#44 - quill

[eleanor-is-fine]

RQG 44 Rock Bottom … Sasha and Hamid trying to survive, Lydia and Bryn missing the rest of the party

[simbohargreeves]

Different takes on quiet time

[bookwyrminspiration]

Shattered Upside Down

A kotlc wings au: masterpost here

Chapter 44: The Ascent

word count: 11.1k

chapter summary: Sophie and her friends see their mission through to the very end.

warnings: death, implied child abuse, caps

taglist: @cosmogyral-cleo @axels-corner @cadence-talle @ahecktonoffandomsinoneblog @milesspidermanmorales @loverofallthingssmart @cowboypossume @jolieharkness @wings-of-hell-and-beyond @shellyseashell @blossomjenniie @akotlcblog @imaramennoodle @panic-at-the-multi-fandom-chaos @dragonwinnie-kotlc @solreefs @fintan-pyren @jazzanddaydreams @xanadaus @sa-divine

-> ao3 link here or read below

She hadn’t been watching him as Fintan exploded with flames, setting the place alight with such fervor it echoed on the skin of her face, the singed hairs on her arm, the dry sweat caking her body. All her focus had been on that fire, on her friends, on the little girl, on getting them out.

She’d forgotten to pay attention to Murad, the other half of that despicable pair, the one Fintan renounced and accused with such vitriol.

Now, cold steel against her throat, she paid the price.

Better her than anyone else, she couldn’t help thinking.

“No,” the little girl whispered as her monster snarled, the stench of its breath obvious and putrid again in the clear air above the facility. She wondered what would happen to all the people down there. Had they evacuated already with the alarms? Had they huddled in safe rooms blocked off from monsters, waiting for the coast to clear?

Would they burn, too?

Murad’s heart beat faster than hers as she hardly dared move a muscle, fingers wrapped tight around the wrist of the hand holding the blade.

“Let her go,” Maruca said, the first to recover from the vertigo, though her skin looked waxy when Sophie glanced at her from the corner of her eye; her lips pressed tight together, her steps uneven as she took in the situation, pausing a little ways away. Her gaze flickered between the knife, Sophie, and Murad, and she could only assume she was trying to figure out whether she could risk tackling him away without slitting her throat in the process.

“Let who--oh,” Fitz gasped, rage contorting his dizzied expression as he sat up, the severity of the situation dawning on him. “If you hurt her--”

“You’ll make sure I regret it?” Murad finished, though he didn’t look away from her face, only tightened his hold and pressed firmly against her neck. With each swallow she worried it would be the end. Even speaking seemed too dangerous to risk. They were in the middle of nowhere. No one knew their plans but each other. None of her friends could teleport away. Her life would depend on whether or not someone had thought to bring a pathfinder, just in case; it seemed the kind of move Fitz would pull, but you never knew.

“You’ll make sure I’ll regret meeting you, is that it, boy? You think you can do something worse than the hells I’ve lived through? That you’re more than a blip in the millennium I’ve waited?”

His gaze jerked around, wild, panting, ash falling from him and raining onto Sophie.

“We know what you are,” Biana said, soft, strong, a deadly promise. Her hair had fallen from its braid, strands tangling and whipping against her face as she struggled to her feet, wings flapping to hold her steady as she flickered. “You can’t hide.”

“Hide,” he spat, face flushing as his eyebrows raised, incredulous hints of that temper starting to show. The little girl had said they fought, and fights befitting of Fintan Pyren were not one sided.

Just hold on, we’ll get you out of this, Tam’s voice whispered in her head, a shadow of himself echoing through it.

Ah, no worries. It’s fine, she responded on autopilot. Because that’s definitely what this was: fine.

“You say that as though I was afraid,” Murad mused, gaze flickering between Sophie and her friends, who had all pushed to their feet, forming a half-circle next to where he’d pinned her in the grass, her hair tangling with the weeds.

They’d all come to the same conclusion. Unless they were going to shoot Murad dead right there, they couldn’t attack him, not without seriously risking her own life. So that left Dex with a white-knuckled grip on his gadgets, Keefe with wings of pitch against the blue of the sky, Marella with hands glowing hot, Wylie with blinding light poised at his finger-tips.

And the little girl with another horror before her.

She’d promised her it’d be okay once they left, and yet Murad had followed them.

“You are afraid,” Keefe told him. “And you should be. If you harm a single hair on Sophie’s head--”

“Then I will live to regret it,” Murad hissed, finishing the sentence a second time. “I only regret that I did not visit you in that carcass of a village sooner and take you all in instead of just your Moonlark. How fascinating you would’ve been, what a great study. Your body didn’t reject the transformation as Fintan’s did, and yet still you are weaker than her,” he looked to the little girl, who only had eyes for the blade on Sophie’s skin.

“That’s disgusting.” Wylie’s face contorted, wrinkling his nose. “Is that what you’ve done with everyone else in your organization?”

Murad barked a laugh, but it didn’t hide the shake of his hands, the way it pressed the blade so hard against her throat she could image the cartilage holding her windpipe open collapsing.

“No, that is the kind of treachery I’ll leave to your kind. I would never turn against my own; I am raising us back from history, remaking our place where we belong. Where we have always belonged and been denied!”

Linh’s calm voice broke through, the only one with a normal heart rate. “You were wronged. We know, we know they erased you and you didn’t deserve that. But this isn’t how you solve this. This doesn’t fix it. This just hurts more people.”

“You do not know what they did to us. You cannot begin to fathom how your perfect, pretty little world rotted away before I tore it to pieces. What horrid pasts your darling councillors have covered and endorsed. You do not know.”

“We know better than anyone else in the Lost Cities,” Tam deadpanned. “They banished my sister and me and we’re not going around releasing monsters and holding knives to people’s throats. Drop it.”

Murad sneered, nails digging into Sophie’s skin. “You know nothing of what your world has done. We--” he jerked his chin towards the little girl “--were cast aside by those like you. You say you know, you claim you know my history enough to compare yourself to me and make yourself better. We are half-human, and what else? Can you say? What came next? Tell me,” he demanded.

He turned towards them with the movement, ignoring the growling monster only a mere few feet away, and she gasped with a flinch.

Maruca made eye contact with her, silently pleading with her to just hold on, to just wait, to let them take care of it.

“You were forced to relocate from your homes, the villages,” Dex answered after a moment.

“Everyone fled,” Keefe added, remembering the memory he’d watched over Sophie’s shoulder as she’d discovered what Murad was, the little boy with the bunny stuffed animal hugged tight to his chest.

Murad cracked a crooked smile. “Good, good, you’re close. Perhaps you do know better than most. But no. Not everyone. Elves were supposed to be so pure, so moral, so enlightened, that’s what you all preached. They were reasonable things--weak and vulnerable, but reasonable.”

“We aren’t--” Fitz started, and she could hear the end of the sentence; we aren’t those kinds of elves, we aren’t them.

“Not everyone fled,” he continued, and he wasn’t looking at any of them now, eyes vacant, watching some sort of memory. “Some made a choice. It was us or you, and they chose you. They left us. Betrayed us and fell to their knees before you, reminding you of all the ways we were one in the same. Our ears point, we can ride beams of light, some even have those abilities you so love.

“They thought it would be enough, that we just needed to ‘reconnect’ with you. I don’t need to tell you it failed. You grew up without an inkling of a thought that we might exist, looking down on humans and their frivolous, ignorant ways utterly oblivious to the fact that once upon a time we’d been one and the same.”

No one could contest that.

“You think me mad, a monster like those I’ve created, don’t you?” he asked, a manic, panicked laugh bursting from his chest. “I am only fixing what you’ve broken, I am making it right. You took everything from me! From all of us.”

“We didn’t do anything to you,” Linh told him. “We just met you. We’re not who you’re mad at.”

Murad didn’t seem to care. “You’re all the same,” he spat. “I don’t give a shit whether or not you were there when the order was passed down, the banishment because our blood wasn’t pure enough. Did you learn that? Whatever you think you know, whatever you found, did you find that? Not enough half-humans had abilities and they thought it spelled the end of your idiotic race. So they did what they do best and exiled the problem. And you got to live on in their perfect, pretty little world, your genes saved from becoming like us, like me.”

Keefe hummed in realization, brows knitting together. His eyes had that glazed look he sometimes got when he was overwhelmed. “You’re jealous.”

“No, I’m justified in everything I want. I want nothing to do with any of your kind, and I’ve got good fucking reason. None of you elves are worth shit. Blinding towers, cloying illusions, rotten sweetness as you pretend being you is such a burden. I savored every moment of your fall, and I hope each one of you lives to regret ever forgetting us.”

Biana made a face, wings flickering as she kept a careful eye on the blade on Sophie’s throat, the one keeping her from talking or moving. “I don’t understand. If you’re half-elf and half-human, then you have elven family. An elven parent or grandparents. That’s how it works. You have elven family, but you still hate us. I don’t get it.”

Murad’s face paled above her, then flushed red as his heart thundered. “Of course you wouldn’t. Fine, you want to know? You want to know why we hate you?” he jerked his chin towards the little girl, including her in the we, though she only watched everything in shock. “My disdain for your kind is no secret, so I’ll tell you.”

A deadly calm had passed over his face, as though he realized he was being baited into talking, realized he was giving in, and had forced himself to regain his composure. His heart still hammered, but the wildness had been smoothed away under a careful mask.

“Millennia ago, as you now know, there was family and love between elves and humans, resulting in children like me. Half. I was young, but I still remember the villages; we liked to be near each other Families with elves and human parents, their half-both children living together. It was a place away from the entitlement of the rest of your kind, where elves who had left that behind could find others who had done the same, raise their families as they should in peace. Without the whispers and rumors.”

No one spoke, and Sophie almost forgot to be careful of her breaths as she listened.

“They were a haven, a community. We were fine, content. We hurt no-one. And then the banishing order came. Half-children were a threat to elven genetics, your precious elven genetics. So all human-associated were to be moved to the human cities, never to return to their golden empire. For the good of the species, we would be forgotten. Good riddance, I say, to those councillors who ordered the decree. And good riddance to everyone who let it happen.”

He looked at Biana as he continued.

“You ask how I can hate your kind when it is from you that a part of me comes, and this is how. The day my village fled, families crying and clutching at each other as they were evicted from the only homes they’d ever known, it was pandemonium. I couldn’t have been more than five, and I had no clue what was happening. Why was everyone upset, why did their faces contort so?” His voice had grown quiet. “My elven mother didn’t explain to me as we left the house, my human father nowhere to be found. I never saw him again, never found out what happened. My mother took me from the house, and in the chaos, the panic of everyone leaving their homes, for we’d heard the villages wouldn’t be allowed to stand, that everything about us must be forgotten, she set me down and left me there.

“No good-bye, she let the panic of the moment swallow her son whole as she ran away, left us all behind--to go be with you. Because you elves and your genetics matter more than family. She’d spent the past five years of her life laughing and smiling and loving us, but when it came down to elves or us, she chose you.”

Sophie’s mind whirled, matching the memory she’d seen with the story Murad told. A mother holding him close, a bunny rabbit stuffed animal in his arms, the way she’d pulled her imparter out and pure grief had crossed her face before she’d set him down, backing away.

Had she watched a mother abandon her son without even knowing it?

“I’m sorry your mother did that,” Linh said. “But you can’t blame us for what she did millennia ago; at some point you have to move on, to start living. How long have you fixated on her and your pain when you could’ve been happy?”

Murad laughed again, baring his teeth. “Happy? I am happy. I get to watch your kingdom crumble into nothing, to revel in the dust of where you used to be and imagine the looks on your special little councillors faces when they’re forced to remember what they’ve done. I will be happy--we will be,” he said, looking at the little girl. “Won’t we, my dear?

Sophie’s fingers tightened on Murad’s wrist as he waited for an answer, the little girl’s shoulders hunching as she shrank in on herself. Her monster let out a low growl.

“Quiet,” Murad snapped. “Won’t we? We will remake the world, make it the way it should be. And then all the horrors, all the fear, they will be behind us. Everything we have been subjected to, they will pay for.”

Desperate, his eyes searched the little girl’s, a drowning man searching for a lifeline, a burning one searching for the sea. He paused as though waiting for a real answer, as though she’d say anything to him at all.

Sophie’d had enough, giving her friends an apologetic glance that had their eyes widening because she had to risk it, couldn’t stand to lay there beneath him as he spewed his poison and hatred, when she knew more about the little girl’s experience with him than any of her friends.

Bracing herself and hoping with everything she had the blade wouldn’t slit her throat, she let a coil of energy weave itself into her muscles, exhaling with a thrust as she pushed Murad’s hand away, the knife with it, gripping him tight and tearing him down next to her on the ground, using the momentum to push herself up and scrambling away.

