point knew that his step-father was missing, possibly kidnapped, probably dead, but there was no good reason why Oliver Queen would be investigating that. Or that he should have figured out that Alonzo was the person who had him kidnapped. 

Felicity met his eyes warily, aware that she didn’t have an acceptable explanation for being there either, and they came to a silent agreement not to press each other for information. For now. “Felicity Smoak,” she supplied.

He smiled. She stared back, refusing to be charmed, even though she detected a hint of dimple.

Needing to get him to stop smiling at her, because she was much more susceptible than she wanted him to know, she hastened on, “It’s good that you’re here, actually, because you can help me.” 

Oliver raised his eyebrows. “Help you?” Help her do what? He didn’t expect his co-hostage to have any sort of plan; rather, he was busy trying to figure out how he could convince her to stay calm, and possibly hide in a closet, while he dislocated his thumb, got out of the zip-ties, searched through the office, and then called the police to come rescue them. 

It wasn’t an ideal plan; he considered all the variables, all the things that could go wrong. Getting made definitely hadn’t been part of his plan. He’d hoped to sneak in the back without being noticed, not get thrown there with the attention of Alonzo and his thugs. And Felicity proved an even bigger problem. While he could easily hold himself back and take a beating if necessary, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to do the same if they threatened her; and if it came to a fight, he wasn’t sure how he was going to preserve his secret. 

“Help me get out of these zip-ties,” Felicity answered, taking a deliberate step toward Oliver. Her heart was pounding at what she was about to suggest, but she schooled her expression to appear nonchalant, annoyed by the necessity, even. Not flustered. And definitely, definitely not turned on by the prospect. She took a deep breath. “I need you to get the knife out of my bra.” 

Oliver blinked. No words could have been more unexpected coming from her mouth. “What?” 

She rolled her eyes to distract from the fact that she was blushing. Eyes firmly locked on the ceiling, she elaborated, “There is a pocketknife in my bra and we can use it to cut our binds.”

Oliver stared at her in wonder, steadfastly ignoring the primal thrill that ran through him at her suggestion. It seemed he had severely underestimated Felicity Smoak. His mind was racing with questions, but the one that he blurted out was “Why do you have a pocketknife in your bra?”

“Mr. Queen!” she flared, exasperated nerves causing her to meet his gaze. “Do you want to get out of here or not?”

Oliver’s mind was suddenly reeling with images of what she was proposing. In an instinctual stalling tactic, he said the first words that came to him. “Mr. Queen was my father.”

Felicity gaped at him.

Oliver shook his head at himself, saying nothing as he attempted to get his head on straight. He considered her plan rationally. Aside from the question of why it was so important to Felicity that she get out of her cuffs, and the mystery of what she planned to do once she was free of them, the fact of the matter was that going along with her plan would free him to search the office without having to dislocate his thumb. Deciding to continue their no-questions truce, he nodded. “Okay. But…,” he trailed off, throat dry as he looked looking down into unexpectedly near wide blue eyes.

Felicity was pretty sure they were both imagining what he was about to do. “Yeah,” she exhaled, suddenly very aware of the cadence of his breaths, his intoxicatingly masculine scent. Throughout the course of their discussion, he had moved closer to her, and now his expressive eyes fixed on her, waiting. “You won’t be able to see what you’re doing, but if you’re standing, I can kneel behind you and you can kind of…feel around.” 

Oliver’s eyes widened as she spoke, her matter-of-fact words making the situation more real. More shocking. It wasn’t that he hadn’t done more with women he’d known for less time in much less dire circumstances, but something about touching Felicity in these circumstances felt wrong, like a violation, and he suddenly, irrationally found himself wanting to get to know her first, and to tell her about himself, about the real him.  He briefly reconsidered his original plan of dislocating his thumb. 

Mortified by Oliver’s reaction to her words, Felicity tried to cut the tension. “I mean, I know it’s not ideal, but I figure it’s gotta be better than the alternative.”

Caught up, Oliver automatically asked, “What’s the alternative?”

Her eyes dropped involuntarily to his lips and she swayed a little toward him as she whispered, “Using your mouth.” But when her eyes flicked up to meet his, neither of them were laughing. 

Oliver’s mouth fell open in surprise, his gaze dropping to the deep vee of her bodice, before dragging back up to her face. The action pulled him even closer toward her, and a rush of heat washed over him as he fully took her in for the first time. The red chiffon dress clung to her curves, outlining a deeply feminine, lush  body. She was a study in contradictions, watching him through darkly-lashed eyes that were somehow both innocent and knowing; her face lightly dusted with freckles that contrasted alluringly with a sinfully soft mouth. She watched him with dilated pupils and parted lips, and his cock twitched in response. 

But then reality crashed back in on him as she interrupted, “Not that I’m suggesting anything! I’m not coming on to you or anything.”

Oliver blinked, trying to regain control by reminding himself where they were and why. Catching her gaze, he nodded in an attempt to reassure her. Hoping that she didn’t pick up on just how affected he himself was. 

Felicity took a deep, centering breath. It didn’t make any sense that Oliver Queen was having this effect on her. He was just some shallow billionaire, a douchebag womanizer. None of it made any sense. When he looked at her, it was like he saw her. And as much as she told herself it was impossible, it looked as if he wanted her. No. She had to be projecting. And she didn’t want him to want her, anyway. Sure, he was gorgeous. So, so masculine and touchable he smelled so good, with an essential manliness that was softened by those eyes…but no. He was still Oliver Queen, and the fact that she was so attracted to him only explained why so many women had given in to his appeal, despite the long list of reasons to avoid him. She might have judged those women in the past, but now she could not. 

She squared her shoulders, trying to clear the attraction from her mind and prepare for what had to happen next. “So, okay?” She chanced a look in his direction, not quite meeting his eyes. 

Oliver nodded, and Felicity took refuge in remembering her mission. After all, she was here to help the Hood, and she could not have her sudden weakness to very handsome men - or rather, one specific very handsome man - getting in the way of that. 

“All right, just turn a little to your right,” she directed hoarsely, nodding encouragingly as he complied. “Okay, stop there. I’ll position myself so you should be able to locate the knife relatively easily.” She lowered herself to the ground behind him as she was speaking, her voice only slightly wavering with the awareness that Oliver Queen was about to feel her up. “It’s on the left side,” she rambled, masking her response to the feeling of his surprisingly rough fingers dipping below her bodice, carrying on as if this were normal, as if she were directing someone to the library, as if Oliver Queen’s very large hands weren’t currently sliding along the sides of her breasts…her words tapered off and she bit her bottom lip, concentrating on not moaning out loud because oh god, his fingers brushed against her nipple and her body responded as if he was tugging on a string tied directly to her thrumming core. 

Oliver squeezed his eyes shut, trying to be quick, methodical, and clinical, but he had felt enough breasts in his life to know that Felicity Smoak’s were a rarity. As much as he tried to stay on task,he found himself getting distracted, unable to stop the picture that drifted through his mind. Perfect breasts, not large, but extremely full; firm but very soft, with tight nipples that his fingertips couldn’t help brushing over repeatedly as he wedged his large hand into the tight space of her bodice. Tight, very sensitive nipples, he corrected unhelpfully, judging by the way she gasped softly in response to his inadvertent touches. As her voice trailed off, he remained aware of the soft catching of her breath, and even with his back to her, he he felt completely in tune with her, much more intimately than if they had only been having sex. Finally, his fingers touched upon warm metal, and even though the entire encounter lasted less than fifteen seconds, he was out of breath as he withdrew the pocketknife and turned to meet her eyes. His dick was rock hard, and the look she returned him said she was equally affected. 

She was staring up at him, speechless, so he took the lead, flipping open the knife and directing her in a soft voice, “Turn around. I’ll cut your ties.”

Felicity nodded silently, turning so that they were back to back and trusting that he wouldn’t cut her as he twisted around to line her zip-ties up with the blade. “Okay,” he told her when the knife was in position, “try an up and down sawing motion,” and they easily and wordlessly fell into a rhythm that quickly parted the plastic around her wrists. 

“Oh thank god,” she exhaled as her hands came free. She instantly started rubbing her wrists, then silently turned to take the knife. 

Oliver felt her warm hand close around his wrists, steadying him as she positioned the blade against his ties. He took a steadying breath as she freed him. “I probably shouldn’t do this,” she commented, “since my plan is to maintain the illusion that we’re still tied up and that would be easier to do if you actually were still tied up, but I have to admit that I’ll feel safer if your hands are free.” With a final tug, the plastic came apart, but she didn’t release his hands immediately. Inexplicably, her words inflated him with a disproportionate sense of pride and purpose. He liked that she felt safe with him, that even without knowing his alternate identity, and despite her pre-existing opinion of Oliver Queen, she somehow trusted him. He was struck with an acute desire to be worthy of that trust, and a deep yearning to prove to her that it was not misplaced. 

After a long moment, Felicity dropped his hands, taking large step backward in a move designed to decrease the tension. Truthfully, she was a little impressed by Oliver Queen. He was a lot more gentle, sensitive, and thoughtful than she would have thought.  She had expected him to be obnoxious, entitled, and immature, the type of person who, finding himself in this situation, would either panic or make a joke of the whole thing. Either way, she’d have expected him to be throwing his money around trying to save himself, not quietly and calmly following her lead. And no way would she have predicted he was capable of being so respectful of her body. Probably more respectful of her body than she was being of his. Not that she had forced him to feel her up…but she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t enjoyed it. Fleetingly, she wondered if it counted as sexual harassment to get turned on when a man was merely trying to locate a knife in your bra so you could escape a kidnapping situation. 