“She’s been subjected to you,” she rasped, taking a deep breath, hand rubbing at her throat where the metal had pressed, shivering at the ghost of the feeling as all of her friends’ relief washed through the mindbubble. Stances relaxed, steps taking towards her before they remembered this wasn’t over.

Murad cursed, pushing himself to his feet, but where she’d expected a glare was only wide eyes, panic.

A solid white forcefield flickered into place over him, Maruca locking him in place away from everyone so he couldn’t hurt them, but he didn’t react. He proceeded like it wasn’t even there.

He shook his head. “You cannot understand. Come,” he told the little girl. “We must find the others. Don’t you fret, Fintan may have burned the facility down, but everyone would’ve left when the alarms went off, well out of the way before the fires began. We will be alright, my dear; we have each other. We always have. It’s what you can truly count on.”

“Stay away from her,” she told him, feeling that roiling, bubbling feeling in her chest from the knot of emotions she kept bound tight until she needed them. “You’ve done enough.”

His gaze shifted to her, roving over her face, where her hand rested on her neck, the flicker of her wings at her back now that they were free to move again.

“Come along,” he told the little girl, taking a step closer, flinching back when her monster snarled even with the forcefield between them, perfectly still aside from the barely restrained trembling of its bones. Biana shivered as she watched it, eyes following something the rest of them couldn’t see. “What have I told you about controlling that thing?”

“I’m sorry,” the little girl whispered, looking down at her hands.

“No, don’t be,” Marella told her. “You have nothing to be sorry for. He’s being an--he’s being awful.” She covered her slip so well Sophie almost missed it herself.

Murad stood before them, knife in hand, scent stained with smoke facing ten teenagers who’d never learned how to stop caring, and she could see it click in his brain that he was not winning. That no matter why sly, targeted, even remarks he made, they would not defeat them. Everything he’d said and they stood as resolute as ever, dead set on what they’d come to accomplish.

He’d said the others had likely evacuated, but he was in charge. He ran Project Phoenix, and if they cut everything off at the head they could take advantage of the chaos to work through everyone else. To reach out with understanding instead of banishment, to try and stop anything like this from ever happening again.

“You aren’t listening to them, are you? You wouldn’t, not after everything we’ve been through together, all the triumphs we’ve had, right?” he asked. “You know better than to listen to them, you know what their kind have put ours through.”

“We haven’t done anything to her!” Fitz shot back, wings flaring. “We’re not the elves who abandoned you however many thousand years ago, we’re not your mother who left you, we’re not them!”

Murad ignored him, heart pounding as he looked and looked and looked and saw. “I forgive you for being swayed, just come along with me and we can fix this. It will be like it never happened. We’ll start fresh, better now without that Fintan’s interference, always getting between the two of us, impeding your progress as he tried to shape you into what he wanted. You’re free of him now, it can be us, our world.”

The little girl’s face twisted, the first show of something other than fear since they’d arrived, and Sophie couldn’t help but think of what Fintan had said, that she’d used to be so vocal, a flicker of a memory of her talking back and stomping her feet when she’d hidden in the shadows in that first attempt to destroy the facility all those months ago.

“He was the best part,” the little girl said, her voice a quiet command in the silence.

Murad might as well have been physically hit for the way he stumbled a step back, hand to his chest, knife dangling forgotten on his other side. “You would pick one of them over your own? We, who’ve raised and loved you your entire life? He held you back, but now we can begin anew without him, you can flourish.”

“You are seriously creepy,” Keefe said, shaking his head. “She’s a kid, leave her alone. Whatever mommy issues you’ve got, you’re not special. We’re taking her with us and you can’t do anything to stop us.”

Does someone have an imparter? he asked mentally. We don’t have anywhere to put him, but the council might. Or our bodyguards.

“NO!” Murad shouted, started to move towards the girl again, who was looking at Keefe with a strange sort of fascinated surprise. “Quiet,” he snarled at the monster as it raised its hackles.

But he couldn’t get any closer, not with that forcefield and the monster beyond it.

Couldn’t do anything as they moved a little ways away, Fitz pulling out his imparter--of course he’d been the one to remember, the important part of their mission complete.

Words whizzed about in their heads as they figured out what to do next.

They couldn’t just leave Murad there, had to keep track of him so he’d couldn’t call in support or hurt anyone, but they needed to get the little girl away.

The facility was destroyed, the little girl at Sophie’s side.

“Hey, you can come down, it’s okay,” she whispered from beside the monster, looking up at her frizzy curls and slipping dress, smiling with encouragement.

The little girl looked between Sophie and Murad, stuck behind Maruca’s forcefield as she and Tam stood watch beside him, reacting to none of the taunts and begging she was tuning out.

Then, she hesitantly swung her leg over, slipping down to the ground with a silent flinch, readjusting herself as she let her hand rest on her monster's side.

“Your monster is very well-behaved,” she told her, fumbling with her fingers, trying to be as bright and comforting as possible as she proceeded, all those years of being an older sister activating something deep in the recesses of her mind.

The little girl bit her lip. “I keep it like that. It doesn’t…it doesn’t like to be quiet, but it listens to me,” she admitted. “And he always likes it quiet,” she dared a glance over at Murad, but quickly looked away when she saw the intensity with which he stared back.

“DON’T LOOK AWAY FROM ME!” he yelled at her, banging a fist against the side of the forcefield, swearing when it shocked him. “YOU DON’T KNOW THEM! THEY DON’T KNOW YOU!”

A fevered light bloomed behind his eyes, pacing around the forcefield and looking around for anything, anyone. Maybe waiting for one of the other Phoenix members to come back, but with the faint smoke starting to billow from the entrance and no one else in sight, she doubted he’d get his wish. Everyone had either evacuated other places or…she didn’t want to think about it, just reminded herself that it wasn’t her fault. It was Fintan’s doing.

“YOU CAN’T IGNORE ME!” he screamed, and Sophie stepped between his line of sight and the little girl.

“We can definitely ignore him,” she said, then offered the little girl a hand. “I know you don’t know me very well, but I can teleport. Are you ready to leave? We can go right now--I can take your monster, too. My friends and I have been staying in the gnome’s village, but don’t worry. We’ve cleaned the place up a lot--fixed a bunch of bridges, swept all the leaves away, though I still don’t have a window or curtains,” she frowned.

“Your friends…” she began, hugging herself close, the edges of her dress catching in the dirt and grass. Her eyes were focused on her outstretched hand, though she glanced up at where Murad would be if Sophie hadn’t been standing between them.

She nodded, considering. “Don’t worry--my friends can take care of themselves. And I won’t leave them here, I’ll come back and get them--we’ll take care of everything. Deal with him and the fire and all the other things. You don’t need to focus on any of that, okay? You’re a kid, you shouldn’t have to worry about all that.” Never minding that she didn’t have any idea how they’d do all that, but she didn’t have to know that part.

“What is--what--” Biana’s voice cut into their quiet, private discussion as all her friends worked around her to leave her alone with the little girl.

Wylie made a noise in the back of throat. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Sophie asked, but already had her answer by the time the words had fallen from her lips.

Thump. Thump-thump. Thump.

An uneven, building heartbeat. It echoed over itself again and again, countless making themselves known as a rumbling started beneath the ground.

“No,” the little girl whispered, holding herself tighter as she ducked into her monster’s side, frizzy curls catching in its fur and tangling around itself.

Murad let out a single, sharp laugh from within his prison.

“The burrows,” Tam said, pointing, shadows condensing around his fingers as his wings flapped once, sticking tight to his body.

Sophie followed his line of sight in time to watch a scarred, milky white hand of a claw scrabble out of the ground and toward the surface, a second following behind as it pulled itself from the earth.

It wasn’t the only one.

Emerging from the trees, pushing their way out of the ground, teeth and talons and ooze and warts and blisters and cracked skin and bone and bug eyes and crisped feathers and water-logged scales met them. Some hardly reaching her ankle in size, some towering far above her head, far above the trees, as though they’d materialized out of the sky, out of the earth, out of the very forests they’d hidden in with all their scraggling, uncoordinated limbs.

“Fu--uuuuuudgeee,” Dex whispered, drawn out as he corrected his language in front of the little girl. “Can anyone count how many there are?”

“Sorry, one million is too many to count!” Keefe exclaimed. “You can’t count to one million?”

The little girl made a noise. “Please, not again.”

Monsters emerged everywhere she looked, crowding and scrabbling against each other, limbs reaching and breaking and tangling as they walked, disjointed and disoriented, howling at something or another.

“THEY CAN’T PROTECT YOU! ONLY YOU CAN,” Murad yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify the sound.

All the monsters’ heads whipped towards the noise, their screeches growing and layering on top of each other in number. They’d come from this facility. They’d broken out when Sophie and her friends had arrived, that’s what Fintan had said. The earth around this place was the most infested, monster rich in the world.

And Murad was getting their attention.

“He’s doing it on purpose,” Fitz hissed as Maruca snapped at him to Shut up!.

Murad did, but the grin cutting his face open was nothing reassuring.

Should I…? Maruca asked, rolling her wrists, energy crackling over the sharp talons of her nails as her wings flexed, preparing herself.

If you put up a forcefield, we’re trapped. I can’t teleport through them.

“Hey, we need to leave.” She tried to keep her voice steady, not let it betray the adrenaline thrumming through her system, the shake of nerves she’d never quite gotten over.

She’d let out that monster in the facility below, but then they’d gotten away from it. There was no telling what they’d do when they riled up like this

The little girl didn’t respond, tucked tight beneath her monster, its fur standing on edge and dissuading her from trying to pry her out.

“I know you’re scared--”

A shriek pierced the air.

Spurred by Murad’s shouting, a creature with too many limbs to be reasonable burst from a burrow nearby they hadn’t noticed, rolling across the grasses, mottled skin cracking as it slammed into rocks and tore at itself, barreling right towards Fitz, who had stepped a little ways out with a gadget in his hand fumbled from his pocket as he prepared to launch it.

“NO!” she whispered, all sensibilities collapsing beneath her as she envisioned the collision course in her mind.

Her body moved without her permission, but even if it’d had time to ask she would’ve granted it as she threw herself towards Fitz, leaving the little girl under Maruca’s protection, under her monster.

Her hands collided with his arm as she shove shove shoved him out of the way, both of them falling to the ground as the monster slammed into her with full force, her joints popping with the impact as she landed on her front, arm pinned beneath her as the monster skidded to a stop, body weight pressing her to the earth.

Fitz lay sprawled out on the ground from her shove as a second creature careened into him, pinning him with his wings to the ground, his back contorting uncomfortably, wing flapping uselessly against the weight of the creature as he struggled to reach for the gadget that’d fallen out of his hand with his fall.

She couldn’t see her friends, but she could hear each of their yelps as they were snatched or leapt upon as a fresh wave surged undetected from beneath them, thuds ringing out as skulls met the ground and bone met bone.

Only Maruca had the chance to protect herself, a forcefield flickering around her, the little girl, and the little girl’s monster because she couldn’t get one away from the other.

Murad’s sharp, biting laughter rang out over their heads, and she knew that if she never heard that sound for the rest of her life it would be too soon.

Sophie took a breath, reaching into her chest, pressed to the ground as it was, frantically unraveling that ball of emotions all tangled together in her chest. If she could send out a shockwave, she could hit all the monsters at once, give her friends enough time to do something and save themselves. She didn’t know what she would do next, but she had to give her friends, her family, that opportunity.

Even if she hated to cause more hurt.

Her wings buzzed and struggled against her back, beating into the limbs and chest of the monster behind her of their own volition as she took the precious few moments she needed to let the fury, the anger, the hurt burn and burn and burn through her veins and flood every artery in her body as she began to tremble with the force.

Before she could let it go, before she could unleash her pain on the world, the pressure eased on her back, the nails removing themselves from her skin and the scraping scales lifting, replaced instead by a wet sniffing brushing against the delicate film of her bumblebee wings, snorting into the feathers at her shoulder blades as it made a noise deep in its throat.

Not one of anger, not violence. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was, but it was far from threatening.

Sophie flinched as its body lifted, limbs painstakingly pushing against gravity as it passed over her, stomach nearly touching the top of her head as it moved by.

All the rage she’d drawn on fizzled out, collapsing back into the ocean of her body as she watched it go, clamoring towards the forcefield, Murad’s forcefield.

“I…huh?” Marella said, sitting up a little ways away from Sophie, burning hands dying out as she set them down, watching the slithering thing that’d wrapped itself around her, sniff at her wings, flinching away as their leathery surface trembled under the touch.