For his part, Oliver’s admiration for Felicity was growing exponentially. She was much more resourceful and level headed than he would have expected anyone to be in her situation. From the moment she opened her mouth, she’d already proven herself smarter and more sensible than most people in his experience - she had a cautious,  strategic manner that he was unused to in other people. 

“So now what?” he asked, caught up in the intelligence in her eyes, the mystery of her presence. Even though he was the one with a plan and she was technically just an inconvenience, he momentarily set that aside because he just wanted to know. He wanted to know what she was planning to do. He wanted to know her. “You mentioned you have a plan, one that requires your hands be free,” he prodded, hoping she would fill in some pieces of the puzzle.

“That’s for me to know,” she countered playfully, holding his gaze as she reached into her bra, pulling something else out, “and you to find out.”

His eyes widened and dropped to her chest before snapping back up, unsure if she meant anything by it. Again, it was the last thing he expected. And again, it set his heart racing. 

“Or, I mean, not to find out. There will be no finding out, from you. Just stay there and look pretty.” Her eyes grew rounder. “Not that you’re pretty, it’s just an expression. Just sit there.” She backed away until she ran into the desk, and then she dropped to the ground and started feeling around underneath it.

He watched her with amused eyes, interested in her actions and utterly captivated by her. “I’m not pretty?” he pressed, curious to know how she would react.

Her head popped up from the other side of the desk, sending him an exasperated look. “No! I mean, yes! Very pretty like, really very attractive, objectively speaking I mean, I’m not coming on to you. It’s science; you’re scientifically pretty.” Her head disappeared again beneath the desk.

Oliver stood up, drawn to her, until he was leaning over the desk looking down at her ass protruding from under the desk. “Scientifically pretty?”

Felicity visibly startled, then took a deep breath, then carefully, and with as much dignity as possible, crawled backwards and rose out from under the desk, smoothing down her hair. She arched her brow at him. “Don’t tell me you’re one of these anti-science climate change denier people.”

Oliver guffawed, unable to come up with a fitting response. She was unlike anyone he’d ever come across. Instead of answering, he watched as she sat herself at the desk and instantly penetrated the password protection, diving with singular focus directly into the files on Alonzo’s computer. “What are you doing?” he asked after a moment, fascinated by her actions. He knew time was precious, that he should be taking the opportunity to riffle through drawers, search filing cabinets, etc., but rather than pursue his mission, he couldn’t help but pull at the loose thread that was Felicity Smoak. 

She lifted distracted eyes to him, giving the distinct impression that he had yanked her out of a very deep concentration, despite the fact that it had only been twenty seconds since she’d sat down. He expected her to crack another joke, but instead she blinked and said seriously, “It’s better you don’t know,” before returning her attention to the computer. 

Surprised, Oliver slipped off the desk he’d been casually leaning against, the hair raising on the back of his neck; her words were like a warning, almost ominous. Who was she? Why was she here? What was she involved in? Habits shaped over the past five years forced him to question her motives: honest people rarely found themselves involved with guys like Dominic Alonzo; he had to consider that Felicity might not be as innocent as she seemed; he had to wonder if she might even be on the list. But as soon as the thought surfaced, he dismissed it. His five years away had also taught him to trust his instincts, and every single part of him was shouting at him to trust her. 

“Okay,” she announced a few seconds later, “I need you to come here and keep an eye on this feed.” 

Oliver stepped up beside her to where she was pointing at CCTV footage in a corner of the computer monitor. “What is that?”

“Security feed, showing the corridor just outside. This way we can know ahead of time if anyone’s coming.” Her eyes returned to the screen, where she was still methodically searching through the computer’s files.

“Felicity,” Oliver said firmly, coming to a decision even as his eyes obediently remained glued on the feed. 

“Hmm?”

Oliver took a deep breath, his racing mind rapidly drawing conclusions that he couldn’t quite believe were true. But every objection he came up with was easily disproved; rather, every detail about her only seemed to confirm the picture that was forming in his mind. 

Huli jing.

“Felicity,” he repeated, and this time the name felt familiar on his tongue, like he had been saying it his whole life, like he had been born to say it. “You need to tell me why you’re here.” 

He knew. There was no denying it; when she spoke, it was with the voice he’d been hearing in his head for seven months. When she smiled, it was with the unique humor that had amused him like nothing else had been able to do since returning from the island. And when she looked at him, it was with eyes that perceived all the things he didn’t say. It was her. But he needed to hear her say it.

“Oliver, look,” she began, unexpectedly turning to meet his eyes. He was nearly flattened by the look of sincere regret and conviction in her eyes. “I’m sorry about before, what I said.”

His eyebrows draw together in confusion. 

“When I said you hadn’t changed. I was wrong. The person the tabloids make you out to be - that’s not who you are. And I’m sorry I misjudged you.”

Oliver’s lips parted in surprise. “That’s not -”

“No, it is necessary,” she pressed, misunderstanding what he was going to say. “I made assumptions, and they were completely unfair.” Over his protests, she continued, “I don’t know what you did out there to piss off the casino bosses, but I’m really sorry you’re caught up in this. Please,” she emphasized, “just believe me when I tell you that the less you know, the safer you’ll be.” She reached out a hand but started to pull it back before it made contact with his chest, and he caught it between his own before she could fully withdraw.

“Felicity.” He fixed her with a steady, knowing look, and he heard her breath catch, and felt her pulse pick up under his fingers. “I need to ask you something.”

Felicity’s eyes widened at his sudden, inexplicable intensity and focus. She had no idea Oliver Queen was capable of such depth and sincerity. His large hands were cradling her, his thumb soothing over her wrist, and she had long ago surrendered to that penetrating look in his eyes. “What?” she breathed, not knowing what Oliver Queen could tell her that required so much intensity and passion, but suddenly very much wanting to find out.

His words were the last thing she expected to hear. “Are you here because of the Hood?”

Her stomach dropped. “What?”

Before he could respond, he caught sight of someone on the security feed walking up the hallway. “Someone’s coming!”

She turned to the feed, then instantly went to the computer and, with a blur of hands on the keyboard, logged off and put the monitor to sleep. There was no time for anything else, so without thinking any further, Oliver reached around her body, pressing her wrists together behind her in an approximation of being handcuffed, secured his own hands behind his back, then pressed his mouth to hers in an urgent kiss.  

Felicity gasped in surprise, and he instinctively used the opportunity to deepen the kiss, coaxing her lips open, his tongue seeking hers. After a stunned moment, she responded with ardor, the passion exploding like a match to dry tinder. 

Kissing her was like putting the last piece of the puzzle in place. 

For seven months, he had been drawn to the woman with intriguingly contradictory parts: a dizzyingly sharp partner who amused and irritated and charmed and inspired him. 

For seven months, the more space he allowed her in his mission, the wider the empty hole that only she could fill had become in his life. He hadn’t allowed himself to acknowledge it, but meeting her face to face meant he could no longer deny how he felt about her.  He had been drawn to her since he saw her, his body seeking any excuse to touch hers. Everything about her provoked and challenged and called to him; her passion, her intelligence, her humor, her bravery, and the glimpses of vulnerability. 

She was the woman he’d been waiting for, and if the way she was responding to him was any indication, she’d been waiting for him too. 

He bore down on her, covering her with his body, and it was everything he could do to keep his hands behind his back. The need to touch her is like electricity in his veins, and he forgot everything but the urgent need to be close to her.  

“What’s going on?” The voice broke into the moment like a bucket of cold water. 

Oliver’s lips released Felicity’s reluctantly, and she met his eyes as she pulled back. Her pupils were nearly black, her lips parted and swollen, and the sight sent a jolt through his body to his already throbbing dick. 

“Oliver Queen, you really can’t control yourself, can you?” asked Dominic Alonzo, striding into the room. “I’d almost be impressed if you weren’t such a pain in my ass.”

Oliver glanced once more at Felicity, and the last thought he had before turning his attention to Alonzo was that she looked utterly shell-shocked.

…to be continued…

[riddledeep]

Vocabulary and Slang

A requested glossary for Fae slang, swears, or common vocabulary the Fae grow up with. I included some additional worldbuilding such as the counterpart kinship terms and ceremonial preening phrases as well.

Some terms in here are Gaelic, some are pulled from myth, some are just made up fantasy words. That’s kinda how I roll.

Related: Vatajasa For Beginners | Fae Court Cases

COMMON WORLDBUILDING VOCAB

Not the ENTIRE glossary, but these are common terms Fae would recognize that humans usually wouldn’t, though they’re not exactly “slang terms.”

Cloudlength - A unit of measurement between a mile and a kilometer.

Cloudcliff - The edge of a cloud; fall or jump from the edge and you can descend planes of existence until you hit another cloud.

Core Trait - The personality trait that a corresponding set of Faedivus, Faeumbra, and Faelumen inherently share; their “central drive.”

Core-Sync - A universal force or magic that causes Anti-Fairies to mirror their counterparts in terms of being injured and mating.

Damsel - The official term for a female Fae. Adjective form: “Damseline.”

Drake - The official term for a male Fae. Adjective form: “Drakian.”

Drone - A Seelie drake, usually small, who is highly susceptible to pheromones. They generally follow gynes around and are stereotyped as obedient to a fault. Historically they have been mistreated by Fae society, and the cloudlands are currently (as in “during my fanfics”) working to improve this. Despite the name “drones,” drones are most similar to worker bees, not drone bees.

Dysolfactya - An inability to properly read pheromone cues (Dyslexia but for smell). Rupert Roebeam and the pixie Keefe are both drones with dysolfactya, making it somewhat difficult for them to navigate Fairy society. Those with dysolfactya aren’t always treated well in Fairy society, as people tend to react to them with annoyance instead of finding ways to help them.

Faedivus - The genus of Fairies and Pixies. A baby Fairy or Pixie is called a nymph.

Faelumen - The genus of Anti-Fairies. A baby Anti-Fairy is called a pup.

Faeumbra - The genus of Refracts. A baby Refract is called a chick.

Field-Sight - Fairies or Pixies who have triggered field-sight (by briefly rolling their eyes back in their heads) are able to see the colors of magic in the world around them. Things like clothing and facial features won’t show up. Humans do not appear in the energy field unless they’ve recently come in contact with a magical item or magical being. The Unseelie lack this ability.

Gyne - A large, freckled Seelie drake who projects a lot of dominant pheromones; they’re the Fairy equivalent of queen bees. Gynes are especially territorial. They develop from Fairy children who consumed a lot of jelly in the first few months of life. The Anti-Fairy counterpart of a gyne is a pilot and is born with black facial fur resembling a mustache and goatee. The Refract counterpart of a gyne is a plume and is born with long, wiry “plumes” that curl from their head like antennae.

High Count / High Countess - High positions in Anti-Fairy World that make up the executive branch of Anti-Fairy government (the Anti-Fairy Council balance their political power). Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda are the current High Count and High Countess with Foop first in line as Anti-Cosmo’s heir. The camarilla court make up their council of advisors.

Honey-Lock Instinct, The - The all-powerful magical instinct that drives Anti-Fairies to mate with the counterpart of whomever their “host” does. In preadolescents, mere feelings of attraction can incite a “mini honey-lock” of affection in their counterpart. 

Imprint - A magical being’s “personal signature” in the energy field; something like the magical version of facial features, but can be picked up on from anywhere within a close radius. Anti-Fairies use a similar system called a vocal signature to identify people.

Inrita - A chemical secreted through a gland at the roof of a brownie’s mouth. It holds no effect over them per se aside from helping them break down almost anything they put in their mouth, but inrita drains the magic from objects and some magical beings; a “closed circle of inrita” will cancel all magic in the vicinity, including causing Fairies and Pixies to “drop their lines” and start asphyxiating. Vendors often keep “inrita mud” near their wares to prevent people from magically stealing it. If inrita has any effect on genies, it’s a minuscule one. Brownies fall low on the social ladder due to how easy it is for them to kill someone. See also, Brownie-Kisser.

Instar - A Seelie Courter who still has their nymphhood exoskeleton. Typically someone under one year of age (give or take a few months) is said to be “in instar.” Poof is the exception to the rule giving how his body has been messed up by the frozen timestream. 

Iris - An Anti-Fairy with a sexually-transmitted disease that makes their eyes match their counterpart’s eyes, as opposed to default red. The STD is highly prized in Anti-Fairy society due to a history of being associated with success, leadership, wealth, and cleverness, and generally it’s kept out of the reach of the commoners. Anti-Fairies are overwhelmingly more attracted to Anti-Fairies with colored eyes than one with “default red” eyes; it’s part of their cultural upbringing.

>> The STD itself is known as The Iris Virus despite being a magical bacteria and not an actual virus.

>> The virus comes with additional unpleasant side-effects, such as loose-hanging skin, sores in the mouth, and sores around the inner thighs; these sores flare up for a week or two around the anniversary of the day you got the virus.

>> In Refracted society, colored eyes are a sign of shame and can cause your flock to disown you even if you were born with them through no fault of your own.

Kiff-Tie - If two Anti-Fairies in close proximity are killed, they’ll regenerate together and be fused like one creature. They do not take on a unique new form; rather, their bodies are fused together like Siamese twins. In place of the typical Valentine’s Day celebrations, it’s popular sport among Anti-Fairies to use arrows to kill snuggling couples instead.

Kiss of Frost - Will o’ the wisp saliva has the ability to paralyze the limbs; a deep enough kiss will even freeze the body to the point where it stops functioning and dies.

Luz Mala - A Fae conceived with magical assistance or through totally magical means. They tend to be very powerful and emotionally unstable, with their emotions frequently affecting the world around them. Historically luz mala are looked down upon by Fae society because of this, though some people (notably Anti-Cosmo) have made an effort to fight for their acceptance. Poof, Foop, and Juandissimo are all luz mala.

P.A.W.S. / Previously-Activated Wand System - A simple wand used to perform simple magic. This type of wand records a lot of magical information and is usually required for children doing magical homework. Parents might also want their children to use these wands so their magic usage can be tracked.

Preening - The ceremonial exchange of pheromones between two or more parties, performed by licking one another’s necks and faces. When Fairies or Pixies settle business deals, preening is often involved. In that context, preening would be professional, but it can also be an intimate (though non-sexual) gesture between two people. Preening is usually performed by drakes, though damsels are sometimes taught the gestures. Preening with someone “for fun” on a regular basis would be a sort of “bromance” relationship and a sign that you two are close, devoted friends.

>> Preening features prominently in many of my works that feature Fairy culture. Read more about the 24 preening signals HERE.

>> Notoriously, H.P. feels very close with both Anti-Cosmo and Jorgen because they preen regularly for political and friendly reasons. Jorgen sees his relationships with H.P. and Anti-Cosmo as strictly professional while Anti-Cosmo is rather touch-starved and treats preening as a relaxing way to unwind but not necessarily as an attempt to form an emotional bond. On some level, you could argue that Anti-Cosmo sees H.P. as his casual friend with benefits while H.P.’s vision is more of a bromance where they respect and support each other.

Refracted, The - The third class of Fae that make up a third of a Fae soul (each Fae soul consists of a Fairy, Anti-Fairy, and Fairy Refract counterpart). The Refracted are gold and white bird people, and the Refracted class overview can be found HERE. Properly they are called Fairy Refracts. When speaking of their culture, the term is “Refracted culture.” When speaking of people, the term is simply “Refracts.”

>> Refracts are born the opposite sex of the hosting Fairy counterpart and are always born three months after the Fairy (as opposed to Anti-Fairies who are born the first Friday the 13th after three months have passed). Their names are framed Drake Wanda and Dame Cosmo instead of Anti-Wanda and Anti-Cosmo.

Seelie Court - An umbrella term encompassing Fairies (including subspecies) and Pixies. The term “Seelie” can be used alone, such as in the phrase “I’m Seelie.” That would be an example of a slang phrase since the proper way to say it is “I’m a member of the Seelie Court.”

Sharing Magic - Fae who are near each other can pick up on one another’s attraction signals in the energy field. Sharing magic is a way of sharing signals, directing them towards one another and feeling the touch of each other’s magic. It’s sort of like cuddling (in the sense that it’s something you might do with either a romantic partner in private or a friend in public depending on your comfort level) but with magic. Sharing magic normally coincides with physical cuddling or with preening. The term might also be used if you’re giving SHAMPAX (magical CPR).

Tomte - A Fairy without the ability to channel magic. If someone tries to “go tomte,” it means they’ve injured or are considering injuring their right hand, which is the “organ” of a Fairy’s body that really channels magic. Alternatively, it may also mean that they’re trying to “go natural” and not use magic, but without injuring their hand. Refracts and Anti-Fairies are not affected by their counterparts going tomte, and injuring their hands won’t have an affect on their ability to channel magic either.

Unseelie Court - An umbrella term encompassing Anti-Fairies (including anti-pixies) as well as Refracts. The term “Unseelie” can be used alone, such as in the phrase “I’m Unseelie.” That would be an example of a slang phrase since the proper way to say it is “I’m a member of the Unseelie Court.”

LOCATIONS AND SPECIAL ITEMS

Other useful worldbuilding terms that don’t count as slang either.

Claímh Solais - One of the four treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann: a magical sword that once belonged to King Nuada and is capable of severing the soul from the body. This treasure was bestowed upon the Fairies. It’s normally in the care of the Fairy Elder, though its theft from the Pink Castle was largely responsible for kicking off the May Blossom War. Foop is widely suspected to be the thief, though he and his family deny this.

Cloudlands, The - A term that encompasses all the magical Fae worlds. The cloudlands we see in the show are known as “The Fairy World colony” (even Anti-Fairy World falls under this term). The Fairy World (Earth) colony is distinct from the Red Retreat (Jupiter) colony, the Legend Peak (Mars) colony, and the Hawthorn Haven (Delk) colony.

Coire Dagdae - One of the four treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann: the bottomless cauldron of The Dagda (also called Undry). This treasure was bestowed upon the Anti-Fairies and was in the care of the High Count and High Countess at the Blue Castle until Anti-Cosmo lost it during the War of the Angels.

Elphame - The original motherland of the Fae. Fairy World is a colony of Elphame. Many Fae search for Elphame as they travel the universe, though they have not yet found it. It exists only in stories and many people (especially Anti-Fairies) do not believe it exists. You can read more about Elphame and its colonies HERE. 