Wylie sat stone still as he stared down at the thing that’d settled itself into his lap, baubles hanging off antennae and scattering flecks of warm light around, skin looking both covered in fur and completely smooth, like those animated little blobs of creatures she’d seen in human movies.

“Is everyone else seeing this?” Tam whispered, shaking out his arm from where a dark mass of a creature had left a residue on his sleeve, the wet reflecting in the light.

“It’s like they don’t care,” Keefe answered as they watched, shocked into silence, as the wave of howling monsters passed over and through them as though they weren’t even there.

Instead, they stepped around where they sat with grass in their hair, scuttled under their legs if they were small enough, rolled passed without cuts or bruises. Slowly, those who had used their wings as protection, encasing themselves in feathers and leather against the onslaught, let them down, peering around in stupefied wonder.

Despite the howls, despite the frenzy, despite the chaos and violence these monsters contained, Sophie nor her friends were harmed.

“What?” Murad demanded, voice hissing between his teeth as he whipped his head around in his confinement. “That not--that’s not possible,” he managed, jerking away from the edges of his forcefield as monsters pounded into the sides, curling around each other, claws scraping and shrieking, tongues lolling against the static.

“At this point if you’re surprised, that’s embarrassing. Never underestimate the Fos-Boss,” Keefe told him, though his eyes were just as wide as he pushed himself to his feet, wings undulating between blacks and greys and whites and frost, lightning strikes through the feathers as he looked to her.

You did this, right?

She shook her head. Not me.

Then what-- Biana asked, cutting out as something bird-sized flew near her head, close enough she had to jerk back to avoid getting hit.

“Not to sound like I’m ungrateful we’re not being eaten right now, but what is happening?” Fitz asked, trying to keep his voice low so as not to let Murad know how they were just as confused as him.

She knew, she knew maybe better than anyone that monsters didn’t have to be cruel. Being a monster didn’t make you a monster.

But she’d never heard those howls without worrying about whether her best escape was to run away or take to the sky, never seen teeth bared without planning how to make sure they didn’t sink into her skin, never seen claws without skirting out of their way.

You had to be careful, measured, prepared for the unpredictable. Especially when they were worked up. And yet…

As they watched, her friends pushing themselves to their feet and Maruca hesitantly lowering the forcefield around her and the girl, something brushed against Sophie’s legs.

“Oh,” she whispered, leaning down to pick up the not-cat and hold it close to her chest, its rumbling purr echoing into her chest as the glitches and swirls of monochrome coloring danced along its fur.

Echo looked around and the monsters for a moment, then met Sophie’s eyes, blinking slowly.

It said nothing, not even a peep of its usual BRRR of a noise, but in that moment it might as well have spoken with how well she understood, understood why it let her get so close, why it let her stroke its fur, why it had come to her out of all the people in the world when its friend had gotten stuck in gooey, itching vines.

It was a test.

To see what she would do, to see if she was worth it.

Monsters weren’t any different from animals, a range of intelligences and wants. Some would curl up in your lap and let you pet them, like the one in Wylie’s. Some would catch your scent, catch your movement, and chase you to the ends of the earth to rip and tear you to pieces, like those they’d escaped in Mysterium. There was nothing to be judged, nothing to hold against them, nothing to accuse them of. They just were what they were.

You wouldn’t accuse a wolf of murder as it killed to keep itself alive, and you couldn’t call a monster bad for being a monster.

And this little Echo, this guardian of its forest, had wanted to see if she would realize that.

It’d watched her as she learned, watched her let it into the village and defend it to her friends. It followed her into the facility to see what she would do, to see if it would stick, to see whether it had chosen well when it had lured her into the forest with its ethereal aura and charm.

She hoped she’d done well, had made this little creature with more wisdom than she’d ever know proud.

Because she had learned.

And the monsters had learned her, too.

They had learned her and her friends, crept along the edges of their village and found something a little bit like them. And though they weren’t all intelligent enough to understand what they meant, they understood familiarity.

Some would never recognize it, and Maruca had faithfully defended their home against the unthinking violence of those who could not keep their boundaries, who saw something so like them and so not and only recognized the not.

They had learned each other and now, in this moment, there was no difference between the two. Not one that mattered.

With Echo in one hand, Sophie offered her other to Fitz, pulling him to his feet, supporting him as his bad knee adjusted. His wings instinctively wrapped around the both of him as he watched the monsters pass them by, though they nearly smacked her in the face with a start as he noticed the hollow Echo in her arms.

“Please tell me you know what to do in this situation,” he told her, looking at Keefe and making some sort of face she didn’t understand--but Keefe did, and made one back.

“Maybe,” she answered, and shrugged out of his embrace with an apologetic smile, setting Echo down as she followed her steps back to the monster’s side, the only monster not moving and undulating with the wave.

Instead, its muscles were cracked ice, trembling with barely restrained fury as saliva dripped from its lowered mouth into the grass, hackles raised and cracks of gold threading through the deep navy of its fur, paws teeming with claws as it stood and stood and stood.

It wanted to join, but it didn’t, and she knew exactly why.

Crouching down next to it, she gave the little girl a small wave. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re safe. I know it looks scary, but they’re really not--kinda like your monster. You can come out.”

She extended her hand again.

The little girl looked at her with wide, incredulous eyes.

She chewed at her lip for a moment, and took it.

Her heart pounded away in her little chest as she exhaled, shoulders sagging, her fingers cold in Sophie’s as she found her grip. She held on tight, uneven bitten nails pressing into Sophie’s skin.

She let Sophie help her out from under her monster, who eyed the both of them for a fraction of a second before its vitriol returned to the man under the forcefield.

She could hardly see through the bodies piling atop it, trying trying trying to get through.

Murad was muttering to himself, something about impossibilities, unprecedented results. She heard her name mixed in a few times, mentions of a burning crown. He said names she didn’t know, pacing back and forth as though the monsters weren’t even there.

He said something about hope for the future, looking at each of her friends as he said it, fevered light in his eyes. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if he got the chance, he’d put her family in cages and enclosures like the one he’d thrown her into, would sit back and simply watch to see what he could learn from it.

And the whole time, he’d believe himself to be good. A good person. Working for the future of his people, righting wrongs the only way he knew how: retribution.

I’m getting her out of here, Sophie transmitted to her friends, who all nodded in agreement. But don’t worry--I’ll come back for you after.

Look at Foster go, all heroic.

She ignored the last comment as she smiled at the little girl. “Hey, you wanna get out of here?”

She nodded, free hand clutched in the bloodied, dirty skirt of her dress. “Yes.”

“Alright, so we’ve got two options. Either I can run really fast through all these creatures--” she gestured around them, the howling mass that she’d somehow almost forgotten about once it passed her by “--or we can fly, and either way I’ll teleport us back to my home.”

The little girl tightened her grip further, leaning to the side slightly, peering at Sophie’s wings. They fluttered under the attention, the rhythmic buzz she’d gotten so used to tuning out nearly lost to everyone but the two of them as she spoke.

“I…um…I’ve always wanted to fly.”

Sophie smiled. “Perfect! I just so happen to be able to do that,” and opened her arms, squatting down ready to scoop the little girl into her arms. She channeled a little extra energy boost into her muscles, intent on giving her the most comfortable experience possible. There wasn’t much she could do about the wind deafening in her ears, or the biting cold it brought, but they wouldn’t be flying for long.

“Don’t,” Murad called before the little girl could step forward, voice audible even over the monsters banging against his forcefield held in place by Maruca, who kept rolling her wrist like it pained her.

“Don’t talk to them,” Tam told him, stepping between the little girl's line of sight and Murad, wincing as a creature howled particularly loud right next to him in response to Murad’s call.

Murad ignored him, pacing, trying to look at the little girl. “You are more powerful than any of these…these half-breeds.” He spat the word, eyeing Tam’s wings in his way as he did so. “You are the future, my dear, you could slaughter each of these beasts with nothing more than the command of your hand--the stains on your dress are proof and you are throwing it all away!”

The little girl paused, looking down at her dress, the blood coating the edges, the splatters spread up the layers and across the bodice.

“You made me do that.” The words fell slow from her mouth, like she was trying out the flavor.

Murad brushed the comment off. “They cannot help you reach your potential. They do not know what you’re capable of. They look inviting, they sway you towards them, but their kind have ruined ours. Their world was shambles and ruin, and we had to run from it, forced underground to escape their ever searching eyes. You know the past, you’ve heard our history. You cannot forget it!” His voice raised in pitch as he splayed his arms wide, begging begging begging the universe for something, anything, everything.

The little girl thought for a moment again, and looked to Sophie for reassurance. “But…you did that. You broke it. They didn’t do that part.”

Murad looked between Sophie and the little girl and paled. “I’m fixing it, I told you I’d fix it--we’d fix it because the world needs you. I can’t fix it without you, and they won’t know what to do with you if you let yourself be fooled by them. You can’t--you can’t turn your back on us, on our mission. I need you to see it through; you’ve already come so far.”

Now he was begging her, not the universe. Just her.

Maybe they were one in the same to him.

The little girl’s eyes watered as she turned away from him, hair hiding her face, shaking shaking shaking.

“Hey, don’t listen to him,” Sophie told her. “None of what he says is true; he’s just a sore loser trying to get you to go back to him because he’s powerless. You and I--”

“I can fix it! We have been working towards it for months together, you have seen what we have done, how much control we have together. We are so close to victory can’t you see--”

“He said don’t talk to her,” Marella snapped, wings flaring.

“You cannot abandon us, you cannot abandon the project, you--you are the most important--”

“SHUT UP!”

The little girl slapped her hands over her ears, clawing at her skull as she crouched down, collapsing in on herself as her monster finally finally finally reared its head, roaring roaring roaring roaring as she screamed, paws waving at the air as it leapt forward, charging towards the forcefield, monsters scattering out of its way.

Maruca stood directly in its path, dropping out of the way and to her knees as she wrapped her wings around herself, panicking as she cast a forcefield around herself, the other around Murad smashing into pieces as the paws connected and crashed down atop it, all the breath whooshing from his lungs and he stumbled back, horror dawning on his face as the monster roared and roared and roared with the pent up fury of months of staying quiet quiet quiet quiet QUIET.

Sophie only had time to reach towards the little girl, hands connecting with her shoulders as she pulled her close, wrapping her tight in her arms as she sobbed, the monsters whipping themselves into a frenzy as they lashed out, the forcefield down and Murad exposed, her friends ducking around tails and under limbs as they got themselves out of the chaos of creatures.

They’d been disturbed, their homes pierced with his yells.

He’d called them to kill her, to kill her friends.

Because he thought the little girl would be on his side.

Because he thought that little girl would sit by and listen to him, and deal with the monsters once they’d taken care of her friends.

But she was trembling in Sophie’s arms as tears streamed down her face, nails digging into her hair as she tried to tune out everything she could, tried to be anyone but who she was.

She gasped as Murad screamed, hands clutching at Sophie’s shirt as she turned, eyes wild with panic as she moved to stand, reaching towards her monster as if to stop it, then paused in place, torn.

Her friends send frantic messages between each other, but Sophie let them pass her by.

The little girl looked at her, and Sophie tried not to let anything show on her face, any of her surprise, her uncertainty, anything that would upset her further.

Whatever she saw, the little girl put her hands back over her ears and looked away, eyes closed as her monster roared, and Murad’s screaming cut off into wet, choking silence.

“Fly,” the little girl whispered, eyes closed as she pressed in close to Sophie’s chest. “Fly, please.”

“Okay,” was all she could think to say as she stood, picking her up and holding her supported against her torso, wings already buzzing behind her.

Tam only nodded as he watched her, and Biana offered a small wave as Sophie started moving, taking a few steps before she pushed off into the air, her back straining to adapt to the additional weight.

But she didn’t let it stop her, not as the monsters called behind her and the little girl’s heart raced and raced and raced; she pushed forward, wind whipping her hair against her face, against the sweat-sticky back of her neck as she tore the void open before them and slipped the two of them inside.

Haunted, echoing silence met them, so different from the screams of the monsters atop the burning burning burnt facility.

Sophie took a breath as they drifted, the buzz of her wings the only sound, stirring the clouds and puffs of swirling nothingness caressing their skin. It left behind a shiver of a chill, goosebumps raised on their arms as the little girl lowered her hands from her ears at the feeling.

She shifted nearly imperceptibly in Sophie’s arms, but held on tight as she looked around.

“Where…” she trailed off, wiping the tears off her face, temporarily distracted.

Sophie tucked her floating hair behind her ear, gesturing around. “Welcome to the void. My teleporting isn’t like yours, and whenever I go somewhere I pass through here. My wings have the same look--the nothingness, the swirls and twinkles of light. Usually I don’t linger but…I thought it would be a nice break for a few minutes. To catch our breath before we go home.”

Even if the little girl hadn’t needed a moment--and she definitely did--Sophie wanted one, wanted just a second to process.

The little girl didn’t respond, only watched the void-clouds shift, reaching out a hand and pausing for a moment before running her hand through it as they drifted by.

Weightless, they breathed in the silence, the final calm of the storm as it dissipated.

As she shifted her hands to give her more freedom to reach around, Sophie realized they were at the end.

Her mind wasn’t running a million different directions racing against the clock, there were no riddles to solve, no people to save, no facilities to destroy. The main facility they’d just left had been what was left, all that’d stood in their way of victory those months ago when things had first gone wrong--or gone right, you could say.

Things weren’t done, not by a long shot. She hadn’t talked to her parents in days, maybe weeks. Their cities were still ruined, their homes torn apart. She’d have to go back and get her friends, to get the girls’ monster, to make sure the fire didn’t spread like her everblaze fiasco.

But everything else...

Murad and Fintan were gone.

And she’d found the little girl.

She was watching Sophie out of the corner of her eyes, gaze darting back to her from the expanse of the void every few seconds.

Should she say something? “Are you…alright?”

She nearly kicked herself. What a stupid question. Hey, I just watched your monster kill your…whatever Murad was to you right in front of our eyes after Fintan, your predecessor, exploded into flames also in front of our eyes, you doing good?

The little girl didn’t respond for a long moment, then started, looking behind them, the trails of disturbed clouds they’d drifted to. “My monster, I left it.”

“We can get it, don’t worry. I can go back for it--I left my friends back there, too. It’s not forever.”

“You promise?”

Sophie nodded. “I promise. And you know I keep my promises.”

“Okay,” was all she said, still scrubbing at her face as more tears leaked down her cheeks. Sophie expected she’d start crying again later, and again after that. These kinds of things always hit her in waves, and as soon as she started composing herself she tipped over the edge into pained grief once more.

Her own mind played over the entire mission again, speeding through the descent into the facility, the jumps between levels until they’d found the lowest one, the empty halls and blaring alarms, searching for the person she now held close in this infinite nothing. Breathing together, their pulses calming, processing.

As she did so, a particular detail caught her attention again.

“Can I ask you a question?” she asked. “A super simple one, don’t worry.” The little girl nodded, and it seemed like more instinct than true response.

“What’s your name?”

She looked at Sophie then, mouth falling open, hand coming back to her side from where it had been trailing through the speckled clouds.

“I know--I know you already told me a name, but that’s their name, not your name, and now we’re here instead and I figured that’s how you start to get to know someone--” Sophie cut out. “And now I’m embarrassing myself blabbering on.”

Lips twitching near a smile, the little girl took a breath, fingers playing with the fabric of her dress. “It’s…my name, it’s Olivia.”

“Well, Olivia, are you ready?” Sophie’s wings buzzed behind her, hair floating around her face as she reached her own hand out into the void.

Olivia nodded, and Sophie pulled the nothingness open, images of home flooding her mind as they slipped into reality.

A reality full of monsters, but now free of the true kind.

[Paragraph break]

“That thing really refuses to leave you alone, doesn’t it,” Tam said around the marshmallow in his mouth.

Echo flicked its tail against his leg, perched between Sophie and him around the campfire. Her hair still dripped water from the shower, loose, clean clothes replacing the burnt, bloodied ones. She’d thrown out the socks, refusing to even try and get the stains out.

The rest of her friends, her family, sat around the circle. Tam was to her left, and beside him sat Wylie and Biana, Linh and Marella side by side, Fitz and Keefe bickering about something or another, Maruca listening with rapt attention and Dex fiddling with something in his lap--it looked suspiciously like a bear made of wires.

Wylie’s campfire of light glowed a bright, floral yellow in the middle of them all, casting their faces into warm tones as the sun retreated behind the horizon.

Olivia had picked the color.

She sat on Sophie’s right, legs crossed before her, arms nearly lost in the excess fabric of Sophie’s smallest shirt. It pooled on the ground, slipping around, but they’d thrown out that tattered pale green number while she’d taken her own bath, leaving her with the best replacement they could. It also happened to be yellow.

She didn’t seem to care as she watched the light, blinking through her hair, all frizzy reds and falling in her face. Every so often she scooted to the edge of the platform, looking over it and all the way towards the ground below, though Sophie doubted she could see that far given how dark it was.

She dropped a marshmallow over the edge, and Sophie swore she could hear the snap of teeth as her monster swallowed it whole; it was too big to fit in the village, to walk their pathways meant for people much smaller than them. But she’d told Olivia she’d bring her monster back, and so she had.

Fitz and Tam had made a face and Maruca had sighed, but no one objected.

Linh’s dragons had joined the monster down below, the sociable one intrigued and the other refusing to let its sibling go on its own. Even now they were still down there, darting between trees around the monster, sneezing sparks of electricity into the air and thunder into the earth.

Sophie had stolen the marshmallows from a big-chain convenience store in the Forbidden Cities, though this time she’d taken Biana with her for stealth. Normally, she wouldn’t risk it, but there was cause for celebration tonight.

She’d gotten the ingredients for s’mores, and they’d each eaten their fill of the sticky messes with the help of Marella’s ability before they’d started eating the marshmallows straight from the bags.

Tam had one in his lap, though he eyed Echo like he suspected it’d try and steal them from him at any moment.

“You love Echo, admit it,” she told him, stealing a marshmallow from his bag.

Fitz squinted his eyes as it. “It’s grown on me, but seriously, what is it if it’s not a cat?”

“Just Echo,” she answered.

She tore off a piece of the marshmallow, offering it to the not-cat.

A small voice chimed in. “Can it eat that?” Olivia had scooted back closer to her, having dropped her own sugar-treat over the edge for her monster. They’d given her a whole bag to keep for herself, and she’d thanked them gracefully before staying mostly silent, watching.

Sophie had told her she didn’t need to stay, that they could go somewhere else, whatever she wanted. But she’d decided to stick close, to follow along, to watch them all laughing with each other in disbelief that they were okay.

Because they were okay.

They were safe.

Sophie had applied leftover burn cream to her wrists, and Fitz had bandaged up his own cuts, massaging in an ointment to help sooth his bad knee. She’d overheard some talk between him and Dex of making a knee brace, something they’d apparently had in the works for a while now and were finally going to get started on.

Keefe’s wings had lightened back to their usual pale grey, and Olivia’s brows quirked together with every shift, every strike of lightning through them.

Her mouth had fallen open in shock when Biana had flickered into view to scare her brother--very successfully. She’d never seen a vanisher before, and never one with butterfly wings. Apparently, not many half-elves had abilities, so there’d been no vanishers when she was growing up with them.

Them. That was still a problem to deal with. That facility, five levels deep, couldn’t be run by two people and a little girl with a penchant for monsters. That place had been run by people, the numbers of whom they had no idea. Olivia certainly hadn’t bothered to count them, had never thought of them as more than passing background, same as Sophie had done of the rest of the Lost Cities. She had no clue how many elves were in the world.

From what she knew, they’d either been killed in the blaze of the underground facility or had evacuated when the alarms had gone off, standard protocol. Where they’d gone after they’d evacuated was the next question, because they certainly couldn’t return to the facility.

Sophie hadn’t been able to help but pop back for a quick peek of the place on her way back from her petty theft, and Biana hadn’t objected.

None of the surrounding area was touched, all the heat, all the destruction kept to itself in the stone walls of the buried building. Grass still swayed in the breeze, and as the light disappeared creatures started to emerge from their burrows. They ambled about, slinking along in the grasses, then disappeared from her sight like any other animal to go hunting, to survive.

“There’s nothing of him left,” Biana had told her as they stood there, unable to enter the facility with the heat it still held, unsafe to touch. And unwilling to enter, given what the place was.

“Of who?”

“Either of them, probably. I didn’t…I didn’t watch,” she explained. “But when they were done, there wasn’t even bone. Olivia’s monster did most of it.”

There was nothing else to say, nothing else to see; unbothered by the monsters, they returned home.

The issue of everyone else, all the other half-elves who’d called that place home, was one for another day.

Sophie’s imparter buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out, popping the rest of her marshmallow in her mouth, wishing it was mallowmelt. It fit perfectly in her palm as she thumbed open the message.

“Who’s that?” Wylie asked, peering at the light splashing over her face.

She smiled. “Elwin. He’s our physician, the best of the best and a great friend,” she explained to Olivia, who was trying very hard not to look interested.

Keefe made a face at her. “Elwin?”

“Yep. I’m, uh, I’m going to go back to the Underground tomorrow for a visit. Someone’s gotta look at these burns, and…someone’s gotta give him back his memories.”

Fitz’s eyes widened. “Cool, very cool. Do you…need help with that?”

“You took someone’s memories?” Olivia asked.

Now it was Sophie’s turn to make a face. “Not…exactly? I hid them because I was scared, but now things are less scary, and he deserves to have them back. So I’m going to give them back. And see my parents. Because there’s no way they don’t know I’m going to visit and they won’t let me stop by without saying hi.”

“Everyone’s gonna want a piece of you,” Marella snorted, twisting a marshmallow in her fingers, roasting it with her own flame.

Biana nodded. “Yeah, when I messaged my parents saying that we…did what we did, they had so many questions. I just told them it would be better to explain in person, and that I couldn’t see them right then. You know, because we were stealing marshmallows and graham crackers from the Forbidden Cities.”

“Is that what you were doing when--never mind. Tomorrow is certainly going to be…a day.”

“Quite the day,” Dex agreed. “I’m glad I’m not the one doing it.” He shot her a grin, and she moved to flip him off before she remembered there was a child present, which only made him laugh more.

Wylie chimed in. “I’ll go with you, if you’d be alright with that. I’d like to see my dad. It’s been…a while.”

“Me, too,” Linh said, fiddling with a few orbs of water laid out in her palm, revolving them about like she was in Labyrinth, lounging in the window of her castle.

“If you’re going, then I’m coming with you,” Maruca added.

One by one, each of her friends voiced their desire to join, either to see someone they’d left behind or to follow along after someone else.

“I guess now I also will have to deal with all the questions,” Dex frowned. “Dang it.”

But if they were all going… “We can’t leave you alone,” she said, turning to Olivia, who was dropping another marshmallow over the edge for her monster.

“One of us can stay behind,” Fitz offered, though he frowned at the thought. He’d wanted to see his parents, but Sophie had no doubts that he’d abandon that in a moment if he needed to.

“If any of us stays behind, it should be me,” she said.

Tam pointed to her wrists. “But you have medical reasons to go.”

“Hang on,” Linh interrupted. “We’re skipping a very important step. Would you like to stay behind, Olivia? Or would you like to come with us--you’d meet a lot of people, but they’re all very kind, and Sophie can be with you the entire time--any of us can, but I know you don’t know us as well.”

Olivia paused for a moment, looking at them all, her heart pounding away in her little chest. “Okay.”

“Okay…which one?”

“I’ll go. And then you don’t need to stay behind.”

“It’s not a problem for one of us to stay behind if you want--”

“I’ll go,” she interrupted. “I want to.”

Linh nodded, sitting back, and that was that.

Tomorrow, they’d all go together back to the Underground to visit, to reconnect, to talk to everyone. And this time there wouldn’t be anything dangling over their heads, nothing urgent to fix.

Sophie reread the message from Elwin.

My star patient’s always getting herself into trouble :). Looking forward to seeing you again, but please stay safe!

She smiled, and sent back:

Hey, this is like the least injured I’ve ever been after a fight. But also there’s been a change of plans. We’re all coming back, and we’ve got someone joining us.

Elwin responded almost immediately.

Full of surprises! Alright, Sophie, I trust your judgment. Can’t wait to see who this someone is--wait, is it a dragon?

Sophie snorted, and Olivia looked at her with questions written over her face. Everyone else let them be as she scooted closer and showed her the messages. “He thinks you’re a dragon.”

“Dragon’s are nice,” she commented, glancing at Linh and Marella. “Would you like to be a dragon?”

Sophie hummed in thought. “You know, I might. I wouldn’t know until I tried. I didn’t know being part-monster would be so fun until I was one,” she joked.

Very funny. That’s Linh and Marella, not me. We’ll see you tomorrow :).

Tomorrow--I’ll hold you to that!

She tucked her imparter away.

“Monsters are fun,” Olivia agreed, looking down like she could see through to the monsters on the forest floor, then watched Echo flick its tail in Tam’s face.

Sophie nodded. “We can be monsters together, then. If it’s both of us, that’ll double the fun--that’s how fun works, trust me.”