Hy-Brasil - Anti-Fairy World’s official name; I named it after the mythical island said to be off the coast of Ireland, inhabited by “large black rabbits” and “a magician in a stone castle.”

Insula Solis Infintum - Anti-Pixie World’s official name; literally translated its name means “The Isle of Infinite Sunshine.” It’s an island prison and is technically part of Anti-Fairy World. Located above Rio de Janeiro.

Lia Fáil, The - One of the four treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann: a magical coronation stone found in Ireland. This treasure marks a neutral zone for the Fae, who respect the truce with their utmost honor.

Sleá Bua - One of the four treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann: Lugh’s magical peacekeeping spear. This treasure was bestowed upon the Refracts and is kept in a tower. Notably, Dame Artemis’s goal in the second half of Frayed Knots is to retrieve it.

Sprigganhame - Pixie World’s official name (shortened). Pixie World is a micronation located entirely within a single Fairy World region (the Central Star / Purple region).

Tír Ildáthach - Fairy World’s official name; “The Land of Many Colors.”

CASUAL TERMS

Other terms that are commonly used as slang.

Abra-Bats - A slang term for Abracadabrium batteries: a rare portable power source controlled mostly by the Pixies.

Ah’kas - A slang way to refer to preening (specifically the ceremonial / intimate part of preening). See the Ceremonial Preening Terms section below.

Attraction Signals - Various pulses automatically put out by magical beings that allow other magical beings to detect their presence. These signals are named such because they attract the energy field.

Cú Chulainn - Not exactly a common slang term, but Cú Chulainn is a very famous mythical demigod. H.P. commonly refers to Talon by this as an affectionate pet name, parly because Cú Chulainn was a very strong hero and partially because the hero was famously fostered by several fathers (since the hero’s actual father was a deity who didn’t stick around).

Dazzled - A slang term from around the time Cosmo, Wanda, their counterparts, and the pixies were growing up. Replaced “jazzed.” It means “Cool” or “Awesome.”

Finella Reflex - The name for a Seelie’s instinct to destroy their Unseelie counterpart. Strongest when an Unseelie is in a Seelie’s territory (as determined by the strength of pheromones). Also known as “cold shoulder syndrome.”

>> A widely accepted theory slowly being discredited as time goes on. Poof and Foop’s ability to co-exist as roommates has confused a lot of people who used to believe in this reflex and used it to defend their racist beliefs.

Going Dusty - A euphemism for death among the Seelie. The Anti-Fairy equivalent is “gone to smoke” while the Refracted equivalent is “gone to mist.”

Gootie-Goggling - An old-fashioned slang term for checking someone out. This phrase is out of date in modern times.

Ivywish - A common word in Anti-Fairy society in reference to the Anti-Firebox v. Ivywish case. Saying something like, “They pulled ol’ Ivywish on me” or “They went Ivywish” means, “They discriminated against me on the basis of my being an Anti-Fairy.”

Jazzed - A slang term from the time when H.P. was growing up; “That’s jazzed” means “That’s cool” or “That’s awesome.” This phrase is out of date in modern times; it was replaced by “Dazzled.”

Jacked - A slang term from the time when H.P. was growing up; “That’s jacked” means “That’s dumb” or “That’s messed up.”  This phrase is out of date in modern times; something like “That’s ridiculous” or “That’s stupid” would be more common.

Lines - Shortened from “magic lines” or “breathing lines.” When an Anti-Fairy damsel gives birth to lifesmoke, it rushes towards the primary “host” counterpart and envelops them. Poof’s counterparts (Foop and their Refract) “bound together” and “attacked” Poof at the exact same time, hence the giant cloud and the confusion of the Fairies; normally the clouds are much, much smaller.

Mint - A slang term that will crop up during Poof and Foop���s teenage years; “I’m mint” basically replaces “I’m awesome” in the future. It is also often phrased as “That’s minty.” This slang term is not used in stories that take place before Poof and Foop enter middle school, and it’s at its peak during their high school years.

Naiad - A wingless Fairy (both those born without and those whose wings have been cut off).

Prince of Destiny - A slang term for a gyne (Usually intended to be sarcastic or insulting).

SHAMPAX - CPR for the Fairykind; stands for “Sharing Magic to Prevent Asphyxiation.” Usually administered mouth to mouth, but can also be administered by mouth to an open cut in the skin.

Sugarblind - A slang term that basically translates to “blackout drunk.” Not used very often. “Sugarloaded” is more common, but if you need to specify the difference between “drunk” and “blackout drunk,” you would use this term.

Sugarloaded - The state of being “sugar-drunk” due to consuming too much candy and/or soda. The Fae are not affected by alcohol- only sugary products.

Tingle-Fritzy - A state of arousal in the Fairykind that can result from anxiety, feelings of attraction, or from being sugarloaded, for example. This term is named after the fact that a Fairy or Pixie’s magic lines will fritz in and out of contact with the energy field in this state.

Thinningcore - “Going thinningcore” is the Unseelie equivalent of going tingle-fritzy, since the Unseelie don’t have their own magic lines. Simply put, when they begin to stress, they can have difficulty “breathing”. It’s also a common side effect of Anti-Fairies being right-side-up too much. While tingle-fritziness can sometimes be associated with pleasure (“sugar high”), going thinningcore is generally considered unpleasant.

Wishbirthed - A nymph who skipped the birthing process and was wished out of their parent, and as a result ended up with a large glob of magic stuck to them. This process can be seriously risky if you don’t know your anatomy well or can’t channel sufficient power. Often used interchangeably with luz mala even though technically they shouldn’t be.

Year of Promise - The time between when fairy courtship officially begins and when one’s wings are notched; “the honeymoon phase.” In Fairy culture (mostly seen in the common fairy subspecies but sometimes seen in others), Fairies mate on the first night of official courtship and then spend a year “hands off” from each other and all other partners. When the year is over, the couple reunite and discuss their feelings. They either marry or break up (it’s very rare to continue courting without marriage after the year is up).

>> The common fairy subspecies takes the Year of Promise tradition extremely seriously. Ironically, despite believing in a tradition that allows the couple to freely and respectfully bail out if they fear the marriage won’t work, they are stereotyped as a subspecies that rushes relationships.

>> Traditionally both partners should wear a ceremonial apron and gloves in public for that entire year and should avoid touching people with their skin. 

>> Notably, Wanda and Juandissimo had a Year of Promise. When it was over, Juandissimo enthusiastically requested Wanda’s hand in marriage and was shocked when she turned him down.

PHRASES

Common casual phrases in Fae culture.

“Are you jitterlines?” - “Are you crazy?”  

“As the dragonfly skims” - As the crow flies; measures distance by wing without taking the topography of the landscape into account. This term is used by Fairies; Anti-Fairies would say “As the bat soars” and Refracts would use the crow term.

“Don’t flap your wings dustless” - “Chill out”, “Calm down.”

“I’m only [Un]Seelie” - “I’m only human.”

“Lousy-lines” - A phrase that means something like “grumpy-gus” or “Debbie downer.”

“Sheathe your wand” - In this sense, it means “Hold your horses.”

“Who brushed the dust off your wings?” - “Why are you so grumpy?”

“Will a genie’s kiss fry your lines off for a week?” - Rhetorical question given as an affirmative answer; equivalent to, “Do chickens have lips?” Stemmed from the fact that genies have so much magic in them, kissing one long enough will overload the body and cause the Fairy to fritz all lines from the energy field.

“You’re fudging your wand waves” - “You’re exaggerating.”

“You’re twirling my lines” - “You can’t be serious” / “You’re making me anxious.”

“You’re yanking my wing” - “You’re pulling my leg.”

TRADITIONAL TERMS

Special terms specific to Fairy culture. These terms are always italicized since they are words from an ancient language.

Aldra mór - The dominant gyne of the local area. A very dominant gyne who visits another gyne’s territory would be visiting an aldra mór, even if the visitor is more dominant than the host.

>> Ex: The Head Pixie is aldra mór of Pixie World. No gyne can be aldra mór of Fairy World because it’s simply too big, but they could be aldra mór of a neighborhood or estate property.

Chéad grá - The aldra mór’s alpha retinue drone (the drone in charge of leading the retinue and overseeing fellow drones). Although not the aldra mór, he generally holds authority and you might ask him questions if the aldra mór wasn’t around.

>> Ex: Sanderson is chéad grá of Pixie World; he’s sort of “head butler.” The term is tied to the aldra mór’s territory; you would not greet a drone by saying “Welcome to my home, chéad grá.”

Caisleán - The main building that belongs to the aldra mór and contains his sleeping quarters. These buildings were common in hive estates, though in modern times few gynes have estates so this term might simply refer to their house. To some people, it may be taboo to enter the building if you aren’t family.

>> Technically, H.P.’s penthouse - not the entire building - would be classified as his caisleán in modern times.

Mhaisci - A special room where preening is performed, usually but not always separate from the bedroom. Since the bedroom is considered private, it’s nice to have a separate place where it’s a little less awkward to discuss business deals. A mhaisci might be decorated like a bedroom, but is commonly decorated as an office with a couch.

>> You can see a modern mhaisci in my Sims 4 build of H.P.’s penthouse HERE.

Mhalaith-chéad - Special ceremonial clothing set aside for the chéad grá and ONLY the chéad grá to wear while preening. This clothing usually resembles silver silk pajamas, though there can be some variation. It’s very taboo for a lower-ranked drone to wear this.