“If you let me in on this little monster deal, then we can quadruple the fun,” Keefe cut in, leaning towards them and flashing Olivia his most charming grin. “Because, obviously, I count for two people.”

Biana shoved at him. “In your wildest dreams, maybe! I’ll have monster fun with you, too. We’ll make it all sparkly and colorful, because you can never go wrong with sparkles.”

“Well, I can’t let you all have monster fun without me,” Dex said.

“I’ll have more monster fun than all of you,” Marella added, flashing a smile.

Wylie laughed. “We can all have monster fun, how about that? All of us together, that’ll add up to be the most monster fun possible, right, Sophie? Isn’t that how your monster math works?”

Her cheeks would hurt later from all the smiling, but she couldn’t help herself; it’d been too long since she’d had such elated peace.

“Yep, all of us together, we’ll maximize the monster fun. Sparkles and all.”

“Together,” Olivia agreed, and they each took a marshmallow, raising it in a toast. The sugar stuck to her teeth and she might never fall asleep from the high, but she didn’t care, couldn’t have cared less for what it would do to her.

Because Fitz was raising his marshmallow in salute, and Maruca was laughing without a care in the world as she speared hers on her nails, and Dex had given the little wire sculpture he was working on to Olivia--it was shaped like her monster, cracks and all, and Wylie was smiling alongside Tam, and Linh was making shapes and sculptures out of the water in the air, letting them dance along the banisters and across their skin as Marella cast her own shapes out of flames alongside them, and Keefe’s wings were the whitest they’d ever been as he launched his own marshmallow at Biana, and Biana was tying her hair up as she stole the bag from Tam to retaliate, laughing the whole time, and Sophie was watching them all unafraid of tomorrow.

Olivia sat beside her, a small, quiet smile on her face. Her monster roared in ecstasy beneath them, and it spread wider as she let it be loud. Because no one here would ever make her be quiet.

They had a long road ahead of them, a lot of work to remake the Lost Cities--to make them right this time. But they could worry about all that tomorrow. They would deal with answering questions, healing their wounds, and seeing their parents again later, about facing the council and finding all the evacuated half-elves, because right now, they were celebrating their victory, celebrating their family, celebrating their home.

Tomorrow could deal with the beginning of everything new.

Because there would be a tomorrow.

And they’d all be there to see it.

Even after everything in their lives had been shattered upside down, they’d made it, and they’d be there to see it.

Together.

[atydblack]

trouvaille

regulus black x slytherin!reader

masterlist

this is part one of an ongoing series! think there will be 3 parts in total <3 no cws as this is gonna be pure angst

Being James Potter's younger sister inquired a lot to live up to. James was the perfect Gryffindor student who succeeded in all his classes, exuded confidence with his every word, had soulmates for friends and an even better girlfriend.

You, however, were almost the opposite.

You were sorted into Slytherin in your first year and although they tried their best to hide it, you could see the disappointment in James and his friends eyes as you walked over to the Slytherin table. Your parents were still accepting but there was some clear favouritism in the family, no doubt. You did well in classes however didn't ever see yourself becoming a prefect like James or being top of any classes.

You sat in potions next to your best friend, Lara. Her straight blonde hair and bright blue eyes opposed my black curly hair and dark brown eyes. You had always been jealous of her, she was the type to catch everyone's eye when she walked into a room while you just trudged in behind her.

"Do you have idea what this question means?" Lara asks you, huffing slightly as she rested her chin in her hand.

"You really think I'd have the answer if you didn't?" You joked. You glanced up at Slughorn who had started dozing off behind his desk and you smirked. "Look."

Lara mirrored your smirk and you both dropped your quills on the desk to turn around and start talking with your friends instead.

"I'm bored out of my mind." Lara groaned to your other friend Freya sat behind you.

"Slughorn says if we don't get these all finished, he's gonna give us all detention until we get them done." Freya rolled her eyes, but you could clearly see that she'd almost finished.

"Have you got the number to 42?" You asked her with wide eyes, trying to sway her in to letting you copy her. "And 43, 44, 45... and the rest?"

"Merlin your voices are retched." A voice came from a couple desks to your right, none other than Enoch Wilkes. He was a tall boy with sleeked back greasy hair and a superiority complex due to his family heritage.

"What's your problem, Wilkes?" Lara shot at him.

"I'm trying to actually do my work but all I can hear is Potter's squeaky voice in my ear." Wilkes replied with a grunt.

"She's just as unbearable as Saint Potter except dumber." Icarus Nott joined in from next to him.

"What did you just say?" You spat, standing to your feet and making your way over to them with your wand gripped tightly in your palm, willing to do anything to stand up for your older brother. There was a third boy sat with them, Regulus Black.

Regulus had always been quiet, however he never failed to be part of the horrid Slytherins who gave your house a bad name and thought they were elite causing them to look down on everyone else. He had only made a few sly comments in past years, but everyone knew his thoughts on muggle blood.

You were also a pureblood, but would never allow yourself to feel any prejudice towards anyone else.

You couldn't deny that Regulus was attractive. He looked a lot like Sirius... however his facial features were softer. His dark black hair fell onto his forehead effortlessly and his green eyes complimented his pale skin.

"You heard me." Nott mocked you, not moving from his seat. You had gained a small audience as everyone's head turned towards you.

"What an embarrassment having a Gryffindor blood traitor for a brother." Wilkes joked, not backing down. "At least Black had the right idea and cut his off, what's stopping you from doing the same?"

"Y/N, sit down." Freya begged from across the classroom, not wanting to get either of you in trouble. "He's not worth it."

"You have no idea what you're talking about." You smirked, holding up your wand and pointing it right at him.

You were closest to Sirius out of all your brothers friends. He had moved in with your family two years ago after he left his family and you'd always been there for him, especially during everything that happened with his brother Regulus. Regulus was clearly a lost soul, strung along on the same ideologies as his parents however he would send letters to Sirius every once and a while but continued to act like he didn't exist at school.

"Leave it, Wilkes." Regulus muttered. Funny this is the first time he had ever attempted to stick up for you and it was only to save his own back.

"What's she talking about, Black?" Nott glanced at him, but Regulus' eyes were set on yours as you stared each other down. You knew you would never actually say anything to expose Regulus as doing so would only hurt Sirius too, but you could sense how scared he was that you'd open your mouth.

"She's a freak." Wilkes chuckled. "Just like her brother."

This sent you over the edge as everything turned red. You dropped your wand to the floor and quickly punched Wilkes square in the nose.

"Olive!" Lara shouted from across the classroom.

You felt a pair of strong arms pulling you back as you attempted to go in for another hit.

"What on earth is going on?!" Slughorn announced and you all froze. You turned around to see it was in fact Regulus' arms that were holding you back and a brush grew on your cheeks. "Black, Potter - sit down at once!"

You both complied, with a guilty expression you made your way back over to your desk and your friends gave you an apologetic look.

"I expect to see you both after class." Slughorn continued.

"But sir-!" Nott shouted, attempting to stick up for Regulus.

"I don't want to hear it." Slughorn quickly cut him off earning a scoff from the boy.

The lesson felt like it took hours to end but you felt slightly ill in your stomach when everyone else was packing up to leave but you and Regulus sat firmly in your seats.

"We'll be in the great hall; I'll save you a seat." Lara smiled at you before her and Freya took off out the classroom and to dinner.

"Both of you have detention with Filch every night after dinner starting tomorrow." Slughorn mumbled, uninterested. You scoffed as you were way too used to detention with Filch now.

When you were dismissed, you quickly stood to your feet and attempted to leave ahead off Regulus to avoid any awkwardness. You began walking down the corridor, ready to rant to James about what had occured.

"Potter!" Regulus called from behind you. You stopped in your tracks and turned on your feet with a confused expression on your face. He approached you slowly and timidly before speaking. "I-uh. I wanted to thank you for not saying anything about Sirius and I."

"I didn't do it for you. I did it for Sirius." You mutter before turning back around and leaving him there dumbfounded.

You reach the great hall and make a B line for your brother and his friends. James smirked at you as you approach him with a sour expression on your face before sitting in between him and Sirius, your green robes standing out in the sea of red.

"What's up with you, Y/N?" Sirius smirked before patting me on the top of your head.

"I've got detention again this week." You huff, crossing your arms and leaning them on the table.

"How do you manage to get yourself into so much trouble?" Lily quizzed you, a humorous look on her face that mirrored the rest of the group.

"She takes after me, that's why." James joked but you only rolled your eyes in response.

"Yeah, apart from the brains." You sigh, leaning your head on Sirius' shoulder. You glanced over at the Slytherin table and quickly caught eyes with Regulus, who must have been staring at you. You kept eye contact for a short moment before he turned his head and acted like it never happened. You furrow your eyebrows and listed your head once again. "At least I'm the better-looking sibling." You continue, causing everyone to laugh.

"Keep dreaming, kiddo." James rolled his eyes.

"Go on then, what did you do this time?" Remus questions you.

"I punched Enoch Wilkes in the nose during potions." You say smugly causing everyone to laugh once again.

"I would advise you that violence isn't the answer, however we can make some exceptions for people like that." Remus smirked.

"Tell me about it, they're horrid." You scoff before stealing some food from James plate. "No offence obviously, Sirius."

"Go ahead," Sirius chuckled. "I had to endure it for most of my life."

[fandomtrumpshate]

Listed fandom fun

A bit of random data before we jump into the rankings for listed fandoms …

Since the numbers post yesterday we've had signups for nearly 60 new auctions, bringing the current total to 779. That beats the number of signups for 2016/7, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, and puts us withing spitting distance of our record last year of 819. Can we do it? Will we do it? Signal boost FTH posts and encourage others to participate. More money raised for good causes, more fanworks in the world — it's a win/win!

We posted yesterday about the state of our unlisted write-in fandoms (we've had nine new ones since then!). Time to check in with the rankings for the listed fandoms.

At the top of the pack we have:

87 K-Pop * 66 Good Omens 50 Sherlock Holmes * 44 Harry Potter * 37 Marvel * 32 DC * 31 Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed 27 Red, White, & Royal Blue 25 Star Wars * 23 Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

Our first tie is for 11th place -

22 Avatar The Last Airbender 22 Teen Wolf

And after that, nearly every other place is a tie. And which ones are ties for which places can be shifted slightly with just one signup. Or completely upended with two. Where will your fandom land?

Remember that if your fandom isn't here (or in the rest of the list below the cut), you can write it in. Signups are OPEN through Monday!

19 Supernatural 18 9-1-1 and 9-1-1 Lone Star 18 Locked Tomb Trilogy 18 Stranger Things 17 All for the Game 16 Our Flag Means Death 16 Tolkien * 16 The Witcher 15 Boku no Hiro Akademia (My Hero Academia) 15 Original Work 15 Percy Jackson and the Olympians 14 Baldur's Gate 3 14 Hockey RPF 12 The Old Guard 12 Tian Guan Ci Fu (Heaven Official's Blessing) 11 The Magnus Archives 11 Star Trek * 10 Check Please! 10 Dungeons & Dragons 10 Haikyuu!!! 10 Hazbin Hotel 10 Jujutsu Kaisen 9 A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon 9 One PIece 8 Doctor Who * 8 Hades (video game) 8 Heartstopper 8 James Bond 8 Kingsman 8 Merlin 8 Naruto 8 Suits 7 Dragon Age * 7 Justified 7 Raven Cycle 7 Rusty Quill Gaming Podcast 7 The Sandman 7 Shadowhunters 7 SK8 the Infinity 6 Captive Prince 6 Critical Role 6 Final Fantasy * 6 Fullmetal Alchemist 6 Hannibal 6 Kinnporsche 6 The Maze Runner 6 Queen's Thief 6 Stargate 6 Steven Universe 6 Top Gun Movies 6 Yuri!!! On Ice 5 Alex Rider 5 Grishaverse 5 Interview With The Vampire 5 Malevolent (Podcast) 5 The Murderbot Diaries 5 Nirvana in Fire 5 The Owl House 5 RWBY 4 Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun (The Husky & His White Cat Shizun) 4 Genshin Impact 4 Les Misérables 4 The Magicians 4 Pokemon 4 Witch Hat Atelier 3 Arcane 3 Disney's Descendants 3 Elder Scrolls 3 Hetalia 3 Hunger Games 3 Legend of Zelda 3 Spy x Family 3 Tian Ya Ke / Word of Honor 3 Trigun 3 Welcome to Night Vale 3 Wheel of Time 3 Young Royals 2 Benoit Blanc Mysteries (Knives Out, Glass Onion) 2 Disco Elysium 2 Encanto 2 Gundam Wing 2 The Last of Us 2 Leverage 2 Miraculous Ladybug 2 Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries 2 Mysterious Lotus Casebook 2 Schitt's Creek 2 Super Mario Bros. 1 Assassin's Creed 1 Attack on Titan 1 Diamond no Ace 1 Fire Emblem Three Houses 1 Homestuck 1 Stellar Firma 1 Wednesday / The Addams Family

[multi-fandom-imagine]

Are they on the Naughty List? Or have they’ve been good all year?Well that’s for you to decide.