Tháircha - A separate living area for drones, usually containing bedrooms, bathrooms, an office space, and a living area just like any other small house. It’s traditional for all drones to share one bedroom, however, which often cuts down on rivalry (usually 4 drones max to the same bedroom). Also commonly abbreviated “tháir.”

Tekti - A guest house, separate from the caisleán. If you’re staying on a gyne’s property, this is where you would be since gynes are territorial and generally prefer not to sleep under the same roof. Modern Pixie World features the Onyx Hotel in place of a traditional tekti, which would be a more humble building.

Yidreamu - A term that means “affection site.” Traditionally, Fairies don’t mate in the same beds they sleep in and in Fairy architecture you will generally see a smaller room connected to the master bedroom. This room is also used for snuggles or simply relaxing together while reading books or watching movies (not just mating). It is also very common for a couple’s yidreamu to be some sort of cabin, boathouse, or similar vacation home instead. I built a yidreamu in Sims 4 and talked more about them in the Fairy architecture post, HERE.

CEREMONIAL PREENING TERMS

Phrases used in ceremonial preening; they appear in a few Origin of the Pixies and Frayed Knots chapters but are often glossed over elsewhere. They are usually referred to as “The ah’kas.” Some of these words also appear in Mother Nature and Father Time’s sacrificial shrine song.

These phrases should always be spoken in the correct order, in ceremonial conversation form, so they are listed in order and not alphabetically. In story, these phrases are always italicized. The use of these phrases can be seen in the Origin chapter “Senseless” and the Knots chapter “Tipping Scales.”

Again, preening is part of Seelie culture due to the fact that Fairies and Pixies share their DNA with insects; preening was specifically intended to be an anthropomorphized take on eusocial insect licking behaviors. Licking to show dominance and submission is instinctive for Seelie, particularly gynes and drones. Damsels are invited to preen for business purposes but are not usually taught the motions of the full ceremony (since damsels are based on drone bees and gynes and drones are based on queen and worker bees).

Anti-Fairies and Refracts do not normally preen. It isn’t instinctive for them and is not part of their cultures (in fact, in Anti-Fairy culture / bat instincts, licking someone’s face or neck is used to signal desire for sex... which is DEFINITELY not what a Fairy means to communicate). However, some might be willing to preen if invited to by a Fairy. For example, Anti-Cosmo is willing to preen with others due to his rank as High Count and his (often crippling) belief that he’s expected to do so; however, many Fairies are uncomfortable preening with Anti-Fairies due to the cultural gap between the races.

“Ah’ne ah’ne ah’ka, awa krei’ish cara” - “May I have your mountain?” (Body)

“Kalra kalra keiko krei’ish cara” - “If you will have me, you have my mountain.”

“Ah’ne ah’ne ah’ka, awa krei’ish lámha” - “May I have your hands?”

“Kalra kalra keiko krei’ish lámha” - If you will have me, you have my hands.”

“Ah’ne ah’ne ah’ka, awa krei’ish taná” - “May I have your lines?” (Breath)

“Kalra kalra keiko krei’ish taná” - If you will have me, you have my lines.”

“Ah’ne ah’ne ah’ka, awa krei’ish ri’apa” - “May I have your core?” (Soul)

“Kalra kalra keiko krei’ish ri’apa” - If you will have me, you have my core.”

Preening is a mutual exchange of pheromones and, in full ceremony, is combined with gestures and physical touch. After offering someone your body, you are giving them consent to move closer to you (possibly on top of you or any other way they’re comfortable with that allows them a better angle to lick your neck).

As the ceremony advances, partners gradually share magic with one another, aligning their magical signals until their breathing is in sync. After agreeing to the fourth level - the core level - partners consent to transition to a mutual magical state where they can meld minds. This can be seen in some of my works, such as the Origin of the Pixies chapters “From Straw to Gold” and “King Unconventional.”

In business deals, you can also ask a “fifth” question and would replace the last word with the request you are asking for. For example, “utwrisa” which means “your aid and concern.”

The submissive preening partner (the drone or person seeking aid) initiates the questions and movements; only they have the authority to advance the ceremony in order to signal consent and hopefully limit the chance of abuse. The submissive partner only advances the ceremony as far as they are willing to go. It is common to stop after the first question when preening for the sake of settling a business deal (if you even ask a question at all... in modern times, many business deals are settled with a handshake or a few quick and simple licks). Some professional relationships may progress to the second question (hands), and even to the third (lines).

It is rare to advance to the fourth question (core) in a professional relationship. Much of the confusion between H.P. and Anti-Cosmo regarding the status of their relationship comes from the fact that H.P. repeatedly insisted to Anti-Cosmo that preening is “strictly professional” but did not make clear that the melding mind stage is generally treated in Fairy culture as a sign of great trust, friendship, and intimacy.

Thus, H.P. tends to see their relationship as more intimate and trusting than Anti-Cosmo does (which plays into why H.P. teases Anti-Cosmo so much, believing he and Anti-Cosmo are very close although in reality, Anti-Cosmo is often flustered or offended by his jokes). As another example, the relationship between H.P. and Jorgen constantly slides up and down, with both parties feeling comfortable with one another and happily progressing to the mind-melding stage of preening one day, but bitterly refusing to progress farther than the first stage the next. Their comfort level changes rapidly, but is at least always clear to them unlike Anti-Cosmo, who is constantly confused and hurt if H.P.’s comfort with him doesn’t remain at max at all times. Anti-Cosmo's self-esteem will take a hit if H.P. doesn’t allow him to complete the full ceremony every time they preen while H.P. believes he is simply communicating “I like you, I’m just not in the mood for going further.” Jorgen gets it because this is Seelie culture, but Anti-Cosmo is easily confused.

If you wish to stop the ceremony immediately (but respectfully), you would say “Shri'ana vi scintu.” So, if someone asked “May I have your core?” you could reply with a phrase that roughly means “No thank you, the current situation feels right and I don’t want to progress” without the harshness of a simple “No.” H.P. is notorious for flat-out saying “No” instead of the proper phrase, which often insults or confuses the people he preens with.

RUDE LANGUAGE

Swears, slurs, or otherwise unprofessional language.

Blitz - Not a particularly nice word at all and generally considered the ultimate rude term (though it can be combined with other terms to be even ruder). “Blitz” can also refer to mating, especially mating quickly or carelessly.

>> “Snatterblitz” would actually be the ULTIMATE rude term.

>> H.P. uses the word “Blitz” frequently, though he tries not to use it in professional settings. Despite his best attempts, it commonly slips out when he’s around Jorgen or Anti-Cosmo, who sometimes sit in awkward silence. H.P. becomes flustered when he hears young children (pixie children in particular) use this word. If your kid overhears him and begins repeating it, it’s one of the few things he’ll immediately and sincerely apologize for.

>> Though it’s frowned upon to use this term in Fairy World, it’s EXTREMELY frowned upon in Anti-Fairy World. Anti-Fairy culture is rooted in the idea that friendship and passion, not selfish personal pleasure, should be the reason you engage in sexual activity. “Blitz” implies very casual behavior with the goal of quick personal pleasure, and clashes harshly with Anti-Fairy values. An Anti-Fairy who states that he or she enjoys “blitzing” would be shunned.

Brownie-Kisser - A slur with its roots in the idea that brownies as a race are naturally dumb and shy and easily taken advantage of. Someone with a brownie for a significant other is often viewed as not being able to “get anyone better”; a “brownie-kisser” is often viewed as desperate, slutty, or even a rapist.

>> Despite the fact that this term is blatantly racist and cruel, it’s unfortunately still quite common in Fairy society (and so is bias against brownies in general). A more extreme term is “brownie-blitzer.”

>> This slur is practically non-existent in Anti-Fairy World. Anti-Fairies don’t mind brownies and it would only be used as an insult to a Fairy’s face, not as gossip behind anyone’s back.

Dust / Smoke / Vapor - Fae turn to either dust, smoke, or vapor when they die. These terms are sometimes used as exclamations, such as “Smoofing dust,” “Good smoke,” or “Dear vapor.” Fairies use “Dust,” Anti-Fairies “Smoke, and Refracts “Vapor.” These terms are considered very mild and are usually used in place of “Curses!” or “Drat!”

Fez - A mild exclamation in Genie culture. May also come in the variation “fezzing.” This term is rarely used by non-Genies. If you hear that word, someone nearby is probably a genie in disguise or hangs around genies often. Despite being a mild Genie word, Happy Peppy Gary considers it to be worse than it is and tends to use it if he’s frustrated and his usual “freaking-deaking” doesn’t cover it.

Fritz - The state of magic lines rapidly disconnecting and reconnecting to the energy field.

>> “Fritz” is less extreme than “Blitz” and “Snatter” but more extreme than “Smoof.” I would say it’s equivalent to “Damn” if used as an exclamation. It can also be used in casual conversation when referring to breathing lines, since that’s the appropriate context to use it in.

Knotted-Lined - A very cruel way to call someone an idiot. Widely considered a slur that should no longer be used at all.

>> To put this into context, even H.P. (who is known to use “Blitz” regularly) avoids using this term unless he is EXTREMELY upset with someone. If I recall correctly, this term is only used in the Origin of the Pixies chapter “The Makings of Greatness.” It probably slips out when he’s drunk with his friends though.