Start:November 12

End: December 31

«timeline»

◇ day 1-7: {Nov 12-18}

Day 1: Luis Sera - Ice Skating

Day 2: Carlos Oliveira - “I can’t believe you did that to Santa…”

Day3: Raiden - “I made you some hot cocoa.”

Day 4: Peter Parker - we were going to a Christmas party but fuck if you don’t just look sinful in red, and you know what? Fuck that Christmas party || Insomniac Peter ||

Day5:Goro Takemura- Dancing In The Snow

Day 6:Johhny Cage-Sucking on a Candy Cane

Day 7: Peter Quill- “are you really playing christmas music already? it’s barely november”

◇ day 8-14: {Nov 19-25}

Day 8:Gale Dekarios-Watching the snowfall from inside a cosy house

Day 9:Sam Drake-“Carmel apples, leaves falling down. What could better then November?” “I don’t know maybe fucking June?”

Day 10:Peter Parker -we got a little too carried away with the Christmas lights, and now suddenly my hands are bound with the lights and oh my god are we about to have sex? || Insomniac Peter ||

Day 11:Nathan Drake- it’s holiday dinner with your family, and oh Jesus where are your hands going?

Day 12:Peter Parker-“Do you need help hanging up the Christmas lights?” || MCU verse ||

Day 13: Peter Parker-“HAPPY NOVEMBER!” “No one wishes anyone a happy November.” “Well I just did.”|| MCU verse ||

Day 14:Tadashi Hamada-one lending the other their scarf to keep them warm.

◇ day 15-21 {Nov 26-Dec 2}

Day 15:Jacob Seed-Handing their S/O a positive pregnancy test with a sprig of holly and a note reading ‘Merry Christmas’

Day 16:Spencer Reid-Baking holiday cookies.

Day 17:Alejandro Vargas-Reader wearing nothing but a Santa hat

Day 18:Loki-A naughty sleigh ride || Exhibitionism sex ||

Day 19:Alex Casey-Build A snowman.

Day 20:Chris Redfield-“Let’s do something that puts us on the naughty list.”

Day 21:Mike Schmidt-Santa Baby: reader has decided to dress as Mrs. Claus for a little more “adult” Christmas fun. Oh boy!

◇ day 22-28 {Dec 3 -9}

Day 22:Matt Murdock-I picked you for secret Santa but I wrapped the wrong box so now I’ve given you a very festive sex toy, and oh my god this is so embarrassing

Day 23:Halsin-“Breasts/thighs are my favorite part to nibble on.”

Day 24:Miguel O’Hara-“You know, tying the legs together keeps everything moist.”

Day 25:Ethan Winters-Christmas Morning.

Day 26: Johnny ‘Soap’ McTavish-Hanging Stockings.

Day 27:Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley-“The turkey’s not the only thing getting stuffed today.”

Day 28:Modern!Mizu-“Save some of that whipped cream for later.”*soon*

◇ day 29- 35 {Dec 10-16}

Day 29:Bigby Wolf-“You look even more beautiful covered in snow.”

Day 30:Harry Osborn-Christmas shenanigans under the tree, if you know what I mean

Day 31:Ethan Winters-“I’ll be content if you are the one stuffing my stocking.”

Day 32:Mike Schmidt-“Go on, open it.”

Day 33:Wyll Ravengard-“Did you decorate the tree without me? I can’t believe this!”

Day 34: Bruno Madrigal-Kiss Me Under The Mistletoe.

Day 35:Jordan Li-“Excuse me—where is my Christmas kiss?”

◇ day 36-42 {Dec 17-23}

Day 36:Mike Schmidt-"Why are there so many mistletoe?"

Day 37:Gojo“I’d like to be one of the unhealthy things you put inside your body this weekend.”*Soon*

Day 38:Luis Sera-“Alright, mister. I know you’re the one who keeps hanging up mistletoe everywhere."

Day 39:Chris Redfield-“Thanksgiving is for giving thanks” “And for body slamming each other during the family football match!”

Day 40:Aaron Hotchner-The scent of real Christmas trees

Day 41: Derek Morgan -“I’m going to have you stuffed better than the turkey by the end of the night.”

Day 42:Victor "Sully" Sullivan-“I’m not much of a cook, but I’m good at glazing.”

◇ day 43-50 {Dec 24-31}

Day 43:Leon S. Kennedy-Cabin Sex { Christmas Eve sex }

Day 44: Billy Butcher-“Merry Christmas, motherfuckers!”

Day 45: Bucky Barnes-“Did you spike the eggnog again?”

Day 46: Spencer Ried-“Will you make a gingerbread house with me?”

Day 47: Clint Barton- “It’s Snowing”

Day 48: Joel-Peppermint-flavoured everything

Day 49:Mizu-Snow/temperature play

Day 50:Johnny Cage-“It’s time for hand turkey’s everyone.” “FUCK YES YES!”

[bluejayblueskies]

Bookbinding Year in Review

I bound a lot of books this year, so I thought I'd do a quick little recap of my progress as a binder! Starting off with some stats for 2023:

Total books bound: 68 Total words bound: 1,428,472 Average words per book: 21,007 Total books gifted: 44

I bound a lot of short fics this year, most notably as part of Binderary, a bookbinding marathon event hosted by the Renegade Publishing server in February. I aimed to bind a book a day, specifically binding shorter fics in the pamphlet style--a single signature sewn to a cardstock cover. I hit that and beyond, binding a total of 36 books for the event! I plan to do Binderary again this year, though my project for it is a surprise ✨

(The observant will notice that there are fewer than 36 books in this picture--I finished up a few more after this photo was taken!)

Other events I bound for this year included:

For a total of 54 books bound for an event! That's ~80% of the total amount of books I bound this year!

My top fandom was unsurprisingly Malevolent, coming in at 53 fics. The Magnus Archives was a close runner-up at 8 fics. The other seven fics bound were in the 9-1-1 and Hello From the Hallowoods fandoms, as well as some journals.

I'm really happy with my progress as a binder this year! I participated in a lot of events, gifted many books, got some fun new equipment, rebound my first ever bound book, and generally grew a lot as an artist. My favorite books from this year have to be this set of two volumes I did for @phynoma's work the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the ambition of the world for the Rusty Quill Big Bang:

The embroidery was very much a labor of love, and I'm so happy with how they turned out!!

I also loved collaborating with visual artists in various ways, including working with @kahtiihma to commission artwork from @shadow0haven for her fic Repetition//Retention and incorporating over a hundred pieces of artwork from @captaincravatthecapricious and @genderfluid-druid in my bind of @organchordsandlightning's fic formaldehyde.

I plan to do some more collaboration with artists in 2024, as well as many more gifts and author copies, so stay tuned for that!!

Some other statistics below the cut, for those interested:

Books bound per binding style

Books bound per size

Top 10 Authors Bound, sorted by number of books (duplicate copies included)

With_the_Wolves (12 books)

Croik (8 books)

SupposedToBeWriting (8 books)

Kahti (7 books)

PrettyArbitrary (5 books)

shadow0haven (5 books)

AlexanderPeterson (4 books)

AnonymousSong (3 books)

arthureameslove (3 books)

bluejayblueskies (that's me!) (3 books)

[dark-mcu-ship-tourney]

Hello!

Welcome to the Problematic MCU Ship Tournament!

This blog will pit 64 different pairings against one another. All of them are in some way “problematic”- some feature a minor and an adult, others feature incestuous pairings, others still simply have questionable or potentially abusive dynamics. Many ships combine elements of more than one.

Each day, 4 polls will be posted pitting two different ships together (for a total of 8 ships per day). You are free to vote in as many or as few of these polls as you’d like.

This blog is explicitly pro-ship and anti-censorship, and obviously features dark themes. If this is a point of discomfort for you, you are free to block this blog, I don’t bite. Hate towards anyone (and anything unreasonably rude about ships or characters) will not be published and users that send it will be blocked. Nothing explicit will be posted to this blog, regardless of the ship, so minors are free to interact if they so wish.

The bracket below shows all the ships that will be posted, as well as their first opponent. After the first round has been completed, the diagram will be updated and all of the winning ships will be pitted against one another. You can also find a typed list of all ships under the cut, for users that can’t or don’t want to read my terrible handwriting.

May the odds be ever in your (ship’s) favor!

All First Round Ships:

1. Morgan Stark x Harold “Happy” Hogan

2. Morgan Stark x James “Rhodey” Rhodes

3. Morgan Stark x Tony Stark

4. Morgan Stark x Pepper Potts

5. Scott Lang x Cassie Lang

6. Frigga Freyrdottir x Thor Odinson

7. Vision x Billy Maximoff x Tommy Maximoff

8. Wanda Maximoff x Billy Maximoff x Tommy Maximoff

9. Maria Stark x Tony Stark

10. Howard Stark x Tony Stark

11. Obadiah “Obie” Stane x Tony Stark

12. Tony Stark x Peter Parker

13. Peter Parker x Harold “Happy” Hogan

14. Tony Stark x Harley Keener

15. America Chavez x Dr. Stephen Strange

16. America Chavez x Wanda Maximoff

17. Odin Borson x Thor Odinson

18. King T'Chaka x Prince T'Challa

19. Xu Shang-Chi x Xu Wenwu

20. Marc Spector x Stephen Grant

21. Thor Odinson x Rocket Raccoon

22. Thor Odinson x Groot

23. Peter Quill x Rocket Raccoon

24. James “Bucky” Barnes x Rocket Raccoon

25. Adrian Toomes x Peter Parker

26. Dr. Otto Octavius x Peter Parker

27. Dr. Curt Connors x Peter Parker

28. Steven “Skip” Westcott x Peter Parker

29. Dr. Stephen Strange x Peter Parker

30. Quentin Beck x Peter Parker

31. James “Bucky” Barnes x Peter Parker

32. Steve Rogers x Peter Parker

33. Thor Odinson x Loki Laufeyson

34. Loki Laufeyson x Sylvie Laufeydottir

35. Princess Shuri x James “Bucky” Barnes

36. Princess/Queen Shuri x Namor/K’uk’ulkan

37. Thanos x Nebula

38. Thanos x Gamora

39. Thanos x Loki Laufeyson

40. Thanos x Tony Stark

41. Clint Barton x Kate Bishop

42. Clint Barton x Lila Barton

43. Carol Danvers x Kamala Khan

44. Monica Rambeau x Kamala Khan

45. Stephen Grant x Khonshu

46. Jake Lockley x Khonshu

47. Marc Spector x Khanshu

48. Arthur Harrow x Ammit

49. Xu Shang-Chi x Xu Xialing

50. Princess Shuri x King/Prince T’Challa

51. Billy Maximoff x Tommy Maximoff

52. Wanda Maximoff x Pietro Maximoff

53. Peter Parker x May Parker

54. Queen Ramonda x Princess Shuri

55. Queen Ramonda x King/Prince T’Challa

56. Peter Parker x Ben Parker

57. Marc Spector x Jake Lockley

58. Stephen Grant x Jake Lockley

59. Natasha Romanov x Yelena Belova

60. Gamora x Nebula

61. Odin Borson x Loki Laufeyson

62. Frigga Feyrdottir x Loki Laufeyson

63. Peter Parker x Carol Danvers

64. Peter Parker x James “Rhodey” Rhodes

[ratsoh-writes]

Ages updated!!!!

I’m gonna do my best to include all important characters, including some “side characters” that appear often enough! So let’s begin!