Smoof - Mild curse word; Norm and Sanderson have both used it in canon. With smoof canonically being a reference to hemp, I’ve headcanoned it as being a plant that can be used for various things, such as making burlap sacks. Notably, Happy Peppy Gary uses this term since he’s spent so much time around Pixies, which often earns him strange looks from humans.

>> This is a very mild term and is the equivalent of “Shoot” or “Darn.” If you can catch yourself then it would still be better not to use this term in a professional environment, but most people probably wouldn’t bat an eye if they heard it. It is commonly used as an adjective to emphasize frustration with a situation (“Smoofing”).

Snatter - Not a nice name to call someone; sometimes strung together as “snattersmoof.” The exact definition falls somewhere between “brown-noser,” “cheat,” “submissive partner,” “lovable scamp,” and “female dog.”

>> Both Sanderson and Anti-Sanderson tend to use this one a lot. It’s more extreme than “Fritz” but still not as extreme as “Blitz.”

>> A similar word, vlakrina, exists in the traditional Anti-Fairy language (Vatajasa). However, Anti-Fairies view a vlakrina as “a person who humbly intends to dote on you to express genuine apology as though they were your devoted sexual servant” rather than the Fairy view of a snatter which is something like “a person who is alluring or submissive because it turns them on or because you hired them to act this way.”

>>> Calling someone “snatter” is pretty much always meant to be insulting while calling someone “vlakrina” could be a compliment akin to “You are extremely humble.”

KINSHIP TERMS

The traditional terms used to describe relationships with counterparts, from Gaelic kinship terms.

These traditional words fell out of fashion in the cloudlands during the War of the Sunset Divide (causing most Fae to use terms like “Niece” and “Nephew” to refer to their counterpart’s children) but the terms make a comeback as Poof and Foop enter adulthood. You would put a possessive word like “My,” “Our,” or “Their” in front of these terms, which are lowercase and italicized in story.

These words are very useful for Fae who regularly have contact with their counterparts’ families. Poof understands them because Wanda’s side of the family is firmly rooted in Fairy traditions, including language, though he rarely uses them because he’s still reluctant to acknowledge Foop’s family as “his” family. Foop, being a smug know-it-all, likes to use these terms but has a hard time remembering what they mean and tends to mix them up.

“My counterpart(s)” - Mhuintir

“The brother of my counterpart” - Deantháir

“The sister of my counterpart” - Deirfiúr

“The spouse / committed partner of my counterpart” - Ceathar

“The partner of my counterpart” - Muirnīn (Generally used for a boyfriend, girlfriend, or similar partner who can’t be called a spouse)

“The counterpart of my father” - Uncail

“The counterpart of my mother” - Aintin

“The son of my counterpart” - Nia [Generally implies the child was raised by them; might not apply to a blood child who was given up for adoption but definitely applies to anyone adopted into the family]

“The daughter of my counterpart” - Neacht [Same as above]

“The grandson of my counterpart” - Garmhac

“The granddaughter of my counterpart” - Gariníon

“The father of my counterpart” - Athair

“The mother of my counterpart” - Máthair

“The grandfather of my counterpart” - Seanathair

“The grandmother of my counterpart” - Seanmháthair

“My biological son raised by my counterpart” - Mac

“My biological daughter raised by my counterpart” - Iníon

“The children of me and my counterpart(s), collectively” - Leanbh

Those are the kinship terms; on some level, these people are considered your extended family even if they are a different species. Fairies believe that counterparts share a soul, making them closely related. Because of this, Fairies shun romantic relations with anyone in the above kinship list (though it is widely agreed that it’s natural to develop a crush on your counterpart’s love interest).

Anti-Fairies, however, traditionally believe themselves to be a completely separate species who were originally shapeshifters but later took on forms to resemble people they grew fond of. They believe they are not related to Fairies by blood or soul, but are akin to “guardian angels.” Because of this, most Anti-Fairies would consider it acceptable to have romantic relations with their counterpart or their counterpart’s relatives.

Click HERE for my Fairly OddParents masterpost

[bamon4bamily]

TVD 9x11 - Jukebox Feels (part 1) Enjoy! =)

Cut to - 2018 prison world, the Salvatore mansion. Katherine walks through the front door, dazed and confused. She must be having a nightmare, she thinks to herself; this can’t be happening, she can’t possibly be where she thinks she is. Although her intuition tells her the contrary, she gives it a shot, on the slim chance it might not be true…

KATHERINE: Hello? Anyone there? (She searches the house; as expected, it’s empty. She tries different techniques to escape the situation. Pinches herself to wake up, nothing. Taps her feet together, and with her eyes closed whispers: There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home… doesn’t work either). Maybe if I go to sleep, I’ll wake up and everything will be back to normal… Yes, I need to sleep (she goes into Stefan’s room, puts on one of his pajamas and lies in his bed. Not even a minute in, and she’s off dreaming of sheep.

Cut to – Akumal, Mexico. After a beautiful moonlight dinner, Damon and Bonnie sit on the beach, admiring the full moon’s glow, and some real good tequila.

 DAMON: (Randomly) Truth or dare…

BONNIE: (Laughs) Are you serious?

DAMON: I’m dead serious, come on, scaredy-cat!

BONNIE: Please! I just don’t want to humiliate you, cry-baby!

DAMON: Oh, it’s on! Brace yourself for defeat!

BONNIE: Bring it!

DAMON: One rule, no magic or psychy stuff!

BONNIE: Fine, no vamp tricks.

DAMON: Deal. Truth or dare?

BONNIE: Dare.

DAMON: I’ll start easy, (smirks) don’t want you loosing so fast. I dare you to take a shot of tequila while doing a handstand.

BONNIE: Piece of cake! (Delivers to perfection) My turn, truth or dare?

DAMON: Truth.

BONNIE: Okay, let’s settle this once and for all; do you steal from the bank when we play monopoly?

DAMON: (Grins) Not every time…

BONNIE: (Whacks him with her elbow) I knew it!

DAMON: What can I say, Bon, too much temptation. Okay, truth or dare?

BONNIE: Dare.

DAMON: I’m sensing a pattern here, but suit yourself. I dare you to go up to one of the people at the bar and tell them, in a very low and creepy voice, I see dead people…

BONNIE: I’m gonna get you back for this one! (Although hesitant, she delivers; freaking the hell out of the poor soul unfortunate to be approached by her. They go back to their spot) Okay, Mr. smarty pants. My turn, truth or dare… and you better choose dare!

DAMON: Dare… I say truth!

BONNIE: I’ll break you, eventually. What is the most embarrassing thing in your room?

DAMON: Oh, you’re going there! You already know the answer…

BONNIE: I do, but I want to hear you say it.

DAMON: Fine, my unicorn onesies.

BONNIE: With a butt crack… can’t forget the butt crack (she laughs)!

DAMON: They’re cozy! Okay, missy, shit just got real! Truth or dare…

BONNIE: I’m going with truth; just cause I know you’ll make me do some crazy shit after that one.  

DAMON: (With a wicked grin, rubbing his hands) Excellent…  What is your guilty pleasure?

BONNIE: Oh, come on! You know that…

DAMON: I do, but I also want to hear you say it, so, go on…

BONNIE: Fine… occasionally I like to dress up like Whitney Houston in the Queen of the Night video from the Bodyguard, and perform in front of the mirror…

DAMON: Occasionally? More like every other Sunday... and it’s HOT AF!  

BONNIE: Can’t believe you caught me doing that!

DAMON: One of my fondest prison world memories! I have to hand it to you, Bon, you really got creative with the costume.

BONNIE: I’ve perfected it since then… Well, there, I said it! Happy now?

DAMON: Never been happier… (leans in to kiss her) and you are, beyond a doubt, the queen of the night…

BONNIE: Don’t think for a second that’s gonna get you out of what’s coming…Truth or dare?

DAMON: I’m a mix it up and go with dare.

BONNIE: (With a wicked grin, rubbing her hands) Been waiting for that since we started.

DAMON: I’m instantly regretting my decision.

BONNIE: (Laughs) Oh, and you should! You’re in trouble now… Mr. Damon Salvatore, your mission, which you have no choice but to accept, is to (she opens a portal to their room, goes and comes back).

DAMON: Hey, we said no tricks!

BONNIE: You said no magic, no psychic stuff, but you never mentioned teleporting, so suck it! Here (hands him one of her outfits and her make-up kit) Put this on, make-up and all. Once you are ready, and looking gorge, you are going to perform Queen of the Night to the guests at the beach bar. Good luck, doll! (Laughs hysterically).

DAMON: Oh, Bon-Bon… when you least expected, I’ll get you back.

BONNIE: (Mocking) I’m sure you will; but for now, come on, dancing queen, your audience awaits. (Damon performs, surprisingly well, or at least good enough to receive and applause from his audience, who, although very confused, found the show quite entertaining. They go back to their spot). You did great, almost nailed the choreography.

DAMON: Well, I learned from the best.

BONNIE: I think it’s safe to say I won this little game.

DAMON: This time around… 

BONNIE: How bout you get out of those clothes, I get out of mine, and we go for a night swim?

DAMON: Don’t have to ask me twice! (As he is taking the high heels off) How do you guys walk in these things??

BONNIE: You get used to it, (teasing) just don’t get too used to it... Ready, my night queen?

DAMON: (Carries her) Let’s go, witchy! (They swim under the moonlight; then make love till sunrise).

Cut to - The secret facility, Edward’s cell. He has been sleeping for quite some time. He slowly begins to wake; as he opens his eyes, he sees someone lying on the floor under a pool of blood, right next to his bed. He jumps up in a scare.