Undertale: Sans: 65, papyrus: 49, Undyne: 47, alphys: 54,Toriel: 934, Asgore: 933, Grillby: 522, Mettaton: 22

Underswap: Star: 60, honey: 44, Twister: 44, Winter: 1013, Napstablook: 23

Underfell: Red: 66, edge: 43, storm: 44, King: 998, felltron: 21

Swapfell Mal: 60, cash: 51

Horrortale Oak: 75, willow: 59, Miss: 944

Horrorswap Lilac: 70, Basil: 54

Horrorfell Rust: 76, Noir: 53

Underlust Charm: 66, sugar: 52, Amor: 367, winnie: 10

Lustswap Sparks: 59, Salt: 50

Lustfell Lush: 63, Pepper: 51, Jezebel: 212, Marcelo goldenfoot: 455

Lustswapfell Sir: 68, weasel: 52, snow: 61

Lustred Flambe: 55, Pesto: 54

Lustgold Butler: 68, gold: 49

Outertale Pluto: 67, Jupiter: 49, titan: 598

Outerfell Orion: 60, atlas: 52

Outerswap Helios: 44, Artemis 36

Fellswap Lord: 60, mutt: 53

Fellswap gold Wine: 64, coffee: 50, Empress: 1033

Farmtale Peaches: 51, rancher: 46, Rosemary: 550, Yosemite: 501

Farmswap Cider: 50, Barley: 42, Carmen: 85, whisky: 520

Farmfell Ram: 49, pitch: 40, russet: 478, pooch: 489

Horrorfarm Moose: 64, maple: 53

Mafias Butch: 60, snipe: 58, ace: 53, boss: 50, slim: 48, bruiser: 45, tempest: 64, Don: 645, Madame: 647, Mr corgi (aka Charles): 67

Birdtale Quill: 59, crow: 51

Birdswap Mango: 62, papaya: 36, canary: 278

Birdfell Roost: 53, harpy: 42, Lewis: 90

Draketale Alden: 68, Ollivander: 60

Drakefell Barin: 71, Arwin: 59

Drakeswap Hilda: 66, saga: 63

Seatale Fisher: 60, Jasper 25

Seaswap Finn: 59, sails: 27

Seafell Hook: 58, captain: 30

Gastertale G: 80, green: 79

Dancetale Pop: 52, rhythm: 45, salsa: 678

Theatretale Tempo: 50, vibrato: 29

Fallouttale Lens: 69, cricket, 49, piranha: 65

Templetale Zen: 67, shield: 35

Nomadtale Gears: 49, compass: 42, copper: 645, lilo: 21, weave: 126, wisteria: 157, linden: 158

Here’s a quick rundown of a monsters lifespan:

A common monster has a life expectancy of 700 years give or take. The oldest monster in record (that wasn’t a royal) was a Drake monster who lived 732 years.

They are considered infants/babies up until the age of two. Toddlerhood is from 2-6

Children are from the ages of 7-13. Most monsters start public school at ages 7-8

Teenagers are from 14-19. Monsters mature at a slower rate than humans, and so while the body may look grown in the later teen years, they have yet to develop sexual maturity until around 20.

Once 20 they are considered adults, but some subspecies can continue growing up till 30

After puberty in the early 19-22 range, a monster is considered a young adult from 25-190. You can compare those ages to a human in their early to mid 20s physically

Middle Ages range from 200s- 400s roughly

500s are considered older and retirement age, 600s are elderly. Anything past 680 is fragile

The lifespan goes down with halfbreed monsters ( “full” monster parent and “full” human parent) where they live around 600-650 years

The lifespan takes a bigger drop for mages who have an expectancy of 250 years. Witches (humans who have trained to use magic) are known to live up to their 130s if they aren’t soulbonded to a monster partner.

Monsters and half breeds born with the disease called dimming rarely live past their 400s

An exception to the monster lifespan are the “royals”. They take a ritual after being voted into office that binds them to their country, making it so that any decisions they make for the country has to be for its and the peoples benefit (as far as they believe), making them a servant to ebott for the rest of their lives, but extending their life and health in return. The ritual can be broken for the royals who wish to retire and die in peace. The oldest recorded ruler was rumored to be around three thousand

And now the crash!!

For those who don’t know what that is, it’s when all the AUs merged (and my excuse for why all these guys are in the same place lol).

The crash started 17 years ago, and ended within 9 months. Since then no other mystery groups of monsters have been discovered.

Here’s a brief timeline of ebott from crash until now

First day: the land mass that holds ebott appears

Day 2: undertale, underswap, gastertale,, dancetale, theatretale, templetale, all the “farm” AUs, “lust” AUs and the “outer” AUs

Month one: the bird AUs fall from the sky, the nomads stumble out of the forest and the sea AUs mysteriously arrive on ship to shore

Month two, after two months, most of the fell aus (underfell, swapfell, fellswap gold) appear

Month three, the factory (mafias) monsters appear along with the “ghost city” now inhabited and known as ebott city, the capitol. A few weeks later, the fallout monsters appear and ebotts first official hospitals are created

Month four, the royals are finally brought together after threats of inner fighting, and Asgore is voted in as the king

Things settle for four more months, and the new land is explored, vary basic laws are out into place, and things start getting divided into districts.

Month five: Ebott makes contact with several other countries and is introduced to the worlds currency system. Ebotts gold, silver, copper coins is recognized as a currency by the rest of the world

Month seven, the first and only orphanage is founded for any unclaimed children.

On month nine of the crash, the monsters finally access the underground, and to their horror, they find three separate chambers housing the starving horror AUs who had no idea everything that was going on above.

Month ten, land is sold and divided, and ebott begins creating large scale farms

May 20, 2007, ebott celebrates their first official year as a country. The capitol city is named new ebott (cause Asgore sucks at naming things and frankly the rest of the royals aren’t much better)

May 30th, the royal guard is finally re-organized

December 2007, ebotts first countrywide gyftmas celebration, also an official design for the flag and coins are voted on and implemented

February 2008, the first official jail is built and used in ebott lol

July 2008, ebott is finally let into the rest of the worlds internet, and electricity reaches more areas besides just ebott city

August 2008, ebotts children and teens discover tik tok, and it is unanimously decided by every one that a standard public school has to be created

Late august 2008, the first public school is finished in city center

September 2008, the number of school sites number around 300, and counting

January 2009, ebott state college is built and open

April 2009, the ebott scouts is formed, and children hoping to join the guard in the future are able to sign up.

March 2010, ebott is opened by presiding countries for international students and charity programs

November 2010, the following of lady magic opens the temple to the public, and takes over the maintenance of what used to be known as the horrors underground. A grotto is transformed into a place of remembrance for those left behind before the crash

May 2011, the core from the stable underground is moved to the surface and duplicated into several other power factories. All of inhabited ebott is at least within an hour of power

May 2012, the stable underground is open to the public as a tourist attraction. Ebotts is opened by presiding countries to tourism

February 2013, because of public pressure from mainly farm, bird, lusts and the temple monsters, human-monster marriages are now recognized under the state as valid

July 2013 A farm monster discovers how to successfully cultivate magic crops from the underground, aboveground. He shares the secret for free, and other farm monsters take initiative to start sharing their own crop secrets. He is awarded the title of prince.

January 2014 Due to complaints about side effects from human foods, money is poured into research about safer ways to process and preserve foods in ebott.

April 2014, mellowmart becomes the largest company in ebott, finally beating out Walmart in scale.

December 2016, ebott petitions to be recognized as a free independent country to the United Nations. Ebott is turned down

December 2017, ebott petitions again to be recognized as an independent nation

February 2017 Immigration into ebott is closed, and monsters begin boycotting imported human goods. The ebott navy is built.

July 2017, ebott is declared an independent nation

March 2018, the royals declare ebott self sufficient in feeding the country when the amount of food related exports finally exceeds the imports for the first time

July 2018, ebott celebrates its first freedom festival

October 2018, the first college dedicated to the arts is opened in the captitol

July 2019, magical spars are declared the national sport after a grueling battle between spar fans and pickleball fans

November 2019, the first echo festival is celebrated in Goldenvalley

February 2020, humans not born in ebott are finally allowed to apply for citizenship, and the process for that is created.

April 2020 the goldenflower festival is organized for the first time

September 2020, several big brands like coco cola, Hersheys and nestle are banned in ebott when complaints of health issues becomes too much

March 2021, Wendy’s becomes the first company to create a monster-safe fast food outside of ebott, and after months of testing, is given permission to sell. Many other food companies follow and begin making separate recipes for their monster customers

May 2022, snails are declared the national animal of ebott, and popular snail breeds are recognized and the society of the domesticated snail is created for shows and licenses

November 2022, a different country tries to declare war on ebott on the grounds of them “stealing” their young working force (immigrant workers). Ebott threatens to close borders to tourists, those coming for medical care, and all outside companies selling in their lands. The untied nations slaps down the country declaring war.

February 2023, a new branch of the royal guard, called the NPTRF (national people’s trafficking relief foundation) or more commonly called the reverse kidnappers by ebotts supportive teens, is founded to combat the rapidly rising issue of monsters and humans being trafficked and dragged outside the country

[quilavabucket]

psst @infinityroom

got a new clip for ya

[simbohargreeves]

He's not being quite so brave about it

[frenchfries32]

Okay what if Nebula and Quill had had sex before vol.3 and like probably they felt like it was a mistake and never spoke about it again cause in the minute 25:44 Nebula walks into a changing room and he tells her “let me in there, I don’t want to be trapped out here” likeee it sounds to me like he’s comfortable with changing with her in the same room…👀👀👀

[sparkliest-bard-bracket]

The ✨Sparkliest Bard Lineup✨!!

Here is our sparkly, bardly, lineup!

Polls are live! Vote today!!

Oh, and don't forget to keep everything civil! This is just a little game for fun, and we're all here to have a good time :D

Feel free to submit pictures and propaganda for your bards (see this post for more info)! The more, the merrier!

(Full Bracket with fandom names & poll links under the cut.)

1 - Jareth the Goblin King (Labyrinth) vs David Bowie (Real Life) 2 - Thom Merrilin (Wheel of Time) vs Gurney Halleck (Dune) 3 - The Bard/Kiwi (Wandersong) vs Daeron (The Silmarillion) 4 - Callie Cuttlefish (Splatoon) vs Finrod (The Silmarillion) 5 - Apollo/Lester Papadopoulos (The Trials of Apollo) vs Apollo (Greek Mythology) 6 - Bill Cypher (Gravity Falls) vs Chong (Avatar: The Last Airbender) 7 - Max Rebo (Star Wars) vs Edgin Darvis (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) 8 - Dimentio (Super Paper Mario) vs Will Scarlet (Robin Hood)

9 - Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem (The Muppets) vs Link (The Legend of Zelda) 10 - Katalina (Tabletop Time) vs Starling Birdsong (Realm of Elderlings) 11 - Orpheus (Greek Mythology) vs “Weird Al” Yankovic (Real Life) 12 - Dave BruBot/The Major Player (Toontown: Corporate Clash) vs Carrie Wilson (Julie and the Phantoms) 13 - Kvothe (The Kingkiller Chronicle) vs Elan (Order of the Stick) 14 - Raz'ul, Son of Daz'ul (BomBARDed) vs Edward Chris von Muir (Final Fantasy IV) 15 - Binary Bard (Poptropica) vs Christian (Moulin Rouge) 16 - The Bard (Shovel Knight) vs Fflewddur Fflam (The Chronicles of Prydain)

17 - Man with the Harmonica (Once Upon a Time in the West) vs Kyoami/The Fool (Ran/King Lear) 18 - Diedrich Knickerbocker (Headless: A Sleepy Hollow Story) vs Hannah Montana (Hannah Montana) 19 - Bard the Bowman (The Hobbit) vs Leliana (Dragon Age) 20 - Sprig Plantar (Amphibia) vs Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer) 21 - Neil Banging Out the Tunes (Tumblr) vs The Muses (Disney Hercules) 22 - Robinton (Pern) vs Thistle/Sissel (Delicious in Dungeon) 23 - Loquatius Seelie (Critical Role) vs Cicero (Skyrim) 24 - Michael Jackson (Real Life) vs Oli/TheOrionSound (Empires SMP)

25 - Megamind (Megamind) vs The Onceler (The Lorax) 26 - Mettaton (Undertale) vs Gamzee Makara (Homestuck) 27 - William Shakespeare (Real Life) vs William Shakespeare (Something Rotten) 28 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Classicaloid) vs William Shamspeare (Ace Attorney) 29 - Marceline the Vampire Queen (Adventure Time) vs Brook (One Piece) 30 - Gerard Way (Real Life) vs Sea Hawk (She-Ra and the Princess of Power) 31 - Snufkin (Moomin) vs Frank Sinatra (Real Life) 32 - Lias "Cliff" Bluestone (Discworld) vs Rick Astley (Real Life)

33 - Alan-a-Dale (Robin Hood) vs Essi Daven (The Witcher) 34 - Lúthien Tinúviel (The Silmarillion) vs Stefen (The Heralds of Valdemar) 35 - Roman Sanders (Sanders Sides) vs Remus Sanders (Sanders Sides) 36 - Bard (Crypt of the Necrodancer) vs Kass (Legend of Zelda/Breath of the Wild) 37 - Steven Universe (Steven Universe) vs Glenn Close (Dungeons & Daddies) 38 - Miss Piggy (The Muppets) vs Nydas Okiro (Critical Role) 39 - Charlie Pace (Lost) vs Dob the Half-Orc Bard (Oxventure) 40 - Kitagra (Kings of the Wyld) vs Kaylie Shorthalt (Critical Role)

41 - Father Gabriel (The Mission) vs Gabrielle the Battling Bard (Xena: The Warrior Princess) 42 - Haer'Dalis (Baldur's Gate) vs Tsukasa Tenma (Project Sekai: Colorful Stage!) 43 - Tom Bombadil (The Lord of the Rings) vs Sylvando (Dragon Quest 11) 44 - Steve McKenzie/Jester (Galavant) vs Gieve (The Heroic Legend of Arslan) 45 - Jaskier/Dandelion (The Witcher) vs Kubo (Kubo and the Two Strings) 46 - Guiliastes/Gui (1/2 Prince) vs Rocky (Lackadaisy) 47 - Asmodean (Wheel of Time) vs Neil Ciciregea/Lemon Demon (Real Life) 48 - Kermit the Bard (Tales of Tinkerdee) vs The Pied Piper (The Pied Piper of Hamelin)

49 - Venti (Genshin Impact) vs Sir Robin's Minstrels (Monty Python and the Holy Grail) 50 - Oscar Wilde (Rusty Quill Gaming) vs Franz Liszt (Classicaloid) 51 - Eddie Munson (Stranger Things) vs Puss in Boots (Shrek) 52 - Freddie Mercury (Real Life) vs Hoid/Wit (Cosmere) 53 - Noise (Roleslaying with Roman) vs The Amazing Devil (Real Life) 54 - Klavier Gavin (Ace Attorney) vs Rickety Stitch (Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo) 55 - Ron Stampler (Dungeons & Daddies) vs Thancred Waters (Final Fantasy XIV) 56 - Raine Whispers (The Owl House) vs Jack Black (Real Life)

57 - Scanlan Shorthalt (Critical Role) vs Éile (The Witcher: Blood Origin) 58 - Hap Gladheart (Realm of Elderlings) vs Alastair Nobledrifter (Saving Throw - DnD Podcast) 59 - Maglor (The Silmarillion) vs Bill & Ted (Bill & Ted) 60 - DJ Cadence (Club Penguin) vs Imp Y Celyn (Discworld) 61 - Bard Otter (The Last Dragonlord) vs Yara of Nowhere, the Wandering Bard (A Practical Guide to Evil) 62 - Dorian Storm (Critical Role) vs Maria von Trapp (The Sound of Music) 63 - Demyx (Kingdom Hearts) vs Hisirdoux "Douxie" Casperan (Tales of Arcadia: Wizards) 64 - Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit) vs BMO (Adventure Time)

[cool-person-yey]

Hey folks, so I was a bit bored and thought I'd be cool to take some notes of my thoughts while I was watching the first episode of tmagp

Most of them are nonsense but that's the way I think so

obviously, there will be spoilers for the new tmagp episode ( I'm tagging it tmagp spoilers ofc) so I'd you didn't watch it, go watch it now cmon man

welp, here they are

TMAGP SHOW NOTES!!!11!;1

• Oh dang 44 minutes ???

• ohhhh ominous music :)))

• HI ALEX

• HOLY SHITTT

• RUSTY QUILL PRESENTS THE MAGNUS PROTOCOL LETS FUCKIN GO

•* printer not functioning noises*

• not even 5 minutes in and I'm already recognizing some voices

• Alice <<<333

•BONES ARE A BIG LIE MADE BY MILK TO KEEP YOU BUYING IT that's what I've saying

• I also function on coffee and spite. and social media drama. as a treat.

• sorry mate you deserve to be booed

• " or they finally kill me " oh boy

• ooooohhhh Gwen!!!!

• " I'm your cool sister, Gwen's your uncool sister, Lena's the emotionally distant mother, Teddy is the uncle that just got another job and Collin's the grumpy IT manager" just. this. idk. just

•Alice is funny and I'll die on this hill thank you

• not the nepotism

• the spooky tape recorders already started or is teddy just forgetful??? hmmmm

• mold you like clay

• Alice is my favorite character actually

• Windows 95? oh wait no

• "what does it do?" "crashes mostly"

• " is that legal?" " probably. We do work for the government. sorta"

• finally a filing system that's a least a bit understandable(???)

• " The coolest person *left* in London" the hell you did to the rest of them Alice? 🤨

•wait what

• smashing it with a hammer would fix a lot of problems. supernatural or not.

• Collin is a mood

•Norris, Chester and Augustus huh

• WAIT WHAT

• NEVER HEARING WHO

• WHAT

• CEMETERY???

• THE HELL

• ARTHUR!!!!

• took him away from you??? this is concerning

• oh no,,,,,

• Darla?

• it spoke! using another person's voice— oh no

• discolored skin? mismatched features? oh no

• " some of him:)))" oh no

• shit

• being afraid of someone ( or some parts) of someone you loved. we're starting well

• Yeah there are worse ones buddy

• oh cmon it ain't that bad just put the goddamn word in there

• "you traitor" love me a dramatic queen///

• OHHH SHE'S GOING INTO THE DIRECTOR'S OFFICE ( the equivalent of it in a office job I suppose)

• ohh performance review okay

• look kids, sometimes you gotta deliver a work that's just okay instead of ABSOLUTELY perfect.

• so Gwen's the overachiever, got it.

• she's saying that as if Alice hasn't been shitting on everyone there already lmao

• oh we wish it was that easy

• oh the deja vu

• " what do you actually want" " your job" damn she's bolder than I thought lmao

• I wish I could talk back to people like that

• damn Collin's pissed

• Alice being a menace we love to see it

• " I'm a vegetarian" deadpan

• top 10 awkward conversations

• Collin is the most relatable of them all

• " a bit bleak" is an understatement

• clack clack clack

• you really need to know bro's backstory on his first day?

• is there a bet going on on who has the worst awful backstory to explain being there. that'd be funny I think

• buddy that's the worst place to try getting back to your feet but ok

• MAGNUS INSTITUTE RUINS LETS GO

•" what's the deal with the Magnus Institute" well. see. there's a lot of deals.

• alright? just a semi-normal conversation as of now

• nope

• yea the institute does that to ya

• " a cool vibe " yeah buddy

• "offices like little cells" oh you'd be surprised

• ARCHIVE HE SAID ARCHIVE!!!!!

• oh no the symbols

• strange stains mmnn

• an,,,,, empty box?

• photographic distortion. oh boy. oh boy.

• yea guys don't steal stuff from spooky sightseeing places especially if they could be yknow. cursed.

• are we going to be listening to ppl fighting on the internet rn or

• IMAGE REMOVED??? STAY ABOVE GROUND??? OH NO

• EYES????

• GORE???? OH BOY,,,,

• and the thread was locked. well damn.

• a blast from the past huh

• " is a bad name" " so is Gwendolyn"

• hmm static

• phone

• "you get a job and I got a victim"

• that seems like a reasonable theory tbh

• cleaning toilets actually helps people

• Sam noodle arms confirmed

• " to new beginnings" " with old friends" * clank*

• oh great more little noises

• more noises

• OHHH

• find who???? WHO????

• oh you got to be kidding me

• more ominous music hmmmm

• The Magnus Protocol is a podcast FUCK YEAH IT SURE IS!

Phew, that was a lot. thank you if you read all of this lmao

edit: fixed some misspellings, if there any left please do warn me! my heading's not the best and auto-correct is a bitch (especially if you use two languages lmao)

[mh-midnight-wanderer]

I made checklist of G1 characters that return for G3 reboot. Aside our 6 main ghouls, Toralei, Deuce and Heath

1. Abbey Bominable ✓

2. Spectra Vondergeist ✓

3. Operetta

4. Jackson Jekyll / Holt Hyde

5. Robecca Steam

6. Venus McFlytrap ✓

7. Rochelle Goyle ✓

8. Nefera de Nile ✓

9. Howleen Wolf ✓

10. Clawd Wolf ✓

11. Clawdia Wolf

12. Gillington "Gil" Webber ✓

13. Invisi Billy *

14. Twyla ✓

15. Jinafire Long ✓

16. Skelita Calaveras ✓

17. Batsy Claro

18. Isi Dawndancer

19. Kjersti Trollsønn

20. Marisol Coxi

21. Lorna McNessie

22. Finnegan Wake ✓

23. Manny Taur ✓

24. Romulus ✓

25. Jane Boolittle

26. Catrine DeMew

27. Catty Noir ✓

28. Meowlody / Purrsephone ✓✓

29. Scarah Screams

30. Johnny Spirit

31. Wydowna Spider

32. Gigi Grant

33. Slo Mo

34. Iris Clops ✓

35. Avea Trotter

36. Bonita Femur

37. Sirena Von Boo

38. Neighthan Rot

39. Gooliope Jellington

40. Amanita Nightshade

41. Gilda Goldstag

42. Quill Talyntino

43. Kieran Valentine

44. Headless Headmistress Bloodgood ✓

45. Hexiciah Steam ✓

[ I know still even more characters like Boo York characters, Haunted High Students, etc. And I will make part 2 and make another list of MH G2 characters.

Also, I put question marks because they seem to appear either image leaks or doll-like Isi. Sometimes I could mistaken by false information. My list is based only G3 appearances in live-action movie, cartoons, dolls, and blogs

" * " they mention by name but don't have an official appearance yet

Also Also Don't take this checklist very seriously because I could be very wrong. This checklist will change over time. Please be patience with me.. ]

[Part 2] [Part 3]

[fandomtrumpshate]

FTH 2023 Listed fandoms snapshot

We had 101 fandoms in the dropdown list this year, including 'other' if you wanted to write in a fandom. So far, there are signups for all but 7 of the listed fandoms ...

For a heartbeat the boy wizard had as many signups as the ineffable husbands, but at present, Good Omens is managing to hold on to a slight lead. Teen Wolf currently holds third place, and K-pop has just edged out Sherlock to grab fourth. Still, with more than a week to go, a handful of signups could shake up the leaderboard, making the next update look entirely different. We'll update every couple days, and then daily as the deadline for signups approaches.

Signups are open through Feb 19!

List of fandoms by number of signups under the cut -

44 Good Omens 42 Harry Potter * 31 Teen Wolf 28 K-Pop * 27 Sherlock Holmes * 23 Star Wars * 21 MCU * 18 Stranger Things 18 The Witcher 16 Boku no Hiro Akademia (My Hero Academia) 15 Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed 14 Our Flag Means Death 14 The Sandman 13 Fullmetal Alchemist 12 DC Extended Universe * 12 Locked Tomb Trilogy 12 Scum Villain's Self-Saving System 12 Supernatural 11 DC Comics 11 The Magnus Archives 11 Merlin 11 The Old Guard 11 Shadowhunters 10 9–1–1 10 Tolkien * 9 All for the Game 9 Avatar The Last Airbender * 9 Raven Cycle 9 Star Trek * 8 Check Please! 8 Hades (video game) 8 Jujutsu Kaisen 8 Original Work 7 Benoit Blanc Mysteries (Knives Out; Glass Onion) 7 Interview With The Vampire 7 Tian Guan Ci Fu (Heaven Official's Blessing) 6 A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones 6 Disco Elysium 6 Genshin Impact 6 James Bond 6 Kinnporsche 6 Marvel Comics 5 Naruto 5 Six of Crows Duology 5 SK8 the Infinity 5 Wednesday / The Addams Family 4 Diamond no Ace 4 Doctor Who * 4 Heartstopper 4 Hockey RPF 4 Hunger Games 4 Percy Jackson and the Olympians 4 Rusty Quill Gaming Podcast 3 Arcane 3 Bleach 3 Critical Role 3 Dungeons & Dragons 3 Final Fantasy * 3 Fire Emblem Three Houses 3 Haikyuu!!! 3 Hannibal 3 Hetalia 3 Leverage 3 Nirvana in Fire 3 Stellar Firma 3 Tian Ya Ke / Word of Honor 2 Bad Buddy 2 Buffyverse * 2 Dishonored 2 Dragon Age * 2 Hacks 2 Hunter X Hunter 2 The Last of Us 2 The Magicians 2 Mass Effect 2 The Maze Runner 2 Spy x Family 2 Steven Universe 2 Welcome to Night Vale 1 Captive Prince 1 Cyberpunk 2077 1 Encanto 1 Gundam Wing 1 Julie and the Phantoms 1 Lucifer (TV) 1 Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries 1 Schitt's Creek 1 Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse 1 The Terror (TV 2018) 1 Venom 1 Voltron 1 Wheel of Time 1 Yuri!!! On Ice

The listed fandoms with no signups (YET!) are

Anne with an E / Anne of Green Gables Assassin's Creed Dracula Ghosts (BBC) Goncharov (1973) The Green Knight RWBY