 AUGUSTUS: Oh, don’t be alarmed, son, it’s not me, I’m doing just fine. Meet your uncle Pete; granted it might not be the best introduction, but hey, you wanted to meet your family… well, there you go.

EDWARD: (Disgusted and in shock) What is this!!??  

AUGUSTUS: It’s a dead body, son. And, from what I hear they start to smell pretty bad once they decompose; so, I suggest you move fast and bring your cousin Matty back. Feel free to use our tech if it helps, Eddie here (points to the strange man that has been standing outside his cell everyday) is more than happy to help.

EDWARD: (Crying in despair, looking at the corpse) Oh god, oh, god!!! (To his father) You are fucking insane!!!

AUGUSTUS: Language, boy! I taught you better manners than that… guess I should have never left you in Tamara’s care; what a waste of an ivy-league education. My fault for bringing in the trash. Oh, well… time is ticking, and that body is stinking… Ha, that rhymed, maybe I should pick up poetry? I always did love Literature… Anyway, (belittling) Mayor Powell, let’s see just how smart and powerful you really are. Rest assured, if you get the job done, I promise I will make it worth your while (he leaves; Edward can’t stop crying, imagining Matt’s pain).

Cut to - Munich, Germany. Sam, Elena, Sage, and Alex, are having some drinks, after their first days of the program.

SAGE: I knew this program was going to be out of the ordinary, but it’s totally blowing my mind!  

ELENA: I agree, it’s amazing! The equipment we have access to is unbelievable! Never knew those types of tools and tech even existed.

SAM: (Putting his drink up for a cheer) Here’s to an unorthodox quality education, and to new awakenings!

ALL: Cheers! (They drink, share some laughs and anecdotes; at some point, the boys get into their own conversation in another area of the bar. Elena and Sage have no option but to interact more closely).

ELENA: Listen, I’m sorry for calling you a bitch.

SAGE: I’m sorry for being one. (Holds her hand out for a handshake) Do-over?

ELENA: Do-over (shakes her hand). So, tell me, why are you so obsessed with Pietro? Not judging, just curious.

SAGE: I know a lot of people think he is just an entitled jerk, but he is so far from that. I mean, yes, he is arrogant and pretentious, but when you’ve accomplished what he has, you kind of earn the right to be.

ELENA: Still don’t get it, what has he accomplished? He’s not even a Doctor…

SAGE: He owns the world’s most groundbreaking technology companies. Ai, IoT, nanotech, you name it, he is behind it. He might not be the science side of the operation, but he is the business side that makes it possible. Just between us, I’m pretty sure he is a vampire. Get this, while I was doing research on his background, I stumbled upon some pretty crazy documentation that dates his birth back to 1865. It’s either that, or he stole some real old dead guy’s identity.

ELENA: That is definitely not a coincidence… Do the names Stefan and Damon Salvatore ring a bell?

SAGE: Never heard of them, who are they?

ELENA: Besides my ex-boyfriends, I think they might be Pietro’s half-brothers.

SAGE: (Laughs) That’s impossible…

ELENA: Put two and two together…

SAGE: Oh, they’re also…? OMG! So, you slept with two vampires, and they were brothers??!! I totally miss read you, you’re a badass!! I love it!! (Holds her drink up) Cheers for that!

ELENA: Well, the brothers thing is something I’m really not proud of. I was young and gave in to my darkest desires; but I guess karma got me served, because they both fell in love with my best friends; so…

SAGE: Hey, nothing to be ashamed of; more power to you! I mean, it’s okay when men do it, but as woman we get shamed for it… Fuck that shit!

ELENA: Good point... (holds her glass up for a cheer) Here’s to woman equality!

SAGE: Fuck yeah! So, tell me, how did you end up getting involved with vampires?

ELENA: It’s a long and complicated story… Let’s just say I look exactly like someone they were once very obsessed with, and it grew from there.

SAGE: Who did you go out with first?

ELENA: Stefan… my first true love; but then I fell for the bad boy, who just happened to be his brother. Like I said, not proud, but that’s how it went down.

SAGE: Was it serious?

ELENA: Very. With Stefan I could see my entire future; it was like a fairytale love. With Damon, I lived for the moment and was consumed with passion.  

SAGE: Sounds like you were quite in a predicament.

ELENA: I was, for a while; but I ended up choosing Damon.

SAGE: So, what happened? Why did you two split?

ELENA: There were many reasons, but every time I go back to it, I think it’s because we got off to a wrong start. When I became a vampire, I was sired to him… not the best way to start a relationship.

SAGE: Wait, you are a vampire!!? Are you kidding me?!! This story keeps getting better and better!

ELENA: No, no! I’m not one anymore, but I was.

SAGE: Oh, okay, you freaked me out there for a sec! Anyway, then, what happened? Spill!!

ELENA: Well, a whole bunch of crazy stuff... then I took a cure, became human again, only to be put into a three-year sleeping spell, then I woke up. At first it was bliss, but then, once we moved in together our deeper problems began to surface…

SAGE: Did those problems have to do with him falling for one of your best friends?

ELENA: Not expressively… but in part, yes. I knew he was in love with her, and that there was nothing I could do to change that.

SAGE: Ouch, that’s gotta hurt.

ELENA: I mean, he never cheated or anything like that, they didn’t even get together until recently, but just knowing he would never love me like her, hurt for a while… then I met Sam…

SAGE: Wow, that’s quite a story!

ELENA: Straight out of a supernatural YA book, am I right?

SAGE: I’m a big fan of YA drama, and supernatural lure, so, right up my alley! Okay, let me ask you one last question. If you could go back, would you make the same choice?

ELENA: What do you mean?

SAGE: Stefan or Damon? Who would you choose?

ELENA: (Laughs) Uhm, okay, that’s a weird question…

SAGE: Oh, come on, just for fun, and keeping with the YA context.

ELENA: I’d say as a human, I would choose Stefan; as a vampire, Damon. But I guess it wouldn’t matter who I would choose, since they wouldn’t choose me a second time around, that’s for sure.

SAGE: (Teasing) Well, good news for Sam.

ELENA: Okay, I shared my stories; now it’s your turn.

SAGE: Well my stories are quite boring compared to that!

ELENA: Still, spill! It’s only fair, you have leverage on me, I should have some on you.

SAGE: Fair enough. What do you want to know?

ELENA: You and Alex, what’s the story there?

SAGE: Oh god, no! Nothing like that, he’s like a brother to me.

ELENA: Aw, that’s too bad, you two are cute together. How about you and Sam, anything ever happen between you two?

SAGE: This conversation is getting dangerous...

ELENA: Oh, come on, what’s in the past is in the past; there’s nothing dangerous about that.

SAGE: Fine, you asked for it. Long time ago, one crazy drunken night; that’s all.

ELENA: I know, he told me; just wanted to check if you would be honest with me.

SAGE: (Teasing) Now who’s the bitch!

ELENA: Sorry, trust issues. Now, for real, any past epic loves?

SAGE: Uhm, not really… I mean, I’ve had many relationships but nothing serious. I’m not the deep connection type; I just like to have fun, and I don’t like to put in the time, so short and sweet works out perfectly for me.

ELENA: Crazy hookups?

SAGE: Now that is my area of expertise! Wow, where do I start… I’ve done all the clichés, mile high club being my favorite one. But I have to say, the craziest has been with someone you actually know, (mocking) the renowned city Mayor of Mystic Falls.

ELENA: (Spits out her drink) Are you serious? You had a thing with Edward Powell? How do you even know him?!

SAGE: From NYC, our hometown. We were both part of the upper east side elite; a real Gossip Girl type thing. And let me tell you, he might seem like a Nate on the outside, but inside, he is a full-on Chuck Bass. Anyway, we went to this masquerade ball at an exclusive mansion outside the city. Long story short, we ended up covering for a murder which turned out to be anything but that; it was just a really drunk-ass Wall-Street magnate, that passed out in a tub filled with red wine. Good thing he woke up before we finished filling the whole… and that he didn’t see us having sex next to what we thought was his corpse. In our defense, we were also really drunk, and high as fuck.

ELENA: Holy shit! And you call your stories boring? Wonder what the exciting ones are like!

SAGE: (Laughs; then sees that Alex and Sam are heading back to their table) Well, that’s a conversation for another night… this has been fun, but I think our girl time is over; I’m glad we had a chance to talk like this.

ELENA: Me too, and I’m sorry I was so quick to judge you.

SAGE: Dido. Friends?

ELENA: Friends.

Cut to – Akumal, Mexico. Bonnie, Damon, Stefan and Caroline are having a nice beachfront brunch.

 CAROLINE: I can’t believe this is our last day! Time went by way too fast!

BONNIE: I know, seems like we just got here.

STEFAN: How about we make a deal, right here, the four of us.

DAMON: (Teasing) Bro, we are not even done with brunch; plus, it would be way too weird…

STEFAN: Of course your mind would go there… Anyway, no, Damon, that’s not what I want to propose. How do you guys feel about spending some money and investing on a property down here? That way we can come back whenever we want.

CAROLINE: I love it, yes!!!!

BONNIE: I’m in!

STEFAN: Damon?

DAMON: Just tell me where to sign!

BONNIE: La Bruja is coming over for dinner tonight, maybe she can give us some tips on property here.

STEFAN: That be great. I’m thinking nothing too fancy, but definitely beachfront.

BONNIE: And secluded.

CAROLINE: 2 master bedrooms, 1 kids room, and two or three guestrooms for when Ty, Lexi, Matt and Alaric come visit.

DAMON: So much for “not too fancy” …

CAROLINE: I’m not saying it needs to be fancy, just spacious, there are way too many of us.

BONNIE: We’ll also need a garden, good footprint area so we can grow our own food.

CAROLINE: And a pool of course, for the girls.

STEFAN: And I think we can all agree, we need a big bar.

DAMON: And a wine cellar.

STEFAN: Maybe we’re gonna have to build it from scratch, I’m pretty sure we won’t be able to find a place that checks all of our boxes.

BONNIE: If we have someone design it for us, I’m pretty sure La Bruja and I can pull it off.

DAMON: It’s settled then, we’ll brief La Bruja over dinner and start to plan our perfect Belvafore hide-away!

STEFAN: Belvafore?

DAMON: Yes; Bennett, Salvatore, and Forbes… Belvafore!

BONNIE: (To Stefan, mocking Damon) I’m telling you, not even with his vamp back on…

CAROLINE: I like it! It’s like Steroline and Bamon!

BONNIE: Steroline and Bamon?

CAROLINE: Yes, Bamon, aka, Bonnie and Damon; isn’t it perfect?! Stefan came up with it.

STEFAN: Sorry, Bon, just a fan.

BONNIE: (Laughing) Oh, Stefan, didn’t see that one coming... And Steroline, is Stefan and Caroline...

CAROLINE: You got it! (With pride) I came up with that one!

BONNIE: (With a y’all crazy look) Okay...

DAMON: Oh, come on, Bon-Bon; Bamon, gotta love it!

BONNIE: Fine, I’ll admit it... y’all crazy but I love it!

CAROLINE: (Holds her mimosa glass up for a cheer) To Belvafore and building new traditions!

ALL: Cheers!

Cut to – The Salvatore school, Alaric’s study. Alaric, and Radka, are trying to figure out their next steps.

ALARIC: How could I have been so reckless and stupid…

RADKA: It was an honest mistake, Ric. How were you supposed to know what would happen?

ALARIC: I know how dangerous that little gadget is, it was my responsibility to keep it under lock and key. Now, thanks to me, Katherine is probably being hunted down by a psychopath.

RADKA: Katherine is strong and witty, if anyone, Kai is the one that needs to worry. I’m sure she’ll be fine; we just need to figure out how to bring her back.

ALARIC: The only one that can help with that is Bonnie, and I’m not letting her go near Kai. We need to figure out a way to do this without the need for Bennett blood.

RADKA: How about 2 werewolves, 2 vampires and a hunter… think we could pull it off?

ALARIC: The problem is not getting in, but out… there’s no way out without the right ingredients.

RADKA: Okay, I might be thinking crazy here, but we need to think outside the box. What if we ask Margo to summon a Bennett witch, she can open a temporary spirit realm and do an incarnation spell so she can be materialized; then, we go to this prison world, get Katherine and use the blood of that Bennett witch to come back…

ALARIC: That sounds insane… but it might actually work. Isn’t Margo still on sick leave?

RADKA: She’s better now, called me up this morning to let me know she’d be back tomorrow.

ALARIC: Do you think she would be up for it?

RADKA: Not sure, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Cut to – 2018 prison world, Stefan’s room. Katherine wakes up to find herself tied up with her mouth covered. Kai is sitting on a chair, reading. He looks quite different than expected; very clean cut and intellectual, glasses and all.

KAI: I’m sorry I had to tie you up, but I do not appreciate intruders. God, these new generations have completely lost their manners. Sneaking into other people’s homes, putting on their nightclothes, sleeping in their beds… The audacity!

(Kai gets up, walks towards one of the many jukeboxes he has installed around the house, and plays a song...)

TVD 9x11 (part 2), coming soon! Hope you stop by, read and enjoy! =)

[thebluelemontree]

Do you think Butterfly's Ashford Theory and your Three Hedge Knights theory could be connected?

Well, when it comes to Sansa and tourney theories, I think (if they are correct) they should complement the progression of Sansa’s story in the tourneys Sansa has directly been involved in, i.e., The Tourney of the Hand, Joffrey’s name day tourney, and the upcoming Tourney of the Winged Knights.  We have to see how the latter plays out to know for sure.  The tourney I think that has the most parallels to the TotWK is the one at Whitewalls in The Mystery Knight.   

Whitewalls was made from stone quarried in the Vale.  

Both Lord Ambrose Butterwell and Littlefinger are former masters of coin.

Butterwell is celebrating his second marriage.  If the betrothal with HtH is secured, it would be Sansa’s second marriage.

Butterwell and Littlefinger both have ulterior motives for their tourneys.  The tourney at Whitewalls is a ruse for supporters of the Second Blackfyre Rebellion.  LF, at some point, plans to reveal Sansa’s true identity and rally the Vale in her name.   

The Whitewalls tourney is rigged for Daemon II Blackfyre (under the guise of “John the Fiddler”) to win the red dragon egg.  Harry “earned” his knighthood from Yohn Royce in a tourney rigged for him to win to secure political influence over Robert Arryn’s heir after Littlefinger retained custody of his stepson and control of the Vale at the Lord’s Declarant meeting.  Dollars to doughnuts Littlefinger has this tourney rigged for Harry to come out champion or at least seem to perform well enough to completely ice out Yohn Royce from any remaining political power in the Vale.  

Dunk meets and befriends three hedge knights. What we can confirm so far in Sansa's story is that there are three hedge knights present who are there because of her, whether they intend a rescue or kidnapping. In The Mystery Knight, one of those hedge knights is Maynard Plumm, who is actually Bloodraven, a greenseer (Old Gods) magician, under a glamor.  

Now tourneys in the novels do tend toward ending in some kind of upset or unexpected outcome.     

The Hand’s tourney ended with Sandor declared the champion.  Loras forfeits after Sandor saved his life. I would say this is the most relevant one because Sansa was rooting for Sandor.  

Joffrey’s name day tourney ends in no winner.  Ser Dontos was too drunk to compete against Lothor Brune, and Sandor stands on the sidelines on this one.  Technically, Lothor Brune could possibly be considered the winner of that match by forfeit, but this isn’t exactly a win to celebrate.  Sansa, backed by Sandor, saves Dontos’s life.  This will lead to both Dontos and Lothor being involved in Sansa’s escape from KL. No one really wins in this plot except Littlefinger. 

When it comes to the Ashford theory, in the past I have quibbled over Robert Arryn being left out of the order of suitors, because Lysa definitely planned to marry Sansa to her son.  Robert, smitten with Alayne, talks about marrying her one day.  As my opinions evolve and tweak themselves over time, I think if GRRM wants to recycle some ideas, he is definitely not required to do them exactly as before.  In fact, he often does not.  So Robert Arryn is not a make-or-break thing for me anymore.  So does there necessarily have to be a final Targaryen suitor, either?  The current Aegon Targaryen seems slated for a betrothal to Arianne as a Targaryen-Martell restoration after Robert’s Rebellion.  I think if anyone is Jon’s love interest, the build-up for Val, Dany, or both is pretty strong and clear.  There is a little connection between The Hedge Knight and Sansa’s Vale arc in the song “Off to Gulltown,” where Alayne Stone is supposed to hail from.

Off to Gulltown to see the fair maid,heigh-ho, heigh-ho.I'll steal a sweet kiss with the point of my blade,heigh-ho, heigh-ho.I'll make her my love and we'll rest in the shade,heigh-ho, heigh-ho  

In the Hedge Knight, the lyric is changed to “off to Ashford” for the tourney.  Of course, the lyrics are right on the nose for the unkiss and Sandor stealing a song at knifepoint.  So there’s that.        

The Tourney of Ashford doesn’t really end on a Targaryen competitor.  It ends in an upset with Dunk’s trial by combat, which he wins.  Dunk wins.  That, to me, is way more important if the theory proves correct in that the competitor/suitor order is intentionally similar on GRRM’s part, and why it’s probably totally fine to just bypass the Targaryen bit altogether.  In the past, I said pointed to this as a reason I had doubts, but again, an exact one-to-one is not necessary.  Is it similar enough?  Yes?  Maybe?  Could be?  If it’s not coincidental but intentional for the purpose of building up to Sansa’s romantic endgame by linking themes and ideas across stories set in the same universe.  That’s just good writing kung fu.  The repetition and usage of “Off to Gulltown” would suggest we should consider it’s not just a coincidence and that George wants us to make a connection between two storylines, whatever he’s planning to do with it.  And while we know Brienne is descendent of Dunk for sure, the Cleganes very well might be as well for Sandor is also an examination of what it means to be a knight.  (There’s also Sandor’s northern look and the not unfounded speculation that Dunk will hook up with a young Old Nan).  I’m certainly not going to be mad if a Dunk figure throws a monkey wrench into Littlefinger’s plans.  ;)    

I guess I don’t have an answer to your question yet, except a big fat “maybe.”  We really have to see how the TotWK and Sansa’s Vale arc play out first to know if one or both theories are validated or invalidated.  I mean, yeah, the potential for harmoniously complementing each other is there IF the story goes that way.  That would just make for an even more impressive build-up over so many years and books.  LBR, I’m just going to be stupid happy for a Sansan reunion/endgame regardless of how it happens.